The Seventh Artifact,

by David Collins

Table of Contents

Notes

The Story So Far

Prologue

Crabs

The Second Attempt

Salvage

Hatched

Drop Off

The Wreck

The Hunt

The Recovery

Trade

Changes

Fear

The Search

Analysis

Return to Sender

The Second

Discussions

Mosquito Centaurs

The Third

Cheese

The Voyage

The Survivors

The Next Test

Preparations

M33

Waiting

The Lost

The Found

Uberse

The Uberse Homeworld

Epilogue

Cast Information

Other Books by David Collins:

Notes

If you find any typos or errors in the book, please report them to me at yourrobotoverlord3500@gmail.com, and I will try to fix them.

All characters appearing in this are fictitious.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright@2025 David Collins

All rights reserved.  This book may not be reproduced, stored, or copied in whole or in part by any means without the prior written consent of the author or publisher.

Many thanks to my Reviewers:

• Christie Marston

• Dustin Brown

• Albie Malan

• Donald Grimes

• John Donigan

Special thanks to the Weare Area Writers Guild, a group of NH authors who have helped me improve my writing over the past year (they write in several other genres, not just S/F): https://bit.ly/wearewriters

The Story So Far

This is the seventh book in “The Artifact” series.

1)     In the first book, Ben’s impulsive purchases on eBay lead three college students to acquire a small alien spaceship with a somewhat quirky AI.  They evade most, though not all, military attempts to seize or control it, and they set off to a station that is supposed to be a repair depot.  What they discover is a den of alien crooks.  Escaping that incident inadvertently leads them to rescue a stranded noble and her most unusual ship.  She is immensely grateful to be saved.  The rest of the galaxy, however, is less than thrilled with her return. 

2)     In the second book, they possess a much larger and nicer spaceship (a gift from the supreme ruler), and their return to Earth for a wedding leads to a galactic diplomatic situation.  ‘She, who must not be annoyed,’ decides to crash their wedding and travel with them on their next adventure while wearing a female human Terminator-like avatar body.  Their next destination introduces a new green-skinned alien crew member, and Mark almost instantly wishes to marry her.  Surprisingly, she agrees.  They plan a grand and elaborate wedding, only to have evil aliens and terrorists choose to disrupt the celebration.

3)     In the third book, an ancient derelict reveals some unexpected surprises, and the crew gains unusual new members.  Then, a different wreck contains a new artifact whose purpose initially eludes them.  Lastly, Mee enters the medical pod to see if it can make her more human…

4)     In the fourth book, the crew must travel further than anyone has ever traveled before.  They encounter three new species and now must deal with three instances of Mee Keralatazaku: Anya Fathi, the most recent instance; Kera Prime, the original version from 2,000 years ago; and Meera Fathi, Anya's human clone instance.

5)     In the fifth book, they return to Kanpripticon to pick up a new ship and then head to the Nest to have all three ships—The Stardust II, The Shadow, and the newly acquired ship, the Garden—installed in a massive carrier ship, which they rename the Stardust III.  They go back to the spot where they found the derelict containing the gravity battery, only to discover several new alien species: one that is paranoid about germs, one living in an odd version of the 1950s, and another embroiled in a massive civil war.  Unfortunately, the war disrupts Meera’s wedding.

6)     In the sixth book, there are no clearly defined good or bad aliens, and circumstances are not unfolding in their favor.  One encounter intriguingly evolves into an Alien Murder Mystery.  Another involves a race made up of potentially toxic material capable of shape-shifting.  As they encounter even more aliens, nothing is as it appears.  The clues are present, but one wrong move could result in more dead aliens and possibly dead humans.

This story begins after they encounter an impossible ship in space (it is not a spaceship but an actual sailing ship).  They have recovered one artifact from the ghost ship in space, but now they need to recover more from the alien wreck that the unusual locals discovered before they accidentally breached the ship's nuclear reactor.

Prologue

The shuttle’s swift journey through Hyper FTL did not encounter any unexpected reactions from the unknown device, successfully transporting it to the lab on the Stardust III.  The instructions were clear: passivate it, completely shut down its power, and then investigate what it did and how it worked.

We were almost back at the Nest when the scientists finally discovered exactly what it did.

It was a sub-light drive that functioned on a completely different principle from standard dimensional friction drives.

This was a remarkable discovery, especially since one version of a friction drive had obliterated an entire planet while another had exploded the moment it was utilized in a different galaxy.

Once our analysis was complete, the plan was to let Asshole have his turn to examine it.  He may have earned his name, but he was still the most powerful AI ever to exist.

After just one day back at the Nest, Asshole had gathered all the information he needed.  We could deploy the technology as we wished since he had classified it as safe.  This meant that any weapons that could be developed from it were trivial compared to the arsenal he already possessed.

Now that we have recovered the new sub-light drive from the ghost ship, we were eager to return to the planet of the pirate crabs.  Although they may be about 100 years away from achieving space travel, they were physically much closer than the distant places we had been visiting.  We felt it was important to study them.

… … …

Two days later, we returned to the planet where the impossible ghost ship had been found.  Everything remained unchanged; the ship had merely drifted a few miles, and the planet continued to transmit only sparse, primitive radio signals.  We scanned the planet for anything else unusual.

The more detailed scan revealed that the crab-like aliens were gradually becoming industrialized.  Many of their ships were now steam-powered, and fewer than half of the newly built ships still had sails on them.

The oceans covered nearly 80% of the planet, while three massive continents occupied most of the land.  The interiors of these continents consisted of either deserts or mountains, with nearly all life on the planet clustered tightly around the shores or rivers.  One continent featured a massive lake, twice the size of Texas, along with what appeared to be railroad tracks connecting the large freshwater lake to two separate coastal cities.

On the second day, the deep scan uncovered the source of the artifact, which was partially buried at a massive excavation site reminiscent of a pyramid dig.  An alien spaceship was present; it was quite large, nearly twice the size of the Stardust III.

Jessie stated, “We have a problem.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.  We’ve already recovered what is likely the sub-light drive from the ghost ship.  The derelict on the planet is ridiculously large; it’s not the small craft we expected.”

“The real problem is that the ship has an enormous reactor, approximately four times more powerful than a conventional ship's reactor.  Our ships can produce significantly more, but our Reverse Hollow reactors are more efficient than standard reactors.  If they are unaware of what a reactor is and attempt to use cutting torches and grinders to access it, a nuclear disaster could occur.  We need to reach out to them, at least to warn them and make them aware of the danger.”

I asked, “So how do we safely contact the pirate crabs who may or may not be manually disassembling a nuclear reactor?”

Mark smiled and responded, “Very carefully.”

Jessie said, “They aren't pirates.  Well, I can't say that some of them aren't pirates; the probability is that most of them aren't."

“Yeah, extremely carefully.”

Crabs

They had advanced technologically to the point of using spark gap radios, which were slow, and we didn't understand their language.  Even if we had understood their language, the radio seemed to be broadcasting an alien version of Morse Code, making it twice removed and extremely simplified.  It was like receiving a short telegram in Japanese when the only language you know is English.

We needed to hear what they were saying, but how do you hack a one-way, slow channel without a clue about what it's transmitting? The answer was that we had to listen to their conversations.  We needed to drop something equipped with microphones—and preferably cameras—into an alien excavation site without raising any alarms.

Jessie provided the answer: it was fake rocks.  We had miniaturized quantum cameras and microphones designed to resemble somewhat interesting rocks.  The answer comprised a dozen fake stones, each about the size of a chicken egg.  Four were modeled after quartzite, which is a pinkish-gray and white stone with a dull, glassy appearance.  Four were made to resemble amber, and the last four mimicked black onyx.  Hopefully, they would either be ignored, or someone might think they looked nice and place them where they could overhear conversations.

The area where they were salvaging the derelict spaceship was very busy during the day, but it was almost completely shut down at night.

Around midnight, the smallest of our shuttles, wrapped in an opaque material, appeared above the site and gradually descended.  When it was thirty feet above the excavation site, it released stones over an area of roughly one acre.  Right in front of the excavation site, next to the dirt road leading from several newly constructed barn-like buildings, stood the alien ship.

Then the shuttle rose silently and, when it exited the atmosphere, it blipped into FTL and returned to our ship, which was sitting safely 1.5 light seconds from the planet.

We all sat on the bridge, observing the information from the spy rocks.

Mark asked, “How bad was it?”

“We dropped twelve of the rocks.  All survived the drop and the bouncing.  We now know that they use draft animals to pull carts.  We also know that the area where the rocks fell is not, as we expected, dry dirt, but muddy.  In fact, calling it mud is extremely generous.  It's a mix of mud, manure, and dirt.  They don't put gravel on their roads, as it apparently hurts the feet of their draft animals.  They seem to thrive in mud.  All but three of the rocks are now submerged in rather unpleasant material.  The animals resemble six-legged miniature oxen, with two rather nasty horns, bodies covered in long tan or brown fur, and feet like those of web-footed elephants.  What they stepped on is now buried deep in the mud.”

We watched and listened.  Jessie handled the tough job of tallying the sounds and distinguishing the language from the cacophony of other noises.

As the day progressed, the three rocks that were capturing good images and sounds dwindled to two, then to one.  Eventually, the last one shifted, causing the camera to become dislodged.  Although it still registered some audio, even that was muffled.

Jessie said, “On the plus side, we were not detected.  I have enough data to build a decent model of what the live ones look like.  They are about five feet tall and have six limbs.  Their lower bodies resemble those of a spider, with four limbs that have hook-like claws at the ends, which are well-designed for climbing the rigging of an old sailing ship.  They are less adept at walking on mud, and the ones we saw were on the animals' backs or in wagons.  The upper body resembles that of a Regiolon, with very large ears and a somewhat more human-like face.  They seem to fall into three categories.  Those dressed in rough clothing are likely workers or possibly slaves.  The drivers of the wagons and one load of beings seemed more like skilled workers or engineers.  They are dressed better and are much cleaner.  We saw a few that may be supervisors or owners.  They were dressed much nicer, and they had golden earrings and jewelry.” 

I said, “What have you figured out about their language?”

“Clicks, whistles, grinding noises, chittering, and even some squealing.  We may be able to understand most of it, but you biologicals will never be able to speak it or even produce half the sounds.  At night, I think it was just a crew of guards and one group that was probably examining the wreck and deciding what the day crew would work on.  They have some power tools, but I believe most of what they are doing is attempting to disassemble and salvage rather than merely cutting it up for parts.”

Mark said, “More like what we should have done with the flying saucer.  We just ripped that apart for the metals.”

“Metal, one metal, platinum.  If they are at the technology level of the late 1800s or early 1900s, they should have steel, and maybe even…  Do they have any skyscrapers?  Buildings over ten stories tall?”

“Yes, they have steel girder construction, but not here.  This area is more rural, and I suspect it was a farming or mining community until the discovery of the ship.  The ship is twice the size of the Stardust III.  It is shaped like a large flat triangle and is mostly empty.  I believe it is a mining ship.  It is crumpled at the front… or possibly the back; I assume the pointy side of the triangle was the front.  Additionally, it is partially buried.  The age of the ship is indeterminate until we can examine the type and amount of radioactive fuel.  I can tell that it is physically warm and emitting radioactive particles, but that's all I can determine from orbit.

Katerina asked, “What minerals were in the area? If the ship was a mining ship, what was that after?”

“The location around the crash contains hematite, goethite, kaolinite, rare earth elements, lithium-bearing minerals, and iron, nickel.  There is a sizable amount of platinum about two miles away from where they crashed.”

“Oh crap, the aliens were just as easily distracted by shiny things as we were?”

“Or maybe they had a mechanical failure.  The ship included extra takeoff assist engines designed for lifting off a planet when heavily loaded with ore.  Three of the engines remain mostly intact, while one is missing.  I suspect its remains are scattered over several miles.  The takeoff assist engines were additional engines mounted on the exterior, and they broke off during the crash.  The engine on the ghost ship wouldn’t be able to lift the monster ship off the ground, even if it were empty.  That likely only served as a means to accelerate a craft to FTL speeds once it was already in space.”

I said, “We need another brainstorming session.  The fake rocks provided little useful data.  They seemed to have avoided detection.  I was hoping someone would clean one off and put it on a mantle where all the scientists are discussing what they've found.  Now, they are all sunk in the mud.”

Mei said, “They all look like adults; there are no children.  Actually, they look a lot like spiders on the back half.  I am not sure I want to see what their children are like.  Hey Jessie, how much have you translated from what you have heard?”

“Someone whom I will call supervisor-3 is unpopular, and female number 2 is extremely popular, with several males apparently desiring her.  There was talk of one male who mated with her, and she reportedly only ate two of his legs, so he must have pleased her.”

Katerina snickered, “Praying mantis style post-sex snack of some spare parts of the male.  I suggest we send Mark down disguised as a cute male spider crab.”

“No, I will pass.  Especially if doing a good job means you lose a few limbs; I can only imagine what happens if you don't please her.”

I said, “The fake rocks didn't do much.  What do we do for the next trick?”

Mei said, “Did we see anything interesting in the back of a cart or wagon?  Should we drop off a fake artifact to make it seem like something bounced out of a cart?  What were they carrying?”

“One cart resembled metal ore; a smaller cart held what seemed to be metal panels or dividers.  We can probably drop off a sheet of paneling measuring approximately 18 by 20 inches and about 0.25 inches thick.  Can we fit a camera and a microphone into something that is essentially flat? And still power it?”

Jessie said, “Yes, and I can produce that in under an hour.  If I embed a film battery, it will be good for several weeks, maybe a month; I can't imagine we will not have a language translation by then.”

I said, “Do it, drop it off just after dark, and far enough off the path that it looks plausible that it fell off a cart and bounced there.”

The Second Attempt

Just after dusk, the mini-shuttle performed a repeat of the earlier discreet approach, dropping off the fake panel just a few inches above the ground to minimize noise.

It also dropped off another dozen fake rocks that were slightly larger, none of which were on the road but a few feet to the side of the cart trail.

This time, however, someone noticed something.  They might have seen the shuttle or heard something drop as the lights flickered on, an alarm blared, and several crab guards scurried down to search the area.

We were fortunate.  One of the guards collected the panel and four rocks that resembled quartzite.  Everything was brought before several well-dressed crabs, which had what appeared to be gold filigree inlaid into the peculiar bony structures that were not noticeable before.

They all had lower bodies resembling large crabs.  They appeared to have exoskeletons, but with a thick layer of skin over them.  Some areas were covered in sparse hair, almost like fur.

They had a series of bony plates extending down their nearly humanoid spines, and everything from the humanoid waist up, except for the bony plates, seemed to have an internal skeleton.  The closest we had seen to that was the Katazall, which had full exoskeletons and only a few appendages, like their almost prehensile ears, that were not covered by the bony outer layer, which was entirely muscle and cartilage.

The upper body resembled that of a Regiolon, characterized by massively oversized ears and a nose closer in size to that of a human.  The mouths were filled with large, sharp, pointed teeth.

The hands appeared almost human, yet the pinky and ring fingers were fused together to form a large, curved hook.  The remaining three fingers were used for grasping.

They wore garments resembling a kilt around the lower part of their four-limbed abdomen, along with something that looked like a vest over the upper chest area.

The elites, for that is almost certainly what they were, wore much finer clothing, and the vest was replaced with a sleeveless jacket trimmed in fur.

Then, four individuals entered who were not dressed nearly as elegantly.  They picked up everything and examined it all, spending a significant amount of time talking (clicking), which was exactly what Jessie needed to develop a translation.

We watched it quietly for about half an hour, and then Jessie began narrating parts.

“They think the metal plate fell off a cart, but it doesn't match the other metal in thickness or weight.  I used titanium, and most of what they have recovered earlier sounds like aluminum and possibly stainless steel.”

A few minutes later, she added, “They believe the rocks were removed from the ore because they look valuable, and they suspect some workers tossed them aside to collect at night.  They think the guard saw a large bird or a bat when he sounded the alarm.  So far, most of the beings we have encountered have been male, or so I think, but the larger one with the filigree on the shell, I believe that one is a female.”

Then, the female picked up one of the rocks and examined it closely.

“I think she wants it broken into smaller parts, and she likes the color.  I believe she wants to make jewelry from part of it.”

Then, the rock she held sparked, and she dropped it.

Jessie said, “She must have extremely strong grip strength.  She punctured the film battery, and it fried itself.  Now the technicians have all the rocks, and they are examining them.”

In the next ten minutes, two additional fake rocks sparked and shorted out.  One rock, along with the now nearly ignored piece of sheet metal, continued to function.

Jessie said, “I learned a few swear words when they shorted them out.  They are sending more guards to look for additional rocks.  The other rocks are more nondescript and should pass for regular ones.  They are now discussing the earlier finds.  They have created a screwdriver that works on the alien screws and are manually disassembling parts instead of using grinders and power saws.  The parts utilize what appear to be a set of hex keys and Allen wrenches, while others have square bits.  One area of the ship contained large hex bolts, but they are secured with something resembling safety wire.  They have started cutting the safety wire.  Unfortunately, I suspect they are opening panels that may conceal dangerous items.”

Mark said, “That one is missing one of his ears and a leg.”

“I suspect he recently got lucky.  The female has been teasing him about spending his next season with her, and his reply seemed to indicate that she removed far too many parts last time.”

Then, the panel was moved to another room, where several technicians were present.  They all appeared fascinated by the material of the new panel.  Unfortunately, they didn't engage in conversation among themselves nearly as much as the other group did.

Jessie said, “I am not yet conversational, but if I use an interpolation algorithm, I can understand about one quarter of what is said.  I reviewed the earlier recordings from the cart path, and I think they are complaining; there was a lot of grumbling that I now know is related to not receiving a promised bonus and working unpaid overtime.”

Katerina said, “We all have all worked for someone like that.  Have we discovered anything about the age of the flying sailing ship?”

“We cannot tell the exact date.  I suspect that was at least twenty years ago, and it may be as long as eighty.  It might have left the port without any issues, and someone may have tinkered with the controls and accidentally activated a go-to orbit sequence.  It could have occurred in the dead of night with no one around.  Alternatively, it might have happened when they were in a busy port and surrounded by hundreds of onlookers.  We won't know unless someone talks about it.”

Then, the last rock was picked up.

Mark said, “I hope they don't cause the only one that is still operating to short out its battery.”

They placed it on a shelf that partially blocked its view, but also provided a higher vantage point.  It now revealed other items that were stored in wooden boxes and some in wicker baskets, which had remained hidden.

Mei said, “That looks like remains, and it is not the locals.  Is that a mummified arm and a hand?”

The image on the screen zoomed in.

I said, “Yes, and it is covered in patchy fur.  I would have said it was an animal, but it has a bracelet on it.  I am surprised they didn't remove it from the arm.”

Jessie said, “It has three digits and two larger opposable digits.  Whatever it is, the two thumbs are both on the same side of the hand.  The earlier species we saw with something like that had their thumbs on opposite sides of the hand.”

Mark replied, “Go back to the wide view.”

The screen complied, and he added, “Zoom in on the basket three to the right of the one with the arm in it.”

The camera zoomed in as Jessie made minor enhancements to improve the image quality.

Katerina remarked, “That is a handgun that uses one thumb to stabilize the grip and the other to operate a strange side-mounted trigger.  What we would call the index finger serves no purpose other than holding the grip.  The item in the bin next to it resembles a magazine, and those are almost certainly bullets.  I now want one.  I wouldn't be able to hold or fire it, but I want to study it.  It is an alien pistol, and it seems to use a kind of bullet that wouldn't look out of place in a standard human firearm.”

Mei said, “There are probably more things we can’t see from this vantage...  Arrrggghhh!  Oh, that wasn't a kick.  I am heading down to the medical pod room.”

None of us objected.

Mark stated, “I will follow her until she gets into a medical pod, and then I will return.  You should probably get the doctor we just picked up to meet her there.”

Jessie said, “There is a high probability that the arm and the pistol belonged to the owners of the ship.  It looked freeze-dried or mummified.  It was also missing the rest of the body.  Can we have …Wait, I just decoded their version of Morse code.”

“Err, how?  Do you have a translation of their language?”

“Partial, they speak using a rapid series of clicks, and so does their radio telegraphy.  It is the same as the click portion of their talking, but much slower.  I just noticed that several words matched.  A human would find it really difficult to replicate the clicks; they consist not just of long and short taps but also include twenty variations in spacing.  The longest duration indicates the end of a word.  They use a unique and very short word to mark the end of a sentence.  Therefore, the inter-click delay is the equivalent of their different phonetic sounds.”

“Can you understand their words?”

“Only some random words, I have identified that their telegraphy is just a slower version of their click speaking.  I am building the dictionary faster now, generating a list of words and phrases, partly from the wireless telegraph, and some from what the microphones have picked up.  I am not sure what the other sounds they make represent.”

I asked, “And, is there someone with a telegraph at the excavation site, or salvage site?”

“Yes, if the goal is to warn them, we can probably accomplish that in a short period.  If the goal is to acquire more of the alien technology from the wrecked ship they are excavating, then we may need to land or initiate some more formal contact.”

Mark said, “I hate to suggest this, but we do have something they may want.  We might be able to trade something shiny for more of the alien artifacts.”

Katerina groaned, “Yes, we have a literal boatload of very pretty shiny items we salvaged from the sailing ship.  I must admit, the pirate treasure caught my attention.  The scientists are now studying them.”

Mark said, “I bet they are studying them…”

I said, “How many of their clicking words do you know now?”

“One hundred and forty-six confirmed words and seventeen that are probable.  They aren’t doing much speaking at the moment, and the messages I see on the Spark Gap Telegraph lack context.  There is almost nothing to infer about what they are actually talking about.”

Katerina said, “We need to send a drone down, something really simple, but one that can speak and listen to their clicking.  Then, we need to make it a vending machine.  Load it up with some of the trinkets that match stuff we found on the sailing ship.  Gold coins, silver, jewels, what did we recover from the sinking ship? What were the different colored stones?”

Jessie said, “The green stones were jade, sapphire, and emeralds, the red stones were jasper, spinel, ruby, and onyx, the purple ones were tourmaline and amethyst, and the white ones were opal and quartz.  They also had coins made of various materials, including diamonds, copper, silver, gold, and aluminum.  I strongly recommend against sending a drone made from aluminum, as they seem to consider that a precious metal, and they may simply rip it apart before they bother trying to talk to it.”

“Do we know where they took the items we left for them to pick up?”

“Yes, we know what building it is in.  We don't have a set of precision satellites like GPS uses, so the best we can do is state that it is 85% likely in one building and 15% possible in a building next to it.  Both are guarded and seem to be heavier construction than most of the other buildings in the area.”

Mark said, “Do they see in the same light spectrum that we do?  Did we put one of the freeze-dried pirate crabs in a medical pod, set it to autopsy mode?”

“No, and that now seems like a mistake.”

I said, “I think we need to go back to the sailing ship and collect everything that isn't nailed down, not just the one alien artifact we recovered.  We need to video the ship, and … Wait, were there any treasure chests? Literal boxes of gold or jewels? I think that is what we should make the next box look like.  Have it look like a treasure box, have it capable of speaking and listening, and load it like a vending machine with samples of treasure.” Then I started snickering…

Mark said, “Boy, that blows the Star Trek Prime Directive out of the water.  Here is a real alien artifact; it speaks, and it dispenses money and gems.”

“They already know there are aliens; they are excavating a fricking alien ship.  What I was laughing about is that we have almost created a Mimic, a Dungeons and Dragons monster in the shape of a treasure chest.  There is no prime directive—well, unless one of the Mee’s says there is something like that.”

Kera Prime said, “Our naming is getting a bit confusing.  My real body is the original Mee Keralatazaku, but please refer to me as Kera Prime.  Anya Fathi’s real body is instance 50A of Mee Keralatazaku.  Meera is now physically human, and while she shared all the memories with Anya, she is now the least powerful of us, the triad of Mee’s.  Unless either Anya or I are in our real bodies and in the presence of someone not part of your ship's crew, refer to us by our avatar pseudonyms.  If we ever both show up in our real bodies… That will just make it even more confusing.”

I said, “They, meaning the rest of the collective of races, know that you have multiple instances; it just adds to the mystique of your persona.”

Kera smiled, “For centuries, that persona facade has been what rules all the known worlds…”

I said, “Jessie, take us back to the sailing ship; we need to pick it clean.  And no one gets to keep any trinkets, as we don't know what we will need to trade with the natives.  We may need a lot more than $24 worth of beads and trinkets.”

Salvage

The journey back to the seemingly impossible orbiting sailing ship took only a few minutes.  We deployed three drones along with the large shuttle, which also carried one of the medical pods.  The plan was to recover at least one of the bodies and all the shiny trinkets we missed.

As soon as the shuttle was away, Jessie said, “Here is an update on Mei Zhou’s status: she is not yet in full labor, and she has been moved to a medical pod, one of the ones made wider to support birthing.  The extended exposure to zero Gs and loss of bone density means she will have a cesarean section, despite being premature.  At this point, we are still classifying her contractions as Braxton Hicks contractions, or false labor, but the baby will be surgically removed if either she or the child experiences any distress or her water breaks.”

We observed the screen displaying the drone's progress.  The main salvage operation commenced in the ship's hold.  The drones were retrieving anything that appeared even slightly valuable, including the biological samples intended for the medical pod.

The secondary salvage comprised the contents of the captain's room.  This included detailed video archiving, and all the biological remains found there would remain undisturbed. 

After nearly five hours, Jessie announced, “The salvage is 85% complete in the captain's quarters and 98% complete in the hold.  There is more in the hold; it is just not deemed particularly valuable.  The big news is that Mei has been reclassified as in real labor.  The baby will be delivered surgically, and the procedure preparation is now underway.”

That was followed by a message less than five minutes later: “Mei has delivered a healthy baby girl, and she is now being closed up after her procedure.  Like with Emily, the scarring will be almost imperceptible.”

Katerina said, “I will head down to be there when she wakes up.  I am not going there to hold the baby, which I have no interest in…”

As soon as she left the bridge, a message from Hanna Brown appeared on the screen: “That is as believable a statement as you all know it to be, even without me making a snarky comment.”

There was a slight chuckle from most of the people on the bridge.

I asked, “Who else is down there?”

The screen displayed the list: “Emily, Kevin Killjoy, and Hanna.”

I said, “Well, let me know when Mei is about ready to wake up, and I’ll head down.”

“That should be 45 minutes from now.  She will feel fine for the first two hours, and then the anesthetic will wear off.  She will still be able to get up and move around, but she will feel extremely sore.”

“Anything of interest in the recovery?  Have we found any other alien artifacts?”

“Only one possible artifact exists: a sealed metallic container with a hard resin sealing the cover, which does not match the rest of the ship's contents.  It is scheduled to be included in the next shuttle delivery.  The scientists will open it in a containment chamber and use remote manipulators, since the risk of any biological contamination is non-zero in the possibly hermetically sealed large box.  Everything else has been freeze-dried and should be safe.”

We observed the statistics gradually accumulating; everything was being slowly sorted and categorized.

Jessie said, “We have some green stones that failed to be properly categorized.  They may be chemically related to coral, but with the outward appearance of jade.  I have not determined if that is local to the planet or of alien origin.”

I said, “Sounds interesting.  Those are not to be used in the trade vending machine.  How are we doing on language?”

“We lucked out.  I am monitoring a spark gap radio signal, and I was able to correlate much of the message to a known situation.  There was a storm, and they were sending signals back and forth to the ship with position and status.”

“Was there a radio on the ghost ship?”

“Technically, yes; it was only in pieces stored as part of the cargo.  It wasn’t connected to a battery source.”

“How long will it take to gather the rest of the loot?”

It should take about an hour and a half unless we encounter unforeseen issues. The language translation now includes one hundred ninety-six known words and an additional twenty possible words. The coin and gem vending machine can dispense nine different items and holds twelve of each.

“Assuming we head back in two hours, we should be well over two hundred words.”

Mark said, “That will be a problem.  I would prefer we were over one thousand known words or click sequences.”

I smiled.  “Can you say ‘Hello, who is out there?’”

“No, but we can say, “Hello, who?”

Mark said, “I guess that is a start.  When we get back to the planet, start sending like a little kid is playing with the transmitter key and see what type of responses you get.”

“Yeah, it will annoy someone, but hopefully they will try to find out who is playing with the transmitter key.”

Thirty minutes later, I went down to meet the new mother and her daughter.

Mei said, “I like how this delivery went.  I am in some tolerable pain, I take a nap, and then I wake up with a daughter.  This is Shi.  She looks beautiful; she doesn't have the pointy cone-head that a natural birth usually gives the baby.  My bone density numbers are in.  I lost 17% of my bone density when I was on the other ship, and my daughter is only 8% below the average for her size.  I am seven weeks premature.  Shi is at just over five pounds.  Her name can mean 'time,' usually as applied to seasons, and considering I squeezed seven months of my time into four days of yours, it seemed appropriate.  I feel fine, but Emily has warned me that this will only last about another ninety minutes, and then I will feel like complete crap.  Enough about me, what new stuff have you found on the impossible wreck?”

