CHAPTER 6 – DEATH IS COMING
06:11 (Kadosh Universal Time)
Monday, June 4, 2328 (Earth Calendar)
Drazt cruiser KORKAN, in orbit around HD85512b
Star system HD85512, 37 light-years from Earth
Shipmaster Vorn Daran, captain of the Drazt Navy cruiser KORKAN, went to the sensors station as soon as he stepped on the bridge of his cruiser and glanced at the data display sphere before asking a question to his sensors officer.
‘’Anything to report for the last seven dozants?’’
‘’No, Shipmaster: it was a quiet night. The three cargo ships we are escorting are now half done carrying their supplies and materiel down to the various construction sites on the planet.’’
‘’Good!’’ simply replied Daran before going to his command chair and sitting in it. He then used two of his four arms to call out on the display screens attached to his chair a number of reports covering the last night. He was still reading those reports when his sensors officer spoke up, her voice showing some surprise.
‘’Shipmaster, a large object has just appeared at the edge of the system. We had no prior sign of it on our long-range detectors.’’
‘’Show it on our holographic screens!’’ ordered at once Daran, who then stared at the small blue symbol that appeared on the bridge’s screens. However, at the distance the newcomer was, it showed only as a colored dot.
‘’How big is it, Gorana?’’
‘’It is hard to say at that distance, Shipmaster, but it is an elongated object and is about the size of a medium asteroid, thus is much bigger than our cruiser.’’
Daran mulled over that information for a moment, then took a decision and spoke to his communications officer.
‘’Kronat, contact the convoy master and advise him that our ship is going to move to the eastern edge of the system in order to investigate a sighting.’’
‘’Understood, Shipmaster!’’
‘’Pilot, head at top acceleration towards that unknown object. To all crew: assume yellow alert stations!’’
A modulated alarm then started resonating around the 200 meter-diameter, saucer-shaped cruiser, making dozens of massive Drazts run to their duty stations. The ‘yellow alert’ was only one notch below the ‘red alert’ announcing imminent combat, thus was promptly followed by the crewmembers of the KORKAN. Soon, the heavy disintegrator cannons of the ship reported to the bridge as being manned and ready. Compared to six years ago, the present armament was much heavier than on previous classes of Drazt cruisers, a lesson bitterly learned when a single Human ship had slaughtered a whole fleet of Drazt cruisers in what had been more like a massacre than a true battle. Thankfully, the Humans from the Solar System and the Drazts were now on friendly terms, thanks to the restraint and diplomacy displayed by Captain Tina Forster, of the mighty Human ship KOSTROMA.
As his cruiser sped towards the newcomer, Vorn Daran reminded himself mentally about the importance of his present mission. Kadosh, the home world of the Drazts in what the Humans called the Ross 128 System, had been severely overcrowded for centuries already and its resources had also been significantly depleted by over-exploitation. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the Drazts had failed to develop an interstellar drive despite millenniums of effort and research, there had been no way to relieve the pressure on Kadosh by moving its surplus population to other star systems. Then, ironically, the same Humans who had inflicted a stinging defeat to the Drazt Navy had then come to the rescue by literally giving for free to the Drazts the secret of their own interstellar drive system. Many Drazt leaders had then pegged the Humans as being utterly naïve or even dumb, but other Drazts, Daran included, had recognized that apparently foolish gesture for the altruistic and compassionate act it really was. Now able to quickly get to the other nearby star systems and to explore them, the Drazt government had immediately started a large-scale exploration and colonization program in order to find new home worlds for the race. To date, two star systems, each containing one habitable planet, had been found: one some six light-years from Kadosh and known as ‘Markan Prime’ and the other about 26 light-years away, recently named ‘Vorkonia’. Daran’s cruiser was presently escorting and covering a convoy meant to resupply the ground crew busy preparing the second habitable planet for colonization and settlement, a program that was vital for the long-term survival of the Drazt race. If all went well, the first colonists from Kadosh would be able to start moving to this new world in a bit less than one year.
Despite accelerating at maximum rate, traveling to the edge of the system was going to take many hours, so Daran patiently sat in his command chair, checking from time to time the data given by his ship’s sensors. After some three dozants, or four human hours, his sensors officer spoke up, some surprise detectable in her tone of voice.
