"Hey Larry," a low-level grunt in the Federated Mining receiving office says as he puts down the communication handset.
Larry, another low-level grunt takes a final swallow of his coffee, or at least what someone told him is coffee. He remembers when he was at the boss' birthday celebration and had real coffee. He's not really sure what to call this stuff. As he puts the cup down he says, "What is it, Darryl?"
"Just received a heads up from traffic control. Said that someone just came through the jump gate with a big load of ore, will be heading our way. Probably ten hours out."
"Good. Haven't had much business for a couple of days. Who is it?"
"They say it's a rep from someone named 'Dave Walker'. Walker? Wait ...." Darryl quickly types in the name to see what pops up.
"Whew. I knew that name sounded familiar. He was wanted for all sorts of stuff. Earth Gov and others were really hot to get their hands on him?"
Larry whistles. "Oh, yeah. I remember. Psy Corps was really after him, big reward and everything. Course, after that big dustup between Psy Corps and Earth Fleet what Psy Corps wants doesn't mean much anymore."
"That's right. Man, what a mess. And that thing with that battleship or cruiser, whatever. I read they threw a bunch of Psy Corp officials into special cells and threw away the keys. Well, anyway, traffic control said it's on its way. They told traffic control it's a huge load, so I'll alert the dock and refining. Not sure how we'll handle it."
0
"Cargo ship Star Miner to Federated Mining receiving, do you read, over."
Larry forces himself to swallow that last bitter drop before putting his cup down. After belching he reaches over to push the button on his console.
"Federated Mining to Star Miner. Read you. What can I do for you?"
"We have a load of compressed metal, ore, and precious metals and stones for you."
"Understood and welcome to Amia system. You the one repping for Dave Walker?"
"Yes, it is for his registered claims. Will transmit beacon registration info when you are ready."
"Hold on for a sec." Larry readies the system to receive the transmission. "Okay, ready to receive. Transmit when ready."
He watches the machine-readable data stream across the screen. It takes less than a second for the system to confirm the data.
"Okay. You are confirmed. How much do you have?"
"Quite a bit actually. Somewhere on the order of seventy or eighty thousand tons, give or take."
"Whew," Larry whistles. "That's going to be difficult to offload. Our docks might not be able to handle that. How come so much at one time?"
"Well, we don't like making small trips. Expenses can add up pretty quickly. But don't worry. It's all modularized. We can unload individual modules as fast as you can handle it. We brought our own cargo handlers, so all you need to do is point and we can put the modules right were you want."
"Wow, that's great." Larry looks at his screen to locate the Star Miner. He sees a very large signature that must be the cargo carrier. There are two smaller signatures near it.
"Star Miner, I notice you have two ships in your vicinity,"
"Yes, they are our escorts. With a cargo this large we didn't want to tempt anyone."
"Understood. We'll send you over to Ore Receiving Four. Transmitting transponder info, please move toward it. One of our tugs will meet you and discuss how to position your ship."
"Roger. Underway."
0
"Hey, receiving office. You guys there?"
Larry recognizes the voice of Henré Thibault, the rather laid-back supervisor at Ore Receiving Four, their largest receiving dock.
"Where do you think we would be? Out taking a walk?"
"Hey, man, whatever. You want to see something amazing?"
Larry looks at Darryl and rolls his eyes. Darryl laughs.
"Sure, why not."
"I'm sending you a feed from my main vid."
Larry changes the channel to see what Thibault is sending. His eyes widen at what he sees.
"Wow, look at that."
The two men see a massive ship, or more appropriately, a large number of massive ore 'modules' surrounding a long and what is probably a narrow ship. About the only part of the ship Larry and Darryl can see is part of the bow that sticks out from the surrounding ore modules. From what the two men can see, a large frame seems to surround the ship with long arms radiating outward from the frame. Large blocks of metal are attached these long arms and surround the ship. They watch as two small multi-armed objects move up to one of the large modules. They grab onto it and slowly slide it from the arm. They back slowly away from the cargo ship, do a quick rotate around the arms holding the module, and then move toward the receiving dock.
Larry takes a second look at what little he can see of the ship's bow.
"Holy crap!" he says.
"What is it?" Darryl asks.
"Look."
He fiddles with the settings to focus on the cargo ship's bow. He magnifies the image to make the Star Miner's bow larger.
"What does that look like to you?"
"I don't know ...."
