The Unscheduled Mission (17 page)

“
Phoenix Child
,” Mission Control called. “Negative contact with the runway is confirmed. Safe journey,
Phoenix Child
!”

“Thank you, Control,” Marisea replied.

“Very well done, Marisea,” Garnore commended her.

The ship climbed in much the same way a jet liner might, except it did it for much longer until it had established orbit at one hundred fifty miles over Earth’s surface. From there they made three orbits until they were in the right position and then began their climb toward the high orbit where their target satellite waited. Like other Mer-built space ships,
Phoenix Child
enjoyed a gentle artificial gravity, so while it was much less than standard Earth gravity, it was still more than enough to keep feet and flippers attached to the deck. Mer spacers
 
did not have to wear their antigrav belts in space, although Marisea was having entirely too much fun with hers still on as she floated around the cabin.

“Dear,” Park told her. “If you insist on flying, please do it on the lower deck. There are too many controls in here you might hit by accident.”

If Park had expected the teenaged Mer to object he was disappointed. Instead Marisea admitted, “You’re right, Skipper. I’m sorry. Won’t happen again.”

It took them a day to reach their destination. Park knew they could have arrived sooner but this was a shakedown cruise and there was no reason to stress the engines just yet. However as they approached another ship hailed them, “Earth ship, this is Alliance Ship
Vigilant
,” a haughty voice proclaimed. “You are ordered back to low Earth orbit in compliance with the Covenant.”

“Haven’t they learned their lesson yet?” Park asked. “Marisea, open a channel, please.” She did so and signaled to him. “
Vigilant
, this is Black Captain McArrgh,” he replied. He had first used the alias as a joke when the Galactics started calling the humans pirates. It turned out the men and women of the Alliance did not understand his sense of humor and therefore knew that name better than Park’s real one. “…aboard the Earth Ship
Phoenix
Child
. Are you here for a rematch?”

“Captain McArrgh,” the voice of
Vigilant
responded, “you are under arrest for crimes against humanity. You will stand down and allow us to board.”

“That’ll be the sunny Friday!” Park laughed. “Okay,
Vigilant
, this is your only chance. Turn tail and run back to Luna and tell them the Covenant is dead. It was dead last year and it is still dead. It will be dead next year and forever after that. If they don’t understand, tell them I will be happy to send them a dictionary so they can look up the meaning of the word, “Extinct,” because if this continues they’ll have that trait in common with your damned Covenant.”

There was silence that was finally broken by Marisea. “They closed the connection, Skipper.”

“
Vigilant
is turning and
 
headed back toward Luna,” Iris added.

“Keep an eye on them,” Park commanded. “For all we know they might turn around again.”

An hour later, however,
Vigilant
was still headed for Luna and another message reached them. “This is Mission Control. Come in,
Phoenix
Child
.”

“This is
Phoenix Child
,” Marisea responded.

“Is Park there?” Arn’s voice cut in. “Why isn’t the video working?”

“We have a video comm.?” Park asked. “Why aren’t we using it?”

“We never did on the earlier ships,” Marisea replied defensively.

“I didn’t think of it either,” Garnore admitted. “We don’t use it very often.” He reached past Marisea and fiddled with a few controls. After a minute Arn’s face appeared to be floating in the middle of the bridge.

“A three dimensional holographic projection,” Park commented admiringly. “It is kind of disconcerting seeing your disembodied head there, Arn.”

“It should feel downright comfy compared to what I’m about to tell you,” Arn shot back. “We’ve picked up the emergence of an interstellar ship
 
out beyond Saturnian orbit and it is headed directly for Earth.”

“Earth or Luna?” Park asked pointedly.

“From that far out it hardly matters,” Arn replied. “I’ve spoken with Terius and we agree it’s time to assert our claims on the entire system. Do you and your crew feel up to going out to meet them half way?”

“It wasn’t exactly on our itinerary,” Park admitted, “but I agree that if we’re going to make the claim, we do need to break out of Earth orbit every once in a while. Can you send us their coordinates and projected course?”

“And we’ll upload a course for you as well,” Arn promised. “I know your navigator could do it, but our computers do it faster.”

