Chapter 2

Sunshine Mining Geosynchronous Space Station – Above Suaner 4 (625 Light Years from Earth)

           LIBERTY 95’s new crew had made the approach to the planet as suggested, and did not seem to detect any transmissions from the past that were out of the ordinary except for some encrypted communications which could not be broken by the capabilities of the ship’s computers. There were reflections of ship movements in the light bands. The size and exact number of the ships could not be determined because the technique only saw fuzzy blurs, but they had arrived in a convoy in a relatively short amount of time, and if they had left, the Intelascan did not detect the departure. Another barely inhabitable planet, Suaner 2, did not seem to show any activity to this planet, so wherever the visitors to Suaner 4 came from, it was not from this star system.

          The planet was very much inhabitable and on par with conditions on Earth, despite the smaller size and the absence of a moon. Yet there was one thing in its composition that Earth lacked – Strasium Ore.

           Admiral Martin’s assessment had been correct – there was no recent movement of space traffic to or from Suaner 4. The other smaller ships operated by Sunshine Mining at the station, about the size of a Liberty Enterprises Large Landing Shuttle were shaped more like the ancient Space Shuttle of the late 20^th and early 21^st Century. They were less fragile and capable of much greater cargo lift and speed, however, even with Linear Spike Engines and a Single Stage to Orbit capability, they could not get far beyond the planet’s gravitational field mainly because of much lower technologies used by Sunshine Mining.

           Once the cargo holds of the ship became filled with wheat, the trip from Earth would have taken less than two hours. There was time for one unscheduled stop, on Nunki Resort so that Ferrando could attend to a personnel issue between two of the ship's crew - and she was one of the two. Once the Large Landing Shuttle was back on the ship, after an hour delay, the trip at ISM Six continued for Suaner 4. The vehicle slowed to ISM One and made the Intelascan pass while making a full circle back towards planetary approach at Suboptic speeds.

           LIBERTY 95’s trailing Engineering Wingtips served as both a set of Vapor Thruster outlets and an elaborate docking clamp system. Unfortunately, there was one serious flaw in the Block III Liberty Ship design in that the Strasium hitch connector contained a strong female ring that unlike in the earlier designed Block II versions could not be mechanically opened if the grip from the connecting station male section was tight enough. It was a practical design change by structural engineers who would have never foreseen what Sunshine Mining was about to do to LIBERTY 95. The Station could lock the ship in place, and any attempt to escape by LSE's would cause backwash that would seriously damage the ship, or if forward ones used only tow the Station a very short distance along the way into an atmospheric encounter.

           Once the back end of the ship was attached to the Sunshine Mining base and vacuum systems were attached from the station to the access vents leading to the interconnected cargo holds filled with wheat on LIBERTY 95, at last the personnel terminal access arm was connected to the ship, and a good seal was made.

           Within a few seconds of that, the hatch slid open and Susan Nobles, the Sunshine Mining Governor, for lack of a better title entered the deck on the rear panel of the ship, on the side of the LLS Bay.

           “Welcome to Suaner 4, Captain Ferrando,” she said after brief introductions.

           “Welcome to Liberty Enterprises, Governor Nobles,” Ferrando said in reply. “I hear we’re here to exchange Strasium for wheat.”

           “Something tells me you have many questions,” said Susan Nobles. “Perhaps it would be easier to explain everything if I show you in person what some of our challenges are on the surface. Do you still have one of those … Large Landing Shuttles these ships would carry?”

           “I have three Large Landing Shuttles … LLS Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. Would you like a tour of our ship before we go? Some refreshments? Anything?”

           “No,” said Nobles. “We’re doing fine. Frankly, it’s Dan Brenner on Earth that we’re worried about right now.”

           Ferrando’s guard was lowered and her apprehensions were abated. “That makes two of us. Let us go down to the Large Landing Shuttle Bay.” Ferrando turned to both friends at her side, Tanya Rasputin and Steven Taylor, who had both requested to be with Ferrando at this meeting due to helpful knowledge about the inner workings of Sunshine Mining. Taylor and Rasputin had been dating for months and had often indicated that they were a couple in private with Ferrando, yet when assigned to her crew, both were nothing less than admirable professionals worthy of all of Ferrando’s full trust. This would be her second mistake.

           Once in the Large Landing Shuttle Bay it was quickly determined that LLS Alpha would have the best clearance from obstructions caused by the connection to the Sunshine Mining Orbital Station. Ferrando, Nobles, Rasputin and Taylor entered the Large Landing Shuttle and the hatch was closed.

           “Tanya,” said Ferrando, “do you mind driving the LLS today? I have a few things I need to discuss with our guest.”

           “My pleasure, Captain,” she said. “The base is right below us, I’ll just corkscrew us right in.”

           “Sounds good,” said Ferrando as Rasputin moved forward on the Passenger Deck to ascend up a ladder to the sealable Flight Deck, or a cockpit by any other name, from where the LLS was controlled. Within seconds, LLS Alpha had departed LIBERTY 95 and both the ship and connected station were descending with rapidity. What Ferrando did not know was that the hostile boarding of LIBERTY 95 had already begun by both sympathizers of Sunshine Mining among her crew and an armed militia from the station now storming the Liberty Enterprises ship. No one could get a signal to Ferrando or Earth that there was a problem, as so many of her crew was already on the payroll of Sunshine Mining, having sabotaged key systems already. Meanwhile, small-talk occupied both Nobles and Ferrando as the LLS dove, head first, from the ship in geosynchronous orbit for the station. Contact would be made with the atmosphere at more than Mach 35 almost vertically, but unlike designs of old, helped by Inertial Stabilizers and an Electromagnetic Force Field Bubble, this would be no factor. Even headed straight down, an artificial gravity plate held the LLS interior to an orientation of the ‘up’ according to the internal layout of the Large Landing Shuttle, even if the vehicle was running straight into the side of a planet and being pulled to faster speed by its gravity.

