by Ivan Kal
“Are we reading anything Luna?” Seo-yun asked.
“The trans particles are disrupted. Your speculation appears to be correct Seo-yun, once something passes through the translane, nothing can follow for some time.” Luna said.
Hearing that Seo-yun allowed herself a small smile. “Alright, I want everyone to monitor the communications, if the probe went through it will send a signal back when it arrives.”
Seo-yun looked back at the viewscreen where the probe was just a minute ago. She had half convinced herself that she was wrong. After the test failed each time, with the probes they tried sending through blowing up without them knowing why. This test was their first success, at least for now. And it was also the first test that they did at this location. All of the previous tests were done at the location where the Union ship entered the Nebula, between the third and fourth planets. The reason for that being was simply because that location was closer to Sanctuary in its current place in orbit around the sun. But after the fifth failure, Seo-yun decided to move to the other location. The one where the Union ship exited the Nebula. According to the records that point should lead to the Nuva system, which made things a bit awkward if they did succeed. The probe is nothing but armor around a communication and sensor equipment, though it could self-destruct. Seo-yun believed that there was little chance of it being discovered, the exit point was supposed to be close to the orbit of the second planet in the system. And in Nuva’s current orbit it was partially obscured by the sun, they would need to look for the probe specifically in order to see it.
Seo-yun couldn’t yet figure out why the attempts at the other point failed while this one succeeded on the first try. They did everything the same. After Seo-yun figured out how Union ships traveled, the only thing she had to do was figure out how to replicate it. They had found the trans particles and studied them in great detail, afterwards they found the way to interact with them by using a “trans” field generator. They had the blueprints for the generator since they found the alien ship. But until now they had no idea what it was supposed to do. Now on the other hand, they discovered that by projecting the field onto the area filled with trans particles they could send objects through the translane. Which is the way that the Union ships traveled. It was supposed to be much faster. But also limited, translanes were natural and could only go to one location, and the quantity of mass that can be sent is limited by the intensity of the trans field. In order to send multiple ships one would need to generate a trans field of much greater intensity than the one that would be needed for just one ship. Unless of course that one ship out massed all the others put together. And if Seo-yun was correct in her findings, it had one more drawback. The failed test made at the other location suggested that the translanes could only be used in one direction. Seo-yun went back to her quarters to rest. The Union ship traveled the distance of some 12 light years in barely two days. For now all Seo-yun could do was wait.
***
Less than two days later Seo-yun sat on the bridge reviewing reports, when the Comm Handler yelled out.
“It came through!”
Seo-yun jumped out of her seat and moved to the comm station. She looked down and saw that they had indeed received a communication from the probe. The probe had successfully passed through trans space, and had sent all the readings it acquired.
“Alright people, get to work, we need to analyze this data!” Seo-yun said cheerfully. They had just given Olympus a travel method that was faster than anything they could have imagined. And the great thing is that all of their ships could use it, without any need for retrofitting. The ships themselves didn’t need to generate the trans field, they just needed to be in the trans area when the field was generated and they would be sent through. Although, how would they come back then? Seo-yun thought. A few more problems became apparent to her. Their sensors were not yet calibrated to detect trans particles, but soon they will. That will mean that they will need ships able to generate the field, the ones that will map out the translanes in their neighborhood. That could be dangerous. Who knows where an unknown translane could lead to? And how far. They could become stranded somewhere years away from the next translane, and If they don’t find another translane that leads back… She shook her head, there will be time enough to think about that. For now they had the lanes that Union used. They knew the ones that led back to Earth, and the ones they used to get to the Nebula, but if Seo-yun was correct they won’t be able to use those from here. We will need to explore them. She sighed and opened the star chart showing the path of the Union ship. She zoomed in on the section that showed the path from Sanctuary to Earth. The time it took them to get to Earth was just over a year. A year to travel what took us sixty. She grimaced, she knew that she would need to tell this to Tomas. But wasn’t sure what that could mean. Would they go back? Would they even want to? This was their home now. She received no message from Asumy, and she didn’t send any back, she hoped that he was alright. She didn’t know how much Earth advanced in 60 years, and didn’t want to unwittingly let them know where they are. She was sure that they couldn’t have advanced as far as Olympus, they didn’t have the aid of alien technology. But then again, most of the Olympus technology was purely human, the alien tech helped them, but it was nothing that they couldn’t have discovered on their own. Often, Seo-yun thought about her friend, the alien Ai Asumy. It pained her to ask him to stay, but she had to leave someone. It couldn’t be a human, they required food and water, it was impossible to supply someone for that long. And she couldn’t leave any of the Ai they created. They were young, and there was no way to predict what it would have done to them to be active over so long a period. During their trip here all of the Ai’s, were either shut down for the entirety of the trip or woken only periodically. And then there was Asumy. He had already spent thousands of years alone. And she knew that another 60 years were nothing for him. And now with the trans travel, she could go back and bring him here easily. Provided of course that there were any translanes leading back to the Nebula from Earth.
