Star Thief

by T. Jackson King

  “Captain? What do you see?” chittered Meander as my praying mantis friend came up to my side. Behind us the others spread out, inspecting the lab equipment but touching nothing. Touch nothing until I give the word had been my earliest archaeological lesson to them when they had joined my crew.

  “Something is off about the wall in front of us. Draken, where is the neutrino source?”

  “Off to our right. It is the block and globe next to the wall. It is the power source for the lights and functioning of the gravlift and entries.”

  I nodded. “Good. Where is the pulsed graviton flow located?”

  “In front of you,” he honked, his heavy tread coming closer. “Within that wall.”

  “I thought there was something strange there. Everyone, I am going to fire at that wall. Do not fire your pistols unless a critter comes out.” I lifted my plasma pistol and aimed to where the shimmer seemed to stop. There was a boundary there. A boundary of normal stone wall with something else. I pressed the fire dot. A purple beam shot out. Plasma impacted the juncture. Yellow sparkles like an electric spark shot around the edge of the shimmer, making a rectangular outline. The shimmer brightened. Then it vanished. There were no fragments. It was a deception field that imitated the black stone blocks of the chamber wall. Only one empire possessed deception field generators. And it lay at the point where the Orion Arm joined to Sagittarius Arm, far from where we now stood. But the field was not the only shock I beheld.

  “A Harl! Alive inside a stasis tube!” screamed Laserta over my suitcom.

  CHAPTER EIGHTTEEN

  “Captain, yes!” hissed Sharp Claw. “I see infrared emissions coming from inside the tube. They are very faint, but they exist. The Harl is alive!”

  “I too see the infrared glow,” chirped Flow.

  “I’m rich! Any empire is now mine!” screamed Laserta.

  Shock filled me. We had found an intact stasis tube. Inside it was the three meter long, black-furred form of a Harl. While its body did not move from breathing, its closed eyes were not sunken like the mummified Harl we had found on Boundary. This being looked as alive as the Harl statue we had seen inside Stars’ tower.

  “A Master!” came the bellow from Stars. “It lives! You must take it aboard your vessel. Now!”

  “Where do we put it?” I groused, moving to be close to the transparent tube. The tube sat atop an active zero-point power block. Its black metal sparkled brightly.

  “Captain,” called Akantha. “There are two empty crew cabins remaining within my vessel. The Harl and its equipment can occupy one cabin.”

  She was right. I had not thought of the two cabins as storage spaces. Only as locations for future employers or guests. At the moment seven cabins were occupied, when I counted Laserta among those in cabins. She had demanded my captain’s cabin because it was larger than the standard crew cabin. My first defiance of her had been my refusal to turn over my cabin. It was my home away from home. But now Akantha reminded me that space was space. Maybe I should move one of the externally stored power units into the ninth crew cabin. The eighth cabin would soon be occupied by this Harl. And I had no doubt that once he entered the cabin, Stars would block entry to it by anyone except me. And maybe not even allow me inside. Time to take a close look at the Harl ‘in the flesh’.

  The massive being resembled a grizzly bear with the face of a tiger. Its large head had the blocky shape of a bear, with two ear tuffs on either side. White fur streaks ran from the back of its head to the front, converging on its mouth. Large round eyes were present at the front of the face. They were set far enough back that it also had full side views. Below the eyes was a single narrow slot that might be a nasal entry. Below that was a predator’s mouth, projecting forward a bit. It was partly open. Large carnivore teeth filled the front of the mouth. Smaller canines and some molars filled the sides.

