THE LOST FIGHTER (The book so far unedited raw material )

The lost fighter 

Chapter 1

The key to interstellar travel that humanity has found has being a revelation. The rate of expansion of   human colonies has been rapid and in the last 500 years the exploration of space has been led by the private sector. humanity found the key to long distance travel by sheer luck, the scientist were looking for a new form of energy but found instead that they could create holes in space and time a phenomenon that allows a ship to travel from one point in space to another in a matter of hours and the ability to manipulate gravity fields around objects was also another break through it. the history humanity has always had the story of how one group of people dominate over another group of people if it's not because of the colour of one`s skin it because you are poor or not even that there is usually about those with power dominating other without power this has being the way humanity has being operating for centuries and not much has changed. As man spread out into the universe they bring along all the things that make them human the desire to dominate other. In this case it is the powerful corporations they operate like the mafia they operate with impunity. The law in vacuum of space does not exist for the corporations. The way business works it's more like the Wild Wild Wild  West, so like the story of the gold rush and rustlers this is the way things are in the vast darkness of space. 

The way it works is simple: a small or medium sized corporation finds something of value  in the void of space that would make them wealthy and when they make a claim they get a visit by the  big boys and are requested to join them or they do not get a chance to mine their claim. There is a story of a claim that was taken over by force and the result of the of it was all hands lost onboard a prospects ship as well as stories that out there in the darkness have battles being fought by the big boys which have left many dead.  It is more of urban legend as there is no truth to the story but many other prospect have being absorbed into large and powerful corporation after they made their claims 

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The  spaceship arriving in the star system is the commercial ship the  River  Niger registered in Nigeria, a west African country , powerful cooperation holds all the political and commercial power; it has become more corporations against corporations. all this came about after the last major conflict on earth with the eastern bloc countries  trying to claim the mineral rich  continent  of Africa and the middle east, the resources that make these part of the world the last gold rush of the human race but all that  stopped  when the greatest discovery of the key of space travel.

.

The River Niger`s   job is simple to deploy new location beacons for navigation. The fact is this star system is almost 500 years lights years from earth and the river Niger made three jumps from the last  beacon they deployed; they are all alone .

As the  River Niger slides in the darkness of space, the shift onboard was the night shift and the dull light on the bridge made it ideal for the second officer to fall asleep, wale is the officer on watch as the ship completes it final jump wale is not really in the mood to be on this watch but its his turn since the last 3 jumps he had taken time off from him duties, the chair in the centre of the bridge is the captain`s chair surrounded by display consoles, it is amazing the he seems to fall asleep so easily. This jump is meant to be the last jump before they head back home it has being 2 years since anyone on the ship had any physical contact with home 

Wale is a 30 year old Nigerian working for a corporation based in Lagos Nigeria, the ship belongs to the Eko Corporation. Wale scot was born on the mars colony, the 6th generation of humans living on the planet ,he is the third child of four children his sister is a doctor on mars and his other siblings work on earth and europa colony he is the first of his family to be out this far.

The Eko corporation is a subdivision of the New London group they became part of the group after they found a rock with a large deposit of a precious metal they suddenly became a happy partner of the new London group.

It is known that corporation have their very own armies and have battle each other over resources ,the earth governing bloc have being unable to bring to heel these private armies and gradually the private corporation are doing whatever they wished with and growing stronger 

This crew  have taken on the contract to deploy location beacons across unknown space and find new systems to start  new colonies so far the river Niger has deployed a total of 15 beacons and have found one viable star systems it looks they have hit the jackpot  here  ,the star system is crowded with 2 gas giants , a planet that looks so similar to Mars  all in all around which there are over 20 planets   and most of the planets orbiting the main gas giant , many of the planets look like  atmospheres similar to earth somehow the fall into what is known as the Goldilock zone planet not too far from the star and not too close just about right 

Wale sat up in the chair and tapped the screen in front of him and the he turned and looked at Jal, sitting at the navigation console on the other side of the bridge.  The bridge of the River Niger was not too cramped the switches on the top of the cabin made the bridge seem allot cramp than it`s usually is, the hatch is at the rear of the bridge   the communication console was situated on the upper section of the bridge, but it is more like a climbing gym the navigation and operation stations are the lower sections of the bridge. The captain's chair is just between the lower deck of the bridge and in front of the captain's  chair are consoles that bring in information and data. The captain could control most of the ship from his seat and has a view of the entire lower bridge and the porthole which is about six feet long and six fix feet wide protected by a metal sheet that is retractable whenever there might be a chance the ship`s protective shield could be damaged or the ship gets into a in ion storm or radiation that could kill the crew on board. Next to the captain's chair is the first  officer`s station it is more like science station it has the normal display console and controls 

 On this watch the only crew on the bridge was Jal the navigator onboard the river Niger. He has been such a good navigator that he is known in the industry as the angel of the blue sky. His station is an important station on board the ship he determines where to jump too otherwise the ship could jump into a black hole   . The silence of the night watch was broken by wale shouting 

Jackpot!

Guys, we hit the jackpot!

 Dudes look at it all!

We‘ve hit the jackpot boys!

Can`t wait to get home and get my bonus,

The planets, how many are there out there?

Behind wale stood akin he was in charge of the sensors station and communications.

Akin and wale were both from Nigeria they grew up together in Lagos  and they  both join the ship on the last refuelling run  that was four years ago and now they are looking at a huge bonus on their return back home base from the data coming in about this star system 

Akin replied, 

 From what I see on the sensors it is going to be a big payday. The boys were laughing out so loud they did not notice as the operations officer climbed onto the bridge through the hatch. Her name is shade king she was born on mars colony, she is one of million of people living on the planet and she is the sixth generation born on mars since the years of space exploration 

So what is going on here boys? 

She walked passed akin and smiled at wale and nodded at Jal when she climbed into the seat of the operations station she looked after all the ship systems making sure all the system are in the green, the engines and the jump engine core as well the gravitational field generators of the ship is working, one of the things about having the gravitational field it acts like a shield for the ship, she sat in her chair and the started to tap on her screen and then said 

from what I see here it best we keep our distance from the gas giants there seems to be a variable gravity fields in this system it's best to deploy our beacon and make our scans and keep our distance for now, and I think we might as well tell the captain and the first officer about what we have here 

Why? 

Akin asked 

He will get it all in the report later........

But as he was just about to continue the hatch opened and the first officer climb into the bridge and shut the hatch 

Well boys?

Report! 

Alice is the first officer of the River Niger and she walked over to where akin was standing and looked at the display console and watching as the data was coming in from the scan of the system 

She continued 

Well what were you saying?

Ah! Akin said 

All I was saying is there is no need to get  you guys up , we all know it's your down time 

Wale stood up from the captain`s chair and smiled and said 

XO, we have some good news to report we are going to be rich, look out the window 

The first officer walked over to the captain's chair and then looked down to Jal and then looked out the window and then she sat down turned the chair and tapped on the display console 

Well it seem you right wale there is about 4 different planet with viable atmosphere and look at this the 2nd planet in orbit of  that gas giant has some metallic reading on the surface, and then shade spoke

Still we have to be careful that the gravity wells from all these planets in close proximity to each other are not the best place to put the ship. I need to get more reading so I must insist that we include all this information into the beacon memory banks when we deploy it. 

Alice looked at the screen and wale sat in the seat next to the captain`s chair and engaged the console to started to read the data 

Interesting.....

Jal turned and looked at wale.

What is it dude? See anything good?

Wale kept looking at the screen and the turn to Alice and said  

See what I see?

Jal take a look at this 

Jal climb out of his seat and came to the side of wale as he was looking at the screen, wale tapped on his console to show Jal the reading coming up on screen the first officer could also see the same information too 

See this look like some kind of metallic alloy, it looks like a crash site might be a ship

Shade then turned her seat and looked at akin with a expression that made akin want to skip and jump he winked back at her and smiled, then Alice spoke 

We are at the outer position in this star system and the reading we are getting is not too clear but somehow we need to get in closer.

Shade, what is the best way to get in without having to deal with gravity wells or do we need to use the gravity generators to get around all these problems.  The first officer then pressed a switch on her console for the communication systems and spoke 

Captain we need you on the bridge

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The captain was a man not of many words but he has always being able to inspire his crew his is a Nigerian as well from the north of the country a man of great conviction he went against his family`s wish to go into the religious order and travelled the stars instead, captain Musa studied with the NASA before it was broken up into the space administration agency and taken over by the corporation. The captain was in his cabin and still trying to get some sleep and the intercom burst to life with his first officer requesting presence on the bridge. The feeling of not getting all the sleep he wanted in the last 2 months is beginning to get to him now he misses home. In the 2 years he has been out here he feels like he might never get home anytime soon and now it's our last beacon deployment and then home.

The captain got out of his bunk and walked over to his comm. unit on his desk 

“Yea XO, what is it now, I was trying to get some sleep” 

“Captain we have found the jackpot here according to our second officer and I think so too” 

“What do you mean jackpot?”

“Captain I think you need to see for yourself” 

“Alice you know what just send me the data to my cabin let me see before I come up” 

Sure captain but am sure when you see it you understand why I want you up here.

The captain sat down at his desk and pulled out the screen and watched as the sensor images came of the planet in the system and he sat back and smiled 

As always she is right we have hit the jackpot here he thought from what he could see here it's going to be a huge bonus for the crew when they get back apart from the fact they have deployed the highest number of beacons in the last 2 years this will push it over the top for them .the Abuja group will be happy about his it`s going to make them a load of credits. As the captain watched the images come in on his monitors the display indicated the presence of metallic alloys on one of the planets, this made him sit up when he saw this .It looks like we are not the first here that looks like the remains of a ship , 

salvage more bonus .

The captain stood up and pulled up his jacket and he started to the bridge as he step out of his cabin into the main hallway of the crew quarters it was dark only the hallway light which needed changing gave off a dull yellowish glow the hatch of his cabin closed behind and he turned towards the stairs leading towards the bridge when   the engineer walked up to him and said.

How are you doing today Captain? 

The chief engineer is Chinese and he has being friends with the captain from when they both were starting out with the space administration  

Charlie hu was making his way up to the bridge. The first officer called him up to the bridge. She wanted him to come and see for himself. Charlie walked up to the captain and tapped him on his shoulder 

Hey captain going to have a look too

Musa looked at his friend 

She called you too?

Yep, something about we might have to do salvage, so does that mean that we are not the first people here and how come there is no information on any ship in this sector.

Both men climb the stairs to the bridge and hu opened the hatch and shouted out 

Yo, Yo! XO what`s up?  Are we going to get a salvage or what? 

The captain walked past him and Alice stood from the chair  and walked towards the captain and they both walked over to where Akin was working on all the data from their sensors while Hu went over to wale as he worked on his console.

Hey let me see what we are looking at? he said

Wale looked at Hu and smiled all I think I can see here is the remains of a ship we are going to send down a probe to get a closer look at what 's down there 

Alice overheard what wale said and added 

I don't think so? We can't spare a probe. I think we need to take the ship into the system and find out what exactly.

But the captain step into the discussion 

First we need to deploy a beacon get it online make sure it's updated and then shade need to make sure that we don`t get into trouble with the gravity wells 

The captain looked over to shade`s station and shade turned and said 

Yes captain I have made the calculations and Jal has plotted the course we have to take into the system we should be okay

Musa then turn back to his first officer and said 

Thank you, guys that what we are going to do make the deployment and then we go and hunt down the salvage

Charlie, you `re happy with that?

Charlie was laughing at joke Jal whispered to him as they looked at the console 

Then Alice said 

Want to share the joke?

No! Not yet laughed Jal

 The captain looked at his crew on the bridge as he took his sit on his chair as they prepared to deploy the beacon, the other crew members onboard the ship were below deck they work with the engineer and the chef, who worked in the mess room and made sure the hydroponics bay produce a supply of oxygen and fresh food, oxygen production was not a problem on ships travelling into the void of space the technologies allowed for ship to be able to keep producing oxygen for the crew for a minimum period of a year . Antony Hatton loved to grow food even as a child from the earliest human colony food production was priority by farming the land. The main focus of the early settlers of the colony was a way to make sure that they could feed themselves. if it ever happened that the colony was cut from home base. The rest of the crew needed to know of the chance of a big win today before they headed home.

  

Chapter 2  

The large room had a 6feet wide by 20 feet table with a window that formed a wall, the view outside the window is the main view of the mountain on the planet New London, the planet is one of the oldest colonies of human in that sector of space it is a mining planet on this planet one of the major corporations had it`s main base of operations. And today there are preparation for the annual general meeting of it board of directors, the board of directors were made up of wealthy families that have had control of many powerful companies on earth and now it has being these same group of people who still have control and not only control of corporations they have a huge amount of influence with many governments. They used to be called the Paris group, they made decision on economy systems many years ago on earth they lent money to government hence the influence.

  New London is in a star system not too far from Andromeda star system the nearest star system to earth, humans had already found Andromeda from watching the skies from earth but as they travelled into the void of space they began to find more habitable planet it became clear that there is more planets that are able to support life. 

The only forms of life that humanity have encounter are usually small and sometimes microscopic life forms  some have being deadly to humans  some of the planets are rich with minerals and ores that made many companies become more powerful and many governments  unable to extend the influence out into the void of space but it became clear that private corporations were the organisation that were able to make better headway into space exploration the colonization  of many planets were carried out by private enterprises. New London is a planet is a star system of 13 planets the metallic ore on New London made a very profitable enterprise, the population of New London has being growing over the many years that it attracted many workers to the mining complex many come with their families, presently the population for New London is close too 300,000 people on planet.     As the managers prepare for the arrival of the directors, the complex manager and security officer for the corporation haruki Jones were making a round up of the measures to make sure the site is secure from espionage activities from other competing corporations. the meeting is due to start in 2days the directors are meant to be on their way the security is so intense that the directors were not told where the meeting is going to held all they would do is get on the ship that would pick them from their bases of operations . Haruki Jones stood at the window and turned has he heard the door open behind and the complex manager walked up to him, Andrea kalman is the manager for New London complex she walked toward haruki Jones and she hands him a pad. Haruki Jones is a Japanese African mix; he has jet black hair slick back and a light brown skin complexion and has the eyes of the shape of an Asian person.

Am sure you would like the measures that we have in place here the room is secure for and devices and the complex is swept for any instruction very hour and all ship coming through the jump are scanned and redirected to the alternate position away from any position that would allow for any ship to come within the security barrier of the complex all staff member without the security level orange are not allowed to be within the complex 

Andrea walked passed haruki Jones  and to the computer console and spoke 

“Computer start”

The voice of a female computerize voice replied to Andrea’s request

“Ready” 

“Request secure mainframe access”

Biometric input requested

Andrea stepped closer to the screen and her face is scanned and her retina scan complete the request and the sound of the computer voice computer voice filled the room 

Access granted 

Andrea inputted a sequence of numbers into the computer screen and then stepped back to allow haruki Jones  to inspect the details himself 

As you can see the security measures we have in place are more than adequate for this meeting. 

The man walked to the screen and looked at the details on the screen for about a minute as Andrea took a sit at the table in one of the chairs and waited to see what the reaction from haruki Jones, he nodded and turned to Andrea.  

Crews of the ship picking up the directors have they being checked? 

Yes and i vetted them personally they all passed, the directors will secure and the meeting is under the best security available.

Yes i can see that but nothing is ever truly secure do not forget that we have to deal with the Royal house of the Hampshire corporation they would love to get into this room to know what we have under our hat. 

Haruki Jones  turned from the computer screen and stated to walk out of the room and has he opened the door to the corridor he stopped and spoke 

Please inform the crew that i will be join the ship before they leave.

Is there anything else that you need?

No Miss Kalman I will need nothing for the time being i have all i need right here 

He held up the pad in his hand and tapped the pad and he walked out of the door as he walked down the corridor a young woman walked up to him and spoke to him while Andrea came up to them as they were speaking in  hush tones  the woman looked at Andrea as she walked to the couple . They both stopped talking and then haruki Jones  spoke to Andréa 

This is my associate she was informing me that ship has being checked and there is the possibility that we might have a leak but she is not too sure i will be leaving her here to make sure all the security measure remain at their high standards while i would try and check on my end to see if anything may have leaked. 

It has being a interesting morning his grandson had returned home from his camping trip with his father john  and friends, the dome city has section of forest that was planted for oxygen production and also food production as well, the administration of the dome city were trying to introduce a bit of earth on beta-minor, beta-minor is has gas atmosphere of mostly methane, this outpost is a research station with a population of 900 families the dome city is  secret base and the one of the directors lives here with his family. They  have being researching into weapons new propulsion engine developing new ways of travelling further than the current jump engines on the market .director Shaw is taking his time this morning and not in a hurry to get to his office today he is sitting in the living room and taking sip of tea as his grandson run in to the room shouting with his friends about how much fun they had and right behind them was Shaw’s son he was looking really tired , he sat down and smiled at his father who smiled has he read the data pad , 

So how your camping sound like the boys was had fun

“Yea dad they did but maybe next time you might want to come along and enjoy the sprit of the out door” 

Shaw smiled 

“Yes son, maybe next time but guess it your turn to do the running around you do recall when you were his age what we did, well then you see it your turn now”

The father and son conversation was interrupted by the ping of incoming message through the main house computer; the computer processed the message and sends it the inbox of director Shaw. As the director was sitting and chatting with his son as the message icon appeared on Shaw’s pad he looked at his pad and tapped the icon to see the message appear it read top priority input security number to retrieve . Shaw looked at the message and stood from his chair when his son looked at his father and said 

“Dad, what is it?”

“Nothing john, just need to input security password before i could read it”. 

John sat up and said 

“It`s not time for the meeting is it dad?”

Shaw stopped and looked at his son 

“It is make sure all the information we have is ready and inform the base doctor to get fresh DNA sample from the subject” 

John stood up and turned to where son and his friends were playing and said 

“Will do dad”

And continued toward the children 

Shaw walked to his office and reading to message after inputting his password .it read the date and time to meet the transport ship along with the pass code to get on board the ship it is meant to be top security.

The message icon appeared on the communication`s console in the office and the woman sitting at the desk looked up from her reading pad and looked at the icon and tapped the communication screen and the message requested her security password which she inputted and she began to read the message, she sat back in her chair and then turned in her chair and picked up a pad from her other desk behind her  and inserted a very old style memory stick something  has not being use for almost two century it`s more of a antique  than anything else because no one uses this type of technology somehow it make`s more secure. She is the director of the corporation`s military and logistics division, she is the one individual who has all the information on what and where each ship is and what they are meant to be doing .her name is Bridget hawse she has shown in the past that she is a woman of substance you would never come across a more single-mindedly individual. 

