“Aye, Captain.”
Har-Hi said, “You have been to Hangar B lately, right?”
I shook my head. “No, I have not. I was busy coordinating the rescue efforts. You know yourself I spend more time out there in a suit than I care for. I am glad the Baghdad and the other ships are here.” I paused and looked directly into his snug face. “Why, what have they done?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think I have the correct vocabulary to describe it, but I think you might want to check it out.”
I followed my Dai friend to the IST. “What did they do?”
“It’s really better you see it for yourself.”
We left the Inter-Ship transport a few seconds later and stepped into the central corridor of the ship’s hangar and flight deck, also called the Equatorial Deck, as it was in the middle and by volume the largest deck section of the Tigershark. A big Marine, so loaded with boxes he could barely see, almost bumped us. He obviously did not see who he almost ran into because he said, “Sorry, mate, just coming on through!”
He went past us and disappeared behind the massive double doors to Hangar Bay B.
The Tigershark had four main hangars bays. Bay A was meant for the four Wolfcrafts we had yet to receive. Bay B was supposedly there for a complement of six Thor Gunboats, also still on the list of things we were missing. Bay C was home to the Gazelle Recon Craft, and our four Goliath Landing tanks, and Bay D held a D20 Shuttle configured as a Multipurpose Science and Survey platform. Each hangar bay was seventy meters long, fifty deep and the ceiling was twenty meters from the bay floor.
From the other side of the corridor, where the big freight elevator was, came Hans and the massive Y’All. They both struggled with a huge crate that would have been a challenge even for a big load handler.
Har-Hi pointed with his chin toward the two and said to me, “It has been going on like that for two days now. Every time I come down here, I feel I am in some sort of freight forwarding center. I doubt there is much left in that bazaar.”
Unable to predict what would await me, I took a deep breath and stepped through the big door that was parting before me. I had to brush a heavy velvet curtain aside before I could actually see. I stopped dead in my tracks as I looked around. It used to be starkly empty with hexagonal-shaped armor plating and X-shaped support frames. Now the walls were draped with heavy crimson and black velvet curtains. The ceiling sported a wall to wall picture of a space battle scene between the Silver Streak and a Shiss armed trader vessel. It looked more like a scene from a cheesy space holo than reality. I also noticed Narth floating way up there, putting finishing touches to it.
In the center of the former hangar bay was a massive-looking round table of at least ten meters in diameter, which had the appearance of being made out of a dark silver metal. The table surface was richly inlaid with artwork that could have been straight from the Nilfeheim Book of Traditions if the muscled heroes struggling with monsters would have been human. The entire surface was stylized like a wagon wheel of old, segmenting the artwork into twenty-four areas. Twenty-four golden spokes started at the inner ring and ended at a central nave.
Around the table, I counted twenty-five oversized high-backed matching arm chairs, richly upholstered with black leather. A twenty-sixth chair was even taller than the others and featured the skull of something large and wicked centered on top of the backrest.
Six-meter-tall braziers stood in equal intervals all around the hall. They were made of twisted dark metal and must have been dreamed up by a gothic artist who spent most of his time thinking about torture and claws. They looked as if a dozen serpents or so completely intertwined fought each other with hooks, claws, and spiny thorns. Dark red flames flickered smokeless out of bowls mounted on top.
Above the table hung a chandelier that matched the table’s design and each of the chandelier arms held a glittering diamond-shaped dragonhead, projecting light on each of the table’s segments.
To the left side, stacked against the wall, were at least fifty large transport chests, and several of them were open, overflowing with Polonium Coins. Metal barrels were filled with gemstones, gold coins, and jewelry. To the right side were several stacks of Saresii silk bales, each worth many thousand credits, along with a pile of furs and other luxury fabrics.
In between those treasures stood solid-looking racks of steel and wood holding an arsenal of swords, lances, rifles, and energy weapons, a collection it seemed represented every known and quite a few unknown civilizations.
