Secrets in the Stars (Family Law) Read online

  On the voyage out they'd found simple corner reflectors in a couple systems, marking obvious mining claims because some had been worked. They didn't have the tech to date the reflectors, but they were ancient given the micro-meteor corrosion. Why the sites were abandoned and who had worked them was a mystery. Whoever they belonged to was obsessively neat. Thorough searches had yielded one screw-on cap as the single artifact.

  "Nothing to stop for here. When you have enough lateral movement to see behind the star, please suggest a new target star on our approximate vector," Gordon ordered Brownie. "Thor, you have the comm until shift change. I'm going to go get a sandwich and attend to reports in my cabin. If anybody needs refreshment have the galley see to your needs."

  "I have the comm," Thor acknowledged out loud. They didn't follow strict military discipline on the bridge or the command circuit tying in the department heads and other ships, but it wasn't full of idle chatter either. Once Gordon had needed to tell a fellow that cracking a joke once in awhile was fine if nothing critical was happening, but not while a serious discussion was taking place. That had been sufficient.

  Chapter 3

  A long slow burn across their entry vector revealed nothing surprising behind the star during the off shift. The radar had time for them to get returns from two thirds of the system and they'd see most of the rest on their run to jump. Everyone had a chance for hot meals and restful sleep that you couldn't do at higher acceleration. The Badgers were used to slightly less gravity so they boosted at point nine five G for them. The second shift crew retired to enjoy their off time and Gordon and his bridge crew came back on duty.

  "Do you have a target star picked for our next jump, Brownie?" Gordon asked.

  "Yes, there were three good candidates close to our intended route. I picked this one because it has an unusual spectrum and I'd like to see if it has a different planetary system too."

  "Very good. Inform the other ships and send them your data set. You may alter our course and set acceleration to suit your planned jump when you please," Gordon said.

  "Our oversized friend apparently whizzed right through, Lee," Thor said.

  "Yes I noticed. I wonder if we can't develop sensors that could read the drive residues a ship leaves behind and reconstruct the line it took to leave the system?"

  "Ask engineering," Gordon suggested. "I wouldn't mind having such a thing."

  "Lee, you could buy back your bet with me if you'd rather not have it hanging over your head," Thor suggested.

  "I wasn't thinking about it. I'm certainly not concerned," Lee said. "It wouldn't surprise me to see them again. How much of a discount were you going to offer me to settle my bet early?"

  "Discount? Just the peace of mind from having it settled," Thor said.

  "In your dreams!" Lee scoffed. "I'll offer you the same deal so you don't have to keep thinking about it."

  "These Fargoers are a bad influence," Gordon declared. "I never knew before this trip how crazy they are about gambling on anything."

  "You really think they could find us again after we transit this system?" Thor asked Lee. "I should ask you if you want to double down on the bet."

  "Thor, you were the one who said at first that we shouldn't bet because I have so much more money than you it wouldn't matter to me if I lost. I admit I suggested five percent of our worth as a equitable bet. But do you really want to lose ten percent of everything you own over a bet? I could lose half and still have more than I could ever spend. I don't want to lose you as a friend over some stupid pointless bet."

  "The little one is wise beyond her years," Ha-bob-bob-brie said from his seat. He said it so seriously.

  Thor looked like he was going to say something in anger, calmed himself and looked at the alien. "Yeah, you're right. I don't suppose you want a piece of the action?"

  "You do not want to bet with Hinth," Ha-bob-bob-brie warned Thor, waggling a single digit in a gesture he'd picked up from Humans. "In our society there has never been such a thing as what the Fargoers describe to me as a friendly bet. Before Humans came, long before there was even a world government on Hin, our regional rulers would bet each other extravagantly. The losing side might be a impoverished for a generation to pay it off – or simply decide going to war was cheaper. Betting has always been a form of aggression on Hin."

  "Yeah, that's what we'd call a poor loser," Thor said. "I'll be sure to remember that story."

  "The Derf have no tradition of gambling?" Ha-bob-bob-brie inquired.

