by Dietmar Wehr
“One point four hours.”
“That will take us into your Bridge shift, XO. I’ll continue on here until you return from the survey mission,” said Koenig.
“Thank you, sir. I’ll go get my team and our equipment ready.” Koenig returned his attention to the display and the view of the farm which was now fading due to a cloud that was blocking the ship’s opticals. When the cloud had passed, Koenig noticed that the penned animals were now gone. Was someone down there aware that they might be observed and trying to make it look like no one was home? He made a mental note to warn the XO and her team to watch their backs.
Dejanus’s reply was short and to the point. The survey mission was approved. Within seconds, Soriya’s shuttle was on its way.
Soriya was standing behind the pilot as the shuttle approached the farm buildings. “Make a slow 360-degree turn at 20 meters altitude, Lieutenant,” she said.
“20 meters it is, XO. Switching to manual from auto-pilot.”
At that height, Soriya was able to get a good look at the farmhouse and even see through the windows. There was no sign of movement or of the animals that had been in the corral. They hadn’t escaped, because there weren’t any holes in the corral fence.
“Okay, set us down in front of the farmhouse about 50 meters away. When my team exits, you stay on board and keep com channels open.” The pilot nodded instead of verbally acknowledging his orders. Soriya was tempted to chew him out for the violation of protocol but decided it could wait. By the time the shuttle touched down, she was back in the main section by the hatch with her environmental suit and helmet closed tight. Her team, consisting of two security personnel and the ship’s medic, were also suited up and ready.
We’re down,” said the pilot over the intercom.
“Open the hatch and close it behind us,’ said Soriya. After exiting the shuttle, the four of them stood still for a few seconds. Their helmets were designed to filter out potentially harmful micro-organisms from the atmosphere, which Excalibur’s sensors had already determined contained sufficient oxygen for human breathing. Not having to carry their own oxygen supply made the mission easier and allowed for it to be longer if warranted. As Soriya breathed in the outside air, she abruptly remembered that the filters did NOT block smells. There was now no doubt in her mind that they were on a farm. It smelled like a farm and she tried not to think of the fact that it was an alien farm at that. She turned to look at the other three. All four of them were armed with hand weapons, which were holstered at the moment.
“Don’t draw your weapons unless we’re attacked. Let me do the talking unless I ask you to speak. Let’s go.”
No sooner had they started walking towards the farmhouse than the door opened, and a hand appeared. It started waving, and then a head appeared. It was humanoid but clearly alien. The alien slowly came out, turned to look back inside, gestured for others to come out as well and was followed by three more. Two of them were clearly children. The third individual looked to be female. All four of them held their hands up in a gesture of surrender as they slowly stepped forward about a meter and then stopped.
Soriya led her team forward, stopping when they were several meters from the alien family. She realized there was no point in trying verbal communication since neither side would understand the other’s language, but maybe she could get the message of non-hostility across by actions.
“Frank, I want you to go over to the field and take some samples of whatever that is that they’re growing and bring it back here. Tory and Fujita, you too stay where you are and keep an eye out. I’m going inside the house to look around.” Soriya watched the medical officer walk over to the nearest field of crops before turning her attention back to the alien family, who were now looking down at the ground but with their hands still up in the air.
“You can put your hands down now,” she said. When the male looked up, Soriya lifted her hands and then lowered them down. The male lowered his hands, said something to the others and then knelt on one knee. The other three did the same. Soriya didn’t try to rectify the misunderstanding. She walked around the group and entered the farmhouse. The smell was even worse in here, and the room, which seemed to be a combination of kitchen and workshop was messy and dirty. There was a table with primitive looking chairs around it. On the table was piece of paper-like material. She walked over to see more clearly what was on it. There was a drawing that looked like something a child would do. Four figures looked like they might represent the family. Beside them was a larger figure that had a big, round head with no eyes, nose or mouth. It had two arms that were carrying a long object the way that a soldier might carry a weapon. Above the figures was an oval shape that might have been a flying vehicle, and in the right top corner was a tiny wing shape that reminded Soriya of the wing ship. There was a line coming down from the wing shape to the oval with what seemed to be debris flying off it. Could this picture really be depicting a battle between a wing ship and another spacecraft? And was the larger figure another, different kind of alien?
There was some room between the armed figure and the family, and that gave Soriya an idea. She picked up what looked like some kind of drawing implement and drew a figure of a human, standing between the family and the armed alien, holding a weapon pointed at the armed alien. She then added to the human figure the arm patch that all TOSF personnel wore on their space and environmental suit shoulders. When she was done, she brought the picture outside with her, walked to where she had stood before and cleared her throat to get the family to look up at her. She pointed to her shoulder patch and at the figure she had drawn. The family looked at the picture carefully, then at her, then at the picture again. All of a sudden, they were chattering among themselves. The chattering died down when the medical officer came back with sample bags of plant material.
