Chapter 8
Day of Departure
Finally, all preparations for the mission had been completed. Construction of the three ships was finished. Morley and his captains had selected and trained crews for the ships. All was ready. On the eve of their departure, Landen sat on the living room sofa with his wife in their house."I wish that I could persuade you not to come on this mission," Landen told her. "This is too dangerous for you: there is a good possibility that the Tragadomians will destroy us. I don't want you to die.""I am one with you, Peter," Susan said. "Our destinies are irreversibly entwined: what happens to you shall happen to me. The last time that you went to Noelm, I couldn't go with you because, like you, I would have been tested by the Tragadomians. They would have found me an unimpressive opponent; I would have undermined the purpose of your mission by allowing myself to be captured with you. However, this time the situation is different. I can give you support and help with the work on the ship. I've taken several classes in botany, so I can help care for the plants in the life sciences laboratory.""I know that you would be helpful," Landen said. "If it weren't for the danger, I would love to have you come along. Besides my concern for your personal safety, I have a practical reason for wanting you to remain on earth. Most of the Noelmians on earth are going on the mission. If we are all killed, you could mobilize the surviving Noelmians for another mission. The prisoners on Noelm must not be abandoned. I have confidence that you could organize another mission.""Many of the Noelmians who remain on earth are capable of organizing another mission if necessary," Susan declared. "But many of the Noelmians not going are elderly persons who would never be able to participate in a later mission," Landen said. "And some of the younger Noelmians can't bear to return to the planet on which they had been enslaved. They fear that they would be recaptured by the Tragadomians and placed back into bondage. It is possible that such an event might occur. I won't request that anyone step into a nightmare.""Nor would I," Susan said. "However, most of those remaining on earth are children who have never experienced slavery. They would not suffer from the same psychological barriers that restrict their parents and grandparents. Those Noelmian children are the ones who must lead the next mission should this first mission fail. Their responsibility is to Noelm; mine is to you."Landen knew that she was correct. "I'm not going to succeed in dissuading you from going on this mission, am I?" he asked with a weary grin."Nope." She returned the smile.Landen placed his hands on her shoulders. "Why did I ever marry such a headstrong woman? There were other beautiful young women to whom I could have proposed. Heather was beautiful, but I didn't love Heather. Melissa was beautiful, but I didn't love Melissa." He pulled Susan closer as he looked into her eyes. "You are beautiful." The next morning the Landens were carried by a shuttlecraft up to the space station. The station and the three ships were equipped with artificial gravity. This helped to reduce motion sickness and made it easier for the crews to carry out their day-to-day activities.The Landens passed through the docking gates and joined Morley on the bridge of the Emerald Warrior. All three Western Alliance ships were to be launched from the space station. This freed the huge ships from the necessity of breaking loose from earth's gravitational field. It also removed a serious risk to earth; a fusion reaction of an engine might go out of control and cause a nuclear explosion. Because of the danger of a malfunction causing a nuclear explosion, Noelmian engineers devised a procedure of launching the ships so that, if one ship should explode, the space station and two remaining ships would still survive. According to this procedure, each ship was released from its anchors to the docks and then coasted away from the station using conventional booster rockets filled with liquid fuel. The awesome nuclear engines would not be activated until each ship was hundreds of miles away from each other and the space station.Everything went according to plan. With the world watching through television cameras mounted on the outside of the space station, the three ships detached themselves from their base and glided toward their designated positions. The Emerald Warrior was the first ship to activate its fusion engines. A satellite located near the Emerald Warrior filmed its departure. The immediate reaction of some horrified spectators was that the ship had been vaporized by a nuclear implosion: one moment the ship had appeared almost stationary, while the next moment it had vanished. The tremendous acceleration of the ship had caused this apparent disappearance. Even though Morley was only using a small percentage of the engine power available to him, the Emerald Warrior passed the moon less than a minute after activating the engines.The other two ships quickly followed their command ship, catching the Emerald Warrior before it passed out of the solar system. As the hours went by, the crews gained confidence in their vessels. At the end of the third day of their voyage, Morley allowed all three ships to increase power so that they would be