  "We are a tribal society. It wasn't common for individuals to use money until very recently. Money was exchanged between tribes. Copper was our most common money but often weighed and not coined. Trade was as often in other goods or food," Thor said. "About the only bets I heard as a child were for covering somebody's chores or ribald bets directed at somebody by a disgruntled suitor who still had a grudge. We did have a cub who would compulsively bet his desserts. He was skinny."

  "And keeping everyone broke kept them under the Mothers' thumbs," Gordon added. "When I left the clan keep I had to walk to town and find work to get the first cash money I'd ever held, before I could go on to a bigger town."

  "The Hinth also can be very controlling," Ha-bob-bob-brie admitted. "but even as a young child I had coins almost as soon as I could name them. Our close family has more control over you than the tribe or trade groups. They, or at least the nest sitter, often have your whole life planned out while you are still in the egg. If you let them."

  "I never experienced that side of Human culture," Lee said. "I see similar things in Human videos though. Domineering parents who want to relive their childhood to better effect through their children, and mothers who manipulate their children with guilt. But who knows how much of it is true, and how much is dramatic license? When I lived briefly with my cousins on Earth it wasn't anything like the videos. But then I've recently seen a few videos set on space ships, and they are so ridiculous I thought it was deliberate comedy when it wasn't. We all seem similar in little ways, but the new folks in the big ships, I wonder if we will find any similarities? They seem so different."

  "Well, Captain Fenton assured me they saw rank displayed in their actions. The one who seemed junior was physically shorter too. Now whether that is a mark of age or being of a different sex or even a sub-species is open to question. But that individual had fewer segments in the body. It would be interesting to see if it will add one and how," Gordon said.

  "Entry burst!" Brownie interrupted, surprised. "A big one and deep in system." He read the raw numbers and let the computer work, everyone waiting for Brownie to read the solutions, casual conversation forgotten.

  "They are crossing our nose on the far side of the star before we'll clear it. It doesn't appear they are slowing so they will exit before us. Emissions indicate they are our Caterpillar escort. They had to change vector completely in this system and then double back, or make a loop to reenter on this heading. That would require even better acceleration than what we've seen them do."

  "Might this not be a different Caterpillar ship than the one who blew through ahead of us?" Thor asked.

  "It could be," Brownie agreed, "but besides doing a radar sweep they transmitted audio. Not that we have any idea what they are saying yet, but it was the exact same transmission sequence they sent when they accelerated ahead of us leaving the Badger world. And it wasn't a general broadcast. Signal strength from our other ships indicates they guessed where we would be and their transmission was in a cone directed right at us."

  Ha-bob-bob-brie broke the silence. Lee had never heard him speak so dead flat with no inflection at all. "Hmm... Is there still a piece of the action on the table if one wants it?" he asked, carefully not looking at Thor.

  "I believe I'll just stand pat on that, thank you," Thor said.

  Lee thought of a whole salvo of snarky things to say, but she was maturing and just treasured thinking them.

  * * *

  "Commander Gordon," Robert
Frost, captain of the Sharp Claws appeared not just on the command audio feed but came up on the video feed to Gordon too. That indicated he had something more than routine to discuss.

  "Captain Frost," Gordon acknowledged and nodded, a human gesture many of them had assimilated.

  "We have the first case of an infection from an alien life form. I just finished speaking with my medical officer about it. The crewwoman who reported to sick-call tried to treat it herself but it didn't improve."

  "Well, I guess all those protocols we've followed were not entirely without merit as our recent hosts implied." Gordon said.

  "Oh, we've known there are things one can catch already," Frost said. "Thorn has a whole list of them, mostly various amoebas and parasites. The people who keep an embassy open on the Elves’ world, just in case they ever want to have anything to do with us, get something called Blue Dot. They feel tired and get little blue bumps that go away in about three days. Nobody has ever isolated an organism causing it or documented a human to human transmission. I don't think they've ever had a Derf on world to see if they catch it. The thing Earth worries about isn't that sort of thing. They are fearful of something deadly like the flu or smallpox."

