Chapter 14
The trio was up by dawn. Shortly after they ate, Auntie notified them that the projectiles had arrived. Auntie made the shield opaque again while Ron and Gus quickly loaded the projectiles into their magazine. Ron noticed they now had 150 of the large rounds and 600 of the smaller ones. It didn't seem like much but when considering the unlimited plasma balls and then the laser burst cannons, some unlucky Nodac-Liujia warships were going to think there were plenty of rounds. As they finished loading the rounds, Kota and Zibo came over. Auntie let them in and turned the shield to transparent.
They went to the situation room to see if Tik was ready with the Nodac-Liujia trader ships they had seized. They were only going to use one of them if they could. They hated to damage perfectly good space ships. Maybe they could be used back on their planets.
They went over the plan again to see if they had missed any details. Tik already had the seized ship headed toward the planet. The ship in orbit was trying to contact it by radio. When Tik gave the word, Kota and Zibo would be ready to take off quickly and head directly at the ship in orbit. That ship wouldn't be able to fire on Auntie for fear of hitting the Traders. Hitting them would be a declaration of war with the Dar Es Salaams and those in the Nodac-Liujia ship knew who would lose. The Dar Es Salaam Traders had a nasty reputation of taking care of those who attacked them. Auntie would take off a short time later and Tik would fly the seized ship into the one in orbit. Hopefully they wouldn't think of one of their own ships as dangerous and would be watching Kota and Zibo. The group decided they were as ready as they ever would be. Zibo asked how Tik was going to guide the seized ship and she replied in a smart-alecky manner about the Alcantaran ghost giving her a hand. Zibo and Kota looked at each other, as if trying to decide if they believed in ghosts.
Kota gave his report on the locals and how they were faring with ending the war. It would take awhile to even get the two enemies together but hopefully once the other side saw the videos, they would be ready to cooperate. The police chief had rounded up the rest of the local cell members and they were rapidly closing in on most of the national members. Fu was very optimistic that things would start progressing very quickly that day.
Tik announced they were an hour away from count down. Kota and Zibo hurriedly returned to their ship and started their final take off checklist. Ron and Gus made a quick sweep of Auntie and then went to the lower cockpit to start the count down. Tik stayed at the console in the situation room to guide the other ship. She wondered how much of Auntie's computer capacity they were using. There were a lot of things to keep going all at the same time.
The ship in orbit was demanding to know who was in the seized ship and what their intentions were. Tik signaled Zibo to take off. The ship in orbit continued to call to the other ship but Tik could tell their attention was now focused on Zibo and Kota. Zibo was reaching the upper reaches of the atmosphere now and Tik called for Ron to blast off. Auntie gracefully rose from the ground and started to accelerate into the air. She was heavy but still responded like a race horse at the start of a race. Ron tried not to push her engines too hard but he needed to get into space.
Tik heard the ship in orbit screaming at Zibo and Kota. He was threatening to shoot them out of the sky if they didn't change course. Zibo and Kota remained silent and aimed right for the ship. They picked up speed as they left the atmosphere. Tik pushed the seized ship as fast as she dared and raised the shield. When it was 50 miles from the ship in orbit, the Nodac-Liujians realized they were on a collision course. It was too late. They couldn't move fast enough to get away. The Nodac-Liujia trader fired a plasma ball shot at Zibo and Kota. It hit a glancing blow to the side of their shield and ricocheted into Europaische's upper atmosphere where it died out. Tik crashed the seized ship into them right behind the nose. The seized ship glanced off and Tik reversed engines to bring it to a halt. Zibo quickly turned her ship to give the two wrecked ships plenty of room.
Auntie zoomed into space and relative safety. Ron swung her toward the ship that had been in orbit. He told them to surrender immediately or he would open fire. Zibo was coming in from off of Ron's starboard side. They had the Nodac-Liujia ship in a cross fire. There was no answer from the damaged ship, so Ron had Auntie scan for life forms. There was no one alive! The seized ship had smashed a hole right behind the cockpit and the ship had depressurized in seconds. Apparently none of the Nodac-Liujians had put on space suits or any other protective gear. The thought of that shook the trio. They were sitting with no protection except their shields. They didn't know how long they would survive inside the shields but Tik added a note to Auntie's warnings. She told Auntie to remind them to at least have the space suits in the same room they would be in during risky flights like this. Tik also made a note to check on air tight emergency doors in the space ship. They needed to be able to compartmentalize so they would be able to conserve oxygen if they ever had a hull breach.
Ron launched a remote sensor to check out the wrecked space ship. It flew in through the hole in the space ship's hull. It found six bodies in the cock pit and on the flight deck. Ron sent it to the seized ship to access damage and reported what he had found to Zibo and Kota. The seized ship had a huge dent where it had glanced off the other ship but appeared to still be air tight. Tik sent it back to the asteroid where they had hidden it before. Ron pulled Auntie close to the wrecked ship and used Auntie's tractor beam to push it back into the orbit it had been sitting in before the crash. They decided to leave the bodies where they were at. They had other things to finish right now and they didn't want to take time to move them.
Kota reported that the space battle had been seen by both sides of the planetary conflict below. It had hastened the peace process and they were already talking about what they needed to do to prepare to repel invaders. He said they were headed to their hiding spot. He wanted as few traces as possible leading there by the time the warships arrived. Ron finished with his tasks and turned Auntie away. They were going to head in the opposite direction from the suspected entry point of the warships. If they were checking, they might see Auntie's trail and think they were fleeing. Ron was taking his time until Tik let him know that she had the seized ship parked on the asteroid. As soon as she gave the word, Ron pushed Auntie to jump speed and then made the jump into hyper-space. They were headed to another solar system in this galaxy. They would make two more jumps to be behind the incoming warships.
