Chapter 11

Silence was the only sound throughout the cargo-bay. The thirty slaves were looking at Mike very cautiously until Xavier hobbled forward at an easy rate. When he reached the front of the group he looked at those gathered, waiting until each and everyone of the slaves looked him in the eye and nodded. The old man turned at last and cleared his throat. "We have discussed your offers, they are generous, thoughtful, and more than we expected to receive." Mike and Emily smiled faintly and waited for Xavier to go on. They realized he was the brains of the group.

"We have decided that we would like to join you and help you in anyway possible." Xavier finished, waiting for Mike to respond. Mike walked forward and offered his hand as a sign of friendship to the aging man. Xaviers' smile was a mile wide and as he clasped Mikes' forearm like warriors of old would do at the meeting of an old friend.

"We'll gladly accept your help. Now, we'll transport all of you over to our ship for medical screening by our auto-doc, it's just a precaution to make sure you all are healthy and to take care of any problems before they get serious." Mike told them all.

Jack started to shepherd the group of people out of the cargo-bay towards the main airlock. Cerelia was skipping around in circles around the party, an expression of joy on her face. Mike shook his head bemusedly at the child's antics. He was unsure exactly what she would do next.

"Hey Sam, could you prepare the auto-doc for about thirty people? We'll be there within five minutes."

"Acknowledged Captain." Replied Sam.

Emily took this time to walk with Mike, a small smile spreading across her face. He looked at her and was just enjoying her company, he even hooked his arm through hers and she seemed to relax against him.

"So what in the hell are we going to do with this piece of shit?" asked Emily who looked serene at the moment.

"Well, I guess we get Mitch and a few maintenance droids in here to check out the ship, to see what's what and to see how much repair is needed to be done. Doubt that any of them will ever want to serve on this clunker." said Mike.

"Yeah, I kinda guessed that." stated Emily flatly.

They both walked to the front of the group as they neared the airlock. When they arrived, Xavier and Jax were there, waiting for Mike to usher them into their new lives. Mike activated the pad to open the airlock which hissed as it spiraled open. Two by two they walked through until they reached the Dark Stars' airlock. Mike was glad to be back on board his ship, it felt like home for some reason. As they exited the airlock the damnedest thing happened, Mike watched as allthe slaves that exited the airlock suddenly staggered and dropped to the deck floor, barley able to move. Emily gasped as the former slaves started dropping like flies. A loud moaning could be heard throughout the corridor.

"Sam, emergency transport to med bay now, right now!" exclaimed shouted Mike.

Everything went fuzzy for a moment then suddenly they were in the med bay. Med beds started to slip out of the walls as each person was placed on them by unseen hands. Quickly the auto-doc started its' scanning process, going over all of the slaves one by one methodically and carefully. Mike was staring, raptly, at everyone, hoping that they would be okay. Finally, the auto-doc was done with its' examination and injected some unrecognizable fluid into all of the patients. They fell asleep immediately, eyes fluttering beneath their eyelids, tranquil expressions on their faces.

"All senior staff members: please report to the galley for an emergency meeting." stated Sam.

Curious, they all gathered in the galley, unsure of what was happening, because Sam never called a meeting unless it was under Mikes' say so. They milled about waiting for Sam to say something until a beam of light swept through the room. Mike didn't know what to make of it, since nothing was harmed during the process.

"Captain, I'm sorry for being so... secretive all of a sudden, but I have found some interesting results from the scans Iperformed on the slaves and the scan I just preformed on everyone within this room." said Sam.

Mike was a little angry, his face-hardening into a unreadable mask. Emily bit her lower lip and looked worried, Jack didn't really seem to care one way or another and Mitch just wanted to know what Sam had found out.

"Firstly, I'd like to apologize to you all for violating your privacy but I needed to compare both sets of scans." Mike just nodded at what Sam said, his anger began to subside although the mask still remained on his face.

"As I was saying the results are very 'interesting', Xavier and the rest of his people are basic normal humans. You four on the other hand are something else altogether."

This statement sent a shockwave of confusion throughout the room, making the tone and noise level rise substantially.

"What exactly is that suppose to mean?" Jack said voice rising above the clamor around him.

Sam responded slowly at first, unsure of on how to proceed. "Apparently, the time your ancestors spent on Earth has changed you whether you realize it or not. The reason why those people collapsed earlier was because the gravity was five times greater than what they're used to."

"Holy shit, so that's what happened!" Everyone looked towards Mike, waiting for him to continue. "When I was fighting the Dagons I noticed I was able to do some really freaky shit, I felt lighter, for a lack of a better word, and I picked up one Dagon as if it weighed practically nothing. And I felt this power emanating throughout my body, when I lashed out with this power it cut though their ranks like a hot knife through butter."

"Hold on, that doesn't make sense! How could Earths' gravity change us?" asked a perplexed Jack an unmistakable look of bewilderment on his face.

Mitch spoke up after listening intently to the conversation. "It makes perfect sense, Jack; you just need to think it through first. Basically, it is evolution. I remember my college biology professor discussing it in a lecture over a three-week period. He said that evolution is gradual change over long periods of time. We naturally assume that one g-force on Earth is the standard for the rest of the universe. What if Earth was considered a heavy gravity world, where as Mars would be considered a nominal gravity world? Whether you realize it or not ten thousand years living on Earth has changed us. For the rest of the universe ten thousand years is nothing, but for us it is enough time to adapt to our environment. From now going back ten thousand years, do you know how many generations that encompasses? That is over thirty generations of random breeding!"

"Shit." was the only reply Jack could come up with. Emily had a wide-eyed expression while she slumped into a vacant chair but said nothing.

"Wait a minute, how come we didn't see any mention of this higher gravity level in reports from the original crew? Wouldn't they have been affected the same way the slaves were?" asked a bewildered Mike.

"Your right Mike, they didn't mention anything about gravity levels in the reports I went through. According to basic operation procedures when a ship finds a habitable planet they scan it for any intelligent life forms or dangerous creatures then they move on to search for important minerals and resources. But they do not scan the planets' gravitational level unless specifically order to by the higher up's. It's the same in our military; you don't take a piss without permission from your CO. Yeah, I know it seems like a piss poor excuse but it's all I have for right now." said Mitch. Sam agreed fully with him on every point he had made.

"Hey Sam, what was that stuff you injected into the patients in med bay?" asked Mike.

"Captain, that was a serum combination of a slight sedative combined with mild muscle steroid designed to strengthen all the muscles in the body without any harmful side effects."