Uplift (28 page)

There was an insect problem onboard. Our food supplies were limited, and we discovered we had acquired a cockroach infestation. We zeroed in on the compartments affected, but couldn’t eradicate it. Those suckers got everywhere, and were hard to find even using alternate spectral observations. It was Hershel who solved it, when he made little microwave guide transmitters that fried the little buggers. Vacuum didn’t get rid of some of them, but radiation worked wonders as long as that radiation wasn’t reflected back. Our carbon nanotube walls allowed microwave to pass through, and we could fry the little buggers right through the wall. We didn’t want to use chemicals. Who knew? We did know we’d have to reexamine the problems on the next trip – maybe expose food supplies as they arrived with a light microwave treatment.

There were a million flaws – only a few, life threatening, but we were inventing policy, and solutions, every hour. Privacy, and food, became big issues, as did boredom. The communications with Earth got better as they built new comm gear from our modifications. We had only been away a week from Earth in normal time, but almost six months for us. I promised all SF troops that they could have cash bonuses, or equivalent in gear. Many of those guys wanted gear. We got vids from Earth, and porn was a problem – we did have a LOT of training modules. The SF folks didn’t know about the non-disclosure conditioning, included with most of the modules. Everyone aboard had the equivalent of a PhD level education by the time we were heading back.

The government – through the President – had accepted the contract, and released all my assets. We were balls to the wall developing new tech from the alien ideas. The world’s food riots had progressed in random locales around the world – with the most violence in Eastern Europe, western Asia, and India. Africa was a mix of the normal genocides, in their continuing internecine warfare. Wallups Island had begun work on a second, larger ship with the design improvements we had developed.

         
US Space Surveillance System – Dahlgren, Virginia

Richard, and Hershel were installing the duplicate sensor consoles for the newly combined Space Command, when we finally returned. The base had been opened, and closed so many times that it was second nature to the military. They were accustomed to adding new equipment, changing titles, and duties. Their six months aboard ship on its maiden voyage was just two days of normal time – the crew was allowed to take a 5-hour vacation (normal time), which amounted to almost a week in accelerated time – that, really, limited entertainment options. You could only spend the accelerated time under one of the large fields at the base. Thankfully, large influxes of cash from weapons sales, allowed Wallups Island to have great food, and large suites of luxurious rooms. We did try to pamper our employees whenever we could. The SF soldiers had been deployed in the worst places on Earth so this wasn’t a raw deal for them.

Hershel had skipped ‘vacationing’, and buried himself in his work. He just finished hooking up the console, and turned it on as I walked in to observe his progress. The large panels around the walls lit up showing the entire coverage of the solar system. Carole was back at hangar three working on the larger, second ship – so we had time for a man-to-man talk.

Richard stopped, and looked at Hershel. “I think Carole loves you.”

Hershel put down his tools. “I didn’t plan it. It just happened. I was crazy about her from the day I met her. I’ll quit if you…”

“Don’t be ridiculous, man. You two fit together. You’re a terrific scientist. We couldn’t have put this system together without you,” I said while grimacing inwardly.

“What should I do about it?” he asked.

“Tell her how you feel. Tell her I approve. She’s a big girl…she can make up her own mind. She just has guilt feelings about hurting me.” I said though I couldn’t tell him I really cared for her…still. I was experienced enough to know that there would be others…sometime. You’d think at seventy I’d know better…not.

A young radar tech from Space Command came over, and coughed to interrupt. “Excuse me fellows. Are you going to get around to showing us how this stuff works? What is this showing?” he said indicating two red dots in the Kuiper belt. The displays showed a predicted inbound trajectory reversed from the Pioneer spacecraft paths.

“They could be comets, couldn’t they?” Hershel asked.

Corey said,
these are correcting their path Richard, and stopping periodically.

“Let’s get back to the WALLUP.”

Carole. We have incoming – something. Two somethings. Would you alert Pates? We’ll be back in two minutes,
I thought to Carole while running with Hershel back to the shuttle.

“What do we do?” shouted the radar tech.

“Alert your bosses, and pray,” I said as we slammed the hatch on the shuttle, and took off for Wallups Island.

Resupply is finished, and most are aboard except a few still on leave, Carole said through Corey
.

We flew the shuttle directly into the bay of the WALLUP. Personnel were running into the WALLUP, and the hatches were secured. A horn blasted warning ground personnel, and the WALLUP took off. It took only a couple of minutes to reach the area of the two ships. The sensors showed the ships, for they were clearly ships, had stopped for a moment near Saturn. We saw them visually magnified in our monitors, and it took us a second to determine their design. They looked similar versions to ships Corey had shown for a species known as the Graloc. The Graloc were a race that had tried to stay neutral with the Horde, but had become their scouts. Cory said they always preceded a Horde incursion, and often had a Horde advisor onboard. I guess our little excursion had been detected after all. This sure moved up the timetable. My stomach knotted knowing how ill prepared we were for a meeting.

I went to the communications console, set it to the typical hailing frequencies, and greeted the ship in Graloc – one of the languages we had learned.

There was a long delay. The SF Troops were mustering for deployment at the shuttle bay door set opposite from the ships.

“How do you speak Graloc? This is an undeveloped world,” The ship replied to our greeting.

“Undeveloped – Yes. We look forward to your guidance.” I said as I signaled the troops to deploy. I just wanted to distract them as long as I could.

“What do you mean?” responded the ship.

“We just finished the surveys of this world’s minerals, technologies, and weapons. You should have no threats from here.” Pates team signaled they were ready to board both ships. “What do you want us to do? How can we support you? How do you want to receive our extensive surveys?”

