It was late in the year 2151 and the S.S. Majestic hurtled though space on its maiden voyage. The Majestic had been launched eighteen months ago in 2150 and was the newest ship in the space fleet. She was a massive step forward because she used the new hyper-light drive or HL-drive and had been the answer to the human races question of whether they could move to a new planetary system.
The HL-drive was a technical breakthrough but not one humanity could reproduce on a massive scale. The element used to power the drive was artificial and not easily created, so the Majestic was likely to be the only ship of her type for a long while.
However the Majestic was build for a purpose and that was to take a vanguard of humans to the first planet they had discovered that was enough like Earth for them to build a new colony. The Majestic would take only two years to reach the planet that had been named 'Marconis' after the scientist who had discovered it. In comparison the fastest of the other ships from Earth would take nearly half a million years at their top speed to reach there.
The Majestic and her crew were really alone, no human could ever reach them no signal would reach Earth in their life time. The Majestic herself was scheduled to drop off supplies and colonists before making the return trip and carrying the next group who would arrive on Marconis four years after the first, to an established colony. After that there would be more trips because the Majestic would have a sister ship who would be named 'Horizon' and take more and more people to their new home.
Major Sarah McGill sat in her room looking out at the stars and took a sip of her tea. It had been a long boring day and she was ready for some sleep. Sarah took off her cap and let loose her long blonde hair, which had been in a ponytail through the rear of the cap. She unzipped her boots and slid them off as well before she got up and laid on her bed.
Sarah was the ships life sciences officer. Since they could never carry supplies for an entire colony of people for two years and a crew for four, most crew and colonists were placed in sleep mode until they were needed or reached the planet. Sleep mode lowered the human heart rate and gave all the essentials through a support system. The muscles were kept strong using mild electric shocks. All of this was done automatically and Sarah just had to monitor the systems and the individuals to ensure they didn't get sick.
This was her last few weeks of duty before she was put into sleep mode and her replacement took over for the final months of the journey. She had done six months on the lonely ship with a dozen other crew awake and she couldn't wait to go back to sleep so she could wake up and go down to Marconis. It would be a month of leave there to help the colonists set up, back to sleep and one more duty shift before she was home on Earth.
She had taken the assignment because of the pay involved. The crew were getting massive bonuses for the journey and would be paid for the whole four years, even through they would only really work for one of those. Then she would retire from service with enough for a comfortable life. It wasn't bad for a thirty year old and she was happy to retire from the service at thirty-two.
Sarah had even got a promotion out of the mission, she had been a Captain and medical officer in the Space Force on the Mars Colony. She had really hated that assignment and wished she had never joined the service. The enclosures that kept atmosphere for the colonists on Mars were horrible places and she had felt like she was underground all the time. When the Majestic was announced and the details released, she had done whatever it took to get the assignment. That included doing whoever it took as well, something she was not proud of, but she was a survivor.
She always had an easy time manipulating men, she was an attractive woman, tall, slender with long blonde hair and baby blue eyes. Unfortunately she hadn't had much luck getting her way on the Majestic as the Colonel and Commander of the mission while she was awake was a woman also and didn't seem to like Sarah very much. So she had done he work, kept to herself and prayed for the mission to be over as quick as possible.
Sarah awoke from her bed with a start. She wasn't sure what had woken her but something felt wrong. She was just sitting up and rubbing her eyes when there was a chime from the computer.
"Alert, alert." the computer repeated and a siren rang out.
She jumped out of bed, but as she did there was a shudder through the ship that made her fall back to a seated position. Her heart began to race as she put on her uniform and boots. She noticed outside the window that the aurora of light the HL-drive caused around the ship wasn't there, so they were stopped.
"Oh god, please don't let us be stranded." she said out loud as she ran to her door.
She ran down the corridor and made the turn to the command section but that is the last thing she remembered because as she made the turn she was confronted by someone in a black suit who struck her in the head with the grip of his weapon. He stepped over her, bent slightly to look at her through a dark visor in his helmet and then took her limp arm and dragged her back the way she had come.
Sarah came to on the hard deck and her head hurt a lot. She turned her head to look around and saw a few others laying on the floor with her and a few of her fellow officers standing in a group talking to each other.
"What happened?" she said in a groggy voice.
Lieutenant Mike Edmonds stood over her and offered her a hand. She took it and he yanked her up to her feet. She staggered a bit and he steadied her.
"I don't know." he said, "Something hit us and the next thing we know the drive went down."
