Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 1 - Alien Flight by David Buck Page A

years. Briefly she considered the burnout rate amongst her own medical team in the last three years. The briefing continued with the regular officers giving short overviews of their concerns before the frigate could again sail. With orders specified to the appropriate officers, the briefing closed with an invitation for all officers present to have dinner with the lieutenant commander that evening.
    The guests and officers on the frigate began to come together as a professional team that night. Selected stories were exchanged over dinner about the cataclysmic events of the last five years, and the effects of the events on their lives as naval officers and as people. The bonds would be reinforced further over the next five years of aid missions.
     
                                                                ***
     

Chapter 3
     
    2050 AD - In a star system 600 lights years distant
     
    The Barus trading ship travelled cautiously towards a series of asteroids. The sole occupant, a young male Barus called Omerio, anxiously scanned the surrounding space for signs of activity. Even in his haste, he remembered to use passive scans rather than powerful active subspace scans that could signal his presence from several star systems away. The galaxy was largely at peace and the independent races ignored the Barus trading and research ships. But he knew that this peace meant nothing if a patrolling Tilmud frigate discovered him alone and unprotected in a remote part of the galaxy. Especially if they learned of the tightly crammed contents of his ship’s hold, the Barus trader thought grimly.
    The current journey had begun innocently enough when Omerio had docked his fast trader at a Cephrit Star Base 31, over one thousand light years away several months ago. He had been expecting a few weeks of relaxation on the large cosmopolitan station after having made his ongoing trading arrangements earlier. However the second part of his most secret and long term covert operation had been urgently brought forward.
    Omerio’s Cephrit contact had taken lengthy pauses and began using sharp clicks when discussing the operation, and he was well aware that this was a sign of high anxiety amongst the Cephrit race. Within hours the Cephrit Station manager had his ship refueled and replenished, and a briefing was also awaiting his attention. He watched as several anonymous, but familiar crates of varying sizes were quickly crammed inside his small ship. A ludicrous amount of funds were forwarded to his private account, and he was encouraged to quietly leave for deep space in discrete haste.
    Omerio rubbed the plain brown fur on his shoulders, a vassal Barus trait, as he angled his trading ship towards the shadow of the second largest asteroid. A schematic of the star system showed the sole gas giant across the other side of the system, then his current location amongst a scattering of asteroids. Closer in towards the common M class star orbited two terrestrial sized planets, the first was a charred cinder close to the star, and the next planet was on the estimated outer edge of the habitable zone.
    He noted that there was a very faint trace of a larger ship having visited this system previously in the last few months. But he noted that the signature of the ship did not match a known design. The Barus trader was about to disregard the trace, then he noted that the trace would have allowed planet-fall on the second planet. Omerio then briefly scanned the second planet, a chilly world only half the size of a habitable planet. He realized that a respirator and thick clothing would be required for even a short journey onto the surface.
    ‘Likely I will not need to land there thankfully.’
    Omerio thought about the nature of the independent race that was to turn up at his location shortly. The trading ship slowly edged into the shadows, and Omerio stopped the engines when the ship was still well