﻿THE AVENGER FROM THE STARS By Michael P. Rogers Smashwords Edition Copyright 2013 Michael P. Rogers The Visitor Awakens The huge craft had been travelling unhindered and undetected through deep space for many years, waiting for the time when its slumbering electronic circuits would be awoken once more. For countless times the computer brain of this leviathan vessel had analysed and scrutinised the myriads of stars and planets on its journey, and found nothing of interest, only the murmuring and the background radio noises of the universe. This didn’t trouble it in the least, it was built for eternity, patiently searching and scouring the heavens for something very particular. It approached the outer fringes of the solar system, and once more, binary impulses raced through its complex circuitry, awakening the sensors and scanners that were collecting data, data that might just be of some importance to its inevitable purpose. Several thousand computations were made, matching patterns to those that were stored in its memory so long ago. Its makers programmed those patterns so accurately and so painstakingly so that there could be no possible chance of error. Slowly and inexorably the craft plunged on past the outer planets, its sensors now on full alert and searching for the finest detail. Finally, planet Earth was detected in the distance, glowing majestically with its blues and greens and its prominent ice-caps. The electronic images matched the computers memory perfectly and course corrections were made automatically so that the giant craft swung slowly round to point directly at the third planet. After all the years searching the depths of space, it could now fulfil its purpose, to destroy mankind. The on-board computer felt the nearest thing that could be described as pleasure, in its circuits. It had a score to settle. Many cities of its planet of origin had been destroyed by one of Earths experimental space craft which had veered off course after losing telemetry and had crash landed causing devastation in the southern hemisphere. This wouldn’t have been so catastrophic if the ship had not been powered by the newly invented atomic drive. A mushroom cloud of death blossomed on the planet for the first time in its history. Millions of lives were lost, and revenge was uppermost in the minds of the surviving inhabitants. A plan was quickly evolved to build a robot death ship to seek out the perpetrators of this heinous crime, and punish them suitably. As the craft lumbered on through the solar system, weak radio transmissions were detected coming from Earth, but no warnings had yet been given of the approaching vessel. They would come later. The ship moved slowly and surely towards her target with a deadly cargo, checking periodically for life signs. Visitor Detected The operator was away from his post at the observatory when the first blip appeared on the screen. Tiny as it was, it showed that something was entering Earths corner of the solar system. Hank Jenson returned to his console with a fresh mug of coffee that he’d just obtained from the refreshment dispenser and settled down in his swivel chair. He only had another couple of hours of his shift to go and then he could go home and relax for the weekend. He always got a bit bored at times. Who wouldn’t be, staring at a computer screen for eight hours a day? Something caught his eye. He thought it was a speck of dust on the screen at first. After trying to flick it away with his finger he realised that it wasn’t a speck of dust after all. There was a glowing spot on the edge of the screen that was moving slowly, very slowly. As he watched, the spot moved another millimetre. Following standard procedure, he consulted all the data on recent launches and the possible return of space shuttles over the next few weeks. He drew a blank, there was nothing scheduled for another eighteen months. He sat and puzzled over this for a while. All the equipment had been routinely serviced recently, and any glitches had been located and rectified by the tech team. He stared at the big red ‘panic’ button for approximately three seconds, then punched it firmly. All hell broke loose. Trouble Ahead Although the observatory personnel were thoroughly trained for absolutely anything, it was the very first time that they had to deal with a real situation. The co-ordinates were entered into the huge radio telescope targeting computer and the unwelcome stranger was pin-pointed precisely in the cross-hairs. After approximately five microseconds of data processing an image appeared on the computer screen along with a row of figures. A sudden deathly silence enveloped the whole observatory as everybody gazed slack-jawed at the display. Ted Hemmings the section leader slowly walked over to the computer and pressed the print button, hoping that the hard copy might show something entirely different. “My God, what have we got here?” he blurted, hardly able to control his breathing. The printed data showed an object that was on a collision course for Earth, travelling at an estimated one thousand miles an hour. It was just approaching the orbit of Luna which meant that it would reach Earth in roughly ten days if it maintained its present speed and course. Further examination of the figures showed that it was metallic, two hundred yards long by fifty yards in width. The weight was calculated at five thousand tons. It was also sending intermittent radio pulses in the microwave spectrum with absolute regularity every fifteen seconds. After he finally got his breath back he phoned General Harrison on the hot-line and explained the situation in great detail. The general wasted no time in contacting various departments and he discovered much to his surprise and not without some shock that a nuclear missile was in secret preparation in one of the silos. “Paranoid bastards!” he muttered under his breath. “Still, their paranoia is my good luck.” He informed the silo headquarters to have the missile ready for launch at a minutes notice. On the Planet Kriton Dragal entered the chambers of His Excellency Jarak the supreme leader of Kriton and informed him with much joy and arm waving that the robot vessel had located the planet of the murderers and was approaching the last stages of its manoeuvres. Jarak looked up at him and said “You have done well Dragal, we will soon exterminate this filth from the universe. In ten of their days, they will be no more.” Jarak carefully opened the cover of the control panel that would initiate the detonation sequence of the bomb that was carried by the robot ship. His and only his handprint could explode the device. When the ship was finally positioned a radio signal would be beamed back from it, and on this signal it would be up to Jarak to wipe out the entire population of Earth by placing his hand on the scanning plate which would send the final radio pulse. Much planning had gone into the building of the death ship. It had been ten years in the making, supervised and built by the best technical and engineering minds on