Book X - Replace Ch 3 -Fragment

Har-Hi intercepted me right at the Air lock after returning to the ship and said. “ We got the crew of Swift squared away, sixty one are now peacefully frozen in Null time. “ I took my mask of and said. “Anything else I should know about?” We walked to the IST and he said. “No not really but I listened to your audio feed from the Captain's table and I heard what Crimson said about Cam Elf Na, and that kept me thinking and I don't even know what to think. It's just that I don't like it. Cam Elf Na is an agitator and if he really has 2000 Clans united under one command, that is bad.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “We are still within GalNet Range. Call your father, tell him about it, and I will tell the Admiral the same.” He smiled and said. “I' do that as soon as possible.” “You do that now, the earlier the better.”

--””--

I just stepped of the IST and onto the bridge as the Battle Station Signal was given. Mao who held the Con said. “The Dai, they are here !” We switched seats. “Shaka get us away from that base right away.” I raised my seat into Battle View and Mao gave me a situation report. “At least 5 Clans, the KELPIES have reported 1500 Dai Signatures dropping out of Quasi. There are Six hundred Be-Tha-Ra Dai Battle Ships but no Dai Mothers, strangely enough. Scans Show weapons charged and there are more dropping by the moment. Wait those aren't Dai Signatures, those are Togar Units, big Ones! About 30 light minutes behind the Dai a massive Togar Fleet had appeared and from the Quasi Space tremors picked up by our sensors more were on the way. On the standard channels was pure chaos. Mao said calmly. “The Dai will reach the system in less than 30 minutes. They are launching fighters.” Shaka had manouvered us free of the Base and both the Crimson Curse and the Swift Profit also moved away from the mooring structure. “Shaka get us out of here, Narth coordinate with Krabbel. I don't want to loose the Swift Profit in all of this.” Both the Swift Profit and the Crimson Curse were aiming for open space and strained their engines to the max. As I turned to look back and focused on the Asteroid base, I saw hundreds of gun turrets appear from hidden shafts and Karthanian Gnorr Fighters launched by the dozen from tunnel like openings. “SHIP, Tactical Assessment.” SHIP respsonded. “The Dai and the Togar are technically almost en par, with a slight lead by the Dai especially in fighter technology. However it appears the Togar committed an enormous fleet, outnumbering the Dai 60 to one. Conclusion by tactical numbers is a win for the Togar but with heavy losses on both sides.” Narth responded. “We have a Togar Battle Cruiser I pursuit. We will be in his weapon range before we can traverse into Quasi Space. He accelerates faster than our simulated Karthanian evne with old Isah pods could possibly go.” Mao load the Sniper Cannon with a micro load an prepare to target their engine room. Shaka increase acceleration by three percent. The first Togar Units were engaged by the Dai Rear Guard and our energy sensors detected heavy weapon fire. Har-Hi said. “Captain if we were a real Karthanian even with Old Isah Pods we could maintain such a burst of speed maybe 10 seconds with all engines way past red line. The Togar is still gaining. Two minutes to Threshold speed and 1 minute before they are in weapon range.” Eli said. “The Togar are hailing everyone on all of their frequencies.” “Put it on.” “This is Princess Legrha, First Daughter of the Queen of Togr. High Commandrix of all Togar forces. The Shattered System is under Togar protection and we will fight to the last ship and Warrior. Be advised that the entire Togar Force is alerted and on its way. Dai Than have been tolerated by us and we did not seek conflict with you. However engage in any hostility against any target inside that system and Togar will not rest until all Dai are eliminated. Disengage and leave and we will ignore the first exchanges and let you pass. Disregard and there will be no quarter given. We furthermore demand to search all Vessels leaving that system.” The Tigershark was hit by the first volley of FTL beams, obliterating our simulated Karthaninan Aft shields. Turning on our real shields would give away our real origin. “Mao, fire!” 100 Grams of zero stasis stabilized Anti Matter contained in a one kilo bomb sphere was trans-dimensionally transported into the engine room of the pursuing Togar Vessel at the point of annihilation. The Karthanian aft exploded and simultaneously lost its ISAH field, the entire vessel was utterly and instantly destroyed. Before us the Swif Profit slipped into Quasi Space and we were right behind.

