'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 45: Waiting Game

The missile streaked across space, driven by a plume of incandescent orange-blue flame.

On board the alien flagship all eyes were fixed on the monitors as it drove directly towards the stolen ship and their own rapidly converging shuttle.

“Admiral - ” said Commander Sils, “there is still time to abort.”

“Out of the question,” said the alien woman quietly. “Give me maximum magnification.”

The screen zoomed in and they could now clearly distinguish the larger ship with its two rotating wheels and the much smaller shuttle closing fast. It looked as if shuttle and missile would reach the renegade ship at about the same time.

But seconds before impact, the image of the larger ship began to ripple and shimmer, then it suddenly disappeared entirely in a brief flash of energy. Instantaneously, the missile exploded, filling the screen with blinding white light.

There was an audible groan from the crew. As the screen cleared, all that could be seen was debris from the shuttle and - clearly visible - bodies floating in space.

An angry murmur swept across the bridge.

“Be silent!” shouted the Admiral, turning her gaze on the crew, defying any of them to meet her eyes. “Get to your stations and track that ship. They cannot be allowed to escape.”

She turned to the Commander: “How long before we can follow?” 

“About two hours,” he replied.

She gave a sigh of exasperation and turned away. As she did so, another voice broke the silence.

“Ma’am!”

“What is it?” she demanded whirling to glare at the crew member who had spoken.

“I’m picking up a faint signal from the planet’s surface. On one of our standard frequencies.”

“What kind of signal?”

“It’s a voice transmission.”

“Let’s hear it then man,” said the Commander, trying to reassert some kind of authority.

“…to ship , respond please.” There was a pause then the message resumed: “Matias to ship, respond please.”

This was repeated twice more before falling silent.

“So. Now we know where Matias really is,” said the alien woman with a smile of satisfaction. “Not in engineering at all, as Irvn said. Perhaps he even has his own special pet with him…” 

“Shall we continue to track the other ship?” said the Commander.

“Of course,” she said, “but if we capture Matias first, we’ll get the location of the primitives’ planet anyway. Then we can decide whether or not to pursue the other renegades.” 

“But what if they return?” said the Commander, “I find it hard to believe they’d just abandon him.”

“If they do come back, so much the better. We’ll have them all.”

“Sir,” said the crew member, pointedly addressing the Commander rather than the Admiral, “if he signals again, should I respond?”

“No…I think not,” said the alien Admiral before the Commander could answer. “He won’t recognise the voice and he’ll know straightaway that this is not his ship. Best to keep him guessing. Do we know where his shuttle is?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said the crewman, “We have their exact location.”

“And would they be able to detect this ship on their systems?”

“Very probably, Ma’am.”

The Admiral looked thoughtful.

“Shall I send the other shuttle to capture them?” suggested the Commander.

“Not yet,” she said. “Let’s see what they do first. Providing we don’t answer, he has no way of knowing this is not his ship. He’ll continue trying to make contact - and when we don’t answer, he’ll guess a communications failure. And even if he does suspect the truth, he’ll have no choice but to dock with us - or eventually die when the shuttle’s oxygen supply runs out.”

The Commander nodded.

“We’ll give them two hours,” said the Admiral, “then we send our shuttle to get them. By then we’ll also be ready to follow the other renegades. With luck, we’ll have them all.”

© Adriana Nicolas 2014