AMP Blitzkrieg

by Arseneault, Stephen

  The Durian then looked directly at me and spoke, “Tell me what it is you seek Human, my time here is brief.” I held up the bag of Diamonds and then began, “I am in the market for technology, specifically warship technology, shields, generators, weapons and armor. I have a wealthy client who is very interested in adding any of those technologies to his ship, for self-defense purposes of course.”

  The Durian looked at me suspiciously, “Yes, defense, of course.” He opened a side of his cloak and pulled out a diagram of a new generator. “Perhaps an enhancement to your power system? This design yields a 22% gain over the standard model available in this sector.” I leaned in to the Durian which made him nervous. “Think big, much bigger. My client is extremely well to do. His government is backing this initiative. The funds behind it are quite substantial.”

  The Durian tucked the diagram back into his cloak and then reached into the other side. He brought forth a device and set it on a nearby table. Several buttons were pressed before a holographic image appeared above the device. “What you see before you is a prototype ship we have developed. The electronic shields, armor, environmental system, navigation system and ion cannon are all available through channels.”

  “If any of these are of interest to your government I can be back in touch with you with their availability.” I placed my hand on the Durian’s shoulder which drew an unnerved stare. “Look, I know this stuff might impress the commoner. What I want to see is the best of what you have to offer. I am aware of a great many advancements out there in other sectors besides this one. We are only interested in groundbreaking technology.”

  I am sure you are familiar with the Milgari, the Dakar, what we are looking for are systems, weapons or shields that are above what they have. My client does not want to be bothered by their militant tendencies. Go and talk to your command. I will be here four days from now and we can discuss our options further.”

  I turned and walked to the door without looking back. I knew the Durian would return at that time, if anything, curiosity would bring him back. He would now be doing all he could to determine who I was and what government was backing my objectives. I walked straight to our private hangar, boarded the Swift and we departed for home. We would return in four days��� time.

  Back on the Suppressor the Colonel was preparing eight groups of four Raiders each. They would be returning to the Pollus sector for intelligence gathering. Each team was assigned a series of grids within the sector to catalog and observe. The Colonel wanted the larger picture of what it was the Milgari and the Torrians were up to.

  Frig had returned to his lab where he had been busy studying the derelict ship’s wormhole drive. From the archive records we had he was in the process of constructing a micro antenna array that matched as closely as possible to that of the derelict ship. Our sensors had recorded the frequencies being used during the wormhole’s creation. Frig hoped to apply those to his micro-array.

  I paid a visit to check on his progress. “So, do you think you can make this work?” He looked at me with a low brow expression. “We are grasping at straws. We have a limited data set of what was used to create the wormhole, our chances are extremely small. If we had possession of that ship for a week I would have a solid foundation to build upon. I’m just not sure if what I am attempting to do will yield positive results. If you have 15 minutes to spare I will be turning on the power to what you see before you.”

  I pulled up a chair and sat down. Frig moved various instruments around the micro-array, testing the field strengths of the antenna emitters. After several minutes of tuning he moved to a console. “I believe we are ready Sir. I’m afraid the visual portion of this test will be non-existent. A pulse will be sent to the array and if all goes well the beginnings of a wormhole will form approximately two meters in front of it. We should be able to detect that with the sensors I have arranged around the lab.”

  I leaned back in my chair and waited as Frig punched commands on his keyboard for several minutes. With no response as to when the test would take place I asked him out of boredom, “So, we going to do this or not?” Frig turned to look at me, “The test occurred 79 seconds ago Sir. I am analyzing the results now. I will need another 22 minutes for a thorough evaluation of the resultant data. Please be patient.”

  I stood and walked towards the door. “Take your time. I’m heading down to the mess hall for some coffee. Your test there just wasn’t the barn burner I was expecting.” Frig looked towards the door. “Barn burner Sir? Is that an expression of some sort?” I replied over my shoulder just before my exit, “Just means it lacked excitement that’s all. I’ll be back.”

  When I reached the mess hall I took note of the Colonel sitting at a table by himself, he was looking over printed reports he had just received. I grabbed a cup of coffee and joined him. “What’s cooking Colonel?” He looked up with his usual stern expression. “We have a lot of work to do Don, we do not have a clue as to what our enemy is doing.”

  “Our last reports have them moving ships all over. I’m trying to make sense of it, but I am not picking up any patterns. On the surface it looks like they are just random events. I’ve been in this business too long to accept random events as a strategy. And if you look at this report here, and this one, you will see that those are new ships. They are getting their fleet replenished from somewhere. I’m just not sure where.”

  Either the Torrians had discovered a new source of Tantric ore or the Durians had been at it again, selling goods to all sides in the conflict. I wondered if the new Milgari ships also had newly enhanced shields or weaponry, again courtesy of our Durian friends.

  After finishing a discussion with the Colonel I returned to Frig’s lab. “We find anything interesting?” Frig continued typing at his keyboard. “Actually Sir, I believe we did. Three separate instruments show evidence of an anomaly a short distance out from the antenna array. It will require further testing and evaluation, but I am encouraged that I was able to generate something. I’m just not yet sure what it was.”

