Olde Phoenix Inn

Omoikane 20 - Rimward Distress Call

We took a shore leave on Jigu. They had some great places to visit and they were happy to meet us.

I spent a lot of time negotiating with the Foreign Minister of the Jigufor Confederacy to get a safely generic “We’re going to be light friends and we’re going to have more diplomacy” type of treaty. The Foreign minister wanted more. And he wanted it publicly enough to take some credit for it.

We added some language about mutual exchanges of fuel and resources for visiting ships, which I found optimistic. They wouldn’t be pushing ships to the Federation core any time soon. The Foreign Minister wanted to attract Federation ships to his system. Understandable.

To soothe Minister Karbela’s feelings about not securing an immediate alliance, I agreed to do some publicity, making encouraging noises at the Jigufor public, smiling and shaking hands in various important-looking places.

I hated every minute of it, but it allowed me to hand off future negotiations and diplomacy to people with better training and experiences than I had.

We’d repaired the damage to the top of the Omoikane to the best of our ability. The power system had to be permanently routed around some damage. Ion Cannon Carlie was offline until we got back to a full starbase. The phasers in that facing would have to fire more slowly to avoid over-heating the power systems workarounds.

The temporary hull plating was painted over and didn’t look too bad, from a distance. It looked like hell to me. I was eager to drive back to New Canada and get everything fixed properly.

-*-

The air was cold and sort of hurt the bottom of my lungs when I took a deep breath.

I shifted my day pack. A few reasonable things, a few things for just in case. I wriggled my toes in new fluffy socks and hiking boots. I was glad for a light pair of gloves.

I wasn’t used to hiking. It wasn’t one of my usual hobbies. I had to reach back into my Starfleet Academy days for any skills I’d learned at it.

But….

The sight of a sheer granite cliff across the valley, highlighted by the sun. How all the animals sounded. The smells. How free and natural air felt against my skin.

Our guide, a native man who lived in the area, and Li’ira stopped with me.

“Wow,” I said

Pictures and scans and video don’t do it justice. The number of colors I could see. The subtle, subconscious impression of being outside. The small details I could see gave everything scale.

The Guide, Keoda a human man with a bushy beard, and a well-worn affect nodded and looked at the beauty himself. “This is why I take money guiding people like you up here. I never get tired of seeing it myself.”

Li’ira looked in a very careful three-hundred-and-sixty-degree scan. “I’m sure the money doesn’t hurt.”

“I had a job in the city. I worked in an office. Damn near killed myself. Money’s okay, for what it's good for. I like this more.”

“Thank you,” I said.

He looked at me and saw that I was seeing it, “You’re welcome.”

My communicator beeped. I sighed.

“Next time, leave that shit at home. No one’s going to die if you don’t take a business call.” Keoda grumped.

“I wish,” I said. I answered the call “Hailey here.”

“Captain, I have a priority message from Tamata.”

“Patch him through.”

“Captain, I am sorry to bother you, but we have an incident that threatens to spin out of control. You are, of course, the only Federation Starship in range.”

“Of course. What’s the situation?”

“The Bendarri are being too aggressively friendly to the people of Altair and a Galra commander is about to start an incident over it.”

I barely knew two of those names “How can we help?”

“We’d like you to try and talk the Galra commander down before things get shooty.”

“Alright. We’ll be on our way shortly.”

Keoda blinked and said “Oh. You’re those guys.”

“My girlfriend is bright emerald green.”

“I don’t judge about that kind of stuff.”

I took another look at the sunlit cliffs with all the trees, trying to burn it into my memory. “Hailey to Omoikane, two to beam up.”

“Come on back when you need more air.” Keoda said.

I grinned and took a very deep breath and held it as we beamed up.

-*-

I pitched in and tried to help Li’ira as we rounded everyone up and got ready to roll.

Running a starship is a complicated dance. Lots of very competent people have to do their part, in the correct sequence for my orders to be carried out like they were nothing.

A large chunk of our operations staff was on the surface enjoying themselves, so these competent people who made everything happen and look easy weren’t there.

I found out that I was minimally competent in lots of things, but I wasn’t great at any one operations job. I got in Li’ira’s way and slowed things down until I found the right spot.

I found all our competent crew people on the ground and rounded them up to they could actually do things quickly and efficiently.

Captaining!

Crew retrieved, check. Enough functional and able to resume duty mode to get the ship moving, check.

Check the ship, make sure all the things are in the places and all the systems are working as expected.

Then point where I wanted the ship to go. Navigation designed the course, helm presented to me and I nodded like I could have done one-third as well.

Galaglan and her crew had the engines up and ready to roll quickly so it seemed like as soon as I said “Engage,” The Omoikane was on her way.

Once the ship was at warp and stable, we could set watches and work on getting everyone returned from vacation mode into duty mode.

Usually, it’s a slower, more planned process, but sometimes you have to pick up and go. Starship crew know this and we’re always ready for it.

My crew was wonderful in their willingness and competence. Man, I love them.

-*-

Dr. Hobolisk came into my office, put a couple of PADDs down on my desk. “We need to talk about Ensign Flannigan, Specialist Gusada and Lieutenant Nwadike.

“What about them?”

“Their recovery is proceeding. But it’s taxing on Sickbay. We’re spending all our time on them and if something happens, then either they, or the new crisis would suffer.”

I nodded, “We’ll get back to base as soon as we can, Doctor.”