‘’Shipmaster, I have now some new data on that object: it is apparently a large asteroid but has a strange shape, being elongated rather than spherical. Its average diameter alone is over ten times larger than our ship and its length is about twelve times bigger than its diameter. It is a truly massive object.’’
‘’Can you make up of what kind of material it is made of, Gorana?’’
‘’Our spectrometers read its surface as being made of solid nickel-iron, the same as in M-Class asteroids. There is however something rather unusual about that object, Shipmaster: it is stable along its three axis, contrary to about all the other asteroids of similar shape we surveyed in the past. Right now, it is simply coasting along a straight trajectory heading directly towards Vorkonia.’’
Daran stiffened at once at the mention of Vorkonia, which was the name that had been given to the planet they were presently preparing for future occupation. If that large metallic asteroid ever collided with Vorkonia, then it could well destroy outright the planet, or at the least cause massive damage to it. He thus couldn’t allow that to happen and had to assess properly its trajectory and degree of threat it posed.
‘’Start extrapolating its precise trajectory, Gorana. I want to know if there are any possibilities of it colliding with Vorkonia or of flying too close to it.’’
‘’One moment please, Shipmaster.’’
Daran, wanting to get an accurate answer, thus let his sensors officer time to do some calculations. Gorana’s answer only made him more apprehensive.
‘’Shipmaster, my calculations show that this asteroid, if not somehow moved from its present trajectory, will end up passing extremely close to Vorkonia. With its present speed, it could in fact end up being either captured by Vorkonia into an elliptical orbit or even smash directly into it.’’
‘’Something that we can’t allow to happen. We will have to nudge it progressively away from Vorkonia by pushing against it with our cruiser, or will have to destroy it with our missiles.’’
‘’Then, in view of its apparent mass, we will have to start pushing this asteroid as quickly as we can, Shipmaster. I must warn however that such a maneuver will highly stress the hull of our cruiser: we even risk to see our hull buckle and crack open under that stress.’’
‘’You are right, Gorana, but we have to act in order to protect our new world.’’ said Daran before switching on his microphone to ship-wide mode. ‘’Attention, all crew! We will have to perform a dangerous space maneuver in about three dozants. I want all the crewmembers to don in turn their spacesuits, with half of the crew suiting up, followed by the other half once ready. Keep your visors open and do not use your suit’s reserves of air until I order you to seal your suits. Execute!’’
While half of his bridge crew hurried to get their spacesuits out of a nearby locker room and put them on, Daran waited his turn while taking over Gorana’s station as she suited up. As soon as Gorana had her spacesuit on, Daran went to the locker room and got his own suit, putting it on in a few minutes, then returning to his command chair.
Nervousness grew progressively on the bridge as the cruiser got closer and closer from the asteroid. The latter was truly massive and its mass had to be in the billions of tons range. Pushing such a large object was definitely going to be a tough and risky maneuver. As the KORKAN did its final approach to the asteroid, Gorana suddenly stiffened and spoke up in alarm.
‘’SHIPMASTER, I CAN NOW SEE WHAT APPEARS TO BE A NUMBER OF ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS AT THE SURFACE OF THIS ASTEROID. THEY LOOK LIKE SOME KIND OF SENSOR DOMES.’’
‘’A STARSHIP?!’’ roared Daran, both surprised and furious. He however took little time to reassess the threat presented by this ‘asteroid’ and shouted into his ship-wide intercom while punching with one fist a large button covered by a protective plate, starting a sinister blare around the ship.
‘’RED ALERT! ALL CREWMEMBERS TO COMBAT STATIONS! GUNNERS, BE READY TO FIRE AT THE ASTEROID WE ARE APPROACHING.’’
Next, he looked at his sensors officer, who was now frantically punching commands on her station.
‘’Tell me more about this thing, Gorana, quickly!’’
‘’Most of this thing appears to be a genuine M-Class asteroid, Shipmaster, but someone seems to have adapted it to make a spaceship out of it. I can now detect a number of what appear to be big access doors along its surface, as if it has been turned into some kind of giant spacecraft carrier. As for it being either a warship or simply a transport ship, I can’t say right now.’’
‘’I will assume the worst and peg it as being an invading warship. Communications officer, send at once the following warning to the convoy master and to the ground construction crew on Vorkonia: unidentified alien warship built from a M-Class asteroid is on a possible collision course with Vorkonia. Once that message will be sent and acknowledged, prepare a courier drone craft containing the same message, plus our latest sensors data, and send it to Kadosh.’’
