“Councilman,” came a voice over the intercom. “There’s something happening in the outer system that you need to be aware of.”
What in all the hells now? Little gray beings coming out of interstellar space? The Councilman got to his feet and gliding from the room in the graceful gait of his people, contacting his siblings through their entanglement and letting them know he would be late for the meeting with the other Counselors.
* * *
“You sure you want to send both of them, ma’am?” asked the Senior Master Chief of the Ship. “It might be nice to have one of them handy, in case something comes up.”
“I know, Chief,” said Albright, listening to the wisdom of the senior enlisted man on the vessel, but still making the decision she thought was best. “This is too important a find though, and I want one of them to get through, no matter what.”
Space was full of hostile races, pirates and aggressive cultures. Both of the ten thousand ton couriers, one carried by each cruiser, were hyper VII vessels, and so should have been able to outrun anything that tracked on them. She would be sending them back to the Exploration Command sector base by separate routes. Already this was looking like more than her two ships could handle, especially if they were faced with evacuating a sizable percentage of an entire world’s population.
“Very well, ma’am,” said the Chief from the viewer. “Our courier will be launching in five minutes. Lewis’ will go fifteen minutes after.”
And ours will be on the shortest route, and get there some hours ahead of the other one. And surely they’ll send us some hyper VII ships. In fact, Exploration Command was supposed to have been outfitted solely with VII ships by now, but the war had come, and with it, a greater demand for scout ships with the battle fleets.
“We’ve completed preliminary scans of the system, ma’am,” said the Ensign da Conti. The central holo showed the entire system, from the G class star on out, and the eleven planets and forty-two major moons that made up the system. There were two asteroid belts in the mix as well, slightly less massive than most by themselves, but sufficient to run a major space based civilization when added together. The only problem was that such a civilization didn’t exist in this system.
“They are in the early stages of space exploration,” said Commander Nord Sekumbe, the Exec, and the head of the anthropology department aboard the ship. “Lots of satellites in orbit around the planet, some artifacts on the two moons that point to recent visits. I would say they are a class six space based civilization, on the verge of leaving the environs of their own planetary system.”
“So, no hope of them escaping the supernova?”
“Not a one, ma’am. Their bad luck that their star drifted so close to one.”
“And what do you make of their species?”
The Exec thought for a moment before speaking. “At least as intelligent as we are. And, more importantly, at least as innovative. They’ve gone from prop driven aircraft to manned space flight in about the same time as humanity did on the homeworld.”
Albright grunted. That last was important. There were any number of intelligent species in the Galaxy, but among those known, very few had the innovative drive of the human race. If they had found another such as they, it could really help the war effort. And if they were even more innovative?
“I have some people working on signal analysis,” continued the Anthropologist, “along with the people from the Lewis. We have a good working vocabulary of fourteen of their languages, those of the most advanced nations. One problem with contact is the number of different political divisions on the planet. We have no guarantee that the one we establish first contact with will even cooperate with the others. And we’ve picked up some disturbing sociological data from the transmissions.”
“Such as?”
“There seem to be a number of very rabid religious groups on the planet, and evidence that several religious wars are going on at this time. I’m not sure how this will affect contact, but it could be very detrimental to any efforts we make toward communicating as a rational species.”
Another image came up on the main holo viewer, a smooth curving object rising up into space, the curve of the planet in the background. “We’ve found twelve of these objects rising from the surface. We’re not sure what they are, but they’re well beyond the capabilities of these people.”
“Could they be a threat to us?” asked the Captain, looking at the megastructures. Not that her Empire didn’t have larger structures. The Donut, ship docks and others. But unknown meant unknown capabilities.
“Unknown,” said another voice on the holo, the ship’s Weapon’s Officer, who was also one of their astrophysicists. “It doesn’t seem to interfere with the indigenous population, but we have no way of knowing how they will react to a spaceship coming in from the outer system. Or even if they’ll react at all.”
“Understood.”
Albright sat there for a moment, then looked over at the Helmsman. “Put us on a least time transit to just five hundred thousand kilometers outside of their orbit.” She looked over at Nagakami. “Inform Captain Lewis of my intentions. They are to wait out here and observe, as per standard operating procedure.”
“Sure you don’t want them along, ma’am?” asked the Exec over the side holo. “From the looks of things, there really isn’t anything to worry about in this system.”
The Captain looked once again at the structure, one of the twelve that had been left on this world by, something. Another intelligent species? The ancestors of the current inhabitants, before their civilization fell?
“Let’s do it by the book, Exec,” said Albright with a nod at the holo. “These procedures are in place for a reason, so we’ll follow them. Lewis will wait out here and watch, and if anything happens to us, we’ll have them to get the word out to the next ship.” She looked at the holo that showed one of the huge structures that poked out of the atmosphere of the planet, something well beyond the capabilities of these people. A mystery, and not one that a ship’s captain was really all that eager to push her nose into.
