Vinium (The Silver Ships Book 10)
Page 4
“A seedling ship was captured after entering the space of the Worlds of Light. Its progenitors came to collect it. Their ships followed us to Ollassa. They wait in orbit above.”
Umber Interpreter translated for the Life Giver, stalks trembling to transmit the statements. All remained still for several moments before the great Life Giver quivered, its upper branches shaking with the effort.
“The Scarlet Life Giver asks, ‘Losses’?”
“There were none,” Scarlet Mandator replied. “The seedling was captured and released to its progenitors. No other action was taken by the Ollassa. The progenitors have taken none against us.”
After the interpreter spoke to the Life Giver, the response came. “Peaceful, superior species.”
“I believe so, Life Giver,” the mandator replied.
“Speak to them,” the Life Giver replied through Umber Interpreter. Afterwards, the interpreter’s bloom turned away from the mandator, signaling the end of the conversation.
Scarlet Mandator reversed course, striding along the path, riding the transport, and taking the waiting tram to the mesa. Talk to them, Mandator thought. How does one speak to entities not of the Light?
Buried beneath the mesa top, where shuttles landed, sat the Ollassa space command center, known as Mesa Control. There, Scarlet Mandator found Indigo Executor in charge.
“A message to all mandators, Executor,” Scarlet Mandator requested.
“Standby, Frosted Tasker,” the executor ordered. When the tasker’s bloom tipped, Indigo Executor said, “Ready when you are, Scarlet Mandator.”
“The Scarlet Life Giver has spoken. I, Scarlet Mandator, am to speak with the progenitors. It’s not known how this will be done. Opinions are welcome. If the progenitors land, they must not be accosted in any manner. If their shuttle were to land in the forest and burn the trees, it must be tolerated. Mesa Control will attempt to direct them to land on the mesa top, if at all possible.”
Scarlet Mandator tipped a bloom at Indigo Executor and exited Mesa Control. The executor tipped a bloom over the tasker’s board, read the message, and approved it to be sent.
Around the Worlds of Light, mandators read the message and were stunned. Many hoped that the Life Giver would require the destruction of the progenitor ships just as one of the Life Givers had ordered the great orb dispatched. To welcome these ships that came from beyond seemed to threaten the Ollassa way of life.
* * *
“Well, this is boring,” Svetlana grumped to Reiko. “We’ve been sitting up here for four days and not even a hello.”
“And how exactly are the Vinians supposed to do that?” Reiko replied.
“Knock on the hatch, how else?” Svetlana said, offhandedly.
“I’m so glad you’re not in charge of this diplomatic mission, Captain,” Reiko riposted.
“A diplomat, I’m not,” Svetlana shot back, giving Reiko a fierce grin.
The two women jumped up from command chairs and came to attention, as Alex, Renée, Tatia, and the SADEs came through the bridge passageway.
“Z, planet topology,” Alex requested.
Z used the bridge holo-vid, which could project a 3-meter wide display of the planet.
“Analysis?” Alex asked.
“We tracked the shuttle that departed the Vinian warship to this mesa top,” Tatia said, signaling the display to rotate and expand to indicate the coordinates she’d stored in her implant.
The Trident squadron had orbited the planet, while the Omnians waited for contact. The ships had spread far apart to carefully record the surface, and the SADEs melded the various ships’ data into a single complete sphere.
“Looks crowded,” Alex commented, eyeing the mesa top with its shuttles and equipment.
“It would be difficult to judge the reception we would receive there,” Z said. “None of our scans indicate weapons emplacements, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not there.”
“Which means we need somewhere quieter. Somewhere where we can wait for the Vinians to come to us,” Alex said, signaling the planet to rotate slowly, while he observed it. “That’s a lot of forest,” he said quietly.
“Rather what you would expect from plant people, as we surmised. They revere the greenery,” Reiko added. “Around the entire planet, we found only the one shuttle landing site. One of the things to take away from that is the mesa is a geologically solid rock. If it grew anything before it was turned into a shuttle port, I would be surprised.”
Alex nodded his agreement with Reiko, while he continued to rotate the display, but his control was interrupted. Renée shifted the display to zoom in to the mesa top and then rotated it to follow a small track that she had spotted. But, she lost it, when it disappeared into thick forest.
Z quickly shifted the telemetry to display thermal readings so that Renée could follow the metal rails, which, despite being partially hidden under the forest canopy, glowed thermally, warmed by the planet’s local star.
“Thank you, Z,” Renée commented. After following the tracks for nearly a hundred kilometers, she returned to the mesa top, whose bright thermal colors spoke of the tremendous amount of hot metal and gases released by the shuttles. Rotating the display slightly, Renée picked up another pair of tracks and followed them through the cool-colored thermal foliage for nearly the same distance. Twice more, Renée repeated the exercise.
“Quite astute of you, Ser,” Julien said graciously.
“Thank you, Julien.”
“What am I missing?” Reiko asked.
