"Two volunteers?" asked Spiney.
"Actually, I'd like you and Cuddly to come with me. I need Cuddly to work on finding a way to translate the language, and I need you to guide me. I would have liked to bring Torus too, but I heard that this world is not really suitable for him during the daytime, and I need the others in the Center for this mission."
"Yes," agreed Torus. "The magnetic fields from these particular binary suns mean, without the protection of the Stellar Flash, I am unable to fully corporealize on the day side." Torus didn't sound apologetic, just stating a fact.
"Next time, Torus. Hopefully the next mission will be easier on you. Alright, Cuddly?"
"Let me just go to..." began Cuddly, and Hogart waved him off. He quickly inched through the Center doors and down the corridor to the waste disposal room.
Hogart strode around his new crew, getting a feel for being their captain. He could easily just give orders but he preferred a bit of conversation. He wasn’t the sort of leader that usually followed the rule of ‘don’t give a reason’. All the aliens needed explanations, and their feedback on his decisions could be helpful. "While Cuddly is indisposed, can someone give me a run down? I know you've been here before, but I haven't. And I don't fully trust Frequency Zero reporting when most of our memories come back transformed. What can you tell me is there, right now?"
"Quick summary, sir," said Geo. "The planet’s atmosphere is mainly hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. There are a number of habitats on the planet, and a few of the buildings that the team visited last time look like they might be part of a school, though we didn't stay long enough to check them out. The indigenous population has a physiognomy that looks like something between what you would call a bug and fungi." Geo put one of his drops against his panels, and a hologram of one of the aliens appeared above him, slowly turning. It had a wide mushroom shape with five antenna sticking out of the top of one end of it. The antennae were colored and moved in complicated shapes.
"I thought the Stellar Flash lost everything when it returned to our frequency," said Hogart. "I only saw sketches."
"Everything is still here, it just can't be seen in Frequency Zero," said Puppy. "When you return to Frequency One, everything becomes accessible again."
Hogart nodded at Puppy. He guessed that if Puppy knew how to wink, he probably knows what nodding means. "Anything else?"
"Your first flash location will be a little bit further away from our original landing point,” said Amy. “Use nanite suits, not force suits, as there is a chance of a force suit being detected by some of the more sensitive locals. Spiney can show you where they went last time."
"Thank you, team."
Hogart heard Cuddly inching himself back into the Center, smelling slightly of something like nail polish remover. Hogart thought best not to joke about it. He didn't want to start a diplomatic incident. Most of the aliens on the ship had engaged their nanite waste systems and didn't need to take regular toilet visits, but he understood that Cuddly's wastes were so acidic that the nanite recycling systems couldn't cope with the process.
He made a mental note to make sure Cuddly was back on board with plenty of time.
"Alright Spiney, Cuddly, you're with me. The rest of you, keep an eye on us and, at the first sign of trouble, please activate the fast return systems if possible. Nanite suits on."
Hogart pressed a button on his wrist and stayed completely still as his blue nanite suit grew up from his shoes, rushed up the left side of his body, formed a plastic bubble around his head, then grew a mirror version out from the center to envelop his right.
By the time his suit finished forming, Spiney and Cuddly's were already complete.
They all then activated their flash bands and flashed to their designated location, their nanites already working on sterilizing them for the world.
The transition was a bit disconcerting. Hogart had done it many times around the Solar System, but usually not with such a gravity difference. There was usually time to get acclimatized. Even Mars had a way station where you could get used to the gravity before landing on the planet.
He recalled his visit to Mars a few years back. Lots of red, a slightly darker sky, with some blue sky in the morning. The image was quite clear and the similarities were uncanny.
But this place also had some purple and black plants growing in various places, and there seemed to be threads of mist in the air.
His mind view system told him the threads were small wisps of carbon dioxide. Dry ice. It must be freezing here.
He watched some of the mushroom-like bugs in the distance bouncing along a track towards some conical buildings, then turned to Spiney. "So, they really can't see us?"
"No. Our nanite suits are set to be slightly out of phase with their frequency. We can see them, but they can't see or feel us. The frequency is set for creatures with a higher vibration. The land, rocks and buildings have a lower vibration, so we’re able to walk on those, and not fall through the planet."
Suddenly Hogart yelled in surprise. Much to his horror, a large mushroom bug head started poking out of his stomach, with antennae flicking and twisting. Then the bug creature continued moving with little bounces straight through him. It seemed to be holding some flat things on its underside.
"Oh my God!" Hogart said, slightly shaken, holding his stomach to reassure himself that it was still there.
He was relieved to find that the mushroom bug had passed completely through him without touching.
Spiney saw his distress. "We best move off the path.” He indicated a space where they could get organized and they headed over to a reddish-tan wall, as more of the bug aliens bounced past them.
Hogart steadied his breathing then looked closely at the wall. "Industrial printer," he said, indicating the layers of mud. “I guess they’re at the equivalent of early 21st century Earth development.” He grimaced. “Let’s not stay here too long.” Then he pointed at the steadily moving groups of mushroom bugs near them. "They look like they're carrying some kind of material underneath them while they’re bouncing. But how are they doing that with no legs? Telekinesis?"
