The Curanian Dominance: The Linda Eccles Series - Volume Three

by Robert Woodard

  “It’s the footprints—they’re gone,” Linda said while pointing to the floor.

  Peggy looked down, and said, “Oh, that. Yeah, I saw it before. It did the same thing the first time I came into this ship. Maybe they have an automated vacuum that only comes out when the room is empty or something.”

  “I guess it isn’t that important,” Linda said. “So, how do we get out of this thing.”

  “I’m not sure.” Peggy went to the wall where the hatched opened for them to get in and placed her hand against it, but nothing happened. “Hmmm, maybe we have to request an exit.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Linda responded, and then ordered, “TR17, open up, so we can exit the ship.”

  “TR17 will comply.”

  A section in the wall turned opaque, then clear, and finally disappeared altogether. The bottom of the ship was only a short step from the metal decking. When she stepped out, Linda turned and squatted to look under the ship. To her amazement, the bottom of the Brontum had flatted itself so the entire ship’s weight, however much that was, dispersed across the length of the deck. It seemed to her that there wasn’t anything this ship couldn’t do.

  Standing again, she turned at the sound of others entering the bay to get a look at the ship. Linda looked back to see the opening in the hull solidifying. I wonder if they will let me keep this ship when all is said and done? Yeah, like that will happen.

  Chapter Twelve

  When the incoming alien ships first arrived, the remote rebounder had picked them up just as planned. The device seemed to remain undetected within the floating debris. Denc could not have been happier. She sat well out of detection range while monitoring the feed from the rebounder. She wanted to notify Plon of her findings, but she wasn’t about to risk that the other ships wouldn’t detect the signal and flee. She would just have to wait to get a message off to him.

  The activity since the ships arrived had been confusing. They had detected the launch of a small transport ship down to the surface of the planet, and it had quickly returned. This led her to believe that they had dropped some of the crew off on the planet. A short while later, another smaller vessel appeared at the side of the larger vessel, but it could not be detected by the sweep. Had the rebounder not had a visual viewer, they would never have detected the ship at all.

  “All that floating debris is working out well for keeping the rebounder hidden from detection,” Loge said.

  Denc looked down at her second in command from her elevated command chair. His strong physic, open shirt appearance, and flowing black hair pulled at her desire to be off duty with him, but she shook it off. There would be enough time for that later.

  “That’s true, Loge,” Denc replied.

  “What do you think that smaller ship represents?” Loge asked.

  That same question had been nagging at Denc, too. This species obviously felt a strong need to return to this backward planet just to retrieve a strange ship. It hadn’t even looked like a very large ship, although, the size of the larger one could have masked its true girth.

  “I wish I knew. Since I don’t, I’m not wasting brain cells trying to figure it out,” Denc lied.

  She looked away from Loge as if talking to him was beneath her, which it truly was with her command chair elevated. The thought made her smile as she looked out the front portals of her ship. She stared at the planet that wasn’t much bigger than her hand due to her distance from it. Glancing back at the data feeding in from the remote rebounder, she wondered if the ships would depart now that they had what they came for.

  Loge’s movement caught her eye as he wandered over to talk with Adoc, who was sitting at the rebounder station. After a short conversation with her, he returned to look up at Denc, and said, “Denc, Adoc ran a compare analysis against the known classifications between these two ships, and the sweeps captured when Nage brought his fleet into battle. We have an exact match on the large vessel. According to the sweep archive, that vessel had been close to this planet when Nage’s lead ships had moved through the opening in the defensive field.”

  “What about the second ship?” Denc interrupted.

  “It matches a ship class that battled Nage.”

  “And the ship they just absorbed?” Denc prompted.

  “He never could get a reading on it. It’s like a hole in space.”

  Denc look down at Loge and smiled. “A ship that can only be detected by sight would be a great thing to have. The Supreme would be most pleased to get her hands on that kind of technology.”

  “Not to mention the advantage of making ships like ours invisible while sneaking around looking for opportunities,” Loge responded.

  Staring at the two alien ships on her screen, she puzzled over why the small ship had been so far advanced to what she was seeing in these two ships. Could these creatures we entombed in their hole have built it for them? That didn’t seem likely to her. From what she understood, they were so far behind in technology that Plon wondered how they managed to get anything into space in the first place. Shaking her head, Denc decided she wasn’t going to be able to answer her own question and let the thought go to focus on what needed to be done.

  “Loge, is the tracker ready?” Denc asked.

  “Yes, but it will not do any good,” Loge answered.

  “Why is that?” Denc asked.

  ‘They have their shields up again. They probably put them in place because of all the debris floating about. The tracker will only bounce off it.”

  “Okay,” Denc said with a little disappointment in her voice. “We’ll do it the old-fashioned way. When they go into stage-two, be sure to capture their signature, and we'll track them down.”

  “As you wish, Denc,” Loge said.

  Sighing, she dreaded the thought of having to make mini-jumps in and out of light speed to track along the path of the large ship to track them down again. It would be time-consuming and complicated if the ship deviated from a direct course at any point along the way. As she watched, the two ships began to pull out of orbit in what she took as their preparation to leave the system.

