Revenge

Tok vs Terra (Part Two)

"What do you mean 'the station is missing'?" Captain Sandra Diaz of the spaceship Survivor demanded, her voice querulous. "Space stations don't simply disappear into thin air!"

"I tell you there's nothing there," insisted her navigator. "We're in the right place but... I've rechecked the co-ordinates, three times. It's gone."

"What about Cylon? Has anything happened to the colony?" asked Paolo Benini urgently. Benini was the leader of the current group of would-be colonists. He'd been invited onto the bridge to get another glimpse of his new home before transferring to the station to board the shuttle down to the surface. But that wasn't going to happen now.

Lex Vandenberg, the Survivor's second pilot, looked up from his screen. "The colony has gone, too. I can't find any sign of it. The dome and everything under it has been totally destroyed."

"A quake?" asked Sandra, doubtfully.

"More like they were attacked," answered Lex, bringing up images of the scoured site, which only days before, had been a thriving community.

"Attacked? By who?"

"There's no-one else this far out."

"I hope you're not going to suggest we're looking at a raid by Space Pirates!" Sandra couldn't help saying in disgusted tones.

Everyone was well aware there were no such things in real life. Holovids to one side, the colossal amount of money and resources required to launch an interstellar ship meant space travel was the exclusive domain of governments and massive corporations. Not to mention the years of advanced scientific training required to operate one. No, the boozy, hard-living pirate characters beloved of so many, were purely fictional.

"And in any case, what would be the purpose in destroying the whole colony? It's not like anyone can live there now."

"And there wasn't anything worth stealing—no gems or rare minerals. To my knowledge, mining hadn't even started." The crew added their contributions to the discussion.

"I tell you, the colony was attacked," insisted Lex, stubbornly. He knew people called him paranoid behind his back but that was what it looked like to him. He scanned the area where the colony had been, again. Everyone crowded around to stare over his shoulder. Was that black jagged shape the remains of part of the dome? It was hard to tell from up here, good as the scanning equipment was.

Sandra frowned. The only way to tell for sure was to send down a survey team. With over a thousand people missing, there was really no choice—she had to investigate.

Eager to prove his point, Lex piloted the shuttle down to the surface, his senses hyper-alert to any threat. A small team of scientists accompanied him, including Paolo and his husband Gianni. Lex couldn't help wishing he had a few more military types on board, armed with rocket launchers or something equally powerful. Instead, he had a bunch of scientists. He could only hope whoever (or whatever) had done the damage, would be long gone.