Panther and Giraffe

by Gregory Anderson

  Zak was dumbfounded at how she could detect the shoulder damage with the thick space suit on and how in the world would she know about the brand new medical treatment beds just becoming available on Cyrillium. In Zak's world very few females were pilots or navigators so he had to assume she was from somewhere way more advanced. Also disturbing,he had never even heard of any humanoid species with emerald eyes and real red hair, it was almost too much.“Sorry, no med bed on this ship does yours have one?” “Hmm, no med bed on my little shuttle just enough room for two but I think we can take yours to where we can get you help.” She said. Zak asked again, this time with a little more force, “Can you release my arms please and no this ship may not be able to go anywhere, the thrusters are off line.” Zak was starting to get alarmed as Giraffe settled into his captains chair, strapped in and proceeded to rummage through the ships systems with the familiarity of a veteran captain.

  “Try to relax Zak, while I try to get your navigation system to talk to mine and no, I will not release your arms until I can make a full threat assessment and send out an alert message.” Zak sat in silence, not sure how to make small talk with this fiery woman while she plundered the ships systems.

  Giraffe was consuming information at a rate beyond the level of most humans and over an hour passed before she found what she was looking for. “Hey Zak, why is your AI off line and why won't you're jump drive controls come up and oh, are most on your planet tall like you?” More shocked by the disjointed height question he stumbled with an answer. “The ship does not have an AI or a jump drive and ah, I am just average height on my planet” “You may be a real good looking guy Zak but you are not a good liar, you just lied to me, do not do it again or, I may have to space you!” She was bluffing but so far the it was working and she was learning a whole lot in short order. It was by accident she found the panel on the left side of the chair, it opened the full command of all the hidden systems! Zak was just starting to reply when Giraffe cut him off “Shut up Zak! “Panther respond, full command, captain McCord, acknowledge” The ships AI came alive and stated “Panther responding, recognizing McCord, captain, do you wish to discontinue Johns?” Before she could respond Zak piped up, “Override and discontinue McCord, this is Johns, captain!” There was no answer from the ship AI instead it queried, “Waiting response, discontinue Johns?”

  Giraffe paused and looked at Zak as she said, “Discontinue Johns authorization McCord” and just like that, Zak had lost his ship to a fiery red head genius with emerald eyes, and somehow, some way, he was OK with that. The ships AI or artificial intelligence had somehow recognized Giraffes voice imprint as a higher level authorization. It had been almost thirteen hours since she had sent the alien first contact message.

  “Zak, I need to know why you are here, if anyone or anything is going to be following you and if you are intending any harm to the citizens of earth.” Giraffe said as she started a new recording to be sent in a second message pack.. Zak saw no reason to lie about it so he stated simply, “I ran a blockaded planet and dropped two containers of food and medicines to starving people, I did this at my own peril only, with no other crew aboard, as I exited the planet the planet atmosphere the blockading ships fired on me taking out my drives and punching holes in my ship with boarding missiles, I then executed a programmed emergency jump into a gray nebula and I do not know where I am. I could not say for certain about being followed, but it is unlikely as a gray nebula is not know to be navigable. I have never intentionally harmed any one and have no intention of starting now.” Giraffe added, “I, captain Mindy McCord of Earth Defense Force have full control of the alien ship and declare a threat level zero, repeat the threat level is zero, end recording.” “Panther please send, EDF on fmz frequencies highest level and estimate time to receive.” The second message would arrive only eight hours after the first, plenty of time to send the world into a tizzy. Then Zak asked a question that raised questions Giraffe was not prepared to answer. “How come you are sending a message on such a obsolete frequency and method?” And then added in a quiet voice, “You could let me loose you know.” Giraffe replied, “Right, so let's take a look at your fire control systems shall we?”

  When the signal reached earth, and the exited voice screamed, “To all stations, repeat all stations, I have alien contact repeat, I have alien contact!” There was disbelief, denial and then panic. Cooler heads prevailed after a fashion and the wait for more information to come and the assurances of authorities that it would be okay.

  Even though earth had been space for a century no really gave much thought what to do with first contact, there was no real procedure for first contact. One thing was definite, the all channels signal meant everybody everywhere knew, “We are not alone.”

  1st Admiral Walter Scotts of Earth Defense Forces had immediately called in his top commanders to decide how best to deal with this brand new threat even though no one could know for sure what they were dealing with. First on their agenda was to bring up the file on captain Mindy McCord and to determine how just much they could rely on her judgment and information. After all, when confronted with unbelievable information those in authority tend to doubt the messenger. That seems to just be human nature, at least on earth. In the core worlds life had evolved a bit farther and most would accept new alien contact at face value having had the benefit of several previous encounters. Most in the galaxy had given up on wars over territories by realizing there were many empty worlds yet to settle and differences in how to live could be separated by the same. So a live and let live attitude had produced a mostly peaceful group of species. Even the Grax, who some would say resembled hairless cats, only fought themselves occasionally. So everyone else just got out of their way until the conflict over so yes, peaceful is a good word.

