Dru was delighted to meet Marcel.
“Pleased to meet you,” Marcel greeted him and held out his hand.
Dru looked at it as if it was a red-hot fuel cylinder and Marcel remembered just in time that in this part of the universe the shaking of hands was virtually unknown. He hastily brought his arm down and to his inner amusement Dru held out his and brought it down to his side too.
The greeting niceties dealt with in a satisfactory fashion, the two engineers got down to business. Marcel was conducted on a thorough tour of the engine room.
He was favourably impressed but soon realised that the mechanics were similar to those his ancestors had been using some two to three centuries previously, from the time before the Alcub Drive theories had been adapted for space travel. He found out that the Vlon, the allies of the Diaglon, were on a parallel technological level.
Marcel also realised why. There had been no need for them to advance their space abilities beyond this point, until now. Neither the Vlon nor the Diaglon had clashed with an external enemy once their mutual peace accommodation had been reached.
He hoped that both species would be able to assimilate the new knowledge in time to stop the Community from advancing and taking over this part of the galaxy.
The Community was a greedy organisation. He didn’t think the men and women controlling it would be able to resist the temptation, especially when they found out there were humans involved.
He could see in his mind’s eye the propaganda newsflash.
‘Citizens! Men, women and children held captive by a group of aliens!’
It was a gift to the vast propaganda department.
A common enemy was a perfect distraction from internal troubles. It would be used to pull the populations of the various planets together. The propaganda minister, he couldn’t remember the current one’s name, but it didn’t matter as each one was always given the sobriquet ‘the Goebbels’, would be rubbing his fat hands together with an emotion bordering on glee.
Dru established an inter-space-ship communications link with the other space ships in the space fleet and Marcel began to explain the technicalities of rapid star flight.
“The easiest way to explain it is probably using the example I was taught,” Marcel began. “Old Earth, the planet mankind originated on, is three hundred and sixty five million miles from Jupiter, another planet in that solar system. The old fusion space ships, and I have looked at your engines with Engineer Dru; your ship uses a similar power source although you have adapted it to go much faster, more than I would have believed possible …”
He bowed a quick, appreciative bow of deference, which pleased with the compliment, Dru returned.
“ … would take about four months of travel. I know you use gravitational help from the planets and suns you journey past to boost your speed, Belu was very forthcoming about that information, which increases your speed by a considerable amount and lessens journey time but that won’t be an option when dealing with the Community warships. They don’t need to use the space environment in order to achieve high speeds. They use the Alcub Drive.”
Dru nodded slowly.
“The speed of light in a vacuum is one hundred and eighty six miles per second. The Alcub Drive is faster.”
“Faster than light travel! That is unbelievable,” exclaimed Dru, a sentiment that was echoing in from the inter-space-ship communications device as the engineers reacted on the other space ships.
“It is true nonetheless. The geometry of space is altered by the drive. A star ship can achieve faster-than-light speeds using what we call negative mass. It travels by contracting the vacuum, space, in front of it and expanding the vacuum, space, behind it. The Alcub Drive basically shifts the vacuum around the star ship. It alters normal space creating an attracting force that exists between two uncharged, parallel plates enabled by the quantum vacuum fluctuations in the electromagnetic field.”
He could see Dru struggling with both the implications and the words. Dru was fairly fluent in Standard but many words were new to him. This was no surprise to Dru who was aware that the Standard the people, his people on Tak spoke contained virtually no words of a scientific nature. There has been no need of them and they had been discarded.
“The star ship rides a," Marcel fumbled for words Dru could understand, “a wave inside what we call ‘flat space’ and the wave carries it forwards.”
“Can you build a prototype?” asked Susa Zaventu from the Atacarino.
“With the right parts, yes. Your space ships are, structurally speaking, able to handle the increased tension and stress. Until Alcub Drives are fitted your space ships, although they will be able to defend individual solar systems as long as they are already there, will be limited in their defence capabilities over a wide space front. They simply won’t be able to get to the danger area fast enough. It is between the systems that the Alcub Drives will come into their own as then you will be able to defend against incursions anywhere in your space sector. The problem is getting it done in time.”
* * * * *
Mikey was in the infirmary. The wind that had blown the debris into the tunnel of the underground complex had lifted him up because his body was so much lighter and flung him against a wall. This had resulted in a number of broken bones, some cuts and some bruises.
He had been knocked unconscious and had, to his everlasting regret, remained so throughout the entire process of the Aikko landing to pick them up, his stretcher ride to the ship and being settled into a cabin hastily denuded of its previous occupant’s belongings.
It had belonged to Vandiel and Zandya. Thalia had cried when she boxed their possessions. They would be returned to Vandiel’s sister who worked at Stronghold as a cook.
Rodick and Astrid set his bones and tended to his hurts, ransacking the deserted Holad facility in the process. If Anne and Lastair had been alive they would have been horrified but they paid little heed to the mess they left behind.
Mikey was the worst hurt but as soon as he woke up his bones began to heal with the rapidity of healthy youth.