“And I want us at full alert status when we get within ten light minutes of that world,” she told her Tactical Officer. “Cold plasma fields at full strength, weapons hot.” And, hopefully, we won’t have to use them against something a thousand times more massive than this ship, or a dozen of them.
* * *
“As you can see, sir, these two heat sources appeared on our deep space telescope scan less than an hour ago,” said the scientist, two of his tentacles working over the keyboard while two more pointed at the screen that showed the objects in questions as pinpoints. “Even at highest resolution we cannot determine what they are. But ten minutes ago one of the objects started moving away from the other by a small margin. We’ve parsed the data, and it appears the heat signature is getting stronger.”
“Which means?” asked the First Councilman, pretty sure he knew exactly what it meant.
“A visitor from beyond our system,” said the scientist, his lips turned and hiding his teeth in a smile. “Do you realize what this means, First Councilman? We are not alone.”
“But are they hostile? And are those two all there are?” And could we successfully fight them off? There are only two of them, but they have the technology needed to cross the space between the stars, something we can only speculate about.
“I have no way of knowing their intentions,” said the Scientist, his lips scrunching into a teeth showing frown. “They could be peaceful, but I have no way of knowing. The one thing I do know is one of those ships is coming here.”
But not both of them, thought the First Councilman, allowing his thoughts to link with those of his four surviving brothers. Why are they leaving one of their ships out so far. Two light hours? He looked at the figures on the screen, and his brothers looked through his eyes by way of their entangled brains.
I think they are leaving the one ship out there as a precaution, thought his bro
ther, General Mazzat Contena. If we do anything to the ship coming toward us, they will be able to leave with the news.
To what purpose? asked engineer Lazzit Contena.
To bring back reinforcements to crush us, if we don’t acquiesce to their demands and attack this first probe, said Mazzat. Why else would they be here, but to conquer us.
I don’t think that is their purpose, thought Mizzit Contena, the artist of the group. As advanced as they are, they must be peaceful.
Like we’re peaceful, thought the General. The more advanced we’ve become, the deadlier has been our military.
The First Councilman closed off his thoughts for a moment, wondering what course to take with so many dissenting viewpoints. He and his siblings were not a group mind. They, as the members of a single litter, could communicate mind to mind, no matter the distance or the circumstances. They could look through each other’s eyes, hear through the other’s ears, even feel physical sensations if they opened their minds to such. But they were still individuals, with their own minds and thoughts.
What do you suggest, Mazzat, he thought.
Destroy them as soon as they come within range of our missiles.
But, you said they would come back in force if we destroyed them, said the incredulous Councilman.
We will have to fight them anyway. So we might as well open the war with a victory.
And the other nations of Klassek? What will they think if we drag them in an interstellar war?
We are the leaders on this world, thought the General, his mindspeak almost a shout. We are the most powerful nation on Klassek. It is up to us to make those choices.
But all the other nations will insist on having input, thought Kazzat, the financier. As soon as that thing is in orbit, every nation with a radio will be broadcasting their strident pleas and demands up to them.
The Councilman looked over at the scientist, who returned his glance with the patient look of one who understood what the leader was doing. All of the dominant species on the planet could do the same with those they shared the womb with. The scientific community thought it was an evolutionary development that had allowed them to become the preeminent hunters on their world, and to have developed the intelligence that led to sentience. Only those who had lost all of their siblings were cut off from this kind of communion, and most soon went insane.
Then I will make that decision. Thank you all for the input. He severed the link with a thought, cutting off his brother the General in mid-transmission.
“Will any of the other nations know about them?” he asked the scientist.
“I wouldn’t think so. We’re the only ones with access to the deep space telescope. And therefore the only ones who have the capability of picking them up at a distance.”
“Then this information is hereby classified as top secret. Under pain of accusation of treason, and possible execution, this information will only be disseminated to those cleared by my office.”
“But, the scientific community?”
“I know you want the academic glory, Professor. And it will be yours, eventually. But right now we need to be able to act without the interference of our enemies.” The First Councilman turned to a com panel and tapped the connect key.
“Get me the director of the launch facility,” he said into the com as soon as someone answered on the other end. Moments later he was connected to his nation’s spaceport, one of only two on the planet.
“How soon can you get a bird into space? I need it for a mission out to Jerratt,” he said, naming the farthest of the planet’s two moons, which his nation had visited several times in the last couple of years. “No, not to Jerratt. Just out to that distance.”
“We have a launch for next week,” said the spaceport director. “It is, in fact, a mission to Jerratt. Why do you want to launch early?”
“That’s classified. I will be authorizing an information transfer that will tell you why. This is for your eyes only, and the commander of the mission. Otherwise, no one is to know. And they won’t be going to Jerratt. Only to the same distance.”
