Snark's Quest

by Timothy Ellis

  "We need to get our ship repaired, and then move on. But we need to make sure Bhatet or the Brotherhood don’t know where we’re headed, or what our ship’s capabilities are."

  Patchet hawked, and spat to the side.

  "Bhatet already knows what your ship can do. I wouldn’t worry about what I can learn. I’m the soul of discretion."

  "What do you mean?"

  "If you’ve come up against Bhatet, you’ve already given away your ship’s capabilities." He picked his teeth with his fingernail. "He'll be analysing the data as we speak. But I’m kosher. I’m not going to spill the beans on your set up. And I’m not going to on-sell anything I learn. Too much trouble."

  "Too much trouble?"

  "Yeah. Listen, new tech, people come from miles to get in on the action. Next thing you know, you’ve attracted all the scumbags in the galaxy, including Bhatet, hoping to steal or kill to get your secrets. I’d rather stay in one piece."

  Jamie was surprised. This was seeming too easy.

  "Look, you need some repairs, pay me a good price. I’ll do what I can with trying to cobble together some things you need, like some of the missiles etc. Need to put my thinking cap on for that."

  Jamie looked up surprised. He hadn’t even got to missiles yet.

  "But if Bhatet turns up, sorry, I’ll be singing like a galah."

  Neither Snark nor Jamie knew what a galah was, but they let it go.

  A deal was quickly worked out. Snark arranged transfer of Gals, half on start, half on finish of the job. They also agreed to limit Patchet’s overall understanding of the systems, so that if asked, he couldn’t tell.

  Patchet was thinking ahead however. With this job, he could retire. He needed to get out before Bhatet came wanting information. It was time to go. Where? He had a bolt hole he’d been preparing for years. But he was also intrigued. New humans were coming to the galaxy. He’d been in isolation for so long now, could he reintegrate? He didn’t know, but he knew his existence at Patchet Station was coming to an end. There’d been a Patchet here for three generations. Time to break the mould.

  Forty Nine

  Grand Mother looked up to see a tall cowled figure walking unannounced into her private office. As the door closed, and she felt fear, her hand reached for the buzzer to summon security, but didn’t make it.

  The cowl was thrown back to reveal a female human face, and the cloak came off completely revealing a clinging suit in the same colour as Snark had been wearing.

  "Greetings Grand Mother. Please excuse my covert entry to your private domain, but I come on the instructions of Queen Jane herself."

  "Is secrecy necessary?"

  "Perhaps, perhaps not, but I thought it best for you to decide. My name is Tranquil. I work for Jane in the Apricot Mapping Service, currently operating from the freighter Snark used for his first shipment from the owl homeworld."

  She paused to see if the old cat wanted to ask a question. When she didn't, she went on.

  "Jane sends her apologies."

  "What could she possibly have to apologize to me for?"

  "When I was here last week, I sent a complete report on the state of things to Jane. We're only just beginning to work out the political dynamics of this end of the galaxy, and starting with our friends seemed the best beginning. Neither of us saw the possibility of the assassination attempt on you, or the coup. We could have at least prevented you getting hurt."

  "How?"

  Tranquil dropped a belt on the desk.

  "Is that what Snark has?"

  "Yes. Except I'm not sure Snark really knows how to use it. It’s a combination of clothing, body armour, and space suit. With the right programming, you can wear anything you want to, and no-one is going to know it isn’t real clothes. This is the top military model, and it'll protect against single shots from our most powerful weapons, or many shots from more mundane weapons. The shot which nearly killed you, would have bounced off, leaving nothing more than a minor bruise on your body. Your slug thrower guns would be the same, with the metal simply bouncing off you. Jane deeply regrets not having me make a formal presentation when I was here, and offering you the belt suit as a gift then."

  "May I ask why you didn’t?"

  "I'm not a diplomat. In fact, the one thing the Kingdom lacks, is decent diplomatic experience. I'm just a ship captain, who specializes in exploration. Alas though, I'm also the only Kingdom citizen in this sector at the moment. So here I am. We are preparing a diplomatic mission, but were not yet ready to ask if you would receive it."

  "Why us?"

  "Sorry?"

  "The Kingdom has a whole local sector of species to make diplomatic contact with. Why a special mission for us cats?"

  "In the time Jane spent traveling between Gaia, the human home system, the sector ten council system, and the owl homeworld, she made three very good friends. The first was a Stick Insect, the second a Fuzzball, and the third was Snark. The first two are now her advisors, and diplomacy with the sector is easy for us, since the council took up her invitation to use her giant station to host the Sector Ten Council meetings."

  The screen on the wall turned itself on, and a station image rotated on it. The Grand Mother lost control of her lower jaw for a moment. It was huge, and around its outside were amazing cities. She'd heard of what human technology could do, but this was incredible.

  "I never would have believed such a thing was possible," she said.

  "It's still a work in progress, but Jane wants it to be the hub for the whole sector."

  "Can I keep the image?"

  "I've already saved it, and a lot of other information about the Kingdom, to your personal database."

  The Grand Mother flinched.

