chapter 1

The meeting of minds
February 27 2026
The President stifled a yawn, his white shirt collar unbuttoned, his tie had been removed some two hours ago and he hoped his still bright eyed young aide knew where it and his jacket were. Almost two days without sleep were beginning to tell, he looked a little more yellowed than usual and The journey from the Whitehouse to the Kremlin, in the alien craft, hadn't gone too well, but at least he had lost the nauseous feeling that had plagued the first part of this meeting, he looked around himself, the unbelievable scale and magnitude of this gathering were not lost on him either, just the events leading up to this occasion, somehow dwarfed this meeting of the Earth's most powerful.
Sat at the highly polished oak table, surrounded by water jugs, glass tumblers, ash trays and papers, that seemed to be strewn everywhere, beneath the gold leaf and iconic pictures that festooned the ceiling and surrounded the golden pillars that held the vast expansed ceiling aloft, he reached for one of the water jugs and refilled the tall glass in front of him.
To his left sat Jonathan Price, the British Prime Minister, looking as comfortable as he himself was and to his right sat Olav Dostoevsky, the Russian Premier, who at least looked like he was enjoying the opportunity to hold this meeting, directly opposite and all around, were the leaders of the whole world, gathered together for the first time in history, forgetting all their differences and grievances to discuss the one issue on the table and all looked and felt as he did, he knew this from the curious and sometimes bewildered looks on their faces.
It had taken just 48 hours to convince and get everyone here, they knew deep down that this really was something they had to be part of and something they had to bear witness to, their people needed answers and decision, for the people in this great hall knew that the events of the previous week had been literally Earth shaking and far beyond the comprehension of the man in the street, the people's of Earth had demanded this meeting take place and of course the people had been strongly persuaded by the various media outlets and broadcasters, just as frightened and confused as everyone else, but well versed in manipulation and coercion, the bulletins had been non stop, urging their countries leaders to get together, to meet with the newcomers and ascertain whether or not the Earth was in some sort of imminent danger.
He looked around the grand table and acknowledged Jacques Pouton,
“How do we know that these… ‘Newcomers’ aren’t the threat, they say they’re going to protect us from?”
Asked the French President.
“When you wake up to, sirens, flashing lights and a large landing craft, parked on your front lawn with heavily armed Men and other… beings, demanding you listen to them, repeating themselves, that they ‘Require nothing more than a home’ and ‘We are here to warn you and offer our assistance’ and you keep telling yourself that ‘this is a dream’, only you know, that what you are hearing couldn’t be imagined in your worst nightmares…”
Started the President,
The Chinese leader butted in,
“You are evading the question!”
“These people appear to have the fire-power to annihilate our Planet, I don’t believe that is what they have come for!”
added the British Prime minister, matter-of-factly,
“OK, how do we know, that they haven’t brought these… ‘Locusts’ to us, or at least haven’t shown them the way here?”
continued the Chinese leader,
“That had crossed my mind and we will ask…”
the President now beginning to lose patience, he would have added, "I know as much as you!" but was interrupted by the Finnish Prime Minister, who turned to the Norwegian Leader, sat on her right, and was whispering to him, in German,
“My dear lady,”
said the British Leader,
“Might I remind you, that the Badge, you wear on your lapel, is a translator, a gift from the Colonists, and broadcasts everything!”
Mrs Dagmarr flushed and apologised for her indiscretions.
“Will the threat not pass us by?”
Asked the North Korean.
At that, the large doors swung open and in strode the Leader of the Colonists. He was 'humanoid' around 6 feet tall, muscular and white, his head was shaved and his eyes were blue, he looked every inch a military man and didn't look at all like he was from another world, let alone another galaxy, he was dressed in grey, black and white camouflage, a row of military decorations were placed on his right arm with a badge of rank placed above his left breast pocket.
A smartly dressed young, Russian Military Police Captain, rose from his seat near the door, stood to attention and snapped,
“Ladies, Gentlemen, I give you, Captain David Jedro, of the Federation Colony ship, ‘Corinthia’,”
He remained stood at attention whilst the Newcomer walked around the large oval table and took his place at a podium situated to the left of the British Prime minister, the Newcomer took the glass of water from the Russian waiter who was desperately trying to fill it from a large jug, he dismissed the waiter and drank from the glass, looking around him at the sea of anxious faces, he placed the glass on the podium and leaned forward into the microphone, he began,
“Ladies and Gentlemen, You have all been for a ride in our landing craft, you have all seen things that, at this time you cannot comprehend, at present you have no reason to trust us, but please I beg you, listen to what we have to say and do not lose sight of the matter at hand!”
Jedro looked around him again and cleared his throat, he had them almost spellbound, this wouldn't be as difficult as he had been expecting.
