by R J Murray
“Emitter away. On screen, please.” Reed ordered.
The scene was one of a tropical rain forest. Massive trees, bird like things, vines, very little ground cover under the trees and small things running from the ship and the emitter. The scene swung as the emitter turned to show the ship and the landing zone. The ship was sitting level on a huge ring of dirt that had fallen off the ship once the artificial gravity had been turned off. The bare rock surface made the ship look like a huge pebble sitting on an anthill. The surface was a rough stone so irregular that it looked artificial with small rail gun towers sticking out from the surface. The landing zone was however, smooth and level. It may have been bedrock, an ancient lave flow or even an Astangii spaceport at one time. The forest started at the edge of the landing zone and disappeared into the far distance. From orbit, it could be seen that the forest extended several hundred kilometers north and south, but stopped less than ninety kilometers east. Mountains began fifty kilometers to the west and a different topography began on the other side.
There were no cities but they saw evidence of where they had been from orbit. The forest had covered much of the evidence of any inhabitants.
“Send out another probe and let’s check soil and water before we step out and get eaten by something nasty.” Eric said.
“Astangii, come in please.” Horace’s voice rang out.
“Astangii here. Go ahead.”
“I’m not seeing anything too big out there around you. Birds and small critters mostly. City about three kilometers to the east, mostly buried under jungle and dirt. Been dead a long time it seems. More cities a few miles past that but only five total showing up on scans or even by eye. Easier to pick out by eye actually. There could have been farms between the cities by the look of the land under infrared. Haven’t seen any mining operations yet but we will keep looking. Anything on your end?”
“Not much different than you see. Probes are out and emitter is emitting for all she is worth. We will go out eventually and walk around a bit. Maybe take a volunteer first, just to see if they get eaten. We will call if we find anything interesting.”
“Roger that. Asgard II out.”
Eric waited six hours before he walked down the ramp and stood in the dirt waiting for something to jump out and eat him. Nothing happened except a deep and racking fit of coughing after his first deep breath. It started raining after half an hour and Eric called the ship.
“Kinda boring out here. Anybody want to come out and stand in the rain with me?”
“Affirmative Sir. Most of us want to get out of here and breathe real air again. We will rotate out in groups I think. Rain sounds nice too.” Reed responded.
“I’ll come in and you can take the next group out Sam. Get a little liquid sunshine.” Eric headed for the ramp and decontamination. He passed Reed on the way down, bent double with a deep and racking fit of coughing.
“Fresh air is great, isn’t it?” He asked around a small cough.
“Damn straight Sir. Tastes wonderful.” Reed and the others coughed for a while, but didn’t stop breathing deep.
“Look at the ship.” Eric said. Reed turned and looked. The rock was cut in a series of irregular shapes, no two sides even and all at different angles.
“Why would they do this? Art?”
“Stealth. Scanners won’t reflect straight back to source, they will bounce out everywhere, all different angles. The waves will diffuse outwardly everywhere. We only found it because of ice crystals on the surface reflecting light. Damn thing is almost invisible to scanners.”
~~~~~~
“It’s pretty, prettier than Earth. You are getting a good planet with few dangers. There are dangers though and you need to be aware of them.” Lee waited for the colony ship to respond.
“At this point it wouldn’t change anything if it was barren as the moon. We can’t make it back to Earth. We shipped out overcrowded and under stocked for any kind of return.” Captain Krupp of the freighter More Ore was harried, bearded and worry lines were visible in the screen.
“What are you short on? Air, water, food?”
“Air and water. Most of the cargo is drugged to the point where they won’t know when they die. The warships are in almost as bad a shape as we are, maybe three weeks left on air, but they have much smaller human cargo, only thirty three crew total so while they did share, it was a drop in the bucket compared to our needs. These things were a hundred years old when they pulled them out of mothballs and refitted them with Hiroshi/Vanderburgh star drive. The passenger crates are just thrown together using old ore crates and they leak. Most of our reserve air was gone before we even found all the leaks.”
How much time till you are dead?” Lee asked.
“Maybe we have two weeks. How far to this new planet?”
“Almost a month and a half at your speed. I have full tanks of water and air. I will give you all I can spare and get more at the nearest ice belt. Food may be a problem. No resupply out here. Are all ships in the same shape?” Lee asked, hoping for some good news.
“We are actually better off than the others. The Creepy Crawler has had a few deaths and the Weekender has only about a week left. The rest are about the same as us.”
“Fine. I have to call the others and get help.”
“Whatever you have to do. At this point control is just telling us to keep going, so we could care less about their orders.”
“Got it. Docking with you first and dropping one seventh of my air and water. I’ll do the same with the other colony ships before I head for the closest ice belt.” He added the volume of each available in his tanks.
“Roger that. That will add roughly a week to our supply.”
“We will get more. The closest star system is only eight days out and we will head there as soon as we unload.”
“Sixteen days round trip for you plus time to load and unload. Cutting it close.”
“Got any better ideas?” Lee asked.
“Nope. My mind is as empty as the governments heart.”
