4)

“Engage light speed!” Morrus tried to sound confident but it wasn’t how he felt. After all, it was the first time ever he gave this command outside a stimulator.

The helmsman concentrated on the controls. He pulled a big lever with one of his hands and, simultaneously, pushed two buttons with his tentacles. The ship banked hard and… nothing happened. Morrus was just about to ask what went wrong when the wall on his left started falling apart.The explosion only lasted a fraction of a second but everyone on the bridge felt the time slow down. Morrus turned his head and leisurely observed sharp pieces of metal, fragments of conduits and other pieces of debris fly out right in front of his eyes. The noise was deafening. He balanced his body so that the hammock swayed enough for him to get out. He hit the floor just in time. A split second later, a huge panel cracked from the wall and shot through the air right where his head had been.Morrus stayed motionless for a while then started to look around. Two of his crewmen were dead. The explosion splashed their bodies over the opposite wall. They died in their sleep, there was nothing that could have saved them. Kreen

was beginning to stir right beside the young commander. He moved. Good, he was alive. Morrus reached one of his tentacles to check on the helmsman. He was unconscious but also alive. In the last moment he must have freed himself from the hammock and almost reached cover under the control table. He’ll be all right.

Morrus finally got up and stretched his body. Two of his legs were apparently broken but for now, he could manage without them. He twisted his body to look back. Behind Kreen, who was also already on his feet, was the tactical officer. He was bleeding and three of his tentacles had been lost somewhere under the debris. He could be cured.

“What happened?” Morrus shook his head, trying to get rid of the fog before his eyes.

“One of the engines exploded,” Kreen was already working on what was left of their sensors.

Morrus looked at him carefully.

“I thought they had been double checked,” he said slowly. “You recommended the procedure,” he added and, despite his effort to the contrary, it sounded like an accusation.

* * *

“May I ask what you want with our starship?” One of the creatures moved slowly to the front. He or she – the children wouldn’t know – approached the unexpected visitors cautiously.

“We want to see it!” Jake exclaimed with excitement. “Will you show it to us?”

The alien pondered the question for a while. “Why would we do this?” He asked.

“They’re only children,” Taark explained, deciding to speak on their behalf. “They were curious so I brought them here.”

“It wasn’t very wise,” the other alien spoke with apparent disgust. “They will tell others and we will be discovered.”

“We won’t tell anyone,” Anita stated with all her seven-year-old dignity. “We’ve promised and we won’t tell.” She nodded her head as if to stress the importance of what she’d just said. “Taark promised to show us the ship,” she added. “Will you let us through?”

“Through what?” One of the creatures didn’t understand. It was the same one who had expressed disappointment in Taark’s wisdom. “Oh, you think we’re some kind of guards here, right?”

Anita nodded again. Jake was angry that she had usurped the role of the negotiator but he really hadn’t been able to think of anything to say. The girl had had two days to adapt to the fact that there were aliens on Earth. For him, seeing Taark and now two other of his people was quite an overwhelming experience. By that moment in conversation, however, he had managed to regain some of his composure.

“Will you let us see the starship?” He rephrased Anita’s question. “We won’t touch anything.”

The pair of aliens looked at each other.

“All right,” one of them finally said. “This way,” he pointed roughly in the direction of the fern. “Follow me.”

* * *

“The antimatter conduits must have overloaded,” Kreen explained after a long moment filled with frantic work over the controls.

“How this could have happened?” Morrus raised his voice, trying to out shout the buzz of the repair teams who had already started cleaning the bridge along with a pair of doctors, fussing over the corpses and helping the helmsman.

“I don’t know, sir,” Kreen confessed. “Everything checked out just a few minutes ago. It looks like a sabotage…”

“Sabotage?” Morrus waved his hand impatiently, trying to get rid of the doctors, who insisted on treating his broken legs just now. “Who would want to sabotage our mission?”

“Perhaps someone who wanted to be in charge instead of you?” Kreen suggested not even raising his eyes from the controls. Morrus thought about it for a while.

“You were the only other candidate, as far as I know,” he shrugged. Kreen stopped his work for a moment and looked at the commander.

“Perhaps,” he agreed finally. “But in that case, I would have done a much better work on this.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re completely fried, sir,” Kreen sighed, pointing at a display screen he had managed to get working. “Propulsion, navigation, weapons, landing systems – all off-line. The repairs will take at least four draahts, just to get us going. And then,” he added after a pause, “we’ll only be able to limp back home.”

“No!” Morrus shook his head firmly. “That’s one thing I don’t intend to do. Assign as many repair teams as you need, schedule them to work overtime but we’re not abandoning the mission.”

“But sir…” Kreen wanted to say something but Morrus never let him finish.

“You’ve got your orders. I expect full damage report in thirty uutah.” With that, he left the bridge, assisted by one of the doctors.

* * *

“What’s our status?” Morrus asked exactly thirty uutah later.

“We can repair the engines, sir, although it’ll involve stripping down most of the auxiliary systems. We’ll have no back-ups but it can be done,” Kreen reported.

“Very well,” Morrus nodded. “How about our other systems?”

“We need to establish priorities, sir,” Kreen activated the display showing the outline of the damaged ship. “Half of the vessel is inoperative. Navigation is obvious,” he paused, giving Morrus a chance to agree before he continued. “Once we’re underway, we may start working on the rest, however, I’d recommend taking care of the weapons system first.”

“What about the landing gear?” Morrus felt uncomfortable with an idea of traveling anywhere without the option to land the ship.

“With all due respect, sir,” Kreen replied. “We won’t be reaching our destination any time soon. We’ll have plenty of time to work on that. On the other hand, if we’re attacked…”

Morrus thought for a while. Finally, he nodded.

“Proceed.” Being a young, inexperienced leader, he knew he had to rely on his crew. He only hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed.