The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (45 page)

Once airborne, Jack asked Lorano to inspect the holds. Lorano walked directly to the third hold and looked inside. Sure enough, the three pallets were sitting there still neatly packed and wrapped. Lorano wondered if Jack had even offloaded them.

He briefly checked the remaining two holds and found they were filled with berries. This particular berry was rarely eaten raw. It was typically turned into a flavorful, alcoholic drink. Lorano had never really given any thought to the export of this food item. He was surprised to learn that it must be more economical to export the berries and make the drink on Advranki Prime versus exporting the finished drink. He made a mental note to ask Jack about it.

Lorano took an exact inventory of the items in the third hold. He didn’t want to accidentally forget something or get duplicates of something else with little value. Upon closer inspection, very little of this equipment looked useful for his next mission.

Lorano wanted to begin the search for Old Solaria in the Waylon system. Waylon was a long way to, to, well, to anywhere. Actually, he corrected himself; Earth is just one short jump away. He smiled as he imagined a gray alien walking into an Earth shopping center carrying a bar of gold and asking for supplies. That shouldn’t be a problem.

When Lorano returned to the control room approximately an hour later, Jack said, “We were again given a prime route. We will land in approximately 12 hours.”

Lorano asked, “What then?”

Jack said, “We will sell some berries, then re-load the holds with supplies for your experiment, get your friend Carank, and proceed to Conron.”

Lorano knew that Jack had intentionally used the phrase friend to describe Carank – just as he had used it to describe Victor on their earlier voyage together. He decided to let Jack’s phrase without further comment. Perhaps Carank was a friend.

Lorano was surprised though that Carank was coming. The reply message hadn’t mentioned Carank joining the mission or going to Conron. Lorano realized that Jack seemed to know much more about the mission than him.

Lorano said, “My response was a little vague. What else do you know about the mission?”

Jack replied, “Well, unfortunately I know little more than that. You are meeting Carank in Advranki, getting more supplies, and then I am dropping you off at the Navy depot in Conron.”

Lorano simply responded, “Okay.” He hadn’t known about the depot stop. He assumed that was where they were going to get missiles.

Jack continued, “I think it is great that you are going to go search for Old Solaria. Do you think you will find it?”

Lorano responded, “Well, everyone else who has tried to find it has utterly failed. The bar for success isn’t that high. I could find an asteroid with food coloring on it and the universe would be amazed.”

Jack laughed and said, “You are probably correct.”

Lorano asked, “Have you been on Altian-1 this entire time?”

Jack responded, “No. I have to earn a living. I took a load from Altian-1 to Solaria. I just landed here earlier today. I think I received the message at the exact same time as you.”

They were well over half way to Advranki Prime and Lorano was quite bored, so he decided to continue the conversation. He asked, “Where are you headed after this trip?”

Jack replied, “I will head back to Solaria to get another load. I just got a contract for some long hauls that should prove to be very profitable.”

Lorano said, “Wow, where?” He felt that he was getting rather good at faking interest.

Jack hesitated for the briefest of moments and answered, “Way out there, at a mining colony just past Netron.”

Lorano couldn’t think of any mining colony in the Alliance past Netron. He decided to let the answer pass without further input or question.

They touched down on Advranki Prime a few hours later. Lorano exited the mini-freighter and was surprised to see Carank waiting beside the landing platform. Lorano waved and approached him. Lorano said, “Well, I had expected a throng of fans for my arrival, but I suppose you will do.”

Carank ignored the remark and said, “This will certainly be an adventure. Firing missiles at everything in sight should be more fun than trying to create matter.”

Lorano said, “Did you have any success? My research into ion cannons was fruitless.”

Carank said, “No. I was not successful in creating a missile that could displace matter.” He paused for a moment and said, “Fruitless?”

Lorano pointed at the main hold. Jack had just opened it and was arranging for a robohauler to unload it. Carank saw the berries and nodded in understanding of the double entendre.

