Chapter one                                                    the frozen world
           
            Ruben Fuchs walk barefooted on the lush great plains of the united states letting the warm sun rays sick into his Carmel/brown skin as he felt the warm humanoid wind blow in his face with his eyes closed then a blinding bright flash of light enter his shielded eyes followed by tornado siren going off in the far destines. Ruben opens his eyes so see a towering mushroom cloud overhead that glowed with pitch black highlights. Ruben lifts his arms and stretches them out wide waiting for the cloud to reach him and with a sudden rush of heat Ruben eyes open wide with the alarm clock roaring in his wake. He looks around his room that glowed in a rich red hue that mixed in weirdly with the twilight morning sun; Ruben takes a deep breath of then cold air and exhales slowly    watching his breath turn into a vapor as it floats up and dissipates away into the surrounding area. “Light please…” Ruben asked with a soft German/ Texas accent and slowly the lights faded from their red hue to a sun bright white light. “Thank you.” Ruben gets out of bed, turns off his alarm, and walks over to the black touch screen on the wall. The screen came to life and he read it.
Sunday July/4/2116
New Plano/ Texas
 Local weather 39 Degrees Fahrenheit with scattered afternoon thunder blizzards
Daily high 55 Degrees Fahrenheit
Daily low 28 Degrees Fahrenheit
            Ruben tries his best to his to remember the imports of today’s date in the old warm world what existed before the Armageddon war when all the world super power latched their nuclear weapons at each other, thou Ruben know that only one of the booms made it thru, but that one boom was info to plunge the into a new ice age some long forgotten date along time ago. At that time Ruben’s phone started to ring with a loud electric guitar solo as the ring tone. Ruben looks down at his phone on the dress below and saw momster on the caller tag. He smiles at the tag then taps the answer button and places the call on speaker. “Good morning mom, how are you?”
            “I’m doing good sunny boy. What time do you want to pick up Ivan?” Ruben picks up a photo of him wearing his marooned military dress uniform with his little brother.
            “Well I have work to so I have to pick him in the afternoon… hum… okay, I'll swing by and pick him up at 6:30 which leaves him the entire day to pack for our hunting trip.” Ruben said as he opens a drawer and pulls out a dark green long sleeve shirt.
            “That sound like a plan Ruben. Well… I better let go. We’ll see you later, have a nice day Ruben.”
            “You too mom, see you later.” Ruben said then hangs up the phone “Okay let’s get ready for today.”

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            Br’teen walks into the ships mess bay walks to the back of the galley line. When she reached the galley bar, a navy man that seen the same numbers of winters as her wearing a jungle hat that matches the tan/orange stripe on the sleeve of his black flight suits pulls up beside her. “What a day it has been.” Br’teen heard the man say in an unpleasing tone.
            “Yeah, you can say that again,” Br’teen replied to the sailor.
            “I saw the firefight though my gun sight, my condolences for your trooper.” Br’teen looks at him with sad eyes.
            “Thanks…” she said then looks down at her tray of food with her ears flat to her with the pain of losing such a young soldier with a bright future.
            “Is it true?” Br’teen snaps her ears back up right and looks back at the gunner.
            “Is what true?” she asked as she picks up her tray and walks to a table.
            “That the president’s daughter was mated to the rifleman that was killed in the hanger skirmish?”
            “Yeah, it’s true…” Br’teen sets down at the empty end of a table; with the gunner seating across from her. “He was also going to become a new father as well.”
            “Damn… not only did she lose her mate, but her pups will grow up without a father. No family deserves that…” Br’teen nodes then look at the gunner name and rank. She saw that his name was Lis’ark and his rank on his chest showed two half of a triangle connected to each other by an x telling her that he’s a leading gunner master the naval equivalent of her rank. “Well, what I don’t get why a Sari Star destroyer doing so far from the federation, well other than trying to kill the president and her family, but then why did they let us go?” Then she saw him take a bite of the meat on his meat soup.
            “You know what if they really didn't?” she asked then she takes a drink of bitter dark roasted tea.
            “You mean to say that they might have attached a black mine onto the hall?” At that time the mess halls lights started to flicker violently on and off.
            “Yeah they have and it looks like it's more than one as well.” At that time the ships speakers erupted alive.
            “May the head of the president’s perfection detail, presidential family, CO’s and NCO please report to the ready room immediately?”
            “Well, that’s me, best not to keep the captain waiting…” Br’teen drinks the rest of the tea in one big gulp. “Okay, I see you later Lis’ark.”