He gestured to the PADD “I’d like to use the Frozen Matter system.”

“For what?”

“To store them until we can rematerialize them at a Starbase with a bigger staff and clinics for that sort of recovery.”

“That system was not meant to be used that way.”

“But it can be. I’d rather struggle with the decision now, while we have time, than during the response to the next thing.”

He had a point.

“Let’s discuss it.”

-*-

“Ensign Flannigan needs… well, a rebuild. Muscles, circulatory, nervous system, everything on the outer layer of her body. This isn’t the old days when we’d throw skin grafts and pray they took. We can and we should restore her. Growing new pieces of everything and then putting them on her and encouraging her body to heal the right ways - We have great technology and techniques to help her. But it’s time and labor intensive.”

“Our sick bay is designed around quickly taking in injured people and stabilizing them. Doing cutting-edge science and medicine, one person at a time.

“We can complete her treatment. We’re competent and we’re getting better. But, if anything else happens, we’ll have to make decisions about how much of whose time and attention goes where.”

“I am proposing to put Ensign Flannigan through the frozen matter system. That way, she can’t get any better but she also can’t get any worse. Once we return to New Canada, we can rematerialize her, and transfer her to their medical department. They have more people, more resources, and less chance of a weird space emergency.”

Tippalan said **We’d prefer not to run medical experiments on critically injured people.**

“Her injuries are why she needs this. I’d volunteer myself for a test run, but then you’d have Ensign Flannigan still injured and one less doctor.”

Tippalan said, “What would you have done before the frozen matter system was rolled out.”

“We’d have done the best we could. It’s about managing risk. If we get into another battle, then parts of Ensign Flannigan won’t heal right. We’d either have to backtrack or let her be stable, but disabled until we returned to base. Then they’d have to redo the parts of the process we couldn’t successfully complete.”

Tillean said, “I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t work.”

Tippalan said **That’s the problem. It’s the things we don’t see right now that might cause this to fail, and Ensign Flannigan would pay the price for that.**

“What does The All say?” I asked Tippalan

**What The All usually says, which is everything. Ane all over the galaxy are nattering, discussing, and opining over this. There’s a movement afoot to try and round up enough people to express her to Oz. Partly to get her to treatment faster and partly to get her out of your hands.**

I couldn’t help myself “What does Admiral Gensilan say?”

Tippalan has an Ane face. It looks like an antelope face. Not very expressive. But somehow she looked cross. **She says she trusts you to make the right decision. She’s vaguely against this. She also very carefully didn’t say anything about her apron strings.**

“Ouch,”

**So I did.**

“Oucher.”

Li’ira didn’t grin. I could see her not doing that.

“Commander, what do you think.”

Li’ira sobered up “I’m disinclined to take a risk with the Ensign’s well-being. It’s a cute idea. Let’s let Starfleet Command do tests of it for a while and see what happens.”


“Galaglan?”

Galaglan’s voice was soft and thoughtful **I know this system. I am inclined to agree with the Doctor’s recommendation. There’s no reason why this would not work as intended. Tippalan’s caution notwithstanding, This tech is new for us. Not for the people who invented it and we’re working from their information. Doing this would allow Ensign Flannigan to ride to Starbase without any discomfort or risk of further injury. The read-from-disk and rematerialize process is understood. Once written to disk, she’d be in less danger of harm from further incidents than we are. If The All elects to express Ensign Flannigan back to Oz, I’ll respect that decision. But I think this is a valid process.**

Tippalan said **It won’t save her any of the discomfort of recovering. She’ll still have to go through that once rematerialized on the ground. It’ll save our sickbay from having to do the work.**

Dr. Hobolisk said “This is true. It’s about risk management and resource management. I feel like a full Starbase can do a better job than we can.”

Tippalan replied **Perhaps instead of expressing Ensign Flannigan to Oz, we’d do better to bring Ane Healers here.**

Hoblisk said “I wouldn’t turn them down.”

“Are the Arguments for Nwadike and Gusada any different?” I asked?

“In the details of their treatment, slightly. Gusada took some phaser coolant to their lungs. Regenerating that is a pain in the ass, but doable. We have an artificial lung strapped to their arm, and it’s keeping them alive. But it’s pretty miserable. Nwadike got burns and crush injuries. Not as bad a set of burns as Flannigan, but he’d down an arm and a leg for the time being. We’re growing replacements. In six to eight weeks, we can transplant those and begin physical therapy for that.”

“Hmmm,” I said “Anyone else?”

Stephanie asked, “What do Flannigan, Gusada and Nwadike say?”

“Good question!” I said.

Li’ira, Tippalan, Hobolisk, and I went to Sickbay.

-*-

Ensign Flannigan was much more conscious than when I first encountered her in sickbay.

“Captain, Commander, Counselor, Doctor,” She greeted us.

About half her head was the reddish pink of newly regenerated skin. It was baby soft and not used to anything yet. It took some time to get used to it and get it used to you. Different textures and conditions could be overwhelming and even painful. Some people took hours, some took days, and some took a few weeks until it stopped feeling weird and began to feel normal.

I smiled “How are you doing?”

She almost said something but replaced it with “I am working on my recovery, Sir.”

**Tell him what you were really thinking.**

She shot a look at Tippalan, and dubiously held up her right arm. “I’ve been feeling a little blue, recently.”

I grinned. Her arm was mostly the blue of the regeneration gel. It was pretending to be her epidermis.

