Four GDA Katadromiko Class Battle Cruisers appeared one at a time, hidden from Gaia by the planet’s only moon, Selene.
They proceeded to scan the system thoroughly from their concealed positions, unable to move in on the planet until they had clearance from Dasos.
After securing and quarantining the Katadromiko 37, Captain Bache Loftt had listened to the evidence of the lone survivor, Katt Dric’is, a Medical Officer.
He’d immediately despatched a jump drone back to Dasos, calling for back-up and guidance. Dric’is had provided the medical staff on Katadromiko 12 with the anti-virus, which had been quickly formulated in large quantities and dispensed to the entire crews of Katadromiko 12 and then –as they arrived – Katadromikos, 19, 41 and 43.
The small, partly-dismantled, primitive ship, discovered in one of 37’s service hangars had backed up the evidence given by Dric’is. It did indeed have jump capability and, judging by the recent scan results from the Helios System, the design was identical to several vessels operating around the planet of Gaia.
This evidence had all been on the jump drone to Dasos and, if proved correct, the Gerousia, hastily assembled for an emergency sitting in the Synedrio, would re-designate the planet Gaia to a class NV (new-born violent), with either katapato blue (approach cloaked) or even katapato green (fully-open approach) approved.
Until the result of the emergency sitting was received, Captain Loftt kept all four cruisers cloaked and hidden from Gaia behind Selene.
He realised they had been very lucky that Dric’is had spent the time shut up in the virus laboratory, which was the only place on the ship that had a separate food and water supply. It had saved her life.
She’d been cramming for her Senior Medical Officer’s exams and had shut herself away, working on her thesis after leaving Panemorfi a couple of hours before being fired upon by the tiny Gaian ship.
Two hours later, the encrypted-message beam was received from the jump drone as it winked back in system. The message was transmitted straight to the Captain’s bridge office, where Loftt was in a meeting with the three other Katadromiko captains. He instructed the computer to initiate the communication and a holographic image of General Tonixe appeared in the centre of the room.
‘Good afternoon, Captain Loftt and assembled Captains,’ said the general. ‘The Gerousia has concluded the emergency sitting regarding the tragic loss of Katadromiko 37’s crew. As all of you will realise, this unprovoked attack on one of our peace-keeping vessels is unprecedented in modern times and cannot go unpunished. The evidence you have provided does indeed seem damning but is not wholly conclusive. For this reason, the Gerousia has acquiesced to re-categorising the planet known as Gaia in the Helios System to a permanent NV status, with katapato green designation for the duration of this operation and reverting to blue thereafter. You are therefore authorised to blockade the planet known as Gaia uncloaked and use whatever means necessary, excluding Genok weapons, to apprehend the Gaian humans known as Lake and Herez, as well as any other Gaian humans or persons unknown who were conclusively involved. Captain Loftt, as the senior captain, you will be in overall command of the operation and I will require daily updates via jump drone on the progress of the engagement.’
The general stood to attention and saluted. ‘Good luck, gentlemen. And remember: Peace Through Unified Command.’
The four captains all stood to attention and saluted the fading figure with their right fist over their heart. ‘Peace Through Unified Command,’ they repeated.
Captain Loftt relieved the three other captains to their relevant vessels to brief their senior officers and prepare for the coming operation.
He then briefed his own officers before retreating to his cabin to be close to his wife and children. The shock of discovering forty-seven thousand dead colleagues was playing heavily on his mind – he realised it could so easily have been his ship – and this made him even more determined to apprehend those responsible, by any means. He had set the operation start time at 10:00FC, so he had to make the most of the short time with his family as he didn’t know when he’d get back to his family cabin over the coming days.
The following morning, at 10:00FC exactly, the four gargantuan battle cruisers moved out from behind Selene and approached Gaia. Still cloaked, they took up positions around the planet, with a cruiser sitting near both the main space stations – one roving around in high orbit and Captain Loftt’s command ship sitting out at one hundred thousand kilometres.
As one, the four cruisers de-cloaked and, to those on the massive battle cruisers, nothing of any significance happened.
However, on both the space stations, absolute pandemonium raged, which soon spread down to the planet, and within ten minutes the governments of all western nations were in panic mode, with presidents and senior politicians being whisked away to secret secure locations, many of them not even told why.
Two troop carriers, similar to the one Lake had stolen, arrived beside both Armstrong and Tiangong Stations, transmitting in perfect English as the translators had been updated from the Katadromiko 37. Both station commanders were ordered to be brought across to their nearest battle cruisers otherwise their space stations would be nudged into the atmosphere.
