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Gabriela went with Marco and Ariel to gather a ground team and organize a final load out for the Winchester. Ten hours later Al called everyone to the conference room. The mother ship was on the move. It was heading diagonally down from the elliptical plane away from the star, they now knew was 18 Scorpii.
“Think there is another Portal over there?” Babs thought out loud.
“If they leave through it then we can find it more easily. There is nothing like the other big asteroids we have associated with other Portals in that direction,” Al said.
“Do what you need to do with the barge to get a good track,” Oliver commanded. “What is their acceleration like?”
“They are a slug. Crept up to three Gees and holding,” Al replied.
They monitored the run out for twenty-four hours before the mothership made a curving course change, held a course for an hour, and disappeared in a burst of tachyons.
“I bet that was a final trajectory. Were they outside of our gravity drive’s usefulness, Al?” Oliver asked.
“From my speed tests, it's right on the edge of our drive’s capability depending on the planet or star’s gravity field available. Their acceleration curve was dropping the last hour before the turn. My hypothesis is they have another drive interfered with by gravity but able to push them super luminal. Jed and Dr. Lee will be most interested in this data. I just pinged Jed to go look,” Al said.
“Al, take the Winchester through the Portal then close and open it from that side. We will be assembling the away team. No time like the present,” Oliver said.
The Winchester released from her belly docking ring and slid right through the Portal and came back with no issues.
“Marco do we have good supplies for an extended stay and fight?” Oliver asked.
“We are loaded for bear, but no Mechs. That’s Ariel’s fault.”
“Oh, you big baby. You brought one of those mini armored cars from the Space Force.”
“Couldn’t carry armor in a full G so it’s just a mobile auto-cannon.” Marco shot back.
“Children. We fight with what we have if, that is a big if, we have to fight.” Oliver said.
“Can I modify those with grav cells to be able to carry armor? I mean when we get back to base,” Marco pleaded.
“That is a good idea,” Oliver agreed.
“Maybe our first contact and you want to bring an armored car?” Babs asked, eyes bugging out.
“Better than using harsh language and shaking our dicks at them if it gets rough. And besides, we’re Earthlings. That’s how we roll.” Ariel said sticking out her chest, “Uhm, his dick, my.... oh, you know what I mean.”
“An auto-cannon IS a lot to bring on a first contact mission, but we don’t have to shove it in their face. If they have a face. Or an ass.” Marco conceded.
“In the words of Teddy Roosevelt ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick’” Oliver declared.
“My teddy bear didn’t have a stick,” Cida added to the mix.
“You have drivers for the chariot?” Oliver asked trying to get back on track.
“Jerry and LaShawn, they built the cars and are first class infantry besides. We should bring a couple more of my recon guys, Manny and Diem. And Gabriela makes seven fully trained military types.” Marco concluded.
“I am bringing Cida for multiple small reasons. Babs, you will be in command of the Nautilus on this side of the Portal. Come running if we squeal. You have the biggest stick. If we are squealing don’t be afraid to hammer the nail.” Oliver instructed.
“I would like to go too but I do understand. I’ll have ten more recon guys ready to go down to the surface on sleds if needed,” Babs responded.
“Marco if there is fighting immediately assume command,” Oliver said loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Yes, Thank you. Always keep a clear chain of command. Let’s do it.”
∞
Jerry’s youth had been troubled. Living in the Arkansas mountains with a single mother and four other brothers and sisters, none of whom had the same father was wonderful in that he could get out into the forest just by walking out the back door. No steady father figure meant Jerry had to learn woodcraft on his own. Since he never cared much for video games like all the other boys his age, there was plenty of time to observe the natural world around him. All the strange habits the creatures of the woodlands exhibited was a never-ending wonder to Jerry. He never understood the immersion into the fantasy world of games when the real world had so much more to offer. Their problem, not his.
He caught a break at fifteen when one of his mom’s boyfriends caught him stealing ammunition from his pickup. Instead of knocking him around which was the norm in the hills on such occasions, the ex-marine took him to the creek below the house. There he instructed Jerry in the correct way to handle firearms. They shot off at least a thousand rounds into the creek bank over the six months the old guy showed up to bang Jerry’s mom. That short period solidified his abilities with firearms and left him with a goal in life. The ex-marine had told so many stories of his adventures, Jerry was bound and determined to join the Marines as soon as he finished high school. He could never have imagined this would lead him to be on the first interstellar voyage of mankind and maybe in an honest to god, war in the stars.
LaShawn was his best buddy since middle school. They had been through all sorts of adventures together, even sharing Babs and Gabriela from time to time. They had saved each other when their ship was sunk at Fiery Cross and they would be in the not-armored car together, so he knew his back was covered. They were as close as brothers-in-arms could be. Hell, they may even be half-brothers if certain rumors back home were true.
