by David Buck
‘Commander Edward Reed, captain of HMAS Townsville. You are in Australian waters on an approach to the Abrolhos Islands. In light of recent news, if you launch cruise missiles at those islands I will give orders for my submarine to sink your submarine. I have six torpedoes in flooded tubes. This is not a drill Commander, you will alter course to 315 degrees heading due north west, and leave our waters immediately on the fixed course at fifteen knots. Over’
The US commander looked over at his first lieutenant and received a nod of both understanding and acceptance as he spoke away from the underwater telephone.
‘Well our orders do not state we start a war with Australia, so we are standing down.’
The commander then spoke again into the underwater telephone.
‘Commander Reed, we are coming to 315 degrees, to fifteen knots and will not change our depth. My apologies for this regrettable situation, I was merely following orders, but I am not at the liberty of discussing those orders with you. Over’
The two submarines now headed north-west, and the two men discussed over the underwater phone the recent events that had occurred, and their personal hopes for a peaceful resolution. After three hours the submarines separated and HMAS Townsville extended her own underwater cable to report the encounter with the American submarine, and to request further orders.
Twenty kilometres closer to the Abrolhos islands, in two hundred metres of water, the pilot of a Trader sneak ship had witnessed the strange events. He was confused by what had occurred underwater between the two unusual human submarines well to the north before they had withdrawn from the area. The pilot thought he would have trouble ever understanding humans at this rate.
The Traders had detected both of the submarines even as the second submarine lit up the first submarine with sound waves. The pilot had been speaking with his engineer and keeping his eyes on the targeting screen, as a message was relayed via another sneak ship flying top cover in the upper atmosphere. The humans had attempted a co-ordinated attack, and sneak ship five had just engaged and easily destroyed a rapidly closing single hyper sonic missile.
‘Now why the second submarine would be setting up a brilliant attack on the first submarine, then parley and both withdraw away from the islands? Especially as they were unlikely to know we destroyed their hyper sonic missile?’
The pilot was not worried about any weapons the humans might send at the Trader ships. He had small combat drones that could take down their torpedoes or flying missiles, and they now had orders to deal with the submarines themselves as well.
‘I am just relieved that I don’t have to destroy one or both of those human submarines.’
He observed to the bemused flight engineer as the sneak ship resumed a patrolling arc underwater around their island landing site.
***
Steve slowly climbed up the ladder onto the rear deck of the Aurora Discovery and was met by an anxious Samantha, who gave him a hug and enquired if he was okay.
‘I am a bit tired and damp but fine, you should see what I caught in my second fishing trip today.’ He quipped as his wife gave him another hug.
The crew were studiously avoiding Steve and Samantha as they lowered the cable from a small jib crane onto the runabout alongside. Within moments three slings were passed under the backboard holding the alien in his space suit, and two of the engineers carefully used the jib crane until the load was above the deck rails, then neatly swung the alien inboard.
Dan appeared with Rebecca to one side and asked if everyone was okay, before Rebecca rejoined Samantha. Dan walked over briefly and spoke to Steve.
‘I will inform the authorities about our sick friend, and then get the ship over to that strange rig. But I will not go alongside the object at this stage.’
Steve agreed and Dan hurried off to the bridge.
Steve was careful to instruct his crew, who for their part, prudently hung back as the stretchered alien was lowered to the deck.
‘Now no sudden movements or loud noises, we don’t want to alarm this fellow.’
Samantha took a startled breadth as she realised just how large the alien truly was in his space suit.
‘Steve, He must be over three metres tall and weigh well over three hundred kilograms without the suit. The arm is obviously broken, and I don’t know what we can do for pain relief.’
Steve replied as Rick and his offsiders came onboard from the moored runabout.
‘Samantha, I was worried he would sink the runabout at one stage. Only Rick and I will go to him at the moment.’
Steve then turned to Rick, who was studying the alien closely.
‘Rick, walk with me in front of him and we will help him sit up if we can, just watch his broken arm.’
Garendestat still felt light headed and he watched calmly as the two of the male humans from the smaller boat walked in front of him. The humans then slowly knelt beside him to help him to sit up. One of the males was the one that had rescued him from drowning, and he appeared to be the captain of the bigger surface ship that Garendestat was now onboard. Within moments Steve and Rick had the alien sitting up as both men steadied him in his space suit. Steve turned and looked around the deck and pointed to a heavy tool chest near the front of the rear deck.
‘Brian and Joseph slowly wheel that tool chest in front of us so our friend can see it. Then wheel it behind us so he can rest against it please.’
With the tool chest behind the alien, Steve turned to three other crew members.
‘Can you three get a tarp over the deck to keep the sun off? Rick, can you help me with the fixtures on the space suit by slowly following my lead?’
Steve looked Garendestat in the eye and calmly tapped the side of his helmet were it joined the rest of the suit. Rick then tapped the glove over the collar join and Garendestat got their meaning as their strange language flowed softly into his helmet microphones. He was sure that he was now ill more than anything as his tattoos were starting to smell.
