Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 3 - Fleet Action (17 page)

Teanros got onto the radio and quickly advised the other two groups of survivors of their location and the creek, as overhead a series of sonic booms announced the arrival of human marines. The lieutenant added additional advice that was again answered by only two series of three clicks.

‘Do not engage the human marines, attempt to escape and we will mount an offensive at a later stage.’

Teanros now sent one of the other survivors forward to cross the creek and scout the area ahead of them. He watched from the shallows around a large tree as the scout swam off along the bottom of the murky water. He was quietly confident the humans would not capture them easily as his race was all excellent swimmers. Teanros was watching as the scout swamp next a large partly sunken log, but his confidence was badly shaken as the still water in the centre of the creek exploded and the supposed log vanished. The scout now yowled and hissed loudly both in extreme pain and alarm.

‘There is a large predator in here….’

The Jerecab clustered together in alarm as the scout fled back across the creek to them. Teanros identified the log as it reappeared, and his mind furnished a name as he yelled back to the stricken scout.

‘Crocodile and they are deadly, swim for your life!’

The saltwater crocodile vanished again and Teanros could now see blood streaming from the scout as he continued to flee. The injured scout gave a blood-curdling shriek as the predator attacked again and then they both vanished in the middle of the creek. Teanros quickly recalled two of the braver lieutenants who had drawn blasters and were wading forward into the creek. The other survivors anxiously edged further back from the edge of the creek and then nervously hissed at one another in panic.

Teanros knew that the planet Earth had a selection of animals, alien in size and nature to what the Jerecab were used to dealing with, but he had not been expecting to have to interact with them straight away. The lieutenant then led the survivors deeper into the mangroves as the human ships gathered overhead to hunt them down.

                                                                     ***

Grant looked over the survey data for the second system they had entered after leaving on a short exploration mission requested by the Maveen. His crew had left the Maveen and the Dradfer to their discussions after the continued questions of the Dradfer had eventually finished. Grant was still not sure about the Dradfer as he had earlier caught a couple of their junior researchers looking at him and Gayle in particular. Gayle had hit the nail on the head with regards to the Dradfer once they were heading back to deep space.

‘I get the feeling that our latest friends would like to stick all of us in a medical research facility for the rest of our lives. If the Maveen were not around I think that this could be a distinct possibility.’

Olav was happily looking over their latest readings of a handful of nearby Dradfer ships, but he added his own pithy and uncomfortable reply in agreement with Gayle.

‘They do seem preoccupied with our biology, especially our life spans and reproductive characteristics. Funnily enough they seem not to be as much concerned about the other species from our distant home world.’

Grant knew now that his own instincts were correct as he then added his views.

‘Well their single minded focus is good as we do not have to try too hard to hide the presence of the Quixxe refugee world. I will speak discretely with Captain Narindestat about the Dradfer and I will highlight our concerns. For the Dradfer may well use their relationship with the Altoran to advance their claims for these worlds. I think we will leave the Traders and Maveen to deal with the Dradfer, before the Traders then setup their new colonies in these systems.’

Gayle warmly smiled at him and then spoke again in agreement.

‘Let the more senior races sort this out between them, as at the end of the day these worlds are too far from the Barede colonies and certainly remote enough for the Traders.’

Olav was always more comfortable dealing with purely technical conversations, and the multi-talented scientist now highlighted key aspects of the star systems they now surveyed.

‘The first two systems are as surveyed by the Maveen so I would venture both that the remaining six systems will be according to the rest of their information, and also I think that the Maveen built all these worlds relatively recently with the Traders in mind. The parent stars are all very similar to Procyon A, but of course there is no white dwarf companion stars. The star cluster and planets all have a higher than normal levels of heavier metals compared to the nearby star systems.’

Grant nodded as he sat back in his command chair and looked over several parts of the survey data. He picked up the key points from the data and now reviewed them at length.

‘The second system looks like something swept out a small asteroid field to allow the placement of the planet in the habitable zone. As you mentioned Olav, this system and the others all have F class stars that are ten to twenty percent heavier than Sol in our own distant solar system. The worlds are all Earth sized and are all at the best locations at around 2.8 AU from the star, roughly the location of Ceres in our own solar system. The planets all have orbits that are roughly 4.5 Earth years, and this is close to a Trader year.’

Grant paused and looked confused for a moment, and Gayle prompted him with a question to speak about what was on his mind.

‘Grant something about this whole business has got you worried, and we all need to work out what that is and if it affects the Barede colonies?’

Grant thought for a moment before he placed his worries in front of the others in a series of short but concise questions.

‘We will not likely know these answers anytime soon, but why are the Maveen only now providing these worlds to the Traders? Why select and place eight worlds at the edge of two galactic sectors? Why choose worlds at such a distance from the centre of the galaxy? – And yes I know the Zronte and the Vorinne would take exception if the Maveen were active in the inner parts of the Carinae sector.’

Gayle and Olav looked at each other and they both knew that they had no answers to these questions, before Gayle politely stated that this was the case.

‘Hopefully we can later obtain answers to these questions and other questions relating to the Dradfer from our allies at a later stage. We will save Captain Narindestat time exploring if we survey these systems for him in the meantime.’

 The three of them all knew that the Traders would share any information they had discovered, but Grant knew that the Maveen would not be necessarily as forthcoming. The Barede captain now went silent as he continued to think, and the three of them continued to study the rest of the survey information in companionable silence.

