Starship: First Steps to Empire

by R J Murray

  “Good to know they care for the people at least. I will look forward to the inventory and the vid. End transmission.”

  “End transmission indeed. At least it is not the end of us.”

  In the background, the clerks droned on.

  ~~~~~~

  “More people coming in on the freighter in a month. You think we will be ready?” Kevin asked.

  “Sure. If you quit yakking and get to work.” Everson Smyth grinned at the dozer operator and moved on into the new community they were building. This time they had the materials and the man power to plan ahead and build a colony before the people arrived. Fields, orchards, houses and the connecting villages were laid out on the site and eighty percent finished. Even crops were planted in many fields and vegetables in the ground, growing.

  He wasn’t sure where the three new small moons had come from, but the resources they carried made new contra gravity equipment available even for farms. He had been told that these were mobile platforms for mining the asteroids and that there were dozens of others in systems around them all busy gathering resources. The famine was over and now they were feasting.

  The mines on Acadia had expanded too, and new mines for gold and silver opened. Even chromite ore had been located in small quantities in the southern continent. Money had begun a few months ago, even if nobody had anything to buy yet. A hundred credits a week for most people was deposited in the First bank of Acadia each month until they had a chance to mint coins. In the mean time, if people needed things, they would still requisition items from the administrator in the central city.

  Everson turned the mini-flitter he was issued down the main street of the new village, number one-fifty six on the map. Names would come in time. His office, the place he spent one or two hours a day answering questions and ordering materials was located in what would become the com station. He parked the mini in front and got out. The mini held four people and had a trunk for materials unlike the real flitters with room for seventy bodies or tons of materials

  His office was nice, large and mostly empty. He had a desk, several boxes of finished sites on real paper and a terminal tied into the net where he did most of his design work. He even had a clerk to help and answer questions when he was out in the field.

  Two men waited for him today, in addition to Fredric his clerk.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yeah. We ran into a little problem out in q-seven-b. It looks like someone built there already. We were supposed to put the local clinic in there. Who else is in that section?”

  Everson clicked on his site map and moved the screen to check. “Clinic, water treatment a kilometer north, parkland and a school to the east. No one on that site but the clinic. I can ride out there and take a look, see if I know who put it there.”

  “That will work. We got a flitter if you need a ride.”

  “I’ll take mine and follow you. I have some surveying equipment in the back I may need to confirm the locations.”

  The trip took almost half an hour and left behind most of the finished structures and farms. This was the next section to be worked and the men had been checking the site before the crews arrived.

  “Right there. See that? Concrete and steel goes down as far as we could scan, takes up the entire building site and part of the park area.”

  “I see it. I have no idea who would be out here so soon, and I don’t know who had the materials to do a structure this size either. Give me few to confirm location and I’ll go inside and see if I can find any information on who it belongs too.”

  “Sure. We got to get back to work. Do you need anything else from us?”

  “I’m good. Talk to you later.”

  The flitter lifted and disappeared into the distance as Everson checked the location on his GPS. The clinic was supposed to go right where this building was. He put his equipment back and walked in the front of the building. No doors yet but the lights came on as he entered. It was big, the first room, perhaps it would be the lobby or reception area when this was finished. He saw elevators in the back of the lobby and headed for them.

  The buttons were different, symbols and not numbers, leaving him to wonder if this was a science laboratory. He pushed the second button and was rewarded with the doors opening after a few seconds. He stepped in and the elevator dropped rapidly about four floors it seemed.

  “Well, gotta get that looked at. Push the second and go four.” He said to himself.

  The doors opened and he stepped out. There was a railing in front of him and it defined a walkway that seemed to stretch along the walls. Everson stepped up to the rail and looked over. He gripped the rail tightly and gasped. He was not one to be afraid of heights, yet this astounded him. It went down out of sight, seemingly forever. He realized that this might not be human.

  ~~~~~

  “We have a call for a team to the new site. The engineer says he found an alien base where his clinic is supposed to be.”

  Juan grunted. “Eric is on the planet. It sounds like something he would enjoy. Let him know if you would.”

  ~~~~~~

  Eric and Horace arrived on scene with a dozen constabulary and two meat grinders in tow. The building looked absolutely normal to them and Eric was a little disappointed.

  “You think someone forgot where they put this?” Horace asked, looking the front of the building over.

  “Looks like it. Is that the engineer? Let’s go chat with him.”

  “Thanks for getting here fast. I think this is a base and it has missiles in it at the bottom of the shaft.” Everson said. “Follow me and I’ll show you.”

  Eric shrugged and followed with three men and Horace after grabbing his equipment bag from the flitter. It looked normal enough inside too, as they rode the elevator down.

  “Long ride?” Eric asked.

  “Yes. Very.”

  The doors opened and Eric stopped just outside the elevator. It looked like a missile in some respects at least. It was huge, going up further than he could see. It also went down further than he could see.

  “How far down are we?”

  “Two kilometers.” Everson said.

  “That was a fast elevator then. It can’t be a missile. It is just too big. Even with contra gravity it could never get off the ground.” Eric pulled a scanner from his bag and used it. “Not a missile. I am getting energy readings from the object and down there, much deeper. Nano’s are active here so it has been maintained at least. Planet side there are plenty of resources for them to use.”

  “Maybe we should go down a little further?” Horace suggested.

  “Sure, why not.” Eric answered.

  The elevator did not go by floor, it went by kilometer. After five kilometers the doors opened into a machinery area. A large converter made its quiet hum in the center of the first room, surrounded by feeder lines and power cables leading off into the distance.

  “This place goes on forever. We need to send in a dedicated team to investigate, but this place could take years to go through. This is not something we are going to figure out today.” Eric finally said.

  “So we go back and we move the clinic. We should mark off this area and a kilometer on either side of it. Just in case.” Horace suggested.

  “If it is a weapon, the other side of the planet would not be safe.”

