Panther and Giraffe

by Gregory Anderson

  There was a search for Anton Berdle all through the containers and he was finally found, he had wired past the safety alert system of an outer air lock. Anton Berdle was tied to a line, he had spaced himself ending the affair without any reasons why he had betrayed them. They cut him loose and repaired the alert system then left a black x on the door.

  The Cyrillium high council was made up in part by wealthy industrialist, a galaxy renowned artist and a couple of academic scholars and none of these people were related. They were listening to two scientist argue for securing the quantum singularity, by force if necessary, and taking a ship through to study the world called earth and it's human inhabitants for contact. “This gateway is unique in the galaxy and Cyrillium is the only entity with the wisdom to control it and has the force to guard it. Although we have contact from the other side we cannot believe that we have is verifiable and truthful. Further we do not know with certainty where this other world is as the claim of one hundred twenty light years and the Sagittarius arm are to fantastical. We must send an armed ship through to verify the claims and also be able to defend at that end, or at a minimum destroy the gate if the threat there is significant. We also must study and find any resources that may be of benefit to us and secure those as well.” This was the gist of the scientists statements and then captain Jings was to speak, he kept it short.

  “You have all viewed the statement of this captain Mindy “Giraffe” McCord of earth and also the log excerpts of the ship CS Panther along with the statement of it's former captain. Zak simply handed his ship to her and called her royal. This alone is reason to proceed cautiously. I have just received information that the Panther was able to rescue the colony from Edahni and may now be back in the earth system. There were 25 Federated ships in a coordinated attack as the ship left Edahni. The reports from Federated claim that they destroyed the ship and video does support that to an extent. However, reports from crew on those ships claim that the ship simply disappeared.

  We were able to verify that 22 of 25 ships were disable by the escaping ship even though that may be technically impossible. This is another reason why I am inclined to trust Giraffe's words. When she says that these earth born humans lack technology but are a danger because of the way they think, leads me to conclude that waiting is best. By all means secure the nebula as the scientist suggest, but also consider securing Edahni first, to take eyes of the nebula. I would further suggest to search other gray nebula for the same type of anomaly as we found in this one.” And that was it, now they would wait however long it took for the council to make a decision. Federated would later aid in the high councils that decisions when they came to tell Cyrillium to back off their territory. The high council would instead offer to 'buy' Edahni thus setting in motion an interesting set of negotiations.

  On the Panther another situation was being addressed, what would happen to the colony. It would not be safe to try and get back to the other side until word came that the way was clear. Yet there would be no way that they could settle on earth although many expressed interest in that. Perhaps the humans could settle in on earth but three quarters of the surviving colony were hegmon, which, as professor Hicks stated, “Humans on earth have barely learned to get along with each other much less get along with a somewhat smarter species that speaks a language they can never speak.”

  Living in the containers was already getting to many of them, very few hegmon or human are cut out to live in space for any length of time. They already knew that the system only had one habitable planet but then Hart suggested a possible solution. “What about Mars?” He asked Berdle and a few others from the colony. “It does have day and night, stable cycles, gravity, and domes could be built?” The professor mumbled and asked, “Panther dear please bring up the geology reports on mars please.” The AI was silent as always in mixed company but brought up the data. “Oh my!” Gasped Berdle, “This planet Mars is a miners dream!” Hicks joined in, “The minerals are just under the surface in four places and significant finds of silver, Aminum, Trydoxium and Azurite whatever that is.” Giraffe had come in and said, “Hicks old friend and revered professor, Azurite fuels the galaxy and is why Edahni was so important.” Berdle and the others were nodding in agreement while pouring over the data. “According to these surveys there may be more Azurite on Mars alone than in the rest of the galaxy.” And so it was decided too push ahead with finding a way to make it happen. Giraffe would have to contact the First Admiral. After consulting General Murphy for the best approach. Years before a consortium had started planing a colony on Mars and had made some headway but quit the project when they ran out of money. Money may have run out but, the project was kept private and no one knew for sure what happened, maybe Murphy could find out.

