Starship: First Steps to Empire

by R J Murray

  “The drive is not cutting in. We are checking it now.”

  “Call Deaths Head and let them know we are waiting here for Pork Rind to find out why his ship won’t fly.” Reed ordered.

  “Let’s get a little closer and scan the ship, see if we can offer any advice.” Eric suggested.

  Astangii maneuvered closer to the freighter, the oldest one yet to be revived. Joshua scanned the drives and couldn’t see any reason why they would not work. “Is your converter set to max output? It takes a big push to start the FTL process.”

  “Uh, . . .it is now.” was the sheepish reply.

  “How much time do you have on FTL?” Joshua asked.

  “Two hours this morning.”

  “Well, another fine mess. Don’t go anywhere Pork Rind. I’ll send someone over to walk you through the first few days. Do we have a volunteer?” Eric asked the crew.

  “I’ll go.” Reed offered. “It would be my job as first officer anyway.”

  “Okay. Be careful. Maker knows what they were told about us.” Eric warned.

  “Pork Rind, stand by for docking and crew transfer.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Two hours later Astangii and Pork Rind joined the others working their way through the ice belt.

  “How much time do the other crews have on FTL?” Eric called.

  “Squirrel Cage, Max Ghangi. Three hours before we left they ran through the basics. I’m not sure where the brakes are though.”

  “Rat Pack, Oliver MacDonald. Two hours on the controls and a nice coloring book. They did not give us crayons.”

  “Doesn’t sound like they gave you any drugs either. You people need help with something, you tell us now. We have a few weeks for you slow ships getting through the ice belt. We may need to purge your water tanks and refill with fresh ice.”

  “They started taking us off the drugs when you arrived three weeks ago. They said it was a waste of time using them on us as we were undesirables and headed for banishment. They also said something about you not being totally human.” MacDonald added. “Bad enough to find out you’ve been doped up your whole life.”

  “Ninety five Human percent tops. The other five percent is space herpes. We will dock with each ship to hold inspections and additional training as needed so get ready. Any questions?”

  “MacDonald here. What kind of name is Astangii and where did that ship come from? I’ve been around Luna and the shipyards for six years, and I remember you and the Pathfinder. I have never seen a ship like that.”

  “We need to get a vid or something as an orientation to the real universe.” Eric took a breath and started explaining.

  ~~~~~~

  “This is unacceptable. Why were they fired on? What does this do to the plan, the plan we have worked on for three generations?” The Chairman and head of the planetary government was grilling Hazer. “How could you give away our colony?”

  “He threatened Earth but promised to continue to supply our needs. This load was far larger than the first and contained enough grains to feed the north American continent for months. I could not risk losing such resources.”

  “None the less, we have lost control of the colonies for the moment. If this fails, this plan of yours, you will be on the next ship to Mars. End transmission.” The Chairman sat back and waited to calm down before he punched in the next com number.

  An alien face looked from the screen. The chairman bowed his head and said, “Master Savath Na Drith, we have a problem.”

  ~~~~~~

  “While you were gone we got the labs up and running, village production centers going, fishing, hunting and leather works, a meat packing plant on the south continent and a bunch of other things. Did you have a nice chat with Earth?” Lee called when they entered the Acadia system. Several captains and Juan were linked in on the com.

  “He threatened them with Hell Bombs and Planet Killers, tried to nuke Luna and the capitol and then we kidnapped the Martian colonies. It was fun.” Reed answered.

  “Hell Bombs and what?” That was all that could be picked out of the jumble of voices suddenly on the com.

  “It was a bluff. They have no idea what we have so after they shot at us and launched a warship, I told a few little lies to get our views across. I hadn’t planned on doing this but it worked and they agreed to our terms. We are the independent world Acadia and they will trade what they have for what we have. What they have is excess population and a bunch of broken junk and antique weapons. We are getting all of it, including as many different plants and seeds as they can spare. Animals too, a few for breeding stock at least. On a side note, I managed to restock my cigars.”

