First Contact

Chapter 816: Ultimis Diebus Hominum

Chapter 816: Ultimis Diebus Hominum

It's a universal rule. Sometimes you have to start over whether you like it or not. - Junker's Saying

If you lose everything, upgrade upgrade upgrade. - Junker Maxim #42

There's no such thing as lost profit, merely lessons. - Junker Maxim #18

Breket had started out as a lowly Telkan worker overseeing robots caring for the Overseers bushes and plants on their estate gardens. Drafted to fight, he became to a Home Guard soldier during the latter half of the First Telkan War and all of the Second Telkan War. Afterwards he had taken advantage of loans, training, and opportunity.

He had bought a Terran troop transport that had been damaged and slated for mass reclamation, refurbished it, hired beings to train him and his friends, and christened it What, Me Worry? and started cruising the shipping lanes.

Eight years later, exciting, heady years full of danger, excitement, and opportunity, he'd made it to a successful interstellar trader. He had encountered strange Terrans that wanted puppies and kittens, he'd encountered a Pubvian warship that had been drifting for nearly eight thousand years, and even gotten in a fight with one of the smaller PAWMs and come out on top, saving an entire stellar system.

His small crew was loyal and had been with him through thick and thin.

Breket had a nose for opportunity, for profit, and other traders considered him to have nerves of steel when it came to chasing profit.

Still, he had to admit, his latest passenger had taught him more in four months than he had learned prior. Breket considered the fact that he had an opportunity to learn from his passenger to be pure unicorn horn pressed gold coins. A Terran, but better yet, a trader, salvager, and scavenger with centuries of experience under his belt, willing to trade training and other esoterics for transportation of himself and a handful of other beings.

The Terran was nearly legendary in junker circles.

One Max-a-Millions, a "Pure Strain Human" guild registered junker. A senior junker in high standing with the guild. A being with contacts all over Confederate space as well as an ever expanding circle of contacts in the former Unified Council areas.

Breket had dropped off the passengers, then listened as Max made an offer.

Take Max into the Tomb Worlds area of the Confederacy and Breket could load his holds with gray market or clear market goods of his choice.

Still, the Tomb Worlds were a place to be very careful.

The Terran Xenocide Attacks had left those worlds completely empty. Even the Digital Sentiences were gone. Entire planets were run by little more than advanced Virtual Intelligences, dutifully keeping the systems humming along for dead planets, empty space stations, and silent extraction and construction platforms.

But just because the Terrans were gone didn't mean their protections were cold and dead.

Every trader knew, the Tomb Worlds were still guarded like any other Terran stellar system.

If I can't have it, nobody can, Breket had heard as an explanation of why the Terran defense systems were still live and on high active in the Tomb Worlds. A wholly human belief that Breket understood after holding a rifle for the long years of the Telkan Wars.

"We'll be dropping into the Oort Cloud," Grektik, the ship's navigator, stated.

Breket nodded.

"Run IFF and debris shielding only," Max said. His voice was firm, confident, and the Terran was leaned back in a crash couch. He wore a vac-suit covered in cartoons that moved, capered, danced, and waved with glee. "Keep all your weapons unpowered. Shut down even passive systems."

"Do as he says," Breket said.

"Aye, sir," Grektik said from navigation.

"Aye, sir," Revelk said from astrogation.

Treglet looked up from his communications station. "All channels open. Receive only," he said.

Breket nodded.

"DCC on standby," Vutplent stated, his voice tight.

"Engineering at stations," Pretkwik reported.

"Gunnery stations offline, Captain" Normak stated.

"Scanning ready, Captain," Helgret'tik, the sole female Telkan on deck, said quietly. She shook her head. "I hate this."

"It'll be all right, Guns," Breket said.

"Medical ready," Ptavri checked in.

"Ships core: ready," the sole DS on the ship, Easy jump-3238 said from one of the secondary holotanks. She was wearing heavy armor, a lesson from being boarded by a lean and mean combat DS a couple of years prior.

"Dropping in 3... 2... 1... MARK!" Grektik warned.

There was a loud THUMP off in the distance. Breket looked at Vutplent, who just shook his head. He glanced at Max and saw the Terran had his hands folded over his midsection and looked completely unconcerned.

"Realspace entry successful," Grektik said.

"Passives coming back. Gravatics coming back," Helgret'tik said. She leaned forward. "Lightspeed lag is still in effect. Gravitics show fifteen planetary bodies, including seven gas giants, two hypermassive gas giants. Three planets within the Terran Green Zone. Two in the Terran Yellow Zone. One in red zone, close to the star. Star is a yellow class three."

Breket looked at Max, who just blinked a few times.

"No queries. No hypercom or superluminal traffic. No GalNet, SolNet, or other communication line," Helgret'tik continued. "We'll have to wait for more data."

Breket looked over at Max. "Suggestions?"

"Keep scanning. We won't want to move for at least ten hours. I'd give it at least a full thirty hour shift," Max stated. He looked at Bretek with a serious expression on his face. "This place is going to be full of problems. You'll need to be very careful, but the rewards are worth it."

"It's a Tomb World," Breket shrugged. "That makes it dangerous."

"Wait till we get the scans back, then I'll know how bad it is," Max said. He got up and the little cartoon characters ran back and forth on his armored vac-suit.

Breket watched the Terran leave and leaned back in his command cradle, tapping his foot on the 'oh-shit' plate at the bottom.

