The Circle and Star

by John Foster

  “Commander, we’re at full power, and ready for lift off. Your order?” asked the Captain.

  “Now,” said Dragaan.

  “Open the area above the ship, pilot,” said the Captain to Anna.

  “She turned and glowered at them both and then returned to her fidgeting and then pressed a button and there was a roar of scraping and shuddering as the great cover over the square slowly opened on the view port in front of them. The doors that covered the square were actually splitting down the middle with equal halves receding back into the sides of the square. Quite impressive thought Dragaan and he noticed that everyone on the bridge was looking too.

  “Back to your duties men,” said Dragaan and everyone snapped back to attention. There were too many things that could go wrong and now wasn’t the time to be sloppy.

  “The next time that any of you take your eyes off your duties, you will be floating in space,” said Dragaan. The woman Anna, scoffed and Dragaan walked up behind her, and with one smooth gesture had drawn and pressed the plasma pistol to the back of her head and said, “I need you right now but there are several members of your crew that I can do without. Would you like me to show you what will happen to them if you don’t secure your tongue and attitude?” He pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of her head and there wasn’t a sound on the bridge.

  “No, I think you made your point,” said Anna her voice trembling and her face pale in the soft light of the bridge.

  “Good, now make for Terran space or one of your comrades will be outside,” said Dragaan.

  “Aye Commander,” and Anna fed in the coordinates. She didn’t know what Dragaan was up to but the closer to Terran space the better thought Anna.

  Madison had finally gotten Nika to loosen some of the straps that held her down but only in return if questions were answered. If the brain scanner indicated that Madison wasn’t being honest Nika pressed a button that sent shock waves into Madison’s mind. It was a time-consuming process but Nika had lots of time. They could feel the ship power up and then heard and felt the terrible shuddering as the huge covers above the ship pulled back. Nika watching Madison’s eyes as she walked to the view screen and turned it on showing the huge covers retracting from over the Cyclops. Nika watched with some satisfaction as they finally were fully open, then the ship rose slowly from its cradle and hovered without any outward combustion. The ship was huge and Madison could see it had many more levels than any of them were aware of. What would the Kaa use such a giant ship for? Madison was mesmerized by the view and she could see the ship was spinning yet they couldn’t feel it inside. It was as if they were watching another ship taking off. There was flickering all around the outside of the ship as if it were being kept inside a what? What was it? Then Madison knew what it was, it was a gravity well that was floating the ship and when the proper button was pressed, the ship would spin upward at increasing speed and reach orbit without firing any of its engines which she could feel were probably at full throttle which she suspected was a safety precaution. The ship continued to hang there just spinning.

  Dragaan watched the ship rise dramatically and then spin. And spin. “Why aren’t we rising?” demanded Dragaan.

  “I don’t know, I’ve followed the protocol to the letter and it should be taking off but it’s just hanging there,” said Anna.

  Dragaan walked up behind her and leaned down to her neck, and said, “You’d better figure out how to move us into orbit.”

  Anna, clearly rattled, started to sputter and said, “But wouldn’t Theo be helpful at this point since he was the real pilot?”

  “The Theo person was the real pilot? We thought he was the chief engineer?”

  “No, Theo could do it all,” said Anna.

  Turning to one of the sentries, Dragaan ordered him to take Anna to the side of the bridge and hold her there and then he sent another man to bring back the Theo person.

  The guard roughly grabbed Anna and pulled her to one side.

  Dragaan was thoroughly in a bad humor and turned as Theo was hustled into the room. “Can you get us into orbit or not?” said Dragaan.

  I thought we were in orbit, the engines are at full throttle and have been for some time now,” said Theo.

  Dragaan turned and pointed to the view screen and said, “As you can see we are not moving. I want you to take us into orbit. If you don’t this woman dies,” said Dragaan pointing to Anna.

  Theo looked at Anna who glared at Dragaan, and started to say something but her guard took out his knife and held it to her throat which prompted Theo to be silent.

  Theo looked at the view screen and put his hand to his chin and looked again at the view screen. He then walked over to the sensors and watched the readings. The Sovar Captain was at the helm and was puttering and Theo could tell that he didn’t have a clue about what he was doing. He tugged at the man’s uniform and said, “Get up and let me sit there.”

  Theo knew he was taking a gamble but he didn’t have much of a choice if he wanted Anna to live through this. The Sovar Captain stood and walked to one side.

  Theo sat down and put his arms on the controls and the ship immediately changed a bit as if it were ready. Theo started to sweat and realized that he had to calm down and looked to the view screen, decided to try something he had thought of earlier, and focused his mind on thoughts of space above them, and the ship started to rotate upward at an increasing speed and was soon in orbit. The Sovar Captain pulled Theo out of the command chair and pushed him to where Anna stood and she grabbed him and hung on his shoulder. He pulled her to him and held her.

  Dragaan walked to his Captain who sat at the controls and asked, “Can you fly this ship now?”

  “Yes Commander, I’ll get us to the Terran system.”

