A Galaxy Unknown 10: Azula Carver (11 page)

Jenetta placed the unit on her left ear. "Like this?"

"Yes. Now ask Cayla a question."

"Um, Cayla, are you hungry?"

The Jumaka looked at Jenetta and made a noise in her throat. Jenetta heard. "No, Jenta. Ate breakfast already."

Jenetta's face lit up. "It's wonderful, Mr. Wilkerson. Absolutely wonderful."

Wilkerson smiled widely. He had a receiving unit over his ear, so he'd heard the response. "I'll have to tweak the translation circuit a little so your name comes out closer to the real phonetic sounding."

"Based on our previous conversations, I expected the first words to be something like, 'Ate.'"

"It seems that while I've been trying to learn from them, they've been learning from me as well. They never knew how their words would sound to us, but now that they can hear how their speech is converted into Amer, they're actually modifying the way they speak to us. During our lab time, I've had the speakers turned up so they can hear whatever I hear."

"Uh, is that desirable? I didn't want to change them."

"I think that was unavoidable. Whenever species meet and interact, change is inevitable. And changes in their speech was a natural evolution once they could audibly compare it to the way we speak. Perhaps when they speak to each other, their speech patterns will remain the same. Maybe it's only the way they speak to us that will change, since before now there was no way to even speak to us."

"Then you believe that when speaking to us their speech will continue to evolve somewhat?"

"Yes, and of course I'll be tweaking the translator as we progress, so some of the change will be produced by the electronics as the program learns to better interpret what they're saying, just as it did originally with aliens."

"Mr. Wilkerson, would it be possible to have the signal sent directly to my CT from the collar?"

"You mean the tiny chip that SC planted in your head when you entered the academy?"

"Yes."

"No, not directly. As I understand it, CTs and IDs have complex filtering circuits so they won't receive anything other than official transmissions. But there might be another way. When you're away from a ship with its central computer for telecommunications, don't you use some kind of range extender that communicates with your CT?"

"Yes, it's a tiny unit we wear on our belts when we're on a planet with no SC communications base units or when we're visiting a non-SC ship in space."

"If you can get me one of those range-extender units, I'll see if I can modify the translator to send the signal directly to it, and the extender can then send it to your CT."

"I have one in the palace. I'll bring it down to you later. Do you mind if I talk with Cayla, Tayna, Thor, and Nicky now?"

"Not at all, Your Grace. I have some planned tweaking to do with the translation program."

Jenetta spent the next couple of hours talking to the Jumakas. She had a million questions to ask about their personal histories, and while she only made a small dent in the pent-up question list, she learned an incredible amount about their lives before they became part of her family. The most starling news was that Cayla and Tayna were not sisters. They had been paired as cubs because the gemstones merchant who purchased them wanted a matched pair and they looked so much alike that the trader had passed them off as sisters from the same litter. Both agreed they had long ago begun to feel like sisters and would have been heartbroken if they had been split up when Jenetta rescued them from the cargo ship. All of the Jumakas agreed that the time they had spent with Jenetta was the most pleasurable time in their lives, and they were so happy they had chosen her as their human.

~     ~     ~

Over the following days, the Jumakas were more often available for playtime with the children, and the boys delighted in running around the garden chasing the big cats or being chased by them in a sort of tag game they had devised. Nicky was a little hesitant to join in at first, but he came around and was soon racing around the gardens with the others. The Jumakas, as with most animals, instinctively understood that the children were immature humans who had to be protected at all times and tolerated when they got a little too rough. Their mothers were very vigilant and loudly corrected the behavior of the boys when they did things like biting the ears of one of the Jumakas. The big cats never lost their composure with the children.

Since the Jumakas had the full run of the palace and the grounds inside the walls, they knew every square inch of the property. The staff had ceased being frightened by the sudden appearance of one of the big cats, or all four of them, but that didn't mean they were immune to a little shock when they turned around and suddenly saw one of the big cats staring at them. It was simply because the Jumakas made not the slightest noise when moving about the palace.

Jenetta had always fed the Jumakas at meal time, but now the kitchen staff took over that duty. The big cats were fed at the same time every day in a small dining room near the kitchen area. Jenetta's instructions were that the Jumakas were to receive all they could eat at meal time, with no extra food between meals.

