The Imperial crew were scanning the radio frequencies when the call came in. At first, they were uncertain if they should intervene or not, but only for a second. For Imperial officers really don't like pirates, and here was a batch of them directly in front, attacking an unarmed freighter. Accelerating their engine, they began heading into the battle. The twin turbolasers were deployed, and the shields raised. Targeting computers locked onto the swirling fight in front of them, and fingers caressed triggers gently, before pulling.
Sarah was shaking. Their engines had been badly hit, killing the other engineer on watch with her. The crew quarters had been hit as well, but it hadn't been hit that bad, so it was still holding air. Captain Brant had been killed by a buckling girder, and Scott was badly hurt as well. His legs had been broken in several places by the girder, and was going into shock. She had tried to give enough painkiller medicine from the First Aid kit, and held him to prevent heat loss, but she knew that he was going to die. Either from his wounds or from the Raiders, but he was going to die. All she wanted to do now was to hold him, and tell him everything will be okay, but she couldn't say anything, and held him to her like a life preserver. Idly a part of her mind noted that the blasts had stopped, and she knew that the Raiders would be coming aboard soon to finish the two of them off. She could not see what was happening outside, only listen to the silence, their breathing, and their beating hearts, one getting slower and slower.
The Raider leader blinked in surprise from the static. "Ep 5 report. Ep 5!" He didn't know what had happened, as for a moment, Ep 5 had been giving him an update on the targeted freighter, then was suddenly cut off. Scrolling through the telemetry report, he saw that Ep 5 was nowhere to be seen. The only way for that was if it had been destroyed. He took another look at his scanner, and saw the second freighter moving up at three G's. That was very high for a freighter, but he had more than enough Raiders to handle what must be a Q-ship, which was little more than an armed freighter. Looking at the outside of the Q-ship, he saw a pair of guns stivking out from it, but they looked like anti-fighter sized weapons, so although they could damage or even destroy one of the raiders, the carrier was another issue entirely.
"Everyone, pay attention. We've got a Q-ship moving up from the rear. What we're going to do is turn, placing ourselves side on to it, and slowly come up beside it. While we're coming up beside it, the carrier will jump in and start hammering it. As long as we stay barely outside its weapons range, the crew will fixate on us, and the carrier will take them by surprise." There was a lot of grumbling among the Raiders, as they knew a Q-ship could be dangerous, but they also knew the importance of getting rid of Q-ships that they knew of, so they wouldn't have to worry about them later.
The Imperial crew watched the Raiders slowly come in, and begin angling to one side. Refusing to play their game, the Imperials kept moving towards the damaged freighter, trying to bring it inside the range of their guns. Once it was inside the range of their guns, the Raiders would have to come to them if they wanted to steal. Still, there had been a larger vessel with the group, and it was not visible now. Where was it?
The carrier crew heard the report, and smiled. Their vessel had enough firepower to handle a Q-ship, especially one that didn't know about the ambush coming up. Proceeding to the pre-arranged coordinates, they opened up a jump point, and darted through, looking for the Q-ship. Suddenly blasts struck the ship from one side, and alarms all over the ship began ringing out.
The turbolasers had been trained on minimum time response settings, so no matter which way a ship showed up, the guns could be swung to attack it within a quarter second. That setting worked perfectly, and both guns had begun aiming towards the carrier as soon as the jump point had been detected. When the vessel had emerged, the guns had gone to single shot mode and opened fire. These were not low-power anti-fighter settings, these were full-power blasts, designed not for surgery but for slaughter. Imperial general attitude towards pirates was along the lines of shoot them all, and interrogate the survivors, if any.
The Raider leader gasped in shock as the carrier suddenly began to sag to one side, with atmosphere streaming from it. His thoughts moved quickly, and his first order was, "Attack!" The others had been shocked as well by the sheer violence of the weapons used, but they were conditioned to obeying his orders, and all of the fighters accelerated in. The leader knew that the carrier was their only way home without using another jump gate, and they had to attack, otherwise their fancy little fighters would be their coffins.
"Here they come." Those three words, over the intercom net for the Imperials were only a sign of how calm they were. Their turbolasers had savaged the larger vessel that tried to ambush them, and now there were twenty nine little fighters coming in. Settings on their guns were changed back to anti-fighter mode, and the gunners watched as the little craft tried to dodge and weave as they came in. But their targeting scanners were accustomed to fighters moving far faster and maneuvering even wilder than the ones coming in, and the two gunners began firing into the cloud, trying to take out as many as they could before they were surrounded. Also, if the Raiders decided they were going to die anyway, they might decide to try to take out the other freighter, accepting their own destruction in the process.
The Raiders came in, ignoring the loss of six of their own in the first firing pass, and every one of them opened fire and hit the Imperial freighter, signs that even if people called them pirates, they were still very good shots. Even so, the freighter was equipped with shields that were designed to handle megaton yield explosions, and the little ion bolts were nothing but pinpricks to them.
As they went past on their firing run, the leader looked at his display and swore. There had been almost no damage indicated on his plot, and one fifth of his fighters were gone! He was about to give the order to break off when a turbolaser bolt plucked him out of the sky, removing the Raiders' coordination. Their last orders had been to destroy that Q-ship, and they turned around, bringing their weapons back on target.
The ventral gunner had been noticing that the pirate fighters were dying very quickly with each shot, and changed a small setting on his turbolasers. Instead of packeting the plasma for long-range shots, the targeting computer would get the range of the closest target in the sight picture, and set the plasma packet to lose containment at that range. Within four shots, another twelve fighters were disabled by him, and he relayed the tactic to the dorsal gunner. A quick modification, several more volleys of weapons fire, and all the Raiders were badly damaged or destroyed. There were no survivors.
Now it was time to rescue the other freighter. The two who would be performing the boarding action got their white battle armor on, and all parts of it gave a green light. The Imperial freighter scanned the target, and found the two remaining, but fading, life signs. The medbot was prepped, and they docked to the freighter, airlock to airlock, and began cycling the lock to get through. The two would still follow Imperial boarding precautions, but their weapons were set to stun, as they were rescuing, not attacking.
Sarah heard the thump of a ship attaching to the airlock, and slowly pulled herself free of Scott. She knew what would happen now, to a young woman like her, and she bared her teeth. Whoever was in that vessel would not get her easily, or cheaply, and she grabbed a length of pipe that had broken off nearby. Part of it was sharp, and it cut her hand, but she knew that any pain from that would be mild compared to if they took her alive. She watched the airlock carefully, intending to attack the first person that came through. Gone was a young woman who wanted to just relax and enjoy life when she could. The only thing left in her mind was a need to defend herself, to the death if necessary.
