by David Buck
‘We have deliberated and reached a decision; the honoured high envoy will now advise of our decision and provide a series of judgements that are binding under galactic law.’
Thatak’siema glowered down at the two Barus standing nervously in front of her. The envoy reached down to a bench and picking up a selected report she addressed them sternly.
‘Firstly, get the notion of executions out of your heads. I am not a barbaric Tilmud judge, but I have to uphold the law and be seen uphold the law over a very unpleasant matter. You have seen the death toll from this world. Three billion lives lost to a terrorist even before they get an official first contact from an approved vassal diplomat.’
Thatak’siema paused momentarily and softly spoke into her digital panel in Vorinne dialect; Gindane allowed herself a quick sense of relief. But she soon tensed up again as the envoy spoke in her sternest manner.
‘You will remember this disaster for the rest of your lives, as the death toll is larger than the official Barus population throughout the galaxy. The way you will remember this disaster on an ongoing basis is that you two now have this world as a special project for the rest of your lives. Professor, you may continue your research, which I will add is well respected providing the results are discrete, but you will not stint on the care of this world.’
The second envoy favoured Professor Elysius with a sharp glance that spoke volumes before she continued with her summary of the trial.
‘Gindane, you are forbidden to return or to contact the royal court on Barus four until someone of envoy status releases you to do so. You will continue to work for the professor, also until you are released by an envoy. Gindane, you may leave. Professor, I will have an additional discussion with you about how you report your research findings.’
Gindane made the deepest of bows and left the trial room to inform her crew of the decision. As she left Omerio sat stonily on the judicial bench. Gindane now felt a real sense of sadness, she had to either return to the home world or get special leave of absence from the home world to be able to reproduce. The effective sentence was her removal by banishment from the Barus gene pool, a sombre experience considering her birthright as a Barus noble.
After several minutes an equally sombre Professor Elysius joined the now relieved Barus crew waiting outside. After speaking briefly with Gindane, the Professor and Gindane quietly led the crew away from the trial room back to their quarters.
Thatak’siema turned to the other judges after the proctor and other officials were also excused and the trial room again sealed. The envoy eyed Omerio calmly and warmly as she spoke.
‘Now Station masters and Omerio, I have seen your reports on this other matter, so at least the long trip out here is not wasted on just on the trial. Omerio, to reassure you, Gindane will not be in her situation for long and we will need to have this new world looked after in an unofficial capacity. If you can assist both Gindane and the professor in an unofficial capacity I would greatly appreciate your assistance. So again back to that strange ship trace you recorded Omerio...’
Now it was Omerio’s turn to sweat under the keen eye of the envoy. If indeed Thatak’siema was suspicious of Omerio’s abridged version of detecting the strange ship, the envoy gave no sign. The meeting was finalised with the envoy agreeing on the identification of the ship, and asking Omerio to look into it further and report back to her as well. Omerio stifled a note of embarrassment as Thatak’siema spoke again.
‘Omerio, so what if you work for your military intelligence, I ask only that you continue to adhere to galactic edicts and also report to me on this matter. Indeed I have a long memory on those that help me, as well as those that do not…’
The two Cephrit kept very silent as this point, not wanting to attract any attention either surmised Omerio sourly. As Omerio left the trial room, Thatak’siema allowed herself some satisfaction as her two evaluations about Omerio had been on target, military intelligence and the prospective mate of Gindane.
Omerio, still flanked by guards, had joined both Gindane and the professor for a meal that evening. He was reserved, and to Gindane’s annoyance would not discuss either the trial or the incidental information revealed in the trial. Gindane did not see Omerio again for another five days, his two responses to her messages had been the same. He was readying his ship for departure and he would talk to her privately.
Omerio then left a message on the final day and Gindane went to his quarters for a meal together. During the meal Omerio apologised for being distant, but he was already overdue to resume a mission. He then presented her with a strange electronic tablet that he asked her to show no-one else, both a secret gift and a safe keeping. Gindane looked at him very sadly before she answered him.
‘Omerio you know that we cannot plan a life together until an envoy releases me from my exile.’
Omerio looked at her equally as sadly and replied.
‘I can only tell you that there is more to all this than I can discuss with you now. I only ask that you trust me, keep my counsel silent, and keep hope alive. The tablet is meant as an affirmation of my interest and my trust in you.’
Gindane thanked Omerio for the strange gift, and the two Barus quietly enjoyed the rest of the meal together. Much later Gindane watched from the window of a nearby viewing platform, as Omerio’s sleek trading ship exited from the star base. She watched in silence as the ship accelerated heavily into interstellar space before it disappeared in a flash of light.
As she returned to her quarters, Gindane reflected both on the long years of servitude ahead of her, and the strange tablet now locked away in her cabin safe on the research ship. The one bright light in all this is Omerio she decided to herself.