He lay on his bunk and spent a number of days receiving visitors (including Belu who squeezed his vast bulk into the cabin with much difficulty) and generally ‘held court’. Once he had recovered sufficiently however, Artem appeared and proceeded to tell Mikey a few home truths including the fact that his mother was awaiting his return to Tak and was very angry with him for having stowed away on the Aikko.
The conversation with Artem did not affect his optimism. He was convinced that after the initial scolding his mother would forgive him and things would return to normal. If he was worrying privately about what his mother would say no one guessed.
Artem continued to instruct Paula in the art of fighting with a sword so that she would be able to join in with the first year cadets at Stronghold and not have too much catching up to do. Thalia took on her instruction for some of the other classes. Tavin was included in these classes so that he too would be able to fit back in to his interrupted training.
Paula and Slei spent their free time, what there was of it, getting to know each other better and consolidating their life-bond.
Max helped Marcel planning the Diaglon/Vlon version of the Alcub Drive. He was invaluable to the latter as the rebel struggled with alien terminology, alien writing implements (he ended up borrowing Max’s notebook and pen) and alien technology. He became the translator between Dru and Marcel; being called in repeatedly by Marcel to help explain what each other was trying to say. In the process he became, not an artificer, but a trainee engineer.
“I’ve always wanted to learn more about the Diaglon technology,” he confided in Marcel, “but never had the chance. Tak is largely agrarian and the Brai do not live that close to Township. Now not only am I learning about that but much, much more.”
“The advanced learning establishment?” queried Marcel.
“There’s the university in Township but they don’t teach anythi
ng like this!”
“Perhaps the Brai were intending to build your knowledge up gradually.”
“That could be it, I suppose,” said Max, bending down over his workbench where he was manufacturing tiny little steel pins.
Astrid and her Orumcek took up residence in one of the largest cabins that had been adapted as vadeln-pair living quarters. The three settled in quickly, taking possession of the large divan bed in the corner. They ate a lot and slept a lot, their eggs and babies inside getting bigger by the day. Astrid was proud to say that even little Oga was getting fat and Ogafa and Osipa fatter! A place was being organised for them on Tak not far from Stronghold where their eggs would hatch and the babies born into a free world.
Astrid explained it to them in words they could understand and they chirruped happily as they listened to her.
* * * * *
When they had boarded the Aikko, tired and relieved, Thalia had looked at Artem and he at her. They had made a vuzline for the same cabin and they continued to share it during the entire journey. The bed was rather narrow but they squeezed in somehow. The same could not be said for Larya and Josei. They had looked at the divan, communed telepathically with each other then disappeared into separate empty cabins on either side of Artem and Thalia’s.
: Love needs a certain amount of privacy : they told their respective partners and each other.
Rodick and Christel’s story was identical to theirs except that Anya and Samei squeezed into the same divan but in a different cabin.
The twelve surviving Community soldiers from the hilltop had surrendered as soon as they realised their star ships had been annihilated. They were being kept in an improvised ‘brig’ down in the hidden depths of the Aikko. They were scared and very nervous about their future.
Those on guard were under strict instructions from Artem not to discuss anything with them so they spent the journey in terrified isolation, their terror fuelled by frequent glimpses of the Lind and Jvldr the Larg and the occasional sight of a Brai waddling by.
They found it difficult to decide what scared them the most.
The only other event of note during the journey was the mating of Zeb’s Vya and the Larg Jvldr. Apparently he had admired Vya since the day he had first been introduced to her and after the events on Tenha had decided it would be folly to waste any more time.
Jvldr the Larg could sense that war was coming.
* * * * *
The Aikko landed on Tak in exactly the same spot from where she had left so many months before.
Everyone disembarked and began breathing in the fresh, un-recycled air.
The prisoners were escorted down the ramp by what remained of the Second Vadryz. They handed the despondent men and women over to the First Ryzck who took them to a stockade that had been hastily erected for the purpose. They were not handled gently and experienced a good few hard pushes during their walk to their temporary prison. The news of what had happened to Vandiel, Zandya and the others had spread like wildfire (the telepathic network had been busy) and the vadeln-pairs were in no mood to be gentle. The men and women would be interrogated later.
During their preliminary interrogation sessions aboard the Aikko they had told their questioners much about what they knew about the Community, especially the Community’s military might. Once the final interrogations were over it was hoped, with Paula, Astrid and Marcel filling in the gaps, that they might be able to guess what the Community’s next move would be and be able to take precautions.
Ambassadors from the Vlon, the Jus and the Diaglon were in constant interplanetary communication with each other and with their superiors. Each species began an intense period of military planning, working out how best they could allocate their power and resources to combat the threat the Community posed.
The Jus promised the Vlon and the Diaglon whatever help they could give. As their space programme was in its infant stages, this meant ground troops. The Diaglon and the Vlon accepted the offer. The reptilian Jus, when threatened, were determined and formidable protagonists.
The Vlon, being insectoids, were reported as being very indignant when they learned about how the Orumcek were being treated by the Community.
