The Archeon Codex: Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel Book 2

by Phillip Nolte

  Three months after he'd taken command of the patrol ship, the New Belgrade orbital platform had been rattled to the core by a series of terrorist attacks which killed several thousand people, including the regional Commissar and most of his staff. In response to these horrifying events, a band of small-time smugglers decided enough was enough and made up their minds to do something about the appalling situation.

  Jakob Luken, owner and operator of the freighter Odessa, volunteered to discreetly approach the Soviet authorities. Like many of his fellow operators, he mostly dealt in legitimate cargo but a certain amount of smuggling was always needed to make ends meet. In his view, smugglers who dealt in dangerous contraband were not only bad for his business, they were a menace to everyone. Sergei turned out to be his contact.

  As a direct result of his relationship with Luken, Sergei had received credit for several large and important busts, advancing him through the ranks of the Soviet navy much more rapidly than would have been possible otherwise. Afterwards, Luken and his fellow small-time operators continued to operate with a low profile but, because of their cooperation, Sergei and several of the other Soviet patrol commanders had pretty much granted them immunity.

  The time had come for Sergei to ask his friend for another favor.

  "Prepare for hyperjump in thirty seconds," announced Symantia over the ship's intercom. Sergei flopped down on the bed in his quarters to avoid falling down due to the frequently disorienting effects of hyperjump.

  {...Hyper transit discontinuity...}

  After yet another buttery-smooth hyperjump, Sergei left his quarters. As he went forward to the bridge, he was astounded all over again at the capabilities of the little Galactic Sentinel scoutship. As a former commander of several different classes of Soviet warships, he knew starship design and function as well as anyone. His first impression regarding the scoutship was that everything about it was patently and unmistakably alien. Granted, some systems were recognizable but, even the systems he could identify were far more compact and highly advanced than their Human-designed counterparts. An almost equal number of systems were outright baffling.

  One thing he had noticed immediately upon their departure from Sol was the hyperspace jumps had been far smoother and less physiologically unsettling than even the best human-designed jump drives. That he had expected, the opportunity to incorporate the best ideas from more than five hundred different intelligent, space-faring species into spaceship design had some distinct advantages.

  The cloaking systems on the scoutship were also unlike anything Sergei had ever seen (or failed to see) before. Even Symantia herself seemed to be somewhat in awe of the design and admitted she couldn't tell them exactly how the stealth systems worked. While the human race had developed some fairly effective stealth technology, it seemed there were always emissions of some kind which could be detected, given sensitive enough instruments. As Humans continued to refine their stealth technology, it had become accepted fact that sensing technology was able to keep pace with or manage to be just a little ahead of stealth. The cloaking technology of Symantia's ship was utterly undetectable by any sensor system possessed by humans.

  An hour after phasing out of the hyperzone, Symantia activated the ship's sublight drive. A major breakthrough in both physics and technology, sublight drive systems interacted with the magnetic force lines of the galaxy itself. When a ship shifted into sublight, it entered a region outside of normal space but one running more or less parallel to it. For lack of a better explanation, a spacecraft 'surfed' the magnetic currents while operating on sublight drive. While in sublight space, ships traveled at a velocity somewhere between 0.11 and 0.215 c (the speed of light) relative to normal space. The velocity varied from star system to star system but remained pretty much constant in any given system. Travel within star systems would have been virtually impossible without the drive.

  With the little scout ship traveling in sublight under the umbrella of her cloaking device and Symantia busy with unspecified duties, Sergei and Won Ling-tsu found themselves with some rare free time. The two of them fiddled with their tablets for about ten minutes before Won shut his down and announced, "This waiting is starting to wear on me. How about we burn off some of this excess energy with a little exercise."

  "I'm game," replied Sergei. After several days on the ship, he was also feeling a little confined. "What did you have in mind?"

  "How about a little hand-to-hand combat practice?"

  "Okay," replied Sergei tentatively, "but I'll warn you right now I'm pretty rusty."

  "Come along then, maybe I can give you some pointers."

  They went aft to a cargo hold just big enough to allow the two of them room for sparring. Sergei discovered immediately that Won was a far more accomplished hand-to-hand fighter than he would ever be.

  "Your skills are amazing," said Sergei, after he had once again tried to defend himself from an attack and suffered an obviously attenuated kick to the side of his head for his troubles.

  "I practice almost every day with a master of the martial arts. He says I'm a pretty good student."

  "I won't argue with that."

  Yeah, but I am his boss. What would you expect him to say?"

  The two men laughed briefly.

  "Let me give you a few of the pointers I talked about," said Won.

  The two men continued their workout for the better part of an hour before an exhausted and bruised Sergei finally called a halt.

  "Thank you, Won, but I think I've had enough for today."

  "Me too," said Won. "Pulling punches is a lot harder work than you think."

  "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

  The two men laughed again.