“Wow,” Li’ira said.

“Yeah, you gotta keep up with her,” I said.

Flannigan gave me an uncertain smile.

**He admires your quick wit,** Tippalan said.

“Thanks. It’s a defense mechanism,” Flannigan said.

“I believe some face time with Tippalan will help.”

“Face time?” Flannigan asked.

“Yup. When you’re up to it, bury your face in Tippalan’s side. She’s really soft.”

**It’s one of the early lessons in Ane Counselor school,** Tippalan said **Being warm, soft, and loving.**

“Wow,” Flannigan said.

“We’re here to ask your opinion about something,” I said.

“Okay, what topic?” She replied.

I laid out the idea in quick strokes.

“What’s the error rate on reading to the disk?” She asked.

“Hmmm, Let me check.” I went to the wall where a panel was reading the air temp, humidity, gravity, and radiation flux of the sick bay. I minimized the usual display and looked up the information.

When I got back, Tippalan was leaning against Flannigans bare feet. Flannigan wriggled her toes. “You really are soft.”

**I’m good at my job.** Tippalan said.

“The error rate on the read-to-disk process is comparable to the transporter, but a smidgeon worse,” I reported.

“How much worse?”

“The error rate is less than ten to the twenty-sixth.”

“Huh. That’s about where transporters were 70 years ago.”

“Yeah. It’s not bad. I think they’ll make it better before too long.”

“So, you guys want to get rid of me, huh?”

Hobolisk jumped in “Nope. Not like that. You’re a ray of sunshine around here. I just don’t want you hurt if things go to hell again.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Sir, I’d like to put it off until we need to do it to clear space in here.”

I nodded “Yeah, yeah. I think that’s how we’ll do it.”

We tabled the Doctor’s suggestion until the issue came up again

Shipteklban: **I design a beautiful and functional ship and you keep getting it all banged up!**


FYI The Amani class has three larger than shuttles on the back spine. The Nelson class is the larger "captain's yacht" And two smaller Crane class runabouts. Nelson class is half again bigger than the Cranes. They look very similar. The warp drives are in the wings BTW. Dolphins share the auxiliaries as well.

Noted. Thank you

Wait

Nelson and Crane?

SNERKS

Omoikane 21 - Conquest

We caught up to a Galra dreadnought. It was chugging along with menacing sturdiness.

It looked like a starship designed by the people who made World War Two battleships. The central hull was a cigar shape with turrets of various sizes all over it. The warp nacelles looked like torpedo bulges pushed down and back. On the back of the ship impulse drives of heroic proportions jutted out aggressively. Like they were daring us to say anything. It was made of green metal. The Galra had reinvented some of the processes that the Klingons and Romulans used to make hulls.

The warp field was solid and workable, but not especially interesting. They were using dilithium. The plasma exhaust and temperature readings revealed a technologically average power system, but it had redundancies on its redundancies.

The hull was thick, heavy, and reinforced in multiple ways. Things must have been tight in there.

It was a little longer than the Omoikane, but didn’t have as much volume.

The ship’s name was the “Conquest”.

Starships are tools built for a purpose. Or many purposes.

This one was a club. It was designed to approach enemy units and put fire on them until they went away. Anything else you could do with this ship was a happy accident.

We matched speed. “Open Hailing Frequencies,” They’d seen us. They didn’t react or say anything.

Varupuchu nodded and I spoke “This is the Federation starship USS Omoikane calling the Galran ship Conquest. We’re on a diplomatic mission, please respond.”

The screen cleared to show the Galrans. They were humanoid. Very much so. They had recognizable faces and expressions. Their pupils were vertical slits with orange or yellow irises. They didn’t seem to have body hair. Their ears looked like bat wings. Interesting effect. Their skin was purple. Or dark gray. I saw some other colors going on.

These folks wore dark gray uniforms with ranks and decorations. The theme was pretty consistent but I didn’t know enough to read what they were trying to convey.

The crew on the bridge of the Conqueror looked tight. They looked at us but betrayed no expression. Their bodies were upright and in perfect position.

The Commander of the dreadnought was a striking-looking woman with light blue skin and bright yellow eyes. She had a cloak with lots of decorations on it. And a blade on her hip. I looked practical.

Behind them, I saw a man. He lounged on a couch. He was dressed like an Orion noble. Lots of jewelry and finery.

Next to him, was a large Galra woman. She was wearing body armor, and a battle axe. She was dark purple but had light purple scars.

On the other side was some sort of reptilian humanoid. Lots of interesting curves and a big tail. That one kept her face hidden with a cowl.

The man studied his finger nails. We were beneath him.

The blue woman spoke “I am General Azcxa. State your business.”

“General, I’m Captain Hailey. We’ve been called by the Damyip. Apparently, there’s a dispute around a planet named Altea?”

The purple noble flicked a look my way.

“There is no dispute. The planet Altea is part of the Galra Empire,” The General said.

“And you’re going there to -”

“As part of the Galran Forces, we go where we will, when we will.”

“Yes, General. The United Federation of Planets is an organization of peace. We prefer to accomplish non-violent solutions to diplomatic problems. We’re not too bad at it. I offer our services as a mediator.”

The Purple noble ahemed. Everyone on the Galra bridge came to attention. The picture of the Conquests bridge shifted to focus on him. He had handsome, sculpted features, and resting haughty face.

“The Bendarri have disrespected my claim to Altea,” he said mildly. “The peaceful solution is for them to leave Altea and stop interfering in Galra business.”

