Having been called in for a briefing by Pieter, his six crewmembers and ten androids sat around the dining table of the crew lounge and looked at the large wall holographic screen used both for entertainment and for information sharing, with Pieter then starting to speak.
‘’Well, my friends, we have just concluded the preliminary phase of our sensors scan of this system. The good news is that we found no trace of the Space Predators.
We are apparently alone in this system. In the process, we found a total of seven planets and eight moons, which is not too surprising in view of the unusual number of stars in ADS 9731. Despite listening for over half a day in passive mode, we detected no electronic emissions of any kind coming from within the system. I believe that it is now time for us to take a closer look at the various components of ADS 9731 and to do some active mode sensors reconnaissance in order to confirm our findings to date. This system is quite a complicated one, with two separate pairs of stars each orbited by another star and with those two trios in turn orbiting each other in a 20,000 year-period orbit. The most interesting star for us at this time is the G4-Class yellow dwarf orbiting around a pair of F-Class white sub-dwarves. We have found four planets around that G4 star, which we will call star ‘B’, while the two F-Class stars, stars ‘Aa’ and ‘Ab’, apparently have no planets. I intend for us to go explore that G4 star and its planets first, to see if there are any traces of the passage of the GOLDEN NUGGET. Once that is done, we will go survey the other trio of stars in the system.’
‘’Are any of those four planets within the habitable zone of star ‘B’, sir?’ asked Kurt Vogel, making Pieter nod his head.
‘’The second planet around star ‘B’, planet Bc, may be just inside the inner edge of the G4’s habitable zone. It also has an approximate mass some 1.15 times that of Earth, so it certainly could be a planet of interest for us...and for the GOLDEN
NUGGET.’
‘’Talking of the GOLDEN NUGGET, wouldn’t it have sent back either a courier drone or an emergency interstellar beacon if it had encountered a major problem?’
asked Legionnaire Tanya Orlova.
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‘’It should have done so.’ answered Pieter. ‘’However, it didn’t, either because they were not able to send one out or because its captain decided not to send one.
Captain Stanhouse had the reputation of an ‘I don’t give a shit’ type of man who was driven by the dream of getting rich...quickly. He thus may have decided to stay silent in order to avoid attracting possible competitors to whatever he may have found on his trip.’
‘’A rather short-sighted view if it results in the loss of his ship and crew.’ added Legionnaire Jeffrey Brown, making Pieter nod his head once.
‘’Indeed! We will thus take the time to thoroughly search this star system, in order to make sure that the GOLDEN NUGGET is not here.’
‘’Maybe we should send out a call, to make the GOLDEN NUGGET know that we are searching for it?’ suggested Felix Delgado, Pieter’s weapons officer.
‘’We will certainly do that once we are closer to star ‘B’, Felix. Any other questions or comments? No? Then we will do a micro-jump to within two AUs5 of star
‘B’, then will go survey its four planets from up close. Lisa, Felix and Besa, you will join me on the bridge for our micro-jump and initial close-in survey, then Lisa, Felix and Besa will go rest in anticipation of the shift changes later on tonight and tomorrow morning.
Decurion Vogel, have your squad ready, just in case we discover something nasty once near star ‘B’.’
‘’We will be ready, with our spacesuits on, sir.’
‘’Excellent! Let’s get back into our bridge seats, people.’
While the ten androids went to their equipment lockers to don their spacesuits, Pieter led his flight crew back into the bridge sphere, with the engineering crew returning to their control room. Once in his pilot’s seat, Pieter addressed his 29-year-old copilot/navigator, Lisa Wong.
‘’Lisa, calculate a micro-jump to bring us close to the orbit of the outermost planet of star ‘B’. Jump when ready.’
‘’Calculating a micro-jump to planet ‘Be’... Micro-jump calculated... Jumping now!’
On her pushing the button activating their Koomak Drive generator installed at the bow end of the heavy starfighter, they saw a brief flash of orange light around them, with the 5 AU: Astronomical Unit. Average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Used to state the distance of planets, moons and other astral bodies from the star they are orbiting around.
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view on their spherical holographic display then changing completely, from the black of Deep Space to a view of a red, brown and white gas giant planet. Five moons of varying sizes were visible around the gas giant, all illuminated by the white glare of their mother G4 star. Pieter, like his three flight crewmembers, contemplated for a moment the planet and its moons before speaking.
‘’This planet looks very much like a Saturn without its rings. This planetary system is nearly certainly uninhabitable but it could still hold resources which could interest prospectors like this Captain Stanhouse. Lisa, program six orbital probes and send one each to this planet and its moons, so that we could start mapping and analyzing them in detail. Beza, you may now start to scan in active mode: find out as much as you can about this planet and its moons.’
‘’On it, Pieter!’ replied the 22-year-old ex-Ethiopian refugee.
‘’Lisa, put us into a low polar orbit around planet ‘Be’, so that we can start photographing its surface in both visual and infrared spectrum. Felix, keep an ear out for any electronic emission in this sector.’
Pieter then fell silent, letting his crew do their work quietly but efficiently. Some fourteen minutes later, Beza spoke up, reporting her first finds.
