Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact (35 page)

Karen yelled back as the engines in the shuttle went silent “I don’t know, I’m losing control of the ship, everything is dead!”

Everyone on the shuttle became silent with the exception of their life support system.  They glued their eyes to the windows.  They hoped for any hint or sign as to what was going on.  They could feel a slight vibration running through the ship as the Hercules focused a tractor beam onto the shuttle.  Everything was silent and jet-black outside the windows.

It seemed like an eternity, but after about 10 minutes, the shuttle came to a complete stop as its landing gears mysteriously released and the ship docked on the shuttle bay floor of the Hercules.  Lights began to appear outside of the window.  They were inside some sort of loading dock. 

Karen felt an icy cold fear engulf her.  Her crew was completely silent.  Finally, Captain Foster spoke up.  “Everyone arm yourselves; I don’t know who these guys are that hijacked us, but, I’m not going to give up without a fight.”

Karen barked back, “I’m in command here; belay that order.  Whoever had the power to capture us could have just as easily destroyed us.  Let’s see what they want before we start a fight!”

Just as Karen finished speaking, everyone could see a door at one end of the loading dock open as several people walked through it.  Karen immediately recognized both Oria and Ratface.  Oria was in a strange uniform and some of the others following him appeared to be under his command.

Karen then said to her crew, “Stand down; I know a couple of these men.  Let’s open the door and find out what they want.”  Karen walked over to the control panel near the door and flipped the switch to the open position.  The door slowly opened.  Karen was the first one to walk out onto the docking bay floor as the other five members of her crew followed close behind.

Karen glared first at Ratface and then her stare focused squarely on Oria.  All of the anger that had been building up inside of her came exploding out.  “Oria, who are you?  I’ve been worried about you and you . . .”

Oria began to speak as Karen’s crew fidgeted and started back stepping towards the shuttle.  “Karen, I wanted to fill you in, I couldn’t.  There’s a lot more at stake than you and me.  I did not want to compromise your position with the Air Force.”

Karen shouted back, “Compromise!  What do you think you’re doing now?”

“Karen, please slow down, I wasn’t planning for something to happen between us.  My mission is to contact Earth.  This is not an easy task.  Think about it.  What would happen if I just flew the Hercules over the White House and demanded to speak to your leader?  Earth is in grave danger and there is no time.  I don’t know of an easy way to bring our two worlds together.  Events are unfolding in our galaxy that could have dire consequences for Earth and everyone living there.”

Karen was starting to regain her composure.  Her crew was in total shock.  The Colonel had briefed them that Karen’s reassignment to this mission was to get her away from Oria.  Although the Colonel did not seem to have the slightest idea that Oria was really from an alien world.

Karen finally said in a calm voice “Ok, what do we do from here?” She was still not that comfortable being pulled off course, and having Oria as her so-called captor.

Feeling his heart swell with love at the sight of Karen, Oria looked at her and said, “There is so much that we need to talk about.  Let Ratface take your crew and they can join his team in a briefing room.  You and I need to talk and I am sure there are some things that you will want to discuss with me as well.  Also, I have another surprise for you.”

Ratface led Karen’s crew to the briefing room where his already drunk team was halfway through their briefing.  Oria took Karen’s hand and led her towards the ship’s bridge.  Karen hesitated for a second, and gave Oria a sharp look, smiled, and said, “Alright, do I have to call you ‘sir’ now? And, Oh yes, just where are you taking me?”

Oria smiled and said “Only around my crew.  Karen, you know you are special to me.  I would like to take you to the ship's bridge.  I thought that maybe you’d like to fly this baby.”

Karen stammered back, “You want me to fly this ship?  This ship is only thousands of years more advanced than anything I have experience with.”

Oria chuckled and replied, “Trust me, the basics of flying this ship are easier than you think.  I’ll show you around the bridge and then take you up into the combat bridge.  The combat bridge is sort of like a two seat Air Force fighter.  However, before we head towards the bridge, there is someone in the Officer’s Lounge that would like to see you.”