"We're not sure. Perhaps their stomachs are sticky. Lower gravity might mean it is easier to use secretions to retain things."
“Sounds plausible.” A useful ability, though he wouldn’t like to be stuck to the bottom of one of those things. “Alright," he said. "First Officer Spiney, fill me in. What did your previous superior officer get up to here?"
"Can you see those conical buildings a bit further away?” Spiney tilted his body towards what looked like a group of reddish-brown dwellings with three wide entrances positioned equidistant up the side, featuring an adjoining wrap-around ramp. “We had materialized over next to one, and thought it was a school. All the young bugs were running in groups to different rooms up the side of the cone, while older bugs looked on. But after Leafy had hijacked the ship and taken us to the other side of the planet, we found evidence of nuclear warfare.”
“So, that’s the school.” Hogart was about to rub his chin then remembered he couldn’t put his hand through his nanite glass helmet, so changed it to an awkward pointing gesture instead. “Earth wants us to find out whether that is really just a school for general education, or actually a military one. Then we’ll decide whether we can instigate first contact."
"Yes," said Spiney. “But if we find out it is a military one, we'll need to add this world to the quarantine list until they are more mature."
"Or begin serious monitoring, and intervene if we think this world might become a danger to other worlds," added Cuddly.
"Right, well, let's get on with it."
They set off down the brown and red terrain, walking past and sometimes through many of the mushroom creatures, seeing some having conversations by making a strange scratching sound to get attention, then discussing things with antenna movements.
Many smaller conical buildings dotted the path and Hogart surmised these were living a
reas, though he couldn’t see anything remotely resembling kitchens or toilets. Perhaps the creatures didn’t eat.
While watching the creatures on their journey, Hogart thought that he had seen one of them laughing at a joke another had made, giving little jerking movements, but he suspected he was just anthropomorphizing. At this stage he couldn’t really tell if there was anything they had in common. If this race was suitable for First Contact, he first had to work out whether they had anything similar to help begin initial conversation or negotiation, but he hadn’t found it yet. He’d hate to end up starting with discussing the weather. Especially considering this planet seemed to have a temperate, unchanging climate.
“Cuddly, how is your translator doing?”
Around Cuddly’s greenish body, belted between a couple of his sucker feet, was a wide metallic translation system. Unlike the much smaller systems the rest of the crew wore, Cuddly’s had a different job. Scanning for, absorbing and interpreting any new languages, and then sending those updates to other crew members.
Cuddly looked down at the flickering lines on its display. “The system estimates it needs another 30,000 sounds before it can begin to construct complicated dialogue. This walk has been very useful, but we’re still at larvae level.”
“Thank you, Cuddly. Let me know when we’re close.”
In the lower gravity they made good progress, nanite suits and smooth ground bounding them to the collection of cone buildings in a short time.
Spiney led them to the ramp of the cone Heartness’ team had gone to previously, and they set off on the short circular pathway to the top, bypassing the larger base room entrance.
The slope was an easy incline, winding around the cone, with flat landings in front of the doorways. Hogart continued to march upward, then he discovered he was alone and stopped to look back at his slower companions, inching and slapping their way behind him. Perhaps they should have just flashed there directly, but then Cuddly wouldn’t have had the chance to absorb the language.
Hogart reached the second room first, and quickly glanced in to see that it was smaller than the base room and with less mushroom bugs. He guessed that there might be some learning hierarchy with the building. Most would be learning in the bottom room with less and less students able to pass the exams that would enable them to get to the smaller, more advanced rooms nearer to the top.
While he waited for Cuddly and Spiney to catch up, he looked across at the city. Cone shaped buildings as far as the eye could see with many little brown and black bug shapes scurrying back and forth around them. It was almost like he was in a sophisticated termite town. Or perhaps an advanced ant colony. A few buildings away and to his right was a square with what looked to be an amphitheater, or some kind of meeting place. He activated his mind view system and zoomed in, but the conical buildings and purple and black leafy plants obscured much of it.
But he was sure there was something gold there. Something that looked out of place compared to the rest of the reddish town. It would be worth checking out.
Spiney and Cuddly reached him, and he continued alongside them, this time attempting to move his legs slow enough to match their inching and slapping.
He had had no idea walking with aliens would be so difficult. Then again, if he was out walking with Puppy, it would be the giant spider-like alien who would be waiting for Hogart.
They reached the third opening and Spiney stopped outside it. "This is the room where I saw markings drawn on the walls that could have been weapons. If there are more here today, I could send these new images back to the team for analysis."
“Lead the way,” said Hogart, and they headed inside.
The bright suns and burnished landscape of conical hills outside were in stark contrast to the almost pitch-black interior. Hogart shuddered at the thought of another mushroom bug walking through him in the dark, and quickly adjusted his light filter.
