Reunion

by Greg Mutton

  They sat in silence, each processing the information just discussed, each trying to find a flaw in it. Aaron rose and offered refills for each, the offer was gladly accepted.

  The silence reigned until finally, Dokad spoke. ‘This is very fine wine, my friend but I do not want to continue with this gloom. Consider the histories of both our people. We have faced incredible obstacles in our evolution, yet we mastered them, both our races survived and flourished. This is just another obstacle we have yet to overcome. We, both Krell and Human civilisations have prevailed in the past and I am certain we will again.’ He paused and took another sip of wine. ‘For the moment we are safe, in the worm hole. What is transpiring outside at this moment is immaterial… there is nothing we can do from here.

  ‘Let’s finish our wine and enjoy a brief respite from all this intrigue. Allow me to change the subject; there is something I have wanted to understand for a long time. I have known Freebooters for many, many years and still have no idea how that name came about. You are made up of many races and species, yet all assume the same mantle. Please, how did your society become known as Freebooters?’

  Aaron smiled, the grim mood lifting from the room. ‘Well I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you that secret, but understand this is from memory, dates may be a bit off. It was back in the mid twenty sixth or seventh century, Earth Calendar. Jones had settled Argos and established a union, of sorts…

  It was made up of independent traders so they could negotiate and compete with the large conglomerates. Back then travel time between colonies was shortening, but it was still much slower than it is today.

  ‘Anyhow, the story goes like this: The conglomerates were getting tired of the Free Traders Guild, as Jones called his group, clawing away some of their territory, so they came up with a plan to stop them.’ Aaron stood and walked to the dispenser, filled a coffee mug and returned; Petra followed with a mug for both herself and the Admiral. When they were again seated, Aaron continued.

  ‘What the conglomerates did was pressure the Coalition Council into a new planet tax. Every time a ship landed or took off, a tax was paid. President Abercrombie was in his final year in office and was… shall we say… “encouraged” to support the tax. This new law was brought in quietly with the rationale to raise funds to improve space ports. It was in the execution that things got messy.

  ‘Every time a person set foot on a planet, a tax was charged the same was done when a person left, but it was only levied on people engaging in trade. Landing, or leaving for any other reason was exempt, for example tourism… any tour groups or individuals were exempt.

  ‘What this meant was that each time they took a shuttle to the planet to land goods or brought it back, traders had to pay tax on every person on board. It became a huge cost impost for the Guild. The conglomerates, being part of the coalition, were able to use this tax as a write-off against profit, so the real cost to them was negligible. By the time it was introduced virtually all of the independent or ‘Free Traders’ had registered on Argos and, therefore, paid no tax to the Coalition.

  ‘By imposing it, the conglomerates believed it would weaken the guild and eventually, eliminate it altogether. This went on for years and the tax became known as the Boot Tax … put a boot in the surface or take it off and you paid a tax. The guild petitioned the Coalition Council a number of times, Jones even met with the President more than once, all to no avail… the tax remained. What the politicians didn’t factor in was the resolve of the Guild.

  ‘Two colonies, Kandar and Milos, were more rigorous with their tax than others They were heavily underwritten by the conglomerates and forced much higher payments onto Independents. But they were at the far reach of Coalition territory, for those times, and separated by a large, dangerous part of space known as the Stygian Black.’

  Dokad interrupted, ‘We know that place, very dangerous to navigate. The Krell avoid it at all costs.’

  ‘So did the Coalition.’ Aaron continued. ‘The problem was the time it took to bypass this area. The fastest time between the two colonies, Kandar and Milos, was forty-five days, and that was in a Coalition Frigate. Trade ships typically took eighty days or more.

  ‘In one of the meetings Jones had with the Council, President Chang was present. After listening to the petition, he made Jones an offer. Find a quicker route between the two planets and the Guild would be exempt from the tax. Fail, and no more petitions would be heard. To cut this long story short, two years later Jones announced he could do what the President asked and a demonstration was arranged. President Chang left Kandar on the same Frigate that made the run in forty five days. Jones left in Freedom two days later.’