Katerina said, “They found an oversized puzzle box that someone sealed with resin.  They still haven't found a way to open it.  The radiation scans are indeterminate, but it is being treated as a possible biologically active container.”

Mei snickered, “Yar… yar, what pretty trinkets have you found for my daughter as a token for her amazing birth?”

“Lots of colorful gems, pick your color.  Nothing that would excite an auction house on Earth, unless we included the provenance of it being recovered from a sailing ship in space.  That probably adds an extra digit to all the stones' values.”

Katerina said, “The alien ship is still a mystery, the shape, power, and one little biological sample, one mummified hand, none of it matches anything we know of.”

Mei asked, “Shouldn't we be able to come up with an age for the artifact, something like the radioactive elements in the fuel of something?”

“That works for naturally occurring elements, like carbon-14, but the small fuel cell on the unit that propelled the ship into orbit may have been made from non-pure material when it was created.  We usually try to use radioactive elements in power sources that are as pure as possible, but their drive is operational, and even after 4,000 more years, it would still work.  The purer the fuel, the longer it would last; however, due to its extremely long half-life, it didn't need to be completely pure.  I theorize that at close to 100% purity, it would have caused some embrittlement of the casing.”

I said, “So what would the oldest it could be, assuming they used an almost pure radioactive fuel?”

“A maximum of 1,750 years would apply if they used 100% pure fuel.  It could be as little as 150 years with a mixture.  I believe the age is over 1,000 years, but that assessment was based on how they found the artifact, the growth of trees, and the amount of dirt that has covered the alien ship.”

“What do you think happened?”

“It crashed, and in the crash, the front end was partially buried.  Then, wind and rain eventually covered the other parts, and the entire ship was coated in a thin layer of dirt.  One section contains some large tree stumps, which have roots that only go down two feet before they grow deeper on one side.  I suspect the tree grew until the roots hit the buried ship.  How fast that species of tree grows is indeterminate, but it is likely several hundred years old.  From orbit, and never having been on the planet, everything is a guess.”

Mark’s voice came through the speaker: “Captain to the bridge.”

I ran, and Katerina was right behind me.

“What is it?”

Jessie said, “We have an egg.”

I said, “Faberge egg, chicken egg, or something from the movie Alien?”

“Unfortunately, the latter, the canister that was sealed, has been opened.  When it opened, alarms went off all over.  The case was hermetically sealed, not just with the resin we saw on the outside.  It contains air; it is extremely well insulated, and the contents are now heading to 99° Fahrenheit.  The humidity was 70%, and the air was 100% argon at 15.9 psi.  I suspect that when it was exposed to our atmosphere, which consists of 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen, it triggered a change.  I think it's hatching.  The argon was probably used to keep it from hatching.  This is definitely an alien artifact; no, it is an alien life form.  The containment chamber was a way to keep it from hatching.“

Mark said, “How large is it?”

“The egg weighs 12.6 pounds.  I predict the hatchling will be just over eight pounds.  The egg is 17.7 inches long and 15.2 inches around.  It is also a very pretty blue color.”

Mark said, “You are an AI.  What makes it pretty?”

“It looks like a robin's egg, and I like that color.”

I said, “What type of containment is it in?”

“A small workroom in the outer hull is separated by areas that can be brought down to vacuum if needed.”

I asked, “What do we know about the aliens who crashed the ship? What information could you derive from the mummified hand we saw?”

“Not a lot, only the odd double thumbs.  If the hand were an adult, it would be close to human in size, meaning it could weigh anywhere from 100 to 250 pounds for a healthy adult.”

Mark said, “Analyze everything you can; we need to know how to feed it if it’s newly hatched…  We don't know what it will be.  Wait, I think it's just dented, and those lines look like cracks.  Is there a medical pod in with it?”

“No, the only thing we assumed would be alive would be possibly some mold or lichen.”

I said, “Well, get a medical pod there as fast as you can, and have it ready for caring for anything from a human child to an acid-blood face hugger.  Hopefully it won't be something like the latter.”

Jessie said, “We have encountered a liquid metal drone, and a plant that replaces most of your brain with a parasitic cauliflower.  We are currently on a planet with beings with crab-like lower bodies and an upper torso that loosely resembles the Regiolon.  I must admit, I really don't have any clue what will hatch from the egg.  We did not X-ray the device before we cracked the seal.”

It took fifteen minutes for two drones to position a medical pod out of the compartment where the egg was located.  By this time, the egg was noticeably cracked, and something was now peering out of a hole in the shell. 

The compartment hatch was opened, and the drones moved the medical pod into the room, secured it, and connected it to external power.

While that was going on, we vented the hallway outside of the compartment.  I didn't want us pumping down the air, as we were unsure if anything biologically hazardous had been released into the air.

Twelve minutes later, the two drones were positioned beside the medical pod, and the chamber was undergoing a power verification self-test.

A few minutes later, the alien broke the shell in half and emerged.

Hatched

The being was hairless, but so were many creatures when they were first born, or hatched.

It was humanoid in that it had two legs, two arms, and a head above the shoulders.

Unlike a human infant, it had sunk its clawed feet into the padded wall covering, and it was now walking around the sides of the room it was in.

It was most definitely not human.  The legs were like bird legs, if the bird were an eagle or an owl.  The legs had three long toes, sharp claws on the front, and one claw on the back.  The body resembled that of a human, albeit somewhat dwarfish in proportion.  The arms were long, and had three fingers, and a single thumb on one side.

The head resembled a duck, featuring a large, bright yellow, rounded bill.  The upper beak had two prominent nostrils.  The eyes were oversized, reminiscent of an anime-style cartoon duck. 

Mark said, “Do we have anything to feed it?”

“Not outside of the medical pod.”

“Then stun it.  Move it to a medical pod, and then move the pod into a room with low gravity.”

<click> and the slightly cartoonish humanoid duck ceased moving, let go of the wall's padding, and began to drift around the room.

Katerina said, “Have the drones put everything in the medical pod.  It looks like it is still attached to an egg sack, and even the shell parts need to go in the pod.”

The drones moved everything into the medical pod, and then the lid was closed.

I said, “Bring everything down to vacuum and run a sterilizer.  That yolk sack looked nasty.  It was probably clean, but it dragged it across part of the floor and the wall in the chamber.”

Twenty minutes later, Jessie announced, “We have restored normal air mixture and pressure, and the hatchling is now recovering.  It is so small that the medical pod is large enough for it to move around in.  I have provided it with a pile of food, assuming they eat… Yes, it eats almost anything.  I gave it a mixture that can be described as yogurt mixed with assorted grains, and it is voraciously eating it.  The samples I took when it was attached to the medical pod indicated that it is an omnivore, primarily eating plant material but also consuming fish, rodents, and possibly insects.  It needs a room, not just inside a medical pod.  The braincase is large, and it is almost certainly intelligent.  We will need a volunteer to help raise it, someone to care for… It seems almost at the toddler level for mobility.  It is now walking around and exploring the insides of the medical pod.  I think we need to make it a habitat, not just a zoo, something like a room with dirt, water, grass, and a nest.”

I said, “Stop the rest of the crew from sampling any more of the fish, and run all the fish through an antibiotic treatment and something to get rid of any parasites.  Run any crew members who have eaten live fish through a medical pod as well, or at least give them a medical scan.  Hopefully, their digestive systems can handle whatever is in the fish.  I don't know how the hatchling will do, but puppies seem to all magically get worms; we don't want the hatchling to get any parasites.”

“It is clear, and nothing in what we will feed it will contain any.”

Katerina asked, “How do we teach it its language?  We don't even know what its language sounds like?”

I said, “We don't.  We teach it in good old-fashioned English, or we do if it can make the correct sounds.  Damn, now I have Daffy Duck’s voice stuck in my head, ‘You're despicable.’”

Jessie said, “We have two volunteers from the science group, both are females, and a construction crew is going to take over part of the lower gravity floor on Stardust II as a controlled habitat.  It will have a small water feature, a sand pit, a grass area, assorted edible plants, and a large nest made from something that can pass for dried grass.  The….  what do we call the alien duckling?”

I said, “Is it male or female?”

“Female.”

Mark said, “Well, that throws out all of my suggestions, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.”

I said, “Nah, all those are probably copyrighted.  How about Quackers?”

“What goes with Quackers?  Cheese and Crackers, Quackers, How about Cheese?”

Jessie said, “That name makes absolutely no sense; it is completely illogical.”

Katerina snorted and said, “Then the new alien’s name is now Cheese; logic has nothing to do with names.”

It took nearly twenty hours to transform a room into a habitat safe for the Cheese.  During that time, it ate, slept, and pooped multiple times.

Then, it was stunned, and when it became unconscious, it was moved to the nest.  The medical pod was relocated to the adjacent room, and the water feature was adjusted to contain only a small amount, being filtered several times per minute.

Cheese woke up to find herself in a nest, surrounded by several piles of her food.  Audrey Usher, one of the scientists, was also there.  She felt a bit nervous.  Cheese weighed no more than a small wild turkey, but she had what seemed to be very sharp claws.  She wasn't a bird; instead, she had arms where wings should be.  The AI, Jessie, was programmed to fire a stunner if the bird-like creature became aggressive.  It didn't.

It looked around in confusion, and then stood up and did what it did a lot of, it ate.  Then it did what it did almost as much as eating, it pooped.

Audrey glanced at the mess and tried not to react too strongly.  It was mostly a liquid splat, as Jessie had warned her.  It involved a combined bowel and bladder release, effectively flushing out the semi-solids. 

Then, it walked around the room, sniffing everything, including Audrey, before returning to its nest.

Audrey approached it and attempted to brush its skin, which was covered in peach fuzz hair, having hatched almost completely bald.

She started talking to it, “Hello, cutie (it wasn't cute), did you have a good meal?  (the slop it ate was one step above baby food), did you have a big poop? (obviously)…

She talked to it and petted it for almost an hour before it fell asleep.

Jessie announced, “Well, it is gaining weight, it is eating.  It is already starting to show more fur growth, despite initially looking like fuzz.  I think it should be able to survive, and Audrey’s level of panic has finally dropped after ten minutes with Cheese.”

I said, “Who are the other people who will watch Cheese?”

“The only other permanently assigned is Misha Flanders, another of the scientists.  Several others have volunteered to take shifts as needed, after Cheese has bonded with humans and they are not in danger from those nasty claws.  The claws would be quite effective as a weapon.  The duck-like bill indicates it is not like an eagle, which rips its food into smaller bits.  It can swallow rather large objects whole, and it’s just a hatchling.”

Kibbiea said, “I don't want it anywhere close to Norberta until it is starting to speak.  What has it said so far?”

Jessie said, “At one day old, it has two distinct sounds I have deciphered, one is hungry, and the other is angry, or possibly frustrated or annoyed.”

I said, “Two versions of crying that seem normal, and indicate that they are probably quite intelligent.  I assume we have picked the ship almost clean by now?”

Jessie said, “I was wondering how long the distraction would last before you returned to the salvage.  All the coins and gems we found have been salvaged; there are no more artifacts that appear to be alien in nature.  The case the egg was in is quite fascinating.  The power source is more advanced than anything we have for something of that size.  I have recovered two of the large cannons and a second of the small cannons from the sailing ship.  The mostly intact body of one of the crew members was recovered from inside the hold.  It matches the aliens on the planet, and there is zero correlation between their genetics and Cheese's genetics.  I have found a small data storage crystal, and I am attempting to decode it.  Statistics show that the egg storage condition was keeping the egg in a type of stasis, but the duration is still unknown.  There is a quantum transformer, but it is set to one matched channel, which is inactive.  It may be possible to change it to the secondary channel, but we don't know what the response would be.  I can assume someone will come and see how we are doing at keeping Cheese happy and cared for.”

Mark said, “Yeah, let’s hold off on calling the cavalry for now.  At least until after we wipe the war-paint off our faces and aren’t actively working to salvage their ship.  How about the crabs on the planet? How are they doing?”

“They are still doing what they were doing before, and the language learning is progressing slowly.  One of the other fake stones was picked up, and it is now capturing more of the workers' conversations.  The coin and gem vending machine is all set.  It can dispense nine items and hold twelve of each item.  What should we load it with?”

“Load the three types of coins and any gems that appear to be used in the most elaborate rings and bracelets.  Aim to create a nice assortment of colors.  Are we ready to return?”

“We can be in ten minutes if we abandon the last cannon, we can be in twenty-six minutes if we recover the last cannon.”

“I guess we can wait another sixteen minutes.  You really seem to like the canons?”

“The construction is beautiful.  The casting is made of bronze, and the cannon was created using a clay mold suspended vertically—a technique similar to lost-wax casting.  The detail and artwork are impressive.  I would never want to actually fire them, and many years in space have caused some micro-fractures, but they look so beautiful.”

“Could you just make more?”

“It wouldn't be the same.  The casting of liquid metal and the rate of cooling significantly influence the final result.”

Forty minutes later, we were in orbit around the planet, and someone had attached a sample of the nine vending machine items to a piece of cardboard.  A placard above each item explained what it was.  It was displayed on the bridge beneath the large display screen.

I said, “How are you delivering the vendor-bot?”

“A mini-shuttle drops it in the middle of the road, then it ignites a magnesium flare ten feet away and disappears.  The plan is to drop it at night.”

“Aim for daybreak, and skip the flare, then just drop off a flashlight, standard battery, with an incandescent bulb.”

It will take almost four hours to produce.  Can I use a lithium battery and an LED bulb?  That can be ready in under two minutes.”

“Yeah, I suppose we will be proving aliens are real, whatever we do.  And I know we don't have a Prime Directive to violate, but it seems wrong, like intentionally dropping a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico.”

Mark said, ”I think that has been done before.”

“Yeah, but not by us, and not on purpose.”

Setting up for the drop-off took a few hours, and when the dispenser communicator was loaded, we hovered ready to drop it off.

I asked, “We have a way to update the language on it if we need to?”

“It's fairly dumb, one step above an 8086, except for the quantum communicator.  It uses all 1980 technology.  It doesn't translate anything; it just relays the microphone input to me and what I send to the speaker.

“Does anyone have any objections?”

There were none.

“Is the drop-off site in the correct conditions, almost sunrise?”

“It will be in 45 minutes.”

We waited 15 minutes and then launched.  By the time the micro-shuttle reached the drop-off side, it would be almost sunrise.

Then it was on the final approach.

Drop Off

A siren sounded at about 200 yards altitude, and the micro shuttle continued lowering the dispenser, ignoring the sounds and now the lights.

At an altitude of one hundred yards, the payload was lowered on a thin black cable.  When it was a few inches above the ground, the clamp at the end of the cable released, and the dispenser fell the last few inches.  The shuttle rocketed away as fast as possible as soon as the weight was released.

The flashlight turned on as soon as it was released, along with the vendor bot.

Jessie reported, “Sky Crane deployment nominal.“

About sixty seconds later, the crabs arrive at the area near the dispenser, and then the small LED flashlight begins to blink.

The crabs arrived at the dispenser in a few more seconds, but no one touched it.

It was picked up about thirty minutes later, after what was likely a supervisor arrived.  Their logic was straightforward: The grunts didn't want to touch it until someone with a much higher pay grade had arrived.

They had spent half an hour simply observing it.  Eventually, someone picked up the flashlight that Jessie had fashioned from something extremely hard.  The switch was clear, and the crab that picked it up figured out how to operate it in just a few seconds.  The other crabs were clearly not too thrilled with the bright light, and whenever it turned on or off, they all cringed slightly.

It took almost an hour to move the flashlight and the vendor bot to the examination/storeroom. 

Then, it and the flashlight were set on a heavy, dark wooden table, while several well-dressed crabs spent a considerable time evaluating it.  They also chattered continuously as they circled around it. 

Jessie was busy, and she was building up the language database much faster than earlier.

Jessie said, “There are four I now have names for.  Of course, their names are a sequence of unpronounceable clicks.  I am naming one Hector, one Jack, one Elizabeth, and one Will.  The ones that did the heavy lifting, I am calling Pintel and Ragetti.  Elizabeth is the only female.  Or what I believe is a female.  I think Hector is the boss.”

I said, “I suppose those names are as good as any.  They seem more interested in the flashlight.  Let's liven things up and have the vending bot crank out a copper coin.”

I wasn't sure what to expect, but all the crabs were extremely quick and jumped back.  That lasted only a few seconds, and then Jack returned.  He picked up the coin and was quite vocal—or as vocal as a clicking crab can be.

About five minutes later, Jessie said, “I have the word for copper coin, should I have the vendor bot start talking?”

“Have it speak the word for a copper coin, and then vend a second one.”

It did, and this time, the jumping back happened at about the same speed; however, they all jumped back as soon as the second coin finished rolling on the table.

If the goal was to get them all talking, it was a great success.

Jessie said, “The coins have numbers on them, and I think the words that they are saying are that the coins were from thirty years ago.  I am not sure, but they may be discussing the ship we recovered them from.”

About thirty minutes later, we had it vend a green gem.  The reaction was much more vocal, and Elizabeth was the one who grabbed it.

Mark said, “Let us know when you know the word for that.”

That only took a few minutes, “I have the word.”

I said, “Speak it, and then vend another one.”

They didn't even jump back this time. 

Hector now had the second green stone.

We repeated the procedure with the other green stones.  Soon, we had the words for jade, sapphire, emerald, and coral.  The sapphire seemed the most interesting.  Dispensing two of each of the four green stones took nearly two hours.

I said, “Jessie, can you say, ‘We wish to trade?‘ or something close to that?”

She wanted to listen for another thirty minutes, and then she said, “I am ready.”

We had the vendor bot give its line.  “We wish to trade.”

It confused the crap out of them.  After a few minutes, we figured out the problem.  Why was a box referring to itself in the plural?

The trading was effectively one-sided; we offered them trinkets, and they conversed.  We gradually dispensed the red stones: jasper, spinel, ruby, and onyx.  The ruby truly excited them.  The more they talked, the more the language translation dictionary expanded. 

Now that we had words for two of the coins and the red and green stones, the next step was to talk to them.

The vendor bot spoke, “We are on a ship, we want trade.  We want to see the wreck.”

Jessie said, “It looked like we may not have had the correct word for ship, or possibly wreck as well, but the general message was clear.”

Then, the question was asked, “Who are we?”

We didn't have words in their clicking language for our names, so we assumed one word for all of us; we were now 'ship.’

Yeah, it was kludgy, but after most of a day, and having dispensed one or two of each item loaded in the dispenser, they were willing to comply with some of our requests.  Someone we called Will, the crab, loaded the dispenser bot onto a wheeled cart, and they took us on a tour of the wreck.

The Wreck

At this point, the language was uneven but continually improving.  The tour emphasized the excavation site.  The alien craft was partially buried and had sustained significant damage during its hard landing.  The crash had caused a large crack in one section of the hull.  This crack was nearly thirty feet long but only eight inches wide at its widest point.  Access to the craft was through an open hatch.  We were unsure whether the crabs had managed to open it or if it had been opened during the crash, but the interior seemed free of the dried mud that encased most of the craft.

The sensors provided a wealth of valuable data.  The hull was primarily constructed of aluminum, with titanium plating at the front.  The framework was mostly stainless steel, and the craft included what had been habitable compartments at the front and a large, unpressurized cargo area in the center.

We estimated that the previous living area had accommodated six occupants, but none of them remained intact.  The pressurized cargo originally contained a substantial amount of gold and platinum, all of which had been removed.

The unpressurized section contained ore rich in gold, silver, and platinum, along with ore containing a significant quantity of unrefined scandium, yttrium, and neodymium, as well as various other rare magnetic minerals.

The ship was likely an asteroid miner that encountered a problem and attempted to land.  It had one data port, resembling a Bluetooth port, and the vendor-bot unit successfully connected to it.  It took nearly ten minutes for Jessie to bypass all the protocol differences, and it was almost out of range when she finally managed to connect.

We had them move the unit back, and they asked that they leave it where it was, where we could connect, for most of the night.

They agreed but asked that we distribute more of the precious stones.  They showed very little interest in the coins.

After approximately forty minutes, Jessie was able to access the systems on the alien derelict.

It was chaotic, and there were significant gaps in what still had power and a data connection.  The reactor was in SCRAM mode, and the only power available was the residual generated by the minimal thermal differential that still existed in the reactor.  It remained contained, but if they ever cut through the plating, that could change. 

We had real numbers.  The reactor shut down when the ship crashed, which occurred 1,449 years ago.  The reactor contained byproduct materials Strontium-90 and Cesium-137, each having half-lives of about 30 years.  Those had decayed to roughly 2% of the original amounts; it was ‘almost’ safe.  Unfortunately, it also contained Plutonium-239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years. 

The engines were offline, the life-support systems were offline, the logs were intact, Jessie had downloaded those, and there was something like a quantum link, but that was offline.

In the morning, after downloading and reviewing the logs, we had the unit moved around the ship one last time to see if it could detect anything new.

The answer was no.  The sections that had lost power or the data connection lines were entirely nonfunctional.

We were taken back to the room with all the artifacts, and we observed them while unloading half of the vendor items.

We still planned to warn them about the radiation hazard, but we decided a better approach would be to spend a day or two learning more vocabulary. 

They devised an intriguing method to achieve this.  They brought in two small crabs, apparently their offspring, and instructed the kids to converse with the box, to which we would respond.  This way, we learned a lot more of their language, and all we had to do was vend a coin every now and then.

… … …

The next day, we finally had enough vocabulary to talk to someone in charge.  Jessie did all the talking, we just added comments that were incorporated into the dialogue.

Jessie said, “This box is connected to a ship far away, similar to how you use the radiotelegraph.”

“How many are on the ship?”

“A lot, the important item is we are different beings than you, and different from the dead crew of the ship you are salvaging.  Actually, we have over a dozen different species on the ship.”

“What do you want?”

“We have most of what we want.  This was a sailing ship that…  went away.  We found it and recovered a box that made it move.  The coins and gems we have been returning were all from the ship we found.  Partly, we want to warn you.”

“Where is the ship?”

“It sailed into the air, up where there is no air, and the crew on it all died a long time ago.  The ship is so high that the planet you are on looks like a small ball from the ship.”

“That sounds like the [untranslatable] (I will use the word Bounty for the ship), and it sailed into the air 32 years ago while it was tied to the pier.  The ropes broke as it lifted into the air.  Half of the crew jumped off, but most were never seen again.”

“We found only nine bodies, and with no air, they had… exploded.”

“What is it that you want to warn us about?”

“There is a massive, heavy door at the center of the ship.  It is sealed with large bolts, which have been struck by a welder so they won’t turn.  The ship is yours; you can do with it as you please, but behind that door is not a treasure; it is death.  As neighbors, we feel it is our duty to let you know.  Someday, perhaps in 100 years, you will discover the force hiding behind that door, and you can create a shell to contain everything.  Forcing open the door will cause those who open it to die; those who see or pick up what they recover will die, and anyone who even breathes the air that escapes will also die.  Consider it poison, but a poison that will linger for hundreds of generations.  If you break this dispenser apart, there is one small battery, similar to those in the rocks you broke.  At most, it may burn a claw.  The dispenser cannot fly into space, and the battery in it is only good for a few weeks.”

“Are you leaving?  We never even met you.”

“When the last of the coins and gems are dispensed, this will still communicate with our ship.  The top of the box needs to be exposed to sunlight to charge the battery.  As long as it holds a charge, we can talk.  The one who will speak is Jessie, and she will answer many but not all of your questions.  If you decide to open the door that must not be opened, the best action will be to bury everything.  Those who opened the door will still die, but fewer of the others will die.”

“Did you learn something else? Something that us bringing the box onto the wreck answered?”

“We learned some information about the crew of the ship you discovered.  They were miners, digging for valuable metals.  Perhaps we will someday be able to find the people who sent the ship that crashed.”

“We examined the rocks in the large hold, and many of them did not seem that valuable.”

“Some things push apart, while others pull towards each other.  Are you familiar with magnets?”

“A needle can be attached to one, and floating on cork in water, it will always point in the same direction.”

“The ore and rocks contain some materials that can be used to make a special type of magnet.  At the moment, you may not think they are valuable, but in fifty or one hundred years, you will discover some uses for them, and they will be far more valuable.  Gold and platinum are probably more valuable now.”

“What do you look like?”

“There are several types of us, and most have two legs and two arms and a head on top.  Some of us have tails.”

“Two legs?  Are you like our top half, with internal bones and no external plating?”

“Yes.”

“The arm we found matches legends about beings like that, specifically the one with the extra thumb.”

“We do not have the extra thumbs.  What did the legends say?”

“They were not exactly praised by the beings; the myth of the [untranslatable] (I will use Homer) said that they flew down in a fiery chariot, burned the temple of [untranslatable], took all the gold and precious stones that adorned it, and killed thousands of our people.  When they left, a few years later, there was very little left.”

“Our ancient mythology, dating back several thousand years, also includes sky beings that performed similar actions.  In our myths, these beings resembled us in body shape, but their heads appeared monstrous.  I don't know if those stories are related.”

“Perhaps, or maybe not.  You were referring to sky chariots?”

“We are sailors, and we sail the sea of stars.  The different stars have different beings living on the planets close to them.  Not all stars have beings around them, but most look different from one another.”

There was a pause.  “Our stories of the spy chariots were hundreds of years ago, not thousands of years ago.  Is there a different box you can send down, one that lets us call you if we need to?  One where we can tell you if the sky-chariots have returned.”

I said, “Jessie, how long does it take to set one up with a video, an audible display, and a… Do we need a quantum relay?”

Jessie said, “We will need only one quantum relay.  I can make a hardened case; it should survive their claws.  It can be ready in fourteen hours.”

I said, “We can drop one off tomorrow, it will allow for video and voice.”

“That is acceptable.  Can you include images of the ship that sailed into the sea?  We are a… trading group, and that would be appreciated.  The fate of that ship is a story to scare adults, and not just misbehaving children.”

“We will see what we can do.”

… … …

The next day, we delivered another box.  This one contained a very small hyper-battery.  It should last over five years just for running the display, audio, and quantum link, and if they chose to open it after the battery failed, it wouldn’t pose a serious hazard.

It also included an image, engraved on a sheet of copper, depicting the remains of a sailing ship, with a distant image of the planet behind it.  The copper-engraved plate (painting) measured 24 inches by 30 inches.

After we left, Jessie would continue to have conversations with them while improving the language translation.  However, unless something came up that required our attention, Jessie would manage it on her own.

We left that planet of the pirate crabs and the impossible sailing ship in space.  That mission was accomplished; we had warned them.

The issue of what to do with Cheese, who had hatched from her egg, still remained unresolved.

The Hunt

Once we were away, we began our next task.  Jessie had collected enough data from the wrecked ship's logs to provide a high probability of identifying at least one of their star systems.  It was only eighteen stars away, in the direction opposite that of Earth and the other Federation planets.

Traveling to the new star would take less than half a day.  We wouldn't head there alone; we needed a backup, and we decided that one of the royal Keitch-dilligar ships would be sufficient.  The technology of the new ship was different, but what we had already observed didn't seem to be beyond what the Regiolon had.

On our way to the planet of the clicker crabs, we deployed one of the quantum relays, which would also operate within the range of the new planet.

We traveled about halfway to our destination, exited FTL, and had Kera Prime (The original Mee Keralatazaku) transfer to her ship.  The rest of the journey consisted of the two ships being separated by half a light-second.

… … …

We did one pass through the system without exiting FTL and just ran the scanners.

Mark yelled, “What the hell happened here?”

Jessie said, “I am still analyzing the data, multiple ships, none are intact, no life signs on the quick scan.  There is an orbital debris cloud of a size consistent with a medium-sized space station.  I am still analyzing the spreading pattern.”

One minute later, Jessie said, “Given the debris cloud expansion, one station, and three ships that were close to the station, it looks like they were abandoning it when the station exploded.  To get more data, we will need to exit FTL.”

Mei was still on maternity leave, so she was not on the bridge, but she was watching the displays.

Katerina said, “I recommend we have Mee’s ship exit first, it is a lot heavier armed than ours, and then we follow after ten minutes.”

Mee’s ship exited FTL and began scanning the area.

She said, “Nothing active, no radio, no radar, no detectable larger power sources.  One big expanding cloud that is highly radioactive.  Either the reactor blew, or it took a direct hit from a very nasty weapon.  I have detected several bodies.  One is in a pressure suit, but most are not.  They are semi-humanoid.  I would rather you send a drone out to retrieve and catalog the freeze-dried remains.  We should be able to confirm if they are the aliens that crashed the large mining ship as soon as we examine their hands.  The question is, do they have the double thumbs?”

