CHAPTER 04

On deck four of the starship Pioneer, Caesar Hans slept soundly in his quarters duty stations. The spacious cabin, one of the largest aboard the vessel as befitted his position as commanding officer, was completely dark but for the starlight that seeped in through the circular viewports, silent but for the subtle throb of the mighty warp engines many decks below.

All around him, the only Earth spacecraft to have travelled so far from the planet of its birth sped deeper into unknown space at a brisk warp four. Its eventual destination, a vast nebula at the edge of sensor-range, was many weeks distant.

The tranquillity of the large suite was total, until the trill of an intercom call shattered the silence like a foghorn slicing through an ocean mist.

"Bridge to Caesar Hans."

The captain was roused from the inviting realm of unconsciousness by the voice of his tactical officer and most trusted associate aboard the solitary Earth vessel, and quickly rolled into a sitting position.

"This is Hans," he responded, cringing ever so slightly at the sound of weariness in his own voice, "Go ahead, commander."

"I'm sorry to disturb you, captain," Antonio Levente apologised quickly before continuing, "But we're approaching what appears to be the site of a battle. There's a heavily-damaged alien ship drifting nearby."

Hans rubbed his eyes and swung his legs off the bed, feeling the cool carpeted deck beneath his bare feet as he stood up. "Acknowledged, commander," he said, reaching for the uniform that he'd placed on the back of a nearby chair the previous evening, "Bring us out of warp nearby, but keep our distance from the damaged vessel, their opponent may still be in the vicinity."

"Aye, captain," Levente confirmed, "Bridge out."

Less than four minutes after the ship's powerful long-range navigational sensors had detected the debris field and alien spacecraft lying in the Pioneer's flight-path, Caesar Hans strode from the rear turbolift alcove and onto the upper-deck of his bridge.

As was his custom, he visually surveyed the large room as he descended to toward the central command-arena where his chair was located, and was pleased to note that most of his senior staff had already assumed their customary positions in the light of Commander Levente's find.

"Slowing to sublight," Isabella Maxini reported from her helm console ahead of the command chair, "Ion drives at reverse thrust."

The captain braced himself for the inevitable drop from the subspace realm that permitted flight at faster-than-light warp velocities, tensing as a vibration moved through the deck beneath him.

The inertial dampers that were designed to neutralize the sensation of movement strained against the tremendous deceleration from warp factor four to a relative stop, working in conjunction with the structural integrity forcefields and physical support bulkheads to keep the starship in one piece.

Once again, the fabric of the galaxy was torn apart just ahead of the Pioneer's bow, creating a momentary confluence of subspace and 'normal' space that allowed the vessel to return to the continuum where she belonged. Her sublight engines began discharging their immense ion thrust in reverse, battling against the tremendous momentum that the spacecraft had carried out of warp.

On the main viewing screen, Hans watched the elongated white chalk marks that had become familiar to him as being warp-stars, transform into distant pinpricks of light. The Pioneer now hung many light-years from the nearest solar system, drifting in the desolate interstellar void between the stars.

"Activating short-range sensors," Svenn Holmes announced from the operations console.

But even as the Earth Interests director spoke, Caesar Hans could see the sparkling debris field that lay ahead of the Earth ship, and the looming mass of a sinister alien spacecraft suspended toward starboard.

The vessel was slowly spinning on its central axis, scarlet tendrils of plasma radiating from the shattered engine nacelles suspended beneath its hull on delicate support pylons. Vast sections of its protective outer skin had been blown away entirely by enemy weapons fire, presumably contributing to the field of wreckage that had collected nearby. Dozens of dirty black scorch-marks marred the few hull plates that had been left intact during the battle.

But despite the vessel being so heavily damaged, Caesar Hans had assisted the Solar Defence Force in repelling countless attacks by its kind. Despite the fact that Earth's deadliest enemy had largely employed unmanned probes to attack the human outposts situated throughout the Sol system, the captain could recognise the hallmarks of this alien species.

"Red alert!" Hans commanded. The ambient lighting dimmed in immediate response, followed by the activation of the pulsing crimson strips around the bridge.

"An Orion starship?" Antonio Levente marvelled, obviously shocked by the image portrayed on the viewer.