traveling close to the speed of light. Morley was now certain that he had the ships for which he had so ardently wished .It was not until the end of the first week of the voyage that the enemy struck. Although there was no night or day in space, the ships continued to follow the clock and calendar used on earth. On a Saturday night, Peter and Susan Landen were asleep in their cabin. A black-clad figure silently slid open the door to the cabin. This man had sabotaged the lock earlier that day.He withdrew a switchblade from his pocket. Slinking across the cabin, he kept his eyes trained on his targets, watching for any movement, ready to spring at them if his presence were detected.Only feet from the bed, he kicked a slipper belonging to Susan. He glanced down at the slipper, irritated by his mistake. It had only made the slightest sound, but it was sufficient to awaken Susan. She opened her eyes to see the knife-wielding intruder. Instantly she screamed.The intruder dived across the bed toward Landen. Even though Susan was closer, the attacker wanted to kill Peter first because the Noelmian was so much more dangerous than the woman. The attacker knew that he could easily dispose of her once her husband had been eliminated.Hearing his wife's scream, Landen awoke abruptly. He was shocked to see the black form falling toward him. The man landed on the bed, his legs hitting Susan's legs. His knife came down in a lethal arc at Landen's chest.Noelmian speed saved Landen. He blocked the strike. Shocked and frightened by the sudden attack, Landen experienced a tremendous adrenalin flow, thus giving great power to his block. The bone in the attacker's forearm was shattered by the block.Crying out with pain, the man dropped the knife. He rolled off the bed onto the floor, then tried to scramble to his feet so that he could flee from the cabin.Landen sprang from the bed and grabbed the man. "Why did you try to kill us?" Landen demanded. He recognized the man to be one of the research scientists from the biology laboratory."My arm is broken! I need medical help!""You'll get your help after you answer my questions." Landen lifted the man two feet off the ground, startling the killer with his strength. Another idea occurred to Landen: other killers on the ship might have other targets on this night."Do you have any comrades on board this ship who plan to carry out some assassinations?" Landen asked."I won't answer you! I want a lawyer!"Landen tightened his grip on the man's neck. "Answer me now or you'll feel Noelmian justice!"The man hesitated. Then, seeing the fire in Landen's eyes, decided to answer him. "Captain Morley will die this night.""Peter!" Susan exclaimed in horror. "The killer could be in Ed's cabin right now!" She pressed a button on the wall that signaled the security unit to send guards to the cabin."We can't wait for security," Landen said. Still holding the man in one hand, Landen rushed from the cabin, followed closely by Susan.As they ran through the corridors of the ships, they met two security guards who were headed toward their cabin. Landen turned the prisoner over to one guard and told the other guard to follow him.Upon reaching Morley's cabin, they found the door ajar. Landen knew that another killer was within. He dashed inside. A black-garbed man had a short chain wrapped around Morley's neck. The two men were struggling on the floor of the cabin. Morley grasped the chain with both hands, desperately trying to pull it loose in order to avoid being throttled.Seeing Landen charging toward them, the attacker let go of the chain and pulled a throwing knife from his boot. He cocked his arm to throw the knife at Landen, but Morley grabbed the man's wrist and put the man in a joint lock, bending the hand back so that the knife dropped as the man was rendered helpless.The security guard handcuffed the attacker and removed him from the cabin."Are you all right, Captain?" Landen asked Morley with concern."I'll be fine in a minute," Morley said. "I just need to get my breath back. Thanks for coming to my assistance.""I'm the one who should thank you," Landen said. "I might not have been able to dodge that throwing knife. You did a good job disarming that assassin.""How did you know that the assassin was here?" Morley asked."Another assassin tried to kill Susan and me a few minutes ago, but he only succeeded in getting a broken arm and thrown into the brig. After his failed attempt, I reasoned that the man was an Eastern Alliance agent. When we questioned the assassin, he admitted that you were also a target. As the captain, you were probably their prime target. My death would not suffice to cripple the mission. They wanted to kill us simultaneously because security would be increased after the first assassination."Susan, who had been standing in the doorway of the cabin, came forward. "You should see the doctor in the sickbay, Edward," she advised the captain."Oh, I'll stop by sickbay tomorrow," Morley said. "I don't think that I'm injured."Susan took Morley by the arm and led him out the doorway. "Let's have the doctor determine your condition," she said firmly. "You can stop by sickbay now."Morley grinned sheepishly. "Where did I get the crazy idea that I was in charge on this ship?"Landen laughed heartily as he watched his wife escort the captain down the hallway.