“Forgive me, you are?”

The tension on the dreadnought’s bridge was palpable.

“I am Crown Prince Rotol,” He said. “If you seek a non-violent solution speak to the Bendarri. Their decisions will drive how violent the situation gets.”

I was confused “Aren’t you and the Bendarri allied against the Thasites?”

“My claim to Altea predates the Thasite War. It predates contact with the Bendarri. I was under the impression that the Bendarri had agreed not to interfere.”

“It seems there’s a lot I am not understanding, here.”

“Obviously.”

“Would you object if I went to talk to the Bendarri and got their side of it?”

“There is no Bendarri side. Altea is mine. Do as you will. Educate yourself. But know this. If you stand between me and Altea, I’ll destroy you.”

I chose my words carefully “Your message has been received, Your Highness. Thank you for your time.”

“My impression of human intelligence remains unchanged. You are dismissed.”

The signal ended. I took a deep breath. “Alright. Varupuchu. Where’s the nearest Bendarri?”

Varupuchu scanned “They are ahead of us, at the planet Altea.”

“Set course and engage, warp six.”

“A man of remarkable charisma and tact,” Li’ira said.

We left the Conquest behind.

“Stephanie. What do you think?” I asked.

“I think I have a quantum torpedo with his name on it,” Stephanie said

I looked at her.

“Seriously, I’d advise against a donnybrook. We can take him, but it’d take all day, and we’d take some damage. That battleship of his is so armored, redundant, and compartmentalized that we’d have to kill it five times over. Nothing he has is especially surprising or unusual. He just has a lot of it in an overly armored wrapping.”

“Well, when you’re mister personality, your ride has to match,” I said.

“Captain,” Varupuchu said “You should see this.” he put it on the screen.

On our long-range sensors we could see a fleet chasing. They ran their engines a little hot, it was a long game of pursuit. About a dozen ships. All cousins of the Conquest. But mostly smaller ones. Mentally I labeled them by size. Cruisers, destroyers, and two battleships. Not quite as big as the Conquest.

“Well, that’s no fun,” I said. “Harksain, let’s send a message to the Galra Empire itself. To Galra Command Authority. From Captain Hailey, United Federation of Planets, USS Omoikane. We request clarification of the mission of the ship Conqueror, and of the fleet in pursuit. My Compliments, Yours truly, Etc.”

Varupuchu configured the communications system.

Li’ira said, “If you give me a few moments I can make that more professional and coherent.”

“Please do.”

Next stop Altea

Omoikane 22 - Altea

The Altean System was interesting. The primary was a nice, quiet, well-behaved G-type star, similar to the Sun in most respects.

In its oort cloud, there was a white dwarf. A stellar corpse. Some small star burned itself out and collapsed into degenerate matter. The white dwarf was gravitationally bound to the primary. It was in a highly elliptical orbit.

That was bad. It was going to take about thirty-five thousand years, but that stellar corpse was heading for a pass through the inner solar system of Altea.

As we got close there was another surprise. Close to the Primary, way too close, there was a hot Jupiter. Its orbital period was 14 hours. If it ever had any moons or rings, those were long long gone. It was an angry ball of mostly hydrogen screaming around the primary.

The System was littered with satellites, buoys, and sensor platforms. All older tech. Much of it was run down and abandoned.

As we got closer, one functional buoy declared “Attention interlopers! This system is the territory of the mighty Galra Empire! Trespassers will suffer the wrath of the Empire! Violate our quarantine and we will make you beg for the sweet release of death!”

But there were no Galran ships around to enforce a blockade.

Altea itself was a pretty class M world. It had three moons in a stable Lagrange-type orbit. A big one at the main point. It showed a weak atmosphere, with traces of water and oxygen. Alteas biggest moon had a fraction of Altea’s gravity. Not unlike Earth’s moon. How did it get oxygen, nitrogen, and water?

At the L4 Lagrange point was a small moon that showed a lot of iron, nickel, and other good stuff.

At the L5 Lagrange point, there was a body that split the difference between a small moon and a large asteroid. It also read as mineral rich.

The Bendarri were set up on the smallest of the three moons.

Tillean spoke up as we got closer “Captain, you should see this.”

I went and looked.

The planet Altea was a human world. With our sensors, we could see a lot of detail. Lots of roads and cars and stuff. The atmosphere showed signs of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other industrial wastes.

The cars were rolling with internal combustion engines.

They had jet airliners. We could see them driving through the sky. They had big cargo ships. They had industrial agriculture. They routed electricity around on big wires. They had big foundries where they melted rocks to get metals and then poured metals in interesting ways.

They communicated by radio waves. Altea was shining brightly in the radio spectrum.

They were clearly a prime directive world.

We could see three areas where there was modern power generation in use. Their biggest city. Some distance outside their biggest city there was a collection of buildings and hangars where we could detect modernish technology, weakly. Some sort of research lab where they were trying to unravel modern technology

And some sort of a Palace on a high mountain peak. But their energy generation was weird. Something like the energy generators a race called The Builders used. Similar but different.

“Aw, hell,” I said.

-*-

A happy bear person appeared on the screen “Greetings Federation Starship. We didn’t think we’d see you guys out this way for a while.”

“Greetings. I’m Captain Hailey of the USS Omoikane. The Damyip called us to try and deal with an imminent conflict.”

