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Back Ark Royal
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover Blurb
  2. Contents
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty

The remaining POWs started to panic again as the shuttles took off, clawing for the sky.  Some of the Marines attempted to calm them, but it was impossible until the shuttles had vanished into the wild blue yonder.  Charles looked at the panic in their eyes and found himself wondering, despite the medic’s words, if they would ever be normal again.  The drugs had clearly influenced their behaviour ... and not for the better.

His radio buzzed.  “Sir,” one of the Marines said, “I think you should take a look at this.”

Charles located the Marine on the datanet, then walked back to one of the buildings in the centre of the camp.  Corporal Glen was standing by a hatch, pointing to it with an armoured hand.  Charles followed the pointing hand and frowned as he saw English letters written on the metal.  Robert A. Heinlein.  For a moment, he puzzled over it before recalling one of the endless briefings he’d had to attend before boarding Ark Royal.  The Heinlein had been a colony ship, owned by a consortium of settlers who wanted to leave the rest of the human race far behind ... and they’d done it too.  They’d left human space before Vera Cruz had been settled and had never been seen again, until now.

“Interesting,” he said.  Had the settlers gone far enough to encounter the aliens?  Had that been First Contact, not the attack on Vera Cruz?  Had the settlers somehow provoked the war?  “Take all the recordings you can for the analysts.”

He stepped backwards, staring at the buildings.  Now he knew about the Heinlein, it was clear that the POW barracks were little more than prefabricated human buildings from a previous era.  The aliens, for whatever reason, had given humans human buildings.  It was yet another oddity for the social scientists to puzzle over, he decided, making a mental note to see to it that some of the more reliable researchers received a full report.  Some of the civilian ones made mistakes, misreading situations ... and then refused to confess to their errors.  And some of those errors had cost lives.

His radio buzzed, again.  “Sir, we captured a handful of aliens,” Captain Jackson reported.  “I think you’re going to want to see this.”

“Understood,” Charles said.  He couldn't help a flicker of excitement.  “I’m on my way.”

***

James watched in horror as the first POWs stumbled out of the shuttles and onto the deck.  They were naked – drawing the attention of most of the shuttlebay crewmen, he noticed – but they walked like zombies, rather than human beings.  Even the children, young girls and boys, stumbled about as though they needed to be prodded in the right direction to keep them moving.  The reporters, who had hoped to make history by conducting the first set of interviews with alien POWs, stared in horror.