Space Scout

by S A Pavli

  I also spent considerable time examining the alien laboratory instruments and machinery, with a view to gauging their level of technology. The Power generator was a compact fusion device, smaller and lighter than anything we had, but not by much. The Laboratory instruments and other machinery was finely made, with quality materials and solid construction They were also beautifully decorated with designs, carvings and bevelled edges. Again, technology was similar to ours, but much more care had been put into their construction. It indicated a technology not far in advance of ours. But what did the more elaborate and well made construction and decoration mean? Was this a culture which valued beauty and quality instead of throw away functionality as we did? I could not help but feel approval if this was the case.

  In between my other pursuits I spent considerable time with Alfred reviewing various strategies we could adopt when the aliens arrived. We had no doubt that they would arrive. In particular, our first concern would be to establish a basis for communication. This was obviously an important part of Alfred’s programming, and an important part of our job as a scout team. Our masters back on earth had anticipated, indeed, hoped, that first contact would take place via a trained team such as us. Innumerable scenarios had been worked through as part of our basic training, involving everything from psychotic man eating monsters to weird introverted life forms barely able to communicate in ways that were familiar to us. Our aliens seemed reassuringly normal by comparison to these sorts of extremes. Knowing that they were humanoid, with senses similar to ours simplified our planning enormously.

  The first and most basic part of communication was to establish an electronic connection and protocol that allowed the exchange of recognisable information. This would be carried out by our cybernetic servants, Alfred and his alien equivalent. They would then have to move on to learning each other’s language. Alfred had been programmed to use an artificial language, created specifically for this purpose.

  Alfred had been working on building the basic routines to establish communications and to explain what had happened to us. The idea was to get these processes done before the aliens arrived on Omorphia. That is, between coming out of Hyperspace and travelling the remaining three million miles to the planet, a period of three to five days. Although I was confident that Alfred was right, I was concerned that, if we encountered unexpected problems, we needed a ‘plan 2’.

  After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that a second camp was needed, hidden in the woods as far as possible from the alien base. I would equip this with the basic elements for survival, and with Sundance for company, head for the woods at the first sight of the aliens. If Alfred was successful in establishing communications and the aliens were peaceful, I would return to the base camp to meet them. If not, I was to remain hidden. How long I could remain at liberty was anybody’s guess, but I had a little more chance than if I remained a sitting duck at base camp.

  I set about preparing the basic materials for what I called my ‘boy scout’ camp; A small tent, a selection of clothing including winter clothes, knives, guns, and survival gear and a food supply.

  We set off the next day with Sundance to establish the secondary camp, which was to be ten miles down the coast in the direction of the shuttle and inland over the mountains to a valley with plenty of running water, vegetation and game. The weather was hot and humid and the trek took all day. We set up camp in some sheltered rocks overlooking the valley, and spent the night there before heading back. We left the tent pitched, with all the survival equipment inside. Since we had seen nothing around there bigger than a sheep, we were confident it would be undamaged.

  The trip back was easier as we were no longer loaded down with supplies and equipment. I enjoyed the rugged and beautiful scenery as we trudged down the mountain to the sea to head back along the coast to the base camp. I was looking forward to a return to the comforts of the base camp, a good shower, and a comfortable bed. One thing the aliens did know how to build was a comfortable bed. We were now ready, our plans laid and our preparations made. As I gazed down on the sea breaking against some rocks, following Sundance’s trail there was a click in my ear and Alfred’s fruity tones interrupted my reverie.

  “Paul, a starship has dropped out of hyperspace, two and one half million miles from Omorphia.”

  Chapter 6

  My heart jumped and a shiver ran down my spine despite the humid heat of the day. I stopped dead in my tracks. “This is it then?”

  “It is what we had expected,” replied the imperturbable Alfred.

  “Expectation is one thing,” I muttered “Realisation is a different smelly kettle of fish.”

  “We must be calm and follow the plan,” replied Alfred. “They must now have seen the Lisa Jane. Shall I proceed with initial contact?”

  I realised that I was breathing heavily and my heart was racing. I tried to calm myself.

  “Yes Alfred, proceed as planned. In the meantime, should I return to base camp or to my forest hidey hole?”

  “It is your decision Paul,” responded Alfred “We have three to four days before they arrive so there is no urgency.”

  “True. I’ll return to base, pick up some more supplies and then decide in a couple of days what to do. Good luck Alfred.”

  “Luck is not relevant Paul.”

  “I was wishing you success with the Contact Protocol.”

  “I understand. Thank you.”

  “Keep me in touch.”

  “Of course.” I continued to trudge down the hill following Sundance. The sea was to my right the mountains to my left. I walked but my attention was elsewhere. After a couple of minutes, a hiss of static and then;

  “I have sent initial hailing signals on a range of frequencies.” The hailing signals were basic binary and mathematical sequences. It took a couple of minutes before the next response.

