‘Oh no, he’s not,’ came Susanna’s voice in Frank’s brain.
‘Agreed Sues. He’s cleverer than he wants us to think.’
‘Andromeda? Are we going where we’re supposed to be going?’
‘It seems right, Frank, leave your pad open, and I’ll keep updating your location. Look for any deviation in what he is telling you.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Did you hear that Sues?’
‘Yes.’
They had now reached the outskirts of the city and were heading up a broad avenue. This led to an enormous building, which although very different to anything they had seen before, must be the Crillon’s Senate building. On each side of the road were smaller buildings, looking surprisingly like what would be shops on Earth, but very basic.
As they came to a halt outside the Senate building, Frank noticed a ‘shimmer’ for a split second, as one of their stealth drone's came to a stop above the vehicle.
‘Keep your height,’ he thought, remembering that a drone had collided with something outside Acarea’s Council building on DPav4. Then remembered that the drone couldn’t hear him anyway.
Once inside the building, they were met by a smiling Senator Kasosko.
“Good morning. I think that’s the right expression, Commander?”
“It is indeed,” Frank acknowledged.
“Come, follow me,” he said as he turned and entered a chamber just off the main entrance. With the delegation from Earth following him in.
Frank and his team were surprised at their reception.
In the middle of the chamber, there was a large table filled with a selection of savoury food and exotic fruits. A red liquid in a transparent container also looked inviting.
The other six Crillon senators came across and introduced themselves. Once introductions and the customary hugging had finished Senator Kasosko insisted that both marine captains, who had been standing back till now, should also try the food and wine.
At this, Jenny looked at Frank for guidance, and Frank, seeing that the rest of his crew were happily engaged in conversation with their host’s, decided to go over and talk to her.
“Are you hot in there, Jenny?” He asked, looking at her armour.
She didn’t reply but merely took hold of his hand and placed it on the neck rim of her suit.
He could feel the heat rising out of her suit and couldn’t help his eyes wandering down inside the front of her suit. Seeing the top of her firm bronzed, and alluring breasts, moving gently inside.
“Hot is the right word,” he said.
She caught the direction of his gaze. “Tut-tut, Frank. Anyone would think you wanted to be in here with me?”
He blushed. Then realised her breathing had speeded up, mesmerizingly so.
“Sorry, why do you have to look so damned attractive?”
She looked at him for a moment. Looked around surreptitiously, then kissed him on his lips, quick, hard, and passionately.
Then stepped back, wondering what on earth had come over her. ‘What the hell, all part of the game,’ she thought.
Susanna came across. “Is he being a nuisance Jenny? If he is, kick him where it hurts.”
“No, he’s not, quite the opposite actually,” she replied, then smiled and headed for the food.
‘You fancy her, don’t you?’ Susanna’s thoughts shot in.
‘Of course not. You two should stop this game you’re playing.’
‘Yeah-yeah, even Andromeda thinks you fancy her. And that’s not in the game.’
‘Well, she’s different. That’s all.’
She looked at him for a long moment. Her eyes boring into his. ‘Are we in trouble Frank?’
He couldn’t believe she asked that. ‘Of course not.’ He went to kiss her but got a short stab in the brain instead.
“Ouch,” he said aloud, then realised people were starting to look at them both, just standing, facing each other, but not speaking.
“We’ll talk later,” she said turning away from him. Then picked up a glass from the table and started talking to one of the senators.
Frank shrugged, then turned his attention to Kasosko. “Senator, our driver Akon, what is he really? He’s certainly not just a driver.”
“Of course, not Commander, he’s what you would call a security guard. Like one of your marines.”
“That’s fine, we have no problem with that.”
“Good. Commander Tripicac will be here shortly.” Kasosko said, looking pleased with how well things were progressing.
“He wants to show you our shipyards on Tapin.”
“That’s one of your moons, yes?”
“Yes, the largest.”
“That will be interesting, Senator.”
“At least, all our ships coming out of the yards will be used for the right purposes now, and not for Marshal Trendor’s cronies.”
“Yes. That should be beneficial for everyone Senator. When we’ve left, I hope you’ll try to get to know the Solverons better. Savron could be a great help to you. In any case, you need to get along with them, for all our sakes.”
“We intend to Commander.”
“Please call me Frank, Senator.”
“Thank you, I will. Some of my people call me Kass, you can if you like?”
Frank and Kasosko then moved around the room talking to other delegates. The small talk went on for another twenty minutes; then Commander Tripicac came in and spoke to Senator Kasosko, then to Frank.
“I hear the senator has told you I’d like to show you our shipyards?”
“Yes, they sound interesting. It would be nice to see how you handle such large structures. We might learn something.”
Tripicac laughed, in the Crillon way. “Maybe.”
“Are you coming with us, Tripicac?”
“Or, you could go with me, my shuttle is ready and is probably more comfortable than yours.”
“Thanks, Tripicac. I’d like to, but we must go in our own craft for security reasons. It’s mandatory, so please don’t take offence,” he replied.
