One day later, Khark found himself lying on his back inside the cockpit of a Lightning personnel-rocket. He would have preferred teleportation rather than the primitive, noisy, shaky and unsafe crafts used by the K`hmynians. The problem was that it would be rude to reject their invitation, and rudeness was bad for business. In the end Khark had decided to sacrifice safety on the altar of profit, but it had been a though call to make. One out of a hundred of those infernal rockets exploded upon launch, so it was not at all strange that his hearth pumped a bit faster than normal. The only positive aspect of his current situation, was that the bed he was strapped onto was very soft and comfortable. The K`hmynians had not yet invented G-stabilizers, so Khark knew that he was in for quite a squeeze during acceleration. He took a deep breath before giving the thumbs-up signal to the camera above him.
A nasal voice started the countdown while Khark prayed to the spirits of the continuum for good fortune. According to Ferengi religion, the most able business-people went there, but it was much debated if they had any way of affecting the world of the living. Khark didn't pay much attention to such debates, but a prayer or two had never harmed anyone, so he recited the only one he knew a couple of times before the countdown reached zero.
"three, two, one…. Ignition!"
Braaaaaoooom! The engines roared, sending powerful vibrations through the hull. Khark was afraid, but he tried to keep a calm look on his face, knowing that the K`hmynians in the control-tower were watching. The rocket accelerated, making his body increasingly heavy as it forced its way through the atmosphere. Until very recently, the K`hmynians had all used multiple-stage rockets that dropped its fuel-tanks when emptied. It didn't take long before acceleration decreased again, making Khark regain his normal weight for a few seconds. Then he became even lighter and lighter until the only thing keeping him in place was the safety-belts going over his legs, belly and chest. Khark's pulse slowed down to its normal pace while he untied himself. A gentle push against the bed sent him drifting through the small room, towards the air-lock entrance at its left side.
It took a couple of long minutes for the rocket to dock with the spaceship. When the two crafts finally merged, the red light above the door turned green. King Shyyrom's eldest son Yumaar greeted him at the other side. Like so many other K`hmary nobles, Yumaar was childish - full of life and energy. These people did whatever pleased them and nothing else, their rich and fulfilling lives made them both happy and careless. Most of the nobles managed to gradually focus their energy on a single hobby, getting better on it as they grew older. For Yumaar this hobby was space, and as the son of the king, he had a space-ship of his own. In fact this was the only proper space-ship the northern kingdom had ever built, a brand new vessel containing state-of-the-art K`hmary technology. During Khark's last visit this technology had still not involved gravity-plating, so their spacecrafts where pretty messy. Plates, tubes, trash and people tended to float around all over the place. Khark found himself floating in the middle of a broad but short corridor that ended in solid looking firewalls at both sides. He rotated around himself to get the overview of the room.
"Boo!" A voice suddenly screamed, startling Khark so that his arms and legs made a involuntary jerk. Had he been standing on the ground he would probably have jumped high into the air. It came from somewhere right over Khark's head, so he tilted it up towards the sound. It turned out that Yumaar had floated above him since he entered the corridor, using the lack of gravity to play hide-and-seek.
"I have some pretty cool shit to show you"He said with a broad smile on his lips.
The K`hmary nobility had the weird habit of adding strange, unclear words like "shit" "cool" and "stuff" to their language. The Ferengi on the other hand, always formed their sentences as precise and clear as possible, expecting others to do so as well. The kings and queens where not so bad, but during his first meetings with the nobility Khark had thought that his universal translator was malfunctioning.
"This will be interesting..." Khark answered sceptically.
"Follow me!" Yumaar said before kicking himself towards the door at the right end.
Yumaar's spaceship was named after himself, and it consisted of six modules attached together, not counting the engine and the command section at either end. Khark had docked to the hallway running between module two and three, so when he turned around to leap after Yumaar he had the fuel-tank and the power-plant behind him, shuttle-bay, storage-room, servants-quarter and dining hall ahead. The corridors of the ship had a rather minimalistic, almost pietistic design. The walls where white and naked, the furniture was made out of thin light-weight materials. The K`hmynians had still not invented hull-weight reduction technology, so everything they dragged with them into space had to be accelerated and decelerated in its full weight. Such technology was probably centuries away for the K`hmynians - unless Khark or some other intergalactic merchant decided to sell it to them.
