by S A Pavli
“Well, I would like to get home someday,” I reminded him. “Now that my status has changed from respected and sexy alien to villainous alien pirate and seducer of innocent Hianja maidens, life may not be one jolly party after all.”
“You have my commiserations,” he replied unsympathetically. “You did not take this job for its social life.”
“Social Life? Living with you? You can say that again.” I said unkindly. I gazed glumly into my glass and pondered the vagaries of a space explorer’s life.
“We are feeling sorry for ourselves aren’t we?” Alfred said in his best Butlerish tones. All he needed was to call me ‘sir’.
“I think it’s more likely you miss a certain lady,” he added. “Do you think she let you down?”
“No, not let me down. I feel guilty because I let her down. She has been humiliated by this, accused of being the alien’s thing!” I spat out the last word angrily.
“That’s a little hysterical Paul,” Alfred remonstrated. “Let us see how things will work out.”
“Yeah, I guess you are right Alfred. Still, I want you to prepare a contingency plan to get us out of here if things turn really nasty.”
“I do not think it will come to that Paul. We, you, are a member of the first alien species they have ever contacted. They are not going to murder you or treat you badly. The issue, as I said, is how they proceed with the establishment of Human-Hianja contact. You will I am sure be offered passage back to Earth.”
“How?” I asked, “I can’t go back in an alien starship. That is a prime directive, do not give away the location of Earth.”
“I believe that they can repair the Lisa Jane by attaching a new Hyperspace drive. They use the same technology, and our drive disconnected cleanly. All the interfaces are operational. I see no problem with that.”
“Yes of course. We can follow procedure. Fix up a meeting between Human and Hianja contact groups and get the hell out of here. With all this stuff going on I’d forgotten our job. We are a contact team, not a diplomatic mission. If the Hianja want to be stuffy, let someone else sort the problem out.”
“That is correct Paul,” replied Alfred. “We will suggest this course of action to the Guardians. In the meantime, I will ask them to allow you freedom on the ship. There is no point to keeping you locked up.”
Alfred’s sage advice had calmed me down and I was in a more philosophical mood. It was coming up to late afternoon ship’s time when Alfred interrupted my deliberations.
“They have agreed to allow you to move freely about the ship but for now you cannot board the Lisa Jane until further notice.”
“What are these people afraid of? I can hardly escape.”
“They are just being extra cautious for now because they are worried about your state of mind. I have put the suggestion to them that they could repair the Lisa Jane and allow us to return home and they are considering it.”
“Mmm, good, let‘s see what they say to that,” I grunted.
“Nastro and a couple of the scientists are joining you for dinner in your apartment later. Let me know if you need anything.”
Sure enough a little later, the door opened and in trouped Nastro, Batsano, Fetralin and Deejana, with a couple of robots wheeling a trolley loaded with food and drink.
“We thought we would cheer you up a little Paul,” said Batsano, holding aloft a frosted green bottle. “Sanjarian Felco, stolen from the Guardians own stock,” he grinned. “Small revenge but better than nothing eh?” I couldn’t help chuckling and the worried expression on their faces cleared.
“Don’t worry about the Guardians,” said Deejana, to my immense surprise. “They like to pretend they run everything but the world goes on whatever they decide.” This was an aspect of the Hianja character that I had not expected.
“Aren’t you guys going to get into trouble? I asked. “Consorting with a dangerous alien?”
“Hah, Batsano is not so dangerous,” exclaimed Deejana contemptuously, “He is all talk and no action.”
“A couple of glasses of this and I’ll show you some action,” promised Batsano, wrestling with the bottle top. There was a pop, and a hiss of gas and bubbles and he triumphantly filled four glasses.
“Try that Paul,” he invited. “It is brewed from the berries of a tree on the planet Sanjara and aged for up to fifty years,” he examined the bottle carefully. “Ah this one is only thirty-five years.”
“A young and cheeky vintage then?” I replied.
“Yes, just like me,” he replied as we downed the cold fizzy liquid. It was extremely pleasant, fortunately. It would have been sad to disappoint them by spitting it out with disgust.
