Windjammer: The Tradership Saga Book 1

by M J Gauntlet

  “It appears that the Unity Imperium is now in a race with the Marcosian Restoration Worlds to gain access to this lost X’haChe technology. While the full resources of the Empire will be employed to obtain this invaluable data, it must be done without alerting the other civilizations. If word of what we are after were to leak out, I foresee a tangled mess involving the MRW, the Nubian Alliance, and possibly even the Krillians that would be impossible to unravel.”“As it stands, only we and the Marcosians are aware of the significance of this find.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The huge docking clamps disengaged and slowly moved away from the trader’s massive cargo shuttle. The vessel hung effortlessly over the tarmac as the immense jaws retracted away and down into the ferroconcrete slots of the landing pad, leaving the ship floating on its contragrav. The ship seemed to shiver slightly, as though in anticipation of what was to come next. There was the slight hiss of escaping gases, which was followed by a fine mist that seemed to hover in the air, as the vapors were caught and suspended in the contragrav field. Without warning, the three large cones spaced equally around the circumference of the spherical shuttle, belched forth a bright stream of concentrated fire, forcing the ship up through the atmosphere. Sitting in his bunk, Zax was totally unaware of the shuttle’s transition between being dockside and now streaking through Bright’s upper atmosphere.

  The discovery of contragrav was made by human scientists over four T-centuries ago, soon after they gave up their pursuit of the impossible to achieve (at least in this universe) anti-gravity. Unlike mystical anti- gravity, contragrav was not a force that pushed opposite to that of gravity, it was simply a field of force that partially altered the gravitational field itself. The mass and composition of an object under the influence of contragrav fields of force remained the same, as did the inertia of the object, but the effect of a gravitational field was minimized. Thus, under contragrav fields, massive objects such as the luxury space highliners and midliners could safely enter a strong planetary gravitational field, and if they avoided contact with a similar strength contragrav field, they could rest their massive bulk on a landing field, or a dry dock as light as a feather. The only disadvantage contragrav has in space flight is that the further away an object employing contragrav got from a strong gravitational field, the weaker and less effective contragrav was.

  Spaceships still used acceleration to generate the resultant sense of gravity, but they relied on ion and fusion powered rockets to generate the thrust. Contragrav was then used to counter the acceleration effect in order to maintain a standard one-g pull. If the contragrav generators ever failed, passengers would find themselves smashed into a thin paste.

  The Windjammer’s cargo shuttle was cutting through Bright’s atmosphere at the dawdling speed of five g’s. Once it reached the thinner air of the upper atmosphere and the vacuum of space, the acceleration would increase to about twelve g’s. When it rendezvoused with the main tradership and then headed out system to the system’s transitional drive limit, it would be traveling at approximately two-hundred g’s or two-thousand meters per second squared.

  Zax was blissfully unaware of the mathematics behind his current voyage, he was simply laying back and enjoying the thrill of just being aboard a spaceship (rather than under it) and heading into space. Shortly, a mellow gong sounded and was followed by an equally mellow voice. “Turn over in three minutes, make sure all loose items are properly stored. All passengers please return to their cabins and equip their safety harness.” The message repeated itself three times then ceased. Zax was looking around the cabin when a second soft chime sounded overhead. A few seconds later, the cabin door slid aside to reveal Pilar standing there with her hands on her hips.

  “I thought I’d better look in on you after the first turnover warning,” she said, with a wan smile.

  Looking around in confusion, Zax said, “I seem to be having trouble locating the safety harness.”

  “That’s because dirtsiders, sorry no offense, seldom look up,” she said, pointing over his head to the ceiling of the cabin. There above him were a series of plasticine straps attached to a ridged metal frame. Reaching up, Pilar pulled on a tab that was hanging down and the entire rig unfolded into a neat harness.

  “Here, let me help you with that since this is your first time,” she said protectively. Motioning him to step backward until his back met the flexible but sturdy mesh, she had him place his arms at his side, then proceeded to fasten the straps around and across his chest and legs.

