A Galaxy Unknown 10: Azula Carver (38 page)

"It's quite long and quite detailed."

"Then it's going to take me a considerable amount of time. Perhaps I should do this elsewhere so I don't prevent you from conducting other Crown business."

"Nothing is more important than this. And while I trust you with my life, I can't allow this viewpad out of my possession until I've decided with whom I can share this, if I choose to share it. This is the only electronic copy. The original document is in the most secure location in the Nordakian Government Archives. Only myself and my queen can access that document."

"Then may I sit down while I study this, Your Majesty?"

"Forgive me, Your Grace. I'm so preoccupied with this document that I've forgotten my manners. Yes, come over to my informal seating. I'll ring for beverages and snacks— unless you'd care for something more substantial."

"A cup of tea and something to munch on while I concentrate would be most appreciated."

~

It had been some time since Jenetta had tried to read anything in Ancient, so it took her considerably longer to finish than she first expected, but she finally completed her read of the document. The king had waited patiently, never saying a word once she started.

"Your Majesty, I've never read anything so
appalling
in my entire life. Has this information been verified?"

"To the greatest extent possible."

"This document has the potential to help our people enormously or harm them terribly. It all depends on how the information is presented and how it's received."

"Yes, Your Grace. The presentation of the facts contained in that document will require the most delicate of handling to ensure it's received in such a way as to make the outcome favorable. That's why I've chosen you to handle the matter."

"Me?"

"I can think of no one else who can handle such a delicate issue with the care it requires. I trust you above all my subjects to see that the information helps the Nordakian and Obotymot people rather than harms them. Will you take on the task for us?"

Jenetta poured herself another cup of tea while she thought about the king's request. She owed him and Queen Ckuhah so much that she could hardly refuse.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I would be honored to represent the Kingdom in this matter, if I have carte blanche power to handle it as I see fit."

"Of course, Your Grace. And I know the issue will be handled with the greatest of skill and delicacy. Now that that's decided, it's dinnertime. You'll dine with the queen and myself in the family dining room. I won't take no for an answer."

"I've never been able to refuse you anything, Your Majesty. What shall I do with this viewer?"

"I'll place it in my safe until you're ready to leave. Will you stay the night?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will."

~

The Royal Kitchen had been able to produce two large portions of well-cooked meat for Cayla and Tayna, so Jenetta hadn't had to return to the ship for their food. After eating their meal, the two large cats dozed while Jenetta talked with the king and queen for hours regarding matters other than the reason for her visit.

~

When it was time to leave the next day, Jenetta thanked the king and queen for their hospitality, then walked with the king to retrieve the viewpad from the safe in the king's study.

"You understand the importance of this document," the king said, "and the possible consequences if it were to fall into the wrong hands, so I won't belabor the point further. Our prayers go with you for a successful resolution."

"I'll guard it with my life, Your Majesty."

"My faith in you has never wavered, Your Grace."

~

Once back aboard her barge, Jenetta placed the viewpad in the safe in her suite, although it would have been just as safe if she'd left it on her desk.

Activating her CT, she called McDonnell.

"Lieutenant, we can depart whenever you're ready."

"Aye, Admiral. Back to Obotymot?"

"No. Take me to Earth. Space Command HQ in Nebraska, USNA."

"Aye, Admiral."

Turning to her com unit, Jenetta prepared a vidMail.

"Message to Evelyn Platt, Admiral, Space Command HQ, Nebraska, USNA. Begin message.

"Evelyn, I'm preparing to leave Nordakia en route to Nebraska. It's important that I see you as soon as I arrive on Earth. I can't discuss the nature of the issue other than in a face-to-face meeting.

"Jenetta Carver, Admiral, aboard her barge on Nordakia. Message complete."

w??

Two days later, Jenetta's barge landed at the enormous Nebraska base. The activity there had been diminishing as Supreme HQ slowly moved its operations to Quesann. The Nebraska base would continue to be the home of the Region One Space Command HQ for the foreseeable future.

It was nighttime in Nebraska when the barge arrived, so Jenetta turned in for the night so she would be well rested for her meeting with Admiral Platt in the morning.

~

In the morning, Jenetta put on a Space Command uniform for the first time since arriving at Obotymot all those months ago. Following her delivery of the twins, her body had quickly returned to the shape programmed by Raider scientists decades ago, so the uniform was still a perfect fit.

As she stepped off the ramp of the barge, a greeting party of Space Command senior officers snapped to attention.

At least they didn't bring a band and cheering fans
, she thought as she was introduced to the officers. Minutes later she was being whisked away to Admiral Platt's office.

~

"Admiral Carver," Admiral Platt said formally as Jenetta was escorted into the admiral's office, "it's nice to see you again. Please come in and have a seat."

As soon as her aide left the office and the door had closed, Admiral Platt said, "What's up, Jen? Your message sounded so mysterious. Does this have anything to do with that attempt on your life?"

"No. I'm quite sure that was an unrelated incident."

"Have you discovered who was behind it?"

"Not yet. I'm not sure I ever will. It wasn't the first attempt on my life, and it probably won't be the last. I've made a lot of enemies over the years."

"All successful people have."

"Yes, but not all successful people are the target of assassins. Anyway, the matter I need to discuss with you concerns the Nordakians. A document was recently discovered in the Nordakian archives which clearly outlines the plans of a fanatical group to kill every man, woman, and child on Dakistee."

"When is this to take place?"

"It already has. The attempt was put into motion twenty centuries ago."

"Are you talking about the fanatics who sterilized the population so they couldn't reproduce?"

"Yes."

"Thank heavens. I thought you had uncovered a new plot."

