Lost in Space

Elmondur was the last person still alive aboard the spaceship. Five Slan space fighters were just behind him. In a few seconds he would be dead. He then decided a last desperate action; he launched the ship at ultra-luminous speed in the void of space.

The ship disappeared from the control boards of his pursuers. He had escaped the Slans, but the board instruments were all out of service. He had no way to know where he was or where he was going. At super-luminous speed, he could only see a bright light in the center of the ship windscreen, in the direction he was heading. This light was artificially dimmed to avoid damaging his eyes because, at this speed that was already ten times the speed of light and still increasing, the spacecraft was overtaking all the photons in front of him. The rear windshield was completely black because no photon was able to reach it. He was all the more worried that he had seen a meteorite field on the maps he had studied for this mission. Even if the probability was low, he could be aiming directly at one of the meteorite or at one of the rocky planet of this isolated star system. The only thing he knew was that he was not going in the direction of the star itself, because, in this case, the light in the windshield would be much brighter and would be increasingly bright as time was passing by. He was quite tempted to go back to sub-luminous speed, but in this case, he would be again visible by the Slan fighters. He had however to change direction, because the Slans could follow the direction he was heading to when he disappeared and find him when he would slow down. So, he turned starboard, and decided to wait two hours before slowing down to sub-luminous speed. However, a quarter of an hour later, he suddenly saw a black point appearing in the center of the windshield, and before he could do anything, he found himself flying alone in space void. There was no more spacecraft around him, only thousands of stars enlightening an otherwise black sky. The debris of the spacecraft had been scattered in the void of space and he could not see them. He had not even heard a sound, because no sound could travel through the void of space. He had not either felt any pain during the death of his body, because the electric signal had not had the time to reach his brain before his body was completely disintegrated by the shock.

He was now completely alone in space. He wondered what to do next. He had no precise idea about where he was. He thought he should still be at the outer border of the Khinmize system. But he didn’t know of any inhabited planet nearby. He didn’t recognize any constellation in the sky. Only the dim appearance of far distant galaxies such as Andromeda or M104 reminded him that he was still somewhere in the Milky Way. His orientation capabilities were of no help there, and he had no way of going back to an inhabited planet by himself.

His only way to avoid drifting eternally in the void of space was to find another spacecraft that could lead him back to civilization.

He went back in the direction of the brightest star visible in the sky, hoping that it was the one around which the battle had been fought and that he may find there some surviving fighters.

He didn’t know if he would be able to move himself in the sky by his own will, without a body.

He tried to concentrate his attention to the nearest star, trying to bring it in his direction. To his great astonishment, it seemed to work. At first, very slowly, and he wondered, if the star was really growing in size, or if it was just an illusion brought about by his mind. But after a few hours, the star occupied a noticeable part of the sky, and Elmondur began to look for a planet in the orbit of the star. He first found a big gaseous planet. He remembered that one of his colleagues had spoken to him about a research station installed on an asteroid circling a rocky planet in the star inhabitable area. He regretted having not paid more attention to his explanations at the time. However, it was his only hope to find someone in this area. He went by the giant planet and looked for smaller planets near the star. He rapidly found a small reddish planet nearer the star, but even after having turned around it several times, he had seen no trace of any satellite around it. He went on approaching the star that was becoming bigger and bigger, until he saw a small rocky planet that was always displaying the same face in front of the sun. He turned again several times around the small planet, at different altitudes, until he found two small rocky satellites circling together around the planet. He went on the first satellite and found nothing on it. Then, he went to the second and thanked his luck; a small station was indeed installed on the satellite, and there was even a spacecraft stranded near it. Elmondur immediately went into the station, but he was quickly disappointed. There was nobody there. However, some rests of cooking still on plates on a table was indicating that it had been inhabited not long ago. Then, he went to have a look at the spacecraft. There were in fact ten or so persons in spacesuits working around it. There was no air, nor sound on the satellite. So, Elmondur had to enter the spacesuit of one of the men to hear what they were saying. He chose to enter the spacesuit of a young lieutenant wearing the arms of the space army on his suit. All the spacesuits were interconnected, so he was able to hear all their discussions, even if the young soldier was not speaking. The young lieutenant seemed quite abated. His spacecraft had been greatly damaged in the battle. He was one of the last survivors, but he wanted to go back to the battle to help his friends. He had been able to reach the research station and asked the civilians working there for their help into repairing his space fighter. Those had accepted to leave their work in order to help him restoring his vessel. However, if they had been able to find spare parts to repair the ship main damage, they were not able to provide him any weapon or munitions. So, even he was able to enter the battle again, he would not be of much help to his friends with the few munitions left aboard. However, he would do what he could to help them and probably die in the attempt. He was all the more despondent that he was only a rookie who had already seen many veterans die in the fight.

