Rodney Smith - First Command

Kelly ordered, “Helm, standard departure, set course for Antares Station.”

The helm lifted Vigilant smoothly from its parking apron and moved to the takeoff point. She held it still over the takeoff point for a second and smoothly applied power to the engines. Vigilant lifted into the night sky. The transition from atmosphere to space was hardly noticeable. The Vigilant came to the course that Chief Billings had entered into the navigation computer. The station came into view as the ship approached the terminator between night and day.

The Vigilant was ushered directly into the ordnance loading dock and a 20-missile pod was installed into the dorsal cargo bay. This was not the usual 20-missile wartime pod they had carried before, but a special pod holding 10 of the long-range heavy missiles capable of killing a destroyer or frigate, and 10 newer, smaller missiles capable of stopping a smaller scout-size ship, but not necessarily killing it. The type of missile used was selectable on the gunnery console. Fully loaded, the Vigilant backed out of the dock and moved to the ring for transport.

This ring, that had been so decisive when used for the Second Battle of New Alexandria, was returned to Antares Base, as it was almost directly opposite Gagarin in GR space. It was also only a prototype and the designers, Kelly’s parents, didn’t trust it for more than moderate use. Supply ships and the daily shuttles were its peak customers. A production ring would replace it after Earth and the ten first tier worlds were outfitted with rings.

The helmsman lined the Vigilant up with the gate, stopping 50 km from the entrance for clearance.

Kelly keyed his communicator and said, “Antares Station, this is Vigilant, requesting clearance to Gagarin.”

“Vigilant, this is Antares Station. You’re cleared for Gagarin, time now.”

Kelly said, “Helm, sound collision. Take us through on standard settings.”

The collision alarm rang through the ship. It was standard procedure when one did not have a clear view forward. Kelly felt the cold as the blackness swept over them in the ring, and then they were looking out at Gagarin’s sun and station. Transport completed, the helmsman powered up to 0.3 c and transited out of the Tau Ceti system, on course for Shepard in Barnard’s Star system.

Kelly asked Chief Billings to forward the course to the helm. When the helmsman acknowledged the course, Kelly said, “Helm, standard departure, go to FTL power 4 after we clear minimum safety distance.”

Indigo Corporation CEO Alan Shepler was feeling pretty good about himself. He had cleared the acquisition of Bijou Jewelry with Friedrich Debran as a way to rebuild production lost in the fire. Then he negotiated a rock bottom price from the existing owners, getting it for half what he thought he would. He now had a substantial amount of credits to modernize the plant on Shepard and to pad his own bonus, all without affecting his projected third quarter profits.

He toured the plant with the plant manager, looking at where to invest his improvement credits. He saw simple improvements that could be made in improved lighting at the jewelers’ workstations, and additional tools to have a complete set for each jeweler. He noted the majority of the jewelers were on in years. He could buy some robot jewelers as the older ones attrited out of the labor force. Shipping looked like something out of the twentieth century, with shelves and boxes instead of computerized stock pickers/order fulfillers.

Yes, he could see a lot of improvements, but first he needed a new plant manager. The son of the former owner asked to stay on as the plant manager, but he had one of his shift foremen from Fomalhaut in mind for this job, the one with the trim muscular legs and spectacular abs. What good was it to be the boss if you couldn’t enjoy some perks?

He was entering the main office when his pocket terminal chimed for an incoming message. He looked at the header and stopped dead in his tracks. The executive secretary and office manager looked at him. He regained his composure and told them he had to take a call and he was not to be disturbed.

He quickly entered the executive suite and closed and locked the door behind him. He started up his personal terminal, and when it was ready, opened his personal folder and accessed the public network. He scrolled the list of sites until he found the right one. He entered the site and downloaded two messages on single skillet meal recipes. As the recipes downloaded, he pulled out a data device and plugged it into his terminal. A light came on at the side of the device and he hit Enter. A small holographic image of the solicitous K’Rang merchant, T’Polla, appeared on his desktop. He must be a prosperous merchant, because his robes look like they were embroidered with gold thread.

“Mr. Shepler, it is so good to find you again. I was worried I would never make contact with you. That would have been such a loss, because my sources in the Imperial Hall tell me that the K’Rang Empire is considering offering to exchange ambassadors and establish diplomatic and trade relations with the Republic. The recent defeat at G’Dranu convinced the merchant and political class that the military class was leading them down a path to destruction. We voted as a bloc in the Imperial Assembly and cancelled all future weapons programs. We will be using the credits saved to rebuild our merchant class consumer goods production and shipping capability.”

“Of course, one of our first actions will be to invite Human military authorities in to witness our decommissioning and destruction of all but a small self-defense force of deep space ships. Once this is accomplished, we will petition to be included in the Human ring network so our merchant ships can speed goods in and out of the Empire and the Republic. I understand that the official offer will be made in two of your weeks.”

“I ask if you can acquire any information on these transporter rings. We will need to put in our orders to the yards soon for new merchant ships to handle the expected trade resulting from our new relationship. It wouldn’t be good to leave the yards idle for too long. The workers would revolt. We will need to know dimensions to know how big to make our freighters. What physical principles do they follow, so we can determine if any of our engines or systems would be adversely affected? Do they require any modifications to our ships? In essence, anything you can find out for us.”

“Our agreement with the late Mr. Delphant is still in force. Indigo Corporation has an exclusive license to import flamestones from the Empire. Please pass our condolences to Mr. Delphant’s family. His passing was a terrible loss to Empire-Republic relations.”

“I am not one to ask favors of you without a quid pro quo, as you call it. I have a 10-liter shipment container of flamestones that I can turn over to you at our next meeting. Contact me at the link on the other message when you are ready to trade.”

“Again, it is so good to find you well and we look forward to trading with you. Farewell.”

Shepler knew what T’Polla was asking for and why. He knew that T’Polla was probably a K’Rang agent, but he didn’t care. Neither did Delphant when he was alive. Of course, if they had gone to the K’Rang with the measly data Delphant had procured, there wouldn’t be 30 liters of flamestones on their company asteroid. It had been easy to acquire the info they really wanted.

Shepler knew there was no way the K’Rang Empire was ever going to conquer the Republic. All they could do was snipe around the borders. Eventually the Republic would tire of this and go in and conquer them world-by-world. He could give them everything they asked for and it wouldn’t change the inevitable.