Tok Vs. Terra

by elveloy

Only eleven light years from Terra, a wormhole opened, its mouth blacker than space itself. A moment later, a huge grey ship shot out, clearing the exit in seconds. Twenty-five ships followed at top speed, before the wormhole closed, inexorably trapping the next vessels inside.

No-one knew what happened to ships caught inside a collapsing wormhole. No-one had ever been found to ask.

In the lead ship, General Tok Shuh stared grimly at the display screen in front of him. Each glowing dot represented a Tokkan Warship and only twenty-six, including his own, had made it through to this new sector. He could only hope the majority of the fleet was safe, on the other side of the wormhole and not caught in the middle. Everyone knew the risks of travelling through a wormhole, but it was the only way to cross the galaxy.

His mind flashed back to the day he had called for volunteers. He'd had to hide his fierce pride as rank upon rank of soldiers stood before him, stretching back almost as far as the eye could see. Every one of them eager to sign up for the expedition into unchartered space; knowing that in all likelihood, they would never be able to return to Tok, even if they survived the wormhole.

Now, only twenty-six out of one hundred had made it through.

Still—twenty-six armed Tokkan Warships, filled with experienced fighters, fresh from their conquest of the Mill planets.

The General straightened his shoulders and smiled. He was certain that would be more than enough to crush any resistance in this alien sector.

His ship's long range Imagers were scanning the new system, mapping proximate space and identifying any usable planets. Unless they had lucked out and landed in the middle of nowhere, his fleet would soon have a target.

All four hands behind his back, the General watched as results from the Imagers created a holomap of nearby space. The nearest star system was a double, a small white dwarf and a larger yellow one. Unlikely to have habitable planets, but not impossible.

As if in answer to that thought, a red light flashed on the display. The General's smile turned into a feral grin. Great Tok! Not only had they found a planet, but it was emitting energy. Proof of life. He wondered how advanced these aliens were. Had they come out of the swamps yet? Or were they still swimming around in the bathing water?

He hoped they would prove a worthy challenge to his troops.

~~~

Down on the surface of Procyon A247, more locally known as Cyon, people were working to complete the latest stage of the massive terra-forming project.

When the first exploration team arrived years ago, Cyon had been a barren world. Rock, rock, and more rock appeared to cover the entire surface. Gazing down from the ship, the geophysicists felt down-hearted. All this effort for nothing. Minimal atmosphere—that, they could cope with—but no water was a different matter. The pilot brought the ship down as close as she could to the planet and still remain in a safe orbit. The scientists continued to scan and analyse. Then...

"Look at this!" Paolo Benini cried in an excited voice. He pointed to the newest image crossing his screen. "There! Below the surface—is that water?"

And that was the beginning. Carefully placed explosions to bring the water to the surface, followed by the introduction of bacteria, algae and other oxygen generating organisms. A space station above the atmosphere was constructed to allow access for workers and the ships that brought them.

Now, ten years later, the first habitable dome city was almost complete, ready for the first wave of colonists. It would be centuries before humanity could walk freely on the surface, but the demand for new living space meant there was no shortage of volunteers to occupy the domes in the meantime. And human occupation would help speed up the terraforming process.

Paolo Benini was one of the first to apply for residence.

"It's an amazing opportunity!" he told his colleagues. "Helping to create a new world. What could be more exciting?"

~~~

Twenty-six Warships streamed toward the target planet, the lead ship several thousand klicks ahead of the fleet. General Tok Shuh waited eagerly for the scout's report.

"One primitive space station, General." The scout's Commander reported in flat tones. "The planet appears barely inhabited. No significant cities or settlements—at least on the surface." He paused, then added, "We can find heat signatures for scarcely a thousand beings."

The General swore. All that way for nothing! His fingers clenched. Then the truth hit him. If it was a new colony, then...

"I wonder where their home planet is?" he mused, aloud.

"It can't be far away," commented his Troop Sub-Commander, Lih Brok, feeling free to speak now that the General had asked a question, even if a rhetorical one. "Not given the primitive stage of their development."

"I'm sure you're right," answered the General, in silky tones.

Lih Brok swallowed, his crest flattening against his skull. "Yes, General."

