Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet 11

Chapter 11: Ranger Baker Interlude

The music blasting from the speakers onto the flight deck of this small specialized space ship was called Country music and no one past the Sol system would know what it was, the man in the one person command center of the ship however grew up in Texas, long before the Galactic Ascent and he sang along, knowing every lyric by heart. He was a big man, with fists like five pound hams, a barrel chest and a weathered sun tan.

So long ago he had been a Texas Ranger and now over three thousand years later and a long distinguished career in the Space Marine Corps he was back at doing what he liked doing best, being a ranger and a frontier law man. He was an immortal, but not one of those picked by the guardian; he had become immortal even before the 200 where picked by an Alien that had appeared on the tribal lands of his Native American Grandfather.

So much had happened since then, but Peter Baker hadn’t changed much. He was still the same can do Texan he had been back then.

Now he was a Union Ranger. Technically a law enforcement agency for the frontier areas of the Union but it was so much more. He delivered mail, judged in local disputes, assisted in medical emergencies. He had helped to deliver quite a few babies and not all of them were human. He officiated in wedding ceremonies and did pretty much everything in between. Rangers belonged to the Bureau of Colony Affairs but had the full status of a Union Police Officer.

The Ranger Service was not for everyone and the training was very demanding. A Ranger on Frontier patrol duty was away for three month, usually alone, rarely in pairs.

He was not one of the famous immortals, hardly a handful of people even knew was older than even Richard Stahl but among the Rangers and especially among the settlers and colonists he was a legend.

Peter loved this job as he was mostly independent and could help.

Normally, his patrol range was the fringes of the Spinward Sector, but for the last year he was sent out here to the Fornax Cluster. Sixty five colonies about as far as can be from the rest of the Union territory.

When he set out for his patrol this morning he wanted to check on Cara’s Place, a desert planet with a colony of less than ten thousand, at first a peaceful, quite rustic colony with down to earth folks, but ever since they found vast deposits of Iridium there was constant squabbling among the settlers and now there was a murder, but Cara’s Place had to wait. He just received a call from Fornax Hub, that there was something strange going on at the Buonanno System, the space bus had reported that there were pirates or hostile aliens and now the space bus was overdue and did not respond to hails.

His ship was for the most part a standard Ranger patrol ship. Based on the Barracuda Destroyer hull, was fast, well armed and had excellent shields. Unlike the Navy version the Ranger barracudas did not have a Translocator cannon or Loki torpedoes. It had larger freight compartments filled with emergency supplies, medical equipment and two LEGO Nanite Factories. But his Rusty Betsy, as he called his ship had been modified by his friends and carried a few nasty surprises, as quite a few pirates and outlaws had found out. Still it would not be enough if there was some alien civilization invasion. He would have a look around, check on the bus and if there was more than he could handle, he would high tail and call in the cavalry. The problem was the closest full scale navy base was in the Small Magellan Cloud and it would take at least twenty days to get a Battle group here.

He dropped out of quasi space. His long range sensors had not shown anything out of the ordinary, but now that he was in the Buonanno System his sensors could pick up everything in detail and he immediately noticed the spread of metallic debris not far from Planet Annapurna. There was the distinct signature of an ISAH engine explosion. The remaining mass was consistent with the long range shuttle Terry Finlay piloted.

He stopped the music and put his Stetson straight on as he sat up and activated his shields. Something or someone had destroyed the Space Bus and he did not want to be the next victim of whoever was out there.

The only energy signature he could detect, was from the Zero Point Storage at Annapurna. He had more experience than most men alive and he was not afraid but he still wished Dark Cloud or Wulf would be with him in situations like this.

He hailed Annapurna and did get no answer even after the sixth try. His Computronic analyzed the power output at Annapurna port and verified that the equipment down there was working.

Of course there was cloaking technology and the possibility of something his sensor could not pick up was always there.

He could of course report the destruction of the space bus and call for back up, but if there were colonists down there in trouble any delay would reduce their chances. Then his sensors picked it up, it was well concealed and standard sensors would have never picked it up, but there was something down there on that surface, an energy signature and it was multi dimensional.

There was no putting it off, he had to land and check it out. So he called in made his report and did call for back up and then approached the planet and prepared to

--””--

End in Sight

In only fourteen days from now we would leave Camp Idyllic and what seemed impossible at first did happen, we got used to the long days, heavy work load, never ending study sessions and physical training.

