Boots of Oppression

by M. J. Konkel

  After three days since leaving Bahram, Luci eyes finally opened - for a short time anyway. She still needed rest and was probably not going to be up and dancing for quite some time. But her improvement had a profound effect on the moods of Morgan and Ben. In fact, it cheered all of us up.

  Dr. Z worked on completing detailed plans for the wormhole generator. He pointed out that he wrote a theoretical paper on how to build such an engine. Designs for an actual working model was a whole different brew. The ship’s databank had a blueprint of the ship, but it did not go into the finer detail. Dr. Z studied the engine on our corvette to help with drawing up some of the plans. Still there were fine details he wasn’t sure about that would have required disassembling the engine. Not a good idea when parsecs away from the nearest civilization.

  The last jump is usually the most critical in interstellar travel. Ideally, the ship comes out within a few million klicks or less of its destination. What is to be avoided is the last jump coming out too deep in the gravity well of the star to be able make another jump, but still a billion klicks away from it. The exact distance of what constituted too deep depends on the size of the star but is usually two to four billion klicks from a K or G-class star. A little more for a larger star, a little less for a smaller one. If you are a billion klicks away from your destination world after your last jump, you would then be stuck with either travelling for weeks or even months or finding a distant planet with a null gravity zone to make another jump. Not always possible.

  The time finally arrived when we entered the Pavonis system. Dominica was the second planet from Pavonis. The first was a large gas giant, devilishly hot. Some referred to these types of planets as hot Jupiters. The third planet was also a small gas giant. The two gas giants prevented what would have been the second and fourth planets from forming, leaving asteroid belts in those orbits instead. So Dominica’s orbit was surrounded by asteroids, and the planet was often pummeled by rocks in its pre-colonist history. For the colonists to have survived on such a world required them to quickly build a space presence so they could divert asteroids on a collision course with the planet.

  We entered the system a few hundred thousand klicks above the planet and well clear of the asteroid belt – a good last jump. A couple of thruster burns settled us down into an orbit high above Dominica.

  It wasn’t long before a radio message was sent to us.

  “Unidentified craft above Dominica, please identify yourself and your intentions. Repeat …”

  “Hello people of Dominica,” I said. “We are on the spacecraft Marla’s Revenge. Who are we speaking to?”

  “I am Mr. Paris of the Dominican Space Agency. First, I must say we had doubts you would be able to understand us because we didn’t even know if you were human or our first contact with aliens.”

  “Oh, we are most definitely human,” I said.

  “We are most curious about your craft. How did you get to our world? And where did you come from?”

  “We will share all our secrets, but first a word of warning. We are fighting against the tyranny of the Spitnik. Do not believe their lies of peaceful intent. They come to conquer other worlds,” I said. “We represent the worlds of Riva Lontana and Bahram, and we are here on a mission of spreading that warning. For the fight against their forces, we offer plans on how to build ships like this one and plasma weapons. We wish to speak to someone of authority that represents your world. Our last understanding is that you still have one world government. ”

  And so it began. We spoke directly to the Speaker of the Assembly. Our terms were pretty simple, and we came to a quick agreement. Not surprising when you consider what we offered. We took precautions against any attempts to take our craft by force, but the Dominicans acted honorably and made no such attempts.

  We received fresh supplies, including food and neon propellent for our thrusters. In return, we gave away our supply of tantalum, blueprints of our ship and its weapons, what we knew of how to build the wormhole generators, and how to make the superatom replacement for the tantalum-180.

  We made a number of other requests in addition to our supplies and relied on their honor to carry them out. The Speaker said they would gladly do their best on all of our requests.

  The first request was that they share any knowledge of their development of the wormhole generator with us when we returned, especially any modifications needed for using the titanium chromium complex in place of the tantalum-180.

  The second request was that they would design all engines with the ability to self-destruct if they contained the superatom complex so that the knowledge didn’t fall to the Spits should they capture a ship. The engines didn’t have to blow up. Just melt so that all structure of the superatom complex was destroyed.

  Our third request was that they provide what ships they could to the resistance against the Spits.

  Our fourth request was that they shelter Neptune, Benjanin and Luci as Bahram’s temporary ambassadors to their world. At least until an official one was assigned.

  Our last request was almost a deal breaker, but they agreed to it. We asked that they take the remainder of our Spit food and coffee supplies. They could do what they wanted with them, although we recommended they be treated as biohazardous waste.

  Morgan was distressed to leave his parents, especially his mother who was still bed-ridden. But his desire was to stay with the ship and do what he could to help rid his world of the Spits.

  We left the artwork with Benjanin, Luci, and Neptune for safekeeping until the day the Spits were driven from Bahram and the art could be returned.

  Over the next several months, we visited world after world, delivering warnings about not trusting the Spits, and we gave the knowledge of how to build the wormhole generators. We went to Caeruleum, Marble, FarWorld, Subarashi, New Australia, Kijani, Matir, Wai, Jugosus, Rhume, and Mirabilis. Somewhere between FarWorld and Subarashi, we started calling our effort the Liberum Stellas Alliance, the Free Stars Alliance.

