by Tony Healey
“Take her steady, Lieutenant. No rush.”
“Captain -” Dana said. She unbuckled herself and went forward.
King did the same. Dana stared through the front viewscreen at something on the ground.
“What is it?” Jessica started to say. Then she saw it.
A large pyramid, jet black and completely symmetrical. It stood amidst a patch of bright green and towered over what looked like some kind of settlement.
“Wow,” King said. “There’s no way that’s an act of nature.”
“I thought I was seeing things,” Dana said.
“Is that the source of the transmissions?” King asked.
Boi shook his head. “No. It’s several miles north of where we’re headed.”
“Well,” Jessica said. “Something tells me we’ll be going there afterward.”
* * *
It was an open wasteland and apart from the hills on one side, entirely without feature.
“Nothing here,” Boi said.
“Get a scanner and see if you can home in on the signal,” King ordered.
They stepped from the shade of the transport into the baking hot sun.
Dana tugged at the neck of her uniform. “Strange planet. Hot, yet …”
“Sticky. Reminds me of a jungle planet I once visited,” King said. “Must be the moisture from the oceans. Or lakes. Whatever you want to call them.”
Boi wandered ahead, a scanner in his hands. It beeped as it latched onto the weak signal. “Captain I think I’ve got something.”
They gathered where Boi stood. He had the scanner aimed at the ground.
“Down there?” Dana asked.
“Looks like it.”
King planted her hands on her hips. She frowned under the glare of the sun.
“A ship?”
Boi shrugged. “I suppose it could be a probe of some kind. Wandered near a black hole, got stuck here …”
“No.” King shook her head. “It doesn’t ring true to me. This has to be where the journal entries we’ve been picking up have come from.”
“So, do we dig our way to it?” Banks asked. He’d been inside the transport, shutting her down until they were ready to leave. He stomped a foot on the solid hardpack beneath which was a ship sending them signals.
“No, we don’t. Not right now, anyway. There’s life on this planet, and I’m betting it’s intelligent. I’m also betting that we’ll find some near that big black mountain.”
She looked away at the surrounding hills. At the grey clouds rushing through the bright blue sky. A barmy world. Hot and wet. Sand and oasis.
“We’re gonna go visit them, aren’t we?” Banks asked. He didn’t sound too pleased about the prospect of making first contact with a primitive race.
“Go back to the transport. Dana, you go with him. Fetch weapons, water, standard ground kit. Use the transport’s comm. to contact Defiant and let them know what we’re up to. Then we’ll go introduce ourselves and hope they welcome us with open arms.”
4.
Before they even got to the jungle surrounding the mountain, the L’ucrah made their presence known. They’d crossed the desert, scaled the side of the hills and found themselves on sloping land and craggy mountain peaks. From that height Jessica could see blue-green waters in the far distance.
A breeze rushed in their faces. Salt and humidity. The warm sweat of flora and fauna.
“Captain!”
Banks pointed ahead to where the desert met with jungle. They stood under the shadow of the peaks, so the black mountain they’d observed from the descent was obstructed from view. But they could see the bottom of it standing over the jungle.
Though it wasn’t the trees that had caught Banks’s attention.
Dead ahead, camouflaged against the tree line, was one of the natives.
“I see it, Lieutenant. Have your weapon at the ready,” she said as she unclipped the holster of her own gun.
“Should we go in there ready for action like that, Captain?” Dana asked her.
“I’m not going to draw unless they give us cause for concern, Doctor. Leave that side of things to us. How do you suggest we go about making contact?”
Dana bit her bottom lip. “One of us should go on behalf of the others. But only one. That way we’re not so threatening.”
“Right,” King said.
“I’ll go,” Dana said. “Please. This is a golden opportunity for me.”
Jessica looked at the others before nodding her head. “But if I see any sign of trouble, I won’t hesitate to give the order. And you know the one I mean.”
“Understood Captain.”
They watched as Dana went on ahead.
“I don’t like this, Captain,” Banks said.
“Neither do I. But she’s the expert,” King said.
Dana approached the native and offered a greeting. They couldn’t hear any words, but after about ten minutes of posturing they watched her follow him into the jungle.
“Come on let’s go after her -” Banks said, starting off. King grabbed his arm.
“Stay put, Lieutenant.”
“But Captain -“
She fixed him with a glare. “I said stay put. Give her a chance.”
Banks relaxed under her grip.
“Look!” Boi said. They looked back to the tree line where Dana had emerged with a small group of natives. She waved for them to come down. “Looks like she was successful.”
“Remain cautious though, Ensign. It could be a ruse of some kind.”
They went down the incline toward the jungle. Dana had a smile on her face. King stopped short of the natives and did her best at a polite greeting.
King held up a hand in a ‘hello’ gesture. The native looked at the others, then bowed down on the floor before her. They were humanoid, with slightly orange coloured skin, bald heads, and long earlobes covered in piercings. They wore tunics around their mid-sections, and each of them was adorned with bone necklaces and hide bracelets. Despite slight differences in appearances they might as well have been humans.