As they came out of hyper-space, Ron spotted some small asteroids 5000 miles in front of them. The asteroids were moving in the same direction as they were. He asked Tik to see if this solar system was inhabited. She reported that there were no planets that would support life. Ron proposed testing the rail guns and laser burst cannon on the asteroids ahead of them. The other two thought it was an excellent idea.
Ron lined everything up and increased their speed until they were within 300 miles of the asteroids. He told Auntie to shoot plasma balls from the two big rail guns and then try to hit flying fragments with plasma balls from the smaller rail guns After a self check on the weapons, she could try one solid projectile from each of the rail guns. Then she should try the laser burst cannons on flying debris. They had enhanced pictures of the asteroids on the view screens and they sat tensely as the miles counted down. 250, 225 and then at 200 they all felt a bump like a land vehicle hitting a pot hole. Auntie had targeted the two biggest asteroids, which were about a 1/4 mile wide. The trio held their breath as they waited for what seemed like forever. They were starting to worry that the rail guns hadn't worked. At the end of 42 seconds, the asteroids disappeared. Auntie didn't fire the smaller rail guns because there wasn't anything large enough to be a target. The trio sat in shocked silence. They had never seen anything like this, nor had they heard of anything like it either. Auntie had told them that there was a lot of destructive power in the guns but words did not do justice to the a
ctual event. Ron asked Auntie almost in a whisper, "How far away did you say you could hit something like that?"
Auntie replied, "Something that big I could have hit when we first came out of hyper-space. If I had to pick a smaller area, I would want to be within 3000 miles."
"Would the damage have been as severe from 5000 miles?" Ron asked.
"Oh yes. There is no atmosphere here in space to slow the plasma balls down," she replied.
Ron had her fire the smaller rail guns at the remaining targets and they tore the asteroids to pieces with one shot. Auntie fired the laser burst cannons and pulverized the pieces. Ron told her to do a self-diagnostic. She finished the task and reported that everything was still in working order. There was nothing left to use for targets for the solid projectiles so they made their next jump. They came into regular space and checked that they were still on the right vectors. As soon as they had verified that, they made their final jump. They had spent two days making the long way to this point, but like Kota, they didn't want to leave a trace. When they jumped from here, they would be just a few minutes behind the big warships. Ron kept Auntie at speed to jump and had her constantly update their position. All they needed now was the warships' position and they would jump.
They were now hurtling through empty space waiting on Kota and Zibo. Tik tried the comm units to make sure they had contact and Kota answered back. They were on pins and needles waiting for something to happen. His contacts at Nodac-Liujia had no new news about the warships. He hadn't heard anything from the Charter Navy either. He did thank them again for the robot chef. He told of their heavenly meals. Kota said these robot chefs could be a big seller to Trader ships. One of the big complaints of Traders was the quality of food they had to eat on different planets. Tik signed off and said they would check again tomorrow. Tik then checked the remote detector and saw that she could still search the area around Europaische.
Now began the waiting. This was the hardest part but it had to be done. Tik tried to do some gardening in the conservatory while Ron and Gus watched for a few minutes. Ron and Gus couldn't take the inactivity and went to the cargo bay to practice with their weapons. They practiced for two hours and finally tired of that. They went to the armory and reloaded. They spent another hour learning about some of the weapons they hadn't used yet. Auntie walked them through tearing them down and putting them back together again. Finally it was supper time and they put everything away and secured it. They all met at the galley where Dolores had a scrumptious supper but they just picked at it. They now knew that Auntie had the power to knock out the three warships but could they catch them unaware?
They decided to keep someone in the pilot's seat at all times now. The warships weren't supposed to be there until tomorrow but they didn't want to take a chance. For tonight they decided on four-hour shifts. Tomorrow they would do two-hour shifts so everyone would be ready for the attack. Tik told them they needed to bring their space suits to the flight deck. She reminded them of what had happened to the ship which had been in orbit. Ron stayed in the cockpit while the other two went after their space suits. They double-checked everything and brought them into the flight deck. Gus took over the pilot's seat and Ron went for his suit. Tik had lost the flip of the coin and she had the first watch, followed by Gus. Ron and Gus went to bed and tried to sleep. Every change in air current or creak or groan brought them wide awake. They made it through the night and none of them wanted to be far from the flight deck. They had Dolores bring meals there. To help relieve some of the tension, Tik suggested that they should start studying the information on the next two planets. They also added some notes about Europaische and their trades. This waiting seemed worse than the wait to escape off of the mother ship.
Ron was in the pilot's seat when the alarm finally came. The remote detector had picked up five space ships. Kota called to report that the three warships were there and they had two smaller escorts. Ron said they had to go anyway. At least they could take out the three warships; and if they had time, they would send some laser cannon bursts toward the escort ships. Tik yelled that she had the coordinates programmed in and Ron punched the button to take them to hyper-space.