K`hmary nobles where all snobs. It was unthinkable for them to enter space without bringing their servants along. At home they had several each, but in space things like cost-efficiency and weight-limitation became so important that it was impossible to neglect it completely in the name of tradition. The first tests-flights into high orbit almost a century earlier had been manned and built by the more rational commercial classes rather than the nobility and monarchs. Since the space surrounding their planet was big and empty, the private enterprises soon lost faith in the space-age, instead focusing on innovation and new markets opening up at the surface. A long period of inactivity had followed before certain new innovations sparked the interest of the adventure-hungry nobility.
The servant's quarter contained three big rooms, sleeping hall, kitchen and laundry. Yumaar and Khark floated through the narrow corridor that cut through the module at its center, not dropping by any of these rooms on their way to the dining-hall behind the next firewall. The dining hall was less minimalistic than the modules passed so far, the walls where decorated with fine oil-paintings of cities and landscapes from around the northern kingdom, and the deep, comfy looking chairs where outfitted with soft cushions wrapped into brilliantly red covers of a silk-like material. The table in the middle of the room was made out of dark wood - probably of a rare and expensive type. The floor was covered by a soft ocean-blue plush-carpet, and there was even an expensive-looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. As they floated through, it became clear to Khark that they now had entered the nobility-section of the ship. Coming from a very hierarchical culture himself, he saw nothing wrong with this separation, but had he been a human born and raised within the federation of planets he would probably have looked upon it as a primitive - something not fit for a civilization at this stage in their technological development.
"Nice, hey?" Yumaar said as their free-floating bodies bumped into another firewall.
K`hmynians had this strange habit of straightening and stretching their antennas when proud or happy about something. Yumaar was definitely proud now, his antennas where straight as arrows, stretched to twice their normal length.
"Quite nice indeed" Khark replied.
The replay was as honest as it was polite. Yumaar's dining-hall had in fact inspired him to start thinking about renovating the meeting hall back at his own ship. This was where he met the most important customers, so it should be as posh as possible. A chandelier and big wooden table similar to the one in Yumaar's dining-hall might make his guests feel more welcome, softening them up for business-negotiations.
"Thanks, now we enter the front section"
Yumaar informed. He was happy with Khark's positive response, and therefore eager to show him more of the ship. The K`hmynians had bright yellow teeth that contrasted the blue color of their skin. They lacked the carnivore sharpness of Ferengi teeth, perhaps closer in comparison to the flat and boxy-looking teeth of the humans. While Khark studied Yumaar's teeth, Yumaar put his hand on the illuminated glass plate beside the door. It recognized his fingerprints almost immediately, opening up with a soft "swoosh".
Yumaar entered first, Khark following closely behind. The front section was different from the cylinder-shaped modules that separated it from the engine at the other end. It was six stories tall, not counting the computer-core and recycling-systems that occupied the floor between the meeting room and the bridge. Each bridge-officer had a big suite, and there was also a recreational hall with a gym and some board-games. There was even a movie-hall where the crew could indulge into their big library of movies at a screen that covered a entire wall, full surround included. Yumaar showed Khark through each floor before floating through the narrow metal-pipe that went through the computer-core. The pipe had a ladder built into it, but without gravity there was no need.
The Yumaar explorer had four consoles: Navigation, engines, life-support, weapons, radar & communications – and off course the captains-seat at the back. The other consoles and their seats curved around it like a horse-shoe, giving the captain a good overview when commanding his vessel. Yumaar explained all about it while leaping from seat to seat, pointing at the many screens and buttons as he went through the consoles and their functions. Khark did his best to follow Yumaar's rapid techno-babble, but a lot of it went over his head. This was not because it was in any way more advanced then Ferengi-technology - far from it - but because Yumaar had such detailed knowledge about things that Khark had never cared to study deeper than the basic knowledge he needed to make good decisions for his ship.
