The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (11 page)

Ella replied, “Great idea,” and adjusted the scan accordingly.

The frigate was the same size as a destroyer, but much heavier armored. The armor wasn’t as thick as a battleship, but was significantly heavier than every other ship class. The scan revealed that it had the capability to house 40 fighters, but couldn’t determine exactly how many were aboard. They had made room for the extra wing of fighters by eliminating the ion cannon.

There were 7 missile launchers on each side, one more than a typical destroyer. The only drawback appeared to be its top speed. The additional armor made the frigate slower than either a cruiser or a destroyer.

Ella said, “Frigate scan is complete, now repositioning the scanner to the space station.”

Jack said, “Put the results of the frigate scan on the monitor. Let’s have a look.”

Ella reviewed the scan and said, “Wow! That’s a formidable ship.”

Jack said, “Yes. It is certainly impressive. Look at that shield strength. If the readings are correct, then it is actually stronger than it should be.”

Ella closely reviewed the readings and replied, “Yes. I wonder if they added extra shield generators or something.”

They also were able to get a complete external scan of the space station. The station was huge. It was easily the largest known artificial Hiriculan structure. It would rank as the 4
^th
largest station in the Alliance (the largest was in Advranki Prime and the second and third stations were on Altian 1 and 3 respectively).

The station is roughly shaped like a two sided top. The middle section is spherical and there are long, thin sections or spindles sticking out of the top and bottom. The entire station is tilted at a 22 degree, so it appears as if the top is tilted slightly on its side. The spindles are the docking ports. There were currently 10 freighters or corvettes docked at the station.

The center, spherical section is the living, manufacturing, and commerce area. There is a hydroponic ring around the center of the station, but to Jack’s delight it looked undersized. The scan indicated there was an internal docking / repair area, but the doors were not visible from the outside.

The station boasted the typical weapon ports for defensive missiles, but there appeared to be no offensive weapon capability. There were no military ships docked at the station and no signs of the Hiriculan military other than the aforementioned frigate.

The passive scan revealed that there were currently 4 freighters inbound to the station from Coufla or some system beyond Influenla. Jack assumed that one of them would rendezvous with him. There were two military ships, one frigate and one corvette, stationed at the other end of the system right beside the hyperspace lane to Coufla.

There was only one other freighter leaving the station and headed for Opron and no other ships inbound to the station. With only a 30 minute transit time from the station to the hyperspace lane, Jack was impressed that they even saw one other ship.

After a tense, but ultimately uneventful ½ hour trip, they were contacted by the station and given docking slip u-11B. The slip was in the upper spindle and the 11
^th
and final spot on the starboard side. There were 8 other ships docked in various ports on the top spindle, but none of the other ships were close to his. There were an additional 7 ships docked on the bottom spindle.

Ella said, “There are a lot of ships here, many more than I expected.”

Jack replied, “Well, this station is located on the primary route between Hiricula and its other systems and colonies.”

Ella remembered
Sunflower’s
first battle, a fighter only duel between the two Navies. This battle was when the Alliance learned that the Hiriculans were secretly using a less advanced race called the Netos to pilot their fighters. She said, “They tried to claim Opron, but the Alliance stopped them. I guess Influenla was the next best location for their station.”

Jack was surprised that they let him pilot his ship all the way to the docking port. Normally, the final maneuvers around a station were performed by auto pilot. Jack surmised the reason for the lack of automated guidance was that there was relatively little traffic at the station at the moment.

Jack mentioned this to Ella. She reminded him that the station was located in an uninhabited system. He realized that she was probably correct and let the conversation pause. He then said, “We are ready to dock. Do you want the honors?”

Ella nodded affirmative and carefully guided the mini-freighter into the correct port. A mini-freighter and a cruiser were roughly the same overall size, but the freighter was far more sluggish due to its increased weight from cargo and a smaller power generator.

Jack heard the ‘clunk’ sound moments before Ella announced they had successfully docked. Jack checked the control board and verified they had a firm lock. Then he shut down main power and plugged into the station.

They had docked so that they main hold was attached to the station. Jack then extended the portable tunnel a short distance from the
Jackal
to the station. When it was attached, he opened the freighter’s main entrance. They would have to crawl from the control room exit to the station. They could have simply walked into the station if Jack had left a corridor through the main hold. However, he had been able to ram a few extra pallets of sea moss in the hold by blocking the walkway.

When everything was secure, Jack said, “Now what do we do?”

Jack immediately regretted the question. If he was to truly be a super double secret agent, surely he should be able to think of some kind of plan. Jack clarified just a little, “The first thing we have to do is sell spare cargo in the second hold from Solaria and the Advranki sea moss in the main. Perhaps we could take an initial look around while we try to find a buyer for the cargo?”

Ella said, “Excellent suggestion, let me gather a few items and we can go.”

The exited the mini-freighter and floated across the tunnel into the spindle. Jack was surprised that no one came to meet them, not even an automated unit like on Advranki Prime. Oh well, perhaps they were simply too busy to bother with one small, insignificant freighter. Jack turned and contacted the ship via his communicator.

Jack said, “Computer, close the door and secure the ship.”

…Ship secure…

They walked ‘down’ the spindle toward the main spherical portion of the station. There was a wide, slowly moving cargo conveyor going up and another beside it going down. Both moving hallways could be set to go the same direction for really large freight. There were two sets of small, being sized sidewalks on both sides of the main freight conveyor. The small being-walks moved at the same speed as their larger brethren. One could follow their cargo the entire time it was on the conveyor.

Jack looked to each side. There were no windows or any decorations of any kind. The only feature that focused the eyes was the docking ports spaced every 40 meters. There was a large sign over each docking bay clearly showing the bay number.

