Commander Jacobson
The air inside the spaceship was cool, with a slight humidity, but not too much. I sat in the cockpit of the shuttle, silently floating around in zero G. It was a treat for me to be floating around like this, mainly because most spaceships nowadays have artificial gravity in one way or another. This time was different because this was a stealth mission, and stealth craft tend to cut down on any electronics that could possibly be detected, and being detected was the last thing that we wanted in this situation.
Three years back, a colony on Callisto, a moon of Jupiter, intercepted some stray radio signals that, when we finally deciphered them, pointed to life outside of our solar system. And it didn’t just point to one sapient species out there, it pointed to a wide variety of them! The moment that we had realized what we had found, we threw parades and celebrated the fact that we weren’t alone in the dark. The fact that the aliens looked like squids from the intercepted signals was just a sidenote that no one even paid attention to.
It even got to the point that world governments gave the UN, later renamed to United Terra, more and more power until there was virtually no conflict on the entire planet. World peace, and in my lifetime too! I never thought I would live to see it.
But I digress. The peace had ushered in a golden age of technology, and we developed things only dreamt of in science fiction. Artificial gravity, autofabs, and even mechanized robots that could do the literal heavy lifting for us. Sure, the idea for the mechs was created a century or two ago, and saw limited use fifty years ago, but the models that we have now were more advanced than anything that we had produced before. And the best part was that, like most military technology, it was made available to the public.
But the most exciting thing that was done was the completion of the jump drive, a machine capable of getting us anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of minutes. With its completion and successful test run, it was finally time for it to be used in the single most important thing that humanity had ever done. That is, getting a close look at extraterrestrial life. I heard my copilot, Lieutenant Sandra shuffle some emergency supplies around as we made our final preparations to leave the shipyard orbiting Luna and make our way to our designated jumping point.
She finally made her way into her chair, and I was able to get a good look at her. Her long brown hair was pulled into a tight bun, and the spacesuit that she was wearing blotting out any other defining characteristics that she had. “We’re about to make history, eh Commander?” she said with mirth in her voice.
I gave a warm smile. “I’d be surprised if people didn’t consider this history making material Lieutenant.” I turned on the comms array. “This is Stealth Craft Rabbit’s Foot, all systems are nominal, and we are a go for launch.”
There was a moment of silence before we heard Command getting back to us. “Copy that Rabbit’s Foot, you are cleared to launch. Set heading to 35.67.”
“Copy Command, setting heading to 35.67,” I said as I plugged the numbers into the navigation computer.
“Confirmed Rabbit’s Foot. Just remember, this is a recon mission and you’ll be well out of communication range, so no causing intergalactic incidents while you’re over there,” command said with a bit of humor.
“Copy Command, we’ll be on our best behavior,” replied Sandra with a laugh.
I felt inertia tug on myself for a moment as we rapidly approached our exit vector. “Say, Command, do we get to say something cool before we get this party started?” I asked as we heard the rumble of the jump drive spooling up.
“Only if you want to,” came the reply from Command.
I paused for a moment, trying to think of anything cool to say at all, but my mind was completely blank. I started to sweat at the possibility of not saying something when inspiration finally hit me. “It has been said that one small step for man is a giant leap for mankind. I am more than confident that humanity can leap far enough to keep up with the massive step that we are taking today.” I paused for a moment before adding, “And hopefully these aliens are ready for company, because ready or not, here we come. Do you have anything to add, Lieutenant?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I think you’ve said enough for the both of us, so let’s get going!” she said, excitement evident in her voice.
The shutters for the windows started to block our view of space, because we probably would have been blinded by the flash of light that was an unfortunate byproduct of activating the jump drive. There was the sound of the drive finally firing, and we shot off into deep space. We only spent a minute with the jump drive active, and somehow, through means that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand, shot out of the solar system and halfway across the galaxy.
As the shutters retracted into their places, we were suddenly treated to the sight of a whole new solar system, one that seemed to be the origin of the signal that we had intercepted. We were just outside of the orbit of the outermost planet orbiting a red sun, that was immediately categorized by the virtual intelligence of the craft. While that was going on, any passive and active monitoring system was intercepting and cataloging all radio frequencies that we were encountering, which were, not surprisingly, a lot. This only supported the theory that these aliens were about the same technological level as humanity was. This was good news if we had to go to war with them, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
I checked the diagnostics system of the ship. It looked all green, and I reveled in the fact that this wasn’t going to be a one-way trip. “Holy shit! It worked!” I said with glee in my voice. I turned to my copilot and saw that she was deep in the radio transmissions we were picking up.
“Never mind that it worked, look at the data that we’re getting! There is no way that this is a hoax from bored teenagers on Callisto! We have definitive proof that aliens exist!” she said while trying not to squeal in delight.
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We were allowed some measure of celebration before the harsh synthesized voice of the craft’s VI suddenly cut us off. “Warning: unknown ship approaching from the starboard bow. Ceasing active scanning of system is recommended.”
We both looked at each other wide eyed as we quickly shut off the active scanning systems. It was only a second later that a massive ship, perhaps the size of New New York, maybe even bigger made its way into our viewport before stopping short by a mile.
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Security Specialist Drask
I was lounging in one of the many heated pools that we had aboard the Protective Spirit, casually using my tentacles to create small waves that agitated the water in an entertaining way. Sure, I was supposed to be on shift right now, but nothing happened here on the edge of charted space. Being a security specialist here was about as pointless as having a flamethrower in the ocean. But it was still necessary as this system was home to a colony that we had set up on the fourth planet from the sun, and we didn’t want pirates to prey on our citizens.
