why keep it secret?”
“While they were starting to understand the orb, during the attack, a
Zorn Queen pod crashed down right next to them.”
“Zorn Queen pod? You mean, like, ‘makes little offspring’, queen?”
“Yeah.”
Glancing at the people exiting the shack and heading over to him, the
major looked at Cindy with a stern expression. “Keep this under wraps for
now. We will talk later.”
* * *
“Listen, I’m going to be blunt with you. I hired you to be my assistant,
but I kind of feel that you’re past that at this point. To be frank, Alex is at the point of boring me. I can read him like a book. There are bigger stories
out there now, and I don’t want to have to spend my time documenting
the UEF. I hereby name you solely responsible for all things UEF. You will
cover my responsibilities, and I will focus on other world-picture stuff, like stories from outside the safe zones and whatever else takes my fancy. How
does that sound to you?”
“Sounds like I get more work with the same pay.”
Renee smiled widely. “Yes, working for food isn’t exactly the best moti-
vation when you already have—”
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“No, really, I’ll take the job.” Jackie stood up from her chair and shook Renee’s hand.
“Oh, good. Well, get to it; I’ve got other things to do.” Renee looked
down at her desk and shuffled a few stacks of papers into a bin, then handed
the bin to Jackie. “May interest you.”
Jackie took the bin and left the office. She walked the ten feet across
the hall into her own office and emptied the bin on her not-exactly-pristine
desk. She began to sort the files into trash and interest.
* * *
His last directive from the previous President was to get the UEF to agree
to transporting supplies. Drake was more than a little upset that his son was
far from cooperative. Alex would change the meeting location at the last
minute to places his father wasn’t familiar with, or transportation would
oddly dry up just as he needed to get somewhere. Since the attack, Drake
was the absolute definition of useless to Alex. Especially since General Gabe
took office, Drake was unable to reach the government.
He was no longer sure what he should be doing, or if he was still the
official liaison to the UEF. His gut told him ‘no’, but he had no access to
communication equipment that would reach the still-functioning govern-
ment. Alex had access, of course, but wouldn’t let his own father use the
equipment. He was even barred from the UEF vehicles. If he wanted to go
somewhere, he either bummed a ride or walked.
Drake found himself wandering around the Complex, pretending to
be useful, but more often than not, he only earned concerned glances from
those around him. It had been a long time since he felt so unwanted, not
since his wife passed away. A majority of his wealth were in stocks, which
were now useless. He had a few properties scattered around, but like most
people, they were outside the safe zones, where lawlessness was rampant
and access to supplies was unlikely. The odd feeling of having everything
and yet nothing followed him like a bad shadow.
Walking along the inner perimeter one afternoon, he watched as even
more people arrived by vehicle to the outer perimeter of the Complex.
The people made that part of the barren landscape home, and they clearly
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decided that making a tent city with vehicles was a better option than being wherever they came from.
He saw an opportunity. It was time to recreate himself, and now he
knew where to do it. Pocketing his UEF name tag, he walked over to the
nearest gate control tower area and exited the perimeter, a smile forming
on his face.
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Chapter 20
Emergence
IT WAS NEARLY two years since the attack.
Several governments of the old world no longer existed, and new ter-
ritorial boundaries were in constant dispute. The UEF set up assistance
centers all over the world to help provide for people in need—and paid
little attention to boundary lines while doing it. Most functioning coun-
tries gave them complete access to their territories, and the UEF became
the effort for global unity. The United States of America, while still strong
in comparison to other countries, was no longer the forgone global leader
of the world. A couple of the smaller gangland countries were so lawless
and chaotic, the UEF staked a flag and claimed the territories. The way
Alex saw it was if the countries were not even making a concerted effort to
stop the lawlessness in their own borders, they didn’t deserve the country
any longer. Many functioning countries resisted this effort, but in the end,
their citizens didn’t see the UEF claiming lawless territories as something
worth fighting about.
The UEF had now officially claimed territory in all corners of the Earth.
A separate council within the UEF was hard at work establishing laws for
its territories. Alex made their job harder when he advised them to con-
sider the laws to apply to new territories for outposts on newly discovered
planets, potential alien species as members, and galactic diplomacy considerations, among other things.