Ella must have thought something similar, for she said, “Well, at least we won’t get lost. They have it pretty clearly labeled here.”

Jack smiled and said, “Perhaps you should give them your father’s number. I think this place could use a little decorating.”

They reached the end of the spindle and entered the spherical section of the station. The only way they knew they had left the spindle and entered the sphere was that the docking port numbers reached zero. The main transportation corridor and the parallel sidewalks continued into the sphere.

Inside the spherical section of the station, the docking ports had been replaced by a series of massive warehouses. There were several side corridors that apparently led to other warehouses behind those facing the main corridor. They ignored all of the side passageways for the moment and continued following the moving cargo corridor until it came to an abrupt end.

Jack looked at the wall closely and noted the faintest of seams in the middle. He said, “I think the moving corridor continues beyond this wall. I bet this wall is actually a door.”

Ella said, “You’re probably correct. I am guessing that this corridor goes from one end of the station to the other.”

Jack replied, “Smart. If they have a large load they need to transfer from end to the other, they can simply open the door. It reminds me of the drawbridge we saw in that human movie.”

Ella nodded in confirmation. She produced a small device from her pocket and transferred the information to her communication pad. Jack quickly asked, “What’s that?”

Ella said, “It is basically an intelligent pedometer. I measured how far we have traveled and I am now comparing it to the dimensions of the station. According to this, we have traversed approximately 1/3 of the spherical section.”

The moving sidewalk also came to an end at wall. However, there was an archway leading into the next section of the station. There were no other entrances or exits. If they wanted to get to the interior of the station, they would have to walk through it.

Jack observed it closely and said, “It looks like a bio-scanner. If we pass through it we will get a complete body scan. They may be able to detect that I have white skin.”

Ella also investigated the scanner. She said, “I think it is only a weapons scanner. We should be safe to pass through it provided you are unarmed.”

The scanner appeared to be active and running. There were lights on the top of the scanner; the one on the left was currently lit a rather pleasant shade of purple. There were words written above each light, but they were written in the Hiriculan language.

Jack held his communicator pad up at the sign and said, “Computer translate the message if possible.”

…87.7% Left light says Ready to Enter, middle light says Pass, and the right light says failure or possibly death…

Eventually they decided to pass through the scanner one at a time and enter the main part of the station. The scanner’s middle light winked an appeasing orange for each.

Jack said, “Whew, I’m glad we didn’t have to find out exactly what that third light actually meant.”

Ella smiled in response.

The gravity changed direction on this side of the archway. What had previously been the relative directions been of up and down were now switched 90 degrees. Looking back through the arch, it appeared that the corridor was now on the wall.

Both Ella and Jack felt momentarily disoriented, but quickly got used to the new direction once they stopped looking at the arch. They were standing on a small mezzanine overlooking the next section of the station. There were several electromagnetic lefts that led down to the lower level.

To this point, they had not encountered a single being. However, this changed the moment they crossed the threshold. They looked down and saw a busy, populated station. Jack commented, “So this is where everyone is.”

There were two main, perpendicular thoroughfares each running the length of the station. Viewed from above, they formed an X with an enclosed area in the exact center that contained the main cargo corridor. The thoroughfare was filled with shops, offices, and restaurants.

They climbed onto one of the electro lifts and were gently lowered to the floor of the next section. Ella checked her device when they reached the bottom and announced that they were exactly ½ way through the sphere. The lifts deposited them very near the center of the X of the main thoroughfares.

Jack had a sudden thought and asked, “Did your device account for the fact that we were walking on a moving sidewalk?”

Ella thought for a moment, shook the device a few times, and rechecked the readings. They didn’t change. Ella responded, “I really don’t know. Let’s just record the speed of the conveyor before we leave. The Naval Intelligence Office can figure it out.”

There was a large monitor that displayed a graphical representation of this part of the station. It displayed the name of each establishment in various color codes – blue for restaurants, green for clothing shopping, etc. Jack reviewed the schematic and didn’t immediately see what he was looking for. He said, “Computer, show the location of the Cargo Mercantile.”

The computer didn’t respond to their request. Jack looked around and noted that everyone he saw was Hiriculan. The time he spoke into his com pad and said, “Computer, please translate my previous statement into Hiriculan.”

…Please restate your previous sentence…

Jack held his com pad close to his mouth and said, “Computer, tell the other computer to show the location of the Cargo Mercantile.”

The com pad relayed the message in Hiriculan to the monitor and it displayed the location of the Mercantile. Fortunately, the place wasn’t very far from their current location. In fact, it was literally the next store to the right. Jack looked to the right and saw the store. The name was written in Hiriculan, but the inside layout and function was exactly like those in the Alliance.

Ella said, “Do we have to do that first? I want to start investigating.”

Jack replied, “Remember, our cover is that we are merchants. The first thing that any freighter captain wants to do is post his excess or unpurchased cargo for sale. That is why the cargo mercantile is located right beside the entryway.”

They walked a few steps and entered the mercantile. There were monitors on the left side showing cargoes for sale and monitors for sale on the right showing cargo items that were desired. The corresponding sale price or desired purchase price was listed beside each item.

Jack scanned the board and realized, once again, that it was written in Hiriculan. He understood why the Alliance worked so diligently to establish and maintain a common language. It was frustrating to rely on technology to have a conversation or read a monitor.

Jack took his com pad and scanned the items that beings wanted to purchase. He instructed the computer to translate them to Alliance basic. He could have requested Solarian, but somehow his mind functioned better in Alliance basic when dealing with merchandise.