Darryl takes another look at the screen. Though the color is not famliar the shape certainly is.
"Oh crap ... is that ... it can't be?"
Larry quickly types something into his console. After a few seconds an all-too-familiar image appears on the screen next the Star Miner's bow.
"Damn, it is. A shadow scout. I still see those things in my nightmares. The color is all wrong, but damn, it's definitely one ... Star Miner," he pushes the communication button. "Star Miner, this is Federated Mining receiving, come in."
"Star Miner here, what's up, Federated Mining?"
"Uh, I was looking at the bow of your ship. Uh, nothing personal, I mean the war's over but is that a ...?"
"A shadow vessel? Yes, it is a salvaged shadow vessel, no longer associated with the Chitoxan. The controller is not associated with the Chitoxan either. You have nothing to worry about."
"Oh, okay. Well then, I guess there's no problem. We'll talk to you once the cargo's unloaded and we've had a chance to assay it."
0
Captain Ryan, still on extended leave from the Space Marines and Earth Fleet, and Albech, ex-controller for Jayax, sit in the orbital refining station manager's office. The manager, Tuam Gee, sits in his chair shaking his head while looking at the final assay report of the cargo they had brought in.
"Wow, Captain Ryan, Mr. Albech, this is the biggest payout I've seen since I've been working here."
"It's just Katherine now, or Kate. Well, considering how rich it is and how much we brought in that shouldn't be too surprising."
"True. I knew that Mr. Walker had found a rich vein, but so much. This surpasses my, our, expectations. If you don't mind me asking, can we expect more in the future? If so we may be able to work out a more exclusive contract that benefits both of us."
Ryan shrugs. "Well, I can't say for sure. I joined up with Star Miner after it had entered hyperspace. I'm not very familiar with Mr. Walker's mining operations, but I don't believe whatever he is working has run out yet. I can relay that suggestion to Mr. Walker to see if he wants to take you up on that."
"Thank you, that would be great." He hears a 'bing' from his terminal. He takes a quick look. He pushes a button to refresh the screen and looks again.
"Looks like the credits have been posted to Mr. Walker's accounts."
Ryan takes a quick look at her device. She sees that the accounts have been updated with the proper credit amounts. She initiates the special program that will fairly quickly transfer those credits to other, more secure accounts that will prevent anyone, private citizen, organized crime, or government, from siphoning them off. While she is a trusting person, she knows that Dave, and those associated with him, have created a lot of enemies. By moving the credits into safer accounts the chances of someone stealing or confiscating the credits will be reduced or eliminated.
"Great. Thank you. This has been a surprisingly pleasant journey."
"Well, if you aren't in a hurry, maybe I can buy you a drink." He gives her a hopeful look.
"Well," she looks at her watch. "I think I have time."
0
"How was your drink?" Albech asks.
"Oh, the drink was fine. It was the asking me to stay so we could have a few more or possibly have breakfast together, if you know what I mean, that was a bit too much."
Ryan laughs. "By the way, thanks for the emergency message. Did you know what he was hoping to accomplish?"
Albech laughs.
"Not really. I wasn't wild about hanging around here, especially with word about our ships spreading. Not enough time has passed since the Chitoxan went away for the wounds from the war to heal. And besides, while I didn't read his mind I saw the way he looked at you. Though I spent too much time in a controller cockpit, I was human, once. I could tell he wasn't that interested in drinking."
He smiles.
"Well, for someone who was a shadow controller you are very astute at reading others. Remind me not to play poker with you."
They both laugh.
"Well," Albech says, "everything is secure. The cargo handlers are locked away. I took care of the supplies. They definitely charge a premium. It will be nice when we don't have to depend upon people like these."
"Unfortunately, we will have to do that for a while longer. We'll just have to shop around to find the better deals. Maybe we can buy our supplies closer to the source so we don't have to pay for 'transport' fees."
Albech nods and then says, "oh, by the way, just as Dave thought we received a few parting gifts."
"What? Parting, ... oh, you mean trackers?"
Albech nods. "Yes. Several of the larger bulk containers that were loaded back onto Star Miner now have false bottoms. Gyrzax, it's the trailing scout, noticed the low power readings from some of the containers. After a couple of scans Gyrzax was almost one hundred percent sure they were hyperspace trackers. Once he let me know I snuck out and cut open one of the false bottoms. Definitely trackers They won't activate until we pass through the energy barrier within the jump vortex."
