by James Rosone
Hunt’s communicator chirped. “Bridge, Engineering.”
“Engineering, this is the captain. Send it.”
“Sir, MPD drive is warmed up and ready,” Commander Lyons informed him.
“Excellent. We’re going to start moving, so have your people ready. Bridge out.”
Hunt turned to his helmsman. “Lieutenant Donaldson, bring us up to full speed. Let’s set a course for New Eden. Navigation, let’s get set up in a high orbit around the planet. I want to use our shipboard scanners to map out the situation on the ground.”
Forty minutes went by as the ship moved deeper into the system. They were still six hours from the planet. In the meantime, they’d continue to collect information. As they neared New Eden, it started to show up on their forward cameras.
Hunt was just as eager as everyone else to see what this new planet looked like up close. He’d been waiting patiently for them to get nearer before he had them bring it up on the cameras. There wasn’t a reason to bring it up if they were too far away to really take in any of its beauty, he reasoned, which was why he had held off.
After what felt like forever, his XO whispered in his ear, “Sir, we’re in close enough to put New Eden up on the screen if you’d like.” Commander Asher Johnson was apparently eager to see the planet as well.
Nodding, Hunt turned to Ops. “Let’s bring up the forward cameras. I’d like to see what New Eden looks like.”
The rest of the bridge crew leaned forward in anticipation. Hunt made sure to have the image piped through to the rest of the monitors on the ship. He wanted the rest of the crew to share in the excitement of this new discovery.
A moment later, the smallish image of the planet appeared. Everyone stared at it for a moment, awestruck by what they saw. One of the Ops people zoomed in as far as the camera would go, then several people spontaneously said, “Ooh,” in an awestruck voice.
The planet looked so similar to Earth, yet so uniquely different. Captain Hunt studied the bodies of water, clouds covering parts of the sky, various shades of blues, greens, browns, and other colors as this beautiful glass marble floated in front of them.
The planet also had three moons in various orbits around it. One of the moons looked like a small planet in its own right, with its own atmosphere and bodies of water and clouds.
Captain Hunt looked out at New Eden, which was in orbit around a single K-type dwarf star. The two smaller brown dwarf stars that orbited the main star gave off a beautiful display of color: one was mostly magenta while the other was emitting a greenish tint.
Stunning, thought Hunt.
Snapping himself out of his momentary trance, Hunt ordered the ship to approach the moons in orbit around the planet first as they neared the primary world. Once their scan was done, they’d settle into orbit around New Eden and begin a more thorough scan of the planet. Right now, Hunt needed to make sure there wasn’t life or some other electronic signal on any of the moons that could pose a threat to their ship, or the Voyager and the Gables.
The next several days would prove to be busy. Batches of data continued to stream into the ship from the various scans, sensors, and satellites they had launched. When they had sufficiently verified that the fleet wouldn’t be in any immediate danger if they approached the planet, Hunt would tell Admiral Halsey she could proceed with her mission.
Chapter Thirteen
Planet Fall
RNS Voyager
In Orbit—New Eden
The Deltas sat in the briefing room, waiting for the captain to provide them with their final brief before they headed down to the planet. In the four days since the fleet had settled in the orbit of New Eden, the scientific crew of the Voyager had been going over satellite data being fed into the computers along with data from the handful of drones they had dropped into the atmosphere of the planet. They were studying the topographical areas of the planet, trying to figure out where would be the best place to set down first. Knowing they needed to get the space elevator established at some point, they were exploring mainly locations around the planet’s equator.
As the soldiers started getting antsy for the briefing to start, two scientists, along with Captain Hopper, walked into the room. Everyone jumped to attention and waited for him to tell them to take their seats.
When the trio had reached the front of the room, Captain Hopper sternly ordered, “Sit down, shut up and listen to the scientists’ briefing on what’s going to be happening.”
For the next thirty minutes, they went over the assignments for First, Second, and Fourth Platoons’ missions: where they’d be dropping, what they’d be doing, and how long they’d be on the ground. When the brief for the First, Second, and Fourth Platoons had finished, those soldiers left the room, leaving only the forty-two members of the Third Platoon, who were told to stay behind after the brief; they were doing something different.
If any of the units on the ground ran into trouble, a company of Republic Army soldiers was going to stay on QRF alert. If things somehow went to hell, the entire battalion would land and bring with them their heavy equipment and deal with it. No one expected any problems, but it was good to know they had help should they need it.
Captain Hopper, along with Lieutenant Crocker and Master Sergeant Royce, stayed in the room as they watched the other platoons filter out. They’d head to the flight bay and start getting their equipment ready.
Once they had cleared the room, two different scientists walked in, along with Admiral Halsey and her XO, Commander Erin Johnson. Everyone jumped to attention again when they saw the admiral walk in.
“Take your seats, everyone. This is going to be a long and interesting brief, so get comfortable,” Admiral Halsey stated as she took the lead in briefing them.
The Deltas shared a few nervous glances. It was clear that they understood that if the admiral was briefing them, then this was going to be anything but routine. Something was up.
