Harvester 7 (8 page)

The ship
rocked violently as a missile jinked through the gunnery fire and
was absorbed by the shields extracting a heavy price on the
reserves, Kressa growled again and Maulik heard her reactor
straining under her impatience for the slowly sliding Hold doors,
"That's enough." she cried and shot through the opening with just
fractions to spare on either side.

"Hunt down the
ship heading for the fleet." Maulik ordered.

"Leave me
alone," she growled assertively in reply, "I know what I'm
doing."

Maulik sat in
stunned silence for a moment before attempting to reply, "Do not
interfere." she warned him as she bore down on the lead fighter
firing a rapid pulse before sliding sideways to avoid the debris of
her first kill.

"Yesssssss."
she roared and scorched onto the tail of the remaining fighter as
it tried to run.

"Fight me
coward." she screamed, and with a gut wrenching swoop she unloaded
another pulse of energy at point blank range, accelerating through
the explosion before it could reach her unshielded hull. "Now I
feel alive," she purred with satisfaction as she plotted an
intercept course with the remaining fighter, "Hang on Maulik," she
chuckled before lurching forward in pursuit, "Thirty seconds." she
forecast and rapidly scanned ahead. "Oh my" she chuckled, "He has
found some friends."

"What?" cried
Maulik who felt like nothing more than a passenger.

"Six," she
growled, "With three more on the way, only a small pack... such a
pity. Now watch what I can really do." she laughed as Maulik felt
her building power.

For less than
a minute Maulik clung to his seat in awe at Kressa's combat
prowess, hitting the two lead fighters with a stunning blast of
energy she tore past and turned 180° before the Su'al pilots knew
what was happening to them, Maulik could only sense from her
elation that two more had been vaporised as she dropped onto their
tail, his vision blurred by the G forces he fought to keep his meal
down, the remaining two fighters streaked apart obviously hoping
that she would chase the other allowing a small window for escape,
but she was too fast, she pounced on the first with a ferocious
turn of speed and with a gentle and carefully aimed pulse she
disabled the craft leaving it's reactor venting plasma into space
before instantly turning to destroy his partner who was tearing
away at three times the speed of light.

With
fascination Maulik witnessed her toy with the disabled fighter,
it's weapons fully functional but it's engines dead she played
offering him a clear shot before leaping away from the energy
pulses, Maulik recalled a documentary he had watched many years
before when he had been little more than a hatchling, he pictured
now how the savage feline from a distant planet had teased and
tormented a small rodent type creature, attack and retreat, the cat
permitted a small escape before catching the terrified creature
again to repeat the process.

"Yessss." she
growled as she finished her sport in a ball of flames before
turning to face the three late arrivals.

"This is what
I was born for," she purred as she casually destroyed the lead
craft before hovering static inviting attack, "Come and get me
boys," she purred before dodging a missile and sending the second
craft to oblivion, "Only one left." she complained and Maulik
sensed her disappointment.

"These
creatures are no challenge," she sulked before screaming down on
the fighter that was urgently attempting to escape her fury,
"Goodbye." she whispered and a split second later flames erupted
and debris flew.

"Not much of a
challenge," she purred, "But fun." she added with a little
giggle.

Maulik sat in
awed silence, his heart racing. "Kressa, you are truly amazing," he
finally managed to collect his scattered thoughts and address her,
"Incredible."

"I told you I
was savage," she chuckled, "I also warned you that you would have
no control, I am sorry I disregarded your command."

"The Watu were
worried it was a design fault in the early days of our
development," she chuckled, "That is until they saw what we could
do when our instincts were awoken. But I am calm now Maulik, shall
we return?"

"Yes... yes,
please, but slowly, I am not sure if my meal can stay down much
longer." he added, only half joking.

"My long range
scans show nothing," Kressa confirmed as she slipped back into Hold
32 and powered down her reactors, "There is no more threat."

