Chapter Nine

TFS Akira

Epsilon Eridani

The transport tube made quick time through the Akira, taking barely two and a half minutes to travel several hundred metres forward from the hanger bays which on a Kyoto-class battleship were located towards the aft section, ascend nine decks and travel into the core of the citadel – a heavily armoured inner core that protected as many of the Akira's vital systems as possible including the network of fusion and antimatter reactors that provided the giant warship with the power that was her lifeblood. With effortless grace the maglev car came to a stop, a faint shiver running through it as its doors mated with those of the tube station as like on a planet the transport tubes were kept in a vacuum to allow for faster transit. Half a second later both sets of doors slid open allowing the cars passengers to disembark.

"Professor, Commander come this way please," Lieutenant Styles said leading Melinda Jackson and Aaron Larsen out of the maglev car and the transport tube station into yet another of the Akira's broad, brightly lit corridors. Unlike the corridors around the hanger bays which had been surprisingly quiet for all that the battleship was in orbit of Epsilon Eridani these corridors were packed with crew moving to and from their duty stations. Here in the citadel there were a great many duty stations that always had to be manned – from those that controlled or monitored the energies of the Akira's mighty power plants, to stations that helped with navigating the massive battleship and her immense concentration of weaponry from A to B.

"I'm sorry things are a bit chaotic at the moment," Styles apologised as he led them through the human traffic. "We're replacing some spent antimatter fuel rods and taking on some more fusion fuel as well so everyone is a little busy right now."

"Its okay lieutenant we understand," Aaron Larsen replied being intimately familiar with such things himself. Refilling deuterium storage tanks and changing antimatter fuel rods was always a complex and time consuming endeavour – especially the latter. "How many fuel rods are you taking on or replacing?"

"Close on two thousand, sir," Styles replied. Aaron whistled softly knowing that was going to keep the Akira's engineering crews – especially those specialists trained to handle antimatter even when it was contained inside the complex technological device that was an antimatter fuel rod – busy for hours. For safety reasons fresh antimatter fuel rods were only shipped in batches of a hundred it would take hours to replace all the used fuel rods with fresh ones and for the spent ones to be taken either for refilling or recycling depending on a) the rods service life and b) depending on a comprehensive and in depth component safety check – if even one component was showing signs of wearing out the rod would be sent to be recycled, given its volatile nature no chances were ever taken handling antimatter – at least not by anyone with an ounce of common sense.

"That's going to take awhile," he said.

"Yes sir they've already been at it for two hours," Styles replied before leading them down a side corridor away from the thronging main corridor.

At the end of the side corridor was a large set of armoured doors. Standing sentry on either side of the door were two figures cocooned from head to toe in a full suite of combat armour and armed with pulse rifles. It was impossible to see who was inside the armour as like the helmet of a light battle uniform the helmet of combat armour was completely featureless the marine wearing the armour seeing the world through a combination of a heads up display inside the helmet and direct feed into his or her brain via their implant. Standing as silent as statues the two armoured soldiers were very intimidating – even more so when Aaron noticed the symbol on their armour. A bird of prey on a starry background and grasping a lightning bolt in its talons, it was the symbol of the Black Falcons Special Forces.

"This way," Styles said leading Aaron and Melinda up to the door and placing his hand on a touch panel beside the door. For a moment the panel glowed as its built in sensors compared a variety of biometric readings including bioelectric signature and DNA readings on top of Styles handprint to information stored in the ships security database – determining if he was authorised to access the room beyond. Then the panel ceased glowing and the thick trinium-based alloy doors slid open obediently.

Keeping his hand on the panel Styles gestured for Aaron and Melinda to go through with his free hand. Obediently they did so and found themselves in the Akira's Combat Information Centre.

It was a huge circular room. Arranged in a circle around the edge of the room were a number of consoles that all faced inwards towards the core of the room, where there was a second set of consoles, though these were smaller. Again they faced in towards the core of the room where a single large hexagonal table stood. It looked unremarkable but when activated the table would create a three dimensional holographic image of the battlefield allowing the crew who manned CIC in such situations to help the admiral in command of the fleet coordinate operations and decide on which tactics to employ.

"This way please," Styles said coming in behind them then moving to the front. Without waiting for a response the aide led them around the outer perimeter of the room to another set of doors that neither of them had noticed. Unlike the previous doors this set did not require Styles to operate a security scanner – instead they slid open at their approach and they found themselves in the war room.

The war room was much smaller than the CIC though it had the same circular design – minus the rings of consoles. The only thing in the room was a triangular table with two chairs on each of its sides – facing small control panels. Sitting in one of the chairs was Admiral Quinton looking formidable in his white and gold flag admiral's uniform, another aide sat next to him. But it was who was sitting in the opposite chair on the other side of the table that drew attention. Sitting there was a tall, brown haired, very well built man in a uniform that was very different to the normal navy blue and gold trim uniform most Federal Guard officers wore. Instead this mans uniform was the black and grey uniform of SOID – the Special Operations and Intelligence Directorate – the section of the Federal Guard responsible for all intelligence and special ops, it was they who controlled the Black Falcon units. It was very rare for SOID officers – like the fleet of Phantom-class stealth cruisers SOID operated– to be seen though given what had happened the officer's presence here was understandable.

