Starfire

by B. V. Larson

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t think they can. The Russian engine is alien-made, but it’s not part of a coherent control system built by aliens. They can’t control this ship remotely, because the computers are all earth-designed.”

  “Well then, what do we care if they beam a signal somewhere?” asked Lev.

  Yuki looked at Jackie, who read the worry in her eyes. She understood quickly.

  “They did this before,” Jackie said. “They beamed a signal from Earth to Europa.”

  “Yes,” Lev said. “I know all about that. I was under the ice on Earth when the signal went out. Are we talking about a signal of that magnitude?”

  “It’s stronger,” Yuki said. “The sensors on this ship aren’t very precise, but they’re picking this up without a problem. We also have other sources of data which I’m getting. Coded communications. The communications system can’t transmit, but we can still receive data.”

  Lev looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You’re talking about spy satellites. So, Moscow didn’t blind you completely?”

  “We’re all on the same side, remember, Lieutenant?” Sandeep said, leaning forward.

  “Yes, of course,” Lev said, retreating with a smirk.

  “Anyway,” Dr. Tanaka said, “we’re reading a massive signal. It’s heading out into deep space.”

  “What’s out there?”

  The group was silent for a second. Jackie looked at Lev.

  “Other star systems,” she said. “We wanted to contact home—well, they beat us to it. They’re reporting in, informing their masters. They’re telling their homeworld everything they know about us. Just as we plan to do at the earliest opportunity.”

  Chapter 68

  Europa Ice Cap

  Starlight

  When they had Troika in a high orbit and the engine was idling unevenly, they held another conference.

  The conference table was a basic piece of furniture, just a sheer surface of composite with cup holders embedded in it. Sandeep rather enjoyed the simplicity of the furniture aboard the ship. It brought back memories of his youth. Everything was gray or green polymers mixed with dented steel. Every chair was heavily built and made with durability in mind. Aboard the American craft, most of the details had been plastic. Everything had been intelligent and it had responded to touch. More sophisticated, lighter—but delicate. He doubted an American craft would have continued to operate after the beating this ship had taken.

  “Crew,” he said, “we have a decision to make.”

  They looked at him worriedly.

  “I’m not going back down to Europa,” Dr. Linscott said suddenly. “Not for anything. You can forget that.”

  Sandeep blinked at her. He laughed. “No, no. Don’t worry. That wasn’t what I was thinking of. We have to decide how we’re going to respond to their signal.”

  “Have we deciphered it?” Edwin asked in confusion.

  “Unfortunately, no,” Sandeep said. “But our computer expert, Dr. Tanaka, has come up with some facts. Doctor?”

  “Yes,” Yuki said. She tried to scoot her chair closer to the table, but found it was bolted down. She moved her body instead, perching on the edge of the seat. There was enough gravity from the thrusters to sit normally. “Here’s what we do know: they’re sending a signal—a packet message of considerable length and detail.”

  “How do we know this?” Lev asked.

  “The signature of the signal doesn’t tell us what they’re saying, but it does tell us how they’re saying it,” she said. “The transmission pattern contains sharp transitions from one state to another, indicating digital modulation is in use. It’s a regular, pulsing signal, and that’s what worries me the most.”

  “Why?” Lev asked.

  “Because I think they’re uploading files. It’s going slowly—we can tell because the transitions aren’t occurring rapidly—but the signal is non-stop. They’re definitely transmitting a lot of data.”

  “I don’t understand,” Edwin said, looking at Yuki. “If we can’t talk to them, what difference does this make? We can head home and try to get experts to break their code—but that’s about all, right?”

  “No,” Sandeep said. “We have…options.”

  “Like what?”

  Lev laughed suddenly and slammed his open hand on the table. “I get it. You are going to blow them up!”

  They looked at him, startled. Only Sandeep and Yuki appeared to know what he was talking about. They looked slightly guilty.

