The Pilots and the Frontier
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: After all this time, you know what this means, right? Rating: K Time: About three years after my story the Pilots and the Passengers.
The two Kzin growled at each other, or so it seemed to Rick. Human vocal cords couldn't reproduce the Kzin language and the human ear only picked up part of what was said. Moecious could both speak and understand Kzin, although Skinny said his Vorlag friend sounded like an uneducated swamp farmer with a speech impediment.
The high ranking Kzin looked around and smiled.
"I suppose that in deference to our human friends, we should continue the ceremony in Anglic, don't you think so, Skinny?"
Skinny remained on the floor.
"Of course, Your Highness."
"Then I shall introduce myself to your friends. I am the second youngest brother to the Patriarch of Kzinti. Much as Skinny has a human nickname, I'm referred to as Five. That's because I used to be fifth in line for the Patriarchy. However, since Matriarch (Growl), I am sorry, but I had to use her Kzin name as she has no human nickname, had two male heirs, I'm seventh in line, but I kept the name."
Rick quickly introduced his party although he had the feeling that Five probably knew all of their names and a great deal about them.
"Excellent." Said Five. "Skinny, why don't you stand up and we can get on with the ceremony?"
Skinny stood up hesitantly, as if he was unsure if he should really stand in the presence of Kzin Royalty.
"You were instrumental in finding the facility where super metals are mined. In spite of the problems in Kzin space and elsewhere, we are now partners with our human friends in an enterprise that will change our civilizations beyond anything we could have imagined."
"I was just doing my duty, Your Highness." Skinny said.
"And doing your duty well brings a reward. You are hereby made a (Growl). For our human friends, that would he roughly equivalent to a duke in human nobility."
Skinny looked like he was trying to say something, but nothing came out.
Five went on.
"Of course, a duke must have a dukedom, and the Patriarch has one for you. We had hoped to give you your own planet, but…there are problems as you know. However, your dukedom is a habitable moon which orbits a gas giant planet. The habitable part of the moon, called, (Growl), is about ten million square miles. And you also have as your fief the uninhabitable moons also in orbit."
Skinny growled something which caused Five to smile.
"Oh, no need to thank me. This is only your just due."
"We've contacted your clan and there are about fifty thousand of them that wish to serve you on that moon. You will command twenty-four system defense boats as part of your fief, and the Patriarch has given you the light cruiser Blood Rock as your flagship. You will want to raise your own household regiment on your own, of course, but their equipment and pay will be at the Patriarch's expense until such time as your fief is self-supporting."
"Please thank the Patriarch for me, Your Highness." Skinny managed to get out.
"To be sure. Oh, I almost forgot. You're to be promoted to Commodore, effective today."
Five turned to Rick and Kate and their friends.
"And now to reward Commander Castle. For your invaluable help, you are being commissioned as a Commander in the Kzin Space Navy. You will be paid at the same rate as your Imperial rank of Space Navy commander. In addition, you are raised to Kzin nobility with the rank of (Growl). Roughly, equal to an Imperial knight baronet. The rank is hereditary, as you may know."
"I thank the Patriarch." Rick said.
"Now, your lovely wife, Lieutenant Kate Castle. You are commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Kzin Space Navy and are also are ennobled as a (Growl) as was your husband."
Kate curtsied.
"I thank the Patriarch."
Moecious was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Kzin Space Navy and also raised to the rank of (Growl).
The women, including Lily and Marie, were also commissioned, but as Ensigns, and made Ladies of the Court of the Matriarch, which was one step below Rick, Kate and Moecious' ranks.
Even the Quinncinx was honored as a Trusty Friend of the Patriarch. This came with no money, but the little pink fellow didn't seem to mind.
"Bend your friend and they will attend." He said happily.
Once the ceremony as over, the brass began coming over to congratulate Skinny and the rest. Lily, however, had been led off by Moecious to sample the hors d'oeuvres. Castle tried to get away as he could clearly see a tummy ache in Lily's future if he didn't stop her and her furry friend. Then he ran into the last two people he ever wanted to see.
"Commander Castle, congratulations on you new rank and title." That was Rear Admiral Zek, the head of Naval Intelligence for the Glimmer Reach Sector. With him was an older woman that Castle knew only as Martha. Her rank and job were unknown to him, but she worked for the Imperial Central Intelligence Organization. Most non-Intelligence Navy personnel referred to it as "I See Idiots Only".
"And our congratulations to all of our combined Navy Intelligence and ICIO team." Martha added.
"Now that Five and the higher ranking officers are starting to leave, we'd like to talk to you. This way please." Said the admiral.
Castle sighed and he and his friends followed the two intelligence types into a conference room.
"As you are all no doubt aware, the experimental phase of the Pika-Don is over." Zek gushed. "Thanks to the excellent work by the Pika-Don team, and of course the discovery of the super metals facility, we have for the first time ever succeeded in creating technology that is superior to that of the long vanished Commonwealth. We lost an awful lot of technology in the Collapse, but that's all now behind us."
"Building one ship doesn't exactly put us ahead of the old Commonwealth, sir." Castle felt obliged to say.
