THE HODMANDOD EFFECT
CHAPTER ONE

AUGUST: YEAR 2163

Lieutenant Austin Rooney rolled out of bed with what little finesse he could muster. A female voice was gently advising that it was 0500 hours and time for him to get up. He stumbled across the room to a communication console and flipped a toggle switch, effectively turning off the automation responsible for disturbing him. He vigorously rubbed his face with both hands, trying as he might to rid his head of the cobwebs inside. The 8.5% ale he imbibed the night before, totaling eight pints, would not retreat that easily. There were many more brain cells for the excess alcohol to kill.

With purposeful, methodical steps, Rooney moved his muscular frame across the room. His destination was the urinal, to be followed up with a steam shower. The urinal was nothing more than a retractable hose attached to the bathroom wall. Rooney pushed a button in front of him and slid the hose over his member. A slight vacuum caused the hose to enclose around it. He put both palms against the wall and relieved himself. Rooney pushed the button again. From a smaller hose that was part and parcel with the larger one; water, mixed with an antibacterial agent, sprayed over his offering. He grimaced from the sensation, as the cleaning solution resulted in a slight burning. It served two purposes. One was to disinfect his penis, and the other was to disinfect the receptacle. For the third and final time, Rooney pushed the button that turned off the vacuum. He removed the hose and let it draw back into the wall.

“Shower,” he whispered. “Sixty percent concentration with vertical air.”

Stepping into the glass enclosed stall, the computer automatically delivered the desired rate of output. The shower was equipped with small fans that began to emit cool air, blowing vertically to offset the steam’s heat and diversify the spread. Rooney sat on the cedar planked bench provided and leaned his head back to allow the cleansing agent to do its work. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, for he knew it would be a long time before he would be able to do this again.

Austin Rooney was twenty-eight years old. He was a lieutenant in the Federal Guard military, a member of their most highly trained, elite combat troops. His background, intelligence quotient, race and psychological profile prohibited him from ever gaining a higher rank. He was blonde and blue eyed, exhibiting a six-foot tall physique, bulging with muscles. Rooney worked out every day after having a short five-mile run. As a rule of the Guard, he kept his body in peak physical condition. When not lifting weights or running, Rooney was practicing his weapons training and honing his martial arts proficiency. He was a dedicated soldier and veteran of two wars fought between the forces of The Federal States and the Sub-Saharan League.

Of the former western powers that entered the twenty-first century, only what once was Europe and partially the United States was still organized, unifying as one to stop incursions of marauders from the former mid-west and western United States, and from Central and South America. Europe needed assistance stopping the same form of territorial infractions from the south and east.

Africa had risen to prominence after their northern and eastern neighbors were almost completely destroyed in the greatest economic depression the world had ever seen. Russia and China no longer existed, at least not as they did in the early twenty-first century. Anarchy ruled in all other geographical areas. Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and all points in Asia and Southeast Asia were ‘no man’s’ lands. China and Taiwan had been reduced to old world feudal states, along with Russia, India, Turkey, Iran and all the once proud Arab nations. People still existed within those borders, but that was all they did. With these areas having no laws and ruled by petty warlords, the Federal States and the Sub-Saharan League restricted access to their lands, and vigorously protected their borders from all incursions, no matter how small.

Being the last two powers on the planet, mutual suspicion reigned. The Mediterranean islands were prized by both. Sicily, Sardinia, Rhodes and Cyprus still had viable, agricultural lands to feed their growing populations. Two military campaigns were fought over these islands. The weapons used were conventional, with neither side wishing to disturb the fragile environment by implementing nuclear, or plasma weapons. The thought of using such munitions never entered the discussion on either side. After both factions suffered horrific losses, hostilities ceased in a stalemate, with neither of them better off than before.

Global warming had dramatically increased, and crops on a global scale were failing. Agriculture floundered, and the Federal States turned to science and technology to feed their population. Earth had been damaged beyond its ability to self-repair. The waters were polluted and the land was past its prime, having been over utilized by the corporate farms that once fed the world. Man didn’t have the capacity to heal the wounds he had inflicted upon his home world, and the protective atmosphere above was losing its necessary layer of ozone at an alarming rate. The greatest minds of the Federal States concluded Earth could sustain human life for no more than two additional centuries. After that, humans would quickly become extinct. The overall population had increased to fifteen billion people. Rampant starvation was claiming lives in the tens of thousands, but the population was growing by the hundreds of thousands. All the experts with the Federal States and the Sub-Saharan League agreed this trend would soon reverse; and there would be a massive rate of death in the coming decades from starvation, disease, petty wars, lack of water and uncontrolled crime. Food supplies would continue to diminish at an alarming rate as the growth of the population increased. The oceans were no longer a horn of plenty. Fish were dying from pollution, lack of oxygen, enormous stretches of red tide and the continuing rise of water temperature.

