I blinked at the report icon to acknowledge and asked, “Are those robots or automated drones?”
Narth’s symbol blinked and he said, “I am sensing sixty to seventy individual minds in each of these spheres. TransDim shields interfere with psionics and I can’t sense details.”
“Elfi, hail the bazaar!”
“You’re on, Captain!”
“This is Captain… Jane Smith of the... the USS Enigma, calling Golden Bazaar. We are here in response to the distress calls. We can only assist Union nationals and not engage the enemy in your sphere of influence unless you are clearly requesting us to do so.”
“This is Sobody Merchant Eldest of the Golden. I am the highest authority here, and I beg you to assist us. We’ve lost over sixty ships, and we have already sustained heavy damage and cannot survive another attack wave of these balls! Our own fleet is on its way but is too far out to make it in time. We contacted Union Administration for help!”
Elfi interrupted, “Correct. I am receiving confirming orders on the Fleet Channel. All Union ships are permitted to engage enemies of the Golden Ones.”
“All right, open all known communication channels and hail the aliens!”
“All channels are open, Captain!”
“This is Captain Jane Smith of the United Stars Starship Enigma, hailing alien hostile forces. You are to cease all hostile activities and stand down from further fighting. I am willing to open communications and discuss the reasons for these hostilities. Any further weapon activity against Union nationals and allied assets will force me to open fire!”
“Captain, sensor analysis indicates they have receivers capable of hearing us, but they just destroyed another Golden ship, ignoring us!”
“Mao, get their attention. Target lead sphere and fire! Shaka, get us closer for main battery range.”
One of the alien spheres suddenly vanished, replaced by a bright ball of expanding energy as Mao’s well-aimed sniper round exploded. That did get their attention and the rest of forty-nine spheres turned into an attack formation toward us!
“Shaka, reverse course and keep distance!”
Har-Hi said with a calm voice, “Receiving enemy fire. Equivalent of fifteen gram AM loads. Our shields are effective neutralizing, receiving fifty shots a second. Shields at sixty-nine percent.”
“Mao, target another and fire!”
This time, Mao missed! The spheres began a wild dance, flying in a fast and erratic pattern. He missed two more times.
“Mao, forget that precision shooting. Main battery authorized one exo load and aim somewhere before them!”
A new mini-sun bloomed suddenly into the darkness of space. Ten of the spheres could not evade and flew right into the plasma ball.
The rest of the spheres slowed down and stopped firing.
“Captain, we are being hailed by the aliens!”
In all the seriousness of the situation, Har-Hi chuckled. “When you say hello the Terran way you usually do get cooperation!”
“Put them on, Elfi. Shea, stand by for detail analysis and Lingu support.”
A part of the projected space around me was replaced by the main viewer and a fully human-looking gray-bearded man in a blue uniform, somehow very Terran looking in a very old-fashioned way complete with white cover and black duckbill.
He spoke, but I did not understand most of it, just every tenth word sounded familiar.
Elfi chimed in, “I don’t believe it. He speaks English, ancient Pre-Astro English! One moment, adjusting translator.”
I said, “Please repeat; our systems are now adjusted to your language.”
“I am Admiral Jordan Rutherford of the New Worlds Commonwealth. We just analyzed one of your language transmissions. It was in English! Please repeat where you come from!”
“As I said, I am Captain Jane Smith of the United Stars Spaceship Enigma. We represent the United Stars of the Galaxy.”
A text message of Shea appeared inside my view field and it read, No Union member on file with ships like that or called New World Commonwealth. Weapon analysis complete. Enemy weapons are similar to Translocators but not the same. Materials used in construction do not conform to Union materials or any other known species.
A second man appeared on the screen. He, too, wore a dark blue uniform but looked younger. “Captain Smith. Did you ever hear about a planet named Earth?”
“My helmsman is a native of Terra, Region Africa. Terra used to be called Earth.”
“Oh, the Lord be praised! Earth still exists then?”
“I assure you, Earth is fine, but before we continue discussing Earth, can we agree on ceasing hostilities for the time being? Then I think you need to explain why you attacked in the first place!”
The white-bearded admiral nodded. “Of course, we will stand down at once. We would suggest a direct meeting to discuss all this in person.”
Narth sent a mental message in my head. “I can sense they are genuinely interested in extensive information exchange and what is most peculiar, I can sense utmost euphoria since the word Earth has been transmitted!”
“All right, Admiral, how we are we going to meet? Are you at some remote location we should approach?”
“No, we are indeed inside our ships!”
Hans muttered, “How crowded must it be in those little things?”
“I am going to lower our shields, Admiral, and open one of my hangar doors. I give you my word that your flag of truce is accepted and you are free to leave at any point. However, if you decide to use the opportunity to fire while we lower shields, I can assure you we will find enough time to retaliate.”
“We won’t get anywhere without trust. I accept your word, and you have mine.”
“Hans, get a Team of Ultras down to Hangar One, just in case.”
“On my way!”
