Last Frontier Ep. 01 - The Arena

Author's Note: Originally, the consent in the sex scene was highly questionable, but it didn't seem right for the first installment. If this series continues, however, that kind of content will be something of a theme in future episodes. Space is dangerous - godlike aliens, mind control, pheromones, shapeshifters, evil dopplegangers... The characters are aware of this and even lampshade it in the text. Nevertheless, situations contrived to entice/coerce the officers out of their uniforms are going to be the order of the day.

...

The starship Vanguard is seen silhouetted against blackness dotted with myriad points of light, grav drives glowing against the dark background.

Voiceover (a clear, mature, female soprano): "Space is not a fertile field of stars. It is the Last Frontier. The Space Force starship Vanguard explores the starlanes for the Terran Colonies. We bring the hand of peace to those who wish peace. But we wield a sword to defend the Colonies against those who would threaten the innocent. We go where few dare."

...

At the rear focus point of the elliptical bridge of the Vanguard, a female officer sat in the raised command seat. She was whip-slender and wiry, almost gangly. Her coral skin was a few shades lighter than her wine-dark Space Force duty uniform, but far darker than her cropped platinum blonde hair. Large, elvish ears curled closely to the sides of her head. There were Commander's tabs on her shoulders. She was speaking into the comms unit on the arm of the command chair in a strong alto cadence.

"Vanguard log. June 6, 2412. Close of Third Shift. First Officer Sylith recording. On request from the Bureau of Colonization, we are continuing towards the Gorget system, where our colony on the earth-like third planet has gone silent. Though not fully explored, this area of space is not considered to be hostile. We are therefore not observing comm silence and are continuing to attempt to contact the colony. So far, no response."

The lift doors opened with a whoosh. "I relieve you, Commander," came a warm soprano voice from the back of the bridge.

Commander Sylith looked up from her dictation. "I stand relieved. Captain." She stood up from the command chair, unfolding her long limbs. Then she smoothed her uniform jacket and turned toward the back of the bridge.

Standing right behind the command chair, her hands resting on its back, was a mature woman with Captain's pips on the shoulders of her dark burgundy uniform jacket. There were threads of gray in her jet-black hair and eyebrows. Her creamy skin was a dark ivory, almost cafe-au-lait. Her angular features belied some old-Earth Japanese ancestry. Her face was open and expressive, signifying competence and experience.

The two female officers now standing face to face were a study in contrasts. Although the saturnine Captain was not short by any means, her First Officer was at least a full head taller. But the Captain's lush figure was significantly more feminine than that of the fair-haired, coral-skinned Commander, whose rail-thin body was almost boyish. The First Officer's legs, bare below her command Officer uniform's regulation kilt, were gangly compared to the Captain's shapely, athletic calves. And while the Captain's face had a hint of the exotic, the Commander's darker features had a distinctly strange affect, almost alien from some angles.

"Quiet shift?" the Captain inquired.

"Too much so," the Commander replied, frustration entering her voice, which was surprisingly high-pitched considering her height and bearing. "We're just four hours out from the colony now and have heard nothing. Nothing."

"Grab a nap," the Captain sighed. "We're likely to need a Landing Party when we get there and I want you on it."

A throaty contralto voice came from the direction of the turbolift. "You know that Regulation 42(c) specifies that, in a situation where communications have not been established, a ship's Landing Party cannot contain both of the two most senior officers. In response to the Yarrow Incident."

The two senior officers at the command chair turned simultaneously to face the newcomer. The newcomer in the lift doorway was a thirtysomething human female of average build, unexceptional in most ways other than pale skin, piercing green eyes, and flaming red hair aggressively pinned up into a barely-regulation bun.

"It's just like you to quote chapter and verse. Doctor," the Captain opined.

"You know what I mean," the interloping Doctor replied. "If we haven't heard from the colony by now they're probably not able to communicate. And that means you have no idea what you'll find down there!"

"Which in turn means I will need my best people with me," the Captain retorted. Her lips tugged up at the corners and her teeth became visible, but her expression wasn't exactly a smile. "Who can you send from your department?"

The Doctor snorted. "It's not going to be me. I'm not going to be party to all the senior officers being wiped out in fifteen minutes. Hmph. Nurse Johnson has been looking for more field time. He'll make sure Sylith doesn't come to harm - I think he quite fancies her..."

