Solar Star

The spaces between the crates were getting smaller and smaller, but there were still quite a few to somehow squeeze in as Maclyn looked around him and sighed. Kate mopped her forehead and looked up at him.

‘Where to now?’ she asked.

He frowned.

‘I guess that small crate can go up here,’ he finally replied.

She nodded.

Between them and the anti-gravity handles, they manoeuvred the crate relatively easily and sat it upon two others. It was hot, dirty and extremely sweaty work and both of them longed to shower and change into some dry, clean clothes, but with Solar Star due any minute they didn’t have any time to waste on such luxuries. There was still so much left to do, but the crates had stopped appearing from the smaller cargo bay, so Maclyn assumed that it was now empty and being made into accommodation for some of the Sakkara community. Armin could certainly crack the whip when he wanted to and Maclyn was impressed as with only forty or so people he’d got the spare cabins emptied of accumulated junk and cleaned, the smaller cargo area empty and arranged to hold seven families and even found a space for the expected animals. His organisational skills left Maclyn feeling decidedly inadequate, as the little man rattled off lists of orders to his workers and seemed to be able to juggle people and jobs in his head, yet still know what order things should be accomplished in and what there was left to do. As Kate helped him heave the last crate on top of two others, Armin appeared at the door.

‘How are you doing?’ he asked.

Kate blew out her cheeks and flashed him one of her beautiful smiles.

‘We’ve finished oh master,’ she said jokingly.

He beamed back, having taken far more offensive insults from his fellow shipmates.

‘That’s good slaves,’ he replied. ‘The Solar Star is on final approach, so I need you both to help settle them in.’

Maclyn nodded and he and Kate weaved their way between towering columns of supplies to the door of the bay and out into some cooler air. Armin grinned at their dishevelled appearance but refrained from saying anything.

‘Is the ship alright?’ Maclyn asked him as the three of them walked down the back ramp into the hanger.

‘I don’t know, I just got a message from traffic control that she was on finals to land, nothing else.’

He glanced at his timepiece.

‘She’s made good time, so I doubt they had any problems.’

‘No but it’s not going to be easy doing it again,’ Maclyn said.

All further conversation had to wait as the roar of Solar Star’s reverse thrusts made it quite clear that she had indeed arrived. The black ship lumbered around at the end of the runway and started back towards them. She was ungainly on terraferma, but this was not her natural element; once in the sky, she had the grace of a shark roaming the deep dark oceans, sleek and somewhat predatory. Her very shape was reminiscent of this beautiful creature, but without a top fin and with a double tail, which were her main engines redesigned by Ty. This was just one of many new design concepts she possessed, put in after bitter experience on ships whose designers had never been in space. The new Solar Star made use of past mistakes, making her hopefully safer and more self-sufficient than any other ship currently operational, and her crew were proud to serve on her. Kate having been one of the first to join had seen many new people join her and they had become a close knit family of 37, most of whom had been involved with ensuring their part of the ship was the best it could be. Now here she was finally completed and on her first mission, and as Kate looked at Maclyn, she found she wasn’t the only one wiping a small tear of pride from her eye. The towering craft stopped about fifty metres from them and the engine pitch dropped to idle, making it easier to talk so Maclyn pulled out his hand held communicator and said.

‘Maclyn to Solar Star.’

‘Solar Star receiving,’ came Su-min’s crisp professional voice.

‘How’d it go?’ Maclyn said quickly.

‘No problems, but we want to turn around quickly.’

‘Acknowledge. We’re ready and waiting.’

Before he’d finished speaking the alarm rang as the back ramp started to come down. They moved quickly to the back of the ship just as the first people were led, slightly dazed and bewildered, out into the cold morning air. They came clutching bags of possessions and small infants and the elderly and there seemed to be more than a hundred. A multi-coloured rainbow of people, animals and possessions were milling around, not sure of where to go next. Out of the crowd Maclyn spotted a gleam of red hair and suddenly Doctor Roedensky emerged, followed by two elderly ladies. On seeing Maclyn she made her way to him.

‘Mac, this is Naaren and Nestor.’

He smiled and nodded to them both, noting how frail they appeared.

’These ladies have the list of families and supplies,’she continued.

Behind her the crates were being unloaded.

‘I’ll leave you with Maclyn,’ she said and turned abruptly to make sure the ship didn’t leave without her.

Maclyn began the belated introductions.

‘I’m sorry; Doctor Roedensky can be a little...’

He paused.

‘Abrupt, young man.’ The smaller of the two said gently with a twinkle in her pale blue eyes.

He had to agree her bedside manner often left a lot to be desired.

