“No,” Lori said. “Not now. Later, maybe, once we sort out who’s hostile, and who’s not.”
No one grumbled, complained, or challenged her decision. They knew it was wise.
“So six will remain, and six go to the new planet?” Hunter said, looking at his laptop.
“That is the plan, yes.”
“OK. That’ll be the Florez ship the Scabiosa, the bigboy ships, Mandara and Sharika, the Ixixil ship Terrez, and the Earth ships Victor Trochkov and of course, the Koyaanisqatsi. All are armed to one degree or another. How soon?”
“I’d like to get going the next bright,” Lori said.
“How long a trip?”
“The Izada made it back in just over seven days. Not so far, actually.”
“Yes, four times that in going there, following the slow-poke visitors. The assumption is we are far advanced over them in technology. Space technology, at least,” Captain Igan said
“Yes, so it would appear. But let us not get overly confident, either. And this time, we might have to go up against an entire planet, not just six old ships. People, I do not plan to do that. If the reception is overtly hostile, I intend to pull out, leave the place. It is not worth even one life, of those that have come so far for trade and exploration. Let us not forget that.” Lori looked at the group, not so sure all were in agreement. But so be it.
Chapter 16 - Magadana
In a quiet a moment, after the delayed departure from Uta orbit, Lori and Captain George met to talk.
“Everyone finally accounted for?”
“Yes, got everyone back on board, and at their stations.”
“They all pissed?”
“Well, some are, most aren’t, we are, after all, spacemen, not ground pounders.”
Lori smiled at the remark. “Well, I think some hope–expect–we’ll get to do some down time at the new planet, and it’ll be well developed, and civilized.”
“Developed, no doubt. They’ve got space drives. Imagine that, way out here, who’d have expected it?”
“Well, we looked and looked last time. How’d we miss it here?”
“It’s a big place, space is huge, even in this system. And they didn’t come here much.”
“Yeah, well I wonder about the reception we’ll receive. None too hospitable, that recent visit, bet it’ll be even worse coming in at their home planet. Or whatever it is.”
“Yeah, I worry about that, too. The UN reps caution restraint, and dialogue...”
“Good, let them land first, and try to dialogue...”
“We might. But I bet they’d demure. Talk is easy...”
Lori nodded. “Yeah. I’m thinking of placing them in charge of first contact when we arrive. Let them see how they do with this new race.”
“What will the rest of the expedition think of that?”
“The other captains? I’m not so sure. They might balk–but if I can hold them together, for at least first try, well, might make things easier. I’m not so sure any of them want to do it.”
“I’ll talk to them, first chance I get. Won’t be till we get out of Williams Space, though.”
“Yeah, thanks. That’ll help. But we need to think beyond that, too. We need to decide what to do if they start shooting at first sight.”
“Well, we got several options,” George said, and held up a hand as he listed them. “First, we depart immediately, or we can stand off, try to talk to them, or even wait them out.” His forth finger rose as he said, “We can shoot back, or,” and his hand showed all fingers, splayed out, “we can try to find some part of the planet that’s not shooting at us, land there, get a foothold. I rather doubt the whole place is hostile, certainly none of the other civilized worlds are that organized.”
Taking a deep breath, Lori said, “Could be the same out here, or could be entirely different. Every world has its own peculiarities.” She looked at him. “The one thing I do not want to do is to engage in any sort of hostilities, brief, or worse, protracted. It’s too far to go for reinforcements, and I didn’t bring everyone out here to die.”
“The bigboys are confident we can prevail in any challenge.”
“Yes, they’re probably polishing their nukes now.” She shook her head. “I really, really, don’t want that, first contact, especially.”
“Worked out with the illi-illi, in the end, so I hear.”
“Yeah, it did, they were well developed in someways, backward in others.” She shrugged. “Had their space fleet been home, instead of out invading the Twin Worlds...well, who knows.”
A brief silence hung over them.