The shuttle craft followed it set trajectory to the planet below and the pilot is rolling onto it`s dorsal section to begin the turn for planet on the BJP 121010 this BJP is a new beacon that was just deployed and the planet the shuttle is attempting to land on is one of the site that has a base of command for the surveying team. The atmosphere for this planet is not very hospitable for humans but the team do have experience in developing living habitats for human colonies this is not really a problem for this team they have planted on planets with more deadly atmosphere in recent years. the temporary habitat this where the base camp has being set up and the man in charge of the all  the personnel is the director of planetary division .he  love the  travelling from planet to planet setting up colonies and building habitat for human colonies. It is known to many people in the field setting up colonies that anytime you need to find the director he is out into the void looking for new and developing new ways for the expansion of the human race into space. Right now he trying out the latest technology for planet exploration the new design of a exoskeleton suit it is designed with trying enhanced the human ability to lift object over 10 tonnes the older exoskeletons have being huge and could more heavier objects but they were more like fork lifts but this design is not so big and is more closely to the human form allows the user to not only lift object they allow the user to run faster and longer.  Dupree also knew the implication of this design for military applications that why he is testing the exoskeleton here. The applications for such a light weight exoskeleton is a major step forward for the corporation in their conflict, this conflict at the moment is cold war conflict there has being no direct action between any of the corporations but there is the belief that hostile take over are eminent and in order to protect one`s owns interest many of the corporation have built armies created bases of operations and developed new technologies of warfare 

Dupree was reading the data coming in from the telemetric off the exoskeleton suit when the pilot of the shuttle craft reported that he was coming for a landing and that there is a extra passagener  for director Dupree  ,Dupree could hear the pilot`s message and stood up from his chair and walked out of the tent and looked up at the temporary dome and saw the shuttle craft landing on the landing pad the outside the dome ,he then walks to the airlock and waited as the men emerge from the shuttle and walked over to the dome they are in environmental suits . they entered and cleared the airlock and before entering the dome  the removed their suits , the man stepped through the airlock and saw director Dupree and walked over to him and handed him a pad both men nodded to each other and Dupree turned and tapped on the pad he stopped and looked at the man who and gestured to the man over to him and they both spoke in whispered tones ,and then Dupree walked over to the tent and entered , then spoke to the team member who man the transmission equipment, i need the room ,all you guys out  here for 5 minutes right now.

As the team walked out of the tent the new man walked to the transmission equipment and started to input a sequence of numbers and the type in a message and then sent it off he stood up and turned to Dupree and said 

“It`s done sir the ship should be here in a few hours i inputted the pass code into your pad. I will get the next flight up” 

Dupree turned and stepped out of the tent and called to the pilot and then he stepped back into the tent.

“If you want to leave right now the pilot will take back up the shuttle is refuelled and is ready to go” 

“Thank you sir” 

Dupree did not reply but sat in his seat and started to scroll through the data from the exoskeleton suit, it was beginning to feel like a long day   

Chapter 3 

BJP 000001is the very first beacon deployed and it`s used as the reference point for beacon deployment ships the reason it the reference beacon point is because it the home planet for humanity earth, the surface of earth has being is scared by the ever present reminder of the years of wars and conflicts but the blue skies and the mountain ranges of the rookies would help anyone forget the agony of death and destruction that had become the constant reminder that humanity almost came to a abrupt end. The chance discovery of making space travel less apprehensive had a effect that has never being seen humanity ,the chance to understand the position the humanity holds in the scheme of the thing. There is still the belief that the earth is the centre of the cosmos to that end one corporation believe in the divine right to rule they have being around for more than a millennia, they are part of the European families they had a t hand in few major conflicts and have being around making sure that they have a hold of power, it is said that they were behind the death of some celebrity or a princess of some nature .they seem to be the power behind the throne, they are now known to be the Royal house of the Hampshire corporation . As part of a democracy of over 1000years in the making, they are really a force to reckon with but with advent of space travel their influence over the governments of earth began to diminish and with that in mind they reinvented themselves as a corporation with a appetite for expansion without bounds, they also are one of the five riches corporations and they have plans of extending their influence. 

The offices of the royal house of Hampshire is  one of the most protected buildings in Moscow  division and the woman in charge of this division is sitting at her desk reading the latest update and  information coming from the other divisions. On earth the duke of Hampshire is a very wealthy gentle man is the divisional head for earth and it subsidiaries that is all the colonies in the earth star system which is the Mars colony as well as the Europa colony they had foresight at the beginning of the race for colonies they made the very first moves to all the earth star system habitable planets but unable to compete with the other corporations due to the fact they used up most of the funds in the first years of space exploration  by buying ships and paying so much for militarily support but after the 2nd decade of space travel. when the other corporation got into the space race the house of Hampshire was able to gain a foot hold in some other star system but not as many as they would have like, but the held the main prize of the earth star system they became to power house. One of the procedures that they became good at was hostile take over in the last 4 decades they have taken over small and medium companies that set out to develop mineral rich planet and sites.  to compensate the fact that the royal house of Hampshire was not in the big league in the mining race they made up in by building space stations and placed installations in sector of space that made it vitally important to be in a position of some influence to most of the other corporations. Jake the duke of Hampshire sitting at his breakfast table when the computer indicated there is a incoming call from the Moscow divisional head is online 

The duke put down his spoon as he was trying to finish his breakfast 

He sat up and pulled the napkin from in front of his shirt and stood up to walk over to the comms console in the kitchen as he walked toward the console his daughter ran into the kitchen 

Daddy, daddy, mummy want to go shopping but i don`t want to go 

“Darling can you want for daddy one minute i ll talk to mummy for you”.

 she was his world his 4year old daughter who knew what she wanted and not even as young as she is she is so demanding just as he was trying to calm his daughter down his wife walked into the kitchen looked at both of them and said 

“She coming with me even if she likes it or not”, 

 As she walked to the juice disperser ask she tapped on the screen for a cup 

She looked at her husband and nodded to him 

You better answer that 

Jake then looked at the comms console and he walked up to the screen and tapped the icon for communication and a face appeared on the screen 

Morning Sir, i have a update for you and i need you to read as soon as you get it and it`s high priority

Elizabeth can`t this wait till i get into the office.

Sir i know but this is what we have being waiting for the director are meeting 

And she was right the directors meeting is big news somehow the  intelligence division is working overtime to get this information over the last few weeks there has being a increased chat that the Paris group  director were meeting because they had found something that will change the course of humanity . Everyone have had their spies working overtime and are doing whatever it took to find out what it was that they have that would make a sudden and drastic change to the course of humanity .

The duke looked at his wife and she walked up to their daughter as she tried to hide behind her father 

Come along Louise we have to go daddy has work to do  

And she too the little`s hand and pulled towards here and picked her up

“Daddy i don`t want to go i want to stay wit you “ 

But the duke smiled and said 

“Not today darling go with mummy she is going to take to somewhere nice “

The woman on the screen smiled as this was going on

“She`s really a daddy`s girl sir“

 That she is.

So what else do you know?

It`s taking place in a few days on the New London colony 

Do we have anyone there? 

Yes sir but they won`t be anywhere near the main complex 

The duke walked over to the juice disperser and tapped on the screen as the cup drooped and picked up the juice.

So what is it that they have found that would make everyone all jumpy?

He walked back to the console and said 

We need to find out , ill be leaving for the office right now  ill contact you when i get in but i want you to get the crew up and really to go .

Sir! Are you sure about the crew they are not known for their discreet methods  

I ll let you know why i need them, just get them ready 

Yes sir 

Elizabeth turned off her console and sunk into her chair whatever the duke wants with the crew it won`t be good they are known to leave trails of destruction the concept of zero presence is not known on their phase book, but the duke wants them i guess i will have to   get them in she turn and tapped on her comms console and the she pulled out a personal comms unit and then tapped in a sequence of numbers and the image of a figure of man came up on the small screen 

Elizabeth looked at the screen and said 

Report to base 1021 1500

And the image on the screen disappeared  

She then sunk back into her chair and looked out of her window at the dark skies approaching from the horizon 

This is not going to be good 

The noise from the environmental unit was so much anyone else other than Michael it would have driven them mad but not him he is half deaf lost his earring after an explosion during a incursion on black book operation he is one of the members of the crew they are a bunch of soldiers for hire who work for who plays the bills. the others were outside the camp when the call came in from the client list console .this console is only used to receive request from clients and this one client pays really well and they get to do jobs that are always fun for them Michael pulls himself from he bunk and sit up after 2 minutes and rubs his face with his hand he is trying to get the feeling of sleep from his eye. The flashing blue light coming from the client`s console attracts his eye and he then stands from his bunk and walks to the open door and stands there completely naked as the rest of the crew played football he shouts out 

Yo!  We got a job!

Looks like we going back to home 

As he continued to shout across the field a woman came up from behind and push passed him standing in the doorway she stopped and looked at Michael 

“Put some clothes on you dick “ 

She is the crew’s medical officer 

She shouts out 

“We are going to need to get your jabs before we return back home to earth so move your asses in here and get your jabs”  

The crew just ignored her and kept playing football

She turned and sat on the table by the door way and turned and saw Michael still standing naked in the doorway  

“Go get something on”

She shouted 

Chapter 4 

Captain Musa tapped the comms switch on the screen in front of him and spoke to the whole ship 

Good news guys, looks like we are going to perform salvage, and after this we will heading home for a well needed rest so until then let us make sure we all do what we need to do and get home .The other 2 crew member are part of the beacon deployment team that made sure the beacons are online and updated when deployed and they also are the shuttle pilot and assistant engineer. The shuttle hasn`t being used in a long time other than when they went down to the last planet they found during the last 2 deployments.

Anne is the engineering assistant and marina is the shuttle pilot and the ships sweet heart or more like wale`s other half, most of the time they want the rest of the crew to believe that there nothing going between the two of them but  it`s more or less common knowledge these days  on the ship.

Jal spoke as he plotted the flight trajectory for the ship to take up a standard planet orbit

Captain I have the spot to park the ship, it won`t be long after we deploy the beacon when do you want to get going. 

Wale walked over to Jal and shade as they made preparation to pilot the ship into the system all the gravity fields emitting from the planet in the system showed up on Jal`s screen, 

Anne`s voice came up on the comms 

Beacon ready for deployment, updated and online need to get into loading bay should be deployed in 20 minutes 

Jal!  Gets us to these co-ordinates and please don`t rock the boat too much . 

What ? What ? What the hell !!

 Jal replied to the comms

 You come and fly this boat you bitch

Wale looked Jal and then at the captain as jal continued to rant on the comms 

Women just do your job  

Industrial language is what this is called they seem to hate each other by far from it, this was a way to let off the tension of long term travel on board the ship the captain allows this to happen he knows that they have being under alot pressure in the last few months the crew have being looking forward to going home ,calling each other names has being a way to deal it the tension but they are a very good crew

Shade started to laugh and said  

Guys don`t try to hide it you know you love it, just go get a room 

This made all the crew on the bridge laughed out load and the captain smile

We are at the co-ordinates ready for deployment 

Thank you Jal 

Loading bay ready beacon online, keep steady releasing in 1,2,3,4,5 away .

Loading bay to bridge  

  Jump beacon away and in position 

Thank you guys all we have to do now is go find out what we have found and register our claim to the salvage whatever it is.

Jal pilot course and get us there

Aye captain should be in position in 30minutes 

Thank you 

The captain turned to akin 

Akin can you go down below to Anne and give her a hand with sensors and make sure we can get the best resolution on the sensors i want to see it clearly 

Akin smiled and tapped into his console and then said

 will do captain , it should take me us about 10minutes to get all set up 

Fine  and while you down there can you tell toy to get breakfast ready am hungry for something to eat 

Wale looked at the captain and then he looked his watch it was only 5am EST

 Isn`t a bit early for breakfast ? 

Nope , 

Alice climbed down to the lower to shade`s position  and shade turn and nodded as Alice sat next to her on the step  behind her was looking at the screen and the data coming  and the images that created images to give a clear view of what it is like  to pilot the ship into the gravity field of all the planets . The ship moved in slowly and Alice tapped the shoulder of jal as he controlled the ship and winked at jal, jal smiled back at Alice and continued the working on keeping the ship on the flight trajectory for standard planet orbit co-ordinates  

Wale still sitting at his console was reading the data coming from the crash site that and as the River Niger got closer the details increased ,normally the makeup of any spaceship build by the space agency would have a register of all the alloys that would be used in the manufacture of the spaceship allowing ships to be identified by their hull signatures .the signature wale is receiving is from the crash site is not  in the database , he did not understand why but one the metallic signature is not in any database provided by the agency`s database . And as the ship came closer to the planet more data came from the crash site 

The captain was looking at the same data wale was looking at.

Captain, do you see what i see? 

Yea i see it too 

It must be some kind of black ship or one of the other corporations is using alloy not registered on the database therefore we can`t tell what ship it is.

Alice come up here and look at this. 

She climbed back up to the captain`s chair and stood along side his chair 

What do you think XO? 

The planet is coming into the view of the window and the clouds formations on the planet is becoming clearer and Jal made a adjustment to the flight trajectory  and the ship tilt and the planet filled the upper window as jal brought the ship in to park the ship into orbit captain looked out the window as the ship slowed to a stop as the star in the system shone on the other side of the planet and it looked like a wonderful sun rise was about to emerge , jal had made sure the were parked on the dark side keeping the planet between the ship and the sun but still the lamination of the star brighten up the bridge which made feel like it was going to be a good day after all  

When they arrived in this star system the leadership did not know of the find of a life time as they came across a earth-like planet that provide them with a rich variety of minerals and the chance to build their empire . The main feature of the planet surface was the mountain ranges that rolled on forever like the filed of old England the ranges seem to row on for miles and miles and it is here thy found the refuge they were looking for , they have build into the mountain ranges their homes and  created  stronghold that has protected them from the elements and the harsh weather condition but one of the of the side effects that did not come apparent until after twenty years on the planet surface and there began a mutation within the DNA of the people living on the planet . The mutation showed up in a medical scan it was such a exceptional discovery that it would change the way the human genome would be looked at forever. The mutation made the people affected stronger than average human they have the ability regenerates their cell and most of all their life span increased to about thirty percent longer than the normal life span of a human. This was a secret that they wanted to keep to themselves .the twelve members of the committee are sitting in the room and listening to the woman as she explains that there is major problem that would mean that outside world would know of their existent, which is what they are trying to keep to themselves the fact that they are in position that they would lose all they have gained but the fact that they have lost a fighter and a pilot is not what these men in the room wanted to hear. The ship is made with alloys of an ore that was found on the planet which made the ships better than any other ship in all the fleets of all the corporations. 

The woman talking to the twelve men in this room is Commander Hea Jung of the army of light, they believe that they will bring light of truth to earth and remove the corruption of the wicked.  

We are not ready to show ourselves, the technology has allowed us to grow but the chance of winning major operations at this time we do not have. We do not have the manpower even if we release the clones we will not be able to hold on to power.

What we need in my opinion is to take over the corporations they are the powers behind the thrones we take over one or two of the major corporation, trying to replace the union of the nation blocs would be a mistake on our part 

As she spoke another member spoke  

“According to the Intel they have the military of earth is spread thin and we believe that we can retake the planet from the corrupt leaders of earth in other word a coup”. 

She stood back and then looked a the man sitting at the head of the table and shock her head and he looked back at her 

The man then said 

“We cannot”

The rest of the room was silent 

“First thing we need to do is find out what happened to our pilot we need to know if he is dead or alive , where his ship is we cannot allow the ship to be discovered by anyone other than our people”

He then looked at the commander

“Do whatever you need to do to find out what happened to our pilot and make sure that all our secrets are secret, do you understand?”    

She stood to attention and turn to leave the room walking passed the member and through the doors as she stepped through the doors and they closed, there was an eruption from the room.

As she walked down the corridor she could hear the loud discussions in the board room she pulled out her personal communicator and pressed the green button and the voice of a man came over the Intelligence officer on her communicator 

Get ready we are going hunting 

The answer came back 

Yes commander!

The man on the other end of the conversation was onboard a transport vessel, this transport vessel was designed to carry three thousand troops, equipment and other ships such as fighters and supplies. It is a carrier and he is the captain of the ship. He puts down the communicator and turns to the officer next to him alert the engine room we are leaving as soon as commander Hea Jung returns from the surface. 

He was in the officer mess with his officers they were having a meeting about the lost fighter.     

As commander Hea Jung  walked to her office she began to recall the history of how all this was built the gift that this planet has given to all who live within this community. The technology that has arisen from all the years on this planet has made them a great people and there is a great deal to lose if they get into a conflict with the outsiders and engage in a long drawn out war that they would lose they do not have any chance of winning in the long run.

She entered her office and could see warehouse out of the window and she could see the roof of rock that protects the warehouse from any kind of orbital scans by any probes. As she looked out of the window below where she could see as people went about in their daily duties, she wondered what will happen if she fails in her task to protect our people from any harm that might become them.

Failure to her was not an option     

Chapter 5 

The air is recycled the gravity is artificial and no matter how much they try to make a suitable facsimile of earth they can never get it right, the station was build by the New London group and this is a stop over jump point for many ships. But haruki Jones  who is standing by the airlock waiting for one of his charges coming in to meet up before the heading on their final destination .he could see the ship on the docking arm and the passengers disembarking from the ship into the station he watched and walked away from the airlock and started towards rest area it is where he was meeting the directors. 

The space station is designed with a simple idea to provide a suitable stop over for any ship travelling through this region. The New London group like the idea of calling their installations by the names of city such as New London and this space station is called New Abuja  the docking arms reach out from the main section of the station like arms on a  spider the lower section allows for smaller ships to enter it`s loading bay the station is about the size four football pitches setup side by side  and it is the height of the old empire state  building in old new York , it took the Paris group at least ten years to build this station. It has being more than a 75years since the station has being operational and has provided a very adequate service to ships in this region. The arrival and departure zones on the station also provide a section to relax and refresh after travelling for such long periods. There are 6 gravity generators providing the gravity for the entire station and all docking arms and extended section of the station

Bridget hated travelling and she hated most of all if the trip was not in her private ship being with the multitude of workers travelling to find work in mining colonies can be a pain but for security this meant to be the best way to travel it has being three weeks since she got the message and now she on the final leg and she does hope that it`s all worth the trouble she is going through for this. She stepped through the airlock and she though to herself “damn recycled air i hate it “

Dupree walked onto the bridge of his ship heading to the space station he did not know what he was going to find and but the coded message is a code you cannot ignore it is top priority ,no matter what he might think it sounds like this is really the beginning of the real thing. This jump is about an hour longer than usual due to the security precautions that he had to take. The New Abuja space station is two BJPs from New London jump point but this station is used as a transfer hub for ships travelling across a region of space that had no star systems. Dupree just wanted to get the New Abuja station and get on with it.

