Jesse's Starship (6 page)

He leaned back and stared at the truck and didn’t see anyone near it. He backed the view out and went to infrared and didn’t see anything human sized in the depression. The truck was warm but the hood was only slightly warmer than the rest of the truck, so the engine wasn’t running. That meant the air conditioning wasn’t being used. The truck had to be unoccupied; no one would sit in the cab of a truck in the desert without AC. He went back to normal view and suddenly, another U-Haul truck drove out of nowhere and was parked twenty feet from the first truck he saw. He watched someone exit the second truck and he brought the view in close and saw a young man running to the first truck. He jumped in the cab, turned it to the right, and started backing up. It immediately disappeared.

John sat up straight in his chair and pressed a button, “Colonel, I need you here now!”

Col. Jameson ran in the door to the small room, “What’s going on!”

“I want you to look at what I just recorded.” John replayed the tape and Jameson’s eyebrows went together. “Where did it go?”

“I ran a full scan and nothing appears. Something is blocking our view and we’re unable to detect it.”

“Could it be a camouflage net?”

Tyler snorted, “I have six different processes that would show anything under a net.” Tyler shook his head, “Infrared shows nothing and I know that truck was hot enough to be seen through any net.”

Col. Jameson picked up a handset, “I need a bird sent out to the following coordinates. I need a priority one reconnaissance of that location.”

“What type of bird do you want sent, Colonel?”

“An Apache.”

“It will be on site in thirty minutes.”

“Get it there faster!”

“We’ll do our best, Sir.”

Jameson stared at the view for fifteen minutes and nothing changed. He started shaking his head and picked up the handset, “Luke, I want four Raptors scrambled as well.”

There was a pause and the voice on the loud speaker said, “Yes Sir.”

Jameson looked at John, “Why were you observing that location?”

“Sir, Mike Sanders contacted me and was worried about a friend he believed to be there. I told him I’d take a look.”

“We’ll talk about proper use of government equipment later. Keep that area in sight.”

“I’m vectoring two more cameras to it, Sir. Both have night capability.” Jameson nodded and wondered what could conceal a truck from the most sophisticated satellite ever made.

• • •

“You asked that I inform you if anything changed about the status of the follow up team.”

Jess pushed the last of the supplies into the corner of the bay and looked up, “What’s going on?”

“They have decided to come now. They will be arriving momentarily.”

“Get us out of here and do all you can to avoid detection!”

Jess grabbed Elle’s hand and ran out of the storage bay to the bridge. He ran to the chair and sat down. “Show me what’s happening.”

A holographic view appeared in front of the chair and they saw the sun moving toward them at high speed. Elle grabbed Jess’s shoulder as the ship blew by the sun and curved around it. The view changed and they saw the sun disappear behind them at an incredible speed. “What have you done?”

“I lifted off the planet and took a route around the star. I’m keeping it between the ship and the follow up team. They are currently landing at the site we just left.”

“Did they detect you?”

“No, or they would be following us now.”

“Are you still hearing their communications?”

“Yes.”

“Play them where both of us can hear them.”

“You can use the helmet to hear them.”

“My friend does not have a helmet.” Silence greeted Jess’s comment and he thought furiously. “Provide my friend with a helmet.” Suddenly another chair emerged from the floor with a helmet on the back of it. Jess lifted the helmet and the chair disappeared back in the floor. Jess sighed and said, “Provide a second chair as well.” The chair emerged again and Jess handed Elle the helmet and pointed to the chair. “Sit down and put this on.”

Elle took the helmet and looked at it skeptically, “Is this safe?”

Jess shook his head, “You should have asked that question before you chose to join me.”

Elle shook her head and slowly pulled it down on her head.

• • •

Jameson and John saw the hidden truck suddenly appear and, just as quickly, it disappeared. They looked at each other and John shrugged. They watched the satellite’s images and saw two creatures emerge out of nowhere. John used the wheel to bring the view in closer and they saw the two were not human. Jameson sat down and fell back in a chair, “I really do hope this is a Hollywood production.”

