by S. H. Jucha
A slender Méridien-built tech, who stood next to Alex, held up his hands in protest when Alex eyed him, “I’m good, Ser,” he said, hoping not to receive the same indication of praise as had Mickey.
“We need a few to test, Mickey. How soon?” Alex asked.
Some engineers and techs grinned, when Mickey nodded to them. They ran to structures, resting on the deck, and yanked back the covers.
“Three banishers ready to test,” Mickey announced with a flourish.
“I can see I don’t keep you busy enough,” Alex said, chuckling.
“Julien, target?” Alex asked.
“The first test should be conducted at Haraken, Alex. Based on Theodore’s telemetry analysis and the Confederation’s discoveries, a probe will be located in the Hellébore system.”
To the SADEs and others, logic indicated the probe must have been in place for a century or more, before even the Méridiens founded the Cetus colony on the planet the Harakens now called home. The Nua’ll sphere had destroyed the colony, ships, stations, and sites within the Hellébore system, when the Méridiens inhabited it, before moving on. The thought that the Haraken’s home system had continued to be spied on by an alien probe for more than two decades after it was resettled gave the humans a chill.
Alex signaled Tatia and Julien and left the bay in a hurry, the celebratory noise of the engineering team dying out only after the airlock’s hatch closed behind them.
Terese slid out of the arms of her partner, Tomas Monti. “President Lechaux is requested on the bridge,” she said.
“Uh-oh,” Tomas replied.
“Yes, Alex’s sending is accompanied by a little extra implant power. I think I liked it better when he used to call me Terese or his fiery redhead.”
“Should I attend?” Tomas asked.
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
In contrast to Terese’s subdued reaction, Maria wore a fierce grin. “It’s about time,” she muttered, as she hurried to catch a lift about to close that would take her to the city-ship’s bridge level. She’d been trying to enjoy a relaxing moment in the grand park and failing miserably. She was anxious for the Omnians to produce whatever they would use to remove the probes. She had a sinking feeling if she didn’t return to New Terra soon, with a viable solution, the admiral might do something foolish.
“The commodore and Trident captains are on the bridge comm line,” Cordelia stated, as Alex, Tatia, and Julien came through the bridge accessway. “I’ve taken the liberty of cuing the imagery from the engineering bay, which you were recently viewing. Miriam believed that was the reason for your hasty exit and anticipated that you’d wish to communicate to the other world leaders.”
“Well done, Captain,” Alex said, approaching the holo-vid, which displayed engineering’s banisher.
Soon afterwards Maria, Terese, and Tomas arrived together.
Terese and Tomas were slightly breathless. “This ship is an exercise in itself,” Terese quipped.
“What do you have for us, Alex?” Maria asked, anxious to hear about any progress that Mickey might have made.
“The engineering team’s answer to the probes,” Alex replied, waving at the holo-vid display. “They call it a banisher. Alex played the animation for the audience. Then he walked them through the same questions and answers exchanged only moments ago with Mickey and his associates.
“When can we have one?” Maria asked.
“Apologies, Maria, but you won’t be carrying one to New Terra to deliver to Admiral Tripping,” Alex replied, and held up a hand to forestall Maria’s retort, which seemed to be on the edge of her lips. “I need detailed telemetry on how well a banisher works, and I need a captain who I can count on to follow my instructions.”
Maria’s lips tightened. She knew Alex was right not to trust Admiral Tripping to follow his orders, especially when they came from an Omnian, who carried no military rank.
“Admiral, announce your choices for deployment,” Alex requested.
“Captain Thompson, you’ll accompany Envoy Gonzalez to New Terra. Locate the probe, and deploy the banisher. You’ll take your launch order from President Grumley,” Tatia ordered.
“And need we add, Captain, there’s to be no one else involved in your operation?” Alex requested, glancing at Maria, who tipped her head in agreement.
“Your message is clear, Alex,” Ellie replied.
