Discovery of the Saiph (The Saiph Series)

by PP Corcoran

  Analisa paused the playback as she considered this new information. A ship that had an energy signature virtually the same as that in the Saiph database? And now Chesneau was telling her that he had identified design similarities as well. The plot thickens, Analisa thought, as she touched the control to allow the message to continue.

  “It would appear that the vessel has powered down all its systems except life support. Immediately upon our arrival, the vessel began to transmit a directional radio signal towards us. It was the same short message being repeated over and over. We ran it through linguistics and surprise, surprise, we found a match in the Saiph database. As best as we can tell, the message being transmitted is one word: ‘friend’.”

  If there had been anyone else in the briefing room, they would have likened Analisa’s face to that of a goldfish – her mouth had dropped open and stayed that way for all of five seconds. She regained control and her mouth snapped shut. Analisa’s mind raced. Had they made contact with some remnant of what they all thought were the long-extinct Saiph? The authorities gave an admiral wide-ranging powers of discretion, but any decision-making here was well above her pay grade. This needed direction from not just the Admiralty but from the top levels of the Republic. They were light years away. Analisa was the one on the spot, but she was no diplomat. Then a light bulb lit up in the Admiral’s head: Ambassador Beckett! He was back on Garunda as the Terran Republic’s official ambassador to the new Pan Garundan Government.

  Analisa touched a control and the face of Lt. Kyle appeared before her. “Lieutenant, download to Rhin that they are to continue to hold position and take no action unless in defence of themselves. Then get hold of Ambassador Beckett at the Republic embassy and tell him that I request his presence on board Mishima as a matter of urgency. And please attach the message from Rhin. Once the embassy confirms receipt of the signal, dispatch a shuttle to collect the Ambassador. Lastly, send a copy of Rhin’s message back to Central Command.”

  Without waiting for confirmation, Analisa cut the link and sat back in her seat with a wicked grin, imagining the faces of the Ambassador and those at Central Command as they watched the message from Chesneau.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Massacre

  Office of the President of the Terran Republic - Geneva - Earth

  As she closed her eyes and used her fingers to massage her temples in a vain effort to ward off the oncoming headache, Rebecca understood why no president was permitted to run for more than three consecutive terms.

  Rebecca put her burgeoning headache down to the latest message from Aaron. The Ambassador, accompanied by Dr Bath, had been waiting for the shuttle sent for them by Adm. Chavez. They wasted no time, on their arrival on board the Mishima, to badger the Admiral into relocating her flagship to join the destroyers sitting off the unknown vessel that had been hanging in space broadcasting the Saiph word for friend.

  Bath was an expert in her field of linguistics and at Aaron’s direction began a tentative dialogue in the language of the Saiph with the unknown vessel, all the while believing that they had indeed encountered the Saiph themselves.

  The crew of the unknown vessel agreed to a video conference. The image as it appeared in the Holo Cubes on board Mishima quashed the hope that man had at last found the Saiph. The central being was tall, well built, with short, almost silver fur and faintly familiar canine features. Tarrov, Chairman of the Council of Pars, stared back at Aaron, in the background; the leaders of a race calling themselves Persai could be seen. Aaron put a personal footnote on his message, that Tarrov reminded him of an elderly werewolf. Rebecca smiled to herself as she thought that that comment was certainly not politically correct, but the more she thought about it and recalled her first look at the images of the Persai, she could see the resemblance.

  Rebecca blamed her imminent headache on the rest of the message. Tarrov relayed to Ambassador Beckett the story of the destruction of their Persai home world, destroyed by ‘The Enemy’, or as it turns out, ‘The Others’. Tarrov continued with his tale, describing ‘The Enemy’s’ sudden appearance in orbit around the original Persai home world swiftly followed by its wanton destruction – despite the population’s pleas for mercy. They had received no reply from the silent enemy. Tarrov told of the establishment of the colony, naming it Pars after the dead home world and of the colonists’ decision to secrete themselves underground for fear of discovery by ‘The Others’. Then the all-important discovery of the Saiph library and the knowledge it brought. Armed with that knowledge, the Persai had built starships and once more, ventured out into the night sky in an attempt to discover the fate of the other worlds listed in the Saiph database. The Persai’s curiosity had been tempered with caution. Deep down, they knew that if ‘The Others’ discovered the new Pars, then its fate would be the same as its dead namesake. So, the order went out that any system that showed signs of artificial energy sources was to be avoided and would never be visited again.

  Rebecca and her advisers thought that the latter statement was possibly a little short sighted on the part of the Persai. But when Tarrov explained that the Persai had enforced an artificial ceiling on their population, a conscious decision made by them after taking in to account their limited subterranean resources, Rebecca and her advisors began to understand their decision. The Persai made the conscious decision not to mine the asteroid belt of their system and take advantage of its abundant resources for fear of discovery by ‘The Others’. This led to the Persai’s complete reliance on only what they could mine from the planet without leaving any tell-tale signs. Hence, the limited numbers of Persai ships.

