“That’s wonderful! I’m sure the two of you will get along just fine.”
“I’m sure, and thank you both for stopping by, but now, I think I want to try and sleep a little.”
“Of course, we need to be going as well. There are several urgent issues we need to check in on at HQ, but we’ll be looking forward to seeing you again soon.”
“As will I. Commander, could I have a word with you before you go?”
“Of course. I’m sure the angel won’t mind.”
Randall couldn’t keep from grinning as he watched Verna walk into the hall before turning back to Twain. “Captain, there’s no need…”
“Yes, yes, there is. I do apologize for my rantings about your wife. I had no idea. I’m sure she must think I’m completely out of my mind.”
Randall grinned as he placed his hand on Twain’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to apologize for, Captain. All she thinks is that you’re a man who’s been through a lot. Besides, everything you said about her is true, and just for the record, my pet name for her is “angel.” To be honest I would think you were out of your mind if you didn’t see her the way you described. I’ve seen her that way since the day I met her.”
“That’s not all, Commander. I have a confession to make. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think I hate you.”
Randall finally lost it as he began to laugh long and hard while Twain sat silently and looked disgusted. “It’s alright, Captain. Most people do, but you know, you did find an angel. On my ship there are frequently four angels and one of them seems to like you just fine. Be smart enough to recognize it.”
Twain smiled as he nodded. “Have a safe flight back, Commander. See you in a month.”
Chapter 12
Nephilim Directorate Council chambers…
“And so, dear brothers, as you can see, we have carefully crafted a cunning battle plan to disarm and devastate the humans. I submit to the council that the time has come to take their planet once and for all. With the help of Thuban and his warriors we will send out the greatest space force the universe has ever seen!
“We will penetrate and eliminate their defenses! We will bring overwhelming power to bear to establish our domination! All that remains is the vote of Lord Pyro to make this a unanimous decision.”
Grim faced, Pyro stood to announce his vote. “You make a strong argument, Anakim, but I am not fully persuaded your plan will succeed. Yet I will vote in your favor under one condition.”
“And that would be…”
Pyro stood grinning like a demon at midnight. “Simply this… should your plan fail, you will be brought before this council for public execution while your wealth, wives, and slaves are distributed to the remaining council members to be used as they see fit.”
Anakim’s eyes blazed red as he laughed and gave his answer. “I agree, but with a single condition of my own. Should my plan be successful, when I return victorious, the same fate shall befall you, Pyro. You shall be executed, and your wealth and wives passed on. Agreed?”
“Agreed!”
“In that case, it is a unanimous vote and we leave immediately for Earth! Thuban, you may proceed as planned.”
Minutes later Thuban was back aboard his ship. “The time has come! Make haste for Earth’s moon and have Tyl report to me at once.”
“As ordered, great Thuban! We will be there in less than one Earth day.”
Soon Tyl stood before Thuban dressed in a DSSF flight suit, and he was very pleased with what he saw. “Your preparation is complete. You are ready!”
Tyl looked down at the deck and quietly replied. “I am ready, Master.”
“Is something wrong, Tyl?”
“Nothing is amiss, Master. All is well.”
“Yet, you seem sad for some reason. You should be glad the time has come to put your efforts to good use for me. What could make you happier?”
“Nothing, Master. Serving you is my only pleasure.”
“Well spoken!”
“Mighty Thuban, Dziban signals his ship is ready.”
“Excellent! It is time for you to go to Dziban’s ship. We will not be far away. Once you are in position we will capture one of their smaller transports and you will use it to get down to their base. And do not forget, your execution of our plan will determine its success or failure.”
“I understand, Master.”
DSSF HQ…
“General Barrett, I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but you are needed in Tactical. There’s something on SRN you need to see.”
“On my way.”
As the general entered the nerve center of DSSF, he could see dozens of little red dots on the SRN display.
“What is this, Corporal?”
“An armada of 120 Grey, Nephilim and Emim vessels, all on course for Earth.”
“E.T.A.?”
“Their current speed puts them at the Line in 5.9 days.”
“I see. How long to get our main defense force to the Line?”
“We can have all three battle groups at the Line in 3.47 days.”
“Then we must move quickly. Notify all ship commanders there will be an emergency defense meeting here at 1400 hours today. Those who are on station and cannot attend in person will be able to monitor the meeting on COM 3.”
“Yes, sir!”
When Verna received word of the meeting, she was about to return to the Guardian satellite to place it into a safer orbit, lower and closer to other satellites that had already been checked off Randall’s list, but with him grounded for almost three weeks she knew he would not be in the area this time.
Quickly Verna made her way to the Sirius test flight hangar, where she met with Second Lieutenant Lucy just before they took off in another Interrogator.
“This should be a piece of cake, Lieutenant. Everything will be just like before, quick and easy. Now let’s get moving. I want to be back here in less than an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A half hour later Starr was beside Guardian watching Lucy pull herself back into the Interrogator, and just as before, they followed along as Guardian moved into a new orbit 300 miles above the Arctic Circle. All the while, Dziban’s ship was resting on the moon’s surface just beyond the day side as it watched them follow the satellite. A small DSSF craft like the Interrogator was exactly what the Emim were looking to capture, and it was time to make their move.