"Ah Commander Larsen, Professor Jackson welcome," Admiral Quinton said smiling warmly but not getting up from his seat. "I'm glad you made it back here in one piece."

"Not all of us did sir," Aaron replied with a grimace thinking of the three of the four destroyers that had accompanied the Railion on her rescue mission only to be destroyed by the unknown aliens, two in direct combat – albeit one of them by kamikaze rams by a swarm of enemy fighters and bombers – the third by a treacherous betrayal after showing mercy to their foes. And of Ambassador Trainer and the crew of the diplomatic ship Crystal Dove who'd been murdered in cold blood when they refused to bow down to some weird voiced human-looking alien who claimed to be the ancient Greek goddess Amphitrite.

"Yes we've reviewed the records you transmitted on ahead," the unidentified SOID officer replied. "Under the circumstances you did as well as you could, commander. The deaths of Ambassador Trainer and all those on the Crystal Dove, Juno, San Diego and McKenzie could not have been prevented with the information that you had at the time."

"None of us had or still really has any clue about what we were dealing with, commander," Quinton added. "Though one thing is certain what happened at that planet will not be the last time we encounter these aliens whoever or whatever they are."

"Maybe," Aaron admitted still feeling a profound feeling of guilt and responsibility for the 2450 people who'd died on those ships or on the Railion herself from their injuries.

"I wish I knew why those aliens attacked us the way they did," Melinda said. "We were no threat to them, Frank tried to talk to them but…" her voice trailed off as tears welled in her eyes. She was going to miss Frank Laughan, Marco Patrice and all the others that the alien soldiers had murdered in cold blood. "Sorry."

"It's alright, professor," Quinton replied. "I'm sorry I know this is hard on you but we need to know exactly what happened on the surface of that planet, you and the survivors of your team are the only ones who know that."

Melinda nodded reluctantly and closed her eyes for a moment. Accessing her implants medicinal command system she loaded a mild tranquiliser program, immediately the complex network of nanotech circuitry that was her implant sent out a barrage of signals both electrical and chemical into her brain and nervous system. Carefully manipulating her emotions and body chemistry so what felt like a cool, soothing balm spread over her body enabling her to speak about what had happened without getting to emotional.

"I'll start at the very beginning, from when we came out of hyperspace if you don't mind admiral," she said opening her eyes again.

"That's fine," the unmanned SOID officer replied.

"I'm sorry you are," Melinda asked.

"It's me who should be sorry professor, I should have introduced myself when you came in," the officer replied looking apologetic. "I'm Commander Alan Lorne of the Cheyenne."

"Apology accepted, commander," Melinda relied. "Okay where was I… oh yes."

As calmly as she could Melinda began explaining everything that had happened to her and her team from the moment the Charles Darwin emerged from hyperspace. "When we ran our initial scans of the planet we detected the presence of a primitive settlement inhabited by Humans on the planet," Melinda explained. "We were somewhat confused as the probe that had scanned the system a few months earlier showed no such settlement; we initially thought that they were a lost colony that had somehow evaded our earlier probes detection. So we scanned for any signs of an old crash site or any sign of technology.

"We didn't find anything," Melinda continued. "The only sign of technology that we found was a very weak energy emission from a structure on the planet located some distance from the settlement. After some consideration Commander Drake and myself agreed that we should continue with our mission but we decided that we would also try to figure out just where the settlement came from and how it eluded our probes sensors. So my team and I boarded one of our shuttles and headed down.

"On the way down we got a good look at the unknown structure and what we found was something that is not only thousands of light years from Terra but thousands of years from the ancient culture that built it."

"An Egyptian pyramid," Commander Lorne said recalling what he'd read of Commander Drake's debriefing after the Charles Darwin limped back to base.

"Correct, however the pyramid was not made entirely of stone. Our sensors confirmed that the stonework was being reinforced by panels of refined trinium that seemed to make up eighty percent of the pyramid's outer wall and core supports," Melinda replied. "As you can imagine seeing an Egyptian-style pyramid on a planet thousands of light years and thousands of years from the time of the First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt was something of a surprise.

"We proceeded to complete our landing and we were walking through the forest towards the village and the pyramid when we were contacted by Colonel Swain telling us that an unknown ship was on hyperspace approach. With the prospect of first contact with another spacefaring after all these centuries we were all very excited. Some of us wanted to go back up to the Charles Darwin to be there when contact was established. But we decided to stay on the planet and continue with our part of the mission."

"I'd like to interrupt you a moment there professor," Commander Lorne said. "Why did you decide to stay on the planet?"

"We wouldn't have made orbit in time commander," Melinda replied simply. "The alien ship was only four minutes out, the subspace sensors on a survey ship don't quite have the range that those on warships do, we just don't have the power generation capacity. We never have made it back to the shuttle in time, let alone gotten into orbit.

