Section One: In General Lincoln’s Office
Gyllian walked up the corridor in the Ministry of Defense. The corridor had the nickname General’s Row. She hoped one day to have an office here, but that had not happened yet. She always wondered why. She had already done some amazing things: Solved the riddle of the Bermuda Triangle, negotiated with the Republic of Space, encountered the frog people, unmasked agents working against the Alliance of Planets, made sense of the toxic site known as the Landscape of Thorns and followed the trail of human beings missing since the War of the Second Expansion not to mention much more mundane work in the field of intelligence.
Today she was going to a conference with General Lincoln. She did not know the nature of the conference. She hoped it would mean her promotion from Colonel to General.
She opened the door to the conference room. Despite all the advances of human beings over many millennia in the exploration of space and the settlement of a large part of the galaxy, conference rooms continued to look much the same, table and chairs with viewing screens built into the table. Maybe the same design was because human beings continued to be designed in the same way. The uncanny valley made sure that human beings could not differ much in looks from themselves and still look normal. The Institute of Genetic Design knew that, too. The ungendered Pantherans used to perform most tasks looked more or less like gendered ones Gyllian was told. Anything else would be too weird to contemplate.
“Please sit down, Colonel,” General Lincoln said, not rising from his position on the other side of the table.
Gyllian sat and waited for General Lincoln to speak.
“We have been considering your report about the Confederation of Three Planets. It was quite a surprise to learn that human civilization exists in an unsettled area of the western spiral galactic arm. Although it is quite some actual distance from Coalition space and the areas settled outside Coalition space, we wondered why there is not much colonization going on out there.”
The general paused to see if Gyllian wanted to make a comment. The comment Gyllian wanted to make was, What took you so long to read the report? She decided this would be seen as impudent on her part and so she said, “I do not know why precisely, but one possibility, and it is only speculation on my part, is that another race once occupied that area and is no longer there as far as we know. our encounter with Prince hat suggests there might have been other races who have succumbed to the pressures of time.”
“A most curious business,” the general said, dismissing the topic. “The point is, Colonel Romeres Lujo, the Alliance of Three Planets exists. We want you to formulate a plan to bring them into an alliance with the rest of humanity. I am sending you the particulars of the mission now. Assemble your team and report back when you have achieved this objective. My staff is available if you have any questions. That will be all.”
And there she was, descending in the elevator tube to her office. Definitely no promotion. She was clever and adventurous, but she still would not be given a chance to move into the inner circle. She was a rogue, good at solving a certain kind of puzzle that needed solving, but not the sort of person the higher ups wanted around, making decisions for the Alliance as a whole. They would tout her successes to make the ministry look forward thinking and creative, but when it came to actually defending their interests, the Ministry of Defense was happy to send her off on a wild goose chase.
Her secretary smiled at her when she entered the office.
“Everything go well upstairs?” he asked, fishing for details.
“A new mission,” Gyllian replied. “I will let you know what you need to do to set it up.”
Sam was crestfallen. He hoped she would get the call to General’s Row, too, because she would take him with her. She and Sam had been together since she rated a secretary.
“Reports are in your queue,” Sam added.
Gyllian went into her office and read quickly through the additional reports, checking some off, sending others back with comments, assigning new work. She was putting off looking at the new assignment General Lincoln had given her. Something told her it would be problematic.
When her desk was clean, figuratively speaking, she opened the file. It was worse than she had feared.
** Section Two: The Scope of the Mission It was bad. In fact, it was terrible. As General Lincoln had outlined, her objective was to bring the Alliance of Three Planets into the cooperative relationship of the Alliance of Planets and The solar League. She had freedom to act. She had a limited budget. She always had a limited budget. She always overran her budgets and sooner or later all expenses were met. She had been given no staff. She had Sam, of course, but a terse note said,
You have demonstrated a willingness and success with non-military personnel. You are strongly encouraged to make use of these contacts in pursuit of this mission.
