“Yes Commander, we have been briefed on their presence, if you don’t mind we will be contacting them over time and working to bring them back into society. Our science teams have developed non-evasive treatments for criminals which have rehabilitated criminals in the past. There is one more thing Commander.”
“What else can I do for you, Commander?”
“We have several hundred of our citizens who have requested to immigrate to your fleet. Several of our top scientific minds and some of our more progressive thinking engineers, they will be sorely missed. I am also aware of some humans who wish to make this planet their home also.”
“I will have to take this up with our counsel; it is not something I can decide on my own. I have heard rumors of people wanting to stay, so I am not surprised, your people are warm and loving, and your way of life is appealing” replied Inman.
The council unanimously approved the request to the delight of both races. Many of those who wanted to immigrate into human society or to the Woles people were because of relationships developed over the few months the peoples had been together.
Two years passed as the process of leaving humans on a strange planet and taking on alien civilians grew more complicated requiring issues and questions never before faced by either race. Technology transfer, policy issues, establishments of rights and equality for aliens living among them took a significant amount of time to accomplish. The counsel peered into the future to assure the safety of the people they were leaving behind and to test the consequences of policies designed to assure equality among races.
The Woles people were incredibly adept at mediation and consensus building, and when both counsels reached a satisfactory balance, the process was declared a success.
Will Inman walked into his conference room to a hearty greeting from his counterpart Commander Terran Loken and his wife Sarenna, “good morning” Inman replied with a smile “what can I do for you two.”
“We would like to immigrate with our family to the fleet” Loken responded. “Sarenna, I, our children and their spouses all want to immigrate to the fleet.”
“I must say I am shocked. I did not expect this, how will your people let you go?”
“We have made arrangements, and I have the blessing of the council, but we wanted to get your approval before moving forward Commander Inman.”
“Please call me Will. We would love to have you, and I will personally sponsor you and your entire family. Can I ask why you would leave such a prestigious career and all of your people?”
“Our people have lost their desire to move forward, to progress, to challenge and to be more. We have three sons and two daughters, the largest family of the entire Woles people. It appears our people are finding new life since meeting up with your people. Sarenna and I believe what we see in humans is what life should be about, especially for our males, they need to experience the wonder of life, they need to be challenged, to strike out on a new adventure, to find the woman of their dreams and sweep her off of her feet. Our people have forgotten passion of this kind. I hope the human men immigrating into the Woles population will bring a healthy dose of it to our people” replied Loken.
“Our females have forgotten what it is to be desirable, to have a dashing young man fight for their attention. On our planet marriage was a convenience negotiated between partners and their families. Love, if it existed, had to grow after the wedding” Sarenna responded in perfect English. Terran was different; he pursued me. My parents were appalled at first, but they could not resist how taken I was with this man who wanted me, just me, not the tradition of our people but he wanted my attention, and it made me fall madly in love with him until this day. I want to be a part of his world and a part of his great adventure. We were not allowed to travel with him, and I never want to be separated for long periods of time as before.”
“We want grandchildren Will, and our children are starting to realize how wonderful it is to have and raise children as they have observed the wonder of family among your people, something our race has forgotten, and it has cost us dearly. Our population has been shrinking from millions in the past to the five thousand or so you so graciously rescued two short years ago.”
“I am delighted, Evelyn has become attached to you Sarenna and we both adore your children. Our kids are going to love having you guys around!” responded Inman.
“We have all the paperwork completed and here ready for your signature Will, and thank you for accepting us, we enjoy the warmth we have experienced from you and your extended family, and have grown quite close to all of you,” said Loken.
“Commander, we have a single contact traversing our monitoring zone traveling at high warp, he is not moving toward, or away from us, it does not appear he knows we are here” reported Newman.
“On my way” replied Inman.
“If you will excuse me,” Inman said as he dismissed himself but instead stopped in his tracks, turned, bent down and signed the familiar immigration documents Loken had presented to him. Welcome to the fleet, we are fortunate to have you.”
“How large is the ship and can we tell how heavily armed they are?” queried Inman.
“They appear to be about the size of the Titan. However, we are detecting only directed energy weapons” reported Inman’s highly competent fire control officer Lester Wilson.
“Let’s put a probe on their ship and follow friendly protocols” commanded Inman.
“Aye aye, sir” replied Wilson.
Will walked onto the bridge and directly to Wilson’s station. “Put them on your monitor.”
Within an instant, the humanoid image of a startled alien being appeared on Wilsons monitor making waving motions toward an armed man. Wilson sent the first contact video packet to the screen on the probe with the peaceful greeting sequence of images meant to convey the friendly intents of the intrusion.
