CONTACT AND CONFLICT. ALIENS & HUMANS.: Book One in the Space Fleet Sagas

by Don Foxe

  “Tranqs?” Coop asked.

  “Singh can create a cocktail from what he has with him, but nothing says it will work. And we have no way to administer it. We don’t have dart guns, and no one is getting close enough to use a needle. If I put down the big one, maybe we can do something to save the other.”

  Gregory unsnapped his laser pistol, but Coop placed a restraining hand on his arm.

  “Get a blanket, and a couple of your guys. I’ll keep the big one busy, and you get the other one out. Anton, when you get it out, keep it outside the bars, but near. Make sure you have something for a muzzle, and tell your guys to put extra padding on their arms.”

  “Can we back up a step on that plan?” the Marine Colonel asked. “About the part where you’ll keep the big one busy. I don’t think it’s gonna play fetch with you, Coop.”

  “It’s undernourished, and weak. Having a hard time staying on its feet. Right now it’s eighty-percent bluster.”

  “And eighty-percent bigger teeth than a tiger,” Gregory replied. “We have advantages from the Project, but do you think it’s enough to take on that beast?”

  “Let’s find out,” Coop looked at his friend. “But no ‘we,’ Anton. We would get in each others way. Your people may need your strength and speed to get the other one onto the blanket and out.”

  Gregory called over two of his strongest men, explained the plan, explained he was not kidding, and told them to prep. When they returned, and did not throw the blanket over Cooper to restrain him, testament to their oaths to follow orders.

  The cells had simple locks, but no one bothered finding keys. Like the others, Gregory shot the lock off with his laser pistol. The blast of hot light agitated the big Carvide. Cooper quickly stepped in, and moved to his left, surprising the big wolf-like animal. The beast wasted no time, and attacked; growling, and baring teeth.

  Coop stood still, waiting. The Carvide made the same mistake Sky made during their first sparring session . . . it leapt. All four feet off the ground; speed and agility lost in the jump.

  Cooper, cat-fast, dropped, then rolled as the Carvide sailed over, trying to twist in the air to get to him, raking claws to tear at him. He missed the man, but hit the cage bars . . . hard.

  Cooper, back on his feet, reversed and returned. He straddled the dazed animal, grabbed the scruff and loose skin behind the base of its head, where it joined the long neck. He pushed the Carvide onto the deck, using his impressive strength. Foggy from the blow, underweight, undernourished, and, most likely, dead tired, the Carvide remained powerful. Coop’s biggest threat now came from the animal’s rear end. Strong hips, buttocks, and thigh muscles attempted to buck the human off. Claw on its rear feet searched for him at the same time. It tried to rise and roll to get him off.

  As soon as Gregory saw Coop reverse and straddle the Carvide, he, and the two Marines jumped into action. Trusting his friend to control the animal, he muzzled the sick one with a belt. The three of them hoisted it onto the blanket, grabbed the corners, and quickly got out of the cell. It grumbled, but did not resist.

  Singh waited outside the cell. As soon as they lay the animal down at his feet, he asked the Colonel, “How does the Captain plan on getting out?”

  Gregory looked to where Cooper was struggling to keep the Carvide down, smiled a crooked grin, and replied, “No idea, but entertaining, I am sure.”

  By now every Marine not involved in a job elsewhere, Sky, and many of the aliens who were ambulatory, stood pressed together watching.

  It spoke volumes to the drama unfolding that humans, and aliens stood side-by-side, with no thought of it being odd. The conflict between man and animal playing itself out, touched something inside of each of them.

  Singh administered a sedative. He examined the sick Carvide, constantly looking up to watch the action.

  When the big Carvide took a moment’s break from thrusting and thrashing, Coop used his re-engineered speed to step off, and to the side. He then used his strength to slide the animal across the cell, away from the door. He had not thrown it, because he did not want it hurt landing on the hard floor.

  Sky yelled “RUN!” Gregory held the door half open, but Coop was not making a mad dash for safety. He stood his ground.

