by James Warner
“There.” Meph said as he began gently replacing the computer’s innards. “Let’s see what they’re doing. Turn on that monitor over there, will you Captain?” He indicated a small 2-D screen next to my command and control pedestal, sitting on a short mount on the floor where it would be out of the way but I could see it easily.
I reached to the video display and punched the power button. Instantly a dark red picture came on the screen. I couldn’t make out anything.
“What is this, Meph? It looks all red. Is it working?”
Meph checked out the connectors on the back of the monitor and traced the cables into the computer. “Seems to be hooked up OK Captain. Maybe that’s
what they look like.”
I sat in thought for a few moments. “Maybe they operate visually on a different frequency range. Can we adjust this to a different wavelength?”
“Oh, sure. Let me see.” Meph went back into the computer with his portable interface and started playing with the programming. I began to sweat.
The monitor went through several color shifts and then suddenly I could see into a room with beings and equipment, though it was fuzzy and only black and white.
“Ah, you’ve got it!” I exclaimed under my breath. Meph squirmed out from the cabinet and made happy noises as we watched the events on the screen.
The crew of the ship was looking at a screen on which we could plainly make out our “asteroid”. In a fit of intelligence I switched on the translator, hoping to get enough conversation to make sense of their language. Within two minutes the translator gave me a beep. I thought it was rather quick for an alien culture. The screen said “Unable to register a pattern. Suggest language not audible. Need more sensory input.”
“Hey Meph, take a look at this.”
Meph quickly read the message. “Yes, Captain. From our lack of audio signal other than equipment hum and occasional grunts, I suppose I should have surmised this. They might be telepathic or communicate with some other sense, such as color, gesture, whatever.”
“So can we tie everything into the translator? Can we get color?
“Captain, we are on a frequency which is out of our visible spectrum. I don’t know how the translator would handle it, but what the heck, it’s worth a try.”
A chime went off somewhere on the bridge. I looked around in brief surprise, then realized it was the warning we had set for moving beyond the fleet’s energy field.
I happened to glance at the small monitor and noticed that I was looking at Meph, not the alien craft.
“Sassy, shields, weapons, power – battle stations!” I yelled.
I lunged at the controls, shutting down every screen, including Meph’s new ones. “Meph, they’re onto us!”
Meph lurched away from the computer and saw our actions on the surveillance monitor. He stopped and stared in disbelief as the image disappeared. Obviously it had not taken them long to figure out what we were, what we were up to and how to reverse the signal on our little spy beam. As I was buckled into the command chair I turned off the monitor, hoping to forestall their spying on us. When the Hornet’s screens came up, the monitor had gone blank anyway.
In my various wanderings, I had seldom run into an alien star fleet. Only one other occasion came to mind and my ship had been technologically sufficient to keep me safe from their initial xenophobic attack. This time I was not so sure that we were on the upside of the technological curve in this encounter. So I sat there, the proverbial duck sitting in the water, all protective screens at maximum and waited to see what they would do. They did nothing.
Meph went back into the battle bridge to check out his gadgets. “Captain,” he opened on the intercom, “everything is operational. All systems are available to you.” He sounded just a bit amazed.
Not wanting to get caught in a trap, I checked out the long distance sensors. Sure enough, two more of the alien ships were headed our way.
“Meph, I’m getting out of here. They haven’t fired at us, so obviously they’re not going to blow us out of the water yet and the planet down there needs to know what’s happening.”
“I like that Captain. Space is getting to be a bit crowded up here.”
“Sassy, maximum speed to that docking bay on Last Chance.” She turned on her main engines, stealth no longer being relevant and warped to Last Chance. I still had hopes of somehow avoiding what was shaping up into an interstellar battle.
Last Chance Bar and Grill was a larger settlement than I expected, with docking bays for around thirty starships, not to mention at least a hundred airship hangers. Everything at the spaceport was new and modern. What buildings I could see of the airport and seaport were also very up to date, with the plain but functional architectural design of most government buildings. Traffic was bustling to and from the spaceport as well as the ocean port next to it. All in all it was a thriving metropolis, at least from above – going about their business as if they didn’t know about the huge alien fleet up here.
Sassy landed herself quite nicely in bay 13, not the least bit superstitious. We were met by a representative of the local Port Captain to perform the usual formalities. I was just plain amazed at the professionalism and efficiency, after that hokey interview with the yo-yo watch ship captain.
I dressed in my Admiralty whites and left Meph to his own devices (literally). I took the first empty cab to the Port Authority building that contained the Captain’s office to meet with him in person. The cab was a garish yellow and purple century-old wheeled electric car. The interior of the cab had seen better days a very long time ago and the cracked leather seats were in need of new springs.
