Kl’Deesius Tactical Deck.

14:40 Hrs, Day 85 Mission Year 51

“So what have we got now?” John asked in the middle of a meeting to discuss how far their project had gone.

“Anyone would think you were in charge,” Marlon replied with a humourless smile. “You think your navigation system is ready?”

“Yeah, sure,” John replied.

“Good, because we’ve got a test unit to try it out on.”

“I have an update from Fleet Command,” Miradima interjected. “They are sending another twenty ships to aid in the defence. They’ve just returned from ambassadorial escorts and are being re-provisioned as we speak.”

During the previous day, Miradima had explained the numbers and distribution of most of the Klankharii fleet. She had done so to make the point of the gravity of the situation her people had faced over the years, and that a strong defensive force was always maintained around all colony worlds belonging to the Klankharis Realm.

“That’s good news at least,” Marlon replied.

“Not before time either,” Miradima replied gravely. “I have received a disturbing report from them also. Several ships have been detected on our borderlines; their course is projected in this system. Their current velocity puts them in system in less than forty-eight hours.”

“Isn’t that suicide for them?” Marlon asked.

“Our ships will intercept them between our front lines and home system, but there might be one or two that will get through.”

“One or two?” John asked, his tone betraying puzzlement.

“Remember, these are large ships, a lot bigger than anything we have. One or two of those could cripple the twenty or so ships that we will have by then.”

“They’re that big?”

“News came in less than two hours ago that they have managed to build up their fleets to much higher levels than we anticipated. A new class of vessel has emerged and it’s more powerful than anything we have come across so far, so yes.”

“This isn’t good,” Marlon replied. “What can we do?”

“I have an idea,” Stephen volunteered. “I’ve heard their ships are fast, even though some of them are big, but how is their manoeuvrability?”

Miradima stared at Stephen for a while, as if trying to comprehend why he fielded that particular question. “Oh, I see your thinking Stephen. Their manoeuvrability is low. It takes them twice as long to complete a reverse course manoeuvre as it takes one of our ships.”

“Maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Stephen went on. “You see… I looked as far into the logistics of our War as I could. Turns out that the machines developed avionics that were more than capable of conducting space combat. Some of them were pretty advanced compared to what I’ve seen.”

“How big are these things gonna be?” Marlon asked.

“What about pilots for ‘em?” John asked. “We can’t train anyone up!”

“Ok, one step at a time,” Stephen replied. “They’re as big as the old F14 Tomcats we had on display at the Avionics Museum in Arizona, and as for pilots, I have an idea that might work.”

“What’s that?” Marlon asked.

“The others might not like it,” Stephen paused. “It involved altering their processing units to obey instructions transmitted from this ship.”

“Hmm…” Marlon paused to consider. “You’re right. They won’t like it at all.”

“They might not like it,” Davidson replied. “But it’s gonna save their lives.”

“So who gets to tell them?” Marlon asked.

“Tell them?!” Davidson seemed stunned. “They’ll go nuts when you do! Why tell them anything?”

“Because if they find out of their own accord, they’ll go even more nuts!” John retorted.

“Look, we have to tell them,” Marlon added. “It’s not right to keep them from knowing what we intend to do. Hopefully they’ll understand.”

“Understand what?” A harsh voice came from the open doorway. It was Janet, entering the meeting despite the protest from the security officer who stood guard by the door. “Get away from me.”

Miradima nodded to the officer. “Let her go,” she told him, and he released Janet. “Thank you.”

The officer nodded before leaving the room and resuming his duty.

“The decision is just made,” Marlon told everyone. “Here’s the situation.”

He proceeded to explain the full plan to Janet, who steadily became increasingly hostile to the plan.

“Those things killed tens of thousands of people!”

“Billions actually… Under orders by their creators to kill humans!”

“Yes,” Davidson cut in, his voice more imposing than Stephen could recall yet. “Those orders came via a distributed intelligence network that interpreted the orders of it's builder to-”

“I don't care about any of that! Those things are monsters!”

“And you would know this would you?” Stephen asked derisively.

“Stephen,” Marlon warned. “The network that controlled all of the others was designed on a framework that was programmed to eliminate a human enemy. Under conditions like that and without proper programming, it was able to interpret such instructions and all of humanity became the enemy… If I understand correctly.”

Stephen groaned at such a poor choice of appendage to what was a reasonably well constructed argument. The effect was predictable, and Janet adopted a threatening stance.

