COLOSSUS: Departure

by Terry Frost

  Jak didn’t say anything else. He decided to wait and see the video himself with the hope they could magnify the image, which might give them a better view of the aliens.

  When the trio made it to Room Forward, every executive officer was in the room from Admiral Allen down the chain of command. The major walked up to General Dubois and handed him the disc. Dubois put it into a slot in the middle of the large viewing screen that popped down from the ceiling.

  What they immediately saw was thousands and thousands of flying vehicles. So many that even from seven thousand feet in the air the camera couldn’t capture them all. Admiral Allen saw something at the base of the only mountain captured in the video.

  The mountain was at the very top edge of the video, and he saw something odd at the base of it.

  Pointing at the object he asked, “Can we zoom in on that location.”

  When the video zoomed in, the officers were shocked. The object was what looked to be a large bay door. Something was hidden inside and everyone came to the same conclusion. There had to be a base built into the mountain.

  Commodore Jeeves walked over to the screen and pointed at one of the flying machines and said, “Zoom in on that one.”

  The picture was somewhat grainy but Jeeves could see what the pilot looked like as did all other eyes in the room.

  The pilot’s head was black and viewing it from the side they could tell it was, in fact, the head of an insect of some kind. It had two large eyes and just below the eye was a large pincer similar to a termite soldier back on Earth.

  “Admiral, I’m convinced the aliens are insectoid, intelligent insectoids. I also surmise they are not friendly aliens.”

  “I agree with Commodore Jeeves, Admiral. They seem to be readying themselves for war, or at least training for one,” General Alias Dubois said.

  Alias walked over to the screen and with a pointer started his illustration of what he thought the video was telling them.

  “Look at how synchronized their movements are. See how there are several different sizes of balls when they come together before dispersing out in a firing pattern. I’m guessing of course, but I’d say I estimate a hundred or so make up the small balls, then look at this one. There has to be a thousand in that one.”

  Rear Admiral Petrov spoke up. “Admiral, I think it wise for us to move away from this planet until we have had time to figure out what this race of aliens is about, if we can that is. I’m assuming Major Hoser was able to leave undetected, but at the same time, I find that to possibly be hoping on our part.”

  “I agree with Admiral Petrov. We aren’t ready to take on such an onslaught from such a large group of military trained aliens. Those training flitters, as the Major called them, may not be just trainers.

  “We don’t know what is on the inside of that mountain and it could possibly hold an entire fleet of advanced fighters like we have never seen,” Colonel Hammer said.

  “I agree with your assessments, gentlemen. Captain Slain, Captain Sokolov, return to your cruisers and wait for my coordinates for jump away from this planet. Be prepared for several sequences of long jumps. We are getting out of the Burus System, for it is my opinion we don’t want to look for a home here. Not only that, but we need to find Planet Daak so we can find out if they know anything about this planet’s inhabitants.”

  “I agree, Admiral, and I have a feeling those aliens down there could possibly be members of the Hive.”

  “Good point, Colonel. The may very well be. But only the Daakie can tell us for sure. But then again, we don’t know if the Daakie will be friendly to new aliens in their system. Gentlemen, you have your orders.”

  The two Battlecruiser captains did as ordered and left the room with Major Hoser, and Captain Teasor. The admiral asked for Colonel Hammer and Commodore Jeeves to stay on board the Colossus.

  With notification that the captains were back on their ships, Allen sent them the jump coordinates for the Negra System, which was the star pointed to by Field Marshal Hopus as the homeworld of the Daakie, and the location of the brightest star viewable by those on the Colossus.

  Allen tapped his comlink and speaking to his helmsman, Lieutenant McManus, said, “You are go for jump, Gordo.”

  “Aye, Admiral.”

  Chapter 17

  “A frikin talking French Bulldog. Are you shitting me?” Otis Murphy asking to no one in particular, he just couldn’t believe his own eyes.

