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  "Smid, you know this ship. Analysis?" Taark ordered.

  The Commodore walked over to the nearest monitor and peered at the image. "Heavy damage to the top of the hull. It appears that the ships drone housing is destroyed, and the drone is missing. The rear of the hull above the engines looks heavily damaged. The top jump coil is also missing." The Commodore looked at the ground around the ship, and something he saw put a smile on his face. "I see a Sentinel moving about."

  Taark nodded, "So do I." Putting his hands on his hips, he considered his options. "Can we communicate with that Sentinel from here?" He asked the Ship Master.

  "Yes, Sir." He moved to the nearby communications station. "Bring up the stores list for the Epsilon."

  The specialist contacted another member of the bridge crew and was quickly sent a detailed list of everything, and every member of the crew of the Epsilon, including a list of the four Sentinels that were listed for the Epsilon. "I've got their secure comms networks, Sir."

  "Try to open a channel with the Sentinel Commander."

  "Sir." The specialist immediately typed out a secure communications message that only the Sentinel Commander would receive on his secure network.

  After a few moments without a response, the technician looked at Yakari, "He would have responded by now, Sir."

  Yakari looked at Taark. "Sir?"

  "Try his subordinate."

  Yakari gently tapped the comms specialist. "Trying now."

  It only took a few seconds a response came back to the ship, and it was very simple and to the point: Code-In.

  "Commodore." Yakari looked at Smid, "It wants authentication."

  Taark looked at Smid and smiled. "Perhaps it doesn't trust us."

  "He should have accepted the codes from this ship," Smid replied as he walked over to the comms station. "Feed him the following: Satcom three, secured, designator bravo echo one one."

  "Sending."

  Just as fast as the signal had been sent, a flood of data came onto the comms stations monitor. "He's uploading his mission logs. Standard operating procedure under the circumstances." The young officer reported.

  "Request a live voice communication." Smid requested.

  The transmission was sent, shortly followed by a robotic, booming voice in Universal. "Sentinel Two, Alliance Ship Epsilon, 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron, 7th Fleet."

  "Sentinel Two, this is Commodore Smid. Are you receiving?"

  "Affirmative."

  "Admiral Taark is here." Smid gestured for the Admiral to join the conversation.

  "Sentinel, this is Admiral Taark. What is the status of the crew of the Epsilon?"

  "Ten survivors, thirty killed in action."

  "Killed in action by whom and where?"

  "Coalition forces off Ares V."

  "What is the status of the ship?"

  "Heavy damage. Jump drives offline, weapons offline, communications systems offline, Sentinel Commander off-line."

  "Who is in command?"

  "Communications Officer Ranix."

  Taark nodded, and then swallowed hard. "Is Doctor Prure still alive?"

  "Affirmative."

  Taark closed his eyes and looked down at deck of the bridge and smiled. "What is the status of relations with the inhabitants of this planet?"

  "Varied."

  "Is the area where you are friendly?"

  "Affirmative."

  "Your orders are to inform Communications Officer Ranix that we are here. We will feed you our tactical situation, and ask him for our best course of action."

  "Understood."

  Taark signalled for the line to be cut, then looked at the Ship Master, "I want to make sure that we don't startle the inhabitants of this world, which we might have already done by jumping in so close." He turned and started walking to the rear of the bridge. "Make sure my shuttlecraft is ready for launch, and make sure there are two Light Sentinels on board."

  64

  The news from the people at NASA and the White House came in quickly to the SETI team. A massive fleet had jumped into Earth orbit, and the President wanted some answers from Ranix.

  "Mr President, I haven't spoken with Ranix since John showed me the images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory."

  "Where is he?"

  "He's on the ship."

  "We need answers, Joe. This could be a prelude to an invasion."

  "I'll update you as soon as I know."

  The line went dead. Looking at Rhea, he shook his head. "This is one of two things: an invasion or a rescue."

  "If it's the latter, let's just hope that whoever is doing the rescuing is as friendly as Ranix."

  Joe nodded. She was right. If Ranix had been pulling the wool over their eyes since day one, they were about to find out.

  "We need to know what Ranix knows, and right quick." Joe stuffed the sat-phone in his pocket and walked out of the SETI building and onto the soft grass field that separated the building and the Epsilon. His Chuck Taylors gently kicking the tall grass as he moved swiftly towards the ship.