‘’Pieter, I evaluate the mass of this gas giant as being equal to 0.6 times Jupiter’s mass, with a thick outer gas shell made of a mix of hydrogen and helium isotopes, methane and a few rare gases. Surface temperature is 63 degrees Kelvin and there is also quite a strong magnetic field emanating from the planet. It is indeed quite similar to our own Saturn. As for its five moons, they are as cold as their parent planet, with our spectroscopes reading their composition as being mostly methane and water ice, with little to no atmosphere around them. While clearly uninhabitable, this planetary system could still be of interest due to its hydrocarbons deposits and its deuterium isotopes. If Stanhouse visited this system, he most probably took note of all this.’
‘’Agreed! Just this could attract a few buyers at a Space resources auction. We will take the time to thoroughly map and analyze this planet and its moons, then we will move to the next inner planet. Do you hear any electronic emissions to date, Felix?’’
‘’Negative! This whole star system is electronically silent, Pieter.’
‘’Still, keep an eye out for anything that would mark the passage of the GOLDEN
NUGGET around this planet.’
‘’Will do!’
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After some forty minutes, with his ship now in low orbit over planet ‘Be’ and with his probes collecting and sending back data, Pieter sent his three flight crewmembers to go rest and himself changed station, taking charge of the sensors station while two androids, Miri Jintsu and Jeffrey Brown, entered the bridge sphere and respectively took the copilot’s seat and the weapons station. Six hours after that, it was Pieter’s turn to go rest, with Felix Delgado taking over the sensors station and continuing the mapping of the planetary system.
Nine hours after leaving the bridge, Pieter woke up in his tiny cabin and dressed in a light ship flight coverall before going into the lounge in order to have breakfast.
There, he found eight of the androids lying in easy chairs and with earphones on, apparently listening to music with their eyes closed. Letting them listen to their music, Pieter took out of the refrigerator of the lounge a breakfast ration pack of egg omelet and bacon and warmed it up in a small convection oven, then served himself a cup of strong coffee. He was soon joined at the dining table by young Beza, who also chose and warmed up a breakfast ration. As the young African woman started eating her hot porridge with small berry fruits, Pieter asked her a question in a relaxed tone.
‘’So, Beza, what do you think about this system so far?’
‘’That it is pretty much as I expected it to be, considering its stellar composition.
The early astronomers who first collected data about ADS 9731, working with instruments far less sensitive than the present instruments, did the then common mistake of attributing the masses they were calculating for the planets they detected as being from single objects. Furthermore, they could only detect the largest objects, with moons and smaller planets too often completely evading them, especially with very distant star systems, like ADS 9731. As a result, they both overestimated the masses of the stars and planets they detected and missed the majority of the planets we now know exist. A lot of the ‘variable’ stars they studied were actually stable stars which had large companions, like brown dwarves and gas giants, while many of the ‘super-earths’ they detected were planets with multiple moons, something they could not detect but which threw off their mass calculations. As a result, we now know that there are many more planets than they thought at the time, with many of those planets being closer in size to Earth than they calculated. Even if we don’t find this GOLDEN NUGGET during our mission, we will still end up with a mass of very precious astronomical data to bring back. Talking of the GOLDEN NUGGET, since this Captain Stanhouse apparently
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fudged his flight plan or even outright lied about it, would he still be able to legally claim first discovery and ownership of whatever he will find out here?’
‘’It will all depend on to what extent he will end up having lied about his flight plan. The further he deviated from it, the less chances his claims will be recognized. He already violated a few major Space navigation regulations, including not reporting periodically as required by Navy Headquarters, on top of putting many ship crews at risk by forcing this wide search for his ship. He may well end up with nothing, on top of possibly seeing his ship confiscated and his captain’s license revoked.’
‘’Wow! Greed certainly can cost someone heavily, instead of bringing in riches.’
‘’You can say that again, Beza. So, how is your family doing on New Haven?’
‘’They positively love their life there.’ answered Beza while smiling. ‘’My older brother Dawt is now a qualified agronomist and works at the hydroponics gardens of New Hope, our town on New Haven, while my parents are exploiting our small private greenhouse and raising a few dozen chickens, living the way they originally did in Ethiopia but doing so in peace, instead of trying to survive the civil wars of Africa. As for me, being part of this crew fulfills my old dreams about seeing more of the Universe.’
‘’Good for you, Beza!’
‘’Uh, may I ask you a question, Pieter? A personal question?’
‘’Go ahead!’ replied Pieter, who already guessed what she would ask about.
‘’How is family and sexual life with an android? I personally find your wife Jehanne to be very nice to speak with but how is it, emotion-wise, to live with her? I hope that my question will not insult you.’
‘’I don’t mind it at all, Beza. Yes, Jehanne can’t feel true emotions, being an android and not a true human woman, but she displays as much attention, care and concern as a real woman towards me and our little Frida and she is truly devoted to us.
While she can’t have true feelings, her AI programming and her ever-growing life experience with living beings have made her reactions to life situations very similar to those of a living person. She also has the advantage over a Human of not having her thinking or actions clouded by the various prejudices and negative emotions, like jealousy and rage, which afflict too many of us Humans. As for our couple’s sex life, I will give you an advice.’
Pieter then bent forward and lowered his voice to a near whisper.
