Star Traders

Jayne reached for the microphone to speak to the crew. “Breakout in 5…4…3…2…1…” Jayne pressed the control button that took them out of hyperlink. The ship had already automatically adjusted it to be apparently at rest relative to the star Epsilon, so their breakout would not bring with it any of their speed in Hyperlink. The system was spread out before them. The distant bright star looked small, but they remembered that their sun, Sol, also looked small when they dropped into Hyperlink.

“Mr. Armitgage! “ Jayne snapped, “Give us the specifics of this system.”

Jake huddled over his screens. “It looks like a system of 16 planets around a G-type star. That is, and Earth-like star. There are three gas giants somewhat like Jupiter. There are three planets close in to the primary. Epsilon 4 is about one AU from the sun, which is not surprising; life could not exist much closer or farther from any primary. Epsilon 4 is slightly smaller than Earth, so we should be comfortable there. The period is similar to earth, about 370 days. Rotation is slightly faster than Earth. A day is approximately 21 hours. It has three small moons. I suspect we could tune into their communication system, but wouldn’t advise it at this time. We may gain an advantage with surprise.”

“How long before we are within the orbit of Epsilon 4,” Jayne asked.

“With a speed of when we left the Sol system, we should reach that orbit in about 90 hours, just under four days.”

“Good,” Jayne nodded. “We will use the time to further hone our trading skills. Mr. Johnson!” Jayne turned to her first mate.

“Yes Ma’am,” he rose and saluted. His arrogance was obvious.

“You will use the time to ensure the viability of our weapons systems. See that your gunners are trained and the system is at the ready.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Johnson slowly saluted again and left the bridge.

“The chances are we won’t need the weapons, captain,” Jake said. “There has been no indication we will run into any trouble that would require weapons. At least none has ever been experienced on other trading missions.”

“I know, Jake,” Jayne agreed, “But we should be prepared anyway. And besides, it will keep that bastard out of my hair!”

Jake was one of the few aboard who was aware of the action taken toward Trina by the first mate, and didn’t like it one bit. He nodded and smiled his approval.

Just under four days later they were on approach to Epsilon 4.

“Captain!” Jake looked surprised. “There’s a lot of traffic out there! There seems to be a fight going on near one of the moons.”

“Can you get it on screen?”

“We’re still pretty far out, but this radar is good. Where our radar on earth would only give us a blip, this one comes back with a picture. It looks like a dozen or so ships are in a dogfight near that moon.”

“Radio traffic?”

“Heavy. Oh, oh! Captain, they are onto us! They think we may be part of the enemy force. They have been ordered to fire on us!”

A missile was fired from one of the ships in their direction.

“Mr. Johnson! Prepare and anti-missile defense!” Jayne ordered her first mate.

“We cannot, captain. The system will take an hour to get up to speed!” Commander Johnson informed her.

She looked at him scathingly. “I thought I ordered to get ready, number one!” She turned to Jake Armitage. “Can we outrun it, Jake?” Jayne asked.

“Not a chance. And if it’s the same technology as those gravity well bullets, we can’t dodge it either. It’s locked onto us and only us.” he said dejectedly.

Jayne stared at the screen. “How long do we have, Jake?”

“About 45 seconds, Captain.”

“Mr. Johnson! Engage the Hyperlink over-ride!”

“Captain!” the first mate said, “You can’t….”

“I can! Engage that over-ride…Now!”

Commander Johnson hesitated. “It’s never been done….”

Before he could finish the sentence, Lars pushed him aside and engaged the over-ride. “You’ve got it, Captain!”

Jayne pressed the control for Hyperlink…and the universe disappeared. One minute went by…then two…then five.

“Well”, Jake sighed. “It looks like we dodged the bullet! How the hell did you think of that?”

“I remembered some of what you said about the motion of bodies in space, and how they are travelling about 15 miles per second relative to one another. Then I remembered that in order to travel in Hyperlink we had to accelerate. If we don’t accelerate, what will happen?” she asked.

“I suppose we will stay at rest,” Jake said.

“At rest relative to where? E-6? Epsilon? Or…perhaps Larn? Whatever the case, we sure as hell won’t be in danger from those ships when we break out. We can always drop back in.”

“True, Captain, but suppose we break out in the middle of that moon, or the planet, or the sun for that matter?”

“Well,” Jayne said, “At least we stayed alive for awhile. What do you think the chances of our breaking out where something else is?”

“Actually, it’s pretty slim,” Jake admitted. “The longer we stay in Hyperlink, the better the odds are that we will be fine. But then, maybe we are at rest relative to Epsilon. If that’s the case, we’ll break out where we went in.”

“Let’s wait an hour. If we are at rest relative to anywhere else, we should be about 50,000 miles away from where we went in, if my math is right!”

“Captain! I’d like to enter a formal protest against this action!” Commander Johnson stated.

Jayne was angry as she spun around to him. “Protest all you want! Consider yourself under house arrest and feel lucky you aren’t already in the brig! You will be relieved of any duties for the remainder of this mission and confine yourself to your cabin accept for meals!”

“But….!!”

“That’s an order, Commander!” Jane fumed.

Johnson slowly retreated from the bridge.

They were all watching her, their eyes big, not at all sure what to say or do.