Jessica looked to Dana. As the rest of the group bowed down to them, Dana stepped forward to explain.
“They think we’re some kind of … uh …” Dana rubbed her forehead and laughed. “They think we’re gods, Captain. Far as I can tell. Deities returned from the heavens.”
“Gods?” King asked. She looked down at the aliens bowing down at her feet, and shook her head. “This isn’t what I expected …”
* * *
The mountain was just that. A massive pyramid of black stone. Smooth, without seams of any kind. As if it had been moulded from a solid block of black plastic. Nothing grew up its sides. No dirt of any kind clung to the ebony material of its construction. High up on the peak, where it touched the clouds, it caught the sunlight as if it were some kind of black diamond.
None of them said anything for a while. They were shown through the village, where the natives all reacted in the same way. Men, women, and children all dropped to the ground at the sight of them. The village went from a bustling centre of alien activity to a ghost town.
“How did you know they consider us some kind of god, Doctor? Apart from the worship, that is,” Ensign Boi asked.
“This,” Dana said as she led them through the village. They turned a corner, and there was the source of her conclusions. In the shadow of the giant mountain around which the natives had settled stood a ten foot statue of a man. It wasn’t merely a humanoid like the L’ucrah. Reminiscent of a human. It was a man, pure and simple. His chest pushed out, head tilted back to gaze up at the stars. His arm thrust upward, reaching …
“Oh my God,” King said.
Dana stood with her hands on her hips. “Funny that, Captain. I’m sure that’s what they said.”
5.
“Ekatchu,” one of the village elders said.
King bowed her head in greeting. They followed the elders into a large tepee-like tent where a fire burned in the centre, i
ts blue-grey smoke drifting through a hole in the top.
Everyone sat. The L’ucrah outside the tent stood in a group, shifting from one foot to the other.
Jessica was aware that she’d not seen any weapons or defensive objects of any kind. As they’d been followed through the village by the starry-eyed crowd, she’d not picked up on any kind of aggression or hostility from them. The primitives of this planet were quite harmless, it seemed.
“Ganibish, oou depani,” another elder said. He made a show of plucking something invisible from the sky.
Jessica knew what it meant. She nodded.
“They’re in awe of our presence,” Dana said. “Even the old ones.”
“Do you think they’ll let us near the ship? I’d like to get a team out there excavating it. We might learn something about this region of space.”
“Maybe. I can’t see them saying no to us, to be fair,” Dana said.
The elders differed in age, and what appeared to be the youngest of their member came around the fire holding an old roll of cloth in his hand. He bowed as he handed it to the Captain. She opened it.
Painted in a deep red dye, it was a tapestry of sorts. It rolled out to about a metre long across her lap and onto the floor of the tent on either side. It depicted a star falling to the surface of the planet, with the primitives attacking the star. Then the star was swallowed up by the ground. It showed a man - she took it to be the same man who’d inspired the statue - reaching up to the sky. He had the same pose as the statue.
Not a coincidence, Jessica thought.
She looked to the oldest of the village elders, and indicated the fallen star on the tapestry. Tapped it with her finger.
“We need to get to this,” she said without hope they’d understand. It was clear they didn’t.
“He doesn’t get what we mean,” Boi said.
“Then we’ll just have to start excavating and see if they object,” Jessica said.
“Oh. Uh, look,” Dana said as she was passed a long pipe.
King watched as the Doctor took a long draw, stifled a cough and passed it on to her. Jessica pulled on it, clutched the corrosive smoke in her lungs, then managed to exhale without choking. She could feel her eyes water. She passed it down the line.
Lieutenant Banks was the last to have some. His coughing was their signal to leave the tent, patting his back as they did so.
* * *
Walking back through the village followed by an entourage of natives, Jessica looked back up at the black mountain.
“Unbelievable, isn’t it?” Chang said.
“Yes,” King said. “Yes it is.”
“What do we do now, sir?” Banks asked, his voice hoarse from the smoking.
“Well, for one we don’t go smoking any more pipes, agreed? Some of us can’t handle it.”
They all laughed under their breaths. Banks rolled his eyes.
“Right. I think we should head back to the Defiant. We’ll need to put a team together to dig down to that wreckage. If we can. Secondly, we’ll need to bring some translation equipment down here so we can communicate with them. Even if it’s a peer-to-peer system.”
“That’ll work,” Boi said.
“Chang, I want you to work with Dana in questioning the locals. We need to know about that ship out there, and of course there’s the question of that,” she said, nodding in the direction of the mountain.
“As you said it’s definitely artificial, Captain,” Chang said.
“Oh yes. It was never a question of whether or not it was made. Just a question of who the makers were.”
“Or what …” Chang said. They all stood looking up at it, at the clouds that clung to its peak. The existence of such a thing was audacious, unsettling. To know that it was the work of intelligent minds left them in awe.
Nobody talked on the way back to the transport.
6.
Captain King strode onto the bridge.
“Commander, I take it you’ve noticed that big black pyramid down there?”
Greene shot her a salute. “About an hour ago, sir. We’ve started making long-range scans.”
