First Contact: Spider Wars: Book 1

by Randy Dyess

  Captain Moore, the current commander of the Castle and Candus Security’s Alpha Squad was what everyone would call average for a spacer. He was tall, slim, and not well-built, which was typical for humans who spent the majority of their time in zero gravity. His head was shaved, since space vessels had no artificial gravity and hair tended to float around and get in the way. Plus, smaller vessels did not have enough water supplies to allow hair-washing.

  Captain Moore had served Candus Security for thirty of his forty-six years in space. At age twelve, a test had shown his knack for mechanical work, so the Candus Corporation had sent him to school for four years. Once he’d finished, he’d been placed as a mechanic on one of their security vessels. This was what happened to someone who grew up on a corporation-controlled planet: if they discovered that you had a talent for something, you had no choice but to be trained for it and shipped wherever the company needed you. Young Landen Moore had been lucky that there had been a need for a mechanic on a security vessel—otherwise, he might have found himself stuck on some deep-space freighter, or planet-side in some dirty equipment repair yard. At least now he traveled around and had some reasonable measure of comfort.

  Candus Security had soon learned that they had someone special in young Landen Moore, and he’d started additional leadership classes. By the age of twenty, Landen Moore had become Captain Moore. Pirates in the Gamma sector had learned to fear whatever ship he commanded, and he’d racked up eighty-two confirmed pirate kills before he became the captain of the Castle. After that, he’d racked up another forty kills and cleaned the Gamma sector of all pirates. That didn’t mean he was done and could rest for the remainder of his career, though; the Candus Corporation had sent him and the Castle to the Taurus and Pegasus sectors to do the same.

  Captain Moore and the Castle had spent five years trying to get rid of the pirates in the two sectors. It had been five years of hit and run scrapes with the pirates, until the battle at Pirate’s Bay changed everything. The two sectors went from being a pirate’s haven to a boring patrol route. Boring affected a crew’s morale and job performance, so Captain Moore had made a game out of completing their assigned patrol route—a game that spread to the other ships in Candus Security. Bets flowed all over the sectors to see which crew could drop out of FTL, patrol the planet, collect all required data, and slip back into FTL the fastest. Their moral and performance increased to the point that the Castle could finish a patrol before five o’clock on Friday, and everyone could be home or in a bar by six.

  *****

  “Five minutes to Candus,” the ship’s speaker announced.

  “What’s the record?” Captain Moore asked, despite knowing it by heart.

  “Eleven minutes and forty-five seconds,” the tactical officer announced.

  “Today, I want to shave fifteen seconds off that record. With the new scanning software, we should be able to set a new record. Make it happen, people.”

  “Aye, aye,” the crew shouted. They would have beaten the record on their last patrol if it hadn’t been for some bad luck. The three men on duty in the planet-side security office had decided to take a coffee break just as the Castle jumped out of FTL. It had taken forty-five minutes before they could contact planet-side for the two-word report, “All green.”

  “Three minutes to Candus,” the ship’s speaker announced.

  “Flight, is the next FTL jump solution in the nav computer?”

  “Aye, sir. Estimated three minutes to jump, once you give the word.”

  “Tactical, scanners ready to scan the surface?”

  “Aye, sir. The new scanners and software should finish the job in five minutes. Two rotations around the planet and we’ll have everything the forecasters need.”

  Part of the patrol responsibilities of the security force was collecting planet-wide data, which allowed the corporate planners to assess environmental conditions on their agricultural planets. This data would allow the Candus Corporation to make the best use of the planet’s resources for next year’s crops. Candus might have been a minor, backwater planet, but that did not mean the corporate bigwigs would allow a single acre of the planet to be misused.

  “Communications, ready to contact Candus local for their report?”

  “Aye, sir. I’m broadcasting to every communication device in the office, as well as to all known mobile devices, personal communicators, and even to a receiver I had a buddy put in the company’s hover car. They’ll hear us, this time. I don’t care if they’re in the toilet—they’ll hear us.”

  “Nice work,” Captain Moore chuckled. “How about the data uplink?”

  “I had another buddy schedule an upgrade of their software two months ago. We can initiate the data stream whenever we want—we don’t have to wait for them to send it to us.”

  “Great idea. It looks like we’re going to be the winner of this quarter’s bonus! Great job, everyone.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” came the collective response.

  “Thirty seconds to Candus,” the ship’s speaker announced.

  “Get ready, everyone. I want no bad luck messing things up, this time. I want us to get what we need and get out of here. This is our last chance this quarter to beat the record, so let’s end this patrol on a perfect note. When we beat this record, I’m buying drinks for everyone for the first week after the patrol is finished.”

  “Aye, aye, sir!”

  “Three seconds to Candus,” the ship’s speaker announced. “Two seconds to Candus. One second to Candus.”

