“I think it will have done wonders for morale,” Elton said, truthfully. “Thank you for everything, Jenny.”
Jenny raised one hand in salute. “Good luck to you,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll see you when you come back.”
Her image vanished. Elton leaned back, taking a moment to centre himself. He hadn't had much shore leave, beyond a few hours lying on a beach. Nor had his analysis staff. There’d been too much to do. He made a mental note to approve their use of a VR chamber later, if they wanted it. There was no way it could match genuine shore leave, no matter what program they ran, but it was better than nothing.
The door chime bleeped. “Captain,” Biscoe said, as he entered. “The last stragglers have returned to the ship.”
“Very good,” Elton said. He nodded to the nearest chair, inviting his XO to sit. “Any issues I should know about?”
“Something pinged the teleport biological hazard filters,” Biscoe informed him. “Thankfully, further checks revealed that Ensign Khan had purchased an alien artefact that triggered a couple of alarms. We checked it repeatedly, then bunged it into stasis. It should be harmless, but the import board may want to have a look at it.”
Elton frowned. “What was it?”
“Local artwork, apparently,” Biscoe said. “An insect-like creature, posed and frozen in synthetic plastic. A fly caught in amber, to all intents and purposes. I’ve had a long chat with Ensign Khan about purchasing alien artefacts without prior approval. It could have been dangerous.”
“True,” Elton agreed. Cross-species infections were vanishingly rare, but almost always lethal when they did occur. The Tokomak had handled two disease outbreaks, according to the files, that had spread over a dozen races, killing millions in their wake. It was why the teleporters were programmed to scan - automatically - for potential dangers. “Did the check reveal anything interesting?”
“Nothing,” Biscoe said. “It should be harmless.”
“Leave it in stasis, for now,” Elton said. “He can have it back when we get home.”
He shook his head in wry amusement. This was the first time - probably - that Ensign Khan and his fellows had ever set foot on an alien world. He didn't blame the ensign for wanting to take home a souvenir, something his family would never have seen before. Hell, they were a very long way from Sol. No one was going to be visiting Hudson for a family vacation when it took eight months just to get there. The artefact would be worth more - much more - back in the Solar Union.
If they ever agreed to sell it, he mused. They’d find it more interesting to keep it.
He shrugged. “Any other issues?”
“A dozen or so new relationships that I know about, probably a few more that I don't,” Biscoe said. “I don't think any of them will cause problems, but ...”
Elton nodded, grimly. The Solar Union took a relaxed attitude to sex - anything that happened between consenting adults in private was fine - but there were limits. Naval regulations strictly forbade relationships between officers and crew of different ranks, even when people were confined to their ships for months or years. He might turn a blind eye to slips during shore leave - it wasn't as if there was a large human population on Hudson - but not to anything that caused disciplinary problems while the ship was underway.
“Keep an eye on it,” he said. “I assume we can depart on schedule?”
“Aye, Captain,” Biscoe said. “We’ve handed a couple of freighters over to Hudson Base - they’ll be escorted to their final destination. The others will be staying with us.”
Elton glanced at his terminal, then rose. “We’ll leave as planned,” he said, as he led the way to the hatch. “It won’t be long now.”
“And then we can do some real work,” Biscoe said. He shook his head. “This wasn't what I expected after getting the transfer.”
“You knew it would be a long and boring voyage when you read the mission orders,” Elton reminded him. “Would you prefer boredom intermingled with moments of screaming terror?”
“It does have its moments, Captain,” Biscoe said. He chuckled. “Mainly moments of screaming terror, but ...”
Elton laughed. “You could be on one of the first starships,” he said, as he took the command chair. “They weren't even designed for human occupation.”
He felt his smile grow wider as he keyed his console, bringing up the ship’s status report. Humanity’s first interstellar starships - begged, borrowed or stolen - had never been designed for humans, even when the original designers had shared humanity’s life support requirements. The lighting had been wrong, the gravity had been weird ... even the corridors had been warped and twisted to human eyes, oddly out of proportion. He still shivered when he remembered the days he’d spent on an alien-designed starship, back during officer training. The designers had been humanoid, they’d evolved on a planet very similar to Earth ... and yet, there had been something subtly wrong about the whole ship.
“Yes, Captain,” Biscoe said. He took his own seat. “The ship is ready to depart.”
Elton nodded as he worked his way through the reports, then switched his attention to the near-space orbital display. It was hard to be sure, but it looked as though the number of starships moving in and out of the system had actually increased. Hudson’s gravity points accounted for a lot of it, he suspected, yet ... he checked the records, looking back over the last few days. It did look as though the numbers had gone up in the last few days.
It could be a random surge, he thought, slowly. Or it could be caused by problems further towards the core.
