The skies were dark and stormy that night. Bright bolts of lightening flared up the thick and angry sky. When Jonas broke through the clouds, the howling wind was accompanied by the sound of heavy rain against the roof-top of his newly acquired vessel. It felt very good to have a proper spaceship again, not having to rely on those slow and noisy gasoline-driven machines that Yumaar used to get around.
The city of Thronar appeared as a beacon of light against the dark surface. As he came closer, it grew into a cluster of shining dots that was at its densest by the river-side, gradually thinning out as it stretched into the wilderness. The suburbia formed a pattern of lesser clusters that gradually transformed themselves into the same megablocks Jonas had spotted when first passing above the city in Yumaar's helicopter. In this late hour, the naked concrete walls formed ominous shadows who were only partly illuminated by the deep yellow glow of those few but huge windows that were built into them. Lines of luminous red marked the sharp boarder between wall and rooftop, telling airborne crafts were not to go. In this late hour, Jonas found the industrial landscape creepy and cold. - Even the royal helicopter-hangar would be cozy compared to this.
The dark silhouette of the castle main-tower rose skywards in front of him, it was barely distinguishable from the black backdrop. Jonas did as the keeper had instructed him, and aimed in on the green light at its center. This light marked a platform that grew out of the smooth and straight wall of the tower. As he got closer, a car-sized K`hmynian symbol lit up at its left edge. Jonas assumed that this was were he was supposed to land, and lowered his ship onto the complex maze of green-glowing lines that curved and twisted into each other. When the ship rested silent and still against the platform, it started to retract into the slot it had emerged from. The constant pounding ended as the ship was brought into the belly of the tower, away from the pouring rain.
It was time to get out, so Jonas loosened his safety-belt and walked into the little hallway behind the cockpit. Both air-lock-seals opened automatically as he stepped forward, entering the big garage. Other than his own ship, there were no other vehicles at the concrete-floor. Why? The answer could be found by a quick gaze towards the ceiling. The royal family had quite a collection of flying-machines, everything from small one-man helicopters that hardly weighed more than the pilot sitting in it, to long transporters with twin-rotors. What all of them had in common - other than being noisy and emitting foul gases when used - was that they were strapped to the ceiling with sturdy wires. An empty spot had been cleared for the newcomer directly above its current position. If he stayed here for a while, a team of royal servants would emerge from the exit at the far end of the garage. They would tie up his ship and raise it into the empty spot, that way making sure the floor remained free.
But Yumaar was missing, so Jonas retreated back to the recreation-room of his vessel. It felt nice to have a proper spaceship again, one with separate quarters instead of that hyper-social Hoognok layout were the functions of recreation-room, dormitory and kitchen had been merged into the same boarder-less and privacy-deprived context. Since they had built that creature out of Zin's flying garbage-can and Jonas welded F-class ships, its weirdness-level was as high as it could possibly get within starfleet. The new ship was not remotely close to that kind of originality, but it could never the less be described as a rarity. The Journeyman-class were few in numbers, and the Journeyman Conveyor was probably the smallest branch of that tree. The captain of the ambassador-ship had been very reluctant to give it away, and Jonas could understand that. Most probably, starfleet would just dump a bunch of F-class shuttles on them for compensation - they made way too many of those.
Jonas fell into the gray-coated sofa, enjoying the relaxed - Human - colors of the recreation-room. There were no aggressive red or screaming yellow here, nothing that made his eyes hurt. The atmosphere was a bit hard and professional though, Jonas would for example have loved to switch the industrial-looking steel-table in front of him for a more snug-looking wooden one. Even though it was of a boring design, the sofa was very soft and comfortable. He laid down on it and stretched out.
Yumaar arrived eventually, Jonas was summoned to the airlocks by the sound of his communicator beeping. A broad smile awaited him on the other side. Like all other K`hmynians, Yumaar had bright yellow teeth that formed a stark contrast to the blue color of their skin.
"New ride I see" The prince said.
"Neat, don't you agree?" Jonas answered.
