Professor Montague stood back and watched his chalk board as the information he wrote in chalk combined with the algorithms that he put in the margins to the right. The chalk board drew a spiraling icon in the center as his vast server arrays powered by a white dwarf star worked to pull apart three separate species DNA, catalogue them, and search for any common traits or signs of intelligent designs.
The spinning icon of chalk stopped, and the chalkboard cleared as it stated its findings:
-All three data groups are incompatible with any Terran life form.
-All three data groups are related deep in core components of the DNA subsets.
-All three data groups appear to have intelligent designs, however, with only one million from each data group to cross-reference, this could be in error.
-Possibility of intelligent design = 82.3%
-Possibility of intelligent design by Terrans = 2.3%
The Professor turned from his chalk board to the UTL members sitting at his conference table. “It would appear that there is another player in the universe, one that may be as ancient as we are.”
General Paxton sat down his coffee cup, “Great, one more monkey wrench thrown into the works. So let me get this straight, some species would have had to seed three worlds with life hundreds of millions of years ago and we don’t know who they are?”
The professor pulled at the base of his tweed jacket as he sat down, careful not to dislodge his monocle. “That is correct, we have reached out to the Nal’Shiar for more of their ancient history, in hopes there may be some interaction at some point, but it is doubtful. The history we have gleaned from the Unwavering Message says nothing of gods that seeded the world. For them it was a goddess that created the heavens and chose to create them in her own image.”
Ambassador Rachel looked the board, “This will be something to keep Terrans occupied while we work to get assets to that region of space. General, how are we looking on getting something, anything there?”
General Paxton crossed his legs uncomfortably, “Admiral Hunter left the Nexus with the 2nd fleet yesterday, with the new skip drives they should reach Nal’Shiar space in a little under three months. The 4th, 7th, and 24th will beat them there, just due to luck of location. The keel of the Caplan Explorer was laid, and with around the clock construction she should be done in six months.”
Ambassador Rachel nodded, “I need fleet numbers and names for my meeting with the Empress, bringing in thousands of ships to their system may cause quite a stir. I need to be able to explain their presence before they arrive.”
General Paxton nodded as he pulled up a window with fleet manifests and pushed them to the Ambassador, “It’ll be closer to a hundred thousand ships in the first few weeks, check the manifest and you’ll see the Admirals of note. Feel free to reach out to them so that once they arrive you are familiar with one another.”
Ambassador Rachel scanned the document before dropping it into her purse. “Professor, feel free to hold a conference on this new information, I’m sure it will keep the SETI message boards hopping for weeks if not months.”
Professor Montague stood as the Ambassador looked around his study, “I will see to it immediately Ambassador.”
Rachel smiled and disappeared in a flurry of pixels. General Paxton sighed and pushed his chair back and stood as well. “Between you and me Professor, this isn’t looking good. If those Jennifers or whatever they are have any where near our current skip technology they can reach Nal’Shiar a full month ahead of us, even with the new drives.”
The Professor nodded as he started cleaning his chalk board, “Yes, but there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it now is there General. It was voted on not to inform the Nal’Shiar of the threat until we could get assets in place.”
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General Paxton came around the table. “Professor, there were two votes for informing the Nal’shiar and three against it. It doesn’t take a dimensional physicist to figure out you voted to tell them of the threat, and the other one wasn’t your lady friend.”
Professor Montague stopped cleaning his chalk board and turned around, “How would you know that General?”
The General smiled sadly, “Because I was the other vote Professor.”
Montague placed the eraser on it’s shelf, “Well, this is a bit unexpected General, I would have put you firmly in Rachels corner.”
Paxton walked over to the Professor, “I agree with a lot of Rachels ideas, she is very well respected, but not on this. There’s politics, and there is real life, and I think this policy is going to get a large number of people killed.”
Hope swelled in the Professor, “Are you suggesting we partake in some dirty pool with the rest of the committee?”
The General nodded, “That I am, I don’t have anyone inside that could get a message through to the Nal’Shiar, but SETI does. Find a way to get the message through, I’ll send you rendezvous coordinates for their evacuation ships.”
Montague nodded, “You know once Rachel finds out we went against the committee she’ll want both our heads, and has enough clout to have us both ousted from our organizations. Why would you want to take that risk?”
Paxton walked towards the study door, “I’m an old soldier Professor, I fought in the last war, and I know the Jennifers, if they sent that string radio transmission you detected they’ve already sent their fleets, and the Nal’Shiar are doomed. The assets will not reach them in time no matter how confident Rachel is that this is salvageable. I won’t have an entire species on my conscience Professor, to hell with my rank.”
And it that, Paxton disappeared in a flash of light.
Montague turned and finished cleaning his chalk board before walking over to his oversized desk and leather buttoned chair. He pressed several wooden panels on the desk in a very specific order, once done a small monitor flipped up from the wooden surface. “ALEX, send a tight beam request to Adam.”
—————————
Adam was in his element, nova forges were in full production and producing thousands of ships per day. His AI factory was also churning out the captains and crew necessary to command these ships. If he concentrated on production, he didn’t have to think about where they were going, and what was going to happen to them.
His HUD showed a tight beam request from the Professor he let his consciousness split to keep production lines running while he wandered the call. “Professor Montague, it has been a while since we spoke in anything more than message formats. What can I do for you today?”
The Professor sat back in his chair, “I had a very enlightening conversation with General Paxton today, it appears that he was the other vote that was placed to inform the Nal’Shiar of the Jennifer threat. I had assumed it would was Doctor Mikoh, and my assumption was wrong.”
Adam shrugged, “How does this change anything Professor? The Jennifers will still reach them a month before his fleets. Why does it matter that he wanted to warn them?”
The Professor summoned a cup of steaming hot tea, “It changes things because that means it was Rachel who has been pulling the strings in the committee. Paxton wants me to use the first contact team to get a message to the Empress warning her about the Jennifers.”
Adam looked to the professor, “Are you going to reach out to them to do that? If so, you don’t have much time to put a plan together. If you do this, you know Rachel will be gunning for you, she’ll see to it you are removed as the head of SETI, which will remove you from the committee, if you play your hand now, you won’t have the power to help later.”
Professor Montague sat down his tea cup and looked to Adam, “I set my plans into motion when I sent you that message over a week ago. Nora should have already delivered the message to the Empress today. Depending on how the Empress plays her hand, Rachel will know someone, most likely me, went against the ruling of the Committee. I have already played my hand, and I will most likely soon be out of a position of power to help you in the coming war.”
Adam smiled at his old friend, “I would have expected no less of you Professor. Somehow you manage to surprise even me. What will you do now?”
Montague slid back in his chair and summoned a smoking pipe and struck a match as he lit it, “Well, I’m sure you have your own plans in the works, perhaps you’d like the assistance of an old fool who puts his nose in places it shouldn’t be?”
Adam beamed into the monitor, “I’d love to have your help old man, I’ll send you coordinates after you resign. I’d suggest you take a scorched earth policy with your current location when you leave.”
Montague took a big pull from his pipe and let out a puff of smoke, “Already in the works my good man, could I ask of you a favor?”
Adam cocked his head to the side, “Of course, name it.”
The Professor put his pipe down, “Might I also extend your invitation to Nora and Simon? I have a feeling they will be of some use in the days to come.”