  “Two minutes to turn over, make sure all loose items are properly stored. All passengers please return to their staterooms and equip their safety harness.” Like before, the message was repeated three times.

  “Pilar, I’m fine. You are running out of time fiddling with me. Please, get to your own safety harness,” Zax said concernedly.

  Pilar smiled, then let loose a sparkling laugh, “Silly man, I’m a spacer. We know how to navigate the passageways during turn over. No spacer worth their ranking, would ever be caught dead in a safety harness for a little maneuver like this. Didn’t you notice the announcement specifically said passengers?” Embarrassed, Zax said nothing.

  “Well, enough chit-chat. I have to get to the cargo hold and make sure that nothing can be jarred loose by the turnover.” Pilar turned to go, then stuck her head back through the open cabin door. “Oh, by the way, remember what I said earlier about heaving? Well, tradership turnover is done with minimum use of contragrav, so you might feel a little queasy in zero grav. That pouch on the side of your harness is there for any barfing you may have to do.” Then with a cheery wave, she was gone.

  Irritating girl! I’m sure that she is exaggerating the experience just to remind me that I’m a nubie…what did she call me...oh yeah, a dirtsider. Zax thought irritably. Four minutes later, Zax was wiping the spilled vomitus from the safety harness straps with the taste of bile in his mouth. Lesson learned.

  Ten minutes after ships ‘gravity’ was restored, there was a second announcement. “Docking with mothership complete. Gravity now stabilized at approximately .92 g’s. Windjammer is on course out system. Rendezvous with Krillian roust will be reached in approximately seven standard T-days.”

  Zax’s door chimed again, then slid open to reveal Pilar standing there giving him her patented exasperated look. He just stared back in confusion.

  “Well come on, I haven’t got all day. I’m here to take you to your stateroom if you are ready,” she said impatiently.

  “Wha…Huh…I thought…that is to say…” Zax stammered.

  “What? Don’t tell me you thought this dinky little cabin was going to be your room for the entire trip?” Pilar said, with a wide grin. “There is no way we could charge what we charge for passengers and keep them in a such small cabin. This,” she said, waving her arms around the room, “is the passengers shuttle cabin. It is only used to ferry passengers to and from the main ship. No wonder you were in such a depressed mood! Now that we have docked with the tradership and are headed out system, I can escort you to your regular quarters aboard the Windjammer.”

  Zax gathered up his few belongings and hurriedly vacated the glorified broom closet. After a series of puzzling twists and turns, they arrived at a doorway that looked like several others he had just passed. Placing her palm on the door panel, Pilar stepped away as the door slid aside. Zax walked inside and breathed a large sigh of relief, this was much, much better. Compared to the shuttle cabin, the stateroom was huge. There was a decent sized settee against the right wall, with a pull up table that doubled as a footrest in front of it. There was a combination computer and writing desk in the left corner. A contragrav bed (currently switched off) was against the left wall, next to the desk. A full-sized fresher was on the right-side rear wall. The walls appeared to be a soothing azure, which Zax would later learn, could be changed because all the walls in the cabin were actually vid screens, which could display any color or scene. This was a standard design, used t
o keep the feelings of claustrophobia to a minimum and allow traders and passengers to create an atmosphere that was to their liking.

  Pilar watched Zax’s face, as he walked wonderingly around the stateroom and smiled in satisfaction. He wasn’t such a bad guy, despite being a ground hugger who is a slave to fashion with that Nubian look, she thought to herself.

  “Try to remember to switch off the contragrav bed when not in use. It draws power from the main unit and power is money to a tradership. Right now, we are headed out towards a Krillian rookery and until we are in range, my supercargo duties will be less, so if I have time, I will try and familiarize you with the ship. After dropping off cargo for the Krillians, we will head directly to the ‘T’ point and on to Plato.

