“Show me,” she
ordered, and a second holo came to life over the table, this one showing a
globe of the world they were in far orbit of. The globe, a composite of the
visual scanners of the ship and a probe they had placed opposite of the cruiser
in orbit, was a beautiful pearl of blue and white, like most living planets.
The vortex pattern of a storm swirled off the southern coast of the largest
continent. The lights of huge metropolitan complexes sparkled in the night of
the smaller continent, one which was shaped like an upside down question mark,
stretching from icecap to icecap at both poles. And most interesting of all,
the large structures rising out of the atmosphere and into space. There were
twelve of those objects scattered equidistant across the world, eight of them
rising from land, the rest from the oceans.
We still
don’t know what they are
, she thought, her attention captured by the
magnificent objects that were over ten kilometers in diameter at the base and
almost five hundred kilometers high.
And we haven’t had a chance to ask
these people about them.
A blinking dot
appeared rising up from the east of the largest continent, and Albright zoomed
in her take to see a shuttle similar to the one their new friends had come up
in. There were differences, but the tech level looked to be similar, which
made sense, since these creatures occupied the same planet.
“We warned them
not to attempt contact,” said the Leader of the Tsarzorians over the holo he
was on. “They were told what would happen if they tried.”
“What are you
talking about?” asked Albright, looking at the alien leader in alarm. “What do
you intend to do?”
The holo went
off, the contact with the Leader of Tsarzor broken before she could get an
answer, and she found herself looking at the leader of the Astronauts. “What
will he do?”
“The situation
with Honish is, tense,” said the alien, making what looked like a shrug of his
tentacle attachments to his torso. “We have been in conflict with them for
decades, fighting through proxies. And sometimes more directly.”
“Perhaps we
could help you to resolve your differences,” suggested the Captain.
Because
you’ve got enough trouble coming your way without fighting each other.
“They are,
different than us. They look different, and do not do things the way we do,”
said Nastra, her head moving in a circular motion that the Captain took as a
negative. “And they worship a false God, and commit atrocities in the name of
that deity.”
Sounds a lot
like our own history when we were at this tech level. Except the ones who
committed atrocities in our timeline were much more primitive than the Western
nations.
“We have more
launches, ma’am,” came the call from her tactical officer over the com. “Two.”
“More shuttles?”
“No, ma’am. Not
unless they have inertial compensators that we don’t know about. Those things
are lifting at over thirty gravities, and they’re launching from an aquatic
vessel.”
“Contena is
willing to start a war,” said Nastra in a soft voice, really too low to hear,
but picked up by the translation program and amplified.
“What are those
things?” asked the Captain, slapping a hand on the table to catch the attention
of the two aliens. “Are they targeting that shuttle?”
“Those are
interceptor missiles,” said Lamsat, looking down at the table, then up into the
eyes of Albright. “They are made to knock down missiles that are targeting our
ships, but can hit very high altitude targets as well.”
“Tactical,” called
out the Captain. “Target those missiles. Take them out.”
Everyone watched
the holo with high levels of anxiety, even if the reasons were different. The
cruiser was at action stations, with its light amp rings fully charged, each
ring’s multiple emitters drawing power from their crystal matrix battery packs,
which tapped into the matter/antimatter reactors to recharge as they were
drained. Laser A took aim at one missile, the B ring the second, and it only
took one shot from each to spread the missiles into clouds of plasma in the
upper atmosphere.
“I want one of
our assault shuttles out right now to escort that shuttle to us,” ordered the
Captain over the com.
“Do you want us
to take out those launching platforms, ma’am?” asked the Tac Officer.
Albright looked
up to see expressions on the faces of the two Klassekians that looked like
panic. “Those are manned vessels, I suppose?” She could read the answer in
the faces of the aliens. “Just take out any more missiles, Tactical,” she
ordered over the com. “Do not hit those ships.”
Albright looked
back at the Klassekians. “Why in the hell would your leader order that shuttle
to be fired on.”
“The Honish are
our enemies,” said Lamsat, as if that was all the answer that was needed.
