“Just a feeling, they were there,” she paused a moment.
“Then that feeling went away when they settled in.”
“Yes, but it was only a sensation.”
“True Bren, but I sense something now, again. Not the Crillons. Something else!”
Startled, Bren asked. “When did it start?”
“A couple of minutes ago, and it's getting stronger.”
He picked up his blaster and tucked it into his belt. “You've given me the jitters now. But, you're right. I sense it now as well.”
Both looked at the computer.
Meanwhile, on the Andromeda. The working language dictionaries for both the humans and the inhabitants of the planet DPav4 had been placed in Drone 23’s memory.
Then Frank, on seeing that everything was complete now, tapped Susanna's icon.
“Susanna, we’re ready to send drone 23 to the planet’s surface. Are you free to interact, in a meeting between you and the surface inhabitants, via the drone?”
“Yes. I’m going to the op's control room to see Jonathan.
He’s going to work with Andromeda and me, via the drone while we try to set up a meeting with the planet’s inhabitants.”
“Have you located a friendly target?”
“Yes,” she answered. As a map showing the planet’s near-surface filled his screen. A point then appeared on the map.
“From monitoring their communications, we think this is our best target.
The people seem to be important.
They're communicating with their communities. Plus, their local language has similarities with ours.”
“All right then. Andromeda, launch drone now.”
“Launched. Contact time, five minutes, eleven seconds,” Andromeda replied.”
Brendereen and Acarea looked over at the computer and realised it wasn’t the cause of the feeling.
“Acarea, try City Vicrea,” Bren ordered.
She tapped Vicrea's location on the map, and a man came online. His image appearing on the screen.
“I'm the city communication’s manager,” the man said.
“Who are you? I recognise your transmission code, but you can't be from Atreen. City Atreen is gone.”
“We are, but we think we’re the only survivors. We were lucky,” Bren said.
“We were well away from the city when it happened.”
“OK, but I can't talk now,” the man replied, sounding very edgy.
“We'll leave the transponder on, but we're being monitored.”
“I understand,” Acarea replied, and cut the connection.
She suddenly gripped Bren's arm, her eyes filled again with fear.
“They're coming, Bren. I can feel them.”
“Calm down Acarea. I can only vaguely sense them,” Bren said, soothingly.
She gripped his arm even tighter.
“Ouch!” he said. Trying to ease the pressure she was applying to his arm.
“There are many I think! No, there’s just one. Yes, it’s there. But now, it isn't!”
“You can’t sense it that much.”
“Yes, I can! There are many in the background. But, one is almost upon us, and yet, it isn't. I don't understand!”
She looked into his eyes. “I'm afraid, and yet, I know I shouldn’t be!” Acarea screamed with the pain she felt in her head, and beads of sweat started running down her cheeks.
Bren pulled the blaster out of his belt, ready for action.
Acarea put her hand on his arm. “No, Bren don’t. The pain’s reduced. It seems to know me!”
“What!” he exclaimed. “That's impossible.”
“It's arrived,” she said.
They heard a sound outside; a slight ‘bump’ then silence. She stood up and moved quickly towards the door.
“Stop,” yelled Bren.
But Acarea was already starting to open it. She looked outside, but nothing was there.
“Where are you?” She called.
‘Hello Acarea,’ came a voice in her head.
‘Welcome, Brendereen. I am Susanna.’
Bren staggered a bit as something changed slightly; he wasn’t sure what, but he could hear her voice now.
“Where are you?” Bren asked.
‘Right in front of you. I'm sorry my drone nudged your home.’
The drone shimmered into view for a moment, appearing quite significant to them. Then disappeared.
‘Don't worry, no one can see my drone,’ came Susanna’s voice.
‘And, of course, you already know I'm not here physically.'
“Yes,” Acarea replied.
She paused, then asked. “How can you talk to us?”
‘Well, that was one of the most surprising things to us. One of many actually,' Susanna pondered a moment.
'You ask how we are able to talk to you. Well, it seems that you have transceiver implants.
Similar to the ones we have, but your transplants provide a simpler connection to the brain. Enabling two-way speech, but only speech.'
Both Bren and Acarea looked at each other in astonishment.
“We have no idea where they've come from!” Acarea exclaimed.
‘At the moment, we don’t know where they’ve come from either,’ replied Susanna. ‘It’s a puzzle.’
She paused a moment, then continued. ‘But we only realised that you had the implants when we monitored your communications to make up a language dictionary,” she paused again.
‘We actually came here to find and eliminate the Crillons. Before they destroy Earth, our home planet.'
“Then we have something in common,” remarked Bren.
“Earth?” Acarea exclaimed. “Why is the name Earth already in my memory uh, Susanna?”
‘I don’t know why, Acarea.’
