The great starship at last arrived at their destination. As the commodore gazed upon the screen, the bridge crew carried out the required scans.

“What did you find?”

“Mostly ice sir. Seems they are locked into an ice age.”

“We cannot go there then. How about its moon?”

“Rather strange sir.”

“What do you mean by strange?”

“It’s an E1 sir. Mostly ocean though. It has a single land mass that is not much larger than old France.”

“We had better check it out. Turn to port.”

As the generation ship changed course, other eyes were watching closely.

“This is the monitor. Inform Councillor Gant that the ship is heading our way.”

When the diminutive figure arrived, the monitor saluted.

“How far are they?”

“Pretty close sir. They seemed determined to look us over.”

The councillor smiled.

“We can’t have that. Have the captain transferred to the holding cell. I’ll chat to him there.”

The commodore was watching the strange moon growing larger upon his screen when the bridge crew detected a pulse.

“Signs of high technology sir.”

“Pin it down then. We don’t want to upset anyone.”

Moments later, he found himself standing within a small rocky alcove.

“Where the hell am I?”

He saw the thick metal bars and winced.

“Seems as though I have been kidnapped.”

“You certainly have captain.”

He stared at the strange creature with the look of a brown bear.

“That’s commodore to you.”

“Whatever. May I ask what you are doing here?”

The commodore sighed loudly.

“Investigating this planetary system if you must know.”

“Only investigating? Our scans show that you have around a thousand souls aboard.”

“Give or take.”

“We suspect that you are searching for a new home.”

“What if we are?”

“You will not find it here.”

“We can move on you know. The next planet is roughly a month away at half thrust.”

“That would be wise indeed. As for that world, it is uninhabited. We
would not interfere if you settled there.”

The commodore cheered up.

“That is good news. We have been travelling for countless centuries
now.”

“So we assumed. Rest assured this new world will be more to your liking. Perhaps within a hundred years trade will have been established.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“I don’t see any reason to delay this. I will have you sent back with good grace.”

As this conversation was ongoing, aboard ship other councils were well underway.

Mike was in the briefing room listening to the tale.

“Anyone who abducts our leader is not to be trusted. We have to go and get him.”

“That means armed assault,” a team member pointed out. “They seem far more advanced than ourselves.”

Mike turned to the senior bridge officer.

“Have you found where the commodore is?”

“The latest scan suggests some underground complex sir. A small team may be able to break him out.”

“That settles it then. A six-man squad will take the shuttle and land nearby. Leslie, you can lead.”

The young woman had waited all her life for this opportunity.

“I’ll bring him back sir.”

As Mike stood upon the bridge, the shuttle slowly departed from the landing pod.

“We are clear sir,” the pilot said.

“Proceed as planned.”

Deep below the surface, the councillor was about to depart when the news came through.

“We have detected a craft leaving your ship. Is this some kind of rescue attempt?”

“I can call it off,” the commodore replied.

The councillor waived the suggestion away.

“No need, we have different means of reinforcing a message.”

As the small craft pulled away, a beam of light struck it amidships.
Upon the bridge, the frantic calls came in.

“Exterior hull overheating rapidly. We are under attack.”

“Return to ship immediately.”

“Systems not responding. Hull breach imminent!”

Upon the bridge, Mike watched the shuttle disintegrate before his shocked eyes.

“That was an act of aggression. Without weaponry, we cannot respond.”

He thought quickly.

“Shields to maximum. Code red.”

As the bridge crew responded, the shocked commodore had listened to the councillor’s report.

“There was no need to do that. We are defenceless.”

The councillor pointed to his sonic blaster.

“Not quite eh? You carry side arms. Yours has been deactivated.”

“Only for our personal protection. I assure you of that.”

“I think another demonstration is needed to persuade your people commodore.”

As he marched off, the terrified leader screamed, “Please don’t hurt them!”

Upon the bridge, the new signal was quickly detected.

“Another series of beams sir. I think we are being scanned.”

“Let’s hope that is all they are doing.”

Within the engineering pod however, it was an entirely different story.

“The couplings are melting!” the chief engineer said.

“We can reroute sir.”

“Then do it!”

As they ran to the console, the couplings severed suddenly.

“Everyone out now!”

Elsewhere the beams went straight through the supposedly impregnable shields.

Those watching from the observation pod go quite a shock when the thick glass shattered, sucking them into the vacuum of space.

The beams triggered overloads throughout the ship and those in playing the slot machines in the entertainment pod had to flee from the resulting fire.

As the great ship reeled, only the pet pod seemed immune.

“We have fires and breaches all over the ship sir!”

“Try to contain,” Mike said. “Engineering, what’s your status?”

“Power couplings are fried sir! We can only manage half thrust and that will only last four weeks.”

“It’s that bad?”

The engineer shook his head.

“Actually it’s worse sir. Unless life support is reduced by a third, none of us will make it that far.”

The shocked security officer cut the link. As the bridge crew looked on, he tapped the intercom.

“All civilians proceed to evac pods one through six. This is not a drill.”

As the people carried out the grim order, the commodore waited for his captor to return. As he appeared he barked, “What the hell have you done?”

The councillor smiled.

“Minimal damage commodore. Your people are quite safe.”

“We can’t sustain much damage. What do you mean by minimal?”

The councillor stepped forward.

“We induced a multiple overload along certain lines.”

“That sounds more than minimal to me.”

“Whatever. Now you may colonise the world. Your craft will last long enough.”

“We have no option now.”

“No you don’t.”

Mike was waiting when his leader suddenly reappeared.

“What’s the damage?”

The report was a rather grim one.

“We lost forty in the observation pod sir. We have multiple fires that are being suppressed and the couplings are severed,” Mike said carefully.

The commodore blanched.

“That means we are dead in the water a month from now.”

“I’ve sent our people to the evac pods sir.”

“At least they will be safe there for a while. Those people who held me simply wanted us out of their hair. We paid a heavy price.”

“Yes we did,” Mike replied.

The commodore stared at the bridge crew and said, “All ahead half thrust. We have one chance left...”