Well its been a year and change since I wrote part 1. I figured it was time to write part 2, and let everyone know I still exsist. LOL.....
If you have not done so... I strongly suggest reading part 1, before reading part 2.
It's located here!Norad knew what he saw, and knew it was true, but he still could not get his head around it. "Thats not possible! The blight would have killed anything living on the planets surface."
Nemesis's one panel glowed for a momet then flickered, settling on a lava flow picture before it spoke again. "As the Admiral pointed out 90 years or so ago, there was evidence of humans living inside lightly effected blight areas prior to you going into cryo sleep. However I do not believe these to be the same people or even decendants of them. I believe they are new colonists."
That stunned Norad even more then some decendants of former residents living there. Short of the ÂÐL and Eden, there were not any humans, or at least there was'nt 90 years ago. Plymouth had essentially given up not long after Eden's final lift off, what remained of them had been blended into the ÂÐL, or had splintered into one of the other various clans of the now long distant past. So far as Norad knew no other clan had achieved starflight.
"Specter wake the rest of the crew."
"Yes General." Came the reply from his own Savant.
"Alright Nemesis so we have a ship approaching the planet of unknown origins, a colony on the surface that may have come from that appraoching ship, a lifeless planet that now has water and other natural resources. No weapons for several hours due to the damage to the MHDs. Care to give me anything in the way of good news I can give the Admiral when he wakes?"
Nemesis's screen flickered and shifted several times finally his screen went dark. "Yes tell him its sunny and 75 outside, with an 11% chance of rain, and he can retire his rock suit."
Despite himself Norad laughed for a moment. "Ok Nemesis, let me define the question some. Any thing of relevance to the or any situation we face that can be considered good news."
For the 1st time Norad could ever remember the answer was short and came with no Delay. "No."
He took the lift to the now ancient Command Center. When he got there he sat in the command chair, and started bringing up screens, setting up for what would be one hell of a really bad meeting. It was'nt long before Red Sonya entered the CC.
"S3 wants to know how you managed to piss Nemesis off, and why your awake before he is."
He spun on his heel and was about to lay into her, when he realized she had her hand up, and was smiling. "Relax General. Specter already gave him at least a partial report, and Nemesis is Nemesis, at least thats what the Admiral said when Nemesis refused to answer any questions he posed to it."
Norad looked at the floor for a moment and then said, "That damned computer of his is more tempermental then the Admiral himself."
They looked at each other for a moment and then in unison said, "Nemesis is Nemesis." and then laughed for a few seconds.
Norad took a moment or 2 before he brought Red upto speed on the situation. Together they powered up several vecs stored below level 3 and began to program them for return to the surface. Normally they would have let Nemesis or Specter, or Red's Savant Lore handle it, but given the situation they felt it best to handle this them selves, while they waited for the rest of the crew and the Admiral to wake up. It took about 30 minutes before the 1st of the vecs started thier assent from the lower levels. Some of them required repairs due to thier long dormancy, however most were working like the day they fell off the assembly line.
As the 1st Thors Hammer Tiger rolled off its lift and began to make its way to the bases outer edge to begin its patrol the Admiral walked in with several other members of the crew. "Report." Was all he said.
Red Sonya spun in her chair to face him, "Sir approximatly 75% of the vecs in storage are still in operable condition, most of them are in what i would consider great condition given thier age and years of unuse. Myself and General Norad have programmed roughly 1/2 of those operational and they are making thier way to the surface or are already doing thier assigned tasks. I saw to it a spider pack was dispatched to the MHDs to make repairs."
The Admiral folded his hands in his lap and arched his right eyebrow. Red quickly got the hint, "Other then that the colony needs some minor repairs here and there, however all in all we should be back to 95% operational capacity by days end."
"Whats stopping us from reaching 100% Commander?"
"Mostly, resources sir. Seems the Blight left some effects behind, essentially nullifing our exsisting sources of Command and Rare ores near by. While I am sure we can squeze some out of the exsisting mines, we will have to create new ones to get back in full swing. The big problem with that is we lack the data presently to lcate a new mine easily. The EDWARDS Sat is no longer operational."
"Prepare a new one for launch."
It was Norads time to chime in, "Sir, its not so much that the Sattelite no longer works, its not longer suitable for the planet type. We're going to have to get the sciences division to make modifications to the package before we deploy another one. I have deployed 6 Robo-surveyors to search for new ore deposites, with luck some can be found in short order."
"Very well. Next order of buisiness, where are my ships, and have we any contact with any remnants of the ÂÐL presently?"
Norad figured it was a good time to be as quick and short as Nemesis was earlier that day. "No idea and No."
While S3 did raise his right eyebrow, he gave no pause and instead issued orders to various members of the crew. The top priority was of course contacting someone who can tell them what had happened to the ADL. Secondary objectives at this time were to figure out who that colony was, and who that ship belonged to. For the next several hours the CC was a hive of activity with comm channels being opened and closed, survey teams and scout units dispatched to find out more about the planet and its seemingly new inhabitants.
It was several hours before anyone had anything concrete to give anyone, during the entire time S3 sat in the command chair in the CC just looking around. He had questions no one could answer and concerns he refused to air to anyone. Certainly not with out some facts to base his concerns on. For a while he took solace in the fact that his crew was with him, and that despite the age of the installation, it had held up well and proved it could outlast the blight. That solace was shattered when Nemesis was brought into the CC.
