First Contact (Galactic Axia Adventure) (17 page)

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Agnes said, turning toward the back door. “Go ahead and look at the mail if you want.” Robert watched her picked up a small basket and walk outside. He could tell she was still downhearted at the lack of news from Delmar.

After double-checking the boiling potatoes, Robert sat down at the kitchen table. It felt good to get off his sore leg. He rubbed it where Delmar’s criminal brother Dorn had shot him with a small caliber handgun over a year ago. The soreness had worsened these last few months, but with everything that was on her mind, Robert tried to hide it from his wife, if only for a little while.

Thumbing through the day’s mail, Robert found the envelope from Stan, opened it, and took out the printed letter. Although most off-planet mail arrived via electronic starmail, Robert felt the small fee for the transposition service, changing bits of data to hard paper was well worth the price. There was just something he liked about holding the hard copy of a letter in his hands.

Regional Watcher Service

Theta

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Hassel,

I thought I’d take a moment to bring you up-to-date on what’s been going on in my end of the galaxy. In spite of my feeble efforts, life here continues about the same, although things are picking up a little with all of the Red-tail activity. The chief has me busy straightening out the supply computer so that it makes sense. As it stands right now, they not only have no idea what they have on the shelves, they couldn’t find it even if they did know.

There still isn’t any word about a possible assignment. My C.O. doesn’t want to just send me anywhere, but is looking for a position watching some developing planet. I get the feeling he wants to keep me here, so I gently remind him from time to time about posting me elsewhere.

I got another message on the computer net from the Horicon computer Ert. He is apparently having a good time driving those computer experts back on Mica nuts! He finds most of their pet notions amusing, and I think Ert gets a kick out of proving their theories wrong. It should have a good effect of shaking things up so some real progress can be made. Ert also mentioned talking with Mary Ebilizer of the
Mary Belle
– the Empresses personal ship. He sure gets around!

Well, I better close and shoot this off to you. I have to go rework the memory core of the main computer today. Everybody is anxious about it but I don’t see much of a problem. It’s mostly just a bunch of memory cubes that need reordering. My first peek showed them arranged like a pile of blocks left by a two year old! Take care and write soon. And let me know if and when you get hooked up for better starmail service. I can’t believe they can’t keep a simple net up-to-date back there!

Love, Stan

PS. No, I haven’t heard anything lately from Delmar either. You’ll be the first to know if I do!

Robert sighed and refolded the page. He slipped it back into the envelope and got up to check the potatoes. Finding them just about done, he turned the heat down on the burner and then started to get the silverware and plates out for lunch. As he set the two places, Robert began to wonder what was keeping Agnes. It wasn’t like her to take so long to pick a few tomatoes.

Just as he started for the back door, a shadow passed over the house and he heard Agnes cry out!  “Robert!” He bolted out through the side door and sprinted around the house to where his wife was standing staring up into the sky. Robert put his hands around Agnes’ and then looked up.

There, hovering over the house and garden was a sleek black Axia patroller unlike any ship they’d ever seen before. The last time they’d received an imperial courier was when Delmar had been wounded in a Red-tail attack. What bad news could this courier be carrying? Robert could see the number AR-237 on the nose. He wasn’t familiar with such a designation, but the ship was obviously of a new design.

While they watched, the ship land carefully in the field across the driveway from the farmhouse. A part of Robert’s mind was relieved that the ship had set down in the field they’d left fallow this year. If the ship had set down in the new oats on the other side of the house, the damage would have been considerable. But the rest of his mind was paralyzed with dread. These days only bad news came this way. Good news seemed to take its time if it showed up at all.

Fearing the worst, Robert and Agnes started walking slowly toward the hatch of the sleek ship, his arm firmly around her shoulders. The couple stopped several yards away from the patroller’s hatch. The anxiety they felt was quite natural, considering the situation. They hadn’t heard from Delmar in months. If something dire had occurred, the service always sent a trooper to notify the family and help them with arrangements. Although such a messenger of sad tidings usually arrived in a flitter or ground vehicle, it was still within the realm of acceptability to have a ship come to them directly, depending on the rank of the messenger and the seriousness of the message.