“Well? What do you think?” asked Soriya.
The officer shrugged. “I can’t tell just from looking at it whether it’s edible for us or not, but it does look superficially similar to wheat. Since we have limited analytical equipment in the Fleet, the only way to know for sure is to sterilize the samples and then have a volunteer eat some of it. A tiny amount would not be lethal, but if it’s not compatible with our digestive system, it might cause some gastric or intestinal discomfort until it’s excreted or thrown up.”
“What about animal meat? Should we get some samples of that too?” asked Soriya.
“We should, just to be thorough,” answered the medical officer.
“Okay. Hand me those samples. You and Tory check out the inside of that barn-like structure. Fujita, you take a good look in the farmhouse. If you find any animals, let me know. I’ll stay here and see if I can convince this family that we’re not hostile.”
When the medical officer handed over the sample, Soriya realized she was still holding the picture. She turned to the family, who were looking less terrified now, and decided that the taller of the two children likely had drawn the picture. She held it out to him, and he tentatively stepped forward to take it, though not before checking with his parents.
While the others made their search, Soriya racked her brain for a way to convey friendliness. Looking around for inspiration, she noticed the outline of the deserted city, off in the distance. That gave her another idea. After securing the sample bags to her suit belt, she knelt down and began to draw in the dirt what she hoped would look like a cityscape. The family came closer so see what she was drawing. With one arm, she pointed at the drawing, and with the other arm, she pointed at the city on the horizon. The male nodded. Then Soriya draw a crude representation of the barn and did the same thing with it. Again, the male alien nodded. Now she drew four figures, two taller and two shorter, and pointed to each in turn. More nods. She pointed to the figures and the barn and then pointed at the cityscape and held her hand palm up, hoping that they would get the idea that she was asking where the people from the city were.
The two adult aliens began chattering at e
ach other again, and it was clear that there was a disagreement. The female was shaking her head emphatically and her voice was gradually getting louder. Soriya had the impression that the male wanted to convey something, and the female was against the idea. She was about to try to calm them down when she heard Koenig’s voice over her suit’s headphones.
“Koenig to XO! Get back in the shuttle and get back here asap! The Fleet has detected multiple ships heading for the planet at high speed!”
Soriya stood up so suddenly that the two aliens stopped talking. “Frank, Tory, Fajita, get back to the shuttle right now and fast!” She looked at the alien family who were now looking puzzled. Soriya pointed at the picture and held out her hand. The alien child handed it back. She then held it up so that they could see it and pointed to the oval ship and then up at the sky. When she saw the other three running back to her, she gave the picture back and gestured to her team.
“Run faster, dammit. Excalibur might have company soon.” As the team passed her, she turned to the family and waved, then ran for the shuttle.
Koenig paced back and forth in front of the main display, which was showing the tactical situation, what there was of it. Dejanus’s warning could only provide a contact bearing, which did not tell him anything about how far away the unknown ships were or how soon they would get here. The ship was at Battle Stations and was only awaiting the return of the shuttle before boosting out of orbit to at least get some maneuvering room.
“Where’s the shuttle now?”
“Shuttle has left the surface and is climbing as fast as atmospheric heating will allow. ETA is two minutes ten seconds,” said the tactical AI.
“Any sign of the incoming ships?” asked Koenig.
“Visual scanning has detected transitory light sources that may or may not be incoming vessels. Insufficient data for a positive ID.”
“Incoming message from Fleet,” said the com AI. This time it was a text message.
DEJANUS TO KEONIG. THE FLEET IS MOVING TO RENDEZVOUS WITH YOU. AVOID CONTACT WITH ALIEN FLEET IF POSSIBLE. DO NOT INITIATE HOSTILITIES BUT DEFEND YOURSELF IF FIRED UPON. FLEET TRAJECTORY DATA FOLLOWS. END OF MESSAGE.
“Show me the Fleet trajectory, Astro.” A curving line appeared on the display. Its closest approach was five million kilometers from the planet. “Can we make the rendezvous in time? Asked Koenig.
“Affirmative. Recommend the following trajectory,” said the AI. A second line spiraled around and away from the planet, and touched the fleet’s trajectory. It looked very pretty except that by curving around the planet, Excalibur just might fly right into the alien fleet’s path.
“No. Have AstroComp re-compute a different trajectory that does not take the ship between the planet and the incoming alien fleet.”
The second line vanished and re-appeared as a giant S curve where the ship pulled away from the planet curving back around the other way while also curving upwards. It then pitched over to reverse course and head down to touch the Fleet’s projected path.
“This trajectory can be executed in time to rendezvous with the Fleet, but with only a small margin for error,” said the AI.
“Acceptable risk,” said Koenig. “Where is the shuttle now?”
“Shuttle has cleared the atmosphere and is accelerating on course for rendezvous with Excalibur.”