"I didn't realise they had influence out this far," Maxini added.

"Apparently neither did someone else," Hans told her quietly, his eyes locked on the drifting enemy vessel as he issued his next order, "Run a full sensor-sweep of the Orion craft, I want to know if there's anyone left aboard her."

Holmes manipulated his sensor controls, his face bathed in the glow of the alert lights. "No lifesigns that I can detect," he reported, "But I'm showing biomass readings throughout the ship that appear to be dead bodies. It looks like they all died from radiation poisoning after their fusion core was damaged in the attack."

"I won't be shedding any tears over those deaths," Levente muttered harshly, his disdain for this barbaric race of beings audible in his voice.

No one on the bridge appeared to disagree with the sentiment.

"Neither will I, Mr. Levente," Hans agreed, folding his arms across his uniformed chest, "And I think we have a good idea who was responsible for ridding us of these Orions."

"The Nausicans from the space station?" the tactical officer offered.

Hans nodded.

"According to my analysis," Holmes interjected, "The amount of debris I'm detecting isn't sufficient to indicate that a second vessel was destroyed. If the Nausicans did defeat this Orion ship, it was a fight they managed to walk away from."

"So they're still out there," the captain concluded, "Scan space out to maximum range, see if you can detect the Nausican vessel."

"Scanning," Holmes acknowledged, "I'm not detecting any other spacecraft, but there's a faint ion trail leading away along a bearing of zero-two-seven mark one."

"Are there any planetoids in that direction?" Hans asked, his question automatically encompassing worlds, asteroids or any other space borne bodies that could provide shelter for a damaged ship. Of course, if the Nausicans had rendezvoused with a larger vessel capable of sustaining a higher warp speed, then they could be many light-years distant by now.

Holmes surveyed his operations console for a moment before responding. "Yes," he confirmed, "A small solar system with two planets orbiting a G2 star. The second planet appears to have a habitable atmosphere. It looks like the only safe haven within seven light-years if their life-support systems were failing."

"That system is less than two days from here at warp four-point five," Isabella Maxini interjected.

Hans frowned, slightly taken aback by his helmsman's statement. "You're assuming that it's my intention to go after the Nausicans?" he inquired.

"That's correct, captain," Maxini responded confidently.

The captain felt his jaw clench in frustration, resisting the impulse to issue a reprimand to the young woman for second-guessing him. But he was also unable to banish the anger that burned within him over the brutal treatment of the Tolraay by the three Nausicans back on the space station. One of those hulking aliens had paid for his crimes with his life, killed by a twenty-foot fall after being hit by Antonio Levente's EM shot.

Although it hadn't been the humans' intention to kill the Nausican, Hans felt very little remorse about the alien's death. He was aware that he was in command of a ship that was many light-years from home, operating in a region of the galaxy that was completely inaccessible to every other Earth vessel, and was therefore unable to bring every criminal to justice. Nonetheless, Hans would prefer not to let the remaining two Nausicans simply escape any consequences to their actions on the station.

But how far could he allow his search for justice to drive him? Despite only having known about the existence of the Nausican species for a few hours, it was obvious to Hans and everyone aboard the Pioneer that they were a fearsome race of warriors, armed with powerful military technology. The small Nausican vessel had already destroyed the Tolraay spacecraft and crippled a formidable Orion warship, and Hans was concerned about allowing the Pioneer to become their third kill of the day.

Hans sympathised with the plight of his Tolraay guests, but he wasn't sure if he should place his crew in danger by pursuing the Nausicans.

"The Nausican ship has almost certainly suffered heavy damage, captain," Antonio Levente pointed out, the bridge having fallen silent as the bridge officers awaited their commander's decision, "Based on what we saw back at the space-station I think we could overpower them."

Hans scratched his chin, running his fingers over the coarse stubble beard that had grown since the previous night. The eyes of his senior staff were upon him, silently willing him to issue his orders. His analysis of the situation matched Levente's, he had also concluded that the Pioneer could overwhelm the injured Nausican vessel with relative ease, but the Earth ship would incur damage nonetheless. How much was he prepared to risk in order to capture the Nausicans?

"Captain?" Levente prompted expectantly.

