“Be seated,” he told them, stepping on the podium. Behind the admiral was an unmarked holo image of the Black Rock region of space slowly rotating. “You all have your sealed orders and will be pleased to know that no record of the orders exists outside of Black Rock’s and Earth gov’s standalone systems. We are at war, people. With an alien race that we have no idea of how powerful they are. Neither the Rool nor the Vrene is able or willing to give us detailed intelligence on the capabilities and location of the Chzek and their allies. The one thing we do know is the Chzek Empire spans more than a fifty times the volume of space as we have explored to date. That’s a lot of area to cover if we want to find these guys. It is up to all of you to do that. If nothing else, even finding where they are not could make the difference in winning this war.” Stopping his briefing for a moment, the admiral consulted with his Communications Officer, Captain Twiley Cross.
Giving a nod to the captain, the admiral said, “I’ve just been notified a small flotilla has attempted a raid on the Rheas System. First Fleet believes they fired their missiles blind from extreme range out past the gas giants in the system. Fortunately, there were minimal losses.”
The sudden anxiety of the attack was quickly replaced with a collective sigh of relief from everyone in the room.
The admiral continued with the briefing, saying, “We are not the tip of the spear. We’re the ones who are out in front of the spear. We are the ones who will point the tip into the enemy’s heart. Your ships will be penetrating deep into unexplored space with the goal of finding the enemy. This mission will test you to your limits. It will take your absolute resolve. Like always, you will be entering unexplored systems, only now the question whether aliens want to destroy us has been answered. All first contact protocols are suspended. You are not to make contact of any sort with any race. Not if you find a new race, and not even if they are pre-industrialized. It doesn’t matter. They may be a Chzek ally or slave race and they could report your presence. Document everything during your pass through the system and get out of there. Move to the next system. When you have something worth reporting, send a drone and keep exploring.”
Picking up a glass of water to wet his dry mouth, the admiral looked out at his captains, wondering if they were as scared for themselves as he was for them. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “Your mission is to find the Chzek and their allies and map every system. Avoid contact and take a conservative approach entering the systems. We know they are space fairing, so they will be both easier to see, and easier for you to be discovered. If you are discovered, you are to run. Run as far and fast as you can, but don’t run home. I mean that. If you have to run, the only populated system you can make for is the Rheas System. They already know it’s there and First Fleet is action ready for any incursion. If you can’t get to the Rheas System, take them on a wild goose chase into the unknown and try to lose them. Your ships can be out for over two years. Nearly three if you stretch it. You can cover a lot of space in that time. Under no circumstances are you to lead the enemy to Human occupied space.”
The rest of the briefing was a Q&A by the room full of both eager and anxious captains and XOs.
Chapter 18: Seventh Consortium, Ponterella System
The trip to the hearing room was, to say the least, interesting. Admiral Nelson, Commander Kree, and the two Rool ambassadors rode one of the platforms to the center of the station and exited below another platform. Their next platform mover was directly overhead, except the aliens riding it were upside down from the commander’s point of view. The two humans were looking up at the people walking on the “ceiling” as much as they were to where they were going and managed to bump into several aliens until the two ambassadors directed them to walk directly behind them. The room they were in was a flattened sphere on the top and bottom and people would exit a platform and walk in any direction toward the curved walls where they would walk up the walls until they were upside down from where they started as they progressed to the platform overhead of the one they arrived on. Only now they were walking on what was previously their ceiling. The gravity continuously pulled “downward” as they went up the wall and made the ceiling into their new floor. Even as the new platform descended, the two stared up at the marvel of artificial gravity.
Entering the hearing room, the admiral and commander were surprised to find a large auditorium resembling an observatory in size and shape; its domed room ceiling wrapped around auditorium style seating of various sizes and configurations. The only stand out was the raised dais the consortium judicators would occupy and the divided seating for the two conflicted parties in the center of the room.
Ambassador Dek had them stand for an hour as the seating filled with what Admiral Nelson counted as fourteen different races until a chime sounded and the doors to the hearing room were closed. Several minutes later a group of five entered from an alcove behind the raised dais. The consortium judicators were each of a different species and wore distinctly different clothing, with the only similarity being a purple and gold stole hanging from around their neck or upper torso.
Up to this point, seeing the number of different races in the room increased their level of anxiety. They were still unaware of the possible outcomes of the hearing and the unknown was made more real as anxiety spiked at the sight of the five judicators as they took their seats. Their coloring was a range of green, tan, and grey skin or fur. They were bisymmetrical; two with binocular vision eyes and one with slits widely placed. One of them was best described as having frog eyes. Beneath their eyes were protuberances that could only be a sensory organ of some sort. The remaining two justices were unlike anything the humans had seen before. One with a shiny hard carapace that was still flexible as the alien moved around. Its eyes were two black orbs on top of stalks on top of its head as if its need to see over things was a survival characteristic during its evolution. Its mouth was made of elongated flaps of leathery flesh with a number of hard lip fangs. That was the only thing the commander could think to call them. The creature was absent-mindedly sucking the corners of its flap lips into its mouth and blowing it back out while it studied a thin datapad. The middle one was seated slightly higher than the others and had a full coat of fur with soft beige and tan colors highlighting a face inset with four eye slits and a wide mouth that made it look like it could open its mouth like the lid on a hinged box.
