COLOSSUS: A New Menace Page 6

  “I will make that promise, Admiral,” Cina said.

  “Good, let's get something to eat,” Allen said.

  Chapter 12

  Standing next to the USC Perseus was Captain Sokolov, Major Hoser, Commodore Jeeves, Colonel Hammer, and Admiral Allen. The Perseus and her crew were getting their final orders from Allen just prior to their dangerous mission to capture a member of the Hive and inject him with the influenza virus formulated by Doctor Victoria Stavens.

  “Empress Katin has insisted that two of her Raptors escort you on your mission, Captian. Since the Raptors have the ability to cloak their presence will not hinder the mission, and should you run into the Hive prior to reaching Planet Daak, they will be there to help you.

  “Colonel, do you have anything to add before they begin the mission?”

  “Commodore, Major Hoser will be your pilot in the hornet. Once you and he have landed on Daak the only thing either of you needs to concentrate on is to quickly find a Hive member to inject.”

  Hammer handed the Daakie choka to Hoser and said, “Use this to capture the alien. It will incapacitate the alien without him being able to sound out. Commodore, it's your responsibility to perform the injection. If the choka does its job the alien won’t know anything has happened to him, so get away before he wakes. That is all I have, Admiral.”

  “Good luck, gentlemen. I can’t think of a single mission we have had to undertake as important as this one. The entire galaxy will be depending on a successful mission. God’s speed.”

  The men saluted their superiors and walked into the Perseus, and within a few minutes, the Perseus and the two Aborian Raptors jumped on a heading to Planet Daak.

  Two hours had passed since the Injection Mission had begun, and High Mage Cina was in Admiral Allen’s Ready Room informing him that Empress Katin had ordered her to choose three Raptor Commanders to stay with Colossus during its homeworld search. When asked why would she leave three of her greatest warships behind to stay with Colossus, Cina’s answer was a simple one.

  “As long as Colonel Hammer is on this ship, and away from my gracious Empress, she desires extra protection for her Chakin. My advice to you Admiral is to take the Raptors without argument. Once my beloved Empress makes up her mind there is no questioning her commands.”

  “You will get no argument out of me, High Mage. Having the Raptors along will only strengthen our resolve to find my people a new homeworld. I must thank her personally.”

  “That will not be necessary, Admiral. She and Colonel Hammer have said their farewells and we are about to leave for Abor. I will inform her of your gratitude. We will learn of the success, or failure, of the mission, by our lead Raptor commander prior to your Captain Sokolov contacting you since Abor is on their way back from Planet Daak.

  “If the mission succeeds, I will wait for the suggested amount of time for the virus to show results, then order our own mission to Planet Daak to record those results. Once we have the information we will contact you with our findings.”

  “I must say I’m a little disappointed I will not get the opportunity to say goodbye to the Empress. But, if that is the way it is, then I will be anxiously awaiting to hear back from you. Safe travels back to Abor, High Mage Cina.”

  “Safe exploration to you, Admiral.”

  Cina teleported to her command Raptor and as soon as she departed, he walked out of his Ready Room and told Vice Admiral Petrov he was going to meet with Colonel Hammer at Starboard Viewing.

  Starboard Viewing was an area with a twenty foot by eight-foot viewing window that looked out into space. It had always been a popular place for Colossians to relax and do nothing but peer into the vastness of space.

  When Allen got there he found Colonel Hammer right where he said he would be, sitting at a table for two next to the viewing window. Hammer had called Allen a few minutes prior to the admiral’s visit with the High Mage and asked him to come to Starboard Viewing, as he had something he needed to give him from Empress Katin.

  “Good evening, Colonel,” Allen said as he sat down at the table.

  “Good evening, sir.”

  “You said you had something for me from the Empress.”

  Hammer pushed a digital tablet across the small table to Allen and said, “You will find loaded on that tablet the specifications and physics for building a teleportation platform.”

  Allen looked at the tablet and with a broad smile said, “Well done, Colonel, well done. I’ll get this down to Chief McManus as soon as we are through here. Did you have to get down on your knees and beg her for the specifications?”

  “No, that didn’t happen. When I asked her for the teleportation knowledge she simply said it was no problem and she would be happy to provide it. I didn’t approach her on the stealth technology because I didn’t want to come across as someone taking advantage of her generosity. But I will eventually ask her for it, and I know just how to play it. Well, playing it is the wrong words, because I will mean it when I use the threat of me dying because of not have the tactical advantage of cloaking prior to and during battles.”

  “Jak, I know it was tough on you the way Alias came down on you about impregnating Katin. But I also know you have more than made up for it with these wonderful schematics for building, and installing teleportation capabilities right here on Colossus, not to mention the accolades you will receive from the USC committee back on Mars.”

  “Admiral, General Dubois can tell you that I’m not much for accolades and fanfare, but if it will allow me to continue on at my present rank, that will be sufficient enough for me. So, are we about ready to continue our search for our new home?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve ordered Petrov to reassign scanning missions of this system at 8:00 a.m. You will be back on the Striker with Captain Slain and Lieutenant Cargon.”

