by S. W. Gunn
“This dress has been in my family for four generations. It was my great-grandmother’s wedding gown and it has been passed down to me.”
“Wedding gown? You mean marriage?”
“Yes.”
“I thought people stopped doing weddings.”
“How much do you know about early 21st century history?”
Trying to pretend not to be embarrassed he answered, “Honestly not much, I spent most of my time in our history courses daydreaming and doodling designs for whatever project I was working on at the time.”
She chuckled at him before saying, “In the early 21st Century there was a second civil war in what was once the United States of America. It started off as small skirmishes but devolved into a full on war. The one group manipulated the government’s military into the fight in order to even the numbers and eventually they won. What resulted was a fascist government that cracked down on anything that their enemies promoted. Art outside of their propaganda was banned. Books that they disagreed with were purged. Soon they expanded their power and invaded the country of Mexico where their surviving opponents had fled. That war finished off most of their opponents and the government then annexed the country of Mexico. It then turned its eyes north and invaded the country of Canada, purging anyone there who challenged them as well. Once the war was finished they renamed their country to the United States of North America. After they took over Canada the rest of the nations of the world went to war with the United States. It would have been a brutal war except the United States invented a weapon called the thermalized electromagnetic pulse cannon. With it they were able to neutralize the nuclear arsenal of their foes before punishing attacks of nuclear weapons hammered down on their enemies. This left more than half of Earth in complete ruin. The few countries that survived the war quickly capitulated to the will of the United States.”
“What does this have to do with your dress?”
“More than you think. When the United States of North America won they tried to purge human traditions throughout most of the world, which they claimed were nothing but societal structures and not real aspects of humanity.”
“How did these items appear in our computer database if they purged everything?”
“Not everything. An underground movement even within their own borders thrived. People who loved our cultural past secretly worked against the fascist government. The leader of the United States of North America was a man named Jared Paulsson. In 2082 he died and there was a long political struggle between the other leaders in the country. The hidden people who were believers in our long cultural history took this opportunity to start a third civil war. This war started off as a terrorist level war of attrition before the average citizen of the country rose up to overthrow the government. This new group who took over realized that the planet was dying and immediately began to formulate a plan to save humankind. They settled on the moon and Mars, which they felt it wasn’t sustainable over a long period. The first eco-ship was launched a few years before the ‘Skybound’.”
Johnathan nodded at her.
“The brief time where they ruled the only active nation in the world stained our culture. We went from a wide variety of traditions and beliefs that included customs dating thousands of years, cultural forms of entertainment, and religions of a wide variety. What was left is a bland boring stale society that all thought was controlled and the people moved about in a boring routine. Does that remind you of anything?”
He was quite puzzled by her question.
“That’s the ‘Skybound’.” She stated before continuing, “We are a bland boring microcosm of the human society we left. The mark left on the United States of North America was so imprinted on the people that it just transferred here. Our parents were part of the group that was trying to change that but the incident ended their attempts to educate us on our real culture.”
Rose paused for a moment to take a long breath and then spoke again, “When I saw that dress I realized immediately that not only are our old traditions still alive but I now see it as an imperative for the command team to bring our traditions back. It could be something that will reconnect people aboard with who we really are and maybe help fight the variety of issues we are having aboard.”
“And your dress?” He asked her.
“When the crew members born on Earth died we lost a lot of the traditions of our past and were left with just what the database and childhood memories tell us. If I am going to push any sort of initiatives I need to lead by example.”
Johnathan nodded sullenly.
They sat there quietly for a moment before Rose laughed loudly and asked, “You really are new to relationships aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
“I’m outright telling you that I want to have a wedding and get married in order to lead by example and you completely miss it.”
He frowned because she was right and he completely missed the hint. His parents were not married and never even talked about it in any way when he was a child so for him the idea seemed a little outside his train of thought.
“Well I guess so.” He replied to her, probably very unconvincingly.
“John don’t agree with me just to agree. Think on it for a couple of days. Go learn about it and then let me know what you think.”
He could not think of any proper response so he just nodded at her. She gave him a soft smile as she reached with her hand to softly touch his cheek. Standing up and gently picking up her dress she turned back into her closet to return it.
After a few moments she returned before declaring, “Well I guess we should get to sleep since we have to be up early.”
Giving her a soft grunt Johnathan stood up and changed. He always just wore a pair of sleeping trousers to bed so it did not take long after a quick bathroom stop he slipped onto the bed and under the soft dark blue blankets. Rose slid onto the bed next to him before snuggling closely. He could hear her soft and even breathing which only lulled him off to sleep.
Chapter 9
Johnathan was startled awake by a loud beeping noise and Mark’s voice as he said through the wall speaker, “Commander I apologize for waking you however I believe something urgent has occurred that requires your attention.”
