Owner and chief designer of the Avalon Space Yards Low Earth orbit, Solar System
‘’Yes, Tina, what can I do for you?’
On the video screen of Gustav Shomberg’s desk communications unit, the face of Tina Forster showed some concern as she spoke up.
‘’Gustav, I have to urgently send out right away all of my heavy starfighters, plus my assault shuttles and most of my security androids. One of my starfighters which was searching for the prospectors’ ship GOLDEN NUGGET has encountered a Space Predator fleet in the HIP 78288 system, 464 light-years away in the Corona Borealis Constellation, and needs help at once. I am sorry to have to leave your station defenseless like this but I have no choice but to send all the forces at my disposal, since my NOSTROMO is still at least a month away from being ready to leave drydock.’
Gustav’s welcoming smile now replaced by a sober expression, he nodded his head and replied in a calm tone to Tina.
‘’Don’t worry about my station, Tina: I will manage. Go and rescue your starfighter.’
‘’Are you sure, Gustav? Your Space yards would constitute a prime target for any Predator ship which could show up in the Solar System.’
‘’Tina, you must have noticed that there has been some new construction activity lately around the outside of my station, right?’
‘’Uh, yes, but you didn’t want to tell me about it when I asked.’
‘’Well, know this but keep it to yourself: I have had multiple heavy disintegrator cannon batteries installed, along with missile launcher batteries and force shield generators. My Space yards are thus far from defenseless. I have also added to my station enough gravity sail surfaces to make it able to maneuver in orbit and to even
107
travel away from Earth on my own power, with a hidden Koomak Drive generator thrown in to add an interstellar capability as well.’
Tina’s eyes opened wide under the shock of those revelations but she quickly recovered from her surprise and smiled to Gustav.
‘’Gustav, you are always full of surprises. Thanks for telling me: I will depart with my mind reassured about you.’
‘’Then, good luck in the HIP 78288 system, Tina.’ replied Gustav before closing the video link.
108
CHAPTER 7 – THE CAVALRY IS COMING
15:58 (Universal Time)
Tuesday, January 14, 2336
Forest surrounding the Space Predators’ Prisoners Corral Number Six Northern continent, Planet Rhiss
HIP 78288 System, 464 light-years from Earth
Commander Reshan switched back his combat targeting visor from zoom mode to normal viewing mode, then spoke to the two subaltern officers flanking him, unwilling to use his radio due to the risk of transmissions being possibly intercepted by the invading monsters.
‘’I can see over a thousand of our people being held by the monsters inside a guarded open-air camp. There are fourteen guard towers along what looks like an electrified fence, with two monsters per tower manning pintle-mounted heavy weapons.
Some twenty prefabricated buildings are located to the North of the prisoners camp.
When we will charge in, I want our First Group to target in priority the guard towers, to prevent the guards from slaughtering their prisoners. Our Second Group will concentrate its fire against the enemy barracks. Pass the word around and tell our soldiers to be ready to attack.’
‘’Yes sir!’ replied the two junior officers before going back to their sub-units, leaving Commander Reshan alone in the center of the line of deployed Krell soldiers.
Reshan continued to examine the enemy camp, looking for possible heavy weapons or some of the dreaded flying vehicles of the enemy. He found only two such vehicles, parked on the ground behind one of the prefabricated buildings. That reassured him, as those flying vehicles had proved to have some kind of invisible protective walls around them which could defeat his guards’ automatic cannon shells. The individual monsters also had such invisible walls but those were much less resistant than those of the flying vehicles and could be defeated by cannon shells, even though they could stop bullets from hand-held weapons. That had been one lesson paid at a very steep price during the first day of the invasion but Reshan was not about to forget that lesson, which was why he had his soldiers equipped with the most powerful weapons in the Krells’ arsenal.
109
When his subalterns reported that their guards were ready for the assault, Reshan waited a few seconds more, then shouted out an order.
‘’KNIGHTS OF THE FIRST ARMORED GUARDS, FORWARD AND CHARGE!
NO MERCY! NO RETREAT!’
On that order to fight to the death if need be, Reshan then gave the example and started running on his six legs towards the enemy camp, followed closely by his young Krell squire who was serving as his ammunition carrier. Using his targeting visor to aim his dorsal cannon, he put his sight’s reticle on one of the guard towers of the camp and fired a short salvo of three shells. He had the satisfaction of seeing the top of the guard tower blow up into pieces, with its two occupants killed instantly. His shooting then was the signal for his 104 knights to open fire as well.