  The Carvide rose, claws raking the deck in the scramble to regain its balance, expecting a chase, but stopped short when it realized the man had not run for the door. The animal growled at Coop, and at the crowd outside. He saw his companion outside, and down, but no one was harming her, so he turned his full attention on the man in the cell with him.

  The air was foul, but he could still scent the human. He sensed tension, but not fear. He could smell the fear coming from the crowd of mixed aliens outside the cell, but nothing from the one inside. Prey always stank before being downed. It was a scent that pushed him to finish a hunt.

  The Carvide was tired. The short struggle to escape the man’s hold taxed it even further. He remembered home. Running for miles, playing, and hunting with his pack. They had never been beaten, until the cold-blooded ones hunted them with flashing light that killed and maimed, and flexible metal cages which dropped down, and trapped them. He was tired, but he was not beaten. He was exhausted. This being was not prey. His companion was gone. He was the last of the pack.

  He sat. Let this one escape. He sat. Nothing left to fight for.

  The cell block went dead quiet. No one, not one being moved. Then Sky whispered “fuck,” as Cooper started walking toward the Carvide, instead of to the cell door.

  The Carvide, head held forward and down, with ears back, watched him come closer. Not quick, not slow. Measured and assured. No threat. He watched the man’s paw, palm turned up, no claws, reach toward his head and sharp teeth. The hand slipped beneath his jaw, and stoked his chin. He whispered words no one else could hear. Soft. Kind. Then he walked away, his back to the Carvide; unprotected. The Carvide watched the man walk through the bars. The big canine relative laid down. His ears perked up as the Marines began to applaud, soon joined by the aliens.

  Today a conflict began and ended with weapons of war. Today, another conflict had been avoided by empathy and kindness. Both hallmarks of humans. The ability to fight. The capacity to care.

  Chapter 48

  Using ship-to-ship communication, Genna, Kennedy, Storm, Elie, Mags, and Cornitsch came up with a plan.

  Since the LBJ was on the cargo ship, they decided Elie, and Mags needed to fly Angel 7 to shuttle Trent, his engineers, and equipment from the 109 to the Star Gazer.

  Only problem was Elie, and Mags, and Demon were drifting in space without maneuvering thrusters. They had no way to get aboard Kennedy for the switch.

  Storm solved the problem.

  She would remotely operate the escape pod she and Sky had been flying when the Star Gazer found them. It was not big enough to act as a shuttle for the people and equipment, but it could provide a push.

  Cornitsch cleared the hangar, opened the doors, and Storm flew the pod out. She set it up behind Demon, and pushed the fighter into the 109’s hangar, which had been cleared by LCMD Smith. Sounded simple, but it took a lot of bumps, and thumps, starts, and stops until Demon finally floated into Kennedy’s hangar.

  Elie let Demon drift to the farthest wall. She dropped the landing pads, using the magnets to pull the ship down, and locked the fighter to the deck. Storm recalled the escape pod to the Star Gazer, where Cornitsch had left the doors open and the hangar depressurized to speed up Angel 7’s arrival.

  The 109’s crew, under the directions of Henry, loaded Angel 7 with the crystals, lasers, and equipment brought from Mars. Elie and Mags got comfy in the cockpit while Trent, and his five engineers and technicians got uncomfortable in the cramped cabin.

  Elie’s displayed her skills as a pilot to jockey Angel around Demon, and fly out the hangar doors. The jaunt to the Star Gazer a piece of cake.

  Storm provided translator rings for Elie and Mags, giving both women hugs on meeting them. She also
gave them to Trent’s team — rings, not hugs.

  Within an hour of docking, the humans were in the cruise ship’s engineering section with a half-dozen Bosine engineers, and an equal number of tech-savvy Woolifer technicians.

  It took the combined brain power, and experience of everyone involved six hours to agree on the best way to integrate the temporary space-fold array with the cruise ship’s operational and flight systems. It was a sad fact, but since the ship was being run from engineering instead of the command bridge, it made the integration process simpler.

  It required an additional sixteen hours for installation. Done, they were positive the Star Gazer could produce, and then operate as a space-fold capable vessel.