Non-military personnel. Her superiors were thinking specifically of Captain Star Runner, the fuchsia-colored Pantheran…. Captain Star Runner had a starship, a rather advanced starship not to put too fine a point on things. Star Runner’s on again off again lover, Ronnie Camberwell, was working as a private investigator on Marathon itself. The Czarina, a well-loved gossip blogger was already there along with her new flame, Captain William Kidd, a retired League of Hypatian Pirates official. Josh Levins on, a security expert, had return to the Pharaoh Star System to conduct his business out of Ptolemy City. That left Eberhard. She would have to find out where Eberhard was now. He did not typically stick around the Alliance of Planets much. He was probably back in Ptolemy City, too. The lack of laws there made it easy for him to operate as a hired assassin from time to time and to perfect his comedy sketch as Emily Dickinson. He had some rough patches as a resident of Ptolemy City, but it was a forgiving place.
Gyllian sighed. The first thing to do was to contact Star. She gave Sam instructions.
“I have no idea where Captain Star Runner is,” Gyllian told him. “Just find him and tell him I need to speak with him.”
“And if Captain Star Runner asks why, what should I tell him?” Sam asked. Sam did not like speaking with the Pantheran free lance operator. For one thing, Pantherans spoke to human beings in a breathy, high voice which had a tendency to produce a squeak that was hard on the ears. Sam, like most human beings, had an almost genetic aversion to Pantherans. They were the race that had the upper hand in the Coalition. It was the desire to escape that upper hand, more accurately called the upper paw, that had brought Sam’s family to the Northern Frontier in the first place. Sam had joined the military to fight any encroachment of the Pantherans over the border. In short, Sam did not like Pantherans. He had never met Captain Star Runner. Gyllian doubted he ever would. Captain Star Runner might be an asset to the Ministry of Defense, but they would never admit it nor would they invite Captain Star Runner to their facility.
“Tell Captain Star Runner I need his expertise,” Gyllian said. “I will pay for that expertise. Ask him if he can accommodate me.”
With luck, Captain Star Runner would not be halfway to Half Moon Bay Space Station in the adjoining galactic arm. Recently the fuchsia-colored Pantheran had returned from a highly profitable trip there. With Captain Star Runner’s exceptional ability to find his way through hyperspace, Star Runner had found a very expedient route which made regular visits back and forth feasible.
Now to contact Eberhard. Her text was short and to the point:
Eberhard, can you work with me?
Eberhard called her five minutes later.
From her wet wire display, Gyllian saw tables and chairs with spacers talking, eating and drinking. It looked familiar.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Baker Street Lounge,” Eberhard replied.
“On Dirty World Station?” she asked.
“The same,” he replied.
“It looks the same,” she said.
“It looks like it has not changed since the day it was fabricated,” Eberhard said. “I do not think the coffee pot has ever been emptied either. I think I am drinking some of the coffee from the original pot.”
“What are you doing there?” she asked, then said, “Never mind. I do not think I need to know.”
“You do not,” Eberhard said. “What do you need?”
“Intelligence,” Gyllian said. “Is this line secure?”
“As secure as I can make it,” Eberhard said, “which is pretty secure if you ask me. Noting is perfect, of course.”
“Of course not,” Gyllian agreed. “Here is what I need. I am to go back and talk to the people in the Confederation of Three Planets. I know the Pantherans were trying to follow us there. I need to know what they are doing, if anything, about finding out where we went and why. I need to know what they know and what they want to know.”
Eberhard whistled softly. “That is a tall order, Gyllie.”
“I know. But you have resources I do not. You have ways of finding out information I do not.”
“Agreed,” Eberhard said. “I can wander about, ask a few questions, and listen a lot.”
“Good. I need this information as soon as I can get it.”
“Talking about the cats can lead to trouble,” Eberhard observed.
“I know,” Gyllian said. “There is compensation, of course.”
“Of course,” Eberhard said and rung off.
Good. That was done. Without checking, the Alliance would not have anything. She would have to ask her counterparts in The Solar League. It was very dangerous for them to talk about certain subjects. Pantheran surveillance was everywhere. They pretended to be in the forefront of open and frank conversation between the different races of the Coalition. Over time, everyone had learned the Pantherans used the Coalition to control other races. They thought of themselves as ruling this part of the western spiral galactic arm. They had been an out of the closet empire previously. Now they used the myth of an open Coalition.
And they were good. Despite everything, peace had prevailed. All the races did not suffer interracial violence. There were no external threats, at least right now. The problem was, the Pantherans watched and listened. Nothing was below their notice and they wanted everything done their way. They intimidated their way to dominance. It was a word here and a word there and a threat somewhere else.
