Nova Romae (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 2) Read online

  Chapter 2 – Asylum

  The Draco was under sail in the final slipstream inbound to system 257C. Almost a week had gone by since they left Nova Romae. No word about what the senate decided concerning this incursion into allied space, but it was their job to investigate and report back, no matter what the decision. Everyone fell nicely into a routine during the trip outbound. The Romani squad was extremely disciplined. They would have put the Sinclair marines to shame. Nothing was done without a purpose and no movement or energy was wasted. The Serpent crew person was another matter. His name was unpronounceable but part of it sounded like Sly so the crew took to calling him that, if he was actually a “him”. There was no way for humans to tell. He had very little to do since cloaking was unnecessary until they arrived. He appeared to hibernate most of the trip and everyone left him alone. It was decided they would traverse the 257C system under sail, using the star wind from the main sequence star. This way they would leave no engine signature and, once cloaked, should be completely undiscoverable. They were now 15 minutes from entering the system and the crew was assembled on the bridge. In front of them was a wall of pure white light as they travelled almost two light years per hour. Behind was the blackest, black imaginable, since no light could catch up to them.

  “We are entering the Heliosphere of 257C,” Paul McMann announced from the navigation station. “Dropping out of the slipstream in 3…2…1, now”

  Suddenly the white wall in front vanished into the star field of the galaxy and they could see the binary star system, in front of them. They were too far away for even the stars to be more than points of light and no planets were visible.

  “Retracting the slipstream sails,” Paul announced and all could hear the motors pulling in the central frill sail and the rear sail. When the sails were fully retracted, Paul pressed another set of buttons and a large mast rose on the center back of the top of the hull, with a smaller sail near the stern. When the mast was fully extended, a large, black sail with a red dragon deployed. Paul polarized this sail and it picked up the star wind coming from the main star. As if on cue, Sly came out of his sleep state and went to his console. He rapidly moved his reptilian hands over the console and used the top of his tail as a third hand. The speed, of his movements, was almost a blur and Slone had been told this movement had to be repeated periodically during the cloaking procedure to prevent any defects in the cloak. Now Slone knew exactly why they needed a Serpent aboard. For all he knew it was magic.

  “Paul, how long is the transit time to the ninth planet?” Slone asked.

  “Looks like eight hours under sail,” Paul replied.

  Slone now turned to Roger Umgabe. “Anything on sensors, Roger?”

  “There are three ships in system. Sensors indicate two civilian transports and a destroyer. Identification codes indicate they are Balin Corp vessels. No other vessels are in system. The ships are in orbit around the ninth planet. The planet itself is a dead rock, and I pick up signals from the early warning station.”

  “Are they in a synchronous orbit?”

  “Yes, over the station.”

  “Good, we will make a direct approach to the station. I want constant scans of the ships. Set a watch and get some rest. We all meet back on the bridge in six hours. I want all hands on deck for the final approach.”

  All acknowledged and went to their quarters. Slone went to the cargo hold, which had been turned into a camp for the Romani squad. When he entered, they stopped what they were doing and stood up at attention. Slone was not used to that, since most scout ships were rather informal commands. He could see he would have to get used to a new set of military norms. “At ease, men.” As he said this, the squad went back to their duties of cleaning and maintaining their weapons, which was done on a daily basis. They each carried an automatic weapon, a handgun and a bandolier of grenades, which also held a knife the length of a short sword. This latter hung from the bandolier down their right side with a smaller knife on their belt on the left side. Their combat uniforms were black from head to foot with letters in gold on their collars reading ‘LEG X COH I’. Slone had no idea what they meant and was not about to show his ignorance. He assumed it had something to do with their assignment. He went over to speak with the Decanus. He had since learned that that was a rank designation. “Decanus Marshal, a word if you have time.”

  “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

  “What’s your read on this situation?”

  “Hard to say, Captain. We have had occasional run-ins with the Balin Corporation, but they have never expressed any desire to invade their neighbors. Something else must be behind this but I’ll leave that to you all to figure out. It’s way above my pay grade. I’m here to protect you and bring you and Sly back in one piece.”

  “About Sly, how long can he keep up the movements needed to keep us cloaked?”

  “Well sir, I suggest you ask Sly. The Serpents are friendly. I know you’ve had bad experiences with your last alien contact, but that won’t be the case here. The Serpents are loyal to us and have been for centuries.”

  “Thank you, Decanus Marshal.”

  Slone walked over to where Sly was working the cloaking device and took a good look at the alien. He was a reptile, no doubt about that. His skin was covered in scales and there was a very flexible tail. The face was elongated with a short snout and a mouth filled with sharp teeth and the long canines of a mammal, not a reptile. Slone could see that those teeth along with retractable claws on the hands and feet were close combat weapons to be reckoned with. As Slone observed Sly’s movements, the alien turned his head slowly in his direction. What most impressed Slone was the intensity in the eyes. Even though he looked similar to pictures Slone had seen of earth dinosaurs, there were differences. The eyes were blue and looked human. The tail was more rat-like than lizard-like. He could not figure out what color the Serpent was. As the alien looked at Slone, the lips began to quiver a bit with an undulating wave starting below the nose holes and progressing to the hinge of the lower jaw. It looked to Slone like the face was preparing itself to converse with him.