He could hear Rose shift as she sat up, which he mimicked by sitting up as well.
“What’s going on Mark?” She asked in what sounded like a groggy tone.
A small light flickered on before a holographic projection appeared in front of them and over the end of their bed. It was a visual representation of a sensor readout.
Mark’s voice spoke again through the speaker, “I was playing around with the sensors and came across this very unusual reading.”
The image appeared to be nothing but a small cluster of space debris, possibly inert asteroid pieces.
“It looks like space rocks.” Rose commented.
“It does but watch what happens when I focused the scanners on them.”
The image flickered as the sensors concentrated on the largest of the debris. After a brief moment it turned from its original slow moving course and began moving towards the eco-ship. Right after that the others, about ten of them, turned and followed the first larger one. Johnathan was completely stunned. What seemed like space debris was clearly something much more significant, possibly even an alien spacecraft. Johnathan turned to look at Rose. Her face appeared to express as much shock as he felt.
“They’re alien spacecraft!” She exclaimed.
“Yes they are. I did a deep scan but watch what then happens.”
Johnathan turned back to the image and watched intently. The image flickered as the sensors began what was a clearly deep scan. The alien spacecraft paused at their position for a moment before shimmering and then disappearing! He was left with the impression that they must have a cloaking device of some kind.
Rose called out, “Where did they go?”
Mark answered before Johnathan could, “I believe
that they have some sort of deflecting or cloaking technology that allows them to mask their presence from the sensors.”
“Are they aggressive? Do we need to be concerned?” She asked with a minor hint of concern in her voice.
“I do not know yet Rosemary however I would suggest that we take this data and see what we can deduce based on what the sensors tell us.”
“We’ll need the Lead Engineer and Navigator for that analysis because I’m horrible with data.” Johnathan stated.
Rose shifted and then slid off the bed before standing up.
“Let’s go John. We’ll call the Command Staff for a briefing. I want to know what these things are and to be ready for whatever is coming our way.”
Her tone of voice was firm and commanding. He stood up without even thinking about it. She strolled into the bathroom. Johnathan walked over to his dresser and pulled out a uniform instead of his normal work outfit. Once he got dressed Rose reappeared and started to get dressed. Even in a hurry he still took a moment to watch her dress. As soon as she was ready she played with her watch for a moment before extending a hand for him to hold. He softly held her hand.
“Alright.” She instructed before tugging on his hand and starting to walk.
They both said nothing while walking towards the elevator that would take them to the bridge. It was still very early in the morning and Johnathan was more than a little tired. There was a very light number of people walking the hallways. He took a moment to admire the smooth and well-lit corridors of the eco-ship. The materials used in the ship were made to last thousands of years with specially designed metals and plastics. On top of that, the maintenance crew performed daily micro-scans of parts of the eco-ship. It usually took the crew a whole year to cover everything. His own thoughts distracted him as they went through the eco-ship and up to the bridge conference room. As they entered the conference room Rose gestured towards a chair sitting along the right side of the room. Without even thinking Johnathan sat down. Rose moved to sit down in the chair at the front of the table. He knew that it was her chair and had seen her sitting there a few days ago. There was no one else in the conference room yet.
“Mark can you upload and project the scan information into the terminal on this desk?” Rose asked.
“Of course.” He replied.
The projector powered up and a three dimensional representation of the alien vessels in question immediately came into view as they moved in response to the scans that Mark performed. It was stunning to see. For such a long time humankind thought they were the only beings in space. All of the scans performed by NASA throughout the last hundred years before the ‘Skybound’ was launched never showed any signs of life outside of the Solar System. Johnathan took a moment to glance at Rose. She was in deep thought as she examined the readout for the scans.
As the doors of the conference room opened the First Officer said as he appeared, “Commander I am here as requested.”
He looked slightly groggy as he sat down in his chair. Soon afterwards the rest of the command staff arrived.
“Gentleman I apologize for waking all of you so early but we have something urgent that was brought to my attention and could be a major concern for us.”
Johnathan glanced over at the First Officer as he was examining the projected scanner reading.
His facial expression shifted to shock as he asked. “What the holy hell?”
The rest of the Command Staff looked at what the First Officer was looking at and they responded with facial expressions that clearly showed awe.
“Indeed. Since Technician Fischer upgraded the sensors we’ve been enjoying a significant view of everything around us. Earlier we noted some usual activity in these coordinates,” She paused to reprogram the projector to display the coordinates before continuing, “and a deeper scan was responded to by what appears to be alien vessels.”
Rose then tapped the controller to start the projection from the beginning. Several members of the Command Staff murmured to themselves and Johnathan watched closely as the Environmental Science Officer leaned into the Lead Navigator before whispering to him.
The projection continued and as they disappeared the Leader Engineer stated loudly, “Some sort of cloaking device.”
