by Musser, Dale
“As long as it’s nothing illegal, you have a deal.”
“I assure you it’s not illegal, but it will mean withholding some information from your superiors and fellow FOI agents.”
“I’m not so sure I can do that,” Halfredies said, squirming slightly in his chair.
“I think after I share what I have to say, you will agree; but I’ll let you decide on that. We know that your brother had been approached by the Brotherhood, who was trying to persuade him, shall we say, to turn over the designs for the 10X reactor designs. We also know that he refused and was found dead a few days later; and we believe that he was killed by the Brotherhood.”
I carefully watched Halfredies for his reactions while I spoke, but he displayed no physical reaction to anything I was saying. He obviously had a tremendously stoic control over his emotions and reactions.
“We also believe that there is a strong infiltration of Brotherhood members within the FOI that stretches all the way into the higher ranks, which is why the Federation military forces never received warning about the growing threat of their presence. It’s also the reason I believe his file and case information have been withheld from you. My guess is that they have kept you away from a lot of stuff recently.”
“I must confess that what you’re telling me is nothing I haven’t surmised on my own; but I don’t think you have gone to all the trouble of getting Galetils’ file for me just to tell me this.”
“You’re right – and now we come to the part that I must ask you to not reveal to anyone. A great deal is at stake for the Federation’s security and your secrecy is required.”
“I’ve sworn my allegiance to the Federation; it was required when I joined the FOI,” Halfredies said a bit stiffly.
“Yes, and so did a lot of Federation troops and many of your associates in the FOI who have been working for the Brotherhood. I want your personal word, on the honor of your brother, that you will keep secret what I am about to say.”
Halfredies again adjusted himself in his chair and looked me in the eye. “I’ll swear on my brother’s honor, so long as there is nothing illegal in what you say.”
“Good enough for me,” I said. “As I stated earlier, we believe there are a number of Brotherhood operatives within the FOI, so many and so strategically placed as to make any intelligence reports coming to the Senate or the military’s High Command highly questionable and nearly worthless. The military would like to clean up the FOI – test and weed out the Brotherhood, I guess is the plainest way to say it. Admiral Regeny’s teams can’t get at them because of the structure within the FOI organization. For this reason a new covert group has been set up independently of the FOI to collect intelligence and ferret out Brotherhood operatives in all branches of government, without those branches and the Brotherhood knowing about the agency’s existence or its activities.”
I could see Halfredies reacting to this news with interest. I continued, “In light of everything I’ve just told you, I believe that once you see the information in your brother’s file, you will see that we share a common interest.”
“So what is it you want?” Halfredies asked. “Do you expect me to resign my position with the FOI and go to work for this new organization you’re forming? Don’t you think the FOI will find my actions suspicious and realize that I’ve left to work for some new agency? For that matter, why not just dismantle the FOI completely and recruit and test into the new one?”
“For one thing, we want to find out who the Brotherhood agents are in the FOI without them realizing we are on to them. With that approach the infiltrators are sure to lead us to their higher-ups. Secondly, we want to find leads into their organization to get operatives inside the Brotherhood. Ultimately, we hope to clear out the Brotherhood presence from the FOI, while still keeping the second agency operational and secret as long as possible.”
“Oh, I get it now. You want me to spy for you within the FOI, to be an undercover agent for your new agency.”
“Something like that, yes,” I said. “We’re not asking you to do anything illegal or to divulge any classified information, because all the people you would report to already have the highest clearance granted by the Federation. Any information being withheld from them would be in violation of Federation laws; so if you find that agents within the FOI are violating that law, your clandestine actions to make the High Command of the Federation aware of such matters would be within your duties and moral code. All we’re doing is asking you bypass the regular chain of command where Brotherhood members might intercept and divert your reports. Of course, you would still report things to your superior at the FOI on your regular assignments as expected; but you would also be looking for anything that might indicate Brotherhood cover-ups or activities within the FOI.
“Why don’t you look over the file I gave you? You still have two and a half hours before your return to the surface. You should be able to review the file in its entirety by then. Just be sure to leave the file with Commander Wabussie before you leave – and we would also like your answer before you leave. You can provide that to Wabussie as well. Regardless of your decision, we ask you to keep the information we have shared with you a secret.”
Halfredies took the file cube I offered him, “I’ll consider what you ask and I will keep your secret.”
“It was a real pleasure meeting you, Halfredies. Regardless of your decision to join us or not, I hope that, when things are less tense, I can get back this way and entertain you in a more polite and proper fashion here on the NEW ORLEANS.”
“Thank you, First Citizen. I would consider it a great honor. It was a great pleasure meeting you; and thank you for allowing me to see this file.”
After Halfredies left with the file in hand, I reviewed the status of our first delivery of fighter ships. It appeared that the NEW ORLEANS could plan to be underway to Alle Bamma about 20 hours later. I was delightfully surprised when Admiral Regeny suggested that Cantolla and some of her team take up residence on the URANGA where they would be safely protected by the RMFF field. The admiral’s gesture also meant it would be unlikely that she would need a Mirage Fighter to bring her back to the NEW ORLEANS or that we would need to retrieve her at all; as I anticipated that, as soon as the Federation finished with their encounter with the Brotherhood at Banur, the admiral would immediately direct the URANGA on a heading for Alle Bamma in anticipation of my team finding a Brotherhood presence on the planet at some point during our excursion.
