Outlier earth, p.5
Outlier Earth, page 5
"…Over the years -- they could catch up to you pretty quickly - if they concentrated on doing so. Again. Have they had help from off-world?" Alan asked.
"I've never heard of any but my father would know. I'll call him right now," Ama said.
"Find out what you can from him and get some sleep. I'm going to research some and I should be back tomorrow afternoon. Alan walked to the other room looking out over the patio. Sara. I need you to get my ship ready.
I can't believe they have no concept of intelligence services -- or even a minimal idea of intelligence services. I would bet there are massive buildups readying to take on the Amerinds - take over their landmass and then subjugate Europe. We thought the Amerinds were the problem when the Asians and Indians probably are. I'll wager that the British never turned the Indian continent to fighting one another - no 'imperial' influence then. This would throw off the dynamic. No World Wars yet and pressure building over centuries to overcome their 'oppressors'.
We can speculate all night and day -- we need to get some intelligence and then report back to our worldline, Alan thought to Sara and headed to his cruiser, the Socrates.
◆◆◆
The Socrates took off straight up in the ship's typical stealth mode. The Socrates reached orbit quickly and started over the enormous land mass of China. Sara was mapping from an orbit of 400 kilometers while releasing hundreds of small stealth observation satellites. It took just about 90 minutes to release the satellites on each pass. Each miniature stealth satellite had a zero-point energy module and a gravity thruster to change altitudes and direction. All the stealth satellites had a self-destruct in case they got picked up somehow. Sara's sophisticated A.I. began amplifying the different spectrum sensors to record the concentration of people and vehicles around the globe they could surveil.
The Chinese landmass soon showed concentration of military vehicles and Sara started gathering the communications. Sara. Are you picking up the massive communications? Can you get ship-to-ship around the ports? The ground to space? I realize all their communications will be encrypted.
Luckily this world is not as sophisticated in its encryption standards, Sara thought to Alan. I will be compiling databases. It will take several days and many more stealth satellites. We will use those to locate pinhole sensors we can place around the planet. We need to do this over India also. I'll set this up. You transition back to our world and leave your cruiser accumulating data. It is intelligent enough to transition back if detected -- I hope they are not that advanced. We're coming up on Isimov Station position in a few minutes. Please move to the airlock. I will cycle it open and control your exit for your transition to Asimov.
◆◆◆
"Sir. We have an Agent from the Parallel Agency transitioning and arriving at the station. He's demanding transportation down to their regional headquarters," said the freight controller.
"Put them on the next ship going Earthside. They can make their own way across the continent. We just get them to Earth. That transit can come out of their own budget. Everything is an emergency to these smaller agencies." The freight controller had his own worries.
◆◆◆
Alan was cross and tired when he arrived in Newark. He had to arrange his own travel cross country. His travel to St. Louis didn't put him in a better mood though he did get a couple hours of sleep - in transit because it was so slow.
Supervisor Watanabe heard that 'Agent Alan' had finally showed up again. Watanabe was waiting when Alan rolled in. She immediately launched into her tirade about running out without 'getting trained for the mission'. She continued the harangue him all the way to the Director's office where Alan entered, looked at the Director and indicated he wanted alone time.
The Director said, "Darris. Give us a few minutes." Watanabe continued her diatribe. "Darris. I'll inform you. Give us a minute. Now Darris." Darris let out an exasperated sigh of disgust and left in a huff.
Director Patel turned to Alan. "I take it you made some progress."
In the blessed silence, a very tired Alan explained how the Amerinds were not a threat because of their captured Allung technology. A war for control of the Earth, however, appeared imminent and off-world tech could spur the wrong kind of research. Asia and India had probably been getting off-world help for a few years. Extraterrestrial assistance could soon spill over into neighboring worlds - it just took a nudge of technology at the wrong time or type. He downloaded the report that Sara had compiled on the people, culture, finances and weapons of the Amerinds along with the documentary videos Alan had recorded while staying with Ama. He explained the Amerind lack of Intelligence Services and how he had set up the beginnings of satellite surveillance.