  "I take it this isn't such a devastating disease or you'd be more upset?" Gordon prompted Frost.

  "Yes, it another irritating thing that I'm pretty sure we can deal with, but it still seemed worth a word of warning."

  "Good, I'm putting our medial guy on the circuit," Gordon said. "He's our environmental officer too. Would you describe how you became aware of this and we'll send the recording to our other vessels too."

  "The young Human woman is a previous Fargone missile tech who left their service before we recruited her. She's twenty-seven Fargone years old, a bit more than twenty eight T-years. She got a patch of white and itching to the inside of her little toe on her right foot. Thinking it common Athlete's Foot she asked our medic for a tube of anti-fungal cream and she prophylactically applied it to the other gaps between her toes with clean hands , and then applied it to the afflicted area last. It didn't improve; in fact it got worse, appeared on the other foot, and changed color to a yellowish hue. That's when she returned to medical and sought help." Frost said.

  "Frost, what is this Athlete's Foot?" Gordon asked, puzzled. It seemed like an athletic foot should be a good thing.

  "It's a common fungal infection in humans. It is often spread in damp communal areas like showers, where people go barefoot. But it is incubated in the dark and moisture between their toes. The more so because shoes and socks keep the foot in the dark and limit drying air circulation. This is a Badger analog of a fungus, but the medical tech was smart enough to scan a swab and see there is alien genetic material present. Indeed it returned an error message because there are sequences not common to any Earth organisms."

  "How did you confirm it is a Badger organism?" Gordon asked.

  "We have some preliminary sequencing of Badger and Badger planet organisms from trading items," Captain Frost said. There were short sequence matches once the medical scanner was supplied a wider database. But also when we showed photographs of her foot to Badgers on the Dart they immediately said: 'Oh yeah, boot rot'. It seems it is an occupational hazard to those who have to wear boots for their work such as caring for herd animals and working in industrial settings. Most Badgers avoid wearing an enclosing shoe unless absolutely necessary."

  "Then I assume they know how to treat it?" Thor asked on the audio feed.

  "Yes, but their cure is to crush a sort of common weed that looks like a succulent and stuff the sticky mass in the toe of the boot. The other folk remedy is to find a source of mud near a natural body of water and coat the foot liberally with it, getting it between the toes thoroughly, and allow it to remain and dry out for a few days before washing it away. Apparently there are naturally antagonistic organisms in such mud. Since neither cure is available here my medic cut the upper section away from the toes on a pair of cloth shoes. We are coating one foot with a disinfectant wash we use for surgical prep and the other foot with a dilute solution of iodine. We'll see which works better and switch to that on both feet."

  "Thank you. Keep me appraised if this becomes a bigger problem or doesn't respond to treatment," Gordon requested. He appeared ready to end the discussion but Lee spoke up.

  "Gordon? Captain Frost? Just a thought here. Most Human laundry is vacuum tumbled. A freeze dried fungus may be dormant but not dead. You might make sure her socks get wet washed in chlorine bleach or something similar or they may just re-infect her."

  "That's interesting," Frost said, looking surprised. "I'll mention it to my medic right now."

  "How did you know that?" Gordon asked Lee after Frost was gone.

  "When I lived with my relatives in Michigan for awhile their kids got Athlete's Foot at the community pool and quickly spread it to everybody else at home. I remember my cousin's wife putting bleach in the wash to get rid of it."

  "So you did learn some practical things on Earth," Gordon said, amused.

  "Just all kinds of skills," Lee assured him, scowling. "I know how to form a jail gang to keep safe. I know how to get back in line quickly to get a second serving in the jail mess, and I know how to slowly eat a candy bar in tiny little nips and make it fill you up if they have you on lock-down and aren't feeding you. I learned how to sit in the sun where there is a breeze to keep the mosquitoes from leaving you a mess of welts. I even know how to suck-up to a bureaucratic negative tax official so you get your case moved forward while the angry combative folks don't get what they need. Doesn't mean I want to live on a planet where I need those sort of skills," she said firmly.

