The First Exoplanet

by T. J. Sedgwick

  “First: we, as the WGA, need to call upon our friends the Russians, the Chinese and others to start coordinating their space-based and ground-based weaponry. In the event of an alien attack we can then exert the maximum force with the assets we already have, which are extensive. Li, we all know that your country’s anti-satellite technologies are more advanced than our own,” he said, making eye contact with elder statesman and Chinese President, Li Zhao. Turning his attention to Russian President and former Security Minister, Roman Demenok, he continued, “Roman, Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities are second-to-none. Both Russia and China have space shuttles that could be adapted or upgraded to fight in a time of war. We need to adapt and re-target our nuclear arsenals to face spacewards instead of at each other. We need a wartime command structure to be developed. We ask that you share your proposals with us and open up your military organisations to face this threat. Coordination of what we’ve already got is key, gentlemen,” said President Powell to nods of approval from the Russian and Chinese Presidents. PM Carlton was amused at the accepting body language of the Russians and Chinese and knew that, when it came to actual cooperation between counterpart militaries, their paranoia and national interest would probably scupper any real chance of effective coordination. The British and German militaries were already part of the WGA, leaving the Russians and Chinese as the audience for Powell’s first point of three.

  “Secondly, we propose to accelerate plans to build the WGA’s first capital ship in the Alliance Citadel Assembly facility. Some details will be released once the design has been signed-off. But it’s safe to say that it will be a major step up in Space Force capability. It will be a vital part of our defence until we can be more certain as to the aliens’ intentions and have time to get our space force in shape for meeting any potential threat.”

  The only human facility capable of building a military spacecraft of any size was the Assembly Module on the Alliance Citadel. The Corvette WGASS Atlantic was expected to take a year to build and even that was a mammoth effort for the Alliance to achieve. The United States and some of the Alliance’s non-European members would be footing most of the bill for the new ship, creating tensions within the WGA that Powell was all too aware of, not to mention the flak he’d taken from the opposition Democrats. Powell and his inner circle saw the threat as real and passionately believed in what they were doing. The fact that the military and defence industries were part of their core of support also helped make the decision easier than it otherwise would have been.

  A key part of the strategy was to monitor space for FTL gravimetric spikes, indicating an alien jump to Sol. The stealth and firepower of the Corvette Atlantic should allow her to pick off alien ships one-by-one as they transitted in. This was based on the logic that the aliens would be using an FTL gate rather than fitting each of their ships with an FTL drive. As long as the gate was big enough for the largest ship to pass through they might only need one to get to Earth. They could then bring another gate with them and set it up for a possible return. This would be far quicker and cheaper than a drive installed on each ship, but much less flexible. The downside – for the Aliens – would be their vulnerability when transiting in one-by-one, which would, with any luck, take place in one locale to form a fleet. If they jumped in across a wide area then the Atlantic would really have her work cut out honing in on each alien ship. Humanity’s other weapons systems were only effective close to Earth, with the exception of the Citadel Alliance’s mass driver and its fleet of Viper drones. The mass driver could line up on static or slow-moving alien targets in space, so the thinking went; although no testing on anything other than ground targets had been conducted so far. The aliens’ FTL exit gate would also be vulnerable to human attack if it could be located in time. Still, preventing their escape was secondary to stopping them coming in the first place. There were many assumptions, any of which could scupper humanity’s battle plans. But there was little choice—none of the leaders had any illusions that humankind wasn’t vulnerable as hell. As they all knew that plans rarely survive contact with the enemy.

  President Powell came to the final point of his strategy. ”Third: offence is the best form of defence—we need to take the fight to the enemy. The triple-S has already proved we can infiltrate their planet and, to some degree, evade their spacecraft. We need to initiate a series of raids on their capital ships and shipyard facilities to disrupt their war machine and give ourselves time to build up our defences. This will be a major undertaking, given the scale of their fleet and facilities. Gentlemen, we stand on the brink of a war we cannot win as things are right now. We need to be proactive and can't afford to wait until it’s too late.”

  Chinese President Li Zhao took a breath then responded, “Thank you, Stephen and Michael. We Chinese agree that there is a threat and a need to step-up our space force capabilities. However, we feel that, as humans, we do not maximise this if not all of us have access to the latest technology. Only producing state-of-the-art ships in WGA facilities wastes our joint productive capacity. We propose that the WGA allows us access to the FTL technology and the Russians share their cutting-edge miniaturized fusion reactors. We, in turn, have technology to trade. We cannot work in isolation when it comes to technology for it is technology that will win or lose this coming battle. Or should I say war?”

  PM Carlton admired the shrewdness in President Li’s approach. He had used President Powell’s call for cooperation to try to gain access to key strategic technologies. If the WGA and Russians refused, they would look like hypocrites and if they agreed then China would benefit from a distinctly one-sided deal. Whether the Chinese position was shaped by genuine fear of the alien threat was something Carlton had not yet made his mind up about. The Chinese, Russians and everyone else outside of the WGA coveted the FTL technology and would do just about anything to acquire it. But the WGA had no intention of trading it away, such was its strategic importance and such was its national leaders’ instinct for control.

