Confederation -- 28
Chapter 28
We dropped out of FTL a long distance out in the first Sunny system. This was a far different type of solar system than we'd previously visited. It was jam-packed with objects. There were more planets than our own Sol boasted and correspondingly more rocks and debris, making in-system travel more complex at high speeds. If we struck a rock too large for our shield, well, that would leave the Pug-bears in control, and I couldn't fit that outcome into my world-view.
We observed carefully and used the ship's computer to analyze the system data. There were fourteen gas giants, ranging from the size of Neptune to larger than Jupiter, and three smaller earth-sized planets. The three smaller planets all orbited close to the star in roughly the same place as Venus, Earth, and Mars in our own system.
Two of the more remote gas giants orbited the sun on extremely divergent paths. Their orbital planes were both at about seventy degrees to the plane of the majority of the planets. It was likely that they'd been wandering objects that the star had captured. In fact, their paths were still unstable, and there was some indication that they would eventually cause problems for some of the other planets.
I could imagine two of the enormous masses colliding. Who knows what could happen? It might even result in the formation of a second star, and while I didn't think that it was a very likely pathway for the creation of a binary stellar system, it still seemed like it might be a possibility.
There was also a lot of debris floating in a wide range of orbits. The birth of this system must have been very messy. It had two wide asteroid belts separated by a gas giant. The early days of the system must have involved many meteor strikes.
The primary center of alien activity was the planet that was right in the heart of the Cinderella zone. That one was analogous to Earth, complete to a single, small moon that orbited it.
We detected signals coming from five mining centers in the asteroid belts, and our sensors showed two cloud scoops circling two separate gas giants. The Sunnys were making good use of the system's resources.
After some initial checking, Frazzle got a mining base on the radio and chattered at them for a few minutes. Then he turned to me to report.
"Dec, dis place is one I haven't been before. All of the Pug-bears on the planet. None in space, but there's three big, in-system ships full of Pugs that collect fuel and ore from the Sunny miners. Sunnys in system space is free, but work 'cause their families are on planet. It not a real bad place, except for the Pug-bears killing us when they feel like it," he said. He was excited, and his eyes sparkled. "Can we get Pug-bears out with the yeast? It be great if it makes them stupid again."
The Pugs' ships were armed freighters whose role was to collect tribute from the Sunny installations, then deliver it to a manufacturing base on the small moon that orbited the habitable planet. From there, goods and fuel were transported down to the surface for use by the residents and their rulers.
At the moment, the three freighters were on the far side of the system. They were approximately twenty light-hours away and wouldn't become aware of our entry for almost a day unless someone used an Ansible to alert them. I thought that we had enough time to start our spraying program before they'd realize we were there. Accordingly, we accelerated and headed in to try our luck with the Pug-bears.
On the way, I decided to send the full complement of shuttles from each ship with full loads of fuel and yeast. There was a lot of orbital traffic, and some of it was quite low. With any luck, my ships could blend in and make undetected sub-orbital passes over the single continent while they dropped their load.
The single planetary landmass was about equal to Africa and South America combined. The rest of the surface was covered with a shallow sea. We could see several hurricanes moving across the water as we neared the planet.
Due to the storms, most of the Sunny population lived farther inland, despite their predilection for ocean-side dwelling. The center of the large continent held a huge lake chain that made our Great Lakes look tiny. The shores of these lakes were covered with cities.
Frazzle contacted orbital control and was relieved to find that the staff was all Sunnys. The Pugs were apparently only used as tax collectors here.
It was easy to persuade the Sunny traffic controller to assist in our mission, and he collaborated with Frazzle to set up fake identities and flight plans for our shuttles. The crews took off on their mission, and we moved our squadron out past the moon, leaving Joe's ship behind to provide emergency support for the shuttle crews while we headed out to go Pug hunting.
Even though the planet only had a single continent, it would take the shuttles about ten hours to cover the area with yeast. We wanted to spread it as evenly as possible. We could have sprayed it more quickly, but Ian thought that wide dissemination would be a more successful approach. He had gone on the large shuttle to oversee the operation.
