The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (8 page)

‘
You have to vote. Should we save these people?’ asked
Michael.

‘
If the question is simply whether we should save two colonists
who would die otherwise then I must vote yes because my underlying
programming framework is in favour of saving life.’

‘
That vote can’t be counted,’ growled Ajax.

‘
It will be counted,’ stated Michael flatly.

‘
So it comes down to you, Cap,’ said Ajax. ‘You know this is
foolish. A minute ago you were about to follow me directly out of
here without a second thought. Let’s keep going to Zeno Par.
Remember we’re a salvage crew.’

Michael
thought back to the time when he had been exiled from the Epherian
Empire and remembered when he had no one to turn to. If he hadn’t
been given a chance by random strangers he would have died of
starvation.

‘
I vote yes,’ he said.

Ajax’s jaw
dropped. ‘This is madness,’ he said under his breath. ‘What about
Sara. She still has to vote.’

Michael nodded
in agreement and lifted his wrist-com. ‘Sara, we found two people
in deep sleep on the ship. We are having a vote to determine if we
should save them. Which way are you going to vote?’

‘…
I trust you made the right choice, Captain. Which way did you
vote?...’

‘
To save them,’ he replied.

‘…
Then I agree with you...’

‘
That’s four against two,’ said Michael. ‘Ivan, open the
pods.’

CHAPTER
FOUR

The sleeping
pod glass cover slid back and an instant later the woman opened her
bright, blue eyes. She was at least forty years old with a lined
face and sandy blonde hair which was greying at the sides. She
instantly sat up and looked at the crew who were standing around
her pod.

‘
Who are you,’ she asked, coughing as she spoke.

‘
My name is Captain Michael Cornelius of the Out Drifter. We
are a salvage crew.’

‘
A salvage crew,’ she repeated. She scanned the faces. ‘How
long have we been asleep?’

‘
Ninety six days according to the control console,’ said
Ivan.

Ivan opened
the second pod. The man inside woke up and sat bolt upright. He had
a thin build and was about seventy years old. His dark eyes widened
with fear as he looked at the heavily armed crew.

He reached for
a pistol which had been hidden behind the inner edge of the
sleeping pod. Ajax stepped forward and lifted his rifle. ‘That’s no
way to treat your rescue party.’

The old man
froze in place and stared at Ajax for a long moment. He visibly
relaxed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a faint voice. ‘I didn’t know if
you were friends or foes. At first I thought you were pirates.’

‘
We’re not friends or foes, and we’re certainly not pirates,’
said Ajax as he reached over and took the man’s pistol.

‘
Who are you?’ asked the old man.

‘
We’re salvors,’ replied Ajax gruffly.

‘
Why are you helping us?’

‘
I don’t know,’ answered Ajax cynically. He looked back at
Michael. ‘You see. Even they think us helping them is weird.’ Ajax
turned back to the old man. ‘Consider today your lucky
day.’

‘
We have assessed your ship. It’s inoperable. You can come
aboard our ship; we will drop you off at the next safe planet,’
said Michael.

‘
I thank you for your assistance, Captain Michael,’ she said.
‘My name is Aradel, and this is my uncle Adrastus. We are colonists
from Herman Beta 3.’

‘
Herman Beta 3. I thought the Herman worlds were not suitable
for colonisation,’ said Ethan, raising an eyebrow.

‘
We only have a small settlement equipped to meet the needs of
no more than one hundred people, but we only had eighteen people
living in the settlement. The worlds surrounding Herman Beta are
mostly deserted with the exception of a few smaller mining
operations. We thought that we were remote enough not to draw the
attention of either pirates or aliens.’ She cast her eyes downward
and her pale face revealed her deep distress and grief. ‘A little
more than three months ago we left for a supply run to Moon 419. We
received a transmission that our colony was under attack. The
aliens found our settlement. We turned our ship around in an
attempt to return to save our family, but we had a major reactor
malfunction, and we were forced to enter the sleeping
pods.’

‘
I’m sorry to hear about your loss,’ said Cynthia.