  The Secretary of Defence and the Joint Chiefs had initially been disappointed when they had heard that the Persai had only a limited number of ships available. The thought of having to stretch the already overextended Terran Defence Force even more thinly was not one that appealed to them. Jealousy soon replaced this disappointment. The Persai had had over 150 years to examine the Saiph database. As their understanding of Saiph technology grew, so had the sophistication of their ships. Joyce and Dr Moore, representing Research and Development, had been practically drooling at the thought of getting their hands on one of the Persai ships.

  That was exactly what Tarrov offered. Access to Persai technology. In return, an alliance. Unlike Garunda which was completely reliant on the TDF for defence from ‘The Others’ until such time as its own forces were up to sufficient strength, Persai had a limited number of ships available with which to defend itself. In return for access to Persai technology, Tarrov wanted a guarantee that, if ‘The Others’ were to threaten Pars, then the TDF would come to their aid.

  Rebecca felt she was inexorably being dragged towards an unknown fate. From the very moment of the Gravity Drive’s discovery, to the revelations of the Saiph database and humankind’s first clash with ‘The Others’, which led to the rapid expansion of human forces, and then her decision to commit those same forces to the defence of Garunda. Now the Persai had arrived on the scene with their offer of advanced Saiph technology and an alliance that would again commit human forces to the defence of an alien world.

  She closed her eyes and resumed massaging her temples. The urgent beeping of her Comm forced her tired eyes open as she accepted the incoming message. “Yes?”

  The face of her personal assistant appeared above her desk. “I’m sorry to disturb you, Madam President, but we’ve just received news from Central Command that the research ship dispatched to Delta Pavonis has come under attack from ‘The Others’.”

  Delta Pavonis - 19.92 LY from Earth

  The insertion from orbit progressed quietly. There was no sign that ‘The Others’ had detected their arrival in the system, never mind their stealthy approach to the planet. Vladimir Egnorov looked at his rescue team. They were the best of the best, men who had been Special Forces for most of their adult lives. Not one had backed down when he had asked for volunteers for the mission. Each marine knew the risks of dropping into po
tential enemy-held territory. The scientists had made no contact with Earth since the first report via courier drone of a single ship, identified as one of ‘The Others’ Buzzard class, appearing in orbit. Of that research ship and her crew, there was no sign. Hopefully, the scientists who had been on the surface at the research base had followed Standard Operating Procedure, powered everything down and moved away from the main research buildings to the pre-prepared extraction point to await rescue.

  The tinny sound of the pilot’s voice over Comms interrupted his musings. “Two minutes from the drop point!”

  The drop point was the lowest the shuttle could come to the planetary atmosphere without leaving a visible indication of its presence. The marines decided on a high altitude, high speed insertion by exo-atmospheric jump. Risky, to say the least. The marines in their Wraith combat suits would jump in a cocoon of armour, which they jokingly called ‘eggs’, designed to get them onto the ground as quickly as possible.

  Vladimir acknowledged the pilot’s message and gave the thumbs up to the loadmaster, who passed the message to the company of marines to get into their protective cocoons. Vladimir’s head up display told him that all his marines had acknowledged the instruction and sealed their eggs before he too sealed himself inside his and awaited the drop.

  With a gut-wrenching pull, the egg dropped from the shuttle. He could see via his display the exterior of the egg heating up, its ablative armour burning away as it dropped into the atmosphere at supersonic speeds. Speed was life; the sooner he was on the ground the less time any enemy gunner had time to shoot him down.

  The retro rockets firing forced him into his couch, and then the front of the pod blew off and he released his harnesses stepping out of the egg, bringing his rifle to the ready position as he checked 360 degrees around him for targets. None were visible.

  Vladimir called up the location of his company’s Eggs on the display and found that all but two had landed safely. One had had a retro failure and had ploughed into the earth at a speed approaching Mach two, fatal for the marine inside. The other had not made it through the atmosphere and had broken up, spreading itself and its unlucky occupant over the upper atmosphere.

  His head up display flashed a point on the map, the rally point, and he headed in its direction as fast as the Wraith suit would carry him. Better to clear the landing zone before ‘The Others’ had a chance to bring fire down on it.

  On reaching the rally point, Vladimir conferred quickly with his platoon commanders before they formed the troops up and began to move in the direction from where the scientists’ beacon was located. Time was of the essence: the more time they gave ‘The Others’ to gather their strength, the more chance the marines would be pinned down before they could link up with the scientists and the shuttles from the light cruiser TDF Konigsberg to lift them all to safety.

  The landing zone was only a kilometre from the scientists’ beacon and the marines made good time, covering the ground quickly but tactically, ready to react to any threat.

  As the lead platoon reached the pickup point, they reported no sign of the scientists. Vladimir ordered the company on towards the main research base on the most likely route the scientists should have used to reach the pickup point.

