“It’s so damned big,” said Nastra, repeating his recent thought. “How much more advanced are they than us? Several hundred years? A thousand?” She looked down at her board, her eyes growing even wider. “We’re receiving a transmission. From the alien.”
The small viewing screen to their front came to life, at first filled with static, then clearing to show what looked like the bridge of the alien ship. A creature sat in a chair, its head displaying a small nose and only two eyes, strange looking objects on the side of its head. Long reddish hair began at the top of its skull and flowed back. It only had two limbs on each side of its upper torso, each ending in an appendage that had five small tentacles.
Two other creatures stood near the chair. One towered over the chair sitter, with a long scale covered snout and an alarming array of teeth. The other was not a tall, and had a covering of feathers over its face.
“They have more than one species of sentient aboard,” said Nastra in an excited voice. “Do you know what that means? They have a confederation of intelligent species. And perhaps they will allow us to join.”
“Or they have conquered other races, and will now add us to their slave empire,” said the Mission Leader, not as willing to trust the unknowns as his younger partner. “Are we transmitting? Then go ahead and send them our take.”
A moment later the creature in the chair started speaking. At least that was what he thought, as it was the only one whose lips were moving.. “Are they speaking Honish?”
“It sounds like it,” said Nastra, referring to the language spoken by a people on another continent than theirs, less advanced but more numerous than their own. And their greatest enemy.
“We don’t speak that language,” said Lamsat, his eyes locking on that of what seemed to be the dominant creature over there.
“Then we will talk in this one,” said the creature in such a fast change that Lamsat had trouble believing he was actually hearing his own language. Their computers are that advanced? He wasn’t sure why that surprised him, considering how advanced their propulsion systems obviously were.
“We would like to bring you aboard our ship, where we can talk more comfortably. I assume you breath the gas mixture of the world below?”
“Yes, we breathe our air.”
“And we breathe a similar mixture, so you will do fine aboard our ship. I assume you do not have the fine maneuvering ability needed to safely land in our hangar.”
“I really don’t know,” said the astronaut. “I doubt that we do.”
“Then we’ll send a cargo shuttle to pick your capsule up and bring it aboard. If that is acceptable to you?”
“That’s what we’re here for,” he said quietly to Nastra, then looked back at the viewer and the camera mounted on it. “I would like to be taken aboard your ship. I have messages from our leadership for you.” And I can’t wait to see that vessel of yours from the inside.
“Then we will have a shuttle out to pick you up in minutes. Don’t worry. It’s a highly maneuverable ship, and this is something the crew is good at.”
The screen went blank, and the female astronaut looked at the male with some alarm. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“I don’t know. But do you think they couldn’t vaporize us in place if they wanted to?”
“True,” she said with a smile. “So we might as well go aboard to be vaporized. At least we can satisfy our curiosity before that happens.”
* * *
“Shuttle is launching, ma’am,” came the call from the Senior Master Chief.
“Who’s piloting?”
“Ensign Nguyen,” said the Chief with a chuckle.
Albright smiled. Nguyen was known as the hottest pilot aboard. If they wanted to impress their new friends with capabilities, they couldn’t have picked a better pilot. If he doesn’t scare whatever passes for excrement from what orifice they use for its ejection.
“Do you want to greet them on the hangar deck with a full ceremony?” asked Lt. J’rrantar, the Phlistaran commander of the ship’s Marine contingent.
“I would advise against it, since we don’t know their cultural memes,” advised the Exec. “For all we know, seeing a bunch of uniforms and rifles may make them think we are about to arrest them.”
“OK, a small contingent of officers, myself included,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Lt. J’rrantar as the single Marine, and Petty Officer First Hi’tarris as our other alien delegate.” The Gryphon crewman nodded from his position next to the Captain, where he had been strategically placed so that the aliens could see that not just humans were involved in their Empire. “Let’s get moving, people,” she said, getting up from her chair and heading for the bridge hatch, which opened at her approach.
“You might want to see this, ma’am,” said one of the com techs over her link as she walked toward the lift.
“Hold one,” she said as she stepped into the lift and the doors closed. First the lift would move up a half dozen decks, then over a hundred meters to the port hangar. The Captain closed her eyes and let the video and audio of the signal play over the appropriate lobes of her brain, giving her the same input as if she had been watching the vid from the bridge.
More scenes of fighting, as small, helicopters, rose over the skyline and shot missiles into other buildings. A missile came back and blasted one of the gunships from the sky. An instant later the origin point of that antiaircraft missile was an expanding fireball.
“So they’re fighting,” said the Captain. “We knew they were a warlike species, same as our own.”
“This is a news broadcast from the nation of our friends,” said the Exec, breaking into the conversation. “They have been fighting a war on another continent for more than a local decade, and it doesn’t look to be ending soon.”
The lift door opened and the corridor leading to the hangar stretched ahead thirty meters. “Let’s establish normal relations with these people first. Then we’ll get into the question of social engineering. And besides, I don’t think they’re going to have much time for fighting after we tell them what’s coming.”