“Alex is looking for a quiet spot to land a traveler,” Renée replied. “What we don’t want to do is land in such an out-of-the-way place that no one comes to talk to us. If you follow these transport lines, each of them passes by an odd clearing. Renée rotated the display to showcase one of the clearings and enlarged the view.
“A huge circular meadow with one tree in it?” Reiko asked in confusion. “Why this one tree out of a whole forest of them?”
Quickly, Miranda filled the warship’s bridge vid screens with closeups of many of the clearings. She placed a detail in each of the images’ corners. “As a feminine entity, I’m always fascinated by the use of color,” Miranda said. “What I noticed about these particular trees, which Renée has identified, are the pods. You’ll observe that every small pod on each tree is green, but, as they ripen, they turn to one particular color for each tree.”
“Trees, flowers, they all have identifying colors. Why are these pod colors useful to us?” Tatia asked.
“How big would you say those pods are when they’re ripe?” Alex asked, peering at several of Miranda’s inserts.
“Approximately 2 meters,” Z replied.
“The Vinians,” Alex and Julien announced together.
“Synchronicity achieved,” Miranda commented wryly.
“Wait, Alex, you think these trees are producing the Vinians?” Reiko asked.
“Unless you believe in coincidences that defy the probabilities, Commodore,” Z replied. “It would appear so.”
“Alex, if you wanted to get the Vinians’ attention, landing at one of Renée’s trees would do it,” Tatia said.
“What’s your color preference, Renée?” Alex asked, slipping an arm around her waist.
“Not so fast. I’ve another thought,” Renée replied. “Let me ask our crystal friends if it can be determined whether they can discover a correlation between the shuttle that left the Vinian warship and a transport that went to one of these trees.”
“Doesn’t that presume that the leader of the ship would want to visit a tree upon landing?” Svetlana asked.
“It’s not so much a presumption as a curiosity,” Renée replied. “The leader might have stayed on the mesa, and a messenger sent. I have no idea. I was just wondering.”
Immediately, the SADEs dug into the
Tridents’ scan data. The time of the shuttle landing was locked in, and the data streams divided among them. A template, outlining the mesa, with all transport lines defined, was shared by Z.
Finally, the stored data streams of the area surrounding the mesa, as the warships passed overhead, were converted to thermal reads to detect the transports exiting the base of the mesa.
“We have three transports leaving the mesa in a period within one hour, following the landing of the shuttle,” Julien said.
“One transport stops at a small area that appears to be a population center, if we can judge this type of thing,” Z said.
“What do you mean?” Tatia asked.
“The suspected gathering area is indicated by a clearing, to some degree, of small shrubbery and grasses. Within the clearing are bubble-like structures. I would surmise the Vinians can rest inside these structures, recharge during the daylight, and not be bothered.”
“Bothered?” Reiko asked.
“Herbivores, insects, and vermin,” Alex replied.
“Wow. You know, I never gave a thought to what might chew on a plant,” Reiko said, her brow furrowing, as she considered the new perspective.
“To continue,” Z said. “This first transport stops at the clearing and returns to the mesa. It never passes by one of these great trees.”
“I located a second transport,” Miranda added. “It left the mesa and was tracked by three of our ships, as it continued on a long journey. It did pass by two great trees, but it never stopped at either of them. Unless the Vinians are inclined to leave their transports, as the Dischnya are fond of doing, I would have expected the transport to halt for a passenger to disembark.”
The group snickered at the reference to the Dischnya’s preferred method of catching their open air grav transports, which the Omnians had supplied. The powerful, hock-legged, canine-like Dischnya would race after a passing transport and, at the last moment, as their energy flagged, leap aboard to grasp a handhold. It was a dangerous sport that their warrior nature loved.
“A low probability I would suspect,” Alex commented.
“The third transport,” Julien said, “left the mesa within 0.44 hours after the shuttle touched down. As opposed to the other two transports, which had six and twelve cars, respectively, this transport had only two cars. It halted at a great tree, stayed there for only a half hour, and then returned to the mesa.”
“Sounds like an important person visited the tree,” Alex surmised.
“But for what purpose?” Reiko asked. “What’s the warship leader going to do? Talk to a tree?” Reiko grinned at the absurdity of the notion, but, looking around, she found no one else shared in her humor. “Oh, no,” she added, shaking her head.
“These are aliens, who resemble plants, dear,” Miranda said gently, in commiseration. “Who else would the Vinians seek advice from in times of great stress?”
“I can’t wait to see how you achieve this one,” Tatia said, directing her comment at Alex. “I have an image of you shinning up this giant tree because you have to speak to some orifice at the top of it. You can climb a tree, can’t you, Alex?”
Alex grinned and pointed the index fingers of both hands at his torso, which Renée patted.
“This oversized body is capable of many wonderful things,” Renée said, winking at the female officers, “but it isn’t built for climbing trees.”
“Personally, I tend to shout to be heard,” Alex replied.
“In what language or, should I ask, on what spectrum?” Julien teased.
“Well, my friend,” Alex replied, slapping Julien on the shoulder with a resounding thwack, “you and your crystal comrades have until tomorrow morning to figure that out before we undertake a journey to a great and wonderful tree for a delightful conversation.”
