by Laer Carroll
She was at a table with two Cats dressed in coveralls inspired by Japanese kimonos and three humans who were low-level UN officials. The others were genially arguing about licensing for a business the Cats wanted to set up. Jane was along just because she was on leave and happened to see one of the Cats whom she knew.
The internal hypercom part of Robot alerted her to a message from the four Confederation sentinels orbiting several million miles outside the Asteroid Belt. A Lizard spaceship had exited the Saturn volume of space and was headed inward.
She leisurely got up and said Goodbye.
"Business calls, gentlefolk. Have a good day."
She left trailing answering goodbyes.
She had Robot make a phone call to Diana. The officer of the day, sitting in the captain's seat in the spaceship, answered.
"OD, recall all personnel. Have the assigned pilot wake up the ship. We've got an interesting task to do."
"Aye, aye, Ma'am."
There was no big hurry but Jane found herself hurrying anyway to Bastet's nearest shuttle bay on her way back to where Diana was docked nearby in space. She did relax once she was seated. She waited for the shuttle to fill up, closed her eyes, and reviewed the contents of the text message sent by the sentinels.
It was updated as she was re-reading it for an improvement in the detected path of the Lizard ship. It clarified that it was headed toward Venus.
Venus? Why? She'd expected from studying Lizards that they'd head for Earth. There were lots of commercial possibilities there for enterprising Lizard merchants, just as there were for Cat merchants. There were also all those very-hot climes which Lizards might enjoy living in, being evolved on planets with an average temperature of well over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Oh, well. She'd find out soon enough why.
Back aboard ship she assumed the co-pilot's seat. A young redheaded female Space Force captain was the assigned pilot. Jane greeted the woman.
"Hello, Sally. Is Diana warmed up?"
"She is, Ma'am. May I ask where we are off to?"
"Set up to jump to Saturn space. Interesting doings out there."
The woman turned back to her instruments and to talking with UN Bastet traffic control for permission to undock.
Jane relaxed while on-leave personnel checked in. As soon as the crew of 53 was complete she spoke over the intercom.
"OK, everybody. Go to your duty stations or your quarters. Or the lounge, if you want. We're about to go out to Saturn and escort a spaceship in-system. The Lizards have finally decided to visit us. We knew it was bound to happen someday. Well, today is it."
Beside her the pilot said "Wow" but quietly as she continued to ply herself to her instruments and controls.
As soon as Diana was clear of Bastet local space, about a thousand miles out, the pilot spoke to Jane.
"Ma'am. Course laid in for rendezvous with Lizard spaceship."
Jane keyed in the intercom.
"Crew, we're leaving Bastet space. We're off to see the Wizard."
To the pilot she echoed an ancient TV show: "Pilot, make it so."
She even made the forward-pointing gesture of that captain on the TV show.
The pilot grinned and engaged the FTL drive.
By now FTL flight was routine. A trip as far as Saturn, however, was not. No one yet had made it, even Jane and her crew. So the accepted way to make such an unprecedented trip was to do so in stages, correcting after each jump. This involved re-evaluating after each jump using the onboard inertial guidance system and the visual and other readings of the astronomical bodies visible to the craft.
Thus it took well over a full day before the next jump would put Diana near the Lizard ship. In that time the Lizard vehicle had been hauling ass at eleven gravities acceleration. It was already inside the orbit of Jupiter.
Getting near the intruder was not enough however. The pilot had to get on the same heading at the same speed and the same acceleration. Thus the path Diana took was a long curve out and then back, slowly edging closer to the Lizard ship.
A day and a night had passed and the time on Diana was past lunch time of a second day when she was ready to approach the target.
Jane got on the intercom.
"OK, people. Next jump takes us near the Lizard ship. If you're on duty stay alert."
To the pilot, Leftwich today, she said, "Take her in."
"Aye, aye, Captain."
The view screens were totally black for less than a second before being replaced by the black of starry space. All the instrument readings in the control room readjusted to new values. The jump had covered barely a million miles of normal space.
The Lizard ship was directly ahead in the view screen, several thousand miles away and visible as a tiny sliver only because it was magnified.
"Last jump, Pilot."
"Aye, aye, Captain."
This time the Lizard ship was only a mile away off to one side. Leftwich had set up the autopilot to match the motion of the ship they were chasing, traveling "down" into the solar system at eleven gravities acceleration.
Jane wondered at the reactions of the Lizards. They were not traveling faster than light so either they did not have that ability or, like S-347, used that ability only for short flights. So to be approached by a ship with FTL and an ability to match their acceleration might be surprising. They might not think humans from the local system were aboard the approaching ship, housing aliens instead.
Jane hoped the surprise would not provoke a hostile response. Robot was ready to respond with a warning by dissolving slices of the Lizard vehicle if it did, at first only of sections of its hull, not its interior.
Jane did not know what a hostile response might be like. The Saturn Guardian of the subspace portals was protective of the natives of the Solar System and would not let hostile spacecraft out of its volume, but it did not forbid vehicles traveling its system from carrying defensive weaponry.
