Chapter 6

The mission was a go.

When Dusty announced that the Farestar was on the edge of the system, and they had to stop the Pirates, the ship became a flurry of activity. Worried that one of the pirate ships might leave before they could stop them, Dusty split the team. Que, Bella and the other Enforcers would go with her and the other four would man the ship.

Once they located the base and the ships, the Striker would land, let them out and head back to space. It was to slip back into the asteroid belt and monitor the position that Dusty and Pat believed the spotter would go to.

If any of the pirates turned up and they attacked the Farestar, the Striker was to take them out. If they headed back to the planet, the Striker was to follow them and prevent them from leaving it again. They were not to fire on the pirates’ ships unless they or the Farestar was shot at first. They had to do this legally Dusty warned them.

Dusty and her team would check out the base. Their primary objective was to disable the ships they found. They would then determine if any people were being held against their will. If they were, then they would confront the pirates and sue for the release of the captured people. If the pirates shot at them first, they would defend themselves.

No one believed for a minute that the Pirates would hand over the prisoners without a fight. Nor did they believe that they would find a peaceful town of people just wanting to be left alone. The team packed fulling expecting to go into combat.

They loved the fact they could load up their backpacks with a tonne of ammo, food and water. They could put in tents, sleeping bags, bug nets, spare clothes, boots, toiletries and cooking gear. They all had their portable generators and lamps and Dusty reminded them to add their magical boxes so they had the spare crystals for energy.

With the amount of loving that had been going on, on the ship, the crystals were all charged. The lovers had all been directing the infusion of magic they received when they orgasmed into any magical crystal in their vicinity.

Beanie got the satellites out of their crates and loaded them into tubes numbered two and five. He thought six was overkill for the size of the planet but that was what Dusty had asked for so that was what he did. He activated their systems so that Tale, who was at comms on the bridge, could link in their ID’s to the ship’s computer. It would run the mapping programme as soon as the satellites were in synchronise orbit.

He then went and loaded extra ammunition and torpedos into the auto-loading racks for his armaments on the ship. He checked all eight of his guns and his four torpedo launchers. He even loaded the mine launcher. His next job was checking to make sure the harpoons were loaded and the spools that held the grappling lines were functional.

Kola was going over the bikes to make sure they were fully charged and their ID’s were linked into the ships tracking system. He checked that they were mechanically sound and the on board computers worked. He ran the diagnostic tests just to be sure. He even dropped a repair spell on them. He then went and got the ammo they used and loaded the guns. He left a box beside each machine for the team to put into their backpacks.

His next job was to run some quick diagnostics on the ship’s electrical systems to make sure it was all functional in case the ship did have to go into battle. He then went to help Bella run her engineering diagnostics and visual checks. Tale joined them and the three of them made sure they checked every system on the ship.

The teams were a little surprised that Chris elected to organise lunch while they were running around doing their jobs. He joked that sometimes the best the thing a Captain can do is get out of the way. They all appreciated the lunch, as Chris wasn’t a bad cook. Even though he only served soup and sandwiches, they found it sufficient for their needs, and he had tried to cater to their likes.

During the first week, they had been travelling; Kola and Bella had set up a holographic projector in the dining room. One wall now looked as if it was a huge window looking out into space. It was two meters high and three long. It was normally set to the forward view so they could all see where they were going.

As the satellites started mapping the planet, the view zoomed in to show the bulk of the planet in the window. They could see it in more detail and in all of its glory. The planet was very blue, white and green. With forty percent of it being small green continents and lots of islands, ten percent was white icecaps and the rest was deep blue oceans. The swirls of clouds clearly indicated it had active weather systems and an atmosphere.

A list of information started scrolling down each side of the window. It gave them the number of continents and islands and total land and sea area. Faint gradient lines in half klick measurements appeared and a representation of degrees of latitude and longitude at twenty-degree increments ringed the globe. The depths of the seas and heights of the mountains were pinpointed using the degrees.

New data appeared indicating sea salinity, atmospheric content, height and thickness of the atmosphere and the ozone layer. The planet’s inclination, equivalent hours in a day in Earth time for a rotation, estimated days in a solar year, given in Earth days and local days, appeared next along with the mass of the planet, its rotation speed, relative gravity at sea level and the distance from its sun.

Then a temperature map was overlayed as this information was filled in. They could pick out the poles and the deserts on the four continents. The biggest continent was just south of the equator and looked like an upside down and stretched sideways North America.