Hans drew in a long breath of air before speaking, finally reaching a decision and advancing toward the helm. "Set a course for that solar system," he instructed Maxini, "Warp four-point-five."

Maxini smiled, enthusiastically tapping the appropriate controls on her board. "Course set," she reported.

"What about the Orions?" Svenn Holmes interjected from the upper-deck, "Aren't we going to notify them about what happened here?"

Hans decided that they had nothing to loose by informing the Orions, but only if the exchange of information could be carried out in an indirect manner.

"What if we launch a communications buoy?" Levente suggested, "It could be configured to broadcast a short message on all subspace-frequencies. It might take some time but I'm sure that another Orion ship or listening-post would receive it sooner or later."

Hans gave him a short nod of confirmation. "Launch the buoy," he ordered, "Advising them about this ship is more than they deserve anyway."

The tactical officer punched a command-sequence into one of his keypads. "It's away," he told everyone, "Transmitting on all available frequencies."

The captain placed a hand on Maxini's shoulder, looking up at the viewscreen. "Take us out of here, lieutenant," he said calmly, "Full ion thrust until we clear the debris field."

The helmsman pressed the necessary controls, and the Pioneer eased away into the night as her sublight engines roared into life. In a heartbeat the Earth ship left the stricken Orion vessel, now no more than a floating tomb for its deceased crew, thousands of kilometres behind.

A dozen light-years from the skies of Earth where she'd been constructed, the starship Pioneer soared through the darkness of space, propelled by continuum-distortion engines generations more advanced than those developed by Zefram Cochrane in the 2060s. In just over ninety years since the initial flight of the Pheonix, the prototype warp vessel that had attracted the attention of a Vulcan research ship, humanity had developed an engine that could travel four hundred times faster.

In centuries gone by, even the most noted physicists on Earth had dismissed travel at the speed of light as impossible, concluding that such a velocity could never be achieved in a universe that obeyed Einsteinian laws of relativity. Einstein had maintained as a vessel accelerated toward the one billion kilometres per hour of light-speed, the slower perceived time became until it ceased altogether. But Cochrane had discovered a means by which this law could be bypassed.

Every Earth vessel constructed with a continuum-distortion, or 'warp' drive, was a testament to the work of Cochrane, but the Pioneer even more so. Even the incredible velocity of a billion KPH, at which point one could race light itself, was a mere crawl compared to the two hundred billion that the Pioneer could attain.

As Caesar Hans stood on the observation deck of this remarkable spacecraft, he realised how he had come to take for granted what a monumental achievement of science and engineering the Pioneer actually was.

The captain maintained his customary relaxed stance, legs apart with arms folded across his chest, absorbing the majesty of the stars that moved past the vast viewports. At the point where a ship accelerated to light-speed and beyond, these immense orbs of nuclear energy became nothing more than thin arrows, lancing swiftly away into the void of space.

Hans had viewed this spectacle dozens of times during his lifetime aboard spacecraft, since any ship equipped with warp engines was party to it, but he had never seen the stars shoot past with such furious intensity as they did aboard the Pioneer.

But in the last few hours, the starship had abandoned its continuing mission to transport the Zeytraddi refugees back to their homeworld, a planet located in a solar system almost twelve months from Earth even aboard this prototype vessel. The only Earth ship to have travelled this far from Sol was on another mission, a task that its crew had undertaken by themselves to seek out two Nausicans and bring them to justice.

"Captain?" a voice said from behind him.

Hans spun around, snapped from the privacy of his own thoughts, and regarded the newcomer who had entered the spacious observation lounge. Svenn Holmes stood in the doorway.

"I thought I might find you here," the EI director told him, stepping over the threshold and allowing the twin panels to slide closed.

Hans turned back to the vast viewing ports that formed the forward bulkhead, staring back out at the unimaginable vastness of the universe. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" he asked, secretly glad of the interruption.

Holmes advanced on the captain, moving to stand at his side as he absorbed the fantastic vista for himself.

"I used to come here often myself during the construction period," the scientist began, ignoring the query regarding his presence. "I found it to be a place where I could focus on a problem that had developed with the ship in almost complete privacy."

"Is that so?" Hans muttered wryly.