I was taken out of my musings and revelries when I suddenly heard my communicator go off. I audibly groaned at the prospect of talking to people right now. I flipped open the communicator with a spare tentacle and said, “This is Drask.”
“Hello Drask,” came the voice of my supervisor. Suddenly, I was very interested in the conversation. “We have had a report from the sensor staff that there was an extremely bright light in the system that needs to be investigated.”
I groaned. “Can’t they just take care of it? Why involve security in this mess?”
“Because they’re saying that they can’t find anything on their sensors besides the original flash of light. They’re asking one of us to suit up and find out what it was.”
I groaned again. “And why do I have to do it?” I asked.
“Because you’re the closest one to the airlock, and you’re the only one not doing their job right now. So, get out of that pool and get into a void suit, otherwise I’ll have to cut your pay and ban you from the relaxation pools.”
My half open eyes widened in response to the threat. I couldn’t care less about the cut in pay, I save way too much for it to matter, but the threat of being banned from the pools was far worse. I would dry out in a day! “Copy that, sir!” I said as I surged from the pool and to the airlock.
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Commander Jacobson
We sat there in stunned silence as the massive ship silently hung above the Rabbit’s Foot. There was no contest of who would win this fight if we were discovered. And that wasn’t even counting the massive guns that I could clearly see on the ship. Thank God for the stealth tech that we have on this ship. And thank God for the paranoia of people that made that stealth tech possible. I finally risked saying something. “Do you think they’ve spotted us?” I asked my copilot.
She shook her head. “If they had spotted us, I think we would have been targeted by at least one of the weapons systems of that ship, not to mention a possible hail that we would be receiving.”
I nodded. “You’re probably right. Let’s just hang around for a couple more minutes and observe their communications before we get the hell out of here.” So, there we sat, silently watching the computer systems parse through the data that we were intercepting. It wasn’t long before we saw a hatch open on the belly of the ship and out came a massive thing with ten appendages. The overall mass dwarfed even our craft. We watched in horror as it slowly made its way over to our position. “What the hell is that thing?” I asked no one in particular.
“It may be a drone or ship of some kind, but if it is, then why is it shaped like that? Surely there are better and more efficient designs for those things.” Sandra said.
I was going to open my mouth to say something, when suddenly, the VI said, “Detecting radio frequencies from unknown contact. Translating, please stand by… Translation available: Proceed?”
“Proceed,” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.
Suddenly, a voice that neither one of us thought was human boomed in the cockpit. The translation software for one reason or another gave it a male sounding voice. “Damn Command making me go out on a spacewalk looking for some stupid flash of light. I have more important things to do!”
A second voice came out of the speakers. “Cut the nonessential chatter Drask, otherwise I’ll have to go through on that threat to dock your pay.” My eyes widened in horror as I started to put two and two together and grabbed my tablet.
I didn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation as I furiously scrolled through the information that we had on this species. I skipped the information about what they called themselves, and how they communicated and went straight to the pictures and video that we were able to decode. Wait, that can’t be one of them. I wordlessly passed the tablet over to Sandra. “Please tell me that you’re seeing what I’m seeing. Barring that, tell me that I’m crazy for even thinking this.”
She looked at the picture before returning her eyes to the viewport. She did this a couple more times, eyes growing wider with every repetition. “That can’t be, life can’t even exist on the scale that we’re looking at! It must be a drone or something!”
I shook my head. “If it were a drone, then why would we be hearing this conversation? Why would the thing there be referring to it as a spacewalk, implying that it’s only in a spacesuit as opposed to a spacecraft? And besides, life on Earth is a sample size of one. We can’t expect every species out there to conform to what we think is possible.”
Her eyes widened some more. “Then this changes everything. We’ve got to get this information back to Command,” she whispered. She was of course referencing the fact that all the species that we had video of from their own broadcasts were as large or larger than the squid ones that apparently lived in this system.
I stared over at what I now assumed was the alien as it continued to monologue to what I assumed was his superior about how there was nothing out here. It was close enough to see that it was writhing its appendages in what I assumed was frustration. “Well, we can’t exactly leave with that thing out there to see us leave!” I said as it stopped about a quarter of a mile from us.
Sandra nodded. “We’ll just have to wait for it to leave before we go. But let’s keep the jump drive warmed up just in case it ends up seeing us somehow.”
I nodded and said, “Good idea. Let’s just hope it doesn’t stay out here for very long.” And with that, we started to play the tensest game of hide and seek either one of us has played.
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Security Specialist Drask
I must have been floating in the void for about five minutes as I visually scanned where the flash of light supposedly came from. I groaned in frustration as I flipped on my communicator. “Sir, there’s nothing out here, not even an asteroid to take pot shots at. I’m going back inside.”
A sigh came from the communicator, and my supervisor said, “Fine, but I expect a detailed report from you when you get back.”
“Yes sir, you have my word.” I shut off my communicator as I silently floated back into the airlock, took off the void suit and resigned myself to filling out paperwork for the rest of my shift. I was halfway through the first line when I got another communication request from my supervisor. I groaned in frustration as I accepted the call. “What now?” I asked with perhaps a bit too much venom in my voice.
“There was another flash of light in the same place, and we need you to investigate it again.”