The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (15 page)

Kip heard Rubie say “Good luck” just as Rubie’s fighter exploded. Kip saw that Gus had also lost his wingman and reformed with him. The found another target and dove. The target pilot led them through a roll left, then right, then up and back left, and then into a spiral.

Gus shouted, “He is trying to get behind us. Break off.”

Kip rolled left and found that he had been boxed in by two fighters. It had been a trap. Kip’s simulation was over. He noted that the fighter they had been chasing switched direction yet again and toasted Gus with a single missile.

The simulation reset and the final tally was revealed. Kip saw that Alpha squadron had lost all 20 fighters. However, Kip’s shot was the only kill they scored.

Kip opened a channel with Pinball, the commander of the opposite squadron. He said, “You guys are amazing. Nice fighting. I haven’t seen some of those moves before.”

Pinball responded by opening a channel to Kip’s entire squadron. He said, “Gentlemen that was fun. You guys did very well.”

Gus shouted, “If you consider getting slaughtered good, then yeah.”

Pinball laughed on the open channel. He responded, “Hey, how would you guys like an invitation to play on Victory Games private server?”

*
The simulation was unrealistic because there should have only been 140 fighters (battleship = 80, 3 cruisers = 60). It is unclear where the additional 60 fighters were stationed.

Chapter 7

They were still sitting in the restaurant in the space station when they first saw it. Ella made a tiny gasp and held her breath. She tried her hardest not to point to it or yell. Jack was facing the other direction and couldn’t see. Carefully, casually, Jack turned in his chair just enough to get a good look at what had startled Ella.

A Hiriculan freighter captain had just entered the restaurant. He was accompanied by two Netos. The beings were approximately the same height as Solarians. Their skin color was a pleasing hue of purple. Their arms and legs were hairier than any other race. They had two eyes, two ears, a mouth, a nose in roughly the same position, but the lines on their faces had sharper angles; thus giving them pointy chins. Jack tried to remember something he had learned about determining their sex, but he couldn’t recall it.

This was the first (and second) Neto that Jack had ever seen in real life. He inwardly smiled. Very few beings in universe could say that they had been next to a live representative of every single intelligent species in the galaxy. Jack would have been shocked to learn that Ella could make the same statement. To date, Ella had done a remarkable job of hiding the fact that she had met humans from him.

Jack looked back at Ella and said, “These two somehow look different than the ones I remember seeing from the websphere. Are they were male or female?”

Ella responded, “I don’t know. I don’t think you can outwardly tell the sex of a Neto.”

Jack now remembered. He said, “You’re right. Still though, something else looks different.”

Ella thought for a moment. She then casually stared at them for a few more moments. Finally, she said, “I know, these Netos only have two arms. Aren’t they supposed to have four?”

Jack replied, “Yes, that’s it. I wonder where their other two arms are.”

Ella responded, “Maybe they are defective.”

Jack didn’t have a ready answer. Instead, he said, “What shade of purple is that, violet?”

Ella took a closer look at their skin color. She may not have the ability to draw like her father, but she certainly could mix paints together. She replied, “Violet is too bright. Their skin color is either lavender or amethyst. It is difficult to tell exactly which in this light.”

Jack smiled and replied, “Maybe its periwinkle. That’s my favorite color.”

Ella smiled at the joke. She slid her com pad underneath the table and angled it toward the Netos. She secretly took several pictures of them. Ella put away her com pad and looked back at Jack. She said, “I thought the Alliance and Hiricula signed some sort of accord that forbid us from interfering with lesser developed species.”

Jack replied, “I think they created some directive on Advranki Prime. They tried to make it part of the Hiriculan/Alliance treaty, but it got stuck in committee and was never formally adopted. The only thing that passed was a law that made it a crime for members of the Alliance to knowingly pass technology to an inferior race.”

Ella corrected him by saying, “You mean less-developed or younger, not inferior.”

