Greetings from Mykonos

After a long arduous trek through deep space, the crew of the Mykonos star ship arrived at their destination. A beautiful blue orb perfectly centered in the habitable zone of a young yellow sun. It was the third of nine planets orbiting the system, a planet that could and possibly did sustain life.

Mykonos astronomers had detected radio transmissions emanating from the area on the yellow star in the Quaquel Quadrant of the galaxy and while the signal was indecipherable, it piqued the interest of the high commander and she ordered the expedition.

The problem was that their target destination was light years from Mykonos and as a result, the radio signals were old and there was no way of knowing if the intelligent life that sent the message; if indeed it was a message, still existed

“Captain, there are no discernible radio signals emanating from the surface and none of the other planets in the system are in our acceptable hospitable zone. What are your orders?”

“Lieutenant Tragen we did not come this far too simply give up and return home. Put together a landing party and see what life forms if any exist there. At any rate, it could still be an excellent site for colonization.”

The shuttle craft landed in what appeared to be a clearing in a lush tropical forest. As the ships door opened and the expedition crew stepped out, they were greeted by a vast array of small creatures foraging and seemingly unconcerned about the new arrivals.

Lt. Tragen pointed to his left and said. “Ensign, take three men and explore that area. I’ll take the rest of the landing party and go in that direction, he said pointing to his right. We’ll meet back her in two hours.”

The science officer had just knelt down to inspect a plant and collect a sample when he saw the shadow on the ground. As he looked up, a thickly muscled pair of legs covered in a leathery scaly skin stood in front of him. It looked similar to the small creatures at the landing site, but this one was several feet taller. The shock of seeing the creature caused him to stumble back and as he did, the creature attacked biting off his arm at the elbow. His scream alerted the others who drew their weapons and upon the horror of seeing the science officer’s arm in the creature’s mouth, fired their weapons at it. The creature’s head exploded spewing blood, bone, and brain matter into the air. What was left of the creature fell to the ground its nervous system kept its legs twitching for several more seconds.

The first officer used a utility belt as a tourniquet to stem the massive flow of blood pulsating from the science officer’s arm. “Get him to the shuttle craft, NOW.” He shouted to the other members of the landing party. “Call the others back to the shuttle he’ll die if we don’t get him back to the ship immediately.

When all crew members had returned to the shuttle and the gravely wounded science officer was secured in his seat, the landing team preparing for lift off were suddenly thrown violently from one side of the shuttle to the other by some unknown force. “What in Heilo’s name was that.” yelled the First Officer

“I don’t know Sir.” replied the pilot still prepping for liftoff.

“Ensign Rakoo, lower the viewing screen shield and see what‘s got a hold of the shuttle.”

With the shield down there was now a clear line of sight directly through the front window port of the shuttle and the problem they faced was now self-evident. Another creature similar the one they had killed, but many times larger, had clamped its massive jaws over the outer skin raising it high off the surface and shaking rapidly back and forth. The Flight Officer seeing his shuttle being consumed by the egregious creature began shouting orders to the crew.

“Ensign Tacna prepare the pulse beam and fire on my command. Lt Tribian prepare the anti gravity drive for immediate lift off and plot a course back to our ship, we’ll be leaving this Gordanic forsaken planet as soon as this thing releases us.”

“Lt Tragen the pulse beam is activated.”

“Fire”

The invisible pulse beam penetrated the creature’s body; it quivered violently for a moment and then exploded spewing a very fine mist into the air. The shuttle craft, once released from the bite of the creature, descended a few feet towards the surface of the planet before soaring up and out of the atmosphere.

The ship’s Captain met the returning shuttle craft in the loading dock and though taken aback by the site of the armless crew member said. “All of you report to the situation room in one hour with your evaluation.”

The Shuttle Flight Commander said. “Yes Sir, followed by, get Science Officer Mortak to the sick bay immediately.”

First Officer Lt Tragen rose from his seat at the situation table and said. “In summery Sir, It is my opinion and that of all members of the landing party that there is no intelligent life existing on this planet. And it has also been determined by our Chief Engineer that the radio signal picked up by the Mykonos astronomers was no more than an electrical discharge from this planets magnetic field. It is therefore the consensus of your senior officer staff that there is no further justification for remaining in this quadrant and we recommend moving on to our secondary objective ANCEKKUS-2.”