Lieutenant Molda tensed right before he opened the door. There was no exact way of telling what the interior of the ship was like, so he oriented himself with the freighter he was about to go aboard, and carefully opened the hatch. His magnetic and gravitic soles in his boots would let him keep his footing, even in null-G, so he carefully eased the hatch open, and swept the interior with his helmet's senses.
Sarah saw the hatch open, and almost moved right then. But the hatch stopped after a moment, and she saw what looked like a white insect's head peer around for a moment. It looked around the room for a moment, then settled on her for a few seconds. Without gravity, she was floating in midair, and could easily see the bridge through the open hatch. She held onto the ladder, planning to use launch herself from it when she attacked the intruders. Watching carefully, she saw the creature move forwards into the bridge, and began walking around. A second appeared a few seconds later, and it sealed the hatch behind. She was now alone on her ship with two white insects walking around in it. Walking? There was no gravity here, so how could they be walking on the ship's decks and walls? Looking at them closer, she saw what appeared to be something dark in their hands, and after a brief moment, she figured they must be holding guns, though these guns looked nothing like the modern PPGs all Earthforce personnel were equipped with. Still, if she could surprise them, she might have a chance.
Molda watched the woman carefully. The person near her had a low body temperature, and was probably going into shock, while her heart rate was going up. Not only that, but there appeared to be a metal bar in one hand, which could be used as a weapon. Although it would not penetrate his armor, the impact could knock him off-balance enough to lose his footing. He passed the warning on to the other engineer, who began moving around to one side of her. If she tried to attack them, she would have to turn to one of them, giving the other enough time to stun her. Briefly he pondered if he should stun her, but decided that since he could survive any attack she could make, to hold off on shooting her. Also, if he aimed his gun at her, it might set her off.
Sarah watched as the two insects separated. The first one seemed the most dangerous, as it was always watching the crevices, but turning back to her quickly. The other seemed to be concentrating more on Scott, but was also keeping an eye on her. Seeing no better chance, she let out a yell and attacked.
Molda almost sighed as she finally attacked. Unfortunately, she was too close to properly aim the blaster pistol, se he settled for simply blocking her swing with one forearm, and knocking her out with the other fist. Settling back down, he saw blood begin to seep from the hand where she had been holding the piece of metal, and gently pried her fingers open. Seeing the cuts there, and the edges of the metal pipe gleaming red, he sprayed a fast-acting healer, and called for the med droid to be sent through to take care of anything serious. When the other engineer reported the fractured legs the other person had, he immediately swapped with him, telling the medbot to take care of the broken legs.
Searching the rest of the ship, he found two more bodies, but they were long past any help he could give. Finishing up his inspection, he began moving to the different sections, using his armor's computer and sensors to tell him if there were any serious leaks. There were a couple in the engine room, and he used his armor's sealant to close them up.
The commander sent the report back to the main Imperial base, and then donned his own space suit, intending to see what sort of items were in the cargo holds. After all, if they wanted to make items that were not too far from what was currently available, it would be best to look at the actual items themselves. He looked inside two of the containers, and found they were empty, but the last four were very informative. The equipment inside was little more than combustion engine farm equipment, designed to run on any liquid fuel. The computer systems were simple, and very slow compared to items he was used to. Getting a hunch, he went back inside the attacked freighter, and began to experiment with the computer. After half an hour, his suspicions were confirmed. 'By the Emperor, is all of their technology this low? If so, then our ships are so far in advance that there is nothing that can harm us even with a numerical advantage.'
Several hours later, Sarah awoke to the feeling of gravity, and straps holding her down. Bolting upright in the bed, she saw that her wrists had been tied to the handrails on either side of the bed, but there was a definite sensation of gravity. She looked around, and saw Scott lying on a bed nearby, with what looked like a cast and nutrient bath on his legs where they had been broken. He was snoring slightly, and she relaxed slightly. Whoever was doing this had actually tried to heal him, where slavers would have simply killed him and taken her only. But the sensation of gravity was unusual. The room looked like the medical room on board the Barenica, but the Barenica did not have any form of gravity, and would probably break apart if it tried to land, let alone take off. So they must be on a ship or station with gravity, only there were no stations within a couple days of where they were.
"So you're awake," came from her left.
She glared over at the source of the voice, but softened a little when she saw the human face. "Who are you? Where are we? What happened?"
"First, my name is Verro, and I am in charge here. What is your name?"
"S-Sarah. I was the assistant to the Barenica." At the slight eyebrow raise she explained, "the freighter. Last thing I remember is being on board the Barenica and under attack by dozens of raiders, when a couple of white insects came on board."
Verro paused for a moment, then chuckled. He reached around a corner, and pulled out a helmet. "White insects that had heads like this?" At the gasp of shock, he continued. "We saw your freighter under attack, and decided to help. We disposed of the Raiders, and blew away their command ship as well. After that, we docked to your ship and decided to see if there was anyone we could help. Instead, we found you. You tried to attack one of my troops, even though he was in far better shape, was wearing armor, and has had over ten years of combat experience and hand to hand training. I think you overestimated your chances."
"I think I remember trying to not be captured. The rest was pure adrenalin. By the way, how long am I going to be a prisoner here?"
"Prisoner?"
She motioned to the straps holding her down.
"Ah. One moment." Verro moved over, and undid the binders that were holding her to the bed. She pulled up her wrists, taking the opportunity to rub some circulation back into her hands. Peeking under the sheets, she saw that she was wearing a light hospital robe, and looked at Verro with a glare. "Your clothes were covered with blood from your crewmate, and we decided to have them washed. They have been ready for the past few hours, and we were merely waiting for you to wake up."
"Well, good, because I-" Her train of thought suddenly shifted tracks. "Um, you said my clothes were washed and have been waiting for the past few hours. Either it takes a really long time for you to wash clothes, or there is a bigger story that I haven't guessed yet. First, am I on board a space station or planet somewhere?"
Verro nodded. Not only was she thinking, she was thinking along lines that were very dangerous to the imperial presence. But if they could use her as the interface between the Imperial fleet and the locals, she would be perfect. Smiling, he said, "You are not on board either."
"Am I on board a ship? If so, I would like a tour."
"You are on board a ship, and as far as tours, it looks very similar to yours on the inside."