  “Good,” said Dragaan, then turning to Theo and Anna, he said to their guard, “Take them off the bridge and put them with the rest of the prisoners.”

  Theo started to argue but the guard’s knife was suddenly next to Anna’s throat again and Theo’s shoulders slumped and he bowed his head as they were led away.

  West had moved back to where the Sovar Signal Officer had his work station and paused to listen there since it was the ideal intelligence gathering spot. The men were talkative and the drinking didn’t hurt. West had a sense of vertigo that he often associated with leaving orbit. He cracked the door open and the bottle was still there in the cabinet. He regretted seeing it since it meant that either of the two men could open the door whenever they felt like a little nip and he could be discovered. There wasn’t a lot of cover in here and the nearest door was 20 yards away and that meant some serious crawling if they saw him and pulled a pistol. He decided to chance it and cracked the door a bit. There wasn’t any conversation at first, then a messenger arrived and the technician read it to the officer, “Woman scientist has been captured, in route to Terran Moon to implement Operation Swatter.” There was silence and then the first man said,

  “You think Dragaan will get that weapon operational?”

  “I hear they don’t even know what the weapon is much less how to operate it, that’s why they want that woman to help them. They say she is a top scientist.”

  “What if she doesn’t talk? What happens then?”

  Ah, Dragaan has that black beauty that can reach in your mind and pull stuff out. I’ve seen her work and it’s not pretty. I hear the Commander will watch it himself and, as soon as we’re near the Terran Moon, he’ll destroy their Moon base and wipe it off the surface.”

  Laughter, and then the other said, “That will rip on the Terrans good. They’ll come after the Soshi and help us win our war.”

  West closed the door, and sat against the wall finally understanding what was happening. Dragaan was going to precipitate a war between the Soshi and Terra by attacking the moon base which had a significant military presence on it. They were going to use the Kaa weapon to do it. Since the Terran government had so little doings with the Soshi they wouldn’t know a
Soshi ship from a Nafti Ship and with the Soshi beacon on board it would seemingly bear the electronic fingerprint of a Soshi vessel. He was going to have to stop them somehow. There were thousands of soldiers at the Moon Base and a lot of civilians too. It would seem like a sneak attack and the Terrans would shoot first and fast once attacked like that, and that was what the Sovar were counting on.

  As West was pondering what Dragaan was planning, he could hear the sounds of someone coming down the chute. He pulled his laser pistol out and held it ready. He had no idea what the laser would do in such a confined space and he hoped he wouldn’t find out. He could see Amal dragging herself along and he hurried to meet her.

  She put her hand out and stopped him a few feet from her. “Wait, I have too much radiation on me. Must wait a minute,” she said out of breath. West recoiled like he had been bitten by a snake and crawled backwards for several feet.

  Amal was gasping but he could see that she was getting better with each breath. After a few minutes, she nodded a little and started to crawl towards him and said, “Don’t worry I’m clean now, it will take a few minutes to recuperate. I have seen and talked to a few of your crew.”

  “You have? How? How are they?” said West eagerly.

  “They are being treated well, but have no freedom and most are locked up while a few who can actually run the ship are constantly under supervision and can’t get away. I have found the Sovar armory and have provided weapons to about 10 of your crew who have secreted them away in the garbage chute. At the sound of weapons fire, they are to overwhelm the Sovar guards and attack the commandoes.”

  “The commandoes will slaughter them. They’re not going to go quietly,” said West lookin doubtfully at what Amal was telling him.

  She gave a little sly smile and West knew she was going to spring something or had sprung something, “The commandoes won’t have any charges in their weapons anymore.”

  West’s eyes literally gleamed and his face formed a smile at the thought and how wonderfully devious it was, and said, “You sure you’re not from Terra? We have a life form there we call politicians and they’re not half as sneaky as you are.”

  “I’ll take that as a complement from you,” said Amal her face framing that half smile.

  “How did you do it?” asked West.

  “They store their weapons in the cabinet that leads to the garbage chute,” said Amal smiling.

  West leaned forward and kissed her and she drew back in surprise, “Now what is that, another type of smile?”

  West laughed and said, “Something like that.”

  Turning more serious West, asked, “Have you heard about where Madison is?”

  “No, the crew don’t know where she is but some say she might be in the Medical area near the bridge. There is a small facility there for senior officers where they might be holding her.”

  “Can we get to this medical area from here?” asked West.

  Amal looked at him and said, “You can’t but I can.”

  Nika continued to question Madison while waiting for Dragaan to appear. Nika was chief of interrogation and could with time wrest most information from people but she disliked doing it quickly because it was clumsy and sometimes your informant didn’t recover. Being ruthless was a hallmark of her work and her personality but she was also efficient and didn’t like wasting resources. It was quite obvious that Madison had a superior intellect and would be an excellent addition to their scientific work force. Unfortunately, Nika knew someone like Madison would always have to be a prisoner and would eventually die from the hardships of her captivity. It was a waste and that was inefficient.