           Once in the atmosphere, the plasma around the EFFB was beautiful in its color and brightness, even as the planet and increasingly its atmosphere could be seen through it with clarity.

           “I’m so glad you brought some seed grain from Earth. The local grains are edible, but we miss real bread around here.”

           “Governor,” said Ferrando, “our records show you already had wheat planted here. What happened to this year's harvest?”

          “It's a mixture of things. It's been raining a lot lately, and the local farmers haven't felt motivated to get their combines stuck in the mud every day. They'd rather starve than work.”

          “That doesn’t make any sense. It looks like your society has completely dysfunctional. The trademark cut-throat efficiency of Sunshine Mining – that’s not happening. So, exactly what’s been going on out here?”

          “It's the natives. They've been as hard to predict and understand as a politician that talks like a conservative and votes like a liberal.”

          “What natives? There were no natives on this planet...beyond primitive plants and animals. I read your planetary survey over and over on my way over here. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't been to Suaner 2. I read your survey indicates it has a lot of gold and diamonds.”

          “Only Frankincense and Myrrh would interest us these days," said Nobles. "That was three years ago. The natives … they made themselves known to us about two years ago. It seems like more have arrived since the first - a lot more. In the oceans, they're out there, somewhere - a very intelligent species. I've never met any of them, and I know not to ask too many questions. But we know they didn't come from Suaner 2.”

          “I concur. It must be an underwater civilization? How did the initial survey of the planet miss them?”

          “I don’t know. Maybe they weren’t here when we arrived. Our sensors aren’t that good – not even from the Station. We’re not a scientific exploration outfit like you are. We’re a profit center. The natives probably arrived here from space, as we did. But they’re here.”

           “Have any of you met them? If you are trading partners, someone must have.”

           “Yes, others have. All I know is that as long as they stay off the land, and we stay out of their ocean, we maintain our symbiosis, our mutual respect, our peace, and our harmony.”

           “Harmony? As if you have some sort of a trade agreement with them?” Nobles merely nodded in the affirmative. “And you have an agreement to stay off each other’s turf? Is this a contract or a covenant?”

           “Until recently,” said Nobles, “it was a business venture. But something went wrong. That’s why you’re here.”

           Ferrando was intrigued. “If they have been your discrete business partners, then why are you telling someone in your arch-rival, Liberty Enterprises so much about them now?”

           “I can answer that question,” said Steven Taylor, who pulled out a Target Adaptive Frequency hand-held weapon and pointed it directly at his friend and Commanding Officer.

           Susan Nobles then spoke as Taylor moved to sit closer to Nobles, so that he was directly across from Ferrando. “The way I see it, I have nothing to lose by telling you everything I know. I don’t need you – but I do need your ship. When destiny manifests itself, it won't make any difference what I tell you now because by the end of the day, you’ll agree with everything I have to say to you.”

           “Don’t count on it,” said Ferrando with an angry sneer as she turned to Taylor. “What’s happened to you, Steven?”

           “It's the Rechi,” said Taylor.

           “Rechi?” asked Ferrando.

           “Captain,” said Nobles, “do you know what the prices of recreational drugs are on Earth?”

           “It depends.”

           “No it doesn’t,” said Nobles. “The price of feeling good is happiness itself. Do you know how many marriages and relationships have been broken because of all of the feel-good drugs? Do you know that sometimes lives are lost by dealers and pushers alike? It’s the second to oldest profession to prostitution, which also can’t buy you love.”

           “And so this … Rechi is some sort of a drug?” asked Ferrando.

           “It’s more than that, Captain Ferrando,” said Nobles. “It seems to be tailored right to the false-positive nerve center of human happiness. We couldn’t wait to export the stuff to Earth and what little we did get there was greeted with enthusiasm by Dan Brenner. He sent more ships here to carry more Rechi there, and now he’s concerned that no one is bringing more of the good stuff to him. He calls us all traitors. He has no idea what he’s getting into. But I do.”

           “Rechi,” explained Taylor, “brings the mind to a new level of understanding. It increases intelligence exponentially. It gives us superior muscle tone and strength. It makes us everything we were ever supposed to be. It's our little secret brew.”

           “So how exactly do you make it?” asked Ferrando.

           “We don’t,” said Nobles. “The natives make it for us. And, they do so, per our agreement, only if we give them as much access to Strasium Ore as they want. They don’t want the unrefined stuff in rocks – they want crushed powdery Strasium Ore. So that’s why instead of moving it off the planet, we’ve made river deltas out of powdered Strasium Ore, so that as much as possible goes into the ocean as quickly as possible, carried there by the current of the river.”

           “And so that’s why it’s been raining on Suaner 4 so much recently – so much that you can’t even grow crops that can survive long enough to be harvested,” suggested Ferrando.

           “Exactly,” said Nobles. “Somehow they can make it rain – a lot.”

           “But,” said Ferrando as the LLS slowed to subsonic speeds and the Sunshine Mining city appeared out the front of the forward transparency – a bubble window, “I don’t see a lot of rain there today. I see clear skies and yes, an incredible amount of what appears to be slag piles made of crushed Strasium Ore in your riverbeds at the mouth of the ocean.”

           “The natives – they made it stop raining when they saw you arrive. I don’t know how they can turn the weather on a dime like this, but they can,” said Nobles as the LLS approached a field designated for landings and by an antigravity plate made a safe landing next to what appeared to be a central command office. Within seconds, the hatch opened and what appeared to be a greeting party had quickly turned into an armed police presence, with weapons drawn, and all pointed directly at Cynthia Ferrando.

           “So,” said Ferrando, “am I to assume we are under arrest? Might I ask what our crime is?”

           “Trespassing, for starters,” said Nobles.

           “We were invited here - by Dan Brenner himself.”

           “That's your story. Our story, of course, will render a far different history.”

           Ferrando’s head turned to the ladder leading up to the Flight Station. “Tanya! Lift off now!”

           To her disappointment, Rasputin’s response was to walk down the ladder to join them. “I don’t think so, Captain. I’m sorry.”

