The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

  “I’m sorry. I had no right to react like that. It’s just …”

  “I know Edward. I know about your brother. I’m sorry.”

  The voice held sympathy and honesty. Edward knew that he meant it. He could notice in the way he said the last words that he wasn’t a stranger to that feeling. His anger slowly dissipated and he relaxed.

  “Thank you Fillip, you are right. We have to learn more about them. We have to stop them.”

  Fillip raised his head from the file he was reading and looked at him. The compassion in his black eyes disappeared.

  “We will stop them. They are strong but they can die just as easy as anyone of us. And their pride will make them a much easier target. Your brother died a good death Edward. He died for the right reasons.

  They all did. And they will be avenged.”

  Edward looked at the young man and felt admiration. The man opposite him was just a year or two older than he was but he had something in him that inspired confidence. His voice, his stance was the one of a man who is sure in himself and knows what is expected of him. And knows he can deliver. And what he saw reminded him of his brother.

  A smile appeared on his face as he thought of him and the sadness of his loss was here again but it was easier this time.

  Fillip nodded his head and stood up leaving the young scientist to his thoughts. The mission was nearing to the end. Or, to its beginning, and with that the tension was mounting. The thing that happened now was only a consequence of that. Everyone was exited. He was too. He only hid it better, same as the rest of the soldiers. They were only a day away from Sedna. The ships were on the opposite side of the small planet so they couldn’t see them now. But they all knew that they are there. He headed or more accurately drifted slowly in the null g toward the exercise room. The marines were spending most of their time there trying to stay in shape. This kind of environment had a bad influence on their muscles. He remembered the briefings, about the astronauts that spent more time in space. With the time this mission was going to last going to the ships and then going back they were going to rank on the top for time spent in space without gravity. He smiled and greeted the rest of the military team as he entered in the room.

  He looked at his companions and thought about the strange alien ships that they were going to board tomorrow. Whatever expected them there they were ready.

  “It’s going to be interesting.”

  22 April 2018 Sedna

  Jennings looked open mounted at the large ships before them. He didn’t have to turn his head to see the look on the faces of the rest of the crew. They arrived on target ten minutes ago and what they saw took their breath away. The ships were huge, and from what they could see there were at least twenty different classes. But what mostly got their attention were the three lead ships.

  They were clearly military. They could see the weapons that littered their hulls. They were retracted and inactive and the hull was covered with dust. And they could all see the visible damage from some distant battle. Large holes were noticeable on all three. They were especially noticeable on the largest one.

  “Jesus they are big.”

  “And they look like they went through hell and lived to tell the tale. Whatever battle they were in must have been one hell of an engagement. Just look at the size of that armor. Not even the ship in Norfolk has that tick armor plating… and those guns.”

  The comment came from Kaminski, one of the scientists that came from the teams that studied the alien ship at Norfolk.

  “Yea about those guns, is there any activity from them, anything at all?”

  Linda looked at the readings.

  “No. They are dead, no power emissions, no radio, nothing.” “Don’t bother.”

  They all turned at that comment. Antonov was looking at the infrared images of the ships. After a second he raised his head and looked at them.

  “Sorry. Look at the dust on those hulls. For that amount of dust to be gathered here on those ships, and they all have it, they’d have to be here for a very long time.”

  “How long do you think?”

  “Centuries, no sorry it must be thousands of years. They are here for a really long time. Really long…”

  His voice showed emotion, emotion they all felt, and raised questions.

  Jennings turned towards Linda.

  “How many ships are there?”

  “The scan shows sixty seven. It seems that there were more but some were destroyed when they crashed on Sedna.”

  “Tom if those ships were here for that long…there is no way that anything can be alive on them. This may be, no it is a gold mine. We have to send the information’s to Earth. And we have to board them.”

  Jennings looked at the large ship in front of them. The Deadalus look so tiny compared with it. He inhaled and turned.

  “Linda set up a meeting. I want the leaders of each team in the briefing room in ten minutes. We have to make a plan of action.”

  As he said that he noticed the UN envoy and soldier together with Ellis the marine leader looking at the ship. Their looks showed amazement.

  “Well we finally found something that will take their breath away as well.”

  “I want the two of you on that meeting as well.”

  They just nodded and kept on looking.

  Ten minutes later twenty people sat on the table in the briefing room. Most of them were scientists and engineers and astronauts. Only two were soldiers. The discussion started long before they gathered. And it was obvious that everyone wanted to be the first one to step on board the alien ships.

  “We have to go in there and start looking on the equipment. This is a gold mine.”

  “You may be right Mr. Haler but we have to proceed carefully. We don’t know what…”

  “What we can find? Surely you don’t think that there might be aliens on board. Those ships are here for thousands of years. All analyzes confirm that.”

