The Black Planet (3 page)

Chapter 6

It was a sombre crew that sat and watched the replay of the alien captains last log.  Until now Steven and Komoru had hidden from the crew and the Earth exactly what the builders looked like.  It was with awe that they now sat and watched the wildebeest type looking alien speak for the last time.  They couldn’t hear his true words only the translation and to some it looked almost comedic.  More than one wondered if it was a wind up, a joke by Steven; however one look at his face told them it wasn’t.

‘We were fools guided by the greed of our third stomachs; for months we had been on the trail of the blue grass.  We thought we had finally tracked it to its source.  Dreams of grazing through fields of blue grass drove us onwards in this desperate folly.  We knew we were in Ortea space yet ignored all the warnings we were given.  We thought our size would easily frighten off a few of these disgusting meat eaters.  Alas, it was not a small flotilla of ships that met us as we entered the planet’s atmosphere.

They were highly organised and deadly; both our ships were damaged in the immediate assault, but we managed to break free.  We thought we had escaped; however an even larger flotilla was waiting.  They harassed us, herded us to the edge of the great barrier.  They must have a new leader; never before have the Ortea shown such resourcefulness or organisation.  We were given the choice to surrender or cross the great barrier.  We took the later choice.’

The great head shook sadly, ‘we believed that we could skim across the forward edge of the barrier without harm; that our shields would protect us.  We were wrong.  When one member of my crew was struck down we knew we had travelled too far and that there was no return.  Our only consolation was being able to send out a warning before the Ortea surrounded us completely and blocked our transmissions.  Hopefully no one else will fall for this trick again.’

He rested for a few minutes before going on.  ‘The journey to this planet took my mate and over half of our combined crews.  Not every strike has been fatal and I myself have been hit half a dozen times.  I cannot describe the agony, the pain is almost unbearable.  It is the only planet we have found in this solar system so far.  There may be many more nearer its Sun, but we would all be dead before we were able to travel that far.  Those of us that are left have tended to our loved ones.  We can only hope that in the fullness of time that our ships and our essence will be found by travellers who are able to cross the barrier and survive.  That one day they will return our essence home to the planet of our conception.  May you live forever in peace.’  The recording ended.

‘Has anyone anything to say?’  Steven asked the general company.

It was Cookie who asked the questions a few were thinking about, ‘why run, why not surrender?’

Steven shrugged and threw the question up to Babes, her answer was simple and direct to the point.  ‘The Ortea are meat eaters.’

It took a moment for her answer to sink in.  Cookie shook his head, ‘surely not.’

‘The Ortea are scavengers, their planets are over populated and the people starve.  They never invented the technology that took them to the stars, it was crashed ships, curious passers-by.  Over the years they were able to reverse engineer many of the ships that crashed or landed.  They spread out amongst the inhabitable planets in their region.’

‘What do they look like?’  Cookie asked out of curiosity.  A series of pictures were put up.  He grunted,   ‘Evil looking buggers aren’t they.’

Even Steven couldn’t argue with Cookies uptake on the race, ‘they do look a bit like those jackals from Egyptian mythology don’t they?’  He mused.  There was some agreement on it.  ‘Babes do you have any more information on this situation?’

‘This incident happened before I was conceived; however it is a matter of historical significance.  The captain was right, his signal did get out and it was received.  The Ortea did indeed have a new leader who had forged his forces into a significant fighting force.  In the end a Hogarth fleet brought them to battle and decimated their numbers and capabilities.  They also hunted down their leader and killed him.  The ships were never heard from again until now.’ 

Steven sighed, ‘well I hope that one day we will be able to return their essence to their home-world.  Tomorrow we will return and pick up the nanobots.’

Chapter 7

The following morning Steven gave them a new briefing.  ‘Today we are going to visit the buildings that we discovered.  We are going to split into two teams.  The first under our pilots are going to ascertain the state of the fast craft.  The rest of us are going to explore the building.  We are going to play most of it by ear.  The military will go in first with a reconnaissance team.  If there is no risk we will check to see if there is any power and air.  The quality of the air will be checked and if safe, the full team will go in.  Babes will create an air lock between the ship and the building so we can enter at will.  If not we will just have to explore in suits.’

A few hours later a frustrated Colonel Howe and his team finally found the door.  Lewis slapped a patch against what looked like some kind of pad.  The nanobots in the patch worked themselves into the locking mechanism and thirty minutes later a door slid open.  Cookie dashed in only to be stopped dead as he hit the opposite wall.  He bounced off and hit the floor. 

Lewis reached down, grabbed him by the scruff and launched him back onto his feet, ‘you OK deh Cookie?’

‘Aye thanks Lewis, man this stuff is lethal; I just never saw that wall.’

‘Be careful,’ Howe growled at them.  ‘Lewis, find the inside lock; the rest of you get in here.’

They shuffled inside, arms out stretched so they didn’t suffer the same fate as Cookie; there were more than a few grins to fuel Cookies embarrassment.  Once inside Lewis got the outside airlock door closed first then set to opening the inside door.  It eventually opened with a hiss and the men deployed themselves inside against the almost invisible wall and knelt down.  The place was in pitch darkness.