  The video of Field Marshal Hopus had been broadcast several hours earlier, and it was the most talked about subject throughout Colossus. The nightly group of regular patrons was chewing the fat at Murf’s, and as usual, Otis had begun the discussion about the Nawi.

  “Tell you what I’ve been thinking, and that is where do you think they were hiding the Poodles? Otis said, followed by a giggling belly laugh.

  “Leave it up to you Otis, to say something stupid,” said Justin, the owner of the laser tag shop.”

  “Are you calling me stupid, Justin? Because if you are, you can stick stupid up your cornhole.”

  “No, I’m not calling you stupid. I’m saying that you say stupid shit all the time. So if that makes you stupid,” Justin said, while shrugging his shoulders.

  Dallas Cupin, the owner of the brewery, and a vendor of Otis’s saw his face turning beet red and figured he had better change the subject, and do it fast. “Now come on guys, we should be celebrating the discovery, not arguing and calling names.”

  He looked at Calvin and Maggie Goosen (owners of the breakfast deli) and said, “What about you two? What did you think of Field Marshal Hopus?”

  Maggie answered first and said, “I thought he was wonderful. I wished Command would have allowed us to see him in person. Wonder why they didn’t?”

  “I’ll tell you why sweetheart. They were smart enough to know that there might have been some moron that decided to do something inappropriate or even tried to hurt the Nawi. Besides, we don’t know anything about their customs, and it could be really easy to insult the Field Marshal,” Calvin said.

  “Calvin is right, Maggie and Command did the right thing, I think. Well, I’ve enjoyed our chat, but I need to get back to the brewery. I have a customer that demands that I keep him fully stocked with ale. I’ll catch you guys tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we will meet another group of aliens in this system,” said Dallas.

  ****

  Mave Jenner was Colossus’s Agriculture Biologist, and on this day, she was working with her counterpart, Agronomist Kuda Black, who was considered back on Mars to be a genius when working with plant genetics.

  The two scientist’s mission at the moment was to improve the crop yield in the agriculture biodome section aboard Colossus and was located in the midsection of the ship. The biodome took up a large portion of the top level’s midsection and was an extremely vital cog in the continuation of life among those living on the Colossus and beyond.

  Mave and Kuda had been working on producing a bigger and better tomato. Kuda had the idea to transfer a gene from a decorative plant into a tomato, which enabled the production of anthocyanin which turned the tomato blue. When they tested it on mice the were amazed to find it kept the mice from getting cancer.

  They had successfully produced a better tree, an insect-resistant corn that produced a chemical that killed those insects that fed on the corn, soybean oil for frying, and were presently working with carrots that would prevent osteoporosis.

  Admiral Allen made it a priority to visit his agri-scientists at least once a week so he could keep up with all the fantastic work they had accomplished, as well as check on them to see what else they were working on, or might have already discovered.

  ****

  Negra was a monster of a star. The Colossus and the two Battlecruisers had come out of their jumps and were in the outer reaches of the Negra System. Prior to reaching the Negra System, all three ships had managed to come out of their third jump sequence on the edge of a Planetary Nebula.

  Unlike the
extremely large nebulae that expand out to several hundred million miles, this particular nebula had one dying star in its last stage of life, called a Red Giant. It took Colossus, USC Striker, and USC Perseus three weeks to get through the nebula because of the ionized gases, which played havoc with the three ships electronics. Their hyper-drives went offline and all they had was 1/4 impulse (1/4 the speed of light) power until they managed to get through the nebula.

  Finally, through the nebula, Admiral Allen, and his commanders were holding a meeting in Room Forward. The meeting was about discussing their plans for working their way through the Negra System. Their goals were to find a home for themselves and locate the planet Daak, homeworld of the Daakie.

  The first six planets in the system were all gas giants, which was nothing out of the ordinary. Colossus’s scanners had picked up a total of twenty-four moons orbiting the six planets. Commodore Jeeves was asked to detail each ship's mission, making sure every moon would be scanned for possible life, and he ordered an astrobiologist to be on both of the Battlecruisers.