“Most of us came from two vast civilizations, many Planets and peoples joined together to form a mighty Federation and an Empire, We lived together in Peace and prosperity, until we foolishly encroached upon Imperial territory, causing what was to become a massive war, Billions of lives were torn apart, countless deaths and tragedies, with untold stories of heroism and valour taking place every day!”
He stood and looked into the silent, stunned faces before him.
“The histories of the war, are embedded in our ships computers, you will have the chance to study the filed reports after the meeting!”
Jedro looked towards the door.
A second Colonist entered the room, Tall and thin, dressed in black with military honours festooning his tunic, a red ribbon snaked around and down his left arm but his face, it was his face the assembled leaders couldn’t take their eyes off.
His skin was almost transparent, stretched over a metallic shell that covered the right half of his face, a mechanical eye jutted out from the right eye socket, like a short telephoto lens, his thin tight lips, a pallid yellow which seemed to be the only colour to be seen on his face, parted,
“My name is Otto Schemister, I am a Colonel in the Imperial Armed forces, and I command the Battleship Firefox and now stand alongside my Captain!”
He looked towards Jedro, smiled and continued,
“The war was bloody and violent, as I'm sure all wars are, we were beaten, we had been defeated and after five years of bloody conflict, we had agreed a ceasefire and to return to our own territories.”
Schemister leaned forward,
“but a third power had amassed in the no man's land between the Empire and the Federation and realizing that both ourselves and the Federation were no longer superior forces, they attacked both home worlds with ferocious speed and cunning”
Again he looked to Jedro, this time he sighed,
“We were in no shape to defend ourselves, light years from our homes, the Federal vessels in the same boat, so to speak, we were closer to Imperial space than the Federation outposts and again I thank the Federal Captains for their prompt realization of the futility of trying to get back to Federal space, we banded together, shared our technologies and fought like brothers to save what and whom we could!”
He sat down; Jedro placed a hand on his shoulder,
“The Locusts destroyed everything in their wake, taking every living thing, for themselves, to use as food, slaves and cannon fodder, controlling them as robots, turning our own countrymen against us…”
Jedro suddenly looked very pale, the horrors witnessed by these men were evident and nobody dared interrupt as Jedro continued,
“We fought, side by side, for a further twelve months, losing more comrades, ships and Planets to the Locusts, as we ventured deeper and deeper into Imperial territory, Until it seemed all was lost and we ran, banding together the remaining ships, men and supplies, we ran to survive!”
The American stood, pointing his index finger at the standing Newcomer,
“You… you started your war?”
He stammered, anger welling in his voice,
“Yes.”
Was all Jedro could say, he wanted to say more, he wanted to detail the reasons for the war, he wanted to tell them that the war was inevitable, but he couldn't, he couldn't because he wasn't sure any more whether he believed the reasons, the things he had been told, the things that had shaped and taught him to be the best that he could be,
“And now you have come here, showing these Locusts the pathway and offering us up on a plate to these creatures!”
Continued the American, all his tiredness had given way to the anger,
“No, the Locusts would have found their way here, eventually and you would have been ill prepared to stop them, you would have been wiped out!”
Jedro remained composed, resisting the urge to shout back at this man, who stood, leaning forward, hands splayed on the table in front of him,
“Why would they come a billion miles through space just to wipe us out?”
The President hissed, Jedro felt that everyone in the room had suddenly leaned forward in their seats,
Otto Schemister stood and addressed the question,
“We had contained them for centuries, they were unable to travel through our, or Federation space … until we were weakened!”
The Colonel looked at the assembled Leaders, before continuing,
“Between our borders and your solar system, lie thousands of populated Planets, some more advanced than yourselves, some still primitive, a force of Locusts, splintered from their main attack and forged onwards to these new worlds, consuming and destroying everything in their path, whilst strengthening their numbers!”
“They were coming this way!”
Jedro added, slightly more perturbed than he would have liked, but not as angrily as he was feeling, he redressed the balance and continued more calmly,
"Once we had left our borders, we were fifty war vessels, and twenty civilian ships, carrying as many supplies as we could forage, to cater for twenty-five thousand refugees!”
“My God, was that all, who survived?”
Asked the President, lowering his own tone to that of the Colonist,
“Yes Mr. President, we met others, later, who banded with us… safety in numbers, I suppose…!”
Continued Jedro,
“What of these other worlds…?”
Asked Mrs Dagmarr, not wanting to let the American dictate the progress of the meeting,
“We found the first LSAP…”
Jedro addressed the entire room,
“Ellsap?”
Asked several leaders at once,
“I’m sorry, Life supporting atmospheric planet.”
