As Derringer and Javelin approached, under stealth mode. They could see that the entire area around the Crillon ships was crisscrossed with particle beams, and occasional single flashes as some of their own stealth drones flared into nothingness.
Both Derringer and Javelin lined up on two of the Crillon ships. Then each released a salvo of particle beams, followed by an Antimatter bolt.
The force-fields of the Crillon Battlecruisers CS 11 and 14, suddenly flared up, then shrank again, as they tried to take up the incoming salvo of particle beams, which had seemed to come from nowhere.
As the CS 14 Crillon ship started to move. Javelin’s Barry Winston cursed. He had failed.
His Antimatter bolt had curved through the Crillon's force field, missing the vessel by twenty metres. He cursed again, knowing that his weapon would take another five minutes to recharge.
At the same moment, Derringer's Tony Crisp also swore, as his Antimatter bolt hit a small object between his and the CS 11’s ship. He had hit one of their own invisible stealth drones by mistake.
Immediately, particle beams and solid projectiles shot from the two Crillon ships, stabbing out in the direction of the attacking ships.
Both Derringer and Javelin’s force-fields flared as they struggled to survive. Both of the ship’s stealth skins, fried, leaving the gold coloured ships in full view.
Ten kilometres away. The other two Crillon battlecruisers began to swing in to help their ships already under attack.
CS 13 was the first ship to acquire a target, the Javelin. An Antimatter bolt erupted from the Crillon ship.
Javelin's captain knew exactly where it was going.
“Emergency lockdown!” he screamed into the ship's internal comms.
Barry Winston felt his ship shudder like he'd never felt before. The stench of burning metal and hot gasses stung his nostrils as he struggled to breath. A clap of thunder signalled the end of his ship. Then darkness flooded in.
Chapter 1
No Compromise.
There had been a palpable air of urgency throughout the Space Federation since the three StarShips had returned from Zeta Reticuli after their clashes with an aggressive alien species known as Crillons.
It was now more than a month since their return. The ships captains had been debriefed. Reports had been issued, and recommendations made for the improvements to their armaments, communications and backup systems.
In the event of a catastrophic failure, the ships of the Andromeda-class had been designed to operate without a human crew. And, had the capability to return the vessel back to Earth.
The Space Federation was a non-military organisation and was funded by the Earth Federation. There had been a previous attempt to turn it into a Space Navy. But, this had been firmly rejected, and it continued on in the way it had originally been envisaged, with the exploration and scientific research of Space as its primary aim. A certain amount of weaponry was of course required to protect the ships and their crews.
However, the Earth Federation was beginning to worry about their decision of having a ‘non-military’ presence in space’ policy after the clash with the Crillons, at Zeta Reticuli. The EF had decided to revisit their original decision. But, for the time being, they realised that the weaponry improvements were now deemed essential.
Never the less, everyone knew that Navy ranking had already been prepared for the new ships. And, that it was just a matter of time before the Earth’s Space Navy came into being.
But for now, all the Space Federation’s resources were being devoted to the refit and updating of the Andromeda, Illustrious and Derringer, and the outfitting of two new StarShips at the Mars spacedocks. Together with the installation of the new Skippa sub-light drive system on all the ships.
Work was well underway on these improvements, all of which were thought vital to ensure that when they returned to space again they would be a more formidable opponent than before.
Their remit this time. To search for and destroy the remainder of the Crillon’s Fleet 12, who were believed to be at to Zeta Reticuli some 39 light years from the planet Earth.
Then, to resume their search for the missing settler ship, the Acarea, which had been despatched in the year 2109 to find and settle one of the planets thought to be orbiting Procyon.
Even though Frank was absorbed with the details of the modifications being made to the Andromeda and made regular trips to the Mars spacedocks, he missed Andromeda and his many ‘thought’ conversations with her. He was also becoming a little bored with the way of life on shore and couldn’t wait to return to ‘real’ space.
On leave for a few days, he and Susanna were in London. Today, they had been invited to visit her uncle, Jack Medcalf, who some weeks ago had given his blessing for their engagement.
Frank picked Susanna up from her apartment and they set off together, excited, and wondering what he wanted. Jack hadn’t said anything explicit when he invited them, only asking them to be prompt.
After all the usual greetings and chit chat. Jack suddenly announced. “Well, we’d better go now or we’ll be late.”
“What for?” Susanna asked.
“I’ve invited a few of our friends to share a meal with us to celebrate your engagement,” he replied smiling at her.
“Where are we going?” They asked in unison.
Giving them both an even bigger smile, he said, “We’re going to a top-notch restaurant, of course.” Susanna hugged him and whispered her thanks. Then they all went off and had a great evening.
The following day, they were at the Space Federation's HQ building in South London and sitting in front of a bank of computer terminals watching the survey recordings that had been made at Procyon A.
