“I have been thinking it would be a good idea to acquire two assault shuttles. Coonts says he knows of outposts where they can be obtained. If we are lucky, we might find one close enough to your home world it will fall inside the transport’s jump range.”
“I will have to go alone Commander. The fact I will enter the blockade zone in a Grawl transport will raise enough suspicions as it is. If I attempt to enter with an unknown that turns out to be on the protected species list, I can assure you we will be imprisoned.”
“I will send Klutch with you for security. Having a Tibor body guard with you shouldn’t create a problem.”
“No Commander, I know of several trade stations within a hundred light years of the exclusion zone around my home worlds. There is one in particular within the transport’s jump parameters and will likely have what you wish to purchase. Coonts will need the presence of a bodyguard if you intend to send him with enough credits to purchase two assault shuttles. I am sure you have not forgotten what it was like to be targeted by ambitious thieves.”
“I agree with you Tria. I was also going to send the additional credits I have pledged to the Tibor Clans. Klutch was going to handle the transfer.”
Tria’s beautiful green eyes felt like they were boring a hole into my soul. I needed to keep talking for fear of my mind wondering to other subjects men my age always think about when gorgeous woman or in this case aliens are close by.
“All right Tria, I want you to take the lead on this. Tell me how best to achieve our goals with the least amount of trouble.”
“Commander, we will achieve all of our goals simultaneously if we split up. The first thing we do is jump to within 90 light years of outpost 655. It is well known for the military equipment market that operates there. A Coram warlord who doesn’t tolerate violence on his base runs the market place. It is common knowledge if you pay the warlord an appropriate bribe, no one will interfere with your business. He makes a cut on all sales so he will see to it all transactions are handled efficiently. A Grawl with a Tibor bodyguard should be able to get an audience with the warlord in very short order. The amount of credits Coonts will spend should elevate him to executive status.”
“I like it Tria, so I take it you drop Coonts and Klutch at the outpost and then jump to your home star system.”
“Correct Commander, you then take the Legacy to system 2456. Once there, you convince Xul and Graf to join our cause. Then you jump to a safe location to collect Coonts and Klutch in the new shuttles.”
“It sounds like you have an excellent plan. But where will I find you and your father?”
“I have given it some thought Commander and I think it would be safe to meet near the abandoned mining facility where we picked up our Zaen armor.”
“All right Tria I would like to do the systems upgrade on the scanners and make a group effort on installing the new weapon on the Legacy. Once that is complete we will plan our next missions based on your recommendations.”
“I will work on the time tables and logistics Commander.”
“Tria I would appreciate it if you called me Nathan, I understand the commander routine when we are on a mission but in private just call me Nathan.”
She gave me a warm smile and placed one of her hands on mine. The blanket around her shoulders slipped down on one side and revealed just a glimpse of the assets that make women back on Earth very popular. I turned away and could swear Justice was screwing with the temperature in my cabin. It had to be at least a hundred and twenty. I was compelled to pull her into an embrace. Leaning back with my arm around her she laid her head on my shoulder. The days stress drained from me. All of my inhibitions faded and my eyelids felt like they were lead.
28
I woke up finding myself alone and Justice hailing me.
“Commander your meeting in the galley is scheduled to take place in thirty minutes.”
I jumped up, took a quick shower, and headed to the galley. I felt energized and ready to start work on the Legacy. When I stepped through the doorway to the galley both Tria and Klutch gave me a quick nod. Coonts had not made it yet, and I wondered what could keep the usually punctual Grawl from being here early. I got a large cup of the dirty water Justice passed off for coffee and a generous helping of the Jell-O like substance that tasted just like scrambled eggs. I was pleased with Justice’s take on toasted bread because it looked and tasted just like the real McCoy. I sat down next to Klutch and looked at what he was working on.
“Commander, Tria and I have decided we will need to elevate one of the weapons to the top of its mast. Once there, we will separate it from the lift shaft so Justice can grapple it with the tow beam and bring it inside the hanger. We can lift it with the freight transports and install the new extension shaft and modified gimbal system that Justice and Coonts have designed. It will be necessary to fabricate a sleeve to reduce the original weapons larger diameter to the proper size.”
Tria looked up at me and smiled. “Commander I believe we can obtain the materials for the sleeve from the freighter crash site. If we choose wisely, there should be a minimal amount of fabrication involved.”
I rolled my eyes at Tria’s use of Commander but it was her prerogative to do so. I started to comment but a haggard looking Coonts came into the galley and sat down.
“My apologies for being late Commander I spent most of the rest period out at the freighter stripping instruments for the pieces necessary to construct the new scanner relays. When we were practicing assault drills at the wreckage site, I noticed a significant amount of intact equipment. I was able to scavenge most all the necessary parts we will need. Justice has assured me he will be able to duplicate the rest from base materials found in this complex. Once that was complete Justice, and I designed the new weapon mount system. All that we require now is the materials to fabricate the mount.”