I was standing next to Hans and TheOther and felt quite safe and small at the same time as I looked through the transparent part of the docking bay door. The alien ship had just set down, and it appeared almost like an intricate and very detailed model of a space ship. It was round but had ISAH pod-like engine blocks at the lower end. It had small viewports and gun turrets and landing gear. I signaled Hans to open the door, and I walked toward the alien vessel. A port opened on it and a fifty-centimeter open hover platform floated toward me. On it were four men, none taller than maybe ten centimeters.
The floating thing stopped at nose height before me, and I recognized one of the little men as the white-bearded admiral!
“Ship, be so kind and place a field microphone before our guests and amplify.”
“At once, Captain; microphone is in place.”
A barely visible form field energy microphone floated before them, and I could hear the admiral loud and clear, “I can see our size did surprise you.” Then he glanced toward Hans and the Y’All and said, “As your size surprises us!”
“I’ll have a conference table brought in and refreshments so we can commence these talks in a civilized manner.”
The dark-haired younger man behind the admiral said, “Do you by any chance have real Terran coffee?” That earned him a stern gaze from his senior officer, but I assured him coffee would be on its way.
A table was placed, and Cirruit had small chairs and glasses manufactured in no time.
A field screen was placed in such a way that the small men looked normal size to me, and we also looked proportionally small to him.
I sat down and said, “It might be best you begin from the start, Admiral. As we cannot explain your existence.”
“I might as well do that. Our story begins during the Second Exodus or the first migration of humans into space after the Sarans revealed themselves to Terra. Do you still have contact with them?”
I gestured to Elfi. “The Saran Empire is part of the United Stars, and my Communications Officer is a Saran Princess.”
“Wonderful! Wonderful news!” He scratched his beard. “I better continue with my story then.
Our ancestors were among the first ten Settler Arches leaving Earth. Ours was the Shenandoah. During the trans light acceleration phase, the Shenandoah was hit by something and our drive malfunctioned. We did not end up at the intended target, a Garden around Cigny Alpha, but inside a strange thick nebula that further damaged our ship. We had to land at the only place we could find that was even remotely suitable. We found a stark world with a bad atmosphere and too close to a radiation-spewing sun. Our forefathers went deep underground and carved out a living under very difficult conditions and hardships. None of our ancestors knew how far we were from Earth. An idea was hatched by a brilliant genetic engineer, who was part of the original crew. In order to make the supplies last longer, he proposed to change our genetic code so we would become smaller. The changes were made and every generation became a little shorter. However, life was extremely harsh and science and research were not on our agenda for centuries. The genetic knowledge was lost, and we kept on shrinking until we reached this size about two thousand years ago.
“When life improved and we once again had the resources for science, we basically had to start from scratch. Much of the knowledge was still in the libraries, but few understood, so we developed our own technology and built a thriving society onto four planets within the New World System. All our culture and civilization was based on our new size, and we never felt we needed to reverse the genetic alteration. Since our system was inside a dense matter nebula with intensive energetic storms, we had no contact with other civilizations and felt quite safe, but we expanded to other worlds and our newest colony is on the very fringes of that nebula. We noticed the large aliens occupying that asteroid slowly moving toward our colony. We know that due to our size we were at a disadvantage against full-size aliens. Once we were discovered, we feared war and conquest. Our first contact unit was attacked and destroyed by unknown aliens, and we decided to defend ourselves by destroying the asteroid and its inhabitants.”
He finished his long explanation and found us listening with open mouths.
He opened his arms. “Please, tell us about Earth and Terra and your magnificent ship, and your immense weapons and terrific shields!”
Shea told them a brief history of the last three thousand years and closed with the words, “…so we responded to the distress call of the Golden Market. May I express how truly amazed I am to find that you developed Translocator technology all on your own.”
He bowed proudly. “One of our greatest scientists was a direct descendant of Dr. Isah and at least as brilliant.”
Dr. Isah was a legendary multi-discipline scientist from the early history; he invented an incredible amount of technology including the ISAH drive and the Terran Faster than Light Direct Energy Cannons. Isah was often referred to as the greatest genius of human history.
The man next to the admiral said, “If we would apply for membership, then this Union of yours would protect us and that nebula of ours would become Union territory, isn’t that so?”
I nodded. “To the last man and ship. It is no empty boast, as you heard examples of our commitment in my Science Officer’s monolog on our history.”
“We can’t speak for our government, of course,” the admiral said. “Please let us contact our government, and we will relay their answer as soon as possible.”
His adjutant sighed deeply and held up his coffee cup, “We have an original sample of Terran Coffee in our Earth Museum. Of course, we have a replicated product, but the real thing is so incredible it alone would be enough reason to join!”
“I’ll make sure my supply chief gets you an ample supply right away.”
“And real Earth potatoes, too? Just one will be enough!”
Again, the admiral glared at his adjutant and said to me, “Please excuse him. To us, Earth is our religion. It is a mystical place of our far-gone ancestors, and we kept as much alive as we could. It was the very motor of our determination to not give up.
