Circuit came on the bridge. “I knew she would run out of fuel, but I did not expect the engineers of the Intruder to be that bad. Looks like the leaking plasma was not completely vented and caused a plasma fire. I bet their engineering is a mess right now.”
Mao responded without turning. “I take that bet, because I think it might always been a mess.”
Elfi held up her hand. “Captain, the Red Dragon is hailing.”
Har-Hi handed me my mask.
Moments later the Red Dragon appeared on our main screen. “Looks like you managed to shake the Togar. My friend Captain Meateater did not think we see you again.”
“Life is full of surprises. That we would find him halfway between Alvor’s Cove and Itheamh however is not. Are we still have this meeting you invited me or is it off the table and I go back to business as usual?”
“Of course it is still going to happen, meet us in four days at the Rifafh tavern. ”
“I assume it is easy to find?”
“Yes, it is. It is famous. If you stick around till we can make it to Itheamh, I show you where it is myself. You would not have spare parts for a Shankar drive and a good engineer by any Chance? ”
“No, I have Isah Pods as you know, not that I even know what a Shankar drive is.”
The masked pirate sighed, me neither, I guess we do have to wait for one of my associates to arrive from Itheamh, my tractors have been over strained and unfortunately my engineers are unable to recalibrate it.”
“It seems you need engineers that can service that fancy ship of yours.”
His voice had an edge of anger. “You stating the obvious is not helpful, but I intend to remedy that soon.”
He disconnected and I said.“I guess we can stick around for a while, maybe something develops and we can take Meateater out of the equation.”
I got up with the intend to return some of the coffee I had earlier to the recycling system or in other words I intended to use the bathroom. I noticed Tyron Suit standing with his robot body next to Hans by the security console that was like engineering, computronic control a so called secondary bridge stations and located in the back area of the bridge. This back area had various names. On the Devi it was called Administration. On the USS Hyperion they called it Tank room. It seemed we weren't long enough in space to have our on name for it. Officially it was called Secondary command and control,
This area behind the command isle also featured the Nav-tank. On the Devi and other large ships, it was where the Flight boss and Auxiliary craft command had their stations as well. Even if the Tigershark would have had all her auxiliary craft, she did not have a separate flight boss or aux craft control stations. These tasks were split between XO and OPS on ships of our class and size.
The bridge of the Tigershark was hexagonal in shape and slightly wider than deep. The very center of it featured the so called command isle, a raised platform with my Command chair at its center, flanked to the left by the seat of the XO and to the right by the OPS station. Sobody who used the so called observer seat,meant for a visiting admiral or someone similar was sitting next to the XO.
Up front, the entire wall was occupied by our main viewer, it could be raised and reveal a real view port. In space there was litttle reason to do so, but we did it on Alvor’s Cove.
Right before the screen was the Helm station, and usually an like now occupied by Shaka.
A little further back and to his left was Tactical with Mao and on the same line to his right Navigation, which was configured right now to Krabbel’s needs.
A few meters back but still before the command isle were Science on the left and Communications on the right. Between the Navigations and the Communications position the access door to a multi species bathroom facility. The one I contemplated using soon. There was hardly a place I loved more than my bridge, this was my real home.
After I had taken care of my imminent need and stepped back out, I watched Three-Four talking to Shea, Prince Xon the immense Nul watching Elfi. Mehedi sitting on an extra chair next to Shaka, being very serious about his wish to learn Helm operations.
The main viewer focused on the two pirate ships, waiting for a tow from Itheamh. The Red Dragon of course remaining to protect his associate. While it was a quiet moment my ship and its crew still working together like a well maintained machine. Whenever I reflected on this I felt very proud of them.
I walked up the ramp that led to the back of the bridge. The opposite side of the main viewer featured the two IST shafts and the main bridge doors. Flanked by two marines, one of them the always quiet Attikan Fective and the other one of our Pertharians.
Checking the chrono display above the main viewer, I noticed there we were already well into Second dog watch, of course the situation at hand had kept me and my senior officers on the bridge, but the marines should have been rotated almost 20 minutes ago.
“Say, Mr. Fective I noticed you are past your shift.”
“Aye, Captain but you are here.” He said that as if it explained it all.
Hans turned from his panel. “Our marines take the task of protecting you even more serious than any other duty and that is saying something, Ma’am. Union marines take anything duty related more serious than life.”
Tyron Suit snapped in attention as I looked at him.
“Mr. Suit, we don’t salute on the bridge. Have Hans give you instructions on bridge etiquette.”
“Yes , Captain ma,am. I consumed the entire volume of Union fleet regulations and hope by adhering to all of them, meeting your approval. One has observed that every being in this ship is motivated by the same focus.”
“Relax, Mr. Suit, so far I heard nothing that would make me think negative of you, but since you are here let me ask you a question. According to our enemy, the man who found you also owns a suit similar to you. He claims he was informed about an active and operational Seenian materials depot. You would not have similar information?”
