Angelika Queen Of Mars

Chapter 22

Chapter 22 Gale Celesta

Somewhere in the Malcartain Quadrant

The Kombaric and Narjasic were slowly working their way back towards Hyach 3 and a rendezvous with another ship coming from home. Thanks to the signal transfer station recently placed on Parmak 3 commander Armun was able to alert Hyach 3 that they were returning with refugees along with a cargo of the highest priority.

"That ought to get command scurrying to Hyach 3," remarked Angelika to her husband commander Aelfric. Since they had picked up all the remaining Elansa both commanders, as well as their staff's had been interviewing the living Elansa as well as their droid "specialists" who were to have originally set up their new colony. Slowly they learned about the Elansa and their Skaven tormentors.

Droids weren't anything special to the Falthians, they had highly developed ones as well, but the droids Jofyr, Andapell Deeron, and Tarmon seemed to be in charge of things something droids weren't allowed to do yet on Falth. Angelika was in the middle of her sleep cycle when she was woken up by a call from Commander Aelfric.

"Sorry to wake you Angelika, I was sound asleep as well, but the Kor'Math has alerted us to a planet showing some form of technology. If you want me to check it out while you continue on your way I'll be happy to do so." Commander Armun thought a moment, then replied,

"I'm up, I said I'm up, we'll go together. For some reason that situation with the Elansa has got me "spooked," better to play it safe, we have no idea what might really be there."

"I had a hunch that's what you'd say commander," replied her husband, "Your navigation people should already have the proper coordinates, let's go see what sort of trouble we can get into this time shall we?" Angelika groaned,

""Please don't say that dear, just alert the Kor'Math to be on the highest alert."

Captain Yarod of the Kor'Math remained on high alert as they approached the large planet,

"Doesn't appear to be any large bodies of water like on Kagor," remarked his co-pilot, Karuk Jarkul. "The land mass appears to contain a lot of inland seas surrounded by immense savanna's, but the sensors are reporting a strange pall hanging over the atmosphere but not to the nature of its make-up."

"Well unless I miss my guess," replied Captain Yarod, That's some sort of pollution, whoever lives there is doing something to cause it, well move into a low orbit and take more readings. I'm not picking up any broadcasting transmissions whatsoever; it's very possible this planet is less developed than Kagor."

The Kor'Math went into orbit over the large planet as data was being analyzed, and the land mass plotted while they waited for the destroyers to arrive.

When the Kombaric and Narjasic arrived several hours later captain Yarod was able to give the commanders a good presentation of what they found.

"The planet is roughly eighty percent land with these large inland lakes making up the water portion of it. I'm guessing they were formed from ancient comet or meteor strikes, it has a ratio of one to ten point three to Falth there are eight mountain ranges all running on a north to south longitude and all of them look to be very high and rugged with three and possibly four of the ranges rising to thirty two thousand kat's. We've determined that there are around twelve population centers all clustered around these nine inland lakes. Two places that intrigued me was the immense savanna much like Khaiabad only much larger, and an incredibly huge forest to the west, I've never seen anything like it, and it basically fills in between two of these mountain ranges." Commander Aelfric then asked,

"You said something earlier about a pall over most of the planet, were you able to determine what's causing it?"

"Yes commander," replied captain Yarod, "It appears to be coming from the burning of fossilized carbon, I know they burn these fuels on Kagor, but their pollution is nothing compared to this, if we go down there respirators might be in order."

"Well that's what we want you to do captain," replied commander Armun, "Find some tiny settlement well away from the major population centers and try and speak with a local or two, you've got those translators we sent over, but just be careful, keep an open channel, the fighters will be standing by."

"Oh I plan on doing that," replied Yarod, I only wish Mikah was with us."

"Don't worry captain;" replied Angelika, "He will be standing by monitoring all your transmissions, any questions just ask."

"Will do, over and out," said Yarod.

Captain Yarod then took the Kor'Math down into the mesosphere to stay well above the cloud layer but allowing his scanners to better pick up the small villages he was looking for.

"Are we going to do a snatch and grab?" asked Meta Virae,"Tarf and I have been talking about what might be the best approach."

"Let's just see how things work out here first, no need to do anything rash," replied captain Yarod. After a couple hours of looking for just the "right place," Yarod settled on a tiny settlement on the edge of the vast forest they had plotted earlier. In traveling over the planet, the Kor'Math's scanners had picked up the presence of strange flying machines as well as other ground machines indicating a possible reason for all the pollution.

Waiting until well past dark, Yarod chose to land near a single dwelling set off from the rest of the village to set down near.

"All right Meta…Tarf, time to do your thing, but be nice, try and get them to come here…If you can," ordered the captain.

Reggin Moneymaker and his young wife Bretta had just gone to bed after a long day when he thought he heard something outside.

