Under Linda’s control, the Gabriel emerged into the Helios System between the sun and Earth – to avoid any overenthusiastic astronomer catching a fleeting glimpse of the ship before it cloaked. What she wasn’t expecting was a shrill tone in her ears, which indicated a scan detection was taking place.
‘Shit, what the hell?’
She cloaked and immediately sent the ship towards Mercury at maximum drive.
‘Gabriel, who the bloody hell detected us out here?’
‘There are four GDA Katadromiko Class Battle Cruisers surrounding Earth. They all detected our emergence,’ said Gabriel.
‘Bloody hell,’ she shouted. ‘Guys, you’d better get up here,’ she called over the ship’s systems.
Ed and Andy shot out of the tube lift two minutes later.
‘What’s up?’ they said, almost in stereo.
‘That’s up,’ said Linda, pointing at the rotating holo map which showed Earth with the four monstrous cruisers lurking nearby.
‘Shit, is that Earth?’ said Andy.
‘Yep,’ she said.
‘How big are those bloody ships?’ asked Ed.
‘Fourteen kilometres,’ said Gabriel. ‘A crew of over forty-seven thousand and the firepower to lay waste to an average planet.’
‘Do they know we’re here?’ asked Andy.
‘They detected our emergence,’ said Linda. ‘But they don’t know where we are while we remain cloaked.’
‘We’d best get over there and find out what the hell’s happened in the last few days,’ said Ed.
‘Gabriel,’ said Andy. ‘Can you scan Earth radio for some English-speaking news? I want to know if the general population has any idea of this.’
After only a few seconds, a BBC world-news station appeared on a large screen on the bridge wall. The newsreader covered everything of note happening around the globe with absolutely no mention of alien battle cruisers. One story they all thought was odd involved an international arrest warrant for Xavier Lake and his bodyguard, Floyd Herez. A one hundred million dollar reward was offered for any information that led to their apprehension.
‘That’s who they believed stole our work on the jump drive,’ said Ed.
‘You don’t think it’s connected, do you?’ asked Linda.
‘Getting the attention of one Katadromiko cruiser is a worrying event,’ said Gabriel. ‘But four signifies a very rare occasion – something of consequence has occurred.’
The newsreader finished with a small note to advise any amateur astronomers that, due to unusual sun-spot activity, they might witness atmospheric disturbances which would blot out parts of the night sky in various locations around the globe, possibly lasting for a couple of days.
‘That’s crap,’ said Andy. ‘That’s a cover-up for the ships in orbit.’
‘Now we know that the public hasn’t been informed,’ said Linda.
‘It’s to avoid mass panic,’ said Ed. ‘Can you imagine the reaction if the world’s population suddenly discovered there were four planet-busting alien battle cruisers sitting above them?’
‘Can we get a message to Armstrong Station without being seen or overheard, Gabriel?’ asked Ed.
‘We can,’ said Gabriel. ‘The closer we are, the less chance of it being intercepted. It would be good to be directly in front of their receiving array.’
‘Can you do that, Linda?’ asked Ed.
‘Already on the way, boss,’
It took them six minutes at maximum drive to reach Armstrong Station, swing around beneath and out in front of the array.
Ed sat in one of the command couches and nodded at Linda when he was ready. She activated the tight beam.
‘Armstrong Station, this is Edward Virr on the Cartella. I have a high-priority confidential message for Jim Rucker. Please request Jim to reply on a tight beam, pointed directly at the source of this transmission and not – I repeat, not – on wide band transmission. I will await Jim’s reply – Cartella out.’
A series of static pops and longer blips came back and everything went silent.
‘Clever bastard,’ said Ed.
‘What?’ said Linda, looking at Ed with a confused expression.
‘The radio engineer sent me a “copy that” in Morse code, using the static,’ replied Ed, winking at Linda.
‘That’s clever, how long do you think it will—’
‘I’ll need a fucking cardiac nurse if I get any more shocks today, Mr Virr,’ said Jim. ‘But can I say I’ve never been so glad to hear someone’s voice in my life. We’d almost given up on you guys. Are you all okay? And where the hell are you?’
‘Hi, Jim. We’re all okay. We’re piloting a cloaked, alien starship called the Gabriel and we’re close by. The Cartella is fine and parked in one of our shuttle bays. It’s a long story, but we urgently need a vial of smallpox vaccine to save the life of one of this ship’s crew.’
‘That’s the second time I’ve been told about a virus today, but I’ll see what I can do. Unfortunately, the GDA have banned any shuttle movements to and from the planet unless it contains Xavier Lake and Floyd Herez.’
Everyone on the bridge looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
‘Don’t worry about bringing the vaccine up here – we can go down and get it in a cloaked shuttle. Let us know the co-ordinates for pick-up from a trusted colleague. What the hell has Lake been up to?’
‘Roger that. Regarding Lake, it appears he stole your designs for the jump drive – and, in testing, got himself arrested by one of these GDA mega-ships. According to the GDA, he proceeded to murder the entire crew with a virulent, weaponised virus, stole an armed warship and more than likely came back here.’
‘What was the name of the GDA ship involved?’
‘The Katadromiko 37.’
‘Wasn’t that the ship that sent a few crew members down to Theo Island shortly before we got there?’ said Andy.
Ed nodded.
‘Can you tell the GDA that their ship picked up the virus from the water supply on the Theo Island on Panemorfi? Lake was not involved with that. We have a lead as to who placed the virus which was also supposed to kill the Theo crew of this ship – and pretty much succeeded. When we have the vaccine, we will follow the lead and hopefully apprehend the real killer, so time is of the essence – Gabriel out.’
‘Roger that, Gabriel. Pick-up co-ordinates will follow in due course – Armstrong out.’