"It was within moments of us having the conversation with Colonel Swain that we were attacked. Peter, I mean Lieutenant Franklin told us to seek cover as he heard someone coming. We had just done so when the alien soldiers appeared. Frank, that's Doctor Laughan tried to open a dialogue and they…" Melinda's voice trailed off tears welling in her eyes despite the best efforts of her implants tranquiliser program.

"I'm sorry," she said taking a few deep breaths to get herself back under control and allow her implant to dampen down the worst of the emotional reaction.

"It's alright professor, take your time," Admiral Quinton said sympathetically seeing how hard it was for the xenobiologist to talk about what had happened to her and her team. It was understandable as survey teams spent so long together that they formed very strong bonds, so they became more like family than work colleagues.

"Thank you," Melinda replied appreciating the courtesy she was being offered. She knew that it was important that she recount everything that had happened down on that planet but that didn't mean it was easy. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

"As I was saying Frank tried to talk to the aliens," she continued at last. "And they just, just shot him in cold blood. Then they tried to kill the rest of us but they didn't count on us firing back, we defeated them and started falling back towards the shuttle. We never got there the shuttle lifted off without us but was shot down by some fighters if we'd boarded it we would have been killed. We received a message that the Charles Darwin was under attack and being forced to withdraw so Lieutenant Franklin proposed that we find somewhere to shelter. We started heading for some caves in the mountains that our sensors had detected.

"The aliens kept pursuing us they seemed to be determined to capture or kill us, why I don't know. We barely got a couple of minutes to rest or make forward progress between attacks. After awhile there just came this huge explosion behind us, I don't know what caused it but it knocked us flying."

"I know," Aaron Larsen said speaking up for the first time. "At the end of our first battle with the aliens in orbit their battlecruiser-analogue was severely damaged, on fire with shields failing. Rather than stay and certainly be destroyed they retreated to hyperspace but before they did so they fired three blasts from one of their ventral pulse weapon turrets at the surface. My guess is they knew they were defeated so they tried to kill you and the rest of your team out of spite. These aliens – though they appear Human on the surface – they seem to be very brutal and vindictive with no concept of the rules of war as we understand them."

"They nearly succeeded, Marco died after that explosion knocked us flying and Peter was severely injured. Do we know what's happening with Peter yet?" Melinda asked.

"Lieutenant Franklin has been transferred to the planet," Admiral Quinton replied. "He's in the cyber-organics department of Atherton General getting a prosthetic limb fitted as we speak. I spoke to the doctors while we were waiting for you and Commander Larsen to arrive professor, the surgery is going well and he will make a full recovery."

"I'd like to go and see him," Melinda said.

"I anticipated that and transport has been arranged for you along with suitable accommodation at the Federal Guard facility outside Atherton."

A tired smile appeared on Melinda's face. "Thank you," she said. "If that's all gentlemen I would really like to go, I haven't slept in what feels like a week."

"I have no questions," Quinton replied before glancing across at Commander Lorne, "commander?"

"I have no questions at the moment professor," Lorne replied offering Melinda a warm smile, he could see that she was only staying awake through sheer willpower and with a little bit of implant assistance. "I may wish to speak with you again later but I won't be so insensitive as to keep you here. You can go if you wish I can always contact you on the comm or shuttle down to Atherton if we need to speak again."

"Lieutenant Sterns will take you to a shuttle that will convey you to the planet side facility, professor," Quinton added gesturing to the same aide that had escorted Melinda Jackson and Aaron Larsen from the hanger bays to here.

"This way please, professor," Sterns said stepping forward.

Melinda nodded and carefully got to her feet while telling her implant to disengage the tranquiliser program. Now that her part of the debriefing session was over she wouldn't need it anymore, as it was having had it on for this long was going to result in her getting one hell of a headache. Thankfully as always the best cure for that would be what she needed anyway, which was to curl up in a bed somewhere and go to sleep.

Nodding politely to the assembled figures she let Lieutenant Sterns lead her out of the war room, across the unmanned CIC and into the wide corridors of the Akira heading back towards the great warships cavernous hanger bays. Where she assumed a shuttle would be waiting to take her down to the Federal Guard ground base a few miles outside the planetary capital Atherton.


Commander Aaron Larsen was deep in thought as he watched Lieutenant Sterns and Melinda Jackson leave the room, exhaustion plane to see in her posture as she moved. He wasn't particularly surprised to see that, he'd noticed how tired she was on the flight through hyperspace back here. What he hadn't realised was just how things had actually gone down on that planet. Melinda and the survivors of her team had gone through an experience with the human-looking aliens that he could only describe as hellish, especially the relentless chase through the subtropical forest that seemed to have dominated large areas of the planet in question. But then we've all been through a rough time with the aliens, he thought, I just wish I knew why they were so aggressive towards us and why that alien woman who talked to Ambassador Trainer before destroying the Crystal Dove wanted us to bow down to her like she was some kind of goddess. The more we learn about these aliens the less sense they seem to make.

"You look deep in thought, commander," Commander Lorne pointed studying the unusually tall – for someone from his world – Centauran commander carefully.

