There was, of course, no answer; instead, Jack continued watching as they progressed deeper into the cavern. The IPV gently changed course and moved toward one of the cities. The towers were enormous, Jack estimated that tops of the largest ones must be at least three or four kilometers from the outer wall. They closed in on the tallest building and Jack could tell that the lights were indeed windows.
The IPV changed course again, gliding alongside the structure before stopping maybe twenty meters from its surface. The gently curving silver wall across from them was windowless. Jack expected to see docking clamps, or doors, or something, but it was perfectly smooth.
“What are they doing?” Devon finally asked.
“I don’t know,” Jack answered quietly.
“If I was them,” Palmer said, “I’d be studying us and our ship to see how we react. To see if we posed any threat.”
“Devon, do we have maneuvering thrusters available?” Jack asked.
“No, everything’s still off line.”
“Damn,” was all that Jack could say. There was little that he could think of that was worse than sitting helpless. They were completely at the mercy of these beings. His training and nature taught him to view most everything as a chess game – to look ahead at what your opponent might do, and plan for the various possible scenarios. Here though, there were no moves. Even the silence on the bridge was becoming frustrating. But, there wasn’t anything worth saying. Growing tired of sitting still, he started to get out of his chair when small ripples appeared in the seemingly solid surface of the alien wall. A column of silver material flowed toward the side of the IPV.
“What the hell?” Don shouted.
The substance quickly solidified into a cylindrical tube connecting the structure to the IPV.
“They’ve made a sealed connection to the starboard airlock,” Devon announced.
Palmer activated the ship-wide intercom and said, “All hands report to the armory for side arms.” He turned to Jack and said, “We’re not going to sit by and be boarded.”
Jack had misgivings about agreeing, but there were too many unknowns. They’d seen devastated planets, a ship being chased and destroyed. In fact, they themselves had just been captured and pulled into some sort of giant vessel. Palmer was right, sitting still and doing nothing wasn’t an option. He answered, “Go below and take up positions by the airlock. But no one, I repeat no one is to fire or take any actions without my order. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” Palmer replied.
Jack got up but the bridge was suddenly bathed in the same blinding light as before. A wave of dizziness swept over him. He heard someone shout something; then nothing else.
Chapter 27 – July 28, 2124
Jack opened his eyes and found himself sitting in his command chair. The bridge was silent. A quick look around showed that he was the only one conscious. Devon, Don and Palmer were slumped in in their chairs. He stared at them a moment longer, trying to understand what had just happened, when he realized there was gravity; but from what? They weren’t accelerating nor had they landed on some planet’s surface.
He stood up clumsily, slightly dizzy from whatever had rendered him unconscious, and made his way over to check on Palmer. His pulse and breathing were stable. “Palmer,” he said. There was no reply. He gently shook the man and said more loudly, “George.” There was still no response.
“Devon, Don?” he called out, but neither answered.
Everything started to come back to him. He remembered the tube connecting the IPV to the alien structure. Then the bright light, but nothing else. He went back to his seat and activated the ship-wide intercom. “This is the bridge. Anyone who can hear this, please respond.”
He waited several seconds in silence; there was no reply. Looking up, he saw that the view screen was unchanged from before; a silver tube still connected them to the structure.
“Computer?” he said.
“Please do not be alarmed,” a male voice said.
Jack spun around quickly, but seeing only his unconscious crewmates, asked the obvious, “Who said that?”
“Please, there is no need to be alarmed. We understand your concerns considering all that you have seen. We will not harm you.”
He looked around again, but the voice came from all directions. “Who are you,” he finally asked.
“Do you want my...designation, or who we are?” the voice replied.
The uncertainty in its answer was almost comforting. “Both please,” Jack said.
“It is difficult to express how I am designated. I volunteered to make contact with you once we found you. Since I am the first to speak with you, you may refer to me as Alpha.”
Jack scanned the room once more, but saw nothing. He could tell that the voice wasn’t coming through the comm. system. “Before we go any further, what’s happened to my crew?”
“They are unharmed. We felt that it would be most prudent to awaken you first. Our understanding is that you are the leader.”
“No ... no. I mean yes, I am the ‘captain,’ but that doesn’t mean that you can choose to speak with just me.”
“But we monitored your communications and you were the one who directed the others as where to go and what to do.”
Jack thought about his instructions to Palmer for a moment. “That’s not how it works. But this isn’t going any further until I know that they’re alright.”
“You can be assured that...”
“No assurances. I want them awakened,” Jack said firmly, but politely.
“That will complicate matters. We are concerned that several will panic.”
“They are highly disciplined individuals, they will not panic,” Jack said, even though he had his doubts. “Whatever you have to say, you can say to all of us.”
The voice didn’t reply. Jack waited impatiently, but there was only silence. He was about to demand an answer when heard Palmer’s voice.
“Captain? What’s going on?”
“Are you OK?” Jack asked.