  “The signals are being returned on a range of frequencies,” said Alfred. I smiled to myself . At least they were talking to us.

  “I will proceed with the program,” said Alfred. He was now going to proceed step by step through the program to agree a common communications protocol. Without this we could go no further.

  It took hours to set this up, much longer than expected. The aliens appeared to have been taken unawares or their computer/AI was not programmed for first contact. Alfred took the lead, but his leads were often not interpreted or understood. A number of attempts were needed, using different ways of presenting the information before they caught on. But by the time Sundance and I walked into base camp Alfred was reporting that a communications protocol was established. We had a common basis for exchanging pictures, voice, text , graphics and digital.

  My first job on getting back to base camp was to power up the satellite screen linking me to Alfred. There was a big digital display with associated storage and retrieval facilities at the alien base and Alfred was displaying the data coming and going to the alien ship. On seeing this I could not help being startled and gasped with surprise. In one corner was the received signal from the aliens and it showed what appeared to be a control room with a number of people at work there. Facing the screen were two aliens. With bated breath I examined them closely. They looked exactly like the individuals whose photographs we had found on the base. These then were the base aliens I thought; unless the attacking aliens were the same race, in which case we were no wiser. But that was not the only problem.

  “The aliens are trying to communicate the idea that they require the exchange of visual information. They want to see what we look like.”

  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” I murmured facetiously, but thinking furiously. There was a video cam mounted above the screen, but to enable that would be to show them where I was. Would that matter? I guessed it would be better to keep my location secret, but on the other hand we needed to establish some trust.

  “What do you think Alfred? Shall I switch on the video cam here?”

  “I see no harm in
that Paul,” he replied. “I am commencing the language program. In a few hours we should be able to communicate at a simple level and explain to them what we are and what happened to us. I cannot see why they should react with hostility.” I nodded.

  “I agree Alfred. I am switching on the video cam now. I will take them on a tour of the base, pointing out the damage and showing them what we have repaired.” This was what I proceeded to do. When I first switched on the camera and Alfred broadcast the image, there was agitation from the aliens. They jabbered and pointed at the screen, and other faces appeared for a look. One of the aliens started punching buttons and talking into a microphone agitatedly. I nodded in what I hoped was a reassuring manner, although as far as the aliens were concerned I could be insulting them. I removed the camera from its mounting and called over Butch. I fixed the camera into one of his appendages and instructed him to follow me around, keeping me on camera. I then proceeded to give them a guided tour of the site, showing them the repaired and cleaned up accommodation building and the working power systems, the holes in walls and the destruction. Whilst walking around I could not see the image from the alien ship, but Alfred informed me that they were very agitated. After a half hour of doing the ‘tour guide’ act I decided that would do for now.

  “Alfred, I’m closing down the video cam for now. Let me know when we can talk with the aliens.”

  “It will be a few hours yet Paul. Get some rest,” suggested Alfred. Sometimes he was just like my mother. A shower and some food got me through the next couple of hours after which I decided to check in with Alfred before bed.

  “How is progress Alfred?” I asked.

  “Very good Paul,” he replied. “They were very quick to comprehend our Language Compiler and we have been making good progress. We can exchange some basic ideas now.”

  “Alfred, shall we attempt communication now or wait until you have built up a more sophisticated language capability?”

  “If you can wait until tomorrow, it will be much better,” he replied.

  “Fair enough , I will get some sleep and speak to you in the morning.” I treated myself to a night cap from my receding bottle of Scotch before bed. Sleep was slow in coming. I was excited and hyped up, my head buzzing with ideas. I drifted off eventually because I was physically very tired and slept very heavily.

  The morning arrived and I awoke to the sun streaming through the window. I lay still for a few minutes savouring the morning peace before getting myself up and about. I did not want to rush talking to Alfred because I was afraid he would say everything was ready and I could talk to the aliens. I was not ready for that. Would I ever be? I asked myself. After ablutions, dressing and breakfast I could put it off no longer.

  “Good Morning Alfred, how was your night?”

  “Good Morning Paul, my night was very productive. How did you sleep?”

  “Better than I expected. And ready to rumble.”

  “Rumble?” he enquired.

  “Fighting fit,” I explained.

  “I hope there will be no fighting,” he said disapprovingly.

  “No fighting. There will be sweetness and light across the Galaxy.”

  “You are relieving the tension again,” he observed.

  “Right you are,” I agreed, “How did your language lessons go Alfred?”

  “I have a substantial vocabulary. It is interesting that I had to take the lead in building a communications and language interface. It seems that they have not done anything like this before, and were not prepared for it.”

  “You have to remember Alfred,” I said “We are a specialist team with highly sophisticated systems for alien contact. That is our job. They are just a bunch of guys out on a mission to see what happened to their exploration team. The onus is on us.”