  The Panther is a long range container hauler and as such had large capacity tanks running through the spine. Even so, with the addition of the colonist they had to find water soon and according to the data there was water on Mars so they made way there at full thrust, the trip would only take two days. From space station three came information about the earth company Andsom which still had a goal of a Mars colony. Andsom built environmentally sealed housing and habitats and had a desert launch facility which was inactive at present. The primary reason for lack of progress was indeed, money. Andsom had just recently taken a positive leap financially thanks to ever increasing air quality issues. Sealed housing was the new thing.

  The stock pile of goods at the desert site was impressive what was not was a economical way to get it into space and all to Mars. Current technology would make the endeavor as expensive as building a space station, which Andsom had worked on. From the beginning Andsom had been an integral part of getting EDF into space. When they were about half way through the construction of the third station Andsom was kicked loose and the company almost collapsed. Now ten rockets and dozens of payload canisters sat under a huge dome along with piles of materials and equipment. The Andsom facility which sat in the middle of an inhospitable Eurasian desert was going to be granted new life from an unexpected source.

  Many who knew the history of the EDF early days thought Andsom had gotten a raw deal. So did ensign Jalbahn, now First Admiral Jalbahn. When he was contacted by a professor Ling with word of a private Mars project, he was all for it. Almost at the same time, Captain McCord requested a meeting. The Admiral was aboard battle cruiser three headed on a long test cruise, the reactors had finally been rebuilt according to alien specifications and were clearly outperforming the best expectations. Now the risk of catastrophic failure was way down. Their destination was Mars and a rendezvous with Panther.

  When a request from a professor Ling was put on the desk of Mike Hanson the CEO of Andsom he was tempted to pitch it. But decided to give it a glance later since his aid always screened for junk very carefully. All day he kept glancing to the request and finally gave in and had a look. “Sir, your company was founded upon establishing a colony on Mars but much has been put in the way of that goal, now you can achieve that goal with the aid of another group, you will need to build two containers to the specifications we will provide and we will lift you and a core group of up to fifty to Mars. They will link up with the group that is there now, your complete discretion is required, please respond to this request at your earliest convenience, Ling.” Well, Mike thought, 'she had me going for a minute, but of course this is a hoax someone is playing on me' however, let's look at the so called container plans'. Nope, no joke here, at least not the plans for the containers, they were more detailed than anything he had ever seen and Andsom was in the business! He was still pondering all of it when a video message came in, he put it on screen and he recognized the face right off. “Hello Mike, First Admiral Jalbahn here, it's been a long time. I thought you might like to know, if you get a message from a professor Ling it is legitimate and please, be absolutely discrete, that is all, out.” This was just too much to be a hoax but still, if there was any chance to make his grandfathers dream a reali
ty? “Bob, I want a meeting of the full board as soon as possible, no not video, get them all here for a face to face.”

  All night he pondered, Ling said there was a group already there, who and, how was that possible unless, aliens? He had heard all the news reports and like most had forgotten about it, could it be? One week later Ling instructed him to send someone to a EDF launch site and pick up a secured package. Since they were still waiting for the board to get there he went himself. What he got was a list of mining equipment to find or build that was again extremely detailed.

  Once Panther had completed scans they set down on Mars and the colonist were happy to be on land even if there was no breathable air. Mars gravity is about one third of earth and not much less than the Cyrillium home world. They had set down near a northern mountain range and had already taped into an underground aquifer which had fairly pure water . But what interested the colonist most was the system of natural caves just under the surface. The earth scans had no way to penetrate the surface the way the Panther's could and the overall detail was bringing some fascinating results. All on board were busy looking over the scans.

  On of the first order of business was to send a shuttle to the objects near the southern pole. Discovered on scans and looked like a small cluster of buildings that was indeed found to be a EDF supply depot complete with another faulty reactor. The EDF cruiser was due in two days and it would be interesting as to ask the Admiral why the supply depot was not mentioned.