  ~~~~~~

  “No ideas at all?” Martha asked.

  “None. No guesses, no clues. I am just not even going to describe it to you other than huge. I may not have a clue but that does not mean it is a weapon so don’t get any preconceived ideas. It could be a weather station or an ice cream maker. Keep an open mind.” Eric concluded.

  “That from you is both refreshing and slightly insulting.” Martha said.

  Eric grinned and winked at her. “I like to keep things interesting.”

  “Are you making eyes at me?” Martha asked, suspicious.

  “Maybe. Just a little.” Eric grinned. She was cute.

&n
bsp; “Humph.” She didn’t seem too displeased though.

  “I’ll have a security team standing by on site to keep the curious away. Pick your team and let Juan know whom you want and any equipment you need. Just be careful and find out what you can.”

  ~~~~~~

  “Compost.”

  “Yes, compost. A hundred million cattle and that means tons and tons of manure and manure needs to be composted along with vegetation and fish bones, animal parts we don’t eat or use and other stuff. We loaded millions of tons on the freighters and we have ten times that much here at South ready for the fields but we have twice that much left to turn and handle. We need heavy equipment to keep up with this shit. I mean that literally by the way. This frigging continent is ten meters deep in manure already. It is probably the only way so many of these cattle have survived, by enriching the soil for the grasses they need. Otherwise they would have eaten everything in sight by now.

  “Maybe killing off the lizards in this area was a mistake. They ate the cattle and the herds were smaller. Now we are the only predator and we can’t eat this much meat with our population. Even sending hundreds of tons to Earth and Mars on each shipment is not enough to keep up with the cattle, not the way they reproduce. Twins or even triplets every birth and adult in one year. We can’t kill them fast enough so they grow and take a big dump every few hours.”

  “I will see what I can do.” Juan answered.

  “Compost Sir?” Fortnard asked.

  “Yes. They need more equipment to keep up with the cattle manure and turn the compost. I have no idea why they would need to turn it but I never had much dealing with actual manure. So many things to learn here. I should mention to Hazer next time that manure training should be included with the classes for colonial administrators.”

  ~~~~~~

  “We think we have turned a corner. The compost shipments have given us an advantage we lost with the decreased agricultural land and the loss of so many of our forests. Even our contact on Mars reports improved yields with the material the Acadians are sending them.” Hazer said to the Council.

  “Acadians?” Someone asked.

  “Our colony world, one thousand light years away. Bofur, you had a report?” Hazer asked.

  “Yes. A twenty percent increase in crop yields from the French Region, eighteen percent from the mid east region and almost twelve percent from the Channel Isles. The desert areas have been beaten back almost fifty kilometers and grasses are holding the dunes in the European region. We are still dying, but at a much slower rate.”

  “We still need a smaller population. Two or more for every job and food still less than we need. While we have increased rations, we are still on the edge of extinction.” Another voice spoke.

  “How many did we deport this time?”

  “Sixty thousand. Many were skilled workers this time. Farmers were in the minority, only twenty five thousand this trip.” Other voices joined in as the reports continued and opinions expressed.

  “General consensus is then that we continue as planned. World population must continue to drop until we can produce food equal to the need. We continue to send colonists and increase the number of skilled works to build up the work force on the planet. We continue to build the fleet of starships in secret, increasing our stock of nuclear weapons and training troops. We continue to accept the shipments from our former colony until we can reach a point to reclaim Acadia as our own, move the government to that location and abandon Earth.

  “In addition, we will continue to ship as much obsolete and broken machine, weapons and junk as possible to the new world. They continue to ask for weapons and we send everything that was made a hundred years ago or more. We send nothing of use, only worthless relics and let them try to defend with junk.”

  “Are we planning on sending troops hidden in with the colonist so that we have military on the ground when we arrive. It would make things easier, to control the population and capture the planet with minimal damage.” Another asked.

  “Yes. This latest load included a thousand troops and one officer who is aware of our plans. He will organize the troops already there and make sure they are ready when we move. Our local agent will help organize the conquest.”