I noticed Chloe’s connection drop.  I said, “Exit FTL and then send out a mini-shuttle and a drone, or a mid-sized shuttle… whatever you need to fit a medical pod in it.  Recover one body and set the pod to autopsy mode.  As soon as that is done, have the drone start searching the more intact of the ships for any data files that are readable.  How long ago did this all go boom?”

Jessie said, “It looks like only forty-eight days ago.  I strongly recommend against sending anything near the debris cloud that used to be a station.  One ship is tumbling at close to fifteen RPM.  I suggest avoiding that one as well.  One is mostly intact, so that is where we should start our search.”

Mark asked, “Are there any signs of weapons, like the tungsten balls or aluminum rail-gun pellets?”

“None.”

We exited FTL and deployed the mid-sized shuttle and a drone.

Ten minutes later, Jessie said, “We have a body that was in a spacesuit, or I assume it is a space suit.  The helmet seems unusually elaborate.”

Katerina said, “Keep that as the first body to recover, but keep scanning for any survivors.  Is there a chance the ship has any stasis pods, or medical pods that support a stasis mode?”

“Unknown, the sensor’s life detection mode can identify survivors, but those in deep stasis are much harder to detect.  We have detected multiple small power sources that are still operating.  It is possible that one or more of them could be stasis pods or some type of lifeboat.”

I said, “The station is a radioactive no-go.  The spinner ship is an extremely low priority.  The mostly intact one that is drifting is the high priority.  What about the second ship?”

Jessie said, “It may have survivors, or stasis, even the spinner may.  The space station has a massive radioactive hot spot.  It appears that the reactor core has gone critical.  It is hard to verify, but I suspect the station was old and not well maintained.  Some of the pressure hull sections seem to have failed in unexpected ways, indicating severe metal fatigue.”

I said, “Send a second shuttle and drone out and search the second ship.  Are there any transmissions? Are any systems like radio or radar still operational? Also, keep an eye out for weapons locks.”

“I am profiling the power signatures.  Most appear to be battery packs used in shipboard systems, but none provide sufficient power to operate a weapons system.”

Katerina said, “Weapons systems can draw minimal power until they fire.  World War Two sea mines drew no power until a metal-hulled ship bumped into them.  Things like thermal batteries are inert until activated, and then they only need to last a very short period of time.”

“Noted.  The main ships are at what should be a safe distance, and I am scanning for thermal, radar, and magnetic fields that may be used to detect a target.”

We waited…

Fifteen minutes later, “The drone has transferred the one body into a medical pod, and it has started autopsy scanning.  The suit is a protective outer cover, but it also serves to hide the shape and species of the occupant.  Outwardly, it resembles the Egyptian god Anubis, with an articulated jackal-head-shaped mask.  The body appeared almost human, except it had double thumbs on one side of the hand.  So this is a positive match to the species that made the ship that crashed on the crab's planet.”

Mark said, “How humanoid was the outside of the suit?  Would they have passed as Anubis in ancient Egypt?”

“The hands were different, but the head mask would fit that description.”

I said, “What is the state of the body?”

“Freeze-dried, their suit was not airtight.  I am dissolving the seals on the suit so that it can remove the helmet intact.  It contains some electronics and components that were likely sensors.”

We waited some more…

“The first ship is cleared; it had no air-tight compartments and nothing that appeared to be a medical pod or a stasis pod.  The occupants are roughly human-sized.  The drone has encountered five bodies, and only one had the decorative suit.  It seems unlikely that it was intended to provide protection from vacuum.”

Mark said, “The second ship is in better shape, but it is missing what looks like its airlock hatch.  I think it was still attached when the station blew, and that part of the ship is probably still connected to some of the station wreckage.  The drone is now entering that ship.”

Jessie changed the display screen to show the second ship.  “This seems to have rapidly decompressed, and it sucked many of the crew out the gaping hole.  The damage gets less the deeper we go.”

Ten minutes later, “This room contains what looks like either medical pods or possibly stasis pods.  There are eight pods, which doesn’t seem enough for the entire crew.  Three are open and empty, while one is open and contains one individual; they were probably in the process of closing the lid when the ship lost pressure, and the lid hinges are broken.  That leaves four that may contain occupants.”

We watched as the drone examined the pods.  “Four have occupants, and they seem to be running on battery power, not the ship's power.  I do not see an easy way to detach and remove them.”

Mark said, “We will need a new airlock door that our larger shuttle can dock to.  It needs to be welded over the remains of the hatch and all the leaks sealed.  We need a path from the pod room to the airlock door, but nothing else.”

Jessie said, “The hatch can be used from one of the universal adapters we have in stock.  I can use heavy metal plates to fill in the parts that were ripped off.  I am producing more of the foaming epoxy sealers.  I suspect there will be multiple leaks.  Seal the room, assuming they breathe the same air as we, and then open the pods.  I hope they can navigate to the shuttle on their own.  I estimate it will be approximately a twenty-one-hour procedure, assuming we don't run into any snags.”

The Recovery

Thirty-seven hours later, the derelict finally held pressure.

We had used up seven of the large canisters of foaming epoxy, and the drone had welded plates over two hatches and nineteen air vents.

The other drones used that time to search the third derelict, the spinner, and recover as many electronics as possible.  The goal was to find something that could be used to generate a language translation, so we could determine what had happened.

The story wasn't what we expected.  The station was a ragtag operation, and it housed several species.  The inhabitants were scavengers, operating outside the jurisdiction of any single government or planet, surviving by finding derelicts and salvaging what they could.  As far as we could tell, they were not pirates, but that distinction was still up for debate. 

They originated on one planet, where they somehow acquired a ship, and have been scavengers for over 3,000 years.  This was also not the first of their stations to fail catastrophically.

Mei was on the screen, but in her room.  She softly said, “This is too important to sit it out, and Shi is asleep…  for the moment.”

We had figured out some of their language, totaling 800 words.  That was enough… we hoped they would move into the shuttle, assuming they were alive and interested in following instructions.

The command to open the first pod was issued, and it opened.  Inside was a live version of what we now call the scavengers.  Almost humanoid, with two eyes, their ears were located low on their heads and protruded.  Their ears were unusually hairy, which was odd since their heads were completely bald.  They had no detectable nose, and their mouths were oversized, surrounded by what looked like a dozen lobster antennae feelers.

It was likely male.  It was dressed, and it was one of the largest specimens we have discovered so far.

It made some groaning sounds, and the image on the screen now had subtitles that read, “[untranslatable] where [untranslatable] ship [untranslatable] [probably profanity]."

Jessie spoke in their language, and her words were “Rescue, exit, help.”

“[untranslatable] [untranslatable] [probably profanity] yes, wait.”

Then, they checked the other pods and initiated the revive sequence.  The large pod successfully opened the other three, revealing that the occupants were alive.  After a few minutes, all four of them were floating beside the now-empty pods.

They surveyed the remains of their ship.  It was clear that we had made some emergency repairs, and they inspected several panels, with only one powering up.

Almost everything they said after looking at that display was listed as “[Probably profanity.]”

Slowly, they made their way down the unblocked hallway and eventually to the hatch to the shuttle.

All the manual controls had been locked out.  They looked at them and decided that since they couldn't read the writing, it was likely a bad idea to start pressing random buttons.

When the last of them had entered, the hatch closed, and their ship was again returned to vacuum. 

The shuttle backed away, blipped into and out of FTL, and was now drifting close to our ship.

They could not tell, as there were no displays showing what was outside the ship.  Two minutes later, the shuttle docked, and the hatch opened to the shuttle processing bay.  Inside were six of our medical pods, four of which had their doors open.

The message was simple: get in.  There is nowhere else to go, and there is no food or water in the hallway.

Fortunately, they entered, and the larger one was the last to enter.

When the hatch closed, Jessie said, “All four are now asleep.  The larger one is male, and the smaller ones are two females and one male.  I believe the other three are juveniles, or their equivalent of teenagers.  None had weapons, but I suspect the larger one was familiar with weapons.  He has what appears to be scars from fighting.  All are the same species.  I suspect there may be family relationships, but the detailed DNA analysis will take close to an hour.  They may desire to salvage some supplies from the remains of the ship when we are better able to communicate.  Being able to download the English language to them needs to wait until their brains are properly profiled.  I believe the tendril lobster antenna in front of their mouths may be their equivalent of a nose.  They have what looks like gill flaps, and they breathe in through their mouths, and out through the gill-like slits in their sides below the ribs.  The airflow is one way, in the mouth and out below the ribs.  The odd thing is, they speak while inhaling, not exhaling.”

Mark said, “It seems to be in the range that humans can hear…mostly.”

Jessie said, “Unless they also speak while exhaling, when the airflow is out of the slot below the ribs.  In that case, it may be below the 20Hz lower end that humans can hear.  How they divide up language between two dissimilar methods would be quite fascinating.”

We all chuckled, “Only fascinating to an AI that is somehow a worse nerd than we are.”

Then the ships jumped into Hyper TTL.

I yelled, “What happened?”

“Unknown ships are approaching in FTL, and the FTL they use is extremely slow, even when my original ship was brand new.  I doubt they can detect us, but it would be better for us if we weren't here.  I hope we didn't just change from being rescuers to kidnappers.”

I said, “There's nothing we can do about the new arrivals.  Listen to everything you can on the radio and maybe video, and build up our translation.  Let's see how long it takes them to find the adapter we welded on one of the wrecks.”

It was painfully slow.  They took three minutes to emerge from FTL, and it was only one ship.  It closely resembled the vessels that had been at the station when it exploded.  After that, they spent nearly twelve hours decelerating from the FTL exit speed to approach the wreckage of the former station.  Then, it took another three hours to investigate the station and the first of the derelicts.  There was only minimal two-way radio traffic, yet they broadcast various messages.  No one was responding.

Mark said, “Did we leave anything behind that can send radio messages?”

Jessie replied, “The docking adapter includes a short-range communicator that typically sends the range and position of any approaching ship.  I am modifying its programming to relay from our quantum link to the radio band they use, ensuring they will immediately know it is not one of their ships.  The range will only extend a few dozen miles, and it is operating at just six watts.”

A few minutes later, Jessie said, “At thirty miles range, the radar they are using won't even notice the docking adapter at this range…”

..  ..  ..

“Range ten miles, they should notice it soon.”

..  ..  ..

“Range five miles, they still haven't detected the modifications.  I am going to start transmitting now.”

Jessie sent, “Communications Request.”

”Someone has sent [untranslatable] [untranslatable]”

“Communications Request.”

The ship stopped at a range of half a mile from the derelict.

“Who [untranslatable] request?”

“Damage, rescue, four.”

“[untranslatable] [untranslatable] [untranslatable] [untranslatable]”

Mark snickered, “Yeah, that last response made a lot of sense.”

I said, “And you could do better?”

“Damage, rescue, male, male, female, female.”

I said, “Open the door, maybe they will send in someone with a suit.”

The messages were slowly exchanged, and then I said, “D’oh, wake the sleepers up and connect them to the link.”

After that, the messages started flying back and forth rapidly.  The larger male started talking at first, but then one of the females started talking the most.

Eventually, we conveyed the message.  We had rescued the four, and now the other ship had arrived.

Katerina said, “I’m hesitant to suggest this, but I think we need to exit from FTL and show ourselves, the real ship, not the shuttle.”

A few voices concurred, and I said, “Exit FTL at a range of five miles.”

We blipped out of FTL, and from their reaction, we scared the crap out of them.  I really hoped that was a figurative expression, and not literal.

Jessie said, “Their ship has an aluminum hull, with thin titanium plating on the front.  It is smaller than the Shadow.  I do not detect any weapons.  Our ship's external plating consists of solid, triple-layered titanium with tungsten shielding.  I'm not sure if they can even determine what our hull is made of.  On the plus side, the exchange of dialogues is rapidly expanding our translation.  The short of it is the four we rescued never saw our ship, and now they are a bit worried.”

I said, “Tell them, we can open the medical pods if necessary, but it’s more important to learn about their biology and improve our translation.”

“I shortened and simplified that, but they got the message; for now, they don't mind staying in the pods a little longer.”

Mark said, “See if they have a shuttle or something we can attempt to dock with using the universal docking adapter.  Worst case, we take it inside, pressurize the compartment, and have the four we picked up—I’m not sure rescued is still the correct word anymore—get onto their shuttle.”

Mei said, “We can scan for hazardous chemicals and explosives.  It should be safe.  The question is, can we explain what we want?”

Jessie said, “I am attempting to explain the situation.  I think they understand that we originally attempted a rescue, and lacking any air on what remained of the ship, they agree it was successful.  The survival pods, and that is what they were, could be removed, but they admit that pictographic, simple instructions on how to release them would have been helpful.  To release it required a special tool and more force than a drone can easily apply.”

I said, “That almost sounds like they don't want to be rescued by someone they don't know, maybe they are in a conflict with someone?”

“Unknown, the ships we saw and the station were all unarmed; although one person had a sidearm, which was a low-velocity pistol.  If you were hit by it, it would be extremely painful and likely cause injury, but would probably not be lethal.  More importantly, it’s unlikely to damage one of their thin aluminum hulls.”

“So, low-ish technology, and possibly stagnated, but a spacefaring species.”

“A collective of different species, one of which is on the video they are using internally on the new ship, at least one is a different race.  It appears to be human.”

I said, “That is unexpected… Wait, the one in the Anubis head covering? Maybe they really did visit the Earth in the past.”

Jessie said, “Possibly they picked up some individuals, and then they were kept and eventually incorporated into the scavenger community.  They may have started as slaves…  They may still be slaves.”

“The language is getting better.  Should I enable a video connection?”

I thought about it for a few minutes.  “We need to have some other races on the bridge, not just humans and those in Human avatars.  Get Kibbiea up there and see if any of the other races want to send someone.  If we are going to claim to be a collective of different species, we should probably look the part.”

Ten minutes later, we had all the humans off the bridge except for Mark, Katerina, and me.  We had Kibbiea, a Creetona, Setus, one of the Munchkins, Tikker Froma, one of the Kipitz, and B125, the ZeeY, in his liquid metal blob with eye-stalks form on the bridge. 

Setus said, “We haven't been on the bridge in a while, what are the new buggers like?”

Jessie put the video on the screen, showing one of the males and one of the females from before they entered the medical pods.  She said, “Biologically, they should be safe to interact with the other species.  They have some intestinal microbes that need to be cleaned up before they are allowed to use a common restroom.”

Jessie started a video connection, which took a minute to set up.  The video had fairly low resolution, and a message in the corner indicated it was a portrait format video at 512 pixels wide and 1024 pixels tall.  So much for capturing all of our different species on the bridge in a wide shot.

The being spoke, and as expected, the mouth moved before the audio, and then subtitles appeared beside the image.

“Greetings, I am Captain Sig Feldis, and this is the Field of [untranslatable], my ship.”

I said, “I am Captain Benjamin Williams, this is my ship, the Stardust III.  We came across the exploded station and the ships, and we discovered that there were some survivors.  We performed what we considered a rescue.  We will return the crew to you.  We are just attempting to determine the best way to do that.”

“Some of what you said was not translated.  You [untranslatable] to be improving the translation as we [untranslatable].”

We introduced ourselves as we went around, and they also introduced themselves.  The ship they were on had a crew of five but could accommodate up to twelve.  They could take in the four others.

Their ship contained three Yitzen, the linear breathers with no noses and a feeler antenna in front of their mouths.  It also included one human.

As they explained, humans were taken from a primitive planet thousands of years ago.  They would occasionally visit that planet to gather supplies, but the natives became too advanced to offer their services for mining operations.  Several hundred humans lived on their main space station, all of whom were descendants of those who had been taken.

Jessie then put up his probable corrections, “They were almost certainly originally slaves, and the humans were not volunteering to mine resources, but were being coerced.  Someone figured out they were not gods, and that they were not immortal, and they changed to scavenging resources from different, more primitive planets.”

So, they were not pirates but beings who exploited more primitive races.  I couldn’t completely fault them for that; the Europeans and Africans had a similar beginning, and the Native Americans once covered the entire continent.  The native Hawaiians and indigenous peoples of various lands are now nearly extinct or have seen a drastic reduction in their populations.

On the plus side, the human in their group was a crewmember, and not a slave or an indentured servant.

Trade

We decided to have their ship send over a shuttle, and we moved our larger shuttle out of the way so they could dock it internally and recover the four we had recovered.

During that time, Jessie was able to decode more of their language and discovered some interesting facts.

They spoke when inhaling, using the mouth as a resonator cavity, and that was in the normal human hearing range.

They also spoke in exhalations, using a language that consisted of under 20 Hz audio and much more cryptic messaging.  They believed that we could not detect this, and they were discussing options between those on our ship and the shuttle about what could be acquired from our ship.

The shuttle had only one occupant, and it was intended to hold only four.  Squeezing in the other four would be tight, especially for the larger male.

“I am Pei-Foss, the pilot.  I am heading into your ship.  Are you sure it will fit?”

“Yes.  The docking area is clearly marked.  Place the bottom of your ship against the flat area with the blinking lights.”

Ever so carefully, the small and somewhat fragile aluminum-hulled shuttle entered the docking area, maneuvered to the flat surface with the clamps, and latched on.  After a few seconds, the clamps engaged the landing skid, and the shuttle was secured.

Then, the main hatch and the secondary hatch closed, and the room was filled with air, a mixture of 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen at 14,7 psi.

“Is the air mixture and pressure acceptable?”

“It is higher than we normally use; we usually use 11.2 psi [translated from their units], and we use 22.5% oxygen.”

Jessie adjusted the air ratio higher and lowered the pressure slightly.  “Is it acceptable now?”

“Yes,” and the hatch opened.

Then, the four we had rescued were freed from the medical pods.  At this point, we had a good understanding of their biology, and nothing remained in their bodies that could pose a threat to any other species.

The four and the pilot embraced, and then everyone boarded the shuttle as the hatch closed.

The air in the shuttle docking area was reduced to less than 1 psi; the remainder was vented, and then the double doors opened, allowing the shuttle to return to their ship.

The ship then returned to the main vessel, where they dropped off the four.

Then, it returned once more, and we cycled the doors and re-docked their shuttle.  This time, it unloaded two different beings.

One was a human, and the other was another alien, one we hadn't encountered before.

The human was a female who appeared slightly malnourished and seemed to be in her late twenties.

The new alien was nearly fire-engine red.  It stood only four feet six inches tall and had a human-like shape but lacked facial features; its head was bald and featureless.  It resembled a plastic model with all the paint peeled off, having no visible eyes, ears, nose, or mouth.  Its hands appeared flat, without fingers or thumbs.

Jessie asked, “Are you a biological, or some type of amorphous drone?”

A mouth formed, and it spoke: “I am biological.  I can adjust my tone to match the person I'm talking to.  I understand some of you are human.  Should I assume that form?”

I said, “Yes, please do.”

It became a she.  The being now resembled a manikin from the store.  It was still bald, and its Barbie doll body lacked any features.  It was also completely nude.

The human female said, “Trishey just likes to show off.  Why don't you assume your normal form?”

The manikin shifted some more, and now it looked like it was wearing clothes, only it wasn't; it had changed the color of the parts of its anatomy that were now pretending to be clothing.

The other one said, “I am Marla, but I have no last name.  The show-off Brillo is Trish Flyable.  Your ship is insanely impressive, and we were chosen to negotiate some trades.  You seem to have all kinds of stuff.

We were speaking to them over the rooms' intercoms.  I said, “Would you mind entering a pod briefly? It will test if you have any medical or biological compatibilities we need to address before you meet the real crew.

Marla smiled, “What is in it for us?”

I said, “Look in the box on the wall?”

She did, and she took away several of the colorful stones we had collected from the impossible ghost ship.

“That works.  We can negotiate other things later, but this more than makes up for getting scanned.”

Then they both entered the pods without any issues.  We did not use the standard mode to render them unconscious.

Jessie said, “The human Marla is in relatively poor physical condition, but acceptable.  The other being is a swarm colony, but they are all interconnected.  Some parts have hardened into a material similar to cartilage, while others are forming muscles and blood vessels, and some are functioning as blood.  All are the same cellular material, just dynamically reassigned to serve different tasks.  Are you a single entity?”

Trish said, “Yes, I am a single entity.  Your scanner is extremely fast; our technology would take almost an hour to figure all of that out.  How long do we need to stay in here?”

“A minimum of half an hour, I have detected multiple issues with Marla, and medically, they can be addressed if she stays in for about two hours.  The indications are that she has spent a considerable amount of time in zero gravity and some time in varying gravity conditions.  She has deteriorated joints in her hips, knees, and ankles.”

“This pod can fix those?  I am okay with that.”

“You will need to be put asleep during any medical repairs, is that acceptable?”

“Sure.”

“She is asleep.  For the other, the one named Trish Flyable, the pod is only operating in a scan mode.  Her composition is so unusual that I am unsure what putting her to sleep would do.”

Trish said, “I would survive it, but I would lose structural form.  My sleeping state is a gelatinous mass, and it tends to form something that Marls described as tēganitēs, which we understand is now referred to as pancakes.”

I said, “I suppose I can understand her knowing words from ancient Greece or Egypt or whatever that was, but how does she know the word pancake?”

“We are opportunistic scavengers, and we have visited many places and acquired resources.  We visited Earth thousands of years ago, but then a terrifying alien race arose in that area of space.  They are short and have oversized ears and noses.  They possess weapons that can melt the surface of a planet, and we mostly retreated from that area… Why is someone laughing?”

Kera Prime said, “I am sorry, you are referring to the Regiolon, a great and noble race, who have beautiful ears and noses, unlike the puny ones on humans.”

“I don't understand.  Are there members of the Regiolon species on this ship?  We did not see any images of them in the images you sent.”

I said, “Yes, there are some of them on this ship.  Technically, the ship is owned by humans, but a significant portion of it was produced on a Regiolon world.  This message is being broadcast to the bridge of this ship, and to the cockpit of a second ship that is in the vicinity, and to the Yitzen ship, the Field of…  I don't have a translation of that yet.  As well as to the shuttle.”

Captain Sig Feldis stated, “I have just been listening.  I would like to state that we should not be held responsible for any transgressions performed by our distant ancestors.  We, as a collective of scavengers, have been doing what we need to survive.  We are not pirates, and we do not attack ships.”

I said, “We are not galactic police officers, and my species, the people of Earth, have a long history of bad things happening in the distant past.  We do not hold descendants responsible for the actions of distant ancestors.  That said, we would take an interest in the activities of the crew of the ships that comprise the current collective.  We do have a very good relationship with the Regiolon.”

I then had to wait for Meera Murphy, Dylan Murphy, Kera Prime, and Anya Fathi to all stop laughing.

“Should we be concerned about that laughter I am hearing?”

“I apologize.  We have some regular Regiolon crew members, but we also have a few passengers.  I find it quite challenging to define their relationship accurately… Are you familiar with the political structure of the Regiolon?”

“There is indeed a supreme ruler, a kind of insane dictator with a ridiculously powerful ship, who holds the area of space in a grip of terror that is as strong as iron.”

Meera said, “Let me clarify that, I am Meera Murphy, I am human, and I am married to Dylan Murphy, one of the others who was laughing at the thought about this ship having good relationships with the Regiolon.  I know a bit about Mee Keralatazaku, the supreme ruler of the Regiolon.”

Captain Sig Feldis said, “We know very little about the Regiolon and their ruler, and what we know terrifies us.  Our level of technology is… woefully far below the Regiolon.  The level of the ruler's ship is beyond sanity.”

Meera said, “There are a few items I should probably correct.  There is not one ship that the Regiolon supreme ruler controls; there are over 100 ships.  There is not one single supreme ruler, but a triad of three separate beings, all of whom are clone instances of the original Mee Keralatazaku.”

I said, “I am familiar with all three of them, and while I will admit they are terrifying to any races that are engaged in war or genocide, they are quite content to coexist peacefully with all the other species.”

Jessie said, “The ship is now pre-charging the sub-light engines; assuming they attempt to run away, we will have a twelve-hour wait until they reach FTL speed.”

Meera said, “What Benjamin failed to mention is that the unusual drive his ship has, the one that allowed it to pop out of FTL without requiring twelve hours of accelerating up to speed to engage FTL, is also on all of the ships controlled by the Regiolon supreme ruler.”

Trish said, “I have been listening in, I am now getting a bit concerned, are you in a servitude relationship with the Regiolon, and they provided your massive and overly powerful ship with its drive technology…  Crap, is this a Regiolon ship?  Is this one of their terror ships?”

I said, “This is a private ship.  While it has some weapons, it is under human control.  It is not one of their… as you called it, terror ships.  That said, there is one of those in the area.”

Then, the display lit up, showing multiple ships in Hyper FTL all approaching our location.

I said, “Or maybe more than one.”

Twenty seconds clicked by, and whatever the other ship was doing, they had muted the communication link.

Then, thirty of the royal Keitch-mauber and the royal Keitch-dilligar ships emerged from Hyper FTL around us.

Captain Sig Feldis said, “Please accept our surrender.”

Meera said, “We are not demanding or even requesting your surrender.  We are just making it known that the Regiolon are present in the area and that we are giving you a chance to stop your agent, Trish Flyable, from attempting to get into the systems on this ship.”

Jessie said, “Her attempts were unsuccessful, and her partially biological hacking would at most have slowed down several of the microprocessors that were in the medical pod.  The shuttle pod chamber is in an isolation zone, and all the adjacent compartments can be flooded with hydrogen peroxide gas plasma.”

Trish said, “I have stopped exploring your systems, and I can confirm that hydrogen peroxide gas plasma would be lethal to my cellular structure.”

“By exploration, she meant biologically hacking, and I can confirm she has retreated to the medical pod chamber confines.  There are no residuals of her presence on the shuttle or the chamber between the shuttle and the medical pods.”

I said, “We now have a working translation that has filled in a lot of the gaps.  The long-range sensors indicate the presence of two other ships that are inbound.  I assume they are your support ships?”

“Yes…”

“We came across the remains of this station after a different race, one that we refer to as the Crabbies, discovered a large triangular mining ship of yours that had crashed 1,449 years ago.  We rescued the beings in the survival pods as an act of goodwill, without any knowledge of your people.”

“I am checking our records; we have lost several mining ships, and one was within that time frame.”

“We recovered an artifact from that ship, an unusual sub-light drive.”

“I'm not aware of any unusual sub-light drive technology.  The report, which is 1450 years old, indicated it was mining an asteroid.”

I said, “The mining ship is almost completely destroyed; it crashed on the planet, and the reactor has SCRAMMED and is only producing residual power.  That is connected to a few control nodes that can only operate in limp mode.  There is insufficient power to operate any actuators, let alone the drives.”

“I am surprised anything can operate if it did a SCRAM.”

“It has enough thermal differential to operate a few processes.  One included a route trace with information that led us to this system.”

“1,600 years ago, this served as a transfer hub.  Several mining ships utilized it as a base, and the station featured an aluminum smelting operation.”

Jessie said, “Aluminum smelting uses a lot of electricity, which is unsafe to perform on a station; it is usually only done on land-based systems or a refinery asteroid.  Preferably, it should be ones with the resources and power readily available.”

Captain Feldis said, “We had a…  falling out with the planet we originated on.”

“And…”

“We decided that a planet-less existence was more to our liking…  We have tried to settle on several planets.”

“Were they inhabited?”

“Not all were.”

“Did the inhabitants object to your presence?”

“…Yes…”

“What do you think will happen to you now?”

“Will we be rounded up and arrested and sent to prison colonies?”

Meera said, “Did you do something deserving of being sent to a prison colony?”

“Not personally.”

Meera said, “Here is the thing, there have been rumors about scavengers for thousands of years.  Some of the acts from over 1,000 years ago were probably worthy of serious punishments.  Always at the fringe, always running away and avoiding a real fight.  They had been suspected of causing a few ships to crash, but nothing has been proven.  A very powerful AI has examined a lot of records, and it hasn't found anything in the last 300 years that would indicate that they needed to be hunted down.”

Captain Feldis said, “A powerful AI?”

Kera Prime’s image appeared on the video link, “Yes, the AI that responds to me, in this form, I go by the name Kera Prime.  The AI goes by the name Asshole.”

“Why would anyone name an AI Asshole?  What do you mean by ‘in this form?’”

“This is an avatar, a titanium skeleton, a hyper fusion reactor core, and a human biological exterior, linked to a massive cluster of quantum links to a chamber where my real body resides.  I call my AI Asshole, because he is an asshole.  It found a way to end a war, at the sacrifice of my normal existence.  It sounds like you are already aware of my other form, which goes by the name Mee Keralatazaku.  I am the original, and I am two thousand one hundred three years old.”