  While she waited for the ships to reach their jump point, Denc felt an uneasiness creeping in on her. Dropping down with her chair, she prepared to speak privately with Loge. The need to bounce her questions off someone else rang strong, and Loge was the logical person to use. Loge came to her side, which was tradition whenever a commander dropped to deck level.

  “Loge, the creatures that lived on this planet fought Nage with crude ships. You reviewed the same archives I did to know that for yourself. You also saw how easily Plon destroyed them at the floating station. How can you explain the difference between those archaic designs and the one they just pulled up from the planet?”

  Loge looked out the front portals leading Denc to figure he was mulling her question over in his mind. He flipped his head toward the strategic viewer. “Maybe they only use the creatures on this planet as a labor force. Perhaps they defeated them long ago and now make them build ships.”

  “That’s an interesting theory. If they use them as forced labor, as you suggest, then why did they arm them with ships? To me, that doesn’t seem very smart.”

  “Perhaps it was to do exactly what happened to Nage. They offer a delaying action to any invading force to give them time to race in to provide support.”

  Denc thought over Loge’s comments, but she had a hard time putting it all together. It just didn’t make sense to her. “I don’t know, Loge. It sounds a little farfetched to me. Why would they put up a fight last time, but not this time? They let us march right in here and blow their ships into particles. They didn’t even attempt to prevent our landings. Those on the planet dove into their holes where we can’t get at them. They surely could have done that last time, too.”

  “Maybe they weren’t ready for us this time. In Nage’s official report, he wrote that his opponents had plenty of time to prepare between when they were discovered and when Nage could
get his fleet into position to attack.”

  “Perhaps, but one would think they would have expected us to come back seeking revenge.”

  “Maybe that is exactly what they prepared for. It’s apparent they withdrew their crews from their defensive platforms and ships. Like you said, the ships they used were archaic in design, so losing them may not have been a big deal. If they are truly forced labor, then the other species may not have considered defending them worth the trouble.”

  “Nice theory, Loge. Maybe you should sign up to work on Supreme Kold’s planning team.” Denc tried to stifle a laugh, which caused her to snort.

  Loge was about to respond, but the sudden flash of the alien ships disappearing into stage-two stopped him. Denc raised her chair, and Loge returned to the navigation station.

  “Okay, let’s track them down,” Denc said. “Execute the quick jump on my mark. I want to land on the exact coordinates they used to go to stage-two, so get it right.”

  The control deck came to life as the crew put her orders into action. Loge watched the tactical map that Denc knew was to ensure the jump coordinates were correctly entered. It wasn’t long before he turned to her, and said, “Ready for stage-two activation.”

  “Activate,” Denc ordered.

  The ship gave a slight shimmer before going still again. The view out the front portals had changed, and the strategic viewer now reflected a different story, as did the tactical map. The Kero had repositioned within the system in less than a blink of the eye. Adoc, in her usual efficiency, had already swapped the strategic viewer away from the remote rebounder and fed in data from the ship’s sweep computer. The tactical map that had displayed the alien planet off the Kero’s right bow, now showed it below and behind them.

  Denc swung her head over to the communication station. Yols crewed the station currently, and his handsome form created another yearning within her for male companionship. Shaking her head, Denc figured she must be running fertile today to have such strong desires. If she didn’t address that problem soon, her body would only keep prompting her for attention. Later, she silently told herself.

  Ignoring her urges, Denc ordered, “Loge, begin the ninety-tick countdown. Yols, activate a communication channel to send on Control’s frequency.” She then watched as his hands worked the controls on his console.

  “Comm ready,” Yols replied.

  Denc pulled the thin shaft containing the communication microphone, attached to her chair, closer to her. She then said, “Control from the Kero. Contact established with desired alien species. We tracked two inbound ships that extracted a third smaller ship from the planet’s surface before departing.”

  If everything worked as planned, she would get a response back from Plon before her 90-tick countdown ended. If not, she would have to wait. Plon could retract her orders for some unknown reason, and she couldn’t risk his ire if she had departed without getting that retraction. At 77-ticks, she received her reply.

  Kero from Control. You are ordered to proceed. Ascertain final destination of alien craft. If feasible, remain undetected. Map target location and then retreat to safe location to report your findings.

  “Okay, Loge, we have our clearance. Let’s go find them.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Linda sat on the bridge of the Auspicious as it closed in on exiting warp that would bring it onto its assigned entry vector before the Rapatine Space Station. Neither she nor Sylvia had any idea why the science ship was redirected to Rapatine, but she supposed they would find out upon arrival. From what Linda understood about the Governments, nothing with them ever goes according to plan.

  As the counter on the tactical display counted down the seconds to the end of warp, Linda hoped that the delay at Rapatine would be short. Being a passenger on the Auspicious was not to her liking, and she was ready to go home. It helped some that she could continue to stand bridge watch, but her down time left too much inactivity to suit her.

  “Ten seconds to arrival, Captain.” The navigator reported.