I felt good knowing my human warmongering the Grawl so vigorously embraced did not diminish his engineering skills. It was refreshing to see him make use of his true calling.
“Coonts take whatever time you need to rest and we will go to the freighter and collect materials. When we have what we need, I want to destroy the remains of the freighter. If this place is discovered I do not want the wreckage to draw further scrutiny of this moon. I plan on sterilizing the Prule wreckage site as well.”
“Yes Commander a short rest period would sharpen my acuity and increase my efficiency.”
“Justice is there anything we could make use of from the Prule wreckage?”
“Negative Commander it is not advisable to use any materials from the site.”
“OK Justice move us to a position above the sight at a distance we can safely use full yield anti-matter munitions.”
“Tria, Klutch lets armor up and drop some anti-matter on the wreckage site. I am hoping a surface scan of the area will be passed over as a meteorite impact crater.”
We donned our armor and stood in the open hanger doorway as Justice moved the Legacy out of the base and over the wreckage site. Our altitude was high enough to see the curvature of the moon’s horizon. The site was only visible with zoomed magnification of our H.U.D. systems.
“Justice, optimize our aim points and set our munitions for simultaneous detonation.”
I saw the words “targeting override” flash in my H.U.D. as we extended our arms out of the hanger door. I moved my arms until the green arcs touched the targeting dots. A countdown sequence started at five and then our weapons fired automatically at zero. A star bright flash appeared on the surface and was gone in seconds.
“The site is sanitized Commander.”
“Roger that Justice. Take us to the freighter.”
“Affirmative Commander.”
We spent close to four hours cutting various pieces of thruster cowlings, structural beams and hull plating from the wreckage. Coonts joined us and we carefully went through the wreckage for anything he deemed as necessary. Justice took up station over the site and we
expended sixteen additional rounds of anti-matter munitions.
“Return scans indicate zero target returns Commander.”
“OK Justice, take us back to base so we can start working on your new weapon system.”
Justice quickly got us back to base, and we unloaded our materials. The next phase of the operation was to remove one of the weapons along with its power supply. I had Justice open the number three weapon shaft, and we dropped inside. With Coonts directing us we moved the surprisingly small modular power plant onto the lift platform with a gravity jack. We let the weapon’s lift take us back up to the crown of the mountain. Justice used the tow beam to load the power plant and the large round energy projector once we disassembled its mounting system. Getting the power plant in position inside the Legacy was easy because the original power source must have been as big as a medium sized grain bin. There was plenty of room to spare so Justice and Coonts laminated several sheets of artifact 2762 and 699 together while the rest of us built a frame to house the power source. When we were done, we had fashioned a containment vessel covered in flexible super allows that masked the power source amazingly well. We worked eleven additional days fabricating a large roller sled. The sled would allow the weapon to slide forward out of its sleeve into the firing position just below the view wall at the front of the ship. Justice was in the process of shortening the power coupling to the proper length and fixing it into position on the projector. Tria and Coonts were putting the final touches on the simple clam style doors that would be forced open when the sled was in the forward firing position. When the sled was retracted, the linkage arms would pull the doors securely closed. It was KISS at its best and didn’t require a power source. All that was left to do now was test the weapon and the sensors.
During our evening meals we discussed at length the upcoming missions and it was decided we would test the weapon system in route to a position within a hundred light years of the Coram outpost. To insure there was no possibility of being back tracked to our base, we jumped to the fringe of the galaxy. Our roundabout course would give us additional training time in our battle gear.
Justice powered down the base and left his subsystem to maintain security while we were gone. I had Justice load two hundred and forty rolls of 699 and half of the 2762 in case a trading opportunity became available. The rest of the artifacts would need a thorough analysis to determine what they were and if we could somehow use them.
We were well into our third day in jump space and in the hanger practicing our group lock maneuver when Justice came over the comms.
“Commander I have acquired an active directional thread to the Guardian transponder.”
“Roger Justice, give us one G in the hanger please. We will join you on the bridge when we get our gear stowed.”
We headed to the ready room to stow our gear. I had finally gotten over my modesty issues after figuring out my crew was accustomed to the practice of being naked around other aliens. I was the only one bothered by it because I feared what might happen if Tria was close to me for more than a couple of minutes. I was forced to leave the ready room in a hurry on more than one occasion. Justice called and gave us an update.
“Commander the thread is now steady at sixty two light years and is only eight degrees off of our original course. I will transition to normal space in ten seconds to make a course correction. I will make another transition to just outside the system and start a passive scan.”
“Thanks for the heads up Justice we’re on our way.”
I felt the transition and then the next one. I hardly noticed because I busy wondering if we would encounter another A.I. or just artifacts. I wasn’t ready to deal with screwing up the programing of another Overseer. We had already decided we would avoid such complications if at all possible. The idea was to keep Justice away from any complexes that might get him scanned by an Overseer.