‘Listen can you hear it?’ Lewis cautioned.

There was a faint hum and as they listened it became a little louder.  Everyman tensed not knowing what to expect.  Cookie had fleeting images of killer robots leaping at them out of the darkness and felt the sweat begin to trickle down into his spacesuit.  In fact the only thing that happened was a light came on.  They found themselves in a secondary chamber and the walls in this one were covered in what could only be signs with writing and symbols on them.  Another light came on and swept up and down them.  ‘Don’t panic,’ Babes voice sounded inside their heads.  ‘It is only a decontamination unit.’

‘Easy for you to say,’ Cookie thought.

The humming noise got louder and another door opened.  This time light flooded in.  They found themselves in a number of corridors and Howe sent his team out to explore a short distance.  They returned within a few minutes.

‘Looks like offices Suh,’ Lewis reported, ‘don look like nobody been home for a while.’

Howe nodded, ‘OK let’s deploy the equipment and get out.’

Two hours later Babes docked with the building.  She had built her own external docking ring to match that of the strange building.  A large team of scientists and soldiers were ready to explore.  The oxygen levels were a little higher than they were used to, but the air was clean and free from anything that might harm them.  Despite believing the site to be void of life, every member of the team still carried a side arm and the soldiers were fully equipped.  They went in first.

Some doors were open but others had to be picked.  The scientists were simply drooling over the discoveries.  Each had some form of computer and viewing device but although all seemed to be in working order they also seemed to be encrypted.  They began to explore deeper and Steven quickly realised the base was massive.  It actually had different levels that went down.  A large repair shop was discovered on the top floor and the engineers came running.

Steven was feeling good but they still had no idea what the hell the place was for.  Everyone seemed to disappear as they split up.  There were no lifts but large stairs gave easy access to the levels below.  Steven and Buzz wondered about the first floor for a while then decided to go downwards.  There were footsteps in the dust as they descended.  Steven pointed to them, ‘looks like we were beaten to it.’  Buzz laughed, the two sets of prints were unmistakeable.  The tiny feet of Komoru and the giant prints of Lewis.

Komoru hadn’t been as fascinated by the workshops as the men seemed to be.  She and Lewis had quickly discovered the staircase.  As they descended into the darkness, lights began to flicker on before them.  The temperature was also beginning to rise. Automatic systems sprung to life as they detected living beings.  They wondered about strange coloured corridors.  Komoru realised they were entering a part of the building that was a little more luxurious than the other parts she had seen so far.  With some direction from Ico she found the commanders office.  The door swung open and she jumped back in surprise.

At her reaction Lewis barged past and came to a halt just inside the threshold.  A desiccated corpse sat at a desk.  ‘It OK Miss Komoru, it dead; whatever it is!’

‘Stand back Lewis.’  From her utility belt Komoru removed a small black cube.  She tossed it onto the desk beside the corpse and backed out of the room.’

‘Wat dat Miss Komoru?’

‘Nanobots, they will dispose of the body; package it.  Let’s leave it for a while.’

With a nod he followed her around, ‘dat creature look a lot like the builders miss Komoru.’ 

‘It did, didn’t it, what do you know of the Species Ico?’

‘The Albany are distant cousins of the builder race my heart.  Their technology isn’t as far advanced as the builders and they have travelled down a different route when it comes to space travel.  They are more secretive and do not mix well with other races.  They like to keep themselves to themselves as you would say on Earth.  They are much more aggressive than the builders are and have been known to go to war, but only to protect their own territories.  They have never been known to take an aggressive stance against any race other than the Ortea.  An incident involving one of their craft and a small fleet of Ortea resulted in the Albany sending a large fleet to punish them.  They pounded a number of Ortea cities to rubble and destroyed at least three of their small fleets.’

They wondered about for a bit but found nothing interesting.  Lewis tried some of the furniture but it was too big even for him.  When Komoru received a message from Ico they returned to the office where they had found the body.  The black box lay on the floor and Lewis picked it up.  It was much bigger now than it originally had been, but still fitted into one of Lewis massive hands  

‘Dis him Miss Komoru?’

‘Yes Lewis.’  He placed the box down on a shelf.  Komoru perched herself on the edge of the strange chair and ran her fingers over a small mat.  She jumped in surprise and let out a little squeal that alarmed Lewis.

‘You OK Miss Komoru?’

‘Yes Lewis, I can’t believe it; he must have died while working. This computer is not only on, it is still logged in.’

He smiled, ‘maybe we find out now what happened to these poor people.  Can you read it Miss Komoru?’

‘Yes sort of, Ico is translating it for me.’  Her smile began to slip, then she began to frown.  Ico guided her in the use of the mat in front of her as she scrolled through a document.  All of a sudden the colour seemed to drain from her face.  ‘Oh my god, Steven can you find me quickly?’  She had spoken it loud as well as with her mind.

‘Yes of course, is something wrong?’