“The Galra? Yes, We’ve seen them. I’m Captain Yittam. Please come to Altea and speak with us about this.”

“I’m not sure I can. Our prime directive.”

“Your what, now?” She asked, confused “Oh! The non-interference thing! Rest assured, that’s already long past. The Galra showed up here fifteen years ago to conquer the place. The Galra expected a primitive world ripe for conquest and got a surprise!”

“So the Altean people have been contacted before?”

“Oh, yes. What’s that human phrase? Cats out of the bag!”

“Alright. We’ll approach and join you.”

-*-

I beamed down with Li’ira and Lotara to a Bendarri beacon. There was Captain Yittam. She was much bigger in person.


The Beacon was in an atrium of a building. The windows were blacked out and most of the doors were chained up with physical chains and locks

It looked like a generic office building with some retro touches.

She had a tiger man, a jackal woman, a lizard person and a human man with her.

I’d been reading up on the Bendarri Empire, on the way.

Captain Yittam had Fleet Captain markings. Her uniform was a sort of tabard. The Bendarri Defense Force uniform was royal blue. The Rank markings were on a metal plate over the sternum. In combat, these would be heavier pieces of actual metal. Under conditions like these, they might even be plastic.

We introduced ourselves to the Bendarri party. Captain Yittam gave us the names of her subordinates. I hoped I’d get a chance to talk more with them later.

“You’re just in time,” Captain Yittam said, “We’ve been asked to brief the Altean Defense Forces on the current situation.”

“So the Galrans declared Altea their territory, came in to conquer it and … I’m not clear on this part, a team of heroes foiled them somehow?”

“Yes, I’ll ask the Alteans to describe the Lion Ships. They’re very proud of them. They may ask you to scan them and reveal what you can to them.”

We walked down the Hallway and entered another High Command briefing.

The Generals there were wearing practical Khaki uniforms. Among them was a General who wore minimal decoration. He was very senior. There were also five young people at the briefing.

“I’m Captain Hailey of the United Federation of Planets. I bring you greetings and the hope that we can continue a peaceful, diplomatic relationship.”

The Senior most general, the one with the minimalist markings said “We welcome you to Altea. We, too hope our relationship moving forward will be one of peace and diplomacy.”

We went around and introduced the Officers of the High Command. Including the young folks.

He finished up with himself “I am Alfor.”

“What’s your rank, Sir?”

He smiled “I’m the King of Altea, Captain.

“For how long, Sir?”
He was amused at the question “For about twenty-seven years so far.”

I blinked slowly. “So the Galra claim here is …. Not legitimate?”

“Not from my point of view.”

“How do the Altean people feel about that?”

“I have a seventy-three percent approval rating, this week. I suspect I’ve gotten a good bump from the Bendarri. My people seem to enjoy the new people visiting.”

“The Damyip have asked us to try and diplomatically intercede. Crown Prince Rotol is on his way with a ship called the Conquest.”

That got a reaction “It can’t be The Conquest.” “The Crown Prince Himself?”

“Can you show us a scan of the Conquest?” Captain Yttiam asked

I opened my tricorder and sent the image to her.

Li’ira opened up her tricorder and set it to display a hologram of the Galra ship.

“That’s a new one. It’s Bigger than the last one.”

“More turrets, too.”

“How many ships are with it?”

“None right now. An escort fleet is coming along later. Li’ira show them.”

She called up the strategic map and highlighted the Galran ships

One of the Generals rubbed his face “This looks like Rotol took the new Conquest on his own, and his father sent a supporting fleet to… do something.”

Alfor said, “Either to support Rotol’s attack, or to rescue him if it goes poorly.”

He turned to the young people. “Can the Lion Ships defeat this new Conquest?”

“We believe so, Sir. “ The leader of the Young people said.

“What are these Lion Ships?” I asked. The people of Altea should not have been able to do anything to a Galran ship.

Yittam leaned over conspiratorially “Now you’ve done it.”

They set up a presentation. They’d been waiting for someone from outside to ask that.
They had video, and it was edited with music and narration.

Five small ships. Fighters. One man ships. They didn’t know where they were from. They found them in a temple on top of a mountain.

When the Galra attacked and all looked lost, five heroes climbed the mountain, activated the artifact ships, and used them to destroy the Galran invasion force.

Several times I asked them to stop and rewind. A one-man ship, shields flaring, surviving a heavy starship broadside. Firing weapons that damaged a capital ship, blasting through its shields.

“Is this altered? Are these special effects? “

“No, Captain, this is real footage from the battle.”

Then, at the end of the fight, the five small one man fighters, that should have been easily vaporized by one shot from a starship, they got into a formation, Energy leapt between them, and they became a virtual super cannon that ruined a big Galran ship.

“That’s bullshit,” I said. I grabbed my mouth. I Should not have said that.

The King, the pilots of the ships, and the rest of the command staff looked at me.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just…. Where does the energy come from? How could a ship that small generate that much energy and not cook itself? How can a ship that small mount guns and shields that big? Why don’t THOSE cook themselves? How do they not explode the pilots from inside out with radiation? I don’t know of any technology that could do that. That’s magic.”

“We said much the same thing,” Yittam said, “more diplomatically.” She grinned.

The King nodded “You have zeroed in on questions that have driven our scientists to distraction. We paid lavishly for old technology manuals from the Orions. They taught us much, but almost nothing about the Lion Ships. They do seem to operate on principles beyond what your people know.”