“Perhaps we can help you,” said Bren.
“We had what we call special operations training, at the Rustic church.”
‘What is the Rustic church?'
“It's like a big metal cave, up in the hills. In fact, I'll bet that's where we got the implants.”
'You need to find out why. The other thing we’re surprised at is your language. It has many similarities to what is called, Standard European English, on Earth.'
“Our history only goes back about eighty years,” Acarea said, looking puzzled.
'Your name, Acarea. Maybe it's the key?'
“What do you mean?”
'I will tell you a story, and I won’t use your implants for this.’
“So, now. Can you hear me speaking as if I was with you?”
“Yes,” they replied.
“Tell me if this could fit all of you.”
“Two hundred years ago, five countries combined to build an enormous Starship in Earth's orbit. It was named the Acarea.
The same as your name, by the way, Acarea.
The ship had a specially selected crew of over one hundred men and women.
Mostly experienced scientists and engineers, but with a core of people equipped to deal with the everyday running of the ship's facilities, and with the education and training of the crew's expected offspring.
It was self-sustaining. With multiple manufacturing facilities. Purification plants. In fact, everything needed to enable them to start a new life on one of the planets orbiting Procyon.
It was also equipped with small shuttles, and a range of high-tech armaments to protect the crew and ship.
When it was launched in 2109, it was powered by two massive rockets and a nuclear pulse engine and was heading for Procyon. The journey was expected to take about sixty Earth years,” Susanna said, then paused.
“Maybe the ship drifted off course, or, perhaps those in charge decided to go to Delta Pavonis instead. That's the name we have for your star.
But no word came from them at all.’ she said. Then went on speaking.
‘We looked for the Acarea on our last voyage but found no sign of it around Procyon.
That was th
e other reason for coming here. To look again for the Acarea,” said Susanna, pausing again.
“We encountered the Crillon’s around Procyon. It’s a long story that I won’t bother you with now.
But, from that time, we continued watching the Crillon ships from afar.
So, when we left Earth on this voyage. We already knew the remnants of the Crillon’s Fleet Twelve were probably here because we had detected their exit warp fields close to your planet.”
“I feel sick,” Acarea said. “My name is the same as that ship! How stupid of us not to have worked it out.
All this technology and machines. It must have come from somewhere. And that rustic church, I bet it’s our ship.”
'What do you call your home world?' Susanna asked, going back to using the implants.
“It’s always been called Pavonis,” Bren answered.
'So, that’s even more of a reason why we would like you to check on your origins.’
Susanna paused a moment, listening.
‘I’m sorry, I’m being recalled. My drone will leave a signalling device behind. Look after it, as we won’t be able to contact you without it,’ she warned.
‘Before I go, though, I must warn you that the Crillons have three ships in low orbit above your planet. They also have at least five more in high orbit.
The three ships in low orbit, are directing their Antimatter weapon at one of your remaining three cities.
So, it will be a challenge for us to destroy the three ships before they can decimate your towns.
By the way, what names do you give to your other cities?’
“Our City was Atreen, it’s gone now. The others are Marca, Velcray and Vicrea,” Acarea replied, then added.
“Oh, and thanks for your help. We understand everything you have told us.
Just let us know when you are ready, and what you want us to do.”
“Do you know about the crystals the Crillons are trying to grow?” Bren asked.
'Yes, but it will take 4 to 5 months to finish them.'
“Just checking.
So, we’re to go off to the rustic church, now then?”
'Yes. We’ll keep in touch.
We’ve also downloaded our language translator to your computer. Good luck.'
Then came a hissing sound that seemed to reduce in volume as the drone headed back to the ship. With it gradually disappearing, leaving nothing.
The presence had faded. Brendereen and Acarea turned to look at each other and embraced, in relief.
Chapter 15
Mystery Solved.
“Well done Susanna,” Frank and Andromeda said together, as she walked into the control room.
“Yes, I did all right, didn't I?”
“Yes, but there's nothing much they can do on their own,” Frank said.
“That's true. But I really think we’ve found the descendants of the Acarea.”
“Could well be,” he replied.
“Andromeda, I want an all captains meeting in one hour, the usual 3D mode. Oh yes, and each ship's weapons system coordinator to be with them.”
“I'll organize it now.”
“Good, and make sure Mark is here in person.”
“Yes, Frank.”
Susanna turned to go. “Stay, please Susanna,” he said, feeling Andromeda's presence reduce.
“What's your gut feeling about Brendereen and Acarea, can we trust them?”
“I'm sure we can. My monitor showed they were telling the truth all the time. They really don't know their past.”
“Good.” They had a quick kiss, and she reluctantly left.
The Inter-ship conference started an hour later. With Mark Trask, the weapon's specialist, sitting beside him.
