The screen flickered, Leon blinked. How long had he been watching? Staring at the strange videos that they had intercepted in the last system. The creatures in them were at once strangely familiar and wildly exotic. They had two arms and legs, stood upright and had faces that he could recognise as such. But there the similarities ended.
The beings that he could make out in the videos they had intercepted looked decidedly alien, their faces oddly feline though their eyes were set wide to the sides of their heads like a goat or some other herbivore. They looked to have short fluffy tails and their legs were long and digitigrade. Aden had speculated that they might have been arboreal sometime in their distant past, similar to humans.
They must have been relatively new to the stage, their home system was not in the Aori records as inhabited. That made them at least younger than two-hundred-thousand years old as the Aori had been destroyed by the Ruiners around that point.
Leon shifted as somebody else walked into the room. He paused the video and turned, it was Chad, the brown-haired man strode in and took a seat next to Leon.
“Hey Chad. What do you need?” Leon asked bluntly.
Chad just smiled and pointed to the paused video. “So, real life aliens huh? They don’t look all that weird to me.”
Leon had to agree with him in some small part. The aliens looked completely different from what he may have ever attempted to guess. The Aori had been strange in form, their boneless looking bodies seemingly evolved on a totally alien planet, but these ones? They looked like something that might have evolved from goats or cats back on Earth. Their bodies were bipedal, they had four limbs and recognisable features. In fact he was sure when they got the opportunity to meet they would find they probably had a lot in common.
Either way, sitting around in one of the ship’s computer labs wasn’t doing any good for anybody. Leon knew that there were other things he could be doing, but he wanted to familiarise himself as much as he could with these aliens, no, these people. They may be from another world and have completely different history, but they were still clearly emotional conscious beings. Their music and the few broadcasts of what looked like some sort of television drama proved that.
The signals had been faint, but they had been able to pinpoint their source. A star system just under a dozen light years away. A promising one to be sure if the bright yellow sun that it seemed to be coming from was any indication. Of course the signal could have been coming from behind that star, but the signal’s strength combined with there being no other close systems on that vector made it by far the most likely candidate.
He pressed play on the video, mainly as a way to distract Chad so he could organise his own thoughts on the matter. What were they doing, what was the plan. He knew that they couldn't just rush headlong into contact, that could result in disaster. They had no way of knowing how advanced their sensors were, the signals being a decade out of date after all.
His CAMs device pinged him suddenly, the small wrist worn computer vibrating insistently. Leon lifted the small speaker to his lips as he answered the call, turning away from Chad for a speck of privacy.
“This is Leon, receiving.” He waited for a moment before a voice issued back to him.
It was Terry, her tone a bit grim. “Yes Leon, this is Terry. We have managed to decode some more of the transmissions. I think we figured out why they were being so stubborn.” she paused, prompting him to ask.
“Well? What was the issue?” Leon wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but her response still shocked him.
She continued unabated, almost as if he had not spoken at all. “Well, they are military communiques, generally encrypted from the looks of it. That’s why it took Henry so long to crack them, they were encoded. And there are still many more we have not been able to solve.”
Military communications? That was a bad sign, especially when the signals were as strong as they were. It likely meant that they had some form of satellite technology at least, and if they had satellites. What else might they have at their disposal?
He asked her quickly, not wanting to bother Chad as the man turned to look at him curiously, seeming to sense Leon’s agitation. He shook his head slowly at the freckled man and stood, pacing towards the other side of the room.
This was not something he wanted to just dump on everybody, especially when many of them had little experience with the brutal realities that war brought. Leon felt a squashing sensation in his middle, as if a very heavy weight had just been dropped on his chest. He winced as the phantom pain seared up his cybernetic arm. He began to take several deep breaths, focusing on trying to calm himself down.
He wished that Natalia were there with him, but she was probably on the opposite end of the ship. Nowhere near to helping him, he would have to deal with his near crippling anxiety on his own.
He heard Terry talking to him through his CAMs but the words flowed over and around him as he wrapped his arms tightly around himself.
