The Zero Factor

A tiny weapon, the size of a marble, sped through the void into human space. It searched for and locked on to its target. When it came parallel to S.D.D. Raven and attached itself to the hull.

On the bridge of S.D.D. Raven Lieutenant Commander Amy Zero finished her final sweep of their area of responsibility. Now they would wait to be relieved by S.D.D Rooke. She reported to Captain Merriel, “All is quiet in the void Captain, and Rooke has just come out of hyper-space.”

“Very good, Amy,” Matthew Merriel answered, “I think we’ve completed our rotation for this year.” Matt called to his security officer, “Roger, prepare to receive Rooke’s shuttle.”

“Yes sir”, Roger replied.

The shuttle approached Raven carrying Rooke’s senior officers. There would be a quick transfer of watch briefing, and then Raven would be on her way home. As the shuttle entered the hangar the tiny alien invader followed. Once inside the advanced micro logic carefully interrogated the ship’s main computer to get directions to the bridge.

The meeting was short and sweet. No one wanted lengthy speeches on the day they were rotating off the line. Captain Merriel and his bridge crew returned to their stations in time to see Rooke’s shuttle speed toward its ship. They also unknowingly gave the small weapon access to the bridge.

Excusing herself Commander Valerie Olson left the bridge to deal with some classified message traffic. On the way out she met her husband marine Lieutenant Scott Bort heading for the bridge. Scott spoke as he past. “I just have to give the captain a quick brief on the squad. How about some lunch in a few minutes.”

“Great Scott” Valerie answered, “I’ll be in the captain’s ready room. Come in when you’re ready.

Amy took one more look at the sensors before preparing her station for hyperspace. “Captain,” Amy called out puzzled by what she saw.

“Yes Amy, is something a miss?”

“Captain I’m reading a small moving foreign object on the bridge sir.”

“On the bridge?” Matthew questioned.

“Yes sir it’s . . .Oh God, there it is. What the hell is that?” Amy pointed as she rose from her chair.

“Well we’re not going to hang around here to find out.” Matt announced, “Clear the bridge, everyone out right now. I’ll transfer control to the backup systems in engineering.” Everyone moved toward the exit while Matt entered the commands. The alien sphere began to glow red and Amy yelled from the exit, Captain hurry!”

“Just one more code. Go on Amy, I’ll be along.”

“No Captain,” Amy stated as the sphere’s glow turned white, “I’m not leaving without you.”

“Commander get out of here, that’s an or . . .” The explosion flashed across the bridge blowing Amy back into the passageway. She pulled herself back up to see the bridge in a shambles. Fires burned here and there, sparks flew from the systems, and a small breech in the hull was sucking out everything with hurricane force. Captain Matthew Merriel was out cold lying on the deck bleeding with one leg severely twisted behind him. Bleeding herself Amy crawled along the deck through the hurricane that was sucking the air out of the room. Grunting and puffy Amy grabbed Matt’s shoulders with two hands and pulled back as if she were rowing a boat. She groaned and she pulled and she groaned and she pulled until she got her captain, back through the door. Puffing she told her unconscious captain. “Oh no, you’re not going anywhere. I’m not going to tell this crew that they lost their captain.”

Scott ran to the bridge. He got to the hall just in time to see Amy and the captain flop into the passageway. He ran up staring in disbelief at his two friends, and then he got on his wrist COM, “Medical emergency, in bridge access one. Get someone up here now!” Scott closed the link and rushed onto the bridge.

Amy yelled, “No Scott!” It was too late Scott rushed in and the door closed; a second explosion rocked the bridge.

Two weeks had past since the incident. The crew of Raven was back on Earth while the ship was being repaired. Amy was staring out the window of her uptown apartment in Chicago. She was thinking how life could turn on a dime. On minute you are on your way home with plans for your vacation, the next minute you’re on a table with med-techs putting you back together. Amy was healthy once again and Captain Merriel was well on his way to recovery. Raven was a different story. The ship would need plenty of work. As Amy wondered what task she would be assigned to in the interim, her video screen snapped on. She accepted the incoming call and Captain Linda Merriel’s face appeared. “Hello Amy how are you doing?”

“All patched up and frankly I’m a little bored.”

“First,” Linda said, “I have to thank you for keeping Matt safe for me. You put it on the line for my husband and I’ll never forget it.”

“I only did what he would have done for me, or anyone of his crew.”

“I know Amy, but that doesn’t change the fact that I have Matt home with me because of you. “

Amy changed the subject, “You know the Takelvee have been apologizing all over themselves to the directorate, and the Solarian Council. They claim the whole incident was an accident. They claim the weapon just got away from them. It’s all crap, but it seems it’s politically expedient for the Solarian Council to believe them so they’re going to get away with what they did to Raven.”

