WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (19 page)

“Well, to some degree we can. We have a rough guess as to the metal makeup of the ship, but nothing exact. They aren’t using a coating such as ours, at least not that we can see. However, they aren’t emitting any waves we can pick up at this time so they might have something on the inside of their ship that stops any waste energy leaving the ship for us to sense.”

“So, no heat then?” Frank continued his questions.

“No, not at this time.”

“Gravity anomalies?” Dan put in.
 

Jeffrey, as head of Bobcat’s group and the general operations guy on the research side piped in, “We tried to figure out if we could find our own ships, and it has been a problem. Good in a way, as we are able to run silent, run deep. However, if we turn off our transponders, then no one will know where we are.”

“This can’t be the answer,” Barb interrupted. As the table turned towards the new voice, she realized she had spoke her frustration out loud. Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow to her, so she pushed forward with her thoughts, “I think we should presume that other species have figured out a method to locate ships in space because otherwise, why are they hiding out there?”

Marcus added, “Just so the table knows, we don’t actively worry about our space probes hitting asteroids when we send them out. Even in the most populated area, the asteroid belt, you have to do some fuzzy math to get the asteroids to get close enough so just one exists in space the size of Rhode Island. Sure, there are groups, but those are easy enough to bypass. With the calculations of using the asteroids in a single plane, you might have two thousand small one meter asteroids inside the space of the United States.”

“So, no Star Wars running around and dodging big rocks with your spaceship?” William asked.

Marcus shook his head, “Only if you absolutely wanted to do that. You would have to purposefully find that group. Likewise, this ship is an infinitesimally small dot on a galactic sized piece of paper.”

“Ok, so by actively hiding, we assume they are aware of methods to find them.” Bethany Anne said when Marcus interrupted again.

“Assuming they are still here,” he said.

Bethany Anne nodded to him, “Yes, that is the safe assumption as you will find out in a second. We’ve been looking and looking, but can’t find them so far. That leads to your thought that maybe they have left. We have new information folks. We have a new anomaly out at Entry/Exit Point 1.”

ADAM, have ArchAngel bring the video from the Defender online.

>>Done.<<

Behind the group on both long sides of the table, a shot of space came into view. On it, a large circle, green with undulating waves floating in and around it.
 

It was beautiful and wasn’t supposed to be in the middle of space.
 

“What…is that?” Dan asked.

“That,” Bethany Anne nodded to her left wall, “Is what TOM calls an Annex Gate. Defender ran across it three hours ago. It doesn’t show up on any of our sensors so far, but it is in the area that ship came from. Our closest guess, is our uninvited guest came through that point. TOM’s guess is our friend is going to leave by that gate.”

“So, the sons-a-bitches are still here, right?” Lance asked. While he and Bethany Anne had spoken when they received the video, they hadn’t had time to talk out any ideas.

“That’s my guess, Dad.” It was times like this, that Bethany Anne would resort to calling him Dad, instead of General or Lance. Facing the unknown was one thing that would get Bethany Anne to occasionally slip and acknowledge him as her dad during conversations. Fortunately, no one in the group was going to pass on that information to others who would love to know their connection.

“So, what’s an Annex Gate?” Frank asked, “I can guess from the name we aren’t going to be too fond of the idea.”

TOM, why don’t you answer over the speakers?

Very well, Bethany Anne
, he replied.

“Hello everyone,” The warm, but still slightly electronic voice came through the speakers in the room, “This is TOM. Bethany Anne has asked me to include myself in this conversation.”

Bethany Anne was amused when a buzz went around the room. She realized speaking to him, or hearing him was a special event for most of those here. Even Marcus would often text with TOM instead of talking. Barb turned her head to look at Bethany Anne with a question on her face. Bethany Anne smiled and nodded that it was, indeed, the alien.

“Please remember, a lot of my information is ten of your centuries or more out of date. However, even back then, there were several alien civilizations that had gates showing the traits you see on the video. They are called Annex Gates because most space-faring nations are inquisitive and acquisition focused in nature. They often need to leave their home planet, driving them to overcome the challenges of early space travel. Most do not immediately jump to technology which makes space travel safe.”

“Except us,” Jeffrey said.

“No, that is not true, Jeffrey,” TOM replied, “Your species has had multiple different efforts which killed many people. Not many from a statistical standpoint, but as a percentage of those trying to attain space, it is approximately as high as those trying to attain the top of Mt. Everest, which is four percent. Right now, the belief is that for public space travel to be successful, it needs to be less than one percent. However, you have suffered a higher percentage for a few decades.”

Jeffrey shrugged, “Sorry, for us it seems like we have done this for only a few years and suddenly we have the ability to use gravity generators to make it happen.”

“True, but that is because we have been raised up as a species, for better or worse, by Kurtherians,” Bethany Anne answered, “So, from our total history it is a short amount of time, but if things had worked out the way Kurtherians normally do this, we would already be out there in space, fighting some other civilizations for our Kurtherian Overlords.”

“Can we agree to call them the Seven?” TOM asked over the speakers.

“Sure,” Bethany Anne answered, “For everyone not up to date, there are twelve clans of Kurtherians. TOM is from a group of five, who damn near can’t step on a roach…”

“I’m getting better about that,” TOM interrupted.

“That’s because Bethany Anne is a bad influence,” Lance said to general chuckles around the table.