Auntie came out of hyper-space and the trio saw the warships and their escorts dead ahead. The biggest ship was in the middle with the two other warships at the four o'clock and eight o'clock positions. The escorts were in the ten o'clock and two o'clock positions. The formation looked like the five spots on a dice. As soon as Auntie came out of hyper-space, her rail guns started to fire. She had everything firing at once and this time when they went off, it felt like someone had slammed on the brakes in an emergency stop. Two minutes of firing seemed like an eternity with everything moving in slow motion. Ron was watching the readout of rounds expended and saw in fascination that the count for the big rail guns reached 50. The smaller rail guns hit 85 rounds. He saw the first rounds tearing their way through the warships. The warships had minimal shields around the power plants and the big rounds soon overwhelmed them. Ron just had time to see that every ship was taking hits when they jumped to hyper-space again. Tik had preprogrammed three quick jumps which brought them back to within 500 miles of the port sides of the warships. Ron had Auntie zoom in on the scene in front of them. The rears of the three big warships were wrapped in a fog and from their vantage point, the trio thought it looked like fire but they knew that no fire would burn in a vacuum. It looked like the entire rear of the far escort space ship was missing. The near escort ship had a weapon that was slowly moving in their direction. It looked like the weapon was being moved by hand or from a battery that was almost dead. Auntie picked up the threat and fired one burst from a laser cannon. The weapon vaporized. Kota's ship suddenly appeared about 500 miles off the starboard of the warships. He was far enough below the warships to be out of Auntie's line of fire. They waited a few minutes to see if there were any fighters coming out of the big warship. Auntie's momentum from the jump was driving her closer to the big ships. Kota's ship was coasting closer, also.
Ron had a thought and sent a call to the warships. He asked them to surrender or he would turn the Alcantaran ghosts loose again. Auntie had been scanning the biggest warship and reported that there was no life in the back two-thirds of the ship. She quickly scanned the rest of the ships with the same report. Ron had seen reports on TV of 'shock and awe' that happened during the Gulf War but it didn't even come close to what had just happened here. In two minutes, three mighty warships and two escorts were reduced to junk.
Tik was in contact with Kota and he reported his ship had scanned with the same results as Auntie. They had been hidden so they didn't see Auntie pop out of hyper-space and do her damage. Kota looked at the warships and swore that it would have taken at least five ships to do that much damage. His and Zibo's hair was standing on end because they were starting to believe that the trio had actually turned Alcantaran ghosts loose on the warships. The only thing that didn't ring true was the fact that ghosts didn't have substance and should not be able to do this much damage. He was videoing to have a record to send to the Charter Navy. They would want to know about this. He didn't think they had any ships except a big battlewagon that could inflict this much damage.
A weak signal finally came from the middle warship. The caller identified himself as Admiral Selangar from Nodac-Liujia. He demanded to know who had attacked with no provocation.
Ron replied, "I'm afraid the attack was not unprovoked. Your agents on Europaische initiated attacks seven days ago. One of your ships disguised as a Nodac-Liujia trader had attacked a Charter Alliance citizen three days ago. The agents on the planet had confessed to a plot to subdue Europaische and enslave the citizens. The Charter Alliance considered all of this an act of war. I'm afraid that Alcantaran ghosts have no patience with allies of the Challeka Trader, especially those who try to lie to the rest of the universe. I'm afraid we need to mo
ve away from you now. I think the Alcantaran ghosts will be here in a few minutes to finish what they started. Good-bye, Admiral."
There was silence for thirty seconds before the Admiral came back on the air, "Please don't leave! We surrender. Most of my command is dead and we are completely defenseless. We need help with the wounded and our oxygen situation here is not good."
"How many wounded men do you have? How many men are left on all the ships?" Ron asked brusquely.
"I'll have to check. It will take a few minutes," the Admiral said.
Ron, Gus and Tik discussed how to get a large group of wounded to the planet. They all agreed, they didn't want any of the Nodac-Liujians on Auntie. Besides, her cargo bays didn't have much room. They decided they needed to use the seized ships; which hopefully, would be fairly empty. It was decided that Ron would stay as pilot of Auntie and stay on station to make sure that there was no funny business from the warships. They needed Kota and Zibo to pilot the good ship and Tik and Gus would fly the other one after they checked it out. If it was too badly damaged, they would not use it. One big concern was fuel. They had no idea how much fuel was in the other ships. Ron checked Auntie and she had used all the fuel in the rockets, except what they needed to burn for the next load. Auntie's main tank was almost full, so they had no problem there.
Tik called Kota to see if he and Zibo could help with the other ships. When she explained that she and Gus would fly the damaged ship, Kota would have none of it. He reminded her that he and Zibo were much more experienced pilots. They would fly the damaged ship or they wouldn't help. Tik finally agreed. Tik asked Kota if he knew how much room was on the two ships and he told her they usually had two cargo bays that were about 350 feet long by 140 feet wide. There would be plenty of head room but no real way to utilize it. Tik asked him to send a message to Fu to let him know there were a lot of wounded who would be arriving shortly as well as prisoners of war. Zibo moved their ship moving closer to Auntie. Tik and Gus would transfer to their ship and then they would head towards the seized ships. Tik said the Alcantaran ghosts could fly the seized ships towards them for the transfer.
Auntie had been monitoring the radio traffic from the big warship to all the others. There was no answer from the last ship she had shot. She reported that there was nothing suspicious about the radio messages.
The Admiral came back on the radio and told Ron that he had 4000 wounded and maybe another 4000 to 5000 troops left on the five ships. He said they hadn't been able to raise the one ship, so he had no idea how many were left on it.
Ron asked where they needed to be to start transferring wounded. The Admiral described an escape door, close to the nose of the warship. He said they had a special tube that would seal over that door and to the door of his space ship. Using a tractor beam to keep the tube taut would allow them to move personnel fairly rapidly. Ron told him they only had two ships to transfer everybody, so it was going to take some time. He also told him that if there were any tricks or anyone tried to approach the flight deck on either ship, the Alcantaran ghosts would dump the whole load of personnel into space and the rest of the crews would face an agonizing death that would take days or maybe even weeks. The Admiral said they would cause no problems. Ron knew if all the other crew members were as disheartened as the Admiral, they would be afraid to try anything.
