Once they had done so, she glanced at Lynda with a smile on her face. “I told you there was no harm in trying,” she said.
“Maybe you are right,” Lynda agreed. “But he didn’t hide the fact that he was reluctant to assist us anymore. As if we were the ones that brought our present fate upon ourselves.”
“But we did, Lynda. Did you not hear all the things he said while we were on Tiangrit? Mankind is the cause of its present predicament.”
Lynda sighed. “Poor mankind. Who knows what is happening on Earth at this moment?”
“Still no transmission from home?” Kristen asked. Lynda checked her console before she shook her head. “None at all, Captain. Still nothing as of now.” “What about that device from the king?” Kristen asked.
“It’s still in the drive, Captain,” an engineer replied. “Play it while we wait for feedback from the Mildans,” Kristen instructed. The video was resumed again. The entire crew on the bridge were watching as other parts of the farthest boundaries were being revealed, with stars and galaxies being identified. Kristen saw that one of the engineers was making some notes. She wondered why the engineer had decided to make notes.
“What are you noting?” Kristen asked. “It is the distances, Captain,” she replied. “I am making rough estimates of the distances of these places that are being identified from our present position.”
Kristen stood up and walked over to where she was sitting. Lynda also came over to see the data. “Okay, what are you making of it?” Kristen was asking her. “From what I can see, we are looking at billions of miles from the Tiangrit,” the female engineer began. “And that is from the Tiangrit.”
“Okay,” Kristen nodded. “What is so special about that? I mean, your emphasis on the Tiangrit.” “According to this video, all estimates and projections are being made from the boundary outside of this Galaxy, the Fourth Galaxy,” she stated, and paused. “But we are not yet at its boundary,” she added.
“Of course we are not yet at the boundary,” Kristen agreed. “There is no doubt we are still just outside of Tiangrit as of this moment. But what has that got to do with anything?”
“Captain, I am afraid we might still be needing the help of our Mildans friends once again.”
“I do not get what you are driving at, engineer,” Kristen stated. “Can you be a bit more specific?” The engineer nodded and drew a line with her hand across her monitor. “Going by our present location, the boundary of the galaxy from the Tiangrit is around 60 billion miles. It is only once this distance has been taken care of that we can begin to make any meaning from this video.”
Kristen held her head. “Damn!” she shouted. “We have not yet even started this trip,” Lynda added. The engineer nodded. “We still have a very long way to go. And unless the Mildans can help us with getting around the distance, maybe by way of shortcuts, we will be stranded in no time at all.”
What her engineer had just stated was the truth. For them to be able to make any meaningful use of the disc, they would have to presently be located at the fringes of the Fourth Galaxy.
But getting to the boundary of the galaxy was going to be a battle. The distance was still very far, even for anyone used to travelling through space.
“What are we going to do?” Lynda asked. “I don’t know,” Kristen replied honestly. “The analysis is right. Unless we get some external assistance, getting there will be as good as forgetting about succeeding. Imagine the distance. How many years do you think it will take us to cover the distance from Tiangrit to the boundary of the galaxy?”
“Maybe we can beg our Mildan friends to help us out,” Lynda suggested.
“That will be asking too much,” Kristen replied. “But it could be worth a try.” “Or, we could simply proceed further into the solar system and seek assistance from any of the other planets that are further off,” Lynda offered. “At least they will appreciate the fact that we had covered some distance and will be needing assistance to complete what is remaining. Tiangrit will be really pissed off with us for making more demands when we haven’t even made an attempt yet,” Lynda stated.
“I guess you are right,” Kristen replied. “We will get their result and head off into space. My only fear is that we do not know how receptive other planets will be. You remember what the king said? Not all planets are happy with planet Earth for what they had—”
Kristen could not finish what she was about to say because the speakers came on. “Hello? Captain. Captain Kristen? Are you still there? Come in, Captain,” came the voice. It was King Zeropta.
“Yes, Your Highness. We are still here,” Kristen replied.
“You need to leave immediately. Get away from that position right now,” he was saying very hurriedly. “I don’t understand, Your Highness,” Kristen replied, glancing at her crew members who were already standing up from their seats.
“What don’t you understand? Get the hell away from that spot right now!”
“What is going on, Your Highness?” Kristen asked, fearing the worst. “We interpreted the message. It was not a distress call. It was a location signal from the Gualdions. They are coming straight for you. Disconnect the signal right now. Stop receiving it.”
“You mean the signal?” Kristen repeated.
“It is a tracking device. They are coming to get you. Your lives are at stake. Do it now!”
“But, Your Highness—” Kristen began to say. But the line had already gone dead.
Bewildered, she looked at her crew members who had all stood up and were staring at her.
“He said kill the signal! What are you waiting for?” Kristen shouted. Quickly, Lynda jumped over a desk and ran to where the controls were. She frantically started to type away at the keyboard while turning multiple dials at once. Others joined her and tried to use their monitors to disable the signal that was still being emitted over their receivers.
“It is not working,” Lynda stated. “The signal refuses to be shut down!” “How can that be?” Kristen asked, and tried to shut it down from her own central command module. “This is impossible. It refuses to disconnect,” Kristen was saying. “Quickly, get me Tiangrit.”
