The Journey of Atlantis: The Children of Earth

by jeff knoblauch

  Anna was dumbfounded. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Levi smiled. “Just say that you will continue to be a voice of reason for the human population.”

  “I will, Captain. May I follow you back to the dome? I assume that is where you are going.”

  “Yes, I am making a farewell speech at dome two in about a half an hour.”

  “Well, we better get going then.” Anna smiled, and dusted herself off.

  The farewell speech was a standard-issue farewell. Levi wanted it to be special but could only come up with the usual things. He wished the new immigrants to this planet good luck and praised them for their courage and determination. He expressed how sad the Atlantis people were in leaving them behind and not journeying on together to the new home they sought.

  Afterward, he shook a lot of hands and had many small conversations with individuals. A few hours later he returned to the shuttle with Alex and headed for the Atlantis.

  Alex put her hand on top of Levi’s. “They’re going to be all right, Levi. They’re a good bunch.”

  “I know,” he said. “It’s like a parent letting their children go so they can grow up. You know they will be okay, but inside you still worry about them.”

  “I think it’s normal for you to feel that way. It means you’re still human.” Alex gave him a little peck on the cheek.

  The next day Atlantis and her companion ships left orbit and said goodbye to Searth. They had only been underway a few minutes when Sonny directed them to look aft. The blue and tan planet behind them had begun to emit pulses of light.

  “Wow!” Levi exclaimed, looking at the bridge view screen with the rest of the crew. “They’re using the Guardians to give us a sendoff!” Indeed, the laser targeting lights were being pulsed in some coded pattern.

  Sonny translated. “The colonists and Alice wish you a safe journey to find a new home. The Te’Hat wish you good fortune and happy hunting.”

  Levi was astonished. “How about that! Clever work on Alice’s part. Helm, continue on course and make best possible speed to the probe.”

  “Best possible speed, aye, sir,” the lieutenant repeated.

  ◆◆◆

  Three weeks later, the probe lay just ahead. Atlantis was out of the main part of the system containing the planets and moons. However, just like in the Sol system, a debris field of comets, asteroids and planetoids hung far out from their inner big brothers.

  “Captain Metcalfe,” Sonny said.

  “Yes, Sonny. What is it?”

  “I am in contact with the probe. However, it is not our probe anymore.”

  “What do you mean ‘anymore’?” But Levi immediately understood the ramifications.

  “I mean someone has tampered with this probe and sent it back to us,” Sonny said flatly.

  “Get out of there! It is probably a trap set for you!”

  “It is too late,” Sonny said. “I do not detect any malicious code or trojans.”

  “Well, let’s have the data packet. Show it on the view screen. Do not dump it into my brain.”

  “Acknowledged,” Sonny replied. “Captain, why did you close our direct link?”

  “It is a precautionary step until I am completely satisfied that you have not been contaminated. I want you to start on a level five deep diagnostic scan.”

  “Acknowledged.” He could almost hear Sonny sigh.

  The view screen changed to reveal three entities standing at different distances from the probe’s camera, biped humanoids with no apparent sex, large eyes, and enlarged heads. The size of the creatures was hard to tell without any other reference.

  “We bid you greetings. We are not hostile. We are not harm you. We will communicate. We will arrive at the origin point.” Then the transmission stopped.

  Levi’s face darkened with confusion, worry and curiosity. “Hmm. That was short and sweet. Alice?”

  “Yes, Captain Metcalfe.”

  “Are you still tethered to Sonny?”

  “No. As soon as the situation became abnormal, we separated and are no longer sharing data. This happened once before during the insurrection, and so I was prepared for it.”

  “Good. I want to limit my use of Sonny until he has completed his level five diagnostic.”

  Alice calculated. “That will take twenty-two days and nine point two hours.”

  “Thank you. I will inform the Council and my section chiefs there will be an emergency meeting. I need your attendance.”

  “Acknowledged, Captain.”

  Levi called his section chiefs together and addressed them in the bridge conference room. “The probe we sent to Kepler-62 has found something or someone on its way to its destination. They modified the probe to carry this message to us.”

  Levi played the recording and motioned to the admiral.

  Admiral Johnson spoke next. “It doesn’t take an E-human to figure out that whoever that is knows who we are, where we are from, and has a good idea of our technology. We, on the other hand, know next to zip about them. We cannot ignore the message because our new contact lies in the same direction we must travel to our next destination. Atlantis is not likely to slip by them. I am opening the floor to any options.”

  There were murmurings around the table. The captain and the admiral waited for ideas to surface. Major Deanna Taylor from Life Sciences spoke up first.

  “Admiral, an axiom which always stuck with me was ‘trust but verify’. I think we should plan on meeting them but find some way we can verify their intentions.”

  “It seems they want to communicate with us. We do not know if they can lie or deceive,” the admiral added. “How can we know?”

  “Alice? Any suggestions?” Levi called to the air.

  “While there are many options, all have an unacceptable risk-to-benefit ratio. We cannot know anything more unless the Atlantis makes contact. Unlike the Te’Hat, who were technologically inferior to us, we will be dealing with the opposite situation. We must proceed with caution.”

