First Contact: An Alicia Jones Novel 01

by D. L. Harrison

  But I was worried if they actually saw it, with their own eyes, it would… change things somehow. But I didn’t have a choice, not if I wanted to succeed in my personal mission to make sure my birth people didn’t… I wasn’t sure yet.

  I could feel my skin ripple as I closed my eyes, and when I opened them I looked at the man through purple eyes. Kristi did a double take, but otherwise just looked… jealous. Silly. The others hadn’t seen my new facial features yet, as they were seated behind me.

  The Tressian however, widened his eyes.

  I said lightly, “I am Alicia Jones, and this vessel may have been built on Earth, but it belongs to me personally. Is there still a problem with us entering your solar system?”

  Telmun’s face changed to a lighter shade of blue, his voice was a little panicked, “My apologies miss Jones, for any offense I might have inadvertently caused, you’re free to make orbit at your leisure. If this is your first visit to our world, we have a guide that can help you find whatever you need.”

  I smiled politely, showing none of the conflict I was feeling on my face. To me this was proof already that the empire was corrupt and everyone not Knomen was a second class citizen, and I wondered what a normal Knomen would do to someone who had merely followed what he thought was the correct procedure, because of perceived insult. The man looked terrified and I had no doubt he believed I could end his career without effort.

  “That would be acceptable, please have them contact me.”

  Kristi disconnected the call at my signal as we approached the planet and dropped to sub light speed.

  I looked around the bridge, and no one seemed freaked out, about me at least.

  Kristi said, “We were sent a set of planetary coordinates to land at, by someone called Nora.”

  I nodded, “Well, it’s why we came, let’s head out.”

  Lt. Ledner ordered, “Bill and Elise, stay with the ship, the rest of us will accompany Miss Jones.”

  I got up and floated over to the ladder leading to the small hangar deck and started climbing down. The shuttle was a saucer about ten yards in diameter, and could seat eight and had a good sized storage area. There were only five of us, so we piled on and I had Al take us out of the ship, and down to the coordinates. I’d have to learn how to fly soon, but now wasn’t the time.

  According to the scanners, the world was comparable to Earth’s atmosphere, and the gravity was just over point eight G, so we were all a little lighter. Our Tressian guide Nora, was waiting outside our craft, or at least, it was who I assumed was our guide. Now that I could see one I could tell that the Tressian people were of comparable height as well.

  Nora greeted us with a tentative smile on her face when we got out of the shuttle. She was a couple of inches taller than my five foot six, had light blue skin, amber eyes, and long white hair. She nodded her head low to me before she spoke in a happy yet respectful voice.

  “I’m Nora, I can help you find where you need to go? What brings you to Tressia?”

  I took in a deep breath and tried to relax. I couldn’t believe I was standing on an alien planet. I mastered my face, but my voice came out a little excited.

  “A few things actually. I was hoping to learn about Tressia, is there some kind of history we could purchase? I was also curious about your other space related technologies and may want to purchase some.”

  It was kind of vague, but I wasn’t even sure what technologies were available.

  Nora smiled, “I can help with that. In fact, one moment,” she got a thoughtful look on her face for a moment, “I’ve transferred the knowledge you wanted to your ship, it should be in its database now. Someone named Bill received it. Space technology sales… I know just the person. He can be a little… odd. But he’s the best, is that okay?”

  I nodded, “That works.”

  I felt a moment of guilt as I followed Nora off the landing pad and into a luxury vehicle of some kind. I wondered how the Knomen would feel about me using the inherent authority of our race on behalf of another world, a world not even part of their empire yet. I hoped these people wouldn’t get in trouble for it. Hopefully the Knomen would never even find out, as far as I could tell there weren’t any in the system right now. Still, my priority in this was Earth, so it was worth the risk.

  Nora asked, “How long were you planning to stay, do you need help with accommodations?”

  I shrugged, “I’m not sure until we talk to your odd friend. If we can get everything we need we’ll be leaving today.”

  Nora looked startled, but just nodded.

  “Is that strange?”

  Nora shook her head and looked down uncomfortably.

  I wasn’t reading very well between the lines, but apparently people didn’t visit for just an afternoon, or… something. I could tell she was nervous and worried about something, but had no idea what, and with the missing cultural references couldn’t even hazard a guess.

  The city was impressive, the buildings must have been thousands of floors high, and there were different traffic levels. We were flying along with lines of cars both above us, and below us, and of course on the same level we were. The drive, or flight, took about twenty minutes. Nora seemed uncomfortable, and I was afraid to show my ignorance, afraid I had done so already, so it was a very quiet twenty minutes until we landed.

  The place looked like a flea market.

  Nora led us to a small building and brought us inside. There were models of all different types of technology and I browsed around. I saw three things I wanted right away, including the artificial gravity systems. I was dying to see how that worked. It also meant my ship which was less than a day old was now obsolete. Still, I could reconfigure the inside and add gravity much more cheaply than building a new ship since it would only require fabricator time, and very few new materials.

  I could see Kristi drooling over by the other wall and walked over. It giggled lightly when I saw it was technical manuals.

