Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) (17 page)

It was so cold he began to feel sharp pains in his stomach, his head felt like it was being squeezed, and his entire body felt like there were a thousand knives stabbing every part of him. He felt his eyes becoming heavier and heavier until finally they shut as he lost consciousness.

Sam Grayson’s shuttle finally came out of the ceiling of clouds that hung over Titan’s surface. Beneath him was a sea of liquid nitrogen. Ahead of him was a rocky coast that led up to a range of mountains. He was on a direct course for the colony. Unfortunately, his computer was registering massive amounts of structural damage. If the hull breached even slightly then Sam and all his passengers would be exposed not only to temperatures colder than any on Earth, but to the unbreathable atmosphere of Titan. Sam knew they were lucky to be alive. The explosion of the orbital base had nearly been their doom.

An alarm sounded in the cockpit and the shuttle started to drop. Sam checked his instruments. The shuttle’s starboard engine had given out.  Sam increased the power on the port engine. While this slightly stabilized the shuttle’s flight, it also doubled the possibility that the port engine would also give out. Sam tensed as it started to whine and buckle under the strain of doing twice the work it was meant to do. It did not go out in an instant as the other engine had. Instead it slowly began to lose power. The shuttle again began to drop, though much slower this time. The shuttle was nearing the coast and the mountains. If it continued to lose altitude at this rate they would smash into a mountain. Sam struggled with the controls. He veered the shuttle to the right just in time to avoid a collision with a cliff. He managed to dodge two more mountains, but the shuttle was still getting much lower and the mountains harder to dodge. Finally, the shuttle cleared the mountains and Sam found himself flying over rocky plains and just ahead of him he saw the bio-domes of the colony.

The shuttle’s remaining engine sputtered. Sam knew it was on its last leg and would soon fail completely. He saw the landing strip just ahead. He lowered the landing gear and took the shuttle down. It landed hard on the strip, the engine struggling to do its job. No sooner had they set down then the port engine gave out. A moment later and they would not have made it. The shuttle slowly came to a stop.

The main hangar stuck out of the bio dome. Its huge doors opened and a small tow vehicle on tracks emerged. It was operated by men in space suits. They drove up to the shuttle and proceeded to attach a cable to it. They then, over the course of several minutes, towed the large shuttle into the well-lit hangar. There was a hissing noise as the un-breathable air was pumped out of the station and fresh oxygen pumped in. They also had to wait for the thermal heaters to heat up the hanger so that it would be safe for people. Finally, Sam was able to open up the shuttle door and lower the ramp. His passengers then disembarked right where they had started from. They and the rest of the colony’s population had been left behind. Only time would tell what was to become of them. Sam felt they would not have to wait long.

On the Essex, a dozen uniformed space marines stood guard around the fighter inside shuttle hangar two. The alien occupant had given no sign that he was ready to come out. Both Jack and Captain Hudson were there along with the ship’s scientists.

“Let’s open her up!” said Captain Hudson.

“Um sir...” said one of the scientists, “...we have no idea what kind of air the creature inside there breathes. Exposing it to our atmosphere could kill it.”

“Who cares,” said the marine commander.

“No,” said the Captain. “He’s right. We need to ascertain what kind of environment this thing will need to survive.”

“Captain, with all due respect there is no time.” said the commander. “What do we do if that thing decides it would rather die than be our prisoner and blows up the ship taking us with it?”

“He has a point there,” said the Captain to the scientist. “You have one hour to examine this thing and try to figure out...” The Captain never got to finish his sentence for at that moment a rush of air poured out of the alien ship as what appeared to be a cockpit came open.

A large figure in a shimmering black space suit appeared. Its head was covered in a black helmet that revealed nothing. The marines all trained their weapons on the alien.

“Hold your fire!” ordered Captain Hudson. The alien slowly turned to the left and to the right examining the hangar and the humans. His hand brought up a device of some kind from inside the ship.

“Look out it’s got a weapon! Shoot!” cried one of the marines.