Shaw step out of the shower waited for the body dryer to start when the door chime rang out 

Damn! Just a minute hang on  

He reached across the shower room and pulled on his dressing gown and stepped into the living area and then shouted 

Come on in.

Haruki Jones stepped into the room and the both men nodded and Shaw took a seat as haruki Jones  spoke

She is here sir. 

Good so all we have to wait for is Dupree 

Yes sir 

Shaw picked up a data pad and scroll don the list of files he had to read from data input that everyone receives while on the station more of entertainment for passengers as they transfers through the station. 

Haruki Jones  walked to the food disperser and tapped in request for a drink and glass of juice came out of the disperser, he then walked over to the chair opposite Shaw and sat down 

I do hope what you have found out about our new friend is worth all this sir 

Shaw smiled that`s one of the thing he liked about his security officer he`s always straight to the point 

 it is all worth it the information we have gained over the last few months will change the way we see ourselves as humans and has the potential to make us so wealthy but we might have to find out where and how it`s possible to that it came to be, what i have to tell the board, will blow their minds trust me.  

As both men sat there was a chime on the communication unit and Shaw turn and tapped the data pad in his hand and the face of a woman came up on the display 

Shaw! 

Hello Bridget had a nice trip? 

Shaw thanks for asking but you do know i hate travelling and coming to this station is not my idea of comfort 

Shaw smiled 

Yes i know but when you hear what i have to tell you and the board 

So, how about Dupree? 

Haruki Jones spoke 

He should be here in three hours, and our ship to get us to New London is on standby and all security measures are in place 

Shaw the handed the pad to the officer and then he continued to speak 

Making you all come to one point will give my team and i find out if you were followed and make sure that any chance of interference is limited. 

I see well what can i say but thank you .just let me know when Dupree turns up and let me know 

The screen went blank

She`s not happy is she?

No she isn`t 

Both men laughed as they both sat waiting for the third  

The sky light view from his cabin made the view of the stars flying-by provided a serene feeling that he always loved laying in his bed; he lay in his bed as the Sheri pulled the bed covers away from Dupree 

It is getting cold in here. And your feet are cold  

Well it looks like i need to keep you warm as Dupree pulled Sheri closer and kissed her neck and she moan with delight 

Do that again

Like this

And he kissed her again and slides his hand down her side to her stomach and Sheri moan, the heat radiating from her lower back made the bed feel like a small oven ,Dupree drew closer to her as he felt the checks of her rear brushes against him ,his raise manhood pushed up against her back as she reaches for him to come closer she turns and kisses Dupree on the lips and he kissed her as well he felt her move even closer as she did so she reached down to Dupree and directed him into her she moaned has he rammed into her and continued as they both held onto each other and they rode on the tide of pleasure rolling on as they both enjoyed themselves  this is the small pleasure that Dupree seems to enjoy on these long trips he tries as much as possible to enjoy these short breaks when he get them they are usually far and few between. 

Shaw and his security officer walked out of the restaurant and looked out the windows of the station and could see the traffic of ships coming and going this station, it is a very busy station as the walked along the display window they could see a ship with the insignia of the Paris group 

Shaw took out his personal comms unit from his jacket pocket scroll through the list of names and stopped at the name of Dupree and pressed the icon for the Director the comms unit connecting  the stations transmitting waveband to broadcast a request for the comms unit that it need to connect too. as a matter of protocol as soon as any ship comes into the range of any installation all comms device have to broadcast heir presence to the communication centre`s computer and therefore anyone with a comms unit is automatic added to the list of comms devices available to this end the device of Dupree would be added to the communications computer of the station as one of the devices available to communicate. The connection is made and Dupree`s communication unit starts to Chime and Dupree was drinking his coffee with Sheri in the mess hall of his ship this seem to annoy him as his comms unit kept on making the noise when a connection is requested for, 

Dupree take out his device and looks at it and the pressed on the icon. 

Dupree looked at the screen and he could see the image of his friend Shaw, he then smiled and said 

Shaw 

Dupree, how long have you being here?

Just jump in about ten minute ago, how about Bridget is she in yet 

Yep and waiting for you my friend. 

As both men were chatting haruki Jones walked away from the director and pulled out his communication device and tapped in some in a message and sent it out. It was a time and airlock number. Dupree was still chatting to Shaw when he saw the message so did Shaw and Bridget got the same message on her device as well, it read 19:00 hours airlock 10.

Chapter 6 

So far the crew of the River Niger have being orbit of the planet  for more than a week they have contacted HQ and informed them that they have found a ship of a unknown alloy makeup .from their position it would take around  six weeks, right now the River Niger is keeping track of the salvage crew as they are setting up the habitation dome on the surface over the crash site ,the atmosphere it is not exactly human friendly the atmosphere is slightly similar to that of earth but has a higher concentration of nitrogen the gravity is every similar but as the dome is getting ready for the life support system  to come online. It is going to take over two months to salvage this ship and from the scan made of the crash site it looks like the ship is not large enough to be a major problem the main problems are how to get the diggers and excavation units on the surface and reassemble the units to dig and excavate the rocks from around the ship, this is because most part of the ship is buried into the ground but there are other parts of the ship that crew have salvage and returned the to the loading bay of the River Niger . Alice has examined the salvage part and still is unable to identify the alloy of the metal wreckage, but the words on one of the salvaged metal was not unknown to her and the ship`s computer bank after she fed the scan of the characters on the metal wreckage it came back as a Alphabet   from a Asian culture she sent all the information back to HQ while this has being going on the captain has being on the planet surface and making sure that they should try to get ahead of schedule 

The communication between the surface and the ship has now being established and wale was on the bridge and he and jal were chatting about a game of football that came in from the last transmission that they received from HQ. the football league still is on but it`s not a popular as it used to be ,but for the people on other colonies and ships out in the void it has become a connection to  home and a reassurance that life is good. 

Wale had his feet up on the console next to the captain’s chair shouting at Jal 

“NO way .that goal was offside they must have the referee in their pockets” 

Jal was standing just on the other side of the console leaning against the console. 

Jal replied to wale`s accusation

You must be joking? Man!!!  it was a clean goal there is not way the referee is in anyone`s pocket you just do not know how to lose, your team have won so many games in the league when you finally lose a game you guys get angry 

Jal was laughing and wale looked at him and said 

You must drunk of the fumes from the engine room, you don`t know what you are talking about. 

And both men were laughing when the image of the captain came up on the comms screen he was calling from within the shuttle craft.

So boys what have you being up too since I `ve being away?

Wale took his feet off the console and Jal stool up and spoke 

Hi, captain, how you doing down there is the dome online 

We just got full seal and we have atmosphere we can breath so what have you guys being up too since i have e being down here 

Wale tapped on the console on the other side of the chair and the image of the captain also came up on the screen. 

Captain since we have contacted   HQ and informed them what we have found they have only confirmed that the received the information but not else and we have the beacon up and running and the beacon radio is running we have some news from home and the colonies and as well as the radio we have the latest games result we have being waiting for, and the TV channels are up too.

Gentlemen are that all you have being doing? 

Well captain what else can we do most of the crew on the surface and the XO is the loading bay taking care of the salvaged wreck 

All we have to do is maintain a standard orbit and make sure you all are okay  apart from that tony is down on planet with you so we don`t have much to eat other than what he prepared for us before he left and that`s getting boring.   

Well you would soon be able to come down here we have the dome ready ,and the diggers are up and running we should be able to get to most of the ship in the next few days .

Wale patch in the loading bay i want o talk to the XO 

Wale tapped the screen and then the XO image appeared next to the image of the captain, while Alice could see the image of the captain while she in the loading bay 

Yes captain 

As she wiped her forehead with her sleeve and then there was a noise from a piece of metal dropping onto the ground and she looked behind her 

Hang on captain 

She turned and walked from the screen and then she came back, 

So captain are we good down there? 

Yea we have a seal on the dome and the JCB is ready for digger should be able to start we should ahead of our timetable within the next few days  

Looks like it all good captain. 

Good so what about the results from the characters you found?

We have narrowed it down to characters from the Chinese language of the earth of the 22th century but we are not too sure yet but it is defiantly human in origin nothing alien nothing too exciting as we would like.

The captain was not too good with hiding his disappointment.

Okay XO let me know as soon as HQ gets back to us on the results of all our scans 

Will do captain,

And the captain looked closer to the screen and said 

Guys make sure everything is running smoothly up there we don`t know what can happen but I want o know that you guys can handle it.

Thanks captain 

Captain Musa sat back into the shuttle crafts comms console and turn to look out the porthole as the crew took measurements of the air with the dome; the dome is only designed for temporary use, Its about 20 feet high and a circumference of  80 feet  room enough to allow the JCB to do it`s work , all these guys have being doing a great job he looked at the portacabin that they set up for living quarters and he could see tony working on the next meal through the porthole of the portacabin  the bonus on this salvage is going to be huge and already the captain could begin to image himself paying off the loan of  his pleasure craft . 

Captain Musa stood and watched one of his crew removed the helmet of the environmental suit and showed a thump up sign towards the shuttle craft. And then there was a yellow flash that seem to radiate from outside the dome, this made the crew on the jump not because of the flash but the vibration that seem to shake the ground they were standing on and they all looked up and there was another flash and then a explosion, captain Musa looked as the bright flash grew brighter and saw the crew on the ground seem to disintegrate as the glow appear to engulf the entire crew and the dome was glowing white. This was within a few seconds and then the cracks forming on the porthole of the shuttle craft and then another flash. And the captain could feel the heat and he knew somehow it is not going to be good this is the end.

The bridge was on fire the noise from the exploding consoles and the hiss of escaping air from the front window cracks as the fire begins to create so much heat. Jal was on the floor just in front of the captain`s chair and wale was laying by the hatch and the view of the planet seem to zooming toward the ship.   

She stood on the command deck and watched from the observation window as the torpedoes glided towards their targets, she knows that she has to do whatever it takes to protect her world and keep them from the rest of the union it has to be at all cost destroying this ship and it`s crew is infinitesimal when you compare the sheer fact that a  whole society has being build and needs to keep their presence a secret and having lost the fighter ship it is becoming increasing important to contain all information. She looked on as another set of torpedoes slide silently in the coldness of the void of space to their targets. The salvage site is easy to destroy but they need to totally destroy the ship and recover any data or any form of recording they may have made. Then the River Niger came into view as her ship bank to fire on the river Niger she saw the flash of light coming from within the ship all this was happening in total silence, as much as she would like her crew under her to believe that she is as hard of nails but this is the first ever action she has witnessed and as a commander. The ship tilted towards the planet and started to drop put of orbit as she watched the captain of the warship walked up to her 

“The ship is about to be destroyed but the main section seems to be intact from what we can see we might have to followed it down to the planet”

She looked on as another set of torpedoes hit the ship again. The fire that was burning in the ship seem to glow as one of the engines seem to explode and pieces seem to float away from the ship and then it looked like a body floated out of the ship. She leaned forward as she saw the body floating away from the ship she was surprised and she not notices when she said the words out loud 

“OH MY GOD!”  

The captain looked at commander Hea Jung he was also surprised not at the scene unfolding but at the reaction of his commander this is not what he expected from his commander. 

Chapter 6 

The duke walked into the office and Elizabeth was sitting behind the desk and looked up from her data pad. 

Morning Sir. 

Jake looked at Elizabeth and nodded and the said 

Are they here yet?

Yes sir.

Where are they?

I have put them up in a suite the Hilton down town. 

Good, get them online for me

Elizabeth tapped on her screen and waited ad the a woman`s image came up on the screen 

Yes, what do you want? 

She looked she was still in bed her hair was all over her face.

What the hell do you want?

And the from behind a man`s voice could be heard 

Who is that?

The woman looked back at the direction from where the voice came from and said 

If you gave me a minute and let me find out find out will ya 

And she then turned back to the screen and said  

What?

This is the duke 

Okay, she then got up and said 

What`s the job?

The duke spoke 

The job is to be in my office in as soon as possible 

The woman tapped on her screen and it went blank. 

Duke walked over to the window of Elizabeth`s office and looked out across the Moscow sky, after a few minute he turned and looked back to Elizabeth 

“I feel like we are going to get into something big here. How big what am about to expose I don`t know and am afraid of what l might find.” 

On the Tadamichi Haruki Jones sat up from the bunk as the door chime sounded and he shock his head. The crew member stepped through his door before he could respond to the chime and handed him a data pad. He looked at the crew member and said 

What is this? 

The crew member looked at him and said 

It`s urgent and the captain said you needed to see this as soon as possible.

He looked at the pad and rolled his hand through his hair and looked at the pad 

Thank you tell the captain will be up in about an ten minutes.` 

The crew member turned and walked out of the cabin haruki Jones  stood up and sat in front on his console as he read the data on the pad. it was information of a mayday and the captain wanted  to know if the ship should diverted to respond to the mayday call . The call was made across the beacon grid network. anytime a ship goes down or needs assistance the black box on board  send out a broadcast blast across the network which in turns allow the nearest ship to rescue the ship in need. And the ship haruki Jones  is on is the nearest ship to the mayday call. This ship belongs to the New London group on it`s way to New london complex mining colony with the Shaw, Bridget and Dupree onboard , they have had to make several redirection to make sure that they were not followed due to the nature of the conference and the ship is well armed it`s complement of 45 torpedoes with nuclear war head tips  and chemical propelled  projectiles with armoured tips this ship is build to be able to defend itself and a that the reason why haruki Jones  decided to use this ship as a transport ship for the three director to the conference and had all confidence in the captain`s ability to make the best choices that needed to taken  but this is something that he has to decide on since it is a mandate any all ship within the vicinity of a mayday call should respond to it. He look at the detail of when the call is coming form and the distance and time taken to get the site and what else tat might come up in the process of responding to the distress call. He stood up from his seat and headed to the door of his cabin and entered the hallway and the headed down  the to the next door in the hallway and chime on the door .it opened and Dupree looked at him s aid 

Are we there yet?

Haruki Jones smiled and said 

No sir but i need both you and the rest of the director to come with me to discuss our options.

 Dupree stepped out of his cabin and looked at haruki Jones and said 

Why do you need us for? 

Haruki Jones continued to the next door while Dupree as shouted at him 

Hey am talking to you!

He stopped and turned to face Dupree and said 

We have distress call i want to know if you would object to the captain responding to the distress call before we continue on to New London  

And the he turned and chimed the next door and there was a response from with the room and Bridget stood at the opened door with Shaw standing behind her 

Alright boys we can hear you, what is it that you need us to make a decision so far you have being doing a good job from what i can see the security of this conference is safe hands from what i see 

Thank you, but this is to do with a distress call

 And haruki Jones showed his data pad to the directors and the message scrolled across the screen and they all read the message

Dupree pulled the pad out of his hand and looked closer to the screen and then said 

It broadcast from a ship in distress, automated call we might not be able to do anything for the people 

Shaw looked at Dupree 

Yes but we are all legally bound to respond to the distress call not only that according to the report it one of the ship on our registry, the River Niger 

So do I tell the captain to respond to the call? 

Dupree then stepped back towards his cabin and throw the pad back to haruki Jones  

It seems to me that we do not have much of a choice here we respond, it`s one of our ships 

He entered his cabin and the other two directors did the same they returned to their cabins.

He also walked to his cabin picked up his communication device and started to walk out of his cabin and headed to command and control to discuss the situation with the captain.

The ship is big compared to other ships in the New London group fleet and it new built in the last five years and the military hardware onboard is meant to provide security for the mining complexes and colonies that comes under the control of the group, the ship is registered as “the tadamichi” the command and control section of the ship made up of high tech equipment and the best on the market devices .the captain was sitting in his chair and had all the bridge crew at their stations ready to change heading for the response to the distress call . No matter what the directors decided he was going to respond to the call because if it happened to him he would want to believe that someone will rescue him if he needed help. The ship`s engines were humming as his navigation officer entered the BJP from where the distress called originated. The captain heard the hatch opened and closer and he could hear haruki Jones say something to one of his crew and then he heard his foot steps on the deck of the command centre as he walked over to him and he turned and haruki Jones nodded to him and said

We go captain! 

Captain looked at him and smiled 

I knew they would 

Alright people we are going to rescue these poor people. Have we locked onto the beacon? 

Yes sir 

Was the response

Good, as soon as you are ready we jump 

Aye sir 

Haruki Jones watched as the crew went about their jobs. The Tadamichi started the turn and the distortion of the space around the ship formed and the ship enter the distortion heading to the next jump point and to the distress call.

Chapter 7

Michael hated coming to earth but his crew needed the work. Michael hated the way earth made him feel the orderliness of the way things are run the calm way the people live in accordance to the law that no-one does anything against he state ,they say it the safest planet in the union it is after all it is home planet all human  life comes from here. To Michael the people on earth have lost their sense of fun, the drive from the hotel where the crew was staying was not too bad the car artificial intelligence did a good job getting him and  Lynn to the offices of duke. For now it is a chance to get some credit to keep the crew happy, the car pulls up to the building and he gets out the car and looked up at the tower 

That big!

He started to walk towards the offices of the royal house of Hampshire and into the glass building and towards the receptionist in the lobby nodded toward Michael and his medic

“Can I help you?”

“Yes we are here to see the duke” 

She tapped her earpiece and the looked at Michael 

“You can go straight through” 

And she pointed to a man who was standing by a elevator 

he would take you to the duke`s office 

Michael walked to the man and the man opened the doors of the elevator and Michael and Lynn stepped in, the doors closed and the speed of the elevator seemed to take Lynn by surprised as she held onto Michael’s arm has she seemed to lose her balance. The elevator stopped at the top of the building and the both stepped out of the elevator and looked out at view out of the office of the duke, the entire wall of the office is made up of glass which allowed a panoramic view out of the office across the Moscow skyline both the occupants of the elevator stepped forward  and Michael seemed to be drawn to the window and he looked like he is enjoying the view after all the times he has travelled and to other planet somehow this view made him stop and look. 

You like the view?

This made Michael looked toward the duke as he walked towards him and his medic.

I have always enjoyed the looking at the skyline makes me feel happy most of the time, anyway how was your trip here no problems. The duke gestured to the pair towards the area where his desk is and there are three armchairs which he sat in one and waited for the Michael and  lynn to sit 

And he then said

I need your crew to get me some information i need t know what is going on with the Paris group, they have three of the sector directors travelling to one of their main complex and one of the directors is one who has being not being seen for a few years and all of a sudden he comes out of the cold and he is meeting up with all the director for what i don`t know , what i do know of him he is a medical doctor and he is more into research we have tried to keep an eye on him but like is aid he disappeared from the scene we have not be able to keep track of him until now, he reappeared a few days ago on a space station along with two other directors all got onboard a what we could only class as cruiser class battleship well armed from all accounts.