"I've read the document, and hatred for the people of Dakistee is expressed in such vitriol that it makes you wonder about the sanity of the so-called religious leaders of the time."

"And is this document to be made public?" Admiral Platt asked.

"No."

"Then there's really no problem. Simply bury it so deep in the musty old archives that it can never see the light of day or—better yet—destroy it."

"I don't think destruction of such documents should even be considered an option. The poet and philosopher George Santayana, a Spanish national, is credited with writing in 1905, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' Even if this document is never made public, it should remain intact so archivists can produce it if it's ever needed as a reminder of the despicable behavior of certain Nordakians. The Dakistians know the source of the sterility, and some of them despise the Nordakians living now simply for being the descendents of the fanatics. While most hold no malice towards the current generations on Nordakia, if this ever became public it could incite new hatred among the Dakistians who are trying to forget the ills of the past."

"I don't see the problem."

"No, I haven't made it clear yet. The problem is that there is an addendum to the document which might help our researchers find a cure to the sterility."

"That's wonderful!"

"Yes, it is if it turns out to be as helpful as I think it will. But I know the Dakistians would question where the solution came from, and if told, they'd want to know how long the Nordakians had been holding back the information. Some will choose to believe the worst and assume the Nordakians had the solution all the time but kept it hidden because they still hate the Dakistians. That's foolish, of course, but sometimes people have such uncontrollable hatred that they're rarely capable of objective reasoning."

"Ah, I begin to see your dilemma. You want to produce what could possibly help the Dakistians cure their sterility but never let them know about the main document. What is this addendum you've mentioned?"

"Don't laugh, okay. The addendum is a research paper by a pharmaceutical company on Dakistee. They were searching for a cure to insomnia and discovered that the drug actually caused sterility in test subjects."

"Good Lord. And they then used it to sterilize the population."

"No. They were frightened out of their minds at the possible repercussions if anyone ever learned about it. They would have destroyed the formula, but they had already distributed too many research documents to ever put the evil djinn back in the lamp. So they prepared the document we have now in which they claim no responsibility for the distribution of the experimental drug. They state that the formula was stolen by an employee and turned over to a group of ideological fanatics."

Admiral Platt giggled and then apologized. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stop the way my mind went."

"I know. You're thinking that either the sterility problem will actually cause insomnia rather than cure it, or that once the drug is distributed, insomnia will never be a problem again after the current generations expire."

"Yes, the latter."

"I thought of that also. But the matter is so serious that we can't allow silliness to intrude in our effort to solve the problem."

"So once the fanatics got their hands on the formula they proceeded to poison the entire population?"

"From what I've deduced, they waited until they were ready to leave the planet and then dumped huge volumes of the drug in all reservoirs and water systems. The drug was odorless and tasteless, and all traces of it were supposed to disappear in a hundred years. Then the descendants of the fanatics could return and inherit a vacant planet with a ready-made infrastructure. The ships were built as generational ships so they could live in space for the one hundred years and then return. But something happened— and they were unable to return. Or perhaps they decided not to return. Eventually they discovered Nordakia. But by then, inadequate radiation shielding had caused mutations to alter their physiology, so they look decidedly different than their ancestors."

"With regard to your problem, why not simply tell the Dakistians we've found a cure, providing the addendum does actually allow our researchers to solve the problem. We don't have to explain
how
we found the cure."

"That would work, but— I
want
the Dakistians to know the cure originated with the Nordakians so they're grateful enough to finally forgive the descendents of those monsters who died out twenty centuries ago."

"Well, then that could be a problem. But the first step is to see if our people can even develop a cure from the new data. Why don't we take it one step at a time."

Holding out a viewpad, Jenetta said, "I've edited the original document to remove all non-pertinent information. All that remains is the scientific data related to the development of the formula used to create the insomnia drug. And I've included a copy that I've translated from Ancient Dakis to Amer."

"Can you stay for a few days and attend the initial meetings with the top research people assigned to the Dakistee fertility effort?"

"Of course. I want to make sure they have all the data they need to start work on this approach."

~     ~

Jenetta remained on Earth for another week and attended all of the high-level meetings with doctors and researchers working on the cure. To make sure the translation was correct, she went over every word with a researcher who had studied ancient Dakis. The researcher and Jenetta had a couple of long discussions about the precise meaning of several words and both felt better for the extra effort when it was over.

The sterility project would now focus on learning how the insomnia drug caused sterility so the scientists could hopefully reverse the effect.

~ December 2
^nd
, 2289 ~

"Captain Boyd, we've found it," Lt. Commander Oster, the captain of the
Ganges
reported. "It's heading is maximum post-median from the Crondezzo system. There's nothing on that heading."

"Nothing?"

"My navigator says the charts show no star systems within ten light-years of that course from here to the defined border of the galaxy."

"There must be
something
down there. Perhaps they know of a rogue planet whose travel has never been mapped."

"I figure it's trying to get somewhere where there's no chance of running into anyone else."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps there's simply a rendezvous point down there. Where are you, Commander?"

"We're about ten billion kilometers off their track. Once we spotted them we kept going until we were sure there was no chance of them seeing us."

"Send your coordinates to my navigator. That will be our RP. Stay there until we all meet up."

~     ~

Some eight hours later, the five ships had assembled at the RP and the
Calcutta
had established a five-way conference call among the captains.

"
Ganges
," Captain Boyd said, "you found the mothership, so you get the honor of checking out what might be ahead of it. I want you to fly on ahead for up to a week to see if there's anything down there at all. If you spot other ships, get some images and send them to me. Otherwise, return here and we'll go destroy the mothership you found and then head for Quesann.