Star Missions - Book One - Part II

Chapter 17 - The Mission

Colonel Don Hand, acting Governor and Military Commandant of the Strolla System, was glad to be back in his own office at the base on Hydra. The whole System was his now. He felt that power, the sensation of being in charge of an entire Star System. There was a good chance he'd still be spending a lot of time on Nova Station, but this was where he belonged—surrounded by his men and everything he needed to react to any situation at his fingertips. There, he decided, was the most suitable location for his command center.

There was much to do. Leader Hand wanted to make his position permanent. He had to win the hearts of the Terrans on Hydra, the System's largest colony. Metting out justice to those responsible for the recent tragedies would make him the hero. Belter's arrest was shocking and controversial, yet Hand was not a reactionary. He was a leader. He had to press on and find out as much as he could about the aliens that attacked Nisthura and could threaten Hydra next. Hydra had been attacked, probably by anonymous aliens of unexplained power. The attack on Terra seemed unrelated, but Hand didn't believe in coincidences. There was no way they could be facing two entirely different alien threats at once.

That's why he had Captain Tang out looking for the Gate the Alien had come through. He couldn't just sit back and wait for another attack. They had to go through that Gate and figure out if there was more to the story.

Finding a gate on purpose was proving next to impossible, however. After two days of searching, Tang still had found nothing. Belter located the first Gate by accident and, if the Alien's story could be trusted, found it the same way. There was no protocol for finding one. Still, Hand was confident that if a gate existed near Tibna, they would find it. It was only a matter of—

The comm screen on his desk lit up, and Captain Tang began to speak without waiting to be addressed first. "Sir, we found it!"

Had the man said anything else, Hand would have reprimanded him. But there was no time for that now. "Inform Wing Leader Soliski," he said, and noticing the time, he ordered, "Keep patrols on the Gate around the clock. I want your full report on my desk first thing tomorrow morning."

Hand disconnected without another word and sat back in his seat. He took a long slow breath. Finding the Gate was the easy part. Now they needed to find out what was on the other side.

The next morning, Hand was in the situation room bright and early. He was pleased to find that everyone he'd called to the meeting was on time. The last fifteen hours and been filled with a flurry of activity, and he knew that few of the people standing before him now had gotten a full night's sleep.

Captain Tang was there with various crew members of the Novacorps science ship.

The computers onboard the vessel were still compiling data retrieved from the probe, but it was enough to establish that the other side of the Gate did, in fact, lead to the Precanus binary star system.

But to find out what was the Jamill were up to, they'd need to send real pilots through, which was why Blue-Ray and his top pilots were in the room.

Blue-Ray and Captain Tang were standing at the front of the room. They stood directly in front of Colonel Hand, seated at the head of the table, his chair turned toward them, and the wall monitor behind.

"If we have to go," Blue-Ray was saying, "We should go now. There have been no other ships within range of the probe's sensors since it made the jump."

Hand knew that Blue-Ray didn't like the idea of jumping into a new system, but the Colonel made it clear that getting intel on a potential enemy was worth the risk.

Blue-Ray followed orders, and now he had to get the backing of his men. Otherwise, they would hesitate to follow him. He had to have seen the Colonel's point since he highlighted the tactical side of the mission. "It has been already several days since Ka-Rhin's shuttle jumped into our system, so, if it was a prelude to an attack, time is of the essence."