by J. K. Mabrey
Galactic
Assimilation
By: J.K. Mabrey
Galactic Assimilation
Copyright © 2014 by J.K. Mabrey
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction or transmission of this book, in whole or in part, by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any other means is strictly prohibited, except with prior written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For my loving wife.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Pilot
Politician
Phantom
Probe
Prey
Predator
Plot
Plan B
Parley
Paladin
Penitent
Pact
Phalanx
Plea
Proof
Persuasion
Perish
Protection
Portal
Payoff
About the Author
Excerpt from Empire Rising Chapter 1
Pilot
The window opened and Zavik was given the green light to enter the portal. His cargo was secure. This was one of the easier contracts he’d had to fulfill lately. No criminal underground or threats to go along with the cargo, just government bureaucrats. As much of a pain as they could be, they at least weren’t dangerous. He’d drop off the cargo, collect his earnings, and pay off some debts that desperately needed to be squared away. If there were anything left, he’d be sure to fix the Rinada’s shield generator. It had been taking entirely too long to regenerate during recent tests.
The Rinada was Zavik’s personal flagship, his pride and joy. Converted from a standard freighter, this ship could well hold its own in a fight, though it had yet to be fully tested. The numerous upgrades to shields, engines, and most importantly weapons, had taken three years to complete, if you could call his constant tinkering complete. Ever since leaving the United Earth Force, and acquiring the Rinada, Zavik had been obsessed with turning it into the ultimate gunship. These upgrades weren’t cheap, though, and money wasn’t easy to come by for an ex-military officer in a galaxy that still disliked humans.
Since leaving the U.E.F. Zavik had struggled to find consistent work. The freedoms of freelancing appealed to Zavik. If even some of the alien races would offer more opportunities to humans, he could make a nice business out of it. Though right now he was focused on Earth. He wanted a long-term contract to ship supplies to Earth. That required a proven, reliable ship. A ship that could go into hostile territory without fear of pirates. That’s what Zavik had been working on for three years, along with his copilot, Dani Epson.
Dani and Zavik met about a year after his departure from the military. They first met in a bar on Earth and Zavik was immediately attracted to her for reasons other than her piloting skills. He saw her from across the bar, her thick jet-black hair blended in with the surrounding darkness like a crescent moon on a starry night. It didn't take long, only two drinks, for Zavik to muster the courage to strike up a conversation with her. She was a slender woman almost as tall as Zavik’s six-foot stature. Her pale skin glistened off the black-light lining the ceiling. She was already part of a crew for another freighter making supply runs for Earth when they met, but she wasn't happy. They started talking about space life, and she convinced him to let her join his crew. Space-faring was a lonely business and Zavik had been searching for someone who could help out. Dani wasn’t tied down with family and wanted a more prominent role on a ship. She didn’t realize, until Zavik showed her the Rinada, that she’d be the only other crewmember. She had one rule for him, though: keep it strictly professional. She wasn’t looking to be used for anything but her piloting skills.
Neither was Earth born, but they still held a soft spot for it. The destruction caused from overpopulation had almost destroyed Earth, as well as the human race. Once measured at fifteen billion people on the planet, the human race had since been reduced to three billion in the entire galaxy, still too many to support on a depleted Earth. The planet could no longer handle that many people, and over-cultivation of the land led to greatly reduced crop yields. Billions had starved, and billions more were killed in wars over food. Like the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s U.S., whole countries were turned into barren wastelands, unsuitable for life, even in shelters.
The Galactic Council, the reigning political system in the galaxy, had offered to help humans restore the planet. The process, however, was proving to be slow. For over one hundred and fifty years the Council had offered nutrients and advanced equipment to bring life back to the dead lands. The crop yields were just not enough to keep Earth sustained without further aid from the Galactic Community. Humans were desperate to be independent again. Earth wasn’t occupied, but relying on aliens to keep humans alive was very unsettling to Earth’s elected council. The land was livable now, and stabilization was showing signs of life.
It had been two hundred and twenty years since the development of near light speed technology brought the planets within everyday reach. This technology, like most developed on Earth, was brought about through a need for superiority. That was the problem with humans, according to some in the Galactic Community. A war had broken out in AD 2109 that lasted three years. It became the first war fought primarily in space. Giant space stations built purely for war were developed by the two superpowers, known as the East and West Consolidations. These were continent-spanning unions of nations that allied to form worldwide economies. They eventually wanted dominance in space, as well as on land. The days of cooperation for space exploration were long gone. Striking from space became the quickest means of retaliation, and a great tool for fear. Space technology expanded at a rate not seen for centuries, and the ability to quickly travel to other planets was no longer science fiction dreams. The Great Space War proved devastating.