~     ~     ~

Jenetta had begun marking the days off a calendar she'd printed that showed when Hugh would arrive. Among the many things occupying her mind, the arrival of Hugh was by far the most important to her. She was brought up out of her reverie when the phone on her desk rang.

"Azula Carver," she said as she picked up the receiver.

"Your Grace, this is Captain Pwuhvasqu. We've just been contacted by a GSC ship in orbit. They say they're coming down to the palace and request landing instructions."

"They're landing?"

"Yes, your Grace."

"A shuttle?"

"I don't believe so, Your Grace. They identified it as a CPS-14, and asked if our shuttle pad could accommodate it. I told them to stand by while I checked."

"Ahh. A CPS-14 is an enormously large deep-space tug, Captain. It's a bit too large to be properly accommodated on our shuttle pad. Have them land in the open field outside the palace walls. And extend them every normal visitor courtesy while they're here."

"Of course, your Grace."

~

Roughly thirty-five minutes later, a CPS-14 settled onto the large empty field to the west of the palace walls. Jenetta walked out to the craft with a detail of her security people. She didn't treat it like a state visit because no one of importance had been identified as being aboard the ship.

The CPS-14 had been assembled with four of the half-width cargo containers beneath its keel, and it was on these that the entire weight of the small interstellar ship rested. The containers had been specially designed to function as undercarriage support for a CPS-14, and they were well suited for the job. Each container had a hydraulic leg in each of the four bottom corners. The sixteen legs would extend out once the craft was near the ground and keep the ship level at all times. If the ship sensed that the ground might be too soft to provide good support, it would alert the bridge crew before the oh-gee power systems were shut down. Once settled on the ground, the top area of the ship, usually referred to as the sail, was some thirty meters above the ground. The ship appeared fairly small when alongside a destroyer in space, but here on the planet it seemed enormous.

As Jenetta and her security force reached the ship, a hatch near the bottom of one of the center-located cargo containers opened and two Space Command officers stepped out. Seeing the security detail approaching, they straightened their uniforms and waited near the ship. When the detail reached them, the senior officer took one step forward, both came to attention, and then saluted. "Admiral Carver, I present to you a new CPS-14 to use as your personal barge while you are on leave from Region Two."

Jenetta returned the salute and said, ""My personal barge?"

Extending a viewpad, the lieutenant said, "Yes, ma'am. Here's a message from Admiral Moore."

Jenetta accepted the viewpad, and said, "And what is your name, Lieutenant?"

The lieutenant became a bit red-faced. Officers and enlisted were supposed to identify themselves immediately upon meeting or encountering a superior. But Jenetta was used to such responses from junior officers when they met her for the first time. Meeting a general officer face to face was a bit intimidating for a junior officer, and meeting a four-star— not to mention one as famous as Admiral Carver— could be a bit overwhelming.

"Uh, sorry, Admiral, ma'am. I'm Lieutenant Clancy McDonnell, and this is Lieutenant(jg) Brandy Pfeiffer. We're a third of the bridge crew for your new barge, Admiral."

"And your orders are just to standby until I wish to go somewhere?"

"Yes, Admiral. The ship is fully stocked and we can remain here for up to five years without victualing, although we'll run out of fresh vegetables in about a year."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. As you exhaust your fresh food supplies, just submit a request for replacements from my kitchen staff."

"Aye, Admiral. Do you have an plans for a maiden voyage?"

"Not at the moment. Don't worry, I'll give you plenty of notice."

"We can lift off with five minutes' notice at any time, Admiral."

"Excellent, but I'll try to give you a bit more notice than that. That's all, Lieutenant. You're dismissed. It's a pleasure to meet both of you."

"Thank you, Admiral. And it's a real honor to meet you and be part of your barge staff."

~

Once back in her office, Jenetta activated the viewpad purported to contain a message from Admiral Moore. It required her to hold it up to her right eye for a retinal scan before the message would play.