  “That is true Paul.”

  “And you have performed most admirable,” I said

  “It is a vindication of my design and programming,” agreed Alfred modestly. “They will be very pleased back at the Space Exploration Service that the design has been so successful.”

  “Enough of these self congratulations. let’s put your interpreter skills to the test.”

  “Connecting,” said Alfred. A blank square appeared on the top of the screen, and a picture of what we were transmitting on the bottom. In addition to the audio video link Alfred also had a number of other microwave digital links to the aliens. One of these alerted the aliens that we wanted to talk and a couple of minutes later the top screen lit up to display the control room we had seen the previous day.

  Two individuals were displayed on screen, quite different from each other. About the same height, one was whipcord lean, with a long thin somewhat lugubrious face, the chin long and drooping, the mouth a slit and a gleaming huge bald pate. He wore a dark uniform, very Official and Military in appearance. It looked like military men throughout the Galaxy had a liking for uniforms!

  The individual next to him was the complete opposite. Although the same height, she wore more casual garb and loose fitting, She had black hair which cascaded down from a high marble forehead. Her face and body were plumper than the man and her eyes a startling violet colour. She was also dressed elaborately in a loose finely embroidered gown. Behind them was clearly the ships control room, with a number of uniformed individuals working at control stations. The room was large and well appointed, without the pipes and cables that crawled all over the walls of a human ship. It looked more like the control room of an ocean liner than a starship.

  “Paul, you may talk,” Alfred whispered in my ear. I started and cleared my throat.

  “Um..my name is Paul Constantine and I am from the planet Earth. For the last day you have been in communication with my partner, the Artificial Intelligence Computer which I refer to as ‘Alfred’. We are the crew of the Earth exploration ship that you see in orbit about this planet.” There was a pause while the translation process took place, then the aliens turned , looked at each other and the woman spoke.

  “My name is Manera Ka Hatekam , Science Director of the Verana exploration Team. Verana is the planet your ship is orbiting . This is Smetronis Ne Pashmateri , the Captain of this ship.” She paused for a moment. “Why are you inhabiting our exploration base?”

  “Our starship suffered a fault which destroyed its Hyperspace drive. We are unable to return home. Because our physiology was so similar, your base seemed a ready made and comfortable habitation. We were puzzled by the damage to the base. What became of its inhabitants?” I finished with a questioning tone. The Captain now spoke for the first time.

  “The base was attacked by an alien craft and the scientific team fled. Some were hurt. Did you witness this barbarous act?”

  “No,” I replied quickly. “We found it the way it is now, apart from the repairs we have carried out to make it habitable.” The Captain spoke again, looking directly and sternly at the camera.

  “Since you are on the Planet, I presume you have a shuttle craft. Where is it?”

  I did not like the direction the conversation had taken and I had to pause to think of my reply. He detected this and turned to whisper something to the woman. Bugger, I thought. He is suspicious.

  “We were concerned that you may think we were responsible for the attack to the base and we took some precautions,” I said , not trying to give too much away.

  “Like hiding your shuttle craft?” he asked looking agitated.

  “Why would we attack your base and then stay here?” I asked, avoiding the question. He looked angry and the woman turned to him, laying a hand on his arm and whispering something under her breath.

  “Captain Paul Constantine,” she said. “This is an auspicious moment, the first contact of our people and yours. We do not wish to spoil it with suspicion.” She glanced quickly at the Captain when she said this. “We have two of the Scientific team who survived the attack and witnessed the aircraft responsible. We also have some recordings of the attacking vehicle, imperfect and out of focus
but adequate to prove whether it was your shuttle, if you are prepared to trust us.”

  “That will be excellent,” I said with relief. “Your photographs and witnesses will certainly prove that we are not the attackers. Can you make the photographs available?”

  “Yes, we will transmit them later. Now, I am very excited to learn more about your species. Have you discovered other intelligent species in the galaxy or are you alone? Tell me about your history, how long have you been a space faring race?” She was visibly unable to contain her excitement and curiosity. I smiled sympathetically at the screen.

  “Yes. I also am very excited. We as a race call ourselves Humans and we have had Interstellar travel for two hundred and fifty of our years. We have explored a few hundred or so star systems and colonised a number of planets other than our own. We have not met any other intelligent life forms.” Protocol required that I did not reveal the exact number of planets explored or colonised by Humans.

  “Only two hundred years,” she exclaimed in surprise “You are very new to Interstellar travel.”

  “Ah,” I said cautiously. “And how many years has your race travelled the stars?”

  “Many thousands of years,” she said equally cautiously and I could not help the twitch of my eyebrows and the widening of my eyes in surprise.

  “We call ourselves the ‘Hianja’ and I am from the planet ‘Mesaroyat’. This planet, which we call Verana, was discovered some years ago by an exploration team and this base was established last year to assess the planet’s suitability for settlement.”