Castle Vroman Read online

  "It sounds like you have all the bases covered. Do you have any clever little surprises waiting for the Milori? Your bluff with the freighters was priceless," Vyx said, chuckling.

  "I'm afraid that clever maneuvers won't get the job done next time; only brute force will turn the Milori back. And this time we'll have to take the fight all the way to their home world. The Emperor must understand that he won't be given a third opportunity to mount an invasion against us."

  "Milor is eleven hundred light-years from here. They'll have years to prepare a defense once they receive word that their forces have been defeated— if they are defeated."

  Jenetta was quiet for a few seconds. "Victory will be ours. I'm sure of it. And if we must travel to Milor and defeat their home guard to seal that victory, we shall."

  Trader Vyx stared at Jenetta with respect. "If anyone can, Admiral, it's you. My team and I will leave for Scruscotto immediately and learn what we can."

  "Thank you, Trader. Expend whatever funds are necessary for the procurement of useful information. I'll see that your account is adequate."

  "No need, Admiral. I have ample credits coming from the Koppreco contract and I received an additional five hundred thousand credits beyond the original amount, thanks to the highly active mating habits of Aluvian Mamots when on their own planet. I think every female in the original batch was pregnant when we took her aboard. We can buy a lot of information with a million credits."

  "Very well, Trader, but I'm sure your supplies are low after seven months of travel. You'll receive top priority down at the warehouses."

  "Thank you, Admiral. I'll be in touch as soon as I learn anything." Vyx stood, turned, and left without further word.

  After notifying the Supply officer to provide whatever basic supplies Trader Vyx requested, Jenetta prepared a fresh mug of coffee and returned to her contemplations.

  * * *

  Exalted Lord Space Marshall Berquyth entered the private office of Emperor Maxxiloth and stood in front of the enormous, embellished desk.

  "My Lord, we've received word from Supreme Lord Space Marshall Dwillaak that all assigned ships have joined up with his forces outside the Galactic Alliance Buffer Zone."

  "Berquyth! I've told you that I don't recognize that area as belonging to the Galactic Alliance!" the Emperor bellowed.

  "Yes, my Lord," Berquyth said calmly. "I was using the term simply as a reference because we have no other formal designation for it."

  "Call it 'a point one-hundred-light-years from the former outer border of the Galactic Alliance.'"

  "Yes, my Lord," Berquyth replied, trying to conceal his increasing frustration towards Maxxiloth's tirades over inconsequential issues. "I shall refer to it that way from now on. Shall we commence phase two of the plan?"

  "What about Space Command's invisible bombs?"

  "We've learned that the bombs are not invisible. That was merely propaganda spread by Admiral Carver's staff. They use a standard torpedo casing covered in some sort of energy-dampening material for delivery, but they are detectable."

  "And there are no other surprises?"

  "We feel confident that Carver used every trick she had available because she was so vastly outnumbered. We know now that our forces are capable of destroying their ships as easily as we destroyed the fleets of the Hudeerac. The attack on the Lisbon proved that. Our interrogation of the Admiral being sent to replace Carver yielded little we didn't already know."

  "You're sure you got everything out of him?"

  "Absolutely, my Lord, We milked him like a farmer milks his herd of Verliqs. He probably doesn't even know that he talked so freely."

  "What about this new material, Dakinium, we've heard about?"

  "It does exist, and it is as impervious to laser fire as we were informed, but the first ship covered with it had massive problems during its space trials and was returned to their Mars shipbuilding facility many annuals ago. It makes sense that if the material were acceptable for a ship's skin, they would have it in general use by now. They must fear using it, so we're not concerned that it poses any threat to our plans. Once we control GA space, we'll take over their research and make it work for us."

  "Very well, Berquyth. Send the order to begin Phase Two. The fleets will proceed into Galactic Alliance space with all possible speed."

  * * *

  Admiral Thaddeus Vroman awakened from a fitful night of tossing and turning. He sat up on the edge of the coarse bed in his darkened shelter and let his head hang tiredly. The eighteen-hour days were taking their toll on the octogenarian and he felt completely exhausted. But he had to go on, while not showing any sign of fatigue in front of his people. He had expected to be sitting out the rest of his active service years in reasonable comfort on Stewart and later possibly at Supreme Headquarters on Earth, not trying to get a decent night's sleep on a straw-filled mattress. Field operations were for the young, or possibly someone like Admiral Carver, who still had the looks and apparent vitality of a twenty-one year old despite being forty-three.

  'Forty-three', he thought, 'and already an upper for several years.' He hadn't gotten his second star until he was seventy-six. It was an old story in the military; promotions went first to those who distinguished themselves in combat— and lived to tell about it. No one could deny that Carver had seen more than her share of action, and consistently come out on top. Despite her documented successes in battle, ridiculous rumors abounded in the rear echelons about her merely being the darling of the Admiralty Board. Perhaps most irritating to many senior rear area officers was that she was entirely deserving of every honor bestowed upon her, because it was far easier to hate someone who had risen through the ranks as the result of nepotism or favoritism.

