The other stuff was just… interesting, and fun, but unrelated to what I should be working on.
I heard a deep voice behind me. He sounded both angry and shocked.
“What have you done! Identify yourself.”
I turned slowly and stared at the man before me. He was tall with black hair, deep green eyes and he looked more than in shape in the form fitting outfit he was wearing. His face was hard and unforgiving. That wasn’t what was shocking though, it was what I was feeling, the vibes I was getting from him. He was… like me.
I shook my head in useless denial. Meeting another like myself, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t the next level of evolution, or some strange genetic experiment, or even magical.
I was an alien.
I’d considered this before of course, but had rejected it as absurd as my magical theory. What did it mean? Had my parents been spies or something? Or had they been criminals hiding out on another world. Or?
I sat down in a chair, “My name is Alicia, maybe you can tell me?”
I felt his anger turn to confusion, and mistrust.
“Carl, I’m,” he said something incomprehensible.
I frowned, “Try that word again in English?”
He shook his head, “Ambassador, facilitator, but more than that too. Who are you?”
I snorted, “Raised human. My parents died when I was a baby. I always knew I was different, but not how or why. Like I said, maybe you can tell me? And what are you doing here?”
He seemed unsure now, but that was much better than angry. I was a little unsure myself, what would he do to me? Anything? I was pretty much already over the surprise, maybe I’d always known deep down I wasn’t human at all. It explained my oddness, but I was still nervous.
He coughed, “We generally… not spy but keep an eye on a civilization when it gets close to discovering FTL. We’ve found it works better meeting new races on the ground rather than a random encounter in space further down the road. Now that you can go FTL, there is no point staying hidden any longer. We haven’t gotten any reports from here in over twenty years, that must have been your parents.”
I nodded slowly but my mind was turning over every word. He was honest, but at the same time I could feel his evasiveness. He wasn’t telling me the whole truth.
“So… you’re here to?”
I asked him about his mission, but I was really worried about me. I knew that was a little selfish but… Would he want me to leave with him when he went? I might not be human but I was… human. This was my world. I was afraid to hear the answer to that question.
He shrugged, “Our Empire ranges from here to closer to the core of the galaxy. Maybe twenty thousand light years across. You could say my mission is to contact the Earth’s leadership through you. There are currently six space faring species in our realm of influence.”
Our empire? I ignored that for the moment.
“So, to what end? Good neighbors? Join the Empire or die? A happy middle?”
He chuckled, “Yes and no. We wouldn’t get involved in how Earth is run, or even care. That would go for any settlements you create as well. We would prefer Earth to join the Empire, but the bottom line is we want to be sure you can… What did you say? Be good neighbors. That includes respecting other life forms and non-aggression.”
I know I probably sounded inane, but I said, “So, you’re like the police?”
He shrugged, “More like mediators. We keep this world safe from other races as well, not that it’s come up recently but…”
I interrupted in a soft voice, “What about me?”
He shook his head, “I don’t know, I don’t think there is a precedent. In a way you’ve violated our laws by giving Earth technology. That really isn’t what you’ve done though, because you were born here and you invented it. As for what now, well I supposed that’s up to you. You could stay here, or leave with me when my mission is done. You may even have family out there somewhere.
“In the meantime, we need to start the process of sending a message to the Earth’s leaders. Your future isn’t something you need to figure out right now, this will probably take some time.”
I nodded while I collected my thoughts. I got the idea he wasn’t sure how to treat me, as one of his or as a human. His speech seemed to indicate a little of both for now. I couldn’t blame him, I imagine he was also feeling my freak out. I felt… violated knowing he knew what I was feeling, and I knew exactly how hypocritical I was being in that moment.
I blew out a breath, “I need some sleep. I’ll send a note to the dean. Not sure how fast things will happen. I imagine once he’s convinced he’ll contact a senator, then… well you get the idea.”
I walked out the lab and sealed it after he followed me out.
He said, “I’m heading back to my ship,” he handed me a handheld device, “You can reach me on that when your dean is ready to meet me.”
I dropped it in my pocket and left after an awkward moment. I fell asleep quickly despite the turmoil in my mind. Perhaps I was just paranoid, but I felt like I needed to worry more about what he hadn’t said than what he did. Considering my abilities, it wasn’t a baseless feeling, I just didn’t know how bad it was. I was also worried about how others would take the fact that I was just as alien as our visitor, physically that is.
Chapter 5
I woke up to sound of the hair dryer and rolled out of bed. I’d slept a whole five hours, which was a lot for me, and went out into the apartment to grab some coffee and wake up. I was sending the dean an e-mail, while I wondered how quickly the padded wagon would show up after I hit send.
“Al, send my ship designs to Kristi please, I know I’m missing something, but I can’t think of it.”
I smiled a few minutes later when the hairdryer turned off and Kristi came into the kitchen and grabbed her own coffee.
“Is this a joke?”
I shook my head and said deadpan, “Nope, I invented FTL, met an alien, found out I was an alien, and now I want my own spaceship, so can you read that over? I’m forgetting something.”
Kristi’s mouth dropped open in faux shock, “You’re an alien? Oh… My… GOD! That explains so much.”