“The crews of my ships are, quite frankly speaking, going crazy since they heard you are from Earth. The good men we lost in the battle are forgotten.”
I put my finger on his shoulder. “Admiral, let’s take steps that they are not forgotten. War and battles are more often than not unnecessary. We completely understand your reasons for attacking and I hope you understand our response, but let these men be the last who died. As it seems we are more than just two alien cultures meeting; we are, as it turned out, related!”
It didn’t even take them an hour before the admiral reappeared before me and said with a broad smile, “The Commonwealth of New Worlds decided after an emergency meeting to make me the High Representative and hereby officially present you with my government’s request to join the United Stars.”
I took the tiny document, saluted, and said, “I shall convey this immediately. There is a Battlegroup of Ultras on its way, as we speak, and they will provide you with additional security until you had a chance to travel to Pluribus to make your official request and have your membership verified.”
“More huge ships like this?”
Har-Hi grinned with his arms crossed. “No, Admiral Rutherford, a Union battlegroup consists of five Dreadnoughts, twenty Ultra Battleships, sixty heavy destroyers and over 200 other support craft. A Dreadnought is 3,900 meters across.”
The admiral folded his hands. “Thanks to the Lord we communicated!”
McElligott’s holo leaned forward, while Cherubim was standing next to him, and he said, “I just read your report. You are not even gone from Richter Base for forty-two hours and you already fought a battle, made contact with tiny Terrans lost in the Ballard Nebula Expanse, and convinced them to join the Union.” He shook his head and turned to the woman at his side. “Have we really thought this trough, sending them in a ship and all on their own?”
Cherubim chuckled. “I guess you owe Richard 100 credits. He was right. They make some incredible news within the first week!”
The old admiral put the report down. “Well, you did well, I must say, and cleared the situation the best way possible. But could you not have found a different identification than Captain Jane Smith of the Enigma? How cheesy is that?”
“Sorry, sir, I had to come up with something on the spur of the moment.”
“How am I going to explain to the assembly who made contact? Well, I’ll figure something out. For now, you are to dock at the Golden Market and meet with the Merchant Eldest of the Golden.”
“Sir?”
“The Golden Ones are very enigmatic and very powerful, Captain. Their tech level is believed to be on par with ours, and we know very little of them. It is said they know every galaxy in the local group and rumors say they trade with almost all space-faring species in the entire local group, most of which we’ve never even heard off. Their highest leader, Sobody Merchant Eldest of the Golden, contacted me directly ten minutes ago, requesting to meet the gallant captain who saved his market and much profit. He said he has a historical proposal for us, but he wants to talk to you about it. This is very important, so proceed, meet the man, and be careful. Cherubim is going to try and fabricate a personnel record for Captain Jane Smith as we speak Perhaps you can pick up the trail of those traitors as well. I am certain he knows something about them.”
Cherubim said, “I am going to give substance to the fantasy name you picked for your ship and make the USS Enigma real, at least in the files.”
She made a note on a PDD and continued, “On the situation at hand, let me warn you and be careful, Captain. The First Merchant Sobody has been around for a very long time and is the undisputed ruler of a very secretive and powerful society. If at all possible, don’t start a war.”
McElligott folded his hands in a praying gesture. “I wish we could send some experienced diplomats to such a delicate and difficult task and all I got is a female Neo-Viking with a short temper, a Dai pirate, and a ship full of guns!” He then smirked. “May it be as it will be, Captain. We do have your back.”
Chapter
5: Sobody, First Merchant
We approached the asteroid base of the Golden. Wrecks and heavily damaged ships of various sizes and types floated all around us.
According to Elfi, the chatter on the various channels was overwhelming and only with Ship’s help was she able to filter through them. Narth and Shea were busy taking scans and making image recordings, as there were ships none of us had seen before. Well, almost. Har-Hi proved that the Dai indeed had a deep knowledge of areas and species unknown to the Union.
As big as the asteroid was, actually landing was not possible for a ship the size of the Tigershark and every possible landing spot was taken anyhow, but the bazaar featured several long mooring arms we could dock against. I didn’t want anyone to have the chance to get a real close look. Not that I didn’t trust the Narth technology, but I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks, either.
Shaka had no problem guiding our disguised ship toward the outmost tip of one of these mooring arms. Magnetic clamps engaged, and Cirruit powered the engines down and put them on standby.
I got up from the command seat and took a deep breath. “Well, let’s hope we don’t start a war. Hans, Har-Hi, Shea, Elfi, Narth, and Krabbel, you are with me.”
To the Y’All, I said, “Put up a guard inside and outside of the mooring arm. I don’t want anyone to get too close to the ship or attach anything to our hull.”
He acknowledged and stomped off the bridge.
To Mao, I said, “You have the Conn. If anything happens and we do not come back, you are under no circumstance to come after us. You are to take the ship back to Richter and report to Cherubim or the admiral.”
Mao took the command seat and said, “Do you expect something like that to happen?”
I shrugged. “At this point, I am expecting anything and nothing. I just want our bases covered as much as possible.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 85
