Stone and the Ravens (Guardian Stone Book 3)

by Don Koch

  "We will be looking for the places you robbed. Everyone in this building is to leave it now. The next time you are permitted to enter, the building will be totally empty of all stolen foreign goods and any technology not of your own devising. In the meantime all buildings that you are not permitted to enter will be sealed and entrances marked in red. Do not attempt to enter a building so marked because you will receive a shock that could be fatal. Now leave or I will ask Queen Firs and her workers to give you some motivation." Queen Firs image started to grow and she was humming angrily. "She is already upset, if I were you, I would not want to make her really angry. Leave now and take nothing with you."

  Kangx, whom Barana had tagged so he could be found again, and others with him beat a hasty retreat to the outside of the building. Hank asked if there was a Rotan dreadnaught or large freighter available in which they could store all materials found in the sequestered buildings. Barana noted that there were several in orbit that would do nicely. She also identified all buildings that should receive similar treatment. The teams then started to methodically recover any data that might be of possible use. The Sabans from Pared were most helpful in this part of the exercise. A surprising amount of data was found in one of the few computers found on the premises. Paper records were not very plentiful. Automatic recordings of communications were most helpful in identifying systems previously pillaged. The number of impacted systems continued to rise.

  Next, all military offensive hardware such as guns, tanks, artillery, rockets missiles and ammunition was removed from the planet. The explosives were destroyed and the remainder was melted down to component metals and stacked as ingots outside their steel and other metal mills. The same was to be done with other materials so that the Rotans had something to work with should they take Hank's advice to heart. All farms were left intact, even those with machines that were obviously not of Rotan manufacture.

  The last items of focused attention were the spaceports. These were totally dismantled. All machines capable of creating a rocket or vehicle that could be sent into space were dismantled. The four Stations in orbit were taking the place apart. Much of this was returned as raw materials that could be used to support life on the planet. Nothing related to space travel was left on Gnuxet.

  Chapter 37: Decommissioned

  Station 1 at Gnuxet –

  May 4 – C Day 613

  Three days later, Gnuxet looked like a different place. In terms of technology, it resembled early twentieth Century Earth. The sequestered buildings had been emptied and then reopened to the Rotans. Kangx office had been refurnished with furniture manufactured on Gnuxet, crude as it was. Kangx was located and told he could reenter his office if he so wished. Several of the sequestered buildings were destroyed because they were unsafe and about to fall down on their own. Hank had them provided with large print, fully illustrated manuals on how to build dwelling, store and office structures under three stories in height. Similar manuals for light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, farming and other useful ventures were also provided. These were explained to Kangx. The Stations provided a receiving facility at the former spaceport where returned Rotans would be delivered.

  Hank visited Kangx once more in T-Raptor form to see if he could pull any further intelligence from him. This time he brought a Harvey on Leash with him because he wanted Kangx thoroughly intimidated. They met in the open area outside of Kangx office building. Kangx could not take his eyes off of Harvey who was putting on his usual show. "Well, Kangx, your home looks a lot different than it did when we arrived. I brought Harvey with me because I have been promising him a snack. Whether that snack is you or someone else is of little interest to me. I do have some questions for you that may cause me to look elsewhere for his snack."

  "Awww boss, this one looks really tasty, you promised."

  "Take it easy Harvey, if not this one, there are many more to choose from. Be patient."

  "Oh, ok boss. Me behave."

  "Now where was I, Oh yes. The questions. Kangx, It is clear to me that your people do not have the means or skills to build the fleets of ships we have encountered. You likewise do not have the ability to develop the planet busters that you use. So, where did you get them."

  Harvey was having the desired effect on Kangx who responded sullenly, "Both came from the people at Peck. They are good builders. We posed as a ship in distress and the ship that came to our aid was a dreadnaught being delivered to Trask. We then went back to Peck with the captured dreadnaught and threatened to drop a planet buster on them. They had a fleet ready for delivery to Trask, so we took the ships and the planet Peck. We kept the workers alive. Then the people at Trask objected so we disposed of them with 5 planet busters. That planet is now an asteroid belt. It was very easy."