Garendestat slowly lifted a cover on the front of his chest and pressed a button sequence on the keypad with his one good hand. The helmet collar and right glove collars on the space suit then gave an audible click and lifted.
Steve looked Garendestat in the eye again and grabbed the helmet, then he slowly lifted the large but surprisingly light helmet up high and the head of the Trader came into view. A soft gasp escaped from all the humans present as they took in the broad features of the alien. The features they noticed immediately were the single nostril in a broad nose, the heavy continuous brow, the squared off ears and flat, even teeth.
Steve paused as he regarded the impassive alien, and noticed that the alien’s blue and grey face was covered on the left side with ornate gold tattoos surrounded by stretches of blackened skin.
Steve placed the helmet on the deck and pointed to himself. ‘Steve.’
Garendestat lifted his good arm, now gloveless with only three fingers present rather than four, and replied. ‘Garendestat.’
Steve showed that he understood Garendestat by now pointing at him and replying ‘Garendestat’. Then Steve looked at Rick and who now also stated his name.
Samantha was watching the alien and trying to evaluate the injuries and illness that Garendestat must be affected by. First things first she decided, as she reached for two bottles of distilled water, and a tray full of gauze and various tubes of ointment.
‘Steve, can you introduce Rebecca and me so we can tend to him please?’
Steve called the ladies to stand in front of Garendestat and in moments he introduced them. He asked Rick to stand back and the ladies slowly moved in front of Garendestat and started to tend to his injuries. Rebecca held up an unopened cold bottle of distilled water and made a drinking motion, as Garendestat took a grip on the bottle with his good hand. Rebecca then took the cap off and Garendestat took a slow drink of water.
Samantha took out a tube of antiseptic burn cream with anaesthetic and held it in front of Garendestat,
who said something she did not understand and then nodded. Samantha carefully applied a small amount of the cream to areas of skin not affected by the black discoloration around the ornate tattoos. She then proceeded to watch the skin areas closely, before she indicated the broken left arm and made a breaking movement with her two hands. Samantha then slowly spoke a simple sentence.
‘Garendestat, you have a broken arm.’
Garendestat flinched and again slowly said something she did not understand, before once again accessing the covered keypad on the front of his space suit. Three more clicks were evident from the both sides of the space suit, as the collars around the both shoulders and left glove of the spacesuit were now released.
Steve helped the two ladies carefully lift Garendestat’s injured arm, and first take off the glove, before they carefully straightened the left arm, and slowly started to slide the detached arm of the space suit down. Garendestat gave a few grimaces and on one occasion a groan of pain, during which the humans stopped immediately and did not restart movement until the Trader nodded again for them to proceed.
Garendestat settled back against the tool chest after both suit arms were taken off and took another slow drink of water. He decided that two human medical crew members tending his injuries must be females, and the lighter skinned one must be the mate of Steve.
The Trader was impressed with the caring nature of the humans, and appreciated how they were trying to help him, as he placed the water bottle on deck for a moment. He then slowly took one of Steve’s arms with his good hand and thanked him in his own language.
‘Steve, y Garendestat doreme ka utta choi huine.’
And then Garendestat gave a small nod in his suit and reached over to pick up the water bottle again. Samantha witnessed the whole exchange as she first carefully felt along Garendestat’s massive good arm and smiled.
‘Steve, that looks like a formal thank you for saving my life to me.’
Steve was momentarily nonplussed, but responded.
‘Garendestat, you are most welcome.
He then gave Garendestat a solid pat on the shoulder like when he had been with him underwater.
Samantha looked up at the skin test area again as she now very carefully checked Garendestat’s broken arm.
‘Rebecca the standard antiseptic burn cream looks okay to me, we will avoid any antibiotics of course as Garendestat’s physiology will be quite different to our own.’
Rebecca started carefully applying the antiseptic cream to smaller areas outside the blackened tattoo sites. She stopped after several minutes as Samantha continued to check the injured arm as best she could.
‘We will get the portable X-ray machine up and X-ray this arm, though I don’t know how well I will go if I have to set the bones. Steve can you see about getting the upper section of Garendestat’s suit off and we will look also at the tattoo problem on his left shoulder.’
Garendestat motioned to Rebecca, and pointing at the tattoo sites she had been treating, he gave her a nod. She responded by saying ‘Better’ and he repeated the word with a nod. The Trader did not know exactly what the humans were placing over his damaged glimmer tattoos, but he was already starting to feel better as he sat back quietly under the now shaded deck with another bottle of water.
***
Ian Ridge settled in the plush chair at his desk and suppressed the urge to yell at someone. The usually urbane former diplomat was livid at the reports from HMAS Townsville on their encounter with the USS North Dakota. If the reports were correct then HMAS Townsville had prevented a major loss of life, not to mention the strong potential for radioactive contamination on the central west coast of Australia. Also there was an unconfirmed report the aliens appeared to have destroyed a US missile over the Indian Ocean.