Jonas invited him inside with a friendly gesture, Yumaar followed behind as he headed back towards the living-room.
"So whose left?" Yumaar asked as they cornered the first junction of the corridor leading there.
"Carolyn and Jeff took a hike with the ambassador-ship, that leaves me and Zin"
"They are going back to the Enterprise, right?" Yumaar assumed.
"Jupp, out and away to new and unmapped corners of space"
"Sounds cool"
"It is, every cadet of starfleet dreams about participating on these kinds of missions"
Yumaar remained standing while Jonas reseated himself in the sofa.
"Let's take a look at the cockpit" He suggested.
"No drinks from the synthesizer?" Jonas asked while pointing towards the open kitchen-door.
The Journeyman Conveyor was outfitted with four synthesizers that were as top-notch as they were voluminous. Each one of them was specialized for a specific type of food. One was for liquids, one for meat, one for vegetables and fruits, and a fourth one that Jonas had not yet found the time to look into. The result was tasty food, almost as good as the natural variety.
But Yumaar was not interested in any of this. Instead he dragged Jonas along to the cockpit, urging him to activate it.
"I will, I will" Jonas promised, immediately adding a condition to that promise:
"But first you will have to tell me something"
"Spit it out!" Yumaar said, eager to see the instruments of the black console-table light up.
He had been curious about them back on the Hidden Explorer as well. Jonas remembered vividly how he had hung over his shoulder for the entire trip back from Nibulus 6, following each and every command Jonas tapped into it with keen eyes.
"The Ferengies, update please" Jonas requested.
"Aha, certainly. We have interrogated some of them, and they all claim that they broke free due to a power-failure in the Klingon ship. Then they overwhelmed the guards with their superior numbers, stole their weapons and fought their way to the teleporter-room while the ship was falling to pieces around them"
"But why did they beam down to your castle?" Jonas asked, puzzled.
"That seems to be a mystery to them as well. They claim not to have had the time needed to check the coordinates it was set for, so they just walked in and squeezed the button."
"But the Klingons had no reason to aim for you! The warhead was fired by the western Kingdom, and the golden decoy was set up on their lands!" Jonas argued.
"I guess we will never find out for sure, will we" Yumaar said, shrugging his shoulders.
"So what will you do with them?" Jonas was curious to know.
"Well, their captain set me up and tried to kill me, so I returned the favor - with greater success I might add. The rest are live and kicking, and they have promised to build me a warp-drive as long as I use it to drop them off at Ferenginar"
"An eye for an eye, eh?" Jonas commented, skeptical furrows popping up in his forehead and around his eyes.
Within Starfleet, the death-penalty had been abolished in all but the most backward planets, and it was generally viewed upon as a barbaric and obsolete practice.
"Oh come on! You never kill anyone in that empire of yours?" Yumaar shouted at him, frustrated by the very thought of not being able to use this tool.
"Sure we do, Klingons and Romulans drop every day - but only in battle"
Yumaar sighed. His numerous talks with Jonas had revealed a complexity and lack of straightforwardness within Human society that he found annoying. The Federation was an empire, but with equal formal rights to all its citizens. Humans dominated all aspects of policy-creation, but they were not officially in charge. The empire was going through a period of rapid expansion, but it was not - according to itself - an aggressive super-power. They wanted peace with the Romulans and Klingons, but they never the less ended up in armed boarder-conflicts against them on a daily basis. All these double-standards and mixed messages made Yumaar's head hurt, so it was perhaps a good thing that their sun was heading out of their grasp. Too bad these Klingons had made such a lousy first-impression...
"Anyway, should we not head for Nibulus 6 and pick up those friends of yours?" Jonas proposed.
"Snowball you mean? Sure, but first I want to go for a spin in your new plane. Objections?"
"None. Perhaps you can give me a tour of your kingdom? Ill hand you the controls as soon as we clear the city"
Yumaar was not surprisingly, thrilled by the idea. A minute later they were souring into the dark night, heading away from the artificial city-lights. The mega-blocks passed rapidly beneath them, giving way to a flat and featureless landscape. Actually they were flying above the most cultivated farmlands in the kingdom, but at nighttime the fields and farm-houses were concealed by darkness. Only a broad highway could be seen, it formed a shining path towards another big city.
