Harvester 7 (2 page)

Only one
blemish he noted, the dark grey scar that ran above his right eye.
An old accident from his early days in a skirmish with the Watu. He
had been a junior officer then, a gunnery officer. He remembered
the day well, the Watu, the only threat to Territe supremacy had
launched a sneak attack and a plasma cannon under his command had
misfired and the resulting explosion had flung shrapnel in all
directions, many of his gunners had perished as they shielded him
from the full blast, he had escaped with only a deep wound above
his eye. Of course the damage and blemish could easily be repaired
but he quite liked his old war wound, in a world where everyone was
identical he enjoyed the feeling of being a little different, and
when needed, his clone would hatch perfect with all of his memories
intact, he could look pretty next time.

He ran one of
his slender fingers across the grey scar, he had actually been
lucky, just a little lower and he doubted his mirror membrane could
have protected his eye, now that would have been expensive to
replace.

The Watu,
he thought to himself, a
savage and primitive species, classified as L7 so sadly no
harvesting was permitted on their world,
The Senate should rule an exception,
he chuckled, the galaxy wouldn't miss their
marauding.

Maulik had
never actually seen a live Watu and he didn't particularly want to,
the pictures that he had seen were enough, short and stocky brown
skinned creatures, and covered with a strange growth often referred
to as "hair," he wondered how they managed to clean themselves, his
own smooth skin shed dirt naturally but he often cleansed himself
with a warm methane shower, but covered with that strange growth he
knew deep down that the Watu had to be a filthy race. The fact that
they used verbal communication held them firmly at L7.

True, Territes
had made sounds in their early evolution but telepathy had
developed almost before recorded history and over the millennia the
need for vocal chords had diminished leaving his race mute, not
that verbal communication was ever required, they could read the
intentions of their enemies and converse directly with the mind, if
the mind was developed sufficiently to cope with the input. Another
strange idiosyncrasy of the Watu was the custom of wearing the
skins of lesser animals, he had been told it was a mark of
dominance, but he saw it as only a confirmation of their bestial
and primitive status.

Are they really a threat?
he
questioned himself as the pod slid through the Port shields and
altered course directly towards his ship,
Doubtful,
he concluded, they had FTL
drives but they lacked sophistication, their shielding often proved
poor and unreliable and their weapons systems generally ineffective
against the might of the Terrillian fleet. Maulik often wondered if
the technology possessed by the Watu had been stolen, he couldn't
see them designing anything advanced, maybe they had stumbled upon
a derelict ship and through more luck than judgement had managed to
figure out the systems and operation, with that knowledge they
could reproduce but not improve, the fact that their technology had
not advanced over the century or so that he had faced them only
added weight to his theory.

"No, they are
no threat," he announced with confidence as the pod sealed itself
against the main entrance port on the command level of Harvester
7.

"Did you miss
me boy?" he directed into the minuscule mind of the Sarovian lizard
that he kept as a pet in his quarters, the blue reptile raised and
rattled its scales as waves of violet light pulsed through the skin
below as it showed its excitement at Maulik's return, seconds later
it was scuttling between his thin silver legs all the time rattling
its scales and pulsating. Sometimes Maulik wished he could converse
with the creature but try as he might he couldn't ever raise more
than a croaking and hissing, the mind was receptive to a point, but
would never be able to reply.

"Never mind
boy," he thought while he stroked the scales flat and tickled the
glowing stomach as the lizard writhed in ecstasy, "We would
probably only argue if you could answer me back," he chuckled.

"Are you
hungry boy?"

The hiss and
chattering answered him clearly, that was one thing he could
understand, "Of course you are... you're always hungry," he grinned
before selecting a sliver of flesh from the refrigeration unit and
tossing it into the waiting maw.

Patting his
pet farewell Maulik headed for the bridge, it was still over an
hour before Harvester 7 was scheduled to depart but he wanted to
get his diagnostics checked again, deep inside he knew that the
trip would be long, very long and he wanted every system in perfect
working order.

"Lieutenant
Relik," he called as he strode onto the wide bridge, Relik stood to
attention and the flick of his mirrored eyes indicated that he was
open to direct and private mind contact, Maulik nodded and
established the link.

"Re-run all
diagnostics, every system, I want this bucket in perfect working
order before we leave."

Relik smiled,
"I've already run them twice, I guessed we were in for a long one
when I saw the provisions manifest, at least six months worth."
Maulik nodded, Relik was a smart officer and with another fifty or
sixty years of experience would probably make a fine harvester
master.

"Any idea
where we're going this time?"

Maulik
grinned, "You know as much as I do, you know the protocol."

Relik nodded as Master Maulik cut the link, and returned to
his diagnostics. With the computer systems around the ship sending
their reports he had a few moments to study the inbound manifest
again, the stream of data on the screen reflected in his mirrored
eyes, suddenly he paused the flow and studied an entry,
Classified
blinked on
his display arousing his curiosity,

"Well that's
not normal." he announced as he tried to access the files.

"What's not
normal?" asked Maulik, "Is there a problem?" He hoped not, a
failing system now could delay departure for days, the jump gates
required huge amounts of energy to hurl two hundred million tons of
harvester to light speed and would take many hours to recharge, and
by that time 7 would have missed its departure slot

"No problem
with the ship," replied Relik, "It’s fully functional, it's just we
have some classified cargo coming on-board and I can't get into the
files, the decryption is the highest level... Military level." he
announced but on a private link directly to his master and
commander.

"Work on it,"
replied Maulik, "But don't set off any alarms, what hold is it
coming into?"

"It's not
coming into the hold," announced a confused Relik, "Well some of
the consignment is going to Hold 32, but the rest... well, the rest
is coming here! it's coming to the bridge?"

