Lord of the Flies-HOMEPAGE

My Home Town-HOMEPAGE

CHAPTERS

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The Christa Affair

Chapter Twenty-Five

Five days later, they were all gathered in the star-room, located off the same circular foyer as their quarters and the medical complex. All members of the crew had completed their orientation, and some had already begun researching their assigned areas. Only Toko had encountered difficulty with the orientation; it had taken him the three full days, and he had found it necessary to rest quietly for two days following, so unsettling had been the experience.

Jashi had assigned Rang and Mowii the task of exploring the entire city systematically. Suu, with Lito as her assistant, was already wading thru the volumes of medical literature at her disposal, and Roi had been assigned to assist Toko as soon as the latter was able to begin his research. While waiting, Roi had been helping Rang and Mowii with their exploration. True to the Keeper's word, every door in the place was now unlocked; it was unnecessary to carry the Sphere during their exploration.

Jashi addressed his crew-mates. "This thing is incredible! It took me a while to learn how to operate it -- I still don't have the hang of it completely -- but you won't believe what it can do. In a little bit I'll give you a demonstration, but first I want a report from the history department; it ties in with what I'm going to show you... Karli?"

Karli addressed the group; Jashi already knew what she had to report. "I'm having a bit of the same problem as Jashi... Although the orientation the Teacher gave us taught us the language, it seems the impartation was somehow imperfect. There are many words, especially technical terms, that I'm having serious difficulty with. I spend more time doing follow-up research to explain what I've uncovered than I spend on the actual research itself."

Except for Toko, who hadn't started yet, the others were having the same difficulty; several nodded or murmured their assent as Karli continued. "One hundred thirty-two worlds were seeded by the People. Most are in sector two and three -- many of them aren't listed in Federation records. I found detailed records of Earth, and three worlds in this sector -- Bardara-Twelve, Delfina-Two and the four planets of the Uzos System, or "Empire" as it's referred to in the record.

"This would seem to be an anomaly, as the L'sa'riani were extinct before their world reached sector six, and most colonization took place within a hundred light-years of their world. I haven't discovered yet why they sent ships so far ahead of their position to populate these three worlds, but both were contacted while L'sa'ria was still in sector three, and they were \not\ the last worlds seeded by the People.

"Delfina-Two was seeded in the standard manner. That is, it was rendered very much like L'sa'ria both as regards to climate, and flora and fauna, then pairs of young, healthy, genetically-modified Terran adults, trained in every skill necessary for survival, were placed at various habitable points around the planet. They were left with very little technology, or perhaps none at all... I can't be sure, yet. There is an obscure reference to something or someone known as a watcher, apparently left behind to observe the development of each new world.

"Bardara-Twelve was seeded with a specially-engineered species of Terran -- purposely modified so they could cross-breed with the rather-savage native sentients, and physically adapted to the planet's heavy gravity and the high ultraviolet content of Bardara's light.

"Uzos was colonized by large numbers of modified Terrans -- all four planets at roughly the same time -- with little reforming being done at all. Of all the variants of Humans that resulted from the Project, these apparently were the most advanced, and they were supplied with at least most, if not all of the L'sa'rian technology, but had to adapt to the natural conditions of their worlds -- though they were allowed to import certain native plants and animals. The colonies were administered for a time by L'sa'ria, then made sovereign worlds. An additional record indicates that they fought a series of unification wars a few hundred years later that resulted in the Uzos Empire, much the same set-up as the current Uzos System.

"It would appear that much of the L'sa'rian technology was lost to the Uzosi as a result of the last war. Our computer records indicate that the Uzosi had only a slow, primitive, and somewhat-unreliable hyperdrive at the time they were admitted into the Federation, and no gravity polarization at all. Obviously, they didn't have transport, or any of the other exotic abilities of the People..."