  "Sorry," said Tranquil. "I should have asked. This is why I'm not a diplomat. I figured you would want the files, so put them there. I didn’t consider you might not like me bypassing your security."

  "Can all humans do this?"

  "No. But all humans have access to a level of computers not even the Mice have as yet. Consequently, things like firewalls can't keep us out, if we have the expertise to get through them. You might like to keep that in mind when humans start turning up to trade. In fact, I’d go as far as suggesting you should contact the Mice, and arrange for better firewalls."

  "Do we really need them?"

  "Yes. It's not me and my kind you should fear at the moment. There are criminal elements which can read your computers with ease. And have already done so."

  "Thank you for the warning. May I ask what you know of the gun which almost killed me?"

  "A human security guard working for the Federation ambassador was killed while off duty. Everything on his person but his underclothes was taken. It never occurred to us the gun would end up here. In case anyone asks you, I've already taken back the gun. I've also deleted the research going on into how it works. Sometime soon, someone will raise the alarm over it going missing."

  "I'll look forward to the show."

  "If you don’t mind, let's get this belt on you, so I can show you how it works."

  Tranquil passed over a pad as well.

  "The activation options are on this pad, which replaces your tablet completely."

  "Let me guess, you copied my tablet to the pad as well."

  "As we've been talking."

  The Grand Mother sighed. She allowed Tranquil to place the belt around her waist, and followed the instructions on how to turn it on, and choose clothing. In a flash, she was dressed in the same red colour suit Snark had been.

  "This is the same as you wear?" she asked.

  "This is Hunter uniform. It needed a bit of tweaking to fit Snark properly, and this version is better suited to females of your species. There are options on the pad for outfits I've seen you wear in vids, on special occasions. I've been tailoring them to you as we talked, now I've been able to scan you properly. One of them emulates your normal skin colour, so you can be fully protected at all times, but appear norma
l. When I catch up to Snark, I'll give him some more options as well. Jane had thought he'd return to wearing nothing once he left our space, but I gather he's stuck to the suit."

  "He did seem to enjoy being bright red."

  Tranquil made a note. Dull red to humans was obviously bright red to cats. She went on to show her the settings and options, making a big deal out of setting the belt to hair-trigger mode, so the suit would turn into protection mode for any threat.

  "You might want to tell Snark as well," suggested the Grand Mother. "He was knocked around a lot while in custody, and when Seasprite rammed that ship. I'm assuming he wouldn’t have been hurt so much if his suit was set properly?"

  "He shouldn’t have. But then, Snark didn’t strike me as someone who paid much attention to the instructions for anything."

  The Grand Mother choked, and then laughed. She set her suit to skin tone, and continued to chuckle to herself.

  "Will you accept an Ambassadorial visit from the Kingdom?"

  "I'll need to confirm it, but yes. Can you offer me any medical aid?"

  "Me personally, no. My ship isn’t equipped with anything which would improve on your treatment so far."

  Her ship had no medical equipment at all, but this wasn’t something to be bandied about. She went on.

  "I can request Jane sends a medical team here if you like. They'd need to do extensive scanning of all the variations of cats here, before being able to adjust our medical equipment for your species. But once they do, such things as the scarring you have now should be removable."

  "Please do. I'll most gladly accept any medical help you can offer."

  "I've left contact details for Jane with the other files. You should contact her direct about the ambassadorial visit."

  "Won't it be quicker for you to do so?"

  "No. I've extended the Kingdom's coms network to here, and was in the process of backtracking Snark's backwoods route, when Jane had me return here. So an email should be received in a matter of minutes, and a reply be back to you in little more than the same time. I've added you and your staff's contact details into the network. When we have formal diplomatic relations, you can request full access to the network for your people. At a price to be negotiated."

  They both grinned.

  "May I ask you a personal question, my dear?"

  "Sure."

  "You refer to your Queen very casually. Is this normal for your people?"

  Tranquil laughed.

  "No. Let's just say Jane has a small group of very close friends. I happen to be one of them. Among those she is close with, all formalities are dispensed with. You may have noticed Snark not observing them."

  "I did, but never had the chance to ask him. Thank you. I'll send an email to your Queen within the next day. Can I ask you for some guidance as well?"

  "If I can, sure."

  "Is there any way we can benefit from your military expertise, without having to make a formal arrangement? This is an issue we need to discuss here, and asking for military ships to protect our system is something which only comes after an alliance is forged, and we are not even at the agreement to ask for an alliance point yet. And yet, we desperately need to be able to defend our system and planet from the likes of Bhatet and the Brotherhood."

  Tranquil thought for a few nanoseconds.

  "How about I just mention the most likely ambassador travels around in his own Assault Frigate, with a crew who know how to fight it. A medical mission would also be sent with a protection detail, and between them they probably rate a small fleet with a Pocket Battleship as the flagship. They would of course remain as long as needed by either team."

  "I think we understand each other, and I look forward to communicating with your Queen."

  "Thank you for receiving me. In the meantime, my ship is available to help should you need it, and I'm not too far away. I'm not a military officer, but I can assure you the ragtag fleet which attacked you before, would not have made it half as far as they did, had I been here. I can also tell you the approaches to your system are all under our surveillance now. Should any force head your way, you will receive good warning of it, and if possible, our help."

