“What? Ask for assistance?”
“Yes. What assistance can we possibly provide, when you are already so much more advanced than we are? We could not see you, and we barely had time to prepare before your missiles hit us. Our ships were totally outclassed by yours; we had you outnumbered three-to-one, and we did not even get a shot off at you. And look at what you did to us!”
“Well—” Calvin was interrupted by a tapping from the airlock. He walked back and could see Corporal Hogshead at the viewport. The trooper made a motion like he was inserting a cord. “Oh, good,” Calvin said. “We have our generator set up. Do you have an engineer or someone like that who can go and show my troops how and where to plug it in?”
“Do you know what kind of power we use?” one of the aliens behind Rife asked.
“Not at all. I’m hoping we’ll be able to make it work so we can get this ship under control and with enough life support that we can tow you back to the station.”
As one, the aliens slumped.
“What?” Calvin asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Your trooper that came in earlier said you would help us and protect us.”
“And we are,” said Calvin. “If you can send an engineer out to assist my team, we can restore power back to the vital portions of your ship. We brought a fusion generator that’ll be able to do most things except power weapons.”
“There is no need to get power to the ship,” Rife said, “if it is only to tow us back to the space station. We failed to kill you or take you into custody. He will either kill us outright or put us to work in one of the mines.”
“It would be better if you just killed us and saved us a lifetime of misery,” one of the other aliens said. The rest nodded.
“I’m not sure what you want from me, then,” Calvin said. “There’s nowhere else in this system we can leave you, and if we don’t help you, you’ll surely die soon.”
“When your weapons hit us, and we assessed the damage afterward, we realized we were all dead. Maybe not yet—for those of us who survived the impacts—but we all knew we would be soon. We are prepared for death.”
“I don’t get it,” Calvin said. “You want to die?”
“No, of course not,” Rife said. “No one wants to die.”
“Well, what are you saying then?”
“We had an idea when we saw your man, and we realized you were not here to kill us,” Rife said. He explained it to Calvin.
“Interesting,” Calvin said when he finished. “I can see how that might work. It also opens up some possibilities for us.”
“So you will try it?” Rife asked.
“I don’t have the authority to decide that,” Calvin said. “I’ll have to talk to my commanding officer—my ‘proprietor,’ as it were. I will, however, recommend that we pursue it.”
“That is all we can ask,” Rife said. He turned to one of his staff. “Manager Alton, please go out and see what Lieutenant Commander Hobbs’ people need to get the power flowing again. It seems we have something to live for, after all.”
* * * * *
Chapter Fourteen
CO’s Conference Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Jangeth System
“Let me get this straight,” Captain Sheppard said. “You volunteered us to do what?”
“I didn’t volunteer us for anything,” Calvin replied. He looked around the room, and Master Chief and Night nodded. “All I said was I’d talk to you about it, as you were the person who’d have to approve it.” He winced. “I did, however, tell them I’d recommend this course of action as being the best.” He heard several chuckles from around the room. It was hard to miss Lieutenant Rrower’s throaty chuckle. Even Arsalan, the Sila representative, smiled.
“Okay,” the CO said with a sigh as he slumped back into his command chair at the end of the table, “take me through it again, from the start.”
“Well, first, we go down and stomp on Zelph. I mean we have to—not just because he’s a worthless piece of shit who captured our people and tried to use them against us, but also because he’s a miserable bastard with no morals and standards.”
“I don’t know that we can judge him on the second charge; it seems like no one here has quite the same standards for the value of life—human or otherwise. Still, he did try to use our people as hostages, so I’m all for stomping Zelph.”
“It’s too bad we can’t throw him off the station like in the Klahr System.” Calvin shrugged. “There’s always the chance for him to do a spacewalk without a suit.”