From what he did catch, he learned that the Yumaar explorer was a ship of a completely different standard then what he had seen them flying around with during his first visits to the planet fifty years earlier. He had been a young boy back then, traveling with his father along the same trade-route, with the same ship - such things went from father to son among the Ferengi. The large and heavy bio-engineered bacteria-tanks that the K`hmynians had used back then to recycle their air had now finally been replaced with a more efficient and less space-consuming system. Water-recycling had been improved as well, and the dorky-looking solar panels had been removed in favor of fusion-power and more energy-efficient machinery. Faster, cleaner, lighter. According to Yumaar, the Yumaar explorer and its crew could survive a year in space without new supplies - something that was rather impressive when having in mind that these where noblemen dragging their luxurious lifestyle with them into space. The problem was that with their present state of propulsion-technology, one year was only enough to take them very far. Nibulus 6 might be within reach, but nothing more.
"This is where you come into the picture" Yumaar said, not mentioning that they had done improvements also in this field since Khark's last visit.
"Absolutely. Five kilometers a second equals almost ten and a half with the warp-drive I'm selling you" Khark responded.
Yumaar didn't know why, but his instincts told him not to tell how they had utilized the hull-integrity-field that Khark had sold them two visits ago. When put to reinforce the pressure-chamber, it became so solid it could cook and squeeze helium 4 into metallic hydrogen plasma without bursting. Actual top speed of the Yumaar explorer was fifteen kilometer a second at half tank, and with the warp drive they would get forty-two new kilometers traveled for each second at full speed. If that wasn't impressive, then Yumaar didn't know what was. And there was more: A disloyal Ferengi merchant on his ship had revealed to them the secrets of gravity-plating. It was against the orders of Khark, who wanted to profit on it at a later date. Therefore the existence of gravity-plating beneath the floor could not be revealed with him aboard.
"It's pretty cool stuff"
Yumaar agreed. The Ferengi had no such word as "cool" in their vocabulary, so the universal translator skipped over it. All Khark could hear was "It's pretty…. Thing". The universal translator recorded the sounds made by other beings, analyzed it until it found the right language in its databank, and then it made a sentence of its own, carefully matching its tune of voice with the original speaker. As long as the universal translator remained plugged into Khark's right ear, Yumaar could not hear the translation of his own voice. The system caused some lag in their conversation, but it worked fine once you got used to it. Khark uttered a long and complex sentence, filled with deep, gurgling sounds. The translator spelled it out in perfect K`hmynian the moment his lips stopped moving:
"I have made a good payment-plan with your dad, so my people can install the warp-drive whenever you are ready, but you will have to turn off your electromagnetic anti-radiation field during installation."
Yumaar thought for a moment before replying:
"Great stuff, I'll throw in a bonus on top of whatever dad pays you if you manage to get full warp on the output of our fusion power plant."
During his conversation with the Ferengi who helped them out with the gravity-plating, Yumaar had learned that it took enormous amounts of energy to get a meaningful space-contraction out of any warp-system, much more than what the Yumaar explorer could deliver. Therefore they had been harder negotiators this time, getting a cheaper deal then what they usually settled for when trading with Khark. Yumaar didn't know how Khark was going to solve this problem, if he was planning to solve it at all. Yumaar was eager to get his space-adventure going, so he was willing to share some of his own wealth with Khark if he helped him all the way.
"Excellent! I'll set my people to work as soon as you're ready" Khark said, not asking for the precise size of this bonus. K`hmary nobles where never cheap on these kinds of things, always giving generous gifts and bonuses when in a good mood.
"Ready and waiting!"
Yumaar replied eagerly.
Khark took this as a cue to end the meeting, so he picked up his communicator and opened a channel to Qhur back home at his own ship.
"Take me home"
He said as soon as contact was established.
