The Dawn

Contact

I slipped away from the captain’s side, walking over to a vacant screen, pulling up the radiation levels of the radio and gamma rays. I found the ship was being targeted with large amounts of each, both coming from a fixed source. I hacked through the mainframe and got it up onto the main screen. I had done this several times at the academy, a couple times I was almost caught hacking, but I still was a step ahead of everyone else.

“Captain, I’m tracking large amounts of radio and gamma rays aimed straight at our ship. It’s no mistake, they’re trying to bring us down somewhere. Our systems aren’t prepared for this, I checked several plans of the manufacturing of this ship, and they all haven’t been prepared for such large amounts.” I told him, it was true, I went over everything before the flight. I’m such a space-nerd, but why can’t I be?

“You’re sure they’re aimed at us?” He asked me, disbelief written on his face.

“Yeah, the waves are coming from a fixed source. A ship would move from emitting this much, they would have to rearrange more than once.” I told him, sounds of agreement trailed behind the echo of my voice.

“Fix their coordinates, I want this problem taken care of!” the captain yelled, people and alien alike scrambled to their stations. After two hours of feverish work between multiple power failures and immense system crashes we finally had the coordinates, I copied them down, taking them to a map of the solar system. I punched the coordinates in, and what came up changed the whole situation.

The Earth was producing this, it was taking our ship down.

But no human could live there, and we were moving, the rays had to be following our path. What was doing this, a new species? Why were they? What did they plan on doing once we were crashed onto the planet?

Then and there it dawned on me, this was the place the shipment order came from, this is where they wanted us. They were trying to bring us down to Earth for some reason.

I was ripped from my thoughts as the whole ship jarred and sent many people falling, I banged into the switchboard was standing in front of, punching a button. Suddenly a transmission came onto the frontal windows of the bridge. What seemed to be a human with a scarf over the lower half of their face was standing there, they looked at the screen with surprise.

“It’s on?” A voice answered him in the background, and he cleared his throat, “Greetings, fellow humans, and aliens, I’m sorry for how we’ve stopped your ship, but, as you should assume, our technology is majorly out of date and very fritzy. I have a request, one that I do need done so badly. I want you to send ten people, only humans, to Earth, along with the supplies we have ordered. We will contact you before you land on your home planet, and we will need you to listen to our instructions. Have I made myself clear?”

“Clear? You just asked me for something I am at no liberty to give you. What, am I just supposed to hand over my people to you, someone who has done harm to my ship and now asks for more than I am willing to give? I will not do this.” The captain glared at the person, I took a step back and shoved myself against the wall, hunching down my tall form to seem smaller, this was not good. No one noticed me, not then.

After a while of negotiation the captain gave in, after he was threatened with weapons they claimed to have. The deals had been re-written, but they stated the same demands, healthy humans and their supplies.

“We are of an agreement, two humans and our supplies. But,” the person said, cutting off what the captain was about to say to them, “I am choosing the people. No matter what you say, they will come.”

“All humans, step forwards.” The person ordered, and all of them except me stepped forwards. I pressed myself to the wall, hoping that I would be overlooked.

The captain glanced back at me, his eyes widening as his mouth formed a distinctive curse. Unfortunately, that movement brought the man’s gaze straight to me. He nodded at me, “You, you’re human, aren’t you?”

I gulped down the lump in my throat, choking out the fear as I answered, “Y-yes.”

“Good, you’ll do, and you,” he nodded to a guy down in the line as I felt the color drain from my face.

My father’s old friend seemed bent on keeping me on the ship, because the next five minutes were a heated argument between him and the man. The only thing that kept the man from destroying the ship was the supplies, but he claimed to be happy to just deal with us like a parasite. Finally he got the upper hand, by then my mind was zoned out, but when everyone was silent I came back to reality.