“What do you mean? Understand correctly? You’re implying that you don’t understand exactly what you’re dealing with.”

“You’re putting words in my mouth-”

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with; my elders had to deal with these killers for years!”

“And now they can help us!”

“They’re cold blooded killers!”

“SO ARE THOSE THINGS OUTSIDE!” Davidson roared over the conversation. He bore down on Janet. “They’re killing our people. They’re taking over what’s left. Either we risk using what we’ve got to beat what’s out there, or we may as well just give in!”

Marlon continued. “Well I don’t intend to give in and neither do the rest of these guys… And neither should you. The decision has been made and we’re going ahead with the project.”

Janet glared at the others, one at a time. “You haven’t seen what I have. People die every day!”

Stephen glared right back. “At least you’re used to it.”

She swirled round and pushed him against the wall. The others were about to intervene when he put up a hand to signal that they should keep their distance. “What do you mean?” Janet was saying.

“We were only thrust into this when we got back here,” Stephen replied quietly but firmly. “Until three-four days ago, we didn’t even know our planet was suffering.”

“So?”

“Think about that!” Stephen said, and then waited.

Janet let him go.

“Let’s deal with this shall we?” Marlon continued. “We’re about to start drafting plans and schematics from what we’re retrieving off of the surface.”

“I wanna show you something,” Stephen told Janet.

“What?” She snapped.

“Not yet,” Stephen replied quickly, turning to Marlon. “The Tau Ceti… Is there any data storage left intact in the cargo bay?”

Marlon frowned at Stephen. “Yes, why?”

“Is there enough left of the ship to use one of the terminals?”

“Yes, but Stephen, why?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Stephen replied as he turned to Janet. “Will you come with me?”

“What for?” she asked, still antagonistic.

“I wanna show you something about us,” he replied as he left. He didn’t even bother to look back to see if she followed as he strode to the cargo bay where he knew the remnants of the Tau Ceti would be resting.

He wanted to see it himself.

He didn’t know why.

He was then surprised, as he set up a visual playback on his terminal in the cockpit, that Janet had actually followed him. She had arrived just as he was finished getting his terminal working, and he had just found the visual record of their return to Earth.

“Watch this,” Stephen told her.

“Watch what?” Janet asked irritably, just as Stephen pushed the playback controls on screen. Then he stood back to watch.

“This,” he replied as the sequence began playing back.

He was barely aware of his surroundings as he was thrust back into the memory of his return to Earth. Everything that played back on the display at his terminal seemed so sterile and unfeeling compared to how he felt at the time.

“I’m not getting any signals from any stations around Earth,” Adam was heard saying. “Not even beacons.”

Stephen remembered how surprised that report had made him feel. “Ten minutes to destination,” he remembered saying.

“This is the Interstellar Vessel Tau Ceti calling Locksley Platform, come in please,” Caitlin. “This is the Interstellar…”

“What’s the point in all this?” Janet said to Stephen.

“Shut up,” he said in a low harsh tone, and that had the instant effect of silencing her.

The playback continued.

“I’m still not getting any signals,” Adam.

“No response,” Caitlin, her tone fearful.

“Five minutes,” Stephen, and as he heard himself say so, he thought back to how he felt… Sick with worry.

The dialogue continued for what seemed to Stephen to be an eternity. He was re-living that nightmare all over again.

By the time they had reached their point of arrival in Earth’s orbit, Stephen was already worried sick. Now, as he watched the recording over again, he was just empty. He didn’t know what to think any more…

And not even Adam and Caitlin were here now.

When the view of Earth, darkened by dust-clouds, poisoned by radiation, corrupted by war and decimated by man’s own stupidity, Stephen turned off the display, unable to bear watching the depressing tableau of people tied up in each others’ grief.

Stephen turned to leave, and noticed that Janet was stony-faced.

“So?” she asked stiffly, but there was an odd twitch in her cheek, barely noticeable except Stephen was an expert at noticing differences in people’s behaviour. “What are you starin’ at?”

“I wasn’t,” Stephen replied, keying in some figures into the console. “You see… you’re not the only ones who have suffered.”

“What in that vid you showed me says anything about that?” Janet asked brusquely.

Stephen was so incensed by such an insensitive attitude, that he removed the data card that he had written the footage to, and threw it at her. “Here, go plug this into the data reader in your new quarters and take another look until it all sinks in.”

He stormed out of the hulk of the ship and back into the cargo bay of the Kl’Deesius.

