Invasion

by Jerry Shepard

  He stopped to look at some of the armament on the Titan and marveled again at the size of the emplacements. The railgun he noted, seemed to be the same size as the apartment building he lived in. He remembered the Dreadnought-class as the last true "battleship" class of the fleet. The government, in their infinite wisdom, thought it best to focus on smaller ships that had improved scanners and longer ranged weapons.

  As Noah entered the ship, he thought that this focus on smaller ships was a smart choice as it was easier and cheaper to produce those ships and the long term maintenance didn't suck up most of the military budget. It also meant that the ships could be built with 'civilian versions' so that science and research vessels could be produced in the same shipyards and be produced more quickly. The Dreadnoughts were just too damned expensive to maintain. It was why there are so few of them left in service. Mostly these rust buckets were used for training new captains and crew. Now, Noah was tasked with taking one to the furthest reaches of the galaxy to go on a 'milk run'.

  Minutes later, Noah entered the bridge of the Titan for the first time as its captain. He took a look around at the duty stations that populated the bridge. Communications, weapons, science, scanning were the first ones he recognized with a few he did not. His captain's chair was situated in the middle of the bridge with the XO's chair to the left of his and slightly behind. As he walked toward his command chair he noticed at the front there was a large observation window that doubled as a view screen. One of the panels of the windows still had a blast shield covering it. The blast shield was a 10 foot thick rectangle of armor. It was an old Dreadnought technology that provided a last ditch defense of the bridge in case shields had failed to stop an incoming threat. He noticed two of the crew working on getting the blast shield to open. One of the crew noticed him and stood to attention.

  "Officer on deck!"

  Noah returned the salute. "As you were." Noah regarded the crew member with some curiosity for a moment and then the realization of who it was hit him.

  "Cadet Torrence, I'm surprised to see you here."

  The other man dropped his salute. "I'm an ensign now sir. I graduated yesterday and was given my choice of duty."

  "My mistake Cadet, err, Ensign Torrance. You were given your choice, and yet you chose this mission? Why?"

  "I wanted my first assignment to be under someone I've looked up to for a long time. You have been a great instructor and I'm sure I could learn quite a bit more under your command."

  "Well," paused Noah. "I hope I don't disappoint you. And I hope you're not too bored on this cruise." Noah looked to see the ensign's shipmate still trying to get the blast shield up. He pointed at the shield. "Ensign Torrance, you think you might want to lend him a hand?"

  "Sorry sir," Torrance said as he scurried back to his duties.

  Noah turned back to the datapad and punched up the ship's manifest and 'sitrep' on the status of repairs. He noticed that the update to the engines had been completed and that the fuel system was completely rerouted. This was to accommodate the new fuel collection ability that the ship was testing. "Now what damned fool would try to test a completely new fuel and propulsion system on a mission like this?" he muttered to himself.

  "I would," replied a voice behind him.

  His spine jumped out of his back at the sound of the voice and he turned quickly to face it. He turned to find himself face to face with a human woman, and a Xen.

  ***

  "Dr. Liana Sarduun," she said, extending her hand.

  Noah shook the woman's hand as he looked her over. She was about five and a half feet tall, lightly bronzed skin, with long black hair that she had kept in a braid. She seemed to be in excellent physical shape. Noah noticed that Dr. Sarduun wore a version of the Alliance fleet uniform that was meant for science designation.

  "Woah, Liana Sarduun?" chuckled Noah as his voice did nothing to hide his surprise.

  "Something wrong, captain?"

  "Nothing. Forgive me. I was expecting a balding, middle-aged, overweight guy. Imagine my surprise when you turned out to not be that guy!"

  Noah could see his joke did nothing to hide lessen her irritation.

  "Well, I'm relieved that I can put your fear of bald, middle aged, guys to rest. At least for the duration of our trip," Liana said.

  "Okay, okay, it was in poor taste," Noah admitted. "I'm sorry. I've made a poor first impression. I'll try to ensure that your view of me changes very soon. Would it be possible to go over the modifications in more detail en route to the system?"

  "Absolutely captain. I will be available to go over the entire system. I can also have my team work closely with your engineering team."

  The Xen also extended his hand as he approached Noah. "I am Rig'nak. I am to be the second in command of this vessel. Permission to come aboard, sir?"

  Noah did not take the extended hand of the Xen. He looked at him and noticed that this particular pug was slightly larger than the other pugs he had grown used to. "It seems I have little choice Reggie. Permission granted," Noah said, turning back to Liana.

  "Excuse me sir," Rig'nak interrupted. "But my name is not Reggie, it is Rig'nak. I am a proud warrior of a great family. I bear my name with pride."

  Noah wheeled away from the striking visage of Liana to look back at the ugly face of the pug.

  "Whatever," Noah said. "Look, I'm gonna be straight with you. I don't particularly want you on my ship. And I damn sure don't like working with one of you as my XO. So the last thing I want to do, is to try to pronounce your name properly. So you're getting the nickname. Reggie it is."

  Noah pointed at him. "Reggie, we are not leaving tomorrow. I want you to work with Lieutenant O'Malley and ensure that we have extra provisions. Food, medical supplies, water, extra hull plating, extra armor for the Marines, extra breathable air tanks. And above all, ammunition. Understood? Good! Dismissed."

