by Kylie Chan
‘Ask her where she wants to meet: our ship or her ship,’ Commander Alto said, and I passed the message on with my new tight-beam skill.
Shiumo replied in broadcast mode. Wherever you’d be more comfortable. First Contact is all about you.
Can you live in our atmosphere? I asked her.
Yes. Direct me where you want me to go, and I’ll hand your people over. We need to hurry. They’re in a very bad way and close to death.
Commander Alto hesitated, and I could nearly hear his mind grinding through the options. Better control on the human ship, but more information to be gained on the alien ship. The risk of capture and ransom if he went into Shiumo’s ship. The possibility that the alien could damage the Britannia if he allowed her to board it. The lack of any safe third ground, and the desperate plight of the colonists. Infectious disease, psionic damage, the dying colonists, the three-day wait before anyone else could come up and speak to her …
I realised that I could nearly hear Commander Alto’s mind – the insta-training that Shiumo had given me had also dramatically increased my sensitivity. The alien was good. I wondered what she looked like, and how many of them were in the massive ship.
‘Is docking an issue for the transfer?’ Commander Alto said. ‘How do we connect the ships together?’
How will we move between ships? Our docking systems are incompatible, I said to Shiumo.
Not a problem. My ship can dock with anything – we’re pan-connective, Shiumo said.
Commander Alto turned to me and the other crew members. ‘Choumali, with me. Tell Shiumo where the Britannia’s docking bay is, explain how it works, and tell her we’ll meet her there. Walker, remain here and supervise the crew on the pod. Lieutenant Ng, you’re coming with us to help direct the evacuation of the top two modules. I want everyone down in the habitat section while the alien’s on board. Seal every bulkhead between the bridge and the habitat, and don’t open them until the medtechs give you the all clear.’
Ng saluted him. ‘Sir.’
‘Two greens to handle the colonists. Webster and Bailey.’ Commander Alto pointed to the med officers. ‘Everybody else, stay here on the pod and wait for further instructions. Walker, you have the bridge.’
‘Understood, sir,’ Emily said, and turned away to speak on the internal comms.
Sarah Webster and Lena Bailey, the two medtechs, followed us to the airlock. The airlock door opened and we went in. It closed, the second door opened, and we were in the transfer tunnel. We pulled ourselves to the end of the flexible tube, its soft sides ice-cold and suffocatingly clinging, went through another airlock, and into the long, hollow spine of the Spirit of Britannia. The documentation had smugly claimed that the Britannia was the largest and most advanced generation ship ever constructed, but compared to Shiumo’s ship it was basic and ugly.
I banged against the bulkhead as we entered the ship; three days of training in microgravity wasn’t nearly enough. My hands twitched and I wished I had a weapon to defend us against the unknown.
We were in the bottom of the central spine of the ship, its three-kilometre length stretching before us. Handles like those on a train projected into the tube every two metres along the interior walls. Commander Alto hit the start button and the handholds moved. We each took one, and the mechanism towed us through the spine of the ship towards the bridge at the far end. It seemed to take forever, then we were through the airlock into the bow of the ship.
We left Lieutenant Ng to round up the rest of the crew and take them into the habitat cylinder, and headed to the bridge. It contained the steering and navigation panels, and twenty screens to display the space around the ship as well as external views of the ship itself.
Commander Alto floated to the control panel and brought up images of Shiumo’s ship as it drifted towards the Britannia. I made a soft sound of astonishment: the ship had a figurehead of a dragon sitting on the point of its bow. It was a brilliantly metallic scarlet, the same as the rest of the ship, and the sunlight flashed off it.
‘How can they know what our mythical creatures look like?’ Bailey said.
‘Must be from previous visits,’ I said softly.
‘Exactly,’ Commander Alto said. ‘Brace yourselves for contact.’
We grabbed the consoles, but the docking was a feather-light bump.
‘Weapons?’ I said. ‘First Contact procedure says the senior officer makes the decision on this, sir.’
