At the end of the second month, Frank decided to visit the American branch of the Federation for a few days. Taking Susanna along with him, expecting her to enjoy the trip, and enabling them to work together more closely than usual.
They left very early in the morning. With the Clean-fusion powered plane taking less than an hour for the trip; clean-fusion powered planes created no radiation from their power plants that lasted almost the plane's lifetime without needing to be refuelled.
Flying direct, they landed at the Federation’s Newark Global Airport, which had formerly been called the Liberty International and was just outside New York.
Their fifteen-minute walk to the Space Federation's main building was virtually effortless, courtesy of the variable speed walkway.
The walkways had been designed to suit all types and had five linear tracks.
With the centre track being the fastest and the other tracks running at decreasing levels of speed. Accidents could occur, but, on the whole, it was safe and comfortable to use.
Once inside the Space Federation HQ’s entrance, they found four armed marines barring their passage.
“Your passes and identity documents please,” one ordered, eyeing them both carefully.
“Of course, ah, Captain,” Frank replied, noticing the marine's rank as he passed the discs to him.
“We're from the UK section.”
“Yes, Captain,” the Marine replied as he passed the two discs across a reader.
“Please wait a moment sir, miss,” then talked to someone on his wrist-transceiver.
“Director Tompkin will be right down sir,” he said and pointed to a comfortable lounger to the left.
Director Tompkin proved to be a well-built man in his fifties, with his short-sleeved shirt showing off his muscular arms. He had close-cut hair, and his intense eyes indicated his alertness.
“Good morning to you both. I hope you had a good trip?”
“Very pleasant. This is my fiancée and work colleague Susanna James.”
“Glad to meet you miss,” he said, smiling.
Then turning said. “Follow me.”
They left the reception area went up three floors and into his office, where Tompkin tapped a red icon on his desk intercom.
“Take a seat. We are now protected from any eavesdropping devices.”
“That bad?” Susanna asked as they both sat down.
“Not really, but I prefer to take precautions.”
“Then, can I assume you have some information for us?” Frank asked.
Tompkin didn’t answer, just looked at him thoughtfully. Then leaned forward and tapped another icon.
“Yes sir,” came a gruff voice.
“Savion, come to my office and bring your findings on Delta Pavonis.”
“Two minutes’ sir.”
Tompkin tapped the icon again.
“He won't be long. The findings may well be from the wrong location, but only you can tell us what relevance there might be.”
Suddenly, looking shocked with himself, he said. “My apologies, would you like a drink or something?”
“No, thanks. Let’s see what your man has for us.”
With that, the doorbell sounded.
“Come in,” Tompkin ordered.
The door opened and in came Savion. “Morning, folks.”
“Frank and Susanna,” Tompkin said, introducing them.
“Nice to meet you,” Savion acknowledged as he sat down.
Absently tugging his beard, Savion lifted his datapad and tapped the screen.
“I believe this is what you’re interested in,” he said and paused to see their reactions, then continued.
“Our orbital relay picked up a warp disturbance near Delta Pavonis. We just happened to be looking at it via the Hyperlink from the stealth drone you left behind.
The drone didn’t have the capability to determine how much time had passed before it registered the disturbance. And, as we've only recently started using the warp exit detection method that Andromeda sent us. We can’t guarantee the accuracy of our timings either.
At least, not until we’ve developed the system further,” he added.
“Then we’ll also be able to detect any temporal shifts. But we think that the drone’s data had been in transit to us for at least two weeks. Plus, the number of light-days, or even light-years, that would have passed before your drone saw it as a warp signature.”
Frank pondered Savion's words. “So, this could have occurred weeks ago. Or, just as easily, years before we encountered the Crillons at Zeta Reticuli. Correct?”
“I'm afraid so. It was only the warp signature that radiated faster than light.”
“So, Aran’s group had been separated from the rest of Fleet Twelve for much longer than we thought,” Frank said, then paused thinking about this.
“What do we know about Delta Pavonis, Savion?” He asked.
Savion tapped his pad. “Well, it's a primary sequence yellowish-orange coloured star. Spectral type, G5-8, V-IV and some 20 light years from our solar system.
It's slightly larger and brighter than our sun and about twice as abundant in elements heavier than hydrogen. Especially in iron.
We’ve detected three planets that are worthwhile. But only one, the DPav4 planet, is in the habitable zone of about 1.07 A.U. That’s only a little further out than Earth is from our Sun, so it could possibly sustain life.”
“You mean it could have water?”
“I don't see why not, and in my opinion, it's not too far away for the remnants of this Fleet Twelve to reach it.”
“You could be right,” Frank agreed.
“Could you send your drone to Pavonis?” Savion asked.
“Ha. You must be joking,” Frank chuckled. “The drone hasn’t that sort of power. Sues, tell them.”