Director Patel listened patiently and then asked, "What do you need right now? I'll have teams learning Hindi and the other Indian languages as well as Chinese dialects. They also need Trade and Phafalotoi."
"Yes sir. That's a good start. Don't send any agents in until I get more intelligence. I'll need a stealth freighter loaded with low orbit probes, as well as a few deep space ones. The deep space ones can then monitor for any off-world contacts. Shouldn't need the freighter and a heavy escort for more than a day. I can be aboard the freighter as a passenger to get back to orbit and transition to LR-41. My cruiser can pick me up there."
The accumulation of assets for a mission would seem easy considering millions of parallel worlds. LR-41 was just the newest irritation -- a small, local problem for this worldline unless you lived in LR-41.
◆◆◆
Alan rode with his freighter into orbit along with an armed frigate escort. Both were in stealth mode when they transitioned to LR-41.
Contact Alan. Looks like a Hllumpf trader, Sara thought to him as they notice the alien ship in orbit.
Have they detected us? Alan asked Sara.
No. I don't think this worldline has that capability yet, Sara responded.
Have the frigate decloak and hail them. Board them and search for weapons. Disable them if they attack or flee, Alan thought to Sara and Sara forwarded the instructions to the armed frigate.
Sara reported, The frigate decloaked and have hailed the trade ship in Hllumpf. The Hllumpf are turning to run. A beam pulse reached out from the frigate and struck the Hllumpf ship in their engine nacelles. The Hllumpf ship has been disabled. Alan listened in on the frigate's 'prepare for boarding and inspection announcement' to the trade ship. Alan. Our frigate's captain requests you board along with some of his troops. He will send over the launch to pick you up.
The frigate's launch came alongside the stealthed freighter and picked up Alan. The frigate's launch approached the trader ship and went to the port airlock. Alan turned around to the seven soldiers who would be entering with him. The Hllumpf trade ship was just half the size of their own stealthed freighter.
"Keep your helmets opaque. Key communications if you run into problems. I am Agent Einfeld," Alan explained. "Say, you are Exploration Service if you must talk. Keep your shields up and be ruthless if attacked. They are probably smuggling weapons and technology to the Asians and Indian continent as a prelude to genocide against the Amerinds," Alan finished the briefing just as they sealed to the airlock.
"Good seal, Agent Einfeld. We expect we might be attacked, initially, since we can't all fit in the airlock at once. What do you want to do if that happens?"
"Depressurize their ship. Disintegrate any who attack you down to their feet so any left can see that."
"Depressurize and Disintegrate if attacked. Aye - Aye, sir."
Alan was number six after the first three soldiers had entered. Then, surprisingly, the soldiers weren't attacked on their way to the bridge. It seemed like a good sign. They entered the bridge and there were four Hllumpf there. Hllumpf appeared, kind of, like a rhinoceros with not much of a snout, bulging eyes and ears that swiveled. The Hllumpf at communications fired a molecular disruptor at the shielded, lead soldier in front of Alan. The lead soldier disintegrated the attacker. The Hllumpf captain jumped out of the command chair. "Why did you attack my ship? I am Captain Blesma and you have no right."
Alan was taken aback that the captain didn't say anything about the steaming Hllumpf boots on the deck beside the captain. "You started to run. We just said we would inspect your cargo. Are you familiar with the Exploration Service?" Alan said in Hllumpf intimating that these soldiers were ES -- they weren't, but he implied they were. Alan indicated to the soldiers to go to the cargo bay and inspect the trader's cargo.
"I didn't know the Exploration Service covered this system yet. We didn't know," the captain answered.
"Why did your communications officer attack us?"
"My sister's mate - a sad happening for her."
Alan realized the captain didn't seem broken up by the loss of a crewman. "How long have you been trading with the Chinese and Indian bloc on this planet?" Alan asked.