Kota and Zibo reported the damaged ship was still space worthy and they would have no problem flying it. They also reported that they would have plenty of fuel. Tik reported they had plenty of fuel as well. They started loading wounded and then flew them to Europaische. It took four days to get everyone off the warships and the escort ships. Ron took catnaps in the pilot's seat and only left to go to the bathroom and to stretch once in awhile. Tik and Gus traded off flying, so they could get a little sleep on the way to the planet and on the way back. Kota and Zibo did the same. On the last load of personnel, Kota transferred to his ship and flew it back to Europaische. Ron followed in Auntie; and as soon as they landed, Tik and Gus came into Auntie and Zibo went to their ship. They were all exhausted and slept for the next 14 hours.
Tik was the first to wake and get out of bed. She walked into the living room and cried, "Oh, my gosh!" She was staring at the view screens with her mouth wide open. Ron and Gus came running in, expecting serious trouble. They stopped and stared at the screens with their mouths open, too. There were at least a dozen more space ships of various sizes sitting in the space port. One screen showed a giant space ship parked in orbit with several other ships around it and others scattered in orbit around the planet. The trio looked at each other. Had the Nodac-Liujians evaded the Charter Navy and still carried off the invasion of Europaische? They all ran to the situation room to check out what had happened while they slept.
Auntie announced that Kota and Zibo were at the edge of the shield requesting permission to come aboard. Ron told her to let them in and to rush them to the situation room. Kota and Zibo came running in out of breath.
"What's the matter? Auntie sounded like there was some kind of alarm," Kota huffed breathlessly.
Tik pointed excitedly, "Look at all those ships here at the space port and there's more in orbit. Do you think the Nodac-Liujians went ahead with their conquest plans?"
Kota and Zibo started laughing; which was hard to do, considering they were still out of breath. Finally, Kota stopped laughing and caught his breath.
"Those aren't Nodac-Liujian ships, except that big one in orbit. Those other ships are Charter Navy or news media. The big one is a troop transport that will be used to get the prisoners of war back home. Europaische doesn't want to feed and house them any longer than is necessary," Kota explained.
"Oh," was all Tik could say.
"You three are much in demand, too. A Charter Navy Admiral just called us and wants to set up a meeting. Evidently, Auntie is not putting messages through," Zibo added.
"Auntie, do we have messages?" Ron asked.
"Yes, you have 23 and counting," she replied.
"Why in the world did you hold them? By the way, why didn't we get an alarm about space ships coming in?" Ron asked with some irritation.
"I monitored your health as you came into the ship yesterday and saw you needed rest. You were sleeping so soundly when the ships started coming out of hyper-space. They were identifying themselves as Charter Navy on a mission of mercy. Even the news media identified themselves as soon as they came out of hyper-space. I didn't think I needed to wake you since they posed no threat -- unless you would like to add them to a possible threat list?" Auntie reported.
"No, they aren't a threat," Ron replied.
"The calls started very early this morning and none of them seemed extremely urgent, so I just let you sleep," Auntie stated matter-of-factly.
Ron grinned at Kota and Zibo as he shrugged his shoulders, "Well, there you have it. Our space ship is now our social secretary and nurse maid. I guess you two are lucky that you weren't attacked by our robot chef since you did run up here."
"I alerted Dolores to the fact they were coming. She was ready to defend but is fixing breakfast instead," Auntie commented.
Everyone broke out in laughter at that statement. They could all picture Kota and Zibo being chased by a robot chef with a broom to help them along.
"What in the world does a Charter Navy Admiral want with us?" Gus asked.
"We don't know; but he seemed a little put out, because he couldn’t make contact with you. They have an emergency interrupter for Trader space ships, so that is what woke us up," Zibo declared.
Suddenly it dawned on Ron what Auntie had said. He asked, "Auntie, did you say that everyone coming here now is identifying themselves right away?"
"Yes, everyone starts broadcasting identification as soon as they pop out of hyper-space and the Navy deployed shields right away, too," Auntie replied.
"Did the Navy fly by those warships on the way here?" Ron ask
ed.
"Yes, and they still have a guard there to keep the news media away. All the other Charter Navy ships took their time as they flew by. I'm sure they were surveying the damage," Auntie reported.
Ron looked at Kota, "Did you send a message after the little fracas out there?"
Kota looked pretty sheepish as he replied, "Yeah, I did. I sent a few pictures because the damage was so incredible that words just couldn't describe it. I might have said that it looked like more than one ship had attacked."
"Must have been the Alcantaran ghosts again, huh?" Ron quipped. The trio laughed along with Kota and Zibo but their laughter seemed a lot more nervous and strained.
Ron quickly changed the subject as he told Auntie, "Well, Auntie, you'd better get this Admiral on the line before he really gets his shorts in a knot."
An Admiral in full dress uniform appeared on the view screen, "Congratulations! I am Admiral Dursun Aydin of the Charter Alliance Navy. You all have performed an incredible feat stopping those warships and saving this planet! I would love to hear the story of how you did it; but right now, we need your help again. The Nodac-Liujian Admiral refuses to surrender to anyone except the pilot and crew of the Galactic Antiquarian. He claims you were the ones that defeated him and kept the Alcantaran ghosts from finishing off the rest of his command. He said you stayed on station for four days straight to keep them at bay. Whoever heard of ghosts doing that much damage or being able to finish off warships?"