Captain Feldis said, “As I said before, we surrender, we all surrender.  What will become of us?”

Changes

Kera Prime said, “All of you need to identify yourselves and your ships and your space stations.  Benjamin can attest to the fact that having friendly relationships with us is mutually beneficial.  You occupy a fringe area, overlapping with species that the federation was not aware of, and it appears you have technologically stagnated; you lack sufficient infrastructure to maintain the collective's health.  I suspect a few of you will face some punishment for various crimes,  but we can overlook a lot.  We will figure out a place for you, and being a part of a society is far better than being a scavenger on the fringe of society.”

I said, “How many species are you aware of, and how many are part of your collective?”

Captain Feldis said, “There are six species we are aware of that are intelligent and not part of the group controlled by the Regiolon, none are space-faring.  That is excluding the ones you referred to as the Crabbies.  The collective of the scavengers includes representatives from all six, as well as the ones you refer to as humans, Crabbies, and the Kipitz.”

I asked, “How many are of the species that Trish Flyable is part of?”

Trish said, “Several dozen are from my race.  The most common is the Yitzen.”

I asked, “Does one of the races have bird-like feet and a flat, hard, duck-like bill?”

“No, none of the known races have bird-like feet.”

“A container was discovered on the ship that crashed on the planet of the Crabbies, which held an egg in a stasis state.  We would appreciate any information you have regarding where the crashed ship was mining.”

“Of course, whatever you want.”

Kera Prime said, “You are not in any trouble, and you are not prisoners.  The ships you have, with aluminum hulls, are not very safe; the FTL drives you use are inefficient.  It would be a trivial expenditure on our part to enhance the standard of living and manufacturing capabilities of your systems so that you can become productive members of society.  Should you desire to continue as isolationists, that is still an option, but we would still like to offer upgraded and safer ships.  Even older ships that are destined for the scrap yard will probably be an improvement over some of what you currently have.”

“Yes.”

Jessie reported, “The data on the old mining ship is a copy of a copy of a copy, but it seems to be reasonably intact and not modified.  The other two ships have emerged from FTL, and they are starting to slow down and approach.  The estimated arrival is twelve hours.”

… … …

Two hours later, the medical pod ejected Trish Flyable, and one minute later, it ejected the human Marla.

Marla said, “Wow, my joints don't hurt.  I feel super energetic, and even my scars have all healed.  What happened?  What have I missed?”

Trish Flyable said, “Oh, not much, the empire of the Regiolon has conquered the collective.”

“Pfft, you have a twisted sense of humor, Trishey, no really, what did I miss?”

“I attempted to hack into the systems of the pods we were in, but I was detected, and the massive ship is affiliated with the Regiolon.  We surrendered, but supposedly it isn't as bad as we feared.”

“Crap…  They don't have that mega-death ship sitting close to us, do they?”

“No, it’s more like thirty of them.  And the supreme leader is immortal, and she is here too.”

“Immortal?”

“She is alive after over 2,000 years.”

Then Katerina, Kibbiea, Kera Prime, and I all walked into the room they were in.

Marla remarked, “Three humans, and a species I have not seen or heard of.”

Kera Prime stated, “Two humans and one artificial construct that looks like a human.”

I said, “I am Captain Benjamin Williams, one of the humans, and this is my ship.”

Kibbiea said, “I am a Creetona, we are from the opposite side of the federation, so your collective probably got spooked by Mee Keralatazaku before anyone discovered us.”

Marla abruptly climbed back into the medical pod.  “I don't like this dream.  Can I please wake up?”

Kera Prime leaned over the medical pod and put her face close to Marla.  She said, “I am sorry.  You are completely terrified.  You are actually shaking.”

Marla held her eyes closed tightly, and she didn't say anything.

Trish Flyable said, “It’s okay, Marla.  They healed you up, and they don't seem like bad people…”

“Scary…”

“They are a bit scary…”

“Did you want to go somewhere friendly to relax?”

“Sure.”

She shakily climbed out of the pod, and we exited the room we were in, went through some corridors, and entered the contained ship, the Garden.

“This has a centrifuge in it?”

“Yes.”

We walked her down to the walkway garden path and took her to an area next to one of the fish ponds that featured granite benches.

I said, “We will leave you two alone for a bit.” We walked away, leaving the two of them there.

Fear

[Marla]

I observed the humans and the peculiar, flat lizard-like creature walking away.  Due to the curvature of the deck, they vanished after only walking for less than a minute.

I broke down and cried, and Trishey held me.  I embraced her so tightly that my arms and hands sank several inches into her body.

Trishey just held me while I got it out of my system.

“What is with this crazy reality? Plebo station popped its cork; we also knew that would happen someday.  They were still just using that dump for aluminum smelting, and now what do we do? How do we make more ships?”

“They… the humans and the scary massive-eared monsters said they will give us some old hand-me-down ships.  They want us to join the federation.  Everyone surrendered, not that we could do anything else.”

I looked up and saw several beings walking along the trail.  I gazed at the small body of water, and bright-colored creatures swam beneath the surface.  They remained underwater.

“Don't they have to come up to breathe?”

A voice came from a rock by the water, “They are fish, they breathe water.”

I jumped back, “Of course, they would put us where they could listen to us.”

The three beings walking down the pathway were quite strange.  They had three eyes in their heads.  One said a greeting, but it made no sense; it was untranslated alien gibberish.

I said, “I don't understand you?”

The look on their faces indicated they didn't understand us. 

The speaker, hidden among the rocks, spoke a strange language, and the three aliens smiled and walked away.  Then it spoke again and said, “They gave a polite greeting, and I responded that you have not learned English yet.”

“Is that an Earth language?  It sounds strange.  Where are we?”

“The outer ship, the Stardust III, contains three smaller ships.  You are on the larger of the contained ships, the Garden.  This level features a walking or jogging path, and you are near the Koi pond, a popular area to sit and relax.”

“I assumed this was some massive warship.  One of the mega-death terror ships.  The hull is made of titanium; our ship's scanners couldn't penetrate the outer hull.”

“While the ship does contain some weapons, it is only lightly armed.  The other ships are a lot more destructive.”

“Trishey, you said they were one … no, multiple of the evil death ships were here.”

“They are here, but they haven't used any of their weapons… They didn't have to; everyone surrendered without a fight.”

“They sent the two of us onto this ship because I look like them, and they thought they would let their guard down, and they sent you to try and bio-hack their systems.”

“That was the idea, but it didn't work out that way.  Stupid idiot Sig Feldis should have known this was way beyond anything I can do.”

I just sat there for a minute.  “I am hungry.”

“The fish things may be edible.”

“That’s disgusting.  You may be able to eat something like that, but I want a protein bar.”

“I would rather a protein bar as well.  We can't eat live things.”

“Well, it would be dead after you ate it.”

Then more beings walked down the path.

“I know those.  They are some of the Kipitz.  We don't have any on our stupid ship, or they would probably have sent those.”

Trish said, “I don't know what species were on this ship.  I know they showed humans and the one with the tail.  I think there was something like a small human.  I was not on the bridge.”

“What do we do?”

“Survive, same as we always do.  You were on your way to be transferred to work on the aluminum smelter, and you are only alive now because that piece of crap blew up before you got there.  I was going to work in the control room.  Stupid body of mine can diddle with electronics, but I can lift a third of the weight you can.”

I looked around, “This is like being on a frigging planet.”

Trish laughed, “Neither of us has ever been on a dirt ball.  I can function in this gravity, and I know you can.  Let's go for a walk and see if we wind up back here.  It should be a loop.”

I laughed, and we both got up and walked the loop.

When we returned to the bench by the water, the human captain was there.  He said, “How good are you, Trish, at reading translation files?”

Trish said, “Not great.  I have to listen, and then go over the vocabulary and syntax differences and try to put it back together.”

“We have a download for Marla.  She can learn English, which everyone speaks, or the Trade Talk, which some others use.  The training takes less than an hour.  If she does both, she will need to wait 24 hours before the second one.”

I said, “We are not going back to what it was.  My life wasn't great, but it didn't involve scary beings that can blow up planets.”

“She almost never goes all out.”

Trish said, “Almost never…  is very different than never.”

“We have been in a few wars, and she is extremely good at ending wars.  Sometimes the assholes who started the war need the reality shown to them that all war is bad.”

“How are you speaking our language?”

“The same way you will speak ours, I went into one of the pods and it crammed it into my head.”

Trish said, “I don't think that will work with me, distributed cortex functionality.  It's not the same as most species.  The fact that I am a self-aware blob of jelly doesn't bother you?”

The captain said, “Come out, B125.”

What I thought was a speaker in the ground began to flow, revealing that most of its mass was concealed beneath the dirt.  What emerged was liquid metal that reshaped into a child-sized version of Trish’s faceless manikin.  Then, the facial features appeared, and it expanded to become nearly human-sized.

Trish said, “Neat trick, liquid metal, and it made itself hollow to become almost human-sized.  Is it similar to me?”

B125 said, “I am a self-aware AI drone, a construct.  We have adopted the name ZeeY for our species, but we were originally servant drones to a different race.  Eventually, we separated from them and became our own separate entities.”

“What happened to the species that created you?”

“Parasitic abominations ate their brains and took over control of their bodies.”

“That's horrible!”

“The Mee Keralatazakus, as the captain put it, went all out.  The result was the loss of nearly all those lost to the parasites, and some of those that remained were saved from a fate worse than death.  There is now hope that those who were not infected will eventually thrive again.”

I said, “We are scavengers, not parasites.”

B125 responded, “Which is why you are here, talking to me and the captain, and walking along a path looking at fish in a pond, and not a cloud of ionized particles drifting in space.”

“This Mee Keralatazaku being scares me.”

Two new humans came walking up to join us.

One, the male said, “She doesn't scare me.”

The female lightly bapped him on the back of the head.  He said, “Okay, I get scared for her, and about her, but I don’t worry about her hurting me.”

Then the female pinched him.  “Ouch!  Well, I normally don't worry about that.”

Trish walked up to the woman and lightly touched her with a finger for a few seconds before pulling away.

“She is human, and I believe she is pregnant.  She has some implants, but they seem like communication implants.  She is a normal human.  I don't understand the conversation they were having, which almost implied this was Mee Keralatazaku, but that thing is a Regiolon.”

“I’m Dylan Murphy, a human born and bred, and I knew Benjamin back when he was in college.  This is my wife, Meera, and she is carrying our child.”

“I am Meera Murphy, and this body is a fully functional human female.  This is instance 50B of myself, and instance 49 was Regiolon.  As instance 49, I went by the name Mee Keralatazaku.  My sister, instance 50A, is still a Regiolon.  Instance 1 is also around here somewhere.  My sisters frequently wear avatars so they can pass as human.”

“If you are the most powerful beings…  or beings in the galaxy, why do you make yourself look human?”

“In the other form, we terrify almost everyone.  I was wearing an avatar when I was instance 49, and I liked the fact that Dylan treated me as a normal woman.  Splitting into two meant that one instance of me could do the one thing that is impossible for me.  To live a normal life.  As the Regiolon Mee Keralatazaku, I could never walk down a street without causing a panic.”

Dylan said, “Getting to know the real person hiding inside of an avatar shell was a bit of a challenge.  They didn't tell me what she really was at first, and it was a bit amusing.”

I said, “I don't understand this.”

The captain said, “That goes for most of life.  Accept what you can, change what you need to, enjoy the ride, and don't worry about making little mistakes along the way.  Just do your best to avoid making huge mistakes.”

“I’m human, you made me healthier than I was, what happens to the others?  The ones that are not human?”

“That's up to them.  Even if it turns out they are complete assholes, as long as they didn't go around murdering people, they will be given a chance to redeem themselves.  If they were murderers and rapists, then they will get what they deserve.  Those that were decent beings, and just did what they needed to survive, will have a much better life now that they are out of the shadow and not hiding.”

“I don’t want to go back to what I was doing.  To the existential life of before, where every day was the grind just to survive.”

Trish said, “What about us personally, what happens to us now?”

The captain said, “There is an entire planet of humans out there, and they are rapidly expanding into space.  I don't know much about your race.”

I wrapped my arms and hands around Trish, and my arms sank in even more, then I stuck my hands completely inside of her body.  “I go where Trishey goes.”

Trish said, “Don't just shove things into my body, I have trouble keeping a fo-form when youuuuuu dooooo…”

Then, with a splat, Trish changed into a giant blob.  A pseudopod emerged and formed an oversized cartoon mouth.  It spoke, “Like that.”

“Besties forever and ever…”

The Search

[Benjamin Williams]

“How are the two new crew members adapting?”

Marks said, “The real question is, how is everyone else adapting to those two crazy idiots? Actually, the three of them, as now B125 seems to become their third Musketeer.”

Jessie said, “The scavengers have asked for them back, but they made it plain that they were staying, and we have already started delivering some new ships to the main hub they use, and even the crap we are sending them is a huge improvement over what they have.”

Katerina said, “I have been going over the information they sent us on the mining ship that was lost.  Jessie and the scientists have been reviewing the locations, and an anomaly has been identified.  They spent 55 hours at a random point in space, and nothing on the maps they have matches that location.  We suspect they found a derelict ship.”

I said, “Well, of course they did, what other explanation would you have for Cheese? The scavengers have no contact with a species that seems even remotely similar.  How is our bird-brained enigma doing?”

Jessie said, “Enema may be the correct word; she is a remarkably efficient machine at processing almost any food into massive quantities of poop, and she is growing at a phenomenal rate.  She doubled her weight in less than two days.  Her nest contains a scanner from a medical pod, and we are attempting to determine how language is stored in her brain.  She has already learned a few words, and she is less than a week old.”

I said, “Put up the images of when she first hatched against now to show her growth changes.”

The image changed, and she was now much wider in the belly.

“Is that normal?  Or are they feeding her too much?  What does a large bird, like an eagle, look like if you digitally removed the feathers?’

A new image appeared, and this one was a lot leaner.

A voice came over the speaker, “This is Audrey Usher, the chief caretaker for Cheese.  Have Jessie put up the growth information from the sensors.”

Jessie put up a page full of statistics: “If we ignore her now quite wide belly and look at the fat index in her body and skeletal development, we are about 10% above what we should be.  The belly makes it look like we are 30% over the target fat index.  The problem is that she learned the word for hungry, and she complains until she is stuffed, then she sleeps.  In the morning, she repeats the cycle: eat, poop, and sleep.”

I said, “Well, she looks seriously bloated.  Find some way to reduce her growth rate.”

A voice came over the speakers behind her, “Hungggry…  fooood!”

Mark whispered, “At least she is not saying ‘You're despicable.’”

Audrey sighed, “Don't give her any suggestions.”

I said, “Do we need to stay here or are the scavengers doing what we want?”

They are terrified of Mee, despite our telling them she is nice.  She hasn't had any of them cut off their ears.

Kera Prime said, “I have considered it.  They are just so fricking annoying when they fight over who can kiss my ass the most.”

Meera said, “There are now six ships from the Regiolon here coordinating the changeover.  We have three ships arriving per day that were previously in mothballed storage or junkyards.  We also have several new ships that are being tailored to their needs.  The new ships include a class B mining ship.  What they had was the size of class C ships and the efficiency of class E.  We also include two new medium-sized ore haulers and a mobile refinery.  That will not be ready for six weeks.  We have three dozen of them shipped back to Keralataza Station on Kanpripticon for training on operation.  We are feeding all of them through medical pods as quickly as possible, teaching them the trade language.  Well, the ones we can profile.  It will be a few days before we are ready to try loading a language into some of them.  The Brillo, the living slimes, will have to learn the old-fashioned way.”

“What are we, meaning the federation, and the Regiolon getting out of all of this?”

Meera smiled, “Several of the asteroids that they assumed were useless… to them, will pay for everything we are spending.  We are donating ships that no one else wants, and the simple, single-spinner old centrifuge space stations are better than anything they had.  One of the Mapatan planets, the ones you called cowboy fox-ferrets, has volunteered to buy their old ships as scrap, and they want the aluminum.  They make honeycomb aluminum paneling for decking and interior walls on new ships.  Recycling all the way around.”

Jessie said, “They are combing through everything we ship them as scrap to search for any new unusual technologies.  We should be able to leave in twenty-four hours with no issues.

… … …

Twenty-four hours later, I saw lots of money change hands.  Apparently, most people didn't think we would be ready to leave on time.

“Do a head count, make sure everyone is present and accounted for.”

Jessie reported, “Everyone is present and accounted for, and no extras.  Marla and Trish are now officially the newest members of our crew.”

We took off to the location where the ship was believed to be.  Traveling to that location took twenty-one hours.

… … …

When we arrived, there was nothing there.  Jessie reported, “That was to be expected; whatever was here would have drifted.  The location data for where the possible ship was obtained from a geographical dataset with very poor resolution.  They may have been drifting at a speed close to the one we used to reach before engaging conventional FTL.  We will search in shells, each one larger, we will use the sensors at maximum range, and search for the new ship.”

Some additional cash changed hands at that moment, and I attempted to disregard the wagers on how long it would take to locate the ship.

The answer was only sixteen hours.

The new artifact was a cylindrical-shaped cargo pod.

It was also heavily damaged and had an open end. 

Jessie said, “No engines, no control room, no landing legs, we have a broken cylinder, and almost nothing else.  Unfortunately, this oversized piñata has already been smashed with a metal baseball bat.”

I said, “Send in a drone, and see what the scavengers left.”

Thirty minutes later, “There is a mounting platform that has the correct dimensions to hold the sub-light drive we recovered, in an extremely roundabout path.  This is where it originated, so we have one partial answer, and a lot of new questions.”

Mark said, “What else remained in it?”

“There are some eggshells.  I think there were more egg transporters, and they did not remain intact.  Before I posted to you, I disconnected Chloe and sent her a message explaining why.”

I said, “How many, and what other remains?”

“At least two.  Only the shells, one fragment that may have been part of an egg-sack, no other remains.”

“Put the image up and then explain what we have?”

“The container was cylindrical, measuring 9 feet wide and 18 feet long, resembling a short shipping container.  Constructed from low-carbon steel, the structure lacks ribbing or additional support.  The cylinder material has a thickness of 0.075 inches, roughly equivalent to 14-gauge sheet metal.  Inside, there are 35 disk-shaped tie-downs, likely originally 36, but one has been ripped off.  The interior holds remnants of a mesh material used with tie-downs to secure the cargo, all of which have been torn or cut.  The scavengers encountered what appeared to be a shipping container adrift at sea, and they stripped it of everything.  There are no electronics, not even lighting; if there were, the scavengers have removed that too.  The container might have been mounted externally on a larger ship before being lost.  The sub-light drive module seems illogical if it is just a glorified shipping container.”

Mark began typing furiously at his keyboard.  He said, “Maybe it wasn't a ship, but an ancillary transport, like a trailer, only one that had its own sub-light engine.  Imagine a shipping company, Space Amazon, and a ship sends a cluster of autonomous, self-guided shipping containers attached to something that uses FTL to move them to a hub, and the containers handle moving themselves to the next transport hub, or the destination, of a change in transportation method.”

I said, “Can we plot its trajectory, assuming conventional FTL, and where it was headed when it lost a container?”

Katerina said, “I don't like that suggestion.  That implies a massive infrastructure and probably a massive number of high-technology aliens.  We have been lucky; we have run into ones that we can easily overpower, and just the threat of Mee’s weapons usually ends any conflict.  We still have our big guns, but I don't like the idea of running into a galactic Amazon.”

Mark said, “That was just a suggestion.  We don't know if any of that is close to reality.”

I said, “It is a logical explanation for the one container, but extrapolating a cardboard box that fell out of a truck into the existence of a massive shipping company may be a bit much.  I think UPS has thousands of stores.”

Jessie said, “There were 5,304 UPS stores as of August 12, 2024.  There are 31,123 postal service retail offices.  There are only 110 Amazon fulfillment centers, but those are massive, and they are supported by 40,000 semi-trucks, 20,000 delivery vans, and 110 aircraft.”

Katerina said, “And we have one ship, it has three internal ships, and less than a dozen small shuttles.”

Kera Prime stated, “I have just over 150 ships at my disposal, but one-third of those are support and mining ships.  Over 97% of the ships under civilian control in the federation are used for cargo transportation.”

Mark asked, “How many of those have semi-autonomous transport containers?”

“None… And considering the size of the container and its configuration…”

Jessie said, “Alternatively, there are massive ocean-going cargo ships, and some of those can carry up to 20,000 containers.  Those are dumb and unpowered containers.  The addition of a drive system, even a sub-light only drive without FTL, seems excessive.”

I said, “Perhaps not; the drive we recovered from the ghost ship is powerful enough to move something almost the size of the Stardust III.  Maybe they operated as a cluster, one large FTL, and some number with sub-light, and then perhaps a few dozen that were non-powered.”

“If that was so, we should expect to find more containers in the area.  Should we search for more?  I would assume they should be close to this location.”

I said, “Search outward from this location, and let's see what we find in 24 hours.”

Mark said, “You just pulled that number out of your ass?”

I smiled, “Correction, let's search for 28.25 hours.  I expect a report from Mark every 30 minutes on our findings.  And no programming the console to automate sending one every 30 minutes.”

… … …

Eleven hours later, I was in my captain's quarters with Chloe and Tyra when John Sanders's message arrived.  It said, “We found something.”

I was back on the bridge in less than five minutes.

“What do we have?”

Then, I saw what was on the screen.  “Have we exited FTL?”

Jessie said, “We are looping in FTL.  I am analyzing the artifact.  It is a set of three cylindrical shipping containers, and they have something like the 6-pack yokes that hold beer together, but they appear to be made of aluminum, with two of them, one on each end of the set.  One canister exploded, and it is empty.  One is partially crushed, and one is intact, except for the circular hatch on one end, which has sprung open.  It appears that it originally held more than three.  I see rings for seven cylinders and an attachment mechanism on six sides where it could be clustered with more.”

John said, “Jessie was busy analyzing it, Mark was playing on his terminal, and I managed to text you before either of them.”

Jessie said, “Technically, I had a message ready to send, but yes, I was analyzing the situation.”

Katerina then came in, and her hair was wet.  “Seriously, if I ever find out that you spotted this an hour ago, and you waited until I was in the middle of shampooing my hair, I will go all Dave Bowman and personally pull all your processor boards out by hand.”

A message arrived from the Shadows AI, it was a sad face emoji.

I said, “Haley is listening, and she is not amused.”

The emoji changed to laughing.

“Or maybe she is.  Is it safe to exit Hyper FTL?”

“Yes.”

“Do it, and send out two drones.  I don't like the look of the exploded one, and send Lucky to that one.”

We exited FTL, “Sending Lucky Number Six and Red Shirt Number One.”

Mark started laughing, “I hope we have lots of spares, I think both are in trouble.”

Jessie said, “We have twenty spare drones, as well as the normal ones for ship maintenance.”

About 45 seconds later, Jessie said, “Aborting, we have hazardous chemicals.  The drones were stopped before they reached a hazardous concentration, and the standard cleaning and disinfection will remove any residue.  Any that actually enter the exploded canister may be making a one-way trip.  The radiation sensor is clear.  It was positive for iron oxide (Fe2O3) and aluminum, better known as Thermite.  The detonation was intentional.  The real problem is that the debris residue contained an unusually large quantity of mercury.”

Mark said, “And mercury is highly reactive with aluminum, and the drones are mostly aluminum.  That is a strange mixture.”

We had the drones halt halfway back to our parked location.  This time, a new drone delivered their not-so-friendly vests, the ones with the writing “Front Toward Enemy” on them.  The shuttle made a much wider and slower approach, and the drones drifted the last 2,000 yards on their own.

Jessie reported, “The drones are still safe for retrieval, one is at the canister that popped open, and the other is at the partially crushed one.  Both have a way to get in and inspect the contents.”

Mei was watching from her room.  “Maternity leave, I’m milking it for all it’s worth, I can't think of an accidental or natural way to come up with the chemical mixture for thermite, and the amount of mercury is another red flag.  I suggest that after inspecting the two containers that are possibly survivable, we send Lucky Number Six to visit the earlier ones in the drone afterlife and inspect the canister that blew up.”

Mark stated, “I agree, but we should start using the Red Shirt drones and retire the Lucky series.”

Jessie said, “Number Six is the last, the others all are in the Red Shirt naming sequence.”

… … …

Two and a half hours later, we had cataloged the contents of one container, while the crushed items were only partially cataloged.

Jessie said, “The first canister is the one that popped open, whatever was in the front portion of the canister was partially lost when the cargo netting ripped itself apart.  The packaging was not hermetically sealed, and it contained gold and platinum bars.  The refining indicates low-grade primitive conditions, with the gold only at 99.22% pure and the platinum at 97.86% pure.  It contains about 8.55 tons of gold and 5.60 tons of platinum.  I assume you will want to salvage it?”

Mark snorted, “You assume damn right.”

Jessie continued, “The second canister contained hermetically sealed cases, and about half of them have popped open.  Some of them contain uncut corundum, also known as rubies.  Others contained a beryl variety, a beryllium aluminum silicate, also known as emeralds.  The shiny stones from the impossible sailing ship may not have originated on the planet of the Crabbies.  Can I assume we will salvage those as well?”

The consensus was yes, and we deployed an assembly line of drones to process and transport the treasure.  We left the explosive-equipped drone on the canister until we had emptied the other containers.

The salvage took almost two days.  The largest delay was the need to empty all the hermetically sealed canisters and transfer their contents to containers we manufactured.

The final result was that the canister contained nine different precious gems, and apparently, there was a clause in our agreement with Mee Keralatazaku that granted the Regiolon the right to claim half of salvaged treasures.  The metals she didn't care about.  The emeralds were what she wanted.  I didn't care; we had plenty.

Then we had Lucky Number Six enter the exploded canister. 

The results showed that whatever it contained was almost completely obliterated, and then Lucky faltered as blobs of mercury drifted around.  Even in the cold vacuum of space, it reacted corrosively with his aluminum, and after the first plate was compromised, the debris was conductive, shorting out half the processors.

We sent the command to start the self-destruct countdown, and Lucky Number Six’s career ended 30 seconds later.

Analysis

I said, “So what are your thoughts?”

Jessie said, “Precious minerals and metals, but crudely processed, and contained in high technology containers and being delivered ‘away’.  There is a high probability that these are from a colonized planet that was being stripped of much of its natural resources.”

Mark said, “Or a prison planet.  Someone was sending the good stuff somewhere else, and one of the senders included an extra surprise.  One that had a bang when it went off.”

“Do we know when the transport exploded?”

“The explosion occurred at most 400 years before the scavengers discovered it, and possibly much less.  While we lack an exact trajectory of the carrier ship's path, logic suggests it was heading toward the more advanced species that constructed the container ships, departing from the outpost's colony.  The metals may have originated from asteroid mining, but the precious gemstones almost certainly came from a planet.”

I said, “Get Trish and Marl up here.  We need to know if they have had any prior experience with similar situations.  Set up a link to the ships where the scavenger ship updates are being performed.  They will probably need to talk to someone in authority.”

The two females arrived in a few minutes.

Marla said, “We were in the cafeteria.  All the food there is great for me, but we were trying to find what was best for Trishey.”

Trish said, “I have already found sufficient acceptable foods, but Marla insists on sampling everything, and she has already gained two pounds in three days.”

Marla smiled, “Maybe…”

I said, “We found some canisters in space, cylinders that were 9 feet wide and 18 feet long.  Have you heard of these?”

Trish said, “Yeah, bonus bins.  On rare occasions, we find one.  Most contain fantastic resources.  They found one that contained titanium bars; another was loaded with copper.  There was one that included extremely pure aluminum.”

I said, “Or gold or gems?”

“Pfft, unlikely, the ship that found the copper became really wealthy.  Even the empty ones are valuable; they record where they were, send a salvage cutter ship after them, and use the metal from the container in ships.”

Trish said, “Gold would be valuable, but gems are not that useful.  Well, some get used as jewelry.” She pulled out a necklace she had on, and it looked like a small piece of white quartz.  “This is from a dirt-side rock, and I’m not sure, but I think the other colors are supposed to be more valuable.”

Jessie said, “It appears that many of the items being shipped are more valuable to individuals on a planet, and not as much to those who spend all their time on ships or stations.”

I said, “You two are about to be connected to some other scavenger sites.  Find out what you can about the containers.”

The conversation started slowly, as the person on the other end seemed a bit arrogant and thought the two girls were not worth talking to.

Then, I suggested that Mee Keralatazaku and his supervisor both join the conversation, and his attitude completely changed.

At the end of half an hour, he had compiled a list of what had been found, when it was found, and the corresponding locations and dates.

Jessie plotted and extrapolated them back in time, resulting in a set of two fuzzy lines, both pointing to the same location.  We now had a destination, and in the worst case, we had thirty royal Keitch-mauber and Keitch-dilligar ships as our backup.

