Star Fields

Chapter No.18 Surprise

"Take us there, Judy."

"Yes, Jason."

I smiled at Molly. "It's amazing what a little kindness can do."

"I'm surprised that they did this. I thought that they wanted all humans to be exterminated."

"Maybe they're more concerned about these Scath aliens. They might consider us a possible ally in their fight against them."

Molly shook her head. "It appears that space has just as many dangers as our Earth once did. Nobody can get along."

I chuckled. "Yes, it does seem daunting, but I think we have the wherewithal to deal with it."

"Yes," Molly said. "These androids seem to know combat well."

I thought about it for a moment before replying. "They certainly do, which makes me think that there was something more sinister about their killing off the crew. It might have been programmed into them and they only followed the program instructions."

"That would suggest that someone deliberately sabotaged the mission to prevent the males needed to impregnate the females in stasis back on Earth from doing their job."

"I agree," I said. "Someone who didn't agree with the Phoenix project. I think we should return to Earth and see if we could determine who is was."

Molly frowned. "What good would it do? He's probably dead by now."

"There is the possibility that he or she came up with another scheme to restore humans on Earth, one that we missed when we found the stasis chambers at the Huntsville facility."

The ship exited warp.

"We will be in orbit in fifteen minutes, Jason," Judy said.

After several minutes, Molly had a report. "The planet is 75 percent the mass of Earth, but it still has a decent atmosphere with oxygen. The bolometric temperature is approximately 200 K and it does have water."

"Can you see anything that would suggest an alien food farm?"

"Not yet, but I can't rule it out."

"We are now in a stable orbit, Jason."

"I have detected structures," Molly reported. "But, I'm not detecting any life form readings. X-ray scans indicate that the structures are empty. I think our alien friend lied."

"That wouldn't surprise me. We need to take on more water." I turned to Judy. "We want to go down as soon as possible."

"They will be ready, Jason."

Molly and I went to the shuttle deck and joined Alice and Ellen for a trip down to the planet. We decided that we didn't need oxygen masks even though the oxygen content of the planet's atmosphere was below normal breathing level. That fact strongly suggested that the reptilian alien had lied.

When we got to the surface, we found that the structures had been breeched and there were no aliens or humans anywhere to be found.

"I suspect that this was just a diversion," I said. "If there were humans here, they were taken somewhere else."

"What are we going to do now?" Molly asked.

"I think that we should return to Earth and see if we could determine if there was another plan to create a new race of humans. We could also try to determine if there is a location on Earth that would be amiable for human colonization, a location that has food sources and stable environmental conditions."

"At least we know that the Earth has a breathable atmosphere and plenty of water," Molly said.

"I agree. I'm sure there's some location that would be suitable."

We entered the structures and could find nothing to indicate that humans had been there. This was truly a dead end. But we still maintained hope that we would find humans somewhere in the galaxy.

We finally had the time to examine the image of a Scath alien.

"Good heavens!" Molly exclaimed. "I thought that the reptilians look ugly. This alien is evil personified. Look at the horns sticking out of its head."

I rubbed my jaw. "Yes, it looks like a demon of some sort. Maybe it is evil personified."

"I doubt that," she replied. "But, it looks menacing enough to avoid at all costs."

"I agree."

However, I was certain that we had not had the last encounter with them.

End of Part 1.

Thanks for reading. Part 2 will continue the search for humans and include confrontation with a new enemy species.