Running With Argentine

by William Lee Gordon

What held the professor’s attention, however, was the man seated before them. The lieutenant couldn’t help but notice that he had let them walk all the way to him before standing up in greeting.

  “Lord Tiren, I presume?” the professor started. Without waiting for a response he continued, “I am Professor John Sullivan from Denmany University on Asperia, at your service.”

  After a long moment, Tiren waived for them to take comfortable seats arranged around the low table in front of him.

  “Please join me for some tea,” he said. “I know you’ve had a long journey.”

  Once the conversation started, Lord Tiren was friendly enough. And while the lieutenant couldn’t put his finger on it, there was something causing the hair on the back of his neck to tingle. It was a warning he’d learned not to ignore.

  He didn’t touch his tea. With inward approval, he noticed that Gossip hadn’t either.

  The professor was obviously a polite man by nature, but it was just as obvious that he was growing impatient with all the pleasantries.

  Finally, he said, “Lord Tiren, you are certainly a gracious host but I’m sure you can understand my excitement to inspect the specimens?”

  “I’d thought that after the long trip you might prefer to have dinner and rest; we could get started on that first thing in the morning…”

  “Well, I appreciate your concern, but maybe if I could just have a preliminary look at some of them?”

  Lord Tiren pursed his lips in slight distaste, but then said…

  “Of course. I’m assuming you’ve brought confirmation of payment?”

  The professor handed over a data chip.

  Within the Asperian sphere, interplanetary commerce was conducted with eCredit.

  Everyday walking around money used specific weights of the platinum metals; Palladium and Rhodium were popular. They were totally unsuited, however, for the vast sums involved with interstellar trade.

  The eCredit system relied on a Block Chain, or shared public ledger. All confirmed transactions are included in the block chain. This way, eCredit wallets can calculate their spendable balance and new transactions can be verified. Advanced cryptography enforces the integrity and chronological order of the block chain.

  While the ‘funds’ had actually been transferred before the professor left Asperia, the recipient couldn’t actually claim them without the encrypted codes on the data chip - and only Lord Tiren had the encryption key.

  “I will need to validate this, of course,” he said as he accepted the chip. “In the meantime why don’t you make yourself comfortable? I’ll return as soon as I have confirmation.”

  With a mumbled acquiescence the professor gave a courteous quarter bow, and Lord Tiren left the room.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  You’re Not Paranoid if…

  In Orbit at Trinity

  “We’ve lost their signal, Captain,” said Sami.

  “We knew we probably would. A compound like that doesn’t survive a war unless it’s shielded. Were you able to trace their entry point?”

  “Yes Captain,” replied Barry. “We have optics on where they went under the roof, but their signal didn’t cut out for several minutes after that. I’d cut your arm off to know the goings on of that.”

  Argentine glanced at Sami and she gave a quick nod and smile.

  “Chief West!”

  “Captain?”

  “Isn’t this boat supposed to have some auxiliary sensor pods?”

  “That’s true… though I’m not sure that I’ve seen them in a while.”

  Argentine knew they were aboard. He’d just inventoried them.

  “I want to cover approaches to the planet that don’t vector in on the elliptic plane. I don’t want the Asperian military sneaking up on us. How long will it take to deploy them?”

  A challenge for all warships was being able to ‘see’ the enemy. Space is big. If you were in orbit like the Pelican, you wanted as much notice as possible if another ship enters the system and starts spiraling down to your position. The one advantage you have is that you know they will be approaching more or less on the same elliptical plane as the planet orbits the star. It’s possible to do it differently, but your energy costs for planetary rendezvous go up by a huge factor.

  Therefore, it was common for a ship’s most powerful sensor arrays to be aligned two dimensionally in a 360° arc.

  If, however, your opponent didn’t care about the energy cost… or perhaps was already far inside the system and just lying doggo off of the elliptic plane, they could be on top of you almost before you ever saw them.

  “If we had a full crew…” the chief stopped musing and said, “I’m going to need ten hours Argentine. There’s just no way around it.”

  It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but then he should have thought of it earlier…

  “Okay, chief. Use some of Marko’s people if you need to, but get them operational.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Mandi and the chief had followed him into his day cabin.

  “Are you really worried they’ll be able to sneak up on us?” the chief asked. “I would think we’d be able to spot them in time to pull our people and prevent an intercept…”

  “You’re probably right, but I just don’t feel like taking any chances right now. So, humor me, Chief… Okay?”