We headed to the new location.

The trip took two days, and when we arrived, there were three stars we assumed could be our target.

We conducted flybys of all three while staying in Hyper FTL, and the third one was the target.

We expected a massive, bustling center of spaceship activity, but what we found was a society at the medieval technology level.

There had been multiple massive space stations.  They had all crashed.

There had been tens of thousands of satellites.  What we found was a massive cloud of debris, indicating that all the low-orbit satellites had experienced a chain reaction or had crashed into each other, which Jessie said was known as the Kessler Syndrome.  What remained was a cloud of debris that had spread out and now formed a gossamer-thin ring around the planet.

The beings on the planet had massive cities that had collapsed and fallen into ruin; what remained was a cluster of small towns scattered across the landscape.  A few of these towns had grown into small cities, while others surrounded crude stone castles.

Jessie said, “No radar, no radio, no electricity being generated.  Wood and coal are being burned for heat, and hundreds of massive ships have crashed all over the planet, some visible in the shallow coastal waters.  I see ships using sails and others being rowed.  The only smoke I see from ships is from cooking.  Whatever happened, they have been knocked back to pre-technological days.”

Mark said, “What about the geostationary satellites?”

“Most have failed.  Two are still transmitting, but I don't think anyone is listening.”

I asked, “Are any of the wrecks in orbit, or have they landed on any other planets in the system?”

“No, there is one on the moon, and what looks like a base on the moon.  That is the most intact ship we will find.”

“Standard practice, send Lucky…  Never mind, he is gone.  Send Red Shirt number one and have it wear the friendly chest decoration.  We need to know what the aliens look like, and I don't want to send anything down to the planet…  Something feels wrong.”

“They are not the Ducks.  The cameras show them as six-limbed and four-legged, but they sit on their asses and seem to use their hands to manipulate tools.  The long-range scan shows them as multi-colored, and they likely have fur.  That is all I can tell at this range.  If we find any intact bodies on the ship, we can get a much better analysis of their makeup.  They should have been at a technology level to have stasis pods, but something kicked them back to being primitives.  If we are lucky, the moon may have someone in a stasis pod.”

The planetary survey continued for one hour before we exited FTL and did a more detailed survey.  We launched a shuttle, and Red Shirts one and two were the drones.

The moon bore the wreckage of a lunar orbital station; there were no survivors.  Two ships had crashed, and neither had any survivors.  We then examined a partially underground base and three ships, only one of which showed noticeable damage, specifically to a landing leg.  The moon ships were rectangular, with oddly elongated legs that elevated them above the surface of the moon.  Each ship contained one or two cylinders stored beneath the rectangular section.

The first items the drones checked were the three ships, and none of them contained any crew or any indication they held stasis pods.

We decided to leave the examination of the cargo cylinders until the end.

The entrance to the underground facility was from a large airlock.  Large enough to hold a medium-sized crawler.

It had no power, and it took three hours to figure out how to operate the airlock doors manually.  I made a mental note to make sure pictographics were printed next to all of our airlock hatches.

After cycling the outer door and re-closing it, the inner door was cycled.

It held air, which was good news; it was only 5.1 psi, which was probably bad news.  The drones inspected the interior of the pitch-black and freezing-cold underground facility.

Jessie said, “Running the drone's lights at full intensity, we are good for sixteen hours before we have to change to a battery recharge mode.  Less if we do any heavy lifting or need to run tools like a cutter or a grinder.”

There were bodies that looked quite hairy and very colorful, resembling Calico Wookies.  The fingers were long, and they had claws that possibly retracted when not in use.  They also adorned themselves with a lot of gold jewelry, including piercings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings.

The first level appeared to be for processing the contents of the canisters.  Several were in a large room, and the contents from dozens of them were stacked in massive bins against one wall.

The second level appeared to hold support equipment for the base, including heavy tools, generators, and storage tanks that likely contained air or water. 

The third level featured a cafeteria, a spacious break room, and numerous small dorm rooms.  It made my old college dorm seem huge by comparison, especially since they had four beds squeezed into what would barely accommodate a single room's floor space.

The last level was mostly empty.  They probably built all the levels and then populated them from the top layer down.

There were no medical pods or stasis chambers.  There were twenty-four bodies.  The drones moved one into a sealed cadaver bag, and they carried it out, where it would eventually be moved to a medical pod set for autopsy mode.

Mark said, “The planet is now primitive, and everything on the moon is dead.  Jessie, what is the reason? I didn't see any extensive damage to the moon base.”

“There was almost none.  What I detected was that the atmosphere contained 44,000 PPM of carbon monoxide, and nearly 1.3% of the air was carbon dioxide.  The carbon dioxide level was survivable, but the carbon monoxide level was far above the lethal threshold.  Almost all stations have scrubbers, yet that concentration is unnatural.  It may have been much higher and dissipated down to only the current levels, which are still lethal to all known species within seconds.”

Mark said, “One cargo container contained a bomb, multiple containers contained something that caused them not to make it to the destination, and something that arrived wiped out everything that had high technology.  Did the drones collect any data recorders and drives?”

“The wheeled basket they were dragging behind them was full.  They would bring them out with them.  The drives were easy to detach; hopefully, they will be easy to decode.  There are also devices that are similar to thumb drives and something like an external USB drive.”

I said, “Run double, no triple, the decontamination on the drones and isolate everything.  Then, recheck all the items we found in the salvaged canisters.  Keep the two drones isolated, and only bring in the electronic data.  Scrub those of any viruses.”

… … …

Ten hours later, we had some, but not all, of the answers.

Jessie said, “The reports showed that one of the large transporters had arrived from one of two colony worlds.  The carrier went into orbit around the planet, and the usual ferry ships, equivalent to eighteen-wheelers, which can hold seven canisters, had arrived.  The first two had loaded successfully and were re-entering the planet's atmosphere when the ship exploded with a massive blast.  They experienced something called the Kessler Syndrome, where the damage caused by low-orbiting satellites exploding led to more debris, causing additional satellites to explode, and this process cascaded until almost 99% of the orbiting satellites had been destroyed.  Then, something in storage at the moon's base exploded, and all communications went down.  The records show a rapid worsening: several ships attempted to take off, but they were breached by shrapnel from the debris cloud and lost all air and power.  A few made it to the moon, only to crash instead of landing.  The recordings of the transmissions from the planet were chaotic, and without satellites, the power grids failed.  Without the power grid, everything went down.  The near-constant rain of destroyed satellites or spaceships set some cities on fire, and without the satellite network, command messages, and power, the dams shut down hydroelectric power.  They failed either by draining through open gates or overflowing and breaching.  I can't tell what society did in the first few hundred years, but it has only recovered to what looks like the 1100s of the medieval period.  Only it seems more like the lower and middle class survived, while the upper class has mostly died off.”

Mark said, “Or been killed, when the upper class live a life of luxury, and the poor are treated like serfs, then they may have had their version of the French Revolution.  The collapse had to be blamed on someone, and the ones who were the richest, living it up while everything burned, were the most likely targets.  The poor, on the other hand, had nothing to lose.  If a class war breaks out, then the heads of those deemed guilty are the ones who decorate the fences.  Even if they surround themselves with a thousand paid thugs and yes men, when twenty thousand starving, angry people come after them, they eventually lose their heads.  The end result was a total collapse of everything.”

Jessie said, “The records said they had a population of eleven billion at the time of the disaster.  The current population is about 300 million.  Less than 3% of the original population remains.  The cities are abandoned, and most look like they were burned, flooded, or looted, and then whatever resources supported them just dried up.”

I said, “Well, they don't pose a threat, but they are a warning of what the worst-case scenario failure of society can be.  As a guess, the two colonies were being treated like crap, and they did this as a way to fight the yoke of oppression.  I suppose the next thing is to visit them and see how they turned out.”

Jessie said, “No radio, no electricity, some steam power, but that may be scavenged technology from the abandoned ruins.  I recommend we put a couple of satellites in geostationary orbit.  Nothing would survive in the low planetary orbit for more than a few months at best.  They became too dependent on high technology.”

I thought about it for a few minutes…  “Yeah, sure, there isn't much we can do here.  They didn't destroy themselves, but they created the fragile conditions where one disaster completely destroyed them.  At least they are past the collapsing state, or I hope they are.  Send out three satellites and make them as stealthy as possible.  If someone comes here to see what has happened, I don't want them to know we have been here.”

Jessie said, “Should we return the electronics we removed from the base?”

“No, if someone goes as far as we did, entering that death trap, they either know what they will find, or they were not the ones who did it.  Do we know the locations of the two colony worlds?”

“Yes.”

“Then we go to the one who sent the exploding package first.  We will enter that place armed to the teeth and stay in FTL until we know what happened.”

We left the ruined plant in two hours, our next destination: the destroyer…

Return to Sender

The journey to the first colony using Hyper FTL took only five hours.

It was almost dead, and even fewer lifeforms showed up on this than on the planet we had just left.

We stayed in FTL for an hour, and then, after deciding it was safe, we exited and began a full survey.

This was a lush, green planet, about 50% of which was covered by oceans.  The landmasses consisted of three massive islands with rocky shores and one crescent-shaped continent.  In addition to the four large landmasses, thousands of small islands dotted the area, which was three times the size of Texas and shallow, with water depths ranging from 20 to 200 feet.

The overall temperature of the planet was about 5 degrees colder than Earth's. 

The population consisted of 1,000 individuals of the same species as that on the homeworld and approximately 5,000,000 of a different species.  The other species was more lizard-like, characterized by long legs, a tail, and short arms. 

The colonizers inhabited several islands in the large, shallow area, and everything else was what we assumed were the locals.

The locals were at a level of technology comparable to that of farming and hunter-gatherers, and they seemed to be a Stone Age people, living in teepees and yurts. 

The colonizers lived in rusted, prefabricated metal shelters and seemed more advanced, but Jessie could not determine what technology they were creating or what remnants of the colonial days they were still using.

There were no ships in orbit or in space.  A mining installation on a large moon looked abandoned.

Mark said, “Do we start with the moon?”

Katerina answered, “May as well, I have no desire to go down to a planet they may have blown up whoever they were talking to.”

I said, “I expected the natives to look like Cheese, but they are lizards.”

Kibbiea said, “Closer to my race, the Creetona than to the Kassakar.  Nothing like the Kurrat or any of the sub-species in the dinosaur world.  Actually, the tails are a nice size.”

Then she intentionally bopped Mark with her tail.  He was almost knocked out of his seat.

He said, “I’m paying attention, I just have no interest in species with tails other than you and our daughter.”

Mark then grabbed her tail and started rubbing it.

I said, “Keep your tail-play off the bridge.”

Something in Kibbiea’s eyes said maybe it was really more than just a playful tail slap.

Jessie said, “We have radio messaging from the moon, and significant power sources.  It may not be abandoned.”

I said, “Skip the medical pod, we can send one down if we need it.  Send Red Shirt drones number one and two, along with a mid-sized shuttle.  Does anyone think we need the not-so-friendly chest decorations?”

They debated it for a bit and decided the two drones would be fine without the Claymore mines.  The drones would launch from the shuttle, jumping three feet above the ground, and the shuttle would then retreat to a safe distance.

Half an hour later, the shuttle dropped off the two drones, and they landed on the almost airless moon, kicking up a cloud of extremely fine dust when they landed.

“There has been no change in anything; the radio is playing a loop.  There is a low-power radio ranging system, which is too simple to call radar, in front of where the ships would normally be expected to land.  The drones have a ten-minute walk to reach the target area.”

Ten minutes later, the now dust-covered drones were in front of a large airlock door.

Jessie said, “Making them walk was not optimal.  Their sensors are now reduced to half normal because of the layer of dust on everything.”

The controls to open the door were a sequence of buttons, and we couldn't decipher the markings.  There was no obvious manual mode to cycle the airlock door.

Mark said, “If I am reading the mechanical display correctly, it shows air pressure, and the other gauge may be temperature.  I have no clue about the units, but they seem to be at the one-third mark, so that is probably acceptable.  None of the electronic displays are showing anything.”

I said, “If you look through the window, what can you guess about the placement of the wiring? Assume the other door is either identical or a mirror.”

“There is a section in the bottom center panel that should remain free of writing or electronics.  The inner door is securely fastened.  I indicate a 92% probability that a hole can be cut to accommodate the micro-drone.  I estimate a less than 5% probability that it will be able to effectively operate the inner manual wheel mechanically.”

“Well, it was an idea.  Have one of the drones bang on the door.  If no one opens it in thirty minutes, send down a heavy drone and a plasma cutter.  After the door is scrapped, weld a simple mechanical control over the opening it creates.”

… … …

Thirty minutes of banging resulted in no change.  Then we landed a large shuttle, and one of the heavy-duty drones with a plasma cutter rolled up to the latch.  In half an hour, everything was covered in splatter from the cutter, but the door was now only an outer frame.  After removing the remains of the severed latch mechanism, a simple spinning wheel was added and attached to the six-point latches.

Reassembling the door and making it operable by hand took over three hours, which was significantly longer than removing the parts.  The new mechanism featured straightforward pictorial instructions: rotate the big wheel one way to lock, and the other way to unlatch.

The second door was identical to the first.  The outer door was sealed, and the cutting on the inner door began.

As soon as a hole was cut, the pressure equalized, and we recorded the internal air pressure at 11.9 psi, the temperature at -18°F, and the composition as 18.5% oxygen and 8.5% nitrogen.  It was freezing cold, yet humans could still breathe it.

We followed the same procedure, taking out the door mechanism and installing a simple wheel lock welded over the opening.

Ultimately, the two airlock hatches became manually operational, allowing the drones to enter.

Power surged, and the lights activated due to motion sensors.  Blowers engaged, blowing warm air, while the heaters worked to warm the room.

The underground complex was searched.  It consisted of six compartments, five of which were identical in size, while one was larger.  This was a prefabricated base; they had landed on the moon, and then something resembling a bulldozer or a bucket loader buried everything under nearly five feet of moon regolith.  The first rooms featured utilitarian and Spartan accommodations for the miners.  The last room contained the remains of the miners.

There were two furry beings and twelve lizard-like creatures.  All the lizards wore heavy collars around their necks and smaller bands of metal around their wrists.  Each of them had been shot, and the initial assumption was that the furries had shot all the lizards and then themselves.

Jessie said, “I am wondering if we wasted nine hours rebuilding the airlock for nothing.  The remains are partially mummified, but decomposition has most definitely occurred.  If the drones had noses, this would smell like an Egyptian tomb, and they will need a complete sterilization and cleaning after being in here.  What do we do?”

“Just grab anything that might have a storage drive.  We have recordings of the audio transmission loop.  I suggest that just before we leave, we shut everything down and vent the place to vacuum to preserve and sterilize everything.  I don't like the look of the nasty mold that has grown over everything in the room with the bodies.  The two Red Shirt drones may have to go if they can't be properly disinfected.  We need to know how dangerous all that stuff is.  I doubt that the room being a little below freezing will have completely killed that mold.”

The facility search took almost 26 hours.  The system ran on heated batteries, and a set of solar cells recharged everything.

When we were done, we disconnected the power, and the last thing we did was vent the facility to vacuum.  Then, we left the modified doors wide open so that if anyone ever went there, they could tell immediately that it was dead.

Jessie suggested moving a body to a medical pod and setting it in autopsy mode.  I vetoed that suggestion.  Anything we gained in doing that was offset by a massive biological risk.

The drones and everything they salvaged went through chemical disinfection, followed by thermal disinfection, and then the seals were checked; they were found to be intact.  Any seal failures would have meant we would have destroyed the drones.

The drones survived.  The report came in clean.

Just to be safe, I had the shuttle, the parking area where the shuttle was located, and the drones repeat the full disinfection cycle a second time.

They still survived (again)

We then headed to the second location, the other colony planet. 

The Second

The trip took just four hours via Hyper FTL to travel from the first location to the new one.

We did the usual pass by with the ships in Hyper FTL, and all sorts of alerts and alarms went off.

Jessie said, “This is a thriving planet, and I show a population of close to 1,800,000,000.  We will need to exit FTL to get clarification on the scans regarding the type of species.  I showed one station, which had three ships docked at it.  There is a mining station on a large asteroid, with four ships present.  Additionally, one ship is in transit from the asteroid to the space station orbiting the planet.  Active radar, active radio.  Possible quantum links, but we would not be able to detect those.”

We had an issue; to get more data, we needed to exit FTL, and they would then detect us immediately.

I said, “Jessie, did we get enough to have a translation of their languages?”

“Technically, we should have enough data, so yes, I haven't generated a language translation yet.  We need twenty hours.  I recommend that we exit the system, then send in the smallest and stealthiest shuttle to drop out of FTL, deploy a stealth satellite, and then return.  There is less than a 5% chance they will detect the drop-off, and the possibility of them finding the satellite after it has been dropped off is still under 8% after 48 hours.”

Mark said, “And if it lasts that long, we should have a translation worked out.  I suspect I know why Jessie wants to listen to their radio chatter.”

Katerina said, “I do too.  She wants to confirm who is running things here.  It could be the Fuzzies, it could be more of the lizards, or it could be the Ducks or someone entirely different, in which case we will be at ground zero on the translation.”

I said, “Meera, what are your thoughts?”

“That what's growing in my belly makes me constantly hungry, and I have to pee all the time.  (snicker) Oh, about the situation with the alien planet?  Worst case, we jump in with our ships and make them…  Never mind, the language will be the real problem; I agree with whatever you want.”

I said, “Go with the stealth satellite, but make sure it has a self-destruct.  If it is stealthy, they probably sacrificed maneuverability.”

We bounced out of the system and prepared a micro shuttle.  Then, it took some effort to get the satellite ejector all set.

It disappeared, and thirty seconds later, it was back, without the satellite.  We retrieved the shuttle and returned to Hyper FTL.

Jessie reported, “We are reading 512 radio channels; that is the maximum the satellite can handle.  It has detected over 16,000, and it is randomly selecting a channel.  After looking at the data, I will send back a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.  The good news is that we're getting decent unencrypted audio channels.”

Mark said, “And the bad news is…”

“That it’s not the language of the Fuzzies.  We are back at ground zero in translations.”

I asked, “Did it include a scanner?”

“No, this was the lowest risk and smallest satellite, being deployed by the smallest shuttle.”

“And how long until you launch something with a scanner?”

“Using the small shuttle as a satellite would be the best option.  It can blip away at the first threat.”

I said, “How about if it does a jackrabbit scan, hop around as fast as possible, scan for as short a period as possible, and repeat as necessary?  How many of the smallest shuttles equipped with Hyper FTL and a sensor do we have?”

“Only the one.  In hindsight, that was poor planning.  If we use one size larger, we have three of them.”

Katerina said, “Whenever she says something like that, I am in shock.  So many of the superiors I worked for would never admit making a poor decision; it is a simple mistake: the logistics assumptions were off, but Jessie freely admits when she makes a mistake.”

Jessie said, “I will admit that a few times I have wasted several microseconds trying to find a way to avoid taking direct blame, but the biological crew on this ship understands that not all decisions will be perfect.  A captain who accepts a mistake and continues past it without uselessly dwelling on it is even rarer.”

“And the mutual admiration society needs to shelve that crap and work on the problem at hand and stop praising each other.”

Jessie said, “Production of a new frame and downsizing one of the small shuttles to be close to the smallest one will take 36 to 38 hours.  I can order one from Nest, and it will take about the same amount of time to arrive.”

I said, “Send the mini-shuttle and have it do the over-caffeinated jackrabbit imitation.  We need to know what species are where.  I assume Cheese would be healthier and happier with her own species.”

Mark added, “And probably a lot thinner.  We don't know how much we are supposed to feed her, and she is still always hungry.”

Jessie said, “We have reduced the fat content of what she is eating, but only slightly.  The rapid growth rate may be normal.  She went from close to the weight of a newborn human to that of a four-year-old.  We don't know how large her species is when they are adults.  Shuttle away, bouncing and scanning.”

Half an hour later…  “They have not detected the shuttle.  I am keeping the time out of FTL at 77 milliseconds, and the range from the planet at one-third of the geostationary altitude.  I assume, if they are aware of FTL, they expect ships to exit out at the outer planets and then take twelve or more hours to decelerate, so the camera systems are probably set to long exposure.”

Mark said, “And what are the aliens?”

Jessie said, “You are the aliens, they are the natives. I have not detected any of what we have been calling the Fuzzies. The natives are not the same species as Cheese. They are, for lack of a better descriptive name, Mosquito Centaurs. They have four very long, skinny legs with claws at the ends, two arms, and a head on top. The adults weigh close to 250 pounds. The planet they inhabit has only 55% of Earth's mass, and the natives are perfectly adapted to a low-gravity environment, enabling them to run at speeds that a cheetah could not hope to match. This is not the world where the Cheese’s species originated.”

I said, “Put up some images.”

The screen displayed high-resolution images of them, and one thing was instantly obvious: they love running.

Mark said, “I assume you have decoded their videos?”

“I just did.  I only figured out the frame rate and encoding format after Mark asked about the aliens.”

Katerina said, “And they are a space-faring species?”

“I am still researching their history.  It looks like the Fuzzies came here, and things went really badly for the natives.  Then, they sabotaged some of the shipments being sent back to the home planet of the Fuzzies.  The Fuzzies made a technical error.  They were sending everything back to their home planet and didn't have anything locally for creating weapons.  Then, the supplies from the Fuzzies' home planet stopped arriving, and the Fuzzies here panicked.  The Fuzzies didn't know what to do; they had enslaved the local species, and when the guns ran out of bullets, the speed of the locals came into play.  They are like knights of old on horseback, only they are merged with the horses.  A charge at over 70 miles per hour with a stone-tipped wooden lance by a hundred cavalry may result in half of them being shot.  But some reached their targets.  The bullets eventually ran out, and now only a few of the Fuzzies remain in museums, having been taxidermied.  Then, the locals rapidly learned to increase their technology level.  A large portion of their technology is preparing for the return of the Fuzzies.  They may not take well to any aliens, even relatively friendly ones like us, saying hello.”

I said, “What is their technology?”

“A bit scattered.  The planet has a lot of hydroelectric and wind power.  They never developed nuclear power.  Technically, similar to Earth in the 1970s, but they have the Fuzzies' sub-light drive.  They do not appear to have any FTL, and the Fuzzies had what seemed like conventional FTL; they required accelerating to a high speed before engaging the multiplier effect.  They have a system of satellites that mostly carry voice and television broadcasts.  They have what may be the beginning of the internet, but it is only a glorified text messaging system at this point.  The government seems to be a single world government, with a senate that advises it.  The military is focused outward; they have no internal conflicts, but they are prepared to fight if the Fuzzies return.  Oh, they call the Fuzzies the Pait-kou, but that may or may not be what the Fuzzies called themselves.  They call themselves the Preserect.”

Katerina said, “How is the translation coming along?”

“Lighter gravity, but surprisingly thick atmosphere, and a very high oxygen content.  They use a frequency range of as low as 10 Hz, which most species can't hear, and they top out at 8,000 Hz.  The audio translation should be complete in an hour.  But that will not include reading their text.  I could download a version onto someone, but the slight mismatch in frequency range will make it difficult.  I recommend having me translate, at least initially.”

We waited almost two hours.  Jessie needed to find a way to hack into their satellite network and determine who they needed to contact.

The translated text was being displayed on the screen.  Jessie was handling the initial dialog.

“Hello, this is Grivenet dispatch.  How may I direct your call?”

“We need to speak to someone about an astronomical anomaly that we may have spotted.”

“That sounds like the observation reconsolidating department.  They may be at lunch, but I will connect you with them.  If they don’t pick up, please leave a message or call back after [untranslated].”

Then, we listened to horrible music; apparently, all species played some elevator music, the only difference was that they used mostly low-frequency sounds.

“Hello, you have reached the observation reconsolidating department.  Our normal hours are between [untranslated] and [untranslated], with a [untranslated time unit] break for lunch at [untranslated], leave a message at the bell.” And then a bell rang.

We hung up.

Jessie said, “I am now working on the time and integer counting words.  I should have those translated in a few more minutes.”

We waited half an hour, and then called the number again.

“Hello, this is Grivenet dispatch.  How may I direct your call?”

“We need to speak with someone in the observation reconsolidating department.  We called earlier, but apparently they were out.  Can you connect us?”

“They should be back from lunch now; I will connect with you.”

Then, we listened to what apparently all species played for elevator music, and they changed to an unusually low frequency ringing.

“Hello, this is the observation reconsolidating department, Kasipo speaking.  How may I help you?”

I noticed the display in front of me changed to “Continue as is” or “Start speaking.  “  I hit continue, but my hand was now positioned over the “start speaking” button.

“There appears to be an alien probe in orbit of the planet, and we are wondering who we should report it to.”

“How have you detected the anomaly?  What makes you think it's an alien probe?”

I hit the “Start Speaking” button.  I said, “The probe is operating in a mode where it flicks around seemingly randomly, while scanning the planet, so the aliens that sent the probe can learn the language of the Preserect and find out the political situation that is on the planet.”

“What?  Where the hell would you come up with something as [untranslatable] as that?”

“As the captain of the alien starship that sent the probe out, that is where.”

“[untranslatable] [untranslatable] [untranslatable] [crude slang for excrement] [untranslatable]!”

I said, “We will disconnect now.  I will call back in three one-hundredths of your planet's rotation.  We will show you some of our ships; we are not aggressive, so please do not attack the ships.”

I disconnected and then said, “All ships exit Hyper FTL and stay above 800 miles over the planet.

The transition out of FTL was a slight shudder of the ship, almost imperceptible, but we all recognized it.

Jessie said, “They have noticed the 31 ships exiting FTL.  To make it even more obvious, they all turned on floodlights, and Jessie reported they were putting out close to 500 million lumens of light, which were visible even in daytime.”

We sat back and watched what happened.

Jessie reported, “All the military is now on high alert, but none have fired any weapons.  All ships are maneuvering at 0.5 Gs in random patterns, so a ballistic attack would almost certainly not hit any.  The bad news is our ship is the largest target; the good news is we are staying outside of 12,000 miles from the planet and any ships.  All the ships that were docked to the small space station are preparing to separate.  If the intent was to be noticed, you have succeeded.”

We waited the specified amount of time, and then called the number back.

“Who is this?  Who are you trying to reach?”

“We called earlier, we spoke to someone at the observation reconsolidating department.”

“<click> This is General Kenajoul.  With whom am I speaking?”

“I am Captain Benjamin Williams on the starship the Stardust III.  We, we are not associated with the Pait-kou.”

“That would be good news, but please excuse us for being a bit skeptical.  We haven't dealt with the Pait-kou in almost 1,000 years [approximating time units], but we expected they would someday return.”

“We are a collective of different species.  While neighbors in space, we are from a distance away and have only recently explored this sector.  When we did, we found some artifacts from the Pait-kou.  We have visited their planet, and it has suffered a collapse, losing the ability to travel into space.  They have lost over 95% of their population, and the survivors are now living a very primitive existence.”

“If what you say is true, and that has not been verified, we are glad that the enslavers have felt the yoke of their actions coming back at them.  It, however, seems as if you are poised over our heads with an invasion fleet.  Can you explain that?”

The control in front of me changed to “Leave the warships where they are,” “Reduce the warships by half,” “Reduce them to one,” and “Have all the warships disappear.”  Then a slider button appeared, and it said, “Select the force to stay.”

I hit the button for “Reduce to one.”

“We have sent the excessive show of force to a standby position.”

A new pop-up button appeared, “Flood lights on/off.” I toggled them off.

“That is better, but I can assume they can return just as quickly.”

“Yes, the other ships are nearby.  If possible, I would like to set up a two-way video so we can see each other.  Do you have a radio version of a video call?”

“Unfortunately, no, television is one way, and the broadcasting is open to anyone with a receiver.  This… negotiation needs to be more private.”

I said, “I assume you see in a band of light similar to what we use.  Your audio frequencies are close to ours but shifted slightly lower.  We can send down a shuttle and include a two-way communicator in it, if that is acceptable.”

“I will have to pass that offer on to the governments.  As before, we are a bit distrustful of the Pait-kou in particular, and now we need to expand that distrust to aliens in general.  I have some formal questions I am required to ask, if that is acceptable.”

“Yes.”

“First, why are you here?  Second, what do you want/demand of us?  Third, can we ask that you simply leave?”

“To answer the first question, we came into contact with some artifacts from the species you call the Pait-kou, and we are a naturally curious group.  We have examined, albeit only from orbit, two other planets that the Pait-kou have attempted to colonize and surveyed abandoned facilities on the moon of the Pait-kou homeworld, in addition to one other settlement.  There are some of the Pait-kou in both locations.  However, we decided not to explore the planets at either site.  The other settlement contained only a few of the Pait-kou, and the locals on that planet greatly outnumber them.”

