I received the return call from the Prime Minister. He said, “I am happy with the list. You have invited countries who already owned frigates and it had been agreed that between all these governments that it should stay that way. I don’t want to get into a political discussion with you, but we can’t let any of the unstable regimes get their hands on anything advanced. It’s just not safe or sensible to do so.”
I answered in agreement saying, “That makes perfect sense to me, I am in total agreement with you over this and will not attempt to sell anything outside the eight agreed countries. Do I need to hire security for the auction?’’
He replied, “No, that would be taken care of and included in the security issue anyway, with the president of the US attending, the whole area will be cordoned off.’’
I finally said, “That is reassuring, thanks, see you at the auction.’’
Time was of the essence and the auction would be held in two days’ time. All prospective bidders had been sent details and settlement would be paid in gold, taking place immediately after the auction. At first both Canada and Japan were enthusiastic to attend, but suddenly on the very day of the auction we received apologies that they would reluctantly not be attending, I was a little disappointed. It was their choice and I had to accept it. I now moved the gunship from the cargo hold and again it now stood outside. It did look even tattier under the natural daylight, than under artificial light. I was going to leave the gun ship to last. I had a quick private talk with the Prime Minster, handing him the brochure of military hardware that I had obtained, at the same time pointing out the frigates that I sent an application in about. He seemed very interested but could not commit to anything at this time.
It was time to start the auction. I had already stated the auction was to be held in US dollars, I indicated towards the first interceptor, “Here we have space plane. It can take off vertically and as it does not need to fight gravity due to the antigravity pods, it will take very little energy to reach orbit. There is room for just one person, though this was not designed with a human pilot in mind, it should be easy enough to change the seat to one suitable for a human. It has two beam weapons mounted in the nose section, and it has stealth features in that it is impervious to radar. It also does not reflect light well, so is hard to make out at any distance. It is sold as is. There are no longer any spares made so you will have to reproduce anything should it be needed. So who will start me off, do I have one million dollars?” The Prime Minister of Austria nodded to me, I continued, “We have one million dollars do I have one and a quarter million dollars?” No one answered, so I said, “Selling at one million dollars, going, going, gone, sold.”
That is odd I thought, no one else bidding. I started again on the second interceptor again it happened only with Russia bidding this time. This continued for the rest of the interceptors. Only a single country bid for each interceptor so they all finished with one apiece.
I think I had been done. They must have all colluded so that all had a chance of acquiring one each. I had made a profit but not much more than I paid. Alenna may have been satisfied with the mark-up, but I certainly wasn’t. I was now going to have to be tricky with the sale of the gunship, so I pencilled into my notes a reserve price.
I was ready to take bids, saying, “Here we have a gunship as you can see it is larger and more formidable than the frigates, ten beam weapons and on top, you can see the addition of a plasma cannon. Designed for a crew of ten and again the seats my require replacement having previously being owned by the Dregg, the seats are moulded to their shape, by the way the Dregg have big butts.” This brought about laughter from those attending. We are ready to start the bidding, “Do I hear eighty million dollars?”
The US bidder raised his arm and said, “Here.’’
I then said, “Ninety million dollars” and at once the Chinese bidder said, “Yes.”
I kept at first raising the bid amount by ten million dollars and every time this was quickly followed by a bid, all the countries were attempting to acquire this gunship. I soon realised that ten million dollar increases were not enough so I tried fifty million at first then one hundred million at a time and still they continued to bid. I could not believe it, the bidding was brisk to say the least and soon it had passed the billon mark. It was still going, two billon, and then three, by this time it had only left, Russia, UK, China and US in the bidding. Just before it reached ten billon Russia and the UK both pulled out. It was between China and the US. Finally at around twenty billon, China gave way, leaving the US the winner. I looked at Alenna and Jenna. They were in quite a state and seemed a bit traumatised at the amount this gun ship had finally gone for. I had earned a profit that surpassed anything I could have ever dreamed of, converting this amount to alliance credits was worth more than we had paid for the cargo freighter. I knew this was not going to sit well with Alenna but if Earth did get a chance to acquire new frigates we would need that amount to pay the Relnorians. Though we would of course get it back and more when we passed them on to Earth. The US had not brought that much gold with them and we had to wait a few hours. It finally arrived in an escorted armoured van, quite a pile. I did have to suffer an earful from Alenna who was disgruntled to say the least over such a huge profit earned; Alkarrens just can’t accept huge profits. The Silka could arrive anytime within the next three weeks. We briskly concluded business and left Earth to return to Alkarr.