‘I’m making the decision to go in unarmed,’ Commander Alto said. ‘I hope it’s the right one. If Shiumo really has our colonists, it’s a show of good faith, and we need to return it.’ He lowered his voice. ‘And that ship demonstrates a level of technology far beyond anything we have. If she decides to be aggressive, I don’t think we have a chance against her.’
‘Sir, I don’t think it’s a good idea to enter from a position of weakness,’ I said. ‘We need them to respect us, and being armed gives us more status.’
‘Only on our world. We don’t know how they’ll react to weapons.’
‘But –’
‘Stand down, Corporal.’
I grunted with frustration and looked around for the weapons locker.
Commander Alto gestured with his head towards an unmarked storage door to my left, and I nodded understanding. But by the time I could return to the bridge, locate a weapon in the locker, identify it and load it, we would probably all be dead. Maybe he was right. We might not have a chance if an alien with this level of technology decided it wanted us out of the way.
Shiumo spoke to us telepathically as we wound our way through the bow of the ship to the docking bay. Confirming a good seal on this side. Wait while I open it and we’ll see if it’s good on your side too.
The bay was stacked to the ceiling with crates full of supplies for the construction of the ship. Commander Alto floated to wait three metres from the airlock door, and I floated into guard position at his left. The meds hung back near the bulkhead, allowing them an easy escape if necessary.
There was a whoosh from the change in pressure, but no hiss of air.
Any leaks? Shiumo said.
No, I said. All clear.
All right, here goes. I am bringing five colonists on gurneys. Be aware that the gurneys are extensions of my sentient artificial intelligence aide. Its name is Marque, and it will be in the form of floating spheres. Marque has stabilised your colonists, but please work carefully with the gurneys – they are more than just trolleys.
‘Tell her understood,’ one of the green-clad medtechs said, and I passed it on.
I’ve closed the airlock, Shiumo said. Give it a moment. All right, open up. Let’s see what one of you looks like in good health.
Commander Alto radiated tension as he operated the airlock controls. The circular door in the middle of the wall opened, and he floated backwards with shock.
A red dragon floated in the airlock, with two gurneys and two floating spheres, nearly upside-down from our plane of view in the microgravity. The dragon had to coil its long body to fit. The floating spheres were black and featureless, and twenty centimetres across. They righted themselves to match us.
The dragon floated out of the airlock with the spheres above it and the two gurneys beside it. ‘Bring the other colonists, Marque,’ it said, and it had Shiumo’s voice.
Our medtechs quickly floated to the gurneys to check the colonists. They were on intravenous drips and emaciated.
The airlock closed, there was another change in pressure, and it opened to reveal three more colonists on gurneys.
‘We need to move them to the med centre right away,’ Bailey said.
‘Wait,’ said one of the colonists, her voice weak and thin. ‘I have something to say.’
‘Quickly,’ Bailey said.
‘Arigato gozaimasu, Shiumo-sama. You saved us,’ the colonist said.
‘My pleasure. I hope to meet you again when you have recovered. Marque?’
One of the floating sphe
res took position next to Bailey’s head and spoke with a man’s voice, its accent slightly Euro, similar to our own. ‘I haven’t given them anything except saline. We need to work right now on their blood pressure and electrolytic balance if we’re to save them. There’s significant wastage and muscular atrophy.’
Bailey nodded and moved to the end of the gurney to push it. ‘I’ll take three. Sarah, take the other two.’
‘No need,’ Marque said, and the gurneys moved by themselves. ‘They’re extensions of me, remember? Just show me where to go.’
‘This way,’ Bailey said, and the gurneys floated after her, out of the docking bay and towards the habitat ring.
Commander Alto bowed to the dragon. ‘Honoured Shiumo-sama, welcome to Earth, and thank you for saving our colonists.’
Shiumo bowed her head on its long neck. She was three metres long, with four legs and a lithe snake-like body covered in red scales that looked like enamelled metal. She wore no clothing, but had jewellery – rings and bangles – on her front legs and toes, and silver chains set with faceted green stones around her neck.
