SODIUM:5 Assault (17 page)

This Human is asking for your help!

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I sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading this book. The first chapter of the next book in the series is provided below, I hope you enjoy it as well. Or, get the next in the series,
SODIUM:6 Defiance
, now!

The Kurtz and the Humans had been busy for four years. There had been no sign of the unknown attacker and their mammoth red ship. The Kurtz were building a planetary shield of their own around Toledus. The Humans continued to upgrade and tweak the one surrounding Earth. Transparent panels adorned the Sun facing side while the remainder was covered with the standard Sodium skin.

In the blink of an eye the Earth shield could be activated making the planet and its moon invisible. All forms of energy and mass would be absorbed by the Sodium skin and passed around to the opposite side where it would continue on its way. The mystery of the Sodium skin workings remained unrevealed.

Scientists had made several breakthroughs of not only stopping the electron spin of the Sodium skin, but of reversing that spin. Their only problem was that once the spin was reversed the material not only disappeared, but did not reappear when the high magnetic and gravity fields were turned off. The theory was that the material did not revert to its normal spin, but instead continued on to have a normal state with the opposite spin, effectively moving it into another dimension, all speculative of course.

The planet Alvin had grown to a population of almost two billion citizens. Earth had leveled out at four billion, and the twin worlds of Toledus and Mabia at nearly five billion souls each. The Alliance of Major Planets (AMP) was again hitting its stride.

Our latest Black Hole Drive (BHD) had reached an astounding 10,040 times the Speed of Light (SOL). The Starburst weapon had been improved from its cone shape; it would completely encompass a 1,000 man Marine transport. BGS suit power, food and filter packs had also been improved with the standard units integrated into the suit itself. The uniform belt held spares effectively giving the suit's wearer double the power, food and sustainability.

Scientific expeditions had resulted in the exploration of six new habitable planets and two new minor species. The species evolution was such that it was determined that it was better to leave them as they were, rather than to interfere. It was an edict I had put in place while Supreme Commander, but had never had the opportunity to use.

Hershen and I continued our life in captivity on the Frekkin ship and had fallen into a routine that bordered on complacence. It was a difficult task to maintain the physical readiness and mental state that I was sure would one day allow us to fight for our freedom. But that day of fight was not going to come.

The Frekkin scientist who had overseen our captivity came into our adjoined cells with a grin. We were then told that we would be going home. A ship was being prepared that would take us back to Earth where we would be released, no questions asked and no ransom to be paid. Our usefulness had reached its end and our captors had gained the knowledge they sought.

When the scientist left, I turned towards Hershen with a smile of disbelief. Was it over? Were we really being sent home? And what exactly was it that they had been able to achieve? Four guards soon appeared at our door and the transparent field keeping us captive was shut off. We were given our BGS suits and several techs assisted as we put them on.

We were then escorted down several hallways, down an elevator that moved from a Frekkin indicator of floor 1027 down to floor 18. The elevator opened into a massive hangar where a small black ship was being prepared.

We were marched on-board and then made to lie in stasis chambers for our journey home. We were not told how long that journey would be or how fast the ship would be moving. The Frekkin had no interest in giving away their new home position.

The transparent door to the stasis chamber was soon closed above me and a sedative mist filled the chamber’s air. As my eyes grew fuzzy I could see Frekkin engineers moving about in the ships single cabin. The outer door closed as I lost consciousness.

I was awakened by a small vibrating prod to my back. It was an irritating way to be awakened, but effective. I was soon standing in the cockpit and looking at what I knew to be the planet Saturn. We next passed Jupiter and Hershen stepped in and occupied the chair next to me.

As we passed through Mars' orbit I was taken aback by the giant silvery white ball that sat in the position that Earth should have occupied. I immediately began to curse the Frekkin wondering what it was that they had done. But I quickly came to the realization that it was indeed Earth, surrounded by an outer Sodium skin.

The ships receivers scanned all frequencies for signs of communications, but none were found. Our engineers had seen to it that the planet had gone dark to all signals that could be captured by an enemy. All communications were done through a new and improved QE comm transceiver.

But our defense teams were monitoring all incoming signals and a warship was soon riding alongside us. We were given an optical comm link to the warship and were soon floating dead in space, waiting to be boarded. Three Marines then blinked in behind us with their weapons drawn.

An hour later I was standing in a debriefing room on the planet. Hershen had been taken elsewhere for separate questioning. I cooperated fully and told the interrogators everything I knew. An hour after the questioning began one of my senior staffers arrived and stepped into the room.

The interrogators were soon dismissed and Colonel Robert Thomas got down to the business of filling me in on all that had transpired. I was saddened to hear of the demise of the 11 billion Borten citizens and their three worlds. I was then told that because I had been compromised by the Frekkin I would not be returning to my prior position as the Supreme Commander.

I had been replaced by a dozen members of my senior staff along with four members of the Kurtz. They had done well to protect Earth in my absence and I agreed with their reasoning as to my possible compromise. We were still at war with the Frekkin even though they had fled the general area. In the days after my return the black ship had sealed off and then misted itself. It had decomposed before our engineers could gather any information from it.

I was told that the Frekkin had made contact with Command using my QE comm. The message was brief and only mentioned that they were in possession of the QE comm device. Command had been told that if the Frekkin so desired, they would be in contact with them. They however, would not be responding to any inquiries or requests from us.

In my time in captivity I could tell the Frekkin was an advanced race when it came to their science. I was introduced to very little technology, but from my previous visit to their world and with what I had been able to see of the small black ship that brought us home, they were far ahead of us on many scientific fronts.

Hershen and I were refitted with new BGS suits and audio implants. We were then given 30 days leave to get ourselves back in order. Hershen was at a loss as to what to do so I invited him for a visit to the farm. When I arrived things had again changed.