  I joined Nora over by the counter, the man behind the counter was dressed in a haphazard way, and his hair was sticking out.

  “Hello, I’m Jarnud, at your service. Did you find what you’re looking for miss?” he asked showing deference.

  I smiled, “Yes, could you tell me the accepted forms of payment please?”

  His eyes narrowed and he shot a list to Al, I read through it quickly. Gold was on the list, so was every other metal including tin and copper. Gold did have one of the highest exchange rates though, so that worked.

  “Okay, I need a fabricator template for artificial gravity plates, the anti-mass particle weapon, and a Meddoc. How much for all of that?”

  I added to Nora, “Could you send updated star maps of the Empire to my ship?”

  I’d realized that was probably easier than waiting for the probe, plus it would have all the race and system names in it.

  She nodded and I turned back to the peddler, he seemed to be adding it all up in his head.

  The first item I wanted was for gravity of course, we wouldn’t have to spin the ship anymore. The second item, the anti-mass particle weapon, wouldn’t harm an enemy ship, but the anti-mass particles moved at FTL speeds, and would warp and weaken the anti-mass field on another ship by unbalancing the anti-mass particles.

  It’s stated use was to force a ship to drop from FTL, but I also thought it would be a good precursor to one of my missiles. Soften the shield, then slam it with energy. I was also pretty sure, that despite what it said it would cause a ship to blow up if they didn’t drop below the light threshold before the anti-mass field completely destabilized. The third item, a Meddoc, would heal just about anything for any species, something that might come in handy out in space, or even back home in a hospital.

  There were other systems of course, but we could already do everything else on our own. I had no doubt there were other advanced technologies, and perhaps weapons, in the Knomen empire, but this guy sold out of a shack at a flea market, so I wasn’t surprised he didn
’t have too much we didn’t. Also, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn only the Knomen had the best stuff.

  Jarnud licked his lips nervously and his offer sounded like a question, “Five hundred pounds of gold.”

  I frowned and the man flinched, “I meant two hundred, did I say five?”

  I smiled, “I’ll give you three hundred, if you throw in one of those advanced fabricators.”

  His eyes looked up for a moment, then he smiled, “Done. One moment.”

  He went into the back and came out with a small black cube about the size of a Rubik’s cube. He handed it to me, and sent the plans for the three objects to my A.I.

  “Where should I deliver the gold?”

  He waved that away, “I will have a shuttle come up to your ship in one hour. Does that meet with your approval?”

  I nodded, “Good day Jarnud,” and walked toward the exit.

  That was entirely too easy. Nora looked… relieved. So her nervousness hadn’t been because I’d said something wrong, but must have been out of worry for her friend. Were the Knomen the fashion police as well? The guy had been fine outside of his interesting wardrobe and unkempt hair. The ride back was a lot more relaxed.

  On the trip up to the ship, the Lieutenant cleared his throat.

  “I’d like to apologize miss Jones, I thought you were just an opportunist who’d bought your way in with money and a bullshit story about how indispensable you were. I have to admit, we couldn’t have even gotten into the system without you, much less gotten three new technologies, and a navigation chart of the empire out of the deal.”

  I smiled, he was still a jerk, but at least he apologized, “Accepted Lieutenant.”

  From what I understood, the advanced fabricator would build itself, I planned on putting it on one of the larger asteroids in the belt. In less than a day it would be ready to start building whatever we wanted. It wasn’t really any better than an Earth fabricator, except it had built in gravity tech which would speed up some aspects of construction.

  The anti-mass particle weapon was fairly simple in concept. It created an anti-mass field in the barrel of the weapon, the barrel was a containment field of sorts, except the bottom of it which had a small artificial gravity plate in it. Basically, it would load the barrel with the particles, then the plate would activate, and the intense gravity would repulse, or fire, the anti-mass particles down the barrel and at the target.

  The artificial gravity… was beyond my knowledge to really understand, I should have bought a manual. That didn’t mean we couldn’t build it to spec and use it though. Some other time.

  The special forces team was loading gold into the shuttle while Kristi and I were chatting on the bridge.

  “I know it’s arrogant, but we should design a battleship for the military, and get started on them right away when we get back. If the military wants to change them, then so be it.”

  Kristi grinned, “I agree, why don’t you build the ship, I’ll design support craft. I have a really nasty idea that I think both you and the general will like.”

  I snickered, “Alright, I’ll make it like this one, but bigger, with gravity, and of course the anti-mass particle weapons.”

  Kristi added, “Alright, but it needs two hangers, one that will fit at least twenty of those shuttles, and one that will fit ten or fifteen. I’ll need that much space for my ideas.”

  I started to work on that until the team came back up and said we were clear. I had to tell Al to take us home, and specified coordinates in the asteroid field.

  We didn’t make it very far out of the solar system when we were hailed and I had to halt working on the ship a second time.

  Kristi cursed and then said, “It’s a Knomen ship.”

  “Onscreen.”

  Kristi glared at me for another Star Trek reference, and then put them on screen. I’d have been laughing if this wasn’t so damned nerve wracking.

  “This is facilitator Barnes, please identify yourself. You aren’t in the I.D. system.”