After the war, which ended when the West stationed their entire arsenal of nuclear weapons in space over the East’s land and threatened to launch them all, an act that would destroy half the planet. The East conceded defeat, believing the inevitable mutual destruction of both sides was too much. A treaty was eventually signed to use the new space technologies to benefit humans. However, the seeds of overpopulation were beginning to show.
It was not long after the war that expeditions to the planets were commissioned. One reached the very edge of the solar system, and that was when the course for humanity was changed forever. An object was found. At the time it looked like little more than a large metallic ring, hundreds of times the size of any Earth ship. The expedition team was in awe of what they found and wanted to get a closer look. They flew in close and drifted through the ring. It was derelict and harmless. When they reached the other side, the ring lit up and reactivated. In the center, a bubble, emitting bright blue rays, began to fill the ring and expanded to the outer edges. Lightning radiated out, showcasing a massive structure, surging with power. There was no chance this was created by humans. No Earthling had ever ventured this far out in the solar system. Looking through the bubble the backdrop of space seemed distorted and blurry. The crew was curious, but needed to return to Earth to relay what they found, and they were in desperate need of supplies, they were not equipped to stay out this far for long. They began to pull away when the bubble collapsed and a ship, one much larger than anything they had seen before, emerged in front of them.
First contact was made.
It was one
of these portals that Zavik and Dani were entering. Now traveling through the portals was commonplace for humans. Things had changed drastically in the last two hundred years.
The Rinada entered the bubble. The distorted image collapsed on them, then expanded in an instant. Less than a second for Zavik and Dani and they were over six thousand light-years away. Veering to port side, the dark side of Earth, lit ablaze by the flood of artificial light was still as astonishing as ever. They were back on familiar territory.
“Always beautiful isn’t it?” Dani asked.
“Huh? What is?” Zavik responded.
“Earth!" she cried. "Home you bore.” Zavik's sentimental side rarely showed through.
“Oh, yeah, guess it is, isn’t it,” he replied. “Maybe one day we’ll get to see it on a more permanent basis.”
“That would be lovely. Odds?”
He considered for a moment, and then said, “Two hundred and thirty to one.”
“That bad?” she moaned. Usually Zavik gave reasonable odds to all situations, even if they were really long shots.
“In our lifetime?” His head shook. “Yeah, that bad.”
The warp portal orbited at seventy-five thousand miles from earth. Pushing the Rinada to point one percent of light speed would get them to Earth in a little less than seven minutes, an easy request from any ship in the fleet.
Zavik sat at the forward right in the cramped cockpit. He leaned forward from his stiff chair and stretched his back, then grabbed the controls and directed the ship to Earth. He eased the throttle forward slightly and the ship drifted smoothly away from the portal. Dani sat to his left and began running through the computer systems. The two other seats were rarely occupied since Zavik took ownership of the vessel. “I'll plot a course for docking station EU-173, get us a clearance to land," he said to her.
“Right away.” Dani keyed the comm. “Docking station EU-173, this is the freighter Rinada requesting permission to dock and unload supplies.” Freighter wasn’t exactly the most accurate description of the Rinada anymore, but for this mission, it was close enough.
“Platform EU-173 here.” The voice sent a chill up her back. “What is your cargo and code clearance?”
“We have food and crop supplies destined for the European Province, under the authority of Admiral Collins. Submitting our code clearance now.” Dani transmitted the code to the docking station.
A few moments later the tech's voice came back on. “Ok. Everything seems to check out. Dock in bay twelve. I’ll upload the coordinates to your nav. We will need to search your cargo before unloading it, standard regulations.”
“Of course,” she responded and the conversation cut off.
“Not much for conversation today,” Zavik commented.
“Like they're ever?"
“Oh well, let's just dump this and get to the next job.” Whatever that would be.
The Rinada approached the docking module, hardly worth calling a bay. The decaying platform was built with the old style attach-modules instead of having actual docking bays for ships to land. It would make the unloading time take twice as long, without any extra compensation. The module extending for the Rinada had blast damage on its outer shell, it must have been in service for over forty years. The module clamped down on the ship as Zavik moved them in range.
“Great, we get the classic,” Zavik smirked.
“This’ll increase the unloading time to about an hour."
Zavik sighed, “Yep. Well that'll give us time to hit their bar, and see if there are any jobs we can do on our way out of here.”
“I’m sure we’ll find something while we're here,” she said.
The ship finished the docking procedure and equalized pressures. Zavik and Dani headed for the starboard crew exit. The ship connected to the station there as well as farther back in the cargo hold. Zavik made sure to lock the access to the crew quarters from the cargo hold. No need to risk someone getting nosy.
They exited the ship onto the docking platform. A cylinder tube connected to the ship led to the center of the station. Zavik didn't like the darkness of the enclosed space, it reminded him that they were mere feet away from an endless void that would kill slowly. He didn't trust the military enough to be comfortable with that.
“At least they have gravity,” Dani said, attempting to sound cheerful.