  The Castle dropped out of the FTL tunnel with a flash, and it took ninety seconds before the scanning system came back online.

  “What the hell?” Captain Moore shouted as the viewers showed a large piece of a ship right in front of them. “Evasive pattern Delta,” he shouted as the collision alarms sounded throughout the ship. “Get us away from that wreck. All stations start active scanning. I want answers, everyone!” The Castle responded immediately and slipped by the piece of junk floating in front of them without a scratch.

  “Captain, I’m recording over eighty pieces of debris floating around Candus. I register pieces from three Galaxy-class freighters. It looks like a battle.”

  “Captain, there’s an asteroid field off port.”

  “Asteroids? Are you sure we’re off Candus? There are no asteroid fields near Candus.”

  “Yes, sir. Candus is directly ahead.”

  “Verify and plot the course of the field. Everyone, find out if there are any other ships over Candus; I want to know if this was a pirate attack, or a rogue asteroid field.”

  “Captain, the field is static—it’s not acting like a rogue field. The asteroids are evenly spaced around the planet.”

  “Captain, we show no other ships in orbit over Candus. If it was an attack, they’re gone.”

  “Captain, two FTL distortions are forming twenty-thousand meters to starboard.”

  “That would be the Rook and Bishop. Are they out of the debris field?”

  “Aye, Captain. They will be close, but safe.”

  “Get them online as soon as they clear blackout.”

  “Captain, three smaller asteroids and two larger ones are breaking off from the field and heading for the Rook’s and Bishop’s jump points.”

  “What?” Captain Moore asked, before immediately yelling, “How can asteroids break off from a field and move in formation? Oh, crap.” He answered his own question a few seconds later. “Those are not asteroids—they’re ships. Battle stations, spin up all weapons and drives! Prepare for action!”

  The crew jumped to their battle stations. Numerous battles with pirates around the twenty planets they patrolled had honed them over the years; no pirates had ever beaten the Castle or Captain Moore in a battle, and this crew was not going to be the first to break those records.

  “Weapons hot. Drives charging,” the weapons officer announced.

  “Damn, look at their speed,” the tactical officer said.

&n
bsp; Captain Moore looked at the view screen and could see the pirate vessels rushing toward the two jump points. He knew they would be on top of the Rook and Bishop before they had a chance to arm their weapons. “Can we intercept?” he asked the tactical officer

  “Not enough time.”

  “Prepare to move as close as we can to the Rook and Bishop. Fire everything at maximum range. Maybe we can rattle them enough to make them miss with whatever weapons they have.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  As soon as Captain Moore finished, the five vessels fired small green balls of lightning toward the two jump points. “What the hell are those things? Are those plasma balls?”

  “Scanning. Computer responds that there is a ninety-eight percent chance that they are plasma balls. It doesn’t make sense—no one has been able to generate enough power to use them as weapons.”

  The entire crew watched as the balls hurled toward the jump points, knowing the two emerging ships wouldn’t stand a chance. They could only hope that damage would be minimal and the crews of the Bishop and Rook would survive.

  “Oh, my God!”

  “What?” Captain Moore asked.

  “Look over Candus.”

  The crew switched their attentions to the secondary viewers, where they could see an asteroid the size of a small moon coming into view. It was closely followed by two slightly smaller ones, and all three were maneuvering, which meant they were the biggest ships ever seen by humans. The moon-sized ship was over fifty kilometers long and thirty wide. Not even the largest cargo freighters ever made could match the craft in size or mass.

  “Captain, Bishop and Rook are leaving FTL.”

  “Are they going to make it?” he asked.

  “No. Weapons intersect in ninety seconds,” the tactical officer responded.

  Captain Moore switched his focus to the two emerging ships. They were leaving the FTL blind spot just as the plasma balls hit them. The Bishop and Rook never stood a chance; the bridge crew of the Castle watched in horror as the plasma balls washed over the two ships, melting them into pools of metal.

  “Captain, the enemy vessels are turning our way.”

  “Get us out of here!” he shouted. The Castle had no type of armor that could stop plasma balls.

  “Aye, sir. Jump in three minutes.”

  “Fire everything we have at those ships and target any plasma balls they fire. Package all data received and send it scrambled to planet-side and through the nav buoys to headquarters. I want everything we’ve recorded off this ship and in transit in thirty seconds!”

  “Data sent,” the communications officer announced less than a minute later.

  “Ninety seconds to jump,” the tactical officer announced.

  “Captain, we’re being fired on. Estimated impact in ninety-five seconds.”

  “Good—we should complete our jump before then.”

  “Sixty seconds to jump.”

  “Captain, the plasma balls are speeding up. Estimated sixty-one seconds to impact.”

