Prelude to the next adventure

Greetings, I am Sergei Mykhailev Kolpakov. My comrade in arms is Youri Vakhnev Nikon. Together, we served in the Ukraine Air Defense Forces, manning a nuclear ballistic missile silo. Yes, I know, officially the Ukraine has returned all Russian nuclear missiles back to the Russians in the 1990's. However, not all Russian missiles were on the books, so to speak, so the Ukraine was, until our abduction by the aliens, a covert nuclear power.

Yes, until the aliens appeared one night and took me, Youri, and all the warheads in our silos. I counted them in that room with the blue glow, they are all there. The Bug told me that the blue glow means that nuclear reactions are now suppressed. I hope so, as I saw the Greys go into the room and dissemble one of the warheads and extracted the plutonium trigger from within its confines.

They were told to do that by the strange man the Americans found on that frozen world. It now sits in a lead box in the blue room. I wonder what he has in mind for it. Still, there are six more warheads in the room, ready to be disassembled.

Oh, sorry, yes, there are aliens and people... though some of the people are aliens. So confusing. The Greys are the workers of the ship, they serve the ship and take care of it. The Bug worked for the aliens that are humans as a merchant. He is very... odd. Then there are the three Americans: Stephen Rand, Claire Fleming and the Mighty Quinn. He is a real American Hippie. Miss Fleming is a park ranger, and Mr. Rand is a student. They part of the 100 victims of the slavers that took us and the warheads.

The other human-who-is-an-alien is Mr Shumeh. His skin is an orange color, but he has this very white-white hair. He calls himself a "Galactic", and that some ancient race spread humans across the galaxy. Well, not humans, he claims that the "Costopnor" have the oldest remains on their world, so they are the home of humanity.

I do not believe that, I know that we evolved on our own world and we are not progeny of some ancient race.

Yes, back to the nuclear warheads. Youri and I are in deep trouble if we ever return to Earth. Our seven nuclear warheads are gone and so are we. What would you think if you were in the Politburo? We are dead men. Would you believe us if we told you that we were abducted by aliens? Neither would I.

So, we may stay on this ship, the Ardanna Nuu, if we ever find a way home back to Earth. According to Mr. Shumeh and the Bug, there are many people from Earth, Dirt as they call it, in the galaxy. The pirates that took us were not the only ones raiding our world for slaves.

So now we wait while the Ardanna Nuu refuels itself and Mr Shumeh figures out which side of the navigation cube goes to this world with the big starport. Meanwhile, Youri is trying to make Vodka from the food machine.