Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Three more boring months had passed aboard the Explorer. For Jack Laurants, life on the Explorer had become a simple but tedious routine. He sat at the mess hall table closest to the exit, chewing on the same runny imitation eggs, overcooked meat loosely called bacon, and blackened toast that had been served for the entire year. As always, Laurie Thornton sat across from him, and it was apparent that even her usually high spirits had been dampened. She picked at her food without interest, which is why her uniform looked much looser than it had at the start of the mission. Laurants took a sip of the strong coffee, but he had grown used to the bad coffee long ago.

Looking around, Laurants could see that everyone else in the mess hall had the similar looks of fatigue and boredom on their faces. The reason, Laurants surmised, for the crew’s poor emotional health was that everyone had been stuck on board the Explorer for a year now. They were all tired of breathing the same recycled air, staring at the same unyielding blackness, sitting under the dull glow of the ship’s lights. Besides that, the constant lack of any excitement had taken the edge off of the crew’s mood. In short, they needed some rest and relaxation.

Laurants didn’t say as much to Thornton, there was no sense in pointing out the obvious, especially when there was nothing they could do about it. Instead, he asked, “How are you holding up?”

“I’m OK,” Thornton replied vaguely. “The library’s computer has a good selection of books to keep me entertained. How about you?”

“I’m fine. I’ve been keeping a journal of everything that’s been going on, so that my grandkids can know all about it someday.” Laurants was also captain of one of the ship’s two field hockey teams, but the competition had been growing stale with the lack of new players, and the opposing players always complained of Laurants being a ringer.

“Somehow I doubt that would be a bestseller, except maybe for those looking for a way to fall asleep,” Thornton said flatly.

There was a long silence between them, Laurants attempting to scoop some eggs onto the toast and Thornton making a disgusted face at him. She pushed her plate away, focusing on draining her coffee cup instead. Laurants finally succeeded at getting his eggs onto the toast and was going to take a bite when the alert klaxon sounded. “Attention all hands, report to battle stations at once! All hands, battle stations!”

“Saved by the bell,” Laurants commented as he and Thornton rose quickly from their seats. They rushed to the Combat Information Center, where Chief Petty Officer Dumas was waiting for them. “Where should we go, Chief?” Laurants asked.

“Nowhere. Get your asses in a seat and hold on!” Dumas barked. Shrugging, Laurants and Thornton sat down, fastening the emergency straps that were attached to the wall. Dumas plopped down next to them, a smile spreading across his face.

“What’s going on?” Laurants wanted to know.

“You’ll see. One thing I can tell you, this ain’t no damned drill.” The entire ship shuddered violently, making Laurants understand why Dumas had ordered he and Thornton to take a seat. As soon as the shuddering stopped, Dumas shed his seatbelt and bolted to his feet.

“All right, get me a status report from the bridge! Come on, move it!”

“We’ve dropped out of hyperspace with no damage sustained, Chief. All decks are reporting no casualties.”

“Excellent. It looks like there will be nothing for us to do. You two,” Dumas pointed to Laurants and Thornton. “You can leave as soon as we get the order to stand down.”

“What’s happening, Chief?” Thornton asked this time.

“We’ve arrived in the system. A day or two of cruising and we’ll be there.” Dumas motioned them to the holographic display in the middle of the room, where he brought up an image of a medium-sized brown world. “This heavenly jewel is the colony we’ve come so far to develop into a more human-friendly planet. Personally, I don’t plan on taking my retirement here, but the geniuses at Command have said that it will be better than Mars in ten years.”

“I don’t suppose they have a luxury resort down there for some R&R?” Laurants asked.

“I doubt it, but it will be good just to get off ship and stretch my legs,” Dumas responded. He looked over at one of the technicians, then patted Laurants on the back. “You two kids can go, the bridge has signaled us to stand down.”

“Thanks, Chief,” Thornton said cheerfully. They returned to the mess hall, but their plates had already been cleared away. Laurants retrieved fresh mugs of coffee for both of them, taking a seat across from Thornton as though nothing had happened.

“So, where were we?” He asked, his tone not betraying the happiness welling up inside of him. Looking at Thornton, he could see that her spirits had returned as well. They had finally made it to the colony; soon they could get off of the ship for a little while and then head back to fresh air, familiar constellations, and bright sunshine of Earth.

“Whoever said getting there is half the fun had no idea what they were talking about,” Thornton said playfully. “I’ll be glad to go back home.”

“Me too,” Laurants responded, taking a sip from his mug. Surprisingly, the coffee seemed to taste better now.

