by Randy Dyess
“Aye, Captain,” Owen said as he turned on everything at his fingertips. He just hoped he had enough time to get something useful before the ships jumped.
The entire crew looked shocked as the entire fleet hovering over Candus disappeared. “That only took twenty seconds! The entire fleet jumped into one tunnel in twenty seconds! That’s impossible,” Skip said, looking at Dakota.
“Apparently not,” she said. “Owen, did you get anything?”
“Maybe a little. I don’t know how much.”
“Okay,” Dakota said. “Turn on everything. I want all weapons hot and ready. Start active scanning and get any data you can. Find out if anything that looks like a rock is still in orbit, and find out what those slabs of metal are. Send all data packets to everyone now and follow up every minute with incremental packets. Alert headquarters and Candus Security about this.”
“Aye, Captain,” everyone shouted.
*****
“Report,” Dakota said two hours later. After orbiting the planet several times to determine whether all of the strange asteroid ships had left, Dakota had the ship fly as close to the planet as they could to scan its surface. For the past hour, Candus blurred by beneath them; the scans were disturbing and no one wanted to believe them.
“No enemy ships have been spotted in orbit or on the ground,” Amy replied.
“No transmissions are coming from the planet—nothing. It’s like the whole planet is dead. I’m not even picking up signals from hover cars or electrical transmission lines,” Owen added.
“Any signs of survivors?” Dakota asked.
“Yes. We found a way to reconfigure the U-981 heat tracker to track life signs. The small settlements near the coast and at the edge of the polar ice packs seem to have normal populations. They might have been too small to worry about,” Owen said.
“The funny thing is,” Skip said, “there are no electrical signals anywhere on the planet. It’s like someone turned it off. Even the power stations are blank.”
“That’s strange,” Dakota said.
“How?” Owen asked.
“Even if they shut off everything, the solar and wind stations would still be producing something,” Skip said.
“What else?” Dakota asked.
“Like I said, areas around the poles have scattered life signs. Candus City doesn’t show anything; there are a few life signs just outside city limits, but nothing else. Dakota,” Skip said. She had never heard Skip use her first name before, so she knew this was going to be serious. “When I say nothing else, I mean nothing else. Not only is there no life signs in the city, but there is also nothing in the agriculture belt. I mean, even the cattle feed lots are blank. It’s like every living thing on that planet large enough to show up in our scans has disappeared. Everything, except for a few dozen villages and those life signs near Candus City.”
“How could anyone pull that off?” Amy asked in horror. Her family lived on a planet similar to Candus, and all she could think of was them going through something like this.
“Why would someone take four hundred million people off a planet? Even if it was a slaver raid, why everyone? Usually they leave most people alone and only take a few thousand. Anything else would take a fortune to feed and house.”
“I wonder why Candus City and the other areas were attacked, but not the poles or the coasts?” Owen asked.
“It’s not our job to figure out why things are happening,” Dakota replied. “Let Cheyenne and her people do that. We need to get as much data as possible and figure out our next move. Are you sure there are no signs of the pirates, or slavers, or whatever else they may be?”
“Positive. We scanned around us and as much of the ground as we could. There are no ships in the air and nothing on the ground with the right dimensions. They may still have troops there, but they would have to be hiding from us. As far as I know, we are the only ship with sensitive enough equipment to scan for life signs. Why would they hide from our scanners, unless they have the same scanners?”
“Did you capture any scanning traffic?”
“Nothing. No electrical signals, no radio waves, nothing,” Skip said.
“If they have troops on the ground, there are no signs of air support anywhere. They couldn’t hold the planet without air support and support from orbit,” Owen added.
“True. It may be possible that they are hiding from us, but if they are, they’re doing a good job of it and hiding their life signs, as well,” Skip said.
“Okay. Keep scanning as much as you can. I want a detailed scan around the spaceport before we land.”
“Do you think they are planning an ambush? Maybe they’re getting freighters like us to think they are gone, and once we land, they’ll jump us?” Owen asked.
“Why would they go through the trouble to set up an ambush? They seem to have enough firepower to do what they want. Besides, without air support, they wouldn’t stand a chance if Candus Security were the first to land.” Dakota said.
“About that,” Skip replied. “We analyzed those slabs of metal, and we think the first two were the remains of Candus Security vessels. They have the mass of the patrol ships they use. The others have the mass of local grain freighters.”
“Are you telling me that they melted entire ships into pools of metal?” Dakota asked.
“Yes, it looks that way. I have no clue what kind of weapon could do something like that to a ship, but it looks like they have one.”
“Okay. See if there is anything else you can gain from scans of those slabs.”
“Captain, we have a hail from Candus Corporation Security.”