Carank said, “I gathered all of the supplies I thought would be appropriate for such an open ended mission.” Carank led Lorano over to the large pile of items waiting to be loaded. Lorano reviewed the list and was notably impressed. He couldn’t think of anything missing. Carank had focused on heavy machinery for making bomb casings and electronics machines for creating the gravity sensing package. The electronics machines were duplicates of those they had left on Earth.

However, Lorano was impressed by three hyper communication satellites. . Unlike the one they found in Earth that could only communicate to a fixed point, these could rotate completely around their axis. As a result, the satellites could send a communication through hyperspace to nearly any destination. More importantly, they could receive a message from anywhere. The three satellites would take up one entire hold.

Lorano pulled Carank well out of Jack’s hearing range and told him who Jack Dogbarks was and why he had to modify the story of their trip to Earth and include a corvette. Carank nodded in understanding and agreed not to mention any operational details of the mission to Earth or the upcoming mission to find Old Solaria until after they departed the
Jackal
.

They checked the holds immediately after the supplies were loaded. Carank laughed when he saw the three shrink wrapped pallets in the third hold. He said, “I wondered what happened to the stuff from our trip.”

Lorano responded, “Yes. I didn’t request these items. These pallets just seem to be following me around.”

Jack was given clearance to launch and piloted the
Jackal
out of the atmosphere and then activated the autopilot. Lorano checked the route. This time they had not been given an opportune route; they had to spend 13 hours traversing the Advranki system to get to the Advranki – Conron hyperspace lane. Jack activated the hyper drive and they jumped to Conron.

They talked on and off about current events during the journey. Jack seemed less angry at the Alliance this trip. Lorano attributed the softening mood to Jack’s new long haul contract. He had wanted to question Jack further about it, but Jack had remained intentionally vague about both the specifics of the pay and the actual destination of the cargo.

As they were making their final approach to the supply depot, Lorano said, “When we were in Earth orbit, we were constantly bombarded by abbreviations and acronyms. I had to keep a chart just to understand what they were saying.”

Lorano paused for a moment and said rhetorically, “Do you two realize that there are almost no abbreviations in Alliance basic?”

Carank replied, “The only one I can think of is for the wearable powered armor. The Alliance Armored Unit is called the AAU.”

Jack replied, “Yeah, and the corresponding basic name for the Hiriculan Armored Suit is the HAS. Why do think acronyms are limited to those?”

Lorano replied, “I have no idea. Let’s create a new one. We are approaching the huge space station that the Alliance Navy uses as a supply depot.

Carank ventured, “ANSD?”

Jack said, “You could drop the word supply and just say Alliance Navy Depot. That makes AND.”

Lorano said, “True, but I don’t think AND will catch on. How about this? The depot is located in Conron and is also a shipyard. We could call it the Conron Alliance Navy Depot & ship Yard. That would make CANDY.”

Carank crinkled his face in apparent disgust at the new moniker. He said, “This seems harder than it should be. Perhaps it is a human skill?” Both Lorano and Jack nodded in silent agreement.

Jack said, “We have now landed safely on CANDY. It has been a pleasure transporting both of you. Good luck”

They thanked Jack, grabbed their belongings and left the ship. Navy personnel were waiting for them and quickly and efficiently unloaded the
Jackal
. Jack received clearance and left for the Conron – Solaria hyperspace lane.

Lorano looked at the equipment. It had been moved to a long term storage area and the Navy personnel were leaving. Lorano stopped one and said, “Aren’t you going to load this onto the cruiser
Peerless
?”

The Advranki female turned and laughed politely. She said, “We could, but there would be little point. The Peerless has been scrapped and melted for raw materials.” She pointed to a neat stack of hull plates sitting in a corner next to a power generator and said, “That is all that remains of the
Peerless
.”

Lorano was not to be deterred though. He sat down and wrote a sternly worded email.

……………………….

Frank was in the Senate chamber listening to the details of the latest incident. Apparently, an Alliance cruiser in Influenla had been harassed by a Hiriculan cruiser. Influenla was technically a neutral system, but it appears that Hiricula has moved a large space station into the system.