“That might be the problem, ma’am,” said the Exec. “These people may be so caught up in fighting each other that they ignore the news we’ve brought. Or just refuse to believe it.”
“That would be insane,” said Albright, walking onto the hangar deck and looking at the shimmering cold plasma field that separated the air filled area from space.
“Wouldn’t be the first time someone has gotten into space with a total lack of common sense,” she admitted, stepping to the front of the small line of officers and senior NCOs.
The nose of the shuttle poked through the cold plasma field, which moved out of the way, sliding around the hull of the ship and preventing the atmosphere from leaking out. It took only a few moments for the ship to fully enter the hangar and thud down on the deck. Its grabber units were red hot, radiating their heat into the hangar area. The hull was cold, the ship having not penetrated anything that would have caused friction.
The upper doors of the large shuttle opened up, revealing the alien space capsule. A moment later a hatch on the capsule opened, and the first of the alien astronauts climbed out. A couple of crew in shipboard armor rose up from the floor of the hangar and landed next to the alien, then lifted it in the air and to the deck. A moment later a second astronaut joined the first, and they both stood there and stared at their surroundings.
“Welcome aboard the HIMS Clark,” said Albright, stepping forward. “We are very pleased to make contact with your people.”
* * *
“Our astronauts have signaled that they are about to be taken aboard the alien ship,” said the voice of the com center tech over the speaker.
“Have they said anything about the aliens yet?” asked the First Councilman.
“We lost com with them moments after that transmission, sir. But we have one of Astronaut Lamsat’s brothers at the spaceport, and he is saying that his br
other is alive and well, and that the aliens seem to be friendly. Right now they are aboard the cargo compartment of an alien shuttle, and are cut off from all sensor reads.”
Thank the Gods the entanglement is still working. There had never been a circumstance where the connection between siblings had been cut off, save by the death or severe central nervous system damage to one of the members. There had been some concern about the connection remaining when one of the siblings had gone off world, but it had worked perfectly. In fact, as far as the scientists could tell, it had transmitted information from brain to brain instantaneously.
Do the aliens have a similar mental capacity? Or something even better? There was still a lot of debate in the scientific community as to whether entanglement was a prerequisite for the development of intelligence. This contact would have a lot to do with proving or disproving that theory. And was the least of the leader’s concerns.
“Make sure you get every word and impression from Lamsat’s sibling. I want to know everything I can about them before we have them coming down here.” And whether their intentions are peaceful or not, I have no doubt they are coming down here.
And you need to be ready to blow them out of space, chimed in his brother, the General, over the protests of the other siblings.
If we need to, then I will demur to you, thought the leader. But I will not start a war with someone with unknown capabilities because of paranoia. The First Councilman cut off the link, wondering what he should do with his sibling. The problem was, the General was his sibling, and, according to their social structure, there was no greater loyalty than to your litter mates.
The violet phone started shrieking, at the same time flashing into the ultraviolet range, the alert to an important transmission from the leader of the Honish.
“Yes,” said the First Councilman as he picked up the receiver of the old fashioned telephone, made that way on purpose. “This is Contena.”
“And this is Zzarr, and I call you a filthy breaker of our agreement, by Hrrottha.”
And it’s not a good sign when the old pirate starts off calling on his bastard of a God. “What are you talking about, Zzarr? I am not aware that I had broken any agreements.”
“You lie,” snarled the leader of Contena’s greatest rival on the planet. “We monitored your launch. And now an object of unknown origin appears at the orbit of the outer moon, and I know exactly where that capsule was headed. What is it, Contena? Are you now conspiring with aliens to take over the world?”
“We thought it best to make preliminary contact ourselves,” said Contena, trying to keep his voice calm and steady.
“I bet you did,” said the other male. “I bet there was no thought of getting an advantage over the rest of us. Alien technologies would make you unbeatable, wouldn’t they? Well, you are not going to get away with it. We will be launching our own capsule in eighteen hours. And don’t you dare let anything happen to that ship unless you want a total war. Understand?”
The line went dead, and the First Councilman carefully put the phone handset back into its cradle. I want our forces at the ready, he sent over the link to his brother, the General. Just in case that old fool launches a first strike.
We have them under observation at all times. As soon as we see their missiles fueling, we will plan a time on target strike to get them while they are starting their accent.
Try to avoid casualties if possible. But get their missiles, no matter what. I don’t want us to suffer casualties either.
He cut the link so his brother wouldn’t listen in on his next thoughts. Surely they wouldn’t be crazy enough to start a nuclear war. But if he believes his murderous God will protect him, no matter what, he might just start a nuclear exchange. The First Councilman shivered just a moment with real fear. Hrrottha was also the name of the blue giant that Scientist Sharrann Lestacor was so afraid was going to supernova in less than two years. That was no coincidence, since the Honish worshiped the brightest star in the sky. And if it blows, none of the rest of this crap matters. But I can’t think like that. I have to plan and lead as if there is a future. Not like it’s going to end any instant.