Holmes nodded. "Since the observation deck doesn't contain any systems other than some emergency communications equipment, it wasn't frequented by the construction crews. I was able to hide here for hours."

The captain detected the unspoken message in the operations manager's words, and glanced across at him. "You think I'm hiding?"

Holmes shrugged. "Are you?"

Hans sighed, deciding that it would do very little harm to confide in this man. "I've been considering contacting SDF command back on Earth," he admitted quietly, "I'm not sure if they'd approve of this course of action with those Nausicans."

In the last few hours since the Pioneer had encountered the shattered hulk of the Orion vessel, Captain Hans had retired to his private ready-room adjacent to the main bridge. Those hours had passed slowly, during which he had resisted the impulse to instruct Antonio Levente to open a subspace communications channel back to SDF Headquarters on Earth.

Despite the ship being twelve light-years from home, the network of subspace booster stations surrounding the Sol system could relay a message to Admiral Cohen, Hans' immediate superior. The small unmanned communications satellites had been sent out from Earth two decades earlier, designed to allow spacecraft operating within the three light-year range to send messages home.

Since the Zeytraddi mission was unprecedented, no one was certain how much longer the network could permit the exchange of information between the Pioneer and Earth, but Holmes had estimated that it would be no longer than three weeks if they remained on their present course.

Beside him, Holmes appeared to consider the dilemma. "The Tolraay appear to have developed impressive technology," he said, "Those implants Doctor Marriott detected are at least twenty years in advance of anything human medicine has to offer."

Hans frowned, not quite understanding the point that the operations manager was trying to make. "Meaning?" he prompted.

"If we can capture the two Nausicans who held Jarem and Tolem hostage on the space station," Holmes continued, "It could go a long way to forging an alliance between Earth and the Tolraay. Despite our recent alliance with the Traygon the SDF is still eager to make friends out here, and an exchange of technologies with the Tolraay would be extremely beneficial to mankind."

"So by pursuing the Nausican ship," Hans replied, narrowing his gaze at the other man as he began to comprehend what was being said, "We could be building the foundations for an alliance?"

Holmes nodded. "I can certainly imagine Admiral Cohen and your other SDF superiors seeing it that way," he confirmed, "At least after the mission has been completed successfully."

"You don't think I should contact them?" Hans asked.

"Not until we have the Nausicans in custody and are in orbit of the Tolraay homeworld," the EI director said, "This far from Earth and the subspace relay network, we can simply tell them that we were unable to transmit a message prior to embarking on the mission."

Hans smiled. "I didn't realise how little respect you had for authority," he told him quietly.

Holmes inclined his head in silent agreement, before withdrawing from the captain's side and heading out of the observation lounge. "Only when it's necessary," he conceded.

For nearly two days, the Pioneer traversed the vast distance between the shattered hulk of the Orion warship and the small planetary system, her vast array of sensors monitoring the path of the faint ion trail that was believed to have been generated by the Nausican vessel.

Now, as the Earth starship began to draw nearer to the system where the ion trail appeared to lead, Caesar Hans summoned his senior staff to their customary positions in the command centre. With the Pioneer facing a possible assault by the alien spacecraft, the captain demanded that his best people surround him, never feeling comfortable with anyone else manning the bridge's various duty stations.

"The ion trail has completely dispersed," Svenn Holmes announced from his operations console, scrutinising the multiple sensor-monitoring screens as his spoke, "It looks like the ship dropped to sublight nearby."

At the helm, Isabella Maxini glanced over her shoulder the Pioneer began to infringe on the periphery of the solar system. "We're approaching the second planet, captain."

Captain Hans leaned forward in his command chair, narrowing his gaze at the main viewscreen. "Bring us out of warp, lieutenant," he ordered.

Maxini reached for the appropriate cluster of controls on her console, entering the necessary commands.

Beneath Hans, the massive starship shuddered as it threw off its warp field and leapt from the faster-than-light realm of subspace, her ion engines firing at full reverse thrust.

The vast globe of a habitable planet abruptly appeared within the viewscreen, a stunning world that appeared to be a more idyllic sister of Earth. The shallow azure seas that dominated the planet's surface seemed to glow with an inner-radiance, sparkling in the light of the solar system's central star. Long swathes of islands that appeared to be archipelagos were clearly visible even from the Pioneer's distant vantage point, all clustered around the principal landmass, a relatively small continent no larger than Australia on Earth.

