19:56 (Universal Time)
Thursday, December 20, 2317
Inside the alien ship
Surface of Eris
‘’What do we do now, Tina?’’ Asked anxiously Maria Perez as she picked herself up heavily from the deck. Tina and Vincent Reed also had to strain themselves to get up with their spacesuits in the 1.3 artificial gravity they now felt.
‘’We stay, wait and observe for the moment. Tina to Jim: start climbing back to the level of the exit airlock and be ready to evacuate the ship on short notice. Take your time to climb back up, though: no sense in exhausting yourselves by climbing those twelve levels all at once under this 1.3 gravity.’’
‘’Are you kidding? I would have a heart attack if I tried to climb all those levels in one shot. I am on my way up now.’’
Tina then looked again around her and saw that all the control stations now sported lit displays and indicators. The red light from the ceiling lamps gave an eerie aspect to the room, attracting a comment from Maria Perez.
‘’This red lighting seems to be the standard lighting for this ship, instead of being just some emergency lighting system. This may tell us that those aliens come from a solar system with a red star, possibly a red dwarf.’’
‘’Great! This would include about two thirds of all the stars in our galaxy. You are however probably right about your assumption, Maria. If that’s the case, then those aliens will literally see things in quite a different perspective from us. Continue monitoring the changes in environmental conditions.’’
‘’Well, the air pressure and composition has not changed from what we detected on our entrance in the ship. However, the ambient air temperature is continuing to climb quickly and is now at minus 84 degrees Celsius.’’
‘’Then, we should be able soon to open our visors and breathe the ship’s air.’’ Suggested Vincent Reed. ‘’That way, we could save on our spacesuits’ air reserves.’’
‘’NO!’’ Countered at once Maria Perez. ‘’We have no idea of what the germs we carry could do to those aliens if we spread them by breathing around this ship. I advise a total biological separation from any alien until we know more about their morphology and immune systems. I also advise that we decontaminate our spacesuits on return to the KOSTROMA: this biological danger could work both ways.’’
‘’I agree.’’ Said Tina before switching on her ship’s frequency. ‘’KOSTROMA, this is Tina. All our people entering and exiting this alien ship will follow full decontamination procedures on return to our ship. The same will apply to all the equipment brought inside this ship and to both the inside and outside of our shuttles.’’
‘’Understood, Tina.’’ Answered Dana Durning from the bridge of the KOSTROMA. Tina was then quiet for the next few minutes as Maria Perez kept monitoring the ambient conditions. Jim Lowell came back on the radio seven minutes later, sounding exhausted and panting.
‘’Tina, this is Jim… My group is now back near the airlock. I must signal you that, while the air in the machinery spaces and the central spine hub have been warming up, the air on the decks with sealed sliding doors is still at minus 224 degrees Celsius. Karl thinks that this is due to an intentional alien procedure to keep at freezing temperatures the levels used possibly for cryoberths, in order to save energy.’’
‘’This could mean in turn that only a select few crewmembers are meant to be reanimated first on arrival in our system, in order to assess and select their final destination.’’ Added Maria Perez. ‘’Once a definite landing point would have been reached and declared suitable for life, then those select crewmembers could start reanimating the rest of their people. That is a classic scenario often discussed in the past about possible interstellar travel.’’
‘’Hum, you are probably right.’’ Said Tina. ‘’How soon do you think those select crewmembers could start awakening, if they are indeed in cryogenic hibernation?’’
‘’Not before the ambient conditions on their deck level are back to normal, at the least. The whole thing is probably managed by a special computer program. However, awakening from cryogenic sleep could take hours for those aliens. All our own studies on that subject pointed to the need for a very cautious and gradual awakening process.’’
‘’Then, we may still have hours before any alien shows up. Let’s use that time to continue exploring this deck and the decks above us.’’
Tina, followed by Maria and Vincent, then left the bridge and went to check on the other compartments on their present deck. They found in succession what appeared to be some kind of crew lounge or cafeteria, thirty empty crew cabins, a storage room full of alien clothes sealed in plastic bundles and boxes and a circuitry room. The last compartment they visited on this level was actually a suite of interconnected rooms that awakened Maria Perez’ enthusiasm.