“Good,” I exclaimed.
“Excellent,” said Batsano. “Because there is another three bottles!” eliciting approving cheers from the others.
The evening passed very pleasantly with my Hianja buddies and the four bottles of booze were quickly consumed, to be followed by a number of others, which went down equally well. Conversation buzzed along nicely, laced with wit and interesting anecdotes; or was it just the booze? No mind, a good time was had by all, and by late evening when they all trouped out we were firm drinking buddies and I collapsed in bed and fell immediately into a deep sleep. It was a sleep from which I was suddenly awakened by someone shaking me violently. A face loomed above me in the darkened room and a familiar voice was whispering insistently.
“Wake up Paul, wake up. Have you been drinking again?” I mumbled a response and tried to focus my eyes.
“It’s me you drunken Earthman,” whispered a familiar voice.
“Hey baby, I knew you’d give them the slip,” grinning broadly I grabbed her and pulled her down onto the bed.
“No Paul,” she gasped wrestling with my embrace. “I didn’t come for that.”
“Huh?” I gaped in semi conscious surprise “What did you come for?” I sat up in bed and shook the sleep from my head.
“We have work to do,” she said in a business like fashion. “Get dressed quickly, and sober up. You have some piloting to do.”
Chapter 21
By the time I was dressed, my head had cleared and I was awake and alert. Manera shook her head when I tried to clip on my communicator, and indicated that she was not wearing hers. Manera had her hair in a bun and was dressed in the standard Hianja grey and silver work overalls. We left the apartment and there was no sight of the guards outside. We headed down to the lowest deck, Manera moving quickly and silently. The passageway to the Lisa Jane was unguarded and we boarded the ship without being challenged. Once on board Manera took the co-pilots chair and indicated for me to sit in the Pilots seat.
“OK, what’s this all about?” I enquired, bursting with curiosity.
“Paul, I am sorry to be so secretive,” she replied, “I know how angry you have been but we had no choice. We had to keep you ignorant because we needed your reactions to be totally authentic.”
“Authentic? What the hell do you mean?” I asked in frustration.
“Well, calling Guardian Kemato a ‘moron’ for one thing,” she grinned. “Let me explain quickly, because we do not have much time. The first thing to know is that the Pesmisk is the only armed ship here, other than yours. The Guardians have no way of taking Smetronis and his crew into custody to answer for their crimes.”
“Taking him into custody?” I asked. “But they have found in his favour, why should they want to arrest him?”
“That was a ruse,” she replied. “They were never going to find in his favour, after I told them the facts. But they were concerned that he would just leave, and we had no way to stop him. So we found in his favour, and confined you to your room in order to put him at ease.”
“Yes , and in what way will that cause him a problem?” I asked sarcastically.
“We could not arrest him while he was on the Tanu,” she said impatiently, “Because his crew are in control of the Pesmisk and could threaten us. And he would not return to the Pesmisk
until the investigation was over. Now he is back, and has no reason to be suspicious, we can catch him unawares.”
“You are going to use the Lisa Jane and the Epsilon against him?” I asked, the light suddenly dawning.
“They are the only other armed ships,” she replied. “We either do that, or we let him go. The plan is for the Lisa Jane to exit the Tanu and take up station behind it, on the blind side of the Pesmisk. The Epsilon will also be detached and both ships will simultaneously appear from behind Tanu, with your missiles locked on to the Pesmisk. We will demand that he surrenders and allows a replacement crew to take over the Pesmisk.”
“I like it,” I said, rubbing my hands in glee. “Alfred flies the Lisa Jane and I fly the shuttle. Are you listening to this Alfred?” I asked. Although I did not have my communicator, Alfred would be in touch with us because we were on board ship, where he had eyes and ears everywhere.
“Indeed I am Paul,” came Alfred’s familiar tones from the wall speakers. “Are you sober enough to be put in command of the Epsilon?”
“You cheeky mechanical calculator,” I quipped “I am in full command of my faculties.”
“Such as they are,” he remarked dryly.