‘Well yes,’ he said. ‘Anyway, welcome to Denver. I’m Maclyn Jones, First Officer on Solar Star and this is Armin Zimmerman, who is the First Officer on Red Rocket.’

Armin stepped forward and said.

‘Welcome Ladies, I think I should take you over to our ship and with your help get some of these people settled.’

Nestor took his offered hand and grinned, as he was the same height as her and she liked him immediately.

‘Alright young man, we know everyone, so it won’t take us long to sort this out.’

The noise and chaotic scenes going on behind them left both Maclyn and Kate in doubt that that was true, but they were more than happy to leave them to it. Anyway Maclyn wasn’t going to be left behind again, so as soon as Armin took the ladies off, he made for the ramp, reaching it just as the last three huge 10 x 4 crates were coming down he dodged around them and found he wasn’t alone. Kate had run behind him and darted between the crates and into the hold before he could stop her.

‘Hey, what are you doing,’ he said.

‘The same as you,’ she shouted back over her shoulder and she carried on walking, making him follow her if he wanted to continue the conversation.

He shook his head and ran after her as the ramp began to rise.

‘Kate wait up,’ he shouted in exasperation.

She smiled but slowed her pace so he could catch her.

‘You should stay here,’ he said angrily.

‘Why?’

‘Because it could be dangerous.’

‘I know and that’s why I’m going.’

He frowned.

‘What?’

She glanced sideways at his concerned face and smiled.

‘I’m part of this crew Maclyn, from the start. I’m family and if my family are in trouble I should be there to help out, whatever the consequences.’

Even though he didn’t like it, he knew how she felt, with so few people making up the ship’s crew, they had become each other’s family, sharing the highs and lows, the celebrations and commiserations together and this was no different. Space travel was still a dangerous game, but belonging made that more bearable and with long spells away from Earth, they had a mutual bond holding them together. He sighed and she knew he reluctantly understood.

‘Thank you,’ she said and gave him a hug.

‘Thank me for what?’ he questioned.

‘For caring.’

He made a face and she laughed, before turning down the corridor to get back to the engine room.

‘I’ll be fine Maclyn, don’t worry and tell Ty we’ll have all the power he needs to get us to safety.’

With that she disappeared into a turbo lift.

He grimaced and said.

‘I just hope we’re still around to need it.’

Kassina’s packing hadn’t taken more than five minutes. In a canvas shoulder bag she had pushed her small photo album, the framed photo of her parents and the one of her horse. She gathered up her small collection of jewellery and the bottle of her mother’s favourite scent, which brought back so many memories; there were also two books she knew she had to take. The lion the witch and the wardrobe and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin both were classics and meant a lot to her and once they left Earth she’d never see them again. Gathering up her bag she spotted her small white teddy bear given to her by her mother when she was six months old. He wasn’t really white anymore and one of his ears was torn and tattered and his stomach bore the mark of his ‘operation’, which she had performed on him when she was nine, but his eyes were still bright. There was no way she could leave him, even if the days of her carefree childhood were long past, he was going to Ieesha too.

‘But don’t let that Kelsey see you,’ she told him quietly as she placed him in her bulging bag and struggled to zip it together. She ran back down the empty corridors and into the hall then in the annexe room she found Abigail, packing linen and cooking equipment into a large crate. Her ginger hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her face flushed red as she talked to herself.

‘Abby,’ Kassina called from the doorway. ‘Have the horses been released?’

Abby shot upright in surprise and for a moment her face showed a mixture of confusion and irritation.

‘Oh Kassina, you startled me....What did you say?’

‘Sorry, I just asked if the horses were free.’

Abby nodded and smiled.

‘Yes, they were let out at first light. Don’t worry they are fine. We should be so lucky.’

Kassina understood her fear, she felt it too but there was no going back now. In twenty minutes she had to be at the meeting point or the ship would leave without her.

‘Can you give me a hand?’ Abby asked.

‘Yes, but I’ve got one more job to do first, then I’ll be back.’

‘Okay, but this is the last crate now and once it’s full I’m going to the meeting point,’ she warned.

Kassina smiled and made her getaway; she had to find Magic and that wouldn’t be easy. Her cat was a very independent; some might say snobbish and superior creature, and all this disturbance would not have been appreciated by someone of her sensibilities. She had hoped she would have returned to the safety of her bedroom, but no, she wasn’t there and now she had about fifteen minutes to find her.

‘But where?’ she muttered.

“Any questions?’ Major Gerrard asked the assembled men after he had given them their orders.

