by Krystyn Dean
We were continuing down the corridor when Corporal Mangan held up his hand signaling a stop. “Colonel, I think I can hear a voice up ahead.” I replied, “Let’s move up, but proceed carefully, everyone on alert.” We had progressed about sixty meters when a voice became clear, but not understandable. It was somewhere up ahead and to the left. We proceeded cautiously down the corridor to a hatch. Carefully, Corporal Mangan opened the hatch. We could easily hear the voice now; it was coming from further inside. I said, “Flash bang corporal.” Mangan tossed the flash bang grenade inside and quickly closed the door. The sound was loud even in the Corridor. We did a standard high/low entrance and proceeded down the Corridor. We found ourselves in what appeared to be the ships brig. There were barred doors along both sides of the corridor. At the very end. The last cell on the left was locked. Inside stood a hulk of an alien. The large alien was accompanied by another alien, obviously of a different species. The first alien was at least three meters tall and had to weigh in at somewhere north of three hundred pounds. Humanoid, but with a green tint to his skin. He was simply big all over. The second alien could have been mistaken for a human except for the slightly blue cast to his skin. He also had dark piercing eyes that seemed to look deep inside you. Both were obviously in pain. They both had their hands over their ears. The Big guy’s eyes were scrunched up and he was bellowing at the top of his lungs. Fortunately, our suits were equipped with a universal translator.
The translator said the language was Rheaganese. I asked “Can you hear me? What is your name and why are you in this cell?” The alien replied. “I can hear you a little bit yes, my ears are in pain and my head is ringing. Why did you do that? We were in this cell; we could not harm you from here.” I said,” sorry for any injury we may have caused, we just had to be careful. We were not sure who was here.” The alien said, “I understand. You are human soldiers are you not?” I said, “we are, how did you know, I am sure you have never met one of us before.”
The big man replied, “that is true, but the entire galaxy has heard of the Earth Navy that is going to conquer all space. Is big joke throughout the sector. No one expect humans to be “tough guys”. New in space, wet behind ears, going to get butts kicked bad.”
I said, “well big man, we didn’t do too badly today, but I’m sure it won’t be as easy the next time. Besides, conquering “all space” isn’t exactly what we have in mind. What are your names and why are you in this cell?”
Big man replied, “my name is Diviak Y'shol, I am from Apsis Prime. My people were conquered by the Eldirelians many yetons ago. The Eldirelians are brutal, they force our people to work in the mines, they have pillaged our planet and are taking everything of value for themselves, they torture and kill my people for sport. I am what you would call a dissident, my fighters and I kill Eldirelians wherever we can find them. We make them pay for their misdeeds. I was captured when betrayed by spy and was being taken to Grenushania, the Eldirelians home planet, for public execution. These deepest pit spawn were redirected here to spy on your ship and destroy it if possible.”
“That is information the Captain needs. He will want to debrief you I am sure.” I turned to the other alien and said, “You don’t look like a Rheaganese. What is your story?” The blue alien said, “my name is Qobrun. I belong to a race called the Krayari. Our system is far from here.” I replied, “You are speaking English, how do you come to speak our language?”
“I speak many languages” was his enigmatic reply.
Just then Gunny Applewhite called to let us know that Dr. Hiller had disarmed the auto destruction device. I called the Captain and advised him about the Rheagane and the Krayari. I asked him how he wanted to proceed. He said to stay put, they were going to use a tractor beam to pull the ship closer in and see if we could include it in our jump bubble. We needed to take the ship back to Titan for inspection if possible. We will also need to put a watch crew on board for transit.
Soon we were moving in close to one of the Ronald Reagans’ launch bay doors. I asked the Captain how he wanted to handle the aliens. The captain said, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Release them and bring them aboard, I will meet you in the launch bay. We will have our visitors inside a stasis field until we can assure they have no hidden weapons and a discreet escort of Marines would probably be a good idea as well. Just in case.”
We picked up Lieutenant White, her squad and Dr. Hiller then exited the Eldirelian ship to the shuttle and then went directly to the launch bay on board the Ronald Reagan. It was our first battle as SFN Marines.