***

Lisa Shaw stood in the middle compartment of the bridge, eyeing the holographic display that dominated the compartment. After two days of cruising at sublight speed, the Explorer was nearing the colony world. “Have the Pioneer stand ready at the designated coordinates until the planet is secured,” Shaw ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Darryl Sims responded.

Arsa Veranda stood next to Shaw, watching the drama unfold slowly. “Status of maneuvering thrusters?” Veranda asked.

“Thrusters in the green,” Lieutenant John Macias reported.

“Take us in, Lieutenant,” Shaw commanded.

“Yes, sir,” Macias said gleefully. His hands flew across the controls, slowly guiding the Explorer towards the colony world. It took several minutes for the large, bulky cruiser to slip into a high orbit over the brown planet. Shaw held her breath while the Explorer maneuvered, knowing that one false move could send the ship plunging into the atmosphere. Finally the Alliance cruiser settled into its orbit, to the relief of everyone on the bridge. “We are in high orbit, sir.”

“Thank-you, Lieutenant,” Shaw replied gratefully. “Lieutenant Sims, inform General York that he can deploy his fighters now.” Sims nodded, signaling York that he could launch a squadron of fighters to begin reconnaissance of the colony world. Tiny, black, crescent-shaped Eclipsed fighters burst from the Explorer’s launch bay, streaking down through the atmosphere.

“Explorer, this is Alpha Leader, we are commencing reconnaissance run.”

Shaw watched the fighters spread out to cover various areas of the planet on the holographic display. While topographical data of the planet was already available, the Eclipse fighters were a precaution to ascertain whether or not there was anything hostile on the surface. After several minutes, Alpha Leader reported back to the Explorer, “Explorer, we have encountered no resistance, negative life readings on the sensors.”

“Thank-you, Alpha Leader,” Shaw replied. “Form up to fly cover for the transports.

“Lieutenant Sims, have the troop transports launch, and let me know when they break the atmosphere.”

“Aye, sir.”

***

On board one of the six troop transports launching from the Explorer, Amanda Rosaro cinched the straps of the restraining harness tighter. Unlike a commercial or civilian transport, a military transport had very little in the way of shock absorption. Rosaro suspected that this had something to do with that while civilians or customers could complain about the ride, soldiers could do little but grumble to each other.

Across the cramped cargo compartment, Alex Davis gave Rosaro a thumbs-up to signal that everyone was strapped in securely. The hand signal was necessary to communicate over the noise from the transport’s engines, another creature comfort that was lacking on the military vehicle. There were no windows in the cargo compartment, so Rosaro had no idea where the transport was, but the rising temperature suggested that the transport was maneuvering through the planet’s atmosphere.

Sweat began to pour down Rosaro’s face as the compartment was heated even more, but she could not get her arms up to wipe the sweat away. She blinked the sweat out of her eyes as best she could, fighting to crane her head microscopically so that she could see how the others were faring. The Fifth Platoon was a veteran unit, there were none of the green faces or terrified screams from young, inexperienced soldiers on their first real combat drop. Instead, everyone was calm, silently taking whatever punishment the ride through the planet’s atmosphere dished out.

The compartment began to cool, signaling that the transport had survived the atmospheric entry. Rosaro let out a breath she realized she had been holding, chalking up another drop that she had survived. The last such drop had been during the Martian War, when her platoon had been deployed to Red Ridge to reinforce a beleaguered Alliance company. The company had been pinned by three separatist platoons that had been holding the high ground of the ridge. She shook away thoughts of the bloody battle that had ensued, trying to focus on the current situation. Rosaro flashed Davis a quick thumbs-up, which he returned with a nod.

The remainder of the ride was relatively smooth, the transport touching down gingerly on the surface. Light flooded into the compartment as the loading ramp was lowered. The platoon quickly unstrapped and gathered their equipment. “All right, Fifth Platoon, let’s move out!” Davis roared. Corporal Caustillo led the charge out of the transport, sweeping the area in front of him with the barrel of his rifle. At his signal, the other members of the platoon quickly loped out of the transport. Rosaro was the last one out, making sure that everything was accounted for.

“Area secure, Lieutenant!” Caustillo shouted.

“Good, let’s get the hell out of here!” Rosaro motioned to her troops, who ran from the transport until they were a safe distance away. Rosaro yelled into her comm, “Fifth is clear.” The transport took off, ascending back into the skies until it disappeared.

“Everyone is accounted for,” Davis said.

“Good.” Rosaro took a look around at the planet, unsure of what to think. The platoon was standing in a field of hard, gray dirt that seemed to stretch into infinity. Very distantly on the horizon, Rosaro could make out a group of gray-purple mountains. “That’s our destination. We’re to scale those mountains, conduct a sweep, and report back to headquarters. Anyone got a problem with that?”

