Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 1 - Alien Flight (28 page)

One of her daughters asked a nervous question.

‘They may not stay here long, or to be more accurate the Traders might not stay long. Should we not get closer but not too close? The more time we that have with the eternal servants the greater the potential return.’

The queen listened with silent pride as she prepared to give her orders. Her second eldest daughter Seliandre, was indeed showing a fine mind and would one day make a superb queen. First there was the matter of the two downed trader ships.

‘Cliade and Armuen, you two will go to our facilities and only bring the following items, nothing more nothing less, here please.’

The queen listed the items carefully, and her two youngest daughters immediately repeated back the list of items, and then silently swam away to follow her orders.

‘The rest of us will move to this point.’

The inbuilt maps of the daughters came alive with a location they would swim together to await the Maveen probes. Quietly, as they swam east and deep, the queen evaluated the potential risks from the Maveen. But she considered the aspect of the probes arrival with some hope for her own plans to leave this world could be improved. She also wondered what the ancient Maveen probe in the makeshift cradle back at her main facility would make of the new arrivals.

                                                            ***

Commander Jane Walker sat in her day cabin and looked through the information in front of her. The two Anzac frigates were on their way up to the mid-west coast when a report arrived on HMAS Sydney. A cargo ship heading towards Fremantle had recently witnessed a one hundred meter space ship that was airborne, and was travelling north east at just ninety knots. The cargo ship position was just south west of the southern approaches to the Abrolhos islands group.

‘Steve was certainly right about much of what has happened.’

She thought to herself as she gave orders for the two frigates to head for the eastern side of the Abrolhos Islands. The commander knew that the Fleet West would change her orders based on the latest report. So she sent a message to them advising she was taking the frigates to the Abrolhos Islands, but the ships would keep their distance awaiting further orders. Jane also sent the helicopters on both ships forward to with strict orders to observe the alien ships at a distance.

‘We don’t want to be mistaken for hostiles after the efforts of the US 5
^th
fleet.’ She considered to herself.

The reports of the battle the Australian ships had witnessed from a distance had been well received by Fleet West. Also well received were the opinions she had obtained prior to the incident from both Steve and indirectly, from Douglas Stoneham. At the request of Fleet West, Douglas had called left a message, and Jane had called him back to discuss the issue further to see if they had omitted or left anything out at all. The discussion then had turned to the alien ships themselves, the view that was gaining ground was that using force against the aliens would not be attempted again.

However the US fleet command had been entirely non committal about not using force again on the aliens. Jane would like to talk to Steve again soon, and messages she had from his ship was that he was on a helicopter flight with an underwater microphone. She worried that if the aliens did turn up in Steve’s location that he would prove correct in how to deal with them.

                                                            ***

Lieutenant Garendestat was dimly aware of his surroundings as he awoke to a buzzing tone, and was then acutely aware of his left arm and shoulder as he finally tried moving them. He hung upside down in deep water from a heavy tie down cable used to secure freight in the cargo hold. Most of the strain on his body from the cable going taut had been taken by the solid casing of the left leg of his space suit, now covered in two or three loops of cable.

‘Otherwise I would be already dead…’ He observed.

He knew that he would have either plummeted to the sea floor and his suit would have imploded, or he would have lost his arm and then drowned when the space suit flooded. Undoubtedly the limited flex of the striated cable helped to a certain extent as he estimated he had fallen one hundred metres.

Painfully and slowly, he checked the radio status, and it was not any good at all he considered with real despair. The heavy cable had ruptured the electronics, but the backing plate for the link on the arm of the suit possibly had saved his life when the cable jammed into it. He next checked the air and water, and the buzzing tone was explained, his suit was low on air and he had less than an hour left. Garendestat manually keyed the command for the limited extra buoyancy reserves available then ensured that his suit lights were on. He evaluated that the sneak ships should find him easily enough with his suit transponder and his lights on if they were nearby.

As he was now moving a bit the cable started to slip again, and he had the presence of mind to first loop the cable in his equipment belt on the space suit. Garendestat then secured the cable with a tool grip holder. This took quite an effort with only one useable arm, but eventually he could rest for a minute or two.

‘Unorthodox use for a tool grip holder…’ He thought as he slowly turned for the surface and began to pull himself up the cable with one hand.

                                                            ***

In her clearing the Deltas Vass matriarch patiently viewed the reports of the developments of the distant reaches of the Carinae sector. She trilled a sharp note of concern and her drones looked around anxiously, then went still and silent to show the deference and respect that they have for her. The matriarch felt unhappy about a specific report that mentions a Trader ship had entered the Sol system, with both haven and quarantine status current.

The matriarch knew this was the home world of the humans and that their human population that had been recently decimated. She considered both pieces of information and evaluated what was occurring as most decidedly odd. On the report she then flagged the Sol system with increased importance as a location to be closely watched. Little did the matriarch know that as she formulated yet more plans across the sector, that this one star system will occupy much of her thoughts in the many years to follow.

                                                            ***

Steve leaned out of the hovering helicopter and looked down at the strange rig floating in the water. The cylindrical object was about thirty metres long and eight metres in diameter, with sturdy skids protruding from under the inflatable collar that kept the object afloat. The first impression Steve got was that it was like a research or rescue submersible, but he could see no signs of a power plant at all.

A folded radio mast and a large hatch were evident on the top surface of the object, and a series of portholes lined the front and sides of the object. Interestingly the hatch appeared to be well secured by a large jury rigged welded plate, almost as if to keep something inside from getting out. Steve looked over the strange floating object further and gave possibly spurious orders to Mark, even as he noted that the belly cable with the underwater loudspeaker attached had already been retracted.