He pushed the thought aside. His intelligence staff had done their best to draw information out of the alien systems, but - apart from a couple of intelligence brokers - they hadn't been able to make many contacts. ONI’s office on Hudson was small, too small. Elton understood the reasoning - Hudson was thousands of light years from Earth - but it was still annoying. He’d have preferred something that told him what he should expect, over the next few weeks.
But they’re aliens, he reminded himself. Predicting their next moves might be impossible.
“Lieutenant Williams,” he said. “Inform the local authorities that we are ready to depart.”
“Aye, Captain,” Williams said.
Elton forced himself to relax, even though he couldn't help feeling a tremor of excitement. They’d been in transit for months, but now the real mission was about to begin. He hoped the ambassador and her staff hadn't wasted the last few months. They were about to discover, too, just how good their preparation work had been.
“The freighters have checked in,” Biscoe reported. “They’re ready to depart too.”
“Good,” Elton said. He would have had sharp words for any merchant skipper who hadn't been ready to depart. “Remind them to stay in formation.”
“Captain,” Williams said. “We have been cleared to depart orbit and proceed through the gravity point. They’ve sent us a transfer schedule.”
“Very good,” Elton said. He took a breath, taking one last look at the crowded high orbitals. It was an impressive sight, staggering even to one who’d seen the Solar Union. “Helm, take us out of here.”
“Aye, Captain,” Marie said.
A low rumble echoed through Odyssey as she slowly powered her way out of orbit, followed by the freighters. Elton had to admit, reluctantly, that the merchant starships were doing a good job of remaining in formation, insofar as they had a formation. The Tokomak had laid down rules for formation flying too, but humanity - and nearly every other race - had a habit of ignoring them. Whatever the original reason for the rules, and he couldn’t imagine a largely unimaginative race coming up with them, they’d long since turned into bureaucratic excess. The odds of accidentally ramming another starship were low, very low. But then, he had to admit that a single accident, no matter how unlikely, would be disastrous.
And hundreds of starships pass through this system every day, he mused. The odds of a collision might be low at any given
point, but they probably mount up over the years ...
“Signal from the locals, sir,” Williams said. “They’re asking us to step down a couple of places in the line. Apparently, there’s a priority ship going through.”
Elton exchanged a glance with Biscoe. It wouldn't have been a problem, normally, but Odyssey was an acknowledged diplomatic ship. Was it a coincidence or a probe to see how they’d react? The bigger powers of the galaxy were used to pushing the smaller powers around ... and humanity, despite the Battle of Earth, was still a very small power indeed.
And there might be a reason for a priority ship needing to take the slot ahead of us, he thought. They may even be hoping we will object so they can claim the moral high ground.
He shrugged. “Tell them we don’t mind,” he said. If it was a genuine emergency, there was nothing to be gained by blocking the priority ship. If it was a probe ... it wasn't worth wasting energy and diplomatic capital to repel. “But inform them that we have to go through the gravity point in formation.”
“Aye, Captain,” Williams said.
The gravity point was invisible, at least to the naked eye. Elton had flown through several, during a brief stint on a courier boat. He knew there was nothing to see. And yet, Odyssey’s gravimetric sensors could easily pick out the tight knot of twisted space directly ahead of them. Starship after starship moved up to the gravity point and vanished, others flickering into existence on the far side of the knot. The locals were timing it well, Elton noted. No starship remained within the point long enough to risk a collision.
“It must have been very different, back before the stardrive,” Biscoe said, softly. “Spacers would have been dependent on the gravity points.”
Elton nodded. Humanity hadn’t dug up many records from that time - the Tokomak had destroyed or classified most of them - but ONI had uncovered enough to confirm that interstellar travel and war had been very different. The Tokomak and the other older races had expanded along chains of gravity points, often balked by local powers that dug in and held their gravity point against all comers. Engagements had often boiled down to the attacker trying to shove enough firepower through the gravity point to overcome the defenders before they were wiped out. The sheer slaughter had to have made World War One look tame. No one, not even the Tokomak, had been able to establish a real empire until the stardrive had been invented, allowing the gravity points to be bypassed. It had been the end of an era and the dawn of a whole new universe.
And we should be grateful, he thought, as the gravity point came closer and closer. Sol doesn't have a gravity point, as far as we know.
“We’re in the line, Captain,” Marie reported. “I’m powering up the gravity pulse generator now.”
“Take us through as soon as you can,” Elton ordered. Ahead of them, two alien freighters blinked out of existence in quick succession. “Mr. XO?”
“The freighters are ready,” Biscoe said.
“Taking us in now,” Marie said. “Jumping ... now!”
Elton braced himself as the universe went dark, just for a second. The scientists swore blind that there was no sensation, that there shouldn't be any sensation ... but everyone, human and alien, reported feeling something similar when they jumped through a gravity point. He looked up at the display as it blanked, then hastily rebooted, picking out a small cluster of space stations and industrial nodes a safe distance from the gravity point. There were starships heading in all directions, some dropping into FTL as they set course for their next destination. Others were heading straight for the next gravity point.