Khark faded out of the room, leaving Yumaar to himself. The prince was happy about getting such advanced Ferengi technology aboard, but he did not know that Khark had set up a devilish plot against him. As it where with most Ferengis, Khark's main goal in life was to gather wealth. Things like ethics and moral was hardly an issue, and this trait would soon put Yumaar and his crew in mortal danger. When back at the bridge, Khark ordered his engineering-crew to put a subspace-beacon at the warp-drive before installing it. The K`hmynians had still not developed subspace communication, and since they didn't know one part of the warp-drive from the other, there was no way they could detect it. With the beacon activated Khark could trace their exact position, and this could come in handy if the next step in his plan went as smoothly as he hoped for.
"Contact king Yon-Kyr of the western kingdom!"
Khark ordered on his way over to his command-seat. While waiting for his communication operator to establish contact, Khark enjoyed the view ahead. The main screen on the front wall was zoomed in on the nice little ship he was going to destroy. It was almost as long as his own, but in mass it was not more than a fly compared to an elephant. Seen from the perspective of Khark's bridge it looked like a long gray line with a metal ball in one end, and a square in the other. The square was the command section where the nobles dwelled, and the ball was the pressure-cooker where the helium was squeezed and transformed into heavy plasma. Yumaar had told him nothing about it, and neither had he told about the gravity-plating he had installed - but Khark knew anyway. His sensors enabled him to see straight through the hull, learning everything there was to know about those ships who where not properly shielded against it. Once destroyed, the engine, gravity-plates and everything else of value would be removed from the wreckage so that he could re-sell it to at another backward planet where such low-tech solutions where treasured. He had thought about selling it to the western or southern kingdom, but that would distort the balance of power, and such distortions could be bad for business. The three kingdoms had to be kept on their toes, in fierce competition against each other. Khark smiled broadly while leaning back in the comfortable command-chair, mighty pleased with his manipulative scheme. His big ears and sharp teeth made him look as a devilish cross-over between a monkey and a shark.
"Contact established sir!" His communication-officer yelled across the bridge.
Khark straightened up in his chair while restoring his neutral, yet serious business-look.
"On screen!" He ordered.
The visual style of the western kingdom was different from that of the northern, both in clothing, furniture and architecture. The westerners where minimalists who liked long single-colored tunics that went well with the feature-less rooms in which they dwelled. To compensate for this lack of ornaments, the westerners added lively and strong colors to everything. The king for example, wore a bright green tunic that matched his blue skin as well as it did the aggressive redness of his throne-room. Right now the furniture of choice was molded from aluminum in single peaces. Light, robust, expensive – just as they liked it. The king leaned forward in his aluminum chair, folding his hands over the aluminum table. His hair was kept in the same characteristic bowl-cut as he had had during their last meeting. The antennas who stuck up from his dense but well-groomed hair hanged loosely over his forehead, meaning that the king was in a relaxed and balanced mood.
"I have considered your proposal" King Yon-Kyr said, going straight to the point as usual.
"And?" Khark said, his voice and facial expression filled with anticipation.
"The deal is on"
The long, narrow face of the king remained emotionless and cold, but Khark could not help smiling. What started as a small upward pull of the dimples ended in the big and ugly shark-like grin that he usually tried his best to keep for himself and his closest henchmen.
"Your payments awaits you at the coordinates agreed on."
Yon-Kyr grabbed the remote-control at the left side of the table and pushed the button that cut him off. The screen went blank for a moment before re-connecting to the forward camera, still focused on the Yumaar explorer.
"Ghoob! Check coordinates!"
Science officer Ghoob digged up the correct numbers from the business-logg stored within his console. When done he transferred the numbers to the scanner-array, asking it to identify the metals and the quantum agreed on. The result was positive: fifty tons of aluminum, thirty tons of platinum and one hundred tons of stain-less steel, all ready and waiting for beam-up. There was more where it came from, but only if he delivered the so-called "wonder engine" that the northerners had cocked up, and Khark was uncertain about fulfilling that part of the deal. This was partly to maintain the balance-of-power, but also because he could not afford to look dishonorable in the eyes of the two other kingdoms. The destruction of the Yumaar explorer would be looked upon as a accident without any Ferengi involvement, but it the engine came back to K`hmary in one peace this would undoubtedly cause considerable suspicion .