“Son of a bitch!” Janet replied after him. How dare he give her attitude like that! She had the respect of her entire shelter population before these jokers arrived from whichever rock they crawled out of!

She walked out of the derelict, clambering out through the vessel’s innards until she could see the cargo bay. She didn’t really know what that kid- that guy was bleating about with all that stuff about suffering and stuff. After all, they only saw the planet from orbit, and they only went to the surface once.

What would he know?

What would any of them know?

Janet arrived at the “quarters” assigned to her and her group. A guard was standing outside, all muscled up and looking very well fed. No surprise how she got her bulk, probably from the luxury lifestyle they all seemed to lead on this damned ship. However, the guard stood to one side of the door and let Janet through without so much as a protest.

When she was inside, Edward was already there, but the others were not.

“Where the hell is everyone?” she asked of him, suddenly realising his attention was rapt by something he was doing with some big video display. There was no time for gallivanting around some new fancy space hulk as far as she was concerned. “EDWARD!”

“Oh,” he jumped. “Didn’t see you there,” he added.

“You wouldn’t, fucking around with this contraption they got you hooked on.”

“It’s an information system,” Edward replied calmly. “I have been using it to look up some things recorded about our explorers.”

“Well?” Janet snapped tersely.

“Well, this I think you’ll find explains their point.”

“What point, Edward?” Janet could see that she was really beginning to erode Edward’s patience. She’d better get a grip on her temper – Edward was the bridge between her and her subordinates, and she needed to maintain order among them if any of them were to survive. “Show me,” she amended in a slightly less harsh tone.

She did not like how he glared at her. “You need to be careful how you talk to others now. Since the exploration party returned from their mission, the whole situation has changed. Do not ruin what could be our best chance of survival by being stubborn and bloody minded about-”

“EDWARD!” She did not like how he spoke to her as if she were an errant adolescent that needed discipline.

“You know I’m right,” he replied firmly. She did know he was right, but wasn’t about to admit it. “Anyway, watch this,” he said, touching the lower right corner of the screen. “You see what’s on screen now?”

Janet took a look at the bright blue and green swirls that seemed to cover the marble-like object she was seeing. “What is it?”

“This?” Edward’s voice was suddenly rough with emotion, and Janet noticed that the display altered to include a thousand or more bright points behind the marble. “This is our planet. Earth.”

Janet stared at the marble, hanging in space. “That’s Earth?”

Edward seemed to swallow hard. “Earth. Only… It’s not Earth as it is now,” he stopped and looked at the card that Janet carried. “I saw something for that. May I?”

Janet was incensed that he had distracted her from her initial reason for being here. “Whatever,” she replied testily. “Take it,” she handed the card over.

“I see,” he said as he examined it. Then he walked to the desk nearest the display, and inserted the card into a slot that Janet previously did not notice. “Let’s see now,” Edward muttered as he inserted the card. Something appeared on the display, surprisingly readable. Janet had assumed, erroneously, that everything on this blasted ship would operate in a completely foreign text. “Ah! Here we go, play stream!”

The footage that Stephen had forced Janet to stand through before was now on the display, which was of course larger, and therefore more detail could be made out.

Once again, everyone was visible on the display, probably from a security camera at the rear of the ships command section or whatever it was. The whole thing played through, but the sound definition was increased and so much fine detail was now noticeable.

She would not allow anyone to know how much this damned thing was affecting her, not Stephen, not his fellow crew…

Not even Edward.

Once the Earth appeared in their view again, Janet stormed out of the room before the emotional turmoil she had witnessed before could play in front of her again.

She would head to the medical bay and hopefully be alone.

In the conference room where he was headed, Stephen was about ready to explode.

The insensitivity of that bitch was unbelievable.

How could anyone react so coldly to the sights that they as a crew had witnessed?

“Stephen,” Marlon said at his shoulder.

Stephen jumped. “Shit sir, you made me jump,” he said with little care.

“Your calling me ‘sir’ all the time is really beginning to annoy me,” Marlon commented. “What are you all steamed up about anyway?”

“Who do you think?”

“One of the survivors giving you a hard time again?”

Stephen shook his head. “No, it’s just… They’re all so cold!”

Marlon took Stephen to one side of the room. “So what happened?”

“You know I took their leader to our ship?” Marlon nodded in response. “Well, I took her there so I could pull off the data from the recordings of the cockpit. I wanted her to see our point of view,” Stephen paused to collect his thoughts for a while, and then continued. “I played it back so she could see… But she just acted all cold!”

