"'Take the internship,' they said. 'It'll be fun,' they said..." Sam muttered to himself as he pushed away from his desk and got out of his maglev chair. Walking past the countless holographic projectors that lined the desks of the control room, the young man seemed to be making a bee line for the food synthesizer. Being that there never was anything of much importance happening that the United Earth Space Command was concerned about outside of routine cargo shipments and passenger craft, this control room, along with a hundred others around the globe, stayed silent. The only thing in the room that could keep Sam vaguely entertained were the constant flurry of multicolored trials and dots on the screens lining the room that marked the plethora of objects breaching Earth's atmosphere.
With a thought, Sam brought up the clock on his retinal contact terminal; 10:53 PM. Alright, just another hour and seven minutes until he can head home. It's a good thing he bought a nano-patch earlier today so that his body would repair itself and balance its hormones without requiring sleep. Then again, after having been awake for three days, the nanites from the patch were beginning to biodegrade. Nobody said this internship wouldn't be demanding. What has he been doing for three days, you may ask?
The planetary defense system in the year 2097 consists of 103 relay satellites in relatively stationary orbit to one another. In the event of a declaration of war either by or on planet Earth, the satellites are capable of using their neutron array to ionize the air between them and arrange the molecules into a rigid crystalline structure that spans the entire globe, capable of deflecting 3.8*10^19 joules per square kilometer; enough to effectively nullify even a fusion bomb detonated directly above Earth's atmosphere. In order to activate such a massive array, the UESC has a series of dedicated quantum computers capable of decoding the initiation sequence code given the key from the Prime Minister.
However, as of midnight approximately four days ago,all of the satellites above the European Commissariate mysteriously went offline, rousing susicions of an attack by the Forthmen, a radical anarchist group that surfaced after the unification of the world's governments during the climate crisis of 2060. It was obvious that there was a widespread quantum disturbance, as only devices that relied on quantum entanglement were rendered unusable. Quickly, the system was rebooted and the satellite circuitry replaced. In the following hours, both cyber and physical security was beefed up at federal institutions, and that included atmospheric traffic control centers; one of which Sam was interning at. Sadly, the shipment of security drones that the facility ordered wouldn't arrive from Luna until next week. So, while the higher ups were figuring out something for Sam to do, he could suffice as a security guard in the meantime.
That brings us to today or, rather, tonight. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Sam was shaken from his thoughts by the piercing alarm. Sliding open the molecular compartment of the synthesizer, he reached in and pulled out a decent helping of fettuccine alfredo along with the generic white plate it was manifested in. Welp, it's time to get back to work; that game of chess wasn't going to play itself, even though it technically could.
As Sam sat back down in his chair and began establishing a neural link to the internet, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a red flashing symbol on the holographic monitor in front of him. Quickly swallowing his last bite of pasta, he put the plate down and expanded the alert. What could this possibly be? A perimeter breach? Maybe some sort of high-priority email?
One could say that Sam was closer with his former guess, as the screens around the room made an abrupt transition to display one of the colonies on Titan; Endeavor. Furthermore, there was a red figure outlined above said colony. With his curiosity piqued, the young man zoomed in on the figure with the holographic display in front of him. What used to be a red dot soon became what looked like-
"A ship?" Sam blurted out in nobody's presence. At least, it looked vaguely like a ship. It was certainly no design that Sam had seen before; too elegantly curved to be Terran, yet too impractically designed to be Martian. The thing looked like an anemone; countless spindly limbs protruded out from a spherical center, any of which posed an obvious lack of structural integrity. Wanting to know more, Sam was quick to bring up various newsfeeds on the monitor in front of him. As his fingers whirred away on the holographic keyboard and the air in front of him was cluttered with browser windows, his suspicion was piqued. Not a single news broadcaster was even mentioning this rogue vessel above an inhabited planet.
Perhaps this was some sort of top secret government operation that Sam was only able to witness because he happened to have access to a federal facility. Regardless of how he was seeing something that no other cvillian knew about, there was nothing he could do. With a sigh, he sat back down in his maglev chair, picked up his bowl of pasta, and stared at the object highlighted in red as it made its way across the surround-screens and, apparently, Titan's orbit.
The red dot in the sky was back, only, this time, mankind was not going to let it go.
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Vek-shuul's anticipation grew with every step he took through the ship. Having been captain of this ship for more than 2,000 cycles, he knew his way around quite well, swooping through the narrows halls engineered to optimize space for the survey ship's long-range sensors and their respective generators. His neck frills we expanded to encompass almost the entire circumference of his head, a blatant display of his excitement. His six limbs carried his swiftly through another series of narrow corridors, lit only by strips of hyper-heated carbon. Finally, he reached the door to the bridge. As it de-materialized and the captain climbed the ramp leading into the command center, the expansive bridge itself was revealed. Six data analysis terminals lay in a hexagonal formation, looking in every direction from the center of the completely transparent semi-spherical chamber. Currently, with how the ship was oriented, the briddge's ground was parallel to the surface of the moon beneath them. Vek-shuul's presence was obviously noted as the six data analysts that manned each station promptly stood up and crossed their fore-limbs over their chests and bowed their heads toward the captain.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Be relieved, brothers." Vek's voice rang throughout the bridge, allowing the recruits to return to their jobs and the rhythmic beeps of computer prompts to fill the air once more. Vek-shuul made his way to the chair at the center of the hexagon and sat down, drinking in the beauty of his species' home galaxy once more. With a flick of his wrist, he motioned for his chair to initiate its antigravity, allowing him to float up into the semi-sphere and gaze below the horizon. However, he wasn't the only one who was able to enjoy this emulated immersion in deep space as his crew was quick to follow, circling around the bridge and performing system checks before the captain's inevitable next move. One of the recruits turned around in his chair and addressed the captain.
