Chapter 5

Lee shocked them, “You all have potential.”

“I have identified magical boxes that will suit you all. They are what we call three-gem mage boxes. This will make the rest of the crew at least mage class. Some of you may take a little longer to grow into your full skills, but you all have the ability to be at least low-order mages.”

“In other circumstances, I would have started you at the novice level and then promoted you once you had the appropriate training in your two primary skills. Unfortunately, you will have to learn on the job, so to speak.”

“The trip to Terra in this ship, as it is, would be less than four weeks if you head straight there. The current path takes the larger ships eight to nine weeks. This is because of the unusual star system called Tres Estrellas that you have to pass through.”

“It has two red dwarf suns, Uno and Dos and a very tiny dull brown dwarf that they orbit called Tres.”

“The red dwarfs are both two light-years from Tres, and each has its own system of planets. The gravitational effects between the three stars played havoc with the bigger ships’ ability to get past them on a straight course.”

The ships have to pass through the middle of the first sun’s planetary plate, arc out, jump and then come back to pass through the second system so they miss Tres and the gravitational effects between the three suns.”

“Most small ships don’t need to go out as far before they jump out. This is because they can micro-jump through the triple systems due to their smaller signature in space.”

“We have also found that both Uno and Dos have a planetoid that has been terraformed. The planets are in between the wide asteroid belts that flank what we call the habitation zone.”

“The planets are about eighty-five percent of Earth’s diameter and have a twenty-four-degree axial tilt. Their atmospheres and ozone layers are thick enough to sustain life, and the air is human-breathable. They both have weather patterns.”

“They each have a gravity that is about eighty-eight percent of Earth’s, and about fifty percent of their surfaces are exposed land and thick ice at the caps. They both have four main continents of similar size in exposed land area.”

“One is close to the size of Africa, and two are closer in size to South America. The fourth one is a bit smaller than Australia. About twenty percent of the land is islands of all sizes, and roughly ten percent makes up the icecaps.”

“The islands are in clumps or strings of large and small islands scattered over their surface. The land is mountainous, and some of the mountains are volcanic. Each continent has small desert areas, but they are also heavily forested around the coasts and have savannah areas.”

“A day is about twenty-two hours, and they have two hundred and eighty days to a year. This is about point eight of an Earth year to one of theirs. The flora and fauna are primitive, with giant cycads and ferns making up many of the warm, equatorial forests.”

“Interestingly, they do have flowering and fruit trees in the temperate zones with more grasslands and a pleasant climate. The different types of plants hint at the Keltrians terraforming these planets.”

“The planets hadn’t been discovered until now because of the number of asteroids in the belts and the fact that the planets are not naturally occurring, so the scientists didn’t expect them to be there.”

“We believe that the pirates have set up a base on one if not both planets. They use them to launch their attacks on the settlement ships and freighters that skirt the asteroid belts as they pass through the systems.”

“Your first mission is to find the bases. Then, you need to arrest or eliminate the pirates. We realise this may not be as easy as it seems. It may take you many months to a year to even find, let alone catch them.”

“While you are looking for them, I recommend you spend time honing your magical skills, as they will assist you. You can contact Sean or me if you need assistance. The Tres Estrellas system doesn’t belong to Earth.”

“Since the pirates found and claimed one of the planets in their own right about twelve months ago, theoretically, we don’t have jurisdiction on them. However, Earth claimed a rite of passage before the pirates settled on the planets.”

“They are unlawfully stopping, stealing from, enslaving or killing peaceful travellers. For all intent, we have declared war on the pirates. I offered to personally intervene but believe UNSEC and the Earth governments are worried that I will them claim the Tres Estrellas system.”

Major John Carmichael added, “UNSEC has decided that once the pirates are evicted, we will set up a Military Base. It will have a civilian area and ship repair facilities on whichever of the planets is most hospitable.”

“We will use the system as a half-way stopping point for travellers. A lot of ships seem to get into trouble in these systems without the pirates’ help, so this makes sense. The extensive asteroid belts can be difficult to navigate.”

Dusty frowned before saying, “What if we find that genuine settlers landed on the planets first, and the Pirates have just set up their bases, too? As far as the occupation goes, these groups may not even know each other. Even with nearly fifty percent of the planets being land, that is still a lot of land.”

Lee nodded, “That is possible. I only recently learned of the planets. They don’t have transporter rings that I can detect, so I was unaware of them when I told UNSEC about Terra.”

“Since UNSEC and Earth have told me to butt out, I haven’t done any more than drop a couple of observation satellites off on both planets. So far, we’ve not seen any evidence of occupation.”