"Then this is either a top secret EarthForce ship, or an alien ship. The Barenica doesn't have gravity of its own, and in order to generate gravity, you either need an advanced technology, or to use the engines to force one standard G on the passengers and crew. So, which is it?"
"Neither. This is not an Earthforce ship, but it is a human-built ship," Verro said with a smile. The look of surprise on her face was priceless. He knew he was in a superior negotiating position now, as admitting that the Imperial forces needed her would eventually turn the table. The question now, could he reel her in without scaring her?
Sarah began thinking hard at that answer. It wasn't an Earth military ship, but it was built by humans; that was impossible! But here she was, in gravity, on board a vessel that was human built. So obviously some private company had been testing something new in the way of gravity generation, and had merely been in the right place and the right time to assist, or actually, to save her life. The funny part about that was all the items here looked designed to be used in a weighted environment. On an Earthforce ship, there would be tie downs, restraining loops, and similar items to hold equipment in case they lost gravity. But all of the equipment and fastenings here looked as though they took artificial gravity as a way of life.
Looking back at him, "I still want a tour. After that, we can talk further."
Verro nodded. The tour was the best he could get now, and should create more questions than answers.
After an hour, where Sarah looked into crevices, and spotted several things different, but didn't spot the important things, she turned on Verro again. "All right. Overall, it looks like you did a decent job of copying the Barenica, but there are a few things different. First, the computer is far faster than I am used to. Second, several of the data cables are missing. Either you routed them differently, or the single cable I saw is carrying all of the necessary data. The engine room is the proper size, but I haven't been able to figure out where you stored the weaponry. You said you blew away the Raiders, so that means weapons. Since I don't see them inside the ship, they must be on the outside, but the fact that the Raiders attacked you keeps part of that from being true. They would have looked at the outside of your ship, and any large weapons would have been a dead giveaway. So obviously your weapons must have either been small, in which case you couldn't have destroyed the Raiders very quickly, or they are in the cargo containers."
A quick trip outside for a look inside the cargo containers shot that theory down. Telling Sarah that they had engaged the Raiders and destroyed all thirty fighters and their mothership within a minute took out her other theory.
When they got back inside, Sarah had even more questions, but Verro interrupted her. "First, we have been examining your manifest, and it says you are carrying farm equipment, and are headed towards a certain colony; Mandelin 4, I believe. Is this a regular run for a company, or a personal run where the Captain/owner of the ship decides what cargoes to haul?"
"This is a little of both, as the colony lost most of its engineers when they initially arrived. A locally derived oil had a minor bug in it, and most of the engineers who spent their time around it caught enough of the bug, and they died off. Everyone else has developed an immunity to it, and the colony essentially imports farm equipment and exports food. Without engineers and advanced technology, the colony would grow only one third the food, and the company I work for uses that advantage. The colonists grow food and sell it at standard prices, and buy advanced machinery to help them expand their fields, and replace what gets broken. There is one colony nearby that buys food from them, and the colony is also three jumps away from Babylon 5, so the parts an be easily bought there, and the food sold is either eaten on the station itself, or other merchants come there to buy it." A slight part of her noticed the two sparks of attention, the first was when she had mentioned that the colony needed engineers, and the second was when she had mentioned Babylon 5.
"In either case, we have to stick to a strict schedule, and with the amount of time you have spent showing me around, we are several hours late. I hope we can get to the jump gate on time for our position, so we don't have to wait for an empty slot."
"I think that can be taken care of. We also took the liberty of downloading your navigational database, and your route. But we want something from you."
"What."
"We want you to negotiate the appropriate prices from the local merchants. We have a good idea of the prices from your records as well, but we also want to see any special interactions that might be required."
That was when it hit her. These people were definitely not from around here. She would now have to watch them, to see if they were a threat to Earth. But it would be best to play along for now. "All right then. I'll do the trade negotiations for you."
"Another thing. We have some equipment of our own we would like to sell to them as well, but to avoid putting a glut on the market, we'll only be selling a couple of them. Would you like to examine one of them to determine a good price?"
"I'll try." She was shown one of the items. It was little more than a standard plow set, but the size and weight of it intrigued her. The size was similar to the ones she was selling, but it weighed only a third as much. In addition, the metal was slightly thinner than normal, and had a universal attachment system that allowed it to be attached to almost any plow rig that was used. "Not bad at all. I'd probably sell it for only twenty percent more, as the universal settings look like they would wear out quickly, and the metal itself, being thin, might indicate weakness to someone who isn't familiar with your technology. Do you have any more like this?"
"We have nine more, but any others would have to be almost custom made. We don't really use anything that outdated where we come from." The last sentence was said with a smile, and Sarah really began to wonder what she had gotten herself into.
But remembering the schedule, she looked up, "Shouldn't we be getting on our way to the jump gate? If we're late, it will throw off everything!"
Smiling, Verro motioned her to a window. Looking out the window, she could see stars slowly moving by. "We're accelerating at over 5 Gs right now, and that will provide us with plenty of time to get to the jump gate. And even if we are late, we still won't have to worry about a delay in jumping into hyperspace."
A slow moan escaped from her lips. She had been standing still, and she had known she was still, but in reality this freighter had been accelerating at a level twice the Barenica's maximum speed. Not only that, but what had he meant by not having to worry about losing their place? Unless this ship had its own jump engine! But that was impossible! Jump engines were huge things, and the Quantium-40 required to run a jump engine made them expensive too. It was far cheaper buying the jump gates for an internal commercial network than buying jump engines for every little freighter that would go from world to world.
"Is this freighter the usual sort here you come from Verro?"
"Actually, no." Sarah smiled. Maybe it was possible the Earth Alliance, or somebody here had an advantage over these new humans. "A normal freighter of this size would normally land to off-load cargo, instead of using ground to space shuttles. But we included that feature in the construction, so if the shuttles cannot make it to us, we can go to the landing field."
Her smile disappeared. 'Land! They would land this ship! But wait, what did he mean by a freighter of this size? Did he imply that there are freighters even larger!' "How big is the biggest freighter where you come from?" Sarah asked, while dreading the answer.
"I'll tell you, after we get off the planet. Who knows, I might also show you where the weapons are. They are still on board this ship."
Sarah's time until they arrived at the planet was full of exploration, trying to find the weapons. She stopped in on Scott, to see how he was doing, and to relay what she had learned so far. His expressions and doubt mirrored hers, and they began to wonder just who these people were.
