✅ Project SETI Trilogy

Chapter Three - Part XXXIII: Interlude

          Approximately fifty Earth hours later...

          When it became clear to the Trailblazer Zero that the Daxut ship had finally made landfall, they set their sights on the yet-unknown planet and rocketed toward it as fast as they could manage. Since they stopped moving away from them approximately two days ago, the GDF had gained quite a bit of ground, and it wouldn't be long before they reached their destination. They planned around having the element of surprise—they would stealthily descend on them with the remaining ACV fleet, and they'd block the group's exit with sheer numbers alone. It was also decided that they would take them alive, so they could be sentenced and imprisoned accordingly.

          In the end, only a very small number of Daxut were taken alive. The humans were unsure what to do with them—they'd never dealt with the fallout of a conquest of this magnitude before. As it currently was, they were all kept in a secret high security prison, where they would likely rot for the rest of their extremely long natural lives. It was planned that Temet would join them, and Nova, Gabriel and Julia would likely be imprisoned as well.

          The Trailblazer Zero surged ahead at the maximum speed she could manage on the most direct route possible. Morale was high and Sam was emboldened; even though the space station had suffered a small amount of casualties of her own, she could still deploy a maximum of seventeen out of the twenty ACVs she started with, and there was still more than enough crew to maintain the ship. Little did Sam know, that she too was being followed—news of the bounties and human victory over the Daxut had spread far and wide, far wider than the humans had knowledge of, and there were entities with interests and goals that were a far cry from the 'justice' Sam sought by capturing them...

~~~

          "We've been successfully tethered to the Trailblazer Zero for several minutes now," a male voice spoke into an audio transmission device that was currently live with his superior back on his home planet. "We have also hacked into their systems to probe for data. Their encryption methods are, frankly, rudimentary—how they overpowered the Temetor One, I'll never know."

          His female superior chuckled. "Well, what have you found out?"

          "For one, you were correct—they are moving toward a specific destination, and aren't just wandering seemingly at random, like some of the other deep space probes they have commissioned. They've tracked the 'rogue' Daxut vessel to an uninhabited planet sometimes referred to as 'CV-04'."

          She hummed thoughtfully as he explained. "Do you have any idea what they plan to do once they arrive?"

          "According to a transmission between Sam Lancaster and another official back on their Earth, Sam has permission to apprehend them by any means necessary—she may even execute them, if she sees fit."

          "But why, I wonder..." she thought aloud. "Why go to all the trouble? Is it worth so much to them to end the Daxut race?"

          The scout sighed sadly. "You know as well as I do that the humans have a bloody history. I would say it's not above them to do such a thing."

          "You're right," she agreed solemnly.

          "What would you have us do now, then?"

          She was silent for a few beats as she contemplated it. "Come back here and switch out your stealth vessel for an interceptor. I'll send a few more to back you up, and then, you will go to CV-04 and confront the human forces. I will give you all more detailed orders before you depart."