The General spoke into his communit. "Commander Telek and Commander Forsa, this job is yours." The rest of his fleet would be disappointed but the task was simply too small to warrant an all-out attack and waste precious resources. The rest would just have to stay back here and wait.

Then, when the first alien ship came looking for its missing colony, his Warships would follow it back to its source.

~~~

"What do you mean 'the station is missing'?" Captain Sandra Diaz of the spaceship Survivor demanded, her voice querulous. "Space stations don't simply disappear into thin air!"

"I tell you there's nothing there," insisted her navigator. "We're in the right place but... I've rechecked the co-ordinates, three times. It's gone."

"What about Cylon? Has anything happened to the colony?" asked Paolo Benini urgently. Benini was the leader of the current group of would-be colonists. He'd been invited onto the bridge to get another glimpse of his new home before transferring to the station to board the shuttle down to the surface. But that wasn't going to happen now.

Lex Vandenberg, the Survivor's second pilot, looked up from his screen. "The colony has gone, too. I can't find any sign of it. The dome and everything under it has been totally destroyed."

"A quake?" asked Sandra, doubtfully.

"More like they were attacked," answered Lex, bringing up images of the scoured site, which only days before, had been a thriving community.

"Attacked? By who?"

"There's no-one else this far out."

"I hope you're not going to suggest we're looking at a raid by Space Pirates!" Sandra couldn't help saying in disgusted tones.

Everyone was well aware there were no such things in real life. Holovids to one side, the colossal amount of money and resources required to launch an interstellar ship meant space travel was the exclusive domain of governments and massive corporations. Not to mention the years of advanced scientific training required to operate one. No, the boozy, hard-living pirate characters beloved of so many, were purely fictional.

"And in any case, what would be the purpose in destroying the whole colony? It's not like anyone can live there now."

"And there wasn't anything worth stealing—no gems or rare minerals. To my knowledge, mining hadn't even started." The crew added their contributions to the discussion.

"I tell you, the colony was attacked," insisted Lex, stubbornly. He knew people called him paranoid behind his back but that was what it looked like to him. He scanned the area where the colony had been, again. Everyone crowded around to stare over his shoulder. Was that black jagged shape the remains of part of the dome? It was hard to tell from up here, good as the scanning equipment was.

Sandra frowned. The only way to tell for sure was to send down a survey team. With over a thousand people missing, there was really no choice—she had to investigate.

Eager to prove his point, Lex piloted the shuttle down to the surface, his senses hyper-alert to any threat. A small team of scientists accompanied him, including Paolo and his husband Gianni. Lex couldn't help wishing he had a few more military types on board, armed with rocket launchers or something equally powerful. Instead, he had a bunch of scientists. He could only hope whoever (or whatever) had done the damage, would be long gone.

Lex stayed close to the shuttle as the scientists, protected by air-tight bodysuits, investigated the charred ground. "It's obvious they were attacked... lasers by the look of things. The very rock is scorched," Lex told Paolo.

Paolo bit his lip. Transport to and from Cyon was strictly controlled. No ships had been here since the Survivor left a couple of weeks ago. He knew there was no way any person could have done this. Far more likely to have been an explosion, an accident.

"Hmm. We'll see what the investigation turns up. Everyone back on Luyten, and Terra for that matter, will want to know all the details."

The scientists took their time scanning and recording the entire area which the dome had occupied, but it didn't take very long. There wasn't much to see. There were certainly no survivors, not even a corpse or a piece of one.

Lex took his party back to the ship as soon as he could. The back of his neck had been prickling the whole time he'd been on Cyon.

"There's nothing more we can do here," said Sandra as she welcomed the returning team and their grim news. "We'll return to Luyten, immediately."

~~~

Red laser beams tore the sky apart. Ships armed hastily and too late, struggled to launch, only to be picked off like practice targets when they neared the invaders. Their burning shells continued on mindless paths through space, empty of life, and beacons of destruction.