"Okay, give me the controls!" Yumaar nagged while pulling Jonas by the khaki-colored shirt of his uniform.
"Moment" Jonas reassured him.
Like most other warp-capable civilizations, starfleet had abandoned joysticks and steering-wheels in favor of touch-sensitive controls. A million different touch-boards could be brought up to the panel, but only four were needed for basic handling: XY-axis, Z-axis, tilt-screen, and local-area map - or "Lam" in starfleet-jargon. To Jonas all this was easy as pie, he had after all spent years of his life learning to master it. But for Yumaar? - It would be interesting to watch him figure it out. Just to be certain, Jonas activated a few emergency-protocols before stripping the area in front of the pilots-seat of all non-essential screens. As it was now, the ship would automatically go to full stop if they went within fifty meters of the ground, or some other obstacle.
"This is going to be completely different from flying a plane or a helicopter. The craft will do exactly what you want it to do, you will be surprised how precise it is" Jonas explained while switching to the co-pilot's seat .
Yumaar sat down, his index-finger reached carefully towards the forward-pointing arrow of the XY-axis.
"If you push it, the craft will start to accelerate. When you let go it will maintain the speed given" Jonas informed him.
"Its quite dark around these parts, but if we go north it will get brighter" Yumaar answered, his finger resting above the arrow.
"Please do, if you look at the map you will spot a compass at its upper left corner"
Yumaar managed to turn the ship about without further instructions. He accelerating the ship until waves of soft vibrations rippled through the hull, then he let go. Meanwhile, Jonas was busy summoning the radar-map up to his side of the panel. He felt it would be irresponsible not to keep track of planes and helicopters in the area.
"How fast are we going now?" Yumaar wondered, not being able to read the Human number-display that was positioned above the arrows.
"Seven thousand and fifty-five kilometers an hour" Jonas said after a brief look on Yumaar's display.
When the translator-plug in Yumaar's ear was done spitting Jonas words out in his native tongue, the prince looked mightily impressed.
"Shouldn't we have been squeezed into pancakes?" He asked after a brief pause of thinking. It had taken them less than a minute to reach this velocity, so it was a logical question.
"The dampening-field creates a physic-free bubble around us" Jonas explained.
Now that they had turned away from the highway, they had no exterior source of light what so ever. All the cameras had been deactivated in order to not confuse Yumaar, so the view ahead - or lack of it - gave them no impression of forward momentum. Yumaar looked a bit bored, but Jonas figured his face would light up with joy again when they saw daylight. As it was now, the windshield looked as if they were resting within a pool of black paint.
"I want to take a look above the clouds" Yumaar decided.
"Just use the tilt-screen to switch angle"
Thousands of twinkling stars popped up as they traversed the thick lid that had concealed them. By the time Yumaar leveled out the ship again, they were flying within the ozone-rich, top-level of the atmosphere. At this height the air was so thin that the thrusters could shut down almost completely without loosing speed. The low humming from the back disappeared as it got too low and deep to be heard by Human ears. But what about K`hmynian ones?
"Can you still hear the engines?" Jonas asked.
"Nope"
A few minutes later, the top of the mighty Nibulus sun popped up from its hiding-place beyond the horizon. It was as massive as it was angry, a frightening sight that would have left them with serious sun-burns within minutes, had the computer not been considerate enough to dim down the windscreen. The heavy star continued to rise, but it was no danger now that it had been reduced from a fierce looking ball of deadly fire, into a civilized and artificial semi-circle of dark-red. A brief look at the map told Yumaar that they were getting closer to the northern boarder of the Kingdom, so he turned the snout downwards, diving back into the protective shell of vapor.
A brighter and colder scenery awaited them on the other side. It was a hostile wilderness of sharp and steep mountains - ice, snow and rock.
"This used to be a separate kingdom" Yumaar said.