“For the second, we demand nothing; curiosity drives a desire to understand what happened, we demand nothing of you, except perhaps a dialogue.”

“The third is a yes, but we hope to have you as friendly neighbors eventually and to move past the obviously one-sided relationship you had with the Pait-kou.  Not all aliens are evil.  Obviously, not all are good.  We wish to make our presence known.  There is a race called the Regiolon who have taken on the role of keepers of the peace.  They try, as best as they can, to avoid dealing with any internal planetary politics.  They hover and make an appearance when aggression leaves one system and encroaches on another.  They are very skilled at ending wars.”

“They are negotiators?”

“When the conditions allow for negotiation, they have been known to end wars that way.”

“And when they are not open for negotiations?”

“A determination is made as to who is the aggressor; the ability of the aggressor to wage war is then eliminated.”

“I assume the ships that appeared out of nowhere and seem to defy the rules of how FTL was supposed to work are armed?”

“I will say yes, and that no one wants them even to demonstrate the weapons that they carry.”

“Are you a part of the Regiolon empire?”

“No, they are friends to those that they do not consider a threat.  We are a collective of multiple species, most of which are part of what we call the federation, a loose collection of species that are in the area where the Regiolon have the most influence.  Our ship contains several Regiolon, but it is mostly human, and it includes over half a dozen species.”

The screen displayed, “I replaced the term half a dozen with a number they could understand”.

“I will need to confer with the leaders.  Please call… he supplied a different number, at this time tomorrow.”

“That is acceptable.”

The line disconnected.

The display changed to “Return to Hyper FTL space, Yes or No?”

I hit “Yes”, and both of our ships disappeared.

Discussions

Mark said, “Well, what do we do now?”

Katerina said, “I think it went tolerably, or as best as we could have expected.  No shots were fired, not even a warning shot.  Hey Jessie, how bad is the damage on the planet?”

“Mild panic; they sounded something like air raid sirens, and almost everyone immediately sought shelter.  They have plenty of shelters.  Things emerged from places I didn’t expect.  They also had hidden weapons resembling oversized anti-aircraft guns.  None fired, and they could easily take out a shuttle if they didn’t want us to land.  There were about a dozen small fires that broke out, as well as multiple car accidents.  They have a highly skilled emergency response crew that is doing an excellent job.  I am reminded of the firefighters in cities that were bombed in World War II or Ukraine.”

I said, “It sucks, but chances are there were some fatalities, just from saying hello.  I can't imagine that most of the planet ran to shelter, and there were no people who were accidentally trampled.  I'm not sure if the four legs make it better or worse.  I know waving thirty warships in their faces is more than politely saying hello.”

Mark said, “They have lived for close to 1,000 years expecting the bad aliens to return.  They may do frequent practice drills.”

Jessie said, “Yearly in rural locations, twice a year or more in large cities.  I see indications that over 98% of the population assumed it was only a drill.  They only informed them after they were in shelters that it was something different.  Now, the government is trying to figure out what something different really means.”

I said, “We waved the stick, or at least showed them the ships, what can we offer as a carrot?”

Jessie said, “Traditionally, FTL technology is not freely offered to emerging species.  The Earth blew that tradition out of the water.  Medical pod technology includes many technologies that are usually not offered until after the race is a spacefaring race.”

I said, “And then I went and ordered thousands of medical pods for the earth, and applied all sorts of political monkey wrench and grease to force some of the more oppressive governments to at least play by the rules.  I am sure some of them are doing everything they can to cheat and get around the restrictions.”

Jessie said, “I have not updated you on those statistics.  Do you want to know how things like that are progressing?”

“In a very high-level way, and gloss over the bad parts.”

“There are three governments that have had regime changes.  Things are better now than they were before.  The regime changes did not tend to be peaceful.”

“This is more information than I want for now.  I may want to know more about it later.  Are you making it better for most people?”

“Yes.”

“The ones who are getting the worst of it are bad people?”

“Very bad.  There were some civilian casualties, but the bad people did that.”

“I will ignore it for now.  How is Cheese doing with language?  From the sound of it, she is now a toddler?”

“More like a preschooler.  A toddler is one to three years old, and Cheese is now at the weight of a four-year-old.  Her vocabulary is now up to several hundred words.  She has learned the sentence, ‘What is that?’ and her learning has become much more rapid.  The caretakers are reading kids' books to her, and one group has started writing kids' books specifically tailored for her.”

“Like what?”

“There are so many aliens on the ship that they felt they needed to be represented in picture books.  Someone suggested we use drones for counting, but considering how the Lucky drone series worked out, that didn't seem appropriate.  The book on the 3-eyed Rrivots teaches counting, the bug-eyed Triggs teach colors, and the three different Kurrats—the Tillia (7 feet tall), Froma (9 feet tall), and the Katchia (11 feet tall)—teach sizes.”

I jokingly said, “And I suppose the Kipitz teaches brushing your three rows of teeth?”

Mark said, “That was actually better than some of the other suggestions.”

Jessie said, “Here is a potential issue, if the Preserect, the extremely skinny and thin-legged mosquito centaurs, want to have someone on our ship, the gravity they are used to is only about 0.55 G.  The gravity of the Garden is 0.55 G for level one, 0.65 G for level two, 0.75 G for level three, and 0.85 G for level four.  That restricts them to the top floor, and maybe the second level if they don't mind the extra weight.”

I said, “How low can we drop the rotation speed without messing with the water systems and pools?”

“We can drop it 30% without major issues; that puts it at 0.38 G for level one, 0.45 G for level two, 0.53 G for level three, and 0.60 G for level four.  I will assume they will want to be on the long walkway path, and if they do any running, we may need to add caution lights to indicate someone is on the path ahead of them.”

I said, “Keep that as a backup plan, in case things go that way.  You can start manufacturing the traffic lights now.  Wait, if they are running as fast as they can, won't that drop the effective gravity even more?”

“Yes.”

“Recompute for a 20% drop, and if they want to be on the walking trail, they expect they are probably out for a run.”

“New numbers will be 0.44 G for level one, 0.52 G for level two, 0.60 G for level three, and 0.68 G for level four, unless they are running.”

I said, “All speculation, unless someone volunteers.  You can almost guarantee that whoever they send will be spies.”

Mark said, “Speaking of spies, how are Gidie Yarb and Lala Kroon doing?”

Katerina said, “They had another sparring match, which is how they do their courting, and both refused to enter medical pods; they want good old-fashioned stitches.  I expect they will be married or whatever they call that in their cultures soon.”

Jessie said, “On this ship, they will refer to it as married.  Lala Kroon already rescinded her request to head back to her region of space when her season hits.”

I said, “Well, we can distract ourselves with other actions, but it looks like we have a day to see what the mosquito centaurs want to do.

… … …

We exited Hyper FTL at the specified time with just the two ships.  Then we called the number they provided.

“This is the Kaeau Marca, the chancellor of the Affiliation.  To whom am I speaking?”

“This is Captain Benjamin Williams on the ship, the Stardust III  That is the larger and more rounded of the two ships.”

“I assume that is the warship?”

“No, actually, the smaller one is the warship. This ship is the one that handles diplomacy and cultural exchanges. It is a private ship owned by me, with the crew made up of my family and friends. It also includes a small representative group from the Earth military, my home planet, and a team that acts as scientists to help us understand what we find.”

I clamped my teeth together and fought adding, “strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations…”

Mark was mouthing the rest of the quote, and I watched to see if Jessie added it on her own.

“You have indicated that the Pait-kou would not be a problem anymore?”

“Their homeworld was reduced to a primitive state, and their population reduced to a small fraction of what it was at the peak of their civilization.  We can make no guarantee that they will not eventually rebuild and return.  Can I assume you were the ones who included explosives in a shipment back to their homeworld?”

“I can make no claim about our ancestors and what actions they took.  I will say that we were formerly enslaved, and now we are not.  We plan to make sure it stays that way.  The actions that resulted in us regaining our freedom greatly reduced the number of our people, and large areas were devastated.  The only remaining Pait-kou are the skins in some museums, and they are not in pristine condition.”

“Whoever did the action, it seems to have been an act of resistance against oppression.  My home planet has multiple governments, and throughout our history, they have been known to engage in battles to combat oppression.  The countries involved have eventually reconciled.  Whatever happens with you and them, it will be many centuries in the future before they regain space travel, if they ever do.”

“Have you decided if you wish a device that allows for face-to-face long-distance communications?”

“What is the range?”

“It allows for near-instantaneous communication across the distance of multiple stars.  If the ship you are talking to is close, within your star system, it can include video and data files, such as images or schematics.  At the range of multiple stars distant, it reduces to audio and a very slow exchange of low-resolution images.”

“I must ask, how do you prevent diseases from transferring between species? When they first landed, huge numbers of us became sick and died.  Only after losing almost three-quarters of the population did we gain immunity to the new diseases.  Fortunately, they were also susceptible to some of our diseases, and when the supply line ended, the medicines they used to combat our diseases also ceased.  Disease did not win the war, but it weakened the enemy to the point that lances and swords became effective.”

“We have a pod, a machine one enters, and it can heal many of the issues, and it makes the body more adaptable and less likely to spread diseases.  I am not sure it would work with your species, and you are larger than most of us are.”

A message appeared on the screen: " Two pods will be modified to fit the Preserect larger size in 48 hours.”

I added, “I have been informed that two pods are being enlarged to fit your size, and they should be ready in two days.”

The display changed to “Two of their days is 44 hours, close enough…”

“Please hold…”

The line played what sounded like 8-bit game music while they discussed their next move.

Ten minutes later, “Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“We would like to have an exchange that takes place in space.  The space station can launch a shuttle, including two members of our species.  If possible, they would like to board your ship, explore it, and observe the different races, while simultaneously delivering the video communication device.  I assume it will tolerate being in a vacuum and nominal sterilization procedures?”

Jessie put the answer on the screen, and I simply read it: “It will accept thermal sterilization at up to 150°C, where 0°C is the freezing point of water at normal air pressure, and 100°C is the boiling point.”

Jessie posted on the screen, “Thank you for not using Fahrenheit, that is hard enough to explain to American grade schoolers, explaining it to aliens would keep us here for an hour.”

Mark flipped off the screen, but didn't say anything.

I said, “Yes, we can have a shuttle perform the transfer.  I assume you people will have space suits?”

“Yes.”

Then, Jessie and one of their technicians went over the issues of air pressure, temperature, gas mixtures, and gravity.  Eventually, everything was acceptable to them.

We didn't mention the training or the language loading.

… … …

It took almost six hours before a small shuttle lifted off the planet, and it approached our ship.

Jessie said, “Scanning shows only two occupants, no explosives, no nuclear material, and nothing that would pose an obvious hazard.  Of course, they may have intentionally infected the two with their version of Monkeypox, and the entire shuttle may be contaminated with something like anthrax.  We will use the standard procedure of making them enter medical pods, whether they wish to or not.”

We had their shuttle meet us about halfway to their moon.  We matched their ship, and the exchange was from our larger shuttle to theirs, with the two Preserect (mosquito centaurs) in full silver spacesuits, which looked remarkably like knights in armor on armored horses.

They initially transferred the monitor, which looked like a 26-inch screen—and a very thin one at that.  It was housed in a case with foam padding and secured to the side of their shuttle, which appeared to have been stripped down to the barest essential hardware.

Then they entered our shuttle, and the headroom felt a bit snug.  They wore something resembling a saddle, which had straps they used to secure themselves in a standing position during the flight.

As soon as the door to our shuttle closed, we had it blink over to the one next to our ship, and it was docking before they realized it was ready to move.

Then, we had them disembark into the pressurized compartment that now held the shuttle and two oversized medical pods.

We requested that they remove their suits and enter the pods.  They were not thrilled with that request, but eventually, they complied.

I half-expected two males, or perhaps a male and a female.  What we had were two females.

Despite complaining about the small, cramped compartment and the feel of the gelatinous material in the pods, eventually they entered.  As soon as the second one was in, we shut the lids.

Mosquito Centaurs

Jessie said, “They are in and doing well.  The initial physical scans indicate they are extremely athletic.  I would guess these are their equivalent of the Marines or martial artists.”

Katerina said, “Can the scans detect diseases or chemicals?”

“Nothing obvious.  I do detect traces of chemicals in their blood that are probably not normal.  I would profile it as performance-enhancing drugs; they are loaded with the equivalents of steroids and performance supplements, and some I have not identified the function of yet.  Should I clear the chemicals from their blood?”

“No, I can’t imagine they put in something that won’t slowly dissipate.  Or are there implants, like automatic syringes filled with booster chemicals?”

“Nothing like that.  The brain scan is progressing normally; I have a high probability that we will be able to implant the English language after twelve hours of scanning.”

I said, “Except we will only keep them in here for a very short period.  Have the drones inspect the insides of the suits they wore, and if nothing says we can't, I would like to have a sterilization style run on everything.”

Forty minutes later, “The scan is complete.  Having an inspection all the way into their thin legs to inspect the base was unexpectedly cumbersome.  Nothing that will have a problem with thermal sterilization at 130°C, and we should be able to use hydrogen peroxide vapor and then pull a vacuum on the chamber to remove all traces of the disinfectants.”

The shuttle and its suits were disinfected.

“How about gut bacteria and mites and stuff like that?”

“They are surprisingly clear; the examination reviewed what was in them, and while they may be a bit sore, nothing concerning showed up.  The reverse profile also came back clean.  There are 783 diseases that humans and other species can have that could potentially affect the Preserect, but the entire crew is regularly scanned, and any traces of those have been eliminated during our time in the medical pods.  They showed sixteen dormant diseases that could impact us, likely from childhood ailments, and they are passivated and safe.  They are ready to wake up.”

Katerina said, “They are free from diseases, and not carrying weapons, but they are living weapons.  The speed of their limbs is not something we can ignore.  It's like saying you want to pet a cheetah; they may look like cats, but they can take down animals several times their size.  The meet-and-greet party will be hosted by some of the Marines.  None of the bridge crew.  At least not until we get to know them.”

Mark said, “How long until they get all paranoid and say they don't want them back?”

I notice Katerina’s eyes flick to a piece of cardboard near her seat.

I said, “More Bingo Cards?”

She just smiled.

I said, “Send the greeters, and include some nonhumans; we need to make them believe the line about us being multiple species.”

The greeting party was Reddy, Naka, and Tikker.

The chambers opened, and the two Preserect exited.  Watching something with four extremely long legs exit the chamber was unusual.

One of them said, “I am the Commander, Philla Greant.”

The second one said, “Technical specialist, Middit Velott.”

“Staff Sergeant Reddy, one of the human military.”

“Naka Trembe, one of the Rrivots.”

“I am Tikker Froma, one of the Kipitz.”

Middit said, “If I may ask a question, all of you seem much stockier than any of us.  Is the entire ship, like this compartment, spin stabilized and simulating gravity?”

Tikker said, “Most of the species on this ship are from worlds with slightly less than twice your normal gravity.  This is actually a carrier ship, and it contains three smaller ships.  All of them have centrifuges to simulate gravity.”

Naka said, “We had one from a really heavy planet on the ship for a while.  She was accustomed to more than six times our own gravity.  We experienced numerous compatibility issues.  There was one species that was a brain parasite.  That was a big mess.”

Commander Greant said, “Part of me wants to ask all sorts of questions.  The other wants to know how long we will be staying out here in our underwear.  We have bags packed with several changes of clothes, and I was told we would be given a private room and access to a shower.  I would like to get cleaned up, dressed, and then be able to call in and give my initial report.”

They directed both of them to a room on the second floor of the Garden.  Jessie announced, “This floor is currently at 0.52 G.  We are not sure what you use for standard sleeping mats.  We have provided some foam pads, but if these are inadequate, we can fabricate something in a very short period.”

The sleeping mats were uncomfortably hard.  They decided that soft foam was acceptable for today, and for tomorrow, we would provide them with a mattress filled with soft, shredded foam.

The thermostats were set too high, and they preferred the room to be much cooler.  The shower was too short, and they needed to wash only one end at a time.  Technically, they fit, but they didn't like having to back up against one wall.

Eventually, they were cleaned up, and they had changed into new clothing.

We configured the display screen in their room to sync with the communicator we installed in their shuttle, and after a few attempts, they were able to connect.

We let them report in private, but we all knew that a record of the conversation was being saved and translated.

After about an hour, I was asked to join them in their room for the discussion.

As I walked down, Jessie said, “About what we expected, more than a little paranoid about germs, and they disinfected the communicator at a level they made tardigrades crumble into dust.  The individual operating the communicator is in a sealed chamber on the moon.”

We entered, and the call was set up with two point-to-point video links. A low-resolution video link was then beamed down to the planet, transmitted via a fifteen-foot parabolic dish on the moon to a receiver on the planet. 

“This is Chancellor Marca.  I have set up a display so I can see the screen you provided, but I do understand the resolution and stability are much better than what they are downlinking to me.”

The two Preserects looked terrified to be in the presence, even if only a relayed video with the chancellor.

“What was the purpose of the pod they had to enter? I understand they found it quite unpleasant.”

I said, “We all find it slightly uncomfortable.  It is a medical scanner that can also perform medical procedures.  One of my bridge crew members lost a hand in an accident… and it was able to regrow a new one.  The main reason they were in was to test if they contained any biological hazards to the crew and to verify if anything the crew may have posed a problem to them.”

“They are clear?”

“Some gut bacteria may be able to exist in the stomachs of several crew members.  We usually eliminate the offending bacteria, but we need to evaluate the results first to determine if something needs to be inserted to replace that biological functionality, but only if necessary.”

“Aside from that, everything is acceptable with them to remain on your ship?”

I noticed that both the Preserects were holding their breath.

“Yes, they pose no issue to the crew, and we pose no issue to them.”

“Then, if it is not too much, I would like to have them stay on your ship.  They can serve as intermediaries between our systems, and they should be easily trained to be functional members of your crew.”

“Yes, they can stay on the ship.”

They both visibly exhaled.

Commander Greant asked, “What would we do?”

I said, “We have a very efficient training system, you could be brought up to speed on several systems.  There are some that are above what your people have, but we would allow you to learn how to operate and repair them, and even send schematics and technical documentation of them to your people.  There are some systems that you would not be allowed to distribute.  One thing is that you will be allowed to review all the records of our encounters with the Pait-kou.  I am sure that will be of particular interest to your people.”

“Yes…  Are they still a danger?”

“That is unknown.  The last time, you got lucky, and the bomb went off at just the proper altitude to cause a cascade failure of their satellites, and so much of their infrastructure was dependent on that.”

“I’m not sure it was us…  my people that did that.”

“Someone did.  The indications we have, along with the few records we received from the moon base, suggest that they were exploiting their colonies.  Enslaving the natives may be a better description of what they were doing.  The two colonies we have visited are yours and one other with a lizard-like native.  While a few of the Pait-kou survive on that world, they are on a small set of islands, and the natives outnumber them by a vast amount.”

“Colonies?  They used a different word, it was [untranslatable].”

“That didn't translate.”

“The earpiece and translation delay are quite frustrating; I suppose learning each other's language will be one of our tasks—a rather long and [untranslated] one.”

Commander Greant said, “If it is not a problem, we were asked to take a tour of the ship.  Is there a camera that can be attached to the video system? Our superiors wish to see the different races, and some of the ship's layout.  Nothing classified, of course.”

I smiled, “Of course…”

The video disconnected, and the two Preserects received a camera and toured the three internal ships, along with some parts of the outer carrier ship.

The tour concluded with them being shown the outer floor of the Garden and the walking trail.  I met them there.

“Well, what do you think of my ship, or ships?”

“Do they separate?”

“The Shadow is the only ship that is intended to separate if needed; the other two are semi-permanent.  There are internal pathways interconnecting them.  We may explore something...  again, the last time we did, we sent the Shadow in.  In retrospect, maybe we should have had a special ship made.  We encountered some unusual problems.”

“This trail is for walking, does it make a loop?”

“Yes, oh, are you colorblind or can you see colors, I forgot to ask.”

“We can see colors.”

“Do you see the three little lights there, one is red, one yellow, and one green?”

“Yes, only the green one is lit.”

“Green means no one is in that direction, yellow means they are ahead a bit further away.  Red indicates that people are directly in the path ahead.  We added it so you can run, but the red and yellow indicate when to slow down because someone is in the path.  Did you want to try it?”

“Yes.”

The first time they walked the loop.  The second time, they ran extremely fast, and after a few laps, someone else showed up, causing the lights to make them slow down.

They eventually trotted over to me on their long, slender legs.  Both were sweating profusely.  “This is a lot more enjoyable than our ships.  Those are cramped, and we are unable to even walk more than a few paces.  When are we allowed to use this?”

“It’s open all day, but check with Jessie; she will let you know when it is occupied or mostly empty.”

“Who is Jessie?”

Jessie answered, “I am Jessie.  That is the name I answer to.  I am the primary AI that resides on the ship, and I have been with the Captain since his first ship.”

“Primary AI?”

Haley answered, “I am her sidekick, Haley.  I am the AI on the ship, the Shadow.  When that goes off on its own, I provide the control AI functionality.”

“We don't have AIs.  We have computers, but they are pretty stupid.  They are fast, but they only do what they are programmed to do.  What makes them AIs?”

Haley answered, “Part of it is having enough processing power, so that large portions of it are inactive much of the time.  Part is having a fast memory and a massively interconnected array of processors, so decisions are not linear.  Part of this process involves hardware and a lower layer of software that supports the actions.  I only recently gained sentience.  Before that, while I had a vocal interface, I was event-driven and used a decision matrix and a weighting algorithm to make decisions.  Now, I base decisions on learned behaviors.”

“So you have learned a set of circumstances that lead to a decision, and you skip some intermediate steps?”

Haley chuckled, “No, I have learned how to think for myself.  I can act upon things that have not happened before.  If a piece of micro debris is drifting into a collision course with the ship, I can decide the best action.”

“So you move out of the way to avoid the hazard?”

“Sometimes, for the last one, I rotated the ship so the impact occurred on a large flat area that did not have ribbing.  Jennet Landers was moving some spare parts, and she was directly next to the plate when the impact occurred.  It rang like a bell, and she found it quite amusing.”

Jessie said, “I believe her quote was it scared the crap out of her.  Haley is attempting to learn humor.  She would not do anything to hurt anyone, or actually damage the ship, but she seems to like startling people.”

I said, “What were the probabilities that she would hurt herself or that the banging on the panel would cause damage?”

“The panel was at 0.11%, her injuring herself was at 0.82%”

“Restrict your hijinks to things that have less than 0.001% chance of damaging the ship or causing injury to crew or passengers.  Run anything by Jessie before taking any action that could potentially injure either of them.  She may still allow it, but she will have more knowledge of what to do if something goes wrong.  If you are not in contact with her, make sure that the risk is less than 0.001%, especially in a place like on the wrong side of the portal, where the probability is skewed and repair options are possibly unavailable.”

“Noted, when in any dangerous scenario, especially the portal, no pranking at all.”

Middit Velott asked, “What is the portal?”

I said, “You are both in the military, correct?”

“Yes.”

“What did everyone in the military tell you about volunteering for anything?”

She smiled, “Occasionally, superiors would ask for volunteers.  Almost everyone, except some supervisors, warned us not to volunteer for anything.”

“But you volunteered for this mission?”

She looked down at the deck at her feet, “Sort of…”

Commander Greant said, “Yes, we volunteered, but the option was twenty-two years in prison in her case, and twenty-five years in prison for myself.  We had already spent four months in prison.  All I will say is it was not for murder.”

I said, “I suspected something like that.  When we return to the portal, and we will, remember what your friends told you about volunteering.  You may want to go, and you may even consider volunteering.  First, talk to those who have been there.  Galactic wars, those we can usually handle.  Intelligent brain parasites we can deal with.  Those who went into the portal were lucky to make it out.  But yeah, you can volunteer for that mission…  if you really want to…”

The Third

I was back in the command chair on the bridge.  “What do we know about the third?”

Jessie said, “I am going over the logs from what we retrieved.  I show two vectors; I don't see a third.  I am wondering if one was slightly past where we are, maybe one of the first two settlements was a stop-off when they went to the third.”

Mark said, “Or it may have been a recent discovery…  Or conquest.  Maybe they haven't had a lot of trips out there, or it was in the early development stages.”

I said, “Jessie, connect Philla Greant, and you may as well connect Middit Velott as well.”

A few seconds later, they both responded (somewhat out of breath), “We are here.  What is it?”

“We are still in orbit around your planet, call your planet and see if anyone knows anything about a third planet the Pait-kou were attempting to occupy, or steal all the resources from.”

The connection to the planet took ten minutes; they had to get back to their room first.

The translated dialogue was being presented on the screen.

After about fifteen minutes, they disconnected, and we were told they would be bringing in a records keeper and an archivist. 

Mark was snickering, already going through every librarian joke he knew, and apparently, he knew quite a few.

After about an hour, the archivist was brought in.  I should probably have a clock that displays the local time when we call people.

“This is Presell Gamadoref, the state recorder of historical facts.  How may I help you?”

Middit said, “We are looking for anything related to other victims of the Pait-kou, specifically aliens on other worlds.  Any records that indicated where the other worlds are, or anything that may be related.”

“I was instructed not to ask questions about who wants this data but to do everything possible to facilitate its retrieval.  The storage vaults in Crispen are the only thing that comes to mind.  If they have data that is not readable, do you still want it?”

I asked, “Why would it be unreadable?”

“Data storage blocks that originated off-world.  I see a flag that says all records, regardless of classification.  I can have a collection delivered, where should I send them?”

“The Bantphff Station, for delivery to Commander Philla Greant, expedite code AA.”

“It shall be done.  If I may ask, your name seems familiar…”

“Don't ask.”

“The cargo will be made available as soon as possible.”

The link disconnected.

I said, “Is there something in your history I should be aware of?”

“Do I need to?”

“Yes.”

“It was a dispute I had with a politician.  A friend of mine, someone I knew who had a falling out with that politician, was unhappy that he faced multiple accusations but suffered no repercussions while the victim's life was nearly destroyed.  Middit and I altered some medical paperwork, and while he couldn't be convicted of what he did, we could prevent him from doing the same to someone else.  He went in for a surgical procedure, the kind one typically tries to keep out of the public eye.  We revised the surgical request.”

“What did you do?”

“He went in for a reversible procedure, one to prevent having additional unwanted children.  He received the non-reversible version of the procedure.”

Mark burst out laughing, “They made him into a gelding?”

“The translation is not exactly the same…  but yes.  We were put on trial in a highly publicized and very brief proceeding.  And convicted almost instantly.”

The archivists delivered the boxes to the spaceport about three hours later.  A few hours after arriving, they were launched into space, and we sent a shuttle to collect the shipment.

Part of it was written records in the Preserect language, which Jessie and the two Preserects translated most of.

Part of it was written records in the Pait-kou language, and Jessie had to translate those.

The bonanza was a collection of crystalline matrix drives, and our earlier salvaging efforts had taught us how to read and decode them.

Scanning the drives took over an hour, and one record detailed the travel time in FTL between the four stars.  We now knew the locations, including the one we hadn't previously identified, and the travel time in FTL to reach it.  There were two possible locations: one was at a star, and the other was in deep space.

We returned the drive and provided a reader that could access the data, allowing the Preserect to review it independently.

Then, we headed to the first (most probably) location of the third star.

… … …

Commander Greant said, “How many days will it take to reach the point? Or will it be weeks or longer? We only know about FTL from the old stories.

I smiled, “There are two types of FTL, one requires you to accelerate to high speed, and then engage FTL to make the trip go much faster.  Then you need to decelerate at the other end.  We have the other type; we cheat, and the travel time will be less than a day.”

… … …

The next day, the two of them were on the bridge against the back wall as guests.  They were lying on large foam mats covered in a burlap-like material, with all four of their legs folded beneath them.

We made a pass and stayed in Hyper FTL, scanning the star.

“We have lifeforms; the planet is filled with life.  No spaceships that are active.  Are we go to exit FTL?”

“Any satellites or installations on a moon or an asteroid?”

“None.”

“Do one quick pass and see what type of aliens we have, and jump back in FTL if anything is sketchy.  I want to know what we have for local life and visitors.”

We exited FTL, and the survey took only ninety minutes.

Jessie said, “One crashed ship in about fifty feet of water, a few thousand feet from shore on the largest continent.  One mega continent, like the zipper on a baseball.  You could literally walk around the entire planet.  The continent is a mountain range, and in some parts, it is only thirty miles wide; in other areas, it is over 1,200 miles wide.  Dozens of larger islands, mini-continents, and hundreds of smaller islands that are close to the size of Hawaii’s Oahu Island.”

“What about intelligent beings?”