“That is likely the case, General Reynolds. However, what is more likely is the many long conversations we have had related to the necessity of what she calls pruning. It is, in a way, the same thing our geneticists did to our DNA lines.”

“Just later staged pruning,” Bethany Anne agreed, “So, the psychotic Kurtherians are the Seven, go on TOM.”

“For most civilizations, reaching outer space causes a huge growth in their civilization as the acquisition of new raw materials become available. Plus, with advanced manufacturing capabilities come new methods to build larger, and build faster. For an example, look at the ship you are presently in. Within three generations, the space-going species is addicted to building, growth, new materials acquisition and technology acquisition which they have due to space.
 
When they have used up the raw materials close to their planet, they start looking to annex new areas.”

“Have you seen instances when this is not the case?” William asked.

“Certainly. It is mostly prevalent in very structured societies. Such as Hive minds, or what you would call Patriarchal or Matriarchal large family groups, or Monarchies with God like authority.”

Frank looked over and smiled to Bethany Anne, “Hey!” she retorted, as the table turned to her at her outburst, “I’m not out to subjugate the Universe. I just plan on kicking some ass until they get the message that playing with humans and other species is a no-no.”

“Annex Gates,” TOM continued, focusing the table back on the conversation, “are usually the first stage of scouting by a society which is expanding. They are looking for resources, the technology they can co-opt, and labor.”

“Labor?” Barb asked, “Don’t they have enough of their own people?”

“Slaves.” Bethany Anne replied, “Think back to Roman times. The people with a vote didn’t want to actually get their hands dirty, not when they could stick around Rome and have a good time. I’m sure the idea of traveling a kajillion miles to suffer asphyxiation while mining on an asteroid doesn’t appeal.”

“The fuckers want to steal our materials, grab our technology, and to add insult to injury, make us dig it out of the ground for them?” Bobcat asked, surprised.

“Well, yes.” TOM answered, “I thought that was obvious?”

Bobcat scratched his chin, “Maybe, I just thought we were looking for a Kurtherian scout who wanted to use us for a round of Rugby with another species, not slavery.”

“That
is
a form of slavery,” Marcus said, looking at his friend with a questioning look, “Or is fighting not slavery?”

“Well, yeah, but at least it is a little more interesting. Using a pickaxe on a rock in the middle of nowhere is just cruel.”

“TOM, continue,” Bethany Anne broke in. She had been around those three enough to know this conversation could go a while with just them talking back and forth.

“The Annex Gate is tied to another location in space. Allowing them to easily get back to their own solar system,” TOM said.

“What, like a warp gate? Can’t they do what you did?” Marcus asked.

“If you mean almost die by randomly warping to an unknown location, then no. The ability to do this in our ships was one of the advances Kurtherians have over other races. The Annex Gate you see here is the only way this ship can leave. It is why I know they are not Kurtherians. None of our people would use a gate.”

“Would their subjugated races use it?” Lance asked.

“No, not for a scout ship. The Annex Gate, like you see here, is an open door allowing those on the other side they are scouting access back into their system.”

“Why aren’t they worried about us then?” Bethany Anne asked, “We have … Oh shit.”

“Precisely,” TOM answered.

“Oh, that’s just…goodness, that IS surprising.” Marcus admitted.

“What the hell are you three talking about?” Bobcat asked.

Bethany Anne looked down the table and spoke to the group, “They haven’t seen our ships yet. They don’t know we can go through their gate.”

Everyone’s eyes went back to the Annex Gate.

“Fuck,” Bethany Anne spat out, “Now I’ve got my own Gott Verdammt Pandora’s box.”

Yollin Deep Space Ship - G’laxix Sphaea

“Are we in agreement?” Captain Kael-ven T’chmon asked his small group of advisors. He had pulled in Kiel from security, Scientist Royleen, and Melorn.
 

“I believe the plan is sound, Captain,” Royleen admitted, rubbing his dry face, his eyes large as he looked at the representation of the sub-optimal species space station orbiting their dead satellite. “My, that is ugly, isn’t it?”

The four Yollins nodded their heads in agreement.

“We would be doing them a service if we blew it out of space once we have our captives,” Kiel offered.

“That is because you like destruction, Kiel. I have read the previous Captain’s comments in your file. Not,” Captain Kael-ven T’chmon put up a hand before Kiel could answer, “that I lack agreement with your suggestion. However, the cost of the missiles to do it justice would come out of our ships budget.”

“Oh, nevermind,” Kiel replied. No way he wanted to be the one responsible for reducing the ship’s bonus for the trip. This system might not offer too much, but perhaps the finder’s fee and the small ships technology they witnessed from afar would have benefits.

“Have you figured out their propulsion?” Captain T’chmon asked his scientist.

“No, it is not making any sense. I have not witnessed anything that makes sense. The long-range images from their manufacturing location are completely illogical. The ship, if that is what it is, looks suited for planetary surface water efforts, not space. That it is in space is making me surmise that this is a very screwed up species. The complete dichotomy of what seems to be smart, almost genius-level efforts, wage war with…” Royleen pointed to the space station, “That!”

“So, your opinion on this race, Royleen?”

“If they were not in space? I would suggest they are idiots. Since they are in space, I will amend that to suggest they are either very lucky idiots or idiot savants.”