“Now then children,” interrupted Manera, “That is the plan, are we ready?”
“Oh yes,” I agreed with alacrity.
“Let’s get on board the Epsilon,” said Manera, standing up.
“Uh uh,” I waved a protesting finger. “Not you kid, you are getting back onto the Tanu like a good little girl. This is man’s work .”
‘Oh really? Man’s work did you say?” and the glare from the green-blue eyes would have drilled a hole through inch thick steel plate. Whoops, I thought, wrong thing to say Paul, diplomacy was never your strong point.
“It may be dangerous.” I pleaded. “Why risk your life as well, I am the only one needed to pilot the ship.”
“We are wasting time,” she interrupted, her face set. “You are not doing this on your own.” I decided that I was not going to win this one and followed her through the Lisa Jane’s main cabin and down to the air lock which provided entry to the Epsilon. Once on board I took the pilot seat and Manera strapped herself into the co-pilot’s. Alfred communicated with the Tanu AI and the Lisa Jane was detached and propelled toward the shuttle bay doors. I worked my way through the Epsilon start up check list as we gently eased through the huge doors and out into the starry blackness of space. The Tanu had been surreptitiously manoeuvred so that it came between us and the Pesmisk. Once clear of the Tanu, we started the procedure for detaching the Epsilon from its mother ship. In a few minutes we were clear and with a few gentle thrusts of the manoeuvring thrusters we were positioned on either side of the Tanu’s huge bulk. The communicator clicked and Alfred’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Tanu has provided me with the position of the Pesmisk and I have calculated and down loaded the manoeuvring parameters for the Epsilon. Switch to automatic and set the parameters,” I did as he requested, programming the Epsilon’s slave computers with the flight path calculated by Alfred. The Epsilon’s slave computers were able to fly the ship on a pre-calculated flight path, but once there, I would have to fly the ship manually, if needed. The hope was that Smetronis would surrender to the Guardians, obviating any need for further ugliness.
“Arm the missile systems and prepare to go,” I flipped buttons to pre-set the missiles.
“All Missile systems are green.”
“Ignition synchronised,” came back Alfred’s reply. “3, 2, 1 fire.” The fusion reaction engines fired smoothly and we were pressed back in our seats as the Epsilon swooped out of the shadow of the Tanu and powered smoothly in a circular arc, with the Pesmisk at its centre. The Lisa Jane was at the opposite circumference of the circle, and we circled the Pesmisk like a pair of hungry wolves. The Pesmisk was not visible to the naked eye since we were something like 20 miles from it. The powered range of our missiles, that is, the distance under which they could accelerate and manoeuvre, was twice that, so we were well within range if the Pesmisk decided to make a break for it.
“Pre-programmed manoeuvre completed Paul,” came Alfred’s voice. “Any further manoeuvres are under manual control,” I was now in control of the Epsilon.
“Understood Alfred. What is happening now?” I asked.
“The Guardians will communicate with Smetronis and demand he surrender his ship. They will inform him that we have his ship covered by our missiles. I will inform you of the outcome.”
We sat back to wait, while our ship cruised through space, occasionally correcting its course to maintain the huge circle around the Pesmisk. To pass the time I did a few calculations to get an idea of the sort of time and distance we would be dealing with if we got into a dog fight with the Pesmisk. We were not moving very fast at this point , but we were gradually building up speed while maintaining our flight path. The Pesmisk was stationary and we had the jump on her, but the Lisa Jane was not built for heavy acceleration. She was a starship, designed to accelerate very slowly to huge velocities. Her maximum acceleration was less than 1 Earth Gravity, but normally she would accelerate at less that a quarter G. I was hoping that the same was true of the Pesmisk, although she had an AG Drive and could sustain that acceleration indefinitely. The Epsilon on the other hand was designed to operate in atmosphere and was capable of up to 6 G’s. I could therefore overhaul the Pesmisk very quickly, but I would also very quickly run out of fuel. So what had to be done, had to be done within a few minutes, otherwise the Pesmisk would simply outpace us.