Huge Saran floor vases, made of black alabaster and gold, a statue of the Saran death god Seth holding a sharp-looking wickedly curved sword were only a few of the art and antique objects that decorated the room I could identify.
Cirruit stood at the opposite of the bay, directing the little Holdian, who operated a hand-held tractor crane projector manipulating a large an exceptional ugly stone statue depicting what I thought was a headless, very fat Shiss female, in a prominent place.
Cirruit noticed me as I came closer, still staring at all the things. Even though his face was expressionless as always, I knew he was deeply satisfied.
He stemmed his fists into his hips and said, “What do you think, Captain? This is the famous Venus of Milo, a priceless pre-Astro Terran art object.”
I looked at it closer and shrugged. “I don’t know. It sure looks like a headless pregnant Shiss to me.”
He sounded almost offended. “Captain, this is priceless art from a Terran artist named Donald Duck. He lived on the Planet Coney Island and was famous for his work, all over the moon! I remember each detail the Gellurian art dealer told me.”
I said, “How can it be Terran art if he lived on a different planet?”
Har-Hi held his chin while he looked at the statue with crossed arms. “You know, I have this perfectly good genuine rock made of real rock, barely used, and I was told it came from a river on Terra. I’ll let you have it for a spot.”
Cirruit protested, “And you never told me you have such a thing? How much do you want for it?”
I slowly turned, taking it all in. “This is really some work you all put in here!”
The Golden Merchant, wearing only a pair of pants and a shirt, with dark grime all over his face, crawled from underneath the table, holding a polishing rag and a tube of metal polish. He smiled in deep satisfaction.
He wiped his brow, leaving another streak, and he said, “I am glad you like it, ma’am. This table is over half a million years old and was made for the council room of a once mighty but now forgotten kingdom. It’s made of nineteen tons of pure platinum and eight tons of gold, not to mention almost a ton in Rhodium inlays. The spokes and chairs are enriched with Rhodium inlays. So is the chandelier. I doubt even your famous Schwartz Industries has a more expensive and impressive conference table!”
He held up his polishing rag. “It doesn’t look like much now, but once I get it all shiny, you will see how pretty it is!”
Cirruit shrugged. “I told him we could get Nanites to do the cleaning, but he insists that an antique like that needs to be hand polished!”
The old merchant said, “So what do you think, Captain?”
Everyone stopped working and looked at me. I noticed that the tail of the little Holdian twitched while he looked at me with anticipation from his big black button eyes.
I looked around once again and then said, “I think it is marvelous, beyond anything I imagined. Do we owe someone a huge bill for all this?”
Sobody looked insulted. “Captain, with all due respect, you could not even begin to imagine the wealth I have amassed in eighteen thousand of your years of being the leader of a merchant and trader society. I think I might even be a close second to this Rex Schwartz. He isn’t the only Centillionair, as the Union press always claims he is, you know!”
He pointed at the treasures and said, “This is but a small token to express my gratitude that you so readily accepted me.” He then pointed his rag at Cirruit. “If it is
permitted, I must, however, teach your Chief Engineer a thing or two about the honesty of bazaar merchants, especially Gellurians!”
I laughed. “You may try that indeed. But you all did a tremendous job. I think we should have all our conferences and meetings here. And this should be our mess hall. Yes, we will have our daily dinner here; someone needs to work out a rotation schedule so all crew members can eat here.”
The Holdian said, perplexed, “Captain, did you mean all crew members? Officers sharing a table with enlisted?”
I nodded. “That’s right. We eat here, all of us. There are 360 of us, counting officers, crew, and Marines. We got eight watches, and they rotate, so everyone has same chance to eat the dinner meal here.”
Narth said, “That would be 14.4 dinners. Every crewman would eat here every 14.4 days.”
The Holdian clapped his little hands. “That means I eat here all the time. After all, I am the point-four crewman, right?”
Everyone laughed, even Har-Hi.
I said, “There is room for more chairs anyhow. It’s a big table and not all of us need that much space.”
