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    Beyond Saturn
    Beyond Saturn
    Beyond Saturn
    Ebook382 pages5 hours

    Beyond Saturn

    By Stephen Brandon

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    About this ebook

    A young ship's Captain named Sissy lived in an interesting time. She almost starts an interstellar war that her people can't win.
    Another ship's Captain named Sissy is involved in a war. After only a year there are many casualties. What frustrates her is the fact that none of them are the enemy.
    She leads a small fleet of spacecraft out to explore. After several ambushes, they destroy some enemy warships, but just about get wiped out themselves.
    As fleet commander, she gets a fleet of warships to stop the invasion. Her fleet is successful in destroying two thirds of the enemy empire, but again she brings back only three damaged warships.
    When her ship is captured by aliens she must make the decision. Will it be life or death for her and her crew?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephen Brandon
    Release dateJan 27, 2017
    ISBN9781370303847
    Beyond Saturn
    Author

    Stephen Brandon

    I've loved westerns and science fiction since I picked up my first book at the public library. I've been writing on my computer for years. I never planned on any of my stories being published, just to be read by myself, family, and friends. The base journal is on forty spreadsheets with links to about a thousand files of short one day paragraphs plus other stories. {My claim to fame, written by someone else. Thanks.} "As an earthbound retiree, Stephen writes mostly science fiction and short stories. He is a voracious reader and has written for a few years, publishing his stories on Smashwords."

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      Book preview

      Beyond Saturn - Stephen Brandon

      The Visitors

      The warship captain was glad he plotted a course that would bring him outside the orbit of the last planet in the DIRT system.

      His weapons master immediately informed him that there were 3 warships close, the nearest at two light minutes.

      He told his communications chief to squawk the ship identity with information that he was accompanied by a friendly alien spacecraft and keep repeating until acknowledged.

      He radioed over to the Kerth commander and reminded him that the defensive shield around the DIRT solar system was as jumpy as a live fish dropped in a hot skillet. He should cut all power and act like a rock on the beach. As he watched the navigation screens, the Kerth ship WASP suddenly went as dead as a broken limb on the ground. A second before it had been radiating energy like a brown dwarf.

      Finally the communications chief replied that he had a reply from all three pickets and they ordered them to stand down until word was received from HQ.

      Captain Freeman of the warship KILLER to HQ: Your pickets have me surrounded. Who's in charge now? If it's Captain See tell him his first born would willingly trade himself for the technology I have with me, and the profits I'll get from 1st contact on the trading contract! And I'll take Captain Fry's eyeteeth as a partial payment.

      Commandant Mooney to all pickets: Escort the KILLER and his guest to a parking orbit. This is a friendly!

      Captain Freeman to Commander Mooney: "As soon as we are in the parking orbit observe my ship. You'll see the TRAPPER commanded by Captain Anderson detach his ship, a trader, and then I'll come over to your HQ.

      The Alliance is made up of 4 different species that have joined together. We have 5 members of 2 species on-board.

      Commander Mooney to Captain Freeman and Captain Anderson: Debriefing will be at my HQ. The Alliance representatives will be entertained in the officers lounge until debriefing is completed. Bring copies of all technology data with a engineer that understands it to translate. Also bring your linguist and language translations. What are the aliens dietary requirements? What do they look like?

      Captain Anderson to Commander Mooney: "I have everything set up aboard my ship. I request that you come over and bring a recording equipment for the 1st diplomatic contact between the ambassadors of the Alliance and Humans. One of the species is as nervous as a bird surrounded by cats. You see his species known as Gobbler and looks like an Earth octopus. They breath water and air. Estimated IQ in the 150 range. The other 4 representatives are from the species called Kerth. They will remind you of a cat standing on its back legs. Estimated IQ in the 110 range. These are the two dominant species in the Alliance and from the history we downloaded off their ship computer they've already run across one other species that the Alliance determined to be hostile to civilization. They were warned once. Then their invasion fleets were exterminated in-route to their targets. Then they exterminated the species in their home star system.