  “Nice. We have a few things finished too. The goblins are ready for use and so are the zeeks, torpedoes, two sizes of nukes and one big boy of one hundred megatons with limited FTL capability. The anti-missile-missile is also ready.” Lee grinned.

  “If I knew what he said I might be happy.” Reed quipped.

  “All the weapons we talked about last year are ready. Zeeks are small missiles with a one ton cataclysm warhead. It has a shaped charge with an alloy cone inside. The old historical books talked about them so we tested a few and it cuts through armor like it was tissue paper. It makes a big hole in most anything. Torpedoes have a five-ton warhead, a more advanced targeting system and some smarts. They can dodge and twist to avoid fire directed at them and still home in on the target. The nukes have twenty and forty megaton warheads. The grapeshot missile has a five hundred kilo warhead with a load of shrapnel that fires out in an expanding cone to take out enemy missiles. We have a full armory of weapons and lots of firepower.

  “Small arms are ready for almost everyone and more being made or refurbished. We have yours ready to load on your ship when you get here. The constabulary has good weapons now and armored troop carriers which they named meat grinders. The lizards are not much of a problem anymore. They do have nice hides.” Lee stopped talking to catch his breath. His jacket was lizard hide and Eric looked it over more than once during the briefing.

  “Huh. Looks like everything is under control. We brought a lot more trees, plants, seeds, and very old farm equipment. We brought hardwood trees and coffee plants, cocoa trees, oak trees, maple trees, trees like I never saw before. Many tons of old weapons, ammo and even more old military vehicles and armor. Everything on Juan’s list is aboard one ship or another. We even got three shuttles and a promise of more space junk they can’t use on Luna. We picked up a few dead shuttles from Mars orbit for reconditioning. An additional forty thousand colonist are aboard. Now I have only one question. What is a goblin?” Eric asked.

  “The wild weasel in a missile. Electronic warfare. It has globes it drops after launching which maneuver toward the enemy sending off the idea that they are nukes. It has jamming ability and can drop smaller missiles with conventional warheads to take out their missiles. It is big, almost sixty-five meters long, but all ships can carry them in launch tubes.”

  “Why goblin?” Eric asked

  “Mythical creature, enemy of man. Cheats, lies, stabs you in the back, dirty tricks and totally untrustworthy.” Lee answered.

  “You could have named it after Director Bergeson at mission control.” Eric said. It got a chuckle out of the group.

  “Maybe it’s time we took care of that rogue planet. All we need is a little luck and a plan of attack.” Horace suggested.

  Juan spoke before anyone could respond. “May I ask a question?”

  “Of course.” Eric said.

  “I have two actually. How did they take my manifest and the explanation?”

  “They took it well, considering they launched a nuke at us before we could even talk about it. We went right to the top as you suggested and gave it to Councilman Hazer.” Eric answered.

  “Himself? Well done. Did he appear to have a stroke?” Juan asked with a chuckle.

  “Close to it.”

  “My second question is a bit more delicate. None of yo
u behave in the manner I am accustomed to find in the military. You are more along the lines of a group of unruly boys. How can you function without discipline? No offense intended.”

  “None taken. Soldiers are trained to be disciplined, from the top command down to the lowest private. We are not military; we are amateurs, thrown together by chance but with a common desire. No one here was ordered to be part of this crew, once the drugs wore off, but they stayed. Our discipline does not come from orders or training, it comes from within. We are self disciplined in the sense you are talking about.” Eric paused to think.

  “These people accepted me as captain and the captains voted me in as commodore. I was not appointed from above, but since they accepted me, it made sense for them to follow my orders. Does this make sense to you?”

  “In a way, but you still behave so differently.” Juan said.

  “If I may Captain?” Reed asked. “We picked up a large number of entertainment vids on Earth and I have spent my off time watching many of them. Are you familiar with the term swashbuckler or privateer?”