‘’Try an android one fine night: they are the best sex partners you will ever have.
They care only for your own pleasure, which in turn is what satisfy them. They are also
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tireless and can go on for hours without stop. I once took a bet in bed with Jehanne and ended up totally burned for a good two days, with her coming out of bed still as fresh as a rose.’
‘’Really? I heard stories about many passengers pursuing the attention of androids of the opposite sex but I thought that those stories had been exaggerated.’
‘’Oh, there is nothing exaggerated about that, Beza. We in fact have a new class of passengers on the NOSTROMO which we call ‘Cougars’, mature women who travel on the NOSTROMO simply to satisfy their sexual needs with our androids...male or female.’
‘’What about male passengers?’ asked Beza, making Pieter grin.
‘’Many male passengers do try to date our female androids but they too often make the mistake of ordering them around, rather than show them respect and court them properly. As a result, many of those male passengers end up quite lonely during their trips, unless they go to the Jupiter Sex Club and pay for sexual services.’
Beza rolled her eyes at that.
‘’Yeah, many men in Africa still tend to take women for granted. Alright, I may just follow your advice during my mission’s free time.’
Beza then looked discretely at the androids listening to music in the lounge, in order to evaluate them as possible partners, and was a bit shocked at seeing all of them looking at her with gentle smiles. Pieter also noticed that and whispered again to Beza.
‘’Did I tell you that our androids have very fine ears? Let me give you another piece of advice about our security androids, Beza: never play cards against them. They are the most poker-faced players I ever met.’
09:04 (Universal Time)
Saturday, January 11, 2336
Crew lounge of the heavy starfighter SHOOTING STAR
In orbit of planet Bc, ADS 9731 System
‘’Well, we now know a lot more about this part of ADS 9731, my friends.’ said Pieter, who was sitting around the dining table of the crew lounge with his whole crew and the ten security androids. ‘’As you were able to see, we moved to the orbit of planet
‘Bc’ during the night, once we had completed the mapping of the gas giant ‘Be’ and its moons and of the planet ‘Bd’ with the help of our probes. Despite making repeated radio
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calls, we have heard nothing to date from the GOLDEN NUGGET, nor did we find any traces of it. Concerning the third planet of star ‘B’, planet ‘Bd’, we have classified it as a cold super-Earth, with a mass approximately 2.6 times that of Earth and an average surface temperature around 230 degrees Kelvin, or minus 43 degrees Celsius, so it is no balmy tropical resort. It has a rock and water ice surface and a thick atmosphere of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Our preliminary survey also didn’t find any form of life on the planet, nor on its small, rocky moon. We just relaunched one of our probes to go map out planet ‘Bb’, which is the closest to star ‘B’ and looks like our own Mercury. As for the pair of F-class stars around which star ‘B’ is rotating, ‘Aa’ and ‘Ab’, they have no planets, rotating too closely around each other, with an orbital period of 3.27 days. Once we will be finished with this trio of stars, we will fly to take an orbit in the planetary system of star ‘C’, which itself rotates around a pair of stars, one F7-Class yellow-white star and one M3 red star.’
‘’What are our sensors saying to date about planet ‘Bc’, Pieter?’ asked Matsuo Hondo, the SHOOTING STAR’s first engineer. Pieter looked down at a printout laid in front of him on the table before answering him.
‘’Our first sweeps tell us that it is only slightly bigger and more massive than Earth, has an average surface temperature of 290 degrees Kelvin and has a thick atmosphere of nitrogen, water vapor and carbon dioxide. Its surface is covered by a planet-wide ocean, with thousands of volcanic islands sprinkled around it but with no continents. I will remind you that this whole system is a fairly young one, with an approximate age of 2.8 billion years, some 1.7 billion years younger than our Solar System. Thus, life is probably only starting to appear on it in microbial and multi-cellular forms, forming the sort of primordial soup that existed in Earth’s oceans when it was the same age as ADS 9731, during the Archean Period. We will soon send probes to take samples on the surface and in the oceans of planet ‘Bc’ to verify that hypothesis.
Overall, planet ‘Bc’ looks like a hot, primordial Earth, an interesting planet to be sure but one of no possible value to the prospectors aboard the GOLDEN NUGGET. If the rest of the system proves to be similar in age and composition, then the GOLDEN NUGGET
probably left for its next target after doing a preliminary survey of the ADS 9731
System.’
‘’And what is the next system to check out on our list, sir?’ asked Legionnaire Régis Dumont.
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‘’HIP 78288, a star system with one K2III orange-red giant. It could be potentially more interesting to the crew of the GOLDEN NUGGET, due to its age and high metallicity ratio, which is only slightly lower than that of our Sun. It is situated some 464
light-years from Earth, which means that our next jump will cover only 192 light-years.
Even if we don’t find the GOLDEN NUGGET in that system, HIP 78288 should prove an interesting star system for us in scientific terms. However, as per our mission instructions, we will launch an interstellar courier drone towards Earth before jumping to HIP 78288, and this in order to report what we saw here. In return, we will get back via our drone’s return trip an update on what our other three starfighters found to date. With luck, they will have already found the GOLDEN NUGGET in their own assigned search areas.’