            “Yeah I’ll see you later.” Br’teen saw Lis’ark wave her off then she left for the bridge.

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            Rakash walks to the door; she could still fell the wet fur under her eyes. She takes a deep breath then breaths out smoothly to put out the grief for her fallen love. “Okay let’s get this over with.” She thinks to herself then presses the open button. The door snapped opened with elegant silence; she walks thru the door and found her mother with her little sister on the other side of the room. Rakash walks to them with a quick pace; when she reaches them her mother hugs her.
            “I’m sorry about Henderson sweetie. He was a great man and would have made a great father.” Rakash closes her eyes and nuzzles her mother.
            “Thank you, mom…” Then Rakash pulls away then looks at everyone in the room. “So mom what’s going?”
            “I don’t know the captain has yet to inform us.” She heard her mother say and at that time she saw a man with pitch black fur walk into the room bearing a bright honey bronze on his uniform signifying that his the ship’s captain with an old projectile handgun on his thigh.
            “Thank you for coming here with great speed and I apologize for making you all wait.” Rakash heard him say in a calm flat tone that started to make her heart race with uneasiness.
            “What’s going on Capitan?” Rakash heard her mother ask him.
            “I was just getting to that madam president.” She heard the captain reassure her mother in the same flat tone. “As all already know the ship been losing power across all decks and some of you have already suspected that it’s the work of a black mine, but the unfortunate truth is much darker.” At that time a hollow table floats down to the ground from the ceiling. When it reached waist height the black table top glowed cyan and a translucent blue diagram of the ship floated above the table. “There are ten black mines on our ship. One on every thruster housing two over the engine room and the rest are placed randomly over the ship’s hull.” She saw red dots on the diagram ship showing where the black manes are planted on the ship’s hull. “But the one I’m most worry about is the mine that’s one over the ship photon torpedo silos.” Rakash puts way her fair and asks the one question on everyone’s minds.
            “What will happen to the ship when the dark mine explodes over the silos?” Rakash asked in a serious tone.
            “Well, when the ship leaves the slip space gate and the black mine explodes. The desolating explosion well crates secondary explosions with all the surrounding torpedoes and that with blast the ship on half as well as implode every bulkhead on this ship.”
            “Okay, can you show me the decks and bulkhead position on those decks including the docking locks?”  She could just barely see captain Blacksights mouth move under his black fur, but she could talk that he was smiling. She saw the captain walk up to the table and brings up a pair of keypalms that’s projected in front of him with vowels on for his left hand and consonants for the right. He started to quickly type out the commands. Then the skin of the hull vanished way leaving the entered behind; showing the ten decks before the saucer section of the ship in red with the bulkhead doors in orange, and the docking lock on the in green. “Can you expand the desks apart please so; I can see all bulkhead doors can you also add in the ladders as well.” She saw the ten deck separate reviling the enter workings and showed the decks ladders in purple with three to a deck. Rakash studies the layout carefully making share that every detail was perfect. “Okay captain we can try this; we can have all the crewman how are stationed in the forwarded section fall back to the saucer section. Then we close the bulkhead door connecting the forward section to the saucer section; then we’re going to vent the atmosphere and open the dock lock doors.”
            “What good would that do?” Rakash heard someone ask.
            “When the torpedoes explode the gas will travel down the hallway and down the ladders to the docking lock doors like a vent on an old recoilless rifle, but we will still end up losing the forward section because of the concussive forces of the cascading explosions. That least we'll all be safe; say captain Blacksight is there happen to by any life-supporting planets in our current trajectory?” Rakash asked him.
            “Yeah, it’s an ice planet we recently discovered, it’s just near the reactors jumping limit with the current power drainage do to the mines.” Rakash saw the diagram of the ship fade away and replaced by a live colored green, white, and dark blue planet with the most of the green at the hemisphere on both of the planets two large continents separated by two extremely large bodies of water. She heard everyone catch their breath and she too was stunned after seeing how much water was on the planet’s surface.
            “Look at all that water?” Rakash whispers to herself in a dumbstruck tone.
            “Yeah, up to 71 percent of the planet is covered in water.” She heard the captain say, Rakash take a quick breath in and out.
            “Okay, so where are we going to exit over this planet. We’re going to come out here a mile above one of the dead cities in the lower part of the smaller northern continents. We’re 13 hours out from, the planet, anything beyond that the ship reactor self-destruct?”