           “She's one of us, Captain. She has been for some time.” She turned to her guards as they left the LLS down the ramp to the mining colony. “Give us some room. Captain Ferrando is only dangerous to you if you get close to her. Give her fifty feet or so clearance, and give us a little privacy while you’re at it.”  After some distance, Nobles continued. “Captain Ferrando, do you mean to tell me that Tanya Rasputin never told you that she lost a baby shortly before reporting to your ship?”

           “Yes,” said Ferrando, turning to Rasputin and then Taylor. “Tanya and Steven both told me, of course. After all, we’re friends – or I thought we were.”

           “It’s more complicated than you think,” said Rasputin.

           “Apparently so,” said Ferrando. “You were only four months pregnant. I was so very sad for you both. I’m sorry what happened to your baby.”

          “Don’t be,” said Rasputin. “Before went to Santa Barbara to fake a resignation from Sunshine Mining to join Liberty Enterprises, even our people warned me about Rechi. My body decided it would rather have Rechi than my baby. They told me I couldn’t have both – they were right.”

           “There have been no children born on Suaner 4 in the last two years,” said Taylor.

           “So does this Rechi kill your sex drive, or just your future offspring?”

          “Good question,” said Taylor. “Rechi magnifies the sex drive while making it impossible to conceive children. To some, it's a dream come true.”

          “But to others,” said Rasputin, “it’s a curse. I'm sorry, Captain, but I didn't see any other choice. It's time to kill the aliens. They have ruined the lives of everyone here. It's time to break the cycle of addiction, and that will only be possible when we end their control over us. The Rechi only makes us think we're smart. How smart is it to subject ourselves to a life of slavery to aliens where the population can never reproduce? It's ethnic cleansing of the worst sort - making us believe we're enjoying our doom.”

          “So why didn't you come to me to explain everything to me, Tanya? Why all of …. this?”

           Nobles answered. “They wanted to, but if they had, you would have never agreed to bring your ship here.”

           “And why is my ship so important? So far the only thing that has happened is purple-blue skies and sunshine.”

           “I, for one am enjoying the low humidity for a change,” said Nobles, as she led the group to a stop, facing Ferrando. “Everyone with us among your crew warned of your incredible strength and speed. We had to get you off the ship. And by now, anyone on LIBERTY 95 who is not one of us has been removed and given as glamorous and hospitable quarters as we could provide on our Space Station.”

           “And then what?” asked Ferrando.

           “Using the improved power of your ship and its advanced sensors and enhanced TAF Weapons, LIBERTY 95 will fly into the atmosphere, find the natives in the ocean, and destroy them all. And then, we will give your ship back to you with our eternal thanks.”

           “You must be ignorant of the charter of Liberty Enterprises. I'm responsible for what happens on LIBERTY 95 whether I'm there or not. And the natives are likely to hold Liberty Enterprises responsible.”

           “It will be moot who the natives blame, and who Liberty Enterprises blames is not my problem, but I’m truly sorry for you, Captain Ferrando. Sunshine Mining doesn't impose such moral nonsense on our employees.”

* * *

LIBERTY 95

           Of fifteen Sunshine Mining employees that had filtered into the crew of LIBERTY 95 during its year of construction, two were on the surface, ten remained on the Space Station, and only three were on LIBERTY 95 – all in the Mission Control Center. Dowling manned the Pilot Station and was effectively in command, Kibbley manned the Survey Station, and McHenry manned the Weapons Console. The other stations were functioning in an automatic mode.

           The ship’s advanced sensors easily found the undersea city built by the aliens, only a few hundred miles south of the Sunshine Mining coastal city. For maximum surprise Dowling wanted to enter the atmosphere on the back side of the planet and make a supersonic attack by arriving near the ocean surface from the west. The ship was now making that rapid approach at hypersonic speeds as the water behind the ship rippled from the shock waves of the Linear Spike Engines. Upon presentation of the horizon where the city was within a line of sight of the sensors, many of the previously seen buildings in the city were now gone. Dowling correctly ascertained they must have been ships that had scrambled, but wherever they went they could not be seen now. Apparently, the natives of the undersea world had anticipated this attack. Nonetheless, the attack would come as TAF Weapons fired, by design of the name, Target Adaptive Weapons making an adjustment to consider the intermediate conditions between the ship and the target so that upon reaching the target after the distortions in refraction and Doppler considerations between the ship and target the maximum harm could come upon the target.

           The undersea city was quickly annihilated into fractured stones, but there had been few of the originally observed structures left to destroy. Suddenly Kibbley turned to Dowling. “Fission detonation – a huge one.”

           “We triggered a bomb detonation down there?” asked Dowling.

           “No, it was a mile from our aim. They lit it off,” she said. “Whatever we didn’t destroy down there, they just did.”

           “Inform our Sunshine Mining village,” said Dowling. “Tell them to expect a nasty tsunami within the hour.”

           “There’s no response,” said McHenry. “All transmissions are jammed.”

           “Isolate the source of the interference,” ordered Dowling.

           “It’s behind us,” said Kibbley. “Everywhere behind us.”