“We’ll stand by,” Park promised. “Marisea, I’ll need the intercom, please.” She nodded and flipped a switch. “This is the captain,” he began and told them about the unknown ship they were about to rendezvous with. “We do not know that she is armed,” he continued, “but it is probably safe to assume she is and likely she is hostile as well. However, it is the considered opinion of the powers that be, and I agree with them, that if we are going to claim all of Sol System, it’s about time we did so by actually demonstrating our ability to get there. Engineer, please report to the bridge. That is all.”

“You called?” Veronica Sheetz asked a minute later, entering the bridge.

“Ronnie,” Park asked. “Just how fast is this bird?”

“You mean, ‘How powerful are her engines?’” Ronnie corrected him. “First of all, keep in mind these have nearly nothing in common with the space craft of our era. We don’t have to do a single burn and then coast to our destination. We could accelerate at several Gees for a month if we had to, or one Gee for over a year. The
Alliance ships can too, for that matter. So we could reach the Oort Cloud and return in a year on constant acceleration. Mars is comparatively just next door, well, depending on our relative positions. Mars orbit is half an AU from here, though. How far out are we going?”

“Probably Jovian orbit or less,” Park replied.

“Depends on how much you trust our artificial gravity then,” Ronnie replied. “It can compensate for three Gees of acceleration. I’d need my calculator, but under constant acceleration and deceleration, we might be able to rendezvous in a week. However, if they aren’t trying to rendezvous with us it will take quite a bit longer to match course with them. This isn’t like driving down a road to meet someone, you know. If they ignore us, we’ll have to accelerate halfway there, decelerate to a haul and then accelerate back this way and if they don’t want us to match course, they could use random acceleration and we’d likely never catch them from here.”

“So far more complex than I thought,” Park admitted, “and I did keep constant acceleration and deceleration in mind. So I won’t ask where the actual rendezvous would be since that would all depend on their speed and course.”

“Oh good,” Ronnie breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve spent far too much time trying to explain why it’s so hard to catch a ship in space. In fact, if they are approaching Earth at a high enough acceleration, it’s likely you wouldn’t match with them until they were nearly here anyway.”

“I see that,” Park nodded. “Assuming they did nothing to help or impede our ability to match course, we would probably have to go out a bit past Mars and then turn around and come back while they catch up to us. We may as well just sit here and wait.”

“Except for one thing,” Iris told them. “We don’t make the statement that we own the system if we just sit here.”

“True enough,” Park agreed. “Garro, has Control sent us a course yet?”

“Aye aye, sir,” Garro replied. “They are assuming the other ship will choose to rendezvous somewhat beyond Martian orbit.”

“Marisea,” Park requested, “ask them if they know something we don’t. Garro, you’re my navigator, do you like their course?”

“It only involves accelerating at one half Gee,” Garro replied, “Probably because that’s what the other ship is doing.”

“How soon can you revise that to a full Gee?” Park asked.

“Done,” Garro smiled.

“Okay, lay that course in,” Park decided. “Paul, you have the helm. Get us there. Marisea, how soon can we try hailing the approaching ship?”

The young mermaid looked confused but Garnore answered for her. “Our equipment can only broadcast reliably for one half of an Astronomical Unit without a relay.”

“That’s better than I hoped,” Park admitted and we don’t have any long-range satellites between here and there.”

“We have a few large radio dishes on Earth,” Garro told him. “They might punch a signal into the outer system, but we don’t know what frequency to send at, in any case.”

“Don’t we?” Park asked. “We listen in to communications between Lagina Base and its ships. Isn’t that their standard frequency?”

“We don’t know that,” Garnore admitted. “We rarely hear an approaching ship speak until they reach Lunar orbit.”

“Marisea, get Dannet on the line and see if he can tell us how to hail that ship,” Park instructed.

“Course set and locked,” Garro announced.

“Proceeding to potential rendezvous on your word, Captain,” Paul added.

“Consider it given,” Park replied. “I’m tempted to say, ‘Here goes nothing!’ but I’m hoping I’m wrong and we accomplish something by all this.”

