The front screen, which still showed the true-light image of the outer Tau Ceti system and its debris disk, plus the magnified image of its seven planets and Elaine’s sensor emissions image of the system, now showed a fourth image. One of a Melagun hippo that faced the AV vidcam directly.
“Station Twelve of Warm Refuge city, I greet you in the name of the Melagun Protection Forces,” said the large-sized hippo who wore a red robe over its blocky body. And went by the name Benaxis. “The herd of Polar Ice detected the approach of a cometary body twenty times the size of our ship. We used our primary beam weapon to vaporize it. Observe this image recording we made.”
The solo hippo image was replaced by one of black space with a small white object centered in it. The object was oblong, with dark areas that could be encrusted dust and rock. Overall, though, the object met his definition of a comet like those that occupied the Kuiper Belt of Sol system. Suddenly a black thread shot out from the ship to the comet, hitting it in the middle. A yellow-white flare of violent plasma filled the middle of the comet, then expanded rapidly to cover it completely. A second later that plasma globe expanded suddenly.
“Fuck!” yelled Maureen. “These hippos have antimatter beamers!”
Jack felt his heart speed up. A chill ran down his back. Suddenly he wondered if they should all put on their vacsuits in case the fleet found itself battling Aliens who possessed a weapon that only humans had. Until now. “True,” he said loudly as his fellow captains looked shocked and worried. “But there is no sign they possess Higgs Disruptor beams.”
“Wishful thinking,” Maureen said darkly. “If they have coherent antimatter beams, for certain they have lasers. And likely neutral particle beamers. Or the ability to build them. I don’t give a damn whether these Aliens are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. They just jumped to the top of my Danger list!”
“—was an outstanding protection of Home,” cried the voice-over announcer. “Guide Benaxis, you protected many mothers and children! You and your herd must be proud. When will you return to Home and to your female?”
The solo hippo image remained silent as the voice-over announcer’s words took long minutes to travel 3.7 AU out to the sixth world, then the same time to arrive back at Home. Where it was then broadcast worldwide. Which broadcast they were only now receiving. Jack looked over at Maureen who was fiddling with her combat simulation holo. “Well, that answers one matter. The bigger Melagun hippos are male while the smaller ones are female.”
“So it seems,” said Denise. “Which makes them similar to Earth’s mammals and birds, but very different from other animals. Females are larger than males among the giant seadevil, octopi, reptiles, amphibians and spiders. Leastwise according to evolutionary biologist Daphne J. Fairbairn, who wrote about this early this century. She made the point, after reviewing 73 classes within 26 animal phyla, that females are more often larger and more flamboyant than males.”
Jack winced. He was not about to step into the debate over which human gender was more flamboyant! “Thank you, Denise. Other insights? Anyone?”
“Well,” rumbled Max, “this infrasound way of speaking makes them similar to lots of Earth animals. Like whales, hippopotamuses, elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, okapi and alligators. The rumble speech of elephants can reach other elephants over a space of 300 square kilometers. When the time of day and heat inversion are just right.”
Jack blinked. He had studied Earth lifeforms on Vesta and in his Remote Tutor classes, but that was part of his General Ecology studies. The niceties of how life and genders varied among Earth’s critters was not something he had known until recently. He looked up at the front screen images of his allies. “Admiral Hideyoshi, you have any thoughts about this Melagun species?”
The man looked surprised, then thoughtful. “Well, our academy training included evolutionary biology. Along with the behavior patterns of pack-hunting social predators like wolves, hyenas, hunting dogs, lions and killer whales or orcas. We learned how humans have more in common with such predators than with our primate relatives like the great apes and chimpanzees.” Hideyoshi paused, looked aside as a red-suited crewman brought him a yellow datapad, then looked back. “Of course there was no study of sociobiology. That was forbidden. But students gather in their off times and talk.” The man’s black eyebrows creased. “Based on those studies and the prior analyses by your ComChief, I would label these Melagun people as competitive omnivores. In short, folks like us humans.”
“Exactly!” growled Maureen. “Which makes them just as dangerous as humans. We should assume they will fight us before they talk with us.”