I found it impossible to go to bed without Kala by my side, so I made a fire in the fireplace and reclined in one of the oversized chairs to rest and wait for news from the bridge that we could prepare for departure. The heat and fragrance of warm cinnamon that radiated from the flames lulled me into a few hours of much needed sleep, which was broken by a status message from the bridge.
The arrival and stowing of ten Mirage Fighters on the NEW ORLEANS signaled the moment of our departure.
Kerabac, Hotyona and I boarded the ALI and we were quickly underway with the NEW ORLEANS following behind. We would arrive a week before the NEW OREANS and would hopefully have located the ruguian eggs by the time they arrived.
I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet Hotyona before our departure on the ALI. He stood almost two meters tall and had an athletic swimmer’s build, blue eyes and nearly straw blond hair. There was an air of intelligence about him that was slightly intimidating but not threatening; and he had a broad smile and good sense of humor.
“First Citizen, it is a true honor to be going to Alle Bamma with you,” he said.
“Just Tibby, please. I prefer not to have all the honorifics, especially with my team members.”
“Very well, Tibby. I hope you don’t mind; but I met with Kerabac to discuss the best possible place for us to search for ruguian eggs. Although they’re found all over the planet, they are concentrated in some areas more than others. Kerabac seems to recall an area he visited when he was there 15 years ago that seemed t
o have a fairly significant concentration of them, though they may not be as heavily concentrated now as they were at that time. The ruguian population levels seems to be based on food availability; and when the population density gets too high the food levels fall and the population of ruguians decreases correspondingly. I suspect we will be pretty much relying on luck to find a good spot to secure eggs,” Hotyona informed me.
“The weather is an issue, too,” added Kerabac. “The planet has a strange wobble to it that affects the weather patterns. Technically you can say they have seasons, but those are mostly described as wet and wetter and not really characterized by any substantial change in temperature. During the wettest seasons, rain storms pass through the same locales several times a day. There a day is 28 hours long; so you can expect to experience at least five to eight storms in that period, which last from a few minutes to several hours. During the less stormy season, rains that are less severe in nature occur on average about three to four times a day. The humidity stays pretty close to 100%. It’s not the most comfortable place in the galaxy; I can tell you that for a fact.”
“Wow, with weather like that I can understand why the people there are so primitive, they probably have never developed fire because everything is too wet,” I said.
“They have fire and use it in their camps and homes,” said Kerabac. “There are a number of plants dispersed throughout the planet’s vegetation that produce flammable oils in relatively large quantities. The natives harvest these plants and extract the oil to burn in lamps and small cooking pits. Throughout the jungles grows a large nut-like fruit with a hard fireproof and waterproof shell. The meat of the fruit is removed and eaten and the large shells become fire pit liners – to act as a barrier, of sorts, from the moist earth. The smaller shells are utilized as cooking pots. They also burn the oil in these smaller shells for light.”
“This place is sounding more and more complex all the time. I can see where I’ve got a lot to learn before we arrive. I need both of you to tell me everything you can about the planet and the ruguians. It sounds as though Alle Bamma is a dangerous place and I don’t want to get eaten or poisoned by something while we’re there,” I said.
“About the only creature you need to worry about in that regard is a large reptilian creature called a drodoceal, which grows to about six meters in length,” Kerabac said. “It spends a great deal of its time submerged just below the surface of the water, where it looks like a saturated log. Whenever prey comes near, it snatches the unwary victim in its large and powerful jaws with lightning speed, drags it underwater, and holds the pray there until it drowns. Once the prey is dead, the drodoceal makes a meal of it. A drodoceal is large enough to eat a whole human and it has been known to do so.”
“That sounds amazingly like creatures we have on Earth called alligators and crocodiles. Alligators were indigenous to the swamps where I grew up. We used to hunt and kill them for both their skins and the meat in their tails.”
“It’s quite possible that they are close in nature,” said Hotyona. “On planets of similar atmospheres and environments evolution of life has been demonstrated to be very similar. As far as poisonous life forms, they’re easy to identify on Alle Bamma, as every poisonous species has bright, nearly fluorescent blue color on them – plants and animals alike. Anything that doesn’t have blue on it is safe to eat or touch, unless, like the drodoceal, it has teeth with a bite that can injure or kill. It might help you to review the flora and fauna of Alle Bamma that I brought along on my vid pad. I can download it into the ship’s computer if you like.”
“I think that’s a very good idea. I also think it would be a great idea if the main topic of conversation from now until we arrive at Alle Bamma is about the planet and its life forms and tribal customs. I want us to be as prepared as possible when we arrive.”
