“Exactly. We’ve already seen a ship far more advanced than our own pass through a wormhole to our solar system. I think it’s possible all of these species are more advanced than us, with colonies spreading much farther than our own.”
“How far?”
“I’ve done a cursory scan of this system. There are eleven planets and hundreds of moons. Unless we got closer, there’s no way to know if they’re inhabited. But, I’m betting this is one of many.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because there are two million inhabitants. It took Earth fifty years to reach one hundred thousand on Mars. Even if they worked at a faster rate, they could have been colonizing this place for centuries.”
Another multi-planetary species. It was impossible to tell with their scanners just how far the aliens’ civilization could have spread. In a hundred more years, humans will have colonized Titan and Europa, in domed cities if nothing else. There were far more planets and moons in this system. That meant the possibilities were far greater for expansion. If most of the planets were rocky like Earth it could mean a lot of colonies.
“Have you been able to scan this planet’s moon at all?”
“There are ruins on the surface. The moon has only a few hundred inhabitants all located near a large structure that’s built into the rocks. I think our chances are better on the planet’s surface.”
Liam pushed off from the window and floated to the display behind the pilot’s chairs. He gripped a handle on the wall to steady himself and began looking at readings of the surface of the planet. Their gravity was more than ninety percent of Earth’s, which meant the difference between the two would feel negligible. The gravity on the mine worked out to be a bit more than Earth’s, between the asteroid and the artificial gravity of the ship. They weren’t weightless enough in the past day to lose much muscle. Liam was thankful that they at least had that going for them.
“Saturn, can you adjust our descent based on the gravitational parameters of the planet?”
“I did it while you were sleeping,” Saturn said with a smirk, putting her hands behind her head. “Maybe I should be the one in charge, like old times.”
Liam had been on missions where Saturn was the lead. She was a skilled leader, but was always headstrong. She couldn’t separate a grudge with the task at hand and it had almost gotten them killed on multiple occasions. Right now, their small crew needed Liam to keep things level-headed. Though, he knew there could be a time and a place for Saturn’s unique skill set.
Liam replied, “Let’s just focus, fifty-five minutes until—”
There was a crash and a flash of blue glanced off their bow. The auto-pilot adjusted the ship so it would stay on course, though the ship still tilted slightly. Liam was shaken up and banged his head on the console, cursing loudly. “What the hell was that?”
Saturn’s fingers were busy at the console, pulling up images of another ship on their view screen. It was a small ship, sleek in design and moving far faster than their scout ship. Its design was different than the other alien ship. It came about and matched their course and speed. A red light blinked on the control panel.
“It’s an external audio message,” Saturn said.
“Put it through.”
The voice that filled the cockpit was deep and silky, drawing syllables together like a master poet, far from what Liam had expected. Though, he didn’t know what he had expected, if he was being honest.
“Is there any chance our translation software will work on this?”
Saturn shook her head, still rapidly pushing buttons on the console. “It’s a learning software, so the more it hears, the more possible it will be to decipher. But right now, not a chance.”
“Open a channel.”
Saturn turned her head questioningly. “They won’t understand us.”
“Just do it.”
Saturn pressed a button on the left hand side of the console and used her right hand to raise the volume. She motioned for Liam that she was ready. Liam pushed off with his hand and floated over to her seat, resting his hand on the backrests of the two pilot’s chairs.
“My name is Liam Kidd of the Planet Earth. We mean you no harm. Our ship is damaged and we need to land on the surface.”
Liam waited for a response that didn’t come. Saturn shook her head. “I told you, they’re not going to understand.”
The cockpit door opened and Ju-Long Ma came through, rubbing his eyes. “This had better be good, I was in the middle of a great dream,” he said, then pointed at Saturn with a smile across his face, “You were in it, Saturn.”
The silky voice returned, this time speaking something different than before.
“Earth Kidd,” it said. “Ship land on surface.”
The aliens cut the audio channel from the other side, leaving the cockpit in silence. The crew exchanged looks, unsure of whether to be frightened, thankful, or bewildered.
“Who the hell was that?” Ju-Long asked finally.
Saturn brought up the image of the alien spacecraft on the screen. It was silver and sleek, having the image of something made out of liquid rather than a solid. It was shaped like a long bullet with a single engine out the back with a blue ion trail. Liam was sure its speed would dwarf their own. Their weapons were very similar to the aliens at the Asteroid Belt. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. Something far bigger was going on.
“We’re going to the surface with these guys?” Saturn asked.
Liam watched as they slowly approached the planet. They would be entering the outer atmosphere soon. Liam looked between Saturn and Ju-Long and said, “It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”
10
There had been radio silence for thirty minutes as the scout ship began its approach to the planet. The sleek alien vessel trailed them closely, monitoring them the whole way. He wondered how powerful their scanners were and what they’d found out about them. Even most Earth ships had better scanners than their small scout craft. In that moment, the alien technology’s only bounds were the limits of Liam’s imagination.
A holographic map rose out of Liam’s control panel showing a gridded chart of the planet’s surface. A location blinked in a small yellow dot, growing in size as they approached. Liam turned to Saturn who gazed back, confused.