Gayle paused and patted her pregnancy bulge self-consciously for a moment as she thought about the orbital length of the nearly discovered planet. Traders, including the well-known Emeria, had trained her for many years, and she knew that the Traders had a term called ‘life year’ to denote the length of their own pregnancies. Gayle looked again over the long orbital period details of the nearby planet, as she realised a very personal level that the Trader years were very much longer. She was glad that her own human ‘life year’ was only for nine months, as she could not image being pregnant for over four years. Her other professional interest was in the geology and the atmospheric properties of these new worlds.

Gayle continued to look over the light spectrum readings coming from the prospective Trader colony world for an extended period, before making her own series of observations.

‘The planet is close to the Trader norms for atmosphere, temperature range and low humidity. The spectrum readings also show a lot of Dracile plants on that world, more that what we have seen from our time sharing our Barede colony with the Traders.’

Grant smiled at Gayle as he thanked both of them for the information, and he knew that this information would greatly interest Narindestat.

‘Thanks to both of you for your help in getting through the survey data and we will quickly look over two more systems before we return to the meeting location. Hopefully Captain Narindestat will have arrived to join us by that time.’

Grant sat back to think on how he would keep the Dradfer researchers from giving him and his crew an impromptu dissection before Captain Narindestat finally arrived.

The Emerald Sky turned and head for the next hyper jump location, and the crew could not detect the small and cloaked Dradfer ship that had patiently trailed their course through the system. The Emerald Sky soon entered another system and the job of tailing them was taken up by yet another cloaked ship. The humans took in the rugged beauty and splendour of the third star system, still unaware that their latest shadow was behind them, and performing its own survey on the humans and their large freighter using very advanced technology.

                                                                     ***

The powerful helicopter lit up the mangroves below with its strong searchlight as the downdraft kicked up dirt and loose vegetation around the crash site. Other helicopters searched the nearby crash sites of the two other Jerecab frigates. Kapten Ahmad Nasu eyed the broken alien frigate for several moments and noted the empty look of the wreckage. The Indonesian captain finally keyed his radio as he spoke to the mixed collection of Indonesia and Australian troops in the back of the large helicopter.

‘We will soon winch down three marines, but I think any survivors are long gone. We will have to search for them from the air with heat seeking technology during the night.’

Lieutenant John Ayers looked out at the wild hilly terrain to the north of their location and replied after deep thought.

‘Sir, this is similar to our combined training scenario for smugglers and insurgents. In this case, the Jerecab are unlikely to flee inland from what little we know of them. So we just need to encircle them and round them up in the mangroves.’

Ahmad edged further around in his seat, and he gave the lanky Aussie a good-natured grin that was returned in the dim internal lights of the chopper. He spoke warmly for the two countries had long had a policy of dealing with their security issues together.

‘Well John they are a semi aquatic race and they must feel that they have the advantage. We will drop four-man teams of frogmen at the edges of the mangroves and they will swim up into the scattered creeks. The night vision and sonar masks should give us a valuable edge, but we have to watch for crocs and box jellyfish.’

Ahmad turned around again in the co-pilots seat and gave the pilot a series of orders. After several moments, the helicopters had increased altitude and switched off their searchlights. The covert part of the search began as the humans started using their heat seeking scanners to locate the surviving Jerecab. The search pattern then became easier after the pilots of the helicopters established that the three groups of survivors were attempting to link up at a larger creek central to the three crash sites.

Ahmad considered the glowing images skulking in the mangroves and altered his plans accordingly. The Jerecab moved much faster than his troops would in the water, but he noted that they really slowed down crossing the difficult mangrove terrain. The Indonesian captain also fielded a brief message from his superiors. He talked this information with the other officers he had on the accompanying helicopters and soon he laid out a more detailed plan to John Ayers.

‘John, the outer four choppers will drop a dozen armed troops at either end of the coastal strip and they will move forward to within two hundred metres of the Jerecab.

They will use flashlights but not approach too close, and the choppers will back them up with searchlights. At first light you will lead four teams of frogmen up the creek and setup a containment line. After which if the Jerecab are not hostile you approach in plain sight and try and get them to surrender.’

John gave a surprised protest, but Ahmad was emphatic as he spoke again after agreeing with his protest.

‘Yes I know you could get a laser blast in the head for your efforts, but the authorities want to at least give the surviving Jerecab a chance to surrender. This of course is well before they get around to convicting the survivors for that missile attack’

John motioned by hand signals to his other team members and they were soon discussing the finer points of the mission on a separate radio band.

                                                                     ***

Teanros was nearly done in with both fatigue and illness, the green dander on the survivor’s fur was dying off and the effects were making them all nauseous. The radios and limited number of blasters were still functional, but already much of their limited food supplies were either gone or destroyed. The mud of mangroves caked their lower bodies and the Jerecab panted in thirst as a swarm of biting insects feasted on them. The Jerecab had lost two other crew members to crocodiles and other survivors had been affected by everything from snakebite and poison stings, to cuts and scraps that were already turning septic.

One survivor screamed again in agony as his fellow survivors attempted to hold him down. The young engineer had earlier swum out into the large creek and had encountered a stinging creature that was almost transparent. He had been stung in three places and Teanros could only see short red lesions across his head and shoulders. The engineer now foamed at the mouth and went into convulsions as the alien toxins worked through his body. The other stunned survivors watched silently and helplessly as their crewmate suffered horribly in front of them.

Teanros knew that the survivors were now in trouble even before they factored in the chances of combat on an alien planet. He was already had revised his earlier opinion, and now felt that any attempts to fight the humans on their home world were foolish. One of the other lieutenants came forward and reported on the sentries that had earlier been placed north and south of the large creek.