Elfi interrupted us, “Captain, a pirate just attacked 211 light years from here in Union Space.”
I headed for the door and said, “Har-Hi, see that everyone is aboard. Cirruit, get your engines hot and get Shaka, on the bridge. There is nothing we can do about the attack, but we can start hunting now!”
Chapter 6: Rock Breaker
The Janus Device was active, and the Tigershark looked once more like the Kartanian Battle Merchant.
Krabbel said, “It’s official now, Captain. We are in Free Space.”
We had left the Golden Bazaar behind us and were on a course straight to Brhama Port. The journey would take four more days, as we could not fly as fast as we could but as fast as a Kartanian Battle Merchant with two added ISAH pods. Narth and Shea had been working for the last two days on something, and I noticed them now for the third straight shift. Now Three-Four had joined them, and I turned on my seat and said, “Would you three over there explain what you are doing? Not that I probably understand it, but I’d still sort of like to know.”
Shea said, “Union ISAH pods interrupt the super-symmetry that exists between Fermions and Boson particles. While a ship travels in Quasi-space, the correlated superpartners are affected in regular space, and while this is possible in zero dimension environments, it is not in four-dimensional environments. Therefore, we think—”
I said, “Teaches me to ask you guys what you are doing!”
Narth said, “Thankfully, I am able to understand the captain on a direct mental level, and she is not asking us to teach her more, but I think it was an example of sarcasm. The captain simply isn’t able to follow your explanation on an intellectual comprehensive level.”
I sighed, “He did it again! He managed to call me an idiot, and I should be angry, but how can I be, since I know he didn’t mean it.”
Narth turned, too, and said, “I would ask for apologies, but how can I, since you have already forgiven me. Would it be helpful if I tell you Wetmouth had to explain her idea to me as well before I comprehended?”
“In Odin’s name, just tell me what you are doing.”
Now it was Three-Four who said, “Captain, we are trying to isolate and find a possible trail of either the stolen Barracuda or the Red Dragon. Since both use Union Isah Pods and there is a high probability they went this way, if Brhama Port is their target. Since my natural senses allow me to sense such minute trails better, they now try to modify a sensor array with my input.”
“That was an explanation I understood, and it sounds really fascinating.”
Cirruit came on the bridge carrying a technical device and went straight to Shea. “I think I got it. I made it exactly to your specifications.”
Har-Hi grinned as he looked at me. “We are flying in the most advanced ship the Union has ever built, and our geeks are already tinkering with the hardware to improve it.”
Five minutes passed, with more tinkering and talking between the four, and Cirruit’s legs sticking out of an open access panel underneath Shea’s main science console.
Ship’s voice said, “Shea, it works. I think I isolated the Barracuda’s trail.”
Narth went back to his OPS console and his fingers flew over the input contacts, then he said to me, “Captain, we have the trail of the stolen ship, and I am feeding the sensor data to Krabbel for navigation in case you want to follow it.”
I smiled at Har-Hi. “Looks like they managed to do just that. Mr. Krabbel, set a course following that trail, and Mr. Chitauli, increase our speed a notch still within Kartanian capabilities.”
The trail became stronger and then Narth reported, “Three contacts on sensor horizon. One of the contacts has clear Union energy signatures and conforms to those of a Barracuda. The other two appear to be of Kermac T configuration.”
Yeoman O’Connell, who was never far from me, said, “Kermac T ships are not civilian or available for civilians. That means the Kermac have violated the Free Space Treaty.”
Shea said, “For the chance to get their hands on Translocator technology, they would risk anything.”
Narth put up a tactical map of the region, and I could see the three contacts near a small white star. The map identified the star as Auriga Xi, which, according to the Union Star catalog, had only been optically surveyed. There was no detailed data available, but it was assumed to be uninhabited, as it only had a few gas giants and one rock core planet that was very close to its sun.
There was no other artificial contact within sensor range.