‘Mark, keep us several metres off to one side and at our present height please.’

The floating collar looked durable, but Steve was not taking any chances and radioed the Aurora Discovery.

‘Aurora Discovery can I have an ETA on the ship reaching my position? Over’

The crew on the bridge gave an estimate of within two hours then Steve spoke again for the benefit of the chief engineer on his ship.

‘I want the chief to rig the rear gantry, we have something here I want to recover if I can.’

The chief engineer came on the radio briefly. Steve gave him the estimated length and mass of the object, to which the chief replied that he though the rear gantry should be able to handle the lifting of the object. Dan had been looking over the object as Steve was on the radio, and he suddenly gave a start as Steve finished his radio message.

‘Steve I think something is below the object underwater as I can see flashes of light like there is a diver below.’

Mark kept the helicopter level as Steve looked with Dan for a minute or two, and confirmed Dan’s discovery.

‘There is definitely someone down there Dan, and it is hard to tell how far the down the lights are from up here. I think if I get into the water alongside I can snorkel under the object and find out what is happening.’

Quickly Steve left his satellite phone in the seat pocket, undid the seatbelt and donned a lifting vest from the helicopter recovery kit near the side door. He put together a pack consisting of life jacket; some tools, torch and marine radio, then he donned the mask, snorkel and flippers.

Steve clipped the kit to the vest, and then the vest onto the recovery winch. He verified the attachments and then spoke to the pilot.

‘Mark, just ease me down into the water along side the object, as the sides of the floating collar are too difficult to climb back up.’

By this stage Dan was also in the rear crew section, had on another lifting vest, and was clipped off to the front bulkhead. Mark acknowledged the instruction and the side door soon opened, as the Dan gave a simple test of the winch by releasing three metres of line and winding two metres back. Steve indicated he was ready, and Dan slowly lowered him fifteen metres into the slight chop of the Indian Ocean.

Steve floated on his back checking the snorkel, mask and fins by habit. He then unclipped the lifting cable from the long tail at the neck of the vest, clipped the life jacket to the lifting cable, turned on the torch and swam strongly to the side of the strange alien object. Steve could see inside a couple of the portals and was aware of being watched by three large red forms inside the object. The beings inside boasted a mass of teeth and red skinned limbs tipped with long claws. He felt the sensation of being watched by them was like an antelope being studied by a pride of lions. As he stopped for a moment beneath the collar floats of the large object he radioed a call to Dan.

‘Dan I think something of concern is locked in that object, the creatures look dangerous and they possibly have been secured for a reason.’

Dan acknowledged Steve’s concern.

‘Well as long as they are not in distress no one is going to open that hatch.’

Steve then turned and immediately dove under the object.

                                                            ***

Apart from learning the human language from the research notes at an impressive rate, Captain Narindestat was much too busy planning on getting his ship ashore to worry to long about the Maveen probes leaving the ship. The lead probe was a stickler for protocol the captain decided, though he could see the wisdom of the probe’s constraints on the Traders all too well.

The captain did wonder why only the six small Maveen probes had again left his ship, and also why the larger Maveen ship had remained behind still and silent in his hold. He considered to himself that the best solution would have been that all the Maveen ships should had left, despite the Maveen probe's instructions. Then he would not have been as constrained as he was to launch back into space. He had also considered sending a sneak ship to recover the body of his son. But he had soon discarded the idea as he noted the great depth of the ocean at the point his son had fallen out of the ship. The sneak ship would struggle to retain structural integrity at those depths, even if it could locate the body of his son.

Emeria had fled to her quarters weeping on hearing the news of Garendestat, her second piece of bad news in just over a week. However she had later returned to care for the sickening crew looking both distant and fragile.

The crew went about their duties stoically though several still coughed badly or had bandaged patches secured about the infected glimmer tattoo sites. The glimmer illness in his crew concerned the captain greatly, as the normally placid crew had begun to show signs of stress and aggression. Several of the senior crew members had looked at the captain with fixed looks, that while lately full of sympathy, only just stopped short of a challenge. Captain Narindestat suppressed a shiver, mutiny was unknown amongst the Traders in space, but then the loss of the controlling mechanism of the glimmer tattoos amongst the Traders was largely unknown as well.

                                                            ***

Admiral Johnston reviewed the decision process that had led to the disastrous battle. The Unified Command office in Hawaii was sending the original admiral of the US 5
^th
fleet back two days early to resume command when they returned to Diego Garcia. The admiral expected to be exonerated in the formal enquiry in Hawaii next month, but would be then compelled to retire in a closed door meeting that was typical of senior naval command out of the spotlight. He knew that if the alien ships had been captured then the losses the US 5
^th
fleet had experienced would not have been held against him so much.

The hue and outcry from the international media about the attack by the fleet was definitely driving his own problems he decided. Indeed the relationships between the US and her western allies had cooled markedly to a level near that of the epidemic ten years ago. The Australians had been uncharacteristically cold about the event, especially as it had occurred on their own doorstep. With no ships in danger of sinking, the Australians had later only offered limited assistance to the damaged ships of the US 5
^th
fleet.

The damage reports of the fleet ran through several reports, and the two Zumwalt cruisers would need extensive repairs back in the US, as entire sections of the vertical gun assembly were either melted or fused to the rest of the ship. The senior fleet engineer though that the cruisers would have to have complete new centre sections built. The more pressing problem was that the whole fleet was largely blind to underwater and aircraft threats. A Chinese submarine or aircraft carrier could decimate the US 5
^th
fleet in the current condition it was now operating. A series of air patrols was mitigating that very unlikely risk, and he considered that the fleet would return safely to Diego Garcia in three days time.