“He is,” Drake confirmed as the three stepped out of the transit car and onto the brightly lit platform. “He left yesterday and will be gone for three days. He took some new mining equipment out to one of his newer claims.”
Mason nodded. Over one hundred licensed prospectors worked for the Smithfield Mining Cooperation out of Vesta and were responsible for setting up mining operations on any asteroid they filed a claim on. The minerals were mined and sent back to Vesta to be refined, and each prospector received a lucrative paycheck, which he used to pay for his mining operation and deposit in his bank account. Most of the miners worked numerous claims to bring in as much cash as possible.
The three walked down a short corridor and passed through yet another airlock. This was the last one as they stepped out into the massive habitat that had been created inside of Vesta to house the employees of the Smithfield Mining Corporation. For thirty kilometers, the habitat extended. As far as the eye could see were trees, grasses, streams and a few small lakes.
The city of Smithfield itself was in the center and contained seventy thousand people. The habitat was twelve kilometers wide and two kilometers high. It was like a miniature Earth but free of pollution. Birds and other abundant wildlife were allowed to roam free in most areas. Special wildlife rangers kept a close watch on the animal species, making sure they didn’t get out of balance and that they remained healthy. Mason’s grandfather had begun the construction of the habitat and Mason’s father and he had finished it. It had been a massive, expensive project and Mason was extremely pleased with what had been built here. Nothing else like this existed anywhere else in the solar system.
Many people had felt it was a boondoggle to build something like this so far from Earth. However, once his grandfather and father had begun exploiting the available resources to be found in the asteroids, many people soon came to change their mind. Families flocked to Smithfield to find their fortune and soon found that they had found a home instead. The population had swelled until they had to put restrictions on who could come and live here. Now only the best and brightest were even considered. Construction of a larger habitat had already begun as Mason had ideas for the future that would allow their lucrative mining operations to be greatly expanded. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn beckoned, and Mason intended to be the first to plant mining operations on each one of them.
The three took an electric car to the city and after dropping Adrienne off at the office, the two men soon made their way to the underground Control Center that monitored the habitat as well as the ongoing mining operations. They had to take an elevator down to the Control Center, as it was located six levels beneath the city of Smithfield.
Entering the Control Center, Mason let out a deep breath. They were in a large room where over sixty men and women were busy at work. On all four walls, massive viewscreens showed views of the inside of the habitat, Smithfield, as well as some of the nearby mining operations. Everyone was dressed in a standard dark blue uniform, which was the normal dress code for company employees while they were on the job.
From the Control Center, all of the outgoing prospecting missions were monitored as well as the current mining operations on numerous large and small asteroids. Mining on an asteroid was a dangerous business, and the company had long since come up with stringent guidelines to maximize safety. Many of the operators in the Control Center were busy monitoring and speaking to different ongoing mining operations. Each operation had to report back to Vesta on a daily basis.
“Mason, I’m glad you’re back,” Pamela Cairns said, hurrying over to where Mason and Drake were standing. She had a look of confusion in her eyes. “Something interesting is coming in over our communication feeds from Holbrook Station and Luna City; you need to see it!”
Holbrook Station had been named after Mason’s father and was the large company space station in orbit around the Earth. Pamela was thirty-two-years-old, married, with dark black hair, which she normally kept cut short. She also had a ten-year-old son that constantly got into everything.
“What is it, Pamela?” asked Mason, feeling curious. There hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary mentioned on the media channels when he had been down on Earth or on Holbrook Station. He had just left the station four days ago; he couldn’t imagine anything that could have changed in that short amount of time.
“You need to come to the main communications console,” Pamela said, gesturing for the two men to follow her. “We just started receiving this a few minutes ago and we’re not sure what’s going on. You’re not going to believe this!”
They made their way across the room to the main com console. There were four communication specialists sitting in front of the large console. From here, they could keep track of their twenty-seven cargo ships as well as the one hundred and five smaller prospector ships. They could also communicate with Earth, Luna City, or Mars Central if need be.
Fortunately, thanks to a communications breakthrough on Earth, faster than light communication had been discovered. So far, the principles that allowed communications to bypass the light barrier hadn’t found its way into ships yet. When it did, the Phoenix would be ready and Mason would be off to Alpha Centauri on the first interstellar trip. He already had a team of engineers and scientists looking into that aspect of the new communications technology.
“What do we have?” asked Mason, looking over at Pamela curiously. She was showing a lot of concern on her face, which was unusual. Even her shortly cut black hair looked slightly ruffled.
“Put it up on the main screen,” Pamela instructed Jessica Lang, one of the communication specialists.
The young woman pressed several icons on her computer screen, and the image she had been observing was transferred to one of the big viewscreens on the wall above her.
Instantly an image appeared on the screen. Mason and Drake stopped breathing at what was being shown. They hadn’t been expecting anything like this.
“Where is that?” demanded Mason, stepping even closer to the screen, staring at it in disbelief. Surely, this had to be a joke of some kind.
