Galactic Council Realm 1: On Station

by J. Clifton Slater

  “In essence yes, so we use the main computer to plot the rough course, the turns and the Internal drive. As you know the External drive runs on a different time so the main computer isn’t much help. For that, we run the distance equations using known power and estimated time,” she explained.

  “It’s not as complicated in a Patrol Boat,” I ventured.

  “That’s because a Patrol Boat is designed to handle the stresses created by an Internal drive located in the center of a ship,” Agdta explained, “Think of placing the mid-point of a pen between two of your fingers. Now twist your fingers to steer the nose of the pen. You’ll find that the rear of the pen rotates in an equal and opposite direction from the tip. The Uno Shoda does the same in a turn. Except our tail section, usually with cargo wrapped around it, will continue to twist until it sheers off. So no combat turns.”

  I watched her run the equations, make notes and re-run the numbers. Finally, she pointed to her PID and asked me to check her work. I did but by the time I finished following the complicated math, her fingers were drumming on the counter top.

  “Looks correct and also might I add, amazing,” I said with respect.

  “I know,” she replied with a smile, “Now we register the course with the Master of Transit for this sector of the Realm.”

  “The Navy reports to the Naval Movement Command. I imagine the two communicate with each other,” I stated.

  “I haven’t heard of a ship to ship collision in over five years so I’d say yes,” She said, “Kala Bha asked me to send you to her stateroom after we’d completed navigation.”

  “Aye Ma’am and thank you for the lesson,” I said as I rose and left to go see the ship’s First Officer.

  Kala gave me my ship board assignments for the voyage. Two days a week in the galley with the threat of more if the meals I prepared were really good. Not a great incentive to perform magic in the kitchen. Four days a week, I had the third shift bridge watch. Pretty much just sitting in the pilot’s chair keeping an eye on the gauges in the early morning hours. Then she surprised me. When the ship dropped to Internal drive to make our turns, I was to arm and man the twin guns.

  “Armed, as in locked and loaded?” I asked in surprise.

  “The same Ensign. Captain Xhosa wants you to test fire them at our first corner. He said we should have an idea if they work,” she explained, “I agreed but for another reason.”

  “Another reason? What would that be if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “This is just gossip and I don’t want any Navy inquiry into my source,” she said lowering her voice, “And I don’t want Ide or Agdta Hernan alarmed. Can I trust you to take it as idle scuttlebutt?”

  “Aye ma’am, in the Navy,” I almost said in the Marines, “rumors are like an out of sync PID screen. Lots going on but no real information. So yes, your reason for arming the ship is safe with me.”

  “A friend at our last port of call said the Pirate fleets were growing bolder. He swore he’d seen reports of larger ships being taken or raided recently. In the past, they’d take the occasional Shuttle or a slow Sloop, or done a quick raid on a Track Station or one of those living stations. But my friend said ‘he heard’ about an attack on a Clipper ship. That put a scare in the Captain and me,” she said while staring intently into my eyes.

  I had firsthand experience with aggressive Pirates but hadn’t heard about other attacks. If the word was spreading among the Merchant Fleet, then there must be a lot more activity by outcast barbarians. Of course, I couldn’t tell Kala about my adventures with audacious pirates but I could agree to her request.

  “So you think we’ll be assaulted in open space?” I asked.

  “It would be suicide to attack a Clipper ship on External drive. We’re only out of Navy warship range when we make the first two turns. So, no we don’t think anything will happen,” said the First Officer.

  “But you happen to have a weapon’s expert on board and the guns do need testing, am I correct?” I asked.

  “Exactly, performing a gun test at the turn would be prudent,” she said, “Now get out of my quarters. We launch in thirteen hours.”

  The Uno Shoda pulled away from the Navy Station and I watched my home for the last two years slide quickly behind us. Dabir Xhosa stood with his legs wide and braced. His position behind Kala Bha in the pilot’s chair allowed him to watch as she ran her fingers over the controls. Behind Dabir, in the navigation section Agdta Hernan was calling out clock readings while Kala eased more power into the Internal drive.