“Don’t look at me,” she said.
“These things can control our ship?” Ju-Long asked.
The aliens hadn’t adjusted their course for them, leading Liam to believe they couldn’t control all of the ship’s systems. It was still frightening that they could manipulate them as much as they had. Liam took the joystick and moved the ship to the new heading.
“Saturn, where is that on the surface?”
Saturn put her hand inside the hologram and spun it toward her, zooming in and examining it closely. “It looks like a spaceport near the water. There are strips of sand on the surface lined with hundreds of vessels.”
“Why would they take us to the heart of their colony?” Liam asked.
“They must have scanned us,” Ju-Long replied sarcastically. “Three humans with an inferior ship won’t stand much chance against whatever they’ve got on the surface.”
He was right. Their weapon systems consisted of low-powered mining lasers that were incapable of penetrating the first vessel’s armor. Their own ship was susceptible to the mining lasers, meaning whatever the aliens had would no doubt be far more effective against them. In the conventional sense of the word, they were hosed.
They descended into the upper layer of the atmosphere, the air pressure beginning to push against their vessel, heating up the visible exterior portions of the ship until they glowed orange. Gravity began to return to the cockpit, forcing Liam’s feet to hit the floor. He quickly found his seat and strapped in.
“Ju-Long, take the jump seat by the console,” Liam yelled over the increasing noise in the cabin.
Ju-Long flipped down a small seat and pulled straps
over his shoulders, attaching them to a strap that he secured around his waist. The gravity was increasing now and Liam began to feel the G forces working against him. In a minute, they passed into a lower level of the atmosphere, where Liam leveled out the scout ship, using the increased surface area and backward thrusters to slow their descent. At thirty-thousand meters he noticed a problem.
A red light flashed on the console along with a warning tone. A holographic image of their ship appeared where the map once was, showing the starboard wing in a flashing red color. The graphic representation of the wing was detailed enough to show individual panels. The panel they’d fixed on the bottom buckled, slowly tearing until it flew off. The heat from their descent was having an effect on the internal wiring in the wing.
A burst of heat blew the top panel off, revealing a hole in it a half meter wide. The wiring inside the wing was fried and the hole began to widen as they went down. At ten thousand meters the wing was holding on by a single support beam. At five thousand, it snapped, sending them veering off course. Liam turned the joystick hard trying to steady the scout ship. He fired thrusters in the left wing, leveling them out to some extent.
The ground was fast approaching and the landscape began to come into view. What looked like a vast desert from far away was actually bustling with life. Around the water Liam saw a glut of purple foliage, climbing high into the air. The sky was filled with strange winged creatures neither avian nor reptilian, but something in between.
A hundred monolithic spires shot out of the ground around the water, metallic and sleek like the alien craft. Apart from a few hills in the distance, the ground was very flat and dry, even cracked in some places. The majority of the population seemed to live in much smaller buildings around the spires, creating in effect a hundred small cities in concentric circles, connected at the edges by an imaginary line.
Two thousand meters. They could clearly see the spaceport now, several kilometers of hardened sand approaching fast. Liam fired the remaining thrusters to slow their descent, but without the starboard wing they were ineffective in slowing themselves to a safe landing speed. One segment of the landing gear was stored in their right wing. Without it, their landing was going to be bumpy. Without slowing to a safe approach speed, Liam wouldn’t be able to land the craft vertically. Instead, he’d have to try to skid to a stop.
Five hundred meters. Two hundred fifty. One hundred.
“Hang on!” Liam shouted over the countless alarms blazing throughout the cockpit.
Liam pulled up hard, firing the thrusters at full blast, trying to give them a better angle on the descent, but the landing gear was still crushed under the weight of their ship. The nose hit the sand first and skidded along, throwing up dust and dirt over the cockpit windows and obstructing their view. Liam couldn’t see where they were as he tried to keep the vessel straight, though in reality it was far out of his control. They skidded three hundred meters before they came to a halt. When they stopped, the sand trickled off the cockpit’s window and Liam saw they were among a particularly dense conglomeration of starships, each more different than the last in shapes that would baffle most humans. He wondered how some of them even flew.
The alarms continued to sound as the dust cloud continued to dissipate around them, the cabin still a mess of flashing red light. Liam turned off the console, the holographic images and control lights fading to black. The hum of the ion engine slowed to a halt and the cockpit was left in silence, deafening to Liam’s ears after so much commotion. Liam looked around the cabin and asked, “Is everyone still in one piece?”
Ju-Long’s legs were shaking and he held onto his restraining straps with white knuckles. “Tā mā de,” he yelled, repeating the Chinese curse softer under his breath as he checked over his body for injuries.
Saturn breathed heavily, bracing herself on the console. Her forehead was lined with sweat, beads falling down her face and soaking into her grey jumpsuit. She shot Liam an angry look and said, “That’s the last time you drive.”
