An Accidental Alliance (31 page)

     
“They will never apologize,” Terius predicted.

     
“I don’t imagine they will,” Arn agreed, “but I intend to make those demands in any case. I understand how you have that damnable Covenant to consider, but I do not. If anyone is going to get into trouble here it will be me and my people. We shall speak for ourselves.”

     
Two hours later Arn got his wish. Terius had a call set up with the Galactics on Luna and Arn gave them a list of demands.

     
“How dare you?” the spokesman in Luna asked incredulously.

     
“Quite easily, sir,” Arn told him coldly. “We are humans. Homo sapiens, the first intelligent species to walk the earth from over two hundred and fifty million years ago. By right as the oldest surviving hominid species, we claim Earth and its system as ours. According to your Covenant you claim the Mer cannot own it as they did not evolve naturally, right? Well we did and we predate every other species calling itself Man.”

     
“That’s impossible!” the Galactic told him angrily. “The original forbearers are extinct and have been for longer than we have historical records. They died out in the Scattering.”

     
“More likely they bred themselves out of existence,” Arn snapped, “but there are a few of us still left and unlike you, nobody’s been giving our genes a trim, a shave and a touch of plastic surgery.”

     
“No Mer has ever dared to insult us this way,” the voice on the moon growled.

     
“And no Mer has done so now, Binky!” Arn snapped. “Get this through your head, or heads, however many you have attached to your shoulders; we are humans. The one and only originals and you have committed an act of war. We expect a formal public apology and reparations for our damaged ship and for the pain and suffering of the occupants. We also expect one hell of a lot of back rent for squatting up there on the Moon for the last million years or so.”

     
“It hasn’t been a millions years,” the voice of Luna told him coldly.

     
“Can you prove it?” Arn countered. “Because for all I know it’s been a lot longer. Just get this straight.”

     
“No,” the man on the Moon stopped him. “You get this straight. You will apologize to us and turn over the guilty parties for trial and execution.”

     
“Well at least he isn’t hypocritical enough to say a fair trial,” Park commented wryly.

     
“You get nothing,” Arn told the Galactic. “Humans have never signed your damned Covenent. We do not recognize it as a legal document. We don’t even recognize it as toilet paper. You will make restitution.”

     
“The only way we deal with pirates is with guns,” came the reply.

     
“I can arrange that,” Arn replied before Park could jump over and break the connection.

     
“Too slow,” Park sighed. “That might not have been your height of diplomacy, you realize.”

     
“Actually it might have been,” Arn grinned back. “The fact I was allowed to volunteer for Project Van Winkle could be construed as my superiors’ willingness to do without me, you know.”

     
“I can think of one or two people who were glad to see the back of me too, but I doubt any of them were on the selection committee and I doubt anyone considered Iris disposable,” Park replied.

     
“You weren’t chosen for that reason,” Arn told him. “Having decided on a competent but irksome colonel to get rid of, they gave me the best of the best for the project. Well, that’s neither here nor there, I did run off at the mouth a bit.”

     
“A bit?” Terius and Iris
 
remarked together.

     
“How do you expect us to back up those words?” Park asked. “I’m willing enough. They shot up my ship after all, but the
Hudson
isn’t going to fly again. According to Tack it’s now holy ground to the local Atackack and even if it were salvageable, I don’t think they would appreciate our moving it. How long before the new ship is ready?”

     
“Terius?” Arn asked in turn.

     
“I understand it won’t be flight worthy for months yet,” Terius replied. “You did just order it. If you take it up, they will likely attack you immediately. You know that, don’t you? It won’t be any better armed than the last ship.”

  
   
“I’ve been thinking about that ever since we got shot down,” Iris told him. “I have a few ideas and we have all the materials I’ll need in storage at the base. I have some sketches in my room if you would like to see them.”

     
“I know I’d love to see them,” Park told her.

     
A short time later they gathered in the room Park and Iris shared and she brought out her sketchpad. “You’ve been busy,” Park commented.

     
“I have,” she smiled, “and with Marisea working with the new students, I’ve had the opportunity to work this out. Now I think we could strap some missiles under the wings and mount several more lasers.”

     
“It’s been millions of years, hon,” Park reminded her. “I’m sure the best weapons of our time are all obsolete now.”

     
“Perhaps not,” Terius shook his head, “Those lasers are easily countered. That’s true enough. You got lucky in that the Galactics never expected you to open fire. Mer ships never have and they thought you were just another of ours. Your missiles are another matter, however.

     
“If they are fast enough,” the Prime continued, “I believe they will be a real surprise. No one has fought with physical projectiles in hundreds of millennia. I only know about them at all because of Galactic history books. They are currently considered primitive and ineffective according to what I have read, but I am also informed that defenses against them are no longer installed.”

     
“Sounds like short-sightedness to me,” Arn remarked.

     
“Perhaps,” Terius nodded, “but until Iris Fain mentioned them, I had not even thought of using such a weapon.”

     
“What do modern fighting ships equip then?” Park asked.

     
“Energy and field weapons,” Terius replied. “Multiphase X-ray lasers are popular, I’m told.”

     
“Multiphase?” Park echoed. “Sounds like Star Trek.”

     
“Most illogical, Captain,” Iris smirked.

     
“That plasmacaster you got hit with is favored as well, although easier to deflect,” Terius went on. “It recharges quickly and we have heard of some sort of gravity cannon.”

     
“Gravity cannon?” Marisea asked from the doorway. She and her father hop-stepped into the room. “What’s that?”

     
“We really do not know,” Terius admitted. “It is just something we have heard mentioned in our routine surveillance of Galactic signals.”

     
“Sounds like a form of propulsion,” Park remarked.

     
“Our suspensors work by using gravity lenses,” Taodore mused. “I suppose they could be modified and their power increased to be used as boosts to more conventional drive systems.”