"I was just thinking about the aliens," Aaron replied. "The more we learn about them the less sense they seem to make. I don't understand why they were so aggressive and why that alien commander seemed to want us to bow down before her like she was some sort of goddess."

"We have the alien bomber and the one crewmember who survived," Lorne said. "Hopefully we will start getting some answers on just who our new adversaries are soon enough."

"Do you really think they're going to be long term adversaries?" Quinton asked, hoping that would not be the case, though so far it looked to be a forlorn hope given the aggressive, outright murderous behaviour so far demonstrated by the unknown aliens.

"I don't see how they can be anything else," Lorne replied. "From what we know so far the aliens are technologically advanced and highly aggressive, with what seems like an unhealthy dose of xenophobia thrown in for good measure. In standing up to them as we have we have shown them that we are a threat. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they come looking for us."

"That's not a pleasant thought," Quinton said.

"No it isn't," Aaron agreed. "Especially as we are not really ready for large scale interstellar war, no thanks to the last few presidential administrations. We need more heavy ships like cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships, one on one our destroyers are no match for the alien capital ships."

"Hopefully Fleet Admiral Kermanova will be able to convince the president and the senate of that fact at least enough to allow the recommissioning of some of the newer mothballed ships," Quinton answered. "But we have wandered away from the issue at hand."

"Indeed," Commander Lorne agreed. "Commander Larsen they we have seen the logs you transmitted to us after leaving orbit of the planet we would like to here in your own words what happened. We would also like to know why you felt that it was necessary to deploy strategic weaponry."

Aaron nodded having known that his turn to explain what had happened was going to come. And that the issue of him authorising the use of antimatter weapons was bound to come up, especially given how they were regarded as weapons of mass destruction whose power made fusion bombs pale into insignificance. After all it was antimatter warheads more than fusion warheads that had burned the surface of two whole planets to glass – claiming hundreds of millions of Terran lives – during the A.I War. After taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly he as calmly as he could began to explain everything that had transpired just before and during both battles with the alien warships.


Tok'ra Base

Ta'kol System, Sometime Later

Anise smiled as she finished the flight checks on the modified Tel'tac that she and Selmak would be taking as they endeavoured to find out more information about the race of Humans they'd observed clashing with Poseidon's forces over his new naquada mining world of Sakana. Humans who were obviously very technologically advanced and capable, while being a complete and total mystery; nothing like the technology the new Humans – who she suspected to be from the now near mythical world of Tau'ri – possessed had ever been seen by the Tok'ra before.

From a purely scientific point of view Anise would have to confess to being absolutely fascinated by the new Humans. The fact that there technology seemed to have developed in a non-standard way – as evidenced by the complete and total lack of naquada or naquada-based alloys present on or used in the construction of their powerful warships, and the use of antimatter in their weapons, and possibly to generate the enormous amounts of power a starship needed to function – was especially interesting. And from a strategic point of view the power the newcomers obviously commanded would make them strong allies for the Tok'ra in the seemingly never ending war to rid this galaxy of the evils of the Goa'uld.

"This is really quite exciting, isn't it," her host said silently to her. A burst of eagerness accompanying the thoughts of the young woman who'd become her newest host two of her worlds years ago.

"Indeed it is, Kaira," Anise agreed as she began prepping both the inertialess sublight engines and the hyperdrive for use so they could take off the moment Selmak arrived – having been delayed a bit longer by some issue with the council. "These new Humans are obviously technologically quite advanced and very powerful. They would be a great ally in the battle with the Goa'uld, especially as Poseidon has already made an enemy of them. Hopefully we will get a chance to talk to them and convince them to join our cause."

"If the council agrees, you know what they can be like."

"True, true,"Anise agreed feeling a familiar irritation grip her, the politics and often secretive ways of the Tok'ra High Council never ceased to irritate her. Especially when it came to dealing with the handful of advanced Human other alien groups scattered around the galaxy, the secretive nature of the council made working with others difficult at times. She like a number of her colleagues found politics tiresome and a distraction from the goal of the Tok'ra, the goal they had been striving for ever since the great Queen Egeria spawned the first generation of Tok'ra. The elimination of the Goa'uld System Lords and all who believed like them.

"Do you really believe these newcomers could be from the first world, Anise," Kaira asked.

"It is very possible Tau'ri has been lost for so long that it is conceivable that these newcomers could be the distant descendants of those who forced Ra and the System Lords off that world all those millennia ago," Anise answered as the console gave a soft crystalline sounding chime as both the sublight engines and the hyperdrive completed their pre-flight power up sequence. Just need to wait for Selmak now, she thought.

"Considering what Persus said during the meeting earlier I don't think the council will keep Selmak that long, Anise."

Anise smiled slightly and was about to respond to her hosts comment she heard the sound of the airlock cycling. Glancing over towards the chamber her smile widened when she saw Selmak boarding the ship.

"I've completed all pre-launch checks and have powered up both sublight and hyperdrive engines," she told him. "What did the council want?"

"Nothing that concerns this mission, Anise," Selmak replied. "It was just an intelligence briefing on the latest events on the opposite side of Goa'uld territory. It appears our gambit with Sokar's shipyards in the Lak'na'tor System has been successful, Anubis and Sokar are once more openly fighting each other."