  "Don't sell yourself short," said Won, "you actually fight pretty well. You have excellent reflexes and some very good instincts. Against an opponent without my level of training, you should do quite well. Just keep your distance, especially against someone bigger than you, and use your speed to get in a few shots to hurt or stun. Ears are a very good target to disorient an opponent. After you've stunned them, you hit them where you can really hurt them, throat, groin, solar plexus, etc. You know what I'm talking about."

  "Thanks again, Won. Let's just hope I don't need to use any of this."

  With the morning exercise session completed, the two men settled into the scoutship's galley with Symantia for a shared meal. Lycans, like humans, were omnivores, and the two species could eat each other's food with no problems, though there were items favored by the little Lycan that both humans studiously avoided.

  "Captain Popov," she began, while they were still eating. "I have been studying the Soviet form of government, and I have some questions."

  "What would you like to know?"

  "I understand the system originated on your home planet centuries ago."

  "That's right. Our system of government is based on a model used by the Old Earth 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' or 'USSR' as it was commonly called. The Union collapsed and dissolved over five hundred years ago, towards the end of the twentieth century."

  "What caused this collapse?"

  "There are various theories, though I don't know which of them is correct. Like most failures, it was probably a combination of many factors."

  "Could you provide some examples?"

  "I don't know where to start. There was crushing competition from wealthier governments, rigid inefficiencies built into the system, a lack of incentive for individuals and a whole list of other problems. In my opinion, probably the most important cause was widespread greed and corruption within the Communist Party itself."

  "How is the new government different?"

  Sergei couldn't keep the bitterness out of his reply. "After what I've just been through, I'm not sure it is all that different. Party officials and 'Political Officers' run everything without question. I don't know that the good of the people is their first priority."

  "How did this new government come to exist then
?"

  "Well, the 'new and improved 'Union of Soviet Democratic Planets' or 'USDP 'rose from the ashes,' so to speak. The most populous of the Soviet Planets, Novayarus, which means 'New Russia', by the way, had originally been colonized by ships full of people from the central and eastern areas of a continent on Earth called 'Asia.' What most of those people had in common was a longing for the supposed glory days of the USSR and its Communist form of government."

  "Did these new founders do anything differently?"

  "They incorporated some hard-earned lessons from the failure of the original Soviet Union into their new model. The new Union allows some limited ownership of property and a few other perks but much of what each person produces is still required to be turned over to the central government for redistribution."

  "Some other, less desirable parts of the original communist model were incorporated into the new government as well. The existence of a political arm in the military means any military unit, including starship crews, are required to include a political officer. At least one and usually several official representatives of the Party are also resident in every city, village or commune, to ensure that the citizens render their fair share to the government."

  Sergei went on to reveal his fears that, just like the original Soviet Union, such a system was ripe for corruption. While some of the Party officials were honest, fair-minded men, about half of them were not. The dishonest ones skimmed goods and coin for themselves and had the power to denounce anyone who opposed them.

  He wrapped up the discussion with, "In spite of all the 'improvements,' the system doesn't seem to be working all that much better than the original, though it is rumored changes are in the works. With what we now know, I shudder to think what such changes might be."

  Chapter 11. First Contact.

  On board Capri, in the Alpha hyperlink zone of unexplored star system X97610, October 6, 2676.

  {...Hyper transit discontinuity...}

  Zack's mind phased back to reality as he shook off the effects of a just-completed hyperjump. He was sitting at the sensor/communications console on Capri's bridge. On the command dais at the forward end of the bridge area, a couple of short steps above the rest of the bridge, Ariane and Gertrude were seated at the pilot and copilot stations.

  "Everybody okay?" asked Ariane.

  Her two companions mumbled in the affirmative.

  "What now?" asked Zack.

  "We need to go on reaction drive for an hour or so," replied Ariane, not taking her eyes off her instruments, "to scrub off some velocity before we reach the rendezvous point. And then we have to locate and match velocities with the Hordean ship.

  "I still can't believe we're here to make first official contact with an alien race," said Zack, shaking his head.

  "Yeah," replied Gertrude, "thanks for the reminder."

  Ariane called down to engineering. "Cliff? What's our status?"

  "Everythin' lookin' good, Captain."

  Cliff was the only other person onboard the ship, making their delegation a rather small one. If the Federation and Soviet authorities had been consulted, this first contact expedition would almost certainly have consisted of a fleet of ships and an army of dignitaries, merchants, scientists and military personnel. After centuries of experience, the Amalgamation had settled on a protocol that kept the process simple, with just a few members of each species taking part in the first contact event.

  The delegation from each side was supposed to consist of at least one Representative and one Guardian. No doubt the Hordea, like the Humans, had been encouraged to select advisors. Whether they would include any of these advisors or other members of their species on this mission was unknown. The meeting was to take place in neutral space, in this uninhabited star system almost midway between the two spheres of space occupied by the respective species.

  The bridge was quiet for a while as everyone concentrated on their instruments. Zack's sensor console sounded a warning chime. "We have a contact," he said.