Elmondur who was himself an old campaigner wondered if he could help the young chap in his fight against the Slans. He first went inside the spacecraft to have a look at the amount of ammunitions still available. There was still a good stock even if it was less than half the standard load of the spacecraft. He went also all around the ship to examine its repair state. He found that the civilians had made a good job and that the spacecraft should be in good state of repair in a few hours. They also replenished its fuel stock, so they would have enough for the fight to come. He had already decided that he would accompany the young man in his desperate attempt to help his friends.

While he was listening to the discussions between the civilian workers, Elmondur had the impression that he was able to understand the thoughts of the young soldier. He wondered if he would be able to communicate with him. During his long carrier, he had heard stories of spacemen hearing in their head the voices of their friends who had died in the fight and who were trying to help them. It seemed to be all the more common in space that helping their friends, or even sometimes their enemies, was often the only way for dead spacemen to go back to civilization and incarnate in a new body. He even remembered a time when he may even himself have lived through such a story. At the time, it had happened as in a bad dream and he had dismissed the thought as the result of the weariness and strain due to the fight. The ship of his captain had been shot down by the enemies, and the man had not survived. However, a few hours later, he had the impression of having the captain asking him to take his place to command the group of space fighters and telling him the instructions to follow.  He remembered that, maybe influenced by his military training to follow superior orders without discussion, or may-be because he had no better idea about what to do,  that he had scrupulously followed the advices he had heard in his head.

His group had, against all odds, won the battle against the enemy and he had gained his first promotion after this feat.

He wondered if he could do the same thing for the young soldier. The name written on his suit was Alfredo Gainsman. Elmondur tried to think hard about this name. He was quite surprised to see the reaction of the young man who was startled has if he had been bitten by a bee. Thus encouraged, Elmondur went on instilling thoughts in the young man mind.

“I am sorry to bother you in this difficult situation. My name is Elmondur Fightman. My spacecraft has been shot down by the Slans a few days ago. My body has been disintegrated during the fight, but I am still there, maybe as a ghost, if you want to call it like that. However, I would like to help you in your fight against the Slans. I am a seasoned fighter as you can verify in the army folders if you have access to them.”

At the beginning, the young man did not react, as if he was listening with all his attention to what he heard. Then, he entered some characters on the craft board computer and photography of Elmondur Fightman appeared on the computer screen, with his name, his grade and his service records. 

A few hours later, the spacecraft left the research station and Alfredo tried to contact the remainder of the Smirthian space army around Arbaat star. It was only after two hours search that Alfredo finally received an answer.

“Here is Francesco Hartman; I am the last survivor of my group. Two Slan fighters are after me. Come to my help if you can. But come quickly, or it will be too late. And be weary, some other Slan fighter may be hidden in the area. Here are my coordinates.”

Alfredo was to enter these coordinates in the board computer when Elmondur stopped him.

“If you enter directly these exact coordinates, you’ll arrive directly in sight of the Slan fighters. You will be immediately able to see them, but they will be able to see you too. I propose you to enter coordinates a few thousand miles away from their position.

From there, you can send a small probe that will be looking for their exact position and direction. Then you will be able to appear exactly behind them, and may-be shot one of them before they spot you. Then, you will be two Smirthian fighters against the remaining Slan vessel.”

“Ok, that may be wise, thought Alfredo, I’ll do as you tell me”.

He entered new coordinates into the board computer. A quarter of an hour later, he arrived at the indicated position. Then, he sent a probe in the direction of the position indicated by Francesco. Five minutes later, the position and direction of the Slan fighters and of Francesco spacecraft appeared on the board computer screen.

Alfredo entered new coordinates into the board computer. One minute later, Alfredo vessel appeared just behind the Slan fighters. Alfredo immediately launched two missiles, one for each fighter. One of them missed its target, the Slan fighter having seen the threat and changed his direction, but the other reached the other Slan fighter that exploded immediately and disappeared from the screen. Francesco saw what was happening and he took the opportunity to send a missile that destroyed the second Slan vessel.

