Now Thalia and Artem knew what silk was. On Rybak, small worm-like creatures had produced silk which when spun could be made into a beautiful, shiny cloth, a very expensive cloth. Thalia hadn’t owned any garment made of the superfine material.
“Orumcek silk is a very valuable commodity. Synthetic silks are not nearly as good. The Community saw a way to make vast profits. They opened the planet for colonisation, but colonisation with a difference. The colonists were not families eager to make a new start on a new world but employees of the Community.”
“I’m beginning to see where this is going,” said Artem.
“Orumcek silk is a protein fibre,” explained Tancred. “The spiders make webs with it to catch their prey. They can also use it to travel about by extruding threads, holding on and letting the wind take them. The thread manufactured by the silk is used to make fine cloth, a lucrative trade in itself but that’s only a tiny part of what it can be used for. First of all, Orumcek silk is strong and it can extend. To put it simply, it means that their silk can absorb a tremendous amount of force, or energy before breaking. It is even tougher than kevlar, which is saying a lot. Kevlar is stronger than steel and Orumcek silk, weight for weight is stronger than both.”
“We’ve never heard of kevlar,” said Artem. “Remember, our population has been, shall we say, ‘out of touch’.”
“I can explain,” said Marcel.
“Marcel is an engineer,” Tancred reminded them.
“It was discovered in the later middle of the twentieth century,” Marcel said, his eyes growing bright as he began to talk about a subject that interested him.
“Don’t make it too technical,” warned Tancred.
Marcel grinned and continued. “Kevlar is a combination of paraphenylenediamine and terephthaloyl chloride.”
“Parafenilen …” Artem attempted to repeat the words and failed miserably.
Thalia blinked at the incomprehensibly long words and she was not the only one but said nothing. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to learn what the words meant and suspected she wouldn’t understand the explanation anyway.
: Perhaps it will become more clear when he gets going :
: I wouldn’t bet on it : was Josei’s reply.
It was as if Marcel was spurting forth the words from a textbook, an advanced textbook, verbatim.
He must possess something close to ‘instant memory’, Thalia thought.
Marcel was rabbiting on in an animated voice. He was enjoying himself. He always did when he was asked to talk about scientific and technical subjects.
“The tensile strength of kevlar can be compared to alloy steel for correlation purposes. The silks of spiders on Old Earth tested at between four hundred and fifty to one thousand nine hundred and fifty megapascals. And kevlar came in at around three thousand megapascals. Orumcek silk is three times as strong. ”
Marcel, immersed in his explanation, didn’t notice the blank expressions that were surrounding him. Even his compatriots looked glassy-eyed.
“What’s kelvar used for?” asked Artem, more for interest than anything else.
Marcel blinked.
“Reinforcement for rubber substances, it gives more strength to body armour, and that includes surface military vehicles. The most important use is if course in the building of star ships. It’s because it is so light and subspace and space vehicles can be built lighter and so go faster under atmospheric conditions.”
“Military?’ queried Thalia, having picked up on that word at least.
“The Community controls the military,” answered Marcel. “Sad but true.”
“So Orumcek silk can be used to make their military stronger?”
“Absolutely. Silk thread-density, thus its thread-weight is less than a sixth of steel. A similar weight of Orumcek silk is twenty times as strong. The silk is also able to stretch without breaking. Unlike Old Earth spider silk it doesn’t undergo as much super contraction either. So there you have it! When the Community investigated Orlando they realised immediately that the planet was a goldmine. No ordinary colonists were allowed to go there and the military moved in.”
“It was a bad time for the Orumcek,” said Tancred, taking up the tale. “The Community, well, to put it bluntly, enslaved them. They made them produce silk, more than they were capable of. Over half of them died during the first few years. After that the Community saw sense and established a ‘Regulatory Board’ on the planet to take up management of their resource, for that’s what they called the Orumcek, a resource to be exploited.”
“But the Orumcek must have feelings!” exclaimed Thalia, distraught at the thought of one species making a slave of another.
Tancred nodded. “Our thoughts exactly. We infiltrated Orlando and managed to get a group of Orumcek out, these three you see here. We came here looking for a refuge, far away from the Community. This is the third planet we have investigated. The first two we explored weren’t up to scratch. One was too wet and humid. It affected our little friends terribly. We thought we were going to lose them. The weather on the second was too extreme so we came here.”
“The silk’s got another attribute. Once woven into a tight cloth, it is largely impervious to direct energy weapons,” Marcel interrupted. He had not completed his lecture and wanted to.
“You can still get killed,” agreed Tancred. “Largely impervious doesn’t mean completely impervious but worn underneath flak-armour its pretty effective. Makes the Community’s army pretty nigh invincible.”
“Which is not good for us,” said Paula.
“Us?” enquired Thalia of Tancred.
“The Dragon Wulf. We’re fighting against the Community and all that they represent. Show him your badge Paula.”
Paula began rummaging around in her hip pocket. “It’s here somewhere,” she said. “Yes, here it is.”
