First Contact (Galactic Axia Adventure) (18 page)

The reaction at Maranar Control was total pandemonium. The video feed from the mission displayed the strange ship. They were helpless to do anything about it.

The crew watched in terror as the ray zeroed in on their hatch assembly. “We’re dead men!” the crewman on the radio screamed.

Suddenly, a white flash enveloped the approaching red ship. The blast crumpled its skin and forced it away from the capsule, rocking the shuttle with the force of the concussion. The crew could see a black ship approaching. The damaged red ship was trying to get under way but it was too late. The black ship fired a heavier ray at the red ship and split it neatly in two. Paint on the shuttle pealed back in response to the extreme heat generated by the exploding craft.

 The crew aboard the shuttle looked on in horror as a red humanoid creature with leathery skin, vestigial horns, and a long barbed tail tumbled out of the wreckage. It gestured violently at the black ship and then snarled at them before the hard vacuum of space ended its existence. The now lifeless body drifted closer to them and its hideous features repulsed the crew. It reminded them of stories they’d heard as children of red devils that sought the souls of men. Could this be one of those fabled monsters? While they watched, the vacuum of space shrivel the red leathery skin of the dead creature and it drifted on past them into the vastness of space.

Aboard the attack ship, the female scout reported in. “I got him! Split him right in two!”

“Do you see any damage to the human vessel?” asked Commander Tess. If it was damaged, they might have to attempt a rescue.

“Just a minute. I’ll move closer to inspect.”

The mission crew watched speechlessly as the black ship moved in their direction. Although they didn’t see any weapons aimed in their direction, they were still apprehensive. Although this black ship had saved them from their former attacker, there was no telling at this moment whether they were safe or had just traded one gristly fate for another. Was the ship approaching them their savior or another adversary that had won the battle to claim the prize?

 With deliberate ease the strange black ship moved around until its front windows lined up directly with theirs. The crew of the shuttle was astonished to see a human female sitting in the control seat inside. She appeared to be wearing some sort of black uniform not unlike their own one-piece utility coveralls. To their surprise, she waved at them and smiled.

“They appear to be intact,” the scout reported into the comm. “I see four crewmembers. They look scared. Sure wish I could communicate with them and let them know everything is fine now.”

“We may have a way,” the comm officer replied. He pulled out a note-pad and began to scribble. Commander Tess looked over his shoulder and nodded. Since they’d had watchers on the surface for a number of years, she was familiar enough with the major languages of Maranar to understand the terse note he’d written.

“I figure they know about us anyway,” the comm officer said. “Might as well set their minds at ease.”

“I agree,” Tess answered. “Go ahead and transmit this to the scout’s printer.” The comm officer activated the necessary equipment and transmitted the message.

“AR-111, I’m sending you a written note those men will hopefully understand,” he said into the comm. “When you receive it, hold it up so they can see it.”

“Understood,” she answered. “It’s coming through now.” She locked down her controls and retrieved the large printout. Although its script looked strange to her, she knew it should help the men in the primitive craft. An arrow marked the top of the page.

The ground crew at Maranar Control sat mesmerized at their stations watching this entire scene unfold on their giant wall monitor. In all of the excitement, no one onboard the orbiter had turned off the exterior camera feed. The giant video screen in Maranar Control displayed the alien female unrolled the paper and hold it up against the window of her ship. In large block letters it read
DO NOT BE AFRAID. THE AXIA
.

Other eyes in another lab were also reading the note on the video monitor. “Are you sure this feed is tapped into Maranar Control?” Dr. Garret asked Dr. Oren.

“Of course I’m sure!” Oren replied breathlessly. “I figured they wouldn’t show the public everything, so I tapped directly into their input mixers.”

“So the public hasn’t seen any of this yet?” Dr. Spenser asked.

“Not a chance,” Oren answered. “They hadn’t started broadcasting the live feed yet. They’re claiming technical difficulties.”

“Well, we have difficulties of our own right now,” Garret said. “Those people over in Maranar Control don’t have any idea what the Galactic Axia is. That means it’s time for us to tell them.”