  As Rig'nak turned and left the room, Noah turned back around only to face a now scowling Liana.

  "Do you always treat your crew like this?"

  Noah shrugged. "Humans? No. Pugs? I've never been on the same ship as one before now so this is all new to me".

  "Well," continued Liana. "As long as I'm in charge of this expedition, you will refrain from calling them anything other than Xen, understood?"

  "Wait, you're in charge? Since when?" Noah said.

  Noah grasped his hands behind his back as he addressed her. "Doctor Sarduun, I am the Captain of the Titan. Out there, what I say, goes! The crew obeys my orders without fail."

  Noah turned to sweep his arm wide over the backdrop of the crew making preparations for leaving port. He turned back to Liana and lowered his voice a bit. "I'm here to give you and your team a ride. Your authority extends only as far as your team during the exploration of the anomaly. And only if it does not compromise the safety of the crew," Noah emphasized the last point to ensure his message was received.

  "Well, captain, we will see about that," Liana curtly replied. She turned and left quickly.

  Her quick departure gave Noah some time to think to himself.

  This is gonna be a long trip.

  REGGIE

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: The Titan

  Rig'nak let the door to his quarters slide open. He had been looking forward to this moment since he had set foot on the ship. It was the first time in two days since arriving that he could relax and he welcomed the opportunity. The captain had him on every detail to ensure that the ship was stocked full in each hold so it did not give him time to do much of anything except work. He wasn't sure, at first, why they were taking on so much extra food, ammunition, and supplies for such a short trip. But O'Malley later told him that it was a lesson that Captain Jameson learned the hard way during the war with his people. Ever since then, the captain would always load up with extra provisions and ammunition. He made a mental note to include this information in his report.

  He walked in and surveyed the furnishings of his billet
. The height of the quarters was appropriate for humans, but a Xen his size had only three feet of clearance between his head and the ceiling. He noticed the food service area was particularly small. It was situated near the entertainment screen, which was positioned in front of two couches. The bed was located in the rear of the room. It was cramped by Xen standards, but nothing like the quarters the other Xen must be enduring right now. The crew quarters were simply racks that were built into the walls. He sat down in a comfortable chair. The pain of standing for twenty four hours straight slowly subsided from his limbs as the comfort of the chair washed away his stress. Sometimes, he thought, being an officer was a very good thing. And at least for these creature comforts, he could be thankful.

  Thinking back on how he became an officer, Rig'nak was amazed at how quickly he had progressed through the Xen officer ranks prior to the war with the humans. His cohort had all marveled at his meteoric rise while they languished in lower ranks for years. And while he had thought it was because he had gotten lucky at the right place and time, there was always a nagging thought deep down that there might be something more to it. While his family was very small, it had a long heritage even amongst Xen. He suspected his deep, ancestral ties may have played a part in his rise through the ranks. So he resolved to work harder than every other Xen.

  Now that he was part of the Alliance fleet, he looked forward to working with his former adversaries. This mission to explore a possible Xen anomaly could be a breakthrough in relations between the humans and Xen. And if successful, he could finally add an accomplishment that he was proud of to his record. But he had to navigate the tricky world of the humans, their allies. He was aware that many humans, like the captain, still harbored ill feelings toward his people. But to Rig'nak, that type of thinking was foreign to him. The Xen had always treated former foes as honored friends once hostilities stopped.

  All except one.

  There was one foe, the Varak, who the Xen would just as likely never want to see again. He was glad that his people had not seen them for a long while.

  "On screen," Rig'nak said.

  The screen illuminated and displayed a lavishly decorated room. Wood furniture, heavy curtains and rich carpeting. In the center he could see a portly Xen. However he could not make out who they were as they were turned around and speaking to someone off screen

  "What can I help you with?"

  The figure quickly turned around and upon seeing who it was, Rig'nak immediately rose to his feet.

  "Ambassador Pon'mot, to what do I owe the pleasure of this communication?" Rig'nak said.

  "Please sit, loyal Rig'nak. I wish to speak to you concerning the preparations for the trip and the already one day delay. Why have you not already left port?".

  "Forgive me Honorable Pon'mot, but the delay is due to the Titan taking on three times the amount of provisions that this trip would warrant," countered Rig'nak.

  "But you have missed your planned departure. How can this be?"

  "Captain Jameson is a particular human and he has ordered that these preparations be completed before we leave."

  The ambassador's eyes began to cloud over in a reddish tint. "Do his superiors always allow him to disobey orders?"

  "I believe that The Destroyer of Fleets is a law unto himself, most times. His fellow officers and superiors seem to give him quite a bit of room to maneuver. Still...given his recent humiliation, we know that room is not infinite."

  "And does it seem like he is capable for command?"

  "It is too soon to establish that with any sort of accuracy, Honorable Pon'mot. However, once I have ascertained his fitness for service, I will let you know."

  "Please do. And please ensure that your report is the most exhaustive that has ever been completed on Captain Jameson. I want to know all I can before I push to have him removed, once and for all, from the Alliance fleet." The screen flickered.