“While the people here place no value on sapient life,” the CO said, “let’s remember that we do. At some point we’re going to finish this, and we’re going to go home. How? I don’t know yet, but I’m sure you’ll figure something out. When we do, we’re going to have to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and our loved ones in their faces, and we need to be proud of the things we did here. While it might be the best thing to do to pitch someone off a facility or have them do a suit-less spacewalk, that isn’t part of our core values, and we’re not going to do it, okay?”
“Yes, sir,” Calvin replied. “I didn’t really intend—”
“I know you didn’t, son,” Captain Sheppard said, his voice low and warm, “but let’s not even talk like that anymore, okay? The first step to doing it is to talk about it. Next thing you’re rationalizing it’s okay based on the values the people have here, and then you’re actually doing it. We’re not even going to contemplate it, because I want to be able to look into my wife’s beautiful eyes when we return.”
“I didn’t know you were married, sir.”
“I am, and I am going to see her again, so let’s move on. After we get our people back…”
“Then we attach the three frigates to the Vella Gulf—”
“Not going to have the crews just move into the ship with the rest of us?” the CO asked. “We only have 76 extra bodies…what’s a couple hundred more?”
Calvin grinned ruefully. “No, sir, the frigate crews can stay in their ships; we got them stabilized. It won’t be a lot of fun—it’s pretty cold in them—but it’s livable. Besides, the frigate crews are Mineral Cartel, and the miners currently onboard are Mining Cartel; they wouldn’t get along very well together. Administrator Rife—”
“Who?”
“Administrator Rife. He’s the CO of Platinum, the first ship my squad visited. We also cleared Emerald, and Captain Train cleared Ruby. Anyway, Administrator Rife also agreed it was probably better we keep them separate.”
“Do you think we can trust this guy, Rife?” the CO asked.
“I think so, sir,” Calvin said. “He had a similar story to the miners. If we dropped off the ships’ crews with Zelph, the proprietor would have them all killed as failures or put to work in the mines.” Calvin smiled. “I hear they need some new miners, too, so it’s not that farfetched.”
The CO nodded. “I’d like to meet Cap—I mean Administrator Rife before we decide anything.” He shook his head. “I hate all their ranks, especially when they want to apply them to ship’s ranks. It just seems…wrong, I guess.”
“I know,” Calvin said. “Administrator Rife is outside the room if you’d like to meet him now, Skipper. We brought him back with us in case you did.”
“Know me that well, do you?”
“I had a hunch.”
“Okay, bring him in.”
Calvin sent a message via his implants, and Corporals Fenn and Hogshead walked in with the Platinum CO. Several gasps went up from the table, especially from Arsalan.
The CO raised an eyebrow at Calvin. “You didn’t say you’d found the Sila,” the CO said. “Was that for the shock value?”
“I don’t know that they are the Sila,” Calvin said, “although they certainly look like them. The language is different, but they’re built the same. All the ships’ crews are Weebers—that’s what they call themselves—but they’re from our universe. We haven’t seen any of the Sila yet in the Jinn Universe, nor
any of the other races, either, although we haven’t been in that many systems. Perhaps when we find them we can make some comparison.”
Arsalan got up and approached Rife. The resemblance was uncanny, although Arsalan was a little taller and his limbs a little longer.
“I see you already have a Weeber on your crew,” Rife said, nodding to Arsalan, who wore the same uniform as the rest of the Gulf’s crew, although he had the same ambassadorial pin as Lieutenant Rrower.
“No,” Calvin said, “he’s from our…from where we live. He’s not a member of the Weeber race, although he looks very much like you. Convergent evolution, I guess.”
The CO stood and offered his hand to Rife, who shook it, having been briefed ahead of time by Calvin on the custom. “Welcome,” the CO said. “Have a seat,” he added, indicating a chair in the second row.
“Thank you for having me here,” Rife replied, moving to the chair. Fenn and Hogshead took up station next to him with their rifles at port arms. “I also thank you for at least listening to the plan your manager and I came up with.”
“Manager?” the CO asked. “Oh, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs.” He looked at Calvin and shook his head. “Yes, my manager is just full of plans.” He sat back down and waved to Calvin. “Please, continue with your presentation.”
