A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4

by Michael Kotcher

  As it turned out, it was a good job that the ship maneuvered the way it did. Eighteen seconds later, the vessel or object or whatever it was streaked by at nearly the speed of light. There was no pressure wave, no noise in the vacuum of space as the vessel passed by.

  “Captain, the vessel is slowing. Holy shit!” Maya gasped. “It’s braking hard! And I’m getting weird gravitational readings. They’re shifting. Wow…”

  “What?” Vosteros got out of his chair and stepped over to her console to look over her shoulder. “Oberst, bring us around, down to cruising speed and slow us up. Take us to the fueling platform. And go easy on the fuel usage.”

  The pilot blinked, then nodded. “Right, Cap. Working on it. What was that thing?”

  “No idea,” Frederick replied. “Maya, you train all of our sensors on that thing and get every bit of information you can. Minus the navigation sensors, of course. I don’t need us plunging into the gas giant.”

  “I’ve got it, Captain. Don’t you worry.” She had her eyes glued to her displays, trying to absorb and understand as much of the information as she could.

  “Well, what I can tell you is it’s a ship,” Maya said, some hours later. “But I’ll be damned if I can tell you what kind or who built it. And there are gravitic anomalies that are shifting all around that thing.”

  “They’re just localized right around the ship?” Vosteros asked, frowning. “And nowhere else? That doesn’t make any sense. We’ve been through this system several times already and we would have detected something like that. Nothing.”

  “It’s got to be generating them,” Maya said. “What are they called? Micro singularities. Little black holes that are artificially generated and the ship falls forward in the direction of the singularity. Since the ship is covered by the gravitational effects of the black hole evenly, there’s no inertial effects for anyone inside. Which means, if you can do it, you could pile on truly massive amounts of acceleration and not feel the effects on the inside. And, so long as you can keep the field balanced, you could effectively turn on a half-penny.”

  “Slick,” Vosteros said in appreciation, his eyes wide. “I wonder how much the power requirements are?”

  “Insane, I’d reckon,” Maya said, leaning back in her chair, putting her hands back behind her head. They watched the display, where they could see the massive vessel continuing to slow. Since they were much closer, they had a clearer picture of what the ship looked like. It was in fact, twenty-two kilometers in diameter, a disk, flying face-on toward the planet. The gravitational anomaly was on the side facing away from the planet, pulling the ship to a stop. Redcap Madness’s sensors couldn’t get a clear image of the ship, not with those gravitational effects screwing up all the readings. “But what I can tell you about that thing is that I don’t recognize the hull composition. It isn’t metal. Hell, I don’t know what the hell it is.” She grunted, waving at the display. “And the anomalies are screwing up the sensors so I can’t get a clear read. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Vosteros nodded slowly, eyes on the displays. “All right. Maya, do your best, get whatever information about that… thing as you can.” He shrugged, grinning. “Who knows? Might be worth something to the government, to First Principles. Hell, to both of them.” He watched the disk as it slowly maneuvered through the planet’s rings and into the upper atmosphere. What exactly is that thing doing? Who are you?

  This system was cold. It was barren. There were three planets here that could serve as reasonable ports for resupply. There was one poison planet, in closer to the star, and there were populations of lower life forms, vermin, really, but thankfully they seemed to be planet bound.

  Jocana-Swift-Soaring twitched its manipulator tentacles in disgust. How it is that vermin can live on a planet like that, it boggles the neuro-tails. How could they possibly develop on a world with so little of the life-giving essence? On a place where they have to crawl on the rocks, breathing that stink. It shuddered.

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony, the mutually-agreed upon Decider for this expedition, sent out an electromagnetic pulse, the People’s equivalent of clearing one’s throat. The People spoke to one another by sending naturally generated electromagnetic signals, coherent radio waves, nothing so… uncouth… as belching gas from an interior bladder and vibrating cords within their bodies. [You are troubled.]

  Jocana-Swift-Soaring made swirling motions with its manipulator tentacles. [I didn’t realize I was projecting, Decider. Forgive me. It has been a long and harrowing journey.]

  [It has been. And I know that you and your progenitors disapproved of this mission. I appreciate what it took for you to take up this mission.]

  [Our Home is dying.] Jocana-Swift-Soaring was resigned. [The idea of traveling to another world, finding one that we can use for a new Home… It seems a fantasy.] The massive creature gathered in another bladder-full of the particulate-filled atmosphere of the ship, sucking in nutrients as well. [The People have never strayed so far from Home before. If forty-five of us barely made this journey through such perils, how can we convince tens of thousands of our brethren to join us? I must admit the traveling through metaspace was not a pleasant experience.]

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony waved a dozen of its smaller cilia-like appendages, gathering up particulates and other nutrients out of the atmo. It emitted a small EM pulse, the equivalent of putting a hand on the shoulder. [No, it was not. And the fact that it took sixteen circlings to bring us here, finally to a star system that has possible candidates for our new Home… well, I cannot imagine it will go over well with the populace back Home. But as you say, Home is dying. We must take extreme measures to ensure our people survival.]

  [As you say, Decider.] Jocana-Swift-Soaring stated emphatically. [How long until we can start work on repairing the vessel?]