She took out a cloth badge and held it up in front of Artem, Jim and Thalia. They leant forward to get a close look.
They saw a woven badge made of silver thread and on it was depicted a stylised dragon’s body and a wolf’s head placed on top of some kind of transparent cloth. The images were remarkably similar to the popular jewel pendants depicting the Brai and the Lind being worn back home.
“We used to have metal ones,” Paula further explained, “but we left them in our packs in the enclosure.”
The Dragon Wulf! Thalia’s mind was reeling. It was as if they were destined to work together. Dragons; the Diaglon. Wolves; the Lind and the Larg. It was as if fate was taking a hand but overall it was still a conundrum.
: But a very attractive confusion :
Thalia gave him a mental, laughing nudge.
“We’re rebels, outlaws” interjected Paula. “We’re fighting against the Community.”
: Sounds good to me : commented Josei : I think they must be the ‘good guys’ of this situation. We should help them :
“So you come from Planet Orum?” asked Artem.
“No. We come from a small planet not far from Texas, you’ll know about Texas, it is about two days spaceflight from Riga.”
Thalia shook her head, absently noting that she was doing a lot of mental shaking and not very much nodding.
“We’re on the same side. We saw immediately that you weren’t Community soldiers,” added Astrid.
“Your swords rather gave it away. No Community soldier would wear a sword,” agreed Paula.
“And when we saw your wolves we were sure,” added Astrid. “The Community is very, shall we say, human? They would never voluntarily make an alliance with another species.”
“But you’re not native to this planet either, are you?” said Tancred with an interrogative lift of his eyebrow. “We certainly saw no signs of intelligent life when we arrived.”
“We’ll answer your questions later,” said Artem. “There are a few more of ours that must be answered first.”
: I think we’ll have to be a bit more forthcoming : he told Larya : Pass it on
. Give and take some information and we’ll get more out of them in the long run :
“Fair enough,” said Tancred. “Ask away.”
“Meal is ready,” Jack interrupted. “Christel is asking if she should bring yours over as well as the ones for the prisoners.”
“We’ll join you,” answered Artem, preparing to get up.
Tancred raised his hand. “What we have to work out,” he said, leaning forward. “Is what we must do, together, if we are to get out of here alive.”
* * * * *
“Why did you choose this part of the galaxy?” asked Artem returning to the five once the dishes had been cleared away.
“It suits the Orumcek and it is far away from the long arms of the Community,” answered Tancred. “Least that’s what we thought. Why are you here?”
“Looking for you,” answered Artem. “Our allies tracked your space ships entering our sector and we were sent to find out the who, the what and the why.”
“Allies?”
“I believe we shall leave questions about our friends until later.”
“Your choice,” said Tancred easily, “but I can’t help but wonder how people armed with swords and primitive revolvers come to be here. You must have travelled here in star ships of your own … or those of your allies perhaps? There were no people or wolves here when we did the initial survey.”
“You deduce right,” said Artem carefully.
“So where are their star ships?”
“Where are yours? Artem countered.
“Remember that flying metal that dropped out of the sky? You saw it?”
Artem nodded. “Saw and felt it.”
“That was what was left of our star ships. They were small, old, but fast. But when the Community battlewagon arrived in orbit we were doomed. We simply didn’t have the firepower to match them. They only lasted a few minutes.”
“We don’t know what has happened to ours,” Artem admitted. “We’ve lost contact temporarily.” He decided there was no need to tell them about Belu. “But they’re slow, much, much slower that the ones, your ones, our allies tracked. It took us many days to get here.”
“But they are armed?” pressed Tancred. “They can defend themselves?”
“Yes, they can defend themselves. So the pair of space ships our allies tracked belonged to the Community?”
“I would have thought that was obvious.”
“Where are they now?” asked Artem.
“I would guess they’re still in orbit.”
“They might have gone off to explore the solar system,” opined Marcel. “They would have believed three ASPC’s would have been enough to wipe out any ground opposition on the surface. It’s what I would do.”
“And me,” agreed Tancred.
“Last question for the time being,” said Artem. “How did they know you were here?”
“I don’t know. Believe me, I’ve been wondering how myself. I don’t know the answer.”
* * * * *
“Do you think they are telling the truth? Do you trust them?” whispered Thalia as they walked away from the group.
“Do you?”
“I want to trust them. Josei thinks they’re genuine and he’s always been a good judge of character but …”
“You’re not sure. I agree with you,” he laughed. “They’re probably thinking the same thing about us. We’ll keep a weather eye and alert ear on them, never fear. Larya will tell all the Lind to be on the watch.”
“The Lind can sense deceit if someone is following an untrue path and knows they are following it but they are not omnipotent,” warned Thalia.
“Absolutely,” he agreed. “That’s why I’m not ready to trust them.”
“If the person believes, truly believes he is in the right and is doing the correct thing our Lind might not be able to tell the difference,” she continued.
“What are you getting at?”
“I don’t have anything tangible to home in on but I think one of them must be not who he or she says he or she is.” Her explanation was convoluted but Artem understood.
