Jupiter Station- Ankyros
2 hours later
Kevin Finally managed to calm himself down. The retired military experimental pilot had been hyperventilating for the past hour after entering the command center at the station. They had forced him to sign an NDA just for this situation before they would tell him what happened but once they did, oh boy was it worth it.
Aliens. Genuine evidence of life outside their system, outside their own evolution, and they were heading here! Apparently, they detected the spool up and hurried here, sitting just outside the Oort cloud right now. Communication was rough, just using basic mathematics principles in a sort of weird language, but they were actually conversing with sapient beings besides humans!
"Think about it Jess, genuine aliens! maybe this will get the rest of the world off their ass and join the U.S.U.N!"
Jess, however, the brown-haired woman of Asiatic descent, had a frown on her face as she straightened out her military uniform, giving Kevin a look he had come to know all too well as the stern woman focused on him.
"You're assuming a lot, aren't you? We have no confirmation whether they are friendly or not and from what I can tell, their tech is at least several centuries more advanced than ours. Never mind the fact that we haven't worked out a way to communicate with them yet besides math equations if they even want to. They could be just as likely to be assessing how easy we would be to exterminate or subjugate Kevin."
She sighs as she places a hand on her face, eyes closing and face scrunching in aggravation.
"And here I am having to babysit a 53-year-old manchild with enough augs to shut down half a city. What deity did I piss off for this."
"Aw come on Jess, you know you love me, you did say yes, after all," Kevin says with an impish grin as he wraps his hands around her, pulling her in close for an intimate hug. "Besides, I am the one who helped you fast-track your little project engine, after all, tying it into the advanced cloaking test site." He says as he backs away and grabs an apple from the bowl and takes a bite. "Besides, what's life without a little adventure"
"Really? I thought you'd have enough of adventure after your little stunt in Cambodia." Jess says with a smile as she grabs the apple from him and takes a bite. "Or was getting shot in the ass by a rogue drone not exciting enough for you, Mister."
"Yeah yeah. But you patched me up, just like you always do. Maybe later we can patch up a little so-"
"AHEM." A man walking in coughed loudly to grab their attention. "Before things get out of hand, shall we begin or will you two need some privacy?" the man said, an admiral by rank and dress.
Kevin immediately stands at attention, mostly out of habit. "Sir, No Sir!"
"At ease Kevin. You're not in the military anymore and you're a friend. You don't salute me anymore." He says with a sigh and a slight smile before switching back to 'official' mode.
"Still, do try and keep it together. This is as serious a situation as we could think of. Unknowns on our doorstep with vastly superior firepower. Dr. Jess. What have we found out so far?"
"So far Admiral, not much. Their technology is so far ahead it's difficult to get a grasp on most of what they have. And we thought our tech on the falcon was bleeding edge. They make it look like a playtoy, sir. From what I can tell? Lasers, plasma, huge power signature, and something I can only assume is a more advanced version of our experimental FTL engine." Jess says, looking over the minimal specs they had been able to find out on the ship.
"So almost nothing...Good thing I called in reinforcements." the admiral said."When she gets here I want you two to fully cooperate with her. I don't care what you have to do, get me a line of communication and as much information as you can."
Kevin and Jess looked at each other before responding.
"With all due respect sir, we are on the most advanced military installation with the most advanced military think tank ever. Who the hell could you call in to help?!"
The admiral smiled "Amelia Ryder, Mr. and Mrs. Ryder."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S.A. Adjutant
Sol System- Oort Cloud
Captain Isht'il couldn't believe his luck. Not only had he had to breach the quarantine to possibly prevent the sapients from destroying themselves, but they were far more advanced than their first transmissions indicated. He assumed it was because of time that the radio waves and such required to travel, but still, this was at least 300 years faster than he had expected yet from what they could tell its been only about 100 since the date of transmissions they had found left. To progress so fast was almost unheard of, combined with the fact that they were not only surviving a class 4 deathworld but actually thriving on it was shocking enough. But the most shocking was that they were neither a prey descended species nor a predator alone, but from what they have been able to see through their net, were at one time prey who then became something they called persistence hunters. Predator species were rare enough to gain sapience, and normally were obligate carnivores what were pack hunters in their distant past, but these humans were...different, he couldn't quite tell why but he felt it.
"Quixar?"
"Yes Captain?" the axon said.
"Have we heard back from SC regarding initiating emergency first contact procedures?"
"They are...still debating it sir. It seems reaching a consensus will be difficult. Sir, theres one other issue."
"What is it?"
"These hoomans as they call themselves, have went on what appears to be their equivalent of high alert. We have detected an absurd number of radioactive signatures on their planet, suggesting tactical payloads. I believe they are using decoys to hide the actual locations but suffice it to say, they have noticed our presence and are scared."
"hmm." He said, pondering for a moment.
"Tell the council I'm invoking a priority two emergency first contact."
"Sir?"
"They've already detected us and are scared. We have to initiate first contact or risk turning them xenophobic. And considering how quickly they advance in tech, it wouldn't be long before that became a disaster. Contact the human station and send them directions on how to build a subspace communicator. And a sample of Galactic standard for them to translate."
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Yes Sir...but..Sir, are you sure its wise? they are deathworlders."
"All the more reason then."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amelia sat in the shuttle heading to the top secret station with an aggravated expression.
"So, wanna tell me exactly what's going on? You wouldnt call a Terra Firma unless you had solid evidence." She said coldly to the general who eyed her with what she now realized was quite realistic prosthetic eyes.
"Approximately 2 hours ago, sensors picked up a large mass appearing outside the oort cloud, near where our long range observation satellites were positioned. Its a ship, one of nonhuman make, and far more advanced than any of our bleeding edge tech. And they haven't said a word besides some simple math equations."