Encircling the planet's equator, was a wide ring of asteroidal and commentary debris.

"Report?" Hans asked finally, satisfied that the bridge crew had sufficiently absorbed the beautiful image of this alien world.

"It's remarkably like Earth, captain," Svenn Holmes reported, examining his sensor readings, "Right down to the ambient temperature and dispersal of atmospheric gasses."

"Almost like being home," Antonio Levente commented.

Hans shared the tactical officer's opinion. "I wouldn't request shore-leave privileges yet," he said over his shoulder, looking back at the viewscreen, "Is this planet inhabited?"

Holmes shook his head. "Long-range sensors aren't picking-up any biosigns on the surface," the scientist told him, reaching for a specific monitor and adjusting its display, "And I'm still not detecting any indication of recent spaceflight activity anywhere in the system with the exception of the Nausican ion trail."

"Continue scanning for the Nausican ship," Hans instructed him, "It could be concealed in a low orbit around one of the planets or behind the sun." He pushed himself to his feet. "Are there any signs of wreckage on the surface?"

"I've implemented a standard search-pattern," Holmes said, "But it'll take at least ten hours to perform a thorough scan of the entire planet."

Hans frowned, unwilling to remain above this world for such a length of time. "Then restrict your scan to the central continent," he replied, "If that ship was forced into making an emergency-landing it'd make sense for them to come down there."

"Captain, we're entering orbit," Maxini reported, adjusting her helm controls as she spoke.

"Move us into a geo-synchronous position above the area being scanned, lieutenant," Hans ordered, looking to Holmes as he impatiently awaited the results of the scan.

"The sensors just detected a metallic object," the EI director announced finally, "There's no way is can be a natural construct on an uninhabited planet."

Hans needed no further urging. "I'm taking a landing party to the surface," he informed everyone briskly, "Mr. Holmes will remain in command until I return, Commander Levente and two marines will accompany me."

Holmes slipped from his chair at the operations console. "I think I should go with you," he stated curtly.

"This isn't a scientific expedition," Hans retorted, ascending the steps toward the nearest turbolift, "It's a military operation to apprehend two criminals, you can remain here and monitor our progress."

Holmes drew a long breath of exasperation, aware that an argument would do little to further his cause. "Understood," he sighed.

With Levente at his side, Hans stepped into the turbolift car. "Launchbay!"

When the initial concept of a long-range exploration vessel had been conceived of by the Earth Interests, it had become evident that a major part of its mission would involve visiting the surface of many alien planets. Despite the impressive array of biological, meteorological and geological sensors designed to obtain information about these distant worlds, close-range exploration was still necessary, and an entirely new generation of small auxiliary spacecraft had been created by the EI and DeSaab.

As the Pioneer itself was constructed in orbit above Earth, some of humanity's most talented shipwrights had designed a variety of prototypes for these compact vessels that they termed 'shuttlepods'. Following an exhaustive series of atmospheric and sub-orbital test-flights at an EI facility in Arizona, the most suitable vessel had been chosen by the EI board of directors.

Antonio Levente now found himself at the helm controls of one of these shuttlepods for the second time in two days, fastened in his acceleration seat by twin straps of restraint webbing. An accomplished pilot, the tactical officer deftly manipulated the flight-controls as the small ship successfully launched from the Pioneer's docking bay.

The particular pod wasn't the one that had conveyed Levente, Svenn Holmes and Caesar Hans to and from the mysterious alien space station, but rather its identical counterpart that was generally housed alongside. As per its operational protocols, the Earth starship always maintained two shuttlepods at standby for immediate launch. The vessel also carried a pair of backup pods that had were only partially assembled and held in storage, intended to be made operational within twenty hours by the Pioneer's engineers if the need arose.

"I'm scanning our landing coordinates," Captain Hans said, tapping commands into the navigation console.

Levente glanced sideways at the incoming sensor data for only an instant, concentrating instead on piloting the shuttle downward.

In the viewport before him, this alien planet a dozen light-years from the world of his birth loomed large, its vast azure oceans glistening as the shuttlepod approached. This marbled orb suspended in space was dominated by water, giving it an appearance that was significantly different from that of Earth.