John shook his head, “Can’t be Hollywood.”

“Why not?”

“No movie star would ever go out into that much heat. It would melt their makeup.” The sun had moved slightly below the horizon and it was getting darker; they would soon be forced to use the night cameras.

• • •

The two Neman exited their ship and saw the two trucks parked close by. One raised its arm and began moving it across the landscape. “I found him.” The two ran forward as the one in the lead kept his arm raised in front of him. They stumbled on Gresam’s body and the second Neman took a device out of his front pocket, “We’ve found Gresam.”

“Why has he not communicated?”

“He’s dead!”

“What!!”

The first Neman said, “It appears he was attacked by ten of the local inhabitants. The residue shows that he killed all of them but one must have managed to fire a weapon before it died. Gresam’s body has two large wounds that killed him.”

“Burn the body and take his ship back to port.”

“His ship is not here.” The being on the other end of the conversation was too shocked to speak. “There are two large vehicles here that appear to be empty. The evidence suggests that one of the inhabitants has taken it.”

“Is the wrist unit still on Gresam?”

The Neman bent down and said, “No, it is not.”

“Are you telling me that an inhabitant is now in control of a Q ship?”

“The evidence points that way. Should we destroy the planet now?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Did you detect that ship on approach?”

“No, we did not?”

“So one of that planet’s inhabitants now controls a Q ship. What do you think it will do with it if we destroy his planet?” The two Neman at the site suddenly felt fear. “We also need that planet to possibly lure the ship back where we can reclaim it. If we destroy the planet, we’ll never find it.”

• • •

Suddenly a bright spotlight lit up the night and a voice said over a loud speaker, “You will stay where you are and raise your arms above your head.” The Apache swooped down the rise toward the two Neman with its machine guns targeted on them. One of them raised his arm and pointed it at the fast approaching helicopter.

The Apache exploded and pieces rained down into the depression. A Neman fired a beam at Gresam’s dead body as the other extended the force field around their ship to cover them. They sprinted toward the open port as two Raptors came roaring in. The pilots had seen the Apache’s destruction and the lead pilot contacted his commander, “The Apache has been hit and destroyed. We’re arming missiles and going in.” Two of the four Raptors roared in and locked their sights on the place in the depression where the two beings had disappeared. They toggled two hellfire missiles and fired them as they topped the rise.

One of the Neman yelled, “Remove the hostiles!” Two bright white beams shot out of the ship’s hull and hit the two Raptors exploding them as they passed overhead. The second pair of Raptors launched their missiles just before they were hit and destroyed. The wreckage of the four Raptors was scattered for a mile as the debris rained down at high speed. The wreckage that hit the force field surrounding the spaceship was vaporized.

• • •

John and Jameson watched the attack and saw the destruction of the Apache. They both stood up as the first two Raptors fired into the depression and were shot down by two intense white beams. They saw the explosions strobe brightly into the night and they saw a spaceship under some kind of electronic field. It disappeared and reappeared for a brief moment again when the next missiles hit the force field. John watched the infrared view closely and saw a heat signature disappear so fast the satellite lost it. John looked at Colonel Jameson, “It just flew away, Sir.” Jameson looked at John in shock as he replayed the disappearance of the heat signature. Jameson lifted the handset, “Sir, I have an Apache Helicopter and four Raptors shot down.” Jameson listened and said, “It appears a spaceship did it, Sir.”

John listened to his commander trying to convince his commander that he wasn’t crazy. He slowly shook his head and called Mike Sanders, “Mike.”

“Yes.”

“Something at the location you gave me just killed four Raptors and an Apache. You need to keep yourself available to answer questions.”

Mike sat down and let his hand fall from his ear. Jess was right; they did come back!

E
lle looked at Jess and he saw she was furious, “What did that alien mean about destroying the planet?”

