The Rylerran Gateway

by Mark Ian Kendrick

  Nomid Jattison, Tamik Sil, and Benja Ometo were the Chief and two of the vice-managers of Tokaias’s civic police department. Born on Andakar, and all from third generation families, they were completely loyal to their planet’s interests. Tlor, along with Siloy, placed a conference holocall to them on a totally secure line and gave them the long and involved story behind why they needed to arrest Director Alarr. The plan was completely without precedent, of course. Their collective issue with complying with the request was the enormous political problem they would have when it came time to renew their contracts with the department. But as Tlor explained, they would be immune to the ramifications. They not only planned to sever all communications with Earth Central Command computers at a strategic time, they had a much longer range plan to prevent any interference with decisions made on Andakar.

  The FTL comm Inandra received from Zelin arrived nearly twenty-six hours after Darreth and the rest returned from Rylerra.

  “Director Alarr,” he began in the vid. He never spoke to her that way in a personal communication. She noted this right away. “I haven’t seen you for quite some time now and miss you terribly. I look forward to seeing you again just as soon as my duties allow me to do so. In the meantime, there’s something you’ve neglected to do for me. That would be a grossly overdue credit transfer. I complied with your request with regard to a certain provincial manager’s son, yet you’ve not provided me with just compensation. I know you desire to do so. I do not want there to be a mistaken communication sent directly to said provincial manager’s department. I would not like this mistaken communication to end up in an incorrect person’s vidPAD either. I look forward to the credit transfer on the next comm buoy. Have a stellar day!”

  If her secretary hadn’t been right outside her door, she would have screamed at the screen. Instead, she clamped her jaw and pursed her lips while screaming epithets at him in her mind. How dare he make demands on her. As far as she was concerned she shouldn’t have to pay him since he was supposed to have assured that Darreth, along with his brother and those two from the museum, would burn up in Rylerra’s atmosphere. But that hadn’t happened. In fact, she had already heard that he and one of the other lieutenant commanders had finally been found and were on the Guardian right now. Every step of the way, Darreth’s seemingly charmed life had eluded her best attempts to stop him. But she still had something he did not. She had the law on her side. Knowing Darreth had deliberately left the planet despite direct orders to stay grounded, and had returned, left him open for immediate arrest. She intended to be there when the arrest was made.

  “Cial,” Inandra spoke to the comm to her secretary.

  “Yes, director,” the woman responded.

  “I need to book a shuttle to the Guardian right away. Clear my schedule for the rest of the day, too. And put me through to Chief Jattison. He’s the head of the Tokaias civic police department. He will be accompanying me.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Chief Jattison had never taken an acting class. However, he had an excellent poker face. Briefly, he wondered if Director Alarr had ever played poker, then dismissed the thought. He still had a few details to work out on how to best handle her arrest without drawing too much attention to the department. Once word got out, it would be all over the newsfeeds. Inandra’s invitation, rather demand, that he accompany her to the Guardian provided him with the perfect opportunity. It couldn’t have been more flawlessly timed. He was extremely lucky her comm arrived after Tlor and Siloy’s.

  Inandra arrived at the private shuttle launch arena in the late afternoon. The Chief and his two vice-managers had a flimsy sealed with two lawyers’ signatures and secured so it couldn’t be altered once it was presented.

  Chief Jattison was absolutely amazed that Manager General Tlor was such a good coordinator. He hadn’t been completely convinced the man would be up to such a task. Once he saw how calm and prepared Tlor was, he had a newfound respect for him and the military. Indeed, if all went as planned, Tlor intended to carry out his long-range plan as soon as their shuttle was launched from the ground. They would reach the Guardian space station forty-five minutes later, give or take two minutes. By that time, Tlor intended to have shut down all FTL comm buoys and grounded all ships bound for any Inhab other than Rylerra. Next, all security codes any computer used for communications back to Earth would be changed. How long this total blackout was going to be sustained was anyone’s guess. But the objective was to delay outworld knowledge of Inandra’s arrest as long as possible. The second and most important strategic decision was to place a demand on Earth Central Command. The demand would be on a secure outgoing FTL buoy. It would be another step in what was going to be a long and possibly arduous journey toward true independence. Now that it was clear their Planetary Director was actively involved in not only a murderous plot, but was working directly against their planetary interests, it became obvious they had little choice but to accelerate events. He, too, was glad he was fully on board with the decision.

  In the last several hours, the majority of the members of Naylon’s discussion group had been contacted and had agreed to testify against Inandra. Their testimony would make a solid case against her. They would be given immunity because of the egregious nature of the evidence. Several other items were already being worked on. The first was to announce a whirlwind election campaign. All of the provincial managers were unanimous. They intended to support the election of Siloy as their president. Some still held reservations about it, yet knew their support of him would result in the swiftest possible breaking of formal ties.

  And it was very, very simple. Andakar had a military. Earth had not much more than a planetary security detail scattered mostly throughout seven Inhabs. Andakar had everything to gain and little to lose in making a sweeping demand to be heard as an independent entity and not as an arm of the Consortium. After all, they had some of the most valuable exports in the Consortium’s sphere of influence.