The greeting appeared to work as the person in front of the probe waved off the armed man; instead, he motioned to a being on his deck, and he placed one of his monitors in front of the probe as it started displaying the images and sounds of their language. The probe responded in kind and the translation engines on both ships began communicating. Within a few seconds Inman began to understand words and after a minute the two commanders began to communicate.
“Forgive the intrusion Commander; my name is Commander Will Inman of the human race. We did not mean to startle you with our probe. Our sensors picked your ship up, and it is part of our charter to contact and develop diplomatic relationships with other species whenever possible” reported Inman.
“My name is Conor Glack of the Persidian Empire, your probe surprised us, and this is a very intrusive way to meet someone.”
“It was necessary if we were to contact you at all, we are many light years away, and this is our only chance of making contact with you” replied Inman.
“We are on an exploratory mission Commander. We are on our way to observe natural phenomena never before recorded by our people. You are welcome to join us if your intentions are friendly” responded Glack with a smile.
“This is an unexpected pleasure Commander; we would love to join you. Commander, I must warn you, we travel as a large fleet of many ships, and we are from another galaxy. Our intentions are the same as yours, explore, learn and meet other species we can establish diplomatic relationships with, we even have other friendly species traveling with us” replied Inman.
“We can send you the location of our destination as we are at maximum warp at this time. Of course, if you are here from another galaxy you have the ability to travel at speeds faster than warp can achieve.”
“Yes, we do. However it will take our crews a day or so to ready for departure, and we will join you in flight to your destination if you are ok with it” replied Inman.
“Yes, Commander we would welcome the visit.”
“In the meantime, if it suits you, we would like to leave our communication probe on board your vessel and begin th
e process of developing diplomatic ties. Our ambassador is Terran Loken” Inman replied.
“Might as well put Loken to work at what is the most logical post for him” Will said to himself.
“Very well” replied Glack, “I will have our ambassador join him in our stateroom. How do we move the probe?”
“You can’t, we have to reposition it from here” replied Inman, “please have one of the people move to the room and become stationary, and we will reposition the probe.”
“Of course Commander, we will see you soon” replied Glack.
“I have some work to do with Bo,” thought Will, “no one has broached the idea of an alien representing the human race to another race, let alone Loken.”
Convincing President Stockman to make Terran Loken the fleet’s ambassador was effortless, Loken was trustworthy, and the very nature of his people was the development of civil relationships, and Loken’s insights into people and their intentions were uncanny.
The fleet’s departure was expectantly emotional as long time friends and family left loved ones they knew would now age and die on their new home planet. The realization was particularly troubling to parents leaving behind children. Bo Jr.’ beloved friend and team leader Joseph Blume was one of them.
“Terran Loken” Inman paged over his comlink, “how are your sessions going with the Persidian ambassador?”
“They are a friendly people intent on exploration, very interested in technology exchange and joint exploratory missions” replied Loken. “I would not be concerned about developing close ties with them just as you have with the Woles.”
“Thank you Ambassador!” responded Inman to a smiling Loken.
“I cannot thank you enough for the faith you have bestowed on me as the fleet’s ambassador, a dream job for my family and me.”
“No one could do it better Ambassador.”
The trip to join up with the Persidian vessel was short and uneventful. Upon arrival, Will Inman invited the Persidian Commander, their ambassador and his security team to visit the Titan which he readily accepted.
The Persidian people were very tall, Inman estimated their height at seven feet and only an average of two hundred pounds giving them a tall lanky if not clumsy appearance as their commander walked alongside Inman on their tour of the Titan.
“Tell me about your homeworld and your people,” Inman asked.
“We are people with ten worlds; our population is spread out over an entire solar system, some of them on inhabitable moons and some on planets.”
“Do they all support life?” queried Inman.
“We began what we call conversion a thousand years ago as our populations grew beyond our small home world’s ability to support it. It takes about two hundred years with our current technology to transform a barren world from a space rock to a home” replied Glack.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” replied Inman.
“I have never heard that expression, I suppose it is.”
“So tell me more about where we are going” queried Inman.
“Many years ago our science team pickup up readings from a remote sector of the galaxy known as KR10. Our ship has high warp speed capability, so we were selected for the expeditionary trip.”
“What kind of readings?” queried Inman?
“This is an area of space where massive stars are being torn apart by an anomaly. What interests our scientists is the movement of the anomaly from one location to another in an instant, where it seemingly feeds on a new star for a period. Of course what concerns us is the movement of the Star Eater as we call it. The Star Eater is moving toward our star system; it will not arrive for quite some time at its current rate of movement, but our future generations need to know what they are up against five hundred years from now” explained Glack.
“Can you please have your navigator forward the coordinance of the anomaly to my bridge, we will send a probe to start gathering data” Inman requested.