  ‘When the Frigate arrived at Milos, Freedom had already been there for ten days. He had cut twelve days off the best time that a military vessel could make the trip in and more than halved the usual commercial time. Chang kept his promise and exempted the guild from the tax. Generically, this became known as the Freeboot amendment.’ Aaron paused to finish his coffee.

  ‘As you can imagine, the conglomerates were furious! Not only had Jones found a way through the Stygian Black, he kept the secret to himself. The heads of the conglomerates demanded he give them the secret, but that never happened. Evidently President Chang was tired of the corruption he found when dealing with the Trade Conglomerates.

  So, Jones kept his route through the Stygian Black secret and, too this day, it is only known to members of the Council of Seniors. The term “Freebooter” came from the generic name of the tax amendment. It stuck, and was adopted, officially, one hundred years later.’

  ‘How did he do it?’ Dokad asked.

  ‘We really don’t know, but the myth is that he did a deal with some outcasts from Milos, pirates and thieves who lived inside the Black. But that has never been confirmed, although we do know there are a few colonies there.’

  ‘This Jones sounds like the sort of person I’d like.’ Dokad announced as he rose from the lounge. ‘Thank you for sharing that story, Aaron, I think I shall retire now. Good night, my friends,’ he said before he turned and left.

  ‘Our history doesn’t cover that. All it says is that President Chang exempted the Guild from the tax. I hadn’t heard that story before. Is it true?’ Petra asked.

  ‘As far as I know, but do you know how to navigate the Black?’

  Petra considered her answer. ‘No, according to what was taught at the academy, there’s no known safe passage. But aren’t you a member of the Council?’

  Aaron smiled broadly, ‘Yes, I am.’

  ‘So if it’s true, you know the way through?’

  Aaron just kept smiling, and changed the subject. ‘I think we can assume that there may be some interest in our trip,’ he commented as he walked to the bar and deposited his glass in the cleaning unit. ‘We can only hope that Grainger’s ruse works for the next few days. Even so, I think we need to be extra cautious; one of us should be on the bridge at all times.’

  Petra looked at him, realising that he wasn’t going to be drawn on the Black story further. ‘I agree sir,’ she said as she joined him and placed the other two glasses beside his. Their hands touched for the briefest of moments — Aaron felt something akin to an electric shock. He quickly withdrew his hand and turned away.

  ‘I believe this is my watch… see you in the morning Sir,’ Petra turned and left the room.

  Aaron returned to his cabin, and went straight to the head. He picked up the novel he was reading on the way, might as well finish the chapter while he was there. A short time later, the intercom in the other room burst into life.

  Captain, could you come to the bridge? It was Petra’s voice and she repeated the call.

  His gloomy mood was not helped by the interruption. Bloody typical, he thought, can’t even take a dump in peace! He initiated the cleaning cycle anyway—a jet of warm water flooding his nether regions with the blow dryer finishing the job. He exited the head and spoke to the intercom.

  ‘On
the way,’ he said as he left his room again.

  Kate was in the command seat as he entered and she indicated towards his Ready Room. Petra was sitting at his desk with Ensign Croker and a Cadet Officer before her. From the atmosphere, it was evident that there had been some type of altercation.

  ‘What’s up?’ he asked as he walked over to the desk. He took one of the chairs in front of the desk, leaving the other two in no doubt that Petra was still in charge.

  Ensign Croker turned to Aaron. ‘Sir, Cadet Harper has reprogrammed the sensor arrays without proper authorisation.’

  ‘I’d like to hear what Number One has to say,’ he said, turning to Petra. ‘Commander, if you please?’

  Petra looked directly back at him. ‘Sir, firstly, what the Ensign says is correct,’ she said as she held up her hand to silence an obviously agitated Harper. ‘But what Harper has been doing could be very useful… I think you should hear what he has to say.’

  ‘Sir,’ Harper snapped to attention. ‘I believe we are being tracked by five D’Grak class cruisers.’ He was obviously nervous, the slight warble in his voice gave that away, but his posture indicated he firmly believed what he said.

