Astronomy 102 - Part 4

My name is Mercedes Whitman and I'm a hero on a foreign world. I'm the daughter of two heroes, and was trapped on this Earth during an Event that sealed the way back home forever. They call me Black Sapphire when I'm out patrolling, and these are my Blogs.

SATURDAY SUPER STORIES - ASTRONOMY 102: Part 4 "A New Hope."

"They call themselves the Branded." Walters voice came through the comm unit. "I’ve been researching them for awhile now. I thought they might be some kind of gang, but it seems they are all victims of one of the Scions attacks... those who lived. The effect of the God Seed leaves them tainted, or branded as it were."

"This helps me how? There's got to be more than a hundred here, and they're all looking right at me. I won't fight civilians."

"I don't think you will have to. They are gathering, drawn to that location by the Scion's arrival."

"So they are the bullseye on the landing zone?! Great." She turned back to the crowd. "YOU PEOPLE NEED TO MOVE BACK!!! THIS THING IS COMING IN HOT!!!"

The crowd as one, looked skyward, and watched the flame streak across the sky and get closer.

"PLEASE! YOU ARE ALL IN DANGER!!!"

"He comes for us." One of them called out, his arms in the air, beckoning. "He comes for us ALL!!!!" he screamed. The light grew closer and closer, and brighter and brighter. The city around Black Sapphire was a light, as if it was high noon.

"The object is slowing down. I have three angles of it now. Hacked one of the Ruthless satellites. It appears to be a ship." Walters spoke. "Small one, two man craft at the most, armored and built for speed. No FTL that I can discern."

"Faster-than -light? I thought light speed and hyperspace were outdated. So what's the play here? The Scions all fly on their own power. None of them need a ship, but your scans read "Scion.' So..."

"I don't know. Could be a trap."

"You always say that." She could feel the heat from the engines now. The light dimmed, and it came in for a slow landing. The ship itself was ugly. Squat and in need of a serious overhaul. She could see the patches from the ground. If she didn't know better it was vaguely like a bull's head in shape.

The engines sputtered and shut off and it dropped to the pavement, slamming into the ground and grinding the asphalt to dust. She watched as the crowd of Branded in unison took three large steps back and dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.

The 'mouth' of the craft opened and being walked out, standing around three and a half feet tall. Its space suit also looked like a bull, or a Minotaur. He strode forward purposely and stopped in front of her. He looked up at her, the faceplate black on the helmet.

"Um, welcome to Earth?" She stammered. The little being cocked its head to the side and slapped a hand on an orange button on the front of the suit, and it seemed to fold into itself and retract behind him. Before her stood what she would call a myth, a minotaur, only very tiny. He cleared his throat.

"Oy!! Prisoner transfer. I bring one Scion back to his place of origin and do hereby relinquish custody to you." His accent was vaguely British. "You 'ave the proper paperwork or wut?"

"Huh? Prisoner transfer? You...captured a Scion? How? What?" She was flabbergasted, and having a hard time coping with what was happening.

"I don't have the bleedin' time for this frail. I have one Scion, you are at the LZ for the pickup. You're a woman, so I assume you're Director Calm of the Column?"

"What? No way, she's crazy, and it's Chalm." She waved her hands as she spoke.

"Whatever." He pulled out a remote and hit a bunch of keys on it and the ship began to make noise, metal on metal, and another hatch began to move.

"So how did you manage to bring this one in?" She inquired.

"Easy. I am one of the universe's greatest bounty hunters. Plus I have this!" He slapped a hand to the armor covering his chest, the colors rapidly shifted through the spectrum and settled back down to a dull green. "It's prismatic, you see. These energy-types are easy with this thing on. I just have to make sure I don't get hit with the right thing at the wrong time, or it gets a bit dicey."

"Huh. You got a name by the way. Feels like I should have asked that forever ago."

He nodded, "Hr'lune, Bounty Hunter and agent of the Academy."

"The Academy?" She asked.

"The Xenobiological Institute for the Discovery and Archival of Foreign Species. They are basically a bunch of space scholars, run around the worlds and spy on everything and study it, and take samples. They employ a diverse range of species to acquire things for them." He shrugged his head back, one of his horns pointing towards the hatch that had almost finished its cycle. "Sort of like this one. They got their readings, took some blood and whatnot and turned him over to me to release back into the wild. But it turns out that there's a bounty on the Scions, all of them, and it’s a biggun'" He grinned a mouthful of yellow and black teeth.

"Who on Earth would have placed a bounty on the Scions?"

"Bloke named Spectacular." She sighed and face palmed.

"That jackass."

"Quiet, there's a chance he's listening in on Comms." Walters said. She sighed again.

"Anyways...I'm not from the Column, and I can't pay your bounty, I was here to prevent a Scion from destroying the city. I didn't expect you at all." The arm holding the prisoner swiveled into place and rested the restrained prisoner on the soil. Sapphire gasped, and took a step back. Her eyes wide behind her mask.

"What? I agree he's not the prettiest of the lot, but he's no danger right now, as long as we get him into a secure facility." He poked a stubby finger into the meat of the man’s thigh.

"No, you don't understand. That's my father."

To be continued!

Next up: Stand Alone 2