  During the time spent installing the array, Elie and Mags wandered around the giant space cruise ship, meeting aliens who were both friendly and appreciative. More than once, the two pilots found themselves tearing up. While the conditions were sad, this was how first contact should take place. Handshakes, hugs, fist-bumps, (yep, fist-bumps from aliens. Who knew?), and kind words between species.

  Cornitsch located Rosz and Chaspi. They, and their families had been in their cabins at the other end of deck 282. There was enough time for them to escape before the emergency systems closed the hallway and shut off those above and below.

  Storm gave the good news to Coop, who sat with Sky, leaning against the hull across from the Carvide’s cage. Almost everyone else aboard the cargo ship slept.

  The smaller, sick Carvide was a female. She had received fluids, antibiotics, vitamins, and already showed improvement. With Cooper on point, she had been replaced to the cage, which had been hosed down. The big male hosed down with the cage.

  Singh washed the female by hand, using antibiotic salves on any open soars he found.

  The male, still wet, lay beside the female. Coop had feed him cut-up pieces of meat with vitamins hidden inside. He would only feed him a few pieces, but did it every hour, not wanting the animal to overeat, and get sick. Sky found a bowl, filled it with fresh water, and slipped it through a slotted section in the bars.

  “Busy few days,” Coop said. Sky moved close enough to lay her head on his chest.

  “Almost over,” Sky said. “You go to your ship, Storm, and I go to the Star Gazer, and we all go to your Earth . . . or Mars . . . or wherever it is we go.”

  “Well, if we’re all going to Earth, or Mars, or wherever anyway, seems to me you, and Storm could stay on the 109,” Coop said to the top of her head.

  Sky did not answer, but she did sigh, and snuggled closer. And fell asleep. Coop looked up, into the eyes of the Carvide. Things were far from perfect, but everything sure seemed a whole lot better.

  Daniel Cooper lived as a loner by choice, not by nature. Maybe the time had arrived when the natural order of things should return. He had, after all, made first contact.

  Chapter 49

  The Star Gazer popped out of space-fold into natural space less than one-hundred miles from the cargo ship. Trent decided the short trip could act as the test run. Either they had engineered everything correctly, or they had not.

  SFPT-109, the John F. Kennedy, entered natural space five minutes later, and five-hundred miles further on. She would stand watch.

  Angel 7, with Elie, Mags, and Nathan aboard, exited the Star Gazer hold. They flew a couple of hundred miles further out to also stand watch, and so Nathan could experience space at the edge of the solar system.

  The rest of the plan changed in the past couple of hours. Instead of trying to shuttle aliens and animals from the cargo ship to the badly damaged cruise ship, Coop decided to fly the entire Parrian box container ship into the Star Gazer’s massive hangar.

  No one questioned his sanity . . . out loud. But they did decide they would launch the LBJ before the attempt.

  Commander Cornitsch had his hangar ready, including returning the Fellen pod in its private bay.

  Storm released the hauler’s computers, and Sky joined him at the flight command console, in the blood-stained engineering section, to help interpret controls. Translator rings did little for written directions.

  Captain Cooper, ex-test pilot, practiced shadow maneuvers in open space before warning everyone he was ready. The shuttle LBJ launched, and would stand by.

  Coop, with thirty years of experience flying experimental vessels, brought the alien ship onto the Star Gazer. He set her on the deck so softly, Col Gregory actually asked, “Are we down?” when Coop walked away from the console.

  Communications were opened and busy across all channels, except the civilian-public ones within the Star Gazer. Plans created, modified, and confirmed.

  Angel 7 with Elie, Mags, and Nathan would leave for MSD immediately. She would arrive in eighty-four hours. They would assist the space station, and Space Fleet, prepare for the arrival of a giant interstellar cruise ship and 240-plus-thousand aliens and animals.

  Though data was streaming to the space stations continuously, the reality of extraterrestrials would still come as a shock.

  Col. Gregory, and half the Marines would stay aboard the Star Gazer. This included Singh, his medics, and two of the four nurses. They would aide and assist Dr. Coptonitsch, and his medical staff. The other Marines and medical staff would join Cooper, Sky, and Storm when the LBJ returned to the 109.