  Well, except maybe for the Moog, humanoids from a heavy gravity planet, they liked to be left alone. But every few decades some fool would try to establish 'friendly relations' with them and that never went well. When the Moog communicated with anyone it was the Cyrillium worlds where Zak was from. That was limited to arranging exchange of technologies under strict established guidelines. Perhaps after beating the crap out of each other for a few centuries, sentient beings realized that no one wins in the end. Although war does make for an effective population reduction program.

  Earth being isolated totally from all that, reacted quite predictably right off to a first contact, they panicked. For the three nations of earth the cooler heads, as a precaution, declared high alerts for a potential alien invasion. The military around the globe were mobilized. The Americas, Eurasians, and Africans nations had only one source for expertise on space, the Earth Defense Force or as it is more commonly known space navy.

  The EDF was not established to battle invading aliens instead it was created to zap asteroids after a huge one made a crater out of Moscow City almost a century ago. EDF was the only true collaboration of the three earth nations.

  EDF consists of three space stations, three battleships, and a few hundred early detection buoys spread around the perimeter of the solar system. The battleships mainly stayed docked at their respective stations due to lack of funding while converted shuttles took on the task of maintaining the buoys. The shuttles were used only twenty times for earth entry before the shielding became unstable. This was discovered after a few burned up on re-entry so after those twenty trips they were left in space for scrap or re-purposed on earth. Actually most of the shuttles were converted to fighter craft but renamed as courier ships.

  With each battleship housing at present twenty each, much like an old fashioned ocean going aircraft carrier. Politically, no one raised an eyebrow over 'courier' vessels. Still the Admiral and his staff were pretty much terrified by anything that could just pop into their solar system. After all, the arms the space navy carried including the nuclear missiles were untested and unproved. Commander Jalbahn of Africans made the suggestion that they should try to communicate with the aliens and not assume t
hey would be hostile. This was meet with vacant looks. After a pause Fist Admiral Scotts, “That idea has merit, look into the possibilities, meanwhile all we can do is wait for more information from captain McCord.

  “Perhaps we should pull the battleships away from the stations and put them on high alert?” Ventured Commander DePaul of Eurasians, “That way we are not quite so vulnerable.” Admiral Scotts replied, “Excellent suggestion DePaul let's do that immediately, any other suggestions?” “Ask for more money for more ships.” Stated General Murphy, “The politicians can't say no while the fear of alien invasion is fresh.” “That is so cynical,“ Replied Commander Smyth of Americas, “But also quite astute and so true. He followed with, “The report just came back on Captain McCord and she is indeed a solid source so anything she delivers should be taken at face value.” Admiral Scotts concluded by saying, “Gentlemen, please remember to keep all we discuss confidential and need to know, we will be vigilant while we wait for lord knows what, Dismissed!”

  4

  The citizens of earth had varied reactions to the alien contact message and later analysis provided a breakdown of the responses that went much the same as from other big big news. Fifty percent did not believe it, twenty percent were to busy fighting each other to show concern, ten percent said it's about time and the rest just plain did not hear or care. So in the hours between the first and second alien contact message not much changed, the high alerts were still being processed and distributed to the various local governments and military units and grocery stores were just thinking about stocking up on survival supplies. On space station three Specialist Henry Wadlow was furious at being left behind and had a clear desire to kill Captain McCord for leaving him behind on that fateful mission.

  This should have been his discovery and the only way to resolve things may well be to kill the alien because in Henry's mind, both the alien and McCord were out to destroy the world. The EDF should have had better screening processes to prevent people like Henry from being in the service but budget constraints make for low pay and high risk. Just because some of the people in space were not of the highest quality did not mean that there were no good people, in fact, many adventurer types inhabited the stations and ships. Most were highly motivated and innovative, doing jobs no had ever done, going places no one had ever been. While earth did nothing, the three stations and ships of the space navy were busy preparing for the unknown. With the Admirals staff trying to come up with options for a friendly first contact, they already came to the conclusion that if the aliens were hostile there would be little they could do against a technically advance foe. “The ships will be spread to earth defensive positions as soon as possible.” Declared Admiral Scotts, “Lets hope we do not have to fire but if we do it will be a fight to the last man.” Colonel Tato of stations command added, “The stations will be prepare to fight also, and we stand ready to supply command and control logistics as well.”

  “Then I see no reason to talk further at this time so lets get to work, dismissed!” Stated Scotts. Later, at almost the same time on all three stations the ships had completed loading. They were buttoning up to deploy, the airtight bulkheads and airlocks all closed and final command was given. “Execute mission, good luck and godspeed.” It seemed that for some the second message may be a great big letdown but at the same time a small group was working diligently on something that should have been done a century ago, first contact protocol.