Once the ships were eliminated, the invaders bombarded the cities, pounding them into submission. Then they launched the ground troops, armoured creatures striding through the ruins, eliminating anyone in their way. It wasn't a conquest, it was a massacre.

~~~

The Survivor returned to Luyten a week later, after a quick trip to Terra to report personally on the Cyon tragedy. They were accompanied on the return voyage by three large mining ships, scheduled to harvest the mineral resources of the system's asteroids.

Switching back from FTL drive into empty space near Luyten, the crew of all four ships froze in appalled horror. It was almost impossible to believe the scale of destruction. Every city on the planet had been destroyed, debris hung thick in the skies.

Above it all, twenty-six grey ships appeared to be in sole possession of the ruined planet. The ships were like nothing anyone had seen before.

"Aliens! Murdering bastards!" hissed Sandra.

She opened a communication channel direct to the mining ships. "Captains, we're facing an invasion. Can I count on your support?"

"You sure can!" came the speedy replies. "Some of my crew have—had—families down there."

"Use your heavy lasers!" she instructed the miners. "Let's tear these fuckers to shreds!"

Without hesitating, the miners powered up their heavy-duty lasers, powerful enough to split an asteroid in half. They fired without further ceremony, destroying the three nearest ships before General Shuh realised what was happening.

"We're under attack, General!" screamed Brok.

It was a cumbersome job, manoeuvring a large vessel in space, but slowly, Shuh turned his ship around to bring his weapons to bear on the intruders. He swallowed a gulp as he realised how much larger they were, far larger than those ships his fleet had destroyed earlier. Still, big as they were, there were only three—they were grossly out-numbered.

"Fire!"

Red fire flashed.

A hit! Flames erupted from the side of one of the giant ships.

Shuh smiled briefly, before his own vessel was sliced in half like a ripe pelon.

The big miner continued firing, despite being hit. Inside the ship, crew worked frantically to seal off the damaged section and allow the fires to burn themselves out. Sandra kept the Survivor back, out of the way, allowing the miners a clear line of sight on the alien ships. Time enough for her to step in if the miners failed.

The alien fleet fought back but it soon became obvious that the miners had access to more power. Their lasers had a longer range, slicing into the alien ships before they could draw near enough to attack. Once again, the space over Luyten was filled with broken and burning ships but this time it was the aliens who were the victims.

The invading fleet fought to the last. There was no attempt to surrender.

Sandra gazed triumphantly as the last crippled ship drifted powerlessly across her bow.

"Gotya! Now we'll find out where the friggin' hell you came from! Lex? Take a boarding party. Arm everyone. I want you to check every vessel that isn't in tiny pieces. I want captives. Stun them if you have to but we need some alive."

All in all, they took forty-nine live prisoners. Twenty-six hundred had left Tok.

No-one really expected to be able to understand a word the aliens said, but before Sandra had a chance to even attempt to interrogate anyone, a ship from Terra arrived, full of officials, to take over.

The instant Terran authorities learned that an alien species was involved, they claimed jurisdiction. Every last scrap of ship was gathered up and all the captives transported to Terra under maximum security.

~~~

Six months later

"In a gesture of goodwill, the President announced his approval today for twenty-six Tokkans to attempt to return to their home planet, accompanied by a delegation from Terra. The delegation will include a skilled team of negotiators to broker a peace between our two species. This reporter understands that one of the Tokkan ships has been repaired sufficiently to undertake the so-called 'wormhole' jump... The remaining twenty-three Tokkans will continue as guests of Terra..."

"Is he out of his fucking mind?" shouted Lex, when they heard the news.

Sandra had some sympathy with his position but felt obliged to spout the official line.

"The President says the Tokkans have helped prepare the treaty. They've sworn they'll support it."

"I don't give a flying fuck what the President says. He's doing a Trump, telling people what he thinks they want to hear instead of the truth. Nobody wants to believe we're facing all-out war with another species, but those Tokkans are lying. There's no way their home planet is going to agree to any sort of peaceful settlement."

Lex took a deep breath, trying to convince the Captain that he knew what he was talking about.

"I've studied everything that's been published about them for the last six months. They're a warrior race, Captain, their whole social structure is geared around war. For Cyons's sake, I hear their soldiers are promoted according to how many people they've killed! They call them Slayers, Grade One, Two and Three. I'm telling you, they live for war. They won't stop until every last human is wiped out, our race annihilated."

Sandra frowned as she studied the man in front of her. His face was flushed and his multiple tattoos swirled agitatedly across his skin. One fist pounded into the other as he spoke.