“If there was a spy he or she might be dead already, killed when the Community Quorkos destroyed their enclosure.”
“ASPC’s,” she said absently. “Not Quorkos. I wonder what it stands for. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this, and I take your point about the fact than he or she may be already dead but these five people were outside their enclosure when it was destroyed. They said they were taking the Orumcek out for an acclimatisation outing. That’s fair enough but if you were the spy, wouldn’t you, knowing that your base was going to be destroyed, make absolutely sure that you were nowhere close? I think someone has to try to find out.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?”
“By asking questions. Did Tancred order the other four to accompany him? Did he order it to as cover for the fact that he knew this Community of theirs was coming? Or, did any of them volunteer? I might well be completely wrong about all this Artem but it’s niggling at my insides. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop worrying until I have the answer, yes or no.”
“You’re right again, as usual.”
“We should put Mikey on to it,” Thalia decided. “He’s young but he’s very bright.”
“They would not suspect a child,” said Artem, considering Thalia’s solution and thinking it made a lot of sense.
“They would be more likely to let information slip out with him there than one of us,” she agreed. “Thanks for listening and not writing my ideas off as a flight of fancy.”
“I would never write anything you say off Thalia,” he said, looking her straight in the eye.
She blushed.
* * * * *
“What are those weapons you carry?” asked Artem of Marcel some time later.
“PW - Personal Weapon Laser Rifle - PWLR for short - second generation. They’re not much good for long without power, but effective. They are directed energy rifles, a smaller, amended version of the weapons fitted on fighting star ships.”
“I’ve seen something like them in museums,” Jim commented. “As for fighting star ships, the Diaglon call them ‘Defence’ ships. In the Diaglon language the words ‘attack’, ‘defence’ and ‘fighting’ are synonymous with the word protection.”
“So how do these rifles work?” asked Artem in his ‘be prepared to not understand a thing you’re talking about’ voice.
“The technical name for them is ‘LAWS’, short for Laser Weapon System. They use a solid infrared beam. If tuned to high output they will completely destroy a target and if on low output they will cripple it. They travel at the speed of light so targeting is not a problem. They’re not really affected by gravity or wind speed either. You also don’t need ammunition - the only problem they have is that they need a power source for replenishment.”
“So once they have run out of power they are useless. Not a good idea if you are stranded on a planet with enemies all around you.”
“So the ones the space ships were using were the same as these only bigger?”
“Not exactly. I said that these personal rifles were amended but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is the other way round. The laser rifles that were used on a planetary surface came first but were developed into the ones fitted on the star frigates. Because an electric current can’t ride a laser beam in a vacuum they use a particle beam and hit their target with a stream of accelerated particles.”
Jim and Artem blinked and decided that next time they intended to ask technical questions they would bring either Tavin or Max along to translate.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Katie and Thalia had joined Paula and Astrid for some ‘girl-talk’.
“They’re sort of cute? Don’t you think so?” queried Thalia as she and Katie sat round the heating block eating a hot supper with Paula and Astrid. Paula had been carrying a number of these small heat-blocks in her pack in case the Orumcek got cold.
The heat it was giving out was hotter than a normal fire and there was the added advantage that the blocks did not emit any smoke.
The hot meals the heat-blocks facilitated had been welcomed with cheers, especially after the vadelns had been informed that one would last three to four days if they were careful. Half-cooked brbsta was not at all nice to eat but cooked through with some salt and some spicy sauce it had proved to be delicious. Even Mariya, who was a fussy eater had pronounced herself satisfied.
Katie bestowed on her friend the most withering look she could manage.
“I wouldn’t say ‘cute’ is the word for them,” she whispered with a shiver. “They’re all wriggly legs and look at them staring at us. It’s unnerving.”
“Only because they don’t blink. I wonder if Astrid would let me say hello to one of them.”
“If you’re very lucky she might let you stroke one,” said Katie in a sarcastic voice.
“Oh, do you think so?” queried the intrigued Thalia with a smile as she began to edge forward.
The smallest Orumcek, who was sitting on Astrid’s lap, began to chirrup as she drew closer. It didn’t sound as if she was scared. Moving carefully, so as not to frighten the little one, she sat down about a body-length away. Astrid continued with her stroking.
“Edge closer slowly. No sudden movements,” she whispered to Thalia.
If Thalia, Katie and the others had studied creatures indigenous to Old Earth or had for that matter known about them they might have well have called the little creatures spiders. Unfortunately, during the eight centuries since their ancestors had left their planet of species origin, most of the information about Earth zoology had been lost. It had been deemed unimportant.
“Their bodies are made up of two main sections, the first being the head and throat, the second being the abdomen,” Astrid told them. “They, as you see, have ten legs. This differentiates them from insects. They have six. On Old Earth, six legged creatures are insects and those with eight are from the arachnid family, spiders by another name. Although the Orumcek have ten, they are similar to the latter. Like our arachnids the entire body is encased by a tough protective exoskeleton. Their hair is used to sense things, movement, wind, rain and whatever. Do you see their eyes?”