The Terran Commonwealth was an interstellar entity based in the Sol system, located inside the exclusion zone within the Orion Spur. They were one of the largest single-species territories encountered by the Interstellar Hegemony and the most distant from the core worlds. Occupying a large volume of space within a ten-light-year radius, they resided in a low-density stellar area and colonized twelve star systems. Besides Mars, the trinary star system of Alpha Centauri hosted the only two extrasolar planets that were capable of being made habitable by terraforming.
Due to population pressure and the extreme lack of viable habitable worlds in their immediate vicinity, the Commonwealth focused on the creation of habitats on planets unsuitable for terraforming and in space. They built domed cities on the surface of lifeless planets and moons, underwater metropolises, hollowed out large asteroids, and constructed O’Neill cylinders.
Marshalling their inherent technical skills and engineering abilities, the Commonwealth was able to utilize the total resources of fourteen solar systems within its territory and colonize the large volume of space they occupied. The ability to adapt to a myriad of living conditions allowed the Commonwealth to support a population of more than 100 billion humans, despite the stellar desert they found themselves in.
The first contact between the Commonwealth and the Interstellar Hegemony occurred in the Gliese 65 system during Earth year 2314 A.D. and was quickly followed by diplomatic exchanges. Cultural and scientific advisers soon followed, which enabled technology transfers and medical advancements to be disseminated.
The establishment of integration centers and embassies on habitats built by the Commonwealth in Gliese 65 to accommodate Hegemony officials and their staff further accelerated exchanges. Little information has been found regarding the cause of the Schism of 2318 and the subsequent collapse of diplomatic relations between the Terran Commonwealth and the Interstellar Hegemony.
All records of the events were purged from Hegemony databanks, and there were no records to be found in the ruins of the Commonwealth after the Great Betrayal of 28 A.C. despite numerous expeditions by data recovery specialists and government fact finders.
-Neo Commonwealth Almanac, 3rd Edition.
41 years prior to pup
Ross 154 System-Earth year 2335 A.D.
CSN Heavy Cruiser Cicero
“Sir, SIGINT is picking up multiple messages, both on tight beam and subspace radio.”
Captain Hendricks walked over to the communications station and set his coffee down on the beverage console. “What do we have, Ensign?” he asked, leaning down to look at the results of the comms AI analysis.
“Captain, the AI is indicating the source of the signals is 1.2 parsecs from our location and has assessed a 94% probability of those signals bearing a Hegemony origin. The source is directly outside of the exclusion zone, sir."
“Hegemony? What the hell do those assholes want?”
“Captain, I have no idea.” The ensign responded. Hendricks rolled his eyes and stood up. “I was talking to myself, Ensign." Hendricks studiously ignored the blush creeping up the ensign’s neck, walked back to his seat and sitting down. “What does the message say?” The ensign resumed querying the AI and shortly turned around with a confused look on his face.
“Captain, the AI is still running the translation software, but indications are that the messages are in a language that was not included in the original translation matrix the Hegemony provided us. Also, the mathematical formulas being sent to us are derived from the octal numeral system. Base 8 math, sir.”
The Comm AI chirped, and the ensign turned back around. “The AI has finished translation, sir. Putting it on speakers now.”
An AI-generated approximation of the message came out of the bridge speakers. “Greetings! We come in friendship and wish to meet your herd. We are the Yiel’oh, and we are on a long-range scout ship outside your exclusion zone. Please respond.”
“Sensors, focus all scans at the origin of the messages and tie into the border detection network as well to boost our gain.” The captain called out. "Aye, sir,” the sensor tech responded. “Connecting to the border detection network and scanning the signal origin now, sir.”
After a couple of minutes, the sensor tech overlaid the local star chart on the hologrid in the CIC, and both she and the captain walked over to it. “Sir, this is what we have. Here is where the signals are originating from.” She pointed at a flashing icon located in the void between star systems. “However, sensors were not detecting any ships in that location. After conferring with my AI, it was recommended that I remove the background cosmic radiation filters, and the scout popped up on our sensors.”
Hendricks furrowed his brow and stared intently at the blinking icon on the hologrid. “Is this a form of stealth or cloaking? What are we looking at, lieutenant, because the Hegemony definitely did not share that type of technology with us, right?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The lieutenant looked at the hologrid and started walking around it. “I don’t think so, captain. I think they wanted to be found by us but not detected by others. It was easy for the AI to analyze the problem and give us a solution. If they were really hiding from us, I don’t think we would have found them so quickly.”
Hendricks was thinking the same thing, but he was glad the lieutenant came to the same conclusion. “So, they don’t want the Hegemony to know they are here; is that what you are saying?” Hendricks looked at the lieutenant quickly before looking back at the flashing icon as she replied. "Yes, sir, it wouldn’t be difficult to spoof those old Hegemony sensor buoys by blending in with the background cosmic radiation. Frankly, I’m surprised they are still working at this point.”
