While jumping towards the system that had pulled our interest we continued prepping the party as there was not much to do otherwise. Luna had found her groove which I was quite happy about even though I still didn’t really know what had triggered her to begin with. She had always come across as a bit panicky but what happened in the lab did seem pretty weird to me. Anyway, it didn’t really matter much as she looked like she had recovered well.

Doctor Winter had come to the bridge once more to discuss the party once more.

“I think we pretty much have everything we need for a pretty nice party now.” She said. “The only thing that’s left is to prick a date and spread out invitations. And do the same for the parallel party for the NCO’s and the privates.”

“What about in a week or so?” I looked at our ship’s agenda.

“Will that be okay? Didn’t the scans say those planets are very interesting to explore and research?”

“Well, yes, but it would be a nice break, wouldn’t it? Exploring is heavy work, having a bit of a breather in the evening would benefit everyone.”

“Hmm, you’ve got a point there, Commander.” Doctor Winter nodded. “What do you think, LC?”

Luna apparently didn’t expect anyone to talk to her as she shook up for a second. “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

“That’s okay.” Doctor Winter laughed and started to explain our little conversation we just had.

“Ah…” She scratched her chin. “I think the Commander is right... but we should keep a watch at the bridge.”

“Of course. We will try to split the party up in shifts so everyone can have some time off.” I nodded.

Luna nodded.

“Speaking of that system, Commander. When are we arriving?” Doctor Winter asked while putting her holostick back in the inner pocket of her coat.

“We should get there in two hours.” Luna replied, typing something on the holo interface. “We will stop at the furthest planet in the goldilocks zone first and make our way closer to the system’s sun.”

“Alright.” Doctor Winter nodded. “Thank you for the information.” She smiled. “And with that I’ll go back to the infirmary, this time with my holo stick.” She gave Luna a wink and then left the bridge.

“At least you don’t have to run after her throughout the entire ship like last time.” I patted my XO on the back.

“I didn’t know she would make such a detour…” Luna sighed. “And she didn’t even need it in the end anyway…”

“At least it’s good for your physical condition.”

“Hmm, next time you should go and follow her, let’s see who’s laughing then.”

“Surprisingly forward comment, coming from you, XO.” I smirked.

Luna started blushing and didn’t reply to my comment. Turning herself back towards her work.

–Two Hours Later–

“Dropping out of FTL in three… two… one…” Ellie’s voice announced our arrival in the system. We popped out quite a distance outside of the goldilocks zone so we could get our bearings first.

“Uh…” Luna looked at one of the holo screens. “Commander, I’m picking up some strange signals.”

“Hmm? What kind of signals?” I walked over to her and started looking at the screens as well.

“I don’t know, they look like short-range radio-waves. It’s coming from one of the planets.”

“Which one?”

She pointed at the planet closest to the system’s sun, still within the goldilocks zone.

“I’m also picking up a lot of debris in between the planets, ma’am!” Lieutenant Zu called out from the side.

“Okay, LC, can you enhance the radio signal?”

“I can try.” She nodded and got to work.

“I’m not sure if we should get closer without knowing what’s going on. McAllister, switch the engine to silent running.” I then opened a ship wide communication channel. “Everyone, yellow alert, please get to your stations.”

This was the signal for Ellie to switch the ship’s lighting to a slowly pulsing yellow so everyone was constantly reminded of our status.

“Zu, are your scans picking up anything else from the planet the radio signals come from?”

“Not from here, ma’am. There’s too much debris. It works like chaff, it’s almost completely blocking my scans.”

“What about the others?”

“Give me a second.” Lieutenant Zu furiously started pressing her holo screen, I saw planet after planet pop up and almost immediately disappear again.

“Completely devoid of life, ma’am.”

“This is giving me a feeling of deja-vu and I’m not liking it.” I said and got to my own station to look over my screens. “I want this ship turned around every three minutes.”

“Aye, aye.” McAllister replied and made the ship spin for the first time so we cleared our deadzone.

Five minutes later Gunny hailed me over the comms. “All marines are armed, ma’am.”

“Alright, thanks for the sitrep.” I looked back at Luna. “How are our weapons.”

