Star Fields

Chapter No.11 Peril

Chapter No.11 Peril

Life is full of surprises.

Molly and I assembled on the shuttle flight deck with Ellen and Alice, who were armed with BFG's. I had a hand blaster in a holster attached to my belt. Molly had a portable scanning unit on her belt. We were dressed in our usual uniforms. We didn't have to worry about infecting anyone.

The shuttle flight down was smoother than I had imagined. The androids were exceptional pilots. They sat our shuttle down near the edge of Lake Michigan near where Chicago once stood.

When we exited our shuttle, we looked back at where Chicago once dominated the shore. Most of the buildings had fallen down or were knocked down. The once mighty skyline was no more. Only rubble and debris remained.

We didn't see any signs of life. No chirping birds, no barking dogs, and no squawking ducks. The only sound was that of water lapping against the shoreline.

The sun was shining through some high clouds to mar the deep blue sky.

"This is amazing," Molly said. "It's as if the Earth is just starting out again."

"It has a long way to go before any significant life can arise again on this planet," I said.

The two tank shuttles arrived and the android crews began setting up to collect water. Our two androids stood with their weapons ready to protect us.

Molly and I began walking along the beach toward what looked like a broken down structure. Our android guards followed us.

"I wonder what this was," Molly said.

"It was probably a water intake," I said before I pointed. "See those round pipe sections over there."

"I'm surprised that it got broken up like this," Molly said.

"I'm sure that the weather along these lakes is not kind to anything."

Suddenly, we saw four figures approaching in the distance. They were carrying what appeared to be weapons. Out two android guards raised their weapons.

I held my hand up. "At ease. We don't want a confrontation here."

They lowered their weapons.

We watched the figures approach and realized that they were the enemy reptilian species. They were wearing what appeared to be some sort of green plastic uniforms. It was ironic that their uniforms appeared as if they were made from scaly skin.

The four aliens stopped about five meters away and seemed to stare at us through reptilian eyes as if we were ghosts.

"Where did you come from?" One of the creatures asked in a growling voice.

I was surprised that they could speak our language. "We came from a system one thousand light years away. I believe it is near your home world."

My revelation made the aliens glance at one another before the obvious leader spoke again.

"Why were you there?"

"We were part of a mission that came to establish a base from which to destroy your home world. There were fifty humans and a number of these androids." I gestured to Ellen and Alice. "An accident that killed all but the two of us ended the mission. We joined the mission because it was said to be a colonization effort, but we had no knowledge of the mission's true intention until we arrived at the base. We decided that we didn't wish to wage war on a species that we had no knowledge of. We appear to be the only two humans still alive, but we are no longer human. We have been converted to cyborgs like these androids. They and we have no interest in waging war. We wish only to explore this galaxy to discover intelligent life. We have no desire to conquer or dominate anyone."

"What you say is the truth," the alien said. "We had expected an attack."

That was definitely a surprise. "Well, now you don't have to be concerned. We are not interested in war."

"We could destroy you here and end any possibility of war."

"That would be unfortunate. These androids would retaliate and then you would lose many of your kind in a war that would have no meaning." I gestured to Molly.  "We can no longer reproduce. There are no more humans. You have already accomplished your mission to destroy them. We have no interest in exacting revenge for an incident we know nothing about. We are not going to inhabit this planet. It is void of life. Let's depart and not continue a war that would gain nothing other than useless death."

The aliens spoke to one another in their language. After several minutes they turned to us.

"We accept your promise, but we did nothing to destroy you humans. You say that you wish to explore the galaxy. We have found many intelligent species. We will send you our information about them, but it is in our language."

"We can translate it," I said. "We are grateful for your assistance."

With that, they turned and walked away.

I turned to our androids. "Contact the ship and have them make sure that they leave here."

"We already have, Jason," Alice said.

I assumed that, but I wanted to make sure." I turned to Molly. "Well, that went much better than I had anticipated."

She shook her head. "You are one hell of a crazy guy. Why did you tell them the truth?"

I threw my hand up in surrender. "I was always told that one truth is more profitable than a bushel basket of lies."

She laughed.

I chuckled. "Let's get back the ship before anything else happens."

"Why did they come here?" Molly asked as she walked back with me to the shuttle. "Surely, the must have known how thoroughly this planet had been wiped clean of life."

"Probably for the same reason we are – to acquire water. Keep in mind that we're two hundred years in the future."

"I keep forgetting about time dilation," she said, sounding disgusted.

We returned to the ship and went to the command deck.

"Begin scans for any intruders," I told Judy.

"There are no intruders within a billion kilometers, Jason."

I plopped down in the chair at the engineering station. "Whew! We got lucky this time. The androids are still working to hook up your antimatter mix chamber modification. If they had attacked this ship, we would have been at a decided disadvantage."

Judy looked over at me. "I have detected a transmission request signal, Jason. It's from the direction of the alien ship's departure."

"That should be from them. Accept it."

Molly gave me a concerned look. "What if it contains some sort of Trojan?"

"We can scan it for any malicious code before we send it to the main computer."

"How do we know that it's legitimate?"

"We don't," I replied. "We won't know until we check out the references."

"Do you believe that they accepted our promise not to wage war?"

"Actually, I doubt that they did. We'll have to stay vigilant. At least we know who were dealing with. What I don't understand is that they essentially denied having altered the asteroids course so that it collided with Earth."

"They were lying," she said.

I rubbed my face. "That would be a reasonable assumption, but you never know."

"Are we going back down to the surface?"

I rubbed my forehead. "Yes. I think that we should search for more information about the incident that led to this state of war with the aliens, and one of the best locations for that is the Space Command Center in Huntsville."

I could see approval in her eyes.