Political correctness aside, Jack was almost certain the law used the term inferior. He wondered if that could Ella’s statement could be used as a loophole.

The waiter put the bill on the table. Ella made no attempt to reach for it or even offer to pay half. Jack got stuck with the entire bill yet again. He made a mental note to speak with Senator Frank when he returned to Advranki Prime.

They left the restaurant and re-entered the mercantile. Jack posted the Solarian cargo on the for-sale board and had the receptionist assign a crew to unload it from the
Jackal
, inspect it, and move it to the warehouse. Ella said, “Okay, that’s accomplished, now let’s investigate the station.”

They exited the mercantile and wandered the rest of the way down the first X corridor. It contained a series of shops, restaurants and offices. They backtracked to the center area and chose a second corridor. This one continued with shops and restaurants, but several meters down there was a cross corridor. They passed several more cross corridors until they reached the end of the main X corridor.

They again backtracked, but Ella said, “Stop” at the first cross corridor. She pointed and continued, “We need to walk down one of these.”

Jack agreed and they walked down a corridor. The corridor was filled with doors evenly spaced on both sides of the corridor every 17 meters. Each door had writing above it. Ella stopped in front of one door and said, “Look, these doors are numbered similar to the docking ports. This one translates to 4L-3.”

Jack said, “I understand the meaning! This is the 4
^th
corridor from the center X. The door is on the left side of the corridor and is the 3
^rd
from this side.” Jack pointed at the two previous doors to cement his point.

Ella nodded and said, “I bet this is the residential portion of the station. Maybe we should rent an apartment so that we could get a look inside.”

Jack cringed at the idea. He was already paying for a docking slip, a warehouse, and apparently every meal they were going to eat on the station. Now he had to pay for an apartment just to see inside?

Jack responded, “I doubt the station’s secrets are here. Besides, the Hiriculans might get suspicious if we look like we are planning on staying longer than we need to just to buy and sell our cargo. I suggest we keep going.”

They continued walking down the residential corridor until they reached the next main X corridor. Ella retrieved her pedometer and studied it closely. Finally she said, “That’s odd, this side corridor wasn’t as long as it should have been.”

Jack frowned and stared at her. He asked, “What does that mean?”

Ella replied, “I don’t know, probably nothing. Either the X corridors are not perfectly perpendicular or they don’t cross at the exact center of the X. This side is smaller than the other side.”

They walked up this main corridor and back to the center X. This corridor was filled with more shops, offices, and some minor manufacturing facilities. They turned right and walked down the final main corridor.

Immediately on their right were electromagnetic lifts similar to those they had used to transition from the upper section of the station. Ella pointed at it and said, “Let’s ride it. We need to ensure that this is indeed the entrance to the lower spindle.”

Jack said, “Hopefully, they aren’t tracking our movements. We really have no reason to enter this area.”

At that point Jack’s arguments were mute because they were already standing on the electro-lift. They floated up to the platform and stepped onto the ledge. There was an exact duplicate of the earlier archway: this time pointing in the opposite direction. Jack looked through the archway and verified that gravity switched ‘down’ on the other side.

They went back down the electro-lifts and investigated the remaining primary corridor. Again, it was filled with shops and restaurants. Near the end of the passageway the shops were dominated by ship repair storefronts; offering everything from a hyper-drive inspection to a full generator retrofit. There were no crossing corridors on this side of the X.

At the end of the passageway was a large door facing left as they were walking toward the interior of the X. There was a large sign overhead that Ella’s com pad translated as ‘ship repair facility’.

They opened the door and entered into a windowed waiting area. They could see that this entire section was dedicated to ship repair. Jack took a quick count and noted there were currently 4 ships receiving some type of repair. There were empty spots for at least 4 more.

There were two large exterior doors that provided an opening for ships to be transferred into the work area. The doors were clearly visible on this side, but Ella didn’t remember seeing them on her initial scan of the station. She asked Jack, “Do you remember seeing these doors when we scanned the station?”

