by Nate Johnson
“Janet Sinclair,” she answered automatically as she shook his hand.
Something about him was different. Obviously intelligent. A person didn’t rise to the rank of Admiral in the Imperial Navy without being extremely intelligent. Fit, trim, especially for a man of his age. But there was something more. A charisma that was both reassuring and focused.
A lifetime habit of observing animals in their own environment lead her to make a snap assessment, he’s comfortable in his own skin, she realized. Comfortable with who he is.
The thought surprised her, but before she could delve deeper into its meaning, a door in the back right corner opened. A rather large Imperial Marine stepped through, followed immediately by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor William III of the Taurian Empire.
Janet felt her knees grow weak. How? Why? She stumbled to catch herself and was ever thankful that the man next to her gently took her arm in support.
Her eyes tracked the Emperor as he made his way to the large chair at the head of the table.
“Let’s get started,” he said as he sat down.
Janet had to shake her head to clear the thoughts tumbling over each other in her mind. What the hell was going on?
Everyone made their way to a seat and quickly joined him. Janet noticed that the military men in the room congregated on the right side of the Emperor and the civilians on the left.
“Please, sit here, Doctor Sinclair,” Admiral McKenzie said as he indicated the chair next to his.
Janet swallowed hard and followed his lead, unable to take her eyes off the Emperor. He looked just like he did in every video she had ever seen. Handsome. Not too tall, but not exactly short. Golden hair and deep blue eyes.
It was the Emperor. It really was. And she was in the same room with the man who ruled the galaxy.
“Thank you for coming,” the Emperor said as he looked at the people seated at the table with him. “Before we get started, though, I wanted to introduce Doctor Janet Sinclair, professor of xenobiology at the university. I’ve asked her here to help provide some insight.”
The men and women around the table smiled and nodded their welcome. Janet hesitantly smiled back while she tried to force her heart to stop beating so fast.
“Admiral McKenzie will lead the brief,” the Emperor said as he nodded to the man next to her.
The Admiral stood up and looked at each person around the table. HIs kind eyes coming to rest on hers for a moment at the last.
“Four hours ago,” he began, “a junior petty officer in our network systems room noticed a message that had been misrouted. Being a curious person, he opened the message to try and figure out who it should be delivered to. If he hadn’t, we might very well not have received the report until sometime next week.”
Janet wondered briefly about the inefficiency of the Imperial Navy. They had such a reputation of never making a mistake. Always strong, professional. It did something to her insides to realize the Navy was made up of humans. Subject to all the human foibles and errors.
“I think it best if you see the message first, then we can discuss it further,” Admiral McKenzie said as he pointed to the center of the big table.
Janet jumped when a hologram, about eighteen inches high, energized into being.
A young man, about her age, in a Navy work uniform, a silver oak leaf on his collar, came into focus.
“This is the I.S.S. Mesquite out of New Kansas,” the man said as he looked directly into the camera. “We were working beacon number twenty-eight in the Intrepid system when we noticed something strange.”
Janet tore her eyes away for just a moment to case the rest of the room’s reaction. Most of them were leaning forward, their eyes narrowed as they focused on the hologram.
It was their first time seeing this, she realized. Only High Admiral Jacobs, General Thompson, the Marine Commandant, and the Emperor himself were acting as if they had seen it before.
The hologram continued, “... As if out of nowhere, nineteen ships appeared from behind Intrepid’s sun. They were in line, obviously together, and slowing down as they approached the planet.”
The man on the screen swallowed hard and looked off to the side. He nodded to someone, then returned his focus to the camera.
“It took us a while to realize they were not Imperial Navy. In fact, they didn’t match any known class of ship, military or commercial. Either an imperial planet has developed a deep space capability we were unaware of. Or. ... or, these ships were from ... somewhere else.”
Someone to Janet’s right gasped, but she didn’t turn away from the hologram to see who it was. She could not have looked away if prodded with a stick. Was it possible? Had it finally happened? Were they aliens? Cognizant, technologically advanced aliens?
Finally, after all these years searching the cosmos. They had found intelligent aliens. Or to be precise, aliens had found them.
Holding her breath, she waited for the Mesquite’s captain to finish his report.
“The ships continued on to take up orbit around Intrepid. Once the nineteen vessels were arranged around the planet, seven additional ships cleared the sun and are currently in route to Intrepid. These vessels appear to be bigger, blockier. For some reason, I have the feeling they are transport, not fighting vessels. Of the original nineteen, eighteen of them are similar in shape and size. Sleek, long oblongs. Approximately four hundred feet long. Eighty feet wide. With no sign of propulsion or maneuvering jets. The remaining ship is three times as large. Twelve hundred feet long. One hundred and seventy feet wide. Again, no sign of propulsion.”
The people in the room were looking at each other, some were smiling. Others had very concerned looks on their face.
“I have tried raising the ships,” the Mesquite’s captain said. “But have received no response. I am rather confident that they are not from a known planet. That large ship could only be built in space. And in our galaxy, only the Taurian docks are large enough. No way were these built on some backwater planet without us knowing. Therefore I am confident they are from a civilization unknown to the Empire and am following the established protocols for meeting them.”