“Can we speed up the rendezvous by adjusting the ship’s position, Astro?” asked Koenig.
“Affirmative. I recommend the following—”
Koenig interrupted the explanation. “Just do it!”
“Excalibur’s dropping lower to help us rendezvous faster,” said the Pilot, and Soriya leaned forward to look over the Pilot’s shoulder at the small tactical display.
“Open a channel to Excalibur,” she commanded. “XO to Excalibur Actual. Any idea when the bogeys are expected to arrive.”
“None. The Fleet’s coming to assist us, but the bogeys might arrive at literally any moment. I’m suspending the regs on the maximum safe docking velocity. Get aboard as fast as you dare, but try not to crash into the back bulkhead. Out.”
“How fast do you want me to dock, XO?”
“Use your best judgement. Maybe I should take the co-pilot’s seat and strap in.”
“Ah, yeah! That would be a good idea. We’re going in hot.”
Soriya made sure the rest of the team was also strapped in and got herself secured just in time. The Pilot wasn’t kidding about coming in hot. She needed all her self-control to resist the urge to scream at him to abort. The shuttle actually did hit the bulkhead at the back of the hangar bay but not hard enough to put more than a dent in the shuttle’s nose. Soriya realized that if she had still been standing behind the Pilot’s station, the forward momentum would have sent her flying into the cockpit windscreens head first.
With the shuttle aboard, Excalibur accelerated out of orbit and Koenig relaxed just a bit. “Com, advise the AFC that we’ve left orbit and will rendezvous with them in…21.6 minutes. Tactical will control the ship’s orientation to minimize visual and EM detection.”
When the ship was at the top of her S-curve maneuver and was able to look ‘down’ at the planet, her opticals detected multiple reflections in orbit around the planet. That was bad. The Fleet was still a long way off, as was Excalibur’s rendezvous with it. Koenig decided that he had to risk passing that information on to Dejanus.
“Com, record a message and send the text equivalent to the AFC immediately. Excalibur Actual to AFC. Alien fleet has entered orbit around F1C. Minimum of eight ships detected visually. Recommend—”
“Alien vessels are firing on the planet,” said the tactical AI.
“—They’re firing on the planet now!” said Koenig. “There’s hardly anyone left alive on that planet as it is! If we want their help later, then we have to help them now! Request permission to open fire! End of message.”
Dejanus read Koenig’s message and closed her eyes to help organize her thoughts. This was exactly the kind of situation she dreaded. By firing on that fleet, humans would be taking sides without knowing which side had started the fighting or what the justification for this attack was. On the other hand, the planet just might be the answer to their food problem, and gathering that food might require the assistance of the locals. Not only was it morally questionable to ask for their help after standing aside and letting them be slaughtered, but there was also the practical question of who would help gather the food if all the locals were dead.
“Do we have enough target data to fire missiles, Tactical?” she asked.
“If the missiles use their terminal guidance radars, we do.”
“Then allocate one missile for each target. Fire when ready. Com, record this message for immediate transmission. AFC to Excalibur Actual. Hold your fire. The Fleet will respond. I do not want you to give away your position. End of message.”
“Missiles have been launched. Impact in 37 seconds,” said the tactical AI.
Dejanus tried to focus her attention on the display, but the activation of one of her Flag Command Pod screens distracted her. It was Cortez, who was on Corregidor’s Bridge.
“Can I ask why only one missile per target?”
Dejanus watched the countdown to impact timer as she replied. “We have a limited supply of missiles, and I want to use them sparingly.”
The display pinged to denote a status change. Eight explosions were detected at the point of impact. Seconds later the tactical AI announced that the ship was being hit by radar waves coming from the planet’s orbit. Clearly there were more than eight alien ships, and the rest were now trying to find the attackers.
“How many radar sources?” asked Dejanus quickly.
“TacComp is having difficulty differentiating individual sources, but the minimum confirmed count is 13,” answered the AI.
Dejanus knew that Corregidor could only fire 12 at a time. “Allocate six targets to Coral Sea and order them to fire one missile each. We’ll do the same with the othe
r seven. Have they spotted Excalibur?” she asked.
“All radar sources are accelerating rapidly in our general direction. It appears that Excalibur has not been detected. Missiles are ready to launch. Firing in two…one…now.”
Dejanus nodded. With the second strike launched, it was time to maneuver the Fleet. “Astro! The Fleet will go to max acceleration away from the planet! Execute when ready! Com, notify Excalibur of our course change.”
In less than a minute, with the missiles still only about half way to their targets, all 13 missiles were destroyed. Dejanus hesitated for only a couple of seconds.
“Tactical, order a fleet-wide missile barrage and allocate them so that each target gets the same number of missiles! Fire when ready, then get another barrage set-up!”
When the barrage fired, an icon with the number 98 inside it appeared on the display and moved rapidly towards the enemy formation, which had clearly not yet detected the human fleet.