“Four months before we left on this journey, our scientists discovered something on this planet,” Halsey began. “Much to our surprise, we identified verifiable signs of intelligent life. It may even be an advanced race. We’re having a hard time determining what kind of communications systems they’re using or finding their electronic signatures just yet, but we believe we know approximately where some of them currently are.”
She paused for a moment for added effect. The operators shared nervous glances with each other as they waited for her to continue. “I’m going to show you something,” she said.
Then a short video played, presumably from one of the drones they had just dropped into the planet a few days ago. It made a couple of passes over the mine and the surrounding area. Sadly, it had not been able to grab a lot of good video coverage due to some sort of electronic interference, but what it did show was a tall figure escorting what looked to be a few dozen smaller figures. They couldn’t make out any precise details, but what the operators could see raised the hair on the back of their necks.
Clearing her throat as the grainy video ended, Halsey moved back to the center of the room. “Proof positive of alien life—this is why we scrubbed our mission to Alpha Centauri. This is also why we have a contingent of Special Forces on the Voyager and a Republic Army battalion. We have no idea if these beings are peaceful.”
“Uh, Admiral”—one of the sergeants raised his hand—“is there any way of knowing how tall those aliens are, or maybe some additional details on them before we land dirtside?”
“We’re working on that as we speak, Sergeant. We’re running into some interference near the mountain, but hopefully one of our drones will gather some better images on its next pass of the area,” she replied. They were using some very high-altitude drones to map the planet, not the more precise ground surveillance drones the SF operators were used to working with.
Halsey took a deep breath before she continued. “I know we’re short on information right now, and we’re sending you to a planet full of unknowns and at l
east two alien races. But that’s why we’re sending you guys down to investigate and not the regular army. Your platoon’s mission is going to focus on surveillance. We know there is life on the planet. So your job is to recon the surrounding area and get us in-person confirmation. Then our first contact team will attempt to make contact with the aliens and try to establish some sort of dialogue with them. Right now, we need intelligence. Survey the forest and do your best to see if there’s a base camp they’re operating out of.”
She paused as she looked several of them in the eye, settling on Lieutenant Crocker and Master Sergeant Royce. “I know I’m asking you guys to carry out a dangerous and unknown mission. Your platoon has the most experience in this field, and I need my best people on this mission. When our first contact team feels they have enough information, a few soldiers from your platoon will escort our diplomat to try and speak with them. Under no circumstances are you to shoot at or attack them unless you have permission from me, or your lives are in immediate danger. I cannot stress enough how important it is that we do not come across as hostile in our first interactions with an unknown species. Is that understood, Deltas?”
The admiral left no doubt that if anyone on this mission deviated from the orders she’d given, it would not go over well for them or their career. The Deltas were awestruck by what they had just seen. They’d really done it; they had discovered alien life. Now it just remained to be seen if they had just found a new ally or a new enemy.
*******
Admiral Halsey left the briefing room and made her way back to the bridge. She felt she had given the Deltas enough information to complete their objective without endangering themselves or her mission.
Since arriving in orbit, she’d had her operations section working overtime deploying drones and additional satellites to scan and scour every centimeter of this planet. The challenge they faced was the planet was just so damn big. At 1.05 times the size of Earth, it could end up taking months for their satellites to have even a working map of the entire planet, let alone any real detailed scans of it.
She kept telling herself that once her teams were on the ground, they’d have a better idea of the composition of the planet and what they were dealing with. She hoped like hell they were able to figure out who was mining that mountain. It was clearly an organized operation. What troubled her was the video they’d just acquired. Either they had stumbled upon two alien races, or something was off. But seeing the large creatures next to the group of smaller ones unnerved her. It was also causing her some angst that those smaller aliens looked an awful lot like humans.
Entering the bridge, Halsey made her way over to Ops to see if they had come up with anything new in the last few hours.
The bridge of the Voyager was actually laid out very similarly to how the older US warships’ Combat Information Centers, or CICs, were. Sitting at the back of the bridge were the commander’s and XO’s chairs, along with that of the senior enlisted. To the right were the operations, communications, and engineering sections, and then to the left was navigation, helm, and weapons.
In front of everyone were four enormous digital monitors. They could be configured to display one large image of whatever the admiral wanted to see or they could be broken down to cover multiple sections or pieces of information. On the edges of the room, angled inward to give everyone, especially the admiral and XO, the best visual, were additional monitors. These would typically have the status of each department along with any damage report information should the need arise. In all, this room enabled the officers and senior enlisted that managed it to fully understand and process everything that was happening around them.
“Ops, have we spotted anything unusual around the landing sites? I want to make sure our people aren’t landing in a hot zone once they get on the ground,” Halsey asked as she stood looking at the various monitors and information feeds.
The chief petty officer who’d been coordinating the drone data looked up at her. “Not that we’ve detected thus far,” he responded. “The drones just completed their fourth pass of the area an hour ago. We’re still getting a lot of electronic interference, though. I’m not sure what the problem is. It could be something in the soil or the atmosphere that’s interfering with our signals.”
