Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 2 - Maveen Offer (7 page)

Slowly he removed the view finder from his suit pocket and accessed the diagnostic screen for radio settings on the device. Once he had a continuous audio tone he leant over the side of the runabout and gave the view finder to Steve as he motioned that he wanted to access the radio display.

Steve carefully took the strange device and turned it over in his hand. It was the weight of a large digital tablet with a viewer but more compact. After several seconds the seek function of the radio matched the channel transmitting the audio tone from the view finder and Garendestat gave a quiet grunt of satisfaction but did not pick up the radio microphone. Nonchalantly, both human and Trader made a mental note of the frequency on the radio display.

Steve turned off the radio, handed back to view finder to Garendestat, and jumped out of the runabout. He was hoping the message would get through, and he observed Garendestat looking at the runabout thoughtfully as they headed further around the rear deck.

                                                            ***

Gindane had enough of reading of the various reports that filled her days, and was now watching human media channels in an attempt to learn more about the planet. She was amazed to learn that several of the media channels were not even in English, indeed a junior linguist in her crew had pointed out the haven world possibly used dozens of regional languages.

Gindane had selected a media channel that did not break out too often to market mundane products. She could not imagine that on Barus, the thought of wasting a prime communications channel on a household product was a strange concept. The media channel seemed to have a lot of current affairs information available. The commander watched as human cameras highlighted wide spread protests in several human cities, though Gindane, with her still limited understanding of English could not follow the story easily.

Apparently the protestors were demonstrating against unilateral actions of the most powerful country, the USA, in the oceans near a place called Australia. Australia was highlighted on a map from the media channel, and Gindane automatically checked their existing references for this area. The next news article made Gindane sit up and take real notice. The media diagram was a passable set of diagrams of both the Trader main ship and several of her sneak ships. The path of the Trader ship had taken was shown on the screen.

After water landing, the Trader ships had made for an offshore chain of islands to the west of Australia, and then landed on a small island. Gindane made sure her recording system was getting this information set aside for later reporting and analysis. The human news report concluded by showing human surface ships now blockading these islands, and Gindane called an urgent meeting of her ships officers to further plan their next moves.

                                                            ***

Susan Roberts felt a wave of exhilaration that her crew shared as the fast response boat left the confines of the Dongara marina. The aluminum RIB craft was a refurbished twelve meter former patrol boat, and one of her media crew was a cousin to the latest owner of the boat.

After a suitable amount of cash had been transferred, the boat skipper had bundled Susan and her crew onboard, and they had then raced for the open sea. The response craft was powered by a pair of 300hp outboards, and rapidly accelerated to over fifty knots as they headed due west.

The young journalist knew that speed was only part of the plan she had discussed with the owner. They would first head due west well over the southern horizon from the two patrolling frigates. When past the line of the Abrolhos group, the boat would turn north and approach the location of the Aurora Discovery from the South West.

With all her media crew strapped into decent shock absorbing seats in the response craft, Susan gritted her teeth and held on tight as the powerful boat crashed through the early afternoon swell.

                                                            ***

Chapter 4

Garendestat was feeling hot and unwell at this stage, and the trip around the deck with Steve had left him very tired as well. He sat down under the shade and requested another bottle of cold distilled water by making a drinking motion. Within minutes a crew member had returned with a sealed bottle and Garendestat slowly drank from the bottle. He noticed that the human ship had turned and was travelling slowly east, with the sneak ship on the horizon now appearing a little closer.

Garendestat turned to Steve who was both looking at the sneak ship and talking to another human nearby, and repeated his earlier request. ‘Ship, Steve, Ship.’ And then he pointed yet again at the distant sneak ship.

Steve seemed to pause without providing an answer, and then he walked off without saying a word. Garendestat was at the end of his patience and he stood up to his full height and repeatedly roared.

‘Ship, Steve, Ship, Ship, Ship’ and gestured wildly towards the sneak ship.

Steve stood silently and said nothing, so Garendestat picked up and donned his helmet. The act of donning the helmet certainly got the human's attention, and several other humans called out to Steve in apparent support of Garendestat’s request.

But Steve now shook his head and said ‘No’ repeatedly.

The crew looked at Steve for a moment, but he would not meet their eyes, and they wisely went about their duties. Steve for one was glad that Samantha was not present to see this pitiful exchange, though Rebecca had returned earlier to check further on Garendestat. She favored the alien with a smile and Steve with a frown, but said nothing before she left again for the sick bay. Steve was sure that he did not like himself much at that particular moment, but he would not be controlled by Garendestat.

Garendestat quickly verified the crippled condition of his space suit components and the hopeless state of the suit radio link. He was now feeling rather unwell, his legs really itched, and he felt deflated. He quietly removed and dropped the helmet to the deck, and slumped down to consider what he could possibly do next. Over to one side of the deck sat the human runabout he had been shown over earlier. ‘Not yet’ He decided to himself.

                                                            ***

Prime Minister Ian Ridge stood at the lectern in the still mid afternoon flanked both by the leader of the opposition and the governor general, and began his speech. For their part, the media were respectfully silent, and paid the second aboriginal prime minister of Australia the respect and close attention that was due to him.

‘Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the opposition, and the governor general. We can confirm the landing yesterday of several alien ships, including what appears to be a large mother ship, at the Houtman Abrolhos Island group in Western Australia. The federal authorities have, with the agreement and assistance of the WA State Government, proclaimed a quarantine zone around the islands to take effect immediately.