  The tactical and strategic plans, all laid out now were bold, decisive and extremely dangerous. It was going to be difficult and it was most likely going to be messy no matter the ultimate outcome. But they were decisions whose time had come. The tide had turned.

  Siloy had already decided he would have Tlor’s contract changed. He would no longer be a Manager General. He would be ‘promoted’, as it were, and become the station’s first Commander General. In essence, he would be a true military General, the leader of the Andakar Space Navy and not beholden to the Consortium in any contractual way except for what he deemed necessary to continue the smooth running of their service to his planet.

  Chief Jattison was first to exit the shuttle once it arrived in Docking Bay D onboard the Guardian. Inandra was next, followed by the two vice-managers. Inandra, not usually attentive to such things, had noticed the strange tension onboard the shuttle. She twice mentioned that the men were being inordinately quiet, but didn’t receive much of a response.

  When Tlor and Siloy both greeted the arriving party, Inandra was quite surprised. She was sure Siloy was still planetside. She was sure she had always received the latest on his whereabouts. There had been the communiqué she intercepted from the Southland Provincial Manager about Siloy’s impending arrival in the provincial administrative center that very day. His schedule had even shown the meeting time. For the first time in at least a year, she felt inexplicably vulnerable.

  “Manager General Tlor, Chief Council James-Po, I have urgent business to discuss,” she said as formally as she could muster. “In fact, this business has to do with your son,” she said, directly facing Siloy. Funny, he never seemed so imposing before.

  “Ah, you must be here to bring kind words about his safe return from Rylerra; and that he found my younger son and Darreth’s boyfriend.”

  “What?” She was only aware that Darreth and Rehl had returned. That Naylon and Siloy’s young son had been found, much less returned, had been carefully kept from public or private consumptio
n at this point.

  “He and Lieutenant Commander Takaramyus found them on Rylerra. In fact, they were nearby all that time. It’s just they were, uh, not capable of communicating with us directly. You are here to thank my son for being a hero, correct?” he said, smiling pleasantly.

  The condescending tone Siloy used infuriated her. “It is unfortunate, Chief Councilor, that you’ve chosen to disregard a regulation the Manager General of this station helped to put into place.”

  “Director Alarr, whatever are you talking about?” he asked her.

  This was too much. She was going to end his smarmy attitude right now. “You are clearly aware of the directive I’m speaking of. Your son,” she continued, icicles forming on every word, “was expressly ordered to stay planetside while an investigation was being conducted into his conduct on Rylerra. He chose to violate that directive and his companion helped him. They are both in direct violation of corporate law.” She turned to Chief Jattison and held out her hand. “The flimsy.”

  The Chief looked up briefly at Tlor, then to Siloy. He placed his hands to his sides.

  “Chief?” she said at his unexpected inaction, her eyes searching.

  Jattison did nothing. Inandra very nearly stamped her foot on the deck. Tlor reached into the pocket of his right sleeve and extracted a flimsy rod. He pressed the tip and it unfurled. He looked down at it as he read aloud. “Director Alarr, you are hereby detained. You will relinquish your right to return planetside. The charges against you for this detention are as follows: attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, unlawful depletion of the treasuries of the following provinces: Siaron, West Litok, Nooms, Kehail and Naxon. Additional charges are unlawful contact with pharma pirates and the continuous willful neglect of your duties as Planetary Director.”

  For only the second time in her life, Inandra was speechless.

  Part III

  Chapter 40

  It had been recognized over a dozen generations ago that there were a plethora of planets in space. There were multiple problems with that discovery though. Far too many surveyed planets weren’t inside a habitable zone, or had orbits far too eccentric to allow for colonization. The vast majority of them were simply too far from Earth to be economically viable even if they were ideal.

  Deep Sky Mining carefully analyzed all candidate planets for their potential profit-making resources. Of those, it had turned out Venekir was only barely worth its weight in infrastructure. Profits were difficult to come by due to its lack of abundant amounts of bauxite, much less hematite. Aluminum and steel had always been the materials of choice when it came to construction. They were simply not easily accessible on Venekir.

  Worse was the method used to find ideal planets. It was deemed far too expensive to send human reconnaissance to learn whether a planet was worth the effort of Deep Sky’s long reach. Thus, automated survey ships did the work. Once the ships returned, the data were analyzed. If there was even one dissenting vote on the Supreme Board of Directors, the planet was simply crossed off as worthless. One such star system designated simply as HN 490003 had been struck from consideration long ago. The amount of radiation the star emitted was deemed far too great despite finding a terrestrial-sized moon in its habitable zone.

  This wasn’t an issue for Anoon Tilshar who had conveniently been ‘killed’ in an accident years previously.

  The undercurrent of dissent ebbed and flowed as it always had during the long tenure of control over which Deep Sky Mining had on every aspect of life. Despite life having always been good, freedom of movement had always been an issue. Sure, it was possible to travel freely amongst Inhabs. Being born on one world and living one’s life on another had never been the problem. It was just that the Consortium told everyone where they would live. Thus, the number of Citizens who weren’t necessarily happy with their adopted world was growing longer and longer with each passing decade.

