Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 2 - Maveen Offer (2 page)

Gindane thought darkly that the overlords must have known about the poor dynamic between Barus and new languages, and then given the Barus roles in trade and diplomacy, just to irk them. The Barus for their part accepted their roles and endeavoured to learn about new races and their languages to the best of their abilities. The Barus researcher was well aware that the independent races were adept at learning new languages, especially the Traders. The outcast races like the Maveen were reputed to be very quick learners of new languages as well.

Stoically, Gindane spoke again to one of her junior researchers in English.

‘Good morning, I am Shapalif Gindane from Barus and I am needing to talk to some one in hlada about the Traders landed on your planet.’

The junior researcher rolled her eyes and suppressed a giggle as she replied in Barus.

‘Commander, you said Shapalif and hlada instead of commander and power. Also I think ‘am needing’ has to be changed to ‘need’. But you are getting better, so please once again repeat after me.’

Gindane suppressed an oath of embarrassment and continued to practice her English. Unfortunately the research associate could not do the message or later negotiations. The edicts were quite succinct in that area as Gindane knew too well. Patiently she listened further to the notes her crew had compiled on the English language and started again.

                                                            ***

Captain Narindestat viewed the current status of his ship with some satisfaction, as the engineers had managed to bring online several thrusters to improve the control of direction on the ship. They were now slowly flying north east towards a series of small islands, and three sneak ships had gone forward again to select the landing side. The captain quickly rejected a landing site off shore on an under water sand bank inside the massive reef.

The sand bank was certainly large enough, but the problems he had recently with the landing skids becoming stuck meant that the captain would like to land the Illuria on a solid surface. He looked patiently at the information he was seeing from the sneak ships when he spotted what he sought.

‘Sneak ship seven, take another pass over that small island and give me a topology of the island and the rock shelf in the water please.’

As the information came in the captain silently overlaid an outline of the Trader ship on the island and rock shelf until he got the landing site he was chasing. He needed a location were the sneak ships could land as well, and the small island itself was perfect. He then turned to the navigation officer with instructions.

‘Pilot, please bring her over to this course and slow the forward movement by a quarter. I have sent you the landing orientation of the ship as we have to be mindful of the circumstances of our landing.’

The navigation officer, another friend of Garendestat, slowed the ship down immediately and perused the ordered landing geometry of the ship. As smile came to the junior officer as he understood his captain’s intent.

‘Yes captain, the landing will be as you specify to within two meters. We will make a course change shortly and bring the Illuria down direct from about a hundred metres altitude with no lateral drift.’

The order for landing the main ship was sent to the sneak ships, and most of them assumed a defensive posture orbiting the ship at a distance. Sneak ships one and seven instead took up hovering positions on either side of the approach path, and navigational lasers from the smaller ships relayed information back to the Illuria. The Trader ship turned slowly without banking at the low altitude and began the final approach to the landing site. Once the ship had no forward motion, the pilot lowered the two main landing skids and went to lower the two smaller landing posts when the captain spoke again.

‘Pilot, we will just use the forward landing post as most of the weight will be on the rock shelf with the main skids. Also I don’t want any part of the main ship in contact with the island except for the landing ramp.’

The specified landing skids deployed, the Illuria slowly came down vertically. The huge thrusters blasting columns of steam and sand away from the ship as it neared the sea. Now his view was obscured by steam and debris, but the pilot calmly held the ship level until contact was registered on the landing skids. Slowly the ship’s thrusters’ power was reduced and the ship settled down onto the landing skids. Once the Illuria was fully down and no lateral motion was detected in the landing, the pilot quickly shut down the thrusters and the ship gave a small shiver, but remained in place.

Captain Narindestat turned to the pilot.

‘Well done, you are within two meters and we did not drift once, I am really impressed.’

Other members of the bridge crew gave polite nods of thanks to the pilot as the captain advised of his next orders.

‘I want a full report, especially damage, of all ships. I want sneak ships one and seven patrolling over our location, sneak ship eight can make a patrol further out to the west. All deployed sneak ships are to have their auto defences set to live as I am sick of being shot at by the humans. ’

                                                            ***

Steve checked the life jackets yet again under the suited alien and fought back tiredness, as he now took of his swim fins and secured the fins to the harness. The runabout from the Aurora Discovery had finally reached his location. The skipper had the presence of mind to slow down, well before the boat reached the strange sight of a helicopter hovering over a combined five hundred kilogram mass of human and a suited alien.

Steve could see that the six metre solid plate runabout was crewed with Rick, the stocky engineer, and two of his burliest deckhands, and quickly they got the boat alongside. First one crewmember passed a heavy rope underneath the shoulders of the space suit and tied it off, as another deckhand helped Steve over the side of the runabout. Steve quickly took off his goggles and went to the side of the runabout to ensure that the alien was secure. The calm valve noises from the top of the space suit remained unchanged, and the alien cautiously regarded the new humans that had appeared.

Steve kept his voice calm as he spoke.

‘Now no unnecessary noise, as we don’t want to spook this large fellow, and remember he is injured and possibly ill.’

The engineer verified that the alien was tied off, and spoke briefly to Mark in the helicopter to lower more cable, before he unhooked the rescue cable from the rescue harness. The helicopter, now freed of the burden to support human and alien in the water, promptly flew off to land on the Aurora Discovery. Dan placed a last call to Steve as they left for the approaching ship.

‘Steve I got some good videos and photos of the alien and that strange rig. I will see you back on the ship.’

Steve acknowledged Dan and turned his attention back to what the burly engineer was doing.

‘Rick, how do you propose to lift him aboard the runabout?’

Rick grinned and picked up a two metre by one metre sheet of very thick high density polyethylene sheeting with a hole and a heavy rope in one end.

