…AND THEY ARE US
HOMECOMING
by PD McClafferty
Copyright © 2015 PD McClafferty
All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ISBN 978-0-9864245-1-9
Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Warm Welcome
Chapter Two: Volunteers
Chapter Three: The Scout
Chapter Four: Callidus
Chapter Five: Let There Be Light
Chapter Six: Plan A
Chapter Seven: Eva
Chapter Eight: The Other Shoe
Chapter Nine: The Other Other Shoe
Chapter Ten: Preparations
Chapter Eleven: The Morrigan
Chapter Twelve: Aftermath
Chapter One
WARM WELCOME:
Zed, baptized Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates, felt a lump in his throat as the blue marble that was the Earth swam in space before him. He had been gone a long time, and he didn’t realize until that very moment just how much he’d missed the world of his birth. Around him the bridge was quiet as the tired faces of other crewmembers revealed them all dealing with their own emotions. Even LOLA, the Loquacious Octoplex Loyalty Adaptable Algorithm, the AI that controlled the ship, was quiet. He let the silence run on for a few more moments.
“Are we in detector range of Earth systems yet, LOLA?” Zed stood at the front of the horseshoe shaped bridge, leaning against the heavy padded railing, staring at the approaching planet. He could have stood like that, with the rest of the bridge staff standing beside him for hours, with no ill affect. His body was, in reality, reclined in a comfortable seat in the nondescript bridge area in the very center of the ship, while his neural interface placed him standing on a virtual projection in seemingly empty space. On one side of him stood the currently elfin and blond haired projection of LOLA. This was her world after all and she could appear however she saw fit, while on the other side stood a tall red haired young woman. Katherine Marie Johansen, Doctor of Astrophysics and just shy of sixteen years old, had been his first officer since he’d rescued the researchers from a crippled and dying Europa Base better than a year back.
“Shortly, Zed.” LOLA commented quietly at his side.
“Why don’t we just leave the Rose of the Dawn cloaked for the moment, and send out one of the smaller scout saucers? Except for the size, the scout is very similar to the old Rose of the Dawn, in her last lifetime, and Earthmen should be somewhat familiar with the shape. They might find the current configuration of Rose alarming.”
“As you wish, Fleet Captain. Scout three is being prepped for launch. Crew?”
Katherine’s soft contralto voice interrupted. “You handle this by yourself, LOLA. It might be better.” Zed opened his mouth to comment and Kat looked at him, raising one arched eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Nothing…” His mouth shut with a snap. He’d learned long ago not to argue with the Captain of the Rose of the Dawn. He was simply a lowly Fleet Captain, and his opinion on mundane matters didn’t count, much.
LOLA sniggered at his side. She always seemed to find human interactions amusing somehow. “As you wish Captain Johansen.” She gave Kat a small mocking bow. “Scout three launching.” Below them a dull silver saucer slid into view and accelerated away in the direction of Earth. Fifty meters in diameter, the small saucer could hold a crew of twelve, or be piloted remotely. Visible now, the scout ship had the capability to be cloaked and shielded if necessary. Weapons on the saucer were minimal when compared to the Rose of the Dawn, but probably surpassed anything the Terran homeworld could field.
Zed frowned as a chill ran up his spine. “Raise the shields, LOLA.”
“On the scout or on us?” LOLA was frowning now.
“Yes.”
“Done!” There were never any arguments when it came to ship safety.
“Begin broadcasting friendship messages in all languages, and on all bands. Loop that transmission.”
“Broadcasting friendship message. Saucer should be entering Earth detector range now.”
Katherine scowled at the retreating saucer. “You don’t think they would greet us with hostility, do you? The Rose of the Dawn saved dozens from the disaster at Europa Base. They couldn’t have forgotten…”
“Incoming fire!” LOLA interrupted. “Nuclear detonation!” An expanding white ball of fire consumed the image of the saucer. “There’s a second detonation, and a third!” Multiple balls of blazing white joined the first. Katherine gasped.