  The chief regarded his friend carefully and said, “No problem. Rory’s probably reviewed the schematics by now, so I should get down there to help him.”

  After he’d left, Argentine turned to Mandi…

  Did you tell everyone to start calling me, Captain?”

  “I might have mentioned it to Sami.”

  “Humph… and you have nothing acerbic or cutting to say? No jokes about my paranoia or how ancient our sensor systems are?”

  With a normal demeanor she responded, “No, I don’t think you’re being paranoid. Your ship’s sensors do suck, but all ships tend to be a little less sensitive off the horizon…

  “I, uh… think you’re being prudent,” she concluded.

  Was that almost a compliment?

  “What am I forgetting?” Argentine wanted to know.

  “You’re asking for my advice?”

  Now it was Mandi’s turn to be surprised.

  “You’re more familiar with the ways of Asperia than anyone here. So… if you have any ideas I want to hear them.”

  After a considered moment she replied, “I think you’re right not to trust anyone. But that doesn’t mean just the military; don’t trust anyone on Trinity either.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Prisoners

  On Trinity

  Several hours later they were called to dinner, but Lord Tiren was nowhere to be found.

  The servants, as usual, were almost entirely nonverbal.

  As nice as the meal was, Gossip and the lieutenant contented themselves with a couple of field ration bars.

  The professor, however, had no such qualms.

  “This roast really is quite excellent!” he said. Turning to a servant he asked, “What type of beast is this?”

  Receiving no answer he turned back to the table and took another bite.

  “Gossip, keep an eye on the professor. I’m going to get some fresh air.”

  The lieutenant made his way to the hallway outside the room. Just as he’d remembered, there were a series of elegant etched glass doors along one side that opened onto the formal front lawn of the house.

  Also just as he remembered, there was a guard posted there.

  Ignoring him, Lieutenant Stark made to open a door…

  “That is not permitted.”

  “I’m just going to get some fresh air. I’ll be right back.”

  “No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety.”

  By now, a second guard was approaching.

  “Actually, it’s everyone’s safety I’m worried about,” he said. “I need to make contact with my ship so they don’t get worried about us. It’s reall
y not a good idea to get a warship worried, don’t you think?”

  “No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety.”

  “I think we need to ask Lord Tiren about that. Summon him.”

  “I will relay your request when he returns,” the second guard responded.

  Turning to him, the lieutenant asked, “Where has he gone and when will he be back?”

  Receiving no answer, he took another tack…

  “If I’m not allowed to contact my ship immediately it could be fatal for me.”

  “No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety,” guard number two responded.

  “Humph,” the lieutenant said as he turned and headed back to the room.

  It was very curious indeed. Not only had the two guards never once looked him in the eye… they’d never even looked at each other.

  ΔΔΔ

  The professor woke with a hand pressed firmly down over his mouth.

  His eyes bugged wide until he realized it was the lieutenant waking him.

  “Get up and get dressed,” he whispered.

  As the professor looked around to get his bearings, he realized the hulking shadow at the door was Gossip.

  “What time is it?” he whispered back.

  “It’s just before dawn, but right now I need you to get dressed quickly.”

  The night before, after finishing an excellent meal, they had waited a few more hours for Lord Tiren to return. Eventually, they had been escorted to this small suite of rooms for the night.

  “Has Lord Tiren arrived?”

  “No, and he’s not going to…”

  “What?” Professor Sullivan stopped with only one arm sleeved. “What do you mean?”

  “Look professor… you’ve been scammed. This is all a set-up. We need to get out of here before whatever they’re waiting for happens.”

  “No! I… I’m sure if we just wait a little longer Lord Tir…”

  “You need to face the facts, professor! We’re prisoners and if we don’t get out of here now we never will.”

  “How do you know that? I can’t believe it!”

  “Shhh… Keep your voice down!”

  “I’m going to go talk to someone. I’ll demand to be put in touch with Lord Tiren immediately! I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “How are you going to do that?” the lieutenant wanted to know. “We’re locked in our suite.”

  ΔΔΔ

  Once the lieutenant had calmed him down, they turned their attention to the matter at hand: escape.

