“That’s it?” I ask, looking at the main viewscreen in theGladiux. “Are we sure it’s inhabited?”
Outside hangs a blue planet with green and brown landmasses and a lot of white clouds, creating a stark contrast to the black space beyond it. I’m sure it’s a beautiful sight, but I’ve seen so many planets in my time that one more doesn’t move me much.
“Yes, sir,” Caret’ax says. “It is. The planet is called ‘Earth’, and its spaceflight era has just begun.”
“A total backwater,”Bellatriz says in her scabbard, having connected herself to all the ship’s systems, especially the sensors. “No advanced civilization detected. It’ll be like marrying a cavewoman, Prince.”
Caret’ax gives off an annoyed snort. “Silly machine.”
I give him a sideways glance. “This isn’t your home planet, is it, Caretax? The very secret one?”
“It is not, sir,” he growls. “This is a different one.”
I peer at the planet. “Do they have a spaceport? The usual facilities?” I prepare to enter orbit, slowing us down.
Caret’ax stares at the viewscreen. “I don’t think so, sir. We may have to land on a regular street or a city square or something like that. In a field, perhaps.”
“In afield?” I echo, incredulous as I adjust our course. “The ship isn’t made for that.”
“Told you,”Bellatriz chirps. “Cavewomen. Oh, hold on…”
“What?” I demand.
“We just passed a weird barrier. Analyzing… huh. Someone thought it was a good idea to shield this planet with a veil.”
I look at the instruments, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. “A veil? What are you talking about?”
“Technically it’s a Syntrical Nullification Barrier. I’ve only seen one of those before. They”re hard to make. Like I said, weird.”
“What is it?” I ask, concerned. I never heard of such a barrier. “Does it affect us?”
“Yes and no,”she says. “It’s better if I don’t tell you more about it yet, Prince. Chances are you won’t notice. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“I’m not used to having information kept from me,” I tell her, getting angry as I keep the ship slowing down. “What is that ‘veil’? Never mind. I’ll just do a scan?—”
“Oh wait, here’s something else,”she says. “A space station! And I think there are people aboard it.”
The viewscreen zooms in on a strange, disordered cluster of metal balls in orbit around the planet. Panels and spears and struts sprout out of it at ridiculous angles. It looks like a heap of space trash that someone’s collected. The biggest part of it is slowly spinning like a wheel, giving off a dull gleam in the sunlight.
I zoom in further. “That’sa space station? It’s smaller than this ship! If we dock with it, we’ll push it way out of its orbit.”
“About a fifth of the size of theGladiux,”Bellatriz says. “Still room for many cavewomen inside it. Shall we take a look?”
I frown at the sight of the primitive station, but I change course again to fly us closer. “Can we get close without that thing gouging deep grooves in our hull?”
“Oh yes,” Bellatriz says. “It’s just as flimsy as it looks. It won’t make a scratch in our armor. It saves us landing in a field of alien vegetables, anyway. That would have made our landing gear dirty.”
Despite myself, I am getting excited. If these women are as attractive as Caret’ax says, as sweet and as docile, then perhaps I will soon have a fiancee and a wife. “I suppose we can look at them. If they’re as attractive as we hope, there may be no need to land at all. Oh, if there are several women here, we can take with us more than one. So that I have a whole selection to choose from.”
“Obviously,”Bellatriz sniffs. “You need to sample more than one female of an alien species before you marry one. But what is this? Are they sending a delegation to welcome us?”
The viewscreen zooms in on a small craft, white and boxy, that’s been detached from the station and is slowly making itsway away from it. Its movements suggest it has some kind of primitive reaction drive, having to use clumsy bursts from small rockets to maneuver.
“Primitive indeed,” I mutter under my breath as I make the ship brake harder. “But they’re brave to trust themselves to a craft like that. It looks like it’s made of metal foil. Zoom in more.”
Bellatriz obliges. The alien craft fills the whole screen. It’s an ungainly thing without any elegance to it. It’s purely utilitarian in a way I can’t remember having seen in any spacecraft before. I spot skids, markings, struts, and lines where the panels appear to have been glued together.
And a small window in the front. Through it I can just see a white helmet. “It’s a manned craft. Probably literally. They wouldn’t send a woman out in a death trap like that. They must have the sense to protect their women from harm.”