      "There has already been an incident in one of their other star systems between human ships and an unarmed trader shuttle. Our warship destroyed it without warning. Their trader ship went for a warship, but cooler heads prevailed so far.

      "We are one step away from an interstellar war with a civilization that has faster than light drive warships. They admitted to me that they already know the location of 14 of our worlds including the 'Home of Man.' They have been monitoring us for over 800 of their years. I get the impression that they like a peaceful life, but would be one hell of an adversary.

      "The population of DIRT was an experiment to see if we would become a civilized or hostile civilization. Three large groups were picked up off Earth at different times and brought here to be observed.

      The most lightly armed ship was the one that accompanied us here. I'm sure you have scanned it and found it armed to the teeth. It looks like a kitten compared to the warship we left in our target system. Don't let any wimps come over because, they're carnivores just like us.

      * * *

      Leadership

      Commander Mooney arrived with an escort of 4. One was a camera man and 2 were linguist. The 4th must have been a weapons master because all he did was observe everything.

      After Captains Freeman and Anderson were debriefed everyone went to the officers mess. The cook brought out 13 thick steaks. There was a open grill set up in the corner.

      Commander Mooney asked, How long it did taken to rig this up and how much strain does it put on the environmental system?

      Captain Anderson simply stated, It was worth it.

      The cook grilled the steaks to perfection for all the humans. He then tossed 5 on the grill for the Alliance representatives. As soon as they were seared on both sides he served them up. The cats were civilized, they sliced strips off and chewed them down. However the Gobbler simply grabbed the steak with one tentacle and placed it under his body where his beak tore it to pieces.

      Commander Mooney observed all this and then said to the Alliance representatives that they needed to hammer out a comprehensive trade contract and make sure both sides were aware of each others laws to prevent misunderstandings.

      The Kerth looked at him and then asked, Should we not formally sign a nonaggression treaty between our Alliance and your human governments?

      To which the Commander replied, "If we are busy trading and stealing each others toys, who is going to have time to fight? There are no formal government officials here, I am military and there are military from other human planets here. There are also traders from 10 or more human planets here. Your traders will try to trade us out of any goodies we have just like our traders will try to trade your traders out of theirs.

      "We military know what a fight is like and the cost. We are prepared to fight, but we'd rather settle disputes between traders, enforce the Star Federation laws, then sit in the sun and enjoy life. We can wait a few years and let the government types muck up some contracts and treaties, or we can sit down now and write up binding agreements.

      "Captain Anderson can get you a list of all the laws that bind our Star Federation together. Now each individual planet has its own laws and customs, but we don't much go by them unless we plan to land on the surface and mingle with the local population. Also he can give you the Traders Laws along with examples of contracts signed with a dozen planets. Also you might want to look over ships articles from several of our trader ships. This will give you an idea how we operate.

      "If you will furnish Captain Anderson with the same type of information, tomorrow we can agree upon the Star Federation and Alliance Laws that will affect the traders. Your Trading laws and our Trading laws are probably similar.

      "When a trading contract is already in existence on the planet then the trading ship has the option of going by that contract or leaving and going on to the next planet. If the planet has no trading contract then the trader ship will try to get the best deal possible.

      "There is by Star Law public technology that must be given freely at every stop and also profit technology that the trader can bargain with, not to mention physical goods. Let me give you an example that Captain Dent is familiar with.

      "In the star system know as 'Home of Man' they have advanced medical techniques, and equipment. The advanced medical techniques and technology to build the equipment is by Star Law public knowledge and must be freely transmitted at every port of call. However, the physical equipment manufactured in the 'Home of Man' star system can be carried to another star system and traded for something else. There is the profit.

      For example, on DIRT the physical equipment was traded for wood grown on the planet. That wood was carried to another star system where wood is scarce. Therefore it is valuable there and was traded for more physical equipment manufactured there. That equipment was brought back here. Now some of the physical goods brought here were what we call solar panels. When exposed to sunlight they produce electricity. The technology to build these solar panels must be given freely, but the panels themselves can be traded. If the planets trade commission doesn't want to trade for the physical solar panels, they can use the technology data to build the machines to build the machines to build their own panels.