  “We risk all with this plan. I know we have discussed this in detail before, but if it turns out that we nuke the planet, even as an accident, we could lose these resources. A battle in space near this world could have ships crashing on the surface, weapons fired at a target and missing, impacting the surface. Would it not be better to allow the Acadians their freedom since they are shipping all we need to save this world? It would take little to continue our trade and the materials used to build this new fleet would be better spent on equipment for farming.” Hazer said.

  “I agree. We risk everything by building a fleet when we could be rebuilding this world. I would ask that we reconsider this plan.” Bofur added.

  Hamiraf and Shriaz spoke against the plan as well. The four were the only dissenting votes.

  “The plan goes forward. We have discussed this and the matter is settled. No further debate is allowed by the rules of the Council and you will be out of order should you bring it up yet again.” The Moderator tapped the gavel on the plastic block twice and the meeting ended.

  ~~~~~~

  “We must watch those four closely, Hazer and the others who spoke against the plan. Savath Na Drith will not be pleased if we fail after all the years of effort he and his people have made here on Earth.” The Chairman said to the other five members.

  “He has promised us the empire his people left behind if we complete the mission begun by our renegades, the destruction of the Catroph and regaining control of this arm of the galaxy. The prize is too great to risk by allowing a handful of these Acadians to interfere.”

  A second member spoke. “I agree we must do this. We must control the Earth and Acadia. How could these undesirables even consider themselves capable of self-government? We must be more selective in our genetics controls. The science the Otstrand offer us and the power they wish to confer on us is too great to risk.”

  The rest nodded in agreement.

  ~~~~~~

  Phyllis flipped the eggs in the pan gently before plating them and carrying them to the table in the mess. She had finished filling the pans on the buffet for the rest of the crew but she wanted fried eggs instead of the scrambled in the buffet.

  “You’re pretty good at that.” The man next to her said.

  “It’s just a skill, and not a very important one. I wish I was good at gunnery.”

  “Yeah, I washed out of that, but I am good at math. They say I may make a good navigator.”

  “Phyllis.”

  “Steve.”

  The mess filled quickly as the trainees came in. The tables became more crowded and someone squeezing by bumped Phyllis more than once.

  “Gets full fast. I try to get here early just because of this.” Steve said as he tried to avoid dumping his coffee into his plate.

  “I just hope I don’t end up in the kitchen again. I don’t want to be a cook on a starship any more than I wanted to be a cook in the colony.”

  “Not a problem.” A new voice answered. “We take turns in the mess when we’re off planet. We might get around to have an actual ships cook and mess crew one day.”

  “Oh, Captain. I didn’t see you come in.” Phyllis said, trying to stand up.

  “Stay seated. In the mess we don’t do any of that. This is the informal setting of the command structure. We can’t have people spilling food all over the deck trying to jump to attention in this crowd.” Reed said with a smile. He had a plate of scrambled eggs, ham and bacon, mostly bacon and squeezed in with Phyllis and Steve.

  The Pathfinder was now one of the training ships for new crews. Her holds were empty of probes and refitted with bunks and showers, a lecture hall for a crew of sixty trainees and five older men that are more experienced, in addition to the flight crew.

&nb
sp; “I saw your test scores Steve. Navigator looks promising right now. I can’t make any promises but you do seem to have the base skills. How well you do in practice will tell the tale.”

  “Thank you Sir. I wish I had been better at gunnery though.”

  “We have good gunners and a lot of them. That makes it tougher to get in and a lot of those who would have qualified didn’t just because there was no need for them. Don’t feel too bad about not getting that berth, either of you. Your scores were not bad, just below the curve a little. Phyllis, have you ever considered pilot?”

  “What? Pilot? Fly this ship? No, never. I can’t even imagine how to handle something a kilometer across.”

  “Perhaps you should think about it. You are scheduled for the simulator at eight hundred hours. You are excused from kitchen cleanup because of that. I’m sure Steve would love to fill in for an old shipmate, right Steve?”

  “Uh, Yes Sir. Love to.”

  “You mean that Sir?” Phyllis asked.

  “Yup. We will miss your culinary skills though. You get the bacon just right. Now get going. You don’t want to be late.”

  Phyllis jumped up and started to scoop up her plate and cup but Reed took both. “I got that. You didn’t finish your bacon anyway.”

  “Yes Sir. Thank you Sir.” Then she stood there looking around as though he wasn’t sure where to go.

  “Deck six North Bay for simulators. Git!”

  She took off at a run, bumping people as she went.

  ~~~~~~

  Phyllis stopped at the door and looked inside. A lieutenant was standing there with a tablet, checking off people. He looked at her.

  “Cadet Phyllis O’Keeffe?”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Simulator three.” He pointed at a small box about three meters square with a door in the side.

  Phyllis walked over and sat in the chair. The door slid shut and the chair moved forward to the console. “Am I supposed to do something?” She asked, hoping for some instruction.