“Tiangrit?” Lynda repeated. “Again? What for? You heard what the king said—”
“Just get me Tiangrit. Do it,” Kristen insisted. The engineers tried to establish contact with Tiangrit but it was unsuccessful. “They refuse to receive our calls,” the engineer stated. “They do not want us to establish any form of communication contact.”
“Captain,” Lynda called. “I think we should do as the king warned. He said we were not safe here. We are sitting ducks the longer we remain at this spot.”
“But where are we going to go?” Kristen asked. “What are we running away from?”
“He made mention of the Gualdions,” one of the other crew members offered.
“Okay. Check our records for any listing on this name,” Kristen instructed. The engineer did a quick scan. “Nothing, Captain,” he replied. “There is no record whatsoever in our database.”
“Earth is really way behind on what has been going on in space,” Kristen remarked. “We just sat alone in our world, excluding ourselves from the rest of the planets, and continued to plunder our own planet, thinking we were making advancements. In actual fact, we were lagging behind. Perhaps if we had associated with the rest of the planets we would have been inspired by their level of advancement and peaceful existence, rather than becoming the cause of our own demise.”
“Captain, we should be getting out of here,” Lynda was saying. Suddenly, the red lights on all of their consoles began to flash simultaneously. All the crew members scrambled to their seats and tried to decipher what the problem was. Kristen checked her own monitor and for a moment she froze at what she saw.
The message on the screen was clear and unmistakable.
PROXIMITY ALERT. INCOMING MISSILE. PROXIMITY ALERT. INCOMING MISSILE. The message continued to stream across their screens.
“Quickly!” Kristen shouted. “Engage all thrusters. Evasive manoeuvring. Quickly! Quickly!!” The pilots quickly engaged the engines. The sudden change of gears caused the Atlantis to shudder like a giant animal which was trying to shake an object off its body. The engines revved furiously, screeching and protesting at the sudden change in its operations. Kristen knew that such a manoeuvre was not healthy for the shuttle. In most situations, it could lead to serious damage to its workings. But this was not most situations. This was an emergency.
From where she was seated, Kristen could see her crew members hastily buckling into their seats with their seat belts. After several trainings, they already knew the drill without being asked to do so. Anything could happen. Especially now that they were in this situation.
Without warning, the shuttle almost flipped over as it suddenly sped away in the opposite direction from Tiangrit. That sudden acceleration and flip over made Kristen fall from her seat, roughly bashing her elbow against a panel.
In all her confusion and thinking, she didn't have the time to buckle her own seat belt. Kristen struggled to hold on by gripping a metal handle attached to a cabinet. She was floating upside down as the ship sped by. If she let go, she knew she was going to be sent tumbling down towards the back, and without any control. She would be gravely injured because of the fall, as well as the tumbling and crashing into various obstacles.
The ship was now flying very fast. Because it was on evasive manoeuvre it was on emergency autopilot, without anyone piloting it manually. And in that process, there was no direct communication between the ship and anyone on board. It was speeding to avert any possible missile strike. It was running away. In that mode, its movements were not fluid and smooth. Rather, they were fast and sometimes uncoordinated, which meant it could swerve and turn sharply at very short notice without warning.
Kristen’s hand slipped from the handle she was holding. She began to spin and fall, but was lucky to catch the headrest of her seat. She wrapped her arms around it and pulled herself to it. Eventually, she was cuddling her seat with all her strength, hoping their normal flight situation would soon return.
From the corner of her eye she saw three of her crew members tumbling out of their cubicles. One of them bashed his head against a panel and blood gushed out of the deep wound. He then started to tumble down and across, banging into other obstacles, bleeding profusely and unconscious. Another crew member rolled and fell into another person who was well strapped in her seat. She caught him and clasped him with both arms. He also held on as they remained straddled in that position.
The third crew member tumbled past some seats and cubicles. She was throwing her arms around, trying to grip any obstacle or object that could be in the way. She was not lucky to grip anything until she fell into a panel, with her hands twisted. She screamed as she dislocated her elbow. With a free hand she grasped a metal handle and held on. But her free hand could not support her weight. The force of the ship’s swerving and jolting made her lose her grip and with a loud scream she fell off the panel and disappeared from Kristen’s line of sight.
In all of the confusion and fracas, Kristen was wondering what the Atlantis was struggling so hard to evade. From her awkward position, it was impossible to see exactly what it is. The images on the screen were blurry and indistinct. Looking outside the window was not helpful either, as she could not even make out the stars in the sky. They were flying very fast, and in a haphazard manner.
Not too long afterwards, all of them on board the shuttle felt a jolt and a flash of bright light. In time, the shuttle stopped the evasive manoeuvring and began to fly at a reduced speed. The crew members were gradually recovering from the ordeal.
Kristen looked outside and in the distance she could still see the light from the explosion that had just occurred, missing them by a few metres.
She climbed into her chair and adjusted the speakers. “Is everyone all right?” she asked. “All crew members confirm if everyone is all right. Check for any injuries and take anyone in bad condition to the sick bay immediately. I want a status analysis done on the ship immediately.”