"But someone would have to come through the vortex almost right after we go through to be able to track us."
"Not necessarily. Trails from those trackers can last a surprisingly longtime in hyperspace. Or, someone could already be in hyperspace waiting for us to go through. It would be easy for someone here to send a message to the jump gate system which would then send it through to the hyperspace beacon. The beacon would then send out a quick burst warning whoever was waiting that we are on our way. They could be far enough away for our sensors to miss them but close enough for them to know when the vortex opened and we entered hyperspace. Once we left the beacon they come up and do a quick search to lock onto the trail we left behind. Then they just track it until we drop out of hyperspace. Then ... well, I'm not exactly sure what they might do next. Move to normal space to see what is there, drop a small hyperspace beacon and go get help. Who knows."
"Wow, you've spent a lot of time thinking about this, haven't you?" Ryan says.
"Well, I had to do something while you were enjoying the company of the refinery's manager."
Albech smiles and winks at Ryan.
She starts laughing. "Well, we could remove the trackers or destroy them. But why deny them the satisfaction of having their plans come to fruition?"
"I'm sure Dave wouldn't want you to deprive them of the pleasure," Albech says with a grin.
0
A small vessel, its surface covered with a special material that allows it to easily blend into the chaotic conditions of hyperspace, tracks the faint trails left behind by the various trackers hidden within some of Star Miner's cargo containers. Though not originally designed for hyperspace travel it was modified to allow for both travel and long-distance tracking within hyperspace. To keep up with ships like Star Miner its engines were upgraded to increase its velocity. Unfortunately, the increase in velocity greatly increases the power consumption and the ship could not be modified to deal with that. The three occupants know that there won't be enough fuel for a return trip. However, they know that following them, well out of range of their quarry's sensors, is a small fleet composed of blood-thirsty pirates and claim jumpers. Once their quarry has returned to normal space, the fleet will pick up their ship and then proceed to deal with their quarry. This method of operation has been very successful and fruitful for them.
"We still transmitting?" Reaper, the pilot of the pirate vessel Seeker, asks.
"You know, Reaper, you ask that every twenty or thirty minutes. It's as bad as 'are we there yet?' What's the deal?" Splinter, the Seeker's flight engineer, says.
"Well," Reaper says, "if they lose our trail we are pretty much screwed, you know."
"Yes, and you know that besides transmitting a fairly narrow tracking beam we are also seeding a trail for them to pick up in case they lose us."
"Yeah, I know. It's just–"
"You worry too much," says Kidd, bent over the screens he uses to monitor their quarry's trail. "Quit worrying. They know where we are and they'll catch up to us as soon as these suckers drop out of hyperspace. I'd worry more about us losing this trail." He points to his screens. "If we lose their trail then the Beast will more than likely leave us out here."
Splinter looks back at his instruments. "We're still good. You just keep this ship going forward and don't let the currents move us too far off course."
Reaper says, "don't worry, just point me in the right direction and I'll get us there."
"Reaper, what do you think about what our guy in Federated said, about the possible payoff?" Kidd asks.
"Well, if they still have half of what they brought in it will definitely make up for the loss when that Walker guy surprised us."
Splinter shakes his head. "Yeah, that Walker guy worries me."
"Why?"
"That ship. You heard what it did, right?" Splinter asks.
Kidd interrupts. "Hold on, looks like a course correction ...feeding it to you, Reaper."
Reaper nods. "Got it. Yeah, I heard. It caught us by surprise is all. That's why the captain got some additional backup for this trip. With the war being over there's a lot of surplus military ships floating around, and for some of them you don't even need to pay much ... if you know the right people."
Splinter gives an evil laugh. "Yeah. It'll be time for us to surprise them."
0
"The trail stops here," says Kidd. "I'm also picking up good residual traces of a jump vortex here. This is the place."
"Okay, signal Space Reaver. Tell them quarry has gone to normal space."
Reaper nods. "Will do. Signal sent. They should catch up in about twenty or so minutes. In the meantime, I'll conduct a search to make sure we haven't fallen for a false trail."
Reaper moves the ship in a slightly increasing circular pattern, making sure that the trail ended where they think it did and that the residual signs of the vortex are what they think they are.
After thirty minutes Reaper sees a message coming in. He quickly responds.
"This is Seeker. That you Space Reaver?"
