Vast Mantis Read online

  Vast Mantis

  Mantis Saga Book 4

  Jim Henderson

  Copyright 2019 by Jim Henderson All rights reserved

  In writing this book, I must acknowledge the 40+ years of science fiction books, movies, TV shows, tabletop role-playing, and video games that fired my imagination. Thanks to all those who encouraged me in this effort and those who provided feedback on the first three books. Special thanks to Ian Stead, Christina Butts, and Boris Vitlic for helping to bring this project further to life. Most especially, thanks to my dear wife Rhonda for reading all of the books more than once, for her valuable feedback, and her invaluable encouragement and patience.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue:

  Chapter One: Associates

  Chapter Two: Rimward Ho!

  Chapter Three: Into Orrarra

  Chapter Four: More Clues

  Chapter Five: Almost Ozu

  Chapter Six: Sewhir

  Chapter Seven: Truvoco

  Chapter Eight: Suva

  Chapter Nine: Labeveri

  Chapter Ten: Kaqarbius

  Chapter Eleven: Almost Ozu II

  Chapter Twelve: Ozu

  Chapter Thirteen: Homeward Bound

  Chapter Fourteen: Settling

  Appendix A: Maps

  Prologue:

  Over the last year Commander Ximon Sabo and his unique crew continued their various adventures on the Mantis. They had been tasked to fill in for a much larger Kremniy Scout Force (KSF) ship that was called away elsewhere. The crew rescued people and robots threatened by an expanding sun, participated in a complex military exercise with a distant potential ally, supported diplomatic meetings on a planet just entering the space age, cleaned up some space junk, and helped get some astronauts into space. They also investigated a strange base, met some nasty creatures, and had some encounters with little gray men.

  Mantis, the ship itself, is a surplus Vanguard-class survey craft almost fifty years old. She has a three-seat bridge, six cabins, a common shower room, a small galley/common room, and a broad array of sensors. Though small, recent upgrades have made her much more comfortable. She is an extremely flexible ship and can perform a wide array of missions. She has a small weapons array, so she can defend herself, including dual laser cannons, chaff throwers, anti-missile flares, and a ship defense autocannon.

  Mantis:

  Type: Survey Craft

  Displacement:130 tons

  Thrust Rating:3.1G

  Jump Range:15.5 Light Years (LY)

  Sensors:Advanced KSF planetary and ship packages

  Armament:2 Light Laser Cannons

  Defensive Systems:2 chaff throwers

  Anti-missile flares

  Ship Defense Auto Cannon (SDAC)

  Berths:6 cabins, 4 cryo chambers

  Cargo bay can be configured for up to 36 passengers for short duration

  Chapter One: Associates

  Ximon held Raiza’s hand and waited impatiently in an extremely nice conference room at Robatham Associates. The secretary had given Ximon water and coffee and offered the same to Raiza. However, the ‘just a minute’ in which Mr. Roberto was supposed to arrive had definitely come and gone. Ximon could only watch the archaic timepiece on the wall. If the brief hints about the potential contract hadn’t seemed so tempting, he’d have walked out.

  Raiza squeezed his hand and smiled at him. “Patience, Ximon. I’m sure it will just be another minute or two.”

  Having Raiza around always helped calm him a bit. He was always amazed at her beauty and kindness. She was about 1.6 meters tall, with the perfect “10” type body that men crave, a dazzlingly beautiful face, and strawberry blond hair falling in ringlets. She was Ximon’s wife, the two having gotten married a couple of years earlier. In addition to that critical role, she served as the ship’s medical officer and steward, and generally assists with any other duties she could. She also just happened to be a TrueForm Service Robot (TSR) model D8 companion bot, but that didn’t bother Ximon a bit.

