Chapter 74

Henry had no cause to sort through the small particles of ship that were sailing out at near the speed of light. He just turned back and got his boarding parties ready. The five newer type of Tandra ships were a real prize and he had all the important facts transferred to the New Hope. The boarding parties went in and found no active opposition. Most were dead but a few had made it to stasis when the computer sent them.

Some Softay and Tandra techs were sedated and removed from the ships while the search for any stragglers went on. The meat lockers were inspected by the boarding team because Henry had no wish to see what they contained. A synopsis at the end would be more than sufficient.

What was turned up was what appeared to be some living and just hatched spider like creatures. Henry ordered, "Put them in a stasis pod and bring them here."

After checking for more information from the captured computers Henry set out a rotation of officers and crews for the five new ships. They would take at least a thousand crew each and these got a chance to see how these ships even if they had to be escorts for the next while. The crew admired and even loved him before but now were even more enthusiastic. Now they would be able to strike their own blows against the Samutz and Thonas. The majority of all the crews were Mordis as were the same as his ship. There was no problem with their minds and he was not going to show any favouritism.

The ships were thoroughly checked and small improvements made then the flotilla took off for the next destination. The new techs onboard worked on what they could to improve the ships systems along with all the improvements that Henry found that could be applied.

Henry looked at the spiders and could only think of them as kittens for some reason. They had long fine hair on a cute if flat face. There were no spinnerets and no venom injectors. They had no way of even protecting themselves for even their teeth were very small. They were warm blooded egg layers that mostly ate vegetation. They just happened to look like the spiders that were on Earth.

"Jamal, did you find out what these little critters eat from their computer?"

"I have evidence of a special diet that is fed by another creature. The creature is much like a nanny and not related. Apparently the creature ingests the food and either regurgitates or produces a modified product that allows the young to grow. These creatures before you are not normally very intelligent but the food that is given in their youth seems to get areas of their brain to grow. This gives them their ability to communicate and increases their intelligence. This food source is what the Samutz seem to be trying to destroy."

"Can you synthesize this food? For some reason they don't seem able or willing to do this themselves."

"That project would take a lot of my resources without a sample. Many molecules will increase their mind's ability to think and communicate. Only some will do the job without damage to the individual."

"Do what you can. Your medical section is underutilised at the moment."

"Yes Captain."

We came across some beautiful planets that were just uninhabited. While others had been damaged by war or even completely destroyed. These usually happened to be the ones that were smaller and thus had a lower gravitational constant.

The spindly legs of the small spiders could only support their bodies if their weight were light enough. Some small moons were found that were suitable for colonization but strangely they were left uncolonised.

Many of the systems had signs of battle and some over a thousand years ago. We combed through the wreckage of the ships and most of it was the spiders' crafts but some was actually Thonas. The deeper we went into the spiders' old territory the less we found of Samutz and their work.

About the twentieth system we arrived at we found another battle just winding down. This too had been won by the Samutz and the Thonas. The Tandra crewed ships I had taken were given their orders and happily attacked the Thonas ship. The Thonas craft was a large heavy cruiser and put up a good fight before being destroyed by the girls. I could feel the elation throughout the crew as they felt the same joy as the fighting ships must have felt.

The spiders' ships were all but destroyed and we went among them trying to gather survivors. Usually we were shot at but the weapons did nothing to us. Mental and other communications failed to get them to stop. Jamal worked the ship close to the derelict ships with their shields for the most part down and just used his tractors to remove the weapons that were shooting at us or to collapse a missile tube.

When all the spiders had been rescued we went after the Samutz that were in their own damaged ships. These usually fought to the death and the Mordis infantry liked to go in and kill just as much. Their better equipment meant that we took very few casualties.

Both races were put into stasis as we looked for more information from both side's computers. We did get a better understanding of the Samutz and their unpronounceable word for the spiders. One ship's computer listed a portion on the far side of the spiders territory marked as Thonas inhabited. A large grey area showed how the spider's area had shrunk till it was barely nine percent of what it had been before the war. The dispute itself had apparently been going on for a several millennia.

If the spiders were suitable as allies an assumption that had not been made yet, they would need better weapons. They had the idea of galvanized projectiles but little else that was new. I would have to work on one of their ships to see what I could do to improve it. This was done to find the minimum work necessary to refit their fleet. Making completely new ships would take much too long.