Michael looked at  Lynn and then he coughed as if to stop the duke from talking and said 

Duke, you do know we have done work for the house of Hampshire as well.

The duke looked at Michael and sat forward 

I don`t care you work for who pays you right?

Yes we do but i wanted you to know before you continue 

The duke leaned back and said 

As long as i pay the bills you work for me, all I want is to know what the hell is going on, with the conference on New london, whatever it I want you and your team to find out what the hell is going on and I don`t care how you get it. Your team is not known for being subtle i just want to you guys to get me any inform and i don`t really care how you do it.

The duke stood up and walked over to his desk and picked up a data pad and walked back to Michael and lynn and gave him the pad 

This will give you all you need, there is a ship in orbit i have it ready for you it got all the latest garget you would need and too add to all that the ship is equip with a commitment of class1 torpedoes

Michael sat forward and looked at the duke as he took the data pad from the duke

Weapons sir?

Yes, I don`t know what it is you might find but since they seemed to be transporting their personnel in armed ships i don`t know what they are afraid of so if i am to send you out there i need to make sure you can come back to me with information in one piece.

And the ship?

The duke walked back to his desk and tapped on his desk and small wall rises in front of the pair from the floor and showed a display screen on the display was a schematic of a small scout class ship.   

This ship needs a crew of six which am sure you do have, and the jump engines are top of the range as well as the normal engine too. The ship is designed for atmospheric flight with extendable wings .it is one of the newest ships.

Michael stood up from his seat and walked over to the display and as he looked at the display screen it rose higher to about his eye level and Michael looked at the display and the schematic of the ship

After a few minutes and as Lynn looked on as Michael studied the display he stepped back from the screen and said

Well, there is still the matter of how much you are going to pay for this service 

Duke took a seat behind his desk and pointed to Michael 

It`s all there.

He tapped on the data pad and looked at the details and then handed the pad to the woman still sitting in her chair she took the pad and what she read made her stand and walked over to Michael and turned her back toward the duke and she looked right into the eyes of Michael and said in a whisper 

What is it that he wants?

Michael looked away from the gaze of  Lynn

Do we keep the ship after we are done? 

Yes, is there anything else? 

Michael held her hand and pulled gently as directed her closer to the glass wall away from the duke and said

If we take this job we will be out from under all our bills and a chance to not only that this job should be a piece of cake, don`t forget we already have a way in already

Lynn stood back and pulled her hand away from Michael and said in a whisper but there is still a clear sense of anger in her voice when she said 

NO! We can`t not after all what has happened, NO,NO we can`t.

Michael pulled her further away from the duke 

He owes us big time; he is alive because of us.

 Lynn pulled away from Michael and headed to the elevator and he followed her as she got to the elevator and touch the button 

As they waited Michael spoke

Duke we `ll do it 

The duke watched at the couple as they got onto the elevator an watched as the elevator started it`s downward direction to the lobby, it looked like they were having very heated discussion. Whatever it is he was sure they would resolve it. The duke then tapped on his desk and the a door appeared in the glass wall behind the duke`s desk and then Elizabeth walked into the office and walked round to the chairs in front of the duke desk and said 

Are you sure you know what you are doing, 

He sat back into his chair with his hands held in front of his face and smiled 

My dear, they are just the diversion our real agent is already within the New London group, we just need to get our agent out     

hapter 9

The history of the committee is along a interesting tale of how a family dynasty have succeed in keeping power over a group of people who allow themselves to be controlled and kept in the dark, as they are assured that it is for their own good, the system and processes that is in place have being effective and complete, it so complete that most of the population do not have any idea of what is going on in the universe all they know is what they are told. Making sure that the development of all they have built and are heading towards is protected by all cost. So far they have built a number of ships and finding the ore that has made their people evolve to a point so strong that they might as well not be human anymore. The weapons powered with ore found on the planet has made a simple detonation of  one nuclear warhead into a ten times  more powerful nuclear device than any other human invention. Keeping way from any contact with anyone over the last two centuries has allowed this community to grow by expanding into region of space that is unknown to other human colonies. The beacon jump grid has always being a source of concern for the leadership but has never being a huge issue that they could not deal with until now. The fighter that was sent to investigate the report of one of the mining ships that they came across a beacon has being lost and it appears that the beacon grid is coming within range of one of the outer mining colonies , allowing this would be dangerous to their way of life. What chairman Kane fears the most is a confrontation with the other colonies , right now they do not have the numbers to get involved in any kind of conflict but what they do have is a better technology that could make or break the entire situation if it ever arose .

Chairman Kane sat in front of the large patio which look over a range of mountains which has built into it the homes and installations that made his people grow strong ,his children have flourished he is a proud grandfather and his oldest grandchild is a commander and on a vital mission that would keep his people safe.

the story of these people living in the mountains dug out after years of travelling to this region of ship over so many years has paid out well for them, when they left earth to find a world that would allow them to keep practicing what they believe to be the way of light and that they are the one that are meant lead humanity to enlightenment. The one feature about this group of people is their leadership they maintained a hold on their followers, it is believed that they know what is best for the congregation and they maintain a tight control on the people. The family at the top of the leadership have being in control for many generations. Marriages among the leadership families maintain a direct line of succession which allows for the control to remain within a small group of people, while they were on earth they operated out of many countries and have tried to take over by being able to influence the decision makers and law enforcers. They almost made it happen but were unable to solidify their position due to the war of the bloc countries. But after the discovery of the kiss to space travel their influence began to wane and the leadership decided to leave to find a world they can develop and enjoy all the power to dictate the destiny of their people. Chairman Kane is the son of the last great leader of these people and has made great advances in the mode of control and with blessing of the ore they have grown in technology and devised ways to grow clones

 So far the report he has read is of great success they have found the lost fighter but cannot find the escape pod or the pilot but have encountered a ship which they have disabled and are in the process of recovering any data on board the ship`s database . Chairman Kane looked up at the night sky as the second moon lowered onto the horizon, he could hear the door open and foot steps approaching somehow he know who it was but he  kept looking up at the sky and as the individual drew closer he said without moving 

And so my friend do you bring me more news?

The man walked passed chairman Kane and stood against the stone wall that formed the railing of the patio 

The ship is on fire and from the scan of the ship we might have some live bodies onboard 

Chairman Kane still did not move while he was being told the news about the operation, kept looking at the stars 

Then he asked 

How many dead?

So far we counted four on planet and two other from the ship; we are still able to read two other life sign in the bridge section.

Chairman Kane still did not move

And what about the beacon?

Sir?

Chairman Kane looked up at the man making the report and looked him straight into his eyes and asked 

Did they get to destroy the jump beacon?  

The man looked at chairman Kane as he began to pull himself out of the chair 

Chairman Kane now sat up in his chair and he asked again 

TELL ME! THEY HAVE DESTROYED THE JUMP BEACON!

The man stood back and said 

No sir

As old as chairman Kane is he got out of the chair so quickly it took the man by surprise 

In one movement chairman Kane turned and started to walk towards the door 

If the beacon is still online that means there has being a broadcast and there is a rescue ship on it way he walked into his quarters and shouted 

Computer!

The computer responded 

Online 

Then a image came upon the screen and said Mr Chairman Kane 

I need you to contact Commander Hea Jung now!

Chairman Kane looked at the man in the room with him and said as the screen went blank 

He looked up from the computer and said 

This is not what I wanted, we are not ready, we are not ready for this. If a distress broadcast was made that means another ship .

if the ship jump in as we are running our operations that means more people know about us and the more people know about us more chances for them to discover us , 

we need to contain all this 

The screen erupted and a image came online it was Commander Hea Jung

Mr Chairman Kane i am here........

Before she could continue chairman Kane interrupted Commander Hea Jung

Did you destroy the jump beacon when you arrived in the system? 

She looked puzzled and she answered 

No sir 

Then you have to prepare for more ships to arrive in the system soon .

How long has it been since you attacked the ship?

No more than two hours the ship is still on fire and appears to be losing its orbit 

Then prepare for more company anytime soon 

Very well sir 

And commander come home safe 

Yes sir, 

And the screen went blank 

Chairman Kane turned and started to leave his quarters and the door opened and he could see the whole  city they have built over the years and thought to himself

 it's all worth it no matter what it costs ,it's all worth it .

Chapter 10

The Tadamichi came out of the jump the captain got out of chair and spoke to the comms officer 

“Danny can you get haruki Jones  tell him to get up here right away”  

The captain walked over to the sensors station and looked at the screen and he spoke to the crew on the station and she replied 

The area is clear captain nothing to report at this time 

Thank you Debra

He started to walk to the back of the bridge and looked at the display table showing all the data from all the stations on the ship which is maned by the first officer he has all the information to run the ship. The captain stopped and looked display and said

Well what do you think olu?

Olu looked at his captain and said 

So far so good we are clear and the engines are good for the next jump.

Good to hear, what about weapons?

All looking  good captain. 

Ok, i don`t know what we are going to find, but just in case bring weapons to standby mode 

Aye captain 

As both men were talking haruki Jones  walked towards them and the captain turned and looked at him 

Good , you here i want you to know we are just another jump to our destination so far the broadcast is still transmitting ,not only that i have sent a message to the agency informing them of our position and our ETA to the next beacon. I also want you to inform the director and make sure they understand i don`t know what we might find and they should be be prepared for anything to happen 

Okay captain I’ll let them know but what do you think we will find when we get there.

I don`t know but i have always taken precautions in anything i do.

The captain walked passed haruki Jones  and stood by the engineer and gave him the order to jump to the next beacon.

It has being an hour since the first explosion and the environment system and the fire suppression system on the bridge is still working and will fail in a few minutes. Wale was trying t keep from falling down and as he did he could see the devastation of the bridge the fire created hole in the bulkhead and hoses hanging from the top of the cabin and gases flowing out it, through all the fire and the noise of the explosions on the bridge he felt the rush of blood pulsing through his veins and his head was beginning to feel like it is about to pop under the pressure of all the stress of what is happening around him 

This is the least on wale`s problems he is beginning to feel the gravity field going offline  the noise of the crack and breaking of metal as the ship rolled in space wale still trying to seal the hole forming on the front window without that seal the whole bridge would implode with wale and jal. The heat from the fire would make the window expand and he could feel the heat building up. He had to seal the hole and then it will give them time to get to the escape pod to get off the ship wale just place onto the porthole another slip of adhesive paper and sprayed on a chemical to complete the seal he continued to do this and could only see through the haze of flashing lights and gasses being eject onto the bridge to suppress the fire as he looked for Jal ,and still he could smell the result of the console melting  and the mixture of the fire extinguishers through all this he started to think about Jal.

Wale kept shouting 

JAL, JAL YOU THERE!

 The noise of the fire cracking on the consoles began to lessen and the gases stopped but the fire alarm kept buzzing as the gravity seems to lessen and wale got lighter on his feet and he is feeling a lot lighter then usual. through the smoke of the bridge he could see jal lying by the comms console, he pulled away the debris of the bridge as the all the console are out of power and again he began to feel the gravity lessen as the generators begin to fail. we need to get of this bridge he though  as he reached Jal,  whatever happened to the ship it was quick  and there was no notice on any of the consoles before the first explosion ,but right now he need to get of the ship with jal he pulled more debris off jal and check his pulse “he is alive good” as  wale pulled Jal and then he picked him up by pulling his arm over his shoulder all he need to do right now is to get to the escape pod just outside of the bridge ,the other side of the hatch he needed to get them both off the bridge somehow he did not believe that anyone else was alive whatever the reason the ship is totally destroyed. It will not be able to support life the bridge is beginning to fail and the red lights flashing and the cracking noise of the porthole beginning to fail he pulled Jal toward the hatch and tried the hatch it seems a difficult to open it felt like there was difference of pressure between the bridge and the other side of it,damn he thought and he pulled again harder and the hatch pop open and he felt the fire intensified as the air from the bridge flowed into the hallway wale pulled Jal through the hatch and then he closed the hatch behind him the flashing light for the escape pod was flashing and wale put jal down and looked around him as the smoke coming up from the living quarters and loading bay got worse. The fire was consuming the remaining oxygen onboard the ship and it looks like the fire suppression system is off line in the living quarters, wale pulled on the escape`s pod`s switch and the orange light came to indicate the pod is ready to launch , he pulled the hatch door open and pulled Jal through and laid him down and reach back to the hatch and pulled it shut, the orange light changed to green and wale held to jal and with other hand he held on to a handle for support as the escape pod eject itself from the body of the River Niger and began to fire it thrusters wale looked at the console and watch as the flight path came up on the display and then the escape pod started to send out a broadcast to the nearest beacon within it transmitting range ,wale felt more comfortable as he could see the ship rolling in space and the escape pod moved away from the burning ship he looked out of the porthole and he could see the debris then he saw it.  

 The captain looked on as commander Hea Jung watched the display of the ship burning and then he noticed on the display the escape pod he stood up straight and looked directly at his commander 

“We have an escape pod”

Commander Hea Jung looked back at the captain 

“Captain I want you to get me that pod now!”

She stared to walk towards the captain has he started to give the orders to the rest of the crew, she asked 

Have you disabled the beacon yet?

He looked at commander Hea Jung and said 

Not yet sir

She stopped and turned on the spot 

Captain i need to know that the beacon is out of commission otherwise there will be a rescue ship we would have to deal with and  who knows what they would send 

I understand sir 

 I don`t think you do captain, if we are found here we will have to destroy another ship and we  don`t know what kind of ship we would have to deal with , we want to keep it as zero presence like we were never here

  No matter what they bring we will overcome we will destroy them all sir, 

I like your confident but we are under orders to make sure we recover all and any data and make sure there is nothing to lead back to us.

Yes sir 

Very well captain, but i want to know if the beacon is offline.

The captain smiled and turned to his first officer and gestured toward him and the officer walked to the captain and gave him what seems like a pad and the captain walked towards Commander Hea Jungas she was tapping onto to a console in front of her, he coughed and said  

Sir 

Without looking up from what she was doing Commander Hea Jung said 

Yes captain, has the beacon being taken offline?

Not yet sir 

She turned and looked at the captain with an expression that did not need to be explained at all it showed

The captain stepped back and said 

I will make sure it done within the hour 

And he turned and walked back towards his command section and gave orders to the crew.

The escape pod glided away from ship and wale made sure he inputted a trajectory away from the planet and at the same time he was getting the pod radio online to communicate with the ship he saw just after the pod ejected from the ship the planet remained in full view from the porthole and it was getting bigger .wale did not want to land on the planet he want to remain orbit and is trying to keep the pod from falling into the atmosphere but as he is trying to do this there is still one thing on his mind that bothers him right now is “where the hell did that ship come from”. He tapped on the console and he started to broadcast 

This is the escape pod number3 from the River Niger we have had an explosion on board ship and the ship is on fire. 

He transmitted the call and the he started to try to contact the captain on the surface but there no response. Wale looked out of the window an watched as the planet began to fill his window he felt the beam of sweat roll off his fore head and he though  it was going to get really hot

 Chapter 12

The ship the duke provide to Michael and his crew was scout class ship designed for speed, small and armed to defend itself in a limited fashion, the armament on board the ship would allow it to withstand in a fire fight for around an hour or more depend on what`s throw at it, the armour on the hull of the ship was effective but made the ship really small, the designer of the ship did not really consider the comforts of the crew just the fact that the ship is combat able and will survive in a battle so the quarters of the crew did not matter that much to the designer. Michael sat up from his buck the cabin of the commanding officer of this ship was not all big enough to swing a cat .the headroom is just under six feet and the bunk is the corner of the cabin opposite the door of the cabin just big enough to hold one person and the communication unit on the installed on the wall by the door. The last jump was to a star system of a red giant a base they have used over  the frequent years ago looking for a old friend we might be able to help them on their mission but according to the contact he hasn`t being seen in last two years and they have no information to give that might help Michael and his crew so he has decided to head to the last known point of call of the directors according to the duke it is the space station and were onboard for 2 days and headed out to BJP  on a military ship well armed and according to the report able to take on any thing that could come it`s way . Lynn opened the door and saw Michael sitting on his bunk she always thought he was not a early raiser but this time he is awake alot earlier than she expected, lynn smiled and said 

You up early , can`t get any sleep?

Micheal still looking like he was still asleep as he looked up at lynn 

It the damn bunk not very comfortable 

This made Lynn laugh out load 

Well the duke wasn`t going to give you a nice comfy liner was he , before you get going i need you to come to the control deck we just got a message off the beacon network something about some ship in distress 

So what has that got to do with us  

Lynn stepped back out of the cabin and said 

Well according to the report off the grid network the Tadamichi is responding to the distress call and asking for any other ship in the region to response to the distress call. 

This made Michael look up at her as she walked away from his cabin 

He stood up and step out of his cabin and shouted to Lynn

Are you sure it`s the Tadamichi?

Lynn did not response to the question and kept walking towards the command deck and she started to climb the ladder to the deck.

Okay fine , i be up in a minute and tell dayo to make all the adjustments to response to that distress call and get everybody ready for combat 

Lynn stopped climbing the ladder half way up to the deck and looked back down at Michael

For combat?

Yes i hate to be surprised i want to be able to make sure we are not getting into any trouble we can`t get out of and can you make sure i get some breakfast i hungry for some pancakes

Lyn continue up the ladder and this time she has a worried look on her face she was thinking the last time they went into combat it almost cost them their lives, they barely got out of the facility in one piece dayo lost a leg and Michael broke his arm in fight with a security guard the rest of the crew have had their close call over the year they have being together since they left the armed force of the union of nations. They are loyal to Michael he has always being there for them no matter what he make`s sure they paid. The whole crew are made up of eight members there is dayo the navicom guy he always the guy who can get them into and out any situation that would come along he is from earth and from one of the Nigerian tribe on the western coast of African bloc and there is Jacob he is from the Europe bloc country of England as well as his cousin matt the other female of the crew is a ammunitions expert she is from the middle east not too sure where but she loves to blow things up and she known to the rest of the crew as jyotte .  They are known around the among the space lanes as the crew that will get anything done they have lost members over the years and taken on  a few. Like it or not there other crews out there and many work for one particular corporation or another but Michael’s crew works for anyone that pays. Right now they are looking for four directors for the New London group and maybe get to find out what it is they are hiding.