11
When the dust fully cleared, Liam could see that the scout ship was surrounded by humanoids clad in tight sand-colored suits, plated armor covering their shoulders and parts of their legs and abdomens. Their alien faces were obstructed by oblong tan helmets with black visors. Their ensembles camouflaged them well against the dunes and rocky outcrops in the distance. There were dozens of them, some manner of laser-weapons pointed at the ship, approaching cautiously.
Liam unbuckled his straps and stood up on the grated metal floor of the cockpit, clanking his feet as he grew accustomed to gravity again. He stretched his legs and raised his arms up to stretch his spine. Even a day of zero gravity took its toll. Saturn released the control panel and unstrapped her buckles. Her eyes were focused out the window intently.
“Do you think they’re hostile?” Saturn asked.
“The way they’re approaching it looks like they’re just being cautious. I think we’ll be okay.”
“You think?”
“Feel free to stay here if you like.”
Liam helped Ju-Long out of his jump seat. His muscular frame looked weak for once, his face losing color and his knees shaking. When he realized Saturn was watching he quickly stood up straight and brushed Liam’s hands away, determined to look after himself. Liam opened the cockpit door and led Ju-Long out into the cargo bay until they were standing near the airlock. Under the lights in the cargo bay Liam could see Ju-Long’s lip sporting a healthy bruise and the cut along his forehead beginning to scab up.
Parts of the cargo bay had buckled, leaving piles of coarse sand in the corners. They had no clearance so even if the ramp was in working order it would never have let them out. Instead, Liam put his hand over the control panel on the starboard airlock, opening both the inner and outer doors after a short pressurization cycle. A gust of air drew sand into Liam and Ju-Long’s eyes. Ju-Long left for a moment, returning with goggles, which Liam hastily strapped over his eyes. Saturn’s footsteps echoed in the cargo bay behind him, prompting him to turn around.
Saturn stood erect with a grimace crossing her face. “I guess if we’re going to die we might as well do it together.”
Ju-Long handed Saturn a pair of goggles and the three of them stepped through the airlock, dropping down a meter to the sandy airstrip below. The semicircle of alien soldiers closed in on them, their weapons leveled at their chests. From this close, it was clear that the aliens were each a head taller than them. Liam stepped forward with hands raised out in front of him, his empty palms facing them.
One of the aliens stepped forward, lowering his weapon. When he was a meter in front of Liam he stopped. A sudden wind threw sand over Liam’s goggles, soaking deep into his long blond hair. The alien was a little taller than the rest of them and wore a brown cape that hit the back of his knee. It was a similar shade as the sandy hills behind him. The alien removed his oblong beige helmet.
His face was mostly white and purple, but covered in soft scales like a fish. His ears were pointed back and his eyes wide set and large, as though they were orbs of black with just a border of white. Liam was struck by how remarkably human he appeared despite his odd features. He had two arms and two legs and a head and neck in similar fashion to a human. Underneath his pale skin, however, he could see purple veins crisscrossing the scales, something entirely inhuman.
When he spoke Liam heard the silky drawn out syllables from before. The alien’s speech was incomprehensible to Liam. Upon seeing his confused face, the alien held up a small device the size of a single credit. The gadget glowed as he spoke into it and Liam felt his head heat up. The feeling grew in intensity until Liam dropped to one knee. Through the pain, he heard a voice.
“Welcome to Garuda, outsider. What business have you?”
Liam’s ears still rung, but he steeled himself and got to his feet, pulling off his goggles and looking up at the fish-man. “I am Liam Kidd of Earth. This is my crew. We were attacked in our star system an
d a wormhole brought us here. We seek asylum.”
The alien turned his head to the others, speaking in that silky language, stringing along syllable after unintelligible syllable. There was a certain grace about the alien that was hard to put his finger on. He was not overly muscular but he clearly took care of himself. Some of his features might have been portrayed as feminine on a human, but Liam had no basis for comparison.
Saturn took a step forward and grabbed Liam’s arm, hissing into his ear, “Are you crazy? What if they’re the ones that attacked us?”
Liam turned and clenched his jaw. He spoke, hardly moving his lips, “Their technology is different than the ship that attacked us. I don’t think these are the same aliens.”
When Liam turned his head back to the alien, he was waiting, one hand on the trigger of his gun as though in preparation. He held up the device and spoke into it. This time, Liam was able to maintain his footing, though he kept his jaw tight to assuage the pain.
“Describe the ship that attacked you.”
Liam rubbed his temples with his eyes closed, regaining his composure. “It was massive, a few kilometers long and made from a patchwork of metal. Their weapons were powerful. They damaged our ship badly before we made it to this system.”
The fish-man held his head back and let out a roar, which prompted his companions to do the same. Liam was able to make out only one word as the alien spoke to his companions.
“Kraven.”
The aliens lowered their weapons and eased up their stances. The fish-man made himself look bigger by puffing out his chest and he spoke into the small circular device once more. His voice penetrated Liam’s mind. “I am Toras of House Zumora, head of security for Garuda Colony, forward outpost of the Ansara Alliance. You must come with me at once.”
As Toras turned and walked away, Saturn and Ju-Long came around in front of Liam bearing questioning glances.
The Corsair Uprising Collection, Books 1-3 Page 5