The smallest continent looked similar in shape to a boomerang with lots of nicks in it. The southwestern arm was missing the lower half. The long arm straddled the equator by a third of its mass in the south and it pointed more south-east. Its small desert was to the north-west on the broadest stretch of land.

The other big continent was spread along the other half of the northern hemisphere in the tropical to temperate zone and the fourth lapped over the South Pole to the west of the biggest continent. Twenty percent of the total land was devoted to islands, big and small. Since the continents had a lot more coastline than Earth’s did and the planet was a few degrees cooler on average, it showed a more temperate climate over most of the land masses.

Everyone was fascinated.

Dusty got up and walked closer to the wall.

She touched a point on the slow turning planet. The planet stopped revolving and zoomed in closer to the spot she pointed at. The heat signature she had spotted became more pronounced. It was on the north-east coast of the boomerang continent not far from the equator. She touched the map again and it zoomed in closer still.

She was surprised to find the map interactive but didn’t dwell on this fact, as new information started scrolling near where her finger had selected. She jumped when a baritone male voice said, “Mistress, are you looking for the human life forms on the planet we are orbiting?”

Dusty lifted her left arm and looked at it. Her vambrace appeared. “So sorry, Mistress. If you wish me to continue to be silent I shall do so,” the voice humbly apologised.

“Who are you?” she asked perplexed. She didn’t feel this was the entity that lived in her magical items. This was a different presence that she had sensed on some level but hadn’t really felt before.

“I am the AI that looks after the data in your vambrace. I can also communicate to a degree with your entity. I don’t have a name but if you wish to give me one, I would be pleased,” he answered.

“Why didn’t Lee mention you when she gave us our new items?” she asked.

“I’m sorry mistress, I don’t know this. I only came online when the satellites were activated. I have linked into the ship’s systems and woken my brothers and sisters that are in the other three vambraces on this ship. We were designed to assist the wearer to collect knowledge.”

“We can also assist with teleportation by ensuring the destination is safe. You can access any information we can collect. We can also talk to you in your mind if you wish silent communication. We can relay any data between you, us, the other mistress and the two masters if they wish to give us permission to do so.”

Dusty looked at the shocked faces of her other Enforcers. “Sounds like a handy skill to have. Zed, you have my permission to communicate with me both verbally and telepathically as the situation may warrant.”

“Thank you, mistresses,” he replied happily.

James looked at his vambrace, “So who do I have?”

“Greetings master,” the soft silky female voice purred at him. “You get to give me a name.”

James lifted his eyebrows. “Okay, how about, Ada?”

“Thank you, master,” she purred. “Do I get the same permissions as Zed?”

“Um, yes I guess so,” James replied disconcertedly.

“Thank you, master. I think we will get along just fine. You are a really nice person. I like you already,” Ada sighed.

Aaron found himself having a similar conversation with his AI. He called her, Kay. Bindy called her AI, Jax. They all gave their AIs permission to allow silent and verbal communications and for them to pass on messages to each other.

Dusty looked at her vambrace again. “So, Zed, where are the humans on the planet located?” she asked.

“They are located here, mistress,” he replied and the map zoomed in even closer to show the compound. “One hundred and twenty-two humans are located in this area, Thirty-nine are males over sixteen, fifteen are boys, twenty-one are girls and fifty-three are females over sixteen.”

“A second group of thirty-two are currently located in this area,” he said and a new area was highlighted on the map. “Twenty are males and the rest are females. The twelve females are pregnant. Twenty-two of the other females are also pregnant. Mistress, I believe this an unusual number of pregnant females for a human community.”

“Yes, Zed it is. We believed the people in the first compound are being kept as slaves. It doesn’t look like they are looking after them very well either. How can you tell that many of the females are pregnant?” she asked.

“We have access to their server. Thankfully, their doctor has been keeping a record of successful inseminations and the people in the compounds. The regiment of drugs is most unusual. Most of the people are all being given a drug called Napper.”

“Napper is addictive and makes the person very docile. It also dulls the pain receptors. It is not a good drug to give pregnant women as it can cause brain damage in the foetus and she wouldn’t know the child is in distress.”

“Even worse, Napper can cause miscarriages,” Que replied. “The longer they are taking the drug, the more damage it does. Many addicts miscarriage at around seven months.”