"Oh?"
"I was gradually integrated into ours during early industrialization. It turned out we had all the crude oil on our side, so it became impossible to maintain independence" He continued.
"On Earth we depleted our reserves of fossil fuels a long time ago. How much do you have left?" Jonas wondered.
"None, we run on alcohol made from bacterias who feed on wood from the mega-mushrooms. It's kind of expensive, so we can't waste as much as we did before" The prince explained.
"Well, if you invent fusion-power and efficient fuel-cells, you can start wasting again. The best thing is to have an exterior source of hydrogen though, there are civilizations out there who have split and fused-up their entire water-supply" Jonas told him.
"I think you should give it to us" Yumaar proposed, ever hopefully.
"We have had this discussion before" Jonas answered brusquely.
He could understand Yumaar's position, but did he have to repeat himself over and over again?
The prince respected Jonas wish to not repeat himself, so instead of talking he aimed in on a frozen and gusty looking plateau that stuck out from the base of the mightiest mountain in sight. Landing the vessel was beyond Yumaar's fast-learned abilities, so he brought the ship to a full stop before they switched seats.
Having carefully brought the ship down, Yumaar and Jonas simultaneously spotted an interesting looking figure below them. At the bottom of the long and steep downhill-slope that started just below the plateau, a sturdy and robust looking K`hmynian was herding a flock of very woolen animals. They too, were robust and sturdy - not at all like the sheep Jonas was used to on Earth.
"The locals are quite interesting around these parts, care to zoom in on him?" Yumaar suggested.
"Can do"
Yumaar was correct, - it was all very... interesting. The outfit bore no resemblance to anything Jonas had seen before, so it was hard to describe - other than that it looked very warm, and that it was colorful. The animals were a different story. Was that beaks he saw? The flat and long mouths below their black and big eyes? Beaks with sharp teeth? Jonas zoomed in further to get more details. The carnivore, fish-like heads of those animals didn't match the more sheep-like bodies at all.
Jonas asked Yumaar about it:
"They are adapted to dig into the snow and drag up frozen roots and plants. Everything under the snow is deep-frozen, so they need jagged teeth to chew it"
Meanwhile, the odd-looking K`hmynian halted. Having made a dead-stop, his upper body turned towards them while his feet sank deeper into the snow.
"Do you think he have spotted us?" Jonas wondered.
They were several kilometers away, and their white hull should blend in nicely with their surroundings. Still...
"Crap! He's taking up a mobile-camera!" Yumaar screamed, sounding like it was the end of the world.
Jonas didn't quite understand why it was such a big deal, so he sent Yumaar a quizzical look before returning his attention to the monitor. The shepherd had fetched a hand-sized gadget from within his huge and traditional looking overall. It had a camera-lens built into its upper part, filming it would seem, in their general direction.
"Why the fuzz?" Jonas asked his companion.
"Make us invisible! Dim down the windshield! Do something!"
Yumaar was completely frantic, so Jonas quickly switched the windshield from transparent to reflective modus, that way making it impossible for outsiders to look in. The view got darker again, it was comparable to taking a pair of shades on.
"Now you explain" He demanded when done.
"Officially, there are no aliens on K`hmary, no Ferengies, no Klingons, no Humans" Yumaar mumbled while sinking down in his seat, as if he was trying to hide from the camera. He seemed shaky and stressed out.
"Really? But what about the Klingon attack?" Jonas wondered.
"The official story is that our planet passed through an asteroid-field, all three kingdoms have worked hard to hide the fact that most of the losses were military"
Jonas fell back in his seat, thinking hard on the new info while looking at the shepherd with the camera. After a few more seconds of filming, he seemed to have gotten bored by the activity. He tapped a few commands into the display at the other side of the lens, probably storing and shutting it down. Then he put it back into the inner pocket of his coat. For a split second, he hesitated. Should he walk away or investigate? He landed on the boldest of the two options, making his way through the deep snow with long strides.
"He's heading our way" Jonas stated flatly, watching as his flock of...oddities fell into line behind him.
