by Simon Bown
“I don’t know.” Gea said.
Her mother interrupted. “She doesn’t have any friends, she doesn’t talk to people, she sits in her room all the time and she doesn’t eat. I mean really doesn’t eat, I’m not just making the usual teenage daughter’s mother complaint about her diet.” Gea’s mother stopped for a moment and continued in a quieter voice. “Gea tell the doctor the last time you had some food.”
Gea tried to think of her last meal. “I can’t remember.” She said.
“Was it yesterday, the day before?” The doctor asked.
Gea’s mother interrupted again. “I worry doctor, she’s not unhealthy but she seems so indifferent.” She looked at Gea sadly.
The doctor stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Well it does take time for new arrivals to settle in.” He said. “Especially new children at a strange school.” He picked up the folder and looked for the date of arrival. “Did you come in on the last crew rotation, five weeks ago?”
“No. We’ve been here three years, right from the beginning.” Her mother was becoming irritated.
“And your father?” The doctor asked Gea. “Where is he?”
Gea’s mother answered again. “He works in station security, he’s runs the space station monitoring room. It was his idea to come all the way out here, the pay is great but I’m worried now that being so far from the rest of humanity is affecting our lives too much.”
“When was your last holiday?” The doctor asked.
Gea’s mother replied with a tone of someone beaten and given up hope. “Two years ago, we have had time off work but there is only so much rest you can get on a space station crammed with five thousand people. Anyway it’s difficult getting a place on one of the star-ships. They come so rarely all the seats are reserved months in advance.”
“I think you need a break from this place and a fun time somewhere to recharge your batteries.” He smiled at Gea. “I’m going to recommend you have seats on the next rotation, I’ll put it down as an essential medical trip. They can’t really refuse. And Gea you must have a balanced diet.” He dropped his happy countenance and looked Gea straight in the eye. “If only to make your mother feel better. Will you do that for me?”
Gea sighed. “Yes. OK.”
“Thank you.” The doctor pulled out his terminal and began typing. “The next star-ship will be here in two and a half weeks, I’ll make sure you are on it.”
Gea and her mother got to their feet. “Thank you doctor.” Her mother smiled weakly at Gea as she talked.
Agent Mistry Aro slowly crossed the courtyard, passed the potted trees and the small fountain to enter the security building. His cheap suit didn’t fit well and his shoes certainly needed replacing. Like all security officers he had the mandatory short hair cut and wore the tie with the security shield on it. Despite a good night’s sleep he appeared tired and miserable.
The officer behind the reception desk waved as agent Aro made his way through to the lifts. He entered the central monitoring station and picked up the night shift duty log to see what had happened over night. His staff came on duty and relieved the night shift one by one. The duty officer had left some sandwiches on his desk. Mistry picked one up, took a bite and immediately spat it out into the nearby waste bin. “I need some coffee.” He muttered.
“Coffee is all finished I’m afraid. You’ll have to send one of your guys out to get some.”
Mistry looked up to see a tired agent Josan. “How was your night?” He asked.
“Nothing out of the ordinary. A fight over in the Napom quarter but that was about it.”
A bell chimed three times, Mistry and Josan both looked over to the space debris collision desk.
“Report.” Mistry said.
The officer leant forward and examined his display. “A collision warning buoy has just jumped into range.” He squinted at his display, his lips moved as he read the incoming data. “It was despatched by a monitoring station on the outer edge of the system.” He paused as he considered the options and then he began typing.
“Well what is the problem?” Mistry asked.
“Sorry sir.” He replied. “But if this information is correct a comet has just initiated a gravity jump into the system. I am sending a message buoy back to the monitoring station for clarification.”
“Mind if I hang around?” Asked Josan.
“Be my guest.” Mistry replied. “Abela are we expecting any unusual traffic?” He asked.
“No sir. If it is a ship and not a glitch, then it is definitely unscheduled.”
Mistry and Josan stood behind the collision officer and waited for the second buoy to appear. The bell chimed three times as the buoy arrived via its own small gravity jump. Information collected by the small monitoring station flowed through from the buoy to the system. A video stream flagged up on the display, the collision officer opened the file. The static picture showed nothing but a dull star field expanse, singularly uninteresting and unmoving as if not a video but a still image. The lack of any movement seemed to intensify the anticipation and Mistry leant over to move it forward. As he touched the key to speed up the video a momentary flash lit up the screen from the right. He pulled his hand away as if from a red-hot surface and watched and waited. Nothing happened. Mistry’s breathing had ceased, the video contained all his fascination and dread. A star on the right hand edge of the screen winked out. He moved closer to the screen as another star disappeared from view. Something large and very dark was moving across the star field, blocking the view.
“Abela, are you watching this?” Mistry asked.
“Yes sir.” Abela’s tone betrayed a slight amusement, not one of the crew was watching anything else.
“Do we know of any vessel capable of what we are seeing right now?”
“Only the Mezzyima and they would have informed us of a visit. If this was an Amalgam ship we should have picked up a transceiver signal straight away.”
“Can you give me an indication as to the size of that thing?”