  “Sss. May I help you, Captain Slone?” The Serpent’s voice was soft and almost hypnotic, and when there was an ‘s’ sound in the word, it was drawn out. Along with the hiss at the beginning, the elongated ‘s’ was soothing. Slone’s impression was one of peace and tranquility. His mind inexplicably recalled a story from his youth about a serpent on earth that lured humanity into a web of lies and deceit.

  “I just wanted to get to know you since you are part of our crew for this mission. I have not been briefed on your kind.”

  “Sss. We are loyal to the Romani. We like humans.” Again, the tone was hypnotic. Slone had to admit his questions were responded to, but only with the barest of minimum answers. He knew he was not going to have much of a conversation with Sly.

  “You are very fast on the controls of the cloaking device.”

  “Sss. Humans cannot do it faster.” This time Sly turned his head away and looked at the console. Slone knew from the move that the conversation was over and he, a ship’s captain, was being dismissed by one of the crew.

  Slone made a quick check of the condition of the ship and then went to his bunk for a few hours of rest before the final approach. This was always the most critical time of any mission, the last hours leading up to the actual goal. Reconnaissance was always more dangerous than a combat mission. When entering combat, you had an idea of what you were facing. Scouts did not; it was their job to get the information, which could lead to the combat mission. They were traveling into an unknown situation and had to assess the motives and capabilities of the opposing force. This mission was even harder, since Slone had no idea of the capabilities of the Romani. All he knew is they trusted him from the start to give them good information and he did not want to let them down. As these thoughts went through his mind, he must have dozed off, since the next thing he remembered was the ship’s computer waking him with the informa
tion that they were two hours from planetfall. Slone rolled out of his bunk and headed to the bridge. Sly was still standing in the corner of the bridge where the cloaking controls were installed. He had not left his post.

  “What’s our status?” Slone asked just as the others entered the bridge. The navigator, Paul McMann and Alaya, took the last watch and, Alaya responded.

  “We are about two hours from planetfall and planetary rotation has taken the station and the orbiting ships away from us and the planet is now between us and them.”

  “Excellent, let’s keep the planet between us for now. I want us to come around the planet and get as close to the ships as possible to examine them. Did we pick up anything from the station before it rotated away from us?”

  “As far as we can tell, the station was working normally. It’s automated so if the ships were to damage it, the Border Worlds would automatically come to check it out.” Alaya said. “I think if this were a trap, they would do that to lure the Border World’s fleet here. My gut tells me the asylum request is legitimate and there is something going on in Balin Corp space.”

  “Captain.”

  Alaya and Slone both responded “Yes?”

  There was a chuckle among the bridge crew, then Umgabe, who had returned to his sensor station, continued, “We have come around the planet edge and I was able to scan the ships. They are unarmed civilians and they have battle damage. The accompanying destroyer is also damaged. Looks like she took quite a beating.”

  Slone took a second to evaluate the situation. He then turned to his Serpent crewman, “Sly, can we communicate without affecting our cloak?”

  Sly slowly moved his head in the direction of Slone, and his lips again began to quiver. “Sss. Captain Slone, you can speak without the cloak dropping. They will not know from where it arises.”

  “Thank you, Sly.”

  “Tom, send a signal to the destroyer, when they respond make sure there is enough delay that they think we are much farther away than is the case. Hail them and ask why they want asylum.”

  Gardner opened a general frequency used by traders for cross corporation communications, “This is the NR Draco requesting your intention in this system.”

  Due to their proximity, the response came back in a few seconds, “Greetings, this is Captain Oskar Rand of the Balin Corporation destroyer BC Orion we come in peace asking asylum for ourselves and the civilians we are escorting. Our ammunition is depleted and we are at your mercy. The Balin Corporation space has been invaded by the Petrov Corporation and our fleet is in shambles. I fear we may only be the first in a wave of refugees.”

  Slone waited until the time suggested they were at the entrance to the system before he responded, “Why would the Petrov Corp attack Balin Corp? Last time I checked, you were allies.”

  The response came quickly, “Petrov Corp was our ally, until they suddenly asked to annex some of our most critical mining operations. If we had said yes, it would have crippled us economically. Our leaders felt they wanted to annex all of our territory after bankrupting us. As soon as we said no to their request, the mining operations involved developed sudden illnesses that became epidemics. It appears the epidemic is manufactured and we have already suffered deaths from it. The civilian transports with me are from a mining colony that Petrov Corp directly attacked near the Border Worlds and we had no place to go but here. Petrov Corp has already blocked our way back and their ships attacked the unarmed transports with me and destroyed three of them. I used up all of my ammunition fighting them and when you are near you will see that none of our ships escaped without damage. We are running low on food and the transports contain mostly women and children. Whichever corporation you represent, please help us.”

