Chapter 2

The U.S.S. Dauntless began its long breaking procedures, it was slowing from several multiples above light speed. To those inside the ship it would seem to take three months to drop from its top speed, it had only taken one month to reach its top speed, the ship had remained at top speed for 120 days before it had to begin its slow down procedure. To those out side the ship the voyage would have seemed to have lasted a century and a half, ah the wonders of relativistic travel.

Janus the ships A.I. Spent the beginning of the slow down time to debrief the 2nd in command on their mission, which until the slow down procedure had begun was only know to her.

"So you see commander, the Dauntless is to remain at the edge of the solar system while we send a small recon group of Golems to see what is going on." She said.

I nodded, I still was not used to the knowledge that english speaking aliens had been found outside of our solar system.

"How big will the task force be Janus?" I asked.

"Sir it will consist of you and 4 marines, you will take a stealth drop ship and attempt to locate the source of the signal." Janus waved her hand and a diagram of the planet came up. "we where able to get these images during the first breaking maneuver, from my calculations sir the signal most likely came from the western hemisphere of the 1st planet in the system." A highlighted area appeared on the globe.

I looked it over. "Thats a big area to search Janus?" I said.

She nodded to me.

"The hope sir was that when we came to a stop we would be able to pick up the signal, IF it is still broad casting." She said.

"Janus we know an awful lot of nothing, How soon until we wake up the crew?" I asked.

Janus seemed to be thinking for a second.

"Sir once we pull to a full stop I will begin awakening the crew." she said.

I continued to read over the information, which was all very little.

"Janus, so what did SETI just happen to pick this out of the sky?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No sir, from the strength and duration of the signal it was directed at Earth."

I frowned thinking for a bit. "Janus these people could be long gone" I said.

She nodded. "To be honest sir, that was one of the missions objectives, if this civilization is gone we are to secure the planet for colonization, as you know sir a planet that can support human life is very rare, all of the colonies so far have enclosed biospheres. Once we establish the state of the planet we are to send back a message drone."

I nodded, it figured, they where banking on this being an empty habitable planet.

"So I guess we can do nothing but wait now." I said.

Janus and I spent the next month double and triple checking every ship system to ensure it was prepared for anything, a failure during the breaking maneuvers could be deadly. With her help she guided me on making routine repairs to several key systems just in case.

In the second month we went over the weapon systems, ensuring they where ready the instant we arrived, we had no idea what kind of distress this planet had been in, I personally inspected every fighter, every Golem, every drone, every cannon. I almost went as far as to check every bullet, something Janus said was unnecessary.

In the last month I was getting anxious, I had spent so much time preparing for our arrival that I was on edge constantly. Janus took me through drills covering every possible failure to the systems, she was standing behind me, taking me through the crash landing procedures and escape pod deployments, when I felt her hands on my shoulders.

"You need to relax Sir." She said messaging my shoulders.

I shut my eyes and leaned back, some how I felt my body rest into her body, she had become a miracle worker when it came to altering my senses. "That feels nice" I said.

I could feel her whisper in my ear. "I am here to improve moral Sir." she said.

I nodded. "And doing an excellent job Janus" I said.

Suddenly I felt a weight in my lap, she was sitting on it facing me, her arms around my neck. "With your permission Commander?" she said.

I nodded dumbly not sure what she meant, she leaned into me kissing my lips, I felt her tongue tentatively press against my lips, I let it into my mouth kissing her deeply, she felt very real, nothing fake about her, reluctantly our lips separated, I looked into her eyes. "How far can this go Janus?"

She smiled. "As far as you would like sir."

I laughed. "Janus, call me Jacob"

She smiled and leaned into kiss me again, we spent a few minutes making out there in C and C, she interrupted or session by standing up, she grabbed my hand giggling.

"Jacob any longer and Ill have a hard time explaining why the video feed from CnC was off for so long"