by Saxon Andrew
The graduating class cheered and ran toward the landing field next to the graduating ceremony which was filled with ships for the thousand graduates; every one of the new Searchers knew where their ship was waiting for them. Matt ran to the last row of ships and there it was; it was just as he remembered it the day he raised it. Standing in front of each ship on the back row was a commander of an Alpha Ship waiting for each of them to enter. Matt stopped in front of his ship and the Commander reached out to shake his hand.
“Congratulations Captain Gardner, come with me and let’s get you ready for your ship.”
Matt had a huge smile on his face as he walked toward the entry port of the small, silver colored ship. As he approached the entry port Matt saw Angel entering the ship next to his and she smiled at him and disappeared into her ship.
“Searcher, we must do three things to prepare the ship for you. First, you need to place your hand in the indentation on one of the command chair arms.”
Matt sat down and placed his left hand into a hand sized depression on the left arm of the chair. His hand was immediately surrounded by an almost liquid material that shaped itself to the shape of his fingers and palm.
The Commander watched as the material shaped itself to Matt’s hand, “Now press the rose colored button on the other arm.” Matt reached over with his right hand and pressed the rose colored button and immediately felt a shock. “Don’t get excited, the ship is reading your neural pathways and is linking its systems to them.” The commander waited for five minutes and then said, “Now you must name your ship. I want you to say the ship’s name and think it simultaneously.”
Matt said and thought, “Aladdin.”
The lights on the control panel surrounding the command chair immediately illuminated and Matt could feel the ship around him. It was just like the instructors described in imprinting class.
“Searcher, I want you to take the next hour and just sit here and get a feel for your new friend. I’m sure you know but I’m going to tell you one last time about how your ship was built. The Stars Realm does not possess the technology to produce this kind of vessel. We can operate them because we possess psychic abilities that allow us to mentally link to the ships systems but the technology used to build them is not something we can produce. This small ship is actually one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. The Stars Realm Navy is built by the Algeans with the assistance of the two Alfont ships. The energy generator left by the captors when they left our universe combined with the power cell skin of the ancient Stars Realm Megaships from more than twelve hundred years ago created a weapons system that is truly formidable. The Alfont provided the technology that allows our pilots to link mentally to their ship’s computer and other systems. You ship’s computer is the most advanced technology we possess. It has all of the knowledge ever gained in the Realm for your use if you need it. The ship’s building facilities are located on planets that the Algeans had originally destroyed when they were at war with the Realm centuries ago. No home planet where the Algeans live has any trace of technology. Their main form of travel is through teleporting. Ships can only land briefly on their home worlds. They are doing this to make sure that when the Eight Legs do invade our universe that their worlds will appear to have no intelligent life, only plant life. They should be ignored once the invasion starts. The ship building facilities are on worlds that are barren with the main construction centers more than five miles under the surface. The Algeans have become the creators of our highest technology and we depend on them to provide the ships of our navy. During your initial training assignment you will be assigned an Algean Adolescent as an observer.” Matt flinched at that information. The Commander looked at an electronic clip board, “He will arrive within four weeks from now.” The Commander raised his eye brows and said, “It appears that your observer is a seed from the Leader of the Algeans.”
Matt looked at the Commander and asked, “What am I supposed to do with the Algean?”
“Why take him on your searches and answer any questions he might have.”
Matt thought about having one of the high powered Algeans on his ship and felt concerned about what would happen. He didn’t want a spectator if he made a mistake. Then the Commander said, “You are cleared for liftoff exactly fifty three minutes from now.
“Thank you, Commander.”
Matt settled into his seat and closed his eyes and felt the ship copying his brain patterns. He turned on his sensor array and immediately saw every ship in the solar system and even those on the other side of the sun. “Quite a view isn’t it, Magic.”
Matt flinched, “Hi, Angel, yes it is. When are you lifting off?”
“In fifty two minutes.”
“So am I. Would you like to take a trip together?”
“Where would you like to go?”
“I thought that Earth’s old solar system would be a good place to start. There is so much history that happened there. I want to see the star that Jupiter became in the Captor War.”
Matt waited for a moment and then heard, “Let’s also try and find the remnants of the moon that Earth left behind.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Matt jerked his attention back to his sensor systems. Someone had fired on his ship as it passed through a system. He backtracked and found the system where the energy beam had been directed at his ship. He energized his weapon systems and extended his sensors. Whoever had fired the weapon had extremely advanced sensors. He had been in the system less than a second and he had been detected and fired on in that brief moment. As a searcher, he was concerned because who ever fired did not have time to determine whether or not he was a threat or a friend which led him to believe that any ship that entered this system was attacked. Matt looked around the system and looked for the source of the attack. The system did not have intelligent life so whoever fired must be from another world.