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CHAPTER 6 – GOING ‘BUMP’ IN THE NIGHT
A red star with a gas giant planet.
11:17 (Universal Time)
Tuesday, January 14, 2336
Bridge sphere of the SHOOTING STAR
Emerging ten Astronomical Units from the star HIP 78288
464 light-years from Earth, Corona Borealis Constellation
‘’The specter of the red star ahead corresponds perfectly to that of HIP 78288.
Jump successful!’
‘’Excellent!’ replied Pieter to Lisa Wong’s announcement. ‘’Beza, you may start studying in passive mode this system. We will stay under electronic silence for the moment, with all our ears and eyes opened fully. Felix, keep a watch for possible distress signals from the GOLDEN NUGGET. Even if they were not able to launch a courier drone or emergency interstellar beacon, the crew of the GOLDEN NUGGET
could still have activated a local distress beacon if they suffered some kind of accident or malfunction.’
‘’I will closely monitor our passive electronic detectors suite, Pieter.’
Pieter nodded his head once, then looked at the holographic display surface of the bridge sphere, visually examining what could be seen of this system. HIP 78288 was a
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K2III evolved orange-red giant star that was much larger but also cooler than the Sun.
Such star types had proved in the past few centuries to often possess substantial planetary systems, so Pieter was hopeful that this system would have something that could have attracted the interest of the crew of the GOLDEN NUGGET. With luck, he would find the prospectors’ ship still present in this system, as a thorough geological survey of a planetary system was normally a rather lengthy affair, if one didn’t want to miss some valuable ore deposits by rushing the prospecting work. He could already distinguish what was a gas giant planet orbiting close to the central star and well illuminated by it. He was still looking at that small pink dot next to the orange-red star when an alarm signal started sounding in the bridge sphere, followed by the female voice of the starfighter’s central computer, nicknamed Carmen. Carmen was not by far as intelligent and powerful as Spirit, the central AI computer of the NOSTROMO, and its capabilities were concentrated in doing complex calculations and imagery data analysis, but it still was able to engage in rather simple conversations and verbal information exchange.
‘’Warning! Space Predator type long-range search radar’s pulse detected, coming from within the system. Pulse strength is minimal and well below detection level.
Computing pulse direction and approximate distance now... Pulse came from the area of a possible planet turning around HIP 78288, presently opposite the star from us and at a minimum distance of eleven AU... Warning! Second Space Predator type long-range search radar pulse detected. Second pulse is at a different frequency than the first one.’
‘’Shit!’ exclaimed Felix Delgado. ‘’That means that we have at least two Space Predator ships present in this system. From the electronic intelligence gathered previously by the NOSTROMO, the type of radar we just detected are from full-fledged Space Predator asteroid warships. Their support ships use a different frequency band than their warships, with less power and detection range.’
‘’Two Space Predator asteroid warships? This is very bad news indeed. If the GOLDEN NUGGET was present in this system at their arrival, that would explain their lack of reporting to Providence. Do your best to refine the heading those pulses...’
‘’Warning! Third long-range radar pulse detected on a third distinct frequency.’
Pieter paled on hearing that latest warning from Carmen: long-range search radars used by starships, needing to cover huge distances in order to be useful, had to be fired with long intervals of up to many minutes between each pulse, in order to allow time for their search pulses to bounce back and return from eventual targets without becoming
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tangled with previous pulses which would have hit closer targets. This thus indicated that there were now at least three Predator warships detected inside this system, indicating either a major operation by the Space Predators presently being conducted, or the presence of a major Predator base or even homeworld in HIP 78288. His starfighter had just stumbled into the proverbial wasp’s nest. Carmen then raised a further alarm.
‘’Warning! A fourth long-range pulse has just passed by us, coming from the same heading as the three previous ones. I also am detecting the weak remnant pulses from at least two Space Predator support ships located with the four warships.’
‘’Pieter, if this would be an actual base of operation for the Space Predators, they would normally use a single search radar, two at the most, to give them warnings about approaching ships. This looks more like a Space Predators’ combat operation in progress.’
‘’A good analysis, Felix. But an operation against who or what?’
That was when Lisa Wong spoke up from her copilot/navigator’s station.
‘’This type of star often has planetary systems with rich metal ore deposits or asteroid fields. In fact, the metallicity of HIP 78288 is very close to that of our Sun, so it could very well possess quantities of valuable metal deposits. Such deposits would be of high interest to the Space Predators, who use M-Class nickel-iron asteroids to build ships out of them. We could be looking at a major resource exploitation expedition supported and defended by warships.’
‘’I think that you may be right about that, Lisa. Let’s wait and listen more, in case we detect more pulses. Beza, do you detect some planet or asteroid field ahead that we could use to hide behind while watching and listening discretely?’
‘’One moment, please... We have two small planets or planetoids orbiting in the outer parts of the system. The nearest one is approximately two AU from us, at our two o’clock. I’m now marking those two bodies’ positions on our holographic sphere.’
‘’Thanks! Lisa, calculate a micro-jump to near that closest planet, opposite from the origin heading of those Predator radar pulses. Once safely behind that planet, we will use a reconnaissance drone parked at its terminator in order to continue monitoring the electronic emissions from those Predator ships. Once we will have a better picture of the situation here, we will send out a courier drone to alert the NOSTROMO about this.’