‘’This looks like the ship’s infirmary: look at those anatomical charts on the walls and that examination table. This is a fantastic find!’’
Accompanied by Tina and Vincent, Maria approached one of the wall charts, which showed the anatomical structure of an alien creature, and examined it avidly.
‘’This is fascinating! Those aliens are utterly different from us, but they are still quite fair-looking. From this chart, I would also say that they are probably hermaphrodites, with sexual organs for both impregnation and gestation. Look at this penis just above a kind of vagina connected to a uterus.’’
‘’So, everybody in their society could screw anybody else then?’’ Said a bit crudely Vincent Reed. ‘’That could make relationships among their crew, uh, interesting.’’
Tina winced at Reed’s remark but kept her eyes on the anatomical chart of the alien. The creature depicted on it had two strong-looking Z-shaped legs ending in wide, duck-like feet. The torso, short in proportion to the legs, supported two strong arms with four-digit fingers, with a long, relatively thin neck supporting a head with a voluminous cranium. That cranium was however stretching to the back, rather than up, with a long, slender snout and a small mouth. Two large eyes were positioned behind the snout, under a prominent brow ridge that also featured a pair of nostrils. The head was completed by a pair of long, slender ears pointing up that reminded Tina of the head of a deer, but with a large brain. There was no hair or fur visible on the whole body, whose skin was of pale brown color. Maria then pointed at the internal organs, visible on the chart.
‘’From the arrangement of their digestive system and from their dentition, I would bet that those aliens are vegetarians or herbivores. All this is incredible! I’m going to film this and retransmit the pictures at once to the KOSTROMA.’’
‘’Good idea, Maria. These pictures will certainly be part of the report I am going to send to Callisto once back on our ship. I can already imagine the kind of shock and sensation this will make on Callisto and the rest of the Solar System.’’
Vincent Reed gave her a cautious look then, speaking in a subdued voice.
‘’Well, let’s hope that all the reactions will be positive ones, Tina.’’
‘’What do you mean, Vince?’’
‘’What I mean is that, if we can’t even live in peace among ourselves and tolerate each other, what could be the reaction of some to those aliens coming here? I can bet that a few idiots will scream about an alien invasion or some other stupid fear.’’
‘’Hum, I hate to say this but you may be right about that. However, any decision concerning how to relate with those aliens will be way above my pay grade. The only thing that I can ensure by myself is that we cut the possibilities of any misunderstandings to a minimum. Let’s see what the rest of this infirmary has to show us while Maria takes her pictures.’’
The next rooms connected to the examination room proved to be a kind of medical laboratory and a small ward with six empty beds. The ward’s aft wall was actually a transparent partition with a large sliding door. Approaching it and looking through the transparent pane, Tina nearly jumped back and gasped audibly on seeing what looked like three robots of undefined functions moving around a double row of coffin-like metal boxes on pedestals. There was a total of thirty boxes, each easily big enough to contain an alien like the one depicted on the chart she had just looked at.
‘’MARIA, YOU BETTER COME HERE, QUICKLY!’’
‘’What? What did you find, Tina?’’ Said Maria while starting to walk towards the back rooms.
‘’I see thirty alien cryoberths, with robots active around them. I think that we just found the initial contact crew of this ship.’’
Stopping by Tina’s side less than twenty seconds later, the doctor looked with wide eyes inside the room containing the coffin-like boxes.
‘’Oh my god! They are in the process of being reawakened.’’
She then tried to open the sliding door by approaching it, the way the doors had been sliding open in front of them inside the infirmary, but the door stayed closed. Her attempt however triggered a kind of sound alarm accompanied by the rapid flashing of a blue luminescent panel near the frame of the sliding panel.
‘’Damn! What is happening now?’’
