Book 2 New Neighbors

Chapter 2

After the chamber was in the brig, connected to ship power, and scanned for weapons or explosives, the body inside was slowly reanimated. The process took about an hour. The body was humanoid in appearance, had light skin, was roughly 27cm, and 75kg. There were signs of past cosmetic procedures and several scars on the body and back of his head. Once the reanimation was completed, he was allowed to "wake up" on his own. Cal had made a suggestion that Amy thought was very good. Cal would change the appearance of his avatar to resemble his dead Captain and that was who would question the man. As soon as the man was awake he was monitored for several hours to see his reaction to his new location. Then Cal entered the room.

"Come to attention in the presents of your superior officer. What is your name and rank?" Cal asked.

"Ensign SuLak. What am I doing here?" SuLak replied.

"You failed your mission, the ship was able to make it's jump and now I want to know who hired you and your real name. That way I can record your execution correctly." Cal exclaimed.

"I won't tell you anything. What right do you have to hold me here? I'm not in the employ of your traitorous Emperor." SuLak replied loudly.

"Attempted sabotage of my ship and the deaths of several of my crew is all the reason I need. Not to mention the deaths of innocent settlers and their children. You didn't have the honor to die for your cause. I'm sure the Emperor's agents will have a good time getting you to talk. I understand that they can inflict rather sever means to get the answers they want. I thought to offer you a chance to avoid that, but since you refused the offer you will be turned over to them as soon as we return." Cal replied.

The man was very shaken by that statement. He had heard about the ways that were used to get answers from criminals on Andreus. The Emperor might be a fool, but he had very good inquisitors. Inquisitors who enjoyed their work. SuLak knew that he didn't stand a chance if he was returned to the inquisitors. He broke down and told Cal everything.

It was the son of the Emperor who was behind the movement to halt the settlement of new planets. He thought that it was a waste of money; they should just use the money to improve his lifestyle. And instead of colonizing new planets just take over some of their neighbors. After hearing this Cal left the cell. The whole conversation was recorded of course.

Cal had just left when SuLak was observed to start pressing on the back of his head and then fall to the floor. All life signs ceased and the Med team responded but could not revive him. An autopsy was preformed and it was discovered that he had an implant that released a deadly neurotoxin into his spinal canal and thus into his brain. This had not been detected on exam. The autopsy also revealed that had he not gotten into the stasis chamber the implant would have killed him anyway as soon as he accelerated the shuttle.

After reviewing the report and the recording, Amy, and her advisors, were not sure as to what to do with the information they had obtained. They didn't have any idea as to where Andreus was located or even the Organo System. AL had not come from either of those areas and was unfamiliar with them. Now they knew why and who, but had no idea as to what to do with the information. It was decided to awaken the leaders of the settlers and see what they wanted to do; join Amy's group or be put on a planet somewhere to settle. The probe to Alpha Centauri had found two planets that would support life for humanoids. Both planets would need to be surveyed for minerals and such, and to rule out inhabitation.

The leaders were awaken and met with Amy, Ted, Jake, AL, and Cal to discuss the future of the settlers. Both leaders said that they would not make the decision for the rest that the others needed to decide for themselves. Since there was plenty of room on Cal, it was decided to awaken all of the settlers and give them the chance to hear the choices. The process of waking everyone up was started and the group meeting was scheduled for two days later.

Ted told Mars to stand down on their alert. He also gave an update to them about the new ship and instructed them to start designing some sort of sensor drone, with stealth, to station around the system to watch for further activity. He also had Carol to start on a third biosphere just in case. He got some surprising news, Mars had it's first natural resident, one of the women had given birth! Ted made sure that he told Amy about this event.

After the two days to get used to being awake, the settlers were gathered together for the meeting. Everyone was milling around when four security people came in and stationed themselves in front of the podium. A few seconds later Ted and Amy arrived and took their places at the front of the room. They were joined by the two remaining leaders from Andreus and Cal. The meeting was called to order by Frank, at least that was what Amy and Ted called him since they could not even start to pronounce his name, and they called the other one Joe. "Frank" explained what had happened, leaving out the part about the emperor's son, and asked that they listen to what Captain Amy had to say.

"I'm Captain Amy Ward and I want to welcome you to the Sol System. This is my First Officer Ted Smith. We are both from the third planet in this system, it is called Earth. We are descendants of an ancient space race that came to this system over a million years ago. After being found by the AI from that ship we have decided to regain our heritage and help our planet as well. We have sent probes to a nearby binary system and found that there are two planets that can support life. Since your journey was interrupted we would like to invite you to join us in settling there. At this point, we can offer you two choices. First you can join us and we can work together to setup on these planets or, second, you can ask for one of the planets for your own. We do not have any idea as to how to locate your home world, Andreus, and return you there to start all over again. Your two leaders have told us that they didn't feel they had the right to decide for you, so we are here today to give you what information we can. I'm sure that you have questions and concerns. Please voice those questions or concerns now." Amy said.

After two hours it was decided that the group would join up with Amy's group and together they would settle the planets. After that was decided Ted suggested that the new group elect or appoint someone to represent them in the planning of this mission. Ted also asked for volunteers to supplement the crew for Cal and Carol. He then explained that first they would go to Mars and do repairs on Cal and at the same time would upgrade the other ships. This would take a couple of months to complete.

As everyone was getting acquainted with Amy and Ted a young girl came up and pulled on Amy's sleeve. Amy looked at the girl and then knelt down to talk with her. The girl asked if there were any children where they were going so she would have someone to play with? Before Amy could answer, a woman came up and told the girl not to bother the captain. Amy quickly explained that anyone was welcome to speak with her at any time. Amy turned to the girl and asked her age. The girl was 12 cycles (years?) old. Amy told the girl about Cindy back on Mars and that there were others also. The woman looked scared that Amy would talk to the girl. Amy called "Frank" over and asked about this. "Frank" explained that these settlers were not used to talking with anyone but their supervisors. Amy requested that "Frank" and "Joe" please pass the word that anyone had the right to speak with her or any member of her crew at any time. That any question anyone had deserved an answer.

After about an hour, Amy and Ted left the area to return to their own ship. Amy wanted to spend some quality time with Jake, she hadn't had much of that the past few days. Amy made sure that Jake was very exhausted by the time he got to sleep that night. It was another two days before the two ships left for Mars. During that two days Amy made sure that either she or Kate were on board Cal and that they talked with as many people as they could, especially children.