My people did the job as it was supposed to be done. To say I am proud of them would be a classic understatement, I will go into battle with my people any time anywhere.
CHAPTER FIVE
NEW ALLIES?
As Captain of the Ronald Reagan, I felt it was my duty to meet The Marine away team from the captured warship as they filed onboard, bringing up the rear was Lt. Colonel Finnerty and four of his best Marines “escorting” the pair of aliens. Before I met Diviak Y’shol and his cellmate Qobrun though, I needed to talk to Dr. Hiller. I said, “Colonel Finnerty, could you hold right here? I need a moment with Dr. Hiller.”
I asked, Anne, “are you comfortable with our bringing this ship to Titan Dr. Hiller?” She replied, “I am Captain, we can hold it close with tractor beams and leave it in a stasis field. It should fold right in to our jump bubble.” “Alright,” I said “make it happen, let me know when you are ready.” “Alright sir. It will take about an hour.” She replied
I then proceeded to our guests. I held out my hand in greeting. Diviak Y’shol looked at me in question. I said, “Diviak Y’shol, our species greet friends by shaking hands, I hope we are going to be friends, will you shake my hand?” “I understand Keptain,” he said, “this is a friendly gesture of greeting, yes? Of course we shall be friends, you saved my life from the scum Eldirelians and I am eternally in your debt for that kindness.” I turned to Qobrun and offered my hand, which he took and gave me a firm handshake. Qobrun said, “Captain I sense danger, I cannot identify it, but my species is sometimes capable of precognition. I suggest proceeding with caution.” I replied, “are you suggesting I am in danger from Diviak Y’shol?” “No Captain you are in no danger from Diviak Y’shol, or from me. There is another danger that is near. I am sorry, but I can’t tell you more than that. Our psi abilities are not constant.”
“Thank you for your concern Qobrun, but I feel quite safe here on my ship”. I then suggested, “Let’s go to my ready room, we can talk there until the ship is ready to jump.”
We headed down the corridor to my ready room, as we entered, I noticed that Lieutenant Jenson had opened Admiral Millers’ gift and had set it on my desk. I hadn’t seen it before, it was a beautiful globe, of some exotic metal, with constantly swirling color. I progressed through the hatch and Diviak Y’shol followed me through. Suddenly I heard Y’shol shout “death orb, get down” and he slammed me to the floor just as a blast tore through my ready room.
I awakened a day later in the ships hospital. Drs. Barton and Naidoo were waiting by my side. “What happened I asked?” Dr. Barton explained, “the gift from Admiral Miller was apparently something called a death orb. According to Diviak Y’shol they are a favorite tool of assassins throughout the sector. He recognized it for what it was and threw you to the floor. He saved your life, the desk absorbed some of the blast, but you still sustained serious injuries.” “How about Diviak, Qobrun and the Marines,” I asked. Dr. Barton said, “Diviak Y’shol was badly hurt, just as you were. The marines’ shields protected them, and because Qobrun was surrounded by Marines he was protected by their shields as well. They are all fine, just a little shaken up. You and Y’shol both had life threatening injuries, we had no choice but to inject you both with the nanobots we are using for the marines’ strength program. We knew you could tolerate them, we had to take a chance with Y’shol, we couldn’t have saved him without them. Fortunately,
he seems to be doing fine. He has been asking about you”
“Is the ship OK” I asked?
“You will need to talk to XO Baker sir, but I believe she is alright,” said Dr. Barton.
Thanks to the nanobots I had gotten, I was able to be up and around. My first visit was to Fritz Baker who assured me that the damage had been minor, no structural damage, but my ready room was ready for a refit. Diviak Y’shol was next on my list. “Diviak Y’shol, how are you feeling?” The giant alien replied, “much better than I thought I would Keptain Anderson, you are well? “ “A little shaky, but I am going to be fine thanks to you.” I replied. “Tell me Diviak, why would you take such a risk for someone you don’t even know?” “Keptain,” he replied, “I know you, you are man saving my life, you are man make it possible I go on fighting and killing Eldirelian obscenity. I kill them and perhaps free my planet from such as these. To you I am indebted for my life. I have been talking to your Mr. Baker and he has told me about the Solar Federation Navy. Perhaps I can enter the service of your Navy. If possible, I wish to be allowed to continue kill Eldirelians. I owe my life to you and the Solar Federation Navy and I must repay this debt. This is as my people do, this is our way, to not fulfill this obligation would be a dishonor my people could never forgive on me.”