“But,” stammered the Director. “We need an orbital capture in order to return. That will doom the crew to a lonely death.”
“Don’t worry about that. Just get the bird off. Arrangements will be made for pickup.” The Councilman cut the link, then pulled open the small case he always carried with him. In a few moments he had issued directives, and the needed information was on its way to those who would need it to prosecute the goal of first contact.
And there is nothing else I can do, he thought as he closed the case. Except maybe go and pray. He laughed at that last thought as he walked out of the Scientist’s office. He didn’t believe in any of the hundreds of Gods worshipped by the various peoples of the planet. Worship that had led to a large number of wars through the ages, and were still stirring up people enough to cause campaigns of mass death and destruction. Maybe our visitors will have the solution, he thought hopefully.
* * *
“We have an interesting development here, ma’am,” said Sensory Officer da Conti, switching the view of the main holo tank to a zoom of the planet.
“Is that what I think it is?” asked Albright, watching as a long object climbed from the atmosphere and curved in a high orbit of the planet.
“It does appear to be a space vessel, ma’am,” agreed da Conti. “Very primitive by our standards.”
“And why do you think they picked this time to launch it?”
“It could be coincidence,” said the Sensory Officer.
And I really don’t believe in coincidences, thought the Captain as she watched part of the craft fall away. Minutes later the bright flame of a hydroxyl engine lit up the rear of the craft, and it started moving away from the planet on a curving path.
“Navigator. Can you track their destination?”
“Give me a minute, ma’am. As soon as they finish their burn I should know something.”
It took several minutes for the burn to complete, and even then it took the Navigator a little more time to crunch the data.
“Right here, ma’am,” said the Navigator as a blinking curser appeared about a half million kilometers from the planet. “And unless I’m reading their technology wrong, they will actually fall past this point and out into the system, until they finally achieve an orbit around the sun about five million kilometers out.”
“Any reason for them to do that?” asked Albright, her eyes narrowing.
“I would say that they know we are here,” said da Conti, looking from Captain to holo and back.
“And how would they know that?” she asked.
“They must have some orbiting sensor systems that picked us up on infrared,” said da Conti. “So they launched a ship to meet us as far away from their planet as they could manage.”
“I’m still not sure why they would do that,” said Albright, shaking her head.
“Orders, ma’am?” asked the Helmsman.
“Plot a course to rendezvous with them at the earliest moment,” said Albright.
“Calculating,” said the Navigator, running the figures of the vectors and velocity/acceleration of both their vessel and the alien craft, calculations that involved time as well as distance, figuring that included the knowledge that what they saw of the alien craft was an hour and half earlier. “Course locked in.”
“Engaging,” called out the Helmsman, setting the ship on the course he had received from the Navigator. “Estimated time of rendezvous, twenty-one hours, twelve minutes.”
And then they get a good look at us, thought the Captain. I wonder what they’ll think?
Chapter Two
The combination of nuclear energy and the exploitation of the orbitals of a world is the danger zone. The time when a civilization is most likely to destroy itself. Ours made it through this period, barely. Many do not.
Dr. Tan Hu, Sociologist, Imperial University, the Year 854.
Astronaut Nazzir L
amsat sat in his acceleration couch and looked with disbelief at the object that was approaching his small capsule. He could feel the alarm of his siblings over his mind link, as they instantaneously looked through his eyes at the same object. While his fellow astronaut, Hzzart Nastra sat gripping the arms of her chair. They had expected strangeness. After all, this was a ship built by another race.
But we didn’t expect for it to be so, big. And fast.
“They’re coming in too fast,” complained the other astronaut.
Lamsat checked the radar screen, still surprised that they could even track such an advanced ship. Unless they wanted to be tracked, since they realize we know they are there anyway. “They’re decelerating at four point nine kilometers.” That can’t be right, can it? That’s over five hundred gravities, and we’re lucky to get eight out of our most powerful engine. He ran the figures, two of his tentacle tips poking into hole after hole in his board, flying across the surface. “It looks like they are going to stop just to the side of us.”
“But, what’s propelling them?” asked Nastra, her primary eyes wide as her secondaries darted all over the place, the sign of extreme anxiety. “I see no drive flames proceeding them. An ion stream? But I didn’t think it was possible to generate so much force that way.”
“I think they must use a reactionless drive,” said the Mission Commander over the com.
“Isn’t that impossible?”
“Not if they do it,” said Lamsat, looking at the alien ship on infrared scans. “Those things on the front, the big vanes, that might be the drive. They’re glowing with heat.”
“I thought those were weapons.”
“They appear to be radiating a lot of infrared, but nothing else, so I doubt they’re weapons. But those big glowing rings. Those look like weapons to me.”
Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova. Page 2
