The Creytes are an advanced democratic society of cold-blooded beings. In many ways, their development paralleled the development of human-like species. The one notable exception was that on Creyte home planets, where the Creytes raised humans for food much like humans raise cattle for food on Earth. As Creytes began to expand their frontiers into space, their need for new, food sources grew. When they entered the Milky Way, they ran into many planets inhabited by human-like species. Most of these planets were primitive like Earth and offered little resistance to the Creytes. The Creytes eventually began running into Azortec starships. Battles ensued with Azortec finding out about the true nature of Creytes. The Creytes had several of them for lunch!
Oria felt apprehensive about his current trip to Earth. Normally Oria always looked forward to returning to Earth. This time was different. He had to make contact with Earth and convince those in power to trust him. He needed to get their help and build a space force capable of defending Earth against a Creyte attack. Furthermore, Oria knew that if he were successful with this mission, Azortec would want to recruit the new fleet to force the Creytes away from other human planets. Oria was uncertain how difficult his mission would be and had no idea of how much Earth had developed since his last trip there. On his last visit to Earth, the mostly widely used mechanism for electronic communication was a telegraph and people still used horses and sailboats for their main modes of transportation. Oria hoped that Earth had advanced some since his last visit.
Oria and his shipmates finally reached the transport docks. The transport docks were part of a large complex capable of handling up to six Hercules class starships, the largest starship class used by the Azortec Federation. As Oria walked through the complex, he saw two starships receiving service, including one severely damaged during recent battles.
Oria’s trip through the transport docks was mostly a complete blur to him. He knew that only a small number of the crew would be able to go on this mission. Those that stayed may actually be better off. Oria did not want to ask anyone to travel through the continuum. He had flown through the continuum once before. On that trip, Oria lost his entire crew. Oria hoped there was another choice, but the only way to stop the Creyte attack and save Azortec was to collapse the time space continuum and build a new offensive capability. Oria needed to build a fleet that could launch a surprise attack on the Creytes and hopefully cripple or destroy their fleet.
Oria’s ship, the AFS Hercules, was approximately 10,000 feet long by 4,000 feet wide. The core part of the ship looked like a long torpedo with a small canopy towards the ship’s bow. The main section was approximately
3,000 feet high at the stern. Connected to the center tube on either side were two small torpedo shaped tubes. The outer tubes contained the ship’s engines, weapon systems, and the main ship power stations. A large docking mechanism located on the ship’s stern connected the ship to the Space Station.
When Oria and the senior officers arrived on deck, the watch officer signaled the rest of the crew that the Admiral was onboard.
Oria returning the Lieutenant’s salute said, “Lt. Halepo, please assemble the ship’s company to receive our new orders.”
As the ship’s company gathered in assembly rooms and in various other parts of the ship, Oria prepared a brief outline of the new orders and th
eir implementation.
Lt. Halepo announced, “Admiral, the ship is ready for your announcement.”
Admiral Oria spoke over the ship’s intercom system “My fellow officers and crew mates, this is Admiral Oria. Unfortunately, I must deliver bad news. As many of you may have already heard, the 3rd Quadrant is under severe attack. Our forces are in jeopardy. The Federation is assembling a fleet to guard against these attacks in the 1
st
Quadrant. I don’t need to tell you the importance of this new defensive line. If we lose the 1
st
Quadrant, we may lose all of Azortec. Diplomats from the Azortec Council are in negotiation with the Creytes. They’re hoping to buy time, through surrendering primitive human planets to the Creytes. President Shalat does not know how many more such trades we can survive. As a result, Azortec commissioned our ship to make an unusual mission into the 3
rd
Quadrant. We are going to travel a year back in time by flying through the space/time continuum. I’m asking for volunteers for this mission. There is room for only 200 people. Experimental technology will protect those that come. Those that join will ride through the continuum sedated. This mission is EXTREMELY dangerous. I don’t expect everyone to make it through the continuum alive. Once the mission gets under way, I will be able to provide you with more details. If you want to join me on this mission, please report to your commanding officer. I will be expecting to make the final cut within 12 hours. That’s all for now.”