The entry teams easily cut through the double hulls, and entered. Richard had our ship’s saber weapons aimed at the suspected engine rooms of the two Graloc ships.

The SF Forces entered at the point suspected to be a cargo area – it wasn’t. They expected there would be no beings in this area – again wrong. It looked like a feeding area – like a cafeteria in an alien way. Luckily they had sealed the entrance point so there was no vacuum to close automatic pressure bulkheads between compartments. There seemed to be two species – one the Graloc who looked like tall, thin, exotic humanoids with four arms, but without long canine teeth, and Hermolics who looked like short, hairless dogs with two arms, short snouts, and ears. Pates, and his team ordered them not to move in their own languages – it didn’t work. The beings immediately attacked with, or without weapons, and were appropriately slaughtered as the teams moved toward the bridge, and engineering areas.

There was organized resistance at the bridge, and engineering. The aliens’ weapons could penetrate our shields if multiples of their weapons concentrated at one point on our armor – if our people were exposed long enough. It happened twice on both ships, and we lost soldiers as we spread out. The weapons seemed to rapidly shift, standard field frequencies, and eventually penetrate. Our sabers cut through their defenses rapidly. No one lived if they were exposed. We cut through to the bridge, which contained multiple Graloc, and one Horde being. The Horde being was at a console communicating with someone when it had its head cut off by Sergeant Garcia. The leader of the Graloc placed two of its hands on the deck in a position of surrender. It said, “Yaloo…mislow…” which meant ‘engineer…submit’ in the Graloc language.

Richard Parker heard the reports, and ordered the teams to take both ships, and any prisoners back to Earth if they could navigate the ships. I had Hershel take control of one of the ships. A SF lieutenant commanded the other. We scanned and our sensor system showed a third ship appear. There had been a third ship, and it was not running away. It surged 50 AU toward us in a few seconds.

The third ship was four times the size of the earlier ships, and it flew directly at the WALLUP’s position. It was not the same design as the Graloc ships – not like anything they had seen before. It fired – something – at the WALLUP, and its beam hit the rear of the WALLUP… punching a basketball-sized hole right through the rear. Our individual projectors were working, and cut into the other ship. One beam must have hit something critical because the ship shuddered, and then began to retreat. It soon disappeared off our sensors.

                The
captured Graloc ships

Captain Pates had the captured Graloc explain, all the controls, while maintaining a link with the WALLUP, and the second captured ship. Pates shared his audio-video link to the other ships. The Second captured ship left no officers alive while the dog-like race all surrendered. That ship provided
fifty prisoners – none who knew how to navigate the ship.  The Graloc who had
surrendered on the first ship gave good instructions – pointing and explaining with all four arms. It was fairly easy for Hershel to figure out the second ship’s controls.

Hershel got the okay from Richard to take the second ship, and the prisoners back to Earth. The ship could always crash, or the prisoners could mutiny, or…I guess I was still conflicted about Hershel, and Carole, but I did respect the guy…damn.

It didn’t take long for Captain Pates to get the Graloc officer to show how anyone could pilot the captured ship back to Earth. Getting the WALLUP going again was the first priority before we took the ship back. The alien had punched a hole all the way through the hull of the WALLUP – killing four crewmembers. We had lost two soldiers in the first ship takeover, and three in the second ship takeover.

Pates said the Graloc expected the Horde to return using the same route as the first three ships. Patterson decided to deploy the porcupine mines since we could not cover a very large area. Odd mines were designed to look defective – duds. Those ‘duds’ were designed to be retrieved. They are set to explode whenever they were in a pressurized environment. Any would explode if examined. That was all we could do at the moment. I was depressed even though we won a minor skirmish due to surprise, but it was a pyrrhic victory. I knew there’d be a lot worse, but first we’d have to get the Earth to produce a fleet of warships…and any fleet would just attract a larger, and faster response. Damn…a Catch-22.

                    Aliens at Wallups Island

Two alien spacecraft, and three new species was enough ‘proof’ to convince anyone that there were aliens ‘out there’. The military wanted to investigate, and control all the ‘new’ material. They thought all seized ‘personnel’, and property was their own. Certainly a civilian faction should not control this information. The military brought in microbiologists, and psychologists to evaluate the threat. The military had ‘protocols’ – they said, for this type of thing. I reiterated that I was the one warning them – over, and over again. I restated, that my ship – the one I had built with my own money, had captured the aliens. The military said that their troops had seized the two ships by boarding them. I told them to use their own ships next time…

It did not resolve how alien ‘visitors’ should be treated, or anything else. The commandant of the Marine Corps, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Slopes felt uncomfortable. He was having a revelation. He felt his ability to defend the U.S. from enemies
foreign
, and domestic, had reached a new low. Richard Patterson had been right. He was not dicking around with negotiations, which would be fruitless. He respected Patterson’s ballsy approach.

There was dissention within the Joint Chiefs. Admiral Raymond Detweiler was angry that civilians had ‘started a war’. The alien ships had been quarantined, and Sergeant Garcia had interviewed the Graloc officer. The information obtained was frightening. It corroborated what Richard Patterson had revealed. The Horde was still active, and they would come to Earth. The corpse of the Horde being was indeed a four-meter long snakelike being with tentacles…just like Patterson had described. The Horde being had been in charge of the two Graloc ships. Gralocs were reportedly (by Patterson again) long-range scouts for the Horde. The large ship that got away was ‘manned’ by a fourth race – the Xeeg. The Xeeg were semi-aquatic creatures adapted to land. They could move incredibly fast on water, or land, according to the Graloc officer.