* * *
“You have gravity?” was the first thing that Lamsat said as he stepped onto the deck and the human captain came forward in welcome. “We did not see your ship spinning when we approached.”
“We have artificial gravity,” said the human as she pushed forward her strange looking manipulation unit again.
Artificial gravity? thought the Astronaut, looking at the member and wondering what he was supposed to do with it, then reaching a pair of his manipulating tentacles forward to clasp the unit. Is such a thing possible?
We have known of the possibility for over a decade, came back the thoughts of one of his siblings, one who worked in high energy physics research. But we are many decades away from being able to manipulate gravity in such a way, if not hundreds of years.
Then all thoughts of artificial gravity were no longer at the forefront, as he watched the officer the human was introducing come forward.
“This is the commander of my Marine detachment, Lt. J’rrantar.”
By the Gods, thought Lamsat, looking up into the face of the being. What he saw was an alarming set of jaws in a scaled face, with intelligent green eyes looking at him with interest. The creature was six limbed, walking on four, with a second torso reaching up from the first, sporting two very strong looking arms and manipulation digits similar to those of the human’s. If they have warriors like this, we would be doomed even in a conventional fight.
“And Petty Officer Hi’tarris, one of my electronics techs.”
The second being was also larger than the Captain, about of a size with Lamsat himself. And while not as fearsomely armed as the huge Marine, his sharp looking beak was still a formidable weapon.
“And this is my crewmate, Hzzart Nastra,” said Lamsat, introducing his partner. It still sounded strange using the translation program the humans had provided. When they spoke, they heard the words come out of their own mouths in their language, yet the aliens seemed to understand them. When the aliens talked, they could hear the foreign, incomprehensible words, but they also heard their own language.
“How many species have you enslaved?” asked the female Astronaut, her own primary eyes moving back and forth between the two alien species.
“The Phlistarans and Gryphons are not slaves of my people, but free members of our Empire,” said the human. “As are over a score of other species. And we trade with even more.”
“And do you fight any of them?” asked Lamsat, unable to tell if the alien was speaking the truth or not. After all, he could not even begin to read their body language or voice tones. It might be years before any of his people could. He hoped the same was also true the other way, but had no way of knowing.
“We try to get along with the other space going species,” said the human, showing her teeth in what looked like a grimace, but could have been anything. “But not everyone gets along, and there have been wars. We’ve even started few ourselves, I’m sorry to say.”
The human looked around for a moment, then motioned toward an open hatchway. “And if you would come with us, we have a more comfortable venue where we can talk.”
Hzzarts wants to know if you believe them, said one of his siblings.
Lamsat glanced at his companion for a moment, nodding his head. I do believe them, to a point, he told his sibling on the planet through the quantum connection of their brains. That sibling talked with one of Hzzarts’ sisters, in the same room or by communicator. Only siblings from the same litter could communicate in such a manner, but using this method was the next best thing to his having telepathic communication with his partner. And they can’t tell what we’re saying to each other, or even if we’re communicating. And then a thought struck that concerned him. If the aliens also had quantum connectedness in their mental makeup, they might guess what was going on, and with their tech th
ey might actually be able to intercept it.
They walked through thirty meters of corridor and entered a lift, which whisked them away from where they entered to somewhere else on the ship. The lift opened up on another corridor which looked much like the one they had just left.
“Did we even move?” asked Nastra as they stepped out of the lift. “I felt nothing.”
“The compensators in the lift took up all the inertia,” said the human, giving them another of those full tooth grimaces which Lamsat was beginning to suspect weren’t such after all. “It’s the same system we use on our ships when we move, though nowhere near as powerful.”
The door to a room opened as they approached, sliding into the wall smooth and silent, and the Captain gestured them into the chamber, which had a long table and some chairs, as well as a bench like thing that defied their understanding. Until the huge alien settled himself into it and made himself comfortable.
“I’m afraid we don’t have chair configured to your physiognomy, at least yet. But if you sit in them for a little while they will start configuring themselves to you. As far as refreshments, I have ordered water, as well as a sampling of other beverages, to be delivered here. As far as we can tell, you have a similar enough biochemistry to our own that none of our foodstuffs should cause any harm, though I can’t guarantee the taste.”
“How do you know we have the same biochemistry as you do?” asked Nastra, her secondary eyes moving in alarm. “Do you have sensory systems that allow you to do that?”
“It was the nanites that have gotten into your systems since you came aboard,” said the human Captain, who then looked as if she had mentioned something she shouldn’t have.
“What are nanites?” asked Nastra, as Lamsat wondered yet again if he was misreading the aliens.
Our experts think that we are starting to get a read on the body language of the humans, said his sibling who was a psychologist. The images coming across are clear.
Amazing technology, thought the Astronaut in his own private processes. Everything he was seeing was also seen by his siblings while he allowed those images to pass from his mind to theirs. And the Psychologist was able, through a state of the art implant, to transmit those images to a vid for other experts to watch.
Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova. Page 3