  The Russians knew they’d been let off lightly after the Santa Maria virus incident, which had, in many ways, precipitated the current state of relations with the aliens. Demenok believed that the aliens would have turned out hostile in any case as there was no evidence to the contrary. His personal view was that they’d come to dominate their star system by force of arms. Just as would happen with any intelligent being, their warlike behaviour had been reinforced by success on the battlefield. He’d not dreamt this up by himself—some of the best academics in Russia had written a secret report for his leadership on their best explanations of the alien mind-set. Not that there was too much to go on, but this theory made the most sense to Demenok. Ever the former spook, he decided to keep this theory to himself. Russia had gained enough intelligence from various sources, even after the failed virus attempt, to start work on her own experimental FTL drive in the lab. Once in a position to do so, they would send their own spy probes to Avendano. They’d focus on learning the alien language and infiltrating their systems with a view to stealing technologies and leveraging factions, if factions existed. Demenok knew that it was a human tendency to view ‘the others’ as a monolithic group. This was probably due to the fact that little was known about ‘them’. Humans always seemed to think their own tribe or faction had a great diversity of culture, thought and opinion whereas the other lot did not. Still, for the time being, Russia would play along with the self-righteous Americans and their lackeys. When it came to sharing they’d do their best to make sure their own share was more equal than the other guy’s.

  After speaking in bland generalities for several minutes, Demenok concluded his monologue on Russia’s position. “We support the need for cooperation and look forward to working with our friends in the WGA and China.”

  German PM Wolfgang Fischer was last to put his country’s position. Just like the British and Americans, the Germans had agreed their stance beforehand with their Alliance partners. Germany was in a similar position to
the UK and was reluctant to commit resources that were much needed in shoring up the overblown social welfare system. Germany’s was the most generous in Europe and the most attractive to immigrants from within and outside Europe’s leaky borders. The relative success of the German economy had been weighed down by European obligations and non-selective immigration, which, in turn, brought social strife and division. Fighting ‘little green men’ was something no European politician could divert money to and expect to survive politically.

  ***

  After the talks, PM Michael Carlton sat in his private office reflecting on what they’d agreed. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. It had been a long and largely fruitless summit with little movement on pre-meeting commitments. Without American leadership there would have been almost no new tangible action agreed off the back of the Operation Far Light report. He was a seasoned enough statesman to read between the lines and interpret the level of Russian and Chinese commitment as token at best. For his part, he’d been backed into a financial and political corner. He was about to embark on the next struggle: to get the Special Forces funding in support of the planned raids on the alien ships and shipyards. Even that paltry amount – not to mention agreement to send British troops into action – was by no means assured.

  It was late and first thing tomorrow he had an urgent meeting with the attorney general and Editor of The London Guardian who was, apparently, ready to go public with the full, un-redacted version of the Far Light Mission report. Blowing the lid wide open on the extent of what the government knew about the aliens could set off a global panic that they’d struggle to control.

  Chapter Twenty

  May 21, 2062 Hereford, United Kingdom

  Matt Hart, a.k.a. Chip by his Special Forces colleagues, woke up with the morning sun illuminating the bedroom, which still lacked the blackout curtains his wife had been bugging him about since the clocks went forward. She lay next to him gently snoozing, arms wrapped around their youngest boy, Quin, who’d joined them in the middle of the night. Zara appreciated her Sunday lay in. No early start, no organising the boys and no commute into London. She had a busy life with a full-time job and two boys – Quin, six and Callum, eight – especially when Hart was away on duty. Hart carefully eased himself out of the bed, rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way down the stairs of their compact semi-detached house in suburban Hereford, England. He put on the coffee and unscrolled his tablet, the wafer thin device locking rigid and displaying his homescreen. While the kettle boiled, he sat at the breakfast bar and opened the London Guardian newspaper. He’d heard rumours of the leak of the Operation Far Light report but had dismissed them as the usual locker room gossip, however, after reading the headline he started to believe they’d been right.

  The Guardian on Sunday Special Report:

  Alien Threat to Earth Revealed

  Six years ago, on January 4, 2056, Doctors Aidan Lemaie and Scarlett Hansen found the first clear signs of what humans had been searching for since antiquity: intelligent life among the stars. Only four and a half years later, on September 6, 2061, did the interstellar probe, Santa Maria, finally answer that seminal question: Are we alone? This was a day that has gone down in history as the day we discovered we are not alone in the universe. Before the alien civilization was discovered it seemed impossible, the stuff of countless science fiction movies and documentaries. Now it has been answered it seems that it was inevitable. Soon after sending back the first images and data from the Avendano system the probe went missing and has yet to be found. Or so we were told.

  The London Guardian can now divulge the shocking truth of what really happened. We have been given exclusive access to the Special Space Service’s mission report on Operation Far Light, which reveals the extent of covert operations that have already taken place on the surface of the Alien planet of Gaia. The implications are terrifying and we have released this special report to help prepare you and your family for the threat that we hope will never come to pass. A five-part serialisation will be starting on Monday, but here at The London Guardian we put people before profit and hold the powerful to account, so are informing you of the key points today in this exposé.