The quarantine zone will be administered at sea by the Royal Australian Navy. The navy will have the support of both Australian troops and a handful of US troops policing airports and sea ports in the Mid West area of Western Australia. These forces are to actively police the quarantine zone to prohibit civilians, including the media from intruding in the zone.

The Australian Navy is now under instructions to enforce the quarantine zone by force if necessary. Also we are enforcing punitive measures against individuals and news organizations that flout the quarantine zone.’

The prime minister chose this moment to pause, and behind him he was aware of the nodding support of Stuart and Fiona. A hushed tone was evident from the media people in front of the lectern as they waited for him to start speaking again.

‘Now this landing is a very important event not just from an Australian perspective but from an international one as well. We have seen two incidents were the US navy has attacked or attempted to attack the alien ships. I have spoken to the US president on several occasions over the last few days and we have reached a new level of understanding.

No unilateral action by the US will be tolerated by us either in our waters or in our lands. This is now understood by our long time allies and we are working in a new direction with regards to dealing with these alien ships. We are proposing a joint science mission to the alien fleet, and four US scientists are already in the process of joining a suitable Australian support vessel that happened to be at the Abrolhos islands at this time.’

A flurry of questions now came from the media with regards to the identity of the ship, with rumors that an alien had been rescued from the ocean, and was now on board the ship. The media contingent then all fell quiet as the prime minister continued on again.

‘Well I will confirm that the support vessel is an Australian civilian ship, the Aurora Discovery, captained by a Mr. Steve Greene. Mr. Greene recently retired from the Royal Australian Navy last year and now operates a marine contracting business between Australia and Malaysia. His ship is also contracted by our navy to support medical aid teams still operating in South East Asia. The other news I can confirm is that an injured alien in a space suit was rescued by Mr. Greene himself, and is currently being treated for both injuries and illnesses about their ship.’

Another flurry of questions and speculation erupted from those assembled in front of the podium, and a rising crescendo of noise came from the news teams. The prime minister waited impassively until most of the noise had stopped before he spoke again.

‘Now we do not know if we are facing another pandemic, however rest assured we are doing all we can to manage this situation correctly. I would just like to say, I repeat, like to say, that we owe a real debt of gratitude to our fellow Australians out at the Abrolhos islands. We wish them luck, along with the US scientists, in their negotiations with the alien visitors.’

The press release continued for several more minutes, and the prime minister stayed for an extended period for questions. He was aware that he needed to reassure the Australian population further as he answered the first question with what limited information he possessed.

                                                            ***

Douglas Stoneham regarded the nearby Australian frigate with mixed feelings of acceptance and impatience. HMAS Melbourne had pulled over the Southern Cross halfway to the Abrolhos islands and the navy commander was busy speaking on the radio to the captain of the search and rescue boat. Douglas was grateful that the Australians had implemented quarantine of the islands, but he wanted to join Steve Greene and his associates on their ship as soon as possible.

The problem that the commander of the Melbourne had was that the course the Southern Cross would take would place them too close to the two alien space ships that Douglas could see patrolling as cover for the main ship. Douglas knew that the much larger ship was now sitting alongside a small island just over the horizon, but for now he returned to studying the space ships in the air near the horizon again with a set of binoculars.

He was continually amazed as he viewed the two space ships, so just how did they manage to fly so effortlessly without any wings at all? He considered once again the size of the space ships. Each one would have weighed as much as the nearby Anzac second generation frigate, but be nearly a third longer, with their sleek stepped bullet like hulls.

Douglas knew that the technology of the ships really interested him, but he was well aware of his duty not just to the US government but to all mankind as well. He wanted all involved, including the aliens to be looked after properly despite calls from one of his team’s members for a combined Australian/US effort to just seize all the aliens and their ships. He had already had been in a heated argument earlier with that particular team member and knew that more arguments on the issue were to follow.

Eventually the Southern Cross moved off again, this time to the south. The ship orders had been changed so that they skirted to the south of the alien space ships down to rendezvous with HMAS Sydney, who was now closer to the Aurora Discovery. Douglas continued looking at the space ships and considered that there must be a way for humanity to avoid the possibly lethal trap of merely seizing the alien ships.

                                                            ***

Rebecca carefully prepared the tissue samples via swabs from the blackened tattoos that they had taken from Garendestat. She wiped the contaminated swabs across several different types of agar and cultivating media dishes, labeled them and placed the media dishes in a variety of locations. A set of the media dishes went into the refrigerator to simulate low temperatures, another set went under an ultraviolet light, a third set went into a darkened draw, and then the several remaining sets when into desktop racks. She had enjoyed working in medicine ever since she had done work experience with her famous father in his impressive medical facilities in Perth.

Her father had spent most of his life researching treatments for addictive diseases, types of depression, and diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The innovative and courageous researcher had also discovered a way to defeat alcoholism and drug dependence by neurotransmitter therapy over twenty years ago now. As a result her father had received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2029.

Even after Rebecca left university and also went into medicine, she caught up him with as often as she could during her overseas aid missions during the pandemic. Rebecca’s father had been among the multitudes of older people killed by the pandemic and she sorely missed him. Rebecca would keep a close eye on the media dishes over the next few days to see if she could potentially locate a new bacterium present that could kill either the aliens or humans. Rebecca then turned to a blood workup to see if she could recognize or locate any virus’s that could do the same thing, but Garendestat’s blood was just too different to get any immediate results on. Quietly Rebecca hoped that these differences would provide a degree of protection for both intelligent species.