CHAPTER 1 - THE ESCAPE


[<Baseship-41829><Captain`s Log: Justin H. Cole><Month 4, Day 27, Year 31><13:14>]
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[  It`s like a dream come true for me.  My own baseship, it boggles the mind.  But after 12 years of training,
this was the least they could do to award my devotion and hard work.  I remember when I was a simple child
looking up at the stars and saying, I`m going to go there someday! to my parents.  With the advent of Hyperspace
technology just the year I was born, it was possible to go to the stars.  And of course, the Baseship was a
necessary development to space exploration.  I grew up hearing about the Baseship Program and when I first went
into a planetarium I fell in love with space, so joining the Baseship Program after collage was the logical choice.
The selection process for even being considered for the program took 4 years, and another 8 to get your final
assignment.  Luckily, I was chosen to captain a brand new baseship because of my astronomical test scores, both in
written tests and in simulations.  I said my goodbyes to my friends and family and now I`m here on my ship, ready
to face the unknown.  I will be briefed by the admiral in a few minutes, so I will wish myself luck.  <End Log>  ]


	Justin turned off his log book just as he got a comm message from Admiral Washington.  He turned on the comm
system and was greeted with a cold gaze of the Admiral.
	"Hello Admiral, I`m ready for the briefing before we depart.  I said with a smile, unfortunately that smile
was gone after he was told a disturbing truth."
	"What I`m about to tell you is top secret so keep your trap shut until you are underway.  Am I understood? "
The Admiral said with a scowl.
	Justin was stunned. "Yes... of course sir.
	"Captain, you have not been told this because if people knew about what I`m going to tell you there would be
mass panic on a global scale.  But since you are now our newest captain I`m allowed to tell you.  We are at war with
a hostile alien force."  The Admiral said with a grimace telling Justin what he said was true.
	"Who are they sir?  I mean, what do they want?"
	"They are simply known as AI`s, as in Artificial Intellegence, they are machines that are out to destroy us
and that`s all we know."  The Admiral stood up straighter as he said what he said next.  "We are losing, of the 27
colonies we established... only 2 remain, and not even fully intact.  We are building baseships as fast as we can but
we just can`t keep up with our losses.  The baseship`s exploration program was cancelled right after the initial
contact with the AI`s.  We have been fighting for our lives for over 20 years and we are at the end of our rope."
	Justin was devastated by the news, now he knew why there were all those combat simulations during captain`s
training.
	Justin straightened up.  "What are my orders sir?"


	The Admiral leaned towards the screen.  "Your orders are to leave."
	"Sir?"  Justin asked quizzically.
	"To leave this system and never come back.  For years we`ve been building hundreds of ships for one purpose,
to leave and ensure the survival of our species.  Your crew has some of the best and they will be a asset to you, I
hope you take care of them because you need them to take care of your ship and you.  You will depart tomar..."  The
Admiral was distracted by a shutter throughout his office.
	Justin was also hit by a shutter throughout his ship.
	"What was that sir, I even felt it here?"
	"That son, was a hyperspace disruption wave.  A big one too, and close."  The Admiral looked worried.  "Son,
get to the bridge, I`ll see what`s happening and give you new orders."
	Justin turned off his comm unit and rushed to the bridge.  The crew was startled by the shock and was busy
at work starting the ships fusion reactors and engines.
	"Get us out of space dock ASAP."  He yelled.
	A young ensign at the comm station turned and yelled out, "Sir, Admiral Washington on the line."
	"Put him thru ensign."
	The picture of the admiral filled the ships main view screen.  "Captain, its bad.
The AI`s have jumped in system with hundreds of ships!  You have to leave, NOW!"
	"AI`s?"  The bridge crew asked, wondering what the Admiral was talking about.
	Justin turned on the ships comm and began to address the crew.
	"Everyone listen up, we have hostiles` incoming.  A fleet of ships for a race of machines known as the AI`s.
Earth doesn`t have the ships to combat them so we have a difficult mission from command.  We must leave Earth and
never come back."
	The bridge crew looked at each other with worried faces.