Gregson, the communications manager, walked in after a knock and announced.
‘Prime Minister I have the US president on the phone again as you requested.’
Ian Ridge resisted, just barely, the urge to use strong language as he spoke to the US President James Whiting.
‘James, I am sorry to trouble you again. I hope your navy fellows are keeping you up to date. There has been an incident just off the Abrolhos Islands involving a submarine from each of our countries.’
Ian listened in silence to the profuse apologies from the US president, noting that in the last ten years or so this would be one of their better efforts after the pandemic, before he replied.
‘Okay James, we are singularly unimpressed as you can imagine, and we will have to sort a lot of this out after the situation with the aliens is resolved. Now we have to be quick about this matter, so are you in agreement with my requests?’
The prime minister listened as the US president confirmed his requests and stated that he would actively promote the science mission. After several more minutes the conversation ran down again and was concluded.
As Ian sat back in his chair, he considered further how his efforts would be received internationally, and then a flustered Gregson laid another report on this situation on his desk. Ian glanced initially at the report to establish the importance, and read in awe that first face to face contact between humans and another intelligent race had just occurred.
***
Douglas Stoneham sat with his three colleagues aboard the commercial flight from Perth to Geraldton and took the opportunity to consider his options. The astrophysicist and former astronaut knew that his life had not been this interesting since fifteen years ago when he had been stationed for two years on the now abandoned moon base. Their flight would take less than an hour, and then the Americans would be driven to the police launch in Geraldton harbour, before being ferried out to the Aurora Discovery.
Already there was a flurry of speculation as they boarded their flight about the landing of a large space ship at the Abrolhos islands. From what Douglas could establish the police in Geraldton were turning back all boats seeking to leave the port and light plane flights from Geraldton airport were now prohibited.
There was even some talk of the Australian Navy placing a blockade around the islands to prevent unwanted access. Douglas spoke quietly with his colleagues and planned out their next moves, and the questions that would need asking when they arrived.
***
Captain Narindestat considered the news of the two human submarines that eventually withdrew with interest, though he was just grateful that no one had got killed this time. The sneak ships had returned to their regular patrols after the all clear was given and new reports were coming in south of his landing site. Apparently a human ship was slowly moving to the site of the floating research rig.
‘Sneak ship nine is to refuel, and later patrol out to the research rig. See if you can get the humans on that civilian ship to leave the rig alone. Stay well away from their two naval surface ships to the south and the east of the islands.’
As he looked again over the full status, he evaluated that the engineers would have produced enough fuel in five days time. Also the repairs were going well and should be finished about the same time. So that just left the twin problems of possibly not having enough sneak ships to get his main ship into orbit, and the ongoing medical illnesses that Emeria updated the captain on twice a day. Captain Narindestat had in the meantime all but given up on the Maveen.
‘So just where on this planet are those infernal probes?’
He intoned on the bridge, something his crew were now hearing about frequently, but still wisely ignored.
***
The Maveen lead probe reviewed the earlier instructions from the ancient queen with distaste as the other probes moved in silently towards the two downed Trader sneak ships. The probes quickly activated their powerful lasers and sliced into the forward hull of the first sneak ship well away from the engines or the cargo hold.
Queen Angwene had been quite specific about the parts of the ships she wanted destroyed. The probes rolled over the damaged ship and eventually opened the doors to t
he empty cargo hold. The four encumbered probes efficiently loaded over half their supplied cargo into the sneak ship hold and secured the doors again.
All probes then made the journey to the second sneak ship and repeated the slice and load exercise on that ship as well. The consensus amongst the probes was that the two ships could not be repaired in time in any case and they were now trade items. Then probe three, who was monitoring the surface reported on a possible problem.
‘There is a human submersible in several hundred metres of water above us. I am concerned that the humans will attempt to recover the Trader ships. Also I have checked the water depth here, and I am certain that the surviving sneak ships will have great difficulty in getting to this depth and salvaging the damaged sneak ships.’
The Maveen probes quickly discussed options and agreed on a solution after reviewing a topology map of the plateau. The probes split into two teams of three, and each team picked up a sneak ship with their powerful docking clamps. The probe teams steadily towed the damaged ships several kilometres north-west to the shallower corner section of the vast plateau.
The lead probe considered the new location of the two sneak ships and then addressed the other probes.
‘This is an even better outcome from the objective of driving the Traders where we want them to go. Now probes three and five, you are to return to the ancients, and remember you must obey them absolutely, even if we feel they are hiding something. The only caveat is that our original mission will not be discussed. The rest of you follow me back to the Trader ship so I can begin our agenda with the captain.’
The two probes going to the ancients again cloaked and headed south. The remaining three probes formed around their team leader and they raced back underwater to the location the Trader captain had earlier stated he would try to reach.
As the lead probe led the other probes north he wondered how the Traders were getting along now with the humans.