My Admiralty ID card got me a free ride, though, which was nice. There was no driver.
The green trees, wide boulevards and well turned out public buildings belied the frontier location of Last Chance. I was totally taken with the way these people had created a nest of civilization so far from the well-traveled lanes nearer the hub. More than ever I wanted to talk to the men who had founded this outpost.
The first clue that all was not as it seemed was when I was searched at the entrance to the Port Captain’s office building. I have had many searches by nervous officials and I make a point of never taking any weapons other than my body into government buildings. But this search was not at all what I expected. It was totally automated and totally alien. There was a technology here that seemed more related to Meph’s toys than to traditional Galactic Science. I was held by a force field of some sort (no great trick there) and felt a tingling all over my body, as if an invisible appendage was searching my body, both outside and inside. It was actually quite stimulating and I could imagine a prude might be offended. Me, well, I’ll try just about anything once.
Then the solid metal doorway in front of me just, well, I guess I’d describe it as dissolving as I watched it. The door just became fainter and fainter and then it wasn’t there anymore. It could be a holo trick, but since I had already tried it and found it to be a solid metal wall, I didn’t think it was going to change into a hologram.
I felt a gentle pressure on my back, certainly suggesting that I proceed inside. Not that I was anxious to leave this newfound pleasure toy, but business is business.
Moving into the lobby I was again surprised to find a spacious, luxuriously and tastefully planted, well lit greenhouse-type setting with chairs, tables and such placed in areas of greenery somewhat less frantic than the rest. A central waterfall, where the head seemed to materialize from the air about 25 feet above the floor, was the centerpiece. There were strange swimming things, kind of a cross between a fish and a lizard, lazily circling in the central pool. All in all, with huge skylights and muted sound of the waterfall, I was entranced. I certainly did not expect this on a frontier world.
I pressed the information kiosk button for the Port Captain’s office, wondering what would happen next.
Under my feet a yellow-lit ribbon appeared in what looked like a black granite floor, windi
ng among the various plants and tables, fading out about twenty feet or so from where I stood. I turned around to see what the doorway looked like now and found myself staring at a featureless, blank metallic wall. I knocked on it and got absolutely no sound, just sore knuckles. Matter transmutation? I was getting out of my league fast. I opened my purse, intending to call Meph and tell him what wonders I had found. Inside my purse I found that where once had been my make-up kit and communicator there were now small pieces of fused plastic, metal and goo. At least my head implant hadn’t been melted. Oh well. Might as well follow the “yellow brick road” – an ancient saying.
This building resembled most of the other public buildings from the street view – modestly impressive in size and simple, standard governmental architectural style. Things didn’t match up. I was getting nervous, so I did what I always did when I got nervous. I followed my curiosity and purpose for being there.
The yellow line stayed about twenty feet ahead of me no matter how fast or slow I moved. When I got to the elevator lobby cleverly hidden by the shrubbery, one of the waiting elevators glowed yellow and the door opened. I enjoyed this use of rather simple technology, but couldn’t figure out where the people were. I thought in a port as busy as this one appeared to be, many people would need to come and go from this place. But as yet I hadn’t seen a soul.
As I stood in front of the elevator, musing, I felt a gentle force at my back. I turned around quickly, ready to kill and there was no one. I was certainly a little spooked. All the rationalization about how I was being cleverly manipulated did nothing for my gut reaction to this herding, no matter how gentle and aesthetic it was.
The elevator ride, however, was quite fun. One wall of the car turned into a window and I watched out as we rapidly ascended to the top floor, fifty floors up from the street level lobby. It was quite a scene. I could even see the Hornet, sticking out of bay 13. I couldn’t make out any pedestrians, but the vehicle traffic patterns were quite clear and there was no air pollution.
When the elevator car stopped, the window view “closed” and a door opened into a plush reception area with a human appearing woman at a large gleaming metallic desk. All around, the colors and decorating style of the lobby had been carried in here, with a small brook, ferns and miniature trees in the room and the pleasant hint of a tropic breeze from behind me. I walked to the desk and the attractive and fashionable red headed woman looked up from her monitor. She was wearing a pale pastel green business suit with light lavender blouse, her hair was long and curled and her makeup was modest. I was admiring that her age was impossible to guess – then my world went blank.
I wouldn’t have noticed, except I am trained by the Admiralty to sever connection from my body under extreme duress and continue to monitor events until the body regains consciousness or dies. So I “saw” what happened, although I didn’t quite make sense of it. Two “people” picked my body up from the soft grass carpeted floor. I couldn’t tell what they were, or even if they were human, as I was still reorienting. At the direction of the secretary my body was placed in some sort of moving chair and moved to another room. There a strange machine shined some sort of light on my body and then everyone left.
