Yes, it's here!.  The previously hyped first chapter of Seedling.
In the tradition of Gall Force, Macross, and too many other
anime SF stories of war (and peace) to name here.  I hope you
give it a try.   

Crew List (in order of seniority):

Cmmdr  Rudolf "The Old Man" Kroller (Captain)
Lt. Paul Mendoza (Weapons Officer/First Officer)
Lt. Doctor Sheriam Watts (Medical Officer)
Lt. Joi Chan (Engineering Officer)
Ensign Lars Ponder (Engineer)
Ensign Anne Taylor (Survey Officer)
Ensign Sera Berkel (2nd Off)
Mid. Ryo Yamazaki (Helmsman)
Sr. Tech. Elise Gorakhova (Engineer) 
Tech.  Joe Ogawa (Engineer)
Tech.  Linna Reichart (Engineer)
Tech.  Arthur Lytton (Engineer)
____________________________________________________________

Seedling

David Johnston
rgorman@telusplanet.net
All rights reserved to creator.

With a swirl of light, the SC-1286 emerged into normal 
space.  "Downshift complete," Midshipman Ryo Yamazaki 
reported, as if that wasn’t perfectly obvious to everyone 
on the bridge.  He’d been out here too long.  They all had.  
The ritual reports and responses were no longer keeping 
him focussed.  

He sneaked a glance at Anne Taylor, the Survey Officer as 
she took her instrument readings.   She really was cute, 
and he had a weakness for red heads.  Problem was, in the 
tiny corvette, there wasn’t really room enough for anything 
private among its ten crew members.  Still, maybe when 
they got back to base in another month, he’d ask her out.

She swiveled toward the Captain and reported, "It’s an M-4, 
main sequence red dwarf.  No sign of life-bearing worlds."

"There's a surprise," Ryo muttered.  Space exploration was
proving far less exciting than popular entertainment had 
led him to believe.  

The Old Man brought him up sharply, "Did you have something 
to say, Yamazaki?"

"No sir," Ryo sheepishly answered, reddening as the Old 
Man's tone sent him back to school and condemned him as 
a delinquent.   Captain Kroller was past due for transfer 
to a larger command, and for promotion from his rank of 
Commander.  He was the only member of the crew old enough 
to remember a time before the War began and had been part 
of the Service before Ryo had been born.

Trying to ignore the pressure of the Old Man’s gaze on the 
back of his skull.  Ryo turned his attention back to the 
readouts on his own console, then jerked in alarm.  "Sir!"

The computer’s voice interrupted him,  "Unidentified 
object approaching under acceleration.  All crew to combat 
stations."

Ryo continued, "Incoming object is accelerating at 9 
gravities.  No IFF detected."   His voice was trembling 
a little with the mixture of fear and delight running 
through his veins.  This was the first time he’d seen 
action, and at the age of nineteen, risking his life in 
combat felt better than 6 months of quiet survey duty.

The Old Man's voice was emotionless enough to be a calming 
force as he ordered, "Mendoza, weapons on line.  Taylor, 
ping our new friend.  Let’s see what he’s made of."  
Captain Kroller was a careful man.  Although the Enemy 
were the only space faring...the only post-Neolithic 
species... encountered by humanity, he had no intention of 
initiating a first contact with missile fire because he had 
leapt to conclusions.

Pulses of coherent microwaves and light beamed toward the 
onrushing object, carrying information as they returned.
Anne reported, "Non-ferrous, high density carbon/silicate 
surface.  No sign of a drive flare.  High albedo."

A few seconds later the computer mapped a holographic model 
of the intercepting vessel.  Anne projected it into the 
display field at the front of the bridge as she concluded, 
"It’s an Orca."    

Like everything the enemy made it was a living being, an 
oval creature vaguely reminiscent of some kind of sea 
mammal, with glowing translucent vanes instead of flukes 
at it’s rear.  It’s forward edge was studded with jeweled 
protrusions that looked like eyes.  On both sides, 
sphincter-like openings faced forward and were visibly 
dilating.  Cylindrical bodies began to surge out.

"What are those?" Mendoza asked.  "Sharks?"  

Anne answered, "We don’t have a profile match.   They 
must be something new.  The closest approximation are the 
Sun Flowers that were in orbit around Hellion, but Xenology 
decided those were just solar energy transmitters.  These 
could be a Sun Flower/Shark crossbreed."  Or something 
totally new of course.  Twenty-eight years of warfare, and 
the alien biotech remained largely incomprehensible to the 
best human analysts.  

The Old Man ran his hand down his moustache and beard, and 
toggled the intercom to Engineering, "Chan, how fast can we
vacate?"