“Once we are done here each ship needs to change course and head for the ice belt. It will cut days off the trip back to you. Are the warships any faster than you? If so, they should head for the belt now. If they can restock and return and that will take some of the edge off our time limits.”
“Affirmative. That is a plan.”
Chapter 7 Colony
“Ryu Akai come in please.” Eric waited for the response. He and the other two ships were closing on the last reported position of the colony ships. They had loaded all the oxygen and ice they could carry before heading out. There was a lot of ice in the asteroids and ice belts in most star systems. Not all of it was water however. Carbon dioxide was common along with many other types of ice, most of which would kill the unwary. Water ice was melted and then broken down into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen was stored and the hydrogen was fed to the converter to power the ship. Eric had taken nanobot factories from Astangii and installed them in the other ships since there were none aboard the Catroph vessels. Software was added to each computer and more factories had been built to replace those taken.
“Sir, we have three ships coming into range. Earth type Globe ships.”
“Could be the warships. Hail them.” Eric said.
“Earth vessels come in please. We have resupply on air and water for the fleet. Please respond.” Navigation officer Ashton Cherenkov had moved to cover Chuck’s position as Chuck was working the weapons console.
“We have launch. Slow as shit missile with a small nuke. Seventeen seconds to impact.” Chuck said.
“Hit it with the rail guns.” Eric said. He couldn’t help grinning at the changes in the crews personality. “Color commentary is not really needed.”
The Astangii weapons fired and there was a small bright blossom of flame on the screen.
“Nicely done. Let’s try this again. Call the warships.”
“Respond or die humans.” Ash announced in his
best alien voice.
Eric rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh.
“Don’t fire. That was not us. The Deaths Head has a nut for a Captain. We are distancing ourselves from his ship.”
On the screen two ships pulled away while one held position.
“This is the Astangii, Eric Maddwell commanding. Who am I dealing with?”
“Maddwell? You’re not aliens? That is not the Pathfinder.”
“Pathfinder needed repairs and upgrades. We captured several alien ships and started using them. Now, who are you?” Eric asked again.
“Captured . . . John Smith, Avenger. The second ship is the Star Gazer, Amos Shikra commanding. Nice to see you. I would guess you are looking for the colony ships?”
“Yes.”
“They are sitting in the ice belt in the star system behind us. We all needed air and water.”
“I am aware of that. We are here to help. Where is the Ryu Akai?”
“They just dropped out of FTL and are coming up behind us.” Chuck said suddenly. The new blip appeared on the plotter as a green dot.
“Astangii, come in please.” Lee’s voice came in over the com.
“Lee, what’s going on?”
“Trouble. Deaths Head is convinced that we are all aliens trying to eat his brains or something and we had contact with a ship of the enemy. They took out one of the colony ships drive and did some damage to the warships. We did damage to the enemy but they took off and we lost them. I think finding themselves fighting one of their own confused them. We weren’t sure who was coming so we circled back until we could identify you. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you too. What do we do about the Deaths Head and the colony ships?” Eric asked.
“The nanobots available have been working nonstop on all the colony ships but the warships were not interested. Now that you’re here it should take another week before we can head out. I assume you brought a nanobot factory or three with you. We’ve been loading ice and making air ever since I called you but we still have a long way to go to refill all the tanks. Also I’ve been trying to track the enemy ship and I think I found it. Three days from here is a rogue planet and I believe from our scans that there is a base on the planet. Might even be someone living there. Not much we can do about the Deaths Head unless you’re ready to blow up an Earth ship and crew.”
“Well, we need to protect the colonists first. I hate to say this but we may need to leave that planet for another time. If it is an active base, they may have more ships than we do and if we lose the colony fleet that defeats the whole purpose of our being here. I’m not quite ready to attack any human ships either.” Eric said.
“I think you’re right. I hate the idea of leaving the enemy base behind us but the colony comes first.” Phil replied. “What do the rest of you think?”
“Avenger here. We couldn’t get close to that ship, even though we fired on it. They shot our missiles down in a few seconds and they had more speed and maneuverability than we do. We wouldn’t be any help attacking or do much good defending. We would stay with the colony.”
“Star Gazer here. I go along with Avenger for the same reasons.”
“Deaths Head?” Eric called. “Do you have an opinion you would like to share?”
“Stay away! We know you’re aliens or at least aliens have taken your minds! Avenger and Star Gazer should be destroyed just for talking to you! The directors orders were clear enough and you both know them. You aliens get close to this ship and I will blow it up and take you with us! My finger is on the button! You will never . . . what are you doing Mr. Hobbs! Get back to . . .”
The com link filled with noise, yelling and two gun shots. Then it went silent.
“Not good.” Reed said.
“Deaths Head, respond.” Ash called more than once before he got a response.
“This is Hobbs, first officer. I think we just mutinied. Uh. . . we secured Captain Thornton in a cargo box. We will go along with what the majority decide.”
“Well done Captain Hobbs.” Eric said. “Keep him under control till we can ship him back to terra firma. Lee, Horace, what are your opinions?”