"I don't know but I think you must. Why was it that all of your command identified themselves as soon as you came out of hyper-space? I didn't think that was standard protocol," Ron said with a chuckle, which was joined by the others.
Admiral Aydin turned a deep purple in embarrassment, "Well, we saw the pictures of the damage and we couldn't take a chance that they were real and still on guard. There's too much at stake here to take chances."
"I couldn't agree more, Admiral. We really have to thank the Alcantaran ghosts for all their help; not only in space, but here on the planet also," Ron said with a mischievous smile.
The Admiral looked closely at Ron and then at his two companions. He was sure they were pulling his leg but…
"Admiral Aydin, what do you need us to do to help with this surrender? I'm sure you know that Kota and Zibo were as much a part of this fracas and rescue as we were. They were the ones in harms way, waiting right by the entrance point to pinpoint those warships when they arrived. We just jumped from hyper-space, fired a few shots and then demanded the warships surrender. The ghosts had already done enough damage to encourage the Nodac-Liujian Admiral to surrender. Kota here is the one that taught us to fly, so he is more the hero than we are," Ron continued.
Kota started to protest but Admiral Aydin held up his hand to stop him, "They both need to be there with you. Can you be ready in an hour to meet us in the terminal? I'll get things arranged at the POW camp and we'll get the surrender taken care of…."
"Wait a minute. We just got out of bed and we haven't had breakfast yet. We still need to get ready, so why don't you make it two hours? How are we getting to the POW camp? Do you have some transportation?" Ron asked.
"I hadn't even thought of that. I just assumed there were vehicles here for transportation," the Admiral said.
"They do have but the residents here are less than six feet tall and if you are close to Kota's size, you'll look like a pretzel in there. We have a driver that hauls us around. Maybe he has friends or knows some other drivers. We'll give him a call to see if he can be here by then. We'll let you know how many people he can haul. We'll be talking to you, Admiral," Ron said as he signaled Auntie to cut the connection.
Ron looked at Kota and Zibo as he asked, "Have you eaten yet? You're welcome to join us."
They declined and said they needed to go back to their ship to get ready. As they left the room, Ron told Auntie to contact Fu on the radio and have him ask the driver about chauffeuring them and several Charter Navy people. The trio ate and then went to get ready. It dawned on them that they really didn't have any 'dress clothes'. Ron said they would have to remedy that, once they were in space. They did have their concealed weapons, as well as the other ones in the shoulder holsters.
When they walked out into the terminal, Admiral Aydin was already there. Ron walked up to him and introduced Tik, Gus and himself as he shook hands. The Admiral was eyeing their weapons.
He asked, "Do you really think you will need those right now with all these Charter Navy personnel around?"
"Well, it's this way, Admiral. These are life savers," Ron commented.
"Life savers?" a puzzled Admiral asked.
"Yeah, if someone sees us wearing them, they aren't likely to try anything; therefore, it will save their lives. If we didn't have them, someone might think they had a chance to collect 50,000 credits and would wind up badly injured or dead," Ron said with a tight smile. "Besides, they make the Alcantaran ghosts rest easy."
The Admiral gave a start at the mention of the ghosts and quickly dropped the subject. The Charter Navy had armed guards outside the terminal to keep the news media and onlookers at bay, but when they walked out, it still created a big stir. As they walked out, the trio's driver was waiting for them with a huge grin. He had enough vehicles to haul everyone and he was going to drive his friends and heroes. He announced that they could not pay for anything that day. He said they were heroes for saving Wuensche and it would be a terrible insult if they even offered any money or gifts that day. The trio invited the Admiral, Kota and Zibo to ride with them. The Admiral briefed them on the procedure for the surrender and the rest of the ceremony during the drive.
They arrived at the POW camp for the ceremony and the news media had crews there. The media who had been at the space port had followed and quickly set up their gear. The ceremony quickly proceeded. The Nodac-Liujia Admiral gave them a ceremonial sword in surrender and then thanked them for holding the Alcantaran ghosts at bay while his troops were shuttled planetside. The news media had heard rumors about the ghosts and now were ready to go into a feeding frenzy to find out more details. Admiral Aydin surprised the trio, Kota and Zibo when he stepped up and presented them with medals of valor for rescuing enemy troops. The 'enemy troops' cheered louder than anyone else at this. All five were now super heroes in their eyes. The news media noted the cheering and were frothing at the mouth to get a chance to do interviews.
When the ceremony was done, the driver didn't take them directly back to the space port. He turned and took them downtown. Thousands of Europaischens lined the streets, cheering and waving as they went by. The trio, Kota and Zibo were embarrassed and didn't know what to say.
Ron quipped, "If they want a speech, I'm sure it is Tik's turn."
Gus quickly agreed and she whacked both of them. They didn't have speeches that day but the driver informed them that they had another parade with speeches and such scheduled in four days. He said there would be national leaders there from countries all over the planet. He asked if the five star travelers could be present for the festivities and they were forced to say yes. None of them wanted to alienate a whole planet by not showing up at a party given in their honor.
The driver finally got them back to the space port and they headed for their space ships. Kota asked if he and Zibo could talk to the trio, so they invited them into Auntie.
The trio led the two Traders to their living quarters where they would be more comfortable. After a little preliminary chat, Kota asked, "What are you going to do with those warships and the salvage rights?"
"What do you mean, what are we going to do?" Ron asked in shock.
"We just helped wreck them. How can we have any salvage rights?" Tik quickly asked.