Jane triggered a preset message in Lizard Standard language on the Interspecies Standard hypercom channel.
"Welcome to Human Interstellar Confederation Protected space. We stand ready to help you in any way we can."
This approach to the Lizard ship should seem innocuous. However, if she were the Lizard captain she'd not accept it at face value. A hostile spaceship might fake a safe nature.
After waiting a minute Jane sent another message.
"We are aware you may be unsure of our nature and may need more time to assess us. Please feel no pressure to answer us quickly. We will continue to travel with you as a courtesy. This system welcomes all friendly visitors, especially if you are interested in mercantile ventures."
The Lizard ship continued to drive inward and Diana to pace it.
It was nearly an hour before Diana's short-range communicator delivered an audiovisual message. The pilot put the image on the main screen of the virtual window in the cockpit.
In English the Lizard said, "Hello. Thank you for your welcome. Am I speaking to Jane Kuznetsov?"
Jane was a bit surprised at how ordinary the figure in the screen was. It was green but looked human if a bit strange, a strangeness well within human variability. The slender body was covered in a long-sleeved orange sweater over (she thought) orange pants.
The Lizard had a narrow face to go with the slender body. Its hair was a dark green and long enough to reach its shoulders. Its eyes were slightly slanted and violet. The eyes seemed to have no eyelashes but Jane knew from the Encyclopedia that they were merely translucent to the point of transparency.
"You are. I'm a bit surprised you knew that."
"We bought a familiarization package from the Human Interstellar Confederation. It included information about some of the important personalities of the various countries who have a presence in space. You are listed as a Confederation citizen who is acting as the local Guardian of human space."
Leftwich, acting as the pilot, glanced at Jane.
"The listing is derive
d from reports by the Confederation's robotic sentinels and is only approximate. I am an officer in the United States Space Force and so only one of the guardians and not a Guardian in the sense used in the Confederation. And as this stellar system is now a Protectorate of the Confederation I am not only a citizen of the United States but also a citizen of the Confederation."
"Thank you for the clarification. Now, as I know your name, let me tell you mine. I am Jorel."
That did not seem any kind of human name, unlike names the Cats who came in S-347 had adopted to fit in with humans. It was only later that Jane learned the Lizards who came to the Solar System had adopted variations of the names of characters in comic-book inspired movies. A fact which cast doubt on Cats' claim that Lizards had no sense of humor.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Jorel. As I said in our first message, we will help you if it is within our abilities."
"We may ask for help once we are settled in. To answer a question implied by your greeting, we do hope eventually to engage in mercantile activities. For the time being, however, perhaps you will accompany us to our destination."
"If we are judging your path correctly, your destination is the planet Venus."
"That is correct."
It seemed a strange place to "settle in" but Jane did not express that opinion.
"We'll be happy to act as escort to Venus."
"Thank you. Meanwhile, I'd like to invite you and a small party to a tour our spacecraft."
"We'd like that."
<>
The tour was nearly an echo of the one Jane had done in the Cat spacecraft S-347. The two spacecraft ceased acceleration and coasted so that Jane could travel in a runabout to and from the Lizard's craft. It was nearly as big as S-347 and similarly shaped, though instead of a smoothly rounded surface the skin of the alien craft was made up of large triangles and other flat surfaces. This and its shiny light blue color made it look like a giant gem.
At one point Jane mentioned that the Lizards had been preceded by Cats. The answer by Kalel, Jorel's assistant, made her rethink the Cat's claim that they had stolen a march on the Lizards.
"We know. In fact, we waited till we were sure that they had been here a while. They are much better at making friends than we are. This way we've already earned some second-hand good will."
Several times in the plunge "down" toward Venus the two ships ceased accelerating so that humans could visit the Lizard craft. Once Jane hosted a reception for Lizards in her spaceship's dining area suitably reconfigured for the event.
Finally the two ships neared Venus and entered orbit about it. Shortly afterward Jane received an audiovisual message on the cockpit virtual windows.
"Thank you for the courtesy of your escort. It will take us some time to settle in to our new home. When we are comfortable we'll contact your United Nations via hypercom."
"I look forward to meeting you again."
"Likewise. Signing off now. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
A course back to Earth space was already set up, the usual three hyperjumps for known inner planetary distances. However, Jane had Diana pause after the first short jump to observe what was happening with the Lizards.
She had a bit of surprise. The mile-long spacecraft was de-orbiting and easing into the hot carbon dioxide atmosphere. Jane had Diana delay further.
An hour and a half later the Lizard ship leveled off about 30 miles above the surface, just above cloud level. That was when Jane remembered that one of the schemes for exploiting Venus was to establish floating cities. At this height temperatures were within human's and Lizard's comfort zones. Air pressure was approximately that of Earth and the home planets of Cats and Lizards.
Jane commented on this to the pilot for the day, Leftwich.
"Yeah. I'd read about this approach. Then it seemed pretty far-fetched. But it would be realistic for Lizards with their advance tech."
"I wonder if they plan to terraform--or Lizardaform--the planet. Guess we'll find out."
