Worlds Away - The Fall of Three [Part 1]

Four years ago, a meteor storm raced towards a lonely, cold world. It was the disintegrated remains of an asteroid, that was broken apart on its winding path around the sun. But at the centre of the cloud of rock, a huge fragment waited to blast the side of the fast approaching planet.

As it approached its target, it was nudged off course, and slowed behind the rest of the storm. It eventually reached the surface, colliding with a mountain. The force of the impact cracked it in two, along with the glacier which sunk down from the mountain’s peaks. It took so little energy to move that rock so slightly, it was almost comical. After this, the Orb had 425 long days to influence weather patterns, to bring a nutrient filled wind north. And it did. And then the next year, it diseased livestock, simply so it could cure them. It gained the trust of the people of that world, and then it tore them apart. For fun. It let them kill it, its counterpart waiting in orbit, plotting its next move. The people down below had taught it a lot. They could never have known that they were part of something so much bigger.

Devan had buried all three bodies by himself. The blue skies and green fields which had plagued this planet were gone. It was back to being grey and brown. Just another of the tricks, Devan assumed. Perhaps it was just his mood. But the river had dried up. The livestock were ill again. The crops were already wilting. They couldn’t survive much longer on what they had, even with less people.

He had set up their small distress call. Being so far from any other colonized worlds, a radio signal wouldn’t do. It could have been months before any other ships came by. Each new colony was given a warp capable pod, which after blasting into orbit, could fly to one of the developed planets. It wasn’t even half as tall as Devan, and he knelt down to set up the tripod that it would launch from. After a few minutes, he was finished, and he stood back to launch it. It shot into the sky until it disappeared, and in a few minutes it would be billions of miles away.

The small probed turned up low in space over Castallon, a planet full of bustling cities, where Devan had left from a decade ago. A colonisation fleet receive the data packet it sent out, and read through the message.

Low on supplies. Something was here. Highly dangerous. Killed by lead. Make preparations. Need urgent help.

DEVAN.

The fleet opened their communication channels, linking to a small screen somewhere down on the surface. They needed permission to leave, but the Captain wasn’t happy about this. Surely, with a distress call such as this, they should be able to leave immediately.

A heavy voice boomed through the telecoms, “This is fleet 17 reporting to the Castallon Government, do you copy?.”

A softer female voice responded to the bulkier sounding man, like a feather gliding on rigid steel casing. “I copy you, 17, the council are currently occupied within an important meeting and cannot respond at this time” Her angelic voice settled across the fleets cockpit, sailing the infuriating news into the ears of both the Captain and pilots. This beautiful antithesis was far too much for the purposeful man to handle.

With a raised tone he once again opened the channel, “Don't you mess around with me. We have a distress call and I want permission to depart right this instant. I’m tired of dealing with these bloody AIs.”

The same voice answered, again with calm and tranquil expression, “I'm sorry sir, we cannot allow departure without the permission from the council. The Castallon government regrets the delay, and will get back to you soon.”

This was rubbish. There was never a time where all the council members were away. “They can’t all be in some meeting. Get me a human with some common sense.”

The pure voice persisted, “Sir, you know I am forbidden to interrupt”

The bulky man began his countdown, “10, 9, 8”

“Ok, please hold for a few minutes”

The line immediately dropped and all that reverberated across the bridge was an awkward silence between the captain and the crew. Although, after the past 5 years, the crew had accustomed to his impatient temperament.

A deeper sounding voice echoed through fleet 17, “Captain, I’ve received word that you’re in need of a council member. I must pursuit that you do not use that tone with the AI, she is still a work in progress and can easily be overloaded. So Captain, what do you want?”

“I can easily grow tired of that adolescent brainless toaster. But on a more important matter, I have received a distress call requesting urgent help and want permission to depart, can you fulfill this order?”

The council member’s tone changed. It wasn’t anger, but it was clearly aggressive. “You know that the council wants the fleet to stay in orbit, don’t you, Captain. You are aware that your purpose is to defend Castallon, and not to go off on a jolly little mission to a planet that can barely sustain it’s own atmosphere. We can supply these orders, or we can refuse them. I suggest you take a serious look at how you address the people who control your entire career. I’ll be downgrading your com link’s status - you will have to wait until the Minister is available to take your request. So I urge you to hold on otherwise serious consequences could await you when you return. Do you copy?”

There was silence on the other line repeated, “Do you copy?”

Still nothing

With a sigh of anger, he let out, “I copy”

But he didn’t. He had made up his mind. He wanted to know what was going on at that messy little planet. He turned off the communication system and ordered the crew to prepare for departure. Despite being aware of how many laws they would be breaking, they were all pretty happy to get going - they all wanted to see what awaited them at the origin of the probe, despite the fact that the Captain’s motives were clearly centered around taking the glory for rescuing some helpless colonists.

The three massive ships turned in the sky, facing towards a small dim star, help back by the void. But the massive distances were no match for the warp drive that curled around this ship. The three ships darted across the void, and appeared in the sky over an entirely different world.