  ‘Sir, this is all in his imagination,’ Croker interrupted.

  Petra held her hand up again. ‘Ensign… Harper has the floor. Now, Cadet Harper, what leads you to believe this?’

  ‘I’ve been tracking them, Ma’am,’ he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘So I reprogrammed the sensor array to look for their heat signatures.’

  Croker couldn’t contain himself any longer. ‘Sir! He did this without any authorization — it could have compromised the ship’s security! And he knows that we can’t track any ship in hyperspace; it’s just not possible!’

  Harper was about to speak when Aaron shut them both down.

  ‘Stop! … Number one, what’s your take?’

  ‘Harper is assisting Professor Fraslok at the Academy,’ Petra started, but Aaron interrupted.

  ‘Loony Lennie,’ he quipped.

  Leonard Fraslok was the epitome of the mad scientist in every way. He was short and slightly hunched, with a mass of curly white hair; he wore thick horn rim glasses and was one of those edgy characters who constantly looked startled. For all this type-casting, he did have one of the most brilliant minds in the known Galaxy.

  ‘The same,’ Petra answered. ‘I know, he’s had some crazy ideas in the past. However, there are some that have proved to be of immense value. I also know that Harper is one of his best students, and that the Professor thinks very highly of his work. I think we should take a look at what he’s doing.’

  Aaron looked at each of them, considering his answer.

  ‘Granted, some of the Professor’s inventions have been extraordinary, but we just don’t have the ability to track anything in hyperspace. Commander, this is your show — technically, I’m off duty — so it’s your call. How do you want to handle it?’

  Petra turned to the junior officers. ‘Cadet Harper… firstly, never reprogram the sensor array without authorization; got it?’ She paused for this to sink in. ‘Secondly, what data do you have that we can verify?’

  ‘Ma’am, I can show it to you right here, if I can use your console?’

  Petra motioned for him to proceed and turned to Croker, beckoning him to follow. ‘Ensign, your actions were technically correct, we can’t have anyone just reprogramming things as they want, but, you should have handled it a little better.’

  ‘You’re correct, I can’t track them in hyperspace, but look at this.’ Harper pointed to the console screen. ‘This is the track I recorded from when we left Argos till we reached the outer marker and initiated the displacement drive… you can see five distinct heat signatures on a parallel course… I believe they were ghosting us.’

  ‘How do you know what ships they are… indeed even if they are ships at all?’ Croker asked.

  Harper brought up a matrix table on the screen. ‘This details all the heat signature data we have recorded over the last three years… have a look at the readings from my recording and page thirty seven of that workbook,’ he looked slightly triumphant as he said this.

  Aaron shook his head. ‘Bugger me.’ The evidence in front of them was compelling — the latent heat signatures were almost identical. ‘Ensign, can you set up to re-run our sensor recordings and these readings together?’

  ‘Yes Sir, but we would need the bubble to do it,’ he answered.

  ‘OK, make it happen.’ He turned to Petra, ‘Number One, can you do without it for half an hour?’

  ‘No trouble Sir, we aren’t using it at the moment anyhow.’ She smiled, ‘Come on, you two, you have work to do,’ and she ushered them out the door. As they left, she turned back to Aaron, ‘You know Captain, if this is accurate we need to ask the question; why are five ships of this size tracking us? One would be more than enough; unless they have something else on their minds!’ she turned and entered the bridge.

  Aaron felt his heart rate quicken, it seemed to happen whenever he was near the First Officer; he waited a few moments until it returned to normal then left the ready room. Once on the bridge they all watched the recorded sensor tracks intently.

  The bubble clearly showed Condor at the centre and five definite objects travelling on a perfectly parallel course, until Condor approached the outer marker and engaged her displacement field. Then the other five objects disappeared.

  ‘Am I seeing things, or did the tracks show a change in intensity as we entered the worm hole?’ Croker asked. They re-ran the recording again, and then a second time. While the Krell drive technology wasn’t the same as Human, they did use a similar form of displacement drive for space travel.