“Do you mind if I take a look at these things?”

“Only if you agree to share all information you gather with us.”

“Okay,” I said.

Omoikane 23 - The Lion Ships

The Alteans had a high-speed rail system designed to get the pilots to the Lion Ships in times of emergency.

It was an impressive piece of low tech engineering. I enjoyed on that level. I’m told it drew power from a nuclear fission reactor, that the Alteans used to power most of their city.

I sat down next to Captain Yittam. “So. Why now? WHy push the issue now?”

Yittam sighed “We were never happy with how the Galra treated the Alteans. As soon as we came sniffing around, the Galra threw up the blockade and threaten to go to war with us if we interfered in their business. We didn’t want a war, so we held back. But we didn’t like it.

We send in covert missions. When the Galra caught them, they killed them, or captured them and then tortured them to death. It was all very unpleasant.”

“And the Alteans?”

“They don’t want to be subjects of the Galra. They’d like to come out and join the big party.”

“So the Bendarri knew the Galra were going to be upset when they found you’d come to Altea.”

“The war against the Thasites has been hard on the Galra. It’s also forced many Galran people to reconsider their place in the Galaxy. They stripped the blockade of Altea to reinforce the rimward front.”

We’re fighting the Thasites, too. Bendarri and Galran forces have cooperated against the Thasites. We felt that bought us some leeway to gently nudge into the Altea system.”

“Well, it must be very important to them to break loose the Conquest and send it this way. I am sure that battlewagon would be handy against the Thasites.”

“We really thought they’d be more sensible. If they attack us, that will end all cooperation. Any possibility of future friendship will be lost. But now that we’ve taken this step we’re reluctant to leave the Alteans alone.”

I sighed. The problem was I could see the Altean and Bendarri point of view. But it was careless to risk antagonizing the Galra.

How could I hope to find a middle ground?

-*-

At the bottom of the mountains, we left the train and got into… another train. But one mixed with an elevator. It zoomed up the side of a huge mountain at great speed.

“Its a sort of high-speed super funicular,” I said.

“Sure,” Li’ira said. She’d never heard of a funicular.

The experience of blasting up a mountain at a high rate of speed was very interesting and my ears did NOT like it. I kept swallowing and working my jaw to unpop my ears.

The Temple at the top of the mountain was huge. It had a light and airy design. I was reminded of Maxfield Parish paintings.

The Pilots of the Lion Ships lived here, usually, To be closer to their ships in case they needed to scramble.

Along one gallery there was space debris. Burned pieces of starships.

“Trophies?” I asked

“That and samples recovered to try and allow us to reverse engineer Galra technology.”

“How’s that working?”

“Very slowly. It’s much harder than they make it look.”

“Yeah. It took my homeworld centuries to advance that far. Do you think your people will be able to handle technology like the Galrans have?
“I hope we do better than they do!”

“Your people have friends.”

We got in a turbolift. Not an elevator. An honest turbolift. It took us into the mountain.

We stepped into a hangar bay.

The Lion Ships were in cradles formed for their hulls. I could see tunnels that allowed the Lion Ships to move elsewhere.

All around were lockers, boxes, and gear. It was Altean-made. Their design sensibilities were different from the temple.

One device caught my eye. I stared at it. “Is that… Is that a charged neutrino scanner?”

“Ummm, Yes,” Kalotta, the pilot of the green ship said
“How did you know?”

“We have one in these,” I held up my tricorder, “But this thing. It’s beautiful! It belongs in a museum!”

I took scans of it. Particle accelerators and guidance, all controlled by some of the most primitive computers I’ve seen in person. Cathode Ray Tubes everywhere. “Wow!”

“Captain,” Li’ira said.

I turned to look at her.

“How do we know this isn’t bleeding edge technology for them?”

I nodded “Oh yeah! It’s beautiful work! I hope you’ve kept records on the development of this thing! It’s art!”

“Perhaps we could focus on the Lion Ships. After all. We know how our own scanner works,” Alfor said.

“Oops! Sorry. I was an engineer before I switched to command track. And I’m an amateur history buff.”

“We can tell,” Li’ira said.

“Okay,” I said “Sorry. Let’s set up our tricorders around the green one there and see what we see.”

We scanned the green Lion Ship. We got nothing. Literally, we could tell it was there and it was a shape.

“Huh,” I went and looked at the ship “May I?”

“Sure,” Kalotta said.

I clambered up and looked at the control panel. It looked a lot like a jet airplane’s cockpit. I tried to slide the bubble canopy back, but it was locked.

“Can you unlock it please?”

“Nope,” Kalotta said

I looked at her confused.

“They won’t open for just anyone. They won’t work for just anyone. The Green Lion Ship picked me.”

I blinked at her. “How does it know that you’re you?”

He shrugged “No idea.”

“Would you mind opening it for me so I can scan inside?”

She did so, easily climbing up on the side of the machine. For a moment I resented her being so young.

She opened the canopy and slid easily into the seat. I noticed the seat adjusted for her. “Do you usually wear spacesuits?”

“Yeah, we-” She stopped and gripped the controls, and tested foot controls. “They’re right where I like them. Usually, we wear space suits and survival gear.”

“A wise precaution,” I said.

“The only time we’ve needed them is when we go to other planets.” She said.

I called the Omoikane “Please send Galaglan to my location. We have some mystery machines that I need help figuring out.”

“Aye, Captain.”