---””---

I wondered what outcome the space battle behind us would take and why the Togar were willing to commit such assets to defend a seemingly unimportant star system used only by a handful of miners and pirates. The same held true for the massive commitment of the Dai. One single Clan would have been more than enough to raid such a small star system without any planets. I was looking over the detail scans of our Kelpies but could not find anything out of the ordinary that would explain such efforts. I sighed and was about to ask Elfi to get me in contact with Admiral McElligott when she said. “Captain, the Swift Profit has dropped out of Quasi and is hailing us.” Shea tossed me my mask and Har-Hi helped me close it behind my head. He said. “I imagine he taxed his engines past red line to get out of there and now has some sort of malfunction.” I tugged on my mask to straighten it and said. “I actually expected that call of his, just not so soon.” Har-Hi first gave me a questioning look and then smiled and nodded., “Of course...” “Let's find out what he wants from us.” Elfi signaled me that the Bridge image was adjusted and put the Pirate on screen. He said. “That is what I call a close call indeed and thankfully that Togar lost containment before he could reach us,” “Why are we stopping here? Ten light years away from a space battle is still a tad to close for my taste.” “I agree with you, Velvet, I would love to be halfway to Sin 4 by now, but my Intermixer was taxed beyond its specifications due to our hasty departure and I don't want to loose containment while going Trans light. You would not be able to spare shield material and a few Magno Coils so I can repair mine? Spare parts are really hard to find in deep space.” “Yes as a matter of fact, I do. Come along side and I extend a flexi tunnel so we can get the thing fixed. Spareparts aren't cheap however and I take 20,000 polos now or half of your next haul.” He grinned all over his face. “We have a deal, Velvet.” After he disconnected I said. “Hans prepare your marines for Boarding action, Mao as soon as he drops shields and comes along side, full Tech stop and Paralysator.if you detect any energy sources after that, you are authorized to engage with Picto Loads.” Narth said. “Does it come to a surprise to you when I tell you that he has very similar plans and that he is planing to raid us?” “No, not at all. I expect to find his engine in good working order too.” Har-Hi explained further. “He is a pirate and he has seen the chest of Polos. I am certain he was planning something the second he suggested to fly together.” Shea said. “It looks you two already think like real pirates and I suppose you two will lead the raid again, right?” Har-Hi and I were almost at the IST and he said. “You know she does have a point. Technically and by Fleet rules you should stay aboard. I am so sorry Captain but you got to stay this time.” Shea said. “Technically and by fleet rules that holds true for the XO as well, but it looks like Tech Stop and Paralyse worked this time. Our sensors confirm that eighty five percent of all detected life forms show severely reduced electro neuro activity and 88 percent of all active energy producing sources are inactive.” “Mao...” “I am on it Captain.” I gestured to the XO seat. “After you, my faithful companion. I think we elected the wrong positions for ourselves.” Har-Hi made his best suffering facial expression and said with a deep sigh. “Yes indeed my Captain, yes indeed.” We watched as Hans  performed a Boarding raid by the book. After they had breeched the Pirate ship they found a bunch of heavy armed pirates unconcious right behind their main airlock. They all wore tough looking but inadequate Karthanian Battle Armor Space Suits, good enough to raid a civilian craft or a similar Tech Level but not the most advanced Union Shi. There was severe damage in where Mao's nano loads had destroyed someone in a better shielded suit. I got up, it, I could not sit still, I could not sit down at the moment and I said, “Hans, what are those strange green looking Containers next to the Air lock?” It was Sobody who said. “Better leave them alone Captain, those a Bethler Plague Eggs. A sinister Bio agent. I am sure this is how he planned to subdue us.” “A biological weapon against sealed bulkheads?” I asked It eats most metals, it eats it fast and is very hard to kill and to get rid off unless you got the Anti Agent. It also kills most life forms by attacking every trace of metal including the iron in your blood.” I shuddered involuntary and said. “Shea are our guys in danger?” “They are wearing our latest battle suits and are shielded and I doubt any microbic life form could eat molecular compacted Ultronit or pass through ParaDim Shields, but I have no data to strengthen my hypothesis into a theory or even a statement. I think I should go over there and do more detailed scans and then secure at least one of these Eggs for further analysis. I am a good science officer and will take all necessary precautions.” Sobody got up. “I volunteer to go along. I remember the Bethler well.” I knew she was right. She was the best choice to make sure the Bio Agent hasn't leaked and find a way to secure a sample.”Alright, Shea go and do your thing and take our Golden along.” To Sobody I said. “Tell her everything you know about that stuff and then let us find out why a third grade Pirate has something like that and knows how to use it.”