On the bridge, the watch commander commented to his communications chief:
“Chief, did I hear the Admiral correctly? He is planning on traveling through the space/time continuum?”
“Aye sir, it’s hard to believe. The only trip that anyone ever survived was the Battle for Exsquisadar, and that was 350 years ago. The Admiral was the lone survivor. He lost 10,000 people on that trip.”
“It’s hard to believe he is going to try it again. If it were anyone other than Oria, I’d say you’d have to be an idiot to go on a mission like that voluntarily. Oria sure has bailed my butt out more than a few times. I’ll stay with the Admiral even if he asked me to step into the mouth of a Taranakane” (A large carnivorous dinosaur-like creature).
“Aye Chief, the Admiral has saved just about everyone’s butt at some point. He once got me out of the brig of a Creyte war cruiser. I would have been one of those beast’s dinner.”
“Yes, I believe there are plenty legends floating around of the Admiral’s exploits. It’s hard to believe how he could have lived all of those years. It would not surprise me if everyone on this crew signs up.”
“Yeah, I agree. There’s not one of us, who does not owe Oria something. I hear that even the pompous crusty old warrior himself, Admiral Alutec, is indebted to Oria. The Creytes caught Alutec off guard on a trip to one of his girlfriends. It turned out to be a Creyte trap. Alutec arrived to pick up his lady for dinner, only to find out that he was the dinner. His girlfriend was on the appetizer list. A Creyte exploration ship had taken his girlfriend’s house over. The maggot Creytes were about to sit down when the front of the house just blew up and Oria appeared with phasers blazing, grabbed both Alutec and his lady over each shoulder and pulled them right out of there.”
“Think I heard that story. If I remember right, there wasn’t much left of those Creytes after Oria blew through there.” The two officers sat at their consoles chuckling together.
As the day progressed, the crew submitted their names to join Oria’s mission. By the day’s end, the entire crew volunteered for the mission. Oria had to select several officers and ordinary crewmembers. Oria filled the remaining slots by drawing straws.
The transport docks became particularly busy as most of the Hercules’ crew departed the ship while the ship readied for the new mission. The loading dock was a beehive of people, space station vehicles, well-wishers, and crewmembers preparing the Hercules for its next mission. Inside, the Hercules was beginning to feel like a ghost town. The crew vacated most of the living quarters and removed all of their personal effects.
Finally, all preparations were complete for the Hercules’ departure from the space station. Oria was on the ship’s bridge with a normal complement of bridge officers. The Hercules received clearance from the space station traffic controllers to leave space station. Oria climbed up into the ship’s combat bridge. He preferred to navigate the large ship manually away from the space station and enjoyed the feeling of power when he piloted the Hercules. Normally, on most ships, the combat bridge saw action exclusively during combat. During normal operations, the regular bridge controlled the ship. Oria was an exception. He always preferred to control the ship from the combat bridge.
Oria climbed down from the combat bridge and walked around the bridge thanking each of his officers for joining him on his mission. The crew was understandably apprehensive about the trip and asked many questions about their plans to fly through the space/time continuum. Oria did his best to answer their questions and address their fears, although everyone knew that Oria could make no promises about their planned trip.
The Hercules’ navigation officer had already preprogrammed the ship’s navigation system for Earth. When Oria had brought the Hercules sufficient distance from the space station he placed the ship under control of the ship’s navigation system. As he switched the controls over, the ship instantaneously switched to light speed setting the ship’s course for Earth. The trip would take around 15 days.
After a week, Oria was resting in his quarters when over the intercom he heard a voice requesting his presence on the bridge. Ensign Jibsby, one of the ship’s communication officers, had picked up some interesting signals in the RF frequency bands that she thought were from Earth.