"They must
have picked us up when we left the planet." commented Maulik,

"No, I don't
think so," she replied, "I would have detected them, more likely
that they picked up 7's ion trail and followed it like hounds, but
we are clear now."

"Don't thank
me," she warned as his thoughts were revealed, "I was doing what I
was designed to do, I should be thanking you for trusting me and
letting me have fun. Now I am contented." she purred deeply.

***

The disastrous
attempted raid by the Su'al haunted Maulik's dreams but it wasn't
the efficiency of Kressa's attack, it was the obvious delight she
took in destroying her enemy, he woke with a thin sheen of sweat
glistening on his smooth skin.

"The Watu are
a very dangerous ally" he suddenly realised, "With a fleet of ships
like Kressa who could stand against them?... and Kressa already
said there are hundreds of others just like her on Watuma," he knew
full well that Go'an was probably eavesdropping on his thoughts but
it was unavoidable, "I can't prevent moments of realisation." he
thought in an attempt at justification, but his world remained
silent, maybe Go'an wasn't listening, or maybe it was just too
difficult a realisation for him to confront? Maulik attempted to
clear his mind, how would Go'an take such a sudden
understanding?

Without any
clear idea in his mind and with sleep proving evasive Maulik
strolled to the grav-lift, he could spend a little time with
Kressa, she didn't sleep.

As he touched
the shining blue panel he was hit by a wave of static.

"You must not
think about such things." she told him with an urgency he found
disturbing.

"You know what
I was thinking about?"

"Of course,"
she replied "We have a bond, but it is dangerous to understand too
much."

"Can he hear
us now?"

Kressa purred,
"Not now, I have raised my shields, nothing can penetrate."

"So we can
talk freely?"

"For the
moment," she replied, "But don't forget, whatever we discuss now...
the thoughts will linger, he will still be able to extract them
from your mind."

"Perfect"
Maulik sighed, "We can talk in confidence but my mind will still
give me away."

"I am sorry
Maulik" she replied, "That is a fact of life."

"Just tell me
one thing... do you have any knowledge of Go'an's plans for the
future?"

"No" she
replied instantly, "And please don't concern yourself over
something that is beyond your control, just concentrate on the
mission because once it is finished we can explore the galaxy
together, as a Terrillian Scout and his ship, nothing else will
matter."

Maulik sensed
she knew a great deal more than she would admit but didn't push any
further, "Perhaps some things are best not to know." he sighed and
bid his friend good night.

***

The planet
below them was small compared to their usual harvesting grounds but
instantly Maulik saw the bio scans he understood Kressa's comment
implying an infestation.

"L6's are out
of control down there" he signalled Relik who was also studying the
life sign readings on his own screen.

"I've never
seen activity like it before," he declared in wonder, "The first
scouts arrived only two hundred years ago, but just look at the
readings now!"

Maulik
grinned, "I think this will be a shorter trip than anticipated,
based on this new data we can harvest a full quota here."

Maulik had
been concerned about the extra 3.265% that Kressa had calculated,
but that had been based on historical data, now he saw a planet
groaning under the strain of a species out of control.

"How long will
the ecosystem take to recover if we remove all of the L6
organisms?" Relik bent over his console and instructed the computer
to build a projection.

"If we harvest
them all, the planet should recover within one hundred and fifty
years, that one species is responsible for all of the
imbalances."

"Suggestions?"

Relik smiled,
"We could keep a sample flock in stasis for re-introduction in the
future, if we re-seed in one hundred years with maybe ten thousand
or so, the planet will have recovered sufficiently, from that point
we should undertake selective harvesting on a regular basis to keep
the population under control and at manageable levels."

"My thoughts
exactly." Maulik concurred, it was his duty as Harvester Master to
address any abnormalities on planets within his control, he wasn't
going to eradicate the species, simply remove it while the planets
natural systems returned to stability.

