They had been informed that the submission had to be verified, but it would take three months before they could get a response. Humans had set up a substantial communication infrastructure with twelve communication stations sitting in orbit in a parallel plane to the solar system. Each of these stations had quantum entanglement communication (QEC) links connecting them to the other eleven stations.
QEC stations were expensive and had very limited bandwidth. Each bit of information required a pair of entangled particles and a device capable of reading and modifying the pair. A message could be sent to one of these stations, which would then instantly pass it to the station closest to the destination, which would then relay the message to its final location. These systems allowed messages to be delivered to Mars in a short time frame, but processing still took considerable time.
The twins had decided not to wait for verification and to head for Mars straight away. They had finished their courses in the NGSS pod and were no longer having their growth accelerated, as the system was only designed to accelerate growth to the apparent age of ten.
The twins were in the process of being lectured by Zero.
“Remember, I can’t come with you, as the Council has deemed humans a ‘race of potential,’ and all higher races must not interfere. Remember, there is to be no use of field manipulation once you leave this ship. I haven’t informed anyone of your existence, and if you manipulate the fields, the Council’s detectors will locate you.”
The Watcher sighed. They don’t realise it yet, but this is probably the last time we will see each other in the near future. I hope they can integrate into society.
Over the last year and a half, the boys had developed both their battle suit and their personal ship. They still had to follow Zero’s rule and use only technology that humans had access to.
Their ship, the Aethon, had significant upgrades over standard merge ships. It was powered by a large antimatter reactor instead of the standard fusion reactor. It was also surrounded by a plasma shield, similar to the one they used in their battle suit.
The twins had used the knowledge gained from studying the voice of the universe to create an alloy using currently known elements that reduced the effect of mass and gravity fields. This new alloy made the ship lighter and less affected by inertia, meaning the pilot could remain conscious during high-speed maneuvers.
They had also increased the efficiency of their constant acceleration engine. In total, they had created a ship capable of safely traveling at twenty percent the speed of light. The best ships humans had created could only travel at seven percent the speed of light and had to be careful with acceleration to avoid endangering the merge pilot, even within their pods.
The boys were ready and eager to begin their journey to Mars.
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As the Aethon followed the standard trade paths, its appearance was causing distress throughout the upper echelons of various human factions. Each faction had spies and sensors scattered throughout the solar system and had been continuously sending back information on the unknown object via their emergency QEC devices.
Each faction believed it was an advanced prototype that had escaped from a research facility belonging to another faction. Earth believed it was Martian, the Martians thought it was from the Lunar faction, and so on. The ones who needed to make a decision were the Martians.
Tracking its path, it was clear the object was heading toward Mars.
The Martian military scrambled its merge ships, forming a blockade in outer orbit.
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Mars Orbital Station – General Alexander’s Office
General Alexander sat in his office aboard the Mars Orbital Station, deep in thought.
These scans don’t make sense.
It looked like a Martian design, but it was moving far quicker than anything he had seen.
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Even the black projects from other factions didn’t have anything close to this.
Its trajectory suggests it came from the deep Kuiper Belt…
Could there be a hidden base out there?
Aboard the Aethon
Infy was keeping track of all the sensors when he noticed the blockade.
“We have a problem. There are a lot of ships on our current course.”
Null frowned. “Why? Do you think they’re here to welcome us? But how did they know we were coming?”
“I don’t know, but we are currently traveling at 0.17c (c = speed of light), and even if we start decelerating now, we won’t be able to stop in time,” Infy replied.
The twins decided to start the deceleration and plot a path around the blockade.
The Martians had never seen anything resembling the Aethon before, and they had seriously miscalculated its stopping capabilities.
They sent a message to the ship, requesting it stop and submit to being towed to the orbital base.
Although they could see the ship slowing down, it was still travelling at a significant speed when it reached the blockade.
“Sir, we just received a reply from the unknown ship,” the communications officer reported. “It says, ‘Cannot stop, please move.’”
General Alexander was faced with a difficult decision.
If we let it go and it’s hostile, we won’t be able to stop it. We don’t know its military capabilities. Sorry, whoever you are, but I can’t risk the settlements.
“Send a new message,” he ordered. “Tell the unknown ship it must increase its deceleration or we will open fire.”
Back on the Aethon
Null and Infy received the new communication.
“I don’t understand. Why are they threatening us?” Null asked. “Infy, can we increase the rate?”
“No, we’re already pushing the limits. The flight plan was designed to stop in low Mars orbit. The only way would be to use the fields, which we can’t do.”
“Remember, Zero told us not to harm anyone. We’ll just have to try to avoid getting hit,” Null said.
As the Aethon approached the blockade, General Alexander gave the order to open fire and deploy carbon nanotube nets.
He watched the battle unfold, hoping the ship didn’t take too much damage so they could study it.
But the results were unexpected.
The railguns and nets had no effect. The ship’s active shielding repelled the rail slugs, and the nets were torn apart as if they weren’t even there.
“Sir, reports from the blockade. The ship has some kind of active shielding, and it just broke through the net like it wasn’t there.”
General Alexander’s eyes narrowed.
“Activate the orbital defence systems. We can’t let it get any closer.”
“Sir, the ship is slowing down and has sent another message.”
“Please stop. We are stopping. We have come to participate in the YSC.”
General Alexander struggled to process what he had just heard.
They’re… children?
“How many are aboard?” he asked.
The officer hesitated. “Unknown, sir.”
“Place the defence systems on standby. If they stop in time, escort them to dock.”
The Aethon was guided to the orbital base, where it was immediately surrounded by Martian soldiers.
As soon as Null stepped out of the merge pod, soldiers rushed toward him.
“P-Put your hands up!” one of them shouted.
Null blinked in confusion.
“Infy… I don’t know what he’s saying.”
It was at that moment that Null realized—he had never spoken to another human before.
All their communication had been neural-based or text-based, automatically translated by Zero’s systems.
And worse…
He physically couldn’t speak.
Panic surged through him, resonating with Infy via their shared soul.
Then a soldier grabbed Null’s arm—and training took over.
The scene in the dock descended into pure pandemonium. Null and Infy, along with their suit, were more than a match for the soldiers surrounding them. Using their enhanced speed, they quickly dashed to the nearest soldier and, with a solid kick, broke his leg at the thigh. Activating their tower shield, they turned on their non-lethal stun glove which was a new addition to the suit suggested by Zero.
Infy quickly calculated the optimal path, minimizing risk while maximizing efficiency. Null dashed along the route, using his tower shield to block incoming attacks while his stun glove took down soldiers one by one. Everything was going smoothly—until he encountered the fifth soldier. No matter what Null did, he couldn’t land a hit.
What Null didn’t realise was that he was now facing one of the trainers responsible for the super-soldier system he had been raised with. This isn’t right… He moves like he’s completed our super-soldier program… but I know all the students. John—one of the program’s elite instructors—assessed the situation in an instant. Sorry, kid. This is going to hurt. Using superior experience and training, John swiftly countered Null’s movements and knocked him out cold.
Realising they were at a disadvantage, Infy immediately activated the emergency protocol that Zero and the twins had designed. Since he was linked to both the ship and the suit, he initiated lockdown mode. The Aethon was instantly wrapped in its shielding, while its outer hull became electrified to prevent further interference. The battlesuit self-destructed, releasing canisters of strategically placed acid, ensuring it couldn’t be reverse-engineered. The antimatter reactor collapsed in on itself, rendering the suit’s technology completely unusable. Infy had executed the plan flawlessly. Now, all they could do was wait for what came next.