  The door opened and Dragaan walked in he appeared calm, as always. He walked to the table where Madison lay and he bent over her looking at her. “I am honored to meet you, I have heard much about you and I have looked forward to this meeting for some time now.”

  “I’m afraid that your honor isn’t worth much,” said Madison looking up at him.

  Dragaan bent low over her, so that only she could hear what he had to say, “I will get what I want from you, make no doubt about that. If I have to kill every one of your crew to do it, I will. I have all of your crew members captive and their lives hang in the balance and depend on what you say.”

  Nika listened and nodded to herself. She had wondered what gambit he would use and he used the one that most likely would hit the woman the hardest.

  Dragaan then straightened and asked Madison, “What is the weapon and how do we operate it?”

  Madison was in anguish and started to struggle but the bonds tightened again as she did. She stopped moving and said, “I don’t know what the weapon is. We never figured it out. I’m telling the truth.”

  Dragaan turned to Nika and said, “Is she telling the truth?”

  “I believe so. There is something hidden in there, but it sounds true.”

  He bent down to Madison again, and said “I’m going to kill one of your crewmen every 30 minutes until you figure it out.” He then stood and walked out.

  Madison wailed at him, “You can’t do that, you can’t do that, I don’t know what it is.”

  Nika waited until she was gasping for breath and said, “He is not joking, you’d better figure out what the weapon is.”

  Madison attempted to speak but Nika cut her off and said, “You don’t fool me, I know that you know something about the weapon and you’re holding it back. But if you insist on causing your crew to die, then you’re a harder person than I thought. You have 28 minutes to figure it out before the clock starts over.” Nika smiled at her.

  “Wait, wait, I can’t think like this, I need a work station and my HDA to access my data.”

  Nika paused and considered this. It was a reasonable request and she sensed that Madison was speaking the truth. “Okay, just remember that your comrade’s lives are at stake.”

  Madison nodded her head and Nika motioned the guard to free her. After rubbing the circulation back into her arms, Madison activated the view screen and connected it to her HDA and started to review her data.

  Nika leaned against the wall and watched.

  Madison had no idea of where to begin, and settled on reviewing what she knew and decided to toss out the assumptions that she had started with. The pictograph had shown the fifth planet from the sun exploded with the Kaa ship in earth orbit with hundreds of small objects that Madison thought were leftovers from the destruction. From her research on Jo-Tene, Madison knew that there was no reference in the Kaa database to any weapon that was so destructive. In the search of the Cyclops they had found no weapon systems beyond that of self-protection. What was the common equation? Madison continued to flip through the notes she had taken earlier. What did they learn about the Kaa and the Cyclops? There was the Kaa preoccupation with gravity control which was one of their chief research avenues and Madison could only agree that they had been wildly successful with their applications, just the launching of the Cyclops had proven that. That gave her an idea, and she flipped to the section of her notes on what they had found out about the ship’s operations. There was the gravity projection device that they used for launching satellites and she reviewed the schematics for that application and found to her amazement that it covered the entire top of the hub. It was huge and much larger than needed to launch a mere satellite. She quickly dialed up the power schematics and found that most of the reactor power could be shifted to the hub generator within moments of activation. Why so much power? She dialed up another database to the gravity generator and found that most of the power was meant to be used to contain what the Kaa were calling a gravity force. The gravity force was considerable and that was what needed all the power of the nuclear reactors, and not just one but several. Madison was typing furiously and glancing at the clock it showed three minutes left. She considered her assumptions about the gravity propulsion system she had hypothesized for propelling satellites. The data didn’t add up and she could tell she was missing some key point
but what? She racked her brain trying to figure out what part of her assumption was wrong. Then as the last minute started on its countdown, Madison figured out her error.

  She looked Nika and said, “I have it.”

  Nika looked at her and could see that Madison didn’t look like she was bluffing. Nika spoke to one of the two guards, “Tell the Commander that the woman scientist has his weapon.”

  The guard saluted and ran from the room. Nika walked up to Madison, “Well done. I just hope you’re right for the sake of your comrades.”

  Dragaan was at his customary spot on the bridge when the guard came in and passed the message. This was good news and timely as well, they had made several jumps already and were nearing the Terran system. From his previous clandestine missions Dragaan knew that the system was relatively unguarded but with unmanned sensors acting as their early warning that invaders were approaching. Once they had been plotted it was an easy matter to jump beyond them into the system, since they were only outwardly sensitive. The Terrans would still sense that there was a ship present, but they would think it was one of the thousands that transited the outer planets to and from Terra. It would be too late to know that an interloper was headed to the Terran Moon.

  West and Amal, who were conferring in the garbage chute, could feel the Cyclops vibrate as it came out of a system jump. Time was getting short before Dragaan would enter the Terran system and West knew they would have to act soon or the opportunity would be lost. West discussed with Amal the possibility of getting to Madison through the chutes, but Amal said the only way was through the reactor core utility passageways and it wouldn’t be safe for Terrans at least not while the ship was in flight. “Then we’re going to have to fight our way to the bridge,” said West.