Karli paused to collect her thoughts. Besides the difficulty with understanding the things she had learned, she was having problems with continuity. The records of L'sa'rian contact with other worlds covered a period of thousands of years; given the relatively short normal L'sa'riani life-span, they had been written by a lot of different historians. It also appeared that there had been extensive reorganizations at the administrative level on several occasions, resulting in changes in the manner in which the records were kept. The result was a hodge-podge of files, having virtually no chronological continuity, and interlaced with enough cross references to give even a Cray-Lambert VS-21 a headache.

"I stumbled across a reference to a third known world, Zornada-Five. I chased it down as best I could, but it was a bit sketchy; apparently, Zornada-Five was conquered by the inhabitants of a world that was seeded by the People. The invaders inter-bred with the natives, also placed there by the People, and became the hybrid we today know as the Zornadani. I crossed this with what little Zornada history we have in the computer files, and it's possible the two are compatible, but I can't be sure... God I wish we could access Computer Central! Or establish a definite time reference... If I could find a solid link between this stuff and Federation history, I could establish the common ancestry of Terrans and at least three other sentient species."

(.... "I think it'll turn out to be fourteen ....")

(.... "Agreed ....")

The room was quiet as the implication of Karli's statement sank in. The common ancestry of several homonid species, from different star systems... Maybe the old legends really \were\ founded in truth!

Jashi interrupted their reverie. "In a minute, I'm gonna show you the star-map, but first a report on current conditions in this sector of the galaxy. The equipment here can intercept hyperphone messages... Sort of. It treats them as scanned radiation, rather than transmitted data, but with a little work, some communications can be deciphered. It doesn't paint a pretty picture."

*********

The picture was anything but pretty. The inhabitants of Bardara-Twelve -- not members of the federation -- had invaded and occupied both Zornada-Five, and Rangor-Three -- home of the B'nth -- and the Terran colony on Roca-Nine was under siege. Additionally, there were unconfirmed reports of an invasion in sector two by a species not previously known to the Federation. Traffic on the Federation military bands was sporadic, with little apparent organization; the Federation seemed to be in a state of near-collapse, and large parts of its hyperphone relay network were inoperable.

"This only confirms what we already knew," Jashi finished gravely. "The galaxy as we knew it no longer exists, and we're pretty much on our own. Even voice contact with remnants of the Federation is an impossibility; there doesn't seem to be any way to transmit, even if we wanted to. The People didn't use our hyperband for communications."

As Jashi finished his somber assessment, he pressed the activator, and the star-map sprang to life. The lights in the room went dark and they seemed to be floating in space, with the vast emptiness of the galaxy surrounding them. The view was exactly as they would see the black sky of the surface if they were standing at the core of the planet, able to look in all directions at once. One side of the room -- as well as part of the ceiling and floor -- was covered with stars; the opposite wall projected only a dull glow in a few places. The illusion was so perfect, and the effect so startling, that several of them gasped, and Mowii gave out a little squeal.

(.... !!!! .... "Holy shit!....") Karli edged closer to Jashi and hugged his arm for comfort.

(.... "Awesome, isn't it?

Sorry. I guess I shoulda warned you....") "Exactly as you would see from the surface, if you could look in all directions at once. Impressive, but not very useful," he said aloud. "Now watch this."

Jashi disengaged from Karli's grasp and touched a control; the viewpoint shifted toward the densely lighted section of the room. Stars and planets whizzed by them as they traveled inward, across galactic sector six, at incredible speed.

"It's a computer projection, based on data gathered as L'sa'ria made its journey across the galaxy; we're seeing it in reverse. The viewpoint can be shifted to any point along and several hundred light-years in any direction from the trajectory of the planet, and the projection will show things as they were at the time L'sa'ria was actually at that position. The range seems to be greater and there are more details at certain points in the journey. There are close-up pictures and detailed records of many of the planets encountered, but they have to be accessed from the Hall of Records and I haven't figured out how to do it yet... And I used to think Burroughs-Interstellar wrote lousy instruction manuals. You oughtta see these!"