The rulers of the Federal States made the grim decision to funnel a major portion of their resources into developing the ability to conduct interstellar travel. Mars was the logical choice to begin a human colony, but it would require the solution to several problems for humans to exist, long term, in such a harsh environment. It was a foregone conclusion the League would follow, and the conflict between the two powers would only continue there. What they needed to do was develop a means to travel great distances, in a relatively short period of time, and settle on a planet similar to Earth; if they could find one.

Beta Comae Berenices was a star on the list of one-hundred possible targets that may bear the possibility of having an inhabitable planet. The now defunct NASA would have attempted to perform exhaustive research on this star in its Terrestrial Planet Finder program, but the economic disaster ended those aspirations. Beta Comae Berenices is only slightly larger and brighter than Earth’s sun. It is a main-sequence, yellow-orange dwarf star. Studies suggest it is a little more than four billion years old, somewhat younger than the sun. The main problem for the scientists was distance. Beta Comae Berenices was almost thirty light years away from Earth.

It was in 2056 the Federal States launched a new orbital telescope. Its primary mission was to study the Comae Berenices constellation, specifically the target star in question. The telescope far surpassed any that had been launched in the past. Within three months of being operational, the photos it provided caused pandemonium throughout the scientific community. A possible, viable planet had been discovered in orbit of the star.

A flood of intense research followed the discovery as the telescope continued to transmit photos of the newfound solar system. Analysis was performed at every level and from every angle possible. They discovered the star rotates almost twice as fast as Earth’s sun. Scientists concluded this would make it more magnetically active than our own sun. The star’s luminosity is 1.42 times brighter than the sun, meaning humans would have to be provided with eye and skin protection. The distance of the planet from its master indicated the surface temperature would be acceptable for human colonization. The questions remaining included…was there water, was the soil conducive to agriculture, was there plant and animal life on the planet and, most importantly, were sentient beings there? There was only one way to answer any of those questions. Efforts to produce an effective, interstellar propulsion system that would also allow a ship to be navigable had to be increased, and eventually be proven successful.

To lift up the spirits of the people, the planet was formally christened Ajax Strata Prime and heralded as the hope for all of mankind. Even though the vast majority of Earth’s population would never set foot on it, the discovery was a morale booster for the Federal States as a whole. The name of the planet was in honor of the lead astronomer who first identified it, Franklin Ajax.

It wasn’t until 2092 that the Federal States’ scientists made a breakthrough in propulsion technology. Earlier, in 2075, discoveries had been made to protect the crew from intergalactic radiation. By 2080, ship design concepts were being created at a rapid rate. The conclusion was that whatever propulsion discoveries were developed, liquid hydrogen would have to be utilized in some form. The ship’s hull would be designed with reinforced, ultra-heavy duty, triple walled plating made of hydrogen-rich plastics, rather than aluminum. Liquid hydrogen was proven as adequate shielding while producing relatively low levels of secondary radiation. By injecting liquid hydrogen in between the hull walls, the fuel would be placed in such a manner that it would act as a form of shielding around the crew. This would be the secondary shield until such time as the fuel was consumed, effectively removing that form of protection. The plastics of the hull would offer the primary protection. The crew’s stasis and living quarters would be surrounded with double walled rooms. Water would fill the interior, between the double walls, and act as additional shielding for the humans aboard. Purified waste products from the crew would be utilized for hydration purposes, while personal hygiene functions would be limited to a periodic sponge bath. The last line of defense would be drugs. The crew, during stasis, would have an intravenous line in each arm. One would administer nutrients and the other, Retinoids. The drug had been perfected over the years and was nothing more than vitamins with antioxidant properties and molecules that retard cell division, giving the body time to repair damage before harmful mutations can be duplicated.

However, 2092 became the year that actual interstellar space travel jumped from theory to reality. By some miracle, the Federal States’ scientists had developed an Atomic Particle

Deflector, and at the same time perfected gravito-electromagnetic propulsion. Small, automated prototype ships successfully went to Mars and back within hours. Not only was interstellar travel possible, the method of propulsion had proven navigable.

The Atomic Particle Deflector (APD) was necessary to protect the ship’s crew at high velocity travel. Outside the solar system, approximately two atoms exist in each cubic centimeter. When a craft begins to fly through space at near the speed of light, the hydrogen atoms would appear highly compressed, increasing the number of atoms striking the ship. Even with a four-inch thick liquid hydrogen based plastic hull, ninety-nine percent of the hydrogen would blast through as radiation, ultimately killing the crew in seconds. The APD utilized the newly developed propulsion system to create an anti-magnetic field, repulsing the atoms away from the hull at three times the speed the ship is travelling. The APD could only be defined as a passive navigational deflector, incapable of moving anything larger than atomic and sub-atomic items. Further research and development was under way to create a system that would take larger objects out of harm’s way.