In the prisoners’ corral, the explosions and detonations from automatic cannon fire awoke Greta Bjornsson, who had managed to fall asleep a few minutes ago. Being somewhat groggy from fatigue, she took a moment to realize that the Predators were under attack. However, the kind of weaponry used now was not of the kind Human forces used these days. Spacer soldiers were now widely equipped with disintegrator weapons, even though civilians, like the crew of the GOLDEN NUGGET, didn’t have access to that class of weapons and still used old-fashioned firearms. She understood what happened only after seeing a large number of giant crabs armed with automatic cannons run past the prisoners’ corral, firing at the Predators’ barracks. The determination and energy of that charge nonetheless warmed her heart and she shouted out in encouragement as the guard towers were blown up one by one in quick succession. The Krells around her also shouted out enthusiastically in their own bizarre language made up of klicks and hisses. The Space Predators, clearly taken by surprise, were slow to react correctly to the attack, with most of them mowed down by cannon fire as soon as they ran out of their barracks. Those who stayed inside their buildings were no safer, as the cannon shells easily penetrated the thin walls of the prefabricated buildings, to then explode inside, projecting deadly shrapnel all around. The two assault sleds parked behind one of the buildings never had a change to fly out, being hit and destroyed by many shells before any of the Space Predators could jump in them. After a furious but short fight, the attacking Krells found themselves in control of the whole camp, with the few wounded Predators found then mercilessly killed. With the electrified
110
fence surrounding the corral now inoperable, the Krells which had been held inside started to walk out of it in order to go hug their liberators. Greta however stayed mostly where she had been, unsure what to do. One of the Krells who had been close to her during her days of captivity then motioned to her to follow him, gently nudging her forward when she stayed motionless at first. Finally understanding that the crab didn’t mean harm to her, Greta followed the alien creature out of the corral and towards a group of armed crabs who were trying to organize the ex-captives into a manageable group. The first armed crabs to see her immediately tensed up and aimed their cannons at Greta but the crab guiding her then interposed itself at once, shielding her from the cannons, and shouted at the Krell soldiers.
‘’NO, DON’T SHOOT! SHE IS NOT AN ENEMY! HER RACE IS AN ENEMY OF
THE MONSTERS. FOUR OF HER KIND WERE ALSO PRISONERS IN THIS CAMP
AND WERE EATEN BY THE MONSTERS.’
The sub-commander of the guards charged with organizing the liberated inmates lowered his cannon, imitated by his soldiers, then approached Greta slowly to better examine her.
‘’You are sure that she is not some kind of collaborator of those monsters, citizen?’’
‘’Absolutely sure, sir. When we saw those flashes of light high in the sky, she became all excited and made us understand via images drawn in the mud that her kind had come to help and were attacking the monsters who were in orbit above us.’
‘’Really? That is something which must be told at once to our commander.
Follow me with her: you will act as her translator of sort.’
‘’With pleasure, sir.’
Greta, still unsure about what was going to happen to her, nonetheless followed the giant crab who had covered for her, with the armed crabs around her taking a few steps back at her passage, still visibly suspicious of her. Her group finally stopped in front of a giant crab conversing with three other crabs. That conversation stopped the moment she was noticed by that group. The sub-commander bowed in respect to his commander before speaking to him.
‘’Sir, this alien being was detained in this camp alongside our citizens and I was told that four other aliens of her race who were prisoners here were eventually eaten by the monsters. She is reported as saying that the flashes we saw in the night sky were
111
ships of her race attacking and destroying the spaceships of the monsters. Apparently, we are not the only ones to be enemies of the monsters, sir.’
Reshan looked down with intense interest at Greta Bjornsson, noting her dirty, disheveled appearance and her fearful expression.
‘’Very interesting! Does she speak our language?’
‘’No, sir! I am told that she communicated by drawing pictures on the mud. One of the citizens who saw her drawings is at my left side, sir.’
‘’So, the monsters are not the only ones able to travel through Space. This could complicate a lot the future of our race. Let’s hope that her race will prove to be a friendly one towards us.’
The Krell who had vouched for Greta then spoke up while bowing to Reshan.
‘’Distinguished sire, I saw this woman and her four companions when they were put inside our compound by the monsters. They were at first afraid of us, something that is understandable if that was the first time they saw members of our race, but quickly grew reassured and became friendly after we showed no hostility towards them. They all behaved correctly while being held in our corral. They also showed true fear and hatred towards the monsters who eventually ate them. In my humble opinion, this person’s race could become a precious ally for us, distinguished sire.’
‘’Thank you for your advice, Citizen. I will certainly take it into consideration and will pass it on to the King once I will see him next. We now have to organize the evacuation of this camp, so that we could bring you and your companions of misfortune to the safety of the ocean’s bottom.’
‘’Uh, I believe that this being is not able to breathe under water, distinguished sire. I am a trained healer and I noticed that this ‘Human’, as she calls herself, can only breathe air. She will probably...’
The Krell was then interrupted by loud cracks similar to those caused by lightning.
Turning around towards the direction those cracks had come, the Krells then saw a series of impossibly straight lines of intense blue light stab the sky from above, striking at something over the horizon. Greta, who recognized at once what those lines of blue light were, shouted out in excitement and joy while jumping up and down.
‘’MY PEOPLE ARE COMING! THEY CAME TO KILL THOSE DAMN
PREDATORS!’
While Reshan didn’t understand her words, her reaction to seeing the blue beams of light was easy enough to interpret and he commented it to his subalterns around him.
112
‘’Those new aliens seem to have some pretty advanced and powerful weapons.
Let’s hope that they will indeed prove to be friendly with us.’