  Jak stood up and said, “I’ll be ready, sir. See you in the morning,” and started walking out of Starboard Viewing. Before he completely got out of the area, Admiral Allen said, “Colonel, you might want to say a prayer for Captain Sokolov and his crew.”

  “I already have, sir.”

  Chapter 13

  Empress Katin and her remaining fleet of Raptors and Predators had made it back to Planet Abor without any problems. Katin had felt reenergized since her last coupling with Jak and started to feel as if Woam was finally over. As soon as she returned to her quarters she commanded the High Mage to make an appearance out to the manufacturing facility to see how the construction of the Daakie Zurguts was moving along. She also asked Cina to report on the continuing build-up of the Aborian’s new Raptors, then report back to her.

  Tage Doni and Caid Maalik had been working together on the Zurgut builds and to High Mage Cina’s amazement, she found three Zurgut skeletons sitting in the center of one of the massive manufacturing facilities. Crews were busy installing the electrical wires throughout each Zurgut skeleton and she could tell Maalik was excited to tell her how pleased he was with the precise and quick work of the Aborian engineers.

  “At this pace, we should have several of these completed ahead of schedule. I must praise your engineers for their work ethics, High Mage,” Maalik said.

  “Yes, they are the best in the galaxy. Tage, the Empress will be pleased with your supervision. I’m about to go the Raptor facility and wanted to know if you will accompany me while I inspect the progress of the Raptor builds.”

  “If it pleases you, High Mage.”

  The Tage turned to Maalik and said, “I think you can handle this, Caid. I will check in with you at the end of the day.”

  “As you wish, Tage.”

  When Tage Doni left the facility Maalik stood back and did nothing but watch how well the male Adorians worked. It was his opinion each team working on their respective Zurguts had no rival when it came to efficient workers. But when his mind drifted back to his homeworld a dark sadness crept into his thoughts.

  Lord of galaxies, I ask that you allow the Human ship Pers
eus and her crew victory over the horrible horde that is the Hive. Many good races have died by their hands and there is no place for them among the good. Maalik finished his thought by thinking if only my people have survived this long I may see my home again and it would be good to rebuild Daak.

  ****

  Perseus and her crew popped out of FTL at a location 10,000 miles from Planet Daak. As soon as the Battlecruiser slowed she began taking fire from a group of a dozen small Hive fighters. Major Hoser began killing them off with the ion cannons, then Captian Sokolov noticed one of the Hive fighter’s engine flared out and it came to a stop and began floating in space without power.

  Commodore Jeeves saw the same thing at the same time and said, “Major, you're with me. We are going to take a hornet and capture that craft.”

  “Capture it in a hurry, Commodore. I have no doubt that the other ones will be back with a much larger attack force,” Sokolov said.

  It didn’t take long before Major Hoser had captured the Hive fighter and began towing it to the hangar bay. When the two craft had landed, Jeeves and Hoser quickly got out of their hornet and walked up to the alien fighter. They could hear the alien ant creature squealing, and as it opened its cockpit to get out of the ship, Commodore Jeeves put his blaster on stun and the alien fell to the bay floor, laying silent, and without moving.

  Captian Sokolov had left this pilot’s chair and was standing by a rail one story up from the bay floor. He held in his hand a small black box that contained the syringe with the influenza virus and yelled down to Commodore Jeeves.

  “Catch. Make sure you don’t drop it,” he said and dropped the box down to the commodore. Jeeves caught the box and ran over to the stunned alien. He pulled up and back on one area of the creatures battle armor and injected the virus into it.

  Jeeves picked the creature up by himself and stepped on a small plate used to climb into the craft while hauling the alien with one hand. He placed the alien back into its pilot’s seat, closed the hatch and ordered Major Hoser to take the fighter back to the general location they found it.

  Twenty minutes later the Perseus backed away from the floating fighter far enough to observe whether the Hive would come back to retrieve their comrade. They didn’t have to wait long before a Hive nest showed up.

  Captain Sokolov thought the Hive nest might head towards them to continue the fight but it didn’t. Instead, the nest did something the Humans didn’t know it had the capability to do. A bright yellow tractor beam shot out of the center of the nest, grabbed onto the fighter and began pulling it into the belly of the nest.

  That was all Sokolov needed to see, so he informed his crew and the two Aborian Raptors to get ready to jump the hell out of there. Two minutes later they jumped and headed for Planet Abor, which the captain was ordered to do so he could inform the Aborians the gift had been delivered.

  It had been put in place that once the crew of the Perseus had successfully injected the virus they were to go to Abor and announce the mission had been completed. The Aborians were twice as close to Planet Daak than the Colossus in the Kilkin System, and they would be the ones to monitor if the virus was working. It took three days to get to Planet Abor and now all that was left to do was for the Aborians to report their findings once the allotted time had expired as promised by Empress Katin.

  With the notification completed, the Perseus jumped on a heading back to the Kilkin System. But before jumping, Captain Sokolov sent a message to Colossus that the mission had been a success and they were heading back. The long-range message would reach Colossus at a minimum of forty-eight hours prior to the return of Perseus.

