Neighbors

by Brian Whiting

  Everyone got to work reviewing scans, incoming signals and the images

  that came in from tactical. Alex stood up and left the bridge, heading for

  his cabin. Symboli kept track of Alex’s location within the ship thanks to

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  the headset he wore, though he could have used the internal cameras. The moment he walked into his cabin, Symboli spoke. “Alex, I do not believe

  this can be interpreted as a peaceful response.”

  Alex ignored Symboli for the moment and took off his uniform jacket,

  placing in on a hanger. Once the jacket was placed on the rail, he slid over

  a plastic wall to push all of his hung clothes to one side. Once against the

  wall, he locked the plastic wall into place by pushing a small mechanical

  button. This prevented his clothes from ending up in a confused ball when-

  ever gravity was switched off for ship maneuvers.

  “I agree with Symboli,” Lanora chimed in on the headset.

  “Well, I’m not so sure. Let’s consider what we know already. They are

  a space-faring civilization, advanced enough to colonize all of their system

  worlds. They had ships as far out as their asteroid belt, but no further. No

  subspace communication abilities and their ships are slow. What does all

  this tell you?”

  Symboli gave a fair amount of pause to allow Lanora to respond. When

  she didn’t, he spoke up. “One could assume they haven’t ventured out into

  space, contacted or been in contact with another civilization.”

  “Yes, and what else?”

  “They are afraid,” said Lanora.

  “Yes, and there are lots of questions to answer before we can assess the

  danger in that. For example, are they a unified society, or are they fractured like we are on Earth?”

  Alex finished getting ready for his shower; the last item remaining was

  his headset. “Symboli managed to get a rough translation in no time at all.

  I’m betting by tomorrow it will be far more accurate. I’m racking out for

  the night, see you at the briefing.”

  Alex switched off his headset and placed in on a shelf, which acted

  as a contact charge pad, then stepped into the shower stall. It was a small

  five-foot-by-five-foot stall entirely made of stainless steel, which was coated with a hydrophobic barrier. This prevented the metal from ever getting wet,

  and prevented stray drops of water from entering the compartment during

  an anti-gravity event.

  He didn’t have to wait for hot water to come out of the showerhead,

  as all the cabins came with hot water on demand devices. Placing his hand

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  against the wall, he let warm water spray along his body as he contemplated ways to get a face-to-face meeting with the aliens.

  * * *

  “First item to note is the updated timetable. Most, if not all, ships have

  entered a stage two acceleration curve throughout the night. It seems the

  increased speed will up their arrival time to as soon as tomorrow if they

  don’t slow down. Otherwise, they will shoot past us at ridiculous speeds.”

  Alex put down his half-full cup of coffee. “Symboli, go.”

  “Overnight, I listened to various intersystem transmissions. Some

  include a video-type broadcast. Using these broadcasts, I am now able to

  discern the meaning of their language, and I have a better translation to

  provide from yesterday’s attempt.

  “’ Where did you come from? Have you come to kill us or take our resources?’

  From the larger ship, the message repeats, ‘ Not welcome, not welcome, not

  welcome’. I should note it could be ‘ Not wanted, not wanted’. From the planet, the message says, ‘ We are afraid, guests of the abyss. But let us talk things of knowledge’. Also, I ought to point out that I have learned this species is made up of three biological sexes. Gats, Gits, and Giss.”

  “That’s fairly confusing,” the chief tactical officer said, speaking up.

  “Plus, we don’t even know if they want to fight or talk.”

  “Captain, I suggest I attempt a return message in thei—”

  “Yes, you will send a message, and then I think we should park our ship

  above their planet and send a shuttle to the surface.”

  Lanora and the tactical officer raised their voices at the same time to

  shout down the suggestion, as did some of the crew. The noise quickly grew

  loud and confusing, forcing Alex to shrink from them.

  A whistle from Lanora cleared the air, and she lowered her hand from

  her mouth, glaring at everyone in the room. “Sir, I think that’s a mistake.

  It’s extremely provocative, visually aggressive, and puts us at a disadvantage of being within range of whatever weapons systems they have.”

  “Yeah…” Alex was a bit stunned as everyone peered at him. “I’ll save

  the rest of my idea for later. What do you suggest?”

  “We launch a shuttle, minimally crewed, and meet with the large ship

  on approach.”

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  “Am I gonna be on board this shuttle?” Alex asked.

  “It’s not sa—” she began.

  “That’s a bad idea!” his XO shouted.

  Silence filled the room, the crews’ heads still but eyes shifting, looking

  at each other.

  “Let’s meet with the smaller ship on approach and see what kind of

  reception we get with them. A ship that size should be easy to defend

  against. It’s a bit smaller than this conference room.”

  “So you want to leave the fate of our first meeting influenced by the

  temperament of whoever is on that small craft out there? For all we know,

  he’s working a penal sentence, harvesting ore from the belt.”