Arriving at Mandelin 4, Sarah conducted the trade smoothly, discussing prices on the way in with the different farmers, and offering prices on the farm equipment. She even showed the first of the universal joint plows, and one of the farmers finally made her an offer, but it was only ten percent above the standard offer. Deciding not to press him too much, she finalized the official deals, and personally signed for the universal joint plow.
The shuttles again rendezvoused with the freighter, the cargo was transferred, and the freighter left orbit again, ready to ply its way across the space lanes. Sarah, of course, was immediately demanding to see what they had meant by the weapons still being on board, and no need to worry about not getting to the jump gate on time. Verro calmly asked her to wait, as he wanted to make sure they were not close enough to be observed. They exited through the jump gate normally, and were back in hyperspace.
When the time was right, he asked Sarah to move a certain lever, and the familiar vortex of a jump point opened in front of them, and the Imperial freighter moved through it. Sarah was looking at the stars in front of them in shock. "That's not possible! It takes far more energy than the Barenica produces in a year to open a jump point, the equipment for it would take up half the ship, and it requires Quantium-40, which is extremely rare and expensive, to do so. How did-" Her question was cut off as she looked at the expressions around her. They had been smiling as she had mention the first items, but when she mentioned Quantium-40, their expressions had gone puzzled.
"What exactly is Quantium-40," asked Verro.
"Quantium-40 is the material used to make jump gates or jump engines. I don't know if it is an element or molecule, as the name could be either one, but without it, jump point travel becomes almost impossible. I think I remember reading somewhere that one group tried a simulation of opening a jump point without it, and the power requirements went off the chart. It would take as much power as Earth produced in over twenty years to open a jump point without Quantium-40. But you did it, without the stuff, so that means . . ." Her voice trailed off as her shock threshold took another hit.
"We have slightly better power plants on board this freighter than the Barenica did." Verra said that with a smile. "By the way, you wanted to see the weapons?"
Sarah nodded jerkily, not sure how much more she could take. After she was led outside, and she saw the turbolasers deploy from what would be parts of the engine, she was very quiet. She just walked back inside, back to the med bay where Scott was resting, and she snuggled under the covers with him. He woke up, startled at her reaction, but when she just asked him to hold her, he did. He didn't know what was going on, but he could hold her now. Chances were, when he found out the reason, he'd want her to hold him in return.
Later on, he did.
But cuddled in that room, Sarah missed the jump to hyperspace, which would have shocked her even beyond where she was right then. Fortunately, for her remaining sanity, she didn't see where she arrived either, as the Eclipse or the World Devastators might have proven too much. What she didn't know, at that time, was that the Barenica had been brought here, and had been repaired by the Imperial technicians. It was now waiting for them, but there was a special price to pay for it.
"You want me to what?"
"We want you to take two members of our crew on board your freighter, and essentially train them to act normally around others. They will help on board your ship, as a bridge officer and one operating the engine room as well. Of course, in order to properly train them, you will need to have one person on duty with each of you at all times.
"You will get your ship back, and we did include a couple of extras. The external appearance and arrangement is identical to what the Barenica was before, but we did include the armor on the inside, and increased the strength of the windows as well. Even if a raiding force the same size as the others attacks, you will be able to withstand them for at least ten minutes. We also included a simple distress beacon on board, and there will be six fighters deployed near you at all times.
"The internal bracing has been improved as well, so even if something hits the ship, there won't be any seams popped by it. The engine has also been upgraded, but you can always throttle back to the previous settings in case you need to deceive someone.
"The cargo pods are the same material as the ones as you originally used, so in case they don't make it back, there is no leak."
"Do I get to have those same weapons, jump engine, and power plant as last time?"
"For weapons, we decided no. The fittings are easy to miss in space, but if you are transferring cargo, there will be people getting very close to the hull, and they might spot the opening. The jump engine is downgraded to the standard vortex type, and the power plant is a very efficient version of fusion engine. Since they are so small, we included a second one in there, but only one at a time is needed to run the ship. When you want to create your own jump points, just bring the second engine on-line, and the power will be there. Also, another reason to run with one plant only is if anyone tries to do a neutrino count, the two engines would show an obvious difference, while with one engine only it is barely noticeable.
"Of course, if you try to use all the advanced features on it openly, there will be lots of people who will want to know where you got such a ship, or will try various ways to take it from you. Eventually, we will start selling ships similar to these, or even ally with the local human government, but not just yet."
"Well, if you want to know a little about Earth, then let me tell about what has been happening recently." Sarah then went on to explain the recent occurrences, such as the recent death of President Santiago, the succession of Vice President Clark to President, and the recent problems with Mars riots. There had been some people who were concerned with the rapid transfer of power, but Clark's new Ministries had been doing a good job of helping to calm people down. Overall, it seemed as though Clark was trying to get rid of any alien influence, and was closing off earth access to the other alien races in order to do so. He was also using the Nightwatch to make sure there were no potential sympathizers or subversives within human controlled areas as well.
The Imperial officers recognized many of the signs. New departments set up by a new leader, plus the relatively untrained secret police being wielded were not signs of a sane and secure mind. It would be necessary to 'change' leadership on Earth soon. But they had to do it quietly, as otherwise the Earth humans would rally around Clark and try to resist. It would be necessary to contact someone who would be more open to them, and encourage them to start defying President Clark. They would have to be careful though, as open defiance might drive him into a corner. But, if they drove him into a corner before the rest of Earth was ready, then their candidate would be capable of winning, and the Imperials would have a secure ally in the Earth Alliance, as it was called. There would be problems, such as the Mars complaints, but they could be far more easily solved, as most of those complaints were over the taxes needed to support Earth and them. With advanced technology, costs for shipping goods could be dropped, and advanced terraforming technology would allow Mars to expand rapidly.
But meeting with that representative would have to be careful as well. A high-level government person couldn't just go over to an empty place and meet with them. The representative would have to meet with a known group, say, an Earth colony. If representatives from that colony were to request a meeting, with Imperial personnel there, and a few pieces of technology, it would be possible to explain to that person what was required of them. Once the technology was analyzed, their identities would be verified, and the potential offered would be the final coin to convince the representative that the Imperial policy would be a good one to follow. The Imperials would still need to review the various people there, and decide who to approach eventually.
But that was what the mission would be for. The two people going were chosen for their ability to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, and, as stormtrooper trained personnel, would be more than capable of taking down anyone they met. The two selected had trained against Wookies for strength, Noghri for speed, and many other races in order to make the best possible advantage out of anything they met.
