Space Trader (Galactic Axia Adventure)

by Laughter, Jim

  “There are a few places where captives are kept for study,” Ian admitted as Cap stepped over to the side and picked up a handset. He spoke in low quick tones and then hung up.

  “You make it sound like Red-tail captives are a rarity,” Lyyle observed.

  “They are extremely rare,” Ian answered. “There are probably fewer than a dozen throughout the Axia.”

  “I would think with an area as vast as the Axia there would be more Red-tails captured,” Sony said. “I don’t know how big Galactic Axia is now, but just considering our old records, it should still encompass hundreds of worlds. If battles are even half as common as records suggest, there would be thousands of chances to capture them.”

  “Thousand of chances, yes,” Ian agreed. “But good reasons not to. You obviously don’t understand Red-tails like we do in the Axia,” Ian replied evenly. “They are an implacable foe and are dangerous even in captivity. In space, where we fight them most often, they give no quarter, nor do we. They will fight to the last individual even against overwhelming odds. The few captives we get usually come from ground conflicts.”

  “If they are as you describe, why have any captives?” Usa asked, finally speaking up.

  “I’ve wondered that myself,” Ian agreed. “But the scientists keep captives to study. I think they want to understand our enemy to overcome them better. Beyond that, I am aware of no other purpose. There has never been a successful exchange of captives because they tend to eat any humans they capture. The Red-tails come here to our galaxy to kill, destroy, and hunt game. Us!”

  “That sounds rather harsh,” Lyyle said.

  “You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen half of what I have.”

  “All that aside for the moment, we have to deal with the present situation,” Cap said, drawing the conversation back to the present. “I’ve already alerted the necessary personnel to deal with the Red-tail.”

  As if to illustrate his point, a line of armored vehicles rolled up to the Red-tail ship and two squads of armed soldiers spilled out. While the people in the control bunker watched, the squad blew the hatch off the Red-tail ship and charged inside. A minute later, the soldiers came out dragging a stunned and limp Red-tail between them. They secured the prisoner in the armored holding cell on the back of a truck.

  When they drove away, Cap turned to Ian. “That’s taken care of,” he said with satisfaction. “Now what do we do with the ship?”

  “Personally, I’d suggest that you study it thoroughly,” Ian answered. “But only under one condition.”

  “And what is that?” Lyyle asked. It was clear he was eager to get a crack at exploring the alien ship.

  “That you keep the dampening field in effect,” Ian replied evenly. “We don’t know what traps or automatic weapons systems the Red-tail may have set up. The last thing we want,” he added as he turned to study the now empty ship, “is to have it blow up in our faces.”

  ∞∞∞

  The computer lab was dark now and empty of the human technicians. Professor Angle and the rest of the staff had left hours ago. Ert enjoyed working with the humans, Professor Angle in particular. But there were times when he enjoyed being alone. Now was one of those times.

  Being careful not to raise any alarms, Ert searched all the history records in the human’s computer system. Although vast by human standards, Ert had no difficulty digesting and analyzing all of the diverse material. He had sent the synopsis of his research in the last transmission to the Jibbah ship. He suspected the pilot of that craft was even then trying to correlate it with the timeline of the Horicon themselves.

  But what Ert searched for was only hinted at in those records. It was his hope that his Jibbah contact would ferret out, without undue suggestion, the information hidden there. This was just part of Ert’s plan. The rest would depend on not only what he and the Jibbah could find, but also what to do about it. Action was required.

  Ert now focused his attention to find the means with which to act. Again accessing parts of the human communication system, he tried to track down the vessel he’d noted earlier. Nothing was there.

  Backtracking the records, he followed the progress of that ship from its visit earlier with someone called Captain Tyrone. But shortly after that, the trail went cold—vanished as if swallowed by space itself. Ert could find no record of any distress call or even the electromagnetic hash that would indicate the destruction of the ship. There was no evidence of battle. The ship had simply vanished.