  This restriction of movement was purely economic. The fuel with which to move about amongst the stars was tightly controlled because there was only one source of ore containing significant quantities of the mineral used to synthesize Tetra-G. In addition, the main way to make sure Inhab economies worked at peak efficiency meant people couldn’t just live and work where and when they pleased, but rather as the Consortium needed them. Thus, each Inhab had a strictly planned economy. Virtually all of the movement of humanity from the Sol system was due to the need for job skills not found on an Inhab.

  The Consortium had held such a long tenure and kept the grumbling at a minimum because no one wanted for material goods. Ever. Under their watch, every Inhab had sustained a slow and steady economic expansion. Reasons to change what had worked so well were purely academic at the top levels of the Consortium. ‘All for one and one for all’ had been the watchword of every business for hundreds of years. Resources had always been where they were needed when were needed. There was never a restriction on where resources were taken. Only people. Some of those people were totally fed up with being told where to go and where they had to live.

  Always on the lookout for some opportunity to make a difference, Anoon’s untimely ‘demise’ allowed him to renounce his Citizenship and join the New Worlds Alliance. All of the people who joined the group had ‘died’ or ‘disappeared’. All had renounced their Citizenship and contribution to the Consort, indeed to civilization as everyone knew it. That meant no going back.

  Located on the desert moon of HN 490003’s second planet, their settlement was dubbed Ethlacos. Consisting of a growing band of ex-patriots, they had had only a loose structure and nebulous objectives until Anoon had joined them. Almost at once, he became their de facto leader, mainly due to his ability to set goals and instill a sense of purpose in nearly everyone.

  The more people learned, word-of-mouth, of Ethlacos, the more came. And finally, enough credits had been pooled to purchase a much-needed tunnel borer. After it was assembled and put into place at the bottom of a meteor crater in the northern hemisphere, a proper expansion of the settlement, named Rakaris Rim, took place. Making sure the majority of the settlement was underground would help prevent detection in the short term if, for some bizarre reason, the Consortium Supreme Board of Directors decided to send another probe to visit their star system.

  Six months after Anoon’s arrival he discovered he might indeed be the right person at the right time in history to make their dream become a reality for all of his followers. It was all due to a closely guarded secret. Ethlacos was the only other source in all of known space that had a recoverable concentration of Tetra-G. The discovery of the ore came quite by accident during the expansion of their settlement. The discovery totally changed how the occupants of Rakaris Rim viewed themselves. Suddenly, their goals weren’t so elusive. And now, instead of having to ‘appropriate’ Tetra-G, they might ultimately be able to make it themselves. Data on how to process the ore was easily obtained. The right equipment to further refine and store it could be made by operations robots. All they needed now was more money with which to lure others to their cause. They also needed to expand their settlement in the exact opposite direction!

  With time on their side and a source of high-grade ore ready for exploitation, their aim was totally renewed. Eventually, transactions for the purchase of Tetra-G using the normal channels would be halted. But only if they had the capability to properly refine enough ore.

  Andakar, only thirty-four light years away, and with its rich sources of lucrative pharmas, held the perfect way to help fund their operation. Desperation was a powerful motivator. And their desperation was enough to continue to ‘appropriate’ pharmas as needed, even if it meant some people might not receive them who had already paid for them. It wasn’t like Andakar was without the means to replace them.

  More than a few well-chosen number of the more expensive pharmas had been stolen over the years, converted into black market credits, which had helped continue to expand their operation. Limited mining had already produced dozens of tons of
raw ore. A small amount of refined Tetra-G was easily produced. But what they needed was a full-blown smelter. That would take at least a year, at minimum, to build. Yet building such a plant underground was impossible. And, at this point, they couldn’t risk exposure aboveground. They had already become a menace. Exposure would bring immediate repercussions.

  So far, no one had found their base of operations. Ethlacos, and thus their tiny settlement of Rakaris Rim were safe. Indeed, Atriel, its sun was a dim main sequence star of no major interest either. And, despite Andakar having what amounted to a working military, Anoon knew they couldn’t be everywhere all the time. Space was simply too huge. In addition, there were always those who could be bribed to provide much needed information. Such as who was piloting ships from the Guardian space station. When those ships left. Which pharma freighters would be escorted. What was being shipped, and to where. Important and timely information led to proof of loyalty. Proof of loyalty led to a one-way ticket out of the clutches of the Consort. Although life was very good even to those on Andakar, the chance to break away from a benevolent taskmaster had a powerful allure.

  Despite having a pretty good idea how to go about financing their colony, no one, not even Anoon, could have anticipated that Andakar would up and arrest their planetary director, much less demand independence from the Consortium. His source of information, strategically working in one of the largest spaceports in Tokaias, had never even alluded to such a move. It was clearly a well-kept secret, just like theirs. This news would turn the tide for Ethlacos. If his personal musings served him correctly, he had what amounted to a deal which Andakar couldn’t turn down.

  All that needed to happen next were successful negotiations.