Jedro answered, reminding himself that these people had only just ventured into their own area of space.
The Finn wrote it down in her notebook, whilst Jedro continued.
“We sent Scout ships to the planet, to find supplies and survivors, they came across a ruined city, the sights and the smells were known to us, even though the architecture was alien, it smelt of death and decay, evidence lay everywhere, no corpses, just blood stains and charred earth!”
Jedro watched the the faces of those closest to him as he spoke,
The Finnish Prime minister visibly paled, as others sat back in their chairs,
Jedro continued,
“We flew away from the city and came across a crashed,abandoned Locust ship, we landed and despatched a scouting party, to investigate!”
Coffee had been brought in to the room, on a convoy of trolleys, Jedro took his cup, his first taste of the strong Russian coffee hadn’t gone down too well, but this was his twelfth cup and the taste was starting to agree with him.
He returned the cup to the podium and continued.
“The squad pulled out six malnourished alien infants from the depths of the hive ship, they kicked and screamed as they were pulled out, they showed us no trust, until they were reunited with other survivors we found later on the Planet!”
The North Korean stood,cleared his throat and asked,
“How many survivors, did you find?”
“Less than a thousand, hiding in cellars and bunkers, they were not a technological race, mostly farmers and warriors, they were overrun within days, annihilated within weeks, the Locusts took every resource and moved on, leaving the planet a desolate wasteland!”
Jedro continued, pleased that the assembled dignitaries were hanging on his every word,
“We repeated this again and again, increasing our numbers and running low on supplies, until we found a vessel, drifting towards a star, totally out of control!”
Jedro paused, took a sip of the cooled coffee before carrying on,
“We boarded her, and located the crew logs, it made interesting reading!”
He produced a small hand held device and after a few keystrokes, he began to read: -
“First Officers log from the Vorcadian Federation Trading Vessel, ‘Dounbyness’”
Jedro scrolled down through the text and continued,
“The Alien ship appeared on our scanners, we tried to hail them, but received no response, believing them to be probable Pirates, we changed course, to avoid them, they changed course to match our new heading, every time we altered course, they copied, all the time coming closer, until they were within striking distance!”
Jedro finished his coffee and lit a cigarette, Russian again and not as sweet as the Corinthian cigarettes, he had smoked, long ago.
He exhaled blue smoke and leaned forward once more.
“A small swarm of attack vehicles launched from the Alien vessel and proceeded to destroy our meagre armaments, we were no match for their speed and agility, a few were taken down, only to be replaced by more and more!”
“Sounds like they have an apt name!”
Said the British Prime minister, removing his spectacles and cleaning them with a napkin,
“Yes, Prime minister, 'Locust' is the closest translation our computer could come up with, in your languages!”
Jedro said without looking up, he scrolled through some more of the text and continued,
“The last remaining crew and I, will attempt to flee in the lifeboats, there is an ‘Ellsap’ two light years from our present position, we know nothing of its habitat or population, but we will be away from here and safe from the marauding horde.”
Jedro put the device on the table, extinguished his cigarette and continued,
“After securing the vessel and discovering the contents of the cargo hold to be food, water and mining supplies, we transferred people from the overcrowded ships to this vast empty ship and set a course to find the missing crew!”
“Why did the Locusts not take the ship and its contents?”
Asked the German Chancellor, drawing mental pictures of space battles,
“We have speculated that the Locust ship was a nursery hive and possibly only capable of defending itself, there are few mature Locusts on a nursery ship, it would have been filled with food and water for the infant larvae to mature into adulthood, thus they would not need more provisions, until they had outgrown the nursery ship and formed colonies of their own!”
Countered Jedro, who had been expecting the question,
“We have experts, who will gladly go through the life cycle and rituals of the Locusts!”
Schemister added. Stepping forward and speaking into the microphone.
“Did you find any crew members?”
Asked the Frenchman, who until now had begun to feel like an unwilling passenger in this great discussion and had found himself enthralled in the unfolding events,
“We located the planet but again found it a barren wasteland, it would seem to us, that this would be the first port of call for a newly matured Locust hive, fresh meat, water and slaves, in abundance, there were ruins and scorch marks, but the planet was picked clean, nothing was left living to tell the story!”
Jedro sat down; his face had paled once again.
“We passed the last Locust ships six months ago, we counted at least two thousand ships, during our journey, scattered throughout space, thankfully, mostly on long range scanners, heading away from us, some came close enough to be destroyed by our weapons and revenge tasted so sweet, but again supplies were running low, especially ammunition, we sought another ‘ellsap’ but were confronted with hostilities, word had spread between the space fairing nations that a dread threat was coming and they took us to be that threat!”
