by Terry Frost
“I’m sorry about that, Burseq.”
“The good Caid and I have a history of not agreeing on tactics. I’ve had a consistent record of displeasing him. If not for my relationship with King Gaakin, the Caid would have had me decommissioned long ago.”
Allen’s comlink chirped and he answered, “Allen.”
“Admiral, I’m letting you know per your instructions, that the shuttles are loaded with some excited passengers and are ready to go down to the planet for a few hours of exploration. Do you still want to come to the hangar bay and say a few words before they depart?” Vice Admiral Petrov asked.
“Yes, Admiral. I’ll be down in a few minutes. I need to have a quick chat with Lieutenants Cargon and Baffy first. It shouldn’t take long.”
Speaking to Burseqs Maalik and Amiik, Allen said, “Well, Burseqs, I think it is time to begin our major reconnaissance missions. Let’s get our ships loaded with recon vessels and send them on their way. I will order our Battlecruiser Perseus to be on standby until you have your Battlestars ready to start the mission.
“Burseq Maalik, as you and I discussed the other day while in our planning stage, I will be sending you and the crew of our Battlecruiser Striker on a separate mission to Planet Abor so we can hopefully enlist the help of the Aborians for Elimination Hive.”
“The Aborian mission is critical to the success of Elimination Hive, Admiral. But remember the system where the Striker will find Planet Abor is a very long way from here. It will take a multitude of jumps into hyperspace to reach the far-out system. I would estimate if all goes well your Battlestar should reach them in Human time in about fourteen days.”
The Daakie Burseqs left the room and Allen went to his Ready Room where Cargon and Baffy were waiting for him. Finding out that the way Burseq Amiik had said the mission went matched with their descriptions. he quickly dismissed them and headed down to Colossus’s hangar bay.
Allen stepped out of the elevator and walked over to Shuttle One and walked up the ramp, and into the shuttle. There were forty passengers, a pilot, and a commander they were to obey, and that was Astrophysicist Lieutenant Miley Craft, waiting for his arrival and he could see the smiles on all their faces.
“Good morning,” Allen said.
In unison, they all returned the greeting.
“All I want to say to you is to have a great time exploring the wonderful planet down there. I want to caution you to adhere to the protocol given to you during your briefing. Do not wander off alone. Stay in groups of ten regardless of where you want to explore. Obey Lieutenant Craft at all times. That is a direct order from your admiral. See you when you get back.”
Allen walked over to Shuttle 2 and addressed the group commanded by Ensign Ransik Cherny. He told them pretty much the same thing he told Group One. He wished them good luck then departed the shuttle.
As he returned to the elevator, prior to the bay doors opening, he thought I pray I haven’t made a mistake allowing our citizens to go to an alien planet without a full and complete planet-wide scan. Their trip is only scheduled for three hours but I think I had better have a couple hornets get down there with them just in case.
The admiral sent two hornets down to watch over the explorers once he returned to Central Command to relieve Admiral Petrov. As Petrov started to leave, Allen said, “Anatoli, I’m holding a briefing on an upcoming mission in Room Forward at 0500 and I’d like you to be there.”
Chapter 32
At 0500 in Room Forward was Vice Admiral Petrov, Colonel Hammer, Commodore Jeeves, Captain Slain, Burseq Maalik, and Admiral Allen. Caid Tikit was sent a message to come to the meeting, but still sulking, he declined. Allen walked in and said, “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”
“Good afternoon, Admiral, everyone said in unison.”
“As you know, we are about to begin Elimination Hive. Captain Sokolov and his crew will be part of a task force joined by three Daakie Zurgut Battlestars, and the mission is only for reconnaissance for locating Hive nests. If you might be wondering why you men aren’t part of the task force, it is because you are being sent on an extremely important separate mission.
“Colonel Hammer, you will be commanding the mission and Commodore Jeeves, you will be his Second. Your mission’s destination is a star system known as Homer. In the Homer System is a planet called Abor. Admiral Petrov and Colonel Hammer were briefed earlier about Abor and its inhabitants, but Burseq Maalik needs to bring you, Captian Slain, and you, Commodore Jeeves, up to speed. Burseq, if you would please.”
“The Aborians are an alien race comprised of battle-hardened female warriors. Our military ran into the Aborians on a mission over several hundred periods ago. As luck would have it we arrived near Abor at a time when their planet was being attacked by the Hive.
“We helped the Aborians defeat their attackers and in doing so made friends with them. In return for helping them defeat the Hive they pledged to assist us at any time in the future should we call upon them for their help.
“At the time we met them their military consisted of twenty of their warships called, Predators. Our King Gaakin and SO Faadin evaluated the strength of those Predators and said they could do very well in a fight with our Zurguts. It is my opinion they could hold their own against your Battlecruisers as well.
“You might wonder how a fleet of only twenty warships could protect a planet and the answer is the Aborians had discovered a technology that neither Humans or Daakie have. They have stealth capabilities. In other words, they can cloak their warships which give them a decisive advantage against their opponents.”
No one could tell, but Hammer was thinking fantastic, I get to meet me some female warriors. I hope they aren’t ugly. That would really be upsetting.