∞∞∞

Except for when they offered thanks to the Unseen One, Agnes couldn’t take her eyes off of Delmar sitting at her table again! Had it really be two years since they’d seen their son? He’d grown so much, morphing from a scared abused boy into a confident man. It seemed like only yesterday that he’d left their home to join the Galactic Axia service, a new recruit on his way to whatever fate the Unseen One had in store for him. He’d been critically wounded in combat on his last training mission in basic training, then he’d spent almost a year in computer school in Mica. That didn’t work out for him so he’d transferred to Rodar for flight and survey school, which had taken another year. Now he was home for a month. She didn’t plan to waste any of their new time together.

After lunch Delmar proudly took the Hassels out to see his new ship. Showing them all its advanced features, he was happy that Robert and Agnes were able to grasp his explanations. Agnes was also pleased to see the ship had excellent accommodations for the captain and even boasted a decent guest cabin. Robert, on the other hand, was fascinated by the new Albert drive. He’d read a little about its development but this was his first opportunity to examine one up close. When Delmar showed him the logs for the speed runs, Robert was openly astonished.

Finally finished prowling through the ship, the three sat down in the comfortable main cabin. Normally intended for additional crewmembers to work auxiliary consoles, the padded chairs could swivel around to double as seating for a small gathering of guests.

“You really have a beautiful ship,” Agnes said. Robert smiled to himself as Delmar stumbled through an answer. Robert also noticed that look in his wife’s eyes that meant she was already mentally hanging curtains. He sensed he’d better join the conversation.

“You have every reason to be proud of it,” Robert added. “You obviously earned it, and it fits you well.”

“Ever since I got it, I’ve been wanting to show it off.”

“That’s one thing I want to advise you about, Delmar,” Robert said. “There are going to be a lot of people clamoring to come inside and see it. If I were you, I’d come up with some acceptable reason to either keep visitors restricted to the main cabin and living quarters, or preferably out altogether. It’s not every day a ship like this sits down here in our neck of the woods. Everybody from miles around will be here soon to see it. There’s just too much critical equipment in here to let people get their hands on it.”

“What if he gives private tours to selected friends?” Agnes asked.

“That would be fine,” Robert answered. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t do it during your homecoming party tomorrow. If you do, it might cause misunderstanding and hard feelings.” Robert chuckled to himself as Delmar suddenly realized his arrival would automatically trigger a party of some sort.

Delmar considered Robert’s suggestions. He had to admit that his ship was a definite attractive nuisance. When he’d set down at the spaceport to report to the Liaison Office, the new ship had turned more than one head at the field. If it had that affect on people used to being around spaceships, what kind of reaction could he expect from ordinary citizens unfamiliar with spacecraft?

“All right, I’ll keep everyone out,” Delmar said to the couple. “Those I want to show it to will have to wait and see it later.”

The news that a Galactic Axia patroller had set down at the Hassel farm spread like wildfire throughout the rural community of Big Valley. Ground vehicles cruised slowly by as people came from miles around to see the ship. Fortunately for Delmar and the Hassels, most were satisfied to just drive slowly by on the main road and look at it from a distance. Agnes got busy on the phone calling friends and neighbors, inviting them to a homecoming party the next night. She spent the rest of the day happily baking cookies and cakes. Delmar figured he’d have tonight to spend alone with this parents before the rest of the community crushed in on him.

Chapter Twelve

With great caution the troopers approached the dozen or so prefabricated buildings on the hot, dusky planet. Ever since their landing on the former Red-tail staging base, they’d run into a variety of problems and booby traps. Stan, along with several other specialists, waited while an advance party approached the buildings. The deserted nature of the structures made them increasingly more suspect. Aura sensors confirmed the buildings were devoid of life but that never accounted for mechanical hazards and traps.

The lead trooper used a remote controller to guide a disposable robot to push open the door while another kept him covered with his blaster. With a flash and concussion, the door exploded outward. The robot disappeared in the blast and the troopers hit the dirt. After all the dust and smoke had settled, the detail again advanced on the opening. Careful observation and probing showed the area to be clear of any more such explosive devices. Warily, the men entered the building followed closely by the rest of the advance team. Long minutes later they returned and signaled for the specialists to join them.