-----

At thirty hours Breket had ordered another thirty of scanning. All passive.

Now he stood on the bridge, looking into the holotank.

The five planets within the Terran Green and Yellow Zones all showed power sources in orbit, on the surface, and in high orbit. Their orbital bodies showed power sources. Around the gas giants and super-massive gas giants were obvious orbital facilities, including the huge latticework of shipyards around two of them.

"Lots of damage," Helgret'tik said, chewing on a Slender James meatstick. She jabbed the chewy at one of the shipyards. "Huge holes blown in this one. Looks like a lot of hulls were being laid or being refurbished got hit with nukes."

"What happened here?" Breket asked Max. "I want to know before we go in. If it's too bad, you can borrow one of the combat shuttles."

Max rubbed his eyes for a second. "There's a reason I knew this place would be deserted," he said softly.

Breket waited.

"This place took a one-two-three punch combo, even before the Big-C3," the Terran said. He tapped the edge of the Oort Cloud. "The Mar-gite came over the boundary, tore the place up. That's why we had to drop this far back. Space Force managed to eradicate them from the system," he said. He tapped the five 'habitable' planets. "but not before they ate everyone in the system, right down to the bugs, moss, and algae," he tapped the Oort Cloud again. "That's why there's defense platform with a two light minute engagement range out here," he tapped the gas giants. "The Mar-gite started breeding in the gas giants before Space Force wiped them out. That's why only two of the gas giants have shipbuilding yards left. Those were built later."

Max nodded. "And worse. Clownface, you know."

Jump shook her head. "I was creched after that."

Max looked away from the holotank. "It was a shitshow," he said. "Rack it on top of Mithril and the Mar-gite, this place is dangerous."

Breket frowned. "What, exactly, is a phasic shade?"

"Dead Terran. Psychic impression left by their death strong enough to take form, full of all the emotions at death. Universally omnicidal," Jump said. "I thought they were just ghost stories."

Max made an odd noise. "Yeah. Just ghost stories."

The massive ship slid by and vanished into the darkness.

"Time?" Breket asked.

"Eighteen more hours," Grektik said.

Breket stood up. "Wake me if anything comes up. Remember to change shifts."

Breket left the bridge, pausing for a second in the lift to stare at the Terran.

Max was staring at the holotank with a blank face, just the cold amber fire in the back of his eyes displaying any hint of life.

-----

"Digital Omnimessiah, look at those ships," Pretkwik said softly. "They're all finished."

Max nodded, staring at the holotank. "Almost. You could use them now, but none of them have any armament packages yet."

"My ship could fit in one of the holds," Breket said, staring at the massive trading ships.

"I've salvaged more than one ship that way," Max said.

"Captain, secondary IFF transponder scan coming from that station," Helgret'tik reported. "We're being locked up by at least a dozen point sources."

Breket found himself holding his breath.

"Target locked lost. Scan's finished," Helgret'tik said.

"Your code strings worked," Jump said.

"Or we probably wouldn't have felt it," Breket said.

Max nodded. "One of the batteries on that defense station are ten meter wide C+ cannons."

"How'd you know how to trick it?" Jump asked.

Max shrugged. "A few codes here and there," he said softly, staring at the station. He shook his head. "I can't believe how it's pretty much the same."

"As the last time you were here?" Breket asked.

Max just nodded.

"Station VI has sent us a docking slip assignment," Treglet said from the communications station. "The station wants to handle our docking itself, but the message says its optional."

Breket looked at Max, who nodded.

"Let the station handle it," Breket said.

"I'll keep an eye on the station VI," Jump said.

It took nearly an hour for the What, Me Worry? to dock. Ten minutes after the engines cut off and everything went to standby, the docking tube mated with the primary airlock.

"Now what?" Breket asked Max, who was standing up.

"Now, I build myself a Q-Ship," Max said. He touched his temple. "Are-two, meet me at the primary airlock."

"And us?" Breket asked.

Max tossed him a datacube. "Ten million credits, as agreed. Feel free to strip what you want from the system," he said. He tossed another datacube. "That registers you as a junior, probationary, member of the Junker's Guild."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Breket said.

"You too. Good trading," Max said.

Breket watched the Terran leave the bridge.

He waited until the Terran had left the ship and his entire crew was gathered on the bridge before he spoke. He looked at his crew.

"Opinions?" he asked.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Jump said. "The place is infected with phasic shades. Three of the worst horror shows the Confederacy has seen in a thousand years? Yeah, the shades can keep all this shit."

"I agree," Helgret'tik said.

One by one the other crew members agreed with Jump.

"Excessive greed kills," one of the junior engineers said.

"You can't spend it if you're dead," another junior officer quoted the trader maxims.

"Take us out to the Oort Cloud, silent running, full stealth," Breket said. He leaned back in his command cradle. "Let's not hurry. Speed kills."

The others nodded.

Despite some nervousness, the station let the What, Me Worry? leave, disconnecting the umbilicals and the docking tube.

Breket stayed awake almost the full thirty hours it took to reach the Oort Cloud.

When the What, Me Worry? went to jumpspace, Breket gave a deep sigh of relief and turned over the bridge to Grektik.

As he laid down in his sleeping nest, Breket thought about the vast riches in the system and shook his head.

Place is an Acererak system, he thought. We can't spend it if we're dead.