      It's like a quote Captain Fry told a friend of mine, I don't mind waiting a hundred years if I can get it for just about nothing.

      About then one of the Kerth started howling so hard he rolled off his seat and around on the floor. Only the Commander seemed concerned. When he asked one of the others the reply was, He was a master trader until he lost almost everything on a bad trade. He will talk you out of your claws, and then want you to freely give him your fur to wrap them in. Timing is everything and he knows it. We think your Captain Fry must be a master trader.

      * * *

      Translation

      The WOLF and trader CatchAll were the pair that was sent to explore the system the Alliance designated as ALBERT colony system. It had originally been colonized by the Kerth. After the Alliance was formed Gobblers immigrated until they made up about 20% of the systems population. It was a rich planet with shallow seas and high in heavy metals. The asteroid belt was also extremely rich in heavy metals and mined heavily. The main exports from the system were in the atomic weight range of 58 to 112.

      As the human trader CatchAll entered the system it was hit by a small asteroid that had an erratic orbit. The small asteroid punched a hole in the side just in front of the main cargo bay airlock. None of the bulkheads ruptured, but the resulting concussion damaged the environmental systems and severed the main control conduits.

      A shuttle from the Alliance trader WHY was en-route to a belt trade station to rotate personnel. It detected the human trade ship accident and changed trajectory to render aid. No sooner than it finished orbital adjustments than it was attacked and almost cut in half by a high energy weapon from the human star warship WOLF. The WOLF then proceeded to the CatchAll and evacuated all personnel. Their sensors detected spacecraft activity in the asteroid belt and around the 4th planet of the system. Several spacecraft were headed in their direction at in-system speeds. They immediately exited the system to the solar south and headed back to DIRT.

      The captain of the Alliance trader WHY sent a warning to all in-system ships that the alien ships were hostile and he was going to the Alliance Capitol to request warship aid. The Alliance Capitol is a group of space stations aptly named STATION. It was located in deep space half way between the Kerth and Gobbler star systems. Each space station at one time started out as a colony ship before the FTLD was developed. A squad of warships was dispatched to protect the Albert solar system with the instructions to fire only if fired upon. The commander was also instructed to track the alien warship back to its point of origin. The Alliance council called an emergency meeting, and diplomatic ships were sent to gather all the council members and inform all planets and traders representatives to gather at STATION.

      As the diplomatic ship entered the FRITZ system they immediately detected the alien ship observing from behind the outermost planet. They also observed another alien ship inside the asteroid belt with two Alliance ships in close proximity. They changed their trajectory to come inside the innermost Alliance ship and made contact. After transmitting the Council's preliminary instructions they transferred all the information and progress reports from the WHO and trader GETIT. Captain Bath of the warship WHO declared that the aliens were of the same species as the ones on the transplant planet. The diplomatic ship then returned directly to the STATION to report.

      After the full Council evaluated the progress of the contact at FRITZ, it was decided by a small majority to give the humans at FRITZ the FTLD if the captains of the two contact ships agreed that the humans would not be hazard to civilization. It they agreed then all technical assistance was to be made available to the humans to return to the DIRT system will all haste. Only then may an interstellar war be avoided. However all systems would be warned to avoid all contact with the humans until formal government contact was established and a treaty signed. Colony defense forces were to avoid confrontation with any human ships that entered a system and only make their presence known by shadowing them at a distance of two light minutes as long as they were in an Alliance star system.

      Another report came in that the SHARON system was penetrated and when the colony defense force ship started shadowing the human ship it exited the system immediately.

      Then a report came in that the SEALS home system had been visited. This time the human ship took up an orbit inside the systems asteroid belt and spent over a month observing. It appeared to recognize the fact that it was being shadowed but made no effort to make contact. Then it leisurely exited the system on a trajectory that would take it to the transplant system.

