by Terry Frost
Chapter 6
Colonel Hammer and the Striker team had made it back from their contact with the alien asteroid miner, Dumo Char 5. They had orders to go to Room Forward when they were safely back on Colossus.
Waiting for them was Allen, Petrov, and Dubois. Colonel Hammer began the briefing by telling his superiors about the meeting and conversation with Dumo Char 5. He told them how the alien looked and how he became classified as a Char among the Nim race. Then Hammer told him what Dumo had said about wishing him well, but didn’t think the Nim would welcome him.
“Sounds to me like the Nims are not a friendly race of aliens. Or could it be that Dumo or any Chars for that matter are not treated well among the Nims,” General Dubois said.
“Thank you for your report, Colonel. Though the thought of learning the Nim’s mining technologies would be an important skill to be used in our future we don’t need any more confrontational aliens at this time. We don’t know anything about their weaponry and since our fleet consists of only three sizable ships, I think it best that we record the location of Planet Edan for a return visit once we have found our new world,” Admiral Allen said.
“This is just a suggestion Admiral, but I think it advisable to not discuss our findings with Commodore Jeeves. I think we all know that our illustrious Science Officer would not be pleased that we are passing on an opportunity to study a new race,” Hammer said.
“Yes, I think that is best for now. Ok gentlemen, let us plot our next course and continue our search,” Allen said.
As he left Room Forward, Colonel Hammer wished he had some news on the Armada’s mission to free Planet Daak. But another thought was on his mind as well and it was the strong pull on him that he knew was coming from his beloved, Empress Katin. He decided he would have a discussion with Admiral Allen about sending him on a mission back to Planet Abor to find out any information on the Armada’s mission. Chances of Allen giving him the mission would be low but he had to try.
Standing outside Allen’s Ready Room, Colonel Hammer paused before announcing his presence. He was still trying to figure out his best reason for asking for a mission to go back to Planet Abor. Then he decided he wouldn’t try to hide the fact that he was somehow receiving a powerful pull on him from Empress Katin. That, and the need to know how the Armada’s mission concluded.
But just before knocking on Allen’s door his comlink chirped and it was Allen. “Colonel Hammer,” he said but not until he walked a few steps farther down the corridor from the Ready Room.
“Colonel I need you to come to my Ready Room. I’ve received a communication from the Aborian High Mage Cina,” Allen stated.
“Be right there, sir.” Hammer stalled for a couple of minutes before walking back to the Admiral’s door. Then he pressed the comm button announcing his arrival.
“Come in, Colonel.”
Hammer walked in and said, “Reporting as ordered, Admiral.”
“Take a seat, Jak.” Allen very rarely used Jak’s first name when he was on duty but something about this must have been different.
“Would you like a drink? I have some of that delicious Yuklin if you like some.”
“Yes, sir. It took me a while to get used to the Daakie liquor but after a few jiggers I kind of developed a taste for it.”
“Me too. But it still doesn’t compare to my Scotch.”
Allen poured a good three fingers of the Daakie liquid and handed one to Jak, then he took a seat across from Jak and took a healthy drink of the Yuklin.
“You said you received a message from, High Mage Cina. Is everything okay with, Empress Katin?” Jak asked.
“I don’t have any information for you about the Empress. But the High Mage did make an unusual request. She asked if I would allow Tage Doni to fly to our coordinates in her Raptor to retrieve you so she could take you back to Abor.
“When I pressed her on the need to know why the request she only said it was of grave importance. I haven’t sent my reply yet as I need to talk to you about what I’ll need from you if I give the go-ahead for Tage Doni to come pick you up.”
“It is strange to hear from the Aborians at this particular time, Admiral.”
“Why is the timing of the request strange, Jak?”
“Sir, you and I have had an early conversation about your experience with the strong and powerful senses of attraction from the Aborian female, Cina, and my similar experience with Empress Katin. The reason I said the timing is strange is that I have been receiving extremely strong vibes from Katin for over a week now. I swear she is calling to me.”
“I don’t doubt it one bit. I’ll say this to you in confidence Jak, but the power the High Mage had over me was unnerving. Never thought you’d hear that coming from your commander I bet.”
“Don’t make that bet, sir. I’m unnerved every time it happens to me. It’s like I have no power to resist. Not that I really would. Katin has my heart and I know her powers didn’t make me feel this way, sir.”
“Who could blame you? Katin is an intoxicatingly beautiful woman.” Allen drank the last of his Yuklin then sat the glass down. He didn’t say anything for a long minute then spoke.
“I’m going to allow you to go to Planet Abor with Tage Doni. But there is something I want in return. Actually, there are two things I want in return. The first is I want a detailed briefing on the Elimination Hive mission by the unified Armada. The second something I want is for you to ask Empress Katin, for their teleportation technology, Colonel.”
Back to addressing me by rank, huh, Admiral?You can turn from social back to commanding in a blink of an eye Jak thought. “Yes, sir. I too have been wanting that technology, and if I’m really good at pleasing Katin, which she loves to be pleased, maybe I can get the more important technology from her. That being their stealth technology.”