‘’On it, Pieter! Calculating micro-jump... Ready to jump at your mark.’
‘’Then jump!’
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The moment that Pieter saw the view of Space change on the sphere’s display surface, after the usual orange flash of light caused by a jump via Koomak Drive, he veered his starfighter at once towards the dark mass of a small planet now visible on his left. He then blew air out in relief when he succeeded in getting behind and close to the planet before another Predator radar pulse could be heard passing by.
‘’We should be safe from detection now, my friends. Beza, send out a reconnaissance drone and make it hug this planet’s terminator, pointed in the direction from where these radar pulses are coming. We will use it to observe and map this system while ourselves staying out of sight. I doubt very much that any long-range radar could detect our drone from more than 0.01 AU. Even from close range, our reconnaissance drones are hard to detect, with their radar-absorbing surfaces and black paint.’
‘’That still leaves us with facing at least four Predator asteroid warships, Pieter.’
Felix reminded him. ‘’The NOSTROMO could certainly take on such odds...but us?’
‘’Let’s not sell our SHOOTING STAR short, Felix. Yes, it has only minimal protection against laser hits but it is fast, agile and of small size, making it a difficult target. It also has as much firepower as a battlecruiser or more even, if considering the KBCD nozzles attached to our disintegrator cannons. In the right setting and using surprise, we could decimate that Predator fleet. The question is rather: should we attack that fleet by ourselves or should we wait for support to join us? Normally, common sense would dictate for us to wait for reinforcements but we came to find and rescue the GOLDEN NUGGET and we don’t know if it is here in this system or not and if yes, what happened to its crew. So, let’s concentrate for the moment on mapping this system with our passive sensors and on watching those Predator ships while listening for any possible signal from the GOLDEN NUGGET.’
His three flight crewmembers nodded their heads, accepting his logic, then worked their instruments in order to gather as much data as possible on this star system. However, Beza did make a remark as she was gathering data from her passive sensors.
‘’I am wondering about something, Pieter. This system has all the conditions to be able to sustain life and is also old enough to give time for a sentient race to develop here. What if the Predators are presently engaging in the genocide of such a race on the planet they are now orbiting? As you know, the Space Predators customarily conquer every other sentient race they meet and then use them as a source of meat for themselves, the way they did to our people on Nordland and on the world of the Kyrins.
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By simply waiting here in hiding, we may just be allowing the Predators to complete such a massacre.’
Pieter’s heart sank as he realized that Beza could very well be right about that. Such a hypothesis would actually explain why the Predators were making such a strong showing in this star system and why they were pinging with all their long-range search radars.
‘’Damn! You could well be right about that, Beza. In fact, I believe that you are most probably right about the Predators being in the process of invading this system and attacking a local race.’
Lisa Wong, now looking most somber, looked up at Pieter from her station’s chair.
‘’If delays could put at risk millions of lives, then I say: let’s act as soon as possible, as long as we send out a courier probe before going into battle.’
Felix Delgado, who had seemed reticent at first, finally nodded his head.
‘’I concur! Besides, even if those Predator ships are not presently engaged in destroying another race, it is only a question of time before they go attack one of our systems, especially since they now know where all our systems are. This is a question of sheer survival for all the races of this quadrant which could be attacked by those monsters.’
‘’Then, it is decided! Once we will have mapped this system to a reasonable degree and will have established the position of those Predator ships, we will send out a courier drone, then will attack. While you gather more data on this star system, I will go talk with our android squad and announce to them our intention to fight.’
Leaving the bridge sphere and entering the crew lounge, situated just aft of the bridge, Pieter found the ten security androids of Decurion Vogel either listening to music or reading something.
‘’Be on alert, people: we are soon going into a fight with a Space Predator flotilla which is operating in this system and which is possibly engaged in the slaughter of another, local race.’
His opening sentence made the ten androids gather around him at once as he continued speaking.
‘’Since millions of lives may be at play right at this moment, we decided to act as soon as we will have enough basic information about this system to mount a coherent plan of attack. Right now, we evaluate the enemy force to be at least four asteroid
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warships and a minimum of two asteroid support ships. We are presently using our passive sensors to map the planets and moons of this system, so that we could jump into battle with at least some positional accuracy. My plan is to get as close to the Predator flotilla as possible without being detected and then to effect a final micro-jump in order to do a speed run between the Predator ships and the planet they are presently orbiting around, with our main disintegrator cannons firing upwards at the enemy ships.
We will thus use the same tactic the NOSTROMO did at the Battle for Nordland. The idea is to blow the enemy ships away towards Space, so that their debris don’t fall down through the planet’s atmosphere, something that would destroy the planet we are trying to save. We will have our anti-teleportation scramblers on during our attack but I will want you to be ready to defend our starfighter from any Predator boarder who would succeed in teleporting inside our ship.’
‘’We will be ready for them, sir.’ replied at once Vogel.
‘’Excellent! One last thing: to be honest with you, our attack may well turn into a suicide charge but, even if we all die, we may still be able to delay or even stop the planet’s invasion until our reinforcements arrive. Again, millions of lives may be at stake here and preventing that would be worth for us paying the ultimate price.’