“About time,” Dakota responded. “Patch the message through to my station.”
The other bridge crew members went back concentrating on their stations and scans. As always, they left one ear open to listen in on Dakota’s conversation.
“Yes,” Dakota said. “There’s no one in orbit. We think those two slabs of melted metal may be what’s left of your patrol.” No one could hear the other side of the conversation, but they saw Dakota stiffen. “No, there’s no sign of a third ship. Only the two, and we can’t tell which ships they were. The Castle could be one of them.”
“I’ll have my comms officer keep sending out hails, but so far, no one has answered. If Captain Moore was still in orbit, he would answer.”
“Of course. We’ll send our data to you,” Dakota said a minute later, gesturing to Owen to package and send it.
The bridge crew remained silent; they knew the friendship Dakota had with the Candus Security Captain and they all hoped it wasn’t the Castle out there.
Dakota reached over and pushed the control to send the entire conversation she was having over the ship’s comm system. “Sullivan’s Pride, our scientists agree with your findings. We had three vessels in the patrol, and the metal mass is only large enough for two ships. Have you found any indication in the debris that some of it might be one of our ships?”
“Negative,” Dakota said. “All of our scans of the debris field only indicates readings common to freighters. I don’t see anything which would match Orion patrol vessels. There’s a lot of debris up here, and if we see anything else, we’ll notify you.”
“Candus Corporation thanks you, Sullivan’s Pride.”
“Will you be sending additional vessels? There are survivors,” Dakota said.
“Negative, Sullivan’s Pride. Candus Corporation is closing Candus to all traffic, until we figure out what has happened. Do you have anything in route?”
Dakota wanted to tell Candus Corporation that no other Sullivan Shipping freighters or ships were inbound, but something made her change her mind at the last minute. “Yes, we have several ships in route.”
“I don’t have anything on record,” the man at Candus Corporation said.
“We have two unscheduled patrol vessels in route for this system. They’re coming here as part of a training exercise as escorts for a high-value shipment,” Dakota
lied. The rest of the bridge crew was looking at her, wondering what was going on. There were no other ships on their way to Candus—the Sullivan’s Pride had only stopped here to change direction.
“We ask that you leave at once for your own safety. We will broadcast a quarantine signal for your ships, and any shipping contracts will be fulfilled without delivery. Please have your freighters return their cargo to the nearest Candus Corporation port when you can and we will reimburse Sullivan Shipping for any additional shipping costs.”
Dakota seethed inside. Candus Corporation was writing off the survivors, and there were several hundred people still alive. She had lied about the security patrol, but didn’t let her anger show. Candus Corporation was an important client, and they had the legal right to do what they wanted when it came to one of their planets. In Dakota’s world, human beings came second to corporate policy.
She contacted Candus Security again. “We need to sit down long enough to reconfigure our nav systems and then we’ll jump out. We bounced off a piece of debris and damaged our systems.”
“Roger, Sullivan’s Pride. I’ll make an entry. Do not attempt to land. If you require help with repairing your systems, let us know. Turn your inbound vessels around once they exit FTL.”
“Roger, Candus,” Dakota replied. “Sullivan’s Pride out.”
“Candus Security out.”
“There’s nothing wrong with our nav systems, and we don’t have any ships inbound,” Skip said.
“I know that and you know that, but Candus Corporation doesn’t,” Dakota said. “We have to do something for the survivors. How many can we carry?”
“Not many—maybe twenty or thirty at the max. Even that will stress our environmental systems.”
“What do we have in supplies that we can leave to help them? Even if we just leave medical supplies, we have to do something.”
“We can probably strip out food and medical. What do you want to do?”
“Let’s go get the ones around Candus City and give them the chance to leave with us or stay. We’ll then go to the villages you found and leave supplies.”
“Okay, you’re the boss,” Skip smiled.
“I’m putting it in the log that everyone on the bridge disagreed with my orders to go against our client’s wishes. This is my choice and no one else’s, including Sullivan Shipping.”
Owen didn’t understand why his sister was making a log entry, but apparently the rest of the crew did as they smiled at their captain. They knew Candus Corporation had the right to review the logs of the Sullivan Pride for actions which went against their shipping contract—refusing to respect a closed planet was something that could cause the Sullivan Corporation to lose their contract.
“Land this ship,” Dakota said.
Chapter 19
For the second night in a row, Sergeant Major McCoons couldn’t sleep. He was exhausted from his ordeal, but the events of the past two days kept racing through his mind. As the sun was rising, he finally gave up and went to check up on the lookouts.
“How’s it going?” Michael asked as he joined him.