  Edwin stood up suddenly. “I won’t be a party to another attack against these people,” he said firmly. “If there’s to be a vote, I vote no.”

  “Edwin?” Yuki called after him, but he left in a huff.

  Sandeep touched her shoulder. “He has his point of view,” he said, “and I respect that. But we must consider all the details.”

  “You’ll use the hammers, won’t you?” Lev demanded. He seemed amused. “I’m surprised you figured out how to operate them already. I must say, I’m impressed. Russians are always quick to strike—but Americans are even quicker!”

  Sandeep didn’t meet his eyes. “Here are the facts. Dr. Tanaka has convinced me that the aliens on Europa are transmitting a long, detailed file of data into deep space—presumably to another star system. They’re doing, in effect, exactly what we would do in their place. Reporting in after this first-contact situation.”

  “And for that, you want to bomb them?” Perez asked.

  “Yes, I do. I want to stop that signal. How can the report be positive? We’ve already had hostile interactions with these beings. If they tried peaceful communication at some point, then I must have missed it. We did pretty badly on our own, bombing and shooting at them from the beginning. We must assume, therefore, that they consider us to be dangerous enemies.”

  Perez nodded thoughtfully. “That stands to reason. How could they think otherwise?”

  “We must assume as well, they’re not native to this moon or this star system. We’ve seen no evidence of a technological planet-wide society on Europa. This black patch under the ice was some kind of an outpost, an advance base. Maybe they’ve been watching us for a century or so. Do you think it's a coincidence that they arrived shortly after the Industrial Revolution? The telegraph was invented in the early 1800s, steam engines as well. Maybe these beings took notice of us back then and by the early 1900s sent an expedition to study us.”

  “Now this is paranoia,” Lev said loudly. “Any Russian would be proud to call you a brother, Sandeep!”

  Sandeep gave him an acid glance and continued making his case. “In any event, we’ve started a conflict by coming here. Possibly, we did so by accident. History is full of such events. Wars and confusion break out whenever explorers come to visit a new land. In our case, the odds were even higher, as we’re two very different kinds of beings.”

  “Why not give peace a chance then?” Jackie asked. “I mean, this decision is too great for us to make.”

  Sandeep looked at her. “I would love not to have been placed in this position. But I am here—we are here. We cannot communicate with Earth for instruction. There’s no one else who can act, in any case. We’ve already committed numerous hostile acts against these beings. Can one more act of hostility really alter the diplomatic disaster that’s already in motion?”

  He looked around at each of them. They frowned in worry, all except for Lev. He appeared to be grandly amused.

  “I’ll answer my own question,” Sandeep said. “No, nothing we do at this point will make the situation worse than it already is. And we can’t fix it, either. That would take an entirely new mission with diplomats, translators—experts we don’t have. What we do have is the ability to silence this one transmission. It’s slow and likely to go on for quite a while, mainly due to the distance, as I understand it.”

  “That’s right,” Yuki said. “The aliens are using a very powerful transmitter, but the transmission is taking place slowly. I suspect that in o
rder to be readable at interstellar distances, a signal has to be powerful and clear. Hell, a home wi-fi system only reaches a hundred meters. We’re talking about light-years, here.”

  “We, therefore, have time to act,” Sandeep said. “If we strike early and hard, this signal will probably be disrupted and—”

  Jackie stood up. “I’ve heard enough,” she said. “I vote no. Edwin was right. We can’t cold-bloodedly bomb them. The first time was an accident, but this… We don’t even know what they’re saying! What if they’re begging their homeworld for medical supplies? What if they’re all dying under the ice and need help?”

  Yuki looked uncomfortable. “That’s just it, Jackie, we don’t know. These people could be harmless, but they don’t seem like it. They’re just as likely calling for a fleet of invading ships to come to their aid. If that’s the case, we’d best destroy them quickly and thoroughly. You’re talking about the possibility of saving a few aliens. We’re talking about the possibility of saving the entire human species.”