  There were only two astrobiologists on Colossus, but that was enough, as Commodore Jeeves could function very well on any matter related to searching for life on planets.

  Once the moons had been logged, named, and scanned the results were disappointing to the crews. No life, just moons with volcanic activity, and ice covered surfaces. One moon, in particular, had plumes of an icy mist shooting up fifty miles high.

  After a long period of searching moons and scanning the large gas giants, Admiral Allen decided they needed to move further into the Negra System, so they could start scanning the rocky planets. There were four possible planets considered to be in the habital zone.

  The first rocky planet they came upon was a monster of a planet. It was four times the size of Earth and was a bright green color. Temperatures on the planet registered life-sustaining fifty-eight degrees in the part of the planet facing the sun, and a low temperature of sixteen degrees on the other side facing away from the sun during the planet’s orbit.

  But when the sensors calculated the wind speeds the planet quickly became one crossed off the list for habital life. The wind speeds averaged three-hundred miles an hour which would be like trying to live on a planet with the wind speed consistent with an F-5 tornado back on Earth.

  Once the topography of the planet was completed, the detailed map showed hundreds of mountain ranges with a few of the tallest peaks having an elevation of more than six miles high. The planet was void of trees, but the surface area away from the mountains was covered with bright green algae, which probably gave the planet its green color.

  Before moving on to the other inner planets, the last duty the people had to do was give the big planet a name. The name drawn from the list of names provided by the people on Colossus turned out to be ‘Aeolus’, which came from Greek mythology and meant God of Winds. There were to be many names drawn on down the line that had a connection with Greek mythology.

  With the job of mapping, naming, and scanning complete, Admiral Allen ordered the Striker and the Perseus to go to the next two planets past the nearest one to the Colossus and start their scanning. Colossus would take the next planet from Aeolus and would take a week getting there traveling at three-quarter impulse.

  Each time the fleet jumped into a new system and began to split up their search for a habital planet, they often moved about at different degrees of impulse power and in some cases faster than light speed. Jumping was only required when going long distances through space such as from a one-star system to another. Within a single system, it was necessary to travel at sub-light, or faster than light speed, depending on the distance between target planets.

  The Striker and Perseus headed for their assigned planets, traveling at 1/2 impulse. Captain Slain in the Striker, would be arriving at his planet in an hour, and Captain Sokolov, in the Perseus, would be getting to his planet in under two hours.

  Chapter 18

  Admiral Allen gave the two captains orders to contact Colossus as soon as they arrived at their assigned planets. Colossus had been traveling just under an hour and the planet they were going to scan finally began to show up on the ship’s long-range sensors.

  When the planet came within the sensor’s range, Rear Admiral Petrov was in charge of Command. He and Commodore Jeeves were sitting in the command chairs usually reserved for Petrov and Allen.

  Admiral Allen, General Dubois, and Colonel Hammer were in Room Forward discussing all contingencies that might present themselves when, and if, they make contact with the Daakie. After all, just because they were friendly to the Nawi didn’t mean they would be friendly with them.

  “I think it would be wise to have all pilots at the ready when we meet the Daakie. We should also go on a silent red alert status while still out of sensor range of any planet when we start our approach,” Dubois suggested.

  “Good idea, Alias. I agree with having the pilots stationed in pre-flight, and the silent red alert is a smart thought too. Colonel Hammer, do you have anything to add?”

  “I agree with the General, sir. We do not want to represent ourselves as a threat to the Daakie when we find their homeworld. I would imagine they will probably have a welcoming committee the second we show up on their sensors. Keeping the hornets and wasps ready to fly is just smart.”

  Before responding to what Jak had just said, Admiral Allen’s commlink chirped. He tapped the link and said, “Allen.”

  “Admiral, our destination planet is coming up on our sensors,” Petrov said.

  “I’ll be right there, Admiral.”

  The three men stood up and walked out of Room Forward, and when they did Jeeves removed himself from Anatoly’s chair and Anatoly sat in his chair, vacating the admiral’s chair. The screen was on and Allen said, “Magnify the target, Ensign Cherny.”