She spotted Lynda crawling out of a cabinet door. She had a gash on her head from where blood was seeping out. She staggered up some stairs and came to where Kristen was.
“You need medical attention,” Kristen said, pointing to her wound.
“It’s just a scratch,” Lynda replied. “I will manage. What was it we were up against?” Kristen pointed at the screen. The shuttle was playing back the ship’s evasive manoeuvring. They all gasped as they watched the long, white, cylindrical object pursue them. There was no doubt about what it was. It was an advanced type of heat-seeking missile. And it had honed in on the Atlantis. On several occasions it attempted to strike their shuttle, but the shuttle had outmanoeuvred it. The ship had to roll over, swerve, and even tumble and spin, all in an effort to avoid a direct hit from the missile. This explained the reason why there had been a lot of jolting, spinning, and falling within the shuttle. Finally, the missile had gone off, exploding in a huge ball of light and flame. The force of the explosion had forcefully pushed the Atlantis, but without causing any major damage because it was not a direct hit.
Kristen now understood why they had felt the sudden, massive jolt.
“I think we are safe now,” Lynda was saying. “Are we?” Kristen asked. “We don’t even know where that missile came from.” The injured crew members got evacuated and taken to the medical bay for treatment. Luckily, there had not been any fatalities, just a couple of fractures and bruises.
While the damage assessment was being made to the shuttle, Kristen summoned Lynda and Mahmud. “We need to come up with a plan of action,” Kristen said. “What do we do?” Mahmud asked. “We are not yet too sure we are safe from attack. I just did a perimeter scan and I still could not discover from where that missile was launched. It is probable they are using some kind of cloaking device to hide from us. This means they could still be very near.”
“Maybe we should just turn back and head for Earth,” Lynda suggested. “We cannot be too far from home. This whole mission is a mistake and we cannot continue like this, not knowing what to do anymore.”
“But if we head for home, that means we will take the Gualdions along with us,” Kristen pointed out. “They are still out there somewhere. We need to know why they attacked us.”
“They must have interpreted us as hostile,” Mahmud added. “No one begins to fire missiles on another person unless they feel you are a threat or a potential threat.”
“Or if the person is just being aggressive,” Lynda offered.
“An act of aggression? Why would anyone want to be aggressive towards us?” Kristen was wondering. Suddenly, the radio crackled and came alive. “Attention Nivrus ship,” came a slow, deep voice. Every one of them froze and listened. “This is Colonel Havlun from the Gualdion Protectorate.”
Kristen’s jaw dropped as she stared in disbelief at her console. How did they access our communication systems to make this broadcast?
“Do not bother trying to shut down this message,” the voice continued, “because you cannot. You were very lucky to evade our missile. However, luck will not be on your side the second time around. If you look outside your window, you will see we have already caught up with you. And this is without your knowledge.”
Impulsively, everyone looked outside and what they saw made each of them freeze. There, at a distance of about a kilometre, was a giant space ship. Even from that distance it looked massive. The overall design was like a wasp but built with metal wings and legs. It must have been at least two hundred metres wide and a hundred metres in height. The alien ship was directly in front of them, in their path of flight. It looked as if they were waiting for the Atlantis to fly into their arms.
Kristen was wondering how they were able to approach them and come so close without their shuttle warning them. She glanced quickly at her console, and then looked up at the central
screen. There was no sign of the ship on any of the screens or monitors.
“It must be some sort of cloaking device,” Mahmud whispered. “Yes indeed,” the voice continued. “It was a cloaking device. A very smart guess, I must say. But there is no level of smartness that will help you in overcoming your present fate.”
Kristen looked around at her crew members. How was it possible that the alien ship could hear their conversation from that distance?
“What do you want from us?” Kristen demanded. “We want all of you, and we want you now,” the voice replied.
“We are not looking for any trouble of any kind,” Kristen continued. “We just want to be on our way.” “But we will not let you be. Trouble can come to those who do not want it.”
“Please let us through. We mean no harm.”
“Enough of this game!” the voice retorted. “It is either you come with us now or we destroy you immediately. Our atomic guns are already pointed at you, and considering the present state you are in, there will be no way you can outrun or outmanoeuvre us.”
The crew members glanced outside and saw the wasp-like alien ship raise what appeared to be two of its legs and they were pointed at the Atlantis. It would be both suicidal and futile to try to make a dash for it at this moment. Besides, Kristen seriously doubted if their shuttle was in any form to embark on any highspeed chases, considering the damage the manoeuvres and the missile blast must have inflicted on it.
“Where are we going to with you?” Kristen asked. “Do not worry about that,” the voice replied. “We are the ones taking you with us.” The wasp ship raised both of its arms and fired at the Atlantis. But it was not ammunition that came out at them. Rather, two very long metallic chains were shot out and they fastened on each of the Atlantis’ wings.
Kristen and the other crew members saw how the metallic chains flew past their windows and curled around each of their wings. They had fastened onto the wings in the form of a knot. And they held onto the shuttle very tightly.
The End Of The World Page 6