Chapter 16

My star that dartles the red and the blue!
Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled:
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.
What matters to me is their star is a world?
Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.
- Robert Browning – My Star -

The snap back from a singularity seemed more abrupt than normal. The principal result was that Angie felt an intense pain that radiated from her sinuses into the top of her head.

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Take us down to 1000 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"The star is a G5 V dwarf that has a 0.96 mass, a 0.94 radius, a 0.78 luminosity, a 5604 K temperature and a 94% metallicity compared to Sol," Karl reported.

"There are three gas giants and three inner planets, but none of them show any evidence of being a class-M world," George said. "I'm detecting a lot of debris at the habitable zone, which is around 0.8 to 0.9 AU."

"That doesn't sound good," Marty said.

"Are there any large moons around the gas giants?" Angie asked George.

"We're too far out to make a complete inventory, but I would say no."

"I cannot find any enemy vessels in this system," Ninja said.

"The third planet has an atmosphere," Lucia said. "But, the temperature is low, about 279 K."

"That planet shows a water peak," Anna said. "If there is oxygen, it's at a low concentration."

"That's as good as it gets," Angie said. "Take us to the third planet, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"The third planet is at 1.3 AU, which is out of the habitable zone," George said. "It's probably a frozen world."

"As Uma always says: if there is water, there is life," Angie said.

"That is right, ma'am," Uma said.

Angie stood up. "I'm going to go relax. Uma and Lia, you should do likewise."

The three women exited the command deck.

Marty motioned to Rosie. "Come up here. I want to talk to you."

Hesitating at first, Rosie came up to him, and he invited her to take Angie's seat.

"Is this permissible?"

"Sure. Angie won't mind."

When Rosie sat down, Marty put his arm around her shoulder.

"I owe you an apology. I thought that your people were abducting other species, but it appears that the Dragons were doing it."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, I've taken a liking to you. You seem like a nice person to me. I think that you're a lot smarted than you make out."

Rosie blinked several times. "Do you have a question?"

"Yeah. What I want to know is: what are your men like?"

"They are overly aggressive, stubborn and don't value our opinion."

Marty smiled. "By 'our' I assume that you mean the women."

"Yes. We are mostly ignored."

"Well, I value your opinion," Marty said. "Do you think that your men would fight alongside us?"

"I believe that they would. They like fighting."

"Do you like traveling with us?"

"Yes. I believe that I am making a contribution."

"You are, believe me when I say that you are."

Rosie blinked several times.

Meanwhile, Angie sat at a table in the recreation area and held her aching head. A cup of steaming coffee provided some relief.

"Are you feeling well?" Lia asked her.

"I'll be fine after I get some coffee in me. I get these damn migraines every time we jump."

"What does Onuki say about that?" Uma asked with concern showing in her big bright eyes.

"She gives me some pills, but they make me nauseous. Otherwise, she wants to do a complete physical."

"I hate that," Uma said, twisting her face to exhibit disgust.

"While we have your ear," Lia said. "Will you consider relaxing the dress code?"

Angie stared at both of them for several seconds. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"We were thinking along the lines of what we wore at Area-51 when the air conditioner broke," Uma said.

Angie smiled. "Oh, my! That's a good idea. I'm tired of standard issue, but we're a long way from a Wal-Mart."

Both Uma and Lia gave her ornery grins.

Angie's eyes brightened. "Don't tell me; you snuck contraband on board."

Angie developed a big grin of her own when she saw Uma and Lia nod.

###

The cold planet hung in space like a snowball surrounded by a gaseous envelope. Frozen crystals of water and carbon dioxide formed wispy high altitude clouds above an Antarctica-like landscape.

"We are in a stable orbit, Angie."

"Launch an atmospheric probe, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"This planet has a 5402 kilometer equatorial radius," George said. "Its mass is 0.9 of Earth, which means that it has a large iron core."

"The oxygen concentration is only 11%," Anna said. "That's higher than the spectra indicated."

"The atmosphere may be highly stratified," Lucia said. "The higher oxygen concentrations may be in the lower strata."

"You're right," Anna said. "I'm measuring wind velocities over 800 kilometers per hour in the upper atmosphere, but nearly zero near the ground."

"The surface consists of frozen water," George said. "There are mountains and canyons. I also see frozen lakes."

"The temperature at the surface averages -5 C."
Angie turned around. "You won't be able to wear your new outfits down there, Uma and Lia."

Marty looked at her with a confused expression. "What new outfits?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I've relaxed the dress codes."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. It seems that these two snuck a whole cargo container filled with shorts and halter tops on board."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope. I've decided to throw away Arthur's rules and allow fashion freedom."

