Chapter 8

Mellissa paced as she addressed Worel, "Let's find you a mate on a penal colony. Do the Jimworl have any one watching the penal colonies, either from space or from the ground?"

Worel answered, "We have two penal colonies for population antagonists. There is no police force on either one, no surveillance anywhere. Offenders are deposited on the planet and they are forgotten. It should be simple to liberate a female and remain undetected."

Mary interjected, "These Jimworl will have families. It may be difficult to find single females with no dependents."

"Children are not sent to penal colonies, not even with their parents. All males and females are sterilized before they are banished", stated Worel as he waited for the Humans to decry this as 'inhumane' treatment of the convicts.

Mary jumped up, "You Jimworl are cruel even to your own. What would your government do to us if they caught us?"

"The six kidnapped students are being treated as guests. But they were, in a manner of speaking, invited. Because I violated the prime directive, I will be terminated on sight. Since you are with me, you would also be killed. But we will not be captured. We can out fight them if necessary. We only have to be careful not to be captured."

The five explorers talked on. They considered dedicating themselves to exploring. They talked about returning to earth. In the end they decided to find a mate for Worel, and then plan the future.

Worel was losing focus. He wanted to plan deeper into the future. Worel was a scientist; he wanted to explore and to discover. He wanted the Jimworl to lift his death sentence. But his thoughts were centered on satisfying his sex drive. Worel believed that he would eventually grow to hate the humans and that he would kill them. But his thoughts were incomplete and would remain jumbled until he found a mate. In his state of mind, Worel did not trust his own judgment. He made this clear to his crewmates.

Jennifer would be captain during the mission to the Jimworl penal colony. Jennifer's concerns were many. She did not trust Worel's judgment and she did not trust Worel's motives. But Worel knew more about the ship than all of the humans combined.

Jennifer ordered battle simulations to go on for two weeks. The simulations were conducted around three basic scenarios. In the first scenario, Mars1 was attacked before they got to the penal colony. In the second, Mars1 was attacked as they were leaving the penal colony. In the third scenario, Mars1 was attacked while the landing party was on the surface. Each scenario was run several times with the crew of Mars1 up against one, two or three enemy vessels.

The most dangerous scenario was the third. Worel would be on the surface and none of his knowledge would be available. Jennifer spent most of the two weeks rehearsing this situation. Worel was forced to reveal more of the ships capabilities.

At the end of two weeks Jennifer felt that she knew the ship. The crew was ready. She felt competent to command the ship and to lead her in combat. Worel had revealed more than he originally intended.

The plan was simple. Mars1 would fly at warp 100 until she got to within five light hours of the penal planet. She would then enter stealth mode. She would activate only passive sensors and spend twenty-four hours looking for signs of other ships. If all was clear, she would lasso an asteroid and set up a space elevator. A camera would be lowered and, if all was safe, Worel would go to the surface.

Mars1 engaged warp drive and was off to penal colony 'alpha.' After a week of travel, she arrived.

Jennifer scanned the star system and found nothing threatening the mission. She studied the star system and noted the positions of planets and asteroids. Mary plotted five escape routes and programmed the routes into the Mars1 guidance computer.

The crew set up a space elevator to the penal colony. Jennifer lowered a camera and found the elevator had landed near a river. There was a settlement containing hundreds of dwellings on both banks of the river. Worel believed that the inmates had no modern arms but he wore bulletproof clothes made of carbon nano tube fabric to protect against spears and arrows.

Worel descended to five hundred meters above the surface where he studied the asteroid and planned a route to the surface. Seeing nothing amiss, he lowered the space elevator the rest of the way to the asteroid. After checking to be sure that he still had all of his weapons and communications equipment, Worel hiked off the asteroid to the planet's surface and on to the settlement.

The residents assumed that the space elevator was bringing more convicts and a small portion of the population came out to meet the new arrivals.

Worel set his phasor to non-lethal and stunned over one hundred of the curious residents. Searching through his unconscious victims, he soon found a female he liked. Throwing her over his shoulder, Worel began his trek back to the asteroid. During his return, he ended up shooting twenty more of the luckless Jimworl. After reaching his departure point, Worel used the same technique to climb the asteroid as he did on the last planet Mars1 explored.

Worel and the unconscious female rode the elevator to Mars1 without further incident. The humans assumed that the female was injured during her escape. They made her comfortable but were then confused when Worel moved to restrain her.

In two hours she stirred; in three hours she was conscious. When the female became aware of her surroundings, she found herself restrained, saw the humans, and had a panic attack.

In fear she asked, "Where am I, who are you?"

Jennifer answered, "We have rescued you from the penal colony. You are restrained only until you relax. We are on Mars1, a human space ship in orbit around the penal colony. We will depart after we retrieve our space elevator."

Worel returned and addressed the female. "I am a fellow Jimworl and have come to rescue you. What is your name?"