  Instead of looking at Panther's armament, Giraffe had a small problem, her suit was full, never intended for extended use without waste empty. Discretely she looked around for a bathroom of some sort and caught Zak watching her. “Fresher, or, ah, on the bridge?” She inquired. “Yes, behind the power racks,” Zak replied. “I sure could stand to use the ah fresher also, yes?” Giraffe hesitated for a moment while studying one of the panels before just asking, “Panther one tenth gravity please.” “Done.” Panther replied. She could immediately feel it, just enough to 'walk' to the fresher but not enough to cause more pain to the captain who was showing signs distress, she would have to help him soon but first. Oh what a relief!

  The fresher was much the same as in the shuttle and no problem to use and was about to pull off her space suit entirely before realizing that only a single bulkhead door separated them from the cold vacuum of space. Standing in front of Zak she was faced with a dilemma, how to let Zak loose and take care of his shoulder without risking him overpowering her. He certainly looked capable and then she remembered her bulging suit packs. She had emergency med shots. Zak did not look the best so she set the auto syringe for a small dose and said, “This should take care of the pain and help with healing and, I don't think it will kill you, it is all plant based medicines.” Zak had a look of alarm on his face and stammered “I can handle the pain OK just let me loose please!” At which Giraffe jammed the syringe into his neck.. Zak felt a slight prick and then an almost instant feeling of euphoria as the pain melted away and then, his mind sharpened focus while his body felt slightly disconnected. For someone who has never used an opiate based medication it's effects can be quite powerful. Also highly addicting which is why emergency med shots were closely monitored. The combination of that and the anti inflammatory and antibiotics is quite effective. Giraffe was worried that he might have a bad reaction to the shot and was relieved that he responded the same as a earth human.

  Now she had a little time to fix his shoulder before his could make his body work again. Giraffe unsheathed a sizable knife and started to cut the tape off Zak's arms. “What is that stuff you bound my arms with?” Zak asked with genuine curiosity, “I have never seen anything like it?” Holding up the roll she replied, “We still call it by it's centuries old name duct tape, now I'm going to help you to lay on the floor OK.” Zak was happy to be loose but a little leery to lay on the floor he complied nevertheless. “Now, this is going to be a little weird but I am going to pop your shoulder back in the socket where it belongs, the old fashioned way, we do not have any more time to wait.” And she one foot under armpit the other gently along neck, pull out hard, twist slightly and feel. She let the muscles pull the arm back into the socket, done! She smiled with satisfaction as she had never done it before, only read about it. Zak felt immediate relief as the arm popped back in and amazed at the woman that was so capable and confidant. “Thank you for that, you have remarkable skills.” Zak said as he sat up and Giraffe held the arm slightly bent in front of him. She whipped out the tape and fixed his arm in place to his suit. “You are quite welcome, now go to the fresher and care of your business but try not to move the arm, do you have any food on the bridge?

  Zak had a hard time keeping up with her abrupt changes of subject but after a quick thought responded. “Sorry no, everything is in the galley or was, I suppose it all got sucked out in the attack.” After Zak came out of the fresher he realized he was hungry too and asked, “Do you have any food with you or is it in your shuttle?” “Well I have protein paste, which will have to do for now, tastes like crap but fills you up. Have a tube.” She said as she dug out a tube of 'fruit delight, yuk! Zak had settled himself in the navigators chair, still not sure how he lost control of his ship. And to add further insult the ship AI no longer called him captain, just Johns. Now, it was captain McCord!. Mindy knew she was in an old ship, she recognized the signs that were much like those in the old shuttle she flew and it caused some concern because of all the armament and tech it had, especially the jump drive, something did not ring quite true. “The hull on this ship is remarkable in it's layered construction, are the mesh layers all emitters?” she asked. This was a blind guess on Giraffes part but was the only thing that fit. Zak stared in disbelief at how astute she was considering that she must come from a low tech world. Her space suit was like something out of the last century yet he had to wonder if she was also an engineer.

  “Yes there are the usual force shield emitters and the other layer is classified.” “Would that be a emissions changing steal
th array Panther? “ Giraffe asked. “The stealth emitter array has scramble capability.” replied Panther. “Hey, you can't give away all my secrets.” rejoined Zak. “You forget that Panther at the present time, is mine, Zak, but we have more important things to work on now that you are on the mend.” Giraffe said. Zak did feel good, almost too good, the 'emergency med shot' was amazing. “Since there is no com to engineering the main thrusters are not available, so we are going to in-system jump to EDF station three, Panther has finished updating the star charts so we can now see where you came from, Take a look.” Giraffe said. They both stared at the display in silence, Zak was way farther away from the core than anyone had ever been and it made absolutely no sense at all. “That is impossible, the emergency jump was only a half light year and even into a gray nebula should have left me on the other side or stuck inside.” Stated Zak. They remained silent for a minute, then Giraffe said “You did just come out of a gray nebula just not the same one, that is impossible, unless, unless.” After a pause both said,