by S A Pavli
The individual at the centre of the front group was young, tall and broad shouldered. But he had a gaunt hunched appearance and a pale pallor. He spoke and Alfred’s translation was repeated a second later.
“Who are you? Where are you from?”
Hamolatonen stepped forward. I thought he looked very impressive dressed in the full Captain’s uniform.
“We are an exploration ship from the main Galaxy.”
“You are not Dansai?” Their spokesman scowled at us out of the screen. “How can this be?”
“It’s a long story,” said Hamolatonen. “We would like to send a team to your planet to meet with your leaders.”
“You may have noticed that our planet is blockaded by those serashtak plunshin animals, the Saraya?”
“We believe we can get a fast ship through their lines.”
There was a pause while he considered this.
“I am Sammas Param Tozak the Twenty Fifth. I am the Prime Emrasan on the ruling Assembly of this planetary system.” His eyes became hooded as he considered what to say next. “Have you come a long way?”
“Not particularly.” Hamolatonen spoke cautiously. “A trip of a few weeks in our starship.”
“You have only one ship?”
“Yes.”
“Unarmed?”
“No. It is well armed. But we come as explorers. We have no wish for conflict.”
Tozak grunted. Was there a note of contempt there I asked myself.
“Can you tell us why the Saraya are blockading your planet?”
“That, as you say, is a long story.” That could have been humorous, but was uttered with grimness, his eyes filled with hate.
“It must be very…inconvenient for you?”
“We are expecting support from our neighbouring systems. We will trap those filthy vermin between our two fleets and reduce them to mamsta food.”
“I see. Perhaps we can offer some assistance. We have managed to decode the Saraya’s military communications. It means nothing to us, but it may be useful to your military commanders.”
Tozak looked startled, his eyes wide.
“That will be…very useful,” he said after a few moments. He paused, then seemed to come to a decision.
“Yes, you are after all Unzan (humanoid) like us. I will instruct my technicians to send you the co-ordinates of your landing site. Perhaps we can arrange a diversionary attack on the other side of the planet. That will allow your ship to sneak in unnoticed.”
“Very good,” said Hamolatonen. “I am the Captain of this starship and I will remain with my ship. My delegation will be four individuals.”
“I understand.” Tozak gave a slow nod. “This is a momentous day. I look forward to our further cooperation.” The screen went blank and there was a general letting out of breath and a murmur of muttered comments.
“Not one for general chit chat, our Tozak,” I whispered to Manera.
“Not my Tozak,” she whispered back. “Nasty looking individual.”
“Yes. The murals in the asteroid showed a species which is different from us, and from this lot,” I said. “The Dansai could not have evolved from the Makers surely?
She gave me a long thoughtful look. “Doesn’t seem likely. Do you remember what happened when we triggered the alarm at the HCD asteroid?”
“We were attacked by those friendly Saraya.”
“Not that bit.. We triggered a Hyperspace message…”
“Directed to the centre of the cluster. Of course. We missed the significance of that at the time.”
“Yes. These… people, are definitely not the Makers,” said Manera. “We have to follow the direction of that message to find them.”
Later, when we discussed this with the others, it transpired that many of them had also arrived at the same conclusion. But we decided to press on with making contact with the Dansai , if only to find out what was the cause of the war between them and the reptilians, or Saraya as the Dansai called them, and to confirm our suspicions about their origins.
We prepared our transport to the planet. It was a standard Peacekeeper fighter, but modified to facilitate occupation and control by the on board crew. The fighters normally were able to carry six soldier robots, each having a secure harness in the main cabin. This fighter only had harnesses for two robots. The space released allowed the installation of high acceleration seats for the crew and some electronics and screens to allow them to monitor and control the ship. We loaded food and water for a few days stay, as well as ammunition and fuel.
We acquired a last minute member of the ‘delegation’; Cora asked to be included. It was agreed because we quickly recognised that she would provide valuable, indeed unique abilities. She would provide an additional channel of contact and control over the fighter, being in direct communication with its AI, as well as the Settang, for the same reason. Her regal beauty also disguised the power and speed of an advanced robot body.
She suggested that she should keep her identity secret from the Dansai and pretend that she was just another biological member of the crew. We pointed out that, although she looked very realistic, she was obviously not Hianja. She disappeared for a couple of hours and when she returned we were surprised at the transformation. Her perfect features and unblemished artificial skin were subtly changed, the skin now totally realistic with little whorls and blemishes, the features very slightly imperfect. She looked like an attractive thirty something with short black unruly hair and deep brown eyes. I wondered if the rest of her was as realistic, but kept the thought to myself!
We thought carefully about whether we should carry guns. The fighter was armed, and we had personal arms on board, but should we be seen by the Dansai wearing them? We decided it would be provocative to do so, and in any case, would provide us with no protection if the Dansai wanted to kill or capture us. The main protection we had was the presence of the Settang Despass and its massive fire power, which could be revealed at the first sign of trouble.