Palmer looked around before answering, “Yes, my head hurts, but I’m fine.”
Devon turned around to look at them, as did Don. Jack said “Good,” softly and then activated the comm. link to engineering. “Nadya, respond please.”
There was only a brief delay before she answered groggily, “Here, Jack.”
“What’s your status?”
“I don’t know; I just came to when you called.”
“What about the others?”
“I don’t know. It’s like we’re all waking up. I guess everyone here seems OK,” she replied. “What’s going on?”
“Stand by,” he answered. He activated the ship wide intercom and said, “This is the bridge. As you’ve likely surmised, we’ve all been unconscious for some period of time. However, I need your attention. I’ve just had initial contact with the alien race that is ... for lack of a better word, holding us.” Jack saw Palmer ready to interrupt but kept talking, “They will be contacting us again shortly. I will leave the intercom on so that everyone can hear what is being said. Please remain calm.”
“Who are they?” Palmer finally asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Do you want me to try and raise them on the radio?” Devon asked.
“That doesn’t seem to be necessary,” Jack answered. “All I know is that a few moments ago I was talking with one of them. He didn’t have a chance to tell me much yet, only that he volunteered to speak with us first, and as a result we can call him Alpha.”
“You mean he was in here?” Palmer shot back.
“No, I just heard his voice.” Jack looked around the bridge. The others were quiet, waiting for something to happen. Jack called out hesitantly, “Alpha? Can you hear me?”
“I am here,” the voice answered.
“Wo,” Don said loudly as he spun around. “Where the hell is that coming from?”
“Don, quiet please,” Jack said calmly. “A
lpha, you may continue.”
“Again, I want to restate that you should not be alarmed. We will not harm you.”
“I understand what you’re saying,” Jack said, “but then why are you holding our ship like this?”
There was a short pause before Alpha replied, “There was no choice. You were in danger.”
“What danger?” Don challenged.
“Before we brought you here, you detected several ships entering this system.”
“No. The only objects we saw were the four ... things you used to capture us,” Jack said.
Alpha answered calmly, “If I understand correctly, you detected several x-ray and gamma ray sources. What you were viewing were the antimatter drives of a fleet of ships decelerating as they entered this system. This fleet belongs to an aggressive species that has been attacking our colonies. If we left you where you were, they would have killed you.”
“What makes you so sure of this?” Palmer asked.
“It appears to be what they do.”
“Explain please,” Jack said.
“We have only very brief reports from our other colonies about what has happened. Each time a small ... swarm of vessels simply entered a star system and did not attempt any form of communication. They just attacked and killed our people. We have no understanding of who they are or why they do this. In each case, they immediately moved on as soon as they were finished.”
The destruction they had seen on the other worlds was consistent with Alpha’s explanation, however Jack was still suspicious. “Seeing as you’re able to communicate with us, why didn’t you tell us this first?”
“There wasn’t time.”
“There was certainly time to say something,” Jack shot back.
“There were two problems. First we weren’t sure if you were part of their fleet. We...”
“I think it’s pretty obvious from our technology that we don’t pose a threat to anyone here,” Palmer challenged.
“That’s not what I meant.” Alpha replied emotionlessly. “Our ship is well hidden; we knew we were safe. Your ship, on the other had just appeared through our ... AGC as you call it, and drifted helplessly. They have never used the AGCs, so this was very different and unnerving. We weren’t sure what or who you were, but there was a high probability that you were some sort of bait to draw us out.”
“Bait?” Jack asked.
“Yes, a trick meant to...”
“We understand the term,” Jack said with a hint of impatience. “I’m just confused as to how we would serve that purpose.”
“Forgive me, but your limited technology makes you helpless out here. We would be obligated to try to assist you, and thus give away our position. But as I said, there was a high probability that this was a trap. We needed to study you and the situation. The problem was that the damage to your ship made it very difficult for us to access and interpret your technology.”
“Access our ship?” Palmer challenged.
“Yes. As I said, we needed to evaluate you. Once we did see your records, it seemed more likely that you were not associated with ... them.”
“We would have told you that had you asked,” Palmer said.
Ignoring him, Alpha continued, “The problem was that their fleet appeared before we could make a final determination. I convinced the others to take the risk and retrieve you before their ships could start probing the system. I might add that not everyone here is convinced that this was the right move.”
“Forgive me for asking,” Palmer said with forced politeness, “but how do we know that you’re the good guys in this?”
“Good guys?”
“Not the aggressors,” Palmer replied impatiently.
“Because you’re not dead. It’s what they do.”
They sat in silence trying to swallow what the alien had just said. Alpha continued, “Their strategy has always been to enter a system with overwhelming force and attack immediately...”
Alpha continued, but Jack’s attention was drawn to Don who was desperately waving his arms at him. Don proceeded to make exaggerated motions of covering and uncovering his ears while mouthing the words, “Do this.” Confused, Jack followed his lead. It took a few seconds to realize what was happening: the volume of Alpha’s voice remained unchanged, regardless of whether his ears were covered.