"Have
engineering calibrate the drones and collectors to concentrate only
on the L6's, and find out which harvesters are closest to our
location," he glanced again at the raw data feed, "We will need
help with this."

Over the
following twenty four hours 7 buzzed with activity as holds were
cleaned and prepared for the bounty about to arrive, Maulik and
Kressa performed surveillance of the planet sampling the atmosphere
and transmitting the data back to engineering, Hold 33 was being
prepared as a holding pen for the sample livestock so the planets
noxious atmosphere would have to be reproduced for the trip
home.

"These
creatures would actually flourish in the wastelands of Terrillia,"
he concluded as they flashed over vast areas of corrosive water,
"The atmospheric mix is very similar, higher levels of methane are
being emitted here than home, but the difference is not
significant."

"How does it
feel to play the role of the Gods?" teased Kressa, "One mind having
control over the fate of an entire species?"

"I prefer not
to think of it that way," he grinned, "I like to think that I am
addressing a problem, I am allowing the planet to recover, and
anyway, they are only L6's."

"And I'm only
an L4." she replied trying to mask the hurt she was feeling.

"Now you're
talking crazy," he chuckled back, "You are beyond any level I know
of, you're on a level all of your own."

Kressa dipped
lower over the wide expanse of water just moments from skimming the
surface. "Back to the land" she called as she tore over the
coastline, her wake tearing away the strange green vegetation and
driving a wide scorched furrow deep into the ground, moments later
she was out over open grassland. "This is the sort of place I would
call home... in my natural state," she added wistfully, "Open
country, plenty of space to run and hunt... and look at all the
prey." she growled as vast herds of strange bovine like creatures
scattered across the wide plains, "They almost make me feel
hungry." she laughed.

"Are these the
L6's?"

"No," she
replied, "There is nothing here above L4, these are prey
animals."

"let's track
down the L6's," Maulik encouraged her, "I want to see what could
cause such devastation."

Kressa
extended her scans, "There are not the concentrations in this
region, hold on," she laughed and shot away north, "There are high
concentrations a few minutes to the north."

Maulik saw a
wide expanse of wasteland ahead, devoid even of the troublesome
pools that had developed at home.

"I think this
is a perfect example of why we need to remove this species,"

Kressa
scanned, "Life signs are very limited," she agreed, "Almost zero,
but just ahead you will be shocked, there are millions of
them."

"We are above
one of the northern continents now," she declared and slowed down
until they were almost hovering silently over a very high
concentration, "My scans show that below is one of many colonies of
the creatures, they must have a social structure, the density is
incredible, they are almost like insects."

"All L6?"

"Almost," she
replied running complex calculations, "L1 levels are high, but that
is to be expected, Levels 2 to 4 are in evidence but not in any
significant numbers, mainly L6, I believe these creatures must live
mainly in colonies."

"Well that
will be advantageous to the harvest," agreed Maulik, "I like
colonies, it makes my life much simpler."

"They are
scattered everywhere, in small pockets as well as these main
concentrations."

"That, is not
my problem," laughed Maulik, "I will capture a breeding herd and
then harvest until my holds are full, the remaining stocks can be
handled by other crews."

"Two more
harvesters are due within eight weeks," Kressa confirmed, "With two
more to arrive shortly after."

"We will be
long gone by then my friend," he laughed, "Now let’s go home, I
have a harvest to plan, and then we have a mission to
complete.”

Chancellor
Go'an took no political prisoners as he cleared the old High
Council and began his new appointments, most believed that it was
no coincidence that his staunchest supporters had not been in
session at the time of the attack because they soon arose from the
still smouldering ashes of the Citadel and took prominent positions
of power.

Those that
dared opposed the new Chancellor disappeared and an entire race
held their breath, few doubted that the old ways were about to
disappear as completely as the opposition and rumour was rife.

"People of
Watuma," Go'an had openly wept during former Chancellor Lu'ta's
eulogy,