by PP Corcoran
While the neighbouring continent appeared to be in the throes of what human history characterized as the first industrial revolution: chemical manufacturing, iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, increasing use of steam power and the development of machine tools; this little island displayed signs that it was already well into the period of a second industrial revolution. Technological and economic progress continued with the adoption of steam-powered boats, ships and railways, the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of machinery in steam powered factories. Analysis showed a much more dense population than its neighbours and reconnaissance probes captured images of sea-going vessels flying the emblem of the island nation in various ports around the planet in a much higher proportion than any other. Taking all these factors into consideration Patricia concluded that this small nation was a major planetary power, if not the major planetary power on Garunda.
Patricia wrinkled her forehead… Garunda. Humans had dubbed the planet ‘Garunda’ soon after their arrival in the system but through research it seemed the planet had been given many different names by its various nations and religious groups. She decided it was an issue that could be dealt with at a later date, Aaron Becket had much bigger fish to fry than identifying the indigenous population’s name for their world.
The shuttle levelled out and the display filled with views of well-defined fields of crops being worked by small groups of farmers. Their faces turned skyward at the unfamiliar noise of the shuttles screaming aero engines before Patricia saw them begin to run in all directions in what she could only assume was panic. Not one of the reconnaissance probes had shown evidence that any Garundan nation had yet developed flight, not even rudimentary hot air balloons had been recorded so it was reasonably safe to assume that the human shuttle was the first flying machine that the Garundans had ever seen.
The rolling fields soon gave way to a more built up area of scattered houses which within a few more kilometres thickened considerably. Large factories belching smoke into the sky were now mixed in among the dwellings. The shuttle pilot banked the shuttle into a large lazy turn and the extent of the city was fully revealed. A wide river ran through the middle of the city with numerous bridges spanning it and as far as the eye could see there was factories and homes. Near the centre of the city lining the river was a large dock area with dozens of ships gathered along it.
Then, as the shuttle began to level out once more Patricia saw their final destination. A large group of overly ornate buildings set in what on Earth would be a large park. This was the only part of the city that was not covered by buildings and had stood out like a sore thumb in the reconnaissance imagery. Patricia was convinced that this cluster of buildings was the seat of power for this small nation and, as the shuttle came into to make a landing, she could make out dozens of figures scurrying away but more importantly she saw others dashing towards the site of their landing. All of them dressed in a similar fashion and taking up what even a novice of military tactics could see where defensive positions between the shuttle and the buildings.
The shuttle rocked slightly on its landing gear as it touched down a few hundred meters from the largest of the ornate buildings and Aaron released his restraints and stood. The two marines detailed as his close protection team were resplendent in their dress blues which only served to draw the eye even more to the dull black pulse pistols secured at their waists. Pausing to straighten his jacket cuffs before taking a step towards the shuttle hatch he paused again and, without turning his head said “Are you coming Doctor Bath?”
It had been agreed that only Aaron and his two marine escorts would disembark the shuttle until the friendly status of the locals could be determined but obviously Aaron had decided to fling that plan out of the airlock. Patricia fumbled with her restraints as she rushed to join him at the hatch and she swore that she caught the sound of a subdued chuckle.
The shuttle hatch opened and the ramp extended until it touched the grass. The marines moved down the ramp and took up positions on either side of it at the position of parade rest. Bodies locked rigidly in place, hands clasped to the rear, heads up and eyes forward.
“Now for the moment of truth.” Whispered Aaron as he stepped off down the ramp followed closely by Patricia. As he reached the marines at the bottom of the ramp they snapped to attention in unison and gave a parade ground salute that any drill sergeant would have been proud of. Aaron acknowledged the salute with a polite thank you as he moved past them a few paces and halted facing the buildings. The marines resumed the position of parade rest as Patricia passed them and took her place beside Aaron.
“You were right about the marines Ambassador. They’re very impressive.”
“That they are Doctor Bath but their purpose is twofold. Firstly they saluted me and not you which identifies myself as a person of importance which, if you look at the number of Garundans in uniform currently arrayed in front of us and the fact that we have no way of identifying their rank structure at the moment, gives them a polite advantage.”
Patricia could not help but notice the numbers of uniformed Garundans which had formed a loose circle around the shuttle. Their numbers seemed to swelling by the minute and the majority of them had a very ugly tri-barrel rifle aimed at her.
“Secondly. The marines are in an obvious uniform where as you and I are not. Hopefully indicating to whomever is in charge over there that we are civilians and not military. A distinction that by the marines saluting a civilian I hope to show that although we do have a military capability it is subordinate to civilians.”
Any reply that Patricia was going to make was interrupted by a commotion in the rear ranks of the Garundans located near the building. Patricia could make out three Garundans making their way through the soldiers towards the shuttle. At last the front row of soldiers parted and the three Garundans approached the waiting humans. Patricia noticed that they seemed to have a slight side to side motion as they walked, no doubt due to their tail stump. The group stopped only a few meters from Aaron and both sides regarded each other for a few moments before a particularly well dressed Garundan stepped forward and began to speak. The interpretation program took a few seconds to catch up before Patricia clearly heard his voice through her ear bug.