Albright kept him skewered with her gaze until he spoke again. “We have lost
many of our people to them over the last four decades. They are fanatics.
Their God, Hrrottha, is a murderous deity, at least in their delusional minds.”
“In their
minds?”
“Of course their
God doesn’t exist,” said Nastra. “They say the Blue Giant star, what we call
Gromor, is their God, while we know it is not a deity. They even call it the
same name as their God, Hrrottha.”
“Even some of
our own people believe it is a God,” said Lamsat, looking over at his partner.
“They believe that an Armageddon is coming, and Gromor is the harbinger of that
apocalypse.”
“And they are
correct,” said Albright, thinking about what astrophysics had told her as they
entered this region. “But not in the manner in which your people believe.”
Chapter Three
My greatest privilege as a member
of Exploration Command has been to make first contact with several
intelligences. To come before them in friendship, and to see it in their
eyes. To know that they realize they are not alone in this Universe.
Rear Admiral Nguyen van Hung.
Many people
thought aliens, those who belonged to another species, were all monolithic
cultures, and that they all looked alike. The members of Exploration Command
knew better. They were trained in recognizing the differences that existed in
the members of all species, as well as the cultural differences that were
obvious to a skilled observer. And then they interacted with many members of
other species of the Empire, so they could put their training into practice.
Mandy Albright had been an explorer for over twenty-five years, and this was
not her first first contact situation. There were obvious racial differences
between the newcomers and the people they had already been talking to, especially
when able to compare them in the same room.
The newcomers,
both males, were slightly shorter than Lamsat, but that didn’t have to be a
racial difference. The difference in skin coloring was a dead giveaway, the
newcomers at least a couple of shades lighter than both of the Tsarzorians.
And their eyes were much rounder, and actually protruded a bit more.
And I just
wish this day would be over with
, thought the Captain of the
William
Clark
. It had been a very long day, over forty hours, and though her
nanites would cleanse the toxins from her system, whether she slept or not,
there was still a psychological fatigue that they couldn’t touch.
And
dealing with these people would strain the patience of a saint.
“And what have
these liars told you,” said the primary representative of the Nation of Honish.
“We did not lie
to them,” yelled Lamsat, glaring at the other male, whose name was Jerarr
H’rrana. “We told them the truth, before you could get to them with your foul
manipulations.”
“Gentlemen,” said
Albright, holding up a hand. “I will not have you arguing on my ship. Now,
Nazzir, I would listen to these emissaries. You will have a chance to rebut
whatever he says.”
Lamsat looked
away, obviously wanting to say something, but holding it in. Albright looked
back at the representative from Honish, who appeared to be an older male, and
the only one of his team to talk so far.
“Thank you,
Captain,” said H’rrana. “We wish to establish relations with your people, and
protest that the Tsarzorians tried to monopolize this contact, to the point of
committing an act of war against my people by firing on my shuttle.” H’rrana
glared at the enemy male for a moment before looking back at the human. “And I
wish to thank you for saving my life when they shot those interceptors at us.
And for sending out the other craft to escort us in.”
“You are very
welcome, Representative H’rrana. We definitely wanted to meet with your people
as well. Because we have something very important to tell you, both of you.
And I think you will want to settle your differences and cooperate with us
after I give you this news, if you want your species to survive.”
The expressions
on the faces of all the aliens mirrored as she spoke.
Good. They need to
be concerned, and take this seriously.
“Your close
companion star, Gromor, is going into the final stages of its life. It’s going
to go supernova within the next couple of years. Maybe as soon as a year.”
She could read
the shock on the face of Lamsat, despite his alien features, it was so
obvious. “No,” stammered the Astronaut. “It can’t be.” The reaction of the
other alien delegate was also shocking, in a different way.
“Gromor is the
manifestation of our God, Hrrottha,” said H’rrana, a strange expression on his
face. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, and the curving of
his speaking orifice seemed to signify pleasure. “This is wonderful news. I
have told the leader of my people through my sibling of the news, and it has
greatly excited him.”