  I then returned to my office to finish out a pile of administrative paperwork. I was drawing less and less enjoyment from my job as President. I had thoughts of turning it over to someone with better management skills such as George. When I had broached the subject some months before, he was adamant that he was not interested. Our tiny nation was burgeoning with power and wealth, but no one wanted the responsibility of running it.

  Two days later Frig and I traveled back to Marcon for the meeting with the Durian. I was there and waited for five minutes past the pre-arranged time before the Durian showed up. There was a second Durian with him. “Mr. Bumbalee, my name is Konra Bantoo. I am the general council for this sector. My associate tells me that you have the resources available to do business with us at shall we say, a high level.”

  “If this is true we will need to verify that the statements you have made are true. You will provide proof of your ability to pay before our discussion goes further.” I lifted a briefcase onto the table that separated us. When I opened it and spun it around the Durian was not impressed. “I hope this is not intended to impress me Mr. Bumbalee. Such quantities are not worth my time.”

  I leaned in closer, “I have a cargo hold full of Emeralds just like these and I have plenty more where they came from. Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires… just about any precious gemstone you desire. You want gold? How does a hundred tons sound? Quantity is not an issue Mr. Bantoo. You just need to show me your wares and name a price.”

  The Durian stared at me intently from under the hood of his cloak. “My associate, Mr. Polo, will escort you to your vessel so that we may verify your cargo claim. If what you say is true, he will return you to another location where we can discuss business further. And Mr. Bumbalee, we frown heavily on those who would attempt to steal from us. We have many connections throughout this sector that are at our disposal if needed. The life of those who break contract can be a short one. Tread lightly Mr. Bumbalee, I will be
expecting you within the hour.”

  I took the Durian called Polo to the hangar and the Swift. Frig met us at the doorway and we followed him up into the hold of our Defender. Polo began to ask questions, “I do not believe I recognize this style of vessel. It has an interesting coating on the outside. May I inquire as to its makeup?”

  I stopped and looked at the Durian. “We are not in the business of trading our technology Mr. Polo. Please focus your energy of the purpose of this visit.” I popped open the large lid of the container we had sitting in our hold, it contained Emeralds and Sapphires. The Durain pulled a device from his cloak. “Whoa, whoa, whoa… Before you turn that on in here I need to know what it is.”

  The Durian turned the interface of the item in my direction. “It will merely scan the content of the container and return an approximation of the contents. You may monitor your sensors to see if the monitor wave has returned from external sources or not. Please do not take it as a sign of disrespect.”

  I nodded for the Durian to continue. Several seconds later he looked at his device and responded. “I believe we will be able offer technology for trade Mr. Bumbalee. The cargo you have is full and is of high quality. We shall go to Mr. Bantoo, please follow me.”

  We stepped out of the Swift and Frig immediately began work to move the ship to another hangar. I trusted the Durians because they made trade their business. I did not trust anyone else on Marcon. If word were to leak of the treasure we had on-board I would expect no good to come of it. Our single cargo would make any one man rich beyond their wildest dreams.

  The Durian took a different route on the way to see Konra Bantoo. The meeting was in another shop in a different section of the Marcon port. I was led into a dark room and seated at a table. A holographic video soon showed in front of me. It was a Durian ship, similar to the one I had been aboard several years before.

  Bantoo began to describe a shield technology that would reduce a 50 mega joule ion cannon shot by 30% or more. The technology was behind that which we already possessed. I feigned interest and let Bantoo continue so as not to give our capabilities away.

  He next moved on to an ion cannon that offered a 25% increase in power throughput with a 10% reduction in energy used. At that moment I was wishing that I had brought Gy or Rita along for a more in depth technical evaluation, but it was something that the Durians would not have allowed. Their word was their bond and they would not allow validation of any technology as it would only lead to that technology being stolen rather than paid for.

  The next item was the one that got my attention. It was an antenna array that was somehow able to project an image in every direction of what lay just on the other side of a ship. It had one drawback, in order for the image projection to be effective, the ship had to be moving at a constant speed in a constant direction. It was perfect for a head-on assault, but useless once in battle. I attempted to act only mildly interested.

  Bantoo continued with various other enhancements such as the ion engine update that I had been sold so many years before. The version he offered was not quite as advanced as ours, but I thought it was interesting none the less.

  When Bantoo completed his presentation we got down to the negotiation on the price of the items I was interested in. We ended with a deal on the image projection technology and an enhanced hand-held blaster weapon. In exchange for the technologies the Durian would take possession of the cargo in the hold of the Swift.

  It was hardly a fair trade, but I had hopes of future dealings with Bantoo. I told him we had much available for trade should he bring forward other technologies that we deemed significant. We agreed on a drop for the payment and the technical diagrams and then parted ways. Once the drop was completed we left immediately for home.

  “Sir, we did have an incident that I was not sure of how to handle. The sensors caught one of the hangar workers placing a device on our hull. It is nearly undetectable and would be so to most engineers. I ran three counter-cross sweeps for signals and was just able to pick this one out. It is very advanced. I would venture to say that the Durians are attempting to track us home.”

