Star Traders

Jayne didn’t have to ask whether the meal was good or not. The Dran ate everything in sight and looked around for more. She attributed the success of the meal, of course, to the liberal use of spices, something that was missing in the Larn spectrum of food preparation. For whatever the reason, spices never made it to the tables of the Larn and Dran, at least nothing like those spices from E-1. Perhaps it was the lack of initiative on the part of the race. The Earthmen had never found a large degree of imagination in their experience with the Larn and Dran. The Larn, of course, had an excuse. They simply did not have the intelligence. The Dran, being taken from the smartest Larn, should, on the surface, have had more enthusiasm and initiative. Perhaps it was because they were taken from the ranks of the Larn that they inherited the same degree of ambition.

Jake Armitage asked for permission to view parts of the ship. The Dran were glad to take him on a tour. His aim was to determine the extent of the damage to the ship by the alleged bacterium. He found extensive damage as he visited pod after empty pod and observed plenty of Larn who appeared to be on the edge of starvation. It didn’t take him long to determine they had not been lied to; the ship was all but dead. He passed his findings off to Jayne when he returned after only an hour of inspection.

Jayne addressed Jake in English.

“Jake, how much of a volume of space does the Hyperlink drive encompass again?”

“It will take anything within a ten mile sphere around the source with it. What…. Oh shit! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Probably, Jayne nodded. “I have a plan… We need bodies in the Sol system so we’re taking this bunch with us. What we have to do is convince Epsilon 4 we can rid this system of the Expedition ship. We trade the disappearance of this Expedition ship for permission to trade with Epsilon 4. We can make this ship disappear, I think. If I’m not mistaken, we have a back-up Hyperlink system.”

“Actually, we have two of them. But how…. Oh. You plan on dropping the Expedition ship into Hyperlink and claim to have destroyed it for them.”

“Well, you’re part right. I plan on telling them we will get rid of this ship for them and let them observe that disappearance. As soon as they leave, we’ll take the ship out of Hyperlink. The only question is, can you do it? Can you install the machinery to do it?”

“No problem. The unit is self-contained. All we have to do is bring it aboard the Expedition ship and hit the switch.”

Jayne reached out and touched Jake’s shoulder. “I’m asking you to take over the responsibility of seeing this through. I want you to be in charge of dropping this ship into Hyperlink. Safely! Are you sure that, now that we have the time and have the knowledge to have mapped the speed of this system, we will not break out in the middle of the sun or one of the moons?”

“We can do that, Captain!” Jake assured her. “But I think I should stay aboard the Earth Princess with you. I think you need me. I suggest we get Lars to handle this part of the plan. He won’t have any trouble.”

“We’ll talk about that later. Right now, let’s talk to the planet.”

“Headman Assure,” Jayne said after Jake informed her of his findings. “We are going to need your help in getting in contact with Epsilon 4. It is necessary we talk to them as soon as possible.”

“Which faction would you like to talk to?” Assure asked. “There is at least five different power structures on the planet.”

“The most powerful, I suppose,” Jayne said.

“That would be Bellaland,” Assure informed her. “They were the last ones to send a force against us. I suggest you get in touch with them rather than us. We don’t have the best of relationships with them.”

Jayne laughed, “I don’t suppose you do! What is your suggestion for getting their attention?”

“We always hailed them as the Bella group. They always answered to that.”

“Can we have access to a radio?” Jayne asked.

“Certainly. What is your aim by contacting them?” Assure asked with some trepidation.

“I have a plan that might get us on the planet. Once there we can open up trading. It is my hope to trade our goods for more gravity wells. If I work this right, all of us will come out of this ahead of the game. I want to use you as a threat to them and try to convince them that we can intercede and convince you to leave them alone.”

“Leave them alone? We want them to leave US alone! We aren’t a threat to them,” Assure commented and turned to Jake and asked, “Does your captain always have a plan?”

“Almost always,” Jake said with a sigh.

“I know you want them to leave you alone, and you know it. But do you think THEY know that?” Jayne asked pointedly. “It sounds to me as though they think you are a definite threat. If we can convince them we can get rid of that threat, they may agree to trade with us. That’s what we came here for after all!”

Assure was thoughtful for a moment. “All right,” he said. “I’ll have them hailed. Do you want video? Remember that there will be about a 2 second delay. It will take that long for the signal to reach us.”

“OK,” Jayne said. Do it!”

“Sit here,” Assure indicated a comfortable looking chair in front of two screens. “Your picture will be on the right. Whoever comes on will be on the left. Usually, we talk to a man named Artur. He is one of the Dran in the defense system of Bellaland.”

The picture of a small Dran came up on the screen. He was unique in that he had a very large nose and ears. Almost comical. Jayne almost laughed but caught herself just in time. Assure nodded to her that this was indeed Artur.

“What is your reason for bothering me, Headman Assure?” he said haughtily. “We have not changed our minds. You cannot land here on our world. We will fight to the death…” He stopped as Jayne’s image appeared on his screen. “You are not Assure! Who are you?”

