by Bob Blanton
“The Dutchman belongs to my company,” Catie said. “Right now, my partner and I are the only captains. So you had to get one of us. I was stuck at the Academy last year, so this is my first chance to captain the Dutchman.”
“Weren’t you Alex MacGregor?” one of the students asked.
“Yes,” Catie said. “I had to go by an alias while at the Academy. We didn’t want my presence to upset the experience for me or my fellow cadets.”
“Hey, Braxton, didn’t you date an Alex MacGregor?”
“We went out a few times,” Braxton said, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Oh, hi Braxton, I didn’t see you back there,” Catie said. “You people should board, we push back in one hour.”
Board Meeting – July 4th
“I call this meeting to order,” Marc said. “I know we’re all focused on what will happen when we finally enter the Fazullan ship next week, but we have to keep the company running. Fred, where are we?”
“The company’s doing fine. We sent the first fusion core to Egypt, the next three will be a month apart. We’ll slide the one for Somalia in between the second and third. Catie’s bringing a load of platinum metals back with her as well as a bunch of ore. The smelter at Gemini Station is working like a champ. We’ll be building one here at Delphi Station up as soon as Catie shows up with the designers.”
“Any issues, Catie?”
“No, we just left the station at 0600.”
“Blake, how is the U.N.’s mission in Africa going? We heard they’re getting the fusion reactors.”
“It’s going about as expected. They’ve isolated Mogadishu and are expanding into the countryside. All indications are that the arms embargo is holding, so there’s optimism that they might get it right this time.”
“We can keep our fingers crossed,” Marc said. “What about the federation of planets?”
“That’s become a big hullabaloo. Nobody likes the idea of having one and nobody likes the idea of not having one, so they just argue. It’s been endless debates. Margaret swears she’s ready to resign.”
“Tell her to appoint a sub-ambassador to sit in on the debates,” Samantha said.
“Why don’t you call her up and talk about it?” Blake said. “I’m within striking distance, so I’d rather you handle it.”
“Chicken.”
“Discreet.”
“Alright, I’ll call her.”
“Do we have a plan for the Paraxean asteroid yet?” Marc asked.
“I think we should wait,” Catie said.
“What?! You know Governor Paratar will have a fit if we tell him we want to wait,”
“I’m sure Catie has a good reason,” Samantha said. “Now, Catie, why don’t you share it with us?”
“Dr. McDowell and I did some experiments where we proved that we could combine wormholes. Just like you did when you jumped the Victory next to the Fazullan starship. But what you might not remember is that we can combine them in a sequence so that there would only be one wormhole to pass through to get from Earth to Mangkatar. I think it would be better to prove that, and then only have one jump with the asteroid.”
“How long will that take?”
“We need to make more solar explorers. We would then move one into each of the systems we have to pass through. Then we can open a wormhole between the jump ships in Sol and a set in Mangkatar Prime. We can push a few things through it to verify that it works. Then when we’re ready, we can open it again and push the asteroid through in one go.”
“I agree with your concern,” Marc said, “but that is a big delay. Is it really worth it?”
“I think so, and to make it easy on the Paraxeans, we can start accelerating the asteroid now. We can still jump it when it’s moving, but then it won’t take so long to reach the planet. I think we can make the delay a wash.”
“Okay, what do you need?”
“Permission to make the solar explorer probes. I think we can open the wormhole at the exit with just a probe, but I need to run a few tests to prove it.”
“Wouldn’t you crash into the probe when you exited the wormhole?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“I don’t think so. We can open the wormhole in front of the probe. That way, even though you’re passing through the probe, you’re still in the wormhole, so there’s no physical contact.”
“Okay, so how long?” Marc asked.
“Four weeks to make them, then two weeks to get them in place.”
“Okay, start making them. We’ll talk at the next meeting about some of the implications and how we want to manage them.”
“I think we need a new design for a frigate-sized starship,” Blake said. “Having to use the jump ships for the Victory could have created problems.”
“Something the size of the Roebuck?” Catie asked.
“Yes, but with more firepower and flight bay capacity.”
