by Aer-ki Jyr
“Nope. All quiet here. Ship status?”
“We’re in the green.”
“Is the Sebacean behind you?”
“Should be an hour back.”
“No warnings or updates to deliver today, so you’re clear to proceed.”
“Thank you,” Liam said, ending the brief protocol conversation. “Captain, set course for Corneria. Moderate speed.”
Leslie nodded and began conversing with the helmsman as Liam accessed the insystem communications grid and logged a request for repair work on the damaged warships that both the Chimaera and Sebacean were bringing back with them. After waiting through several minutes of signal lag he received response, indicating that they should be taken to the A4 shipyard.
“Helm, how are we poised for a course correction?”
The man in the station in front of both Liam and the Captain swung around in his chair. “We’re currently trolling into a slingshot trajectory around the star enroute to Arrakis, but we can move into a lower orbit and redirect if necessary.”
“Keep the leg to Arcadia, then divert to Optimus,” Liam said, glancing at his own navigational holo.
“Shipyards?” Leslie guessed.
Liam nodded.
“They’re ahead of schedule,” she commented.
“That, or they’re partially operational. I’m just glad there were some slips already open.”
“Will you be staying onboard for the duration?”
“No…in fact I’ll bail out at Arrakis. What’s our eta?”
“8 hours, 34 minutes,” the helmsman offered.
Liam turned to the Captain. “The bridge is yours. I’m going to get one last workout in before I jump ship.”
When the Chimaera decelerated against Arrakis’s gravity well it pushed a bit on the star’s gravity to move it into an orbit around the desert planet using differentiated gravity drives. It was another step up the tech ladder, which allowed the gravity drive to focus on a single gravitational vector…meaning it could push against a planet or star to the exclusion of all other gravity wells present. With the jumpship containing multiple gravity drives one could then push against the star for some lateral movement while the others braked against the center of Arrakis, slowing the ship and neatly settling into orbit without having to use its thrust-based, fuel sucking engines.
Once it was tucked into orbit a shuttle was sent over from the planet’s one and only starport to pick up Liam, then the jumpship waited until its orbital progression put it on the jumpline between Arrakis and Optimus. Once there it made a microjump, traveling from the innermost planet in the system to the 2nd and cutting back close to the star to do it. It certainly wasn’t the shortest route to the shipyard but it was the fastest, given that a jumpship obtained ‘traction’ from pushing off between gravity wells rather than ‘normal’ propulsion. The arrival point into the system hadn’t been near any of the planets, leaving the jumpship a bit ‘adrift’ until it had gotten to Arrakis.
The jumpship had purposefully maintained a bit of their forward momentum when coming out of the jump so that they were slowly falling into the star, then the helmsman had used all of their gravity drives to push off of Corneria, which was situated behind them and to the left, to move them laterally over the course of several hours and into the slingshot orbit the jumpship had just come out of.
Ironically, the subsequent trip from Arrakis to Optimus would take less than 10 minutes, thanks to the direct line of flight between the planets.
Liam’s shuttle brought him back to the starport where he waited 2 hours before boarding an inter-planetary starship that flew him and a few other personnel out to Corneria using its own, smaller gravity drives. That route was actually a 2 leg trip, bouncing off the 6th planet in the system, a gas giant, and back in to Corneria, all of which took them 6 hours.
The starship braked early coming into the planet to avoid the infrastructure in low orbit. In addition to all the Star Force stations there were now 7 Canderian sedas and a scattering of Russian facilities servicing their large colony on the surface. Three of their warships, equipped with downgraded versions of Star Force plasma cannons, held close by for security reasons despite the fact that the entire system was full of warships far more powerful than the 2 cutters and corvette. Still, Liam appreciated their attitude and commitment to self-defense instead of leaving their security entirely up to Star Force.
They weren’t the only nation that had been given colonization rights within the system. Brazil also had been given a small stake on Corneria seven years previously, which was still in the early stages of development. They had about 12,000 colonists on site, but without being able to ship their own construction materials out from Sol their growth was tied to either expensive Star Force shipping charges or purchasing materials off the Star Force markets.
Following a nationalistic policy, Brazil wasn’t buying any prefab Star Force buildings, preferring instead to construct their own from raw materials bought from the market. Due to that their startup timeline had stretched out to more than 10 times what it had taken the Russians to get to a similar point of development, but slow as it was Brazil was making progress and bringing some of its own industry online, allowing them to produce more of their own materials. A few more years of growth and they’d reach the tipping point and see their expansion rate snowball, but they were definitely doing things the hard way compared to everyone else.
The only other nation within the system was Australia, but they didn’t have a stake on Corneria. Instead, Star Force had given them control over 90% of the land on Optimus, reserving the other small portion for its own spaceports and two medium-sized colonies that fed their underwater infrastructure on the waterworld. The planet’s surface was less than 1% land, but Star Force’s aquatics division was furiously expanding underneath the waves while they let the Australians colonize essentially their own planet, which had quickly become a gem of a resort world.