‘’Understood, Shipmaster!’’
Daran felt a bit better once his last order was given. The use of interstellar drone courier craft was another thing copied from Human technology. In fact, such a drone courier had cost the now defunct Drazt Empire dearly, when a Human exploration ship had been found and destroyed by a Drazt experimental frigate in the Markan Prime System. Unbeknown to that Drazt frigate, the Human exploration ship had time to launch an automated courier drone just before its destruction, with that drone then jumping to the Solar System and alerting the Humans to the attack on their ship. The Human response that had followed had very nearly resulted in the total destruction of Kadosh, with only the deep sense of humanity of the Human fleet commander pushing her into showing a lot of restraint into her use of force against the Drazts. However, that restraint had not extended to the Drazt emperor or to his minions, who had then been vaporized by bombardment fire from the KOSTROMA, the flagship of the Human squadron.
A few minutes later, his communications officer announced to Daran that the convoy and ground construction crew had been warned and that the courier drone had departed for Kadosh, bringing some relief to him. However, that relief was quickly replaced by alarm when Gorana shouted a warning from her sensors station.
‘’THE ASTEROID JUST CHANGED TRAJECTORY! IT IS NOW HEADING DIRECTLY TOWARDS US AND ACCELERATING!’’
His worst fears now realized, Daran shouted an order at once.
‘’ALL GUNNERS: FIRE AT WILL ON THE INCOMING ASTEROID! CONCENTRATE YOUR FIRE ON A SINGLE POINT ON THE LOWER FORWARD SECTION OF THAT ASTEROID!’’
Less than six seconds later, the twelve heavy disintegrator cannons of the cruiser opened fire simultaneously, with their pale blue beams of energy hitting the surface of the ‘asteroid’ and starting to vaporize its surface crust. However, their target took no time to reply, firing a multitude of impossibly thick purple laser beams, each with a power of tens of gigawatts of energy. Struck hard by the laser beams, the KORKAN’s hull was pierced in multiple spots, creating explosive decompressions in many of the ship’s compartments. Thankfully, the fact that the cruiser’s crewmembers were wearing their spacesuits and had closed their visors the moment that the battle had started saved many live. Still, quite a few Drazts were sucked out into the vacuum of Space, often getting shredded by the jagged edges of the holes created in the hull. Then, one laser beam hit the main generator room of the cruiser, abruptly cutting main power to the propulsion, armament and sensors and leaving the ship’s interior in semi-darkness, with only the emergency batteries providing electricity to the life support systems and to emergency lights. Shortly after that, the laser fire from the asteroid ceased, leaving a hyperventilating Vorn Daran in his dimly lit bridge and with most work stations now dead. Luckily, the bridge itself had not received a direct hit, so its crew was still fully intact.
‘’DAMAGE ASSESSMENT! CAN WE GET PROPULSION AND ARMAMENT BACK ON LINE?’’
‘’NEGATIVE, SHIPMASTER!’’ replied his second-in-command. ‘’OUR MAIN FUSION GENERATORS HAVE BEEN UTTERLY DESTROYED. WE ONLY HAVE OUR EMERGENCY BATTERIES AND ONE SECONDARY GENERATOR INTACT, ENOUGH TO POWER THE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS BUT NOT MUCH ELSE.’’
Before Daran could reply to that, a number of metallic noises coming from the cruiser’s outer hull surface made him look up.
‘’What the…’’
Gorana, who was still able to use a few of the cameras fixed to the outer hull, then gave a warning.
‘’A NUMBER OF SPHERES HAVE JUST ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO OUR HULL!’’
‘’BOARDERS!’’ exclaimed at once Daran. ‘’TO ALL THE CREW: ARM YOURSELVES AND BE READY TO REPEL BOARDERS!’’