Marlon said nothing for a while. “Isn’t it possible she might be affected but has been down there so long that she has built up emotional defences that prevent her from displaying any feelings she might have?”

“Well… Yeah, but-”

“So then this might be the only way she can deal with it. Now I need to find out where she is now, because we- I would rather have her co-operation with this mission we’re planning.”

Stephen didn’t much care to see her right now. Her attitude right now was a strain on him. “She could be anywhere on the ship.”

“No, she’s allowed access to the medical bay, the crew quarters they’re all bunked in, and the conference room.”

Stephen tried not to show his antipathy toward the woman. “Right. Okay.”

“Come on, let’s go find her.”

“What?” Stephen asked, allowing his surprise and distaste to show before he had a chance to censor himself.

“Stephen, come on!” Marlon repeated, leaving the conference room and immediately heading toward the medical bay. “Stephen, you’re coming with me,” he repeated when he noticed Stephen was trailing behind him in the hope he would be able to lose himself somewhere else on the ship, a childish reaction that Stephen recognised in himself as his own defensive mechanism against uncomfortable situations such as what he was about to face.

Eventually they arrived at the medical bay, after finding that Janet was nowhere else she could gain access to. Both Marlon and Stephen entered. Helen was already there, administering treatment to one of the humans. Janet watched as this was happening.

“We’re-” Marlon began but was interrupted.

“You do as you wish,” Janet immediately told him. “You can handle this yourself?” she asked Helen, who nodded. “I’m going,” she told the others and then stalked out of the room.

“The hell with this,” Stephen said exasperatedly and gave chase. He caught up with her in a corridor not far from the medical bay, and surprisingly, it was empty. “Hey, slow down would you?”

“What now?” Janet asked, and Stephen was taken aback by the lack of antagonism toward him. When he did not answer quickly enough, she turned to look at him. “Well?”

“Something’s bothering you,” Stephen replied.

“As if you would know anything about me,” Janet answered him tersely.

“It’s obvious! I can see it in your expression right now,” Stephen replied, having caught a brief glimpse of a face startled by his comments. “That’s the first time I’ve seen anything other than contempt from you since we met.”

“Like you would know,” Janet sniffed derisively. “No-one else ever said anything to me before.”

“Maybe ‘cos they’re afraid of what you’ll do?”

Janet glared hard at Stephen. “You think I would hurt them?”

“I didn’t say that-”

“I’ll die to protect them!”

“I CAN SEE THAT!”

Janet pushed Stephen against the wall with considerable force. “Don’t talk like that to me. I’ve no time for this-”

“Then just listen,” Stephen countered, grabbing her outstretched hand as it went to push at him again. “I’m not afraid of you; I don’t believe you would hurt anyone unless you needed to.”

“I’ve killed others before-” Janet froze, her expression compounded of shock and possibly guilt at her admission. In fact, to Stephen, it looked as if she were about to throw up.

“And obviously it’s disturbed you a great deal. How long has it been since you thought about it?”

“Shut up,” she retorted, her voice rough with distorted emotion that Stephen couldn’t identify. But that was much better than nothing at all so he pressed ahead…

“Stop hiding-” he replied forcefully but was interrupted.

“GIVE ME A BREAK!” She made as if to strike him, but hesitated a second, and Stephen grabbed her instead.

“GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!” He roared, holding her fast in the middle of the still-empty corridor.

Back in the conference room, the others had gathered to continue planning for the eventual attack on Earth. A security officer entered from the Bridge to alert them to an altercation in a corridor near the medical bay.

“Who?” Miradima asked severely. Marlon thought it understandable – he wouldn’t tolerate brawling on his ship either.

“One of the humans and your crew member,” the security officer told Marlon.

“What?” Marlon said, surprised that Stephen would get into a fight – everyone else was with him in the conference room.

“Show me,” Miradima ordered the officer, and everyone followed them both onto the Bridge. “Where?”

“Corridor twelve, section six, deck four,” replied the security officer as he operated his console to display the security cameras for that area.

There they both were, just as Janet had pushed Stephen against a bulkhead. There was no audio at that point. “Get someone down there-”

“No, wait!” Marlon interrupted. “I think I know what this is all about,” Miradima looked at him questioningly. “Can you get audio?”

“Audio feed,” she told her security officer.

The sounds of their dispute emanated from the console as he operated his console again. “Audio active.”

“GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK,” Stephen roared.

“Never heard him shout like that before,” Davidson commented, surprised.