That was exactly the issue Jack was pondering. When the fleet used grav-pull to blip-jump deep into the Tau Ceti system to planet six, or Cold Gases, would they be met with violence? Or with talk? He looked back at Blodwen. She sat with her bony arms crossed over her black leotard, her lanky form hunched forward in her seat. The woman, like all of them, had been watching the newscast. Now she met his gaze, her blond eyebrows lifted. “Yes?”
“You’re our Sociologist. What is your bet on how we will be received when we show up suddenly at planet six?”
She bit her lip, smiled when Max gave her up thumbs-up encouragement, then shrugged. “Combat Commander Maureen is correct. If these Aliens are indeed omnivore mammals like us humans, they could be as dangerous as humans. However, leaving the Unity Space Force aside, when a Martian rice farmer negotiates with an Asteroid Belt transport ship captain, they don’t begin with a fight. They talk. Sometimes they lie. Each tries to get the best side of any deal. Eventually they agree.” She smiled. “I think these Melagun people will do just that with us. Though I suggest we arrive on the opposite side of planet six from the orbital position of Polar Ice. That way they will have warning of our approach from their spysats. Though I admit seeing twenty-three spaceships that are clearly not Melagun may make them nervous.”
“Thank you for your insight.” Jack turned around. “Nikola, pull in your Big Eye reflector. And what is our AU distance to planet six?”
His brown-haired lifemate pursed her lips and looked distracted. “Planet six is five AU out from Tau Ceti. It orbits directly across from planet five, or Home, at 1.35 AU. Which is why they can talk to each other with just a half hour lag time each way,” she said, tapping on her panel. “But we arrived one-tenth of the way around the system from planets five and six. Which puts us about 60 AU out from planet six. Time in blip jump will be 9.7 hours at eighty percent lightspeed.”
Well, that gave everyone time to eat a meal, rest and prepare for First Contact with people who had never met another intelligent species. “Fleet captains and admiral, we will enter this system and emerge from grav-pull at planet six, on the side opposite the orbital vector of the Melagun ship Polar Ice. Put on your vacsuits and helmets prior to arrival,” he said, in answer to Maureen’s glare. “Go to Combat Alert upon arrival. While I agree with Blodwen that this Alien ship will likely have spysats deployed around planet six, and thereby know of our arrival as soon as we leave grav-pull, we must prepare for a violent reception.” He ignored Maureen’s clenched fist air thumping. “But I refuse to expose the entire fleet to unknown responses. The Uhuru will leave the fleet and move toward the gas giant, allowing these Melagun to see that we are offering a ship-to-ship parley, rather than an attack. Which they might conclude based on the many ships in our fleet.”
“Brother,” called Cassie from the back of the cabin, “basic spycraft says to always hide your full strength and full knowledge from the subject of your spying. While these Melagun will see our ship numbers, they will not know our intentions. Except for what we signal by our behavior. Your solo ship approach is just the right signal to send them.”
Elaine nodded, her expression worried but hopeful. Jack did not look back at his other cabin mates. They had supported him during their first interstellar trip. He had no doubt they supported him now. “Thank you, Spy Cassie.” He looked to Maureen. “Com
bat Commander, please have your Battle Module ready for combat before our grav-pull exit. And Pilot Elaine,” he said looking to his other sister, “monitor the NavTrack of the Alien vessel. I want to keep at least 10,000 kilometers between them and us. That’s the range of our antimatter beam and I have to assume their beam has similar reach.”
“A reasonable precaution,” said Captain Gareth of the Dragon. “But will there be any face-to-face meeting with these Melagun people?”
Jack held both hands out in the sign of Who Knows? “We can meet each other by a rendezvous of landers in open space. Or perhaps we can visit them above their world of Home. If they possess a space station in orbit. It all depends on this first meeting.”
His fellow captains nodded, gestured agreement or waved compliance with his orders.
“Vector to planet six is laid in on my NavTrack,” called Elaine. “Fleet ships are in laser time-lock synchrony. Drive Engineer Max, initiate our joint blip jump!”
