The Black Planet Read Online Free Page B

anything to say?’  Steven asked the general company.
    It was Cookie who asked the questions a few were thinking about, ‘why run, why not surrender?’
    Steven shrugged and threw the question up to Babes, her answer was simple and direct to the point.  ‘The Ortea are meat eaters.’
    It took a moment for her answer to sink in.  Cookie shook his head, ‘surely not.’
    ‘The Ortea are scavengers, their planets are over populated and the people starve.  They never invented the technology that took them to the stars, it was crashed ships, curious passers-by.  Over the years they were able to reverse engineer many of the ships that crashed or landed.  They spread out amongst the inhabitable planets in their region.’
    ‘What do they look like?’  Cookie asked out of curiosity.  A series of pictures were put up.  He grunted,   ‘Evil looking buggers aren’t they.’
    Even Steven couldn’t argue with Cookies uptake on the race, ‘they do look a bit like those jackals from Egyptian mythology don’t they?’  He mused.  There was some agreement on it.  ‘Babes do you have any more information on this situation?’
    ‘This incident happened before I was conceived; however it is a matter of historical significance.  The captain was right, his signal did get out and it was received.  The Ortea did indeed have a new leader who had forged his forces into a significant fighting force.  In the end a Hogarth fleet brought them to battle and decimated their numbers and capabilities.  They also hunted down their leader and killed him.  The ships were never heard from again until now.’ 
    Steven sighed, ‘well I hope that one day we will be able to return their essence to their home-world.  Tomorrow we will return and pick up the nanobots.’

Chapter 7
    The following morning Steven gave them a new briefing.  ‘Today we are going to visit the buildings that we discovered.  We are going to split into two teams.  The first under our pilots are going to ascertain the state of the fast craft.  The rest of us are going to explore the building.  We are going to play most of it by ear.  The military will go in first with a reconnaissance team.  If there is no risk we will check to see if there is any power and air.  The quality of the air will be checked and if safe, the full team will go in.  Babes will create an air lock between the ship and the building so we can enter at will.  If not we will just have to explore in suits.’
    A few hours later a frustrated Colonel Howe and his team finally found the door.  Lewis slapped a patch against what looked like some kind of pad.  The nanobots in the patch worked themselves into the locking mechanism and thirty minutes later a door slid open.  Cookie dashed in only to be stopped dead as he hit the opposite wall.  He bounced off and hit the floor. 
    Lewis reached down, grabbed him by the scruff and launched him back onto his feet, ‘you OK deh Cookie?’
    ‘Aye thanks Lewis, man this stuff is lethal; I just never saw that wall.’
    ‘Be careful,’ Howe growled at them.  ‘Lewis, find the inside lock; the rest of you get in here.’
    They shuffled inside, arms out stretched so they didn’t suffer the same fate as Cookie; there were more than a few grins to fuel Cookies embarrassment.  Once inside Lewis got the outside airlock door closed first then set to opening the inside door.  It eventually opened with a hiss and the men deployed themselves inside against the almost invisible wall and knelt down.  The place was in pitch darkness.
    ‘Listen can you hear it?’ Lewis cautioned.
    There was a faint hum and as they listened it became a little louder.  Everyman tensed not knowing what to expect.  Cookie had fleeting images of killer robots leaping at them out of the darkness and felt the sweat begin to trickle down into his spacesuit.  In fact the only thing that happened was a light came on.  They found themselves in a secondary chamber and