“Status change,” one of the officers called.
“What happened?” Captain Moon asked, pulling her attention away from the conversation with the ship captains aboard the alien fleet.
“Aboard their flagship, a large number of pods have been ejected. They … look like lifepods, maybe? I don’t know,” the officer stated.
Captain turned her attention back to the radio she’d been arguing with the other captains and sighed. “Ladies, gentlemen, can you explain to me why it looks like you just abandoned your flagship?”
“Because a non-Yonohoan human is aboard it. The Sulivans were very brave to last so long,” Renosa answered. “It is a very difficult thing to understand if you are not familiar with the Sulivans. They are a very timid people. They love the Yonohoan people very much, but they are terrified of outsiders. The fear that a liberation swarm will appear out of the depths of the ancient past and attempt to burn them for the perceived crimes of their ancestors.”
Captain Moon paused to consider the information. “I would request several points of clarification on that statement. What are ‘liberation swarms,’ and what crimes do the Sulivans believe that they have commited.”
“To answer the second question first, they believe that they were briefly considered an enemy of humanity before the liberation. While this is technically true in some instances, the majority of humans who are familiar with the joint history of the species you call Xenosapiens Sulivans and the Yonohoan people agree that they have atoned for their crimes many times over. When the liberation swarms arrived in this sector, they examined the situation and took pity on the Sulivans rather than burning them to ash. But they would not allow the Sulivans to join the swarm, not because they were not human but because for all that they are our allies they do not really understand humans,” Renosa explained.
“Okay,” Captain Moon said. “But what did they do?”
“They created the Yonohoan people, of course. And they gave us several worlds to live on, and taught us to hunt the creatures that lived there,” Renosa explained.
“Okay. Point of clarification. How did they create your people?” Captain Moon requested.
“That is a point of some contestation. They themselves are unaware of who provided them with the genetic information that they used the create the first Yonohoans or helped them adapt us to the specific biologies of the worlds where they attempted to integrate us into the ecology,” Renosa answered. “I believe that you would call the method used to create our people ‘cloning.’ Like most of the original stock of all humans, our people are descendant from clones.”
“Understood. That explanation assists in my understanding of a number of questions that have been bothering me. Having Sergeant Cruz declare that there was a human aboard an alien spacecraft was very confusing to us. Point of clarification; why do they believe that their actions were a crime?” Captain Moon inquired.
“Because the worlds that they gave us to live on were harsh, and the tools that they gave us to survive were primitive. The animals which we were forced to hunt for food and survival were fierce and many of the early Yonohoans died attempting to feed their families, or of hunger or disease. They were intending on coexisting with us upon those worlds; however, they did not see us as equals. When the liberation occurred and they realized that in humanity’s wrath we possessed the power to wipe them from existence, they quickly repented and provided us with all of the information and technology which they had previously withheld while begging us for mercy and intercession against the swarm,” Renosa explained.
She laughed. “It is both a very sad and very funny story. There are ancient recordings of ancient Sulivans giving my ancestors a very dangerous weapon and trying to explain its use to them, only for my ancestor to use a plasma beam rifle as a club by holding onto the barel and swinging the stock. There are many instances like that, where my ancestors simply did not understand what we were being given because we lacked the context. My people had been primitives for generations. We had no written word and passed all of our culture and history on to our young through tales shared around a fire. The Sulivans did not understand why the Liberation Swarms were such fierce warriors, capable of defeating vast armadas of spaceships in combat and subjugating vast worlds with populations in the billions, while the Yonohoans would crash any aerial vehicle they were given within moments of getting it off the ground. This is despite the fact that the swarms and the Yonohoans were up to 99.8% identical on the genetic level.”
“I think I understand,” Captain Moon said. “Our people were also once considered hunter-gatherers. It might be very difficult for one of my ancestors from thirty thousand years ago to adapt to modern life. Not unless they were a child who was born in one time and raised in another. It must have been a very confusing time for both the Sulivans and the Yonohoan.”
“I am pleased that you seem to understand. Once the Liberation Swarms arrived around the worlds that the Sulivans had given to the Yonohoan people, they examined the situation for a while and realized that the Sulivans were not truly an enemy of humanity. Unfortunately the Sulivans were so frightened of them that the rejected all communication. So the Liberators landed on the planets and educated the Yonohoan children on how to use the technology which their parents had been denied. Some of the Yonohoan joined the swarms, but many stayed behind. Through the Yonohoan a peace was struck between the Swarms and the Sulivans. It was very generous to the Sulivans because the Liberators did not see their crimes as serious crimes against humanity compared to many of our true enemies. I will not tell you the crimes of some of our other enemies because they are better left forgotten. The Sulivans continue to abide by the ancient pact. It is actually very funny in some ways, because even when my people all vote to update a provision from the ancient pact, the Sulivans continue to stick to the original deal unless they see the new agreement as more punative to their species.”
“Does that not cause tension between your peoples?” Captain Moon inquired.