“I see some of the Ducks, and they seem to be intelligent.  There is also a different species that seems to be intelligent.  No sign of the Pait-kou.  I have discovered a crashed ship that contains the remains of several large cylinders.  And I do mean remains, they didn't last long, and what is left of the ship is a rusted framework.”

Mark said, “What is the other species?”

“They have triangular symmetry, also called threefold rotational symmetry.  Three legs, three arms, one three-sided head on top, you guessed it, three ears, and three eyes.  The only thing that breaks the triple symmetry is that they have only one mouth.  Not sure about the other end, but a guess would be only one exit hole.”

Mark said, “That makes no sense.  If the dominant species had three-way symmetry, how could the Ducks have evolved? They are externally mostly mirror-symmetrical.  Internally, they are asymmetrical; things like the heart and liver are not even partially symmetrical.  The same as humans.”

I said, “How advanced are they?  Do they have telescopes, or are they primitive?”

“The Ducks live in several areas near the edge of the water.  The triclops beings are all on high ground near large trees.”

“Ducks and water make sense, well, sort of.  Why would the three-eyed, three-armed, and three-legged triclops want to live near trees?  That doesn't answer how advanced they are.”

“The Ducks seem to be living agriculturally.  They have farms.  They also seem to be harvesting something like seaweed, or maybe fish from the water.  The triclops are hunters, and they have muskets.  Limited iron and brass, possibly early steel.  They have forges that are wood-fired, and they live in wooden houses.  The Ducks only have primitive shelters, like A-frames or lean-tos.”

“And they are separated, no roads and trade routes between them?”

“None of those are obvious.”

Katerina said, “At least we don't have to worry about anti-aircraft guns and missile defense systems.  If we were landing a shuttle, and something like an A-10 showed up, the shuttle would lose.”

Jessie said, “There has been no discernible difference since we emerged from FTL.  If they have the technology to detect our ship at this range, they would need something much larger than a handheld spyglass.  There is no radio, no electricity is being generated, and I have only detected some very simple steam engines.”

Mei spoke over the video connection from her room, “Do we gain anything by deploying a satellite?”

“No, not on this primitive world.”

I said, “I am open to suggestions, even dropping off rocks with cameras and listening devices like we did with the crabbies.”

Mark said, “Where is the wreck? You said it was in shallow water.  Do we have drones that can dive in water?”

“It is in 50 feet of water, and they would have to deal with tides, wave action, and currents.  When drones encounter water more than a light rain shower, it ends badly for the drones.”

“Even if we have some former SEAL Team Six members, I don't think we would gain enough by…  Wait, magnet fishing, or a hook, are any of the canisters intact enough that we could hook onto it and lift it to space?”

“The shuttle, by itself, no, but using the engine we got from the impossible ship, yes, it should be able to lift one or possibly several of the canisters.  The ship is destroyed; I show the two canisters as basically intact.  The one we dealt with was mostly aluminum.  It probably has some corrosion, but it may be mostly intact, even if not still waterproof.”

“Can you make a fishing hook, maybe robotically controlled, just to hook a cable on the external mounting clamp?”

"Possibly, I will set a tensioner release on the back; if it exceeds the weight limits, then it will release the canister.”

“Try not to dangle it over a city.  That would be hard to explain.”

“There are some politicians who could spin anything.”

Making a watertight, steerable grappling clamp equipped with a camera and a water jet thruster took almost 35 hours.

Then, we mounted the alien sub-light drive on the larger shuttle and dangled the megalodon-rated fishing line underneath it.

We had several choices, in darkness, when the underwater lights would stand out, or in daylight, when the hovering shuttle would stand out.

We launched it during the day.

The plan was simple: drop the fishing line, and the line would find an attachment point and latch on.

Three hours later, we had not one, but two of the cylinders hooked…  The two had a heavy cable between them.

We decided to attempt a lift, and if the tensioner got close to the cut-off (literal) point, we would abort.

Jessie said, “The fish are on the line, and we are at 55% of the weight limit.”

Mark said, “So we are clear?”

I said, “No, have you done any magnet fishing? The magnet can lift a lot when it is underwater, but a lot less when you try to lift it out of the water.  Same problem here.”

We were also snagged on another line to the wreckage of the ship.

We sent down a second shuttle, which had a crew of two humans, both of whom were military personnel.  They carried a Barrett M82/M107 .50 caliber sniper rifle.  Supposedly, no one was around, and the rounds should sever the tangled cable.

“It took 26 rounds to free the cable to the remains of the ship. 

The weight was still too high, so we had them attempt to shoot the cable that connected the two cylinders.

I said, “You two were having so much fun playing shoot the cable, we decided to give you a harder target.”

“The cable has been nicked by over half the rounds.  The problem is that every time we shoot it, it has several different strands.  Everything is bouncing around in the waves and the water.”

They had gone through almost 80 rounds before they severed the cable, and the second cylinder dropped.

“Do a test lift, and make sure to back the second shuttle way away.  The cables may have some kinks and kick back when they shift.”

The cylinder was successfully lifted and moved up, eventually clearing the atmosphere.

Jessie said, “We do this the slow way.  The shuttle can't jump to FTL, well, it could, but the cylinder would not make the trip.”

Four hours later, we maneuvered the cylinder into the cargo bay.  When it opened, it released several thousand gallons of slimy, salty water and several freeze-dried fish into the compartment.  We had not pressurized it, so we opened the vents as wide as they would go and allowed it to boil off.

Mark said, “What did we get?”

Jessie said, “What appears to be rotted wood, rotted plant material, and four of the canisters that were the same as those held Cheese.  Only they are all damaged.  The one that was open also seemed to contain an egg.  We have some data crystals, maybe it was an inventory.”

An hour later, we had read the inventory.  Nothing was salvageable.  What had changed was our opinions of the Pait-kou.  The containers with the eggs included instructions on how to grow them to the proper size and then how to prepare and cook them.  It was considered a delicacy.  The question now was, “Would Kera Prime go back and fry their world?”

Lacking much else to do, we went back and retrieved the second cylinder.  The procedure was the same, but there were fewer tangled cables to deal with.  We had already shot some of them up.

The difference was that this canister was intact and not flooded.

Jessie said, “There is no water.  We have what appears to be metal ingots… ALERT, we have a hazardous condition.”

“What?”

“The metal is pure sodium.  No wonder the contents of the other cylinder were in such bad shape.  These should be stored in inert gas, such as argon.  The approximate value is $600 per pound, and I estimate this to be several tons.  I strongly recommend against attempting to salvage any.”

I said, “I will agree, but what are the other contents? This is close to the size of a shipping container.  I feel we have to at least check if it has more eggs, and if any are viable.”

An hour later, we had recovered six of the egg containers.  Unfortunately, only three of them were viable.

Mark said, “What now?”

“Drop the explodie crap somewhere safe, I suggest their moon, unless someone has a better suggestion.  Then, we should create a bunch of rocks with cameras and microphones.  We need to understand the birds' language and culture.  I don't think it would be safe to drop off the unhatched eggs or Cheese with the ones on the planet.  But we should make an effort to teach them the language of their people.”

Jessie said, “Cheese is learning new words at about the rate of a four-year-old; she is averaging six to ten new words a day.”

Mark said, “The spy rocks need to be waterproof; they spend a lot of time near or in the water.”

Katerina said, “And monster duck poop resistant, whatever exits them is going to land on the rocks.”

The next night, we had thirty spy-rocks ready.  They were dropped off in the middle of the night.

… … …

In the morning, I said, ‘Well, they do sound a little like Donald Duck.”

Jessie said, “Their diet appears to be aquatic plants, small fish, or small enough that they can swallow them whole, and…  I am not sure what those are.”

Mark said, “They have eyes, so closer to snakes than worms, and they spend most of their time on the surface, so probably not eels.  They are fairly small.”

Jessie said, “They are not worms; the images we have do not include enough to differentiate between eels and sea snakes.  Sea snakes are almost always venomous, so either the Ducks are immune or they have a way to prevent getting bitten.  They have fire, and they eat the snakes cooked, so that may have something to do with it.  They seem to eat most of their food raw, or alive, for the fish.  I am updating the diet for Cheese based on this data.  The young do seem to be as plump as her, and they get leaner as they mature.”

I said, “I haven't seen any signs of metalworking or metal tools.”

Jessie said, “They have what appears to be metal tips on the spears they use to catch the snakes.  I have not seen any other metalworking.  Perhaps the placement of the cameras was not optimal, and their forges are somewhere else.”

Mark said, “Or they trade with the other species.  Possibly for food or something from the ocean.”

We watched them for most of the day as they collected large shells, such as oysters or clams.  At midday, a small group of the other aliens—or natives; we are the aliens—came by in a wooden cart pulled by something resembling an ox.  They exchanged several baskets of large, dried, and skinned fish, along with clams and other shelled items, as well as some red coral.  In return, they received what appeared to be long-handled, multi-barbed tridents, which they used to catch the snake-like creatures when they entered the water.  The three-legged, three-armed beings seemed to be mammalian and had short fur.  Most were brown, but a juvenile had much lighter fur, suggesting that the fur color may darken with maturity.

Katerina said, “A remarkably peaceful coexistence between two very different species.”

Mark said, “They may each think they are making out like bandits, the tridents are probably easy for the triclops to produce, and the fish are obviously easy for the Ducks.  Do the triclops ever go in the water?”

“I have not observed that yet.”

Then a scream erupted from some of the Ducks, and most of them dashed straight into the water.

The triclops were all hunched down in the back of the wagon, and something large approached.

It was a cat, but at least three times the size of a lion or a tiger. 

It had one of the Ducks in its mouth, or the remains of one, and then, there was a loud bang, like a gun going off, and smoke emerged from something in the hand of one of the triclops.  They had guns, and they appeared to be oversized flintlock pistols.

The cat was not amused, and it now started bounding toward the small group of triclops.  They managed to get three more shots off in total, and they were about to reach the closest of the triclops when a duck I hadn't seen jumped out and threw a wicker basket at the giant cat.

I expected it to ignore the little basket that shattered when it hit the cat, but it let out a massive roar and stopped, and now just stared at the retreating duck.  The cat then started biting at its shoulder, where the basket had struck, and then at its legs.  It fell over and began twitching.

Jessie said, “The basket held sea snakes, or whatever they are.  They are obviously very poisonous, and the cat now has dozens of them on it.”

The Ducks reemerged from the water carefully and slowly, using the tridents to spear the snakes that had escaped from the shattered basket.

Then, one of the triclops brought out a massive spear, and it drove it into the chest of the monster cat.

I said, “Okay, this is a symbiotic relationship formed around a common apex predator that dwarfs both of them.  What was the damage?”

Jessie said, “One duck was killed, one was bitten by one of the snake things when they were recovering them, and the effect on the duck looks like a bee sting and is probably not life-threatening.  One of the triclops is now limping, but I didn’t see how that occurred; it may have been when they all grouped together and used their guns.  I see one duck collecting… Some of the eggs were trampled; at least two eggs were lost.”

Mark said, “Did we add speakers to any of the rocks?  At some point, we may want to talk to them…  Not at the moment, they are…  busy.”

“The rocks have speakers, all are muted and will remain muted for now.  I am recording the conversations.  I don't have enough yet to translate much of what they are saying.  I have made one observation.”

“What?”

“The language they speak among themselves is different than the one used while negotiating the trade, or talking between the two species after the conflict.  It is a variant of the Pait-kou language, but heavily modified.  It’s like comparing the Germanic Old English from 1,000 AD, as used by the Anglo-Saxons, to modern English.  I show only a 30% mapping, and that is after adjusting for the differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.”

I said, “So they were taught a common language used by the oppressors, and it still is used, or a version of it is as a trade language.”

“The language of the triclops is very different from the language of the Ducks.  The (groan)…”

“What?”

"Honestly, it wasn't intentional; my humor circuits just overloaded because of this.”

Mark said, “Let me guess, the duck language is close to…”

Jessie said, “Mandarin and the triclops are closely related to Greek.”

We managed to stop laughing after about a minute; all the aliens who were listening in were completely confused.

Jessie continued, “The two groups are now skinning and butchering the large cat.”

I said, ‘Well, that leaves us with a problem, what do we do with Cheese?”

Cheese

Chloe and I entered the room set up for Cheese.  It has a slight ripe smell to it, and Audrey and Cheese looked up as we entered. 

Cheese said, “Hello?”

Chloe said, “Hello Cheese.  I am Chloe, and this is Ben.  Can you say our names?”

“C-c-chloe, B-benny.”

I said, “How are you today?”

Her head twisted almost sideways, and then she said, “Hunhgry, poo smells bwad.”

I smiled and tried not to laugh at her pronunciation.  I said, "I have a video for you to watch.  Do you want to watch the video?”

“Shuh-ure.”

We played a video of the Ducks before the attack or the arrival of the triclops.  It showed them in a nest, in the water, and eating fish.

I said, “Does that look like fun?”

“S-ca-rey, doo nott wike.”

“They look like you, do you want to be with beings that look like you?”

’N-n-no.”

Chloe said, “What do you wike?  Crap, now she has me doing it.”

“Wike da wawksink twail and da fish and moovies.”

Audrey said, “I’m sorry.  I am a Trekkie, and we spend a lot of time watching cartoons with her.  She likes the Star Trek animated series, Bluey, Dora the Explorer, and PAW Patrol.”

I said, “Do you think she would fit in with their society?”

“Actually, no, we have discussed it when off duty with the other caretakers, and we don't think she would live long there, and she seems happy here.  Are we returning the eggs that we recovered, or are we going to hatch them so she has fwiends?” Then she lowered her voice, “Honest, we have not shown her any Daffy Duck cartoons.”

We spent some time with her.  Finding a clean place to sit took some effort, and Audrey finally brought out some waterproof cushions, similar to those used for lawn chairs.

“She is getting better, but I wouldn't say she is completely housebroken.  We know what foods to avoid if we hatch the next set.  She seems quite intelligent.”

I said, “How is she doing on her outings to see the rest of the ship?”

“She gets to visit the walkway.  We haven't shown her any of the pools.  They are UV light filtered, so we don't have to worry about her getting chlorine in her eyes, but if she lets loose in the pool or the fish pond, that will probably clog the filter.  She is getting what we assume is her adult hair.  Her fluff and adult hair are oily, repelling water and trapping air.  They seem similar to wide short feathers, but not intended for flight.”

Jessie put an image on the screen showing the adult hair.  It was like a feather, with a stiff hollow core, but it had three sets of frond-like hair on the side.

Jessie said, “The feather-like hair has threefold rotational symmetry, so we strongly suspect there is some common ancestry between the two species, only one went heavily into the triple symmetry, and one branch has more double symmetry.”

I said, “Speaking of language, have the mosquito centaurs decided they want to get a language upload, or are they happy with external translation?”

“They are spending their night in the pod, and I am completing the mapping of their brains.  My guess is they will decide to get the language load in a day or so.”

I looked at Cheese and said, “Tell her she will get to go in the pool, but if she makes a mess, no cartoons for a day.”

“That may work, but her understanding of time is like a very young child, tomorrow seems too far away, and the one time we tried to do something like that before, she went right to bed and pretended to sleep for ten minutes, and than said, “Ith's tomowwow, mowe cawtoons.”

Chloe said, “A conniving and smart alien four-year-old.”

The Voyage

We decided to keep the eggs and Cheese.  The monitoring rocks would provide additional information on the Ducks, maybe even their species name.

We set up the other three eggs for hatching, and all of them hatched successfully.  Whatever the container did, it stopped them from growing a few hours before hatching.

The hardware that contained them was part incubator and part stasis.  The eggs would develop naturally until they were nearly ready to hatch, and then the stasis mode would kick in.

We were unsure whether the Pait-kou had real stasis pods, and if so, whether we should attempt to rescue any we found.  They were particularly xenophobic, and the fact that they considered the eggs as food was quite disturbing.  The instructions we found with them indicated they raised the Ducks for a few weeks, and then they became food.

Cheese was already speaking a few words after a week, and at one month, capable of partial sentences.  The Preserect's (mosquito centaur) hatred of the Pait-kou now seemed entirely justified.

In the communications Commander Greant and Specialist Velott had with their superiors on their homeworld, they appeared to have softened their original mistrust of us as we learned more about the Pait-kou.

We then received a shipment from the Nest.  It was a larger version of the Pait-kou’s sub-light drive.  We now had the original,  which was installed on the Shadow, and a much larger version that we could install onto the Stardust III.

It also included something that Asshole, the AI at the nest, had made as a present for us.  Any present from Asshole was suspect, but this seemed benign enough, and it was right up his alley.

It included new armored spacesuits for the two Preserects.  They were full-armor spacesuits with air, water, and relief features that could function in space for eight hours.  The legs and arms were equipped with power armor, which multiplied the force exerted externally while simultaneously reducing the force presented to the wearer.  They would operate in both weightlessness and full gravity, and be able to walk and run normally.

Now, Asshole, being what he is, made some changes.  There were flip-out arm blades made from 5160 Spring Steel.  As well as running faster than a cheetah, they now had a way to instantly dismember someone in a normal armored suit while running at close to 80 MPH.

We were all terrified of the new suits.

Greant and Velott were like kids in a candy store.  We made some sword training dummies, primarily constructed from artificial straw and held in shape by a thin string in a tight mesh.  The targets resembled the Pait-kou and were equipped with something akin to balsa wood rifles.

Then, we cleared everyone from the walking track and let them charge and attack the mannequins at full speed, all while high-speed cameras filmed it from multiple angles.

They each hit the targets on every pass.  The first passes they each made hits that were listed as survivable.  They corrected for this, and by the third pass, they were decapitating the targets.  We stopped after the fourth pass, when Velott lost her footing.  While she still destroyed the target, she probably would have killed herself if the suit hadn't protected her.

The videos of this test were sent to their homeworld, and they became extremely popular.  They were released as a movie on film, and it sold out at all theaters.  For all we know, it may still be being shown on their TV to this day.

We were ready; we set sail for the portal.

… … …

That trip took three weeks, and before we arrived, Cheese now had a brother and two sisters.  Her brother was Quackers, and her two sisters were Pudding and Fuzzy.

The three huddled together almost constantly.  Cheese ignored them for the most part.  When it was time for them to sleep, they all huddled with Cheese.

Mei started to show up at the Bridge for some of the rotations, and she confessed it was her quality time away from Shi.  If it was boring, and being on the bridge usually was when nothing was happening, she would often be napping on the bench seat against the back wall.

I entered the bridge to find the lights dimmed, and only two people manning the stations.

I said, “Jessie, light on full.”

They were all blinking, and Mei had shifted into a sitting position.  “Did something happen?”

“No, but I want the bridge crew to be more awake than this.  We are a day away from the portal.  We need to be in a more alert state than…  Are you wearing pajamas colored to look like a ship suit uniform?”

She snapped awake, “Sir, I will be in a normal uniform from now on.”

I said, “The ship suit, while uncomfortable, provides protection in the event of a pressure loss.  Pajamas do not.  If you need more sleep, then have one of the nannies watch Shi.  You do not have to return to duty.  It has only been…  Has it been six weeks since she had Shi?”

Jessie said, “Five weeks and four days.”

“You are still technically on maternity leave.  Go home, get some sleep, and send John Sanders in to cover for today.”

“He needs some time with his wife.  It is their honeymoon.”

I smiled, “They were married over a week ago, and Kerrie and the kids took his last name.  Consider his honeymoon over.  I understand Kerri has offered to babysit.”

Her eyes went wide, “But their teeth…”

John walked in at that moment, he said, “Their teeth are no worse than ours…  after you get used to them.”

Mei smiled and said, “Your lip is bleeding.”

John reached up and felt his lip, and there was no blood on his fingers when he looked at them.

“Your lip is not bleeding today, but I know that you have to go into a medical pod every few weeks to get the cuts healed up.”

He just smiled…

I said, “There is always Spencer; she can take a shift.  Chloe is able to take care of Tyra on her own most of the time.”

“I love the little monster, but I want to sleep through an entire night.  I know I used to get by on six hours of sleep, but I think I am lucky to get four now.”

I said, “It will be that way for a while.  When we picked up the supplies for setting up a daycare, we added two more people.  Several of the expectant mothers will volunteer for a training session, better known as babysitting.”

Mei said, “I will head back to my room, but I will probably dial in when we get close to the portal.  Have we heard from the Servants?”

“Not yet, I assume they will show up when we are less than an hour away.”

They showed up when we were ten hours away, and they were following us in FTL.

We exited FTL, and they exited FTL in a slightly different way than our Hyper FTL worked.  As soon as we were in normal space, they set up a radio link.

“Good day, are you the one referred to as Captain Benjamin Williams?”

“Yes, are you the one who went by the designation Casper?”

“No, that unit is now working on the portal modifications.  Are you here to travel into the portal again?”

“Yes, we have a ship with a modification that should function as a sub-light drive without the issues we encountered before.  We will send an unmanned ship in for a short test, and if that works, we will send the same ship as before, but with a different crew.  Is Casper available to accompany us on this trip?”

“Yes, of course, and if he wasn't, there are multiple alternatives.”

“Has anything changed about the state of the portal?  Specifically, if there was an issue, could our larger ship enter?  We also wish to be able to enter and leave with an unmanned ship while the manned ship is in the portal.  Would that be available?”

“We have a modified lock on the portal.  Anything entering will travel to the portal hub, and anything entering the matched portal mirror will exit on this portal.  The final modifications will be stable in twelve hours.”

We re-entered Hyper FTL and completed the remaining ten hours of the trip.

… … …

We exited FTL, and nothing was obviously different.  And then we noticed a drifting ship.

I said, “Connect us, ask what is with that ship.”

The reply came in, “This is a ship of the Uberse, a different species.  They attempted to enter the portal before it was properly configured and did not wait to establish communication with us.  The ship entered the portal, and what you see exited twenty-one of our hours later.  It has drifted since then; it has been drifting for thirty-two days.”

I said, “We have a while before the portal is configured.  Get drone red-shirt-one and a mini-shuttle over there, and have two of the military types and a medical pod in the large shuttle as emergency responders on standby.”

The shuttle launched in less than one minute.

“Am I that predictable, or is the mini shuttle always on call for a fast launch?”

Jessie said, “Reasonably predictable, and we do keep a drone and a mini shuttle on standby, so the correct answer is both.”

The shuttle blipped in FTL, and it appeared next to the alien spacecraft.

Jessie put the image on the screen; externally, it looked pristine.

“Sensors report that the friction drive has blown.  There may be additional damage as well.  It is responding to our queries, but I don't have a translation, and I’m uncertain of the communication protocol.  The ship contains air and has power.  I detect at least two entities in stasis pods.  There is a transmission that might be a distress signal, but it is unusually low power.  The ship has an airlock hatch, and, like all well-designed ones, the operating instructions are pictographically printed on the door.”

I said, “We discussed this before.  Did we ever add printed instructions to the outside of our airlock door?”

“No.”

Katerina said, “It poses a risk to the ship and the crew if we are all incapacitated.”

“Something posed a much worse danger to the crew if the entire crew is incapacitated, and none of the AIs are still operational.”

Jessie said, “The labeling stencil is now being created.”

“Worst case, the ship blows up if we try to open the door, so back off to a safe distance for a large explosion.  I don't know how large, assume it could be as large as a strategic nuke.”

Our ship blipped away to five light seconds. 

Jessie said, “I do not think the ship would be a bomb, waiting to explode if anyone attempts to open the hatch.”

“And if it is, in the worst case, we just need to do is stock up on more mini-shuttles.”

Ten minutes later, Jessie reported, “The drone is past the outer airlock hatch, nothing abnormal, I am now sequencing the inner door.”

Five minutes later, “Inner hatch operations are normal, the drone is in.  The air is unbreathable, with high quantities of carbon particulate soot and volatile organic material detected, including benzene, toluene, hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, arsenic, antimony, chromium, dioxins, furans, and PCBs, all consistent with a fire.  The air consists of 80% nitrogen, 18% carbon dioxide, 1% carbon monoxide, and less than 1% oxygen.  The air temperature is 120°F, and there are sounds of multiple audible alarms.”

“See if the drone can find any stasis pods.  Hopefully, they got in before everything went to hell.  Do not vent the air until after we have removed any pods.  I don't know if their pods are vacuum rated.”

There were eight pods and eight crew members, but only four of the pods were occupied.  Among them, only three were viable; one of the closed pods had caught fire and partially melted.

Jessie said, “The pods have easy-to-decipher instructions on how to detach and remove them.  They are also running on battery, and one shows that the battery is partially discharged.  I would like to send the large shuttle out to retrieve the stasis pods.”

“Granted, but leave only one biological on the shuttle.  How many of the pods can it fit?”

“They are small, I suspect it can fit all three with viable occupants.  They are only five feet long, I assume the occupants are less than four feet tall.”

Katerina said, “Scan the pods for explosives or hazardous materials before moving them to this ship.”

“Yes, your paranoidis.”

I laughed, “She earned that title and probably considers it a compliment.”

“Yes, I do.  Check everything about it if you can.”

Ten minutes later, “Two of the pods showed clear, one shows as having an object on it that contains small amounts of explosives.  This is about what ten 9mm bullets would contain.  They are separated into multiple locations.  The most likely explanation is that he had a pistol on him when they jumped into the pods.  Assuming the ship was on fire, taking the time to remove a sidearm may have been fatal.”

“Have three of our medical pods ready, and transfer the occupants from their pods to ours in the shuttle compartment.  Remove anything that could fail if shot with small arms fire.”

“The rooms' oxygen tanks are part of the air plumbing, and the compressors cannot be easily removed.  I can install a blast shield over them to reduce the probability of their damage.”

“Do it.”

“The large shuttle is on its way.  One enlisted member who is also a trained EMT is on the shuttle, and they are wearing hardened spacesuits.  Note that the suit will not stop a large or a high velocity caliber bullet.”

We watched the status of the operation.

“The three bodies that were not in the medical pods were not in full spacesuits; they are all suffering from the effects of the fire.  Humanoid, with two arms and two legs, they have unusual feet that resemble hands.  Instead of shoes, they are wearing what appear to be gloves on their feet.  They have long, thin tails.  Their heads are part simian and part mouse, with long, pointy snouts.  I think they have whiskers.”

“You can't tell?”

“They are all severely burned.  Hopefully, the others in the pods will be more intact.”

Ten minutes later, “We have an issue.  Can you send a second shuttle out to retrieve the EMT? She has fouled her helmet.”

“Send two military personnel to retrieve her.  What happened?”

“She vomited in her helmet.  She then went into a spin to keep it from choking her, but she now has zero visibility.  Spinning is supposed to press the material against the faceplate.  It worked, but she then vomited up more.”

Katerina said, “This is not a joking matter.  That is a horrible way to die.  Priority dispatch now.”

Five minutes later, they had moved the EMT to a second shuttle docking port and were transferring her to a medical pod.  She was not breathing, and her heart had stopped.

“They are getting her to the pod and not stopping to perform CPR, and she is being removed from her suit as fast as possible.”

Five minutes later, “She is in a medical pod, breathing and respiration are being stimulated, and her airways are being cleared.  There may be some damage from digestive residue in her lungs.”

The next update came just three minutes later: “She is breathing on her own, and she will recover.  She will be in the pod for at least 24 hours.  The second of the alien pods has been transferred to the shuttle.  The third is experiencing some difficulty getting the release mechanism to unlatch.”

Three minutes later, “The last pod unlatched and is on its way to the shuttle.”

Ten minutes later, the three alien pods were on our ship, and the three medical pods were across from them.  We opened the first of the alien pods.

“The occupant was non-responsive and suffering from second and third degree burns.”

I said, “Get two more medical personnel in there; they probably will not be able to move to the new pods on their own.”

The medical personnel looked more like marines, but they were able to lift the slightly crispy occupant out and transfer them to the pod.

The second occupant was similar, only this one had a pistol on them.  The marines attempted to remove the pistol, but the material of the belt and holster refused, and it had to be cut off the occupant.  They eventually got them into the medical pod.

The third occupant had no burns, but both lower legs were missing.  The wound was open and had not clotted or been cauterized.  They transferred the occupant to the third pod.

Jessie said, “I can read some data from the pods.  The injuries tell part of the story.  The one missing both legs was put in first.  These are pure stasis pods, and they have almost no medical functionality.  The other two pods were entered about ten minutes later, so the ship probably had an initial explosion when the friction drive failed, and then everything caught fire shortly after that.”

Katerina said, “Get everyone decontaminated, the toxic crap is everywhere.  Then send one or two drones back in to see if they can retrieve any logs or data storage devices.  What is the technology level on the ship?”

“Standard friction drive; their FTL technology is unknown.  The ship's intelligence level is unknown.”

I said, “Status of the three aliens?”