  I replied respectfully, “My name is Alicia Jones, and this is my ship, can I register with you now?”

  He looked at me for a moment, “Send me your craft designs and designation.”

  I sent my designs knowing they would actually change soon, and said, “My ship’s designation is Athena.”

  I just made that up, I hadn’t even thought of giving it a name before now, but the goddess of wisdom and knowledge seemed like a good name for its purpose.

  He smiled, “Very well Alicia, don’t forget next time. Have a safe journey,” and he disconnected.

  I chuckled. I thought we were in trouble, but apparently only if I was another race. More proof things weren’t quite so equal in the Empire.

  I got back to work on my design.

  First I actually changed my ship design, adding the particle weapons, gravity plates, and turned everything right side up since the sides of the ship wouldn’t be the floor anymore. I also took out all the ladders. That only took me about fifteen minutes.

  For the military ship, I called it a battlecruiser class. I started with my ship, the new one that I’ll convert to, and built it out by another two thirds in diameter, making it over one hundred and sixty yards across, and I also raised the height of the ship by ten yards, enough to add another level. I added another fabricator and more room for raw materials, so the ships could create their own missiles. I greatly increased the size of the landing bay and also added a second hangar as Kristi asked.

  On the new level I put in twenty rooms for officers. A full bridge compliment would be four, a captain, navigation and weapons officer, communications and scanning officer, and the helm officer. There was also a separate console for the engineering officer to keep an eye on the systems. I figured that was enough for three bridge shifts, plus the engineering officer and visiting officers.

  The rest of the space would be split up into rooms for the crew. Some for maintenance personal, although most of the ships systems and maintenance would be automated some things took human intervention. The rest of the rooms and large bunk rooms would be for both marines and pilots. We hadn’t talked about it, but I was sure Kristi was designing fighters and troop carrier shuttles in addition to whatever else she was doing.

  Since I had more room, and I was a sci-fi geek, I added a flag bridge, more storage area, a ready room off the bridge, and then not able to think of anything else, I extended the hangar even further. Even with artificial gravity, it still needed to be a saucer shaped for the EM and anti-mass field to work correctly.

  Nathan asked, “What are you up to?”

  I looked up at him and then smiled, “A present for my favorite general.”

  He looked awkward for a second, “You might want to… we’ll be back soon. Your purple eyes are pretty but…” he trailed off.

  I blushed, “Right, I should get rid of those spots too huh.”

  He nodded wordlessly, “They don’t bother me, but the people at your college might freak out.”

  I sighed, relaxed, concentrated for a second, and my skin rippled, “Better?”

  He shook his head and winked, “Just different. I might even prefer the purple eyes. I was wondering, would you mind if I called you sometime?”

  I peered up at him and all I felt from him was sincere respect, interest, and attraction, “I’d like that,” and I ported him my number through Al to his own A.I.

  He added, “I guess we’ll be back soon, I’ll let you get back to work.”

  I was about to tell him it wasn’t necessary, and that I’d love to talk more, when I got pinged by Kristi. She’d sent me her designs to look over, and wanted to look over mine, probably a good idea before we started producing the things. So I just nodded and sent the battlecruiser design to Kristi while opening her designs.

  The fighters were impressive, they were about the size of a shuttle, six yards across, but instead of storage, they were packed with missiles, and had two anti-mass particle weapons on the fr
ont. The weapons were just as powerful as the ones I had on the battlecruiser, except of course they didn’t have as many.

  The troop shuttles could carry up to sixty ground forces, it was basically a shuttle that was fifteen yards across, but it had no storage, and there were six doors, so all sixty could disembark in seconds.

  What she’d designed for the second hangar blew my mind, it was awesome, and it made my missiles seem like toys…

  Chapter 9

  The Lieutenant wasn’t pleased we stopped at the asteroid field without consulting him, but whatever. We took some time to get the fabricator started. We loaded it with the four designs and used our space suits to place it in a good spot. Basically the little cube would turn into a fabricator that could handle the battlecruisers, but before it did that it would build three more smaller fabricators, to take care of the shuttles, fighters, and the last object Kristi had made.

  The instructions included AI computers that could automate any of the crafts completely with human oversight, so when a ship was completed it would literally be able to fly itself to Earth to wait for its crew. It would also protect itself from being stolen unless the right access codes were granted, which only I knew, and soon I’d pass those to General Denton.

  We sent the General all the information over quantum secured communications, but stayed long enough to make sure it was working before heading back.

  Kristi came over and sat by me, or floated by me…

  “Did you read any of that history yet?”

  I shook my head, “No, not yet, was too busy with… never mind. What did you find out?”

  She sighed, “It’s worse than you thought. They fine new worlds to death, probably to get most of their gold. But worse than that, saying no to joining the Empire is… theoretically possible, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

  I tilted my head, I could feel her agitation, “Why?”

  She shrugged, “You see, if the civilization is considered too violent to be allowed in the interstellar community, they bomb the world back to the stone age. According to this history, even though it’s by Knomen law a valid option to stay independent, every single civilization who tries to go their own way has been judged to violent, or unsuitable in some other way.”