posted 07-20-2003 07:57 AM            

Riley shrugged gently then looked out the window. “We’re slowing from warp…”

And they were, the Doppler shifted stars, streaking past them slowed and became pinpricks of light. Sarah walked to the front compartment where her husband and Rocky sat guiding the shuttle. “We’re an hour out Commander,” Rocky said crisply as he looked over his shoulder.

“And we already have our guard dog,” Yuhon said trying to be a bit jovial but it was clear he still wasn’t happy with the arrangements. “A heavy destroyer. Also, this was transmitted to us, took a while to run it through the translation protocols,” Yuhon handed his wife a PDA with scrolling text. “We won’t be allowed universal translators.”

Riley and Rocky blinked at that, rocky was the first to respond verbally. “But, why, if we can’t use the translators we won’t be able to understand what they are saying.”

“They’re providing their own personnel supposedly trained in English for translation,” Yuhon replied.

“I don’t like it,” Riley said with a frown. “If they are in control of the translators, we’ll have no idea just weather what they are saying will be true or not.”

Sarah smiled gently. “We will, trust me.”

Just then a beeper began to sound at the science station, which Riley immediately stepped into, fingers flying across the smooth touch pad interface and display, he frowned. “Commander, I’m getting high level fallout radiation off the long range passive sensors.” ‘Long range’ was a relative term for the Ark Royal, although she was larger than the other shuttles Galatea carried, it still could not equal the power of her mothership’s main sensor array.

Sarah frowned and walked the short two steps to that station, her voice suddenly in what Rocky himself had quietly termed ‘commander mode.’ While still its gentle soothing quality, it had a commanding air about it, something that just made you want to obey her. “Where?”

Riley spent a fraction of a second scanning his display, ten tapped it gently with the index finger of his right hand. “Here, thirty thousand kilometers from our current coarse. Its their habitable moon.”

Sarah turned to Rocky, “put a image up on the viewer.”

Rocky wordlessly and efficiently replied, the small flat-screen viewing apparatus that hung between the two forward stations came to life and flickered for a brief moment before the view changed to a composite of the moon.

“Good lord…” Sarah breathed quietly as she looked at the display. The moon had a standard rotation just as the planet, cloud cover brilliant green forests and a tranquil crystal blue equatorial ocean. It looked, as it should, save for the view that was slowly rotating towards them on the northern hemisphere. Where there should have been more lush vegetation, there were nothings save charred and blacked earth. While she couldn’t tell exactly how big it was, but from the rough scale she could figure in her mind, it was at least a hundred kilometers across. She knew what it was, J’rella had told her of it, still, she was not prepared for this. “Can you tell how?” She asked a tiny quaver in her voice.

Riley girded the charred portion of the moon on the display, pulling it up and magnifying it, the, he overlade a series of shades of reds some lighter, some darker, there were five bright red, almost white blobs. “It looks like five thermonuclear devices, placed here, here, here, here and here…” he tapped each of the bright spots with his finger. “One at each, well, for a better want of a term ‘corner’ of the zone, and one right in the middle. Ma’am, from the readings I have? Each of the devices used is bigger than anything the United States or the old Soviet Union ever employed. I can’t give you an exact figure, but rough estimate? Each device had about a two hundred megaton nominal yield.”

The word ‘megaton’ sent shivers up rocky and Yuhon’s spine, Sarah could feel the apprehension clearly from the young helm officer, and her husband’s thoughts were completely open to her because of their bond. At the height of the Cold War, the largest device either side ever employed had a yield of fifty megatons. If Riley was right, and Sarah was not one to distrust the fox, just one of those devices had been four times as powerful.

“Anyone inside that zone would have been killed,” Yuhon breathed silently. “No one would have ever had a chance. Just one of those weapons would probably have done the job, but whoever planned this went for overkill. They wanted to make sure whoever was there was dead.”

“It would have been quick, no one probably even knew what happened, just a bright flash…” Riley said slowly, knowing his words would be little comfort.

“But why?” Rocky asked quietly.

Sarah sighed and closed her eyes, removing her glasses to rub the bridge of her muzzle. “That zone was the site chosen for one of the Kilrathi’s most important religious festivals twenty-five years ago. The Emperor and Empress, along with the entirety of the royal family and some members of Parliament from the original united empire, along with several hundred thousand members of their armed forces and civilians were celebrating their religion when… when those weapons went off…” One could help but hear the catch in her voice, but no one thought any less of her, after all, the deaths of so many needlessly would hurt anyone, not just an empath.

“And then a few days later, those two task forces under narr Hress’ control warped in-system and hit the Imperial Home Fleet. The fleet fought back but they were outnumbered and out gunned…” Yuhon nodded silently, everyone knew the story after the discovery of the derelict of the Kilrah’ah. Her data core and the last message from her captain had filled in some blanks in the Parliamentary understanding of those last days of the united empire. “They still stood their ground though, got all the evacuee ships that were able to launch before the Baron landed on Kilrah safely away from the system….”

Their thoughts were interrupted as the comm. system came to life with the orbital control officer’s voice. “Shuttle Ark Royal, you are to land at beacon four eighths and three, you will not deviate from your current course or you will be fired upon, out.”

Rocky blinked at the curt, short reply. “Boy that was, well, rude…”

Sarah nodded and sighed as she slowly turned back towards the aft compartment. “I’m going to go change. Let’s just hope we don’t have any surprises waiting for us…” Yuhon however knew his wife, and knew the subtle difference in the tone of her voice, she knew that ‘surprises’ were probably going to happen, and they would probably be traveling with a fifth companion, a man named Murphy…

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(Krystie) Shawn, I think I am pregnant....