* * *
The Little Fleet did their first tight five ship jump into the next system. Everything went smoothly with all of them in a circle less than a kilometer across. There was nothing of interest. No alien reflectors. No rich asteroid belts or worlds worth claiming. This continued for five jumps until they took another break. Gordon wondered if they might have found something by jumping to one of the other systems accessible from the one with the alien artifacts. But it went against the general doctrine Gordon had established to stop and investigate a globe around one star. They intended to continue along the same general heading, going as deep away from Human and Derf space as possible without side excursions to slow them down.
The next system along their approximate line of flight was a bit over seven light years away, that was on the fringe of their radio detection ability, but Gordon had the Sharp Claws standoff, far enough from any natural emitters in the system and wide enough from their view of the star to examine the next system. There was a lot of unnatural noise, some suggesting audio and several frequencies suggesting video, but not clearly and not on any scan rate or pixel count used by Human equipment.
In conference the captains advised against giving away their present location as it gave too obvious a vector back to their home planets. Several wondered why there was no evidence of an alien presence in this system, only one jump away from an occupied system. Several suggested they might not have star flight, others pointed out that Survey System 418 was not much further from Earth then this next jump, but manned ships from Earth never attempted it. They always jumped in from one of two other nearby systems with greater stellar masses and a higher jump probability. Nobody wanted to risk a jump with even a one in a hundred thousand chance of not emerging. No one had any idea what happened to a ship that failed to achieve a quantum emergence and nobody especially wanted to find out the hard way.
They all did two jumps to a system off at about ninety degrees from their established line of flight. A known inhabited system was cause enough to make them hold back from pushing straight forward. They looked carefully and with caution, but neither system showed any signs of having been visited.
The Roadrunner was equipped with extra sensors and cameras, radios and recording systems. Mostly from the DSEs. Some of it might stay installed. She'd jump in, coast through on a long slow look at the system and then take an exit line that went on to a different system on the far side of their entry, behind the star from the planet, minimizing their drive signature as seen from the planet. It might take three or more jumps into virgin systems and a week to circle around back to them, but it seemed worth it to stay somewhat unexposed. They would do a minimal survey of each system in transit to rejoin their fleet, but stop in none. They expanded their crew to four pilots, all qualified to bring her back, so they never had to drop boost and rest.
* * *
Waiting was the hard part. It wasn't at all like stopping for a rest period. Eight days later there was a familiar burst of uncommon particles, decaying and making a electromagnetic chirp as Roadrunner rejoined their universe from its indeterminate state. They were very happy to see her and happier yet to hear her quickly sent signal instead of an alien ship.
"We have no indication we were detected," Roadrunner reported. They were wrong, but they had no idea. "There were radars active in the system, but none of them changed mode or steered a beam to examine the Roadrunner closer." The system was dirty, full of lots of small objects and the planetary surface subject to a constant rain of small meteors. The native radar was likely to give warning for the bigger more dangerous pieces.
The recordings were interesting. The video took awhile to figure out. It was analog. There were additional signals that had to be audio. The scan rate told them something about the native's vision. It wasn't hard to estimate the frequency of the sound track. The real bonus came with the understanding that the other channel was a universal text captioning signal, on a separate display. They appeared to have only one language.
The natives were bipedal, bilaterally symmetrical and had binocular vision. The eyes were large compared to Humans or Deft, on a par with the Hinth. Their hands were three fingered with double thumbs, as were their feet, much more dexterous than Humans or Derf, but having nothing on the ability of Hinth to use their feet, even though the Hinth appeared to have less delicate and suitable feet. Watching them shuffle and deal cards dispelled any idea Hinth feet were not very capable of subtle manipulation.
A fine short coat of fur ran down their backs, ranging from tan to black, but their skin was semi nude from the chin to crotch, with very fine hair. There was much variation among individuals. They wore clothing but didn't appear to have as strong a taboo against nudity. Part of that might be because their genitals were carried tucked away in folds so it was hard to tell at a glance if one was male or female for sure. Also the climate was moderate and they did have fur but not a shaggy insulting coat.
The hair on the alien's heads was just as short and fine as on their backs, but they had tufts of hair on the face, more prominent in the males, which looked somewhat like a set of mutton chop whiskers on a human, running from upright triangular ear to chin. Those tended to be a lighter white or yellowish color than the body hair. The nose was broad, cleft and active. The females carried mammary glands, but the nipple tucked in a fold by the hip, not by the arm pit. They looked sleek and carried a thin long tail.
There was a lot of display by these people of what they took for status symbols. There was a profusion of hats, some simple knit affairs, some with ear holes, to elaborate hats with molded shapes and decorations. The clothing ranged from full jumpsuits that appeared to be serious protection for professions doing manual labor to frilly decoration. The one item everybody wore was some sort of collar, even if otherwise naked. Some fancy with studs and jewels, some simple chains.
"The videos are odd. I don't know what to make of it. There isn't anything that looks like advertising. There are short local stories, but they aren't man in the street type videos with normal stuff happening in the background," Thor said.
