Starfire and The Planet Killer

by Christine Westhead

  The Keloran system was tucked away in a useless part of the galaxy as far as the Aurian Federation was concerned. The planet Kelorus, its largest body, was composed mainly of poisonous gasses and its ring of seven moons contained ice and uninteresting ores. Since none of the planets were habitable without artificial life support, the system was not travelled widely.

  Their sleek, dark corvette, the Grennig, slowed as it always did, at the old abandoned spaceport. No new ships had been added to the floating graveyard of abandoned hulks, a secret sign of danger. They were safe to proceed.

  Turning sharply, Starfire headed the ship towards the outer edge of the little system, where the beginnings of an asteroid field could be seen.

  "Cantina Control, this is The Grennig, come in please," Raan spoke into the console com and waited a while for the usual reply. Because of the existence of large amounts of copper, aluminium and trianite in the asteroids, communication was virtually impossible and a chain of mobile transmitter boosters led through the rocks to their hidden base.

  "Grennig, this is Cantina Control. Can you see your guide?" A slow moving boulder, the size of a small household refrigerator, emerged from the asteroid field and moved towards them. It looked exactly the same as all the other revolving rocks, but this one stopped off their port bow and emitted a pulsing, red light.

  "Aye," answered Raan. "Sending recognition code now, Cantina Control." Raan's hand hovered over a crystal on the console in front of him and they waited for a second. The light on the boulder changed to green and it backed slowly into the maelstrom of revolving rocks. "Cantina, we're not stopping by today," said Raan.

  "Understood, Grennig. Maybe we'll see you later. Please follow your guide and welcome home."

  "Thank you, Cantina."

  "Which one are you then?" asked Starfire, leaning towards the com.

  "Greetings, Lieutenant Starfire. I am Little Rock Twenty Seven." The rest of the crew rolled their eyes as Starfire exchanged pleasantries with the boulder in front of them. There were dozens of the small, fake boulders, patrolling the asteroid field and surrounding areas, ready to assist or defend the Alliance. They had started off being used to relay communications through the asteroids in a chain system, but had evolved into a network that carried messages, guided ships to the Cantina and beyond and were also used as a last line of defence.

  "Hello, Twenty Seven. Have you had the upgrade yet?"

  "Thanks to you, we have all been upgraded, Lieutenant. We will no longer cease to function should we have to self destruct." Starfire had found out that the little robots could cling to enemy ships and self destruct in a last resort to defend the Alliance. She championed their cause and was ridiculed, until one of their number had shown the ability for independent thought and saved the Grennig and its crew. She had put pressure on the Alliance to find a way to save them, and now their consciousness could be up-linked to a server just prior to their self detonation and made into another Little Rock. This would probably never happen, as the asteroid field was huge, and the chance of the Federation finding a way through without the Little Rocks was minimal, but Starfire stuck to her guns and the upgrades were put in place.

  With Raan's help, for the way was narrow, Starfire followed Little Rock Twenty Seven through an ever changing route, used by the Rebel Alliance and enemies of the Aurian Federation. It took over five hours of delicate manoeuvring before the path opened out and they were on the other side of the asteroid field.

  "Here is where I reluctantly leave you, Lieutenant Starfire." The Little Rocks had a generic voice that was melodic and neither male nor female, but Starfire had decided they were all male.

  "Thanks for your help, little guy." Starfire looked at the others. "What?"

  "Here's where I reluctantly leave you!" mocked Raan. "They don't talk to anyone else like that. You're sending them all bonkers."

  "I think it's because I saved all their little asses," she declared, proudly. "I'm kind of like their queen or something." Raan stared back, open mouthed and she leaned over and punched his arm. "Get on with it, Captain and set the course." Although Raan outranked her, she was the commander on the flight deck and he obeyed her without question.

  "Course plotted, aye."

  "Manual course set and locked," added Erion, the navigator. They never used the navi computer when travelling to the Alliance main base in case their ship was captured. There was no way anyone would ever find the base without pre-programmed co-ordinates as they were travelling without a star map to guide them.