  “That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

  Lenora gave Jack a disapproving glare. “The point is we know nothing

  about who’s out there. It coul -“

  “Next idea.”

  “We could begin our approach to the planet and meet up with—”

  “Captain, we are receiving a response,” Symboli interrupted.

  “A response to what?”

  “You told me to send a message, I sent a message.”

  Everyone turned to look at each other, shock and anger on their faces.

  Alex held up his hand to silence the room, sure that everyone was going to

  say something.

  “Symboli,” Alex said as calmly as he could. “What did you say to them?”

  Using the voice and inflection of the aliens’ language, Symboli recited,

  “Greetings. We travel from a distant star and come to expand our knowl-

  edge through peace and cooperation. Will you meet with us?”

  “That’s—” Lanora started, but Alex held up his hand again.

  “What was their response?”

  “Shortly after it was received, a signal from the largest planet was sent

  and received by all ships in the system. All ships have changed course and

  are heading towards the three habited planets in the system, except for the

  largest ship and the nearest one, which are still on approach.”

  “Their version of clearing all air traffic,” the tactical chief surmised.

  “What do you think it means? The nearest one isn’t changing course.”

  “No idea.”

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  “Captain, we are receiving a message from the planet.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “We are scared, you scare us, but we will meet with you. Prepare for an

 
exchange. Meet us on our mother, we meet you on yours.”

  “They also provided an image,” Symboli said in his normal voice.

  A view of the Enterprise from the planet appeared as a small ship on

  the screen. A line appeared, tracing a path from the Enterprise and stopped at the large ship on approach. Another line appeared from the small ship

  nearest to the Enterprise and went towards the humans’ ship.

  “Is this supposed to mean something to us?” the chief tactical officer

  asked the room at large.

  The room was quiet as everyone considered the significance of the pic-

  ture and the message that preceded it.

  “I am going.”

  “Do we really need to have this conversation again?” Lanora’s head

  remained motionless while her eyes darted towards Alex.

  “Is it not the diplomat’s job to be the diplomat? I am going.”

  “This is a terrible idea!” Gloria stood up, resting her hands on the table.

  “What do you think is going to happen? You can’t take off your EVA suit,

  and they are already sca—”

  “I heard this before, Gloria, I get it. Put me in quarantine when I get

  back, or whatever you have to do.”

  Gloria sat down in her chair and opened the data pad on her desk.

  She navigated her data pad to Alex’s service jacket and opened a deceased

  person report. She filled out the report, and after filling out today’s date

  and general location, she wrote,

  Alex was killed by ____ because

  he was an idiot and failed to heed

  my advice.

  She continued writing furiously. Her assistant, sitting next to her,

  glanced at what she was doing and tried to conceal her face, afraid everyone

  at the table would figure out what Gloria was doing.

  “You should take with you no less than four armed personnel. Two

  should stay with the shuttle, and two should follow you wherever you go.”

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  “That’s okay. Who can tell me anything about the aliens themselves?”

  Alex looked around the room.

  “Well, I painstakingly edited a dozen still images of the video we

  received, filled with mostly static. I did my best to cut out the static on six frames and merged the remaining images together. Then I applied a color

  matching filter. What I got is an image you might see in a slight fog,” the

  XO said, sounding sheepish. Tapping a few buttons on his data pad, the

  image was transferred to the main screen in the room.

  Everyone in the room was transfixed as they gazed upon the first image

  of intergalactic life that didn’t resemble Jell-O or killer spiders. The skin

  appeared very smooth but lacked shine of any kind. A head that was longer

  lengthwise then height-wise, but still round like an oval. There were two

  eyes near the sides of the head, and in front of those appeared to be very

  thin gills or intentional cuts into the flesh of the face, two on either side.

  The center of the face was void of any features. There was no mouth to

  speak of, yet they had all heard its voice. The image was fuzzy and lacked

  definition, but still managed to convey the representation. Whatever was in

  the background was far too blurry to make out.

  A minute went by before someone said anything.

  “That’s pretty damn ugly,” Jack offered.

  The entire room feigned amusement or chuckled.

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  Chapter 26

  Predators of the Deep

  A BROWN LIGHT flashed multiple times and a tone sounded, softly at

  first, then grew louder until it rumbled like a rockslide, slowly subsiding to a low rumble, barely noticeable.

  Gs Ho Tae got out of gis bed, not realizing gi had fallen asleep and

  wondered how long gi slept. Gi moved towards the mirror and reviewed gis

  appearance. Gis mate, Ga Plu Tin, approached gis from behind.

  Realization dawned on gis. The alarm sounded without gis being pres-

  ent on the bridge. Whatever caused the alarm was dangerous. Gis mate

  was expecting as of yesterday, and transportation had not reached them to

  transport Ga Plu Tin to the surface. Ga approached gis from behind.