Lt Waltham our Exobiology teacher ended his class and said: “You will get this weekend of for R and R. But I could use a group of volunteers to accompany me for a little expedition. No one seemed too enthusiastic and no one volunteered. He looked in Galmy’s direction.”Cadet I hoped you might be interested, it is a real scientific mission.”

She got up. “Sir I would like to volunteer. “Since she was our friend we got up as well.

The other cadets left the class room, some looking at us with smug smiles. Lt Waltham smiled too, but his smile was genuine pleased and said to Galmy.”I knew I could count on you Cadet Galmy, your genuine interest in exobiology shows in your study results and I am glad your friends come along.”

Our dark haired beauty looked at us with her big eyes. “Sorry guys. You didn’t have to volunteer too.” But her eyes were saying thank you for doing it anyway.

Waltham sat down on the desk and explained. “We are going to take a Crawler Cat out into the Jungle all the way to the other side of the planet. We still haven’t catalogued all of the native species; especially the southern continent has huge areas completely unexplored. Wilson, a farmer that has homesteaded there, reports of a lizard he believes shows signs of intelligent behavior and uses primitive tools. The Science Corps has ordered me to investigate that and to verify if there is an indigenous sentient life form to this world.”

Six hours later while the other cadets enjoyed their time off, we unloaded a track crawler from the hold of a D100 transport that had taken us, half across the globe to a small clearing in the sweltering jungle.

The vehicle was a Deere Planetary Survey Crawler with wide dura-plast tracks. It had a fusion cell for energy and could accommodate 12 beings for an extended period of time in almost any environment.

The Lieutenant was sitting in the passenger seat, while Galmy was driving it. The rest of us questioning the necessity of us being here sat in the back, while the machine pushed through the dense underbrush of the jungle.

Waltham swiveled the chair around. “I really appreciate you volunteering. I know most of you rather had the weekend off, but this is an opportunity for you to be on a real mission. One day you all are officers and an exo-biological survey like this one will be very likely. You see the Fleet is not just fighting wars, keeping the borders safe and patrol traffic lanes for pirate activity. Among our main duties is the collection of knowledge. To expand our horizons, support the science corps and explore the unknown both in space and on the surface of new worlds. Some of you might not be stationed on a battle ship at all, but on an Explorer ship or on a research station on a distant planet.”

Limbur crossed his arms.” I sure hope not.”

“What do you expect, Cadet?” The Lieutenant asked.

The bald headed cadet shrugged: “I am not sure, but to be in a remote research station with a bunch of Sci-Geeks sure isn’t it. Besides I am going to specialize in Security during my second year.”

“Once you graduate you could be posted anywhere. Personnel allocation may put fresh officers without experience at a quiet post where they can gain some experience.” He directly looked at Limbur.” Security is needed on all Navy holdings, be it a ship or a Science Camp.”

“I still would like to know why you need us, Sir. I mean we aren’t doing anything.”

“Glad you asked Mister. Why don’t you man the bio impulse scanner and check for neural patterns that might indicate sentient life.”

“Sir I am not that good with that. Galmy is much better.”

The Lieutenant smiled.” Now you have a reason to be here. Get some practice with the science equipment and you Cadet Narth will assist him. I am sure you can find things much easier with your Psionic powers, but I want you to use the scanner equipment instead.”

Limbur mumbled something incoherent but he and Narth swiveled their seats, changed the configuration of the multi task consoles to the required task.

The Lieutenant seemed satisfied and then he said to me:” Mr. Olafson, this is an expedition into the unknown, potentially hazardous territory. You man the gun turret and keep your eyes and thread sensors open.”

“Aye Sir.”

“Midshipman Olia Naa you are to take a break and lay down. You are going to take over driving later on.”

“And you Mr. Wintsun will take the assistant driver position.”

The gun turret was a single forced energy projector on top of the Crawler and I controlled it from my console. The threat sensors weren’t much good in this situation, the sensors could pick up energy sources, life forms, heat sources, movement, metallic and artificial materials but there where to many life forms out there, too much movement and heat sources besides I didn’t expect any threats. There was no life form out there that could harm a full size crawler like that. The planet was deep in union territory and no unknown alien forces with hostile intentions would be lingering out there.

Even with the visual enhancement sensors and virtual sight head gear it was quite boring to scan the jungle.

I lost my sense of time but without looking at my MultiCom wristband, I estimated that we were driving now for at least six or seven hours through untouched jungle. The scenery outside did not chance. Trees, Vines, bushes, Mud bogs, animals and more trees. That was the reason I was totally unprepared for the sudden jolt that virtually lifted me out of the seat and banged my head against something, I tasted blood in my mouth.