***
Captain Narindestat had reviewed the reports with considerable unease. Since the Trader ship had parted company with the Jerecab lifter, unexplained faults had affected several sensors on the ship. Three additional crew members were now missing and the ship’s food stores had been heavily depleted. The captain had resorted to continuing to keep everyone armed and in pairs, and to stockpiling the remaining food and water in the most secure part of the ship under heavy guard.
Halbindestat had reported that he was working on restoring the internal sensors and also recalibrating them to detect the Voorde on the Illuria. But he would need several more days to diagnose and fix the first series of problems. The Trader ship had flown to the edge of Cephrit space, and Captain Narindestat had sent one of the Trader sneak ships ahead to make covert contact with the Cephrit. The station master he was seeking was considered by the Trader captain as both his mentor and good friend. The sneak ship was expected to return in roughly three days with the Cephrit following in his own ship.
Lieutenant Garendestat was now doing the research work, after an older engineer doing the research had wandered off on his own, and then gone missing presumed eaten. The lieutenant had enlisted the aid of an engineer and a crewman with an unusual interest in astrobiology. The three Traders had spent dozens of hours going through the galactic library databases looking for a weakness that could be used to defeat the Voorde scourge.
The species information on the Voorde was not promising, they were extremely hardy, highly predatory and resistant to cold temperatures and low pressures of worlds like the one they had just left. There was research information that suggested they did not tolerate higher pressures, oxygen levels and temperatures too well, and that steam or even large amounts of water would kill them.
The captain considered the information critically as he could do something very quickly about atmospheric pressure. However he knew that finding a large amount of either water or oxygen would be more problematic. Captain Narindestat immediately ordered his crew back into their spacesuits and to gather in the main cargo hold, with several crew to remain guarding the food stores but to don spacesuits. The captain did some calculations as he issued additional orders then donned his own spacesuit. As he helped his guards with their own space
suits, the captain soon evaluated that apparently the pressure and temperature change was the key.
All over the Trader ship in rapid succession, all the primary doors received the override command, and these doors began to open. The atmosphere control system began pumping hundreds of tonnes of air into high pressure storage tanks reinforced by shield technology. But Captain Narindestat noted that three main doors refused to open and recorded the information for later action.
With the all clear given from all the crew now secured to lanyards, and with the storage tanks full, the captain immediately dropped all external shields and opened all the outer hull doors. A torrent of air blasted from the Trader ship in several places and froze into a rapidly dispersing cloud for several minutes. The captain checked the areas were the doors had refused to open, and while two areas were in vacuum, the third area showed a respectable part atmosphere.
By previous arrangement patrol teams moved through the ship, though in space suits it would take time to get to the mid level engineering station. As Captain Narindestat led his team to join the other patrols, he considered that if things got too bad they would have to take even more extreme measures to protect the lives of the crew from the Voorde infestation.
***
Steve had earlier ordered the Aurora Discovery down to Perth for spares and additional equipment. He needed the dockyard to do the installation work of more equipment; especially he wanted them to finish the helicopter deck. He already had been fortunate enough to obtain a medium sized Bell helicopter, though he would have preferred to use a larger Seahawk. However the navy were retaining all of their larger helicopters that were still operational, so he had to make do with the smaller helicopter.
The machine gun mounting pedestals had been fitted in Geraldton, and several heavy machine guns were locked away in a secure part of the ship. The Lotus Marai would leave Geraldton soon afterwards and was making for aquaculture farms at Albany to load the ship with tuna and mulloway. As a favour, he was ferrying other equipment from Geraldton to Perth for the dockyard supervisor, so he was expecting to be looked after this time around. The crew situation was also tight and he would be seeking several good people.
As Rottnest Island came into range on the radar he reflected that he really did not have much choice. Perhaps in a generation or two the world’s economy would recover fully, but for now modern businesses scrapped along the best they could with limited infrastructure and personnel. Steve was already well aware that a serious mechanical failure could ruin the new partnership. All he could hope for was that good maintenance and a well trained crew would be enough to manage this risk.
***
Chapter 7
In one of the cavernous ship docks nestled in Cephrit Star Base 31, Gindane disconsolately stood by the ramp to her research ship as her crew filed aboard a week after the trial had finished. The Cephrit Station managers had been most helpful, almost too helpful, in getting the research fleet provisioned so that all the Barus could leave the star base. Word of the trial had got out, and the limited social contacts that Gindane had on the star base had all but avoided her since the verdict was published. Not that she was overly concerned she told herself, they were all grateful to be leaving as her crew had been held up by the inquiry and trial for a long time.
What had really stung her after the trial was that ongoing job offers with greater prestige and recognition in the main Barus star systems had all but disappeared. Gindane was also concerned about how Professor Elysius was treating the crew after the trial. He had become even more reserved than he usually was, and when gently pressed for more information had even become uncharacteristically irritable then stonily silent.