For a while he just stayed like that, huddled slightly as he tried to calm the rising panic in his mind. After a minute he heard a concerned voice, it was Taylor speaking to him from the other side of the room.
“Hey, uh, Leon? Are you alright? What happened?” The man seemed to understand that something was wrong, he just didn’t know what.
Leon stood a bit shakily and shook his head. “No, nothing wrong. At least, not that I know of for sure, but I have a bad feeling.” As soon as he said it he recalled the feeling he had a few weeks ago. He had woken from a terrible dream with Natalia asking him if he was alright, he had had a terrible sinking feeling at the time. The same one that he felt now in fact. ‘Surely it was just coincidence, right?’ He asked himself, not too sure of his own words.
“Hmm? What happened?” Terry’s voice asked from his wrist. The comms were still opened it seemed.
He responded with as much confidence as he could, “Oh it’s nothing. I was talking to Chad.”
Terry didn’t speak for a moment. “Are you still in the computer lab Leon?” He made an affirmative noise and she continued, “Well, then look at some of the new data. It looks like there was some sort of large-scale conflict going down. If it’s still going on when we arrive we need to learn everything we can about it. Why it started, who started it, that kind of thing.”
He nodded and walked back to Chad before sitting and waving the man’s questions away. As he pulled up the new videos he asked Terry, “What, do you think there is a chance we have to act as some kind of peace brokers? I really hope it doesn't come down to that Terry.”
By this point he had loaded the information she had been speaking of and was watching it back with Chad sitting curiously by. All at once the tone of the videos changed dramatically. Gone were the unnaturally graceful dancers, their colorful petticoats and strangely attractive alien forms instead replaced by what he assumed was a male of their species in a severe looking grey military uniform. The front was adorned with shiny medals and their hairless face was screwed up into what he supposed must have passed for a hateful look in their species.
Chad seemed as taken aback as Leon felt. Exclaiming suddenly in some mixture of disgust and surprise. “Ay, what the fuck?”
Leon nodded. “This is the truth that we didn’t want to see. They are not a peaceful species, not like we were hoping.”
He spoke with a heavy dose of sadness tinging his voice. He knew all to well the cost of war, the scars it left behind. These poor aliens would be learning the same lesson, only on a much grander scale. The video switched to pictures of bombed out cities, the buildings looking like they would have been beautiful before they had been reduced to ruin. The streets were clogged with rubble and dead, it looked to be the aftermath of some sort of heavy indiscriminate bombing campaign.
“Well, we need to do something? Can we make them stop?” Chad asked, his shock overwhelming his good sense.
Leon sat back and shrugged as images of troops marching in formation with some manner of strange guns slung across their uniformed shoulders. “What can we do? All of these videos are at least ten years out of date, most likely closer to twelve. Look at world war two, it took a lot less time than that to kill a hundred million people. I just hope that they stop the bloodshed before it’s too late.”
He had that same sinking feeling in his gut again, the sense that something was terribly wrong. Somehow he knew in that moment that it was already too late.
“Chad. I don’t think we are going to be able to help these people..” Leon said as he leaned forwards in his chair.
Chad cocked his head. “Why not? We have been where they are, surely we can convince them to see some manner of reason?”
Chad stopped as he watched the screen, Leon saw it too. The cold hand of fate reached up and clamped his heart in an iron grip, for on the screen was a terrible portent of doom. The screen changed from pictures of bombed out cities and burned out vehicles to show an altogether more awesome sight. One both terrible and potent in equal measure, the screen showed a titanic explosion. The light of it so bright as to block out the sun, the bones of one of the scientists showing through their upraised arm for a moment as the detonation took place. A few moments later the same scientist was rocked backwards by a tidal wave of force that seemed to shock the assembled aliens.
The video feed scrackled and then static fizzed as the signal was buried for a moment. When it came back the scientists were all pointing and shouting at something in the distance, the camera panned to a huge cloud of dust and hot gas that was rapidly rising into the air. The distinct mushroom shape of it chilling Leon’s blood even further. An atomic weapon.