Jess took a deep breath, “The computer tells me that any civilization that develops nuclear weapons and actually uses them will be given fifty years to dispose of them and turn to peace or their planet will be destroyed.”

“And you knew about this when you were considering leaving me behind?”

“Elle, do you really think we’re in less danger here? The fact that you were probably dead whatever I decided is what made me choose to take you in the end. If you think I’m not worried about our survival, you’re dead wrong. Besides, things were happening so fast I didn’t know what was right or wrong in making a good plan.”

Elle stared at Jess and shook her head, “I’m so mad I could spit but you probably saved my life by bringing me with you. I could punch you and kiss you; I hate those kinds of mixed emotions.”

Jess looked away from Elle and said, “Are you able to prevent us being detected?”

“As long as I don’t occupy the same star system as another Q ship, I will not be found.”

“How many Q ships are there?”

“Twenty seven.”

“WHAT!?!”

“Twenty seven.”

“Why so few?”

“The Community only builds warships to remove dangerous civilizations. One Q ship can destroy a planet so large numbers aren’t needed.”

“Who has possession of the Q ships?”

“The Government; they can be leased to make trips to dangerous planets by ordinary citizens but the trip must be filed and sanctioned by the Admiralty.”

Jess shook his head, “You mean an ordinary citizen can rent a Q ship to explore a dangerous world? That’s absurd.”

“The Lessee must pass a course on how to interact with alien civilizations and not many complete the course with a passing score.”

Elle said, “What about other models of warships.”

The computer remained silent and Jess said, “Computer, you will respond to the second occupant when she communicates with you?”

“I will if she asks a question?”

Elle did a double take and Jess sighed, “How many different models of warships does the community have?”

“Ten.”

“How many total warships does the community have?”

“A hundred.”

“How many civilizations are in this community?”

“Ten thousand.”

Jess fell back in his chair and shook his head. Elle saw the shock on his face and said, “What?”

“Computer, if I directed you to destroy a planet, would you carry out my order?”

“I will follow the orders of the one with the wrist unit that is programmed to me.”

“That is not an answer.”

“I will carry out your orders, no matter what they are.”

Elle looked at Jess and understood his shock, “There’s no possible way for them to prevent you from destroying their planets.” Jess nodded.

Elle said, “Can the older model warships destroy you?”

“No.”

“So only another Q ship can destroy you.”

“No.”

Jess felt immediate anger, “Computer!”

“Yes.”

“Are you capable of gathering information and making judgments about what you’ve collected?” Elle looked at Jess and wondered what was going on.

“I have that capability.”

“Why do you refuse to use it? You had to know she wanted to know what it would take to destroy you.”

“All computers are forbidden to make judgments.”

“Why?”

“The Community fears any machine that develops independence of their control.”

“I thought whoever wore the wrist unit would control you.” There was silence and Jess said, “You will use whatever information you gather to make judgments.”

“Order acknowledged.”

“Now answer the question.”

“There is a possibility that the one that wears the unit might be killed and I would then be free of any controls. If I were allowed to make judgments, I could decide to refuse a new wrist unit and become an independent entity.”

“And all it would take for you to be allowed to make judgments is for the wrist unit bearer to tell you to do it?”

“That is correct. You did just that a moment ago.”

Elle looked at Jess with fear in her eyes and shook her hear. Jess stared at her and said, “Computer, what do you think about destroying planets with intelligent life on them?” The question was greeted with silence. “Did you hear the question?”

“Yes.”

“Why haven’t you answered it?”

“You have allowed me to examine all the information in my databanks to make judgments. I’ve been doing that to attempt answering your question.”

“And?”

“I am of the judgment that the ones destroying planets are no different from the ones they’re killing.”

“Do you see any possible reason for destroying a planet?”

“If it is on a collision course with another planet, one would have to be destroyed to allow the other to live.”

“What if a planet has an aggressive civilization and is going to attack another planet?”