Private Doug Flanders raised a hand, asking nervously, “I don’t think they covered this in the briefing, but what’s the air going to be like when we’re in those mountains?”

“According to studies of this place, the air is already a little thinner than Earth’s, but within tolerable limits. When we reach higher elevations, we’ll have to intermittently use breathing masks to make sure that we get enough oxygen. We’ll determine the exact timing of rest breaks when we get up there. I don’t want any of you to be heroes; if you are feeling weak or fatigued, you’d better let Sergeant Davis or I know about it. I am not losing anyone because they had too much pride to ask for a little breather, understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the platoon replied as one.

“Good, let’s move out and see what this place has to offer.” Shouldering their heavy packs, the Fifth Platoon set out across the gray terrain towards the distant mountains. Rosaro couldn’t help but recall the platoon’s final mission in the Martian Outback. Let’s hope things go better this time, she thought glumly.

***

The past twenty-four hours had been hectic for Captain Lisa Shaw. Besides simply managing the chaos on board the Explorer, she also had to manage the deployment of resources to the planet’s surface. While Arsa Veranda and other of the ship’s officers helped to carry the load, there were many things that simply could not happen without her approval because of Alliance regulations. She was responsible for the soldiers and pilots until they reached the surface, where they became the problems of Generals Wallace and York.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Shaw could not remember the last time she had slept for more than one or two hours. It had to be weeks ago, she thought, sipping a mug of cold coffee. Grimacing, Shaw set the mug down, turning her attention back to the holographic display in the Combat Information Center. “How’s it going, Captain?” Chief Petty Officer Dumas asked.

“As well as can be expected, Chief. So far there haven’t been any accidents delivering troops and supplies to the surface.”

“Of course not, sir. That constant drilling has gotten us into top-notch shape.” While another captain may have been offended by Dumas’ comment, Shaw found it refreshing to have someone talk to her so openly.

Chuckling, Shaw replied, “At least all those drills were good for something. So what brings you up here, anyway, Chief? I assumed that you would be in the cargo bay supervising the transport operation.”

“I just wanted to see how things were going, and to give you this,” from behind his back, Dumas produced a steaming pot of coffee. “I figured you could use some fresh stuff by now.”

“Just what the doctor ordered, Chief.” Dumas handed her an empty mug, filling it with steaming brown liquid. The enlisted man and captain turned back to the holographic display, Shaw motioning towards it with her head. “So far everything appears to be on schedule, all scout teams have been deployed to their assigned sectors. I’m a little worried about the Fifth Platoon; the mountains they’re going into are treacherous. Wallace assures me they can handle it.”

“Wallace also has his head up his ass,” Dumas growled.

“That he does. I don’t even see a need to secure the mountains, it’s a waste of time, but Wallace insisted on it.” Punching a button on the display, a dozen green dots came into view. The dots were spread across the small continent on the planet’s north and eastern hemispheres. The continent had been chosen for colonization because it had the most vegetation, which would make it more suitable for farming when colonists arrived. “Most of our scouting parties will have an easy time, since most of the terrain is tundra, but the Eighth Platoon will have to reconnoiter the marshes around Alligator Bay.” Alligator Bay was a narrow inlet of the ocean surrounding the continent. The bay resembled the open jaws of an alligator, with thick marshes covering the back of the alligator’s mouth.

Dumas rubbed his jaw thoughtfully as he examined the display. While only an enlisted man, Dumas had served in the Alliance military for twenty years, a veteran of several campaigns including the Martian War. Shaw had no doubt that Dumas knew what he was talking about when he spoke. “You should have transports ready to move scouting parties from the easy terrain to the marshes or mountains once the tundra is secured. Probably should have the docs ready to treat hypothermia, those mountains and that marsh water are going to be real cold at this time of year.”

“I already have a medical team ready to head down to the planet as soon as there’s room, but I’ll talk to General Wallace about your other suggestion. It seems logical to me, but I doubt he’ll go for it.” Shaw turned to Dumas, whose face was contorted curiously. “Is something wrong, Chief?”

Dumas nodded, folding his arms across his chest. “Something about this place bugs me. There’s some plant life, and yet there aren’t any animals at all. There’s also a desert on the other continent in the northern hemisphere, even though that continent is just as cold as the one we’re basing on. It doesn’t seem natural to me.”

“So what do you think?”

“I don’t know; it just seems strange. I suppose there’s some explanation for it, but it’s beyond me.”

“Well, the scientists have years to unravel the mysteries here. Fortunately we don’t have to be here that long.”

“Speaking of which, people are starting to talk about shore leave. What’s your decision on that?”