Suddenly, my screen bleeped at me and half a dozen points of light lit up. From each point of light, a dotted red arrow pointed to the positions of the Lisa Jane, the Tanu and the Epsilon. Simultaneously, Alfred’s voice broke the silence.
“The Pesmisk has launched three missiles, one at the Tanu, one at the Lisa Jane and one at the Epsilon. Estimated time of arrival 20 seconds. Paul, we have anti-missile systems but the Tanu does not. It has no defence and cannot manoeuvre fast enough to avoid the missiles,” Smetronis had made his move and very cunning it was too.
“Alfred, you defend the Lisa Jane. I will try to intercept the missiles aimed at the Tanu.” At the same time as I was speaking I set up two missiles targeted at the Pesmisk and released them. Simultaneously I applied maximum acceleration heading for the Tanu.
“Missiles one and five away. Manera, keep me informed of the proximity of the incoming missiles. The crushing acceleration pressed us into our seats but I tried to concentrate on the small red blips on the screen.
“Five kilometres, impact in four point five seconds,” came Manera’s strained voice.
I threw the Epsilon into a 180 degree turn. I had no idea how effective the Hianja missiles were, or how they were guided. We were about to find out. We were now converging with the fleeing Tanu, and the missiles targeted for it were seconds from impact. I had judged my trajectory to cross the path of the incoming missiles, hoping that the missiles would be confused by the speeding shuttle.
I again threw the Epsilon into another series of manoeuvres. I was barely able to breath under the crushing acceleration. My screen flared up again and again but I could barely see what was happening. I just carried on flying the ship, waiting for the hammer blow that would be the missile striking us. After another ten seconds it was obvious that we had survived. The missiles should have hit by now.
“All Missiles diverted except one Paul.”
“Alfred , who was hit?” I gasped.
“The Tanu was hit by one missile Paul, but I think it exploded early. Damage is minimal and the ship is operational.” I eased the controls of the Epsilon back to normal.
“The Pesmisk, has it got away?” I asked examining my view screen trying to spot it. But it was completely blank.
“No, it has been disabled by a couple of our missiles.”
“Do we know of casualties yet?”
“Unknown,” replied Alfred.
&nbs
p; “Well, let’s hope no more people have died,” I muttered.
“Don’t blame yourselves,” interrupted Manera, “It was Smetronis who was responsible for all this not us.” As a member of an unwarlike species, Manera is taking this very well I thought.
“Rendezvous with the Tanu and we can dock the Epsilon,” said Alfred, down to business already. I punched in the co-ordinates for rendezvous and set the automatics. The engines hummed and gentle acceleration pushed us back in our seats as the ship banked and pointed its nose towards the Tanu, which was just a few miles away. I turned to Manera.
“I’m surprised at how relaxed you are about this Manera. I would have thought that all this would be very shocking to you.”
“It seems very remote,” she replied. “Hitting a button and destroying a starship. You just do not feel anything. It could be a virtual reality game.”
“Welcome to the seductive world of war. Death at a distance is not the same as taking a knife and sticking it into somebody’s guts. That is why it is so dangerous,” I said soberly. She nodded in agreement and sighed.
“The worry is that Smetronis is not acting alone. He has substantial resources behind him, which means that a large number of people on Vasmeranta must be involved. How many we cannot say.”
“What does Guardian Malanisa have to say? She is from Vasmeranta is she not?” I enquired.
“She is a problem,” replied Manera. “She claims to have no knowledge of who may be behind Smetronis, but she was against using force to apprehend him. She said that he would be taken into custody back on Vasmeranta.”
“Well, that is not unreasonable,” I replied. “Why did the other two Guardians not buy that?”
“Maybe they know more than they are telling me,” she replied. “They clearly did not believe Malanisa.”
“Why should the Vasmerantans be so set against Human contact?” I asked, not really expecting an answer from Manera.
“I think you and Alfred have just given us a very good reason Paul,” she said looking at me knowing eyes. “The Epsilon is a fearsome fighting machine, but it is probably a toy compared to the real warships that Earth has.”