"Are we invisible?" Yumaar asked.
"No, only Klingons can do that. But I dimmed down the windshield, like you requested"
This put Yumaar in a stale-mate of sorts. Jonas understood what went through his mind, as he lowered his eyebrows and looked down on his knees with a worried expression on his face. If they made a run for it, the shepherd would get a more impressive video to show off, and if they remained parked, they might be stuck for a while. He would probably spend hours looking for a way in, and it would be impossible to lift off without hurting him. He might even call his friends, and then they would suddenly be the center-piece of some sort of shepherd-style mountain-gathering, all kinds of idiots trying to bust their door in with their primitive and feeble tools. They would undoubtedly fail to cut through the duranium, but they would inflict ugly wounds upon the polish while trying. And the longer they stuck around, the grander their departure would become... No, noway! Not going to happen!
"We are splitting!" Jonas decided
"But!..." Yumaar tried to protest
"No but. My ship" Jonas cut him off
The ship lifted up and away in a sudden move, rapidly elevating itself into the protective cover of clouds. When their view-screen was clogged by impenetrable grayness yet again, Jonas made a full stop. At this altitude the clouds were like a fast moving stream, they were immediately swept away by the howling current, picking up speed as they drifted above the land.
"If that dude had a internet-connection, your cover is busted" Jonas said, trying to suppress a wry smile.
Why was it funny? He could not tell for sure, but the idea of Yumaar and his fat dad trying desperately to cover up their increasingly intimate collaboration with no less than three different alien species...
This stuff had the potential to become a hilarious sit-com.
"I'm afraid you are right, a few more incidents like this, and we will be in deep shit. You don't suppose we can go back and kill him?" Yumaar said bluntly, displaying the more bloodthirsty side of his character for the second time that day.
Jonas asked himself whether or not to get angry at the prince for having such a liberal attitude to murder. Keeping cultural differences in mind, as well as the potential integrity-loss for the royal family, should their lies be busted... No point. And besides: Perhaps a Starfleet-general would react similar in the face of gigantic top-secret stuff getting spoiled?
"Not on my watch." He answered calmly.
"And if he have streamed that film to the web, it will just make it worse" He then pointed out.
The ship shrugged gently from side to side, as the wind carried them towards the south-east shores of the kingdom. As long as the anti-grav generator was running, they were like a weightless balloon with no will of its own. Jonas loved floating around like that, back at the academy he had used every opportunity to do so. It would have been even better with a proper view though...
He activated the scanners needed for the job, and started a broad sweep of the kilometers ahead of them, assuring himself that the fog stayed dense. Meanwhile, Yumaar had conjured up an idea:
"You know, I think we should park this vessel someplace safe, and keep it there for the time being. Perhaps we can fuse it with the new ship once those Ferengies are done building the warp-drive?" He suggested.
"Had I knew our presence here was secret, I would never have used it for atmospheric flight. I say we make a new base for our self at the building-site for your new ship" Jonas agreed.
Jonas turned the ship about, ascended above the clouds, and set course for a region that Yumaar referred to as "the Shintoi drylands". This wast dessert engulfed much of the central area of the continent. It could perhaps be compared to the Midwest in the US, or the Gobi-desert in China. There were no mountains there that could slow down the clouds, so they preferred to blow past it without shedding any rain.
The military base they were heading for had been reduced to a scorched crater during the Klingon bombardment, but a improvised cluster of tents had been put together on the other side of the runway. A tall and equally improvised electrical fence had been erected around it, it was made to hold the Ferengies in place when not working on the warp-drive.
"If you plan to lock us up with those Ferengies, you must think again" Jonas warned while nodding towards the encampment.
"No worries, I will set up a luxury-hotel for you right away" Yumaar promised.
"Good idea, you need good quarters for your own researchers as well. You should try to make them work together with the Ferengies, make sure they suck in as much knowledge as possible"
The only plane that stood parked at the end of the runway was a green carrier with very long wings. Yumaar pointed towards it, asking Jonas to land beside it. Right after touchdown, Zin called on the hand-held communicator.