He studied the display as Odyssey pulled away from the gravity point, the first freighter materialising directly behind her. The system was useless, on the face of it. There were two rocky planets orbiting a dull red star, both too cold to be successfully terraformed. He was surprised that one or both of them hadn't been blown up to provide raw materials. But the system’s true value lay in the gravity points. There were three of them, each one allowing starships to take weeks or months off their journeys. The Tokomak had considered the system important ...
And they were right, Elton told himself. The system might be useless in and of itself, but it does allow them to move their forces from place to place with terrifying speed.
“Helm, set course for the next gravity point,” he ordered. “Mr. XO, make sure the freighters stay with us.”
“Aye, Captain,” Marie said.
“Local command wishes us to remain sublight, Captain,” Williams added. “No stardrive between gravity points.”
“Bureaucratic excess,” Elton said. “Humour them.”
“Aye, Captain,” Marie said. “ETA Gravity Point Two five hours from now.”
Elton rose. “Mr. XO, you have the bridge,” he said. “Alert me if anything changes.”
He returned to his cabin for a quick nap, knowing that it was unlikely there would be any problems for the next few hours. The Harmonies Chain - the line of gravity points leading all the way to Harmony - was supposed to be relatively safe. There were no pirates, if the information broker was to be believed. The local powers ran patrols through the chain regularly, escorting clusters of freighters whenever they had the opportunity. Odyssey was unlikely to be molested in transit.
We really need to survey the Sol Sector for more gravity points, he mused, as he took off his boots and lay down on the bed. The Tokomak had surveyed the sector, centuries before humans had mastered fire, but there were officers in the Solar Navy who believed they hadn't done a thorough job. It would be nice to have gravity points we could use ...
The intercom chimed, waking him. His implants insisted he’d slept for five hours, but he didn't believe them. It felt as though he’d barely closed his eyes. He rubbed his forehead, ordering his implants to flush his system. He’d pay for the fake alertness later, he knew from grim experience, but he had no choice.
“Report,” he ordered.
“Captain, we just passed through the second gravity point,” Biscoe said. He sounded worried. “I think you should see this.”
Elton swore, silently, as he sat up and grabbed for his boots. Biscoe had more tactical experience than anyone else on Odyssey. He wouldn't be concerned unless there was a very good reason to be concerned. The ship wasn't taking incoming fire - thankfully - but there were plenty of other possibilities ...
“I’m on my way,” he said. “Hold the fort until I arrive.”
“Aye, Captain,” Biscoe said.
Chapter Nine
We stop when they don’t need us any longer.
Yes, there is the prospect of winding up running a person’s life for them. Of wiping their nose and cleaning their arse and generally saving them from the consequences of their own stupidity. And yes, history is replete with idiots who have done just that - to their ultimate cost. But does past foolishness insist that we do nothing? Just because something ended badly, in the past, doesn't mean that history will repeat itself.
-Solar Datanet, Political Forum (Grand Alliance Thoughts).
Rebecca hated to admit ignorance.
It was dangerous, if one was a diplomat. She knew from bitter experience that an opponent who believed she was ignorant was an opponent who might try to take advantage of her. At best, he might assume that he could convince her to believe his version of events. But she knew it was better, most of the time, not to try to negotiate without knowing what was actually going on. It almost always led to embarrassing mistakes, if not outright career suicide and diplomatic disaster.
She studied the display for a long moment, wishing she actually understood it, then looked up at the captain. “What am I looking at?”
Captain Yasser frowned. “We popped through the gravity point thirty minutes ago,” he said, pointing to an icon on the display. “What we saw” - his finger moved to another point - “was a small collection of fortresses, being assembled near the gravity point.”
Rebecca blinked. “They’re fortifying the gravity point?”
> “It looks that way, Madam Ambassador,” Captain Yasser said. “Five Class-VI heavy orbital weapons platforms, each one as heavily armed as a battleship. That’s enough firepower to hold the gravity point against anything smaller than the First Fleet.”
“I ...” Rebecca shook her head in disbelief. “Captain, that’s against galactic custom and law!”
The captain smiled, rather sardonically. “Tell them that,” he said. “It was the Tokomak that enforced the laws, Madam Ambassador. Now ... the Harmonies seem to believe that they have a right to start fortifying the gravity points in their sector.”
Rebecca forced herself to think. “It’s the Harmonies who are doing it?” She asked. “I mean ... they’re definitely the ones building the fortresses?”
“They’re broadcasting the right ID,” Captain Yasser said. “And realistically, we are within space they control. I imagine there would have been some reaction if their presence hadn't been approved.”
The Long Road Home (A Learning Experience Book 4) Page 9