The four people boarded the Barenica, and set out for Babylon 5, intending to sell the food and learn as much as possible. Of course, it would be necessary for them to get identicards at Babylon 5, but a cover story had already been prepared.
Sarah was shaking. Their engines had been badly hit, killing the other engineer on watch with her. The crew quarters had been hit as well, but it hadn't been hit that bad, so it was still holding air. Captain Brant had been killed by a buckling girder, and Scott was badly hurt as well. His legs had been broken in several places by the girder, and was going into shock. She had tried to give enough painkiller medicine from the First Aid kit, and held him to prevent heat loss, but she knew that he was going to die. Either from his wounds or from the Raiders, but he was going to die. All she wanted to do now was to hold him, and tell him everything will be okay, but she couldn't say anything, and held him to her like a life preserver. Idly a part of her mind noted that the blasts had stopped, and she knew that the Raiders would be coming aboard soon to finish the two of them off. She could not see what was happening outside, only listen to the silence, their breathing, and their beating hearts, one getting slower and slower.
The Raider leader blinked in surprise from the static. "Ep 5 report. Ep 5!" He didn't know what had happened, as for a moment, Ep 5 had been giving him an update on the targeted freighter, then was suddenly cut off. Scrolling through the telemetry report, he saw that Ep 5 was nowhere to be seen. The only way for that was if it had been destroyed. He took another look at his scanner, and saw the second freighter moving up at three G's. That was very high for a freighter, but he had more than enough Raiders to handle what must be a Q-ship, which was little more than an armed freighter. Looking at the outside of the Q-ship, he saw a pair of guns stivking out from it, but they looked like anti-fighter sized weapons, so although they could damage or even destroy one of the raiders, the carrier was another issue entirely.
"Everyone, pay attention. We've got a Q-ship moving up from the rear. What we're going to do is turn, placing ourselves side on to it, and slowly come up beside it. While we're coming up beside it, the carrier will jump in and start hammering it. As long as we stay barely outside its weapons range, the crew will fixate on us, and the carrier will take them by surprise." There was a lot of grumbling among the Raiders, as they knew a Q-ship could be dangerous, but they also knew the importance of getting rid of Q-ships that they knew of, so they wouldn't have to worry about them later.
The Imperial crew watched the Raiders slowly come in, and begin angling to one side. Refusing to play their game, the Imperials kept moving towards the damaged freighter, trying to bring it inside the range of their guns. Once it was inside the range of their guns, the Raiders would have to come to them if they wanted to steal. Still, there had been a larger vessel with the group, and it was not visible now. Where was it?
The carrier crew heard the report, and smiled. Their vessel had enough firepower to handle a Q-ship, especially one that didn't know about the ambush coming up. Proceeding to the pre-arranged coordinates, they opened up a jump point, and darted through, looking for the Q-ship. Suddenly blasts struck the ship from one side, and alarms all over the ship began ringing out.
The turbolasers had been trained on minimum time response settings, so no matter which way a ship showed up, the guns could be swung to attack it within a quarter second. That setting worked perfectly, and both guns had begun aiming towards the carrier as soon as the jump point had been detected. When the vessel had emerged, the guns had gone to single shot mode and opened fire. These were not low-power anti-fighter settings, these were full-power blasts, designed not for surgery but for slaughter. Imperial general attitude towards pirates was along the lines of shoot them all, and interrogate the survivors, if any.
The Raider leader gasped in shock as the carrier suddenly began to sag to one side, with atmosphere streaming from it. His thoughts moved quickly, and his first order was, "Attack!" The others had been shocked as well by the sheer violence of the weapons used, but they were conditioned to obeying his orders, and all of the fighters accelerated in. The leader knew that the carrier was their only way home without using another jump gate, and they had to attack, otherwise their fancy little fighters would be their coffins.
"Here they come." Those three words, over the intercom net for the Imperials were only a sign of how calm they were. Their turbolasers had savaged the larger vessel that tried to ambush them, and now there were twenty nine little fighters coming in. Settings on their guns were changed back to anti-fighter mode, and the gunners watched as the little craft tried to dodge and weave as they came in. But their targeting scanners were accustomed to fighters moving far faster and maneuvering even wilder than the ones coming in, and the two gunners began firing into the cloud, trying to take out as many as they could before they were surrounded. Also, if the Raiders decided they were going to die anyway, they might decide to try to take out the other freighter, accepting their own destruction in the process.
The Raiders came in, ignoring the loss of six of their own in the first firing pass, and every one of them opened fire and hit the Imperial freighter, signs that even if people called them pirates, they were still very good shots. Even so, the freighter was equipped with shields that were designed to handle megaton yield explosions, and the little ion bolts were nothing but pinpricks to them.
As they went past on their firing run, the leader looked at his display and swore. There had been almost no damage indicated on his plot, and one fifth of his fighters were gone! He was about to give the order to break off when a turbolaser bolt plucked him out of the sky, removing the Raiders' coordination. Their last orders had been to destroy that Q-ship, and they turned around, bringing their weapons back on target.
The ventral gunner had been noticing that the pirate fighters were dying very quickly with each shot, and changed a small setting on his turbolasers. Instead of packeting the plasma for long-range shots, the targeting computer would get the range of the closest target in the sight picture, and set the plasma packet to lose containment at that range. Within four shots, another twelve fighters were disabled by him, and he relayed the tactic to the dorsal gunner. A quick modification, several more volleys of weapons fire, and all the Raiders were badly damaged or destroyed. There were no survivors.
Now it was time to rescue the other freighter. The two who would be performing the boarding action got their white battle armor on, and all parts of it gave a green light. The Imperial freighter scanned the target, and found the two remaining, but fading, life signs. The medbot was prepped, and they docked to the freighter, airlock to airlock, and began cycling the lock to get through. The two would still follow Imperial boarding precautions, but their weapons were set to stun, as they were rescuing, not attacking.
Sarah heard the thump of a ship attaching to the airlock, and slowly pulled herself free of Scott. She knew what would happen now, to a young woman like her, and she bared her teeth. Whoever was in that vessel would not get her easily, or cheaply, and she grabbed a length of pipe that had broken off nearby. Part of it was sharp, and it cut her hand, but she knew that any pain from that would be mild compared to if they took her alive. She watched the airlock carefully, intending to attack the first person that came through. Gone was a young woman who wanted to just relax and enjoy life when she could. The only thing left in her mind was a need to defend herself, to the death if necessary.
