3.7.
The ship was loud.
It’s engines were deliberately tuned to cause a massive wake in the hyperatomic plane. It was not designed for stealth, but the opposite. Like a Harley Davidson waking a neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning, it called attention to itself simply by revving its engines.
It appeared above the plane of the solar system and began squawking out its presence using a radio signal. The message it played was in english. Not translated; the person speaking had a heavy accent and was clearly reading a script, stumbling over some of the words.
“Greetings Earthlings! I am Ambassador Tonom Genisi from the Acklatic Empire! I am eager to make your acquaintances and establish former diplomatic relations! I looking forward to tasting air of your planet! And your women and your men! Please do not shoot my ship. No weapons only shields. Am no threat, wish diplomacy!”
It continued to squawk the message and broadcast across different radio frequencies while the Earthlings got into position. Several of the Yukopan manufactured ship jumped over to surround it, while A Good Question , Captain Ander’s ship, gave the Acklatic diplomacy a colonoscopic scan.
Anders contacted former Sergeant Diego aboard the Yonohoan flagship. Diego connected immediately.
“What do you think?” Anders asked, knowing that Diego was already aware of the situation. The sensors on the flagship were even more detailed and sensitive than the Toormonda’s instruments, and it also possessed vast databanks containing known IFFs of the various factions of the galaxy.
“That ship is indeed registered to Tonom Genisi of the Acklatic Empire. Bob says that he’s politician of some sort, and he doesn’t seem very surprised that the Acklatics would send someone like him,” Diego answered.
Anders sighed. He contacted the gunships and instructed them to stand down. The Yonohoan flagship passed him the relay information to contact the ship directly using faster than light protocols; the radio IFF protocol was supposed to share that information with its allies but Tonom’s ship didn’t have their codes yet.
He sent a communication request to the diplomat’s ship and was rewarded with the appearance of a shirtless flamboyant man with a round fruit in one hand and a mug filled with some sort of blue liquid in the other.
“You are Anders Captain!” Tonom said. “Very famous! Pleased meet you.”
“Welcome to Sol-system, Tonom Genisi. I must ask if you have any documentation from your government establishing your bona fides as their appointed ambassador?” he said.
“Yes yes! We work very hard make readable for you. Sending now.”
What followed was a two gigabit file. The Toormonda, used to Earthling file architecture at this point, recognized it as a .zip file. It obediently extracted it and the contents were a film. The .mov file contained a speech by the emperor appointing Tonom Genisi as his representative on Earth, giving him instructions to establish trade and migration privileges for the empire.
The film was hours long.
“Are you comfortable on your ship, Mr. Genisi? It may take some time to sort things out on our end,” Anders said.
“Yes yes! Very comfort. Happy ship. Happy to be here! Looking forward taste your air, women, and men!”
Hours later, Tonom arrived at the space station in orbit near Mars. He submitted himself to a military level medical scan without complaint, agreed to have his genome sequenced to prove his identity beyond any doubt, and was deliberately exposed to earth microbes and allergens to ensure that he could survive on the surface.
He got a case of hay fever, but the Yonohoan medical technician quickly proscribed something to cure it.
He wandered around the station without a shirt and with very wide eyes, introducing himself to every Earthling he came across and inviting them to drink with him. He was very, very excited to be here, and eager for his quarantine to end so that he could move on to Earth itself.
~~~~~
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“What can you tell us about the Acklatics?” Turnball asked the hologram of Eolai, which was running in place. Eolai wasn’t running in place, he was running with the soldiers as he conditioned them to become accustomed to the nanites they were being implanted with. But his hologram was in the briefing room with the other generals and their aides.
“They are a decent people. Who did they send?” Eolai asked.
“You knew they would send someone?” Turnball asked.
“ Everyone for three galaxies in any direction is going to send someone to you in the coming years, General,” Eolai answered. He was breathing steadily but not heavily from his exertion. “You should expect the Triumverant to send three diplomats any day now. They’ll be in three ships, one for each of the heads of state. They’ll argue with each other about the color of the firmament. My advice is to just put them all in the same room as each other and close the door behind yourself.”
“And the Acklatics? How do I handle them?” Turnball asked.
“What are they asking for?” Eolai asked.
“Normalized relations, trade, and migration,” Turnball answered.
“They want your cultural artifacts and your people,” Eolai informed him. “Not all of them, of course. But they’ll give you much for items that are centuries old with a detailed history. And anyone who migrates to one of their worlds will likely live like a king. They love Darkworlders. To the Acklatic elite, they’re like those little dogs that some of your rich women carry around in their purses.”
“Do you think that we can convince them to provide military aid, or commit to the war?” Turnball questioned.
“No. The Acklatics are pacifists,” Eolai answered. “None of the ships they manufacture are armed.”
“Wouldn’t that simply invite piracy? Don’t they defend themselves at all?” Turnball asked.
“They defend themselves with money and hedonism, General,” Eolai explained. “If a pirate becomes a problem, they simply hire a privateer to take care of the problem for them. Their space is filled with privateers who live in the lap of luxury. Their entire section of the galaxy is filled with lotus planets.”
“I see,” Turnball said. “And the Yonohoans have no problem with this?”
“They’re their own people, General. We’re not the intergalactic police state to enforce our values on others. If an entire culture wants to get high and have unrestricted orgies every night, then who are we to stop them?”
“So they’re a dead end in terms of military support,” the general said.
Eolai considered the question. “You could probably get a very fast fleet from them. They like fast spaceships. They just don’t put weapons on them, so if you want your fast spaceships to have weapons you will have to develop some yourselves.”
“Thank you, Eolai.”
“You are welcome, General. I must say I am impressed with your soldiers. We have only gone thirty miles, but I expected more to have fallen by this point.”
“They’re the best we have.”
“If they were not before, they will be when I am done with them.”
~~~~~~
By the time the nanite plague was noticed, it was everywhere.
It did not target human flesh, but rather it had a taste for computer systems. It passed through most materials without doing significant damage, but whenever it reached a holographic thinking core it went crazy, devouring the molecular circuits and turning them into a small explosive.
It hopped from station to station, arriving on sixteen different planets.
Insidious and unforgiving, the computer virus was mostly indiscriminate in its target. It would target the processor of a stuffed doll or the hardened AI core of a spacecraft. The only computers that it didn’t seem to kill automatically were the ones controlling life support systems in critical areas.
Nanite exclusion fields inactivated the particles and stopped their spread, but did not kill them. Only a kirata beam killed them. But if you’re shooting a computer with a kirata to save the data, then you’re doing it wrong.
One hundred and eight two systems were placed under quarantine.
The Tumbaruna Toko had cost the empire quadrillions of credits thus far in its strikes.
It was just getting warmed up. It intended to go very deep indeed.