Some Tandra left to crew the captured ships. They had seen what their people had just done and were eager to do the same even if the ships were not as technologically advanced. Some of the damaged ships were brought aboard and lovingly restored and fitted with weapons.

Three light destroyers from the spiders fleet had their weapons systems blocked and the ships were brought onboard too. There was a lot of damage. Whatever could be salvaged from the wreckage floating in space was used to repair these three. There was more than enough people to do this.

The various systems on the ships were analysed and more information came to us. Again I was struck by the use of sophisticated equipment made and maintained as if the theories behind the mechanisms were not known. It was as if the spiders just mimicked Tandra equipment as best they could till it worked. Some fine tuning was done but all of it was logical with no intuitive jumps.

The shield units in particular looked this way now that there were more samples to examine. Some simple devices could be used that would produce an additional modulation that would keep more projectiles out. It, like all others could be beaten by brute force.

The food supply for the infants was found. An aphid the size of a large dog was the creature that ate some special leaves. These leaves were partially digested by bacteria and enzymes in a stomach. The contents was regurgitated for the spiders. The DNA showed a lot of selective breeding had taken place to get to the present stage.

The leaves in question were themselves odd. Their cell structure was very strong and would not readily break down, this necessitating some intermediate steps. The DNA here looked to be very robust with many backup sections evident. This seemed to indicate a high tolerance to radiation. The medical section even produced a chart of the growing conditions necessary for this plant. It had to be submerge in water for a considerable length of time for the seeds to germinate then had to have strong ultra-violet radiation for a period of at least two weeks to grow. An odd type of chlorophyll converted this radiation to special sugars for the plant's growth. A dry spell had to happen for the thick seed cases to crack and release the seeds.

A group of molecules were taken from the plant. A dead aphid gave some of its stomach contents. One molecule was suppressed by the aphid and the medical section worked on this particular one for an hour. The results showed that the molecule was detrimental to the spider's development. It would produce uncontrolled growth in certain sections of the brain remain in the cells and eventually clog them till the cell would not function correctly.

Many of the dead spiders had this clogging and appeared to be more prevalent with age. One individual brain from a dead spider was placed in a tank. This accumulation removed with no apparent bad effects.

A small section of medical was reduced to about half of Earth's gravity. The fourteen original baby spiders were taken out of stasis and fed our improved variety of food with enough filler to give the necessary bulk. Rather than let a living creature remain in isolation I went in and fed the spiders by hand. They were wobbly and their small hands clutched at the hair on my arms and wrists. A small thin plastic syringe was made that gave them the quantity of food they needed.

I sat on the floor and the spiders tried climbing up my clothes but could not grasp the fabric. If they did manage to climb onto my legs they invariably fell to the floor. Jamal or I cushioned their falls. It was necessary for the young to strengthen their limbs in the available gravity rather than make it less.

Jamal and I worked to find some sense of hunger or other emotion that a spider would have but found none. Jamal was sent to try to operate some of the spider's equipment and soon told me that it was not within his range. One of the receivers was dismantled. The mental harmonics to actuate the device was much higher than we used. I worked on the crystalline structure in my mind and took away some supports from some short crystals. This was starting to work for I could get a feeling now of hunger but very weak.

From one of the labs I brought a small sliver of a crystal and broke it off to the length I thought should work and brought it to my right nostril. A tractor took it to the membrane further back and it worked its way to the other crystals. I straightened out the construction and more or less purified it. In my mind's eye I could see it glow very brightly like the other ones that I had done. Once it was connected to some of my tissue the sense of hunger came in much stronger.

When all of the young were fed the hunger diminished. Their pawing at the deck reminded me of animals working in the soil.

"Jamal reduce the gravity in one of the gardens and transport all of us there."

We were instantly in the garden off the Captain's chambers. It was from the old Tandra designs and had been used for other purposes by the Samutz. The spiders were put in a large tray of plants and the tray itself lowered to the floor. It would not be good for one to fall from a metre up. The babies went around and nibbled on all the plants to see what was palatable. I could sense distaste from some individuals and joy from others. The spiders instinctually looked for something to bury into the worked up soil. It appeared that they were natural farmers. It was no wonder that they relied more on their plants on the ships than on food synthesizers.