‘Richard, was it? And here’s untrained Jian. Pleased to meet you.’ She sighed, and it was strange to hear such a human sound coming from a reptile. ‘I hope I didn’t leave it too long with your poor colonists. It’s very bad manners for the more advanced civilisation to contact the less advanced first, but they were going to die, and I had no choice.’
‘Bad manners?’ Commander Alto said, amused.
‘It hurts your self-esteem as a species. You’ve struggled for so many years to attain many of your society’s achievements, and then we show up and can do them fifty times better with no effort at all. Makes everything you’ve been working for seem a waste of time. Whole civilisations have collapsed into depression when they realised they’d just been handed everything they set out to do and there were no more frontiers to push.’
‘I’m sure there are always frontiers to push,’ Commander Alto said. He looked around at the half-finished docking bay. ‘But I see what you mean. Your ship is magnificent. Our attempt looks primitive by comparison.’
‘See? Nasty blow to your self-esteem,’ Shiumo said.
‘How did you manage to return the colonists so quickly?’ I said. ‘Our last message showed them as two years from landing five years ago. Do you have faster-than-light travel? What sort of drive is in your ship?’
Commander Alto radiated a strong shot of irritation. I’d spoken out of turn, forgetting my rank in my excitement.
‘Sorry, sir,’ I said.
He hesitated, then his irritation faded and he turned to Shiumo. ‘That’s a good question. Do you have faster-than-light travel?’
‘Not so much faster than light as instantaneous. I can fold space to travel through four dimensions. I just … pop from one part of the universe to another. It’s a skill that’s unique to us dragons, as far as we can ascertain.’
‘But how does your ship move?’ Commander Alto said. ‘It’s enormous.’
‘I carry it. I sit on the nose and fold it from place to place. It’s mostly empty. Just a big thing for carrying stuff, like Marque and my toys and my food.’
‘It’s a backsack,’ I said with awe.
‘I suppose so, yes. I have some living quarters inside, and some guest quarters, but I prefer to hang around outside. I like the feeling of space on my scales.’
‘You can live in space?’ Commander Alto said.
‘Yes. I need to breathe atmosphere every … Marque?’
‘By their measures, it would be a day and a half,’ the remaining sphere said.
‘So I need to breathe every day or so,’ Shiumo continued. ‘I return to my ship, take a good deep breath, and go back out to sit on the nose. Would you like to come and see inside my ship? I have a suitable atmosphere and working gravity there; it will be much easier to talk if we’re not floating around. I have food that is compatible with your chemistry, and I have tea. Come and have tea with me.’
I waited for Commander Alto’s orders, sincerely hoping he’d visit her ship. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I didn’t want to miss it.
He nodded. ‘We would be honoured, Shiumo-sama.’
‘Tea from the Japanese colony?’ I said as she opened the airlock again.
‘Oh no, from my homeworld. I think it’s obvious that we’ve been here before: we check on developing civilisations, and sometimes quietly help them along. If we drop in on any young societies, we usually introduce them to tea.’ She gracefully floated back to the airlock, her long body swaying through the air. ‘A planet isn’t worth visiting if you can’t get a decent cup of tea there.’
‘Now you’re talking,’ Commander Alto said with grim pleasure. ‘I feel exactly the same way.’
‘A man after my own reptilian hearts,’ Shiumo said.
‘How many of you are on the ship?’ Commander Alto said.
‘Oh, just me and Marque. We dragons travel alone. It’s the way we do things.’
‘You are not alone,’ Marque said from the remaining floating sphere. ‘You just dismissed the AI without a second thought, you biological elitist.’
‘I apologise, Marque, you are obviously sentient,’ Commander Alto said. He bowed to the sphere. ‘I am pleased to meet you as well.’
‘About time someone gave me the recognition I deserve,’ Marque said. ‘This red only exists to carry me around, and she treats me like staff.’
‘Oh, give me a break,’ Shiumo said, and I could swear that she rolled her eyes. ‘How are the colonists?’
‘I’ll let you know in about eight hours their time. It was a close thing,’ Marque said.