  Ximon, or Commander Ximon Sabo, was a retired Kremniy Scout Force (KSF) officer in his mid-fifties, about 1.8 meters tall and 100 kilos, with some thinning to his reddish hair and a thickening to his waistline. He had retired about three years before but was still part of the KSF’s Auxiliary Reserve Command (ARC) by virtue of being awarded a surplus scout ship, the Kremniy Scout Ship Survey Craft Mantis. Belonging to the ARC generally entailed few responsibilities. Ximon had to maintain the Mantis to a specified standard, produce the ship for inspection every three to five years, and had to be willing to share “exploration data” from the ship’s travels with other scout bases and ships. Finally, in case of a major war or emergency, Mantis was subject to be recalled back into service, with or without its captain.

  Ximon tapped his fingers on the table as he waited.

  It turned out that Raiza was right on the time. A sharply dressed man of about sixty entered about a minute later, trailed by an attractive young secretary carrying a tablet and some physical documents. The man wore an expensive suit, a bright purple tie, and had a well-styled head of gray hair. The woman had a physique almost as lovely as Raiza’s, long black hair, and wore a form-fitting red dress.

  The dapper man shook Ximon’s hand. “Capt Sabo, I presume. I’m Johannes Roberto, one of the founding partners of Robatham Associates.” He indicated the young woman. “This is Francesca. She’ll be assisting us today.” He then diffidently shook Raiza’s hand, “… and you must be the lovely Raiza. We’ve heard a lot about you.”

  He motioned them to chairs. “Please, have a seat. Is there anything else Francesca can get you? Water? Tea? Perhaps something stronger?”

  Ximon sat and motioned to his cup. “I’m good and Raiza is an abstainer for the most part. I’m anxious to hear about this potential contract. Your message was vague, but intriguing.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to be cryptic. Unfortunately, security in this matter is, I believe, a necessity. Allow me to explain.” He turned to Francesca. “Please project the regional map.”

  A high-level star system map appeared, showing portions of two sectors. They didn’t immediately appear familiar. When he could make out the details, Ximon saw why they weren’t familiar -- they were two sectors he hadn’t visited, Orrarra and Verravroge.

  “Our firm is often hired to investigate … how shall we say? … odd occurrences. Sometimes this is primarily to solve a riddle, sometimes to provide actionable information, and sometimes in hopes of recovering a portion of what was lost. In this case, it’s a bit of all three.”

  He motioned to the map on the screen. “Over the last six months, ships from several interested organizations, including your own Scout Force, have gone missing in this area in unexplained circumstances. Now, those organizations are all well aware that this area is the Vast and that it’s inherently somewhat dangerous. However, all the losses were somewhat odd and there have been none of the telltale signs that one would expect from many of these dangers; pirates, mis-jump, or what have you. Further, the overall loss rate is well outside the statistical bounds, even for this area. So, these organizations fear something strange is going on. They want information and, if possible, their ships, cargo, and crew back.”

  He took a sip of water and went on. “So, these organizations have hired us to investigate as we have a reputation of being quite good at doing so. We have people skilled at this type of investigation. We also have a few ships, but they’re not really made for this type of trip. So, we obviously need a ship and a crew. We could hire such about anywhere, but we want a ship and crew we can trust and that bring something to the table.” With the last, he placed his hand on the table
with his fingers spread and paused for a moment.

  He took a file from Francesca and flipped it open. “We’ve heard quite a few tidbits about your recent, er, missions and I stand impressed. Your reputation, and that of your crew, proceeds you. Further, much of your work has been near this region of space, so I think you’ll have useful knowledge and, possibly, useful contacts along the way. We’d like to hire your ship and crew to aid our investigator. He’s quite skilled and, with your assistance, I have every confidence that he can get to the bottom of the situation.”

  He looked at a few more pages in the folder. “Obviously, this area is some distance away, so it will take some time. It might be necessary to spend some time in several systems to gather information and the like. We would give you a substantial retainer, pay all ship and crew expenses for the duration of the travel, and offer you a portion of any recovery or informational fees we are able to claim. I’m well aware of the rates the KSF pays you and you’ll find this pays quite a bit better. All in all, it would be a handsome payday, as it were. What do you say?”