  “No, I am not.”

  “I wasn’t either but they were a part of Earth history. A privateer was a pirate with permission from his country to make war on their enemies. It was a small step from privateer to pirate. Do you follow me so far?” Reed asked. Puzzled looks on the faces around him made him smile. Eric had watched some of the same vids so he just nodded.

  “Partially. I know what a pirate is.” Juan answered.

  “Pirate crews elected the captain and officers from among the crew. They were rowdy, loud, drunken, skirt chasing demons in port, but at sea, they were a crew and a team who followed orders. Even though the captain was one of the crew, his orders were obeyed. They were not disciplined like their opponent was, the British navy, they drank and danced and had great parties even at sea, but when it came down to fighting, they were a team. This is what we are. We do what we need to do, but we have fun when we can.”

  “So you are pirates in attitude if not in reality. I see. Perhaps I could view a few of these vids to help me understand the relationship better.” Juan suggested.

  “We will be sending copies down to the port as soon as we reach orbit and all are welcome to view them. We didn’t get much material for entertainment when we first shipped out.” Eric said.

  ~~~~~~

  The second colony on the southern continent increased as the latest deportees arrived and a third colony started on the other side of the mountain range in the south. Volcanoes had been active there in the past and the soil on the slopes was perfect for grapes. The slopes were also good for the coffee plants and Olive trees below that. Citrus trees joined the crowd further south in the tropic regions along with mangos and guavas. The planet bristled with new growth. People were eating Acadian beef and fish along with Earth chicken, pork and vegetables. The next load to Earth included a hundred thousand tons of frozen beef and fish along with the grains.

  ~~~~~~

  The Shark cruised at one hundred meters, her sonar and scanners tracking one of the sea monsters. She ran her diesels on local biofuel and patrolled around the surface fishing fleet. The local sea life was not a real problem, but the sea monsters were. Seventy meters and more, they followed schools of fish and attacked any competitor in their search for food. The nets of the fishing fleet were a target. “One fifty meters and closing. Prepare to surface. Battle stations surface.” The captain, Olaf Henderson called out in a quiet tone. His crew were old hands at this by now and yet there was still a tightening of the gut and a more rapid pulse rate.

  The monsters, no other name had been given them, were big, seventy meters being medium sized. A big one was over a hundred meters and scan had picked up even more immense creatures a thousand meters below the surface of the sea.

  The sub broke the surface and hatches clanged open as the crew manned the guns. The forward deck gun was now a harpoon cannon with an explosive warhead. The other armament were machine guns and a small thirty mm cannon on the aft deck. Sometimes the blood would attract other predators and the crew had to fight to protect their catch. Other than the monsters there were few sea dwellers that would attack a sub but a free lunch from the nets was a temptation.

  “There she blows! Two points off the starboard bow.” The head emerged briefly from the water, wide and long, shaped like an arrowhead with massive jaws to catch entire schools of fish at once. There were lots of teeth but they were smaller, only fifteen or twenty centimeters on average. If the monsters had not been so territorial, the subs would have had a hard time seeing even one. The rest of the body was more whale like with a flat wide tail and small fins at the sides for steering. The skin was armored like many of the fish species and thicker than the plates on the sub.

  “Get ready Athens. We are preparing to fire.” Olaf said into the com mike.

  The Athens was the canning ship. Both submarines, surface boats and the canning ships of the fishing fleet were outfitted with contra gravity to make movement to and from the hunting zones easier and faster.

  She stood off as the subs engaged but once the creature was dead, she moved in quickly to haul the carcass out of the water and began the processing. Everything the fishing fleet caught was used for something, even the oily flesh of the giant shelled squids further down in the seas. The big sea monsters, looking like something out of Earths dinosaur age, had meat that wasn’t bad, big hard bones that could be ground and used for fertilizer as well as thick heavy skin for leather. Usable animal oils were not found anywhere on Acadia, not in the sea nor under the soil.