Lieutenant Molda tensed right before he opened the door. There was no exact way of telling what the interior of the ship was like, so he oriented himself with the freighter he was about to go aboard, and carefully opened the hatch. His magnetic and gravitic soles in his boots would let him keep his footing, even in null-G, so he carefully eased the hatch open, and swept the interior with his helmet's senses.
Sarah saw the hatch open, and almost moved right then. But the hatch stopped after a moment, and she saw what looked like a white insect's head peer around for a moment. It looked around the room for a moment, then settled on her for a few seconds. Without gravity, she was floating in midair, and could easily see the bridge through the open hatch. She held onto the ladder, planning to use launch herself from it when she attacked the intruders. Watching carefully, she saw the creature move forwards into the bridge, and began walking around. A second appeared a few seconds later, and it sealed the hatch behind. She was now alone on her ship with two white insects walking around in it. Walking? There was no gravity here, so how could they be walking on the ship's decks and walls? Looking at them closer, she saw what appeared to be something dark in their hands, and after a brief moment, she figured they must be holding guns, though these guns looked nothing like the modern PPGs all Earthforce personnel were equipped with. Still, if she could surprise them, she might have a chance.
Molda watched the woman carefully. The person near her had a low body temperature, and was probably going into shock, while her heart rate was going up. Not only that, but there appeared to be a metal bar in one hand, which could be used as a weapon. Although it would not penetrate his armor, the impact could knock him off-balance enough to lose his footing. He passed the warning on to the other engineer, who began moving around to one side of her. If she tried to attack them, she would have to turn to one of them, giving the other enough time to stun her. Briefly he pondered if he should stun her, but decided that since he could survive any attack she could make, to hold off on shooting her. Also, if he aimed his gun at her, it might set her off.
Sarah watched as the two insects separated. The first one seemed the most dangerous, as it was always watching the crevices, but turning back to her quickly. The other seemed to be concentrating more on Scott, but was also keeping an eye on her. Seeing no better chance, she let out a yell and attacked.
Molda almost sighed as she finally attacked. Unfortunately, she was too close to properly aim the blaster pistol, se he settled for simply blocking her swing with one forearm, and knocking her out with the other fist. Settling back down, he saw blood begin to seep from the hand where she had been holding the piece of metal, and gently pried her fingers open. Seeing the cuts there, and the edges of the metal pipe gleaming red, he sprayed a fast-acting healer, and called for the med droid to be sent through to take care of anything serious. When the other engineer reported the fractured legs the other person had, he immediately swapped with him, telling the medbot to take care of the broken legs.
Searching the rest of the ship, he found two more bodies, but they were long past any help he could give. Finishing up his inspection, he began moving to the different sections, using his armor's computer and sensors to tell him if there were any serious leaks. There were a couple in the engine room, and he used his armor's sealant to close them up.
The commander sent the report back to the main Imperial base, and then donned his own space suit, intending to see what sort of items were in the cargo holds. After all, if they wanted to make items that were not too far from what was currently available, it would be best to look at the actual items themselves. He looked inside two of the containers, and found they were empty, but the last four were very informative. The equipment inside was little more than combustion engine farm equipment, designed to run on any liquid fuel. The computer systems were simple, and very slow compared to items he was used to. Getting a hunch, he went back inside the attacked freighter, and began to experiment with the computer. After half an hour, his suspicions were confirmed. 'By the Emperor, is all of their technology this low? If so, then our ships are so far in advance that there is nothing that can harm us even with a numerical advantage.'
Several hours later, Sarah awoke to the feeling of gravity, and straps holding her down. Bolting upright in the bed, she saw that her wrists had been tied to the handrails on either side of the bed, but there was a definite sensation of gravity. She looked around, and saw Scott lying on a bed nearby, with what looked like a cast and nutrient bath on his legs where they had been broken. He was snoring slightly, and she relaxed slightly. Whoever was doing this had actually tried to heal him, where slavers would have simply killed him and taken her only. But the sensation of gravity was unusual. The room looked like the medical room on board the Barenica, but the Barenica did not have any form of gravity, and would probably break apart if it tried to land, let alone take off. So they must be on a ship or station with gravity, only there were no stations within a couple days of where they were.
"So you're awake," came from her left.
She glared over at the source of the voice, but softened a little when she saw the human face. "Who are you? Where are we? What happened?"
"First, my name is Verro, and I am in charge here. What is your name?"
"S-Sarah. I was the assistant to the Barenica." At the slight eyebrow raise she explained, "the freighter. Last thing I remember is being on board the Barenica and under attack by dozens of raiders, when a couple of white insects came on board."
Verro paused for a moment, then chuckled. He reached around a corner, and pulled out a helmet. "White insects that had heads like this?" At the gasp of shock, he continued. "We saw your freighter under attack, and decided to help. We disposed of the Raiders, and blew away their command ship as well. After that, we docked to your ship and decided to see if there was anyone we could help. Instead, we found you. You tried to attack one of my troops, even though he was in far better shape, was wearing armor, and has had over ten years of combat experience and hand to hand training. I think you overestimated your chances."
"I think I remember trying to not be captured. The rest was pure adrenalin. By the way, how long am I going to be a prisoner here?"
"Prisoner?"
She motioned to the straps holding her down.
"Ah. One moment." Verro moved over, and undid the binders that were holding her to the bed. She pulled up her wrists, taking the opportunity to rub some circulation back into her hands. Peeking under the sheets, she saw that she was wearing a light hospital robe, and looked at Verro with a glare. "Your clothes were covered with blood from your crewmate, and we decided to have them washed. They have been ready for the past few hours, and we were merely waiting for you to wake up."
"Well, good, because I-" Her train of thought suddenly shifted tracks. "Um, you said my clothes were washed and have been waiting for the past few hours. Either it takes a really long time for you to wash clothes, or there is a bigger story that I haven't guessed yet. First, am I on board a space station or planet somewhere?"
Verro nodded. Not only was she thinking, she was thinking along lines that were very dangerous to the imperial presence. But if they could use her as the interface between the Imperial fleet and the locals, she would be perfect. Smiling, he said, "You are not on board either."
"Am I on board a ship? If so, I would like a tour."
"You are on board a ship, and as far as tours, it looks very similar to yours on the inside."
"Then this is either a top secret EarthForce ship, or an alien ship. The Barenica doesn't have gravity of its own, and in order to generate gravity, you either need an advanced technology, or to use the engines to force one standard G on the passengers and crew. So, which is it?"