“Good, for once. I checked in with all of the lookouts and no one has seen or heard anything. It looks like we’re alone,” Sergeant Major McCoons replied.
“Let’s hope someone comes to our rescue today. We need to make plans, in case they don’t, though. Do you think we could get any of the comm systems up and running? Maybe we can contact the Navy.”
“I don’t know,” Sergeant Major McCoons replied. “Tech Sergeant Chen handled all the electronics for my team—I’m just a ground pounder and left the techie stuff to others. I can take a look, but I doubt if I’ll be able to do anything.”
“Ground pounder?”
“My boots are on the ground and my finger on the trigger. It means I’m expected to run here and there, doing what others tell me. I’m not supposed to do anything with my head.”
Michael chuckled. “It seems to me, that you do a lot with your head. I bet you’re better at thinking than you lead everyone to believe. I doubt you could have lasted as long as you have, if you weren’t smart.”
“Maybe,” McCoons grinned. “That still doesn’t mean I know how to get comms back up, though. Chen thought something fried our equipment, since I couldn’t reach my drop ship and our suits wouldn’t work. All the tech went offline right before the spiders attacked.”
“Do you think any of these people could do it?” Michael looked around at the small group starting to cook breakfast.
“Let’s ask. We might get lucky and find a techie in this bunch.”
Sergeant Major McCoons and Michael learned that most of the survivors had grown up on local farms before finding jobs in Candus City, and most had some mechanical experience. A few thought they might know enough about basic comm systems to try to get the spaceport’s comm system back up and running.
“That’s settled, then. I’ll take a group over to the tower later and see what we can do,” McCoons said as he started eating. “We also need to find more supplies—we’re running out.”
“Why not look at cargoes in the ships?” Skylar asked. “Some of them might have food—especially that small luxury liner we saw.”
“Good idea,” Michael replied. “Why don’t we get some people together and look them over?” They decided he and Skylar would take a few people after breakfast to see what they could find while Sergeant Major McCoons went with the electronics people to work on the comms.
Just then, one of the lookouts shouted, “Something’s coming! A ship is coming into the atmosphere above the spaceport!”
McCoons rushed to the window and looked up. “Everyone, find somewhere to hide. I’ll try to figure out what kind of ship it is and let you know if it is safe to come out,” he told everyone.
“I’ll go with you,” Michael said.
“Can I come?” Skylar asked. “I want to meet whoever has come to rescue us.”
“We don’t know that they’re here to rescue us,” the sergeant major warned. “I can’t make out the ship at this distance—it might still be a spider vessel.”
“Or pirates,” Michael added.
“Why would pirates be here?” Skylar asked.
“Think about it: a whole planet ripe for plundering, and there's no one here to stop them. They could strip this whole planet and get away with it.”
“Unless they see us and think we would try to stop them. It would be easier to just blast us from the air,” Sergeant Major McCoons added.
“With a whole planet wide open, they would do something like that?” Skylar asked.
“Yes. It would be easiest to take the cargoes already loaded on those ships and in the spaceport’s warehouses than it would be to fly all over the planet. This would be the perfect place to start.”
“Which is why we came here,” Michael agreed.
They opened the door to the office complex and went downstairs and through the lobby. A high-pitched sound came from outside, and they hurried, wanting a good look at the ship as it landed.
McCoons said, “It sounds like one of ours. Those spider ships didn’t make any noise when they landed.”
“Good guy or pirate?” Michael asked.
“It’s hard to tell at this point—I can’t make out the markings. Skylar, can you go upstairs and tell everyone that it’s not a spider ship? We don’t know if it’s a rescue ship, though, and I don’t want anyone trying to attract its attention.” Skylar agreed and started back through the lobby.
“What are we going to do if it is pirates?” Michael asked. “It’s not like we can fight them off with a sword and spear. They’ll have guns that work.”
“All we can do is hide until they’re gone. They’re probably not expecting anyone to be alive, so if we stay out of their way, they’ll probably leave us alone. Pirates want to take the easiest route and will avoid a fight, if they can.”
“You’re the expert,” Michael said as he watched the ship fly over the spacep
ort.
“I think it’s a freighter or security vessel.”
“How can you tell?”
“I’ve spent years fighting pirates all over the rim, and this thing is too big and clean for a pirate vessel. Besides, I think I recognize its shape, and if it is the ship I think it is, no pirate would want to be in the same system as it. I think we just got rescued,” he said with a huge smile.
“Are you sure you know who it is?”
“Positive. I’ve worked with them many times over the past five years fighting pirates. I think this is a new version of the Sullivan Security vessel, Sullivan’s Pride.” Just then, McCoons spotted the Sullivan Security logo on the side of the newly-arrived ship.