The cruiser captains were not taking any chances and, as soon as one of the stations’ shuttles released from its station, it was shut down and tractored across to be dumped unceremoniously into a hangar bay. Soldiers then surrounded the small ships and removed the occupants, the station commanders being put inside GDA shuttles under armed guard, and flown across to the Katadromiko 12.
Jim Rucker and Xiong Yu had never met before, but they recognised each other from photographs. Neither of the two men said a word. They were searched and then escorted through the vast cruiser, via the tube system, and up to the bridge.
Both men’s eyes were on stalks as they witnessed the amazing technology which surrounded them, but they weren’t coping with the extra gravity very well, especially Xiong as he’d been weightless for weeks and could barely walk at all.
Captain Loftt didn’t look up as the two station commanders were marched in and stood side by side, facing his desk. Instead, he was looking at a video feed of the two on their way up, to see if he could detect any collaboration between them.
He saw none.
‘Gentlemen,’ he said finally, through the translator. ‘Sorry to drop in on you so abruptly. We’re the GDA and we have been policing this region of the galaxy for the last few thousand years. Recently it has come to our attention that you have stumbled across some new technology.’
He indicated a screen on the wall of his office. ‘Does this ship seem familiar to either of you?’
Images of Lake’s partly disassembled shuttle appeared on the screen and both men’s eyes grew wide, which didn’t go unnoticed.
‘Hang on a minute,’ said Jim, looking closely at the pictures. ‘That’s not ours. It looks almost like one of Lake’s shuttles.’ He turned and glared at Xiong. ‘Is that anything to do with you, Xiong?’
‘Shut up, Rucker,’ said Xiong through gritted teeth.
Loftt looked at Xiong and smiled.
‘Such camaraderie between fellow spacemen. Perhaps you can tell me a little more about this Lake human?’
‘I’ve never heard of him,’ said Xiong.
‘That’s a real shame,’ said Loftt, looking up at one of the soldiers who was guarding the two Gaians. ‘Lieutenant, can you order Katadromiko 43 to give this little man’s space station a nudge into the upper atmosphere please?’
‘You can’t do that,’ shouted Xiong. His knees finally gave out to the heavy gravity and he slumped to the floor.
‘I most definitely can,’ said Loftt. ‘Each of these Katadromiko Class Battle Cruisers has the power to destroy your pretty little planet – your sad collection of tin cans could be despatched with a hand weapon.’
Jim glanced down at Xiong and watched him attempting to stand up again and failing.
‘Captain, can I ask you a question?’ asked Jim.
Loftt shifted his gaze from Xiong to Jim and nodded.
‘Where exactly were these images taken?’
‘One hundred and twenty-six light years away, near the Cyclatt System, in the hangar of one of our battle cruisers,’ Loftt answered.
Jim glared at Xiong. ‘Did Lake build a jump ship on your station?’
‘He – he said it was a new scanning array,’ Xiong answered, still sitting on the floor with his head bowed.
‘Scanning array, my arse,’ said Jim. ‘That looks almost identical to the Virr Drive that we’ve been testing. Lake stole the fucking design, didn’t he? DIDN’T HE?’ he shouted at Xiong, who remained staring at the floor.
‘We didn’t know what it was,’ said Xiong quietly. ‘He rented the hangar space. We knew he was lying, but we didn’t recognise the technology.’ Xiong shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps deciding, at that moment, to tell everything he knew, before anyone could react, he continued: ‘Lake left the station a few days ago on a short test flight. We followed him with our scanners. That was the strange thing, though. Before his ship disappeared, we got a reading of a small object travelling towards him at high speed.’
‘Another ship?’ asked Jim.
‘No, it can’t have been. It was too small.’
‘It was a missile,’ said Loftt. ‘Things are starting to make sense now.’
‘How do you know it was a missile?’ Jim asked.
‘Because it re-engaged when it emerged – with that battle cruiser,’ Loftt said, pointing at the screen.
‘Hang on,’ said Jim. ‘If Lake’s still on that cruiser, why are you here?’
‘Because, he no longer is. He stole one of our armed troop carriers, after loading it up with one of our latest single-seater fighters.’
‘You’re telling me that you allowed a crook like Xavier Lake to wander around one of your battle cruisers, helping himself to a bunch of armaments, and then to bugger off with one of your troop carriers? I’ve got better security on my sad tin cans over there,’ said Jim, pointing in the rough direction of Earth.
‘It’s easy to avoid security when you’ve killed them all,’ said Loftt, getting irritated with the way the conversation was going.
‘Lake killed the security staff in the hangar?’
‘No, Mr Rucker. He murdered the entire crew.’
‘Bollocks,’ said Jim. ‘How large is the crew on one of these monsters?’
‘Over forty-seven thousand.’