Zed just chuckled. “At least they’re only using nukes.”
“Sensors indicate multiple missile launches.”
“Oh, just knock them down with the construction laser on the saucer. No need to get out the big guns.”
“Or tip our hand unnecessarily.” LOLA was smiling at the two humans. “I’m beginning to learn how you think, Fleet Captain.” Zed gave LOLA a little bow. “Incoming missiles have been destroyed.”
“Any damage to the saucer from the nuclear strikes?” LOLA gave him a dry look and didn’t inconvenience herself by replying. “Never mind. Let’s give our Earth forces something else to worry about. Decloak the Rose please, LOLA.” They stood and waited. Nothing happened. “Well??”
A look like thunder crossed LOLA’s face before she got it under control. “Ahhh, there seems to be a malfunction in the control circuitry, Fleet Captain Yates.” Zed saw the image of the AI swallow, a nervous look on her narrow face. “Nanites are working the problem as we speak.” The image of limitless space flickered briefly, skewed to one side and steadied, and Zed cursed. The entire trip had been like this. Most of the time the vast very alien ship purred like a kitten, but sometimes… Beside him Katherine laughed at his discomfort.
“No comments from the peanut gallery.” He growled dryly.
Kat blinked, her face reddening in surprise. “Well…” She spun and her image flickered and vanished. Katherine, Zed had noted more than once, could be sweet as peaches one minute and a red-haired hellion the next. A volatile temper, one of his friends had called it.
“Captain Johansen has left the bridge.” LOLA commented flatly. Her tone changed. “Sensors indicate the saucer is entering a debris field surrounding the planet. Analysis indicates the debris is from what use to be your space stations and several Terran warships. There is also,” she continued before Zed could ask, “debris indicative of one Creednax scout class vessel.”
“Shit!” Zed cursed.
“I agree. A departing tachyon trail indicates that at least one scout escaped.”
“Send a probe to follow it.” Zed took a deep breath. “Put me through to Captain Johansen.”
“Done.”
“Kat?”
“I’m not speaking to you at the moment.” There was an edge to her distant voice.
“I need you on the bridge Captain.” He heard her gasp in surprise at his tone.
“What?”
“I need you on the bridge now, Captain. Something has come up.” He smiled wryly into the air. “Sorry about snapping at you, but you need to learn to take comments as well as you give.”
“Peanut gallery.” She humphed. “You can apologize over dinner.” Her impulsive temper had obviously reversed itself in mid-stream
, as it did on occasion. Her form materialized beside him.
“Done.” He smiled down at her green eyes. “LOLA says that the Earth fought off a couple of Creednax scouts. They destroyed one and one got away. The Creednax took out both space stations.”
“And the Chinese lunar base Jīnsè límíng, or Golden Dawn. I’m picking up faint distress beacons.” LOLA injected.
“Merde!” Katherine swore. Studying French in her spare time, Kat seemed to have mastered swearing first.
“Oui.” He replied accordingly. “Perhaps a rescue shuttle and medical staff?” He suggested mildly.
Kat stuck her tongue out at him. “Busybody.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words. “LOLA, you heard the man.”
“Yes Captain. The team is already being prepared. Launch in fifteen minutes.”
Zed rubbed his chin as he studied the wreckage dotted sky over the beautiful planet below. “LOLA, are the communication satellites still in orbit?”
“Some of them, Zed. Why?”
Zed just smiled, and looked over his shoulder to two members of the bridge team. “Alina and Mike.” The two turned their heads. “Do you still have your cell phones, and NASA contact lists?”
Alina and Mike glanced at each other, and began laughing at the same time. “Captains Maximiliano Rivera and Mila Carpenter.” Alina, a former NASA Mission Commander chuckled dryly. “You were his best friend Mike, and he flew as your wingman while you were both still in the service. He and Mila have been seeing each other for years. You call.”