            “So this is our only chance for servile… also, you said that well be dropping above a dead city. Does that mean what I think it means?” Rakash heard her mom ask the captain.
            “Yes madam president it does; we’re not the only sentient race alone in the galaxy.”
            “Okay, let’s get to work. So we can live long info to say hello to our new galactic neighbors.”

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    Ruben walks to the front door of an old 21st-century single story home driest in his watchdog ACU in white, dark green and black krypteck camouflaged with his scurvies rail handgun strap to his thigh, but by the time Ruben gets half way to the door. He saw a young man with honey/bronze skin tone fling the door open run to him. “RUBEN, RUBEN!” Ruben heard the kid yell in a German/ Texas, he smiles at him.
            “Hey Ivan” Ruben takes a knee and hugs Ivan. “You have grown so big, Ivan…” Ruben then pulls an arm’s length away from Ivan.  “What are you now, seven… nine winters old?” Ruben saw Ivan smirk.
            “I’m 13 winters old Ruben, what are you 50 winters?” Ruben eye’s in fake surprise then Ruben starts to attack him by tickling him.
            “50 Hu 50 Hu then you got to seven winters old if a 50 winter old can take you down so easily.” Ruben takes Ivan to the ground and started to tackle him all over.
            “Stop… Ruben… stop… please… stop.”
    “Alright as you wish…” Ruben gets up and drags him up with him. “Come on Ivan on your feet.” Ruben pats him on the shoulder. “Alright, Ivan going back inside the house grab your kit and take your kit to the jeep. We’ll be leaving after I talk to mom. Okay?”
    “Okay.” Ruben then saw him run back into the front door and saw his mother a medium built women with copper skin tone and black hair in a French bun. Ruben gets up and walks to her as she walks to him with a smile on her face.
    “Hey, mom…” Ruben hugs her. “How are you, mom?”
    “I’m doing well my son; now let me take a look at you.” Ruben felt his mother pull away at an arm’s length. “You have grown so much in the past seven winters. Have you found a woman how you want to be your wife my sweet son?” Ruben looks into his mother’s eyes and slowly shakes his head no. “Why not Ruben; you would make a fine husband for any women who lucky info to hook your heart.”
    “I now, but a life of a traveling watchdog isn’t a life in which to have a family or to raise a child. Just look what it did to us, your family. I, I don’t want to do that my future family. I don’t know how I would be able to live with myself. ”
    “Ruben when you find the one she or he won’t care if you’re a watchdog or not. They well love you all the same, and besides it well just make the nights you have with each other even more special. So please don’t live out your day alone my son. Find someone to fall in love with raise a few children and be happy. Well, that’s not the only resin I want you to make a family. I at least want to have some expense in dealing with grandchildren before Ivan reaches 16 winters… everyone know that he'll probably go to knock up a girl before his reaches 21 winters.” They both started to laugh and shake their head. Ruben nods his head.
    “Yeah, I figured that it would be him that would do something like that.”
    “Okay Ruben all of my camping gear is inside the jeep, know come on will be at the campsite by sundown if we don’t leave know.” Ruben heard Ivan giddy voice; Ruben looks down at Ivan.
    “Ivan it’s a three hours’ drive to the camp site well by there before sundown.” Ruben reaches into his pocket pulls out a set of car keys. “Now here are the keys start the jeep so when I’m done, I can just get in and go. Now do you remember how to start a standard?” Ruben saw Ivan nod. “Okay, now get her started.” Ruben hands the keys to Ivan; Ivan accepts the keys and runs off to the jeep. Ruben turns back to his mother. “Well, it looks like I better get going before Ivan start to become crazy Ivan and try to drive a standard without me.” They both start to laugh again.
    “You both stay safe out there; okay?” Ruben felt his mother touch his face as she spoke. Ruben turns and kicks her hand then hold her hand in his.
    “We well mother we well. We’ll see you again in three weeks’ time, till then mother. Best wishes until we meet again.” Ruben and his mother hug each other one last time. Ruben pulls away then walks back to his jeep an old highly modified TJ built to be the jack of all trades; rhino lined in the same camouflage he’s wearing as well as a set of track on all four axles towing a small heavy duty off-roading trailer that’s camo flogged as well. Ruben gets in bulks in and puts the jeep into first gear on some “Let’s get moving headlong into our new adventure.”  Ruben then puts on some classic 20th and 21st-century rock music then starts to drive off to their campsite.