Then Alfredo and Francesco sent calls to the other spacecrafts of their groups. Receiving no answer, they went back to the research station.

But a bad surprised waited for them there. Five other Slan spacecrafts had found the research station and destroyed it with its whole civilian staff.

The Slan vessels immediately attacked them and Alfredo and Francesco each sent two missiles against the Slan vessels. All missiles reached their target and four Slan vessels disappeared from the sky. However, the Slan vessels had also sent missiles, and those reached their target too. The two Smirthian fighters were destroyed as well as the four Slan spacecrafts and Elmondur found himself once again lost in space. The only inhabited place was now the last Slan spacecraft. Elmondur went aboard and went first looking for the auras of Alfredo and Francesco. After a few minutes, he sensed Alfredo and began a telepathic discussion with him.

Elmondur thought that they may influence the Slan behavior as he had made it to Alfredo.

However, the question was not yet if they could do it, but in which direction they should try to influence them.

Elmondur wanted to help his previous enemies as he could, because it was his only chance to go back to civilization and find a new body. Alfredo was to continue the fight against the Slans to avenge his friends that had been killed in the battle.  May-be attracted by this telepathic fight, Francesco found them and entered the discussion.

“Am I not one of your friends? Francesco asked. I am here with you, and maybe our friends are there too, even, if we are not able to sense them. You went back to the fight to help them, isn’t it? This Slan vessel is our only chance to avoid being lost in space for maybe thousands of years. Would you deprive them from this chance and condemn them to their fate to satisfy your desire for revenge?”

Alfredo didn’t know what to answer and remained silent. He would remain neutral. Only Elmondur and Francesco would try to help the Slans. Meanwhile, the Slan spacecraft landed near the remains of the research station. The station itself had been completed blown out. Only some old pieces of Alfredo spacecraft were still scattered on the ground. The station crew had not had the time to bring them back to the station before the attack from the Slans.

The remaining Slan spacecraft was much bigger than the Smirthian fighters, but even if it had not been completely destroyed in the fight, it was not unscathed.

It had lost its heat shield and that would prevent it from landing safely on any planet having a standard atmosphere.

Its aft reaction engine was also out of service. Only the central propeller was still serviceable, and even this one showed signs of weakness. However, since there was still an appreciable fuel reserve, they should be able to reach one of the nearest civilized planets, if they were not too much fussy about their destination. Elmondur then went to examine the board control instruments. Many of them were out of service, but the main one, the position sensor and the interstellar route maps were still operational. So the spacecraft should be able to lead them back to civilization, even if not the good one. However, there was still a problem, several men had been killed when the heat shield had been lost, and among them, the spacecraft pilot and its copilot. The remainder Slan men aboard were good fighters, but unable to fly the spacecraft safely through the interstellar space routes.

That was on this point that Elmondur could help them. If he was unable to find his way in the galaxy alone, he was a master at using spacecraft board instruments and maps to find his way in interstellar travel. Even, if he didn’t well understand the Slan language, he knew enough about Milky Way constellations to recognize them on Slan maps.

But, he had to find a man from the Slan crew with whom he could communicate. Even, if he found one of them able to hear him telepathically, that which was not yet won, he didn’t know enough of Slan language to discuss with him as he had done with Alfredo. However, Francesco told him that he knew a little Slan language and may help him, because he had learnt the language before being sent as a spy in a Slan town, a long time ago.

Elmondur thanked him and began trying to communicate with the Slan crewmen. He began by trying to hear their unexpressed thoughts. Doing this, Elmondur sensed other very weak auras, that seemed neither able to hear him or communicate with him. However, he sensed several hundreds of them, as if not only the civilians from the research station, but also all dead Smirthian and Slan fighters had gathered aboard as their last chance to go back to civilization.

Elmondur concentrated his thought on the Slan crewmen. He was trying to communicate with each of them as he did it with Alfredo, but with no result. He was beginning to despair as he had tried with all Slan crewmen that he had encountered when a hatch opened. A young Slan child went out of it. He was maybe only eight years old and Elmondur wondered what a child was doing on a war spacecraft. Listening to the Slan discussing between them and with the help of Francesco who translated the discussion for him, he finally understood that the child called Arthur Benchman was the sole survivor of a shipwreck and that he had been saved by the Slan crew and has been adopted as their mascot since then.

