Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 3 - The Serfs of Al-Qaum (III)

"As I'm sure you deduced," said the man "The God-Emperor is no more than a puppet engaged in a pantomime. I represent the interests that are, shall we say, the power behind the throne."

"Some sort of secret oligarchy?" asked the Captain.

"If you prefer," the man conceded "Our group doesn't have a name, it's better that way. We're the people you need to talk to if you want to make any meaningful political inroads with Al-Qaum. We'd like to arrange a meeting with you."

"By all means," said the Captain "I'd be happy to speak with your people Mr..."

"Marlowe," he replied "Turlin Marlowe."

It was agreed that the meeting would take place on the Armstrong. The oligarchs were anxious to get a look at the inside of the ship, and it offered an unparalleled degree of privacy. Discreet passage on a small ship was arranged for six people, two oligarchs and four body guards, who then rendezvoused with the Armstrong in orbit.

Captain Littlecrow, Commander Gibson, Lieutenant Commander Mitzner and Dr. Kang were all waiting at the shuttlebay for their guests.

Turlin stepped out of the star yacht and onto the Armstrong along with a female oligarch of about fifty. Both were less ornately dressed than any of the Al-Qaum ruling class they had encountered thus far, Turlin having apparently changed clothes, but they were still finely dressed and it was only by comparison to their peers did their clothing seem practical.

The guards who came after them were dressed in black and carried ion rifles, not blunted spears. Commander Gibson advised that these were early Imperial Era ion rifles and very inefficient, but this didn't make Captain Littlecrow feel much better about them being on her ship. Still, she had to make some concessions to her visitors so they could feel safe.

"Welcome aboard the Armstrong," said Captain Littlecrow "I'm Captain Alexandria Littlecrow."

"Cassarah Bright," said the woman, shaking the Captain's hand "And I believe you've met our Mr. Marlow."

"If you would come with us to the conference room," said Littlecrow "I can introduce you to the rest of my command crew and we can talk business."

The Armstrong had a relatively large and very comfortable conference room, with a central table and enough chairs to seat twenty. Artificial windows dominated the walls, projecting an image of the view from the outside of the ship. Currently they were showing the planet Al-Qaum as the Armstrong maintained a lazy orbit around it.

The two oligarch and the members of the command crew sat down at the table. The four body guards stood. Captain Littlecrow decided to ignore them.

The Captain introduced the rest of the command crew.

"Charmed," said Cassarah "Now then, I'm led to believe you're here on some kind of humanitarian mission on behalf of the Huxley Foundation?"

"Something like that," said Captain Littlecrow "Suffice it to say: we're here to help."

"I'm well aware of the Huxley Foundation, and I'm not so certain we want your kind of help," said Cassarah.

"I agree the Foundation has been heavy handed in the past, I'm not here to justify any of that, but we have learned from our mistakes," said the Captain "All we're asking for is a chance to prove ourselves."

"In that case, you're in luck. Al-Qaum is on the precipice of disaster. Believe me when I say I would not be here negotiating with the Huxley Foundation if it weren't. As I'm sure your scans have indicated, Al-Qaum is a cityworld. The surface is completely covered with a single megacity, even reaching the bottom of the oceans. We're unable to sustain ourselves and are entirely dependent on food shipments from our outlying agricultural worlds. We have no food stores, we're living shipment to shipment. We're one bad pirate raid away from mass starvation."

"How can we help?" asked Captain Littlecrow.

"Simply put: we need more food," said Cassarah "I know one of your organization's mandates is to preserve and advance human science. If your ship is any indication you've met with some success in this endeavor. Is there a way you could use your Foundation science to improve our agricultural yields?"

"I can't make any promises, but we'd be more than willing to have a look. This is precisely the sort of work our mission was intended for."

"I'm not making any promises either," said Cassarah "Don't mistake this for a deal. If you help us here, maybe it improves our impression of the Huxley Foundation but that's as far as it goes."

"Fair enough," said Captain Littlecrow.

"Then we understand each other. I must go now. I have much to do. Mr. Marlowe will remain here and ensure you are not given any more trouble by our starfleet."

Turlin seemed as surprised by this revelation as anyone.

"Show them the route to the Ceres system, make sure they get the access they need," Cassarah said to Turlin.

Turlin nodded.