  The view out of the windscreens was black. There was nothing to be seen; not a planet, not a sun, no twinkling stars. There was no sense of movement inside the ship, but the low throb of the engines, which was felt, rather than heard, told them the ship was moving. Starfire and Raan slid back their seats, stood up and stretched. It was a tedious journey through the asteroids and it had become customary that Delta Ten would keep a watch while they went one level below to the crew lounge to relax. It would take just over two hours to reach their destination and, as Starfire pointed out,

  "There's nothing he can hit."

  Coffee and cakes later, the crew returned to their posts and slid into their seats. Dead ahead and the only thing in the empty blackness was a wormhole. It rotated slowly, bordered with bluish white clouds and the odd silver flash. Its presence was probably the main reason there was nothing left in the system, but according to Delta Ten, it was impossible to tell. It was an impressive sight, but the Grennig crew had seen it all before and were more wary than impressed by its beauty. They had to fly through it at precisely the right trajectory to ensure they came out the other side in one piece. This was the first time they planned to go through in their ship instead if its shuttle and the entrance looked exceedingly small all of a sudden.

  "Course plotted," began Raan.

  "Laid in and locked," said Erion.

  "Right then," began Starfire, "here we go!" Her hands danced over the crystals on her console and the prow of the graceful ship swung slowly around and entered the wormhole.

  'Interesting', was how Delta Ten described the short experience inside the spinning tunnel. Raan looked forward to it, but to Erion and Starfire, it was 'weirdly unpleasant'. They knew, as they had checked afterwards, that it took just a few seconds in real time, but inside the ship, everything seemed to stretch and slow down. Starfire always said it was like swimming underwater in thick treacle. They tried talking the first time they went through but their voices came out very slowly and deep. The colours looked wrong and there was always an overpowering sickly aroma of something awful, which changed according to their mood. When they did shoot out the other end, their speed was at least double and Raan was ready with the braking thrusters. Starfire hauled the emergency manual steering bar quickly to port, to avoid an old wreck that sat on the event horizon, and raised the Grennig's nose. The battered hull of the old freighter came quickly into view and they could see individual rivets as the Grennig skimmed over it at zero height.

  "I hate that!" muttered Starfire.

  "You gotta admit it's a good trap for the bad guys," put in Raan.

  "I know, Captain, but I keep having this awful thought that one day I'm going to forget it's there."

  "Do not worry, Lieutenant," said Delta Ten, "I will be sure to remind you from now on." Starfire groaned quietly to herself.

  "Thank you, Del," she said brightly. She had been partly joking when she said it, but from now on, she knew the android would would warn her of the wreck every time they approached the wormhole. Any ship unprepared would have shot out of the wormhole like a comet and ploughed straight into the battered freighter. It was yet another trap for the unwary, and simple to avoid, but nerve wracking, never the less.

  They slowed the Grennig down to cruising speed and set off across the darkness, their destination still unseen. Another couple of hours passed while the crew used the ship's facilities to while away the time. Hal used the firing range that Delta Ten had built for hi
m to further hone his gunfighting skills while Erion, Raan and Starfire used the gym and small swimming pool to keep in shape. Presently, a little planet gradually came into view. Its left half was illuminated weakly by a distant star but it was the only thing to be seen by the naked eye in the dark emptiness. As they approached it, tiny lights could be seen on its surface and Starfire brought the big ship into a landing approach. Gradually, a small group of sectional, cuboid buildings could be made out, surrounded by standard landing pads. The pads were arranged in a circular pattern, connected by aircar tubes and viewed from above, the structure looked like a massive, illuminated clock. Raan leaned forward slightly and spoke to the console comm.

  "Gateway Base, this is the Grennig requesting permission to land. Standard crew, no passengers."

  "Welcome, Grennig. Please land on Pad Four." There was a short silence, then, "did you get it?"

  "Yeah, we got it!" A faint cheer could be heard through the speakers as their landing pad lit up for them. They slowly touched down and Raan cut the engines with a grateful sigh. He didn't really enjoy flying as much as Starfire, but he was a good co-pilot and they worked well together.