I leaned back, my right hand on the Intuitive Controls. “All hands, battle stations! Mr. Narth, I know it is not Kartanian, but I understand our Janus device is capable of cloaking us against sensor detection.”
“Yes, Captain, we can mask our sensor signature in that way.”
“Render us invisible to their sensors half a second before we drop out of Quasi-Space. If it is a mystery to them how we did that, so be it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mr. Chitauli, take us as close as you can before you drop out of Quasi-Space and coordinate with Mr. Narth.”
“Understood, Captain, I can take us as close as 250 kilometers.”
“Excellent. Mr. Vouza, stand by on QGP and Froth casters, load one kg AM load into our sniper cannons and fire the TL simultaneous to mask the translocators. I want you to target the drive sections of all three ships simultaneously, and yes, I authorize Ship to assist you. I want them unable to maneuver before they even know what happened. After the first volley, Mr. Chitauli will take us with a micro jump back out a light minute or two.”
My friends made the necessary computations and adjustments, and I said to Hans, “Mr. Kleinschmitt, prepare your Marines for boarding action.”
My command seat was in battle mode and once again it was as if I was sitting outside on the hull with an unobstructed view of space. Of course, it was a simulation and the image our visual sensors received, as the human eye had no chance to see that far or make out objects as small as ships in an environment where size meant nothing. The individual departments represented in floating icons, as well as important data about speed, course, weapon range, shield strength, and a host of other information I found necessary. The display was customized to my preferences.
Har-Hi’s icon blinked and expanded to show his face, and he looked at me. “You told me to play devil’s advocate and you made me your XO to keep you in check, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then I suggest you do not go with Hans and lead the boarding action!”
His suggestion caught me off guard. “We haven’t even engaged the enemy yet, and I didn’t think that far yet. I was just playing with the idea… and how did you even guess I was thinking?”
“First of all, I know you by now a little. All this sugar and girl stuff can’t fool me; underneath all that dominatrix leather is still the same
ready to rumble Eric I know. Second, I noticed you trained with Hans to use the new Gilgamesh suits and third and finally, you already asked Ship to prepare your Auto-Dresser.”
I felt like a child caught with my hand in the cookie jar. “I am supposed to be a pirate and that is what they do; besides, I don’t like to send men into harm’s way without them knowing I am there as well.”
“You are not a midshipman anymore; you do not lead a group of cadets as dorm eldest. You’re the captain now.”
He disconnected before I could say anything, and I knew he was right. Union Fleet regulations were as clear as glacial water. The captain’s place was on the bridge and not leading a boarding party of Marines. But then Captain Zezzh had done it and my idol Stahl did it countless times and was famous for it.
My musing thoughts had to take a backseat now. The Tigershark approached the three ships fast. Narth displayed a more detailed sensor report now as we were close. The enemy ships were two full-size Kermac T Class Cruisers. Kermac technology was behind Union tech, but not by much, and they were well armed and shielded.
I could not rely on Loki torpedoes or large TL loads that would ruin our disguise, and the chances that someone else was watching was likely.
Narth said, “They are ready to make the deal and plan to land on the third moon of the first gas giant. The Barracuda still has a functional translocator cannon; I can sense that one of the Union officers was able to disable the auto-destruct feature. The Kermac have no intentions of keeping the Barracuda crew alive, except the one who has Translocator knowledge.”
Ship counted down the seconds until we would drop out of Quasi. “Eight, seven, six, five…”
The disguised Tigershark was a true marvel of technology, but my crew made it a terrifying tool of power and might. No regular helmsman would have ever dared to come that close to a planet and other ships out of Quasi-space. No tactical officer in the entire Fleet could rely on a computronic that was not just a machine, but his friend, and understood what he wanted to do. What captain could rely not only on the ship’s sensors but on the senses of a Narth? Science officers would usually sit back during a battle situation, but Shea used every bit of data from sensors, Narth, the vast data banks and processed it in her brilliant mind, to give Mao millimeter-precise target data of weak spots.
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 88