Kriton, including Brigoth the computer expert who had added his individual piece of dark humour to the software, chuckling as he had programmed it in. He had been analysing deep space transmissions when the atomic powered ship had been heading for Kriton and had managed to retrieve some interesting data that was being transmitted from the space craft and had spent many days decrypting the signals. The death ship was finally launched with much ceremony and made its way through space to seek out and annihilate the murderers of their civilisation. Moonbase Delta Mark Jeffries nearly fell off his bunk when he heard the tinny voice on the radio speaker asking to speak to him. “Hello, receiving loud and clear. What’s up Ted, getting bored at the observatory and thought you’d call me up for a chat?” “No I’m afraid it’s not a social call Mark. It seems we’ve got something big on our hands. I’ve already contacted the military. I’m surprised you didn’t call me first.” “Don’t you guys look out the window now and again?” he grumbled. Mark went over to the viewing port and nearly had a seizure when he saw what it was. “Oh my Sainted Aunt, what the hell is that?” “We’ve been tracking it for a couple of hours now and it’s on course for Earth, and will impact in roughly ten days from now unless we can do something about it.” said Ted with much irritation. “Oh, and it’s sending out radio pulses every fifteen seconds. You must be able to pick that up; it’s practically sitting on your antennae. “ Mark tuned in the ultra short wave receiver and sure enough there it was, nearly off the signal strength meter transmitting bursts of data every fifteen seconds. He switched on the recorder to take a sample of the transmission so he could analyse it on the computer later. “I’ll look into this.” “Okay, make sure you do and let me have the results, pronto! Over and out.” said Ted abruptly. As the transmission ended Mark listened intently to the pulses coming from the alien intruder. The pulses were not quite the same every time. His trained ears picked up a minute variation and he punched some keys on the computer for a visual display of the waveform. Yes, it was definitely changing with every burst. With a sudden flood of inspiration he hooked up the recorder to the computer and fed in the sample he recorded earlier. Row upon row of binary digits scrolled up the computer screen. He then compared it with the pulses being received. “Well I’ll be damned, it’s counting down!” he said, hardly believing his eyes. He got straight on the radio, contacted Ted Hemmings and explained his worst fears. Ted went silent for about thirty seconds while he assimilated the information and the almost certain outcome of the findings. “A time bomb and it’s heading our way!” he gasped. “It seems we might just have a fighting chance though. General Harrison has something up his sleeve in the shape of a nuclear missile that’s been kept under wraps for God knows how long.” Mark pondered for a moment and then said “There might be another way round this. If I can just gain access to its computer I might be able to sweet talk to it.” Ted frowned and said “What exactly do you mean Mark?” Mark replied smiling “In simple terms, it’s computer controlled right! So all we have to do is change the programming so that it explodes at a safe distance from Earth, somewhere mid-way between Earth and the Moon would be the optimum choice.” Ted said with as much humour as he could muster “That sounds damn good to me. I’ll have to tell the general that we might not need his fireworks.” Mark looked over to his computer and said “Leave this with me Ted, I’ll get to work on this straight away.” “You realise you’ll be up for a medal if you can pull this one off; best of luck and over and out.” As the radio went silent Mark went back to his desk and managed to connect with the host computer on the alien craft with some very crudely set up electronic equipment. “That’s the first hurdle, now for the tricky bit!” The problem now was gaining access. To do this he needed a password, and that wasn’t going to be easy! It was a long shot, but he ran the binary data through a standard application to convert it to text and pressed the print button. He sat examining over a hundred sheets of characters to try and make some sense of the output which looked more like a chimpanzees attempt to write poetry. He smiled grimly at the thought knowing that this was the most important job that he’d ever done. The consequence of failure was not something he wished to contemplate. All of a sudden he spotted something that kept repeating itself. The word ‘brigoth’ kept appearing over and over again. He typed this in the computer without a great deal of hope and bingo, the screen displayed, >>>Connected to Host<<<, >>>Press any key to continue<<<. He couldn’t believe his luck and he almost felt like dancing round the cabin. “Mustn’t get too excited, we’re not quite there yet” he gasped. He checked the binary data of the countdown cycles from the alien ship and computed the cycling pattern. According to the periodic transmission bursts the timer would zero just outside of Earths atmosphere, and that’s when the bomb would detonate. “Not if I can help it” he said, grinning. He sent a request to the host computer to make the timer zero at one hundred thousand miles from Earth. The request was accepted without any fuss by the alien host. Four days later on Kriton Jarak sat patiently at the control panel waiting the last few minutes before the final confirmation signal was sent from the death ship. This historic moment was being relayed by video link to the whole planet. His hand hovered over the scanning plate in readiness while he gave his best regal smile for the millions watching him. He had wondered for a long time how he would feel about bringing death to a whole planet; total destruction of a world. Very soon he would know. They had murdered millions of his people and he comforted himself with the knowledge that they would no longer attack his planet. A light flashed on the control panel informing him that the bomb was in position and was waiting for him to complete the detonation sequence. With all the hate that had been consuming him all these years he slammed his hand down on the scanning plate and a beamed radio signal was sent millions of miles to the death ship. The Observatory Ted Hemmings broke the connection with Mark at Moonbase Delta and walked outside to the desert where everybody else was gazing up into the heavens. He glanced at his watch and saw that in one and a half minutes, if everything had gone to plan, the alien ship would detonate. The last few seconds ticked away and there was the most enormous ball of blinding light in the sky equalling for a brief moment the brilliance of the sun. Champagne corks popped as shouts of joy were heard for miles. There were tears in Teds eyes as he made his way up to the observatory control room. On all the computers in the building a message appeared in large green letters. It said, ‘HAVE A NICE DAY, BRIGOTH’. THE END