“Well, we’ll soon find out.”
“ETA?”
“Five days, more or less. We’ve plotted a couple of routes, based on what the illi-illi brought back. None seems optimum, big stars all over the place, the planet is behind them, it seems. We’ll have to be a little cautious, first time in.” Captain George brought a route up on the display screen on the low table before them.
“Who’s leading?”
“Captain Igan, in the Terrez.”
“We’ll form up before we get there?”
“That’s the plan. Should be time, unless the place is a lot closer than reported.”
Lori looked at the screen. So many stars, the route swung back and forth from gravity wells, she worried about hitting one they couldn’t get out of. Should be quite a place.
“The planet is in an area so bright with stars, I don’t think they even have as much of a dim, like on Uta. Never dark, even after their sun sets.”
“How do they ever tell time?”
“Presumably the planet revolves, like all the rest of ‘em, must be a major star, their sun. Probably key on that. Should be interesting if it’s different.”
“Alright, Kay and Rod will have the lead in establishing contact. But tell the Anawoka I’d like to work on a greeting from the Expedition Leader to broadcast as soon as we have someone to talk to.”
“I believe it’s already being worked on. Tari started as soon as we left.” His raised eyebrows showed his admiration. “Quite a gal, that one.”
“Yes, like her sister.” Lori smiled. “Well, good, OK, I’ll look her up, see how’s she doing.”
Five days later, the planet grew in size in the view screens. The six starships braked at one and a half gravities, the array arms looking ahead while their engines poured out atomic announcements of their imminent arrival.
The globe shone brightly, all white and blue, so much like Earth that Lori’s heart ached for home. What was she doing way out here, anyway? And now, plunging down into the unknown, and a hostile one, at that. Possibly very hostile. But the whole planet couldn’t be hostile, could it?
“The electronic field is amazing, the spectrums full, radio, TV, radar, microwaves, everything,” the techs reported from the ComCenter. “How’d we ever miss this last time here?”
“We weren’t looking in this direction, and those nearby stars pretty well shield it all. Not much trickled through, and that was pretty well diluted by stellar noise,” someone answered, as they looked at spectra-bars and graphs of the tidal wave of electronic activity emanating from the planet.
“And elsewhere, too,” the tech said, pointing to a screen. “Looks like they’ve got a space station, or two. And some space traffic, too, if not much.”
“Well, good, at least there’s someone out here to try to talk to. Tell Kay and Rod they’re on.”
Someone woke her up, a tugging on her arm. Tari.
“They ask for you in the ComC,” the Kobi said. “They said it’s important.”
“Oh, damn,” Lori said sleepily. She sat up, let the sheet fall from her shoulders. The room felt cool, but not cold, on her bare skin.
“Now, what?” Hunter said from the dark to her side.
“The new aliens are shooting at our ships, have already hit two of them,” Leta said.
Shaking her head, Lori said, “Oh, gees, I really don’t need this.” Sh
e stood up and put on a robe, stepped into slippers, and hurried out to the corridor.
“Be right there,” Hunter said, getting dressed, too.
In the com center, people looked at her, the quiet unnatural, all eyes going back to a screen. A separate display replayed an incident, from an hour ago, Lori saw from the time stamp. As the Scabiosa drifted past one of the space stations, the one they’d dubbed the Old One from its erratic, irregular structure, and low orbit, a bright light appeared, and flew out toward the ship. It grew, the radar block plotted the route, and the destination. Almost too late, as if caught unawares, The Scabiosa sent a missile out to meet it, which flew by, and then a HiE-lazer beam winked on, caught the hostile missile, and exploded it, though fragments continued on, impacting the ship.
A second segment played, just moments old, the bigboy ship Sharika, in somewhat higher orbit, also attacked, by several missiles, now, but it reacted earlier, though, unbelievably, one hostile missile, a trailing one, got past, and impacted the ship in the mid-section, blowing a rather jagged hole in the side of one of the holds.
