Solar Star
Chapter One

Kassina gasped and grabbed hold of her father’s arm. O’realian’s face was lined in concern, but he was calm and patted her hand reassuringly. Coming up behind the ship were three aircraft, intent on blowing them out of the sky. As another missile was launched she heard the Captain yell “Evasive action!” and the ship swung violently to the right, throwing Kassina sideways. It was only the seat restraints that held her in place. She gripped the arm rests and closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn’t throw up, as the ship lurched left to throw off another incoming missile. With her heart in her mouth she waited for certain death to claim her. She thought back to how this all began, less than two days before.

The first rays of the morning sun slid over the ridge, illuminating the silhouette of the great pine trees. Kassina stopped her pacing to watch as she had witnessed this happening before, yet it still had the power to fill her with awe. It was so beautiful it brought up a lot of emotions in her, compounded by the knowledge that she had few opportunities left to witness it. Time was so precious and she had little to waste.

She felt his presence behind her and knew it was almost time to go, as the moment she had been dreading had finally arrived.

“It is good that the sun shines today,” he said softly.

She turned and smiled. “Yes father; let us hope it is an omen of success.”

O’realian nodded. “I feel it is. You have always been our beacon of hope. Now it is time for you to shine and lead us to our salvation.”

She sighed inwardly, feeling her stomach knot up, and wished he hadn’t said that.

He couldn’t help smiling; although she was no longer his little girl however, as she looked at him, her eyes pleading with him not to send her, he remembered many other times as a child growing up she had looked at him in this way. Lifting her chin he looked lovingly into her deep blue eyes.

“Kassina, I understand your fear. It is natural to be apprehensive when facing the unknown, but the Creator would never give you a task that is impossible to achieve.” He paused, allowing his words to sink in. “You know that.”

She nodded, but inside she was still unconvinced. “Yes father, but it is not me that I am afraid for. I am doing this for us all and if I fail....” She tried not to cry.

“Little one, if you fail then it was meant to be and we will accept that,” he replied.

She shivered. ’I don’t know how you are so calm about this,” she said.

His smile deepened. “Age and experience,” he replied and gave her a hug. “But you won’t fail. I am sure of that.”

She pulled back and looked at his round, unlined face and compassionate eyes and said, “I wish I was so sure.”

He felt her tremble and her fear upset him. “You will replace the right one who will help us. Just search with your heart, not your head and then you’ll know who is the right person to trust.”

She nodded and pulled her cloak more firmly around her, as there was a cold chill in the air. “I’ll remember that,” she said.

He grinned and kissed her cheek. ‘That’s all you have to do.’

He made it sound so easy, but she knew her task may be impossible to complete. A small sound behind him heralded the arrival of her travelling companion.

“Ahh Sarrin, you are ready?” O’realian asked, as he turned towards the Andromedian who joined them on the porch of the meeting house. Kassina looked up at the tall, slim alien, still amazed at how human he looked. It was ironic to think that for centuries the human race had imagined aliens to be little green men from Mars, and yet this alien could pass for a human. He bowed his head slightly and said,

“I am, O’realian. We shall be at the transportation centre in two hours.” O’realian smiled.

“Good, then we will know very soon if what we seek is there.”

“It has to be,” Kassina muttered softly to herself.

A slight tilt of the head was all Sarrin did in reply. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist and Kassina wasn’t looking forward to spending so much time alone with him. She sighed, and hugged her father again, and he whispered “trust yourself” in her ear, then stood back and watched his beloved only child walk away.

Kassina resisted the temptation to look back as it was the future she must concentrate on now, and on securing transport off Earth. The government forces now gathering to attack them would soon make escape impossible. She couldn’t stop shivering and not just with the chill of the cold morning air.

At the emergency meeting held last night it had been decided their only hope of survival as a community was to leave immediately. The task of getting the help they needed had some how fallen on her slim shoulders and she wasn’t at all sure she was the right person for the job. In all her 21 years she had only left the Sakkarin community on a handful of occasions and now she was going to Denver, to try to arrange passage for 153 people to a planet in a star system far away. Her throat tightened at the enormity of her task, and the terrible consequences if she failed.

Kassina noticed Sarrin glance at her and knew that he felt her fear and anger at what was happening to her community. She knew he understood, as he was upset, too. They rounded the corner of the accommodation block to a flatter paddock where Sarrin’s streamlined shuttle craft sat waiting for them. Kassina looked at it with suspicion, unsure if it was safe. She had never been in a vehicle like this before, although it was larger than she had imagined. It wasn’t just capable of flying in earth’s atmosphere; it was also an interplanetary craft that had brought Sarrin all the way from Andromeda Prime. It was sleek, rounded and white; like a large metal tube on legs. There was a shaped window at the front, where the pilot must sit, and the door appeared to be at the rear. Sarrin activated the door by entering a code into a key pad. She sighed; she couldn’t put this off any longer. She walked to join him, just as the door began to move and drop down like a ramp, giving Kassina her first look at its interior. Sarrin stood back for her to enter first and she tentatively stepped on to the ramp and walked inside to the forward cabin. It was quite large, with a lot of seats, all with safety harnesses attached. Including the pilot and co pilot’s chairs, she counted ten. Sarrin watched her as she looked around and then asked, “Would you like to sit here?” pointing to the co-pilots chair.