Leaving the solar system required more than speed and the movement of atomic particles out of the ship’s path. The vessel would also have to clear the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. The ‘Belt’ extends from the orbit of Neptune outward for twenty astronomical units, or AU’s. An astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun, or almost ninety-three million miles. It is similar to the Asteroid Belt, but is twenty times as wide and two-hundred times as massive. The Kuiper Belt was discovered in 1992 and found to have enormous objects in large quantities. More than one-hundred thousand of these objects are at least sixty-two miles in diameter. If a vessel were to make it through, it would then have to contend with the Oort Cloud. This cloud of debris, containing trillions of objects, some more than twelve miles in diameter, is the boundary of the solar system. Once a ship made it through this barrier, it would be in open space. Navigation through the three main barriers…the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud would be critical to accomplish.

Gravito-Electromagnetic Propulsion, or GEP, was being studied in the early twentieth century, and scientists made great strides in learning how to augment or attenuate gravity, by controlling electro-magnetic fields. The Federal States’ researchers were able to perfect a single inductor drive capable of reaching near the speed of light. The real beauty of the system was there would be no need to have a distinction between the engine and the ship. The vehicle would be the engine, with the crew inside. The induction drive would create a high level electromagnetic field within the ship that would create opposing and reactionary fields in the surrounding space outside the craft, ‘sailing’ it without the use of consumable propellant. To do this, the design of the ship had to allow the magnetic force to act on the entire vehicle directly. Therefore, the outer hull would be in the shape of an oval cylinder so as to keep the magnetic field uniform around the vessel. What they also discovered about this propulsion system is that it created its own anti-inertial field, providing vehicle protection from rapid accelerations.

The government authorized the engineering, procurement and construction of a prototypical design that was scheduled to launch in 2098. It would be a fully automated and unmanned expedition to Ajax Strata Prime, equipped with the capability to land robotic, all- terrain vehicles that would have the capacity to conduct analysis on atmosphere, soil, mapping and record signs of life encountered, if any.

By 2094, a quantum non-locality communications system was developed and successfully tested. By reducing the field to the atomic level, electrons travel from atom to atom, pushing one off the other. Along the string, atoms become ionized. The charged atom, they discovered, would move positive and negative, inducing current through the string. This enabled instant communication regardless of distance through time and space. What used to take NASA forty minutes to accomplish with a spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, the scientists of the Federal States would be able to do with no more delay than an intercontinental phone call. With this method installed on the mother ship, the land rovers would be able to send information to the robotic crew on the orbiter, who in turn would instantly transmit the data back to Earth for analysis.

Now that the type of propulsion system was known and agreed upon, the engineers decided to keep intact the ship’s triple hull, liquid hydrogen filled design. Only now, the liquid hydrogen within the hull’s walls would be permanent shielding for the inhabitants. The only change would be to make the ship’s outer design cylindrical.

2098 came and went. The project was behind schedule and seriously over budget. Not only that, but tests conducted for the newly developed Large Object Deflector (LOD) had not shown much promise. The government leaders were pressuring the space program to the point of threats, which only made things worse. Before anyone realized it, the world had entered the twenty-second century.

It took four more years for the LOD technology to go live. A prototype was configured to the original Mars probe and several trials were conducted in the Asteroid Belt with great success. The time had come to send the first unmanned probe out of the solar system that would target a planet almost thirty light years away.

In September, 2104, the vessel was completed in Earth’s orbit, utilizing a large space station that had been in operation since 2080. Two robotic crewmen were built and programmed to carry out the mission with an advanced program of artificial intelligence. They were nuclear powered and believed to have a life expectancy of one-hundred years. If the ship were to safely move through the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, the robots would allow the vessel to accelerate to its maximum potential. The designers believed it could eventually reach .99 the speed of light. If that were to happen, the probe would reach Ajax Strata Prime in just under thirty Earth years. The mission would last three to six months, depending on progress. After that, the test of being able to return to Earth intact would be the Federal States’ crowning achievement, if they were successful.

In February, 2105, the Adventure (as the ship was called), engaged its electromagnetic engine and slowly began its journey. By the time it reached the half-million, mile mark, its acceleration was recorded at .3 light speed. As Mars passed by, the Adventure had increased its speed to .5. The on-board computers reduced power to maintain .5 until reaching Neptune. At that point, it would slow to .1 and the navigational computer would coordinate the Adventure’s path through the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.

The next several days were intense for mission control engineers. All systems were operating at peak efficiency and so far, nothing was amiss. The Kuiper wasn’t as difficult to traverse as they had initially believed. The Oort Cloud’s density was worse than originally calculated, but soon the Adventure reported it was in open space and had come through both obstacles unscathed.

With that news, the ship was ordered to initiate full power of the electromagnetic engine and to deploy the APD and the LOD to full operating capacity. In addition, interior sensors would be monitoring the level of radiation inside the hull to detect harmful or lethal incursions, that may prove disastrous for a manned attempt. Even though the Adventure was much smaller than the vessel being built for the actual mission, it was an exact representation of what would be provided for the human crew. They had to make sure the people inside would be safe, or all bets would be off.