"Keep working
on that decryption." urged Maulik, maybe he hadn't gleaned even a
fraction of the information about the mission from Commander
Trulek, only personnel could be coming onto his bridge, but why the
secrecy, 7 wasn't a transport, command knew that, who was he going
to be carrying?

"Maulik!"
cried the startled lieutenant, "Sorry Sir, Master Maulik." Relik
corrected himself, "I still can't get into the file but Hold 32 is
now full."

"Full."
exclaimed Maulik, "Impossible!"

"I know Sir...
but it's still full."

Placing his
fingers on the glowing communication pad Maulik attempted to
contact Harvester Command.

Trulek
responded, "Before you ask, yes I know your hold is full, Maulik,
this is beyond my control and certainly beyond yours, and before
you ask, no, I can't tell you anything, just continue prep as
normal, you will be briefed directly once you have made the
jump."

"Directly?" he
questioned, this was not standard procedure, no master jumped
before he received his full briefing.

"Don't
question me, just accept that you will receive your mission
parameters after the jump has been initiated."

"Understood."
replied a slightly confused master.

"And Maulik,
may the Gods be with you."

Commander
Trulek severed the connection.

"This is
between us," he signalled Relik and received a nod, "So when do we
expect our bridge guest, or guests?"

"Unknown,"
answered Relik as he scanned the data stream, "Currently on
accommodation level 3, but I'm locked out of surveillance."

This is why There's discord in the fleet,
he told himself as he became confident that the military were
behind all the secrecy. Harvesters were under the jurisdiction of
the Senate, not the military, he didn't need to see a Colonial
uniform to know that the defence boys were behind it all, military
level encryption had confirmed that theory for him.

"You have the
con," he instructed Relik, "I'm going to inspect Hold 32."

"And our
guests? What if they come to the bridge while you're away?"

Maulik turned
and grinned, "Then lock them out until I get back, two can play
that game."

***

Two hundred million tons of harvester equalled a vast ship
and the trip to Hold 32 would have taken hours on foot but Maulik
hopped into a grav-lift and was soon hurtling down seventy six
decks, right into the bowels of the beast. As master he knew his
ship inside out but Hold 32 had never needed his inspection before,
all he knew was that it was just one of fifty on the lowermost
deck, all identical, nothing out of the ordinary, except today he
had a million tons of classified cargo... and that
was
out of the
ordinary!

Colonial Marines,
he congratulated
himself as he stepped from the lift and was faced by a wall of grey
and green camouflage uniforms.

Of all his
race only the military wore any form of clothing, their uniforms
were simply protection, woven from a synthesised silicon that was
impervious to all known energy weapons they were no better than the
Watu in Maulik's mind, grey and green symbols of dominance.

"Hey guys," he
signalled, "What's happening here?"

"Move along."
came the reply, "This is a restricted area."

"Really?"
replied Maulik as he flashed his credentials.

The marines
straightened and signalled apologies, "Sorry Master, you should
have let us know before, but again I'm sorry, you still can't pass
this point."

"I'll go anywhere I want on
my
ship." flared Maulik, but the
marines weren't playing games as he heard the faint hum of plasma
rifles charging,

"Hey, don't
get excited." he laughed masking his nerves, "I'm just on a routine
pre-flight inspection, no big deal."

"Everything
will be explained once we've made the jump" assured the Colonial
Squad Leader, "And Master, I'm sure you will be needed on the
bridge very soon." Maulik nodded as he heard the sound of docking
clamps releasing, soon 7 would be in free space and manoeuvring to
the jump gate. He gave an overly stiff salute loaded with sarcasm
before stepping back into the grav-lift. His day was definitely not
going as planned.

***

"This is
Colonel Balak." announced Relik as he stepped back onto the
bridge.

"What happened
to locking the doors?" he signalled privately.

"I have
complete authority over access on this ship at the moment," cut in
Balak, "And while I am on board there will be no attempts at
private links."

Maulik stared
in disbelief, "How did you access our link?" all he caught in reply
was a thin grin.

"That's
classified." replied the colonel.

"OK, so what’s
all this about?" Maulik demanded not trying to hide the irritation
in his thoughts as Balak pointed to the gold crescent on his arm,
indicating his rank.

Maulik gave a mental shrug of dismissal, "So what Colonel,
I'm not military, that mark means nothing to me, and you appear to
be a guest on
my
ship so I suggest you start explaining what you are doing
here, and why my Hold 32 is crammed to the roof with the Gods know
what?"

"Classified."
came the stiff reply.

Maulik turned
to his bridge crew and announced, "I wonder if this guy ever gets
tired of that word?"

"How long
before we jump?" demanded the Colonel refusing to rise to Maulik's
comment.

"we're on the
five minute countdown now." replied Relik.

"Then your
questions will all be answered in six minutes time." replied the
Colonel with a grin, "And now Harvester Master Maulik, if you don't
mind you will accompany me to the accommodation level where you
will receive a private mission briefing."

As they
stepped onto the grav-lift the Colonel relaxed and requested a
private link.

"I thought
this was not allowed." scoffed Maulik as he accepted.

"I'm not the
enemy," replied the Colonel, "Just trust me that it will all become
clear very soon, and I'm truly sorry that you couldn't be briefed
before now. But trust me, in a few minutes time you will understand
why all the secrecy." Maulik wasn’t convinced or pacified but
masked the thoughts and merely shrugged non-committally.

Red lights
pulsed as they stepped from the lift, "Thirty second countdown."
indicated Maulik, "Then you can start talking, oh, and Colonel, I
suggest you hang onto that rail... right about... Now!" he chuckled
as Balak lost his footing as the inertial dampeners kicked in to
offset the massive acceleration to light speed.