Seo-yun shook her head, it wasn’t time to think about going back to visit Earth. There were still things they needed to do here. She went back to her seat and started reading the data that the probe sent back.
Chapter Seventeen
January 2170 – Nuva
A slight bump was the only thing that announced to Ship Master Kisaragi Hana that her shuttle had landed on the alien – Nel station. The Traveler had finally arrived at its destination, the ship itself was waiting close to the station for the Nel to repurpose one of their hatches on the stations docking ring, as Traveler wasn’t able to dock with the station. Over the last few weeks the Nel diplomat and her human counterpart had discussed many things, most of which were unimportant and simple getting to know each other. The human translators were constantly updated, now being able to convert Nel measuring units to human ones easily. The talks didn’t progress further than the introductions, Hana assumed that those would be done now, with someone more up the chain of command. But they did learn a lot until now. The Traveler’s scanners constantly soaked up information. They managed to get a better look at the Nel ships, and found that they used a different energy source. Their drives were a lot “colder” than the human ones, while producing similar pushing power. They didn’t use fusion, and for now the human scientist couldn’t tell what they did use. The Nel steered the conversations off the topics of technology. They also showed only a passing interest in any kind of trade between them. What that meant Hana didn’t yet know. As soon as she exited the shuttle, she was met with an escort, and instructed to follow them to their assigned quarters. Hana and her party followed without question. They were here to meet with Nuva’s Lanai, the person in charge of the planet. The meeting was supposed to take place later that day. As Hana walked she couldn’t help but notice that inside of the station was made from the same material as the outside, that being some kind of ceramic polymer. Human scientist were familiar wi
th the possibilities, but chose to focus on metals. The light on the station was dimmer than what Hana was used on her ship. After a few minutes of walking they arrived at their quarters. Their escorts showed them in, pointed out a few points of interest and then left them alone. Hana and her party made themselves comfortable, and then started planning for the meeting.
***
Lanai Sumia sat in the Retnor Maret’s office on the main station orbiting Nuva, Retsar Isani was there as well, together the two of them were leaders of the people of Nuva. They were once nothing but lower officials in the Consortium, but now cut off, left on their own, they were the leaders. Retnor Maret was standing on her left side and Retsar Isani on her right, across from them were Hokra Gotu, Hokra Dson and Oferani Esama, the team sent to meet with the humans. Over the past few weeks they have been sending regular reports, both on the things that they could verify, and speculation. Sumia was startled when she first learned about the appearance of these humans, and even more so when she got the first images of them. But she quickly put it behind her as more and more reports started coming to her hands. They learned a lot about the humans. They were different than Nel, but looked familiar, at least her people managed to reassure her that there was no connection between Humans and Sowir. But the other news wasn’t as good. Retsar Isani informed her that the Human ship was built from metal, a primitive way of constructing ships that the races in the Consortium abandoned long ago. That single piece of intelligence told Sumia that her hopes for help from the humans were not to be. Isani did mention that his scientist were baffled how a ship with as much mass as theirs could move as fast as they could, but still, their speed was barely half of what Nel warships could attain. Isani looked at Esama who had just finished giving her final report in person.
“Is there anything else?” Lanai Sumia asked.
“No Lanai.” Esama said.
Sumia turned to Isani and gave him a small nod, signaling that he can take over.
Isani turned to Hokra Gotu. “Did you manage to uncover the reason for the readings?”
Hokra Gotu made a negative gesture with his hand. “No Retsar, they watched us closely. The only thing I can say for sure is that it was indeed coming from inside the ship.”
Sumia looked at Isani. “Readings?”
“I didn’t want to bother you, it might have been nothing but a glitch. Once our ships came close enough, they started getting readings that matched those of a ship entering hyperspace, only fainter, coming periodically from the Human ship.”
Sumia frowned. “And we don’t know what is the cause?”
“Well, we are sure that it is coming from the Human ship. It is strange, we know that hyperspace transfer within the limit is impossible, yet the readings we are getting match those of a successful hyperspace transfer. Even more baffling is that the readings sometimes come at regular intervals, and sometimes they are irregular. But we did see an increase in them since our ships met the humans.”
“Do you know what that means?” Sumia asked.
“I can only speculate. But my best people have a theory, and after reviewing all of their findings I must agree with them. The most plausible explanation is that the hyperspace bursts are in fact a form of communication.” Isani said.
“Communication? I assume that those communications were not directed at us?”
“No. And as there is no one else here, that brings us to the question, who are they speaking to?”
“And we have no idea?”
“We explored all the answers we could think of, and the one that seems most likely is that those communications are not meant for anyone in this system.”
“But you said that the bursts were regular, and we didn’t detect any comm drones entering the system.” Sumia said confused.
Isani turned his palms agreeing. “Yes, which then means that they are communicating with someone, somewhere directly.”
Sumia and the rest of the people in the room looked shocked.