A few moments later “Omoikane to Captain Hailey.”

“Go ahead,” I replied

“Your location is blocked. We can’t transport in or out.”

“Is that your doing?” I asked the Pilots

“No, Sir. We’re not even sure exactly how your transporters work.”

“I believe Galaglan can beam to the station at the bottom of the mountain,” Alfor said “ We’ll send someone to escort them here.”

“Thank you,”

I scanned the cockpit of the Green Lion ship. I got a real good scan of Kalotta but all the material in the ship scanned as null. Something was there but it was blank.

“No, sir. The seat back is leather. Feel it for yourself,” she said.

I did. It felt like leather. The cockpit smelled like metal, technology, leather and sweat.

I scanned my fingers running over the leather seats. Jay’s fingers in detail. Even where my skin gave way to the material. But nothing in the scan.

We scanned in every frequency the Tricorders could manage. I was looking around for stuff we could use to extend the Tricorders scan frequencies.

A Highly decorated Officer of some sort escorted Galaglan into the hangar.

**Captain,** She said

“I think you’ll like this. These ships are utterly scan baffled. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Then I saw Li’ira’s face “Galaglan, this is the King of Altea, Alfor, and his people,” I introduced them. I’m pretty sure I got most of them right.

**Captain, can’t you feel it?**

“Feel what?” I asked her

**These ships are alive.**

I blinked at the fighter planes in the hangar. It made both more and less sense.

**May I?** Galaglan asked. She wasn’t asking me or the Alteans.

She approached the Green ship and put her hands on it.

Omoikane 24 - Meeting the Lions


Galaglan found herself in a mental space. She wasn’t alone. The All was watching over her shoulder.

Five huge lions watched her with interest. Around them, another entity. The Palace of the Lions. It was a being like them.

**Greetings, little one. We’ve heard of the Ane but have never had the opportunity to meet one of your kind.** The Green one was laying down and extended her nose for a sniff. She was at face level for Galaglan.

It was metaphorical, but the meaning was clear. She was gathering information about the Ane.

**What are you?**

**We are the Guardians. We were created and placed here to guard this world against harm.**

**Created by whom?**

The Green Lion thought an image at her. Some sort of being in between the Organians and the mortal races. Half past sensual, half past any goals that made sense. This being created an empire millenia ago, and then left it behind.

The Lions were remarkably incurious. They simply didn’t care much about the details. Once the empire fell and their people disappeared, they hunkered down and took a long nap.

They more clearly remembered waking up with the pilots trying to get into them. The frantic desperation. The need to fight, to protect.

The Lions said to themselves **Enh, why not?**

Each adopted one human as their authorized user and returned to the physical world as protectors.

The Lion ships viewed the humans almost as children to protect. They were cute. The humans belonged to the Great Lions.

Galaglan thought about the dreadnought coming to attack them. The Lions were unconcerned. **Yes. The Galrans. They do this from time. They hurl themselves against us, trying to conquer and dominate, maybe even eat our humans. We don’t let them. **

Galaglan asked **How will you stop them?**

The answer came back. The Lion ships existed partly outside of space and time. They were hard light and folded space, they drew energy from the space between planck lengths. When primitives launched energy at them, they simply disorganized it and sent it …. Elsewhere.

When the Lions fired back, they borrowed energy from in-between dimensions, creating beams of terrible power.

It might have been possible to damage or even kill a Lion Ship.

But Galaglan could see it would take much more than the Omoikane to do it.

**Do you seek to attack us?** The Green Lion asked Galaglan

**Nope! Nuh uh! Also, we like making friends. That works better.**

**We have no objections to being friendly. But never challenge our world. It’s ours. We will defend it. Do not seek to harm our humans. We will defend them.**

**Roger that!** Galaglan said.

Galaglan thought about putting a telepathic interface into their temple so the Lions could talk with others.

The Lions suggested, in turn, that they’d like a subspace relay, to speak with all the people in known space.

Galaglan thought **Just one more thing.**

**Go ahead?**

**My people have been charged with a sacred mission by our Creator. We gather stories. We record them in The All. The Creator comes to collect them. This has happened once already.** Galaglan remembered the supreme joy she felt, relaying stories to The Creator. She had vague memories of a shining, surpassing divine being. She didn’t remember The Creator much, but she knew the Creator remembered her and that felt wonderful.

**So your Creator wants to know our stories?**

**Yes Please.**

The Lions conferred to themselves. It felt like a long conversation. **Since our creators have disappeared, it seemed no one would be interested in our logs, memories, and stories. We will share them with you.**

Galaglan was then treated to the memories of these strange beings. Their life span was open ended. There used to be other such guardians elsewhere.

Altea had seen other waves of civilization and galactic contact.

And long blank areas where the Lions slept, waiting for something interesting to get their attention.

It was a lot to take in. Fortunately, Galaglan had The All to support her.

-*-

Galaglan touched the ship.

Her eyes glowed blue. The Ship glowed green.

I rushed towards her to try and break the contact. I hoped she wasn’t getting her neurons fried.

Kalotta rushed forward to make sure her ship wasn’t being damaged.

We both hit a force field. The ship was preventing us from interfering.

“Galaglan! Galaglan!” I yelled. Damnit. I slapped my comm badge “Hailey to Omoikane, Patch me through to Tippalan! Emergency!”

Kalotta was slapping the force field yelling “Hey! WHat are you doing to my ship!”