“They must think I can’t see them.” Matt saw twenty four ships on his sensors hiding behind the moons circling the ninth planet in the system. So far they had not fired on him again. He looked back at Aladdin’s sensor record and saw that the beam that was used in the earlier attack was strong but wasn’t a real threat.
“I don’t want to have to attack you,” he thought at the twenty ships. “However, I would like an explanation as to why you fired on my ship.” He waited and heard nothing. “Looks like they need a little help in their communication skills.” Matt jumped Aladdin to within a mile of the largest ship. The large ship immediately fired all of its energy beams and launched fifty missiles at him. Matt ignored the energy beams and used his needles to destroy all fifty missiles before they could move a half a mile from the ship that fired them. He tried to communicate with them again but the large ship kept firing and was soon joined by the other twenty three ships. He didn’t want to destroy these ships because they were not attacking anyone else but him. He had a fleeting thought, “Well Aladdin, how am I going to get them to talk?”
“I would suggest a display of power,” a voice said in his head.
“Who are you,” Matt jumped up from his chair and asked quickly?
““I am your ship’s computer. I’ve been wondering when you were going to start communicating with me.”
“What, what, what.”
“I only answer questions you direct at me; that was the first time you actually asked me a question. Surly you were told at the Academy that your ship had an advanced cybernetic computer.”
“Yes, but I thought it would only connect me to the ship’s various systems.”
“Didn’t they also tell you it had all the information of everything ever learned in the Realm?”
“Yessss. Are you alive?”
“Actually, no; I am a replica of your brain engrams impressed on the total ships systems. You might say that I am you in computer form. The imprinting process took your neural pathways and produced the program that made me.”
Matt was stunned. “I thi
nk you and I have some catching up to do but I need to handle the current situation first. What did you mean by using a display of power?”
“I would suggest that you cut a section of the moon off these ships were hiding behind and fire your weapon at it to let them see just how strong we are.”
“Will you carry that out?”
“Certainly”
The ships continued to fire at the small ship and saw that nothing was getting thru the small ship’s defenses. Suddenly a bright white beam leapt out from the small ship and cut a section off the top of the small moon behind the largest ship. The section was longer than fifty miles and moved quickly away from the moon’s surface. The small ship then hit the cut off section with a bright red beam that disintegrated it. The twenty four ships stopped firing.
“Well, Aladdin, that was a good suggestion. Now let’s see if we can communicate.”
“I have been monitoring their ship to ship communications and I think I have enough of their language now to broadcast electronically to them in words they understand. Just talk normally and I’ll set the frequency and translate automatically.”
Matt raised his eyebrows and shook his head. He pressed his com button and said, “Why don’t we try this again. I don’t want to attack your ships but I’m curious as to why you fired on my ship as I flew through this system.”
There were a few moments of silence and then a voice answered, “We were expecting to be attacked by the Gresh. We thought you were one of them.”
Matt thought a moment, “Are you from the Planet they are attacking now.”
The voice sounded puzzled, “No, they defeated us seven rotations ago and destroyed most of our fleet. These twenty four ships are all that survived and they have been chasing us since the battle. I am the elected leader of our world and I was made to board this ship and flee.”
Matt sent a picture of the planet he had discovered that was being attacked and asked, “This is not your world?”
“Oh, my God; they’re attacking Hugon. No, that is another planet that we have been trading with for centuries. There are seven other worlds that we have peaceful and harmonious relationships with; Hugon is one of the most populated of the eight.”
“I have stopped their attack on Hugon and one of my Realm’s ships is there now insuring the safety of the planet’s population.”
“You stopped their fleet with your small ship?” the voice asked incredulously.
“Yes. I think I would like to go take a look at your world to see what’s happening if you don’t mind taking me there.”
“My ship would be destroyed if I went back to my home. The Gresh have scheduled the execution of more than 200,000 of my people in two days for resistance to their invasion.”
Matt grew angry, “Where on your planet are these executions planned to take place?”
“The Gresh have set up a holding camp outside our ten largest cities and are going to broadcast the executions. The camps are surrounded by thousands of their warriors armed with heavy disintegrators.”
“What is your name?”
“I am Goige and I am the Select of my people.”
“You may call me Searcher, Goige. I want to attempt to save your people but I need you to help me make that happen. Do you have a recording of the surface of your planet and the location of those ten camps?”
