Space Patrol had been founded in 2010 after the Olympus Corvettes and Monsoon Gunboats had entered service, to patrol the border of the Solar System and look out for extraterrestrials, after the aliens had withdrawn their ambassy prior 2003 and left Earth on their own. The UN had known prior Rama/Babylon 5 that the galaxy was a place that isn't exacly peaceful.
In 2012 Space Patrol had gotten a more realistic directive, after a few Monsoons and Olympus had disappeared. These ships had reappeared, assaulting freighters on the way to the building colonies. This had been the proof that organized crime, in this case piracy had made the jump into space. Until 2014 the piracy problem had become greater and the first true ships of pirate design appeared at the same time the first Hyperion entered service.
So Space Patrol became the police force of outer space, guarding the freight lanes, hunting down pirates, patroling the outer perimeter of space and doing police work on the colonies, outposts and stations.
Commander McLane was one of the cops of Space Patrol and commander of the Hyperion EAS Manhattan and Space Patrol Groups Alpha Three. His daily life normally consisted in being bored, because it was routine to look for pirate bases this far in the system.
McLane looked at one of the sensory readouts taking a sip of his coffee. He sighed.
'I wonder when something will happen out here.'
He hated this part of his job and to a small part his superiors. They just had to put him out here, just because he had done his job. Okay, he had nearly blown up EarthForce One, but he had gotten the pirates that had tried to get their hands on the president.
He sighed again and closed his eyes. A buzzer caused him to open his eyes. It came from the console of a sensory technician, who turned around.
"Sir, we got a ping."
McLane just wanted to go into his 'Don't call me sir'-routine as the words finally got to him. He was near the console before anyone could blink and he never spilled one drop of coffee.
"Where?" he asked the startled technician as he looked at the sensory readout.
"Uhm... Sektor 162-146-322. A single ping. At least he size of an Olympus, but I can't get a better reading."
"Course? Distance?"
"Vector 112-212-194, Earth. Distance 20 million klicks. Speed one tenth light."
McLane turned to the astrogator.
"Set an intercept course towards the ping and than match their speed at 30000 klicks."
The eleven Patrol vessels accelerated to a bit more than ten percent of light speed. ten minutes later they decelerated and matched the speed of the unknown ship.
McLane looked at the screen in front of him, showing the unknown ship. He scanned over the ships hull, looking for a Jolly Roger symbol, but he didn't find any.
"What is that a new pirate design?" a member of the bridge crew asked.
McLane shrugged and straightened his uniform.
"Open a channel. And turn off these alarm lights."
The comm officer nodded and the red flashing lights turned off. Part of him wondered if this weren't aliens, but another part said that the aliens had left Earth long ago, why would they come back, so this ship had to be either a pirate vessel or a private prototype he didn't know. So he would just do his job.
"Channel open."
"This is Commander McLane of the Space Patrol ship EAS Manhattan. To the unknown vessel. Please deactivate your engines and weapons and prepare to be boarded."
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(Posted Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:04)
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