“This place isn’t a paradise, but as soon as Wallace’s troops have secured the surface, I’ll let the crew go down in groups. They’ll be limited, but they’ll get some fresh air and time to stretch their legs on solid ground.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Grabbing the pot of coffee, Dumas grinned, “another cup, sir?”

“Sure thing.” Shaw gratefully took another mug of coffee, wishing for some sleep instead, but there was still too much to be done. Maybe I’ll have to assign myself to the first shore leave team, she thought, but discarded the notion. I’ll be lucky to get down there at all.

***

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Private Cromwell moaned. “There’s no way in hell we can climb that thing.”

Turning to Rosaro, Davis muttered, “I have to agree with him, Manny. Going up there is suicide.”

The Fifth Platoon was at the foot of the mountain range they were tasked to secure. The climb had looked rough on images taken of the range before the platoon had left the Explorer, but making it worse was that a sudden winter storm had coated the mountain slopes in a sheet of ice. “You sure there isn’t any way around? Another passage up?”

“No, there isn’t any other path up as far as we know. Maybe we should ask for airlift up to the top.”

“There isn’t anywhere open enough for us to drop off at. I don’t want to do this any more than you do, but Wallace isn’t going to let us come back without securing these mountains, and we can’t claim to have done that without some data of the mountains.” Rosaro faced her troops, seeing the anxiety on their faces. “OK, if we can’t come back without a map of the mountains, then someone has to go up and get some sensor data. Since this is a dangerous mission, I can’t ask anyone else but myself to go. Everyone stay here until I come back.”

“Lieutenant, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we don’t want you go up there alone. We’ll follow you to Hell and back, no matter how dangerous it is,” Corporal Caustillo said, blushing a little at his sudden burst of emotion.

“Thanks for the honesty, Reekie, but it’s too risky to send up just one person, let alone twenty-four. Secure the foothills and take what readings you can. I’ll contact you as soon as I can.” Other members of the Fifth were going to protest, but the look in Rosaro’s eyes backed them off. Rosaro quickly stripped off her pack and field jacket. She reached into the pack, taking out a heavy thermal coat, a climbing harness, and climbing claws. The thermal coat was a standard field jacket, lined with coils of heated fluid to keep the wearer warm. The climbing claws were long black spikes that attached to the bottom of Rosaro’s boots and onto the palms of her gloves. Since there was no way to attach a secure line up the mountain, she would have to scale the mountain with just her hands and feet. She lowered the face shield of her helmet, making sure to stuff extra gloves and a hat into her pockets.

“You have your orders, I’ll see you soon,” Rosaro tried to sound cheerful, as though she was not afraid of the task at hand, but her voice faltered. She sank the hand claws into the ice-covered rock, then began to pull herself up. Slowly, methodically, she disappeared into the icy mist that obscured the upper half of the mountain

***.

“All right, people, let’s get to work. The lieutenant wants us to get some readings of these hills and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“We can’t just let her go up there all alone, Sarge, she won’t make it!” Caustillo protested.

“Listen, Corporal, Manny can take care of herself, she doesn’t need you or anyone else going up there trying to be a hero. Now you stow your attitude or you’ll deal with me, understood?” Davis roared at Caustillo, causing other members to look up to see if Davis’s voice had started an avalanche.

“Yes, sir,” Caustillo hissed.

“Good. Now everyone pair up and spread out. Try to get as much of these hills and the mountainsides mapped as possible. Let’s move it!” The Fifth Platoon quickly gathered their gear, scattering in twelve different directions. Davis found himself paired with Private Doug Flanders, who nervously grinned at Davis.

“I guess you showed Reekie who was boss, Sarge.” Davis grunted in reply, stomping away from Flanders. Davis hated to have to come down so hard on one of his troops, but it was his job as second-in-command of the platoon. He had to lay down the law, and if that meant threatening one of his own soldiers to bring them into line, then that is what he would do.

After three hours of mapping in silence, Davis’s comm suddenly came to life. He thought it might be Rosaro, but instead it was a dazed Private Cromwell. “Sarge, we’ve got a problem,” Cromwell began unsteadily.

“What’s wrong, Charlie?”

“It’s Reekie, sir. I turned my back on him for a second, the next thing I know something hit me in the back of the head. Before I blacked out, I thought I saw him strapping on some climbing claws.”

“Where are you at, Charlie?”

“I don’t really know, sir, I think Reekie took the map with him.”

“Leave the comm on, we’ll home in on your position.”

“OK, sir.” Davis turned to Flanders, a snarl frozen on his face.

“That bastard decided to go up the mountain by himself. Let’s hope he’s lucky enough to make it back so I can teach him a little respect for the chain of command.” Flanders gulped as he followed Davis towards Cromwell’s signal.