  “Prep External drive,” Agdta ordered.

  “External active,” Kala replied, “Stand by for External evolution.”

  I grabbed a seat in the crew compartment forcing me to lean into the aisle to watch the bridge crew at work. On a Navy ship when the Bridge called for a transition between drives, everyone sat down or grabbed something solid. Captain Xhosa just stood there.

  “Ide,” Kala called to the engineer on the intercom, “External evolution in two minutes.”

  “Thank you Kala,” the engineer replied, “I am buckled in good and tight in case you try to rip my engines to pieces.”

  “I haven’t hurt them yet,” she responded.

  “There’s always a first time,” he replied.

  “10 seconds to External evolution,” warned Agdta.

  “Power equalized,” Kala shouted.

  “3, 2, 1,” the Navigator announced.

  The nose shield of the Uno Shoda began running with blue ions and was soon a solid sheet of color. There had been no snap. The transition was so smooth the standing Captain Xhosa hadn’t so much as swayed. ‘Now that was some sweet navigation,’ I thought, ‘Nice work Agdta Hernan.’

  Chapter 12

  Two weeks of cruising space had blended the crew and me into a unit. We all had tasks to perform but sadly, I hadn’t gained additional galley time. The funny thing was I like the crew and had tried out several new recipes in an attempt to please them. I guess I’m not a very good chef.

  After one of my failed dinner offerings, Kala, Agdta, Svana, Ide and I were sitting in the wardroom. Dabir had the watch and was on the Bridge. He’d switched with Agdta after checking the kitchen duty list but I didn’t take it personally.

  “Ide how did you get involved in space engineering?” I asked as I leaned back with a cup of coffee.

  “Well, Phelan let tell you,” he said with a smile.

  “I’ve heard the tale,” stated Kala while raising to leave, “I have a book I want to finish.”

  “I’ve heard the story already,” Agdta exclaimed as she stood, “I don’t care to hear it again.” There was the warm and cuddly navigator’s temperament.

  Svan emerged from under Agdta’s chair and locked eyes with me. I felt ‘pity with a taste of fish’. Strange images from her and I couldn’t respond. So she too walked out of the wardroom.

  “I was raised in a small fishing village on planet Dos,” the engineer began, “The whole family was involved in the process. My sainted Mother, who’s gone now, ran the business. She could always talk the greedy buyers into paying a premium for the family’s catch. My Father was a weathered, stoic waterman. My older brother, Brentley and I helped Dad prepare the boat. You know scraping, painting and there was a lot of painting as on Dos the small seas are manmade. The high oxygen content eats the paint from the metal and rusted the hull almost daily.”

  “Our boat was a leased thirty-footer with a single trolling rig. Everyday Dad and Brentley would leave before sun rise for the days fishing. I can still feel the disappointment as my Dad and brother waved to me from far out. They would join with other boats to form the fleet and I’d stand there with a small lad’s frustration at being left behind.”

  “They would be gone most of the day so I’d hangout in the boat house. Gears, engine parts, pulleys and fiber lines were my playthings. By the time I was twelve, I could fix a motor and mend a fishing net better than most men in the fleet.”

  H
e stood and I took that as the end of his story.

  “So you took the skills to the merchant fleet,” I ventured hoping for a quick finish.

  “Ah not then,” Ide corrected as he poured water into his cup for more tea, “One day our boat came back early. Brentley was laying on top of the nets with his arm all bloody and held together by wood slats. Dad carried him to the house and from the door I heard my Mother and Father arguing. Mother wanted to call a doctor but Dad said the old medic wasn’t worth the Pesetas he’d charge. They went back and forth for a while. Finally, Dad gave in and agreed that Mom should call the doctor. See, my Mother was a good talker.”

