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experienced a momentary feeling of falling. Now
the image on the display was of a fairly large area full of ruins. That was the
only word Shiloh could think of to describe it. There wasn't a single building
that looked intact. Walls, made of something that looked like cement, were
partially knocked down. No building had an undamaged roof. Chunks of building
material lay scattered in random directions. Something about this scene bothered
Shiloh. As he continued to watch the image, he suddenly figured out what it
was. The reason this colony site looked like ancient ruins was because there
was nothing made of metal. No machines. No vehicles. No metal beams. No metal
roofing material. Not a single piece of metal anywhere that could be seen from
this angle. He thought back to the scene of the abandoned colony on Haven when
Humans pulled out for the last time. Even then, there were still pieces of farm
equipment, vehicles and other objects that were clearly made of metal. Not so
here.
     
    "The VLO took all their metal," he said out loud,
still not really believing it himself.
     
    "Roger that, CAG. They might have needed it to repair
any damage to their spherical ship inflicted during the battle that Gunslinger
witnessed. He did report nuclear explosions. It stands to reason a ship that
large might well have the necessary equipment to repair or replace any part of
the ship needing it, including the hull. So finding a source of refined metal
might be just as valuable to them as finding gas giants for refueling was to us
before we discovered ZPG energy. But that's not all they took."
     
    "What do you mean?" asked Shiloh.
     
    "They also appear to have taken the alien colonists
themselves and any animals those colonists used as food supplies. See those
enclosed areas on the edge of the ruins, CAG? Don’t they look like corrals of
the kind that human farmers use for cattle, pigs, sheep and other domesticated
animals? Only there are no animals in them or anywhere near them."
     
    Shiloh had a bad feeling about this. The metal he could
understand, but taking living creatures, the animals and the colonists
themselves? That made no sense unless . . .  He pushed the thought away. It was
too horrifying to contemplate. They must have taken the colonists as slaves
except that building robots to do the menial work was much more efficient and
less troublesome than housing, feeding and supervising thousands or even tens
of thousands of slaves. What if the slaves revolted? What if they all died from
some kind of alien virus or bacteria? In fact, why would a ship's crew risk
becoming infected themselves by bringing alien creatures aboard to begin with?
     
    "I wonder if it could be a kind of ark picking up small
numbers of a variety of alien species to protect them against some kind of
looming catastrophe?" asked Shiloh.
     
    "Alien psychology by definition would be different from
ours, but it's difficult to understand a culture that would seek to save
another species by force. Gunslinger did report that the defending forces were
taking losses. Whatever the motivation of the race that built the VLO might
have been, they clearly forced themselves on the colonists of this
planet," said Valkyrie.
     
    "We have to find out more about these VLOs. When do you
expect to be in contact with Rainman?" asked Shiloh.
     
    "Not for another 35 minutes at least, CAG. Since both
Rainman and TF92 were decelerating from very high speeds, there's no way for us
to be sure where his raider is, and the opposite is true for him as well."
     
    "But we could send out a wide-beam laser burst to cover
the area of sky where Rainman has to be. We've always had that capability, but
we didn't use it because of the risk of having the signal received by our
enemy. Now as far as we can tell, this system is devoid of that alien life
form, correct?"
     
    "That is correct, CAG. I have the Com laser ready.
Shall I transmit a signal to Rainman instructing him to respond back with