He shot her a flat look. “Thanks so much.”
Zed, Katherine, Alina DeThomaso and Mike Flaherty leaned back in their comfortable chairs in the small conference room. Mike looked nervous.
“Ahhh,” He looked around. “Which way should I have the camera facing?”
“It doesn’t matter, Mike.” LOLA’s voice came from the air around them. “He will see just what we want him to see.” The wall behind Mike became a picture window with the shining Earth at its center. The moon hung just to the right of the Earth, and the small scout saucer was clearly visible. “Will that do?” There was a trace of laughter in LOLA’s voice. A stuffy mechanical AI she definitely was NOT.
“That will be fine LOLA.” He touched the phone, which promptly read his DNA. “Call Maximiliano Rivera.” The phone rang almost immediately.
“Maximiliano Rivera.” A deep, Spanish accent voice answered a moment later. “Who is this?”
“Hello buddy.” Mike looked down at the swarthy Spanish face in his phone. “It’s been a while.”
Mike could see the Spanish face of his friend turn pale. “Mike?? They said you were dead.”
“Not by a long shot buddy.” He turned the phone slightly so that Alina could see, and be seen.
“Hi Max.” She gave her fellow astronaut a wide smile. “How is Mila?”
Maximiliano looked stunned. “Alina? Alina DeThomaso? They said you were dead too! Are all of your old crew alive?”
She laughed. “They were the last time I checked, last night in the club.”
“C, club?” Max stuttered. “Where the hell are you?”
Mike turned the phone slowly so that it faced the Earth set in her glittering star field. “That’s where we are, old friend. He moved his head so that it only partially blocked the stunning view. “We need to talk, as soon as possible. The fate of the world might depend on it. Sorry if that sounds corny, but in this case it’s the simple truth.”
There was a long pause at the other end of the line. “It’s 7 pm here, and they’re launching us at 2 am to rendezvous with the new fast destroyer HMS Gryphon. We’re to investigate the saucer that just appeared over Earth, but you already know about that, don’t you?”
“It’s our scout ship, you might say.” Alina commented over Mike’s shoulder.
“Are they still launching you guys from Wallops Island, now that Disney bought out the old Canaveral launch facility?” Mike asked thoughtfully.
The face on the phone frowned. “Yeah, why?”
“There is a NASA visitor center on the east side of the launch complex. The center backs up to the Wallops Island National Wildlife Refuge, I believe. We’ll meet you there at midnight.”
“I don’t like this Mike. It sounds fishy.” Max growled, his voice hesitant.
Mike sighed. “Bring a gun if you don’t trust us, Max. We don’t mean you, or the country or the world any harm. Far from it. Just come.”
The man on the phone looked torn, but finally friendship won out. “I’ll see you at midnight.”
Mike let out the breath he’d been holding. “I’ll see you then.” The phone went blank.
Zed, Alina and Mike stood silently in the darkened parking lot, almost invisible in their midnight blue Terran Fleet uniforms. Totally invisible from visual and thermal surveillance, Dimitri Galygin and Larisa Borisyuk, the two officers in charge of the Rose of the Dawn’s security, stood concealed in personal cloaking units, weapons drawn. Headlights flashed in the distance, followed by the whine of an electric motor. Tires crunched on gravel as the car turned into the darkened lot, and then the headlights centered on the waiting three. Two shadowy people stepped out of the car and into the wash of the headlights, where they stopped. The two from the car were armed, with pistols resting in holsters on their hips.
“Mike Flaherty and Alina DeThomaso??” A woman’s voice sounded incredulous.
“That must be Mila.” Smiling disarmingly, Mike stepped forward.
“We thought you were dead.” Max’s face held a Latin glower. “Who’s that with you?” He asked suspiciously, his eyes turning to Zed.