--””--

Hans and his marines had secured the Pirate Ship, but so far they had not found Swift himself. Shea and Sodoby working with a bunch of scanners and Laboratory equipment on the greenish bulb shaped, man sized containers. Circuit was also aboard  and trying to overwrite the lock out codes of Swifts computronics. Sobody explained that the Bethler were an advanced civilization somewhere in the Downward sector, famous for their bio weapons and in a civil war or perhaps an industrial accident one of their weapons escaped and wiped the Bethler out. That happened, according to Sobody about 6,000 years ago. He also said that others scavenged the ruins of the  Bethler society and took whatever they could and that Bethler Bio agents were rare but not unknown traded items on his Bazaars and that he did not find it strange that a Pirate would have a load of these. Shea was in her element and quite excited. I said to Hans. “Are you sure Swift is not aboard?” “We scanned the vessel, and I am doing a second sweep right now, Mao killed four men with his Micro loads, there isn't much left of them. Maybe he was one of those.” Narth said. “No Captain he is still alive, I can sense him.” His voice changed and he said with concern. “Captain, a  Togar Womptar Battle Cruiser has just dropped out of Quasi and they are under shields and weapons charged. Elfi said. “They are hailing us.” “Alright, SHIP sound Battle stations. Mao stand by on shields but don't raise them yet. Elfi put them on.” A magnificent strong looking Cat Warrior became visible and he growled. “Pirate you are identified as one of the ships that left Brhama Port. We demand that you stand down and hand over the Togar criminal fugitive we know is in your possession. Do that and we will consider to let you live. Do it not and we will have no mercy.” “I have no Togar Criminals aboard, I sold that Cat to Crimson Curse.” “We will search your vessel now.” “I don't let just anyone come aboard.” “You have no choice, your little Freighter has sharp claws but not enough to prevent your doom. Your Froth Casters do not have the range.” I cut him off. “Narth turn on our real sensors and check if he is alone, Mao full Giga Load as soon as I give the signal” Our real sensors reached light years beyond the ones a Karthanian Freighter would have and also showed Quasi Space traffic. There were quite a few signals both Karthanian and Dai but only one Dai Signal was coming this way as well. Narth said. “He is about to call for back up and tell his Superiors about us.” “Mao, fire!” The Giga Load Translocator bomb detonated right in the Command Center of the Karthanian Ship engulfing it in a sun like sphere of bright expanding energies. I was well aware that this explosion would show on every sensor in the region and that we had not much time. “Narth did he send his message?” “No, he just started sending his ID sequence and their communication systems are much slower than ours and it will take a few hours before it is received., but two long range Dai Scanner contacts and three Togar have changed course and they will be here in less than 20 minutes.” “Shea, quick give me summary.” “We can safely contain the Eggs and we can decontaminate against them. No organism has been set free.” “Alright bring one aboard and lock it away as fast as possible. Hans bring the Prisoners aboard  and hurry.” To Narth I said. “Swift, are you still sensing him?” Narth did not respond for a moment and I thought he was probing for Swift. Narth then said. “I am sorry captain I got distracted, It should never happen to a Narth but I the Togar and the...” Narth, no worries it happens to the best of us. You are running Ops. You did find him, right?” “Yes but not much longer. He escaped in a small pod like device and is almost out of my psionic range. He is heading for that Star System.” “I didn't want to blame Narth, but I wondered how Swift could escape even in a space suit without using energy and being detected.” Narth said. “He used a chemical propulsion device.” I got up and walked over and put my hand on his shoulder. “Narth, that you are my friend you know, as your Captain I tell you I could not have a better OPS officer and besides you shared your Hugavh with me remember and you told me that you also start to adopt traits of mine, you do know that I am human and have a whole load of imperfect traits.” He raised his head and I felt his mood improve. “Indeed, that is a quite logical explanation why I possibly could have missed something.” “Now go and help Shea. We need every hand to get out of here. If we keep using Translocators they get wise to the fact that we are not Pirates.” --””--

I was not willing to let Swift escape, while Narth had missed the initial launch of the little one man capsule, our sensors did not. The Capsule went translight but Narth was certain that Swift was  thinking about a rhe only nearby star system as destination as his escape pod did not have a very good range. We managed to stow away the seventy nine Pirates of the Swift Profit, but not before the first Dai dropped out of Quasi, followed by two Togar Units and both forgot about us. The Togar almost immideatley fired upon the Dai only to receive an answer in kind from the Dai Cruiser. We were able to complete the transfer and even take all the Green Disease Eggs aboard. Of course I was sweating blood and water as we had to keep the shields down. Sobody was very disapointed that he could not go back and get more loot. The battle between the two Togar and the Dai was about to reach its climax. The Dai was more skillful manouvering and his weapons did more damage but it was two against one and the Togar Units were substantially bigger and had more energy reserves. A sudden bolt of energy peppered our now raised shields showing that the togar had not completley forgotten about us, but that gave the Dai Ship an opening and it hit the other Togar with a concentrated volley of all its main weapons, breaking the already strained shields of the Togar and  a Dai FTL Forced Energy Beam sliced right through the Togar armor and deposited its destructive energies in that ships engineering section. One of the Togars was done for, unable to manouver and without shields. The other Togar however raked the Dai with weapon fire and the shields of the Dai were on the verge of giving. This was our cue. “Mao blow the Swift Profit, Shaka get us out of here as soon as the Swift Profit is history.” Mao fired our simulated Nul Froth Casters and chaotic oscillating graviton waves pulled and pushed the matter of the Swift Profit in every concieveable direction, developing gravitational whirlpools and pulverizing the Swift Profits engineering and thus antimatter containment. The Swift Profit exploded, followed a few moments later by a crippling explosion rendering the second Togar ship into a wreck. The battered Dai did not follow. He was now busy salvaging the Togars and we got clean away, without needing to accelerate faster than a Karthanian, even with added Isah Pods, was supposed to be.

