by Boris Mosso
—They weren’t only sent by my old Ancestors, Captain Lena. Our explorers returned after sixteen years, but without reaching Lumina, just as you anticipated.
—Unbelievable… sixteen years. There’re no such long journeys anymore.
—There were before and for longer times. Long before the quantum leap, our explorers performed expeditions of unthinkable lengths of time for our times, but in cryo-genesis; they were other eras. In fact, that’s how we encountered with the first alien breed in our history.
—Yes, it’s true. Fine, I have no choice but to listen to you. You have all my attention.
—It’s time to talk about our issue. We’re at the beginning.
De Kraun made a subtle gesture in the air and the light tridimensional cube floating in the middle of his rooms, increased its size and brightness.
—It was four hundred years ago when one of our most advanced spaceships in that time, an old version of our deep space exploration Vectors, began the journey through the dark area. Captain Lancar’s expedition.
—The endless dark ocean…
—That’s how the old Espatian navigators called them at one time in the dawn of our galactic exploration. Well, the thing is that such expedition came back to our solar system, sixteen years afterwards.
For the High Fleet Commands’ surprise who received them, they transported a small spatial capsule from unknown origin and without a crew, which was found floating in the middle of nowhere. They came across it just when they began their return to the Astral.
Lena was impacted by the new and unexpected turn in the story and followed the explanation more closely. The spatial capsule could be perfectly seen in the holographic’s screen, while its parts were separated and put back together, while Lena wondered how she fit in all this issue.
Without believing it yet, the man standing by her side was the First Espacian Counselor, the most distinguished Espacian from the entire Solarian System and whose presence, in the current collective senseless of the Espacian breed, compared only to the beloved and quiet Admiral Tronius.
—It’s strange… Are you saying that there was no crew in it?
—What’s so strange about it, Captain?
—The machine seems to be an escape device, an emergency ejection cubicle.
De Kraun walked with his back turned to Lena, so she couldn’t see his face. It was very hard to lie to that woman, despite her political long history. They were one hundred years of service for Espacia and the Systemic Council.
—How did they find it?
—It was mere coincidence. At the beginning, the issue excited the tiresome expedition scientists very much, as well as our Espacian Council then. Once the expedition members returned, the capsule was commissioned to our researchers and Espacia’s engineers, with the purpose of determining its origin. At that time someone suggested that it could be one more piece of spatial junk wandering in space, and during dozens of thousands of years up until today.
—By the huge distance from its finding, that theory is very ridiculous.
—And you are right, it wasn’t that way.
Lena began to get more and more interested in the story.
She got a little closer to the holographic which now divided in two, showed images from the log files from the expedition’s spaceship and from the recovery operation of the spatial device also.
The exact moment of the capsule’s entry into quarantine could be seen in the Lancar spaceship’s hangars. A chill went down her back upon seeing the entire maneuver.
De Kraun was paralyzed for a few seconds after seeing the holographic’s light reflected on Lena’s eyes intensively, highlighting the beautiful violet streaks in the blue background, they were the same eyes as Inia’s.
He felt a pinch of pain in his soul, while the distant memories from those dark days that branded his life forever, emerged.
He had that memory blocked permanently. It was too painful for him to remember the tragic and mysterious episode of Inia’s death. He still felt responsible for not having prevented those horrible events which completely destroyed Tronius’ life. Confirming furthermore, the bitter mark reflected in Lena’s soul currently. His old guilt feelings returned, the same way that the familiar bone pain in an old and tired body. Besides worsening by the fact of sending Inia’s and Admiral Tronius’ only daughter, to the ends of the universe, incidentally exposing her to serious risk.
—What happened then, First Counselor?
—Well, after endless accurate and secret investigation stages which involved hundreds of experts and tireless years of work, they finally were able to make sense out of it. They concluded that the device’s cryptography and navigation systems, weren’t compatible with other known civilizations, with none of them.
They spent a little more than twenty years to decode their written language and with it, the encrypted files were released; that gave access to recorded images from a deteriorated gadget found in the capsule’s insides, to which induced molecular restoration was applied to, at atomic links’ level. No sound could be recovered. The basic equipment on board had been affected by intense radiation from unknown origin. The only filtered registries, are the ones we’re watching in the holographics.
On the tridimensional screen, a series of very complicated ordered drawings in cryptic rows appeared.
Lena was confused.
—Once their written language was decoded, a captivating and tragic story emerged, inconveniently incomplete. I’ll show you.
With another gesture the screen suddenly changed, a planet gradually growing appeared. Soon, the half-linked continents’ fragmentation in certain regions was clearly seen. They were surrounded by the ocean’s blue water crossing the planet, almost everything was water.
—The planet is beautiful. It’s odd it looks like Espacia.