‘And he took them all out with his ray gun, did he? Or was it his light sabre?’ said Jim with a distinct mocking tone, which the translator obviously didn’t carry over.
Even Xiong snorted with laughter after that one and got a swift kick from one of the guards.
Loftt put his hand up and glared at the guard, who backed up and stood to attention again.
‘We’ll have none of that, Lieutenant. I think our gravity is punishing enough. In answer to your question, Mr Rucker, Lake introduced a virus into the water supply, which killed the entire crew within a few hours.’
‘You think he did that deliberately, do you?’
‘They were scanned before they got on the ship – it wasn’t in their systems.’
‘What do you mean “they”? I thought it was only Lake.’
‘He wasn’t alone.’
‘It was Floyd Herez,’ said Xiong, looking up for the first time in a while.
‘I might have known that psycho wouldn’t be far away,’ said Jim. ‘I met him once at a space industry conference – not someone you forget, especially if you believe the rumours. But getting back to this virus, I really don’t believe it could have been premeditated –we had no idea of other human races even existing out here. We’ve been romanticising – and fearing – the first contact scenario for centuries. Lake would have had absolutely no prior knowledge of your existence whatsoever. I’m sure he would have been just as shocked and frightened as we were an hour ago when your behemoth starships suddenly appeared all around us and immediately started making demands and threats.’
‘We make no apology for our approach, Mr Rucker. You have to look at it from our point of view: this is the most serious GDA loss of personnel since the Trav’exe incursions in 9275. Gaia – or Earth as you call it – was known for many millennia as a non-jump-capable human outpost, strictly off limits to all Galaxian traffic, by order of the Gerousia. So it was quite a shock for us too to find a Gaian ship, one hundred and twenty-six light years away from where it should be, and firing upon a battle cruiser, killing the entire crew and stealing one of our military vessels which was bristling with our latest weapon systems and new technology. So, I don’t believe that you – or anyone – could call our reaction into question.’
‘No, you’re correct, Captain,’ said Jim. ‘I know I would have reacted the same way and, while we’re being candid with each other, you didn’t come across our test jump ship anywhere did you?’
‘You mean there’s another one out here somewhere? Where was it jumping to?’
‘The last transmission indicated that they were attempting a jump into the Centauri system, 4.3 light years away. That was four days ago. To say we’re getting concerned is an understatement.’
Captain Loftt looked down at his monitor and voice-commanded the computer. Almost immediately, a holographic image of the local systems appeared just above head-height in the middle of the room.
‘4.3 light years, you say. That would be the Uskrre System. Ah, that would explain why your ship hasn’t returned,’ said Loftt, with a concerned look on his face. He again talked to the computer and a three-star system became the focus of attention, especially a planet orbiting the small dwarf star, it was coloured red, flashing and surrounded by a string of satellites or moons.
‘Why?’ asked Jim. ‘What’s the problem with that planet?’
‘The planet’s called Uskrre – not a dangerous planet in itself, although it does have spectacular weather at times. The Klatt has a military outpost there and have ringed the planet with some of their rather over-zealous defence satellites. Can I ask if your ship had any defence capabilities?’
‘No, it didn’t,’ said Jim, staring at the rotating image of the planet with real concern on his face.
Loftt spoke quietly to the computer again then paused, staring at his monitor. The information he was waiting for appeared and he glanced up at Jim.
‘What is it?’ Jim asked, nervously.
‘I’ve just done an extensive scan of the Uskrre System, specifically looking for weapon detonation signatures and any new debris that wasn’t there before.’
‘And?’ said Jim, fearing the worst.
‘Nothing. The system is clear.’
‘Well, that’s a good sign, isn’t it?’
‘It means they didn’t meet any foul play in space, within that system,’ said Loftt. ‘It doesn’t rule out emerging too near the star or entering the planet’s atmosphere for whatever reason.’
‘Is there any way of checking the planet?’ Jim asked.
‘Mr Rucker, there is a limit to me helping you and you’ve reached that. I brought you here to help me. So, to avoid me having to take my cruisers into your planet’s atmosphere and start throwing my weight around, probably causing global panic and a lot of bloodshed, I want you…’ Loftt glanced down to Xiong on the floor, ‘…and even you, Mr Xiong, to help me now. You will contact your particular governments and tell them that they have two of your Earth days to locate and arrest Lake and Herez. You will have them flown here and delivered alive to any of my cruisers. Now tell me, gentlemen, do I have to demonstrate the power of these cruisers to encourage your governments, or do I not?’
‘I don’t think that will be needed,’ said Jim. ‘Come on, Xiong. We have work to do.’
Jim nodded at the captain and walked to the door. The two guards that flanked Xiong picked him up and half-carried, half-dragged him out of the office, across the bridge and out towards the nearest tube station.