Instead of Julien projecting a bit of haberdashery from his head via his holo-capable synth-skin, he displayed a delicate crown of flowers and greenery.
“That’s so becoming,” Miranda quipped. “I need one of these types of avatars, dear,” she added, sidling provocatively next to Z.
Alex offered his arm to Renée, and they strolled off the bridge. Tatia and Reiko followed them.
“Good fortune,” Tatia said to Julien as she passed him.
Z and Miranda regarded Julien, who said, “This might be a good time for all of us to shrug our shoulders.”
-4-
Planetfall
Alex and Tatia had an extensive discussion about the circumstances of his impending visit to the Vinian home world. In the end, as usual, it was a compromise. Alex got his way — only one traveler would make planetfall; and Tatia got what she wanted — a squadron of travelers would station themselves above Alex’s traveler on overwatch duty.
As to who would accompany Alex aboard the traveler, it was simple — Renée, three SADEs, the twins, and a pilot.
Tatia spread the other seven Tridents around her flagship, which held stationary positions in high orbit above the great tree with the scarlet pods.
Julien signaled Alex and Renée when all was ready. The pair left their cramped cabin, one requested by Alex so as not to interfere with the workings of Svetlana’s crew, and met Julien in the corridor. The threesome made their way to an airlock, cycled through, and were met by their escorts, twins Étienne and Alain de Long; Z; and Miranda.
The twins, Z, and Miranda were outfitted in their Sawa gear. Before journeying to the Dischnya home world, Z rolled out an idea for extra protection, and the twins had enthusiastically adopted it. The twins and the SADEs were wearing a combination vest and harness. Crystal power packs nested on their backs and supplied the twin shoulder-mounted stun guns, which could be controlled by implants and comms.
Z wore his Cedric Broussard avatar. His shoulder-mounted weapons were even more intimidating than that of the twins. But the standout of the group was Miranda in her new avatar, which she first wore on Sawa. It was an imitation of a New Terran body type, as was Z’s. She appeared as an exaggerated model of Tatia Tachenko, except she was a brunette, and the SADE carried the same powerful stun weapons as Z.
Alex had frowned at the immense armament when he first saw the group. Later, he’d apologized to them when they managed to successfully defend themselves against a Dischnya nest. The aliens were angry at the Omnians for defiling their learning center by entering it.
The escorts and the SADEs stood erect in their armament, expecting some sort of argument from Alex, again. Instead, as Alex passed the group, he asked, “Are you sure that stun guns will work on the Vinians?”
Alex grinned to himself, as he helped Renée board the traveler. He could imagine the immense amount of comm and implant communication the foursome was maintaining. They would be postulating about the physiology of plant people and whether they would have nerves similar to humans that might be affected by stun charges.
A quick scan of the pilot’s bio ID surprised Alex, and he stepped forward to chat.
“We rate a group leader?” Alex asked Franz Cohen, who was Reiko Shimada’s partner.
“I don’t think anyone was worried about you, Alex, but there was a great deal of concern for Ser’s safety,” Franz replied, making a reference to Renée.
When Alex’s brow furrowed, Franz quickly replied, “The admiral’s orders, Alex, and I can direct the overwatch squadron just as effectively from on planet as up above, probably better.”
Alex relented, patted Franz on the shoulder, and returned to the main cabin. Z and Miranda stood in the aisles, rearward of the hatch, and locked their avatars. None of the shuttle’s seats would accommodate their huge bodies and half-meter deep power packs that supplied their stun weapons.
Taking a seat next to Renée and across from Julien,
Alex settled in for the ride. Viewing the heavy, tail-down landing of the Vinians’ shuttles had Alex’s mind drifting over memories of the early days aboard his explorer-tug. There were lengthy periods of gut-wrenching acceleration and deceleration, while he was strapped in his pilot’s chair. During these times, his suit managed his wastes and fed him water.
As opposed to then, Alex saw the main cabin lights dim, and all was quiet. The traveler lifted from the deck, smoothly exited the bay, and made its way down to the planet without sensations reaching the passengers. The hull of the fighter-shuttle was made from a material invented by Emile Billings, with some help from others. It imitated the Swei Swee building material, their spit, as Mickey Brandon, a senior engineer, called it.
The squadron’s fighter complement stood by to accompany Franz’s traveler, and he communicated with the pilots by way of his ship’s controller. There were no windows in the Omnians’ fighter-shuttles. The hull was a single, integrated structure. Even hatches and landing gear were carefully designed so as to seal into the shell and not impede its ability to intercept gravitational waves with its harmonic resonance.
All visuals and telemetry for a traveler pilot came through the helmet. The ship’s controller collected data and presented it in the helmet’s heads-up display. However, pilots could communicate directly with the controller through their implants.
* * *
Scarlet Mandator itched to be gone from the mesa top, not understanding how Ollassa put up with the noise, stench, and intermittent light. The mandator longed to be resting in the airy, bright bubble considered to be home.