"That is good news, that will ensure the current balance of power holds for awhile longer," Anise replied. "I still find it hard to accept that we have to covertly help the System Lords against those two."

"There is no choice at the moment," Selmak reminded her. "The last thing we need is for either of those two demons to become dominant over the System Lords and possibly depose Ra as Supreme System Lord. The new battle we've instigated should tie up a large chunk of their respective fleets for sometime to come."

"I know. It's just hard to accept, hopefully these new Humans – if we can successfully make contact with them will be able to help us deal with them and the System Lords once and for all."

"We shall see," Selmak replied as he slid into the co-pilots seat with an easy grace that belied the apparent age of his current host. "In the meantime we have a mission to carry out so we had best get started. Have you mapped out a search grid?"

"I have. Using Sakana as a starting point I have determined a search pattern that will enable us to cover a significant portion of the surrounding sectors heading in the general direction of where we believe Tau'ri to be located from the old records in a reasonable period of time."

"Excellent. If as we suspect the newcomers are Tau'ri then we stand a reasonable chance of encountering some of their vessels in any of the systems contained in those sectors."

"Precisely, we have sufficient supplies on board this craft. This task could take sometime."

Selmak nodded his or rather his hosts head in agreement. He was fully aware how vast the distances were that they were going to have to cover, especially as if records were correct many of the systems in those sectors were barren and worthless. At least as far as the Goa'uld were concerned as while there were useable minerals present like naquada and trinium present it was hard to get at easily. Especially where it was present in asteroid form – mining asteroids was something far too technical for the Goa'uld to do with slave labour as it would have required far too much of an investment in time and technological resources. Something the System Lords were loathed to do as being seen to be dependant on technology would in their eyes tarnish there image as all knowing, all powerful gods in the eyes of both the Jaffa and their Human slaves.

"Then we had better get started," he said at last. "Take us up, Anise. As soon as we are clear of the atmosphere jump into hyperspace for Sakana."

Anise nodded and tapped a few of the control crystals on the console in front of her before putting Kaira's hands on the glowing orange ball-like structure that was the main control interface. With a combination of mental command and careful movements of her fingers Anise began the Tel'tac's takeoff sequence.


Viewed from outside the Tel'tac appeared as a squat, partially rounded pyramid of a dull grey metal the gleamed in the bright light of the Ta'kol systems F-type star. Had anyone been nearby they would have heard a faint, increasing humming sound coming from the – to Human eyes – bizarrely shaped craft a moment before a plume of dust began to appear from around its base as the craft began lifting into the air. Powerful anti-gravity fields lifted the multi-ton craft off the sandy soil of the planets surface kicking up a thick plume of dust that only diminished as the craft moved further up into the air.

Slowly the stubby nose of the modified cargo ship came up and the inertialess propulsion system that was the main sublight drive activated. The Tel'tac leapt forward like a great cat pouncing on unsuspecting prey, in less than half a second a sonic boom rumbled through the atmosphere as the craft broke through the sound barrier on its flight towards the great void of space that was its natural environment. The rate of ascent increased rapidly as power in the engines built up to full, repelling Ta'kol's gravity field.

After barely sixty seconds of ascent the Tel'tac shook free of the planets gravity altogether and streaked up out of the atmosphere before abruptly slowing down. Power in the drive field slowed as the energy produced by the ships naquada power plant was redirected from the sublight engines into the hyperdrive engine. A powerful, shaped subspace field appeared around the craft, applying tremendous pressure to the fabric of the space-time continuum directly ahead of the craft. The folds of space-time parted and the aquamarine vortex of a hyperspace window burst into existence with a silent roar of power.

For half a second the Tel'tac hovered on the edge of the swirling maelstrom, giving a good impression of a predator whose muscles were tensing ready for a pounce, then it surged forward and disappeared into the heart of the vortex, vanishing with a faint flash of Cherenkov radiation. No longer being held open by the power of the hyperdrives subspace field the hyperspace window folded closed and vanished as if it had never been present at all. The ship that had generated it was long gone from the Ta'kol system, streaking across the galaxy at speeds well in advance of the speed of light.

The Tok'ra mission to find the Terran Federation had begun.


Federal Guard Shuttlecraft

Epsilon Eridani III, That Same Time

Professor Melinda Jackson smiled as the Kite-class shuttlecraft finally finished vibrating from the stress and turbulence of entering Epsilon Eridani III's thick atmosphere. Unable to use her implant in the shuttle as there was no internal wireless data network she was relegated to watching the descent through the thick permaglass windows. Not that she minded. She was experienced enough with shuttle flights to know that the shuttle was only a few minutes from landing at the Federal Guard groundside facility, soon she would finally be able to get some much needed rest.

The shuttle was approaching Atherton – the capital city of Epsilon Eridani III – from the west, coming in off the Tamarind Ocean that was the largest of the colonies four major oceans. From her vantage point in one of the shuttle passenger seats Melinda could see the softly undulating ocean and in the distance the line of rugged snow capped mountains that marked the western shore of northwest continent. Though the pilot had cut speed considerably now Melinda knew they were still travelling at just over the speed of sound as they made there way towards the network of channels, bays and fjords that lined the coast.

