by Randy Dyess
“I’ll get the others,” Michael grinned as he turned and sprinted back.
It only took a few minutes for the ship to finish its landing procedure, and by then, the entire group was crowded around the small door leading to the landing pads. Michael had told them what Sergeant Major McCoons had said about the vessel, and everyone wanted to be the first to get to their rescuers.
The Sullivan’s Pride shut down, stopping the ear-splitting scream coming from its engines. After the dust cleared, the survivors watched a ramp lower out of the main hatch. Everyone held their breath as people exited the ship and walked down the ramp.
“I’m Captain Dakota Sullivan, and this is the Sullivan’s Pride. We’re here to offer whatever help you may need,” she shouted as she left her ship.
Everyone clapped, knowing they were safe. “Captain Sullivan,” Sergeant Major McCoons said.
“Sergeant, it’s been a few years, hasn’t it? Or should I call you Sergeant Major? I heard you got promoted after Pirate’s Bay.”
“Yes, ma’am. I thought I recognized the Sullivan’s Pride. She’s changed a little—looks meaner.”
“New version with bigger teeth,” Dakota smiled. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on here?”
“It’s a long story. We were doing a space jump drill when everything went down the toilet. To make a long story short, the entire city was raided by three-meter tall spiders. They took everyone they could catch.”
“Spiders?” Owen asked, not believing what he’d heard.
“Yep, big ones. They came Monday morning. This small group includes the only people we have found in the last few days. The spiders attacked, wiped out our electronics, landed, and took everyone away.”
“Is anyone here hurt?”
“No, ma’am. We’re dirty and little hungry, but we have no injuries.”
“Is this all you have? There are no others?”
“Not that we could find. The whole city is deserted. I don’t have any electronics, so I don’t know if anyone else is left on the planet.”
“Owen,” Dakota said, “tell the cook to fire up a big meal. Have everyone clear the showers and start finding clean clothes.”
“Aye, Captain,” Owen replied before running back up the ramp.
“Why don’t you all come aboard and clean up and eat before we get into this?” Dakota said to the group. Turning to Sergeant Major McCoons, she asked, “Are we safe for now, or do we need to go into orbit?”
“We should be safer on the ground than in orbit, if those things come back. I would keep a lookout for pirates, though.”
“Understood. I’ll set condition two and fire up weapons. Go get clean and we’ll talk in the mess hall.”
******
The sergeant major, Michael, and especially Skylar felt like new people after taking hot showers and putting on clean clothes. In the mess hall, the cooks had created a large, delicious meal, and all the Candus survivors had stuffed themselves. Dakota and the rest of the Sullivan’s Pride crew had stayed out of their way, giving them the space they needed to become human again after the ordeal they went through.
“Tell me what happened,” Dakota said. For the next hour, they related what it had been like to go through the spider raid. They told her and Owen about the initial attack, watching the spiders take others, and the attack at the park and how they spent the night on the island. Michael related what he had found out about the spiders’ fear of water and how they were attracted to movement and sound. Dakota and Owen told the group about the spider fleet and the destroyed freighters. They also told Sergeant Major McCoons about the destruction of his jump ship and the Candus Security vessels.
“They took all the livestock, too.” Owen said. “Millions of head of sheep and cattle vanished.”
“As far as we could tell from the farms and ranches we passed. I can’t even begin to think about the number of spiders it would have taken to do something like this in less than two days. There must have been almost a billion of them in the city alone,” McCoons said.
“Those ships we saw in orbit make sense, now,” Owen said. “They were large enough to hold all the captives.”
“You said they were as big as cities?” the sergeant major asked.
“Yes, and there were a lot of them. Based on what you told us, I think that fleet could hold all the people and animals from an entire planet. I’ll send a message to Cheyenne and ask her people to confirm,” Owen added.
“Why is that important?” Skylar asked.
“Because, if the fleet was designed to hold billions of captive life forms, it was a harvest fleet. They harvested Candus,” Owen said. “What they are going to do with the people they took, I can only guess, and my guess is not pretty.”
The group sat in silence as they thought about what Owen had just said. Before Monday, each of them had thought mankind was alone in the galaxy. Now they not only knew they were not alone, but also that there was at least one other species who built ships to raid worlds for food. Thousands of years had passed since humans had to worry about being eaten. A primordial shiver went up everyone’s spine.
*****
“Are you sure about this?” Dakota asked the small group in front of her. She had talked to the group about what they had discovered during their scan of the planet. Each of the small group in front of her had decided they wanted to stay on Candus, for there was nowhere else they could go. Candus had already been raided, so most thought it was doubtful that the spiders would come back.
