Shadowed Stars

By Steven Koutz

In the year 2089, Earth had experienced a rapid shift in political and technological developments. Reported sightings of UFOs and alleged human abductions had reached such an alarming rate that governments decided to remove national boundaries and unite as one planet under one leader. The new government, the United Nations of Earth, made space exploration and defense of the planet its top priority. Journeyer was one of the first ships sent into space to find new discoveries and above all the search for sentient/intelligent life and to open peaceful negotiations. Prior to its recall and decommission, Journeyer was captured by the Ubides, an alien race of the highest intellect and an ally of the Derths, a carnivorous alien race with ever expanding territory. The Journeyer's captain, Drew Cage, was forcibly taken for a reason. Meanwhile other crew members, like Eva Cusping and Enrico Dalchez, sent to a planet to restore lost communication satellites will be caught between warring kingdoms. Captain Drew Cage and Eva Cusping will learn something about themselves that will make them question their existence and their beliefs, leading one to anger and rage while giving the other enlightenment. Both will undergo a transformation that will set them on course to good and evil in an intergalactic war where the survival of the human race and other life-forms is no guarantee. They will encounter allies and enemies as they realize some questions you may not always want answered: (1) Are we alone in the universe? (2) Is there a god? (3) What does the future hold? Do you really want to know?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646285402

Book preview

Chapter One

Discovery

Captain Drew Cage, a black-haired white man with strands of gray and a neatly groomed matching beard, entered the command deck from the sliding doors of his main command chambers, wearing the dark-blue uniforms assigned to command levels of the ranking system. The golden circle pin he wore on the left front of his collar identified the rank of captain. He appeared to be a well-fit and conditioned man with an average build for being in his early fifties. He eased into his command chair after returning everyone back to their duties with the command of As you were. He surveyed the command deck in a state of silence.

This ship, the Journeyer, had been his ship for the last ten years, and eight years before that, he had served as the first officer. Through his career, he had mentally recalled backward to the day that he first reported for duty to serve the Earth Caller Space Fleet and on this very space cruiser some twenty-five years ago. This was the command he always wanted. He had passed by several promotions over the years to keep the command duties of the Journeyer. He had known ever since he had entered the service that space or planetary stations would never be a good enough fit for him. Once he had reached the rank of lieutenant captain and became this ship’s first officer, he had made to himself a clear and definite decision. In addition to the several promotions he had passed by, he had also turned down a chance to command the Traveler. His goal had always been to command a space cruiser. Not just any space cruiser would do for him, he wanted the first one. He wanted the Journeyer.

The Journeyer had received recall orders, and a course had already been steadily plotted and engaged that would bring the magnificent and legendary ship back home to Earth’s orbit, where it would dock at the space station, Global Pride. Once there, the Journeyer would begin preparations for her decommissioning ceremonies. Captain Drew Cage had previously cleared his intention to retire alongside his ship with his superiors and his first officer, and it would soon be time to inform his crew. Captain Cage could reflect upon only two parting regrets over the command he had strived so hard and so long to reach and sacrificed so very much to achieve. One of those regrets was that he had lost his wife and children for making specific career choices to reach his command and for accepting the mission that had taken him so much further away from them than he had already drifted without any realization at the time. The second regret he carried was that he had not found any evidence of other sentient life or made any contact. The hope he had that gave him a feeling he had made the right decisions faded and eluded his own sense of satisfaction.

He briefly recalled in his mind the image of his red-haired bride, knowing even then that any hopes or dreams of having any family to call his own would all crash at his feet and be blown away once he reached his goals of a ship command. He had worked hard at trying to have both of those worlds and found himself ignoring one long standing and simple fact. The fact that to him now held so true was that captains of space faring ships can only love one thing truly, and that one thing was the ship granted to them and out of confidence and trust placed in their care.

Captain Cage was sharply flashed from his thoughts and back to the moment by the full British-accented voice belonging to his first officer, Lieutenant Captain Theodore Chisso. The first officer reported a communication problem being experienced with one of the four relay satellites placed and left behind when the Journeyer had changed course on her return heading to Earth. All the relays ahead of them were reported to be in perfect working order, performing under all standard operating perceptions.