"It doesn't make any difference what you did. The Nodac-Liujians can't do anything with them. That is part of the surrender terms. The Charter Navy wants to make it very painful for a planet that tries galactic conque
st. We filed a preliminary salvage rights claim for you," Kota replied.
"What would you recommend? If we have the salvage rights, half belongs to you," Ron said.
"But we didn't do much…." Kota protested.
"Never-the-less, half is yours," Ron said adamantly.
"We couldn't take half. Why don't we make it 1 share out of 4?" Kota said as he tried to dodge ownership.
"OK, you take the 75% share and we'll call it even," Ron said in a determined voice.
"That's not what I meant. We would take the one share," Kota protested.
"Nope, that won't work. I guess you will have to take it all," Ron declared.
"Why don't we split it five ways and we'll take two shares?" Kota pleaded.
"That will work," Ron grinned in triumph. "Now, what do you recommend we do?"
"We don't want to try to do any of the salvage ourselves, nor do we want to supervise the salvage. All we wanted was two of the fighters and a few of the personal weapons on board. We have heard some very good reports about the fighters and we'd like to have some of the personal weapons to stock our armory on the freighter. We would also like to send some of them to the scientists of the Traders. They study them to see if we have defenses against them and also if they are better than our weapons. They also check to see if little improvements would make a big difference in performance. We would really like the fighters because when the freighter is retrofitted, we lose our space ship there. The fighters would be a good fit in the freighter to get around in a solar system or on a planet. You should look at getting three for yourselves. You might have to make some modifications to Auntie to hold them but I think you would find that they could become a valuable addition. As for the salvage, the Traders have their own salvage company that would take on this job. They would get the maximum value out of it and are very reasonable in their prices," Kota explained.
"How much money would we have to have up front?" Gus asked.
"Nothing. As a matter of fact, they would pay a deposit to you for the rights," Zibo chimed in.
The trio looked at one another and they all nodded yes. Ron told Kota, "Let's do it. Maybe we could fly out tomorrow and look at one of those fighters. Although; if we want to bring five of them back, it will mean two trips. Is there a way to get a list of weapons aboard those ships? We might want to stock a few more modern weapons in our armory."
"There will be an inventory list somewhere. Our salvagers could find it for us. I'm not sure how far radiation has spread through the ship. We saw some of the troops that came off those warships and they had radiation burns. Why don't I call the salvagers and let them check it out. They can be here in two days with a survey crew and they could take possession of the ships then. If the fighters are covered with radiation, they will decontaminate them and they could even fly one here. If you like it, they would gladly fly the rest of them here. We won't be able to take our fighters with us. We'll have to ship them to where the freighter is being retrofitted," Kota responded.
"What are you going to do with those two trader ships here on the ground? What about that one still in orbit?" Zibo asked.
"I just thought the Nodac-Liujia traders would reclaim them now that they're on the ground," Tik said.
"They are covered under the same rules in the surrender. The traders lose them and you were using them in space so that makes you the owners. And NO, we do not own a share of them!" Zibo responded with feeling.
"We hadn't even thought about them. Things have been a little busy. It would be nice if we could have people from our planet start flying them but that would be way in the future. Why? Do you want to use them to haul your fighters home?" Ron said.
"That's not a bad idea but what I really had in mind was leasing them. I have two cousins that have been looking for a space ship. They have been trading with Master Traders for the last 10 years and they are ready for their own ships but haven't found any yet. Buying a new one is out of their price range right now but they could afford a lease and maybe earn enough to buy a ship in the future. I'm sure they could find someone else for the third ship," Zibo stated.
"I don't know if they would want the one that is damaged or the one that is in orbit. I don't know what it would cost to fix them. I haven't seen the insides of the ships but Tik says they are disgusting. Well, you saw them. How long would it take to clean out the insides and make them inhabitable for non-slobs?" Ron asked.
"My cousins and their crews would take care of cleaning everything up. As for repairs, do you three realize that with this salvage contract you will all probably be millionaires?" Zibo asked.
"We didn't realize that those warships would be worth so much. What should we charge if we lease those other ships?" Ron asked.
"Typically, they would pay you a flat fee per month or per year. Another way, would be to accept a percentage of their trades. That's a little more risky but potentially a lot more profitable," Zibo commented.
The trio met with ESP and decided to go with the percentage of trade. They really didn't have anything to lose. Ron said, "We'll go with the percentage of trade with the stipulation that they take a human, a Mis'stear or Sandghost as a trainee. I don't know if you have a training school for basic rules but; if the Traders do, that would be part of the costs. Your cousins will have to get the ship repaired and we will pay for it. The same goes for the one in orbit."
Zibo was very excited and said her cousins would be here with papers by the time the parade was over. She said her cousins would pay for whatever trade goods were already on the space ships. She would let her cousins know about the other ship as well. Kota sent word to the salvage company to come and investigate the five ships. They replied back that they had found another crew looking for a ship and they all would be there in two days with a contract. Kota arranged for them to bring the special chip, showing the Alliance credits to attach to Auntie. He wanted everything to be legal and to get the trio up to speed as fast as possible. Later in the day, he brought over the contract to affiliate the trio with his trading company. He announced that Dar Es Salaam Traders thought they could give coordinates to the trio's home planets. He thought they would have it by the time the trio arrived at their next planet. He said one of the Dar Es Salaam Trader ships would meet them there and they could see if the data they had on hand, matched their planets.