--””-- The star system we were approaching was only nine light years from where we destroyed the Swift Profit and  where Narth was certain Curtis went. I had us drop out of Quasi just a light hour outside the system and turned to Sobody. “Do you know anything about this System? According to Union Catalogs it has only a number and was of course never surveyed as it is in Free Space.” Sobody rubbed his bald head, that no longer sported the ugly fake scar and said. “We Golden are not explorers as you Terrans, most of what we know is from others telling us. I can't recall if it is occupied by anyone. Soon we can use GalNet to access Golden Archives and I am sure we know something about it. Shea looked over her scanner results and said. “It's a binary star system, with dying red star two Rock Core planets, one Jovian and a few moons and planetoids. The second rock core planet appears to be a Type 3 E Garden world.” “Energies?” She shook her head. “Nothing with Karthanian Sensors, do you want me to light up our real ones?” “No not yet, I was told the Kermac don't have the same quality sensors we do, but they can detect Union Sensors used. Keep your eyes open and glued to our instruments. Shaka get us to that 3E world. I have a feeling that is where he went.” As we closed on the second planet, Shea said. There are 49 artificial satelites in orbit around that world. Metal and very weak energy readings. Looks like nuclear decay batteries.” “Shaka get us closer so Shea can take a better look, SHIP sound battle stations.” Shea ws glued to her scanners and then she said. “48 of these  Satelittes are  Space mirrors, meant to collect sunlight and heat to make that freeze looker planet more liveable, but none of the mirrors reflect anything and appear to have only minimal power sources. The material scans and the design point to Tech Level 3.” She paused. “One of the satellite appears to be some sort of command center. Materials and Energy source match the mirrors, and it too has all appearance of  Tech Level 3 but just from looking at it.” “You do not sound very convinced.” I said looking at the now enhanced images of large square constructs with thousands of hexagonal patterned plates. Accroding to the data displayed each of those square things measured 2000 square meters, but where only a few meters thick with a parabol shaped construct on the underside, aiming at the planet below. She said. “That command structure looks like a gigant cannon  of sorts. It is over 3000 meters long and it is aimed more or less at the Union Core region. I can't deduct what it is supposed to be.” I smiled. “It's alien and maybe we can find out what it is.” Narth said. “I detected Swift's mind for a moment. He is down on that planet, and he is afraid, but now he slipped past my range again. “He sounded appologetic as he added.”It is still quite a distance.” “Any other life or thoughts?” He concentrated for a few moments and then said. “I am not certain. I had the impression of some very faint, very distant thoughts. Like a murmur without real substance or meaning.” “Shaka, put us in a geostationary orbit roughly over the spot where Narth felt Swift's mind and Shea light up our science and life sensors. They don't have trans light emissions right?” “No Life science sensors are have a very limited range.” Har-Hi said. “You know all this pirate business should be my favorite mission, but I must admit this is why I really wanted to be a Union Officer. Exploring a new star system, finding something unusual and unexpected.” He pointed his gloved finger at me. “Please don't ever tell that to my father or any other Dai for that matter.” I laughed. “If you don't tell any Nilfeheim Viking that I dressed up like a Pirate Chick.” He grinned. “It's a deal, Captain.” Krabbel said. “Please let me be part of an away mission this time. I know there won't be many chances for me to pretend to be a Pirate as there aren't any Archas outside the Union, but here it's not about our mission, right?” “Well it is part of our mission Krabbel. We are here to catch Curtis Swift, but we did stumble upon a mystery and if there is an away mission you be on it, besides you don't have to be an Archa, you could be a spider being from some distant regions. I never planned to keep you on the sidelines.” Har-Hi gestured to the floating mirrors. “Looks like they are crusted over with dust or something and that is why they don't work.” Shea also looked at it and said. “For structures like this to attract that much dust in deep space means they must be very old. How are we going to do this Captain?” “We stay up here and you and your department prepare a detailed report from what you can determine with sensors and you are authorized to launch a probe to get a closer look.” To Narth I said. “And you my friend are ordered to relax and sleep for a few hours. You have teleported, mind scanned and probed with your Psionics for quite a while now and I know you too need rest.” “But Curtis Swift?” “We find someone to man OPS and he should not be able to leave that world without us noticing. We will have a meeting in 6 hours and in the meantime SHIP stand down from Battle Stations but maintain Condition Orange.” I am going to update the Admiral and catch a few winks myself.”