Chapter 3
For over a year we worked our asses off at Longreach. We carefully selected people to migrate to our new base. Besides the repair ship, Marn; we also had a mining/refinery ship! It was busy converting raw material into useful finished products for us.
The base on the planet which we named Alton, was located on the continent where Eric had spent so much time. The second base was named Caston. Both bases were recruiting people for various positions.
One thing we wanted was a trained army. Not trained to this worlds training, but to Eric's. He'd spent three months training a cadre to train a good basic response force. Specialized training would have to come later.
We had also modified my ship a bit. I now had a shield! Shields were just becoming a reality in my universe, and they weren't very good yet. They had a poor record of performance. True, they helped to some extent, but they collapsed quickly, and had not been much of a benefit, so far. Except now, I had a better shield! One that could take hit after hit, for some time, before it failed. With that, plus my newly updated gravity compensator's and my 5 torpedoes, add a newly installed 50 cm Ion cannon. These made me a very powerful non-military ship!
The Marn had also modified my torpedoes. A thin coating of a material was placed on each torpedo, which rendered them invisible to most of the sensors we had! Also, the warheads were exchanged (with the exception of my nuclear tipped torpedo) with matter/anti-matter warheads rated at 10 kg's! That represented a very big bang when it went off!
Finally, we had a new weapon in the form of a new crew member. She was 22 years old, and a member of the compound Eric had visited and helped restore. She had the rarest of abilities. She was a multiple psionist. She was telepathic and telekinetic. Her range seemed to be 'line of sight'. If she could see it, she could affect it. If she saw a person, she could connect with that person. Tests with her seeing someone via a video conference call showed her range to be limitless! Well, that was my thought, anyway.
Unfortunately, we still did not have everything needed to make jump coils for my ship. So I was still stuck with my 2 light years a day speed, which was not too bad, really. It was what I was used to.
"Alex? How long are we going to be at Halsy?" Jason asked me.
"We might be able buy some older ships from them, ferry them back to Longreach, and have the Marn redo 'em. So I am thinking, perhaps a week. Halsy is a very independent planet. With it's battle forts, mines, and 3 corvette squadrons; I don't think anything short of a fleet could take it, and there ain't a government that has a fleet to free up right now," I said musingly.
"I'm glad I didn't ask you what time it was, or you'd have given me the history of clocks!" Jason said with a chuckle.
"Well, you caught me thinking about other things. Afraid I included that in my answer. I'll try to be more direct in the future," I said with a bit of embarrassment.
When we came out of hyper, we were picked up almost at once by Halsy's approach control. Apparently something had happened that we didn't know about, because we were told to decelerate and come to a halt, well outside any normal planetary orbit.
We did as instructed, and two corvettes came out. Misty informed us that we were being scanned in the military and targeting ranges. I was a little uncertain, but our new crew member had taken a look at the man on the screen. She then informed us they were not going to do anything bad to us. They just wanted to check us for contraband and weapons. I blessed the day that Kalia joined my crew.
Well, Misty had passed several such tests in the past, with other customs agents. Marn had done a good job integrating the Ion cannon, making it non-detectable. I swear the captain of the Marn had probably done a bit of smuggling in the past!
Four very no-nonsense men came aboard and started going through the ship. This was going to take some time. I showed one customs officer my ship's papers. He also wanted to see my manifest. This was not a problem, as I was carrying no cargo. He went over my crew list as well.
"What is the purpose of your visit to Halsy?" he asked me.
"Make a couple interstellar calls. Buy supplies and equipment for expended items. Contact my broker, and see what my stocks are doing. Take it easy for a few days. It's been a long trip," I said, answering him as fully as possible, without giving away everything.
Three hours later they cleared my ship, and I was told to make my final approach to the orbital station. As the Misty approached, I could see the station docks were practically full.
The really large freighters were in orbit, as were the huge warships that were in port. Smaller ships like mine were given dock assignments. We were docked and entering the station proper, only an hour after customs released us.
I had called ahead and had gotten us rooms at the local Traveler's Rest. It was a close thing. Most of the rooms were already rented out. I was told we would have to double up in the rooms. Jason and I wound up sharing a room, as did Kalia and Trish Adams.
Trish promised to keep an eye on Kalia. She was very excited about being in a new place. Kalia had only known the people of the compound and those she had been instructed to interact with, for most of her life.
I opened an account at a local bank. They were able to access my accounts from Raintree. First thing I noticed was a few million more credits were in my account than when I had last looked into it! Many more millions!
I paid my crew, and got Kalia set up with an account of her own. I explained to her how to use it. It was not complicated, really. They issued her a card and she charged her purchases against the balance in her account. She was fascinated with the process, though.
I checked my Interstellar Message Center account, and discovered I had 137 messages. I started going through them. Since they were sent over interstellar distances, all were important and had to be read or heard.
It took me 4 hours to go through all my messages. I replied to a lot of them, too. The most important one I wanted to view, was from my stock broker in the TF. While a lot of information was forth coming, I was not surprised to see that a lot was censored.