"Ready for transfer"
Some unknown voice said over the com-link. Ghoob had passed on the coordinates to the transporter-room operator currently on guard-duty, and now this person informed them that he had a lock-on at the target given.
"Beam directly to cargo-bay!" Khark ordered.
Teleporting such massive quantities of mass drained a lot of energy from their power-plant, so much in fact that they not only had to direct all available energy to the transporter-room, but also had to drain some of their emergency energy-cells. Ghoob kept his increasingly grumpy boss informed about the situation as it unfolded, and when it was all done both men shared the same thought: That they should have replaced the antique energy-drain that was their transporter-room with a new and better model many years ago. By the time he entered the turbo-lift, Khark's head was already filled with plans and thoughts on the subject, wondering where he could get the best deals for the highest quality, what goods they might want in return, and so on. He was heading for the cargo-bay where he would inspect his new goods, smell and feel them, scan and analyze them.
Khark loved his cargo-bay, and he loved inspecting new possessions. Things from all over the Alpha-quadrant found their way to this place: Romulan ale in the fridge, second hand replicators at the back, some containers of plasma-grenades and phaser-rifles in the corner. Always looking ahead, Khark had kept a idle spot for K`hmynian metals and other raw materials at the center of the cargo-bay, right besides the warp-drive king Shyyrom had bought. When Khark emerged from the turbo-lift it was still there, but soon it would be replaced by a pile of industrial diamonds that he was planning to sell to a mining company at his next stop.
A company of workers had arrived to secure the metal-blocks, strapping them tightly to the floor so that they would not be pushed around during acceleration. One of the workers handed Khark a tricorder before bowing deeply and backing away. Khark made a short sweep over each block, checking their purity and density. It looked okay, so he strolled over to the warp-drive to say goodbye for now. It was basically a black box - nothing more. What made it perfect for the K`hmynians and other species at the same technological level was that it was pretty small and energy-efficient. They could run it on their weakish fusion-power technology, and it would fit easily on to the hull of their small crafts. It was not too heavy either, so their ion mass-drives, plasma-accelerators, and now this metallic hydrogen pressure-chamber would have little trouble pulling its weight. To bad he was going to kill the test-driver, but luckily he had several other potential buyers in mind when done.
Meanwhile,Yumaar was on his way out of the air-lock, happily unaware of the cruel faith Khark had planned for him. The installation of the warp-drive was an excellent excuse for a space-walk, so he was floating alongside the exterior hull, heading towards the front section of the ship where he would meet Khark's engineer-crew. Both his legs had tanks of liquid nitrogen attached to them, and every time he curled his toes, the downward-pointing nozzles opened. It was a simple, cheap and efficient way to push yourself around over short distances within the vacuum of space. The Ferengi used something that looked like scooters without wheels, and one of them had a tractor-beam attached to its back. Its green rays spread out behind it, pulling the warp-drive and some containers along. The scooter made a sudden stop a few meters away from the thick front shield that was designed to protect the command-section from gravel and sand during high speeds. The warp drive would be installed in the pocket of empty space between the column that connected the shield to the rest of the ship, and the front wall of the command-section. It was fun to watch the Ferengi work, primarily because it went so incredibly fast, but it was also interesting to watch their high-tech equipment and tools in action. Attaching the warp drive to the hull seemed pretty easy and straight forward, but then came the more complex job of integrating it into the power-grid and computer-system of their ship. This would take longer time, and would mostly be done by K`hmynian rather than Ferengi expertise.
When done with this first stage of the job, the Ferengi engineers and technicians turned their scooters around and headed back towards their odd-looking ship. It was comparable to the royal palace in size, but in style and shape it looked more like the ministerial department at the other side of the royal gardens. It's main section curved like a horseshoe around the pointy bridge that stood out as a flattened arrow from its center. The horseshoe ended in a pair of mean looking cannons at its ends. Together with the dense rows of windows that ran parallel with the stories at its inner curve, this sent out a mixed message. It was as if the ship had not yet decided if it wanted to be a tourist-cruiser or a warship. It was off course possible that the Ferengi had invented some kind of super-strong windows that where just as hard as its metal hull, something that would also explain why they had put them in the direction of acceleration. The placement of their engines where just as bold, for their impulse-engines where built into the hull of the horse-shoe where most of the merchants and their families lived. At the Yumaar explorer they had put it as far away as possible, with the huge fuel-tank working as a radiation-shield that separated the power-plant and engine-section at the back from everything else in front. Bottom line was that the Ferengi had reached a level of technological sophistication that allowed them to build their ships any way it suited them, and it was this marvelous achievement that Khark was passing on to the K`hmynians, one bit at a time, making a fortune in the process.