The suit said: “I am sorry, Captain, I have no such information. Such vital information was never revealed to a suit and if such knowledge ws ever present it has been erased from our memory so the enemy could not obtain it by capturing a suit.”
He looked at the screen and said, “I know of the other suit but it has been almost completely destroyed. It however never was a Command type like I am, just a general troop unit and its brain center is damaged and deteriorated and thus unable to affect self-repair. I am detecting the presence of an independent data device within the remnants of the suit , but not a part of the suit itelf. I can attempt to activate it.”
“Would the wearer not notice if you are communicating with his suit?”
“No, he is not a Seenian.”
“Then it might save us a lot of time if you can try and see what information his suit is storing.”
“Yes Captain. Communication established. Download of all stored data in progress and completed. The other Suit is, as I suspected a Drago Model issued to standard troops. It has no information about any Depot locations. The independent storage device however might have held such information. It has been deleted and reset.”
I mused while looking at the suit “He did find you and he does have the Seenian weapon and shields. He somehow managed to access that data device, obtained the information and hid it somewhere else.”
The suit said: ““Lt Cirruit suggested I should make sure this enemy of ours will not be able to make use of even the most basic functions of the damaged suit and also disable the Seenian hardware he has installed in his ship. Do you wish me to commence?”
“What would you do?”
“I can instruct all his Seenian equipment to self-destruct in two ways: Forceful release of all energies on atomic level or molecular decay causing it to turn to molecular dust.”
“That would be a neat trick. But we need to wait with that. If he thinks Seenian things are worthless he will abandon the quest. You could not simply deactivate them in a way he can not turn them on.?
”
“Yes that is possible too.”
“Go for it, Him not having a Seenian Cannon and shields will make me feel better.”
“Deactivating command sent, Captain. All Seenian equipment aboard the enemy ship is now worthless scrap.”
“Thank you!”
Narth looked over his sensors. “Indeed it worked, the Red Dragon’s Seenian equipment just shut down.”
Mao interrupted. “Captai,n contact approaching coming from the Itheamh direction.It is the Merchant’s Sorrow.”
Itheamh was the fourth planet in an eleven planet system around a K spectrum star localy called Pernac, meaning Light according to our Golden friend.
It was just as Sobody described it. The system was busy with incoming, outgoing and interplanetary traffic. We passed a convoy of eleven heavy freighters. Seven bore the logo of SII and the rest had the Enroe E on their hulls. The convoy was escorted by a dozen frigates and forty destroyers, all flying under corporate flags.
Har Hi said, “This is how the big boys do it, big convoys heavily protected; only fools would try to attack them.”
Our destination, the fourth planet was, as it turned out, a cold almost waterless dust ball, and it turned out we did not have to land.
Sobody guided us to one of the orbiting space docks and we were immediately hailed by a Karthanian.
“This is Fantlemo Brthail, proprietor and owner of the Brthail Orbital Ship yard, calling the Silver Streak.”
I identified myself and the alien with the seahorse like face said.
“Please switch to a scrambled secure channel.”
Elfi established a secure connection and the Alien said. “Welcome to Itheamh, I was called by a friend from the Golden Bazaar and I am expecting you. There is a do-it-yourself repair dock at the end of the third mooring arm; you are welcome to use it. It is well equipped and shielded from prying eyes and sensors.”
I thanked him and the Karthanian said. “It is a pleasure to assist friends of my friend.”
Sobody said, “I’ve known him for many years and he is trustworthy. He does not know any details and will not ask any questions, but it might be a good idea to meet with him. He knows much about what is going on around these parts.”
Just then the Red Dragon called and said. “I see you know your way around here, but then that isn’t a big surprise, you fly a Karthanian ship after all. Meateater and I will land on the planet. He is getting new engines and will have them installed by experts. I too are in need of professional maintenance As soon as all my associates are here, I would like to invite you to a meeting at the Rifafh Tavern where we will discuss the future of our proposed cooperation and our little expedition.”
I said. “When will that be? Are we going to be here a long time?”
“No my impatient friend, I am as eager as you to get started. I am waiting on two more ships that are already on their way. We’ll have our meeting two days.
“It does, I just don’t like to stay idle for too long without knowing if we are really going on that trip or not.”
He waved with his hands.
“You would not be here and we would not be talking right now if I hadn’t made up my mind already. Of course you will be part of it, see you at the meeting.”
With these words he disconnected.
I humored Sobody and we went to see the Karthanian who owned this impressive and quite big Space dock facility that could easily service fifty ships even larger than the Silver Streak. To me, every Karthanian looked exactly like Captain Sposhtrah and I wondered what method they used to recognize each other. He greeted us in a luxurious and spacious office that was located on top of his space dock, featuring large view ports, showing the planet below and the three long mooring arms. We had accessed the office via a lift platform and, besides Sobody who wore his golden robes and the attached hood pulled up and draped before his face, Har-Hi and Narth accompanied me.
Brthail, the Karthanian wore a dark red pant suit like garment, with golden seams and extended both his spidery fingers that began where humans had their elbow.
“Thank you for honoring me with a visit, Captain Velvet. Please make yourself comfortable while I set the ambiance.”