Colonel Nye stood at the back, watching him give her instructions to the troops, not wishing them to know her part in it. These were Gerrard’s men and the orders had to come from him and their trust in his command could make all the difference. What they were being asked to do wasn’t something they had trained for, but if they believed in Gerrard, they would do what he asked, even this. No one said a word, so Gerrard dismissed them and once the tent was empty he sighed and slumped forward.

‘An excellent performance Major,’ she said sarcastically, knowing just how much he disliked her and her orders. He didn’t dare reply or he would probably end his career and she smiled.

‘Once we have the elders in custody, you will see why I’m doing this,’ she said.

He wasn’t convinced and his expression let her know that in no uncertain terms. She glared at him but decided that there was no point talking to him anymore as she looked at her watch.

‘In five minutes the attack begins,’ she said.

He crossed his arms across his chest and looked at her.

‘You better not fail this time,’ she said, and stormed out of the tent.

He rubbed his temples, trying to get rid of the pain in his head, but it didn’t help as Nye was the pain he couldn’t shift. He was a tall, broad shouldered man and as a professional soldier he was very fit, but now he was being ordered to go against all he’d ever believed in. Firing on unarmed civilians whose only crime seemed to be annoying Colonel Nye; not that she was even a real Colonel. It was an honorary rank, given to her by President Berryman, so that the military would respect her. He had to smile at that as she was a reptile, an avenging angel and he had to do her dirty work. He sighed again and slowly made his way to his troops as if they had to do this, he decided he’d lead them. Anything was better than staying near the Colonel.

Ty stiffened and looked hard at the trees two hundred yards in front of him as he was sure he’d seen some movement. He waited, hardly daring to breathe, staring intently for any sign that he had been right.

‘There,’ he said softly as a branch moved for a second.

He smiled thinly and opened his hand held communicator.

‘They’re here,’ was all he needed to say.

Around the amphitheatre the crew prepared for the expected attack. Ty glanced at his watch and it read 7.25am. He was surprised they hadn’t been attacked before this and with luck Solar Star would be back in ten minutes, but could they hold out against a professional and superior force that long? That he knew was the million-dollar question, and as the first man appeared out of the trees he knew they were about to answer it.

‘Hold your fire until they are less than hundred yards away,’ he reminded everyone, as the stun weapons were useless over any longer distances.

Instinctively he pressed himself harder into the damp ground and took a deep breath to steady his nerves. The line of soldiers advanced towards the amphitheatre on three sides. The amphitheatre was bordered by the community’s buildings and this was where the fifty of so people left were now huddled. Ty glanced quickly along the line of his crew and was relieved to see they were prepared and calm enough but they hadn’t faced anything like this before, but most were former Space Corp. personnel and therefore had gone through the weapons and combat training programme. But training and the real thing were a million miles apart and he only hoped they would be okay. He licked his dry lips; his throat was bone dry and felt his heart pounding with the surge of adrenaline through his veins.

The advance was orderly and had an unstoppable robotic air that Major Gerrard hoped would unnerve his less experience opponents. On they came, weapons ready, in an almost straight line, ten feet apart. There was no cover between the trees and the grassy bank, so there could be no question of a sneak attack, at least not on the amphitheatre. The buildings were difficult, but not impossible, to reach and a force could come behind them.

Ty had realised this but he didn’t have the people needed to defend that line. He hoped they could hold the amphitheatre just long enough to get the people on the ship and away. There was in his mind, no question of a victory, it was purely a matter of survival, and then escape He lifted his stun gun and lined it up on the soldier walking almost directly in front of him and counted slowly to three. As the man passed the white stone he had placed to mark a hundred yards, he pressed the trigger and the blue bolt of energy hit the man square in the chest.

Tel’kesa held hands with O’realian and Kenyon, closed her eyes and started to centre her mind as the Andromidans had taught them. The Kataree was a method of producing an energy wave which could be done singularly, or as they were attempting, in a group. This energy is then focused either for healing or for anything else they needed and they were attempting to use it to produce a bubble of protection to blanket the landing field to keep the troops from overrunning the Solar Star’s crew. It would be a near invisible barrier that protects, but hurts no one. The silent group stood in a circle of ten, like statues and slowly a humming sound began to emanate; low at first, then it deepened and radiated out in waves of pure sound and rainbow colours; it was beginning to happen. The group on mass changed the pitch of the wave and it built to another level, spreading out from their position in front of the meeting hall, slowly moving over the amphitheatre. The sound of gunfire reached them, but they didn’t stop; now more than ever, they had to keep focused and strong. Tel’kesa shivered at the increase in sounds around the perimeter, but the energy was building and very soon it would be strong enough to hold back the Colonel’s men.