Yumaar pondered upon these mysteries while on his way back to the airlock. As he strolled through the shuttle-bay where their shuttle-craft stood parked, he had still not reached a satisfactory conclusion. This module was pretty big, cause the shuttle it carried within its walls needed big wings and a powerful engine in order to make it up and down through the thick atmosphere it was designed to penetrate. Yumaar could see a dim silhouette moving away from the craft at the other end of the dark room. He started running towards it, hearing the sound of his footsteps echo as it bounced of the metal walls. The silhouette turned around at the sound of the echo, raising its right hand towards Yumaar in what looked like a friendly gesture. The distance between them decreased by ten, and then twenty meters, but the silhouette remained featureless and unrecognizable. The industrial light-bulb that hung from the center of the ceiling was big, but it was not powerful enough to be the only source of light in such a big room. It was perhaps a bit late now, but had he discovered this problem earlier, Yumaar would definitively have ordered the construction-team to install a few extra sockets. His shadow grew longer and longer as he moved away from the light. By the time he got up to the stranger it was so long that it stretched all the way to the front-end of the room, continuing up the wall next to the fire-door. This was undoubtedly the most creepy place in the ship, but the broad and heartily smile of the stranger shone towards him like a lighthouse in the dark.
"You are?..." He said while stretching his arm out to greet him.
Yumaar grabbed and shook it.
"Prince Yumaar, captain over this vessel" He answered.
The stranger reacted by rapidly retracted his hand, going for the more correct deep bow instead. A few centuries back it had been obligatory for everyone but the nobles to kneel before members of the royal family, but that was before the corporate leaders had revolted, pulling the technocrats with them. These days only workers and peasants kneeled, and there where none of them out here in space.
"Computer-programmer Ulasiss at your service sir" The man answered nervously.
He was wearing the traditional red and white tunic of the technocrats, not the decorated, long-sleeved velvet shirts and breeches wore by the northern nobles.
"Aha, a technocrat in a house of lords. What are you up to?" Yumaar wondered.
"Your king sent me to calibrate the navigation program, so that it reports accurate course and position during warp" Ulaisiss informed.
"Sounds advanced" Yumaar said.
Even though he and his fellow nobles where eager astronauts, they knew little more than the basics of space-travel and space-physics. A helping hand from the technocrats and their teams was necessary to get them going. Those people took care of all the complex and boring stuff, such as for example programming. The only thing Yumaar and his friends would need to know in this field was how to re-install the software if it started malfunctioning, perhaps change a hard disk or two if it got damaged. Back at the ground they had built a exact copy of the Yumaar explorer, and here they had gone through such procedures a hundred times over – everything from a emergency shutdown of the power-plant and engine core, to washing plates and making your own food in case the servants died. And off course - computer installations and the replacement of defect hardware.
On their way up to the bridge, Yumaar and Ulaisiss meet a second technocrat. He was rolling out a long, thick cable that was to go from the warp-drive to the power plant in the back. A third technocrat had set up in the bridge itself, scattering his tools all over the place. When Yumaar and Ulaisiss got up there he was about to remove the panel to the engine-console, adding new wires as well as new programming so that the warp-drive could be controlled from the bridge. According to Khark, the system was pretty basic: More power in meant a gradual increase of space-contraction in front of the ship, until it reached a maximum of 2,8 warp, the magic number where what he called "the warp core" would explode if they tried to jam any more gigawatts into it.
