It was a sort of homecoming for Vontae docking into the launch bay of his old ship, the Battuta. He had been away for about a month, but with all that had happened to him in that month, it seemed he had been away much longer. Amir met Vontae and his party after the hatch had closed and the bay was repressurized.
Amir met them wide eyed at the door and realized he was totally unprepared for an event of this magnitude. His palms suddenly were sweating and he found himself unconsciously rubbing his hands on his pants. His eyes were first drawn to the quills. They made him think of pictures he had seen of rock music stars from a hundred and fifty years ago. Next his attention came to the fact that two of them were bare-chested and ripped. He had a random thought that if his physique were as picturesque as theirs he would probably go sans shirt as well. The third one wore a vest and was obviously the female of the species.
“Amir, this is Carmot, Apamot and Kalpoc,” Vontae gestured toward each of the aliens in turn. He then switched to Ascendancy and said to the Tau Cetians, “This is my good friend, Amir.”
“Wow, you speak their language?” Amir showed his surprise.
“Have you been able to get someone from each duty shift to participate in the conference call. I’ve got seven of them with Captain Koeh planning to join us in a moment,” Amir reported. “What have you been doing this whole time? What was their planet like?”
“Hold on,” Vontae said holding both hands up in a surrendering motion. “I know you’ve got lots of questions and they will all be answered eventually. For now I can tell you that Carmot is a diplomat for his people; it was his ship that picked me up. He took me to his planet where I met their leader. I also had a hand in saving his life so he is very grateful to me. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
Vontae turned to Carmot and spoke Ascendancy Standard to him. “Amir tells me that seven of the eleven other ships will join us via teleconference in the conference room. The leader of Colony Two at the moment is Captain Koeh, she will join the conference later. She is busy with the casualty.”
“Alright, let’s get started,” Carmot said. “Lead the way.”
It was obvious that Carmot and his associates were not accustomed to zero gees by the awkwardness by which they followed the two Humans to the conference room. When they arrived, Amir went to the conference control panel and made sure that each ship’s duty officer that had planned to attend was connected. The video feed was activated so that each participating duty officer could see the delegation gathered in the Battuta conference room.
Carmot began speaking in Ascendancy Standard, pausing every so often for Vontae to translate. “I am Carmot representing the Ascendancy, which is comprised of the Tau Ceti, Sadira and Keid systems in addition to many uninhabited star systems. These are my associates representing the interests of Tau Ceti and Sadira.”
Each of the duty officers from each colony ship took a moment to introduce themselves with Vontae translating. After the introductions were concluded, Carmot started in on his speech. “We are pleased to be able to meet with representatives of your people and propose that our two peoples enter into an agreement of peace. Also, in light of the troubles your people have been having that we have just come aware of, we would like to offer any assistance that we can for the safety and well-being of your people.”
“This is Jason Fedder from the Armstrong,” one of the duty officers said with Vontae translating. “If I may speak for the others, I would like to express our pleasure and such meeting representatives from your people. We just about lost our lives when an Eridelthan ship tried to scatter us. We used up almost all of our fuel reserves preserving our fleet and since then we have had multiple mechanical problems that have left us with half of the fleet either out of fuel, structurally unsound or mechanically unable. I want to say it’s fate that brought us together.”
Carmot rustled his quills a little bit with the expression of fate that he and Vontae had discussed earlier. “We do have capable engineers on our ship that could lend a hand with your repairs, however they are not familiar with your technology. Likewise, we most assuredly do not anything in the way of fuel that we can provide since our propulsion technologies are different.”
“Sounds like you’re not much help at all,” Jason said.
“What I can offer you is the services of our freighter fleet. I will have to clear it with my superiors.” While Vontae translated that statement, Carmot whispered his quills to Kalpoc who gave a response in kind. “Your ships could dock with our freighters and be transported safely at faster than light speed to your destination. You would get there much faster and without the worry your mechanical failures and unscheduled maneuvers have left you with.”
There was silence on the line as each duty officer contemplated Vontae’s translation of the diplomat’s offer. Jason, who had taken upon himself speaker role, responded. “We are grateful for the offer and quite frankly it was not a possibility I had ever considered. The only problem I see is that if we arrive earlier to Alpha Centauri than planned, the infrastructure would not be in place to accommodate us. I guess perhaps we can keep our people in stasis until the infrastructure is ready, but there we are.”
Amir decided to insert his two cents since he was technically the duty officer representing Battuta in this conference. “I’m supposing if you have the ability to travel faster than light, you also have the ability to communicate faster than light. Is that so?”