Shaw was in the mess hall sitting at a table with Bridget when  Dupree walked into and walked over to the food counter and pulled out a container from the food disperser and the picked up a cup of juice he then looked at the other directors and walked to their table somehow he did not understand why they were the only one in the mess hall at the time but from what he understood this was meant to be the period for the crew to get something to eat before going onto to the early shift and as Dupree pulled out the last chair at the table and he sat down both the directors looked at him with a expression on their face that made Dupree worry somehow it felt like he was a kid a again in front of his parents confessing to some offence, somehow he felt he better get to the bottom right now, he then spoke as he opened the food container

Well, what is it now?

The silence of the director now made Dupree more apprehensive.

Then Shaw spoke 

We have secured this mess hall for now because we need to talk

Now this is interesting though Dupree, and shaw spoke  

The reason why we are heading to the new London complex is because we have found out something that would make the future of humanity, we have recovered a escape pod in a sector that we did not expect to find anything at all Bridget had sent out a survey team looking for sites for bases of operations and they came across the pod. According to the crew that found the pod but the pilot was barely alive when they returned to base and got the pilot to te medical wing the medical team examined the pilot found certain discoveries that they contacted me, 

Up till now Dupree felt they still haven’t really explained why all this is happening.

Bridget then spoke 

The reason why we went to all this trouble is this the pilot is human but he is more than just human he DNA has a mutation which allows him to regenerate his cells, according to all the test we carried out the pilot is over seventy years old 

As Dupree listen he still did not think all this information matter that much to warrant all this trouble.

So you found a seventy year old pilot, so what ?

Yes from the entire test we carried it showed   he is seventy years old but physically his body is that of a thirty year old man

Dupree stopped eat his meal and looked at Shaw and the he put down his fork and said 

Then there must be a mistake how is that possible? 

Shaw continued 

from what we could tell from his bones it shown to us his true age but his physically body is younger this we found out is because his body is able to regenerate create new cells at a greater rate that any normal human being and not only that they age alot more slowly than the rest of us 

Now this made Dupree stop and look at the directors, and they looked right back at Dupree

And Bridget spoke 

According to our security division the pilot was found in the same sector we are heading to now

Now this made Dupree sit back 

You mean to tell me that we are heading to a region of space where maybe the people who this pilot belong too might be looking for him, have you told the captain yet ?

Bridget spoke 

The meeting we are going to was to inform the rest of the director and decide on what to do next and how to find where he came from. 

Okay Dupree said

But what i have not told you is that we gave the captain of the River Niger the co-ordinate of where the pilot was found and instructed him to install a BJP, we did not tell him about of what we found.

So what you are telling me is that we might heading into a region of space and there might be a group that might not be to happy to see us 

Chapter13 

The heat from the wall provide the heat and warmth needed in this hall built on the apex of a mountain it was might to over look the cities that lay below the window of this hall made for a excellent view of the snow caps and other peaks as far as the eye could see. Standing in front of the window was chairman Kane of the committee as they listened to the presentation given by the intelligence officer in charge of collecting data and information of all the corporation  and maintaining the spy network which give them the opportunity to head off any incursion into the buffer region that has being created to maintain a reasonable area away from the annihilation of the corporation if they found out what is on this planet no matter how anyone looks at this they have found the fountain of youth . The intelligence officer is giving a presentation on consequences if a conflict would break out with any of the corporation from earth chairman Kane listened intently and waited for the Intelligence officer  to finish his presentation. The three dimensional display that is being shown to all the member we are all sitting round a table in the middle of the hall it clearly showed the BJP grid and the star systems which are under the control of the army of light. They use a similar BJP system only they have star systems as their jump points not beacons they only have being able to jump to star systems that are under their control. 

The Intelligence officer then removed the display and replaces the display to a live feed

And say 

This is a live feed from one of far point observation units we have had these in place to make sure we know whenever a ship comes within 1000 light years to any of our star system bases, our buffer zones. The technology we used is far more advanced that any of the corporations have at present. The operation that is taking place to recover our fighter 

The display shown a star system and all it`s moons then it also shows the operation taking place the display of a ship on fire is enlarged and the member in the hall could also see the transport ship sending out fighter towards a escape pod but then the Intelligence officer  pulls the display away from the operation and showed a large display of the star system and pulled back even further an then it showed  display of the star system which is represented as a small icon then the display is pulled back even more a red icon appeared on the display and the it stopped

The Intelligence officer pointed to the red icon then said 

This icon represents a ship. And it is not any ship of ours it is corporation ship heading to our ship and they are about two hours away from completing their jump, they are able to do this because before the destruction of that ship it sent out a distress call and that’s not the only problem , according to the reports coming from Commander Hea Jung the beacon has not being taken off line, the problem i can see here is that ship is armed am sure our ship can destroy them without a problem but there is no guarantee that would happen and not only that they could send a message and more ship will come to investigate. So as i have brought all this to you attention i believe we are on the crest of a full all out conflict and i am here to implore you the committee to send reinforcement, and prepare the community for war and making sure we have the clones awake and ready for battle.

The rest of the members a looked at each other as the Intelligence officer  finished his briefing and chairman Kane still standing in front of the window turned and waved his hand towards the Intelligence officer  and asked 

How long do we need to gather our forces?

We have three transport ships ready to disembark each carrying a total of twenty fighters each and two cruisers to provide support. I would say in 48hours we should combat ready and able to defend our region 

And how many other vessels do we have that could be brought into action?

In a month or so we might have another transporter up and ready with a squadron of fighters but the man power is something else 

So what advice would you give to this committee at this time? The Intelligence officer pointed to the star system 

I believe we should to take the system and hold it and prepare to advance onto the other nearest system to make sure we have a stronger position 

So you say an invasion 

The hall erupted 

 The idea of invasion has divided the hall made the members

most of the member did not like the idea of a invasion taking over the system in control of the corporations but they do understand they can not remain in hiding forever the incident of the lost fighter only goes to show that in the end there will be a time when they would be found an vision would make sure that control who and when they interact with any other 

The youngest of the committee sat and looked on at the member discus the pro and cons of the idea of invasion, he listened for a hour without saying a word so did chairman Kane he listened to the debate as the member continued. Chairman Kane watched and took note that the newest member of the committee did have anything to add to the debate. 

Chairman Kane stood up and walked around the room and watched as the as the discussion carried on   

This is not what is best for us is it sir asked one of the member and the Intelligence officer replied 

I don`t know all i have for you right are options 

One if we go to war are we ready for a prolonged conflict and two if we do not recover the information about our fighter it might lead the corporations to us and discover our world and the last option is to make a deal with one of the corporations and slowly make sure we have the upper hand when we deal with them 

Nonsense! Another member shouted out we have the resources to take on any of these corporations 

Yes that might seem the way to go chairman Kane said 

But the question we should ask ourselves what will we do if the entire collection of corporations find out what we have here what will happen?

Intelligence officer answered chairman Kane 

There will be a gold rush.

The hall fell silent as he finished his statement 

Chairman Kane thanked the Intelligence officer and asked if he leave and return later they had to discuss on all the information he had provided

He thanked the members and turned to leave the hall, as he left chairman Kane sat down and waited fro the door to close behind the intelligence officer and the he looked directly at the young man sitting and said “

I noticed you have not had anything to say about all this. 

This made the young man sit up and appear uncomfortable 

Well speak up young man you represent your father since he is no longer with us after almost two hundred and fifty years as a member of this committee he has being a valued member and never were afraid to express his views 

The young man sat up and said 

From what the officer told us it is clear we have no other choice we are going to come into contact with the corporations and when we do we need to determine how to control the process of how much information we will give to the corporations because like he said if they find out what we have it will be a absolutely be a gold rush and they will destroy all we have built to take control of what we have. And we know this from the way they do business.

They will come in and take over by force 

 The rest of the hall look at each other and chairman Kane spoke

So i need to know what you all think of that do we contact a corporation and make a deal with them or we hold on to what we have and defend it at all cost, and don`t forget the time for our decision is very short from what the officer told us we will come into contact with another ship in less than two hours.

Chapter 14 

Michael stood behind Lynn as she tapped on her console they are orbiting the space station New Abuja the last point of call for the directors. They are connected with communication centre for the station and requesting for information of all the ship that passed through here in the last week. the information came in Michael looked at the screen just above the Lynn`s head, the one problem with this ship is the size of the cabins and the cockpit it rather cramped the position of all the stations are next to each other  the position for the navigator and pilot are in the centre and front of the cockpit , the communications position is to the left of the pilot and navigator`s position, the weapons console and the console for the engineer is to the right .and in the centre of the cockpit is the hatch that the crew need to climb through to get onto the deck if you are any taller than six feet five inches you would have to be  bent over to move around on this deck. Michael kept reading the list and tapped in the name of one of the directors and the name of director Dupree came up and Michael tapped on the screen on Dupree`s name and the departing ship came up and Michael looked at the flight plan submitted by the ship carrying Dupree, somehow it made Michael look closer at the plan and said 

This plan is bullshit, there is no way they would jump to this point here is nothing worth doing there the planet has being mined out about seven years ago 

Lynn also looked at the screen and dayo said 

I think they are leaving a false trail, well according to the report we got from the beacon grid they are on their way to a distress call that where we shod be heading to if we want to find these guys we go to the site of the distress call and am sure we will find them there. 

The crew on the command deck were looking at Michael

You know what this was a waste of time get us to the BJP of the distress call, how long would it take us to get there 

The transport remain in orbit over the north pole of the planet remaining over the pole allows the ship to be obscured from any scans from any ship the captain did this because of the information that has being received from home base, Commander Hea Jung was sitting in the captain’s chair reading the information coming in about the arrival of a rescue ship and waiting to hear about the destruction of the beacon somehow it is not understood why they cannot find it up till now.

Commander Hea Jung has being contact with chairman Kane for the last twenty minutes he has being informing her of the arrival of a rescue ship. The ship they attacked is still on fire and the escape pod is being retrieved to interrogate the crew in the pod, according to chairman Kane their task is to destroy any ship that jumps into the system and make sure there is no trace that would lead back to the home planet. The captain looked at the information coming in and walks to where Commander Hea Jung is sitting and hands her a data pad 

According to the retriever team they have being unable to locate the landing site of the pod after it entered the planets atmosphere, they inform us that they are scanning and should be able to locate the pod in about ten minutes . 

She looked up at the captain and said 

According to the report we have less than a half hour before we have company i want you to launch a squad of fighters and recall the retriever team in another five minute if they do not find the pod i don`t want them to get catch while they look for the pod  

Yes sir 

And captain i want you to make sure that fighter pilot are made to understand that they are to destroy it all complete destruction

Yes sir 

And the captain turned away and walked to the communications console.

Commander Hea Jung sat in the chair still reading the intelligence report and thinking of the possibility that she will be leading her crew into battle ,many like her have not being in any kind of battle and she fears that the inexperience of her people might lead some to believe that a victory is assured and would push for all out war but she believes that a all out war is counter productive because she feels that the manpower needed to conduct a prolonged conflict is not available on the other hand the corporations have all the manpower they need if they ever engage the army of light  she did not believe that it would be in the best interest for her people as she contemplated the issues a alarm sounded on the sensor station and the captain walked over to the crew manning the console and they spoke for a few seconds  and then he walked to Commander Hea Jung and said 

They are here sir, they have just emerge on the outer edge of the system they near the last planetary body in the system, just a chuck of ice as far as we can see. 

She got out of the chair and walked over to the sensor station and asked the crew 

How many?

Just one ship sir.

Good and then she turned to the captain and said 

Launch the fighters now captain 

The captain of the Tadamichi was standing on the bridge watching has his crew completed all the processes after coming out of a jump, he was always very proud of his crew they have carried on in a very professional manner he was being informed by the navicom officer that the ship had completed it`s jump and they are now in the system where the distress call was made and so far there is no ship present in the system and he asked first officer to make sure we are not too far off course. The first officer walked over to the sensor station and the back to navicon station and then walked to the captain to report 

so far captain we are in the right system but we are receiving another distress call this time from a escape pod it on one of he moons of the gas giant, looks like it`s almost habitable.

That`s sound like we are in business XO, i want you to get us to the moon. And find that pod

Aye sir 

The orders from the first officer rang out on the bridge 

All engine to one half, plot and lock course    

As the ship moved forward

We have in coming, 

And he turned and looked out of the window but saw nothing without another word he walked over to the sensor console and put his hand on the shoulder of the crew on that console and watched the icons appearing on the screen his first officer followed his captain to the sensor station and was able to see what the captain was looking at, the captain looked at his first officer and said 

Sound general quarters

His first officer simplify repeated what he said without a second thought 

Sound general quarters aye sir, 

And he then turned walked towards the middle of the bridge and shouted 

This the bridge to all crew general quarters, secure all decks , prepare for action as he said the all the hatches  and doors on the ship were made secure to ensure if during action and a section is compromised it will not affect the rest of the ship a practices used on all military vessels. This crew have had experience in combat when they had to protect a few systems from the being over run by privateers we many believe to work for the other major corporation and they did a good then and nothing has changed as far as they are concerned this is just another action to defend themselves from the universe bully they can handle it.

The captain is still standing at the console station and studies the screen and he then says 

How long before we have contact?

The crew member answered 

Less than two minutes sir

He stood up straight and walked to where the first officer was standing and holding onto the railing that is in front of the captain`s chair. The captain has years of experience but no matter how much time he has being in action it always makes him feel like a sixteen years old again

Well are we ready for action XO?

Yes sir all departments ready captain

Good, he said this and he was ringing his hand with a sense of excitement 

Okay then, let`s find out what we are up against. 

The crew manning the sensor station shouted towards the captain and his first officer 

Should be in range in five, four, three, two, one    contact! 

The view from deck showed as a quad of small ships flying in towards the Tadamichi, the captain has seen many types of ship but these were different form anything he has come across they seem more terrifying than what he has ever experience as he watched the fighters flew toward the Tadamichi he could see a display of red lights flying towards the ship. The first officer looked at the captain and said 

What the hell are those? 

But without answering the question the captain step round the railing and jump to the navicom station and shouted 

HARD TO PORT, HARD TO PORT, HARD TO PORT AND BRACE, BRACE, BRACE 

The Tadamichi banked to the left and turned away from the red lights which by now the first officer on the bridge and all the crew realised that they are missiles it was too late as the Tadamichi tried to move out of the way of the missiles .there were several explosions on the port side of the ship and the shockwave made everybody onboard the ship`s bridge get thrown across the floor.

Commander Hea Jung watched the live display from one of the fighter as they attacked the ship the bright flashes as the missiles hit the ship and saw as the ship appeared to dive away from the attack and taking evasive action there seem to no return of fire she watched as the fighters made another run at the ship which seems to taking more evasive action and then there was flash and the live display went dead and the power on board the transport ship seemed to dim for a minute and returned to normal ,she looked at the captain he looked back at her and made a gesture as to somehow make her feel that he knew what just happened he then walked to operations station and started to speak to the crew member on that station, Commander Hea Jung now turned her attention to the action but there was no longer a live feed from the fighters, she tapped on her screen and there was no response from the fighters but on her screen a read out of “lost contact” Commander Hea Jung now looked at the captain and gesture toward the captain to come over to her console, he walked over to her and she said 

Well captain what is happening why has the feed gone dead?

The captain tapped on the console in front of them and change, the screen and showed her a display of a radio frequency.

According to my operations officer the power loss we just experienced as a result a EMP being fired off. EMP is an electromagnetic pulse and this the resulting frequency after a pulse is fired i suspect that it is a counter measure by the ship we are attacking they must have fired off the pulse to be able to get away from the fighters 

And what about the fighters are they protected form a EMP?

It all depend on how close they were when the pulse was fired, if they were within 30000 metres of the ship i would say they are out of action which most were when they attacked the second time 

So what you are telling me captain is the we have lost those fighters already.

No sir what i am telling you my first officer has sent out another squad to recover the fighters and another squad to continue what we have started to destroy that ship.

Chapter 15

The lights are flicking on and off and Shaw, Bridget and Dupree were still in the mess hall when the ship was attacked, haruki Jones is trying to get to the directors the ship is still in the dark and the lights flicking and smoke and the fires starting out on the decks which are being taken care of by the crew repair teams haruki push pass the repair crews and got to the mess hall where the directors were helping the repair crews control the fires Dupree was still in the mess hall and Shaw and Bridget are working with the repair crew in the hallway  it took the repairs crew a few minutes to control the fire with help of the fire suppression system. The power came back on and the voice of the captain came online all department make your reports to the bridge on damage and casualties. As the remaining repair team went about their jobs, Shaw got Bridget and Dupree to follow him to the bridge and haruki right behind them as they entered the bridge which had medics attending to the casualties the captain was working with the engineer to get full power online, he did not notice as the directors and haruki as he was trying to get most of the console operational. then all the console came online, the captain the stepped back from the engineers station and walked over to the sensor console and waited as the system restarted and came online, he was happy the smile that came across his face said it all he patted the crew who was taking over the station from the injured crew member who was being taken to the sick bay

 i need to know where they are who they 

Aye sir, 

He then walked to the navicoms station and gave the orders to bring the ship to a set of co-ordinates, the engineer stations came online and the jump engine came online, the lights came on full power and the captain was really happy the price of firing off the pulse had paid off he was able to disable the fighters and give him time to recover from their attack. The directors watched as he got all the stations back online, he walked over to his first officer who was sitting with his arm bleeding and a medic attending to him he touched the medic on his shoulder 

How is he doing?

 The medic looked at him and said

He will be okay just need to get put back together he will be as good as new 

Great! I need to know where those bastards are , and i want my weapon online now 

Sir the weapons are online now sir 

Good 

Captain i have the fighters on scan they are out of commission on the port side, the captain looked out of the windows and he could not see anything then the fighters floated by and the silhouette of the fighters began to appear as they floated pass the ship and the light from the star shone on the fighters, all the bridge crew looked out of the window and watched as the fighters floated by 

There they are people our enemy, he looked around the bridge and then pointed to a crew member and said 

Go to the loading bay i want one of those ship brought in 

Aye sir 

But as the crew member stared to walk to the hatch to carry out the captain`s orders, the alarm sounded and the crew member on the sensor station. He looked at the medic attending to the first officer and said 

Get him to sick bay 

Weapon?

Online sir

Bring the ship to 1042379 mark432 and prepare counter measures online 

Aye sir the bridge began to hustle with activities 

He then looked at haruki and said 

Get them below and make sure they are out of the way.

We have contacts incoming at mark 7681

Weapons locked on?

 Aye sir 

all this is happening as the medic take the first officer off the bridge while being assisted by Bridget and Shaw but Dupree stayed on the bridge and watched as the crew worked to follow the captain`s orders

Captain we have three minutes before we come into contact. 

Sir we have come to the co-ordinates 

Hold position here and give me a count as to how far before they get here, and how many ships? 