We left the shuttle crews busily spreading their tiny seeds of Pug-bear destruction and headed for the other side of the system on a course that passed close to the star and would get us to the Pug ships as quickly as possible.
They were loading fuel at one of the gas giants, far out in the outskirts of the system. The cloud scoop installed there pulled in vast amounts of raw hydrocarbons, and the chemicals were compressed and stored in huge tanks that orbited the gas giant in a distant orbit. The operation was so efficient that the Sunnys had to shut the scoop down for several days in between each visit by the Pugs.
It was a case where additional tankers were needed, but apparently, the Pug-bears weren't concerned about efficiency. There was enough fuel for their purposes, and if the system had to cease producing intermittently, it was up to the Sunnys to handle the extra labor of shut-down and start-up. A similar human installation would have had a continuous stream of tankers moving back and forth.
We approached the location where the tankers were loading the hydrocarbons. Two of the ships were attached to huge tanks with a series of giant hoses, while the third was floating off at a slight distance, either waiting its turn or waiting for the others to fill up so they could all depart at the same time.
Rudy shot the Em-drive pack off the free ship as soon as we got in range. I didn't want to destroy the vessels. The Sunnys needed the fuel for their society to continue functioning without hardship. Neither did I want the Pugs free to sneak around and shoot at us or our shuttles.
The other two ships began the slow process of disconnecting from the filling station. I could see space-suited Sunnys moving around near the hose connections.
Frazzle radioed them and told them to cease work. The ships were now in our possession. The Sunnys followed his orders and stopped the disconnecting operation, moving back to their small utility ships.
One of the Pug ships, the one that was nearly disconnected, started its engine and broke free of the final hose connection. The hose vented a long stream of hydrogen for several minutes, whipping around as the gas shot out and smashing into two of the Sunny utility ships, destroying them. It was a truly incredible sight. The thing was like a gigantic fire hose gone berserk. It would have continued for a long time, but the automatic shut-off on the surface of the large tank finally activated and stopped the flow.
We shot the Em-drive off that tanker also, but our anti-matter burst was too powerful, and we somehow holed the tanker's storage tanks. It sailed off, out of control, directly towards the gas giant, propelled by the venting hydrogen. Unless the Pugs could rig some kind of emergency engine, the ship was going to sink into the atmosphere within the next half hour.
The third ship's pilot seemed to be a little more sensible. He came on the comm system and apparently surrendered. As soon as we acknowledged their action, the crew boarded the tanker's small shuttle and made a run for the home planet, Em-drive firing at maximum.
I'd previously resolved not to take Pug captives, but I was saved the necessity of shooting at them. Holmes fired a burst, and their escaping ship vaporized.
I was congratulating myself on our success when a large plasma bolt flew by the bow of Holmes' ship. The first tanker was not wholly disabled. It had used its attitude jets to turn towards us and was now shooting.
All three of my ships accelerated instantly, moving us out of the path of the next bolt. We could see it coming a long way off, and I was relieved when we got out of the way.
In return, I used our waist cannon to fire an anti-matter pulse at their bow gun. It struck and erased the gun along with most of the tanker's bridge. A large gust of atmosphere shot out of the hole, the moisture in the air forming a cloud of ice crystals as it vented.
Frazzle, and I looked at each other. This hadn't gone nearly as well as I'd hoped. The second tanker was now too near the atmosphere of the gas giant to rescue, and the first was severely damaged. The only one we'd captured was the third, and that only was because it had been linked firmly to the chemical tank.
Frazzle spoke to the station Sunnys and told them they needed to continue the gas mining operation. They were going to try and repair the shot-up tanker and rig some kind of temporary controls for it. If they could, they'd fly both of them back to unload at the moon installation.
We couldn't afford to spend the time to help. Anyway, I figured the Sunnys could best operate their own systems. All we'd come to do was reduce the Pug-bears' influence on them.
Back at the planet again, we picked up our shuttles. They'd had no problems, and the single continent was now inoculated with brewer's yeast. We'd have to wait for a month or so to know if the scheme had worked. Meanwhile, we had more planets to treat.
The entire squadron turned and headed out-system under Em-drive, accelerating to near light speed in preparation for the transition to FTL.