“I’m afraid so Amy. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.” Amy answered, “ the med-techs fixed me right up. Frankly, I can’t wait to get back to work.”

Linda smiled, that was just what she wanted to hear. “Raven will be out of commission for another few weeks. I have something you could help me with, if you are interested.”

“Anything Captain, what do you need?”

“Could you come to my office at S.S.A headquarters? I’d rather discuss it there. Can you be here by two?”

“This afternoon?” Amy questioned.

“I know it’s short notice”, Linda said, “ and if you need more time, I understand.”

“No, two is fine, I can make the noon shuttle without any problem. I’ll see you at two.”

“Thank you Amy, I’ll see you then.”

Amy took the noon shuttle to Houston. The Solarian Space Agency was located in the ancient National Aeronautic and Space Administration buildings. Most of the area was set aside as a museum to humanity’s early days in space.

Amy made her way to Linda’s office in the Alien Affairs section. She walked in as Linda was finishing a briefing. “Oh I’m sorry Captain, I’ll wait outside.”

“No no Amy, please come in.” Linda said.

Then she turned to the muscular young man before her, “Please excuse me for a moment Dan.”

Dan nodded and Linda went to Amy. She hugged the starship commander and said, “I know I’ve said this before, but I can never repay you for saving Matt’s life.”

“He would have done the same for me.” Amy repeated what she had said earlier; blushing a bit knowing Dan was looking on.

Linda stepped back and introduced the young man, “Commander Amy Zero this is Mr. Dan Naponiello. Dan is one of our best colony support specialists. He goes out and helps new colonies get started, sort of a Daniel Boone of our time.

Amy stared at the man. She knew that name, but it didn’t fit the person that was standing in front of her.

“He was my uncle.” Dan said answering Amy’s unspoken question, “I noticed that you wear the insignia of S.D.D. Raven. Were you on the alien ship?”

“No Amy answered, I was at sensor ops on Raven. Your uncle was quite a man. I want you to know that he didn’t only save those children; he also saved my best friend’s life. He won’t be forgotten by the crew of Raven, I can guarantee you that.”

“He loved kids.” Dan said with a half smile, and then he changed the subject, “Well I’m off to Dinas Four. It seems a colony is being started on a planet that dies for 500 years. Lucky for them it just woke up and it will be good for another thousand or so.”

“That is interesting”, Amy said with a smile. “Maybe Raven will stop by while you’re there.”

“If you do, come on by and have a drink with me.” Dan said as he moved through the door.

“Will do Dan, bye.”

“Now,” Linda said as she sat back in her chair, “to the reason I asked you to come here. I have a serious problem, and I need your help.”

“Anything Captain.”

“Amy, please call me Linda, we’re now too close to be that formal. OK, let me try to explain. You are among a relatively few members of the directorate who knows the full story in the file labeled under the code name of Valerie’s Children. In particular you are one of the few who knows the detailed physical description of the aliens known as Zeta Grays.”

“Yes. Linda, I know that security clamped down after the loss of the alien ship. Why are you so interested, I thought those miserable little creatures were all dead.”

“So did I until I read the description.” Linda answered, “There are even fewer people that have seen that description and have also seen on vid or read a description of the aliens at the Solarian/Epsilon transfer station.”

“Linda, are you saying that we have been supporting Zeta Grays at the transfer station for the last six years?”

“The descriptions are too close to be coincidence, they have to be a variation. These aliens are not gray, they are a milky white, but all other points of the description match. Being a member of that race in itself is not a crime.”

“What do you mean, not a crime? You know the story. How they came to Earth two hundred years ago. How they abducted humans, experimented on them, and built a slave colony of humans. If it wasn’t for the plague that wiped them out, all of humanity might have been sold into slavery.”

“I understand that Amy, but these are a small number of intelligent creatures. What should we do, condemn then to death because what their ancestors did?”

“I guess not; that would be the way the Takelvee would handle it.”

“Exactly, Amy, we don’t work that way, and if that was the only problem, I could handle it. That is not the only problem. After Matt and I figured out that the creatures at the station were likely to be Zeta Grays, we informed the directorate, the agency, and SPINTEL.”

“Is Matthew Bushman coming to investigate?” Amy asked with a bit of a twinkle in her eye.”

Linda smiled, “Oh yes, you did meet that dashing SPINTEL agent on Raven didn’t you? I’m afraid he and all the other Space Intelligence Service agents are on assignments. We will be joined by Lieutenant Ray Mockus.”

“Oh yes, I know Ray.” Amy said clearly happy with the choice. “He is chief of security on S.D.D. Fearless.”

“Yes Fearless is in space dock for their scheduled refit, and Ray jumped at the chance to help out. It seemed he had several weeks of paper work to look forward to.”