Tourism made up 63% of their economy, but they were also following the Star Force model and building up their local industry in a self-sufficient fashion. Already they had enough resources to survive without Star Force markets for more than 2 years and were pressing to increase that number with increased foodstuff production facilities, underwater mining sites, and a wide variety of factories producing everything from building materials to toothpaste.
They were also stockpiling other items they didn’t currently produce, taking no chances should interplanetary or interstellar trade routes suddenly be cut off, in addition to fielding a sizeable defense force of their own. They had a small fleet of 16 warships in orbit and more than 5,000 troops guarding their 1.4 million civilians and 250,000 annual tourists living on Optimus.
They weren’t the only non-Star Force residents within the system, however, for the Hycre had also been allowed to colonize Threshold, the gas giant that Liam’s starship had redirected off of. While the planet wasn’t nearly as hot as the Hycre liked, it was habitable to them similar to Alaska being habitable to Humans. Not the most preferred location, but given how few habitable planets there were in the galaxy, regardless of your species, it was still worth colonizing.
Their population numbers weren’t shared with Star Force regularly, but the last count they’d given had been 19.2 million. Liam knew they had a lot of structures beneath the cloud layers where Star Force sensors couldn’t see, but the Hycre also had three large stations in orbit with a fourth currently under construction. The largest one was a trade center in which the Humans delivered raw resources mined on Corneria and other rocky planets to the Hycre per the trade agreement they’d struck in their first diplomatic summit nearly 65 years ago.
They’d worked out an exchange rate, receiving credit for the various metals and other compounds that the Hycre had in short supply, then were given an equal amount of rare materials on Star Force’s list, including corovon, epiti, and large amounts of metallic hydrogen that the Hycre mined from the core of Threshold.
Surrounding the planet was a fleet three times as powerful as Star Force’s, but with less than half their number of ships. Ever since they’d made their pact, the Hycre had devoted a significant force to defending the Human system against lizards and others that began to show up once news of the Human victory began to spread. They didn’t have a presence in Sol or any other Star Force system, but had made a point of securing a safe ‘cradle’ for the Humans to develop in, as well as establishing a stronghold in a region of space that they’d historically not been present in.
Losses against the lizards had pushed them back in many areas, usually when another race’s system fell rather than their own, but none the less the lizard border had continued to expand and the portion of it that the Hycre dominated was continually shrinking. The ‘Human sector,’ as the Hycre referred to it, was their only point of pushback and they’d been investing in it heavily, establishing outposts and even two other colonies in nearby systems that Star Force had no presence in.
In addition to the 5 inhabited planets Star Force had in the system, it had also established a freestanding station in its own orbit around the star that served as an interstellar commerce zone. Thanks to the Hycre, Star Force had come into contact with 4 other races as well as having been exposed to many others that hadn’t made formal contact. The Babylon station served as a small city where those other races, including the Hycre, had small enclaves that served as embassies and outposts for their interests in the region.
As a result Epsilon Eridani saw a moderate amount of non-Human traffic coming through, some of which came for the trade market on Babylon, but many simply used the facility as a way station, renting out large cargo holds to use for their own transactions and resupply. Star Force had some rules regarding what they could use their station for…first and foremost was they couldn’t keep any live creatures onboard for use as food.
The Berss had thrown a fit when Star Force discovered they were keeping a flock of birdlike creatures in one of the holds to slaughter at will, and had even pulled out of Babylon for two years in protest before grudgingly asking permission to return. Star Force agreed, after writing out a code of conduct policy covering any and every contingency they could think up, not wanting to be caught off guard again.
Already the station had to be enlarged twice, which it easily could be thanks to the modular design Star Force had wisely implemented. Liam and the other trailblazers hadn’t been sure what to expect when they built and opened up the station to other races through invitations spread and endorsed by the Hycre, but the result had been a tiny amount of inter-racial trade that had brought a number of scientific breakthroughs as Star Force got a taste of new tech and, more importantly, new materials that the V’kit’no’sat had no record of.
That was probably because they were inferior to what the dinos used, but since Star Force was still eons away from catching up with them these lesser technologies and discoveries were helping to upgrade and expand the Humans’ technological capabilities, as well as gather information about more of the galaxy through simple commerce and communication with races that inhabited regions the Hycre had no presence in.
All of the 6 races that had enclaves on the station, counting Star Force and the Hycre, were enemies of the lizards to some degree, which offered a common purpose in exchanging intelligence they had on Cajdital, as the lizards were commonly called, though it appeared they didn’t care for that name…which was probably a major reason why their enemies used it. The lizards name for themselves was Li’vorkrachnika when you took out the varying screeches and whistles that Human vocal chords couldn’t master.
Star Force officially referred to the lizards by their common name of Cajdital when dealing with other races, but simply labeled them ‘lizards’ for their own records, given that the nickname had stuck early on and nothing better had arisen to replace it.