Soon what appeared to be a human man came into the room with the receptionist, my lights went back on, he pushed a button, a gas was sprayed at my body and my body’s world started up again. I stayed out a little longer to be sure I wasn’t about to be killed, then as the body started regaining consciousness, I went back in. I sure would like to figure out how to stay out all the time. It is a lot easier to manage things from out there.
“Please excuse our lack of courtesy, Captain, but we have a unique situation here which requires extreme precautions. My name is McCauliff and I am, uh, well I suppose we can call me the Port Captain.”
I looked them over carefully, trying to detect anything at all out of the ordinary. But whatever their game was, it was well financed and they seemed to at least be human. The secretary was still wearing her business suit. Captain McCauliff was in a dark brown suit that matched his eyes and hair perfectly. It would be acceptable attire at hundreds of human planets.
“Captain McCauliff, I don’t want to seem rude but it is a requirement of my general duties to check in with the Port Captain whenever I land at a human settlement, to observe if regulations are all in force and order is upheld. I have a few questions and I would like to begin immediately with them, if you don’t mind.” Actually I didn’t care right now if he did mind.
“Of course, Captain. I’m sure you do. I will try to answer them as best I can.” His baritone voice was very soothing. This was a skilled politician.
“Let’s begin with the fleet of alien star ships out in space. Tell me about that, Mr. McCauliff.”
The Port Captain looked at his secretary, then back
at me. “Ah. Well, I see you have discovered them.”
“Indeed. Tell me more, Captain McCauliff.” I discreetly pushed the RECORD button on my belt, hoping it was working and that Meph would be monitoring. “I seem to have stumbled onto a nice big, local secret here and I don’t want to create havoc back at the Office. So, Mr. McCauliff, if you would be so kind as to alleviate my worst suspicions and fears, I would appreciate it. At this point you can hardly blame me for expecting a planetary invasion, now can you?”
While he collected himself I looked out the window. His office had a spectacular view of the city and a mountain range beyond that looked like good skiing if it was developed. And I could see we were on the shore of an ocean, as the water beyond the seaport had no end to the eye.
“Ah, Captain. Well I can explain that fleet. Or, more exactly, I can tell you about them and you can figure it out yourself. We think they are called the Frbylzk (he pronounced it furbilik), as nearly as we can figure from translations. They are not visible to us and their fleet is not visible to our sensors. I’m actually not sure how you spotted them. Care to tell me about that?”
“No Mr. McCauliff, I don’t care to tell you just now.
Please continue.”
“We are not sure when they arrived nor exactly how many there are. You see, invisible traders are just as invisible as invisible invaders. However through subtle technological tricks we cannot as yet master or duplicate, they have been able to communicate to us. As far as we can tell, they want to purchase part of our planet to settle on and so far no one has been able to think of a good reason why not to sell something to them.”
“McCauliff, this is interesting, but there are some holes in your story. Would you care to fill them in or shall I bluntly bring them up?”
“Please Captain, I am constantly monitored. I’m under quite a bit of pressure by various factions here to get rid of you, which you can guess about. But I can assure you that what I have said is true. You have been inoculated with a substance that allows you to see into the UV range far enough to see our alien visitors. Just now two of them have been standing behind you listening. Look and see.”
Ah. That explained the two “people” who moved my body who I could not see clearly when I was “out”. I turned in my chair and there they were, two bipedal, kind of out of focus looking, but perhaps humanoid beings standing in front of the elevator doors. It gave me the chills that I didn’t even sense them. Turning back to the Port Captain, “Well you’ve convinced me. So what do we do now?”
“I thought you might have an idea or two. The general population is unaware of the situation and the few government people who know are at a loss.”
“I see. Captain McCauliff, I think a mutual trade pact would be a big step in the right direction. How do you communicate with them?” I knew how I could communicate with them back on the Hornet, but not here and now.
“They have provided us with a translating device,” the secretary said and took a small “thing” out of a drawer of the massive desk and placed it in front of me. While it also seemed somewhat “fuzzy”, I could see that there was a button to push righ
t in the center of a cubic something about three inches on a side. I reached out and pushed the button. The translator activated with a golden light and I suddenly heard words from the aliens behind me.
An incredible device!
“... the creatures soon or we will have to find others.
Ah, they hear us.”
I turned to them. “Hmmm. My name is Caryn McDowell and I am authorized by the government claiming jurisdiction over this star system to enter into agreements with your civilization.” I hoped the translator had probably built up quite a repertoire of vocabulary by this time and communications would be comprehensible.
“Good. We have certain needs, which are best met by this planet. We wish to settle in an area currently devoid of your structures in the south portion of the planet. Our fleet will assist you in making a rational decision.”