  Ert was perplexed. This new wrinkle would take time to analyze. Obviously, there was some explanation, and Ert was determined to find it out what it was.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The rhythmic lashing of his heavy tail telegraphed the Red-tail commander’s impatience. He paced the length and breadth of his bridge while underlings in the work pit below scurried feverishly to carry out his last command.

  Orders flashed back and forth among the ships of this attack cluster as they formed for transit. This group was smaller than the commander would have liked so he had little patience for anything that might cost him a needed ship when they arrived at their destination.

  “Cluster reporting ready for transit,” his direct underling reported to the commander.

  Issuing a low snarling growl, the commander acknowledged this report with a simple nod. The sensor screen showed the tight cluster formation of the ships under his command. He was inwardly pleased but did not show it outwardly. That might lead to a slackening of discipline, which the commander despised.

  “Signal the transit station that we are ready,” the commander ordered. His second nodded and then relayed the order to those in the pit. The commander snarled at the consternation he could see on the communication operator’s face.

  Despite his nervousness, he carried out the order efficiently. “Transit command acknowledges,” came the report. “Enter at your discretion.”

  I am the one to make the decision, the attack cluster commander thought sourly. By leaving the entry command to him, the operators of the transit station could avoid punishment if the transit failed. Although he despised their tactic, the commander understood the system that fostered such behavior.

  “Enter the zone,” the commander ordered tersely. Through the forward viewport of his ship, the commander watched the lead elements enter the swirling matrix of the transit tube. As they disappeared, he could see them bucking against the anti-gravitational forces that took hold of each individual ship.

  I wish it could have been one of the natural tubes, the commander thought as his ship drew closer. These forced tubes always ride rougher.

  Seconds later the forces of the transit tube took hold of his ship and hurtled it toward the projected exit point in the human galaxy countless light years away.

  ∞∞∞

  Piaffè’s detector system registered the energy surge in the empty space he was observing. The location of the forces was much closer than Piaffè liked so he moved his little ship farther away. On advice he’d been given, the little Jibbah pilot made sure not be in a line directly between the loci and the nearest large concentration of bipedal-occupied planets.

  Piaffè watched the fabric of space begin to tear apart. At the same time, he felt the fur on the back of his neck rise in reaction.

  Stray spatial matter soon coalesced into a swirling mass of distortion. Both the ship instruments and his own optic nerves reacted to the scene unfolding in space. Faithfully recording the data as directed by the mysterious Horicon, Piaffè gritted his teeth as his gut roiled in reaction to the visual spectacle. He knew what would soon appear through the fissure in space, but this knowledge did not help his discomfort.

  A concentrated flash of light far above the visible spectrum of humans announced the full establishment of the distorted transit tube. The Jibbah had long considered it a violation of the natural order of physics to tear and force the transit tubes. Their symmetry was a thing of beauty—but not to those who used them now.

>   The first ship of the enemy cluster tumbled out of the maelstrom, followed quickly by the rest of the cluster. Piaffè had never personally seen the ships of these marauders but that did little to suppress his sense of rage and fear. Even though it was now in the twilight of its existence, the Jibbah still had a natural loathing and hatred for the red creatures. Tragic experience had evolved into a racial hatred forged over many millennia.

  Such had not been the case when the Jibbah ships had first discovered the Red-tails. At that time, the red creatures were only just starting their expansion into their own galaxy. The friendly overtures by the Jibbah turned tragic as any contact with the red marauders met with a fatal end.

  Immediately, the elders of the Jibbah forbade contact with the Red-tails. Joined by the automated probes from the Horicon, they had taken up positions to observe the rise of this malevolent species with hope that with maturity, the red creatures would become more peaceful. Such hope turned out to be in vain.

  The creatures were inherently demonic. Their home planet of Hadeous was a torturous atmosphere of volcanic upheaval. Fire, brimstone, and thick clouds of acidic toxic smoke forced the monsters to seek shelter underground where the living conditions were worse than they were on the surface.