Admiral Nelson was studying the head judicator when it looked up at him briefly with all four eyes focused on him. In only a moment, two of the eyes flicked to its right to look at another alien standing in front of the dais and giving a slight tilt of its head. Two of its eyes stayed focused on the admiral before they flicked over to Commander Kree who was doing her best to look like a composed officer of the Exploration Service. Her posture was ramrod straight and head up as she gave a firm study of the aliens who would judge them.
Upon receiving an acknowledgment from the alien in front of the dais, who seemed to be the bailiff, the head judicator turned to the rest of the standing aliens in the auditorium and called the hearing to order. After the room was silent, it began a reading of the complaint and counter-complaint from the parties in what Ambassador Cent told them was Finital, the standard language for this region of space. The commander noticed that she and the admiral were the only people in the room with translation devices attached to their ears.
That’s also when she noticed the divider between them and the Chzek was gone. Standing at the opposite seating location on their left were a dozen large, bipedal aliens with black leathery skin layered like an armadillo’s plates. Next to them were two others. One, a single human-sized alien with dark green skin that was smooth and uniform in color; it wasn’t a natural coloring. The last alien standing there was a Rheas who was standing stock still and staring straight ahead. The Rheas was visibly shaking. The aliens, presumably Chzek, were giving her and the admiral hostile stares and showing mouthfuls of predator’s teeth and fangs. The two Rool ambassadors wer
e watching the panel of judicators and ignoring the Chzek completely while having a whispered conversation.
The head judicator instructed everyone to be seated. As soon as everyone took their seats the alien directed Spectra to begin its recreation of the events related to the complaints from the evidence provided by both parties.
The lights dimmed and a room-sized hologram appeared showing a rendering of the Rheas System. The commander was able to identify the system almost immediately from the time the Cousteau spent there and was pleased to see the first entry into the system Spectra chose to show was the second entry the Cousteau made into the system.
Data appeared next to the Cousteau and at the top of the display a series of numbers progressed in what the commander assumed was the passage of time as it increased its rate of change when the holo images sped up. It wasn’t long after the Cousteau took up its position on the asteroid that the Chzek-kin ship entered the system to conduct its raid on the Rheas Homeworld. During the raid time slowed and images from the Cousteau, as well as images from the Rheas’ news services intercepted by the Cousteau, began to show around the edges of the holo. It was clear the Chzek-kin had conducted a raid and the Chzek at their table began to have a rapid whispered discussion. There was no question they were unaware of the Cousteau’s presence and its recording of the raid.
The last image in the segment on the raid shown was of the faces of a number of Rheas who were reported missing by the Rheas news services. One of them was highlighted and its image moved to the upper left of the holo display. All images except the map of the system and two still images of the raid on the Rheas were removed and time began to pass rapidly again until the Third Fleet entered the system.
The packed auditorium sat and watched silently as the fleet deployed and the admiral’s flagship, the Atlanta, entered orbit above the Rheas Homeworld. Colored lines began to flash between the Cousteau and the Atlanta and notes began to appear next to both ships. Over the next few minutes colored lines flashed continuously between the ships in what Commander Kree assumed were representative of communications.
Images of several meetings between the Rheas, the admiral, and Ambassador Dek were shown with notes popping up next to the images. If not for the commander’s prior knowledge of the events, she could not have followed the information in the alien language it was displayed. The last image appeared, this one showing Ambassador Dek and the Rheas Prime Minister as the Rheas gave their refusal to become a vassal of the humans. Once again, an image, this time of the Rheas refusal, was moved up and joined the image of the Rheas that was saved in what Commander Kree determined were considered significant pieces of evidence by Spectra.
Shifting back to an image of the Rheas System, the events displayed by Spectra continued to unfold; from the Chzek-kin drone entering the system and the continued movements of Third Fleet, up until the first moments of the Chzek-kin fleet appearing at the outer edge of the solar system as they made their attack. The admiral noticed right away the number of ships shown was only three-quarters of the number of confirmed ships in the Chzek-kin fleet they were able to identify.
A symbol appeared above the Cousteau then moved alongside the other images saved. The commander understood that to mean it was the first point of the sentry drone reporting the detection of the Chzek –kin fleet. A yellow version of the same symbol appeared next to the lead elements of the Chzek-kin fleet and took its place next to the one from the Cousteau. Shortly after a transparent yellow sphere appeared along with hundreds of what had to be missiles. The sphere circled the missiles as they were launched and accelerated away from the Chzek-kin ships.
At the bottom of the holo two images appeared showing the captioned conversation between the admiral and Ambassador where the admiral asked the admiral his opinion as to the intent of the Chzek-kin fleet. The image was retained and sent next to the others in what was becoming a row of images across the top of the room of what Spectra considered key points in the presentation.