  I know I am skipping over a lot of time here. I could tell you about the tall beautiful mountains of Jugosus and its Heaven’s Falls, a 1.2-klick high waterfall. Or about Rhume, a planet currently caught in a super ice age with only a narrow band around the equator that is habitable. Or about New Australia which, I was told, is nothing like the original. Not that anyone on that moon had ever been to the original Australia. But nothing dramatic happened during those visits, and, to be honest, we didn’t get to see the interesting parts of most of the worlds. Spaceports are usually built on the flattest most boring places.

  After Mirabilis we turned our sights on Rubis, the next likely site of a Spit invasion. We thought we could at least give them a little warning if the Spits were not already there.

  Chapter 27

  We popped out of the wormhole and into normal space above the ecliptic plane of the Delta Torro system, but far from the fifth planet. I know you’re probably shaking your head because I ought to know there is no such thing as up or down in space, so how can there be an above versus below? But by convention, if when viewing a star or planet from above a pole, it is rotating counterclockwise, then that is the defined north pole. And in a star system, the side associated with the north pole of the star is the top side, and the side with the south pole is the bottom side. Hence, above or below the ecliptic plane.

  By the way, the local star rises in the east and sets in west on nearly all worlds due to this convention. Both planets and moons alike, and exceptions are far between. You can think about that one for a while.

  Rubis was the fifth planet out from its G-class star. The two planets closest to the star were so small they would have been considered dwarf planets if there were asteroids in their zones. The third and fourth were small hot airless worlds. Beyond Rubis was a wispy-thin asteroid belt and a large gas giant beyond that.

  Around Rubis were four very small moons, probably captured asteroids that were little more than rocks.

  I peered over Drummer
’s shoulders as he scanned the system for radio signals. Plenty of radio traffic came from the planet, but telltale signs of a Spit destroyer or carrier were absent.

  I floated over to the command seat and strapped in. After which I asked Morgan to fire thrusters to alter our course and nudge us toward Rubis. After confirmation of our trajectory, I turned to Drummer.

  Over the last few months everyone had time running simulations on all the stations of the ship. It turned out Morgan had a real knack for piloting. He kept getting better and better and, I hate to admit it, but he was already nearly as good as me at it. A little more time, and he would soon become the best pilot aboard our ship. Drummer was good on weapons, but so was Enceladus. I left Enceladus on the cannon for now for this world, and Drummer would get the next time. Dr. Z gravitated to the engineering station.

  Also, Dr. Z was able to completely wipe the drives on the primary computer and then transfer all the programs from the secondary onto the primary, so the ship had a backup computer once again.

  “Find us a channel to whoever’s in charge on Rubis,” I asked Drummer. “And keep looking for signs of Spits.”

  A minute later a voice came over the radio. “Greetings to approaching vessel. I am Radio Voice Gretel, and welcome to our system. Who are we greeting on this fine day?”

  “We are aboard the Marla’s Revenge. We represent the Liberum Stellas Alliance, allied against the tyranny of the Spitnik Empire, and I am Alexardo Triton.”

  “Welcome to Rubis, Captain Triton. And the welcome extends to your crew as well.” No one had called me the captain before. Somehow it didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel wrong either though.

  “Is Radio Voice part of your name?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “It describes what I do. Here on Rubis, your position or job descriptor is your title,” Gretel answered in a soft soothing voice. “I have been instructed to ask you to land at one of our airports near our capital. I am sending the coordinates now, along with a map of our world. There will also be a beacon at 28.700 MHz to guide you to the location.”

  “We have no need to land,” I said. “We are here only to deliver a message.”

  “On Rubis it is considered extremely rude not to deliver messages in person, unless it is not physically possible, or it is an emergency. Is this an emergency?”

  “Not exactly, but --"

  “Then I must insist you meet with us in person in order to avoid any uncomfortableness. Rubist Leader Jerry tells me he is looking forward to meeting all of you face to face.”

  “We’ve received the coordinates,” Drummer confirmed.

  “Very well. The coordinates have been received, and we look forward to meeting all of you as well.” I ran a finger along my throat, indicating to Drummer to cut the channel.

  “Okay. Did anyone else find that a little weird?” I asked.

  “She sure made me uncomfortable,” Morgan said.

  “I’m looking at the ship’s database, and I don’t see anything about such a custom of the Rubists,” Drummer reported. “I’ll keep looking.”

  “It might be they never mentioned it across the network because face to face was not possible,” Enceladus suggested.

  “No,” I clarified. “By weird, I meant the way they greeted us. It seemed as if an interstellar ship was not surprising to them at all.”

  “You’re right,” Enceladus agreed. “Every other world, they had curiosity about our ship and how we managed to reach their world.”

  “So the Spits have already been here,” Drummer said.

  “Seems so,” I agreed. I glanced at the indicator on the console in front of me. The neon tanks were mostly full, so thrusters would be ready. And the capacitors were fully charged. “Alright, we’ll circle around for a couple of orbits and then take her down. Drummer, keep scanning for Spits.”

