* * * * *
As Strike Force one boarded the shuttle, electronics officer Reggie Hines said, "Lieutenant, I am getting life form scans about 2 to 3 clicks away."
Lt. McLane spoke in a questioning voice, "Can you tell if they are human, AlClad, Jouth, or what?"
Hines hesitated, mumbled something in German then replied in standard, "Not from this distance or on the ground. Once we are airborne we can approach that direction. We can use our long-range scanners. They're useless while we are on the ground."
"Make a quick scan as soon as we are off the ground, it could be a Jouth patrol investigating what that explosion was. I don't want to approach that direction until we know what we are dealing with. If they are Jouth, we may need to lay down some strafing fire to protect our 6 before we depart this planet's atmosphere."
Lt. McLane turned, directed his attention momentarily to Sgt. Jack Crow and asked, "Everyone on board?" After receiving an affirmative answer, he angled his attention to shuttle pilot Capt. Rene Andrus and spoke, "We need a course plotted for the direction of the life forms."
With only a slight acknowledgment to the request, Capt. Rene Andrus took control, commenced cracking orders and spoke directly to her navigator, "Plot that course."
She then sounded an alarm and announced, "General quarters, man all battle stations." Lt. McLane was mission commander of Strike Force One, but on the Scorpion she was in charge. Additionally, she out ranked him and had about 10 or 15 more years in service.
"Captain, all battle stations manned, online, and active," responded Chief Weapons Officer Morris Waterwise. "Do you want missiles armed?"
"No missile armaments for now. Get the coordinates from Hines, and aim your Z flux blasters at those coordinates. Be prepared to fire multiple Z flux blasts. I don't want anything left to return fire on us. We have surprise on our side - I want to use that surprise to our advantage.
"Gravity interrupters engaged lift off in 5,4 3…Hines, bring up your long range scanners, only passive, nothing active until we know what we are dealing with"
With the gravity interrupters engaged the Scorpion lifted from the blue-green soil of AlClad IV, Capt. Andrus ignited the Scorpion's thrusters and they were on course for an encounter which was unknown but did include a possible firefight. While she had a lot of confidence in the Scorpion, it was built as a shuttlecraft. It could fight its way into any atmosphere or out of an atmosphere, but it was not the preferred vehicle for a fight.
Everyone was quiet, with full attention to the job. Hines broke the quiet, first by mumbling some German phrases, then, "Captain they are human, the life force is human, I make it to be 2 humans. I have already double checked the data twice." That double checking was what he knew that the Captain would ask, double checking twice meant that he had checked the data four times.
"Hines, double check, and open up your scanners to cover a wider area. We will circle that area, but I want to know that area is clear. There is a Jouth base somewhere and more gunships," Andrus said, as she brought the Scorpion to a hedging that would circle around the life forms.
"Area clear, Captain," Hines reported.
Capt. Andrus called, "Lt. McLane, get your force ready to check out what humans are wondering around on AlClad IV. And keep a good look out."
"Aye, aye, ready, Sir," McLane responded.
As soon as the Scorpion landed, Strike Force One deplaned and was enroute to find the humans. Very soon Jameson and Nelson were discovered, retrieved, and hustled back. When Strike force One returned to the scorpion they had 2 extra passengers.
Capt. Rene Andrus unstrapped and released her harness. She stepped into the shuttle bay. "McLane get everyone on board, and strap down PRONTO. We need to exit this planet." She had only a slight hesitation before she completed her statement, "Now." She had recognized J. J. Jameson.
Jameson's attention was diverted to the tall female Captain that saluted him and said, "Welcome aboard, Sir." She did not call him by rank although she knew he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the OSS.
Jamison returned the salute and said "Well hello Andy. How is your family? I heard your father was on AlClad. "
"They are all fine, thank you for asking, almost all of my family are on AlClad. Lt. McLane will take care of you back here; we need to rendezvous with a destroyer 3 light years out."
Capt. Andrus returned to the cockpit, speaking as she entered, "Engage the gravity interrupters." She directed this order to the copilot Lt. Henry Austin.
"Aye, Aye, Andy."
She accepted the calling of this newly discovered nickname without comment, but mussed, Hank - Austie - Austy Hank, that will come later, trivial stuff later. Now this shuttlecraft needed to lift off.
"5, 4, 3…Take us up, Lieutenant."
On board the United Star States ship the Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., Lt. Col. J. J. Jameson briefed the staff about the other aliens held in the prison camp, from which he and Nelson had so recently escaped. "A rescue mission must be planned."
The End
2323
By Ellen Denton
Liana looked out at the bland expanse of rock and sand stretching as far as the eye could see. The wind spoke in a murmuring chorus of tongues as it flooded through holes and clefts in the rock. It lifted her hair and made her clothes billow out like sails, but instead of cooling her, it intensified the suffocating heat and made her sweaty skin gritty with blown sand. It was sometimes hard for her to believe that in the past, people did not live in places like this. The ancient writings told of those times. There were so many power cells back then that people had machines that heated and cooled the air. Now, the few permanent power cells that remained after the Blood Storm were used only to power the computers, as it was upon these that all past wisdom was stored, and with them resided the hope of restoring Earth to what it had once been.
It was time for her designated shift. She returned to the work hut where fifteen watchers, all sticky with sweat like she was, hunched over glowing consoles.
Liana didn't know if the computers were living entities. There was much discussion and speculation about this among the people like herself who tended to them. Because of her uncertainty about this, she had always been a little afraid of them and treated them with great respect.
She now slipped into the chair in front of her own workstation and started again scanning the streams of symbols rolling in columns down her screen. Had someone been watching her closely in the dimness of the unlit hut, they would have seen the dark, scrolling figures on the white screen reflected in her eyes. They would have then seen her pupils suddenly widen as she lurched forward to stare in shock at what had just appeared on the screen.