Gone were the cornfields. They had been replaced by natural growth. Gone were the new barn and other buildings. All that remained was the modular home and a small garden and cow pin. When my air taxi landed I was a little uneasy when my parents, Zack's mother and Zack's wife came out to greet me in their own BGS suits. The civilian models were covered in pattern designs that were an attempt to give them a modern style. I was not impressed.

With all food being prepared in factories and stuffed into BGS suits and their food packs, there was no longer any need for farms. They had quickly become only a thing for die-hards and the curious few. The nutrients required by our suits were drawn mostly from the oceans.

With factories automated the Human day was largely filled with free time. My mother insisted of cultivating her small garden and my father had taken to studying gemology. They kept themselves entertained by interacting with other older couples in the holo-screen room. Various mystery and detective holo-games were among their favorites.

I wondered if we were not losing some of those Human qualities that had allowed us to survive. The desire to move ever forward and make better the lives for us and our offspring seemed to be missing. Everything was too easy and I wondered if one day it would lead us down the path of being lazy and being ill equipped to deal with hardship; a hardship that could easily return if we were to be attacked.

After an introductory game of Holo-Mystery-Theatre I sat out on the new modern porch with Hershen, discussing my thoughts. He was of the same mind. He wondered if the Kurtz on Toledus were doing the same; spending their time being entertained rather than pushing ever forward. We both wondered if our species' had reached a plateau. It was an unsavory thought.

When our leave ended we returned to Command and asked for assignments. Because of our long captivity we were not trusted to take on anything of a military nature. Instead, we were offered positions on the next science vessel to be launched in search of other planets. I jumped at the chance to once again be productive in some capacity and Hershen signed-on beside me.

The vessel was named the "The Saxon" and had a crew of 17 Human scientists, Hershen and myself. We were heading out on a one year assignment to explore the Flame Nebula. It was a two month ride out followed by eight months of exploration. Shortly after launch the crew members made their way to the stasis room and were soon fast asleep in a state of suspended animation.

Hershen and I chose instead to stay awake and to spend our time educating ourselves on the new politics of the AMP. As we listened to countless speeches we came to the conclusion that most of the decisions being made were along the lines of what I would have done had I been there. But there were distinct divides growing between Earth, Alvin and the Kurtz worlds. The latter were growing ever more independent as was evidenced by the tone in many Kurtz political speeches. But to date only the trend was worrisome.

As we slowed on our approach to the Alnitak system the stasis chambers returned our fellow passengers to their normal state. I was perfectly content with Hershen's company, but conversations with others were always welcome. As they entered the general crew room I had our destination showing on a large holo-screen.

Alnitak was a triple star system with the primary star being a blue giant that was 20 times the size of Earth's sun. The secondary star was a smaller blue dwarf which spun in a binary orbit with the primary. A third star, Alnitak c, was in a 1500 year orbit around the binary pair. It was a spectacular system with nine planets orbiting the binary pair while one was in orbit around Altinak c.

A quick discussion ensued and a decision was made to first investigate the single planet which was in close proximity to our location. Altinak c1 was at a distance that would make it a habitable planet, but the close proximity to the binary pair had seen to it that no life had been able to take hold. It maintained a thin atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and its surface was hard and rocky.

We next turned our attention to the fifth planet in orbit around the binary pair. It was a stunning blue planet with a thick atmosphere of 20% oxygen. Liquid oceans covered most of its surface with clouds forming distinct Earth-like weather patterns with rocky, snow covered mountain peaks pushing up through them. Our attention was immediately drawn to a small mass in orbit around the planet; a mass that was soon determined to not be natural.

The mass was made up of spherical structures that were interconnected to each other by long narrow tubes. It took on the uncanny resemblance of a giant molecule, a molecule hundreds of kilometers long. We approached slowly with our active skin on full.

We parked only a few hundred kilometers away and took study of the symbols on the structure and the signals emanating from it. Our linguistics expert was hard at work attempting to decode the alien information as it came in. I turned to Hershen and asked if he was ready for an adventure... he was.

After two days of study it was determined that there were no signs of life on-board and more importantly, no outward signs of hostility towards us. The team shut down the active skin allowing Hershen and I to begin our short jump to the alien station. We had been designated as first to go aboard due to our military training. While the rest of the team was in great physical condition because of their BGS suits, they did not have the training needed to deal with the unknown... we did.

The sphere we had selected was bright orange in color, standing out from the other blues and greens. As we approached I could see the exterior of the two kilometer diameter sphere was covered with piping and small utility junction boxes. There were no external indications of having any defenses or weapons.

We drifted through the outer wall and into a room that looked much like a cafeteria, only the scale was much bigger. A dim glow was visible from a minimum of lighting. The room was deserted.

When we blinked in I was startled as the lighting in the room automatically came on full. Quick estimates told that the normal occupants of the room would have been three meters tall, similar to the biblical giants of Gath in stature. I hoped we would not have to play David and Goliath.

Our linguistics expert was excited by the video feed coming back from our helmet cams. The various food signs with their symbols would go a long way towards decoding their language. Everything in the room was bright and white and clean in appearance. As I approached a counter I was again startled when a giant holo-head popped into view. I could only imagine by the expressions on its face that it was telling of the daily specials.

Several electronic holo-posters adorning the walls were showing different scenes with the giant alien species being featured going about different tasks. One scene was particularly interesting as it showed a pair of aliens surfing down a snowy hillside on the equivalent of a snowboard. Other than a craggy face the aliens could have easily been mistaken for giant Humans.

As we walked towards a doorway it slid open with a nearly silent wisp. I peered slowly out into the mostly dark hallway beyond, looking intently in both directions before stepping out. The automatic lighting again kicked on illuminating the area we were in.