The Dansai radioed the coordinates for our landing. At the distance the Settang was from the planet we could make out very little detail, but we could see that the landing site was on the coast of one of the main central land masses and at the edge of a large city.
The plan was that the Settang would jump to within the hyperspace limit of three million miles then carry out a fast ‘flyby’ of the planet and our fighter would be ejected for the last million miles. With our Peacekeeper cloaking device and the speed we would be travelling, there was little or no chance that we would be detected.
Time came to depart and we said our goodbyes. Hamolatonen looked uncomfortable, fussing over every detail. Colrania tried to appear relaxed but I could see the tension in her face. Even I found that I was unable to come up with any of my usual witticisms, good, bad or indifferent, to enliven the mood.
We took our places in the small compartment of the fighter and checked out the systems. Commander Pariso was hooked in to the AI via his implants, and Cora was directly interfaced. Manera and I were dependent on a simple and rather metallic spoken report from the ship’s AI, with occasional interjections from the Commander and Cora. A big 3D on the wall gave us an external view. I felt Manera’s hand on mine and I gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand. She turned and leaned towards me and I leaned over and we exchanged a warm kiss. The Commander and Cora were too busy to notice, or pretended not to, but Commra gave us a knowing look.
“This beats sitting in Council meetings,” he remarked.
“Anything beats sitting in Council meetings,” I said. I didn’t share Commra’s enthusiasm. My instincts were shouting don’t do it Constantine. And my instincts are seldom wrong.
Chapter 8
The trip to the Dansai planet was uneventful. The Settang made a high speed pass and our fighter was ejected and accelerated towards the planet. We watched the planet grow larger and learned a little more about its geography and population centres. We picked up radio traffic from both t
he Dansai and the Saraya, but no indication that we had been ‘rumbled’. As we got close we saw signs of action on the opposite side of the planet from our landing site. The Dansai were creating a diversion as they had promised.
The course to our landing site was locked in and we dived into the atmosphere, our speed dropping rapidly. We approached the landing site at high speed and made a pass over it, curving back around over the ocean.
We examined the video from our flyby. Our landing site was clearly a military airport at the edge of a big city. On the ground, at the end of the runway we could see our reception committee, a large number of people with armoured vehicles parked around them and soldier robots behind.
“What do you think Captain?” asked Commander Pariso. He seemed to have a great deal of trust my military and tactical acumen and I did not want to disillusion him.
“The military presence? I suspect they are putting on a show for us.”
“Yes. Proceed with landing?” he asked.
I agreed and the Commander turned to Commra who also nodded and grunted “It’s what we came for.”
The Commander turned to Cora.
“Anything to add Cora?”
“There is a great deal of military radio traffic,” she said. “And air activity. Also a large military ground presence a few miles away from the city. They are taking no chances.”
“They are a suspicious lot,” I remarked. “But then, there is a war on.”
We made another approach, killing our speed with the forward jets and bringing the ship down on its AG to land gently on the tarmac in front of the reception committee.
“I think we should make an entrance,” I suggested. “Robots out first, one on each side of the aircraft, then us?”
The Commander nodded, as did Commra. Airlock doors open, our two robot soldiers exited the ship and took up positions on either side of the airlock. The Commander was out first, followed by Commra, then Cora and finally myself and Manera.
We approached their delegation and a group of five individual came towards us. At their head was the tall hunched figure of Tozak, his beak of a nose making him look like some alien bird of prey. Three of the others were male, various shapes and sizes, two quite old and the other middle aged. The last was a female, tall arresting figure, wearing a shimmering black and silver cape, with a mass of red hair. Her face was too bony to be considered beautiful, not by my standards anyway, but I suspected Hianja would find her more to their ‘taste’.
We had agreed that Commra would be our spokesman, as the senior Guardian on the expedition. A version of Alfred’s translation program had been downloaded to our ship’s AI and we were all in direct communication with it. He spoke Hianjese, and this was translated and repeated by the AI.
“We bring you greetings from our people,” he said. “We are an exploration expedition. I am Guardian Lainser Commra, a member of our federation’s ruling council.”
Tozak waited for the translation before speaking.
“We welcome you to our planet, which we call Leffra. It is good to see that other Dansai-like civilisations exist in the Galaxy. What brought you here?”
“We have come to investigate the source of certain Hyperspace signals emanating from this star cluster,” replied Commra. “Allow me to introduce my companions.” He turned and introduced us one at a time. Since the Dansai had made no effort to come forward, we stayed where we were and simply nodded as we were introduced. We had agreed that I would be ‘Hianja’ for the time being, and to keep the forthcoming arrival of the Earth fleet a secret.
Tozak listened carefully then he also introduced his companions. I made no effort to remember their names, except for the female, whose unusual name stuck in my memory. She was Tara Con Sata, which struck me as very Spanish. I had known another Tara, the amiable but tough Tamara, an American astronaut.
“How long will you stay with us?” asked Tozak.
“We have food on our ship for a few days,” said Commra.