"Check this out," George said.

All eyes were captured by the main screen.

"What the hell are those?" Marty said.

"They are some sort of fur covered animal." Ferris said. "They appear to have six legs and two heads."

"Maybe two heads are better than one on a cold planet," Marty said.

"Very funny," Angie said.

"However, two noses would allow for a higher intake of air," Ferris said.

"Are we going down?" Marty asked Angie.

Angie thought about it for a moment. "Why not. We need a break from idiot aliens."

"Permission to go," Ferris said.

"Me too," Anna said.

"I would love to go," Lucia said.

Angie smiled at Marty. "There's your landing party."

He saluted. "As you wish, Admiral."

She replied with a smile.

Marty led his team to the equipment deck and issued each of them an environmental suit.
"These'll keep us warm and comfy." He checked out a 9mm automatic. "Just in case." He gave one to Anna. "You can take one too."

After they had dressed and collected scanning instruments, Marty and his party climbed aboard a Lander and settled into launch seats. Soon, the thumping sound of pumps echoed, signaling the evacuation of air from the Lander hangar. After the process was complete, Marty moved the Lander out of the hangar and into space above an ice crystal world.

Marty lit the breaking engines, reducing orbital speed to only a thousand kilometers per hour. The result was a nose down plunge into the planet's atmosphere. The stratosphere was thin but it supported supersonic winds. To counter the sheering effect, Marty used the aft engines to power through into the troposphere where the winds were more manageable. The landscape was white, reflecting the light of the alien star with near blinding efficiency. Marty countered this by adjusting his visor to reduce the glare. He decided to land near a frozen lake that sat at the foot of a mountain of ice.

"We'll have to take depth soundings on the ice before we walk on it," Marty said. "We don't want to fall into a crevice. There's no telling how deep they are on this planet."

"I doubt that the ice is weak," Lucia said. "This planet is perpetually cold much like Antarctica."

When they exited the Lander, Marty and his crew stepped onto a truly frozen world. The alien star showed as an orange ball through an atmosphere that had permanent high altitude clouds.

"The ice layer is at least a mile thick," Lucia said. "There are no indications of cavitation. That would suggest that it has been formed over a very long time and is compacted much like a glacier."

"I'm detecting a higher oxygen concentration than our original scans," Anna said. "I'm also measuring a higher temperature: -1 C."

"That's close to the freezing point," Marty said. "I don't get it."

Ferris used a hand drill to take a core sample from the ice layer. She placed it into a Bio container to preserve it. A portable scanner indicated primitive life forms.

"Either life on this planet is able to survive cold temperatures or something is wrong," Ferris said.

"I think I've found what's wrong," Marty said, holding an energy probe up. "I'm detecting a heat source about a hundred meters that-a-way." He pointed to the left.

"That would put it around the ice upsurge over there," Lucia said.

Marty motioned to the large block of ice that stuck up from the surface at an oblique angle. "Okay, Let's go, but be careful."

When they rounded the block of ice, Marty immediately keyed his mic. "Hey, Angie, we've found some sort of machine down here."

"What kind of machine?"

"I don't know, but it's putting out heat."

"It's also emitting oxygen," Anna said.

"Do you think it could be a Dragon device?" Angie asked.

"I don't think so," Marty said. "It's approximately twenty meters in height, basically round and has vents at the top. Maybe some alien is trying to terraform this planet."

"The big question is what alien?"

"That's a good question. We'll see if we can find any inscriptions."

"Be careful."

"Yes, Admiral."

###

Angie looked over her audience in the recreation room and smiled. She had invited all of the extraterrestrial females to a meeting in which she hoped to spell out what their jobs would entail while they were part of her crew. Little did they know that she had no intention of ever allowing them out of her crew.

Besides Birdie, Rosie and Honey, there were Gem-Ado and Gem-Bao from the matriarchal society that punishes men at Festival. Then there were Masai and Mosai from the matriarchal society that punishes men in private. There was Jet-Lee from the matriarchal society that treats men like dogs. Also present were Moto, Sata, Tara, Toma, Soma, Mata, Fera, Tosa, Fema, Kata, Kara, Mita, Seta and Jeta, the Drak females who would be treated like rats if they were on their home planet.