“Yes,” Carmot responded through Vontae’s interpretation. “We can communicate with our own world at near instantaneous speeds. However, I am sure that your planet does not have the necessary technology to communicate with us.”
Vontae translated the statement and then added his own input on the end before translating his statement to Carmot, “We are planning to make a first contact visit to Earth personally. We can have our governments there make the decision.”
“We should at least consult with Captain Koeh before any kind of decision is made,” Amir said.
“We can adjourn until then,” Carmot allowed. With that the conference took a recess.
While they waited for Captain Koeh to pull herself away from the repairs to the Drake, Vontae gave Carmot and Apamot a tour of the ship. Meanwhile, Kalpoc took the expedition craft back to the Dor Panak to consult with Tarshon on Tau Ceti.
“The Human fleet is in bad shape,” Kalpoc told Tarshon over non-relativistic communications. “They have many mechanical issues and not enough fuel to complete their planned mission to supplement their colonies. In light of the Ascendant’s offer to the Human ambassador, we have suggested that we may be able to ferry them to their colony with Ascendancy freight ships. The question I have is whether we can offer our ships for them to use to complete their mission. Their main concern would be not having the proper infrastructure to receive them if they arrive ahead of schedule. We are waiting for the leader of the colony to be able to meet with us; I was hoping to be able to bring a concrete offer of assistance back to her.”
“I see,” Tarshon responded. “I cannot of my own authority commit our resources such, especially in light of all of the projects that are going on and the shortages of manpower the Interior Ministry is always complaining about. Let me get a hold of the Ascendant while I have you, and obtain his authorization.”
Moments later the Ascendant’s voice came on. “Hello Tarshon, we understand the Human fleet is having some issues. What is going on?”
“Ascendant, I have Kalpoc on long range from the Dor Panak. He can discuss their issues with you,” Tarshon said.
“Grettings Ascendant,” Kalpoc said. “We have been in conference with representatives of the Human colony fleet of which Vontae is a part. Their encounter with the Dantu ship has left them low on fuel. As I understand it, the colony uses this fuel to launch on a vector toward their destination and then to slow their ships once they arrive.
“Numerous structural and mechanical problems have exasperated their situation so that it has become a dire problem. They do not expect to be able to complete their journey.
“A suggestion was put forth by our diplomatic team that we may be able to assist them with our freighter fleet. The majority of the colonists are in stasis for the transit and could be transported without much difficulty.
“The humans were surprised by our offer, but raised a concern about infrastructure on their colony world not being ready if they were to arrive eights of years early,” Kalpoc finished.
Tarshon addressed the Ascendant. “The Diplomatic Service requests authorization to provide freighter services to assist the Humans.”
“The Ascendant has been duly impressed with the Human Vontae and would like to help his people in any way we can. You may be aware that we have many infrastructure and construction needs at the moment that would make it difficult to give up even part of the freighter fleet.
“We understand how important infrastructure can be to a newly forming colony. That is one of the reasons why we have so many construction and infrastructure projects happening right now. We prefer to prepare the things our people need before they need them.
“For example, there is a moon in the Sadira system that has undergone extensive terraforming and infrastructure work. It is ready to accept a colony despite there being no colony organized as yet to inhabit the settlements there.
“The Ascendancy has many projects happening at the present time; however employment quotas are just not being met, especially in the Sadira system. Now that our work in Keid is increasing, we need more manpower than ever.
“We’ve said that the freighter fleet is too important for us to divert some of them to ferry the Human’s to their colony world. There is no profit for us to do so. However, we desire the Human’s to be close allies with us. The freighters may be diverted, but only if it is to further the work the Ascendancy is interested in.
“Kalpoc, you are authorized to make this offer to the Human colonists: They may take possession of our settlement on the Sadiran moon of which I spoke. They will be given all of the rights and privileges of Ascendancy citizens and will be granted full sovereignty over their own affairs. If they will agree to settle among us, we will divert as many freight ships as needed to ferry the Human fleet to their new home. This is the offer you are authorized to make.”
With that , the Ascendant signed off. “There is your authorization, Kalpoc,” Tarshon said and also signed off.
Kalpoc stood in silence and thought about the offer he had received from the Ascendant. It made perfect sense to the Ascendant and Kalpoc could be persuaded to the logic of the thing. Everything in the offer looked as if it was meant to benefit the Human’s alone. Kalpoc knew better that is would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Ascendant’s point about the workforce need was not an exaggeration. With such an influx of people into the Ascendancy, whether sovereign or not, would naturally increase the size of the work force. It was a brilliant plan, but would the Humans go for it?