  As he neared the ship, he knew that the information he got from Ranix was going to go one way or the other. Climbing the steps up to the hanger bay, Joe entered the ship and walked towards the bridge, not encountering a soul on his way there.

  When he finally reached the bridge, it was empty, save for Detection Technician Jonas who was attempting to repair his heavily damaged station.

  "Have you seen Ranix?"

  "I think he's in the dining hall."

  Joe nodded and walked off the bridge, and back down the corridor, and arrived at the mess hall and found a jubilant scene.

  All the senior crew of the ship were sitting around one of the tables with a bottle of Glenfiddich 15 on the table, which if Joe's memory served him correctly, was a gift from the commander of the Canadian army detachment that had been sent to secure Lasqueti Island.

  "Come join us, Major." Master Engineer Sulvan waived Joe over and pointed at an empty seat at the end of the table. "We have received good news."

  Joe shook his head, and let out a deep breath. "Thank God for that. I was worried that we were about to be invaded. Well, me and everyone else I've talked to in the last hour."

  Joe took his seat, and a cup was placed in front of him, which was quickly given a good pour of the whisky.

  Ranix raised his glass, looked around the table, and made a toast. "To the arrival of your salvation."

  The group sipped their drinks and looked at Joe, who cleared his throat. "What happens now?" He asked.

  "A representative from the ships in orbit will come down and make contact. From there, I am not sure."

  Joe took another sip from his cup before setting it down. He knew that there were lots of angles in play at this critical junction. If all went well, a long-term relationship could be struck with the Alliance, and possibly access to their technology and protection. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he hoped that the relationships that had been built over the last six months would be the stepping stone for things to come.

  65

  The shuttle that transported Admiral Taark and Commodore Smid to the surface was considerably larger than the old Jetties that the Epsilon had been equipped with. Taark had told the pilot to make a gentle approach and was joined by two Canadian F-18s when it reached 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean on its course towards British Columbia.

  "Admiral," the side door gunner looked at the admiral, "You can get a good view of their warplanes from my position."

  Taark got up from his place in the centre of the shuttle and moved towards the port door and peered out. He tapped the window, which zoomed in on the grey aircraft that was flying 100 yards to its side.

  "Attractive ship," he commented, resting his hand on the shoulder of the gunner. "Doubt their weapons are much of a match for ours." He smiled and returned to his seat.

  As the shuttle descended to its destination, the admiral and commodore put on micro-respirators to allow them to breathe
in Earth's atmosphere. The rest of the shuttle's crew were wearing helmets, while the two light Sentinels carried only small capacity energy rifles. Taark had wanted to keep the landing party to a minimum; it wasn't like he didn't have enough backup in orbit. His command ship alone had two divisions of ground troops, plus almost 3500 mecha and an air force of 500. The ship on its own would have been more than enough to subdue Earth, he saw no pointing in being overly intimidating with his arrival party.

  When the shuttle finally touched down on soft green grass that made the local area so lush, it did so with a light hum, followed by a gentle hissing as the engines powered down.

  When the rear ramp finally lowered, Taark moved away from the ship with great strides. To his front, he saw a group of humans and several Alliance officers in uniform with one of the Sentinels nearby. The one face he was looking for he spotted immediately, and his gaze was met by a relieved looking Doctor Prure.

  The two moved towards each other and embraced.

  "Good to see you Doctor." he had a smile on his face.

  "Good to be seen." The doctor replied. "It has been too long."

  Ranix slowly advanced towards the Admiral. "Pleasure to meet you, Sir." the young officer said dryly.

  Prure looked at Ranix, and then to Taark. "This young officer has served us well, Admiral."

  "Excellent. I look forward to reading your report." The admiral moved towards Ranix. "Would you introduce me to the representatives you have gathered." He looked over to where Joe and Rhea and the rest of the humans were gathered.

  "Of course."

  Ranix and Taark started moving towards the ship with Prure and Smid trailing close behind, and as they got near the humans, a floating translation device zipped up to Ranix and followed him as he got closer to Joe and the others.

  Ranix and Taark stopped five metres away from the SETI team, with Ranix taking an additional step forward before gesturing for Joe to move closer. "This, Admiral, is the human responsible for us being here today.” Joe took a step forward and gave a slight bow. “Major Joseph Hunt.” Ranix said with a smile on his face.

  Joe took two steps towards the admiral and extended his hand. “Welcome to Earth.” A wide grin crept across his face.

  The next chapter in Earth’s history was about to begin.

  To be continued.......................