Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth (28 page)

“Load some of your fighters with nuclear war heads and command your pilots to fly them into the enemy ship.  Blow them all to hell!”  Ming growled.  He seemed to not be hearing what I was saying.

“I’ll do no such thing!  Nuclear war heads will have no effect on their ship.

Ming turned to me in anger and grabbed by me by uniform and began to pull me toward him as he yelled, “You will do as I say or…,” he never got to finish his threat as I stepped forward  as he pulled me toward him and the lack of resistance caused him to lose his balance falling backward, as he did I grabbed hold of both of his arms and twisted to the side bringing him around with me, so I now was behind him with my left arm was about his throat while my right hand holding his left arm behind his back.  In the meantime, my security team member who had brought Ming to the conference room had drawn his weapon and had it aimed at Ming.

“Ming stop this insane action, or do I need to have you put into a cell?”

Ming resisted for a second and then relaxed.  “I apologize, Tibby,” he said in an abnormally calm and smooth voice.  Of course, I shall cooperate.  It was the sight of that ship and the memory of the devastation they caused the Earth that caused me to react so strongly.”  I didn’t believe for one second it was sympathy for the Earth that Ming was feeling, more likely it was the loss of his power and conquest that he was angry about.  Nevertheless, I released my hold on him and stepped back as he straightened and tugged on his clothing to realign them.  “I shall be pleased to assist you in any way I can First Citizen,” as he said the last, he bowed slightly with that sly grin across his face that made me feel he was planning something.

We watched as the ship approached the Earth and went into orbit, then we noted several doors on the exterior of the ship open and something that looked like black clouds issue from a nozzle like projection which moved forth from inside.  At first, the clouds seemed to expand behind the ship like smoke trails of a rocket as the ship slowly continued to orbit the Earth, and then gradually the still expanding clouds began settling toward the surface.

“See, this is what we witnessed before!”  Ming exclaimed.  “When the clouds reach the black smoke and dust in the atmosphere you will see the smoke vanish.  Where the clouds released from the ship touch the sea you will see the waters slowly clear.”

“What?”  both A’Lappe and Cantolla exclaimed in unison?  Cantolla continued, “Are you saying that whatever it is they are releasing is cleaning the atmosphere and the oceans?”

“I do not know what it is that they do, I only am telling you what we have observed.”  Ming replied too humbly for it to appear genuine after his earlier tirades.   I glanced at Wong, who looked at me and nodded in affirmation from behind Ming’s back.

As we watched we could already see the dark clouds of volcanic smoke beginning to thin as the substance released by the Tottalax ship touched them.

I looked at A’Lappe and Cantolla and asked, “What do you suppose it is?”

“Possibly some type of nanobots,” A’Lappe said as he glanced at Cantolla.

“I would have to concur with that,” Cantolla answered, “But I have no idea how they work or what they are doing.  It would be nice if we could get some samples.”

“How long does the ship usually remain in orbit when it comes to visit?”  I asked Ming.

Ming looked at Wong as though keeping track of time was something left to those he believed subservient to him.

“Usually for several hours,” Wong answered.  “The last time they were here nearly a day.”

The entire time we had been talking there was a communication link open to the bridge and I now addressed Stonbersa.  “Commodore, move the
NEW ORLEANS
into low orbit, as soon as the Tottalax ship moves behind the Earth in it’s orbits and when we are not in their sensor range I want you to drop the ships RMFF just long enough for Kerabac to take a patrol ship and crew and go down and get a sample of atmosphere with whatever that material is the Tottalax have released.  Once they have acquired the sample and are returning you will need to again drop the RMFF and the cloaking long enough for them to re-enter the
NEW ORLEANS.
  As soon as they are aboard turn the RMFF back on but leave the Cloaking off.  As soon as the Tottalax ship comes back into view in its orbit of the Earth open a hailing channel, I wish to attempt to communicate with them.”

“As you wish Tibby,” Stonbersa said.