And the small boy had an aura much bigger than all the other beings aboard the spacecraft together. Elmondur tried to communicate with him and this one immediately answered. Elmondur helped by Francesco explained him that he wanted to help him and all the spacecraft crew to reach the civilization. The child was very cooperative and immediately accepted to help them. He even proposed allowing Elmondur to take the control of his body to pilot the spaceship. Elmondur thanked him, but he didn’t want to take control of the child body because his ethic forbade him such behavior, and however, he didn’t know how to do it. But his main problem was not there, how could he convince the crew to entrust the conduct of the ship and their lives to an eight years old child, even if he was their mascot?

The child told him that this was not necessary because he was himself able to take the control of the body of any Slan crewman. He chose the higher ranked officer remaining in the Slan crew who was now the commander of the spacecraft. Elmondur didn’t like that, but having no other choice, he agreed. The young child went to the spaceship control room were the main officer was already installed in front of the main board computer. The officer was trying to figure out a safe way to reach the nearest place where he could find some help. It was a small planet situated in the area under the Khinmize influence. It was called Erdaman on Slan maps. It had been an important industrial site a long time ago, because of the mineral reserves available on the planet. But these had been overexploited and when they had been exhausted, the planet had been deserted. There was now only a military station used to replenish spacecraft fuel reserves for trader and army ships still using this old interstellar trade route.  This route was however less and less used because another route much less dangerous had been opened elsewhere.

Arthur took the control of the petty officer body without any more ado and asked Elmondur for his instructions.

Elmondur studied the map and asked Arthur to tell the crew to prepare for the takeoff. A quarter of an hour later, Elmondur triggered the spacecraft departure. The journey took three days while Arthur still controlled the petty officer body.

The spacecraft finally reached Erdaman planet without any problem. However, the absence of the heat shield prevented them from doing a standard landing. Instead, they were compelled to turn the spacecraft upside down to enter the atmosphere and use the ship propeller to slow down their entering in the atmosphere. They succeeded in landing safely on the planet ground near the central airport, but this last maneuver had exhausted all what remained of their fuel supply.

If they could not find fuel replenishment, they would be stranded on the planet until another spacecraft came to their help.

They were now on the spaceport landing strip. Arthur slackened his grip on the captain body and went to sleep. The captain awoke back to consciousness while his crew congratulated him for his success in driving them safely back to a civilized planet of the Kinmhise confederacy. The captain wasn’t understanding what had happened since his last recollection was when he was trying to decipher the maps to enable to go to Erdaman planet. However, he tried to hide his own dismay and to keep a good countenance in front of his crew.

 After a control of the atmosphere quality made by a drone sent out of the spaceship, the Slan crew got off.  They were happy to breathe fresh air. Elmondur felt the aura of the other beings aboard the spaceship leaving and spreading in every direction into the jungle that was covering most of the planet. The Slan crewmen immediately walked in the direction of the spaceport main buildings. But as they were advancing they were more and more dismayed; they encountered nobody on their way, nor a car or truck. There were no other spacecraft landed on the spaceport except an old wreck completely out of repair. The place was completely deserted.  It was already dusk and the sun was already under the horizon, but not a light was illuminating the nearby town. They reached the first building. Most of its windows were broken. When one of the Slan soldiers tried to open the door, a part of the entrance wall broke down and fell on the imprudent. He was not severely injured, but they preferred going back to the shelter of their spacecraft before going on exploring the spaceport and the nearby town.

Alfredo had been convinced by Elmondur and Francesco arguments not to damage the spacecraft that was their only way to go back to civilization, but he still wanted his revenge on his Slan enemies.

The next day, he followed them in their peregrination in the nearby buildings and in the town while Arthur remained near the spacecraft with the invisible company of Elmondur and Francesco.

The event of the wall collapsing on the Slans the previous day gave Alfredo one idea. If he could make a whole building fall on the Slan team, it could be the end of them. However, he was not able to do it by himself. He would have to drive the Slans to trigger their own downfall. He had observed how Arthur had taken the control of the Slan petty officer. He wondered if he would be able to do the same with one of the Slan crew members. He tried to control them one by one but with no success.

