by Jim Rudnick
Her face now tightened as if she was under some kind of stress.
"And one day, a few hundred years ago, above our own home world, a huge mother ship appeared. No notice. No sensors had read of their coming."
More tightening of her face as lines appeared on her forehead.
"We tried, of course, to contact them in the first few days, to no avail. They did not have Ansible capabilities. They did have some kind of new-to-us pink force fields that we couldn't breach. And they just sat there for nine days, if the stories are true.
"We tried everything the story says, and nothing worked, and then I suppose they'd decided that they were invulnerable to our own level of technology, and they launched satellites that took out our own. They launched what we think were mining drones that found our own major mines and took over—moving the ores away from our own control to theirs. They launched huge water harvesters that gathered up fresh water and moved it back up and into that mother ship. All these smaller craft were invulnerable. We tried every weapon we had from lasers to pulse cannons to projectiles to even nukes. All ended up just splashing against their pink force fields with no effect."
Her brow now was a mess of lines and her voice tired and wan.
"It took them over two years, but in those two years, they ravaged my own home world as well as others too as there were then at that time seven of these huge mother ships. In those two years, as we could see what was going on—we began to leave our own planet. They didn't stop us as we were probably like ants to them at a picnic. We ran. We moved away, and while some went inwards towards the galactic center, some of us headed out towards the RIM."
She stopped then.
"What was a bit different—at least to us who value family and personal relationships above all else—is what these invaders did when something went wrong. One of their larger cargo ships had somehow backed into some kind of huge derrick foundations and it had lost power and had powered down, we think. We only know, as we were able to approach that ship, and enter same easily—there was no pink force field protecting same. But once inside, we also realized that these aliens were very different from us. Inside there were no real organization of decks or corridors—instead it was like a hodge-podge of pods and rooms and short hallways, some suspended in a myriad of ways. The aliens were bird-like, we determined, who could fly and therefore needed no decks but did need the organization of same. They had long perches hung up at the very top of the ship, and we think that is where the aliens would sleep or feed. And yes, before you ask, there were some aliens still on the ship, but all were dead. We have no idea why that happened, as the crash was serious for the ship but wouldn't have killed all the crew. Some say they were all sacrificed by controls on the mother ship itself. Others thought that they took their own lives instead of falling into our hands," she said.
"They were bird-like in appearance, about five feet in height, with a large set of talons on their hooked beak, almost a bald head with only minute blue feathers on same, and the overall plumage coloration was a cross between magenta and that shade of a lighter pink too. Each had two short forearms with three digits only and what we'd call a dewclaw type of thumb. Odd looking to say the least—at least to us bipedal humanoids," she said.
"We took that ship—she is the Scavenger now, and we fixed her and built some new decks and all and launched before the mother ship had taken the last of everything. It let us go, like we didn't even exist—but we were sure to find and destroy every single AI and automatic controls that we could find on her. She's ours, and we're proud of her. And yet, yes … we do know that somewhere inwards, coming this way if the signs are correct, these avian invaders are coming."
Tanner nodded. This did make sense, and as he too had faced a similar kind of resource-stealing alien back in the Earldom of Kinross, he knew a true accounting when he heard it.
"So, what prompted this move to claim refugee status now? What scared you?"
The Roma captain stared at her husband and then back at him. "About eight months ago, we found Memories from where it'd laid hidden for hundreds of years. We found the terraforming foundries too, and they were all frozen in place, with no power. So for us, that's a treasure trove of equipment and assets that we could take and find markets for. Our first foundry took almost those whole eight months to find, open up, inventory the contents, take out some equipment, and get prices over in Pentyaan space as well as on KappaD and fine-tune our best bets for the maximum revenues. That gel is worth nothing, we found, the transformers we called them have thousands of credits of rare earth metals in them so they're good. The nuclear cube scared us—we have no real experience with same, so trying to remove one to get it to market might be more than we can handle. At least so far. And all was well."
She played with a stud on her leather jerkin's cuff and twirled it around in its setting. Her black hair hung in front of her face for a moment until she swept it back and went on with her story.
"Then we moved on to the number two foundry—and our third mate was doing the first sortie into same. He made his reports and began to try to liberate one of those transformers, when the foundry started up. It was powered and it began to roll across the jungle floor searching for a laser drilling spot. But that's not what scared him—it was when he went over to the master control panel and he could see, as any of us would, that this foundry was the property of the avian invaders. Same icons, same monitor flashings as on the Scavenger, same as we have right here. And he ran, or tried to, we suppose, and fell to his death. But his videos and streaming content that we did receive proved him right."
She grabbed that stud in her cuff and held it tight. "Memories is being looked at by the avians as a place for these invaders to come to—to visit or to terraform or for whatever reason they may have. But we don't care … as we are now Barony refugees. If anyone can stand up to these avians, we would think it's the RIM!" she finished off and sat back, spent.
Tanner looked at her. More truth there, but he wondered as to the time-line on this terraforming program.
