Master of Violence
by AJ Marks
Part 7
Jeff watched Toncor’s expression by his answer. The alien had not been expecting to hear such a bold answer, but it was the only one Jeff could give and live with himself. He never was one to back down if confronted and they would be fighting for their home. That was a powerful incentive for any human.
“I see,” Toncor finally said. “Why?”
“This is our home, we were born here, grew up here, its where my family is, if that’s not worth fighting for, what is?” Jeff said.
“You can always move your family, find a new home,” Toncor said logically.
“Yes, but you are forever running, are you not? Nothing has been solved,” Jeff replied. “I can’t imagine a nice life for my son or daughter in such an environment, always running and looking over your shoulder for this Dark Race to appear once more. You couldn’t settle down out of fear.”
He noticed Toncor seemed to at least consider such an option. Jeff only spoke the truth about how he felt and waited to see what his alien friend might have to say.
“It appears we have two different opinions on the subject,” he finally said.
Jeff nodded sitting back in the chair as much as possible, considering the chair was a little small for him. He wondered how tall people managed in their daily lives considering everything was designed for smaller people.
“How do your people cope with living in a ship?” Jeff asked.
“We make do because we know the alternative,” Toncor said. “We value our freedom still even if we don’t fight like you do.”
“Some people on my world would call you crazy for such an attitude, others might say you don’t have much freedom,” Jeff said.
“There is always the hope for freedom, more so than if we were slaves,” Toncor said.
“Perhaps, but many of my race would rather die fighting for that freedom than run away,” Jeff said, thinking about all the people. “In fact, if we were to propose all efforts into a mass of transports to leave the planet, there would be a group who would defy the orders and try to build something to fight.”
They sat in silence for a few seconds before Jeff decided to change the topic of conversation.
“How are the repairs going?” he asked.
“Slowly, but to be expected,” Toncor said.
“I’ve heard they are trying their best to create the right parts which will work for your engines,” Jeff said, having read the report before coming up here.
“Yes, it s different to create a new part when its never been created before, especially certain alloys,” Toncor said.
“The technology has given us a new way to think about things,” Jeff said. “Our scientists are already thinking of way it might be improved.”
“I have heard that from our engineers,” Toncor said.
“Perhaps we can help you out even more with some improvements,” Jeff said.
“Perhaps, you learn quickly it seems,” Toncor said.
“Sometimes too quickly,” Jeff said. “Its always been part of our society, computers always getting better and better, especially for the gamers.”
“Gamers?”
“A group of people who enjoy playing computer games, they push the graphics of a computer further and further, experimenting in more and more power,” Jeff said.
“I see, we have a group like that, but its not a very large group,” Toncor said. “Would you like a tour?”
“Sure.”
With that they stood and left the room as Jeff followed Toncor around visiting many parts of the ship.
*****
Angie wearily made her way out of the store after getting off work. Today had been a harder shift than normal, especially when one person called in sick meaning she had to work harder to cover.
A long day was finally over and now she had to go home and confront her mother who was probably waiting for her. Angie sighed, knowing that wasn’t what she wanted to do after a long day, especially considering she called to inform her that she would be late getting off work due to another employee no coming in.
Making her way to the rail station she passed by an area close to the forest. It was full of trees which came from Earth and found very fertile soil here on Sierra. It was also the one area on the way from work to the rail station where she was observant for any strangers.
She looked up ahead and spotted one figure walking towards her. She pulled her jacket around her a bit more and quickened her pace, readying her self-defense measures in case. As she got closer she spotted a familiar face and sighed, one of the wierdos from her high school days. She realized he was the one who actually tried to ask her to the prom. What was his name? John, Josh, no Jack.
As she approached she noticed a strange light glowing the sky and looked up, pausing in her walking. In the sky there appeared to be several pinpricks of light, almost shining down upon the planet. It made no sense to her for this to happen. Looking up she discovered she had moved closer to Jack, who also seemed to be looking up.
“What’s that?” she finally asked, feeling better to be near him than whatever was happening in the sky.
“Not sure,” he finally replied.
Angie wondered if she should run when the lights started to get brighter.
Suddenly there was an explosion off in the distance causing them both to look over. The explosion lit the night sky and before Angie could even contemplate what happened another explosion occurred even closer.
“I don’t think we should stand right here,” Jack said suddenly.
Despite everything, Angie had to agree. However before she could start to move another explosion rocked them. She was tossed to the side and hit a tree. Her vision went fuzzy for a few seconds before she blacked out.
*****
Mark went over reports of everything having gone back to the Enterprise and now sat at his desk. So far everything seemed normal, and the ship was functioning without a problem. Reports about the new drive indicated there had been some fuel conservation but not enough as they had hoped.