A special room on Babylon had been devoted to cataloging and sharing their common intel on the lizards, making Epsilon Eridani not only a growing inter-racial commerce hub, but a source for information brokering as well. Already two other races had sent requests to Star Force through the Hycre inquiring about the possibility of establishing formal relations with the Humans. One of those was all but confirmed, but the other was still being investigated as the Hycre were ambivalent concerning their request.
All said, while Epsilon Eridani was a Human system it was quickly gaining a rep for being an inter-civilization watering hole, upping Star Force’s status in the region and on the anti-lizard front.
When Liam reached Corneria he transferred off the starship and onto another starport, then traveled down to Corneria Prime via dropship where Mandy-512 met him at the starport with bottle in hand. He paused just off the boarding gangway and took a swig, sucking down the hot chocolate with care to get a good taste.
“Better,” he pronounced, taking another longer drink for ingestion’s sake rather than a taste test. “But I still don’t like the cinnamon.”
Mandy frowned. “I dialed it back enough that I didn’t think it’d bother you.”
“It’s tolerable, but not needed. Stick with mint,” he suggested as they walked away from the landing pads and further into the spaceport.
“And if I told you the Clan disagrees?”
“You’d be lying…what was the vote?”
“48%,” she said dismally.
“That’s up,” Liam said mock reassuringly. “Only 32% more to go.”
The Neon Squirrel’s frown leveled out. “How’d it go?”
“Well,” Liam said, taking the fork in the hallway that led to a city transit terminal. “We cleared planetary orbit and did a significant amount of damage to the surface, but there were still a lot of bases we didn’t even scratch…and we never even got to the moon.”
“Worth it?”
Liam nodded. “At the minimum it will slow their growth and give the Darlestiks more time. With luck they might be able to take the offensive.”
“So what now?”
“For them or us?”
“Both.”
Liam sighed. “We haven’t decided yet. The Hycre haven’t requested any additional missions, at least as far as I know.”
“Any chance of Neon Squirrel getting a shot?”
“We’re not putting down ground forces unless we’re moving in, and we’re not going to do that with a race we know almost nothing about.”
“Afraid of them turning on us after we kick the lizards out?”
“Possibly. Too many unknowns. Right now we’re playing a support role. Anything beyond that is up in the air.”
“You need anything?”
Liam sucked down the rest of the hot chocolate and handed the bottle back to her as they arrived at the transit terminal. “Nope. And don’t wait up on me. I don’t know how long this is going to take. I might not get back to the colony for a few days.”
“We’ll keep the lights on,” she assured him as he ducked into one of several small, pod-like cars.
When the curved door closed he zipped away on a mono-rail track, disappearing into a tunnel in the wall and off through the city to the command building where several of the trailblazers and Duke Hightower were waiting for his in-person mission debrief.
5
January 2, 2347
Epsilon Eridani System
Babylon Station
“Dak’tule, Ardvak,” Dakota-041 offered in greeting to the Critel ambassador as he sat down and slipped in an earpiece wirelessly connected to the module in the center of the commerce table. The gangly creature across from him made a buzzing sound with its X-shaped lips, which the translation module interpreted as a chuckle in a deep Human voice, followed by equally low toned words as the ambassador began to speak and the program translated with a slight delay.
“Your speech improves, Dakota,” Ardvak said, answering familiarly due to the ongoing dialog the two men had established. “I wish I had the skill to mimic your words, but my voice cannot bear the strain.”
“I’ve been practicing,” Dakota admitted, speaking English which the module translated into Critel and transmitted to Ardvak’s headband that wrapped around to cover the ear slits on his large, bald head. “What have you got for me this time?”
“An introduction. One of our merchants was contracted to bring an emissary to this station so that they might speak with you on urgent business.”
“An emissary from who?”
“They are unknown to me, but our traders have limited contact with them. They are a primitive race from the Iona System. Single planet, no space travel.”
“Do they speak Critel?”
“Partially, but their emissary claims to speak Human. It seems they’ve been studying you for some time.”
Dakota frowned. “How?”
“I wondered that myself and inquired. It seems they obtained information from our traders about many races, but particularly yours.”
“Interesting,” Dakota mewed. “Did he say what the urgent business was?”
“No, unfortunately. I tried to pry the information from him but he was adamant about maintaining diplomatic security and would not speak of the matter with anyone but a Human.”
Dakota leaned back in his chair. “You think they want to open an enclave?”
“I could get no read on this individual. His race is new to me and I haven’t been able to learn their idiosyncrasies.”
“What do they look like?”
“Smaller than us…both of us, I mean. Biped with a tail. Tough, grey/green skin. Three digits.”
Dakota held his hand up flat, then moved it up and down. Ardvak raised his long, pale gray fingers up to just under a meter in height.
“Really short,” he commented. “What kind of trading?”
“Various natural resources. The system is outside our normal trade routes, but some enterprising individuals managed to secure exchange rates lucrative enough to travel the extra distance.”
“Anything we’d be interested in?”