Captain Cage stood suddenly from his command chair and started to walk with a slow stride toward the comms station with his first officer walking right at his side. The command deck was somewhat large but not near as large as the command decks in planning for the super cruisers. The deck itself was circular in design to allow for easy access and nontechnical communication with each of the essential stations. The metal floor made a lightly clanging sound of footsteps as the captain and first officer walked across it. With the exception of the gray floors, the rest of the command deck and the walls of the ship were colored with white and yellow to avoid the enclosed feeling of living on a space-type vessel. The rest of crew’s yellow and blue uniforms also assisted in the same intended purpose as that of the Journeyer’s interiors.

Lieutenant Captain Theodore Chisso wore the same matching blue uniform as Captain Cage with the exceptions of the half-split circle pin and red collar striping that clearly represented his position as first officer. He was a young and vibrant white British man full of energy and high expectations yet a well-seasoned veteran. He also had featured a sense of assurance that he was ready for a command position of his own. The sense of such assurance that Captain Cage also shared. Captain Cage, in fact, saw very much of himself residing within his first officer.

Lieutenant Eva Cusping, a young, beautiful, and extremely curvaceous-figured woman stood at full attention as the captain and the first officer approached her comms station. Her long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail and her blue eyes were nothing short of captivating. She wore the light-blue-and-yellow crew uniform and, in it, could distract any of the men onboard if they were not exercising a state of professional discipline. After being put at ease, she reported that two more relays had now ceased transmission. Captain Cage asked what the source was that was causing the problem. She again checked over the several diagnostic readings displayed over her comms board. She started to respond with They seemed—

Her reply was then cut short as she looked up at Captain Cage in a state of disbelief worn across her face. She mentally regained her focus and, with a quick head-shaking gesture, reported that the relays were gone. The captain’s response did in no way take the young lieutenant by surprise and was exactly the response that she had expected to receive. What do you mean gone, Lieutenant? he asked.

She then rechecked down at her comms board and raised her head back upward to meet her captain’s iron gaze. She then reported, At first the signals were fading. After they had faded, I could still lock onto the signature code of each single relay. Now even those cannot be located sir. Lieutenant Cusping paused briefly before adding that the relays were not shut down or jammed by any sort of power failure, because the signature code was specifically designed to stay on an eternal detection and response mode to report all technical problems. She very hesitantly added. It appears with the signature code loss that the relays had been destroyed, but that would cause an immediate signal loss, not a faded signal. Looks between the crew began to be exchanged across the command deck. Lieutenant Cusping then interrupted the silent state that had also fallen over the command level crew. She had detected that the last relay’s signal had started to fade. Utilizing her comms officer skills, she quickly locked onto the relay discovering faint pulse disruptions originating from another source before the relay signal ceased transmission.

Captain Cage could feel the anticipation and tension building to a conflict within himself. Could this be the alien contact that they had been searching for all this time? If so, would the life-forms they contacted be friendly? He ordered Lieutenant Cusping to fix him a link with Earth Caller Space Fleet immediately.

The full state of tension on the command deck grew with even higher levels of intensity when Lieutenant Cusping reported all the comms signals from the Journeyer were now being jammed. Captain Cage asked for the identification of the source. Lieutenant Cusping could only respond with Unknown. Slight fear had begun to emerge inside everyone on the command deck when Captain Cage ordered the shields raised and the ship to be put onto the status of yellow alert.

Lieutenant Captain Chisso had asked if they should stop or increase the speed. This could be the moment of contact for which they had been waiting, or it could be the start of a conflict with a sentient but also hostile life-form. The very decision made at this particular moment could have many different results in either case. The choices made in situations such as this one defined the rank of Captain. Captain Cage had returned to the captain’s chair and looked carefully around the command deck, attempting to gauge the state of his crew for which they had placed their lives in his command. Before initiating any commands, he took a deep breath and reminded everybody on the command deck that this situation could very well be a result of any number of known natural and even perhaps unknown phenomena. He reminded them of their duties to fully analyze the situation scientifically. He then looked toward the helm station and ordered current course to be maintained and speed to be slowed to standard speed of six.