"First, I want to welcome all of you into our service. You are all now members of Space Command and part of the crew of this starship. Unless you beg me on your hands and knees, I will require your service for as long as necessary. Second, we are all equal on this ship. You are not slaves. You will be provided with proper food, clothing and a good bed to sleep in. Your quarters will have bathing and toilet facilities and you will have access to all of the recreational facilities on this ship. You will be provided with a schedule to follow that will indicate when and where you need to be to provide service in the running of this ship. You that are astronomers will be trained to use the astronomical equipment that is on this ship. Lucia, George, and Karl will train you. Ferris and Anna will train you that know biology or chemistry. If engineering is your skill, Jean-Michel and Honey will train you. And, if combat is your thing, you will be trained by Martin and Ninja."

She looked around for any questions. "Now for a less important, but nonetheless necessary, subject: clothing. Normally, you are required to wear what we call standard issue. However, I have relaxed the dress codes so that you may wear less than what would be considered proper. I realize that you come from completely divergent cultures. You people from the matriarchal societies don't like to expose your skin other than your face and hands. However, you are not on your respective planets now. I would like to do an experiment with you. I would like to see you gradually expose much more of your skin. On the other side of this, you Drak females came from a planet that didn't allow you to wear clothing at all. Perhaps, we can experiment with you and try exposing more skin in a controlled fashion."

"Are you going to do the same with the males?" Masai asked.

"Sure. Everyone is equal here. We don't discriminate according to gender or race."

"You are unlike any leader I've ever known," Masai said.

The rest of the women echoed that sentiment.

###

"Take us out of orbit, Delphi. We want to check out the debris field at the habitable zone."

"Yes, Angie."

"How are you coming with the writing that you found on that terraformer, Lia?" Marty asked.

"It's identical to the writing we found on the alien space station."

Marty's left eyebrow rose. "You mean that it's still functioning after thousands of years?"

"That's a conclusion that we can't verify," Lia said. "It's possible, though."

"Keep alert, people, we're approaching the fringes of the debris field," George said.

"We have more eyes now that we have more astronomers," Marty said. "We should be able to locate artifacts in the debris field faster."

"That's the idea," Angie said.

"I am detecting energy residues from Dragon weapon fire," Ninja said. "The other residue is from unknown weapons."

"Could that be why there's no planet?" Marty said. "A battle between the Dragons and some opponent destroyed it?"

"That is a possibility," George said. "The asteroids are definitely planet material."

"I see an object that is made from a metallic substance," Masai said. "It may be part of a spaceship."

"Put it on the main screen," Marty said.

The object looked like a fragment of a spacecraft hull. It had a Dragon symbol embossed on it.

"Well, that's pretty good evidence that a battle took place here," Marty said.

"I have found a large tubular object," Gem-Ado said. She switched her screen to the main screen.

The object was approximately twenty meters long and two meters in diameter. A sinister looking bullet shaped end caught everyone's attention.

"That looks like a weapon," Marty said.

"It is," Ninja said. "And, it's still armed."

"Back us out of here, Delphi, maximum safe speed."

"Yes, Angie."

The object and the debris field shrunk quickly as the X-4001 sped away.

"That's enough fun for one day," Angie said. "Take us to jump speed, Delphi. Align us with the next star on the list."

"Yes, Angie."

###

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Reduce our velocity to 500 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

The breaking engines screamed while the crew took their working positions.

Karl reported first. "This is a G2 V class star. It has a 1.45 luminosity, a 1.5 metal ratio, and a 1.2 mass compared to Sol."

"There are no inner planets," George said. "This system has a hot gas giant at 0.08 AU. The other five gas giants are at 0.75, 1.2, 3.2, 7.1 and 10 AU."

"What about large moons?" Angie asked.

"There are many moons around the outer gas giants," Gem-Ado said. "We will have to sort them out."

"I am not detecting any enemy vessels in this system," Ninja said.

"Good," Angie said, standing up. "Let me know if you find anything."

Marty watched her leave the command deck and then turned to Honey. "Take over."

"Yes, Martin."

He went to Angie's quarters, but she wasn't there. He went down one deck to the recreation areas, but she wasn't in the common room. He searched through the exercise areas, the tennis and racquet ball courts.

Where the hell is she?

He entered the dressing room that adjoined the pool. The sound of water running greeted his ears as he walked toward the shower room. He debated about looking in, and by the time he did, she was gone. When he entered the pool, all he heard was the sloshing of water. The distorted image of a naked female flashed by just under the surface of the water, a teasing glimpse of female skin that whetted his desire to see more.

Angie surfaced near the back of the pool and held on to the side with one hand while she slicked her wet hair back with the other. When she saw Marty standing along the side her eyes temporarily flashed shock before radiating amusement.

"Hi."

"Are you okay?"

"Sure. I just needed to get wet."

"You came to the right place," Marty said, teasing her with a smile.