  It’s no wonder they want to escape such a place, Piaffè thought. But why can’t they be civil about it?

  Despite their efforts to remain undetected, the Jibbah ships were soon discovered by the Red-tails. The observation ships were destroyed or abandoned before the terrible onslaught of the red invaders. Only a few Horicon probes remained undetected to carry on further observation of the menace.

  But the effort to remain hidden failed the little wanderers. Red-tail science soon discovered the transit tubes the Jibbah had used to travel between galaxies. Horicon probes were also captured and reverse-engineered by the Red-tails eagerly seeking their secrets. And that was how the enemy discovered the means to change and manipulate the natural transit tubes for their own purposes.

  Using their purloined technology, the red menace soon began to raid the space around their own solar system. Then they began terrorizing and conquering their own galaxy. It wasn’t long before the Red-tail onslaught leeched out past their own galactic borders.

  The only hindrance on their conquering march was the limitations of the transit tubes themselves. Forcing them open enough to slip fleets through caused them to collapse or shorten considerably, so only short jumps were possible, slowing the expansion of their hunting fields.

  The trend of expansion and raiding by the Red-tails soon became obvious. It was only a matter of time before they discovered how to enter the home galaxies of both the Jibbah and the Horicon. Back on Horicon and on the home worlds of the Jibbah, a new contest developed—a contest to hide and protect themselves from the menace they’d unleashed on an unsuspecting universe.

  Bravely monitoring his equipment, Piaffè continued to watch the emerging Red-tail fleet. By historical standards, it was smaller than usual but that did little to lessen the threat they posed here in this galaxy. Following the instructions from the mysterious Horicon, Piaffè carefully recorded every bit of information his sensors could gather.

  Unaware that they were being observed, the Red-tail cluster reformed and headed off toward the many worlds now occupied by the bipedal creatures. They were long gone from his most sensitive sensors before Piaffè allowed himself to relax.

  Turning to his communications equipment, the little Jibbah sent a squirt transmission of his observations to the hidden Horicon. As he hit the send switch, Piaffè fervently hoped that the ancient Horicon relays would be up to the task.

  ∞∞∞

  “So this is what it’s like in one of these ships!” Sony exclaimed as the Cahill Express shot up through the atmosphere of Vogel. “Quite different from the interceptors. No inertia.”

  Sitting in his control seat, Ian scanned his instruments and smiled. He never ceased to marvel at the thrill people expressed on their first trip into space. Didn’t they understand that space is an unforgiving tyrant capable of snatching the life out of them if given the chance? Were they naïve as to believe the enemy they’d captured wouldn’t spend its last breath destroying them?

  Below them, they could see the rapidly dwindling surface of the planet.

  “We’re approaching the Optiveil,” Ian said to both Lyyle and the crew on the surface below.

  “Acknowledged,” Lyyle said from the control center where he was monitoring the test run. “How’s your power level?”

  “Unaffected so far.”

  There had been considerable conjecture about how the dampening field of the Optiveil around Vogel would affect the flight systems of a ship leaving the planet. After all the arguments were finished and all the designers had given their opinions, there remained only one way to find out - try it. Since it was his ship, much to his consternation, the final decision was his. It seemed all the decisions lately had landed in his lap.

  Lyyle wanted to try it with the dampening aspect of the Optiveil turned off but Ian had vetoed that. By trying the flight with the Optiveil operational, they would be duplicating Ian’s arrival in reverse. The value of the comparative data was obvious to everyone.

  So the test flight was scheduled. Sony would accompany Ian to monitor the extra recording instruments installed on the Express. Lyyle would monitor from the surface and keep an open relay to the trader’s ship. As an additional precaution, the tractor rays were standing by in case the Express became disabled and required retrieval.