  “Yes but we have no way of knowing what we may find there. And we have to choose a ship. There are plenty of targets.”

  They all smiled at the comment of the captain. Jennings smiled himself. They needed the joke.

  “I think that the ship in front of us is the obvious target.”

  “And why would you think that Dr. Antonov?”

  The bulky Russian scientist looked at them.

  “Even if we take out the most important thing and that is the fact that we are searching for weapons and technology we might use against the Dacarians, this ship is the obvious target. It is the lead ship. On that ship we have the best chance of finding out what and who its builders were. And it has hangars that can easily take in the entire ship.”

  “How big is it really Sergei?”

  Sergei looked at his papers and the readings.

  “Big, really big…Fifteen hundred meters long, five hundred and forty meters wide and two hundred meters high…It’s a monster.”

  “Damn. That is big…The tech to build something like that. Jesus…”

  Jennings thought for couple of seconds than looked at them.

  “Ok. We will board that one. The marines will take the Independence and go in first. We will back up a little and after they give the All clear signal the second shuttle will carry you.”

  No one objected to his proposal.

  “And major I want you in full gear.”

  “Yes sir.”

  After this they all left the room. Major Ellis and Fillip headed to the marine quarters and the rest headed toward the bridge and the viewports.

  The preparing took half an hour. The reason for that were the space suits. They were designed especially for the soldiers on this mission, enabling them to go in full combat gear that was placed on the outside of the suit. The suits were smaller and enabled for more rapid movement and speed than the normal space suits. While the rest of the crew worked and prepared on the systems the marines and this included Fillip as well trained rigorously with the suits in zero g trying
to be ready for anything in those two and half months that they had.

  And now it seemed that they were ready.

  Harrison and Evans were the two pilots that operated the shuttle. The Independence was an Orion class shuttle built just two years before. It could carry thirty people or a large payload instead of the crew. It had powerful hydrogen propelled thrusters in addition to the OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System).

  As it disconnected from the Deadalus it powered its engines and headed toward the large ship at speed of fifty meters per second. That was just a fraction of the speed it could achieve but with its destination so close there was no need of speeding. As they closed the ship filled the view. The shuttle turned and headed toward the right hangar. As they headed inside they noticed what appeared to be space fighters and shuttles arranged in the hangar.

  “Man there must be hundreds of them.”

  The comment came from Evans. She was an ex navy pilot that was accepted in the shuttle program at the age of twenty five. She flew missions for NASA for the past ten years. But she always had the thrill when talking about the Hornets and F -18 she had a chance to fly before transferring. And the fighters they now saw definitely brought those memories back.

  “They turn you on, aren’t they Evans. They sure are beauties.”

  “Shut up Harrison. Let’s land this bird and then we can take a closer look while our friends search the ship and chase the ghosts.”

  A chuckle came on their mikes as the marines laughed at the comment.

  They reduced speed and used the thrusters to land the shuttle. As they did that the marines took positions by the exit hatches. The landing was announced with a thump sound when the gear touched the deck of the ship. When all systems were shut down Ellis opened the hatch and extended the ramp. The marines activated their magnetic boots and started slowly descending. As they did that they carefully watched the perimeter for any sign of the ship’s crew.

  When the first team descended they spread out and secured the perimeter. The second team descended and headed toward the outer reaches of the hangar deck. As they reached the line where the fighters were lined up they noticed the huge doors. The Hangar deck was opened to vacuum but it was obvious that it could be pressurized. All the fighters were strapped in and the same was done with the shuttles.

  As they confirmed that there is no one they gave the all clear signal.

  “There is no one here but us sir.”

  The voice belonged to Bradley.

  “Ok team one. Come to the shuttle for new directives.”

  “Yes sir.”

  All the marines gathered in front of the shuttle. The two pilots exited the shuttle as well. Their suits were the same as the ones the marines were carrying except for the gear. They had only guns in their holsters while the marines carried a whole variety of weapons that used armor piercing ammunition. They were all veterans from the battle in the Mediterranean. The experience from there made them make that choice and from the look of the ship’s hull there was no fear of making a breach.

  They all saw the doors that were placed about fifty meters in front of them.

  “Ok it’s time to check the rest of the ship. We will move in four teams of five. Braddock and Townsend will stay here with the astronauts. I will lead team one, Fillip team two, Bradley you are three and Herrick will lead four. We maintain constant communications and watch your air.”

  As he finished they all headed toward the doors. At the same time the astronauts and the two remaining marines headed toward the fighters.

  As they came to the doors Hastings and Ouellette lowered their weapons and opened the doors. Before them a hallway opened and they carefully proceeded inside. They split up on the first intersection, every team heading in different direction. And none of them noticed the activating of the inner sensors that scanned the first people that stepped on the battleship Argos after more than twelve thousand years.

