“Tau Ceti V is a Class M planet orbiting a star 12.2 Light Years from Earth. Life on the planet is in the latter stages of development, although no intelligent fauna has developed. The planet is lush with exotic chlorophyll based flora, but unfortunately the planet has been deemed unsuitable for colonization, because the class G star emits unstable forms of Gamma radiation, rendering the star system deadly for starships. Tau Ceti V is a quarantine zone; all ships are ordered to divert around the boundaries of the solar system due to the extremely hazardous nature of the difficult-to-detect radiation...”
Currently, exactly one ship was ignoring the quarantine.
The blocky, angular shape of the USC freighter was invisible against the backdrop of space, a shadow moving over a shadow. But then again, this wasn't a standard, run-of-the-mill freighter. The ship, the USF Renegade, happened to be completely invisible to both the naked eye and the most sophisticated of scanning devices.
The pilot of said freighter was well aware of the regulations that specified the Tau Ceti system off-limits. However, he did not care. He paid no heed to the fact that his ship would be bombarded with unstable gamma radiation due to the simple fact that there was no gamma radiation. Tau Ceti did not emit dangerous forms of radiation, and Tau Ceti V was most definitely not uninhabited. The Earth-like planet was home to a top-secret weapons test lab for the USC, codenamed Starfire. Inserted by top-notch computer crackers on the USC payroll, the carefully fabricated entry into the Galactic Database provided the perfect cover for the facility.
Naturally, even a planet rich in resources such as Tau Ceti V needed outside support. Shipments of processed food, metal, and other raw materials were regularly shipped to the weapons lab in specially equipped stealth freighters. Ever so carefully designed to escape the attention of even the most sensitive of scanners, the stealth ships were a little known secret of the United Space Fleet. The aptly-named Renegade which was currently slipping rapidly through the quarantine zone towards Tau Ceti V, contained a shipment of energy crystals, destined for the lab's complex hybrid fusion power plant. Renegade moved like a shadow through the night, unnoticed by anyone who might have been passing through that particular sector of space, heading to a base that technically did not exist.
But even the most hidden of bases have a weakness just waiting to be found.
Chapter 1
“I think I see it!” Eddy shouted excitedly.
Eddy's friend, who was standing by his side on the top of a small grassy rise that was near the sprawling laboratory complex, peered at the sky in the direction the other man was frantically pointing at. He scowled slightly, saying, “I think that's a bird.”
Indeed, the small black speck that marred the otherwise featureless blue sky slowly resolved into the shape of one of Tau Ceti V's native bird-like creatures. The bird slowly flew towards the two men for a moment before suddenly diving below the treetops of the forest that blanketed the area between the sea and the two men. The man who had first spotted the bird looked disappointed. His friend, noticing this, told him with a sigh,
“Look, Eddy, the Renegade isn't going to arrive from that direction, anyways. It's smarter for the captain to bring her in from the northern pole to avoid the turbulence over the Western Ocean.”
“Aww, come on, Michal,” Eddy argued back, “It's easier for them to come in over the ocean and the forest, 'cause they don't have to clear the mountains on approach. I bet the ship will come from the west, where the pilots have a nice, long approach over the ocean. It's a no-brainer.” He waved his hand idly in the direction of the Western Ocean, the large, featureless stretch of brilliant blue water that extended from the shore several miles away to the horizon. The water looked deceptively calm today, but Michal knew from his long experience of piloting small supply freighters to Tau Ceti V that the turbulence caused by the temperature differences between the ocean and the land could turn the apparently easy approach into a deadly one.
“Oh? You want to bet?” Michal asked slyly. “Just how much are you willing to lose today?”
“Lose? Me? Hah! Ten dollars says the Renegade comes in over the Western Ocean.”
“You're on.”
The two men waited patiently for the arrival of the supply ship, one watching to the west, and the other to the north. Today was an exceptionally pleasant day on Tau Ceti V; the sun was shinning brightly down upon the rich, emerald-green landscape of Tau Ceti V and a light breeze was blowing in from the direction of the Western Ocean. The two men stood upon a hill that gave them near-complete visibility over the entire area, making it the logical spot for ship-watching. Several miles to the east behind the two men, the matte-gray metal entrance of the underground laboratory was barely visible, set in between two green, grass-covered rises, while the snow-capped peeks of the Northern Mountains glinted in the glow of Tau Ceti itself.