“It is very difficult. We have no point of reference.” Abela replied.
Mistry returned to his desk with Josan. He turned and addressed the room. “I want to know how soon it will arrive and who it is. Abela trawl through the star-ship logs and see if you can identify the class of ship.” Mistry picked up the earpiece from his desk and put in a contact request to the governors’ office. “Hello this is duty agent Aro please put me through to the governor.” Mistry paused and listened to the reply. “This is an emergency situation I need to speak to the governor now.” He was becoming agitated. “I do not ‘have a tone’ madam, I have an immediate need to speak to the governor.”
Abela reported to Mistry. “It is a complete unknown, a totally alien ship. We are in a first contact situation.”
“Hello, Governor. This is agent Aro in the duty centre. An unknown alien star-ship has just jumped into the system. I believe we have a first contact.” Mistry listened as the governor replied. “Yes sir, absolutely no doubt…” Mistry stopped talking as the governor interrupted. “Yes sir.” Mistry said. He turned to Josan. “He’s on his way down. Abela, send a class one message buoy to Amalgam police, mark it as ‘emergency priority significance’. Inform them of our situation and request an immediate Mezzyima attendance.” Mistry smiled to himself as he turned to Josan. “It looks like we’re going to have something interesting happening for a change”. He said.
Gea Aro followed her mother through the door into their small apartment. The furniture and decor was the same as for everyone else in the space station. The sofa and chairs were in the corporate blue and the kitchen white and functional.
Gea went straight to her room. The automatic lighting painted the interior with an oppressive glare. “Lights down.” She shouted. Gea sat on the edge of her bed and slumped backwards. She stared at the dull ceiling and waited. Her mind opened to the thoughts of the space station crew, she dipped into them with a random boredom. A flash of adre
nalin and stress caught her attention, a mind confronted with a totally new problem both excited and frightened. A man in authority under pressure trying to appear confident but actually, internally, completely lost.
“Gea, I’m making some supper. Come and eat.” Her mother knocked on the door. “Gea? Are you coming?”
Gea straightened up and sighed, the link was broken. “No. I’m not hungry.” She shouted at the door.
The door opened and Gea’s mother looked in. “Why is it so dark? Come and eat something, you need your food. You did promise the doctor.”
Gea followed her mother out of her room to the table. She slouched in her chair and stared at the warm liquid in front of her. “What is this?” She asked.
“Cabbage and parsnip soup, it’s good for you.”
“Mum? Can’t we ever have food that is not good for you? I mean for once could we have something that is enjoyable. And you wonder why I don’t eat.” Gea moved to leave the table.
“Stay where you are.” Her mother raised a finger. “And what would you have us eat? Chocolate cake?”
Gea smiled. “Well it would be a start.” She said.
Her mother put her hands over her face. Gea noticed her head shake slightly and realised her mother was crying. A terrible, shocking, understanding came to Gea, her mother was suffering a great stress and it was caused by her uncaring, nonchalant attitude. She was speechless, nothing she could say at this point would have any great bearing on her mother. Listening to her thoughts had been something Gea had given up a long time ago and this sudden emotional release was frightening her. “Mum I’m sorry.” She whispered.
Her mother wiped her tears away with the palms of her hands. “No, maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m not thinking about what you would like and just giving you what you need.” She replied quietly as she got up and took the uneaten food away.
“Abela. Do you have any more for us on that star-ship?” Aro asked.
“I’ve tied the four closest monitoring stations together and I’m combining the data to get a better picture of what’s out there.” Abela replied without looking up from her display. “So far I can tell you it is at least one thousand yards in length and approximately three hundred in diameter. The entire surface of the craft is black and there are no light sources across the entire hull.”
Aro turned to Josan. “Sounds like a military ship, no transceiver and built for stealth even in close quarters. If there are no light sources that means they have no windows or are at battle stations.”
Josan shook his head. “These are aliens and therefore have a completely alien thought process. It is impossible for us to guess their intentions. There may be no windows because they have no eyes.”
Mistry was confused and sure they had missed something. “Communications.” he called across the room. “Are you sure they are not trying to contact us?”
“Yes sir. I have had nothing remotely like a signal from their direction. Just background static, of course they might use a technology we don’t use or have not even invented yet.” The communications officer turned back to his display.
“Has anybody else noticed anything at all, however trivial or mundane?” Mistry asked.
“Well sir.” The astrophysics officer replied. “I have registered a succession of slight intermittent gamma ray flares coming from the ship.”
Mistry was exasperated. “And when were you going to let us all in on this information?” He asked.
“Sorry sir, but it is so small and just a random series of flashes.” The officers’ embarrassment was only matched by his realisation of how short sighted he had been.
“How do you think Morse code sounds on a radio?” Mistry asked. “Communications. Can you access these gamma ray flashes and start on an assessment?”
“No sir my equipment doesn’t reach that part of the spectrum. I’ll have to get the data from astrophysics and then convert into something my software can work on. It may take a few minutes or even an hour.”
“OK get straight on it.” At last Mistry felt relieved as he was getting some progress.
