Chapter 1

The boy's eyes widened as he gazed through the reinforced glass to the bright vista outside. Countless shimmering stars winked beside a huge gas giant looming ahead of the ship. He watched in amazement as the swirling patterns on the planet's surface slowly shifted like sands in a sink-hole. How glorious to be up here, at this moment, to see this.

'Prepare to engage!' came a fierce distant cry, and moments later the ship rocked violently, throwing Jeyson into a passing woman. He sat on the floor for perhaps ten seconds, transfixed, before a piercing alarm jolted him back to his senses. Out of the window again he spied, behind the monolithic planet, a metallic gleam that surely had not been present before. The dark shape slowly emerged from behind the shimmering atmosphere like a mirage.

Shouts erupted from all around him – closer this time – and suddenly a fear struck him that almost threw him off-balance again. His father's huge ship seemed so safe and indestructible. What could have caused that tremor?

Sprinting through the bright corridors, the sound of his footsteps were barely audible over the clamor of the steel-booted crew running to and fro about him. He suddenly lost his bearings – which way to the bridge? The man in front of him had the pilot's insignia on his vest, so Jeyson followed him as closely as he could in the churning hallway. They came quickly to a great iron door, and sounds of a great commotion within. He mastered himself and stepped quickly through the automatic door.

His immediate impression was of a hive of ants stirred up by the threat of fire. People hurtled along the skydecks and below in the piloting trenches, all calling and crowing to each other while, in the very center of this maelstrom, stood his own father, directing the efforts of these most vital men and women. He gazed at his father for a moment, feeling momentarily comforted, until he followed his gaze to the outbound screen. There, in the huge glass plate at the front of the bridge was the very object of chaos: the metallic shape he had spotted earlier was now in full view, and approaching fast.

A colossal mass of ionized metal loomed before the blood-red glow of the gas giant. Unlike their own ship, every surface was completely smooth as if molded by a great tide. It was so well-proportioned, only the tiny lights that marked windows gave a true indication of its size. Jeyson marveled for a moment at the enormity of what he was seeing. He noticed features he recognized, but the ship was in almost every way – alien.

'There you are, kiddo.' His father had noticed him at last. He kissed Jeyson on the cheek, ruffled his hair with a fierce grin and pulled him in front of him with both hands gripping his shoulders. 'Looks like someone's been busy. These rogues have better ships than most of our Frigates nowadays.'

'Can I stay with you, father?'

'For now, my boy.' He turned and addressed a man in the trench to his right: 'Movary. How long until they come into range?'

The answer came immediately. 'My guess is two and a half minutes, sir. We're scanning them now; they won't be hiding from us for long.'

'Very good. Tallick-' here he faced a man to his left, 'get our cannons zeroed in. We want them lined up and ready in case of hostility, which we can pretty much rely upon given that they haven't tried to communicate yet.'

'Sir-' began the nervous-looking Tallick, squinting at the screen in front of him, 'they're not on radar.'

'What the hell?' The captain stepped down from the platform and walked firmly towards the window as though drawn. Jeyson stood watching his progress along with much of the crew. He reached the glass and stopped dead.

Without warning, pandemonium broke loose. The captain spun round.

'Shields up!'

Blinding streams of violet light erupted from the craft before them with a roar that nearly burst Jeyson's eardrums. A barrage of ordnance wracked the ship, and Jeyson crouched over in horror as fire sprang up along the hull.

'Engage in full force. Get Maveron up here now-'

'I'm here captain.' It was the man Jeyson had followed on his way in.

'Deploy the fleet at once.' The man nodded and turned on his heel. 'Engines full, shields at maximum-'.

'Sir!' cried a woman from the skydeck. 'They have made direct contact with the ship. The shields remain at 100%. They're just cutting straight through-'

'Captain Dion-' cried a man from behind them, 'the armoury, medical bays two and four are reporting catastrophic fire and mass destruction-'

'Hull breach! Captain Dion- we need to seal the peritoneum and re-establish o2 circulation-'

'We've never seen weapons like these, the Unity wasn't build to withstand them!'

The whirl of voices collided as Arthurus Dion held his son in his strong grip. 'Well, kiddo. I guess those bigwigs were wrong.' His eyes were shining, reflecting the stars.

'It looks like we're not alone in the universe after all.'