“So Linda, if the creatures being Zeta Grays isn’t the problem, then what is?”

“Well once Matt and I realized the connection we set up a little monitoring of events. As a matter of policy S.S.A. monitored all transmissions from the station from the day we turned it over to the aliens. In addition database access from the station was limited to purely wide disseminated civilian information, but I knew the alien’s talent with cybernetics. Matt checked the detailed movements of the ships in the Europa battle group. As you know, they are responsible for that sector. I used my influence to monitor SPINTEL information on Takelvee fleet movement. A correlation appeared. The correlation involved three factors. The first involved new information or orders received by the battle group. The second was the passing of a ship from the battle group within a light year of the station, and the third was SPINTEL reports that the Takelvee had moved to reposition shortly after our ship passed the station. This happened several times. The last time, and this I will never forgive myself for, was when Raven was ordered into the third Voidian sector to investigate a possible secret Takelvee base.”

“Yes, we nailed it.” Amy said, “Its cover was no match for our Dragon class sensors.”

“Yes, I know. You found it because their counter to the move came too late.”

“Linda, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that its likely that the Takelvee got word that Raven was headed for that area of space and sent the mini-mine to disable your ship before it could find their base. They knew that there were no other dragon class ships available, and that they could easily hide from normal sensors. S.D.D Strongbow made a close pass to the station the day before you entered the sector. I should have warned Matt, I almost got my own husband killed.

“Linda, that’s all speculation. Even if you warned us, we still had to follow orders. That base had to be found. That mini-mine was a brand new trick of theirs. You can’t blame yourself for this. What we can do now is fix it. Why not just tell the directorate and have the Europa battle group shut them down for good?”

“Not yet Amy, we have to find out how they are passing the information. As I said, we have been monitoring them from the beginning and we never picked up a transmission. This is some kind of new stealth technology that they or the Takelvee have developed. We must find out how it works, and how to counter it. Who knows where else it is being used, and that’s where you come in.”

I always take the science ship Carl Sagan to the station. This time the ship will be carrying Ravenous One. We will drop it and you off before we get to the station. It will be a quick drop just as we come out of hyperspace. I want the transition fields to clover your exit from the ship. Once out the shuttle will be too small from them to notice unless it was right on top of them.”

“Linda, do you mean S.D.D Raven’s number one shuttle craft?”

That’s right, Linda answered, “It has the same dragon sensor suite as Raven. Its size just limits its range. Range won’t be a problem for you. There are two things that need to be checked out. First is the cloud of debris that was created when the alien’s ship blew up six years ago. I would like the dragon sensors to tell us the true story of that ship. Second is the station itself. Cover it inch by inch and look for anything new added to it.”

“Where will you be during this time?”

“Ray and I will be keeping the aliens busy in the station. Ray knows some subtle ways of inspecting their system. Weather they know it or not, we have been learning quite a bit from them over the last six years. Their cybernetic talents still amaze us, but they are no longer so magical. Ray believes he can track down the software that they use for transmitting. We hope to get enough data to determine the make up of the stealth communication technology. That, combined with your outside inspection may give us enough information to devise a counter to the technology.”

“Linda?”

“Yes Amy?”

“What if the aliens have picked up some of our data on the Zeta Grays? Wouldn’t that tip them off to your intentions?”

“That’s possible Amy, but this stealth communication is a great danger. If there’s a chance that we can get a handle on it, it’s worth the risk. I have to do this Amy. I got humanity into this mess, and I intend to get them out.”

“We’ll get humanity out of this Linda, and we’ll take the stealth communication technology as payment for Raven.”

The science ship Carl Sagan cruised in hyperspace on course to the Solarian/Epsilon transfer station. Linda explained a few more things to her crew of two before going to her quarters to make some personal notes. “The ride out of the ship will be rough Amy, the controls will be very hard to handle.”

“I understand Captain, I’m ready for it.” Amy answered.

“Also,” Linda continued, “I’ll be wearing a low power scrabbled transmitter. I want you to hear everything that’s going on in the station while you are out here. I hoping I can get them to give you some hints as to where to look. Keep your communication system on at all times.”

“Yes Captain.” Amy knew Linda deserved the respect of her rank when they were on a mission.

Linda then excused herself and went to her quarters.

With the autopilot engaged, Ray turned to Amy, “It’s nice to see you again Amy. How is Commander Kosek doing, last time I heard he had duty on S.D.D Venger.”

“Yeah, he’s on Venger”, Amy answered, “I’m sure he’s doing fine. We’ve haven’t had much contact lately. It’s no big deal, just one of those things. I got busy, and he got busy. It just didn’t seem to be much point, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I know.” Ray tried to look concerned, but he couldn’t hide the smile in his eyes from Amy. That in turn brought a smile to her face and she asked, “How about you? Any plans of settling down in the near future.”

