We need answers, and we need them—now, Aaen thought sharply. “Jones, can you get any clear readings about what’s going on inside those stations?”
Jones turned her head in disappointment, slapping her knees in frustration, “No, sir.”
“Interference?” Smith asked directly.
“That station is barely registering as though it even exists, it’s blurring and fading in and out without any kind of measurable chronological pattern,”
“Okay, stay calm, everyone. Let’s work the problem.” Aaen wasn’t about to lose his crew members—his next orders were clear to him, “Wilson—take us in closer to that station,” Aaen sharply pointed at the screen. “Take us in beneath it—nice-and-easy. Jones! Maintain active high-intensity sensor sweeps of the solar system!”
“I’m watchin’ anything that moves!”
“Excellent,”
“We’re goin’ in,” Wilson declared. The station gradually centered in the viewscreen—the deck began to tremor—
“WHAT-THE-HECK?” Smith shouted, bracing against his computer terminal in shock, looking around wide-eyed.
“INCOMING SHIP from SIX-O’-CLOCK! JEEEZ! ” Jones shouted over the building tremors in the deck.
Seconds later, a massive black bulky elongated shape passed into view in the center of the viewscreen.
“SILENT RUNNING?” Aaen asked directly.
Sandberg knew the question was directed at him and replied, “ACTIVE! WE’RE INVISIBLE!”
The tremors calmed as the passing ship’s blinding yellow engine panels came into view.
“New Horizon has an ugly cousin,” Jones observed, scanning the data filling her screen as fast as comprehension allowed for. “It’s size and dimensions are comparable to New Horizon.”
“Sir, that thing’s headed for the same station as us. Should I change course?”
Aaen turned his head, “Negative. Maintain your course, Wilson,”
With a gasp, Wilson replied, “Yes, sir,” he looked at the viewscreen wide-eyed, cautiously angling the hull down for ten seconds, and then up and level to their destination. . .he shut down the sublight engines and then switched to the antigravity thrusters—easy. . .easy. . . Full stop. Thrusters in standby mode. “Okay. Thrusters are in standby. No forward motion,”
Aaen sat back in his seat and put his arms on his lavishly-padded armrests.
“That other ship in the area is nearly directly over our heads on the other side of the station, on an adjacent course to ours.” Jones declared. “They’re holding position there. Their defensive matrix is active—no sign that ship or the station have detected us.”
That’s my Odyssey! Aaen grinned. ”Okay! Jones, where is the least-populated area on that station near anything that looks like a computer access point, or anything else potentially important?” Aaen noted a tactical heads-up-display (HUD) appeared in the viewscreen, fine thin lines and diagrams accompanied the report to come.
“There are forty decks on that station. Deck thirty, sections twelve through sixteen look like they’re the most unoccupied—for now. There are twenty of those aliens coming down to that area as-we-speak.”
“Okay. Commander Smith, form an away team and go aboard that station. Get a first-hand look of what’s going on in that station. I wanna know what they’re doing in this solar system. Bring high-yield explosive charges, too.”
“Sir!” Smith quickly acknowledged, and then pointed to different locations on the bridge, “Lieutenant Jorgensen, Lieutenant Commander Sandberg—you’re both with me!”
Both officers got up sharply and followed Smith to the weapon and equipment storage locker on the aft port side of the deck behind Connors; Aaen followed as well. Aaen and Smith unlocked the locker with a thumbprint scan and respective command-level authorization codes. the thumb panels turned green and disengaged a series of four metal locks—the twin tan metal doors opened easily at this point.
They gathered three standard-issue particle weapons that appeared futuristically sleek and pistol-like. Smith wore a visor-like headset that wrapped around the front of his face like ancient eye-glasses. The right side of the headset featured a crisp bright-blue infrared imaging system that matched his Smith gave two of the particle weapons to the other two away team members as Aaen turned to Connors, “Prepare to send the away team to the station,”
“Aye, sir. Phasing pad standing by,” she replied with subtle enthusiasm.
“The video feed signal strength is strong. We’ll be able to see what they see over there,” Jones interjected.
Aaen saw the away team to the phase pad. Jones turned around in her chair. “Five minutes, and then that area of the station will be crawling with those aliens and we’re screwed!”
“Very well,” Aaen acknowledged. “Away team, fire only if and when you are fired upon. Get in. Learn what you can, then get out of there! We’ll keep an active lock on you if things go south,”
The away team nodded acknowledgment.