	Justin sighed and continued.  "I know you all have families on Earth but we have no choice, even if we fight
we will die and everyone on Earth will die with us.  So we must save ourselves so we can preserve some of our race."
	The bridge crew was mortified but understood the situation.
	"Cast off all moorings and prepare to depart!"
	The bridge crew relayed orders thru the computer and got the ship ready for departure.
	Outside the ship the docking clamps and walkways retracted clearing the way for the baseship to depart.  But
one enormous clamp was stuck to the ship.
	"Sir, one of the mooring clamp is stuck!" One of the crewman said in a panic.
	Justin had to think fast... the beam cannons!
	"Tactical!  Lock onto the clamp and fire a shot from one of the beam cannons, quickly!"
	The tactical officer locked on and fired within seconds.  The shot sliced thru the mooring clamp like a hot
knife thru butter.  They were clear to depart.
	A lieutenant spoke, "We're clear of the station now and ready to depart sir!"
	"Get us out of here helm!  Shields up after we leave the dry dock."
	The ship slowly flew out of the dock, before they could get out a cluster of missiles flew toward the dock.
Just as the ship got out of the dock and activated the shields the dock was hit and exploded.  Pieces of the dock hit
the ship with great force but only slightly damaged the shields.  Another group of missiles approached but was shot
down by another human baseships flak beams... it was the admiral.  Before he could thank the admiral the admirals ship
was struck by dozens of beams from several nearby AI ships.
	"Admiral!  Get me comm contact with the admiral`s ship!"  Justin yelled in desperation.
	The crewman tried but got no answer.  "Sir, the admiral only sent a text message... it reads 'run'!"
	Another crewmember at tactical was shocked at what he saw on screen.


	"Sir, the admiral`s ship!" the crewman said.
	Justin looked at the screen.  The admiral`s ship accelerated toward the group of baseships, it was on a
collision course with the lead AI ship.  The admiral's ship released wave after wave of fighters to confuse the AI
ships targeting systems and deal at least a little damage to them as he did what he did next.  He was mortified when
he saw the admiral`s ship explode in the middle of the baseships formation.  The explosion destroyed the AI ships in a
wave of plasma the propagated from the location, or rather the former location of the admiral`s ship.  Justin didn`t
dawdle, he knew what the admiral had done, bought him and his ship time to escape.
	"Helm, set course out of here, get us as far away from here as you can.  We can`t let the admiral`s sacrifice
be in vain."
	The ship quickly accelerated away from Earth as the AI`s quickly began to rain down death and destruction down
on it.  Justin and the bridge crew looked in horror as they saw their home slowly being destroyed.  Justin could see
the tiny dot that was his hometown just before it was hit by a nuclear blast from a missile.  He knew his parents were
dead but he knew they would have wanted him to live so he ordered the ship to go to hyperspace.  They escaped and ran
for a week before leaving hyperspace.  They were long gone from Earth and it was time to collect themselves.
	Justin ordered a minute of silence and redid the calendar to 1/1/0 to commemorate the death of earth and their
escape.  He addressed the crew.


	"Everyone, it is time to tell you the situation.  We are alone out here.. we don`t know how many escaped from
Earth but none of them are near us so we may never know.  But there is hope!  I was told by Admiral Washington shortly
before his death about the other aspect of the baseship program.  For years we have been fighting the AI`s, the ones who
destroyed our world.  But, we were preparing for the worst when they hit us a week ago.  For years we have been sending
hundreds even thousands of baseships out to the stars in hope that at least one of them would find a new home and the
human race would survive.  For now we must survive, at all cost, short of giving up our identity as a strong, honorable
people with a sense of justice and integrity.  I intend to fight for our right to survive and to anyone that is out there
we will not give up our lives without a fight and we will survive.  And hopefully we will fine more humans and join with
them and find a place safe for us and our children.  There are 10,000 of us on this ship with plenty of room for children.
We have a large hydroponics bay and a small machine ship to make repairs and feed our people but we are far from being
self-sufficient.  We need fuel to run our fusion generators so we must find planets with suitable elements for fuel and
to trade for goods we need.  We will also try to expand our ship, since the ship is modular we can make it bigger and
better and more heavily armed but we need to make friends with other civilizations and gain access to their shipyards to
make these changes.  We may also find other aliens with ships like ours, hopefully not like the AI`s, but we will not be
sure until we find them.  Hopefully we will be friends with them but we cannot be sure.  I will not lie, I cannot protect
everyone of you but I will do my best, as best as any human can, and as always we must persevere."


	Justin sank into his chair and looked out into the star field displayed on the view screen.  Just then his first
officer, Janet A. Hotchkiss spoke.
	"I just talked with the astro-navigation officer captain, he said there are signs of planets in a nearby system."
She said enthusiastically, "Maybe there is a planet with fuel or a trade post?"
	Justin looked at her.  "Maybe, we won`t know for sure until we look."
	He let out a small smile, so did she then he turned to the helm officer.
	"Helm, set course of that system and engage hyper drive."  Justin said in an enthusiastic voice.
	"Aye sir!" said the helm officer with equal enthusiasm.
	The ship slowly listed to the side and turned then in an instant they were in hyperspace.  They were on their way...
the only question was if they would ever reach a final destination.  But they had to try, because it was human nature to
at least try.