‘Jian, tell Lieutenant Ng what’s happening, and that she’s to report back to Admiral Mitchell,’ Commander Alto said. He straightened his collar. ‘Tell them I’m having tea with an alien dragon.’ He shook his head. ‘Now there’s something I never thought I’d say.’
‘Try the narrow beam I taught you,’ Shiumo said to me.
‘Can you show me how to send images? I want to send what you look like.’
‘Of course,’ Shiumo said.
She turned to face me, and my brain exploded in orgasmic pleasure. I floated in the microgravity, twitching and out of control as the ripples of ecstasy faded and stopped.
‘Jian?’ Commander Alto said, taking my arm. ‘Jian?’ He rounded on Shiumo, still holding me as I quivered in the air. ‘If you’ve hurt her …’
‘No, no,’ I gasped. I gulped a few deep breaths and raised my shaking hand.
‘Profoundest apologies, little one,’ Shiumo said. ‘I accidentally brushed your pleasure centres.’ Her voice filled with contrition. ‘I’ve never worked with a brain like yours before. It won’t happen again.’
I nodded. ‘I’m okay.’ I lowered my head and concentrated, sending the message of where we were going, as well as an image of Shiumo, to Lieutenant Ng. ‘Message sent. Let’s go to the ship.’
‘Are you sure?’ Commander Alto said. ‘Do you need time to recover?’
‘No.’ I took a few more deep breaths. ‘I’m fine now.’
‘Lead on then,’ Commander Alto said, nodding to Shiumo.
6
Shiumo led us into the airlock, with the Marque sphere floating above her. ‘Down will be this way when gravity reasserts,’ she said, pointing with one claw.
We rotated so our feet were in that direction, and moved closer to the bulkhead. Commander Alto closed the door and I readied myself, inwardly cursing his decision to go unarmed, and well aware that he didn’t have a choice. I was intensely curious to see the interior of Shiumo’s ship, but it was possible that her words of friendly greeting had been a lie and we were walking into any of a number of nightmare scenarios. I tried to recall my training – what to do in these circumstances – and couldn’t remember a single thing. The material hadn’t covered the current situation, or anything resembling it.
Gravity asserted itself and we both landed on our feet.
The far airlock opened without Shiumo moving – to reveal empty space, black and dotted with hard brilliant stars, and Earth glowing blue and white above us.
I immediately grabbed a handrail and opened my mouth, then glanced at Commander Alto in surprise. There was no depressurisation; we were still in air. I took a shallow breath: the air was fresh with a faint scent of vegetation, and perfectly breathable. A cold edge suggested that it contained slightly too much oxygen.
‘You should have warned them, you silly red,’ Marque said from the sphere.
‘My apologies.’ Shiumo bowed her head on her long neck. ‘The walls of my ship are transparent from the inside. As I said, we dragons can live in space and I like to see where I’m going. I can make them opaque if you prefer.’
She stepped out of the airlock onto a shiny black floor that reflected the Earth above us. I followed Commander Alto out, and glanced right. The vast space appeared to be the interior of the top half and forward section of the ship. The ceiling was invisible, and the external walls were transparent. I stared with wonder at the Earth, huge and majestic, floating above us. The Britannia was visible behind us, with the space elevator connected to its far end and threading down towards the planet, shining in the light of the sun.
‘The portals on the elevator didn’t give a view anything like this,’ I said softly.
‘I can opaque it if it makes you uncomfortable,’ Shiumo said.
‘It doesn’t bother me,’ Commander Alto said. ‘It’s magnificent.’
‘Same here,’ I said.
We followed Shiumo further into the gigantic interior. At least a quarter of the vast space towards the rear of the ship was occupied by what appeared to be an art gallery: paintings and sculptures hung suspended in mid-air; and smaller objects – some of them moving – sat on plinths.
‘Over here,’ Shiumo said, and led us to a collection of soft carpets and large cushions in various shades of red scattered around a wide plain black table hovering forty centimetres above the floor. ‘Marque, if you could bring us tea, please?’
‘Which type?’ Marque said.