Captain Cage had retired to his command quarters and had allowed four hours to pass before he returned to the command deck. He walked directly toward the comms station for a report. Lieutenant Eva Cusping reported with a disappointing tone that she had been unable to restore any communications. Captain Cage stared in a silent thought at the comms station readings before turning to face the helm station. In a commanding tone, calm but firm, he ordered a reverse in course and an increase to hyperspeed one. The first officer stepped to the captain’s side. Captain Cage had decided that they must investigate the lost relay transmissions more thoroughly.

The Journeyer later arrived at those coordinates of the last relay to vanish from the comms scanners. Captain Cage looked toward Lieutenant Cusping, seeking some sort of explanation. Despite all the skills she knew and the tricks she had learned in her career as a comms tech, she found herself being as confused now as she had been when the signals were first lost. She had tried enhanced scanning on wide disperse bands and still came up with nothing. The first officer again moved to the captain’s side and suggested the release of some probes into the area. Captain Cage gave an affirmative nod to the officer who was posted at the science station and returned to his command chambers.

Great anticipation had consumed Captain Cage at his desk in his command chambers as he awaited a report from the probes released an hour ago. He could feel something stir inside him. It was as if he could predict that something special was on the verge of occurrence. He was at last asked over the comms unit to report to the command deck. He bolted from his desk and through the sliding doors that connected his command chambers to the large command deck. Once on the command deck, he relieved the first officer from the captain’s chair. Lieutenant Captain Chisso reported that a probe had detected relay debris. Captain Cage ordered the course plotted and initiated.

The Journeyer had quickly arrived at the coordinates of the probe. The debris of a destroyed relay floated there, spreading apart in the drifts of space. The comms station still failed to detect the signature code of the relay. The feeling of fear and disbelief was now more real as it had become obvious that something had destroyed the last relay. The probe had also detected radiation burn marks on the debris.

A planet was now registering on the sensors. The sensor officer reported sensor readings of the planet were distorted. All the information the sensors could clearly detect was that the planet had an oxygen atmosphere. The planet’s surface was recorded at an 85 percent dirt, sand, and rock reading. The remaining 15 percent of the surface registered as a mixture of plant and water. With the sensor distortion, any sort of detection of life beyond that of the plants was undetectable. The rock on the planet had registered of an unknown element, which the sensor officer declared could be the possible cause of the distortion in the sensor readings. Lieutenant Cusping had offered her own suggestion, that the signature code log of the relay was shielded and could very well have survived entry into the planet’s atmosphere. Captain Cage looked at his first officer and ordered a team assembled and sent to the planet for an investigation of the unknown rock element and a search to possibly locate the signature code log unit missing from the relay debris.

Lieutenant Captain Ivans, a young African American officer briefed his selected shuttle crew on their planetary mission. Lieutenant Captain Ivans was the second officer and third in command of the Journeyer. Initial planetary missions of any type were listed under his special duty lists. His choice of pilot for any shuttle mission was always the same. He had chosen a hot shot Hispanic male pilot. Lieutenant Enrico Dalchez had a well-confirmed and widely known reputation for being a wild ladies’ man, but when it came to piloting anything, Enrico was the man that any mission leader wanted to have at the pilot seat. Lieutenant Eva Cusping, the Journeyer’s chief comms officer, was declared an absolute expert on numerous signals and communications devices. Her involvement from the beginning of the relay failures would have guaranteed her an assignment on the mission regardless of her reputation. The fourth mission member was a female Russian scientist. Natalya Kovsia held the honorary rank of lieutenant and was a short-cut blond Russian vision of beauty mixed with many talents and skills. She was quick smart and, to her own accord, considered herself a scientist first and foremost.