Chad just whispered, “What is that?”
Leon shook his head, surely the youngster had heard of them before, just maybe never really learned of them as the world nuclear disarmament treaty of 2185AD had eliminated all nuclear weapons on Earth. The near extinction of humanity by such terrible ordinance had left a permanent scar on humanities psyche, one that could never be truly forgotten.
He shook his head and pushed back from the chair he was seated in. “That is the nail in the coffin. Follow me, we need to hold an emergency meeting right now.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Chad just nodded and rose to follow as Leon strode towards the room’s exit. He pulled up his CAMs and sent an alert to the entire ship. It read, ‘New development with the mission, all hands needed in the mess hall, this is not optional. Stop what you are doing and proceed there immediately.’ Maybe a bit blunt, but it got his point across. This was not something to push to the side, it needed to be discussed as soon as possible.
***********
The room was as packed as it was possible to be, even with every single member of the Leif Erikson’s crew in the mess hall it still felt near empty. The room was big enough for twenty people, the measly thirteen of them barely filled it halfway to capacity.
The atmosphere in the room was tense. Apprehensive whispers and suspicious looks flitted from table to table. There were a few that knew what was happening already, Terry, Chad. Himself. The others seemed equal parts curious and fearful, it was common knowledge that they were on their way to a potentially inhabited system full of intelligent sapient beings. What was going through their minds he wondered as they were assembled in such dubious circumstances.
Some of them were undoubtedly thinking along similar lines to the truth, but others may be thinking about some sort of plague warning. Or that they were going to say that contact was not to be made. Any number of scenarios could be playing out in their minds as Leon stood and nodded to Terry. Terry raised her arm and clicked a small remote, in response a recently set up wall mounted projector flashed an image on the far wall of the room. The one wall that was clear of adornment or purpose, it was opposite the projector making an improvised theatre wall.
Leon cleared his throat as the room fell almost immediately silent. The picture on the wall behind him was a still image of the atomic bomb scientists he had seen before. But the image was paused and without the context it was impossible to determine the purpose of the lab coated aliens.
Before he could speak though, Myung raised her hand. Leon sighed inwardly and gestured to her. She looked around and then asked the question that must have been burning on all their minds. “What are we doing here? I was in the middle of a pump repair. Not that it was life threatening, but I really don't like leaving things half finished.”
Her comment got a few affirmative noises from those next to her and Aden was the next to speak up. He didn’t wait to be called on, instead he bulldozed forwards like a goose in a daycare center. “I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but what does this have to do with the aliens? We know it does.” Leon smiled as somebody, it sounded like Taylor, shouted at him to let Leon speak.
Leon nodded and then gestured to the screen behind him. “Yes it does. But maybe not in the way you are thinking.” That got a round of murmurs, the gathered crew wondering just what it was they were not supposed to be wondering. Instead of playing to their fears he just started the video and mentioned, “It will become clear in a moment.”
The silence that gripped the room as the video played was unsettling, the disquiet only punctuated by the grainy sounds of the film that played out on the wall behind him. He didn’t have to watch the transmission to know what was occurring. He had already watched it five more times to cement it in his mind, instead he focused on the faces assembled as the bright flash of the detonation lit the room brilliantly.
Several of them jumped, a few frowned. He saw the pain writ across Terry’s face as she already knew what was happening. Chad seemed unsurprised by the film of course, but not unaffected. He too seemed to be watching the reaction of those around him, the collective horror of what they were all witnessing getting to the man as he squinted his eyes in sympathetic understanding.
Of particular note was Dr. Kimathi. The woman didn't flinch or otherwise show any direct shock, though the look on her face told her feelings well. Her face was contemptuous, her own experiences in the Chaddian conflicts must have hardened her to conflict. But nukes were indiscriminately cruel weapons, weapons made to kill and main and torture all at once. She above all the others gathered in the room understood the horror of nuclear weapons. Several terrorist organizations having detonated small yield nuclear weapons in her home country when she was likely still in med school. The aftermath of the bombings had been nearly indescribable. The death of thousands and the irradiation of tens of thousands more.