‘’But how will we communicate with them if and when they will show up in person, sir?’ asked a sub-commander. ‘’You just heard how different to our language their language is. I am not even sure that they would be capable of vocalizing the sounds we use, sir.’
‘’Hum, a fair point, I must say. We...’
A white shape appeared in the night sky and very quickly grew to an enormous flying ship at it approached the camp, interrupting Reshan and making all the Krells twist their heads to look at it. On her part, Greta shouted again in triumph.
‘’MY PEOPLE ARE HERE NOW!’
Seeing many of his soldiers starting to raise their cannons to aim it at the incoming flying ship, Reshan urgently shouted an order to them.
‘’HOLD YOUR FIRE! NOBODY IS TO SHOOT AT THAT SHIP UNLESS I SAY
SO!’
Reshan then anxiously watched as the white ship, shaped like an egg and with four big tubes around its hull, slowed down and came to a hover some 200 meters above the camp. It then stayed there, immobile and silent, for a couple of minutes, making Reshan wonder about its intentions. A single small dot then jumped out of it through some kind of door or ramp at its back and started falling down towards the ground. Reshan had to repeat his order to hold fire as the dot grew to a being similar to Greta. After free-falling most of the way, the being then slowed down its descent by some means that was not evident to Reshan, to finally touch down on the ground in a smooth landing, some twenty meters from the group of Krells. Reshan had time to examine the newcomer for a second before it started walking calmly towards him, his group and Greta. It wore what looked like some kind of dark grey military uniform, along with a sort of complicated helmet, and carried a large weapon slung across its back. The alien finally stopped four meters in front of Reshan and bowed in salute to him while speaking in a language he didn’t understand.
‘’Thank you for helping our compatriot, sir. I will now bring her back to her home.’
The security android then walked to Greta and handed her an anti-gravity vest.
113
‘’Here, Miss Bjornsson: put this on and I will then bring you up to my ship. Do you know if there are other members of your ship’s crew here, or somewhere else on this planet?’
‘’They are all dead. I am the only survivor from the GOLDEN NUGGET. Six of them were killed when our ship was attacked by the Space Predators, while four others were brought here with me as captives before being selected and then eaten by those Predator monsters.’
‘’And what about your ship?’
‘’It was completely destroyed after its boarding, which happened on the first moon of this planet as we were prospecting it. Thank you for coming to rescue me.’
‘’We only did our duty, miss. We regret not being able to come more quickly but we had to search through many star systems before finding out that the Predators came to HIP 78288. We will fly up as soon as you are ready.’
‘’Give me a second here to put on this vest... I am ready now. Just let me thank those people first.’
‘’No problem, Miss Bjornsson.’
Turning first to face Reshan, Greta then bowed to him the way the other crabs had done.
‘’Thank you for freeing us, sir. Your soldiers are brave ones indeed.’
Next, she faced the Krell who had vouched for her and took two steps towards him before gently caressing one of its hands.
‘’Thank you for protecting me, my friend. I will always remember you.’
Greta then walked back to the side of the security android, who took hold of the handle on the back of her anti-gravity vest.
‘’You may power your vest now, miss.’
Greta, who had used such vests before during her prospection work, did that and nodded her head.
‘’I am ready.’
The android, still holding Greta’s vest, then started ascending silently with her, watched by the fascinated Krells.
‘’By the Lords of the Sea! This would be a very useful thing to have for us indeed.’ said Reshan as he watched the pair of aliens fly up to the ship hovering above his head. Once the pair was inside, the ship then silently accelerated away and up, soon disappearing into the night sky. Reshan then returned his attention to the ground and looked at his sub-commanders.
114
‘’Well, I believe that it is time for us to guide our citizens to the safety of our oceans. Form them into a double column and escort them towards the river’s shore.’
On the heavy starfighter JUGGERNAUT, which acted as the flagship of the rescue force of eleven heavy starfighters, Jehanne de Domrémy received a message from the starfighter which had rescued Greta Bjornsson and then faced Tina Forster, who was in overall command of the rescue force.
‘’Miss Greta Bjornsson is now safely aboard the WAR HAMMER, Tina. She confirmed to us that she is the only survivor from the GOLDEN NUGGET. Six of her companions were killed when the Predators attacked their ship while they were prospecting at the surface of the first moon of this planet, while four more were later eaten by the Predators. What are your orders now?’
‘’We first exterminate every Space Predator we can find on this planet and in the rest of this system. Then, we will check on the wreck of the GOLDEN NUGGET, in order to remove its systems and data of high sensitivity, especially its Koomak Drive.
Finally, we will take our poor SHOOTING STAR in tow and return to the Solar System.
By the way, I am happy that we have found your husband alive and well, Jehanne.
Unfortunately, we lost one good man and two androids in this but we in turn made those damn Space Predators pay a heavy price for their aggression, thanks to the heroism of your husband and of his crew. Your cute little Frida will soon be able to kiss both of her parents.’
115
CHAPTER 8 – BACK IN BUSINESS
11:05 (Universal Time)
Thursday, February 27, 2336