“That image is being broadcast from Luna City,” Jessica replied as she checked the video feed. “We just started receiving it a few minutes ago. Holbrook Station has confirmed it.”
Upon the screen was a massive spacecraft, larger than anything Mason had ever seen before or even believed to be possible. He had thought the Phoenix was huge, being five hundred meters long and ninety meters across, but the Phoenix would look like a gnat up against this monstrosity.
“How large is that thing?” Drake asked in a stunned voice. He knew there was not any way that ship had originated in the solar system. This could mean only one thing; aliens had found the Earth!
“LIDAR readings from Luna City indicate that it’s eight thousand two hundred meters across, and one thousand meters thick,” Jessica replied as she glanced at a computer screen showing additional data that Luna City was transmitting. “It looks like a giant black disk.”
“Contact Holbrook Station and inform them to halt all traffic,” ordered Mason as he tried to grasp what was happening. “I don’t want any launches until we know what this thing is and why it’s here.”
“Yes, Sir,” Jessica replied. Then she glanced at Mason with a frightened look upon her face. “Sir, is that an alien spaceship?” Several of the other communication specialists paused as they waited expectantly for Mason’s answer.
Mason was silent for a moment. “I think so,” he finally replied. “I don’t know of anyone on Earth that could have built something like that. That’s why I want all launches halted. I don’t want them to misconstrue the movements of our ships as being threatening.”
Jessica nodded and turned back to her console to begin transmitting Mason’s orders to Holbrook Station. “I just hope they’re friendly,” she commented in a strained voice, her heart racing.
“So do I,” Mason said as he continued to look at the screen. “Pamela, I want you to
send a message to all of our mining operations, as well as all prospector and cargo ships. Until further notice, all communications are to be halted. Only in the case of an extreme emergency is anyone to send a message. Tell them an alien craft is approaching Earth and we’ll keep them informed as we get more information.”
“Yes, Sir,” Pamela replied as she stepped over to her command console and began speaking rapidly over her com unit to all the operators in the large room. There were lots of messages that needed to be sent out as rapidly as possible. Even as she passed on the orders, her eyes kept glancing nervously up at the viewscreen and the alien ship. She could feel the rising tension in the large Control Room.
“What do you think they want?” Drake asked as he gazed uneasily at the alien ship. His wife would be scared to death when she saw this thing on the news. Hell, a lot of people were going to be!
Luna City was now sending some close-ups of the ship, and it was evident that it was heavily armed. Large weapon turrets were visible upon the hull of the ship as well as numerous hatches that were now opening. Drake was glad that his family was here inside Vesta. His parents, his brother, his wife, and daughter were all safe in Smithfield.
“That thing’s armed,” Mason spoke, not liking what he was seeing. “Why would an exploration ship be covered in weapons?”
“We never even considered putting weapons on the Phoenix,” Drake responded as he looked intently at the weapon turrets on the alien ship.
He shook his head in worry, knowing he needed to call Larcy soon. He was sure it was only a matter of time before this breaking news was all over the major media outlets, most of which could be received in the homes of the people who lived in Smithfield.
“Sir,” another one of the operators broke in. “The United States government has been attempting to contact the aliens.” She paused for several moments as she continued to listen. “They are reporting that there has been no reply from the alien ship to any of their communication attempts.”
“I don’t like this at all,” muttered Drake, shaking his head.
They continued to watch as over the next half hour the alien ship continued its approach to Earth, finally settling into orbit twenty thousand kilometers above the planet. From several of the large open hatches on the ship, smaller vessels could be seen leaving and heading toward Earth.
“The United States has just raised their defense status,” Pamela reported uneasily as she monitored the main communication console and talked to the four communications specialists. “The U.K., Russia, Germany, France, China, Australia, Canada, and several others have followed suit. They are also launching interceptor aircraft, and the U.S. and the U.K. have just activated their missile defense grids.”
“This could get serious fast,” Drake said with a concerned look upon his face, looking over at Mason meaningfully. “Why won’t they speak to us, and where are all of those small craft going? What if a fighter jet shoots one down?”
“I don’t know,” Mason responded as his eyes gazed fixedly at the main viewscreen. He didn’t like the way this situation was developing. There were too many things that could go wrong.
For several heart-stopping minutes, they waited for additional information. At any moment, they expected to hear reports of one of the smaller alien ships being shot down.
“A special report is being broadcast over all media stations confirming the approach of the alien ship,” Pamela informed them with a pale look upon her face. “The people are being told to remain indoors and not to panic, that the world governments have the situation under control.”
“Like hell they do,” commented Drake, shaking his head. “They’re just as scared as we are.”
He knew he should go make a call to his wife and tell her not to worry. Larcy had a bad habit of overreacting to situations at times. It might not be a bad idea to ask his parents to go over to the house to help keep her calm.