           A huge curtain of alien ships, formerly identified as buildings on the ocean floor ascended from the ocean surface, giving chase to LIBERTY 95, firing on the ship in multiple coordinated volleys. Fortunately, the Electromagnetic Force Field Bubbles were already at full strength, but the pounding against the EFFB’s was tremendous, bleeding some kinetic force into the ship’s hull as the strike rates were coming faster than the computer could reset them. TAF Weapons fire at the curtain chasing the human ship were effective in destroying only a fraction of the thousands of ships. Dowling quickly made a decision to escape to space, with the Linear Spike Engines at full thrust, and this acceleration seemed to be beyond the acceleration capabilities of the aliens as the curtain lagged further and further behind. But in space, another flank of aliens was met as LIBERTY 95 approached what would had been formed as a tubular shaped gauntlet, even larger and more powerful than the curtain of alien ships they had just escaped. Out of panic, Dowling disconnected thrust on the aft-facing Linear Spike Engines but did not have time to activate the forward-facing LSE’s to slow down before the ship again came under attack. Distracted by an attempt to assess any path clear of the gauntlet, his breath to speak would be his last. The EFFB plate surrounding the Mission Control Center was deliberately breached by concentrated fire, and explosive decompression took all three members of the hijack crew out of an opening which used to be an overhead transparency. They died within seconds, and all air also vacated, turning into a steady but short burst of snow in motion. The aliens, sensing that the ship was empty after firing on it for some time, left it crippled and on an upward momentum at escape velocity. It would drift, unless something would change, forever through the Suaner Star System, as no danger to the aliens. The aliens would then move to their next target – the Sunshine Mining Station. The three dead crewmen were met by alien weapon fire capable of cutting through a ship’s EFFB, instantly transforming them into bright balls of energy, and then nothingness but a few disassociated free-floating atoms. The sensors of the disabled ship would capture it all.

* * *

Sunshine Mining Village

          The air had suddenly become very humid and slightly windy and in short order the sky had become overcast with dark and strangely tinted clouds. Burst of warm air gusts were intermingled with bursts of colder gusts, and there seemed to be the effects of a tingling sensation on the skin, as if triboelectric charges were building all around the city. “Something's very wrong,” said Nobles. “There wasn't a cloud in the sky twenty minutes ago, and I've long suspected the ocean aliens have been sending us our rain clouds. But I've never seen clouds form so quickly. And they've never looked like that.”

          “Something's been very wrong on this planet for a very long time, Governor,” responded Ferrando as she studied the readings of a portable computer she had removed from her pocket. “If I were you, I'd move as many people as you can into evacuation shuttles and get off this planet as soon as you can. It looks like a radioactive tsunami that this computer says will arrive within half an hour is on its way, and believe it or not that’s the least of your worries right now.”

          “There’s nothing here,” said Nobles. “I have ore containers in standby in a parking orbit and a few shuttles attached to the station, with very limited passenger space. It will take about an hour and a half, adjusted Earth time to get them here.”

           “We don’t have that long,” said Ferrando. “LIBERTY 95 – where are you?”

           “You don’t see them?” asked Nobles.

           “No, but that just means they’re nowhere within line of sight. They could be over the horizon anywhere in the ocean, in the air, or in space. What I do see is a swarm of aliens – thousands of them over the city, circling us like seagulls over fish sticks.”

           “They’re aquatic,” said Taylor. “Probably more like sharks circling over a bleeding swimmer.”

           “Steven,” said Ferrando. “Shut up. Really – just shut up – and get that TAF Weapon off me unless you plan on using it.” Following a nod from Nobles, Taylor gave the weapon to Ferrando, and then motioned for the troops surrounding them to back away and disarm. “We’re going to face a firefight getting off the planet,” she continued. “Best we can hope for is that LIBERTY 95 has the sense to send us their two remaining Large Landing Shuttles and that at least one of them is lucky enough to get thru. That will give us enough room to get everyone out – even though anything that leaves will also be under attack.”

           “Maybe the aliens will let LLS Bravo and LLS Charlie come and go, as a humanitarian gesture.”

           “That goes for you too, Tanya,” snapped Ferrando. “Just shut up. When I want your opinion, I’ll tell you what it is. You can’t expect an alien school of fish that we just angered by attempting to obliterate them to be human, or act humanitarian.” She then turned to Nobles. “Governor, I can deal with the rebels in my crew by a system of justice all of my employees have agreed to honor by contract, but all I can hope for you is that you rot in some jail for the rest of your life for what you’ve done to me and my ship.”

           “Here, Captain Ferrando, there are no laws but mine. Welcome to the Sunshine Mining way of doing business.”

           “Send your cadre of minions to alert the three hundred or so people my computer has counted – get to the highest shelter they can find, and stay inside.”

           “So what’s your plan, Captain?” asked Nobles as she nodded and her guards followed her orders and departed.

           “We have to get LLS Alpha up to find LIBERTY 95. Once there we can send all three down when the coast is clear.”

           “We’re too late,” said Nobles as orange rain began to accumulate. The first landed in Taylor’s hair as he screamed in pain.

           “It’s raining fire and brimstone!” he shouted as another orange raindrop fell on his hand protecting it, burning it as well.

           “Quick!” shouted Ferrando. “Back to the LLS!”

           Ferrando easily reached the safety of the roof after jumping up the ramp from a considerable distance. She had run at superhuman speed, and now she turned to see the other three in pain as they also ran. Ferrando then looked down to see holes had been burned into her clothes, but the skin would not be so easily damaged as it had before, and she would be okay. Rasputin’s hair was melting in patches from an increasing rain storm and Taylor’s clothes were on fire. Heroically, for whatever misguided reason, they were both protecting Governor Nobles from any serious harm by shielding her from the raindrops of acidic, hot fire. There had been people in the distance screaming and running in panic, but in short order they had already arrived inside their own shelters. However, it became clear once Nobles, Rasputin and Taylor were also inside LLS Alpha that the rain was also causing combustion of the shelters. Within minutes, this entire city would be ablaze and everyone within it dead. She shut the hatch to LLS Alpha.

           “Are we safe here?”

           “No, Governor,” responded Ferrando. “Thanks to you, no human in this solar system is safe right now.” She turned to Taylor to realize his fingers were too badly burned. She then turned to Rasputin whose scalp was severely damaged but her hands appeared fine. “Tanya, get up to the Auxiliary Comms panel – yes over there by the nose of this thing. Contact LIBERTY 95. If that doesn’t work send out a general long-range distress signal in DC Comms bands. Range for Earth, 625 Light Years.”

           “You know, Captain, that will give our position away to the aliens, don’t you?”