“You’ll need a SADE, Captain. I’ll request Killian go with you,” Alex added.
Alex had no sooner said that than Killian was updated by Julien. He bid his comrades farewell and hurried to catch a traveler soon to lift from the planet, which could transfer him to the OS Redemption.
“Captain Gaumata, you’ve already been to the Hellébore system and located its probe,” Tatia said. “Therefore, you’ll pick up a banisher and accompany President Lechaux to Haraken.”
“Captain Gaumata,” Alex said, “once you’ve determined the safest window of opportunity to deploy your banisher, you’ll communicate to the president. She will approve its release. This is to ensure that she’s had time to properly inform the Haraken Assembly.”
Julien sent a quick message to Alex, who agreed to add Miriam to the conference. “Miriam, I’m requesting that you accompany Captain Gaumata to the Haraken system to coordinate the release of the banisher. Captain, Miriam was instrumental in the design and construction of this tool.”
“Subject experts are always welcome,” Darius replied, “especially when they come in the shape of a SADE.”
“Flatterer,” Miriam laughed, her SADE sound for laughter imitated a pair of songbirds.
-13-
Home Worlds I
The OS Prosecutor’s controller held the telemetry of the Hellébore probe’s orbital track from its earlier survey, which enabled Miriam to quickly calculate the optimum point of intersection for the Trident the moment it transited into the system’s space.
President Lechaux’s ship and the Trident had immediately parted ways. Her captain charted a course for Haraken, and the Trident cut across the ecliptic to intercept the probe, which was crossing behind Hellébore’s outermost planet.
Terese wasted no time scheduling an extended Assembly session. She left her message vague. While she had good news regarding the agreement with Omnia Ships, news of the probe and a sharing of the warships to aid in Alex’s hunt of the spheres would come as a shock.
With Haraken in a near orbit, Terese made the planet days ahead of the Trident’s passage across the system. Landing at Espero’s primary traveler port, Tomas and she took a grav car to the Assembly building. She had only made three addresses to the body of representatives before now, and they had been mundane.
“Members of the Assembly,” Terese said, opening her address. “I will begin with startling news, which might frighten you, but, rest assured, I will end with good news. The Omnians have discovered a second sphere. It’s not coming our way, and the Omnians intend to hunt it down. During these past months, it was questioned how the Nua’ll located their target systems, and we discovered the answer. Each of our systems appears to have a Nua’ll probe monitoring it. The Méridiens have taken drastic steps to destroy theirs, but they were fortunate in their primitive technique of throwing rocks at the devices. When the Omnians attempted to investigate theirs, it detonated. The explosion was massive, but, fortunately, no one was harmed.”
“What is being done to locate our probe?” an Assemblyman asked.
“It’s already been found,” Terese supplied. “An Omnian warship, a Trident, captai
ned by Darius Gaumata, is making its way across the system to intercept it.” The mention of the Libran, who had fought with Alex since the beginning, gave the representatives a reason to relax.
“Does that mean the Trident will use a beam to destroy it?” an Assemblywoman asked.
“Negative,” Terese replied. “When the Omnian probe detonated, it was being remotely investigated at a preexisting mining site. The explosion destroyed more than a quarter of a medium-sized moon and created a danger radius of 13.8 million kilometers.
“What are the Omnians going to do?” Terese was asked.
“Well, Alex put Mickey Brandon, his engineering team, and the SADEs on the job to come up with an answer. Mickey calls his solution the banisher.” As Terese hoped, speaking of the irrepressible engineer was guaranteed to produce a high level of confidence in the Omnian invention. Terese activated the Assembly’s primary holo-vid and ran the animation for the representatives.
“The Omnians’ approach will be to catch the probe in the open and snare it, then take it where a detonation can do little harm,” Terese said.
“When will that happen?” a second Assemblywoman asked.