"How did you know I was here?" she asked.

"It was last on the list."

On the command deck, the mood was more serious.

"There is a large moon around the third gas giant," Lucia said. "It has a radius that is nearly 7000 kilometers."

"What are its vitals?" Honey asked.

"I measure a mean temperature around 21 C," Anna said. "It shows a water peak."

"Put us on course to the moon, Delphi."

"Yes, Honey."

"Are you sure that the Admiral wants to go there?" George asked Honey.

"I am in command. She is not here and Martin is not here."

"Where are they?" George asked.

"Let's hope that they are doing what they should be doing," Ferris said.

"I also wish that they find happiness in each other," Uma said. "They are expressing their love."

"Too bad I am in command," Honey said. "I would like to witness that."

They laughed.

###

"We are in stable orbit, Angie."

"Launch atmospheric and oceanic probes, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"This moon is much like any other M-class planet," George said. "Oceans take up about 60% of the surface. There are mountain ranges and both forest and plains. Both poles are frozen."

"The atmosphere is thick," Masai said. "The pressure is 1200 millibars near the surface. The troposphere extends up to nearly 15 kilometers and there are winds in excess of 700 kilometers per hour at that altitude."

"This moon has a healthy magnetic field," George said. "I'm measuring over one gauss at the poles and the field extends out to over a hundred thousand kilometers."

"That's good," Karl said. "The solar wind from this star is stronger than that from our sun."

"The oceans have low salinity," Ferris said. "There are many life forms, but they all appear to be primitive."

"There are no signs of civilization," George said. "However, I see strange looking structures in an area near the equator." He switched it to the main screen.

"It looks like a bunch of mounds," Marty said.

"That's true," George said. "But, they appear to be organized into geometric patterns."

"Launch a Biometric Mother probe, Delphi. Disperse insects at 1000 meters."

"Yes, Angie."

"This moon has a moon," Masai said."

"That's interesting," George said. "I missed that. It must have been on the opposite side."

"The moon of the moon has a radius of 2310 kilometers," Masai said. "It doesn't appear to have much of an atmosphere."

"I'm picking up a faint methane peak around that moon," Anna said. "It may have a thin atmosphere."

"The main moon's atmosphere has an oxygen concentration of 17%," Gem-Ado said. "The rest is mostly nitrogen with a 0.09% concentration of carbon dioxide."

"That's fairly high," Lucia said. "Perhaps that explains why this moon is relatively warm."

"There are a lot of active volcanoes," George said. "Perhaps, that's why the carbon dioxide is so high."

"Check out this," Ferris said, switching her screen to the main screen.

Marty got up. "What the hell?"

"It looks like some aquatic humanoid," Ferris said. "They have definite humanoid faces."

"Are these mermaids?" Marty said.

"None of them have hair or anything else that resembles a human female," Ferris said. "They look more like a reptile. See the scales."

"I can top that," Anna said. "Look at this."

The main screen changed to show creatures that resembled a praying mantis but had humanoid faces.

"Are these insects?" Marty asked.

"They look too large to be insects," George said. "They have to be at least five feet high."

"The definition of insect may be different on this planet," Ferris said.

Lia looked around with a scowl on her normally stoic face. "Who's screwing around?"

"What's wrong?" Angie asked.

"I'm getting text on my screen," Lia said. "Stuff like: Greetings Star Travelers."

"Those messages are originating on the moon," Brigit said.

"That's ridiculous," Lia said, sounding agitated. "They're in English."

"I can't help that," Brigit said. "The signal is originating from the mound city. The signal is very complex."

"That would infer that those big insect creatures are intelligent," Matry said.

"That may be," Ferris said. "But, how do they know English?"

"The message now says: we know many languages," Lia said.

"How do they know what we're discussing?" Marty said.

"It says: we hear it in your minds."

"They're telepathic?" Marty said.

"Could this be a Dragon trick?" Angie asked.

"It says: the creatures that you refer to as Dragon do not come here. They consider us inedible."

"Put your screen on the main screen," Angie told Lia.

"What do you eat?" Marty asked.

"We are what you would designate herbivores."

"You say that the Dragons don't come here. Have they done so in the past?"

"Yes. We have a list of where they have visited."

Marty and Angie exchanged surprised glances.

"May we have it?" Marty asked.

"Yes. Send Martin, Uma and Lucia. A landing location is provided."

"The transmission has stopped," Lia said. A blank screen affirmed her statement, but it came back on with the landing location marked on an image of the surface.

"Why would they designate who will go on a landing mission?" Marty said. "This is most unusual."