  “Very well,” Sylvia replied.

  Linda looked over at Sylvia to see if the pride of being called Captain still showed on her face. Instead, she had the stern look of someone in command. It reminded Linda of her first command as a Lieutenant, and the pride she felt when she was addressed as Captain. That feeling had to dwell within Sylvia, and Linda knew it would stick with her for all her days.

  The countdown finally reached zero and Linda watched the distorted effects through the front portals as the ship dropped into normal space. She felt the slight forward pull as the computer fired the jets that slowly brought the lumbering ship to a halt.

  “I guess we will find out why it was so all fired important we divert to Rapatine,” Sylvia said softly.

  Linda could detect the slight annoyance in Sylvia’s tone. Linda understood the frustration since there had been no logical reason to sidetrack to Rapatine that she could see. As the commanding officer of the Auspicious, Sylvia should have been given the courtesy of knowing why they had to deviate. She had shared the cryptic orders with Linda when they had arrived, and Linda would’ve been pissed had she been in command. No captain likes to be kept in the dark on anything regarding their ship, and Sylvia didn’t appear to be any different.

  “You’re holding better restraint than I could’ve Sylvia. I would have kicked my garbage can across my cabin by now,” Linda said.

  “How do you know I didn’t?” Sylvia said while giving Linda a sideways glance.

  “Because I looked for a large dent in the side when I last visited you. My can always had dents in it.”

  “I’ll try to remember that next time.”

  Linda smiled at Sylvia’s remark. Sylvia held a level of maturity that made her a natural at command. She wished more officers were like her. Linda’s attention focused on the variety of sounds as various departments reported their readiness to the bridge, computers were recalibrated to standard travel mode, and creaks and groans rang out as the huge ship bled off forward momentum.

  “We have been ordered to hold position here, Captain,” the Communication Specialist reported.

  “Very well, Comm,” Sylvia responded.

  The bridge quieted to only the occasional whispers as crew personnel sitting together held hushed conversations. Linda felt it was not typical for a ship to be held outside the travel lanes. Rapatine maintained an efficient traffic control division, so keeping the ship from entering an inbound lane assignment was not a normal practice. In fact, Linda could not recall a single time she was ever been told to hold position in all her years on the Privateer. Something was up.

  “Captain, Rapatine Control has ordered us to proceed to the inbound holding zone to await further orders,” the Communication Specialist relayed.

  Sylvia looked up at the tactical display as the navigation markers were provided by Rapatine control, and then ordered, “Follow the nav markers and maintain allowable inbound speed”

  “Yes, Captain,” the Nav Specialist replied.

  A bad feeling was coming over Linda with the orders Sylvia received. Ships that were sent to the holding area were typically in trouble with the port commissioner. That kind of trouble was usually reserved for a Captain who was suspected of smuggling unauthorized goods.

  “All stop,” Sylvia said when the tactical display showed the Auspicious had entered the computer-generated markers outlining the holding area.

  The escorting destroyer, apparently having received the same orders, took up position inside the holding area, too. Between the two ships, they now took up the entire designated section.

  “Captain, Rapatine Control has ordered us to prepare to receive Admiral Litton’s shuttle.”

  Linda couldn’t keep the heavy frown from taking control of her expression. “I hate it whenever something comes up involving that man. They are always trying to sucker me into something I don’t really want to do. If they have another so-called mission for me, I swear I’ll hop off right
here and find my own ride back to Earth.”

  “You would leave me to his mercy?” Sylvia said while giving her a fake hurt look.

  “In a heartbeat. I’ve had all I can stomach for one lifetime. It’s someone else’s turn to play hero, Captain.”

  A shuttle appeared on tactical as it moved along one of the outer departure lanes. Linda recognized the identification marker for the shuttle as a military designation. Sylvia selected the comm option on the control arm of her chair, and after selecting emergency control, she said, “XO, this is the Captain.”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Admiral Litton will be coming aboard shortly. Please assemble a reception committee and bring him to the forward briefing room when he arrives.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The shuttle diverted left and cut across the remaining outbound lanes and then the inbound lanes on its way to the holding area. Its arrival on the port side kept it from being seen out the bridge portals. Even so, Linda had no doubt the shuttle would have the ESS Conviction name stenciled on its side. A name that would forever be tattooed into her subconscious.

  “Join me, won’t you, Linda,” Sylvia said as she got up.

  “Against my better judgement, yes,” Linda said bitterly.

  After turning over bridge control to her deck officer, Sylvia left with Linda following close behind. They dropped two levels in the turbo-lift before moving forward to a briefing room that was designed to hold a sizable assembly. Linda recalled using it several times during her stint as Captain to host the science team when getting progress updates.

  The smell of coffee permeated the air, and Linda couldn’t wait to get a hot cup. She made her way to the holding table in one corner where the pot and several upside-down cups waited usage. Turning a cup over, she filled it while asking, “Would you like a cup, Sylvia. It’s not too late to become a coffee convert.”

  “No thank you,” Sylvia responded while taking a seat at one end of the rectangular-shaped table.