  Levi thought it was just the tension in the air, but Alice’s prognosis had an ominous tone. “Alice is right about one thing, we won’t know anything else unless we contact them. I feel this is like the situation of the Te’Hat in reverse. This new contact is dealing from a position of strength. I don’t think we can ignore them. They already know where we are. However, it is an option we could test to see how respectful they are of our privacy. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and Alice, for your input. I will convene an emergency meeting of the Council so that decisions can be made and disseminated.”

  The captain adjourned the meeting and notified the Council that the emergency meeting would take place in a half an hour. Then he asked Admiral Johnson to take a stroll. For a change of scenery, they went to the nearby park. The beautiful plants, the animals running around and the geese in the pond provided a calming mood.

  Levi was grim. “This is a difficult spot, Leo. It seems no matter what we decide will have an element of extreme risk. There is no upside at this juncture. How do you choose?”

  “This is the part of being the boss that sucks. Unless you get one hundred percent positive outcome, there will always be people who said you shouldn’t have done it, whatever the action happens to be. You are sure to get the blame no matter what you do. If I am going to get the blame no matter what, I usually do what I think is best, and screw everybody else. At least I can live with the knowledge that I did the best I could under the circumstances. When you have little data to hang your hat on, like in this case, intuition must replace certainty; you know, your best guess. What’s your best guess, Levi?”

  “I have been running that message a million times in my head since first hearing it, and I mostly feel they want to tell us something," Levi replied thoughtfully. "Tell us what, I don’t know. Something useful. Maybe they knew the neutron star swung through our system and they want to help. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Like, don’t go over there, it is a dangerous kind of thing. Or ma
ybe they have sucked up the rest of whatever lived on Earth and don’t want to expend the energy to chase after us, so they sent a message to lure us in for the taking. Who knows!" Levi paused. "On the other hand, by going there, we risk the population of Atlantis and our ships. We could send one ship to make the first contact and pave the way for the rest of us. This way, in a worst-case scenario, we lose only one ship.”

  Leo pondered that for a moment. “It sounds like our only option. However, we do not have faster-than-light communications. Our ship must fire off a probe to pony express a message back to us. If our contact ship is destroyed before a probe can be fired off, or if it's is retrieved by the alien ship, we are just as blind and deaf as before.”

  “Not quite,” Levi said. “Not if we do it right. If we set off a series of probes, they could give us clues we could piece together in case the unthinkable happens.”

  “Yes.” The admiral stroked the mustache and goatee he had recently sported. “We would be getting these status reports periodically to act as breadcrumbs for the initial contact. The only thing is, what if the probe was manipulated to lure us in?”

  Levi frowned. “We can stick a nefarious answer on anything we can cook up, but in the end we are still left with the same decision. I think the only thing we can do, Leo, is either ignore them and see what happens, or meet them and find out what the hell is going on.”

  “Agreed,” Leo replied.

  “We need to get to the meeting, Leo. Let’s catch a car over there. I hate to be late for my own meeting!”

  They were two minutes late. “You’re never late,” Chairman Rocha said. “This makes me feel this meeting is even more urgent.”

  “Sorry for being late, Madame Chairman,” Levi apologized. “I lost track of time.”

  “Lost track of time? You? Now I am worried!” She was clearly unsettled. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, let it out and opened her eyes again. “What do you have to report, Captain?”

  Levi brought them up to speed on the recent events and explained the options that had been discussed.

  Dr. Zhubov’s grim face reflected the room’s mood. “Can we trust these aliens?”

  “Unknown,” replied Levi.

  “What are their intentions?” Dr. Allen asked.

  “Only that they wish to communicate, and they claim they mean us no harm,” Levi said.

  “If we meet with them, how do we know we will be safe?” Dr. Allen insisted.

  “We will have to ascertain this on the way.”

  “Who will make first contact, Captain?” Dr. Iverson asked.

  “We are refining that option,” Levi answered.

  The chairman spoke again. “We understand you are bringing us information rather than answers, Captain, to apprise us of the current situation. The decision is whether to ignore them or to contact them. Correct?”

  “Correct, Madame Chairman,” Levi replied. “If we ignore them, they may seek us out to find out why, or to destroy us. Either way, we are right back to rolling the dice for good versus bad outcomes. The authors of the message could leave us be, if they interpret ignoring them as a request for privacy. But this is unknown.”

  General Zhou spoke up for the first time. “I have been analyzing the discussion. It would seem the shoe is on the other foot.”

  Rocha lifted an eyebrow, perplexed. “The other foot, General?”

  “The Te’Hat,” the general reminded them, “were in the same situation. There was much fear amongst them about how to proceed. In the end, they decided to send an emissary to ascertain our intentions. The Te’Hat realized that we were not immediately hostile but did not know if our business on Searth would be bad for them. We eventually became good friends, which is a favorable outcome. Now whether this current situation turns out with the same outcome is uncertain. But I do know running away will give us neither peace of mind nor information. The universe is BIG. Humans must learn how to live in this big space. We may encounter bullies, and we may encounter friends. What we cannot do is to be shy about our intentions. We must make our way forward; however it ends up. We may not survive. It is a possibility. But we must TRY.”