The room now shone like it was in daylight. Lots of flat rectangular platforms in a semi-circular shape, with many of the mushroom bugs positioned on them, making scratching noises and flicking their antennae at each other. In the more revealing light, Hogart discovered that they did have eyes, two on each side of the antennae, and two smaller ones just below.
Momentarily distracted by this discovery, he hadn’t noticed that Cuddly and Spiney had become silent.
He turned to see that they were staring at whatever had been drawn on the board for the class. Hogart looked over the top of them, then gasped.
He knew it was impossible for that shape to be scratched on that board.
A very familiar shape. A triangle with a sphere in the middle, floating in space.
Then he noticed an arrow-like scratch had been drawn on the board, pointing at it.
"Uh, oh," said Hogart.
Chapter 3
Discovery
Hogart activated his HUD camera and transmitted the disturbing image to the Stellar Flash. “Well, Puppy, what do you think?”
A few seconds later Puppy’s translated voice came through from orbit. "We've analyzed the image, and can confirm that it is of the Stellar Flash from when we were here last time."
"So, not one of now, then. Perhaps they have a satellite in orbit that we can't detect?"
"Or a powerful telescope," said Geo.
"Good point. But, how would they have detected the Stellar Flash? We’re supposed to be on another frequency. Completely invisible."
"Leafy had tampered with a variety of systems at the time. I assume our frequency had been detected too," said Amy.
Pilot Leafy had been strongly affected by the binary star system the last time the Stellar Flash had been here. She had gone crazy and attempted to release seeds to take over the world.
"Anything else?" Hogart needed to know what to do next. This image changed everything. “What do you think about that scratched line?”
"The arrow could be anything. Distance, planned mission, a missile..."
"Well, I hope it's not the third one.” He frowned. This was not a good development. Now that the creatures knew they existed, it was only a matter of time before they worked out where they had come from, and maybe even discover the frequencies of the universes.
He sighed. Not a good start to the mission.
"Okay. Spiney, Cuddly, suggestions, please. They know we exist but they don't know anything about us. Perhaps we can use this to our advantage. Maybe they really want to meet us?"
"Captain, I'm not sure they're ready," said Cuddly.
"But that's our job. Find out if they're ready, and if they're close, follow the protocols to make them ready. Have you been able to work out their language yet?"
Cuddly indicated his wrap around translator band. "Almost enough for basic communication. The software should be able to create a sentence soon."
Just then Hogart realized that they had been so focused on discussing the image on the board, they'd forgotten that there were actually mushroom aliens in the room. Hogart turned back to the creatures and stopped, a painful feeling beginning to appear in the pit of his stomach.
Their antennae were all pointing directly at the three crew members. None of them were flicking their antennae at each other. It was like a semicircle of silent spears stabbing towards them, with a slight gap in the middle that led outside.
Had they somehow been detected? Had the mushroom bugs shifted to the crew’s frequency? They still hadn’t got the language yet so Hogart didn’t want to leave, but perhaps they could run for it and hide out somewhere.
"They're looking at the board, right?" asked Hogart, nervously.
"I don't think so," said Spiney. "This happened to Captain Heartness when her forcesuit was boosted by the EM radiation from the suns. It shifted her frequency slightly closer to theirs and one of them saw her."
"But, that's why we're wearing nanite suits!" said Hogart. "Surely they can't pick up on the nanites? Their combined electrical charges are way too small."
Then they bot
h turned to Cuddly, and his whirring, spinning, calculating translator. "It's boosting our bioelectrical signatures!" said Hogart pointing at the device. "It's shifting our frequency closer to theirs! They can see us! And you know what that means!"
All three of them turned slowly to look at the mushroom-bugs again. Disturbingly, every single mushroom bug was one hundred percent focused on the three aliens in front of them.
"What do you think they're going to do?" asked Spiney.
"Three strange creatures suddenly appear in the middle of your class room? I don't think you're going to offer them a beer!" muttered Hogart.
Then he took a deep breath and without thinking, yelled “Run!” then ran for the doorway, forgetting that Spiney and Cuddly weren’t really the running type.
Suddenly, as one, all of the mushroom bugs leaped forward. There were at least fifteen of the hard brown and black bodies, and now that they'd shifted to their reality, the bugs had no trouble touching them.
Hogart stumbled into the bright light of the blazing suns and was temporarily blinded as his sensors readjusted to the stronger light. He turned around to make sure his crew were following, then realized that he had forgotten the shapes of his alien crew members. Instantly guilty, he made to go back to save them, but one of the mushroom bugs was faster, tackling him to the ground.
He struggled under the creature, the yellow and brown sky whirling around him as he desperately tried to shake the mushroom bug off his back.
The creature gripped him as Hogart pulled himself to the edge, looking over the ramp at the ground far below. In this lower gravity, and with the support of the nanite suit, he could probably jump it, but he had no idea what would happen to Spiney and Cuddly. He had to go back and save them.
Using the suit’s increased strength-enhancing capabilities, as well as his own power from growing up on Earth, he pushed hard against the creature, expecting to throw it against the wall, or at the very least, into the air.
But nothing happened.
Stellar Flash Page 3