Chapter No.4

Some hearts
They just get all the right breaks
Some hearts have the stars on their side
Some hearts,
They just have it so easy
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes
Some hearts just get lucky sometimes

- Carrie Underwood -

Angie was a happy camper. Her two fighters had returned to the mother ship without incident, and their reports contained valuable intelligence, especially Masai's.

"The people of the planet that we visited told of a star with a planet that contains humans. It is only 25.4 light years away."

"I have it," Karl said. "It's a G5 dwarf with a spectrum high in metals."

"Take us out of orbit and up to jump speed, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"How are you doing?" Marty asked Angie.

"I'm bored. I hate the stupid waiting."

"At least we were able to communicate.  Not knowing is the worse part. I hate when we're separated."

Angie gave him a teasing smile. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

He returned her smile with interest. "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast . . . Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged."

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took."

"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give my sin again."

They kissed.

"You kiss by the book," Angie said.

"What are two doing over there?" George asked.

"They are pretending to be Romeo and Juliet," Honey said.

"I see that you've been reading the classics, Honey," Angie said.

"That's because I've read all of the modern stuff," Honey said. "I'm reading Latin, Greek and Arabic literature now."

"How many languages do you know?"

"You mean besides all of the human tongues?"

Angie shook her head. "Good heavens!"

"Can you speak alien languages?" Lia asked her.

"Most of them. Birdie's is difficult. I'm having trouble with the whistles."

"I'm sure that you people realize how astonishing that is," Lia said.

"I can help you with the whistles," Birdie told Honey.

"Oh, thank you."

The deck began to elongate and spin, ending the banter.

***

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Reduce our speed to 3000 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"The star is a typical yellow main sequence dwarf at its half life," Karl said.

"There is a habitable planet at 1.1 AU," George said.

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

"Your wish is my command, dear Angie."

"Honey has been reading too many trashy novels to you, Delphi," Angie said.

"She has been a true friend, Angie."

Angie chuckled. "She is a gem of immense value, Delphi. You are fortunate to have such a friend."

"I agree, Angie."

Angie stood up. "How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?"

Marty stood up. "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out. And what love can do, that dares love attempt."

"Bring your love, dear Romeo," Angie said, grinning.

When Marty and Angie went off to the elevators, the crew clapped after which Honey took the command station.

"We need a break," Angie said after they were in the elevator. "I think that this is going to be a long mission."

"You're probably right, but I don't really know what we can do here. We're just one ship in this big galaxy."

"I hate this. We're all alone out here and we have no idea what we're up against."

Marty rubbed her neck. "We'll survive. We have each other."

She put her arms around him and they kissed.

On the command deck, Honey was busy trying to urge the crew to get as much data as they could about the planet.

"There are sizable water and oxygen infrared peaks in the planet's spectra," Masai said. "The average bolometric temperature is 280 K."

"The planet has two small moons," George said. "They orbit the planet at less than a 100,000 kilometers."

"There are no enemy vessels in this system," Ninja said. "But, I have detected residual radiation that is consistent with Dragon technology."

"I have detected chlorophyll–a and –b peaks in the planet's spectra," Gem-Ado said.

"I think that we can assume that this planet is habitable," Ferris said. "My educated guess is that it's a Dragon farm."

"We're still too far out to get a good image of the surface," George said. "But, I agree with your guess."

"The question is: is there a mixed group of people or just a human contingent there?" Uma said.

"We'll have to wait a while to answer that question," George said.

In the common room between Angie and Marty's quarters, two people indulged in a rare opportunity to relax.

"I still don't know why they put a pool in this common area," Marty said. "It seems wasteful."

"I think that they wanted to make us feel more comfortable," Angie said. "We scared them when we both tried to retire from the service."

"We're not the only people who can do this deep space mission crap," Marty said. "I can't believe that they think that we're that valuable."

"We've successfully completed many missions, hence we are experienced. Experience is more valuable than knowledge, and you cannot buy experience. It has to be painfully gained from practice."

"I'm surprised that they didn't fire us after all the nonsense we put them through. I know that Arthur was thoroughly pissed."

"So what did they do: give us even more things to tempt us into reckless behavior," Angie said.

"Like this pool and the new brig?"

"Yes. After what happened on the mission to the other side of the galaxy, why would they enhance the brig? That corporal punishment cell is crazy. It has almost every conceivable virtual method of whipping and paddling known. You could literally spend months exploring all of the modes that it can do."

"Did it hurt?"