My accounts in the TF were doing fine, but I was unable to affect any changes right now due to technical difficulties. When I asked the center manager about these 'difficulties', he said they had been going on for some two months now. All in all, I was glad I did not have 'all my eggs', in the TF.
There were several stock exchanges and one of the best was the CFM or the Central Free Market. It owed no loyalty to any government, and was itself governed by a set of rules and laws that investors voted on. It was totally owned and operated by the investors themselves. It did conform to laws of other governments, but on the whole it was the best market in my opinion. I had moved a portion of my portfolio into that market, prior to setting off in my new life. The TF had limited how much I could withdraw from their stock market at the time. I pondered what this meant, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't good. It appeared they had known in advance what was going to happen, which meant the rot inside the TF was deep, very deep.
But it wasn't all work. I took Kalia out for meals, and she was fascinated with the different foods on offer. Watching her was a joy. I took her down to the planet for a day, and we took in the sights. Everything was new to her, and it was a good visit until she told me we were being watched.
I asked her how she knew, since I hadn't seen her looking at individual people. She responded that when people concentrated this hard, it always drew her attention. We were, or I was, the focus of said attention. I sighed. Here we go again.
I asked her if we were in danger. She said that it was just surveillance, right now. I smiled, took her arm, and we walked back to a cabstand. We took the cab back to the spaceport, and were shortly on a shuttle back to the station.
Almost as soon as we got off the shuttle, I was paged.
"Alexander Connor, please go to the courtesy counter," I heard almost as soon I exited the shuttle.
I presented myself and my credentials to the clerk at the counter. I was told I had a message from the TF embassy, and another from a Commodore Lyle Barnhart, from the League of Planets.
I raised my eyebrows at the last. I had never had any contact with the league. Just a visit to a planet that was a member of the League. The TF was not a surprise really. I had sort of expected them to call me earlier. I was even sure I knew what it was about. If I was right, they were going to 1) recall me to active duty, and 2) no doubt the information that Mara Bates had was now circulated to various intelligence agencies, and through them to governments. A new planet would be a ripe plum for the picking.
Except she had no idea where it was. Yes, she had been there for the discovery, but she did not have the location for it. She knew about Eric and CCS-14, but again, no location. She was a spy with enough information to tantalize but could not give you what was needed. A location.
I imagined I was going to have an interesting day or two. I called the TF embassy first and discovered I had an appointment for later in the day. How about that? I didn't even remember making an appointment! He asked me to meet with him at my earliest convenience. All in all, the League navy rep was very polite. I was hesitant about meeting with the TF representative as I was privy to some of the lies they were actively putting out, and I knew that they knew.
I decided to meet with the Commodore. Kalia and I made our way through the station back to 'the rest.' As soon as I entered I was told there were several messages waiting for me at the desk as well as on my room terminal. Damn, but I was getting to be popular.
I took the message chip that held my messages, and went up to my room. Kalia went to hers. I inserted the message chip into my room's terminal and was not surprised to see a message from Mara's employers who were anxious to contact me about my 'find'.
Well, tough. Even though I knew it would get out that I had the location of a habitable planet, there was no law anywhere saying I had to divulge its location. At least in the TF or the League. The PU did have something on their books, but I was not a member of that political group in any way shape or form.
I quickly went through the remaining messages. Most were telling me they could help out with this planet I had discovered. Well, well. Either Mara's group did not have too much security, or someone talked. It seemed to be common knowledge that I had discovered a planet, and most wanted access to Eric and his technologies, too.
I called the code that had been provided for the Commodore. When the screen cleared, I was looking at an ensign on a ship.
"LPS Darkstar, communications. One moment while I transfer your call," he told me.
I guessed I was expected. Probably it was the code I called in on. The screen cleared again, and I was looking at a commander who asked me to hold for the Commodore. Shortly I was switched to yet another person. This time it was the Commodore.
"Ah, Mister Connor. Thank you for getting back to me so promptly. First, I want to ask if you had contacted your embassy yet?" he asked me, leaning forward a bit.
"No. They are my next call. I wanted to see what you had to say," I answered truthfully.
"I would like to speak with you about several things. First and foremost is an intelligence intercept you might be interested in. Did you know that if you should enter any TF embassy or property, it is doubtful you will be coming out?" he asked me curiously.
I looked at him. He was an elderly man of about 60. White hair and a craggy face. He looked like what you would think of as a 'grandfatherly' person.
"I see. Perhaps we can meet, and you can tell me in person what this is all about? I would appreciate seeing this intercept your talking about, too," I finally got out.
"I will be happy to meet with you. You can come out here, or if you are the non-trusting sort, I will be glad to come to you. Either way, if I were you, I would hire one of the security companies on station there to provide you with personal guards. Things are getting tense. A new planet, or the technology that this ship you have discovered, presents opportunities to a lot of parties," the commodore stated.
I agreed to meet with him, here in my room. He promised to present himself in ninety minutes. Great. That would give me time to hire some guards. I had already considered it, but had hoped I was overreacting.
Edited by TeNderLoin