Star Fields

Chapter No.67 Unexpected

Part 7 Epic Visions

Synopsis: Jason and Molly, along with Marie, Margaret and Alexa, have assimilated the Scath, but are faced with a new more dangerous enemy. With the addition of the surviving Scath vessels, they have become a major power in the galaxy, but have no desire to rule over anyone. Their goal of repopulating the Earth has begun in earnest.

Chapter No.67 Unexpected

You never know what's over the next hill.

We arrived near the large vessel travelling at sub-warp speed. The humongous egg-shaped hull seemed strange as ships go. There was no evidence of weapons or a warp shield. It was just a big object moving at 0.75 the speed of light.

"Match velocity at a thousand meters," I told Judy.

It wasn't long before Molly had the results of her scans of the vessel. She shook her head in disbelief. "It's loaded with stasis chambers, at least nine hundred of them."

"Are they active?" I asked.

"Yes, but there are a number of them that have failed."

"Are you detecting any other active species?"

"No," she replied. "Only objects on that ship are stasis chambers.

"I wonder where they're headed?"

"I calculate it out as Earth," Molly said.

I stood up. "Okay, Molly and I will go over and check it out. The rest of you stay vigilant. This could be a trap."

That didn't help calm their anxiety. Molly and I boarded a shuttle with Alice and Ellen and traveled over to the vessel. After circling it several times, Alice spotted an entrance, and with several attempts, she managed to find the electronic key to gain entrance. We slowly moved the shuttle into a large bay. Alice closed the entrance and we were able to disembark after the bay was pressurized. The ship had an atmosphere but it was low in oxygen. We made our way to the main stasis chamber hall and used our lamps to illuminate the contents.

"Holy hell! This is packed with stasis chambers."

"They're human," Molly said after scanning several of them. "There are men and women as well as children."

"Check this vessel for any information that would identify its origin," I said.

Alice and Ellen went to work scanning and exploring everything they could.

"We have everything of value, Jason," Alice told me.

"Okay," I said after rubbing my chin. "We need to get these stasis chambers over into the Explorer-1's bay where the androids can make sure that their power sources are working correctly."

Molly simply gave me a nod. We returned to the Explorer-2 while the androids began a transfer of the stasis chambers.

"Trace out the probable starting point for this vessel," I told Molly. "Once the stasis chamber transfers are made, Explorer-1 will return to Earth. We and two of the Scath vessels will go to the planet they departed from, assuming you can determine where it is."

"Are you expecting to find more humans there?" Molly asked.

"I don't know, but we have to check it out. If nothing more, we might be able to determine how they arrived there."

After several minutes of work with her virtual mirror, Molly had a location. "There's a G5 dwarf star system 10 light years from this location. It has a habitable planet orbiting it."

"That's where we're heading, Judy."

"What about the stasis chamber vessel?" Molly said.

"Have one of the Scath vessels destroy it. No use having a derelict out here."