by AZ Kelvin
“Huh!” CJ was mixed with disappointment and curiosity.
“Ungh, great,” Gina groaned.
“Living treasure, well I guess that makes sense,” CJ thought out loud. “How do they still have power?”
“Quantum sleep chambers have thousand-year shelf lives,” Katy said, as she studied the capsule. “They were designed for deep space exploration at star-drive speeds. This one was sealed in Galactic Year Four-Twenty-Two, and gee, it seems to be missing the patient’s information.”
“Oh, what a surprise that is,” CJ said sarcastically. “It fits the timeline.”
“So, you guys don’t seem real happy about this?” Cal asked. “I mean, these are two-hundred-year-old people! This is stellar!”
“You’re right, Cal, you’re absolutely right,” CJ told him. “The entire outpost is an incredible find, but we can’t sell people.”
“And, we’re not going to get these out on the med-beds, either,” Katy said.
“Well, we can’t drag these heavy things out through the forest,” Gina added.
“So what, we just leave them here, after all this?” Cal asked in disbelief.
“No, no, no,” CJ held his hands out to calm everyone. “We don’t know what’s in these. It may not even be people. Whatever it is was enough to keep the Blood Stars hot after it for almost two centuries, so it’s coming with us. We can use the cargo winch on the Moon to haul them up through the canopy. They’re small enough to make it through the branches. Then we meet up with them in orbit and jump to CB.”
The team agreed and moved to accomplish their tasks.
CJ sent off a coded message to Boss requesting pickup assistance if the situation was clear. He received an acknowledgment and twenty minutes later the bulk of the Altered Moon darkened the canopy far above them. One chamber had been brought up while they waited. Katy and Gina rigged that one for transport while CJ and Cal wrestled the other one up to the surface. The second chamber was lifted away, and the two med-beds and the power cell went up last. CJ sent an ‘all clear and thanks’ message and the shadow of the Altered Moon moved away.
“Let’s go!” CJ called out. He was uncomfortable to be back in the respirator mask and the thick atmosphere. He felt the planet’s heavy gravity as it pulled down relentlessly on his body. “We’ve got a twenty-minute hike outta here.”
No gear to haul back made the going smoother and they were easily halfway back to Moonshadow when CJ got a quick urgent message from Boss. It read simply: ‘Trouble. Get out now’.
“Okay people, we got trouble upstairs,” CJ warned the others. “Let’s put some hustle into it!”
They hurried through the maze of roots as the forest began to rumble and shake. A strong hot wind kicked up suddenly and gained intensity as the rumbling grew closer. An uneven line of darkness spread over the canopy. The line of shadows advanced as dull thuds sounded before periods of heavier quaking.
“Take cover!” CJ yelled out as he realized it was a line of Kang ships carpet-bombing the planet surface to disrupt any covert Human military actions that may be underway.
CJ grabbed Katy and dove into the deep folds of a giant root as the impacts closed in. The force of the detonations blew trees apart and filled the air with deadly debris. A close impact bounced them both a meter into the air. Katy landed hard and then fell over the side of the gigantic root.
“KATY!” CJ yelled out when she went over the edge to the next root, which was three meters down. He raced to the edge in time to see her hit the ground.
The second landing was even harder than the first. She face-planted and her body curled backward so much her feet hit the back of her shoulders. Katy rolled once and lay face down.
“No!” he jumped down to her. CJ gently rolled her over and was overjoyed when she moaned in partial consciousness. The faceplate of the respirator had shattered and her face was bleeding, but not badly. CJ tossed aside Katy’s broken respirator mask and placed his own over her face. He pulled Katy to a bed of smaller roots nearby. He tucked her as far as he could into the root mass and laid his body over hers to protect her from the debris flying everywhere around them.
The ground shook like it was going to break apart. The vibration from the impacts rattled his teeth and the shock waves assaulted his eardrums. It took every ounce of energy and all the strength he had, but he kept that mask on Katy’s face. Hell itself broke loose around them and the very air itself began to burn. CJ’s hair flash fried and his lungs seared from the heat when the wall of fire fueled by the bombardment rushed over them. I love you, Wife, was CJ’s last thought, as the Kang bombers moved in directly over their position.