The cylinder-shaped shuttle, First Step, ignited its top-rear mounted twin-engine drive system at a full thrust mode as it departed from one of the Journeyer’s six cargo and shuttle bays. Lieutenant Captain Ivans had ordered Lieutenant Dalchez to set his course to match the most possible trajectory of the relay’s signature code log provided by Lieutenant Cusping. The shuttle then veered left to a sharp and quick entry vector for the unnamed planet. Upon its entry into the atmosphere of the planet, the shuttle started to violently shake. Lieutenant Dalchez displayed his well-known ace pilot reputation as he quickly moved his fingers across the pilot’s control console with a very focused and determined effort to stabilize the unsteady shuttle flight path. He advised the rest of the shuttle crew to stay secured in their restraint belts. The shuttle rocked side to side with an occasional strongly declined dipping in the flight pattern. Just before exiting the high-turbulence part of the atmosphere, the shuttle’s main stabilizer system experienced an electrical overload, sending a high-voltage shock through the engine core. One of the twin engines exploded and with all stabilization gone the shuttle started to wildly spin and fall in a rapid descent with a thick black trail of smoke from the exploded engine.

The crew on the command deck of the Journeyer had been closely monitoring the flight vector of the shuttle. Contact with the shuttle had been reasonably lost while it was fighting the atmospheric turbulence. The explosion was then detected and brought Captain Cage to his feet in a sharp state of concern. Lieutenant Captain Chisso had by now relieved the comms tech and was drastically trying to reestablish any contact form with the shuttle. The dead comms transmission lasted for only minutes and seemed much longer. The sound of static broke the silence of the comms, and fighting through the static was the soft but now-stressed voice of Lieutenant Eva Cusping. Lieutenant Dalchez was still struggling with the shuttle’s controls and had replaced that of Lieutenant Cusping’s voice on the shuttle’s transmission. He then reported on their current situation and that he had switched all power to the one operating engine and the MMGS (manual maneuvering guidance system). The restored transmission was then abruptly lost. The sensor officer reported that transmissions were being jammed and that the Journeyer was currently being scanned. Captain Cage asked firmly in a shocked yet strong, demanding tone, Scanned from what source?

The sensor officer paused slightly before responding, I believe that is the source, Captain. His words called everyone’s attention to the forward view screen where a large saucer-shaped vessel was decloaking just ahead of them. The strange starship was immensely huge enough to shock all the Journeyer’s command crew into a speechless state. Captain Cage ordered an immediate hailing of the large saucer-shaped vessel. He promptly followed that order with a call to raise shields and a reinstatement of yellow alert.

The shuttle, First Step, had by now descended from the late daytime sky of the unnamed planet followed by the trail of thick black smoke from the blown engine. One of the two engines was still operational and had been given power from other systems on the shuttle. The shuttle was still spinning downward to the rocky surface, but the spinning was now much slower than it had been at first due to the expert skills of the pilot that sat behind the helm controls. Inside the shuttle was the best pilot anywhere. It was the reputation Lieutenant Dalchez had earned and one he did not intend on blemishing. He was without any assist of stabilizing systems and was forced to utilize the older yet reliable manual maneuvering guidance system, which was basically flying with very minimal computer assistance and a standard flight rod as opposed to a high-tech panel of lights and buttons. The flight rod was set at the side of the pilot control panel, and although old in design, it still served as a solid safety device. The flight rod was a long shaft with buttons down the side to control the shuttle’s side-placed vents for pressure releases and rear-mounted flaps for standard planetary aviation needs. Once the full power transfer to the operational engine had been completed, Lieutenant Dalchez was able to receive more control of the shuttle and easily steadied the twisting and spinning action. By this time, however, the shuttle had descended beneath any cloud cover and the possibility of crashing was one of a definite reality but not certainty. Lieutenant Dalchez had the manual flight rod firmly gripped in both hands and was attempting to put his body power and movement into the maneuvering attempts. He leaned hard and stiff to his right in an attempt to turn the shuttle in a sharp and slanted motion to avoid crashing into the rocky mountain region for which it was rapidly headed. The shuttle was fast approaching the top of the rocky mountain terrain when Lieutenant Dalchez pulled back with swift hard force. The shuttle was now at an upward angle and moving down the rocky surfaced mountain region. Lieutenant Dalchez smiled and even let out a loud laugh as he felt the shuttle fall even more under his control again, steadying the craft. The landing gear and the repulsor lifts warning lights were now blinking with disabled. However, Lieutenant Dalchez displayed little concern. He possessed such a feeling of comfort behind the piloting controls that he hardly ever found himself rattled by any panic situation. He was confident that he had established a straight trajectory, and the surface the shuttle was now flying over was rocky ground but wide open. He eased the flight rod forward, and looking out the side and front of the shuttle’s cockpit, he found that the shuttle was now parallel with the ground. He used both his arms to maintain a steady flight path with the flight rod. The thick black smoke that had been much like a tail had now, through shuttle movement and wind changes, fully engulfed the shuttle. Although he was basically piloting blinded by dirt and smoke, Lieutenant Dalchez was still sure of his previous positioning and pulled back with strong force on the flight rod. The shuttle hit rocky ground and, from the impact, began bouncing against the surface with multiple hard hits of force. The bottom of the shuttle finally connected with the ground and started sliding along the surface with a loud scraping sound as it dug deeply into the surface and threw dirt and rock upward from its sliding path. Once the shuttle’s sliding action had stopped, the stillness became a restful feeling, fully accompanied with a thought of the shuttle crew being alive and unscathed. Lieutenant Dalchez initiated the shutdown procedure of the one operational engine and took in his own breath of relief. To lighten the mood even more, he looked back at the lovely Lieutenant Eva Cusping and asked, So now that we had our sweet romantic drive together, shall we retire to your bed or mine? The remark was dismissed with a pleasant smirk.