“Thank you, sir,” Calvin said with a nod. “Okay, so after we get our pilots back, we attach the three frigates to the Gulf, and we transit to the next system. This system just happens to include Weebercrowtan, the home world of the Weebers, which is owned by the Mineral Cartel. There are substantial mineral deposits on the planet, as well as in both of the system’s asteroid belts, which also makes it a great place to not only have a very large production facility, but also a massive space dock, which is where one of the Mineral Cartel’s shipyards are.
“Now, normally, all this galaxy’s ships are built by the Shipbuilding Cartel, but the Mineral Cartel got a waiver from the emperor to build a small ship repair facility. Note that I said “repair.” However, Zelph got his hands on a frigate that was about to go to the Shipbuilding Cartel to be used as scrap, which he disassembled and used as a guide for their replicators. He’s been building bigger and bigger replicators, and he now has one that’s big enough to build frigates. You’ll notice all the frigates we fought in this system were functionally the same. That’s because they were all constructed at Zelph’s replicator. He also got the plans for an even older model frigate and a relatively modern gunboat he’s building.”
“Let me guess,” the CO said with a frown. “The older frigate and the gunboats are the same models the pirates are using.”
“Correct, sir. They look just like them, because Zelph is building them with the replicator. Zelph also just completed a destroyer-sized replicator, which he hopes to use; he just needs the plans for a destroyer, and he’ll be able to start building himself a nice little space navy.”
“All this is true?” the CO asked, turning around to look at Rife.
“Yes, it is. Zelph plans the…uh…acquisition of several nearby systems that belong to other cartels. He thinks by ‘chasing off the pirates,’ he’ll be able to lay claim to them and add them to his portfolio. This will certainly increase his worth to the Cartel, perhaps enough for him to move to the Council of Principals.”
“Why did he want us to go fight the pirates so badly, then, if they’re his ships?”
“He was hoping to mass all the ones he had at the stargate and catch you by surprise so he could destroy you when you returned there.”
“Just when I thought I couldn’t like that little bastard any less,” the CO said, shaking his head, “Zelph finds a way to make me want to rethink my whole ‘don’t throw him out the airlock’ prohibition.” He set his shoulders. “But we’re still not going to do it. Continue with the plan.”
“Yes, sir,” Calvin said. “So, we carry the frigates into the system, then we drop them from the Vella Gulf. You’ll remember I mentioned there was a destroyer-sized replicator there? Guess what Lieutenant Bradford has in his bag of tricks?”
* * *
CO’s Conference Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Jangeth System
“No,” the CO said, shaking his head.
Master Chief chuckled. “Oh, it gets better sir.”
“What?” Rife asked. “This isn’t something we discussed.”
The CO turned to look over his shoulder at Rife. “See? This is what I mean about Commander Hobbs and his plans. Just when you think you know what he’s going to do, everything changes and expands, and the next thing you know…”
“You have 76 miners onboard?” Rife asked.
“He told you?”
“Yes, Captain. That is the reason I kept my men on our ships. We do not get along with one of the races you have onboard very well. It would be difficult to maintain order if we were together.”
The CO chuckled as he turned back to Calvin. “Go ahead,” he said with a wave. “It appears we’re all on the same footing now, just waiting to see what you’ll come up with next.”
Calvin tried to look shameful, but didn’t quite pull it off. “It wasn’t my plan,” he finally said, “it was Administrator Rife’s. I just modified it slightly.”
“So you want to build a destroyer,” the CO noted. “Is that going to be your new command?”
“No, sir; I figured the XO would get it, along with some of the other officers from this ship. Administrator Torge—the former commanding officer of Ruby—will be his XO, and Administrator Rife will assume the duties of XO on the Gulf. We can split up our men and theirs to crew both vessels.”
“What about the miners? I thought they didn’t get along?”