“That would be the icing on the cake Colonel, but I can’t see her giving that extremely valuable tactical technology away. So, for now, I’ll send a message to Tage Doni informing her I’m
granting Cina’s request. The message will take about four hours to get to Abor and as soon as I have confirmation I will let you know when you can get your travel bag ready.”
“Thank you, Admiral. I’ll be waiting for your call. Oh, and is there any chance of you allowing Commodore Jeeves to go with me?”
“Negative, Colonel. We need the Commodore to stay with Colossus while we continue our search for our new homeworld. That will be all, Colonel.”
“Yes, sir, Admiral.”
****
The Elimination Hive Armada had made its way back to Planet Abor. The next day, Empress Katin presided over the Aborian version of a funeral for her warriors lost in the battle with the Hive. Death in battle had always been glorified among the female warrior race and Empress Katin was taking it hard, especially because of the loss of Low Mage Arina.
Katin had a hand in tutoring Arina in the ways of a warrior when Arina was only a teenager and she was deeply saddened by the loss. When the funeral was over, High Mage Cina was asked by her Empress to come to her private quarters.
On her way to Katin’s quarters, Cina had received a message from Admiral Allen and she knew the message would please Katin immensely as she had ordered Tage Doni to the mission of retrieving the Human, Jak Hammer.
Cina never asked her Empress why she ordered her to get Jak and bring him back to her. The only explanation in her thinking was Katin’s strong desire to be with her Chakin. She was hoping the subject might come up during her meeting with the Empress.
When Cina was given permission to enter Empress Katin’s private quarters she was surprised to see Katin had not dressed for the day and it was late in the morning, which was unusual. Katin was sitting in front of her makeup mirror. Her hair which was normally perfectly styled for the day was unkept and Cina thought she didn’t look as if she was feeling well.
She walked up to Katin and said, “Your Grace. What can I do to please you this morning? And may I ask i
f you are feeling well?”
“You can please me by telling me you have sent someone to retrieve my Chakin. And no, I do not feel like myself this morning.”
“Shall I send for your physician?”
“No. She can’t help with my problem this morning. I have the sickness that comes to all Aborian females when they are with child,” Katin said with a poor effort to smile.
Cina bowed and became overjoyed with the news. “You are with child. What wonderful news, Your Grace. We must begin efforts for celebration. Your warriors will want to share in your joy, my beloved.”
“It is true that they will be joyful, and normally their excitement would please me, but we won’t be letting them in on our secret for now. At least not until my Chakin is back in my arms. You remember the curse of Mount Orin, don’t you? It is the curse that befalls all Aborian females at one time or another. Though it only comes upon us for a short time it is almost debilitating.”
“Are you referring to Woam? The pain we all experience once we have chosen and mated with our Chakin if there is no intimacy within so much time from one joining to the next?”
“Yes, that is it, Cina. Woam is an evil bitch that won’t release her grip on me until I have joined with my Chakin again. I know you will experience this someday and I will be pleased when you find your Chakin. But unlike so many of us, I had no choice but to let Jak go for a short while. There would have been complications with his Admiral Allen if otherwise. I didn’t want to cause him any trouble by insisting he stay to avoid Woam.”
“The desire for intimacy has not lessened since you became with child?”
“No, as a matter of consequence the desire is much stronger.”
“Fear not, my beloved Empress. I have just ordered Tage to retrieve Jak Hammer. I received confirmation from Admiral Allen that he gave his permission for him to travel back to see you.”
“You are my most loyal and precious High Mage. I will take no business until the day after Jak has been returned to me. I ask that you take command of any matters that need tending to until that time. That will be all, Cina.”
“I will inform you the second Tage Doni is back in atmosphere, Your Grace.”
“That won’t be necessary, Cina. I will sense his presence the moment he is near our home.”
“Your Grace,” Cina said, then turned and walked out of the room.
Chapter 7
Since the Daakie were not able to reclaim their home, at least not for some time, High Mage Cina decided to offer them a place to live in the near future. She knew they would eventually want to try again to reclaim their homeworld, so she committed to allowing periodic reconnaissance back to Planet Daak by one of her fleet of Predators. She knew her kind gesture would keep Caid Maalik happy for the short term.
Cina ordered two members of her staff to escort the Daakie to a suburban area of the capital city. At the location sat a U-shaped living facility that would accommodate the entirety of the despondent Daakie population. There was a reason for that particular location to be chosen and it was because there were two large manufacturing facilities nearby that had not been used for several years.
By order of Empress Katin, the High Mage was to inform Caid Maalik that the Aborian Empress had given the order to help the Daakie build a fleet of their favored Zurguts, and with an unprecedented move, included in the build, the ability to fire photon torpedoes. During the conversation both knew if they defeated the insectoids and won the Daakie homeworld back there would be no chance of holding Planet Daak unless their alien friends had a large number of military ships to defend any future attacks by the Hive.
High Mage Cina was about to call Caid Maalik to give him the news of her Empress’s more than generous offer when she was called to the Aborian Flight Command Center located a half-mile from her quarters in the same building as her Empress’s quarters.
Twenty minutes had passed since Cina received the request for her to come to Flight Command. When she walked into the main sensor and communication’s room she was approached by the lead warrior in charge of the room.