Jedro remembered the blockades, fighting tooth and nail to get the ships through, pleading with unknown species to let them pass unhindered and of course when this had failed, they had had to kill the people manning the blockades, leaving them open to the Locust invasion, thus bringing about the downfall of yet more innocent peoples.
“We escaped with about three quarters of our contingent and even fewer resources!”
Schemister added, sensing the despair in Jedro's voice and giving the Captain a few seconds to compose himself.
“We did however commandeer an ammunition supply vehicle en-route to an outpost that had already been overrun, the captain of that vessel had to witness the destruction for herself, before she agreed, to forge on with us and not head back to her stricken home world!”
Jedro added, before sitting down, he looked to his left, as the great doors opened once more.
More Colonists filed into the room and began placing devices, such as the one Jedro had used, in front of the World Leaders, a quick demonstration ensued into the workings of the device and a recess was called.
Jedro and Schemister left their seats and followed the Colonists out through the Large, heavy oak doors, through an ornate, well decorated hallway and outside into a courtyard, Russian soldiers stood and watched as the newcomers went their various ways, some towards the waiting Landing craft, others towards the high walls that surrounded the courtyard, taking up seated positions on the wooden benches that lay on the cobbled floor.
The assembled Leaders, began picking up the devices and after some initial fumbling, images began to appear on the small screens.
First they were looking at a convoy of spacecraft, of varying shapes and sizes, passing a large moon, in the distance, blazed a star, as the space craft neared the star, a visible speck appeared, growing larger as they got nearer.
The speck turned into a vast ship, pockmarked and scorched, a hole had been punched into one side, large enough for the small fighter craft, that were approaching, to fly into.
The image changed, now it showed a planet orbiting a blazing red sun with a dozen Landers leaving the column and heading towards its surface. The image changed again, now they were looking at a barren wasteland, a large sprawling city appeared, in the middle of the desert, as the camera got closer, the city appeared to be in ruins.
Flying over the city, the camera paused for a minute, some of those watching gasped audibly, they were looking at an alien landscape, vehicles lay burnt out in the streets, machines, obviously intended for warfare, were smashed and left where they fell, scorch marks covered the ground, the men and women in the room watching this, knowing that those marks were all that remained of an alien race.
Some of the Leaders put the devices down, they had seen enough but the American President was transfixed and continued viewing, he watched as, once again back in space, the Colony came upon a large vessel, oblong in shape and heavily armoured, he thought it looked like a woodlouse, and was about to remark to the Russian next to him, who was equally enthralled in the proceedings being played out in his hands.
The Colonists ships began to fire on the vessel, thousands of weapons unleashed red, blue and yellow streams into the ship, which in turn spewed forth thousands of smaller craft and began to swarm the attacking column, the battle raged for about half an hour, until the single vessel exploded, engulfing the nearest fighters in flames, then the Colonist fighters were released and proceeded to pick off the small attack craft, one by one, until none remained.
The last images to be broadcast were of a corridor, a small fighter craft could be seen in the background and beyond that, a hole punched into the outer wall of a vessel, in the foreground stood a being, standing with its legs splayed, firing its weapon at the camera, dead crewmen lay at its feet.
The Creature appeared to be blue in colour, although most of its head and torso were encased in some form of armour, it was of human form, two arms and two legs. Two bulging, jet black eyes, protruded from the elongated head casing, giving the being panoramic sight, breathing tubes came from the sides of its mouth and plugged into its back-pack.
The Creatures hands and feet appeared too big for its body, it crouched down for a moment and without taking its eyes and weapon, which it held in its right hand, off the camera, it grasped the nearest body, a black uniformed arm, reached out, from the pile of bodies and began groping around, trying to find a weapon, any weapon,
But before the hapless, wounded soldier could get anywhere near a discarded rifle, the Creature's six long slender fingers had encircled its head and with one pull, severed the spinal cord. The soldier slumped, blood gushing from the neck and spattering the Creatures legs, as the Creature raised the head, the President felt feint,
“My god, it was a female!”
The President spoke quietly.
The head could now clearly be seen, transparent, but clearly female, long blood matted hair, hung limply around her spinal chord, as the Creature raised her head to its mouth, it bit into the skull and a long tube descended between its teeth and into the brain of the dead female soldier, then it was hit by considerable force from at least a dozen weapons at once, it fell backwards, dropping its weapon and the head and died.
Those that had been watching, were now all visibly shaken, cigarettes were lit, no-one thought to complain, the Earth's leaders were sat, all in one room, all of them horrified,
“I can’t, I can’t watch any more!”
Screamed the German leader, and began shaking uncontrollably whist he slumped into his chair.
“My God, what a monster!”
Was all the Frenchman could say.