    
 
“That would be interesting to try,” Iris remarked, “but could they also be modified to send, or maybe that’s pull, a sudden burst of gravity? Maybe 100 gees?”

     
“That would be very dangerous,” Taodore replied automatically. “Could you imagine what might happen if you hit something with it?”

     
“Very clearly,” Iris smiled.

     
“Oh, I see what you mean,” Taodore nodded. “I have some colleagues who might be able to try something like that out. I’ll contact them tonight.”

     
“Good!” Arn exclaimed. “Now how soon can we get a ship to try things like that on?”

     
“We don’t have a lot of ships,” Terius demurred. “It will have to wait until the new one is finished.”

     
“What if we borrow and refit one of the ones already in commission?” Park asked.

     
“The Galactics would consider such a loan to be collusion with you humans,” Terius told him.

     
“They don’t even believe in humans,” Park pointed out. “They think we’re just a bunch of uppity Mers and if they act out, they come at you too.”

    
 
“Besides, Prime,” Taodore added, “We are colluding with them. We may as well go all the way, I say.”

     
“Better to be shot for a wolf than slaughtered as a lamb,” Arn added.

     
“A what and a what?” Terius asked.

     
“I’ll explain later,” Arn promised.

     
Just then a messenger looking for Prime Terius arrived and handed him an envelope. Terius opened it and read the report inside. “This is bad,” he moaned.

     
“What’s wrong?” Park asked.

     
“It’s from Luna,” Terius explained. “The Galactic Governor, they never tell us his name, has decreed that all Mer are in violation of the Covenant and that he intends to establish a base on Australis from which he will enforce the Covenant and, according to this, most rigorously exact the penalties for breaking it.”

     
“Well, that settles it then, doesn’t it?” Marisea asked.

     
“What, child?” Terius asked.

     
“If they’re going to invade like that, we have to fight back,” Marisea replied.

     
“That will only serve to anger them,” Terius told her.

     
“They’re already angry,” Marisea argued. “This is our world, not theirs and they have no right to come here uninvited.”

     
“Why are you so angry?” Terius asked Marisea.

     
“You would be too if those dirty Galactics had shot at you,” Marisea replied heatedly.

     
“Hmm, there is that,” Terius admitted. “All right. I will have a ship flown today to Van Winkle Town. Outfit her as you see best. I don’t want a war, but I also do not see how we can avoid one without giving up everything we have worked for these last few millennia. I also do not wish to see a Galactic presence on Earth. However, perhaps it will be best if we try to demonstrate our peaceful intentions.”

     
“That’s fine with me,” Park told him. “I think our first mission should be to finish the repairs on the commsat. If we can do that without incident, it should show them we only want a better communications system.”

     
“Do you really think you can do that unopposed?” Terius asked.

     
“That is entirely up to Luna, now isn’t it?” Park retorted.

     
The Mer did not traditionally name their ships, so Park and Iris, working with Marisea, christened the new ship
Trenisi
, the Merish word for “Freedom.”
 
Trenisi
was a sister ship to the
Hudson
and nearly identical in every way.

     
Iris consulted Velvet Blaire concerning the plans to arm the new ship. “I’ll help of course,” Velvet told her, “but the real evil genius when it comes to building weapons systems is Veronica Sheetz. We definitely want her in on this.”

     
“Her and anyone else who can figure out the Mer technology,” Iris nodded. “I should have thought of Ronnie. She’s been collaborating with Mer scientists since we made contact. Do you think she can figure out how to build one of these gravity cannons?”

     
“I can’t say,” Velvet replied, “but if any of us can, she’s my nominee. I’m pretty good, but I’m just a talented mechanic. Ronnie’s the real innovator and given some of the others on the team, that’s saying something. Now about your designs, I don’t really like putting all that hardware on the wings. Besides, we can fit a lot more missiles into the cargo bay. Why don’t we build a module that can be retracted when not in use. We are trying to look peaceful, aren’t we?”

     
“Which will look worse?” Iris asked. “A few weapons on the wings or a great mess of them slowly dropping out of the cargo bay?”

     
“What makes you think they’ll deploy slowly?” Velvet countered. “At least if they aren’t in plain sight, it won’t look like we want trouble. But if the Galactics want to start a fight, we sure as hell want to be able to end it.”

     
Veronica Sheetz was a short, thin woman with graying hair. As Velvet had said, she was a genius when it came to weapons systems and immediately corrected several design flaws in Iris’ and Velvet’s plans before going on to consider new weapons. “Multiphase lasers?” she asked. “Interesting.”

     
“Can you make one?” Iris asked.

     
“I haven’t the foggiest,” Ronnie shrugged, “but I’ll talk to our Mer colleagues and see what they know about them. Those gravity cannons too. They sound like they have more potential. I wish I knew how those plasmacasters work, maybe we could build one of them, but I think I know a way to minimize their effects.”

     
“Anything would be better than what happened last time,” Iris told her.

     
“I’m sure,” Ronnie remarked dryly. “I wonder if anti-laser gas would effect multiphase lasers… We should just call them phasers, you know. Everyone probably will anyway. Hmm, phasers… how would that work?”

     
“Anti-laser gas?” Iris asked. “What’s that?”

     
“Oh, something we were playing around with about the time we took that extended nap,” Ronnie replied off-handedly. “The concept was to release a suspension of reflective particles in space that would reflect and dissipate a laser beam before it could be used destructively. We didn’t have it all worked out because the gas they were suspended in tended to dissipate too quickly, so unless you happened to release it just before a laser hit you, it had very little effect. We were working on the concept of gaseous coherence in space. Hmm, magnetism, maybe. That reminds me, that note you sent about the anti-plasma defense…”