by Damon Alan
“I mean Ensign Dantora. She is brilliant.”
“How would you know, Lieutenant?” Gilbert asked.
Corriea's face flushed. “We've had a few meals together. We're both science nuts, and there aren't a lot of people on board who want to talk about that.”
Gilbert laughed. “Somebody's got it bad,” he whispered to Sarah from behind a cupped hand.
Four of the five bridge officers grinned. Corriea ignored them.
Science called back, and Sarah’s neck bristled again. “Bridge.”
“Captain, this is Ensign Dantora. We need to speak privately.”
Sarah switched the conversation to her earbud. “You’re with just me, Ensign. What’s wrong?”
“You need to see the data I just examined. Urgently.”
“Send it up.”
Dantora sent the stream to Sarah's console. The probes orbiting Refuge were relaying optical imagery to the Stennis, transferred through the Schein.
Dantora gave her a running commentary. “The moon is looking great, sir. The atmosphere is a lot denser than Terran standard, but the oxygen content is lower so it works out. Eighty-six point two percent ocean. Eleven large landmasses. The ocean is mostly shallow, with a lot of islands. Here is the important part. The planet is covered with life. Not unicellular, but forests and grasslands. We see signs of life in the ocean too, although that needs further resea—”
A chime indicated the Stennis’s fuel tanks were one quarter full. Sarah didn’t have time for a lengthy briefing, she needed to check on the purity of the fuel as well as check the load distribution report from Harmeen. “I don’t see the urgency, Ensign, get to it.”
Dantora let the images speak for themselves. “We're coming up on what I want you to see, Captain. I'll let the video roll, and you can see for yourself.”
Sarah watched the video feed. She couldn’t help it, she smiled as the display revealed a broken layer of white clouds floating over blue ocean and small islands.
Look at that island sand, white as sugar. I don't think I'll be passing up this shore leave.
The beauty of the moon calmed Sarah’s sense of urgency. The satellite crossed over land, the clouds started to thin. The camera zoomed in and the resolution improved. Forests passed below, undulating over rolling hills. Then rectangular patches appeared.
“Fields?” Sarah asked, puzzled. In the background she heard all activity on the bridge stop.
The camera zoomed in again, and Sarah saw rows of plants, foot paths, and walls. A building with wooden shingles and a stone chimney passed by, with a dirt path in front of it. The footage stopped, frozen on Sarah’s screen.
She looked up to see her bridge crew staring at her.
“Thank you, Ensign. Hold on the line.” Could this be a Hive settlement this far outside of the galaxy? Did they even grow food in fields? Their biological component had to eat somehow. But to settle a world twenty-thousand light-years from Hive space? That made no sense.
To their relief Sarah replayed the video for her bridge crew. Dantora narrated the process as it unfolded on the big screen. Sarah handled any navigation issues while Corriea studied the images.
When it finished, the bridge was locked in silence. Sarah watched her crew digest the immensity of what they saw.
“I'll be damned,” her first officer whispered.
“That's civilization,” Lt. Corriea said. He turned unsettled eyes on his captain. “I've got a bad feeling about this...”
Me too.
“What do we know, Ensign Dantora?” Sarah looked at Gilbert. The expression on his face echoed what she felt. His jaw was set, his lips pressed thin.
Dantora excitedly shared her opinion. “I know this is premature, but… I don’t know how to say this. I think…”
“Spit it out,” Gilbert said.
Dantora took an audible breath. “Sorry, sir. I don't see any city lights on the night side. Whoever they are, they either keep their technology underground or they're preindustrial. I think that rules out previous human colonization. This may be a developing pre-tech civilization.”
Sarah paused to think about how to proceed and allow Dantora to calm down. Nothing Dantora said made any sense. “Aliens? You think they're aliens?”
Has she lost her mind?
“It’s a possibility, Captain. We won’t know until we go see. But why would humans colonize a planet this far out when there are much easier targets available all over the galaxy? You can’t even see this star from back home on Mindari without using the best of telescopes. It’s probably not even cataloged, it’s not in our systems.”