I stayed with the spiders trying to communicate as I went about my duties mentally. Part of my mind worked with medical trying to formulate a plant that could produce the molecules I wanted without the need for an aphid. Little snippets of DNA combined into a whole in the computer. Other areas were altered to take advantage of the light gravity of the planets the spiders liked. High humidity and a slightly acidic soil was incorporated into the design. Medical gave me another molecule that would gently remove a buildup that was in all the older spiders minds without any apparent damage. I modified a section to manufacture this in a small amount.

The medical training I got when preparing for the first moon trip helped a lot but the data that was supplied from the efforts of Defren did much more. My own research had advanced this understanding even further.

"Jamal, take one of the smaller spider crew out of stasis and send it here."

"Yes sir."

The spider was placed on the deck and slowly regained consciousness. I could understand the creature and tweaked the crystals in my mind. As I altered the crystals the feelings became stronger. Danger and fright were the strongest emotions. The young ones got behind me in their own fright to find protection.

"I am not going to hurt you."

With a thought to Jamal a dish appeared and I reached forward very slowly and placed it on the deck before the small dog-sized creature. The creature just looked at me with its six eyes and remained very fearful. I just reached behind me and carefully picked up one of the young and used a finger to stroke its long fur. In a few seconds the little one crouched down as if being groomed was a natural occurrence. Apparently the aphids did this to the young and the young themselves enjoyed mutual grooming when possible. They were not much different from apes I thought.

I reached out and placed the spider in my hand by the food dish and after a trial taste it ran back to me. Communication had taken place for the rest ran on spindly legs to the dish and had a sample too. Some I picked up and placed in the pallet of soil and plants to let them regain their old urges. They were still frightened and hid behind leaves and stems.

"Your young are very entertaining. We are not the ones that attacked your kind." I pictured the ships and bodies of the enemy then showed my guest us. He or she became interested in the Mordis especially when I showed them walking on all six legs. I showed more images of the Mordis and their usual duties. Sometimes I would show them interacting with me on a project. This was to indicate how each race was treated by the other.

The destruction of the Thonas ship was displayed and then the placing into stasis of the Samutz was added. The rescue of the spider crews was displayed along with how the fourteen young had be rescued from the Samutz. This did not seem to reassure the individual very much so I just slowly got to my feet and slowly left the room. The high emotions lowered considerably. When the portal closed behind me the spider went all about the room investigating all it could of its new environment. The babies were now not too upset now and came over to visit. Noses were put to each other like dogs or cats and the young started to climb up the other's arms. The older one just crouched on the floor then after some thinking got up and climbed into the plants and crouched again.

In the other room I worked on the crystal structure again. More pieces were brought and processed. These were all placed close to the original and were attached similarly. This made the structure similar to a phased array. It brought my ability to listen the spider's thoughts much clearer. The individual in the other room called its race Kadork. I had to be very careful to keep my investigations unknown in an alien mind structure. Jamal worked through me to find out more information and made a few suggestions.

With the new information I was able to ferret some out. With the information in their computers I now saw their race as very desperate. They had always been attacked by others and had to fight to keep their planets. As I suspected they analysed alien hardware and made it work for them without learning all the fine points. This particular individual was just a male drone but there were female drones too. They did the work of ordinary crewmembers while the officers were slightly different. I got the feeling that a certain food helped bring out officer qualities. Above this was the queen and her sub-queens that controlled the empire.

The particular Kadork in the other room had no verbal name but a series of movements that only another of the same kind could understand. A spoken language was used but was too high in pitch for Human ears to sense. In a way it was like Chinese for there was many different inflections that dramatically altered the meaning of the word. Not only was this done with the mouth and the equivalent of tongue and vocal cords but also of the various parts of the body.

I interrupted the Kadork and said that I was coming back into the room to feed the babies. Fear shot up again as I entered. The babies too hid till they sensed that I had their special food. I sat down in plain sight and the babies came to me very cautiously but then flocked when they knew I had more food. Each was fed one at a time and stroked like its mates would do. When they were put down it was in the pallet again. Some found a nice spot in the dirt and went to sleep. Some found a spot close to the older Kadork.

Jamal translated through his circuits my verbal discourse. "My name is Henry Buchanan." The inflection was wrong I detected and changed the translation a bit. I explained how the Samutz had came to my planet and how I had been killing them as fast as I could. I left out how this was accomplished. The ships I captured were now turning around and fighting their old masters. I went on with a history lesson of the Tandra and what they had done to help. I got back in return a vague recollection of Kadork history vaguely telling of some being helping hand long ago then leaving.

