Human Starpilots

by F Stephan

  “We are now close to the Federation district, and we will soon approach the Pilot Corporation. We have an appointment with Master Namek.”

  “Oh.” Her eyes unfocused, and Don Mariano knew she was retrieving all information regarding their hosts. He had always wondered how she could walk and move in the cyberspace at the same time.

  “Very well. I have all his details. Any objectives in particular?”

  “He requested the meeting but didn’t offer any information in advance.”

  She went silent, compiling the data she would need.

  At last, they arrived at the large building. A marine guard saluted and admitted them when Don Mariano showed his invitation. The desk promptly led them to the office of the guild master. “He will be slightly late, maybe ten minutes. There has been an emergency.”

  “Do we need to reschedule the appointment?” Don Mariano wanted to review the trade agreements with the Hydroponics Syndicate. They were to be renegotiated next month, and it would require a lot of preparation.

  “Master Namek suggested we offer you some myirt pie to enjoy while you wait. If the emergency lasts longer than a few minutes, he will let us know, and we will reschedule.”

  The desk clerk promptly left to fetch the desert.

  “Efficient and considerate? Is that normal here?” asked Leandra.

  “There are few visitors, so everyone counts. Can you find something about this emergency?”

  She went unfocused again, and Don Mariano waited besides her.

  Five minutes later, she resurfaced.

  “A scout entered the system six hours ago. The light from his emergence reached us an hour ago. Within a minute, a red-level priority message was downloaded in the CDS.” She looked at him. “I cannot access it. What is it?”

  “Red is the highest Federation priority. Where did it come from?”

  Before she could answer, Kilet Namek appeared in the doorway. He moved to shake their hands, following the Earth usage instead of the Adheeken bow, and motioned to them to sit again.

  “My apologies, Mister Ambassador, Mistress Attaché. I have a very limited time, and we will reschedule part of the meeting. But, since you have been nice enough to come and visit, we can share a slice of pie together.”

  “We do understand your urgencies, Guild Master, and will come back when the events are more fortuitous. What can we do for you?”

  “Originally, I wanted to talk to you about the research in your system. I will be frank. Due to the lack of results, we are going to reduce the operations.”

  Don Mariano felt his heart crush. The few berths they had had on the ships had allowed them to bring some experts and some supports for the climate control effort, but they needed to bring many more to have a real impact. If the Adheeken merchant reduced his activity in the solar system, there was no way they could finance more ships. This was dramatic. A quick look at Leandra confirmed she understood the implication.

  “What would enable you to maintain the operations?”

  “This is what we have to discuss. Not today but in the next week, maximum, as I will review the mission definitions by the end of the month with the Guild Council.”

  Don Mariano swallowed. That would mean two very tight negotiations at the same time.

  “But I have more important news to tell you.” He touched a button on his console, and Master Reinkel, dean of the academy appeared in the room. One of our students, thought the ambassador. What happened?

  “Good day to both of you. First, let me reassure you. They are all well,” began the dean and Don Mariano’s heart calmed. “But the Heavyweight was attacked by two ships on its trip to Pelor. The ship escaped at great cost, and Brian was nanite wounded.”

  “Attack? Could you explain?” asked Leandra in her calm, soft voice.

  “We have reason to believe a fringe world has found starships and gone rogue. The emergency that has been raised will lead to a Federation action in that system.”

  “You mean, they became pirate?”

  “It may be the reason. It has happened in the past. We will send a Response Team as fast as we can to figure out what created this misunderstanding.” There was an unmistakable edge of violence in the dean’s voice. Don Mariano had heard of the Response Team. It was the strongest armed force in the Federation. Something nagged at him. It was a matter for the Federation envoy, and eventually the dean, since there were students on board, but why was the merchant master involved directly in the crisis?

  “And Brian?”

  “He will recover and is starting to show the promise Master Heikert was expecting. He will finish his run to Fizhert and come back immediately. He should be back on Adheek in three to four months at the latest.”

  The guild master added. “Remember that my son is with your compatriot. Nothing more will happen to them. You can be sure of that.”

  Suddenly, Don Mariano understood better the urgency this had represented for the merchant. His son had been attacked, and he was sitting two months of hyperspace travel away.

  “Can you tell us more?”

  The dean briefly recounted the information he had received from the scout and the next steps that had been engaged at the Federation level. He concluded at last, “Since one crew member was from your planet, you are being included in the supervision team. Whenever we receive an update, we will contact all of the parties involved and present the situation. The formal beginning of this team will occur tonight at sundown at the Federation headquarters. You are both invited.”

  The two Earth representatives bowed low. “Until then, I will inform you as I can,” said the guild master while the image of the dean faded away. “And we’ll meet again in a week on your trade issue, I hope with better news.”