“Very well. I will arrange accommodation for you at my palace,” said Tozak. “Your craft can remain here. It will be secure.” Palace, I thought. What are you, some kind of king?
“Thank you,” said Commra. Commander Pariso whispered something to him and he turned back to Tozak. “The Commander informs me that the ship is controlled by an advanced AI which is programmed to defend it. Please advise your people here that they should not interfere with it in any way.”
“Understood,” said Tozak, his face impassive.
Our soldier robots re-entered the ship and we followed the Dansai leaders. We were taken to a large armoured bus. Inside it was luxuriously appointed, with large comfortable chairs and what appeared to be a bar at the back. We took our seats and the five Dansai leaders joined us, as well as a number of armed uniformed individuals. We moved off in a convoy of vehicles and we all looked out of the tinted windows with interest.
Our hosts examined us with unashamed curiosity, particularly Tara. It was her who leaned forward.
“You are from the main Galaxy, yet you look Dansai. Are you related to the Engineers?”
The Engineers? Did they also know about the Makers?
I looked at Manera and I could see that she’d had the same thoughts.
“Yes,” said Manera quickly. “We believe so. Are all the Dansai in the cluster of the same species?”
“Yes,” replied Tara. “We can trace our origins back to one planet.”
“What about the Saraya?” asked Manera.
“They are also one species. But they are obviously not like us. We made contact with them five thousand years ago.”
“And we have been at war with them ever since,” added Tozak.
Tara looked discomforted by Tozak’s statement, as if she somehow disapproved.
What… er… was the cause?” I asked. Tara looked at me questioningly. “I mean, how did the hostilities between yourselves and the Saraya begin?” She looked at Tozak and he leaned forward, speaking quickly.
“It goes back a long while,” he said. “The reasons are buried in history.”
“It is unfortunate that you cannot repair relationships,” I remarked.
Tozak grunted dismissively.
“The Saraya are stubborn, arrogant warmongers. The only solution is extermination.”
“The Galaxy should be big enough for all of us,” I said mildly.
“That is not what the Saraya think,” he replied. Or is that what you think? I diplomatically restrained myself from further comment.
“Your ship is very impressive,” said Tozak, giving Tara a look as if to say change the subject. “How does it hover and land vertically? I could see no vertical jets.”
“We have a form of artificial gravity,” replied Commra. “The ship can fly normally on AG, but the fusion rockets give it extra acceleration. It is a military fighter.”
“Do you also have this… artificial gravity on your starship?”
“Yes, of course.”
“That is… very impressive. You are ahead of us technically,” said Tozak
Commra nodded politely but made no comment.
We were rolling through a busy city and we looked with interest out of the tinted windows. It was, sadly, all just a little disappointing. The buildings were bland and unimaginative. Transport was by electric buses with some small cars, with a smattering of pedestrians. Shops were plain and functional. There was also large numbers of armed uniformed individuals in the streets, and in patrol cars bearing the same logos and with the words ‘law enforcement’ on the side. It looked to be a society under siege, struggling to survive and maintain the basics.
Surely, I asked myself, this could not be explained by the Saraya blockade? The planet should be self sufficient. So what could explain the drab monotony of the town and its citizens? And the large numbers of uniformed police in evidence?
We arrived at the Palace, a grandiose building set in a huge square. Wide boulevards led to and from the building which was w
ell defended by blocky square buildings set at intervals around the palace and manned by soldiers. It was clearly very old, reminding me of ancient Aztec buildings with their ornate stepped terraces and broad balconies. I thought it was very handsome.
We made our way through a couple of checkpoints and through a giant archway into a broad courtyard. From the inside, the building was just as handsome, although starting to show its age, The intricate friezes and carvings were chipped and worn.
“It is a very handsome building,” I said to Tara. “How old is it?”
“More than twenty thousand years,” she replied.
“Your ancestors built to last,” I remarked.
She smiled, the first smile I had seen on the face of a Dansai. It suits you I thought.
“They built to defend against the enemy.” She gave us a look which I interpreted as ironic.
A history of conflict I thought. Well, what’s new?
We exited the bus and followed our hosts through a wide doorway into what was clearly a reception area and from there into a large conference room. A long table occupied the centre of the room. A panoramic array of windows provided a view of lush gardens. There were a number of 2D screens around the room and a small display panel with buttons in front of each chair.
Form follows function I thought. A conference room anywhere in the Galaxy looks the same.
“Please be seated,” said Tozak. “I will arrange for accommodation for you all here in the palace. Will you have individual rooms, or will you share.
“Myself and the Commander will share,” said Commra, looking questioningly at the commander, who nodded. “Cora will be on her own and Captain Constantine and Manera will also share.”
“Two doubles and one single then,” said Tozak. I noticed Tara giving a curious look towards Manera and then in my direction.
We took our seats while Tozak consulted with his staff. Tara sat next to Manera. We were joined by a large number of other Dansai officials, who took seats around the table. Tozak sat at the head of the table.