“That won’t do. We need to get in closer. Helm, bring us to a geostationary orbit over that pyramid, and lower our altitude to accommodate short-range scans,” King said. She laid a hand on Greene’s shoulder. “That should allow us to study it in more detail. Commander, care for a coffee down in the mess hall?”
“I never turn a cup of Joe down,” Greene said. “Ensign Rayne, looks like it’s your turn to watch the ship.”
Olivia stood up from her station. “Me?”
Greene and King exchanged looks.
“Do you see another Olivia Rayne in here, Ensign?”
Her face blossomed red. “No sir.”
“Very well. Any problems, I’ll be in the mess getting my fix.”
* * *
“Right,” Commander Greene said. “So we’ll need some sensors to test the wreck. Make sure it’s safe to dig away at it. But, uh …”
“What is it?” Captain King said. She fixed herself a coffee and walked with him to a table at the back.
“Well, do you think this is a good use of our time? I’m not questioning your orders, Captain. Don’t think that. But I would’ve thought we’d be better off trying to figure out that pyramid before anything else.”
“Del, I understand what you’re saying. But I think that ship might hold some answers for us. More so if it has star charts of the area.”
“True.”
“By the way, did you check the records on missing vessels? To see for links with these transmissions?”
“Yes. From what we have, it was a ship called Sophie. Went missing years ago.”
“Oh? And what did you find out about the Sophie?”
“Yeah, from what I can tell she was on a classified mission in Draxx space. The last the Union heard from her was a garbled message, and then …”
“Nothing,” Jessica said.
“Exactly.”
“Hmm. Keep digging. By the way, good news on the supplies,” King said.
“Well, I’m gonna have Chief Gunn do a check on that. Just to be sure.”
“Very well, but I don’t see it being that different,” King said.
“Neither do I,” Del said then drained his coffee.
* * *
Gunn wiped her hands on a rag, but the rag was a greasy number she’d used so many times it was now blacker than pitch. So she resorted to wiping them on the front of her overalls.
“Hello stranger,” she said.
“Hey Chief,” Greene said. He looked around. “Quiet in here for once.”
“Not complaining. It’s not often we get some down time, Del. I sent the majority of them off to get some sleep, get drunk, whatever the hell they want. A few elected to stay in here with me,” she said.
“I guess that’s true. You lot don’t get a lot of rest. And things are pretty quiet around here right now,” he said.
“So anyway, why’re you down here? If you’ve come to pull an inspection then you’re outta luck pal. We’re shipshape, in Bristol fashion.”
Greene chuckled. “No, no, nothing like that. It’s about that inventory. I want us to re-check it. Well, when I say we …”
“You mean me,” Gunn said with a roll of her eyes.
“Yeah sorry. I’d ask someone else to do it, but I know I can trust you to be thorough.”
“Well …”
“I’ll owe you big,” Greene said.
She considered, then punched him on the arm. “Yes you will.”
“Thanks,” he said.
The Chief shook her head, thinking, You already owe me, Commander. This debt is getting bigger and bigger.
* * *
They waited for the next sunrise, then departed for the surface. Dana and Lieutenant Chang sat in the back, next to the peer-to-peer translation devices. Though sophisticated, the tech looked just like a pair of headphones when you wore it. Behi
nd them the limited cargo area was crammed with all of the scanning and excavation equipment, secured in place against the rear bulkhead with straps.
Commander Greene and four other men sat in front of the two women, with Banks on loan from the bridge again for piloting duties. They breached the atmosphere with the sun bathing that alien world in a deep fiery hue. This time, as they approached the burial site of the Sophie, they gazed in awe at the black mountain sparkling under that orangey light.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so alien,” Dana said.
“Don’t count your chickens just yet,” Greene said.
“What do you mean?”
Banks took them on a steady descent to the ground. The landing gears made a grating, thunderous sound as they opened out beneath the craft.
“I mean there’s plenty to see in the universe. I bet there are a lot of things far more alien than that mountain out there.”
They settled on the ground with an oomph, and Banks equalised pressure with the outside before opening the access door and lowering the ramp.
Dana and Chang carried the translation equipment away as the boys set about assembling their sensor equipment.
It wasn’t long before the L’ucrah showed themselves. “Uh oh,” Greene said. His hand fell to his side arm.
“Please Commander,” Dana said. “Rest easy, they’re harmless.”
“That’s not how it sounded in that message …” he mumbled.
There were three L’ucrah, and not a single one of them carried a weapon. They kept their distance from the men of the Defiant, and when Dana approached the one in the lead, he seemed to be on edge. She made it clear she wouldn’t hurt him, and offered him a set of the headphones.
It took several minutes for him to realise he was to wear them like her. As he settled them down around his ears, Dana tested the system.
“Hello,” she said.
He jumped, startled. The headphones dropped to the ground. Dana picked them up and handed them back to him.
“I did not mean to scare you,” she said after he slipped them back on his head.
His face went from confusion to realisation. “Hello,” he said with caution.
Dana heard it not as, “Jin jinoa,” but merely, “Hello.” They were working.