           “Steven – for the last time - shut up! Of course I know that. At this point it seems we’re going to have a pretty hard time hiding from what I saw circling around above us anyway - the ships causing this fire and brimstone upon this city. The only thing I want you to do now is make sure you, Tanya and Governor Nobles are sitting in an Escape Capsule. On the way in there was one other planet capable of supporting human life – temporarily at least. Governor, what’s the altitude of your station?”

           “21,000 miles over the city.”

           “Steven, with maximum acceleration and deceleration, how soon can we be there?”

           “Now you want my opinion?”

           “No, I demand your expertise.”

           “What kind of g-forces can that body of yours handle without breaking bones or losing consciousness?”

           “Why does that matter?”

           “I’m only asking in the event if … or more likely when we lose power and you have to get to an Escape Capsule.”

           “Fair enough. I agree with your assessment of our dire situation – thank you very much, Sunshine Mining! 20 g’s.”

           “At that speed, throwing in a few seconds for max-q resistance and towards terminal velocity and gravity, you’d have to throttle back to slow in 130 seconds, meaning you can get there in about 4 minutes, 20 seconds – keeping the 20-g constraint. Of course, once we get going in the high atmosphere, plasma is going to make anything that gets through a hull crack disappear – including you and your superior physique, Captain Ferrando, Ma’am.”

           “I know,” she said. “I’ll be suited up – don’t worry about me, and we’re not coming back here, no matter what. What’s that rate in throttle power?” asked Ferrando.

           Taylor did a few quick calculations. “LSE’s on full give out a thrust of about 6,400 g’s ...”

           “About?”

           Taylor frowned. “Sorry, Captain. Full LSE power equals 6,400.625 g's to be exact. You have to keep the power down to about a third of one percent. No more than that.”

           “Good enough,” she said. “Governor Nobles, the only reason you’re my special guest is because I need you to convince LIBERTY 95 to give my ship back to me. You literally owe your life to me at this point, so behave yourself.” She went up the stairs and was horrified at the clear view of the burning city out the transparencies surrounding her controls. Some people had fled their burning homes, and were now flailing in the streets on fire, some even attempting to come towards the Large Landing Shuttle before falling to painful deaths, like the one she almost had only a few years ago. After several seconds of a terrible flashback to her own terrible experiences as she encapsulated herself in the EVA Suit, she then set the LSE Thrust governor to a maximum setting of 0.003 percent power, and lifted off using the Vapor Thrusters. She cleared the mining settlement and then pointed the nose upwards, using the Linear Spike Engines only to offset gravity as she turned the sensors on full. She was now a hovering rocket, ready to leap into space, pointed directly away from a planet she would hope to drop like a dropped basketball behind her. Her sensor display clearly showed that the station was there ahead of the nose of the LLS by 21,000 miles just as Nobles had said. However, the attached Shuttles were no longer there. She was relieved to see the alien ships had gone after the Sunshine Mining Shuttles, giving her a chance to get to the station if only she could outrun the various alien ships swarming about in the atmosphere, numbering in the hundreds for as far as her sensors could see. Her stomach then was soured by the thought that her crew might have left the station, now under attack and facing certain destruction from the alien ships giving chase to those Shuttles. She then performed a homing ping on LIBERTY 95, immediately getting a pulse return back from the ship indicating it was on the opposite side of the planet, and headed away from it at Escape Velocity. The condition of the ship was not known, but it was not, apparently floating with a nose-first orientation based on what she could make of the transponder signals. It was indeed heading out of the gravity well of Suaner 4, but not at an impressive speed. She accessed the communications link to the Passenger Deck. “Tanya – any word from LIBERTY 95?”

           “No.”

           “Okay, I’m going to switch comms to up here. Continuing the Distress Signal. There are a lot of ships up here still – we might make it. I’m now programming the Escape Capsules for a repositioning to the surface of Suaner 2. I need you, Steven, and Governor Nobles to get into the Escape Capsules now.”

           “Captain?”

           “What is it, Tanya?”

           “I’m sorry.”

           “I know. We move forward, as must we all.”  She then tried one last time. “LIBERTY 95 – LIBERTY 95 – come in, please!” Courtesies did not improve the response. She then moved the thrust to a 20-g acceleration and within a minute this vehicle would be out of the atmosphere – or so she hoped. Within a split second of trailing twin LSE Pod exhaust spikes behind her ship, a bolt came in at nearly the speed of light, nearly rolling her ship into a spin. Even striking the cone of thrust behind the ship, the LLS rocked. She was already a target, and she had only begun her race from the planet. Once crossing through the sound barrier when punching through the lower cloud layer, the alien attack seemed to suddenly stop, and possibly the aliens were using an infrared targeting scheme capable of striking the exhaust trail of her LLS, but not her Large Landing Shuttle. “At 30 seconds and 300,000 feet, we’ve made it into space,” said Ferrando to her crew over an intercom system as she continued to accelerate towards the station. But suddenly, a coordinated firing on the station came from all directions, including from the ships in the atmosphere, and before her very eyes the Sunshine Mining station exploded into a fiery and violent ball of transformed matter and energy. She knew what would happen next as she saw the aliens turn their target acquisition sensors directly to her Large Landing Shuttle.

           The first volley caused one of the two Linear Spike Engine Pods to explode, and she shut the other down by her own initiative after realizing there was no longer anywhere to go. Then, the next volley caused a hull breach and the atmosphere vented into space after a few seconds as a humid blinding fog. The pressure in her EVA Suit caused a rapid expansion of some parts of the suit, but she could still maneuver with ease as she made her way free of her Flight Deck control seat. The next volley shattered the forward facing transparency, but it was no factor as pressure was already gone to the interior of the vehicle. The next volley caused all shipboard power to be lost, including that to the gravity plates. The next and last volley caused the LLS to spin like a top, at loads approximating 20 g’s which Ferrando handled with a little more difficulty than she had anticipated. Just in the nick of time, from one of the six Escape Capsules on LLS Alpha, she boarded and closed the hatch to issue the command to jettison all six with preprogrammed instructions to survive, evade, and escape detection in the short term, followed by a rapid transit to planet Suaner 2. Only two were unoccupied, and by luck they were the first two to be destroyed by the aliens. Then, Tanya Rasputin’s and Susan Nobles’ Escape Capsules were successfully targeted, and the last two, containing Cynthia Ferrando and Steven Taylor slipped out of orbit on their way to a pre-programmed hostile destination, Suaner 2.