  Above all else was what the scans were now showing in the mountain side, two huge caverns. One was large enough to put the Panther in and one slightly smaller but wider across the face. Giraffe had come to a decision fairly quickly to drop the containers just off to the side of where the caverns were in order to be free to take off at any time. With every thing looking positive on Mars she was still apprehensive about leaving the gateway unprotected although there was an active buoy there. This was also something she wanted to talk to the Admiral about. She sent a message to General Murphy back at station three to keep him in the loop and pass on data to Andsom corp and act as liaison. Since there were more hegmon there was still the potential for problems.

  On earth the full board of Andsom corp was in session in a secured and private location. With only a bare bones idea of why the meeting had to be in person, they soon found out when CEO Mike Hanson stated. “ I was contacted last week by a professor Ling. We vetted and verified the contact and she is a legitimate contact for an as yet unknown group. “Ladies and gentleman, we are going to Mars, and we are going soon!” These words were met with silence until Eurasia COO Mary Fin said, “Either you are delusional and we will have to replace you or the stories about an alien ship are true.” Mary had pegged it right, just one of the reasons she was next in line for the top slot. Still, there were looks of disbelief. Mike let them sit for a minute more before bringing up the engineering drawings for the containers. Theirs was an engineering firm so he let it soak in for another five full minutes before speaking. “At our desert facility we have to build two of these things and load everything we have in them which, according to size will fit with room to spare. Then, additional supplies of which I will provide a list, must be procured.” Mike took a breath before continuing, “And we must select fifty of the best possible people to settle there along with,” He paused again, “Along with the group that is already there.” The COO of Africans division was first to speak up,

  “Well you could knock me over with a feather right now but I have to ask, someone or, ah, something, is already there?” Mike replied, “Yes a group is already there and that is about all I know other than they plan on mining.” Someone said, “That's it?” Mike replied, “Yes, that is all I have on that, but hope to have more details soon, the only other thing I can say is that these two containers will be picked up somehow along with our people and delivered to Mars. We would be working as partners with this group.” COO of Americas piped up, “What do we have to do to find out more about this opportunity or fantasy, which I think this is.” Mike replied, “Before we get to actually meet the group we must agree in principal and sign confidentiality agreements and before you say no, EDF First Admiral Jalbahn says this is legit.” Miles Gerard stated, “You realize that this is going to cost a lot of money. It will consume much of our resources and there is no guarantee of return.” Mike came back, “There is nothing more I can say without signed confidentiality agreements, then we can ask professor Ling.”

  They all agreed to adjourn till the morrow to consider and make a decision. This was just too much to decide all at once so they retired to their rooms only to find no outside communications. When asked Mike said he had nothing to do with it. Later in the evening Mike received a communication from space station three relaying that the Mars group had found water, valuable minerals and natural caves for dwellings. He thought he would save that astounding information for tomorrow.

  On Mars, Berdle lead a group into the larger cavern, it had been a simple excavation through what looked like was once an opening. The engineers had brought a generator and powerful lights that now shown into a huge, roughly domed shape room that could become a ship docking bay if the structural integrity was what it appeared to be. They were already looking at logistics of making spaces air tight and making lists of equipment needs. As much as the colonist from Edahni had suffered and despite the obstacles before them the tiny group was optimistic about the future. Giraffe was relieved that things were headed in the right direction but she still had concerns with the gateway. Also on her mind was the meeting of hegmon and earth humans. Earth was still not ready but hopefully Mars could be a starting point.

  Two days later an earth shuttle dropped down from the orbiting cruiser. On the way down both Jalbahn and Smyth observed how the containers were easily twice the size of their battle cruiser. One of the containers looked to be partially buried into the side of a mountain and that is where they were instructed to land. A tube was brought out from the container and attached to the shuttle air lock so they could go in without helmets on, a surprising comfort as was the gravity which neither had felt for months. They were greeted by captain Zak Johns who welcomed them to the colony and to prep them to meet the hegmon for the first time. Although they had seen pictures and heard them there was no substitute for face to face contact. The entire earth shuttle crew were given translators set for commons instead of Cyrillium and asked to try not to stare. Zak had figured that there is really no way to prepare for meeting another species and that this would be a good test to see how earth humans in general would accept hegmons before committing to the deal with Andsom. As they moved through the container they saw a few humans who said hi and went about there business and then they stepped out into the cavern which was lighted up and sealed. Two oxygen generators were quietly humming and people were moving about mainly working high up on the wall prepping to add huge transparent panels which would let the sun in. Jalbahn was first to speak,