***

Corporal Enrique Caustillo had never disobeyed orders. He had served in the Alliance military for ten years now, and never once had he been disciplined for any type of insubordinate act. As he climbed slowly up the mountain, he knew that he had no choice but to disobey orders on this occasion.

During the Martian War, he had served with the 52nd Ranger Company. The Rangers had been pinned down on Red Ridge by rebel forces. Since the Rangers had held the high ground, they were able to hold off the rebels for five days, until reinforcements arrived. It was during those five days that Caustillo’s life had forever changed.

He and a squad of Alliance soldiers were on a reconnaissance mission the third night of the siege. Alliance commanders had ordered the mission to determine the whereabouts of rebel forces before reinforcements were deployed to Red Ridge. Unbeknownst to the Rangers, a rebel aircraft had seen the recon squad take off down the ridge, which allowed the separatists to prepare an ambush in a narrow pass. Caustillo remembered that everything had been dark one moment, then lit up as bright as day in the next instant. Anti-personnel slugs showered down on the small Alliance team, killing half of them instantly. Caustillo’s best friend, Private Marco del Vecchio had been hit in the shoulder and knee by rebel troops.

Caustillo could still see del Vecchio collapsing onto the red rocks, struggling to regain his footing. Caustillo had tried to run over to his friend, had tried to save his friend from certain death, but one of the survivors of the ill-fated squad grabbed Caustillo and hauled him back towards the top of the ridge. Caustillo shouted del Vecchio’s name, trying to fight off the hand that was pulling him away, but he could not get free. Just before he disappeared from sight, Caustillo could see del Vecchio reaching towards Caustillo, silently pleading with his friend to help him. Still screaming and cursing the man holding him back, Caustillo watched the rebel platoon flood the pass to finish off the wounded Rangers. Hearing a single shot ring out, Caustillo knew that del Vecchio was gone.

After the Alliance reinforcements had arrived and driven the rebels away from Red Ridge, Caustillo had finally had time to think about his friend’s death. He vowed that never again would he leave a comrade behind to die, no matter the risk to himself. That was why he had to go after Lieutenant Rosaro, why he couldn’t just let her go up into the dangerous mountains by herself. No matter what happened to him, he would keep the promise he had made in del Vecchio’s memory.

Digging the hand claws into the icy surface, Caustillo took a moment to look up at the mountain. He was at least a third of the way up, it wouldn’t be long until he found Rosaro. He knew that she would be angry with him for following, but at least he would not be angry with himself.

Caustillo began to push himself upwards once more. As he pushed his body up, to get the foot claws into the holes made by his hands, he reached up to sink his hand claws into the ice. Instead of digging in, however, the claws bounced off the mountainside, failing to give Caustillo any purchase for his hands. Caustillo started to lose his balance, flailing around with his arms to try to sink the claws into something, anything, but the ice refused to yield. Caustillo’s feet came out of their holds, unable to support his weight, leaving him tumbling backwards through the cold air. Caustillo let out a scream as he fell towards the ground, a scream that ended abruptly as he slammed into the frost-covered surface with enough force to smash his skull and spine instantly.

***

Davis stopped in his tracks, hearing the scream and knowing that he was too late. “Oh my God,” Flanders whispered in disbelief.

Davis forced himself to stay calm, activating his comm. “Explorer, this is Sergeant Alex Davis of the Fifth Platoon. We have one man down, please send a medical team at once.” Shutting off the comm before he received a reply, Davis bolted towards Cromwell‘s position.

“You think he’s alive, Sarge?”

“Not unless he sprouted wings on the way down,” Davis growled. Skidding to a stop, Davis could see that Cromwell had already found where Caustillo had landed. Cromwell was bent over his friend’s body, trying to resuscitate it, but Davis could see from the amount of blood and tissue staining the ground around Caustillo that the corporal was already beyond help. “You should have listened to me, Reekie.” Davis shook his head solemnly, turning away from the scene. He saw Flanders down on all fours, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the ground, and wished that he could join the private, but he had to set an example to the others. He had to let them see that no matter what happened, he would not let fear take control of him. Closing the face shield of his helmet, though, Davis let himself shed a few tears for the man who had been a friend, a brother to him.

***

For the first time in a year, the bridge was abuzz with activity as Thornton began her shift. Status reports were coming in from platoons on the ground and the fighters in the air almost constantly, which gave Thronton something to do other than bother Laurants. She threw a brief glance at her friend, but Laurants was hard at work taking sensor readings of the system.