  To his credit, the professor was recovering from his initial shock surprisingly fast, but there was no question that he was lamenting the lost opportunity to make a name for himself with alien fossils.

  “Should we go out the windows?” he wanted to know.

  “They’re not windows; they’re projection panels. It was the first thing I checked.”

  The second thing had been ventilation ducts and wall integrity. The ducts were all small, and if an observer looked closely, they would notice small holes all over the walls and ceiling. The lieutenant had pushed a small stiff wire through the relatively soft wall and ceiling material only to encounter an impenetrable backing, probably some type of stone or metal.

  As plush as this suite was, it was still a cage.

  That only left the door… which was locked… and guarded?

  There was only one way to find out…

  Fortunately, the lock, like many things in this Villa, was old fashioned low-tech. After the lieutenant fiddled with it for a few minutes, Gossip placed a hand on his shoulder.

  He raised an eyebrow as he watched Gossip pull what looked like an impressive set of tools and picks from a hidden pouch on his wrist. With a half grin on his face, he just shrugged.

  They traded places.

  Within a few moments, the lock emitted a small click…

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Separation Anxiety

  In Orbit at Trinity

  “Contact!

  “Captain, we have a contact approaching our position. She’s on a high energy burn, but… it’s definitely an intercept!” Barry elaborated.

  “Identification?” Argentine asked quickly.

  “So far, no communications,” said Sami. “I don’t have drive signatures for the Asperian military, but if I had to guess…”

  Argentine didn’t have any doubt that she was right.

  “How long to intercept?” he asked calmly.

  “If they’re good, and I’m guessing they bloody well are, they’ll be able to intercept directly into a matching high-altitude orbit in… oh bollocks! They’ll be here in forty-seven minutes!”

  “How did they get so close?” Argentine asked with a little more emotion than he intended…

  “They’re coming in from 82° above the elliptic plane,” Barry explained. “It looks like you were right, Captain. Our sensors just aren’t good enough and we didn’t have enough time to get all the sensor pods in place.”

  “Sami, what’s going on below? Any changes at the villa?”

  “Nothing obvious. It’s just past sunrise and a few flitters are arriving with passengers, but other than that it looks like a quiet morning.”

  “Have we heard from our team?”

  “No, still no word.”

  “Okay. Barry, I need more info on that ship. How big is she? What are her capabilities?”

  “If I had a decent sensor suite I could accommodate you, Captain. As it is I have bugger all facts for you. My best guess, though, is that it’s the equivalent of a Haven Scepter Class patrol ship.”

  “And what in a just and fair universe is a Scepter Class ship,” Argentine asked rather pointedly.

  “Oh, right. You wouldn’t know… Lightly armored, built for speed, no real cargo capacity to speak of… They carry a compliment of 42; which includes a dozen Spears of the Light, or space marines in your parlance.”

  “So, they’re bigger than we are,” Argentine mused.

  “No question about that mate… err, Captain. Much more powerful too, if these readings are to be trusted. Her power plant output is off the scale compared to ours.”

  “Enough to power those long range energy weapons everyone around here talks about?”

  “No question about that. If they want to reach out and touch us we’re all mucked up.”

  “I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t sound good… so let’s all just keep our cool and see if we can’t talk our way out of this.”

  “We could always run,” Barry suggested. “If we leave now we can avoid an intercept.”

  Everyone on the bridge turned to look at him. Then they turned to Argentine…

  “We’re not leaving our people behind.”

  “How are we going to finagle this?” Sami wanted to know.

  Argentine looked at her and said with as much confidence as he could, “I’m not sure yet, but we’ve talked our way out of worse! But just in case, let’s have our rail guns ready to go…”

  They all looked over to the unmanned weapons station.

  ΔΔΔ

  "Shit!" Argentine said under his breath.

  "Has anyone been trained to use the guns?" he asked aloud.

  No one responded and when he turned to Mandi she held her hands up and said, "Don't look at me!"

  He slapped his hand down on the intercom button and said, "Chief, I need you on the bridge. Now."

  After a moment, he pushed the button again and said, "Marco, I need…"

  "I'm on my way," came the response before he could finish.

  Argentine frowned slightly but then turned his attention back to the matter at hand…

  "Barry, let me know if there's any change of course or estimated intercept time for the bogey."

  "Righto, Captain. Eh, what's a bogey?"

  "It's the ship," Sami whispered loudly.