Yumaar was looking forward to getting his ship moving. At the moment it was stone dead except the life-support systems and gravity-plates that kept his feet at the ground, but soon it would be filled with life and energy. It would be just like their best weeks in simulation-practice. Beeping consoles, humming engines, system failures, solar-storms and alien attacks. That last exercise had seemed pretty far-fetched to many, everyone except Yumaar to be exact - for it was he who had insisted on preparing them for such a event. "Not to worry" - Khark had told Yumaar when speaking about this exercise - "Space here might be thick with sand and dust, but there are no aliens but me" According to Khark the nearest planet with intelligent life was over a hundred light-years away, and: "Those folks are too busy killing each other to explore it". If true, this meant that the northern kingdom and its royal family had hundreds of empty planets and star-systems before their feet, places only waiting to be colonized and developed.
The future seemed brighter than in a long time, and the nice white color of their home-planet was a testimony of their progress. Seventy years earlier the thick clouds in their atmosphere had been yellow with smog, and today it had been even worse had the kingdoms not used all their wit, energy and willpower to change their ways. Yumaar was sitting in his captain's office, looking at it through his flat-screen monitor when somebody knocked on the door.
"Come in" he said.
The door opened, revealing an old friend at the other side.
"Tux, my man! Come in!" Yumaar screamed with enthusiasm.
In addition to being among the closest friends of the prince, Tux also held the position of navigator at his ship. Yumaar compelled him to sit down at the other end of his desk and share a cup of tea with him. Not much time had passed since their last meeting, so neither Tux nor Yumaar had much interesting news or gossip to share with each other. "How is your father?" Tux asked, a question that caused Yumaar to flare up, complaining about the uncontrolled weight gain that had occurred during the last year. Yumaar had not many people with which he could share such frustrations, so it was good to keep Tux around.
"The kings of our family have traditionally always exerted themselves to stay fit, being a good role-model for the people and all that, but now that my dad have gotten fat and lazy it might have a corruptive effect on the people as well!" Yumaar worried.
Tux didn't seem to have any opinions on the condition of the king, but he listened for a while before he insisted on shifting to another subject.
"I have been talking with ground control" He said.
"Ground control" was the name of a big office somewhere in the capital. The people working there where responsible for hammering out the broad lines of their flight-plan, so as the navigator on board it was natural that Tux maintained a close dialog with them.
"Any change of plans?" Yumaar wondered.
"We have been discussion it over and over again, and have come to the conclusion that we should drop by Umaria now that its orbit is favorable."
Umaria was the outermost planet in their solar system, even further away than their main target, a frozen world nicknamed "Snowball" due to its large masses of ice and its fast orbit around the only gas-giant in their system. Little was known about Umaria, but one could logically assume that it was pretty cold, thus it was named after the god of ice and snow in the old mythology.
"As long as we don't freeze to death I'm okay with a few extra months in space" Yumaar said.
Now that the warp-drive was theirs, the time spent reaching Snowball had been reduced from nine to three months, but that was with maximum fuel-consumption, using one half to get there, and the other half to get home. The ship had originally been built for a nine month journey, so there was absolutely room for alternative plans.
"I think we will be okay" Tux reassured him. "There will be two months extra, and we might even drop by Hemash on our way home."
"Hemash, isn't that in the other direction?"
Hemash: Planet number three. Hot, hotter then planet number four, K`hmary – their nicely temperated homeworld. Then came Ke`hem`eshet, the cold place where the southerners currently could be found plodding around in their thick boots and overalls, never the less freezing to death in large numbers during the winter storms. After Ke`hem`eshet came snowball, and after Snowball came Umaria. Jumping from Umaria too Hemash seemed unnatural to Yumaar.
"Look, I'll show you" Tux said.
A minute later Yumaar found himself sitting in a deep chair, in front of a star-map that covered the entire room. This was the lowest floor of the command section, a place originally designed for movies, but also good for information-display - specially now that the bridge was filled with technocrats. According to the red line on the map, their ship would go in a large curve that took them out to Umaria, and than they would fall inwards, passing the sun in a steep curve at a distance of only fifty million kilometers before climbing up to Hemash at the other side.
"Good plan" Yumaar said, and so it was decided.