*~*~*
Chapter Twenty-Eight
GABI jumped the Altered Moon back outside Century system after they dropped off Moonshadow and her crew at Century Four. The next step was to wait for the rendezvous to pick them back up.
“Power down the ISE and set Dark Matter Thrusters to station keeping,” Boss said.
“Aye, sir.”
“Cat, I want passive tactical scans every five minutes.”
“Roger that, S.O., every five.”
“Pene to the bridge, please,” Boss called into the comms.
Pene arrived a few minutes later. “Reporting as ordered, sir.”
“You would be so kind, Miss Burnette, as to man the science station, if you please.” Boss added some flourish to make a show out of the request.
“Yes, sir,” she answered.
“Activate the station’s view screen. Touch the ‘T’ icon to tie into the tactical station.”
“Got it, done, sir.” She added the last on quickly, as she was still unsure when to use ranks and titles.
“Good, now overlay the tactical readout on the navigation chart. Update that with every tactical scan and have it ready to put up on the main viewer at my command.”
“Aye, sir.” She understood how to complete the relatively simple task from her navigation classes.
“Thank you.”
Idle chat filled the next four hours when Boss got CJ’s coded message to hover over their position and lower the cargo harness.
“The loot must be too big to carry out,” Boss said with a huge grin. “They need us to come in and winch up the goods. He he! Whoo, I wish this chair could dance!”
Pene giggled at Boss’ normally jovial behavior.
“Cat, take Pene and stand by in the ventral cargo bay.”
“On the way. Come on, Pene.”
“Roger dodger.”
Cat and Pene worked their way down to the bottom of the ship to the ventral cargo bay.
“What does ventral mean?” Pene asked on the way down.
“It means the bottom part of a ship or underbelly as it’s called sometimes. The bottom is called ventral, and the top is called dorsal. The front is—”
“The bow,” Pene finished the sentence, “and the back is the stern, and left of the bow is port, and right of the bow is starboard. I got all that from my nav training. Why do they call it ‘starboard’ anyway?”
Cat laughed. “You’ll have to ask Boss for the exact meaning, but it has to do with the ocean ships of ancient Earth. Ancient mariners used to navigate by the stars, and starboard was the side where a steering oar was located. Port was originally called larboard, but for some reason someone decided to call the left side ‘port.’”
“Probably some rich guy wanted it that way.”
“Ha! I imagine so. The rich usually get their way. Boss, we’re here.” She called into the comms.
“Roger that, standby.”
“Copy, standing by. Here”—she handed a harness to Pene—“put this on and clip into the safety line. Hope you like heights.”
“Oh, I’m fine with them,” Pene said, “as long as there’s a ship around me.” They both laughed, and as if on cue, the ship began to shudder slightly as they entered Century Four’s atmosphere. The reentry was over quickly and they could feel the ship strain against the gravity
as GABI brought them into position.
“Okay, Cat, lower away.”
“Copy that.” She opened the cargo bay doors. The treetops swayed from the blast of the thrusters and the moisture-heavy atmosphere swirled a light fog into the cargo bay.
Pene felt her stomach drop away with the doors when she saw just how high up they were. Safety line or not, Pene felt like she was going to fall out and instinctively stepped away from the edge of the opening.
“It’s okay. I definitely know how you feel. You’ll be fine.”
Cat brought the winch boom over and lowered the cable and cargo harness down to CJ on the forest floor. A few moments later she got the signal the load was secure and ready to lift. The item came into view and Cat appeared to immediately recognize what it was.
“What?” Cat asked seemingly amazed.
“What what?” Pene asked. “What is it?”
“They’re quantum sleep chambers.” She still looked amazed as well as a little confused. “Wow. This is the Find of the Century? I wonder who’s inside them?”