—That’s how it looked at least. The story relates that, in this galaxy’s unknown Solar System so distant from ours, intelligent life was developed in one of their worlds, in the one we’re looking at. After some time, the inhabitants of this mysterious planet reached certain technological levels which allowed them to go out into outer space.
They could soon visit other system’s rocky worlds, but while they progressed with those technological advances, these beings kept constant and serious internal divisions’ disputes.
For years, with two different evolutionary branches and intelligent cohabitation in this world, which disputed the supremacy over each other, was theorized. This keeps on being a weak hypothesis to this day. Most of our galactic anthropologists bound to this classified issue, keep on classifying it as a simplistic and without basis explanation, before the absence of physical evidence supporting it.
—I see. About the violent internal divisions, it happens very frequently now and then in civilizations, awakening quickly to technology, but still in primitive socialization stages.
—About the primitive socialization with massive destruction toys between them, it has happened in the Astral, dozens or hundreds of times. More than one newly born civilization has been destroyed by itself before someone intervened.
—Right. Indeed, we know that in their society, sporadic disputes arose, which placed them at the brink of war occasionally. It was so for hundreds of years, until they were attacked unexpectedly by unknown forces. The unknown aggressor came from their Solar System’s outer space. It was another powerful kind.
When they found themselves almost completely defeated, another extra planetary military power intervened; a very advanced force that destroyed the aggressor in only one battle, however, the damage to their world and to their installations in other planets and moons from the system, was critical.
They couldn’t recover and at last their civilization collapsed. We could only rescue certain pieces of information from there on, thereby, further events are still unknown to us.
Apparently, some spaceships filled with survivors began desperate evacuations searching for a place to settle i
n. A new livable planet located in another Solar System, and wherein rebuilding their civilization beginning from scratch. That is evident from what was narrated in the recorded incomplete registries, until the capsule’s launching. At that moment they didn’t know the expedition member’s fate and the ones that stayed, there’s no information whatsoever.
In an act of despair, the survivors also launched sensors in different directions crying out for help, departing from their colonies’ settlements. Here in Espacia, hundreds of years ago and for many decades, it was thought that the capsule captured was one of those sensors.
—They didn’t know the journey through hyperspace, right? The quantum leaps?
—Yes, that’s right, they traveled everywhere in a straight row and only by acceleration, without ever overcoming the speed of light. Its explorers roamed the space until exhausting the resources and without finding a new livable world. It’s very likely they got lost in the immense distances in outer space.
—And why didn’t the visitors who defeated their enemies themselves, help them? Didn’t they possess super advanced technology?
—Well, this is where this becomes still more interesting.
That savior saving force, which was a mysterious breed for them and much more intriguing for us, simply withdrew once the invader was defeated; but before leaving, they left them a gift.
—A gift?
—Yes, a very big object. They led them to understand that it would be enough to build up their civilization and protect themselves from any outside aggressor, if they kept peaceful amongst themselves. They should never use it to attack other breeds offensively in the universe; before not exposing their secret.
—Apparently, they didn’t listen to them.
—That’s what we also believe. The object never worked, it was forgotten and left behind; here’s another important gap in the files, by which we can only assume… again.
Lena analyzed the object depicted in the holographic. It was a kind of yellowish metal bar and not too big. It didn’t have any size reference.
—What do you think?
—The object? It’s beautiful, but it seems to me like some type of decoration, I don’t know…
—I wasn’t talking about the object itself.
—Are you talking about the whole deal?
—Yes, I am.
—The truth and with all due respect, the story seems to me like a very entertaining story and nothing else.
De Kraun considered Lena before speaking again.
—Well then, you’ll have the task of traveling in search of this object; that’s what your mission is all about. To accomplish that purpose, you’ll move to the Lumina Galaxy.
—Go to Lumina?
—Yes, once you arrive to the Lumina Galaxy, you must track the Solar System wherein this old civilization emerged and from where they launched the capsule captured, four hundred years ago by the Lancar Expedition. We have called it System X for so many centuries, that it remained so.
—Must I search for that thing? In the Lumina Galaxy? This is crazy!
The Espacian High Officer ignored Lena’s final comment, with the unforgivable disrespect that it entailed, and he continued with his explanation:
—Yes, and at the same time you must be alert of the current expedition which searches this Solar System on the other side of the dark area, although your prime purpose will be to track the object and bring it back to our galaxy, whether you find the other expedition or not, is not important.
—Was there a first search departure before this one? But when?
—There are three secret journeys outside of our galaxy until now, related to this matter. Let’s clarify the story we’ve gone through to reach this present point. There were two old expeditions and a very recent one. Yours would be the fourth in total.
The incursion that came across the object coincidentally four hundred years ago, was the first; the second was launched by the First Counselor at that time, called Isa Delarian, after decades of unsuccessful persistence from the scientists in charge of this issue. That expedition took off in search of its origin, three hundred seventy years ago, but they couldn’t find System X.