  A trilling pulse this time, accompanied by the curling of a half-dozen of its larger manipulator tentacles. [We must test the quality of the essence of this world. There would be no point in collecting large amounts of it to find it was poisonous or irradiated beyond use, would it?]

  Jocana-Swift-Soaring emitted an amused pulse. [No, it would not. Forgive my impatience.]

  [There is nothing to forgive. The nutrient levels in the essence aboard the vessel are at low levels. I know that they need replenishment. I am pleased that the crew have been so strong in taking a reduction in their daily consumption of nutrient mass. But we have all been feeling the strain.] Another reassuring signal. [Do not worry. Hopefully our long odyssey is over and in a short while we will feast.]

  [Decider, there is something in the atmosphere of the planet.] Another of the crew sent to its leader. [An artificial construct of some sort. I do not recognize the design.]

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony rotated its huge form. The People were not built like the vermin that crawled on the surface of the poison worlds, with only a small number of appendages for movement. No, the People were proper-sized, each several hundred kit-khoonj in diameter, and while they were round, they were not perfect spheres. Their outer membranes were festooned with two score large manipulator tentacles for grasping large objects, and several hundred hairlike cilia for more fine motor manipulation, and they doubled as radio frequency emitters and receivers for their communication, both with each other and with the vessel. Vermin might call them bubbles or gas-baggers, but to the People, the vermin were the ones worthy of derision. Creatures so small an entire civilization could be devoured by one of the People? No, the vermin were insignificant compared to such as They.

  But this was the first time Torinal-Winged-Harmony had ever heard of someone, anyone building a construct in the atmosphere of a Home-like world. Even this vessel wasn’t built, it was grown. It was as much a living thing as the People who controlled it.

  [What kind of construct? What is its function? Can you tell?]

  Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy waved some of his cilia, sending out what information he had. [It appears to be an essence collector, Decider. A
nd there is another construct that is moving to intercept the first.]

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony send a pulse of confusion. [Another construct?]

  [This one is mobile, Decider. It is not large, however.] Golkakchuck-Golden-Entropy was transmitting his thoughts slowly. [Barely a quarter of a ganya-ukh in length.]

  That was tiny, the Decider thought, not transmitting this thought to the others. [One of my grippers is larger than that unit.]

  [Then we can be sure that it is no threat.] Jocana-Swift-Soaring was adamant about that. [Something so insignificant could not possibly breach the vessel’s hull or disrupt our systems.]

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony sent out a strong signal. [I am not so concerned about damage. I am more concerned, or interested, rather, in where it came from. And why it seems to be following the vessel.]

  [I am not showing any power readings, Decider. Nothing significant. Certainly nothing like those on the vessel.] It referred to their massive ship. [The mobile construct is moving toward the stationary one. Perhaps it means to link up with it?]

  [But both of those constructs are tiny. One of the People could not possibly use that construct. Even the most diminutive of Us could not possibly fit.]

  Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy’s transmission was wobbly, as it was trying to wrap its neurons around the concept. [Decider, the only other explanation that makes any sense is that this is a vessel piloted by vermin.]

  Torinal-Winged-Harmony shifted its bulk, maneuvering closer to the other creature. [Not only piloted by, but constructed by.]

  [It boggles the neural cluster, that vermin would evolve to the point where they could even escape their poison sphere, much less gather the essence from a proper world.] Jocana-Swift-Soaring’s cilia rippled.

  [Continue to monitor the constructs.] Torinal-Winged-Harmony floated over to another section of the ship, linking with the vessel’s neural net. [We have more important things to deal with than the fate of vermin. If they do anything interesting or…] and it paused here, his cilia rippling in amusement, [threatening, then we will act accordingly. Until then we have to look after the vessel and our crew. Continue sampling and testing the essence from this world.]

  [Understood, Decider.] Jocana-Swift-Soaring went back to work.

  [The vessel will be within collection range for the essence within twenty-seven okuth-kan.] Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy reported. [Once there I will deploy collectors and bring aboard small samples of the essence. Hopefully, there will be enough particulates for fuel and nutrient replenishment.]

  Torinal emitted a pulse of amusement. [Indeed, we are all in need of a larger allotment of nutrient mass.] There were amused pulses from the rest of the crew at that statement.

  “Look at that thing, it’s fucking huge!” Oberst exclaimed, gesturing to the front viewport, where far in the distance they could see the circular dot against the orange gas planet.

  “We knew that already,” Taja replied, looking over Maya’s shoulder at the other woman’s sensor displays. “But what we don’t know is… well… everything else. What it’s made of, how many people are aboard, but especially how they do that trick with the gravitic anomalies.”

  Vosteros turned to her. “You’d want that?”

  She snorted derisively. “Are you kidding? If you could harness gravitics like that, you could accelerate so hard that no one could catch you. Especially if no one else has that tech.”

  “I would love to fly a ship going that fast,” Oberst breathed, clearly excited by the idea. He was running his fingers through his hair, eyes glued to the item through the armorglass port. “Even just what we saw, you’d be across the system in a matter of minutes.”

  “Imagine how that would work with freight schedules,” Taja murmured.