Following his own directive, Daran got out of his command chair and took out his disintegrator pistol in one hand and his battle knife in another hand, ready to fight if need be. That need materialized a mere few seconds later, when five nightmarish creatures appeared out of nowhere on the bridge. Each of them stood even taller than an average Drazt, who normally stood at about 210 centimeters, and had four long arms ending in six fingers armed with sharp claws. The creatures stood on four legs and their main body ended in a large head with huge jaws on top and in a long, whip-like spiked tail. One of the creatures, having appeared just next to a work station, opened its jaws wide, revealing a set of long canines, and threw itself on the unfortunate Drazt manning that work station, biting his left shoulder and ripping it off, making the Drazt scream with pain. Horrified, Daran reacted more by reflex than by conscious thought and fired his disintegrator pistol at the monstrous alien. To his satisfaction, the energy beam from his sidearm vaporized the head of the creature, whose body then dropped on the deck, convulsing. However, the four other aliens now on the bridge went as well on the attack, using their claws and their teeth to rip apart Drazt crewmembers in a savage, terrifying fashion. Daran barely had the time to reposition himself and shoot his pistol a second time in order to defend Gorana, who had no weapons. A second alien fell victim of his fire, while two other Drazts who had pistols also each killed one alien. The last remaining alien unfortunately had the time to literally rip the head off of one Drazt before being killed in disintegrator crossfire. Nearly shocked by the horrors he had just witnessed, Daran contemplated for a moment the bodies and pools of blood, both Drazt and alien, on the deck. While the Drazt blood was dark red, as expected, the alien blood was copper green. Shaking himself out of his trance, Daran shouted at his communications officer, who had survived intact the brief fight.
‘’KRONAT, SEND QUICKLY A WARNING TO THE CONVOY MASTER: ALIENS BOARDED OUR SHIP AND MATERIALIZED OUT OF NOWHERE BEFORE ATTACKING US. IF YOU CAN, TAKE A SHORT FILM OF THOSE DEAD ALIENS AND ADD IT TO YOUR TEXT MESSAGE. SEND ALSO A SECOND COURIER DRONE TO KADOSH WITH A COPY OF YOUR TRANSMISSION AND THE LAST MOMENTS OF DATA WE COLLECTED. MAKE IT QUICK BEFORE MORE OF THOSE MONSTERS SHOW UP.’’
‘’ON IT, SHIPMASTER!’’ replied the frightened Drazt, who then sat back at his station and started punching buttons. As that officer worked frantically, Daran went to check on his five crewmembers attacked by the aliens. Unfortunately, all five of them were dead, having suffered massive blood loss after parts of their bodies had been ripped out by the teeth and claws of their attackers. Daran had to close his eyes for a moment then, sadness filling him. Next, he went to the body of the nearest dead alien and examined it while staying at a safe distance: he had no way to know how tough those aliens were or if they were truly dead instead of faking it. The alien’s accoutrement was limited to a sort of sleeveless carrying vest supporting a number of pockets and instruments. Strangely enough, he saw no technological weapon with the alien. However, there was no denying that the jaws and claws of the creatures were terrifying weapons by themselves in a close-combat fight. Daran then reminded himself that there probably were many more aliens on his ship right now, busy killing his crewmembers. Going to a locked storage bin near his command chair, he unlocked it with a key that he always carried on him and opened it, exposing a small arsenal of disintegrator rifles and pistols.
‘’ARM YOURSELVES, PEOPLE! WE HAVE A SHIP TO RETAKE.’’
Grabbing a pistol from the bin before letting his crewmembers take weapons, Daran went to his communications officer’s station and put the pistol down on it, within reach of his officer.
‘’Here, Kronat. Make sure that you stay armed at all time from now on. Have you finished sending your messages and video data?’’
‘’Sending our courier drone on the way to Kadosh…now!’’
‘’Excellent! You will stay here, along with two other officers who will protect you while you continue manning your communications station. In the meantime, I will lead the others and retake our ship from these monsters.’’
‘’Understood, Shipmaster. By the way, did you notice that those aliens did not wear spacesuits, despite boarding a ship that had obviously depressurized?’’
Daran was struck at once by that remark and swore for not having noticed that himself.
‘’Shit, you are right! Send that detail to the convoy master and tell him as well that his ships should leave this system as quickly as possible. Right now, I don’t know what that alien asteroid has done since we last had the use of our external sensors.’’
Going to the armored door that was the main entrance of the bridge, Daran looked around at his seven surviving bridge officers while holding his pistol high.
‘’We will split in two groups of four once in the hallway beyond this door, then will proceed in methodically clearing each deck of our ship. Have your weapons ready to fire.’’