“What is the emergency, Lieutenant Pagon?”
“We have received a message from Commander Lurcie. As you commanded she has been following one of the Hive nests that had the tracker attached to it. Her message was to inform you she thinks her Predator and crew have possibly located the homeworld of the Hive.”
“I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to hear from our tracker chasers. Where is Commander Lurcie located, and what makes her think she has found the Hive homeworld?”
“She is located nearly ninety light years from our world. Commander Lurcie said they had made eight jumps to get there and are presently located at the farthest point of the Perseus Arm in the Helo System.
“Commander Lurcie said she counted as many as twenty-five planets in the system. Eight of those planets are gas giants, but the rest are all solid rocky planets. She recorded the activity in the system and is requesting permission to return to Abor.”
“Send the order for her to return. I will debrief her when she gets back. Make sure you let me know when she has safely returned.”
****
With Colonel Hammer on his way back to Planet Abor, the Colossus and her crew had just dropped out of FTL into a binary system on the universal star chart known as the Kilkin System. The system had one supermassive yellow star and ninety million miles from it was a red dwarf known as the Jovan System. Red dwarfs burn at much lower surface temperature than yellow stars.
The Kilkin System was loaded with heavenly bodies including a large field of asteroids near two large gas giants with rings similar to those of Saturn in the Sol System. Those planets including the two gas giants within Colossus’s sensor range totaled eleven and a total of twenty-one moons.
Colossus’s admiral’s Allen and Petrov were licking their chops when they saw how many planets and moons were in the system. Kilkin looked as if it might have a high probability of containing a new world for Humans.
Each time Colossus entered into a new star system the standard protocol was to have an exploration meeting in Colossus’s Room Forward. All pertinent command staff would be present minus one Colonel Hammer at this particular meeting.
With everyone seated before the meeting started, Admiral Allen rolled a five-by-five chart of the Kilkin System out and positioned it at the end of the large conference table. Addressing all in the meeting, Admiral Allen spoke, “Good morning.” Everyone, in unison, repeated the same back to their Commanding Admiral.
“I hope all of you had a pleasant night’s rest because I will be asking for a considerable amount of your time over the next three days. The USC and its Commanding have worked on exploration protocols for over ten years. But those protocols were in theory only. We are the spearhead of Human exploration into the stars.
Being the Commanding Admiral it is my responsibility to see to those protocols. It is my prerogative to change a protocol if I deem the change will optimize our efforts when exploring new systems.
We are going to alter the exploration protocol and make note of the change to be titled The Hyper Protocol. On exploration day we are going to swarm our targets with scanning vessels in order to speed up our endeavors in completing the scans at a much faster pace.”
Allen stood to the side of the chart and with the pointer in hand said, “Our first targets are these two planets and these nine moons orbiting them. Captains Slain and Sokolov will work together scanning this planet, then move off to the second one here.
Both Battlecruisers will drop off their full complement of wasps and hornets in orbit of these nine moons. Colossus will move inward and begin scanning this large yellow and brown planet, right here.
When you men complete your scans you will pick up the wasps and hornets and vector to Colossus’s position. We will review the scans once the Battlecruisers are back on Colossus before we proceed to scan the rest of the heavenly bodies under the umbrella of the massive star
Kilkin. Does anyone have any questions about the mission?”
Commodore Jeeves asked, “What are your orders if our scans show life or we make contact with any aliens?”
“By contact, I’m assuming you mean in the case of space-bound ships?”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“Report the contact immediately, but do not engage unless you have no choice. Does everyone understand the order?”
All nodded their heads as they understood the contact order.
“If there aren’t any more questions lets proceed.”
****
During the trip back to Planet Abor, Jak had asked Tage Doni to brief him on the Elimination Hive mission’s outcome. Her response was that briefing him on the mission was High Mage Cina’s responsibility. She delivered Colonel Hammer to Planet Abor and quickly left the Raptor and escorted him to the entry to Empress Katin’s quarters, but she didn’t go inside as Jak opened the door. He turned to her and said, “Aren’t you coming in?”
“You will not be needing me because my beloved Empress desires only you for the time being. I hope you feel well rested because you will need all your energy,” Tage Doni said with a wicked smile before closing the door.
Jak couldn’t see his lover and called out, “Katin, where are you?”
“In my chambers, Jak, hurry, please.”
Jak walked briskly to Katin’s chambers and the second he saw her his heart melted. She was lying on her huge bed propped up on one arm looking extremely seductive, though Jak noticed her complexion was slightly pale.
Katin was wearing a sheer dark purple top and nothing put a pair of matching thong style panties. Her top was long sleeved and hung down a few inches short of her panties, but her voluptuous breast where bear and her nipples erect.
“Come to me, my love. I need you so desperately.”
Jak was trying not to fall as he began shedding his pants and shirt. He moved quickly to the bed and once on the bed he pulled Katin to his mouth for a heated and passionate kiss. As they kissed Katin pushed him onto his back, climbed on and inserted his manhood and whimpered seductively. She threw her head back and began to slowly gyrate at first, then quickly picked up the pace.