"How do you know what's normal?" Lee asked.
"Good point, but I've seen broadcast news from Humans, Derf and Hinth. They all had similar elements these lack. These videos never have traffic behind the aliens on camera or crowds in the city. The actors all look stiff and uncomfortable in front of the camera. And I've noticed anytime one says "Teen" they all give a little jerk of the head, almost like bow."
"OK, we need to figure that word out," Gordon said. "I'm going to make this available to everybody in the fleet and see what people get from it. I want everybody to give me ideas what these videos are meant to convey and assign their opinion a numerical probability. For example, this video looks to be in front of a field and the one fellow points off camera and says something. Is he pointing out the way to town or showing which way his livestock took off or what? Ten percent probability or ninety? Don't be afraid to reach a bit."
* * *
Three days later they had their first all hands fleet conference. "Give me two items first," Gordon requested. "I'd like any item on which a large number of people had consensus and I'd like anything an individual assigned a higher probability than ninety percent."
"We have forty-eight people who concluded that anyone wearing that dark orange color is some sort of official," Thor read, "with some mentioning government and some identifying it as a religious order. Thirty two people noted that in three scenes the wearers of orange are the only natives we see carrying weapons. In two videos they carry swords and in the third they have both swords and two of them have spears."
"OK, the color is some sort of an indication of authority. Are the weapons authority emblems or are they functional? Or both? These people have radar and geostationary satellites. Am I to believe they don't have guns? Or at least bows and arrows? Something that acts at a distance?" Gordon asked them.
The com gave a ping. Jeremiah Ellis from engineeri
ng on the Retribution wanted to speak and was connected. "There are very few frames that show mechanized vehicles, but this one video shows orange wearing natives arriving in a motor vehicle. I'd guess from the smokestack at the rear it is a steam powered vehicle, but note the exhaust is quite clean as it arrives. It may be turbine powered. The thing appears to be damn near as big as a city bus and it has pneumatic tires. Notice the artwork near the front door," he manipulated the image to expand it.
"The shield shape suggests military origins for the symbol and note the two figures on each side. One has a spear held straight armed tilted away from him, which may be a parade pose. The other figure has a weapon held the same way, but it is shorter and has a distinct butt stock on the ground. He also has a pouch hung, which could be for ammunition and lacks the sword the spear carrier has. That's a musket or rifle or I'll admit Mrs. Ellis raised one very slow son," he challenged.
"What do you think the objects above the figures are?" Gordon asked.
"I've run it past my engineering section and we get some sort of fruit for the cluster of ovals, think something like grapes, the lines behind it being some sort of trellis or carrier and everybody agrees the arch of rectangular shapes between the solid irregular masses is a dam between rock masses. There are no openings or castellations to suggest it is a castle or fortification. We have consensus it's a dam."
"Thank you, has anybody else analyzed this art?" Gordon prompted.
"I would have never figured out the dam, because I've never seen one in real life," Thor allowed. "But I figured the words on the top edge are important. Three words would suggest a motto or unit identification, the first and last words I can't identify yet, but the center word is the 'teen' we see everybody bob their head when they say it. It matches up to the captioning."
Gordon got a request to speak and connected to Propitious Harrington on the Murphy's Law.
"Every video scene in which we see a street or road it is laid with brick. That sort of road is very enduring, cobbled roads on Old Earth are still in use that were built by the Roman Empire. But they are very labor intensive, some of them having bases laid down six or seven meters deep. There appear to be no utility poles even in town, so they either bury the common services for aesthetic reasons, don't have them, or their technology is deliberately restricted in how it is distributed. There are cultivated fields in quite a few videos, so they are an agricultural civilization, but we don't see anyone carrying anything you could take for a computer or phone. Also, the population level in a long static society suggests tight control of reproduction."
"Obviously they have video screens, or there would be no point in these broadcasts, but there is no scene in any of it showing a viewing screen. Either they are rare and communal, in a sort of theatre, or there is some dislike of showing a screen on a screen. There is no scene of a street busy with vehicles either, I'm starting to suspect they have a lot of the same technologies we have, but for some reason they aren't commercialized and widely distributed the way we do," he finished.
"Gordon, please note we have one statement, from one person, with a hundred percent handle. I think we should examine that. Nobody else had such certainty about anything," Thor explained. "I'd either like to know why or find out what duty this person is charged with. Such absolute certainty honestly frightens me. I'm rarely ever that certain about anything."
"Ming Lee?" Gordon read off the screen. "Would you like to explain your assessment for Thor and our benefit?"