Somber thoughts induced by Jashi's summation of the current galactic situation were forgotten; they were all talking at once. Jashi whistled for quiet, then replied to the collective question. "Yes, we should be able to see Earth, as soon as I learn how to access the proper files. Earth, as it was before and for sometime after it was visited by the People."

(.... !!!??! ....) Jashi was assaulted by a wave of amazement from Karli; quickly she damped it, and spoke aloud. "Do you know what a discovery like this means? And if I could tie it all together... Detailed records complete with pictures! Thirty-plus thousand years of illustrated history, establishing a positive link in the common origin of homonid life in the galaxy."

(.... "Not to mention fame and honor for you, as the discoverer -- and great riches for us. Know what Federation Central would hand out in compensation for this?....")

(.... "Yeah, if there was anybody left to submit it to....")

Jashi touched a control; the room was lighted again, and the floor was solid beneath their feet. "I just wanted to show you that, and the possible tie-in with Karli's research," he said aloud. "Now for something a bit more practical."

He touched another control, and the wall above the console sprang to life -- they were looking at a projection of surrounding space from a vantage point ninety degrees opposed to the galactic plane. L'sa'ria appeared in the center; the bottom half of the map was a dark portrayal of the great empty void beyond the galactic rim. "This is only two dimensional," said Jashi, "but it's in real-time. At this range, we are seeing all of the near sector, and part of sectors five and seven."

He touched another control, and the picture changed; L'sa'ria now appeared at the center of the bottom edge of the screen, and the projection radiated from it in a forty-five degree arc. "The range is the same, but the scale is greater and the view is more detailed because of the narrower scan angle. The green blips represent ships in normal space, the flashing red ones are ships under hyperdrive."

"The Federation never figured out any way to track a ship while it was hyper," protested Toko. "Not unless its beacon was transmitting. Are you sure?"

"Yep!" replied Jashi. "The legend definitely identifies that class of target as belonging to a hypership. You can see them move, if you sit still long enough. In spite of the sorry state of affairs, there's a lot of traffic out there, and some of it isn't too far away. Now watch this."

Jashi touched another control; the stars shifted positions and the targets vanished entirely, to be replaced by a completely different set. The scale was much greater than before; the planets along the galactic rim extended barely a third of the way down from the top of the display. "This is a recording, and that target is the \Klondike\," he said, moving the bright-blue flashing pointer until it touched a hypership target a short distance from L'sa'ria. As they watched, it turned from flashing red to green. "I'm running it at high speed. That's where we dropped out of hyperspace."

They watched in fascination as the display showed their days of fruitless search, followed by their change of course for L'sa'ria under hydrofusion thrust. Jashi switched to visual scan from surface level, and they saw the \Klondike\ as they had never seen her before -- proud and majestically beautiful as she rode her anti-gravs down to their first planetfall on the lifeless frozen body Karli had dubbed Eight-Ball.

(.... "She's beautiful, Jash!....")

(.... "Great view, huh, Kitten?....")

At the moment of touch-down, Jashi froze the picture for a few seconds to allow them to appreciate what they were seeing. Only Toko spoke. "It's pitch black out there, yet those pictures are as light as day! Our sensors didn't show us being scanned by anything. And it can't be infrared -- the surface is light too..." His voice trailed off in disbelief.

"Your department Toko. But I'm afraid if we stayed here twenty years, we'd only scratch the surface of their technology. You're gonna have to take the Keeper up on his offer of a Teacher to take with us."

The display faded and reformed again into the short-range star-map; the console's display indicated the picture was about seven months old. Jashi pointed to a flashing red target. "That ship is on its way here... And so is this one." He moved the pointer to another target a little more than two light-years behind the first, also under hyperdrive.

