Duty, Honour, Love
Chapter 9

Karasena paced the floor of the comms room irritated at all the delays. Com Ops continued silence over the Terran ship the cause of her irritation. “Where is it now!” she demanded sharper than she had intended and shot Dee a guilty look.

Dareia was leaning over the comms console her eyes on the display screen. “Within five hundred thousand k’s,” she replied understanding the source of Karasena’s anger.

Karasena turned to Ino at another comms terminal. “Anything from Com Ops yet?”

“No ma’am,” the T’Arni said with a frown. “They should have at least acknowledged your comms ma’am it was marked urgent.”

Karasena let out a sigh. She was still getting regular updates from Com Ops and her other messages where being received yet they were silent about this. Relay four had given them a wealth of detail on the Terran ship as it passed close by the relay on the way to the planet. Early speculation had put forward the proposition that the ship was to evac the Terrans on White Mountain. That had changed with the scans and images they had got from the relay. They had gotten some really good images of the damage to the port side. To Karasena it seemed as if some giant creature bitten a chunk out of the side of the ship. To Wenasi’s (Karasena’s chief engineer) eyes the damage had not been done by any known Confederacy weapons system and according to his expert opinion the damage to the Terran’s hull was precise with no jagged edges. There would have been if the damage were caused by and external or internal explosion. She remained cautious this could still be some trick of the Orsini but she had more than enough doubts about that.

Finally she halted her pacing it wasn’t getting her anywhere and turned to an Ezaran leaning against wall. He was typical of his race, a light coloured fur covering parts of his skin not covered by the baggy skinnies he was wearing. His face was angular making him look dog-like but retaining a humanoid look. He was their only expert on ships having served on a Confederacy cruiser before switching to the GF.

“Wenasi?” she asked him. “Will it enter orbit and launch escape pods from there?”

Karasena wasn’t looking forward to hunting down a dozen or more escape pods scattered over the continent. Erikino only had only one large landmass Auroa most of it seven hundred kilometres east of the coast was largely unexplored from the ground. There had been plenty of orbit surveys and deep mining scans but nothing from the ground. Her other worry was the ship in orbit if they used the escape pods and abandoned the ship eventually it’s orbit would decay and it could end up crashing into a populated area.

“I reckon they’d try to land. If I was in charge the only viable option.”

“Land?” Karasena hadn’t considered that. “Can that ship do that?” She had spent time studying the type of ship the Terran vessel was. She knew through her study that it was a River Class Patrol Ship. Crew of ninety and normally part of a squadron of seven. It wasn’t designed for long patrols nor it have the range to reach here from Terran space. Somehow one had appeared on their doorstep and with no answer from Com Ops no help there. Frankly she was appalled by Com Ops lack of enthusiasm over the discovery of a Terran Ship in Confederacy space there was a war going on. Any intelligence on the enemy would help to push the Terrans out of Confederacy territory. She had to be frank with herself after the initial attacks the Terrans had withdrawn now and again launching sporadic attacks of their traditional targets the eleven former Terran colonies.

No where in any of her research did it tell her that the ship was capable of landing heck it was due to be withdrawn active service in a year’s time considered obsolete. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind. “Dee dispatch what forces we can spare and secure the space port.”

Dee hesitated picking up Wenasi’s thoughts. “Hold on that ma’am!”

“Lieutenant Dareia?” Karasena glared at her. “I gave you an order!”

“Not the space port,” Wenasi said coming to Dee’s rescue. “You have it wrong it can’t land at the spaceport.”

“What doing you mean by that,” Karasena said to him apologising to Dee in her mind.

“Its best chance is to come in over the sea,” Wenasi went on to explain thrust angles and engine capacities.

Most went over her head but she understood a bit here and there. She glanced over to Dee but her totally confused expression didn’t hold out much hope for either of them.

“I’ll take it as read,” she said when he had finally finished. “I take it you can predict where it going to land?”

“Certainly,” Wenasi said cheerfully. “Once it goes in its final approach it won’t be able to deviate from it course. As soon as does that we can predict where it will land.”

“Ok inform me once it starts it final approach. I’ll try and get an answer from Com Ops.” She crossed to a comms console and typed in her ID. It was going to a long wait until the ship was down and in that time she had plans to make.

Three hours later and Karasena hadn’t heard anything from Com Ops their continued silence over this had her more than a little worried. Meanwhile the Terran ship was in orbit. Karasena turned to Wenasi seat at a terminal his eyes on the image on the holoscreen. “Wenasi?” she asked.

“Ma’am,” replied without taking his eyes off the screen his fingers tapping on the terminal. “We have its course.” He hesitated.

“And?” Karasena demanded impatiently.

“You’re not going to like it.”

“Ok lets hear it?”

“Crescent Bay.”

“Crescent Bay,” she said with a look at Dee across the room waiting on a nod from her.

“Crescent Bay,” Dee muttered darkly.

“You are certain they are heading for Crescent Bay.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Crescent Bay used to be popular holiday attraction with bright sands and azure blue water. Karasena liked going down there on a hot summer’s day and swimming in the waters. It was a good place to have a day out. There was even a single story building that acted as a bar and restaurant during the hot summer days. Until one winter storm that turned the water dark and murky. That was when everyone agreed things had gone bad. It had started with a small thing a couple had gone missing no one gave any thought to it until the night of the beach party. A group of teenagers had headed out to have a party little knowing the danger they were in. Some creature had decided to make the bay its new home. Karasena had seen the vids the teenagers had taken. Security had investigated and sent for the Terrans at White Mountain. No one had taken it seriously until the scientist from White Mountain had nearly been eaten. He had proudly named it Monognathus Piscium. An attempt at humour she guessed from what Dee had told her. Some Terran naming convention to name a new discovery in some ancient language after its discoverer or in this case after the human it tried to eat. An eel he called it. Karasena had done some research and looked at the vids it looked close to a sea creature from Earth but no sea creature from earth was over a hundred metres long and had row upon row of sharp teeth each as long as your arm. According to the Terran this was probably a youngster. The truth was no one knew what was in the deep oceans and three quarters of this world was water. It was why they tolerated the Terrans at White Mountain they were here researching flora and fauna of the planet.

Karasena frowned at the thought. Hawthorn’s Mayor had tried to co-opt Karasena into destroying the creature but Com Ops had ordered her not to, as this wasn’t in her jurisdiction. Just another of many arguments she had with him. White Mountain had left a number of scientific monitors in the bay.

“Link in with the WM sensors in the bay,” she ordered.

“On it ma’am,” Ino said. “Sensor’s active no movement in the bay.”

Karasena breathed a sigh of relief. “Lieutenant assemble two squads in full combat gear.” She turned back to Ino. “Inform me the moment it changes.” She turned again her next question to Wenasi. “Terran ship ETA?”

“Two hours.”

“Get going,” she said simply. She hoped Dee was right and this was no Orsini trick. With that in mind she hurried out determined to be there when the ship landed. The next two hours would either be a success or a disaster and she had to be there her soldiers needed to see her leading and not cowering in the bunker waiting for the first shot to be fired. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that and they captured the Terrans alive. The alternative would be too dire to contemplate. With those thoughts in mind she readied for the task ahead and the