"Not just one ship, Commander Castle. There are a dozen spaceyards in the Empire that are ready to produce copies of the Pika-Don and soon we'll be building bigger and better ships."
"Yes, sir." Rick said, unconvinced.
"However, we have decided that what we need now is a real world test for the Pika-Don. We've decided that you, and your crew should take the Pika-Don to the Kzin Cluster, to Duke Skinny's moon to be exact because of the situation in that area. As an enlarged scout vessel, Pika-Don will be quite useful in that situation."
"Situation, sir? We call those things wars out in the field."
Zek shrugged. "It was a war, but now it's a situation."
Castle decided that a debate would be a waste of time. He said nothing.
At one time, it was correct to say that the Kzin Cluster was the last place of any interest before you entered the Betelgeuse Wilderness. Naval patrols, Survey Service missions, scientific expeditions and commercial explorations had found very, very few inhabitable planets and none with any valuable minerals or ores. The few inhabited worlds they'd found were so backwards that the wooden club was considered the technological wonder of the age.
However, space is vast and somehow, the Pannonian Empire, some hundred and fifty planets had been missed. The Pannonians ran across the two dozen worlds held by Kzins and attacked, not bothering to discover that the Kzin were a part of a human Empire that spanned some twenty-five thousand technologically advanced planets. The Kzin and other Imperial forces in the area managed to hold off the Pannonians until four Imperial fleets crushed the Pannonians. The Pannonians had agreed to a truce. Regrettably, the Empire had other problems and had to agree to allowing the Pannonians to simply go back home.
In the meantime, the Empire had stationed a powerful fleet in the Kzin Cluster and the Kzin themselves were expanding their military as fast as they could. Like many non-human races that had joined the Empire, the treaty admitting the Kzin had given them a great deal of internal autonomy, including the right to maintain their own military, subject to Imperial control at the highest level.
No one in either space navy thought that peace had actually broken out between the Empire and the Pannonians.
"Sir, I have a young child. I'm willing to go, of course, but my wife…"
"As a naval officer." Martha said. "She'll go where she's ordered."
"If Rick and Kate are being ordered to take the Pika-Don to Kzin space, Jane and I volunteer to be on their crew." Simone said.
"I'll go, too." Moecious said. "And my cousins Muggsy, Buggsy and Puggsy will be happy to babysit."
Castle wondered what kind of babysitters three wolf-like party animals would be like and inwardly shuddered.
"I'll be happy to help." Marie said.
"Lindane and I will as well." Andine said.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." Zek said. "Lindane will be going as part of the crew."
"She's going to college!" Castle protested. "She can't go off on some military mission."
"Actually, Lindane is no longer in college." Martha said. "When she arrived at the Imperial Institute of Technology, she challenged all of her courses. She passed all of the exams and after handing in two papers she'd previously written as her senior papers, she was awarded a bachelor of science degree with a double major, bio-engineering and FTL technology."
"And a minor in history." Lindane added.
"Yes. A minor in history." Martha nodded. "She then did some research and was awarded three master of science degrees. It was felt that pursuing a doctorate was unnecessary."
"She's a very bright young lady." Zek said. "Are you familiar with the Wu-Descant scale?"
Castle nodded. "It measures intelligence. A score of one is average, two is your ordinary genius and it goes up from there."
"The highest score ever recorded, "Zek went on, "was a Mazdel of Taurus, who scored a four point eight. Lindane has scored between five point four and seven point two, which is impossible, because the Wu- Descant scale never alters once one achieves adulthood."
"Except for me." Lindane said softly.
"She's been working at the Imperial Labs for most of the last three years, Commander Castle, and has done much of the work in designing the Pika-Don."
"If my daughter goes, I go." Andine quickly said.
"Of course."
"I'll be happy to stay here a while and help." Gina said. "My business back on Earth practically runs itself now." Gina had stopped running a brothel when she got to Earth, but had set up an entertainment center for the students at the Imperial Institute of Technology, providing the students with fizzy drinks, snacks and very complex computer games.
"And don't worry." She whispered to Rick and Kate. "Marie has been keeping Moecious in line for years. She'll have no trouble with his cousins."
Rick and Kate exchanged glances.
"I guess we're going." Kate said.
When Rick and Kate were ready to leave, they weren't at all sure that Lily understood how long they might be gone. At her age anything after tomorrow tended to be a very vague concept.
The three Vorlags had shed their black suits, shirts, white ties and fedoras for glowing shirts, cargo shorts and sandals. They were being given a lecture by Marie, with Gina's help, on what foods were appropriate for a young human.
"Doncha worry about nuthin', Rick. Me an' da boyz is gonna treat lil' Lily like she wuz our own." Muggsy said as they left.
Rick didn't tell him that that was exactly what he was afraid of.
The Pika-Don and the cruiser Blood Rock joined a convoy headed for Kzinti, the home world of the Kzin. From there, Duke Skinny would recruit his personal guard regiment and the senior personnel for the new colony. Kzin society was semi-feudal. The Patriarch had the most powerful military in the Kzin Cluster. However, his nobility were charged with maintaining their own forces and fighting for the Patriarch when needed. In the past that had led to Kzin nobles fighting other Kzin nobles, but no longer.
TBC