“Loaded and ready to fire. Our shields are up as well.”

“Great.” I nodded. Nothing appeared to be hostile yet, but better be safe than sorry. Which reminded me. “Gunny, are you there?” I opened my channel back to the Gunnery Sergeant.

“Everyone did get the memo about the bugs, right?”

“Shoot them where it hurts? Top right of the bug’s face.”

“Indeed, just remind the rest again if you would.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Do you think we will see combat?” Luna asked.

“I’d rather not get caught with my pants down.” I quickly replied. “I don’t have a good feeling about this… any news on the radio signals?”

Luna nodded and looked at her screen. “I managed to clean it up a bit but I don’t understand this at all. But I can tell, whatever it is, that it is looping every 30 seconds.”

“Want me to run a decryption program, Commander?” Ellie asked.

“If you think you can make sense of it, go ahead.”

“Affirmative.” Ellie replied and a decryption program appeared on screen.

“There’s a good chance we will have a true first contact.” I looked at my XO. “I just hope we won’t have to let our weapons do the talking.”

Luna stayed silent and just gave me a nod. She looked quite concerned herself.

“Decryption is almost complete Commander.” Ellie notified us.

“Already?” I asked, profoundly confused at how quickly Ellie had managed to decipher the message.

“The language the message is being sent in, beares a remarkable resemblance to most languages found on Earth.” Ellie clarified. “Deciphering process at 85 percent… 89 percent…”

I held my breath as Ellie’s countdown progressed.

“Deciphering at 100 percent, Commander.”

“Play it.” I commanded.

“This is an automated distress signal, we are under attack, overwhelming force, if anyone is out there, please help us. We are the last ones” The robotic voice sounded over the bridge which made everyone fall silent. I couldn’t really formulate any words for a moment either until Ellie spoke to the bridge once more.

“Commander, what course of action do you suggest?”

“Uh… fuck…” I quickly tapped my cheek. “Get us closer to that planet. We need to know what’s going on.”

“Are you going to launch a rescue mission?” Luna asked.

“I don’t know yet. But if those… uh… people… do need our help and we can provide any kind of assistance, we should.”

“Right…” Luna nodded and then directed herself towards the bridge. “You heard the Commander, Lieutenant McAllister, bring us closer please.

“Aye aye.” McAllister activated the sublight engines.

“Try to limit our signature as much as possible.” I added. “We still don’t know if anything is still out here.”

Our ship crept closer and closer to the debris field and the tension was rising higher and higher on the bridge.

“Can I get an enhanced view on the debris?” I asked Lieutenant Zu.

“Definitely, Commander. Give me a second.”

A screen popped up in front of me which gradually zoomed in on the field in front of us. Slowly the shapes began to make more and more sense.

“I think those are all ships, Commander.” the Lieutenant said. “Or what used to be ships at least.”

Everything we saw had been thoroughly ripped to pieces. Some larger chunks still did look like thruster blocks, other parts looked like the front halves of some kind of space-faring vehicle. Their design looked remarkable, way more streamlined than the relatively linear shapes of our ships. I would almost call it organic.

“What’s that, Commander?” Luna pointed at something in the right corner of the screen, to me it looked like a long and thinly stretched asteroid of some kind. Although the color didn’t match any I’d seen in any class about astrology.

“Want me to enhance it, XO?” Lt Zu asked.

“If you would.”

The camera’s focus shifted so that it was in the center of our screen. It was ever so slowly spinning around its axle.

“I don’t think that’s an asteroid, Commander…” Luna said, I heard a tremble in her voice.

It looked as though the asteroid had heard the XO’s comment as the speed at which it spun, sped up, and then slowed down again. Until it stopped with the narrow end of it, pointed directly in our direction.

I immediately opened the ship-wide comms channel. “Red alert. Prepare for ship to ship combat.” I then looked into the bridge. “Evasive maneuvers, shields and thrusters to full. Fire on my command.” The lights on the bridge turned from yellow to red. “If they are looking for a fight, let’s give them hell.” I recentered my beret and held on tight on the railing in front of me.

-Here we go.-