“This is Earth Ship
Phoenix Child
,” Marisea hailed the other ship. She had been doing this for two hours on a rotating set of frequencies as supplied by Dannet. “Calling the unknown
Alliance ship. Welcome to Sol System. Please state your business here.” It had been Marisea’s idea to add the welcome message. It would do no harm to be polite she had insisted.

“Ahoy,
Phoenix Child
,” came an answer at last. The voice was a pleasant contralto and did not sound as haughty as most others of the
Alliance had when first speaking to an Earth ship. “This is the
Pride of Dennsee
. We thank you for your welcome and our Lord Rebbert II would appreciate any word of his son you might be able to pass along.”

“Prince Dannet is well and on Earth,” Marisea replied after getting a nod from Park. “I saw him just before we left, in fact.”

A deep male voice cut in suddenly, “You know my son?”

“Quite well by now, sir,” Marisea responded. “Uh, that is if you are Lord Rebbert?”

“I am,” Rebbert replied simply, “and who do I have the honor of addressing?”

“My name is Marisea Waisau, sir,” she replied respectfully.

“Ah, the young Mer,” Rebbert noted. “Dannet speaks well of you, my dear. And would Parker Holman and Iris Fain be on board as well?”

“We are,” Park responded. “Welcome to Sol System, my lord. If we knew you were coming we’d have baked a cake.”

“A cake?” Rebbert echoed. “That is an Earthly custom?”

“I suppose it is,” Park sighed. It was not the first time he discovered his little jokes were entirely dependant on acquaintance with Twenty-first century culture. “In this case I meant it as just an expression. We would have arranged a more formal welcome.”

“No need,” Rebbert replied. “Do you have a video channel? I know you experienced spacers rarely use them, but I’m what you call a ground hog and used to seeing whom I am speaking to.”

Marisea made that adjustment and a moment later Rebbert appeared to be standing on the bridge. Arn may have shown as a large floating head, but Lord Rebbert appeared life-sized and his entire body was visible so as he moved, it appeared he was walking around.
 
Like his son, he had bright green skin, but his hair was starting to turn grey with green highlights and his beard was a very pale green. Had Rebbert been an unmodified Human, Park suspected the beard would have been white. However, he did not appear to be a very old man and Park estimated he was in his fifties.

“Welcome aboard,” Park told him, “Well, sort of.”

While Park had been sizing up Lord Rebbert, it was apparent Rebbert had been doing the same with him. “Strange, you don’t look like a baby-eating monster with four-inch long fangs.”

“I doubt that’s how Dannet described me,” Park laughed.

“No, but that’s what I might have expected from the descriptions of Black Captain McArrgh that have circulated around the Confederation Diet,” Rebbert smiled. “I do believe you have some of my colleagues cowed. I don’t suppose you could pop in some time and growl at them?”

“As far as I’m concerned it could be arranged,” Park smiled back, “but the last
Alliance ship to hail me wasn’t offering first-class accommodations. I’m not sure if the Diet is quite ready for me and I’m hardly a diplomat in any case. I’m far too honest.”

“That could be a problem,” Rebbert smirked. “Most of my colleagues wouldn’t know how to handle truth, having never heard of the concept. Will it be possible to visit my son?”

“I don’t see why not,” Park shrugged. “He’s not a prisoner as far as we’re concerned. He could have left Earth at least twice now had he been so inclined.”

“He won’t do that until his ransom has been paid,” Rebbert shook his head.

“Is that also why you’re here?” Park asked.

“Not yet,” Rebbert shook his head. “Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. The real reason I’m here is to investigate the situation. The Diet is deadlocked on the Terra Question. No one really remembers when or why the Covenant was invoked and one third of us, at least, would be just as happy to see it relegated to the past. I certainly do not see any reason a gene-locked species cannot be admitted to the greater galactic community, but then my religion has never been concerned with genetics of any sort. I will say that a full third of us are dead set against allowing anyone from Earth from leaving Sol System and the final third is very much divided. Some we have convinced to stand with us, but most are still weighing their options, trying to see which way to vote that will yield them the most.”