“I am Captain Jayne Rice of the Earth Federation ship Earth Princess. We arrived in your system for trade purposes 20 hours ago. We are aboard the Assure Expedition ship at the present time and are negotiating with them. I have looked at their weapons systems and they apparently have better weapons than you have. If they wanted to land, I am sure they could do so. They are reluctant, however. They know a bloody battle would ensue.

“We arrived amid the last battle and observed the fight from some distance. Your ships fired on us and we know just how ineffective your weapons are against both Assure and ourselves. You continue to lose ships every time you attempt to attack the expedition ship. We would like to suggest a solution to all our problems.”

“Your ship is very small, from my information, and we only have your word that you are not part of the Expedition,” Artur accused. “How do we know this is not a trick?”

“Please check you messages. You will find one there where the Sol system asked to open trading relations with you. This was about 100 days ago. We understand your fears. We realize it is unheard of to open trade relations with another system. The distances between systems are much too great. It would take several lifetimes to make the round trip. No trade goods are worth the time. We have solved that problem. We can make a round trip of 50,000 light years in 60 days. This is a new dawn for all mankind. We would like to land to trade with you. In exchange for that permission, we will rid you of the expedition ship.”

Artur laughed. “You expect me to believe that tale? There is no way to exceed the speed of light. And you expect me to believe you can conquer the Expedition ship with your small Federation ship? You take me for a fool?”

“No way to exceed the speed of light? You do it every day with your interspace radio. Our ships have found a way to utilize that technology and can travel as fast as those messages. As far as getting rid of the Expedition ship…we invite you to observe the disappearance of that ship in 10 hours from now. If you refuse this offer, you will be a fool!” Jayne smiled.

“I cannot make that decision on my own. I will take this offer to the Council of Elders.” Artur said.

“In the meantime we will move closer to your planet. That way you won’t have to come so far. We will meet in the middle.” Jayne said.

“If the council agrees, we will be there” Artur disconnected.

They left the moon and headed for the planet. Five hours later they saw several ships rise off the planet head in their direction. They stopped and waited. The huge starship came to rest with the small Earthship a thousand miles in front. The contingent from Epsilon 4 came to rest relative to them some 5000 miles in front of the Earth Princess.

Jayne opened a channel to the ships from Bellaland.

“I take it you have agreed to our suggestion, Artur,” Jayne said when his image appeared on her screen.

“We have agreed that if you can rid us of the Expedition ship, we will allow you to land and trade. You will be restricted, however, to only the primary field at Bellaland.” Artur smiled a crafty smile.

“Jesus!” Jayne said aside. “This jerk thinks we are utter idiots! Look at his expression! If that isn’t a caricature of a bad guy, I’ve never seen one!

“That’s fine with us. But we will not land immediately. We would like your council to come aboard our ship once we have rid your system of the Expedition ship, to see what we have to offer in trade items.”

A look of alarm came to Arturs face. “That will not be possible,” he said. He turned to someone on his left, holding a brief conversation that could not be picked up by the audio. “We will, however, allow a contingent from your ship aboard our ship to view your trade items. Should we feel they are not worth the trade, we sill send you on your way.”

“That will be adequate,” Jayne nodded. “During the visit, your ship will be under our guns. Let me inform you that our weapons are far beyond that of the Expedition ship. This is not an attempt to intimidate you; it is merely a statement of fact. It will insure that we understand one another.”

“That is acceptable to us. Would you like to come aboard now or after you destroy the Expedition ship?” Artur asked slyly.

“Watch!” Jayne said.

The Earth Princess sent a ray of laser light toward the Expedition ship. When it touched the ship, the ship disappeared.

The look on Arturs face was one of disbelief. He stammered when he came back on. “Wh...What was that?” he asked.

“One of our weapons,” Jayne said gravely. “I am happy you decided to observe it in use. It will remove all doubt, I believe. We will leave this ship with trade goods shortly. I assume you have sufficient lock size to handle our shuttle?”

The lock was just large enough to contain the shuttle. Jayne had sent her three traders and four of the cadets along on the mission. She was going to do it herself, but Jake had refused to listen to her argument.

“Captain! You can’t do everything yourself! These people are perfectly capable of opening trading with the Epsilon ship!” Jake had argued. “We cannot risk your life here! You are too valuable for us to do that! You have to get us back home, remember!”

“Come on,” Jayne said, “Anyone can press the right buttons.”

“Maybe,” Jake agreed with a stormy look, “But then again, maybe not. We just can’t take that chance.”

“But…”

“No but’s Captain! We have agreed! You are not to even go down on the planet. Not this visit anyway. Maybe the next one, if there is one. We have agreed that you will stay aboard the Expedition ship for the duration of the trading. In fact, both of us will stay there!”

“You too?”

“Me too. It seems we have been out-voted by the rest of the crew. They want us around to bring them home. I will bend to their will. And I think you should too!”

“Well, you certainly have logic on your side,” Jayne said resignedly, “I want a video link to all trading, however. I want to see how it will be going.”

“I think we can do that. I’ll set it up.”