It didn’t take long for them to realize the Adventure would surpass their expectations. The deflectors were working at optimum efficiency. The gravito-electromagnetic propulsion

system eventually reached a top speed of the anticipated .99 of the speed of light. Interior sensors recorded no hull breaches or anomalies of any kind. The scientists were happy at the outcome, but they knew they had a long way to go before they could relax.

The years passed, and life on Earth was only getting worse. Most of the original scientists on the project were reassigned, died, or retired. Replacements were brought in, trained and equipped to make sure there was a well-timed handover of responsibilities. The mother ship’s construction was behind schedule, but making progress. The good news was the sister ship, which would ride piggy-back on the orbiter, was nearing completion. It was only a third the size and would land the team on the planet’s surface, acting as quarters, laboratory, first-aid station and communications center. The orbiter would be equipped with two, small shuttle craft with the ability to make two trips each to the planet’s surface, and back, for emergency purposes or extra supplies.

Searching for the crew with the proper credentials…and who would be willing to go…was another matter entirely. It was decided early on the security team would consist of soldiers. They would be given the choice to go, but none doubted the offer would be refused. Finding the perfect science team, however, would consist of exhaustive searches, interviews, counter interviews, research, and extensive training. But, they had to wait until the Adventure was near to the time of its return. If they were to start looking now, the people they chose might be too old to embark on such a journey.

It was April, 2134, when the long-awaited message came through. Adventure had established orbit around Ajax Strata Prime. The mission control room erupted in elation. Never before had man attempted such an incredible feat. And then, to have it come off without a hitch wasn’t expected by any of them. The quantum non-locality communications system was functioning perfectly, feeding audio and video to mission control. The scientists looked at the images with awe and wonder. None spoke as they were given the opportunity to see Ajax Strata Prime up close and personal. Once the excitement eased, the next few hours became a sacred moment for the men and women involved, and it was met in reverent silence.

The on-board robots immediately went to work. Adventure began to map the planet surface using digitally enhanced cameras. The scientists were amazed at the cloud structure across the planet. They looked like Earth clouds. The mapping process took three weeks. Not one inch of the planet was left undetected, or not photographed. It was a painstaking procedure, but considered necessary to determine the most effective spot the manned mission would eventually land and explore.

As the Adventure circled Ajax Strata Prime, the robots launched three probes. The science team wanted two dozen, but the space center ‘bean counters’ had too tight of a budget to allow it. The most expensive aspect of the probes that the scientists wanted was for them to be mobile. This demand was kept, if the argument for the quantity of probes would stop.

One of the probes was designed to collect atmospheric samples during, and after, its descent. Once on the planet, it would locate a water source and send data to the robots on the orbiter. It would then begin mapping operations. Another would collect soil and vegetation samples. The third would collect tens of thousands of photos, and videos, to be sent back for evaluation. However, the other two did possess a video feed back to the mother ship, where the robots would record what they saw and then forward to the space center. The probes would soft land and begin the analysis of the various samples, according to their design. All of these were to be analyzed in small and compact, on-board laboratories. The results of the samples and the photo images would then be transmitted to the Adventure. The robots would process the information and then send it to mission control.

The initial data received by the scientists was remarkable. The oxygen content was only slightly higher than that of Earth’s. Locating a water source was not an issue. The probes had landed in an area that was experiencing torrential rainfall, and analysis revealed it was simple H2O. Temperatures ranged from forty-five degrees Fahrenheit to a comfortable eighty-two. The photos revealed vast amounts of vegetation, forests, birds, insects and mammals of varying sizes, types and shapes. None resembled anything that could be compared to what was known to exist on Earth. Ajax Strata Prime was indeed a new world. Not only that, it was a world that could sustain life.

There was one creature that seemed to be the most prevalent among all they saw. It was a quadruped, but extremely slow moving and awkward. Its body was bulky, with armor plating much like an armadillo. The largest of the animal they witnessed stood four feet tall at the shoulder. It possessed feet like an elephant and the neck stretched a full meter or more from its body. Having two large, bulbous eyes, the most interesting feature about it was the snout. It was long and pointed, and the scientists could see that rows of jagged, sharp teeth protruded from both the upper and lower jaws. They appeared to travel in herds of twenty to forty strong. The teeth indicated them to be carnivores, but the scientists concluded they couldn’t be hunters because of their lack of speed. The animals had to be scavengers, they surmised, feeding off dead animals they happened to smell or come upon. They were bluish in color and were sparsely covered in sprigs of four to six-inch long, wiry hairs that sprouted from the armor plating, legs and neck. The robots were ordered to send as many photos of this animal as possible for further study. It might be the manned mission would have to view these animals as hostile and a danger to crew safety.

