Chapter 4

Jacob answered, "We are really sorry if we have done something wrong. We are new to this sector of the galaxy, so we do not know the proper procedures. Please advise us what to do."

"OK, now I understand. The first thing we have to do is to get you out of that emergency lane you are blocking. Can you navigate in close quarters?"

"Yes, I am sure that we can do what is needed. Just give me the coordinates of where you want us relative to our current position. We will move as soon as you tell us where to go."

"OK, there is an empty slot at 600 klicks north, 400 klicks west, 100 klicks up. Did you follow that?"

"Yes, our universal translator was quite clear, and we have spotted the opening on our radar. We will move now."

The place reserved for the two Earth ships was conveniently close, so they used the transporter to move them directly to their new site.

"WHAT THE SHIT! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" The traffic controller was obviously nonplussed by the instantaneous shift of 'Michael' and 'Susan' to the new location.

"That is one of the items we would consider trading if there is any interest."

The controller sputtered into his microphone for a moment or two, then he said, "Are you oxygen breathers and can you tolerate a gravity of .97 g? If so, my supervisor would like to speak with you privately. How much space do you need to be comfortable?"

"I think that 2 m square by 2.5 m high would be a comfortable minimum."

"OK, we will send a shuttle to pick you up. Please wear a spacesuit until we can be sure that all of the atmosphere parameters are set correctly."

"A shuttle will not be necessary. Just give me the coordinates of where you want me relative to my present position, and I will transport there as soon as I don my spacesuit."

Jacob donned his spacesuit and transported to the specified location. He was there only a moment before a door opened. An individual of amazing beauty walked in and greeted Jacob. The new person closely resembled a dung beetle from Earth, except that his back was decorated in an amazing array of colors. There were blues, greens, reds, yellows, white, and black, all arranged in a most pleasing pattern. Jacob gasped when he saw the person, and momentarily had trouble responding to the greeting.

The person had four legs and two arms terminating in hands with four fingers and an opposable thumb. It was about 1 m long and stood around 40 cm high. He came in and made himself comfortable on a pad near the center of the room. He pointed to a larger pad and asked Jacob to make himself comfortable. Of course, Jacob had brought a translator with him, so there was no problem with conversation.

The beetle opened the conversation with, "Good day. My name is Arlof Springer. Please call me Arlof. I am the supervisor for this shift of traffic controllers. I am trying to get a jump on everybody else by meeting you first. I supposed you know that you caused quite a sensation by shifting the position of your two ships instantly like that. Is that technology for sale? I will have to admit that it is worth quite a lot of money if it is."

As he finished talking, a green light suddenly shifted to orange, and Arlof let out a sigh. "You can take off your spacesuit, now, if you wish. The atmosphere has been adjusted to fit both our needs."

Jacob took off his helmet and noted that the atmosphere was quite comfortable, with a very pleasant odor of wild flowers. "Thank you for your courtesy, Arlof. I am Jacob. Everything we have is for sale to the right customers, so there is no problem there. I don't know what you might want or need, but we have the transporter that you have seen, a replicator, FTL radio and radar, a universal translator, and gravity control. Would any of those be of interest to anybody here?"

Before Arlof could answer, there was heard a noise like a frantic drum roll that continued unabated. Arlof sprang from his pad and shouted, "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! YOU MUST RETURN TO DEFEND YOUR SHIPS! WE WILL DO WHAT WE CAN FROM OUR FIXED BASES!" The latter speech was delivered as Arlof scurried out the door.

Jacob radioed for immediate retrieval and was deposited at his post on 'Michael.' "This port is under attack, and it looks like every man for himself is the order of the day. Use the transporter to bounce us and 'Susan' away to the limit of its capability. We need to see what is going on so that we can prepare a defense. Everybody to battle stations!"

No sooner said than done. 'Michael' and 'Susan' were holding position about 130 million klicks "above" the plane of the ecliptic while the FTL radar was painting a picture of the chaos below. It appeared that three very large spaceships were disgorging fighters that were bearing down on the parked ships in the port. None of the humans could figure out why the attack was being made, because a destroyed spaceship would have little of value left to loot. Nevertheless, whatever the reason, the humans decided to help the defenders as much as they could.

Jacob used the FTL radio. "Abner, it looks like it is up to us to try to save the bacon. Let's use the cruise missiles with the nuclear warheads against the big mother ships. Then we can try to deal with the fighters. We'll use the transporter to get within a million klicks of the left and middle mother ships. You take out the one on the right. After the mother ships are finished, we will act independently to go for the fighters with our guns. How does that sound to you?"

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

This was the perfect use for the transporter, since it saved a lot of time in moving from spot to spot. They jumped in and released their missiles probably without the enemy even knowing that they were there. It all happened too fast for the enemy to react. In all three cases, the cruise missiles struck the enemy ships, which looked like two dinner plates stacked face to face. The strike was about half way between the edge and the center of the ship and ripped a huge gouge in the hull.

Unfortunately, the hit did not put a ship totally out of action, so additional missiles were replicated and launched. The enemy ships were so large that it took between six and nine hits by the nuclear warheads to split an enemy ship into halves. Damn! Those ships were strong!

After that, torpedoes were launched at the smaller sections of the ships until they were reduced to useless hulks. Meanwhile, the fighters had broken off the attack on the port and were concentrating on 'Michael' and 'Susan' with continuing strafing runs with laser weapons. The Gatling Guns on the two human vessels were pouring out bullets under FTL radar and computer control. Almost every fighter that made a pass at one or the other of the human spaceships was hit by the bullets from the Gatling Guns. Often, this was enough to destroy a fighter, but rarely, the fighter was only damaged. Nevertheless, after about 30 minutes of frantic fighting, all of the fighters were eliminated—either they were killed or they ran.

When the fighting ran down, both 'Michael' and 'Susan' were a mess. Both were covered with gashes of molten metal, but the lasers had not been able to penetrate the hull. Had they done so, it would have been the end for the humans inside. But, except for a few bumps and bruises acquired in the excitement of the fight, none of the humans were really hurt. In fact, the bumps and bruises seemed to disappear before their eyes!

Jacob got back on the FTL radio and asked, "Arlof, is it safe for us to come in, now? I don't want anybody shooting at us by mistake."

"Come on in, Hero! You people saved us from a terrible beating. Only a few of the merchant ships were damaged, and every one of them can be repaired. We did lose two of our fixed forts, but that was a small loss compared to what could have happened."

"OK, we are on our way in. Both of our ships suffered some battle damage that needs looking at, but we can wait if there are higher priority jobs ahead of us."

"Fuck anybody ahead of you! By the time you are close, we will have dockyard space cleared for you. I'll give you the coordinates as soon as I have them."

"Thank you. Who was that attacking us. We are too new to this sector to be able to pick people out by the characteristic shape of their spaceship."