"Well, they have no idea that we even—wait, damn, they do. We took out their satellite, and she sits in a cargo bay over on the Atlas. So no messages would have been gathered by the satellite from the hundred-plus foundries. When an expected AI message does not occur—what does a Roma captain do?” he queried, and he received the answer he knew he should have from Daika.
"We investigate why the message never got to us—and if we're close enough, we go in for a personal look-see too!"
He nodded, as she was right. "Captain, I thank you. Not for the earlier, um, obfuscation of your plight, but for coming clean now. I will put this in a report to the RIM Confederacy Council myself and get it off STAT," he said.
She tilted her head at him. "Sir, would this not be better presented in person—I would be glad to accompany you to such a meeting and to speak for my people. We have always found that putting a personal face on a story is a better way to present anything. And I would add, that as Memories is now 'within' the RIM Confederacy as an annexed world of KappaD, that when these invaders show up, they're going to be upset. Least in my way of thinking, Sir," she said her voice low.
He nodded. She got that right too. He grunted, rose, and looked at her directly. "Let me talk to my officers, but yes, I too do see the point of making this a face-to-face presentation. I will get back to you by eleven hundred hours tomorrow, Captain. Thank you for your hospitality, Ma’am," he said as he nodded at both the captain and her chief mate.
#####
Leaving the Nugent as she held her low orbit over KappaD, Tanner and Bram sat in the shuttle as it cruised down toward the landing port below. The meeting with Captain Siegel had gone as planned, except for one small glitch.
He'd been surprised that he was being updated, Tanner thought. Most likely, he figured the Barony would be keeping all concerns close to their chest, so when Tanner and Bram had shown up to speak to him, he was caught off guard. The meeting had gone
well in the Nugent ready room, and he'd been even more surprised at the truths that the Roma refugees had shared with them all. Alien invaders, plunder of planets, technology that was superior—not one single bit of this was anything but surprising. He'd asked some questions—had queried what the official Barony position was on these refugees too. And that was the glitch.
He had gone on to say that if the request for refugee status was rescinded—then the RIM Confederacy was no longer involved. And if KappaD also cut off its annexation of Memories too, then the whole issue was moot. These alien invaders could come to Memories, investigate, and draw their own conclusions as to who might have bombed their terraformer foundries. But the RIM Confederacy would not be involved.
It made sense—the simple passing of the buck so to speak, Tanner thought as the shuttle dropped down below the cloud cover and the pilot swooped to port to touch down beside the Atlas.
Bram nodded as they left the shuttle and said, "But, what is still not known is when these aliens get to Memories, where they'll turn to next."
Tanner stopped and looked over at his Adept officer. "They may be looking for whoever did the bombing. They may just replace the foundries. They could go to Pentyaan space or enter the RIM too to look for culprits. Or, even worse, they may think that there are plenty of planets right here that are ripe for harvesting resources. It all remains to be seen—and my job is to now tell the Baroness about these latest developments. And she'll tell me what to do next, I assume."
He and Bram walked the few hundred feet over to the Atlas and were admitted to the landing bay, and they trooped up to Deck Five.
At the doorway to the bridge, Bram said, "Good luck, Sir," and he turned to go up the close stairwell to his quarters up on Deck Four.
Entering the bridge, the XO barked out, "Captain on the bridge," and Tanner waved them all back to duty.
Sitting heavily in his chair, he noted only eleven reports that needed his attention, and as he opened up the first one having something to do with one of the Atlas purchasing agents squawking about the high cost of perishables in the KappaD markets, he looked over at his Ansible officer.
"Lieutenant Irving, could you please place an EYES ONLY to the Baroness for me—at her convenience, of course, and when it's live, send it through to my ready room, Lieutenant?"
"Aye, Sir," she responded.
He went on to read more about why leaf and spear kale, which cost less than four credits per one thousand grams on Neres, should be priced at twenty-one credits here on KappaD. Kale. He couldn’t care less, but then this was a captain’s life, and he simply replied to find recipes that did not use kale and sent that off to the Atlas purchasing agent. Next, he thought, as he kept his eye on his Ansible station, but no word yet on that scheduled EYES ONLY.
Working as quickly as he could, Tanner was able to polish off seven more reports with his interest being only a bit tweaked by a couple of same. No more kale pricing, but an interesting one from Chief Warrant Officer Hartford who reported on more of the anti-grav testing metrics, and he grinned at the new numbers. Seems like any gravity well could support that copper plate to the same degree of weight as the gravity well itself. That was interesting, and he okayed the next round of testing and clicked his submit button.
Tea. He needed a tea, and he got up to go over to the bridge tea station and only then noticed that it was being replenished by one of the Atlas stewards—wait, he knew this man.
"Steward Ashley, I think?" he said and that got a smile from the man.
"Yes, Sir—that's me. Tea, Sir?" he said as he proffered up a tray with a steaming cup already double-doubled, it appeared.
Tanner nodded, took the mug, and smiled back. "Much obliged, Steward," he said, and he carefully returned to his seat without spilling a drop. Just as he was placing it on the captain’s console table, Lieutenant Irving spoke up.