The news media had been trying to get interviews with the trio but they avoided them like the plague. The trio had no desire to be famous on more than just this planet. Little did they know that they and the Alcantaran ghosts were now tied together and stories were spreading through all the inhabited galaxies.
Ron went in the next morning to talk to Fu and to pay their parking fee. Fu presented him with three small, delicate porcelain bells his wife had made. They had a plastic covering that fit like a decal over the bells. There was a mountain scene with delicate little flowers and trees around the bottom. Ron was very interested in the plastic covering and asked about it. Fu said his wife did the scenes and had a company do the plastic covers to her specs. Fu said the covers could be changed with a simple process and showed Ron the other ones for the bell. There were several different scenes of the country around the city.
Ron asked, "Can your wife do larger covers? Could she custom make them to fit something?
Fu replied proudly, "Oh, I'm sure that would be no problem."
Ron explained, "I want some covers that would fit Dolores. I want them to look like dresses that had been on an old TV character. I want a solid background color with a small flower pattern all over it."
Fu called his wife and explained what Ron wanted.
She said, "That should be no problem. How quickly will Ron need it?"
Ron replied, "I'd like to have it by the day of the parade, but the way things are looking, it might be another day or two."
Mrs. Fu said, "I'll get in touch with my supplier to see if they can do somethi
ng that quickly and then get back to you."
Shortly after Ron went back to the space ship, Fu called on the radio, "The supplier originally said it would take six weeks but when they learned who it was for, they quickly decided they could have it done by the day after the parade."
Ron told him, "I want six of them and this is the colors for the background. Just let your wife pick out the color of flower to compliment the background color."
Ron decided they needed something a little dressier for the parade. He made Tik and Gus go to the sewing room to be measured. Then they looked at some of the pictures of dress uniforms that Auntie had in her data banks. They settled for a very simple but elegant pattern with bright, electric blue material for trousers and jackets. The shirts were a wheat-colored yellow and they added a deep brown leather-like belt that would hold a holster on the right for their weapons. The belt had another strap that crossed from the right hip over the left shoulder and back to the right hip. On the left side was a small pouch for personal effects. They put an RTG Trading logo on the right breast in bright red. They settled for a light gray boot that came up about mid-calf on Ron and Gus. After the other two left, Ron added an order for an apron for Delores. He was completing a picture of Aunt Bea from the TV program he remembered watching.
The next morning, the salvage crew arrived. They brought contracts for everyone to sign and they had the chip for Auntie. They gave the trio a slip that showed a 500,000 credit deposit for each of them. Zibo's cousins also arrived in the afternoon and the trio walked through the two Nodac-Liujia trader's ships with them. The cousins liked the basic ship but not the mess the Nodac-Liujians and the rescue had left. The cousins told the trio they would give them a third of the profits for use of the ships. The trio agreed and the cousins produced the necessary contracts. They agreed to find suitable humans, Mis'stears or Sandghosts to send to the trader training and then would start them on the apprentice program. As soon as the contracts were signed, they took their crews to the ships to do an inventory and to start clean up. They reported it would take at least a week to clean everything and restock the ship. The other crew had flown to the ship in orbit and reported they could make a temporary patch that would enable them to get to a ship yard. They offered the same deal as Zibo's cousins. The trio agreed and signed the paperwork when the crew landed the ship on Europaische.
Late in the evening, the salvage crew brought two of the fighters back to the planet. They reported that the fighters alone would be worth much more than the deposit they had already put down. The trio, Kota and Zibo had to go out and climb into the fighters. Ron was the only one that really fit into the aircraft. Everyone else was going to have to have modifications to fit their bodies. Gus just needed the seat lowered six inches for him to be able to squeeze in. Kota and Zibo were going to have to change the canopy, also, to accommodate their nine foot frames. Tik was going to need adjustments to the flight controls so she could reach them. The salvage crew reported that some of the fighters were a little different but it would take a day or two to get them decontaminated. They would fly two or three of the different models down and let the group decide which they wanted. Everybody wanted to fly the fighters, so Kota started walking them through the procedures. Just before dark, they decided they needed to secure the fighters, so Gus went to Auntie to get a portable shield. They set the shield so they were the only ones that could get through and then they headed back to their space ships for the night. Zibo had her cousins and the other crew over for supper and they loved the meal. They asked where they could get a robot chef and she said they would have to get it from Ron, Tik or Gus. They said that would be one of the top things on the list for tomorrow.
The next morning after the trio went through their practice routine, they sold three robot chefs. They had to go to town to order them. Ron advised the dealer to see about getting a stock of them. It seemed like they were going to be a popular item. They did order two more to take with them as trade items. When they got back to the space port, they had other questions that had to be answered about their leased ships and decisions about the salvage operation that kept them busy almost all day. Finally that evening, they got back to the fighters. By dark, Kota had finished the orientation on them. He suggested the trio try the flight simulator on Auntie. He told them to have Auntie query his ship for this specific fighter. The trio spent the whole evening practicing on the simulator. The salvage crew reported to Kota that they had found five two-seater fighters. They would have them decontaminated tomorrow. The salvage crew reported they were getting more workers each day and within five days would have a preliminary report of what was salvageable and what would be just scrap.
The next day, the trio was up early to take delivery of the five robot chefs. They took three of them right over to the leased ships and explained a little bit about their operation. They also explained that the chefs would purchase food stuffs if needed. Tik suggested they get a copy of Kota and Zibo's menu, which they could modify to fit their personal nourishment requirements. She told them that if they had the credit chips, the robot could then go into town to order supplies and have them delivered whenever they were ready. The cousins and the other crew were delighted and thanked them profusely. The trio then returned to Auntie to load and secure their new trade robots.