The ten androids exchanged quick glances, then raised both of their clenched fists high over their heads while shouting in unison.
‘’BANZAI! ’’
Pieter had a chuckle and shook his head in amusement at their reaction.
‘’Gee! You guys have been watching too many old war movies lately.’
15:32 (Universal Time)
Bridge sphere of the heavy starfighter SHOOTING STAR
Leaving the orbit of planet HIP 78288h
‘’I wish that we could have had confirmation from the NOSTROMO that our courier drone carrying our alert message had arrived at the Avalon Space Yards.’ said Lisa Wong, making Pieter nod his head once.
‘’Me too but the return of our courier drone here could well have had alerted the Space Predators to our presence in the system, so I had to specify to the NOSTROMO
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to not reply to our message and to send reinforcements straight away. Hopefully, we will not live to regret this decision of mine. Ready for our next jump?’
‘’Yes! We should emerge just behind the cover of the group of asteroids about to fly overhead past the Predator ships in orbit around the third planet.’
‘’Then, stand by on that: I want to give my last instructions to Carmen. Carmen, you are listening?’
‘’Yes, Pieter!’ answered at once the AI central computer of the starfighter.
‘’Carmen, I want you to be ready to take control of our shooting once we will start our attack. Your speed of reaction and precision in aiming is simply too far superior to that of any Humans for us not to use you in this attack. I will take care of the piloting and will be zipping at top acceleration 115 kilometers under the line of Predator ships while zigzagging in an unpredictable pattern in order to avoid enemy laser fire. We will be using both our heavy disintegrator cannons in KBCD mode and our missiles in order to inflict the maximum of damage in the minimum amount of time. Our priority targets should normally be the long asteroid warships but we will take the enemy ships as they come by: we won’t have the time to be choosy or to fly fancy patterns around the enemy fleet. We will have to destroy the enemy fleet in a single pass, as we probably won’t have a chance for a second pass. If we are hit and my crew gets incapacitated or killed, I count on you to fire at the enemy as long as possible. Do you have questions, Carmen?’
‘’No! Your instructions are very clear, Pieter. And, Pieter...’
‘’Yes, Carmen?’
‘’Good luck!’
‘’You too, Carmen.’
Feeling a mix of anxiety and excitement prior to going into battle, Pieter did a last check of his systems, making sure in particular that their anti-teleportation scrambler emitters were active, then gave a ship-wide order via intercom.
‘’To all the crew: seal your spacesuits. We are about to jump into combat... Lisa, you may jump now.’
‘’Jumping now!’
Pieter held his breath for a couple of seconds, time for his starfighter to reappear after its micro-jump within the star system. He felt relief on seeing that his ship was now a few hundred kilometers off to one side of a large group of asteroids of varying sizes,
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with the asteroids being between him and the third planet, a planet slightly larger than Earth and with visible continents and oceans. The blue halo around that planet indicated that it had a substantial atmosphere.
‘’Beza, do a quick spectrometer reading of the atmosphere of the third planet.
See if it could possibly be a breathable atmosphere.’
‘’On it!’
Beza spoke again after a minute, as Pieter was approaching their starfighter closer to one of the larger asteroids, in order to hide behind it.
‘’It may well be a breathable atmosphere, Pieter. I read its composition to be close to that of Earth, but with a higher proportion of oxygen and rare gas. Its general temperature also appears quite moderate.’
‘’Good! If we have to effect an emergency landing after our attack, at least we will be able to survive on the planet’s surface. Lisa, Beza, start plotting the positions, headings and speeds of the enemy ships in orbit. Use only passive sensors for the moment. We will complete our sensor sweep with a single ping from our search and track radar, on my command, just before making a micro-jump to our attack position.’
Felix Delgado, who was monitoring the visual sensors of the starfighter, then spoke up.
‘’Pieter, our long-range telescope shows traces of urban agglomerations and of a network of roads on the continent right under us. You were right about this planet sheltering a sentient race.’
‘’Then, we will not be doing this for nothing, my friends. Lisa, advise me when we will be ready to ping in active mode.’
‘’Give us another minute or two, Pieter, time to complete our passive sweep.’
‘’No problem, Lisa.’
As promised, Lisa came back after less than two minutes, her voice tense.
‘’Ready for our active radar ping, Pieter. I was able to spot on passive sensors four cylindrical asteroid warships and six round asteroid ships, flying one behind the other in a medium altitude orbit over the planet. Two warships bring the front of the line, with two more warships bringing the rear, with the support ships sandwiched in between them.’
‘’Then, ping now!’
‘’Pinging now! Fire solutions established!’
‘’Jump behind and below them!’
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Lisa didn’t take the time to reply to Pieter before pressing her jump button and sending their starfighter to reappear under and slightly behind the line of enemy ships. That was when Pieter gave an order to their central computer.
‘’Carmen, fire at will!’