Alex was concerned about all of these things, but his eye was on the
newest ship built inside the orbital shipyard. The council let him name the
ship, and he chose the UEF Enterprise. He felt it was a perfect name, considering the literal and fictional history of the ship. When the name went
public, many imagined what there was to accomplish out in space.
As far as the ship went, Alex wished it resembled the fictitious design. It
was nowhere near that streamlined. In fact, it looked a lot like an elongated
tube-like flat rectangle. The color of the metal on the outer hull didn’t even match completely due to the materials fed into the fabricators. In the end,
he cared little about what it looked like and more about what it would do.
* * *
Alex stood in front of a mirror in his cabin. Attached to the mirror was a
picture of Amanda, and he lingered on the picture for several moments.
She was wearing her UEF uniform, sitting next to a microscope on a table.
“Captain, we are approaching Thean space. Please report to the bridge.”
Alex washed his face with the cool water and dried it off with a towel.
Placing the towel over a nearby chair, he left the room. As he approached
the bridge, he appreciated the many improvements in the ship design,
evident everywhere he looked. Bulkhead separations were only noticeable
because of the caution displays placed either side of the divide, visible only during a status alert of some kind. The lighting was infused with many of
the observable materials, while polished silver handrails followed the floor,
wall and ceiling, for use when the artificial gravity was turned off.
Active touch display screens were visible on every wall. Many were
blank or provided general information unless in use. Every corridor had
hidden emergency EVA suit lockers, not suitable for long-term exposure to
space, but usable in an emergency. Two reactors pow
ered the many electri-
cal systems of the ship, including four forward-facing pulse cannons, mis-
sile launchers, two modified thirty-millimeter miniguns on fully rotatable
turrets, six enhanced decouplers—one facing each direction of the ship—
and two newly-designed cargo shuttles.
The ship was seven hundred meters long and one hundred and twenty
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meters wide. This made for a lot of interior space. It certainly helped construction that most of the interior rooms were large and spacious. A lot
of the area contained cargo, which included bulldozers, excavators, heli-
copters, shuttles, ATVs, SUVs, MREs, containers filled with water, oil,
gas and various other commodities, appliances and all the facilities a small
city might need. The crew was relatively small; sixty security personnel and
about eighty other crewmen and scientists.
Alex placed his hand on a small black pad next to the door for admis-
sion and entered a small room on the command deck of the ship.
“How goes it?”
The only crewman in the room looked at him. “It’s like trying to under-
stand the language of birds, sir. This is pointless.”
“Certainly. You’ve identified different…kinds of birds, right?”
“I’d say I’ve detected about a dozen different signal types. That could
mean twelve different species, or one species with a complex send and
receive system. I can’t even tell that much, let alone what they might be
saying to each other.”
“Keep at it.”
“Yes, sir,” the crewman responded without enthusiasm.
Alex left the smaller room and continued onto the bridge. The first
thing Alex noticed upon entering was the large grey marble on the views-
creen, and a star behind it that had hints of blue amongst its color. The next thing he noticed was the complete silence.
“What’s the situation here?” Alex asked, walking to his command chair.
“Sir… There is evidence of heavy Zorn activity.”
The viewscreen zoomed in on an object ascending from the surface. It
was clearly a Zorn destroyer.
Alex opened his mouth to give the order for combat stations, but the
Zorn ship accelerated rapidly and disappeared. “Where is it going?” he
asked the room.
“Based on its last heading, it’s moving in the same direction as the Zorn
fleet that evacuated Earth, towards the center of the galaxy.”
The telescope focused on the planetary point of origin. The image was
a bit blurry due to the atmosphere, but anyone could tell the Zorn were
building the ships from the ground up, like cones pointing to the sky.
230
“Send the prepared Kalibri message and transmit it to the planet.”
“Sir, that was only to be used if the Theans were alive and available to
help us.”
“Perhaps they still are. Send the message.”
The communication officer tapped his display a few times and the sec-
onds ticked by.
“There are no other ships in the system?” Alex asked in disbelief.
“None, sir. The system is devoid of activity. An asteroid belt out at the
outer orbit, much like at ours, three planets. One is a gas giant, a frozen
ball, and the Thean homeworld.”
“I am getting a response to our message! It’s in text.” The communica-
tion officer took in a deep breath as he prepared to read the message aloud.