“Have we been able to carry out any geological surveys yet?” she asked next, hoping that might offer an explanation for why the coms with the drones were going haywire.
Taking his eyes off his station, the drone operator replied, “They’ve completed a pass using thermal imagining, infrared, lidar, and the good old-fashioned mark one eyeball. They look clean, deserted. But closer to the mountain, there’s definitely something that’s causing a lot of radio interference.”
She nodded, realizing she couldn’t do anything about the irregularities until they had teams on the ground. She thanked the crew for doing a good thorough job, then walked over to the chief petty officer overseeing the drones.
Halsey leaned down a bit. “How about the second site?” she asked in a hushed tone. The chief had been read onto what they were doing over there and was personally managing that drone’s feed.
Motioning for her to lean in even a little closer, he answered, “I found something.”
Halsey’s eyes went wide. She walked around his station and knelt down next to him. “What do you mean?”
He brought up a file to show her. Halsey almost gasped when she saw it but caught herself in time.
“That’s what I said. I was about to come to get you when you walked on the bridge. I think this changes things.” He showed her more of the video. They’d finally gotten one of their surveillance drones the Deltas were used to using near the site.
Admiral Halsey’s mouth fell agape a little as she watched what was being played for her. “They look human,” she said in shock.
“That group does, yes. But look over here.” The chief used the cursor to display an image of something entirely different.
Now her eyes went wide as saucers as her left hand moved up to her mouth. She suddenly became aware that others on the bridge might see her reaction. “Close your workstation up. Let’s go to my office,” she ordered as she got up.
As she headed to her office, she sent a message over to the head of her science department and Captain Hopper. His Delta team needed to see this before they went planetside. She also sent a message down to the flight deck and delayed the launch of the surface team for a few hours. They needed to figure out what to do with the information they had just discovered before they started putting boots on the ground.
When it was just her and the chief petty officer who had been manning the drone alone in her office, she had him pull up the video image again.
“Where do you think they’re going? Oh, and why haven’t we found anything from our satellites yet?”
“The satellites are still carrying out their scans, so it’s going to take time,” the chief replied. “Plus, this entire area we’re looking at is pretty heavily wooded. It’s easy to hide things under the tree cover.”
“Do you suppose those are prisoners?” she asked.
The chief looked at the images and then back at her. “I couldn’t see any other conclusion. If you look at them, they look shabby and unkempt, and their clothes are torn. Those taller figures are holding objects, which you’d have to assume are weapons of some kind.”
Ten minutes later, her chief science officer and Captain Hopper joined them in her office. She showed them the images of what they had just found.
“Whoa. What the hell are they?” asked Captain Hopper in surprise.
“Clearly an alien species, Captain,” Dr. Milton said sarcastically.
“Yeah. Obviously, Doctor. But seeing them changes the equation of our ground operation a bit. Look at that.” Hopper pointed to something the creature was holding in his hands. “That’s clearly a weapon.”
The Delta commander looked at the drone operator. “Is there any way to get us a closer image
of that blue alien?”
Dr. Milton chimed in. “Let’s look at those human-looking prisoners first.”
Turning to look at the science officer, Hopper countered, “With all due respect, Doctor, you can look at them later. Right now, my team is getting ready to go dirtside. I need intel on those guards more than I do on the prisoners. They’re a threat to us.”
Interceding before the two alpha males got going, Halsey calmly said, “Dr. Milton, you and I can look at the prisoners in greater detail later. Let’s focus on those guards for now.”
“Let me move the drone to a different position so we can see the front of that guard better. He appears to be standing watch or something, so he’ll be the easier one for us to look at,” the drone operator said as he moved their eye in the sky around.
Looking at the alien guard, they could see its skin had a bluish tint, and it appeared to be reasonably muscular around the arms, shoulders, and chest. It was also wearing a uniform and had a few pieces of equipment visibly attached to it. It toyed with its weapon like it was bored. They couldn’t make out a lot of details on its face, but they could tell it had long jet-black hair that appeared to be braided. It came down to around mid-back level.
The drone operator looked at Captain Hopper. “I’d have to get a lot closer to get you a better image of the face or more details, sir. Right now, I’ve stationed the drone thirty kilometers away and three thousand meters in altitude. I didn’t want to get much closer for fear of being detected.”
“Don’t these drones employ stealth technology?” chided Dr. Milton, obviously disappointed that they couldn’t get a better image of the beasts.
“They do,” the drone operator countered, “but we don’t know if they have the ability to detect our electronic signals, or how good their hearing or eyesight is. Our goal isn’t to risk being seen right now.”
“OK, I think we’ve seen enough for right now,” Admiral Halsey announced. “Captain, when your soldiers get on the ground, I want them to start using their parabolic mics and video cameras to collect audio and video on both those guards and the human-looking prisoners. I want that data sent back to us so we can have the super AI start crunching it. If we can get a working understanding of their languages, then our first contact team will have a much better chance of succeeding.”