‘’We must have triggered some kind of alarm system.’’ Said Tina, now tense. ‘’Since this reanimation process is certainly a delicate operation, I suppose that any unauthorized presence near the reanimation room would trigger some kind of response. That’s it: we’re leaving! Let these aliens wake up undisturbed by us. We will reassess our approach to them as things happen. Jim, this is Tina: evacuate the ship now! KOSTROMA, have the digging crews pull out with all their equipment and return to the ship. However, tell them to leave our portable airlock in place. I am now withdrawing as well.’’
‘’What is happening, Tina?’’ Asked the voice of Dana Durning, alarmed, on the radio.
‘’The aliens are starting their reanimation process, that’s what. Make sure that everyone that went inside this ship follows the decontamination procedures on return to the KOSTROMA. Tina out! Maria, Vince, let’s get the hell out of here!’’
23:17 (Universal Time)
Residence of the Governor of the Jovian System
Callisto Prime, Callisto (8th moon of Jupiter)
Jovian System
Janet Robeson was very un-governor-like at the time, wearing only her night gown and sitting in her favorite sofa with her feet up while listening with her husband Gerald to some classical music in the lounge of her residence. She was doing her best to relax after a long day of work when her wrist communicator vibrated, signaling an incoming call. Sighing with frustration at what was probably another work related problem, the solidly built sixty year-old woman opened the link and saw the face of some duty officer of the Spacers League Administration on the tiny screen of her communicator.
‘’Governor Robeson! What is it, mister?’’
The man, who appeared and sounded agitated, answered her in quick words.
‘’Sorry to disturb you at such an hour, Governor, but we just received a top priority encrypted message from the KOSTROMA, around Eris.’’
‘’And?’’ Said a bit impatiently Janet.
‘’They found an alien spaceship buried in the ice of Eris, Madam Governor.’’
‘’WHAT?’’ Shouted Janet, making her husband jump in his easy chair.
‘’An alien ship, madam. That ship appeared dead at first but, when a team entered it to explore it, it came back to life. While no actual direct contact has been made yet between crewmembers of the KOSTROMA and those aliens, the team that entered that ship saw enough to convince them that the ship comes from another star system. The report from the KOSTROMA includes still pictures and videos taken inside the alien ship. Should I relay that report to your residence, Madam Governor?’’
‘’Yes! You have the code for my secure home terminal?’’
‘’We do, Madam Governor. I am sending you the file right now.’’
‘’Thank you! I will go review it, then will call you back to initiate any action needed. We will probably have to call an emergency meeting of the Spacers League Council about this. However, keep this piece of news under tight wrap for the moment: we don’t want all the yahoos in the Solar System to start panicking about this.’’
‘’Yes, Madam Governor!’’
As Janet closed the link and was getting up from her sofa, her husband looked at her with curiosity.
‘’What’s up, Janet?’’
‘’Something that words can hardly describe. Come with me to my private study: we have to view something together. Put the music on hold.’’
‘’Uh, okay!’’
With her husband in tow, Janet walked quickly to her study and sat behind her big work desk, then powered her secure computer terminal. Gerald stood behind her, looking over her shoulder, as she opened the file sent by the duty officer. Both looked and listened in silence at the video report from the KOSTROMA, specially shaken by the pictures showing the alien anatomical chart in the infirmary of the unknown ship and by the view of the rows of coffin-like cryoberths in the process of reactivating. Gerald Robeson was the first to speak at the end of the report, his voice weak.
‘’My god! After so many centuries of hoping to find life in other solar systems, we finally get visitors. What will you do now, Janet?’’
‘’This is too big an event for me to decide alone, Gerald. Besides, we still know too little on these alien visitors to make intelligent decisions about them. Did they come as visitors, as invaders or as refugees?’’
‘’As refugees?’’
‘’Yes! We don’t know yet how many of those aliens are aboard that ship on Eris. They may very well be fleeing from a devastated home world, with the hope of finding a new world to live in.’’
‘’And what could have forced them to flee their world? A natural disaster? A giant asteroid strike?’’
‘’That, or a war.’’ Replied glumly Janet. ‘’We need more information on those aliens, and quickly. Hopefully, Captain Forster will manage to tell us more soon.’’