There was only a single glitch in the final objective, and it turned out to be catastrophic. The drone assigned to retrieve soil and vegetation samples, was almost immediately noticed by the large, blue-type creatures. The probe landed perilously close to one of the herds. Within minutes, it found itself surrounded by them. For some reason, they became interested in the machine. The animals only sniffed at it in the beginning of their investigation. The robots tried to move it away from them, but there were too many for it to evade, and was trapped by their number. After the span of about fifteen minutes, two of the larger animals tried to climb on top of it, but their bulk wouldn’t allow it. Watching them move was painful to the observers viewing it as the robots turned on a live feed to show mission control what was happening. It appeared they were on drugs, one scientist thought to tell a friend. It was like watching an entire movie that was filmed in slow motion. Once the creatures decided they couldn’t mount the rover, they began to use their massive teeth to chew and taste it. After two hours of the abuse, the drone stopped functioning and had to be abandoned.

For two months, the surviving probes travelled in different directions, recording everything possible and taking photos at a fantastic rate. The mission control team was able to see beautiful mountain ranges, rivers, lakes and pristine forests during the rover’s travels. Up to this point in the expedition, sentient-type beings had not been seen. There was no sign of any manner of civilization, which only heightened the scientists’ excitement. All indications were the planet was ripe for colonization.

During the mission, the only tests they failed to make were on the soil and vegetation. The damaged rover was the only one designed to retrieve those type of samples. Budgetary shortfalls kept a back-up from being produced. After much debate between the mission scientific team and government officials, it was decided this lack of knowledge was an acceptable risk and they moved forward with the project. After all, the photos and videos sent back from the Adventure proved vegetation existed in mass quantities, and the water samples showed no signs of contamination. Since the conditions on Earth were worsening by the week, a command decision had to be made.

In due course, the robots were ordered to return to Earth. As per their programming, the Adventure was powered up to leave orbit after the last of their data was transmitted to mission control. According to plan, the vessel detached itself from Ajax Strata Prime’s gravitational pull and headed home. As in the trip there, all systems operated perfectly on the journey back.

On June 16, 2163, the Adventure entered Earth’s orbit and docked with the space station.

During its absence, the station had grown more than twice the size it was when the vessel left the solar system. Adventure was dwarfed by the new exploration craft that had been named Astraeus, after the Greek Titan of stars and planets. The lander, christened Elpis (the Greek spirit of hope and expectation), was attached to the mother ship. The moment of truth for mankind was at hand.

**********

It was May, 2162 when Lt. Austin Rooney was ordered to report to the Federal Guard’s elite forces commanding officer. As far as he was aware, he hadn’t broken any rules or been disrespectful to ranking officers or civilians. He had no clue why he was being summoned by ‘the man’. He coursed his way through the massive military complex. Rooney guessed that he must have saluted a hundred times before he finally made it to the commander’s office door. The lieutenant knocked loudly and waited for permission to go in.

“Enter!” A booming voice exclaimed.

Rooney opened the door and walked through it. Two steps in the room, he stopped, stood at attention and performed a perfect snap salute. The commander returned the honor and motioned to a chair in front of his desk.

The commander was born in London. His parents were Chinese immigrants with degrees in psychology and agricultural science. Ever since he saw his first Federal Guard soldier, he wanted to be in the military. After several battles and climbing through the ranks, he now stood in command of over ten thousand, elite Federal Guard soldiers. He was respected throughout the ranks, and many spoke of his famous valor in combat. There was also much speculation on how he lost his left arm.

“At ease, lieutenant,” he said. “Have a seat.”

“Yes, sir,” Rooney replied, doing as he was instructed.

“I have an assignment for you lieutenant,” the commander resumed. “It’s right up your

alley.”

“Yes, sir.”

The commander sat down and stared at Austin, rubbing his chin in the process of studying the man. He leaned forward to speak in earnest.

“You don’t have any family, do you son?” It was more matter of fact than a question. He was fully aware Austin had no family to speak of.

“No, sir.”

“Any girlfriends? Boyfriends? Anyone special tying you down to one place?”

“I’m a soldier, sir,” Austin said, curtly. “My life is the Guard.”

The commander smiled and rocked back in the chair.

“Take it easy, son,” he said. “Relax. I’ve read your file. You have nothing to prove to me. Your record is impeccable. Spotless would be the better word. If you were Asian and had a better genealogy I’m sure your rank would be major by now.”

“I’m very well pleased with my present situation, sir.”

The commander gave up on trying to convince Austin to be comfortable with him.

“Lt. Rooney,” he said. “Have you heard of the A.S.P. Project?”

“A.S.P.?” He repeated, not familiar with the term. “No, sir.”

“Don’t watch the news much, eh?”

“No, sir,” Rooney snapped. “I spend my free time in training, sir. Television is for the citizens I protect, sir.”

The commander chuckled at how up-tight the man was in his presence.

“All right,” he said. “A.S.P. stands for Ajax Strata Prime. Have you heard of that?”

“Yes, sir. It’s a planet, sir.”