“I am Prime Minister Bezled of the Yeut Confederation. This is Governor Tzir of Makol and Chancellor Rol of Esper.” On being introduced each of the Garundans gave a curt nod to Aaron.
“I am Ambassador Aaron Beckett of the Terran Republic and I come to you in the spirit of friendship and cooperation.”
The voice of an alien coming out in their own language made quite a few of the Garundan soldiers take a wary step back accompanied by a few gasps of surprise. Prime Minister Bezled and his companions hardly batted an eye lid. Aaron recognized the signs of skilled politicians when he saw them. Aaron indicated his wrist comm. “This device interprets my voice and yours so that we may both understand each other.”
“A useful machine indeed Ambassador. May I suggest that we continue our conversation inside I feel that we have much to discuss.”
#
Office of the President of the Terran Republic - Geneva - Earth
Winter had descended on Geneva and snowflakes coated the ground as Aaron Beckett was ushered into the President’s office.
“Welcome back, Aaron,” said Rebecca with a warm and welcoming smile. After all, what he had achieved in less than a month was nothing short of stupendous.
He bowed his head slightly. “Madam President.”
Rebecca ushered him into one of the comfortable informal chairs as a steward brought them both coffee.
“I’ve read the reports, but I’d like to hear a summary from your own lips to be sure that there’s no misunderstandings. It seems to me that there is something missing from them.”
Aaron put his elbows on the arm of the chair, steeple hands in front and a smile creased his face. “To put it plainly, Madam President, th
ey were expecting us. They may not be as advanced as us, but they do have optical telescopes and more than one had witnessed the battle between us and ‘The Others’. In the time it took us to get my team together, get a handle on the main languages and make landing, they had already been in frantic communication with each of the other major nations and had decided to fight us as one if we invaded.”
Rebecca was shaking her head in disbelief, which made Aaron chuckle. “You may find it hard to believe, Madam President, but imagine my surprise when instead of speaking to one national leader I was confronted by representatives from all the major powers.”
This time it was Rebecca’s turn to chuckle. “So how did you persuade them that we weren’t about to invade?”
Aaron looked at her a little sheepishly. “Ah, well, you see, Madam President, I may have slightly overstepped my authority there, which is why I thought it would be better if you heard this from me and didn’t read it in a report.”
Rebecca placed her coffee cup down on the table and sat back in her chair, looking at Aaron warily. “Go on.”
Even after all his fifty years negotiating on behalf of presidents, Aaron knew that this was the biggest gamble he had ever taken of his own accord. “Madam President, I knew going into this that my actions would set the standard for every first contact that we make from hereon in. I decided to be completely honest with the Garunda.” Aaron took a deep breath. “I explained how we had found the Rubicon Cave and what we knew of the Saiph and their experiments in different star systems with indigenous life forms’ DNA, and how we came into conflict with ‘The Others’.”
“That all sounds reasonable so far, Aaron. But there’s something else isn’t there?”
“I offered them full access to the Saiph database and promised assistance in bringing their technology up to a level where they could defend themselves without our help.”
Rebecca jolted out of her seat as if she had suffered an electric shock. She looked at Aaron disbelievingly. “You did what? My God! Aaron do you realize what you’ve done? The information in that database is priceless. We’ve still got no idea what else remains to be discovered in it.”
“Madam President,” Aaron pleaded. “We needed the people of Garunda to trust us; and I think that my openness did the trick.”
Rebecca attempted to reign in her anger. “How so, Aaron?”
“For their entire recorded history, the people of Garunda have been fighting with each other, either as tribes or cities or as nation states like they are now. They couldn’t even agree on a name for their own planet so they adopted the name we had dubbed it. Our arrival has changed that. The fact that I met representatives from all the major nation states proves that. They also insisted on sending a small team of representatives back with me, to see how we had come together as one planet; they realize that as single nations they stand no chance against ‘The Others’.”
The President stood perfectly still, “You mean – they are here now?”
Aaron nodded his head. “On board the same ship that brought me back.”
“You could have given me a bit more warning that we are about to hold an interstellar conference, Aaron.”
Aaron simply shrugged his shoulders. “They insisted. And I thought it would be impolite to say no.”
Rebecca gave him a withering look, but then a small smile appeared on her face. “Well, if I am to meet with them, I’m not going to do it on my own.” The President pressed a control on her wrist Comm and the disembodied voice of her personal assistant came into her ear.
“Yes, Madam President?”
Rebecca looked at Aaron and her smile widened. “Jim, please inform the Vice President, the cabinet and the leaders of both houses that we will be hosting a full state dinner tomorrow evening for a delegation from Garunda.”
“Of course, Madam President.”