"Who else you expectin'?" the gruff voice of Captain Ellis Sutherland, also known as 'the Beast', comes from the speaker. "This the spot?"
"Yes, Captain. I've gone out a few klicks in all directions to be sure the trail doesn't pick up again someplace else."
"Good. Savage Ghoul will pick you up. I'll give you fifteen to get settled in before we drop into normal space."
"Aye, sir. Seeker out."
0
'The Beast' Sutherland takes a final look at Space Reaver's tactical screen. He sees that his ships have surrounded him, leaving his destroyer in the center of an almost perfect circle. He smiles as he sees how much firepower his small fleet packs. With a fleet this size about the only thing he cannot take on is an actual battlefleet. Since most of the races involved in the Chitoxan war have disbanded a majority of their navies, Earth is about the only race that would have a chance to mount an attack against them. And he doesn't plan on giving them that chance.
Sutherland looks at Huang Jia, his first officer. "Ready, Huang?"
"Aye, Captain, weapons' board is in the green. Defensive screens charged."
The pirate captain smiles. "Signal the fleet. Tell them to follow our lead into normal space. Helm, take us through."
He feels a slight change in the ship's vibration as the jump engines power up and the vortex forms. He can see normal space through the slightly transparent energy field that separates normal space from hyperspace. The Space Reaver moves into the vortex as other primary ships move through their own vortices. The ships without jump engines follow the leaders.
The Space Reaver drops into normal space and moves forward to allow its followers to move through the vortex. Sutherland looks at the tactical screen and smiles as he sees that the ships have maintained their formation.
The captain looks at the other screens to get an idea of how their new pot of gold is set up. He's surprised when he sees neither planets nor star. He doesn't see much of anything and certainly not anything worth taking.
"Huang, get me Reaper, now."
A moment or so later he hears Reaper's voice. "Uh, yes, Captain?"
"What the hell? Where is everything? We're in the middle of nowhere."
"This is where the trail ended, sir. Splinter and Kidd confirm that. I can't understand why they would have dropped out of hyperspace here... unless they knew we were tracking them."
Sutherland pounds his chair's arm. "Huang, scan the area! Find those damn ships!"
"Already scanning, Captain."
After a moment the tactical officer says, "picking up readings for three, no four ships. Just in range now. Three identify as the same we've been tracking. The fourth ... don't recognize it."
"Have the others continue scanning for ships. I don't want nothing sneaking up on us."
"The ships are moving toward us, Captain."
"Have the fleet move to intercept, keep formation. Target the ships, be prepared to fire."
Sutherland still fumes at what seems to have been a false trail. He'll be sure these bastards pay for this. Then he'll have a little talk with the Seeker's crew.
"Receiving a hail, Captain." The captain nods to have it put on the speakers.
"Hello, Space Reaver. What can I do for you?"
"Who is this?" Sutherland says loudly.
"Dave, Dave Walker. And you are ...?"
"Walker! You're the bastard that tried to screw us over at–"
"Oh, hey, that you Captain Sutherland? Long time no wanting to see."
"Yeah, it's me. This time it's going to turn out different."
"I'm sure it is. I assume you followed us here for a reason. Those were your trackers you hid in our supply containers, right? Guess you worked out a deal with someone at Federated at Amia station to track us to our little gold mine."
"Yeah. You're going to tell me where it is. I'm going to cut your ships into little pieces until you do, and then maybe I'll stop, but no guarantee."
"Oh yeah?" Dave says. "You and what navy ... oh, wait, I guess you brought your own navy with you this time."
"Uh, Captain?" Huang says.
The pirate captain ignores his first officer. "Yeah, I've got plenty of firepower this time."
"Uh, Captain?"
"So no surprises this time."
"Uh, Captain?"
The Beast turns to look at his first officer.
"What is it, Huang?" the captain says.
"Uh, look at the tactical screen."
Sutherland glances at the tactical view. Walker's four original ships show as four small dots just over a kilometer off the Space Reaver's bow. The tactical officer shrinks the perspective to show that four different dots, representing new ships, have appeared just over two kilometers beyond the outermost pirate ships. As the bridge crew watches several more dots appear. Then more dots and then even more dots. Calls start coming in from the other pirate ships.
"Captain, we're getting all sorts of reports from our other ships."
The captain ignores his first officer. He keeps watching the screen. Their circle of ships has now been surrounded by a bigger sphere containing more ships than they have. The captain sees more ships beginning to form another sphere around the first sphere.