Captain Koranic addressed his First Officer saying. “Lt Tragen while it appears that we will not be successful in accomplishing the prime directive of discovering intelligent life here, we still have the opportunity of successfully completing our secondary objective. If Mr. Mortak, our Science Officer were able, I’m sure he would be the first to tell everyone at this table what the secondary directive is, but since he cannot, any volunteers?”

“Yes Captain Koranic, the secondary directive is locating a habitable world suitable for colonization” Lt Tragen replied.

“And what is your assessment of this planet and its potential for colonization?”

“Atmospheric conditions are more than suitable for our species and there appears to be abundant quantities of raw materials for building and suitable soil for any agricultural purposes.”

“So Mr. Mortak would you not say that this is about as ideal a location to establish new colony as any?”

“Yes Sir under normal conditions however even though there is not intelligent life on this planet, there is life, and as you saw by the injuries to our Science Officer, that life form is not docile. We would need to eliminate the indigenous species and import our own domestic stock for breeding.”

Chief Engineer Eedmik do we have the means to eliminate the indigenous species on this planet?”

“Yes Sir, I would think we could set off a planned pattern of Mid range Gama ray bursts that should eradicate all living animal life on the surface of the planet.”

“You may precede Mr. Eedmik.”

The ships Chief Engineer stationed thirty five satellites in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. Each equipped with a Gama ray pulsar beam capable of delivering a five hundred megawatt Gama ray burst.

A voice resonated from the speaker within the Captains control console, it was Chief Engineer Eedmik. “We are ready to execute the extermination procedure upon your order Captain.”

Captain Koranic spoke from his seat on the bridge of the star ship “Lower our shields Ensign I want to view this operation first hand.”

“Yes Sir, shields down.”

“You may precede Mr. Eedmik.”

Chief engineer Eedmik armed all thirty-six satellites simultaneously and although the beams themselves weren’t visible to the Captain or his crew, the destructive power of the pulse beam with its massive Gama ray burst was more than evident on the surface of the planet.

Captain Koranic sat in utter disbelief at what he was witnessing. The fire storm from the Gama ray bursts was engulfing the entire planet.

He pressed the lever on his speaker console and roared.

“MR. EEDMIK TO THE BRIDGE NOW!”

The Chief Engineer entered the bridge and stood before the Captain who was still staring at the fire ball outside his viewing port that just a moment before had been a lush green vibrant world.

“I told you to exterminate the dangerous life forms down there so we could consider future colonization. What in Heilo’s name have you done?”

“Captain Koranic, neither I, nor any of my team expected the intensity that we experienced from the Gama ray bursts. They exceeded our output estimates by several orders of magnitude.”

“YOU DID NOT EXPECT.” “For the love of Agra Eedmik, you designed the pulse beam you should have known what it was capable of.”

“Well, we know now Sir that for any future endeavor of this sort we won’t require thirty-six pulsars to accomplish our objectives.”

Peering around the conference table with marked disgust the Captain said. “Mr Eedmik, I need to speak to you privately. The rest of you are dismissed. Return to your duty stations.”

With the room cleared, the Captain spoke. “I received a communication from the High Commander inquiring about the status of our mission. What would you suggest I tell her?”

“I think it best we tell her exactly what happened and inform her that we have learned from our mistake what not to do at our next site.”

“Our next site, are you mad Eedmik, if we report what actually happened here, my next command will be a garbage scow and you’ll be Third Engineer shoveling waste at the Tarsan-3 sewage plant! No, I don’t think the truth is what anyone wants to hear.”

There was a voice coming through the speaker panel. “Captain, the High

Commander is waiting to speak to you, shall I patch her through to you Sir.”

“Commander Raebici, what a pleasure to hear from you. The entire crew of the Starship Allegiance is at your command, what may we do for you?”

“It’s been some time since the counsel has heard from you Captain and we want a report of your findings in the Quaquel Quadrant.”

“A formal report is being prepared and will be sent to you soon, but I’m afraid the counsel will be disappointed with our findings. We found no intelligent life on this world and the planet has a completely barren landscape and in the opinion of our science team would be uninhabitable for future colonists.”

“I am truly sorry to hear that Captain Koranic, please proceed to your secondary objective ANCEKKUS-2. Hopefully with better results.”

As the visual communication monitor went black, the Captain turned to Chief Engineer Eedmik and said.

“Not a word, not ever