  "How long ago did this happen."

  "About 6,000 years ago."

  Hank then had a thought that bothered him so he said, "This is not your planet of origin, is it?"

  "No. Our original home was Juxet, about 330 light years from here. "

  "How long have your people been on Gnuxet?"

  "We have been here for a little under 6,000 years. It was a colony planet for Foalar but the people that were here have all died. They do not last long in slavery."

  "And you feel no remorse for all the people you have killed."

  "No, why should we?"

  "Why did your people leave Juxet?"

  "We were driven out."

  "Why was that?"

  "The leaders there said that we were abominations that they would no longer tolerate. They said that we were a failed genetic experiment but that they could not bring themselves to terminate us, so they exiled us. They put us in colony ships and told us to leave and not to come back. We did though and left them some presents. Five of them in fact, same as we did for Trask."

  Hank digested that information and said, "You have just confirmed the sentence we are placing on your people. You will never leave this planet and you will have no visitors except from the Antoran Fleet. We will be watching your every move. If anything happens to the ships appointed to watch you either through your actions or those of others, ten planet busters will be armed and will in short order rain down on you. You are too dangerous to be loose in the galaxy."

  Hank then ordered that all Rotan vessels in the system be emptied. All Rotans were returned to Gnuxet and the captured ships were stockpiled on Setik, one of the Gorth planets pillaged by the Rotans. Two Stations were left in orbit after the cleanup.

  Sean Callahan was told to bring all of the captured Rotans and their ships from the Nardo and Raas incursions to Gnuxet as well as any encountered nearby. They were to be delivered to the Stations at Gnuxet. They would process the crews and ships. A presence of battleships and cruisers were to be left at the Raas System in the absence of the Station for the protection of the planet. Aid was then to be offered to the inhabitants of the attacked planet and the Antoran role in the region was described. Sean pointed out that each of those steps had already occurred and the good will in both systems was high.

  Similar orders were issued for Stations assigned to halt active conflicts at Noos, Bilm. Dorma, Fash and Moxt. The various Stations found active conflicts underway in the five systems. Special genetic based life scans were run in all systems to assure that all Rotans were found and captured. Two Stations reported ghostlike images of genetic scans that were similar to Rotans but nothing solid was found. The scan results, while similar, appeared to be different enough to register as something else. As the stations changed position to reimage their scans, the images disappeared. Since they were focused on the specific genetic make up of a Gnuxet Rotan, they left the distraction and continued their search.

  A large number of Rotan vessel attempted to hide but all were unsuccessful. They were captured and returned to Gnuxet. A few took the suicidal route by engaging their self-destruct devices destroying ship and crew. Special care was taken with those ships containing slaves removed from the vario
us planets. Captives were removed from the Rotan ships first, provided with explanation and treated for injuries or damage caused by the Rotans. They were asked to go into stasis on the Station until they could be returned to their homes. Some asked to stay on Station.

  Peck, Lubin and Foalar were systems occupied by the Rotans. These proved to be relatively easy to recapture. Rotans were merely transported from where ever they were found without warning and delivered to the stasis ship found in the Stations core area. In each case, it happened so quickly that the Rotans did not have time to react. In less than an hour, the three systems were freed of the Rotan presence. Records in all three systems were relatively intact so it was not difficult to locate former leaders that were still alive, and explain what had just transpired. They were provided with aid to get their governments back up and running. In a few cases the length of occupation was too lengthy so it was clear that other forms of assistance would be needed. Medical attention, food and supplies were provided to help them to recover. When local communications were restored, explanations were provided to the general public including how the rescue had been effected.