Nonetheless, Levente was unable to fully suppress the unfamiliar sensation of homesickness, and a longing for everything he'd become accustomed to throughout his three decades of life. Even the frightening Orion attacks on the Sol system had been fought on familiar territory, a place where he knew every colony and spaceport from Mercury to Pluto. The entire system could be crossed in under two days even at sublight speeds.

To be twelve light-years out was an entirely different matter, a distance that even light itself required well over a decade to traverse.

Banishing his thoughts of Earth, Levente forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand, focussing on the instrumentation laid out before him. A proximity alarm chirped quietly, alerting him to the sudden disappearance of the massive Earth ship from the pod's short-range sensors.

Fearful of a Nausican attack, the Pioneer had stationed herself in a high orbit approximately fifty thousand kilometres above the surface of this planet. If the hostile aliens were concealed somewhere took the opportunity to strike the exploration vessel, the Pioneer would be unhindered by a low orbit and could swiftly escape.

"We're moving out of range of the ship," Levente reported, tapping a command into a nearby keypad to inform the shuttlepod computer to acknowledge the sensor alert.

At the navigation console beside the helm, Caesar Hans was scrutinising multiple displays. "Continue our descent," he said quickly, not looking up from his instruments as he adjusted a series of dials to improve sensor-resolution.

"Altitude is one thousand kilometres and decreasing," the tactical officer informed him, looking up at the beautiful globe that could no longer be seen in its entirety from the shuttlepod. Instead, only the immense curve of the world's atmosphere was visible, the wide ring of asteroidal debris providing a stunning backdrop against space.

Levente had performed re-entry manoeuvres in many different spacecraft during his lifetime, generally piloting ships down to the surface of Earth but sometimes encountering more turbulent and dense planetary atmospheres like that of Venus. Since this new planet was so remarkably like his homeworld, Levente anticipated very little difficulty in successfully touching-down.

"I'm scanning our landing coordinates," Hans informed him, tapping a sequence of commands into his navigation console.

Levente glanced across at the incoming sensor data for only an instant, instead concentrating on piloting the shuttlepod on its downward course. The Pioneer's sensors had been unable to determine if the unnatural object that'd been detected was the Nausican vessel, but the captain was obviously attempting to perform a more detailed scan now that the shuttlepod was much closer to the surface.

Hans shook his head. "I still can't establish that what we're detecting is Nausican wreckage," he muttered in defeat, "And there are no biosigns within sensor-range."

Another sensor alarm sounded from the helm console, drawing Levente's attention to the fact that the shuttlepod was beginning to encounter this world's atmosphere.

At one hundred and thirty kilometres from the surface, approximately equivalent to Earth, the auxiliary vessel from the Pioneer began to enter the thermosphere. This was the thinnest level of atmospheric gasses that surrounded most planets, a cold and airless realm that was the final solace for spacecraft before they entered the complete void of space.

"Altitude is now one hundred kilometres," Levente said, feeling a subtle vibration begin to move through the shuttlepod as its hull was exposed to greater levels of atmospheric friction.

The planetary continent that had been designated as their eventual destination now dominated the forward viewport, an expansive green and mustard landmass stretching out across the vast azure seas. Only a handful of silky white clouds above some coastal and mountainous regions gave any indication of this world's weather system.

As he adjusted the flight controls again to compensate for the denser atmosphere, Levente absently decided that there were worse places to crash-land a starship.

But as the shuttlepod descended beneath the planet's outer thermosphere and into the deeper mesosphere, a series of quiet sensor alarms issued from the consoles that surrounded the two SDF officers. Caesar Hans scrutinised the navigation screens before him and frowned curiously, obviously attempting to understand the incoming sensor data being displayed.

"What is it?" Levente asked, glancing across at the accompanying control console as he continued to pilot the pod downward.

"I'm not sure," the captain said, tapping commands into his terminal, "There's some sort of electromagnetic disturbance in the lower-atmosphere, but I can't localise it."

Levente looked up at the viewports, visually scanning the terrain beneath them for some clue as to the nature of this disturbance. Of course, his eyes could detect nothing at such a height, for the shuttlepod was still over fifty kilometres from the surface.

