Ian. Smethurst - The Krenaran massacre

Lieutenant Michael Alexander could see the massive form of Delta base slowly drawing nearer.

He was a deck officer on board the E.D.F. S Ulysses, a Danitza class battleship, and it was just returning from a three month escort operation with another explorator fleet on the northern tip near Eidolon.

The relief on his face was plain, his lips curled up into a smile as he could see out of a nearby viewport that the Ulysses was coming into dock. It was his fourth explorator run this year, and was glad of the shore leave. Tired from his latest mission he longed to see his wife, Jana, and his son, Theo. He knew he had been away for far too long.

On board the station; Jana looked out the view port, along the structure of docking station twelve, she could just about see the small shape of the Ulysses coming towards them. Slowly but surely it continued to grow larger. Little Theo kept jumping up and down, trying to get a better view; impatient to see the approaching battleship in all its glory, and at the prospect of seeing his daddy again.

The dock was vast, and one of the larger ones onboard Delta base, capable of servicing even the mighty Danitza class battleships, being one of the largest ships in the Navy. The dock was rather minimalist in its design, and had large open spaces and loading areas which were intentional, due to the need to re-crew and re-supply the ship, once docked in case of an emergency.

However, right now throngs of people were gathered to greet the crewmen when they disembarked from the vessel, and dozens of servicing crews and vehicles were stood by also.

The forward thrusters began to fire, slowly killing the forward momentum of the huge ship. The thruster jets looked like two bright white streams extending out from the sloping front bow of the massive vessel.

On board the Ulysses the internal comm. beeped. “All hands, this is the captain; adopt docking positions.” Michael made his way over to a large fixed chair, and strapped himself in with an attached harness.

The ship slowly neared the base, which although the Ulysses was a colossal vessel; Delta base utterly dwarfed it, the station being the size of a major city.

There was a shudder, a metallic ’clunk’ and a grating noise, and then finally the ship gradually came to a stop. Michael un-strapped himself and made his way towards the forward docking arm.

On board the station, the internal comm. chimed and a voice spoke. “E.D.F. S Ulysses has successfully docked on docking station twelve, no admittance except military personnel and families.”

Slowly the crew of the Ulysses began to disembark. There were some quite old men, and some were relatively young. Several female crewmembers could be seen, but no Michael; Theo began to look worried, a tinge of doubt began to cross his face, and he looked up at Jana.

“He’ll arrive soon,” Jana said warmly looking down at him.

Then Michael emerged through the airlock. Theo saw him and bolted across the waiting area.

“Theo, wait!” Jana cried.

But it was no use; excitement had him now, and there was no stopping him. He reached his father in seconds, Michael put down his equipment bag and swept him into his arms.

“Hello dad.”

“Hello son, you didn’t think I would miss your fifth birthday did you, where’s your mum?”

“Over there,” replied Theo pointing to where Jana was walking towards them.

“Hello sailor,” Jana said seductively.

Michael smiled, put Theo down, and passionately kissed her.

Theo blanched and turned away. When they had parted, Jana said gasping, “I guess you missed me then.”

“You bet I did, let’s go home.”

He retrieved his bag, and together the three of them began the long walk back to their quarters. “How have things been, since I’ve been away honey?”

“Quiet actually, Theo has been getting on well with school. His teachers have said that he possesses a very curious mind.”

“Really?”

Theo looked up at his father and beamed a proud smile at him, which Michael duly returned.

They arrived back at their quarters in one of the outer living areas on the station. It had a large viewport which offered glorious views of the blue white atmosphere of Orion IV which Delta base orbited far below. As well as separate bedrooms, a large kitchen area and washroom facilities, together with a spacious lounge. Michael stowed his gear in the bedroom, and quickly changed out of his naval uniform, and into something more comfortable.

While he was doing this, Jana had made them all a drink and together they had dinner, the first dinner they had had together as a family for four months, ah domestic bliss, this is what I need, Michael thought.

Once they had finished eating, and the crockery was cleared away, Michael said to Theo. “Since you have been such a good boy for your mum, and doing well at school, I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Returning to the bedroom he searched inside his black equipment bag, picking out a rather large, white box. He held it vertically behind him, so as not to afford Theo a view of the item when he returned to the lounge.

Theo approached his father with an excited, yet also curious look on his face. Finally after the space of a few seconds he handed down the nondescript white box to his son.

“It’s a model of a Henschel class star liner, one of the ships I’ve been escorting. It’s used to transport large amounts of colonists to new colonies.”

Theo opened the box excitedly, which was almost as wide as he was and took out the model, it was cylindrical in shape, except for the complicated command structures and navigation towers. It tapered at the front end to an almost bullet like nose, at the bottom of this nose two fragile little plasma drive emitters jutted out, and at the rear of the model, were four engines. The model was incredibly detailed; hull panels and small viewports were all faithfully represented. Theo’s eyes grew wide and a broad smile instantly flashed across face. “Wow, thanks dad.” He rushed over to give his father a big hug.

“Thank you son.”

“Where did you get that?” Jana whispered into his ear.

“I had someone make it for me, for a few credits; an engineer aboard one of those ships while I was escorting it.”

Michael gestured to Theo, “if you push a small button on the bottom of the ship, the windows will light up.”

After a little bit of searching Theo located the button, pushed it, and sure enough the toy lit up. “Wow, cool.” He almost shouted in joy as he pretended to fly the model ship around the lounge area.

That night, Jana and Michael slept soundly together. It felt good to sleep in my own bed again, Michael thought.

The next day Theo asked the question that he had been waiting four months to say.

“Daddy, tell me about the E.D. F,” he said walking towards a seated Michael. He sat his son on his knee and said. “What do you want to know about it son?”

“Everything,” he said.

“Everything?” Michael replied, “I’ve only got three months shore leave,” he said laughing.

“Please daddy,” Theo replied, a somewhat serious look flashing across his face.

Michael looked at his son for a moment. “Why do you want to know?” he asked.

“It’s for a project at school that I’m doing, and because I want to be in the E.D. F one day; just like you,” Theo replied.

“Okay,” Michael said with a sigh. “Where do you want to start?”

“When did the E.D. F start?”

“The E.D. F started in 2054.”

“What was there before the E.D. F started?”

Michael looked over at Jana with a puzzled expression on his face. “Before the E.D. F, there was a big alliance between somebody called N.A.T. O, and a space agency called N.A.S.A.” he picked up little Theo and hefted him onto his knee.