  Although never tested in battle himself, Vroman didn't hold any jealousy or animosity towards Admiral Carver. And he wasn't ashamed to admit he was damned glad she was still the base commander of Stewart. He was convinced that if rescue were to come, it would mainly happen through her efforts.

  Struggling to his feet, he winced in pain as his stiff and aching muscles strongly protested being worked again so soon, but the distorted facial expression would be the last sign of weakness he would exhibit throughout the rest of the long day. Almost no amount of pain would be enough to contort his features in front of his people as he spent the day supervising activities in the wilderness base. He was very satisfied with their progress so far, and very proud of them. They were well motivated because their lives depended on how they met the challenges before them, but they had also maintained a strict sense of military order, conduct, and professionalism.

  Opening a door that hung suspended on thick strips of leather made from the hides of gelks slaughtered for meat, he stared out at the sun as it slowly peeked above the horizon. This was a beautiful planet, and if this small valley was representative of the rest of it, it was not unlike Earth before mankind began to bury its surface beneath layers of people, cities, and concrete highways. Under other circumstances, people might consider this planet a paradise. The air, without a molecule of unnatural pollution in it except for an occasional wisp of smoke from cooking fires, was always crisp and wonderful in the early morning hours. The doctor was concerned about some microorganisms he'd found in the Gelks, but so far they hadn't appeared to infect any human hosts. Space Command personnel were regularly inoculated against all known virus and bacterium, but the doctor worried that the hard work and poor diet might affect their immune systems.

  The camp was already alive with activity when Admiral Vroman stepped from his quarters and walked towards the mess building. Officers and NCOs each had a dining area separate from the large dining room used by crewmen, but there were no mess attendants here, so everyone went through the same food line before carrying his or her food to the appropriate dining area. It would have been awkward for all three groups to eat in the same dining hall because they would be unable to talk freely.

  Today's breakfast fare included local fruits,
spicy broiled-gelk meat patties, boiled vegetables, and unleavened gritty-tasting bread made from a sort of wild emmer found in the valley. It was virtually the same every day, and Admiral Vroman would have paid a month's salary for a three-egg omelet, with side orders of hash browns, pork sausages, and buttermilk biscuits. 'In time', he kept telling himself. The variety of food was slowly improving as food foragers roamed further afield and returned with new items for testing, and the cooks experimented with new recipes, spices, and food preparation methods. They were desperately seeking a proper leavening for use as a baker's yeast.

  The heavy work schedule and general lack of time for meetings required that the officers deliver their status reports each morning during breakfast. One by one, each officer would pause his or her eating to give their report. Following the reports, anyone could comment on them or bring up new subjects for discussion. Breakfasts in the officer's private room often lasted long after the other rooms had cleared and the cooks had begun cleaning up so they could begin preparing for lunch. Without the array of automated food preparation machinery available in a shipboard galley or base mess hall, preparation for every meal took many hours. The cooks actually completed much of the evening meal preparation work during mid-morning, so that they got a few hours off in the afternoon to make up for the hours they worked before breakfast.

  Admiral Vroman was consulting with Lt. Pyers, the farm manager, as they surveyed the newly planted fields of emmer when the wind carried the first sounds of alarm to them. Shouting in the forest just beyond the land cleared for the farm turned quickly to yelling and then to panicked screams. Admiral Vroman and Lt. Pyers hurried towards the sounds, but stopped in their tracks as a large creature emerged from the distant tree line. Quickly reversing their course, they raced to retrieve weapons back at the camp. In the minutes it took to reach the stockpile of spears near the corral, the creature had stomped halfway across the farm as crewmen stood off throwing rocks.

  As large as the largest elephant on Earth, and with a mouth full of dagger-like teeth, a ferocious creature resembling a giant lizard was making a plodding beeline on powerful rear legs towards the corral containing the gelks. The gelks, having spotted the oncoming creature, were in a panic. They began throwing themselves violently against the rails in an effort to break free. Although they didn't have the ability to jump, there was no doubt that they could easily outrun the hulking monster looking at them as its next meal, if they could only break out of their confinement.

  Rocks thrown by Lisbon crewman were bouncing off the creature's hide without effect or even distracting it from its single-minded goal. On Admiral Vroman's orders, crewmen near the corral began sticking upraised spears into the soft dirt at a forty-five degree angle towards the approaching beast. As it drew closer, they moved out of its path and began throwing the remaining spears with all their might. Most glanced off, but a few penetrated the thick hide and, for the first time, the creature seemed to acknowledge the small, puny creatures that populated the area. Fortunately, it didn't slow its gait towards the corral.

  Reaching the area where the spears had been jammed into the soil, the creature rampaged through, pieces of snapped spear shafts flying in all directions. But some spears had already done their work, sinking deep into the creature's less-armored chest and underbelly. It reached the corral, but collapsed against it, cracking one of the upright posts. Its legs thrashed wildly for a minute as it lay on its side, and then it was still, the heaving chest having sucked its last air.

