A new war
Prologue
“Sir, our sensors recaptured the signal in the third planet’s orbit.“
„Very well, bring us closer and open a channel!”
Captain Level hoped dearly that this found would be profitable. If not, he would need a wonder to pay the crew’s salaries and the repairing charges for the ship. Since the ship had been so far off any common trade route, his hope had become even stronger, but he also had to think about fuel costs. Should the whole affair be just a flop, he would have also wastet important fuel. On the other hand, had he ignored the signal, there would still be no money, and for the rest of his life he hadn’t know if the thing which waited for him at the coordinates would maybe have saved him after all. He fondly patted one of the consoles of his beloved ship, the Lucky Lady. Level had experienced so much with this ship; he would never be able to break up with it.
„Channel open, Captain.”
The voice of his communication officer brought him back to reality. Now one meant to press thumb.
"Here to unidentified ship Captain Level speaks of the freighter Lucky Lady, we have caught your signal and offer help." This help would not be cheap, but he did not specially need to mention this. In his imagination the images of a new impulse, or a new shield system for his ship had already formed.
"No answer, sir. Want me to try it once again?"
"No, I don’t think that’s necessary. Scan the ship after weapons and damages, and find out whether we can send a boarding party or not."
"As you wish. Let’s see, the impulse seems to be broken and the shields don’t work either. I can recognize a number of weapon towers; however, none of them seems to be operationally. The biggest part of the ship, including the cover, is made of a material which is registered in none of our data banks. No leaks are in the cover, and the atmosphere in the ship is innocuous. Hence, an outside team application is practicable."
„Very well! I will lead the team myself. You, Mr. Bérén and Mr. Oroma will accompany me. Mr. Rizer, you have the bridge."
He nodded to his first officer, but his thoughts already were again with him what they would find possibly on the ship. And even if they found nothing, at least the ship itself can be well marketed, because according to sensor data the cover seemed to be far more capable of resistance than all known cover types.
Together with Tom Bérén and Angela Delar, the sensor engineer, he entered the turbolift, which brought them to the transporter room. Martin Oroma would wait there already for them. Level could barely wait to reach the ship, and literally tore open the turbolift doors. Hectically he gave the order to beam, being excited like s small child.
It was cold on the ship, but even that, mixed with the bad smelling air couldn’t Erwin Level’s excitement. He ordered to part the team in two groups, adding himself and Angela to team 1, and Tom and Martin to team 2. Level took the lead and went straight ahead to the room which they had determined to be the bridge. The wierd alien signs on the corridor’s wall didn’t bother him at all, although they obviously fascinated Angela. But due to Level’s haste, she had no time to study them.
The ship was almost clinically clean, and there were no doors or monitors on the walls. One single large door stood between them and the assumed bridge.
„Must have been quite big people living on this ship.“, Angela said smiling.
Not even bothering for a respond, Level already searched for a way to open the door. All of a sudden it opened, without him doing anything. In awe, but also curious, he entered the room. The ship had been 3 times the size of the lady, Therefore even bigger than a Galaxy-Class starship. There where two large seats in front of the main screen, which showed a large picture of the beautiful nebula in front of them. Since they were surrounded by consoles, Level assumed them being pilot seats. Behind them stood four seats, obviously designed for humans. But those rather looked like thrones than like normal command seats. Who ever had commanded this ship obviously had a very high opinion of himself. Fascinated he stared at the signs on the thrones, which were covered with gems. Obviously, all four of them were worth millions.
„Some of the consoles still work “, he heard Angela muttering behind him.
„Can you make any use of them?“
„Not until I can read those signs. At the moment I would probably do more harm than good. In addition, everything is designed for huge paws! It will probably take a while.“
Angela didn’t just seem fascinated, she obviously was.
„I wonder what those signs mean. And those thrones, who sat on them “, she said quietly to herself.
„I’ll contact Tom and Martin“, Level told her, still smiling at the thrones.
„Team 1, here Team 2, did you find anything?“
Silence.
„Repeat, team 2 here, answer“
Finally Tom answered, sounding very excited.
„Boss, you should have a look at this as fast as possible! It’s amazing“
„Ok, on my way“, Level responded, slightly confused about Tom’s voice.
He shut down the communicator and turned to Angela.
„Let’s go down there, they seem to have found something interesting“
„Just go, Captain“, she responded, her thoughts focused on the strange ship.
„I’ll see what I can do here“
„Whatever“, Level responded slightly annoyed.
Yet again the door opened as soon as Level was close enough. With large steps he left Angela behind on the bridge. Since they had only found a single corridor yet, he assumed that he’d easily find the way. While walking, he couldn’t stop thinking about what team 2 had found in the cargo room. He of course hoped for some treasures, but Tom hadn’t sounded like that. The scanner hadn’t detected any life forms, so it could barely have been an animal. On the other hand, the scanners where quite old, and who knew which creatures could lurk around in this weird ship. While walking through the corridors Level gave the signs on the walls more thought. Although he had studied Alien Languages at the academy, he had no idea about the ones he saw here. Still, they somehow made him feel uncomfortable. Following these dark thought he finally reached the cargo room. The door was even a little bit larger than the bridge gate, and Level wondered what might wait for him behind the door. Slightly confused about the fact that the door didn’t open, he knocked at it.
A quiet scraping on the other side was the only response.
„Tom? Martin? Are you in there?“ The nervous voice of the captain boomed through the empty corridors.
No response.
Magically the door glid to the side and opened a look into darkness for the captain.
„Guys, I’ve got to tell you…”
The universe will never know what Captain Level wanted to tell his comrades, because in this moment his head was cut off his body by a blood-red blade.
A large, human form stepped over the corpse. It deactivated his weapon and gestured some other beings in the room to follow him. The cargo room was no empty except for 3 dead crewmen of the Lucky Lady.
On the ship, Gordon Rizer sat alone in the captains chair and smoked one of his best cigarres. Since the captain didn’t want him to accompany the boarding party, he would at least have a good time on the Lady. The comlink on the other side of the bridge lye silently on one of the consoles. It was so typical of the captain to forget about him, while searching for treasures or similar kind. Bored he turned away from the communicator and started playing around with his phaser.
Meanwhile, Angela was amazed of the ship. Although she stil had no idea how to translate the alien language, she had already found out what some consoles were for. The ship was obviously equipped with extremely modern weapon technology. If the dricorder was right, and she didn’t doubt that, the energy which these weapons could produce was stronger than anything else in the Federation. Same for the engines, although she had no idea how the worked yet. Angela hoped dearly that the captain would give her some time to studay this ship before he would sell it.
Just when he wanted to contact him, she heard steps coming closer to her. Confused she noticed that more than one person was approaching. Why had the captain brought Tom and Martin with him?
Suddenly, she gasped. An invisibly hand pressed her throat together, making breathing impossible. The grip tightened, and Angela struggled to activate her comlink. Unable to see cleary, she tried to contact the Lady. She never didn’t have the time to find out whether her call had been answered or not, because the bridge vanished before her eyes and darkness embraced her.
On the command seat of the Lucky Lady Gordon still played with his weapon. He didn’t see the blinking comlink in his back.
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That's it... more to come if you want, if not well new try then
And please excuse my sometimes poor english.