* * *

LIBERTY 72, Gamsosa 3B

           After the 18 hours of ship repairs and fueling, LIBERTY 72 was ready to go, and the crew took an opportunity to get some rare time off on a lightened duty schedule. Now after many hours of being unmanned, the Mission Control Center was back in action. Although not technically the First Shift, the First Shift crew was here, as was customary for most planetary arrivals and departures, even if the planet this time happened to be the bottom of a lake on a moon.

          “Let’s light ‘er up,” said Carr from his Command Station. The departure checklist was now so repetitive that now only the abnormal would be noteworthy to Carr.

          “Tunnel Ratio Speed Field Generators in ready standby,” said Antonia DiNyro. “Forward-facing and rear-facing Linear Spike Engines in warm standby. Gravity off, registering at zero point two three from the Moon’s gravity field, tied to Inertial Stabilizers as needed. Einsteinian universal time coordinator calibrated and online. DC Communications still out of service. Optical refraction computer is available and on line. Weight and balance computer is online.”

          “Fioha,” said Carr as he looked at the much skinner Trucowl now at his side. “You should either go get your antigravity snow shoes or sit at your Mission Historian station where the gravity is always programmed to be lower. We need to bring the ship’s gravity back up to 1g now.”

           “Not necessary, Captain Joe,” said Secowm. “In Stage Three, I can now handle Earth-strength gravity without being protected from your gravitational influences.”

           “Very well,” said Carr with surprise as Antonio DiNyro continued the checklist.

           “Matter and detection sensors are available in all bands, and tied to Push Stick. Photon and energy detection sensors are available, tied to autopolarization system. Electromagnetic detection sensors and gravity detection sensors are offline, but tied to the Push Stick.”

           His twin sister then picked up where he left off. “Chopstick Tow offline in standby. Inertial Stabilizers are capacitated and in ready standby.”

          It was then Julie Perkins’ turn. “Landing Pods are extended and ready. Variable Plates on Elevarudders are online, tied to my station. Props one and two cycled through Vapor Thruster power, ready to move us to the surface at your command. TAF weapons can cut a nice hole for us. Twenty-six good Vapor Thrusters. Navigational script in set for system departure.”

          “Very good,” said Carr. “That completes the checklist.”

          Antonio DiNyro turned to Carr. “This is very interesting, Captain. Sensor sweep of the area approximately thirty five miles southwest of this location reveals a sophisticated, abandoned city exists on the ocean floor.”

          “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about , Captain Joe,” said Secowm.

          “You know about it?”

          “I saw it when I was floating out there,” she said, “and I recognized its architecture immediately. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard what happened to Gamsosa 3.” She then seemed to nod, in a Trucowl way when she walked towards Antonio’s station just as Antonia reset the ship’s gravity with some ease up to 1-g. Fioha Secowm stumbled and fell back into Carr’s arms.

          “Are you sure you can handle 1-g?”

          “Yes, Captain Joe. I just wasn’t expecting it to arrive so suddenly. I may have to learn how to walk again, but I’ll be fine.” She then seemed to regain her strength and confidence as she slowly went to Antonio DiNyro’s station. She then turned to Carr. “Please have First Officer Rivers launch the ship, Captain Joe. Furthermore, I ask for a transit speed to Earth at the maximum Superoptic velocities your primitive technology can produce.”

           “Even though we’re fully fueled, we don’t have enough to get back to Earth at ISM One,” said Carr. “You know that. If we go faster, we'll run out of fuel at a rate exponentially quicker than our increase in speed.”

           “I will find you fuel, Captain Carr. Your ship can handle ISM Eight for an extended period?”

           “I’ll give you ISM Six if you find me more fuel,” said Carr as he turned to Rivers. “Monique, get us out of this star system, headed for Earth, at ISM Six – for now.” Carr then turned from Rivers to Fioha Secowm. “I agree our conversation is overdue, and you’re still full of surprises, Miss Secowm. Let’s go somewhere to talk.”

* * *

           Carr and Secowm ended up in one of Carr’s favorite places, called the Leader’s Lounge which was reserved for staff meetings, lunch breaks, leisure time, card or computer games, or passive entertainment. It was popular, but available by reservation only. As Commanding Officer, Carr reserved the right to cancel all reservations so that he and Secowm could speak with candor, uninterrupted. It was in the back part of the Sun Deck, and it was connected to a small Shuttle Bay where smaller craft could be compacted and stored efficiently or unfolded for launch and recovery from the ship. Ahead of the Leader’s Lounge was a section now off limits as it used to house the DC Comms Antenna that was now badly mangled beyond repair – or what little was left of it. With the DC Comms Antenna gone even the forward window of this room presented a great view of the outside Universe, instead of the underside of a ship part. This view joined two others through small windows to the outside world, but not a view that would be a distraction as cold water outside them turned to frosty ice and then in short time to boiled vapors revealing a quickly receding moon and in short time solar system as the Linear Spike Engines thrust the ship up to a quarter the speed of light in only twenty minutes.  This meeting would take so long.

           “Fioha, I've never asked because I didn't want to intrude. I know you risk death if you violate Precepts and it can be considered an act of war by the Trucowls if I even ask you to violate Precepts, but the way I see it, we no longer have a choice. So let me ask you directly, and I expect a direct answer. Are you able to communicate with others outside this ship?”

           “Yes,” she said with rapidity that surprised Carr. “I have Trucowl communications gear on my ship. But there is only one person I can communicate with.”

           “Who?”

           “Why, Yuki Kogure, of course.” Then, the pause came.

           “Of course? Why Yukiko Kogure? Because she was once the First Officer of LIBERTY 72?”