"Yes, I'm the second cook on The Champion William. Despite what Mr. Thor seems to think, I am not a crank or disturbed person. I simply have experience, strongly reinforced in my family, as to what these broadcasts are. My great-grandfather and grandfather lived in an area of China on Earth which was populated by an ethnic minority. The government kept very tight control, suppressing even the slightest expression of dissidence. I have searched and highlighted a number of files of similar human video productions I will attach right now as references. I suggest you watch them silently, with no translation or captioning. The resemblance is uncanny. What you are seeing in these broadcasts is revolutionary theatre, or propaganda. Even the dark orange color of authority is a coincidental close match to the red of my homeland. I predict they will be authoritarian and very difficult with which to deal," he finished.
"Thank you Ming, Mr. Jefferson?" Gordon allowed next.
"Even before Mr. Ming's assessment of the honesty of what they portray in their broadcasts, we only have a view through their camera lens and never got close enough to see for ourselves what is on the surface of the planet from orbit. I'd suggest we need some direct observation, perhaps even some closer looks from atmospheric drones and try to establish some communications from orbit before risking physical contact."
"This seems the course of caution to me too," Gordon agreed. "If anyone disagrees and feels it is too stand-offish write out your thinking and submit it to these suggestions. I should warn you that if you are in favor of a landing and an immediate face to face meeting, we'll take it as volunteering for such duty."
Nobody seemed eager to be such a volunteer and Gordon closed out the all-crew session.
"We need to decide how we are going to approach this world and compose a greeting and initial contact video formatted for their receivers," Gordon said to the flight crews. "I'd like to do a few orbits and map the surface before we decide where we are going to direct our contact message. I find myself leery of transmitting it to the entire surface as we orbit. We'll announce this fleet wide again first shift tomorrow and consider any further analysis of their transmissions that wasn't considered today. Let's get some supper and let the B team carry the ball a bit," he told the bridge crew.
"This is the first time we have heard anyone but the captain speak from The Champion William," Gordon noted to Thor, "and not much from him."
"Well you invited anyone to speak. He would have been out of line to deny Ming Lee his opportunity. What is your point? Did you think he'd spaced them all and was flying her alone?"
"Just that we usually have some chatter from the other ships officers. We're a civilian group, not under strict military discipline. I consider it a strength that we get different inputs. I haven't seen any indication it weakens my command authority. Do you think perhaps Priceless is a bit too much of a disciplinarian? Will he need to be questioned or counseled about it?"
"He is ex-military, Gordon. And so are a lot of his crew. They may be perfectly comfortable with no chatter on the flight deck. At this stage I'd just consider it a different command style than yours and let it go. Now, if we start getting requests from his crew to transfer to another ship or formal complaints, then I'd start asking questions. We may run into things out here where quick obedience to commands and snappy action will save his butt. Maybe your easy going style wouldn't work for him. It works for you because of the odd mystique you hold with your crews."
"What's that?" Gordon asked.
"Same as the Fargone captains. They think you present up front as a pleasant fellow who will listen to them, nodding agreeably, all the while figuring out how to ruthlessly have your way by some hellaciously devious action they will never be able to predict."
"Oh, that... "
Chapter 4
The Small Fleet jumped into the alien system, all in a group, the Roadrunner carried by Murphy's Law. It ungrappled and braked hard, staying in the fringe of the system at first. The Champion William and High Hopes took up a safer orbit well near the geostationary level, Murphy's Law at guard trailing them. Retribution and Sharp Claws with better defenses took up a lower circular orbit, inclined enough to let them map two thirds of the planet's surface in detail and a side look at the polar regions sufficient to their needs, since the natives didn't seem to use them extensively.
The world had two large continents, one in each polar hemisphere and one significant island between them in a vast equatorial sea. There was no large land mass to interfere with cyclonic storms and one rage
d right now in the equatorial sea opposite the one island. The island must see some tremendous storms with nothing to impede their growth.
Both poles had sea ice, but neither had a polar continent such as Earth had. There was a iron core generating a fairly strong magnetic field and the noisy star generated impressive aurora, but rarely down to the latitudes of the continents.
Both warships kept crews on defense stations, ready to intercept missiles, or roll the ship for beam weapons. The natives had geostationary satellites, carrying quite a bit of traffic, but only a couple lower satellites and nothing that looked big enough to be manned. They still had the tech to loft weapons to the level at which the two fleet ships orbited, if they wanted. Neither Gordon nor his captains assumed the natives lacked capabilities not yet demonstrated.
There were two large towns, of a size that would have a population of a million inhabitants or more, in any of their own cultures. One was fairly central to the bigger continent. The slightly smaller continent had a large city, centered on the larger western portion of the continent, the far east third of the landmass was separated by an impressive range of mountains. The island had the third largest city.
Both continental cities had large roads going east and west from them. The island geography made such a thing impossible there. The roadways went obsessively straight, refusing to deviate around a hill or mountain. Indeed the smaller continent had an artificial pass cut through the mountain range. Two approach roads on each end of the dig in progress showed that once the notch was dug to a new depth by the road builders, they laid a new road in it and switched to digging the route of the old road lower. If the the original pass was similar to the other natural passes to the north and south of it the natives had been switching back and forth, slowly opening the gap in the mountains deeper and wider for thousands years.
Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet Page 5