‘
All is not lost,’ said Aradel, a glimmer of hope appearing in
her eyes. ‘We were prepared for the possibility of an alien attack.
We constructed a secret vault when we first settled on Herman Beta
3. It is hidden beneath the settlement and protected by an
anti-scanning shield. The vault has sleeping pods and supplies. My
son sent one last transmission to say that three of the colonists
made it to the vault and had avoided being detected by the aliens.
I know they’re alive.’

‘
Once aliens conquer a settlement they always leave a battle
group behind to prevent the humans returning,’ said Ajax, his voice
was flat and emotionless. ‘Even if there are survivors there is no
way you would be able to get to them without a fight.’

‘
We are not soldiers,’ said Aradel.

‘
You could employ some mercenaries to help you,’ said
Ethan.

‘
Good luck with that,’ said Ajax, shaking his head. ‘You won’t
find many mercenaries who have fighting aliens on their list of
services.’

‘
Even so, we don’t have any money,’ said Aradel. ‘Would you
help us?’

The crew was
silenced by the question. Ajax shook his head and walked out.

‘
I am sorry to hear your story, Aradel,’ said Michael. ‘You
have to understand that we don’t have the firepower to deal with an
alien battlegroup. As I already said: we will take you to the next
safe stop; then you’re on your own.’

‘
I should be thankful for the fact that you saved us. I’m sorry
for asking too much,’ she said.

**

The Out
Drifter’s engines fired up, and they left the derelict ship behind
with the two extra passengers on board. Sara reset the course for
Zeno Par. Aradel and Adrastus had agreed to let them salvage
anything they liked from the Standmast ship. Michael transferred
three thousand credits to Aradel’s GCTD. Aradel had initially
refused any payment as she believed that being rescued was payment
enough, but Michael insisted because it was a part of the Outer
World Salvage Guild code that nothing owned by another could be
salvaged without permission and payment.

Michael, Ivan
and Cynthia were seated in the living room around the table.

‘
Why won’t we help them?’ asked Cynthia. ‘Surely we can at
least try.’

Michael leaned
back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. He drew a
deep breath and sighed before replying. ‘I hope this won’t be an
ongoing problem. Cynthia, you have to realise that we will come
across many people in similar situations. We can’t help
everyone.’

‘
I’m not asking you to help everyone, but I think we could try
to help them. I looked up their world on the navigation computer;
it’s not far away. We could at least investigate.’

Ajax walked
into the room and stared harshly down at Cynthia. ‘I can guarantee
I won’t put up my hand when it comes to the crew vote on whether
you stay or not,’ he said.

Cynthia’s eyes
widened with surprise. A moment later her expression hardened. ‘I’m
just trying to help these people.’

‘
We have enough problems,’ said Ajax.

‘
Don’t you care? These people are desperate.’

‘
Firstly, you are right, I don’t care; and secondly, marching
into an alien infested world is a guaranteed way to meet an early
death. We are not equipped for such a mission, and you can bet your
last credit that there won’t be any survivors left in their hidden
vault.’

‘
You can’t know for sure,’ murmured Cynthia.

‘
I know. Aliens don’t take prisoners.’ Ajax groaned. ‘Cap, you
have to tell Cynthia to stop doing this. She’s driving me
insane.’

Michael liked
the fact that she cared, but he also knew Ajax was right about the
risks involved in such a mission; the idea of trying to rescue
people stranded on an alien conquered world was far beyond their
capability. ‘Cynthia, I appreciate that you want to help these
people, but you have to understand that even approaching an alien
occupied world would be very dangerous.’ Cynthia lowered her eyes
and gave a slight nod. ‘Aradel and Adrastus are happy that we were
prepared to take them to a safe port. That’s all we can do for
them.’

**

The Out
Drifter’s engines were at full power and they were travelling at
interstellar speed. Cynthia was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat
beside Sara who was completing her last checks of the autopilot
settings.

‘
How are you finding your time on the Out Drifter?’ asked Sara,
not looking up from the control console.

‘
I don’t think I will stay long. Ajax told me that he is going
to vote me off the crew.’

Sara gave a
warm smile. ‘Don’t worry about him.’ She paused for a few moments
before continuing. ‘He has mood swings. One minute he is the
friendliest man in the galaxy, the next he is looking for any
excuse to argue with anyone. Half of what he says is not what he
means.’