  When he left the building, an hour later, Don Mariano’s heart was pounding hard. They had nearly lost one of their precious pilots, the most important commodity they possessed today, and their exploration mission with its free berth. This heralded bad news. He picked up his pace. They would have to work even harder to grasp every advantage they could.

  72 Brian

  Emergence in the Fizhert system was quiet. Yet the captain snapped at them in her brisk command tone. Sonter and Brian obeyed, bleary eyed. Sonter controlled all light signals in the system, and Brian connected to the communication satellite to dump their news and update the ship’s memory. When they had finished the entry checks, Derantor dismissed them to sleep. They met Taolel in the corridor going up to the bridge to relieve the captain and indicated with a brief sign the mood of the ship master. She sighed and continued.

  When they came back to the bridge, ten hours later, the ship had already decelerated intrasystem toward the third planet. They were alone for the normal monitoring of the ship.

  “Isn’t it expensive to have a carrier break course and stop at an orbital station?” Brian asked Sonter. Working together for long hours shift after shift had helped them to become more congenial toward one another.

  “Yes, it is. But the settlement doesn’t have the financial capacity to have a ship fly back and forth. Most of the time, the ships don’t break course but just dump and retrieve information. This time, we have a small ground manufacturing lab which will help them move ahead.”

  “A settlement like this is unusual. Inhabited planets usually have more resources to stay connected to the Federation,” Brian mused.

  “Yes. But this is not an inhabited planet. It’s a colony, a settlement from scratch. This was a dream from the Origin sect. It gathered funds to find the ‘purity’ of an original world without any contamination. They managed over ten years to send eight hundred people here, which is quite an achievement even if it bankrupted them.”

  “And then, what happened?”

  “The Federation was younger by then, and Origin is…was powerful. After eight hundred people, the Federation stepped in and stopped it. But they couldn’t bring back the ones who had already been sent. So they decided this would be an experiment
on how a settlement could be organized and thrive on a new planet. They don’t want colonies everywhere.”

  “Why? Wouldn’t it solve some issues for overpopulated world?”

  Sonter laughed. “You are really an oaf, crappie boy. It took ten years and all the finances from the most powerful religion ever to send eight hundred people. This is no solution to overpopulation, but it could create a lot of mess and colonial wars between planets. It simply cannot work.” The tone in the young man’s voice left no room for hope.

  Sonter guided them through the next jumps, progressively decelerating. In the meantime, Brian sorted the news from the settlement, but there were no recent messages at all. Brian took a long time to examine the planet. It had breathable air, large mountain chains, dazzlingly green plains with lush vegetation, and a tropical climate. The poles were occupied by large swamps. The fauna and flora showed high biodiversity, and the planet had specialized in exotic biocomponents. It was the fourth planet out of twelve in a prolific system.

  Five days later, they were out of their last jump toward the station and breaking for the last time. The station was a fully automated smaller replica of the Adheek station. This meant that the maneuvers to connect to the station took them a full day, including a spacewalk for Lanakar and Brian to finalize the connections. But the time they had spent on Zopol maintenance proved useful, giving them quick bearings and rapid know-how.

  As a priority, Brian and Droum worked on getting clean air and water from the reservoirs while Derantor went to the station command center with Sonter to investigate the silence from the planet. As soon as the air cycled again through the ventilation, Lanakar took Sonter to work on the two special landers that occupied most of the cargo bay. They were similar to the ones in Adheek but with the capacity to take off on their own from the ground up without launcher.

  Two hours later, the captain came back to the ship with a worried expression on her face. “There is no communication from the planet for the last two weeks, and the settlement doesn’t answer on our priority calls. Lanakar, Taolel, could you use the console from the bridge and try to amplify all our signals to connect to anyone down there? They may have had viruses contaminating their stronger emitters, but they could keep their smaller ones. So please, set up protection loops from the signal. Brian, could you review again their data dump? Maybe they’ve gone for a religious gathering or something.”

  All hurried right to their allotted tasks.

  Brian went back to his console to reread the dispatches, but none seemed out of the ordinary. After an hour, he started listening to their video and radio transmissions. “Captain, please?”

  “Yes, Brian, you found something?”

  “The local life was quite calm in the last weeks except for their summer fair and the election within the priesthood. The only unusual element is that two weeks ago, they found an archeological site. I listened to a radio transmission mentioning it, but there was no other trace about it anywhere.”

  Shaz’al’nak raised her head. “On Fizhert? The planet had supposedly never been settled before Origin. That would be quite a discovery.”

  “Well, I don’t have other news. I cannot believe how quiet and boring this planet is.”

  On the other side of the bridge, Sonter called to them. “Burst! I have a burst transmission from a research center in the mountains.”

  “Wait, I’m with you.” The captain crossed the large room in a few large strides and took over the console to adjust reception. The research center was two hundred kilometers from the settlement, deep in a valley in a newly formed chain of mountains. They were working on weather patterns and geological history.

