Chapter No.22 Deception

Don't trust your gut!

It only required a few hours to arrive at the M-class dwarf star system that Molly had discovered. It had three rocky planets, all tidally locked to the star.

The planet we were interested in was a rock that is 1.5 times the size of Earth. It had an adequate atmosphere and a magnetic field that shielded it from the powerful flares that red dwarf stars were prone to shoot out with a vengeance.

"Why does this star emit so many flares?" I asked.

"Red dwarf stars spin more rapidly than larger stars, which tangles their magnetic lines more. When the magnetic lines contact in the star's photosphere, it releases very powerful energy blasts." She changed the image of the star so that it was possible to see the surface without glare. "See all those sunspots. That's where the magnetic lines tangle, causing the plasma of the photosphere to cool so that they appear to be black. That's just an illusion because they're still hotter than hell."

"We are in orbit, Jason," Judy informed me.

I looked over at the main screen to watch a thin twilight area slowly pass below our vessel as we orbited a planet that was heated to deadly hot temperatures on the side that always faces the planet, and freezing temperatures on the side that's always in the dark.

Molly reduced my feelings to actual values. "The bolometric temperature of the twilight zone is 240 K. The face side is 560 K and the back side is 130 K."

"I don't think we'll be going down to the face or back side of this planet," I said in a facetious manner.

"This is probably typical of tidally locked planets," Molly said. "There are strong winds flowing from the face to the back side. That's another factor that makes life difficult down there."

I pointed at the main screen that was displaying the surface as our ship orbited above it. "What's that?"

She looked up and immediately began adjusting the view to magnify. "That's definitely a structure. I don't see anything else like it."

"Put us into a geosynchronous orbit above the location of that structure," I told Judy.

After a few adjustments, our ship was stationary above the planet.

"We need a closer view. Send down some insect probes."

"Yes, Jason."

After several minutes, we began to receive video feeds from the surface.

"Look at the long line of aliens entering that structure," I said, pointing at the screen.

"They're definitely not human," Molly said, "They have much more massive legs like elephants and their upper bodies are squat."

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed. "Those look like the robots in that food factory we encountered with the round face aliens' system."

"If it is, why are those aliens lined up like that?"

"Good question," I said. "Maybe they don't realize what's going to happen to them."

"I'm not picking up any life signs that indicate human life," Molly said. "Are we going to go down and rescue these aliens?"

I rubbed my chin. "I don't think we should. These are obviously primitive aliens here. There are no signs of an intelligent society. The insect probes are detecting mostly grunts and noises that the universal translator is unable to translate into our language. That probably means that they're emitting animal sounds."

"They could still be intelligent to a certain extent," Molly said.

"That's true, but if this is a reptilian facility and we destroy it, we may end up not being able to retrieve any humans they might have. Besides, we are not the cops of the universe. Our main goal is to find humans not police the galaxy."

"I have to agree with you," she said. "We are not appreciated, as our last encounter has demonstrated."

"Retrieve the probes," I told Judy. "Take us out of orbit and move out a million kilometers from this planet."

"Yes, Jason."

"You can deploy your virtual mirror and find another possible habitable planet system."

"Wait a minute!" she blurted. "There's another habitable planet in this system."

"Really?"

"Yes. It's further away from the star just at the far edge of the habitable zone."

"Take us there, Judy."

Our ship turned abruptly and headed for a smaller planet that was orbiting just far enough away from the star to avoid being tidally locked; although, it was not spinning very fast.

"This planet has an atmosphere with about seven-hundredths percent carbon dioxide, which keeps it warmer," Molly said. "I'm reading a bolometric temperature of 230 K."

"That doesn't sound too bad," I said. "Is there any oxygen?"

"Yes, but it's around fifteen percent, but the atmospheric pressure is about 1.3 times Earth's."

"Sounds encouraging," I said.

We entered orbit and began our surveillance of the planet's surface, which was obstructed by heavy cloud formations.

"Send a Class-A probe down there, Judy."

"The probe is on its way. Jason."

Several minutes later, we began to receive transmissions from the probe.

"There doesn't seem to be any structures on this planet," I said. "It's mostly covered in black-leafed vegetation."

Suddenly, the screen showing the video feed flashed with a brilliant light.

"The probe has been destroyed, Jason," Judy said. "I am detecting a large craft ascending from the planet's surface."

"Go to Red Alert," I yelled. "Prepare for engagement."

"What is it?" Molly screeched.

"It's a Scath ship that was hiding on the planet."

Madison joined Judy at the command station as we literally jumped away from the planet and began firing at the Scath ship. Judy began a do-si-do with the enemy ship while firing weapons at it. She then executed a break away just as she hit it with a powerful gamma ray burst.

The enemy ship turned and accelerated away at high velocity.

"The enemy vessel has gone to warp, Jason," Judy informed me.

"The sneaky bastard was waiting there all that time for us," I said.

"Interesting," Molly said while studying a screen at her navigation station.

"What?" I asked.

"If I trace the trajectory of that Scath ship before it went to warp, it indicates that it was on a course out of our galaxy."

"Maybe it didn't care which way it was going," I said. "It just wanted to get out of our weapons' range."

She looked up at me. "Its course was directly to Andromeda."

"That's interesting," I said. "That would suggest that the reptilians were incorrect about the Scath being from the other side of our galaxy."

"What I don't understand is why they are trying to destroy us," she said.

"Maybe they don't like the reptilians and think that we're aligned with them."

"I get the feeling that there's more to it than that."

I sighed. "We'll just have to be more vigilant."