The action flew by at high speed, then changed to visual; the view was from the surface of the far side of the planet, near the recently-blasted entrance they had surveyed following their first unsuccessful attempt to enter L'sa'ria. They watched as the incoming starship settled gracefully to a landing. It was a sleek fast transport of the Rover class, bristling with weapons ports; plainly visible on the fuselage was the crest of the Royal House of Uzos.

"That's the Princess' yacht!" said Karli excitedly. "I've seen pictures of it."

"Right, Karli," answered Jashi. "I suspected as much when I first saw this sequence, so I checked it with the ship's computer. I give you Princess Katya, youngest daughter of the Exalted High Lord of the Uzos System. She was kidnapped all right, but not by Estarani!"

They watched in fascination as Jashi stepped thru the recording, showing only parts of the sequence in order to save time. The first shore-party disembarked from the ship. It was obviously led by the Princess herself; there was no mistaking the Royal Crest on the pressure suit, or the way the other members of the party deferred to her.

The landing-party went directly to the entrance of the city below and quickly disappeared inside; the pickup was too far away to tell for sure, but it appeared that the Princess used a sphere to open the door.

For sixteen hours nothing happened, then the entrance chamber opened again and the party returned to the ship. This was followed almost immediately by frantic activity. A large quick-dome -- several times the size of the one used by the crew of the \Klondike\ -- was erected, and workers began shuttling back and forth between it and the ship, towing pressurized freight containers supported by grav-plates.

The activity continued unabated for thirty-eight hours, but the Princess never left the ship again during that time. A group of about twenty workers was making its way back to the ship with several freight containers when Jashi slowed the action to normal speed, then stopped the picture entirely, switching the display back to the near-space star-map.

The following ship showed plainly on the display. It was headed directly for the planet, closing fast, and the target was still flashing-red. "They're still hyper!" exclaimed Toko in astonishment. "What's the scale?"

"Too close," replied Jashi. "Watch \this\ maneuver!"

Suddenly the target flashed green as the incoming ship dropped back into normal space and immediately began deceleration. An orange aurora formed around the blip and widened slowly as it intensified. Jashi switched to visual -- extreme magnification -- and they watched in fascination as the ship loomed larger and larger as its frantic descent continued almost unabated.

The ship had rotated ninety degrees and was descending belly-first, presenting the maximum surface of her gravity polarizers to the planet. The pickup coils of the FPG glowed red, and the plates themselves emitted visible light of a deep violet as the pilot fought to slow his headlong rush toward the frozen body below; overheated deceleration mass began venting from the belly jets.

The intruder leveled off a scant hundred feet above the surface and headed straight for the pickup that provided the group with its ringside seat. "What \is\ it?" gasped Rang in disbelief. "Even a Super-Viper can't make an approach like that!"

As the ship sped toward the pickup, it seemed it would burst from the screen and into the room; even Jashi had difficulty controlling the instinctive urge to duck, in spite of having previously seen the sequence several times. He froze the picture as the ship flashed directly overhead; the others in the room recovered to find themselves staring at the Great Dragon-Head insignia of a Galactic Raider, boldly emblazoned on the belly of the new arrival.

What followed wasn't pretty. The crew of the \Klondike\ watched spell-bound as the view shifted to the far side of the planet, near the grounded yacht of the Princess Katya. The Raider had remained in the shadow of the planet after leaving hyperspace, and scanners aboard the grounded ship could have given no warning of the hostile presence; the crew of the Royal Yacht had no time to react as the Raider ship appeared on the horizon, hurtling toward them at incredible speed.

One pass and it was over. Tongues of deadly energy licked out from the nose of the Raider, skillfully disabling the target without blowing either the FPG or the hydrofusion powerplant; the forward section of the ship ceased to exist.

As the Raider disappeared from sight over the far horizon, there was a flash from the dome and the picture went dark. It was restored almost instantly, from another angle, and they watched in horror as the debris settled, revealing the telltale crater left by the blast of a nuclear-tipped torpedo. In the center of the crater, a fountain of debris continued to spray upward as the atmosphere of the city vented into the surrounding vacuum.