Aye sir 

He walked to his chair in the centre of the bridge hum of the engines moved the Tadamichi into position and sound of the hydraulics as the weapons platform completed it`s circuit.

The fighters flow towards the ship and opened fire as a set of missiles headed towards the Tadamichi opened up with it`s countermeasures. The simply system of the countermeasure is to explode charges at a distance in the line of fire of the missiles fired at the ship under attack the charges explode like a display firework

Well-done guys, all we need to do is keep those missile off our back and we should be okay, helm bring to mark 22348.9 and weapons keep up the good job.

Commander Hea Jung watched on her display as the rescue ships moved into place to recover the disabled ships while the new squad attacked, the same style of attack but his time the ship was able to defend it`s self the missiles fired were intercepted before they could reach their targets .this is not what she expected she wanted this done quick and fast not this failed attack and maybe a prelude to a all out drag down battle 

 She stepped back for her console and started to the door heading away from the bridge she need to contact chairman Kane and inform him on what is happening here 

Michael hated standing and had never being on a ship without a chair for the captain as he held on to the handles in the ceiling and watched the rest of the crew carry out what was needed to make sure, Lynn turned to Michael said 

We are coming to the end of our run and should be jumping to the system in sixty seconds

Michael held on to the handles and then moved a lot closer to dayo has he made the needed calculations and the ship came out of the jump into the system it became clear that the beacon placed them at the outer marker of the system and the Lynn looked up out of the window while dayo and Michael were looking at the results of the calculation he had made when Lynn said

What the hell is that? 

And both men looked up as well as the whole crew on the bridge.  

Is that weapons fire!

What! Weapons fire?

Jyotte said 

Michael that all weapons fire, look at that right there 

She pointed as the explosion appeared not too far from ship and the ship is beginning to move away from the explosion. The ship was firing off countermeasures against the missiles are fired at the ship

What the hell is going on here? 

Michael did not like what was going on here it looks like they just jump into a full on battle so far the duke did not give him any information on any take over in the system nothing to indicate that there is supposed to be any action this sector ,before he could stop to think he heard the alarm that starts when the weapons system on the ship is activated and he turn and looked at Jyotte as she began to prepare the ship for battle as the weapon are brought online he the looked matt who is on the sensor console and said 

Matt what else do you see out there? 

 Matt watched his screen and waited a few seconds to make sure he could see all the information the sensor could collect

All I see is the ship out there is being attacked by fighters have no information on them 

Great ok you know what send all we have to the duke inform him there is already some fighting over something and we don`t know send him all the images you can get 

And Michael walked over to dayo 

I don`t want them to see us it looks like they are having a load of fun, hide us from all that 

Dayo type onto his console and the ship pulled up to starboard and headed away from the sense of the battle, as the ship evaded all the action Michael looked at Lynn and said did we get through to the duke 

She shook her head and said 

Not yet, the beacon might be overloaded or the buffer of the beacon is full and we might need some time for the packages to download and the live feed might not get now but give a few minutes we might just get through

Somehow I don`t think  so dayo interjected if we use the beacon it might just let whoever they are out there know we are here ,and as they were chatting Lynn said 

And also we have an escape pod distress beacon signal, hang on and hang on I don`t believe this come and have a look mike, 

Michael lean over to Matt’s console and looked a the screen, and made a sound like he was sucking air through his lips 

Damn what the hell is that?

Whatever it is, it big man 

Dayo do you see that?

Yea i is see it and I think they are hiding in the magnetic field of the planet  

 Dude; get us out of range of their sensors.

TOO LATE! Shouted Jyotte   

The have seen us and they sending the welcome party

 Michael looked at dayo and shouted

GET US OUT OF HERE!

Chapter 16

Wale checked the dressing on the injuries on jal as well as his pulse and it was still strong and regular and he made sure he stopped the bleeding, he was still out cold and he breathing regularly and from the onboard medical scan there is no internal bleeding so he is in good shape, as for the escape pod it did not fair too well in the crash. Wale did his best to try and get the pod down in one piece but somehow he could not make a correct adjustment in time as the pod was pulled down through the atmosphere, the re-entry was not as smooth as he would have wanted be he did try to get the pod level after breaking through the clouds but the velocity and the vectors were too high and the landing is rather harder than it pod is used too and there were hull breaches and there was damage to the life support system, he was able to make repairs and established  life support but it won`t last for long all that is left when the system fails would be the EVA suits and that won`t last long either all he could do it wait for rescue and he hoped they would sooner than later. He was able to fire off the location beacon just before the pod hit so wale had a sense that someone will come to his rescue, after all that has happened he still did not understand what had happened on the River Niger he and Jal were on the bridge when the first alarm of a explosion and then Alice made a call to find out what just happened when the screen went blank and there was another explosion that threw him and Jal across the bridge. He still can`t recall if the explosion was internal or maybe the hit some kind of Min black hole or dark matter but the sensor designed to detected these types of anomaly and then it began to become clear to wale and the only conclusion is that it was a missile attack  damn that ship attacked us like the old stories Sherlock Holmes theory that after eliminating all the possible solution whatever is left no matter how improbable it might seem has to be the truth , the question that came to wale`s mind was who the hell are they and why did they attack us ?   

Commander Hea Jung was walking to her cabin through the hallway of the transport the walls are transparent she could see the flight hanger and she could see that more fighters were being prepared to launch she looked up the hallway and could see the captain walking towards her and the look on his face did not make the commander very happy she turned her head and continued to look out of the transparent walls and watched as the crews went about their duties many of whom have never being involved in this kind of action, the captain walked up to the commander and also looked out of the wall and as they both watched the crew prepare the fighters the captain say without turning to look at the commander the captain he says 

We have another contact.

The commander still looking at the flight hangers .she asked the captain without changing her facial expression.

How many?

So far we have only seen one ship and i have sent a squad to intercept and destroy

Still without moving from where she was standing looking at the hustle in the bay she not but wonder what will the future hold for her people now as it is now very clear that they are now at war.

So how long before you destroy that ship?

The captain bent his head and said with a tone of that a sad little school boy dealing with a school headmaster

I don`t know, they withdrew before we could get to them the fighter have not being able to find them,

The commander did not say a word for what seemed like a whole minute and then she said 

All this because you were not able to destroy the beacon and what about the escape pod have you found that too?

The beacon is not a stationary beacon somehow it is the latest design it roam around the system until a team returns and setup a permanent stationary beacon that`s why we could not find it as for the escape pod yours orders was if they had not found the pod in a set time they were to return for the attack 

She now turned and looked at the captain

I remember that and now i am sure they would have sent out a report of what they saw before they went into hiding. 

Yes sir 

Have you got a time when we will have the ....... and the she stopped and then asked do we know the name of the ship we are presently trying to destroy 

No sir 

Very well then captain, how long do you think we have before their reinforcement arriving, am sure the captain of the first ship would have sent a report stating that they are under attack

Then the captain said 

Maybe that would be in our favour since they do not know who we are maybe they would start to fight among themselves believing the other corporation is behind this. 

Then captain destroy that ship as quickly as possible and lets get away from here 

What about the second ship sir 

If you find them destroy them but if we can`t, we leave and as for the escape pod there nothing we can do, like you said this might just start off a war in our favour

The fires on the lower deck have being put out the engines are running below 30 percent the countermeasure are running hot but she is still in the fight ,the Tadamichi has being able to evade the barrage of missiles fired at her for the last hour and the waves of fighter attacking have being steady the captain standing next to the crew member manning the sensor console as he gave order to the rest of the crew on the bridge all this time  the haruki was watching as the fighters  attacked and each time the captain was able to counter the attack but has not being able to return fire, the fire power of the missiles have surprised the captain they seem to hold a real heavy punch more than the usual type of torpedoes so far the tadamichi has had two confirmed hit and the damage is considerable and kept the repair crew  on their toes there has being reports of crew missing and some compartment exposed to space even with all this happening the captain felt he could get the ship and crew out of this he now walked over the  engineers section and looked at the console that show the condition of the engines and spoke to the engineer about what he could do, and the jump engine were completely inoperative and there is no way they can jump away from this the regular engines are running low and are just able to move the Tadamichi out of the line of fire . the captain is under so much stress and haruki could see that the stress might be getting to him a lot more than he is showing right now, the reports coming in from all the compartment of the ship and there seems to be a sense of impending destruction but the crew have shown that they have faith in the captain thus far and are doing their best to keep the fires under control and make sure the ship is able to defend itself from this present situation he captain ran back to the sensor console and looked at the screen and the barked a order to the helm officer and the tadamichi turned and headed towards one of the gas giant`s moon and fire the last remaining engines , the captain ran to his chair and held on as the ship drive towards the gas giant ,he wanted to get the ship into the clouds and hide in there if he could and if the ship could take the pressure of the gases not only that he did not know what the gases are made of and if it would make matters worst, as the ship glided towards the giant and the view port of the ship began to fill with blue glow from the giants atmosphere  he prayed that ship will hold out against what he might find in there and hope to run and fight another day 

Chapter 17 

The traffic has always being a problem now that car no longer limited to plying on the roads and they fly through the air there is still the problem of traffic most especially in the New big apple New York city this part of America had experienced a period of a unexpected natural upheaval which cause the old new York city to get buried during a eruption off the coast of new York city it destroyed the mighty city and buried it under tonnes of rock and created a new landform that is still called new York  but it`s new and it has being almost two centuries since this happened the skyline is lot different from what it used to be and the car followed the car in front as they glide toward the centre of the city the buildings standing tall like a the tower of Babel trying to touch God. 

The prince looked out the window as the car was coming to a slow stop and heading to a platform of the tower of royal house of Hampshire the prince is the son of the king of the house of Hampshire. The king is not the king of a country that concept dead years ago he his the head of the royal house of Hampshire and all the resources that is provided by the house , here the prince is in new York city to discus the new development and the information that has being coming has being interesting the news of the ship that New London group has sent out to a distress call and are now under attack from a unknown enemy this knowledge is not common knowledge .it is not known why they attacked but the reports indicate that the ship is still in the system. He stood up to get ready to get out of the car he picked up his briefcase and prepare to Step off the car onto the platform and hearing the noise of passing flying cars made the prince stop and look out across the city and see the lanes of cars in set grids people coming into the city and the people leaving the city, he turned and enter the office and the door closed behind him and the there is a woman who informs him that he is expected in the meeting room and she lead him to the room.

The doors opened and he saw his father and then he saw Elizabeth and the duke were standing by the bar in the room. Has he walked into the room he nodded towards Jake and walked to his father where he sat with his back to the window and bent over to kiss his father on the check and his father hug his son as the two men embraced each other. 

 The prince sat down in the chair on the right of the king and then the duke walked over and sat in the chair on the left while Elizabeth stayed by the bar as the king looked at the two men 

So tell me what is happening?

The prince said 

father from what i can tell you is there was a distress call sent across the beacon grid network two days ago a ship called and the prince the picked up a data pad from his briefcase and read out the name 

The ship`s name is Tadamichi the ship is a light cruiser the captain has being in a few scraps over the years and it is believed that he has the experience to deal with the situation. And we know that the system is uninhabited and the potential for colonisation is high due to the large number of planetary bodies that surround one of the gas giants.

The king listened as the his son read out the information on his data pad and waited for him to complete his report and then he looked at the duke 

And what do you have for me?

We sir i have sent a ship to track down the directors as diversionary move to try to get our man inside to get to back to me, they then followed the director to the distress call 

Why did they do this?

Well sir according to the reports that is not available to all is the there are three director onboard the tadamichi ,she answered to the distress call because she was the only ship in the area and not only that the distress call was from one of their ship so they were duty bound to answer.

The king looked and both men and then he said i know about the directors and i also know about what you all have being up too in-fact i have some idea on who we might be dealing with.

The duke and the prince looked at each other with a expression of astonishment 

The king smiled and then said 

How do you think i protect my  investments if i don`t keep an eye on what i own  , have always kept a eye on all i love and have to know what we are up against. The king stood up and walked to the bar and spoke to Elizabeth and she gave him a data pad, Jake had always known that she was important be he did not know how much and how connected she is within the house

The king looked at Jake 

I have always had family in the business, if by now you didn`t know she was family then maybe you a bit too slow 

Jake smiled at the king and said 

Sir i have known for a while but not too sure how far she was connected 

Well now you know she is my step daughter, i want you to know this because i think we need to pull back some of resources because i think there is going to be a war. 

The prince stood up and walked to his father 

A war with who? The other corporations have being dealing with there own issues to want to start a war of any kind they cannot match a combined effort of the alliance we have the other corporations 

Elizabeth walked around the bar to make a drink for the king as Jake continued

Going to war with us is not a profitable move on their part   

He king picked the glass that Elizabeth placed in front of the king, and drank from it and then said 

It not the corporations we need to be afraid of, he then walked back to the chairs where was sitting with the two me and Elizabeth walked pass the group and then through a door down the hall as the men continued to talk and she returned back to the group and handed the king a data pad  which he tapped and handed it to his son who read the pad and after a few minutes he handed he data pad to the duke who read the information on the pad as he read the king spoke 

We have always wondered what happened to them they are one of the first group to leave earth on a long range deep space expedition they were more of a religious group more to the point they were classed as a cult, many years before the great upheaval of the world as we knew it then was destroyed by wars and sudden changes that made earth we know now today. The transport ship we sold them was the first megaship we built we don`t know how many souls they took when they left earth, but somehow they travelled to further most beacon jump point and disappeared.

Are you telling us that these unknown attackers are the people that left earth all those years ago 

I don`t know 

But what i know is that a individual was brought to one of the secret research bases owned by the London group what got me interested was the research base was commanded by one of the director 

Jake sat up and said 

Shaw! 

Yes, Shaw according to our man they were making research  into the individual`s  identity and came across a revelation something about this man was making waves on the base and there was a complete clamp down on any communication  that`s was the main reason they had to travel to the meeting to unveil the information they have found ,all we know it is so profound that the directors want to find where this individual had come from they are looking at plans for a invasion, but so far the director have not arrived because they are onboard that ship, is the ship is lost there is a chance the information they have gain from their prisoner would be lost.

And yes we know of the ship you sent after them Jake, so far there hasn`t being any report from the crew and all we are getting is the distress call from the first ship, for there is nothing coming from that beacon and we can assume that either the tadamichi and also your little ship as well 

Yes sir so what do you think we should do?

That is the question do we prepare to go to war or do we find out what it is that they have found that would make they want to invade and where did those religious nuts go when they left earth all those years ago these might be the question we need to answer first before anything else. 

Chapter 18

Wale looked out of the porthole of the escape pod and watched as the gas giant began to disappear over the horizon and the planet he crash the pod rotates on it`s axis at one point  it seemed the gas giant at one time filled the sky .the pod has being repaired and jal has regained consciousness and he sitting at the other end of the pod and trying to complete the process for waste extraction , they have being in the pod for over 80hours and with repairs wale carried out the life support system is working for now but wale those not know how long it will last but it shouldn`t be that long before they should get rescued he knows as so as the fire got out of control there was a automated broadcast of a distress call sent across the entire jump  beacon grid.

The smell of the extraction unit made wale look at Jal as he completed the process of getting rid of their waste and the jal looked at wale and smiled and said 

Dude not too worries it only going to get better and he laughed  

Wale waved his hand in front of his face and turned to look out of the porthole still on his mind is why did this happen and who the hell were in that ship he saw before the pod got dragged down to this rock, and why haven`t they come down to capture them yet.  All this running through his mind and still trying to figure what why the censors did not pick up the ship before the fire. No matter what he thought all this made him feel uneasy about what might be happening out there what about the captain and the ground crew are they still alive do they know about is going on here and what about Alice and the rest of the crew if by what is going on here it appears that jal and himself were the sole survivors of the River Niger.

The pod is about three and half meters long and two meters high and it`s getting a bit to close for comfort for the two of them. The supplies that is onboard the pod should hold of at least 6months and without the life support system failing they should be okay for a while. Jal still looking a the console and tapped on the screen trying to transmit a signal hopefully it wouldn`t be notice by anyone but the people looking to rescue them 

Jal spoke trying to break the silence that seemed come over the two men like a rolling fog. So you think they could find us with that signal 

Who ?

The guys coming to rescue u 

I hope so i don`t ink those other guy want anyone found in this system i am beginning to think they want this system all to themselves 

So you think it`s corporation behind

Somehow i don’t think so from the visual reading the sensor took as we were going down did show and insignia of any of the corporations we know of 

Maybe they are new in the game 

I still don`t think so jal , they are really new if what i think is true we might have just ourselves into the middle of the start of a war none of us have seen in our lifetimes  

Noo! A  war? Who in heavens name fight wars these days it`s not good for business for anyone to go war these day and there aren`t any old style government that would want to wage a war against anyone these now.

Wale looked at Jal and smiled and said 

 The corporations would put a stop to this am sure they will.

 As jal kept tapping on the console a alarm went off, it was the proximity alarm and wale crawled over to where Jal was looking at the screen to see the display of the ship approaching to a position above their crash site

Both looked and held their breath it could one of two things ,one the rescue ship is her or it`s the ship that fire on the River Niger all they could only do now was too wait and see. 

It has being more than a few hours since they jumped into the system and it has being a game of hide and seek hiding behind planets and slipping into atmospheres of the planets in the system and the old trick which seemed to work hiding within the magnetic field of the planets and now they are heading to a signal they picked up a few hours ago a escape pod retrieval signal and now they are in orbit above the signal is coming from the good thing about this signal it`s only ships of the corporations and ship from the space admistration are equip to automatically pick up when they are transmitted.

Michael watched his crew made preparation to land the ship on the planet near the site where the signal was coming from this would hide them from anybody looking for the and might get some answers to the one question he ahs being asking himself all day 

Who the hell are these people?

Jyotte climbed onto the command deck in her EV suit carrying a weapon she was getting ready to inspect the pod when they landed no matter what anyone of the crew though she was the weapons expert she was carrying a chemical propelled projectile weapon meant to work even in a vacuum. The ship starts it`s decent down to the planet and the ship was going through the turbulence of the upper atmosphere and the dayo started to glide the ship through the clouds the crash site became clear on the sensor screen as Lynn watched the display looking for anything out of the ordinary anything that could mean trouble for them but so far it`s all clear and the pod is intact and she could see the flashing red beacon light as it became clearer as the ship made a turn to find a suitable landing site , the noise of the landing gears coming out of the side of the ship sounded like the grinding of gears and levers dayo shouted out.  