10:20 (Universal Time)
Saturday, December 22, 2317
Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
In orbit around Eris
Tina was trying her best to hide her growing impatience as she watched from her command chair the various sensors displays around the bridge. Since she had full confidence in the competence and diligence of her bridge specialists, she knew better than harass them every five minutes with questions about the alien ship. It had been over a day and a half since she had to exit that ship in a hurry, yet there had not been any external sign of life or activity from the alien ship since, not even a single radio signal. Not wanting to waste precious time, Tina had ordered the surface survey teams to resume their work studying the dwarf planet and selecting the best spot for the research station whose modules were still carried by the KOSTROMA. In the meantime, dozens of scientists had been poring over the pictures taken inside the alien ship, with the medical specialists and biologists paying a lot of attention to the pictures of the anatomical charts seen in the alien infirmary. Those pictures, apart from telling a lot about the aliens themselves, also had helped to start building a written vocabulary of the alien language, using the written words connected to the various parts shown on the charts. That written list of alien words was however still very limited and tentative.
One of the surface planetary survey teams had just reported that it was moving to a new location when Anwar Duharto, one of the two communications and sensors specialists on duty, jerked in his padded, crash-resistant seat, then shouted in Tina’s direction.
‘’CAPTAIN, BLINKING LIGHTS HAVE APPEARED ON THE EXTERNAL HULL OF THE ALIEN SHIP!’’
Herself straightening up in her command chair, Tina looked in the video screen that kept a view of the alien ship on it and effectively saw blue and green blinking lights now faintly visible through the thick ice covering it.
‘’At last! They have awakened! Watch for possible incoming radio signals from the alien ship.’’
‘’I am on it, Captain.’’
Less than one minute later, Duharto spoke again in an excited tone.
‘’We are now receiving a video signal on our main ship to surface frequency, Captain. It is from the alien ship. Putting it on your main viewer.’’
‘’Thank you, Anwar!’’ Replied Tania. ‘’Make sure that everything is recorded from now on.’’
Looking down at the display screen attached to the left armrest of her chair, Tina saw a still picture appear on it. It showed the alien ship, but not in its present ice tomb. Rather, it was sitting on a sort of landing pad in a plain bathed by the rays of a red sun in a pink sky, with buildings visible in the distance. Tina understood with a shock that she was seeing it as it was prior to launch on its home world. Two small groups of alien symbols then appeared on the picture, just above the image of the ship. Five seconds later, those symbols started blinking at the same time as a voice started repeating at five second intervals two words.
‘’Veon Shouria… Veon Shouria… Veon Shouria…’’
The still picture changed half a minute later, to show an alien standing on the launch pad, dressed in a sort of white coverall and carrying what looked like a tool belt. One group of symbol appeared above the alien and started blinking five seconds later, as the voice started repeating one word.
‘’Koorivar… Koorivar… Koorivar…’’
The still picture changed to a moving video film another half minute later, showing first a close-up of the big rocket exhaust nozzle under the ship as it erupted in blue flames. The view then switched to a more distant one, to show the ship as it flew off its launch pad to climb skyward. The view then changed again, to that of a view from orbit of a beautiful planet as the alien ship was speeding away from it. Again, a single group of symbols appeared on the video, accompanied by a single, repeating word.
‘’Shouria… Shouria… Shouria…’’
‘’The Koorivar have left their planet, Shouria, on their ship, named ‘VEON SHOURIA’.’’ Whispered to herself Tina, nodding in appreciation at the clever way the aliens had chosen to communicate without a common language. The video was however far from over. One minute later, the view changed to a computerized image using icons and symbols. One icon, which represented most probably the alien ship, was flying away from the planet Shouria, heading towards deep space. A dotted blue line linked the planet to the ship. After another minute, the view changed to show a complete star system, with three stars in the system. The two main stars in the center were orange in color, while a third, smaller red star, turned around them at a respectable distance. The red star was the one linked to the trajectory of the departing ship and possessed six planets, the third planet being marked as Shouria and showing a big moon around it. A moving yellow dot appearing at the edge of the image then attracted Tina’s eyes. It was apparently going very fast as it intruded inside the red dwarf star system and was clearly coming from deep space. As it approached the red dwarf sun and its planets, two more icons departed from Shouria, heading in two different and opposite directions from the VEON SHOURIA.
