The Jade Legion
by Admiral2
4674 words
Crewman First Class Archibald “Sparks” Jordan was rarely as nervous at his station as he was at this moment. Then again, it wasn’t often that he had Captain Martin Rourke and Lt. Commander Van Jensen - Commanding Officer and Executive Officer respectively of the USS Concord - staring over both shoulders as he tried to pin down an elusive signal. Still, the communications tech worked at it diligently, giving the two superiors the blow-by-blow as he managed to burn through the static. “It’s still fuzzy,” he said finally, “but I’ve managed to isolate a definite broadcast. It repeats, like an automated signal.”
“Is it clear enough to put on the bridge speakers?” Jensen asked.
“Wait one.” Jordan made a few more adjustments. “Now it is, sir.” He pressed a contact and the sound echoed through the bridge. It was a high, warbling electronic tone that pulsed at regular intervals.
Rourke looked up as he listened, frowning and working his squared jaw. “And you say it’s coming from our first stop?”
“Aye, Captain,” Jordan said. “It’s being broadcast in all directions from the Fabrini star group.”
Jensen turned to the Captain. “According to the Surprise’s logs there was only one Earth-type planet in that group, the fourth planet, I believe.” He walked over to the Science console and worked the controls. The repeater screen above it came to life, displaying a green planet along with scientific data. “Yes, that’s it,” he said, “but there was no intelligent life on the surface at that time.”
Rourke rose to his full commanding height and put his hands on his hips. “That may be, but if there’s anything intelligent sending out a signal from that region of space, it’s likely doing so from Fabrini IV.” He shrugged. “Maybe someone moved in and took up residence. Anything could have happened in the hundred years since Surprise’s landing.”
The USS Concord, the latest of the Constitution-Class vessels, was tasked with revisitng regions of space visited by the older, purely light-speed ship SS Surprise before continuing on with her own deep space probe. It had been a century since humans - Surprise’s crew - had set foot on Fabrini IV, and they hadn’t found anything alive, though they did find evidence that the planet had once harbored an advanced civilization.
Jensen leaned casually on the Science console and smirked at Rourke. “Perhaps the good doctor can provide us with some insight on the matter. I’ve heard she’s something of an historian when it comes to the old probe missions.”
Rourke met the smirk with a boyish smile. “She is at that. She’s certainly bent my ear about them enough.” He turned to the communicator. “Sparks, please have the CMO join us on the bridge.”
“Aye, sir.” Sparks turned to his controls and opened a circuit. “Will the Chief Medical Officer report to the bridge, please?” He said into the audio pickup.
The response was quick. “I’m on my way,” an alto voice sounded from the console.
Rourke’s smile grew just a bit broader before he walked over to where Jensen was standing. Jensen was grinning mischievously. “All right, all right,” Rourke said. “Let’s just have a printout of the planet’s data.”
“Aye, sir,” Jensen said cheerily. He nodded to the officer manning the console, who on cue began organizing the information for printing. The lift doors opened at almost the same moment the hardcopy was ejected from the console.
Doctor Anne Rourke - also Mrs. Martin Rourke - always turned heads when she came onto the bridge. She was tall and glamour-girl pretty, with curly, golden blond hair she wore tied in a pony-tail and an hourglass figure that her uniform tunic and slacks did nothing to hide. She smiled prettily when she spotted Rourke and walked right over to him. “It’s about time you called me out of that Sick Bay,” she said in a winking tone. “Even a girl as on the ball as me needs to get out and see her man once in a while.”
“Always happy to oblige,” Rourke said, “but I’ve summoned you on business, My Dear Doctor.”
Anne Rourke straightened and mock-saluted. “Yes, sir! And what can I do for the Captain, sir?”
“Actually...” Jensen began.
“Watch it, boy,” Rourke said, pointing. “Just show her the printout.”
Anne giggled as Jensen obeyed, then was lost in the information as the two men now looked over her shoulders. “Oh, Fabrini IV. That’s our first destination, isn’t it darling?”
“It is indeed, and it’s already trying to pique our interest.” He explained about the signal and his suspicions.
“But that’s impossible,” Anne objected. “The planet’s surface is barren. There’s nothing there but the legion.”
Jensen’s eyebrow went up. “What ‘legion’?”
Rourke answered, “Along with several buried ruins the surface is covered with meticulously carved and placed statues.”