Despite that and in the Astral’s spatial exploration’s unprecedent period, it was able to reach the Lumina Galaxy this time, returning with many casualties and in appalling livelihood conditions after twenty-two years. This expedition traveled ineffectively many planetary systems in the Lumina Galaxy and at its return, the idea of going in search for it again, was completely abandoned, and afterwards, all this issue was forgotten for centuries until today.
—Twenty-two years traveling? But, didn’t the scientists decipher the capsule’s origin? Didn’t its origin Solar System’s coordinates come inside?
—The damaged memory device found in the capsule, barely contained some local references. Stars at thirty or fifty light years from its Solar System at most; nothing that could be found by our navigation systems and galaxy’s star maps. We should take into consideration the distance where we’re at. We are talking about finding a tiny rocky planet imbedded in another very distant galaxy from ours. We should also consider the time elapsed. Space broadens, Lena; galaxies rotate, and the systems shift inside each galaxy. Many relative speeds; some of thousands of kilometers per second. Everything moves.
—Yes, but… that means that such devise moved at infra light speeds, during hundreds of years or even thousands…
—Just so, Lena, much more. You’ll be informed of those details in the journey.
—Details! I can’t believe it, that’s ridiculous. How are we going to find it inside that huge galaxy? It’s smaller than ours, but it measures one hundred thousand light years in diameter … by ten thousand wide!
De Kraun kept on tolerating Lena’s tone patiently; it had been many years since a Spacian spoke to him in such way.
—Lena, fortunately we rely on a single reference about System’s X position within Lumina. An astronomical reference which kept us and keep us alive in this search; you’ll also find out about it during the journey.
Lena was very confused upon proving that her earlier fears were strongly confirmed.
—The battle began in the Atirov System.
—Yes, I know, but that’s no longer your concern. Forget about the fleet… We urgently need you in Lumina.
Lena felt nauseous and her face was pale. Before the First Counselor’s inquisitive gaze, she chose to turn her back to him for a few seconds while she fought to regain her composure. De Kraun moved away some meters, understanding that she needed some space to partly comprehend the unexpected direction her immediate life was taking. She knew that it would still take more time for her to measure the huge and dangerous burden put on her shoulders.
The old man glanced at the images’ sensor appearing out from one of the walls. From there, Professor Trivian silently followed all the holographic’s scene floating in his rooms located in the main Vector, which remained parked in the Flantart’s hangar eight.
When Lena turned her face back to the political old man, she looked a little more resigned than composed. Even so, her voice sounded firm and determined.
—Well, and the third expedition?
—The third and most recent expedition departed after the invasion.
After hundreds of years hidden away in the spatial exploration’s files and forced by the current dramatic events, this matter was brought back to life.
After four months from the invasion’s beginning, a third twenty spaceships’ expedition under General Commander, Gobar Terilian, was sent in search of System X and the object. An experienced Officer who was taken out from his Hundredth Fourth battle group’s command. He commanded one hundred Flantarts and Tubulars’ spaceships, until he was reassigned to this incursion, two months ago.
Commander General Gobar Terilian’s image, emerged in the holographic, wearing a blue flawless uniform. The high Officer’s gaze also blue, seemed to deeply scan into Lena’s eyes. Hyp
notized, she scrutinized his face covered by a luscious and well-kept clear colored beard, as well as his short and well combed hair.
—I’ve heard about Commander Terilian! He’s an extraordinary Senior Officer and an excellent strategist; he’s well admired by the young Captains due to his participation in Admiral Tronius’ old expeditions, when Terilian was only a teenager… as well as Commander General, Orben Drak.
—Those expeditions are only a myth, Captain… and you shouldn’t mention Drak. Remember he’s a renegade, an outlaw.
—Either way, desperate measures were taken if they’ve taken one hundred spaceships out of his command for this. He had more than four million Espacians there under his command, and they sent him to the endless dark ocean with less than one thousand… Why did they do something like that? Did Admiral Tronius authorize such insanity?
De Kraun barely managed a sigh and continued speaking using all his patience.
—You’ll soon notice the few alternatives which we have left.
—Counselor… And what happened to them? With this expedition?
—We don’t know, we lost track of them; it’s been weeks without traces from their spaceships. Although that shouldn’t distract us.
—Is this object that important as to sacrifice Officers of this disposition without being perturbed?
—We believe that this device could reveal a secret to defeat the invaders, that’s the object of this mission.
—Will this device save the Astral from the Browns?
—I’m not the only one who thinks so…
—Where would I bring it if I happen to find it? The evacuation fleet along this spaceship, is about to leap through hyperspace aimlessly, trying to mislead the enemy. How am I going to find them upon returning to the Astral?