Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores by David Buck Read Free Book Online

only your home system ships should be armed unless you have strong resources to ensure the security of any colonies you settle.’
    Ian spoke quietly to Steve after thanking Captain Narindestat, who was now silently looking over the humans under the awning. Both men quietly discussed several of the finer points of the Traders captain’s advice.
    The captain then noted that the Maveen lead probe was finally leading the larger ship out of the hold. He was aware that the larger Maveen ship would take time to become operational. He had factored that consideration into his earlier tour and the recent overview as he spoke again.
    ‘Ian, Steve, the first part of the Maveen deal is starting. The larger Maveen ship you see is a gate ship and it can create a small gate way to another world or region of space anywhere in our galaxy.’
    The two Maveen ships came forward, and the lead probe spoke to both humans and Traders as the amazed humans looked over at the larger Maveen ship.
    ‘The gate ship will first establish a gate way to a Maveen logistics point and many Maveen ships will come through the gate way. The ships will either be probes like me or additional gate ships and none will be fighting ships. Note that this is not an invasion by our race of your world.’
    Captain Narindestat looked over the humans again as he spoke.
    ‘Ian, Steve, do you have references to the locations of the marshalling points that we can supply to the lead probe?’
    Steve was already prepared for this question and pulled his data tablet from the back pack on one of the long benches, with Ian Ridge fetching several pages of notes from his leather folder. As Ian called the names of the marshalling points, Steve located them on an electronic map of Earth for both the Traders and the lead probe.
    ‘Perth Airport is the first launching point for scouting teams. The other cities also involved are Sydney, Wellington, Tokyo, San Francisco, Washington, London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, St Petersburg, Kiev, Berlin and Hong Kong …’
    Ian Ridge broke off reading the list as the Maveen gate ship lifted off silently, and flew out over the ocean a kilometer past Steve’s ship, now moored to the east of the island. The gate ship slowed and a light glow surrounded the ship as two large antennae extended along the ship and were slowly raised in a smooth arc. Within moments a swirling cloud a hundred meters across appeared above the gate ship and stabilized into a swirling opaque oval three hundred meters above the ocean. The gate ship hovered silently as three Maveen ships appeared from the west and slowly flew over the island.
    Steve could see that one of the Maveen ships appeared to be discolored and was being supported by the other Maveen ships, and he turned to question the Maveen lead probe.
    ‘Is one of your ships damaged from being on this world? And where are the other ships taking it?’
    The lead probe already was prepared for these questions and it gave a general reply.
    ‘An unforeseen hazard with being too long in your oceans, the probe will be repaired off word.’
    Steve watched as the three Maveen probes entered the opaque oval and silently disappeared from view. He wondered just exactly in the galaxy the three Maveen probes had arrived as Captain Narindestat drew his attention back to the list of marshalling points.
     
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Chapter 3
     
    Steve had led Ian and his mission team from under the awning to get a better view of the deployed gate ship. Shortly after the three linked Maveen probes had gone through the gate, two probes had come through from the other side and stood guard to either side of the gate ship. As he looked the probes had flanked the gate ship for several seconds and message beams had briefly flashed between the Maveen, before the probes established a patrolled perimeter around the gate ship.
    Steve grabbed his