"Did you hear that?" he asked his wife,

"Sounded like an airship going over silly, come on, let's work on making that family you're always talking about." Suddenly there came a knock at the door,

"If that's your brother," growled Reggin, "He's liable to get a punch in the face."

The knock came again so Reggin threw on his robe and went to the door,

Before seeing who was actually there Reggin announced,

"Listen Duris I…" Standing in the doorway were two very different looking people standing there staring at him. Before he could react they pushed past him into the room, one of them a woman with half her head shaved and a strange design tattooed on the bare side smiled and handed him a strange device indicating that he should place it in his ear. The strangers were armed but did not appear menacing.

"Dear, you'd better get out here right now, we've got…Company."

Thinking it was her brother Duris come begging to stay the night because his wife wouldn't let him in the house due to his drinking, Bretta gasped when she entered the front room and realizing it was someone else. By this time Reggin had done as he had been requested and had placed the device in his ear.

"Can you understand me?" asked the female. Reggin didn't reply at first causing her to ask again in a more persistent tone of voice. Now realizing that this was some sort of translator device Reggin nodded then replied,

"I-I think so, can you understand me, who are you?" Calling his wife to his side he studied the very large and imposing man and strange looking woman standing in his parlor.

"We are not here to hurt you in anyway," replied the large man, "We come from another world, what is this place?"

"This is the planet known as Gale Celesta, my name is Reggin Moneymaker, and this is my wife Bretta, you aren't going to hurt us are you?" Both "visitors" looked at each other and chuckled, the woman then replied,

"Well Mr. Moneymaker, that depends on you. Why don't each of you have a seat and we'll talk, just keep that translator tucked up in your ear and tell us more."

"Well to begin with," began Reggin, "The village is known as Dunn's Passage named for Tarmish Dunn who discovered one of the few openings through the "Great Dark" which is the immense forest behind us here, but since the advent of airships few ever actually travel through it anymore. Belmara is our capitol over on the Sea of Ghosts up to the north of here."

"I see," replied Meta, "We noticed a vast Savanna from space, what is that called?"

Reggin chuckled,

"That is known as the "Calm Sett" it swallows people up like a devouring animal, stay out of that place."

"We noticed a frightful pall hanging over this planet on our arrival," said Meta, "What is causing that?"

Reggin looked at his wife than back to his guests,

"In a word…coal ma'am, we burn it for heat and electricity out here but the larger cities are all tapped into geothermal generators that supply all their electrical power. The air ships, trains and steam vehicles all burn coal, and I'll admit it gets pretty bad sometimes living in those cities that's why Bretta and I came way out here to live. I manage the local power station Bretta teaches at the little school in the village, say, are you people really from outer space?" Reggin noticed both visitors seemed to be talking to themselves and answering someone's questions when the female realized he had asked a question as well.

"What did you say? Oh yeah, yes, I apologize for our rude behavior we were talking with our captain."

"My name is Meta Virae, and this is my partner Tarf Edipon, say hello to these good people Tarf." At which he smiled and nodded his head towards the Moneymaker's.

"Yes, we are from outer space but come from a planet practically on the far side of the universe. Don't worry Mr. Moneymaker there are several other worlds out there with life on them. You spoke of "airships," do you have other means of flight or even spaceflight capabilities? We didn't detect any transmission signals, how do you communicate over long distances?"

"By televoice, telegraph, and in the cities by radio. Other than the airships we have no other means of air travel ma'am, certainly no space travel in fact there are many that doubt it even possible yet your presence here puts falsehood to that premise."

"How old is your recorded history?" asked Tarf,

Reggin thought a moment then replied,

"Around three hundred years sir, this is the month of Danth in the year 326, before that there are absolutely no records indicating how we came to be on this planet, strange, isn't it?"

"Yes, very," replied Meta.

"Look, are there any military bases, security stations or authority types that could endanger us nearby? We picked this place because you are so isolated," asked Meta.

"No, not really," replied Reggin, "We get airship service three time a week and a supply caravan makes it out here around once a month, Eno Sotha is our chief of police, Brate Renan is his deputy. We have no mayor. We are called "Outdwellers" and we like it that way, if you came here to invade us you won't get any resistance way out here." Both Tarf and Meta laughed,

"You have nothing to fear Mr. Moneymaker, we are merely a scout ship for a Falthian survey mission, our long range scanners indicated life of this planet so we're merely checking it out. By the way, how many live in Dunn's Passage?"

"No more than one hundred and seventy-five give or take a few, as I said, this is the backside of creation, we are Outdwellers, and we like it that way."

"Our captain is on his way over, is it possible to get this Chief of police and his deputy over here we need to speak with them as well," said Meta.

"He's only a televoice call away," replied Reggin, "I'll have him bring Brate as well." turning to his wife he announced,

"Well Bretta it looks like it's going to be a long night better get dressed, maybe put on a pot of karma."