           “Of course not! I am an exchange student with Yuki-chan, of course. She took my place on Trucowl 5, and I am with you. You don’t think the Queen of Trucowl 5 would leave her on her own without my help?”

           “Or you, without hers in functioning so well on this ship?”

           “Exactly. I mean, on some days Yuki-chan could get herself killed on Trucowl 5 for walking a tightrope that tradition says to cut, or visa versa on other days. Someone had to help her survive this long.”

           “So even now, you can contact Trucowl 5 from your apartment?”

           “I hope so. I have not tried since we were at the Galactic Core.”

           “Those scattered strings around the Galactic Core … what are they?”

           “What were they? They are gone by now.”

           “Explain.”

           Secowm appeared to perform the Trucowl version of a deep sigh. Finally, she spoke. “The Queen couldn’t believe it when I told her that of all times for an Earth ship to go to the Galactic Core, you went as you did. The gateways were well known to us – we have even traversed them long ago, using them to enter and exit to avoid circumnavigation of the Sphere, or to go through the tunnels they create to at least five known galaxies scattered around in various parts of the Universe – we haven’t even been able to isolate where three of those five are. But we can also use reciprocal gateways to get back from there into exits in our own galaxy. They remain open for about ten years, and alas, at last they are closing for another 273 years or so in a 283 year cycle, 10 of which are when they gateways are open.”

           “Or so. And so what you were trying to tell me,” said Carr, “is that it would have been perfectly safe for us to go into the gravity well, survive just fine in this or some other galaxy, and come back.”

           “Well, you have to admit, I did try to tell you. I just didn’t know if you could get back before the gateways would close. If not you would have to enjoy someone else's galaxy for the next 273 years.”

           “That’s a long time.”

           “It beats the alternative of this ship damage and 9 dead.”

           “I know,” said Carr with some reluctance. “I can appreciate your position – in not telling me more about all of this before now. But ...”

           “I could be exterminated for telling you what I have already revealed,” said Secowm, “but as you must know, I must tell you more. I felt certain the gateway would be flooded with traffic, but Trucowl ships came and went before we got there, detecting only moderate traffic towards the tail end, and those ships were all Isvarala.”

           “So are they the good guys, or the bad guys?”

           “Trucowls have learned never to call any species either. We only have good memories and bad memories of species capable of being both – as personified by the humans in both Liberty Enterprises and Sunshine Mining. But by treaty, we are allied against them and are bound by duty to fight against them and anyone in allegiance with them.”

           “So that means it would probably not be a good idea for Earth to consider these … Isvarala our friends. But wait a minute – I thought you said that Trucowls don’t make treaties.”

           “The First Precept – Trucowls will never enter alliances. But, do you remember the Second Precept?”

           “Yes,” admitted Carr. “I remember now. The Second Precept – Alliances last forever. Apparently before the Monarchy rose on Trucowl 5 the Trucowls had formed some ancient alliances they must still honor? Alliances, for instance, that make you eternal enemies of the Isvarala?”

           “Not only that,” said Secowm, “but we have a bigger problem than you think. In the end, an allegiance with the Isvarala against the incredible Trucowl incredible military might may be Earth’s last, best hope of survival.”

           “Explain. It sounds like you’re suggesting a war might develop between Earth and Trucowl 5.”

           “The Isvarala were originally of this galaxy but in most of recorded history have spent most of their time outside of our galaxy. We never determined what galaxy call home when they're away, but for approximately five hundred of your Earth Centuries the Isvarala have given chase to a visiting species in this galaxy, one that actually originates from another galaxy, which we do know.” She accessed a computer and brought up a graphic to that galaxy. “Right here - NGC 1232.”

           “It would take us almost four thousand years to get there at top speed on this ship. Imagine what sort of fuel we'd have to bring with us,” said Carr.

           “As we discussed, there is the shortcut at the center of our galaxies, which is good for the other species, especially since their ships are so much slower than yours,” said Secowm. “They only go a little over one light year per hour.”

           “We’d stall to Suboptic if we even tried to go less than a hundred times that speed,” said Carr. “So we can’t fight them at Superoptic speeds.”

           “No, you might not even be able to see them. But what you can do is out-run them.”

           “So who are they, and what do they have to do with the Isvarala?”

           Again, Secowm paused for a second. “How many times can they exterminate me, anyway? Okay. They are the Astenfaji. A long, long time ago they were in a war with the Isvarala, and this galaxy was their battlefield.”

           “How long ago?”

           “So long ago, my dear Captain Joe, that humans were still without fire or the wheel – if you were around at all. I estimate this happened about a million Earth years ago when the Trucowls helped the Astenfaji obliterate a star system about a thousand light years on the other side of Trucowl 5 from Earth. This star used to be the Isvarala home star system.”

           “Let me guess,” suggested Carr. “The Gum Nebula resulted from this supernova of the Isvarala star?”

           “Yes – a huge supernova that is still expanding over 35 percent of your night sky, at a rate of about 4,500 miles per hour.”

           “It’s a real mess to fly through at Superoptic Speeds,” said Carr, “because of the luminous fog. But it will even be a bigger mess when it hits the heliosphere of the Earth star system.”

           “The Astenfaji pose a much greater and much more immediate threat than that,” said Secowm. The Isvarala had it coming to them when the Trucowls and Astenfaji caused their star system to explode – trust me. Over the eons, however, the Isvarala have developed into a peaceful, if not misguided and idealistic society of evolved reptiles, for all we can tell. We have never met them. But we do know through centuries of espionage efforts that they are chasing the Astenfaji, and have been doing so for eons, in order to form a peace treaty with them. But somehow the Astenfaji are able to sense when they are being followed by the Isvarala, and so on the transits into this galaxy when they sense the Isvarala are closing in on them, they intentionally, for no useful or meaningful purpose, lay waste to whole star systems so that the Isvarala can not make use of them. While the culture of the Isvarala has advanced, the ways of the Astenfaji have not. Like the Trucowls, their technologies only appear to be so advanced because they were developed over a very long period of time. The Isvarala have advanced to the point that this time, they might actually finally catch the Astenfaji, after all of these eons of trying.”