“I agree with you. I hate it too but I don’t see any way we could do an attack without leaving the colony undefended.” Lee answered.
“It is unanimous then. I go along with you Eric. The colony lives must be protected.” Horace sounded sad that he would not get a chance to blow something up. “As much as I appreciate you asking everybody what they think, we need a chain of command for times when we don’t have this luxury. Eric for commodore anyone?”
“Aye.” Lee said.
“Aye.” Came the response from the rest of the ships. Even the three Earth warships responded aye.
“Well, thanks guys. Let’s set up a listening post around the colony ships and watch out for intruders until they are ready to move out. You three newcomers need nanobots to tune your engines so you can keep up with the rest of the fleet. Dock with me and we will get you in shape.”
A chorus of Yes Sir’s were the response.
“I have a problem. I think I have something wrong with my shields.”
“Who is this?”
“Bertram Suzuki, Ton and a Half.”
“What is the problem?” Eric asked.
“When those aliens shot us up, my shields didn’t block the weapons fire worth a damn.”
“Well, no, they won’t.” Eric answered. “How much time you have on FTL?”
“What do you mean they won’t? About two weeks training before we left. Why won’t shields protect the ships?”
“Because that isn’t the purpose. Shields were developed as a way of protecting the ships FTL drive from incursions of mass, or at least the gravity caused by mass at close proximity, not bullets or missiles. When the first ships went through the Kyper belt, several blew up because of fluctuations in the drive. The shields stop that from happening. They do offer some protection but not a great deal. Solar and cosmic radiation is blocked and if you take a nuke, they will block a lot of the radiation but how much depends on how close the nuke was and how big. It will not stop impacts or the blast wave from an exploding warhead.” Eric explained, wondering what else the training had skipped. “Once you’re in FTL, the shield strength goes up exponentially to almost impenetrable but using the Holliman drive for normal space just doesn’t add any strength. Were you a pilot before they shanghaied you into this?” Eric asked.
“Shuttle, Earth moon run from Calvary base to Seattle and back twice a day. I liked it better I think, boring though it was. Nobody shot at me then. I still don’t understand about the shields.”
“Okay. Try it like this. You’re cruising along, eating up a light year every four hours. Suddenly, your star drive flutters off and on at a hundred or a thousand times a second. Your subjected to a thousand G’s then nothing a thousand times a second. What happens to you and your ship?”
“Oh.”
“Oh is right. Your inertia dampening field can’t keep up, off and on get out of sync and boom. You are star dust.”
~~~~~~
The planet was beautiful from space. The colonists were awake and taking turns peering through the few observation windows at their new home. Nobody moved around the safety rails or pushed their noses against the glass.
“Where are the cities?” One woman asked.
“I don’t see any farms either. I don’t see anything but trees.” Another answered.
Syble Aarons couldn’t see any cities either. She could see an ocean and forest in the north and what looked like open fields in patches between forests.
“I think we are supposed to build the cities and farms.” She said to the woman next to her.
“Don’t be stupid. How on Earth are we going to do that?”
“We are not on Earth. Nobody else around but us to do the work. I guess it’s up to us to get it done or die.” Syble said.
The two women stared at her as though she were mad.
A voice came over the intercom about then.
“All farm personnel stand by for an announcement.”
“Here it comes.” Syble said.
“There are four new ships holding in orbit with us. They are the ones who found this planet and saved us earlier. They need experienced farmhands to go down to the planet and scout out sites for farms. All volunteers should come to bulkhead ten forward and speak to Lieutenant Glass.” The voice repeated the message but Syble was already pushing through the crowd heading for ten forward. She had spent more than enough time surrounded by a thin layer of metal and breathing massed body odor. The line was not very long as Syble got to the bulkhead labeled ten forward. There were only six other women waiting for the Lieutenant.
“You farmed too?” She asked the woman ahead of her, trying to strike up a conversation.
The woman turned and looked Syble up and down for a moment. “Why else would I be standing here?” she said coldly.
“Maybe you thought Lieutenant Glass would be cute.”
The woman made a sniffing sound, a quiet harrumph in the back of her throat. Syble didn’t try speaking to her again.
The Lieutenant finally arrived and looked at the line. “Is this all?”
“Looks like it.” Someone said.
“Alright. Come up one at a time and give us your vitals and experience.” Several crew members were carrying a table and a few chairs, setting them up and then standing aside. The Lieutenant sat and waved the first woman forward. It took fifteen minutes to speak to each woman who was then led through the hatch to the next section.
Syble waited in line for almost two hours before she had a chance to sit.
“Name.”
“Syble Aarons.”
“Age.”
“Eighteen.”
“Farm experience.”
“Born and raised in the Triangle. My family grew grains and raised chickens for meat and eggs. I went to agriculture school in the Triangle too. I can handle heavy equipment and farm machinery, as well as household work like making butter and canning food. We shared an orchard with three other families so I know how to dry fruit and use fruits for jams and cooking too.”