  Jackie and Yuki engaged in a short stare-down.

  “I understand your point of view Dr. Tanaka,” Jackie said stiffly, “but I have to vote no with Edwin. I’m out of this.”

  She left the room. The remaining four looked at one another.

  Lev spoke up first. “Anyone else?” he asked. “If one more walks out, we’ll have three against three. That’s perfect. Who breaks ties?”

  “There’s no need,” Perez said. “I vote yes, and I already know how the rest of you are voting. Let’s stop wasting time and do this now. The enemy is transmitting more data every second.”

  Several minutes later, Troika began spitting out high-speed projectiles. She had a lot of them, as it turned out. By diverting the power of the engine to the task, they were able to launch nearly a hundred depleted uranium spheres at terrific speeds.

  “This is historic,” Lev said, watching the screens as Perez and Dr. Tanaka worked the firing system. “Don’t you see that? I’m witnessing the first space battle humanity has ever engaged in. The sweet part is that we’re the aggressors, and we’re bombing a seemingly helpless group of starfish.”

  “Shut up,” Yuki said.

  For once, he did.

  Less than an hour after the fateful conference adjourned, the projectiles began slamming into Europa. The crater they’d first created was widened and deepened. At last, the ice cracked entirely, and a black shape like a rotten tooth was exposed. The transmission stopped at once.

  But the spheres kept falling, as they’d been fired long ago and could not be retrieved. They flashed down from the skies and destroyed everything in their path.

  The signal beaming toward the cold, distant stars had been cut off.

  Chapter 69

  Earth Orbit

  Starlight

  Jackie found the return journey to Earth to be long and difficult. Troika was badly damaged, and the lower decks seethed with radiation. They were forced to spend all their time in the limited space of the upper portion of the ship. They slept, ate and used the few facilities they had in shifts.

  Quietly, determinedly, the ship glided toward Earth. Jackie decided the best approach to managing the damaged engine was to never shut down the reaction until they landed. She opted to use the lowest level of thrust to slowly build up velocity. At the half-way point, they flipped the ship around and turned their thrusters toward Earth to slow the ship down.

  The ship took them home, but they never did get the transmitter working. Lev did, however, get the vodka distillation system to operate.

  The most frightening moments came during the landing. They knew they were approaching Star City without giving Earth any warning of their condition.

  “Lev,” Jackie asked, “you know your people. Will they shoot us down?”

  Lev shrugged. “That depends on how much vodka the anti-air operators have had while on duty tonight.”

  Jackie rolled her eyes. She’d learned over the last five weeks he was rarely much help. Except for killing things and surviving any kind of adversity, he seemed to be an almost useless human being. There was definitely something attractive about that—but he wasn't her type.

  This reality hadn’t stopped him from trying to get her in the sack, however.

  “Come now, Jackie,” he said, misinterpreting her stare. “It has been such a long journey. Soon, you and I might be in a prison cell in the Gulag. Shouldn’t we take part in the joys of life before it’s too late?”

  “No,” she said firmly, for what had to be the fiftieth time. “What you’re going to do is go down to engineering and give me a visual on the core. Let me know if it’s still stable enough to land.”

  He sighed. “I don’t want to go down there again. I bet by now I’m sterile—is that your concern? Have you no form of birth control? If that’s the problem then I can—”

  “No,” she said again. “Go down and give me a visual, please. Use the mirror.”

  He shook his head and left. She relaxed the moment he was out of the room.

  Yuki came in, smiling. “Lev means lion in Russian—did you know that?” she asked. “Lions mate about twenty times a day when the female is in heat. For him, it’s just nature.”

  “How come he doesn’t hit on you as often?” Jackie demanded.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he likes more athletic girls. Or maybe he thinks I'm taken. He knows about Edwin and me. Even though we're kind of on the outs right now.”