  “Aye, Admiral.”

  The planet was huge, about twice the size of Earth, and a light blue color with a darker blue ring around it. Colossus’s crew sitting in Command grew excited as the planet was mostly land, white clouds, and light blue skies. There were many continents, and they were separated by seas, not oceans.

  “Lieutenant McManus, slow us to an orbital speed please,” Allen ordered.

  “Slowing to orbital speed, Admiral.”

  “Colonel Hammer, make ready the pilots.”

  “Yes sir,” Jak replied, then left Command to get every pilot on board stationed in their pre-flight rooms.

  As the planet started to loom large on the onboard screen, Allen ordered the screenshot taken off zoom and returned to its normal view. Another minute or two and the Colossus was almost to the planet. Admiral Allen ordered the helmsman to slow Colossus even more.

  Just as he gave the order Colossus’s proximity alarms starting going off.

  “Admiral, there are at least a dozen ships leaving the planet’s atmosphere and coming directly at us,” Ensign Cherny said.

  Allen thinking to himself thought no time for the silent red alert. “Go to Red Alert and initiate shields.”

  When the red alert signal went out, all crewmembers whose jobs were the ship's weapons quickly ran to their posts in preparation to defend the Colossus from the possible threat coming their way.

  “I have six spaceships in a wedge shape pattern speeding out ahead of the other ships, and the leading one is a mother of a ship, Admiral,” said Cherney.

  “On screen, Ensign.”

  The spaceships that came on screen were shaped like boomerangs with the pilot’s hatches centered in the bend of the boomerang. The lead ship was disc-shaped and much larger than the other five ships.

  “Admiral, I believe the smaller ships are support or attack craft with probably one or two pilots. The larger ship has a command center on the top of the disc,” Commodore Jeeves said.

  “Sure would be nice if we would have had time to test run our shield technology a few more times before departing Mars,” Admiral Anatoly said.

  “I beli
eve we have just found the Daakie homeworld, Admiral,” Commodore Jeeves suggested.

  “We are being hailed, Admiral, “ said Communications Officer Lieutenant Jonas Corbin.

  “Let’s see what these Daakie look like. Ensign, open the channel.”

  The alien that came on screen was obviously a high ranking officer, as he was wearing a polished, black battle vest with red lines, an inch apart, running diagonally from its right shoulder down to the waist. Attached to the vest was a tall collar that came up to just under the alien’s jawline.

  The alien resembled a Human, but with more pronounced cheekbones and dark eyes set a half-inch deeper into its skull than Humans. On top of its head were several rows of short black coarse hair, and covering its ears were dreadlocks that hung down to its shoulders.

  Admiral Allen’s eyes dropped to something hanging from the alien’s neck, and he saw a Nawi calling card. It was a brilliant cut ruby, weighing about five carats, seated into a talon shaped mount. Seeing the gemstone made him agree with Commodore Jeeves. They had in fact, found Planet Daak.

  “You have entered Daakie space without an invitation. Who are you and what are your intentions?” the Daakie officer asked.

  “This is the USC Colossus, and we are from a planet known as Earth. I am Admiral Allen, Commander of the Colossus.” Allen was taking a big risk, but by the way, Emperor Nulashin had talked about his Daakie friend, he felt sure the Daakie he was talking to was Burseq (general) Maalik.

  “I am pleased to finally have the honor of meeting the Daakie Burseq Maalik.”

  When Allen called out the general’s name it was obvious he was surprised to hear the alien say his name. Maalik just sat there looking at Allen on screen then finally came to his senses.

  “How is it that you know my name, Admiral, and you still need to answer to why you are in Daakie space?”

  “First, I’d like to tell the good Burseq Maalik that we Earthlings are a good, honorable race. We come in peace and have absolutely no harmful intentions towards the Daakie. Secondly, we are searching the universe for a new home. You see, Burseq, our planet is slowly being consumed by water caused by our planet’s glaciers melting due to global warming.”