Susanna smiled, “I wish we could send the drone, gents. The truth is, I’ve programmed it to self-destruct if it’s commanded to go somewhere apparently outside of its remit or to do something it’s not programmed for.”
“That's out then,” Tompkin remarked.
“At least we have something to go on,” Frank mused.
“Can you get a better resolution through the drone, Savion?” Susanna queried.
“No.” he replied.
“Because of the gravimetric distortion around Zeta Reticuli, there’s too much ‘bending and lots of galactic noise in that region,”
“Too bad,” Frank commented.
“Is there anything else you’ve come up with that might be useful?”
“Not at the moment. But one thing we’re pretty sure of, is that the warp disturbance near Delta Pavonis was genuine and quite substantial.”
“I see from the Federation's inter-country updates that your StarShips won’t be ready to go for another three weeks, Frank. Is that correct?” Tompkin asked.
“It looks like it,” Frank replied, with a grim look on his face.
“So, if the Crillon’s Fleet Twelve is at Delta Pavonis then the Crillons will have had plenty of time to get established,” he finished, sounding very frustrated.
They all looked at each other, their thoughts clear for all to see, then changing the subject Savion asked. “What are you going to do now?”
“Paint the town red,” Susanna replied. “That's what they used to say, didn't they?”
“They certainly did,” he replied. Shook hands and left.
“He’s a character,” Tompkin said. “I'll see you out.”
Frank and Susanna, then hopped across to Old New York to soak up the atmosphere and lifestyle. Both staying at one of the Federation’s many apartment buildings.
They spent the next three days thoroughly enjoying themselves then decided to return to England, which, although just one of the many countries in the Space Federation, was still home to them.
The trip back was uneventful. Once home, they contacted Susanna's uncle Jack.
“Hello Sues, back already?”
“We couldn't stay away,” she replied, giggling.
“Can we meet?” she asked.
She could hear rustling, then, “Four o'clock this afternoon, at my apartment. I suppose Frank wants to get back to the Andromeda?”
“Not just yet, but we both think a strategy meeting is needed now.”
“Perhaps you’re right Sues. Well, see you both later.”
Chapter 5
Mars. January 2302.
The geostationary orbital spacedocks glowed ruby red as the reflected light from the planet bathed the sprawling structure.
Although the five building cradles were now empty, several small ships were still scurrying back and forth between the docks and the surface of the planet.
Far below, on the surface of Mars. The sprawling habitation domes and the manufacturing and construction compounds that were interconnected like a spider’s web were gently brushed by a slow-moving sand-storm.
But this sandstorm was minor and had only created a dust-cloud, unlike the huge sand storms that more frequently raged across the planet.
On a rugged and extinct volcano, far away from the habitation domes, lights from a mining camp could be seen flickering with a pink glow through the reddish dust.
Earth itself could also be seen from the planet’s surface, as well as from the spacedocks. Humanity’s home, a small blue-green dot, hung like a jewel in space.
Far to the left of Mars, some three million kilometres away. Tiny, continuously flashing dots of light indicated the positions of the five StarShips that were awaiting the arrival of their crews.
Professor Verdick sat in the ‘Sensor Development’ laboratory on Mars watching his screen as the last of the supplies were delivered to the StarShips.
He was delighted as he saw the clarity of the scene that was being relayed to his screen from the ULRA.
Particularly as there was a dust storm in the area. He had an immense feeling of pride and satisfaction at how well the ULRA was performing.
The prototype of his newly developed ULRA, or Ultra long range sensor array,' was mounted on top of his laboratory roof and was able to pick-up and show the small supply ships in superb detail.
He could even see them transferring the supplies across to the StarShips. The long-range detail was outstanding.
The system was working much better than he had ever hoped for. And, although it was still under development, he would make sure that it was ready to be installed on the next batch of Starships to come out of the Spacedocks.
Professor Verdick cursed under his breath as Director Mertoff entered his lab. He didn’t particularly like Mertoff, who was the head of the Russian arm of the Space Federation.
‘Too much power for such a twit,’ he thought.
“Are we ready for the briefing of the new crews tomorrow, Verdick?”
“Yes, Director. Everything’s set.”
“Excellent.”
Director Mertoff looked puzzled for a moment as he studied the view on Verdick’s screen.
Then touched his personal Videocam to switch it on, having decided to record the scene for himself.
“Verdick, what’s that blue dot?”
“Where Director?”
“There,” he replied as he pointed to a faint blue dot on Verdick’s screen.
“It wasn’t there just now.”
“Well, it is now Verdick. What is it, if it’s not ours?”
“How the devil do I…?” Then checked himself.
“I’ll zoom in on it.”