These had shown massive asteroids in orbit around the AF5 star, Procyon A. It was thought, that the star may have had a turbulent ecosphere sometime in the past. With this turbulence causing any planets orbiting the Star, to break up into asteroids.
Their study had also shown the dwarf star Procyon B, orbiting about 160 light minutes from the central star.
Procyon B had two planets, one of which was large and some 3.3 AU from the star but was outside the habitable zone, so of no interest to them.
The second planet was too close to Procyon B, only 0.7 AU away. So had probably been ‘cooked’ and stripped of everything when Procyon B expanded into a red giant some one hundred million years ago. This phase also taking out any other close planets before the star became a white dwarf. So again, of no interest to them.
Something about Procyon A, however, was still nagging Frank’s mind. His thoughts drifted back to the last voyage when they had reached Procyon A.
He felt uneasy and looked at the screen again.
The visual images from their survey had shown a dense asteroid field, which, looking at it now, seemed unnaturally sparse in the area around the 1.2 AU zone. Yet there were no planets.
‘So why do I still feel we're missing something,’ he asked himself. Then, remembering that he had entered his thoughts in the ‘things to clear’ part of his pad's memory, opened the pad and looked at his notes. Then felt a shiver run down his back.
‘It's got to be. It's got to be,’ he thought to himself.
Excited, he turned to face Susanna.
“That asteroid field, there,” he said, pointing at the seemingly empty band. “That can't be natural. Can it?”
“You think there's a planet in that gap somewhere?”
“Yes. That's what it looks like. But how would it be protected from being hit by those asteroids?”
“I don't know, Frank.”
He linked his tactical pad to a large screen but still couldn't see any difference.
Except, the asteroids did seem to bend around something. Or was it just his imagination?
“The image enhancing department might make something of it. So, why don't you leave it and let them consider it?” Susanna suggested.
“OK. Will do,” he agreed.
“It's just that it was only 1.2 light years from Procyon A. So, I was thinking about the Crillons and, well they did get to us quickly. Didn't they?”
“True. But it's a red dwarf and it’s moving away from our solar system. It’s about 12.36 light-years away.”
“Yes. But I'm not saying they had a base there. Just that, maybe they were around there at that time.”
“OK. I'm probably thinking about the wrong place anyway. Shall we leave this and get something to eat?”
“Good idea, I thought I heard my stomach rumbling earlier,” she laughingly said.
The following day, they had a meeting with Carl Brennan from the Image enhancement department, and after introductions Carl took them into a large room where a huge monitor almost filled one wall.
“I believe this is what you're after,” he said as an image filled the screen.
“Wow! Impressive Carl,” Susanna remarked.
Smiling at her, Carl replied. “It is, isn't it?”
Frank studied the image thoughtfully for a while.
“The ‘bending isn't so visible now Carl. Perhaps it's just the angle that makes it look like the asteroids are bending around something?”
“That's what we initially thought. But we’ve produced a 3D computer-predictive animation now, which proves that the image slowly rotates in a predetermined manner. This confirms what we can see, Frank, there's nothing there.”
“I agree. Well, that's one idea I can forget. Thanks for your time, I hope it wasn’t wasted.”
“In this business, nothing should be taken for granted,” Carl replied as Frank and Susana shook his hand and left.
Chapter 2
The Varon’s.
A long time ago, the Varon species started searching for a new home. They had been searching for many years, having fled their own planet because their star was unstable and on its way to becoming a Super-Nova.
Now, the Varon’s had begun to settle on one of the five planets orbiting a red dwarf star called Kepler 186, which was some 493 light-years from Earth.
Although this planet wasn’t much of a prize in ecological terms, it had a relatively large land mass and adequate amounts of sea water. So the Varon’s had decided that it was terra formable and could become home to their species. The planet also had an individual charm, with its dwarf star casting a reddish coloured light over it during the day.
The ‘Varon’s had a fleet of nine ships in orbit around the planet, which, although few in number, were impressive.
Two of them were large Settler ships and had been home to the remnants of the Varon species during their lengthy voyage.
These were cylindrical in shape and grey in colour, with four cup-like drive units at one end.
The other seven ships were slightly smaller but similar in colour and form. As well as their drive units, they also had small steering jets to increase their manoeuvrability. With the Jets being mounted in a ring around the body of the ship.
But, the Varon’s, being, in essence, a peaceful species, believed that heavily armed fighting ships weren’t necessary to their survival. Even so, these seven ships were equipped with a limited array of weapons.
The arrival of two enormous blue and spherically shaped ships had excited the Varon’s.
Especially when they realised that the newcomers didn’t need to know their language, or to have any visual aids to be able to communicate with them.
Instead, the alien species interacted directly by putting pictures in the Varon’s minds, thus showing them their intentions.