  Jackie nodded. She couldn’t find it in her heart to feel much sympathy for Yuki. The woman had sided with the others against her and Edwin. They’d outvoted her and started a war. In her opinion, Edwin’s stand against dating Yuki was a principled one.

  She didn’t bring it up, however. After five weeks of debate, the crew was weary of the topic. None of them had had a change of heart. They were all sick of arguing about it. What was done was done. Their main focus had turned to landing the ship safely on Earth.

  So far, Troika had been pinged by multiple radar stations. That could be good, or bad. The Russians at least knew they were coming. But what would they do when this silent vessel returned from the sky without answering any of their demands for information? The ground controllers had to be pulling their hair out.

  “They might blow us up on the landing pad, you know,” Jackie said.

  “Would that make you feel better? Less guilty, perhaps?” replied Yuki.

  Jackie shot a venomous glance toward her.

  “Sorry, that was a shitty thing to say. What I mean is I bet they’ll let us land and then quarantine us.”

  Jackie nodded. “That’s what NASA would do. But judging by Lev, these people at Star City are likely to be a little more intense.”

  “I’ve got an answer for that,” Yuki said, fishing in her pockets. She placed a Korean-made cellphone on the table. “I found this phone among the belongings of the crewmen.”

  Jackie looked at it. “What good is that? They only have a range of about two miles, and the engine will drown out the signal anyway.”

  “The interference will stop when we shut the engine off. If Lev can call someone, he might manage to calm them down after we land.”

  Jackie looked at it then shrugged. “It's all we have. It’s worth a try.”

  The ship’s thrusters angled to slow their rate of descent. After practicing for weeks, Perez did a pretty good job. They dropped the final few meters and jounced to a stop.

  “At least you didn’t tip it over and ram us into the ground,” Lev told Perez, clapping him on the back.

  Yuki noticed that Perez had actually been tense. It seemed only flying a spacecraft could do that to him. He relaxed visibly and nodded, accepting Lev’s praise.

  They used the cellphone when the engine cut out. Lev wasn’t able to get anyone on the line who could help them, however.

  Outside, they watched as military people surrounded the ship warily.

  Lev stood up, heaving a deep breath. “This is where I come in,�
� he said. “I’ll go to the airlock and meet them. Hide in here. If you show up before I explain—well, things might go badly.”

  They eyed one another and nodded. Finally, Lev left them.

  “Do you think we can trust him?” Edwin asked.

  “No, not really,” Yuki said. “Jackie, you should have slept with him.”

  Jackie gave her another scathing look.

  “In Lev’s case,” Edwin observed, “it might not have made any difference.”

  They all agreed. Nervous and a little glum, but glad to be back on Earth, they waited for the officials to get to them.

  Six military police wearing hazmat suits burst onto the ship within five minutes. They marched them out under arrest.

  This is going to take some careful explaining, Jackie thought to herself.

  Chapter 70

  Star City, Russia

  Night

  The Russian space agency officials weren’t happy with the loss of all but one of their crewmen. They tried to accuse the Americans and even Lev himself of a dozen crimes.

  The Americans came to realize that Lev’s survival had been both a curse and a miracle. They might not have made it home without him, but if they’d been able to land at home in America everything would have been so much simpler.

  It took eleven days for the order to come from the Kremlin to release the Americans and send them home. What made it happen in the end were their recorded interactions with the aliens. They had video, alien corpses and thousands of measurements.

  After the order from the Kremlin arrived, Sandeep, as the U. S. mission commander, was brought in front of the Russian Minister of Science.

  “Sandeep Grewal? That’s your actual name?”

  Sandeep forced a smile. “Yes, sir.”

  “How did such a person gain control of an American attack ship? I expected a military man—or at least a true man of science. You’re a bureaucrat.”

  “I’m told I have excellent people-skills,” Sandeep replied with some pride. “And sir, for the record, ours was a peaceful scientific expedition.”