“Who me; heck no”, Ray answered. “I’m sure one of these days a lady will give me a good reason to settle down, but so far I don’t see any.” Then Ray flashed an inviting smile and said, “I sure hope they keep trying.”

“Oh I’m sure they will, but you have to convince them to settle down to. What makes you think you guys have corner on all the fun of single life?”

“Touché Amy.” Ray said as the navigation system indicated a count down to normal space insertion.

Linda called to Amy, “Amy it’s time to get to the shuttle. We’ll want to drop you out as soon as we get in normal space.”

“On my way Captain.”

Deep space flashed with the entry of the Carl Sagan into normal space. A second later the shuttle bay doors opened and Amy fired up the shuttle’s thrusters. Ravenous One shot out of the science ship like an old time jet plane off an aircraft carrier. Amy had a death grip on the controls, as the shuttle was banged side to side and up and down by the turbulence. She was jerked so violently that she was afraid her head would come off her shoulders, but she hung on and maintained control of the craft. Her view screen was filled with wave after wave of green, orange, and blue hyperspacial waves crashing into the shuttle one after another. With the same strength she used to pull her captain out of the wreck bridge, Amy fought and kept control. After what seem like forever, the waves disappeared and the shuttle settled down. Amy slumped on the controls exhausted.

Carl Sagan made a smooth entrance into the Solarian/Epsilon transfer station. Three of the twelve aliens in the station greeted Linda and Ray. “Welcome Captain Merriel. I see you have brought a new friend with you.”

“Yes,” Linda said with a smile all the while wishing she could straggle these little creatures with her bare hands. “This is Ray Mockus he piloted the Carl Sagan for me on this trip. He’s also here to do regular maintenance on the systems.”

“Oh maintenance is not necessary,” the alien said quickly, “we maintain the systems in peak running condition.”

“I’m sure you do, but this is one of our regulations. In fact it’s long over due. It should have been done five solar years after you received the station. It won’t take long, I promise.”

The situation definitely made the aliens nervous. Linda was beginning to wish she had used another tact, but it was too late now. Finally the alien said very well. We would never attempt to lock you out of your own system.”

Linda thought to herself, “Yeah, right.”

Linda led the aliens away asking about their progress on the new ship flight-training simulator they were building for the agency. Ray went to work. He used some of the alien’s own advanced cybernetic techniques to carefully inspect software running, stored, and hidden. He knew it would be a long process, and he knew he had to be careful.

Amy brought the shuttle into the area of space known as the shipping lanes. All merchant shipping maintained the same routes between star systems; that way if a freighter got into trouble and dropped out of hyperspace, that the searchers would know where to look. Just off the shipping lanes several hours from the station was a large cloud of debris. It was what was left of the alien’s ship, or so they said.

Setting autopilot, Amy shifted to the sensor operations seat. “OK cloud, tell me your story.” This was Amy’s specialty and her love. She had once claimed that the galaxy was calling out begging to tell millions of stories and to reveal all its mysteries. All we had to do was to learn how to listen. Amy now listened to the story that this cloud was telling her. Each particle was like a stroke of an artist’s brush on the canvas of the truth. Each particle added another piece to the picture. The picture clearly contained the explosion of the spacecraft, a large spacecraft. The metal alloys were not of human origin. Ravenous’ database did contained information about the construction of the Zeta Gray ship. The alloy did match the ones in that ship. There was no doubt the creatures were Zeta Gray.

So far, it seemed their story was true. They claimed that the ship was a lifeboat carrying the remains of their race. Knowing the big ship’s anti-matter containment was failing, they left in search of help. The ship exploded only hours after they left. All evidence pointed to that being the case until she began a detailed look and the organic remnants in the cloud. The DNA of the remnants wasn’t alien it was human. Every sample she tested came out the same. Over and over again she collected samples from every point in the cloud. Every time the results showed human DNA. In addition, it also indicated that the organic matter was frozen before it entered the absolute zero of space. The humans were in cryogenic freeze when they died. Amy looked up from the analysis display and stared out at the cloud. All she could say was, “Those little bastards.”

The cloud provided a few more chapters to the story. Amy gobbled them up like a starving child before moving the shuttle toward the station.

In the station Linda came up with stories of her own. She tried everything to hold the aliens’ attention while Ray worked. Half way through a fable about how she could provide the aliens with details of a dragon class destroyer, she was buzzed.

“Captain, I’m sorry to disturb you but I have a problem. I’ve been trying all this time to get the system to respond to the system diagnostic unit that S.S.A. gave me. Captain, they gave me the wrong unit. The station was built with 1376-4A equipment. They gave me a 4B SDU. Could you please come down here and sign off on this situation?”