           “So let me guess. Trucowl 5 is well aware of the Isvarala intentions, but won’t let their historical allies the Astenfaji know this because it would violate Precepts?”

           “Exactly.”

           “What this also means, of course, is if Earth humans fight the Astenfaji, then Trucowl 5 will be bound by treaty to go to war against Earth, and even if all the Isvarala want to do is catch the Astenfaji to make peace, you can't tell your allies that, either because even that would violate Precepts.”

           “Exactly.”

           “Which means we’ll have to do whatever we can to avoid them all.”

           “It’s too late for that,” said Secowm. “My suspicions were confirmed when I saw what happened to Gamsosa 3. Native structures – not Isvarala nor Astenfaji were on the lakebed floor on Gamsosa 3B. It had been an attempt to escape the destruction of the main planet – and the effort failed. Everyone in the refugee camps had died years ago with no meaningful way to survive. They fled an Astenfaji invasion, but the reason the Astenfaji obliterated Gamsosa 3 is because they knew the Isvarala were behind them. The Astenfaji do not realize that the Isvarala have no use for any planet in their evolved state.”

           “It really would be nice if someone would tell the Astenfaji that. And since we didn’t see any Isvarala on the way here, it means  …”

           “They are well on their way to Earth from here, as are the Astenfaji ahead of them.”

           “How close to Earth would the Astenfaji be by now?”

           “There is no saying, because the length of their stays at various planets varies. Once the Astenfaji sense that the Isvarala are closing in on them they will decimate every planet in their path, without exception, including Earth. Yukiko Kogure strongly suspects that the Astenfaji have been within 1,000 light years – about the outer limits of your colonies from Earth for at least a few years. The Astenfaji convoys are traveling in waves – a widely spaced train of convoys. They usually stop at a planet, collect themselves for a while, and then leave to again stagger into scattered convoys.”

           “And the Isvarala would be somewhere behind them, and closing, and once they do every planet will be destroyed.”

           “Yes. It is for Earth’s good fortune that the Isvarala were not behind the Astenfaji the last time they went to Earth.”

           “The Astenfaji have been to Earth? When?”

           “There was a cycle when the gateway entered between our Galaxy and theirs that would have been about 1857 B.C. on your calendar. The Astenfaji would have arrived about 1700 B.C., leaving about three centuries later. From what I’ve observed from your history, the Astenfaji left quite a mess in the Mediterranean when destroying Atlantis, their underwater city, which also caused great earthquake damage to nearby Crete and the surrounding peninsulas.”

           “And so after leaving Earth's Mediterranean, and destroying the fabled City of Atlantis, they then went back towards the center of our galaxy to find the gateway to their galaxy?”

           “No, the ones on Earth simply returned to the Pleiades, to join the larger group which was already there. And they stayed there for several cycles, finally leaving in your year 1812 when they sensed that the Isvarala were closing in on them. They really enjoyed the Pleiades - it was one of their longer stays in this galaxy. But they did not like it so much that they would spare it when they left.”

           “And given the distance to the Pleiades, that’s why Earth astronomers saw all of that background radiation and light come from that star cluster in the 2250’s.”

           “So you know about that?”

           “It is big history – it was our first real sign that there had to be aliens out there, and when we developed our first unmanned Superoptic probes, that’s the first place we went.”

           “Where you found nothing but destroyed star systems, everywhere.”

           “Yes.”

           “The Astenfaji left the galaxy about ten years after that, and have been out of the galaxy since your 19th Century. They are returning at last, only now.”

           “The general direction seems about right, but why are you so sure they’re going back to Earth?”

           “Because, my dear Captain Joe, the Astenfaji love star clusters. Open star clusters, globular clusters, they don’t care. That's why they stayed in The Pleiades so long. Based on our track, they are migrating directly for NGC-2168, in your Gemini constellation.”

           This time it was Carr who accessed the tabletop computer. “NGC ... 2-1-6-8 ... also called Messier object number 35. It’s almost 2,800 Light Years from Earth.”

           “With Earth almost directly in a line between here and there.”

           “Unfortunately yes, you're right.”

           “But you must also know …” again Secowm paused to reflect on just how many Precepts she could break in one day, “Trucowls have colonies there, in that star cluster. We have no intention of sharing them with the Astenfaji.”

           “So that means you can break the treaty. Right?”

           “No. It means that we can only break the treaty if the Astenfaji arrive in NGC-2168. By then, if Earth is to be destroyed, it would have long been destroyed.”

           “How can we buy more time?”

           “There’s only one way. You must simply let the Astenfaji pass unchallenged and hope that the Isvarala stay as far behind them as fate would permit. Earth really would have no special interest to the Astenfaji other than a presumed value to the Isvarela which doesn't exist. As I highly suspect at least one human colony has been in contact with them already, this may be harder than it sounds. The Astenfaji will destroy the humans as they leave. That will give Earth cause to react with military force … and look here.” She pointed to the star map to show a planet housing a well known North American defense outpost. “Tau Sag – right between here and Earth. If Tau Sag attacks the Astenfaji – and after a slaughter of a human colony I anticipate Earth's governments would feel they would be justified in doing so, then the Astenfaji will destroy Earth, and Trucowl 5 will be bound by treaty to help them do it.”

           “… Until they get past a destroyed Earth and arrive in your star cluster where the Trucowl colonies are, at which point you’ll break the alliance and then go to war with the Astenfaji.”

           “Exactly. I hate to say this, Captain Joe, but in the grand scheme of Trucowl history, the loss of Earth will be just another of many observed statistics over time.”

           “So,” said Carr, “how are we to handle this with Trucowl 5 without getting you killed?”

           “I’m not sure you can,” said Secowm. “But I am sure that you mustn’t worry about me, my friend. Call Yukiko Kogure, from my Apartment. She will know how to proceed.”

* * *