The maneuvering warning was a familiar occurrence for anyone that had ever traveled on a spaceship. True inertial suppressors were not yet a reality, but almost all ships except the smallest carried grav-plate technology that could counter the high-G acceleration of the ring systems fairly well as long as it was imposed along a straight line. If the ship started doing any twisting or turning while under acceleration, it was recommended that you sit down for the gentler maneuvering levels and strap in tight in a military ship because of the lack of full compensation of the side loads; the Weasel would be maneuvering gently, but it was still a good idea to find a chair until they were in isolator drive and on their way to Forest.
Twenty-five minutes later, a middle-C tone sounded three times indicating isolator drive initiation. CeCe and Wills looked at each other. They knew this was the first test of the Silverman’s control of the drive.
When it was over, they looked at each other again, “Admiral, I don’t think I would call that any different from a normal jump.”
“I agree.” He looked up at the screen and Helt on the engineering deck, “Was it as good for you as it was for us?”
Helt was scanning his board and screens, “That felt entirely normal to me. Accumulator pulse indicates four percent below what I expected and power flow looks totally normal. I would say it handled it exactly as instructed.”
Everyone was obviously happy at having passed that hurdle without incident and settled back as they approached the push-off point.
Breakout and maneuvering followed the standard pattern. The lower acceleration capability of the Weasel compared to smaller ships and the imposed power limitation translated into a six hour push-off. Everyone on the ship got a little rest and something to eat before the jump to Forest.
Wills and CeCe checked the course alignment as they approached the jump. CeCe looked up at the screen with Helt again on the engineering deck, “Ready to go Captain?”
He looked up at his pickup, “Ready here, Captain.”
Once again the chime struck three times . . . CeCe scratched a sudden itch on the back of her left hand as a brief blueness filtered her vision; nothing else happened.
A surge of alarm went through her, and she started to call to Helt, “Captain Helt, what hap--“ She broke off as her eyes swept across the resonator display and saw the red dot noticeably moving along the green course line. Her mind blanked for a moment before dropping into a standard sweep of her board and the screens. She caught sight of Wills doing the same.
Without taking her gaze from her displays, she said, “Captain Helt, please confirm isolator drive status.”
A formal and confused voice came back to her, “Captain, I confirm that the isolator drive is operating and initiated on schedule as programmed. There were no indications of conformal disruptions or surges. In fact, readouts indicate the accumulator pulse was 18.3 percent below expectations for this event. All power readings are exactly where they should be.”
They all managed to peel their eyes away from the displays and looked at each other. Wills let out a long breath, “I don’t know about you two, but that Silverman is beginning to spook me. I’d better make an announcement to the rest of the ship.”
##
Hayes lay back in his command chair and smiled while he watched Doctor Twisst struggle as she got used to the feel of the elastic bands pulling against her wrists and ankles. Ames’ head and shoulders poked out of the passage above the command deck where he hung and watched with obvious amusement.
“My orders are to put the two of you down at the edge of the game field as close to the town as I feel comfortable. After we are down, it’s your show; what are your plans?”
Twisst was beginning to breathe harder so Ames took the question, “Our job is to make them aware of our existence and our reason for being there. The survey drones and monitoring equipment that you, the Melinda, and the Streak have dropped to the surface over the years have provided us with a great deal of information about their way of life and their language. Our data pads contain everything we have learned about them and an AI generated translator program that should allow relatively easy communication.”
Hayes looked from one to the other, “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but what makes you think that they will believe you and cooperate with us? Please understand that I have read everything that has been published about the Foresters, and I have spent thousands of hours watching the raw data dumps that I uploaded from the surface relays. With a little work, Foresters could, physically, pass for humans. The unfortunate part is that they could also pass for humans at the psychological level; by that I mean that they do get nasty with each other.”
Twisst had stopped her mid-air efforts as Hayes started down this line.
“I want to make it clear to both of you that this ship is not armed, and all I have is a folding pocket knife. Once you step off this ship, you are on your own; the Kellogg and the Rance are about the only military capability we’ll have, and they’re two days behind us.”
Twisst pressed the releases on the wrist cuffs and then the ankle cuffs; she put her back against the hull and held herself there with her feet pushing against the floor hatch lock bar.
She gave Ames an uneasy look, “You raise a valid point, Lieutenant; it is a question that we have considered several times in the past but have been unable to answer.” She shrugged her shoulders, “We have had our share of Devil’s Advocates propose that the Statement of Procedures Regarding the Planet Forest