Professor Verdick adjusted a few controls and the image swung into the centre of the screen. He zoomed in on the blue dot as much as he could and it rapidly expanded in size, looking like a misty blue sphere.
“Why can’t you focus on it more clearly?”
“It’s either distorting space or there’s something around it preventing us from seeing it more clearly.”
“Can you get any data on it?”
“I’m not sure, but sounding the alarm might be an excellent idea, Director.”
Mertoff’s wristband screen suddenly came alive. He looked at it then said.
“That won’t be necessary Verdick. The ships systems have already seen it.”
“Of course, I know they don’t need a crew to protect themselves,” he replied, smirking to himself.
As they watched, the blue sphere suddenly moved forward and towards the StarShips. Both men stood, their eyes fixed on the screen, waiting to see if their ships would react.
The blue sphere stopped and waited for a few moments.
Then vanished.
“Bloody hell, Mertoff,” Tompkin gasped.
Mertoff tapped his Videocam off.
“Well, Mertoff?” Professor Verdick snapped irritably.
Mertoff started to sweat.
“Well, it’s a spaceship, but it’s definitely not the Crillons that’s for sure.”
“What are we going to do Mertoff?”
“At this stage, nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“You heard me. We’ll concentrate on getting our ships away. Then we’ll worry about this blue globe ship.”
“Very well Director, but you’d better be right.”
“If that thing wanted to damage us, it would have. My guess is that it was just looking us over.”
“I suppose you’re right. But I’ll enter the sighting anyway.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mertoff replied. Then left, leaving Professor Verdick feeling a little uneasy.
Verdick filed his lab’s recording of the event into the command database, then tried to measure the relative size of this blue ship against their own StarShips.
“Hell” he exclaimed aloud, as the estimate of the blue sphere’s size came up on his screen.
“The diameter’s approximately the same as the length of our ships,” he gasped out loud.
Then the message ‘No further information is available’ came up on his screen. Verdick felt even more uneasy about the episode as he read this.
But what could he do? Director Mertoff had told him to do nothing at this stage, and he couldn’t go over Mertoff’s head.
No, Mertoff was too high up, too powerful to go up against.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see then,” he concluded.
Chapter 6
Time to Launch.
Nearly three months had passed since they had returned to Earth, and tensions were high throughout the Federation. With everyone eager to send the StarShips back to space, to sort out the Crillons.
This morning, both Frank and Susanna had awoken feeling drained, for no apparent reason. The strange thing was that both had experienced the same dream. With two young women apparently pressing something against one of their arms. The dream had felt very real to them. And, both had a red patch on one arm that felt sore.
After discussion, they decided that, even though they both had a sore arm, it must have been a coincidence, and not something that was likely to happen to them again. After all, no one could enter their room surreptitiously as the security system would block them.
It didn’t make any sense to them. So, they finally decided it wasn’t significant enough to worry about and promptly forgot the incident.
But, three questions remained. Why had they both had the same dream? What had been done to their arms? And, who were these two young women, anyway?
Both Frank and Susanna were getting the fidgets. Frank was weary of all the meetings and of going back and forth between Earth and the Mars space-docks.
While Susanna had decided, there was only so much you could do with scenarios and tactics.
So, Frank was very pleased when he finally had notification to attend Space Fed’s Strategy Meeting, on the Crillon Race.
The meeting was to include all the major participants. With most countries, connected via a secure video link-up.
‘At last we’re getting close to going back to space.’ he thought.
He was al
so particularly pleased that he was still in England so that he could make his case directly rather than through a video link.
Jack Medcalf, head of the UK sector of the Space Federation, sat waiting for the conference to convene.
He looked down the list of the other four UK members, seeing, Anderson and Philips, who were long-standing friends of his. Then Carter, whom he found rather hard going.
Then there was Tommy Trump, a typical academic from the experimental warp department. With dark grey, bushy hair, a beard that needed attention, eyes too close together and a rather uncontrollable twitch.
Just before three o’clock, the four of them took their seats in his office.
A big screen hung in front of them, segmented into five blocks, representing the countries taking part.
These were the USA. Russia. European Space Centre. Australia and China.
A spare seat was left for Captain Richardson, who would be joining them later after they had completed a preliminary discussion on the Crillons and dealt with internal matters.
Frank had sat, waiting patiently, for some forty-five minutes before he was called into the meeting.
All five men eyed him as he sat down. He acknowledged them all with a nod.
“Welcome, Captain,” Carter said.
“Was the American trip good for you both?”
“Indeed sir. It was well worthwhile.”
“Excellent. We’ve all read the reports on your voyage. Can you give us a quick rundown on what more we need to know about the Crillon species.
Then we’d like your thoughts on our recommended plan of action to deal with this, from what we can ascertain, very nasty race. As you can see, the other five member countries are waiting for your words.”
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 22