-----

As the shuttle descended, Captain Kawakami could see a pattern of destruction radiating from the colony's central hub. Burned-down fires were still visible even from the shuttle's height as they approached. Smoke and haze filled the air above the colony.

Kawakami landed the shuttle on a rubble-strewn field surrounded by shattered buildings. Through the viewport, she could see improvised grave markers. This was a killing field.

Despite her breezy dismissal of the Doctor's concerns, Captain Kawakami wasn't actually reckless, and the gray-jacketed Ensign from Security was the first to carefully work his way out of the Landing Party shuttle.

He was trim, confident, and highly alert. He had taken point in more than a handful of Landing Party missions, and come out alive. Captain Kawakami trusted him implicitly.

Shaven-headed, dark-skinned Nurse Johnson was the next to emerge from the shuttle. This sequencing was not as surprising as it might seem, as - despite his specialty - Johnson was an impressive physical specimen. Huge and muscular, Johnson followed the same training regimen as his combatant peers. He towered over even Sylith, and little of the dusky-skinned giant's body mass was fat.

Johnson was already working his portable scanner even as the Security man was establishing their perimeter.

"Life signs?" Commander Sylith asked from the doorway of the shuttle.

"That direction," Johnson replied, pointing towards the colony center, "Faint life signs - human or humanoid, it's not clear. Intermittent. If they are survivors, they're in a bad way."

From across the other side of the colony, brightness flashed through the haze.

"An explosion!" the Security man shouted from the edge of the field.

"Not an explosion, Captain," Sylith emphasized as she turned to Kawakami, her expression intense and troubled. "That is a starship launch."

Kawakami threw herself at the console and opened the comm link. "Did you see that, Vanguard?"

"Yes, Captain," came the crisp reply. "We have the ship on our scanners, entering planeto-synchronous orbit roughly 1.5 radians ahead of our current position."

"Identification?"

"The ship design and crew species are unfamiliar, Captain, as are the ship's markings," the bridge officer replied. "And they are maintaining comms silence."

"They must have finished what they came to do," Kawakami muttered to herself. Almost instantly, Kawakami's command training kicked in and she made a decision.

"Johnson!" the Captain shouted as she moved quickly to the doorway, gesturing her First Officer to one side. "Commander Sylith and I are going to return to the ship. On the way, we'll have them send down the other two shuttles with medical people and supplies, and some security officers to do the heavy lifting. I'm putting you officially in charge of the relief effort. Do what you can to help these people. We'll be back when we've dealt with that ship."

"You can count on me, Captain," the large nurse promised as Sylith ducked past the conversing pair and into the shuttle.

"I know," Kawakami said, with a fond but wry expression on her face.

Commander Sylith was already engaging the engines to take off before the Captain could even close and fasten the door.

...

Mere minutes later, Captain Kawakami emerged from the turbolift onto the bridge. "Any change in status, helm?" she asked the very young, dark, intense man at the helm station.

"Negative, Captain. It's unclear if they have detected us at this range with our weapons powered down."

Kawakami studied the tactical tracking on the main viewscreen. "No," she mused. "They're staying ahead of us in orbit and extending the range between us ever so slightly. They know exactly where we are, they just don't know who we are."

"Science officer!" Kawakami barked, turning to face the Science station. "You've scanned their weapons array. Can we confirm that they were responsible for the attack on the colony?"

"They're still using lasers, Captain," the officer at the Science station - a brown-haired male with a trim mustache - replied. "There were no signs of particle beams or grav weapons being used in the colony attack. The damage we were able to scan is consistent with the energy weapons on that ship."

"We've got our probable cause, then," the Captain spoke out loud. "Helm! Increase speed to flank and take us to a higher orbit. I want you to catch up to them slowly, but be ready on the overdrive - if they bolt, we're going to chase them down."

Thirty seconds after the Vanguard changed course, the alien ship responded in kind. "Captain!" the Science Officer exclaimed, "They're firing engines!"

Even as the Science Officer was speaking, the alien ship engaged its overdrive and began to accelerate.

"They're heading directly into unexplored space, Captain," the young Helmsman stated.