“Ok, Lieutenant, now that Guardian has settled into its new orbit we’re almost finished. There’s just one more task to perform before we go home. Do you see the slotted vent next to the exhaust port?”
“Aye.”
“At the bottom of the vent is a small black lever. All you have to do is flip it up and make sure it locks in place. I’ll move us directly below the vent, so you can use the canopy handles to get to it just like accessing the main door.”
“No problem, ma’am.”
In a flash they were beneath the vent with the canopy open and Lucy was on her way one last time. Starr was holding steady waiting for her to return when something strange appeared on her radar.
“Wow! What the heck is that and where did it come from? It’s closing fast! Starr to Lucy!”
“Lucy here.”
“Lieutenant, I need you to return to the ship immediately.”
“I’m finished and on my way.”
In seconds Lucy was back in the ship and strapped down. “How did it go, Lieutenant?”
“Like you said, a piece of cake! Are we in a hurry?”
Before Starr could reply, a much larger vessel appeared directly over them and opened fire just as she was about to go to max thrust.
“Hang on, Lieutenant!”
“Captain, what is that?”
“Visitors we don’t want to meet!”
As a wide door began to open on the front of the mystery ship, Starr was doing all she could to escape, but it would not be nearly enough. Before she could get underway, their fighter was struck by several laser bolt
s that disabled all systems, leaving the two women helpless. In just a few seconds the small fighter began to drift, but was soon caught in a strong magnetic field and quickly swallowed whole by the much larger vessel. Realizing what was happening, Verna hit her emergency transponder and began to call for help as the bay doors closed tight.
“May Day! Rocket Babe to Olympus, we are under attack! Send…”
The fighter was being pulled into a large landing bay by an unseen energy emanating from what appeared to be two long steel poles. With their electronics dead, Verna tried to manually ignite her thrusters but before she could complete the attempt, the crippled Interrogator slammed into the beams broadside. In less than a second the cockpit emergency lights blinked on at half power.
“That was quite a jolt and we’re stuck fast! Are you ok, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, ma’am, I think so. My helmet banged the canopy pretty hard, but I’m ok. Do you think anyone heard you, Captain?”
“I don’t know. Let’s pray someone heard something. With all the composite materials, I wouldn’t have thought there was enough steel in this thing to make a decent hood ornament, but every gauge seems to be magnetized!”
“Now what?”
“Strap on your reserve air tank and arm yourself. I’ll get the go bag. Let’s get out and find a place to hide until we can see who’s grabbed us.”
As soon as they were out, Verna lowered the canopy and flipped on her flashlight. The bay was about 10,000 square feet and for the most part wide open, but there were structural support columns along the walls wide enough for them to hide behind. Just as they made it to the base of the closest support column, the walls began to glow providing light and they could feel the pressure in the bay begin to change. Soon after, another door opened on the opposite side of the bay and from where they were hiding they could see two very tall warriors move quickly to the Interrogator.
One warrior found the canopy switch and opened it long enough to check inside but after they had looked the spacecraft over carefully and found nothing, the pair left the bay closing the door behind them.
“That was lucky! Why didn’t they look for us?”
“I don’t know unless they think the Interrogator is an unmanned drone.”
“I hate to ask this again, Captain, but now what?”
Verna looked around then began to remove her helmet. “What are you doing?”
“All life forms, of which we are aware, breathe some degree of oxygen. These tanks won’t last long, but if we can breathe what they do, our chances of getting out of this will go up dramatically.”
Verna removed her helmet, took a long deep breath and smiled. “Well, as I suspected, it stinks, but it’s breathable. Take off your helmet and place your tank on standby.”
Lucy did as instructed, but soon had a sour look on her face. “Oh, my lord! You weren’t kidding about the stink. It’s wicked!”
“Let’s check out the ship and see if it’s still flyable. If it is, then we can try and find a way out of this bay.”
DSSF flight line…
Commander Randall had been enjoying a leisurely morning while the crew of 107 performed routine maintenance on 107, but things were about to become very serious.
Penelope was sitting at her station calibrating SRN radar when her threat board lit up. “Commander! The fleet just went on high alert and SRN is now showing a large ship in orbit.”
“Identify!”
“CVERS data base shows it to be an Emim frigate.”
“What’s their position?”
“Directly over Barrow, Alaska, holding position near a large satellite at 300 miles.”
“Where’s the closest ship?”
“That would be us, sir. That is, we could be there before any other ship, but you’re grounded.”
Addison quickly chimed in, “We’re not grounded! You need to get off, sir.”
After hearing her statement, Randall gave them all a look that said exactly what he was thinking and then made his way to his seat. For an instant the lieutenants looked at each other, then without further discussion belted in.
“All hands, General Quarters! Pilot, request emergency clearance. W.O. bring all weapons online and standby.”
