Season 3 Episode 04: Damage Control

Admiral Pace tries to prevent a war with the Eridani.

Stansteshia Defense Station, at the Eridani Home Wormhole

“Admiral Pace! Welcome,” Admiral Stengrass said as he stepped forward to shake Admiral Pace’s hand. “Thank you for the visit. Am I doing this correctly?”

“Yes, you are, Admiral,” said Pace. “Ambassador Britil briefed you well on the custom, I see.”

“Well, that’s one of her jobs,” said Stengrass.

“When I read about our first contact with your people, I was very moved,” said Admiral Pace as he sat down. “We first learned about our wormhole from an ancient Goultaran listening post we found while looking for a missing civilian luxury transport. When we sent a ship to investigate the wormhole, one of your ships was already there and informed us that the transport had been ripped apart after colliding with the wormhole while in hyperspace. All the communications were via imagery back then, but the encounter told us that you were good people who we’d want to be friends with.”

“We were happy to oblige. It was a terrible tragedy what happened to your transport. We don’t have any luxury transport industries like that, or at least we didn’t. Now, some of our larger cargo shipbuilders are experimenting with such things. Swimming pools, though, I don’t know.”

“Yeah,” said Pace, “I don’t think I would have made that choice in a ship design if it were up to me. I heard that you had a wormhole accident of your own early on.”

“We had a similar mishap with one of our science ships that we sent to find and study the wormhole that you just arrived through.”

Pace shook his head.

“Wormholes…beautiful and dangerous. Stengrass, what happened between our people? How could we have both tried so hard to avoid bad blood between us and gotten it anyway?”

“Well, that’s being investigated, but let’s update each other on the state of things as they are. Currently, the ceasefire that you and Kriffard worked out has held. We have no reports of new problems from your warships.”

“Same on our end. I've heard that you’ve treated some of our casualties and saved several lives that we might not have been able to save with our current medical knowledge. It is very much appreciated.”

“Well, when we evacuated the Goultaran destroyer that we captured, we did so rather quickly, and some of your casualties got mixed in with ours. Although we don’t understand your physiology as well as the Goultarans do, our ancestors were able to capture some data from them that we have been able to utilize. It’s not much, but I’m told that it’s enough to stabilize human trauma patients most of the time.”

“Again,” said Pace. “Thank you.”

“I hear that you’ve been doing the same for us.”

“I haven’t seen those reports,” said Admiral Pace. “However, I’m not surprised by that. It is a long tradition with our military, dating back to before we were even a spacefaring people.”

“I believe it.” Stengrass nodded.

“I do know that we have medical knowledge about your species from Goultaran computers that we’ve captured,” added Admiral Pace.

Stengrass looked down at his hands.

“Well,” he said. “We all know how they know so much about us.”

“Regarding that destroyer,” said Pace, switching to his ‘let’s get down to business’ voice. “I read that you sent roughly a thousand hard-suited troops to capture it. That seems like a lot, and we’re curious as to why. Our ambassador to Goultara was aboard that warship, and we know you don’t like her very much. I know that the Goultaran leader, Director Zenad, was there too. The Goultarans were attempting to use that destroyer to evacuate those two officials from your invasion. Were they the reason your forces wanted that destroyer so badly?”

“No,” said Stengrass, “And neither of those people were even objectives in our assault against the Goultaran home world.”

“Really?”

“We were there to liberate prisoners of our ancient war with the Goultarans.”

Pace thought about that.

“Well, we have been over this with you already, and we assured you that none of your people remained on the Goultaran homeworld.”

“I don’t know how you can say that with such certainty, Admiral Pace. Anyway, you are familiar with the things that we call Goultaran Seed Ships?”

“Yes.”

“Our Ambassador Britil aboard your space station witnessed a Seed Ship escaping human-controlled space through your wormhole.”

“I’m aware. I’ve seen the footage. It originated from an ancient Goultaran trade hub planet near our wormhole known as Feleg 3. We discovered and raided an underground facility there, but we triggered some automated defenses, and that Seed Ship managed to escape. I was on the Goultaran homeworld when one of our warships dropped by that system to look for it. I showed an image of the ship to the Goultarans, and they recognised it, fearing that its sighting would trigger an assault by you. Apparently, their concerns were warranted.”

