Chapter 8
“This is a warzone, Francine,” I said as I pulled the ship away from the battle and, I hoped, out of the firing range of most of the warring ships.
“Yes,” it said.
“Care to explain how you thought this was the best option for a location to jump to?” I asked.
“It was the most logical next destination,” Francine replied.
“How do you figure that?” I asked. “We’re in a Goddamn warzone!”
“But I know this area, and I know that there is definitely ultra-enriched uranium here that we can use,” Francine explained. “We had two options. The first was to come here, where we were guaranteed to find the uranium we need to increase the range of the ship’s folding engine. It is also only one more jump to my homeworld once we make the appropriate adaptations to the engines. The other option was to go the long route. It would have taken three jumps just to get to my homeworld, and I am not as familiar with those sections of space. It is likely that there are wars waging there, too, and there is no guarantee that we would find the uranium.”
“Alright, alright, I see your point,” I said. “It does seem less risky to spend twelve hours here where we know we can find uranium... Geez, I never thought I’d say that about a war zone.”
“We simply have to avoid the other ships,” Francine replied.
“I hate how you’re right all the time,” I sighed.
“Could you say that again so I can record it for evidence?” the AI quipped.
“In your dreams,” I chuckled. “So, I guess we’re stuck here for twelve hours until the folding engine is recharged. That gives us time to, I don’t know, join the war effort or something.”
“Will…” Francine sighed.
“Which side do we want to win?” I asked. “I don’t wanna cheer for the wrong team.”
“As I said, we should avoid the conflict,” Francine said.
“Of course that’s what we’re gonna do,” I laughed. “I was only joking.”
“And how was I to know that?” the AI actually huffed. “From what I have observed, you seem drawn to risky situations.”
“I find myself in them,” I protested. “I don’t go looking for them.”
“That is debatable,” Francine said.
“Anyway…” I said to diffuse the disagreement. “How does the ship feel after Jeelie’s work?”
“Excellent,” Francine replied. “It is much more like the spacecraft that my creators used on their homeworld. However, its speed is still its weak link. Once we have that uranium, the ship will be as close to perfect as I think we can achieve out here. Any additional upgrades will need to be made on my homeworld.”
“Well, now I’m even more excited about finding this uranium,” I said as I watched the war ships reposition themselves. “Remind me why we didn’t just find, or steal, some uranium on Earth before we even came out here?”
“It would have made no difference,” Francine said. “The uranium on Earth is not enriched enough to do what we need it to do, even the weapons-grade uranium. Plus, we would not have been able to get our hands on the amount of uranium we would have needed to do even a quarter of what we need it to do. It would have been far too difficult.”
“More difficult than stealing it off of terrorist Neo-Nazis in the woods on my own, while also running from the feds?” I asked.
“Yes,” Francine replied.
“Well, then I’m glad we didn’t bother,” I chuckled as I turned back to the scene beyond the front window. “Just please tell me it’s not right in the middle of all that fighting, though.”
As we got closer to the battle I could see that the ships were throwing everything that they could at one another. They fought at all angles, since there was no upside down or right way up in space, and red beams of light shot out in every direction as the battle continued. There were a few larger ships on either side that were near the rear of each group, which I assumed were the flag ships that served as the base for the leaders. Each side was desperately trying to get to their opposition’s main ship, but every attempt was met with failure, whether that was the complete annihilation of the smaller, attacking ship, or a retreat.
It was a total mess down there, and I really didn’t want to have to go in there if I could help it. I thought defeating some pirates while navigating an asteroid belt had been difficult, so I certainly didn’t want to cross an active warzone in the middle of a star system I knew absolutely nothing about.
“I will pull up the location of the planet on the HUD, so you are able to see exactly where we need to go,” Francine said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
A moment later, the green mapping technology switched on across the main front window, and I could see the location of each ship in the system. The translation device kicked in a moment later, and I read that we were in the Bellatorus System.
“These two warring factions are from B-3 and B-4,” Francine explained, and the HUD zoomed in on two planets that were in very close proximity to one another and the space between them where most of the fighting was taking place. “As you can see, the planets are relatively close to each other, and travel between the two worlds has existed for many centuries. But both sides became envious of their neighbor’s resources.”
“I can guess how this story unfolds,” I sighed. “How long have they been fighting?”
“Almost as long as they have been traveling between the planets,” Francine replied. “The reasons have changed over the years, but little else does.”
“Why are they fighting this time?” I asked.
“The water supply on B-3 was heavily polluted during an earlier conflict,” Francine said. “The people on B-3 were able to clean enough water for their population, but that population has grown. They are in desperate need of an additional water source, so they decided to get it from anyone who had it.”
“And B-4 has lots of water?” I asked.
“The surface of B-4 is almost entirely water,” the AI replied as an image of B-4 appeared on the screen.
“Did they try just asking?” I quipped.
“I do not know,” the AI said. “But the species in the Bellatorus System are so accustomed to fighting war after war that they do not know any different. The idea of peace to them is more of a dream than a reality.”
“That’s sad,” I said. “Imagine the children that are being raised on those planets. They’ll grow up thinking that violence and war is the answer to everything.”
“It is unfortunate,” Francine said. “But these wars usually involve many other planets and systems, so this is a small affair.”
The HUD began to display images from the inhabited planets and moons in the system, and I saw the true cost of centuries of war. Debris circled the planets like the rings of Saturn, fire burned across vast plains, oceans were choking on noxious chemicals, and craters pockmarked the surface. Earth had seen its share of wars over the years, but at least we didn’t have to deal with any intergalactic enemies as well.
Except for the aliens who were at war with Francine’s creators and had set Earth as their next target.