  They both slid their seats back and joined Hal, Erion and Delta Ten in the steel, hexagonal hall outside the Pilot Section. They didn't have to wait long before there was the gentle touch of a landing tube against the side of the ship. There was a faint clang and then a quiet hiss as the aircar tube pressurised. The light above their port side aircar hatch changed to green and Erion waved her hand across the door mechanism. A short aircar ride brought them out into a circular room ringed with the oval aircar doors. They walked to a podium in the centre and placed their palms on the ident for that purpose and leaned forward for a retina and brain scan. Once that had been done, another aircar door opened and they stepped into the little sphere to finish their journey. They sat in a circle, knees not quite touching, on the metal and padded foam seat that ran around the circumference of the aircar.

  "I hope the de-brief doesn't last too long, I'm starving," stated Starfire, two slices of coffee and walnut cake a distant memory. "Erion, do you think we can make it back to the Cantina tonight?"

  "I don't see why not, if you and Raan want to fly all that way again."

  "I'm game if you are," put in Raan, his mind on the delights that the Cantina could offer.

  "I would prefer to remain here, analysing this information," Delta Ten sat with the precious computer core on his lap.

  "Of course," answered Erion. It did not occur to the others that Delta Ten's remark, should it have been overheard by a robotisist, would have instantly resulted in the android's departure to a laboratory, where he would have been stripped down to his component parts and analysed in minute detail.

  Although Delta Ten was unique, being the only humanified robot in known existence, his positronic brain had been altered so that he could learn human behaviour and imitate it to seem more lifelike. He had also been altered to defend people he had been programmed to see as friends. He could, and had, harmed other humans in defence of his preferred list of friends without danger to his delicate psyche: another first and a corruption of the basic three laws of robotics. When fate had thrown the odd group together, Erion made Delta Ten a Free Machine. He had to follow his basic programming, of course, but he had been given a sort of free will. He could make choices for himself and, although the others hadn't noticed it, he was using his new gift more often.

  The air car slowed to a stop, rotated ninety degrees to the right and the door slid open to reveal a busy operations centre. This was the home of the Rebel Alliance and there was a work like atmosphere about the place. It was light, modern and the large room was buzzing with electronic chatter. Several people looked up and grinned as the group walked into the room and Raan winked at a particularly pretty young tech.

  The small, unassuming leader of the Alliance, Gant, was waiting for them and the serious look on his face stilled their smiles and cheerful greetings. He nodded quietly to a group of eager technicians who feasted their eyes on the case in Del's hands.

  "Well done, all of you," said Gant. "Delta Ten, would you accompany Major Luft and his team to engineering. I'd like them to get to work on the Core straight away."

  "Of course, Sir." Delta Ten bowed and walked out of the room with the other technicians.

  "What's up?" Raan decided to get right to the point. Gant motioned with his head towards a small side room that was his office. They followed him inside and sat in the chairs which were arranged in front of a large screen. Gant sat to one side, looking even more small and insignificant. He wasn't tall, and had liquid amber eyes and a small, delicate nose. Long copper hair, parted in the centre, fell past his ears and his hands were small and neat. If one were to take the trouble to look though, there was strength in his handsome features and intelligence burned in his eyes. He brushed a stray strand of hair from his face and pushed it behind his ear before he cleared his throat and began to speak. His voice was at odds with his gentle appearance and was surprisingly deep and hard.

  "Little Rock Six brought a long range planet hopper into the asteroid field and took it to Tranter's base. There were no life signs aboard, but when we opened it we found one of our agents inside. He had died from his injuries, but this data crystal was in his hand. We practically had to break his fingers to get to it." Gant pressed a dark green crystal into a receptacle on his desk and a holographic image of a small solar system appeared just above it. "What you are seeing is the Norbus System, 8 parsecs from here." The focus moved back to show a little moon on the edge of the system. A small, chiselled shaped ship appeared and landed on the moon. The time frame jumped forward and the planet appeared to shrink in size as if the camera zoomed out. Then, the moon exploded in a shower of yellow and red gas. Molten rocks spiralled towards the camera, and the scene rocked wildly before the image went black and the hologram disappeared.