I snorted, “No really, I am.”
She nodded wisely, “I know, weren’t you listening.”
I looked at her trying to figure out if she was pulling my leg, she wasn’t, at least not completely. I couldn’t help but feel a little offended.
“Explains what?” I asked sullenly.
She snorted, “You never have a bad hair day, don’t watch what you eat, and I’ve never once been able to lie to you. You even knew I wasn’t a ditz the night we met, right away. I’m not that bad an actress, so… can I come visit your planet?”
My mouth dropped open, “This is my planet, I was born here, natural born citizen. My parents on the other hand may have been… illegal aliens.”
She snickered, “You did not just say that. Oh, what happens when you’re in orbit, and you just have to get to a Macy’s sale?”
I shook my head at the obvious, it might be hard to find a landing space for a saucer with the diameter of a football field. It was scary how smart Kristi was that she could figure that out while bantering with me, about me being an alien no less.
“I forgot the hanger, for a shuttle, anything else?”
She shook her head, “Nope, everything else looks good. I see you have weapons, if you’re worried about attacks you should increase the anti-mass/EM shields to five or six. Three is good for a happy universe. Here, I fixed it, but you have to design your own shuttle, make it look cute. Maybe pink, the military would never shoot down something pink…”
I shook my head in amusement at her babbling as she went back to her room to get dressed and checked my e-mail.
Kristi said loudly, “Don’t forget, take me with you.”
I giggled, “Don’t worry, I will!” I shouted back.
I couldn’t believe how well my be
st friend took it… it was almost like she’d already known.
The dean had replied to my e-mail threatening action if I tried to perpetrate a hoax. Great, I sent my professor an e-mail, maybe I started to high, and at least he already knew about the FTL thing. I got up and went in the shower.
While showering I had a thought, “Al, prep the probe and send it towards the galactic core, stopping at all G type stars that could support life on the way, but don’t go further than twenty thousand light years.”
Al replied in his emotionless voice, “Done, speed?”
I thought for a minute, and realized I really didn’t trust Carl. The more I thought about it the more the… our empire comment and his comment about good neighbors following the rules and being respectful felt off, as if those words weren’t a very complete description.
“Try eighty percent power, how fast is that?”
Al replied, “Approximately one light year per hour.”
“A hundred percent?”
Al replied, “One light year per five minutes.”
She frowned, that was fast. At least until she ran the numbers in her head. Still, at twenty thousand light years, that was a hundred thousand minutes. That meant… sixty-nine some odd days to cross the entire empire. Of course, the probe wasn’t just cutting across space, it would be cutting angles all the way into the core to hit all the G types. Hopefully there was a civilization close. If it didn’t find anything in a week or two, I decided I’d fabricate one of my new probes. It wouldn’t be as fast as the ship, but it would cut that sixty-nine back to about twenty-five days.
I wondered if I should redesign, but I did the math. If my ship had six anti-mass/EM systems, and the speed seemed to be on a logarithmic scale with added power to the anti-mass field, I estimated in my new ship it would only take about three days. That was with all my coils online however. If even one failed it would go up to two weeks, another failure six weeks to make the trip.
Of course, with fabricators on board I could repair the coils on the go. As long as they all didn’t fail at once, if that happened I’d be energy.
I got out of the shower and got dressed. I checked her messages, nothing. So I worked on my doctoral dissertation for the EM field and FTL, not that I’d need it, but damn it I’d worked hard for the thing, I wasn’t going to throw it all away.
“Where are you going today?” I asked, feeling Kristi behind me.
Kristi asked, “How did you know I was here?”
“Alien mind powers,” I giggled.
Kristi asked curiously, “Really?”
“A little bit yeah, I can’t read your mind, more your… presence, or aura.”
Kristi sighed, “I hate you. I have to go meet Joe.”
“Any other questions? I really didn’t know until last night by the way.”
Kristi nodded, “No… I’ll let you know if I think of more. Hey, you should try to tune your field. I bet the speed is based on the cohesion of the field as much as the power you put into it. The better it blocks the internal mass and all that.”
I frowned, she was so damned smart, “That’s possible, I tuned it for the EM field, this other one was just a secondary effect. I’ll do that, thanks.”
She kissed the top of my head and headed for the front door.
“What was that for?”
She snickered, “I never kissed an alien before,” and she closed the door.
I shook my head in disbelief, and got back to work. It was a few hours later when I thought I’d optimized it. It had been pretty close already, but the curve was a little better now. I was about to get back to my thesis when AL let me know I had an incoming call. I got up as I answered it, to get more coffee.
“Professor?”
Professor Daniels replied, “Is this e-mail a joke?”
“Nope, I got approached by an alien when my probe came back. Apparently, he followed it, and he wants to talk to our world leaders about joining their intra-galactic community.”
Professor Daniels coughed, “Really? Community?”
I nodded even if he couldn’t see it, “Yup, think empire… plus condo association with a lot of red tape. I sent an e-mail to the dean, but he didn’t buy it, so I thought…”
Professor Daniels sighed, “Alright, you know this will make people panic.”