I said, “Diviak, if that is what you want I will make it happen. Now get some sleep, we will be arriving at our station tomorrow and it will be a very busy day for both of us.”
After talking to Diviak, I asked for Qobrun. Jenson said that Fritz had assigned him quarters and had posted a guard outside his hatch to be certain he didn’t wander. I asked Jenson to have him brought to my ready room. When Qobrun arrived, I stood and extended my hand. As he shook my hand I said, “Qobrun, thank you for the heads up, but tell me. How did you know about the death orb?” He replied, “Captain Anderson, I did not know of the death orb. The danger I sensed was distant and only disappeared after the unsuccessful assassination attempt. The danger I sensed had more to do with a malicious energy than with a direct threat. I regret I am unable to be no more concise than that.”
Qobrun and I spoke for a few minutes, but I felt that I had no more real information about him and his species than I did to begin with. For some reason, I felt I could trust him and He assured me that he would share more information as we went along. I decided that I would leave Qobrun to the talents of security when we returned to Titan.
After reaching our exit jump point, we called Titan to fill them in. We had some damage, but more importantly we had an Eldirelian ship that needed to be assessed. I wanted to know what the weapon that hit us so hard was and I was sure there would be some other interesting items we might be able to use as well.
I had talked to Fritz about what had happened after I was knocked out. The Ronald Reagan had searched for escape pods and found several, but before we could pick them up they exploded. Fritz believes the explosions were remotely activated. The Reagan managed to establish contact with some of the pods, but they were taken out shortly after the occupants had agreed to surrender and be brought aboard. Sensors indicate that one escape pod seemed to be a command vessel which had the ability to leave the area, probably to be picked up somewhere in the outer system. Fritz believes the command pod was monitoring communications and exploded the pods, sacrificing their own people rather than let them be captured by us. One could only hope that the commander of that ship would be afforded the same treatment by his superiors.
Upon our arrival, local control vectored us to our berth. Several space tugs took the Eldirelian ship off our hands and moved it to a remote part of the facility.
On the bridge, I said, “Fritz, set the ships watch and arrange for shore leave for this station only, on a rotating basis. Make sure everyone gets plenty of R&R I have a feeling it may be our last liberty call for a while. And don’t forget to include yourself in the rotation.”
As I was preparing to leave the ship I got a call on my private channel. Admiral Miller was on Titan station and would meet me at room A113.
Fifteen minutes later I tapped on the door of room A113. “Enter,” said the Admiral. As I pushed through the hatch, the Admiral offered his hand and said, “John, congratulations on your first victory, unexpected as it was. Now fill me in on what the hell happened out there.”
I briefed the Admiral on everything that happened, when I got to the part about the gift the Admiral said. “John, I sent no such gift.” I said, “I had already assumed as much Admiral, lieutenant Jenson kept the wrappings. Do you think our intelligence people can find out where it came from?” “Let’s find out,” said the Admiral he turned to his aide. “Colonel Prince, get this material to intelligence. I want to know everything about where it came from, who sent it and how a device like that was brought to earth without someone catching it.”
A couple of hours later Colonel Prince reported back, although the package was shown as having come from Admiral Miller, the return address wound up being somewhere in the middle of the Potomac river. The shipping company said a man came in and paid cash to ship the package. They had video, but security had so far been unable to get a hit in any of their facial recognition databases. The prevailing theory is that it was an Eldirelian sleeper, but how he got on Earth no one knows. However, after the incident with Dr. Garrett and now the attack on me we know for sure they are here. Security will now start digging them out. The “Death Orb” was tuned to my bio rhythms and went off almost as soon as we entered my ready room.
Admiral Miller said, “I am sure this attempt, and the attempt on Dr. Garrett were delaying tactics. The Eldirelians are trying to slow us down so they can be better prepared to meet us once we sortie. We need to upgrade all aspects of our security. This will not be the last attempt they make to cripple the fleet.”