“Why do you say
it’s wonderful news?” the Captain asked the Honishan.
“It has been
prophesized for thousands of years that our God would take us into his embrace
on the day our world ends,” said H’rrana. “Through the years his manifestation
has grown larger, and we were sure the day was coming when he would take us
into his heaven, and cast the infidels and unbelievers into hell. This means
that we win, and our enemies lose, according to the judgment of Hrrottha.”
My God, these
people are religious fanatics
, thought the Captain, wondering how she was
going to get through to them with some sense.
Wait a second. He said he
told his leader.
She linked into the network and contacted her Com
Officer.
Has there been any signals coming to or from our guests?
No, ma’am.
Not a watt of energy has passed either way.
She looked over
at the leader of the Honish delegation. “You said you contacted your leaders.
How?”
“Through my
siblings,” said the alien, giving her another strange look. “We are linked by
the God. Are you not?” The last was said in almost a hiss, as if the alien
was shocked by the concept that an intelligent being wouldn’t be linked to
those they had shared the womb with.
“And your
people?” she asked Lamsat, ignoring the question of the Honishan.
“Yes, we are linked
with those we shared the womb with,” said the Astronaut. “I thought it best to
hold that knowledge from you, but since this idiot has given away the game,
there is no use now.”
“Who are you
calling an idiot,” growled H’rrana, starting up from his seat.
“Sit down,”
roared the Captain, pointing at the alien. “I will have no violence aboard my
ship. If you want to kill each other on your planet, that’s your right. But
not on my ship.”
“They will all
die soon enough,” said H’rrana, sitting back down slowly, his glare never
leaving the face of Lamsat, who also sank back into his seat. “The judgment of
God is upon us.”
“Not our Gods,”
said Lamsat, looking at the Captain. “Our Gods do not want our people
destroyed. We too have a prophecy. It says that a God will come from the
heavens to aid us in our hour of need.”
Lamsat closed
his primary eyes a moment, then opened them wide and looked over at H’rrana.
“Why are you fueling your missiles?”
“Because our God
is nigh,” said the alien from the other power. “Because his judgment is upon
us, and we have nothing more to fear from you, or any other worldly power.”
“Tactical,”
called out the Captain, alarmed by the words of the Honishan. “Do we have any
missile tracks from the planet.” She looked again at the Honishan, who had
closed all of his eyes and was mumblings words that the translation program
could not interpret.
“Nothing,
ma’am,” said the man.
“Check their
missile fields,” called out Lamsat, his own expression anything but serene.
“They still use liquid fueled rockets, unlike us. They have to fuel them
before launch, and we can pick up the plumes of the fueling.”
“Scan the
surface of the large continent, Tactical,” she ordered, looking at the holo of
the planet and zooming in on that land mass.
“We have missile
launches, ma’am.”
“From the large
continent?” she asked, not seeing any tracks appearing on the tactical scan.
“No, ma’am.
They're coming up from the smaller continent. Hundreds of them. More every
second. And we’re picking up some sea based launches as well. Preliminary
trajectories indicate they are all aimed at the large continent.”
“Why did you
launch first?” she asked Lamsat, staring into his eyes. There had been remains
of civilizations discovered that had killed themselves with nuclear warfare,
but this was the first eyewitness account of it happening.
And I’m one of
those eyewitnesses,
she thought in horror.
“A first strike
is our only chance of surviving this,” said the Astronaut, all of his eyes
wide. “We’ll still get hurt, but there will be survivors.”
“Our God will
protect us,” said H’rrana in that maddeningly serene voice. “He will not allow
our lands to be touched, while our missiles will smite the infidel.”
“More missile
launches,” called out tactical. “These are coming up from the large
continent. Hundreds of them.”
“What kind of
warheads are these weapons carrying?” asked Albright, turning to look at
Lamsat, having given up on getting a rational answer from the Honishan alien.
“From a hundred
kilotons to thirty megatons,” said the Astronaut, his tone betraying his
disbelief at what was happening. “Most of our missiles have smaller warheads,
but multiples per launch platform, while theirs are mostly unitary weapons of
greater yield.”