The recessed indicator light above the hatch turned green as the hatch activated from inside. Robert found himself holding his breath. His heart seemed to stop momentarily and then beat like it wanted to burst through the front of his chest. Slowly, the metal hatch slid silently into its recess, moving aside to reveal the black Galactic Axia utility uniform of the man on the inside.

With the hatch fully open, the trooper stepped into the daylight and stood there only a few feet from them. “I come in peace. Take me to your leader,” the man said, lifting the faceplate on his helmet.

Robert was momentarily stunned when Agnes broke free and launched herself into the arms of the trooper and cried out what was on both of their relieved minds—“Delmar!”

∞∞∞

“So they want to start a regular dialogue with us?” Dr. Garret asked incredulously.

“That’s right!” Dr. Oren replied. Dr. Spenser nodded.

“They also confirmed our frequency setting and signal parameters,” Oren continued. “They did mention that our overall signal strength leaves something to be desired but they can work with it through a relay.”

The senior scientist sat stunned for a moment trying to take it all in. The news that they’d finally received an answer had come as somewhat of a shock to the team. In truth, many in the group had doubts that anyone would ever answer, even if they managed to hear the signal. Now something called the Galactic Axia had not only returned their call but was offering to open dialogue on a regular basis.

“When is the next time they set up to call?” Garret asked his younger colleagues.

“In another fourteen hours,” Oren replied. “The woman advised us to shut down our transmitter except during those times. Otherwise, she said we might attract unfriendly attention.”

“Do you think she’s trying to hide something?” Garret asked. “It sounds suspicious to me.”

 No we don’t. She said it was fine to leave our receiver on. They even gave us several other frequencies that might work better. If they were hiding something, I’m sure they wouldn’t have been so open with us. Whatever it is she’s referring to, I think it’s better to trust her at this point.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Garret reluctantly agreed. “After all, it was us that called them. I guess I’ve spent too many years dealing with our own government. After a while you have trouble accepting what people tell you at face value.” The other two nodded their agreement with that assessment.

“She wouldn’t tell us directly what dangers are out there but she seemed convinced of them,” Spenser said seriously. “She said coming to the attention of these unfriendly elements could have disastrous consequences for Maranar.”

∞∞∞

Right about then the crew of the Maranar orbital rocket was receiving some of that unfriendly attention, although they were totally unaware of it. Not having detected any more Axia attack ships, the lone Red-tail decided to go hunting for its favorite food—human meat.

Easing his ship out of its hiding place, the Red-tail reset his detector system for humans rather than the telltale signature of the Axia ships. In the several time cycles since hiding from the Axia hunters, he’d not picked up any traces of their dreaded black ships. Now was probably as safe a time as any to come out. Besides, the last of his emergency rations were long gone and a gnawing hunger tortured his empty guts.

Immediately upon resetting his sensors to detect humans, they lit up with good news. To his delight they showed four such readings on the far side of the large moon ahead.

It puzzled the Red-tail that the signal wasn’t accompanied by the usual human Axia ship readings. In any case, he was happy that he might have run across unsuspecting prey without protection from the human mass. Carefully maneuvering so that he could use the bulk of the planetoid to hide behind until the last moment, the Red-tail stalked his prey. He watched impatiently the progress of the other craft as its orbit brought it ever closer. All he needed to do now was wait for dinner to circle around to him.

Much farther out on the edge of the Maranar system another set of eyes were also watching a sensor readout. What she saw alarmed her greatly.

“Watcher Control, this is AR-111.”

“Go ahead AR-111,” the comm officer on the mothership answered. He’d been monitoring the search by the fast attack ships for the escaped Red-tails for days. Of the three Red-tail ships unaccounted for after the battle, the fast attack ships had managed to torch two of them. That was before all Watcher ships were ordered to back away from Maranar due to the ongoing space mission by the natives.