  Slone had called in the Decanus Marshal for his opinion. The communication was piped into the mess hall where the troops were, to allow the Romani to hear what was said. “What do you think about this, Decanus Marshal?”

  “I can see the damage to their ships from here, so that part appears to be true. We can’t decloak until we know what the Senate decided. At this point, we are agents of the Border Worlds Confederacy only. I think we will have to wait for instructions.”

  Slone could see the dilemma. He did not feel comfortable enough with his new people to speak for them, but his heart went out to the refugees. “Tom, transmit this message to the Orion. “Captain Rand, we regret the disasters that have befallen your corporation. If you will grant me the time, I will send to the nearest Border World for food and we can then all await the response concerning your asylum request.”

  “We would be very grateful for anything you can spare. May I ask what corporation controls this space?”

  Slone was not certain how he should answer that, so he decided to hold off for now and, after a time gap, reiterated he would send for instructions and food. Slone now turned to his navigator, “Paul, take us below the horizon and out of sight of the Balin Corp ships. I want to send some message capsules and don’t want them seen.”

  The Draco raised sails and moved around to the other side of the planet. Once the planet was between them and the ships, two message capsules were prepared. They were both programmed with a transcript of the communications. One was sent to the nearest inhabited Border World. This also contained a request for food from Slone. The other pod went to Nova Romae with a request from Slone for further instructions. Now they had to wait.

  Just under two days from sending a message pod to the nearest Border World, Roger Umgabe said in his deep, stentorian voice, “Captain, there is a ship entering from the inbound slipstream. Configuration suggests a civilian freighter.”

  Tom Gardner spoke next, “There is a tight band transmission coming in from the freighter. They are hailing us”

  “Acknowledge the hail.”

  Tom pushed a button and sent a confirmation of the hail. After a long gap a transmission was received, “This is the Border Worlds freighter BW Toynbee. We are inbound with food and other materials for the refugees. We have confirmed what they told us about the invasion and we are alerting our border defenses for more refugees and a possible attack. We have granted them temporary asylum and our council has deputized you as our spokesman until we can send a diplomat.”

  “Tom, open the channel.” Slone said. “NR Draco to the Border Worlds freighter BW Toynbee. Have received your instructions and will proceed to the refugees.”

  “Paul, how long before the freighter reaches us.”

  After conferring with Umgabe, Paul responded, “Roger tells me it is an old and very slow freighter. At her current speed, about 18 hours.”

  “Sly, decloak us now while the planet still shields us.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Sly did his magic moves again. “We are now visible.” In addition, without another word, Sly left his terminal and curled up in his bed again.

  Slone had to let out a little chuckle. “An alien of few words.”

  “Alaya lets come around the planet and head back to the refugees.”

  Alaya acknowledge and had Farnsworth bring the Draco around from the dark side to the station side of the planet. As soon as they were in line of sight of the destroyer, a frantic message was transmitted in the open. “Unknown vessel. We are unarmed and have civilian transports with us. We mean no harm.”

  “It is the NR Draco you see before you. There is a freighter traversing the system now with food and other goods for you and the civilians.”

  “Thank you. We thought you were much farther away. Our sensors were damaged and we can’t scan more than half way across the system. We did not pick up the freighter or mark your approach.”

  “I have been asked to convey that the Border Worlds have granted you and your group temporary asylum and there is an ambassador on the way to discuss disposition.” With the last statement, Slone could hear cheering in the background. “I have some questions for you, Captain Rand, captain to captain about the situation in Balin Corp space. There is a watch station on the planet, a
s I am sure you are aware. Meet me there in one hour. It is automated and should be open”

  “Acknowledged, I will meet you there. May I ask with whom I am speaking?”

  Slone now had a dilemma. The Romani knew who he was, but to the corporations he was dead. They would need a cover and for now, he would have to think on his feet. “This is Captain Christopher, see you in an hour.” Tom cut the transmission and everyone on the bridge looked at Slone. “We all need aliases when we deal with corporations. Remember, to corporate space we’re all dead.”

  They nodded agreement. Slone told them to make it an easy name to prevent slip ups. He chose his first name because it could work either way, first or last name. Alaya dropped the sails and fired the engines as she brought the Draco down to the planet surface and landed it next to the automated station. Even though the station was unmanned, all automated structures had internal life support for maintenance and repair crews who had to visit them on occasion. All Slone had to do was activate the system. In a pinch, the stations also acted as a safe place in case of accident or battle in the system. There was food and drink stored within, and he would use it if the need became critical.