With out prompting the aging Savant spoke a mear moment after being brought into the CC. The young Ensign the computer looked scared to death that something would cause him to drop the Savant, obviously Nemesis was oblivious to the young mans distress. "Admiral despite the fact that you left me down stairs alone with that thing your General calls a Savant, I managed to analyize the approaching vessel. I believe its a varations of an Admiral class Carrier much like Leviathan in many ways." One of Nemesis's side light up showing side by side scematics for Leviathan and the approaching ship. "While some of the scematics on the newer ship are guess work on my part and Specter's part, the exterior and scanable sections of the ship do seem to match with many of the designs of Leviathan. I would hazard a guess that the ship is ÂÐL in origin or at least was designed based off of Leviathan."
"Guessing now Nemesis, thats unlike you."
"Well Admiral we are in a situation with little in the way of known facts, what little we had, have, has to be extrapolated to the limits of our avalible information."
"Thats great Nemesis. So by all accounts they are either ÂÐL or decendants of some ÂÐL faction."
"Yes" Was all Nemesis said before Norad cut in.
"Admiral we are being hailed by the ship, it is now approaching orbit."
"On screen."
The screen in the center of the CC came to life, sputtered a few times, and then came to life again. Something was obviously wrong with it, as the picture would fade to the left and then snap back to the center every few seconds. However the image was clear enough. The man was obviously of advanced age, S3 bet he was closing in on 100 himself, and looked every bit of 300. Before the Admiral could say a word the man spoke.
"This is Admiral Atlas of the ÂÐL to the inhabitants of the 2 Colonies below. You will cease and desist from your efforts at once. You have tampered with property of the ÂÐL, you have 20 minutes to abandon your bases of operations and vacate the planets surface. Failure to comply in 20 minutes will result in your destruction." With that the image winked out, replaced with the ÂÐL flag, albeit a newer one, which remained for a moment before turning once more to the picture showing the ship now in orbit.
The Admiral took a moment before he said anything. "Well that went well. Seems as if our ancestors are all old and stupid."
Norad turned around in his chair for a moment and said, "Actually I'd say he is awfully full of him self."
"Thats a fact." Said Red.
"The question is what do we do about it. We still do not have all of our weapons systems powered up, and I'd hate to have to destroy one of my own ships, exspecially seeing as how we could use it and the information it contains to contact the rest of the ÂÐL."
"Well Sir, if its ÂÐL a Savant of some kind has to be running it, at least part of it maybe we can convince the computer of who we are, and have it tell its commander to go jump out an airlock." Replied Norad, which got more then one laugh from the crew and the Admiral.
The Admiral mulled it over a moment and then looked at Nemesis. "Nemesis contact Specter, and jointly you 2 work on that ships computer." Nemesis did'nt respond, he did'nt have to, the sliught whir and chirs it gave off was evedence enough that it was doing as it was asked. The Admiral then keyed the communications channel and sent out a wide band signal to the ship parked in orbit. Surely someone other then the would be Admiral Atlas was going to hear this.
"Attention ÂÐL craft now in orbit of New Terra, this is Admiral S3, Commander in Chief of the ÂÐL, stand down all weapons and dispatch a delegation to my position to discuss this matter in full." He then closed the channel. It was'nt long before the communications board light up like a Christmas tree on a Dark street of old Earth.
Despite the multiple chimes the Admiral had yet to respond, or order a responce so Norad said, "We're being hailed."
The Admiral did'nt respond, simply cocked his mouth to one side in some weird lop sided grin and nodded. A full 2 minutes went by before he opened one of the comm channels, the image of the old man was back on screen, and this time it was S3's turn to talk.
"Decided blowing up your commanding officer was a bad idea Atlas? Or is this just a call to say I am lying to you?"
"You could'nt possibly be S3, he died on the planet years ago."
"Well Mr. Atlas, like Leviathan and Nemesis told you I did'nt die here, although I am sure it was a near thing, certainly turning my Savant off, and making Leviathan deviate from his duties put me in a bad position, but I made it through unscathed as you can see."
Nemesis choose that moment to cut into the conversation. "Admiral, I believe Specter and I have done as you requested. It was easier then I imagined. Appearently that ship is Leviathan or at least has the Leviathan Savant installed in its computer core. The ship is requesting communication with you sir."
No order was given, but all the same the screen split, 1/2 showing the now really pissed off Admiral Atlas, and the other half showing the tell tales squiggle line moving like a snake the represented Leviathan's Savant computer.
"Sssss3! I Wasss told you we're dead. Thissss perssson sssaid you could not live after ssso long."
Admiral Atlas had heard enough, "1st off Leviathan I told you a thousand times to stop with the hiss sounds. 2ndly that can not be S3. Lastly that can not even be Nemesis. I shut him down years ago."
"The codesss sssent to me by the Ssssavantssss below match thossse of Admiral Ssss3 and General Norad. The Picture I have in my databasse of both Admiral Ssss3 and General Norad match those of the men on sssscreen. Sssspecter wantssss to come up ssstairsss."
"I'll send someone for him right away Leviaithan. I assume you have the situation well in hand up there."
"Yesss ssssir. All weaponsss sssssstemsss have been ssshut down."
On the screen the Admiral could see Atlas screaming, Norad turned in his chair and said. "I am certain what ever he is saying is not worth listening to. So I muted him. We however have another problem. The near by colony has dispatched several combat vecs in our direction. ETA 30 minutes. Despite thier size they are moving at a rapid pace."
-------------------------------------To be continued.