The female struggled against her bindings. "I am Phoe. Please release me." She looked closer at Worel as if she might know him and asked, "Do I know you?"

Worel answered, "I rescued you from the penal colony three hours ago."

Jennifer released Phoe from her restraints and watched, as Phoe seemed to shake the effects of her injuries and become focused. Jennifer asked, "Do you know how you were injured?"

The female looked at Worel. "Yes, I remember. You shot everyone with your phasor. You shot me. You kidnapped me. You say you rescued me. What do you mean?"

Worel stood away from the female and answered, "I rescued you from the penal colony. You are now a free Jimworl. Many were throwing spears and rocks at me and so I shot them with my phasor set on stun. You were accidently shot."

The female asked, "What is your name?"

"I am Worel."

The female jumped to her feet and rushed toward Worel, intending to do him harm. She fell on her face; the effects of the phasor had not worn off.

Every one stood, surrounding the female. Jennifer asked the female, "Worel rescued you. He meant you no harm. What is the problem?"

Phoe slowly moved to a chair, "I know Worel. I know his reputation. But who are you humans? Why are you associated with Worel?"

Mary answered for everyone, "The Jimworl have condemned Worel to death. He violated the Prime Directive. The other four of us are explorers. Worel built this ship on earth with technology that is advanced beyond human knowledge, and we agreed to join him. We came to this penal colony to find a mate for Worel."

The Jimworl were ugly. They could not smile for the same reason a bug cannot smile. Their faces were covered with scales. The female could not smirk but she made sounds that made the humans believe she was smirking. The female looked at Worel with hate, "Worel is a monster." Then Phoe regained her composure and went on to explain.

"Worel was a scientist working on population control. He advocated sterilizing all of us convicted of having babies. He won his argument. All of us are sterilized and banished. Worel did not stop with sterilization. He conducted experiments on us like we were dogs.

He focused on our reproductive organs. Unlike humans, our eggs are fertilized outside of our bodies. Worel lead an effort to interfere with our reproductive process. Two approaches were taken. First, Worel developed a chemical to cause defective eggs. His second approach was to chemically weaken female reproductive organs so that only one egg could be produced annually. His experiments killed many females. You have a monster on your ship. I will never mate with Worel. I would rather mate with a human."

Jennifer cried, "Battle stations, abandon the carbon nano rope. Phoe, a Jimworl ship is in sensor range and we must run or fight. Please strap yourself in a chair and remain silent."

The five crewmates reacted as they had practiced. The carbon nano rope was cut loose and fell to the planet. Captain Jennifer commanded, "Stealth mode ... impulse power twenty percent ... increase reactor output to ten megawatts electric. Shields full up."

Three minutes later, "Increase impulse to fifty percent ... reactor steady ... the enemy is blooming ... they are heading our way. We will use battle scenario three." Each crew member knew his responsibility and they reacted as they had practiced.

Phoe shouted, "I will not go with Worel. Take me back." But she remained seated.

Jennifer warned Phoe, "Remain silent or I will stun you. Power up all weapons. Reactor to fifty megawatts. Impulse drive one hundred percent. Warp drive stand by. We will engage warp drive in ten seconds. Worel, what is that ship? I do not recognize her."

"She is an advanced cruiser. We are very unlucky to meet her. Her weapons may be as good as ours," replied Worel from his battle station. "She is hailing us. She asks what we are. She has raised her shields, probably in response to our shields."

Captain Jennifer ordered, "I don't want them to know I am human. Can we electronically alter my voice so that they think that we are from another galaxy?"

Worel entered a code into his station's aux panel. "Say anything you like."

Jennifer spoke into her microphone, "We are the ship Troy from Misty galaxy. We are on a recon mission. We are one million light years from home. Who are you?"

"We are the Jimworl and you were in synchronous orbit around one of our penal planets. What is your business with our penal colony?"

"We sensed life and were about to investigate when you came into view. Is this a penal planet for your race?" asked Jennifer.

"What is your power source," asked the Jimworl captain.

Worel warned, "They scanned our reactor. They recognize my design. Jennifer, I suggest that we go to warp drive immediately."

"My ship is powered by a thorium reactor. Why do you have a penal colony for your race on another planet? Why do you ask about my power source?" asked Jennifer.

Jennifer ordered, "Go to warp ten away from this star system as soon as we can. Keep the reactor at fifty megawatts thermal."

The Jimworl captain charged his phasors but Mars1 went to warp drive before the Jimworl cruiser could fire. The Jimworl also went to warp drive and followed Mars1 out of the star system.

"They are in warp drive, evidently in pursuit of us. Worel, what is your opinion of the Jimworl captain? Is he convinced that this ship is your creation?"

"In my opinion, he is certain that I am involved and that I am interfering in some way with the penal colony. He may believe that we are here to foment an insurrection. But he will do all he can to learn our goals," answered Worel. "I recommend that we destroy him before he can warn the fleet of our existence."