Voyage of the Stardancer

Chapter 9 - The Sea Monster

The days passed with Telbars men fishing, and with the ocean teeming with fish, we had a good supplement to supplies from the warship. Early one morning one of Telbars men called me over, he pointed to about fifty metres out on our starboard side where a large shoal of fish were breaking the surface. I was just going to say that a predator may be hunting them, when with fish leaping high in a vain attempt to escape, the creature broke the surface, it looked a little like something from the Earths distant past called Plesiosaur. It had a long neck with reptilian head full of small vicious teeth. The scaled body approximately ten metres long with twin turtle like flippers either side of the body, the tail looking like an eel with a long fin top and bottom. The creature paused in its feeding frenzy, suddenly aware of our presence, its great head swivelling round to observe us. with its great flippers beating the water and at an almost leisurely pace, slowly started to swim towards us. Brindac shouted orders to his Soldats, who strung their bows, and with arrows ready to loose, waited for the order to fire. I doubted that we could stop it, but we would not be killed without a fight. The creature came within twenty meters of the Protema, the atmosphere was tense, Brindac looked to me for guidance, but I could give him none. Once again If we did nothing it may kill us or leave us. If we attacked it, our small arrows would not kill it, but may drive it off or anger it. As I looked back at Brindac, and shouted him to hold his fire,  the creature suddenly, with a great crash of surf, dived below the boat and was gone, lifting the Protema up on the wake of its passing. We all stood speechless with relief because we all felt so helpless, as this world was as strange to the Andorians, who had spent their entire life underground, as it was to us. The Andorians, who had had a grey like skin colour in the underground city, were turning a golden tan colour with their exposure to the sun and elements, their health obviously better. The coast of Minerva was getting closer, so every day, a look out was posted on the mast scanning the horizon for enemy vessels; just because the Andorian Guardian did not attack us,it did not mean that the Minevian one would not.

With over five hundred and fifty kilometres behind us, and whilst travelling at night, Telbar shook me awake; I quickly followed him the bow. He told me to listen; a low sound of engines could be heard directly in front of us. We both strained our eyes trying to make out any shapes, but with Andoria having no moon, it was very dark after sunset. With the noise getting louder everybody on board were roused to look for the source of the noise. Suddenly out of the gloom emerged a fleet of surface ships, their size towering above us. The bow wave from the leading ship lifted the Protema up like a cork, tossing it to one side, with two of the crew falling over the side, our boat spun three hundred and sixty degrees shipping water and nearly capsizing. The same thing happened again and again, the Protema being thrown around from each passing warship. After twenty minutes it was all over, the sound of the engines slowly receding as the warships carried on to their rendezvous oblivious to the peril of the small boat they had left in their wake. Lowering the sail and deploying a sea anchor to stop us drifting, we desperately searched for the missing crewmen at first light, but none were found. We bailed the boat out, and checked the Protema over for damage which was surprisingly light, and then with a heavy heart for the lost crewmen we continued our voyage. If we had been any heavier, the warships would have run us down instead of pushing us aside. We had lost a little of the supplies, and with the fish we had caught; we would not run short of food. After a further three days of sailing, seeing more warships and aircraft in the far distance, the same thing happened as when leaving Andoria, an aircraft peeled off from a squadron heading east and after circling us at a low altitude, returned to the aircraft formation. By late afternoon we were within sight of the Minevian mainland; we planned to land just south of the dockland, hopefully away from the enemy vessels. Telbar gave orders to the crew to lower sail as a cove appeared in the coast line, and with the oars set we rowed into the calmer waters of the small cove, and soon with a soft crunch the Protema's bow made landfall on the sandy beach. We had made it, and now all we had to do was find the Minevian computer and shut it down! A task that had seemed impossible, crossing the ocean in a boat made from mushrooms, and yet here we were. With everyone helping, the Protema was pulled clear of the surf and beached. Over a meal of cooked fish it was decided that the crew was to stay behind with the Protema and wait ten days before setting off back if we did not return, the mission deemed a failure, so Telbar and his men began making shelters and catching more fish for food. Brindac had sent some his Soldats on a patrol of the local area, and returned saying that a small fresh water stream lay just beyond the coastal cliffs and signs of habitation about two kilometres north of our position, there was also plenty of game, but no sign of the Minevians. They had also found an overgrown road leading in that direction too.