“Okay, Dantora, we got it. Stay on the line while I think about this.”
Harmeen's gods, don't let this be Hive.
The thought pulled Sarah’s stomach up into her throat.
Sarah struggled to wrap her mind around the situation and determine what possibility was most likely.
The galaxy has huge numbers of readily accessible worlds to colonize. What are the odds anyone would send a colony ship this far out? How did they know the star was here? Who would foot the bill? Why isn't this star in the database of known systems?
Aliens. What are the odds of that? Zero, in my mind. Millions of star systems cataloged in the galaxy and not a single sentient species discovered. Rogue colony. That's what it has to be.
Sarah’s thoughts returned to the bridge. Harmeen and Corriea worked on the refueling process. At least that box would be checked if they had to fight a Hive nest.
“We need to find out who they are. Right away.” Sarah stared at her viewscreen for a few minutes. Gilbert replayed the feed from the drone on his personal screen.
Sarah asked for the attention of her crew. “Finish what you’re doing, then I need opinions.” Sarah waited until she had all eyes. “This is the last thing any of us expected. I don't know who is down there, but we need to create a plan for anything we might find.”
Harmeen, Seto, and Corriea looked at each other uncomfortably, saying nothing.
Gilbert at least had a suggestion. “We should send another hound right away. Maybe the one in orbit is displaying old data from a different planet.”
“That's impossible, sir. This is accurate data,” Ensign Dantora said. “Besides, I have two hounds on this moon. Both are reporting signs of a native population.”
Gilbert didn't challenge Dantora's expertise, which Sarah appreciated. “If you say it's good, it's good. The lack of city lights doesn't automatically mean primitive in my mind. Maybe they live underground. We need to know if they’re aware of us. They must have seen our engines as we braked into the system. And we need to know if they are possibly hostile or xenophobic.”
Sarah listened to the exchange with great interest. “Lieutenant Harmeen, you're quiet. What's your thought on this?”
Harmeen cleared his throat and spoke softly. “We don't know that they're aliens, reality could be much worse. They could be Hive.”
There it is. Now to hear the reactions.
“If the moon is nanite contaminated, we’ll never be able to use it,” Dantora said.
Corriea interjected and Sarah noticed his careful wording as he contradicted Harmeen. “It's not Hive, they have to have an economy just as we do. Ship building. Weapons, a way to feed their biological halves. Coming all the way out here is inefficient. Machines are efficient. Everything we’ve seen the Hive do has been about efficiency and calculated probabilities.”
“I agree with Lieutenant Corriea,” Dantora offered. “That’s sound reasoning.”
Gilbert impressed Sarah with his strategic level thinking. “Maybe the Hive makes nests outside the plane of the galaxy, so that if we win the war in the galactic plane they can launch a sneak attack later.”
Sarah appreciated that thought, and it was rational. But she didn’t think it was correct. “As you noted at Hamor, we're losing the war. We need this place for humanity. If it’s Hive, we’ll burn it to ash and figure out a way to colonize this sy
stem without a habitable world. Lieutenant Seto, have the Yascurra and Fyurigan temporarily abandon mining. Order them to make orbit around Ember's fourth moon, and order the captains of the Hinden and Schein to move their anti-ship nukes to status one.”
“Right away, sir,” Seto said.
“No ships are on our scans but ours, Captain,” Corriea said.
Gilbert activated the Stennis’s sensor net, and the tactical display filled with static. “Ember is killing us across the EM bands. Hive ships could be hiding in the asteroids, waiting to learn our strength before they attack. We have to be ready for anything.”
“I don’t think they’d let us get this close to the moon if they had the means to stop us,” Sarah said. “But I don’t pretend to know the Hive mind.” Sarah rubbed her chin as she thought. “Mr. Corriea, finish our refueling. We need to be ready to move and engage any enemy on our terms.”
Corriea nodded and turned to his displays.
“Seto, order the Amalli out alone, and get her ears up and running. I want to know ASAP if there are any other ships in this system.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The bridge crew listened apprehensively as Seto made her transmissions.