“The station’s defensive systems just powered-down. I don’t think they’re expecting company,” Jones declared.
“Connors! Execute!”
In seconds, the pad went dark and the away team disappeared into seeming nothingness.
“THEY’RE IN!” Connors confirmed without missing a beat.
Aaen rushed back to his chair, leaned back and faced the viewscreen. The video feed filled the viewscreen nearly flawlessly. Atmospheric data from the station fed to Jones’s station.
Aaen noted the feed coloration appeared a dark fiery yellow and orange, then realized that was the actual atmosphere. “Smith? Report!”
“It’s hot as heck over here, captain. It’s gotta be a hundred fifty degrees or more. The station appears to be some kind of mining facility.” the feed filled with expressions of disgust for the atmosphere. “There’s some kind of industrial purification process going on here. Lots of pools of some kind of liquid mercury-like substance bubbling and undergoing what looks like some kind of chemical treatment—an odd dark-colored fluid. Don’t know what to make of it. I’d say the aliens are trying to mine and then refine a significant supply of Olyphium. No idea what for. Goodness, there’s a lotta really heavy industrial activity in here,”
“—Movement ahead! Take cover!” Jorgensen declared, snapping to draw his firearm. The away team hid in deep dark doorway-like crevices lining the corridor. Smith slowly peeked around the corner.
“Smith! Zoom-in on the way ahead for about two-hundred-meters!” Aaen commanded.
“I see. .two! No! Counting Sixteen life forms—they’re organic, anywhere from about six, or seven or eight feet tall, easily. . .and generally human-like appearance! It’s so hot our eyes are burning,” Smith noted the rest of the away team were breathing harder and blinking twice as often to try to keep their eyes from drying out.
“I’m getting tons of bio readings from the aliens!” Jones declared, relaying the data to the medical database. “Negative on POI database inquiries,” POI was short for ‘Person-of-interest’.
“They’re wearing some kind of protective metallic apparel—oh, shoot, they’re getting closer! Twenty meters out and closing fast! Odyssey, emergency phase out! NOW!” Smith said loudly under his breath. “Away team, standby to engage!”
“Negative! Connors, get them outta there!” Aaen commanded.
“They’re on their way back! Phasing!”
Seconds later, all three away team members entered the bridge, rushing to the medical bay, tossing their gear on the medical bunks and gasping for air. Smith and Jorgensen had a few black smudge marks on their faces and hands. The doctor snapped into action with light-up medical devices and water. Smith and Jorgensen were back at their posts in less than a minute.
“We just intercepted a coded message from someone outside of the solar system. . .the sender’s name is censored out. . .but they’re asking for ‘the supply of Olyphium to be delivered to a set of coordinates.”
“Where are they?” Aaen asked Hayes.
Hayes slapped her station, “—Dang it! It’s encrypted.” she turned her head, “We don’t know enough about their language to decipher the coordinates.”
“Captain! A hundred shuttles are launching from the station to that huge ship that passed over us earlier!” Jones declared. “They’re docking!”
“On-screen!”
Video of small arrow-head-shaped shuttles with one visible glowing propulsion system centered on the aft hull flew into an array of docking ports along the ventral-starboard side of the long dark mass. The ports glowed a bright red from the inside—the shuttles landed very delicately.
“They’ve gotta be carrying the supply of Olythium.” Smith hinted to Aaen.
“I’m wondering what they’re planning to do with it?” Aaen asked directly and generally.
“The larger ship is getting ready to leave! They’re setting course out of the solar system!” Jones declared.
“Wilson, pursuit course!” Aaen commanded.
“Aye!”
Odyssey flew over and around the station briskly effortlessly—Wilson put Odyssey along the dorsal hull, mostly aft, facing what he guessed was the ship’s forward section.
“Match their speed and course.” The order was immediately acknowledged. “Send another update to New Horizon. Same encoding pattern, but rotate the frequency. We don’t want the aliens to know which key’s edge opens the lock. Connors! Do you think you can break into their computer mainframe and download their database? Give us an idea of who they are.”
“I’m on it!” Connors replied enthusiastically. She began her work immediately.
Hayes face suddenly came within an inch of his screen, “The alien station’s signaling to the other side of the solar system!”
“What?” Aaen snapped.
“We still haven’t been detected!” Jones declared. I think.
A sensor alert flooded through the bridge like a wave; Jones snapped, “WOAH! People—there’s twenty alien contacts headed straight this way!”
Aaen sat upright in his chair and said, “Commander Smith—alert-condition-two,”
*****
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