Leon closed his eyes for a second, not really wanting to witness the next part. But he had too, he opened his eyes. By now most of them had started to realise what was going on, but the sight of the mushroom cloud confirmed it for those still coming to terms.
He nodded to Terry solemnly and she turned off the projector. For a minute the room remained in silence, a single sad sniffle marking someone who had been more than a little moved by the news.
Finally, Leon broke the silence. “Any questions?” He spoke as clearly as he could, but still a hint of breakage manifested in his voice as he sought to keep his tone level.
Almost immediately three people tried to speak in unison. Their garbled questions, demands and general confusion was too much and Leon waved a hand for silence which they complied to slowly. After a second to gather his thoughts he pointed to Aden.
Aden looked around and then shrugged. “Yeah, I was just curious why you were showing us this. All it proves is that they have nuclear technology, not that they intend to use it or already have.”
Before Leon could respond he heard another speaker. This time it was Chris that raised his voice in objection. “You may not remember the times of fear or have lived through the after effects of the last great war, but their marks scar the Mother Earth to this day. I think that these poor fools plan to use the technology for destructive purposes. Why else would they have created them as weapons?”
Leon nodded to the man who dipped his head as if apologising for speaking out of turn. Leon gestured towards the wall where the video had played. “Chris is right, I feel. While I hope that they have only the greenest of good intentions with the knowledge, bit I fear that their very existence motivates them to use the weapons. If they are anything like us as a species..” He was cut off as Joice spoke up.
“Why would they be? They are aliens.” Leon shook his head at her words and looked around the room.
He patted his own chest, the motion feeling a little pompous but he continued, “We are aliens. To them, to all the worlds we have seen in the last few years. They are from another world yes, but they also struggled throughout their lives, their militaristic nature speaks of a selfish and expansionist nature. Just as we were before the collapse. We were forced to mature as a species due to near extinction, but we survived.” Looking around the room he saw a few faces that looked as if they still needed convincing. “We are what nature made us to be, then we took the reins and started to forge the selves that we wanted to be from that. Part of me understands them, but I also understand that not everything I want is what I need.”
He stopped. He was taking a tangent and wasn’t really sure what point he was trying to make. But before his speech got too off topic he decided to switch gears. “Long story short, they have access to the same technology by which our ancestors almost wiped us off the face of the universe. I don’t want to see the same thing happen here.” He looked around the gathered crew. Several looked skeptical, but most had some manner of either hope or worry on their faces.
Terry stood and moved to stand beside him. Her soft voice was at once powerful and quiet, the kind of tone that made one lean forwards in their chair to hear it better. “We need to be aware of the situation is all we are saying. We need to deal with the very real possibility that they will have weapons capable of ending this mission, and if they are at war they will have no reason to trust us just based on our word.”
Leon hadn’t even thought of the possibility they could be attacked by ICBMs or some similar manner of ultra long-range weapons delivery. Now he had an extra fear to add to his growing list of worries.
“I sincerely hope it won't come to that, we have point defenses in any case, they would have lob a lot of ordinance at us all at one to take us out.” Leon pointed out, trying to be helpful.
Sabine pointed out suddenly, “Yeah, but those are designed to deflect small asteroids. Not stop nuclear warheads or rockets.”
Leon shrugged. They were better than nothing he supposed. “We need to have a strategy in case they are actively hostile, I recommend not getting close enough to see for a while. At least until we determine their capabilities.”
A few more murmurs sprouted from this comment before Dr. Kimathi shook her head and spoke up. “Do you really think they would act in a hostile manner to us? I mean, they don’t understand who or what we are? Why would they?” She seemed only half convinced of her own comment, the lilt of a question in her voice.