Alan knew the Exploration Service was active in most parallel worlds. He didn't say he was Exploration Service…exactly. It was usually policy that wholesale weapons shipments were not allowed when there was no worldwide government…in regulated space it wasn't allowed.
"This is our second trip. We have a load of shoulder and hand weapons. No large weapons," the captain said without obfuscation.
"What were you getting in trade?" Alan asked.
"We get small radios and video cameras. They are smaller than anything we can get elsewhere."
"There is a trade embargo on weapons to India and China." Alan said and the captain started snorting - he was so furious. If Alan had not been wearing a helmet - he would have smelled the cinnamon anger scent.
"Wait - Captain Blesma!" Alan interjected. "I am the son of a trader. I will not let a fellow trader lose money if I can help. You may be able to trade your weapons elsewhere for BETTER - smaller electronic devices -- ones you can sell for a fortune. It would mean losing one trade to make hugely better ones," Alan stated his risky proposition.
"What are these devices? I am not aware of another source on this planet," the captain said - now curious.
"Let us go see these weapons you want to trade," Alan said and started following the captain to the trade ship cargo bay.
Enroute to the cargo bay Alan thought to his A.I. Sara. Sara. I need you to contact our freighter and have it start distributing surveillance satellites over Asia and India. Cover the areas that are historical centers of production and military in other parallel worlds. There will be some areas that are new but most should be the same. Is the A.I. of the ship capable of that solo?
Yes Alan. Plotting orbit spread and time. It should take about 20 hours to get 85% coverage. You realize the freighter will lose its escort before we are finished here, Sara thought back to Alan.
We don't have time and we need to take the risk, Alan thought.
Proceeding.
"Here we are," said the Hllumpf captain not noticing that Alan was a bit lost in 'thought'. "We have 10,000 quality molecular disruptor handguns and 5,000 disruptor rifles." The Hllumpf captain pulled open a crate, seemingly at random and pulled out a bulky handgun. He handed it to Alan.
Alan looked over the gun. "Do you have spare powerpacks for these?"
"Certainly." The captain went to a smaller crate and pulled out a power pack the size of a deck of cards. "There are two of these for each weapon." The captain shifted his weight from one large foot to another as Alan examined the power packs. "These are new -- never issued."
Alan laughed. "No wonder they were never issued. These were manufactured for the military -- near here at the system we call Tau Ceti A -- weren't they?"
"They aren't stolen. They are military - new, never issued," the captain said shifting weight from one foot to the other.
"How many did you trade on your first trip? You were trading these models before also -- weren't you?" Alan asked.
"Yes," the captain said and stood stock still trying not to show his nervousness. "Four thousand handguns -- no rifles."
"Good trade Captain. Weapons rejected by the military are pretty easy to obtain - good to trade and inexpensive to buy."
"These all work. They are new, military models. I speak the truth", said the Hllumpf captain.
"I know you speak truth Captain…just not all the truth. These only shoot 5 or 6 times per power pack -- correct," Alan said seeing the Hllumpf captain start to protest. "It isn't a problem Captain…it is a smart trade. These were supposed to shoot twenty-five times per power pack charge so the military rejected all these."
"Who will we trade these to…? You said you have another source of small electronic devices?"
"Yes. We will help you repair your ship." Alan turned to the soldier accompanying him. "Would you see that the frigate's engineers repair this ship?"
IT was just minutes before two engineers came from the armed frigate and moved to start repairing the Hllumpf ship. One of the engineers turned to Alan. "We're good at breaking them sir and engineers are good at fixing them. Won't take long - we're on it," responded the soldier.
Chapter 8
The Hllumpf trade ship, after some expedited repair, followed the frigate until it landed near Ama's home.
Ama was not pleased as the large trade ship landed close enough to her house to crush some of her plants. She came out of her house with her jaws clamped hard and both hands were fists. She saw the ramp descend and Alan came down the ship's ramp. "What is this ship doing here?" she said throwing her hand out to point her finger at Alan.