“Thank you, Jim.” As Rebecca signed off, she turned to Aaron, shaking her head. “You know, Jim has served three Presidents and I have yet to hear of him ever being fazed by any presidential request. The man must have ice water running through his veins. Now you!” She pointed at Aaron like a schoolteacher berating a misbehaving pupil. “Get out of my sight! You have work to do. I want a detailed paper on Garunda etiquette with Jim before the end of the day so I don’t make any major cock ups tomorrow, or I will have your head on a block. Is that understood?”
Aaron stood and bowed his head in a newfound respect for his president. “Yes, Madam President. And thank you for trusting me.”
Rebecca walked him to the door. “Aaron, if I hadn’t trusted you to do the right thing, I would never have sent you.”
#
Rebecca looked around the spacious reception room as she awaited the arrival of the delegates from Garunda. The balmy room was set to a temperature of twenty-six degrees centigrade, with a humidity of sixty-five per cent, to better suit her guests. Rebecca could not help but scratch her left ear, where the ear bug protruded slightly. Dr Bath had assured Rebecca that the translation program that had been pre-set into her wrist Comm would successfully translate the Garundan language and she would hear the standard English output via the ear bug. The Garunda delegation had been similarly equipped. At least they should be able to talk to each other.
A low chime sounded throughout the room. All eyes turned to the entrance doors. They swung slowly open. The Master of Ceremonies announced the arrival of the Garunda delegation. Well here goes nothing! Thought Rebecca as she moved to the head of the reception line.
The first person through the door was Aaron. He was chatting amiably with a Garunda, resplendent in a light green uniform with a gold sash across the right shoulder. Apart from the sash, the only other decoration appeared to be a small diamond-encrusted star on the left side of his chest.
The Ambassador came to halt in front of Rebecca. “Madam President, may I introduce Prime Minister Bezled of the Yeut Confederation who has, by agreement with the other major powers of Garunda, been chosen as their representative.”
Rebecca regarded the Prime Minister for a moment before turning her back on him. She could hear the sudden intake of breath from the humans in the room as Rebecca carried out what any human could only describe as a calculated insult. To the human watchers’ amazement, the Prime Minister waited a few seconds before saying, “Please turn, Madam President. Your faith in my honourable intentions is appreciated. And I offer you my back in return.” And as Rebecca turned to face him again, the Prime Minister turned and presented his back to Rebecca.
“Your honourable intentions were never in doubt, Prime Minister.” Relieved that she had performed the ritual correctly, Rebecca continued. “If I may introduce the other members of my government.” Rebecca worked her way down the reception line; each person introduced gave a slight bow to the Prime Minister, as the ritual of honourable intentions was completed.
As they reached the end of the line, they came to a very uncomfortable-looking naval captain in his dress whites who looked like he would have preferred to be anywhere else at this moment than in this room full of dignitaries. On the captain’s chest was a small blue and white ribbon, the Terran Medal of Honour.
“Mr Prime Minister, I believe you, especially, requested to meet the captain of the destroyer Dagger.” Rebecca noticed the entire Garunda delegation tense slightly as they turned in the captain’s direction. “May I introduce Captain Engel?”
“Captain Engel, when Ambassador Beckett came to us and told us of these... Batha,” the Prime Minister said in a tone which no human or Garunda in the room could mistake as anything but a term not to be used in polite company, “that these ‘Others’ had come to destroy our home, we were sceptical.”
With a raised arm, he gestured around the room. “After all, how were we to know that you were not just fighting ‘The Others’ for control of Garunda, and after defeating them you would not invade us yourselves?”
Rebecca could feel this spiralling out of her control and began to protest. �
�Mr Prime Minister, I can assure you that that was never our intention. We –”
Prime Minister Bezled raised his hand, and Rebecca fell silent as Bezled went on in an even and quiet tone. “Madam President. I am a politician as are you and words are just that. Words. But Captain Engel’s actions in putting the lives of his crew and himself in jeopardy to stop those last two missiles, which I now know could have killed so many of our people, say more about your intentions towards us than any mere words could say. Your decision to send humans into battle knowing that some could, and indeed, did die to protect Garunda speaks volumes for you and your people. If it was possible, I would thank each and every family who sacrificed a loved one that day so that my people could live.”
Bezled reached up and removed the small diamond encrusted star from his chest looking at it fondly. “Captain Engel, this is the Star of Yeut, it was presented to me many years ago by a grateful nation. I now ask you to accept it on behalf of your fallen comrades as a gift not only from my nation, but from all the people of Garunda.”
Engel reached out and took the star from the Prime Minister. “I accept your gift on behalf of all those that cannot be here today, and I shall wear it proudly in their memory.”
“Of that I have no doubt, Captain. Now, Madam President…” The Prime Minister turned his attention back to the waiting president. “Shall we continue?”
Shaking herself, Rebecca said, “Of course, Mr Prime Minister.”
It did not escape the President’s notice that as each Garunda passed Capt. Engel, they came to their version of attention and placed their hand flat on the centre of their chest. One to ask Aaron about later, she thought, wondering what further surprises were in store tonight.