“Schein, message for you and to relay to Yascurra, Fyurigan and Hinden...”
Sarah hit the ship intercom. “Battle condition two. Combat is expected, but not imminent. Set anti-ship nuclear weapons to status one. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.”
All over the ship men and women were scrambling to their combat stations. She watched the weapon status panel light up, and the missiles go green as crews manned their stations. She also knew morale was plummeting. Everyone thought they were safe.
“Lieutenants Harmeen and Corriea, redeploy the hounds to safe spots, set them to sniffing out enemy ships. Leave the two drones at Refuge there. If they detect any orbiting technology, I want to know.”
“Right away, Captain,” Harmeen replied.
“Now it's the waiting game,” Gilbert said. “If it's Hive, they saw us jump into the system.”
Sarah considered their tactical situation. “They might not have any warships,” she mused. “Why would they expect us? We sure as hell didn't expect them.”
“No warships explains how things are unfolding if this is a Hive colony,” Gilbert agreed. “They could be defenseless.”
“The Hive are never truly defenseless, Mr. Gilbert, but that’s one explanation. Let’s finish refueling, then rendezvous with the fleet at the fourth moon until we determine the nature of the locals.”
“Three more hours on the refueling, Captain,” Harmeen said.
“Very well. If they're Hive, the plan is simple. Massive nuclear assault followed by asteroid bombardment. So let's plan our other two alternatives. Aliens or human colonists.” Sarah looked at Peter Corriea for his input.
Corriea gestured toward Gilbert. “I agree with the Commander. We need more eyes down there. I think atmospheric drones are a reasonable call. My gut tells me this is a rogue colony. Nobody has seen a world directly colonized by the Hive. Only worlds that they’ve conquered. I have a hard time imagining them squatting in stone houses and working the land by hand without the benefit of technology.”
“Concur,” Gilbert said. “Send in the drones.”
“Excellent. Lieutenant, make it happen.” Sarah thought a moment, then added, “How many atmospheric drones do we have?”
“One hundred and twenty. A throwback to the days when people fought each other instead of the Hive,” Corriea answered. “They're not considered a war critical item against the Hive.”
“That’s a lot, but it won’t touch a world this size. Saturate a small area with a decent number so we know that area well. We'll have tactical knowledge and good maps if we need to go to ground.”
“I can put twelve on one reentry vehicle. That should be enough to fully cover a few hundred square kilometers.”
“Do it,” Sarah said before looking at her communications officer. “Seto?”
“I don't think they're tech, Captain. Radio is too convenient, and we found nothing on the ride in. Ember is brutal on radio locally, but the locals would adjust by boosting the signal if they were transmitting. We'd have heard them.”
“But you can't say for sure they wouldn’t be using hardwire?” Sarah asked.
“No. But for simple things, like emergency landing beacons or homing devices, well, you can't hardwire those,” Seto answered. “Even if they don't fly, they'd certainly have ships or ground vehicles if they're tech capable enough to have radio.”
Sarah agree with Seto’s logic. “That makes sense. Wire is expensive, and radio is cheaper and more versatile. Ensign Dantora, you still with us?”
Dantora’s excited voice broke from the speaker. “Of course, Captain, wouldn't miss this for anything.”
“Instruct the AI on the moon orbiters to search for oceanic wakes.”
“ASAP, Captain.”
“And, Ensign, do you know if there has ever been a system fall back in tech level like this one must have if they’re human?”
Dantora hesitated before replying. “I’m not an historian, sir, but if a colony was established here and somehow lost their ability to get to space, they’d fall back to pre-metal tech levels very quickly. This doesn’t happen in the galaxy proper because there’s always a system nearby to render aid and provide access to space. That’s my opinion, at least.”
Gilbert nodded his agreement. “Corriea is right. She’s smart.”
Ignoring Gilbert, Sarah explored the possibility of a fallen human colony. “Mr. Corriea, you support the rogue colony idea. Is it even possible to get a colony ship out this far?”