“Sometimes, yes. For example, no matter how we try to legislate it it remains legal for any Yonohoan to murder up to twenty Sulivans for any reason. If we attempt to imprison such a murderer, the Sulivans will swarm the prison and rescue them. But it is also sometimes very funny. For example, the ancient pact dictates that the Sulivans must make certain that our population doubles every five generations. But the Yonohoans have long felt like our population is stable, and while we love our children, most of us are content with the standard methods of birth control that are common throughout the rest of the universe. The Sulivans, however, are constantly scheming to find ways to convince us to breed. It is very fun to tease them. The first time I kissed a boy, it had nothing to do with the boy at all. I thought I had spottted a Sullivan watching us play. The boy said he did not see the Sullivan and thought that I liked him, and because I did not want to hurt the boy’s feelings I pretended that it wasn’t just because I had seen a Sullivan hiding in the bushes that I had kissed him. Many years later the boy confessed to me that he had asked the Sullivan to follow us so that I would kiss him, and so I learned that I was in fact the dupe in the entire situation. The Sullivan tricked us both into liking each other, and the boy tricked me into liking him. Only I failed to trick any of the others.”
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“Message received,” Captain Moon said, taking a few minutes to try to unpack the monologue. “It sounds like the Yonohoans and the Sulivans are very close peoples indeed. But what does this have to do with the Sulivans abandoning the flagship?”
“While we welcome you as guests, you are not Yonohoan,” the voice explained over the radio. “The Sulivans are very uncertain how to treat you. They are frightened of offending you lest you turn out to be scouts for a returning Swarm, but they are also happy that we Yonohoans celebrate your existance. Mostly, however, they are afraid because you are new and they have not known you for generations. Eolai had informed his crew that if any harm came to Sergeant Diego Cruz while he was a guest upon his ship, he would have the entire crew executed. I am uncertain whether or not Eolai was expecting them to interpret his threat in the way that they have. Eolai often thinks along strange paths and comes to conclusions which are unique to him. It is one of the reasons many of the other ‘captains’ of the defense fleet see him as our leader. It is possible that he was simply stressing the importance of his crew following his orders, but it is also possible that he wanted to be alone on his ship with Sergeant Diego Cruz. Do not worry, Eolai is more than capable of flying the entire flagship on his own.”
“Message received. Thank you for these explanations. While they are very fascinating, I believe that we should move back to the point of contention between our peoples regarding the legality of our ship.”
“As you wish, Captain Ji-eun Moon. I truly wish to communicate that I am on your side in this matter; I believe that it is your right to risk your life to bring your people screaming into the light of the universe. The issue is that your particular FTL method is one that is known to be dangerous to humanity, and it is unfortunately the first one that your people have discovered. You have yourself admitted that you know that is dangerous, and while I respect your choice to risk your life in the quest for advancing the science of your world, I am also sworn to obey the laws which govern this region of space.”
“Message received. I believe I understand your position, Renosa. I thank you for your efforts at mediating a solution to this point of contention between our people,” Captain Moon said. “I understand that you have been able to transmit data in what we call UTF-8 format. Would it be possible to transmit the relevant laws to the Seeker so that we might review them for ourselves rather than relying strictly upon your interpretation of them?”
“Most certainly!” Renosa agreed. “Please stand by.”
Captain Moon looked towards the communication specialist, who blinked at his screen. “Um, wow. They’re sending a lot of data. Our computers are struggling to keep up.”
“Do we understand it?”
The communications specialist, Antoine Muller, frowned and continued to examine what was coming in. “It’s … well, its readable. Formatting is a bit wack, but it looks like legalese to me. The problem is that there’s so much of it, and it’s coming in so fast, that it will take days to review it all.”
Captain Moon sighed. Of course they would give her exactly what she’d asked for. It was good data, probably something that they needed to get back to earth on a priority. In fact, the fact that they’d made first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization was priority data. The issue was that in order to report back to Earth, they’d have to go back to Earth, and the aliens had stated outright that they possessed the ability to follow the Seeker through subspace.
Whether the aliens were bluffing or not, Captain Moon wasn’t ready to lead the alien’s military back to Earth unprepared. She wanted to believe them that they wished for peaceful coexistence, but there were thirteen billion lives at stake. For right now, the stellar coordinates of Earth were classified secrets. She had already ordered them purged from the main astrogation programs. Their mission and their journey thus far had been backed up carefully on encrypted media, and then the main computers had been overwritten with falsefied data.
Hopefully, it would be enough to buy for time.
“Renosa, I’m afraid that it will take my people some time to familiarize ourselves with the data you’ve transmitted it does appear to be in a readable format in our language, but it sounds like its a very long document.”
“There are eight laws from three different empires which govern this region of space in particular which are relevant to the situation. In order to avoid bias, we have included the entirety of the laws as translated by our current translation matrix,” Renosa explained. “If you’d like, I can also transmit a summarization of the relevant clauses and an explanation of how they are being interpretted to apply to your situation.”
“Yes, please do,” Captain Moon agreed. “It will still take us some time to review the data, however. How long are we welcome in this star system?”
“Until the star burns out, my sister,” Renosa said cheerfully. “However, my peers and I are somewhat concerned about the health of your crew. How long can the life support sustain you? How much food do you possess? How long can your water supply be recycled? You don’t have to answer these questions if they cause security concerns, but the answers would alleviate my peers and I.”
Captain Moon glanced at her XO, who nodded her in agreement.
“Our life support units are capable of scrubbing the oxygen in our spacecraft to keep the air breathable for enough time for the fourth planet of your star to complete its orbit three times. We have enough food to last for four years at full rations. Our water recyclers are very efficient, and we have plenty of spare filters. Those do need to be replaced periodically, but under the current rate of replacement we expect to have clean water for up to ten years.”
There was silence from the Yonohoans for a moment, then Renosa said, “Well, I am relieved to know that you are not short on supplies at the moment. Hopefully this situation can be resolved within that time period.”
“I share that hope, Renosa. I really do.”