Flidoring The Early Wars Read Free Page A

Timsssack, “but do not let it go to your head. Pride in ssself is a robber of peaccce,” he cautioned.
    ***
    Back on Electerus Bellmus, Lyemad, and the rest of the delegates from each city were receiving a hero’s sendoff—complete with a parade, music, dance, and lots of food. The procession ended with excited farewells and a few tears as the delegates entered the spaceship. The spaceship was large enough to accommodate a large number of representatives with private quarters for sleeping and had a large dining facility and recreation hall. From the outside, the dark gray ship looked triangular and thin—only being twenty-five feet tall and three hundred feet wide. There were portholes all around the edges in a single layer for the passengers to look out. Above and below the passenger level there were only utility crawl spaces. The bridge was located in one of the points of the triangle and the engine was centered in the middle of the opposing side. It also had blast engines on the bottom for landing and takeoff. It had an impulse drive that was fast enough for travel between the worlds in the Styner system, but it was not practical for trips to other stars. A prototype was in the development stage for a warp engine that could “jump” them across the great distances between stars.
    The Electerians had received signals from seven other worlds, including Graznos, and had already translated them. After first contact with Graznos, they planned to travel to Angelus, which is the third planet in the Styner system. Once the Warp-ship was completed they planned to go to the next closest star system called Simnius, and then continue from there to: Paylee, Tamsek, Demsey, Sinkar, and Bancy. The Electerians had determined that no other star systems in their region of space had planets that could sustain life.
    The Electerians had already made contact through communications with the Furzonians, Wicterians, and Platonians from around Tamsek; and the Maceonians, Mechs, and Zanars from around Bancy. For communicating over those long distances, the Electerians had developed a subspace communications array on permanent orbital platforms. They had intended to use the array for their own ships as they traveled deeper into space, but they were quite surprised to find out that the aliens from both the Bancy and Tamsek systems had developed their own versions of it. Even though that technology was not necessary for communications between Electerus and Graznos, the Electerians sent the designs to the Graznosians, so that they could be in contact with the other star systems. The Electerians had also developed a universal translator and had planned to take extra handheld versions of it with them to give to the Graznosians.
    The Electerians had decided that a free exchange of technology was the best approach for establishing relations with new worlds. They had even drafted laws forbidding interplanetary commerce. Thinking each planet to be self-sufficient, they thought that the only thing the commerce would do is allow greedy merchants to take advantage of the situation. Commerce on Electerus had evolved into an elaborate bartering system for goods and services, with the exception of food. Because food is a necessity of life, the ruling families agreed that it would not be a commodity. Each household was required to donate one day per month to the care and maintenance of the automated farms. Failure to comply would have led to the city security guards escorting one member of the family to one of the farms to serve a one-month sentence of labor.
    Bellmus was the last one to enter the spaceship. He kept stopping along the ramp leading up to the door to wave at the cheering crowds. Finally, once he was inside, the door shut with a loud thud and a hissing sound as it made an airtight seal. Bellmus was still waving through the thick glass porthole in the door as the docking clamps released and the ship lifted off.

Chapter III
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