Leftwich laughed. "I can just hear the complaints now from the 'Earth space for Earth men' groups."
Complaining was the only actions such groups could take. The UN had already, if reluctantly, accepted the Confed's legal framework for protectorates. It let Earth govern itself out to just beyond the Moon, but the rest of the Solar System was up for grabs by non-hostile aliens.
Jane wondered just who that might be. Of the thirteen very advanced species three were already in this stellar system. There were the Cats and Lizards. And the humans, both those born on Earth and she, born (or made?) in an older version of the Human Interstellar Confederation.
Those three were the most natural of the thirteen since their planets of origin were so similar. She thought it unlikely that two of the thirteen would be interested in Earth space even though they were the most advanced and most able to take advantage of the millions-years old subspace network. These were the Hive Minds and the Empire of the Trees: slow-moving plant-like beings. That left eight other species.
She shrugged off those thoughts and gave the order for Diana to continue to Earth. The dozen or so observation satellites of Venus would be able to monitor Lizard activities on that planet
<>
The months following bore out that belief. Among all the satellites' other output were detailed observations of the Lizards. They were constructing a "cloud city" resembling a huge pancake big enough to house millions of inhabitants. The atmospheric mixture and pressure was similar enough to that humans appreciated so that those inhabitants could be human. Or even Cats, as long as those centauroids were gene-modified to live comfortably in human environments.
That atmosphere also caused the city to float without needing antigravity generators or other active means.
All the construction was by giant transmutation engines powered by power generation done by "unbending space," a process even Jane did not understand. The Lizards did not need to mine and process oar from the Hellish surface of Venus. They could just use Venus's air.
All this and much more information was available to the people of Earth. The Lizard's had put up a web site readable by anyone in the inner Solar System, which included the inhabitants of the Asteroid Belt. They posted detailed weekly progress reports and included many pages of easily navigable information. The pages included lots of photos and videos, all very artistically done.
<>
Meanwhile Jane had another project, the first of her weapons for interstellar war with invaders who would bypass the subspace transportation network around Saturn. They would do this most likely by hiding in the huge ball of icy comets and planetoids and meteoroids of the Oort Cloud which surrounded the Solar System as far out as a quarter of the way to Alpha Centauri.
It was still too early to publicly promote such weapons. So she designed a cover purpose.
The six-personnel Scout spacecraft would be FTL vehicles able to investigate extreme environments. This would include the frigid space near and beyond Pluto. Also the Hellish space inside Mercury's orbit.
For the latter Jane would use a material invented by Earth's increasingly capable materials scientists. They were inspired by information in the Galactic Encyclopedia. That compendium never had much detailed data about very-advanced technology but often mentioned such tech.
The clumsily-labeled "Pass-Around Submetal" acted like a superslick material to radiation of any kind, shrugging it off and keeping cool what was inside containers made of the quasi-metal. The material was very expensive to make and was used only for small specialized objects. To use it for spacecraft would be fabulously expensive.
Thus only a very few such craft would be built. However Jane counted on further research efforts pushed by a wartime footing to bring down the cost in time to make Scout craft relatively cheap.
She made the design of Scouts modular so that they could easily converted to fighter vehicles piloted by one person and carrying a big load of missiles and drone fighters controlled b
y the pilot.
The Scouts themselves could also be converted to large missiles and drone fighters. And made of Pass-Around material they would be highly resistant to laser and other radiation weapons such as nuclear warheads.
Small-scale precursors of Scouts were made and tested to destruction. Then one half-scale prototype was made and also tested to destruction. Then the first full-scale prototype was made.
Jane had herself reassigned as first tester of the vehicle, a post widely considered to be a let down as she had to resign her post as commander of Diana.
After preliminary flights not much beyond the Moon Jane set a course for Venus.
<>
The next-to-last jump to the hothouse planet dropped Scout into normal space at about 500,000 miles out. Jane was doing a check to ensure she was where she should be when her communication panel lit up with a call on the hypercom.
"Welcome to Venus space, Scout test vehicle 3. This is local traffic control. I believe I'm contacting Colonel Jane Kuznetsov."
"You are. Thank you. I'm impressed with your rapid identification of me and my craft."
"We try to keep up to date on all vehicles capable of reaching our area. And you did file plans before you left Earth space for travel to Venus."
"Ah. Very efficient of you. I'm now transmitting a formal flight request to approach and assume a geosynchronous orbit above Venus City."
"Hold ten minutes, hold ten."
"Holding."
As she waited she reflected on the fact that the first contact had been received barely a second after her entry into normal space. Lizard traffic control was not using radar or lidar or any other known form of energy limited by the speed of light to detect visiting spacecraft. Such energy would have taken a fraction less than three seconds to reach Scout from Venus. An image of Scout would have taken another three seconds to bounce back to traffic control.
An interesting puzzle. She would have to delve into the Galactic Encyclopedia for clues about the means Venus traffic control had used to detect visitors. If she could duplicate it that technique could be very useful in a space war against invaders.