"Neither. This is not an Earthforce ship, but it is a human-built ship," Verro said with a smile. The look of surprise on her face was priceless. He knew he was in a superior negotiating position now, as admitting that the Imperial forces needed her would eventually turn the table. The question now, could he reel her in without scaring her?
Sarah began thinking hard at that answer. It wasn't an Earth military ship, but it was built by humans; that was impossible! But here she was, in gravity, on board a vessel that was human built. So obviously some private company had been testing something new in the way of gravity generation, and had merely been in the right place and the right time to assist, or actually, to save her life. The funny part about that was all the items here looked designed to be used in a weighted environment. On an Earthforce ship, there would be tie downs, restraining loops, and similar items to hold equipment in case they lost gravity. But all of the equipment and fastenings here looked as though they took artificial gravity as a way of life.
Looking back at him, "I still want a tour. After that, we can talk further."
Verro nodded. The tour was the best he could get now, and should create more questions than answers.
After an hour, where Sarah looked into crevices, and spotted several things different, but didn't spot the important things, she turned on Verro again. "All right. Overall, it looks like you did a decent job of copying the Barenica, but there are a few things different. First, the computer is far faster than I am used to. Second, several of the data cables are missing. Either you routed them differently, or the single cable I saw is carrying all of the necessary data. The engine room is the proper size, but I haven't been able to figure out where you stored the weaponry. You said you blew away the Raiders, so that means weapons. Since I don't see them inside the ship, they must be on the outside, but the fact that the Raiders attacked you keeps part of that from being true. They would have looked at the outside of your ship, and any large weapons would have been a dead giveaway. So obviously your weapons must have either been small, in which case you couldn't have destroyed the Raiders very quickly, or they are in the cargo containers."
A quick trip outside for a look inside the cargo containers shot that theory down. Telling Sarah that they had engaged the Raiders and destroyed all thirty fighters and their mothership within a minute took out her other theory.
When they got back inside, Sarah had even more questions, but Verro interrupted her. "First, we have been examining your manifest, and it says you are carrying farm equipment, and are headed towards a certain colony; Mandelin 4, I believe. Is this a regular run for a company, or a personal run where the Captain/owner of the ship decides what cargoes to haul?"
"This is a little of both, as the colony lost most of its engineers when they initially arrived. A locally derived oil had a minor bug in it, and most of the engineers who spent their time around it caught enough of the bug, and they died off. Everyone else has developed an immunity to it, and the colony essentially imports farm equipment and exports food. Without engineers and advanced technology, the colony would grow only one third the food, and the company I work for uses that advantage. The colonists grow food and sell it at standard prices, and buy advanced machinery to help them expand their fields, and replace what gets broken. There is one colony nearby that buys food from them, and the colony is also three jumps away from Babylon 5, so the parts an be easily bought there, and the food sold is either eaten on the station itself, or other merchants come there to buy it." A slight part of her noticed the two sparks of attention, the first was when she had mentioned that the colony needed engineers, and the second was when she had mentioned Babylon 5.
"In either case, we have to stick to a strict schedule, and with the amount of time you have spent showing me around, we are several hours late. I hope we can get to the jump gate on time for our position, so we don't have to wait for an empty slot."
"I think that can be taken care of. We also took the liberty of downloading your navigational database, and your route. But we want something from you."
"What."
"We want you to negotiate the appropriate prices from the local merchants. We have a good idea of the prices from your records as well, but we also want to see any special interactions that might be required."
That was when it hit her. These people were definitely not from around here. She would now have to watch them, to see if they were a threat to Earth. But it would be best to play along for now. "All right then. I'll do the trade negotiations for you."
"Another thing. We have some equipment of our own we would like to sell to them as well, but to avoid putting a glut on the market, we'll only be selling a couple of them. Would you like to examine one of them to determine a good price?"
"I'll try." She was shown one of the items. It was little more than a standard plow set, but the size and weight of it intrigued her. The size was similar to the ones she was selling, but it weighed only a third as much. In addition, the metal was slightly thinner than normal, and had a universal attachment system that allowed it to be attached to almost any plow rig that was used. "Not bad at all. I'd probably sell it for only twenty percent more, as the universal settings look like they would wear out quickly, and the metal itself, being thin, might indicate weakness to someone who isn't familiar with your technology. Do you have any more like this?"
"We have nine more, but any others would have to be almost custom made. We don't really use anything that outdated where we come from." The last sentence was said with a smile, and Sarah really began to wonder what she had gotten herself into.
But remembering the schedule, she looked up, "Shouldn't we be getting on our way to the jump gate? If we're late, it will throw off everything!"
Smiling, Verro motioned her to a window. Looking out the window, she could see stars slowly moving by. "We're accelerating at over 5 Gs right now, and that will provide us with plenty of time to get to the jump gate. And even if we are late, we still won't have to worry about a delay in jumping into hyperspace."
A slow moan escaped from her lips. She had been standing still, and she had known she was still, but in reality this freighter had been accelerating at a level twice the Barenica's maximum speed. Not only that, but what had he meant by not having to worry about losing their place? Unless this ship had its own jump engine! But that was impossible! Jump engines were huge things, and the Quantium-40 required to run a jump engine made them expensive too. It was far cheaper buying the jump gates for an internal commercial network than buying jump engines for every little freighter that would go from world to world.
"Is this freighter the usual sort here you come from Verro?"
"Actually, no." Sarah smiled. Maybe it was possible the Earth Alliance, or somebody here had an advantage over these new humans. "A normal freighter of this size would normally land to off-load cargo, instead of using ground to space shuttles. But we included that feature in the construction, so if the shuttles cannot make it to us, we can go to the landing field."
Her smile disappeared. 'Land! They would land this ship! But wait, what did he mean by a freighter of this size? Did he imply that there are freighters even larger!' "How big is the biggest freighter where you come from?" Sarah asked, while dreading the answer.
"I'll tell you, after we get off the planet. Who knows, I might also show you where the weapons are. They are still on board this ship."
Sarah's time until they arrived at the planet was full of exploration, trying to find the weapons. She stopped in on Scott, to see how he was doing, and to relay what she had learned so far. His expressions and doubt mirrored hers, and they began to wonder just who these people were.
Arriving at Mandelin 4, Sarah conducted the trade smoothly, discussing prices on the way in with the different farmers, and offering prices on the farm equipment. She even showed the first of the universal joint plows, and one of the farmers finally made her an offer, but it was only ten percent above the standard offer. Deciding not to press him too much, she finalized the official deals, and personally signed for the universal joint plow.