She nodded, and took the offered seat and, as she sat down, the safety harness wrapped itself around her, making her shriek as it did so. She glanced at Sarrin and saw him hide a smile. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, but she tried to relax as he took the pilot’s seat and quickly ran though his pre-flight checks. Only when they were complete did he turn to her and say, “We are ready to depart.”

She nodded, without looking at him, as her gaze was firmly fixed outside the window on the white community buildings. As the sun’s rays touched them it lit them up.

“Oh!” she gasped as they turned to gold, reminding her of a fabled citadel from her favourite children’s story.

Sarrin stopped for a moment, too, appreciating its beauty. But the community could no longer stay here and live as they did now. Their choices were stark; stay and lose their entire way of life, or leave and risk it all to replace a new place to begin again. It had not been an easy decision to make, but, as President Berryman’s agenda of total control of everyone on the planet was unstoppable, it was clear that leaving had become their only choice, but that was turning out to be a lot easier said than done.

Sarrin started the shuttle; gently lifting it off the ground and into the golden sky and Kassina felt her stomach lurch as they went higher. She gripped her arm rest to keep calm and tried to distract herself by looking out of the window over Sakkara’s land. There below them she could see the individual houses dotted around the community buildings within which she had lived for most of her life. They looked so small from up in the shuttle, and so fragile. As they gained height and turned south west, following the road, they saw beneath them many vehicles coming the other way. As they flew over them Kassina gasped, “Oh no!” she said as these vehicles were full of troops on their way to Sakkara. The northern road out of the community had already been blocked by Colonel Nye’s forces and, from the look of it; the southern gate would soon be guarded as well. The net was closing in on them and soon it would be tightened until they had no choice but to surrender. If they did not replace help in Denver, it would be too late for them to escape at all.

Sarrin had seen the troops as well and he glanced at Kassina’s stricken face. He had told the elders how saddened he was that the help his people had offered and the ships they were going to send would be too late in arriving now. It had become clear that Colonel Nye had heard of their decision to leave and moved quickly against them. They had to replace another way to leave Earth, and do it in the next couple of days, or give up their plans for good.

Kassina sat in her seat with her black hair hanging over her face as she looked at the ground moving beneath them. Her skin was paler than usual and her fear hung in the air between them, along with the silence.

“I am sure we will replace just the right Captain in Denver,” Sarrin said and she sighed. “I’m not so sure,” she replied.

“Why do you say this?” he questioned. He had never been to Denver, nor did he truly understand everything about this alien world, so he now looked to her for enlightenment. She turned and looked at him.

“Who is going to want to rescue 153 people, while probably under fire, then fly them to a new star system for the small amount of money we have to offer. It’s madness.”

He frowned. “If you believe it is impossible why are you doing it?”

“Because my father asked me to” she answered simply.

He paused then said, “O’realian believes such a Captain exists.”

“I know. I just hope he is right and I can persuade him to do it.” She sighed again, could she do this? She had grave doubts but there was no one else. It was up to her, she was their last hope.

They lapsed back into silence as they flew on, over a landscape still showing signs of the global natural disasters that hit earth in 2020. This came about with the change in the polarity of Earth’s poles which produced huge shifts in the tectonic plates that in turn caused massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. No one alive now had witnessed it, but the elders of Sakkara had known it was coming, and prepared the community for it. For this reason, they had survived where millions had not. It had taken over a century for there to be a government for the whole planet, and at first this was welcomed, but it didn’t last long after President Berryman was elected. Suddenly, political opponents began to disappear and any differing views were suppressed until they vanished for good. Then he turned on the people and the gradual stranglehold of total control over every one began and, with no one to stop him, it was increasing all the time. What he was doing was turning the earth into a police state and it was becoming impossible to live anywhere without his interference. Kassina feared and loathed him for this, but there was nothing she could do to stop him.

They travelled on, over ruins and empty landscapes, until Sarrin said, “We are nearly there.”

She looked up ahead and saw the huge hangers and runways of the transportation centre. There it was, and somewhere in that vast complex was the man who’d save them, all she had to do was replace him.

“Yes, now it’s up to me,” she said softly, as she tried to swallow the huge lump in her throat and calm the churning in her stomach.