B Fomalhault-2
Timothy and Ruth watched Emerfield walk back and forth on the bridge of the destroyer, christened the S.S. Carolina. His patience had all but disappeared, and they had had enough of his temper and his lack of respect towards them and the council. B Fomahault-2 wasn’t helping any.
At the moment, they were circling the planet, fortunately devoid of any alien presence in space. However, it was clear that the planet was littered with the alien ants, and yet the council wanted them to land there. Timothy had secretly sent out another request for clarification, but as of yet hadn’t heard anything.
Emerfield had no idea they were to land and make contact, and he was walking back and forth trying to figure out why it was that all the ants were on the ground. He had scanned surrounding space over and over again and was mumbling something about how the ants might have stolen the cloaking technology.
“It’s a trap. It has to be. How can you have a planet full of ants and no orbital activity?” he said, referring to the usual alien ships one would see busily transporting planetary resources off-world.
If it wasn’t for the very clear order the council had given backed by Hoyt himself, and Timothy’s resolute stand on their coming here, he would have been happy to sit behind a rock somewhere as he studied the trap he was sure they had set.
“They’re pissed at us, wanting to get back for destroying their ships at Gliese. That’s what this is, and we’re sitting here all pretty,” he glowered as he spat the words out.
Timothy ignored him, which angered Emerfield even more. Ten minutes later, after what had seemed like an hour, Timothy turned to Ruth and said, “Honey, time to get ready.”
“Ready for what?” Emerfield asked as he interrupted his own monologue.
“Ready for us to land. We’re going down to the planet.”
Emerfield gave a hearty laugh at the comment.
“We’re serious, Captain. Please prepare a ship for our landing.”
“You must have flipped. It’s crawling with ants and you would be killed instantly. As a matter of fact, you wouldn’t even reach the ground!”
Timothy listened quietly and respectfully as Emerfield made his point. Emerfield continued talking until he ran out of things to argue about, and stood there looking at Timothy defiantly.
“Captain, I understand your concern, but respectfully, it is none of your concern. We are not here under your command. YOU are here to escort us to the planets assigned to us by the council, something you agreed to. And now, we are going to take one of your scout craft planet-side. Please wait here until you hear from us.”
“I will do no such thing!” he thundered as the bridge crew kept very busy at their assignments. “The safety of everyone on this ship is my responsibility, and mine alone! I’ll be damned if you’re going anywhere on this suicide mission, and there’s absolutely no way we’re going to lose a craft needlessly.”
Ruth smiled at Timothy and said, “I’ll get ready, dear,” and left the bridge.
Emerfield stared at Ruth as she walked out.
“Captain, I need to speak to you in private,” Timothy said.
“No, the matter is settled.”
“Captain, your crew is not in dang…”
“I said, the matter is settled!” he thundered.
“Very well then, you leave me no choice. Computer, under Council order number 323, I, Timothy Paul, New World Leader, take over command of this ship. Mr. Emerfield has been relieved of his commission. You are to receive no further commands from him until I permit it.”
Emerfield was blinking his eyes in confusion, trying to understand what it was Timothy had just said.
Timothy addressed the ship computer again. “Have you confirmed the order?”
“One moment…”
Emerfield’s mouth was opening and closing silently as he wavered between fury and confusion.
“What the hell is going on?” he finally yelled to Timothy, patiently waiting for confirmation.
“Like I tried to tell you in private, I have authority over this mission, Captain. And I have authority over you. So, I will do what I have come here to do, and you will either assist me or stand aside as I complete my assignment. I assure you Captain, you can’t stop me.”
“Really?” Emerfield said. “We’ll see about that. Comm! Security to the bridge.” Within seconds, two security officers entered.
“Please escort Mr. Timothy to his room, and he is to remain there until I say.”
The officers approached Timothy, who had not moved from his spot. His stand was firm and a small smile had appeared on his face as he watched the angry but confident Emerfield try to take control of the situation. He hoped Emerfield would recover from the fall he was about to take, but if he didn’t, so be it.
