We lifted off as the sun set over the pacific on a beautiful July evening. The thin clouds on the horizon yielded a show or reds, oranges and pinks that would rival any sunset I had ever been witness to. We passed through the Earth shield, turned in the direction of our target and I pushed the throttle to full.
As we passed through light speed Beatrice Frederic slumped over in her chair. Mika attempted to revive her, but she was unresponsive. I turned the ship and headed for the closest city with a medical bay. Five minutes later we were on the ground with a medical team heading our way. Beatrice was once again fully awake and insisting that she was fine.
It took several hours before we got word back of what had happened. Beatrice had been wheelchair bound her entire life, having been born with birth defects that prevented her spine from properly forming. Numerous operations had failed at completely correcting her situation. Until the VRMs appeared she had been very limited in her physical abilities.
She was attempting to send her VRM into space; a VRM that had been modified to look exactly like her but with no physical disability. But there was one problem with her plan that she had not fully thought through. When a ship passed through light speed any QE links were temporarily broken. She had lost the connection to her VRM the moment after I pushed the throttle to full.
Someone at AMP Command had somehow overlooked the physical parameters of her resume and forwarded her as a candidate for the mission. When the full story was known I talked to the home mission commander and pushed for her continued inclusion on the flight. We had room on the Jacques for another passenger and a second science officer was notified of our interest.
Lieutenant Marius Pierce was in the Science Command of the AMP Marines. He was brilliant, highly trained and capable. As with most of my reasonable requests, I was also honored with the allowance of Beatrice Frederick onto the team. Her VRM would be unavailable during faster than light travel but could quickly come back online with a fast reboot afterward. AMP Command allowed my request after it was pointed out that it would be a good situational test of a VRM on a mission.
Hershen had also put forth the reasoning that the idea of having a disposable body on-board might come in handy should the need arise for such. Betty's VRM was all smiles when the approval came through. We again lifted off the following morning.
At full throttle the 3,300 light year journey to the Cat's Eye nebula was run in only three days. As we approached the nebula a star system was selected that was 17 light years distance. Of the six planets in the system, the fourth planet was in the habitable zone. As we dropped below light speed, Betty's VRM came online and seconds later she began a conversation with Marius.
We approached the planet with sensors and shields on full. No artificial signals were detected and the planet was immediately classified as unclaimed. The new world was 90% covered by vast oceans while three land masses dominated the rest. The atmospheric levels showed in the green on our holo-screens. Only minutes after taking up orbit around the planet I pushed the Jacques down through the atmosphere.
We came to a halt hovering over a blue lagoon with a white sandy beach. Various green and blue palm tree-like plants lined its shore. A breakwater reef was visible beneath the crystal blue waters. Flying creatures, similar to Earth's birds and the Mamics of Toledus could be seen floating about the trees as a light sea-breeze pushed ashore.
We moved the ship inland over the jungle and allowed our scanners and sensors to do their work. New species of both plant and animal were recorded and automatically cataloged. I fired a Protractinium pellet down into the planet surface that contained a micro-signature broadcast stating that the planet had been claimed by the AMP. The data that was gathered was quickly transferred across the ships QE comm link back to command. I looked back at Betty and asked AMP Command if the planet could henceforth be known as Betty. The request was approved.
We scoured the planet Betty for a full day before finding evidence of sentient beings. They were primitives that lived and traveled in pods. Their small communities consisted of thatched wooden huts that looked like they could be quickly dismantled and moved if needed. A round stone marked the center of their camp. They were a thin gray biped species with white tufts of hair covering their faces, backs and privates. As we slowly glided overhead we remained invisible to their four blue eyes.
One section of their small village had yellow animal skins that were stretched and drying in the hot afternoon sun. Several workers were busy cleaning a fresh kill as a group of others left into the blue-green jungle with clubs and spears. Marius then pointed to a smoke trail on the horizon. It was 130 kilometers distance which we then covered in a fraction of a second.
It was another village, much larger than the first, with stone huts and stone walls surrounding them. The village lined a bluff along a wide slow river. The lowlands along the river had been furrowed and planted. Bright red fruits were visible on a number of surrounding trees. The yellow skinned biped villagers moved about the village and the fields conducting their daily chores.
Wide swaths of grassland surrounded the village with the cultivated fields around it. The jungle had been pushed back. As we observed the villagers, Betty became the first to point out something of high interest. Our sensors had detected movement along the river's edge just to the south of the village. Canoes carrying 16 of the gray creatures were moving slowly up along the river bank.
A single yellow skinned lookout sat on a high perch facing the last of the south fields. It was soon evident that the sentry was asleep as the gray creatures landed quietly, slipped up into the tall grass along the water’s edge and then all at once raced into the south field surprising and attacking four of the yellow workers. Hershen stood as if to put an end to the raid on the yellow skinned beings.
The gray creatures were much faster than the defenseless Yellows and a savage beating of the captives ensued after each was quickly snared. A lookout in a high stand beyond the next field then sounded the alarm with a horn blast. The other yellow workers turned and slowly ran towards the safety of their stone walls.
