Condition Zero, page 28
part #6 of The Earth Saga Series
105-Fris
Steven Edwards was bent over, picking the fruit as he had been told. It was a beautiful day on Fris. There was a sprinkling of purple clouds on the horizon. Other than that, it was blue skies as far as he could see. It had been days since Alice, Bindi and Matt had returned from their operations, and he was still trying to get his mind around the possibility of what had been discussed, but the idea was too far-fetched for him.
Just before their mid-day meal, Steven spotted Anamei walking out of the main building with a pair of security droids, and a small figure wearing a similar helmet to the one that Alice Ito had described. The little figure took short steps, as if they weren’t fully developed yet, and were covered from head to toe in very ornamental robes with necklaces and bracelets, something that must have weighed a great deal.
When Anamei stopped on the causeway near Steven, he automatically moved over to the senior slave on the farm.
“Lovely day.”
Anamei didn’t answer but looked down at the young figure standing next to him.
“The youngest of the Basurvya family wanted to put eyes upon the newest batch of Orja.” Anamei said. “She is very curious about the Orja that come from different worlds.”
Steven smiled. “I’m still curious about a lot of things.”
Steven looked at the helmet the small figure was wearing, it had the same reflective facing that Alice had mentioned, and in a very sudden movement, the figure reached up and tapped a button on the side of the helmet, flipping up the visor.
“Fuck me.” Steven said, dropping to his knees. “No!”
His cries got the attention of the other humans who were still picking fruit nearby, who suddenly stopped and looked over to Anamei and the figure next to him.
“It’s not possible!” Steven screamed, bursting into tears.
He buried his face in his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks, and after a moment, he brought his head up, and took a long look at the face that was staring back at him. The face of a ten-year-old human female.
106-Dalania System
The Dalania System had never been given much consideration, other than by those that lived in the system, those that had to pass through the system or those that did trade and business in the system. It had been at the edge of the old Empire, and now it was on the boundary of the Etelainen, almost at the Reach, and 4852 light years from Terra.
When the fleet of known ships jumped into the system, the meagre defence forces stood to alert, assuming it was a Coalition attack, but they quickly realised that the vessels that had arrived, numbering almost one-thousand, were of a shape, design, and capability that the citizens of the system had never seen before.
The governor's office, on the surface of Dalania V, sent an emergency subspace transmission to Mechcharga, then dispatched the systems loan frigate to challenge the massive fleet. The transmission got out of the system, but the frigate was destroyed before it could get within a million kilometres of the closest ship.
Panic ensued on the planet’s surface and the old space station that hovered above it. The station was destroyed in a wave of energy weapons fire, and then the planet was bombarded by a massive salvo of missiles loaded with cobalt munitions, each exploding high in the atmosphere. It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to kill anyone on the surface not in secured facilities.
Once life in the system had been eradicated, the massive armada paused. Things were not going to plan. The digital minds that had left the Dyson Sphere twenty days ago were starting to degrade, slowly. Whatever virus had destroyed the other Zarosian Dyson spheres was beginning to affect the ships that were travelling to the station over Jupiter.
They had covered most of the distance to their objective, but time and wear were starting to show on the ancient ships and the equipment. Things that hadn’t been used in aeons were beginning to break down. Systems were no longer functioning at maximum efficiency. The hive-mind that had attacked Dalania V was becoming a group of confused voices all shouting at once.
A severe level of reliance had been put on the ships AI, but now that was starting to cease functioning properly. The hive-mind knew that it was just a matter of time before everything shut down, and they were dead in space.
Calculations were run. Tests conducted again and again. The final five-thousand light years to their destination would now have to take place in small jumps, instead of the massive bounds they had been making.
They would stay in their current location for a few days, a week perhaps to gather supplies and allow the ships hyper-drive systems to cool down and recalibrate. While there was a sense of urgency building to reach Jupiter, it wasn’t a panic yet. They had more than enough ships to make it there; they only needed one ship to get the consciousness to the station over Jupiter.
To be continued........
Donald B McFarlane, Condition Zero