"Lieutenant how long until we land," she called forward to the pilot.

"About ten more minutes, ma'am," the young officer called back. "I have to drop to subsonic speeds as we approach the coast. The people living on the coast don't like there peace getting shattered by sonic booms apparently."

Melinda nodded and turned her attention to the viewport again as the shuttle slowed still further, though only the shadow of the shuttle moving across the surface of the ocean showed that thanks to the inertial dampeners. She couldn't blame those Epsilonians living in the few towns and villages that there were along the coast for not liking sonic booms disturbing their tranquil lives. Of all the Terra-type worlds in the Federation Epsilon Eridani III was certainly one of the most beautiful as well as being home to some of the largest trinium deposits ever found.

She watched silently admiring the world as over the next few minutes the shuttle moved into one of the wide, deep fjords that extended many miles inland in a network of water ways that could be confusing to someone who wasn't used to them. For a few moments all Melinda saw was the water of the Tamarind, the white caps of breaking waves and the vegetation encrusted sides of the fjord that itself had to be seventeen kilometres across. Smaller fjords branched off here and there until finally Atherton came into view.

The city stood proudly on a high spit of land that jutted out into the fjord where it split into two, heading off northwest and northeast in a Y pattern. Like many modern Terran cities Atherton had been meticulously planned and laid out in a very precise pattern of concentric circles radiating out from a plaza like central core. Most of the city was quite suburban with houses and apartment complexes surrounded by gardens and wide tree lined streets boulevards. It was only towards the core of the city that there were any buildings taller than four stories, and even the few towers were small rarely ascending beyond sixty stories. Tiny in comparison to some of the kilometre tall city towers found on some of the more densely inhabited worlds like Alpha Centauri IV, Beta Durani II and Terra herself.

Melinda was treated to a bird's eye view of the city and the small dark figures of its people as they went about their daily lives unbothered by the passage of the shuttle over their heads. Just seeing it and knowing what was going on below was enough to make her relax still further and truly know that she was safe now. The aliens couldn't harm her here, not without first breaking through the assembled martial might of the Fifth Fleet and this planets formidable planetary defence network; which was something that would require a major assault with hundreds of warships, an assault that the aliens – whoever or whatever they were – might not be able to mount very easily.

Then the shuttle was passed Atherton, with nothing below but trees and grassland crossed here and there by roads dotted with the fast moving specs of cars powered by high capacity electric engines and a series of the elevated tracks of the maglev network that formed a part of the planets public transportation system. After a few moments the shuttle veered off to the right and the military base came into view.

From experience Melinda could tell it followed a pretty standard layout for Federal Guard facilities. The central core of the base was made up of a hexagonal tower that had a platform-like look to it as the tower was split into two, with the top third of the tower being smaller than the rest. Small domes dotted the platform and the top of the tower, domes that she knew would conceal everything from subspace comm antenna to shield emitters and defensive lasers. Spreading out from the core tower were six smaller rectangular structures that contained offices and barracks for those personnel stationed on the base. Carefully manicured gardens stretched between four of the buildings, between the other two were open courtyards on which she could see the little black figures of men and women going through drills. Beyond the core buildings the base was given over to runways, a few squat rectangular hangers and an obstacle course. Finally surrounding the whole facility was a perimeter fence made up of slim pylons with glowing blue force bars between them and a theatre shield that was visible only as a very slight distortion in the atmosphere, a distortion that formed a protective dome shape over the base.

The shuttle came to a halt over the base and began descending, after a moment a bluish purple flash lit the interior of the craft as they passed through the security shield, the frequency of the shuttles own shield being adjusted to match the frequency of the facilities dome – allowing them to pass through without base personnel having to lower a section of their shield. Melinda shook her head slightly – she never understood why Federal Guard facilities like this one always had their shields up, surely it was a waste of power when it was highly unlikely that anyone would strike at the base. There was no secessionist movement on Epsilon Eridani to her knowledge who would attack the base if they could. Unlike on some Terran worlds where the extremists of the successionist movements refused to give up the ideology that had spawned the Colonial Independence Wars of the early twenty third century, wars that ultimately led to the formation of the Terran Federation.

The shuttle set down with a slight bump, startling Melinda out of her thoughts. Someone needs to look at the dampeners on the landing skids, she thought getting up from her seat just as the pilot up front opened the rear hatch. Air that was pleasantly cool and impregnated with the scents of local plants flooded into the shuttle replacing the odourless, recycled air that everyone had to breath on starships and space stations. Melinda took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly, luxuriating in the clean, fresh air that filled her lungs even as she made her way to the ramp extending down from the rear hatch.

A young woman in a lieutenant's uniform was waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp. Melinda offered a tired smile as she descended to the sun soaked carbocrete surface of the landing grid. "Professor Jackson," the younger woman asked in a Cetean accented voice.

"Yes," Melinda replied as she stepped out of the shade of the shuttle and felt the warmth of the systems K2 type star on her.