"Jonas here" He said.
"I have just finished the complete works of Aristotle, and now I am boring my ass off. What are you up to?" Zin wondered.
"Human philosophy is pretty heavy, don't you agree?" Jonas opined
"I figured I have to get in touch with your stuff, working in starfleet and all. But Kant is better, more in line with Bolian thinking" Zin answered.
"Pretty dated in my opinion. If you want to dig into the soul of starfleet, you should first read up on John Stuart Mill and the other utilitarians, and then read the teachings of logic by Surak, see how it melds together. If still in the mood for reading when done, you can round it off with some Marx and Engels" Jonas recommended.
"Even though Surak was Vulcan?" Zin pointed out.
"Keep in mind, that Starfleet is built on the backs of Vulcan advisors"
Yumaar was not in the mood for this. He tapped his fingernails restlessly against the armrests of his seat, trying to get Jonas attention.
"Anyway, Yumaar wants to relocate us to the building-site for the new ship. Care to beam over?" Jonas asked, bringing them back on track.
"Ill be happy to, I feel I have been left out of all the action lately"
"Okay, I am locking on to your communicator, prepare for transfer"
Jonas did as he said he would do, and a few computer-beeps later, the gentle humming of the transporter reached them from beyond the recreation-room. It was odd really, how easy the sound traveled between the rooms. What were the walls made off, cardboard? Once Zin was successfully re-assembled, Jonas rose from his chair and walked out of the cockpit. Yumaar followed closely behind as he stepped into the recreation-room. This was the central hub of the ship, all the other rooms were linked to it through the same feature-less and gray slide-door that starfleet filled all their ships with. Jonas did not yet know this ship as his own pocket, in fact there were rooms here that he had not even visited. It was a good thing then, that the main function of the rooms at the other side were stamped into the doors with thick, black letters.
Storage was on the inner left, just behind the TV. Then came the kitchen with the specialized synthesizers. The engine-room started behind the dining-table and the chairs that were screwed stuck to the fake mahogany-floor. Then came the weapons-chamber, a highly original feature for such a small ship. Their modest phaser-bank was very accessible for repairs, but the downside was that it was bolted to the floor in the same manner as their furniture. The chamber was not big enough to install a flexible platform, so the constructors had just carved a hole in the outer hull were the exit-lens was. Should they ever need to aim in on a target, the entire ship had to shift angle. It went almost without saying that the journeyman would be rubbish in a fight, but it was good to have something against asteroids and space-dwelling organisms. At the inner right wall, there was a door marked "holodeck", the hottest and trendiest thing within starfleet. The holodeck could project three-dimensional images anywhere in the room, a good tool for displaying complex information such as star-charts and schematics. The next door, Jonas had yet to open. It was marked "computer-core" and it was most probably a small and cramped little room were the various hard-discs could be inserted and removed from slots in the wall and ceiling. Next up came the exercise-room. Jonas had not yet been there, but the inventory-list claimed it was equipped with a thread-mill, a rowing-machine, and some other boring stuff designed to drain ones energy should one ever manage to build up a surplus. The entrance to the transporter-room was actually the closest door to the bridge-corridor they had emerged from. Had Jonas started looking over his right shoulder rather than his left, he would have spotted it right away.
Just as Jonas found the right door, it slided open. Zin passed through it, making a quick spin around his axis before spotting Yumaar and Jonas.
"Nice place you have here" He said smiling.
Jonas came up to him, they shook hands.
"We will be staying here for quite some time, starfleet wants us to oversee the construction of Yumaar's next explorer" He informed.
"Really? That sounds like a fun task. Have your engineers made any drawings yet?" Zin asked, looking down on Yumaar.
"Not that I know of, our negotiations with the Ferengies was not concluded before yesterday evening, so this is fresh news"
Zin's face lighted up, as if he had just received a gift he really yearned for.
"I can't wait to begin, were is the holodeck?" He screamed, eager as a child.
More work awaited them, Jonas led the way.