“Not just statues,” Anne said. “It’s like the Terra Cotta Army back on Earth. They’re ten feet tall and intricately carved in something like jade. At least, that’s what the crew of the Surprise reported.”
“Do you think their creators might have come back to collect them?”
Anne folded up the report. “Well, there’s really only one way to find out isn’t there?”
“There is indeed,” Rourke said. He walked over to the command chair, moved the cobra-headed repeater aside and sat down. “Address Intercraft,” he ordered. Sparks toggled the right switch and Rourke’s voice echoed throughout the Concord. “This is the Captain. We’re moving up our arrival time to the Fabrini Star Group to investigate a signal we’ve received. Our Time Warp will be Factor Six.”
The rest of the bridge crew assumed departure stations. Commander Jensen took over the helm and got on the Intercraft himself. “All decks prepare for hyperdrive!”
As Jensen got reports from the different sections of the ship, Doctor Rourke went to stand next to the command chair. Captain Rourke leaned over and said in a low voice, “There. Now you can’t say I never take you anywhere.”
“That doesn’t count,” she whispered back with a sly grin. “You were going that way anyway.”
“All Decks report ready,” Jensen called.
Captain Rourke settled back in his seat and commanded, “Engage!”
The Concord pulled into orbit around the fourth planet of the Fabrini Star Group. As Jensen settled the ship in, Sparks called out, “The signal’s definitely coming from the planet, Captain, but it’s strange. It seems to be coming from the across the surface.”
“The whole planet is signaling?” Anne said. “Intriguing...”
“Keep working on it,” Rourke ordered. He stood and walked around the chair. “Doctor, Exec, care to join me on an excursion to the surface?”
“Absolutely,” Jensen said.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Anne said.
“All right. Lieutenant Radha!”
The olive-skinned young man at the Science station turned and stood. “Yes, Sir?”
“You have the bridge. We’ll equip a landing party of six. Have a security team meet us in the transporter room.”
“Aye, sir,” Radha said. The Rourkes and Jensen were already headed for the lift.
Soon, the Captain, XO and Doctor were outfitted in field jackets and carrying hand weapons and communicators. They arrived in the molecular transporter room and met three similarly-equipped Security crewmen that were waiting there. All six stepped onto transporter pads while two jump-suited engineers worked the complex controls. After a few moments one said, “We’re ready here, Captain.”
Rourke nodded. “Energize.”
The engineer worked the energizer slides and the trilling, repeating sound of the transporter effect filled the room as the visual effect obscured the landing party. In moments they disappeared from the transporter room...
...and reappeared on the surface of the planet. Once they had solidified and looked around, they realized they’d rematerialized around one of the statues. “My goodness...” Anne breathed as she looked up at it.
It was a humanoid male figure, with a bald head and chiseled face and piercing green eyes that stared straight ahead. Sure enough, it stood ten feet tall and was made of a material that felt like jade, but was colored a deep blue. It had been carved to appear as if it were wearing a skintight bodysuit with a belt wide enough to cover his midsection. The buckle was shaped like a diamond and completely obscured his abdominal muscles. It looked like a display screen.
Jensen kept looking around. “They really are all around us!”
As far as the eye could see, arranged in perfect rows that followed the contour of the ground, were hundreds of similar statues. They all seemed to be staring in the same direction. “It’s amazing,” Rourke said. “Imagine how long it took to make enough of these to arrange across the entire world.”
“They’re so lifelike,” Anne said, still transfixed by the one she was looking at, “and so grim. It’s as if they really are standing vigil.”
“Against what?” Rourke asked.
“I’d hate for it to be us,” Jensen smirked. “Imagine seeing one of these characters coming at you on a battlefield. Brother, I’d sign the discharge papers right then!”
The Security troops chuckled and Rourke smiled. Anne dismissed them with a wave. “Oh, honestly! I don’t think they’re meant to be an actual army. We really don’t know if they have a purpose.”
Just then the Captain’s communicator whistled. He took it out and lifted the cover open. “Rourke here.”
“Sparks here, sir. I’m still having trouble pinpointing the origin of the signal. It’s like it’s coming from millions of points around the planet.”
Rourke’s brow went up. “Millions?”
“Yes, sir. In fact there are several points right near where you landed.”
The landing party looked around then. “Well, it can’t be!” Anne said.
“They’re just statues!” A crewman said.
“Well, there’s nothing else in the immediate area that might be doing it,” Rourke mused.
“Could there be some kind of transmitters built into them?” Jensen asked.