Gyllian often wondered how they managed it. She thought she knew Captain Star Runner well. Star Runner was many things, but Star Runner was gullible and easily manipulated. She wondered how Star Runner’s engineering varied from the military planners and the diplomats. Star Runner was just that, someone who ran a starship, piloting it safely through hyperspace where ships could be easily lost and never return to normal space.
Sam stood in her office doorway. He could have reached out and notified her through her wet wiring, but Sam always took opportunities to get out of his chair and move around. Sam said, “Captain Star Runner is available to speak with you.”
“Go ahead Star,” Gyllian said.
The fuchsia-colored Pantheran appeared to her. He was stretched out on his acceleration platform,. A turquoise haze enfolded him. This was the upgraded acceleration web. No more hammock. Gyllian was still not used to looking at Captain Star Runner through the haze. She supposed it told her Captain Star Runner was underway.
“You had a business proposition for me,” Captain Star Runner said.
To the point as always. Captain Star Runner considered profit to be very important. Maybe if she was so dependent on technology she literally could not live without it, Gyllian would be as concerned with money as Captain Star Runner was.
She said, “Yes, I have a mission with the Confederation of Three Planets. I wondered if you would contract with me to take me there and provide whatever support you can.”
“That is fairly nebulous,” Captain Star Runner said. “I understand passage to and from that star system.”
“I do not know what I may be called upon to do there,” Gyllian explained. “I need a ship and a pilot. Can you do that for me?”
“Am I a part of your mission?” Captain Star Runner asked.
“I cannot say for certain yet,” Gyllian replied. “It is still early days.”
“Is the Empire involved?” Captain Star Runner asked.
“I do not know that either,” Gyllian sai d. “My instructions are to go to the Confederation of Three Planets and open up a dialog with them. We would like them to interact with the rest of humanity.”
“And why do you need my services?” Captain Star Runner asked. “Why do you not have your own vehicle?”
A very good question, but Gyllian thought she knew the answer.
“A military vessel was not assigned,” she said. “My brief is to go there and employ the resources I think best to undertake this mission. I believe that my superiors are telling me, indirectly of course, to ask you to be my star runner.”
“And who else is involved in this mission?” Captain Star Runner asked.
“I have contracted with Emily Dickinson,” Gyllian said, using Eberhard’s alternate name, the one Star Runner used.
“Anyone else?”
“Josh Levins is back in Ptolemy City,” Gyllian said. “I do not know how I would involve him yet. When I get to the Confederation of Three Planets I plan to contact The Czarina and Captain Kidd though I do not have a role for them yet.”
“And Private Investigator Ronnie Camberwell?” Captain Star Runner asked. “What about her?”
“I do not have a role for a private investigator yet,” Gyllian said.
Star Runner was silent. Ronnie was his lover. Gyllian and Ronnie did not see eye to eye. If she was honest, Gyllian felt jealous of Ronnie. She did not understand Star Runner’s attraction and love for the woman.
Star Runner continued his silence. This was unusual. The Pantheran had not been as guileless as he once was especially after his return from the adjoining galactic arm.
“You would be free to interact with Ronnie as the mission permitted,” Gyllian said. “You would be working for me.”
“It is my ride,” Captain Star Runner said.
“Of course,” Gyllian agreed. “You can have whoever you want on board. I just need to know you would be contracted with me.”
“I will draw up a contract and send it to you,” Captain Star Runner said.
“You are available immediately, right?” Gyllian asked.
“I can make myself available if you agree to the contract,” Captain Star Runner said.
“Okay,” Gyllian said.
Captain Star Runner broke the connection.
As usual, Star Runner’s contract was very precise. When compared against previous contracts, it was basically the same. As captain, Star Runner reserved the right to only do things that safeguarded his vessel. He also made it clear that the personnel aboard his vehicle had to be to his liking. Gyllian had to accept these provisos.