  As before, what impressed me most lay below the fearsome head. The Harl’s shoulders were thick and corded with muscles. The two arms that sprang from the shoulders were partly bear-like and partly human-like. The muscles on the arms were as thick as my thighs. Its elbows seemed to allow sideways rotation based on the angle of one arm. Each arm ended in a four-fingered hand that was as big as my face. Claws adorned the tips of each finger, similar to the fingerclaws of Sharp Claw. Except these claws were twice the length of hers. Below the shoulders was a massive chest. While its upper chest had pectorals like a human, more muscles ran from its lower chest backward and up to its back. Clearly the Harl had evolved the ability to pick up heavy loads, in addition to hunting and eating meat animals. The Harl had a flat stomach with no sign of a navel, though the fur was thick over its entire body. From its waist hung a brown sheet that went halfway down to its knees. Like a Scottish kilt, circles within circles covered the flat sheet. The heavily muscled legs were twice the thickness of my own legs and its giant feet with toeclaws wore a kind of open toed sandal. Before me was a being a meter wide at the shoulders and three meters tall. Something told me I should not be around when it became alive and aware.

  “Akantha, you are right. We can put this Harl into one of the empty cabins.”

  “So I understood from your thoughts. Do you need mechbot assistance in transporting the tube?”

  I looked around. We would bring the three attack units inside and put them somewhere in the hangar. They were small enough to fit between fuel tanks. The rest of the research tech meant nothing to me. Though the gravity projector atop one table might be worth grabbing. “Akantha, no, we can manage. Lotan, grab that gravity projector and carry it back to the Akantha. Draken, unload your floater pad. The rest of us will help you load the tube and power block onto the pad. Everyone, let’s move!”

  My crew fell to doing what we usually did when scavenging tech from an ancient ruin. Meander handed Lotan a metallic rope to wrap around the gravity projector. Flow and Sharp Claw lifted the projector off the lab table and held it for roping. Then Lotan put the rope straps over his shoulders and atop his backpack. The projector bobbled a bit but Lotan was strong. He stood upright without any obvious strain. Next Flow, Claw, Meander and myself lifted one end of the power block so Draken could scoot the floater pad underneath the maglev pad. The four of us moved to the other end of the block and repeated our effort. Draken touched the pad’s power-on dot, then pulled it and the alive Harl out of the wall space where it had lain hidden for 400 millennia. We all headed for the hallway and the gravlift.

  “Akantha, lower the airlock ramp. And have a few of your mechbots ready to lift this construct off the pad and into the crew cabin.” A thought hit me. “Stars, tell the attack units to follow us onto the Akantha. Never know when you might need armed mechbots.”

  “Lowering the ramp,” Akantha said over my suitcom.

  “Attack units have been directed to follow you,” Stars boomed.

  Briefly I thought about selling the living Harl, still in suspended animation within his stasis tube, to the highest bidder on the Dark Services Listing. Then reality hit me. Stars That Beckon’s crystal component would never allow that. One of its two tasks was completed. We had found a living Harl and we would deliver it to Boundary and the seven Primaries. However, we still had to visit the Harl home world and see what we could discover about the disappearance of the galaxy’s most powerful species. Well, visit the home world we would. Then we would leave and trek back to Boundary, using our passage codes to pass through empires and corporate domains, hopefully with little notice. Then I and my crew could discuss whether we should buy a resort planet. We could certainly afford one now!

  Meander looked down at her panel with its sensors, timers and Gate transit readouts. Their transit from the red dwarf system to the first Gate within the Scutum Arm was about to end. They would exit into a yellow-orange star system controlled by the Nooner Empire. She, the captain, the employer and everyone else had studied the Galactic Council records of this empire. It was controlled by beings who were arthropods like herself, but there t
he similarity ended. The Nooner beings were segmented creatures who moved on ten leg pairs, possessed a head segment with five eye-pods and were known as ferocious carnivores. Their home world was a jungle planet much like Sharp Claw’s world. Clearly they had become intelligent enough to escape its gravity and move through the Gate that served their system. Now they controlled a 6,107 light year wide bubble of the Scutum Arm that lay between their exit Gate and the Harl home world. A UV light flashed. She spoke.

  “Captain, we exit transit within 32 seconds.”

  “Weapons, are your lasers and beamers energized?”

  “They are ready to fire,” Claw hissed sharply. “Any vessel within 53,923 kilometers can be attacked.”

  “Good. However, let us see if we can bribe these arthropods. We have plenty of gold bars and precious metals left.”

  The UV light stopped blinking.

  “Captain, we are exiting.”