"Captain!"
"Now what?
"Report coming in from the frigate Nightmare. It says that most of the ships near it are shadow vessels."
The captain stares at the first officer. Before he can say anything the first officer says, "it's reporting three battle crabs. Frigate Devil Wing is reporting the same, except it sees four shadow battle crabs! And three Earth-type frigates. Quick count shows sixty-five vessels. Three-quarters various shadow vessels, remaining are Earth or Earth-Alliance military vessels."
Any comment the captain has is forgotten as Dave's voice emanates from the speaker.
"Hey, Captain Sutherland, guess what? I brought my own navy. And I think you'll agree that mine is way bigger than yours. And if YOU don't do what I tell you then I'll start cutting your ships up until you do. That sound fair?"
0
"Lieutenant?" Lieutenant Hashimoto turns from his terminal to look at Ensign Waterhouse.
"Yes, Ensign?"
"The Amia jump gate's AI just reported receiving an automated distress beacon. It received it just after a jump vortex opened and then closed."
"Crap!" the lieutenant says.
He quickly turns to his communications board and begins contacting the system's emergency crews to respond.
"What ship is it?"
"The AI says that the transponder IDs it as the Destroyer Romulus."
"Romulus? I'm not aware of that ship being assigned to this sector."
The ensign shrugs.
"Yes, Sir, I'm not aware of that either. I'm looking it up. Let's see. Romulus, John Paul-class destroyer. Earth Fleet, wait, says here it was decommissioned, just after hostilities with the Chitoxan officially ended. Should have either been mothballed or gone to salvage ... but no record after that. What the hell would it be doing out here?
"That's a really good question. I'll send an inquiry out to Earth Fleet. I guess we'll find out when the rescue ships reach it in a few hours. I'll let them know to be cautious."
0
"Anything else to report, Ensign?" Lieutenant Myers, commanding officer of Amia Rescue One asks.
"No sir. No updates from Central. And nothing from the derelict. Assume we are still to approach with caution, Lieutenant."
"Affirmative. Rescue Two, continue approaching ass first. You see any indication that they are powering up anything you go to full power and get the hell out of here."
Both rescue ships, lightly armored and even less armed, move on their own inertia toward the lifeless looking destroyer stern first. At the first sign of trouble they will be able to bring engines up to full power and run away without having to waste time turning. Plus, their exhaust plumes will help confuse the destroyer's targeting sensors, hopefully long enough for the rescue ships to jump into hyperspace.
Though their ability to scan the ship is limited they can still do so to some extent and are scanning it vigorously to determine what has happened to it.
"Would you look at that," the lieutenant says.
The small crew look at the screen showing the image of the destroyer. A John Paul-class destroyer was one of the more powerful vessels in the destroyer category. Though it had troubles dealing with shadow vessels it could take on most of the ships in other fleets. A normal destroyer in this class would have all sorts of weapon emplacements, offensive and defensive, scattered all over the surface. Several large pulse cannons would also be fixed to the bow and the stern. It seems that on this destroyer all of the weapons have been removed, cut from the ship and with pieces of hull plating roughly welded over the resulting holes. The navigational deflectors that are an absolute must for ships moving at high speed through normal space or hyperspace have been removed. The ship's navigational lights still flash, and some of the port holes have lights in them so the ship still has power.
"Ensign, still no response to our hails?"
"No, Sir."
"Try a tighter beam."
"Destroyer Romulus, this is Amia Rescue One, do you read, over. Destroyer Romulus this is Amia Rescue One, please respond."
After several minutes they finally receive a response.
"Rescue One, this is Sutherland of ... Romulus. We need your assistance."
"That's why we are here, Romulus. What is your situation?"
"I've got crew from two dozen ships stuck in every hold, corridor and crevice I can find. We have enough life support for them, but no power to move."
There is a long pause then an embarrassed, "we need a tow."
"Roger, Romulus. We will set up to tow you in. Will notify you when we are ready to hook up. Amia Rescue One out."
The confused lieutenant turns to the ensign. "Say, isn't this Sutherland the same guy whose crew has been accused of all sorts of crap like claim jumping and even piracy?"
"Yes, Sir. But it seems like there were never any surviving witnesses. Except that one time, when they supposedly were waiting to ambush some returning prospector."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Oh, yeah, that was before you were stationed here, wasn't it? Well, apparently the prospector's ship was a little better armed than they thought. He gave them quite a spanking, then turned them in on piracy charges."