      Both Captains agreed that the humans were not hazardous to civilization provided they made contact with their superiors before the other human ship returned to the DIRT solar system and turned in a war report.

      The commandant of the human forces in the DIRT system after determining that the incident in the ALBERT system was an accident dispatched the Alliance hybrid ship with THE CAPTAIN MEDINA commanded by Captain Dent to the 'Home of Man' system. They were instructed to pass on the FTLD technology to all ships there and make a round of at least 15 Star Federation planets before returning to the DIRT system. Also they were instructed to inform all that the Alliance was not indifferent to the survival of the human race. They would make a useful ally and good conduct would open a vast new trading empire.

      Six months later the PHOENIX arrived at the DIRT system. After updating all technological data, it picked up one of the Kerth and departed for the ALBERT system. As the PHOENIX entered the ALBERT system they detected 3 of the Colony defense warships. Their Kerth crew member announced over the local radio communications frequencies that this was a recovery mission. Captain Medina decided to proceed at a leisurely speed to the last known location of the CatchAll. From there he located the CatchAll drifting toward the inner system. He then proceeded to its location and sent tugs to maneuver it to the empty bay on the side of the PHOENIX. Before putting the CatchAll in the bay he put on a 3 day show of having the ship examined. The Kerth monitored all in-system communications and after the CatchAll was loaded he made radio contact with the system defensive force commander. He conveyed the regrets of Captain Dent for the incident. He also conveyed an invitation from Captain Dent for the commander to visit the PHOENIX before it departed. The commander of another Kerth ship accepted the invitation and boarded the next day.

      After a tour of the cube warship and the CatchAll he agreed that the incident could have been worse. The damage to the CatchAll did resemble the damage done by a missile, however the fragmentation of the meteoroid was evident. He complemented Captain Medina on the conduct of his crew and admitted that he was very worried when the PHOENIX first entered the system. After calculating the trajectory and time of departure of the WOLF the PHOENIX departed on an intercept course.

      After 3 tries the PHOENIX finally came within 30 light minutes of the WOLF. Captain Medina sent a hail to the WOLF and matched trajectories. Knowing how nervous the captain and crew of the WOLF would be he relocated his matching trajectory every 25 seconds until contact was made. Then he transmitted all the Public knowledge and technology information to the WOLF. Then with the permission of the WOLFs captain he matched trajectories at 5 light minutes and offered to carry the WOLF to the DIRT system. The WOLFs captain was still a little Leary about the PHOENIX so Captain Medina sent over a shuttle to pick up an observation crew to examine the CatchAll. Captain Fredericks and Captain Jones both accompanied the investigation crew to inspect the CatchAll. After touring the CatchAll they were invited to the PHOENIX cube warship bridge. Captain Medina then explained in person how contact was made in the FRITZ system and then he introduced the Kerth representative he had on-board. Then Captain Jones returned to his ship and the tugs guided it into the PHOENIX bay. After powering down everything except the environmental system and internal gravity Captain Jones returned to the PHOENIX bridge just in time to observer their arrival in the DIRT system. As they entered the DIRT system they were hailed by the Alliance warship JENNY and the cube warship CUBE 9. Both Captain Sissy Ransome and Captain Ricer inquired their intentions and if they had found the CatchAll and WOLF. Captain Medina informed both that all parts of their mission were completed successfully and a full debriefing would be held at the HQ ASAP.

      Commandant Mooney informed everyone that a trade contract was successfully negotiated. His intentions were that the 2 interstellar civilizations become intertwined in trade immediately. That way any probable reason for war would be preempted. Copies had been sent by diplomatic ship to the STATION. Other diplomatic ships had been dispatched to the 18 human planets they knew about to carry the news. Their instructions were to enter the systems, broadcast the Public technology and trade contract and then immediately depart for the next system with no physical contact. The biggest bottleneck at the present time was that the Star Federation didn't have enough FTLD ships to carry traders to the Alliance planets or around the Star Federation. All the traders were clamoring for immediate transportation. Commandant Mooney then announced that the Star Federation needed to establish a central government location for all the planets to send representatives to.