  There was a lot Lee still hadn't told him about her time on Earth, Gordon reflected.

  * * *

  "Everybody synchronized and running sweet?" Gordon asked Brownie toward the middle of their shift.

  "Yes, there are no serious problems anywhere. You have a choice. We can up acceleration by about fifteen percent and jump within our normal shift, or we can stay at our present acceleration and extend the shift a half hour."

  "And what do we do on the other side?" Gordon asked.

  "Well, it only takes ten minutes or so to nose count and we could shift change a bit late," Brownie suggested.

  "No, Thor has convinced me that running the A team on jump is the safest way to go," Gordon reminded him. "That to my mind includes keeping us on the bridge on the other side of jump until we have a deep enough radar sweep to know there are no close up problems. Take us all up to one point fifteen G and figure we're going to hold the shift over forty-five minutes after breakout. That gives us fifteen minutes to do a passive scan and then we ping the system hard and wait a half hour for returns. If nothing nasty or weird is within fifteen light minutes then I'll feel comfortable going to my cabin. If something approaches after that it'll be far enough out to let us be awakened and called back to the bridge."

  "Aye, sir. Sending that out to the fleet with a five minute warning we are upping boost. I'll change the jump time and attach the data on the notice as soon as the box has a solution."

  "Thank you, Brownie."

  * * *

  Jeremiah Ellis from Engineering called Gordon on a private circuit rather than intrude on the command circuit with an extended conversation.

  "Sir, I've been doing some calculations about the Caterpillar's ship. It's interesting. May I tell you about it?"

  "Certainly, it's boring up here right now until we jump. I'd love to hear something interesting."

  "As near as I can figure the timing from when we saw the Caterpillars jump ahead of us until they reentered the system and crossed our nose, they must be able to accelerate somewhere in excess of thirty G if they altered course and a made two system loop to jump back to this system. If they decelerated hard enough to make a right angle turn, jumped out, and did a dead stop and reversed direction in the other system it's worse. They'd have to do at least a thirty-eight G accelerat
ion to jump to the same safety standards we do."

  "They have only been directly observed pulling about ten to fourteen G," Gordon said.

  "Yes! And something else worth mentioning, they shot missiles at Captain Frost in the Sharp Claws in System 67 just before he jumped for System 82. Those only accelerated at a bit less than eighty G. Compared to our missiles, theirs are not as proportionately faster as their ships."

  It amused Gordon how animated Jeremiah got when he was enthused. "Any ideas on why?" he asked.

  "Nothing concrete, just wild speculation. We know they have some sort of gravity manipulation. Perhaps it doesn't really provide any advantage in a missile. You can harden things like electronics far easier than protecting living things. Perhaps what they use on the ships takes a great deal of power. It occurred to me they may only manage the perceived acceleration in limited areas of those big ships. We just don't know yet," Jeremiah concluded.

  "Don't forget the missiles that they fail-safed had a weird spectrum too. They appeared to be pure fusion weapons instead of using a fission kernel," Gordon said.

  Jeremiah opened his mouth and then shut it. Frowned and then looked serious, not animated. "Don't quote me, but there are rumors some humans have that tech too, but it is closely held," Jeremiah said.

  "What do you mean, closely held?" Gordon demanded. "Pure fusion weapons would be a huge advantage if they were cheaper. Why would anybody hide them or refrain from marketing them?"

  "Look, it's hard for me to tell this again. I told this to a friend once and he stopped doing things with me and labeled me a nutcase, but my grandfather told me this big story when I was a kid. Do you know the orbital hab Home used to be in LEO, not out at L2? It was alone then. They didn't have the two added companion habs they do now, doing a halo dance around the same center."

  "Yeah, I've heard of Home. Very exclusive and expensive. Picky about who they let in. They have some kind of a weird government too. But what would they have to do with exotic weapons? Space stations are just about impossible to defend. The first thing they do in any conflict is evacuate the damn things," Gordon insisted.