"Really? Then why the hell is Sutherland over there and not in prison, or even hung?"
"Good question. It was before Earth Gov could consolidate legal control over systems like this. Back then local magistrates dealt with cases involving piracy. I heard there was a lot of back door shenanigans between certain parties that enabled Sutherland to avoid all but the smallest of charges. And even then he would just get a slap on the wrist."
The lieutenant shakes his head. "Well, him being in a supposedly decommissioned Earth Fleet destroyer is going to raise a lot of questions in command. Don't think he'll skate on this. Oh, who was the prospector who spanked him?"
"Some guy named Dave Walker."
"Walker, huh. Where have I heard that name before?"
0
"I'm telling you, there is a huge battle fleet of shadow and other ships preparing to raid Earth-controlled space. Several dozen ships at least, with almost a dozen shadow battle crabs."
The 'Beast' Sutherland sits in an interrogation room in the small Earth Fleet section of the Amia 3 orbital station. As he leans back the chair he sits in groans in response. One of his arms is still handcuffed to the rail along the edge of the table. Captain Davoli, commander of the small Earth Fleet garrison, looks at his notes.
As he does he says, "I would think that if this fleet was preparing for a raid it wouldn't have stuck all of your 'friends' in your ship, dragged you into hyperspace, towed you to our beacon, and then dropped you back into normal space so you could come blabbing about it to us."
Sutherland would like to wrap his hands around the scrawny neck of the captain, and probably would have if not for the handcuffs and for the well-armed guard standing at the door.
Instead, the Beast asks, "why else would they have all those damn shadow ships? I tell you they are going to attack."
"Perhaps, but perhaps they had all of those ships because of all the ships you had."
The pirate captain gives a shocked, who me, look at the Earth Fleet captain. "What? What do you mean?"
"Apparently, while you were busy making room for all of your innocent shipmates, someone from this so-called invasion fleet welded a life pod to your ship's fuselage with the words 'Open Me' painted in big red letters next to it with an even larger arrow pointing to it. Well, we in Earth Fleet may not be geniuses, but we can read. So we opened it, carefully of course, and took out what appeared to be a ship's log. Looks like it came from one of your 'other' ships, the Savage Ghoul, also known as EFN Condor. Rather interesting contents–"
"We're being framed I tell you–"
"...that shows you following your ship the Seeker while it follows a trail coming from the Star Miner that had just left the Amia system, a trail coming from illegal trackers placed into some of the containers being carried by that vessel. And the log also had the tactical information describing your little group of ships. How the hell you got your hands on a John Paul-class destroyer, two Nebula-class cruisers, five Comet-class frigates, and seven Phillips-class corvettes, all decommissioned but not in salvage where they were supposedly sent is quite a surprise to Earth Fleet operations. What was even more interesting were the past log entries that seem to connect your group to the disappearances of the transports Kirk, Titan, Anaconda, Galactic Wind ... well you get the idea. Fortunately, the local magistrates won't have to be bothered by this, so I can assure you that a proper and full investigation will be performed."
The captain smiles at the Beast's shocked expression. He stands and then scoots his chair against the table.
"Mr. Sutherland, I hope you know a very good defense counselor. I think you are going to need one this time."
The captain turns to leave the room. He gives the guard a nod and steps outside. He sees one of his security officers.
"How's Administrator Rawle doing, Sergeant?" the captain asks.
"Nervous as hell, Captain," Sergeant Tresidder answers.
"He should be. Considering he appears to be one of those responsible for providing the information that allowed Sutherland to dispense with so many innocent prospectors, he may have the privilege of hanging next to the captain."
0
"Hey, Cap!"
"What is it?" Captain Parcell of Arcadia station swivels his chair around to look at Lieutenant Broderick. The lieutenant peers closely at her screens. She fiddles with her control board for a few moments before responding.
"Sensors on sector twelve buoy picked up an object at extreme range, way outside the system. Mass reading is really high."
"Asteroid? What's its heading?"
"Uh, that's just it. No heading. Appears stationary. The buoy's AI is saying that it dropped out of hyperspace."
"Asteroids don't just drop out of hyperspace and they don't just sit there."
Broderick shakes her head. "No, they don't, Captain."
The captain thinks about the anomaly for a moment. "Do we have anything jump compatible near it? We should check it out just in case it starts misbehaving."
