Intersteller:

Book V:

Left Behind

By

A Section Taken From The

Declaration of Independence

Of the United Alliance

(Signed in Congress, July 4, 1776)

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…

1.

1600 Hours, July 4, 2486

Astoria System, Space Above Cronus .5

A ripple appeared in star system of Astoria, almost above the planet Cronus .5. The ripple grew and grew, almost as if a single rain drop had hit the surface of the water, causing a chain reaction that expanded outward. And just like a rain drop that hits the water; several droplets appeared after the aftershock. These several droplets were actually starships, shaped in an ironic way like raindrops.

There were three raindrop-shaped ships, one mothership flanked on both sides by two smaller ships. They had dark-blue shell hulls, and dim lights flickered across the hulls, as if acknowledging that a life-sustaining planet was directly below them.

Below, on ground, the people in the eastern parts of Cronus .5 continued with their everyday life, oblivious to the three ships that had jumped into their system. Of course they couldn’t see the ships clearly, but if they had spent enough time gazing in the general direction of the ships, someone might’ve been able to spot them.

These ships didn’t belong to any of the three Alliances, or any secret organizations. They belonged to an alien race called the Skorpthi, a dying race from another system hundreds of light-years from Cronus .5. The Skorpthi had exhausted their own home world, along with all their other sub-planets. Although their biologically based fleet was small, they contained enough weapons to easily neutralize Cronus .5’s STAR-gun defenses and knock out the planet’s global and universal communication system. Stored in small tube like bio-chambers, there were small parasitic nanites that could and would consume vast numbers of advanced technological components, pollute the rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans of Cronus .5, which would eventually destroy any and all life forms that lived on the once peaceful planet of Cronus .5. Any hope that would be needed in the future had just missed its deadline.

Two days later…

Doctors and scientists worked around military personnel inside a Compound Bunker, one of the few that had been built in the Vault Mountains of Cronus .5. Klaxons flashed red, and the lights flashed around. The wailing sound they made over a day ago had been forgotten as they rushed around preparing the four bunkers that were placed sporadically in the face of the mountains. The Vault Mountains overlooked the massive metropolis of Eynstin City.

Colonial Soldier Marines carried uninfected weapons into the barracks, while the doctors checked the medical room. The scientists were in the back of the bunker, in a self-sufficient, sealed chamber called the cryogenic chamber.

Inside this portion of the bunker were eight elliptical-shaped cold-sleep modules. A footlocker rested at the base of these cryo-modules, which would soon be filled. A computer sat in the center of the room, filled with incomplete data that would be completed over time.

A scientist with the last name Calhoun was assigned to check the cryo-modules. He held a small billboard in his hands as he checked the list.

“Temperature system, check,” a woman, named Ashby, said behind him, sitting at the computer.

Calhoun watched the cryo-module he stood in front of as its temperature went from cold to defrost to warmth. He checked one of the many small boxes on his datapad. “Check. Check revivification tubes.”

“Checking revivification systems,” Ashby replied.

Calhoun was watching the cryo-module when the door that led into the cryogenic chamber opened. Marines followed directly behind by doctors entered the room with eight unconscious bodies that lay on gurneys.

Ashby spun around in the seat and protested against the doctors that the modules were not completed yet. The doctors ignored her and proceeded to open the first module. Two marines lifted the body of a young Indian woman into the tank. Her light brown skin looked very delicate; her dark brown hair was put into a pony-tail. She wore a simple black skin-tight jumpsuit that hid very flattering curves. She looked like she could’ve been in her early twenties.

Finally Ashby stopped her objections to the doctors and quickly sat down at the computer. Her fingers danced across the keyboard quickly, as a marine removed the empty gurney out of the room. She nodded.

“Calhoun,” she said to the stunned scientist. “We better quickly check the remainder of the modules before these gentlemen are finished loading them.”

He nodded, and turned to the next module.

After the first module was sealed, the marines continued to the next module, this time putting an older man with balding gray hair into the second module. He was dressed in the same kind of uniform the girl had been dressed in, and he looked like he was in his mid forties. They sealed the second module just as Calhoun finished checking the sixth.

By the time Calhoun finished checking the seventh, the marines had put two more bodies into the third, fourth and fifth modules. A couple more marines entered the cryogenic chamber, carrying small insignificant items and placed them in their correct footlockers. The look that Ashby gave Calhoun told him not to vex over it.

The marines and doctors waited for Calhoun to finish checking the eighth and last cryo-module. When he was finished they put a man with a stone-looking face inside. Muscles ripped across his body and stretched his battle uniform. Calhoun swallowed as the cryo-module door was shut and sealed with a hiss.

He thumped his datapad, turned to Ashby, and whispered, “Are those creatures actually this close to an invasion?”

“I’m afraid even closer. Suburbia was destroyed ten minutes ago, the death toll well over one hundred thousand. The military officers worry that Eynstin city’s next.”

“What about the evacuation?” Calhoun asked, the lump in his throat stuck.

Two marines brushed past him as Ashby looked at Calhoun hard. “The creatures have made some type of atmospheric force field above Cronus point five. Only their insertion ships have made it through the shield.”

“Has any help arrived?”

“Not that I know of; but of course, our communications have been knocked out. I had a sister that was going to visit me for the holiday.”

Calhoun shook his head. Two days ago it was the fourth of July, usually celebrated across the Alliances as a day of remembrance of the fallen soldiers of the past. Now it seemed that more people would fall, and no one knew.

“Let’s go,” a doctor interrupted Calhoun’s thought. “We’re going to seal the cryogenic-chamber now.”

Ashby and Calhoun stepped out of the chamber and came into the small medical bay. There were four stationary gurneys in the room, with medical computers in between them. A table sat in the center of the room. The scientists and marines were also ushered out of this room and into the main hall.

Marines were running faster now, moving equipment as quickly as they could to the designated places. Admiral Mooring stood in the center of the room with his hands behind his back. His dark eyes glared at the marines, doctors, and scientist scrambling about.

He looked up at Ashby and Calhoun and walked up to them.

“Well, Ashby,” he said. “What’s the verdict?”

“I should be asking you the same question,” she replied. After a moment of silence she sighed. “The cryo-modules are functional and working properly. Your experiment should work.”

“Good work,” he said, nodding. “These people are our last hope to defend the Alliances.”

“Sir?”

“As far as they know, Cronus point five is the only habited planet. Hidden in one of these compound bunkers are the coordinates to Delaxtor, just in case they eliminate this infestation.”

“Security breach!” someone shouted over a hidden speaker. “The creatures are trying to break in compounds one and four!”

Calhoun didn’t need to think for a second as Colonial Soldier Marines ran past him. He knew which compound he was in. He was in the fourth compound. The marines had now in positions around the entrance of the compound; aiming whatever weapons they had available in that direction. They never got a first shot.

Author’s Note: A new Intersteller story; I know. Book five to be in fact. Don’t worry, this is a different time period from the first book that you’ve been reading in the past. I hope you enjoy this book.