‘’The Koorivar launched two more ships from their planet, but in different directions than the one we found.’’ Said Tina, making Reena Shapour, the second navigator of the KOSTROMA, nod her head.
‘’You are right, Captain, and I believe that this yellow dot is the reason the Koorival launched their ships: its course will deeply disturb the orbits of the planets around the red dwarf star and, depending on its mass and precise trajectory, may even destroy them.’’
Reena’s prediction unfortunately proved prophetic, as the video image split into two views: one of the whole system of the red dwarf star, the other looking like a long range telescope view of a huge, gas giant planet with a uniform brown surface.
‘’A wandering brown dwarf!’’ Exclaimed Reena with horror. Tina understood too well her reaction then: a brown dwarf was basically a gas giant planet so big that it barely missed becoming a star during its formation. Some of those brown dwarves, like other lost planetary bodies, were known to be traveling freely through the galaxy, unattached to any star. Being dark objects, they were notoriously difficult to detect from long distances and, due to their gigantic mass and gravity pull, could cause havoc if it ever crossed the path of a star system. Havoc was precisely what the brown dwarf caused in this case, shown in accelerated fashion by the digital video display. Pulling the fifth planet from its normal orbit and making it spiral down closer to the red dwarf star, the brown dwarf then skimmed the surface of the red dwarf, ripping huge masses of hot solar material from the red dwarf while itself losing part of its mass in the exchange. The careening brown dwarf then collided head on with the second planet of the system. That planet disappeared inside the brown dwarf in a monstrous flash of kinetic energy. That impact in turn sent a shock wave through the system, a shock wave that the third planet, Shouria, could not avoid. The wave impacted first the big moon orbiting Shouria, then swept over the surface of the third planet, blowing away its atmosphere and oceans. Blood rushed to Tina’s brain as she watched with horror that apocalyptic vision. More was however in store for the unfortunate planet, as its moon was pushed down by the shock wave and collided with Shouria. The impact speed was not enough to break to pieces the planet, but the moon ended up burying itself deep inside Shouria. By then, Tina understood too well that no one on Shouria could have survived this. As the brown dwarf continued its way through the solar system, eventually returning to deep space as if nothing had happened, a wave of solar magma ripped off from the red dwarf washed over Shouria, completing the destruction of all life on the planet and adding to its initial mass and that of its moon, now embedded in it.
The whole bridge crew was left stunned and speechless after watching that tragedy. Tina had to sit back to go over the emotional wave that just hit her. The next image on the video however made her look closely again: a star chart now covered the background, with a dotted blue line shown leaving a triple star system that had to be the Koorivar home system and going towards a solitary yellow star. Reena Shapour, the navigator on duty, spoke up excitedly then.
‘’Captain, I now recognize the triple star system of the Koorivar from its position relative to our sun: that’s Gliese 667! The red dwarf star was Gliese 667C, while Shouria is what we call now Gliese 667Cc, although it was originally what we would have been calling Gliese 667Cd. The spectral types of the stars on the chart we see correspond to our charts of this region in the constellation of Scorpius. The Koorivar have thus traveled a full 22 light years to come to us. With them using a sub light ship to arrive here, their trip must have taken a few hundred years.’’
‘’You are probably right, Reena. So, these Koorivars are refugees from a world destroyed by a natural disaster. We must send that information…’’
The picture on her screen changed yet again, interrupting Tina. This time, it was a moving video film showing herself in her spacesuit, along with Vincent Reed and Maria Perez, inside the infirmary of the Koorivar ship.
‘’Hell, some cameras did film us after all while we were inside the alien ship.’’