After checking a different screen and entering a few queries the lieutenant says, "there is a buoy tender, the Protea, not too far away. It can jump there in probably thirty or so minutes."
"Okay. Signal it via hyperspace link. Give it the coordinates and tell it to check it out."
0
The Protea drops out of hyperspace several thousand kilometers from where the massive unknown space anomaly sits. Ensign Ritter whistles when the sensors show him how big it is.
"Damn, that things big enough to have its own moon. Other than its mass I'm not getting much, almost like something is blocking the sensors. Guess we'll have to get closer. Take her in, quarter speed."
"Aye, sir," says Crewman Pulver.
"Still not sure what it is," Crewman Quigg says. "Readings are ambiguous. Got several objects near it. Maybe it does have its own moons."
The crewmen start laughing but they quickly stop when two of the objects break away from the massive object and head toward them at high speed."
"Those aren't moons, crewmen," the ensign says.
The men look closely at their screens. The ensign yells out, "dammit, shadow fighters! Quigg, reverse course then give us a max burn on engines. I'll start working to get a vortex open."
The men feel a slight disorienting feeling as the ship suddenly changes direction and then are forced back into their seats as the engines come up to full speed.
"They are getting awful close, ensign!" Pulver cries out.
"Almost there...."
They suddenly hear a strange voice. "Unknown ship, please identify yourself before you jump into hyperspace."
The men stare at each other. No one remembers opening a communication frequency.
The voice 'speaks' to them again. "Sorry for the mental intrusion, but I didn't think you would respond to a normal hail. If you are worried about us being shadow fighters please don't be."
They realize that someone is speaking directly to them through their minds. They know a normal shadow fighter would never do something like this.
The ensign pauses his jump vortex initiation and, since he's not exactly sure how to properly respond to a telepath, reaches over and opens a communication channel.
"This is Ensign Ritter, of the buoy tender Protea. Would you please identify yourself."
"Iam Tomić, controller for Urlix. With me is Warlux, with controller Usmani. No need to run away, gentlemen. I apologize for any undue alarm we might have caused. We thought we were well outside your monitoring zone. Obviously, we were very wrong. I assume you are here investigating the large mass that has appeared near your station."
"Uh, yes. What is it?" the lieutenant says, his fingers ready to initiate the jump vortex creation.
"You are welcome to come and see it. It's not really a secret, we just didn't want a lot of busy bodies finding out about it."
"Oh, okay."
After having a good look at the two shadow fighters the ensign nods and says, "cut engines."
The mere words from Tomić were not enough to convince the ensign to trust him. What did convince him was the crazy color schemes of the two shadow fighters. One appears to be covered with multi-colored dots, the other with random lines of color. He couldn't imagine those vessels having any evil intent.
"Okay, Tomić. We'll turn around and come with you."
The ensign turns to crewman Pulver. "Go ahead, reverse course, though gently this time. Then bring engines up slowly to half."
"Quigg, send a message to command. Tell them we've made contact. Going to investigate. Will provide update in ... thirty minutes."
Once the Protea has reversed course again it follows the two fighters to the massive object. When they are close enough they can see a massive orbital ore processing and metal refining station. The lieutenant has heard of them, but he has never seen such a massive one up close.
"Protea to, uh Tomić. What is it doing here?" he asks.
"Well, we were taking it to its final destination. Of course, we can't say where, you understand. We had to drop out of hyperspace to give it a quick checkup. All of the gravitational eddies, random energy flows, and other issues play hell with something this big. A lot of credits went into buying this, so we don't want it damaged before we can use it."
"So you are going to be refining your own metal?"
"That's the idea. Nothing against the Federated Mining Conglomerate, it's got to make a profit too, but it does take quite a bit off the top of whatever we sell it. Then, if we need any of the metal once it's been refined we'd have to pay a premium for it. The powers-that-be figure this station will pay for itself in less than a year. Plus there are no issues with pirates or unscrupulous assayers."
"I understand. What are you building with it? Must be something big to justify buying something like that."
"Actually this is officially designated as RS-2, or Refining Station Number Two. Number One is already up and running. We basically have a whole new world that needs building. And since the source of the ore is just a hop, skip, and a jump from where we need it these stations will be a big help."
"Wow, sounds amazing. Uh, hey, if your group is looking for any buoy maintenance personnel let us know."