Linda answered, “I’ll be there in a minute Ray,” and closed the link.

Linda rolled her eyes and told the aliens, “Ray is a fine pilot, but he is only a stand in for the regular computer tech, and I afraid not a very good one. I guess we’ll have to take your word for the condition of the systems. Please excuse me for a moment.” As she left Linda thought she noticed a smile of relief on the alien faces.

Linda moved quickly to where Ray worked on the system. “OK Ray, talk fast, I’m sure they’ll be right behind me.”

“I found it Captain, but it’s a bit confusing. I can track the new code they put in as it routs messages out of the system, but it ends up controlling some kind of accelerator that propels matter, not transmissions, out of the station.”

“That’s it!” Linda exclaimed, “That’s how they’re getting past the monitors. They are sending out some kind of coded matter. However, I can’t even guess how that eventually gets to where its going. There have been theories on this. Since its matter and not energy, it can’t be detected by an monitoring technique. With a signal radiance of zero, it was given the name ‘The Zero Factor’.

“That’s good speculation Captain, but it’s nothing if we can’t determine what kind of matter, and how it moves through space.”

Linda thought for a moment then said, “If we could only get them to send a message. Amy could lock on it and analyze the crap out of it. We could get enough data on it to render the technology useless.”

“I can send a message Captain,” Ray stated, “I can even direct it to the Takelvee warlord of your choice.”

Linda stared at Ray, “Ray, you’re brilliant! Amy is monitoring our conversation, I’m sure she’ll be ready.”

Ray tried to slow his captain down for a moment, “There is one small catch Captain. If I do it, our alien friends will know, and they won’t be very happy.”

Linda didn’t hesitate, “Do it Ray, we’ll deal with that later.”

“OK Captain here goes.”

Linda was right Amy was ready. She had already discovered a mysterious opening on the side of the station that had been constructed in the recent past. When the tiny bit of matter shot out of the station, Amy had every sensor waiting and working. “OK, you bit of alien trash, now you tell me your story.” Amy was amazed at the complexity of the tiny grain of matter. It contained a bit of organic matter in a form of stasis. The message was locked in the DNA code of the organism. It also contained a few atoms of ant-mater coupled in magnetically. The matter moved at 19000 miles per hour, and at 500 miles out it flashed into hyperspace. “Impressive”, Amy said to herself, “but I got you now.”

After all the data was gathered Amy turned her thoughts to the next problem. Her friends would certainly be in danger in the station. How could she help them? She began studying the station’s layout.

Ray was also right. It took only a few minutes for the aliens to react. Coming down the hall in both directions were four huge blank faced robots.

“What the hell are they?” Ray said.

“They’re called holo-bots. They were used for entertainment for the merchant crews years ago.”

“Well,” Ray said, “I don’t think they plan to sing and dance for us, and I don’t plan to dance either. Ray brought a palm size pulse laser out from his sock. “Always be prepared is what I say.”

“I agree.” Linda said as she drew an identical weapon out of her sleeve.

They fired at the approaching robots opening up an avenue of escape. As they dashed down the hall and around the corner, Ray called out, “Now what Captain?”

Linda answered,. “As long as the aliens control the hangars, there is no escape.”

“Then,” Ray said, “I’d say the best defense in a good offense. Let’s go after them.”

“Agreed,” Linda said, “follow me.”

A minute later four more robots blocked their way. Once again they blasted their way through. They jogged down another hall only to be met by four more.

Damn,” Ray yelled, “are all these halls monitored? How do they know where we’re going?”

“God, I’m so stupid, “Linda said in disgust. “It’s our badges. My S.S.A badge and your S.D.D. Fearless badge. They’re tracking the microchip in the badges.”

They tore the badges off, but it was too late. They were pinned against the wall with twenty robots stepping over the remains of the ones struck down. With their laser energy depleted, the humans awaited their fate

“Damn!” Amy said out loud as she heard the her companions being captured. Linda was clever enough to give Amy a running commentary on the events. Now Amy had a decision to make. If she sent the message informing the directorate of what she knew, the aliens would detect her presence. That would make a rescue attempt impossible.

However, if she attempted a rescue and failed, the aliens would certainly destroy the shuttle, and all evidence of the transmission technique before the directorate could respond.

With no time to ponder the details Amy went with the one simple truth. She would never leave her friends. She set up the system to send the information to the Europa battle group in an hour. Then she prepared herself.

Even with the shuttle’s dragon class sensor suppression, it could not get within two miles of the station without being detected. During her inspection of the station Amy had found a maintenance entrance port. If the aliens hadn’t changed the codes, that could be her entrance point. All she had to do was get there.