He barely had time to finish his sentence before a salvo of eight missiles were spat out by the forward-pointing launch tubes of the SHOOTING STAR. As soon as Pieter raised the nose of his starfighter and pointed it at the belly of the enemy ships flying 125
kilometers above him, their four heavy disintegrator cannons opened fire, shooting the ruby-red beams of energy characteristic of disintegrator beams switched to matter/anti-matter conversion mode by the KBCD devices attached to their nozzles. As Pieter accelerated to maximum on a course parallel to the enemy fleet while keeping his nose pointed up, he also worked his controls to make his ship perform zigzags in an erratic and unpredictable pattern. He felt savage joy as his cannons’ beam struck enemy ship after enemy ship, producing on impact colossal explosions, each in the 150 megaton-range. Those gigantic explosions easily penetrated the thick iron-nickel hulls of the Predator ships and incinerated their inner parts while at the same time breaking the eight to twelve-kilometer-long ships in two or more parts. The SHOOTING STAR’s cannons were destroying their fourth enemy ships when the eight missiles fired in the initial volley hit their targets. Being also armed with anti-matter warheads, those missiles evaporated huge chunks of the outer shells of more Predator ships and eviscerated them at the same time, leaving only broken, incinerated shells. However, the enemy, although taken by surprise, was not taking this lying down, firing dozens of laser batteries at the starfighter speeding by under them. Pieter’s zigzagging saved him from most of those gigawatt laser beams but one beam from the lead enemy warship then hit the SHOOTING STAR just before that warship was destroyed by an incoming missile. That laser beam easily burned through-and-through the starfighter at an angle, cutting in two one of its four heavy disintegrator cannons and piercing the hull near one of its thermonuclear powerplants. Main power and propulsion were immediately lost, leaving the starfighter on emergency battery power. In the bridge sphere, Pieter saw their holographic display screens flicker and then go dark, before they lit up again.
‘’WE ARE NOW ON BACKUP POWER! CARMEN, CONTINUE FIRING FOR AS
LONG AS POSSIBLE. TO THE ENGINEERING CREW AND SECURITY SQUAD: REPORT YOUR STATUS!’
His second engineer, Edward Lansing, was the first to reply to his call.
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‘’THIS IS LANSING, IN POWERPLANT ROOM NUMBER THREE. I AM
ALRIGHT AND MY COMPARTMENT IS STILL INTACT AND PRESSURIZED.’
The second one to answer was Jawal Parmat, their maintenance technician.
‘’PARMAT HERE, IN THE POWER SWITCHING ROOM. I AM OKAY BUT THE
ENGINEERING CONTROL ROOM NEXT TO ME WAS HIT AND HAS
DECOMPRESSED. I CAN’T GET AN ANSWER FROM MATSUO.’
Pieter felt his heart sink on hearing that. Matsuo Hondo, his first engineer, was married, with two young children. The voice of Decurion Kurt Vogel then came on.
‘’Decurion Vogel here. I am presently near our main drive core and that sector seems to be intact. Legionnaires Dumont and Larssen are not responding but my seven other squad members are. We are going to evaluate the damage and start effecting repairs.’
‘’Acknowledged! See at the same time if you can find First Engineer Hondo and your two missing legionnaires.’
‘’Will do! Vogel, out!’
Next, Pieter looked at his three flight crewmembers.
‘’Alright, my friends, let’s find out what still works and what isn’t. If we prove to be too heavily damaged to stay in orbit, then I will have all of our crew retreat to the nose section before ejecting it towards the planet’s surface.’
15:40 (Universal Time)
Shores of a large coastal river delta, Northern Continent Third planet of HIP 78288
A long line of over 200 giant crab-like creatures emerged gradually from the waters of the river they had been following upstream by walking on its bottom. A Human seeing those creatures would have described them as closely resembling huge crabs with reddish-brown shells some two meters in diameter, six articulated legs and two long, articulated forward arms. However, the legs, instead of ending in hard and pointy extremities, like Earth-bound crabs, ended in actual feet with cushioned soles and six retractable claws. The two forward arms each had three joints and ended in six digits hands with good dexterity. The creatures also had a sort of head sticking out of the front of the shell by a short neck and had a big chitinous plate protecting the two pairs of black eyes distributed around the head. Most unusual was however the fact that half of the
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creatures carried strapped to their backs what would furiously look to Humans like automatic cannons with long barrels of a caliber of 20 mm. The other half of the group carried on their backs spare ammunition magazines for the automatic cannons. When the group of crabs emerged from the river, it was night time and only the light from the three moons of Rhiss illuminated the night. The leader of the group had in fact calculated his unit’s march so that they would emerge from the river at night, something that would hopefully provide some cover from observation by the monstrous invaders who had landed five days ago and had already laid waste to much of the Krells’
civilization. Those insect-like invaders had then corralled the surviving Krells who had not been able to flee to the safety of the oceans. It hadn’t taken long however before those survivors realized what kind of horrific fate awaited them at the hands of the invaders, with Krells being selected every day as meals for the giant insects, either eaten raw or boiled alive before being dismembered and having their shells broken open. The unit’s leader, having walked to the nearest clump of trees which was growing along the shores, cautiously observed the large clearing next to the river, looking for the possible presence of some of the hated invaders. Thankfully he saw none around. The leader then looked in the distance at the dark mass that was now the ruins of the royal palace which had served as the summer residence of King Rakan. The King had thankfully managed to flee his palace in time, escorted by his guards, and to find refuge at the bottom of the nearby sea. Unfortunately, over half of the guards unit, to which the leader and his 212 Krells belonged, had died while protecting the escape of King Rakan.