Suddenly, Michal shouted, “There she is!”
It was no false alarm this time; Michal had spotted the Renegade. Swooping in low over the Northern Mountains, the compact, boxy freighter was still difficult to see even with her stealth generators turned off; her hull was painted a neutral matte gray that absorbed most of the light that shone upon it. The freighter ate up the distance between the mountains and the two men in less than thirty seconds, swooping low over the mens' heads with a subsonic roar that was felt as much as it was heard. The pilot of the freighter guided the ship to the east in a graceful loop that put the ship on the approach course to the two landing platforms, and slowed the ship to a relative crawl as she began her final approach.
“I believe,” Michal said, with just a hint of smugness as he turned towards Eddy, “You owe me ten dollars.”
Unaware of the small monetary exchange she had caused several hundred meters below, the Renegade smoothly covered the distance to the Starfire Laboratory Complex, coasting over the hilly ground with only antigravs engaged as she carefully spun on her axis mid-flight and utilized tiny bursts from her auxiliary engines to brake and come to a perfect stop, five meters above the landing platform. Slowly cutting out the antigravs, the Renegade's pilot dropped the ship the final few feet onto the landing platform, extending the hydraulic landing struts at the last moment. With a thump that could hardly be felt by the dockworkers who were preparing to unload the ship, the Renegade sat herself down on one of the two landing platforms that serviced Starfire base.
The loading ramp that lead to the cargo-bay slowly unfolded itself from the Renegade's body, giving the dockworkers access to the materials she carried within. Workers immediately converged on the ramp, armed with handcarts, motorized cargo trolleys, and plenty of crowbars, as they began the long process of unloading the material from the Renegade. Within seconds, a highly organized line of workers emerged from the cargobay, carrying boxes and barrels, metal plates, bags of dry food, and a particularly large and heavy-duty sealed crate that was branded with the message, “Warning: Fusion Power Crystals. Fragile. Do not stack. KEEP AWAY FROM ALL RADIATION.” The two men who were assigned to guiding the sealed crate on an antigrav trolley were complaining about the way the trolley managed to make the crate weigh absolutely nothing but did absolutely nothing to the object's inertia.
“...You'd think,” one worker said, panting as he tried to slowly shift the trolley slightly onto a new course without overcompensating, “That they could make these easier to handle. Get rid of Newton's laws or somethin'. I hate how these don't weigh nothing, but move like a giant marble on a greased floor. Why 'n the heck do they need more power crystals, anyhow? We got plenty.”
“Oh stop whining, I have to push this thing too, you know,” drifted the equally out-of-breath from the other side of the sealed crate. “Those damn scientists probably want them for that new secret weapon they're working on. What'd they call it? The Lucifer cannon? I tell ya, if the soldiers have to carry crates like this around they are never going to kill any of those god-damned aliens!”
The two men guffawed heartily, and managed to guide the trolley without incident onto the large freight elevator platform that was currently being loaded with goods from the freighter.
After the freight elevator was fully loaded—slightly past the 'official' maximum load limit, to prevent the hassle of two trips—the well-worn platform began to descend into the lab complex, destined for the large underground cargobay that housed most of the supplies for the base. After taking as much time as they could get away with admiring the heavily modified engines of the Renegade (“See? I told you that Miniga Shipyards upgraded their line of engines from the old PS-132s. You'd never see one of the older models on a ship like this,” to which another dockworker whispered, awestruck, “I heard it's got quantum deuterium injectors as part of the standard accessories package now!”), the dockworkers drifted back to other assignments.
While waiting for the cargo lift to arrive, the head foreman in the lower cargobay was drumming his fingers on the cargo control panel on the catwalk above the cargobay, and was vainly attempting to ignore one of the lab workers that was watching curiously over his shoulder and trying to explain to him the finer points of the new containment shield system.
