One of the shorter raccoon persons stepped forward, right palm outstretched. When the cougar’s red heart was placed on it, Melak’s father lifted it to his mouth, took a bite of warm flesh, chewed, swallowed, then offered the remainder to another male standing nearby. “Fresh meat should always be shared. With the other fathers here. With the Mother Of All. With your Mother. And with the young ones who await us at home. Come, my eldest. We need to prepare you for the piloting course you were so eager to study this past year.”
Bending down to grab the leg rope of the cougar, Melak pulled a metal blade from his loincloth with his other hand and cut that rope, then the neck rope. He lifted the carcass of the animal into an over-the-shoulder carry. Red blood rivulets ran down his black and white striped chest fur. He head-gestured to the four adults. “Lead. I will follow. Then later I will provide our Niktoren people with resources from the Near Rock Belt.”
Jack gestured back. “Denise, give us the next two AV images.”
“Right,” she said, sounding calmer than before. “Here it is.”
Between the true-light system image and the sensor image there now appeared a new image.
It was a city as seen from a distant place, perhaps a ridgeline like that of the low mountains that bordered the far side of the city. In the middle rose cones, globes, domes and tree-like skytowers. Winding between the rock and metal buildings were curving roadways on which moved teardrop vehicles similar to a Mars aircar, larger flat-bed vehicles loaded with boxes of stuff, and tubular vehicles similar to Earth buses that were crowded with raccoon people. To either side of the city were spacious landing fields. On one field, three rockets were taking off. The rocket shape was a globe set atop a square bottom stage. No doubt they were heading to orbit. On the other field, two rocket globes were coming down amidst a cluster of ten similar rockets. The landed rockets were being unloaded. The unloaded content was not clear in the image. But the voice told them.
“Today’s shipment of iron, tungsten, titanium, copper, tin and other construction materials has arrived from the Inner Rock Belt,” said a voice that sounded feminine, like the Mother character heard earlier. “The dwarf planet Mikto was the subject of three star blasts that excavated a shaft down to its iron core. Ships of the Niktoren Family Fleet are seeking other large rock sources of minerals to improve life on Tree.” The voice paused as the two descending ships landed on a field made of metallic mesh. “Elsewhere on Tree, adulthood ceremonies were carried out for this year’s young people. Niktoren on all three continents and aboard ships in our oceans watched this annual event. An estimated forty million youth took part in the Hunt Challenge. Mothers of every tribe attended. Organizers dismissed concerns about the possible extinction of the Magun predators. Captive raising of the Magun has been a tradition for millennia and their release into wild areas of Tree has ensured the survival of vital predator traits.”
“Jack,” called Elaine, “the rest of the fleet has arrived near us. All ships are now here.”
“Switching AV feed to laser Come-Back signal,” Denise said quickly. “Going to third AV imagery.”
The city scene disappeared. A scene set in the darkness of space replaced it. In the distance showed the planet three, which was called Tree by its inhabitants. The world’s single moon orbited nearby, a white airless landscape touched by dark craters. In the image’s foreground moved three spaceships, their shape that of a teardrop that pierced a large globe. Yellow-orange fusion flares shot from the wide end of the ships. To the far left of the image moved two other spaceships. Similar in design to the first three, these two were moving away on fusion flares.
Green laser beams shot out from the three spaceships, striking the rear of one of the two fleeing ships. It exploded in a flare of yellow, orange and white flame.
“Damn!” grunted Maureen from her Combat seat. “They’re fighting each other.”
A voice now spoke.