  The front vidscreen color changed from swirling blue wavelets to black space. A yellow-orange star occupied the center of the screen. A system graphic appeared on the left side. It showed twelve planets, plus an extensive zone of comets that included the space where the Gate lay. The graphic also showed too many moving neutrino sources. Three of them were heading toward the Akantha at ten psol. Her vessel’s exit speed was one psol. The closest star vessel was just 61,000 kilometers away. In seconds the Sooner vessels would be within attack range.

  “Captain! Permission to attack?” hissed Sharp Claw. “The three vessels are approaching on full thrust.”

  “Wait. Lotan, contact them via the neutrino wavelength listed for them in the galactic records.”

  The light brown furry tapped his panel. “Captain, your image is ready to be sent.”

  Meander’s small vidscreen showed the captain nodding his head in positive mode. Her Dosune tilted their head antennae forward to indicate agreement. She looked to her right. “Pilot, you have vessel control.”

  “Vessel control accepted,” chirped the avian.

  “Nooner vessels, I am Captain Jake Demetrius Vitades of the vessel Akantha. We are in transit to a Harl ruin further up Scutum Arm. We are prepared to pay a fee in return for a passage code. May we pass through?”

  “Incoming neutrino comsignal,” clicked Lotan as his pheromones became stronger. The furry moved to stand before the captain, assuming a stance that should be reassuring to any being who perceived him.

  She alternated between watching the vidscreen and monitoring her sensors. They would disclose the launch of any missile toward her Nest, along with tracking the neutrino intensity of the Nooner vessel thruster emissions. Next to her Draken was monitoring the same sensor reports on his floor panel. Her UV sensor reported nine UV sources nearby, likely spybots tasked to monitor the Gate.

  A new image filled the middle of the vidscreen, pushing the true space image to the right. A Control space filled with ropes and pipes that crossed at angles took form. Yellow-orange light illuminated fourteen Nooner beings. They all rested on a rope or pipe, their black eyes focused on control panels. A Nooner close to the floor of the Control space lifted its head segment.

  “Akantha vessel, depart! Leave this system! Return whence you came! Never again enter the Nooner Empire!” it said as its pincer feet scratched the chitin skin of its front segment in a complex pattern. The five eyes of the speaking Nooner followed Lotan’s hand, arm and body gestures closely. “Or we will destroy you!”

  “No vessel can be allowed to attack the residence of a living Harl!” boomed the voice of Stars. “Destroy the three vessels now!”

  The captain shook his head negatively. “Nooner leader, we have bars of gold and precious metals ready to deliver for a passage code. We have no wish—”

  “Depart!” screeched the Nooner. Other nearby Nooners took up the order, creating a chant that repeated ‘Depart’.

  “Captain!” hissed Claw.

  “Fire on the central Nooner vessel,” he said, sounding firm and decisive. Meander liked that about the Human.

  “Firing antimatter beamer!”

  A black streak of antimatter shot out from the beamer atop the rear of her vessel. It impacted on the front globe of a vessel that was a cluster of metal globes. White-yellow plasma enveloped the globe. Then the plasma spread to the other globes. In seconds all that was left was a shell of red, green, purple and white gases. Yellow electrical charges jumped among the charged gases. The other two Nooner vessels swerved to either side but continued their attack run. Her panel showed them crossing 20,000 kilometers out from her Nest. She looked to the reptile who controlled the weapons that would protect them all.

  “Firing top and bottom plasma beamers at the left side vessel,” Claw hissed loudly. “Firing second antimatter beam at right side vessel.”

  The right side cluster of globes became yellow-white plasma, then a shell of charged gases. The left side vessel’s front globe melted under the impact of the coherent plasma beams. An internal explosion blew apart the other globes, causing many to lose white air and silvery water droplets. Several globes went dark as they lost power. However they continued on course toward the Akantha.

  “Targeting the surviving globes with plasma,” Claw said.

  The surviving five globes became expanding shells of charged gas. Yellow electric charges moved through the gas like lighting in a planet’s clouds. She realized something.

  “Captain! The ionized cloud remnants of the three Nooner vessels will intersect our vector track within three seconds!”