She then fell silent as she watched Maria Perez approach the cryoberths vault, triggering the alarm that had made them withdraw. As her trio left the infirmary, an icon shaped like a human being attached itself to her image. The picture of the infirmary then quickly shrank, becoming that of the alien ship, buried under the ice of Eris. The human icon remained visible, shown exiting the ship and climbing to the surface through the drawing of a tunnel in the ice connecting the ship with the surface. The human icon then joined up on the surface with a group of other human icons, then remained still. What followed ten seconds later made blood rush to Tina’s head. The group of human icons moved together back into the ice tunnel, then was shown making the ice covering and surrounding the alien ship disappear. That brought a puzzled exclamation from Anwar Duharto.
‘’But, we didn’t dig the ice above the alien ship. Why are they showing this?’’
‘’We effectively didn’t dig the ice there, but the Koorivar are now asking us to do it, Anwar. They want us to free their ship from the ice.’’
Everybody on the bridge looked with shock at Tina as she activated the ship’s intercom.
‘’This is the Captain. Mister Stennis is requested on the bridge at once! I say again, Mister Stennis is requested on the bridge at once! The space construction crew is to prepare to resume ice digging operations at the earliest.’’
Tina next looked at Reena Shapour.
‘’Reena, I want you to prepare a video response to the Koorivar’s video, using the same pictorial and sound system they used. Show them the KOSTROMA, pictures of a man, a woman and a group of children of varying age and sex, plus Earth, our solar system and our departure from Callisto. I want that video to explain clearly who we are and where we come from, on top of teaching them a few words in English. Show us at the end returning en masse to their ship to dig it out. Make it as fast as you can but show it to me for review before sending it.’’
‘’Understood, Tina. What are you going to do in the meantime?’’
‘’I will be briefing Mister Stennis on the job I expect his crew to do to dig out the VEON SHOURIA. Afterwards, I will prepare and send a new report to Callisto, with the Koorivar message attached to it.’’
Reena actually came thirty minutes later with her draft video to Tina’s day cabin, where she had finished briefing Jake Stennis and was now preparing her report for Callisto Prime. A quick review satisfied Tina, who approved it for transmission to the Koorivar ship. Another fifteen minutes later, Tina’s intercom beeped, making her open the link. She was not a little surprised to see that the call was coming from Spirit, the ship’s central computer. Spirit spoke in her usual calm female melodious voice, but her words shook Tina.
‘’Captain, this is Spirit. I just received a call from the central computer of the VEON SHOURIA. It wants to open a data link between the two of us.’’
‘’They want to open a data link? Did they say why?’’
‘’Shanya, their intelligent computer, explained graphically to me that it was with the goal of building a translation program between us.’’
Tina nodded slowly her head at that: it certainly made a lot of sense and could help a lot to build relations with the Koorivars.
‘’You have my permission to proceed with the data link, Spirit. Once you have enough of the Koorivar language deciphered, start building a translation program that we could use in our portable translators.’’
‘’Are there some subjects I should avoid using during our data link exchange, Captain?’’
Tina had to think seriously her answer about that, as it was far from a frivolous question. She suspected that human history, with its litany of wars and atrocities, could very well repulse the Koorivars and make them suspicious of her intents, or make them squarely hostile. She however believed that being frank now was better than to lie and then have the Koorivars find out themselves the truth about human past.
‘’Do not discuss our encrypted communications protocols with this Shanya and do not display our weapons but, if you are to show them our history to them to help build a vocabulary, then do not paste over our violent past. Just make sure that they understand that we can be good more often than when we can be bad. Also, show them in what state the Earth is now ecologically and physically. I want them to understand that we are ourselves short of living space and that I can’t promise them anything yet. Our political leaders on Callisto Prime and on Earth are the only ones that will be able to make and keep promises.’’
‘’I understand, Captain. I will keep you appraised of my progress in building a translation software. Spirit out!’’
As the intercom viewer went blank, Tina sat back to think about that latest conversation. This was becoming more and more a political problem as it was becoming a humanitarian rescue operation. Hopefully, the politicians back home would find some compassion in their hearts and forget their conflicting interests at least long enough to help the Koorivars.