Jack thought for a moment. He honestly didn’t remember seeing doors, but then he really hadn’t looked that hard. Most of his attention had been on the frigate. Jack replied, “No, I don’t seem to recall seeing it, but I really didn’t look. It has to be there though.”

Ella nodded and said, “True, clearly the doors are there.”

Ella walked to the door that led to the work area. She tried the door and found that it was locked. When she turned back around she suddenly felt her mouth tingle and realized she had an incoming translation request. She depressed her tongue to answer.

Ella spotted a secretary sitting at her desk. The secretary said, “I’m sorry, you cannot access the work area unless your ship is being repaired.”

Ella thanked the secretary, broke connection, and said, “Jack, we can only enter shipyard if our ship is being repaired. Let’s have the
Jackal
inspected for leaks or something or have the communication system upgraded.”

Jack shook his head in violent disagreement. This trip was already costing him a fortune. Well, he thought, he was making enough from the Advranki sea moss and the Solarian cargo to pay for the trip. In addition, the Hiriculans were paying him a good price for hauling cargo. Further, the Alliance was giving him money for hauling Ella and investigating the station. He quickly calmed himself down after he realized he wasn’t destitute.

Jack replied, “I don’t think that is a good idea. We may need to exit here quickly. It would be difficult for the Hiriculans to justify detaining a ship in space, but quite another to simply delay repairs in a dry dock.”

Ella replied, “You’re right. That was a bad idea.”

Jack said, “It has been a long day and I’m tired. Let’s go back to ship for the evening. I bet we will think of a new strategy tomorrow.”

They walked back to the center of the X and turned down the corridor to the right. They reached the electro-lift platforms when Jack paused and said, “Wait here a moment. The mercantile is next door. I am going to check to see if the Solarian cargo has sold.”

Jack walked into the mercantile and noticed that Ella was right beside him. Oh well, he thought, in for one monetary unit, in for a significant amount of monetary units. He verified that nearly everything had already sold. There were only three items left.

He cringed and lowered the price significantly. He didn’t want anything remaining in the rented warehouse when they left. It would be cheaper to dump the last three items into space than pay another week’s rent.

Now they entered the electro-lift and rode up to the platform. They passed through the archway scanner and were now facing in a new direction with the shift in gravity. Ella said, “We need a name for that effect, like gravity switching.”

Jack replied, “We technically switch gravity directions every time we leave one ship and enter another.”

Ella responded, “I know. But in those cases you generally have a period of weightlessness crossing from one ship to the other. This effect is sudden and intense.”

Jack really felt indifferent about the whole subject. However, he tried to play nice and responded, “You’re right. It is a little creepy. How about we call it gravity transference or gravity redirection?”

They stepped onto the moving sidewalk and began walking back to their mini-freighter. They were both tired and walked very slowly; letting the conveyor do most of the work. As they were walking, Ella was reading the signs above warehouses. Suddenly she pulled Jack off of the conveyor and onto a side corridor. She said, “This is where your warehouse is located.”

As soon as they started walking down the side corridor the conveyor below them started moving. This moving walkway filled the entire corridor and only moved in one direction.

Jack said, “There must be a motion sensor somewhere.”

They stopped at Jack’s warehouse. Jack entered a key-phrase the mercantile agent had given him and the large door opened. Ella walked in and briefly looked around. The three items were sitting next to the doorway. The room was otherwise empty.

Ella said, “The storage area is a little smaller than I imagined.” She quickly paced from one side of the room to the other. She switched and paced off distance between the other two walls.

“Well?” Jack asked.

“I guess it’s correct. Something seems off though,” Ella replied.

They exited the warehouse and walked to the end of the corridor. Then they turned left and followed this one way corridor until they found a perpendicular corridor. They turned left again and walked back to the main corridor. They took the main corridor back to their ship.