Tomić laughs. "I'll do that."
0
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you would be sure your seat harnesses are tight before we open the jump vortex. I don't know why but this ship seems to buffet a little more than usual when we drop out of hyperspace. Thank you."
Commander Kowaleski turns off the intercom. He takes a quick look at the video showing the passengers rechecking their seat harnesses. Way in the back he sees the lone Psy Corps telepath sitting by herself. Since the almost total collapse of Psy Corps, finding licensed telepaths has been a little difficult for Earth Gov. He is kind of glad about that, since telepaths make him a little uncomfortable.
He checks the readings for the fifth time to be sure they are approaching the correct jump beacon. It's the right one, but he's still worried about leaving hyperspace so far from the Earth-Alliance sphere of influence. However, he knows that these Earth Gov and Earth-Alliance representatives are more than willing to travel this far to find a new member system that seems so promising. He remembers one of the muckity-mucks showing him a printout of some of the 'features' of the possible new system: multi-race, no aid needed, will eventually have orbiting greenhouses to provide plenty of food for its inhabitants and nearby systems, can currently provide for its own defense, and will allow Earth Fleet to have a small base if no Earth-Alliance members or non-aligned races object. Earth Gov could hardly ask for more.
After giving his passengers a final warning, he creates a jump vortex and the transport bumps through and into normal space. Sensors tell him that they are at the far edge of a system. These same sensors indicate that some sort of artificial object lies several million kilometers away. Beyond the that object he can see the system's star, roughly the same age and size of Earth's sun. Since his instructions were to wait here for an escort he stops the ship's forward progress and begins scanning for an escort.
A few minutes later the transport's sensers show two small ships approaching at a high rate of speed. A short time later the ships are close enough to recognize. The pilots and crew almost mess their pants when they see the shadow fighters flying toward them.
"Dammit, it must be a trap!"
While the pilot begins prepping for a hyperspace jump the first officer warns the passengers to strap in.
Before the captain can finish establishing the jump vortex they receive a frantic hail.
"Earth Transport Javelin, you are not in danger! Repeat you are not in danger! Please do not jump to hyperspace! I will explain everything."
The captain responds. "We are an unarmed transport, on a peaceful mission."
"Yes, I know, that's why we're here. We are your escort. Please hold your position."
The transport's crew were in Earth Fleet and had the displeasure of dealing with shadow vessels. The transport is equipped with some basic shielding but it won't hold up to a direct hit even from a non-shadow fighter. They watch the fighters get closer and then take up positions on either side. None of them have ever seen shadow vessels this close before. What they see surprises them. Instead of the usual blacker-than-black color the fighter on the port side appears to be a bright red color and with what look like multiple pinstripes running along the top. They see something written on the vessel's bow, but it is too far away to be readable. The fighter on the starboard side seems to be covered by multi-colored swirls. These look nothing like normal shadow vessels.
"Sir," one of the bridge officers says. "Incoming transmission. Video included."
"Put it on main viewer. Pipe it into the cabin so our guests can see this."
Their main view screen shows a brightly lit cockpit with a smiling human sitting there.
"Hello, my name is Gerardo Cericola. I am the controller of the vessel Jayax. With me is Hayden Bryce, controller of Il'ux. Welcome to New Eden. We will be your escort. We will be heading to Farpoint Station a few hundred thousand klicks away."
The first officer says, "but you're human. And those are shadow fighters, correct?"
"Yes, I am human, as is Hayden. Jayax and Il'ux were associated with the Chitoxan. However, they are no longer affiliated with them or their shadows. They are proud members of New Eden Defense Force, as are Hayden and I."
"Wait," the captain says, "Your ships are members of your defense force?"
"Yes. Jayax and Il'ux are sentient beings, as all of the shadow vessels are. I'm also a sentient being, though Jayax might argue that point." Gerardo pauses for a moment as if listening to someone, then he smiles.
"Okay," the captain says. "So Farpoint Station is our final destination?"
"Yes, it will eventually be the station that is at the farthest point from our star, Alathfar, and will be the primary destination for hyperspace travelers to the system. It was completed just a year ago. Several other stations are under construction and we are also terraforming the second and third planets. Hopefully in a few decades we will be able to establish settlements there. But you'll learn all about that when you meet with Mr. Walker and the leadership council. If you will link to our transponders we will lead you to the station. And let me be the first to welcome you to New Eden."