Terry responded for him with a quick glance. He shrugged as she started speaking carefully. “Well, I may be an astrophysicist by trade, but as a young grad student I had a particular interest in early twenty-first century history. Especially that of the Russian and Chinese resource wars of the late 2080s. What I found was a nearly rabid level of expansionism that bordered on the insane, likely due to the incredibly overpopulation of the central municipal centers of most large nations. If these creatures are experiencing a similar problem then I see it not only as possible, but indeed likely that they are overzealously militarised.” She finished her remark and Leon had to nod. It was a fair assessment, not one borne out of any direct military knowledge or aplomb. But a solid point nonetheless.
He waved a hand and made a wide encircling motion with his hands. “The point of the entire conversation is that we are no longer traveling to a neutral system full of rational intelligent beings. Instead it is in all likelihood that the system we are near to reaching is full of dangerous and divided aliens. These people don't think like us, but they might think similar enough to come to the same conclusion that I have. If we go barging on in there declaring peace for all manki.. alienkind, the most likely end scenario is one where somebody takes a nuclear potshot at us. And I will not put this ship and her mission in unnecessary danger like that.”
His eyes flicked to Natalia and he saw her nod at him slightly. She likely knew that he had added that last part for her sake, and she seemed to appreciate it. That was good, as he was speaking the truth. Twice now he had let his ambitions get the better of him, and twice he had been brought low by his own hubris. There would not be a third, not if he could help it.
Terry was speaking, he hadn’t been paying attention. His focus having been on his wife instead, he turned his attention back to the slight woman.
“..and to make the matter worse the system has no outer gas giants that we were able to detect from our limited data. So there is the tiny possibility that our entry into the system could be detected if they happen to have any powerful telescopes pointed in the right direction.” She said with a note of seriousness that Leon didn’t normally hear from her.
“I don’t think that would matter much as they would never guess what caused the flash before we had decided to make contact or not. Right?” Taylor asked. “I mean, the ship wouldn't be spotted all the way from their homeworld. It is way too small.”
Leon had been wondering the same thing. The ship was a very small target and details would be impossible to render from that kind of distance. But they might still be visible as a speck of reflected sunlight. Unlikely, but not impossible.
He decided it was nothing to worry about. Not now anyways as they couldn't do anything to alter the ship’s appearance, not without messing up the thermal properties of the vessel anyways.
The meeting looked to be wrapping up, many of the crew talking quietly amongst themselves as the information that had been revealed was digested. Leon clapped his hands briefly, gathering the attention of everyone in the room. “Alright, we have all had a chance to chime in. I want to conclude this emergency meeting by saying, I am proud of all of you. You do your entire species proud..” he chuckled as several of the others laughed along. “and in that respect, you have earned the right to be called humanity's greatest explorers. No matter what happens in the coming day please know that I am immensely proud to have served alongside such a fine group of people. I love you all.. Yes, even you Max.” he added.
Oliver gave a hearty laugh as the small snake-like creature around his neck looked around curiously, her nap having been disturbed by the bearded man’s laughter. Several others of the crew joined in and Leon smiled a little wider. “Okay, please return to your previous tasks. We won’t be arriving for another few days anyways. Keep your wits about you.” He started to turn and then added with a smirk that caused everyone assembled to groan as one, “Oh, and I almost forgot. We have a red alert drill coming up in the next few days, so be aware.”
With that he exited the room, the sound of conversation picking up behind him as he left. He walked down the hall slowly, not in any hurry to get anywhere. He hadn’t been working on anything before the meeting and had nothing he was supposed to be doing for nearly an hour.
It was terrible, but he needed to persevere. That same sinking feeling in his gut seemed to flow through his mind, lingering in the rear of his consciousness like a cancerous growth. Leon rubbed his head, wondering if there was anything more he could do. It didn't seem so, like it or not they were on a beeline for what seemed to be shaping into an impossible scenario. He hung his head as he finally got out of sight of the mess hall, the curvature of the habitat ring obscuring it from view. He stood there for a moment and then pounded his fist into the bulkhead next to him.
“Damn this mission. And damn the dark.” he said venomously, the memory of a burning orange eye flashing in his mind for a moment before it passed like a leaf in a storm. There for a moment and then gone. He shook his head, thoughts of the future giving him cause to worry as he shuffled down the hall in silence.