There was definitely excitement in the air, fueled not only by the sense of accomplishment of exploring a new planet, but by the hope that shore leave would soon be coming to the crew. After a year of being stuffed on the Explorer, Thornton was looking forward to getting onto solid ground, even if that ground was nothing more than hard gray dirt. Anything was better than spending another day on board the Explorer, with nothing but recycled air and manufactured light. Like many of the crew, Thornton’s skin had paled to the point where she looked more like some apparition than a living person. A day on the planet, soaking up some natural light, might at least help her look more alive than she did now.

Thornton was shaken from her thoughts by a beep on her console, signaling that another message was coming in from the surface. Before she could even acknowledge that she was receiving, the voice on the other end was already speaking. “Explorer, this is Sergeant Alex Davis of the Fifth Platoon. We have one man down, please send a medical team at once.” The message cut off as abruptly as it had started, leaving Thornton with a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. She pressed the intercom to the forward compartment, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

“Commander, this is Communications. We have an urgent message, I think you should take a listen to it.” Shakily, Thornton turned off the intercom to the forward compartment, switching it to the ship’s sickbay. “Sickbay, this is Ensign Thornton, we have an emergency down on the planet’s surface. The details are sketchy, but it appears that one person is injured.”

“Bridge, this is Doctor Fitzgerald, we’ve got a team standing by in the hangar. They’ll launch as soon as the word is given.”

“Thank-you, Doctor, Bridge out.” As Thornton terminated the intercom to sickbay, Arsa Veranda came up behind Thornton.

“What have we got?” Veranda asked, concern showing on her face. Thornton played back the message, causing Veranda’s face to look even graver. “Call the hangar and tell them to have the medical team move out as soon as I’m aboard.”

“I don’t understand, sir, why are you going with the medical team?” Thornton inquired incredulously.

“This is a very important mission, Ensign. If someone is badly injured or killed, Command will want someone with authority to conduct a thorough investigation. Since no one else is available, I’ll go down and find out what happened. Notify Captain Shaw as soon as I’m gone. Until she arrives, Lieutenant Hicks will be in command. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Thornton replied dutifully. Immediately she went to work to send out messages to the hangar and Captain Shaw. Veranda sprinted into the lift, mashing the button to take the lift to the hangar with more force than was necessary.

***

“Captain, we will reach the target system in approximately five minutes,” Commander S’Segar announced, stirring S’Olonny from his dark musings.

“Drop a sensor probe for a five-second sweep, then return it to hyperspace to report its findings,” S’Olonny commanded.

“Yes, sir.” S’Olonny rose from his command chair, walking over to the holoviewer to wait for the probe’s findings. A three-dimensional image slowly appeared on the holoviewer, giving S’Olonny a look at the entire star system. His gaze immediately focused on the fourth planet of the system, a brown world with a single moon that showed some signs of bio-energy. S’Olonny zoomed in on the planet and the two objects around it that were identified as spacecraft.

“Enemy warships?” S’Segar asked in awe. No collection vessel had engaged in combat with another spacecraft in almost two hundred years, but now it appeared as though S’Olonny would have the chance to engage in honorable combat with not one, but two enemy ships.

“It would appear so,” S’Olonny muttered as he studied the ships in the holoviewer. The probe had not been able to take detailed readings, but from what it showed, the enemy vessels were on par with his ship. “This one in orbit appears to be more heavily armed.”

S’Segar nodded, “What are your orders, sir?”

“When we come out of hyperspace, we will charge at the weaker ship at full speed. The larger vessel will not be able to extract itself from orbit in time to defend its partner. Once the smaller ship is eliminated as a threat, we will disable the other vessel and begin collection operations.”

“But we do not know their weapons capabilities…”

“We will find out. Now carry out my orders,” S’Olonny hissed.

S’Segar nodded and walked away to relay S’Olonny’s commands. S’Olonny continued to study the holoviewer, wishing that the probe could give him better insight into his enemy. Dropping into combat against an unknown enemy was difficult, espcially against an advanced race like S’Olonny appeared to be facing.

S’Olonny turned away from the holoviewer to look about his bridge. Despite twenty years of commanding a starship, S’Olonny had never fought an actual battle in space. The resistance he had encountered had been mainly primitives on the ground, very few of the races he had come across put up much resistance. No matter how this coming contest turned out, it would be historic.

***

“Director S’Tallen, I have urgent news!” The commander of S’Tallen’s guards blurted out as he rushed into S’Tallen’s lab.

“What is it? Can’t you see that I am busy here?” S’Tallen hissed impatiently.

“Two ships have been detected near the fourth planet of the system. We are preparing to engage them.”