Chapter 9
The Invasion Begins
I was eager on my return to enquire if Lara had any news about my request to supply Earth with those new defence Frigates. She had not. So now I was getting a little worried, Earth may already be under attack. After all our return journey to Alkarr from Earth had taken just under a week. I could do nothing at all to help. Alenna was eager to continue with our cargo runs, which would commence the next day. We apparently were going to Kelder with a load of mining equipment.
I said to Alenna, “Why did you accept that contract? You know it’s not safe to go to Kelder. Those pirates could still be operating there.”
Alenna replied, “I’m doing it as a favour for Lumi’s mother’s family, the House of Tinter. They have to complete a large contract but they need our help to conclude it on time and to transport a very large mobile mining rig. We will be collecting it from Relnor.”
“Fine,” I said. “If the pirates dare to come near us, I will blast them with a bolt from the Plasma cannon.’’
Alenna horrified at my suggestion replied, “No you won’t!! You can’t use that weapon on the Zill even if they are trying to rob us.’’
I replied, “Why not, what do you expect me to do then, throw stones at them? I won’t just let them take our cargo. I will give them a warning first with a shot across the bow, but even better still I will use the illusion field generator and with luck they may not even know we are there. On the over hand it is quite possible that there aren’t any pirates present at Kelder now.”
Alenna just said, “Well just don’t shoot at them if they are there.’’
“Ok I won’t,” I reluctantly replied.
First we must go to Relnor to collect this mining rig, which I would describe as a very big crane with an extremely large bucket that could scoop a hole deep enough to hold a double decker bus in just one single go. Then off to Kelder. My eyes were peeled for any signs of pirates. There were no signs at all and no cargo ships left abandoned in orbit. I spoke to Kelder control for landing instructions and when I asked about pirates they replied that they had not had any problem since I apprehended those three Zill, so hopefully they have now moved on. This was the first time I had landed on Kelder, much like any other landing. The port was next to a large lake in the equatorial region. It was a sunny day but the temperature could only manage to reach a high of ten centigrade. The
sun looked small and distant even though it was overhead, but at least there was no wind to produce a wind chill factor into the equation. Alenna, Jenna, River and I were just wrapped up in the usual sort of clothes you would wear on a winter’s day on Earth, only we had to have a face mask with oxygen tanks to breathe. This large crane moved on caterpillar tracks and we had laid down some floor protection, not enough though! As after it had maneuvered down the ramp I was miffed to find some deep groves in a line from where it had trundled off some of the floor protection as it left the cargo bay. My nice new cargo bay floor ruined, I could not do anything about the groves it had left behind. I now had to live with seeing them stare at me every time I loaded and un-loaded cargo. I don’t think Alenna was that happy either?
Back to Alkarr. All the way I had Earth on my mind. Surely the Silka would have arrived by now and there was no way to know of course. As soon as we exited star drive I called up Lara to find out if my request for new frigates had been approved. The news was not good. Lara reported that the request had been deferred, which meant it had been put on hold indefinitely. Lara then said she had some good news and would tell me when we returned to the residence. After landing I could not wait, so with River in hand as my chaperon we both hurried to our residence to find out about this so called good news.
I enquired of Lara, “What is this news you made me wait to hear and did they give a reason why the request to buy the frigates was deferred?’’
Lara replied, “No they gave no reason at all.”
I now asked, “Are the alliance doing anything to help? They said they would not stand back and do nothing.’’
Lara then said, “Yes they are going to do something but it will be down to our house to assist. First they regret that they can’t despatch a battle cruiser to Earth as they are all required to fend off the intrusions by the Silka along the trillion frontier. What they are prepared to do is assign two of those new frigates along with their crews for as long as it takes to remove the present threat to Earth. This is where our house comes into the equation. We will need to ferry them to Earth in our cargo ship. We have to go to Lusiana to pick up the two frigates and their crew, which will be waiting for our arrival.”
A little disheartened I replied, “Alenna won’t go for that. She has contracts to fulfil. I will need to speak with her as soon as possible. I just hope she hasn’t gone to see her mother before returning here.’’ A few minutes later Alenna did arrive at our residence, though she was in a hurry to go and see her mother.
I was determined to talk with her before she left saying, “We have to go Lusiana.’’
Before I could continue Alenna replied, “Out of the question we have to go to Molk and that collection of fish can’t be delayed.’’
I insisted, “We have to go to Lusiana. We have been instructed to go there and pick up two of the most advanced frigates and their crews before taking them to Earth. People my die if we don’t!’’
Alenna replied, “This is difficult. We have to go to Molk. It’s a contract and if we break the contract it will bring shame on our house. Do you want that?’’
I now said, “Do you want the responsibility of knowing due to you reluctance many humans could perish in a Sika attack. I don’t know how many. It could run into millions.’’
Alenna had been put into a predicament torn between honour in fulfilling a contract and lives of many people on Earth. “Help me. I don’t know what to do,’’ she cried.