“That’s right,” the commander replied. “A planet, more than twenty-nine light years away from Earth. It will take you more than three and a half years to reach it. Here on Earth, close to thirty years will have passed. There’s an operation planned to send a team of people to it. It is believed by our high and mighty scientists, that those that go on this journey will age three years in the thirty it takes to get there. Our planet is dying, lieutenant. The Federal States have used almost every available resource to see to it the human race has somewhere else to go before it does die. The team that has volunteered to go will need protection from dangers as yet unidentified. And, as in all things pertaining to human beings, they may need protection from one another should circumstances prevail, and things do not go according to plan. Do you see what I’m getting at, lieutenant?”

“No, sir.”

“Oh, I believe you do,” he said, smiling. “You’re just waiting for the orders. Well, you’re not going to get any orders. This is purely a volunteer only mission. Even the Federal Guard is not expected to send its men on such a mission without input or their willingness to be involved.”

The commander put his only hand on a stack of folders from his desk. Rooney believed it had to stand at least a foot high.

“I’ve poured over these,” he continued. “Each one a candidate to lead the security team to Ajax Strata Prime. All good men. But, they don’t hold a candle to you.”

He patted the stack with his open palm.

“Would to God I had a son like you,” he confessed. “Or a million men cloned from you. By God we’d send those Sub-Saharan fuckers so far back in the jungle they’d wish they never heard of me.”

By now, he was looking out the window, thinking about past days of glory on the battlefield.

“Yes, sir,” Rooney barked, agreeing that it would be good to start fighting again.

The commander turned around and smiled once more. He shook his head and sat in his

chair.

“Lieutenant,” he said, softly. “Are you willing to lead the security team on this most important mission?” He asked, then quickly raised a hand when he saw Rooney about to speak. “Wait before you answer. I’m 62 years old. By the time you get back, if you get back, I’ll be dead. A lot of the people you know will be dead or shittin’ in their pants with a nurse to clean

them up. Hell, most of them will probably be dead from starvation or disease by the time you even reach the damn planet. What you must understand is the complexity of what we are requesting you to do. To agree to take on this mission, you agree to what could be a pathway with no return. There may not be any Earth to come back to. At least, none of any consequence or viable future. And, there may not be any future in where you are going. Now, if you accept this…opportunity…you have full prejudice to choose the two members of your security team that will go with you. By choose, I mean you get to offer them the same prospect that I’m offering you. You can’t coerce them, order them or threaten them. All you can do, and all you are authorized to do, is to ask them. So, Lieutenant Austin Rooney…do you accept the assignment?”

Rooney stood at attention and saluted, looking straight into the commander’s eyes. “Yes, sir,” he said smartly. “Thank you for the honor of serving the Guard, sir.”

The commander returned the salute and held out his hand. The men shook hands and Austin returned to attention.

“Will that be all, sir?”

“Yes, lieutenant,” the commander sighed. “Your orders will be delivered to you within the week. By then I hope you will have your two members. Intensive training will begin in July.

Until then, you’re on R&R. Enjoy it. This may be the last time you get any. Dismissed”

Austin saluted again, performed an expert about face, and started to leave the room. His thoughts suddenly turned to mess hall and barracks talk. He knew this would be the last chance he would ever have to know for sure. Rooney stopped and repeated the about face.

“Sir?” He said.

The commander looked up with an inquisitive expression.

“Yes, lieutenant?”

“I may never see you again, sir,” Rooney said. “Permission to speak freely?”

The commander nodded with interest. This was highly unusual and unexpected from a Federal Guard soldier.

“Your arm,” Rooney said. “How did you lose it?”

The commander’s head fell forward with a snicker. He couldn’t believe the young man had that much courage. If it had been any other, the soldier would have been ordered to go on a fifty-mile hike with full pack, do a thousand push-ups without stopping (or start over), and hold guard duty for a year. They all knew not to ask, or it would be hell to pay. The commander raised his head, smiling.

“Lieutenant, if it were anyone else I would tell them to go to hell,” the commander said. “But, I’ve just sentenced you to oblivion. So, I’ll tell you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Rooney replied.

“I was cleaning a plasma rifle in my tent when it exploded,” the commander said, frankly. “I forgot to remove the plasma charge from the energy conduit.”

Rooney’s face fell with disappointment. He was expecting to hear a great story of him fighting the enemy, with them all around him. After losing the arm, Rooney imagined him picking it up and using his own limb as a weapon to kill at least a hundred League soldiers. After a few moments, he recovered from the shock.

“That’s basic training, sir,” Rooney whispered, disillusion in his voice. “None of us do that.”

“Well, I did,” the commander confirmed. “I was drunk, too.”

Rooney’s jaw almost hit his chest. The commander shook a finger at him as he spoke again.

“And if you tell anyone that, I swear by all that is holy and unholy, I’ll walk to Ajax Strata Prime to kill you myself if I have to. Understand?”

Rooney quickly stood at attention and saluted.