The lieutenant smiled. "Welcome to Atherton Base professor," she said. "I'm Lieutenant Elizabeth Brecker; I'll be your liaison during your stay here."

"Thank you, lieutenant," Melinda answered.

"Admiral Quinton informed us that you are somewhat fatigued from your experience," Brecker added. "If you'll follow me quest quarters have been prepared for you in the officer's barracks."

Melinda smiled slightly, tiredly, at the prospect of at last getting some rest. "Lead on then, lieutenant," she said. "Right now I'm so tired I could sleep for a month."

Brecker laughed slightly. "I know that feeling," she replied as she started to lead the way across the carbocrete landing grid towards the buildings in the core of the base. "I think we've all been that kind of tired at one point or another. I know I was after my academy finals exam."

Melinda chuckled as she followed the younger woman she remembered that kind of thing from her own time in education. Despite having a high IQ and a near eidetic memory – even without implant assistance – late night study and revision sessions had left her with the kind of tiredness the lieutenant was referring to. Though her current exhaustion was very different in that it was more than a physical exhaustion it was mental and emotional as well. What she'd been through in the last day or so was hell, pure and simple, though she doubted that the full effects of the experience with the aliens would hit her for sometime yet. Sighing softly to herself she continued to follow the lieutenant across the landing grid to the bases main complex.


Five Minutes Later

Melinda looked carefully around the guest quarters that Lieutenant Brecker had led her to. They were very similar to her quarters on the Charles Darwin, though much more spacious and the magnolia painted walls were made of carbocrete not the trinium-based polymer alloy used to build the internal walls of most starships. The quarters were divided up into three distinctly different sections, where she was standing right now was the main living area. Soft, tasteful furniture was located around the room, positioned in such a way that that it made the maximum use of the available space. Off to the right sliding frosted glass doors led to the sleeping area, with the bathroom entrance down the other side of the main room.

Without hesitation she headed into the bedroom area, as with the main living area it was being flooded with bright sunshine. Moving over to the large, comfortable looking bed she pressed a key on a small control panel set into the top of the bedside table. Immediately the 'smart' permaglass windows went opaque, plunging the room into darkness – but only for half a second before the overhead lights automatically came on.

Paying them no mind, Melinda slipped out of her shoes and clothing before slipping into bed pulling the soft silk-like material sheet over her tired body. Automatically she felt the mattress under her begin to warm to her body temperature as well as adjusting itself to provide the optimal amount of comfort and support while she slept. Another quick command to the panel on the bedside table extinguished the lights – plunging the room once more into darkness. Warm and comfortable in the bed Melinda's eyes slowly began to drift closed until within mere seconds she was fast asleep, her consciousness completely deserting her exhausted body and slipping into the mists of dreams.


War Room

TFS Akira, A Few Minutes Later

Commander Alan Lorne leaned back in his seat with a thoughtful frown on his face, considering carefully everything that he and Admiral Quinton had just been told about Commander Larsen's two battles with the alien forces. For the better part of an hour they'd quizzed the Centauran commander on what had happened in that system, breaking down the events that had taken place and the tactics that had been used in the fierce exchanges of fire, exchanges that had ultimately led to Commander Larsen authorising the use of antimatter weapons.

All in all from what he'd heard Alan was concerned, very concerned. The aliens whoever or whatever they actually were, were ruthless and brutal in the extreme, they also seemed to care little for their own lives – as evidenced by both the kamikaze attack that destroyed the Juno and the sending twelve bombers against three fully armed warships as a suicidal distraction. While technologically they and the aliens didn't seem to be that far apart – indeed from what he'd seen and heard Alan suspected that in some areas the Federation was more technologically advanced than the aliens – the aliens behaviour, particularly their commanders delusions of godhood pointed to the most dangerous of enemies; those who were fanatics and wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who disagreed with them.

That did not bode well for future contacts with the aliens, and he was sure there would be future contacts. He was fully aware that mounting population and economic pressures meant that the Federation needed to expand, needed to move into new systems. While there was enough trinium in their existing systems to continue to sustain their civilisation for two or three centuries at their current projected growth rate more needed to be found. Along with more planets to house the ever increasing Terran population – especially from the core worlds, the only place they could possibly expand to was inwards towards the galactic core along the Orion Arm; which meant that if the aliens were the power he suspected them to be then more clashes between their forces and the Federal Guard were inevitable.

"Well," Admiral Quinton asked at last, addressing Alan. "What do you think commander?"

"To be honest admiral I am concerned," Alan admitted. "Everything I've heard only makes me more and more concerned for the future of our people, especially with regards to these aliens. We all know that we need to seriously expand our territory for the first time since the end of the A.I War otherwise within the next two centuries we will begin running out of food, trinium and places to live. That need to expand means that sooner or later we're going to run into the aliens again."

"Its likely to happen sooner rather than later," Aaron Larsen said speaking up, like Commander Lorne he was fully aware of the growing economic and population pressures in the Federation – many of the core worlds like his own homeworld already had population densities in the hundreds of millions, and that population was increasing at a geometric rate with every new generation – especially as modern medicine had produced drugs and treatments that had expanded the human lifespan significantly.