I nodded slowly, again, like an idiot, and said in a deadpan voice, “I know, I hate red tape too.”
He snorted, “This is no time for joking.”
He was right, I was letting Kristi rub off on me, “Sorry,” I said with laughter in my voice, not much of an apology I guess.
He replied, “I assume you can… reach him or her?”
“Yes, he left me an intra-galactic phone, and believe it or not, his name is Carl. No… that wasn’t a joke.”
My professor’s first name was Carl too.
“Alright, I’ll meet you at the Dean’s house in two hours, and I’ll try to get the mayor here, hopefully we can get to the President quickly.”
I sat back down and sipped my coffee. “Alright, I’ll see you then.”
The next few weeks were crazy…
I’m just going to summarize, because it was a lot of get out of my office, followed by I’ll have you arrested, followed by prove it, followed by holy crap dear mother of god, followed by more panic, and finally up to the next person to talk with, which started the cycle all over again. During these boring weeks, I also found two life bearing planets with ships around them, so at least I had a destination if I could get my ship built.
I did manage to get a few other things done, my paranoia about Carl… the alien Carly, not my professor, continued, so I developed missile weapons. It wasn’t hard, it was basically a probe that would get close to an enemy ship, hitting it wouldn’t do anything, with the anti-mass fields the missile and ship would just bounce away from each other, but if it was close, all the probe missile had to do was override the safeties and disengage the anti-mass field while moving at a rate of many thousands times the speed of light. At that point, the probe or missile, would be converted to energy. A lot of energy.
Hopefully enough to overcome the EM field around the target.
At any rate, outside of creating a weapon that could scour all life off the face of the Earth, it was a rather boring three weeks. Things picked up again once I got Carl in touch with the Secretary of Defense, and at that point I was shown the door. College girl and inventor, no longer required. I might have been insulted, if I wasn’t so relieved to escape. Of course, that did make it hard to keep an eye on Carl.
He had a very large advantage when dealing with humans, I should know since I had them as well. Speaking of that, I’d also managed to keep my alien origins a secret except for Kristi who I trusted not to tell anyone.
Kristi startled me when she plopped down at the table, while I was finally finishing up my thesis paper on anti-mass as it relates to faster than light travel.
Kristi asked, “Why don’t you trust Carl?”
I frowned, and really thought about it. I’d heard Carl explain the basic rules so many times it was easy to tell Kristi about them. If Carl had foibles, lack of patience wasn’t one of them.
“It’s the rules. They sound so… Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, but I don’t buy that. Hmm, don’t attack anyone, only use violence for defense, don’t interact much less sell technology to civilizations without FTL, don’t settle somewhere life may evolve, terraform a planet instead. Those are actually the ones that don’t bother me, and even make sense.
“But the rest… first he says we don’t have to join the empire, but if we don’t we can’t trade, or enter the solar systems in their space, or even talk to them. Obviously that’s pressure to have us join this empire right? But if we join the empire… their worse than a condo association. You pay taxes supposedly for protection, but then we also have to agree to use at least ten percent of our space navy for the mutual defense clause, so we’d be paying from both ends there.
“The empire is multi-species, but its rulers, and the name of the empire, is the Knomen empire. Knomen captains always take precedence and can give orders to any vessel, can interdict any Earth or other non-Knomen vessel without a reason once they leave Earth’s solar system. Ship designs and captains need to be approved before they can legally captain a vessel outside our solar system. Captains even need to take a course and pass a test. I know those last two sound reasonable on the surface, it’s like an intra-galactic DMV to make sure everything is safe, but it feels like an excuse to get a look at our current technology for weaknesses, and an opportunity to create evaluations of our top officers. You know… it has that just in case we have to fight those Earth people vibes on it.”
I took a deep breath and paused in my rant before continuing.
“There’s also a whole thing on protocols, and if there are inter-species disagreements, a Knomen must be summoned to settle it, and if your found at fault you get fined. Fined for breaking protocol, in other words, for not being a good neighbor, not for violence, simply for being… impolite. If a captain is fined three times their license to operate a starship in Empire space is revoked for life. It’s… insane. Political correctness gone wild. Then they also limit exploration to five light years a year. So if we want to visit a star twenty light years away outside the empire, we need to file our intent and then wait four years… seriously.”
Kristi frowned, “So… the red tape really bothers you?”
I snorted, “It’s not just red tape, it’s a form of control. They control everything basically outside our solar system, and will know all our capabilities. The system might have started out alright, but I can see in Carl’s eyes and feel that it’s corrupted beyond all reason now.”
Kristi tilted her head, “So what’s your plan, it honestly doesn’t sound any worse than our own government.”
I shrugged, she kind of had a point there.
“As soon as the university sells the licensing rights, which I’m told is being bid on as we speak, I’m going to build my own ship, and go visit someone in the empire, find out the real scoop. You’re probably right though, it’s just another government bureaucracy, but I wonder if its more than that. I just got a bad feeling about it. Besides, our own government won’t fine us if we aren’t nice to someone, it isn’t quite that bad. I believe we’ll find the Knomen bureaucracy a lot more, heavy handed.”
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