“I have over
three thousand objects in the air, ma’am. And more launching every second.
What do you want me to do?”
“Target those
weapons and take them out,” she shouted, watching the missiles tracks all over
the holo globe. “Launch assault shuttles and fighters. I want them on courses
that allow us to hit all of the weapons, including those that
Clark
can’t
reach.”
“Yes, ma’am,”
replied the officer, and the com went blank as that man got busy with the task
of saving a planet from nuclear destruction.
“What are you
doing?” asked H’rrana, opening his eyes and staring at the human.
“Saving you from
yourselves,” said Albright as the first of the missiles disappeared from the
plot.
“You can’t do
that,” shouted the emissary from Honish, rising from his seat, looking like he
was about to climb over the table to attack the Captain. A large hand came
down on his shoulder, and the heavily muscled form of the Phlistaran Marine
pushed him back into his seat.
“We’ll have none
of that,” rumbled the big officer. “You be a good boy, and just sit there until
the Captain gives you leave to get up.”
* * *
Clark’s
main
energy battery was built around her four laser rings, two each on bow and stern
sections. Each was a marvel of technology, their design allowing the
accumulation of multiple hundreds of gigawatts of photonic energy that bounced
around within its confines. Each ring was fed by eight accumulators that push
photons into the structure. The material of the ring was made of nanomaterials
that could become transparent in any part of the outer surface. They could
also grav lens as well as any purposefully built structure, focusing a beam
that stayed tight for well over several light minutes. And they could change
the frequency of the beam, from infrared up to gamma rays, depending on the nature
of the target.
The targeting
system of the ship could track and target over two hundred objects at the same
time, and each ring could fire up to fifty beams simultaneously. Against the
hard targets of modern warfare a one fiftieth strength beam was not much of a
threat. Even a missile took a several second exposure to that kind of a beam
to kill, and no modern weapon would allow contact for that period of time. So
the ship rarely used its full targeting and multiple beam capabilities.
But these targets
were not of the same tech level as the firing ship. They were fragile, and it
didn’t take more than a momentary contact to vaporize the warhead. Within a
second of opening fire,
Clark
had hit over a hundred missiles, blasting
them apart in the upper atmosphere. In the great majority of cases the warhead
was vaporized so quickly that the conventional explosives needed to set off the
nuke were already expanding vapor before they exploded. In very few cases did
the actual nuclear explosion occur, and those were either very high in or above
the atmosphere.
The missiles
from Tsarzor began separating as they arced above the atmosphere, turning into
three or more tumbling objects, each falling toward their targets. They were
more difficult targets to track, and the increasing interference in the upper
atmosphere added to the difficulty. The sensors of the cruiser could still
find them, but it added time to the location and acquisition of each target.
“I’m not sure I
can get them all, ma’am,” said the Tactical Officer over the com.
“Keep at it,
Tactical. If one of them hits the planet, I’ll consider it a defeat.”
“Yes, ma’am,”
said the Tac Officer, dropping off the com so he could take care of the
business in hand. The ship’s computer was finding the targets and prioritizing
them, but human oversight was still needed in the firing procedure.
The cruiser also
carried four, six hundred ton attack fighters, and six assault shuttles. The
fighters were heavily armed with beam weapons and antiship missiles. Capable
of a thousand gravities acceleration, they headed off on courses that kept them
above the atmosphere and to positions where they could cover areas hidden from
the view of their launching vessel. The shuttles had nowhere near the
armament, nor the acceleration of the fighters. Still, they were equipped to
land Marines against armed resistance, and had the weaponry to suppress ground
fire and battle atmospheric craft. They were not the most effective craft to
shoot down ballistic missiles with, but they were better than nothing, and
added somewhat to the effort to render the strikes harmless.
The time clicked
by, and more and more missiles and warheads were knocked out of action, while
others launched from the weapons fields of both combatants. And then another
complication entered the equation.
“We’re picking
up ground following weapons, ma’am,” called out one of the weapons techs who
was assigned to targeting.