“Yes, sir,” he said. “Your secret is safe with me.”

The commander laughed and waved his permission for Rooney to leave.

“I know it is, son,” he said. “Now, get out of here.”

It was all he could do to keep from performing a somersault. The excitement in his heart and head were almost too much for him to contain. This was the assignment of a lifetime and one he had always dreamed about. To lead men on a dangerous mission with little hope of survival, where the entire planet was watching and waiting for him to succeed, was his wish come true. He walked two blocks before he stopped and looked at the sky. Austin let out a loud ‘whoop’ and kicked at the air. R&R hell, he thought. I need to get ready for this.

Rooney already knew who he was going to approach to join him. His first choice was Sergeant Roderick Stone. He was thirty-five years old and kept his head shaved. Stone was a hardcore veteran, just as Rooney was, and loved nothing more than a good fight. His six-foot, five-inch tall frame intimidated most men, especially since it came with muscles bulging from every conceivable place. His nickname was Dawg, and he was as mean as any dog Rooney had ever encountered. The subordinate of the two would have to be a man who knew and accepted his place on the team.

This, in Rooney’s mind, could be no one else but Corporal Les Dustin. Dustin was only 20 years old and just under six feet tall, but he was a weapons specialist that could bring the garbage when he had to. All three men were martial arts experts and excelled in all types of hand to hand combat. Dustin was a man who knew how to take orders. Stone was a man who knew how to survive. And Rooney was a man who knew how to lead. A three-man security team didn’t sound like very many men. But these were not ordinary men. They were sworn to follow the Federal Guard wherever it might lead. They lived to fight and die in service to the Guard. They knew little else, and little else mattered to them.

Federal Guard soldiers were feared by all. Only soldiers of the Sub-Saharan League could stand against them with any hope of success. Even then, the tenacity of their spirit was unparalleled and, when coupled with their training and fanaticism, there were none who would dare stand up to them if they were untrained, and undisciplined in matters of combat.

The men soon received their orders and were flown to an undisclosed location in Great Britain for training. It was close to the launch site where a rocket would transport them to the space station once the Astraeus was ready to disembark. The team psychologist requested that all members of the expeditionary crew bivouac together and get to know one another. This suggestion was agreed to and for the next several weeks they all worked, ate, played, trained and went through orientation with each other.

The expected launch date was November 7, 2164. As the day approached, everyone started to get fidgety. Everyone that is, except the soldiers. It seemed that as the day grew nearer, the more pumped up and excited they became. It unnerved some of the science team members, but they shrugged it off as being part of their mind set. The last week of instruction included the planet findings and what they might expect once arriving there. The team was assembled in a

large conference room. The leader of the training, Dr. Maxwell Rothschild, was standing in front of a large screen. Projections of planet photos were being reviewed as the doctor spoke.

“And now we come to the fauna that has been discovered by our probes,” he said.

Photo after photo went by over the course of an hour. The doctor gave short descriptions of each life form displayed before going on to the next. The soldiers watched with attention, but their minds were elsewhere. None of the others knew it, but they were already on the planet.

They had been for days. Rooney and his two men had concocted contingency plans for every conceivable situation they might encounter. They took their jobs more than seriously. It was an obsession with them. Eventually, the doctor came upon some photos of the mysterious creatures that disabled the rover.

“Now, here we have a strange species,” he said, smirking. “To say they are slow would be a massive understatement. From what we could tell, they travel in large groups of twenty to forty. We have no idea of how many are normally male or female, but our resident zoologist believes the majority are female, if the trend of herd animals on Earth are replicated on A.S.P. They are too slow to be considered hunters and have been designated as scavengers.”

“Why is that?” Rooney queried. It was the first time he had spoken.

Doctor Rothschild looked over his glasses to see which of the team had posed the question. He glanced back at the photo and then at Rooney.

“As I said, they are too slow to be considered ‘hunters’.”

“Speed doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Rooney countered. “You say they travel in large groups?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“How many of the other mammals did you see traveling in large groups?”

“This would be the only one.”

“If they are that great in number,” Rooney continued. “That means they probably don’t have any natural predators equal to their mass or population. Without the ability to run away, and with them being so slow, anything that preyed on them would have probably killed them out a long time ago. It seems to me, professor, these guys have climbed to the top of the food chain and have no worries about staying there.”

“Are you an expert in zoology, Lieutenant?”

The voice came from Courtney Vickers, the zoological scientist of the team. She was the same age as Rooney, brunette and too beautiful in Rooney’s mind to be considered for the mission. All the same, he was glad to have someone like her to look at for the three and a half years they would be in space together.

“No, ma’am,” he said, respectfully. “I’m not. But what I am, is an expert on tactical and strategic advantages and disadvantages. This would include whether or not a potential enemy is man or beast. In my opinion, it is way too early in the game to define these creatures as anything but a possible danger to this mission and its crew.”