  “It’s okay. I would rather be at your side anyway,” Ga Plu Tin offered.

  Gs Ho Tae turned around and touched heads with Ga. Occasionally,

  one of them would reach up and push against the ceiling.

  “You always have to push tradition. Now it places our yet born at risk.

  Is this not foolish?”

  “I feel your love. Go make us safe, and I’ll head home after.”

  Gs Ho Tae wiggled gis toes against the hard metal floor, then took a

  deep breath as gi wished for loose ground. Everything on this forsaken ship

  felt unnatural to him. A shadow passed across one of the walls and they

  both tensed. Gs Ho Tae turned abruptly and maneuvered out of the domicile, passing from a room with brown metal walls to a tube-like corridor,

  black in color, the occasional light in the corridor signifying an entrance to another domicile or intersection. Gi could feel the presence of an oncom-ing occupant of the corridor and slowed down just a little to edge to the

  right side, closing gis left eye in the process. Their arms touched briefly as they passed each other.

  Upon the next intersection, gi turned left and ascended up a ramp to a

  much wider and a better-lit corridor. The metal here was heavily textured to

  allow for good traction, whether by hand or foot as either was used equally.

  Bodies effortlessly floated up and down the corridor, going to wherever

  they were needed. Occasionally the ascension would level out, and protrud-

  ing handrails could be grabbed easily to redirect motion to one of the two,

  three or sometimes four linear directions possible from the intersection.

  Before reaching the uppermost levels, gi reached out with gis hand and

  redirected giself towards the bridge using one of the handrails. The moment

  gi entered the most brightly lit room, several of the crew shouted, “Captain

  is present!” without making any other physical indication of gis arrival.

  Gs Ho Tae moved over to gis pillar and strapped giself to it. Mean-

  while, everyone waited patiently while gi secured giself.

  “What is the cause for concern?”

  “Predator from the deep, not like the other one.”

  “Let me see it.”

  A large circular screen slowly faded in an image of the UEF Enter-

  prise. The ship was far larger than the mother, much larger than the previous predator.

  “May the mother save us!” Defeat swept through gis body as gi remem-

  bered how they lost the father to a much smaller predator many cycles ago.

  “We will not make the same mistake twice. Initiate the attack!”

  “Who should receive the honor?” one of the many crewmen asked.

  “Everyone who is able… I fear it will not be enough.”

  “I feel fear,” one of the crewman said. Many more followed with, “I feel

  fear,” as well.

  “I feel anger over what they did to father, and I look forward to defend-

  ing my home,” said the Captain.

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  All over the ship, crewmen were busy performing various tasks, and it was several more moments before the ship and its occupants felt the

  embrace of the mother as the ship accelerated.

  “How much power does the mother have?”

  “All tanks are full.” />
  “When will we be close enough to engage the predator?”

  “If the predator doesn’t move, point zero nine cycles.”

  A crewman monitoring the communications system noticed something

  on git display. Git eyes got bigger, and git tongue naturally slipped out of

  git mouth. “Captain! Home is sending a message to the predator. They

  invite it for talks!”

  “Nonsense, the predators do not talk! Such foolishness!” The captain

  made sharp head movements and gis arms naturally extended away from

  gis body, the skin flushed a deep color.

  The captain watched as the color drained away from communications

  operator. “What is it?”

  “Captain, I feel uncertain. Allow me to double check before I speak

  such a thing.”

  The Captain raised a finger in the air, and the crewman reviewed the

  new information quietly and quickly a second time.

  Several moments passed. “Gs Ho Tae,” the operator started. Despite

  the severe break in protocol in calling the Captain by gis full name, gi

  continued, “The predator responded to our home’s invitation and in our

  language, though phrased a bit weirdly.”

  “I feel lost. What is the message?”

  “One word: Peace.”

  “I feel anger. They are not welcome; send that message.”

  “Message sent. Also, I have acknowledgment from all our ships. They

  are on the hunt.”

  “I am receiving multiple messages from home. Several are from com-

  mand. Shall I review the messages?”

  Gs Ho Tae allowed gis body to rest comfortably against the pole, thank-

  ful for its support. “You may receive messages from command.”

  “First message open, read receipt acknowledged. Message reads,

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  Captain Gs Ho Tae you are hereby ordered to facilitate any means to open a dialog to the new arrivals.”

  Immediately gis regretted opening the message. The captain hissed

  with frustration. “How many more messages can I ignore this cycle?”

  “Two, and you have forty-two—three messages waiting for you. How-

  ever, I feel your luck. The alert initially came from home, and protocol says

  when the alert originates from home—”

  “You can ignore all messages,” the Captain finished. “You may account

  yourself a point for gratitude.”

  “I feel appreciation.”