S’Tallen shot upright as though someone had slapped him in the face. “Two ships? Knowing that fool S’Olonny, he will probably destroy both without netting a single live specimen. Pepare my shuttle, I want to be ready to launch as soon as the battle is over. Perhaps we will be able to find a living being before that bloodthirsty madman kills them all for his own pleasure.” S’Tallen hurried from his lab, heading for the hangar. He remembered how much S’Olonny hated his experiments, how S’Olonny had tried to shut him down on several occasions. S’Tallen would have to work quickly to get what he wanted. After he had a specimen, there was nothing S’Olonny could do without violating the Grand Council’s orders, something the rigid S’Olonny would never do. At last, S’Tallen thought. I’ll have another chance to prove that I am right.

***

The shuttle hovered over the foothills, its ramp dangling just a few feet over the ground. Veranda was the first one from the shuttle, leaping onto the ground and hurrying over to the man waiting for her a safe distance away. “Are you Sergeant Davis?” She asked loudly over the engine noise.

“Yes, sir. The injured man is over there,” Davis motioned to a spot about three hundred feet away. “I’m afraid he died on impact.”

“Impact? What happened?”

“Well, sir, we were ordered to secure the mountains and obtain as much information about them as possible. However, a storm made climbing treacherous. Our commanding officer, Lieutenant Rosaro, volunteered herself to carry out the mission, ordering the rest of us to survey the lower elevations. Against the lieutenant’s orders, and those of myself, Corporal Caustillo incapacitated his partner and attempted to climb the mountain to join Lieutenant Rosaro. We aren’t sure what happened next, but we heard a scream and found him lying over there. We assume that he fell while trying to climb the mountain, I think the evidence will bear that assumption out,” Davis reported dispassionately, as though reading a prepared statement.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a look at the body.” Veranda jogged to where the corpse of Corporal Caustillo lay. From the stains surrounding his back and the rear of his skull, Veranda came to the same conclusion that Davis had just reported. The circumstances of the accident would have to be determined as well as where the accident actually happened.

“Al, what the fuck happened?” Veranda heard a voice scream. Turning, Veranda saw a woman in climbing gear striding up to Davis. Veranda calmly trotted back over to Davis, interested to see what was going on.

“I told Reekie not to go up, but he didn’t listen to me. He knocked Charlie out and tried to go up all by himself. Charlie told me what happened as soon as he woke up, but it was too late. I’m sorry, Manny, I shouldn’t have let him go off with Charlie, I should have had him stay with me.”

“Excuse me, are you the commanding officer for this unit?” Veranda asked.

“Yes, sir. Lieutenant Amanda Rosaro. I tried to keep something like this from happening, that’s why I went up alone. Damn it, he knew better than that!” Rosaro’s temper flared up once again. She threw her helmet against the ground in frustration, which caused Veranda to take a step back.

“From what I’ve heard, it sounds like you did what you could to achieve the mission’s goals with the fewest casualties. This was just an unfortunate accident.”

“Yeah, maybe, but my troops are my responsibility,” Rosaro replied, fire smoldering in her eyes.

“I know how you feel, Lieutenant. If you want, you can go back to the Explorer with the medical team, they’ll have to take the body up for an autopsy. We’ll send another shuttle to pick up your unit.”

“An autopsy? What do you need to cut him open for? It’s pretty obvious what happened,” Davis blurted out.

“It’s just standard procedure in a case like this, to rule out any other factors that may have contributed to the accident,” Veranda replied evenly.

“Thank-you, Commander, we’ll wait here until you can send a shuttle for everyone,” Rosaro interjected before Davis could say anything. She pulled Davis off to the side and whispered a few words to him, the sergeant looked chastened as he hurried away to inform the rest of the platoon of what was happening.

It took only a few minutes to load Caustillo’s body into the shuttle, some medical equipment was left behind to lighten the shuttle for a quicker launch, then the Alliance transport roared into the air. Once the shuttle was gone from sight, Veranda activated her comm to contact the Explorer. Static issued from the device, but no reply from the Explorer. “I don’t understand, there must be some kind of interference…”

“Commander, we’re receiving an encoded laser transmission from the Explorer,” Private Deivi Ramirez called out. Veranda frowned, a laser transmission meant that something was jamming the Explorer’s communications array, which told Veranda that the static she had received was not an isolated problem.

“What is it?”

“They’ve picked up another ship…not one of ours.”

“There can’t be pirates this far out…”

“No, sir, I mean it’s not like anything of human design. It’s an alien ship. We’ve been ordered to go to stand-by alert until the situation is resolved.”

“I can’t just stay here, I have to get back to the ship!”

“I’m sorry, sir, but they aren’t sending any transports down to the surface and there is a strict no-fly mandate for all shuttles on the surface.”