Karen was wondering who could possibly be in the Officers’ Lounge that would know her.  She let Oria lead her to one of the ship’s elevators and the officer’s lounge.

The door to the Officer’s Lounge automatically opened in front of Karen.  Sitting at a table 20 feet in front of her near an observation window was Jack Peterson.  Karen stood speechless for a moment, overcome by emotions.  She didn’t know whether to
laugh, cry, or do both at the same time.

Jack watched as Karen and Oria entered the room.  He stood up, smiled at Karen, and walked towards her.  Karen, overcome with emotion, pulled him into her arms and gave him a big hug.  They embraced for a long time.  Karen didn’t want to let Jack go and it felt so good to hold him, see him, and talk to him.  Karen was sobbing on Jack’s shoulder and telling him how
she thought he was dead and was grateful that he was still alive.  Once Karen regained her composure, a wave of anger engulfed her.

“Jack Peterson, Oria!  The two of you - Why didn’t you let me know that Jack was alive?  I could just kill you two”.

“Karen, Oria couldn’t tell you.  Soon you will understand.”

“Jack, you know how close we are, and that I can keep a secret.”

Oria interrupted.  “Karen, Jack didn’t have an opportunity to contact you.  After the assailant shot him, I drugged him so his body wouldn’t decay prior to transferring him to the Hercules.  If it wasn’t for our medical facilities here, Jack would be dead.”

“You guys have some explaining to do.”

“Karen, I agree with Oria.  There is too much at stake to risk letting you in on everything prematurely.”

“What are you talking about?  I now understand where Oria got his technical knowledge.”

“Karen, Oria is truly from Earth.  He’s been gone for a long time and has returned with this ship to organize a defense against a powerful enemy.”

“Yes, the Creytes.  We know about them.  How do we know which of you are to trust, or for that matter if we can trust either of you?”

Oria growing weary of the current direction of their conversation again interrupted.  “You raise a good point Karen and it’s not an easy one to prove either way.”

Karen was expecting more of an argument from Oria.  The last thing she expected from him was agreement.  At this moment, she didn’t know whether to love or hate Oria.  She was about to respond when the doors to the Officers Lounge opened and in strolled Ratface.

Ratface walked directly towards them.  When he reached the group, he smartly saluted Oria and turned towards Karen.

Oria returned Ratface’s salute and asked “Lieutenant, I take it all is well with the Major’s crew?”

“Aye, sir”

Karen’s jaw dropped as she stared straight at Ratface
; “Lieutenant?  Whoa, a new first name.  Is my favorite enlisted man now officer puke?”

“Hey, Karen, chill!  I’m still Ratface!  I guess Oria couldn’t stand calling me Chief.  By the way, this ship is impressive.  Have you had an opportunity to see much of her yet?”

Karen was not about to let Ratface off so easy and she responded in an accusatory tone.  “Anyway you cut it that still makes you an officer; and to your question, no!  Oria just reacquainted me with Jack.”

“I see.  So it’s safe to say that you are a bit on the mad side.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Karen retorted back.

Ratface shook his head and glared right back at Karen.  “Do we have to play this game?”

“Oh, alright, I’m not really mad.  I just don’t know why they couldn’t tell me any sooner about Jack.”

Jack smiled.  “You will know soon enough.  Trust me.  We are on the right side.  I’ve seen enough to convince me of the real agenda of the Creytes.  They raise humans for food!”

Karen’s eyes opened wide.  “They do what?  Are you sure?”

“Yes Karen; I’ve seen them at work first-hand.  Azortec has lived as a peaceful federation of planets for over 20,000 years.  Only in recent history, maybe 400-500 years ago did they encounter the Creytes.  The Creytes were expanding their empire and needed to develop new farm planets to continue ran out and their growth.  They attacked several Azortec planets and a war resulted.”

“How did this . . . are you sure your facts are right?” demanded Karen.