Oria walked onto the bridge going through the normal protocols whenever an Admiral came aboard the bridge. Eventually he made his way over to Ensign Jibsby’s station.
“Hello Ensign, I understand you’ve picked up some interesting signals from Earth?”
“Aye sir, I have been able to break the signals into both visual and audio signals. I believe they go together. Also, I’ve been recording them for a while and have been able to get the ship’s computer to find these signals embedded in other transmissions. The one thing I don’t understand, from what you described as Earth’s technology from 100 years ago, is that it would be impossible for these signals to reach us given our current distance from Earth.”
“Very interesting, I’ve heard that sometimes old RF signals have been bounced incredible distances by wormhole effects. Is that possible with this signal?”
“That’s a possibility sir. I’ve piped the signals into an archive for your access. I’ll keep capturing them and forwarding them to the archive.”
“Thank you Ensign. I will be in my quarters if anything else breaks.”
Admiral then returned to quarters. He was looking forward to reviewing the signals. The Ensign was an outstanding officer and if she thought the signals originated from Earth, they probably did. Any information Oria gained about Earth and its current customs would be important.
Oria settled into a large recliner chair in his office and activated his computer system. He started to view the signal at a point where the Ensign indicated was the beginning of a transmission. It was a black and white picture with a large heart and the words “I Love Lucy” written across it. Oria started to get into the show. It was about a working class couple, which managed consistently to get themselves into trouble. In many scenes, it gave Oria a good laugh. In several places, it appeared that someone had actually prepared the signal for transmission into space. There were selections on the show where a narrator was providing information and greetings from Earth. Oria thought this quite strange. However, he knew if he was able to capture the signal, there were probably other ships that also could capture the signal, not all of which would be friendly to Earth. He was hoping that a Creyte exploration ship had not intercepted the signal. Pirates could cause some damage; after all, pirates abducted Oria, but Oria didn’t feel that pirates could cause the kind of devastation that an organized group like the Creytes could cause.
A few days later, the Hercules reached the halfway point to Earth. Oria had been watching a number of Earth shows. His favorite was a show called Star Trek. Oria was hoping that if the show were popular, it would provide a convenient mechanism to translate starship terminology into a form understandable on Earth. Oria was also spending a lot of time watching newscasts. He was impressed with the amount of technology that Earth was able to develop since he was last there in the 1800’s. He was disappointed in some of the changes in the political landscape and the degeneration in basic moral values such as integrity. On one of the newscasts, he saw massive demonstrations at educational institutions against the war effort in Vietnam.
During this time, Oria began to reflect on his early life on the Eastern Shores of Maryland. Oria had been born Oria Stoneax during the late 1400’s of Earth’s history. His ancestry was a mix between Scandinavian and the Nanticoke people. Of course, time had diluted his Scandinavian blood across many generations of Stoneax’s. The Scandinavian line and his last name came from a line dating back to Olaf Stoneax, a Viking chief under King Fairhair around 935AD.
Oria had grown up in a predominantly Nanticoke tradition significantly influenced by his people’s Viking heritage. His village was a mixture between Nanticoke and Viking architectures. Oria grew up learning to hunt, fish track, and fight benefiting from both his Nanticoke and Viking heritage. It had been over 500 years since he last saw his father, yet he still remembered his father going into battle with a battle-ax in one hand and a Viking shield on his other arm. His father had been a large strong man well known throughout the area now known as the Eastern Shore and neighboring Pennsylvania.
As soon as Oria was old enough, the tribe allowed him to go on the annual excursions for food up the Chesapeake Bay and into territory largely controlled by the more aggressive Susquehanna people. On some trips, they would attack Susquehanna villages freeing those tribe members who the Susquehanna had earlier captured and then enslaved during earlier Susquehanna raids on Nanticoke villages. In these battles, Oria’s father in a long line of Stoneax’s was the dominating force.