  "I see it too," said Gertrude.

  Since Mankind had only interacted with a single individual from another intelligent, space-faring race before, all three humans were understandably apprehensive.

  "The Hordea?" asked Ariane.

  "It sure looks like it," replied the copilot. "I've never seen readouts like this before."

  Apparently the Hordea were apprehensive as well. As Capri approached the rendezvous coordinates, Gertrude received a TachRad message from the Hordean ship. The translation devices given to them by the Symantia L'Proxa deciphered the alien message for them.

  "Unknown spacecraft? Please identify."

  The three humans looked at one another. This wasn't at all how they'd imagined the meeting going down. Zack's military mind noted two things: One: the contact had come while Capri was well out of weapons range and Two: the Hordean spacecraft had matched Capri's vector and velocity with ease and was currently maintaining a healthy and uniform distance between themselves and Capri.

  Gertrude got on the com, "This is Human ship, Capri. We are on a mission of peace to meet with representatives of the Hordea. Standby for Galactic Amalgamation confirmation codes."

  She keyed up the official communication, also provided by Symantia.

  "Sending Amalgamation confirmation codes, now."

  After a short pause, Gertrude received a reply. "Apologies, Capri. Utmost caution required. Identity confirmation necessary. Will explain."

  After about five minutes, during which the Hordea presumably satisfied themselves of Capri's identity, Gertrude got another reply.

  "Standby for Hordean Amalgamation codes."

  Gertrude checked the codes and confirmed they matched the signal she was supposed to get from the Hordea.

  "We have confirmed your identity," she sent.

  "Please approach."

  The Hordea modified their thrust vector, and the distance between the two ships began to rapidly shrink.

  "Are you seeing this, Gertrude?" said Ariane. "They must have twice the thrust capabilities we do. I'd love to have a look at that ship!"

  The signals on Capri's instruments continued to get stronger as she approached the rendezvous.

  As they drew within visual range, it became apparent the Hordean ship was huge, at least thirty, maybe fifty times as large as Capri, and was shaped like no spacecraft ever constructed by humans. Resembling some kind of gargantuan flower or snowflake, the ship was a twelve-pointed star composed of cone-shaped spokes arrayed evenly around the circumference of a central disc. On the end of each of the spokes was a coil that, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a long and slender cone formed into a tight spiral like the shell of a snail. The coiled tubes grew in size from a couple of meters diameter in the center out to perhaps fifty meters or more at the terminal ends. Those ends were pitch black, making it look as though the coils were hollow.

  The end of one of the spokes and its coil was blackened and shriveled, as though it had been subjected to a significant heat source. Or weapons fire, thought Zack.

  "No wonder they're so cautious," he said. "Looks like someone took a shot at them with a pulse cannon or something.

  "Who in their right mind would do that?" asked Gertrude.

  Zack shook his head. "We live in strange times, Trudy."

  "Can't argue that," she replied.

  As Ariane maneuvered Capri towards the alien ship, the humans were treated to an edge-on view of the huge craft. From the side, the ship was shaped roughly like a severely flattened convex lens measuring thousands of meters from one tapered end to the other. The central disc, some 500 meters in diameter, protruded outward from either side of the roots of the cone-shaped spokes to a distance of about fifty meters. Each of the spokes was 200 meters across at the base and extended outward another 1500 meters or so to the coil on the end. Connecting the spokes to one another was a series of concentric rings, tubular in cross-section and spaced about two hundred meters apart. Zack assumed the rings provi
ded structural rigidity as well as passage from one spoke to another without the necessity of returning to the central disc for access to the other spokes. Closer examination and an abrupt change in perspective revealed what Zack had assumed were the top and bottom of the ship were actually the front and back.

  "Could those coils on the end of the spokes be reaction drives?" asked Zack.

  "Possibly," replied Ariane.

  Gertrude frowned at her display. "This is really strange," she said. "I'm reading almost no metal. It's like that ship is entirely organic."

  "They're supposed to be intelligent plants," said Ariane. "Do you suppose they grew that ship somehow?"

  "I guess we'll find out," replied Gertrude.

  Over the course of the next half hour, Ariane skillfully brought the smaller and much more maneuverable Capri close alongside the central disc of the strange and majestic Hordean ship. As the Humans watched their monitors in astonishment, the alien ship proceeded to exude a series of thick tendrils that wrapped around their ship before drawing it close and holding it securely at a safe distance -- about two meters -- from the flat side of the central disc.

  A perfectly round opening irised out on the side of the Hordean ship directly in line with the front airlock of Capri. Prior to the appearance of the portal, there had been no seam or any other indication a door was present. Within less than a minute, a tube had grown outward from the opening in the Hordean ship. Zack continued to watch on the monitors as the tube made contact with Capri and flared out, conforming to the shape of her hull, forming a cylindrical bridge encircling the airlock door.