“No wait!” said Jack but it was too late. One of the marine plasma rifles flashed to life. The shot hit the Zidian pilot, blowing a hole in his chest nine inches across and killing him instantly. His body began to float up towards the ceiling of the hangar.

Captain Hudson swore and berated the marines for jumping the gun. “Get that body down!” He then turned to the scientist. “Then you get it on ice and start examining the ship.” The Captain then started to head back to the bridge. Jack then remembered what it was he was doing there in the first place.

“Captain, might you arrange a shuttle to transport me back to the Saratoga.”

“Yes Lieutenant, just as soon as we clear the Saturn region and make sure that the enemy is not in pursuit.”

The entire Zidian fleet had settled into orbit around Titan. Behind the Krusha and the cruisers, were the fifty massive transport ships. These were second in size only to the Krusha. Each one carried an army of troops and equipment. On the bow of every transport ship were two enormous doors. The doors of the lead transport ship slowly opened. Out of the doors, flew five assault barges. The landing craft were filled with troops and designed to go in under hostile conditions. Each one carried two platoons of Zidian soldiers. The barges themselves also bristled with weapons, so once they dropped off the troops they could still be used as very effective air cover.

In the cockpit of the lead barge, Brigadier Kondor stood in full battle uniform with the exception of the helmet. He eyed the approaching moon with his one real eye while his cybernetic eye surveyed the control panel.

“We’ll be entering the atmosphere in moments, Brigadier,” stated the pilot.

“Very well.” Kondor was not expecting the humans to put up much of a resistance. He had seen images of the captured human that Kaydan had in his lab. If the specimen represented an average human, then Kondor felt that they surely would not be much trouble. Kondor’s Zidian soldiers were physically superior to the Humans. All of them were well over seven feet tall. Some were near to eight. Their weapons were based on advance ion technology. He theorized that the humans would be carrying plasma weapons similar to those mounted on their ships.

One of his officers entered the cockpit.

“Brigadier, your translator.” Kondor had nearly forgotten. The human language had at last been totally deciphered and translation chips were being issued so they could communicate with them. Kondor took the chip and pressed it to his neck. It stuck painlessly. He heard the familiar screeching sound as his auditory nerves were tapped by the electrical device. It died away quickly and he turned his full attention to the moon.

On the bridge of the Krusha, Akdon was surveying the many damage reports from the various sections of the ship. He was deep in conversation with the chief engineer when his communications officer interrupted him.

“Sir!”

“What is it?” asked Akdon.

“We are receiving a transmission from the moon’s surface!”

“Let’s hear it.”

A moment later, Akdon heard a voice speaking the human language which he did not understand.

“Run it through the translator!” Akdon waited patiently and moments later he heard the message in his own language.

“Titan Colony surrenders. Repeat Titan Colony surrenders.”

“Well,” said Akdon.

“What do you make of this Kaydan?”

“They may very well mean it, Commander. With the orbital base destroyed and the Earth fleet driven off, they are defenseless.”

“It may be a trick.”

“True, but what would they have to gain besides their assured destruction? Besides it would be very useful to capture as much of their technology as possible so we can know better what we are up against. We also need to capture some more specimens, especially if we plan on utilizing these humans in the Tortalus project.”

“You have a very good point, Kaydan.” Akdon thought for a moment. “Put me through to Brigadier Kondor.” he ordered. A moment later Kondor’s image appeared on his massive view screen. “Brigadier, the human colony has signaled its willingness to surrender.”

“Do you believe them?” asked Kondor.

“Not entirely, but Sub Commander Kaydan has pointed out the benefits of taking them alive. Here is what you are to do. You will do a fly by over the colony and demonstrate the effectiveness of your weapons. Then you will begin to drop off your troops as per standard procedure. Then take possession of the colony. If they resist crush them.”

April had never been so worried in her life. She did not know if Jack was alive or dead.

“Captain, is there any news on Jack—I mean Lieutenant Thunder?”

The Captain wore a face of sorrow. He bore the grief for the near one thousand souls lost in the last battle.