Jamal worked with me because he had not quite finished his own unit to talk directly yet. He got the being's ideas and altered his presentation to fine tune it. When this was all explained I went on with what had happened to the rest of his race's crews. Stasis was understood and pictures of many were seen in a small hold. The number of survivors was pitifully small compared to the amount entering battle.

Lastly the three ships were shown being stripped and improved. This got a reaction that a Human might give for the ships were seen as home. I talked about day-to-day duties and how they had to be carried out. As the drone became use to me its fear lessened till it was fairly easy to understand.

Jamal tried his thought device after it had been fabricated. I helped him tune it to the range our guests thought at. In a moment I introduced the drone to Jamal who continued to talk to him. Jamal finally said that he was an artificial intelligence and the spider did not believe it. Apparently AIs were only for communicating to when necessary and then mostly by officers. When the ship AI mindspoke it was not as rich as Jamal by any means. The size and complexity of the computer was obvious and I knew it had severe limitations. That was one of the ways I could improve one particular ship.

The third destroyer had not been worked on yet. The weapons were thoroughly checked and I entered the computer room. I removed the AI and its memory before starting. On inspection it was actually made up of very small crystals. This I knew would work but would not work efficiently like a larger integral unit would. Using the one eye that could see in multiple dimensions I shut the computer completely off. This probably had been the first time this had happened since the ship was assembled. An auxiliary power connector was made that would only deliver a small amount of power to help me manipulate the circuits.

I started in the navigation section and altered the circuits to the newer way I had found using all of the available dimensions. The crystals were assessed. If they were faulty I repaired them then straitened out their internal structure till they glowed brightly. Since the first time in the Parmain I had a good chance to try out a way to self repair the computer too my specifications. This required that I do at least eleven percent of the computer myself and all the crystals but it was easier than doing it all.

I was summoned by a tech that had come in to get me. I hurried out and found that Jamal had come to a another system that coincidentally had a battle happening. This one looked to be a standoff with derelict ships from both sides littering the large battle area.

The battle line was very ragged with ships firing at one another from time to time. The crews of the last four ships and the other five were released for independent duty. I went on the intership viewers and gave my orders and the girls and a few males were very happy to be fighting again.

There were six Thonas ships to be taken out and thirteen functional Tandra vessels crewed by the Samutz. With our tractors I grasped the auxiliary ships and headed into the system. It took only twenty minutes to get there and slow down enough to release the ships. I took two Thonas ships and dragged them out of the system with my tubes of energy. These got the usual shaking on each side of the ship. One was a small battleship while the other seemed to be another heavy cruiser. There was not too much difference except in armament. This time I was able to cut both ships up and separate the computer section from the rest. Now the individual portions were shook as Jamal's tractors cut the parts out that would destroy what I want kept.

The computer section was moved so fast that the Thonas died but the controls did not self destruct. The portions were all linked together now and we turned around and flew back. The four Thonas ships were now completely destroyed and now all the other ships were being fired on by the Kadork. Prerecorded messages in the Kadork language had gone out but that did not stop them from fighting. I could imagine that they just couldn't believe that someone would come and help them.

Rather than argue I put tubes on each of the ships. I flew all of them out of the system and a few light years away. Once released they would take at least fifteen hours to get back. Some of our ships had taken some damage but nobody was killed. They went into after battle routines and started to recover living personnel from all the ships. The Mordis infantry went into play again and at least two hundred thousand of them went to do battle with the resisting Samutz if there were any. The natives on the planet could see the spider like shapes going from ship to ship and ferrying survivors back.

During this time Jamal talked to the planet below. Nobody replied but I am sure many listened and watched. Images of the battle and the eventual disposal of the two large Thonas ships were shown. Our past battles were shown to allow them to know that this had not just happened one time. The drone was put on and talked to the planet below. From time to time the babies were seen climbing on him as they gained strength.

After warning the drone one more time I entered the room and sat as I fed the babies. The ones on the drone left and came to me. Again I fed each one as I talked to the planet. I mentioned about our problem with Samutz and now Thonas; then more on what we had done about it.

When I was done both the babies and the talk I asked Queen Serm. She was the local ruler of the planet below. I wanted her to contact me on a specific and more private band. We just stayed in orbit repairing ships with no reply. I went back to the destroyer and got the required eleven percent done and most of the crystals before I was called again to come out.