∞
It took a day and a half to arrive at 18 Scorpii’s Goldilocks planet. They had fired lasers a couple of times along the way and knew the atmosphere is twenty-three percent oxygen and seventy-five nitrogen. The traces left over were mainly noble gases and just enough carbon dioxide for plant life. This place was almost a twin of Earth.
The barge had accelerated hard after the mothership left and was already mapping the topography of and looking for more clues as to the surface situation. Q comm was even more useful in this situation because it did not emit electromagnetic radiation to be detected.
As the topography became clear, they saw a planet leaving an ice age. There was a huge fresh impact crater on the opposite side of the planet from where the shuttle activity had been. The barge had finally gotten them images of a city near the base of a mountain where piles of material were getting added to by something. The barge had dipped deep in the atmosphere to near the surface and sampled the air several times. Other than being cold, it was perfect for humans.
“Let’s drop near the surface by that crater and work our way around to the area of interest,” Oliver directed.
“Low enough to see details, say two thousand meters and chase the sun,” Marco suggested as they dropped through the cloud layer into the clear at five thousand meters.
“Sounds good, I’ll time it to be in the area of interest just after dark. That impact crater is similar in size to what hit the Yucatan and exterminated the dinosaurs. From the erosion, I bet it is only a few thousand years old,” Oliver observed.
“After seeing the impact on the asteroid bases, I suspect that this world was intentionally killed,” Marco said to no one in particular. His mind was already working the problem in a strategic military manner.
As they moved away from the blast zone, traces of a civilization started to emerge. Straight lines connected lumps. The terrain visually revealed that this was an ocean world with numerous large islands. A tsunami had wiped them clean. And then the ice locked up most of the water on the planetary poles. Three-quarters of the way around, they came to a large island with rugged mountains in its interior and an obvious city at the base of them on a high plain. Tall buildings somewhat in ruin but largely intact had a grid of roads to services them. Once upon a time.
“Get us down there in by the tall buildings, maybe a park or plaza,” Oliver pointed to Ariel who was at the controls.
“I see a nice boulevard next to a monument,” Ariel said as she made a steep approach.
“Ok, everyone gear up and let’s have a nice old-fashioned assault landing,” Marco bellowed to the men in the back.
“Where do you want Cida and me?” Oliver asked.
“Stay on the Winchester and be ready to give cover fire if we get a hot greeting. If it is clear then we will call on the radio to come out, good?” Marco replied.
“Wilco,” Oliver replied as Ariel turned the controls over to him and began strapping on body armor.
“First out the cargo ramp will be Jerry in the not-armored car. The rest follows. You are all combat vets, it is just like riding a bike,” Marco said.
“You had a bike? We were too poor, couldn’t even afford shoes,” Manny joked but only a little because he did have a hand me down bike.
Oliver made a quick circuit of the landing zone but saw no movement or heat traces. Can’t worry about lizards, so he plopped down in the road and dropped the ramp. The Technical, as Jerry dubbed his pickup with a big gun, rolled off fast and made a quick circle around the Winchester before stopping fifty meters behind the ramp. The Recon boys then boiled off and spread out low and fast. With no reactions except for a couple of birds taking flight, they got up and went to look in the surrounding buildings. About fifteen minutes later Marco called for Oliver and Cida to come out.
”I have something to show you,” Marco said as he met them at the base of the ramp. He then motioned to follow. They walked over to the center of the plaza where there was a statue. Of a man.
“Wow,” Oliver said simply.
“Can you see any writing on the base?” Cida asked.
Marco shined a light on the base and found something but nothing recognizable. He then pointed his helmet cam to pick it up. “You seeing this Al?”
“It is like a mix of Aramaic and Sumerian used on Earth around three thousand BC. There is a third component that has no equivalent. Best translation is, ‘Glory to our great city leader’ and some numbers. Which is a typically human thing to put on a politician’s monument.”
“Looks like he was an asshole,” Babs commented.
“Like Al said, a politician.” Ariel shot back.
“Asshole or not he was human, this was his planet, and something killed it.” Marco pointed out thinking everyone was missing the lesson. “Maybe all the humans are gone but some animals probably survived. I don’t want to lose anyone to an ET cave bear.” Over the radio he called everyone to tighten in the perimeter, thinking ‘Time enough in the morning to poke around. Who knows maybe run into some cousins, dead as everything looks?’
At first light, it was clear whoever was here before met their end in a cataclysm. Even after all the passing millennium, there were still scour marks made from a passing shock wave. Some mummified remains were found in back corners of basements that attested to this being a human world. The layout of the buildings did as well. This had been a comfortable prosperous place.
Some engravings were found but not enough to indicate anything other than mundane day to day life. Mid-morning Oliver called a halt. The barge had pinpointed ongoing activity in a similar city two hundred km from their location.
“It is obvious this place needs a large number of archeological professionals. Let’s get on with checking out what the UFO people were up to. Everyone back to the Winchester,” Oliver said over the radio.