Chan's voice said something about g-cancellers.  "What?" Lt. 
Mendoza yelped, appalled.  "Captain, we can't-"  He broke 
off as Kroller held up a hand.

Chan's voice continued, "-need five minutes if you 
want a chance of surviving to reach the other side.  Ten if
you'd like to be sure of it."

The Old Man's voice was dry, "Let's try for five.  Begin 
jump preparations."

"Sir!" Mendoza lowered his voice, and continued, "You can't 
mean to avoid confrontation with the enemy."

"In a prewar corvette out of comm range versus a new Enemy 
weapon?  I would if I could.  As it stands, I'll settle 
for a chance to withdraw during confrontation.  Give me a 
firing solution on that Orca.  Turrets on autointercept."

Ryo silently agreed with Mendoza.  The alien monsters had 
killed hundreds of millions of humans without ever showing 
their faces.  Any chance to hit back was worth taking.  
Despite that, he kept his mouth shut as he guided the ship 
into an evasive course.  

The Sun-Sharks, tapering cylinders with tentacles on both 
ends, convulsed as lasers slashed into their flesh.  A 
spread of missiles leapt out at the Orca, and the jeweled 
eyes on its front section flashed in response, detonating 
most of the missiles before they could make impact.  

Anne reported, "Two hits.  Minimal estimated damage.  All 
Sun-Sharks intercepted."

*Not nearly as elusive as the Sharks,* Kroller mused.  
"Retarget turrets on the Orca," he ordered aloud.  

The two laser turrets raked the side of the alien vessel-
creature as it shot past the corvette with huge relative 
velocity mist trailing from the Orca's wounds.  As soon as 
it entered the corvette's blind spot behind the engines it 
launched another Sun-Shark.

"Internal damage to Enemy vessel."  Anne reported.

"Yes!" exulted Ryo in a whisper.  

Kroller seemed unmoved, "Lock in transition coordinates.  
Jump in 120 seconds from...mark."

Mendoza seemed ready to weep, "We can destroy them, sir!"

"Maybe.  Arm and load Thunderbolt, 2000 metre proximity 
fuse."  The corvette was an expendable exploration and 
reconnaissence craft, and with weapons-grade plutonium in 
short supply, had only been issued one nuclear weapon, so 
it had to be used judiciously.  "Give me a bearing on them."  

The ship seemed sluggish in it's response as it turned 
toward the Enemy.  Ryo warned, "Something's wrong!"

Chan's voice came from the speaker, "Compression furnace 
is losing power.  I don't know why.  We don't have enough 
to jump."

"Abort transition countdown,"  Kroller ordered.  So much 
for his battle plan.  At least if he reported back, he'd 
be able to tell Command what Sun-Sharks did.  

"They're moving too fast for another missile salvo." 
Mendoza said.  
 
"Hmm.  Ryo, maintain heading.  Missile tubes on standby.  
Let's see what they do now."   

The answer was apparently, "Not much."  Ryo plotted the
course of the enemy and answered, "They're decelerating
now, but it looks like they're coming back at an angle.
It'll take them a while to circle back."

"Yes, they'll want time to regenerate, I suppose," 
Kroller mused.  "This gives us an opportunity not to be
wasted.  Ensign Taylor?"

"Yes sir?"

"Take an engineer, go out there and see whether you can
get us free from our uninvited guest.  But be careful."

Ryo spoke up, "Uh, sir?  I was top of the class in Zero-G
Operations."

"I'm aware of your test scores."  Kroller answered evenly,
"Stay where you are."

It wasn't much longer, Anne Taylor and Technician Joe Ogawa 
emerged from the airlock.  Both were wearing articulated 
space armor that made them look slightly insectoid.  

"Remember," Kroller's voice cautioned.  "The Enemy could be 
back any time in the next two to eight minutes, so keep an 
eye out.  What does it look like out there?"

Joe answered, "Kind of ugly."

Anne looked at the 4 meter long flexible pillar attached 
to the ship.  Both sets of tentacles were outspread.  At 
the bottom they adhered like a starfish to the ship's hull, 
while the other end undulated freely and crackled with 
electrical discharges.  "Sir, it appears to be draining us 
and radiating the power into space."

"I think it's in love," Joe added.  

"Can you remove it?"

Ogawa answered, "Anybody got a bucket of cold water?  I'll 
see what I can do," and drifted toward it with a 
brief jet from his suit thrusters.  A tentacle quickly 
lashed downward and knocked him away.   "OK, let's try
this the hard way!" he snarled as he stabilised himself.

A chill ran down Anne's spine.  The Enemy creations could
be lethally unpredictable.  "Joe, don't!"  