  “What? How can they speed up after being fired? Comms, keep sending all new data as fast as we receive it. I don’t care if it’s scrambled or not.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Thirty seconds to jump.”

  “Thirty-one seconds to impact.”

  “Are we having any luck with our weapons?”

  “No, sir. They are either passing through the plasma balls or exploding on contact with no effect.”

  “Twenty seconds to jump.”

  “Twenty-one seconds to impact.”

  Captain Moore held his breath—this was going to be close. He hoped the distortion field created by the jump point would slow down or cause the plasma balls to miss. If not, they had no chance of survival. It took three seconds for a ship the size of the Castle to fully enter a jump point, and that would be two seconds too late.

  “Ten seconds to jump.”

  “Eleven seconds to impact.”

  “Everyone, brace. This will be close. Let’s pray that the distortion field affects those plasma balls!” Captain Moore shouted.

  “Five seconds to jump.”

  “Six seconds to impact.”

  “Switch main viewer to rear view. I want to watch those plasma balls,” Captain Moore shouted.

  “Four seconds to jump.”

  “Five seconds to impact.”

  “Three seconds to jump.”

  “Four seconds to impact.”

  “Two seconds to jump.”

  “Three seconds to impact.”

  “One second to jump.”

  “Two seconds to impact.”

  “Entering the jump point.”

  The front of the Castle started to stretch as it entered the distortion of the FTL jump point, and time stood still for the crew as they watched the plasma balls merge just behind the ship. There was a flash as the combined balls hit the stern of the Castle.

  “Oh, my God,” was the last thought Captain Moore had as his ship entered the jump point.

  Chapter 13

  Cindy and Mel escaped the destruction in the park and made their way back to the café. Knowing their building might collapse, Mel ordered Cindy into the freezer. Mel was just able to shut the door when a ball of plasma exploded less than a block away. Both heard the groans of the building as it collapsed on top of the freezer.

  “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! What are we going to do?” Cindy screamed.

  “Calm down,” Mel replied. “Everything will be alright.”

  She spun around and tried to open the freezer door. “It won’t move! We’re trapped! What about my family? I have to get to them—they could be hurt!”

  “Slow down. Your family is okay. They live out of the city and probably wouldn’t be involved in the bombing—”

  “What about us? How will we get out of here?” Cindy interrupted.

  “We calm down and wait. Someone will be along to dig us out.”

  She paced the freezer for a few minutes, trying the door several times to see if it would open. After about ten minutes, she gave up, sat down, hung her head, and cried softly. Mel wished there was something he could do for her, but he couldn’t think of anything. All those years in the marines hadn’t trained him to calm a scared fifteen-year-old girl.

  “What was that?” Cindy asked.

  “What?”

  “I heard something—it came from outside.”

  “Maybe someone is trying to find us,” Mel said, rushing to the door.

  As they called for help, the door jerked. They backed up and waited expectantly as the door slowly opened.

  Cindy rushed through the gap to see who her rescuers were and stopped just outside the freezer. She stood there for several seconds before what she saw registered. Screaming, she tried to turn around and rush back into the freezer, but she didn’t make it. A large, furry leg wrapped around Cindy’s ankles and yanked her to the ground.

  “Help me!” She screamed; Mel froze at the door as he watched the monster drag Cindy away.

  “Mel, help me!” Cindy rolled over and saw the huge spider pulling her toward it. Just then, she felt a prick on her leg and a pleasant feeling washed over her. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

  Mel, eyes wide with fright, backed into the freezer until his back was against the wall. He didn’t say a thing as the door opened wider and the leg of a huge spider made its way toward him.

  *****

  Michael wiped the dust from his eyes and looked around. He couldn’t see more than a few meters in front of him and couldn’t tell what had happened. A pile of rubble had fallen and covered the work table, restricting his view. At least this old thing held up, he thought. After pushing a few boards and bricks out of his way, he could make a hole large enough to crawl through, and then he stood and took in the ruins of his dojo.

  “Jason,” he yelled. “Jason, are you all right?” Michael did not hear any reply, though. He stumbled over the rubble, covered in dust, looking for his training partner an
d friend, but he could not find any sign of him. He made his way to the last spot he’d seen him before the building collapsed and started digging.

  He called out, but there was nothing—no screams, moans, or movement. After he pushed aside a large beam, Michael saw something that looked like the tip of a finger sticking up through the rubble. He frantically moved a few bricks away and dug in the dust and dirt, until he could uncover one of Jason’s fingers.

  Grabbing it, Michael shouted, “Jason, can you hear me? I’m going to dig you out! Hang in there, buddy. It’ll only take a few more minutes.” He dug further, until he freed Jason’s entire right hand. He grabbed it and felt for any movement, but there was nothing. In fact, his hand was already cold and clammy, and there was no pulse at the wrist. He hoped for the best, but he knew his friend was probably lost.