  “After detecting that a stray, although minute, signal was there, I was able to isolate it to its location on the underside of the port wing. I took no action as I was waiting for your thoughts on what to do.”

  I sat in my chair and punched in the coordinates for home. I then contacted the port control officer and arranged for our departure. Once away from Marcon, I set course towards the Fasture nebula. I turned towards Frig with a smile. “I think the Durian device is going to malfunction in the nebula. They can track us in there all they want, but they won’t be able to track us out.”

  Frig had a concerned look on his face. “I’m not sure what going in there will accomplish. I would have to believe the device is shielded from something as simple and common as negative ions Sir. Perhaps you are not telling me the whole plan.”

  Frig had been around me long enough to know when I was leaving out important facts. I pursed my lips and nodded, “Indeed there is more. I am going to override our safety protocols and send a heavy ion pulse from our own cannon into that wing.”

  Frig looked puzzled, “Your plan is to shoot us, what part am I still missing Sir?” Again my smile returned. “You are missing the part where our Aquamarine skin fractures and sloughs off, thereby eliminating the Durian device with it. If the device happens to survive the blast and if the Durians somehow manage to find it, the last thing it would have recorded was our ship being destroyed.”

  Frig attempted to find fault with the plan, but there was none to be found. Shortly after entering the Fasture, I fired a heavy negative ion pulse into our port wing. As designed, the outer Aquamarine skin that Gy had applied fractured and disintegrated in an instant. Frig followed with multiple cross-counter sweeps of our hull and no Durian signal was found to remain. The remainder of our trip home was uneventful.

  Chapter 6

  When we arrived back at the Suppressor I turned the plans over to Gy and Rita. They would work on updating the Wren while we scouted the Pollus sector. If the Milgari were planning any new attacks it was in our best interest to know. Before leaving I made my way over to talk to George.

  “Don. I wanted to run something by you. I have been in conversations with several of the lesser worlds in this sector. They are becoming increasingly alarmed at what they consider the growing Milgari threat. Even with the recent lull in activity, they are fearful of what may come.”

  “I have been thinking about how we might be able to make use of their resources. Between them there are three more automated docks and they certainly have the manpower to perform any construction tasks that we might have. Our ships have components that are not high security items such as the bulk of the inner plating, the environmental systems and most of the wiring and what not.”

  “We might be able to greatly speed ship production by giving them contracts. At the same time, it would not hurt to have alliances with other worlds as our secret existence is bound to become known soon. Your Durian friends are sure to be sending ships to every corner of this sector. They do not like being in the dark about anyone or anything.”

  I gave George my blessing to broach the subject before our Council of Governance. He immediately got to work on what he would suggest. I returned to my office for a few minutes rest.

  As I stood looking down at the clouds over Jarhead, Frig walked into the room. “I believe we are about ready to depart Sir. Gy wanted to get started on immediate updates to the Swift. I thought we might co-opt the Hammer from Barg and give him a holiday from the possible hostilities. I have Jarrod loading it into the hull of the Helix as we speak.”

  I continued my gaze down towards our planet. “It might be strange going out and not being in the Swift. She has saved our hides more than once. I’m sure you have taken the time to load all of your own software on her, and our gear.” Frig replied, “Yes Sir I have. Other than the few cosmetic updates that Bar
g has made to the interior, we should be right at home.”

  An hour later our parade of Raiders lifted off from the docks alongside the Suppressor. Our journey would take 16 days after which we would divide into teams for gathering as much data on the Milgari ship movements as we could. I looked forward to the thrill of watching our enemy from an unseen location nearby. Milly would be joining us in the Frost for our run to the Teldaki home-world. I hoped for a full accounting of the fleet the Milgari had positioned there.

  I sat in the mess hall with Jarrod, talking over a cup of coffee. I wondered if it at all tasted like that which was listed in the archives. Our coffee came from a plant with a bean shaped seed. It had no natural caffeine so some prior genius had seen to it that it was blended with a plant that grew on the Grid that did. The result was the coffee that I knew and loved.

  Jarrod spoke, “Don, where do you think we will be in two years, or even five? I’ve been thinking, that if we continue to progress like we have been, we will be able to push the Torrians back far enough that they will decide to just leave us alone. And it’s kind of a scary thought as I don’t know what I would do with myself if that time comes.”

  I toyed with the handle on my mug, “The possibilities will be wide open then. Start a business, retire and hunt wild beasts on uninhabited planets, hang out with my friends and shoot the breeze or just do nothing. It won’t matter when the time comes because whatever we are doing we won’t likely be under the constant threat of death. Sometime I think it would just be nice to “be”, you know, to just have a simple existence.”

  Jarrod sat back in his chair and looked up towards the ceiling, “Hmm. Do nothing… I kind of like the sound of that. I’ve been doing something for somebody ever since I was a kid. It might be nice to just do nothing for a while. Although, I suppose I might get tired of that too at some point. I guess there’s just no pleasing some of us.”