Janet’s heart began to race. Finally. It had happened.
“I have buttoned up, set the outer armor to full reflective and have turned off all weapon tracking sensors,” the skipper of the beacon tender said. “We have attempted contact in every known language. I have adjusted course so that we are not in any danger of approaching too close. In the meantime, we will continue to advance and investigate.”
The hologram went blank then sunk back into the table as if were never there.
Janet looked around the room at the stunned expressions on everyone’s face.
“Is this true?” Minister Clemmons asked.
“Yes, Madam Minister,” Admiral McKenzie said with a frown.
“Why the long face?” Senator Richards asked. “I thought this was what we were hoping for? Finally, contact with an alien species.”
The young admiral grimaced.
“We received a second report, Senator, about twenty minutes after this one.”
The hologram once again appeared in the middle of the table.
This time, the captain’s eyes were big, his hair was stuck to the top of his forehead with sweat. Janet’s heart dropped to her stomach when she saw the worry in the man’s face.
“This is I.S.S. Mesquite. We are under attack. We made no hostile move. I swear. We were simply advancing toward the unknown ships. Approximately fifteen minutes ago. One of the nineteen broke out of orbit and made course directly towards us. I slowed down and tried hailing the vessel again. But the vessel made a course correction. Maintaining bearing and constantly decreasing range.”
A small pop sound on the hologram was followed by an eruption of sparks originating off camera and shooting across the scene behind the captain.
“Without warning and without provocation, the vessel approaching us opened fire with what appears to be
a high power laser.”
Again, another pop and the ship shuddered.
The captain grimaced and yelled to someone out of the scene, “Tell Dobson to shift to the port batteries.”
Swallowing hard, the captain refocused on the camera. “The beam has not left us. I have been unable to maneuver away from it. I shift, and it shifts with me. They are starting to penetrate our armor, and I don’t know how much longer we can last.”
Janet’s heart raced as she watched the captain’s worried frown. Just a short time earlier, he had been a normal man, doing a hard job maintaining beacons. Now he was in the center of an interstellar battle.
•“I have decided to break protocol and return fire. If I don’t, the ship is lost.” The captain paused for a second then looked into the camera with an intense plea. “My men deserve to at least be allowed to fight b ...”
The screen went blank.
A shocked silence fell over the room.
“What happened?” someone said.
Admiral McKenzie’s lips formed into a straight line as he once again nodded towards the center of the table.
“This is from beacon twenty-eight,” he said as the hologram once again sprang into existence. Janet was greeted with a dark scene of deep space. Blackness and stars. In the distance a large yellow star, and in the foreground a blue planet.
“I’ve taken the liberty of marking the two vessels. The Mesquite is in blue, the alien ship in red.
As she watched, Janet bit her lip, dreading what she was going to see. The red and blue circles continued to move towards each other. If she concentrated, she could see the ships inside their designated circles of light.
The Mesquite, the typical, small naval craft, big in the belly, sharp angels and a dozen different sensor arrays located across the outside of the ship. The alien craft was clean, smooth. Glistening in the distant sunlight. No windows, nothing to mar the streamlined shape of the craft.
Her brow narrowed as she tried to understand the differences. Why? she wondered. What was it about this alien culture that called for streamlining and perfection? Where her own species seemed to focus on function.
As she watched, the two ships approach, she felt her heart rate begin to increase, and the inside of her mouth became very dry.
Without warning, a long blue streak of light left the alien ship and immediately struck the Mesquite, reflecting off into a vibrant rainbow of color.
She held her breath as she thought about what was going to happen. That young man, all of those young men, fighting for their life.
Then, suddenly, without warning. A bright white light filled the hologram. Nothing but whiteness that slowly resolved back into the blackness of space.
Everyone leaned forward, staring at the small blue circle in the middle of the scene. Dreading what they were going to see, yet desperately hoping they were wrong.
Nothing. No ship. Where before, there had been an Imperial Naval vessel and a crew of twenty-four men. Now there was nothing. They were gone. Blown into oblivion by an alien race that didn’t seem to care.
Chapter Three
Rear Admiral David (Mac) McKenzie stared at the center of the table. Unable to look away. Every time he saw the report, he prayed for a different result. Those were his men. It was he who had established the alien protocols. Oh, Admiral Jacobs had signed them. But he had written them. Those men might very well be alive if they had not followed his instructions to the letter.
Biting his lip, he looked at the stunned faces around him. They were in shock. And if this upset them, wait until they got a load of the next report he had for them.
The Emperor frowned and bit the corner of his lip. “I need to inform you that technically, this is not our first contact with an alien species.”
“What?” Director Aurora Clemens demanded.
The Emperor looked almost sheepish for a moment than ducked his head and said, “We discovered an alien species on a distant planet almost a year ago. But this could not be those aliens. They are rather primitive with no space faring capability.”
“But,” Senator Richards yelled, “why weren’t we informed? Why all the secrecy.”
