That’s the seventh time that aliens have attacked this colony today. They must be looking for something because usually they only attack once a week and none of the other space colonies have been hit for the last two weeks. I wonder, what is so damn important on this rust bucket? Perhaps the miners found something on the last planet we stopped at but that was seven months ago. The only thing that matters to me is becoming the best gunner in the entire colony and maybe getting something to eat. I suppose I can leave my gun station for the time being to grab something to eat; the target indicator will yell at me if any ships get within shooting range.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Dammit! So much for eating. The gun station radar indicates three targets moving in on my target area but where I don’t see them. Where are they? Sixteen miles and closing. Thirteen; Eleven. I should be able to see them by now.
“Captain, this is Sector Theta, Gun Six. We have three targets on radar but no visual. Please advise.”
“Theta Six, this is Bridge. Confirmed, we have targets on radar but no visual. Standby and stay alert. When you have visual, engage targets with short range scatter shells. Leave one target for the graviton beam, we want to capture a ship and examine its tech.”
“Roger, Bridge. Theta Six out.”
Well…I didn’t know that we have a gravity beam. That must be new or just now working again. The engineers are a bit slow sometimes.
Ten miles, eight, six. This is really starting to make me nervous.
“Theta Six, this is Bridge. Deploy flak shells immediately.”
“Roger.”
Sweet! I’ve never used the flak before.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
HA! Looks like the flak canon shoots space junk! Genius! Using space junk as a defensive weapon. Whoever invented that was really thinking. We have plenty of space junk, which is just scrap metal, and no place to put it; I guess this is where all of it goes.
Four miles. Three, two, one.
Blip.
What the…? This can’t be happening; they just disappeared from radar before they even got to the flak field. I don’t even see any disturbance in the flak pattern. It’s magnetic, so if something metal (a ship or asteroid) came within two hundred feet of the flak field, it would be destroyed.
“Bridge, Theta Six. What just happened?”
“Theta Six, our experts are looking at all data gathered from radar and gravity sensors. Standby for further orders and remain alert. Until we know what happened, it is assumed that the colony is still under attack.”
“Roger. Six out.”
The loudspeaker suddenly shrieks to life and begins shouting commands as if we are deaf.
“All citizens return to your quarters and secure your airlocks immediately. Security personnel take your posts as plan thirty-two dictates. These orders are in effect until further notice and in one hour you will be advised of the status of the lockdown. All engineers report to the command bridge and gunners man your stations. End of broadcast.”
“Guess that means that I’m staying here.”
Once again, the loudspeaker comes to life but this time it graces me personally with its horrible voice.
“Theta Six, what is your name and rank?”
“Bridge, this is John Staring, Tier 3 Gunner.”
“John, what was your previous occupation?”
“I was a Tier 7 Repair Engineer.”
“Excellent. Report to the Bridge immediately. We will send a replacement to your gun post.”
“Roger that Bridge. Out.”
Well, I guess I’m not staying here after all. I wonder, what is going on that they would need a tier-7 repairman? Must be hull repair because that’s a 7th level skill. In that case, I SHOULD leave immediately.
On the way to the Bridge, the colony seemed like a ghost town, like no one had ever lived here before. I knew better because behind each of the twelve thousand airlocks lived at least four people. Thanks to the limited space on the colony, unmarried people had to bunk together and married couples with no children got the same space but were afforded a single partition between the two sides of the room.
I’ve never been on the bridge before. It’s amazing! There is a huge display screen at the front that shows the area of space in front of the colony and there are large instrument panels all over with personnel bustling back and forth between them, only stopping to briefly discuss readings with each other. Even though I have no idea of what a normal day on the Bridge is, I can tell that there is more activity than usual; something is going on.
“Welcome to the Bridge, I am Captain Sanchez. Follow me to the briefing room.”
“Yes sir.”
The briefing room holds a degree of prestige similar to the Bridge command center. Everything in the room is made of carbon fiber, even the pens. This is something you don’t see in the rest of the architecture of the colony. The last person sits down and the Captain begins his briefing.
“Alright everyone, have a seat. I have called you all here because of the incident that occurred earlier. We had three incoming ships that simply disappeared before they got to the flak field and we have not been able to locate them as of yet. We need to devise a “worst case scenario” plan in order to deal with this threat. You are all leading experts in your various fields and your input and effort on this project will be greatly appreciated. So, let’s begin with the first phase. Our spacial object tracking team is responsible for decoding the data from the outside scanners and has determined that the incoming ships are able to change their material makeup from metal to non-metal in an instant. Although the scanners were originally made to detect metal objects, this team has reengineered the scanner to pickup non-metal signatures to a certain degree. This is not to say that we can precisely determine the location of non-metal objects, but simply know that they are within scanner range.”
“Our search-and-rescue team is being transformed into a search-and-destroy team, loaded with some of our higher level security personnel. They will take on the task of attempting to locate these ships on the outside of the hull. John, you will be on the repair and response team. You are responsible for coming up with a plan for massive hull breach and repair. You have all of the repair personnel at your disposal.”
“Okay people, let’s get moving.”
Something deep inside the colony explodes with jolting force, knocking a few people from their chairs.