“The bigboys are pissed,” Captain George said, coming up to stand with Lori. Hunter joined them.
“I don’t blame them. What say the UN people?”
“Nothing. No replies to their messages, and they’re tried all the local space frequencies, and a few of the ground ones, too.”
“Nothing?”
“So they say.”
“Gees...” Lori said, as the tapes played again.
“Alright, who’s in the line of fire next...anyone?”
“Negative, Lori. The station is moving on around the planet, none of our ships will be anywhere near it for 20 hours, or so.”
“OK, so we got some time to...”
“Negative, the New Station has its targeting radar on, and it’s seeking.”
“Who?”
“The Victor Trochkov. Then us.” A screen showed the orbits, the planet a pale blue ball in the background of the display.
“Shit.” Lori’s annoyance showed, no one said anything. “Get those UN people up here, and tell them we have a crisis. Meanwhile, can we go to a higher orbit, or anything, to increase the range?”
“Yeah, we can,” Captain George said.
“Do it. And ask the Trochkov if they will join us.”
“Roger.”
“Will that put us out of range?”
“Should. They’ll pass well below, and ahead of us now,” a tech said, as numbers changed, and the ship vibrated a bit as one of the engines fired.
“What’s really surprising is that their stations are armed. Who’d have thought of that? What were they expecting out here, anyway? We never did that.” Lori frowned at the screens.
Someone said, “Maybe they were expecting us.”
The meeting with the UN reps took almost an hour, as several strategies were discussed, options reviewed with the other captains, none of which pleased Lori. Captain Kanuri, of the Sharika, wanted an immediate, and strong response, and offered to lead it. With some difficulty, Lori held him off, delaying anything until the next encounter, nineteen hours away.
“You got till then to get them talking to you,” Lori told Kayla.
“And if we don’t? This is tougher than we thought it’d be,” Rodrigo said.
Tell me about it, Lori thought. She said, “Then, either we withdraw, or we respond. I don’t think I can get the bigboys to withdraw, if they’re fired on again. If you think you can, you’re welcome to try.”
She looked at them both. Neither of them responded. “I’m going back to bed. I think tomorrow will be a long day.”
Lori slept as long as she could, or at least stayed in bed in the morning, dreading the day. But with occasional visits by the kits, and Tari, she finally arose and dressed. They all took breakfast in the dining area, while Lori and Captain George debated what to do. Lori wanted a meeting with the captains, George thought a tel-conference, via tight beam, would suffice.
“They can’t intercept that, and we can scramble it all.”
“No, they probably can’t now, but they might be able to record it, decode and translate it years from now. I don’t want to chance that. Please invite the several captains, and whomever else they wish to include, to a luncheon here, in what, say, two hours? They can do that, can’t they? That should impress the hell out of the planet, if they’re watching us, and I bet they are. And alert the UN reps, that we’ll want a report from them, and any suggestions on strategy, too.”
The captains arrived easily within the time limit, each with several assistants, subordinates, or advisors. All included tactical support people, too, Lori noted, as introductions proceeded around the room, the Anawoka quietly translating back and forth.
Kayla and Rodrigo, looking important and serious, started with a briefing on what they’d learned, supplemented by the other ships’ observations. They said no direct reply had been received so far, despite numerous repetitions of the announcement of their arrival, and peaceful intentions, on a variety of bandwidths, including TV. The Pokoniry had succeeded in tapping into a couple of library computer systems on the surface, and were looking at what governmental and business records they could find. They found that several countries, loosely federated, controlled much of the commerce of the planet, called Magadana in the records, and only one, presumably called Tajmyr, owned or operated the two space stations, and most of the space fleet, which was quite small by galactic standards. The government seemed to be a monarchy, now ruled by an emperor, king, or, as they surmised, dictator for life, called “T’ming.” Constant references to him in all the literature, and numerous illustrations of his picture, which now appeared on the wallscreen, showed his prominence, if not benevolence.