      However in the meantime he intended to form a board of Captains to go to the STATION to iron out any quirks in the Star Federation and Alliance Laws. This he hoped would preempt the planetary governments from mucking everything up. Many of the exploration ships were still out and he dispatched the PHOENIX to locate as many as possible and return them to the DIRT system.

      That evening everyone started making plans to celebrate the contract and new star year. In 20 days it would be 14226 and the momentous events of the last year were enough reason for a celebration.

      * * *

      The Gathering

      Never had so many of the Star Federation traders and warships congregated in one star system at one time. The PHOENIX had retrieved 6 pairs of ships in the 20 days before the celebration. Only one pair wasn't located. Half the ships had constructed a giant docking station and were docked. It started out with 3 of the traders building frames to anchor their main cargo airlocks together. Then they anchored the three ships with beams connecting along their outer perimeter.

      Nine other traders decided to construct airlock tubes to connect one of their personnel airlocks to the personnel airlocks of the three base ships. They used their gravity drive to secure their ships to the 3 base ships. Outer docking points were set up for shuttles from all ships that wished to send personnel to the celebration.

      The Alliance representatives were amazed that the humans would go to such extreme steps to have a get together. They were also puzzled as to why such a celebration was warranted. After all the Kerth were similar to felines, and could not understand such a diversified gathering. After their family unit was the clan. The females were the binding force in their society. The young males cooperated among themselves until they were selected by a female to mate. After that the males were so territorial that fights erupted easily. There were only 2 females in the DIRT system. Captain Ricer on the Alliance warship JENNY. The other, Dame Alice, a member crew that came on the KILLER from the Alliance FRITZ system.

      Commandant Mooney was informed by Dame Alice that after the celebration was over she would accompany him and his group of Captains to STATION.

      * * *

      Visit to the Council

      Five Captains wanted to accompany Commandant Mooney. They were Captain Fredericks of the Star trader CatchAll, Captain Jones of the Star warship WOLF, Captain Anderson of the Star trader TRAPPER, Captain Torrens of the Star trader FLIER, and Captain Albert Medina of the PHOENIX that was carrying them all. The CatchAll and WOLF were reloaded in the bays of the PHOENIX. After Dame Alice was aboard she gave the coordinates to the STATION.

      Luckily she was on the bridge when they approached the STATION. Half a dozen Alliance warships locked weapons on the PHOENIX as soon as it came within a light hour of the STATION. She called them and declared who they were and why they were there. It wasn't until a member of the Alliance council told them to stand down that the weapon locks were dropped. The council member then welcomed Dame Alice and told her to introduce the human captain that was in command of the spacecraft. Dame Alice brought forward Captain Albert Medina and introduced him. Then she introduced Commandant Mooney and Captain Jones.

      The council member asked Captain Jones if she was mated. When Captain Jones answered in the affirmative she asked where her mate was. Captain Jones replied that her mate was still in the DIRT system waiting. She then asked her if the other two captains being male were allowed to command star ships.

      Captain Jones then stated that the human males were not that territorial and were also allowed to be captains of star ships. However they are protective of all human females whether they are mated or not. They would behave themselves. Then she told the council member that Commandant Mooney was in command over all the captains and their ships in the DIRT system. The humans had a loose Star Federation that worked together for the good of all, but each planet fiercely guarded its own independence. This visit was Commandant Mooney's idea to fix a Trade Contract with the Alliance since the Alliance government was the central ruler within the Alliance. Also he could explain anything within the Star Laws and Trade Laws that the Alliance council had questions about.

      The council member then stated that a guide ship would come out and guide them to a docking location. Since the time was late in the day they would be allowed a short tour of their immediate docking location and in the morning they would come before a portion of the council.