Five hundred metres , four hundred metre we should be down in less than a minute as the ship jyotte was standing next Michael holding on to the handles and then she said

 Going to get the rest of my EV suit and get to the airlock i want to get to the pod as soon as we touch down 

Michael then looked at her as she started to climb down through the hatch he shouted at her over the sound of the thrusters 

Make sure you guys are kitted up for anything out there, and tell matt no heroics 

And then there was a jolt and Michael almost lost his balance and jyotte jump down to the lower deck and headed to he airlock where matt was waiting with her helmet and the red light above the airlock turned from red to green and the airlock was ready and as jyotte pulled on her helmet and made adjustment to her EVA suit.

The noise of the ship coming in for a landing could heard in then pod the vibration also made the men jumpy as the ship landed they could see the ship but there were no insignia on the hull of the ship or any other part of the ships this made jal nervous and as the light from behind the door as it opened wale crawled towards the toolbox and started to look for a tool he could use as a weapon and Jal started to up on his EVA suit and looked at wale 

we don`t know what they will do i just want to be ready for anything and he pulled on his gloves and secured the right glove and then he pulled on the left glove ,but wale still kept looking in the toolbox and found nothing he could use as a weapon and then wale crawled back to the porthole and he could see two figures coming to the pod in EVA suits and he looked back towards Jal as he pulled on his helmet and could hear the hissing of the EVA suit`s apparatus starting to push air around it`s system

and wale looked back out the porthole and the two figures were getting closer he turned and crawled back to Jal it looks like we have less than a minute before they get to the airlock i don`t know what you could do without any weapons but i guess it`s better we get to meet them out there rather than in here and he secured the helmet for Jal and said 

Good luck dude 

And the Jal opened the hatch and step through and then the airlock work through it`s gears and then a green light shone above the airlock and Jal stepped out of the pod the distance from the hatch to the ground made Jal jump down to the ground and he rose up to stand up straight he could see the two figures in their EVA suit standing less than a metre from him and they were armed Jal stood and waved to the two figures in front of him somehow he thought he should have being able to get away from the pod before they got to here. He then raise his arm and tapped on the EVA system panel to engage the suit communication frequency as he did this he could hear wale shouting on the radio wave and then he could now hear the voice of a woman shouting over the radio 

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! OR I WILL PUT YOU IN THE GROUND

The swirl of the gases outside the portholes of the tadamichi`s bridge made the captain feel like this might just work hiding in the atmosphere of the gas giant may have bought him some time to make repairs abut the report from the lower deck did not help matters at all the engineers report on the damage was bad but not so bad repairs could not be made just they needed somewhere they do make repairs without interruptions but that’s not the major problem it pressure of the gasses on the hull is increasing  and the helm is finding it difficult to maintain the orbit in upper atmosphere if things do not improve in the next few hours it would become a issue of abandoning the ship in his mind the captain is beginning to make preparations for the order to abandon ship somehow he doesn`t know if he could get them all out of this fight and right now he has no idea if those fighters are out there waiting for them to come out again  as he sat in his chair reading the data coming in from the rest of the ship, in another few hours maybe it won`t matter because if he does not get the ship out of the atmosphere it`s going to be bye, bye for them all

Chapter 19 

The transport pod is designed to carry people around the city and the entire complex, the rail tracks branched out to all sectors of all the city .this track is meant for he chairman Kane and select members of the committee, he is at this time travelling towards the medical centre  unannounced visit to see the progress of the clones from what he had being told they would represent a major component in the coming conflict and he had to see for himself if this was true , he did not want to make decision on the bases of incorrect information. The destruction and the attack of the ships would put his armed forces on alert and make preparation to go to war, like it or not they have never being involved any kind of conflict and the confidence of all around him has create a unwavering belief that this conflict will be successful and that they will win no matter what is throw at them as chairman Kane he need to know that all information coming to him is true and not a fantasy to which many leaders have found themselves when the truth of the state of the resources is truly understood ,to this end he coming to see for himself what the state of the clone`s progress  and if they can be any use in the coming storm. The sudden change in direction of the transport car made chairman Kane look at his assistant as he controlled the speed of the car. The tunnels at some major points come into open air and travels from one part the city to another it would take less than a minute to get to the medical centre and as the transport car got closer to the centre it slowed down and slowly came to a complete stop, his assistant opened the door to the car and stepped out into the cold wind that blew through the mountain ranges chairman Kane watched as his assistant tried to keep himself warm with the coat he was making sure is secure against the cold winds and as he looked around to make sure all is okay he indicated to chairman Kane it`s all clear to exit the car and to enter the faculty , the walk in the cold air was somehow a refreshing experience for the elderly chairman Kane as he walked through and into the centre through the glass double doors into the hallway where the security office sat behind his desk .he looked at the two men as they entered and he recognized the elder man and he stood at attention and said 

Chairman Kane, Welcome we did not know you were coming Sir

Chairman Kane wave his hand at the guard and then his assistant spoke 

We want to speak to the leader of this faculty

Yes sir 

The guard tapped onto his console and the spoke as a image appeared on the screen 

Sir, you needed at the front desk chairman Kane is here

Who?

Chairman Kane sir 

I` ll be right there 

The guard tapped on his screen again then walked over to where chairman Kane was standing looking at the pictures on the wall of the former leaders and medical staff that performed their duties with distinction, as he looked on the wall he could hear   people walking towards him and his assistant and then someone said 

Chairman Kane we did not know you were coming we would have prepared for your arrival 

chairman Kane did not look at the man speaking to him he continued to look at the wall and the man continued to talk

We are so happy to have you visit us at this time is there anything we can do for you today

chairman Kane turned and looked at man speaking he was a tall man with a lean body structure and grey hair 

Yes doctor i came to see for myself your progress on the clones and what they represent to us.

But Chairman Kane they are still in incubation they would not be ready for release for another six days  

Doctor what I want to know is what am we going to get when they wake up , will they be able to do as they told or do we have train them what are the potentials of these clones all this i need to know because as far as i know they should come into our service as soldiers

The doctor looked at chairman Kane with a expression that did not make Kane happy even now more worried

The committee is made up of twelve members they are part of the founding fathers, all who can trace their bloodline back to the people who left earth and travelled to this part of space and made a home here. Each member of the committee has a particular function to deal with the deputy has a view of all the working of the community, thee is the member who is charge of logistics and there is the member in charge of the resource department and there is the medical committee member he deal with all the medical needs of the community and make sure that all health of each citizen is taken care of. The youngest member of the committee is really young in terms of the committee members he is only sixty years old while chairman Kane is over a hundred years old and he is in charge of the logistics division his name is kentaro kin, he is of Japanese decent and has a great name to look up too .his father was also in charge of the logistics division before his death the way the committee keeps control is by making sure that when a member dies off their heir to replaces them. Right now kentaro is sitting in a room with four other member of the committee and he is beginning to wonder what he is doing here in front of him is four man all sitting in a line like a interview panel and kentaro is feeling like a child again even at his age he despises the feeling of feeling like a child even though these men represent the main core of the community they live in. The question on kentaro`s mind is why is he here at all with these men.

The oldest man known to kentaro as William potter in the room spoke 

SO how was your trip here today? 

Fine sir 

Oh! You don`t have to call me sir, kentaro, we just need to talk to you and have a understanding of where you stand

Where i stand? Why do you need to know where i stand on what exactly?

Then the man sitting next to William potter spoke he is known as Jacob 

What we want to know is what you’re thinking about the situation of our lost fighter.

Kentaro looked at the men in the room somehow this is making him feel uncomfortable like he was a child again and he is curious why these question and then he answer`s the question 

Well i have not really got a opinion on the situation right now but i do have one question, what was the fighter doing there in the first place is so far out of any of our routes

All the men seem to shift in their chairs, now this made kentaro more uncomfortable now, then Jacob spoke

The committee sent the fight to check out if there is a possibility of colonising the system.

Kentaro smiled and the said

Gentlemen what is it you want to know because you i know all this not why you ask me to and have a chat with you today there is more to all this that meets the eye 

William answered kentaro 

The committee did send the fighter but what the committee does not know we had the craft set to  fail in that system we did not intend the fighter to crash but to be recovered i guess the pilot abandon the fighter and tried to destroy the ship.

Recovered by our rescue ships?

No by our friends 

Friends?

Yes kentaro, we have some friend not from within our community it`s one of the corporations 

WHAT!

He did not realise he shouted but the reaction of the men in the room made him calm down and lowered his voice, he began to understand what has just happened here he has just being put in a situation at there is only one way out 

So why are you telling me this? 

Because we need your help we have made contact with the corporation and we sent the fighter as evidence to show our intention and our abilities. And it was your father that who was in charge of all communications with corporation we ask you here and want to find out if you have the codes your father had and what you know about all we are doing here

Now this really made kentaro begin to sweat it seem that as much as he was sitting in a room cooled by life support system he could still feel beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead what these guys are up to can be seen as treason and not only that they could all get taken care of in a way that is permanent

Okay what you are saying here gentlemen is we are in the process of going into business a corporation against all we believe in 

Yes kentaro we are, the question here is are you in or are you out? 

Chapter 20 

Shaw is helping there pair crew along with Dupree at the section of the hull breach which has to be made secure and according to the captain on the ship`s comm.’s system the ship hasn`t much time before the crew might have to abandon ship, so it has become all hand on deck. And as the wielding and repairs to the bulkheads and hammering into place sheets of metal to secure leaks and replacing damaged wiring all this to help make sure the ship will be able to support life onboard the crew shouted out aloud when the sound of the main engines firing and the familiar hum and the vibration on the metal deck as the tadamichi began to come to life and the sense of relief seem to come over the crew, the ship will survive and it might just get them home after all, the captain on the bridge still sitting in his chair heard the shouting and clapping of the crew as the engine kicked back to life and the console on the bridge showed a green lights across the board on all system of the ship he now had to get away from any more attacks his first officer was still in the sick bay and now he had his second officer acting in place of his first officer his second officer was doing a great job she has being rained well by the first officer she now walked over to the captain to report that the ship is operational and that is now possible to fire off a probe to scan the system

The second officer stood by the captain`s chair waiting for the captain to respond to her after he having a word with his engineer and the captain turned to her with a smile and the expression of expectation on his face and she felt right now is the best time to tell him the good news 

Well captain she said and at the same time showing him a data pad with a image of to the star system 

Captain all i can ‘tell you right now all is we made the scan of the system so far we can’t see any ships out there and it looks like we are good to go  

The captain took the pad from this second officer and tapped on the pad and looked at the images and then he looked at his officer 

Well it looks good, so get us out of here for now and fire off the radio we need to contact home base and the lock on to the beacon and get us out of here as soon as possible 

Yes sir and she turned and stated to bark orders to the crew and within a few seconds the ship began to rise out of the gas giant and the darkness of space began to envelope the ship and as the comm`s officer began to send off the details of the ship`s situation he picked up another signal this time it`s a second signal of distress a escape pod`s signal and the officer turned from his console and shouted to the second officer to come over to his station  and as she walked over the comm.`s station the captain was right behind her as the comm.`s officer informed her that they have picked up a signal of a escape pod and not only that from the data coming from the jump beacon there has being a message sent by another ship a few hours ago and from the information that`s coming in the ship should still be in the system .and i can`t see any sign of our attackers either 

The captain walked over to his chair and tapped on his armrest and a small screen appeared to pop out of the armrest and he tapped on the screen and there a live image from the probe came up on the screen and then he sat in the chair and watched a few more minutes and gave orders for the second officer to find where the signal is coming from and make adjustments to get the ship there at least they can complete their mission after all 

 The figure standing outside the airlock of the ship while Michael and his crew waited for the airlock to complete the process to allow people into the ship Lynn stood with her weapon in her hand in front of her pointing at the airlock as Michael looked on, the noise of the airlock opening made lynn tense up and as the door opened she could see the familiar figure of jyotte as has she stepped through the airlock door and right behind her were two figures in EVA suits followed her and Lynn still stood with her weapon pointing at the  two new figures in EVA suit when jyotte wave to her to lower her weapon and started to remove her helmet 

She pulled the helmet off and said 

Put that away Lynn these guys are from the ship that went down

 Wale and jal pulled off their helmets and waved at Michael and Lynn 

And the matt closed the airlock hatch and then he also pulled off his helmet as well and said 

They have recovered data blast from their ship before the ship was destroyed 

Lynn now hoisted her weapon and looked at Michael as he watched his crew and the two new members get out of their EV suits. 

Wale then spoke 

Thank you captain for coming for us 

Michael still said nothing and just nodded 

From what your crew have told us thee has being a great deal of activity in the system something about a battle?

Lynn the said 

Yes, when we jumped into the system there was a battle ongoing and we had to get out of the way but they came looking for us too.

Wale and jal both looked surprised as Lynn told them about the fighters that came after them but they seems to have lost them for now 

And as Michael turned from the airlock and started toward the command deck as Lynn continued to explain the situation to wale and Jal. 

Wale completely out of his EV suit and he hands Lynn the data Rod with the data blast of the River Niger and she looks at him.

Wale said 

I don`t know what it will tell you but i haven`t had time to look at the blast, it might just tell us what happened 

Lynn looked at the data Rod and said 

Whatever is on here we should be able to find out what happened to your ship and she then indicated to the two men to follow her to the command deck and showed them the stairs to the command deck as wale and jal step onto the deck they heard the captain give orders to the crew and wale could feel the difference in the gravity as the ship lifted up and started to climb as wale and Jal held on to handlebars as the ship climb fast.

Michael walked from one end of the command deck and watched as the his crew performed their duties and as the ship roes out of the clouds and into space when Lynn spoke 

I think we have company 

Michael walked over to Lynn as wale and Jal watched all this happening still standing at the rear of the command deck both Michael and Lynn spoke in what seems like hushed voices, and the Michael stood up and looked at the two men which made Jal worried and then he spoke to them 

Looks like your friends are here  

wale walked towards Lynn`s station as she worked on her console and stood behind Michael and he stood aside to let wale take a look at the screen and then he looked out of the front porthole and could see in the distance a silhouette of a ship and then matt opened the hatched and climbed onto the command deck and walked over to Michael and handed him a data pad which he read and the handed the pad to wale and he read the pad as well and then walked to Jal and gave him  the pad as well and Jal read the pad and looked at wale and said 

We were shot down? 

Michael answered the question 

Yea you were shot down, it looks like the same guys trying to blow us up as soon as we jump into the system

Wale looked at Jal and the two men seemed confused and Jal asked the next question that was everybody’s mind  

But who the hell are they and why did they shoot us down?

Matt walked passed the group as they spoke and he spoke to Michael as he went to the console on the portside of the command deck 

From what we know so far and what we got off the data pads they are not a corporation of any kind we know of they re seem to be new but they look like they mean business

 But for now let just deal with this ship we coming up to maybe they could tell us more when we dock with the 

Lynn turned from her console and spoke to Michael 

We are being requested to identify ourselves to that ship and state our purpose, don`t forget we haven`t got a designation for our ship so far 

Michael smiled and replied Lynn 

You know what you re right we haven’t name our ship yet 

Shaw was sitting at a table in the mess hall with two other members of the repair crew he had being working with when Dupree walked in through the doorway and walked over to the section where the chef for the crew was giving out food for the crew as the mess hall was filling up with  crew member were trying to get something to eat before heading back out to their stations , Dupree picked up a food packet and the walked over to the table where Shaw and crew were sitting and took the remaining chair at the table and as he sat down the rest of the crew members nodded to Shaw one of the crew spoke  and said 

It has being great working with you sir 

The two men watched as they all stood up to leave and after they left Dupree spoke 

Are we going to get to the meeting anytime soon?

Shaw did not response to the Dupree and he continued

Well old man what do you think about all this? What has our security officer have to say about this mess we are in now the ship is no condition to jump anytime soon, from what i hear we would be in the system for maybe another thirty two hours but from what i hear there is another ship coming in according to the news i hear they might be a bunch of mercenaries. But we still don`t know who we are dealing with, who attacked us when we jump into this system as the two men spoke

 Bridget walked into the mess hall and right to the table and placed her hands on the table top and looked at Shaw who was still not saying anything 

They did not keep their word did they Shaw? She shouted

Dupree looked at both Shaw and Bridget with a expression of confusion and asked 

Who are you talking about Bridget? Who did not keep their word?

Shaw looked at Bridget and said 

Not here, not now  

Well tell me why they just attacked us without any warning Bridget continued and with that statement  

Shaw stood up like a cock out of a champagne bottle and shouted at Bridget 

NOT NOW BRIDGET!

And then he walked out of the mess hall with Dupree looking on as the scene of the two directors shouting at each other in the mess hall he was not the only one looking as this all scene unfolded and Bridget followed Shaw out the mess hall while Dupree sat stunned at what just happened, for Dupree he always believed that he was on top of things he knew most of the time he had a finger on the pulse of things around him, more than most people but right now it is very clear that there is more to all this that meet the eye.

 

Chapter21 

The duke sat watching the king walk into the room followed by the prince and was wondering what really is going on here from what the king have told him, the royal house of Hampshire sold the first ship to these crazy cult and that they might have built a empire and are looking to come back and take over the faith of humanity .for the duke what the king just told him did not make him any happier but the fact the king knew about Michael and his friends that bother him even more and most annoying was the fact the king planted a spy in his office but like the king said it`s a family business this meeting has being going on for more than eight hours and now they were waiting for the king`s younger son he always seems to be on some kind of trip or another the duke never was able to tell what he did but he was coming to this meeting.elizabeth walked into the room after the king and then walked past the king as he went to his chair in the room and a servant handed him a drink  Elizabeth walked to the duke and she handed him a data pad and said to the duke 

I need you to come with me i need to show something and it`s important he looked at the king who in turn raise his glass and nodded to him and gesture him the duke to follow her and the duke stood up  from his chair  looked around the room and started to walk behind Elizabeth as she lead him out of the room into a hall way and to a  the elevator at the end of the hallway somehow he know this was going to be interesting but he was not too sure what it might be since he is just beginning to understand that his place in the house of Hampshire might be changing to what he did not know but he was willing to find out, the doors of the elevator opened and there was a guard standing with a weapon in his hand he saw Elizabeth and when he saw the duke he step out of the elevator and held up hand to stop the duke and the raise a scanner and scanned the duke and after a minute he stepped back to look at the result of the scan and then said d 

You can go on ahead sir

Both Elizabeth and duke stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed she then tapped on the display console and the elevator moved up it seemed like they were travelling to the highest point of the building which he could remember was another ten floors up and then doors opened and Elizabeth stepped out into a dark room with the walls covered with displays and in the centre of the room was a 3 dimensional map of the grid matrix of the entire jump beacon network which had icon flowing around the display , Elizabeth walked to the woman standing with a data pad in her hand and spoke to her as the duke walked around the room , this room was not that different from the tactical room he has in Moscow but somehow this room had a lot more than whet he had coming into his tactical room infact he is beginning to understand that the information coming into this room is from all the offices of the house of Hampshire then even more it seems like apart from the information from the offices there is information coming in from jump  beacon and now he now knows there are several relay stations under the control of the house and they relay all information here and that why the king is well informed he has his fingers in all the pies . This made the duke smile he now see why the king is the king of such a house and it is clear that he would need all this help to keep the other corporations at bay and keep up with all competition    

You like what you see here sir /

The voice of a young man startled the duke as he watched  all the data coming in live from all the sources within the regions of space that is under the control of the royal house of Hampshire and not only the region they control but somehow they have inroad into new regions

He turned and answered 

Very much so 

We like to think we have our finger on the pulse of the galaxy or rather our little part of the galaxy and the young man smiled 

I can see that you do.

