Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Read online

  Ian nodded. “I’d be happy to, but please keep in mind, I’m not the explorer; you folks are, so you’ll have the final say on what you want the probes to do.

  “What I had in mind was to have a special shuttle built to carry multiple exploration and survey probes. It could jump to the Centauri system and drop the probes. The shuttle could make the jump in a week or less, and you could have hard data as early as a week after that.”

  Off-handedly one of the older women replied. “It takes the probes at least a month to do minimum survey of a planet. Atlas will probably take much longer considering its size. However, the other planet and the moons shouldn’t take as long. Besides, we can always monitor the probes from here.” She started getting excited about the prospect, and Ian could see that the rest of the section was getting revved up too.

  In a way, Ian envied these folks. This area of research was one he knew he could sink his teeth into, but like his granddad had been fond of saying, ‘someone had to drive the train’.

  Finally getting the knot out of her tongue, Anna asked, “So, what happens now? How do we proceed?”

  “Simple, I’ll ask for the shuttle to be built, but will have the designer give you a call before sending it to the fabricators. I’d give a lot of thought to what I’d like included in the probes and computer system of the shuttle. Just remember, once you approve the design, that’s it. As soon as you say so, the fabricators will lay the keel for it.”

  Anna nodded her head. “We will not forget, Sir. Thank you for answering our prayers!”

  “Don’t thank me, Anna; I’ve a very good reason for wanting you to get that system surveyed. I plan on eventually founding a colony there, as well as building a ship yard with dry docks,” Ian explained. “So, please let me know when you have the data, as we’ll need to figure out where to put what.”

  Ian had no more than returned to his office and finished ordering the shuttle when his communit beeped urgently.

  “Captain, Sir, would you please come to Main Medical right away? Your wife has gone into labor,” a woman’s voice said in his ear. “There are complications, she needs an emergency C-Section now!”

  Chapter 2

  F.S.S. Star Dancer.

  Selene Orbit, (Earth’s moon)

  Earth, Sol Sector.

  When Ian arrived in Medical, he was directed through a set of doors and into the portion of the bay that actually looked like a hospital. One of the staff nurses saw the panicked look on his face and took pity on him. Boldly grabbing his hand, she very quickly led him through what seemed like a maze to a waiting area where he found Beth and Talena.

  He'd expected to find Jenny as well, but she waddled in shortly after he arrived.

  As Jenny was entering, Ian cornered Beth. “How is she?”

  “Emilio just took her in. She and Talena were in Flight Ops when her waters broke. Alpha Bay ESAR got her up here fast. When Emilio checked her she hadn't even started to dilate. The computer reported that Cindy wouldn't dilate fast enough considering the stage of labor she was in. It recommended immediate surgery to remove the fetuses before they went into distress,” Beth explained.

  “Is surgery really necessary?” Ian asked, worried. He knew that surgery was rare in Talosian medicine, and only reserved for very serious cases.

  “Yes it is. Look at it this way; what happens to a watermelon if you push it through a keyhole?” Beth answered. Ian paled even more.

  “Relax Ian. Even in Talosian medicine, this is a common procedure. It's been refined and perfected about as far as it can be. Unless or until someone discovers a way to safely use a transporter, there is no other way to do this.”

  “Yeah, I guess I just hear the word surgery and panic. Did you get to see her before they took her in? How was she doing?” Ian asked.

  “She was fine – a little scared, but otherwise, just fine,” Beth replied. “I think in her shoes, I’d be a little scared too. No one wants to hear the words emergency C-section when they’re pregnant.”

  “Jenny, are they going to be alright? Do you know what we’re going to name them?” Ian asked.

  “Ian, calm down!” Jenny said, seeing how worried he was. “If I had seen anything about this, don’t you think I would have told everyone by now? Before you ask, Janet hasn’t seen anything either. As for what we’re going to name them, of course I know, you know too since we all talked about it and chose names for them,” she said in as soothing a voice as she could use.

  Beth took his hand and pulled him over to the chairs set up in the waiting room. “Are you going to calm down, or do I need to give you something? I swear! Nerves of steel when it comes to the ship and danger, but you fall to pieces when we go into labor?”

  “If the ship’s in danger, I can usually do something about it!” Ian replied, but grinned slightly and started to calm down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to finish finding his center. “Okay, so how long will she be recovering from this?”

  Beth shrugged. “It’s hard to say, it depends on too many factors that I don’t know. It could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month.”

  “Oh, she’s not going to be happy about that!” Jenny replied. “She’s going to be chomping at the bit to get out and about long before that.”

  Beth nodded. “I know. But this time she’ll listen and rest when we tell her to, otherwise, I’ll tell Star not to let her out of our quarters!”

  Jenny and Ian both chuckled at that.

  Talena said, “I don’t think it would work, she’d charm Star into letting her out!”

  “She most certainly would not!” Star said from the door. She’d formed her hologram near the door so as not to surprise the people in the room. It was a habit she was getting into since Ian had remade her avatar. “Although I do have to admit, she can be pretty persuasive.”

  Ian snorted. “Tell me about it, how do you think she got pregnant in the first place?”

