Chapter 6

"Time to planet, Cris?"

"Three weeks, sir."

The Captain nodded. The Nutmeg was traveling down the tunnel at its maximum speed. "How long would it have taken Sam?"

"Just over three years, sir," Chris answered, after some computations.

"Hmm, so she's been living on the planet for seventeen years now."

"Yes, sir."

Even though he said living, they all knew there was a possibility that she hadn't survived. However, they refused to acknowledge it out loud.

"Lou, why didn't we or the navy find this tunnel before?"

"Because it's only detectable from that angle, sir. At any other angle, all you'd see is gas. If I hadn't been looking back, I wouldn't have seen it."

"I'm glad you looked back, Lou."

"So am I sir, so am I."

Three weeks later:

Captain Crook sat in his command chair looking at the view screen in front of him. "Damn, that's a big planet."

The planet they were approaching was approximately the size of Jupiter. It had seven moons, half of which were about the size of Earth. Those were the small ones. With its large size, they were surprised that the sensors said that the planet had a gravity just over one standard gravity, at 1.2.

Of course, the entire system was a surprise. It was inside a pocket inside the nebula. It had its own sun, but the surrounding stars and clouds of gas ensured that that even at night there would still be light.

"Entering orbit now, sir," Brahms said.

"Captain, I'm receiving a signal over the escape pod's radio frequency."

Captain Crook frowned. If the pod was using radio, its main communications were out. That meant it was even more damaged then they'd hoped.

"Inform the shuttle crews of the pod's location, and have them launch immediately."

"Sir, its not transmitting a location. It's requesting identification."

"What?"

Christine turned to her console and hit a button. The sound of static came over the bridge speakers followed by, "Approaching vessel, please identify yourself."

The Captain nodded to Christine. She turned back to her console and hit a few buttons to transmit the ship's ID code.

"Captain I'm receiving a video communication."

"Put it up."

On the screen appeared a handsome green-skinned male humanoid. He smiled, and said in a rich deep voice, "Captain and crew of the starship Nutmeg, I bid you welcome. We have been expecting you for quite some time."

The Captain and crew stared at the screen in astonishment.