Solarans 1: The Gift From Aquarii

by Don Koch

  # Earth Orbit on the Solaran Ship Aston I#

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Collum added, "Andy thanks for that last comment. I am glad that you give him the latitude he needs to protect his crew. Now we wait and see."

  # Task Force B Flagship En Route to Earth #

  # Sunday, August 21 #

  # Thirteen hours later #

 

  # Three hours later #

 

 

 

 

 

  # Five hours later #

 

 

 

 

 

  Sider made all of the necessary arrangements and positioned the ships where he wanted them. Since the battleships had multiple scanning devices, he prepared two ships to do the scans. He counted on the reaction time of the Sorzan being too slow to react to the scans before the self-destruct signals could be stopped. Once he was satisfied that all was ready, he gave the order to proceed with the countdown. The scans occurred and before the Sorzan could react, the self-destruct signal went out and the Task Force shifted away from the Sorzan fleet. The result was spectacular. All of the ships including the three large ships exploded vehemently. There were no surviving ships. The plan had worked exactly as planned.

 

 

  Chapter 28 - Samar

  # Task Force B Flagship - 18 LY from Lota #

  # Monday, August 22 #

  "Captain, we have completed preliminary review of the scans done on the larger Sorzan vessel."

  Sider said, "OK, let's see what you have. Hmm, considering that your crew was under considerable pressure to get this done in one limited shot, this is very good. Just what should I focus on."

  "Well sir, for starters, this vessel is more like a conventional warship that we would expect to see. These individuals circled in green in this scan are the bio-robots. There are a bunch of them. These three figures circled in red are another matter. Let me show you why." He enlarged the scan until the figure was actual life-sized and sharpened the focus. "There, now you can see…"

  "Good Lord, they appear to be human! In fact, Lotan human."

  "Exactly, they are Lotan human. We even know who these three are."

  "What, how is that possible?"

  "Well sir, the impossible just takes a bit longer. Um, sorry for the wisecrack but this has me on edge. "

  "Me too, forget it, please proceed."

  "Wel
l sir, the new scanning equipment is a dream because it also has a DNA capture component to it so we have been able to identify these three individuals. All three were serving life sentences until they escaped from the maximum security prison at Delt about 40 years ago. There were 20 escapees in that group and they were led by a scientific genius, Florin Dael. Sir this explains a lot doesn't it."

  "Unfortunately it does. Get this data off to Andy, Collum and Aston right away. "

  "Yes sir, I will do that, but there is more."

  "Something tells me I am not going to like this."

  "Yes sir that is true. The three individuals on board were enhanced. Not nearly to the extent that Solarans are but they appear to be very strong, very fast and have limited armor. Not sufficient to withstand the blast they were in but enough to make them problematical for most police forces. "

  "Oh boy."

  As Sider sat there digesting the information he had just received, he decided there was one more thing he should do before leaving the area of the explosions. He called in all of the Solarans he had on board and explained what he wanted to do. Solarans on the other ships would be pushing the debris field from the explosions into a single mass and then his team would melt the whole thing to assure that no components were salvageable. The job took about three hours to complete but when done, it was a sight to behold. The temperature at the inner core had exceeded 50,000 degrees, well past the melting point on any individual component, assuring that all components were unusable. They then cooled the blob and marked it with a beacon for possible future raw material use.

  The search of the area between Lota and the new system was clear so Sider proceeded on to the newly discovered system. His task force entered orbit and Sider determined where to make contact. He mentally contacted the Admiral in charge of the planetary defenses and asked for a meeting with him and whoever was their chief executive. The admiral refused and got huffy.

  Another voice interjected,

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Sider and Fema transported to the Ossar's location while Ed and Janie picked up the Admiral and joined Sider, Fema and Ossar.

 

 

  He then went on to describe their growing role in the stellar region, and the events of the past two months including their location and treatment of the Sorzan fleet.

  Admiral Mintz asked,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Immediately they were on the bridge of the flagship. "Schematic B of ship please."

 

 

 

  The recording showed the Sorzans firing on the Solarans and the Solarans melting the firing station and continued until the ship self-destructed.

 

  Ed replied,

  The Admiral paled,

 

 

 

  The Admiral gasped. The scene displayed his station and a few ships arriving there from the planet. On one side
of the station was the flagship, easily ten times the size of the station. The carrier parked on the other side of the station was about 2½ times the length of the battleship. They teleported to the mess where a meal was underway. The crew was pretty excited about the successful conclusion of their mission and were chatting away about it.

  Ossar then said to two crew members, "May I join you for a minute. Your Commander is not sure he believes that we are both speaking the same tongue."

  "Certainly, please join us, where are you from?."

  "I live on the planet below, Samar. And you?"

  "We are both from Lota until those creepy Sorza came along and blew most of it to rubble. At least the group that did us bad will not be doing it to anyone else. What do you do on Samar?"

  "Oh, I am the king of the planet."

  "You are joking, right?"

  "No, that is for real."

  By now Sider was laughing uproariously. "I never hoped to see the day you two jokers would be out done. Gentlemen, please meet the Monarch of Samar. I also never hoped to see the day when you would be speechless. Your majesty, these two lads are hard working good lads but sometimes their sense of humor is a little rough on others. This is priceless and thank you for the laugh. I really needed it. You however have just posed a most interesting mystery. How is it that we all speak the same language yet we are from two planets that are 22 light years apart. Its wonderful for communications but I think this will give our scientists some sleepless nights."