"Of course it did, and what's really nuts is the fact that there are literally unlimited controls over the degree of pain and suffering. The really cool thing about it is that it creates a holographic whip or paddle so that you can actually see the thing doing its thing. The force of the paddle causes the flesh to distort as if it were actually impacting the victim's body."

"That's wild."

"No, that's advanced technology," Angie said.

"Did you try the burning cell?"

"No. I can't even imagine how painful that would be. It would literally be a virtual hell."

"We have images of the planet," Honey said through the speakers.

Angie stood up. "Back to work."

When Angie and Marty arrived back on the command deck, the images were already being displayed.

"That's definitely a Dragon farm," Marty said. "The big question is: are there any Dragons there?"

"There are no Dragon vessels around or near the planet," Ninja said. "I have detected no energy sources consistent with Dragon weapons on the planet."

"It's probably an automated farm," Angie said. "How soon will we be in orbit, Delphi?"

"Ten hours and forty-nine seconds, Angie."

"Some of you people have been up twelve hours. Go on break. I'll take over."

The people that she was referring to didn't need any further prodding.

***

"We are now in stable orbit, Angie."

"Launch probes, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"Get a landing team ready," she said to Marty. "If there are people down there, we'll have to bring them up."

"Yes, Admiral." He looked at Ninja. "Let's go. We have work to do."

Marty and Ninja rounded up Moto and Taka, suited up in armor and grabbed weapons before mounting up in a fighting Lander.

"You are cleared for launch, Martin."

"Take us out, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

The planet was heavily clouded, hiding the surface from visible observation. However, Marty used infrared to make out surface details. When he fired breaking engines, the craft fell into the atmosphere at over Mach 4, but Marty was able to pull up at 3000 meters to fly over the Dragon camp.

"There are no Dragons in sight," Ninja said. "They could be hiding.'

"We'll take no chances," Marty said. "I'll set down about a 1000 meters from the gate."

When he sat the Lander down, he and his landing party exited quickly and ran to the cover of some alien trees. Marty used his binocular viewer to scan the camp.

"I don't see anyone. We'll move up, but keep alert."

Marty took point when he and his party moved up to the gate. When some inmates caught sight of them, they ran off. Ninja cut the lock and the landing party entered the camp.

"Come out people," Marty yelled. "We've come to rescue you."

At first, nobody came out, but with time, a few brave souls did.

"We thought you were those nasty reptile things," a man said. He was a tall thin thirty-something African American man.

"How long ago did you see them?" Marty asked, taking his helmet off.

"Oh, I would say it's been at least two years, although, we have had problems keeping time here."

More people began to come out of their barracks. They included women and children, and some of the women were pregnant. All were attired in rags.

"Could you help us?" Marty asked the African American man. "We need to get everybody out here so that we can count them."

He and four other men went back to urge people to come out.

Marty keyed his mic. "Hey, Angie, we have at least a hundred people here, including pregnant women and children."

"I'll send down more Landers and alert Onuki and Ferris."

"Copy that."

"How have you people been able to have enough food for that long?" Marty asked an Indian man.

"They made us tend the crops, so we just continued doing it."

"Have you seen any other alien creatures?"

"None, except for now." He pointed to Ninja and the two Drak females.

Marty smiled. "They won't hurt you as long as you don't try to hurt them." He looked up as two Landers were descending out of the sky. "You're problems are over."

Several people looked at him with incredulous expressions.

When Marty got back up to the command deck, he was greeted with a concerned Angie. She was busy trying to coordinate the care and feeding of three hundred former captives.

"At least twenty-six of those females you brought up are pregnant and several are near term," Angie said. "We've become nothing more than a celestial nursery."

"At least we saved them from certain death," Marty said. "And, Space Command provided us with a separate deck just for the purpose of housing people we rescue."

She bowed her head. "I know, but it's giving me a furious headache."

"Let me worry about it. You need a break."

She gave him a warm smile. "Thanks." As she was leaving she stopped and turned around. "By the way, Rosie has another possible location for a Dragon camp. It's a star 96.1 light years from here. As soon as you get those people squared away and Onuki sedates them, we're going there."

"Yes, Admiral."

***

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Reduce speed to 5000 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"The star is a typical G5 V class yellow dwarf," Karl said. "It appears to be stable."

"This system has four inner and four outer planets," George said. "One of the gas giants is larger than Jupiter."

"The third inner planet at 1.2 AU has an atmosphere," Lucia said.

"The average bolometric temperature of the third planet is 285 K," Gem-Ado said.

"Take us to the third planet, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"There is evidence of a Dragon ship around the third planet," Ninja said.

"Increase our speed to maximum safe speed, Delphi. Maintain stealth."

