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“There is a 65 percent probability of success. We’ll have a thirty-seven-minute window once we enter orbit to safely position the ship behind the planet,” Cooper flatly answered and waited for a response.
“What’s the danger of the other 35 percent?” Mike questioned the AI, wanting to know all possible options and risks involved.
“The 35 percent represents debris mass too small for our sensors to detect. Our shields are designed to protect the ship from small objects in our direct path. However, if caught broadside by a seventeen-thousand-mile-an-hour cosmic debris storm, the ship will be compromised. Worst-case scenario, shipwide decompression seconds before our drive systems explode.” Cooper’s emotionless statement filled the heavy silence on the bridge and chilled them both to the core of their souls.
“Cooper,” Kera asked. “So the planet is habitable?”
“Yes, but while you were on the elevator, the probe has confirmed there are indications of a young dominant humanoid species emerging on this world. Compared to human technological advancement, they are still infants. On Earth, you would refer to them as hunter-gatherers or Stone Age people.”
“If we survive this ordeal and the ship is unable to continue, can we colonize this world?” Mike asked, looking at his wife, hoping it wouldn’t come to such dire circumstances, but damn the consequences if it did.
“Yes. However, the Imperial Scientific Charter prevents me from releasing colonial equipment. The cargo holds are magnetically locked and completely sealed off from the interior of the ship until we’ve reached our destination. As you’re aware, the charter’s bylaws concerning developing life-forms are binding and absolute. Since the probe has detected an intelligent humanoid species living on the planet, even in an emergency. I’m forbidden to provide colonists with a technological advantage over a developing species. You must use your intellect to survive and adapt to this world or perish. I’m only permitted to release life pods. I’m not permitted to take further action.”
“If we suffer hull breaches, how much time will we have to evacuate the ship?” Kera asked the computerized image, hating the AI’s coldness and lack of humanity.
Cooper’s image turned to face her, its frozen motionless blue eyes staring at her as it answered with a response as heartless as the entity itself. “It’s impossible to predict the probability or consequences of an astronomical event. You may have only minutes or hours to evacuate. The Fulcrum’s future depends on the severity of impacts and where on the ship they occur.”
“Why do we have to honor the Imperial Charter? We’ve been asleep for eighty-six years, and with the empire embroiled in a war when we left, our home is probably dead. Why not save the last humans alive in our galaxy and allow us to colonize this one? Who’s going to know?” Mike argued, thinking if the ship is damaged and unable to continue, charter or no charter, they will colonize this world regardless of what the AI said.
“Earth is not dead. Over the course of our flight, I have not lost contact. My automatic subspace communications system exchanges data with imperial control on a daily basis. You will be happy to know, the empire lives on with your grandniece Isabella Whitlock guiding the Earth’s future as empress. Earth is thriving under the stipulations of the postwar peace treaty.
“Humanity has finally learned to live in peace for the prosperity of all. After the war, the surviving human populations demanded the empire destroy every means of waging war and adopt a highly restricted technological and agrarian trade-based society. Beneficial manufactured goods, crops, and animals are now the bedrock of imperial trade. The empire is working on restoring the Earth after countless generations of mankind’s careless stewardship. Every region of Earth contributes to the manning of the imperial spacedocks for the construction of interstellar cargo and colonial starships. Humans are spreading out among the stars of the Milky Way and now reside on three planets outside Earth’s solar system.
“There have been seven colonial starships launched since our departure. Two are following our flight path. Therefore, the Imperial Charter and its bylaws remain in authority and cannot be violated,” Cooper’s emotionless entity responded, making Mike feel he had been talked down to by a machine as if he were still a child, and it pissed him off. Within his mind, he only heard an executioner pronouncing their impending death.
“There seems no option but to go for the planet and take our chances,” Kera announced and then ordered the AI sarcastically, “Cooper! I really hate being late to a party. So you better bust your ass and get us there! Course change confirmed.”
Mike was still holding on to his wife’s hand and felt a little reassured by her confident, calm demeanor as she evaluated the situation and possible outcomes of their predicament. “Let’s pray the thirty-seven-minute window is enough time to position the ship without incurring major damage to vital systems,” Mike said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze of reassurance.
“Yes, let’s pray indeed,” Kera quietly responded while wondering if her grandniece regarded them as traitors, outlaws, or cowards for escaping her brother’s wrath by kidnapping his heir to the throne, her daughter, Jennifer Hendricks.
Chapter 1
The Hunter
The sun slowly rose above the horizon, streaming golden light over the continent’s major mountain ranges—ragged snowcapped rocky peaks that effectively separated the continents distinctly different northern and southern landmasses. Light streaming between the ranges towering peaks slowly revealed a panoramic expanse of forests and lush green grasslands stretching southward far in the distance. A hunter stood below the mountain’s southern face as the sun’s glistening rays began to slowly burn away a chilly blanket of foggy haze from the air. Shivering slightly within his furs, the hunter welcomed the morning’s clear light and approaching warmth. He watched intently as the mountain’s gloomy shadows slowly began to recede from the grasslands below to reveal what had been hidden in the darkness of night. The hunter smiled as he spotted a large herd of runner beasts grazing on the abundance of long blades of grass that covered the ground in a lush green carpet.
Standing within the trees in the shadow of the mountain, the young hunter scanned his eyes over a herd of runners grazing in the valley and pondered his safest approach. His arrow was held firmly across his bow by strong fingers used to the weapons tension, ready to launch in an instant. His hunt had brought him downwind of the herd peacefully roaming and grazing as they walked on the long grass in the morning light. The herd was still too far out of his bow’s range. So he loosened his finger’s tight grip and let his arrow slide slowly back to rest between them.
Staying within the trees, the hunter moved quietly downhill, always keeping his eyes open for danger as he moved cautiously toward his prey. His eyes constantly scanned the area around him because sometimes he was not the only hunter in need of fresh meat. A lone hunter, unfamiliar with what inhabits the terrain around him, could easily find himself one of the hunted, often with a deadly outcome for the unwary hunter.
A few rare times, a hunting party would encounter a kessra pride, the region’s deadly six-legged carnivore, twice the weight of most hunters. When encountered on a hunt, hunters often retreated giving the mighty carnivores their space and allowed them to hunt.
Kessras were fearless creatures gifted by the land with a long, tapered snout and a bite that locks while grinding a mouth full of long, sharp teeth. Able to run using all six legs or only the back four gave the kessra an advantage, they could slash and grab at their prey on the run. Their short fur coats were the color of dried grass, which concealed them to near invisibility during the hot moons. They were the ultimate pack hunters. Fearless killers so sleek and swift that when hunting as a coordinated group, it made their deadly strikes seem almost effortless. Kessra prides rarely hunted the day after a successful kill. With their bellies full of meat, kessras preferred to lie in the sun and sleep off their gluttony. To the hunters of his tribe, an encounter with kessras during a hunt was an