He went through a window and entered one of the buildings in the direction of which the Slan staff was aiming. He found a newspaper on the floor that was written in a language that he was able to understand, even if with some difficulties. His attention was attracted by two articles. The main one on the front page was making the large headline. It said that the military base on Erdaman planet was to be immediately abandoned because the whole staff was needed to fight the Kirghizes in a nearby sector. Nobody would stay on the planet because the Kirghizes may arrive at any moment and take the planet over. The other article was detailing the plan to destroy all the military buildings and stores to avoid them from being used by the enemies. All buildings had been mined and were to be destroyed before the Slan left the planet. However, as Alfredo could see by himself, this last order had not been totally executed. A lot of buildings were still upright. Alfredo approached the door and he saw an electric wire connected to the main door handle. It was connected to a detonator and an explosive charge. The building was booby-trapped.

Alfredo went to the other doors of this building, and then in the other near-by buildings. They were all booby-trapped. He went to the entrance wall that had broken down the evening before; the door was booby-trapped too, but the explosion of the building had been prevented by the untimely collapse of the wall. The Slans had been saved the previous day only by pure luck.

But now the Slans were only twenty meters from the nearest door. All desire of revenge had now left Alfredo. He wanted to warn his enemies, but didn’t know how to do it. He tried again to communicate with them, but his week aura wasn’t able to realize such feats as Arthur or Elmondur could do. He tried again to communicate to each Slan at his turn, but to no avail. Then he thought to go and ask Elmondur or Arthur to try communicating with the Slans.

But it was too late. The captain of the Slan team lowered the door handle and the whole building burst out. In one split second all the Slans were buried under the debris of the building.

Alfredo searched the ruins to see if he could find any survivor, but there was none. Then he went back on his way to the spacecraft to meet Elmondur, Francesco and Arthur.

Arthur had made the promise to the Slan crew that he would not wander far from the spacecraft, but he was very interested in the forest nearby, and after an hour wait, he slipped out of the spacecraft and left the relative security of the landing strip to plunge under the shade of the trees. Elmondur and Francesco tried to dissuade him from leaving the spaceship protection, but his will was much stronger than their mind capabilities.

In the forest, Arthur soon encountered wild animals resembling does and antelopes.  He tried to follow them, but they were much too quick for him. But, doing so, he was soon lost in the forest. Elmondur went up over the top of the tallest trees to guide Arthur back to the landing strip while Francesco remained to keep an eye on the child. Then, a fox, or an animal resembling to a fox, appeared behind him.  The fox looked quite curious and friendly, and it seemed being no threat to the young child. However, Francesco urged Arthur to go quickly back in the direction indicated by Elmondur. Arthur complied and a few minutes later they were again in sight of the spacecraft. They were a hundred yards from the spaceship when a wolf suddenly appeared behind Arthur and jumped on him. It was ready to bite him when the fox attacked the wolf. Francesco didn’t know how he had been able to do it, but he was now commanding the fox body as Arthur had been able to take over the body of the Slan captain. The wolf lost his hold on Arthur to fight this new enemy. Arthur ran immediately in direction of the spaceship. He was only ten meters from the vessel when twelve other wolves appeared behind him. The big wolf that seemed to be the chief of the pack had gotten rid of the fox, the body of which was now lying down on the ground, and he was turning back to attack Arthur when the child reached the spacecraft ladder. He was seven feet above the ground when the wolves tried to jump high enough to catch him. He finally reached the spacecraft door that he closed safely behind him.

When Alfredo arrived in view of the spaceship, the wolves were still waiting below it. He entered the vessel control room where he found Arthur with Elmondur and Francesco. He told them what had happened to the Slan team. Since the town was now deserted and most buildings booby-trapped, they may never find some fuel for the spacecraft, and so, may never be able to leave the planet on their own. The first thing to do was to ascertain that. So, Alfredo and Francesco went back to the spaceport and the town to look for fuel for the spaceship while Elmondur stayed in the control room to keep an eye on Arthur.

They spent two days searching the town looking for fuel. All the tanks they found were empty. The Slans had brought with them all the reserves available in the spaceport and the town before departing. Alfredo and Francesco used two more days exploring the whole planet. But it was all jungle, sand deserts, high mountains or wide oceans; there was no trace of human activity anywhere except where had been the mines in the open air that had made the wealth of the planet long ago. Even there, the quarries were invaded by the jungle and were recognizable from the sky only because of their regular square shapes.

Alfredo and Francesco finally went back to the spacecraft with the bad news. They were stranded on the planet.