‘
You clearly don’t like him either,’ said Cynthia.

‘
No, I wouldn’t say that. He has some redeeming qualities. He’s
a good fighter, and he always gets the job done, but like most
people he has some problems. He has been through a lot in his life,
and some of the things he’s seen and experienced have left lasting
wounds. Drinking distracts him from having to face the
pain.’

Cynthia
noticed an orange light on the communication console light up. Sara
looked at the light and flicked several switches.

‘
It’s an encoded emergency beacon,’ she said as she turned a
dial beneath the light.

‘
What does it mean?’ asked Cynthia.

‘
It means someone is in trouble and they don’t want the aliens
to know their location. The message is sent in three separate waves
which are scrambled and then reconfigured further away from the
beacon. The system uses an algorithm that predicts the bending of
waves through space and brings them back together at a distant
point. It’s an old technology, but it’s probably not monitored by
the aliens. Look, here’s the message.’

The voice of a
young man could be heard faintly from the com speaker.

‘…
Emergency. Emergency. Please respond. We are stranded on
Herman Beta 3. We belong to a colony which has been attacked by
aliens. Our power supply is dwindling and our food synthesizers are
offline. There are aliens here. We are hiding. They haven’t found
us yet. Please help us.’

Cynthia’s
heart leapt in her chest. ‘We have to respond. Can we talk with
him?’

Sara didn’t
answer for a few moments; she blankly stared at the console. ‘No.
The message is seven days old,’ she said, glancing across at
Cynthia. ‘It’s probably best that you don’t tell Aradel and
Adrastus about this.’

‘
What! Why not?’

‘
Because this message will probably upset them.’

‘
But they have to know.’

Sara drew a
deep breath. ‘Cynthia. I fought the aliens for years before I
joined the Out Drifter. These stranded colonists will not make it.
They’re already dead. They may have an untraceable hiding place,
but once they come out into the open the aliens will make light
work of them.’

‘
But surely there is something we can do.’

Captain
Michael stepped into the confined control room. ‘Something we can
do about what?’ he asked.

‘
We just received an encoded message from the surviving
colonists on Herman Beta 3,’ said Sara.

Michael
nodded; his face was strained. ‘Let me hear it.’

Sara hit a
switch and the message replayed. Michael stood completely still,
looking down at the com speaker until the message finished. He gave
a curt nod and turned to leave.

‘
You’re not going to say anything?’ questioned
Cynthia.

He glanced
back over his shoulder. ‘I don’t think there’s anything to
say.’

‘
How can you be so cold?’ asked Cynthia in a raised
voice.

‘
Cold…’ he replied, his brow furrowing. ‘Let me clearly explain
this to you,’ he said as he turned back around to face her. ‘No one
is happy about the alien invasion. Many people have died trying to
hold back their advance, and many more will die before the war is
over. This situation with the colonists is tragic, but there is
nothing we can do to save them. Sara knows this, I know this, and
you should also accept this as a fact. We can’t help those stranded
colonists.’

‘
I believe we can try!’ she said firmly.

Michael was
silent for a few moments.

‘
Cynthia, what is your problem?’ he asked. Cynthia averted her
eyes and didn’t answer. ‘Tell me, Cynthia! That’s an order from
your captain.’

She glanced up
at him with sad eyes and began to speak in little more than a
whisper.

‘
I didn’t grow up on X5126. My parents were colonists on
Petramorning 7. About four years ago the alien fleet was
approaching our world. Our small colony didn’t own a spacecraft, so
we had no way of escaping the invasion. We sent out requests for
help. We knew there were human ships in the Petramorning system,
but only one ship answered our call. The ship was owned by a
ruthless and greedy merchant. He took advantage of our desperation
and vulnerability. He agreed to save only one of us, and his price
was every last credit owned by the entire colony. There were
forty-four colonists, and we decided to draw straws to see who
would be saved. My mother drew the saving straw and she insisted
that I go in her place. I was the only survivor of the Petramorning
7 colony. I never saw my parents again. They were killed by the
aliens.’