  “Mayday, mayday, mayday, requesting evacuation. Ten adults and eight children.” The message, only radio and with a lot of interference, looped again and again.

  All crew members had gathered quickly in the common area. Derantor presented the data they had gathered, which wasn’t much.

  “Now, what do we do? Do we go and help?”

  Droum was the first to react. “If we cannot manage whatever caused the emergency, we are stranded here without any options left. This will help no one. And no ship will come here until the next year.”

  “Two pilots will remain on board at all times. Taolel will remain also. And we will prepare a communication to be uploaded in the satellite close to the jump points,” said the captain.

  “But why take all those risks?”

  “Because of the children. You heard the message.”

  Droum gave up her protest at that.

  “We should set up a quarantine area. We don’t know what happened. The ground teams should wear masks and protections at all times,” suggested Shaz’al’nak in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Agreed. Can we do it?”

  “Yes, I need a couple of hours to gather all equipment, but the station was equipped for this a decade ago. Everything should still be working.”

  “If there is physical danger, we don’t have many weapons at our disposal. Especially on the shuttles, which don’t bear any defense platforms,” said Rendor.

  “And what will we do once we have rescued those people, assuming that we can rescue them and that they don’t kill us?” said Droum.

  “Since we have no passengers on this flight, we could bring fifteen passengers aboard the ship. With the kids, we could extend life support to fly everyone, couldn’t we?” asked Derantor, turning to the environmental specialist, Nesram’al’kop.

  “Yes, it would stretch our resources, but we could do it.”

  “So, now, what we need is a vote. It will be secret and free, as required. Droum, you have voiced the most concern; please activate the poll system.”

  Ten minutes and a lot of argument and counterargument later, the poll was ready, and they all voted. With 70 percent in favor of going, they had a clear support for the intervention, and they set up to prepare their flight.

  “We’ll split into four teams,” decided the captain. “One will prepare the shuttle, one will prepare the intervention, one will prepare the quarantine area, and the last one will send out all information to the communication satellite. Your bracelet contains now your group. I want us to be off in one hour, maximum.” All scuttled in different directions to carry out their orders.

  73 Brian

  For the first flight, Derantor took one lander with three marines and the environmental specialist. Brian and Sonter would fly the second run. Until then, they went to help Lanakar and Shaz’al’nak finalize the quarantine area. From the bridge, Taolel commented nervously on all the action, and they listened to her every word while working.

  “The lander has engaged its course correction for atmospheric reentry. Entry scheduled in five minutes.”

  All around them, the station bustled with activity as they worked to isolate a quarter of the ring from the rest. The isolation would be continuous, with no air mix, no connection of any kind.

  Taolel said in the shared communication channel. “The shuttle is in and going down. She’ll reach flight altitude in a couple of minutes.”

  Brian hurried to install the monitoring equipment. Once done, they would have a separate network connected to the medical center and with that the capacity to check if the refugees had been contaminated in any way.

  Taolel continued on the channel. “Flight altitude reached. No reaction from the ground. We’re getting clear images and atmospheric readouts. Ten minutes to landing alignment.”

  Sonter called Brian from the safe zone, and they began to check live connection. The signals were good.

  At last, they heard the expected words from Taolel. “The research station is now visible. It seems in good order, and the energy levels are correct. Landing in two.”

  They all stopped and moved back to the main hall and its screens. Taolel had set up different holograms showing the view from the shuttle and from the station. The shuttle braked and landed. As soon as they arrived, a group rushed out of the station. All inhabitants
were in near panic, and their strong accent and anxiety had made communication challenging. Marines had had to enforce order with their tasers to avoid overcrowding the shuttle, promising the ship would return soon.

  In the end, they took with the shuttle all children and two adults. Brian studied the settings and the readouts, but nothing seemed abnormal. The lander took off again, first going back to flight altitude and then using its side booster to reach escape speed. They were going back to finalize their work when they heard Taolel swear.

  “They’re losing power on the second booster. Derantor has rerouted all power to the remaining. This is going to be very close to reach geocentric orbit. Lanakar, hurry to the main console.”

  For a good hour after that, they listened to Lanakar while he juggled power between the two boosters to get the ship back to the station. At last, they brought it back to the main hangar. The shuttle’s second booster showed parts ripped off. Lanakar grunted. “Lack of maintenance. Damn Origin and their hate of technology.”

  Derantor called on the general channel. “Lanakar, stop complaining about this shuttle and go check the other. I want you to fly down with Brian and Sonter and bring everyone back.”

  They had to board the shuttle to equip all the passengers.

  “Now, everyone in a suit.” Once they had finally succeeded, they hooked everyone to a safety line, taking no risks with free-fall maneuvers. After that, it was just a matter of dragging them all to the main access portal. Tiel, the marine, entered the zone with them. He had volunteered to be the live benchmark, as one of the best nanites protected marines. Slowly, he organized them.