Meanwhile the hounds had left. However, Arthur and Elmondur didn’t dare losing the spacecraft from sight and wandered only under daylight on the edge of the forest. During one of these journeys, they had found the body of the fox that was dead from his wounds.

There were still some stock of food in the spacecraft, but it would inevitably come to an end, and Arthur would be compelled to venture more deeply in the woods to find some more food. An eight years old child needed some protection in this savage land that Elmondur and his friends, without their bodies, were unable to provide. Since all the Slans were dead, Arthur was probably now the only human being on the whole planet.

Elmondur wondered if he would be able to take over the body of the chief of the wolf pack. Having nothing better to do, Elmondur, Alfredo and Francesco, helped by Arthur tried to take the control of the bodies of the wolves. Not having the innate abilities of Arthur, they were quite awkward in their control of wolf bodies, but after three weeks of training they had finally been able to control three wolves. Elmondur run the body of the chief of the wolves, while Alfredo and Francesco each rode a huge black wolf.

However, Elmondur, because he had not yet enough experience in hunting in this jungle, was compelled to slacken his grip on the chief wolf body and let the wolf mind lead the pack while they were hunting. Finally, Elmondur, Francesco and Alfredo were able to control the three wolf bodies enough to let them in the company of Arthur. However, they were not yet able to control the ten other wolves to take Arthur with them when they wandered in the jungle. It took four more month for the whole wolf pack to be enough accustomed to Arthur to accept him as one of them. Even then, most of the time, Arthur was not able to follow them because he was much too slow. Finally, Elmondur proposed to carry Arthur on his back; that was the only safe way for Arthur to accompany them.

The wolf pack was sharing the result of their hunt with Arthur. Arthur was able to make some fire with the material available in the spacecraft to cook the meat. He even found flint in the forest and Elmondur told him how to make fire with it. It was both strange and difficult for Elmondur to do this because the wolf body was afraid of the fire.

However, after one more year, the wolves became accustomed to the fire and the whole pack was gathered at night all around Arthur. Arthur completed his diet with some fruits, roots and vegetable that he was able to find in the forest and condiments still available in the spacecraft. He also learned to recognize other herbs that could be used as seasoning such as thyme, rosemary and mint.

There were other carnivorous in the forest, such as bears or panthers, but none dared to attack the whole wolf pack as long as they remained all together. However, there were four she-wolves in the pack, and, when the spring came, each of them gave birth to three wolf cubs. The pack had now to split in two groups; one lead by Elmondur went to hunt while Alfredo and Francesco stayed near the spacecraft with Arthur, the she-wolves and their cubs. The wolves and their cubs were unable to climb the ladder to reach the safety of the spacecraft. However, the wolves dug out a burrow near the bottom of the spacecraft to shelter the cubs. Arthur sometimes took one of the cubs in his arm to bring him in the control room where they were playing together for hours.

Finally, they found a way to make an elevator go up and down from the control room to the bottom of the spacecraft to enable Elmondur, Francesco and Alfredo to go in the spaceship with their wolf bodies.

Several years passed by until Elmondur wolf body died of old age. Elmondur took over the body of one of the spring newborn cubs while Francesco became the leader of the wolf pack. Arthur called the young cub Elmond.

It was only twelve years later that another spacecraft landed on Erdaman spaceport. Arthur was very interested, but the wolves didn’t want to approach the ship. Arthur went first aboard his old spacecraft to retrieve the automatic translator that he had learned to use when he was previously leaving aboard the Slan vessel. Then, he first went without his body aboard the new spacecraft to see who the newcomers were. He found a lot of humans aboard, but they were chained and gathered in cages that alien beings resembling rhinoceros were lowering down unto the ground. One thousand or so human beings were left to their fate on Erdaman planet when the alien spaceship went back away to space.

With the help of Elmondur, Arthur had modified the translator, to be able to use it remotely without having to carry the device with him when he was out of his body. So, Arthur and Elmondur had been able to listen to the discussions between the alien beings and two human beings that were negotiating with them. Those two were not prisoners, but seemed to be acting as some sort of traders.

They had paid the alien crew to carry the human prisoners on this planet to get rid of them. Some of them were political prisoners that may be exchanged for a ransom, some were criminal convicted for murder and others were too zealous defender of human rights. The aliens wanted to use the planet as hulks, and this was the first cargo of prisoners.