Amelia thought for a minute. Ordinarily she would burst out laughing if someone told her that, except for the fact that she knew the consequences for falsely calling a code terra firma. "Alright, that still doesn't explain what you want from me."
The general sighed, opening a dossier.
"Amelia Ryder.
Age: 26
Gender: Female.
Daughter of Kevin and Jess Ryder.
I.Q.- 196
Degrees- Master's in robotics, quantum physics, quantum computing, aug mechanics, Bachelors in biochemistry.
Served: 7 years.
3 years in air force then another four in Redacted.Huh. Even I don't have clearance for that I suppose.
Commendations are longer than your list of degrees and yet you were dishonorably discharged just under a year ago.
Reasons: redacted as well.
Commanding officer: redacted.
Military training: redacted.
Military deployment: redacted.
Half your entire service record is hidden behind more red tape than even I can get behind and you wonder what use you can be." He gave a small chuckle at that.
"It's simple. Help establish communication, assess threat level, neutralize if possible using any means necessary. If not, you are to find out as much about them as possible and relay that information to me at all costs."
Amelia grimaced. "And if they are friendly?"
"Then it's simply a security measure before establishing diplomatic relations."
She thinks for a minute, then slowly responds. "You want their tech."
He only gives a knowing smile as confirmation.
"And what happens if your little scheme causes them to turn hostile." she argued back
"Then your mission stands. I wanna know who they are, how many there are, what their technology is, and any weaknesses they have."
"I left for a reason, Mcdunough. I'm not one of your military puppets anymore."
"Be that as it may, I have leverage." he says, looking at Hal still on her arm with a smile.
She gives him a furious look. "Are you sure you want to go that route?"
He ignores her, however.
"We'll be docking in a moment. Oh, I forgot to mention, good luck with the reunion."
------------
30 minutes later they arrived at the station, docking went smoothly and Amelia found herself in a meeting room with her mother, father, an Admiral she didn't intend to show she recognized, and that piece of shit General as they brainstormed how to make contact.
As this was going on, a lieutenant entered the room.
"Sirs, Ma'ams. We just received information from the unknown. It seems like instructions on how to build a device but its...well.more complicated than I've ever seen."
"Give it here." Amelia says, sighing as she grabs the pad out of his hand looking it over.
"No..wait. yeah thats right, and then that must....ah i see...so then this must....oh this is brilliant!" She says, a smile on her face like a giddy schoolchild's.
"Well, don't keep us in the dark hun." Her father replies with a warm smile which earns him a glare. She had refused to talk to both of them the entire time.
"It's a design for a communication device, but it uses Quantum physics in order to create a self contained gravitational wave that travels through space at superluminal speed."
"In english, please." The general said irritatingly.
"It allows instant communication by bypassing relativistic limits. Its ingenious and I'm guessing a requirement for their communication systems. Seems they want to talk after all." She says smugly to the general.
"How long would it take to build?" The Admiral asked.
"By myself, about 4 hours. If I had help from someone who can keep up...maybe half that."
"Good, you'll work with your mother to build it. Your pet there can work on analyzing their language for translation." The general says, interrupting what the Admiral was going to say.
"Hal is NOT a pet!" She responds angrily.
"Ms. Amelia, please calm yourself, their words did not offend me." Hal said in response as a single "arm" reached out to hold her reassuringly from his armband form.
"That's because you're a good person Hal." She sighs, calming down
"Whatever. you have a lab I can work in or do you expect me to make this out of toothpicks and string?" She said while looking straight at the admiral, who for his part did look slightly apologetic, but said nothing to the General for his outburst.
"Here, I'll show you the way, c'mon Mimi." Her mother, Jess said while ushering her out.
Once out of earshot Amelia would sigh. "People like that is the reason ADAM went rogue.seeing AI as pets, only machines, not as people."
"Let's' just focus on our work right now." Jess said.
"Mom do you even realize what they actually want? more weapons, more tech to keep their superiority over the rest of the world. They arent ready for that tech, and i told you that before you stole my designs for the fold drive."
"I did NOT steal them young lady!" jess said looking shocked.
"Then what do you call stealing my project hard drive and making a copy. If it wasn't for the worm it had I'm sure you would've gotten more."
"Amelia...these base plans came from the U.S.U.N. All I did is modify them a bit and build it."
"..... let's just get to work." She said, opening up the workstation to get to business.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back in the lounge
"If it wasn't for the designs in her head and the civil war i'd have shot her for insubordination!" the general said in fury.
Kevin walked up to the man, looked him up and down, sighed, then punched him hard enough to dislocate his jaw before grabbing him by his uniform and pushing him against the wall, raising him high enough that the general's feet left the ground.
The MP nearby moved to fire but the Admiral raised his hand to call them off.
"Kevin, I understand you're pissed, the imbecile threatened your daughter. but we don't need to take this any further right now, do we?"
Kevin looked the general in his eyes, the aug implants in Kevin's arm whirring as they overrode the normal limits on his muscles and injected stem cells to repair the damage automatically. Pulling the general close enough that their faces were inches apart, he looked at the fear in the general's eyes with the divine fury of a father protecting his young.
"If you EVER, threaten my daughter again, I'll rip that lying tongue out of your mouth and shove it so far up your ass your grandchildren will be tasting your shit." He said before throwing him to the MP.
"Sorry Mike. But the bastard threatened my daughter." He said to the admiral as he pulled out a smoke and lit it.
"I understand Kevin, but we both know your little girl can take care of herself. After all, she was in-"
"Don't...don't you dare Mike. not right here, not right now. She's been through enough from the mil without that getting out here"
"Right. sorry. Let's go get a drink while they work, yeah?"
"Yeah...lets."