“It seems so unlikely,” Anne said. “They appear to be carved from a single block of material. There are no seams that suggest they were hollowed out.” She reached out to touch the statue’s side. “It’s so smooth, so uniform. Surely they must have...”
Then, incredibly, impossibly, the statue raised its right arm.
“Anne, get back!” Rourke yelled. He was too late. The statue’s fingertips brushed Anne’s forehead. She screamed and fell back, but froze before she hit the ground, suspended in mid-air.
The screen in the statue’s buckle began to crackle with power. It was reminiscent of the visual transporter effect, but one against a pitch black background. Along with the crackling came an unearthly wailing that pierced the landing party’s ears. As the wailing increased in crescendo the statue rose from the ground, and Anne rose as well.
Jensen and the crewmen had their weapons out. “Fire!” Jensen called out.
Four bright beams lanced into the statue’s chest, their electronic whirring drowned out by the wailing. The men kept the beams on the carving for several seconds before giving up.
“It hasn’t even been touched!” A crewman complained.
Rourke finally drew his weapon and changed the setting. “Again,” he said, “Full power! Shoot the buckle!”
The other men adjusted their weapons, then all five took aim at the buckle and fired into the crackling energy. This time they kept the beams pouring into it for almost a full minute. As they fired, they barely noticed the statue’s other hand rising. When it was high above them, the hand emitted a wave of energy. When the wave hit the landing party, all the beams turned off, leaving the men unaffected.
Rourke looked at his weapon in shock, aimed again and tried to fire. Nothing happened. The others had a similar reaction.
Jensen approached him. “We could pinpoint it from space, use the main weapons...”
Rourke dismissed that with a shake of his head. “Even if it worked, we might disintegrate Anne in the process. If it didn’t...well, you’re the one that didn’t want to face them on the battlefield. What if it just ticks him off?” He opened his communicator again. “Rourke to Concord.”
“Radha here,” Lieutenant Radha replied.
“I want you and a full survey team to land at my coordinates on the double. Equip as necessary.” He closed the communicator and looked at Jensen. “We can’t rely on brute force. We have to find a clue in the statues themselves.” He looked up at Anne, watched her floating there helplessly, then his resolve doubled.
“We’ll save you...” he muttered.
by Admiral2
4674 words
Crewman First Class Archibald “Sparks” Jordan was rarely as nervous at his station as he was at this moment. Then again, it wasn’t often that he had Captain Martin Rourke and Lt. Commander Van Jensen - Commanding Officer and Executive Officer respectively of the USS Concord - staring over both shoulders as he tried to pin down an elusive signal. Still, the communications tech worked at it diligently, giving the two superiors the blow-by-blow as he managed to burn through the static. “It’s still fuzzy,” he said finally, “but I’ve managed to isolate a definite broadcast. It repeats, like an automated signal.”
“Is it clear enough to put on the bridge speakers?” Jensen asked.
“Wait one.” Jordan made a few more adjustments. “Now it is, sir.” He pressed a contact and the sound echoed through the bridge. It was a high, warbling electronic tone that pulsed at regular intervals.
Rourke looked up as he listened, frowning and working his squared jaw. “And you say it’s coming from our first stop?”
“Aye, Captain,” Jordan said. “It’s being broadcast in all directions from the Fabrini star group.”
Jensen turned to the Captain. “According to the Surprise’s logs there was only one Earth-type planet in that group, the fourth planet, I believe.” He walked over to the Science console and worked the controls. The repeater screen above it came to life, displaying a green planet along with scientific data. “Yes, that’s it,” he said, “but there was no intelligent life on the surface at that time.”
Rourke rose to his full commanding height and put his hands on his hips. “That may be, but if there’s anything intelligent sending out a signal from that region of space, it’s likely doing so from Fabrini IV.” He shrugged. “Maybe someone moved in and took up residence. Anything could have happened in the hundred years since Surprise’s landing.”
The USS Concord, the latest of the Constitution-Class vessels, was tasked with revisitng regions of space visited by the older, purely light-speed ship SS Surprise before continuing on with her own deep space probe. It had been a century since humans - Surprise’s crew - had set foot on Fabrini IV, and they hadn’t found anything alive, though they did find evidence that the planet had once harbored an advanced civilization.
Jensen leaned casually on the Science console and smirked at Rourke. “Perhaps the good doctor can provide us with some insight on the matter. I’ve heard she’s something of an historian when it comes to the old probe missions.”