“I think he’s handling this situation in the only way any of us can,” Marlon told the others.

“Alright, I’ll wait. But if it gets too rough I’m having them both detained.”

“Understood,” Marlon replied.

Stephen still had a hold of Janet in the corridor, some distance away from the Bridge. She was glaring at him, her expression contorted with rage.

“Don’t push me, I’ll kill you!”

“And if we don’t all support each other, we might as well all be dead anyway, so go ahead!” Stephen released her then. He was no longer afraid of what would happen. He knew that she would not kill him – whenever she had killed in the past, it had obviously affected her profoundly and he decided that she would not like to compound such guilt any further. “I know you don’t want to so just give it up!”

She stared at him, hard, for several moments. Suddenly, she swirled away from him and started walking away.

“Hey, wait-”

“Just leave me alone.”

Stephen grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around. Before he could say anything, she had struck out at him, forcing him against the bulkhead, screaming at him to let her go. He grabbed her by the shoulders even as she was beating at his chest, and refused to let go, until she eventually collapsed against him.

“Let me go,” she said weakly, trying to push away from him in a half-hearted attempt to break free.

“Let yourself go,” Stephen retorted gently. “Deal with what you need for a change.” He could feel his control slipping; recent events were beginning to get on top of him. He mustn’t allow this to happen or he would risk undoing whatever good he might have done.

“I need nothing or no one,” Janet replied, determined not to let her emotions show.

“Everyone needs someone else at least once,” Stephen replied, desperately trying to maintain a level tone. “Even me,” he added, his voice breaking on that last note.

As if that were some kind of signal, that finally the iron grip on their emotional control was released, both of them surrendered to their emotions, Stephen clinging to Janet as if his life depended on it. And although at first she tried to resist doing so herself, she eventually allowed herself to comfort and to be comforted by him in the same way.

After some moments, after finally letting go everything that he had built up over the past two and a half years, Stephen felt relief. Foolishly he kept everything to himself, when he received the last message from his parents before he left Earth, when he saw what had happened on his return, even when he was told that Adam and Caitlin had been killed in the last battle. He was foolish in thinking that he had to maintain that tight control while he was trying to convince Janet to release her own, and it was probably his own lapse in control that triggered her own release.

Never was he more thankful for losing control than he was now.

“Let me go,” Janet said quietly, pushing away, though she did so gently.

Stephen did so immediately. “Sorry,” he added.

Janet shook her head. “I’m not cold you know,” she snapped, her customary self again. Stephen turned to walk away, not knowing what else to say. “No, wait!” Janet grabbed him and turned him round, then, realising she was being rough on him, let go as if bitten by a snake.

Stephen immediately seized her hand and drew it back to him. “I can see you’re not cold,” he replied. “I just don’t know what to do.”

Neither, apparently, did Janet, as she looked down at the hand that Stephen had hold of, and looked back up at him, confused. “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” she replied candidly. “I don’t trust anyone,” she added, but suddenly found it difficult to speak.

“You’re wondering why all of a sudden you’re revealing all of this to me?”

Janet stared hard at Stephen, her mouth open. She snapped it shut. “How did you know that?”

“Ok, here it is. First, your face gives you away, and second, having to grow up the way you have has taught you that no-one can be trusted,” Stephen replied, and he was ready to let go completely and walk away if she wanted him to. For whatever reason, he really wanted her to trust him, if only for a minute. “I’m not completely ignorant to your… Your crisis,” he added in a rush. Janet’s manner was completely at odds with everything he had come to expect of her so far… Except for the once, in the medical bay when he was feeling sorry for himself. “Can I ask you something?” He asked, waiting to see if Janet would consent. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about when you saw me in the medical bay?”

Janet frowned at him. “I don’t know,” she said, and paused, as if expecting a response of some kind. “I just wanted to talk… To stay there… I don’t know.”

“Was it like just now?”

“What just now?” Janet asked, perplexed.

“You didn’t want me to go.”

There was a brief pause. “I didn’t…” She paused again, ominously. “I still don’t.” By now, both of them had decided to lean against the nearest bulkhead. Stephen was contemplating asking a question when Janet asked him one of her own. “When was the last time you cried like that?”

If anything, she was blunt, thought Stephen with surprise at question. “Err… Well, not since I was a kid,” he replied, fumbling over his words. “No-one’s seen me do that since I was thirteen.”

“That’s a long time… Wait a minute,” Janet frowned at Stephen, before pushing herself away from the bulkhead and turning to face him. “You haven’t done that since you were a kid and now you… Are you telling me that you trust me in some way?”