The Raider made one more pass, but no resistance was offered by the crippled yacht. They didn't even bother to board her -- just hovered overhead and took her in tow with a tractor-beam. The pirate ship backed away, reeling the disabled yacht in close to enable hyperspace operations with the two vessels linked together. A second tractor-beam snaked out, reaching down into the crater; dirt and debris began to shift and slide as the beam tugged at something deep within. As it slowly emerged, encased in the green light radiated by the tractor-field, the group gave a collective gasp. Rising up out of the rubble was the Ghost-Ship they had carefully watched so long ago on Ultazari-Seven.

They all began talking at once, and Jashi turned off the display. Instead of allowing them to express their wonder at the events they had just witnessed, Jashi whistled for quiet. (.... "Why the urgency, Jash? ....") Karli inquired.

(.... "There's more, Kitten. And we don't have much time ....") The intensity of his emotions told her that whatever was yet to come was serious; she didn't inquire further.

"Thank you," Jashi said aloud, as quiet settled over the room. "There's one more thing to see, but first, lets summarize what we learned from the sequence we just witnessed. I've made a short list; If any of you have anything to add, please save it till I'm finished." Several of the group exchanged questioning glances at Jashi's unaccustomed brusqueness.

He quickly continued. "We've just seen a Raider ship perform maneuvers that are impossible with the current known technological state of anti-gravity propulsion. I ran a rough computation, and those units were producing on the order of six times the deceleration that the same gravity polarizer surface area can produce on a Federation ship. Couple that with the fact that the maneuver was performed in a magnetic field so weak that our landingcraft are barely operational, and it adds up to a rather unpleasant fact: \Somebody\ has made huge advances in both gravity polarization and flux-power technology, and they damn sure haven't shared it with the Federation."

"No wonder there have been so many ships captured during the last few years!" whispered Roi. "Oops! Sorry," he added, remembering Jashi's injunction against interruption.

"Yes, " agreed Jashi. "Until about eight years ago, known acts of piracy were relatively rare, considering the vastness of the galaxy; then they increased dramatically. Federal Interstellar installed extra armament on all their ships about that time -- they were still modifying the last of them when I left. That kind of maneuverability -- coupled with the ability to track another ship thru hyperspace -- would explain the Federation's inability to keep the Raiders under control. Thank the gods their hyperdrive seems to be standard!"

"Are you sure they actually tracked the Princess' ship here?" asked Toko.

"It sure looks that way," Jashi responded. "I ran the recording back until they were just appearing on the long-range screen, and there's not much doubt. The yacht maneuvered in normal space five times to avoid dense bodies, and the Raider duplicated every move. Besides, the only other way would have been to compute the yacht's trajectory before it went hyper, and boost for the most likely destination indicated by that computation. This place isn't even in Federation records, so it wouldn't be considered a possible destination at all.

"I computed the trajectory myself, and the inbound course was compatible with embarkation from the Estara System -- which probably explains the original kidnap rumor. The Raider probably fell in behind somewhere enroute.

"The outbound trajectory is compatible with three habitable planets among the rim worlds of sector six. We know now that Raiders, not Estarani, are responsible for Katya's kidnapping, and that they also captured at least \some\ of the technology of the People, and what appears to be an L'sa'rian ship -- probably what we saw back on U-Seven when this mess started. My guess is they were bound for Falturon-Six."

It was as if an electric shock had run thru the entire crew. Mowii turned pale. "The Federation always suspected they were operating out of Sanctuary," said Rang. "We just never could prove it... And the Interworld Council wouldn't let the High Guard blockade the place. That damned non-interference edict! No proof, no action. And how in hell are you supposed to get the damn proof? The bastards never leave any witnesses; they just take the young females and kill the rest.