“Well, I guess our teams will be tested right now. Damage report!”
One of the bridge workers started spouting information, “Captain, hull breach in sigma sector.”
“Alright, everyone move! Get your gear together and get the threat taken care of and the hull repaired.”
“YES SIR!”
We all outfit ourselves with space suits and repair tools and quickly movebg to sigma sector. The guy with me is a junior repair engineer just out of training named Phillip. Sort of an odd looking guy but he had the best scores in training, so I decided to give him the opportunity that I never had-going on an actual repair mission.
“Thank God that the Captain had everyone in their rooms with sealed airlocks.”
“That’s for sure. We would have one hell of a mess on our hands.”
“What does the atmosphere read?”
“Zero.”
“You’re right, we WOULD have a mess on our hands; not to mention, lots of casualties. Where is the hole?”
“Two hundred more feet.”
“Oh my God. There it is.”
“Holy crap! It’s massive!”
“You think we need sheet metal for this?”
“We shouldn’t, the foam hardens into a semi-metal that can seal a hole up to five hundred feet across.”
We start at the bottom of the hole, spraying the foam from one side to the other. If you are in good atmosphere, the bubbles that it makes smell like rotten eggs; thank God for space suits. Inch-by-inch we seal the hole, making sure that we cover the gaps made when the foam cures. Finally finished, with time to spare.
“Captain, this is repair team. We need some atmosphere to test the seal.”
“Roger that repair, standby for air.”
It’s interesting watching the atmosphere come out of the vents because at space temperature, the humidity freezes and falls to the floor and it looks like snow from the pictures of earth we were shown as kids. Also, the test atmosphere has a blue color to it so that we can tell if there are any leaks in the seal.
“Well, the atmosphere is not going in any particular direction so the seal must be good. Captain, we are go for full atmosphere recovery.”
“Roger that repair team. Good work. Atmosphere recovery initiating in ten seconds. You may want to turn on the magnets in your boots, the air flow can get a little violent.”
“Thanks Captain, will do. Out.”
I look give Phil a look that says, “Here we go.” and we both press the button to magnetize our boots. The air screams out of the vents this time, blowing any loose objects toward the end of the sector corridor. When the air settles to the correct pressure and only a slight breeze is coming from the vents, we test the readings and pull our helmets off.
“What is that noise? It sounds like metal scraping against concrete.”
“I suppose it could be the vents.”
“No, it sounds like it’s coming from the other end of the corridor.”
“I think it’s getting closer.”
The noise is moving closer and closer until a figure emerges from shadow-a tall metal skeleton, something far from human. It stands about eight feet tall and one of its arms has a large blade attached to it. Although it looks heavy, the skeleton appears to be unhindered by its weight and moves with stunning agility and grace. It gazes down at us through its electric green eyes, surveying our physical structure and capability. Then, all at once, it moves toward us, swinging the massive blade to end our lives. I duck, the blade, grazing the hair on my head, apparently sharp enough to slice through the strongest metal-this could explain the massive gap in the hull. Suddenly, I remember Phillip and quickly glance in his direction. Time seemed to stop for me as I watch the blade move through the air toward his neck. I think to myself, “Jesus, I brought him out here. I didn’t think it would be dangerous. Why didn’t I bring security personnel with me?” But Phillip, apparently, is no fool; he dodges the blade just in time, looks at me with confidence pasted on his face and said, “RUN!”
We begin our flight from death, which is only interrupted with small, unanswerable questions.
“What was that?”
“No idea. Why didn’t the sensors pick it up?”
“Let’s get to the bridge and then we can figure this out.”
“Only three thousand more feet left.”
With the creature quickly closing in on us, it doesn’t seem likely that we will make it to the Bridge before it catches us. Before I can even grasp the entirety of that thought, a security team appears from around the corner, weapons armed and pointed straight at our faces.
“Get down!”
We drop all of our weight to the floor like our legs are limp noodles. It hurts quite a bit but I suppose it is better than getting shot in the face.
The security team opens fire on the creature and they are quite effective because the monster is consumed with the power of the rifles, which I have never seen before. I suppose research and development has been working overtime on these.
“Come on, get up. That was the last of them. The other ones broke two residential airlocks open before we could find them. We are lucky that it was only two; it could have easily been a whole sector. Come, we are taking you to the bridge for a debriefing.”
All of the teams from the first meeting were already seated and the Captain begins anew.
“It is unfortunate that we lost eight people today to these monsters but next time we will be prepared. We have three alien bodies and with these, we will be able to build new sensors based on the material they are made of. This will allow us to track them regardless of the makeup of their ships. We also have the three ships and will begin reverse engineering the technology used in them to create a defense fleet in order to better protect our citizens. You must all steel yourselves because it seems that this may be the beginning of a war in which we must fight. We need to fortify our hull and our defenses so that we may be ready to defeat the enemy. I wish you all luck in the coming times and pray that we come through this unscathed. Report back here tomorrow at 0800 for the planning for our defense. Dismissed.”
I go back to my quarters, exhausted and ready for a heavy sleep. I lie on the bed and instantly begin to dream of future days. Days after a new planet has been found to live on. Days of sunrise and sunsets, rain, snow, grass and trees. Better days.