Cat and Pene guided the chamber to the anchor pad and locked it down before they sent the sling back for another load. A second chamber came up. They locked it in place, and then the med-beds with the power cell came up last. The cargo bay doors were closed and sealed, and Cat informed the bridge they were good to go. The normal shudder of liftoff took on a heavier shake after a bit and then a strong surge forward almost threw them off their feet. GABI just took the Altered Moon to full burn, which meant something was wrong.
Boss and GABI monitored the cargo lift from the bridge until Cat gave the all clear.
“They’re clear, GABI, take us back upstairs.”
“Aye, sir.” She began their ascent into orbit.
A short moment into liftoff, scanner alerts went off indicating a large number of Kang ships had just entered the atmosphere over the horizon. A squad of ships broke away from the larger group and moved to intercept the Altered Moon.
“GABI, full burn. Lead them away from CJ and the others.”
“Full burn, aye!”
“Cat get up here on the double!” Boss called over the comms.
“Boss, the Kang main contingent is beginning a massive bombardment of the planet surface!” GABI called out.
“Shit!” Boss said and sent a coded message to CJ so he wouldn’t give away their location to the Kang attack squad which read, ‘Trouble. Get out now.’
Missile detection alerts sounded as Cat and Pene rushed onto the bridge.
“Cat, stand by on cannons! Pene, sit down, strap in, and don’t touch anything!” They both did as he ordered. “GABI, be ready to go through the roof on my command.”
“Aye, sir!”
The Kang missiles quickly closed the distance to the Altered Moon. Boss waited until the missiles were almost on them and then launched the missile countermeasures.
“Now, GABI!” he called out as the missiles reached the countermeasures and detonated behind them.
GABI took the Moon straight up through the atmosphere on the quickest route back into space. The countermeasures and the quick change in direction took care of all but two of the missiles, which Cat shot down with cannon fire. The squad of Kang ships took the bait and pursued the Altered Moon away from the shuttle’s location and out into space. Boss scanned the area, but there were no liftoff readings from the shuttle. The line of Kang bombers advanced steadily on the shuttle’s position.
“Dammit!” He feared for Gina’s life. “GABI, bring us around. We’re going back.”
“Sir, we would never make it back in time and we would be destroyed in the attempt.”
Boss hit the ship-to-ship comms icon. “Moonshadow! How do you read? Moonshadow, come in! Moonshadow!”
“Boss! I’m reading ships everywhere: Human, Keect’na, and Kang!” Cat yelled out, as the ship broke out of the atmosphere. “We’re in the middle of a battle!”
“Blast,” Boss said through his teeth. “GABI, can we jump away from the battle?”
“Not enough time to engage the drive before being fired on.”
A series of plasma bursts emphasized her point and reminded them the small squad of Kang ships from the planet was still dedicated to their destruction.
“Evasive maneuvers, GABI. Take us toward friendly forces. Cat, cover us with a full spread from the ventral cannons. Fire two Geese. Set detonation for fifty meters in front of the lead ships. Quick, fire two Heaters right behind ’em, but don’t arm the targeting system until I say so.”
“Aye, sir.” Cat laid down suppressing fire with the particle cannons and then fired the four missiles. The two missiles armed with electromagnetic pulse warheads screamed from the stern launchers, followed immediately by two thermofusion missiles.
The Kang ships destroyed the two Geese missiles before they reached their target and the EMP shockwave didn’t affect them at all, but it did hide the two Heater missiles racing in right behind them.
“Arm the Heaters and target the lead ship,” Boss said. He waited to activate the targeting system on the Heaters until the EMP warheads detonated, or the targeting systems would have shorted out. The Heater missiles identified their target and roared in for the kill. The missiles hit the lead ship dead center before the Kang could react. The bow of the small interceptor vessel instantly melted away; arcs of electricity shot across the hull, and the ship exploded into a fireball. The two ships on either side of the lead ship took damage and began to fall away. The remaining four Kang ships cruised by their damaged compatriots to continue their chase after the Altered Moon.