  “Come on, Ian, you have to admit, she didn’t have to try all that hard to talk you into it. Of course, I can’t say anything, because I wasn’t exactly playing hard to get either,” Beth replied.

  “None of us were,” Jenny said.

  “Well, I just hope everything’s fine, and I can see the babies before I have to go on patrol later today,” Talena said, sounding a little depressed.

  “You’re still in charge of the patrol rotations, assign someone else to it,” Ian suggested.

  “I don’t think that would be fair to the squadron. I’ve been skipping patrols already in order to help Cindy out here. The wing never said a word, but I know it‘s got to be bothering a few of them,” Talena explained.

  “Beth, how long does this normally take?” Ian asked.

  “Never more than an hour unless there are complications. Emilio was just taking her into the O.R. when you got here, so about another forty-five minutes or so,” Beth replied. “Why?”

  As a reply, she got a smile from Ian, as he reached up to activate his comm. “Major Harris, please.” After a second or two, Ian spoke again. “John? Could you please have Gold squadron assemble in their ready room? It’s not an emergency, but it is important.” When the other man replied, Ian grinned. “Excellent! Talena and I’ll be right there, please include Major Brighton as well as yourself.”

  Ian nodded as the communications ended, then took Talena’s hand. “Come on Cutie, let’s go talk to your wing.” He turned to the other two women. “We’ll be right back.”

  Beth nodded acceptance, but Jenny tilted her head and grinned at them. “You’re going to go down there and throw your weight around aren’t you?”

  “Nope, just gonna have a little chat to find out if what Talena’s worried about is an actual problem. See ya in a few minutes.” With that, he and Talena left the medbay for the flight deck.

  Ian thought he and Talena would have to wait for the wing to finish assembling after they got to the ready room, but was surprised when he found everyone already there and waiting, even Ch
loe Brighton, the Operations Chief.

  “Commander on deck!” was yelled when Ian walked into the room, bringing everyone to attention.

  “As you were!” Ian replied automatically. “Thanks for coming together, everyone. My wife, Cindy has gone into labor and is currently undergoing an emergency C-section in med bay.

  “Talena told me she has been fudging a bit on the patrol roster so she has less patrol duty in order to stay close to Cindy and help her out. What I would like to know is, how many of you were aware of this, and do you mind?”

  Before he had finished speaking, he could see a lot of the folks nodding their heads, but no one looked mad. One of the older pilots stood in the rear of the room.

  “Sir, we’re all aware of what’s been going on, and no, none of us minded at all. However, we would like to know if everything’s alright with Lieutenant Williams?” he said and sat back down.

  “So far everything’s fine. She needs the C-section because she isn’t dilating fast enough to accommodate the passage of the babies through the birth canal. So, in a little under and hour, I’m going to be a daddy.

  “Since she has been taking advantage of you to help take care of Cindy, I was wondering if anyone would mind her doing it just a little bit more so she can be there for the birth and for when Cindy comes out of the anesthetic?” Ian asked.

  “I’m on the schedule for close-in patrol and CAP later tonight. Would any of you be willing to take my next two duty rotations?” Talena said and bit her lower lip.

  Surprising Talena, the whole squadron stood.

  “I think you have your answer, Leftenant,” Major Brighton said. “With your permission, as well as the rest of the squadron, I’ll make sure the rotations get covered in such a way as to see that no one gets over-burdened. You need to go take care of our lady.”

  Seeing the happy agreement of the squadron, Talena hugged Major Brighton. “Thank you!” She turned back to the room. “Thank you everyone!”

  “I’ll go start replicating the cigars for you, Sir!” Major Harris said, smiling.

  Ian and Talena arrived back at med bay and Talena was smiling.

  “I take it everything went well with the pilots?” Jenny asked.

  “Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if flowers and other junk don’t start showing up soon! John Harris said he’d get busy getting the cigars replicated!” Ian said chuckling.

  Flowers, teddy bears and everything you could think of began arriving at medbay as well as at Ian and family’s quarters. Star told Ian that the entire ship was aware of the births of Joshua Michael and Angela Jean Williams.

  The official birth announcement was in the small community newspaper along with the winner of the ‘baby-pool’. Emily Conlith, the youngest daughter of one of the construction people, won a six-foot-tall teddy bear. The whole thing had been organized by Janet Laskar’s office and there were pools on Beth and Jenny’s upcoming dates as well.

  Ian was in his ready room reading reports on some of the new innovations completed by the research teams. There were a few new weapons systems, as well as upgrades to existing ones. In addition to weapons technology, there had also been a great deal of research done on underwater housing as well as millions of ways to clean up the planet while eliminating solid waste in an environmentally responsible way.

  In with that report was a note that Doctor Amal Punjab would like to speak with Ian as soon as would be possible. Ian could almost hear the Indian accent through the note, and smiled at it.

  Construction was still underway on the moon base, even though there had been large portions of the base already completed, it still wasn’t ready for prime time yet. Only one of the huge residence modules had been finished, as well as the main connecting hub of the base. The small administration area had been completed, as well as the medical area, but the first research area was only about half completed.