“No Commander. Communications are damaged.” Doran thought he understood her worry. After all he was quite fond of both Jack Thunder and Trey Knight. Of all the Star Swords that had left the Saratoga, only twenty three had returned. There was no sign of Trey and as yet no word on Jack’s condition. Still, a few Star Swords had managed to catch up to the Saratoga. None had been Trey. If he didn‘t show up soon, they’d outdistance him.

“What about Lt Commander Knight?” The Captain simply shook his head.

“Captain we‘ve got short range communications back,” said a crewman.

“We still can’t raise the Essex or the Exeter but we’ve got a shuttle and a few of our straggling Star Swords coming in. One of them is Lieutenant Commander Knight!” “Captain, request permission to leave the bridge.”

April immediately went down to the forward Star Sword hangar to greet Trey. It was a real struggle for her to keep from showing just how worried she was that Jack might not be alright.

Upon seeing Trey, she immediately inquired about Jack.

“I don‘t know. He stopped transmitting moments before I dropped him off on the Essex.” said Trey.

“Communications are down for the moment with the Essex,” she said. “But the Essex did survive so he should be okay.” No sooner had she said this than a voice said:

“Someone looking for me?”

Chapter Fifteen

I
t was Jack.

“I just got off the shuttle.”

April had never been so relieved in her life and Trey was also very glad to see his friend alive and well. Jack looked different. For one thing, he did not look to be as shaken up as he had after the first two battles. Nor did he anymore possess the, sad, hollow eyes of a man that had lost everything or that didn’t care whether he lived or died. He had a look of confidence and purpose.

“Boy, have I got a story to tell you, Jack. You’ll never guess what I saw!”

“I have one to tell you too and I promise you won’t believe it!”

“Well let’s get out of this hangar. You can tell your war stories in the rec-room and get a little relaxation,” said April.
Men!,
thought April.
They just fought a battle in which they were lucky to escape with their lives and the first thing they have to do is go discus it like the after part of a moon-ball game.
 

They got to the rec center and got some drinks. They started talking and were amazed to realize that they were talking about the same thing.

“That was you?” asked Trey.

Jack could not help but smile a little.

“Dangling from that alien ship was like having a tiger by the tail.”

“I almost decided to take a shot at it. I probably could have got him without hitting you but I did not want to take a chance.”

“Well I’m sure glad you didn’t.”

Jack then explained about the alien ship inside of the Essex’s shuttle hangar and about its pilot.

“What did it look like?” asked April.

“Well it was inside a space suit, so its features were hidden. But its body was shaped and configured just like ours. It had arms, legs, and a head.”

“So they’re a lot like us then?” asked Trey.

April found all of this incredible. Then she remembered that Jack and Trey had no idea the enemy had finally made contact.

“They’re more like us than you two can imagine,” said April. “I think you two should know that during the battle the enemy actually sent us a message in English demanding our surrender.”

Both Jack and Trey looked very amazed.

“Did they say why they were doing this or what they want from us?” asked Trey.

“They call themselves Zidians and apparently they want to add us to their empire.”

“You’re right they are just like us. They’re just as violent, warlike, and arrogant,” said Trey.

“You’d think a race as advanced as they are would be more peaceful,” said Jack.

“I don’t know,” replied Trey. “Most of the greatest technological advancements have been brought about by war.” He looked at the ship around them. “I hate to admit it, but if it wasn’t for the Pirate Wars we wouldn’t have the Saratoga or Star Swords.”

The five Zidian assault barges came down out of the clouds. They streaked at full speed above the Titan landscape straight for the bio-domes of the colony.

“Brigadier, we are approaching the target zone.”

“Very well.”

“Shall I set you and the soldiers down now, sir?”

“No. First I want to demonstrate to these humans the fire power at our disposal. I don’t want them getting any ideas. Fire your laser cannons at that ridge, just beyond the colony.” The pilot complied and promptly blasted the ridge away with the assault barges main laser cannons.