Stepping forward into the light, Zed sighed. This was all so tedious, and he didn’t have the time to waste. “My name is Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates, but you can call me Zed.” He didn’t smile. In the darkness of the wildlife refuge an owl called mournfully to its mate.
“Yates?” Max frowned. “I’ve heard that name somewhere…”
“I was the Flight Engineer on the SPAM, SPace And Mining Corporation’s, 7651 Rose of the Dawn a year or two ago.”
“Yeah, I remember now. You were supposed to be dead too, or kidnapped by aliens and presumed dead. You were also supposed to be older.” He turned back to Mike and Alina. “So, why am I here?”
“It might be better if we showed you.” Max’s frown deepened when Mike pointed to the dark wildlife refuge.
“Out there?”
“Out there. We’ll go first so you can see we aren’t dangerous. Cover us with your weapons if you wish. This really is important Max.”
The astronaut put his hand on the butt of his pistol, but didn’t draw it. “Go ahead.” Beside him Mila Carpenter looked just a little frightened. Two hundred yards into the wildlife refuge the three stopped. Max squinted into the darkness. “Why are you stopping?”
“You’ll see.” Mike grinned in the dim light of Max’s flashlight.
The darkness flickered and coalesced into a shadowy fifty meter saucer sitting quietly before them. A dim rectangle of light appeared as a door in the hull slid open, and a black ramp flowed out like an obscene tongue, hardening as it touched the ground.
“Whaaaa?” Max and Mila stood frozen, their mouths hanging open. They jerked around when Dimitri and Larisa, moving silently and invisibly, neatly disarmed the two NASA astronauts. “You son of a…” He froze when Dimitri appeared in front of him, standing a full thirty centimeters above Max. Unlike Max, Dimitri was armed. An armed Larisa flickered into existence at his side, Mila’s gun tucked into her belt.
Zed pointed to the ramp. “If you would, Max and Mila.”
&nb
sp; Shoulders slumped in defeat, they turned to follow Mike and Alina up the ramp. Dimitri and Larisa stalked after them. Zed stood alone for a moment, looking out into the darkness and savoring the feel of the cool damp night air against his skin. He took one last deep breath and walked up the ramp. Behind him the nanite constructed ramp flowed up into the ship as the door slid closed.
Zed checked to make sure the other members of the little party were already secured before he slid into his own command chair to feel the edges wrap protectively around him. “View forward, LOLA.” The forward screen flickered on to show the dark wildlife refuge. “Engage cloaking and take us back to the Rose please. Make a quick loop around the HMS Gryphon before you bring us home.” The ship rose silently, with no sense of motion.
The HMS Gryphon looked like an elongated pumpkin seed, with twin drive pods stuck on the rear and weapons blisters dotting what would otherwise be a sleek hull. A large communication dish appeared to be glued to the top. At two hundred meters in length, the ship dwarfed the scout saucer.
“What a piece of junk!!” Coming out of the air around them, LOLA’s voice was filled with scorn.
“Now, now, LOLA. Be nice. Humans are just beginning their climb into space after all. You have to walk before you can run.” Zed was smiling.
“Granted.” LOLA admitted grudgingly. “That thing, however, can barely crawl. The dual drives aren’t even balanced. It will blow up before she gets a single AU.”
Zed looked over his shoulder at his two unwilling guests. “Are Americans still hitching rides on foreign spaceships?”
Maximiliano gave Zed a sour look. “The government cut the NASA budget again. I believe that they used the money to build a new coal fired power plant in West Virginia instead.”
“Coal???” Alina gasped. “That’s horrible stuff. The tailings are toxic as hell!”
Max sighed a reply. “King coal paid for the current president’s re-election campaign. You are looking at fifty percent of the entire NASA astronaut corps.” He waved a hand to include Mila.
“Then you should feel a little better about being on this ship.” Zed muttered sarcastically as he turned back to look at the Gryphon. “Rather than that one. What kinds of weapons are aboard that ship, LOLA?”
...and they are us Homecoming Page 1