“The Omnians will notify me when they’re ready, and I will give the order,” Terese replied. “In the meantime, I have an agreement for this body to review and ratify. It underpins the dire realization that the Nua’ll have seeded thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of systems with their probes. It’s come to our realization that the Nua’ll didn’t come from some lone home world, with an intent to expand via a single sphere, which was destroyed. They appear to be a significant civilization, with designs on expanding across the galaxy.”
“There’s no proof of that,” Jason Haraken shouted.
Ah, the willful, rancorous one raises its ugly head, Terese thought.
“Wasn’t it you, Ser Haraken, who claimed for years that we shouldn’t be spending money on military power?”
On Terese’s signal, Tomas sent an implant recording of Jason railing, during an Assembly session, on just that subject. It was heard by the entire Assembly via their implants, facilitated by Elizabeth, one of the SADEs first freed by Alex.
“This is fearmongering,” Jason was heard shouting. “There was one sphere, and that was more than twenty years ago. No one has seen another since and probably never will.”
“Well, Ser Haraken, the Omnians have proven you wrong,” Terese said, after the recording played. “We’re finding a Nua’ll probe in every system the sphere attacked and in every system that it didn’t. Now, a second sphere has been discovered.”
“President Lechaux, may we proceed with your overview of the agreement?” another Assemblyman asked.
“It’s quite simple, Sers. Omnia Ships is willing to lease the technology and plans to allow us to construct our own faux-shell Tridents, fighters, and scout ships.” Terese was unable to continue, while the majority of representatives broke out in applause. A small contingent, led by Jason, sat with sullen expressions on their faces.
“At what cost?” Jason shouted.
“I’m glad you asked that question, Ser Haraken, although you might try to modify your volume. I’m only 10 meters from you.” The tittering that followed Terese’s rebuke had Jason’s face competing for color and brightness with her hair. “We pay, what I consider, a modest licensing fee for each ship that we construct. The primary codicil is that we must supply half of these ships with crew to support the Omnians in their effort to locate and destroy the spheres.”
“For how long?” Jason yelled, but he did make an effort to lower his voice a little.
“Twenty years,” Terese replied. “Afterwards, all the ships we construct are ours to deploy as we see fit.”
“Can we still produce the Tridents and the scout ships with the faux shells?” a third Assemblyman asked.
“Negative, Ser, after the twenty years, the rights to use the faux-shell technique reverts to Omnia Ships. Although, there is always the possibility that a new agreement with the Omnians can be negotiated by your president, at that time, if she’s clever.” Terese couldn’t resist a broad smile to punctuate her vision of the future. She spotted Bibi Haraken, the matriarch of the Haraken clan, who grinned at her from the gallery.
“I will leave this Assembly to review the agreement in detail, but I urge you to make a quick decision,” Terese continued. “Events are moving quickly, whether we want them to or not, and Haraken needs to prepare for the dangers that threaten us.”
Terese turned to leave, but stopped. “Before I go, I would leave you with one thought. We did a poor job of welcoming the Confederation SADEs to our planet, and, because of that, they isolated themselves in an enclave. I was reminded, watching the SADEs at Omnia, how effective they are when they’re welcomed by humans. Our society needs to take a fresh approach to communicating with the Confederation SADEs. They’re invaluable if Haraken wants to have a strong, competitive, economic future.”
Three days later, Terese received a comm from Captain Gaumata. The OS Prosecutor was in position. Terese and Tomas were sharing a quiet evening with Alex’s parents, Duggan and Katie, and Alex’s sister, Christie.
“It looks like I’ll require some broadcast time tomorrow, Christie. It will be a president’s message,” Terese said.
During most of Alex’s time on Haraken, a single city, Espero, had dominated the planet’s landscape. Little Ben, affectionately known as Rainmaker, had pummeled the skies and oceans with ice asteroids to rehydrate the thirsty planet after the plundering of resources by the Nua’ll sphere.
The increase in the planet’s rain cycles and storms led to the replenishment of grasses and shrubbery. Then the Harakens planted wide swaths of trees, whose seeds were slowly spreading the forests. The return of streams and, eventually, rivers allowed the population to spread out into hundreds of new enclaves.