"Sir, just got confirmation that your EYES ONLY to the Baroness will be in one hour, Sir, direct to your ready room," she said, and he grunted and waved her to send back scheduling confirmation for him.
One more hour until the meeting, and three more reports had been added to his list. He sipped the hot tea and let them all sit untended for now.
He had some thinking to do—about his future with the Lady St. August, about his future as a captain in the Barony Navy, and about these alien invaders too. He was glad that he—well he and the admiral of the RIM Navy too—had experience with this kind of invader. Even superior technology could be beaten if one analyzed it looking for any kind of a way to find an answer.
Lots to think about. While he pondered on those subjects for a bit, Lieutenant Irving interrupted once more.
"Sir, incoming Ansible from Neres—it's the EYES ONLY call, Sir. I'm transferring same to your ready room," which she did as Tanner quickly got up and went into the room just off the Atlas bridge and clicked the seal button on his way by the doorway.
He sat quickly too at the console and saw the twin crowns logo of the Barony in their telltale red and blue, and then the face of the Baroness appeared on the screen. She was sitting on some kind of an outside deck or patio in the palace, and she sipped a glass of wine and smiled at him. A real smile, he thought, is a good sign, right?
He smiled back and said, "Baroness, thank you for taking my call. I thought it necessary to apprise you of the changes that have occurred here on this refugee claim and our Memories mission, Ma’am."
She nodded and seemed to listen to his long one-sided conversation.
He told her of the real truth behind the Roma refugee claim, what they were running from and why, and that the alien invaders might never show up or they could be on their way right now too. He did also say—somehow trying to lessen the impact—that he had spoken to the RIM Navy captain on duty here, Captain Siegel, who also had said that if the refugee claim was denied, if the KappaD annexation was withdrawn, then the RIM Confederacy would be in the clear.
He doubted that such a case would be looked at the same way by an invader with superior technology who came looking for their equipment and he said so.
She nodded at that point too.
Finally, he got to the Council question. "Baroness, the Roma refugee captain has asked to present her story—the real story—at a full RIM Confederacy Council meeting. To explain their position and to stand in front of the members and ask for refugee status. The fact that they are using one of these alien's own ships is somewhat a mitigating circumstance, but from my own point of view, I think it might help in an overall sense to be open about this. You—well, the Barony that is—would already have made a decision about how you'd want this to be handled, Ma’am. And in front of one and all, we can be seen as being a major part of this for the Confederacy," he said, and then thought, Now the hard part.
"Ma’am, one more thing? If, and when, these aliens show up, if they're looking for culprits for the destruction of their foundries, they may not follow any kind of rational course of action. They might just leave. Or they might go to Pentyaan space for revenge—or to the RIM too. We don't know, Ma’am."
She stopped sipping her wine at that and looked away to whatever scene lay off camera. She held up a finger to put a halt to any more conversation for a minute and then turned back to Tanner. "What kind of success do you think we—the whole RIM Confederacy, I mean—could envision should they come looking for revenge?"
Ahh, he thought, there's the question.
"Ma’am, no idea really. But the admiral and I both faced similar alien resource invaders years ago in the inwards realm of the Earl of Kinross. We won against them, Ma’am—but against these unknown aliens, I have no idea. Ma’am," he said, and while he'd just spoken the truth, he too knew he had no idea. There was no way to measure one's success against an unknown invader.
She nodded and sipped again. "Take the Roma refugee representatives to the next full Council meeting—you're about, what, ten days and a bit from Juno—so you'll make it fine. Their captain is to make a formal
request to the Council for full RIM Confederacy refugee status, we'd play a Sponsoring role which is fine. Remind this captain though that she may face some tough queries—especially on the fact that they tried to get us to protect them without sharing any of the details. That is not so nice, and I know there will be pushback on that account from some members. My own retribution for that will come at a later time, I think," she said, and Tanner couldn't help but shiver slightly when he heard that.
He nodded to the Baroness, thanked her for her time, and said yes that he would give her regards to the Lady St. August for sure.
The EYES ONLY call ended again with those twin blue and red crowns on the Barony shield, and then the screen faded to black. He sat for a moment to try to think about what this all could mean for the Roma refugees.
The Baroness had said that some were going to be pissed at being lied to—he wondered who that might be. The Baroness had also said that she—on behalf of the Barony—was also not happy she'd been lied to as well, and there would be a price to pay for that at a later time too.
That worried him as well ...
#####
The Baroness noted, with a small degree of pleasure, that the DenKoss Council representatives were once again having issues with the temporary aqua beds they used when they attended the RIM Confederacy Council meetings. Splashing was going on now, and she knew by the dejected look on the face of a few stewards that they’d be mopping up soon as well. Aides tried to get them situated, but it seemed to be a lost cause.
The planet DenKoss was ninety-five percent oceans, and the sentient life form were these—well, fish one would call them. The fact that from underwater they’d launched spacecraft, settled their own moon with a colony, and were branching out of their own system when the Leudies had found them meant that they were driven—but what kind of a life was it when you were surrounded by water all the time? She shrugged. Not for me, she thought and turned as finally her own contingent arrived.