The main door opened and the governor entered followed by his large assistant, Erutan Maliy. The governor shook both Mistry’s and Josan’s hands and talked quietly to the two of them. “Is there somewhere we can go that is a little more private?”
“We can use the duty office.” Mistry eyed Erutan Maliy. “It’s a little small though.”
The four men entered the tiny office, the governor immediately sat in Mistry’s seat with Erutan struggling to fit his bulk beside him. Mistry and Josan stood facing them across the desk. Mistry felt like a schoolboy in the headmaster’s office.
“It is very important we handle this correctly.” The governor began. “Any mistakes, however small, could have long lasting repercussions. We can’t afford to estrange these aliens at the first encounter. I am going to put Erutan in charge here and I’m sure you will give him all the support he needs. I have several matters to attend to not least the preparations for the Mezzyima should they desire to come aboard.”
Mistry struggled to hold his temper. “With all due respect sir Erutan has no experience or training to deal with this situation.” Mistry motioned to Erutan with a derisory wave of his hand. “He hasn’t even the basic qualifications to enter my ops room as a tea boy. We have training in first contact theory as part of our job, I believe sir that placing Erutan in charge here is not a good idea.”
The governor got to his feet. “I have made my decision agent Mistry, now please get on with your work.” He turned to Erutan. “You know what you have to do, if you need me you can contact me on my private terminal. Good day gentleman.” He passed Mistry and Josan without a glance and left the office.
Erutan broke the silence. “Don’t worry I’m open to all your advice. We are a team are we not?” He smiled hopefully at Mistry and Josan.
“That remains to be seen.” Mistry replied.
Abela reported to Mistry “Sir, the ship has stopped its approach at two hundred thousand miles.”
“Thank you Abela. Communications, have you made any progress with the gamma ray flares?” Mistry asked.
“I have the first breakdown coming through now sir. It doesn’t make any sense at present. I am going to have to go through it myself.”
“Let me know as soon as you have something.” Mistry motioned to Josan and the two of them made their way to the coffee machine. “I’m not letting Erutan mess up here. If I have to overrule him are you with me?”
Josan smiled. “Of course. It’s ironic, the governor is trying to make a name for himself with this first contact and the first thing he does is a mistake.”
“Sir I have some movement.” It was Abela. “Three doors have opened on the underside of the ship, there seem to be some sort of docking bays in there. They are very well lit.” He toggled his controls for a better view.
Mistry and Josan stood behind Abela and examined his display while taking care to block Erutan. “Astrophysics, is there any change in the gamma flare activity?” Mistry asked.
“The flashes continue sir.” He replied.
Abela brought up a closer view of one of the open bays. The poor resolution only helped to intensify Mistry’s frustration. A slight indication of movement inside the bay gave the impression of several large pieces of equipment bringing an object to the bay door.
“I’m not happy about this.” Mistry said.
A large cylindrical object descended from each bay and remained motionless several yards below the ship.
Erutan leant heavily against Josan pushing him to one side for a better view. Mistry and Josan exchanged glances.
“I think they are sending over a contact team.” Erutan said confidently.
“Yes or an assault team.” Mistry replied. “Collision officer. If those things become aggressive can you target them with the lasers?”
“The lasers are very small and only designed for protection from fast moving space debris. They
have enough power to destroy small meteorites but nothing over one hundred kilos. I doubt they would be any use for defence.”
“But you could target and fire on one of those things?” Mistry asked.
“Theoretically yes.” The collision officer replied.
“Now stop right there Mistry. I’m not giving any authorisation for you to start firing upon anything that star-ship sends over here.” Erutan was getting angry. “We have no reason to believe these aliens are hostile. Collision officer, you will not fire under any circumstances. Do you understand?”
“Yes I understand.” The collision officer replied. He caught Mistry’s eyes and nodded. Mistry smiled.
“Sorry Erutan, but if this station comes under a direct threat I have the authority, as duty agent, to take command.” Mistry held Erutan in a steady gaze.
The collision officer interrupted. “Sorry sir but one of the devices is moving this way.”
“What speed is it moving?” Josan asked.
“It is still accelerating, the rate of increase is quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. I doubt there is anyone or anything on board the G forces are too great.” Mistry put his hand on the collision officer’s shoulder. “If that thing gets within thirty seconds of this station without decelerating I want you to hit it with everything you have.”
“Yes sir.”
Erutan interrupted. “Do not fire. I am calling the governor down here to relieve you of duty.” Erutan picked up his terminal and turned away from Mistry and Josan.
“How long?” Mistry asked urgently.
“Two minutes.” The collision officer replied. His display showed a black object overlaid with a red cross. “Targeting scanners are tracking the item, I have four lasers within reach. One minute, thirty seconds.”
Erutan handed his terminal to Mistry. “It’s the governor.”
Mistry looked Josan in the eye as he took the terminal. “I’m sorry sir but I’m a little busy right now.” He paused and listened to the governor. “Would you rather we wait for the station to suffer heavy damage before we defend ourselves?”