  On Earth, the oceans were stripped of life quickly in the demand for food after the wars. Even before the wars, there had been a great deal of concern about how long some species would survive. On Acadia the decision was made to divide the oceans into twelve zones and select one zone each year for hunting. Fishing areas were laid out in the same way so that the sea life could make a comeback by the time the area was once again open.

  Environmental survey teams were still trying to learn about life here and there was an urgency to seek out the monsters in their habitat and learn about them before it was too late. Juan was adamant about this, having studied what happened on Earth in the past as part of his education toward his position as Colonial Administrator. Juan was becoming a nice asset to the planet.

  The gunners opened fire as the creature moved toward the nets, killing the monster quickly. The Athens lifted and moved to the tail, hooking the creature and began pulling it onto the deck to start the process of turning it into fertilizer, food and leather. The fishing fleet continued to drag their nets and the sub dove once more on active patrol.

  ~~~~~~

  “Sir, the quarterly reports are in. Shall I leave them on your desk?” Fortnard asked.

  “Sit for a moment if you would.” Fortnard sat and waited.

  “As my chief clerk and assistant, you are doing a fine job. I wonder if you want more.”

  “More Sir?”

  “More life, more things, a different life. This is the frontier and we are not bound by Earth convention. You do not need to remain as my assistant if you do not wish to.” Juan said.

  “I’m quite happy here Sir. The wilds hold little to interest me although I would like to see some more of the planet one day. I hear the southern continent is extremely interesting and attractive.”

  “We can do that, if you wish. Since you are happy in your work then let me ask you this. Would you wish to be trained as an administrator, possibly taking over here if they start a new colony world in the future or would you rather go to the new world?”

  “A new world. That would be wonderful, a place never seen before or touched by humans. That could be . . . interesting.” Fortnard finished.

  “Fine. Select your replacement and begin training him or her and when we have time, I shall continue your education as administrator.”

  Chapter 4 Payback

  The Astangii led the small fleet toward the rogu
e planet. Asgard and the Courageous flanked the ship as Deaths Head and the Star Gazer circled around the far side of the planet scanning the surface.

  “We have three separate areas showing as a base. Two look dead and open to space. The third is at planetary position nine-seven zero by delta four. Courageous standing by.”

  “Roger that. Warm up your nukes and everything else in case they still have weapons and ships. We will use pattern Omega Seven on first flyby.”

  “Omega Seven, roger.” All ships responded.

  “Take us in Mr. Reed, close as you can.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  The plan was to let the Asgard and Courageous to appear to be attacking the Astangii and let the bad guys come out and join the fun. If it worked, the rest should be easy. Kill or take over the enemy ships then take out the planetary base.

  “Nothing yet. One million kilometers from planet.” Reed called out the distance every few minutes.

  “Five hundred thousand from planet.”

  “Two hundred thousand.”

  “Launch! Two ships heading to intercept. On plot.” Chucked keyed in the coordinates and the two red dots showed up on the navigation hologram.

  “All hands, stand by for Catroph attack.”

  “Fifty thousand to first ship.” Chucked called out distances as they closed.

  “Twenty thousand to first and twenty one to second.”

  “All ships, begin Omega Seven now.”

  The Astangii vanished as a micro jump took them a million kilometers away. They watched on the screen from Asgard as the two alien ships slowed and matched formation with the Asgard and Courageous for a few minutes. Suddenly both alien ships stopped accelerating and began drifting.

  “Computer takeover complete. Alien ships helpless. Emitters launched and encircling ships. Emitters firing. Computer indicates crew taking counter measures against computer.” The Asgard reported “Permission to launch zeeks.”

  “Do it.” Eric said.

  Several flares appeared on the hulls of both ships and suddenly the two Catroph ships vented atmosphere from a dozen places. The misty cloud surrounded the ships giving them the appearance of small ice planets for a few minutes.