“The FTL drive doesn't care about mass, sir. It just creates the bubble. That means there's no real limit to range if you pack large enough fuel tanks and don't mind spending the time. Our jump was fast, but not normal. It would take a hundred jumps of two hundred light-years each, and that's if they had a military grade drive. Assuming they did, that's sixty days a jump on average... that's more than seventeen years to get here not counting any idle time between jumps. If the ship had a civilian drive, it might have taken as much as a hundred years.”
“That's crazy. Nobody would do that...” Gilbert said.
Sarah sympathized with Gilbert, but disagreed. “Crazier than aliens? What I hear is this. Hive or rogue colonists are the most likely. I may have to eat my words, but the idea of aliens is ludicrous.”
Corriea nodded. “I think that's the right order, Captain. You've decided our course of action if it's Hive. What do we do if they're human?”
“We research them, then make contact if it's reasonable. For all we know, they're xenophobic cannibals. If we can't live with them, we'll find a small chunk of Refuge and make it ours. Dantora said it's spotted with islands, they can't all be inhabited.”
Dantora spoke to support that point. “Spotted is inadequate. There are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of islands. The oceans of Refuge are quite shallow, so every time a serious elevation change happens to the ocean floor, there are islands.”
“Thank you Ensign. Spectacular work. I want you to work on the drone data, and sort out anything for me that will help us answer this question. Now if possible. Return to your duties.”
“Aye, Captain,” Dantora said as Sarah disconnected.
“Captain, I have a thought regarding the rogue colony,” Lieutenant Harmeen interjected. “Looking at the expense of getting here, I think we have to ask ourselves what kind of people would make that move?”
Sarah laughed. “Rich? That’s a lot of antimatter.”
Harmeen shook his head. “Fanatics.”
Sarah's eyes narrowed. “I see your point, with them jumping repeatedly over twenty years to get to a place that may or may not be habitable. If they were that nuts, let's hope they've moderated their views. I was joking, but maybe they really are xenophobes.”
Gilbert suggested, “Once we elim
inate Hive as a possibility, we send a scout team to the surface. That would answer this question, and also give us a better feel for if we can do business with them.”
“In time, Mr. Gilbert, but I'm not ready to commit to putting our men on the ground yet. We'll let the drones do their job, and Lieutenant Corriea and Ensign Dantora will help us determine that next step.”
Putting them on a team is good. The crew will need to start pairing off eventually if this works out and we become colonists. I’m not ready to give up that dream yet.
“Captain?” Correia asked.
“You heard me, Lieutenant, you and Dantora are our geniuses, when you're not on bridge duty I want you helping her figure this out,” Sarah said.
“Of course, sir.” Corriea turned back to his station, flushed.
“If they're not technological,” Gilbert said, “we should move our ships to Refuge orbit. It’ll be easier to shuttle personnel to and from the surface.”
“It would improve morale Captain, seeing Refuge, knowing we have a place to go once our issues are settled,” Seto added, backing up Gilbert.
Gilbert nodded at Seto to thank her for the support, then knowing he had an ally, pressed the point. “Morale is important, Captain. The crew needs a focus, something to shoot for. Looking outside and seeing Refuge, that would certainly perk them up and set them to their tasks.”
Corriea hesitantly agreed with the other two. “There is a lot of grumbling among the junior crew members, from what I hear. Seeing a destination couldn't hurt.”
“We'll address Refuge when that door opens to us,” Sarah replied. “What do you hear, Mr. Corriea?”
Corriea answered frankly. “I hear from some officers that many crewmen believe their military contract expired the moment they could no longer get home. They want to know what gives you the right to make decisions for them now.”
“What gives me the right?” Sarah felt her blood race to her temples.
Calm down. I didn’t expect insurrection so soon.
Sarah made great effort to keep her voice level. “Do any of you feel that way?”
Her bridge crew looked shocked, and Gilbert scowled. “Of course not. If we don't work as a team, we're dead. You say the word, Captain, and I'll deal with anyone who thinks they don't have a duty to their fellow crewmen.”