  ‘That’s their displacement generators initialising… they are ghosting us!’ Harper looked slightly bemused. ‘Why would they want to do that?’

  Aaron’s composure was back to normal and he replied. ‘Quite simple, Cadet. You all know we work closely with the Empire… hell they’re one of our major trading partners! Part of working together is training; and this used to happen even when I was at their Academy. Their ships would work closely with ”friendlies” to train their crews, see just how close a Krell warship could get before being detected. With their cloaking technology it was usually very one sided, most of the time individual ships never knew a Krell vessel was anywhere close; and if a vessel was detected … well … that ship’s commander was soon flying garbage scows. It seems that Mr Harper has put a dent in their training routine; now does anyone want to inform the Krell Navy? Or should we keep this our little secret, at least until we can conclusively prove the technology?’

  Everyone looked relieved and one by one, shook hands with Harper or clapped him on the back.

  ‘Ensign Croker and Cadet Harper, you are both now tasked with writing the program to integrate this new sensor operation into our systems. Good work.’ Aaron looked over at Petra, who gave just the barest shake of her head. When she walked over to Aaron, he felt again the strong impact of her close presence as she spoke quietly, almost conspiratorially.

  ‘You’d be a great politician — you make bullshit so believable. Well done Sir,’ she turned and stepped up to the command chair and sat down.

  ‘Number two, I have the con, and I believe that both you and the Captain are off duty. Maybe you should get some sleep; I would like to be relieved on time.’

  The rest of the bridge watch went back to their stations. Aaron turned to the Navigator who was also off duty and walking towards the pod.

  ‘Commander, fancy a quick drink?’ he didn’t wait for an answer and they both entered the pod.

  ***

  The ward room was very quiet when Kate Albrecht came in. Only the captain and Simon Holm, the navigation officer, were in the room, and they were huddled in one of the corner seats. They looked up as she collected her mug and walked toward them.

  ‘Kate, care to join us?’ It was an open secret that she and Simon were involved and
they took every opportunity to get together. She sat down beside Simon and eyed both of them curiously.

  ‘What are you up to? You look like two naughty boys caught with their hands in the cookie jar?’ As an Empath, Kate’s natural abilities gave her great insight into the actions of others. While she couldn’t read minds, she was still extremely good at reading people, with uncanny accuracy.

  ‘Captain, what was that load you just shovelled on the bridge?’ The Ward Room was neutral ground and here free speech was encouraged. Aaron looked at Kate and then to Simon.

  ‘You better watch yourself Simon… you’ll never pull anything over her!’ He looked back to Kate, ‘It wasn’t all bull. When I was at the academy, we did routinely ghost friendlies to test the cloaks, and it still goes on. But, five cruisers on one target? Never! So, you are right, it is a concern. Simon’s just told me that we will be at our reinsertion point in six hours. That’s when we’ll find out if anything is going on or not. I’m going to get some sleep and so should you two; we need to be on our best game in a couple of hours.’ Aaron drained his tea cup and bid them goodnight.

  As he stood, Kate followed him, catching him just before he exited. ‘Sir, what’s between you and Commander Mannix?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing, she’s just our new First Officer, why?’

  ‘Oh, no reason… just an observation,’ Katie replied with a sly smile. ‘Goodnight sir.’

  On returning to his quarters, Aaron headed directly to the bathroom. He removed his clothes and dumped them into the sanitizer. By the time he had finished his shower they would be cleaned and back in his wardrobe.

  ‘Shower… fat rain!’ he commanded as he entered the cubicle. Instantly, the shower responded with the ceiling depositing large drops of water onto him, at the correct temperature.

  ‘Soap!’ At this word, the water stopped and a soap dispenser came out of the wall. He soaped, scrubbed himself thoroughly, and then called again. ‘Rinse!’ The water again started, but this time it was harder and washed away all of the soap. ‘Dry!’ was his last command and the air dryer started. When he was dry he exited the cubicle.