Rourke met the smirk with a boyish smile. “She is at that. She’s certainly bent my ear about them enough.” He turned to the communicator. “Sparks, please have the CMO join us on the bridge.”
“Aye, sir.” Sparks turned to his controls and opened a circuit. “Will the Chief Medical Officer report to the bridge, please?” He said into the audio pickup.
The response was quick. “I’m on my way,” an alto voice sounded from the console.
Rourke’s smile grew just a bit broader before he walked over to where Jensen was standing. Jensen was grinning mischievously. “All right, all right,” Rourke said. “Let’s just have a printout of the planet’s data.”
“Aye, sir,” Jensen said cheerily. He nodded to the officer manning the console, who on cue began organizing the information for printing. The lift doors opened at almost the same moment the hardcopy was ejected from the console.
Doctor Anne Rourke - also Mrs. Martin Rourke - always turned heads when she came onto the bridge. She was tall and glamour-girl pretty, with curly, golden blond hair she wore tied in a pony-tail and an hourglass figure that her uniform tunic and slacks did nothing to hide. She smiled prettily when she spotted Rourke and walked right over to him. “It’s about time you called me out of that Sick Bay,” she said in a winking tone. “Even a girl as on the ball as me needs to get out and see her man once in a while.”
“Always happy to oblige,” Rourke said, “but I’ve summoned you on business, My Dear Doctor.”
Anne Rourke straightened and mock-saluted. “Yes, sir! And what can I do for the Captain, sir?”
“Actually...” Jensen began.
“Watch it, boy,” Rourke said, pointing. “Just show her the printout.”
Anne giggled as Jensen obeyed, then was lost in the information as the two men now looked over her shoulders. “Oh, Fabrini IV. That’s our first destination, isn’t it darling?”
“It is indeed, and it’s already trying to pique our interest.” He explained about the signal and his suspicions.
“But that’s impossible,” Anne objected. “The planet’s surface is barren. There’s nothing there but the legion.”
Jensen’s eyebrow went up. “What ‘legion’?”
Rourke answered, “Along with several buried ruins the surface is covered with meticulously carved and placed statues.”
“Not just statues,” Anne said. “It’s like the Terra Cotta Army back on Earth. They’re ten feet tall and intricately carved in something like jade. At least, that’s what the crew of the Surprise reported.”
“Do you think their creators might have come back to collect them?”
Anne folded up the report. “Well, there’s really only one way to find out isn’t there?”
“There is indeed,” Rourke said. He walked over to the command chair, moved the cobra-headed repeater aside and sat down. “Address Intercraft,” he ordered. Sparks toggled the right switch and Rourke’s voice echoed throughout the Concord. “This is the Captain. We’re moving up our arrival time to the Fabrini Star Group to investigate a signal we’ve received. Our Time Warp will be Factor Six.”
The rest of the bridge crew assumed departure stations. Commander Jensen took over the helm and got on the Intercraft himself. “All decks prepare for hyperdrive!”
As Jensen got reports from the different sections of the ship, Doctor Rourke went to stand next to the command chair. Captain Rourke leaned over and said in a low voice, “There. Now you can’t say I never take you anywhere.”
“That doesn’t count,” she whispered back with a sly grin. “You were going that way anyway.”
“All Decks report ready,” Jensen called.
Captain Rourke settled back in his seat and commanded, “Engage!”
The Concord pulled into orbit around the fourth planet of the Fabrini Star Group. As Jensen settled the ship in, Sparks called out, “The signal’s definitely coming from the planet, Captain, but it’s strange. It seems to be coming from the across the surface.”
“The whole planet is signaling?” Anne said. “Intriguing...”
“Keep working on it,” Rourke ordered. He stood and walked around the chair. “Doctor, Exec, care to join me on an excursion to the surface?”
“Absolutely,” Jensen said.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Anne said.
“All right. Lieutenant Radha!”
The olive-skinned young man at the Science station turned and stood. “Yes, Sir?”
“You have the bridge. We’ll equip a landing party of six. Have a security team meet us in the transporter room.”
“Aye, sir,” Radha said. The Rourkes and Jensen were already headed for the lift.
Soon, the Captain, XO and Doctor were outfitted in field jackets and carrying hand weapons and communicators. They arrived in the molecular transporter room and met three similarly-equipped Security crewmen that were waiting there. All six stepped onto transporter pads while two jump-suited engineers worked the complex controls. After a few moments one said, “We’re ready here, Captain.”