      Of course the docking tubes would not match up. Captain Medina sent out a crew to make a mating collar to match the docking tube to the PHOENIX airlock. It took 5 hours to manufacture the mating collar and there were more observers from the Alliance station than there were workers from the PHOENIX. Captain Medina left Captain Sissy Ransome in charge of the PHOENIX, after all the CUBE 9 was the tail warship in the PHOENIX. Dame Alice acted surprised, but made no comment.

      The group entered the STATION. Due to the time used constructing the mating collar the local time was night. After being escorted to their assembly room Dame Alice requested that they all be allowed to return to the PHOENIX until the meeting in the morning.

      As soon as they returned to the ship she called all the captains together and told them the Alliance council rules of etiquette. Because she was a planetary leader the council would address her until she introduced Commandant Mooney as the leader of the humans within the DIRT solar system known to them as transplant. He would then have to explain to them how the human chain of command worked, and the fact that the planet itself was not under his command, just all the spacecraft within the system. Also as a symbol of authority each captain must have a dagger and he must have each of his subordinates surrender their dagger to him once he is acknowledged as being the leader and seated. None of his captains may be seated until he is seated and he may not be seated until the council invites him to be seated. None of his captains may speak until he signals them that they may. If the council addresses one of them directly, they should bow their heads to him and that is the signal to the council that they are not allowed to speak until he allows. After the meeting if he desires he may present his dagger to the leader of the council if he so desired. That isn't mandatory, nor is it a sign of subservience to the council since he is commander of a group of sovereign spacecraft. It would be more of a symbol of understanding and peace.

      The next morning Dame Alice led the group back to the assembly room they were shown the night before. A council representative came in and let them to the main council chambers. Commandant Mooney walked in beside Dame Alice and the other 5 captains followed. Dame Alice came to a halt behind a small wall a few paces inside the door and stopped.

      The council was on a slightly raised section of floor that was angled so those seated in the back could see over those in the front. From the low wall the floor sloped down to a low point in the center of the room. There was only 1 row of seats behind the visitors side of a long table.

      A member of the council called Dame Alice forward. She approached the table and laid her jewel encrusted dagger on the table but remained standing. Another member of the council instructed her to be seated and to state her business before the council. She then gave the brief story of what had happened in the FRITZ system and asked to introduce the commander of all the human ships in the transplant system. After a short discussion she was given permission. She then stood and waived Commandant Mooney forward.

      As he stepped up to the table he pulled from under his jacket a gold plated sheath knife about a foot long and laid it on the table in its sheath. Several members of the council questioned Dame Alice as to why a male was allowed to carry a weapon in her presence. She replied that she trusted him even though he had a mate back in the DIRT system. She then explained that the male humans were somewhat aggressive and territorial whether mated or not, but they were very protective toward all human females and any female of another species that they became acquainted with. In other words he would kill anyone that threatened any female he had made friends with.

      Then the council member said, If that was so, how could they allow females to command a star ship and be off on her own?

      Dame Alice answered that with the statement, Members of different families and clans bonded when they made themselves subordinates to a ships captain. Then they will defend any member of the ship with their lives as they would their own family.

      A council member then instructed Commandant Mooney to have a seat. She then asked if he would like to introduce the others he brought with him.

      Commandant Mooney then told the council that each member of his group was the captain of a star ship. He only brought 5 with him, and the others left behind would follow the orders he gave to start bringing the planet DIRT up to their technological level. He remained seated as he introduced each of them by pointing at them. He then asked permission of the council to allow them to be seated.

      When a different council member said it was allowed, he waived them to be seated to his right.

      Each captain approached and pulled a dagger or knife from belt and boot sheaths and laid them on the table beside the commandant and then took a seat.

      Several council members were very disturbed when Captain Jones not only pulled a knife from her boot, but a small dagger from her sleeve. The dagger had 3 jewels in the handle.

      One of the council members asked Captain Jones directly, Are you a leader of a group of planets."

      Captain Jones just bowed her head in the direction of Commandant Mooney. He stared at the council member for a minute and then pointed at Captain Jones and waived his hand toward the council.

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