Sir, can you come this way the young man pointed towards another three dimensional display of a star system.

As they walked over to the display and the woman in the room also walked over to the display with Elizabeth and they all were standing around the display and Elizabeth spoke 

Drake, Melisa this the duke he is in charge of the Moscow office and he is here to be filled on the situation that we have in the cetamol sector

Cetamol sector?

Yes that`s  the name we are calling it now, cetamol and what we have here is a display from the new jump beacon that was installed a few days ago and this is what we are getting back fro the beacon along with the data blast from the ship that was shot down 

Shot down?

Yes, from the data blast from the River Niger tells us that at 19:00 about seventeen days ago it was fired on by an unknown ship. And after a distress call was made and when a ship responded to the call and it was also was attacked and during the attack the ship you sent to retrieve information and find out what is going on with the directors jump into the middle of the fight and they were attacked as well , but they played hide and seek for almost two weeks and the other ship conceal itself in a gas giant in the system, so far all we know is that the unknowns have withdrawn and both ships in the system are currently docked the data we get her is updated every twenty minutes from the BJP, so what you see here is twenty minutes old and the next update is due any minute now 

The duke looked at the images and asked 

Can you give me more details? 

Yes sir 

And the image of the ship became larger and clearer 

What is the name of the that ship he asked pointing to the image 

From what we have found out that`s the tadamichi under the command of an experienced captain and we also know that the Tadamichi is the ship that was carrying the directors to their meeting 

The duke kept watching the images and then there was an update made the images change and the images of the ships docked but it appears further away from the gas giant than before 

The door of the room open and in the doorway stood the king and as he walked into the room a buzzing sound seemed to come from the centre of the room and then a platform raised up from the floor and from the platform a chair appeared and the king walked to the platform and sat on the chair as he sat the duke walked over to him and the king spoke 

I had this room fitted so i could keep an eye on all we control and it looks like we have more than a observation room but i am beginning to think this is turning into a war room 

Michael walked onto the bridge of the Tadamichi and right behind him was wale and Jal , the captain turned and saw them  stood up from his chair and extended his hand to shake Michael’s hand and Michael shock his hand and smiled and said 

I guess you must be the captain and it looks like you have had a busy day today, and then Michael turned and wale and Jal stepped forward and Michael introduced them 

Captain these men are from the ship was attacked and wale stepped forward and gave the captain a firm handshake

The captain smiled and shock his hand and then he shock Jal`s hand as well and then the captain spoke to Michael 

They really wanted to take us out today what i don`t understand is why they did finish the job they had us on the ropes , as he spoke he turned and gestured to Michael to come over to him 

Let me show what we have so far , we don`t know who they are and we know that they mean business but still we don`t know why they pull away when they had us in a bind

Michael watched the video file of the attack and then looked at the captain as he walked over to where wale and Jal were standing and started to speak to them Michael watched and began to understand that if they were any closer to the action they would have not survived the attack these guys were carrying heavy stuff no way they will be able to withstand a attack from the missiles when the video file finished he then walked over to where the men on bridge were standing and nodded toward the captain and said 

You guys were lucky they throw a lot at you guys did you lose anyone  

Yea we lost a few members of our crew and we have our engines online and our jump engines are running at 72 percent god enough to make a jump, what about you guys what happened to you when you jump in?

Michael smiled and said  

Well as we jumped into the system we noticed you guys were busy and also that the others guys saw us too and sent a few of their boys after us but we went hiding, this system provide a good hiding place with all the planets and moons 

And then the captain asked

So what were you guys doing in this system anyway?

Michael had to hide his sense of surprise when he heard the question but he had a good response for the question was simply he was responding to a distress call somehow he did not think the good captain would like to know that he was followed  because of the people he was carrying . 

We got a distress call on the beacon grid and we decided to response go figure we come to help and we get attacked 

Lynn was on listening to the conversation coming in from the communication device Michael had in his pocket she wanted to keep track of what is going on,in case they might have to run she does this due to their experience in the passed and most especially when the targets find out that they were being tracked this ship might be damaged but it still has the power to destroy them , and so far Michael hasn`t got any closer to the directors and it is clear the ship systems are secured and there seem there is no way to connect to the ship`s system  remotely even as Michael watched the video  she tried to gain access but no luck the only way she might be able to gain access is when the two men get assigned quarters it might be possible from their communication device she gave to them which had the same software she installed on Michael’s device she gave it to them as they walked into the airlock they need to know what they know and if this is the only way they could do it for now the duke wanted to know why they were travelling a long way for a simple meeting , as she listened she wondering what it is they would find .

Chapter22 

The balance of power has being in the family of chairman Kane his father had being very strict with the committee and now he is beginning to see why, it is clear to him that there are members of the committee not doing their duties and not only that they have being providing him with information that is incorrect, the question that come to his mind is why and for what purpose, is because he made is grand daughter the commander of the armed forces, he needs to find out why, the other option he might use is to go back to the old ways a purge but something tells him that there more to al this than meets the eye . 

Kentaro sat at the table as food was brought in from the kitchen these men asked him a question he could not answer right away whatever they were planning it is clear that they need him for something, the mere fact he is in charge of logistics is why he is here as they started to eat their meal a messenger walked into room and walked up to William potter and leaned over and  spoke to him in his ear ah he did  the expression on his face changed it seem to kentaro like the blood drained from his face and  looked at the two other men at the table and said

He knows!

Who?

The chairman he was at the medical centre both men stood up like there was an electric charge that was fired into the chairs they were sitting in, they push back the chairs and started to walk to the door and William spoke 

There is only one thing to do now gentlemen, we move up our time table kentaro sat and watched all this happening and he was beginning to feel like he is in the middle of something that might be the beginning of something so big it might be the end of his way of life.

As William spoke the two men stopped and turned and looked at William and he continued 

We informed captain of the carrier group to take command from the commander and we get our people to start to put down those on the list and as he spoke the two men looked at kentaro and waited for instruction from William, and then Jacob spoke 

What about him? He still hasn`t answered the question and then all the men looked at kentaro and kentaro looked at the three men they were waiting for his answer 

William looked at the two men and said 

Get the word out to our people ,activate the code we move now get going while i talk to this young man here. The walked out of the hall and as they did another man walked into the hall and walked up to William and spoke to him in his ear and William nodded and said 

Yes yes get it done 

And the man walked out of the hall and then William turned to kentaro 

Well it seems to me that there is only one answer you can give as far as i can tell you know too much now for us to leave you alive without getting your loyalty .in the next few hours it is going to be a very interesting one there will be a lot of blood spilt today

Why?

Because it is time for us to return and claim our rightful prize 

Prize 

You don`t know the story the reason why we left mother earth, the reason why our sect had to leave and come out into the stars to rebuild, did your father not tell you  that we are destined to return and reclaim what is ours ,no matter what anyone tells you we are meant to rule and direct the destiny of the human race 

Kentaro looked at William and could not understand what he was talking about,

Young man all this is for us to take back what we lost over three hundred years ago, the fact that we found this planet that has made our people stronger with all the benefits we have gained, the alloys we have found on this planet which allows us to build ships that have a greater advantage over any other ships, our people are ready for anything that could come our way

Kentaro now began to feel that there is more to all this than meet the eye, somehow he is beginning to understand the consequence of this meeting he has to give William a answer and the answer has to be yes but he knows that’s the only way out of all this hall otherwise it would be in a body bag

Chairman Kane walked into his office and looked out the window and at the view of the mountain range that stretched on for mile his office is on the highest peak ,his old age is catching up on him but this is not the way he thought things will work out after all those years the purge that happened when his grandfather was handing over the reins of power to his father it was bloody the effects of the last purge was long lasting and he always thought that it would not happen again but it looks like it might be happening again the fact speaks for itself the information he had being given was incorrect and the man giving him the information was in charge of a lot of vital things within the community most of the forces the only way he felt he might have some sense of control was to implant his grand-daughter as the commander of the carrier group. But now with happening he is beginning to believe that he need to be like his fore bears and would need to clear out the committee but he know the way thing have setup it would take more than just a purge it would take a bloody civil war , he has let things slide because he believed things have never being better in the last ten years but now he knew what he had to do as he turned from the window to his desk and he sat down in his chair he looked at the screen in front of on the desk the icon was flashing and he knew what he had to do and he did not like what would happen if he did activate the protocol , the protocol that was in place by the fore fathers the elimination protocol the name in it self was clear what would happen if he started  along this path but he now had to wait before he activated the protocol he wanted to know what exactly was going on ,somehow he has being convinced to send a fighter to scout a region of space that was not under their control only to loses the fighter and the pilot was lost too much information and material out there maybe it is what they wanted but the question is why, why would they want that to happen , it all those not make any sense at all he has to get to the bottom of this otherwise it the protocol and that wouldn`t be nice thing to see happen 

 As kentaro looked at William sitting in his chair across the table he had to answer his question and he stood up and walked around the room away from William to the door and then he looked back at William he knew if he place his hand on the door activator he would be dead before he stepped out of the hall he then walked back towards William and stopped at the wall with what seemed like a drink disperser he tapped on the screen and a selection of drink choices and he tapped on the screen and his selection drop out of the disperser and he picked it up and then with the drink in his hand he lifted the cup to his lips while William watched and waited without a word  

And you want me to give you a answer right now

William still did not say word 

Well it seems to me there is only one answer i can give you right now and it is no, i cannot go along without knowing what i am getting into.

William the spoke 

I understand that but what is going to happen is for the good of the community we need to reclaim what is our birth right to return to mother earth an take charge and lead the human race into a new era of development, this was the ultimate plan for our people but the chairman`s family and his allies have lost the sight our people`s goal, what we are about to do with change the future of all of us and I want you to come along with us on this but if you feel that you cannot you must understand you cannot leave this room while we go about what we need to do ,as he completed the statement the doors opened and two men walked followed by a woman who held a medical tray 

William stood up and walked over the kentaro patted him on his shoulder 

For now we will keep you on ice and we will talk later when all this is over and then he walked to the group in the room and said 

Make sure he is comfortable and secure 

Yes sir 

William turned and looked at kenaro

See you later sleep tight 

And he walked out the door and closed it behind as he could hear the two men hold down kentaro. 

Chapter 23

The director were all in the cabin of Shaw as they waited for Dupree to make sure the cabin door was secure as he was about to completely close the door when  Haruki Jones held back the door and step in  and looked at the directors 

I don`t think that you all want to have this discussion now and here 

But Dupree looked at the security officer and said 

I need to know what the hell we are talking about here so it has to be now.

what it you guys are not telling me!

Haruki stepped into the middle of the four directors and pulled put a device from his pocket and placed it on the floor of the cabin and stepped back and secured the door and the he tapped the top of the device and it began to scan the room and then a green light appeared on the top of the device and haruki spoke 

Now the room is secure you can begin

So what is that all about Jones Dupree Asked? 

I needed to secure the room for bugs we are discussing issue that needed to be discussed in a secure area 

Still you guys have not told me what it is we have to discuss and why do we need to be in secure room

Because we know who attacked the ship

WHAT!

Dupree stood up and looked at Shaw as he said 

We know who attacked us

Dupree still standing with an angry expression on his face and shouting at Shaw 

How is it possible that you know who they are 

And Shaw continued 

We know who they are what is astonishing is why they attacked we had a deal 

Dupree now sat down still heaving with anger 

Well Shaw go tell me how it is you know who they are

Then Bridget spoke

Because they came to us with a deal, they came to us and told us about what they found and what they have to offer it was unbelievable what they told us what they have will change the way we look at how we look at ourselves as humans and they provided proof

Dupree looked at Bridget 

What is it that they have?

Haruki then spoke

The fountain of youth 

Dupree sat back and laughed 

The fountain of youth? Where the hell did you come up with that? The fountain of youth?

Bridget continued 

The offered proof 

Proof?

What kind of proof?

A live specimen 

A specimen?   Live?

Yes they made arrangements for us to take a delivery of a live specimen, a man in- fact, they gave us the co-ordinates to pick up man. He was a fighter pilot they said they would send him out to take a survey of this system but they sent he out with a defective fighter meant to fail when he got here and we would rescue him and take him back for testing and we did and what we found was amazing, they did have a something to offer they have found that fountain and not only did provide for them the ability to live longer they had other uses for this fountain.

This made Dupree sit back 

An actual man! 

Yes Dupree a man, he looked liked a thirty year old man but upon our test we find he is a lot older than he looks he is actually over eighty years old we have done all we could to with him. 

And the Shaw spoke   

we sent out a BJP laying ship to install a beacon on this system we did not think it would bring about all this , i know Bridget did not feel right about all this.

So what exactly was the deal they offered to Dupree asked 

They wanted to be our partners and in return they give us access to the fountain but we do not know exactly what kind of partners they wanted to be, but what they were offering was a so much Bridget felt they had other motives and we should be careful in our dealings with them. This attack was not what we expected it`s out of the blue 

Haruki raised his hand to indicate that they should stop talking and then he bent and picked up the anti bugging device and stepped towards the door and listened and there was a knock on the cabin door due to the fact that a lot of the electrical was damaged during the attack, haruki opened the door and in the door way stood a crew member 

The captain would like Mr Jones to come to the bridge Sir 

Thank you 

And haruki closed the door

I think we need to get to the complex and meet up with the rest of the board, as far i know the captain want to find out all he could from the men that were on the ship that was attacked so i am going to the bridge and get us underway to rendezvous. 

And with that haruki stepped out of the cabin and walked towards the bridge. The captain was talking to Michael as haruki stepped onto the bridge and he stepped in his tracks as he could see who the captain was talking too 

MICHEAL?   

Lynn was sitting with her legs on the edge of her console listening the conversation between the captain and Michael when she heard the voice of someone she remembered, someone she knew and what a conscience he is the one person they wanted to contact about this job they are on she listened as this person spoke 

Michael what the hell are you doing here?

The captain looked at haruki and asked 

You know this man Jones 

When Lynn heard the name she sat up in her chair, can it be haruki Jones

Haruki is here! She though 

Yes captain I know this man he is a mercenary he get paid to do jobs and when you have him Lynn is not too far behind him, as this whole episode began unfold to wale and jal looked on they watched but wale put his hand on Jal shoulder and pulled away from the two men on the bridge 

He whisper into Jal`s ear this does not look good 

Haruki stepped towards Michael. 

Harri! How are you? Lynn and i were talking about you am sure she would never believe me if i told her you were here on this ship

Captain, this man won`t be here unless he is getting paid to be here and i know how dangerous they can be, right Michael? No bullshit here we know each other ,if you arte here that means someone paid you to be and it has to be another r corporation and there is one on corporation that want to know what we are up to, would be the duke

Ohhhh! Are you working for the duke now? Man he is slow does he know i have his spy sorted already haruki was smiling as he spoke 

Why would he send you knowing fully well that i am the security officer for this meeting, oooh! You guys  would have to be the misdirection while his spy get to work i know he doesn`t know by i have had the bastards spy network collecting dead end information, but i did not think he would use you 

Michael knew he was not getting out this but he also knew Lynn would have a plan t get him out of here all he has to do give her time to pull off a rescue so here he is standing on the deck of this ship talking to a old friend, and he raised his hand to his chin and robbing it and then he smiled and say 

So harri how have you being /?

Well mike to tell you the truth now that i see you dandy just dandy and Lynn she is good 

Yes harri, she`s good as the men spoke the captain was talking to his acting fist officer who left the bridge a and then he turned to wale and Jal and said 

Gentlemen who you please follow my officer to your quater we have set up for you thank as he pointed to one of the crew member on the bridge who the gesture to wale and Jal to follow them 

As the stepped through the hatch they noticed as a group of crew member were preparing pulling  weapons from their armoury and it looked alike they were preparing for some sort assault of some kind when Jal asked the crew member escorting w them 

What is going on here why all this weapons?

While this was happening Lynn was still listening to the conversation between Michael and haruki but also they were able to listen in on wale and Jal with the communicator they were given and jyotte was the one listen when she heard the comment made by Jal 

She shouted to Lynn

 They are coming they are getting weapons ready

Lynn stood up and shouted 

Disconnect umbilical we are leaving! 

What about Michael?

Lynn turned and looked at jyotte and said 

He can take care of himself   

Commander Hea Jung stood on the observation deck watching the fighter fly in formation toward the transport carrier it not the way she wanted to do things but it seemed the best move to do at the time they had lost contact with the ship they were engaged with and she knew if they got any message out it would be for help and reinforcements she felt the best course of action would be to leave the system and then send in fighters with a cruiser they can take on the ship in that system and if the reinforcement turns up she could send in more resources without putting the whole carrier group in any danger in the meeting she had with the other captains of ships in the carrier group she explained her action and made it clear that she is under order to maintain and contain any information getting out to the rest of humanity which she feel they have failed on that part ,so all they can do now is destroy all the ships in that system and find their beacon which they lock on to for their jumps  and make sure they cannot return to the system anytime soon. She gave the orders to the captains and squad leaders to prepare for another assault this time a attack that would be a final blow to the ship they attack at first and remove any chance of more ships coming to this system and make sure it becomes clear that no more ships would be welcomed into this system in other words they are going to take this system and keep it by any means necessary. And if it means that humanity might come across the story in the vastness of space of a group of humans that will destroy anyone that come anywhere near them this might be the beginning or it might be the end this she was not sure but she feels that all this would be the catalyst to change for the better she did not know.

The duke stood in the information room and watched as the king and his aides operated the systems from what he could tell it looks like all this is a prelude to war, if the information they are getting here is true, the system in which the tamachi is located is the spark that would be the start of interstellar war. the London group must have despatched ships to investigate and while this is happening the king just told him that he has started to gather his resources and that why he called him here he wanted him close by. Now the duke is beginning to understand that feeling he had when this all started, for him all he want to do was to find out what the London group were up too. Now he is in the middle of war.

Chapter 24

The chairman sat at his desk reading the recent reports and looked up as his assistant walked into to hand him a new data pad, he sat back and asked his assistant, where is our intelligence officer now