  Chapter 14

  Colossus and the Striker had completed all scans on the planets in Kilkin’s habitable zones with the exception of the last one. Kilkin had been a big fat zero in relation to some of the other systems they had scanned since leaving Mars. But the bright green and blue planet they began to orbit showed more promise than any of the ten they had scanned in the system.

  The planet was close to the size of the Earth but was slightly smaller. After their first orbit, it was determined the planet had a breathable atmosphere. Admiral Allen called the Striker that was helping in the planet-wide scans and ordered Captain Slain to go down into the atmosphere of the planet to begin performing sensor readings for any possible lifeforms.

  “Great, Captain. We are finally getting some action with everything pointing to this beauty being high on our prospect list. Maybe this one is the one we have been searching for all this time,” Colonel Hammer said.

  “We can only hope, Colonel,” Captain Teasor said.

  The Striker slowly descended down into the atmosphere of their assigned target planet. The cloud base was thick at the higher altitudes so Captain Slain continued to drop until he finally got below the clouds.

  They were flying at 20,000 feet when they came out of the clouds and all three men were in awe of the beauty that lay below them. In order to get a closer view, Colonel Hammer asked Captain Slain to drop down to 3,000 feet. Slain did as Hammer asked and dropped the Striker down.

  There was an extremely long mountain range and from the Striker’s altitude, the three men could see something never seen by any Human before. The mountain range almost made a complete circle around a vast area. Where the mountains met the ground, a lower level of the surface began and it extended a couple miles to the center of the vast plains. At the far end of the mountain range was an opening through the range that looked to be a dozen or so miles wide.

  The extended lower level was plateaued, and at their edge was a 200-foot drop down into a massive forest that sat at the bottom of the plains. To the crew’s amazement, the area had four wide rivers that began as streams out of the mountains, then became rivers before cascading down into the base of the forest.

  The plateaus were covered with a dark green grass less than a half a foot tall, which bordered each river. There were a smattering of cumulus clouds in the blue sky and several of the taller mountain peaks were covered in a thick blanket of snow.

  Off at a distance were some large winged animals circling a group of trees taller than the rest of the forest. Colonel Hammer called Admiral Allen and informed him they had discovered life on the beautiful planet in the form of flying animals, then said he would call back if they discovered anything else.

  As the Striker flew over the center of the forest area they came upon an area devoid of trees and Captain Slain noticed the entire area had been cultivated, as in methods used by farmers back on Earth. Then they saw them. Hundreds of aliens that looked similar to Human forms except for their skin color, which seemed to be spotted.

  The male aliens had long curly blonde hair down to the middle of their backs and tied into ponytails. When a few of them looked up and saw the alien spacecraft they started running from the fields and into the surrounding forest.

  Captain Slain thought for a moment that they should expect some kind of weapon to begin shooting at them, but that didn’t happen. He was about to ask Colonel Hammer if he should look for a place to land so they could go meet the aliens, but before he got his question out, Colonel Hammer spoke, “Take us up and out of this valley, Captain. It's obvious that we scared the shit out of those people. I need to call the admiral for instructions. If I’m right, he will probably tell me to use the same protocol Commodore Jeeves and I used when we discovered the Nawi.”

  Elated that his Striker crew found inhabitants on the planet, Allen told him to try to engage the aliens.

  “I want your away team to take a hornet down to the surface. I think it best to keep the larger Striker out of sight, but maintain contact with whoever you decide to pilot the ship. I will be expecting a report as soon as you are able, once you have made contact with the aliens. Allen, out.”

  “Okay. You heard the man. Which one of you wants to go meet the freckled people with me?” Hammer asked.

  “I would like that opportunity, Colonel. Other than being a sex symbol for the Ab
orian females on Abor, and on a hunt for Commodore Jeeves on his moon, I haven’t been a part of a discovery team. Teasor can man the Striker while we are out,” Slain said.

  “Alright then. You can go with me, but I hope that southern drawl of yours isn’t hard for our translator to understand.”

  “Hardy har har, Colonel.”

  Looking at Captain Teasor, Hammer said, “Once we get down to the forest I’ll contact you to let you know we made it safely to the bottom. When you get my call, take the Striker out and through the gap in the mountain range. Fly through the gap and see what is lying outside the

  mountain range. Don’t hang out there all day, Captian. We may need you back in a quick response time should we run into any trouble.”

  “Yes sir, Colonel,” Teasor said.

  The two men loaded themselves into the hornet with Slain taking the pilot’s seat. Hammer made sure to stop by the equipment bins and grabbed a three-foot-long rod, a hammer, and two long rolls of rope to rappel down into the forest.

  They left the Striker and proceeded to an area just on the rim of the grass-covered plateau, as Captain Teasor flew the Striker out to a safe distance to wait to hear from either Slain or Hammer.

  Captain Slain found the spot he wanted to land and moved the hornet into position and sat the ship down gently in the wind-blown grass. He made sure to double check the air outside and saw that it should be breathable.

  “Bring your blaster, but keep it secluded under your blouse. I hope we won’t need them but you never know. Better to have it and not need it…” Jak was saying as Kenner finished the thought by saying, “Than need it and not have it.”

  “So, you’re a mind reader now,” Jak said.