“Because,” the Emperor began, “the Imperial Senate couldn’t keep a secret if their paychecks depended upon it. And we had not determined if we would approach them or not. In fact Science Minister Rogers is in route to the planet to make the final decision.”
“And let me guess,” Director Clemens said, “he departed from Intrepid, after all, it is at the end of known space. And now, just after he leaves for a distant alien inhabited planet, strange, new aliens show up to attack Intrepid. Don’t you think these events might be related.”
Janet sucked in a quick breath, unable to believe anyone would use such a tone with the Emperor. But the Emperor didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. But then, he had a lifetime of dealing with stuff like this.
“We don’t know. And might not for a while. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. As you will soon see,” he said with a somber tone as he nodded for Admiral McKenzie to continue.
Mac took a deep breath and then began, “About one hour ago, we received this from the Viceroy on Intrepid.” The admiral said, “I have condensed some things. The entire report is available if you wish to see it. But I removed the first part of the message, it contains a lot of speculation and conjecture.”
The hologram opened with a bird's eye view looking down on the grass plains of Intrepid. As the drone pulled back, the fields of green wheat came into view, then the edge of a city, two and three story buildings made of beige brick.
“Tannerville,” the admiral said in answer to their unspoken question.
The video swung to the side, bringing a long gray road into view. As the drone swooped down, a group of people came into focus.
“That’s Viceroy Simmons in the front,” he said as the video focused on a close-up shot of a slightly overweight man in his late fifties. He glanced up at the drone for a second. The camera catching the hesitant nervousness in his eyes.
The drone held on him for a second before pulling back and showing the four Imperial Marines standing behind him. Each of them with a stoic face, looking forward, down the road.
Twisting on its own axis, the drone panned down the road until a new group came into view.
Mac heard Dr. Sinclair gasp next to him when she saw them. He knew what she was thinking. Their otherness sent a sudden fear through a person.
The aliens were walking down the road as if they owned it. At almost six foot tall, each carried a rifle at port arms. Marching in time with each other.
Mac wished he could stop the video and get Dr. Sinclair’s first impression. But he restrained himself. Let this play out, he thought.
Ever since seeing the video, he had wondered what stood out more. Their snout like faces or the furry heads. They reminded him of rats, evil, disgusting rats. Each of the forward eight guards were a dull brown. Behind them was a taller, rat-like creature, followed immediately by another eight of the guards.
Their snouts weren’t super long, just enough to be noticeable, with two big, needle sharp, canine teeth curling up over the upper jaw. Their fur seemed coarse. Across the chest double breasted plates of armor rippled with each movement.
Their arms were normal length, or at least what Mac believed should be normal. The hands gripping the weapons looked like they had an opposable thumb and three long fingers.
The creatures wore full armor. It must be hot in there with all that fur. The first time he had seen them he had almost laughed. It was strange seeing animals wearing clothes.
He shuddered and glanced down at Dr. Sinclair.
She was focused on the creatures. Taking in every detail. Her eyes narrowed as the group came to a stop.
The drone pulled back to show Viceroy Simmons make a motion to the Marine escort to remain behind. Smiling, he turned and held his arms open wide as he started walking towards the group.
The g
roup of aliens remained rock still for a few seconds, then, without warning, the front right guard lifted his rifle to his shoulder and shot the Viceroy through the head with a blue laser beam.
A gasp erupted in the cabinet room as each person processed what they had just seen. Unarmed, welcoming, and the man had been shot down like a wild beast.
Mac had to give the Marines escort credit, they didn’t take long to react. Each of the four men shouldered their rifle but each man was killed before he could bring his weapon to bear.
A blue light shot from the rifles, taking each Marine in the head. A powerful laser that left a small burning hole in each of their skulls. Mac cursed under his breath, protocol called for the Marines to be in full armor, but the Viceroy had overruled the protocol and those men paid the full measure.
Just like that, five men, down and dead.
“Why?” the Senator asked. “What did they do?”
“Nothing,” Admiral Jacobs answered.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms. Borough, the public relations officer for the Emperor said. “Why? We wouldn’t do that.”
Dr. Sinclair leaned forward. “I don’t know. What would you do if you came home and found a New Kansas three step viper in your living room? Or a cockroach in your kitchen. Most people would kill it without a second thought.”
“But we aren’t poisonous snakes or filthy insects,” General Thompson said with a heavy scowl.
“Maybe to them we are,” Dr. Sinclair said without taking her eyes off the hologram.
The drone continued to hover above the scene as if nothing had happened. The five bodies lay on the road like discarded wood.
Mac swallowed hard knowing what was coming.
The forward guards brought their rifles back to port arms across their chest and started forward. When they reached the Viceroy, they stepped aside and let the larger alien through their ranks.
The tall rat-like creature stopped before the man lying in the middle of the road then looked up to the sky and touched the side of its head. He held the pose for a second, then dropped to his knees.
Mac held his breath as the creature bent and bit down into the body. Pulling back, it ripped a long section of red flesh and muscle away. Tearing it from the Viceroy’s body with its teeth.