McCoons, Michael, and Skylar had decided they didn’t want to stay. He needed to get to the nearest military base and report in, and Michael and Skylar would go to Sullivan Shipping’s headquarters on Pegasus Prime and try their luck there. Others asked Dakota if she could drop them off on another Candus Corporation planet in the sector, because they thought they could get their jobs back.
“What about pirates?” the sergeant major asked.
“If any come, we figure they’ll concentrate on the city. If you would take us to one of those small villages you told us about, we should be fine,” one of the survivors said. There must have been millions of farms on Candus with no one working them, anymore, and they knew they wouldn’t be able to start over anywhere else. An abandoned planet with tens of thousands of empty farms would provide a better life than anywhere else in the galaxy.
“Are you sure that’s what they wanted?” Dakota asked Owen when he told her of their desire to stay on Candus.
“I’m sure. Even if Candus Security comes here, they won’t mind. They would be just making use of existing infrastructure, after all.”
“What if they don’t come here or allow anyone else to land?”
“The survivors will be able to live out their lives in peace, then. The planet’s still fine; I’m sure that, once this all blows over, Candus will open it up again. This way, these people have their pick of places and can stock up their farms with equipment from all over the planet. They’ll probably even be able to harvest the crops that are already planted.”
“They’ll be cut off, though.”
“I doubt it. You know better than I do that some enterprising miner with an empty ship will ship their food to another planet. Five years from now, a new food trading company will be flying all over this sector.”
Dakota finally agreed to the survivors’ request and had the Sullivan’s Pride make a sweep of the planet to find the best location for them. If it was far enough out of the way, neither pirates nor spiders would bother them.
Chapter 20
"I hope they’ll be okay," Owen said.
"They should be," Dakota replied. "Unfortunately, life on a corporate planet has never been easy for anyone. They'll probably be better off for a few years without Candus Corp looking over their shoulders."
"Maybe, but what will they do about supplies or medicine?"
"They should have everything they need. Remember, the survivors told us the attackers didn't destroy everything - they
just took the people. There's a whole planet for them to get their supplies from."
"A whole planet that will draw pirates and salvagers once they find out about it."
"Probably, but we resettled them a long way away from Candus City. They should have years before the city is picked over and scavengers start on the rest of the planet. Hopefully, Candus Corporation will come back to reclaim the planet and provide protection again."
"You may be right, but which one would be better for them - pirates or Candus Corporation?"
Dakota let out a small snort and grinned as she turned back to her navigation screen. "Where do you think we should take the others?" she asked while looking at a map of Candus Corporation planets. A few of the survivors didn't want to be left on Candus. They didn’t think Candus Corporation would be back soon enough to rescue anyone left on the planet. All of the survivors had seen enough tragedy during the recent spider attack and didn’t want to be left on the planet waiting for Candus Corporation to come back and suffer through additional attacks from pirates or scavengers. Dakota had promised she would find another Candus planet which might be safe enough for them to resettle on. The small group believed that being placed on another Candus owned planet would be their best bet to find new jobs and restart their lives again. There would be very little chance of finding a good job if they went to another corporation's planet and no chance if they went to core world.
"Captain, incoming priority message," Skip called out. "It's a code red."
"Thanks, Skip. Send it to my station," Dakota replied.
"What would be important enough to send as a code red?" Owen asked.
"I don’t know. I wonder if they are sending us a message about our actions on Candus and how unhappy Candus Corporation is?”
“Maybe,” Owen replied. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Dakota opened the message Skip had just forwarded to her and begin to read. "Well, it's not about Candus," Owen said as he read the message over Dakota’s shoulder. "I'll go tell the survivors that they'll have to stay with us a little longer."
Dakota nodded her head and looked at Skip, "Skip, we have a code red contract from Peterson Mining to check out mining station FMC-587456 and mining asteroid PMC-234579. Peterson has lost contact with both locations and doesn’t have any ships in position to see what is going on. Both locations are in the Phidias system and I’m sending you the coordinates contained in the message. Plot a course to Phidias and set code red condition throughout the ship. Let’s check out the planet first and then make our way to the asteroid before going to the station.”
“Aye, Captain,” Skip replied as he typed in the coordinates and started to plot their FTL tunnel.
Dakota reached down and open the ship’s comm system, “All hands, we are now in a code red condition. We’ve been asked to check out two Peterson Mining properties no longer transmitting or responding. By now, you all know what happened on Candus and this may be the same thing. I want each division to constantly update their status board throughout this flight. Anyone not on duty will refrain from non-essential activities. I’m also going to authorize engineering to exceed 130% on the drives. We should be there in –,” she stopped and looked at Skip.