The four captives were taken to the canoes while three of the gray creatures surrounded the now awake sentry on the perch. The sentry cowered to one side of the stand as a Gray climbed up to him with a club in hand. After a hard swing his lifeless body fell to the ground. The two remaining Grays then began to drag him to the canoes.
We were witness to what was probably an ongoing struggle between the two species. The agrarian society, although more advanced in civilization, was the weaker of the two. Their continued survival relied on planning ahead and keeping an ever watchful eye. I wondered if similar battles had taken place between the early species of humans on Earth, species that I at one time so long ago, had studied in high school.
As we roamed across the planet from the daylight and into the darkness the Cat's Eye nebula was in its full spectacular glory. The glow of the hot gases that had been ejected from the bright hot star at its core gave an eerie red gloom to the darkness of the night sky. It was a spectacular site in the heavens, unlike anything that could be seen with the human eye from Earth.
We spent the next week recording and cataloging every living thing on the planet Betty. Sensor scans told of mineral deposits, sea-life and weather conditions. Our monitoring of the native cultures revealed the same scenario happening time and again between the Grays and the Yellows. Several clans of Grays would move into an area of the Yellows before being driven back, deep into the jungles, by a much larger armed Yellow force.
For seven months we continued our survey of the Cat's Eye nebula region. Of the 47 star systems we encountered, three habitable worlds were found, two with qualities very similar to that of Earth. The billions of suns in the Milky-Way galaxy were teaming with life, life waiting to be discovered.
When our Cesium supply had dropped to 60% we set course for home. We would do a slow pass of 17 stars as our last attempt at gathering information for the current mission. On the three newly disc
overed worlds we had cataloged seven new low-order species, species that were in the initial stages of civilization, species in the initial stages of survival.
We had passed twelve stars systems with no signs of life before we came to a small orange star with a single planet. We named it Mika after our engineer. Mika had 40% surface water, high mountain peaks and dense jungles. It was also emanating radio signals at frequencies similar to those used in Earth's later civilizations.
As we approached the planet great cities came into view through the smog filled hazy skies that surrounded them. Smoke chugged from factory stacks as large gears and piping turned and twisted in every direction. It was a steam punker's dream come true. Vast fields of farms surrounded the industrial cities. Thick sea-level jungles turned into sparse forests as elevations moved to the highlands.
The setting orange sun glowed red through the smog as we came through the atmosphere. Great steam powered flying machines moved travelers from one city to another. A quick scan revealed a super-heated source on the plane that provided the energy for steam conversion and propeller flight.
The 12 large cities spread across the planet looked to be at peace with each other as no signs of a military were present. The tall thin red bipeds that inhabited Mika were a sporting people as any number of stadiums and arenas dotted the city's blocks. Row housing surrounded the factory areas which then fed into shopping districts, much like the evolution of cities we had seen on Earth.
The radio signals that emanated from the planet were evidence of a society only on the verge of making use of electricity. Mika marveled at some of the massive geared devices that could be seen scattered around the cities. Everything was powered by mechanicals, giant gears turned as long shafts spun.
After a week of observation of the cities we moved out over the great agricultural fields to the highlands. We stopped for only a moment to view a river the size of the Mississippi flowing over a waterfall. I wondered why the natives had not harnessed its power for their mechanical use. Scans then revealed a stone substructure at the base of the falls. I reasoned that perhaps an attempt had been made at its use with some catastrophic event bringing the venture to an end. With nothing else to see we lifted off into orbit before pushing the throttle full.
The next star system had no planets, but it had a space station in a position aside a large asteroid. There was evidence of mining activity on the large rock. We drifted in close to get a scan of the asteroids make-up; s the data began to come back our reactor sputtered and shut down. Mika immediately got to work diagnosing the problem. The Cesium cooling system had shut down and the two backup systems had failed.
Within minutes our now visible ship was being held in a static field box. Betty's VRM slumped over as its QE link was lost. It seemed the species aboard the station was advance enough to have the static field technology. They were a species that did not have a presence on the doors at DaCuban; that is unless they were one of the species whose identities had been warn away from the top of the doors.
As our ship was pulled towards the station Mika attempted to light off a small Sodium reactor we had on-board. He hoped to power a static field window long enough for our ship to slip outside the box. From there, it was hoped that our active skin could be brought online, once again making us invisible.
We soon found out the reactor did not have adequate power for a large enough window. A backup plan was quickly hatched where each of us would leave the ship, floating through the static window and out into space, hidden by our BGS suits. We would then micro-burst and attempt to drift onto the space station. From there we would work on regaining our ship and attaining our freedom.
After quietly slipping through the static window I sent a delayed command to the Jacques. The static window closed as the power was switched to the active Sodium skin. Just as the Jacques vanished a second larger static box was brought online once again trapping us inside.