Jack interrupted Alpha, “Stop for a minute please. I need to ask you a question.”
“Yes?”
“How are you communicating with us right now?”
Palmer shot him a confused look, but Jack continued, “Because it’s sure enough not by radio. And, if my guess is right, we’re not actually hearing you right now. Not via sound and our ears.”
Alpha answered without hesitation, “We are using a direct auditory interface. We don’t use sound or voice to communicate. We haven’t in a very long time. Nor do we use language in the sense that you understand it. An oversimplification would be to say that we are able to transmit our thoughts directly to the auditory cortex of your brains. With a proper translation, you are able to understand this.”
“How?” Jack demanded without hiding his anger.
“How?” was the genuinely puzzled reply.
“How do you transmit this?”
“We use electromagnetic waves in the Terahertz region.”
Simple ultra-high frequency radio, Jack thought. “Let me be more clear: how am I able to receive and understand your transmissions?”
“We have given each of you a small device...”
“Hold on a minute,” Don said loudly. He slowly backed towards the rear of the bridge as he continued, “What devices? Where are they?”
Alpha answered, “They are small receiving and translation interfaces located just beneath the temporal bones of your skulls. They are a small fraction of a millimeter across.”
Jack reflexively ran his fingers around his temple while Palmer shouted, “You implanted objects in us?”
“It was the only way in which we could effectively communicate with you.”
“I don’t care,” Palmer shouted. “You can’t just implant objects in us.”
“Captain,” Alpha said calmly, “please help your crew understand that...”
“I want mine out now!” Don shouted.
“Captain, please calm your crew down or we will need to sedate them again in order to continue our conversation.”
The bridge went silent with the threat. “Alpha,” Jack interrupted, “I am in agreement with my first officer. How are we supposed to know that’s all that you did?”
“We did nothing else to your bodies. And, as a gesture of good will, we even effected repairs to much of the damage on your ship. Please trust me...”
“I don’t see how we can have any basis for trust here,” Jack said. He took a deep breath and suppressed his own feelings of paranoia. “We need time to consider all of this.” His instinct was to tell Devon to cut the communications channel, but that wouldn’t do any good. Frustrated, he said, “How the hell do we terminate communications for now?”
Before the alien could respond, Don shouted, “How’re we supposed to be sure that you’re not reading our minds or something with these devices? Hell, I want you to get the goddamned thing out of my head right now.”
Alpha’s voice remained patient as he answered, “The devices are triggered by your conscious act of speaking. We receive only the information you convey while you are talking. This was done out of respect for your species’ concepts of privacy.”
“That’s bullshit,” Don shouted. “If you had any respect for...”
The bridge was suddenly silent. Jack turned to see what had stopped Don’s rant, and saw the man slumped in his chair. He barely had enough time to confirm that he was the only one still conscious when Alpha spoke again. “When you want to contact me again, send a signal on your radio at a frequency of 1.43 gigahertz.”
“What did you do to them?” Jack demanded.
“They will awaken a so
on as I terminate communications. There are others here who believed that the continued arguing was counterproductive. Please explain to them that we have not and will not hurt anyone, but the situation is urgent. We cannot waste time on this type of debate.”
“They won’t trust me,” Jack said.
There was a short pause before the alien said, “We will send you another gesture of good will that may help. Contact me as I instructed when you are ready.”
He sat in silence for a few seconds before Don suddenly shouted, “What the hell?”
Palmer followed with the obvious question, “What did they just do?”
“It seems that some of the others with Alpha lost their patience. They sedated everyone and asked me to convince all of you that they mean us no harm.”
“Fat chance of that,” Don said. “What else did they say?”
“That when we want to contact them again, we should send a signal over the radio.”
“How do we know they actually cut communications?” Don asked. “They’re probably listening right now!”
“I certainly would if I were them,” Palmer said. “I suggest that we proceed as if they are.”
“I agree,” Jack answered reluctantly. “We should play it safe for now. But more importantly, we need to show some more self-control. Regardless of how you feel, we are at their mercy.”
“Don,” Jack continued.
“Yes?”
“I want you to go down to sick bay and work with Helena on understanding exactly what these devices are. Find out what risks there are in removing them.”
“I’m on it,” Don answered as he turned to leave the bridge.
“Palmer,” Jack said.
“Yes sir?”
“Alpha talked about repairing at least some of our damage as a gesture of good will. Work with Nadya. I want a full top-to-bottom inspection of the entire IPV. Find out what they’ve done in terms of repairs and otherwise.”
“Understood sir.”
“He also said they’d send us another gesture of good will.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve got no idea. For now, though, focus on the repairs.”
After Palmer left, Jack looked up at the alien structure on the view screen. He was at a complete loss as to what to do. “Computer,” he finally said.
Prelude to Extinction Page 30