I turned to Kerabac, “You know what we need, contact whoever you need to accompany you and get to the hanger bay.  Commodore, as soon as the Tottalax are out of sensor range notify Kerabac so they can get underway immediately, I want them back in plenty of time before the Tottalax reappear as they circle the Earth.”

“Understood,” The Commodores voice came back over the speakers; I glanced at Kerabac, who nodded and was preparing to leave the room when Captain Slater spoke up.  “Tibby, might I go along with the team to collect the samples”  I glanced at Kerabac, who looked at me with a raised eyebrow.  I knew if I said yes that Kerabac would see to it that there were additional troopers from my security team aboard with them.

“Yes, you may and Wong, if you would like to accompany them you may also.”  Wong looked at me and then glanced at Ming, who stood stoically staring at Wong in a manner that was hard to read.

“I would be honored, Wong replied, and both he and Captain Slater turned and followed Kerabac out of the room.

The exercise to retrieve samples of material the Tottalax ship had emitted in the atmosphere went smoothly and Kerabac and his team were back aboard the ship in shortly under an hour.  A’Lappe and Cantolla quickly headed for the lab with the material to begin testing and analysis.

Once they had headed out of the room Captain Slater spoke up.  “That ship Captain Kerabac flew us in is quite remarkable.  Kerabac said that the basic design is over 600 years old and that it’s only recently been updated with new technology developed by A’Lappe and Cantolla.”

“Yes, the
TRITYTE
, which was the ship I discovered sunk in the swamp on Earth over 60 years ago, was just like the patrol ship you were in.  It landed on Earth over 600 years ago.”

“Do you have the ship you found aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
?  Is it still in operation?”  Slater asked.

“No, I retired the ship.  Today it’s a museum piece that is flown from one planet to the next for people to see.  It’s the most famous ship in Federation history.”  I replied.

“Really!  I have heard the story from several of your crew aboard your ship.  The awe they seem to have when referring to it somehow makes it seem like something very different and special.”

“The only thing different about the ship was that originally it had a solbidyum reactor for power instead of a fusion reactor.  It gave the ship more power, but otherwise it was just like any other patrol ship in the Federation.”

“The
TRITYTE
has a solbidyum core reactor?”  Ming spoke up suddenly alert.

“Had!  It no longer does.  The reactor was removed before the ship was put on display.  I answered.

I could see questions arising in Ming’s mind and I didn’t like the direction things were moving in.

“And this solbidyum reactor, where is it now?”  Ming asked in his smooth silky manner that made my skin crawl.

“It’s been repurposed.”  I answered.  Individuals are banned from owning solbidyum and it only is in the hands of Federation planets.  A single grain is capable of supplying the entire power needs for an entire planet.”

“Interesting,” Ming mumbled as he tugged on a flab of loose skin beneath his chin, “so much power in a single grain of sand!”

It was nearly an hour later when the Tottalax ship reappeared in its orbit around the Earth.

“Open a hailing channel Commodore, “I said when I saw it on the screen.

“Hailing channel open.”  The Commodores voice responded.

“Attention Tottalax ship orbiting the 3rd planet in this star system.  This is the space yacht
NEW ORLEANS
wishing to have a discussion with you.”  There I thought, that might get their attention.

There was a moment of silence and then suddenly a wave of pain followed by blackness.

“Tibby, wake up!  Come on Tibby, we need you awake.”  I heard Kerabac’s voice calling.

“Wake up Tibby,” the Tottalax attacked again and Norkoda got the nukes off.  It seems that even though it didn’t do any surface damage to their ship that we can see, that it must have shaken them up pretty badly, and they headed out.  Norkoda has been pursuing them while remaining cloaked, but he needs my help on the bridge so you’re going to have to handle things here for now.”

“Oh, my head,” I groaned as I sat up.  All around the room I could see the others still unconscious. 

“Will you be okay?”  Kerabac asked.  “I really am needed on the bridge.”