  “Now that is something to consider. Just wonder what they fuel that thing with.” Vosteros’s voice was musing. “Helium 3, I wonder? Maybe with a lot of power plants or a more refined mixture.”

  Maya shrugged. “I’m not able to read their power signature at all, even with the gravitic anomalies gone. There’s something about that hull, it just absorbs sensor signals and doesn’t return anything.” She frowned, biting her lip in frustration. “And the hull, from what I can tell, seems to be composed of some sort of ceramic polymer as well as metal, but not in pieces, like on this ship. It’s as though the two are… fused somehow. As if they’re one material. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “I wonder who they are? And how many of them there are?”

  “All right,” Frederick said, shaking his head to clear away the euphoria of this amazing find. “We’ve still got cargo to haul and a schedule to keep.” There was a chorus of groans from the crew members. “Yeah, yeah, moan. Maya, you keep on the sensors, do your thing, vacuum up as much information about that ship as you can. Everyone else, we have refueling ops to handle. Then, we’re leaving here. Now we’re already a few hours behind schedule because of that rather large evasive maneuver we had to make. I am not going to lose a whole day because of this ship, which is essentially a plate that won’t talk to us.”

  The others seemed to recover their composures, returning to task. Taja walked out of the cockpit, heading to the cargo area. But every so often, the crew would steal looks over at Maya’s station, trying to get catch just a tiny glimpse at that… thing.

  Tamara watched from her office aboard Moxie-2, as the Samarkand continued work on the first of the three “heaters” as they were being called. Work crews and bots were hollowing out small asteroids and gear was being transferred over and installed from the repair ship. “You see, Captain, the idea is simple. I need some large weapon platforms to melt that big ball of rock over there. Well, metal and some composites, really. In addition, I need some new weapons platforms to act as defenses for the mine should any of our ‘friends’ show up.”

  “So you’re building these… platforms to replace the ones that the pirates destroyed when they came through here?” Captain Greer asked, pointing.

  “Not replacing, exactly,” she corrected. “I’m going to be replacing the weapons turrets that we lost out here, these new ones are going to supplement them. The other ones could throw out a decent amount of fire, had some box launchers for missiles and a few turbolaser cannons. They were meant to provide overlapping coverage.”

  “This looks to be a great deal larger than the ones I’ve seen specifications for,” the man replied.

  Tamara gave a small smile. “That’s because it is. This platform here is going to be loaded with turbolaser and heavy laser batteries that would rival a battleship. The power plant is going to have to provide energy for the weapons, as well as, eventually, energy shields for the platform. That’s it there,” she said, gesturing to the bots that were carrying the squat fusion reactor into the cavern that had been hollowed out of the side of the rock.

  “How long until it is operational?” Greer asked.

  She shrugged. “Not long. Ten days. In six we’re going to start work on the second one. The components, and the cannons, will be completed by then and it’ll just be installation and integration.”

  “Impressive operation, Ms. Samair,” Greer congratulated. “I am quite impressed by the speed and efficiency of your workers.”

  “We have good people, Captain,” she replied demurely. “And this can’t be the first time you’ve seen our people in action. Your ship, in fact, came from our yard.”

  He nodded, considering her words. “Yes, indeed. But I have to admit, I didn’t spend all that much time out at the yard while the Curroth was under construction. Your yard manager was rather adamant that she didn’t want what she called ‘people looking over her shoulder’ while the ships were being built.” He sniffed. “Was rather rude of her, actually.”

  Tamara smiled indulgently. “It’s company policy. Ms. Sterling was just doing her job, Captain. I’m the one who isn’t thrilled to have unnecessary people getting underfoot on my shipyard.”

  Aloicius Greer grimaced at th
at comment. “I have to say that I take some offense at that statement, Ms. Samair. The captain of the ship that you are building wants to come and see the progress of that ship; he is hardly ‘underfoot’ as you say.”

  Tamara shrugged. She’d dealt with his type many times before both in the old days when she worked in the Republic Navy shipyards as well as here in this system. “Captain, that ship isn’t yours until my engineering teams release it to you. Until then, it’s still officially the property of my yard workers.” She held up her hands to forestall an argument. “Let’s not quibble. The important thing is that you’ve got possession of the Curroth now and that everyone’s happy.”

  He glared at her for a long moment before shrugging. “As you say, it is of no moment. But I am interested in these weapons platforms you are building out here. The ‘heaters’ as you called them.”

  She looked over to him. “What about them?”

  Greer gestured to the work going on outside the ship. “I’m thinking that the government might be interested in getting some of these platforms for planetary defense.” He cocked his head to the side, obviously thinking about something. “You mentioned that the weapons on those platforms are of battleship-scale, yes?”

  Tamara smiled. “Yes, turbo- and heavy turbolaser batteries. They’re typically used in battleships and other large constructions. Why do you ask?”

  “Any chance that my ship could be retrofitted with one of those turbolasers?” Greer asked, his gaze cunning. “Judging by the size of those weapons, I don’t think any of the heavy turbolasers could work on my ship, they’re simply too big. But perhaps one of the standard turbolasers could be outfitted for my chase armament?”