"Hello, Jen. I hope you're getting plenty of rest. As I understand it, you're going to need it. I've been informed you've agreed to take full responsibility for the Refugee Resettlement Program established by the King and Queen of Nordakia to deal with the expected deluge of refugees trying to escape the civil war in the Clidepp Empire and settle on Nordakia and Obotymot. To properly fulfill that role, you're going to need transportation between Nordakia and Obotymot, as well as other destinations in Region One.

"And when you're ready to return to us here at Quesann, you'll have a ship capable of making the journey. You already know the CPS-14 is Dakinium sheathed, making it almost invincible to attack by anyone other than the Denubbewa, but what you may not know is that for the past two years our top people have been secretly working on a modification that will increase the speed of all our ships by almost fifty-percent. That's right, Light-9793.48 will no longer be the top speed of our ships. Pretty shocking, isn't it?

"A little more than two years ago a CPS-14 captained by a young Lieutenant(jg) named Sydnee Marcola suffered engine problems while on special assignment outside of GA space. Your position in Space Command allows you access to the full details of the incident should you wish to read the reports, so I won't repeat them here. Suffice it to say that while attempting to get their temporal envelope generator working without the proper replacement parts, they tried something so outlandish it would normally not have been brought up in serious discussion. But they were desperate. Amazingly, the repair not only got the generator working, they achieved Light-12,241.63. And the only part modified was the induction coil.

"After two years of investigation, our scientists have determined that the repair made by the crew of the
Justice
caused the energy to ripple very uniquely, and the ripple effect affected the double wave of the temporal envelope in ways never anticipated. The special metallic properties of a new, special-purpose sort of glue developed for the Marines was principally responsible. But it made the scientists look at the role of the simple induction coil in a whole new light. The bottom line is that we've managed to further enhance the ripple effect and the proven top speed of our CPS-14s is now Light-14,685.7. Because the numbers are getting so large, we've decided to use a simpler expression for the new speed. A physicist, Ernst Mach, who studied the shock waves associated with breaking the sound barrier, was honored by having the measurement system named after him. As you know, Mach-1 is the speed of sound. So our new FTL speed reference will be Marc-1. If further advances are made, we'll use references such as Marc-1.3 or whatever is appropriate. The Marc term represents the first four letters of Lt. Marcola's last name.

"This small ship is the first one built around a new temporal generator and will give you a thrill like the one you must have experienced when the
Colorado
first achieved Light-9793.48. The Board has decided we should share this advance with commercial shippers because the ripple effect also affects the single envelope in a similar manner, but that probably won't happen right away. The GA Senate will probably want to argue the issue for the next five years or so. But we're moving ahead to produce the new induction coils for all ships in the SC fleets. Even the older, non-DS ships that are currently limited to Light-450 will have their speeds increased to about Light-675."

Jenetta paused the recording to think about the new information. She remembered her brother Billy mentioning that he had assisted a young officer named Sydnee Marcola in command of a CPS-14 who had been tasked with finding a temporal generator believed to be aboard a freighter on its way to Centrasia. The story might make interesting reading. She would have to download the related reports the next time she accessed the SC data systems.

"Jen," Admiral Moore said when she resumed the playback, "when you're ready to return to active duty, come to Quesann so we can discuss your future role in Space Command. We need you, Jen, and I think you still very much want to be a part of the Space Command family. I know we can find a role for you that will be both satisfying to you and highly beneficial to the Galactic Alliance.

"My warmest regards to your family.

"Richard E. Moore, Admiral of the Fleet, Admiralty Board HQ on Quesann. Message complete."

Jenetta smiled as the message ended. They were pulling out all the stops to get her to come back. It was a wonderful compliment. She certainly hadn't expected them to extend the courtesy of a barge for her private use while on LOA. And what a barge. With Light-14,685.7, or Marc-1, she could go anywhere and get there one-third quicker than the
Ares
. By the most direct route, Earth had been forty-eight days from Quesann. A quick calculation told her the trip would now only take thirty-two days at Marc-1. Sixteen days was a considerable time-savings. And since ships are 'out of phase' while traveling in a double envelope, there's no danger of a collision with anything that's 'in phase.' It made one wonder if they had reached the limits on speed. But every time they had begun to believe that before, something happened to prove them wrong.