Yawning he stretched having done over reports for several hours now and it was putting him to sleep. Deciding it was time to take a break and that it was close to lunch time he figured now was a good time to head to the mess hall and grab a bit to eat.
Reaching over he shut down his screen and froze. He thought he saw something and quickly brought the screen back up and scanned the line he thought he saw.
Explosions on Sierra!
That caught his attention and wondered where on Sierra it occurred considering his sister lived there. Opening the article he noticed that the news report mentioned communications with Sierra had been difficult at best. It was noted that several explosions had occurred but the source had not been verified yet.
Mark looked around to see if there were other news sources. Another one made mention of bright lights in the sky. That comment made him wonder. Shutting it back down he headed to the bridge where he saw several people working.
“Captain, glad you’re here,” Hans said.
“What’s the situation?” Mark asked.
“We’re receiving some interesting communications from Sierra, and having trouble hearing them,” Hans said. “I was about to call you.”
“Let’s hear it,” Mark stated as they made their way over to the communications. There the young lieutenant was working to get the message.
“Repeat Sierra Station, you’re not coming in,” the man said. Mark had to recall the man’s name, Joaquin.
Mark watched as the man tried several times before looking up at them.
“Sorry sir, can’t raise them anymore,” he said to them.
“Wonder if this has anything to do with the explosions on the surface?” Mark said confused about how it could affect the orbiting station. Normally such an event on the surface would have no problems in space unless there was a huge EMP. “Did we get any communications from them before it all started?”
“Yes sir,” Joaquin stated.
“Let’s hear it,” Mark said.
They watched as Joaquin worked to get the proper message onto the screen. It took a few seconds but there on the screen appeared a young woman.
“This was the first message we received,” Joaquin said as the message started.
Even before the woman spoke the screen went fuzzy and the sound cut out.
“…to Earth, have …“ it cut out again before he heard some more, “…no reply…appear to be unknown…”
The screen went blank making him wonder what might have happened, though he was beginning to think something else happened other than a simple explosion. The next communications came up and similar things.
“Did they say anything about ships?” Mark asked.
“Um, yeah, on one of the last ones they seemed to mention something about it. I was unsure if they were talking about a passenger or freighter.”
Mark nodded with some understanding, but he wasn’t thinking about civilian ships. “Do we have any pictures of what might have occurred outside the station?”
“Hold on, it’ll take a few seconds to look,” Joaquin said.
“What are you thinking?” Hans said.
“Get me HQ at once,” Mark said, having a feeling he was on the right track, and scared if he was. Few people knew about the Dark Race which Toncor and the others spoke of. If it really was then they were out of time and the unknown race had attacked them.
He watched as Hans hesitated for a second before moving over to another screen and went to work.
“Sorry sir, it will take a bit longer to see, things are really scrambled. Whatever happened sure messed things up,” Joaquin said.
“Keep at it, and let me know the moment you find something,” Mark said moving over to the screen. Richard was already on the screen.
“Captain?” Richard said, and Mark heard the tone was questioning but also held a bit of worry in it.
“Admiral, what’s the situation on Sierra?” Mark asked.
“We’ve completely lost contact with Sierra,” Richard said. “Some sort of EMP or something. We were just planning sending a ship to check out what happened.”
“Might want to hold up,” Mark said seeing the admiral’s surprised look.
“You have something?” he asked.
“Reading the reports and such, I don’t know anything which can do this, except one thing,” Mark said waiting as the admiral thought about it.
“You honestly think so?” he asked, suddenly very concerned.
“It makes sense,” Mark replied. “You cut communications off, there were reports of lights in the sky before the explosions. The station is also affected by this strange event.”
“If this is the case then we have a serious problem,” Richard said.
“Captain, I have something,” Joaquin said.
“Put it here,” Mark said.
“What?” Richard asked confused.
“My communications officer might have found an external camera image of what happened in space around the station,” Mark said.
“All right,” Richard said.
The screen changed to an image of space. It wasn’t really in focus but there was an image of a ship he didn’t recognize. Mark zoomed in on the ship and looked at the pixelated image on his screen.
“What is that?” Hans asked.
“That is what our friends, the Simians, are running from,” Mark said honestly looking at the ship. He could make an almost triangle shape to the ship.
In front of him was the enemy he had been warned about.
“I guess there is no doubt,” Richard said, his face appearing back on the screen. “I’ll head off to inform the President. I’m also putting all stations on alert.”
Mark nodded before turning to his own bridge crew who were looking on wondering what was going on. It was time to inform them of the truth he hoped would never happen.
End part 7