Mission’s End
By Matthew Green
The fretful image of Gordon Sermal appeared on the videophone screen.
"What is it?" said Ubra Gray, head of the Interstellar Expansion program.
"We’ve just received a very disturbing message from the Kalpha mission, ma’am," came Gordon’s agitated reply.
"Patch it through, then."
The image of the Kalpha mission’s current captain appeared on the screen.
"We have arrived at Kalpha," it said, "but we are experiencing unforeseen difficulties…"
Seventy years earlier…
This is the Kalpha. It is a generational colony ship. Four hundred years have passed since it left Earth’s solar system, en route for the solar system of it’s namesake, seventy light years distant. Those who volunteered knew that when they left Earth, it wouldn’t be their children, or even their grandchildren who arrived. Whole generations would live their lives without ever venturing outside the spacecraft, without ever feeling a natural breeze on their skin, or seeing the sun in the sky. But now it nears the end of its journey, it has arrived in the Kalpha system…
Captain James Donahue was stood in his office, peering through the forward viewport at the planet that would soon be his and everyone else’s home.
Vice Captain Howard Lund entered the room and stood beside him, in mutual admiration of the view.
"Beautiful, isn’t it?" he said.
"Yes it is," said James, "it’s a shame my dad’s not alive to see it. He would’ve loved this."
Howard opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the communications system coming on line.
"Captain, we need you on the bridge, now."
James sighed.
"Coming," he said.
"What’s so urgent," he said, when he arrived.
"This," said the navigator, gesturing at his sensor readout.
"A ship!"
"An alien ship," corrected the navigator, "and they’ve accessed our computer. They’re downloading our files."
"We are outsiders here," said Howard. "We’re hardly the one’s to complain."
"I’m inclined to agree," said James. "If they download our mission profile, they’ll know we’re not here to harm them."
"No, only to colonise their home planet," said Howard.
"Good point."
"We’re receiving an audio transmission," said the navigator, "putting it on speaker."
The voice spoke in broken English, like a foreigner who hadn’t quite grasped the language.
"You are different?" it said.
"Different from you, yes," said James.
"You are also different from each other?"
"In what way?"
The alien paused for a second.
"Some biped some quadraped?" came the eventual reply.
"You mean different species?" said James.
"Species… yes. Taste different?"
James hesitated.
"Yes, I suppose. Why do you ask?"
No reply.
"They’ve stopped transmitting," said the navigator, "they’ve set their ship on a collision course with us."
"It’s a bit smaller than ours," said Howard, "they’ll only hurt themselves."
"They’re not trying to kamikaze," said the navigator, "they’ve attached themselves to the hull. They’re drilling a way through."
The Captain ordered a security team to investigate.
The drilling sound was deafening. Gina Ford, the head of the security team, ordered her people to maintain distance.
Finally the drill broke through.
"Weapons at the ready!" Gina yelled.
The team raised their guns.
The first alien appeared through the orifice. It had seven limbs, four of which supported it’s weight, the other three seemed to be for gripping or tearing, it had a hard black shell, like that of a beetle, and a small hollow tube was visible at the front. It was twenty centimetres tall.
Everyone relaxed.
And the creature leaped at Gina’s face.
Through the bridge’s com feed, James could hear the sounds of gunfire, and the terrible ripping, gulping sounds being made by the creature as it attacked Gina.
"What’s going on down there?" he shouted.
"I think it’s eating Gina!" said one of the security men.
The sounds of gunfire ceased.
"What’s happening?"
"I’m sorry, Jim, we’ve lost her."
James stood over the bullet ridden body of Gina Ford. Her face had been shredded beyond recognition.
"What happened?" said James.
"We tried to drive away the creature. We killed it eventually, but I’m afraid we hit Gina more than the alien."
"And where’s the alien’s body?" said James.
The security man grimaced.
"That’s the worst part. When it was laying there dead, one of the aliens came out of their spacecraft and ate it. We shot it, and another one ate that one."
"Cannibals?"
"They did try to eat a human," said Howard.
"No, earlier they were surprised by the concept of different species. Perhaps on their planet, there’s only one."
"How would that happen?"
"Think about it. An animal which rises to the top of the food chain. They have no predators, but they themselves eat everything. Eventually all that’s left to eat is their own kind. They could have been living like this for millions of years," said James.
"That’s a bit much based on very little information," said Howard.
"It’s the only explanation that makes sense," said James.
"Captain," came the voice of the navigator, "we’ve got thirty four more spacecraft approaching."
The alien ship began to detach itself.
Howard looked at the sensor readout.
"They’re fighting among themselves as they approach us!" he said.
"Of course," said James, "none of them want to share."
Howard opened a communications channel.
"Alien ships," he said, "we come in peace."
"Food, food," said the aliens.
"We are not here to harm you."
"Different flavour. Expand out palettes."
"This is a joke," said Howard, "do you hear what they’re saying?"
James sat at the defence control station.
"We have to strike, and strike now," he said.
"Captain, we only have fifty H bombs, they’re specific function is to deflect asteroids."
"Five of these’ll be enough to wipe out the whole fleet, especially as most of them have already sustained damage."
Howard opened his mouth, but before he had chance to object, five missiles sailed into the midst of the attacking fleet.
The display was dazzling, ship after ship exploded in a chain reaction of multicolour fireworks which lit up the sky.
"Threat illimminated," said Howard.
"Temporarily," said James.
"Captain?"
"We can’t continue to live like this. They obviously outnumber us, and we’ll eventually run out of missiles."
"So what do we do?"
"This ship is five miles across in all directions, it’s powered by a fusion generator. If we crash it on their home planet, we’ll all but wipe them out," said the captain.
"And us as well!" protested Howard.
"I’d rather die than live the rest of my life running from these predators, we’d do the universe a favour by wiping them out."
"You’re nuts! You don’t have the authority to decide we die!"
"They cannot be allowed to leave this star system, it would spell devastation for any species they come in contact with. They must be destroyed!"
"We could evacuate in shuttles before the ship crashes," Howard was getting desperate.
"And where would we go? The only place close enough is the planet we are to rend uninhabitable. Navigator, set us on a collision course."
The navigator hesitated.
"You’ve heard the argument," said James, "and how would you rather die? Be eaten? Or to save the universe?"
The navigator knew that the captain was acting in a fanatical manner, but he couldn’t see any other alternative, so he set course.
James activated the communications system and transmitted towards Earth.
"We have arrived at Kalpha," he said, "but we are experiencing unforeseen difficulties…"
"…end transmission."
Gordon reappeared on the screen.
"What a waste," said Ubra.
"They did eliminate a major threat," said Gordon.
"Yes," said Ubra, "I suppose that makes it all worth while."
She deactivated the videophone, and a single tear ran down her cheek.
THE END