The large saucer-shaped vessel had completely decloaked and was now blocking the Journeyer’s path in the stars. The saucer measured at least twenty times larger than the Journeyer. The command crew found themselves gripped with fear and excitement at the exact same time. This was after all why they were here. The sensor officer reported that scans of the strange alien vessel were being received now that the vessel had fully decloaked. The problem the Journeyer’s sensors were experiencing was that most of the scans were inconclusive due to the lack of knowledge of the technology that the huge superior vessel clearly possessed.

Captain Cage had reseated himself into his captain’s chair and asked the comms officer if the hail had been answered, only to receive a negative reply. The sensor officer then reported that an opening of the enormous alien vessel, along with several readings of intensely high-energy signature fluctuations, had been detected by the Journeyer’s ongoing scans. Captain Cage requested the location to be fully displayed onto the Journeyer’s main forward view screen. The opening section of the alien vessel appeared to be a hangar bay door. The sensor officer attempted to magnify the image. The opening started to produce a misty-looking green glow. Captain Cage, in recognizing the possible danger, ordered the helm station to move back and initiate a port movement heading to securely stay to the side of the alien vessel. Sensors were now detecting that other sections were opening, and that the vessel was matching their positioning. One solid glance between the captain and his first officer was a definite concurrence of the danger. Captain Cage then ordered the ship status to red alert and an increase in reverse speed to standard speed three. He was beginning to experience a feeling of uneasiness deep in his gut. He had always followed the unwritten rule to that of being a good captain. The rule was very simple; despite orders or procedures, always follow your instincts on any given situation. The Journeyer’s slow retreat increased slightly as it continued to back away from the huge vessel that so vastly outsized it.

The crew of the First Step had finished extinguishing the internal fires and the black-smoke backlash from the blown engine of the shuttle. The shuttle rested in and at the end of the mile-long trench it had dug with its crash-landing. The external flames and smoke streams were put out from the wind, the descent, and the extinguishing system from the interior and venting design. Only a slight smoldering continued. The biofilter system onboard the First Step continued to maintain clean oxygen detection, and after a completed verification by the UDG (ultra-detection grid) and all the precautionary procedures had been followed, the shuttle’s side loading doors opened onto the new planet. The view was a dusty one due to the heavy winds blowing the dirt and sand through the air and over the immensely rocky-covered ground surface. Lieutenant Dalchez’s remarks were echoed in agreement by the other members of the shuttle crew as he declared, What a dust bowl of a planet.

The crew had donned their EMPSs (easy-maneuverability protection suits). They were loose-fitting but tough to tear. Along with the full-face shield of the light-weight helmet, the EMPSs also offered full environmental protection while not sacrificing any sense of maneuverability. The helmets were also fixed with internal radios and air hoses attached to small cylinder oxygen regeneration tanks fastened to the side of the waist-worn belts in the case of an emergency.

Lieutenant Natalya Kovsia was the first to step onto the newly discovered and yet unnamed planet. By the positioning of the four large suns in the sky, all downward and away from one another, it was a clear estimation that the planet’s time was late in the day. Lieutenant Captain Ivans and Lieutenant Cusping were the next to exit the shuttle. Lieutenant Captain Ivans then ordered a three-point full scan of the area around the shuttle. They fanned outward individually, each equipped with a scan rod. A typical scan rod measured near twelve inches long with a five-inch handgrip and seven inches of buttons and small information reading screens that measured three inches wide and extended over the two-inch diameter of the scan rod itself.

The unfamiliar rock element of the planet that gave ship and shuttle sensors such difficulty appeared to have the same effect on the scan rods. Lieutenant Eva Cusping had attempted different calibrations to no success. As the three crew members attempted to survey over the rocky and dirt-covered terrain, a shadowy figure on the high rocky ledge of the mountain overlooking the shuttle crash site silently observed them. The mysterious figure resembled a human in form. The figure was wearing a full black bodysuit that was similar to the uniforms of the shuttle crew below. The figure’s head was concealed in a black upward and back-slanted oval-shaped helmet with a black-tinted face shield. The figure had fastened to its lower left arm a gray highly technical armband which appeared heavy, although the figure seemed to move it with great ease. The armband was covered with several forms of gadgetry and lighted buttons in many colors. The figure raised the armband to its helmet. From the figure’s helmet came a rough-sounding alien voice, and within seconds, a reply came from the armband in the same type of alien voice. As if by instruction, the mysterious figure then knelt onto one knee behind a boulder and resumed observation of the shuttle crew.

The Journeyer continued its maneuver in, backing cautiously away from the huge saucer-shaped alien vessel that continued to match the Journeyer at every adjustment of course and speed. The first officer informed Captain Cage that the opening sections of the alien vessel were still registering at high-energy-level readings on the Journeyer’s sensors. Captain Cage had already given the order to enhance the Journeyer’s full shields to their highest operating status, but the ship’s lasers and missiles were to remain down. The Journeyer hosted very sophisticated levels of Earth weaponry, but they were there for defensive purposes. There was no real guarantee that any hostile life-forms would not be encountered, and it would have been an extremely dangerous decision to send manned space vessels into the unknown reaches of space totally unprepared for every conceivable situation. In order to avoid provoking any hostilities with newly discovered life-forms, a strong protocol was established that Captain Cage was following to the letter.

The comms officer with a tone of urgency in his voice reported a visual response to the Journeyer’s hail coming from the alien vessel. Captain Cage stood from his captain’s chair, with his first officer still at his side, and ordered the transmission to be displayed on the forward view screen. The image displayed on the view screen clutched everyone on the command deck in a state of total surprise. A male humanoid with brown hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard was now looking back at them. Captain Cage waited briefly for a reply. The human-looking male merely observed them in an eerie utter silence with absolutely no detection of any form of expression on his face at all. It almost seemed as if he had been expecting them. Captain Cage disrupted the cold silence and introduced himself, his ship, and his first officer. He added that they had come in peace on a mission of contact from a planet called Earth. The human image on the view screen remained silent still with no real type of expression revealed on his face.

Suddenly and without any sort of warning, each of the areas now fully opened on the alien vessel fired two large green bolts of some energy form. Once they had hit the Journeyer’s shields, the green energy bolts transformed into green tendrils and quickly began to crawl along the shields and join with the other green tendrils. Once the crawling green energy tendrils had joined together, they started to tighten and crush against the Journeyer’s shields. The Journeyer’s tactical officer reported that the shields were falling due to the intensity of the energy tendrils. Captain Cage ordered all forward lasers fired. When the lasers failed to produce any result against the alien vessel’s shields, a full barrage of missiles were fired, also resulting in the same negative effect. After heavy hits of unsuccessful firing of the neutronic blasters, Captain Cage had one device left at his disposal. He ordered the cutting beam targeted at the source of the comms transmission. The Journeyer then fired an intense fluctuating pulse laser beam onto the upper part of the gigantic alien vessel. The cutting beam was designed to cut into asteroids. It was never intended to be used as a weapon. All other options had been exhausted, and Captain Cage was left with no other optional choice. The cutting beam continued to hit hard against the alien vessel’s own shields, though it too seemed to produce no result. The Journeyer then suddenly shook with a hard jolt. The tactical officer reported that shields were down to 15 percent and falling fast. The tactical officer then registered a singular pulse feedback building inside the cutting beam and initiated from the alien vessel. Upon Captain Cage’s orders, the cutting beam was immediately halted. Just as the cutting beam was terminated, the Journeyer’s shields fell completely down. The green energy tendrils then produced a high-level and shipwide shockwave. The entire crew of the Journeyer’s lower decks through the shielded command deck fell into an unconscious state on the ship’s floors as a result of the shockwave. Another larger section of the alien vessel opened and slowly started pulling the Journeyer inside.