"Is it an atmospheric phenomenon?" the tactical officer inquired.

Hans shook his head. "I don't know what it is," he admitted, "But if it's being artificially-generated by someone it could be intended to prevent us landing here. We can't rule out Nausican involvement."

Levente looked across at his commanding officer with a serious expression. "Should I abort the descent?"

Hans opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak he obviously noticed something in his peripheral vision. His head snapped around toward the main viewport ahead of them, and he narrowed his gaze at something he'd spotted far below.

Levente squinted at a point on the planet surface, where he could just make out a dark patch beginning to swell in size. His instinctive response was to class this black object as a vessel rising from the ground, possibly the Nausican starship lifting off, but he quickly dismissed the conclusion. Whatever this thing was, it was gaining altitude with a strange undulating motion that marked it as something other than a spacecraft.

"What is it?" Levente marvelled, already entering the appropriate commands for a return to orbit.

Hans surveyed the sensor monitors briefly. "Whatever it is," he said as he adjusted his controls, "It has to be the source of the electromagnetic disturbance."

"I'm taking us up!" Levente reported curtly, banking the shuttlepod had to starboard with the intention of pulling the ship into a steep climb out of the stratosphere and back into space. Both men were forced deeper into their acceleration seats, feeling their restraint webbing tighten automatically to secure them as the pod was driven swiftly upward.

"The disturbance is gaining altitude!" the captain announced tensely, frantically tapping at his navigation console, "It's now twenty kilometres from the surface!"

Fighting against the increased gravity, Levente brought the nose of the shuttlepod up with effort and fired the atmospheric thrusters at full power. The harsh manoeuvre strained the little vessel's structure, but within seconds the craft was soaring upward.

"Disturbance is at forty kilometres!" Hans called over roar of the atmosphere streaming past the outer hull, "It's catching us!"

Levente felt his chest tighten, realised that he was holding his breath and forced himself to breathe out as his fingers moved over the helm controls. "We're climbing as fast as we can!" he snapped, a little more angrily than he had intended, "Can you contact the Pioneer?"

"The electromagnetic disturbance is interfering with communications!" Hans told him quickly, "It's jamming all subspace and radio communications with the ship!"

Levente cursed under his breath, furious at being chased away from this planet by such a phenomenon, but even as he did so watched as his console abruptly went dark. He gasped, just as the controls lit up again before flickering erratically. Around him, every monitor in the pod spluttered with static.

"We're in trouble!" Levente cried, feeling the force of the rapid ascent begin to vanish as the shuttle's engines died.

As the onboard flight computers detected the sudden reduction in thrust and declining altitude, a pulsing alarm began to vibrate through the small cockpit.

"Engines are offline!" Hans shouted frantically, grasping the limb of his console for support as the ship began to tumble into a terrifying suicide dive, "That disturbance is affecting all our systems!"

Feeling the blood already beginning to rush from his brain as the intense g-forces took hold of the plummeting shuttle, Levente desperately hammered commands into the inactive helm console. He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears, and struggled for breath as terror threatened to overwhelm him.

Slamming into the surface of an unnamed planet a dozen light-years from Earth wasn't the way Antonio Levente had expected to die.

Dark spots began to form at the edge of his vision, the unmistakable hallmarks of a person nearing the point of blacking out. But even as everything around him started to vanish into a tunnel, Levente could make out the image of a million dirty green creatures swarming past the tumbling shuttlepod as they continued with their ascent.

Lifeforms!

Gasping for breath, what remained of Levente's rational brain attempted to analyse what he was seeing. These winged beings were generating the electromagnetic interference that had disabled the descending shuttle, possibly produced in a similar fashion to how electric eels on Earth created electrical discharges, and were now rapidly rising through the thin atmosphere toward space.

Each individual creature was no larger than a human forearm, covered in leathery green hide and with large fleshy wings that were beating powerfully. Levente decided that these beings had a bat like appearance, but he had never seen so many bats as he could now see creatures streaming past the shuttle's viewports.

He knew that they were heading for the awaiting Pioneer in orbit.

But as his body finally succumbed to the immense g-forces and he blacked out, there was nothing Antonio Levente could do to protect the ship.