  Ximon was a bit stunned by the flood of information. “Well, it sounds interesting, but it’s certainly a long mission. I’d have to check with my crew. I’d also need to see the terms of this investigation. We don’t want to wind up following a will-o-wisp around the universe forever. Nor will I allow someone to put Mantis in unnecessary danger just because they’re chasing a dollar.”

  Johannes smiled and tutted. “Ximon. May I call you Ximon?”

  Ximon nodded.

  Johannes continued, “Ximon, let’s not get overly cynical. I assure you our investigators are professional. We don’t encourage them to waste either time or money. If the trail goes cold, you and the investigator will ‘call it,’ come back home, and collect a healthy paycheck, regardless. We’ve done this kind of thing before and it’s generally worked out well for both us and those, such as yourself, that we’ve worked with.

  “To explain further, I’ll have to ask you and Raiza to sign non-disclosure agreements. Would you mind?”

  Francesca brought the agreement up on the screen and passed a tablet to them to sign.

  Ximon quickly perused the agreement and looked at Raiza. “Dear, any thoughts?”

  “I see nothing untoward or odd in the agreement. I feel it would be reasonable to hear more.”

  He smiled at her. “I agree.”

  They both signed and gave the tablet back to Francesca, who smiled wanly.

  Johannes then said, “Very good. Francesca, would you please play the video?” He then turned to Ximon as she started it. “If you excuse me, I’ll be right back.”

  Francesca asked, “Can I get either of you anything before I start the video? It’s about 10 minutes long.”

  Ximon asked for more water and she got him some from a chilled carafe on the side table. She looked very alluring in her skin-tight dress as she walked over and poured. She handed it to him with a smile.

  “Thank you.”

  Francesca then started the video, which played on a large screen. It showed the expected flight paths of seven ships; two active duty scouts, one contracted scout (like Mantis), and four transport ships ranging from 200 to 1,000 tons. A narrator summarized their travels and the incidents of their disappearances. All of them had been operating near the boundary between the Orrarra and Verravroge Sectors, toward the Rimward side of each sector. All had failed to return or report within a four-month period and were presumed lost. The narrator said that information from those areas was sparse, but nothing suggested large-scale piracy or military action. It suggested investigating their points of origin and intended destinations for information.

  Johannes returned just as it ended. “So, what do you think?”

  “Well, I’ll have to think about it and talk to the crew.”

  “Ximon, let’s do this,” said Johannes. “I’ll send you home with a short summary of this information, non-disclosure agreements for anyone else you want to ‘read in,’ as well as the terms of the investigation support agreement for you to study. You can consider what you’ve seen, estimate the duration, and send me an estimate of operational costs. I can then make you a more formal proposal. How does that sound? Oh, and if you want, you might be able to undertake other work on the way, as long as it doesn’t interfere or take you too far off course.”

  “Fair enough. Give us what you can, and we’ll give it serious thought. I’ll contact you by noon tomorrow.”

  Ximon and Raiza stood up.

  Johannes smiled. “Excellent. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.” He turned to Francesca. “Please send them the mission summary as well as the investigation terms of agreement.”

  Ximon was ready to leave. “Well, I guess we’d better get going so we have plenty of time to review all that.”

  They all shook hands and Ximon led Raiza out.

  As they waited for the robocab, Raiza turned to Ximon. “What are you thinking? Do you think it sounds like a good idea?”

  Ximon rubbed his chin for a minute. “It seems to be, love, but I definitely want to look at this some more, work up some estimates, and talk to Elsbeth and Shao.”

  “… and Mantis and Peter and Euclidia.”

  “Yes, I’ll definitely be talking to Mantis. I’m planning on her helping me come up with some estimates and do some more research. I didn’t mean to exclude the others. I just meant that Mantis and the others aren’t on a contract that might run out while we’re out there. I’ll talk to Peter and Euclidia too, though again, I’m not worried about their contracts.”