We entered the bridge and took our seats. I used my implants to zoom in on the thread. It ended in a star system with just three planets, one of which was in the light golden band Justice liked to superimpose around the local star just for my benefit. The band was the Goldilocks zone that human scientist theorized was the ideal distance to a star for the best possibility of life to exist. Upon closer scrutiny the planet had two small moons and had a considerable amount of blue water visible. It reminded me of home.
“No records available in my data base Commander.”
I smiled to Tria because she would get the nod if we ever gave our discoveries names. We decided over dinner one evening to not give names to the systems that Justice had no information on. Coonts was right in stating they might already be in the Galactic Union data base. Unless we could gain access to the information, we would have no way of knowing. It was decided to give each new discovery an alpha numeric designation. Our new base star system used my alpha designation and the number one. This system would be bravo for Tria and also the number one. We were getting ready to jump in closer when a yellow blinking dot appeared from behind the planet in the life zone.
“Unidentified vessel in low orbit over the target planet Commander, probability of detecting us is less than two percent at this distance. Thread definition is increasing and I now verify it is attached to the larger of the two moons not the planet.”
“OK Justice, go full stealth and let’s take a closer look.”
“Affirmative Commander, I will increase forward velocity and make our approach from the star.”
Justice took us to a point beyond the star system and dropped to sub light. He aligned us with a point that would take us close to the local star and straight to the target moon. We accelerated to maximum velocity and the target moon filled the front of our display. We stopped just behind the moon and waited for the unknown vessel’s orbit to bring it into visual range.
“Commander I am picking up encrypted communications from the ship to the planet. I am also receiving encrypted message traffic from three locations on the surface. The transmissions are coming from departed shuttles. I have not identified the decryption primer but should have it as soon as more communications become available.
The ships orbit brought it into visual range. Tria suddenly yelled out, “Commander that is a Scrun slaver ship! They are hostiles!”
“Are you sure Tria?”
“Yes Commander! Scrun are some of the worst filth in the galaxy and are actively hunted by most lawful races. They enslave the weak and the primitive. The only reason they would be here is to take slaves from this world. We must stop them before they can leave.”
I looked at Klutch and he was nodding in agreement but Coonts would only look at the floor.
“Coonts, what’s the matter?”
Coonts looked up at me and said in a quiet voice. “The Grawl know the Scrun well Commander. They have an endless supply of specimens to experiment on.” The sorrow on his face was evident.
“Tria, how well are they armed and how many do you think are on that ship?”
“They have the latest weapons available on the black market Commander. They also wear sealed suits to prevent loss of the exotic atmosphere they breathe. There could be two hundred troops on the ship. If they have three shuttles on the surface of the planet there is the possibility the ship will only have the bridge crew and what guards are necessary to handle the slaves on board. I would estimate thirty to forty on the ship if they are collecting slaves on the surface.”
I paced back and forth thinking aloud. “The bridge and spaces for the crew would have to be sealed to maintain atmosphere. The slave areas would have an independent system to insure their survival.”
Klutch gave me a wicked toothy smile and said. “If a hole was to appear on that ship, like on the bridge for instance, those evil Throggs might find it difficult communicating with the shuttles on the surface.”
Coonts came out of his dejected state and chimed in. “Commander if our timing was right, and the ship was on the back side of the planet, they could not recover th
e shuttles in time to prevent us from disabling the ship and freeing any slaves we might find.”
“What do you think Tria, should we give it a go?”
She looked at me with a solemn face and said. “It would be dereliction if we did not.”
“Justice how long before their orbit will bring them back around to us again?”
“Twenty eight minutes to the horizon Commander.”
“Tria are you familiar with the ship's deck plan?”
“Commander it has been far too many solar rotations since I have led military operations against these predators. I know the bridge is the elevated structure on the top of the ship just forward of the hanger bay doors.”
I looked at my crew. “What would it take to penetrate the hull?” We all looked to Coonts for guidance.
“I estimate an anti-matter charge from our armor’s weapon system in the forty to fifty percent yield range. That should give us a high probability of a small breach without a massive amount of damage Commander.”
Klutch gave the image of the ship Justice had frozen on the view screen a closer look. “Commander, Tibor doctrine is simple when it comes to such issues. More is always better. To insure a breach large enough to board through we put a forty percent charge above their view screen and a fifty five percent charge at the base of the bridge structure. If one fails to give us the desired results, the secondary charge might insure the probability of success.”
“Commander I have limited decryption of the communications and have translated the Scrun dialect. They are indeed attempting to gather slaves. The primitive inhabitants are putting up fierce resistance and are being slaughtered. Their weapons comprise wood and rock projectiles. The Scrun find their futile acts of resistance amusing. COMMANDER! I HAVE JUST INTERCEPTED A MESSAGE FROM THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP! HE HAS JUST ORDERED HIS TROOPS TO KILL ALL THE FEMALES AND THEIR YOUNG IF THEY CONTINUE TO RESIST.
“Justice! Attack the ship that should get them to recall the shuttles.”
“Affirmative Commander, scan negation systems are online and cloaking field is optimized. I will attempt to approach the target with shields down to avoid detection.”
First of my Kind Page 38
