didn’t know the answer to that but I hazarded a guess anyway. “Maybe because its mission was over,” I said. “It had a weapons hold but by the time we captured it, the hold was empty.”
“We haven’t had any weapons detonate or deploy on Nova though.”
“That’s good. Maybe they didn’t even use them on your planet. But if they did, maybe there’s still time to find them.”
David lifted his palm to his face and said into it, “Alert ground control about a possible breach. A Bleeder ship was discovered coming from Nova and it seems it might have deployed some type of weapon.”
Rick added, “Our tech geeks can send your people readouts of the types of electrical and chemical signatures to look for.”
Ground control said, “I’ve alerted the authorities.” Then he said candidly, “What are our ancestors like then?”
David looked around the room and said, “I don’t have the proper vocabulary to describe what they’ve achieved in such a short amount of time. You’d have to see for yourself.”
“Take some pictures for us.”
“Only if they say it’s ok.”
An alarm sounded which meant someone had arrived in the skin bay. The captain ignored it so the arrival must have been expected.
When a modified A.C.E. unit walked into the room, I could tell it was Peggy, Rick’s fellow warrior and savior of the Conquistador, just by the markings on the skin.
It was overkill now though. Apparently the aliens were weak cowards, already toppled by our cousins long ago.
Weapons of Global Destruction
With the help of the tech guys, the Novans were able to find several weapons of global destruction buried equidistant from each other across the surface of the planet.
It took a full week to find them all, during which we were allowed, even encouraged, to move our warships into orbit around Nova. Everyone was treating this like a family reunion.
No one knew why the weapons hadn’t detonated already. One of the tech guys said, “Maybe they malfunctioned or maybe the aliens had to get far enough away before they detonated them to avoid the shockwave?”
We had no idea so we accepted his explanation easily, if only to move past it and on to bigger things.
Nova
Nova orbited a star close in size, age and brightness to our sun. The planet was about ten percent smaller than Earth with an atmosphere that was comparable but hardly ideal. But the human inhabitants had taken to it and adapted over the six or eight generations they’d been there.
The couple million people that had been abducted had grown to over a hundred million in the two hundred years since.
The truth is that we felt bad for them. If we’d known any of them had survived, maybe we would have searched out the Bleeders more vigorously? But they seemed pretty happy, all things considered.
The Novan council shuttled up to meet us in person. There were four members, with four remaining behind, just in case.
We could only guess what just in case really meant. Did it mean, just in case this was a trap and we killed them? Did it mean, just in case we abducted them? But it wasn’t unreasonable for them to be suspicious of us. We were guests here; they got to call the shots in this neighborhood.
David and Sarah went back to their own ship after we’d grilled them about the entire history of their people. I’m pretty sure they were sick to death of answering our stupid questions.
The captain and his first mate were even granted access to the surface but they declined the invitation.
The Novans had tried their best to acclimate to the alien tech but it was pretty obvious they hadn’t quite figured it out yet. Their suits were too big and clumsy.
Their ships jittered around sometimes out of control. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Mech Madness
The delay in action gave me a chance to talk to Rick a little more about our predicament. We were both dead, and I for one was not handling it very well.
He tried his best to
“We haven’t had any weapons detonate or deploy on Nova though.”
“That’s good. Maybe they didn’t even use them on your planet. But if they did, maybe there’s still time to find them.”
David lifted his palm to his face and said into it, “Alert ground control about a possible breach. A Bleeder ship was discovered coming from Nova and it seems it might have deployed some type of weapon.”
Rick added, “Our tech geeks can send your people readouts of the types of electrical and chemical signatures to look for.”
Ground control said, “I’ve alerted the authorities.” Then he said candidly, “What are our ancestors like then?”
David looked around the room and said, “I don’t have the proper vocabulary to describe what they’ve achieved in such a short amount of time. You’d have to see for yourself.”
“Take some pictures for us.”
“Only if they say it’s ok.”
An alarm sounded which meant someone had arrived in the skin bay. The captain ignored it so the arrival must have been expected.
When a modified A.C.E. unit walked into the room, I could tell it was Peggy, Rick’s fellow warrior and savior of the Conquistador, just by the markings on the skin.
It was overkill now though. Apparently the aliens were weak cowards, already toppled by our cousins long ago.
Weapons of Global Destruction
With the help of the tech guys, the Novans were able to find several weapons of global destruction buried equidistant from each other across the surface of the planet.
It took a full week to find them all, during which we were allowed, even encouraged, to move our warships into orbit around Nova. Everyone was treating this like a family reunion.
No one knew why the weapons hadn’t detonated already. One of the tech guys said, “Maybe they malfunctioned or maybe the aliens had to get far enough away before they detonated them to avoid the shockwave?”
We had no idea so we accepted his explanation easily, if only to move past it and on to bigger things.
Nova
Nova orbited a star close in size, age and brightness to our sun. The planet was about ten percent smaller than Earth with an atmosphere that was comparable but hardly ideal. But the human inhabitants had taken to it and adapted over the six or eight generations they’d been there.
The couple million people that had been abducted had grown to over a hundred million in the two hundred years since.
The truth is that we felt bad for them. If we’d known any of them had survived, maybe we would have searched out the Bleeders more vigorously? But they seemed pretty happy, all things considered.
The Novan council shuttled up to meet us in person. There were four members, with four remaining behind, just in case.
We could only guess what just in case really meant. Did it mean, just in case this was a trap and we killed them? Did it mean, just in case we abducted them? But it wasn’t unreasonable for them to be suspicious of us. We were guests here; they got to call the shots in this neighborhood.
David and Sarah went back to their own ship after we’d grilled them about the entire history of their people. I’m pretty sure they were sick to death of answering our stupid questions.
The captain and his first mate were even granted access to the surface but they declined the invitation.
The Novans had tried their best to acclimate to the alien tech but it was pretty obvious they hadn’t quite figured it out yet. Their suits were too big and clumsy.
Their ships jittered around sometimes out of control. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Mech Madness
The delay in action gave me a chance to talk to Rick a little more about our predicament. We were both dead, and I for one was not handling it very well.
He tried his best to
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