“I’ll work on a proposal if that’s okay with the rest of you.”
“You’re our ship designer. Work with Ajda,” Marc said.
“Okay. I should have a proposal ready in four weeks.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Welcome everyone,” Blake said. “We jumped the alien ship back to Artemis one hour ago. We’re now getting ready to board her.”
Liz, Catie, Kal, and Admiral Michaels had joined Blake in the boardroom on Delphi Station. Marc and Samantha were attending via Comm link.
“Captain Clements, a status update if you please,” Blake ordered.
“Yes, sir. The Marines are ready to enter the ship. The Fazullans did not offer any resistance. Captain Lantaq is meeting them in the airlock.”
“Good.”
Everyone was on edge; this was the first time they had ever boarded an alien starship. Although they had boarded several Paraxean starships during the war, they were intimately familiar with their designs since all the Delphi starships were based on Paraxean designs.
“The pressure has been equalized,” the Marine captain announced. “Opening the airlock now.”
They watched as the captain rotated the handle and pushed the airlock door open. Standing in front of the now-open door, Captain Lantaq was alone. The Marines were all in full exosuits, nobody was interested in testing out the alien air. Even if it was breathable, who knew if it was safe.
“All of my crew are confined to their stations, and unnecessary crew are in stasis,” Captain Lantaq informed the Marines.
“Good, please lead us to the bridge,” the Marine captain’s comm was handling translations for him. He spoke in a quiet voice, allowing the Comm’s translation to be the dominant sound.
“Of course. Follow me. I assume your boots are attaching themselves to the deck. As you can tell, this is the zero-gravity section of the ship.”
“We’re good.”
“The ship’s center is rotating about two revolutions per minute, so with a sixty-meter diameter, it should have 0.15Gs at the outer hull,” ADI informed everyone.
“Looks kind of normal,” Liz said.
“That’s what I expected. Bulkheads, floors, doors, and passageways seem to have a galactic standard,” Blake said.
“This lift will take us to the bridge. When it engages, there will be an abrupt change in speed, then it will settle,” Captain Lantaq said.
“We understand,” the Marine captain said.
A few seconds later, the door to the lift opened showing the bridge that they had all seen on the videos. The bridge crew were all sitting quietly at their stations and there were no bodyguards hanging around.
“If you will step to the command chair, I will turn the ship over to you,” Captain Lantaq said. This was the point that everyone was terrified of: Would the transfer of control go smoothly or was it a trap? Would Captain Lantaq have the ship self-destruct? It was even possible that a self-destruct would be automatic when the ship was surrendered.
“This is Captain Lantaq, command code Delta, Omega, Epsilon, Four, Three, Nine, Two.”
“Co
mmand code recognized,” the ship’s DI replied.
“I am handing command control to Captain,” he looked at the Marine captain.
“Prescott.”
“I am handing command control to Captain Prescott. Please acknowledge change of command.”
“Captain Prescott, please state your full name,” the DI requested.
“Captain Gregory James Prescott.”
“Command codes are changed. Captain Prescott, please enter a security password.”
“It will record your voice, so it doesn’t matter if anyone else hears it,” Captain Lantaq said.
“Omega, Delphi, Alfa, Gamma, Five, Nine, Eight, Seven.”
“The ship is under your command. What are your orders?” the DI asked.
Captain Prescott looked at Captain Lantaq with a puzzled expression.
“The DI is conversant in your language, thanks to the language files you shared with us. You can give your commands in English.”
“Hold position.”
“Hold position acknowledged.”
Captain Prescott detailed two Marines to stay on the bridge and then had Captain Lantaq take them to engineering.
“I have guards in each of the critical sections. Everything we’ve seen so far matches what we got from the three prisoners we captured from the shuttle,” Captain Prescott announced. “I’m now having Captain Lantaq take us to the stasis pods.”
“Very well,” Captain Fitzgerald said.
Everyone watched as the team headed back to the zero G section of the ship. The tension had dropped considerably once control had been handed over and the ship didn’t explode, but there was still a general fear that something bad would happen.