“Aye, sir, all weapons armed!”
“Commander, we’re cleared to launch!”
“Pilot, max thrust!”
Addison turned half way in her seat. “Are you sure you can handle the G forces, sir?”
Randall gave her the same look. “Aye, sir.”
“Time to target?”
“Two minutes twenty-one seconds.”
Sixty seconds later…
“Sir, HQ now reports that just before the alert they caught part of a broken message on emergency channel.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“May Day! Rocket Babe to Olympus, we are under attack! Send…”
“That’s all, sir.”
Randall shook his head. “Why am I not surprised. Scan for 100.”
“Got it, sir. 100 is parked at the SF-1 flight line.”
“Try to contact Starr.”
Penelope called twice. “No reply, sir.”
“Contact HQ and ask what she was doing up here and in what ship.”
“We are now in weapons range, sir.”
“Pilot, bring us to a full stop at two miles.”
“HQ reports Captain Starr is on a classified training mission with Second Lieutenant Lucy.”
“Where? In what ship?”
“That’s all they’ll say, sir. She is on a classified mission.”
“Do you have anything at all on your scope?”
Penelope checked ship’s radar and SRN for the tenth time in ten minutes.
“Negative, sir, normal traffic only. Every object in orbit has been triple verified. It’s like they simply vanished.”
“Well, they’ve got to be out here somewhere. COM, does CVERS have a communication frequency for the Emim?”
“Affirmative, but sir, they are calling us!”
“Speakers!”
“Greetings Ferryman! Or should I say, Commander Randall? I am Dziban, commanding the Emim warship, Draconis.”
“English! Yes, this is Commander Randall. Your ship is not authorized to be in DSSF space. You must withdraw to beyond five million miles of this planet until a request for proper authorization is approved. Failure to do so immediately will be considered an act of war.”
Dziban cackled like Satan as he replied. “Commander, we are not here to fight you today. You are the one who came charging at us with your missile ports open and weapons ready. At this time, we merely wished to introduce ourselves and perhaps exchange some basic information.”
“I see. You expect me to believe there’s been some kind of misunderstanding?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“What misunderstanding did you have with the Russians?”
“That does not concern you, Commander.”
“For the record, everything that happens on or above this planet concerns us, but as for the charge, we were responding to a distress call from one of our ships that came from these co-ordinates, and when we arrived we found an Emim warship but no sign of those who sent the call. Would you be able to help us with that?”
“I’m very sorry, but no, we did not receive a distress call and as you can see, our two ships are the only ones in the area. Tell me, do you detect any signs of a battle?”
Randall glanced at Penelope. “COM?”
“Nothing, sir. No debris or radiation. Henry and Ono are four minutes out.”
“As I said, Commander, we are only here for an initial greeting. When I saw your ship coming to meet us, I could not resist the opportunity to speak with you. After all, you and Captain Starr are very popular with Anakim. He can’t stop talking about you.”
“I bet, but I have to admit Dziban, you seem to know a good deal about us, and since you’re here, let’s talk for a mome
nt. To start, how do you speak our language so fluently, know me and my ship, and most importantly, why is an Emim warship so close to Earth?”
“Yes, Commander, we know a great deal about DSSF and your alliance with the Rigelians. We see the little decorations on your ship and it makes no difference to us. We know you, your crew, capabilities, personnel, and even Captain Starr. How we know is irrelevant, but I will say that we are experts at evaluation. In an instant I can scan your ship and see your individual heart and respiration rates and I must say I am impressed. You, Penelope, and Addison do not seem anxious at all, and Lieutenant Sela appears to be bored. Although, her right index finger is very close to the launch button. That one… she makes me nervous!”
“That’s enough Dziban! As you can see, we do not fear you and we know something of the Emim as well. I think you will find us more than capable of defending ourselves, so let’s end this now. Turn that ship around and make your best speed until you are beyond five million miles. If you are serious about normalizing relations with DSSF, we will provide the frequencies to begin the process.”
“Thank you, Commander, but we already have that information. Good luck finding your missing ship; perhaps it was abandoned. Until we meet again.”
“Sir, they’re coming about and I’m reading a massive power surge.”
“Forty-five degrees to port, maximum thrust!”
Addison quickly complied and just managed to escape the extreme exhaust blast of the much larger vessel. A few seconds later the Emim vessel was already beyond visual range.
Penelope turned white as a sheet. “That was close!”
“Wow! Did you see how fast they moved out? They’re headed away from Earth, sir, and will over fly the moon in approximately five minutes. I believe it’s safe to say their technology is slightly ahead of the Nephilim’s.”
“Sir, Ono and Henry Purcell are now paralleling us at 50 miles.”
Randall was holding his head and trying not to scream. “Tell them the threat is over and to return to their assignment.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Secure from GQ. Pilot, take us back to that satellite. I want a closer look.”
“Aye, sir.”
Sela watched Randall for a moment then quietly went to his chair. “How’s your head?”
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