“I just picked up a faint red line in close proximity to Maranar,” the female scout reported. “It appears to be located near the largest moon.”

“Understood, AR-111,” the comm officer said as he pushed a button signaling the commander. “Can you give me a feed on it?”

Being a combination attack-reconnaissance ship, the patroller’s sensors were much more discriminating at this distance than those of the mothership.

“Sending to you now,” she replied. The comm officer fed it over to the holographic display. Using his secondary controls, he reset the display to show Maranar and its three moons. Just as the commander came running in, a red light started blinking, indicating the location of the Red-tail ship.

“Project the orbit of that manned mission Maranar has going,” Commander Tess ordered as she looked at the display. The comm officer entered the necessary commands and immediately a faint yellow circle appeared around the moon with a blinking blue light indicating the location of the orbital shuttlecraft from Maranar. The Red-tail lay directly in the orbital path of the unsuspecting vessel moving rapidly toward it.

“Order AR-111 to intercept now!” Commander Tess sat down heavily in her command chair. The comm officer complied with the order and they both waited anxious seconds before the blinking green light appeared indicating the arrival of the Axia attack ship on the unfolding scene.

∞∞∞

“Roger, Maranar Control,” the team leader in the orbiter said into his radio. “We’re activating the horizon mapping cameras now.”

The mission to map Maranar’s largest moon had been underway for several days. The flight from Maranar to the moon had taken three days traveling at speeds in excess of 8,000 miles an hour in which time the crew had performed a series of scientific studies and experiments. They’d been in orbit for two days mapping the surface electronically. Although they were excited about being part of the planet’s fledgling space program, the close confines of the vessel restricted their movement. They all longed for the day when the program would include the new Lunar Excursion Module for landing on the moon. It was every astronaut’s dream to be the first man to walk on the lunar surface.

One of the crew members flipped a switch and the two cameras mounted along the outside of the shuttlecraft swiveled to photograph the horizon. They hoped these pictures would help prepare accurate navigational charts for future missions. Today they would send back exterior feeds of the moon’s surface in an attempt to help Control map what looked like ancient river beds and oceans. They’d often wondered if their satellite had once supported life. Now was their opportunity to take one step closer to the answer.

“At least they’ll get a pretty view today,” the team leader said. He glanced out the window toward the surface below. The good thing about looking at the surface from orbit was the absence of cloud cover. He could see from horizon to horizon without any obstruction. The mission might be boring but the view was spectacular.

A sudden bright red flash of light blinded his vision. Something had passed between the orbiter and the surface of the moon below, rocking the capsule violently in response. The shuttle rattled and shook violently as if something hit it from the outside. He didn’t believe they’d been struck by an asteroid or other space debris, but what else could have impacted against them? Impact alarms screamed at the sudden jolt but the atmospheric indicators held steady. Whatever struck them did not breach the hull.

The other three team members scrambled to look out various windows, each trying to determine the cause of their sudden misfortune. What they saw sent chills of fear up their spines. There, approaching along their orbital path was a long red craft with pointed ends. The pulsating glow of what appeared to be a weapons array was aimed directly at them.

“Signal Maranar Control that we are under attack!”

The Red-tail ship operator cursed himself. He’d fired his disabling ray at the strange craft holding his human targets but had only glanced the shot off of their fuselage. He couldn’t use his torpedo because it would destroy it and its tasty human cargo. Only a direct strike from his disabling ray would split it open so he could grab the bodies and drag them in through a cargo hatch in his ship. The thought of four fresh carcasses for his larder made the Red-tail drool in eager anticipation.

The crew aboard the shuttle was in near panic. While one tried desperately to bring the engines online so they could escape, another screamed a running commentary into the radio connecting them with Maranar Control. “We are under attack by some sort of alien spaceship! It has a weapon aimed at us and is drawing closer! There’s no way we can outrun this thing!”