There was only one way and Amy knew it. She would have to jump. Amy was trained in propelling herself from one ship to another as part of her starship qualifications. That jump was just a quarter of a mile and she could guide herself with a jet pack. This would be a two mile jump, and there were no jet packs in the shuttle.

She packed a full size laser pistol and spare power packs. Then she suited up making sure she left her S.D.D Raven badge behind.

The aft chamber depressurized and the door opened. Amy stood at the edge looking out at the dead blackness of space. The millions of stars in all directions took away any frame of reference. Amy was breathing heavy and her heart was pounding. The computers in the shuttle and in her suit had positioned her perfectly. All she had to do was leap forward. That’s all. Logically she knew that, but there she was standing on the edge of nothingness. The station was a tiny blinking dot in the vast night. She had to concentrate on that dot. She summoned all of her strength and intelligence and leaped forward.

There was no feeling of movement. No objects went by to tell her she was moving. No wind in her face, no body movement or engine sounds. She had to fight the urge to flail her arms. She had to remain still to maintain her course. Going off course would mean certain death. Nothingness and silence surrounded her as she stared at the dot that slowly became a cylinder.

After an eternity of wondering if she would reach the station, Amy now wondered how hard she would hit. As she approached, she slowly brought up her arms and legs. On impact she kept her limbs loose to cushion the blow.

She was there. She made it. After letting out a sigh of relief she looked around. The maintenance port was about fifty feet to her left. She couldn’t help imagining herself as a spider on a wall as she carefully crawled toward the port.

As she reached the port she wondered if the aliens had changed the code. It’s likely they would have left it alone fearing changing it would draw attention. She also wondered if they would notice her entering the station through the port. “No use questioning now,” she told herself. Amy entered the access code and the door opened.

The Solarian/Epsilon transfer station was a rest stop for freighter crews on the long haul between Sol and Epsilon Indi in the days before the new hyper drive. The aliens had managed it since S.S.A allowed them to use it as their home six years ago. Freighters stopped calling at the station four years ago leaving their only visitors being curious scientist and journalists. The station itself was a three level apartment building with ample space to give every member of a freighter crew their own apartment equipped with a kitchen, bedroom, and entertainment room. The senior officers had some more luxurious accommodations on the upper level.

The station was also equipped with android robots that contained a hologram projector. These robots were called holo-bots. The guest could order these robots to appear and act like any person real or imagined. They were the stations main entertainment and they were very popular with the freighter crews.

Amy moved out of the access tube in her spacesuit. She didn’t want to be stuck in a room that could be opened to space without protection. She found the door to the closest apartment open, and slipped in.

Amy kicked off her spacesuit and said out loud, “OK, now what?” The computer on her wrist gave her a layout of the station. The information that Linda was able to relate to her was superimposed on the display.

After thinking for a few moments Amy reconfigured the small computer to detect extremely low energy signals repeating between 40 to 100 times per minute. She knew she couldn’t pick up anything verbal with the small system, but she could detect a simple beat, even at low energy. In the hope that Linda’s tiny transmitter would pick up her heartbeat and transmit it, Amy started the task.

It worked, but the direction finding was limited. At the present it could only tell her that she was on the wrong level. She had to go up one level to the senior officer’s quarters.

Carefully leaving the room Amy moved down the hall staying against the wall. Her senses were sharp and her weapon was ready.

Avoiding the turbo-lift, Amy climbed the ladder between levels. With every step the direction finding improved. Now she knew where she was going, but she had no idea what would be waiting for her.

Halfway down the hall Amy’s wrist system started beeping. “Damn!” she said as she ducked into the nearest apartment.

Looking at the incoming message, she knew things just got tougher. The shuttle was transmitting its data. The aliens would surely detect the transmission and begin a search. Amy careful searched the room, and found what she was looking for, a pin size metal piece protruding from the wall in the corner of the entertainment room. It was an ultra-sonic motion sensor and as she watched it, it began the softly glow the system was active. Amy knew this system well and knew she couldn’t be quiet enough to avoid detection. There was only one other option. She opened the apartment door then went to the entertainment system and cranked up the loudest music she could find. Rushing into the small kitchen she grabbed pots and pans and utensils. She rushed out of the door and threw the armload of kitchen hardware down the hall. As it clanged across the floor she dashed in the other direction.

As she turned a corner a robot appeared at the end of the hall. Looking behind her, she saw another. It seemed the aliens decided on a brute force approach. Amy stepped into another apartment only to come face to blank face with a six foot five inch robot.

She fired her weapon as she dodged the robots swing. Her shot opened up a gash in the robot, but it did not stop it. She raised her weapon again, but the robot knocked it out of her hand. Then it grabbed her by the lapels and jerked her straight into the air, and slammed her down on a small table. The table collapsed under the force throwing the robot off balance.