  After the research area gets finished, the next item was for a very large, mostly automated assembly and fabrication area for building the small agile fighter craft that Star Dancer carried, which would be used for defending the solar system from attack.

  The construction drones were amazingly fast workers, but even with them working continuously, the research area would still not be ready for another week, and the fighter assembly area would take another month. Of course, not all the drones would be working on a single project; the assembly area had already been started and was progressing, but for now the main focus was on the research area. Once that was completed, some of the drones would switch over to building another residence unit, then another research area, and then more residences for the flight school would be built near the small space port.

  Ian asked to be connected with Doctor Punjab and was surprised when his wife answered the comm. “Doctor Punjab’s office, how can I help you?” When she saw who it was, her smile brightened considerable. “Commander Ian! How nice of you to call! What can I do for you today? She asked again in her excitement.

  “Good Morning Alba, I got a note that Amal wanted to speak with me, is he in?” Ian asked.

  Alba nodded. “Yes he is, he has been going over some of the engineering reports for the construction project here. I’ll let him know you are calling.”

  “Thank you,” Ian said grinning at the woman.

  Very shortly the smiling face of a greying, elderly Indian gentleman came on the screen. “Commander Ian! Thank you for contacting me so quickly! I only sent that note this morning!”

  “It’s not a problem, Doctor. What did you need to speak to me about?” Ian asked.

  Amal Punjab seemed to deflate on himself for a moment. “I am afraid I may have made a mistake in accepting this position without thinking it through more completely. I am fearful that I will not be able to perform all the duties that will be required of me.”

  “What duties would those be, Doctor? I don’t understand? Has something changed?” Ian asked.

  “No, nothing has changed, Commander. I did not stop to think that part of the duties of my office would be the authorization for the building of weapons. I am afraid I cannot do that. I abhor violence of that nature. I have spoken of this with Alba, and we can see no way around this impasse,” Amal said sadly. “I am truly sorry to be letting you down in this manner.”

  The light dawned for Ian as he realized that Amal and Alba were both devout Hindus, and that their religion did not condone violence of any kind.

  “Doctor, you and Alba have not let me down at all, I’m afraid it was I that let you down. I should have known that the weapons section of the base would go against your ethics and beliefs, and made allowances for it. Don’t feel badly about this, it isn’t your fault.” He said thinking quickly. “Doctor, is there any other part of the base or your duties that would violate your beliefs?”

  “Just the military flight school, and I was lead to believe that would have its own commander and only require support from us,’ the Doctor replied.

  “That’s correct, you shouldn’t have to worry about that at all. I would very much like you to stay on there and be the administrator as we discussed earlier, so why don’t we find someone else to handle the weapons facility for you?” Ian suggested.

  “You would do that for us?” Amal asked.

  “Doctor, from everything I’ve seen so far, you are the perfect person to be in the position you now have. The failure to see the issue you would have with the weapons area was mine, not yours, so if you would consider it, please stay and continue as you have been, and I will speak to Janet Laskar about finding a person to handle the weapons and military portions of the base. Would that be satisfactory?”

  “That would be very satisfactory, Commander! Both Alba and I very much like the situation we now find ourselves in. I was dreading speaking to you about this because of that, however, I knew I had to in order for the project to proceed through to fruition,” the man replied.

  “In case it takes a little while, would it be acceptable for you to continue s
upervising the construction until we can get a military liaison officer for you?” Ian asked.

  “That should be fine, Commander. As long as no weapons get made under my authorization, I feel my conscience will be clear,” Amal replied.

  “Okay, I’ll get right on finding the officer then. Of course, knowing Janet, she probably already knows and has someone picked out!” Ian said grinning.

  “She does seem to have an uncanny ability to know what’s going on. If I weren’t so busy, it would be an interesting subject to research,” Amal replied, obviously relieved now.

  “I will let you back to work then, Doctor. Good Morning,” Ian said.

  “And to you, Commander. Thank you.” Amal said as his smiling face faded from the screen.

  As Ian was about to ask for Janet, the door chimed a visitor. Ian grinned and called ‘open’.

  Just as he thought, Janet Laskar walked through the door, however, she wasn’t smiling. “Ian, I think we might have a problem.”

  Many light years away...

  Quilcab strode purposefully into the control center. Looking out of the large windows into the bay, it saw the slaves scurrying around to get the big ship loaded as quickly as possible.

  “Report,” it commanded.

  “We are slightly ahead of schedule getting the ship loaded. However, this load will all but deplete the raw ore we have stockpiled from our mines. We...”

  “I know all that, subnick! What of the message I sent to Command? What is their reply?” Quilcab said shortly, it really hated it when its questions didn’t get answered.

  “There has been no reply to your message, Sire,” the underling replied. “However, I can confirm that it has been received by the Council.”

  “That makes no sense. We have confirmed sightings of Talosian ships operating in this system, yet Command does nothing about it? What are we supposed to do if they discover the shipments? One of these ships could lead an alliance fleet to our exile!” Quilcab said to itself. “What kind of game are they playing at? If we lose this planet, we lose the last food producing planet we have.”