“This has been a hell of a trip, Frank.”
“Yea, and it's just about to get more interesting.”
The conference began. The screen showing the images of the four captains, Derrick, Tony, Harry and Barry. Their weapon’s expert sitting beside each captain.
“Welcome, gentlemen. Before we go on to discuss the situation, and how we can proceed, I want all ships to keep up local scans, in case the Crillons know more than we think.
Note that we'll answer any questions after.
We'll start with Susanna and Andromeda's meeting with our targets. Their names are Brendereen, and Acarea, his wife. Their city was Atreen, but the Crillons have already destroyed it.
Would you like to continue, Andromeda?”
“Yes. You all know about the Acarea, the large settler Starship that we’re searching for, which was launched in 2109 and set off, on course to arrive at Procyon about 60 years later.
On our last voyage, as you know, we were unable to locate her and assumed that maybe the ship drifted off course.
Or, perhaps the crew decided to go to Delta Pavonis instead. We didn’t know.
But now, we’re sure of one thing.
The inhabitants of this planet DPav4 are the descendants of the old Starship Acarea.
The exact same name as one of our contacts.” Andromeda paused to let the on-screen chattering stop.
“The Crillons have already wiped out whatever military power these people had, and it’s clear they don’t need them, apart from using their labour that is.
There were four cities on the planet. The Crillons have already destroyed one of them and there's nothing to stop them destroying the other three cities.”
“Except us,” interrupted Tony Crisp. “We must stop them.”
“Hopefully, yes,” Andromeda continued.
“We also think that the battered and rusty remains of their ship, the Acarea, are in the hills above the city the Crillons wiped out.
The ship is what they have always called the rustic church. It's where Brendereen and Acarea, apparently received Ops training.
Interestingly, they also have transceiver implants. Similar to ours, but much older technology,” she said, then paused.
“So, between us, we need to find out where their implants came from, and whether there is something in the remains of their ship that may still be functioning?
Brendereen and Acarea have agreed to help us on the ground. We've given them an audio video communicator, so we can contact them, and assist them if necessary while they are checking out the rustic church.
But, the Crillons seem to be monitoring their area, so they know they must use the communicator as little as possible,” she stopped again, as the chattering broke out once more.
Then, Barry interrupted before she could continue.
“Can we trust them, Frank?”
“Barry, you know we’re taking questions later,” Frank replied, his voice sounding hard. “But, yes we can trust them. Andromeda, Susanna and I are all convinced of it. Please continue Andromeda.”
“Thank you, Frank. So, Stealth Drone 23 has given us a lot of extra data that Susanna and Tim are going through now.
We also know the Crillons are trying to grow new warp crystals. It should take about 5 months to complete the first batch, but we can’t be sure of exactly how long it will really be. It may well be less.”
Frank, raised his hand, to stop Harry Blacksmith from interrupting.
“Well, we have five ships and twenty drones, in all, with four drones allocated to each vessel.
However, we don’t have enough to be sure of taking out the three Crillon ships poised in firing angles above each city.
Additionally, the Crillon’s other four ships are in high orbit and could engage us before we get within range to take the first three safely out.
Therefore, between us, we need to come up with a fool-proof plan of action. That’s all. Frank.”
“Thank you, Andromeda. OK. You all need to work on this plan,” he stated.
Everyone note that all available data has been uploaded to your computers, so everything should be to hand.
As soon as Susanna and Tim have finished going through drone 23’s latest data that will also be upload
ed to you, along with the final language dictionaries.”
“Can we use the drones, Frank?” Derrick asked. “They've got two nuclear torpedoes each, and it’s worked before?”
“Yes, I’m sure we can use them somewhere in the equation.
But, as we’ve said, you all have the same information that we do!
Look at the information gathered from Andromeda's experiences in fighting the Crillons the last time.
Put your heads together, and think.”
“Couldn't we just set the drones to knock off their rears?” Harry Blacksmith asked. “We've enough drones between us.”
“But if we hit the Crillon ships hanging over the cities, the rear detonation would probably push the wreckage down, and onto them,” Frank replied, now slightly exasperated.
“Gents, we’ve asked all of you to look for a solution that we can work with. Study the data. Work together with your weapon's departments. Think, outside-the-box, whatever it takes!”
They all nodded agreement.
“All right. The longer we have to sit around here, the more chance there is that some Crillon ship might spot us,” he finished.
Then added. “Ok, then Gents, Conference tomorrow, at the same time.”
They all nodded, and their images disappeared from his screen.
“Andromeda, send SD 23 back to the planet when its data has been uploaded. I want to see what Brendereen and Acarea are doing and make sure they are safe.”
Chapter 16
The Rustic Church.
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 28