‘Ico is sending you the details now.’

It wasn’t long before she heard the pounding of his feet.  He burst in, ‘this can’t be real.’

Komoru stood up and let him sit down.  He read what must have been a form of email, then under the ships tuition began to navigate his way through the commander’s database and communications.  What he found shocked him to the core.  He slipped a cube from a belt pouch and slipped it onto a port on the side of the screen, the nanobots went to work and within a few moments Babes was downloading the entire contents of the computer. 

He put out a communication, ‘I want everyone back on board the ships now.  There will be a briefing in about half an hour I want all key personnel to attend.’  He turned to Lewis, ‘will you stay here and guard this post Lewis?’

‘Yes suh of course.’

‘What is it Stevie?’  Buzz asked concerned about the look on Stevens face.

Steven shook his head, ‘let’s get back to the ship.  We need to get in touch with Earth and I need a few minutes to let this sink in.’

‘We have a problem?’

‘You have no idea.’

Half an hour later Steven was sure of his facts and stood before the gathered personnel.  ‘We have just discovered something grievous.  About a hundred years ago an Albany ship escaped the Ortea and entered our part of the universe.  What they discovered astounded them.  Obviously the seven planets that surround our sun, including the Earth.  The report talks about a planet covered by two-thirds water and inhabited by an inferior meat eating species that was technically backward.  A race of meat eaters that seemed determined to wipe itself out.  The report also spoke about our asteroid belt, a rare resource that was untouched and valued as priceless.  Not to mention of course the untapped resources of our outer planets and moons.  The craft managed to send a distress beacon to their home world through the great barrier before the crew perished.

It would seem that our solar system and home planet are an extremely rare find.  Bear in mind that the species on the other side of the great barrier have been developed and space travelling for thousands of years. Resources like ours are extremely rare.  So rare in fact, whole races involving dozens of planets have gone to war over a fraction of the resources that we have in our solar system..

The Albany were so curious, they sent out suicide parties into our universe.  When the reports were proven correct they began a long-term plan. This plan involves the wholesale eradication of the human race and occupancy of our planet.  They will then be free to exploit our solar systems resources to make themselves rich.  There was only one flaw in this plan; they can’t survive in our solar system for long periods of time and once here they can never return home.’

Amanda Freeling their chief medical officer felt prompted to intervene, ‘Steven, what do you mean by, there, “ was” only one flaw?’

Steven sighed and rocked back on his heels for a moment, ‘yeah, “was”, because they have now discovered a way of binding our DNA with theirs so they can survive in our solar system.’

She seemed stunned, ‘Oh shit!  How did they manage that?  They would have needed human DNA.’

‘You are right Amanda, and they have human DNA; plenty of it in fact.  They have been experimenting on humans for a very long time.  We aren’t the first humans to visit this planet, or even cross the great barrier.’  He took a deep breath, ‘these creatures have been kidnapping people for many years and experimenting on them.  Some of their top scientists sacrificed themselves at this base.  Although they themselves cannot cross the great barrier again, they were sending humans to their home world.  They have been breeding, and experimenting on them for decades.  One of the last messages received, said they had been able to find a way to bind our DNA’s together.  I believe it takes a few weeks to become effective. However once immunised they can expect total protection from the effects of our sun for a lifetime.  They also believe any children born to them will also have the same genetic marker and be immune.’ 

Steven shrugged, ‘of course they don’t actually know for sure if it will work yet, as they have never sent anyone immunised through.  The Albany discovered this almost ten years ago and have been building an invasion fleet ever since.  An adult human can produce enough of this serum for thousands of Albany.  From existing human stock they can make enough serum to immunise the leadership and top military people.  This base was in its last phase used to stock enough humans to immunise most of their military personnel and key workers.  They will then send advanced units to Earth to kidnap as many humans as possible, to immunise the rest of their workforce.  I am afraid that is about as much intelligence as I can find at the moment.  I am sure we will discover more as we go.’

Colonel Howe held up a hand, ‘wait a minute sir.  How many of them are coming if one human can provide serum for thousands and they only have enough for their leadership?’

Steven shook his head, ‘I have no idea colonel, there are over a dozen planets inhabited by their kind, but by the sounds of it, it’s hundreds of thousands at least.  I have Babe and Ico searching through all their data banks for as much information on this race as possible.  It will be for the authorities back on Earth to decipher it all.  Right now we have three missions.  To gather as much information as we can.  To return to Earth as soon as we can and help prepare for this invasion.  Our first mission however is to return to the base and find near a thousand souls that are being kept in some kind of stasis chambers.  There is also some form of pod that was to be sent to their home planet.  We have to find that and disable it.  It has detailed plans of Earth on it and our current defences, or as they were about ten years ago.  I don’t want that information going to the enemy.  Any more questions?’

Tapper shoved his hand half way up ‘I have one sir, if I may?’

‘Of course major.’

‘Are we going straight to Earth after we deal with this problem or are we going to check out that warship first?  At best we should not leave a gift of a battle wagon of that magnitude as a gift to our foe.’