  The inner defense system activated but as the scans showed that the intruders were alterans it didn’t react. Instead the cameras just monitored and recorded the information following the instruction left by the AI so long ago. The system couldn’t activate the sleeping AI. Nor it could interact with its boarders; all it could do is watch.

  The search lasted for hours and moved slowly. As they entered the inner of the ship they were amazed by the layout. There were plenty of quarters but they were all empty. There were no bodies, no images, nothing that might indicate how its creators looked like.

  While the marine teams searched the ship the pilots and the two marines with them went step by step through the hangar deck. It was obvious two the marines that the pilots wanted to see the strange but fascinating space fighters that were lined up. And they were all impressed by the look of the hangar itself. As soldiers who served on navy ships and subs they were impressed by the sheer size of the hangar.

  As they slowly approached the fighters Evans and Harrison looked at them carefully.

  “Man they are beautiful, and gracious.”

  “Evans you are in love…”

  “You can say that again Harrison.”

  They stopped talking after that and started examining the fighters.

  The fighters had an elongated triangular design. In fact they looked like darts.

  From the looks of it they were capable of both atmospheric and space flight.

  The fore section comprised the nose back to the cockpit below which the forward landing gear was located. It also housed what looked like RCS thrusters and main avionics and the cockpit. The fighters housed three canons that seemed to be their main offensive weapons. They were covered with dust and on most of them they could notice battle damages and repairs. And from the empty places in the hangar it was obvious that there should have been a lot more fighters here.

  The stern comprised the engines, numerous thrusters and the wings which housed the main landing gear and weapons and their ammunition.

  As they looked at them they tried to measure one.

  “How big do you think it is Evans?”

  She looked carefully and thought for a second.

  “Mm maybe thirty three feet long and nineteen wide, what do you think?”

  Harrison turned and looked at the marine that gave the comment.

  “He might be right Harry. They look about that size. They are so small compared to an F-22 or anything we have.”

  The astronaut turned toward his colleague. He couldn’t see her face but from her voice he knew that she was amazed. He was as well, and he could see that the marines were the same.

  “And from the design I’d say a lot more maneuvering and deadly than anything we have as well. They would be a dream come true for every pilot.”

  “Yes they would…”

  As they discussed Evans came close to the cockpit. She noticed the height. It looked about ten feet. She turned around and noticed a stepladder. She slowly went to it and dragged it carefully to the fighter.

  As she did that Harrison noticed her.

  “Eva what are you doing.”

  “Come here and hold it boys. I want to take a look at the cockpit.”

  Before Harrison could come the marines came first and fast. They both took positions on the sides and she slowly started climbing. As she did that she noticed that the steps looked the right size for human. Who ever built this ship they were sure as hell not as large as the aliens that attacked the fleet in the Mediterranean. They were about human size.

  As she climbed to the cockpit she peered inside. The cockpit was closed. She noticed that it was a single seat. And from the looks of it, it had sophisticated computer equipment. She noticed the handle that opened the cockpit. She pulled it slightly. After a second and a little twitching the hatch slid backwards. The insides looked familiar to every human design and the seat looked right for a human sized being to seat in it. She looked at the handles for the control and she noticed that they look a lot like the one used in every human plain.

  “W
hat do you see Eve?”

  The question came from Harrison. She slowly stepped down and turned.

  “Whoever they were they must’ve been our size. A human can easily fit in that cockpit and take the controls. They are the right size. I really hope we can utilize this. With a fighter like this…”

  “Just imagine, our plains were equal to their fighters and this...”- she pointed to the fighters – “this is generations and classes ahead of anything we have.”

  After this they all looked at the fighters and started walking to the shuttle. They contacted the teams to make the report and informed them of their findings and relayed the information to the Deadalus.

  The four marine teams searched the ship slowly. They still didn’t reach any crew quarters but they passed several rooms that seemed to be meeting halls and storage compartments for the fighters and the ship. Each team reported regularly and on time. The report from the astronauts didn’t surprise them. The chairs they found looked strictly familiar. And the layout of the hallways looked normal for human sized beings.

  Two hours after entering Ellis and his team entered what looked like a huge hall. And what they saw stopped them in their tracks.

  Ellis looked with amazement and strange feeling of pride and loss at the scene before him. So did the other four members of his team. What they saw reminded them of the event several months before and the burial of the marines and sailors that died at the battle with the aliens.

  Hundreds coffins made of strange metal filled the hallway. They were covered by something that in the past must have been flags but during the years the material was torn and shredded. Not even the vacuum could protect it from time.

  “Sir there’s more than a thousand coffins here, maybe even two thousand.”

  “Yes Steven i can see that. It seems that we found the crew. At least the ones that died in the battle they must have fought. But look at the arrangements. Someone put them there and then left the ship here. Why?”