  The surface of Rubis appeared mostly red. A lot like Bahram. Except there was an eight-klick deep canyon that ran for 9000 klicks along the equator. Both ends of the canyon ramped back up making the canyon a 250-kilometer wide gouge that went a quarter of the way around the planet. The Rubists called it The Gash.

  The Gash stuck out distinctly from space because it was a green band over the otherwise yellow and red desert of the rest of the world. I did not like the name though - the colors seemed backward to me. A gash should be red, as in bloody red. Perhaps it was red when the planet was first settled.

  The atmosphere of Rubis was thin but breathable in The Gash. Above the deep canyon of The Gash, oxygen masks were needed. And warm coats.

  Drummer continued to scan the system for any sign of a radio signal with a Spit signature. He scanned with radar for nearby ships, and he searched for any ion trails. None were found. It was not possible for a destroyer or carrier to remain hidden from us in the system unless they were hidden at the L2 LaGrange point behind the gas giant or on the other side of the star. A corvette could have remain hidden closer to us, but the Spits had precious few of them. Besides, they wouldn’t send a corvette up against us – that would be an even fight. It was likely the system was free of Spit ships. At least for the moment.

  The Rubists never really redeveloped much space technology. They did have some rockets for use against stray asteroids, but that was about it.

  We did one last pass over The Gash before circling around the planet and entering the atmosphere. Atmospheric braking slowed us down to subsonic velocity. Atmospheric deacceleration is always rough, but then we glided more gently down toward the beacon. We had been told all air traffic had been cleared along our path. We merely had to follow the radio beacon to our designated landing location. The narrow band of The Gash spread out below us, and cities became visible

  As we dropped below the rim of the canyon, we started to make out details – roads and vast farms. No cloud cover. I had read in the database that rain was scarce on the planet, but there were water tables deep under the surface and springs ran out from the sides of the canyon. Additionally, the Rubists relied on irrigation with water brought up from underground wells. The water all originated from the polar ice caps and slowly flowed underground toward the equator.

  We continued to descend along the designated path, and ahead I spotted a large steelcrete pad with a large yellow X marking the center that was our target. Morgan slowed our ship over it and came down vertically over the target, missing the center by about three meters. I was going to have to get him back on the simulators later and practice those landings.

  “Cut all thrusters, Marla’s Revenge” the tower controller demanded.

  “Cut thrusters now,” I ordered Morgan and muted the channel. “Enceladus, stay alert on the cannon.”

  I left my command goggles on and peered around.

  Surrounding the large landing pad, five huge blocky hanger bays with closed doors and a cylindrical flight tower with rows of large dark glass windows on top loomed over us.

  “Welcome to Rubis, Captain Triton,” a voice from the radio tower announced. “I have been asked to invite you and your entire crew to a feast in the main dining center of the airport. Delicacies from all parts of The Gash will be served there. A guide is being sent to escort you and your crew.”

  “These tomatoes smell rotten,” Drummer murmured.

  “Smells worse than rotten tomatoes to me,” Enceladus added.

  “For security reasons, only I will be attending,” I said to the tower. “Who will I be meeting with?”

  “Rubist Leader Jerry will be greeting you, along with a contingent of other members of his advisory board. He insists on meeting with all of you though.”

  “I am sorry, but we will have to decline his invitation then. Perhaps your leader or a representative would like to meet us at our ship?” I suggested.

  “Turning down such an invitation is considered rude on our world,” the flight tower informed us.

  “Well, it’s not the first time someone has accused me of being rude,” I replied.

  “Very well,” t
he tower responded. “I will pass along your declination of the invitation to Rubist Leader Jerry.”

  Our communications with the tower were cut.

  “What does everyone think?” I asked.

  “Like I said. These tomatoes are rotten,” Drummer repeated.

  “I agree with Drummer. I don’t trust them,” Dr. Z said.

  “Maybe we should just get the heck out of here,” Enceladus suggested.

  After several minutes a response came back informing us that their leader had made a change of plans. He would be coming out shortly to meet with us as we suggested.

  A minute later I noticed through my pilot’s goggles that the hanger door in front of us began to slide up, but so did the one next to it. I peered all around and saw the hanger doors to all five hangers were opening simultaneously.

  “Morgan, get us the hell out of here,” I yelled. Morgan flipped switches to warm the thrusters. At that point I really wished I had taken Enceladus’s advice and scrammed out of there earlier.

  “Do not attempt to leave,” the tower demanded. “Or you will be fired upon.”

  “Hold her down for now,” I told Morgan. “And hold your fire,” I told Enceladus.

  Out of each of the five hangers rolled two vehicles on tracks. Each vehicle supported what appeared to be a railgun on a turret. Projectiles from those would likely cause significant damage to us before we could escape. Possibly even destroy us.

  I doubted Enceladus could take out more than three of them, at most, before they started firing at us.

  We were trapped – surrounded and outgunned.

  Chapter 28

  “Repeat, do not attempt to leave or you will be fired upon,” the radio tower announced. “Open your ship and be prepared to be boarded.”

  “That is a negative,” I replied. “Anyone or any vehicle approaching this ship will be fired upon.”

  “If you do not comply, you will be fired upon,” the tower threatened.