“We have pictures of them that we took before we escaped. I don’t see how you are going to be able to prevent their deaths. They will fire on my people at the first sign of trouble.”
“Even so, I have to try and you might be surprised at what I might be able to accomplish.”
“Thank you for your willingness to help. I have sent the information to you.”
Matt looked at his com and thought, “Al, do you have the information.” There was silence. Matt thought a moment and then thought, “Aladdin, do you have the information?”
“Yes I do.”
“Aladdin, I’m going to shorten your name to Al. So if you will respond to either name I would greatly appreciate it.”
“Change made, Searcher.”
“You may call me Magic, Al.”
“Magic it is.”
“Do you see any way we can save those prisoners?”
“Not without the use of our Realm’s Red Warriors, Magic.”
“How many would we need?”
“A hundred for each site would probably do it, however, just like before these ships would stop firing, we need to impress our power on the invaders. A company at each location would make that kind of impact.”
Matt thought for a minute and then hit his com, “Angel, do you have a moment?”
“Well hello, Magic. I am bored to tears right now. I won’t begin my first assignment for another week. I have all the time you need.”
“Angel, I need you to come help me try to save 200,000 people from being executed.”
“Where are you? I’ll be right there.”
Matt sent her his coordinates and her ship appeared instantly. “Angel, these ships have been chased from their home world and have told me that the invaders are planning to execute hundreds of thousands of their civilians.”
“Tell me what you want me to do.”
“First I want you to listen in to my conversation with Fleet command then we’ll decide how we want to handle it.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Fleet Command, I need to communicate with the Delta Ship in the Hugon system.”
“Go ahead, Searcher.”
Matt quickly filled in the commander of the SR Defender Ship Vgrig Summer. “It doesn’t surprise me. These Gresh are pretty bloodthirsty and are bent on total conquest. Reminds me of how my race used to be. We have removed them from this system and are standing by to insure they don’t return.”
“I am planning to try and save prisoners from execution but I wanted to see if perhaps your ship is better equipped to handle the exercise.”
“I’m sure we could but I think it would give you and some of the graduating searchers an excellent opportunity to take part in an action that will help them shorten their learning curve. I am also of the opinion that you could probably get in closer and faster than a ship this size. Your ship also possesses advanced systems that this class of vessel does not.”
“I tend to agree, Sir.”
“It is I that should be addressing you as “Sir”. The commander of an Alpha Ship outranks me.” Matt and Angel were surprised. “All Alpha Ship commanders outrank any other ship’s commander. You have the authority to use Fleet Command’s resources any way you think is needed.”
“Does Fleet Command have ten companies of Armored Red Warriors available if I need them?”
“I’m sending you a com code for General Durk. Tell him what you need.”
“Thank you.”
“Angel, I need you to go to Goige’s home world’s coordinates and scan the planet. I am going to call in eight other searchers and use them to screen the prisoners when we begin our exercise. I’ll have Al send you the language we have learned so you can speak to him directly.”
“Who is Al?”
“He’s my ships computer. Have you spoken with yours yet?”
Angel looked puzzled and Matt said, “Ask Wings to download the language program from Aladdin.”
After a moment Angel said, “Always the Magic man. Obviously you found yours first. I’ll use the time going to the planet to familiarize myself with my new friend. Thanks for inviting me to take part in this exercise.”
“Love having you here, Angel.” She smiled and disappeared from his com.
Matt hit his com and said, “I request the following Searchers to please come to my location to take part in a defender exercise: Stone Tree, Red Sky, Quilleron Sword, Blue Sea, Bright Star, High Shore, Dorg’s Son, and Vrig’s Wind.”
Angel returned from making her scan and found nine Searchers waiting for her. The twenty four ships of the Exkath were gathered around the small ships listening to
the planning of the rescue. Matt pressed his com and said, “Welcome back, Angel. Were you seen making your scan?”
“No, I made it from outside the system. I took the time to watch what was taking place on the planet and I must say I look forward to dealing with these Gresh. They are treating the population brutally.” Angel took a minute to say hello to her former classmates and then settled back to see what Matt had planned.
While Matt introduced the other searchers to Goige, Angel thought back to her first meeting with Matt. She was sitting in the academy’s library during her second year the night before she was to take a math exam. She had struggled for hours with the problems and found that she was lost. The concepts were too much for her and she knew she was going to have her first bad grade. She was sitting there feeling her tears fall on the papers in front of her. It was one of her goals to be at the top of her class and this would end that dream.