The shuttles again rendezvoused with the freighter, the cargo was transferred, and the freighter left orbit again, ready to ply its way across the space lanes. Sarah, of course, was immediately demanding to see what they had meant by the weapons still being on board, and no need to worry about not getting to the jump gate on time. Verro calmly asked her to wait, as he wanted to make sure they were not close enough to be observed. They exited through the jump gate normally, and were back in hyperspace.
When the time was right, he asked Sarah to move a certain lever, and the familiar vortex of a jump point opened in front of them, and the Imperial freighter moved through it. Sarah was looking at the stars in front of them in shock. "That's not possible! It takes far more energy than the Barenica produces in a year to open a jump point, the equipment for it would take up half the ship, and it requires Quantium-40, which is extremely rare and expensive, to do so. How did-" Her question was cut off as she looked at the expressions around her. They had been smiling as she had mention the first items, but when she mentioned Quantium-40, their expressions had gone puzzled.
"What exactly is Quantium-40," asked Verro.
"Quantium-40 is the material used to make jump gates or jump engines. I don't know if it is an element or molecule, as the name could be either one, but without it, jump point travel becomes almost impossible. I think I remember reading somewhere that one group tried a simulation of opening a jump point without it, and the power requirements went off the chart. It would take as much power as Earth produced in over twenty years to open a jump point without Quantium-40. But you did it, without the stuff, so that means . . ." Her voice trailed off as her shock threshold took another hit.
"We have slightly better power plants on board this freighter than the Barenica did." Verra said that with a smile. "By the way, you wanted to see the weapons?"
Sarah nodded jerkily, not sure how much more she could take. After she was led outside, and she saw the turbolasers deploy from what would be parts of the engine, she was very quiet. She just walked back inside, back to the med bay where Scott was resting, and she snuggled under the covers with him. He woke up, startled at her reaction, but when she just asked him to hold her, he did. He didn't know what was going on, but he could hold her now. Chances were, when he found out the reason, he'd want her to hold him in return.
Later on, he did.
But cuddled in that room, Sarah missed the jump to hyperspace, which would have shocked her even beyond where she was right then. Fortunately, for her remaining sanity, she didn't see where she arrived either, as the Eclipse or the World Devastators might have proven too much. What she didn't know, at that time, was that the Barenica had been brought here, and had been repaired by the Imperial technicians. It was now waiting for them, but there was a special price to pay for it.
"You want me to what?"
"We want you to take two members of our crew on board your freighter, and essentially train them to act normally around others. They will help on board your ship, as a bridge officer and one operating the engine room as well. Of course, in order to properly train them, you will need to have one person on duty with each of you at all times.
"You will get your ship back, and we did include a couple of extras. The external appearance and arrangement is identical to what the Barenica was before, but we did include the armor on the inside, and increased the strength of the windows as well. Even if a raiding force the same size as the others attacks, you will be able to withstand them for at least ten minutes. We also included a simple distress beacon on board, and there will be six fighters deployed near you at all times.
"The internal bracing has been improved as well, so even if something hits the ship, there won't be any seams popped by it. The engine has also been upgraded, but you can always throttle back to the previous settings in case you need to deceive someone.
"The cargo pods are the same material as the ones as you originally used, so in case they don't make it back, there is no leak."
"Do I get to have those same weapons, jump engine, and power plant as last time?"
"For weapons, we decided no. The fittings are easy to miss in space, but if you are transferring cargo, there will be people getting very close to the hull, and they might spot the opening. The jump engine is downgraded to the standard vortex type, and the power plant is a very efficient version of fusion engine. Since they are so small, we included a second one in there, but only one at a time is needed to run the ship. When you want to create your own jump points, just bring the second engine on-line, and the power will be there. Also, another reason to run with one plant only is if anyone tries to do a neutrino count, the two engines would show an obvious difference, while with one engine only it is barely noticeable.
"Of course, if you try to use all the advanced features on it openly, there will be lots of people who will want to know where you got such a ship, or will try various ways to take it from you. Eventually, we will start selling ships similar to these, or even ally with the local human government, but not just yet."
"Well, if you want to know a little about Earth, then let me tell about what has been happening recently." Sarah then went on to explain the recent occurrences, such as the recent death of President Santiago, the succession of Vice President Clark to President, and the recent problems with Mars riots. There had been some people who were concerned with the rapid transfer of power, but Clark's new Ministries had been doing a good job of helping to calm people down. Overall, it seemed as though Clark was trying to get rid of any alien influence, and was closing off earth access to the other alien races in order to do so. He was also using the Nightwatch to make sure there were no potential sympathizers or subversives within human controlled areas as well.
The Imperial officers recognized many of the signs. New departments set up by a new leader, plus the relatively untrained secret police being wielded were not signs of a sane and secure mind. It would be necessary to 'change' leadership on Earth soon. But they had to do it quietly, as otherwise the Earth humans would rally around Clark and try to resist. It would be necessary to contact someone who would be more open to them, and encourage them to start defying President Clark. They would have to be careful though, as open defiance might drive him into a corner. But, if they drove him into a corner before the rest of Earth was ready, then their candidate would be capable of winning, and the Imperials would have a secure ally in the Earth Alliance, as it was called. There would be problems, such as the Mars complaints, but they could be far more easily solved, as most of those complaints were over the taxes needed to support Earth and them. With advanced technology, costs for shipping goods could be dropped, and advanced terraforming technology would allow Mars to expand rapidly.
But meeting with that representative would have to be careful as well. A high-level government person couldn't just go over to an empty place and meet with them. The representative would have to meet with a known group, say, an Earth colony. If representatives from that colony were to request a meeting, with Imperial personnel there, and a few pieces of technology, it would be possible to explain to that person what was required of them. Once the technology was analyzed, their identities would be verified, and the potential offered would be the final coin to convince the representative that the Imperial policy would be a good one to follow. The Imperials would still need to review the various people there, and decide who to approach eventually.
But that was what the mission would be for. The two people going were chosen for their ability to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, and, as stormtrooper trained personnel, would be more than capable of taking down anyone they met. The two selected had trained against Wookies for strength, Noghri for speed, and many other races in order to make the best possible advantage out of anything they met.
The four people boarded the Barenica, and set out for Babylon 5, intending to sell the food and learn as much as possible. Of course, it would be necessary for them to get identicards at Babylon 5, but a cover story had already been prepared.