I wondered what he meant, but we sat down on three Vari form chairs he had grouped before his kidney shaped floating glass desk. One of his spidery fingers touched a lighted sensor and it changed from red to green and then he said.”
I just activated a Union Tech privacy field; it ensures that we can talk uninhibited.”
Narth said in my mind, “Sobody is correct; he is trust worthy and does not know who we really are. As he is about to explain why he feels this is necessary, let him do that.”
Sobody pulled back his hood and said: “I am sorry for deceiving you old friend. I am not on the Bazaar, I am right here and I would not miss the opportunity to see you in person and introduce you to very dear friends of mine.”
The bony rigid head of the Karthanian somehow managed to show surprise and I had no idea how I managed to see that. He came around his desk, wrapped his long fingers around the Golden and said,
“It is so good to see you; it is over nineteen years now since we last met in person.”
Then he said to us:“Anything you need, name it and I will attempt to get it. I owe this Golden my life and I’ve never had the chance to do anything for him.”
I said, “It would be good if you keep the fact that the Great Merchant travels with us a secret.”
The Karthanian said: “I spent eighteen long years on a Smelter Moon and I learned how to keep my mouth shut the hard way. I would rather die than divulge anything that is said in here to anyone. Besides I am Psi shielded.”
Har-Hi gestured around the room, “If this is your place why the security field?”
The Karthanian went to a Serv-Matic, I noticed it too was a Union model and said, “I do not know what humans drink, but this machine is of Union origin and has several refreshment options stored. I am sure you might like one of them. I personally can’t get enough of a liquid substance called Coke; it is better than any Karthanian Slobber and is so stimulating too.”
I asked for a Coke and Har-Hi for water, Narth abstained.
While he served the drinks he answered Har-Hi’s question. “Because the guild has ears everywhere. Almost thirty years ago I openly criticized the Chamber and ended up as a slave on a smelter moon. Technically this is a free world and not Karthanian, but our main world is not far from here and they don’t like that I run a ship yard that is not controlled by the Chamber.”
He dipped his long black tongue into his Coke and I said,
“I know very little of the inner politics of the Karthanian, but I have heard of the Smelter Moons. Since I am here, I am curious how you managed to build a business like this.”
The Karthanian said. “I will tell you, and since you have Sobody’s trust, I will trust you too. What you asked of me, I would like to ask of you. What I tell you must not leave this room as not only my life but the lives of many depend on that.”
“I give you my word.”
The Owner of the ship yard gestured towards the Golden. “Eighteen years ago, he and a delegation of Golden Merchants were part of a grand tour. The Chamber, knowing of their far reaching connections and high level of technology, hoped to improve relations with the Golden. As they toured the Smelter Moon, he witnessed me being beaten for stealing an extra portion of Slobber. He talked to me in an unobserved moment and smuggled me disguised in a Golden Guard uniform into his ship. It was Sobody who financed this Space dock. The Chamber and its agents suspect that I am an escaped Slave; they do not know that Fantlemo Brthail is Grtonner Icylemh. However if they ever find out, they will try to silence me forever as I know too many secrets. They fear that I will use my knowledge to unite the opposition and sweep that corrupt Chamber clean. Unfortunatley we can’t unite without the First Engineer being awake.”
His voice had changed and gained a hard edge as he f
inished his explanation. Sobody sighed.
“I wish we could help you, but from what I hear, the Chamber rules the Karthanian masses with an iron fist.”
The Karthanian put down his glass and said:
“Yes and they have to send more and more to the Smelter Moons. They have even begun to sell Karthanian citizens into slavery to other civilizations, just to silence the voices that demand changes. Right now there is not much that can be done, but there is hope. One day someone will manage to infiltrate the Chamber tower and wake the First Engineer. That is the day their spell will be broken and the Karthanian people will be free again.”
He made a sweeping gesture.
“Enough of me and this sad story of my people; you are pirates and have little interest or use for such information, but I saw you fly a Karthanian Norgat Class Armed Freighter. It is a good class and solid design, but it is old. I have a brand new Romther Class with much better armor and eight dedicated weapon turrets. It is fast, has good engines and my engineers could transfer those magnificent ISAH pods you have. Professionally installed, much better than they appear to be installed right now on your current ship. Of course the ship would be a gift.”
I looked to Narth and he nodded. I said: “This is a generous offer and any pirate would be a fool to say no, but we must decline. We will, however, make substantial repairs and improvements to our ship while we can use the Dock facilities, but we are not just pirates. We are representatives of a certain association on a very secretive mission and your insight and information about the Karthanian situation is of interest to us.”
He got up and opened a wooden cabinet, revealing a GalNet terminal. “This came with the last supply ship from the Bazaar. I am a Union Citizen as I am a naturalized member of the Golden. I already planned to take a trip to the Bazaar, take the citizen class and get my CITI. One day I am going to take a trip on these mysterious, marvellous space trains I hear you have and visit the Bridge and perhaps even the Andromeda Galaxy.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 137