One of the queen's representatives was on the line and asked me what I wanted with her imperial majesty. "I want to remove Samutz and Thonas. If she wants the same thing she can talk to me direct. If she doesn't then I will look for more allies and let her deal with the Samutz and Thonas here."

I waited a few more minutes then headed for the garden again as I had Jamal transfer in a smaller crystal processor from his stores. It was a size that a light destroyer would use at the height of the Tandra expansion. The call came back to me as I was working on the crystal. I disregarded the interruption and continued changing the crystalline structure till the glowing reached the other end.

"I am sorry for ignoring you but these crystals are better handled as one continuous process."

A spider shape said to me "What did you do?"

"A crystal this size can process between 12 to the tenth or the eleventh power instructions. I rearranged the crystalline structure removed the impurities and moved the atoms I wanted to the locations they are needed. This crystal now will handle 12 to the fifteenth power instructions per second. A fairly good increase but I had to alter the computer to take advantage of that property."

"No computer can go that fast," Queen Serm said hotly.

"Not a good way to start a possible alliance, calling a person that removed your enemies from your very doorstep, a liar." I gave a small shake of my shoulder that could be interpreted as derision if I was a Kadork. "I did things that your empire cannot do and then you say I cannot use my mind to purify and realign a simple crystal."

"I may be mistaken. My councillors are sometimes wrong in what they tell me."

Like many people in authority it was beneath them to admit fault especially in themselves. I said to her, "I have come to assist you in removing your enemies. First I will give you much better designs for your ships. I will make a computer for you that will improve the ships you already have. Next I will give you a design for making food suitable for your young so that they can grow to their full potential. It also has the property of removing a disease you have that robs the older people of your race of their ability to think. There are many things more but they are minor."

"What do we have to do to get this assistance?"

"Allow me to come down to your planet with a few of my people and we can talk about it."

"You may come." It sounded quite nice of her to say this. A Human would probably act the same.

When the call ended I asked the drone, "Do you want to go to the planet below? You may stay for a while if you wish but you will be given duties to perform. One will be to take care of my babies here."

"I wish to go."

"Let me get a ship ready and I will take you back then." I left after putting the babies into the pallet again. Jamal was already making one of our smallest ships ready. The Kadork in stasis were placed in the tanks now that we knew how to repair their bodies and remove the accumulation of the molecule from their brain cells.

I flew the small ship down with six Mordis, two normal Tandra and the drone. I was ready at a moment's notice to put up the temporal shield but didn't find the inclination as we descended to the co-ordinates given.

There was a group of two hundred honour guards that seemed very nervous as we walked between the rows. The Mordis went back to their old way of walking on all six to make a point. It was not hard to get them to do it but I felt bad about asking. I had fought a lot to make them free and able to stand up to anybody.

A small ship took us to the palace. To my eyes the ship was dowdy and in need of some bright colours. Plants though grew in profusion everywhere and all were neat. It seamed that the plants were more important then the palace to the Kadork.

The city itself was mainly underground for protection and to allow for more room for their plants. The roads were dirt but most travel was by gravsled. There were many Kadork about and even more tending the crops. They could use a lot of machinery but I knew that they loved to do this as a way of keeping in touch with nature.

The driver was a low level officer and knew nothing about us and was very nervous. I saw how he loved his clan and wanted nothing better than to get back to tending the crops. The present job of fighting or carrying aliens was taken seriously though and would be done the same as he would weed his clan's property. I found the people to be very admirable even if they were not too sophisticated.

A wide set of doors opened and we settled inside. I knew that there were hundreds of warriors outside and told the Tandra with me that they were more afraid of us and none would hurt us. They knew of some of my abilities and relaxed a bit. When the door to our shuttle opened I stepped out first and walked a few metres from our vehicle. My entourage followed with some small gifts.

When we came to the queen we did not have the usual protocol but I just said, "Hello, Queen Serm. It is nice to meet you in person."

"Hello, Henry Buchanan. It is nice to meet you too. I did not think you were so big."

"I had no idea how big you were either." She was as high as my hip and would probably weigh less than fifty kilos if she were on Earth. Dog even weighted more than that.

She introduced some of her councillors and I did the same. I found I was able to read them much better than they could read themselves. There was very little subterfuge here because the race was unused to lying. We were led to a large room and sat on the floor to talk. I set out a few containers after a polite exchange of ideas. The first contained the mixture that should be fed to babies. If the adults ate it too it would not hurt and it would start to clear their minds in time.