  Trent’s team remained on the cruise ship. They decided to make five short space-fold jumps, instead of a single extended one. The trip would take more time, but this option allowed opportunities to check the temporary array, make any adjustments, and keep the massive ship and occupants safe.

  To prevent space-fold sickness, each panned layover would last a minimum six hours. They estimated six-days four-hours to reach MSD, if the temporary array worked as expected. Supplies on the Star Gazer would last the journey. The supplies on the cargo ship would support the captives , who would remain quarantined for the trip.

  While Sky and Storm packed, Coop, with Cornitsch’s help, found Rosz and Chaspi. He made sure they were well, and promised to find them again when they reached the end of the journey.

  He was also happy to discover Assistant Captain Sonoritsch, and Ensign Fallenitsch were not on the bridge when it was destroyed. They escaped before the command sphere had been sealed off. Pansoitsch and Pictor perished along with Poonch, and 620 other crew members.

  There was a memorial service for the lives lost. There were still bodies trapped in the Star Gazer’s sealed compartments. After they arrived at Mars, recovery would begin immediately. Hundreds had been lost to the void, so Commander Cornitsch led a memorial service over the PA, followed by a moment of silence.

  The LBJ returned to her berth on the 109 and parked adjacent to Demon, which had been moved by Smith and his crew, using a variety of equipment not originally meant for manhandling space fighters in cramped quarters.

  Genna and Kennedy coordinated the first space-fold jump with Cornitsch and Manny Hernandez. The 109 would make the same five jumps, assuring the Star Gazer’s security at each location. Providing assistance if needed.

  Coop took Gregory aside for a private meeting. They decided the risk-reward of going after the remaining Zenge Primary did not make the gamble worthwhile. The last deep scans indicated it was still rudderless, heading out to the edge of the solar system. They decided to let it go.

  Before he boarded the LBJ for the short trip to the 109, Captain Cooper performed a final inspection of the cargo vessel.

  He thanked every Marine personally, including Anton. He paid his respects to the two fallen Marines safely stored in the ships hangar, far away from the Zenge bodies stored in the weapons room. The concussed Marine, Kassar, and Mitchell were in beds in the medical ward of the Star Gazer. Mitchell, awake and stable, would recover from her wounds.

  He checked on the aliens, happy to see they had cots, mattresses, chairs, and tables. Fresh linens and toiletries had been provided by the crew and people of the Star Gazer. They were made as comfortable as possible under the
circumstances. He received smiles, words of thanks, and slaps on the back. Even a handshake from an alien who resembled Big Foot.

  Last, he checked in on the Carvide. The female was up, looking healthier thanks to the food, the vitamins, and care provided by Dr. Singh, who had a future as a vet if he decided to switch professional callings. She was shaky on her feet, and stayed to the rear of the cell, but she neither growled or bared teeth.

  The male, looking fitter, trotted up to the bars when he recognized Coop.

  Without fear or hesitation, Coop reached in underhanded and scratched the animal under the chin. Slowly, he pulled his hand backward so the animal could follow the motion. He reached up and rubbed its head.

  “I haven’t made a friend, not a real friend, in nearly twenty years,” he told the Carvide, who tilted its head to listen the same way Storm did. He laughed softly at the image. “In less than a week I’ve doubled my friend count, if I include you.”

  The Carvide chuffed, then returned to comfort the female. Cooper did not know if his friendship had been accepted, or rejected. Guess he would find out if the over-sized wolf from another world tried to eat him the first chance it got.

  After the LBJ settled, and Captain Cooper’s feet hit the deck of the 109, the ship’s PA announced, “Kennedy is aboard.”

  Yes, he was.

  Chapter 50

  The officer stood at attention before a formal, beautifully carved wood and slate desk. The person seated behind the desk was not military, but he was his superior. He was everyone’s superior.

  “I understand the wormhole creation engine worked,” the one seated said.

  “Partially,” the officer said. “Data recovered indicates they were able to escape by creating a wormhole, but the dark matter released to maintain the channel walls killed everyone on board. Over 60,000 Zenge, and over one-thousand of our own.”