“The conflict between the Southern Tribe and the Northern and Eastern Tribes confederation over which group would control access to the Inner Rock Belt was resolved sixty-eight cycles ago,” said a male-sounding voice. “While the Southern Tribe spaceships were able fighters, their tribe did not have the industrial capacity of the confederated tribes. One by one their ships were hunted down and destroyed by the Northern-Eastern ships. Our current world is led by a Council that is dominated by Northern and Eastern tribe members. The Southern Tribe continues to provide fine engineers, chemists and spatial tacticians for our mining of the Inner Rock Belt. While some Southern Tribe members have urged the sending of an exploration ship to the outermost gas world of Baklo, the Council has chosen to focus on exploration of Haklo, the world next closest to our star NikHak.” The voice paused as an image of planet two, a white-clouded world that lay at the inner edge of the habitable zone, replaced the fighting ships. “While very hot and filled with noxious air, Northern Tribe researchers are working to change the planet’s heat and gas regime. Icy comets have been guided to hit Haklo. While the process of lowering its temperature and increasing the Breath of Air in its clouds will take many cycles, researchers say Haklo could become Niktoren habitable.” A new planet image replaced the cloudy one. It showed a world with dense clouds colored red, yellow, orange and white. “The world Miklo, lying just beyond the Inner Rock Belt, is presently being air-mined for its star fuel isotopes. The isotopes add to those already being mined on our moon of Nightglo.”
“Denise,” Jack called back, “shut off the sound but continue recording this AV and the first two.”
“Done,” said their too mature youth.
Into the silence Jack turned in his seat and looked back at his crewmates. Nikola was focused on her Astro panel, perhaps tracking other thermonuke explosions. Max had one hand resting atop the Alcubierre drive pedestal, while the other reached up to the Main Drive module that had lowered from the ceiling. His buddy gave him a nod of acknowledgment, then looked up at the drive module. Jack knew that keeping a fusion drive plasma in Pinch Mode was a delicate operation that required constant attention. Even the help of Anonymous could not replace human judgment. Archibald’s gaze was still fixed on the ongoing space research report of the last AV broadcast. Blodwen, Cassie and Denise all met his gaze.
“Denise, Blodwen, it’s clear these Niktoren people are carnivores,” he said, giving each a nod. “They have fought a war. Their cities are modern and busy. They dominate planet three, or Tree. And they have an integrated world society. They resemble humanity from not that long ago. My question is, should we assume these Niktoren are social carnivore predators like the Hunters and we should just leave? Or could they become a Freedom Alliance member?”
“Brother Jack,” said Cassie, her hazel eyes thoughtful, “my spy training says there is always more to any society that is shown publicly. Could we ally with these Southern Tribe folks and help them overthrow this Council? As we did on the Mikmang world. Thereby gaining them as allies who would join our anti-predator alliance.”
Trust his youngest sister to think sneaky. While he was glad she had recovered so well from her beatings at the South Pole, she had yet to find a specialized job that fit her education, training and interests. Other than making them all some fine Italian-style meals, her contribution to the Uhuru had been one of proving their ability to do silent infiltrations against an armed enemy. Which they might have to do again when they arrived at the two ‘subject people’ worlds. For now, though, he had no good task for her.
“Cassie, that’s a good point. But inciting a civil war among people who just recently achieved social harmony is not my first choice of actions.” He looked to his two experts in animals and societies. “Ladies, your thoughts?”
Blodwen nodded abruptly. “Good. I prefer to have a constructive First Contact,” she said in her no-nonsense manner. “These Niktoren have achieved a lot on their world and in spatial exploration of their system. Their efforts to change the ecology of planet two are admirable. Their Coming of Age ceremon
y, while bloody to us, is very normal among human societies of the past. The three AVs we’ve seen suggest their society now focuses on adding to their industrial capacity the resources they can extract from this Inner Rock Belt between planets Tree and Miklo.” She paused, reaching up to pull at one curl of her thick blond hair. Blinking her pale green eyes, her mood thoughtful, she looked beyond Jack to the watching images of their allied captains. “We should invite this Council of theirs to join our Freedom Alliance. While these people are at least omnivores who love meat, they may not be aggressive expansionists like the Hunters of the Great Dark.”
“You’ve got a good point.” Jack fixed on Denise. “Your thoughts, genius of animal behavior. Like, how can people who resemble the smart raccoons of Earth be so bloodthirsty? While my ecology studies included examples of animal behaviors, I thought our raccoons were mainly lovers of fruit who made a point of washing their food in a nearby stream. And of being great at sneaking into human habitat areas for scavenging any food left out on a lunch table.”