An idea hit me, why did I not think of that before? I said to Alenna, “We still have our old cargo ship. You have not leased it out yet have you?’’
“Yes we do, I am in discussions over leasing it but they are not finalised yet,’’ replied Alenna.
I now confidently said, “Good then, we can do both. Minty can captain our old cargo ship, Lumi can pilot and Emily can navigate. With the help of Perri and Luka they could do the run to Molk. I have full confidence in them to do what’s needed without yours or my assistance. That will leave seven of us to go to Earth, that’s if you would want to come with us. You could of course elect to go with Minty. Jenna would be required as navigator, Sabrina, Rachael, River, and Yarkeli could also accompany us. You know how much Yarkeli is going to look forward to meeting the crew of these frigates, they are Lusianian.”
Alenna said, “I would definitely accompany you, but what about the children?”
I looked at her as if that was a silly question and said, “That goes without saying. They will of course travel with Minty on our old cargo ship.’’
Alenna worried about going to Earth at this time bit her lip and replied, “Let’s do it. After I have been to mothers we will prepare to leave. Tell all the others about what is happening. I will talk with Minty and give her all the details before we leave.’’ Alenna now hurried off to see her mother. I arranged the other details, telling all the family of what is about to happen. Both Perri and Luka wanted to go with us. I had to be seen as in command but fair and told them straight, “Someone has to help Minty load that fish and I am sorry but you two have been selected.’’
Perri with Luka by her side both reluctantly accepted the situation. Then Perri with a tears in her eyes said, “You will all be careful and please don’t do anything foolish, will you?
I just replied, “No Perri I will not risk any of us getting hurt. I don’t want to put our ship into any risky predicament. We are just ferrying the frigates and their crews. As for unloading they can be hovered out in space. I do not have to land on Earth.
I was worried as I did not know what to expect to find when we reached Earth. I now had to help prepare our old cargo ship, with the help of those who would be taking it to Molk. Personal items now needed to be transferred along with provisions and bedding. I made sure all the services were up to speck, topping up the tanks changing filters etc. Soon the ship was ready. I did not like splitting the family up this way but the situation demanded it. After Alenna had returned from her mother, she then instructed Minty of her duties. It was time for each family group to leave Alkarr on their allotted ship. We both travelled to orbit together, but so soon we had to part and go our separate ways. It did feel very odd not having the children on board. It was ghostly quiet, it was surprising how noisy the children could be at times. We were not sure if the Lusianian crews would stay on their ships or would like more comfortable accommodation so during the journey to Lusiana we prepared our spare cabins, one for each of the presumed captains and one for any other officers and a final one for lower ranks. Yarkeli was also eager to do two things for them; one special Lusiana meals for them all and two she could have a viewing of her art knowing it would be more appreciated by Lusianians than any Alkarrens or Humans. Now the crew being Lusianian meant I would not need a chaperon so I could continue going where I wanted without a wife tagging along. Still after all that had happened to me I occasionally liked to wander alone at times, if it was safe to do so that is. We were instructed to land at a military base on Lusiana and were greeted by a high ranking officer, who led us towards the frigates. We were introduced to the captain in charge, Captain Porridy.
Captain Porridy said, “I would like to introduce my commander. You will recognise her.’’
This commander had been hiding behind the crew. She now steeped forward and everyone gasped. It was Pooky!!!
Yarkeli screamed, “My Pooky!!!” Then Yarkeli made a move towards her. Quickly thinking, I stopped Yarkeli in her tracks by grabbing hold of her arm and whispering to her, “Not now Yarkeli, not in front of her crew. It will embarrass her. Just wait you will get time alone with her later.”
Pooky said, “Hi mum,’’ with such a huge smile on her face, before saying again, “Hi to all of you.’’ Pooky then noticed River, “Oh River I did not expect to see you again.’’
Pooky looked a bit confused as to why she was with us, so I just replied, “River is a wife, I will tell you all about it later.’’
Pooky laughed before saying, “Uncle you’re such a romantic!’’ Pooky had remembered what I had said to her las time. I just shook my head and tutted. Thinking to myself, no, I have never given flowers or a box of chocolates to any of my wives. Alkarr does not grow cocoa beans. Oh my, I should import some from Earth. We have enough money now to buy a small farm as a side line. We would certainly do well selling various chocolate products. I was not thinking straight, there was a more pressing subject.
Alenna said to Captain Porridy, “Are you ready to load your frigates? We can then proceed to Earth.”
Captain Porridy replied, “Yes I am,” before turning to Pooky and saying to her, “hover your frigate aboard, commander.’’
Chronicles of Jake 2: The Invasion Begins Page 17