Amy was able to wrench herself out of the grip of the teetering machine and roll away. The robot was still between her and her weapon so she needed to maneuver Rolling to her feet brought her into the small kitchen area. By the sink there was a plastic water pitcher. She filled it as the robot came at her again.

As the machine raised its arms, Amy dumped the water into the gash made by the laser. The robot froze. Sparks and smoke poured out of the opening.

Amy moved around the shorted out machine, grabbed her weapon, and gave it a shot for good measure, then she stumbled into the hall. She was sweating heavily. Her uniform was ripped and she was gasping for air. Her shoulder was killing her, “probably separated”, she told herself.

All this just made her mad. She checked the charge in her weapon, slapped the cartridge back in, stepped into the hall, and called out, “OK you guys. You want to play rough? Let’s rock and roll!” A robot appeared in the hall and Amy gunned it down, another appeared and another went down.

“Bring’em on!” she yelled. Just then her wrist system picked a strong signal in the room up ahead. The rate and rhythm were wrong for Linda or Ray, they must be aliens. The door opened as she approached and a robot stepped out. Amy got it as soon as it stepped into the hall. It stood motionless and Amy could see two aliens behind it. They quickly tried to close the door. Amy jumped in the air and threw a sidekick to the robot’s chest. The machine went over backwards blocking the door and jamming it open.

“Don’t move!” Amy yelled as she stepped on the dead metal, “no on second thought, please move then I can cut you to pieces.”

The tiny thin white aliens looked at her with their big black eyes. One smiled its lipless smile as it spoke in odd sounding Earth Common. “We know human females are gentle creatures. Destroying robots is one thing, but killing an unarmed living creature face to face is not in your nature is it?” As he spoke he was reaching for something behind him.

Amy fired without hesitation. The alien’s large skull exploded covering his companion with its pieces. Amy turned her weapon on him, “Do you have an opinion on that subject?”

The fear was apparent even on an alien face. It froze it position. “Deactivate the robots!” Amy yelled.

“I cannot do that from here.”

Amy fired and the laser bolt streaked by the alien’s head. If it had protruding ears, it would have taken one off. “Wrong answer.” Amy said with a smile, “I know better than that.”

The alien touched the buttons on the panel before him and said in a shaky voice, “It is done, do not fire.”

Amy motioned toward the maintenance closet in the corner. “Open it.”

The alien did as she ordered. Inside was a roll of heavy wire. “Excellent,” Amy said, then she order. Turn away from the closet, kneel down, and put your hands on your head.

The alien complied and Amy moved to the cabinet. She pulled out the wire and cut off a long length. Grabbing the bony alien hands she put them behind its back and wrapped them in wire. She brought the write up and wrapped around its neck then looped it again over the wraps between the alien’s hands.

She held the free end in her hand and ordered the creature to stand. Looking at it she said, “By the adornment on your uniform, you must be senior around here. You better hope your friends will follow your orders. OK. Let’s go.”

Out the door and down the hall they went. Amy suspiciously eyed each motionless robot. Finally they stopped at the door to the captain’s quarters. Amy said, “Open it.”

This time the creature did not try to bluff. Amy made the alien step into the doorway and she remained in the hall. All ten of the remaining aliens were in the room, and two human figures were in the left corner. Amy checked her wrist then look up.

She called out, “Release your hostages at once or your leader and the rest of you will die.”

“There is no need for that.” The alien said, “we have explained our situation to your captain and she has understood. We were at the mercy of the Takelvee. If we did not send messages they would kill what remained of our people.”

Linda Merriel stood up, “That’s right Commander. Lower your weapon and release their leader. We can work this out to our advantage.”

Amy answered, “So then I should tell Dan to bring the shuttle to station.”

“That’s correct Commander, as soon as possible.” Linda answered.

Amy quietly told the tied alien, “Drop to the floor or get it in the back of the head.” The alien quickly went down. Amy fired three times. The first two struck the robots pretending to be human hostages, and the third killed the alien that was speaking.

Amy yelled out, “Does anyone else want to give me a bull shit story? Free the hostages now. I know they are here, and I know you were planning to use them to negotiate an escape. She pointed her weapon at the next alien in site. Ten seconds or this one dies.”

The leader yelled something in its own language from the floor, and an alien moved quickly. A few seconds later the two humans were led out of the bedroom. They seemed to be in good condition. Amy released the leader and he joined the other aliens.

“We had to do what we did. We had no choice.” The leader spoke up. “We are not the last of our species. There are others, but there are all being held in slavery by the Takelvee. They would work our brethren to death if we didn’t supply them with information. They knew of this station so they taught us how to use their communication device and set us here. We had no choice.”

