New Neighbors
Chapter 8
They had been in hyperspace for two weeks when the four ships ended their jump. The first ship out was the cruiser and it saw an unwelcome sight. There were two destroyer class ships waiting. As soon as Jones saw these he had fighters launched and shields up to maximum. By the time that Turrini came in the area was full of fighters, but no one was firing. Jones received a transmission from the destroyers that they were here first and that the four ships needed to turn around and leave or they would be attacked. Jones replied and asked by what authority did they make these demands. The only reply was "We were here first", and one of the destroyers fired missiles.
As soon as Jones saw the missiles he returned fire in kind and then "winked" out only to reappear behind the two destroyers. Kate saw the missiles, as did Turrini, and launched a second set of fighters. Turrini trained his main guns on the destroyers and fired. The destroyers were surprised that the ship had just disappeared only to see several missiles coming their way. Then they noticed the cruiser behind them and fighters surrounded them. Jones called them and asked if they wanted to live or die, he gave them 10 seconds then opened fire with his main guns. One of the destroyers managed to launch fighters, which seemed to disappear quickly due to Jones' fighters. Then the first missile hit, then the second missile hit. More fighters came in and added to those surrounding the destroyers, both of which had lost engines. The captains were even more surprised when Carol showed up one bridge and Cal appeared on the other, in avatar form. Each avatar was holding a very large weapon and it was pointed at the captains. Jones had fired twice and Turrini had fired twice, then they both held their fire as the fighters took out the destroyers' shields and arrays.
Jones again called the destroyers and asked if they wanted to live or die, the choice was theirs. One of the destroyers turned off it's navigation lights and surrendered. The other attempted to fire on a fighter but hit his partner instead. Jones, on an open channel, told all the fighters to clear the area as he was going to remove the one ship that didn't enough sense to stand down. This announcement must have gotten attention because both destroyers were dark and all shields were down. Jones didn't fire, but called for the captains to power down completely except for life support and prepare to be boarded. Jones also warned the ships that any show of force would result in that ship being destroyed. By this time all four ships in Jones' group had surrounded the two smaller ships.
Jones sent a shuttle to the first ship that had surrendered, preceded by two fighters, there was no problem on this ship. The captain of the ship came to the landing bay and turned himself over to the Marines from the shuttle. The second ship, which had been the one to fire first, was a different matter. As soon as the first fighter entered it was met with small arms fire. This was one of the two person fighters and it opened fire with rail guns even as the second fighter entered. By the time the shuttle landed the bay was empty, at least of the living. It took the Marines about 15 minutes to locate the captain on the bridge and place him in restraints. There was only one injury to the boarding party, a sergeant was hit in the leg by a hand weapon; the shooter was hit by three shots at the same time and did not survive. Both captains were taken aboard the cruiser to meet with Jones, who did not appear very happy.
The first to arrive was the captain that had not fired a shot. The other captain was brought aboard in restraints. Jones looked at both of the men in silence for a few moments.
"I am Captain Jones, at least one of you had the sense to follow my requests. But, there is always one who has his head so far up his rectum that he causes others pain. I understand that one of my men was injured, that does not please me. In fact I should just put you back on your ship and then blow it to hell and back, but I won't. Now who are you and who do you represent?" Jones exclaimed.
"I am Commander Landers of the Imperial destroyer Naseen. I ask for mercy. That is Captain Blythe of the Imperial destroyer Maui." Cmdr Landers said.
Jones turned to the other officer, "What do you have to say for yourself captain? Why did you fire on my ship?"
"You can go sit on a Sun for all I care. You are in Imperial space; if you know what is good for you, surrender now" Blythe snarled.
"Sergeant, take the captain to his quarters in the far corner of the Brig, I think we just got ourselves a new ship if it can be salvaged. Escort Cmdr Landers to my office, I'll be there shortly. Cmdr, if you will accompany this man he will see that you are provided refreshments. You and I will talk more in a little while,” Jones said.
Jones called Kate and Turrini and informed them of what he had found out so far and asked them to keep an eye out for more trouble. He also told them that if the destroyer could be repaired he saw no reason not to take it over for their usage. Kate and Turrini both agreed. Jones had a maintenance team go to the Maui to see if it was worth the trouble to repair.
Jones went to his office and spoke with the Cmdr. Jones was informed by Landers that he was only in charge because his captain had made Blythe mad, which resulted in the former captain's death. When asked if there were other ships in the system, Landers said not as far as he knew. The two ships had only been here for a day due to a faulty drive on his ship. They had stopped to do repairs and Blythe thought they might as well scout out the system and claim it for the Emperor. When asked where the two ships were headed, Landers said that they were to meet and escort a couple of salvage ships in the next system. The coordinates he gave were for the Sol system.
The conversation between Jones and Landers was interrupted by a call from the engineer in charge of the repair party. The chief said that he had an unusual situation and needed an officer to handle a problem that he didn't feel qualified to handle. Jones asked what the problem was and he was informed that the crew on the destroyer, except for about three men, wanted to get off the ship and away from their captain. Jones said the XO would be over to talk with the men, and to keep a close eye out for trouble. The chief said that the squad of Marines appeared to have everything covered. The troublemakers were in the ship's brig and the rest of the crew was in the landing bay under guard. Jones sent his XO to the Maui and then called Turrini and Kate to come aboard and meet with him and Landers. Jones had Landers taken to some extra quarters to rest and freshen up, with a guard posted outside.