Hendricks continued looking at the blinking icon and made his decision. Dismissing the sensor tech, he walked back over to the comm station and grabbed his now-cold coffee. “Ensign, get me a line to fleet command, priority channel one. Include a data packet of all bridge logs from when we first received the messages until now. I’ll take the comm link in the wardroom and go ahead and wake up Commander Jackson and tell him to get his ass down here.”
“Aye, sir.” The ensign swiftly started the necessary procedures for opening a priority one comm signal to fleet command while murmuring to his AI to comm the first officer to wake him up. Hendricks shook his head and laughed as he walked away. The ensign had no idea how much the commander hated being woken up by an AI. Thirty minutes later, Captain Hendricks was sitting in the wardroom with a pissed-off Commander Jackson, waiting for the priority one channel to connect while they ate sandwiches. “What do you think, Commander?”
“I think these yellows better be worth all the trouble they are causing.” Jackson grumbled, adding more pickles to his already disgusting abomination of a liverwurst sandwich with salami and sweet pickles. Hendricks replied with a noncommittal grunt, suppressing the urge to gag as Jackson took a huge bite of the sandwich.
“Yellows?”
Jackson answered. “Yi-el-oh? Yellow? C'mon, captain, it’s just easier to remove a vowel and be done with it.” They both laughed and continued eating. Five minutes later, the comm line beeped, indicating a secured connection had been made. “Are you ready for this, Captain?” Jackson asked. Hendricks answered immediately. “Hell no. Considering what happened after our first contact with the Hegemony, this is one shit sandwich I am not willing to take a bite out of. I’m kicking this up the chain of command and finishing this tour, nothing else.”
“Captain, I understand where you are coming from.” Jackson hesitated for a few seconds before pressing on. “Those Hegemony assholes wanted us to kill our AIs and suggested that we start culling our population and instituting strict birth control measures as a condition for integration and further technology transfers, on top of limiting our exposure to their other members. We only met two member species out of the thirty-eight they claimed to have had. Maybe this species is sick of their shit too, and that’s why they are here now reaching out to us.”
The comm line beeped again, and they shared a look.
The captain sighed and thumbed his imprint. The comm beeped, then queried his voice code. “Captain Hendricks, seven, three, one, one, alpha, seven, four, four.” The comm beeped twice, and Hendricks flicked the commlink onto the wardroom holoscreen.
An admiral appeared on the screen, glancing around to take in the wardroom. Satisfied that there was no one else in the room, he turned his gaze to Hendricks and Jackson, nodding to them both before he started speaking.
“Captain, I have read the bridge log reports you transmitted. After conferring with the chiefs of staff, we have decided that you will enact first contact protocols and attempt to engage in diplomacy with the scout ship. We need to gather intelligence about the situation in the Hegemony and the galaxy at large. No technology or cultural exchanges; just talk to them and feel them out. If things go well, then we will send more qualified first contact personnel to take over for you.”
“Admiral, I would like to respectfully request that another ship be sent here to initiate talks with the-“
“Captain Hendricks,” the admiral interrupted, “we are bursting at the seams here, and we need to expand, or we will wither on the vine and die. The War Department has revised estimations and concluded that we will have no choice but to breach the exclusion zone in the next five years, which will necessitate a military response from the Hegemony. We have been building a fleet for such an eventuality, but the wargaming projections of such a conflict are catastrophic, and both the Commonwealth and the Hegemony will lose. No one will win. We need to find a better way.”
Hendricks sighed and looked at Jackson, who gave him barely perceptible nod. “Admiral, I will do my best and report back to you after the initial contact has been made.”
The admiral smiled and said, “Captain, I know you will. I wish you good fortune in this endeavor. Sullivan out.” The admiral ended the transmission, and the holoscreen defaulted to the emblem of the Commonwealth Space Navy.
Hendricks got up and started walking towards the bridge. “Let’s go talk to some yellows, Commander.” Jackson took one more bite of his sandwich as he grabbed his coffee, and followed Hendricks out of the wardroom. They entered the bridge and headed over to the communications station.
“Ensign, please open a channel to the scout ship and broadcast the contents of this data chip.” He handed the data chip to the ensign, who inserted it into a slot on his console and opened a channel to the scout ship with both tight beam and subspace radio frequencies. Hendricks and Jackson both took their respective seats and started catching up on their never-ending paperwork. A few minutes later, the ensign called out, “Captain, they have received our message and wish to initiate visual communications. They have sent technical details to allow for our communications gear to initiate handshake protocols with their systems.”
“CyberSec, how are we looking?”
“Captain, there are no indications of malicious codes. The firewall is active, and my AI concurs that there is no threat,” the specialist responded, giving a thumbs up. Here goes nothing, the captain thought to himself.
“Open visual communications, ensign.”
“Aye sir.” The ensign initiated the link and flicked it onto the bridge holoscreen. There was a momentary blip of lines of code across the screen as the handshake protocols were enacted, and then the Yiel’oh appeared on the screen.
There were a few quiet gasps of shock from the bridge crew, and Jackson quietly muttered “Holy shit!” before he caught himself and clamped his mouth shut. They were looking at a goddamn, real-life centaur.