Hoosier Fear

Bell’s shook his head and focused back on the screen for a moment before the high-pitched tone of his comm took his attention. “Andrisican here.”

“We have done a sweep of the area surrounding earth. The Resenchi have set up a stand on the other side of the planet.”  Halbman’s deep voice filtered through the speaker with the information.

“That’s what we expected.” Bell said in a questioning tone. Halbman wouldn’t call with information that was expected.

“Yes, but there is also a Warstar holding space on this side of the planet and the scan shows an Algathian life sign. The computer has sent back images and DNA that indicate the Algathian is Hoosier Fear.” Halman said obviously confused.

Bell stood and grabbed a light shield from next to the door of his temporary quarters/office.  “The Warstar, what was the name? There are only three listed missing that were unaccounted for not including those lost in battle.”

“Ah the Warstar is unlisted in our database.  The name is Overcall.” Halbman answered.

“Shickle this day gets better and better. The Overcall is a specialist Warstar. The ship is a living lost cause.” Bell said resigned to his fate of going from one end of the lowest levels to the other.

Halbman’s voice took on a haunted quality that Bell could hear through the comm. “A living lost cause? The annihilator bombs? I thought all the lost cause annihilators were sun destroyed.”

“They were supposed to be. Unknown to public, is that there was no accurate count of the ships carrying the bomb. Which means that there were a few retired Warstars that had the capability and two that are known to be living lost causes. Overcall and Outcause were … misplaced during a war launch in the Istribro galaxy. The council thought the ships were destroyed in the crossfire. It was the only time a lost cause was used in a battle zone. If the Overcall is really in orbit of Earth, we can’t take the chance of stepping out of place. We need to have entry and exit plans fully in place.” Bell replied as he moved from his office toward the main pilot deck. The options were not clear without a full scouting of the area, but the extra time could cost them.

“What about Fear? If he is on the Overcall he probably has another of those creatures. The Fear we have in custody probably warned the one at Earth of his imminent capture. That would explain the ridiculously easy apprehension.” Halbman said meeting Bell in the hall outside his office.

“Yeah that’s another problem.” Bell said with a sigh. He rubbed his hand over the back of his head where his fingers tangled for a moment between his dark locks and the leather latch of the mask.