*********

Rang's obvious anger was justified. Falturon-Six -- also known as Sanctuary -- was the scourge of the rim worlds of galactic sector six. Ruled by a Human of Terran extraction, it was common knowledge that anyone on the run from the Federation, or any other established authority, could find safe haven there -- for a price. They all knew the story, but it hit closer to home for Rang than for the others. Two years before leaving the practice of Galactic Law to join his brother aboard the \Klondike\, Rang had represented an alliance of four worlds in the Federation Interworld Court, pleading for a blockade of Falturon-Six.

Slightly smaller than Summit, Falturon-Six had been discovered and cataloged by a Federation scoutship some seventy years earlier. Studies from orbit had shown intelligent humanoid life at a primitive stage of development in the rainforest of the world's only habitable continent. Nothing of unique value had been in evidence during repeated scanning of the planet, and the Federation had cataloged it, and ordered "hands-off" for all Member-Worlds. The tribal native life would be left in peace, to develop their own technology in due time.

Enter Licti -- said Human of Terran extraction -- a member of Rang's own profession, and scoundrel extraordinaire. Disbarred by the Federation and the World Court of Statcon-Three -- his home planet and Federation Member-World -- he and a group from the inner circle of his investment firm had fled their world to avoid prosecution on charges of massive fraud, connected with the Statcon-Three development rights to the latest version of the flux-powered generator.

Licti's sudden departure -- just as the legal system was closing in with enough evidence to make an airtight case -- caught the authorities off-guard. All starships known to be associated with his organization had been placed under surveillance; obviously there had been one of which they weren't aware. By the time his escape was discovered, the ship had gone hyper and pursuit was impossible.

Statcon-Three revoked his citizenship, and the Federation issued an Order-of-Exile, making it impossible for him to make planetfall on any Federation world; the case was declared closed. He had surfaced eight years later, when he filed Notice-of-Registration with the Federation, asking for official recognition of Falturon-Six, and himself as the head of its planetary government.

Investigation by the Federation revealed Licti to indeed be the legally chosen King of the native people of the planet. He had arrived on their world in the midst of a bacterial pandemic that threatened to wipe out the Falturoni completely; having never seen a starship before, the natives hailed him as a messenger of the gods, sent to relieve their suffering. Federation medical technology dealt with the devastating illness in short order; in gratitude, the natives declared Licti their Divine King, the personal emissary of the gods to their world. The Federation was helpless to interfere, and reluctantly granted the asked-for recognition.

In the forty-two years since official registration of Sanctuary with the Galactic Federation, Licti had built himself a miniature empire within the city known as Extasy. Anything imagined or desired could be bought and sold in the marketplace or the pleasure palaces of the city, and it was rumored that a small area in the rainforest was a hunting preserve, where natives were stalked and killed by those willing to pay the price to match wits with intelligent prey; the Falturoni considered it a great honor to be selected as a sacrifice of pleasure to the Divine King. Many Federation agents had been lost attempting to infiltrate Licti's organization.

*********

"The Princess obviously knew about this place, Jashi continued his summation. "The heavy insulating boots worn by the shore-party indicate they were aware of the hostile conditions they would encounter. They knew where the entrance to the far-side city was, and came equipped with a means to open it. Whatever she came for must have been of great importance to her people, and it's now in the hands of the Raiders... Or more likely, in the possession of Licti. Their capture of the ship -- like the one we saw on U-Seven -- indicates that there is a connection with what happened to us there, and probably somehow with the havoc being wreaked upon the galaxy by the Estarani."

He reactivated the near-space star-map. "This is real-time," he said. "Now I'll show you why I was so abrupt." He moved the pointer until it touched one of the flashing-red targets. "That ship is on a trajectory that will bring it directly to this world. If they don't alter course, they'll reach here in twelve days... Their course is compatible with embarkation from Sanctuary. I'm afraid we're about to have some rather-nasty company."

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