Nathan Hystad - New Threat

“Our cloaking tech is working, right?” I asked, wishing I’d asked when we came out of the wormhole.

Clare was on her tablet but nodded. “One hundred percent active. They can’t pick up our signal, or see us, unless they fly into the side of the ship.”

We had slowed to our normal drive, getting closer to the world below. The hybrids ahead of us were nearing orbit, and they hung there for a time, allowing us to get caught up.

The planet looked amazing. It had been one thing to see your own planet from outer space, seeing familiar clumps of land look so alien from that height. Seeing this new planet was life-changing. My whole perspective on life somehow jarred at the sight. There were other planets out there with life. Scientists and theologians had debated the point for centuries, and we were seeing one firsthand.

I looked over, and everyone’s faces mirrored what mine must have looked like. Excitement for finding the hybrids but mixed with curiosity.

“Enough drooling, everyone,” Mae said. “This could be a Bhlat world. We have to be cautious.”

She was right. We waited, Mary having time to get dressed before taking over the helm from Mae.

“Can we send the probes down yet?” I asked.

Clare shook her head. “Great idea, but their signals aren’t hidden. They only make a small signal, but we should still wait.”

We didn’t say what we were waiting for, but I kept assuming they were going to lower planet-side. As if they read my mind, the ship started moving, descending through the planet’s atmosphere.

There were clouds on the large planet. It was hard to tell from our vantage point, but Clare said the world was a third larger than Earth. The system’s star was slightly closer, percentage-wise, to the world, which would make it warmer than we were used to.

We kept tracking the target ship as it crossed across the planet, and once they were far enough away, we flew in closer.

“Launching probe now,” Clare said. I stood beside her, watching the readout numbers scan across her screen. It only took a few minutes before we had the answers we needed. “Surface air temperature appears to be around 35 Celsius, and the air is within ninety-five percent of Earth’s, surprisingly. No toxins read that can be harmful, but we’ll get a better read when we land.”

“We’re going down there?” Nick asked, looking doubtful of the move.

“What choice do we have? Wait until they leave and blast them?” Slate asked, then answered his own question. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”

Mae shook her head. “We need to see what brought them here. If there’s a base, or a danger to Earth, it’s up to us to bring the fight to them,” she said, standing straight in her Earth Defense uniform.

“How about life-forms?” I asked.

“We aren’t there yet. We don’t have those kind of readings, but we’re picking up some images.” Clare pushed the pictures from her tablet to the main viewscreen with the press of a button.

The shots weren’t high-definition from this distance, but we could make out some buildings, and what looked like crops near a river. The green lush landscape overtook almost everything, and I was reminded of the thick deadly landscape in South America.

Clare switched to the map, and we saw the hybrid ship’s icon land near the marker she’d placed on those structures.

“Bingo,” I said. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go in.”

Clare looked ready to say something, but Mary cut in first. “Let’s wait a few hours, until the sun is set on that part of the continent. The cloaking works much better in darkness, under the cover of the night sky. They’ll never see us coming.”

We spent the next couple hours planning our move, and when it was all settled, we lowered toward the planet, nervous energy palpable on the bridge of the ship. We couldn’t make out a lot in the night sky, but the world was beautiful, unspoiled by pollution, and most importantly, humans. It made we wonder for a moment what would happen to Earth if the people were all gone from it. Would it reclaim the cities like in those post-apocalyptic movies? Would New York be covered in trees, and would deer walk down Fifth Avenue, making a home in Central Park?

We decided to scout a spot close enough to get to the village by foot, but far enough not to be spotted. The landing area was an empty copse of trees, which each stood over a hundred feet tall, surrounding the location. The ground was soft, and Mary decided to hover there rather than keep the weight on the grass. It was similar to a rainforest, and the chances of sinking into the bog-like terrain were high.

“Clare, you’re sure you know how to fly this thing, right?” Mary asked for the fifth time.

“Yes. I did help create it, after all,” Clare answered, impatience thick in her voice.

Nick stayed back, looking relieved that we didn’t ask him on the away mission.

“We’ll keep in radio contact. Any sign they’re leaving in the Kraski ship, you tell us and come pick us up,” I said, slinging a pulse rifle over my shoulder. I was thankful for the time Slate had spent with me, familiarizing me and the others with the vast array of weapons we had. My confidence holding the gun was much higher than it had been a year ago, when it was new and alien to me.

Mae had her EVA suit on, the door closing between her and us as the ramp lowered. A hand-held tablet in her hand, she walked down the ramp.

“Readings shows the air is breathable,” Mae said, and I felt my shoulders loosen. Skulking around without the suit on was going to be much easier.

The door opened, and I felt warm air rushing up the ramp and into my face. A strange smell emanated from outside, a mixture of barn and swamp.

Stepping on the ground, I felt it give ever so slightly. The grass was more like moss, the water table evidently very high. The high humidity was almost a shock after spending a couple of weeks on a closed-system ship, where climate was controlled to a tenth of a degree. My uniform started to stick to my sweating body nearly instantly, and I looked at the others, seeing much of the same. Slate was the only one who kept stone-faced. He was a soldier on a mission, and his mind was extremely focused on the task at hand. Being on a strange planet with terrorist aliens on it, I was more than happy to have the gigantic soldier alongside us.

“Clare, come in,” I said, testing the comm-system.

“Go ahead,” the reply came.

“We’ll keep our trackers on. Just don’t leave us hanging if things get hairy,” I said.

Slate took the lead with ease, and we followed him. I finally got a look around, which was hard in the dark. We were hesitant to use flashlights in case we were spotted, but Slate had night-vision goggles on. I felt mine strapped to my thigh and considered wearing them. Instead I followed the others, trying to not be distracted by the brand-new surroundings.

We were on another world, walking on the mossy ground. It was an amazing feeling to see the strange massive trees looming around us, a moist musky smell lingering in the air. The river was close, but I suspected smaller ponds or swamps nearby, judging by the dampness.

As we got near the tree line, I stopped to touch one. The bark was smooth, slightly sticky. The branches were thin near the lower end of it, with slim leaves unlike any I’d ever seen.

“Dean, let’s go. We can look at the flora once we nab Terrance and Leslie,” Mae said.

I just shrugged and kept moving. The village was a couple of miles away; we’d expected to take fifteen minutes to get there at a good pace. Reality was different.

Three minutes in, the ground was too soft to walk on. Slate’s substantial bulk sank in as he stepped down, and we had to help him pull his right leg out of the mossy hole. A smelly mud stuck to his boot when he pulled free, and Mary wrinkled her nose at the stench.