  She patted his shoulder. “Thank you, lover.”

  As they rode back to Mantis, Ximon asked Elsbeth, Shao, and Peter to join them for dinner. Since they’d all had time off for a few weeks, Elsbeth and Peter had spent time at various hotels and Shao sometimes went out and didn’t come back til morning. Ximon assured them dinner would be early enough they could head out afterwards. Shao, somewhat reluctantly, agreed.

  By the time they got back to the ship it was about four hours until dinner so Ximon immediately headed to the bridge to confer with Mantis and Euclidia. He felt most comfortable having these discussions there and the bridge had the most screens for Mantis to show him data.

  The bridge was what some might call ‘cozy.’ It had two seats side-by-side, one for the pilot and another that could be used by a co-pilot, observer, gunner, or alternate sensor operator. Behind the pilot’s seat was the main sensor operator position. Aside from that, there was just enough room for two people to stand, or sit in crude ‘jump seats’, to observe or assist. Each position had a sizeable screen that could be partitioned any way the user wished, so they effectively had several screens. There was also a large screen on the front of the bridge that effectively served as a ‘front windshield’, though it could present any type of data.

  As was sometimes the case when the bridge wasn’t occupied, the telepresence platform or “telebot” that Mantis used to be “present” at meetings stood behind the seats. This was essentially a video screen and cameras mounted on a pole above a base with two wheels. This was the in-person representation that Mantis, the ship’s computer, sometimes chose to use. Mantis was an advanced artificial intelligence system and has been upgraded in multiple ways. She could perform most ship roles (pilot, navigator, sensor operator, medical analyst, etc.) to some degree, though often with some limitations. Mantis, the AI, was definitely an integral member of the Mantis’ crew.

  As had been the case for a while now; the disembodied head that was Euclidia was mounted on that wheeled base as they hadn’t yet found a body for him. This also allowed him to stay in close contact with Mantis, an arrangement they both preferred. He had been a teaching bot but had been almost destroyed during the chaos on the base at Darcy-Duo. He was a teacher, an orator, and a philosopher of sorts and enjoyed conversing with Mantis and the other robots.

  “Hey, Mantis, Euclidia, we’ve got a potential job to discuss and I need options.”


  They had already received the information Francesca had sent and Ximon summarized a bit more. He said he wanted to estimate the likely mission duration, given all the travel involved. Mantis displayed the appropriate star charts and plotted path options. She laid out several primary route options and Euclidia made recommendations, before Ximon settled on one for planning.

  Initially they’d follow a path that had become fairly familiar to them, heading rimward from Tixaya, they’d cut into the Xalanan Sector. There, they’d probably stop at Xalanan and possibly Zanerus. Then they’d enter the Irapce Sector, probably stopping at Irapce and possibly Zased. From there they’d enter the very sparse Orrarra Sector, and everything would be new from that point on. They would seek all the information they could as they headed toward Udirzaus and Nalenus. At that point, they’d be hunting for information and would follow that where it led.

  With a few short stops on the way, Ximon figured it would take three to four months to get to that area. The hunt could then take a couple of months and then, assuming they survived, it would take another three months or so to get back home. Altogether, they were looking at a bit under a year for the round trip.

  Ximon then had Raiza join them and they calculated the expected operating costs. This included crew salaries, purchasing fuel, food and other consumables, and an initial figure for ship parts. It was a fairly healthy sum, to which Ximon added a 20% ‘fudge factor.’ They’d refine that when they discussed it with the whole crew at dinner.

  “Thanks guys, join us at dinner at five and we’ll discuss further.”

  The crew all gathered in the galley for dinner as planned. Elsbeth Petra, the ship’s Engineer, was dressed nicely in slacks and a blouse, had her hair styled, and seemed impatient. These facts suggested that she had plans to go out. She was also a KSF retiree, though with less total service time than Ximon. She was in her forties, curvy and moderately attractive with long, sandy blond hair. She served as chief engineer and assisted with many other tasks.