  Ian noticed the shimmering effect of the underside of the Optiveil and slowed the Express accordingly. Sony scanned his equipment and gave the nod to proceed.

  “Intersecting the Optiveil,” Ian announced as the ship pierced the lower zone of the invisibility shield.

  In less than a second Vogel disappeared, replaced by the blackness of space. Ian heard a gasp from Sony. “I never imagined...” he said, his voice fading away. Ian glanced over and noticed the man shake himself and return to checking his equipment.

  “Do you read me, Cahill Express?” Lyyle’s voice squawked from the speaker.

  “Loud and clear,” Ian responded as he brought the Express to a stop.

  A quick habitual scan of his detection equipment showed they were alone in space. The last thing he wanted right now was to deal with a Red-tail. The thought made him wonder about the team dissecting the Red-tail ship below.

  “Lyyle?” he said, keying his mic.

  “Yes?”

  “Tell those people to keep a dampening field on that Red-tail ship while they work. We don’t need some sort of destruct system blowing up unexpectedly.”

  “Already on it,” Lyyle replied. “And from what they’re telling us, the navigation recorder should be safely out by the time you get back.”

  “Good,” Ian said. “I want to see where he’s been recently. It could tell us a thing or two.”

  Lyyle agreed. “Are you ready to try re-entry with the ship system on?” Ian again looked over at Sony who gave the thumbs up.

  “We’re ready here,” Ian said. “Turning the on Optiveil in five seconds.”

  “Watching you now,” Lyyle said while he eyed the large detector screen below. “We see you big and beautiful.”

  “Optiveil activating... now!” Ian said with a flip of a switch.

  Checking both his instruments and looking outside, Ian could see no change. Except for the indicator lights, he couldn’t tell if the Optiveil was working or not.

  “Everything is working over here,” Sony said as if in response to Ian’s unasked question.

  “Where’d you go?” squawked Lyyle’s voice over the speaker. “We had you visually and with detectors and then you just blinked out.”

  “Oh, we’re still here,” Ian reassured him with a grin. “Any sign of distortion?”

  “None whatsoever,” Lyyle answered. “We’re going to try to find you with one of the tractor rays. Standby.” Ian and Sony
felt a nudging of the ship but nothing definite.

  “Just felt a light tremor,” Ian reported.

  “Didn’t get a thing here,” Lyyle said. “Even tried an intersecting of two vectors and found nothing.”

  “I think we’ve got a winner!” Ian said, the excitement in his voice unmistakable. I’m gonna make a fortune with this thing. “Ready to try interaction with the main field?”

  “Go ahead,” Lyyle acknowledged. “Watching your original flight path for any disturbance.”

  “Coming up on the main field now,” Ian announced as he slowly edged the Express closer to the planet. Out through the front windows, he saw a sparkle resembling a static discharge. Then it was gone and they were under the main veil.

  “Got a shimmer of something,” Lyyle said over the comm. “But we wouldn’t have seen it if we hadn’t been looking at the precise point of entry. Then it and you were both gone. Any problems with the dampening field?”

  “None,” Ian replied. “There is a slightly larger power draw by the Optiveil, but that’s it.”

  “I got it all here,” Sony announced from his station.

  “I heard that,” Lyyle said. “Come on down and we’ll let the experts go over this data. In the meantime, they’ve got that new nav system waiting for you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  This is a puzzle.

  Professor Angle leaned back from where he’d labored over the ancient text and he tried to rub the fatigue from his eyes. This is becoming a bad habit, he thought as he glanced at the wall chronometer.

  Ert was also puzzling over something. The ship he’d been tracking earlier had disappeared completely. No wreckage, no battles noted, no distress call. The ship had simply vanished in an, according to human records, unexplored area of the galaxy.

  Accessing files from his own memory banks, Ert compared their data with that of the humans now populating the galaxy. He noted several planets reported either missing or now marked as destroyed. Ert’s files showed them to be lush habitable worlds but that had been several hundred years ago.