To reach the present population required a media broadcast, and the largest media company with the greatest reach was owned by Christie Racine. What began as a small news channel had steadily grown in size and scope. Now, its multichannel format linked the population for news, entertainment, financial data, and interviews. It was the primary tool employed by Haraken presidents to communicate critical announcements to not only the planet, but also systemwide and to Haraken ships sailing the deep dark.
“Darius was quick to locate our probe,” Katie commented. “Perhaps a little too quick?” she added, narrowing her eyes at Terese.
“Confession time, is it?” Terese said, draining her drink and leaning back in the comfortable couch next to Tomas. The nanites underneath her, distributed their positions to accommodate her slender stature.
“It’s okay, Terese,” Christie replied. “We know the Prosecutor’s first visit wasn’t to survey the system for a new agreement, as you hinted, but to locate the alien probe.”
“That obvious?” Terese asked. “I thought it was rather subtle, using the potential contract with Omnia Ships to obfuscate the Trident’s real purpose.”
“It was a smart idea, Terese,” Duggan replied, laughing, “until anyone with a brain realized that the Trident is an Omnian ship, probably with one or more SADEs aboard, and would have access to every scrap of telemetry data on the Hellébore system. The Omnians would have no more need of a survey than I would have need to look down and count my toes to see if I had ten.”
“Which means that the Prosecutor was searching for something that was small and could easily hide … something designed to be hidden,” Christie said.
“They have been well hidden,” Terese said. “Alex and his people had to do a blind search to locate the Omnian probe. It had been damaged, but they have the SADE power to conduct that type of investigation. The Confederation and we have been fortunate, or maybe not, if you think about it.”
“How so?” Duggan prompted.
“Apologies, Duggan, lost my train of thought there. After the Méridiens located the initial probe, they were able to identify the signature broadc
ast. This allows us to find the probes much more easily, providing the device is transmitting. Ours is still broadcasting … still inviting the Nua’ll here.”
Katie’s hand flew to her mouth. Lowering it, she said, “I was about to say that the Nua’ll have already been here so what value is a probe in our system, but then I realized the naiveté of that thought.”
The group nodded in commiseration.
“Yes,” Tomas said, dispirited. “I imagine that piece of alien technology is happily reporting the revival of this planet, saying, “Look it’s green and prospering again. Time to plunder!”
“Exactly where is the probe, Terese?” Christie asked.
“It’s been circling in the outer asteroid belt hidden amid millions and millions of metric tons of space rock and ice,” Terese replied.
* * *
“You have my permission to launch your device, Captain Gaumata,” Terese sent over her comm link. “The populace has been informed.”
“I’m acknowledging your permission to launch our banisher at the Nua’ll probe, Madam President,” Darius replied formally and closed the link.
“You heard the president, Miriam,” Darius said to the SADE, who stood next to him on the bridge. “You may launch when ready.”
Miriam quirked an eye at Darius, the controller’s telemetry registered a distance of 20 million kilometers to the probe.
“Extra insurance,” Darius explained.
Miriam signaled the crew chief that she was prepared to launch, and she received the crew chief’s response acknowledging that he’d cleared the bay. That Miriam could determine that by locating bio IDs was immaterial. She enjoyed adopting human protocols. They added a bit of uncertainty to her life, which was filled with ordered thought.
When the bay doors opened, Miriam slipped the banisher out and pointed it at the probe. She had already transferred the probe’s coordinates and trajectory to the device. Then, she triggered the banisher’s programming, and the tiny vessel launched itself forward.
From the bridge, the course of the banisher was tracked, and its telemetry recorded. Soon the little ship decelerated and came to a stop, mere meters from the probe. Slowly its jaws opened, and it closed the intervening distance. The moment the four leaves of the clamshell closed on the probe, the banisher’s telemetry went dead.