‘And we’re still not sure how much we trust you at this stage,’ he thought.
“I understand Commander.”
“Please, call me Frank. We’re not at war with you.”
“Thanks. I’m afraid Tripicac is the only name I have.”
“Can’t have everything,” Frank replied with a smile.
“We’ll be passing our primary space station on the way to Tapin, Frank. Perhaps you would like to visit that the next time you come.”
“Yes, that would be great. Thanks.”
“Now, if you’d like to get your people ready to go, the transport’s waiting outside to take you back to the space park.”
They all said their goodbyes to the Crillon senators, then boarded the transport. Five minutes later they were back on their force-crafts and waiting for Tripicac’s shuttle to leave.
Frank could see that the Crillon shuttle wasn’t a lot different than their older shuttles, as it lifted off the ground using high powered field-emitters somewhat like theirs. Then a pulse engine pushed the shuttle rapidly forward, then upwards.
As the force-fields energised on both of their force-craft, their seats swivelled to face the front.
The marine pilots increased the front force-field emitter’s power to tilt the craft upwards, then their small fusion reactor drive pushed them up, and after Tripicac’s shuttle, settling at a one-kilometre distance behind him.
All of them watched the planet Crilla’s horizon curve, seeing a ‘carpet’ of blue water slowly filling their view.
They passed the Crillon’s massive spider-like space-station on their left. The space station was full of activity with fifteen ships docked while two smaller ships were removing dangerous space debris. ‘I suppose that’s left over from their last encounter with the Solverons,’ Frank thought.
To the right, they could see their golden coloured StarShips, shining like jewels as they were bat
hed in Kepler’s tinted light.
They knew that their ships were watching every move the Crillons and Solverons made.
Then Tapin, Crilla’s moon, swung slowly into view.
As they approached Tapin, they passed by a massive spacedock, to which three Crillon ships were tethered, two of which were presumably having their final fit out.
Once they had passed the orbital dock, they descended towards the moon’s surface. Seeing, far below them, a black dot that appeared to be their target. The dot grew larger by the second, gradually expanding and looking more like a huge ‘hole’ on the surface.
Ahead of them, Tripicac’s shuttle came to a halt above the ‘hole’ and his shuttle sank through the blue haze of a force-field then disappeared from view into the enormous cavern below the surface.
The two force-craft followed him, their own force-fields crackling as they passed through the cavern’s protective shield.
Both crafts landed next to Tripicac’s shuttle, on the floor of the cavern. With the force-craft automatically checking the surrounding atmosphere, before allowing the pilot to collapse the craft’s own force-field.
The cavern was well lit. With its silver looking metal walls reflecting the light coming down through the entrance and adding to the light created by well-placed interior lighting units.
Looking up, they could see that the opening was big enough to enable large sections of ships to be taken out. But, there was no machinery at all; the cavern was completely empty.
There was a short tunnel to one side, which seemed to be the same size as the main entrance and led into the production area.
Tripicac walked over to their force-crafts.
“Are we ready?” He called.
“Yes. Lead on, Tripicac,” Frank replied as they stepped off their crafts and followed him.
Tripicac grinned, said “Ok,” then turned and headed for the tunnel entrance.
Both marine sergeants stayed behind to protect their force-crafts and to maintain their link with the stealth drones which were now above the entrance and close to the Earth ships.
Then Frank ‘sensed’ that one of the two drones had dropped unseen, into the cavern and was hovering near one of the force-craft.
The drone was using its repeller-field to stay in the air and remained invisible. Frank gave no indication of having sensed it.
Tripicac led them into the Crillon production facility. The production processes were virtually automated, only needing a few operators to supervise and carry out specialist tasks.
In the production area, they could see what appeared to be one-eighth segments, of a ten-metre circular hull section of a ship, all of them obviously in an advanced stage of production. With each segment already incorporating all necessary services.
Tripicac told them that the eight sections, once complete, would be taken up to the orbital space dock for final assembly. This then making up just one small cross-section of a Crillon Battleship.
“Very impressive,” Hector said. “But that’s a long trip to your orbital dock for such an enormous load.”
“Yes, but here, the required escape velocity is only 2.4 Km per second.”
“Makes life a lot easier,” Tom remarked.
“Yes, that’s true. But the best bit is over here.” He said and took them across to look an object that appeared to be floating about one centimetre above the floor.
The object was one-metre square, and about 30 cm thick, with a thinner circular section attached to the bottom. A Crillon stood next to it.
“This is my tech wizard, Cazer,” Tripicac said as he introduced them to Cazer.
“He’s actually from a long line of brilliant scientists. In fact, he has the best brain I’ve ever come across on our planet.”
Cazer gave Frank and Hector a Crillon hug, then decided there were too many other humans for him to deal with in the same manner.
“So, Commander, will you be going straight back to your home planet when you’ve finished here?” Cazer inquired.
“Yes, we’ll all be glad to get back to Earth for some rest.”
“Cazer, please show them how it works,” Tripicac instructed.