“Really,” Amy said, “I suppose the destruction of the ship was to make it appear the you had escaped just in time and sought refuge here?”

“That is correct. The Takelvee had it well planned. They used one of their old freighters and the filled it with bodies of slaves and even some of their own dead to make the loss of life apparent.”

“I see.” Amy said staring at the alien in disgust, “Then it was a Takelvee freighter that you came here in?”

“That’s right.” The leader answered.

“That’s wrong!” Amy yelled in its face raising her weapon. “The ship that exploded in this area six years ago was not a Takelvee ship. It was one of your own slave ships hauling a cargo of humans. You have underestimated our capabilities of detection. Every organic sample I took contained human DNA. You murdered over one thousand helpless humans just to have an excuse to enter this station. The game is up. We know who and what you are.”

Amy then raised her weapon. Linda was shocked, “Amy, what are you doing. These aliens will answer for what they did, but not this way.”

“I’m sorry Captain, but I need a little more out of them. They will tell me or they will die. I believe we have uncovered something here.”

Then Amy turned to the leader. “You know what I’m capable of. You’ve seen me do it twice before, and I promise you that you will be next if you don’t give me the answers that I want. “What’s the timetable for the use of the portal?”

“What?” Linda stared at Amy. “Amy, did you discover an alien portal.”

“Yes, just like the one used by the ship that Commander Olson was on. It can propel their sub-light ships through hyperspace from one portal to another. Until now only their ships could use them.”

“What do you mean, until now?” Ray asked.

“The matter based messages were sent to their destination through the portal.”

“Land sakes,” Linda said, “I thought there was a Takelvee spy ship out there some where picking them up. It never occurred to me that the matter could travel to its destination on its own. That is important news.”

“That’s not the half of it.” Amy said, “I detected ion trails going from the portal to the station, Small craft, but craft that could travel through hyperspace on their own. There were three sets of trails. They came from progressively larger ships. I think they were experiments.”

Amy pointed her weapon at the leader again, “Am I right? Are you testing to see if the portal will transfer Takelvee warships?”

“Of course not.” The leader said, “Why would we help the Takelvee? They destroyed our planet. Yes, we did some regrettable things in the past, but we have matured as a species since then. We . . .”

Amy let go a laser bolt the shot past the alien’s head. “Don’t give me that. You are working for the Takelvee because you have a common goal; the destruction of the Solarian Federation.”

The alien sneered, “We work for no one. The Takelvee are brutes, big strong, powerful and stupid. All they think of is firepower that is why you beat them at every turn. We of the Cleyax have reached an agreement with the Takelvee. We are minuscule is every way compared to them, but we have a secret weapon that keeps them at our heel. They have found it quite profitable to listen to our council, but there is no love lost between our peoples. We could just as easily give our council to the Solarian Federation. In fact, for the right incentive, we could seriously damage the Takelvee Hegemony All you have to do is release my companions and give them transport. I will stay with you as hostage and negotiator. To let you know my offer is genuine, I’ll tell you that the portal was to be used to the transfer of a full Taket Macaw within one your years. The experiments were on schedule.”

“A Taket Macaw is equivalent to our battle group in number of ships and fire power,” Linda said, “and they would appear between the Europa battle group and the colonies that they were protecting. Four Solarian colonies would have been helpless before them.”

“There you see. “The leader said, “I have given you the lives of tens of millions of your citizens. That should be worth a little consideration.”

Amy just smiled, “But you have nothing to negotiate with.”

The leader was surprised by her tone, “We have a weapon that can wipe out your greatest enemy. All you need to do is discuss the situation. Take us to your decision makers. I’m sure they would see the value in our proposal.”

Linda just stared at the alien in disbelief, “With all the information that you had about us in these data banks, and all you learned from your brutal abduction and enslavement of our people, you still do not know us. We do not seek the extermination of the Takelvee. We seek only peace and cooperation. We will fight to the death for our right to exist in this galaxy, but we also respect the rights of all species to exist, even the Takelvee, and yes even yours.”

Amy added, “We are well aware of your so called secret weapon. We have it and we can use it against the Takelvee ourselves, but we don’t act that way. The bacterium that nearly destroyed your race has become your weapon. We have a sample of that bacterium. There is no more to say.”

The Europa battle group arrived and took possession of the station and the aliens. Amy Linda and Ray returned to Earth. Ray walked Amy out of S.S.A. headquarters. Ray said, “I’d like to ask you to have dinner with me, but I have to insist that you leave the laser pistol at home.

“Amy laughed, “Don’t worry as long as you’re not a three foot tall alien or a six foot tall robot, you’re pretty safe.”