9
Four Hours Later
“We’re passing the two hundred thousand kilometer mark,” Saturn said, waking Liam up from a nap.
Liam opened his eyes and removed his feet from the cockpit console. He unbuckled his straps and floated up out of his chair, redirecting himself so he could see better out the window. The brown planet took up most of their view now, the large lakes coming into their line of sight. Its sole moon, a small black and grey sphere was on his monitor. They’d passed it a couple of hours before. Liam matched their course to the spin of the planet so they would have a favorable angle of descent. With any luck, their makeshift repairs would hold together. Liam briefly fired the reverse thrusters until they were traveling at a steady velocity.
Saturn retrieved a packaged protein bar from a small cabinet to the left of her console. The door clicked shut and she ripped open the package. The solid brown substance floated up out of her hand where she caught it and took a large bite. The mining craft’s supplies were limited to nonperishables in which anyone familiar with spaceflight had grown accustomed. That didn’t make the supplements any more palatable, but there was some comfort in knowing that not even the president of Vesta Corporation had it any better than they did.
“One hour out,” Liam mused, “Then we see just what secrets this mystery planet holds.”
Saturn yawned, revealing chunks of her protein bar lodged in her teeth. She swallowed too much at once hit her chest with a closed fist, coughing and sending a small piece floating up out of her mouth, which she quickly grabbed and shoved back between her teeth.
Liam watched as she regained her composure. She tightened her straps so her chair was hugging her body. Liam knew it was hard to get comfortable in a weightless environment. It wasn’t just finding a comfortable position, but finding a way to support the back without waking up in pain. Liam asked, “Did you sleep at all?”
“No,” Saturn replied. “I’ve been trying to go over the readings and see if I can find out anything else about the aliens on the planet.”
“And?”
“I’ve come to a few conclusions about them, but nothing terribly useful I’m afraid.”
Liam turned his back to the cockpit’s window, floating at an odd angle above the console. “What conclusions?”
“Well, for starters, whatever species are on the planet have been attracted to the water source, which means their biology must be similar to life on Earth, probably Carbon-based.”
“We know they’re bipedal.”
“Right, but it’s more than that. On Earth, there’s human life even in some of the most desolate deserts and tundra. On this planet, apart from the life near the water, there’s nothing.”
Liam scratched his scarred right cheek, noticing he needed a good shave soon. He thought about the implications of what Saturn had just told him. Liam thought aloud, “Does that means this is some kind of colony?”
“Exactly. We’ve already seen a ship far more advanced than our own pass through a wormhole to our solar system. I think it’s possible all of these species are more advanced than us, with colonies spreading much farther than our own.”
“How far?”
“I’ve done a cursory scan of this system. There are eleven planets and hundreds of moons. Unless we got closer, there’s no way to know if they’re inhabited. But, I’m betting this is one of many.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because there are two million inhabitants. It took Earth fifty years to reach one hundred thousand on Mars. Even if they worked at a faster rate, they could have been colonizing this place for centuries.”
Another multi-planetary species. It was impossible to tell with their scanners just how far the aliens’ civilization could have spread. In a hundred more years, humans will have colonized Titan and Europa, in domed cities if nothing else. There were far more planets and moons in this system. That meant the possibilities were far greater for expansion. If most of the planets were rocky like Earth it could mean a lot of colonies.
“Have you been able to scan this planet’s moon at all?”
“There are ruins on the surface. The moon has only a few hundred inhabitants all located near a large structure that’s built into the rocks. I think our chances are better on the planet’s surface.”
Liam pushed off from the window and floated to the display behind the pilot’s chairs. He gripped a handle on the wall to steady himself and began looking at readings of the surface of the planet. Their gravity was more than ninety percent of Earth’s, which meant the difference between the two would feel negligible. The gravity on the mine worked out to be a bit more than Earth’s, between the asteroid and the artificial gravity of the ship. They weren’t weightless enough in the past day to lose much muscle. Liam was thankful that they at least had that going for them.
“Saturn, can you adjust our descent based on the gravitational parameters of the planet?”
“I did it while you were sleeping,” Saturn said with a smirk, putting her hands behind her head. “Maybe I should be the one in charge, like old times.”
Liam had been on missions where Saturn was the lead. She was a skilled leader, but was always headstrong. She couldn’t separate a grudge with the task at hand and it had almost gotten them killed on multiple occasions. Right now, their small crew needed Liam to keep things level-headed. Though, he knew there could be a time and a place for Saturn’s unique skill set.
Liam replied, “Let’s just focus, fifty-five minutes until—”
There was a crash and a flash of blue glanced off their bow. The auto-pilot adjusted the ship so it would stay on course, though the ship still tilted slightly. Liam was shaken up and banged his head on the console, cursing loudly. “What the hell was that?”
Saturn’s fingers were busy at the console, pulling up images of another ship on their view screen. It was a small ship, sleek in design and moving far faster than their scout ship. Its design was different than the other alien ship. It came about and matched their course and speed. A red light blinked on the control panel.
“It’s an external audio message,” Saturn said.
“Put it through.”
The voice that filled the cockpit was deep and silky, drawing syllables together like a master poet, far from what Liam had expected. Though, he didn’t know what he had expected, if he was being honest.
“Is there any chance our translation software will work on this?”
Saturn shook her head, still rapidly pushing buttons on the console. “It’s a learning software, so the more it hears, the more possible it will be to decipher. But right now, not a chance.”
“Open a channel.”
Saturn turned her head questioningly. “They won’t understand us.”
“Just do it.”
Saturn pressed a button on the left hand side of the console and used her right hand to raise the volume. She motioned for Liam that she was ready. Liam pushed off with his hand and floated over to her seat, resting his hand on the backrests of the two pilot’s chairs.
“My name is Liam Kidd of the Planet Earth. We mean you no harm. Our ship is damaged and we need to land on the surface.”
Liam waited for a response that didn’t come. Saturn shook her head. “I told you, they’re not going to understand.”
The cockpit door opened and Ju-Long Ma came through, rubbing his eyes. “This had better be good, I was in the middle of a great dream,” he said, then pointed at Saturn with a smile across his face, “You were in it, Saturn.”
The silky voice returned, this time speaking something different than before.
“Earth Kidd,” it said. “Ship land on surface.”
The aliens cut the audio channel from the other side, leaving the cockpit in silence. The crew exchanged looks, unsure of whether to be frightened, thankful, or bewildered.
“Who the hell was that?” Ju-Long asked finally.
Saturn brought up the image of the alien spacecraft on th
e screen. It was silver and sleek, having the image of something made out of liquid rather than a solid. It was shaped like a long bullet with a single engine out the back with a blue ion trail. Liam was sure its speed would dwarf their own. Their weapons were very similar to the aliens at the Asteroid Belt. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. Something far bigger was going on.
“We’re going to the surface with these guys?” Saturn asked.
Liam watched as they slowly approached the planet. They would be entering the outer atmosphere soon. Liam looked between Saturn and Ju-Long and said, “It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”