Star Trader Update .030

030.01

“Sam are you set?” I asked.

I had Ma-rye-a turn around and place us just outside of the window and off to the left, out of the way. I had Sam train our weapons on the mouth of the window. His reaction, and recognition time was far superior to mine and if the Tiltode came though that gate either alone or chasing the Calpernia, I wanted to be prepared.

“Ready and waiting, Captain,” Sam replied.

He had no sooner spoken than the Calpernia came sailing through unhindered. Jake pulled his ship up beside Ma-rye-a as soon as he caught sight of her and Ma-rye-a threw his and Arr’s imagine up on the viewport.

“You okay?” he asked with a concerned look.

Star Trader Update .029

029.1

Claiming to know someone who could talk to the Hummers was taking a wee bit of convincing until Coal managed to pull up some info on his computer about by friend, Arr, Jake Harcourt’s partner. Seemed a doctor named Margaret O’Connor was doing a bit of a study on him and she had recorders that attested to his ability to learn languages faster than a Roughnut snake can swallow a gerbit. You see, Arr’s people all have genetically inherited memories - abilities that are passed from generation to generation in the basic makeup of their brains. Arr can learn languages just by listening to them. Within a few hours he can master any language. Last count he gave me was one hundred and one, and that’s fluent, not just counting to ten and asking where the restroom is located.

A while back Arr and I were stuck in adjoining hospital beds for an extended period of time. We had a lot of time to exchange stories as we healed. That story is in my log books as “Body Bags and Other Dark Places” if you wish to look it up. Anyway… Arr told me about Jake explaining to him how the NBs worked - that they each held a Hummer inside. Arr was trapped alone on a planet for several years until Jake found him. Arr was shocked to think the Hummers were isolated in the NBs. He wanted to talk to them to make sure they were okay with what he saw as captivity. So Jake parked their ship, the Calpernia, by one and Arr took a few hours to learn their language and reassure himself that they were quite content as they were.

Arr told me this story, along with a string of others, and I remembered it.

Star Trader Update .028

028.01

Zack sat silently listening to the med tech as he jabbered on and on about the numerous incidents surrounding the breach in the NB operational system.

“I can’t believe someone would mess with those beacons,” the tech said, as he threaded the new tube through the holder on Zack’s servo-chair. “I mean, what kind of asshole would hack something that important to every living being in the verse?”

Zack had experienced a true epiphany the day Daniel triggered the cascade in the beacons. On that day one of the ships that locked onto an infected NB was a tour ship with a load of teenagers coming home from an interstellar field trip. The ship had no weapons to activate. Instead it just took over the controls from the adult crew and flew the ship into the nearest star. It was a long enough trip to the star for all the kids to call home and say goodbye to their family, not long enough for anyone to launch and save them. All twenty-one died on impact.

Star Trader Update .027

027.01

I don’t have a sick-bay aboard Ma-rye-a, so Damion was in the guest room with a dying patient in each bed with nothing more than my first-aid kit. I don’t usually need intensive medical treatment. My medical supplies are geared toward a headache or the flu.

The way Damion explained it was that by the Valarians injecting Daniel with anhydrates, his body was full of what must have felt like small medieval maces floating around inside him.

Targus, on the other hand, almost had his arm torn off.

Damion needed a ship load of painkillers, a well-equipped surgery for Targus and an ultrasound-stimulator to break up the rocks in Daniel’s system. Headache and nausea patches were not going to do the trick.

Star Trader Update .026

026.01

Zack sat watching the drama unfold across his monitors. The virus he initiated in the beacons around Valaria had done their job. It was better than any game display could possibly be. The mercenary ship opening fire on the settlement on Gamma 3 was his favorite part. He had it on loop and it was playing over and over and over again. The recording, made by a civilian survivor, of the ship descending upon the colony with laser cannons firing, the destruction of the ancient runes the archeological colony was built around blown into rubble, and the citizens running, screaming. The visuals made Zack’s blood race. He had lost the line between ‘game’ and ‘reality.’

Zack actually chuckled as he watched the self-destruction of the second vessel in the Titan region. He had not expected the N.B. to have that far reaching connection. They were really an amazing bit of technology.

He leaned over and sipped at the straw from the drink bottle attached to his servo-chair. The Valarians would be contacting Daniel soon. Wait until he found the surprise Zack secretly downloaded on his flat last time they played. It was not easy getting around Daniel’s security system. In fact, it was harder than initially accessing the N.B.s. But Zack had done it. He had managed to install the trigger. Daniel was going to have a lot of explaining to do the minute he hooked into the Valarian server.