When they finished, they tried on their new dress uniforms. The sewing room had made a perfect fit for each of them. They could now look more official in the parade. Kota called to tell them there was a surprise on the ramp. When they went outside, there were five of the two-seater fighters sitting there. These fighters had a higher canopy and Gus fit into these a lot better. Kota and Zibo would fit but they had to scrunch down in the seat and weren't really comfortable. They would still need to modify the canopy and lower the seats. One of the fighters had been set up for a smaller pilot and Tik would be able to fly it with minimal modifications. Ron thought he could make the modifications himself.
They decided to take the fighters for a flight. Tik couldn't fly one so she rode along with Ron. The fighters were so easy to fly, they practically flew themselves. The group took a tour of some of the planet and then flew into space to see how they handled there. They came back to the space port and practiced a little more with the fighters there. They practiced hovering and then backing. Ron had an idea of how to carry them on Auntie. He just needed to make some modifications on the lower cargo bay. They parked the fighters under the portable shield and had the salvagers take the other two back to the warships. They quit early that night so they would be rested for the big parade tomorrow.
The next morning, Ron checked out his idea for carrying the fighters in the lower cargo bay and then checked to see how much material he would need. By then it was time to put on the new uniforms and head for the terminal. The trio could tell from the expressions on Kota's, Zibo's, Fu's and the driver's faces, that they approved the new look. Kota and Zibo were resplendent in the Trader dress uniform. The driver took them to the parade which ended up at a grandstand in the park. There were thousands of Europaischens from all over the planet there. The leaders from several nations gave speeches and the entire group was awarded more medals for saving the planet. They were all more embarrassed than heroic. They were glad they didn't have to make speeches. Besides, a simple thank you made them look more heroic anyway. The day finally drew to a close and Gus declared that this was more tiring than packing cargo off the incoming ships in the Bug's mother ship. Everyone laughed and agreed. Some of the Charter Navy ships started leaving that night. The rest stayed to start transporting POWs to the troop ship.
The next day Ron ordered material and the trio spent four days retrofitting Auntie to haul the fighters. Zibo's cousins and the other crew had cleaned the ships and made temporary repairs to the damaged ship. They did some trading with the locals to help start their trading careers as captains of their own ships. They left the day b
efore the trio was finished with their retrofit. Mrs. Fu delivered the covers Ron had ordered and he presented them to Dolores. He remarked later that you would have thought they had just given her a hero's parade. The way she carried on about how beautiful they were and thanking them for them was down-right embarrassing. Mrs. Fu was tickled that Dolores appreciated her work so much.
The day the trio finished the retrofit and loaded the fighters into Auntie, the salvage crew brought a list of weapons on the warships and an electronic copy of all the flight manuals and maintenance manuals for the fighters. Kota and Zibo picked 16 different weapons to take with them, which were made up of 8 different models. The trio picked 50 different weapons with 20 different models for Ron and Gus. Tik had 10 different models that would fit her body. Kota made a list to take back to the Trader scientists. They arranged to receive electronic copies of all the manuals for the weapons also. The salvage crew said they would deliver them the next afternoon. The trio and the two Traders decided they would leave the day after they were delivered. They arranged to go into town and have a farewell dinner with the Fu family and the driver and his family. It was a night that the Europaischen families remembered for the rest of their lives. The others enjoyed the evening just as much. There were some other patrons of the eating establishment who thought it was very memorable as well. They listened in on the stories of the Traders exploits and then the stories from the trio's home planets. The driver, his family and the Fu family were all sad to see them leave but understood the nature of their business.
The next morning, the trio was up early. They secured all the weapons and rechecked everything. Kota sent them a copy of the Charter trade rules and regulations. He also sent an abbreviated copy of the database that all Traders carried. It gave a lot more information about planets and their inhabitants than the Bug's database. It also opened up more planets for the trio to trade with.
Kota and Zibo left first. They were headed for their freighter. The cousins had hauled their fighters to the same planet where the freighter was being worked on, because they wanted to get permanent repairs done on the damaged space ship. Kota and Zibo both thanked them again for his rescue and the freighter. They were especially thankful for the robot chef. They signed off by telling the trio that they were sure they would be meeting again. Their paths were intertwined together; and besides, they had a contract to haul all the goods that they would be setting up in their trades.
Ron, Tik and Gus went through their take off check list. They were headed to Fen Avholog to see if they were cut out to be Traders or if they had just been lucky this time. Auntie blasted off and they flew into space. When they were safely away from the planet, Auntie jumped into hyper-space; off to their next adventure, to find the coordinates for their home planets.
####
About the Author:
Terry Compton has raced stock cars, rode horses across the Scapegoat Wilderness, fished and hunted most of his adult life while working at several different jobs. He is an Air Force veteran and served in the Air National Guard for several years. He is currently the owner, chief welder and installer for an ornamental iron business. He has made several award winning metal creations and is now turning this creativity to writing.
Terry loves to read science fiction, westerns and mystery stories. Some of his favorite authors are Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Andre Norton, Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Louie L'Amour, Zane Grey and Anne McCaffery. He is currently learning about 'indie' authors who are publishing e-books.
Terry currently lives in Montana with his wife and a dog who thinks she is a short furry people.
Already published or soon to be published novels and short stories:
Book 2 in the Alcantaran Series
Alien Challenge
The Alcantaran KeyBook 2 in the Alcantaran Series
Seeds of ChangeA short story
The RecruiterA short story
Alien Abduction Page 14