Tippalan’s voder came through the Commbadge “Remain calm, Captain. All is under control. Galaglan is getting their stories.”

I recalled from my brother’s book how the Ane saw that as their divine mission

“Is she in danger?” I asked

“If she was, it’s nothing you could help with, much. We’re with her Captain. We will explain when this is done.”

As Tippalan said this, Galaglan’s eyes stopped glowing, and the force field came down.

“What did you do to my ship?” Kalotta yelled.

I rushed forward. Galaglan was swaying weakly and I grabbed her.

-*-

I was inside Galaglans mental space. It was very logical and mathematical. I could almost feel how the math of high-energy plasma energy transfer worked. Galaglan didn’t just run our warp drive… she relished it.

Lots of Ane stuff there, too. Dancing, Singing, Sex. Running in the sunshine. Playing with humanoid brains and just how much they loved their jokes.

**Whoops!** Galaglan said **Sorry! My Bad!**

As she pushed me, I could see Tippalan and Gensilan looking over her shoulder with some exasperation. Gensilan was huge. Like my brothers said. Wow.

I found myself staggering back, my head spinning. The inside of an Ane girl’s head is very weird.

Fun, but weird.

There was a whoosing noise and Tipplana was there.

“I thought you said your transporters don’t work here!” Kalotta said

“They don’t,” I shrugged

**They will now. We’ve reached an agreement with the Temple.** Tippalan said. **Please give Galaglan a moment to gather her wits and then report.**

I put my hands up and tried to take a step back. I forgot my legs weren’t Aneilog’s legs and I stumbled a little.

Li’ira took my arm and waved a tricorder at me.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.”

**You’re not. We’ll have to start a treatment back on the ship. But you’ll be alright for now.** Tippalan said.

**I’m sorry,** Galaglan said

**You’ve nothing to be sorry for. I should have prepared Jay better.** Tippalan sounded miffed.

“Did you learn anything?” Alfor asked gently

**Yes, Your Majesty. This isn’t your world. It belongs to them.** Galaglan pointed to the ships. **They're living beings from ancient times. They think Humans are cute, so they’ve adopted you.**

Alfor stared for a moment “Really?”

Galaglan turned to Captain Yittam **This is why we can’t puzzle out their technology,** Galaglan turned back towards all of us. **They’re rooted in higher dimensions. They’re living things in the shapes of machines, designed to protect this world. You’ve given them something they enjoy protecting.**

“Why have pilots at all?” Kalotta asked

**It’s how they want to operate. Each of the Lions has adopted each of you. You’re their special human. They see the battles and the goals of the battles through you.**

“And if we build ships and defenses of our own?” Alfor asked, “Will they resent us intruding?”

**I strongly doubt it. They seem oddly focused on this planet. They’ll visit other systems, but they want to be here. If you want to really explore, you’ll have to build your own ships for that.**

“Or make friends who already have exploration ships,” Yittam said “Fortunately I know some people like that.”

Kalotta touched the Green ship “You’ve been the boss all along, huh?”

Galaglan said **It says, no, you’re partners.**

Kalotta looked thoughtful “I kinda felt that.”

Alfor said, “Well, Captain, do you think you think you can accomplish your diplomatic goals?”

Galaglan said **If the Conquest attacks, the Lions will eat them. The Galrans are just not on the same level.**

“Alright. We have to go try to warn them off,” I turned to Alfor “Your Majesty. With your permission, we’ll head out. I hope I can come back in a more diplomatic mode.”

“We’d like that, Captain.”

Tippalan was right, we could transport to and from the Temple of the Lions, now.

The Haileys cannot keep their paws out of Ane, can they?

H2 has managed, so far...

So far.

Omoikane 25 - Sticky Brains

As we got ready to return to the Conquest, Tippalan leaned on me. **You’ve taken some psionic damage. Your walls are weak. We’ll need to start working on training you. My apologies. I should have started that sooner.**

“Why didn’t you?” I asked

Tippalan sighed **Well you did ask. Besides being thin-walled, Jay brains are sticky.**

“What does that mean?”

**Once an Ane gets involved with you, it tends to follow them around. Mostly you’ve met Ane who are your family. They either don’t mind, or they welcome how your Jay-ness tends to expand and stick to Ane.**

“Should we ask for another Ane?” I didn’t want to saddle her with an unwanted association.

**I knew this was a possibility when I signed on to the Omoikane. I was trying to have my cake and eat it, too.**

“I really don’t want to force you into an uncomfortable position.”

**It’s not that it’s uncomfortable, Jay. It’s that it gets comfortable. Never mind that. You are my responsibility. My patient. I slacked off, and now you’re hurt and it’s my responsibility to fix it.**

“Are you absolutely sure?”

**Yes, Jay. Now please focus on the matter at hand. We’ll begin treatment soon.**

“What should I do?”

Galaglan appeared at my elbow with a sort of hat made of wires. More of a skull cap really. **Wear this. It’s a psionic shield.**

I looked at it. Galaglan said **I’ve seen your brain. A little goofy. A good dose of heart on the sleeve. A strong dash of over responsible. Too much ska music. Nothing too unusual.**

I blinked at her while suddenly my favorite ska tunes started running through my head.

Ane laughs are triple flutes giggling in harmony, Not a bad sound.

I put the skull cap on. Suddenly, everything seemed quieter. Less colorful. I felt the faintest touch foggy.

“Just in time,” Tippalan’s voder said.