“Yeah, we should start a list of those that don’t, and make sure we avoid them at all cost.” Zavik was always trying to focus on business. Platforms without gravity were just a pain to deal with, although moving supplies was arguably faster.
“I can’t believe the fleet hasn’t installed those gravity generators on all the stations. I mean the Savins practically gave them to us."
“As important as these supply runs are, you’d think it would be a top priority to increase efficiency,” Zavik said. “But what do we know. That’s why they pay the leaders the big bucks, and us the small bucks.”
“Ah, here’s our welcoming party.” Dani nodded down the hall.
Three uniformed men approached them. The one in the middle spoke. “Zavik Khan? Pleasure to meet you.”
“Thanks,” Zavik responded, and cautiously shook his hand.
“I’m Sergeant Barrilia, ma’am.” The stiff military sergeant nodded, took her hand and kissed it softly.
“Sergeant,” Dani responded, a slight blush began to show.
“We’ve been looking forward to the supplies you’ve got,” he said.
“Glad to be of service. How’s restoration going?” Zavik asked, stepping between Dani and the Sergeant.
“Slow, still. The Council just won't authorize us to get enough to achieve self-sustainment.” Zavik could tell he was genuinely frustrated.
“Keeping us on a leash still?” Zavik prodded.
“Basically,” he replied. “If they’d order more systems to give us maybe four or five times as much supplies, which they’re damn sure capable of doing, we could have Earth self-sustainable again in five years. But then we wouldn’t have to rely on the Council. They wouldn’t like that.”
“Five years!” Dani gasped. “That’d be remarkable. What’s that doing to your odds?” She glanced at Zavik.
“Cuts’em in half, at least."
“Huh?” the Sergeant asked.
“Never mind,” they said simultaneously.
“Well, yeah,” he glanced questionably at them both, “but as it is, everything we grow gets used, and every bit of supply we’re given is gone in a month. There’s still too much land that’s barren and dead, and no chance to stockpile or get a decent harvest from the good land. People are still starving; we can’t justify hoarding supplies...Not without inciting a riot at least. The farmable land is increasing, just at a very slow pace. Which is why these supplies are very important.”
“Oh really?” Zavik asked. “How’s that?”
“Don’t know what you’re transporting, huh?” the Sergeant questioned.
“Never ask, just deliver it. Keeps it clean for all parties."
“Good policy,” he said dryly, "but these aren't illegal, so no need to worry. Let's take a look at the cargo list.” Barrilia keyed his data pad. “Let's see, we’ve got top grade fertilizer, and additional nutrients to redevelop more land. Takes barren soil and makes it arable again. Crop growth hormones will speed up the harvesting times, and advanced pesticides to eliminate all bugs and diseases, especially off-world ones. You’ve got enough to cultivate about twenty-five thousand acres. Also got a nice load of non-perishable foods for distribution in the community there.”
“Not bad I guess,” Zavik said. “All that gone in a month, huh?”
“Well, the food yes, but the harvest should be in by then. That will last maybe six months. These supplies will hopefully increase the yield next year by double if we get another shipment soon. And that’s just for one small province in Europea. So if we could just get one of you’s a month, instead of the one every six months, we could save some of the
harvests, then we’d really be getting somewhere.”
“That call’s above my pay grade I’m afraid."
“Ha, above mine too, way above,” the Sergeant said.
“So, how long you think it’ll take to undock it all?”
“Oh, we’ll try and get you out of here in forty-five, hour max. Gotta do the security sweep, standard regulations of course.”
“Of course,” Zavik and Dani responded in unison.
“This here docks a rickety old thing, so it’ll take longer than the newer ones, but fleets got more important things to worry about than upgrading a working docking station.”
“At least you have gravity,” Dani offered.
“Amen to that,” he said heartily. “Makes you feel for EU-175. Their gravity generator went out two weeks ago. Gonna take a damn standard year just to get the ok to replace the thing, and another four months for installation. Poor bastards.”
“That’s an understatement," Zavik said. "Well, Sergeant we’ll let you get to work. We’re going to take a walk around for a while, maybe hit the bar.”
“She’s an open dock for the most part. You’ll find some civilians in the lower levels, and you’ll know where not to go, being ex-mill and all.” He gave a wink and directed his men down towards the cargo hold for the security sweep.
They waited for the team to get out of sight.
“Guess someone remembers you,” Dani said.
“Yeah, and it wasn’t him.”
It didn’t take long to find out whom it was. As they walked down the hall towards the interior of the station, an officer approached them.
“Captain Khan?” he asked. “Private Steve Adler. You are requested down in the armory.”
“Requested? By whom?” Zavik was suspicious as always.
“It’s nothing sinister, I assure you. Apparently, you have an old friend requesting your presence. Please take the elevator to the third floor, and follow the signs. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have other more pressing business to attend too.”