“My pleasure Commander” replied Glack, “but we suspect this is a moving black hole, so I would be ready to lose your probe.”
“Cerro, Commander Glack is sending the coordinance of an anomaly he is tracking. Have the JRay team send some probes to the area to find out what we are dealing with, and don’t get too close at first, this might be a black hole we are dealing with” commanded Inman.
“Aye aye, sir” Cerro replied.
Glack and his team ported back to their ship after consuming extraordinary volumes of fresh vegetables from the gardens of the fleet.
“Commander, I think you need to see this” Cerro reported, “we have images of the anomaly, and this thing is not natural” reported Cerro.
“On my way” replied Inman, have the executive team meet us in the conference room please.”
Cerro and Inman entered the room a few seconds apart to find the entire team assembled and eager to know what the emergency was all about.
“Commander Glack told me the purpose of his expedition was to learn more about an anomaly which is apparently destroying stars in its path, and it is heading toward his home star system and will arrive sometime in the next five hundred years. The Persidian's are very interested in finding out how they can get it to alter its course or destroy it” reported Inman.
“We have a probe there now” stated Cerro, “Newman please put the image on the viewer please.”
The team could see the brightly lit glass like object was not a naturally occurring phenomenon.
“Newman” Inman paged into his comlink, “how long before we arrive at our current speed?”
“About six year’s sir” reported Newman.
“Ok, let’s put Glack’s ship in tow and hop on over to get a closer look at this thing” suggested Bennett as he glanced at Evelyn Reeder with a grin on his face.
“Commander Glack” Inman paged.
“Yes Commander Inman” replied Glack.
“We would like to put your ship in tow and jump into hyperspace; we can be there tomorrow if you will allow us to assist you.”
“Of course Commander, we have seen the asteroids you keep in tow for your mining and manufacturing operation, so I do not imagine your fleet will have much trouble having us tag along.”
“Perfect, we will have a tow barge in front of you and go to hyperspace within the hour.”
“Thank you Commander” replied Glack.
“What is hyperspace?” asked Evelyn Reeder with a menacing look on her face.
“I have no idea, but I don’t want any questions about what a displacement drive is.”
“What are you going to tell them a hyperdrive is?” Evelyn responded with a smile.
“A super warp drive I guess” Inman responded to laughs from his team.
“Let’s make it happen” Inman charged the team.
Corruption is a true enemy to development. ~ Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
Chapter Twelve – Corruption
O n arrival at the Star Eater, as it was so quickly named, the Blume team was tasked with beginning to study the enormous ship. The ship was fish shaped and hideous in appearance, a fossil fuel industrial look to it. A porous, spongy looking material covered the front of the ship. Inman surmised it must be a heat dissipation material resembling the tiles used on the reentry shuttles Will had flown between Earth and orbit in the distant past.
The hull changed from the spongy material to giant tubes which ran from the front of the ship toward the rear where they abruptly stopped and died into the interior of the ship. The rear of the ship housed a propulsion system which appeared to be inoperable at the moment.
Within a couple of hours, the Blume team had probed the Star Eater and was ready with their first report. Commander Glack’s science advisor accompanied him to the status report meeting.
“What we found aboard the Star Eater” Elizabeth Murphy began.
“Star Eater” replied the precocious young science advisor named Medhigh.
“Sorry, we have given th
e ship that name” replied Inman, “Continue please.”
“Yes, a full staff was on the ship at one time tasked with mining stars for energy purposes. Apparently, there were some unintended consequences” reported Murphy. “All the crew members except one are in burial chambers in a cargo bay, and we found the last one on a gurney in the medical center. All the ships systems appear to be up and running. However the radiation levels are off the charts, organic life cannot survive over there. We would need to send robots.”
“What would we do once we get them over there?” queried Glack, “We have no idea how to operate the Star Eater” Glack replied with a smile which communicated his wit and playfulness to his human hosts. “We have robotic suits which are impervious to radiation; we can have our people study the ship, its navigation and propulsion systems and maybe even find out where all the energy is going.”
“Are the ship's systems radioactive also” queried Inman.
“Not all of them sir, the contamination pierced the crew's quarters, the cargo bays and the shuttle bays, but does not seem to have affected the bridge area or the systems controlling the energy absorbing device” reported Elizabeth Murphy
“Ok, we need to find out three important things about this ship, can we turn it off, how we reset its course if we cannot turn it off, and what is it doing with the energy” responded Glack.
“I would also like to know how the star harvesting part of the system works” replied Murphy, “we could use the technology in our harvesting operations.”
“Yes, we are also interested in this technology” concluded Glack.
“Ok, let’s all meet back here within twenty-four hours and go over our findings” requested Inman.
“Elizabeth, can you stay behind for a moment please” requested, Inman.
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 14