Star Traders

The Expedition ship headman Assure was not lying when he claimed his ship was dying. They were still producing food, but not near enough to feed the 50,000 Larn and Dran aboard. They did have reserves, but they were all on at least half rations. The refusal by Epsilon 4 to allow them to replenish their food stores and to begin to repair their ecosystem would have resulted in their starvation in a short time indeed.

The Earth Princess could do little to alleviate the problem faced by the Expedition people. Their own stores were enough to feed their own people, but could not come close to even making one meal for all those aboard the Expedition ship. At the insistence of Jayne, tons of food had been shipped up to the Expedition ship, but that would barely be enough for a week at most.

The situation wasn’t so critical as to be insurmountable, however. Half rations would keep them all in good health until they would arrive at E-6. E-6 had already been apprised of the situation, and follow-up messages had been sent before leaving Epsilon 4 to insure the readiness of E-6 to take care of the refugees. Jayne had done all she could. It was now a matter of time. About three and a half weeks at the last estimate.

Jayne approached her cabin, feeling bushed. The problem with spaceship travel, Jayne thought, was that there was no apparent day or night. Just sleeping periods. It was her turn. Now, if Sheba would only cooperate. The little cat usually slept when Jayne wasn’t in the cabin and when she did arrive there the cat demanded a lot of attention. Before leaving E-6, Jayne had her entire cabin renovated to be “cat friendly.” She had foot wide shelves placed all around the walls in such a way that Sheba would be able to climb from one to the other and sit on them. Cats love to be higher than anyone else and loved to look down on whoever was in the cabin. If Sheba wasn’t curled up under her covers, Jayne knew she would find her high on one of the shelves.

This time Sheba was under her covers; a small lump in the middle of her bed. Jayne peeled back the covers and Sheba looked up at her, bleary eyed. She yawned, jumped to the floor, flipped her tail a time or two and stalked over to her food and water.

Jayne stripped and crawled into bed. She was bushed. It had been a long day. Fortunately, there was a lot of time to rest while they were in Hyperlink. Jayne thought about what she would do to occupy the crew while they had the spare time…but didn’t think much. She was asleep before she finished the first thought.

Jayne woke with Sheba in her favorite spot; right along side of Jayne’s head. The cat just loved to be close. Jayne showered, fed the cat, dressed in a freshly laundered uniform and went to breakfast. The daily routine they had followed on the trip out was shattered by the inclusion of the Expedition ship. She breakfasted with Trina and two of her friends who said they would go clean her room, feed the cat and clean Sheba’s litter box. They were disappointed when Jayne told them she had already fed the cat. Jayne vowed not to do that again and allow it to be a part of the ritual Trina had assumed.

While the 50,000 people in the Expedition ship were on half rations, this did not hold true of those aboard the Earth Princess. Jayne had thought that perhaps they would share the food they had with the others, but then thought better of it. The little bit they had extra wouldn’t make a whit of difference to the 50,000. There wouldn’t be enough to make life any better for the Expedition ship, anyway. She did cut back, however, on the sumptuousness of their fare. Not that what they had would have helped such a mass of people, but she thought even the crew would feel better if they didn’t dine quite as well as they had on the trip out. They had replenished their stores on Epsilon 4, including their water supply and took aboard sufficient stores to feed the Expedition ship on better rations than they had experienced in the past year or so.

Jayne gathered her advisors for a meeting in the Earth Princess control room. They had little to do while in Hyperlink, and the Simscreens gave them a dimension not experienced in the rest of the ship. It gave them the feeling of movement.

“Lars, I’d like you to do an inventory of their armament,” Jayne ordered. “I’d like to know what they have left and perhaps study their defensive missiles. They were able to hold off the forces of Epsilon 4 for some time. Also, I’d like those arms deployed in the outer pods. We have the time to do this, so we might as well be prepared. And it will give us something to do during these longs days.”

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Lars smiled. “I’d like to see what they have also. I think perhaps, should they prove to be better than our own, we should incorporate their launch system into the Earth Princess.”

“Good Idea, Lars! I hope we will never need it, but it’s always heartening to know you have the best available. Jake, do you think you could study their radar system?” Jayne asked, turning to Jake. “It seems to me that to identify and destroy incoming missiles the way they did would require a pretty sophisticated system. Maybe we could learn something. And for goodness sake take the traders with you! They have nothing to do on the way back but inventory the Gravity Wells. Keep them busy!”

“Will do, Captain,” Jake smiled. “I could use the help, actually. These Larn are good for the bull work, but I find you cannot expect them to work without careful supervision. It’s difficult sometimes. I’m used to telling someone what I want done and then letting him or her get it done. With the Larn one has to spell out every phase of that work. If it isn’t within their exact experience, it just won’t get done.”

Jayne took Jake aside after the meeting broke up.

“Anything interesting in the Expedition ship, Jake? I know you’ve been chafing at the bit to explore it.”

“Not yet, Captain. I’ve only been to a couple of the pods, though. Most of the pods were used for the growing of food. It’s awfully ripe in there. They used water for drinking only. Sometimes the smell can almost knock you out!” Jake laughed.

The building of the missile guidance system from the small Gravity Wells they had been able to get from Epsilon 4 and those available on the Expedition ship went along well. The process turned out to be quite simple. All the Expedition people had to do was make a cone shaped attachment that incorporated a small Gravity Well on its front end. The large end of the cone was made of the same plastic-like material that was used in forming the passageways between the pods forming the main ship. Pliable and very strong and able to form itself around any object, it was felt it would adhere to the front of the SAM missiles quite easily. The building of the cones went swiftly, and it was estimated they might have as many as 5,000 by breakout at E-6.

Receiving messages while in Hyperlink was impossible, so the Earth Princess was blind to any future developments for the duration of the trip back to E-6. Everyone, including the crew of the Expedition ship, was very busy during the trip back. Not only was it necessary to inventory the Gravity Wells as to size, they had to contend with the building and storing of the cones made by the Larn on the Expedition ship. Breakout would be very close to where they went into Hyperlink some 3 ½ months previously. They expected a peaceful breakout, for there was no reason to think the invaders of E-1 would have discovered the existence of the multiple universes and be there to meet them.

They did not expect the welcoming committee they found waiting for them upon that breakout, however. Fully 100 or more ships were waiting for them when they finally broke out of Hyperlink some 80 hours from of E-6