"The battle we fought and won has probably shown the aliens that we are a potential threat to them," he continued. "If they have any strategic sense at all they will want information on the nature of that potential threat which means they will be coming, they will be looking for us. Confrontation and possibly war between us and the aliens may well be inevitable. That is not a pleasant thought."

"No it isn't," Alan agreed. "But it is the only conclusion that we can safely draw and I will be putting that in my reports to Admiral Prescott and Fleet Admiral Kermanova. That and the recommendation that we need to find out more about these aliens as a matter of urgency as the biggest enemy is the one you do not know."

"Unfortunately it's not the top brass in High Command that need convincing of the threat," Quinton reminded them both. "Admiral Kermanova has wanted to increase the ratio of heavy units in the fleet for years – but the politicians have shot her down every time. The ones who will really need convincing of the danger before us are President Denison and the rest of the cabinet."

"There are ways to convince them," Alan pointed out. "Especially as the media already know something is up, the fact that the whole Fifth Fleet is in orbit all at once has already alerted them to something going on. We've already been buzzed a few times by news service drones, its only a matter of time before one of them spots the damage to the Railion and tips off noisy reporters that something really serious has happened."

Admiral Quinton made a face as Alan spoke. As commander of the Fifth Fleet he regularly had to deal with the press and knew that reporters were universally a group who couldn't resist sticking their noses into things that didn't concern them. As the SOID officer had said the fact that the whole Fifth Fleet was arrayed in orbit of Epsilon Eridani III instead of being spread throughout the sector and beyond had already tipped them off that something was going down. When they found out about the damage to the Railion the effect would be like blood in the water and send the media into a feeding frenzy that would do the piranha of Terra's Amazon region proud.

"Reporters there worse than the aliens," he said. "At least with the aliens we can blast them back. No such luck with reporters." As he spoke the two commanders chuckled. "Anyway we should send our reports along to High Command. The ball will be firmly in their court then."

"Yes sir," both officers responded in agreement before blushing slightly as they realised they had spoken at the same time.

"In the meantime gentlemen if that is all then we should attend to our separate duties," Quinton continued. "Commander Larsen I am sure you are anxious to get back to your ship."

"Yes sir," Aaron acknowledged. "And not just to oversee the repairs, no offence to you gentlemen but I hate 'normal' grav."

"None taken," Alan answered with an inward smile at the typical Centauran attitude to what the bulk of the Terran race considered to be normal gravity. With their bodies engineered for the high gravity of Alpha Centauri IV it was understandable that normal gravity played hell with them if they were exposed to it for too long. While Centaurans were physically very strong in normal gravity over the short to medium term – indeed even with the augmentations Alan like all SOID officers had he would be in for a tough fight with a Centauran if they got into a bar room brawl – over the long term they would begin to suffer negative effects with regards to bone and muscle mass degeneration.

"Commander Lorne do you have anything else you wish to add before this meeting ends," Quinton asked.

"No sir."

"Then this meeting in adjourned," Quinton said. "You are both free to return to your ships and work on your reports. Inform me when they are ready for transmission to Terra."

"Yes sir," Aaron replied.

"Yes sir," Alan echoed half a second later.

"Dismissed then gentlemen," Quinton said. Both junior officers immediately got to there fleet and offered salutes to their superior officer, which Quinton returned, before leaving the war room to make the journey back to their respective ships.

Alone in the war room – save for his aides – Quinton leaned back in his chair in thoughtful silence. Like Commander Lorne what he had heard in this debriefing session – and what he'd seen on the recordings transmitted to them before the Railion and Achilles emerged from hyperspace – concerned him deeply. Having forged a career defending the Federation and its people from their enemies – usually the separatist insurrectionists who never seemed to be able to get their head around the fact that all planets in the Federation had a equal say in how things were run – he had learned to recognise a dangerous enemy when he saw one. And these aliens seemed to be very dangerous indeed. But what worried him more was the fact that the Federal Guard wasn't ready to deal with them, not really. They needed more heavy warships ready for the time when they encountered the aliens again. Assuming of course that the politicians let us spend the money to commission new heavy warships and refit some of those stuck in mothballs, he thought knowing that despite what had happened there would be resistance in some political circles to increasing the defence budget and shifting industrial focus to more fleet related activities.

After a moment he sighed and stood up to leave the war room himself, he knew that there was a long battle ahead with the politicians with regards to rebuilding the fleets heavy units – gutted over the last few years by politicians looking to safe money. But that was the Fleet Admiral's battle to fight, not his own. He just hoped that Svetlana Kermanova won that battle quickly as was what Commander Larsen had said about the aliens possibly coming looking for the Terran Federation and its people now that they had revealed themselves to be a threat made an uncomfortable amount of sense. He knew they would if they were in the alien's position given that is was the Federal Guards sacred duty to protect the citizens of the Terran Federation unto death using any and all means necessary, there was nothing to assume that the military forces of the aliens weren't bound by a similar oath of service.

He could only hope that they would be ready for them when they came.