“Yes, do I look blonde?  Several high level politicians within the Azortec Federation have already agreed to give Earth to the Creytes in exchange for not attacking Azortec Federation Planets.  Oria won’t let this happen.  He has returned to Earth to build a defense against the Creytes.  Does that about cover the basics Admiral?”

“Pretty much; Karen, I apologize about having to leave you in the dark on some of these things.”

“I’ll let you slide this time.  I’m just a bit overwhelmed by all of this information and not quite sure how to deal with Bronson and company.”

Oria smiled.  “That is the million dollar question.  Let’s get you more acquainted with our operation on the Hercules.  We can meet later to discuss our strategy with Earth and the U.S. Government.”

Oria led Karen away from the group and headed for the ship’s bridge. The couple walked back to the elevators leading to the lounge and took one up to the ship’s bridge.  When the elevator doors next opened, Karen saw a large circular room was in front of her with about 12 crewmembers at various points on the bridge.

The moment Oria stepped onto the bridge, the relaxed atmosphere quickly changed.  One of the crewmembers yelled out “Admiral on bridge!”

Lt. Agustonson walked over and sharply saluted the Admiral and said, “Welcome to the bridge sir.  Is there anything we can do for you?”

Oria returned the salute and replied, “Tell the crew to continue on, I would like to show Major Brown around the bridge and then the combat bridge.”

Oria then turned his head towards Karen.   “This is our bridge.  Actually, there are two bridges.  We are currently in the main bridge.  Up those stairs is a smaller bridge referred to as the combat bridge.  When the ship is at battle stations, two fighter-qualified pilots sit there and direct the ship’s navigational and battle systems.  The lower bridge is in a support role during combat.”

Oria led Karen around the main bridge pointing out various consoles and explaining their functions and some of the related sensors.  Once they made it completely around the main bridge, Oria led Karen up and into the combat bridge.

Karen felt the excitement of the combat bridge and the closeness of Oria burn through her veins as Oria strapped her into the right pilot seat.  Once Karen was secure in her seat, Oria placed his hand over her hand, gently lifted, and placed it on top of the flight stick.  Oria then proceeded to strap himself into the other seat.

Looking at Karen and seeing her excitement pleased Oria.  “Karen, it feels good to be with you again.  So what do you think of my ship?”

“Wow.  This is fantastic!  What does it feel like to actually fly this baby?”

Oria chuckled.  “I thought you might want to take her for a spin.  I’ll need to get clearance from Borella and the Officer on Deck.”

“Ok.”

Oria let Borella and Lt. Agustonson know what he planned.  He then spoke to the computer, “Computer, engage combat controls.”

Instantly a number of lights turned on and several navigational and combat displays appeared in the HUD.  “Karen, that stick your left hand on is the main flight control.  There is another identical control under your right side.  You can choose either one.  Go ahead and take control.  The thumb control on the stick is one of the speed controls.  We can talk about mind/thought control later.”

Karen pulled on the flight stick and headed the Hercules towards the moon.  She spun the control clockwise causing the Hercules to surge forward towards the moon.  In a matter of seconds, the Hercules was well clear of the moon surprising her at the ship’s acceleration in speed.  They both laughed at Karen’s first attempt to control the Hercules.  She then slowed the ship down and began to talk.

“This ship is something else.  You said that is only one of the speed controls?”

“But of course, do you want to try something even more challenging?”

“I’m game as long as you think I won’t crash or do something else bad.”

“You’re doing just fine; I’m going to engage the thought controls.  All you have to do is let your mind think of an action, and the ship will obey your thought.  Are you ready?”

Karen nervously replied, “I’m ready.  Go ahead.”

Oria spoke to the computer “Computer.  Engage right seat thought control training console.”

Karen felt a surge of adrenalin as Oria completed his command.  She looked towards the sun and felt her thoughts direct the ship towards the sun.  As she thought speed, the ship accelerated with her thoughts.  Karen then thought the Hercules through several standard combat maneuvers. 
After several minutes of tight maneuvers and rapid turns, she felt Oria’s hand on her arm.  She turned and looked directly at Oria.