Lieutenant Captain Ivans had just embarked back onto the shuttle and was met by Lieutenant Dalchez, who reported that the twin engine shuttle could still fly with one engine, but an atmospheric climb was impossible. He added that the blown engine could be repaired by a technical and mechanic crew from the Journeyer. The other option would be to leave the First Step and have another shuttle retrieve them. The problem with both options was that both required assistance from the Journeyer and that all the comms were filled with static, so Lieutenant Dalchez was unsure if his distress call had even been received. The comms problem could also have been related to the unknown element in the rock on the planet. Lieutenant Captain Ivans had removed his helmet and used the shuttle’s comms to tap into the helmet radio of Lieutenant Cusping. The static was in the transmission on the planet as well; however, Lieutenant Cusping did respond to the order to return to the First Step and attempt comms alignment. The situation was not near as grim as it had seemed. Lieutenant Captain Ivans was certain that the Journeyer would send another shuttle down if contact could not be reconstituted. Lieutenant Cusping herself then embarked back onto the shuttle and shook her long blond locks as she removed her helmet. It was an action that called the attention of both men briefly. She seated herself at the shuttle’s comms station and started tuning the comms to gain some amount of clarity. A puzzled look quickly grew across her face. She did not believe that the planet’s rock element was causing the comms loss. After she had performed two systems checks on the comms, she admitted that she was unable to make any contact because she was unable to lock onto the Journeyer’s main transmitter grid. She dismissed it as a technical problem aboard the Journeyer. She then tried and was unsuccessful in her attempts to patch into the Journeyer’s amcatchdish, which was a new type of long-range comms device being tested in deep space. It was supposed to be able to clear up and detect transmissions through any natural disruptions in space and had been presented as being strong enough to even catch the possible transmissions from black holes and galactic portals.

Lieutenant Captain Ivans asked the question, What does that mean?

Lieutenant Cusping’s reply was hesitated, much like she was hoping the question was never asked. "I don’t believe the Journeyer is in orbit."

What? The response was simultaneous.

Lieutenant Dalchez checked the shuttle’s orbital radar, which was affected by the planet’s rock element as well. The comm in Lieutenant Cusping’s helmet placed on the comms board then sounded the loud, panic-stricken voice of Lieutenant Kovsia. Lieutenant Cusping had quickly tuned the shuttle’s comms to the helmet frequency. Lieutenant Kovsia was frantically calling for help. Lieutenant Captain Ivans activated the shuttle’s weapons cache and pulled out two large heavy laser rifles with energy backpacks. He ordered Lieutenant Cusping to activate the distress beacon and then handed one of the heavy laser rifles and packs to Lieutenant Dalchez as they both bolted readily out from the shuttle’s side loading doors in a desperate attempt to get a visual on Lieutenant Kovsia’s position.

Lieutenant Captain Ivans waved Lieutenant Dalchez toward the other side of the shuttle. Both men had now realized that they had left the shuttle without helmets and hoped there were no unknown poisons in the air. Each was also without a radio contact, so they had decided to stay within shouting distance. Lieutenant Dalchez was the first to yell out for Lieutenant Kovsia, calling her by her first name, Natalya. She was visually out of sight and failed to respond to any verbal callings. The shuttle was near the base of a mountain, but there was nothing else around its immediate vicinity. There was nowhere she could have reached in that short amount of time. Even the large forbidding mountain of jagged rock terrain was near a quarter of a mile away. Lieutenant Dalchez was then stopped dead in his own tracks as he found evidence in the dirt and rock at his feet that appeared to be signs of a struggle. The dirt and rock were kicked around, and it was clear that the heels of the boots had made drag markings and stopped suddenly. The problem was that there was only one set of footprints, and they were from the boots that belonged to Lieutenant Kovsia.