‘Steve, this sheet is off one of the aquaculture tanks. We will drop the sheet between him and the runabout, tie him on, and just lever him over the side without tipping the boat too much or injuring him.’

Steve watched with quiet approval as the sheet rope was secured to the opposite deck rail, the sheet quickly positioned and their guest tied off. Several seconds of solid effort on the rope by all four men had the plastic sheet slowly tilted and the boat rocked for several seconds more as they turned the alien to fit along the centre of the deck. The six meter runabout was certainly well loaded now and the engineer commented again after looking over at the strange floating rig nearby.

‘We will have to leave that object until the Aurora Discovery can reach this position.’

Steve took the runabout helm as he replied.

‘I don’t think the object is going anywhere and I want to know if it is safe before we bring it aboard the ship.’

Steve now took the runabout back to the Aurora Discovery a few kilometres distant.

The ship had now reduced speed and turned to the east into the wind to allow the returning helicopter an extra landing margin. He glanced down at the suited alien, and Steve was reassured to hear both the valve in the top of the suit and see the alien calmly looking out of his helmet at Steve and his crew.

                                                            ***

Commander John Shepardson, Captain of the USS North Dakota, sat in his small office with his first lieutenant and looked over his orders with unease. His submarine was now over thirty years old and he was not confident of success after hearing of the loss of the USS Sioux City, regarded by the US navy both as a gun outfit and a more modern version of his own submarine. The captain had earlier taken his ship from the western Pacific at high speed into the Indian Ocean via the Sunda Strait then down the North West coast of Australia. The orders stated he was to take his ship to within fifty kilometres of the landing site for the alien ship and to launch two pairs of sea skimming cruise missiles at the aliens.

‘We are not fooling around this time, and other weapons are being deployed as well. Hopefully the close launch will enable the missiles to get near enough to do their job.’

He commented as he checked the orders and got his executive officer to counter sign he had witnessed them. The order called for kiloton yield nuclear warheads on each of the four cruise missiles.

John turned to speak to his executive officer.

‘Off the record, I think we are about to do something we could very well not live to regret.’

The first lieutenant privately agreed with his captain’s opinion, and then both men set about carrying out their orders to the best of their abilities. As the submarine closed on the selected cruise missile launch site to the north of the Abrolhos Islands, both officers were further worried on how they would ensure both their mission succeeded and that the submarine remained safe.

                                                            ***

Ian Ridge sat behind his desk in the office of the Prime Minister, and suppressed a groan as he unconsciously ran his left hand through his grey hair.

 ‘Today was turning out to be one of those days’ he decided.

A stream of assistants either brought forward reports or left urgently on tasks that the Ian and the two important visitors to his office had agreed need to be followed up urgently. For also seated around Ian’s desk and anxiously scanning reports, was Stuart Eastlough, the Leader of the Opposition, and Fiona Wilkes, the third female Governor General of Australia.

Ian had fielded a call late the previous day from Stuart, who he respected and got along adequately with, who offered to ensure that the Australian government had the support of both main political parties. Fiona was present as she was the King’s representative, and she was respected by both men as an outstanding medical academic and politician. Fiona was just commenting to Stuart about a call she had received from England two hours previously.

‘King William has expressed concern with the situation and has asked to be updated as important developments arise. He has spoken also to the British Prime Minister to convey his distaste at the unilateral actions of the Americans in attacking those space ships. He felt that the British PM would also take that up with the US Ambassador.’

Stuart briefly stated that ‘That this is all that anyone could expect’ and continued into another report, as the prime minister looked over a report from HMAS Sydney and commented.

‘So, Commander Walker is reporting that the aliens have been met by a civilian ship.’

He paused and looked at the report and went on again.

‘The Aurora Discovery is operated by a Steve Greene and his wife Samantha, and his brother in-law Dan Edwards. The Commander goes on to state that Steve was until recently a RAN Commander. Wilson, can you please get me the service record of this fellow?  I know a little about him but do not actually know him.’

The assistant hurriedly excused herself and left to get the requested report from the navy offices, as Fiona Wilkes now put down a folder and commented.

‘Ian, I taught Samantha Edwards in Melbourne before the pandemic. I had heard she left the Army reserve, and recently married a RAN Commander who she worked with in Malaysia.’

Ian arched an eyebrow as he considered the news and replied.

‘So a former navy officer and a medical team marvel. Fiona, things are looking better already. Stuart, do you see any problems with former defence force personnel being involved in this situation?’

Stuart considered the question thoughtfully and did not reply immediately. The media occasionally alluded to the opposition leader being dim witted, but he had a keen mind even if being nearly bald with large ears did not help his image either. Stuart gave both Ian and Fiona a polite smile that they unconsciously returned as he spoke at length.

‘Well Ian, as you know not being defence force personnel means that the couple can be appointed as envoys or civilian mission leaders, and that other leaders can endorse or support their leadership. Also we can always ask Mr Greene to resume his navy rank if necessary at a later stage. I then noticed that a well known biologist, Dan Edwards, Samantha’s brother is also onboard with several former RAN personnel. Now if we can get those four US science team members in Perth up to the Abrolhos, we have the start of a science mission to research those aliens.’

With Fiona nodding in agreement, Ian considered the logic of his political opponent to be on similar lines to what he was thinking and politely voiced the same.

‘Glad to hear we are all thinking the same thing, a good point, and my thanks Stuart about those US scientists. Gregson, can you please get me a line to the US President?’

Stuart gave Ian a polite nod at his thank you. As another assistant rushed out of the Prime Ministers office, the three senior political figures fine tuned the urgent request that Ian would place in front of the US President.