The red freckles on Denise’s pale white face darkened under his gaze. The French-born teen who had had the guts to rebel against her scientist parents on Charon now wore her thick red hair in a bun on top of her head. No more braids hanging down. It made her look older. She scanned the faces of his fellow ship captains, then looked back to him.
“Captain Jack, these Niktoren folks clearly had an arboreal, tree-based evolution in the forests of the world Tree,” she said bluntly. “But they are Alien. Not Earth-evolved. And our raccoons, while indeed able to unlock complex locks and memorize numbers, were also omnivores in their food sources. They are members of the order carnivora, genus procyon. They ate insects, worms, fish, crustaceans, amphibians, bird eggs and sometimes birds,” she said bluntly. “Studies last century by Ulf Hohmann documented this. Among our raccoons, females were dominant even though males were larger in general.” She gestured forward. “But as we’ve seen, while these people have the black face mask and black and white rings of a raccoon grown to human size, their bioform is Alien! Their eyes are yellow orbs set atop chameleon-like muscles that allow independent eye movement. While they have stereoscopic vision, they also have the ability to look backward. And listen backward. They are highly adapted to an arboreal life and to life in open understory beneath the tree limbs. Their exotic vision and all-around listening ability says their brains are highly diversified.” She gave him an amiable smile. “I think they will be quite able to understand our anti-Hunter crusade and our reasons for it. While they might defeat a Challenge to Combat from future Hunters visiting this system, and thus become an ‘accepted’ member of the Hunters of the Great Dark, I think they will see the added value of supporting freedom of space exploration for all species that inhabit the stars of the Orion Arm.”
“Exactly,” Elaine said from her Pilot seat. His older sister had the manner of a medoc, someone trained to speak the facts even if distasteful. “Let’s contact these Niktoren. Even if they refuse our invitation, they may appreciate our warning about the Hunters and our zapping of Hunters hiding in their cometary belt.” She gestured at the front screen which had now changed to show a naval ship pulling into a cove of an island surrounded by a blue-green ocean. “I doubt they will like discovering there were predatory Aliens hiding in their system any more than you and Max liked it.”
“Thank you all.” He fixed on Maureen, who was playing with a combat simulation holo that depicted ships fighting one another in an asteroid belt. “Maureen O’Dowd.”
She jerked her attention away from her holo, her manner one of surprise at him calling her by her full name. Gray eyes scanned him. The woman’s hair-fine wrinkles bunched up as she grew thoughtful. “What?”
“How should we enter this system? And where should we emerge from blip jump?”
The woman from old Ireland’s northern town of Belfast grimaced. “With every weapon at the ready! In vacsuits. We should enter this system expecting a human-like reaction to the arrival of two dozen Alien spaceships.” She paused, brushed at the short black curls that adorned her head, then tapped on her Combat panel. “Here’s where we should arrive. Above the north pole of their moon Nightglo.”
Up front the screen showed a fourth image. An enlarged true-light image of a white, crater-scarred moon now appeared. A metallic sparkle gleamed at the equatorial level.
“The moon Nightglo is half the size of Earth’s Moon, at 1,700 kilometers across,” Maureen said. “It has a space station that is in equatorial orbit. Activities on its surface surely include mining camps.” Their battle veteran looked to him. “Fleet Captain Jack, we can expect every Niktoren spaceship to head for us once we appear above their moon. We should be prepared for every type of weapon that we have seen in other systems, including thermonuke torps.”
Jack looked back at Nikola. “Chief Astronomer, what can you tell us about their world Tree and the moon Nightglo? Based on your scope imagery and sensor data.”