  “Akantha! Add power to our EM field that shields us from stellar winds!”

  Relief passed through Meander. The Human Soft Skin had protected her Nest twice now. She checked the system graphic as the diffuse charged gases passed over and around them. As soon as they arrived they were gone, carried by their 10 psol momentum toward the outer limits of the star’s system. But the graphic showed five moving neutrino sources departing the outermost planet and heading their way.

  “Captain Vitades, five more Nooner vessels are heading toward us. They will arrive within three hours,” she chittered more calmly than she felt. “And nine UV sources that are likely spybots are nearby but unmoving.”

  The captain called the Nooner vessels biological names incompatible with their constructed metal nature. Still, she shared his frustration. Fighting upon first arrival in Scutum Arm was not a positive development.

  “Astrogator, thank you. No doubt those spybots recorded everything, including our antimatter beam use,” he said in his flowing speech. “Pilot, reverse course and head us back to the Gate. Astrogator, prepare the star light curve for the next Gate. It lies at the far end of the Nooner empire. Maybe we can get there before Nooner starships can mass to attack us.”

  “Reversing vector track,” chirped Flow, her purple wings spreading wide as she shared the emotional excitement of deadly combat.

  “Preparing star light curve for transmission,” Meander said as she touched her panel with a manipulator spine.

  “Pilot, how soon before we enter the Gate?”

  “Seven minutes, 23 seconds in Earth time,” she chirped. Then she transmitted the star light curve to the Gate.

  Meander gave thanks to the Mound God that no other Nooner vessel was nearby. While her vessel could destroy any enemy, she did not wish to see how well it fought against a fleet of eight or sixteen combat vessels. Likely her captain did not wish to face such odds either. But his long habit of moving stealthily and with little notice among the stars was now at an end. The Akantha’s possession of an antimatter beamer would become known to the Galactic Council and to every empire and corporate domain on their side of the galaxy. Which meant too many peoples and star vessels would have a motivation to attack her Nest. It sorrowed her. Her UV alert light blinked in a steady pattern.

  “Captain, we are about to enter the Gate.”

  “Finally.” Swirling blue wavelets replaced the system graphic and true space image on the front vidscreen. “Astrogator, ho
w long will our transit be before we exit again?”

  “Two days, seven hours and 43 seconds.” Her captain liked exactitude when it came to critical functions like Gate entry, transit and exit.

  “Well, we have time to plan for a second fight against Nooner vessels at the second Gate,” he said calmly, his manner easing her fears. “And I recall the corporate domain we will enter further up the arm is the Fusion Domain. They make the fusion pulse thrusters that the Wokan put into their vessels. They should be normally greedy. Employer Laserta, I will offer them a gravband. And maybe more if it gains us a non-violent passage code.”

  “You are giving away my possessions!” she barked sourly.

  “Wrong. I said I would determine which of the Harl tech we have will meet your Employer’s Claim once we are done with the tasks of Stars That Beckon.” In her small vidscreen her protector gave his Human sign of humor, which he called a smile. “Now, do you wish to keep arguing and end up cleaning the Food Alcoves in the Galley?”

  Lotan clicked with pleasure. Sharp Claw hissed a sound of satisfaction. Flow fluttered her wings in a gesture of entertainment. Draken honked deep and low, his sound not translated by her post’s Translator. She rasped one of her legs against her carapace in the typical Dosune gesture of amusement. The captain said nothing but his smile became more pronounced.

  “I cease arguing,” the red-furred female barked sharply.

  “Perfect. Crew, feel free to head to the Galley for your meals. I will remain here and scan the planetary data for the next Gate. There is no Harl facility on any of the Nooner planets that are served by that Gate. Nor is there any Harl location in the first Fusion Domain Gate. Perhaps we will make good time in moving uparm.”

  She hoped so. And she hoped her Nest vessel would remain intact, warm and airy. Now that she had a gravband around her abdomen, she enjoyed exploring the spaces of the Akantha. And asking questions about what she saw of the vessel’s AI. Soon she would explore more of her Nest.