Stephen considered that, and supposed she was right. “Yeah,” he replied.

“Why?” Janet snapped. “I haven’t given you a reason to.”

“You haven’t given me a reason not to either,” Stephen retorted immediately. For a few moments, there was an uneasy silence. Stephen broke it. “How about you?”

“How about me what?”

“When was the last time you allowed yourself to let go?”

Janet frowned at him. “Let go?”

“You know, cry?” Stephen amended.

Janet quickly looked away. “Just now,” she replied quickly.

Stephen approached her again. “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” he said harshly, causing her to swirl on him.

“What the hell is it to you anyway?” She snapped, her eyes flashing, but they were welling up with tears at the same time.

“God damn it, just tell me!”

She hiccupped a sob, tears arrowing down her cheeks. “I can’t do this right now,” she said in far too quiet a voice although she couldn’t help sobbing.

Stephen thought she must have a lot of grief to let go of if she was going to burst into tears twice in such a short space of time. Even in his limited contact with her she never seemed so volatile, but then maybe she had no one to turn to before.

He did the only thing he could think of doing and took her hand in his.

She surprised him then by wrapping her arms around him again and taking comfort in holding onto him, releasing her emotions once more.

“I knew it,” Marlon was saying from the Bridge. “I didn’t think Stephen would be able to for a moment though.”

“Be able to what?” Miradima asked.

“Well look,” Marlon told her. “Stephen has gotten her to get it all out!”

Miradima did look; her face was curiously intent on the scene. Marlon watched her as Davidson joined her side, and she absently took his hand in hers.

“To think I treated him like shit all those years ago,” Davidson said in a whisper that Marlon nearly missed.

“You’re a different person now,” Miradima said, just as quietly. “Don’t belittle what you’ve become since.”

“I’m not,” Davidson replied. “But quite honestly, I’m envious of what he so obviously can do when it comes to talking to others.”

Miradima frowned at him. “Why? You try.”

“Yeah, but I don’t always succeed.”

“Neither does he I suspect,” she replied, squeezing his hand again. “At least you make an effort.”

Davidson nodded, smiling briefly. “Maybe we should leave them to it,” he hinted at the visual of the surveillance cameras watching Stephen and Janet.

“Surveillance off,” Miradima spoke toward the terminal. “Let’s continue our efforts,” she told the others, gesturing for the conference room.

Once inside, Miradima began their meeting immediately. “What about relocating your people? Have you discussed this yet?”

“Not yet,” Marlon replied immediately. “I remember there was a project launched about three years before we left Earth, to build a large underground lunar complex as a first base off of Earth.”

“How did it go?”

“I know the construction began the following year and was still going on when we left. I don’t know how far the project went or what the state of the construction is like now,” he shrugged, showing his inadequacy.

“We can find out,” she replied, then tapped her communicator. “Tactical, full scan of the orbital body around the target planet,” she ordered. “He will contact me in a few minutes with the results. We should at the very least have a full underground layout by then of whatever might exist.”

“Understood,” Marlon replied. “But why the relocation?”

“There are two reasons. You understand your planet will need terraforming?” Marlon nodded. “Well, terraforming requires a lot of work. Genetics need be collected, filtered for radiation induced mutations, and then clones made of the genetic material. This is how we restore ecology from mostly-extinct life on a planet that needs revitalising such as yours. In addition, we will need to strip the planet of atmosphere and then replace it again, since that is easier than trying to clean up what already exists. With the state your world is in now, it is far safer and easier to start again from fresh, and so your people will need to be removed before this process can go ahead.”

No doubt this explanation barely scratched the surface when it came to what was really involved in such a complicated process. It took some time for the others to absorb this explanation, and this was absorbed with varying degrees of understanding. “You said there were two reasons?” Marlon asked.

“Yes, the second reason is more immediate. We need to find and recover as many humans that are free from influence as possible, and get them out of harms way. The enemy cannot possess what is not within their reach, and despite their non-corporeal form, they cannot pass through solid materials like rock or metal. Removing everyone to a sealed environment like what is required for a non-atmospheric world like your moon will prevent them from being captured by the enemy without launching an attack.”

“The base would be in danger from planetary bombardment, wouldn’t it?”

“This is why as many fleet vessels as can be spared are on their way here now.”

Marlon looked to the others to see they understood. “Alright,” he replied. “What is there that we need to do right now?”