  “Dad came out of the house, actually a small shed next to the boat house, where we lived. He pointed at me and ordered me to the boat. My heart almost burst as my young legs worked hard to keep up with my Father’s long stride. By the time we’d reached the boat my Mother was at the door of the shed screaming that I was too young to go out. That it was too late in the day to safely go out. That she’d almost lost one of her family today. That going out today was madness. Dad didn’t say a word, he just backed the boat out of the birth and headed towards the horizon.”

  “Other boats of the fleet began to pass us as they headed home. A few waved wildly at us. Others yelled that we were crazy. Dad just nodded and told me to rig the nets to the hoist. Now I was young but I know how to run the motor and drop the led line. Dad idled the boat and checked the hooks. He patted my head, said good job and went back to the bridge.”

  “I raised the nets and swung them over the side. Playing out the line by feathering the motor, I laid the nets in the boat’s wake. We’d been trolling for about half an hour when two things happened almost at once.”

  “On Dos the cities and towns have wind breaks because of the wind gusts that come every afternoon. We don’t have wind breaks on the small sea. That day the winds were stronger than normal and they began to push our boat sideways. The sea swelled and now Dad was fighting the wheel. As Dad tried to keep control of our boat, a monster rolled into our net.”

  “The fish on Dos were originally midsize stock. It was the oxygen that caused some of them to grow. They started to cannibalize the smaller fish until the only ones’ worth catching were three meters or bigger, long toothed monsters. One of them went for our bait and now I was working the motor trying to pull it from a rolling sea into a tossing boat.”

  “Don’t lose it Ide, my Dad yelled over the howling wind. We need it to pay the doctor and our lease. I was concentrating hard because I was finally doing a man’s work. The fish was just about perfectly angled to land in the steel cradle. If I could have lowered it into the tube, I could safely close the lid and we’d have a prize catch.”

  “Instead, a huge wave swamped the boat knocking me off the motor controls. The fish’s tail dropped to the deck and the snout and those long teeth crashed into the bridge. I watched in horror as my Father’s back was raked by sharp teeth and then he was driven to the deck by the weight of the fish.”

  “I scrambled to my feet and grabbed a fish hook. From old fisherman I know that the only way to kill it was to destroy the brain. I was only twelve and not tall even then. Climbing on the wet slick skin was hard but I managed. Finally, I get braced between the fish and the side of the broken bridge. Three times, three mighty jabs into the monster’s eye, it took that to stop the thrashing. I couldn’t move the fish so I used a scaling knife to carve out a tunnel to my father.”

  “He was bleeding and something was broken because he just laid on the deck and moaned. I climbed back on the fish and crawled to the wheel. From atop the giant head I steered against the wind and made for shore.”

  “For two hours I fought the swells, the wind and my waning young lad’s strength. Eventually, land appeared as the boat topped a large wave and I steered for shore. The beach was rocky and the bow of the boat hit hard enough to throw me over the wheel. Another wave pushed the boat further up onto the rough shoreline. I could hear the grinding of the hull. I thought that Brentley and I would have a lot of scraping and painting to do to repair the boat. But we never had the chance.”

  “Other fisherman pulled me out of the boat and I followed them as they carried my Father to a shed. We moved out of our home three weeks later. See Dad couldn’t work the boat with his injured back and Brentley’s arm never healed properly.”

  “We moved to the city where Dad worked in a machine shop with my brother. Mom did pick up a few odd jobs but no one appreciated her. For years, I blamed myself for the family troubles. If only I had landed the fish faster. If I had waited to land at a safer beach the boat wouldn’t have been damaged. If only I had been older. If only I had been able to save my family.”

  “After graduating from school, I signed on as an apprentice engineer with the merchant fleet and left Dos and my family. I still send Pesetas home to help Dad and Brentley but I have no wish to ever see a small sea or the planet Dos ever again.”

  I had nothing to say as the tough, little engineer seemed to have tears in his eyes. We sat in silence for a few minutes. He stood with his back to me and placed his mug in the washer.

  “Got to check the ion wall,” he announced without looking at me.

  “Good, I’ll finish cleaning up the galley,” I replied turning my back to him as he left.