Far beyond the orbit of Saturn, a lone ship of a design only rarely seen rested silently in stealth. Draq Shandor made a call on his personal comm. “My Emperor the Eldirelians have failed. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful as well. I am returning to base.” “Very well Draq”, replied Praxa Molzi. “We have time and we shall prevail”
Back on Titan Station
“Admiral,” I said “about this Eldirelian ship, they have some good weapons systems on board and I can tell you that the cannon they unleashed on us was potent. I hope there are not too many surprises out there like that. That thing knocked the hell out of us. I shudder to think what it would do to a corvette, or even a destroyer.”
Admiral Miller said, “Let’s get Dr. Garrett involved and see if he can kick the power up to the shields and give us a little better protection from that thing.” “And” I said, “I want a couple of those cannons on my ship, whatever they are they are powerful.“
Admiral Miller said, “fortunately Dr. Hiller feels that she has a handle on that, she has been working her butt off and thinks it may not be the mystery we at first thought. Apparently it utilizes technology we already have, it is just a different configuration.”
“By the way, did you know that Dr. Hiller had requested a commission in the Solar Federation Navy? She applied for the commission a short time ago, but the decision had not been made before you left, in fact she doesn’t even know that she is now an officer. She is now a Lieutenant Commander and is permanently assigned as your Senior Weapons officer. He continued, “would you like to tell her?” I was elated, “Absolutely, you wouldn’t happen to have a set of oak leaves with you would you?” “As a matter of fact, I do,” said Admiral Miller, “and I also have a set of stars for you Admiral, they were mine, maybe they will bring you luck.” It wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it was certainly nice to get a pat on the back like this, especially when I realized there were two stars instead of the one I had expected. I said, “thank you Admiral, I will wear them with pride and honor.” I continued, “with your permission sir, I would like to name Fritz Baker skipper of the Ronald Reagan and use it as my flag ship.” He replied, “That’s your call
John, and it’s one I happen to agree with.”
Before I left, I had one more item I needed to take care of, I said. “Admiral I do have a rather special request. The alien who saved my life, Diviak Y’shol, has asked to become a member of the SF Navy. Can we make that happen?” “Of course, John,” he replied, although I think he would be a better fit with the marines. I could assign him to Colonel Finnerty as a staff Sergeant. Do you think Finnerty would be OK with that?” I said “I’m sure it won’t be a problem Admiral, I’ll talk to Jamie and get his OK, but he is all about getting the job done. Besides he is the one who first met Diviak and they have become pretty good friends.”
“What about the other alien you rescued, the one from Krayari, Qobrun I think his name is?” Asked Admiral Miller. “I am not sure what to do with him” I said. “I am going to spend some time with him and try to get a little more information from Sudeer about the Krayari race. I imagine he could be quite valuable if he elects to join the SOL/FED Navy. I will let you know what I find out.”
“That’s fine John, we have some time. By the way, It looks like we are going to have to settle on a new training spot for the Marines. The facilities on Earth are close to being overloaded and the U S Marine corps is complaining. If you have any ideas let me know. We are also moving our R&D to Titan station. It needs to be here and the fewer people we have operating on Earth the better. It is kind of a mess with the families and all it is very crowded. We are building up Titan Station as fast as possible, but it is difficult to get ahead of it all. this whole secret thing is a gigantic pain in the backside.”
CHAPTER SIX
FIRST CARRIER GROUP
As soon as I arrived back on the Ronald Reagan, I had Control request that Dr. Hiller, Colonel Finnerty, and Diviak Y’shol report to my office on the double. Anne arrived first a few minutes later, a little out of breath and not too happy. “Captain, I am very busy, and I don’t appreciate being summarily commanded to come to your office, and “on the double” seems just a little too much like a military order.” I replied, “When an Admiral summons a member of the SOL/FED Navy to his office, it is a military order Lieutenant Commander Hiller. And by the way, you are out of uniform, here put these on.” Anne said, “what is this?” I said, “Congratulations Commander Hiller, the Solar Federation Navy is glad to have you aboard.” Anne said, “I asked for a commission, but I assumed I would be commissioned a Lieutenant, if at all. I never expected anything like this.”