His Czech lifemate looked down at her Astro panel, then up. Her pale blue eyes fixed on him. “I put out Big Eye when you told Denise to feed us the AV broadcasts. Got a better image of the world Tree.” She gestured at the front screen. “As you can see, there are three major continents arranged in a North, South and East orientation, relative to their equator. Their world is tilted ten degrees, similar to Earth, so they have multiple seasons. They have two major oceans and four smaller seas that separate the continents. Like Earth, there are ice caps at the north and south poles. Gravity is close to one gee based on the orbital track of their moon. EMF radiation from fusion reactors, power grids and AV broadcasts suggests a total planetary energy production of about 190,000 terawatt hours. Equal to the Earth energy output of 2050.” She paused, tapped her panel, then nodded at the image. “I’ve displayed artificial energy emissions as a green circle atop each continent. The Northern continent produces the most power. How that relates to planetary population, I cannot tell. But their broadcast suggests a planetary population of at least one billion, based on 40 million youths becoming adult each year.” She tapped her panel, causing the planet’s image to enlarge slightly. Three silvery sparkles showed at its equator, moving in an orbital vector. “The Niktoren have put up three space stations. Likely due to their extensive asteroid mining and planet two ecoforming. That enough?”
Jack felt almost overwhelmed by the flow of data and opinions from his crew. He gave Nikola a thumbs-up. “Outstanding data analysis. Final question. How strong were those three thermonuke blasts in their asteroid belt?”
She grimaced. “Big. Each blast released 240 petajoules of energy. That is equal to our 50 megaton thermonuke torps. Which are descendants of the three-stage fission-fusion-fusion design of the Tsar Bomba that exploded back in 1961. Like our thermonukes, the fireball of the Niktoren blasts was eight kilometers in size.” She tapped her panel and an image of the Inner Rock Belt of asteroids appeared to one side of the Tree planet image. “Those ‘star blasts’ as the locals called them were focused on a dwarf planet named Mikto. They are doing some heavy-duty mining.”
So. Their fleet faced laser armed spaceships which had access to thermonukes as strong as their own torps. And since they had a space war not that long ago, other weapons like automated mine fields, laser platforms and such were a probability. “Elaine, where are the Niktoren fusion ships located right now?”
His sister pointed to the front screen image that showed white dots for stationary fusion reactors and green dots for spaceships. “Of the 14 ships in space, eight are in this Inner Rock Belt. Which is two AU out from their star. Two are between the world Tree and its moon Nightglo. The other four ships are near planet two or Haklo. Which is just two-tenths AU from their home world on a straight-line.” She tapped on her NavTrack panel. “Right now Haklo is leading Tree in orbit. So the distance is six-tenths AU for their ships to return to Tree.”
In short, every Niktoren spaceship could return to their home world within a half hour to an hour.
Assuming their fusion pulse drives gave them the same twenty percent of lightspeed thrust that each fleet ship could put out. But arriving suddenly above their moon Nightglo and sending a broadcast to this Council of theirs should prevent any impulsive hostility. He hoped. Jack looked to the front screen images of his allies.
“Hideyoshi, Gareth, everyone, we leave for this moon of theirs within two minutes.” He gestured to his Pilot. “Elaine will provide you all with the NavTrack coordinates for our blip jumping on grav pull. Uh, when we arrive let’s communicate by way of our laser tightbeam Come-Back signals. And we move to a Pinwheel Plasma Torch configuration, with our fusion drives pointed outward.” He paused, trying to cover the vitals before they went to gravitational lensing and blipping. “We have six ships with Higgs Disruptors. Let them sweep the space around our arrival point with their beams to clear out any stealth mine fields that may be orbiting this moon of theirs. If we are attacked, we use our drive flares to disrupt incoming energy beams and our lasers and particle beams to kill solid stuff. Let’s keep our antimatter and Higgs beamers secret.”
“Hai,” said Akemi in the Orca.
“Bai,” came from Ignacio in the Badger, his black beret atop his helmeted head. The man gave a wave to Elaine.
“D’accord,” offered Heloise from the Ferocious.
“As you command,” said Hideyoshi from the Bismarck. “And I like the idea of keeping some of our weaponry secret. Gives us more options in the case of combat.”
“Damn right!” growled Maureen.
He smiled at the flood of agreement from the other ship captains. Twenty-two of them had seen the translated AV broadcasts, had heard the analysis of Blodwen, Denise and Nikola, and now were prepared to follow him into another First Contact with an Alien species who might become members of the Freedom Alliance. Or might not.
Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Page 20