  As it became almost a certainty that the creature was dead, crewmen moved in closer for a look, and tension drained from their faces. The entire incident had lasted less than five minutes, but it seemed much longer, and some would later say it seemed to occur in slow motion.

  "Is everyone okay?" Admiral Vroman asked loudly.

  "A few of our people were injured when the creature bulldozed through us," one of the hunter/crewmen said. "I don't know how serious the injuries are, sir."

  "Let's get them to the medical shelter immediately. Are there any more of these things out there?"

  "We only saw the one," the hunter responded, "but there have to be more where it came from, sir. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be very intelligent and only seemed interested in getting to the gelks. It must have picked up their scent while it was still in the forest."

  "I suppose we're lucky that it didn't decide to dine on any of our crewmen as appetizers. The species hasn't developed a taste for our flesh yet, but we can't count on that protecting us for long. When there aren't any gelks around, they might decide to see how we taste. Judging from the rows of sharp teeth in its jaws and the way that it moved towards the gelks, it's undoubtedly a carnivore. As soon as our crewmen are looked after, we have to start preparing a defensive perimeter against attack by these things." Under his breath, Admiral Vroman said, "I knew things were going too well here."

  With much effort, crewmen dragged the six-meter long creature to the center of the camp for study. Life slowly returned to normal and engineers began making repairs to the corral and farm fencing. The gelks had quieted down as soon as the monster was dead, but used the limits of their corral to remain as far away from it as possible.

  "It appears to be reptilian," Lt. Croff, the crewman with the greatest knowledge of paleontology said as he examined the creature. "Or at least what we would define as reptilian. The closest Terran creature that I'm familiar with might be the dinosaur Alioramus Remotus, an early member of the Asian Tyrannosauridae family in Earth's distant past, although this one is about a meter longer than those were reputed to be. Ours disappeared on Earth by the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago."

  "A dinosaur?" Admiral Vroman said.

  "Well, this planet's equivalent. We can't assume this world or any other is on an equal evolutionary path with Earth. The gelks are obviously familiar with this species or they wouldn't have been so panicked when it moved towards them."

  "Which indicates that there may be many more of these things out there?"

  "Or even worse creatures, posing greater dangers. We haven't even explored a miniscule part of this world yet. I just hope that we don't encounter any of this guy's bigger relatives. I doubt that we could have brought down a Tyrannosaurus Rex with the ease that we felled this small fellow."

  "Small?"

  "In dinosaur terms, six meters and one ton is small. Tyrannosaurus Rex could be up to twelve and a half meters long, stand six meters high, and weigh up to seven tons. Fortunately, the really large dinosaurs were herbivores on Earth; I hope that's the case here."

  "What else do you think we can expect?"

  "Impossible to say, sir. This isn't Earth and we can't apply our knowledge of Earth's history to what we might find here. We haven't seen any indication that this world is in anything like our own Cretaceous period. This may be the only creature of its type on this planet, just as alligators, crocodiles, a few snake species, and Komodo dragons are the only very large reptile species to have survived on Earth. But I'm confident that where you find one of these creatures, obviously well fed and healthy, you'll find a lot more. That's simple logic."

  "I agree." Speculatively, Admiral Vroman added, "Do you think this thing is edible?"

  "I don't see why not. But its flesh should be tested before any of it is eaten."

  "Okay, let's get this thing skinned and butchered," Admiral Vroman said to the hunters that were standing around the beast. "Maybe it'll taste better than the gelk we've been eating."

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  ~ May 5th, 2279 ~

  The Scorpion, with Vyx at the helm, approached the planet Scruscotto slowly. A busy mining planet with no approach or departure control was not the place to be lax, and Vyx's senses were at full alert. He had nearly wound up as a bow ornament on a large freighter here once, and that near miss had used up all the good luck he ever expected to have when negotiating heavy traffic at Scruscotto.

  He'd planned th
e arrival time so they'd be landing at Weislik during the slowest traffic time of the day. Although it's the planet's largest colony, third shift miners would be mid-shift, and most of the residents would be asleep. Planetary arrivals and departures occurred around the clock, but just prior to dawn at any colony was the slowest time for takeoffs and landings at the local spaceports.

  After setting the ship down on the assigned pad, Vyx sat in the pilot's seat and relaxed. Brenda Cardiz sat in the co-pilot chair and silently watched Vyx. She had been with him long enough to know not to bother him until he moved. Not that he would have lashed out or anything, he just wouldn't respond to questions until the tension of landing at an uncontrolled colony had fully dissipated. He and the rest of his team, consisting of Cardiz, Nelligen, Byers, and Earlich, would start work after grabbing a few hours rest.

  When he was once again unwound, Vyx walked to the spaceport office and paid the pad rent for a full week. Even at this hour, the office held a collection of colony denizens whose job it was to note all arrivals and departures for various information brokers. Vyx, already well known among this group in the colony, returned the nods of several that knew him as a smuggler and illegal weapons trader. He returned to his ship after completing all the necessary paperwork.