"My liege, subspace accelerators have been primed, inertial dampeners are at full capacity, and equipment has been secured. We are ready to move into observation," he stated.
Vek-shuul looked down and nodded. As he returned his gaze forward, he eagerly anticipated what was about to come into his view. His crew had been chosen to perform the progress cache of the genetically-engineered species known to his own species as Neuros. Granted, it has only been 5 millennia, so that was not the entirety of what had Vek so excited. On their way into the system, the crew had noticed peculiar heat and energy signatures from stellar bodies within the system that had no atmosphere at all. The only plausible explanation for this was, of course, that one of the hundreds of thousands of civilizations that had been seeded by Vek's species had expanded to this system undetected! Thus, it was unanimously decided to kill two birds with one stone and see what was happening elsewhere in the system, saving the most exciting inquiries (the homeworld of Neurons) for last.
In the midst of the captain's flashback, the ship's tendrils were storing energy and beginning to luminesce, indicating that the subspace accelerators had successfully gripped onto the fabric of the third dimension and were beginning to produce thrust. The captain's train of thought was broken as the twinkle of the night sky was drowned out by the light pollution that came into view. The grin on Vek-shuul's face only grew wider as the surface of the planet could finally be seen. The ship stopped rotating when the ground of the bridge was perpendicular to the surface of the planet, and the lights of the metropolis that was once beneath them now filled the frontal vision of the crew members; The crew members who were now all facing the same direction with gaping maws.
"H-how..." a recruit could not help but inquire.
"It's magnificent! Energy usage readings are in the terawatt-hours! M'lord, th-this is beyond the capabilities of any cataloged species," another practically involuntarily chimed in.
"Wait, look! Those... those are-" another recruit began, but was interrupted by the captain.
"Space elevators..." Vek finished. Space elevators had been deemed an engineering impossibility tens of millennia ago when the strongest material to date was invented -- graphene. It was simply too expensive to produce and, although space elevators would ultimately decrease the rigors of surface-to-space transport, the construction of such a massive structure was deemed practically facetious by most. Now, of course, a majority of the captain's species resides in higher planes of existence as pure energy, but seeing a civilization achieve something that they could not was completely unheard of.
"Permission to launch drones for aerial surveillance, milord?" the same recruit inquired.
"Granted, but do not fly below 80,000 epsels. On that note, uncover all close-range telescopes and focus them on that city. I want as many pictures as you can cram into those storage drives." Vek quickly commanded.
"Of course, my liege." the recruit replied before a dozen meter-wide probes were magnetically accelerated into orbit around Titan. Around the dome of glass that made up the bridge's structure, holographic screens popped up displaying the enhanced views of the moon's surface.
After observing the complexity of the city beneath them for a mere second, the captain looked down towards another recruit, similarly busy at his data console. "You, transmit a message to Supreme Command. Tell them that we seem to have found a... wha..." Vek-shuul trailed off as he noticed that the screens which once displayed elaborate vehicles and massive spires piercing the non-existent sky of the moon, connected to sprawling metallic complexes were now pitch black.
"I-it seems that our drones have lost connection, sire," a recruit sheepishly admitted.
"All of them?!" Vek suddenly uproared, causing all 6 of the data analysts to recoil in their seats and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"I b-believe that they were struck fr-" one analyst began, but was interrupted by another.
"My liege, we are receiving a transmission through short-wave radio! Really... short-wave radio. I don't think we've seen any signal as complex as this before, my liege!"
Vek-shuul's blood ran cold. It all made sense now; These are beings capable of interplanetary travel, so it would stand to reason that they may possess the technology necessary to detect object entering high orbit. They must have seen the drones as some sort of threat and seen no choice but to neutralize them. How foolish Vek and his crew had been. He gulped. "Intercept the transmission."
"My apologies, but our computers must figure out how to make sense of these waves." the recruit kurtley replied, a bit embarrassed at the apparently superior communication capabilities of these supposed primitives. The next two minutes were spent in near silence as blood pressures continued to climb with anticipation and the whir of the hard drives scribbling magnetic notes filled the chamber. Vek had some time to ponder.
Who were these people? They certainly weren't his own species but they had a technological understanding that rivaled his own, going so far as to surpass them in certain areas. There had been no words of such a species. Granted, these people may simply be a rogue faction of his own species, but then why would they opt to inhabit the same system as the Neuros? Were they simply a highly interested faction that wished to sacrifice their upper dimensionality to observe the real-time progress of the Neuros. Still, the designs and constructions... they were so massive and, quite frankly, alien in design. The modular manner with which things seemed to be attached to each other and the slick yet stately angles had not existed anywhere in the architectural history of Vek's species.
The captain's train of thought was, once more, interrupted as the screens around the room rematerialized and displayed the message. It seemed to be a video that was, somehow, transmitted through radio waves. As the picture began to form in front of the crew and captain, everyone's jaws dropped. In front of them, obscuring their view of the alien settlement, was the face of a human. The cherry on top was the audio that began to play. Apparently, they had managed to teach our computer their language through the waves, as well.
"Greetings. If you are able to understand my voice, then you possess a computing device capable of discerning our technology. It also means that you are the first interstellar entity to make contact with humanity. My name is Michael Sherwin, the prime minister of the United Terran Federation, and I would like to welcome you to the Sol system."
Vek and his crew were speechless. On the bright side, it seemed that Project Genesis was a success.