As the security officers approached, the ship comp said, “Identity confirmed. Order confirmed. Standing Captain, Timothy Paul. The ship is under your control, Captain.” The two guards stood confused, looking from Emerfield to Timothy.
Emerfield’s face went white as he heard the words. “What kind of trick…”
The viewscreen suddenly came on again and Nan’mtek’s face appeared.
She sat there stone-faced, and Timothy hid a smile as he watched a small, roundish old woman stare down a ship captain. Neither said a word as they watched each other on screen. After what seemed like eternity, Emerfield finally said, “Who gives you the right…”
“Captain, shut up.”
Emerfield’s anger was now out of control, but before he could speak, Nan’mtek said, “In case you haven’t noticed, we took control of your ship. You are relieved of your command, and the computer will not obey any requests you make. Confirmation orders are already in your private communication box, and ship comp has confirmed receipt.
“Mr. Emerfield, we are the Council. You pledged allegiance to us, not the other way around. We decide these matters, and we have decided you no longer have the right to captain a ship. Timothy is the New World Leader. You answer to him, not the other way around.”
“But, Timothy wanted to land on a planet filled with ants…”
“If Timothy wanted to land on the sun, we would expect you to follow his orders implicitly, as you expect your crew to do when you give them an order. Your previous crew, that is. What do you do to a crewmember who asks you to explain an order?”
Nan’mtek stood there waiting for an answer, but none was coming as Emerfield realized the truth behind her statement.
“It doesn’t matter one ounce to me whether you understand what Timothy wants to do or whether you agree or not. You were simply told, by your superior whom you answer to, I might add, to obey an order. You refused. You lost your command. Be happy that is all you lost, as you well know what the punishment for treason is. Computer, activate ship Comm to all crew.”
“Comm active.”
“This is the Earth Alliance Council. From this moment on, the acting Captain of this ship is World Leader Timothy Paul. We expect you to follow his orders implicitly. Any disobedience will be considered an act of treason. Mr. Emerfield remains as a counselor to Mr. Paul, and a counselor only. You are not to take orders or suggestions from him. That is all. Comm out.”
Nan’mtek looked at Emerfield and asked, “Do you understand, Sir? Any attempt to gain control will be considered treason and punishable by death.”
Emerfield looked at Nan’mtek with defeat in his eyes and replied, “Yes, Council Member.”
“Good. Now I expect you to join Timothy and Ruth on their trip down to the planet, and give them counsel as needed. That is all.”
The screen went blank and Timothy looked over at First Officer Brigfield.
“Officer, you have the bridge,” he said, and walked out.
***
Emerfield eyed the scene unfolding below him suspiciously, wondering what it was he had gotten himself into. Now that he had lost his command, he realized that there was a whole world of things out there he hadn’t even considered, not the least of which was the power the council had to cancel his command and transfer it to someone else, but this latest thing took the cake.
He figured the council had gone mad, and what was worse, nobody was questioning its decision. As they descended, he could clearly see a tide of ants watching them. They cleared an area as the scout entered final approach and came down for a landing.
‘Things will be over soon’, he thought. ‘Nice touch, dying right after I lose my command.’
***
Timothy watched Emerfield and hoped the lesson Emerfield had learned would take hold. He had no idea what the council had planned or how he would survive this, but he trusted Nan’mtek and figured she must know what she was doing. They had gone to four other worlds, three of which were now dead and their inhabitants destroyed; the dolphins with their powder (Timothy smiled at that) and finally this one. Discovering the planet covered in ants surprised him immensely. He could tell Ruth was worried, but once again he knew she also trusted Nan’mtek.
Timothy was piloting the scout, and something was really bugging him. He looked around and couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it sat there in the back of his mind, until something Emerfield said earlier came to him.
“Mr. Emerfield, you had mentioned that you were surprised such a large ant colony had no spacecraft coming or going. Could it be that they were out of our sensor range?”