  Clearly affected by the speech, Isabell stood up. “Well said, General Zhou. I agree with this line of thinking. How do you all feel about this?” There were nods around the room. “Good. Captain, we are on the same page about sending an emissary to contact the authors of that message, if it is your decision as well.”

  “It is, Madame Chairman,” Levi acknowledged.

  “We will leave those details up to you. Keep us informed. Meeting adjourned.”

  The general caught up with the captain and the admiral outside of the meeting room. “You said you were going to send one of the ships to the new contact. Is that right?”

  “Yes, but I am rethinking it. I’m just about to talk with the admiral here about it. You sound like you have something to say. Come with us to Chuck’s Place. We will have a beer and a good conversation.”

  “I need a drink about now,” the general said.

  At Chuck’s Place, they took their seats at a table as Chuck approached. “Good to see you boys in here today. I can see you’re about to have an officially unofficial meeting. By the looks on your faces, you look like you need some beer. Tell me what you want, and if you sit over there, I can see that nobody bothers you.”

  “Thanks, Chuck,” Levi said. They made their orders and proceeded to the booth the cook had pointed out. Chuck came back quickly with the beers and some finger food, then politely left them to their private discussion.

  General Min Zhou took a long pull on his beer. “I have been thinking, Captain, we do not have to send a whole ship to the new contact. Perhaps we could outfit a smaller scout ship to race ahead to find out their intentions. We would lose only a small ship and a few men this way.”

  “Yes,” Levi said, “Leo, and I were just going to discuss that very idea. We can be informal here amongst ourselves, Min. You know, the admiral and I don’t see too much of you. We read your reports and speak at the meetings, but never informally. Can I ask why?”

  “Well, I suppose it is mostly because you have never asked me. It’s all right though, I am very busy, and so are you.”

  “While it may be true, it is good to let your hair down once in a while. My apologies if I have made you feel left out. It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top, you know.”

  “Thank you for saying so, uh…Levi.”

  “Good, well, back to business,” Levi said with a smile. “As you were saying, we could optimize our risk-benefit ratio by using a smaller ship to scout ahead.”

  “Who could we choose to send on this trip?” Leo wondered.

  Min took another long pull on his beer. “That is why I brought it up. You need someone with a lot of experience both with diplomacy and military analysis. I want to lead that mission.”

  Levi was shocked. “Min, we need you here.”

  The general's steady stare showed his resolute purpose. “Look, Atlantis needs a real, fully functional general. Since leaving Earth and then leaving Searth, I have felt more like a paper-pusher, not a real general.”

  “You are,” Leo countered. “You know as well as I do that this position is a lot like being a fireman. Long stretches of boredom punctuated by short bouts of sheer terror. Are you feeling all right?”

  “Yes, I am,” Min said. “I guess I want to make a significant contribution to this mission, and I’m offering my services. What do you say, Captain?”

  Levi knew Min well enough to be certain he would not make a spur-of-the-moment decision. Min was a good analyst, and he believed in information-driven decisions. Levi also understood this was as much a courageous personal choice as a professional one. “Very well, General. Choose your men. Make them a good mix of civilian and military. You want opinions from all sides when you’re at the front.”

  “Copy that.”

  The men sat and finished their beers, then left for their respective statio
ns. Chuck had been watching them the whole time. There was trouble ahead, and it didn’t make him feel very good about what might lie ahead for the Atlantis and her crew.

  About a week later, space dock outfitted a small security craft for the journey. Except for the laser cannons and the larger engines, security ships were designed like regular shuttles. They could go fast if they needed, and bite back if forced into a corner. Workers replaced the laser cannons with higher-wattage ones and stripped the craft down to carry only the necessary supplies for the trip. It was the best they could do. The ship was also outfitted with ten small probes. Each of them had the capacity for traveling about ten light-years at approximately fifteen times the speed of light. They were to drop one off at strategic points along their journey for the Atlantis to find. The security craft would be going at about twelve times the speed of light and would arrive about two-thirds of a year ahead of the Atlantis. General Zhou also took a coding specialist with him in case they needed to program another probe for “special duty.”

  The time had come to say goodbye. Levi was there to see them off. He shook the general’s hand. “Don’t forget, Min, the beer’s on me when you get back.”

  The general smiled back. “I believe I will have champagne!”

  “Champagne, then. Don’t forget to drop us a line now and then.”

  “I won’t, Captain Metcalfe,” he said.

  Levi clapped the general on the back and let him go. He understood. He half-wished he could go himself. The thrill and excitement. The dangers and the puzzles. The excitement of new discoveries. From the bridge, Levi watched the security shuttle speed off to its destiny.

  Later, he entertained Alex in his virtual apartment, talking about the day’s events. There came a knock on his door. The inscribed symbols Alex and Levi knew to be Alice were glowing on the door.

  “Come on in, Alice,” Levi said.

  “Thank you,” she said as she stepped in. "I thought you would like to know the telemetry is looking good for the 'Welcome Wagon'." The shuttle’s unofficial name.

  “Have a seat, Alice.” Levi motioned to the couch across from them. “Any more thoughts about our new neighbors?”