  "As you wish," Rig'nak said to a completely dark screen.

  Rig'nak ordered a small chai tea from the food service. He had grown to love this human concoction. It reminded him of the beverages that his mother used to make for him as a childhood treat. As he sipped his drink, he thought about what the ambassador had said about the report.

  Ah, yes. The report. He had not forgotten about it. He just did not look forward to his duties to the Xen High Command. He wasn't sure exactly why the ambassador insisted upon the report, but he knew that he not only had to file it with the Xen High Command, but also with Admiral Roskan upon his return. He decided to finish his drink and get some sleep. As he walked back to the bed, another communication alert sounded.

  "On screen," he said in a soft, now exhausted, voice.

  The visage of Dr. Sarduun appeared.

  "Greetings Honorable Rig'nak," she began. "I trust that the preparations have been completed and we can get underway?"

  "Yes, Dr. Sarduun. I have relayed the situation to the captain. I believe we will leave port in 8 hours."

  "Excellent. I look forward to talking with you to about Xen mythology and history. I hear that you are something of an expert on those subjects."

  Rig'nak snorted a laugh. "I can tell you what I know Dr. Sarduun, but I'm afraid that all of my knowledge is self-taught. I did not have the benefit of the finest scientific minds of my people educating me daily like you do now."

  "Well, that's just it. Your scientists and philosophers are well-learned, but sometimes the history of a people cannot completely be codified in a book. Many times the most useful information is passed down verbally over a campfire."

  "Excuse my confusion doctor, but we have no fire here and no camp."

  "No no," she laughed. "It's a figure of speech. It means that most of the important cultural knowledge that a species needs to survive, are the things that are passed down at the family level from parents to children."

  "Ah, I understand now. Thank you doctor. We do have many, I'm sorry...the closest human translation is home tales, that I could share with you."

  "That would be fantastic Honorable Rig'nak."

  "Please doctor, I know you wish to avoid offense by using the formal language of my people, but please call me Rig'nak. You can eliminate the honorific from your speech when addressing me. We are friends."

  "Will do Rig'nak. I wanted to show you all humans are not like the captain. I understand it is a grave insult to call one of your people by a name that is not their own."

  "You are correct, doctor. Given how much Captain Jameson has suffered, I think his disposition towards my people could be understandable. And for now, I will not take offense. Is there anything else, Dr. Sarduun? If not, I really need to rest before my next duty shift."

  "No, no, thank you honor-...err, Rig'nak. I will be on the bridge with you both when we leave port. Have a nice rest."

  The screen flicked off.

  Rig'nak put his head to his pillow and was asleep within moments.

  LIANA

  Liana was hopeful that she could find some missing pieces to her research by interviewing Rig'nak. Her research into Xeno-archaeology had taken quite a bit of her life over the last 8 years. Almost a decade of her meticulously pouring over data in libraries and conducting countless interviews. She remembered the exhaustion after tens of thousands of hours deciphering meaning behind mythology and artifacts from the ruins of dead civilizations that they discovered in their expansion amongst the stars. And in recent years, she had devoted her research into understanding Humanity's new neighbors, the Xen.

  At first, she had hated calling them the "Xen". She realized that humans couldn't be bothered with pronouncing the extremely long name in conversation and defaulted to calling them "Xenomorph" in the beginning, which later evolved into "Xen". But she could pronounce the name. Later, she grew to understand that brevity was crucial in her line of work and that the "Xen" really did not take offense to humans calling them by that moniker. It was only when humans called an individual Xen by different names where conflicts arose. Most f
amously was a small riot in Los Angeles due to a human calling a Xen by a name that was not hers. The female Xen took offense and in the ensuing fracas, managed to put the instigator and four of his friends in the hospital. And what a beautiful naming system the Xen had as well. The first part of the name denoted the individual. That second part of the name was the ancestral name. What was curious was that in ten years, she had never encountered a Xen with the ancestral name of 'nak. So Rig'nak was a bit of a cultural unicorn to her.

  Liana washed up in the lavatory and was getting dressed, when the door alert rang its notification. She finished putting her shirt on and walked to the door. She pressed a button on the panel next to the door and the screen showed the captain standing outside.

  "Yes, captain, is there something I can do for you?" she asked, mildly annoyed by the interruption.

  "I wanted to apologize. We got off on the wrong foot the other day when you came aboard and I feel badly about it".

  "Very well," she said, pressing another button to open the door.

  Noah looked both ways down the corridor and then quickly entered.

  Liana addressed him as the door shut. "Captain, it is clear that you believe we all answer to you," she began. "Well, I have a different mandate, and that is the success of this mission. What is yours?"

  Liana continued walking to the rear of her quarters and ducked behind the digitized privacy screen to grab her towel.

  "It is the same," he said. "Look, we want the same things. We're the same."

  "No we're not," she said, emerging with her hair now dried. "I'm not a disgraced Alliance captain who cannot get past his bigotry."

  "Look Noah, like it or not the Xen are here to stay. You will either need to learn to live with them, or get left behind as our society evolves." She put her hair in a bun and stood in front of him to look him in the eye.