Surprising, little or no news of the arrival of six ships, and their presence orbiting of the planet, appeared on the TV or other news programs.
The bigboys pressed for some sort of response to the firing on their ships, if nothing more than a show of force, and a few pyrotechnics of their own. The human people offered quiet support for that, while the Pokoniry, Kobi, and to a lesser extent, the illi-illi, all sought patience, with an eye to establishing a basis for trade, everyone agreeing the planet was lush, rich, and full of interesting things to buy. And no doubt, a tremendous market for all items of advanced technology, not the least of which was anti-gravity. Lori succeeded in holding the bigboys off, to give the contact team more time to work, and to concentrate on the space stations, and the Tajmyr place. They agreed, out of long-term respect for her, if nothing else.
Everyone hung around after the luncheon, watching the viewscreens, offering advice to the contact teams, and waiting. The messages going out changed, no visual, only radio. Nothing changed coming in until late in the afternoon, as the hours counted down to the next fly-by of the old station, and the station replied.
The bigboys succeeded in sending a crude pictorial graphic, that showed the station firing on their ship, and the ship replying, with a blast on the station. The reply showed that, and then the destruction of the ship.
“Well, looks like we got their attention,” George said. Looking at the UN reps, he said, “What do you suggest we do now?”
They shook their heads, and said, “Keep trying.”
They did, and finally, suddenly, and almost overwhelmingly, the TV news reported their presence, planet wide, and replies began to arrive from the surface. But not from the major country, from many others, most far around the planet, and well removed from Tajmyr. The messages seemed full of fear and warning, anxious to receive the visitors from the other stars, as they said, but wary of the wrath of T’ming.
“Secure permission from T’ming, and we will be pleased to host your visit,” several said, then adding they could not reply again, without his blessing.
“OK, so how do we do that?” George said, a twinge of annoyance and exasperation in his voice.
“We’ll keep trying,” Rodrigo said.
&nbs
p; The other captains returned to their ships, thinking there may be some progress soon now. Before they left, the bigboy captains, Bemaraha and Kanuri, again asked for the OK for a reply, if fired on. As the time for the next approach of the old station and the bigboy ship rapidly approached, Lori gave permission, over the objections of the UN reps, for a response.
“Look, we’ve tried everything else. Time to let them, and the rest of the place, know we’re serious, we’re not leaving, and we won’t be shot at with impunity. The bigboys will only hit the launch sites, and nothing more,” she said.
Everyone waited, watching the screens. Again the Sharika approached, and when at the same distance, a dozen missiles launched from the station. Immediately, the bigboys fired their HiE lazers, hitting the lower arm of the station, and the large open square, to a docking bay, it appeared, that fired the missiles. But more were launched, from two other arms, and the bigboys, while attacking the missiles en route, fired three of their own, against the launch sites.
Lori saw what happened. Watching the trail of one bigboy missiles, she saw it enter the docking bay, punch through the thin skin of the interior wall, pass on, and explode against one of the gridworks. That, combined with two other, small, if intense, hits, destabilized the station. Altitude nozzles flared, but the station began to twist, collapse, and sections come apart, detach, and tumble away. Soon, several small shuttles flew out, but the station was doomed. Twisting and turning, solar panels shattering and breaking up, and various modules crumbling and collapsing in a great out-gassing of atmosphere, only the center ring in one piece now, and it began to turn over and over, as the station ceased to exist. The one starship, from the Magadana group that approached Uta and moored at the lowest module, detached and spun away, turning over and over, heading down toward the planet.
“Holy shit,” someone said, in the otherwise silence of the ComC.
Most of the station looked like it would drop toward the planet, only a few smaller sections drifted upward, everything else in a jumble, crashing and colliding, and separating again, a growing debris field in orbit. The center ring moved on, mostly out of the debris of the former station.
T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6) Page 28