  "What the frag was that?" gasped Raan.

  "A new weapon, Captain," answered Gant. "The Federation call it the Planet Killer and this is all the information we have on it at the moment."

  "It blew up a whole moon!" said Starfire, aghast.

  "When?" grunted Hal, getting to the point.

  "This holo was smuggled out to us three days ago. The schematics of the weapon are now in the hands of our spies on Norbus One. Your mission is to go to the Sky Train on Norbus One, retrieve the plans and bring them here."

  "Okay," said Starfire, slowly, "seems like a milk run. Why us?" The Grennig and its crew had rightly gained a reputation for success on complex, risky missions. A simple pick up would normally have been given to a smaller group, or even one operative.

  "Well spotted, Starfire." Gant smiled, making him look much younger. "Call it a feeling….I don't know. I'd rather a veteran crew took this on rather than our usual couriers."

  "You expecting trouble?" asked Hal, showing interest for the first time. Gant looked slightly uncomfortable.

  "Like I said, it's just a feeling. I don't have anything else to go on. It should be a simple pick up," he shrugged. "Maybe it's because it's near to the Federation base on Norbus Alpha."

  "And you want this thing yesterday?" smiled Erion. The Grennig was one of the fastest ships in the Alliance's limited fleet. He turned to Erion.

  "As always, Major," he smiled sadly and suddenly fixed Erion with a stare. "We intercepted a private message for you and brought it here."

  "Me?" Erion's look of surprise changed to one of suspicion. "You read it, of course."

  "Of course," Gant tried to look sorry but failed completely. "We had to know if it was genuine and not a Trojan before we brought it here."

  "Ooooh," began Starfire, "what's it about then? Got any guilty secrets, Erion?" Her hazel eyes watched the little red crystal as Gant passed it to Erion.

  "Erion can tell you about it, if she wishes," said Gant, carefully watching her face. "We have reserved a room for you all here, or you may return to your ship and watch
it there.

  "Does it have anything to do with this Planet Killer thing?" asked Raan.

  "Not directly, Captain, no."

  Erion caught Raan's eye. "Do you still want to go to the Cantina, Captain?" She put the crystal in her pocket and looked at Gant. "I'm guessing any sort of decent leave is out of the question?" Gant gave a hard smile. He could see by their faces that they needed a break. The Castillon mission had been difficult, with a lot of time spent undercover gathering information in enemy held territory. They all looked tired and Hal looked ready to quit the team completely. He chose his next words with care. All members of the Alliance were volunteers. He had no power to influence their decisions but hoped his theory would prove to be correct.

  "Watch the message on the way back to the Cantina, Major and take a rest before your decide what to do. Elkrist has also seen it so you may discuss it with her at the Cantina, should you wish." He caught sight of Erion's hard look and held up a hand to stop her protest unsaid. "We are at war, Major, and once you see the holo, you will understand why I showed it to her. Watch it at your leisure, then tell me what you wish to do. I will send a trusted courier to pick up the schematics of the Planet Killer. I have no evidence that there will be trouble. I am probably over reacting." He stood up to leave and they all followed suit, but he stopped them at the hatch. "I shall instruct Delta Ten to return with you."

  "That won't please him," put in Starfire, "he'll want to stay with the data core."

  "He will follow orders, just like any other member of your crew," said Gant, flatly. His amber eyes grew hard and Starfire caught a glimpse of the inner strength of the man.

  "I'll tell him," Starfire raised her left hand to her lips and called up Delta Ten on her wrist link. "Del, get back here. We're all going to the Cantina." There was a short pause where the others couldn't quite make out his reply. "No, Gant says it's a direct order . . . . Okay then." She turned to Erion. "He's going to the Grennig by a quicker route. He'll meet us in the main hub." True to his word, Delta Ten was waiting for them and they scanned their palms and retinas on their way out.