This method of communication was frightening and somewhat annoying at first. But the Varon’s soon realized that this was how the aliens communicated with other species, and with each other, so weren’t offended by it.
In the 37 years, that the Varon’s had spent searching for a suitable planet, they had never come across any other species.
Yet now, the first aliens they had come across were this species from the blue globe-shaped ships. Aliens, who, although small in stature and indeed very unusual, had been unbelievably helpful and seemed friendly.
Commander Benerox knew that his people were tired of living on board their ships, having been on them for so many years.
He was also worried about the increasing pressure from the inevitable growth in the ship's population, with more and more of their children, once grown up, having nothing constructive to do.
The ships environment was also suffering from an increase in their population. So yes, he was thankful to find a planet to be able to settle down on and to have the help of this alien species.
Benerox was also thrilled that the aliens had provided them with some sort of ‘Disruptor’ equipment that would help them to terraform the planet much faster.
Neither he nor his scientists understood the technology. But the pace of their terraforming had certainly been rapid since the disruptor equipment had been put into use, with the construction of small dwellings already starting to populate an area near the sea.
Today, however, was a sad day for Commander Benerox.
Now, almost two planet-weeks after they had arrived, the aliens had ‘shown’ him that they would be leaving today.
Everyone had become used to having the aliens with them, so it was with a certain amount of trepidation that they watched the blue globe ships leave orbit, then jump elsewhere.
Now, the Varon’s were on their own again.
One Varon month had passed since the blue globe ships had departed, and most of the Varon settlers were now living on the planet’s surface and getting on with their new life. It was hard, but rewarding work.
Commander Benerox was standing in the control room of his ship, which together with the other six Varon ships under his command were orbiting around their newly found home planet.
He suddenly felt a sense of fear, as he saw some strange looking spaceships drop into Normal-space, three thousand kilometres out from the planet.
Commander Benerox’s ship’s oversized tactical screen rapidly updated with data being received from his own ship’s sensors. Then, the screen finally displayed his own ships as green dots, and the newcomers in red, complete with relevant data next to each dot.
He switched his attention to the view on his primary display as it also slowly refreshed, and showed the newcomers now in fine detail.
He counted them. There were twelve ships, and they were a coppery-orange in colour and cylindrical in shape.
“Prepare to engage,” he quickly bawled into his comms.
“Sir. They register as fighting ships," Cranon, his science officer, cautioned him.
“I can see that,” he yelled back.
Then, noting that the ships were getting closer by the minute, asked.
“What are they doing?”
“I don’t know, Commander,” he said then paused briefly.
“But can you see a black dot in the central section of each of their ships?
We should be wary of these vessels. They must be huge if we can see them at this range, and those black dots could be weapons.”
Benerox took note of Cranon’s observation but made no comment.
“Comm’s. What have you got?”
“Nothing sir. There’s no response to my hails, sir… I,” he started to reply.
Then there was silence.
At this, Benerox rapidly assessed the situation, then ordered.
“All ships. Lock weapons for battle.”
“But that will make us seem aggressive sir.”
“It can’t be helped Cranon. They’re not responding, which in my book means we’re in for a fight.”
All seven of his ships weapon’s doors opened at the same time, and their weapon barrels extended from their hulls.
Suddenly, their view of the stars vanished behind the alien’s incoming ships.
Then ‘beams’ fla
shed out from two of the alien’s ships and headed straight towards them.
The ‘beams’ sparked filaments of matter that filled all space as they passed through, before finally hitting two of the Varon’s ships, which seemed to melt before being ripped apart.
Commander Benerox trembled for a moment, shocked by such aggression.
Then shouted. “Fire at will!” while fearing they had already lost.
His five remaining ships opened fire, but their energy beams simply flared, then dispersed as they hit the alien ships shields.
“We’re dead, if we can’t get through their force-fields, sir,” Cranon uneasily said.
“I can see that. Damn it. You’re the science officer, find a way and quick.”
Commander Benerox watched as his ships bravely turned and continued fighting. All of them firing apparently inadequate energy beams against what appeared to be the seemingly impenetrable shields of the aliens.
The aliens stepped up the ferocity of their attack.
Then, just a few minutes later, Benerox gasped in horror, as he saw that the two settler ships and three more of his armed ships had also been destroyed.
Benerox watched, as his last captain, Captain Frackwin, tried to ram one of the copper coloured vessels, but failed.
Instead, the alien ship’s purple beams bathed Frackwin’s vessel causing it to slowly melt, and its nuclear core to explode.
He wept as he saw some of the intruder’s ships direct their weapons at the Varon settlements down on the planet’s surface.
His ship was the last. Then he and his crew died. Their screams for help cut off as their atoms joined the rest of the universe….
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 20