Alan threw up both hands and motioned her to calm down -- which Alan noted -- never works…"An explanation is in order. Did you get in touch with your father?" he asked throwing her tirade off a bit with the non sequitur.
The Hllumpf captain chose that time to come down the ramp. It was obvious that Ama had never seen any Hllumpf before.
She stared with her mouth open for a moment then snapped it shut. She turned back to Alan. "Yes. Father said he knows people but we don't have much focus in that area." Ama gave Alan a questioning look as the Hllumpf tromped over.
Alan said sotte voce, "Be pleasant and follow my lead. A good trade depends on it." Alan turned to the Hllumpf and spoke in Trade. "Captain Blesma. This is Ama. She designs all the circuits for the robots she creates. I thought you might want to see some of them before we go looking at the small video recorders and communication devices."
"Greetings Captain," she said in badly accented Hllumpf. "That is all I know in your language. I do speak Trade obviously."
"Show me these robots," he said in Phafalotoi. "I heard you speaking to Agent Alan."
She raised her eyebrows at the Hllumpf's audible acuity and called out, "Tecumseh, come here." The robot came floating quickly out of the building. "Tecumseh. This is a test. Shoot that tree -- full power where I am pointing...now." A powerful laser blew a head sized hole through an old, bare oak on the other side of the yard.
"That is most excellent. These could be very useful protecting a ship or a trading camp. What type of power supply does this robot have? How long does it last? Is that anti-gravity maneuvering?"
Ama answered. "This robot can patrol a day before recharging its supercapacitor in a minute. It will run two days on a charge but it recharges on a random basis when it has 35 to 50% charge. Yes - antigravity maneuvering -- adjustable to two gravities."
"Do you have some of these for trade?" asked the captain. "I also want other electronic devices."
"Yes. I have access to those too. First; it is custom to serve you a meal? Would you honor us to share food?" Ama said and motioned for Alan to produce some more food magic since he seemed to know more about the Hllumpf than she did. She'd distract the captain while Alan whipped up some miracle out of sight - she was looking forward to whatever he came up with.
As soon as the captain sat down on her patio he asked, "How many of the sentinel robots can you get me? I have the 10,000 molecular disruptor handguns and 5,000 rifles with power packs to trade."
"Is that all?" Ama said feigning indifference and trying to hide her shock. She had seen what Alan's one disruptor handgun could do. "I can get several sentinel robots but they are very sophisticated and expensive."
"You insult my family. That would not repay the cost to buy those weapons and transport them from another star system to this out-of-the-way planet. Your planet is hardly on any trade routes, "the captain said. "I must make a good profit."
Ama hoped that Alan would come back soon. She was hard pressed to negotiate not knowing what was going on. Thousands of molecular disruptors! That must be what the trade ships have been trading to China and India. Her father had to know. She saw Alan coming back somehow carrying a large pitcher, some frosted mugs looped on his fingers, and a large platter of food.
"Food -- Captain. You will like this drink. I will explain each food and its availability," Alan said in Hllumpf. "Please start," Alan said in Trade for Ama's benefit.
"Hmmf," grunted the captain. "What is this drink?" The captain drained his mug and let out a huge sigh.
"That is grape juice. We have fermented grape juice -- we call wine. Try some of the food on the platter while I go get you some wine. Ama will explain where each are produced," Alan said in Trade and left to get a couple multi-liter bottles of wine from his strip enclosure out-of-sight. He was back with a pause to give the captain a chance to taste several apples, pears, and peaches.
Alan came back out in time to hear Ama warn the captain about the large seed in the middle of the peach.
"You would trade these fruits with the seeds in them?" the captain asked incredulous.
"Certainly. You take a few tons of the mature fruit and we will trade you seeds and seedlings. It is usually two to six Earth years before trees bear a full load of fruit from the seedlings - longer from the seeds. They usually bear fruit for thirty-five to fifty (50) years," Alan explained.
"I could grow my own trees soon. Why would you let me grow my own? You would be eating your young," the Hllumpf Captain said.