The Barus crew quickly checked over their research destroyer, and the ship soon departed the star base for the long journey to the forward research zone not far from the human solar system. The initial orders that Gindane had was that her ship would be ferrying supplies out to the research zone, and smaller archaeological items of interest from the former Dradfer colonies back to Cephrit Station 31.
‘Oh this is just great, a decade or two of supply runs...’ Thought Gindane darkly, as she looked over the first reports of the mission as took her seat in her command chair.
Gindane had also been given the reports to go through from the trial, including notes from Omerio and the Cephrit judges as mandated by their laws. She now had considerable time on her hands as her ship made the long journey to the forward research zone. So as Gindane remembered the stinging comments made by the Vorinne envoy, she called up the trail reports and thought to herself quietly about the trial.
‘Perhaps by looking with insight like the envoy’s or indeed the professor’s, then additional understanding might be gained into what had happened in this tragic episode.’
The research commander grimly viewed the reports and then called up recent news on the main galactic events occurring elsewhere. Gindane felt that she had missed something during her visit to the human solar system and the subsequent trial.
***
Captain Narindestat took in the injuries to his crew bleakly as he walked in the engineering storage area with his constant armed guard. The weeks of fighting the Voorde on the ship had left his crew exhausted. Even travelling in a squad of four with all members armed and in spacesuits, the Voorde drones on this occasion have been exceptionally hard to subdue. He glanced momentarily at the stunned Voorde, with the red furry bodies and the bare red skin of their arms and legs.
Deep slashes from the Voorde drones teeth and claws scoured the suits of the squad members, one squad member was seriously injured by very large claw marks in the front of her suit that had penetrated the suit’s reinforcing. Another squad member had a badly injured arm after he had been picked up and tossed the length of the large room, but both of them would survive. As the captain surveyed the room he established that a large number of Voorde eggs were laid along the wall.
Narindestat then called up a schematic of the area, ‘Some luck at last…’ he thought to himself. With an air of satisfaction he motioned a guard over and softly gave his orders.
‘Quietly now, keep everyone here and fetch the other two squads in the passageway.’
The other two teams had filed into the storage area and joined the captain’s guard, taking the total to three four man squads. There were also the two uninjured squad members of the first patrol guarding their injured squad members. Captain Narindestat first motioned for silence, and then motioned for the first patrol to guard the door. As he motioned to the three full squads, he remembered that his son, Garendestat, was in one of the squads following him.
Back at the door, the two uninjured Trader crewmen propped up their injured companions against side walls and handed them their weapons before they themselves took cover behind crates of spare equipment.
The three squads reached the other end of the storage area and they ensured that all weapons were set to stun. A quick check of the ship schematics had indicated that the alcove against the wall led into an auxiliary station. The captain verified that the doors on the other side of the station had been closed since the Voorde had first been detected, and he then deployed one squad against each wall. Suddenly from two air ducts on either side of the alcove a solid stream of Voorde drones erupted and attacked the waiting Traders.
A vicious battle began, as the Trader weapons on lower power settings still handily disabled the Voorde drones, and within minutes the attack was over. The area littered with unconscious Voorde drones and the few survivors could be heard fleeing back down the air ducts. Garendestat now kicked hard at a crouched Voorde, and broke one of the drone’s naked and red skinned arms. Another crew member also kicked the Voorde before it collapsed from another stun shot. He noted the ferocity of the Voorde drone attack and murmured softly.
‘Sir they are defending something very important.’
Several of the other Traders caught the message thought Narindestat with pride. None of the guards were bad
ly injured although a few had caught the reflected stun blasts from the walls of the storage area. Quickly the guards had draw their long knives and carefully worked over each and every Voorde drone. They ensured that both hearts were pierced; the head removed, and then had securely bound the hands and feet of each drone. The apparent fiction of supposedly dead Voorde drones coming to life again was all too true in the bitter experience of the Trader ship crew.
The Trader captain motioned for silence even as the squad members completed their grisly task. They could hear loud clangs and bangs coming from the inside of the engineering station. Quickly the squads reformed, and two Traders the worst affected by the reflected stun blasts stayed behind to guard the second door. The remaining ten Traders quietly entered the auxiliary station. The captain remotely keyed the lights to full intensity via his suit, and an astonishing sight greeted the crew.
The Traders had cornered the Voorde queen, a massive red skinned nightmare with huge teeth and claws standing over five metres tall, that even now continued to ram the opposite bulkhead doors. The remaining handful of Voorde drones turned and attempted to defend their queen. Within seconds the Trader squads had dropped the drones and turned their stun weapons onto the Voorde queen.
Narindestat grabbed his son’s arm, pulled him back and altered the energy setting on his blaster before pointing at the energy conduits. Garendestat saw what his father was doing and also changed the setting on his blaster to full power and also pointed at the conduits. The two traders crouched behind stanchions on either side near the doorway as the enraged queen Voorde turned on the two Trader squads.