“Initiating,” called Max.
Ahead, the front screen images of space, planets, stars and his fellow captains blurred, blurred again, then went jagged from the gravitational lensing that always preceded their use of the gravity pull space drive. By external reference they now moved at eighty percent of light speed. They were now inbound, aiming for a gas giant the size of Neptune. A planet that likely had protected the system’s fifth world from frequent bombardment by asteroids and comets. The way Jupiter had protected Earth during its 3.8 billion years of life’s evolution. But the debris disk of Tau Ceti had ten times the amount of asteroids and comets as were present in Sol system’s asteroid belt and Kuiper Belt. According to a backgrounder that Nikola had given him during their Alcubierre transit to a sun that was a near twin of Sol.
Whether its people were a twin of humanity remained to be seen.
CHAPTER TEN
Jack’s fleet arrived three hundred thousand kilometers out from planet six. For which he gave thanks as soon as he saw the eighteen small moons that circled the world Cold Gases. While most gas giants they had seen in their prior star visits had multiple moons, like Sol’s gas giants, the nature of those moons varied greatly. Worlds like Europa with thick ice shells overlying oceans heated by internal rocky cores were fairly rare. Most gas giant moons were either like Jupiter’s Io, torn apart by gravitational tides from its giant neighbor, or they were ice-covered rock balls like Neptune’s Triton, Larissa and Proteus. In the case of Cold Gases, it had three rings made up of ice particles, with eight tiny moons orbiting within those rings. The blue world of Cold Gases was a near duplicate of Neptune in its proportions of hydrogen, helium, methane and gas ices. The true-light image of planet six and its orbital denizens was now joined by laser link images of his 22 fellow captains.
Elaine inhaled deeply. “Our fleet is close to the orbital track of the planet’s twelfth moon,” she said. “It presently leads us by a million kilometers. No other natural object lies closer than that moon.” She paused, looking down at her panels. “Sensor imagery going up on the front screen. Stellar wind from Tau Ceti is modest and consists of charged particles moving slowly against us. Radio emissions are coming from planet seven, which is a Saturn twin. All other x-ray, gamma ray, UV and IR emissions are of natural origin. Uh, my neutrino sensor tracking of the five other Melagun fusion ships show them moving between planet four and their world of Home.” Jack focused on the front screen image of EMF sources recorded by Elaine’s sensors. “There are three tiny IR spots moving across the face of Cold Gases. My guess is these are spysats released by the Melagun space ship.”
“Thank you, Pilot.” He faced his allies. “Well, they surely know we are here now, even if they don’t have gravitomagnetic sensors. The orbit of Polar Ice is lower than ours, at 43,000 kilometers above Cold Gases. Which is below the innermost ring and all moons. It should come round to our side of the planet within thirty minutes. Sooner if they light their fusion drive.” Jack gave them a thumbs-up gesture, even though his vacsuit glove partly hid the gesture. “The Uhuru is descending to match the orbital track of the Melagun ship. Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto is in command of the fleet during my absence.” He fixed on the Asian elder. “Admiral, keep our fleet and our people safe! And please put out some spysats of our own.” Jack looked rearward. “Max, take us out of Pinch Mode and move us down on fusion pulse.”
His buddy reached up to the Main Drive Module that had lowered from the cabin’s ceiling. He tapped several places, then nodded within his helmet. “Accelerating.”
Jack felt the push against his back of one gee thrust-accel. With constant thrust they would make the lower orbital track within twenty minutes. He tapped on his Tech panel and brought up its Tactical Display. He had moved the Weaponry program to it from the armrest panel. While Maureen would handle their antimatter and neutral particle beamers from her Battle Module, he would manage the dual railguns on their ship’s spine and the two hydrogen-fluorine laser pods on the port and starboard sides of his ship. Jack gestured to Denise.
“ComChief, please broadcast my image and message toward the world Cold Gases. With auto-translation into Melagun speech,” he added.