A growing minority were demanding that their governments should go to their rescue at once.
This minority was beginning to be troublesome and the Vlonak was being hard pressed in his efforts to diffuse the situation.
The Vlonak began to press the Diaglon to send them technical information about the Alcub Drives so that they could build them and so go to the rescue.
The Gtrathlins of the Diaglon responded by inviting Vlon specialists to come to their space sector in person so that the knowledge could be shared equally amongst the threatened races.
Technologists from the Diaglon and Vlon planets were soon to be seen on route to Tak where Marcel was waiting to teach them all about what was being called ‘the great scientific and technological advance’. A huge laboratory was being built where they would be able to make and test the necessary weapons and Alcub Drives to equip the military.
The Vlon military, whose space sector abutted the fringes of Community influence, although there were no Community planets close by, was on high alert. The Vlon space fleet was stationed across the entire boundary of their sector. Most of their space ships were stationed at the point of entry into the Vlon sector the two Community vessels had used when they had been tracking the three rebels. For the first time in living history the Vlon allowed Diaglon verustas to enter their sector to fill the gaps.
For them to permit this, Belu informed Artem, the situation had to be one of dire necessity.
Everyone’s freedom was in danger.
This was the time of dire necessity.
* * * * *
The decimated Fifteenth Ryzck was brought up to strength.
Thalia and Josei were confirmed in their position of Vadryzka of the Second Vadryz. Her testing time was over and she had passed with flying colours. A confused Thalia thanked Susa Malkum profusely. She hadn’t realised she had been under probation!
There were changes in the Second Vadryz but nothing major. Thalia had been terrified that every single one of them would be transferred. Hael and Mariya decided not to retire for at least another year, a decision for which Thalia and Josei were very thankful. His experience would be invaluable as the reconstituted Fifteenth Ryzck settled down. Rodick and Anya were promoted to Vadryzka of the First Vadryz but Christel and Samei remained with Thalia and Josei. As well as Christel and Samei, Thalia and Josei retained the twins, Jack and Jon and their Lind, and also Zeb and Vya. Two newly graduated vadeln-pairs arrived to fill the void left by Ail and Iya and Rodick and Anya.
Thalia’s friend Katie was transferred from the Fifty-first Ryzck to become Vadryzka of the Third Vadryz, which filled both women with joy that they would be serving with each other at last.
Susa Malkum moved an intact Vadryz from the Twentieth Ryzck to the Fifteenth so that the Ryzck would have at least one Vadryz whose vadeln-pairs had been serving together for some time.
A communications vadeln-pair and a Holad duo were added. Speculation was in the air about the final transfer.
Susa Malkum and Larya pondered long and hard about the adequacies and inadequacies of those qualified to command but eventually they came to a decision. It was a controversial choice. Jim and Avdrya, although they had never held formal rank, were appointed Ryzcka of the Fifteenth Ryzck.
Thalia was pleased. She had got to know Jim well over the last months. She liked and trusted him.
When she heard the news she went off immediately to tell Artem who had resumed his duties as assistant to Weaponsmaster Alkin. He greeted her with news of his own. Alkin had retired the day they had returned and he had been appointed to the post.
* * * * *
Tavin and Whufflya re-joined their year group, a group that now numbered over two-dozen and included Paula and Slei.
Paula and Tavin began to ?
??walk out’ together a short time later and were soon were recognised as an ‘item of wonder’ (Mikey’s amused description when he heard about it).
Neither Marcel nor Max stayed overlong at Stronghold. After saying goodbye to their friends (with many promises to meet up again very soon) and eyes full of anticipation about the challenges ahead, they set off for their half-built laboratory.
Mikey’s mother and brother arrived poste haste at Stronghold not long after they landed.
Thalia showed her into Mikey’s infirmary room and as she backed away heard Elizabeth Karovitz’s first words.
“Mikey! Don’t ever do that to me again! I’ve been worried sick, sick I tell you. I’m never going to let you out of my sight again, ever! You are grounded …”
Thalia met up with Mikey’s brother Charles outside the room. He had prudently decided to remain outside until the first outburst was over and the sentences changed from ‘angry rant’ to ‘disciplinary hearing’.
“She’ll change her mind,” Thalia said. “No one with any sense would want your brother constantly at their side every bell of every day for months at a time. We all love him dearly, but he’s not the most restful young person to have around.”
“I see you know him well. He’s always on the go,” agreed Charles with a grin. “Not like me.”
“We all chose our own calling, except us vadelns.”
“Perhaps one day a Lind will choose him.”
“I think that is very likely,” Thalia acknowledged. “He’ll be well enough to go home soon,” she added, thus forestalling Charles’s question. “Holad’s only keeping him in to be on the safe side but they don’t think he’s suffered any real harm from his adventures. Perhaps he’s grown up a bit, that’s all. Our recent journey into jeopardy changed us all.”
* * * * *
Astrid told Thalia that Tak was very similar in climate and vegetation to Orum, the Orumcek’s home planet. Osipa, Oga and Ogafa settled happily into their new home.