  Later, after relieving Captain Xhosa from Bridge watch, I paced and thought about my own childhood. Between the pilot’s station and navigation control, my foot steps were faster than need be as were my thoughts.

  Chapter 13

  At eight years old, my mother and father pulled back the crawl of their hoods, kissed me on the forehead and shoved me into a Shuttle. The trip was long and boring as the crew members avoided the strangely dressed boy. I was alone until we landed on a Trajectory Station. There two more robed children, also eight years old, joined me. The three of us were loaded into a Sloop. After two weeks of the crew avoiding us, we docked at a Commercial Station.

  A Druid met us as we departed the Sloop. He didn’t say a word. Druids usually don’t in front of station personnel and Folks, in other words non-Druids. He simply nodded to us, turned and expected us to follow him. We arrived at a hatch and he waved us forward. Inside were two more robed and confused eight-year-old children.

  The five of us were fed by another silent Druid who left after rolling in a food cart. We ate quietly and looked around at each other. These were my Ritual Mates. Only five children, of the right age to be indoctrinated into the Druid life, among the hundreds of Clan families spread around the Realm.

  We slept on the floor mats and except for light meals were left totally alone. Looking back, I could see the isolation’s purpose was an attempt to bond the five initiates. It worked for the other four but I didn’t feel the need for support or companionship. A few days later we were sent to showers and were given new light gray robes. Until than we’d worn brown robes like our elders. This helped maintain the Druid mystique to those not in the Clan.

  The others seem so pleased with the new robes. They danced and twirled showing each other that now they were on the path to being Druids. I neither dances nor twirled. To me, it was an expected journey and I was impatient to get on with it.

  Another long trip, this time in a Clipper ship, followed by a Shuttle flight and we were left standing on a grassy field on planet Uno. The mountains rose majestically on all sides. Across from the landing zone, high domes of different hues reached towards the sky almost blocking the view of the mountain’s snowcapped peaks. This than was the homeland for the Druid Clan.

  “Good morning initiates,” a short Druid said as she walked to us across the grass.

  Our eyes were on her feet as they crushed the precious leaves beneath her sandals. We’d never seen wild grass or breathed air so fresh and rich. We stared in horror at the brashness of her walking on the green.

  “Kindly close your mouths please,” she said stopping a few meters from our group, “This is your Clan and your land. Y
our ancestors have defended it from invaders for hundreds of years. Today you begin a path that will make you the future defenders of the Clan. A path that will lead to some of you becoming Druids.”

  My chest rose with pride at the thought of fighting barbarians and protecting this wonderful land and the Heart plants.

  “A Druid is honest, brave and agile,” she said, “Your first test is to show the Elders that you are physically and mentally ready. Behind me are the Heart Temples.”

  She was half turned and pointing towards the domes. Some like the yellows were low and each grew progressively higher from blue to the highest white ones.

  “Follow a stone path to a Temple and climb to the level of your fear,” she ordered.

  We ran across the grass, the wonderful freedom of our feet pounding as each of us chose a colored stone walkway. I ran and cut across the others to gain the path of white stone.

  The other four split between red, blue and yellow. Alone I ran to the white Temple. As I rounded the dome, a shorter white dome came into view. Which to climb? My mind felt that a small dome would be an easy climb with my little body. However, my heart wanted to climb the biggest dome even as my brain screamed it was too high.

  All of the students had grown up in ships or stations climbing the connecting tubs that surrounded their Heart Plant. Enclosed with hand holds, a steady but light breeze and escape hatches, the climbing had been steep but controlled. Here on planet Uno at the Clan’s homeland, the climb was anything but safe.

  I stopped between the shorter, although it was high compared to an eight-year-old boy, and the massive white dome. Turning, I looked from one to the other. Undecided, until a big space cat jumped from a ledge off the taller dome. He had a small bird pinned in his mouth.

  ‘Hunting ground,’ he thought as he strutted away with his prize. I marveled at the contrast between his gray, orange fur and the white of the stone path.