It was about two hours later when Kate, Turrini, Landers, and Jones met to discuss the situation. Turrini reported that scans of the system showed no other ships. Kate reported that she had asked Carol to produce and place the same type drones that were used back home to help protect the system and serve as an early warning line. Landers asked what she meant by drones to protect the system. Jones explained that the system he was supposed to meet the salvage ships in was their home system and cloaked drones that fired on any ship that entered the system ringed it. Landers turned slightly white at hearing this. Jones' XO joined them and reported that he had spoken with the crews on both ships and all of them, except the ones in the brig, wanted away from Blythe, especially his own crew. He also reported that the crew of the Naseen were asking about Landers welfare and had expressed concern that they might not get him back as their CO. The XO went on to say that Landers crew implied that they would do whatever he wanted them to, but preferred not to return to the Empire. The XO then told everyone that to repair the Maui would take a shipyard; it could not be repaired here. Jones thanked his XO and asked him to remain and sit in on the meeting.
After they had all talked for about an hour, Landers was asked what he wanted to do, return to his Emperor, stay here and join up with them, or go somewhere else? Landers thought for only a moment before saying he would like to join their group, if his crew agreed. Going back to the Empire was not a good choice he said. Jones asked the others what they thought and everyone agreed that Landers would make a good addition to their team. Jones had a shuttle take Landers back to his ship to talk with his crew. Jones told Turrini and Kate that he thought that they should offer Blythe's crew the chance to become part of the expedition, but would be guided by their thoughts as well. Kate and Turrini agreed to offer the crew a place with their group. It seemed that they had just added a destroyer and some 190 men to the expedition. Jones then suggested that they send Amy a message about the two salvage ships headed her way. Kate asked why that had not already been done. They still needed to decide what to do with Blythe and his supporters.
About an hour later Landers hailed Jones and asked what his orders were for the new ship. Jones asked what shape the Naseen was in and Landers said it should be ready to start engines the next day, but they would not have hyper drive until they could get to a shipyard. Jones told Landers welcome to the group. Jones asked if Landers had any suggestions as to what to do with Blythe. Landers said he had a few, but as a civilized man he could not make them. Both men laughed at that statement. Jones told Landers that Blythe's own crew wasn't as civilized, they had suggested throwing him out into space in just his underwear. Landers was asked if he could tow the Maui, once he had power back. Landers said he could but not very far. While he would be able to power his engines and move, it would be a few more days before he had full power restored. Carol jumped in and said she could tow the small ship without a problem. Landers was told to salvage anything he needed from the Maui to aid his own repairs.
All ships formed up and entered the system the next morning. Jones was once again in the lead, Turrini had the rear, Cal was in the middle, and Carol and Landers were on the sides. It had been changed so that Cal was towing the Maui. They headed towards the first suitable planet at a slow speed to keep from taxing Landers' ship too much. As soon as they reached the planet, Jones and Kate had fighters to go and check for inhabitants, none were found. The next step was for survey craft to scout the planet to test atmospheric conditions, radiation, and start a general planet wide survey. These surveys would take several days. Carol entered close orbit around the planet, while the rest maintained a high orbit. The atmosphere was composed of 70% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, and 10% inert gases. Radiation levels were low, well below the max safe level. There appeared to be oceans, polar ice, and six major landmasses. The temperatures ranged from -40C to +50C.
They took a week to finish the surveys before deciding where to land the first team of settlers. It was decided that they would setup the first base on a large land mass that was about the size of Africa and was in the northern temperate zone. This land mass had several natural lakes and rivers, two of which emptied into the oceans. Carol landed and off-loaded the machinery and engineers that would be needed to construct a base camp. She would stay grounded until the camp had quarters built to house the engineers and the first group of settlers. While this was being done Turrini would go to the next best planet and start surveying it. Kate mentioned that she wished AL had accompanied them as he was setup more for this type work than the present ships, even though they had cloned some of the specialized craft and placed it onboard Carol.
The second planet wasn't quiet as nice, but it could be made usable with more work. It was decided to put all the settlers on the first planet, as soon as quarters were ready. Carol, and the engineers, had been busy, very busy, in two weeks time they had a settlement built complete with a force field to keep out animals. They had found that the animal life on this planet was similar to Earth's late pre-historical period. Mammals were starting to be more prolific, reptiles and insects were huge. It wasn't unusual to see a three foot beetle or a two-story lizard. The settlers were warned about the local fauna and floral. Soil tests showed that the dirt was not as fertile yet, but would support small crops. There were many different trees, shrubs, ferns, and bushes.
Kate dispatched another message to Amy saying that the first planet was being settled and the status of the second planet. She also told Amy that they hoped to have a space platform up and running within a month, that way they could refit the Maui, start building crafts for local use, and increase production of the drones used to protect the system. Kate asked that Jake be told that she was fine and really enjoying the new system. Kate also asked that some way be found to improve communications between the two systems, this 2 week one-way was not nice. Kate reported that there had not been any more problems with strange ships coming into the system. Kate included some images of the local flora and fauna also, just to show what was there, along with all the survey information.