"I'm sure you're exaggerating, Lex," she soothed. "In any case, the decision is not up to us. The Federated Planets was still run by the President and the Federation Council last time I checked, not the Space Corps."

"I tell you, if we let that ship go home, they'll be back with hundreds more, all armed to the teeth and ready to kill us."

"Enough. The Council has agreed to try and send the ship home, so the diplomats can discuss a peace treaty. We have no choice but to abide by it."

Sandra walked away. She knew Lex was paranoid but surely this was taking it to extremes. On the other hand, she thought, as she cast her mind back, he had been right about the Cyon attack. She frowned, remembering the terrible destruction the Tokkans had wrought on unsuspecting Luyten. What if Lex was right?

~~~

A fleet of ships accompanied the Tokkan vessel, Tok 26, to a section of space near Alpha Centauri, to witness its departure. Tactfully, light years away from Procyon and Luyten.

The Tokkan's had done their best to explain wormhole technology to the humans but as none of them was an expert, they hadn't had much success. The only clear facts which emerged were that you needed a good stretch of empty space to create an opening by activating the wormhole control panel on your ship and then you had to shoot through it as fast as possible before it closed. Scarcely a detailed explanation. Several teams of Terran scientists were even now eagerly examining the salvaged remains of other Tokkan vessels, trying to discover how the wormhole creator worked.

Sandra was foremost amongst the escort fleet, aboard Survivor, keeping close to the Tokkan vessel. Lex was tight lipped, if Sandra hadn't known better she would have said he was sulking. She knew he'd sent numerous communications to the Federation Council about his suspicions, but they'd all been dismissed.

The signal came for all ships to halt as the fleet neared its destination. The Survivor pulled up just to the left rear of Tok 26.

However, before they could come to a complete halt, red alarm lights popped up across the control panels. In seconds the bridge was awash with red light.

"It's an emergency. We'll have to evacuate!" said Sandra. "Everyone to the shuttle pods immediately."

Obediently, if bewildered, the crew left their posts and headed to the emergency evacuation points. All except for Lex.

"Captain?" he asked in a low voice.

"The life support systems are failing. You need to evacuate for your own safety, Lex," repeated Sandra, firmly.

Lex pursed his lips and squinted at her. "What's going on?"

Sandra shook her head ever so slightly, waiting until the last crew left the bridge.

"Go, Lex. This is your last chance," urged Sandra, when they were alone.

"You've got a plan, haven't you?" said Lex, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

"This will be a one-way trip, Lex. The last shuttle is waiting to depart, so..."

"I'm staying with you."

Sandra nodded and released the last shuttle despite the pilot's protests.

"Right. Take over the pilot's chair, Lex, and get ready! We're going to follow that ship into the wormhole." She reached across and did something to the control panel and all the red lights stopped flashing.

A moment later, Tok 26 drew away from the rest of the fleet, powering up its normal drive as high as it could. Survivor followed right on its tail.

She ignored the shrill sounds coming from her communication unit, demanding that she stand down and cease all action immediately.

A black-rimmed hole appeared in front of them as Tok26 opened a wormhole and shot in through the opening. Lex followed without a second thought. Instantly they were surrounded by black. The only thing they could see was a glimpse of the rear of Tok 26, twisting and distorting in the black tube.

"What's the plan, Captain?" asked Lex, his heart pounding with adrenaline.

Sandra bared her teeth in a twisted grin. "Take us around in a hard right, and head straight for the side of the tunnel. We're going find out exactly what happens when you collapse a wormhole with two ships inside."

Sandra sat back in the Captain's chair, gripping the armrests as Lex made the course alterations. "I decided you were right, Lex. I'm sorry about the other humans on board that ship, but we simply can't afford to let the Tokkans get back home. This is war, total war."

-----

(Author's Note:

Sub genre: Military Sci-fi

Word count 3000 – 3500 – mine is 3343)

You must use the phrase 'did / do /doing a Trump" in your story. It can be positive or negative and meaning is up to you.

2 former Survivor players must be two of the main characters – mine are Lex and Sandra

Utilise the song "War Ensemble' by Slayer (somehow)

Plus 2 images out of 4 – I used 3 and 4, a battle in space and troops lined up in a spaceport)