Our desperate plan had backfired. Our ship had been separated from us and we were again captives. The static fields were pulled to the station where a port opened into an expansive chamber. We sat in the blackness of the static box, unable to communicate over our QE comm links, not wanting to risk broadcasting a radio signal to each other.
The species that held us captive had patience. They waited... waited months until our power packs expired and our BGS suits went inactive. We were then introduced to the Nefarians, a species of nomadic explorers whose goal was to travel the stars gathering information from other beings. Several months later the Sodium supply on the Jacques expired, leaving it to their prying eyes.
We were removed from our suits and questioned as to who we were and where we were from. They had their methods of making you talk and I soon told them almost everything. I told of Earth's struggle and then triumph. I told of worlds being destroyed. I told of the Frekkin, the Ogle and of the planet DaCuban. Their scientists were fascinated with every detail.
For ten years we were held captive as the Nefarians worked to replicate our technologies. I was sitting in my cell, listening to Hershen tell a story, when the chief scientist among them paid us a visit. We were being released.
The Nefarians were satisfied that they had gathered everything they could from us and our ship. We would be assisted in getting back into our suits and would then be allowed to board our ship and depart. The coolant system on the Jacques had been repaired... we were free to go.
They had tried to no end to replicate the QE comm link technology but had been unsuccessful in every attempt. It was the only technology we possessed that they could not master, but they had patience. Our audio implants had been retained for further study. Our comm link to home was no more.
We lifted off and instead of Earth I headed towards Meyer to see my old friend Kurg. The Gidden ambassador was happy to see that I was still alive. The AMP had only strengthened during our time in captivity. The Gidden labs swept our bodies, BGS suits and the Jacques for tracking devices, but none were found. We had indeed been set free.
As we prepared to leave for Earth, Kurg handed us a QE comm device with a connection to AMP Command. I contacted Earth and received a warm welcome. They were glad we were coming home. Many things had changed since our capture. All would be explained when we arrived. I thanked Kurg for his assistance and generosity and we lifted off towards home. As I pushed the throttle to full the Jacques accelerated.
Chapter 10
The following day we dropped thru light speed on our approach to Earth. Chaos ensued. Five Ogle ships were in battle with our fleets. We came to a full stop near the orbit of Mars as the battle raged. An Ogle ship then turned in our direction.
I pushed the throttle in full reverse and in an instant our ship passed through the heliosphere. We were safe, but the fleet was not faring well. The powerful Ogle particle beams cut through our fighters with ease and pushed our larger ship's shields to the max. As two of the Ogle ships joined together, and then a third, I knew our fleet's time was coming to an end.
I did a scan of the battlefield and was surprised that only two of our fleets had engaged. The 3rd and the 12th were giving everything they had for the protection of Earth. Before I could establish a QE comm connection to AMP Command the link went silent as a beam sliced down through Earth's atmosphere and obliterated much of the airfield near Savannah where the other end of my QE link resided.
The Ogle particle beam cut deep into the Earth, melting or disintegrating nearly everything in its path. As the battle raged, and the 3rd and 12th fleets were ravaged, the Ogle ships deployed the long cylinders. Seconds later, the 6th and 8th fleets arrived and destroyed the CME initiator cylinders before they could do their damage. Just as quickly as the two fleets had appeared, they were gone.
As the Ogle finished off the last ships of the 12th fleet I was startled as the Earth and Moon just disappeared. The Ogle ship went silent for several minutes while assessing the situation. After the final two of the five Ogle ships had joined together they initiated
a full particle beam fire, directed towards the space that Earth and the Moon had previously occupied.
The beam was captured by the active Sodium skin surrounding the planet before being passed around and emitted on the other side. From the Ogle's perspective the beam had not encountered anything of substance. It was as if the Earth and Moon had vanished.
Several minutes passed before the Ogle ship once again blasted the space that Earth had previously occupied. This time however, there was a small residual glow at the point where the beam first came in contact with the shield, a glow that told the Ogle that Earth was still there.
We moved back to a position just inside the asteroid belt where we could easily blend in. Our signature was small, but easily detected in open space. With the cover of the asteroids we would be difficult to detect, but not impossible.
The Ogle ship continued its assault of the Earth shield and was soon refining the beams frequency and duration. The once continuous beam was now pulsating, the burst power levels far exceeding the original. It was not long before the great shield of Earth was being overwhelmed.
When the first section failed the surrounding sections quickly buckled. A wide gap soon opened, exposing a vulnerable Earth below. I expected the following beams to begin the obliteration of my world, but the Ogle ships went silent.
Several minutes passed before they began a new strategy. Thousands of smaller Ogle ships emerged from the combined five and screamed down through the shield gap to the planet below. The first several dozen were immediately pulverized by the ground defenses but the Ogle numbers were too great. A number of ships soon landed within the populated areas and began to take any encountered humans as captive.
I looked at Hershen and made a command decision. He and I would attempt to drift onto the Ogle ships and begin a campaign of destruction. We did not have the firepower to take on the ships themselves, but we were unmatched when it came to hand-to-hand combat. The Ogle would rue the day they had invaded my planet.
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