As the holo progressed, it showed the launches of hundreds of missiles fired by Third Fleet. Shortly after the yellow missiles fired by the Chzek-kin fleet, and the yellow sphere disappeared, to be replaced by missile tracks of a second launch from the Chzek-kin fleet that flashed twice then reappeared where the yellow tracks had shown before. It clicked for the admiral then that the whole yellow track lines and sphere had to be some kind of discrepancy in the data. It wasn’t the last time the yellow track lines appeared, albeit for far shorter periods than the initial Chzek-kin launch.
They watched the hordes of missiles from both fleets close on each other. When the admiral deployed the Veil Missiles, a number of the aliens in the auditorium began to whisper among themselves. One of the Chzek gave a deep sounding grunt, while the smaller alien let out what sounded like a squeak in reply. The Rheas standing with the Chzek watched the entire presentation with his mouth hanging open.
Admiral Nelson closed his eyes when the image of the Oklahoma being destroyed was shown. He could tell the image was taken from the recorded images from his own flagship. After the destruction of the Oklahoma, a series of images were shown of ships being destroyed. Lines were drawn to the location of the destruction on the system map in the holo. The audience began speaking when the missing ships the admiral noticed reappeared in yellow, only to be promptly destroyed by missiles from Third Fleet. It looked to the commander like the Chzek withheld data on those ships. It also became clear to the admiral the Chzek misrepresented the time of their launch of the initial volley of missiles.
At the end of the battle only three Chzek-kin ships remained to exit the system. It was clear to everyone the battle was a decisive victory in favor of the humans even though they were at a tactical disadvantage with a large part of the Human fleet having only an orbital velocity or less at the beginning of the battle.
At the end of the battle, and after Spectra brought up an image showing the final agreement reached for the Human-Rheas Protectorate relation, the lights were raised and the holo of the solar system faded. The only images retained of the AI’s recreation were the images singled out by Spectra.
Spectra spoke for the first time by giving a bullet-point list of its findings; its voice smooth and deep. The first finding was that it was the Chzek-kin, and not Humans, who raided the Rheas Homeworld ten years ago. The next was that both fleets had fired their initial volleys without knowledge of whether the other had fired upon them first. The third finding was that the Chzek had provided inconsistent data on the launching of their initial missile volley; Spectra found the number of ships lost by the Chzek-kin may have precluded their ability to provide complete and accurate data.
The Chzek produced a signed protectorate agreement they claimed was signed by the leader of the Rheas who, they claimed, happened to be standing in the room. Their claim was weak, however, due to the extensive evidence of the negotiations between the humans and Rheas that was signed with video evidence. Spectra destroyed any further claim by the Chzek-kin when it identified the Rheas “leader” in the room as the same Rheas who was in one of the images displayed of news recordings of the missing Rheas taken during the most recent raid by the Chzek-kin.
The Consortium ruled both parties’ complaints were null, as recommended by Spectra, and suggested the parties meet on their own to work out their differences under the supervision of their protector races. Something for which Ambassador Dek made clear beforehand was not going to happen with the Chzek. Their idea of working things out, he said later, is to fight wars until they win.
When the hearing adjourned, the Chzek began making hostile threats and posturing towards the humans until Admiral Nelson pulled the translation device from his ear and threw it on the ground in front of the raging Chzeks who looked like they were trying to start a physical confrontation there in the hearing room. For her part, Commander Kree thought the raging was staged to illicit a reaction from the humans and left her translation earpiece tucked in her ear. She hoped she would be ab
le to leave with the device and was sure the lab boys back home would be more than happy to get hold of a new piece of alien hardware.
The two human officers, Rool ambassadors, and an armed escort who were members of the Oaka’s crew went directly to the ambassador’s ship. Nothing was said as they walked until they reached the ship and Dek’s first officer was waiting at the airlock with a message. The Consortium had placed a hold on their departure.
“Have you identified any threats?” Ambassador Dek asked his number one.
“Other than two ships on the watch list, there are no indications of hostiles,” the officer replied at once, “Those ships are in the outer system outbound and are not known to have associations with the Chzek.”
“Very well. Make preparations for departure and connect me to Station Control,” Ambassador Dek said, leading the group onto the diplomatic ship.
The two humans waited on the observation bridge until Ambassador Cent entered and made the surprise announcement the Rheas with the Chzek at the hearing would be joining them for the voyage home. Spectra filed the Consortium’s equivalent of a writ of habeas corpus for the Rheas and claimed the alien was the victim of a kidnapping by the Chzek-kin and was being held against her will. The writ was granted after Spectra supported the request and the Chzek were ordered to deliver the Rheas to Ambassador Cent as he was the protector race’s representative, for transport back to her homeworld.
“Can we see her?” asked the admiral, wanting to gather information on its experiences in her time with the Chzek-kin.
Ambassador Cent shook his head before replying, “I have already spoken to her. She will be placed in isolation, as is required for a Level 1 race aboard a Rool ship, to prevent unintended exposure to advanced technology. Was there something specific you wanted to ask?”
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