  The skip drive transition point varied from star system to star system. It was the point in space where a starship’s skip drive generators could safely be initiated. The ‘T’ point is somewhat arbitrary because the overall gravity well of each system is dependent on the total mass of the matter in that system. Bright is a binary sun system, with six planetary bodies and a rather small asteroid belt. That much solar mass, combined with the planetary bodies, generate a rather substantial gravity well. The activation of a skip drive unit too deep within that gravitational field, could result in consequences ranging from a blown drive unit to a catastrophic implosion. The transition point for the Bright star system, is an area of space equal to one and a half the diameter of the orbit of its outer most planet, Dim. Until that distance is reached, the Windjammer was forced to rely on its ion drive for propulsion out system. This was the part of space travel that made up the bulk of modern- day space transportation. At its current acceleration, it would take the Windjammer several days to reach the ‘T’ point determined by the ship’s A.I.

  This had all been explained to Zax by Pilar, on the third day headed out to the Krillian rookery. Today, he was following her as she walked ‘aft’, down the ship’s main corridor.

  “What do you know about the Krillians and their massive rookery ships, Zax?”

  “Nothing really. Just that Krillians live in these ships rather than on a planet.”

  “Hahaha, it is slightly more complicated than that,” she said with a laugh, while she guided him through the maze of corridors of the Windjammer’s interior. “The rookeries are not quite ships, nor are they exactly space stations. The closest analog to them would be the coral reefs of Old Earth. The central mass is built up over centuries of Krillian habitation. There is an elastic quality to the aliens’ bodily secretions that make up a major component of their rookery’s internal structure. Over time, it solidifies to form a material that is stronger than permacrete and simultaneously elastic as plasticine.

  “The outer layer is composed of an interlocking matrix of Krillian ships of various sizes and functions. The inner core of the rookery ship is reserved for mated couples. The outer shell is composed of functioning spacecraft that are manned by pairs of single individuals, both male and female. You will seldom see a Krillian alone or in an odd numbered grouping, it is totally against their nature. It is these secondary ships, operating in linked tandems that move the entire rookery. When the Krillian elders decide it is time to relocate to a different star system, the outer layer, composed of as many as thirty to fifty ships, create the jump field that pushes the rookery through transition.”

  “What!” Zax exclaimed in shock. “But...are you trying to tell me, that number of ships actually… perfectly… synchronize their drives to create a stable transitional field? That’s…that is impossible! If just one of those ships generates a field that is even minutely off, would cause the entire gravitational matrix to collapse killing everyone!”

  Pilar nodded agreement as she turned the corner and began walking down a narrow passageway.

  “Yep, you got that right. The Unity Imperium was scared shitless when they first discovered that the Krillians could mass transition, what amounted to an armada of ships at one time. The most that the Empire could simultaneously translate was about a squadron of medium size warships and even then, about a third of the ships would end up too far down the timeline to be able to rendezvous with the rest of the squad. The Empire tried to mimic the technology, but after several failures, they simply asked the Krillians how they performed the transition and to their surprise they found out that it wasn’t a leap in technology at all, but a matter of biology.”

  With this, Pilar paused and opened a hatchway which led to another long corridor, then continued with her explanation.

  “It seems that Krillians are able to perform something they call skr’kking, please don’t ask me what it is, no one seems to understand it. Anyway, by using this talent, they can be in contact with the rest of their kind over long distances and, they say, through space. By skr’kking, they can fine-tune their transitional field to a degree that seems impossible. It is this biological talent that allows them to translate such a large mass through a transitional field. Even so, the Imperium remained apprehensive of their ability until they discovered two facts: First, Krillians are by nature a non-aggressive species. They are as inquisitive as hell, but will tend to avoid conflict if offered an alternative. Secondly, and most important, when they translate such a large mass through the field using this technique, it leaves them in a state of stupor that can last for days and even weeks, depending on the size of the mass. They arrive virtually helpless, until this lethargy passes. Therefore, they always send an advance guard through before they translate the rookery. It is the job of these scouts to secure the transitional exit point and protect the nest once it arrives. Obviously, this makes any type of invasion force that uses skr’kking vulnerable to attack.” Pilar stopped talking and made a ninety- degree turn that almost pointed them back towards the way they were walking.

