Rebirth

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  The Defender had now left Persephone to answer the distress call from the planet Genesis, passing many other planetary systems, beautiful nebulae and massive dust clouds lit by suns hidden deep within them. Apart from acknowledging the receipt of the message, Colin Freeman, the Defender`s communications officer, had not tried to re-establish contact with the planet. The planet used an older system of communication and as Colin said.

  "Tyler, we will receive any reply they send about the same time that we near the system, we can contact them much easier when we are in orbit around the planet."

  It was early the next morning, after all the crew had enjoyed a rest, that they entered the planetary system that included Genesis, and then they were approaching the planet, and this meant that Paul Johnson was busy computing the orbital calculations.

  "Put our shields up Richard, I have seen too many sci-fi movies to approach an unknown situation with our shields down." Tyler was not joking today, Richard Smith knew Tyler well enough now to know when he was joking and when he was serious, anyway Richard preferred to have the solid Heliot shields about the Defender, he felt a lot safer.

  "The shields are up Tyler." Richard replied almost immediately.

  "Good then power up the Phasers as well, just in case we need them." Tyler ordered.

  "The Phasers are being powered up." Richard replied.

  "Tyler we are now in a Geo-stationary orbit above the planet." Paul Johnson called across to their captain.

  "Tyler, are all of these precautions really necessary, I mean the people on this planet say that they are dying, they are hardly likely to attack us?" Charles Bragg asked.

  "Tyler there is a massive power surge down on the planet." Richard called urgently.

  "Paul take us out of orbit now, Richard locate the position of the power source." Tyler ordered.

  A powerful bolt of energy slammed into the Defender as it was moving out of orbit, throwing all the crew who were not seated crashing into a wall or onto the floor. Frank Mason banged his head against a console, but thankfully, he was not too badly hurt, others were thrown into someone else who had been unlucky enough to be in the way. Electrical systems crackled amid a darkened room as all of the lights went out only to be replaced by the red emergency lighting, but thankfully most everything else seemed all right.

  "The Heliot shields held without any damage to them or to the ship, although I am not sure about some of the crew." Richard called over to Tyler while watching Charles Bragg climb up from the floor, having been thrown there by the force of the energy bolt.

  "Oh my god if our shields had been down we could have been destroyed. Tyler I will never doubt you again." Charles Bragg promised.

  "It is lucky that we were also pulling out of the orbit of that peaceful planet." Paul Johnson said. "Or we would have been hit even harder, as it was we only caught the tail-end of the blast."

  The emergency lighting showed their cuts and bruises in an eerie manner that made them look worse than they actually were, but they could see that none of them had been hurt apart from the odd bruise. Tyler also confirmed that Craig Stevens and Frank Mason in engineering were ok.

  Paul had moved the Defender two hundred thousand miles away from Genesis, far enough away from the planet to be ready to meet another attack, should one come their way. Here they could plan their next move; thankfully, there was not another attack from the planet. Tyler wondered if they were out of range. Colin Freeman at last made contact with its people on Genesis.

  "This is a ship of the Earth Federation; we have come in response to your planetary distress call, why are you firing upon us?" Colin Freeman demanded to know.

  "We are not firing on you, someone to the east of our town is firing on you, and they have only recently began to make war on us. They will not allow us to mine the Dylithium deposits that were recently discovered, and the deposits are essential to our prosperity, and more importantly to the survival of our colony. Without them our civilisation here will revert to one resembling the medieval times of Earths own history, please help us." The colonist on the planet begged.

  "Colin do you have the co-ordinates of the colonist town?" Tyler asked.

  "Yes Tyler, they are safely stored on the computer." Colin Freeman replied.

  "Good then will you give the town`s co-ordinates to Paul." Tyler waited until Paul had the co-ordinates and then explained to them all that he wanted them to do.

  "Look everyone we need to get more information about our attackers, so it means opening ourselves up to a further attack. Paul, move us slowly nearer to the planet. Colin scan the area from where the energy bolts originated from, get as much information that you can get from our instruments, but first be sure to give the position of any energy signature you find to Richard. Richard, be ready return their fire the moment their attack is resumed. Paul, as soon as you hear from Colin that another of those energy bolts is about to be unleashed or is already coming up from the planet, I want you to take us away in a large looping course that will bring us down near to the town where the colonists are, and in a hurry if necessary. Caroline after Richard has returned fire turn on our cloaking device, hopefully that will prevent them from firing on us as we descend to the planet."

  The Heliot cloaking device was the final piece of technology that they had found amongst the destroyed fleet. It used a large amount of energy when in use, so on their small ship it could not be used in conjunction with their weapons, but it would be ideal to hide them from their attacker. After giving these instructions to his bridge crew Tyler sat back and awaited developments, Caroline who was standing beside Tyler grabbed his arm and waited to see if their mystery attacker would once again fire upon them. Just then, the normal lighting system came back on.

  "Engineering seems to have fixed the blown fuses anyway." Tyler quipped. He then warned engineering that they were once again approaching the planet and to hang on tight. The Defender moved slowly back towards the planet, and for a while all was quiet, until Colin`s instruments sprang back into life.

  "Tyler, they are powering up their weapon again." Colin called across to Tyler.

  "Paul prepare to move us out of here fast, Richard use our main Phaser and hit them as soon as you receive the co-ordinates." Tyler said repeating his orders.

  Richard had the co-ordinates of the energy weapon down on the planet just a moment later, and was now replying to the attack with their powerful Heliot Phaser weapon. Even before their unseen enemy fired again on their vessel, Paul Johnson was responding to Tyler`s earlier instructions. He swung the Defender about in a smooth loop even as the energy bolt from the planet below zipped by the fast moving Orion Defender, but they had seen their own Phaser bolts striking the planet below as Caroline now engaged their cloaking device and hid their ship from their enemy.

  "Hopefully that will make them think twice before launching an attack on us again." Richard said feeling very satisfied with their response to whoever was attacking them. "Tyler this is sure one hell of a shakedown cruise." He added with a chuckle thrown in. Tyler smiled but just then, Colin Freeman cut in.

  "Tyler while I was scanning the area from where the attack originated from, I came across the remains of a small town or city. It isn`t much now but from what I could learn from the scan it must have been quite substantial in its heyday, but apart from that there are no other signs of civilisation apart from the colonist`s main town and a few small scattered villages."

  The Defender arced down to the planet below and de-cloaked above the heads of the colonists, drawing gasps of astonishment from them.