Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores (10 page)

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James and Michael quietly sat with their astronomy team in the total darkness and drank in the new sights they could see in the night sky. They had experienced a momentary sense of dismay on getting the urgent orders not to send detailed videos of the sky, before they realised the practicality of the order. Instead they merely recorded the optical data via a secure radio channel back to the command post. A portable data centre then stored all the survey information before a secure copy was sent back through the gateway via the communications array to Earth. The lead astronomers had watched with the rest of their team as a pair of smaller moons had risen an hour after sunset. They had trained all the equipment, apart from the big optical telescope on the moons, as they crossed the sky at speed.

‘The inner moon is well over half the size of our moon and is about 120,000 kilometres away. The second moon is 390,000 kilometres away and it is larger but is still not as big as our moon.’

In minutes the two men had calculated the orbital periods of both moons with their powerful data tablets and Michael spoke first.

‘James, I get a stable 3:1 orbital resonance on the moons and both the eccentricities and inclinations are minimal. The inner moon orbits us every 15 days and outer moon orbits every 44 days.’

James acknowledged Michael with a grunt as he continued to go through his own calculations. Michael could see that James had gone in a different direction and waited patiently for him to speak.

‘Well I looked at the relative masses of both objects and together they weigh as much as one and half times the mass of our moon. So the planet will get tides and they will be two hours later per local day. Every twenty two days equals a mid tidal cycle and the tides are nearly twice as high at that time.’

James had continued to calculate further additional information and spoke again after several minutes.

‘The two moons introduces a level of difficulty in calculations, however the planet is over 95 percent as massive as our Earth and is just a few hundred kilometres smaller in diameter, about 12,240 kilometres.’

The astronomy team fell silent again as a massive spiral field of stars slowly rose in the night sky. It was apparent to all that they were looking at the Milky Way from a much greater distance than that of Earth. A dense ribbon of stars shone high in the pitch black sky, and the central galactic bulge was there to see without the intervening dust clouds that block the view from Earth. A hushed silence came over the team for several minutes, before a nervous voice from one of the astronomy team assistants asked the obvious question.

‘So just where in our galaxy are we now?’

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Chapter 5

Gavin Lewis walked in the Barede night through the gateway and found himself back on Earth under the bright early morning light of the Sun. Two truck loads of small caged animals from the colony followed him back to Earth. He squinted at the sudden light change and carefully moved off the tarmac at Perth airport. The cargo masters now sent forward another laden truck, and he could see several Osprey planes being lined up to be wheeled through as well.

Gavin could see Major Donaldson over at the control tower talking to a group of animated civilians, and as he started walking the short distance towards his superior he placed a call to his home.

Grace, his eldest daughter, picked up the phone as he expected.

‘Hi sweetheart it is daddy, how are you going?’

Grace gave a squeal of delight and started talking fast.

‘Daddy I saw you on the TV. Shoshanna and I saw you lots. Hears Mummy!’

Gavin gave a smile at his daughter’s excitement as he spoke to his wife Cindy.

‘Cindy it sounds like the girls are excited and has everyone been well?’

Cindy sounded relieved to hear from him and no doubt found the incredible distance he had travelled to be daunting as she replied.

‘Darling we are all okay. I got the four wheel drive and trailer loaded as if we are going on a holiday. I trust you still are thinking of us going?’

Gavin had no doubts as he replied to his wife.

‘I just stepped back through, the place is incredible but I am glad to be back talking to you. I think we will be safe enough if we go and we will eventually have schools and hospitals. The major has already sounded me out about leading what members of the squadron go to the colony.’

Cindy gave a warm giggle that he had always found endearing.

‘Slow down Gavin as I am already convinced. We must remember that it is for the rest of our lives at least and we cannot return at any stage.’

Gavin had a sombre thought for a moment before he replied.

‘Cindy we cannot risk being separated during this deployment. For it could last forever otherwise as you say. The best way out is for you to just come through as soon as you can as we do not know how long the gate way is open. When you get down here, just say who you are with, and they will take you to the front of the queue. Now I have to go real soon as I have to talk to Major Donaldson.’

Cindy quickly agreed with his logic and he could hear her asking the girls to grab their packs and favourite toys as she then replied.

‘Gavin, don’t worry as I am leaving. I will drop the keys off for the service house with the quartermaster when I get to the airport. I love you.’

Gavin responded with the same sentiment as he reached the airport control post. Major Donaldson looked flustered and in a hurry as he turned to regard him and return his salute.

‘Gavin, it good to see you again and no doubt you have reassured your wife. Your two men injured earlier are in stable condition in hospital and will be okay. Now have you though about my request for you to lead the squadron off world?’

Gavin had no trouble in agreeing with the request, and he noted the relief in the attitude of the Major. He knew that the Major had a disabled son that required a lot of medical care so no doubt he would not have wanted to go off world for that reason alone. His thoughts were interrupted by Major Donaldson as he spoke again.

‘Gavin, have you managed to find the other gate ways off world? There have been helicopter and Maveen sightings, so they cannot be too far apart.’

Gavin looked at the new maps that he had of the Australian gateways that were obviously some distance apart. He then looked at the new map data that had been supplied via reports that had come through from several other gate ways. He turned the series of maps and spotted a couple of strong trends in terrain as he gave his reply.

‘Sir, we are all well west of a big line of ridges that must be the spine of a continent. I did manage to earlier speak with the Paris site to our north. I assume we are anywhere from two hundred to three hundred kilometres apart in roughly similar terrain.’

The major looked at the maps and voiced an agreement, as additional messages came through from a sergeant that saluted as he walked into the command tent.