  “My gosh, these are families, I had no idea there would be families!” Berdle had stepped up next to him and chittered, “And what else would you expect in a colony Admiral?” The Admiral turned and looked up into the smiling face of a hegmon. “Wow, I guess you are right, it's just that we are so far behind. We do not allow wives or children in space and, well, I just assumed, I apologize.' The Admiral was embarrassed. Berdle just kept smiling and showing those big teeth, he loved working the Admiral and said, “Sir, I believe you are wound so tight right now that you're eyeballs may pop out, you really need to learn to relax!”

  He lifted his eyebrows high as Zak started snickering, then more joined in and they laughed, maybe at the Admirals expense but it sure broke the ice. Berdle introduced them around as Zak explained a little about the colonies plans. The shuttle crew started talking to a few colonist, it was remarkable what had been done in such a short amount of time. One of the hegmon children said it best, “Ya it is work but this is home now so the sooner we are settled the sooner we c
an have fun!”

  After the visit during which commander Smyth had said very little they moved to a cart. That took them down a tunnel to a tube which led to the Panther. They had all adjusted to walking in the light gravity, much to the amusement of many of the children. It was a shock to hit earth type gravity entering the ship. Uhr was curious, he wanted to see these earth ship top leaders. After all, that is where Marx came from so they must be quite smart gentleman, Dihr warned him, Marx encouraged him. The first face Jalbahn and Smyth saw when they stepped through the Panther airlock was that of a grax. A smiling grax showing lots of razor sharp teeth. “Pleased to meet you sirs, welcome aboard, I am chief engineer Uhr.” Zak had been coming from the rear and said. “Uhr what are trying to do, give them a heart attack?” Uhr replied, “No heart attack, they look that way from gravity change, I did not frighten you did I gentlemen?” Marx had come from the other way, “Gee boss, you just scared the devil out of my former bosses, that was something to see!” Uhr retorted, “Not frighten anybody, just a friendly greeting!” Just then Hart came around the corner and said, “Do not mind the grax they are a vile creatures that like raw meat, please come this way for food and meeting.”

  Both earth officers were freaked, the hegmon were different but very human like, no one warned them about grax when they sat down for a meal with the crew of the Panther. They had just gotten their wits back by the time they sat down. The last in the galley was Giraffe which they both knew but were shocked anyway. She had confidant, commanding manner and appearance, deep blue conforming space suit, and the flowing red hair. She said, “Thank you for stopping by, I understand the introductions are out of the way so let us talk first about the reason we are here, we encountered hostiles on the other side and the gateway was our only alternative. It is not safe at this time to go back. When given the choices, the colonist decided to settle on Mars. Please note, they have claimed Mars as their home and are open to others who are willing to work and share in the rewards. Berdle says it is fine for you to maintain your facility on the south pole but would like you to replace the defective reactor. The gateway is most likely safe on the other side as we believe that the hostile group is not aware of it's existence. In the event someone or thing comes through we have a buoy deployed to send us a signal so we can go back and deal with it. In fact, as soon as we can we will be going back there. As to your 'destroy the Devils Gate' group what do you know of their progress?” Smyth answered,“The group has secured a launch facility and capable missiles, it will not be long until they can arm a few unless someone stops them.” Jalbahn added, “We are monitoring in order to take care of them in space and even if one slips by we believe the nebula will just absorb them and render them inert.” Giraffe responded, “ Very good except that your information may be incorrect and that a nuclear detonation could destabilize the gateway. But more than that, if a warhead did pass through to the other side it will be detected whether it detonates or not. In that case there could be retaliation so we must do everything possible to avoid that possibility.” “What would a worse case scenario be like?” Inquired the Admiral. Giraffe looked at Zak and nodded,