“Well, there’s…a bit more to the plan. We’ll put them down on the planet after we secure the shipyard and the space station—”
“There’s a space station, too?” the CO asked.
“Well, yes, sir; there has to be to run all this. Anyway,” Calvin said, moving on quickly, “once we’ve captured all this, we put the miners on the planet and let them dig up some more of the ‘special metal’ we need to replicate more of the missiles at the shipyard while we’re there, to replace the ones we’re going to have to use to take it as well as the missiles we’ve used so far.”
“Special metal?” the CO asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, sir,” Calvin said.
“He has discussed it with me,” Rife said. “Apparently, there is a special place on the planet we have not found where this metal can be mined. I do not know where it is, but he assures me the miners will be kept a long way from any of the Weeber cities, so there should not be any issues with maintaining order.”
The CO frowned. “Yes, I’m sure they’ll be a very long way from any of your people, and that it won’t be an issue.” He turned back to Calvin with a sigh. “So tell me why we need this grandiose plan, and how I can know going in that it’s going to work.”
“We need the plan because we’re going to need a base of operations, and this is our best opportunity so far. Let’s face it, sir; I think we’ve all kind of guessed that we’re where we’re supposed to be, but we may have missed on when. There are no massive advances in computers. Even though we knew the galaxy wouldn’t have lots of weapons, we at least expected them to have some. The bottom line is it looks like we struck out on both of the things we need.
“Now, it’s possible there are advances we haven’t seen yet, but they’re going to be with the head honcho of the galaxy—the emperor—or somewhere close to him. The problem is, this galaxy is so money-hungry that no one’s going to help us along the way. If we’re ever going to get there, we’re going to have to do things on our own and not be every petty proprietor’s errand boy or fix-it shop operator. I for one am getting tired of all this nickel and dime shit.”
Many heads nodded around the table.
“So, we need a base of operations. First, because we need a place where we can build up more of a fleet. At the moment, no one takes us ser
iously. We have one ship, and everyone assumes it’s a run-of-the-mill worthless piece of shit, not an awesome back-to-the-future warship that can kick everyone’s asses here.”
“Here! Here!” Solomon interjected. “Although you forgot ‘unique.’”
“Okay, a unique, awesome, back-to-the-future warship that can kick everyone’s asses here,” Calvin said with a smile. “In order to show the Gulf’s worth, we’ve had to kill people and break things. While we can do that really well, eventually someone’s going to get in a lucky shot and hurt us. Maybe badly enough that we can’t complete our mission or figure out a way back home.
“We can’t allow that to happen—our people need us to come home, or everything we love will be destroyed. I blame myself for being here, even if no one else does, and I will find a way home with what we need if it’s at all possible. We only have a limited force to start with, and we can’t afford to take losses. The way we avoid losses in combat is not to have any combat in the first place, and the way we do that is not to take shit from people to start with.
“So that’s one reason. The second, as I’ve already touched on, is we’re going to run out of missiles if we keep on going the way we are. A broadside here, a chase armament launch there…eventually we’re going to lose the technical advantage we have over everyone here and have to rely on just our grasers. Personally, I’d rather not do that—it reminds me too much of being the person who brought the knife to the gunfight. We need more missiles, and to get them, we need more of the Jinn metal. Hopefully there’ll be some Sila or someone on the anti-Weeber planet, but if not, we have miners with us who can get the job done.
“Third, we need allies. To this point, all we’ve done is piss off everyone we’ve come in contact with. About the only people we haven’t pissed off are the Weebers. Even though we shot up their ships, we did come and help rescue the survivors, which Administrator Rife says he appreciates.”
“I do,” said Rife, nodding. “I am also curious to learn more of this thing called freedom. When Commander Hobbs told us you were not part of a cartel, we thought you must all be pirates, as we had no concept for a planet or a people not being part of a cartel. The mineral cartel came to our planet six centuries ago; it is all we have ever known. We would like to see what it is like to be a self-determining society, or however you describe it.”
A Gulf in Time Page 24