Rourke nodded. “Energize.”
The engineer worked the energizer slides and the trilling, repeating sound of the transporter effect filled the room as the visual effect obscured the landing party. In moments they disappeared from the transporter room...
...and reappeared on the surface of the planet. Once they had solidified and looked around, they realized they’d rematerialized around one of the statues. “My goodness...” Anne breathed as she looked up at it.
It was a humanoid male figure, with a bald head and chiseled face and piercing green eyes that stared straight ahead. Sure enough, it stood ten feet tall and was made of a material that felt like jade, but was colored a deep blue. It had been carved to appear as if it were wearing a skintight bodysuit with a belt wide enough to cover his midsection. The buckle was shaped like a diamond and completely obscured his abdominal muscles. It looked like a display screen.
Jensen kept looking around. “They really are all around us!”
As far as the eye could see, arranged in perfect rows that followed the contour of the ground, were hundreds of similar statues. They all seemed to be staring in the same direction. “It’s amazing,” Rourke said. “Imagine how long it took to make enough of these to arrange across the entire world.”
“They’re so lifelike,” Anne said, still transfixed by the one she was looking at, “and so grim. It’s as if they really are standing vigil.”
“Against what?” Rourke asked.
“I’d hate for it to be us,” Jensen smirked. “Imagine seeing one of these characters coming at you on a battlefield. Brother, I’d sign the discharge papers right then!”
The Security troops chuckled and Rourke smiled. Anne dismissed them with a wave. “Oh, honestly! I don’t think they’re meant to be an actual army. We really don’t know if they have a purpose.”
Just then the Captain’s communicator whistled. He took it out and lifted the cover open. “Rourke here.”
“Sparks here, sir. I’m still having trouble pinpointing the origin of the signal. It’s like it’s coming from millions of points around the planet.”
Rourke’s brow went up. “Millions?”
“Yes, sir. In fact there are several points right near where you landed.”
The landing party looked around then. “Well, it can’t be!” Anne said.
“They’re just statues!” A crewman said.
“Well, there’s nothing else in the immediate area that might be doing it,” Rourke mused.
“Could there be some kind of transmitters built into them?” Jensen asked.
“It seems so unlikely,” Anne said. “They appear to be carved from a single block of material. There are no seams that suggest they were hollowed out.” She reached out to touch the statue’s side. “It’s so smooth, so uniform. Surely they must have...”
Then, incredibly, impossibly, the statue raised its right arm.
“Anne, get back!” Rourke yelled. He was too late. The statue’s fingertips brushed Anne’s forehead. She screamed and fell back, but froze before she hit the ground, suspended in mid-air.
The screen in the statue’s buckle began to crackle with power. It was reminiscent of the visual transporter effect, but one against a pitch black background. Along with the crackling came an unearthly wailing that pierced the landing party’s ears. As the wailing increased in crescendo the statue rose from the ground, and Anne rose as well.
Jensen and the crewmen had their weapons out. “Fire!” Jensen called out.
Four bright beams lanced into the statue’s chest, their electronic whirring drowned out by the wailing. The men kept the beams on the carving for several seconds before giving up.
“It hasn’t even been touched!” A crewman complained.
Rourke finally drew his weapon and changed the setting. “Again,” he said, “Full power! Shoot the buckle!”
The other men adjusted their weapons, then all five took aim at the buckle and fired into the crackling energy. This time they kept the beams pouring into it for almost a full minute. As they fired, they barely noticed the statue’s other hand rising. When it was high above them, the hand emitted a wave of energy. When the wave hit the landing party, all the beams turned off, leaving the men unaffected.
Rourke looked at his weapon in shock, aimed again and tried to fire. Nothing happened. The others had a similar reaction.
Jensen approached him. “We could pinpoint it from space, use the main weapons...”
Rourke dismissed that with a shake of his head. “Even if it worked, we might disintegrate Anne in the process. If it didn’t...well, you’re the one that didn’t want to face them on the battlefield. What if it just ticks him off?” He opened his communicator again. “Rourke to Concord.”
“Radha here,” Lieutenant Radha replied.
“I want you and a full survey team to land at my coordinates on the double. Equip as necessary.” He closed the communicator and looked at Jensen. “We can’t rely on brute force. We have to find a clue in the statues themselves.” He looked up at Anne, watched her floating there helplessly, then his resolve doubled.
“We’ll save you...” he muttered.
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