Cazer smiled. “Some recognition of my work at last,” he stated. Then picked up a small hand-held controller from a nearby bench and rapidly keyed in a short code.
To their surprise, the circular bottom section of the object seemed to rotate a fraction, then the whole object rose vertically.
As Cazer tapped in another coding sequence, the object dropped downwards, settling about a metre from the surface.
Cazer then put one finger on the object, gave it a slight push, and the object drifted in that direction.
Cazer was thrilled with their reaction and pushed his chest out in pride.
Next, he reached out for Jenny’s hand and placed it on the top of the object.
Then putting his own hand on top of Jenny’s, they gently pushed the block downwards. But it didn’t move.
Jenny looked at Cazer and smiled, showing her appreciation for his friendly gesture in letting her try to move the object.
Then, both realising it wasn’t going to work, took their hands off the object, and Jenny stood back, rubbing the back of her hand.
Cazer then tapped in another code and the object settled down in its original position, one centimetre above the floor.
“Cazer hasn’t got his translator on, so I’ll explain,” Tripicac said.
“When we were mining on the planet orbiting, what you call Delta Pavonis. This was before you arrived, of course.
We discovered a strange ‘seam’ of material. A material that we had never come across before, so we brought some of it aboard our ship for further investigation by our scientists.”
“So, have your scientists come up with a kind of anti-gravity material?” Professor Sims queried.
“Yes. You’re right. But there was only a limited amount of this material on the planet, and we haven’t found any on our planet, or on our moons.
The other problem is that it takes a massive amount of irradiation to get it to work.”
“But at least, you know how to do it, Tripicac.”
“Yes, we do have that knowledge now Frank. Thank you, Cazer,” he said, dismissing him.
Then turned back to Frank and moving away, spoke quietly so Cazer wouldn’t hear him.
“Cazer’s only problem, when he's away from home, is sex! If you understand what I mean.”
“Frank, surprised by this revelation, just said, “Oh.”
Then carried on. “So, you already have something to trade Tripicac. Your know-how on this material, and how to process it, and there must be other things?”
“Well, right now, I can’t think of anything else?”
Tripicac then explained other operations that were going on, as they walked further into the production area.
Half an hour later, they said their goodbyes and left for their own ships, followed by the two stealth-drones.
The visit to a Solveron ship had already been arranged for the following day. The day after that, they would leave for the return trip to Delta Pavonis.
Chapter 25
An Error of Judgement.
On returning to their own ships, there was a ten-minute de-briefing, and the recording of the visit was distributed to all the captains and added to their computers.
Frank then sat in his control room making some notes. While Susanna went to her cabin, undressed and took an ISO shower. Then slipping into her bed robe, sat on the sofa, tucked her legs up. And cried.
Marine Captain, Jenny Moore did much the same but ended up on the sofa, drink in hand as she waited in anticipation. Her anticipation, building by the second.
Frank finished his notes. Then thought, ‘I must make sure Jenny’s all right.’ He sent a thought message to Susanna. ‘I won’t be long. I must make sure Jenny’s OK after today's…’
But was cut-off by Susanna’s explosive outburst.
‘
Put one in her if you must Frank. But don’t expect me to welcome you back.’ Frank, was taken aback by the viciousness of her remark.
‘I don’t know what you mean. It’s my job to make sure any grievances are set right.’
She didn’t answer that. Then he realised just what it must have sounded like to Susanna. But he decided that he should still apologise to Jenny for saying. ‘Well, what was really a compliment,’ he thought. ‘He had to admit he did find her attractive,’ then stopped thinking as his imagination ran wild again.
Susanna wiped the tears from her eyes, as Andromeda comforted her. ‘It will be all right, trust me, Susanna.’
‘Andromeda never lies,’ she thought. ‘But it’s over, I know it is.’
Frank walked down towards the Marines’ cabins, which were just past Susanna’s cabin.
He paused outside Susanna’s door, but ‘sensed’ nothing, so continued to Jenny’s cabin. Wondering if he was doing the right thing after all, but tapped the annunciator pad anyway.
“Come in,” came Jenny’s voice as her door slid open. He stepped into her room, and the door closed behind him.
Jenny came out of the bedroom to greet him dressed only in a robe and carrying two glasses filled with yellow coloured liquid.
He felt nervous. Something had changed.
“Have a drink with me, Frank,” she said handing a glass to him. But although she was smiling her eyes were cold and locked on his.
He took the drink from her and downed it in one hoping it would calm his nerves.
“Geeze, that’s not very nice,” he muttered.
She put her, untouched, drink down, and her cold smile changed to a smile of triumph.
He felt a bit hot; something was happening to him. Then he noticed that her expression had changed from joy to anticipation.
She let her robe fall open, then pushed it back exposing her body to him.
He couldn’t stop his body from reacting down below, and she saw what she was waiting for, and her hands suddenly grabbed him so hard that he almost cried out in pain, or maybe it was ecstasy, he wasn’t quite sure. He began to pull away from her, but the muscles in her arms bulged as she tightened her grip.
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 60