Section Three: The Confederation of Three Planets
Captain Star Runner met Gyllian at the Rock Island Line Diner on Grand Central Station. It was good to be back together again eating at the diner. Captain Star Runner already had a plate of his favorite foods in front of him. His AI Christabel scolded him for eating these rich foods because she had to adjust his biochemistry after he ate, but Captain Star Runner delighted in macaroni and cheese with chocolate chip cookies and tapioca pudding with whipped cream It was an odd meal, but everyone at the Rock Island Line Diner knew how much he loved it. Captain Star Runner came into the diner often enough that the sight of a fuchsia-colored Pantheran did not upset anyone. They knew he was a regular spacer who dropped in when his routes allowed it. He was, in a real sense, their Pantheran Gyllian thought as she sat down across from him. That made all the difference in the western spiral galactic arm. Captain Star Runner was not threatening. He was known and judged to be no different than any other independent operator running his ship to make deliveries thought the Alliance of Planets and beyond. He was reliable and did not ask questions about his cargo. Smugglers and legitimate businesses were willing to pay a high price for Captain Star Runner’s services. Being a Pantheran, he could withstand higher G-forces than humans could and he could insert and extract from hyperspace without a jump gate. That meant he could move through hyperspace faster and therefore get goods to where they were going quicker than anyone else. His limitation was that he refused to enter Coalition space, but making a regular run to Three Ravens on the Southern Frontier was no problem at all.
“Are we ready to go?” Gyllian asked.
“I have all the items you requested on board,” Captain Star Runner replied. “Christabel has put together an order for comestibles that will satisfy you and the Terries we know in the Confederation of Planets. Based on the outline you sent me, I am concerned that you do not have a role for Private Investigator Ronnie Camberwell. I wonder if you are intentionally leaving her out of your plans.”
That was a bold speech for Captain Star Runner, Gyllian thought. He did not usually confront her like this. Gyllian suspected Captain Star Runner and Christabel, the AI, had discussed the situation. Christabel had written this speech and prompted Star Runner to make it. It was a fair question. She needed to allay his fears. Star Runner was very protective of those he cared about. Fortunately, he cared about everyone he knew in the Confederation of Three Planets which would make him a reliable pilot.
“I do not have a role in mind for her at this time,” Gyllian said, “but rest assured if I need her I will call upon her investigative skills.”
“She does have good skills,” Captain Star Runner insisted.
Gyllian was not altogether sure about that. Ronnie had disappointed her in the matter of the Landscape of Thorns though she had been very useful to Tamara at The Big Dig.
“You are very loyal,” Gyllian told the fuchsia-colored Pantheran. “That is a great virtue.”
Captain Star Runner was pleased. Gyllian saw he did not recognize she had skirted his issue. She wondered if she had fooled Christabel. The AI was very protective of her charge. The Fungusian Network which had designed her was far more discerning than Star Runner was.
When they were finished eating, they went aboard Captain Star Runner’s ship and traveled to the Confederation of Three Planets.
The ship definitely needs a name. I need to review the initial encounter when Captain Star Runner and company first meet the Confederation of Three Planets. I also need to review the disposition of the company at the end of The Big Dig.
Captain Star Runner collected messages when they arrived in the star system.
The star system needs a name, too.
There was one from Eberhard.
Gyllie, there is talk that the Pantherans are looking for extraction points in your sector. I do not know why or anything else. The chatter comes from reliable sources.
This sector of space needs to be located relative to the other areas touching the Coalition.
Later Gyllian would realize this information was disinformation put out by the Pantheran Empire. They already knew where the Confederation of Three Planets was, how to access it and they had left messages there for many years. The time was not right for them to act on the knowledge they had.
“This extraction thing bothers me,” Gyllian told Captain Star Runner. “If they force the lock from the Pharaoh Star System, they can easily overpower anyone here.”
“The thing to do is to map all the insertion and extraction points,” Captain Star Runner said. “Then we can go about locking them.”
This seems like a good idea to Gyllian. An organized approach to solving a problem satisfied her like nothing else. In the meantime, she had to contact the Confederation of Three Planets and convince them they needed to be concerned about an imminent threat to their security. By formerly joining with the rest of humanity, they would benefit by having other human beings willing to assist them if the unthinkable happened. The Pantheran Empire had not moved against any other race since the War of the Second Space Expansion, but Gyllian and others in the Ministry of Defense and in The Solar League were concerned that this state of affairs could change at any time.
I need to clarify the name of this ancient conflict and its nature.