The science team snickered and chuckled as quietly as they could at Rooney’s remark.

He looked around the room, wondering why they would react that way. Dr. Rothschild explained.

“Lieutenant,” he said. “Please forgive our humor. It’s just that we have had an opportunity to see these creatures on video. Believe me, a tortoise could escape these animals and have room to spare.”

“Understood, doctor,” Rooney said, acquiescing for the moment. “But, if it’s all the same to my team, as security commander, I’ll make my own judgment about them after I get to see them on a firsthand basis.”

“And,” Rothschild conceded. “I think in your position that is a more than prudent attitude to take.”

Stone leaned over to Rooney, who was sitting next to him. The doctor went on with the next slide, oblivious to their conversation.

“Did you see the teeth on those fuckers?”

“Yeah,” Rooney whispered back. “I don’t care how slow they are. If they get those chompers on you, you’re dead.”

“Why do you think they don’t have any predators?” Stone asked. “Even we used to have lions and sharks that looked at us as food.”

Rooney turned to Stone and smiled.

“Dawg,” he said. “Even then there was an opportunity to balance the playing field. If you didn’t want to get eaten by a lion, you stayed out of the jungle. If you didn’t want to get eaten by a shark, you stayed out of the water. This is their planet, and we’re going in to their environment. Stay away from them until we know what they’re all about.”

“Yeah,” Stone replied. “If we get there at all.”

The orientation dragged on through the day with lunch being brought in. Rothschild droned on and on until Rooney wanted to cut his wrists. Finally, at 5PM, he wrapped it up and they were all able to go back to their quarters. Rooney was halfway down the hall when Courtney called out to him.

“Lieutenant!”

Rooney turned around to see her running up to where he was standing.

“Lieutenant,” she said, almost out of breath. “I was hoping to catch you before you turned

in.”

“Well,” he replied. “I wasn’t going to turn in this early. Do you want to join me for supper?”

“I’d be delighted,” she agreed.

The two walked to the small mess hall and went down the buffet line, piling food upon their trays. Without knowing it, both were thinking how they wouldn’t eat this good for what could be another two decades. They found a table away from the others and sat to eat.

“I was interested in your comment about the Blue Boulders,” she started.

“Blue Boulders?”

“Yeah,” she said, laughing. “That’s what I’ve called them. The ones with the big teeth.” “Oh,” he said, stuffing a fork full of roast beef into his mouth.

“I know you haven’t seen the video, but they are interminably slow.”

Rooney swallowed after half chewing the food.

“One time I was in Libya, guarding a post against a bunch of Sub-Saharan League Regulars. Nasty bunch. Anyway, after a firefight one night, me and a buddy of mine were looking for any wounded, and came up on this African soldier. He had been hit in the chest and shoulder. He’d lost a lot of blood and was only semi-conscious. We took him back to the aid station to see if he could be patched up enough to give us some information. I didn’t think he was going to live, but maybe he would talk to one of our interrogation officers. The two of us left him in the tent. The doc took his eye off of him to get some bandages. Before anybody knew it, he flipped the switch on a hydrogen filament grenade he had in his pocket. The doc took some shrapnel wounds but he survived. The regular didn’t make it. Guess he didn’t want to.”

Courtney was shocked at the story and amazed at the same time.

“Why did you tell me that?”

“You don’t have to move fast to be a threat,” he warned. “Remember that when you get around those things. We really don’t know anything about ’em except for what we’ve seen in those photos and that video you talk about.”

The young scientist believed Rooney was sincerely interested in her welfare. She slightly nodded and touched his hand.

“I’ll be careful,” she told him. “I promise.”

About that time, Dustin quickly walked up to the table and sat down. His eyes were wide with glee and his smile almost spread across his entire face.

“You aren’t going to believe this,” he said, looking at Rooney.

“What is it?”

“Well, we’ve been training with those newfangled pulse weapons,” he said.

“Yeah,” Rooney replied, wondering where he was going.

“It just came down from command we won’t be taking them.”

“Why not?” Rooney was not happy with the decision.

“Seems they require too much power to maintain and re-charge. The math geeks determined something had to be cut and, as usual, it’s us that gets the short end.”

“Why are you so happy about it? That means we have to go back to the plasma rifles. Those things are hell to maintain.”

“No we won’t,” Dustin said, still grinning from ear to ear. “They also figured out they take too much power. But, the payload max on the ship is greater than first thought. Command is breaking open the vault, Lieutenant. We’ll be taking vintage weapons with us, sir. Something called a AK-47, a M-16, M-60’s and this little weapon they used to call a Carbine.”

Rooney shook his head in wonderment and leaned back in the chair.

“They’re going to send us 30 light years from Earth with antique weapons,” he grumbled. “That’s hard to believe.”

“Yes, sir,” Dustin said. “But I always wanted to shoot those things. I haven’t even seen one of those before.”

“Me either,” Rooney replied. “Man, oh man. You just can’t make this shit up.”

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