“No. We do a standard sweep every time we get to a system that we have business with. You know, manned and unmanned scouts, and so on. If they have any ships in space, they’re well hidden. Or they have cloak technology.”
Timothy forcefully stopped himself from rolling his eyes at Emerfield’s stubbornness. Looking around, he realized that the planet, lush with vegetation, also showed no signs of technological activity. He scanned the area, which confirmed what he was seeing. Next, he scanned an ant and compared it with what they had on file and he could clearly see they were identical.
“Hmm.”
“What is it, husband?”
“Ruth, look at it. No technology, the planet lush and fertile, yet biosigns clearly show billions of ants on this planet. It’s not like the ants we know, who come, deplete, and leave once everything is gone.”
Ruth looked at the three dimensional image of the two ants displayed, and after a few seconds, she looked closer.
“Timothy, their exoskeleton is different. Not much, but different.”
Timothy looked closer, and even Emerfield had come to take a look.
“Huh. You’re right. And they have a tiny marking on their heads, like some sort of tattoo, and the other ants we know don’t have that.”
“Mr. Emerfield, do we have any Intel on this planet?” Timothy asked.
“None whatsoever.”
“And yet, we have Intel on all significant ant bases, right?” Ruth added, getting Timothy’s drift.
“Well, yes, except for Beta-9. But our Intel is pretty solid. Don’t know how this planet squeaked through.”
“And our Intel comes from captured ant bases and alien craft, right?”
“Yes, mostly.”
“Comm to Carolina,” Timothy called.
“Brigfield here.”
“Compare this photo with our ant database. Tell me if there are any ants with the same head markings.”
A few seconds passed before the first officer replied. “Sir, Ship Comp states that no files in our database show those markings. They are unique. Their exoskeleton is also slightly different.”
“Thank you. That’s all.”
When Timothy and Ruth didn’t reply any further, Emerfield asked, “So, what’s your plan?”
“Communicate, and ask for their help,” Timothy said with a smile.
“Let me get this straight. You’re going to ask ants to help you defeat ants.”
“Yes, Mr. Emerfield,” Timothy said. “Put the clues together. You have a major ant colony that is not on your records. There is no technology here that we can see, and the ants are very similar, but not quite the same. What does this tell you?”
Emerfield couldn’t see it and was starting to lose his patience again. Timothy figured he would just show him instead. As the ship landed, the ants had cleared a path for them, but once they had completed their landing and powered down, they approached and crawled all over the ship, their antennae touching all the surfaces.
Emerfield was sure they were ready to tear the ship to pieces, though he didn’t know how they would do it without tools. Timothy and Ruth watched with interest, and once the ants had finished their investigation, they climbed down from the ship and waited outside the ship portal. How they knew it was a portal was a mystery, but it was obvious that they were intelligent and knew someone was inside.
“Mr. Emerfield, Earth also has ants, you know.”
“It does?” Emerfield asked, surprised.
“Of course it does. Ants have been on Earth for millions of years.”
“Well, I knew that,” he said. “I thought you were talking about these ants.”
“In a way, I am. Of course, there are many different kinds of ants. For example,” Timothy furrowed his brows as he dug up the information planted by the teaching unit, “…the Argentine ant, or Linepithema humile as it is known, is unusual in that it is extremely aggressive and invasive. In other words, it takes over other ant colonies, replaces the ants’ eggs with theirs and expands its territory. It has become a ‘super colony’ on Earth, and this has affected Earth’s ecosystem. It has done this because it is highly aggressive, very intelligent and because it is organized and cooperative within its own colony. I know this because all Earth Bases have to constantly fight against this pest’s invasion. But, does their technique sound familiar?”
Emerfield thought it over. “Are you saying that this ant colony here is not the ants we have as enemies? And that their attitudes are different?”
“There’s only one way to find out for sure,” Timothy said, and went to the gate. “Comp, open egress gate.”