Many of the races in the Coalition scoffed at the human race for having this fear. They considered them paranoid. Gyllian thought they were naive. Even the Fungusian Network was convinced the Pantherans would assert their hegemony soon. They believed the Pantheran Empire would fall like so many others before them, but their estimates ranged into the tens of thousands of years. They were well-organized and apparently all the members of the Race from the juvenile ungendered Pantherans to the most significant gendered ones were willing to subsume their own personal well-being to that of the whole. Gyllian offered wondered how Captain Star Runner had overcome that genetic programming. Maybe it was his fuchsia coloring. Fuchsia-colored Pantherans were known to be unique.
When they arrived in the star system, Gyllian sent out messages to The Czarina, Captain Kidd and the Confederation of the Three Planets. She had no way of contacting Ronnie Camberwell and besides, Gyllian had no intention of contacting the private investigator if she did not have to. Captain Star Runner was extremely unhappy with this state of affairs.
“We will have to wait until we have a reason to go down to Capital City in The Royal Province of Debussy on La Mer,” Gyllian insisted. “She is posing as a regular member of their society. We just cannot go charging in there and expose her as a person from outside their star system. It would put her in great danger.”
“You have contacted The Czarina and Captain Kidd,” Captain Star Runner said. “Your actions could endanger them, too.”
“Their situation is different,” Gyllian said. If pressed, she had to admit to herself, the difference was in her own judgment, not in their situation, but Captain Star Runner did not press her. She wondered why at the time.
Don’t forget to go back to this at the end of the novel.
The Confederation of Three Planets was not happy she had returned to the star system.
“The Confederation’s General Secretary wishes to advise the representative of the Alliance of Planets and The Solar League that this organization exists for the well-being of the three inhabitable planets of this star system and neither has the authority or desire to interact with governments and organizations outside its jurisdiction.”
Gyllian frowned. They were far too isolationist and parochial. There was a whole galaxy out there that could drop in at any time. She said as much to the functionary.
“We have managed our affairs in this way for five thousand years. We see no reason to change our conduct now.”
And that was the end of the transmission. No amount of cajoling on Gillian’s part even produced a response.
While she was pondering what to do next, a transmission came from The Czarina and Captain Kidd.
“Has anyone heard of anything about The Rebel Horde? We keep hearing references to them but we are unable to pinpoint any specific information about this group. It would help our research to learn more about them.”
This was the key Gyllian was looking for. This was why she had contacted The Czarina and Captain Kidd in the first place. They were doing research for some blog posts The Czarina hoped to write in the future for human consumption. She made her living as a gossip columnist. Gossip about some here-to-fore unknown worlds was just the ticket that would boost her ratings. She had done that previously when the most powerful person on Hypatia was indicted for corruption and murder. She was always on the lookout for more sensational stories.
Gyllian sent another message to The Confederation of Three Planets, asking for anyone to contact her about The Rebel Horde. She had information to share. It was a bold move. Her information was only that some of her operatives had encountered the term but she hoped someone would respond. And someone did.
Meeting with Lord Stern
The message that the ship received was in text only. Captain Star Runner thought the sender had spoofed his address of origin. This supposition proved to be correct. Christabel was able to track back to the office of one Lord Stern, the Confederation of Three Planet’s representative from somewhere called The Royal Province of Debussy on La Mer. Gyllian was excited. This was one of the representatives she had met with when they first came to the star system. Ronnie was living in Capital City, the main urban area of that province.
Lord Stern wished to keep their communication as private as possible. He knew the Confederation of Three Planets had refused Gillian’s offer of assistance. For his part, Lord Stern believed the Confederation of Three Planets as a whole was being short-sighted and foolish.
“But you see, Colonel Romeres Lujo,” he wrote, “the province in the strongest position in our Confederation Council is that of the Royal Province of Barbara of Portugal, the largest and most powerful province. If the Barbarans do not want something to happen, it does not happen. They do not want to contact other members of the human race. Their power would be greatly diminished if they did so. They would not be equal partners with your illustrious Alliance of Planets or Solar League. They would be seen as a handful of country bumkins and they want to maintain the fiction that they are an elite group of highly sophisticated individuals.
“For my part, I consider us vulnerable to attack from both outside our star system and from within. I have heard of this Rebel Horde and I am concerned that they could and will undermine our current position.”