Commander Reshan was now back, firmly resolved to make the invaders pay for their atrocities. Reshan was about to order his troops to advance when a quick series of searing flashes of white light overhead illuminated the night sky. Surprised by that, Reshan looked up at the night sky, where more flashes of intense white light continue to burst in quick succession. He then understood that some kind of battle was happening in Space, around the planet. But a battle between who? The Krells did not travel into Space, preferring to stay and travel on the ground or along the sea bottoms. His people didn’t even use air travel, although the Krells were advanced enough technologically to design and build aircraft if they had wanted to. However, air travel just wasn’t the way of the Krells, who liked to stay firmly on the ground or under water. On the other hand, the Krells’ ability to live under water had been the saving grace for many of them, as the invaders had proved to be either unable or unwilling to enter the oceans and search for
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the Krells there. One of Reshan’s subalterns then approached him and pointed at the flashes of light in the sky.
‘’What could be those flashes of light above us, Commander?’
‘’Either this shows us that someone else than the invaders can travel into Space and is now attacking them, or the invaders have internecine wars between factions of their race. Either way, this may not be bad news for us, on the contrary. Let’s resume our advance now: the prisoners’ corral our scouts have reported should be fairly close, to our East.’
15:42 (Universal Time)
Space Predators’ Prisoners Corral Number Six
Near western sea coast, Northern continent of planet Rhiss Greta Bjornsson just couldn’t sleep, despite being physically and mentally exhausted: she was too despondent about what was happening to her to do anything but worry about the fate that was awaiting her in the next few hours or days. The monsters had tortured her for a full day after capturing her, to learn from her if there were other Human ships in or near the system. She had quickly broken down and had essentially told her Predator tormentors the truth, which was that the GOLDEN NUGGET had come alone, but the monsters had taken some time before they had believed her, then had thrown her in this prisoners’ corral, weak and nearly mad from the pain she had endured.
The giant crabs held with her in the corral had taken her into pity and had tried to help her but, knowing nothing about Humans, could do little for her apart from giving her some water. She was now the sole survivor of the crew of the GOLDEN NUGGET, which had been attacked and destroyed five days ago by the monstrous Space Predators. As for the rest of the prospecting ship’s crew, six of them had been killed during the attack on their ship, while the four other crewmembers captured alongside Greta had also been tortured, then selected one by one and eaten during the past three days. What had saved Greta up to now from also being eaten was the ironic fact that the Space Predators seemed to like more the meat from the sentient crabs which were being kept with her than human meat. There were still over a thousand of the unfortunate crab creatures inside the crowded, filthy and stinking enclosure she was in.
While those giant crabs had at first shown understandable curiosity mixed with some suspicion towards her, she being utterly alien in their eyes, they had quickly accepted
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her as a companion of misfortune. Unfortunately, communication with them had proved next to impossible, due to the huge difference in languages. Only the use of signs and images drawn into the muddy ground of the corral had allowed her to exchange a few basic notions and feelings with the crabs, which called themselves ‘Krells’.
A light rain had fallen some hours ago, making her even more miserable, but one of the big Krells had then shown compassion towards her by taking position over her to protect her from the rain. Greta was still reminiscing about that act of kindness when a series of searing white flashes high in the sky made her look up. Having been a sensors operator aboard the GOLDEN NUGGET and knowing about the war between Humanity and the Space Predators, she immediately understood what those flashes meant and, to the utter surprise of the Krells surrounding her, jumped to her feet and pointed upwards while shouting out in joy.
‘’SOMEBODY CAME LOOKING FOR US AND ARE NOW FIGHTING THOSE
MONSTERS! HELP IS COMING!’
Of course, the Krells around her didn’t understand a word of what she said but they did understand that the flashes of light could be a good omen. The Krells nearest to Greta then started exchanging comments and opinions with the other Krells around them, with the result that the whole prisoners’ corral was soon abuzz with speculations and renewed hope. When the flashes stopped happening a mere few seconds after they had started, the Krells all looked at Greta, to see if she understood what was happening.
Unable to speak with them, Greta then resorted to the only mode of communication available to her and started drawing a series of figures and pictograms on the muddy ground, watched intently by the Krells nearest to her. She drew her first pictograms, then pointed at one of the Predator guards watching the prisoners from atop a guard tower.
‘’Space Predator! Space Predator ship.’
She then drew more pictograms, including a human stick figure, and pointed at herself.
‘’Human! Me, Human. This, Human ship.’
Next, she drew many small circles meant to represent Human ships and drew a big arrow from those circles towards the figure of the Space Predator, then erased that Space Predator image and the stick representing its ship.
‘’Humans came and are destroying the Predators.’
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The Krells surrounding her nodded their heads in unison, apparently understanding what she wanted to tell them. They then started to whisper around them to spread the word around, cautious about possibly triggering some negative reactions from their guards.
Seeing that she had been understood, Greta sat back on the ground, her head bent back, and waited while hoping for a quick rescue.
15:44 (Universal Time)