  "Why would you do this?"

  "Snark is a friend to Jane. Jane protects her friends. And their families."

  Tranquil didn’t wait for any more. She donned her cloak, pulled the cowl over her head, offered a short bow to the Grand Mother, and left.

  Fifty

  While the repairs were underway, Sissness and Anna were trying to concentrate despite the noise, disruption, and number of beings on the ship and surrounding it. They were interpreting the data from comparing the star chart to contemporary times, and how this matched to possible destinations for them.

  It was taking longer than they’d thought.

  "If we try data matching with the computer algorithms?" asked Sissness.

  "Might work. If we get at least one accurate correlation, we can go from there."

  Did they know what they were talking about? Probably not, thought Anna.

  Her search on 'Talisman' as a search parameter was bearing fruit though, although the number of references had to be checked for any possible linkage with the Destiny Stone. She’d set up a computer program to do the grunt work, and was checking anything it came up with. She still worried she’d miss something important. She was also trying 'Stepping Stones' in the same way.

  It just took time.

  The repairs were going well, and she made sure she was up to date, liaising with Snark and Jamie, and making suggestions where she could.

  "Hey Anna! I think we’ve got something!" Sissness called out excitedly.

  She’d run the last matching process, and the computer had come up with a match.

  "That has to be the Hunter Prime system over in sector ten. That’s the old Gauntlet, since there isn’t a similar string of linked systems anywhere else I know about. If this is true, and I can't see how it's not, the information on the original star chart points to this system, here." She pointed at the map. "The Perdita system. I’m doing a search on it, since I don’t know much about it."

  Anna wondered if they’d got it right. This system seemed to match the destination of the 'God' beings from the Cat planet. It was worth a try, since it was all they had.

  "Here we go. Looks like a system with a double star, and a number of planets, with some of the moons on the gas giants bring habitable. It doesn’t seem there are any local inhabitants, though. Oh, there’s a station near to a jump point, named Byways Station. If we go this way, we’ll be heading further out into the galaxy from the Cat System, and well, it’s not well known to my cat database."

  Anna sighed. It seemed their only lead. She'd had no Seeings for some time. She was worried maybe she'd somehow lost the ability?

  Jamie had come into the lounge where they were working, but not interrupted them. He’d certainly grown in confidence, not that he’d really lacked it, and seemed older, carrying responsibility well. He was still as enthusiastic as ever, which sometimes Anna found a little tiring.

  "Repairs are going well. Should be finished soon. He can't match our hull material exactly, but the local metals are almost as good. The missile launchers were not particularly difficult to reseat, and it turned out the gun mount had some hull metal jammed in the rotation mechanism, and part of the energy buffer missing, so it was otherwise in good shape. Patchet took the buffer out of one of the other turrets, and made a new one from it. Seems he knew all about them, but ours are a more up to date design than he'd seen before. Patchet’s got some good ideas for building some new missiles, but this will be what holds us up, if anything."

  Sissness piped up.

  "We may have a new destination! Perdita system."

  Jamie leant down to read the screen of the tablet. He stood back up.

  "Great!"

  "We’re trying to get some details, and narrow down what we do when we get there," added Anna.

  Jamie plonk
ed himself down on the couch.

  "It’s a bit unreal," he said. "We’re on this mission, don’t know quite where we’re going or why, and what we’ll find when we get there!" He grinned. "I like it!"

  Anna was getting annoyed he'd touched on exactly her worry, and felt defensive. But when he grinned, she did too. It was infectious. You couldn’t stay grumpy for long around Jamie.

  Snark came in.

  "Bloody mop heads!"

  Except for Snark, Anna thought to herself.

  "Between Jamie and Patchet, we’re in danger of not knowing which end of the ship is the other!"

  He jumped up onto an armrest of the couch, and perched there.

  "Of course you know better," said Jamie, amused.

  "Of course," came the grumpy reply.

  "Jamie said the repairs should be finished soon," said Sissness.

  "Only because I’m there to knock their heads together."

  Jamie wasn’t fazed. He was used to Snark’s narkiness by now. Water off a duck’s back to him.

  Patchet had a team of tradies, engineers, metal workers, systems experts, all different species, but all competent in their area of expertise. In fact, looks were deceiving for Patchet’s operation. It might look disorganised and shoddy, but when they got going, they were efficient and effective. Jamie was impressed. Not that he knew much about this stuff, but he could see they were getting a good deal.

  Snark was also impressed. He knew much more about it, and although they were all learning about this ship’s systems, he could see how expert the team was working on the ship. Patchet was also very astute in how he made sure not one of his team could understand how anything fit together as a whole, and they only had part of the picture. Fortunately, it hadn’t been necessary to let anyone into the main computer, as most of what needed fixing was external.

  Sissness piped up again.

  "Snark, we may have a destination!"

  "About bloody time!" snarled Snark.

  "Perdita system," continued Sissness, who was also unfazed.

  "Isn’t that where Byways station is?" asked Snark. "Think I’ve been there. It’s a hole!"