“Of course,” said their too grown up nineteen year-old, sounding as if she were a seasoned space veteran instead of a refugee student of Animal Ethology and Behavioral Ecology who, long months ago, had stowed away on the first incarnation of Jack and Max’s ship. “Motion-eye is activated. Begin your message whenever you wish.”
Jack unsnapped his restraint locks, pushed aside the Tech panel and stood up. Wearing his red and white-striped vacsuit, he faced the front screen’s motion-eye. Looking at the blue haze atmosphere of Cold Gases, the white arcs of its ring systems and the small white half-disks of its larger moons, he raised one hand with palm facing outward.
“Greetings to Guide Benaxis of the Melagun people of the world Home,” he said. “My name is Jack Munroe. My title is fleet captain. My job is that of Guide to my people. I belong to a bipedal species who live around the distant star Sol, some twelve light years away from your home star.” He paused, thinking through his options. “We call ourselves humans. Like you Melagun we have spouses and children. We live in homes similar to your buildings. We engage in games of competition similar to your boulder-pushing event. And while we dominate all life on the planet of our birth, we accept that we live within an eco-system of many lifeforms. Just as you Melagun are now discovering that you live in a universe with other space-traveling lifeforms.” Jack gestured to his rear. “Behind me is my mate Nikola, who is an astronomer. My female siblings are also with me. They are Elaine and Cassie. Other humans that you see in this image belong to my herd of friends and allies. Like you, we work together to make possible our travel across the dark spaces between the stars.” He paused, thinking how best to wrap up. “As you can see by your sensors and satellites, we humans arrived here in twenty-three spaceships. We came with so many ships because there are interstellar predators out in the Great Dark, people who would conquer your star system and make a meal of your people. We stopped that from happening to our home system of Sol. We came here to warn you of this danger. But if you tell us to leave your star system, we will leave, never to return. Please respond.”
He looked aside to helmeted Denise. “ComChief, put that on a repeating loop. I suspect their spysats will receive my message and pass it along to Polar Ice. We will see how these people respond to my information and offer.” Jack walked back to his Tech station seat, sat down and strapped in. He pulled his panel over his lap, touched on the holo that appeared above it, and nodded at his Belter veteran. “Combat Commander Maureen, unless we are fired upon, please do not fire your weapons until I order it. However, your tactical guidance is always welcome.”
Their grandma with short black curls peered at him from within the holo. Her gray eyes looked down at her Fire Control panel, then up to him. “Your talk was a start. Cost us nothing. We’ll see how these giant hippos react to the fact that interstellar predators
exist. And whether they think we are those predators.”
Jack grimaced, sighed, then sat back in his seat, his eyes fixed on the true-light images of the world Cold Gases and his fellow captains. Who, like his crew, wore vacsuits, helmets and were at Combat Alert status. While his ship could blip jump away from any solid weapon attack, a laser or particle beam attack would be known only by its arrival in the vicinity of his ship. Or by its impact on the Uhuru. He hoped this First Contact with a juvenile Alien species did not become violent. That would ruin any chance of making an alliance with them. But if this contact failed, there were dozens of other juvenile Alien species they could contact before raiding one or two subject people systems for grav-pull drives.
A tap on his shoulder drew him out of his musing. “Jack, here.”
A water bottle appeared over his right shoulder. He grinned. Nikola knew him too well by now. The fact he always got thirsty during any Alien contact or space battle was no secret to her. Jack grabbed the bottle, tilted it, and pressed it against the feeder tube at his helmet ring. He pulled the feeder tube into his lips and sucked hard. Icy cold water filled his mouth. He swallowed, sucked again, and swallowed. Only then did he realize the fast-beating of his heart was slowing down.
“Thank you, good lifemate.”
“De nada.”
Conversational Spanish was just one of the many ways Belters chatted with each other. Finger-talk worked best when in a strange or noisy place. Radio always worked. And someone who offered you water, food, air and a sleeping bag in their habdome was a friend indeed. He settled into his seat.
“Anyone got some lively music we can put on the ship’s comlink?” Jack said, hoping he had guessed right.
“Yes!” yelled Archibald from his Physics station seat at the far back of the cabin. “How about Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters?”
Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Page 12