"If we could get their list, we may be able to shorten this mission," Angie said." However, I will not order you to go down there."

"I don't see how we can just turn down their invitation," Marty said. "I'll go." He looked at Uma and Lucia.

"I will follow you anywhere, Martin," Uma said.

"I'll go, Signora," Lucia said. "I am the astronomer."

"Okay," Angie said. "But, you'll have to go through decon when you return."

"I assumed as much," Marty said. He stood up. "Let's not keep our hosts waiting."

Marty, Uma and Lucia went to the equipment deck, put on environmental suits and grabbed scanning equipment but no weapons. They climbed into a Lander and prepared to separate from the main ship.

The alien moon slowly rotated below with its thick clouds obscuring the mysterious surface. The massive disk of a yellow-green gas giant dominated the view through the Lander's windshield, adding to the mystery.

Marty lit the breaking engines to drop into the moon's atmosphere. Using the alien's map, he guided the Lander to their designated location. Marty and his landing party could plainly see the enormous mounds after they disembarked. They reminded Marty of anthills, but were actually large cement-like structures. The sky above was filled with stratocumulus clouds. The light had a green cast and on the yellow soil looked chartreuse.

Uma picked up a rose red rock. "This is a Rose quartz crystal. I have never seen an example like this. It's polished. See the asterism."

"The what?" Marty said.

"See how the light reflects in a star pattern. It is beautiful. I see many rare forms of quartz here."

A group of aliens approached. They had exoskeletons like insects but they were bipedal and had two arms with claw-like hands. Their faces were humanoid in structure but their heads were elongated in the back. Unlike Rosie, their eyes were like humans. How is that possible?

"Greetings people from Earth."

The humans heard the words in their heads. The insect people's mouths didn't move.

"Why did you choose us?" Marty asked.

"Because your thoughts are pure and you love life."

"Thank you," Marty said, not knowing what else to say.

"Come with us."

Marty, Uma, and Lucia followed the aliens to a mound. When they entered the massive structure, each of them gasped. The inside was built like the side of a pyramid with hundreds of layers containing thousands of apartments. All of the construction was of polished marble. Uma was having a religious experience over seeing all of the inlaid quartz.

The structure was packed with aliens, and they quickly gathered to look at the visitors from space. They were obviously curious.

"We do not get visitors here."

"You're world is remote," Marty said. "We came here in a search for the Dragon home world."

"The creatures that you call Dragon come from the galaxy you call Andromeda. That is also the origin of your ancestors."

One of the aliens raised a claw and the inside of the mound city was replaced with an outdoor scene. Trees in the foreground ringed a grassy glen covered with wildflowers. A red-yellow sun peaked around cumulus clouds.

"This is your origin."

"Where is this?" Lucia asked.

"This is in the outer arm of Andromeda."

"You say that the Dragons are from Andromeda" Marty said. "Do you know where?"

"It is close to your origin. Your ancestors came to this galaxy to escape the Dragon."

The scene changed to an exterior view of the Andromeda galaxy. The star system of human origin was flagged. Lucia tried to commit the image to memory, but there were no reference points.

###

When the Lander was secured, Marty shut down power and opened the hatch.

"Well, it's off to decon," he said.

The instant the three emerged from the Lander they were subjected to a jet-velocity spray of disinfectant after which they stripped to be blasted with more disinfectant. Then it was off to the showers to scrub up.

The shower was much welcomed relief from the cold smelly antibiotic spray. Warm water felt refreshing on bare flesh. Neither Uma nor Lucia made an attempt to hide their ample assets. They assumed that Marty was familiar with female anatomy, and it was too difficult to scrub with one hand. He rewarded their generosity by not trying to hide his assets. Uma rewarded him with a big grin. Lucia gave him a nice warm smile. Before they dressed, Marty hugged and kissed both of them.

When Marty got back up to the command deck, he got a worried look from Angie.

"What happened down there? When you entered the mound we lost contact."

"We got the list and the location of our ancestor's home world."

"The what?"

"The home world of the prototype humans. It's in the outer arm of Andromeda, and it's also close to the Dragon home world."

"Shit. We're wasting our time over here."

"I wouldn't say that. We've rescued a boat load of humans and other aliens from certain death."

Angie was still depressed. "Somehow I think it's just a drop in the bucket. This Dragon farm system is humongous. They must be slaughtering millions."

"They're probably feeding billions," Marty said. "It would take an extensive operation to do that."

"Yeah, and here we are with only two ships in this big galaxy. I feel like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke."

"Ultimately, it's not our call," Marty said.

Angie wasn't so sure.