‘Sir we have just had reports from an American UAV and it has found the Barede end point for the Sydney gateway. It is roughly two hundred and forty kilometres south of the American position for the San Francisco gateway.’

Gavin turned over an unrelated map of Western Australia and began a quick sketch of their relative positions as further news about the London gateway being south from the Perth gateway arrived and was added to the sketch.

Gavin looked at the Major with a sense of relief for a moment as yet another message was relayed inside the command tent.

‘Major another UAV from the San Francisco gateway has found the Beijing gateway to their north, and they seem to be delayed in the setup of their camp.’

The major also looked relieved as he turned to speak to Gavin and shake his hand.

‘You best be getting back now Gavin. I will update your maps as we receive further data. I will send through Cindy and the girls when they arrive, and the best of luck to you all.’

Gavin returned the major’s sentiment first and the salute next, and he quickly walked back to the gateway. In minutes he had hitched a ride on a truck that immediately went through the gateway back to his new command.

                                                            ***

Steve drove the runabout back to the island in the still morning and Ian had time to consider the unique problems presented by the new colony. The key one from what he could tell from the first reports was there was no fossil fuels like oil and coal present on the relatively young Barede world. He knew that these problems the colony now faced would require assistance from both the Traders and the Maveen.

Ian Ridge stepped from the rails of the runabout into the ankle deep water and walked up to the Traders to formally greet them with a polite bow. He could see several Maveen probes resting quietly at their usual location on the island. By agreed with Steve earlier, they had arranged for Ian to take the lead in the day’s meeting with the Traders and hopefully the Maveen.

Steve, Samantha, Dan and Rebecca ensured that their video cameras were working and started filming the island. For a moment Steve stopped filming as he regarded the gateway east of the island through which an occasional Maveen probe would fly through from time to time. Captain Narindestat returned the bow from Ian Ridge, and the rest of the boats came ashore as Ian began to speak.

‘Good morning captain, we are looking forward to our discussions and training today. However we wish to speak with the Maveen lead probe on a matter of prime importance to us before we start today.’

The Trader captain looked thoughtful as he replied.

‘Certainly prime minister and I for one would like to accompany you if I may?’

In moments a few Traders and several humans stood in front of the Maveen probes, and Ian Ridge nervously addressed the large dark forms of the alien ships.

‘Lead probe, it is the Australian prime minister, Ian Ridge here, and I need to speak with you urgently please.’

After a moment the second probe from the left opened a large blue vision strip and regarded Ian as he replied.

‘Yes prime minister, I have been expecting your visit this morning. Your race is finding the new colony to be suitable for your use?’

Ian swallowed his nervousness and replied.

‘Lead probe the world is most suitable, though we are concerned about the lack of fossil fuels and we will need further assistance. However the animals and plants on this world, together with your own nature, had led to several important questions that I need to ask you.’

The lead probe looked at the assembled humans as it replied.

‘I must place emphasis on three things before your questions. First your race must pass as much resources and people through as possible to give the colony the best possible chance for survival. We will provide assistance until the colony is capable of supporting itself, but you must help yourselves as much as possible. Secondly you must look after this planet’s environment in a more effective manner, and this has been stated to you beforehand. Finally we will not answer questions that may cause you to know something that is detrimental for either you or us at a later stage. Now your questions may be asked.’

Ian paused for a moment as he parsed the long answer. He felt a moment’s confusion over the probe’s final statement, and then he gave a preamble before starting his questions.

‘We agreed to all of your requests to the best of our abilities. Now it is obvious to our race that you have been on this world previously, my own culture has recorded you in our prehistory and seeded at least one world with our flora and fauna. So how long ago were you last on our planet?’

The probe knew the way forward here was the truth, as it in turn stated a simple question.

‘Prime minister you are from an older Earth culture, and you know of past events from tens of thousands of years ago?’

Ian drew himself up to his full height and looked the probe over as he answered.

‘My proud culture is that of the aborigines of the island continent to the east of here. We have references in our antiquity of tens of thousands of years ago to travellers, known as the maker of worlds and our stories tell of their work in our lands.’

Rebecca came forward and held pictures of ancient aboriginal artwork depicting as beings similar to the Maveen sub probes, and then the sub probes themselves. The probe replied after a moment in the softest metallic voice that any could recall it speaking.

‘We were on this world both sixty thousand years and forty thousand years ago, and the initial visit allowed us to transfer the building blocks of several Earth ecologies off world. After twenty thousand years we returned for the larger animal species as the biology on Barede and other worlds had become established. We decided to leave on both occasions to ensure your races survival by our absence. So you know the story of the serpent, and the thunder and rain, new life, of old lands lost and new lands remade?’

Ian looked around at the assembled humans and replied.

‘We have been stewards of the island continent for many thousands of years. The harsh land has shaped our people and our outlook. Our peoples have never forgotten the earlier times.’

The probe considered the reply and beams of blue light suddenly appeared between all the landed Maveen probes. The humans looked around with concern, but then took their lead from Captain Narindestat as he now hurriedly spoke.

‘Prime minister, the probes now speak between themselves via the blue lasers. I do not know when the lead probe will speak again. Now we have a busy day ahead of us as we need to move your trade items, including your two ships, to safety on another island nearby so we can launch from here with destroying them.’

Ian looked over at the damaged ships and the equipment stockpile as the Maveen lead probe now spoke again.

‘We request that the prime minister and human known as Rebecca remain and speak with us. You do not need all the humans to help you with your own tasks. Captain you must never repeat this conversation to any of the vassal races, and I also strongly advise the humans to keep this discussion private.’