"Don't let them get away, Helm," Kawakami ordered.

"They're making point six!" the Helmsman said incredulously. "We didn't think they had that kind of acceleration!"

"Then go to point seven, Lieutenant..."

"Aye, Captain, Point seven roger."

Kawakami turned to the tall man seated at the station next to the helm. "Weapons Officer. Power up particle beams and be ready - but fire only on my command."

"Particle beams aye, Captain," the tall, sandy-haired Lieutenant at the Weapons station replied.

"Do you intend to destroy the aliens, Captain?" First Officer Sylith asked from the Captain's shoulder.

"They destroyed a colony without warning, Commander. They present an unknown threat to the Terran Colonies. My duty is clear," Kawakami spoke decisively.

"May I suggest hailing them first, to give them a chance to surrender?" Sylith asked, a bit hesitantly.

"A chance they didn't give the Gorget colony, Commander?" the Captain asked tartly. But then she thought better, and followed up more gently. "But the Space Force are the good guys, aren't we?"

Kawakami swung the command chair around towards the back of the bridge. "Communications! Hail the alien ship. Standard first contact protocols," but she turned back to the viewscreen without waiting for an acknowledgment.

Second after tense second passed like molasses.

"Unknown system at the edge of sensor range, Captain," the Science Officer exclaimed. "Not on our charts."

"So our friends up there are going to ground," Kawakami mused.

"Negative, Captain! They are not changing course or speed. They might be as surprised as we are."

"Then neither will we change," Kawakami declared. "Comms - any response to our hail?"

"Negative, Captain," the gravelly-voiced man at Communications replied.

"We gave them a fair chance," Kawakami muttered under her breath. "Weapons! Interlocks off! Prepare to fire!"

"Interlocks off aye, Captain! I have a firing solution!" barked the Weapons Officer.

"Range to target?"

"In thirty-seven seconds, Captain!"

The bridge fell into silence as the time to target began to tick down.

"Captain, energy surge!" exclaimed the Science Officer, out of nowhere.

"From the alien ship?" Kawakami snapped.

"No, from the star system we bypassed!"

"At this range? It would have to be..."

The bridge was overcome by a flash of brightness.

...

When the flash-blindness faded, Captain Kawakami found herself on the surface of an Earth-like planet. The temperature and atmosphere were surprisingly comfortable. She was in what appeared to be a desert canyon.

Across the canyon floor was an alien, of a species she had never seen before.

The alien was obviously also comfortable in the atmosphere and gravity. Standard humanoid body plan - two arms, two legs, one head. The exposed skin on the alien's face was green and scaly, and it had a reptiloid muzzle but a surprisingly human mouth rather than a reptilian gash. And the close-set eyes were pupilless and blank, with a nictitating membrane giving the impression of a permanent stare. The alien's bullet head was hairless.

The alien leaned easily against the canyon wall, comfortable with the environment, displaying a veteran's confidence.

"You are the Captain of the other ship?" Kawakami asked, in standard Terran Colonies English. No response.

Taking a step forward, Kawakami spread her arms to show the alien her empty hands. "I'm unarmed, can we try to talk?" she offered. If anything, the alien's flat expression became even less responsive.

"If we're not here to talk, why are we here?" Kawakami muttered to herself. Unconsciously, she took another step forward. At this, the alien responded in its own language, half hiss and half growl but all hostility.

As if on cue, a voice rang out, with no apparent source.

"You brought war to our space. This is not acceptable," the weirdly metallic voice began. The language Kawakami heard was perfectly clear Terran Colonies English, in Kawakami's own dialect, but it was strangely modulated. There were subtexts of other languages simultaneously threaded in and out of the English text, including that hissing alien language the reptiloid had spoken.

"You bring technological tools and you bring primitive barbarism," the voice continued. "We care nothing for your conflict, and you will end it here. You can use your technical learning or you can use your primal brutality. We do not care which. You will not use your ship, or your weapons, or your crew. We have taken those away from you."

"How dare you..." Kawakami began, but the voice cut her off.

"You are the ones who have dared. You brought conflict where it did not belong. We are ending it. Here. In five of your minutes you may begin."