Lieutenant Cusping had by now stepped off the shuttle with her helmet in her hand. Lieutenant Captain Ivans was now ordering his remaining crew back onto the shuttle. Lieutenant Dalchez was the first to protest the order and was quickly joined by Lieutenant Cusping. The two lieutenants were strongly insistent on finding their missing friend and crewmate. The order was even more stressed the second time and followed by the statement from Lieutenant Captain Ivans that he also wanted to find Lieutenant Kovsia. He added that their best option would be to devise a search plan. Without knowing what danger had taken her, it was best to return to the shuttle. After deciding that the shuttle’s radar and sensors could be enhanced to gain a much better scan of the area than scan rods, all three of them returned to the shuttle.

Hesitantly they embarked back onto the shuttle. Lieutenant Eva Cusping again tried to contact the Journeyer using a long-range comms frequency. Still receiving no reply, the long-range comms frequency was yet again reset and enhanced. A sudden jamming signal interrupted the negative transmission. Lieutenant Cusping tracked the source of the signal to outside the shuttle at about thirty meters in range away and approaching closer. Within seconds, four heavy and forcible blasts hit and shook the shuttle with great impact. The blasts hit the top of the shuttle, taking out the emergency beacon’s signal broadcast. Lieutenant Captain Ivans, hastily and with a fumbling action over the controls, activated the closure of the shuttle’s side doors. The doors started to close but were halted and ripped off by two extremely giant metal hulking robots. Once the doors of the shuttle were torn away, the two giant robots retreated to each side of the ripped opening in the shuttle. With the path cleared, twelve soldiers in humanoid form entered. They had appeared to be men donned in yellow and green armor. The commander was obviously the one with red-striped markings on his armored chest plate. He motioned to the others by use of his hand, and they moved as directed. They were very well trained as soldiers. Drawn swiftly from the sheaths worn on their belts were long swords with two parallel straight and sharpened blades of metal. The ends of the blades were forged in a slight curve with two points just as sharp as the edges. In such, the blade design resembled a slightly straightened form of an Earth pirate’s cutlass. The soldiers also wore helmets with clear white lenses slotted for eyes and a long-dropped chin with an anvil-cut style of fur at the bottom. At each side of the helmets were white backward-curled horns of bone. The helmet itself resembled the head of a ram on Earth.

They had entered the shuttle, encountering no resistance by the crew. Lieutenant Captain Ivans stepped forward, introducing himself and adding a declaration that they came with all peaceful intentions. One of the soldiers pulled out a cube-shaped device to scan the shuttle’s computers and captured the attention of the shuttle’s crew. Another soldier, the one appearing to be the leader, raised his arm and opened a clenched fist to reveal the palm of his glove. From the palm of the gloved hand, shot out three long tendrils almost appearing as living vines. They entangled the lieutenant captain around the neck and shoulders. The crew of the First Step then made an instant and forward rushed movement to assist their fellow crewmember and superior officer. They were frozen by the swords pointed directly at them by the other soldiers. The soldier that had so securely snared Lieutenant Captain Ivans jerked his hand with a backward thrusting action, which caused the vinelike tendrils to retreat backward to the glove and pulled their captured prey back with them. Once Lieutenant Captain Ivans reached the soldier’s feet, the vinelike tendrils released him and retreated back into the soldier’s gloved hand completely. Lieutenants Dalchez and Cusping were quickly grabbed and firmly held in tight arm grips by four of the other soldiers. Lieutenant Captain Ivans was then pulled to his feet by two other soldiers. The three First Step shuttle crew members had their wrists placed and secured into a pair of glowing energy cuffs. They were then escorted through the shuttle’s torn-open doorway. The commander, by physical gestures, ordered two of the other