His heart beating fast, Daran then punched the button of the door, unlocking it and making it open wide. He didn’t have time to take a single step before a savage crowd of gnarling aliens rushed inside, literally trampling him and his officers before ripping them apart and starting to eat them alive. The poor Kronat had only time to shoot one of the attackers before himself being overwhelmed and killed.
On the heavy cargo ship ARKAD, Convoy Master Lem Corva had been shocked on receiving the warnings transmitted by the KORKAN. However, the latest video received from the cruiser, which showed the bodies of monstruous aliens, had left no doubt about the seriousness and urgency of those warnings. With his three cargo ships being unarmed, he had no means to resist those aliens if they fought their way past the KORKAN. One announcement from his sensors officer then changed that hypothetical into a reality.
‘’Convoy Master, that asteroid is now heading towards Vorkonia at high speed. It should be here in about four dozants.’’
‘’What about the KORKAN?’’
‘’It is no longer visible on my sensors, sir.’’
That information brought a difficult dilemma to Corva: there were presently some 890 Drazts on the planet’s surface, working hard to build a colony for the future immigrants from Kadosh. If he left orbit now and withdrew his ships back to Kadosh, those workers would then be at the mercy of the aliens who had attacked and presumably destroyed the KORKAN. On the other hand, it would take more time than he had to send shuttles down and evacuate the members of the ground construction crew. As had happened often in history, he then decided on an intermediate line of action and looked at his two other shipmasters, who had been on a video link with him and were visible on the small display screens attached to his command chair.
‘’It seems that the KORKAN has been destroyed and that this alien ship is now heading our way and will be here in about four dozants. As you may have realized, we have no way to oppose that alien ship. Thus here is what we will do now. Kodric, you will immediately stop the sending down of your passengers and cargo and will have your ship jump back right away to Kadosh to spread the alarm there. Vik, your ship will stay in orbit for the next three dozants and will receive the shuttles which are already on the ground on Vorkonia. I will call next the master engineer in charge of the construction sites and will order him to evacuate as many of his people via those shuttles as quickly as possible. At the end of those three dozants, the PAVNONIA will then jump back to Kadosh, even if there are still some people left on the planet. As for my own ARKAD, I will start sending down all the shuttle and minor craft I have presently aboard, so that they could pick up as many people as possible. My ship will be the last to leave orbit and I will stay as long as possible, in order to save our people on the planet. Now, act quickly and don’t waste any time. If some of our people on the ground insist on taking the time to pack their things first, then warn them that they will be left behind if they don’t obey your orders. Do you have any questions before I close this link?’’
While quite shaken by the present turn of events, his two shipmasters nodded their heads and acknowledged his orders before cutting their video link. Staring for a moment at his now dark display screens, Lem Corva looked up sadly at the section of the bridge’s holographic screens where the KORKAN had been seen last: 138 good Drazt crewmembers had been aboard the cruiser.
12:47 (Kadosh Universal Time)
Bridge of the heavy interstellar cargo ship ARKAD
In low orbit around HD85512b
‘’SHIPMASTER, OUR LAST SHUTTLE HAS NOW ENTERED OUR HANGARS.’’
‘’About fucking time!’’ grumbled Lem Corva, who had kept an eye on his holographic displays, which showed the huge alien ship about to enter orbit, now way too close to Corva’s taste.
‘’PILOT, GET US OUT OF HERE, FAST! HEAD BACK TO KADOSH!’’
‘’AYE, CONVOY MASTER!’’
The pilot, having already calculated and set his interstellar jump well in advance of this moment, then accelerated briefly on the direct heading to Kadosh, then pushed his ‘jump’ button. A brief flash of orange light filled the bridge as the ship went through the artificial wormhole created ahead of it by their Koomak Drive, an invention the Drazts could thank the Koorivars for, another race that was allied with the Humans from the Solar System and which had accepted to share their invention with the Drazts. Lem Corva felt an immense weight lift off his shoulders when he saw the blue, brown and green orb of Kadosh on his forward screens.
‘’Thank the stars! We made it.’’
A sudden shout from one of his sensors operators then froze his blood into his veins.
‘’SHIPMASTER, THE ALIEN SHIP IS RIGHT BEHIND US! IT FOLLOWED US TO KADOSH!’’
‘’NO! NOOO!’’ could only cry in utter despair the convoy master.