“These are the crew stasis chambers,” Captain Lantaq indicated. ADI reported that there were one hundred twenty chambers and most of them were occupied.
“I see,” Captain Prescott said as he surveyed the room. “You said crew stasis chambers, are there others?”
“Yes, we have the laborers we brought with us. Those pods are in the section over there,” Captain Lantaq said, indicating a door at the back of the room.
“Let’s check them out,” Captain Prescott said.
“Follow me.”
As they entered the second chamber it was immediately obvious that there were far more stasis chambers in it than in the crew section.
“How many chambers are there in here?”
“Five thousand,” Captain Lantaq said.
Captain Prescott whistled. Then he started to walk down the aisle to check out a few chambers.
Captain Prescott pulled up short, shocked at what he was seeing. “Sir, there are Paraxeans in some of these stasis pods.”
“Hold on Captain. Admiral?” Captain Clements asked.
“Get a doctor over there and wake up a Paraxean or two,” Blake ordered. “Call us when they’re able to talk.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“What do you have for us, Captain?” Blake asked once they had regathered to review the intelligence.
“Captain Lantaq confirms what the Paraxeans have said. They are prisoners, virtual slaves. They appear to be descendants of the Paraxeans captured from the colony mission that the rebel Paraxeans came from.”
“How many races were there?”
“Three, besides the Fazullans,” Captain Clements said. “Apparently they were to be used as labor to mine the asteroids for metals.”
“But how can that be?” Catie asked. “That’s over two hundred light-years.”
“I have not been able to get a satisfactory answer from anyone. One of the others swears that they were living on a planet in a trinary star system. They were used as farm and manufacturing labor.”
“Did Captain Lantaq confirm any of that?”
“He refused to say. We’re interrogating the rest of the crew and digging into the ship’s logs. They’re encrypted so it may take some time.”
“Very well. Keep us informed,” Blake ordered.
“Yes sir. By the way, in case anyone is interested, these Fazullans are ugly looking, but if you didn’t notice on the video, the tall ones are only about 175 cms, or five foot nine.”
Catie laughed. “So yours is bigger, Uncle Blake.”
“Well you never know,” Liz said.
“You two, get your minds out of the gutter,” Blake said.
◆ ◆ ◆
After reviewing the data from the interrogations of the crew and a few of the prisoners, Catie moved to the display at the back of the room and brought up a map of star systems. She had Artemis marked as well as the region of space where the Paraxean Colony ship was attacked. She was slowly highlighting the stars between the two points.
“What are you thinking?” Blake asked Catie as he joined her at the display.
“I don’t know. I’m looking for a quaternary star system between the two points, our location and the one where the aliens attacked the Paraxeans. Unfortunately, there seem to be six of them.”
“Why a quaternary star system, the Paraxeans said it was a trinary system?” Liz asked.
“A quaternary system with a binary star would look like a trinary system to the naked eye. And a quaternary system might create a natural wormhole,” Catie replied.
“Are you serious?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m looking at all the star systems between Artemis and the location where the Paraxean Colony mission was attacked.”
“What do you get when you backtrack their course?”
“It doesn’t lead to one of the quaternary systems, besides they’re all too far. But it does lead to this system, which is almost in a direct line with that quaternary system. And that system is also in an approximate straight line to the system where the Paraxeans were attacked.”
“But that’s over 200 light-years,” Liz said.
“I know, but it’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense,” Catie said. “I need to talk with Doctor McDowell.”
“Then get after it,” Blake said. “We need to figure this thing out.”
Afterword
Thanks for reading Delphi Challenge!
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Acknowledgments
It is impossible to say how much I am indebted to my beta readers and copy editors. Without them, you would not be able to read my books due to all the grammar and spelling errors. I have always subscribed to Andrew Jackson’s opinion that “It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”
So special thanks to:
My copy editor Ann Clark, who also happens to be my wife.
My beta reader and editor, Theresa Holmes.
My beta reader and cheerleader, Roger Blanton, who happens to be my brother.