  Systems in Gnuxet Region

  System

  Species

  L.Y. Distance from Malone

  Comment

  Bilm

  Glarin

  371

  Conflicted

  Dorma

  Gar

  392

  Conflicted

  Fash

  Human

  431

  Conflicted

  Foalar

  Gar

  350

  Occupied

  Gnuxet

  Rota

  285

  Juxet

  Rota

  460

  Destroyed

  Lubin

  Canid

  348

  Occupied

  Moxt

  Human, Glarin

  446

  Conflicted

  Nardo

  Gar, Glarin

  309

  Conflicted

  Noos

  Saban

  322

  Conflicted

  Peck

  Linan

  431

  Occupied

  Raas

  Gar, Glarin

  291

  Conflicted

  Trask

  Human

  452

  Destroyed

  Peck was given special attention since it appeared to be the origin of most of the major ships used by the Rotans. An otherwise uninhabited planet in the Peck system was the manufacturing site of the planet busters. It appeared that the site had been the location for the manufacture of Missiles for the warships built in the system. This was systematically dismantled. The site was suitable for the building of space ships so it was not destroyed outright.

  During the scans done by the Stations, it was confirmed that two planets had been hit by planet busters as Kangx had bragged about to Hank. Juxet and Trask were each now an asteroid belt within the two systems. Squadrons were detached from several Stations to look for survivors at Juxet and Trask but no survivors had been found for either system. The use of so many planet busters was overkill. Some structures and artifacts were noted on other planets but these were no longer occupied.

  # Station 1 in the Gnuxet System –

  May 8 – C Day 617 #

 

  "Anytime."

 

  Sass noted, "We felt that this kind of security might become important if our recent discoveries in personal teleportation continue to bear fruit. We are very close to that becoming a reality. We will also need to provide protection for the AI memory storage areas."

  Ben added, "We have already tested this and it is ready to implement. Anyone authorized to access a Station using personal teleportation will have the necessary codes installed by the Station AI so to the authorized user, it will appear seamless. The Stations will have this information in their memory for all Stations as well as special operations cruisers and Tau Ceti operations."

  "Nice job. That really makes sense. How soon can you implement?"

 

  "I like this idea. Let's do it. At some point it would be something necessary to our security."

 

  # Station 1 in the Gnuxet System –

  May 12 – C Day 621 #

  Station 1 was the only Station left in the Gnuxet System. All other Stations from Divisions 3 and 6 were actively helping the conflicted and the liberated systems in their recovery efforts. Hank was having a discussion with his senior staff. "You know this is really strange but I am getting a heavy itch from my early warning node that is strong enough that it can't be ignored. Barana, would you please place the Station ten AU from Gnuxet in the plane of the elliptic (1 AU was the distance between Gnuxet and its sun.) and recall all of our warships on patrol. Something is wrong and I can't quite put my finger on it yet. It could be that mess of a planet, Gnuxet, has muddled my thinking, but something else is going on. It bothers me that these people appear to be reverting to their more barbaric past but I am not so sure that it is a reversion. Barana, once all ships are back on board, please give us maximum shields."

  No sooner had the shields reached maximum when Barana interrupted with an almost alarmed sound to her voice, As they watched, bright spots appeared all about the planet. Barana noted that each of the bright spots represented a Rotan. Each spot flared and then disappeared. Slowly the shield about the planet disappeared. The entire surface of the planet was as normal as it had been before the event. Conjecture concerning the shield was that its apparent purpose was to contain the event on the planet. This suggested that an exceptionally advanced intelligence had engineered the event. All were in shock. Hank alerted his team and they entered rapport. Hank took them to the surface of Gnuxet and they searched. They found numerous small piles of grey dust as if something had burned at a very high temperature. After a half hour of searching they returned to the Station and broke rapport. Sass commented, “It looks to me as though each Rotan on the planet was toasted and rather quickly. I found a pile of that dust on the drivers seat of a vehicle that had crashed into a building.” Others related similar experiences and noted that the only logical conclusion was that each dust pile represented a Rotan.

  Chapter 38: Turnabout

  Station 1 in the Gnuxet System –

  May 12 – C Day 621

  Barana was just as shocked as was the rest of the Command te
am.

  Hank noted, "Well the good news is that my warning alarm has dropped to zero so it appears there is no imminent threat."

 

  "Let's see what they have to say."

  A voice spoke to all of them stating,

  "We would all appreciate that, but first would you tell us who you are and how you have managed to approach this close undetected."