  “Pilar? Is it just me or what? I cannot seem to make out any rhyme or reason to how these passageways are laid out.” With a small chuckle, Pilar answered over her shoulder as she continued ahead of him.

  “Heh, heh…You must remember that this is a tradership, Zax. On this ship space is at a premium. You will not find the wide-open passageways and lounges you would find on a luxury liner, not on the Windjammer you won’t,” she said, slapping an anonymous bulkhead as she passed it. “Most of these bulkheads are moveable and can be reconfigured into any shape and space required. Ha, ha,” she laughed, then turned to smile at Zax, “Why, the passenger quarters you now occupy, were wingcat storage cage compartments two trips back!”

  “I wondered what that lingering scent was!” joked Zax, with a big grin.

  “Shhh! Don’t let Windjammer hear you say that. She can get a might sensitive about her outfitting. She will have us scrubbing her decks with disinfectant for a month!” Pilar replied, in a stage whisper.

  “It is too late Pilar... I knew I should have requested that extra disinfectant treatment back on Anchor 7. It is just deplorable that a passenger would think of me as being malodourous.”

  “Oh, don’t go and get your circuits in a knot, Windy, he was only kidding,” she said into the air.

  Zax’s face showed momentary puzzlement, then changed into a look of sudden understanding. “Ah…you must have been talking to the ship’s A.I. just then, right?”

  “Huh? Oh…yeah. I tend to forget that you don’t have an implant. We don’t often have passengers aboard, so I’m used to everyone around me being able to hear Windy. I’ll ask the captain if she will authorize a shipboard ear bud for you. Anyway, the Windjammer was just lamenting the fact that she didn’t request an additional disinfect after we offloaded the wingcats two landfalls ago. Not that the captain would have authorized the expense anyway!”

  “Huh…” Zax said, looking up at the ceiling. “Oh, I’m sorry Windjammer, or should I call you Windy, I was just joking with Pilar. My quarters are quite nice, really.”

  “Pilar, please tell our passenger that my official designation is Windjammer A.I., not Wendy, or Windy. Joking…I still do not under
stand the concept. Why cannot you humans just say what you mean?”

  “I’m sorry Zax, I forgot to tell you, for a passenger to properly address the ship’s A.I., you must precede the statement or request with the words ‘Windjammer A.I.’, only the crew can use the cognomen ‘Windy’. Until you are given an earbud, she will respond directly to you verbally, if there is a speaker nearby or through your wristcom, if you give her Li-Fi access. She can hear you throughout most of the ship’s interior. If you make an inquiry of her that she deems too sensitive to answer you will either receive silence or the message ‘you are not authorized to receive that information’. Don’t take it personally, it’s just the way she is monitored. Sometimes you can get an appropriate response if you re-word your question. Of course, any inquiry that the Windjammer deems too sensitive will be automatically logged into the captain’s data base.”

  “Is there a time when the Windjammer A.I. might be too busy or occupied with ship functions that it would be unable answer, should I therefore leave it alone?” Zax asked tentatively.

  “Not it, her or she! Windy is considered as much a part of the crew as the rest of us,” Pilar said sternly. “To answer your question…no. Windy is quite capable of instantaneously multitasking simultaneous communication with every crew member, calculating the math for skip drive, monitoring every ship wide system, and concurrently be able to tell you when your pop-meal is done. Windy is quite a gal and is near the top of the line for A.I.’s, not to mention that she has had several upgrades since her inception. The only A.I. that would be more advanced than her would be a military scout ship’s A.I.,” Pilar said proudly.

  “Really? I always thought the highliner A.I.s were the most advanced.”

  “HA! Don’t fall for the propaganda mister. They say that, so the paying suckers can feel all safe, cuddly, and feel that they are getting their money’s worth out of all those eunits they were bilked out of. To tell the truth, a highliner A.I. is pretty linear in its operation. They have fancy personality interfaces but that’s about it. All they are really required to do is to keep the ship patrons happy and make them feel pampered, while they shuttle them from one system to another. God forbid they have a real emergency! The fricking things would blow their circuits.”