Since my arrival in the Federation territories, there had been only a few instances where I had been away from Kala for more than a few hours. Even then I felt her absence and found myself eager to be with her as soon as possible. When I first saw Kala in the stasis chamber, the short space between her and the casement window felt like a million galaxies between us; and I didn’t think the longing to touch her and hear her voice could get any greater. But now I couldn’t even see her or be near her, and as soon as Kerabac, Hotyona and I left in the ALI, the separation from Kala redoubled the depths of my anguish. She would remain on the NEW ORLEANS while I sloshed about in the jungle on Alle Bamma, looking for the cure that would release her from the poison that was killing her.
To keep the pain at bay and stay focused I spent as much of my time as possible talking to Kerabac and Hotyona about life on Alle Bamma and looking at the vids of the flora and fauna of the planet. I was indeed surprised to see the similarity between Earth alligators and the drodoceal. I was also surprised to see how much the ruguians looked like the giant mudpuppies of Earth. The ruguian grew slightly larger than its Earth cousin, often reaching a length of half a meter. Its tail and belly were bright blue; and it was not a venomous bite that posed the threat, but a chemical secreted from their skin that was poisonous. Even their eggs were blue in color and looked like a bunch of blueberries stuck in a slimy clear gelatin blob. Usually the eggs were laid under leaves or fallen logs, but they could just as easily be found lying anywhere. It was advisable not to allow the eggs to come in contact with the skin on a person’s hands – not because touching them was harmful, but because the toxin on the eggs could contaminate any food one touched; and just the smallest trace of ingested poison was almost always fatal. Those who survived generally went blind or became partially paralyzed from the toxin.
Life on the ALI didn’t differ a lot from life aboard a patrol ship. It was smaller and more compact but like any deployed patrol ship, at least one person was always expected to be at the control console. Though the computer did most of the flying, a discerning pair of eyes was needed to monitor the screens and make sure all was going well.
We were about a week’s travel from Plosaxen and I was taking my turn monitoring the instruments. Kerabac and Hotyona were taking a break in the small dining area, when I felt the call of nature and a need to visit the facilities. It was neither uncommon nor forbidden for one on duty in the control room of a small ship that was navigating on autopilot to take a ‘quick bio break’; so I left the control room and proceeded to the small toilet near the galley. As I passed by the dining area, I glanced in and saw Kerabac and Hotyona playing a game on a vid screen that looked remarkably like chess. I took a closer look and found that, while the pieces were differed in shape, it was obvious from their configuration and movements that the game was not like chess, it was chess, just as I knew it back on Earth.
“Excuse me, but… that game you’re playing… where did you get it?” I asked, somewhat shaken by the unmistakable fact that what they were playing was the very same game.
“From the computer,” Kerabac said, “there are lots of games in the computer.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant to ask. I mean where did the game originate?”
Both Kerabac and Hotyona shrugged. Kerabac punched something into the computer and it brought up a page of information and rules of the game. There was a brief paragraph in the description that stated the game was found on most planets and cultures throughout the galaxy and that it was in existence before recorded history; but its origin had never been found. It was said that, even on planets that seemingly never had any outside contact with other worlds, the first explorers often found the locals playing the game. For this reason, it was often used to promote positive cultural relations with the natives, as it was a tangible representation of the commonality of their peoples. The game and play pieces have gone by as many names as there are planets, but the moves of the pieces are the same and follow the same rankings on every world where it has been discovered.
“This is amazing,” I said. “This exact game also exists on Earth. Its origin there is a mystery too, thou
gh it was believed by some to have originated on one continent anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 years ago, from which point it spread around the planet. Today it’s played universally on Earth, where it’s called chess.”
“It says here that it appeared on the planet Reyes roughly 8,000 years ago and on Pakaras nearly 10,000 years ago,” stated Kerabac, as he delved further into his research on the vid screen. “There doesn’t seem to be any pattern as to where it first appeared or when. There are about ten worlds where the game seems to have originated at the same time. The interesting thing about all of them is that the game was known and played long before the people achieved space flight or contact with outside worlds; and all of them were in about the same stage of development and technology when the game appeared on their planets.”
I had nearly forgotten my need for the toilet until Kerabac said, “Is that what you came back here to ask us?”
“Ahh, actually I need to use the toilet, but I was distracted by your game.” I said and quickly made my way into the facilities. When I came out, Kerabac and Hotyona had resumed their game. I watched them a few seconds and then, shaking my head at how this game remarkably emerged independently on so many worlds, I returned to the bridge to ponder the mystery.
Hotyona turned out to be an encyclopedia of information. Whether he was an expert on the peoples and wildlife of Alle Bamma before he joined this mission or if he was constantly studying during our journey and regurgitating the information didn’t matter; it just gushed forth from him like a giant waterfall.
”You’ll be interested to know that there are no insects on Alle Bamma like those known on other planets. They are replaced in the ecology by new family of creatures we call rubloids. Like insects, they have no internal skeleton; but unlike insects, they have no exoskeleton either,” he said. “Instead they have a network of microstructures in their skin that allow the various segments of their anatomy to harden and soften as required, at times serving as a skeletal frame and other times becoming soft and pliable. In their flexible state, rubloids are capable of moving through very small holes; hence, using screens as a barrier from them is completely useless.”