"So who hit me?" she asked him.
"Yeah, that's the freaky bit, someone boarded us, they are in suits and not in the mood to talk." he told her.
"Aliens?" she quizzed.
"I don't think so, they look a lot like us in those suits." he said.
It was true, the chances that aliens would be human or humanoid was pretty slim. It was more likely that it was some private venture from Earth. But how could they have caught up to the Majestic, only the Space Force even had HL-drive technology.
She looked around and saw there were only eight of them in the room. The Colonel was laid on the floor near where she had woken up. That meant four of the awake crew were not with them. So she looked around to see who was missing.
"Where are the others?" she asked Mike.
"Stiles got killed when we got hit." he said solemnly, "Yates and Baker got taken a little while ago and I don't know what happened to Victor."
"Oh god." she said and started to cry a little bit.
Mike hugged her and rubbed her back.
"Hey, it'll be okay." he said, trying to calm her.
Just then the door opened and the two missing officers were pushed back in the room. One of the black suited invaders walked in and pointed to Captain Jim Morgan the navigation specialist and then he pointed to Sarah.
Mike gave an uneasy laugh and stepped in between her and the invader. He had always had a soft spot for her even though she had brushed him off more than once. Maybe it was his attempt to be the hero that she would fall into her arm, but it didn't work out for him as a weapon was extended and a crack of electricity like a stun gun sent him to the ground holding his stomach and shaking.
Sarah put her hands up and left with Jim and their captors. They were walked down to the communal dining area where one of the black suits sat at the table there. The two were forced to sit down and then the two who had brought them there left them sitting facing the silent visitor to their ship.
They watched as the invader snapped his helmet to one side and lifted it off.
"What are you?" Jim asked.
There was no human under the black suit, however there were similarities. The bald alien had a pale grey colouration to his skin and a thick muscular face to match the large size of the body of the suit. The eyes had a human quality as well but they seemed very dead and dull, almost like the eyes of a blind person.
The alien lifted a hand and pressed a small oval shape on his suit. It began to give off a dark green glow and the two officers stared at it for a moment before what happened next shocked them.
"You call yourselves human?" he asked in perfect English.
"You speak out language?" Jim asked.
"No." was the simple reply, the alien motioned to the oval.
"Yes, we're human, why did you attack us?" Sarah asked.
The alien got up and walked around the room looking at the two as they sat there. But Jim was focused on the table, the alien had left his weapon on the table facing them and now he was a good few steps away from it. Sarah was trying to follow the alien with her eyes without provoking it. Jim had other ideas.
In a flash Jim leap forward and picked up the rifle-like weapon. He turned it on the alien and pressed what appeared to be the trigger button.
Nothing.
Jim frantically pressed anything and everything he could find on the weapon as the alien looked on with no sign of distress. It was a bold try but Jim eventually gave up and dropped the weapon back on the table. As he did the alien walked over and swung a heavy arm, backhanding Jim and sending him to the ground. He laid there stunned by the force of the blow.
The alien looked at Sarah who had sat there looking forwards the whole time. He then picked up Jim by the neck and dragged him to the door, throwing him outside to the guards. They then took the navigator away, she wondered if it was back to the other or something worse.
"How many of these crafts do your people have." the alien asked.
"One." she said meekly.
"We didn't not think your primitive people had advanced this far." he said sitting back down.
"It's a new technology." she said.
"This is disturbing." he told her but his face never changed expression.
"You know humans?" she asked.
"We have watched your people when needed." he said sharply.
"Are there many other peoples out here?" she asked, ever the scientist.
He stared at her for a long time as if he was considering her question. She wondered if he knew and wouldn't tell her or maybe he didn't know, after all they were surprised to see humans out in the void of space.
"There humans, my people and one other." he said and returned to silence without explanation.
"Your seem very much like my people." she said carefully.
She was trying to establish that they had similarities, maybe she could foster some sense of connection between them. His people had attacked the Majestic without warning or remorse and Sarah was beginning to fear the worst.
"What are you going to do with us?" she asked.
"Assessment and then termination." he said unwaveringly.
"Termination?" she said as he heart began to pound in her chest, "Why?"
"Your existence this close to our people is a threat." he told her.
"We're not." Sarah said and put her hand forward to touch his.
She was trying to reach him and beg for the crew, but he pulled his hand back sharply. At first she wondered if she had gone too far and feared he would anger, but as she looked at him he seemed more surprised that anything.
