GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 15 ... Landfall - plus 18 hrs, First Contact - Space

"So where the hell are they?" asked President Sayed of the United Confederate.

He turned to his friend, Fleet Admiral Juan Ponce de Leon. "This waiting is getting to me, Juan. I say we go in hard. Attack their Capital and be done with it."

Anger burned in the de Leon's eyes as he looked up from the tablet in his hand. "Just like us Daniel, they are waiting for the first move. The one who moves first, is in all likelihood, the one who is going to lose. Hours. Days. Who knows? We wait. They are out there and all we have to do is find them."

"So find them damnit."

de Leon ignored Sayed as a Petty Officer came towards him, excitement pumping through every bone of his body. "Contact sir. Two of our scouts were destroyed ... here." he pointed at the flat screen of the hand held tablet.

"Hmm. Section six in quadrant four. That's what, two moons circling that poor excuse of a planet the size of tennis ball? Give me all the data you have on that planet and those moons. I do believe we have found our missing targets. Get me some scouts out there and have five destroyers and the Margrave standing by. Notify the scouts to send in a couple of UTD's* first. If they are destroyed, get me Commander Ashram."

***

The Petty Officer returned two hours later, "Sir, we have Commander Ashram on screen sir."

The Admiral glared at his Petty Officer. "The UTD's were destroyed?"

"No sir. They are still fully operational sir. It's the scouts. They were destroyed, sir." The admiral's mind went into overdrive. "What you are telling me Petty Officer, is that the enemy somehow knew that the UTD's were drones? That they were unarmed and therefore not a danger? That they went for the scouts instead?"

"It looks that way, sir."

"Let me speak to Commander Ashram." He grabbed the tablet and found the weather-beaten face of Commander Ashram displayed on its flat surface. "Commander? Find out what in blazes is going on in Section six, quadrant four will you? Take five destroyers that are standing by for your orders. Four scouts have been reported as destroyed in that area but for some reason not one of the UTD's have been touched. Unscrambled signals emitted from the UTD's will not affect you. Do not destroy them. Should you make contact with superior enemy forces, hightail it out of there and report back as soon as possible."

"As you command, sir."

Commander Ashram had done it all.

He had been beaten by snow storms in the Himalaya's. Tanned by one desert after another. He had experienced exposure to sun, sea and biting cold, extreme heights to unplumbed depths, spelunked into caves and minor known grottoes, and dived into the depths of almost every ocean. An adrenalin junky and speed freak, he was quite the hero and leading figure on many subjects ranging from Bungee jumping to the best way of starting an ant farm. He had become the navy's most decorated and formidable senior officer it ever had.

A question once asked by a reporter summed up his outlook to life and its dangers. "Mr. Kistnasamy, to what do you owe your success? You have made millions from discoveries like the Atlantis scroll you found off the Dead Sea, and according to our resources, spent millions on equipment that in the end you didn't utilize. How is it sir, that you are able to be so successful in all your adventures?"

"I didn't force them to pay me all that money you know," he had answered in a jocular fashion. "Seriously now. It is a simple fact of life my friend, that when something can go wrong, it has done so already. I plan for anything and everything and usually end up patting myself on the back for outthinking fate. Now there was this one time when ..."