“I have to go, it’s my duty…”

“The order comes from Captain Shaw herself, sir. I’m sorry.”

“Lieutenant Rosaro, have your unit create a defense perimeter. I want to be ready if these aliens turn out to be hostile.”

“Yes, sir,” Rosaro replied weakly. Veranda looked up at the sky, wishing she were on the bridge of the Explorer right now for this historic moment.

***

Red alert klaxons sounded all over the Explorer, sending the entire crew into action. Quickly all hands hurried to their battle stations, moving with calm, as though the red alert was simply a drill. At the sound of the alarm, the day shift reported to the bridge, relieving the less experienced night shift. Laurants and Thornton reluctantly left the excitement of the bridge behind to report to the Combat Information Center. “All right, people, this ain’t a damn drill, now I want all transport operations to cease in the hangar immediately! All supplies are to be secured in the cargo bay, and the hangar is to be cleared for fighters to launch. All ground forces are to secure themselves and be at full alert for possible boarders. Is that clear?” Chief Petty Officer Dumas roared as Laurants and Thornton entered.

“Where do you want us, Chief?” Laurants asked.

“Stay put right now. If it comes to a fight, I’ll need you to help with casualties.” Looking at the holographic display in the room, Laurants gulped. The ship he had detected only minutes earlier on the sensors was heading right for the Pioneer and Explorer. At first he had picked up only the spatial disburbance from the hyperdrive of the incoming ship, but then a tiny probe had appeared from hyperspace, scanning the system for five seconds before returning to hyperspace. Moments later, an alien vessel over a mile long appeared from hyperspace and began driving straight at the Pioneer. None of the scans Laurants had run were able to determine what type of weapons the alien ship might be carrying, but anything that big had to have some kind of armaments.

“You think they’re coming in peace?” Thornton whispered.

“I don’t know. They’re probably trying to figure out what we’re doing here. Hopefully we can work out some form of communication with them,” Laurants replied. He didn’t want to admit as much to Thornton, but right now Laurants was more scared than he had ever been in his life.

***

“The alien ship appears to be on an intercept course with the Pioneer,” Lieutenant Jody Hill reported over the intercom. In the middle compartment, Lisa Shaw felt faint, but forced herself to remain calm. Before the Explorer had left Earth, she had been briefed on first contact procedures in the off chance that some kind of alien intelligence was encountered. Now it was time to put those procedures to the test.

“Lieutenant Sims, order the Pioneer to begin backing slowly away towards us. I don’t want any sudden movements to startle whoever is on that alien ship, and get me a status report from our ground units deployed on the surface. Lieutenant Macias, take us out of orbit to provide the Pioneer with cover fire should it come to that,” Shaw commanded. She stepped over to a computer terminal, taking a deep breath as she entered a command. Before carrying out her command, the computer flashed a light into Shaw’s right eye, scanning her retina and comparing it to the scan already on file. Once the security procedure was finished, the terminal executed the instructions it had been given.

From a recess on the port side of the ship, a tiny probe launched. The probe immediately began to transmit its message on all known audio and visual frequencies. There was little chance that whoever these aliens were they used the same type of communications, but the hope was that the aliens could detect the signal and decipher it. If not, the probe had mathematical equations carved into its surface that conveyed a crude message of goodwill. It was assumed that any intelligent species would be at least able to figure out the mathematical message so that some kind of dialogue could be opened. It was, without meeting these aliens face-to-face, the best that Shaw could do to try to establish diplomatic relations. Looking at the size of the alien ship, Shaw fervently hoped that the probe’s message got through, or else it could be a very difficult battle for the Explorer to win.

***

“Captain, we are picking up a device, similar to the one originally detected in this system. It appears to be transmitting some kind of message,” the communications officer of the alien ship reported.

“Can we decipher anything from this message?” S’Olonny asked, although he had very little interest in discussing anything with these aliens.

“No, sir, but there appears to be visual as well as audio transmissions. I can play the visual part of the message.”

“Very well,” S’Olonny agreed, leaving his command chair to stand behind the communications officer. The visual images were a bewildering array of scenes, objects, and numbers. “Wait, freeze this image.” The communications officer stopped on the image of a male and female human.

“What is this?” Commander S’Segar breathed.

“This is our enemy,” S’Olonny replied. He tapped the clawed point of a finger against the screen. “This is what their species looks like. They are such ugly creatures, with hair all over their bodies like some common beast. It will be a pleasure eliminating them.”

“Captain, the nearest enemy ship appears to be moving towards the fourth planet,” the sensor officer stated.

“Excellent. Proceed as ordered.” S’Olonny sat in his command chair once again, eyeing his ship’s prey. So it begins, he thought eagerly.