The Alliance cruiser wanted to dock at the space station and investigate it. The Hiriculan cruiser would not allow that. The two cruisers had exchanged multiple threats and even fired a volley of missiles at each other. Admiral Dolen, the commander of the Advranki home fleet, was present at the hearing and was clearly upset. The defensive missiles had not performed as advertised.

The Alliance cruiser had fired 10 offensive missiles followed by 10 defensive missiles. The defensive missiles had only destroyed 8 of the incoming 10 Hiriculan missiles. Two missiles hit and weakened the cruiser’s shields. The Alliance cruiser was forced to retreat. The Hiriculan cruiser had stopped all 10 of the Alliance missiles.

The report from the cruiser’s captain had been followed by a dissertation by the specialist on the Alliance – Hiriculan treaty. According to the treaty, it was specifically illegal to build a military space station in a neutral system. However, the Alliance would have to prove that the new station was being used by the Hiriculan military and not just a civilian station.

Frank was certain that there was at least one civilian use for this new station. He knew from past experience that the Hiriculans were far too savvy to outright violate the treaty. He wanted Ambassador Bline to respond to these charges, but unfortunately he was off-planet.

The specialist continued by defining the term neutral as allowing for equal use by both parties. So, theoretically a civilian freighter should be able to dock there without issue, but a warship (Alliance or Hiriculan) could not due to the system’s neutrality. The specialist concluded by saying that the Hiriculan’s current occupation of the system might be considered annexation and the formal use of the system should be renegotiated.

Frank was startled when his communicator flashed with a priority override message. He looked up and saw that every Senator’s com pad was also ringing. Even Admiral Dolen’s com pad had activated. Finally, the Ceremonial Master went to the podium and said, “Let’s take a quick break and check the urgent message.”

The Senators looked at their com pads in unison. Frank read the message. It was a report from the corvette
Informer
that was stationed at the mouth of the Opron – Conron hyperspace lane. It said:

The chamber erupted in a cacophony of conversation. Everyone compared their message to everyone else’s. When it became clear the message was the same, the conversation quickly turned to the meaning of the message.

Senator Figur spoke loudly and continuously enough that he eventually drowned out every other sound. When he realized that he had everyone’s attention, he said, “We have all read the message, but the true meaning is unclear.”

Frank said, “If we are to believe the message, then one Alliance cruiser defeated two destroyers in a battle and is now being chased home.”

Korno responded, “Yes, but that is clearly impossible.”

Figur interrupted, “Exactly. One Alliance cruiser against two enemy destroyers. That means the Hiriculans outnumbered them 2 to 1.”

Frank was clearly impressed by Senator Figur’s latest witticism. He was about to respond and tell Figur how thoughtful he was when he noticed an email from Lorano. He technically wasn’t supposed to read it during chamber, but he eased it open with a backhand swipe of his little finger and perused it. Apparently the plan to use the
Peerless
was in pieces. They would have to find another transport for the scientists.

Korno spoke in Frank’s absence. He said, “Senator Figur, excellent math. However, if you factor in the relative mass difference between the combatants, you could say the
Sunflower
was outnumbered 4 to 1.”

Senator Figur said, “Maybe it is a fake message.”

Admiral Dolen spoke for the first time. He said, “No. The message is authentic. It was definitely generated by the
Informer
.”

Frank said, “We need to know the facts quickly. I propose that Admiral Dolen sends a small fleet to temporarily reinforce Conron. Further, I think we should ride with the Admiral so that we can get a firsthand account of the battle.”

He gave his everyone his latest gem, the ‘this is serious’ frown. It didn’t seem to have the desired effect, so he said, “This is critical everyone. We need to go.”

The speed of the mobilization surprised even Frank. Within four hours of his pronouncement they were hurtling through hyperspace bound for Conron. Admiral Dolen had assembled a sizeable fleet for the mission, including four battleships, four destroyers, and four cruisers. Frank thought the class of ships chosen was odd, but perhaps these were the only ships that were ready to leave at what had literally been a moment’s notice.