And the voice ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Kawakami sized up the alien across the canyon from her again in light of the new information. The alien's uniform, though tight, was constructed of fabric that stretched to accommodate movement easily. The reptiloid was large, probably close to twice Kawakami's own 140 pounds, but not bulky. The alien's posture was easy and graceful. Kawakami's - antagonist - would easily be at least twice as capable as she was at hand fighting.

Kawakami could tell that the enemy Captain was making a similar appraisal.

The alien Captain seemed to come to a conclusion. Presumably guessing that they had been given "five minutes" to find a safe starting place away from each other, Kawakami's enemy chose to make sure it got its first choice of places. Decisively, the reptiloid transitioned from motionless to full sprint almost instantaneously. Much faster than a being of that size should be able to. It ran up the canyon and disappeared into the rocks.

"Well, that answers that... So it's to be one-on-one combat, for all the marbles?" Kawakami asked rhetorically. "That thing is stronger, and faster. How am I supposed to fight that?" Bemused, the human Captain began walking - down the canyon in the opposite direction.

...

On the Vanguard, First Officer Sylith was now occupying the vacated command chair. "Mr. Dempsey, where is the Captain?" she directed calmly towards the Science station, almost casually.

"Not on the ship! I don't get her signature anywhere!" the dapper Science Officer exclaimed in irritation at station computer's impotence.

"Commander!" came a shout from the dark, intense young Lieutenant at the helm, "We're dead in space. That energy surge must have taken out the engines! We're drifting."

"Weapons are dead, too, Commander," the sandy-haired Weapons Officer chimed in, frustrated. "That surge did a number on us."

"But it didn't take out Life Support or Comms," Commander Sylith mused. "What was that thing?" She shook her blonde-haired head to clear it. "Science Officer, I presume the alien is also disabled."

"That is... correct, Commander," the Science Officer answered, "How did you know?"

"It seemed the highest probability," Commander Sylith reasoned. "A trans-lightspeed surge that powerful, that carefully targeted, must have been intended for a very specific purpose."

At that moment, the viewscreen came to life, showing a before-sunset desert view on an unknown planet. Captain Kawakami was revealed, in the shade of some sparse trees, tending a carefully banked fire.

...

"Charcoal, sulfur, and nitre," Kawakami mused. "So carefully planted for technological species to find. They must have done this many times before. At least they didn't force us to make saltpeter the old-fashioned way..."

Keeping one eye out for a sudden attack from her enemy, Kawakami waited for the charcoal to cool before using reasonably shaped rocks as an improvised mortar and pestle to grind her makeshift black powder. A strip of cloth from the hem of her uniform kilt would provide a fuse of a sort.

Some green bamboo-like reed and a generous double handful of pebbles and she might have a weapon to make up for the reptile's physical advantages.

Within the hour, as the Vanguard crew looked on from space, Captain Kawakami had completed her construction. She had a primitive black powder shotgun.

Kawakami had tried to raise the Vanguard on her comms badge, with no luck, as it must certainly be out of range. So she had short-circuited the otherwise-useless badge so that it would provide one spark, on demand. One spark to light the shotgun's fuse.

Carefully, and tensely, Kawakami began to scout, in rough circles around the protective cover of the canyon.

As Kawakami began to climb a narrow path leading up to a ridge overlooking the canyon entrance, the alien soldier announced its presence by sending rolling down the path a rock weighing more than both combatants combined.

With difficulty, the loaded-down Space Force officer dodged away from the destructive boulder's path. But this put Kawakami at a disadvantage when the alien followed quickly behind the rolling rock, dashing down the path wielding a carefully crafted spear, its fire-hardened tip pointing directly at the reptile's human foe.

Acting decisively, Captain Kawakami triggered her wrist-comm, which obediently sent a spark into the improvised fuse. The Captain aimed the improvised shotgun, and just as the reptile reached her, there was a sharp explosion as the black powder charge went off.

The gravel Kawakami had carefully packed into the bamboo tube was propelled towards the alien Captain. The bamboo itself, not having been adequately braced by the inexperienced weaponsmith Kawakami, shattered, wasting valuable firepower. Black smoke filled the area.

Both Captains screamed in pain.

Kawakami's arm was numb from the blast, but the combat-rated fabric of her uniform protected her tender flesh from bamboo splinters. Her ears were ringing from the explosion.