Stan ran into the building with his computer-networking unit in hand. Other specialists fanned out to explore the building. To Stan’s delight they discovered the structure housed the Red-tail main computer bank. While other troopers double-checked for additional booby-traps, Stan wired in his networking unit and began trying to crack into the Red-tail computer core.

This was not the first time the Axia had gained access to enemy equipment. They’d captured various pieces of computing and navigational equipment aboard Red-tail ships but those were always of limited capacity. This opportunity was among the few instances where a larger ground unit had been captured relatively intact.

Stan entered code after code, trying to access the main memory of the machine. None of the codes they’d captured or devised worked. He was growing frustrated when the screen of the networking unit went momentarily blank. For a second the screen and Stan stared at each other as he feared some internal safeguard in the Red-tail computer had infiltrated and destroyed his portable data link. But Stan’s fears were misplaced. In a moment the data link came back to life and print began to appear on the display.

HELLO STAN, the line said. THIS IS ERT. WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HELP? Stan stared in disbelief and then answered.

YES, he typed into the networking unit, not sure how the Horicon computer had accessed this remote link or what Ert might be up to.

WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE PROBLEM?

I’M TRYING TO ACCESS THE MEMORY CORE OF THIS RED-TAIL COMPUTER, Stan entered. WE’RE TRYING TO LEARN ALL WE CAN ABOUT THEIR TECHNOLOGY.

LET ME SEE IF I CAN HELP, came the reply. I’VE NEVER DIRECTLY WORKED WITH THE EQUIPMENT OF THESE CREATURES, BUT I MIGHT HAVE A COUPLE IDEAS YOU HAVEN’T CONSIDERED.

GO AHEAD, Stan typed. I’M REACTIVATING THE LINK NOW.

The networking unit’s screen began to flash multi-colored ribbons of light as Ert used it to remotely access the Red-tail computer from the computer lab back on Mica. Stan had kept in contact with the animate Horicon computer since his graduation from the advanced computer school a year earlier. Their correspondence had proven quite enjoyable and Stan counted Ert among his friends. Many people still couldn’t understand a computer having emotions but neither Ert nor Stan had a problem with it.

I’M BACK, Ert printed on the networking screen. BUT I WASN’T ABLE TO DO MUCH. THEY INSTALLED A PROGRAM TO DESTROY ALL OF its MEMORY AND PROCESSING ABILITY. IT WAS MOSTLY SUCCESSFUL BUT I DID MANAGE TO PEACE TOGETHER SOME OF THE PROGRAM.

THANK YOU FOR TRYING, Stan typed. WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE INFORMATION YOU SALVAGED?

I DOWNLOADED IT TO YOUR NETWORKING UNIT AND ABOARD THE MAIN COMPUTER ON THE MOTHERSHIP.

A trooper behind Stan called over to him.”Hey Stan? The ship just signaled they received the information. Good work.”

“Thanks,” Stan answered. He turned back to his networking unit.

THANKS FOR THE HELP, ERT, he typed. I COULDN’T HAVE CRACKED IT WITHOUT YOU.

The screen went blank again. He shut down the networking unit and packed it up. “I’m finished here,” he called to the other troopers. “We’ll take the next shuttle up to the mothership.”

∞∞∞

The tension in the meeting room at the Maranar Space Agency was thick enough to cut with a knife. When the initial shock of the pictures transmitted from the orbiter wore off, the top managers at the agency had managed to swear everyone who had seen them to secrecy. There were bound to be leaks; there always were. It was impossible to keep secrets in a government operation.

The press team immediately issued a cover story to explain the lack of live signals from the continuing space mission. Someone had apparently foreseen the possibility of problems that might arise with manned space flight and developed a stock of reasonable explanations to feed the public in case of an embarrassing situation.

They’d already arrived at some very unsettling conclusions. That the ship attacking the shuttle had been piloted by a hostile alien species was obvious. The attack itself helped determine these creatures were malevolent in nature. Now they were faced with the larger puzzle of just what this Axia was and why it had rescued the orbiter crew.

“If the pilot of that black ship is indicative of this Axia, then it’s populated by normal humans,” argued one of the men present.