“...see, the problem with the current force-containment system is that it simply draws too much power. Rather than power down the entire system—which would mean we'd have to find other ways to secure the alien specimens—we're going to use the backup power nodes in the reactor core to boost output by 25%. It's perfectly safe, especially since the USC assures us that this shipment of power crystals have been pre-matched to our rather unorthodox specs. Now we'll have enough power to run a safer, dual-containment shield system, without having to fully retrofit either the reactor or the shield emitters. Now that the crystals are here, they just need to be installed properly”
“Uh-huh.” The foreman, who hadn't really been paying attention to anything the scientist had been saying, was saved from having to reply further by the buzzing alarm that warned any workers in the cargobay to clear the area directly under the cargo elevator.
With a loud clang, the lift platform finally arrived and locked into place. Right on schedule, the robotic forklifts arrived and automatically began to transport them to pre-determined spaces in the cargobay. All of the forklifts save one were busy loading and moving materials throughout the echoing cargobay. Curious, the foreman called up the order for the 'lift, and saw that Forklift #7 was carrying a large shipment of power crystals that had been ordered to the reactor maintenance area as soon as they arrived. Shrugging his wide shoulders, the foreman watched the forklift disappear into one of the service tunnels that linked the lower levels of the lab.
The lab worker chose that moment to began talking again, this time describing the fine nuances of the forklift's robotic control system, while the foreman sighed and tried to think up a way of ejecting the talkative scientist from the cargobay in a way that would not cause bodily harm.
“All right people, let's crack this thing open and get started.”
Mary Marc stood before the sealed crate that held the power crystals for the fusion reactor, which was hidden deep within Tau Ceti V to prevent energy emissions from escaping into space. Mary and her co-workers were preparing to insert the crystals into the auxiliary power nodes to give the reactor a boost in output—in theory, at least—that would allow the rest of the base to be less stringent with the power restrictions that had been placed several days ago.
“All right. James, get ready to shut down the magnetic shields on nodes three, seven, and eleven. Baxter, come over her and lend me a hand with this crate.”
While James moved to the master reactor control board, Baxter picked up a heavy crowbar—some technology just couldn't be improved much from its basic form—and disengaged the magnetic seal around the crate. Inserting the end of the crowbar into the seam that ran along the side of the crate, he and Mary both leaned and threw their weight against it. With a sudden pop! the side of the crate broke free, giving them access to the crystals inside.
Mary reached inside and withdrew one of the crystals, which was roughly the size of her head and emitted a cool blue light. Holding the glowing crystal at eye level, she examined it carefully, but found no obvious flaws. She handed the weighty crystal to Baxter, who would scan it with a handheld scanner before it was judged adequate to be subjected to the temperatures of over 5000 K that were found in the fusion reactor nodes.
After a moment's examination, Baxter, too, nodded, and set the crystal carefully on the table. The process was repeated with the second crystal, when James spoke up, a note of concern in his voice.
“The backup shielding isn't kicking in. I can't get the computer to drop the main magnetic shields.”
“Override and drop both shields. The core will contain the plasma for several hours even without them. We won't be working for more than thirty minutes.”
James looked nervous, but nonetheless quickly moved to comply. “Aye ma'am. Shields down on nodes three, seven, and eleven.”
Over the intercomm, the computer's automated voice calmly announced, “Warning: Primary and Backup magnetic shielding units deactivated. Estimated time to meltdown: 4 hours.”
“James, shut the warning off, will you?” Mary requested as she reached in the crate to remove the third crystal. “I don't want to have to hear premonitions of doom every 5 minutes while we—“
Whatever Mary had been about to say she forgot about the instant her fingers touched what she had thought was the third power crystal. Instead of feeling the hard, slightly warm surface of the crystal, her fingertips touched something soft and organic-feeling, something that was not supposed to be in the crate at all.
“What the hell?” She quickly withdrew her hand and bent down to peer inside the dark recesses of the crate.
Less than thirty seconds later, all three members were sprawled on the floor, dead from peculiar wounds on their necks and heads.
The dretch that had been hiding inside the crate promptly vanished into an air duct, leaving behind the reactor control room, the three dead workers, and the warning lights that were beginning to flash frantically on the status board.
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