He ignored her and leveled the laser mounted on the suit's 
arm at the creature.  A fine line scorched its way over the 
Sun-Shark's surface.  A moment later as all the outward 
tentacles pointed at him, his suit exploded in coruscating 
blue arcs of electricity, and a shriek of interference 
howled from her radio.  Joe drifted back toward her, 
slowly flipping over so she could see that his suit now 
seemed to be filled with fog...or smoke.  She repressed 
the urge to scream as the carbonized remains of his skull 
fell against the interior of his face plate.

"Report!"

"Joe's dead."  Her voice was very tired as she made her 
report.  "It's converting the power into microwaves and 
it can defend itself.  I don't think it's very bright 
though.  Looks like its responses are t-tropisms."  She 
swallowed against her gag reflex.  There were some things 
you just shouldn't do in sealed armour.  Screaming came 
second to vomiting.  

Inside, Kroller winced in regret.  After a moment he said,
"Stand by, and stay clear of it," and then turned to Ryo.  
"Top of the class, you say?  Here's what I want you to 
do..."

Anne turned her suit a little as she noticed the airlock 
opening out of the corner of her eye.  Who...

Ryo's voice came to her.  "Are you all right?"

"Just...a little shaken."

He jetted over to where she was and took hold of her 
suit's arm.  "We need to move farther away from the ship 
and that thing."

Kroller's voice came over the suit frequency, "Yamazaki, 
are you in position?"

"Yes, sir."

"All right.  Since we've lost the use of our drives and 
the opposition appear to have identified our blind spot,
they'll come in behind our engines.  What I want you to 
do is to start sending us the data from your targeting 
computer and then watch for them to come in."

Anne shook her head, almost glad for the distraction 
afforded by impending doom.  "How's that going to help?  
We'll still be sitting ducks."  As she asked, she opened
the control panel on her suit's arm and began making the
required adjustments.  

"Well, if we had a newer model corvette this wouldn't work
but we've got a back-up set of emergency manuevering jets
that don't draw reactor power-"  
He broke off as their targeting computers activated,
projecting a square on an almost indistinguishable white 
dot, readouts on distance and speed scrolling alongside.
"Looks like it's coming in slow and steady."

"I think they want to capture us intact."  Anne surmised.
"Considering their skills in bio-manipulation, I don't 
think I like the implications."

"Captain?  Are you getting this?" Ryo asked.

"We are.  Just wait for it and go to virtual imaging."

Ryo lowered a blackened face shield on his armor, and Anne
followed suit, both of them relying entirely on their 
computers to draw them a picture of the situation as the 
enemy crept closer.

Suddenly a jet of vapour shot out from left side of the
corvette, and it began to spin.  The Thunderbolt, still 
armed and positioned in the open missile tube, blasted 
out and curved toward the Enemy.  For a moment, it 
vanished in a blaze of light.  Even the virtual imaging
systems on the combat suits blanked out for a moment,
before the Enemy reappeared.

Detonating two kilometers away, even a fusion warhead 
wasn't going to do lasting damage to an Orca.  It's skin 
bubbled as exterior armor boiled away and as crystalline 
sensors cracked and exploded, but the damage was nothing 
that its regenerative powers couldn't handle given a 
little time.  

Meanwhile, the corvette continued to rotate.  As it 
braked to a stop pointing directly toward the blinded
and stunned alien vessel, a barrage of smaller missiles 
rippled outward, blasting through the weakened skin
of the Orca, to explode deep within it's flesh and rip
it apart. 

Living creature or not, the Orca contained tremendous
power which, set free, consumed and vapourised its 
substance into briefly comet-like fireballs.  Little
was left behind except some fragments of ceramic 
skeleton which curved gracefully like shattered 
abstract sculpture;and one other thing, an intact 
structure drifting away from the explosion.  It was 
rounded at the bottom, narrowing to a point at the top, 
like a teardrop, or a seed.  

_______________________________________________________________

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor
    I'd like to thank Gary Kleppe for pre-reading this.  
His assistance was invaluable.  If you would also like 
to be invaluable and volunteer to help pre-read my next
chapter, please contact me at rgorman@telusplanet.net.
I'd also like to thank those of the Newbie List and
of the Chibi-FFML who responded to Chapter 1.

And Now For A Public Service Announcement.

To subscribe, post a message to fanfic-request@fanfic.com
---(NOT fanfic@fanfic.com)---
with subscribe in the subject line!

To unsubscribe, post a message to fanfic-request@fanfic.com
---(NOT fanfic@fanfic.com)---
with unsubscribe in the subject line!

Oops.  Sorry about the nudity.  I know I promised some, but
not in this particular chapter.  Any commentary is good 
commentary.
_______________________________________________________________