With a confident voice the First Officer stated, “They are definitely aliens but what are their plans? What are they doing? What can we do?”
“We need to find them.” Rose stated firmly.
“But how?” The First Officer asked.
Johnathan had to admit that he had no idea how to solve the issue. He was much more of a hardware guy.
The Lead Navigator Mr. Choe stated excitedly, “We can change the frequency.”
“Frequency?” Rose asked as she glanced at him.
The Lead Engineer continued, “Of course. Our sensors operate on a series of frequencies and based on the response of these aliens I wager that they detected our sensor frequencies and just altered their deflectors to mask themselves from those frequencies. If we rotate our frequencies regularly to random frequencies we can keep them from masking themselves again.”
Johnathan nodded because the Lead Engineer was right and he suspected that the plan to rotate the frequencies should work.
“How long will that take?” Rose asked him.
“A few minutes.” The Lead Navigator replied.
“Very well,” Rose announced, “Let’s do it.”
She stood up, which everyone in the room responded to by standing as well, before walking away from the table and towards the door of the conference room. Johnathan stood as well and moved behind the crowd of officers that followed Rose. Once he got out of the conference room he could see the entire Command Staff was walking onto the bridge. By the time Johnathan fully entered the bridge he saw both the Lead Engineer and the Lead Navigator standing with Rose at the main Engineering terminal. He could not hear what they were saying from the distance he was standing at but they were hard at work. They played with the controls for a while longer before the sensor display was projected on the main screen of the eco-ship. After a few moments the alien vessels reappeared. They were closer to the ‘Skybound’ and continued to move towards them. Johnathan could tell that they were moving at a much faster rate than the ‘Skybound’ could.
“Excellent work gentlemen.” Rose stated as she turned and then moved to her command chair.
As she sat down she began fiddling with the controls of the terminal embedded into the right arm of the chair.
Spinning her chair Rose said, “We need to learn everything we can from the scans. Also First Officer you are my tactical specialist. I want scenarios in case they are aggressive.”
The First Officer nodded and immediately turned and went through a side door that Johnathan knew was his office. Rose rotated her chair to face the main screen. She rested her left elbow on the arm of the chair and then rested her chin into her palm before beginning to stare into the screen.
Chapter 10
Johnathan sat quietly watching Rose as she continued to stare off into the main screen of the bridge. After several minutes the Lead Engineer approached her and whispered. Again Johnathan could not hear what was being said. After a few moments of quiet conversation Rose nodded and the Lead Engineer walked away.
Standing up she announced, “Continue working gentlemen.”
As she began walking towards the exit of the bridge she gestured with her head towards the door while looking directly at Johnathan. It was a hint so he immediately followed her.
Once they made it out of the bridge Rose said, “John I need you to set aside the sensor upgrades and come up with something to help protect the eco-ship. We aren’t sure what these aliens want and it’s best that we be prepared for anything.”
“Including an attack?” He asked.
She just nodded.
Grimly he told her, “I can start right away.”
Shaking her head she stated, “After our workout.”
�
�Well I’m going to need all the time I can get.”
“John we need to be fully prepared, which includes physically. You’ve made a lot of progress but you’re going to need to be physically fit in case they attempt to board us, plus I think better after getting a proper workout.”
He suspected that this was not a fight he would win so he shrugged his shoulders at her. They entered the elevator and Rose tapped at the controls. She stoically stood by the door without saying another word. Johnathan thought to reach out and hold her hand but she just seemed to have an aura about her that screamed out she wished to be left alone. They stood in silence and when the elevator doors opened Johnathan followed her out and down the hallway. They went to their room, changed, and headed out. All through their workout, shower, and breakfast she said nothing to him.
When they parted ways she firmly instructed, “Shields. I need a plan by lunch.”
Before he could even respond to her she stood and quickly left. He was a bit put off by her aloofness but after a moment of pondering he guessed that her mind was completely preoccupied by the alien vessels. As soon as she was out of sight Johnathan stood up and headed back to the room. He decided that a conversation with Mark was definitely in order. Johnathan already had a few ideas for the shields. On the eco-ship the shields were a deflector system that worked with hundreds of lasers. The lasers would cut through anything that got close to the ‘Skybound’ and the deflectors would repel the smaller items. Any sort of projectile weapon that these aliens might have would prove to more than the simple deflectors the eco-ship could handle. He suspected that the lasers would not be effect in knocking down any sort of weapon that could move rapidly, especially since these alien ships were moving so fast Johnathan had no doubt their potential weapons would be advanced as well. Johnathan continued to walk along the halls of the eco-ship pondering the deflectors when he was struck with a thought. Those air skates that Rose took him to play around with were able to hold hundreds of pounds more than the weight they were. He could in theory take the same technology used by the skates and convert them into a massively more powerful deflection shield than the old ones currently on the eco-ship.