  The Marines did not have far to go. Vladimir got a call from the lead platoon commander to come forward. When he reached their location, the sight of 264 dead scientists confronted him. Laid out in a line extending back towards the research station buildings, each scientist had a single, precise entry wound in their forehead, if he had to guess, from a handheld laser pistol. There was no sign of resistance on the scientists’ part. No weapons in sight and each of the scientists had their hands bound behind their backs. ‘The Others’ had executed them. Left their bodies laid out in a macabre message to whoever came to discover their fate. He struggled to keep his anger in check as he signalled the Konigsberg for pickup.

  He understood the message. One day, he would make sure he replied in kind.

  Office of the President of the Terran Republic - Geneva - Earth

  The news of the massacre on Delta Pavonis spread like wildfire. Somehow, the press had gotten hold of the grisly video footage, which showed the neatly laid-out bodies of the scientists with their hands bound behind their backs and the single hole in the centre of each man and woman’s forehead.

  Maybe because memories were evoked of mankind’s own terrible past the reaction of the general population was so strong. The memories of the barbarism of the Nazis, the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and throughout Africa. The religious wars of the mid-twenty-first century that had led to the near extinction of mankind in World Wars Three and Four. This was something mankind had thought was consigned to history. But no. Here, once again was an example of an evil that man thought would never revisit him.

  It was not that the people had not recognized that ‘The Others’ had caused the extinction of the Saiph; that they had nearly caused the extinction of the Persai and had attempted extinction of the Garunda. It was not the losses that BatFor One had taken in defending Garunda. This time, it was the cold-blooded execution of unarmed men and women.

  It must not happen again.

  In the weeks that followed, President Coston’s office had been strangely quiet. Yes, immediately after the news broke, the President addressed the people and there had been the normal denunciations of ‘The Others’ actions along with the promise that the government would take whatever steps were deemed necessary to protect the Republic. Apart from that, the President had refused all other requests for interviews. Unsurprisingly, her opponents in the Senate had pounced on her silence as a sign of weakness and were attempting to make what political capital they could from it.

  Two months to the day after the massacre, President Coston’s office contacted all the major broadcasting outlets and informed them that the President requested airtime that evening for an announcement. As news of the request spread, many a senator wondered if the President was about to announce her resignation, but try as they might none of the Presidents staff were talking.

  All around the world, and on human habitats throughout the solar system, men, women and children watched as the face of President Rebecca Coston appeared in their Holo Cubes.

  “My fellow humans. The events on Delta Pavonis have shaken us all to the core. It has wakened in us memories of days gone by, days we prayed we would never see again. Mankind saw so much pain and anguish at his own hands that in the end, you, the people, joined together to say no more. No more death and destruction at our own hands. No more senseless slaughter of the innocent. And out of that time of sadness we forged a new beginning. We came together as one and the Terran Republic was born. We rebuilt our shattered world and brought peace and prosperity to all. As man has travelled amongst the stars, we have discovered many new wonders and, following the discovery of the Saiph database, have been forced to reassess our place in the universe. Our travels have also brought us new friends.”

  As the camera pulled back, it showed on Rebecca’s right, Prime Minister Bezled, now head of the Garundan Pan National Government, and on Rebecca’s left, Chairman Tarrov of the Persai.

  “But what we have also found is a race, ‘The Others’, whose only objective seems to be the destruction of everything they find to be alien. I am sure that Prime Minister Bezled, Chairman Tarrov, you, the people and I, agree that ‘The Others’ are a threat to us all. And that is something we cannot and will not tolerate!

  “During the past two months, my office has been working frantically behind the scenes on a project that I wish to reveal to you now. I believe that neither the Republic, Garunda nor Pars have the resources individually to tackle the threat from ‘The Others’. Garunda, with our help, is still over a year away from the ability to resist any attack from ‘The Others’. The Persai are more technologically advanced than ‘The Others’, but they find themselves in the same situation as the Saiph found themselves in, they are numerically inferior to ‘T
he Others’ and would be simply swamped by greater numbers. Although we have defeated ‘The Others’ in battle, we have no idea of their total strength.”

  Rebecca took a deep breath and pushed on. “In consultation with my esteemed colleagues from Garunda and Pars, I am proposing that we establish a Commonwealth Union of Planets incorporating our three civilisations. Together this Commonwealth would abide by a Commonwealth Charter which would establish a common foreign and defence policy, enshrine our belief in free trade and travel between worlds. A right to democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Each member planet would retain its own independence within the Commonwealth but every individual would have dual citizenship of their own planet and of the Commonwealth and would be afforded the same protection under law as any other citizen no matter where they are.”

  In millions of homes around the solar system, the silence was tangible.

  “There is nothing really new in these proposals. When the Terran Republic was founded, these principles I have outlined to you were the same ones that have allowed mankind to live in peace and harmony for hundreds of years, so why should they not allow the Garundan, the Persai and ourselves to do the same? We know from the Saiph database that they visited at least seventeen worlds where they dabbled in the indigenous life form’s DNA. Who are we to say that in the future we may not come across other civilisations on these worlds from whom we, and they, may benefit from being a part of this Commonwealth Union of Planets?