“Burseq, your priority is to convince the Aborians to follow the Striker back to our location. Communications from the Striker will take a week to reach us so ask for expediency in their decision and get back as soon as they can be ready. Are there any questions?”
“What if they don’t want to or for some reason can’t come back with us?” Commodore Jeeves asked.
“Good question, Commodore. I hope that won’t be the case, but all we have to go on is their memory of pledging to help. Having Burseq Maalik with you should help since he knows about the Aborian pledge. Plus, we are hoping there is a member of their kind still alive that remember what a Daakie looks like because they haven’t met any of our kind. Anything else?”
When no one said anything, the admiral said, “Alright then. Make your preparations, Captain Slain. You will be leaving within the hour. Dismissed.”
A few minutes after the meeting, Captain Sokolov informed Vice Admiral Petrov that the Perseus and her crew received communication from Burseq Amiik that the Daakie commanders were ready for him to meet them so they could begin Elimination Hive recon.
“You are a go, Captain. Good hunting and stay safe,” Petrov out.
With everyone and the Darts on board, Captain Sokolov fired up Perseus’s engines once the bay doors had fully opened, then the Battlecruiser departed Colossus.
Admiral Allen was in his Ready Room and had just completed a lengthy and descriptive message to the USC back on Mars.The details of the message included information about the Hive, Aborians, his command’s mission of Elimination Hive, and information about the planet he was evaluating as a possible new homeworld for Humans.
He was preparing to go down and send the Striker and her crew off to the Homer System, then the intercom outside his door buzzed. “Enter,” Allen said.
Caid Tikit walked through the door and stopped in front of Allen and said, “My apologies for my behavior, Admiral. I guess losing my king has affected me deeply and has caused my behavior to be unacceptable as a caid and commander of our military.”
“Apologies accepted, Caid. But I can’t imagine how devastating that had to be to witness the beheading of one’s king. Think no more of it. Walk with me. I need to go down and see the Striker off on her miss
ion to Planet Abor and I will briefly tell you what their mission priorities are.”
Thirty minutes later the Striker departed Colossus, on the extremely long journey to the Homer System. With all the events that had taken place over the last few hours, Allen requested to be briefed on his Colossians visit to the new world. The second group of explorers was set to visit the planet the following morning as it had been decided to not have any people on the planet past sunset.
Chapter 33
Colossus’s two admirals were holding a meeting in an area of the Great Ballroom with both groups of explorers and wanted to hear about their visit to the planet the huge generations starship had been orbiting now for over three weeks.
In the beginning, Admiral Allen listened to everyone thanking him for allowing them some time off the ship. He sat quietly while listening to the citizens telling what they saw and did on the trip.
The group under Lieutenant Miley Craft’s supervision began exploring the edge of the long canyon that held the deep forest. They didn’t enter the forest but explored everything around it. Some climbed a short way up the steep cliffs and found a trail worn by animals.
The canyon walls had plenty to explore such as caves, waterfalls, etc. On the floor of the canyon was a variety of plants and flowers. Miley was extremely interested in a species of flower that was the size of dinner plates and was a vivid purple and red color. She asked one of the females to help her dig up some of the flowers so she could take them back to Colossus’s greenhouse and plant them but also wanted to study them under a microscope.
The group became excited when a family of heavily furred brown and white striped animals with small heads and large floppy ears made their way out of the forest. The family was made up of two adults and five of their brood. The five looked as if they weren’t very old, which made them thrilling to watch as they copied their parents by standing upright and hopping like kangaroos, as they moved away from the strange aliens.
Miley thought early on to make the exploration a working one but didn’t press the citizens too hard on gathering samples of rocks, dirt, plants, water, etc. They spent their three hours in the wonder of the place that might be their new homeworld.
Ensign Cherny’s group landed near one of the many large lakes than ran along the second mountain range that was recorded on the Perseus’s scanners during its mission of discovery by flyovers. The shuttle sat down in an area of short blue-green grass with wide areas of much taller grasses that butted up next to the shorter grass and lead away from the direction of the lake and mountain range.
The water in the lake was magnificent in its aqua-blue color and there was a slight breeze blowing over it causing small waves to ramble on. Instead of seeing the white part of a wave that shows itself when it's about to break, the color of the break on this alien lake was light blue in their presentation.
Cherny ordered everyone to not touch the water until she could do a field test for any type of contaminants. It was a wise move on the ensign’s part as they didn’t need some kind of bacteriological agent to infect the citizens.
She completed her test in under ten minutes and happily announced the water was completely safe, which brought much joy to the citizens. The water was nice and cool but no one brought swimsuits. But several took off their shoes and waded in a few feet and splashed around. An opportunity to wade in the lake’s water was just too inviting as many had not seen a freshwater lake in close to four years.
Ensign Cherny requested that a few of the group gather up some of the odd shaped but multicolored stones that created a rocky beach of sorts. The small stones were shaped with a configuration of stars, and there were a thin rectangle and round ones as well.