“Admiral Pace, our people miss the captives of that war. Eridani are more long-lived than humans, so there are those still alive who remember what the Goultarans did to us. We are still within the normal lifespan of the people who were abducted by the Goultarans, and we want them back before they die of old age. Eridani, born since the war, grew up viewing monuments and participating in annual prayer vigils over the lost people from that generation, hoping for their safe return someday. When we found the Goultaran homeworld, our military immediately started working up plans for a rescue mission.”

“I can understand why you wouldn’t want any Goultaran ships leaving the planet’s orbit during your attack. Is that why you boarded that destroyer and fought so hard for it?”

“It wasn’t just that. Our first troops to land on the planet tracked a pair of Seed Ships going into orbit, and we pursued them to that destroyer’s landing bay. When we attempted to rescue our captives on those Seed Ships, we found human collaborators fighting alongside the Goultarans. Some of the humans were professional, uniformed soldiers from Earth! They delayed and killed a lot of our people before we were finally able to overwhelm and subdue them. However, by then, the Seed Ships were empty. Griswald, with his hidden missile cruisers, had forced a stalemate, followed by the ceasefire that required us to surrender the destroyer before we could search it. Overall, human interference that day caused much loss of Eridani lives and even prevented the main objective of the whole invasion, making all of those losses pointless. The current leadership of my world is viewing all of this as an unforgivable act of hostility against us.”

Admiral Pace nodded. He’d anticipated this. He reached into his briefcase, removed some documents, and handed them to Admiral Stengrass.

“These are copies, but I know you’ll recognise them. They are your own Ambassador Britil’s reports.”

Stengrass leafed through them.

“The date on these is very recent,” said Stengrass. “It’s just before our operation to Goultara was launched. Britil doesn’t report directly to my command, and her reports only come to me through back channels. I haven’t seen or read this one yet.”

“Then you can call me the delivery boy,” said Admiral Pace. “That report says that we captured both of those Seed Ships elsewhere in the galaxy the day before your attempted invasion of Goultara. Ambassador Britil interviewed the woman who captured them, a colonist and scientist from Feleg 3 named Carol Holbrook. She is also one of the survivors of the wreck of that luxury transport, The Meridian Star, that you and I were just discussing. Those captured Seed Ships then took on human security forces from Feleg 3 and went to Goultara to extract our ambassador. They weren’t collaborating with the Goultarans. The Goultarans were attempting to capture them when your invasion force arrived. Ambassador Elizabeth Truncketh was in command of The Meridian Star at the time of the accident. She nearly went down with her ship while trying to ensure the safe evac of her crew and passengers. Those survivors ended up on Feleg 3 after the loss of that ship, so the people there regard Trunketh as a hero, and the colonists aboard those Seed Ships thought your forces were there to do her harm. They and Elizabeth’s marine guards were the humans who you encountered who fought you so boldly in defense of that destroyer. What’s more, thanks to the efforts of Carol Holbrook, we will soon own all the remaining Seed Ships scattered around the galaxy, along with all of the ancient Goultaran Genetics labs where the captives that you seek likely ended up. Your government and ours agreed to work together to find your missing people. Carol and some others aboard those Seed Ships have been working to help us hold up our end of that agreement.”

“Where is this Carol Holbrook? We would very much like to speak with her.”

“She’s in a hospital somewhere on the Goultaran homeworld, recovering from life-threatening injuries she sustained in the battle over that destroyer. If she survives, I’ll arrange a meeting.”

“Very well,” stated Admiral Stergrass. “There is still the related action elsewhere in the galaxy to discuss. We lost two frigates…”

“Your observers at the two wormhole nodes that our missile cruisers launched from, yes.”

“Attacked without provocation and lost with all personnel.”

“What would you have done to those missile cruisers if you’d found them? You sent a fleet in response to intelligence gathered by one of those frigates.”

“Yes, and your missile cruisers attacked and severely damaged that force, too.”

“Yes, they did, Admiral Stengrass,” said Pace. “That sort of thing happens in war, and I hope we’re done with it.”