“Yeah! Go!  I’ll be all right.”  I answered as I slowly got up off the floor with help from Kerabac.  “How long have you been awake?”

“Not long, maybe a minute or so.”  He answered as he headed out the door.

Kala was the next to regain consciousness; I was beginning to worry about the Tottalax attacks and what effect they might have on our unborn children.  After the Tottalax's first attack A’Lappe had checked her out in the med unit and stated that there were no signs of harm to the fetuses and they both appeared to be healthy.  I helped Kala to sit up just as I heard Captain Slater start to moan.

“Oh god!”  He muttered in English.  “What happened?”

“We were on the receiving end of the Tottalax sleep weapon.  It doesn’t seem to have any lasting effect on us, just puts us to sleep long enough for them to make their exit and give us one horrid headache when we wake up.”

“Amen on the headache part!”  He mumbled.

Unexpectedly, the door to the conference room opened and a wild-eyed Jenira came charging in.  As soon as she saw Kala and me, she immediately relaxed and started signing to us wanting to know if we were okay.  After we assured her we were safe she assisted us in seeing to the others.  Within less than an hour everyone on the ship was conscious again and except for one individual who had hit her head and suffered a mild concussion when she collapsed, everyone seemed back to normal.  Ming of course had lots to complain about; he insisted that we should have attacked more aggressively when the Tottalax first appeared instead of trying to hail them, however, when we informed him that we were cloaked and in pursuit of their ship he quieted down.  We followed the ship for 3 days as it traveled parallel to the Federation territories, never getting closer than 3 days to its border.  On the third day, the ship took a dramatic turn away from the border and accelerated. We matched it speed following it until on the fifth day it turned and flew into a nebula.  We tried to follow it but found our scanners didn’t work within the nova and we lost track of their ship.  We found ourselves lost within the nebula and eventually had to use the automated controls to reverse our trail precisely to get back out.

“How do you think they travel in there?”  I asked A’Lappe later that day.

“I’m not sure, possibly by variations in magnetic and gravitational fields within the nebula.  They most likely have mapped at least part of it and have it charted with some landmarks that they use for navigating inside.”

“Do you think it possible that their home world is inside the Nebula?”

“That’s in interesting idea.  There would be a lot of radiation present inside the nebula that would not bode well for most life forms, but their being amphibians and living underwater most of the time might reduce the radiation levels to a sustainable level for their life forms.”

Considering that we had lost the Tottalax trail we headed back to Federation space and set course for Megelleon.

I hoped to set up a museum of sorts onboard my ship to display the items we had recovered from Earth to look at on our way back to Megelleon, but there turned out to be a lot more items than I had anticipated and our holds were so full there was little space to display the bulk of them.  However, we were able to display a number of pieces of art in some of the dining rooms and corridors and common areas throughout the ship.  At first these displays seemed to delight everyone, but after a few days it became apparent that those aboard the ship from Earth were avoiding these spaces while those from the Federation were visiting them.  I was pondering this when I went for my daily visit to Dr. Hughes and I decided to broach the topic with him.

“Dr. Hughes, I’ve noted that recently the refugees from Earth are avoiding the art from Earth that we have exhibited around the ship.  I would have thought that people would want to see things that reminded them of Earth.”

“Dr. Hughes peered at me a moment and then sighed before he began to answer.  “Tibby I see a lot of the members of the Earth colonies here and while I can’t share with you specifics about anyone, I can share with you general trends and thinking among many of them.  It’s true that many of them are now avoiding these objects.  When you first put them out they were excited to see them as they gave a sense of normalcy and home but as time passes these objects are becoming a painful reminder of all that is lost.  They feel uncomfortable seeing them and knowing that what those objects represent is lost to them and they can never go back to the Earth and have it be like it once was.  There will be times when they want to see these objects and to reminisce the past, but to see these objects daily for them is like a parent who has lost a child and every day they are forced to look at their toys and favorite objects.  They are a painful reminder.  Given time most of them will want to see these objects again but for right now it’s too much too soon.”