“Ten hours,” Skip responded.
“In ten hours,” Dakota finished. “Department heads, make sure to rotate out your staff during the next eight hours and make sure everyone has a chance to rest. Everyone will be back at their stations in eight hours and we’ll go to battle stations ten minutes before we exit our tunnel.”
None of the bridge crew said anything, they just looked back at their screens and started running ship-wide diagnostics. Each of them wanted all systems checked and ready before they let the second shift take over. They knew their captain would want each of them rested and ready for whatever may be waiting for them when they exited the FTL tunnel.
*****
“Phidias in five minutes, Captain,” Skip called out. The whole ship was on edge waiting for what they would find in the Phidias system. Most hoped it was a simple communications problem, but deep down they knew better. Peterson Mining wouldn’t have paid the emergency patrol fees if they thought it was a simple problem. They would have just wanted until they had a ship in position to send to investigate.
“All stations report,” Dakota commanded. She watched her status board turn from all red to green as each department on the Sullivan’s Pride reported their status.
“All stations report green,” Owen announced.
“Give me ship wide comms,” Dakota commanded.
“Aye, Captain. Ship’s comm is ready.”
“Ok, people,” Dakota said into her microphone. “We’ve been through this once, you know what to do. I don’t know what we’ll find here, but we can handle anything they throw at us. Everyone, hang on. This might be interesting.”
“Exit in five, four, three, two, one,” the AI announced as the ship dropped out of FTL.
It was normal for all systems to go offline for a few seconds after exiting due to the physics of the FTL tunnel. The lights flickered and the warning klaxon sounded as the bubble collapsed. “Battle stations!” Dakota shouted. “All stations report.”
“Weapons green.”
“Communications green.”
“Navigation green.”
“Sensors green, and reporting all clear.”
One by one, the rest of the ship’s departments reported their status. Dakota had her AI count off the seconds until all departments reported green. In the past, she had made a contest of trying to break out of their FTL bubble and be ready for combat, but today their lives could depend on a speedy re-entry.
“Ship’s all green, Captain” Skip reported.
For the first eighty seconds, nothing happened. As the last layer of the FTL bubble stripped away, the lights flickered and the collision horn sounded. “Go to manual! Evasive maneuver Delta One!” Dakota shouted. “All stations to report!”
“Damn,” Owen said. “Looks like we’re too late.”
The Sullivan’s Pride bounced around for a few seconds as the pilot rapidly changed course to avoid the objects in their path. “Debris everywhere, Captain. Just like the last time.”
“Let’s hope they left the planet alone this time,” Owen responded. Phidias was a lone rocky planet with only a single mining outpost on it. It didn’t support enough people to make a raid worthwhile.
“Okay, you know the drill,” Dakota said. “Turn on everything. I want all weapons hot and ready at all times. Start active scanning and send me any data you come up with. Find out if anything that looks like a rock is still in orbit and call out if you see any.”
“Aye, Captain,” everyone shouted.
“Skip, lay in a course for the station. I don’t want to stick around here any longer than it is necessary to scan the mining complex on this planet. From the way my board looks, there’s no power coming from the planet. Nothing could survive on that planet for very long without power.”
“Aye, Captain. Laying in course and waiting for your order,” Skip responded with a grim look on his face.
*****
Twenty hours later, the entire crew of the Sullivan’s Pride were terrified. It looked like the spiders had attacked everyone at the edge of human space. Candus was empty. Phidias’ mining complex empty. The mining asteroid they had been sent to investigate was spinning in space with no activity around it. There should have been small, robotic, mining ships buzzing around the asteroid taking away the mined rubble. But there was nothing around the asteroid. No power coming out of the mines and no one answered their hails. The main mining complex on the asteroid looked like it had been melted; just like the Candus Security patrol vessels. No one from the Sullivan’s Pride could do down to the station since the docking port was too small for the Sullivan’s Pride and none of the crew had suits which could be used to maneuver to the complex on the asteroid. All they could do was call out on all channels for two hours before giving
up and heading towards the mining station. Dakota made a mental note to ask Cheyenne to design emergency suits they could use to navigate around in space. She dreaded leaving someone alive on the station because she cot have the ability for one of her crew go down and double check. She hated leaving the asteroid, but knew they had to check out the mining station before heading back home and making their report.
"Let's hope the situation is better here," Dakota said as the AI announced that the Sullivan’s Pride was about to exit the FTL tunnel near Peterson’s mining station.
“Let’s hope, but I’m not counting on it,” Owen responded. “We’ve struck out on the last three stops. We need to break this streak.”