“What an asshole!” Jayne commented. Then chuckled a bit. “Good thing you were all here. If looks could kill, I’d already be there!”

They broke out of Hyperlink an hour later, and found themselves quite close to one of the moons. It was the one where the battle had been raging.

“Looks like you were right, Captain!” Jake stated. “But the damn moon was too close for comfort. Promise me you won’t ever do that again!”

“It scared me too, Jake. As long as these people behave, maybe we won’t have to do it for awhile! Can you open a hailing channel to that ship?”

“What ship?” Jake asked.

“The one just rounding the horizon of that moon. It looks like one of the galactic cruisers we saw around E-6. Only somewhat bigger.”

“You’re right! Just a moment.”

“This is the Sol vessel Earth Princess,” Jake said over the radio, “We are on a trading mission to Epsilon four. We are looking for a response from the space vessel orbiting one of her moons. Please respond.”

“Vessel hailing the vessel orbiting the moon. Please repeat.”

“We are on a trading mission to Epsilon 4. We are not a war vessel and are only lightly armed.”

“With a little trick like you pulled a while ago, you don’t have to be. Can you teach it to us?”

“Not without special equipment. What are you doing here?”

“We have been on an expedition to find a home for our people for over 10,000 years. We have asked for help from this system because our farm ships produced bacteria that all but destroyed our Eco system before it could be brought under control. What we need to continue on our quest is a renewed Eco system. We need seeds, animals, insects and everything that would ensure our survival. It will take years for the system to be complete enough for us to continue.”

“What’s the problem with Epsilon 4?” Jayne asked.

“They are afraid we will loose the bacteria on their world and destroy it. They would rather we be destroyed. We’ve been holding them off now for some time. But we are at the end of our supplies. We are on half rations but may be able to last about a half year.”

“We have no desire to attack you,” Jayne commented, “and probably couldn’t if we did have the desire. Let us study the problem for awhile. We also have a problem. We have traveled a long distance for trade. It’s quite evident we cannot complete our mission now. I don’t think they’ll let us land anywhere on that planet now!”

The ships hung in space. The tiny Earth Princess was overshadowed by the enormity of the huge space ship. The ship was fully seven miles long and about three miles thick at the waist. It hung together like a cluster of a thousand jewels, reflecting the light of the sun.

Jayne brought together the entire crew in the mess hall. The only one missing was Commander Johnson, who was assumed to be in his cabin, as ordered.

“People!” Jayne stood at the head of one of the tables. “You all know what the situation is. We need ideas! How can we come out on top of this?”

“I suppose our primary trading mission is over, Ma’am?” asked one of the runners.

“That’s what we are doing here, Anderson! If someone has an idea of how to save the mission, let’s have it!”

The silence was deafening.

Doctor Yukov stood. “One thing we don’t have to worry about is the bacterium. They have obviously brought it under control, or it would have destroyed them long before now. I don’t know how that information will help us, however.”

“I think every little bit of information will help us make a decision here,” Jayne said. “The only way to come to a wise decision is to gather all the information we can get. Mr. Armitage, you talked to the ship for some time. Can you supply us any more information?”

“Well, they’re running out of ammunition. They’ve been fighting Epsilon 4 for six months or more, and, while they have not lost a ship or been even hit, their supply of defensive missiles is running low. Their weapons are slightly better than those of Epsilon 4 and their missiles have been able to knock out all of those fired on them. But they are running out of defensive arms. They have been able to reduce the ships of Epsilon 4 considerably. Their missiles are a lot faster, and every time they have a clash with Epsilon 4 they destroy about half the ships sent to get them. While the action has slowed down, Epsilon 4 is still sending a fleet out once in awhile.”

“We still need to get down to Epsilon 4 to trade with them, or just bring all those goods back. I sure don’t want to do that,” Jayne said thoughtfully. “So, it’s going to come down to our convincing Epsilon 4 to let us trade with them. We have to get on their good side somehow.”

Millie Ranier was one of the trader trainers. She stood hesitantly.

“Yes Millie? You nave a suggestion?” Jayne asked.

“Well, you said we need all the information we can get. Let’s not forget our need for people to do our work back on E-6 and the other worlds of the Sol universes. I think the people on this huge ship would give us a real boost if we could get them there.”

Jayne looked at Jake, who had a questioning look on his face.

“Jake?” Jayne was about to ask a question.

“Just a minute,” he said thoughtfully. “Let me think this through. We need personnel back on E-1. We have them here. I think they mentioned that there are some 50,000 people aboard the starship. That would certainly help; if we could get them back. We can offer them all the space they need.”

One of the runners served as an engineer for backup systems aboard the Earth Princess. He stood at the foot of the table.

“Mr. Armitage,” he offered. “There is no problem getting that ship to the Earth system. When we drop into Hyperlink, we take a ten-mile sphere of space with us. Anything within that sphere goes with us. All we have to do is attach our ship to theirs and they will come right along with us when we leave.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Jayne’s face lit up.

“Mr. Armitage,” she turned to him, “Can you get us aboard that starship for a palaver?”

“Easy, captain. We’ll just take one of our small ships. If they can launch ships to intercept those from Epsilon 4, they have a lock system that will handle our small ones. All we have to do is have some directions. What do you have in mind, Captain?”

“We are traders, Jake. Soooooooooo…. Let’s trade!