Pene cheered when they got three ships with one attack, but her elation was short-lived as a massive impact rocked the ship.
“That was a capital ship, Boss!” Cat yelled out, “We must’ve gotten somebody’s attention.”
“How close are the Allied ships?”
“Twenty-two hundred kilometers, bearing three hundred twenty degrees mark fifty-two,” GABI answered.
Boss ran scans when he could for any sign of Moonshadow. He hailed the shuttle, “Moonshadow, this is Altered Moon, how do you read?” There was no response to the hail and no sign of her power signature on the scanners.
The space ahead of them lit up with the intensity of a supernova as one of the Allied command cruisers exploded in a sphere of bluish-white light and threw off an immense shockwave in every direction. The blast from the command cruiser destroyed the ships surrounding it, whether they were friend or foe. All others were blown clear off their trajectories by the energy of the shockwave.
“Whoa,” Pene hollered, as the Altered Moon was pushed sideways in space.
“Shit! GABI, plot a course away from the battle and give me Full Moon burn.”
“Aye, sir!”
“Cat dump everything we have in our wake,” Boss said. “If they want us they’ll have to wade through warheads to get us.”
The strategy worked and the distance between them and the pursuing ships opened. The blanket of missiles and cannon fire Cat threw at them caused them to veer away or slow to defend against the barrage from the Altered Moon. Streaks of plasma fire shot through space in front of them and strafed along the starboard fuselage. The stern of the Altered Moon slid sideways as the powerful blast knocked them off course. The advantage they had a moment ago was lost as Kang interceptor ships closed in on them and opened fire.
One explosion shook the ship violently, triggering alarms and warning lights as electrical systems overloaded and immediately went to the backup circuits. Boss sent out a distress message to the Allied war ships, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is the Human merchant vessel Altered Moon to any friendly vessel. We are under attack by Kang warships and need urgent assistance. This is—” Boss was interrupted by a bright flash as plasma fire hit the bridge. He shielded his eyes from the bright flash. “Patch in auxiliary power to shields and engines!”
“Altered Moon, Altered Moon, this is the Arzian destroyer, Calibre, come to heading
seventy-five degrees mark thirty-three.” The entire Arzian Eighty-Eighth Battle Group, comprised of a large destroyer-class vessel, four frigates, eight corvettes, and a swarm of fighters turned toward their position. Intense cobalt-blue streaks of particle cannon fire filled the space above them as the ‘Mighty Eighty-Eighth’ turned their firepower on the Kang ships that pursued the Altered Moon.
“Copy that, Calibre, many thanks. Be advised, we have personnel still on the surface. Can you help?”
“Planetary concerns are currently out of reach, Altered Moon. Our regrets,” was the somber reply from Calibre. “Remain on course until we come between you and the Kang. Then you are advised to leave this system.”
“Understood, Calibre, wilco!”
The upgrades to the hull and weapons allowed them to hold their own up to this point, but the Altered Moon was not a warship and had no chance against the firepower of the much larger vessels.
GABI had immediately changed to the course given to them by Calibre’s command. If they deviated from that course too much, they risked being hit by friendly fire. The Kang attack ships were engaged and easily destroyed by the fighter squadron after they had been softened up by the heavy weapons fire from the frigates. The split in the Allied battle line created when the Calibre’s battle group responded to Altered Moon’s distress call didn’t go unnoticed by the Kang war commanders.
A Kang battle group split off in an attempt to cut off and isolate the Calibre and the Eighty-Eighth from the rest of the battle line. A different Kang battle group jumped in to join the attack from the opposite side and they closed the gap behind the Eighty-Eighth. Countless fighter and assault crafts flowed from the Kang carriers. Kang cruisers targeted the break in the Allied battle line and pushed to take the advantage. The tide of the engagement turned as the Kang fighters broke into the Eighty-Eighth’s perimeter and weapons fire erupted everywhere.
“Altered Moon, break off! Evasive maneuvers!” came the warning from Calibre, as the Mighty Eighty-Eighth went into action.