"Yes, Angie."

She turned to Marty. "I want you and Ninja and your Drak female army to launch a fighter and go ahead of us. Take out the Dragon ship and any Dragons on the surface. We'll get ready to receive any captives you can rescue."

"Yes, Admiral."

On the equipment deck, Marty assembled his attack group: Ninja, Xin-Xin and Van-Xan would each lead a squad of ten Drak females. Marty and Uma were in charge of ten more. All members of the group suited up in armor and loaded up with weapons and ammunition.

After they boarded the X-501, Marty had Delphi pump the hangar out. When the vacuum was equalized with that outside the mother ship, Marty moved the fighter out into the slipstream of space and fired engines to slowly accelerate away at over a tenth the speed of light.

"That was a scary move," Uma said.

"We've done it before," Marty said. "It gives us a kick in the pants so that we'll arrive at the planet faster than the X-5001."

"I don't care. It's still scary."

Marty chuckled. "I'm surprised that you volunteered to come on this mission. I would have thought that you wouldn't want to get anywhere near the Dragons after what they almost did to you."

"My fear will not deter me from fighting those ugly bastards."

"Your bravery is commendable," Ninja told her. "I am honored to fight at your side."

"Don't you worry," Uma said. "I am not going to let those bastards take me again. I have several plasma grenades and I will use them."

"Hopefully, you won't have to resort to that," Marty said. "We have much more strength now. We will prevail."

"You are right, Martin," Ninja said.

The image of the planet grew rapidly on the main screen. Its blue atmosphere reflected the light of an alien sun like a gemstone, a precious jewel in space. But, the members of the landing party were not really interested in gazing at gems. They were preparing in their individual ways with coming to grips with the impending combat.

"The Dragon ship is leaving orbit and is on an intercept course," Ninja reported.

"Prepare to fire energy beams at full power, Delphi. Transfer particle canon and plasma weapons to Ninja's control."

"Yes, Martin."

"The Dragon ship has fired a missile," Ninja said.

"Fire a plasma ball at it, Ninja."

"Yes, Martin."

The plasma ball left the ship and accelerated to near a tenth the speed of light. When it hit the incoming missile, the resulting explosion lit up space with a blinding white light. The enemy craft kept coming, but Marty flipped sideways and pulled a slight curvature in the X-501's trajectory. Delphi poured several energy beams into the enemy craft while Ninja fired the plasma canon at it. This occurred in a split second that the two vessels passed in space. A large explosion attested to the fate of the enemy.

"Nice shooting, Ninja. Take us into orbit around the planet, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

The breaking engines screamed loudly as they attempted to slow the velocity of the X-501. With just seconds to spare, the fighter swung into orbit around the planet.

"We are in stable orbit, Martin."

"Good. Prepare to fire energy beams. Transfer control to me."

"Yes, Martin."

Marty fired breaking engines to plunge down into the planet's atmosphere.

"I can make out Dragons on the ground," Ninja said. "There is a sizable contingent of them."

"Identify targets for Delphi, Ninja. We need to soften them up before we go down."

"They are firing weapons at us, Martin. I will take those weapon emplacements out first."

Impacts on the X-501's shields attested to the expediency of that plan. With Ninja's pinpointing of targets, Delphi fired energy beams at these emplacements, destroying them.

Marty took the X-501 down to a landing 2000 meters away from the camp perimeter. After his troops had exited the ship, he had Delphi take it back up so that it could function as ground support if needed. Despite moving to cover on the run, Marty and his army came under immediate fire. They quickly took up defensive positions until the tactical situation could be assessed.

"You take your troops around to the right," Marty told Ninja. "We'll move to the left and try to flank them."

Moving on the battlefield while under fire is a scary process. Energy beams were blasting from the enemy position at a ferocious rate, and keeping your head down was the only defense. Marty had two Drak females fire mortar shells at the enemy position to cover the flanking moves. Explosions from those mortar shells and energy balls from the enemy were blasting holes in the ground and blowing trees to bits, scattering debris. Two Drak female soldiers were blown up by a direct energy-ball hit. Marty didn't have time to go to them. He had to mount an attack on the left flank on a schedule agreed to with Ninja. He felt fortunate to have Uma at his side, because she was absolutely accurate in her shooting and she saved his life on several occasions by blasting enemy soldiers that had broken through the perimeter and were trying to kill him. Bless her, Lord.

The attack itself was chaotic as usual. Three Drak soldiers took hits in a horrendous firefight, but Marty's unit prevailed, killing all of the Dragon soldiers on the left flank. Of course, Ninja was successful. The two units met up at the gate to the camp only to face a last ditch attack by Dragons, but Ninja's Drak army easily repulsed it.