While many of the citizens were still wading out several hundred yards, the lake exploded with hundreds of large fish jumping out of the water. A couple of seconds later, a massive mammal with a smooth back and no dorsal fin came out of the water after the fish. The thing caught several of the fish in its mouth and fell back into the water.
The commotion frightened the waders and they quickly returned to the stoney beach. Several waders were standing next to Ensign Cherny and one man said, “Won’t be swimming in this lake anytime soon.”
The group hung around the lake for their last hour before Cherny ordered them back to the shuttle. Several complained but didn’t forget Admiral Allen’s direct order to obey their supervisor and loaded back into the shuttle. Once everyone was loaded and harnessed, Cherny did a head count and minutes later the shuttle pilot fired up the engine and they were off for their return to Colossus.
The following morning and still a few hours before the next group of Colossians were to get their chance to visit the planet, everyone on board got a chance to view the recordings of the first explorer’s trip on the ship-wide monitors.
As Dr. Morgan Piner had suggested to Admiral Allen, the recordings would go a long way to appease those that weren’t going to be up for a trip down to the planet until many more scans were performed, and the good doctor was right. Rather than showing disappointment, most were thrilled to see and talk about the planet and decided to wait patiently until it was their turn to go.
A couple of hours after the recordings were shown, the eighty that were selected to take their turns exploring were getting themselves ready to go to the shuttle bay. They were finishing what their everyday routine usually was and was scheduled to be at the shuttle bay in about thirty minutes.
Suddenly and without prior warning, everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard a ship-wide “Red Alert…Red Alert…Red Alert. This is not a drill. Go to your safe place until further notice.”
Colossus’s sensors picked up a large meteor storm heading straight for the planet and Colossus was going to be caught in the center of it.
“Lieutenant Gordo, turn our nose into that storm. We don’t want to let it hit us broadside.”
“Aye, Aye, Admiral.”
”Commander Masto, shields up.” “Aye, Aye, Admiral. Going shields up, sir.”
After an anxious two minutes, the meteor storm slammed into the nose area of Colossus and was deflected by the ship’s shields. The storm lasted for several minutes then the danger was over. A vast majority of the meteors were no bigger than grains of sand, but not all of them were, with this particular storm.
Ten minutes after the meteor storm, Astrophysicist Miley Craft called Admiral Allen and asked him to come to the science lab. She told him she had data on the meteor storm and had some important information to share.
Allen had just completed giving the order to turn Colossus back to her original position prior to the storm and sent out a ship-wide All Clear message to the people on board. He turned the controls over to Vice Admiral Petrov, told him where he was going and said he would return shortly.
He made his way down to the lab and found Miley looking at a graph. He walked up to her as she kept her head down looking intently at a collated sheet of paper.
“What have you got for me, Lieutenant?” Allen asked.
Miley looked up and said, “Admiral, I’m a little alarmed about the sizes of some of those meteors. Granted, most of them were no larger than dust or grains of sand but the ones that I’m talking about are ten feet across and there were thousands of them.”
“That means they would become meteorites then. Meaning they would probably make it to the surface and cause a fair amount of damage. Correct?”
“Yes, sir, but if that wasn’t enough of a concern, we have a much bigger problem out there somewhere that we can’t see yet and my instincts tell me a very large asteroid may have been bumped out of the asteroid belt we documented lying in this system.
“You see, sir, meteors come from asteroids. Parts of an asteroid break off from time to time and most of them are minute particles but when you have meteors ten feet wide, there is a high percentage they came from a monster sized asteroid that had a collision with another large asteroid, sending dangerous size chunks out and
into space.”
“What would be your estimate, speaking in general terms, of the size of those dangerous sized chunks?”
“To some degree, a meteor the size of a family sized dinner table could do some serious damage, but I’m thinking the size of the one or ones that are heading this way would be considered asteroids, not meteors, Admiral.”
Allen, had a deeply concerned look about him then said, “Miley, do you remember when we looked at Captain Sokolov’s recording of the Perseus’s flyovers of the planet?”
“I do. And I think I know what you're about to ask me. As a matter of fact, I had been putting together something that is a theory of mine about the proximity of this system’s asteroid belt, and the very planet we so desperately want to be our next home.”
“Take a seat. I want to hear your theory, Lieutenant.”
Chapter 34
The recon task force had jumped to a system known as the Piner System. The system held one large star and a total of eight planets within it. Four of the planets were gas giants, the rest were rocky planets.
“Captain Sokolov, Burseq Amiik. Send your darts to the two planets furthermost from the sun. I’m moving our ships further in and will release two of ours. I’m leaving one Zurgut here with you in case you need support.”
Perseus’s darts returned within three hours and one of them recorded a Hive command center sitting stationary, next to the moon orbiting a cold, gray planet. The recording showed a number of transport type ships coming and going from the surface of the moon.
Nine million miles from Perseus, sat Burseq Maalik and his two Zurguts. They were positioned in a dark area of space far enough from any planet so as not to be detected while his two-speed ships were scanning for Hive nests.
Sokolov checked in and gave his report. Amiik reported that one of his recon vessels returned without spotting any Hive activity, and his other one just reported he was heading back and hadn’t located anything either.