It was the reason I was out here, and suddenly, flying my ship through the middle of a battle zone to retrieve uranium didn’t seem so farfetched. I would do whatever I could to keep Earth from turning into just another dying planet, even if no one ever knew what I had done.
“This is B-14,” Francine said, which pulled me out of my thoughts and back to what the AI was showing me on the HUD. “This is the planet where we will be able to access the uranium.”
The HUD zoomed in across the star system until it showed a map of the other planets. I could see a few planets mapped out in the distance, but the HUD was focused on the diagram of B-14. There were also a few images in the corner of the screen that showed more images of the planet, which were somehow worse than what I’d seen so far.
B-14 looked more like a wasteland than a thriving planet. It was as if a powerful bomb had gone off years ago, and now they had to suffer with the aftermath. It barely looked habitable, and it reminded me of the pictures of Nagasaki and Hiroshima after the atomic bombs had been dropped. Well, at least that seemed to confirm that there were nuclear materials on the planet.
“B-14 used to be one of the main sources of uranium in the system,” Francine explained. “The inhabitants of B-14 were peaceful, but other more militaristic species refused to believe that they wouldn’t convert it to weapons. So they launched a preemptive strike that wiped out most of the population and destroyed their civilization.”
“That’s awful,” I said.
“Yes, it is unfortunate,” Francine said. “I am still detecting high levels of uranium on the planet, though.”
“So, you definitely think B-14 is our best bet to get the uranium that we need?” I asked.
“Yes,” Francine said. “It will not be a walk in the park, as you humans say, but I believe B-14 has what we need for the ship.”
“It feels a bit like grave robbing,” I sighed. “But I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Let’s head for B-14. And let’s take the long route. No need to get caught up in any battles between B-3 and B-4.”
Once the ship was fired up and the ion engines rumbled to life, I grabbed the joysticks and checked the HUD for the safest way to reach B-14. There seemed to be plenty of ships out there, but I found a looping path that would let me slip behind B-4 and then out to the more distant planets.
As I neared B-4, I could understand why there were so few ships in the area. There was so much debris floating around that it was difficult to approach the planet. At first, I thought it had to be the remnants of old spacecraft, but I quickly realized that a lot of it was rock.
It reminded me of the asteroid field near Aghoa, but this one was centered around the single planet. And it didn’t form tidy rings, so it wasn’t like Saturn, either. It wasn’t until I swung around to the other side that I finally understood where all the detritus had come from.
The back of B-4 was missing most of its surface. An enormous crater covered most of the dark side of B-4, so that the planet looked more like a deflated basketball than a sphere. There had obviously been one hell of a battle against B-4 in the past, and as a result, it had lost almost half of its surface. I could just about see the glowing center of the planet through the jagged rocks that were all that was left of that half of it.
“Damn,” I muttered. “How could anyone have survived that?”
At least the rocks gave me a chance to test the new and improved shields that Jeelie had put onto the ship back at the Aghoa Intergalactic Space Station. I wasn’t deliberately hitting chunks of planet, but it was impossible to avoid everything, just like it had been in the asteroid belt.
I was enjoying myself at first as I dodged and dipped among the debris, but then some larger hunks floated by, and I was reminded of what had been lost. There was what looked like a playground set on one rock, and though some of the equipment was unfamiliar, the slides were clearly universal. The playground was covered in ice now, and it slowly floated by on its spinning island of rock while I watched it in shock.
And then a much larger rock appeared, and I spotted the remains of a street lined by homes. The homes were little more than ruins now, with fallen walls and missing roofs, but I could see windows and doorways, and even a street light.
It was creepy to imagine that they had once been a family home, and I imagined all of the lives that had been led within those houses and how many of them had walked down that very street. Had they escaped before the destruction, or had it happened without warning? I wanted to believe that the people had somehow made it out, but as I studied the missing chunk of B-4, I doubted anyone in the middle of that attack could have reached safety.
As I swept around B-4, I was closer to the battle, and I pulled my focus back to the raging war. Even without the HUD, I could have picked out the massive spaceship that sat near B-4. It was big enough to cast a shadow on the planet below, and I found myself staring at it in awe.
“Why don’t they just barge through B-3’s army with that thing?” I asked.
“The planets have established rules for conducting warfare,” Francine replied. “There are limits on things like the number of soldiers that can be deployed and the types of ships that can be used based on the expected size of the war. Of course, there have been wars over what rules would apply, and no one follows the rules then.”
“Jesus,” I sighed. “It’s like there’s no common sense.”
“Wars are fought on Earth all of the time,” Francine said. “And my review of Earth’s laws indicate that there are similar rules of conduct. Earth’s wars are simply on a smaller scale.”
“I guess that’s true,” I agreed. “I just hope they can come together to fend off the aliens.”
“You will be there to lead them,” Francine replied. “Earth will not fall into the same destructive trap.
“Fingers crossed,” I chuckled.
We made it through the rest of the debris, though I made a point of not looking too carefully at any of it. We emerged from the night side into the full sun, and I took a deep breath.
“Well, no one seemed to notice us,” I said.
Suddenly, a warning alarm began to sound within the cockpit. Bob beeped fearfully as the control center was bathed in a red light.
“Francine?” I asked as I checked the center console.
“It is a proximity alert,” the AI replied. “Something is approaching from behind us, and it is moving quickly.”
I wrenched the joysticks around to turn and see what was behind me and spotted three fighter ships in an arrow formation. I could see the weapons on the ships as they charged up, and I knew the pilots inside those ships were itching to start shooting.
“Damn it,” I sighed. “Spoke too soon.”