  Santa Maria Probe Known to Have Crashed on Gaia

  The timeline of real events is now known from the Operation Far Light report. The first pictures and data were sent back on September 8, last year. That was two days after Santa Maria was launched to Avendano using the faster-than-light (FTL) drive. The world watched, transfixed, as the splendour of the Earth-like Gaia and the advanced civilization that had grown up there was unveiled. Another two days passed and the scheduled return of another messenger microprobe – the means by which data was sent back to Earth – did not happen. On September 12, Santa Maria’s sister probe, Pinta, was sent to look for her. After that, the public version of the story diverges from the truth. The world was told that Santa Maria remains missing to this day and that Pinta found no trace of her. According to the Far Light report, the official line was a lie designed to prevent panic. Pinta revealed that Santa Maria had entered the Gaian atmosphere in an attempt to land on the planet but had instead malfunctioned and crashed into the ocean. This was first learnt of on September 18, when one of Santa Maria’s microprobes that had seen everything was transmitted back to Earth by Pinta. Pinta continued to monitor the alien planet for signs of Santa Maria and witnessed the alien recovery operation with her high-powered cameras. The aliens fished Santa Maria from the depths of the Gaian sea and brought her onshore, thereafter transporting her to an alien facility.

  President Powell and PM Carlton Feared Aliens Got Hold of FTL

  With Santa Maria now in alien hands, officials feared that the revolutionary FTL drive on board would be reverse-engineered. This would allow the aliens to travel the vast distances between star systems in an instant, just like the probes we sent to Avendano. All well and good if the aliens had been friendly, peace-loving and willing to trade, but the first signs that they were hostile became known when Pinta returned on September 21 having been fired on.

  Aliens Do Not Want to Talk - Pinta Probe Fired On

  The footage and data from Pinta were reviewed and it was clear that the probe, although cloaked, had been fired upon by the aliens. They had somehow detected her and seen her as a threat, but missed their target. The strategy, we understand, was to covertly spy on the aliens from afar and determine the best way to communicate with them in a way that was to our advantage. The crashed Santa Maria and the detected Pinta seemed to have scuppered this plan. The decision was taken on September 24 to send Pinta back once again, uncloaked this time, and to broadcast a ‘first-contact package’ of information making it clear we humans wanted peace and wanted to talk. It is understood that the aliens had no interest in finding out what Pinta’s broadcast was saying and simply opened fire at the first opportunity. Pinta’s AI routines evaded the threat and jumped her back to Earth to avoid being destroyed. But not before she took a serious pounding from what is described as a high-powered particle beam weapon, which melted through part of the probe body. It was now clear to officials that the Aliens should be considered a hostile force and it was unacceptable to allow them access to the FTL technology they had acquired with Santa Maria’s drive system.

  Special Forces Mission Nuked Alien Base - Two British Soldiers Died

  By mid-October ,WESTFOR and the UK’s Special Space Service initiated a mission to deny the Aliens the FTL technology that they were assumed to be reverse-engineering. Operation Rapid Denial was born, with a four-man patrol being sent to Gaia in cloaked Viper spacecraft. Although that mission was covered in a separate report, some of its details were included in the report of Operation Far Light. The Rapid Denial mission objectives were for the four-man team to locate and destroy the captured Santa Maria probe and any research materials the aliens may have on the FTL drive. According to the report, the probe was located in an underground Alien base before the human patrol was detected. A f
ierce fire fight followed in which two British soldiers were killed. The London Guardian will respect the anonymity of the servicemen involved and will continue to do so. Faced with mission failure, the patrol had authorisation to deploy a backpack nuclear device. The twenty kiloton yield nuke – about the same size as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War Two – was detonated in the base on a timer destroying the facility. The SSS patrol had also lost access to their classified equipment used to communicate with base in Hereford, so were presumed missing in action. On October 16, Operation Far Light was given the go ahead two days after the then-missing patrol had left to seek and destroy Santa Maria.

  Spy Mission Shows Aliens Massing for Invasion

  Operation Far Light had two objectives. Firstly, it was a search and rescue mission aimed at finding out what happened to A-Patrol and whether or not they’d achieved the Operation Rapid Denial mission brief. The second objective was to spy on the aliens for an extended period of six months to gather intelligence and, in particular, to find out whether they had indeed destroyed the aliens’ FTL-development programme. Far Light was concluded a month ago with intelligence data having been sent back for the previous six-month period. All of this data was classified, and, as the world waited for the next probe mission to Avendano, our troops were hidden on Gaia spying on the aliens. The good news was that two of the first patrol survived. One returned to Earth via an FTL gate the search and rescue team had brought to Gaia. The other soldier stayed on with the search-and-rescue patrol to help reconnoitre the aliens. We understand that they managed to avoid any further contacts with the aliens but succeeded in gathering a wealth of intelligence data. And that intelligence makes disturbing reading.