"What's your status?" Angie voice asked in his helmet speaker.

"We've defeated the Dragon defenders and are in the process of mopping up. We have five Drak dead and four wounded."

"We're in orbit now. Keep me informed."

"Yes, Admiral."

Marty, Uma and Moto moved as fast as they could to the butchering building. The only Dragons left there were females and they offered no opposition. When they entered the building they found three humans, two women and a man, who were waiting to be processed. There were no humans in the butcher shop itself because Marty's army had caught the camp in the morning before butchering operations began.

"You are lucky people," Marty told them. "You were minutes away from being skinned alive."

"Bless you, whoever you are," a woman said, tears running down her cheeks.

"Get these people some clothing," Marty ordered Uma and Moto.

"What do you want done with the two Dragon females?" Moto asked.

"I'll have to ask the admiral about that." He keyed his mic. "Hey, Angie, we have two Dragon females here. What do you want us to do with them?"

"I don't know. Maybe we could get information out of them."

"Okay, we'll bring them up."

"How many people have you found there?"

"There's at least a hundred," Marty said. "I'll have an exact count when I get back with Ninja."

"Keep me informed."

"Yes, Admiral."

"You are not going to kill us?" one of the Dragon females asked.

"I'm not, but don't make any of those Drak soldiers mad, because they will."

"We are not like the males," the other female said. "We do as we are told."

"Very well then," Marty said. "If you do as we tell you, we will not harm you."

"We understand," the first female said.

"It must be demeaning to be captured by creatures that you consider food," Uma said to them.

"We are accustomed to being subservient to others. It is the fate of females."

Uma and Marty exchanged disbelieving looks.

***

Marty powered down the X-501 and prepared to disembark. His Drak female soldiers exited first, leaving Uma, Moto and he to supervise the exodus of twenty human survivors. Marty took it on himself to escort the two Dragon females to a holding cell near the brig. Tyler and Gem-Ado joined him for the preliminary interrogation.

The two Dragon females were attired in what looked like skin-hugging calf leather jump suits. The garments were actually constructed from the skin of their victims, so Marty decided to have them remove the offending skins of shame. When they did so, he was surprised to find that their skin was not much different than that of the Draks. Most of their scales were on their faces and necks. The females of the Dragon species had narrow waists, breasts, and more importantly, no tails, and they each had a prominent umbilicus. They were not reptilian after all.

The two females sat on metal stools while their human interrogators remained standing. They appeared to be calm under the circumstance.

"As you probably know, we are in this galaxy to find your home world and to locate and rescue all of the human captives that we can. The location of your home world has eluded us, but we will find it eventually."

One of the Dragon females looked up at Marty. "Our home world has been destroyed."

"By whom?"

"We call them Xixthans, which in our language means metal ones."

Marty looked at Tyler and Gem-Ado. "It's the Cyborgs." He returned his attention back at the Dragon. "We have heard of these machine people. They are systematically destroying all biological species. Perhaps it is the right time for a truce."

"We are not authorized to negotiate."

"We understand, but if we could contact your leaders a treaty could be negotiated."

"There is a species that we have made agreements with. They inhabit a planet around a star in the Volta system."

"We have some captured Dragon star charts," Gem-Ado said. "We may be able to locate it on those charts."

"Go and see if you can," Marty told her.

"This is an encouraging turn of events," Tyler said.

Marty smiled. "Yes it is, but we have a lot of work to do."

"Onuki and Ferris are ready for the Dragon females," Angie's voice proclaimed.

"We're on our way," Marty said.

Marty escorted the two naked Dragon females to Medical, which was a complex of rooms on the X-5001.

"We wish to examine your bodies," Onuki told them.

"We will obey," one of the Dragon females said.

Ferris helped one of the females onto an examination table and activated the scanning process.

"I'm confused," Marty said. "This species looks like a lizard but is obviously mammalian. How is that possible?"

"All things are possible with Allah," Ferris said.

"I believe you are right," Marty said.

Scan images of the living body of the Dragon female appeared on several large screens, displaying bones, blood vessels, nerves and organs in high resolution and vivid colors.

"There's no doubt about it now," Marty said. "She has a uterus and ovaries." His brow wrinkled. "What I don't understand is why the females don't have tails."

"Those are not tails," Onuki said, smiling.

Marty's eyebrows flew up. "You're kidding me, right?"

Ferris and Onuki chuckled. "They are quite amazing prehensile organs," Onuki said.

"Wow!"

Wow, indeed!