Mason remained silent. He was looking at the alien spacecraft, noting that there was no visible sign of what type of propulsion it was using. The size of the craft, the obvious presence of numerous weapons, and its continued refusal to communicate worried him. This was a situation that could go south in an instant if anyone overreacted, and the small ships that were flying into the Earth’s atmosphere might just cause that to happen. All it would take would be for one of the fighter jets to shoot one down and they might find themselves in an interstellar war.
“How many of the small craft did Luna City detect leaving the ship?” Mason demanded as his eyes focused back on Pamela.
“Over thirty,” she replied as she checked a computer screen. “Luna City is reporting that each of the small ships is nearly two hundred meters across and similar in build to the mother ship.”
“I think I saw this movie a while back,” commented Drake dryly, glancing over at Mason. “It didn’t end well.”
“Pamela, contact all of our cargo ships that are currently in transit to Earth and turn them around,” Mason ordered after thinking the situation over. He was getting a bad feeling about this. “I want our ships to stay away from Earth space for the time being until we know more about these aliens.”
“Is there anything we need to do here?” asked Drake, raising his eyebrows. “What if one of their small ships heads out our way?”
Drake knew that all the major weapons that might be a threat to the aliens were located on Earth; none had been allowed to go out into space due to numerous treaties. Those treaties were aimed at keeping the solar system weapons free.
“Make sure all the airlocks are secure, and place armed guards at the ones in the transit stations and a few in the spacedock,” Mason ordered as he thought about what they could do. “I want Vesta locked down tight until we better understand what’s going on.” He knew the thick metal airlocks would make it virtually impossible to break into the inhabited sections of the asteroid.
For once, he wished he had a larger security force. Crime was almost unknown in Smithfield. His security force only consisted of thirty men and women with light weapons such as pistols and small caliber assault rifles. They were all the treaties allowed.
“Where have those small craft gone?” demanded Mason, looking back at the viewscreen. The way those ships had headed toward Earth looked ominous. This was not how he had visualized a first contact situation.
He could hear people talking in the Control Center as they speculated about what the aliens wanted. He couldn’t blame them; this was making him nervous also. This would be their first contact with an alien species and from the look of their heavily armed ship; Mason wasn’t sure just how friendly they were going to be.
“We don’t know,” reported Pamela worriedly, turning around to face Mason. “Luna City and Holbrook Station lost track of them when they entered the Earth’s atmosphere, and it seems that no one on Earth can track them either. The United States has just upped their defense status to the next level and we can expect the others to do so shortly. They’re scrambling more fighters to find and intercept the alien ships that have entered the atmosphere. The United States government has ordered the fighters not to let the alien ships land unless they initiate communications first.”
“All we need is for someone to start shooting,” Drake muttered, his eyes growing wide at the developing situation on Earth. “We don’t need to start an interstellar war! If these aliens can build ships of that size, who knows what type of weapons they possess.”
“A shuttle is being dispatched from the International Space Station to attempt to make contact,” Pamela added as new information appeared on her screen. She was staying busy trying to stay on top of everything as it occurred.
Mason nodded. The new International Space Station was much larger than the previous one that had been built back around the turn of the century. It currently had a crew of nearly seventy and was mostly a research facility. He wondered what that crew thought about the aliens.
Drake stepped over closer to the communications conso
le so he could read some of the data coming in over the numerous screens. Most of it was from Luna City, and it was evident that they were feeling panic. The majority of Luna City was built deep underground, and was similar in many ways to Smithfield but on a much smaller scale. Instead of one large underground habitat, there were a dozen smaller ones. Over twenty-two thousand people called Luna City their home. Drake knew it had to be frightening for them, knowing how near the alien ship was. He also knew that there were very few weapons at Luna City. They were much like Vesta with a small police force equipped with only light weapons.
For the next hour, they continued to monitor the situation. The alien craft was still refusing to communicate, and no trace could be found of the thirty smaller ships that had entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Somehow, the ships were able to avoid or neutralize all of the Earth’s sophisticated detection equipment. Radar, LIDAR, and other sensor equipment could detect nothing. It was as if they had vanished.
“The shuttle from the International Space Station is nearing the alien ship,” Pamela reported anxiously. She turned to face Drake and Mason with a concerned look upon her normally calm face. “They are halting their approach at twenty kilometers and will attempt to communicate. Some of the scientists on Earth have suggested several different methods to initiate communications. A few feel the aliens may not have understood our first attempts. They will be transmitting a language primer based on numbers. It will contain several universal concepts and should form a basis for allowing the aliens to learn our language.”
“Why do I think it’s a waste of time?” muttered Drake, shaking his head doubtfully. “As large and advanced as that ship is they are bound to know how to communicate with us if they wanted to.” He shifted his weight over to his other foot. He had called his parents and they should have made it over to his house by now. He hoped Larcy was doing all right; he probably should give her a call when he had a chance.
“I think you’re right,” Mason said in agreement. “This whole thing seems kind of odd. If their ship is as advanced as it looks, they should have a method for initiating communications in first contact situations. Surely we’re not the first race they have come across.”
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