“Faster than light communications?” Retnor Maret asked.
“Yes, that is the conclusion we drew.” Isani answered.
Sumia looked at Isani open-mouthed. “But that can’t be! Every Consortium scientist agreed that faster than light communications are impossible!”
“They did, but that does not mean that they were right.” Isani said.
“But how? Every report we received suggest that they are no more advanced than the Sowir were when we first encountered them. In some areas they seem even more primitive.” Sumia said.
“They seem that way Sumia. I am not entirely convinced that they are at all inferior to us.” Isani said, which surprised the others. “Their ship is made out of metal and yet moves fast, I doubt that we could have made that ship go as fast as it was moving with our drives. We just don’t know enough about them to come to an informed conclusion. We should not assume inferiority because they do things differently. We made the same mistake with the Sowir, and look where that brought us.” Isani said.
“Perhaps you are right.” Sumia said, after a moment of thought she turned to Esama. “Send for the Human party.”
***
Hana and Chung-Ah were escorted to a room where they were met with the diplomatic party led by Oferani Esama and three more Nel. Another female who sat at the desk at the end of the room with two males standing around her. Hana bowed her head to them as did Chung-Ah.
The female then stood, and walked around the desk followed by the two males. Early Chung-Ah learned that Nel preferred to talk while standing.
“Welcome, I am Lanai Sumia, these are Retsar Isani and Retnor Maret.” The lead female said, indicating with her head the two males first the one on her right and then on her left. Hana heard the translation almost immediately, but waited a few breaths, still pretending that it was her earpiece that translated rather than her imp.
“Thank you. I am Ship Master Kisaragi Hana, and this is Diplomat Park Chung-Ah.” Hana said and her translator reproduced her words in Nel.
“I don’t know what your protocols are for meeting another race, and starting a relationship, for us, we take the time to learn your ways as we teach you ours, and in time we expand that to trade and exchange of technology. And later introductions to other races in our Consortium, followed by inclusion in the Consortium.” Hana’s eyes widened at Lanai Sumia’s words, Consortium of races. So there are other races in this part of space. Hana thought, she also wondered whether those that attacked Voyager were part of this Consortium. Hana’s thoughts were interrupted by Lanai Sumia.
“Though I believe that there is no time for that now, so I am going to break with a lot of tradition and rules of my people and speak with you directly and honestly.” As Lanai said that, Hana could hear a gasp from Oferani Esama. Intrigued, she turned back to Lanai.
“My people prefer honesty and directness.” Hana said.
“This world is but one colony, a small colony in the Consortium. Or rather it was. The Consortium is no more.”
Hana remained silent.
“One member of the Consortium, the Sowir made a surprise attack on the rest. The four other members were taken unprepared, and since then only a handful of worlds still stand. It has come to the point where every world was on its own. There were two reasons for me asking you to come here. One was to warn you about the Sowir, so that you don’t make the same mistake we did and trust them. And the second was to see if you can help us. You will never understand how much it pains a Nel to ask for help from someone else, we are a proud people, but now this world is on its own. And we have no means to defend ourselves, we have only a few ships to stand against the Sowir, and they will come here, perhaps a few years from now, or a few months. Anyway, it does not matter, Sowir have more ships, and they will take this world in the end.”
Hana thought about the things she planned to say, all the possibilities she went through with Chung-Ah. This was not one of them. She knew that no one back at Sanctuary would want to get involved in th
e middle of a war, especially one that was between those most likely stronger than them. Olympus had barely 5 years to start their development, they didn’t even have one fleet of ships able to defend themselves, let alone another world. But she also knew that it was not her decision, there were other ways they could help, and she needed to send word back. But telling Lanai that she needed to send word back would entail letting them know about FTL comms. Or she could leave and then come back a year from now, when it might be too late. Hana weighed her choices and then decided. She was Olympus and they didn’t turn their back to those in need.
“I will need to speak with my superiors. And I will need all the data you have on the Sowir.” She said slowly. Lanai looked to the man on her right and then back.
“We can provide the data. How long will it take you to go back to your world?” Lanai asked strangely. Hana narrowed her eyes, there was something with the way she said it. After a moment Hana spoke.
“I need to go back to my ship, I will return in three days to the station with the response. My people have a way of speaking over vast distances.” She said. At her words she saw a strange exchange between Lanai Sumia and the man on her right, Retsar Isani.
“We would be very interested in knowing how such a thing is possible.” Retsar Isani said.
“I can’t reveal anything without authorization from my superiors.” Hana said.
“Of course.” Retsar Isani said.
With that Hana turned and left the room with Chung-Ah.
After the humans left Sumia looked at the closed doors for a moment, and then turned to Isani.
“Faster than light communications, amazing.” Lanai Sumia said.
“Yes.” Isani said. Sumia caught the expression on his face even though it was there only for a moment.
“What is it?”
“Did you notice the way the human spoke?”
“Through their translator?” Sumia asked, frowning.