Welcome, guests from Earth. My
name is 11456. I am the 11456th
surviving life form of the Zorn
invasion. Your message has caused
much conversation among the
survivors. It was of great surprise
to learn that Kalibri and his crew
survived their encounter with the
Zorn. We appreciate your desire to
enter into an alliance with Thean
society. Unfortunately, there are
no known surviving members of
the Thean biological race. Only we
digiforms remain.
The invasion occurred 432 of your
days ago. The Zorn have colonized
much of the surface. When this
message is sent by my kernel, it will
be located and destroyed, along
with the transmitter. There will be
26 remaining transmitters, so we
ask that you limit the responses you
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may or may not require. We await
your response.
“I’d like to hear opinions on the situation,” Alex said to the air as sev-
eral ideas occurred to him.
“Sir, there’s nothing here for us. Time to go.”
“Maybe there’s a way we can save the digiforms. If we can, we should
explore the possibility…sir.”
“Okay, so let’s talk about saving the digiforms. Obviously, we will
need more information. How do we get that information while limit-
ing conversation?”
“Our next message should include our ideas and methods of retriev-
ing the digiforms and all possible information relating to those ideas for
their review.”
“I like it. Any other suggestions?”
“Sir, if it were me being rescued by an unknown alien race, I’d have
some serious concerns. Like, would I retain my freedom, what would my
life look like after rescue, things like that. I suggest you assume that is a
concern now. To save lives and transmitters, send that kind of information
as well.”
“That’s a bit premature, don’t you think?” Alex looked towards Fena.
“Every message they have to send is another death and another trans-
mitter lost. Also, they are digital life forms that don’t operate on emotion,
they think logically. I think they would appreciate that we sent this infor-
mation and value their lives.”
“I really don’t see the harm of sending that information as well. We just
need to think about what kind of life can provide for them.”
“Would you let them retain control of ships? Act like Mimi does on the
Destiny? Or put them on a shelf in a room somewhere?”
“Good points. We should include that we are willing to… consider
those and other suggestions they may have.” Alex looked around the bridge
and waited for further suggestions. There were none.
“Send the message.” Alex looked at the communication officer who
was busy typing furiously on his display screen as he typed out an elaborate
message. Alex watched the message grow on his screen as the comms officer
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typed it out. Occasionally, Alex would have the comms officer make a small change in the wording. It was another five minutes before the comms officer sent the message.
“I can only imagine what they are talking about,” Alex wondered.
“We can’t trust them.” Selma raised an eyebrow. “They are inferior.”
Alex turned to look at Selma, surprised.
“They stink,” Fena added.
Everyone on the bridge turned and looked at Fena. She cringed and
quickly glanced at the sensor operator right next to her.
“So, they can smell?” Alex asked with a slight grin.
“No, sir, of course not.”
“Reply!” the comm officer said, eager to change the conversation.
Greetings. My name is 11465. We
/> have considered your most kind
offer. 10989 of us would like to
explore that possibility. We have
reviewed the information you sent
us, and we have calculated chances
of a successful rescue.
There are numerous locations
across the planet where our tanks
are located. In order to remove our
connection to the global system, we
will have to activate all tanks and
separate individuals. This will alert
our precise location to the Zorn.
Many will die while few are saved. It
is a sacrifice we are willing to make.
The location of our largest kernel
deposit is here.
An image appeared with a pin to a location on the surface, with
visual instruction on how to navigate to the kernel room within the mas-
sive structure.
233
This location will require the most
extraction time due to the size of the
tanks and your limited abilities to
travel. However, it will also expose
your people to the most risk. We
suggest this as the primary location.
Another image appeared on the next page, it was a different location.
It has half the number of kernels as
the first one. However, you should be
able to land your ship on the surface
and quickly move the tanks inside.
This location is far safer to you.
There are a few kernels unretrievable
due to their location; we have not
been able to make contact with them
due to the loss of power. Send us a
message indicating which location
you choose to commit to. Any other
kernel locations are few and far
between, and will likely be destroyed
before any subsequent rescue
attempt can be made.
More images followed to include all known locations of digiform ker-
nels and the difficulties of reaching those locations.
Alex opened ship-wide communication on his console. “Staff meeting,
ASAP.”
* * *
The following all occurred in less than a minute.
(9756) Receiving message from the UEF Enterprise.
(4986) Running new probabilities.
(10111) The humans do not value their lives the way we do. We should
reconsider allowing ourselves to be subjected to them. They will not value
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