A fleet of black ships winked into normal space. One moment there was nothing, the next, they filled the skies over Alcyon. A hundred ships peeled off to pursue the heat signature that registered on their screens at the edge of the solar system.

Again, the ships fired without warning. Lasers cracked the domes over Alcyon's settlements like boiled eggs. Most of the inhabitants died before they even realised they were under attack.

In less than an hour, Alcyon was destroyed.

On board the Alpha Capella, Communications Officer Petrikov, was the first to pick up the distress signals automatically generated from Alcyon when a dome was breached.

Captain Layne was trying unsuccessfully to make contact with Jetta and Ari. "We need the Major Tom back here immediately," she was saying when Petrikov interrupted.

"Captain? We have a problem. Multiple domes on Alcyon have been breached." He stared at her, wide-eyed.

"The invaders?" Layne was quick to make the connection.

"That would be my guess," answered Petrikov. "I can't see all the domes failing at once through natural causes." Even as he spoke, his fingers were working rapidly, bringing up images of the surrounding space. "Unexplained heat coming our way, Captain," he announced in terse tones.

"How long before they reach us?"

"I'd say—at the current speed they're travelling—eleven minutes."

Where was the shuttle? Captain Jayne kept her face expressionless as her mind raced through the calculations—twice—but even if the Major Tom was on its way out of Richter right now, it would take too long. Much as she hated the thought of leaving any of her crew behind, she couldn't justify risking her ship for the sake of the shuttle. She took a deep breath and gave the order with no sign of her inner turmoil.

"All stations, prepare for immediate departure. Now!"

~~~

"They've gone without us," Jetta and Ari looked up from their wristcoms, and stared at each other, incredulous.

"Worse than that. The invaders are here, in the Pleiades. Alcyon has been attacked." Okeke, the Station Manager sounded dazed. He shook a ciga-stick from his packet of Ecrivain's Specials and proceeded to suck strongly on the mild tranquiliser. "All the domes have been destroyed. Everyone there must be dead."

"What can we do?" asked Parish.

"Are we next?" asked someone else, his voice rising. "Can they find us here?"

"May I suggest switching to minimum operating function immediately?" Jetta addressed Manager Okeke. "Cut all radio transmissions and make us as hard to see as possible."

"Good idea," agreed Okeke, trying hard to maintain a semblance of control, despite the fact that he was sure his hands were trembling. He gave the order and his team bustled about, turning off or at least down, all their equipment.

Jetta stepped closer, keeping her voice low. "I know your projects would normally be classified, but I think we've moved beyond that now. Is there anything here your teams have been working on that might serve as a weapon? We still have the Major Tom. It's not equipped with FTL so we can't leave the solar system, but we could get near the enemy if we had anything that would do them damage."

"No weapons that I'm aware of," answered Okeke glumly, "but I'll call a meeting of the section heads and have them review all their programs. At the very least it will give them something positive to focus on."

"In the meantime, Ari and I will go over all the information about the invaders that the Alpha Capella forwarded to us before she left," agreed Jetta. "There must be something we can do!"

Their faces got grimmer and grimmer as they read the reports. So far the invaders had destroyed two whole colonies without losing a single ship. Used to dealing with criminals and the occasional planetary dispute, Earth's Patrol ships were not equipped for intergalactic war. Earth's government had felt they had no choice but to concentrate all their forces in defence of Earth, which meant colonies were on their own, reliant on whatever trading ships they could arm and local law enforcement agencies for their defence.

Information on the invaders was sketchy. Apart from the observation that they appeared to be part flesh, part metal, there was not much known. No-one knew where they came from. Jetta imagined that capturing one of the aliens and—even better—one of their ships for analysis, would be a top priority.

"Lieutenant Carrawei?" Okeke drew her attention. "Most of our current research is for improved terraforming—plant modification and so forth. However, our medical unit has some stocks of the Influenza K virus, which we've been using to improve the vaccine. I've no idea whether the K-flu would have any effect on the invaders but it might be worth a shot. It certainly killed enough humans before we got it under control."

Jetta chewed her lip. She'd been hoping for something more along the lines of a fission missile or rocket lasers, but if K-Flu was all they had... Viruses might be less dramatic than missiles but they had certainly wiped out populations in the past. Of course, she had no way of knowing how they would affect a being who was part machine. That reminded her of something... Jetta hunted through her recent memory. Myke. She looked around.

"Where's Myke? What about that nanobyte research he was talking about? The metal muncher?"

Okeke pulled a face. "Still in the developmental stages as I understand it, but... Myke?" He spoke into his wristcom. "Can you come to the meeting room? And bring a sample of your project if possible."

A few minutes later, Myke entered the room, carrying a sealed glass jar very carefully in both hands. What looked like a pile of rust was in the bottom of it.

"What the—?" exclaimed Okeke before he could help himself.

"This is what was left of my spoon after my Munchers got to it," explained Myke, holding on to the jar. "Let them come in contact with metal and they adapt to its structure...then, eat it."

Everyone stared at him.

"How do you stop them?" asked Ari.

"You don't. Not until there's no metal left."

"Aren't they dangerous to have around?" asked Jetta, looking uneasily at all the metal fixtures and equipment surrounding them.

"Extremely. That's why I conduct all my experiments in glass," answered Myke. "I haven't worked out how to control them yet," he continued enthusiastically, "but I'm working on it. Just think, the ultimate garbage disposal."

"Do they work on all metals?" asked Ari.

"Anything comprised of a unit cell, a repeating array of atoms in a crystal form. Iron, platinum, zinc—even gold."

"Steel?"

"Yes, and aluminium for that matter."

"I'm guessing all those ships have metal in them somewhere, and even more interesting, the invaders themselves appear to be part metal, from all accounts." Jetta was starting to feel excited. "This could be what we're looking for. We just have to get the nanobytes from here to the invaders."

"How many containers do you have? Could we pack them inside missiles, or put them in canisters that would fit in Major Tom's firing chutes?" asked Ari.

Myke looked dubious. "I suppose so, but you have to realise, if even one of them breaks open inside the chute... they'd eat the metal in your ship. You couldn't stop them."

"I think it's worth the risk," said Ari, looking steadily at Jetta, "but it's your call."