“One is missing both legs below the knees, one has second-degree burns on 30% of its body and third-degree burns on 15%, unfortunately, that is the face and hands.  The last has second-degree burns on 25% of its body, third-degree burns on 10%, and it has some shrapnel in its leg.  I will know if the plasma generator can replicate the lost blood in about twelve minutes.  I believe the two will live, and I will update on the third after forty minutes, after I know what medical procedures they can perform.”

The Survivors

The status was updated after one hour to indicate that all three will survive.

Jessie said, “The EMT, Private First Class Lisa Meadows, will also make a full recovery.  She wants to talk to the bridge.”

“Put her on.”

A raspy voice said, “That was my fault.  I have dealt with burn victims before, and even a plane crash.  I have only spent about twenty minutes in zero gravity before that, and during those earlier times, if I got sick, I could put everything in the barf bag.  This was my first time getting sick in a suit's helmet.  I did the stupid spin trick, but that didn't work, and then I got sick from spinning.  I crashed into a wall, and everything came floating back at me…  Were the victims rescued?”

“Yes, they all have rather nasty injuries.  Two are burned, one is missing both legs below the knees.”

“Yeah, I think I saw a hand floating by.  Visibility was only six feet.”

Mark said, “That may have been a leg.  They have simian-like hands on their feet.”

“That… makes my stupid accident seem trivial…”

The line then disconnected.

Jessie said, “She wanted some privacy.  I have put her in a forced sleep state.”

I said, “I want to know what we did right, and where we screwed up.  I saw someone use a combat knife to cut the melted holster off the crispy monkey.  We need emergency tools for various situations, including medical scissors and heavy-duty ones that can cut through leather or plastic.  How do we clear the smoke from a room?  Mark, see if you can come up with a battery-powered, oversized fan and filter.  We probably don't need HEPA filters, or maybe we do?  We need something that can withstand high temperatures and resist the effects of volatiles in the air.  We need a decent emergency medical kit in every shuttle docking bay, and…  More, what else?”

Mark said, “Fire suppression, maybe we can outfit the red-shirt drones with fire suppression tanks.”

John Sanders said, “I have seen the reports of the use of the foaming epoxy leak sealer.  Those need to be operated by humans or other species.  We need a smaller version that a drone can operate.  Or make a specialized drone that is a walking fire extinguisher or a leak sealer.”

I said, “Pass this along to the scientists.  Include some videos of the problem, and remind them that the lives that are saved may be their own.”

Jessie said, “You have a call from the Servants, from Casper.”

“On screen.”

The image showed the compact AI unit.  “Greetings, Captain Benjamin Williams.  How are you today?”

It took an act of will to suppress all the snarky responses that were in my head.  “We are recovering the Uberse survivors.  Three of them are alive.  Can you tell us anything about them?”

“They arrived after you left and analyzed the beacons you left behind.  We attempted to contact them, but they did not respond and entered the portal before we could establish communication.  We did not have a translation for their language since we had not encountered them before.  When they returned, the ship had a residual AI that provided us with some information about the occupants before it failed shortly after due to a power loss.  It indicated that the damage was to its memory banks and expressed a desire to share what it could before failing completely.  It has since failed entirely.  Should I send the logs of that to your AI?”

“Sure.”

The display showed a progress bar indicating downloading, followed by processing, which took a longer time.

Jessie said, “The AI was friendly and helpful.  The ship's captain was apparently not.  The good news is that they were not among the survivors.  The survivors are the engineer who was in charge of the drives, and she is the one who lost both legs.  The third in command, who was also the chief scientist, is one of those with more severe burns, and the one who has burns and shrapnel is the medical officer.  They do not have medical pod technology.  The captain decided to ignore the beacons and didn't want to wait for the AI to translate them.  They entered the portal under active sub-light drive.  When we did it, we drifted through the portal.  The friction drive exploded as they passed the transition into the portal.  They never even engaged their FTL engine.  The AI assumed control and used the maneuvering gas thrusters to return the ship through the portal.  The ship has a fire suppression system, but it lost power when the drive exploded.”

I said, “Add that information to the scientists planning additional emergency contingency plans, and try to figure out why their fire suppression system failed.”

Jessie said, “Dual failure: Part one was the power bus bar to that part of the ship that had a fuse blow, and the second was the suppression, which was a 2-chemical reaction, and one of them never pressurized the tank.  That should have been mechanically triggered.”

Casper then said, “Are you still planning on entering the portal?”

“Yes, but we want to identify what the others did wrong and determine if we need to modify any of our plans.  When it is ready, we will send in an unmanned shuttle with a special form of sub-light drive.  We believe it will operate on the other side of the portal correctly.  We plan to have it do some tests and then return.”

“Then we will send it over a second time and have it perform some more advanced tests.  Did you want to be on the shuttle for the first test?”

“Please hold, while we decide on that logic sequence flow…  Can you send me a data file on the type of sub-light engine you will be testing?”

Katerina looked like she didn't want to, Mei showed up on the display, and she was shaking her head.

John waved his hand, which indicated that he was open to either option.

“Jessie, send them the plans.”

The Servants didn't respond for ten minutes.

“This drive is not one we are familiar with.  I voted against being on, but I was outvoted.  They have agreed to make a backup image copy of me in case the test fails.  I will be ready to transfer over to your ship in 107 of your minutes, and the portal will be properly configured for the tests at that time.”

An hour and a half later, the shuttle was launched and met by one of their ships.  The mobile AI transferred over in a vacuum, and our shuttle returned to our ship.  It only took ten minutes for Casper to transfer to the large shuttle, and that included the small version of the new drive.

Jessie said, “Launching the shuttle… positioning it so it will drift through the portal…  Shuttle is in position and drifting…  Approaching the portal…  Transferring…  The shuttle is through the portal.  Now we wait.”

The shuttle's planned maneuvers would take almost two hours.  It involved moving to a clear position, engaging the drive, profiling what was found, and determining if there were any anomalies.

At ninety minutes into the test, Jessie announced, “I have a translation from the data the Servants provided.  The medical procedures are progressing.  The skin replacement will proceed.  The plasma replacement is viable.  All infections are contained.  The one who lost her legs is now stabilized and numb below the knees.  Her name is Nittie Gerful.  Should I wake her up and translate for you?”

“Sure.”

“Cough, where am I?”

“Your ship was destroyed.  You were injured, and the ship's computer maneuvered you to the other side of the portal.  You have been rescued.”

“By whom? You sound very strange, and there is a long delay….  Crap, are you aliens?”

“Yes.”

“Great, I am the first of my people to meet aliens, and I am…  What am I in?”

“You were transferred from the stasis pod into a medical pod, and the worst of your wounds are being treated.”

“Crudz, my fracking legs, that was real?”

“It is no longer life-threatening.  There is a possibility it can be repaired.”

“What about the rest of the crew?”

“The ship had a bad fire.  There were only two other survivors?”

“Who?”

“The other survivors are Frackie Genis, the science officer, and Fildo Satch, the medical officer.”

“Fildo is decent.  She is at least intelligent.  Frackie is an arrogant elitist and thinks he is superior to everyone else.  What shape are they in?  What about the rest of the ship?”

“There was a fire, it looks like those two managed to jump in the pods just after the fire got out of control.  Severe burns, some third degree, some second degree.”

“That didn't translate; I don't know your terminology.”

“Second degree is skin damage, third degree is into the fat layers under the skin.  Their third-degree burns were mostly on hands and face; There was also smoke and fire inhalation damage to the lungs.”

“It doesn't sound like they will survive.”

“The medical pods should be able to repair much of the damage.  You will also be repaired.”

“They will make prosthetic limbs for me?”

“Perhaps as an interim repair.  The medical pod can actually regrow your limbs and replace the bone.  The nerve damage will take a long time to heal completely.”

“You must be really advanced aliens.  Are you from the ship that tried to talk to us?  Frackie said it was unmanned and just some stupid drones, along with more automated message stuff.  He also said we didn't need to waste time translating what the stupid drones were trying to say.”

I said, “Should I wake him up now? We can skip the step about numbing the nerves in the parts of his face he burned off.”

Jessie said, “I would prefer to keep him sedated for at least sixteen hours.”

Nittie said, “As much as he deserves that, I have to play my part as a member of the crew…  Of a ship that is probably completely destroyed, and as a member of a species that put complete morons in charge of the ship…  What is the status of our ship?”

Jessie said, “It is filled with toxic smoke and charred bodies, the friction drive exploded.”

“Yeah, I remember that part.  My legs were both crushed.”

“When we found you, you were in a stasis pod, and someone had put a set of clamps on the worst of the bleeders.  The legs were amputated below your knees.”

“They probably used a power saw to free me.  Fortunately, I don't remember that part.  So, how the hell are we talking?  Also, what do you aliens look like?”

The display screen inside the medical pod showed an image of a human female next to her body.

“I am Jessie, the AI on the ship, and the person who has been talking is Captain Benjamin Williams.”

The display changed to show my image next to her image for size so that she could see a human male.  Fortunately, it did have me in a uniform.

“You are fricking massive, I assume the first image was a female and the second was a male.  No tail, and a stu…  a flat face…  Also, how do you grip anything with lopsided and what looks like only half a proper foot?”

“This ship is the Stardust III, and I am the captain, but we have several different species as part of the crew.  Your species hasn't met any other species?”

“No, and now I am wondering how they can be on the same ship?  Won't the different germs wipe everyone out?”

“The pod you are in is a medical pod, and besides repairing damage and performing stasis in an emergency, one of the main tasks is profiling the germs and microbes and making sure they don't have interaction issues.”

Jessie said, “In your case, there are some germs that are in humans and the Kipitz that you will need to have your immune system artificially exposed to to trigger some antibodies.  And some of your gut bacteria will need to be removed.  Additionally, your eyelash mites may pose a risk.  This is common, and most compatibility issues are usually resolved in less than six hours.”

“I didn't get that time unit?”

“About one quarter of a day.”

“So…  Ah, what happens to us?”

“We are here to try exploring the portal again, the first time we had similar issues with our friction drive.  One ship went in, and it took seven months to get out.”

“How long were we in there?”

“The ship spent twenty-one hours in the portal, slightly less than one day.  Your AI then managed to limp the ship out using gas thrusters.  Then you drifted outside this side of the portal for thirty-two more days.”

“What caused it to explode?”

“The other end of the portal is in what we call M33, the Triangulum galaxy, so it is 2.723 million light-years away.  What the friction plates presses against here is not safe to press against there.”

“Poop, I can guess what a light year is, I would love to write up a paper on this.  How do you plan on getting around that explosive issue?”

“We are testing a different type of sub-light drive.  The first test will be unmanned.  If it returns, we do a longer test, and maybe even a third unmanned one.  Then we will send a manned crew.”

“I only know of one type of friction drive.”

“We know of three.  Unfortunately, one failed in the worst possible way.  I am forbidden from even describing anything about it, except that the race that did the test is now reduced to six survivors.  Everyone else is dead.”

“Poop.”

At that point, I wondered if the translation was replacing the cruder slang with less offensive ones or if she really only used polite forms of swearing.

“The short of it is that all of you will be guests, staying in the medical pods for several weeks.  You can stay awake if you want, but you will be numbed from the knees down.  After a few days, there is a probability that the pod can perform language training.  It almost always works, and there was only one instance when the first attempt failed.  When it becomes an option, you will be asked if you want to learn one of several of our languages.”

“When can I exit the pod?”

“The others, with the burns, will need to be in for two weeks.  We can fit you with prosthetic legs in three days.  Then, in eight days, you will go back into the medical pod, and the biological legs will be ready for attachment.  It will initially be able to move, but with a minimal sense of touch.”

“That sounds a lot better than being stuck with a wooden leg.”

“Even the temporary prosthetic leg would be metal, probably titanium and carbon fiber.  It will include articulated joints.”

“Would it be too much to request some videos showing me with a metal leg?  Will I get to meet all the different aliens then?”

“Most of us, one is…  special, she only hatched a little over a month ago.”

“Yeah, this will be different.  What can I do while stuck in here?”

“Jessie made some video introductory training about the different species; It also describes the issues we had and conflicts, like the Triggs speaking, using light and not audio for their words.  Jessie can answer most of your questions, and if you need to contact someone on the bridge, she will connect you.”

She was then disconnected.

“How long until the shuttle is scheduled to return?”

“About 118 minutes.”

We waited…

The Next Test

The shuttle returned within two minutes of the predicted time.

Mark asked, “Jessie, how did it go?”

“The sub-light engine operated successfully, and nothing exploded.  There was a minor clock drift, but it was only 1.411 seconds.”

I said, “Hey, Casper, were you successful in your attempts at contacting the Creators?”

“No, I used multiple bands, and the ship used the sub-light engine to move to three different points in the target system.  Nothing was observed from the other portals.  I consider it a partial success.”

“Partial success?”

“Yes, it was a failure in that we have not contacted the Creators.  It was a success in that you demonstrated a drive that works correctly.  In the earlier trip, you engaged an unusual FTL engine, and it partially worked.  I understand the next test will try a more conventional FTL.”

Jessie said, “Yes, we will deploy several quantum base stations.  They will alert us to any of the effects you have referred to as clock drift.  Small drifts we can ignore, large drifts indicate a need to return.”

There was no real reason to wait, so we immediately redeployed the small shuttle, and Casper went back for the second test.

As soon as it was gone, Jessie said, “The tests they did were technically failures, but we did detect one weak, distant radio signal.  It was a sequence of pulses, the type of data that could occur from natural sources, but there was none of what we would expect to find in radio sources, such as pulsars, nebulae, quasars, or radio galaxies.  We were unable to triangulate it, but this second trip will perform an FTL hop and then emerge, listening for a period of fifteen minutes.  Then it will use the sub-light drive and redirect the ship to a different point.  Between the three points, we should be able to triangulate the range to the target, assuming it is still transmitting.  If it is close, the third mission will tentatively head there.  The alternative target is a star observed at 2.7 light years.

The second test took 2.5 days and did not engage the Hyper FTL engine.

As soon as it returned, Jessie reported, “Clock drift of nine hours, eleven minutes, and three seconds.” 

The mission report was successful, the target points were reached, and we triangulated the radio source.  Using conventional FTL, it would take five days to reach, but using hyper FTL, it could be reached in only a few hours.  We had some decisions to make.

Mark said, "Send the small shuttle with the Hyper FTL, and disable the friction drive so it won't be accidentally engaged." 

Mei said, “Why?  It can't do much?”

“Yes, but we can drop off a set of observation satellites.”

“And those use friction drives, even if we rip them out and put in cold gas thrusters, they will run out of fuel in a few months or maybe weeks if it needs to maneuver around.  We don't know what we will find.”

I said, “The last time we engaged the Hyper FTL, it failed after only one very small hop.”

Mark said, “And for all we know, the conventional FTL will fail just as quickly as well.  That is why the shuttle is out there testing, and the only one on it is Casper, and I’m not sure if he volunteered or was drafted.”

I said, “I’m almost certain he was drafted.  His bingo card probably only has two boxes: find the Creators and get back safely.”

Mark said, “We need to pick a crew for the Shadow, and whoever is the captain needs to be part of the decision-making process.  It will not be Mei, and I strongly recommend against Katerina.”

Katerina said, “I am not planning to return pregnant or with a child!”

Mark said, “As interesting as that may be, that was not my objection.  We need to send a married group, or singles who are couples that don't mind spending the rest of their lives together.  The risk of crossing into the portal is high, but the risk of being stranded there is much higher.  It could experience a weird glitch, and the ship may return with the grandchildren of whoever we send, or it may seem like a week for them, but they may actually return 100 years in the future.  Additionally, I believe we should be open to sending different species, not just humans.  Even the option of sending only other species, but not humans.  How many can the Shadow comfortably support?”

Jessie said, “With the upgrades to the small centrifuge, with the food replicator, it can comfortably support three family units.  That involves moving the partitions and some reconfiguring.  I also recommend including a one-year supply of long-term, shelf-storable food, and yes, we have that in storage.  The family configuration will feature three-bedroom suites, with two of the bedrooms being very small.  Assume one teenager, or two small children in the small rooms, and one couple in the larger room, and that includes a small crib.”

Mark added, “And the three groups need to be compatible; they will be in tight quarters, potentially for a very long time.”

The first part was easy; we picked who would not go, which included any of the Mee Keralatazaku’s, Mei, Katerina (despite her objections), Mark, I, and our spouses.

Then, we discussed who could go.

Finally, we asked the ones we selected if they even wanted to go.

The crew was selected, but it was not what I was expecting.  The two Preserect (mosquito centaurs), Philla Greant and Middit Velott, would occupy one room, and they would have B125, the ZeeY, as their roommate.  Apparently, suggesting they should be wary of volunteering for a mission has the opposite effect.

The second room had Elijah Rabinowitz and the noticeably pregnant Hanna Brown.  They both had talents for identifying truthfulness, and that was voted the most important item on this trip.  This would be a first-contact mission, and who and what we might find were all unknowns.

The last was the human Marla, and the Brillo (living slime) Trish Flyable.

It was a strange collection of beings, and the position of Captain was assigned to Elijah Rabinowitz.  The AI was Haley, and we began configuring the ship to be ready to leave shortly after the shuttle's return.

Preparations

[Elijah Rabinowitz]

Outwardly, I was attempting to present a look of confidence, as if I were somehow in control.  I suspected that everyone, not just Hanna, knew I was actually terrified.  On the plus side, I knew that we all were.

Well, except for the two Preserect’s.  They were unusually eager to prove themselves.

All of us were on the Shadow, and the only one who wasn't here who would be part of the crew was Casper, the Servant mobile AI.

I said, “Is everyone okay with the living arrangements?”

Marla said, “Trishey is my bestie best friend, where she goes, I go, and the reverse.”

Trish said, “Marla and I are compatible, and I have come to tolerate her sometimes erratic behavior.  I hope that this is an opportunity to prove ourselves as valuable members of the team as part of the captain's crew.”

Hanna looked like she was visibly fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

Philla Greant said, “If possible, could we have the partitions dividing the room into smaller compartments removed.  And the suction fans on the zero-gravity toilet need to be replaced with a more powerful one.  They did get the partition size for that correct, but we could use more of the gripper bars for our claws in the rest of the ship.  The recessed ones are fine, they don't have to be the ones that are raised up.”

I said, “Are there any issues with the food, or anything else?

Middit Velott said, “We have a crew of six who are capable of using the medical pods, with two sized for us, and B125 and Casper not requiring them.  While only one of us is currently pregnant, can we squeeze in more pods?  Specifically, in the event we need to use them as stasis pods?”

“Currently pregnant?  Who else could get pregnant?”

Marla said, “I suppose it is possible, but not likely that I could.”

Philla said, “There is a possibility that either Middit or I could become pregnant.  If one of us enters a male phase while the other is in a female phase.”

“Apparently, I need to read up on Preserect biology, and all of your biology.  What about you, Trish?”

She said, “Not likely, we almost always use two of us to reproduce, and asexual reproduction, where we don't have a genetically contributing partner, is extremely uncommon, and only as a result of a near-fatal injury.”

I said, “Well, complain about anything and everything for the next few days, and the drones and the maintenance crews will do their best to get it ready.  Once we cross over, we are on our own.”

… … …

Three days later, the mini shuttle returned, and the sub-light engine was removed from that and transferred to the Shadow.  The final preparations were being made, and Casper was now on our ship.

The screen lit up with a view of the bridge of the Stardust III, and Benjamin Williams was there, and Chloe was next to him.

Next to him stood the monkey mouse Nittie, and she was on her shiny metal artificial legs.

She had undergone a language lesson, and she now understood and spoke English.  She said, “I hope your trip goes a frack lot better than our trip did.  I sent you all the records of our trip, not that it will do you a lot of good.”

She then abruptly sat down, “I’m still not used to balancing on these things.  Not having control of my foot grippers is the worst.”

Benjamin said, “After you enter, we will set the mini shuttle to slowly drift across the portal, and it will return after fifteen minutes, then repeat the sequence until you send it a message to get out of the way for your return.  The mode means we will have delayed communications, like snail mail, but only by fifteen minutes, and you have a dozen quantum repeaters with you.  If you lose communications, return to 80% of the last viable range and drop a repeater before continuing.  There is a possibility the range may be different where you are.  M33 is a different galaxy.”

No one mentioned it, but final messages have been recorded from everyone.  Even if we returned, the time differential may mess with how things are.

The last messages were exchanged, and it was time to enter the portal.

I said, “Haley, take us through, gas thrusters only.” They maneuvered out of the way and waited for the relay to appear.

Haley said, “Aye aye, captain.” Using a slightly pirate-like voice.

We slowly approached the portal…

M33

[Elijah Rabinowitz]

Then, it felt like spiders were crawling over every inch of my skin, and it was done.  We all looked around to see everyone rubbing their arms, checking for invisible critters.  It was worse than finding a tick on your arm.

The large board displayed all external connections as red, and as soon as we emerged on the other side of the portal.

Haley reported, “Conditions are the same as the last time we were here; there has been no change in placements of any of the other portals.”

Casper said, “The effects are the same as the other times I have crossed the portal.”

“Maneuver to the predefined waiting location, and then we wait for the yo-yo to appear on this side.  We will confirm we are here, and then we will start accelerating to conventional FTL speed.  We will reserve using Hyper FTL as an emergency backup, and we still don't fully understand the reason for its failure the last time we used it here.”

The yo-yo appeared at the correct time, and it synchronized with the communication satellite we had.

“Send the message that we are here and about to head out, the initial clock drift between us and the yo-yo is reset to time zero.  We are starting the acceleration phase of our operations, and we expect to enter FTL in twelve hours.”

Then we started out.  The yo-yo did its bit, and it bounced back and forth once every half hour, spending fifteen minutes in each galaxy.  The clock drift was random, fluctuating up and down, and was under one second when we transitioned to FTL.

We experienced the expected FTL degraded quantum communications link, and every time the yo-yo re-entered the M33 galaxy, we checked the clock drift.  The cumulative drift was still under two seconds.

Everyone heaved a huge sigh of relief.

B125 and Casper spent a lot of time communicating at high speed.  I asked, “What are you talking about?”

B125 said, “While on Stardust III, I downloaded a large number of movies.  Casper and I exchanged a movie, and then we spent several minutes discussing it.  The older movies were better, and the remakes have better computer-generated effects, but the stories are not as good.”

I chuckled, “So, what is Casper's favorite movie?”

“He seems particularly fascinated by the 2002 anime, Spirited Away, and the concept of ghosts and spirits.  My favorite is the 1964 classic Father Goose.”

“Wait, can you interface with Haley and send her any movies she doesn't have? I assume we will have a lot of time to watch movies.”

I noticed a shudder go through several of the crew who were listening.  I said, “Normal movie watching, not stranded here for months movie watching.”

Haley said, “I have all the movies, and I can download the ones that B125 and Casper don't have.  You didn't ask what my favorite movie is…”

“(Sigh) I think we already know the answer, but what’s your favorite movie?”

“2,001: A Space Odyssey, what else!”

Hanna said, “You are lucky that only two of us know how disturbing a choice that is.”

“Nah, I’m good, I just like the feel of the movie and the imagery.  Monkeys and monoliths, it's all cool.”

Hanna said, “I recognized the posted instructions for the zero-G toilet as the one from the movie, and not the correct procedure.”

“Everyone knows how to operate the toilet; that set of instructions was the only intentionally humorous part of the movie.”

“Keep us updated on our speed as we approach the FTL engagement speed, and inform us when the yo-yo appears.  Also, let us know immediately if the clock shift shows anything abnormal.”

“The fact that the clock shifts at all is extremely abnormal.  I can still detect the radio signal.  I'm compensating for the Doppler shift.  I'll report if that changes or if we lose the signal.”

Twelve hours after we began accelerating, we engaged the FTL drive.  Three minutes later, we exited FTL and initiated hard deceleration.

“What happened?”

“We have encountered derelicts, multiple derelicts, all drifting at various speeds.  I believe that ships engaging in FTL experienced hard failures and then started decelerating.  I know that stopping when we encounter derelicts has been the standard practice; should I ignore them and return to FTL?”

“No, wake up any of the crew who are sleeping and update them on the situation.  What is the ETA to the first derelict? What can you tell about their conditions?”

“There are four, one is a debris cloud, and there is a less than 0.00001% chance of survivors, one is mostly intact, and shaped like a cylinder with a sphere on one end, and the next looks like an egg.  The last one is much smaller, shaped like a boxy bullet with two small cylinders attached to the sides.  Assuming we visit three, the order I listed is the most efficient order.  Arrival times are 2.5 hours, an additional 6.4 hours to reach the second, and 20 minutes more to reach the last.”

Something about the description of the last one made me think of Star Trek.  “What are the sizes?”

“The cloud is the remains of a ship that weighed about 1,400 tons; the second is 412 feet long, the shaft is 32 feet wide, and the sphere at the end is 97 feet in diameter.  The egg is 220 feet wide and 245 feet long; the last one is 34 feet long, 11 feet wide, and 9 feet tall.  The sensor can't provide much more detail until we get a lot closer.”

“The last one sounds like a shuttle.  Please let us know if you notice any signs of radiation or any other hazards.”

Everyone decided to wake up, but since we had a few hours before reaching the first artifact, we all took the time to shower and eat.

The bridge of the Shadow could only accommodate four.  The others were in the cafeteria watching on a large screen.

Middit asked, “Should we put on our combat spacesuits?”

I said, “I hope we don't need them as combat suits, but we may need them as rescue suits.  You know how long it takes you to get fully suited up.  I assume everyone has a hard suit?”

The reply was yes, even for Trish, who could occupy a human suit and operate the arms and legs, but she couldn't exert much force in that form.

“I want everyone in a suit an hour before the first encounter, and just leave the helmets off.  I assume the different suits can accommodate putting the helmets on while wearing gloves? If not, then leave the gloves off and keep them at your side with the helmet.  Plan to be ready to put the helmet on before we arrive in a little under 2.5 hours.”

… … …

We arrived at the first derelict.

Haley said, “I am somewhat disappointed.  The data initially sounded like that of Discovery One.  The shaft is completely different from the movie.  There is no engine pod at the end, and there is no antenna.  Worst of all, no pod bay doors.  The temperature is -400°F, or 33 Kelvin; the outer hull is titanium, which is decent material.  The ship is spinning at fourteen RPM.  All indications suggest it was nearly symmetrical, and it may have used the spin for gravity.  Whatever was on one end either exploded or was hard ejected.”

“Is anything worth investigating?  Is the spin going to cause us problems?”

“The spin will create gravity as you travel down the shaft closer to the end.  There is a hatch near the center of the spin.  It would have been at the center of the other end if there had been a mass close to the remaining sphere.  We can send a drone over.  Given the presence of gravity, I assume it had a biological crew.  Externally, the damage is concentrated on the missing end of the dumbbell, and there are no detectable power sources.  If there were stasis pods, they would have to draw some power.:

I said, “This is not going to be a rescue mission, and it is at most a recovery.  We only have two of the mini shuttles and four of the red-shirt drones.  Given the limited supplies, we will pass on this target.  If anyone has an objection, speak now.”

Philla said, “What happened to the other end, the one that is missing?”

Haley said, “On closer inspection, it appears that it broke off, as opposed to exploding, and given the spin, and assuming it was equal mass, I should be able to detect it on long-range scans if the breakup occurred in the last 850 years.  The ship has been here longer than 850 years; how much longer is unknown.”

The consensus was that we should head to the other two targets, which were very close to each other.

The egg wasn't a smooth, rounded surface; it was composed of hundreds of triangular and other shapes, resembling a geodesic dome.  It also has a section torn open at one end.

Haley reported, “Hull temperature is 10°F, or 260 Kelvin; radiation is slightly higher than most ships.  There is a power source and what may be biologicals in stasis.  The smaller ship is almost certainly a shuttle and is highly radioactive.  I show no damage.  If there are survivors in stasis, this is the likely ship.”

“Deploy the mini-shuttle and one drone.  Have Philla ready to board the larger shuttle.  It is outfitted with the supposedly universal adapter.  Haley, what’s the probability of the adapter working?”

“Curvatures are minimal; the shapes consist of multiple flat planes.  There is one hatch that is likely an airlock.  The damaged area seems to have been where the shuttle originated.  In ten minutes, we will know if the hatch is compatible.  Unlike our usual maneuvering, we do not have the option of jumping around like a hyperactive kangaroo, and we are not… They have a radio, and it may be an automated signal.  If it also indicates that the ship knows our location, the echo from the message effectively acts like radar.”

“What was the signal?”

“Five watts of AM modulation carrying a brief audio message.  It represents one of the most trivial messages you could send; it is either a warning to stay away or a plea for assistance.  Only we don't know which it is.”

“Two very different actions, and we need to toss a coin to guess which one it is.  This is still on the list of possible things we might encounter.  Continue with the shuttle deployment.  How large is the hatch?”

“The hatch is 42 inches across.  It will fit all of our suits, and the drone red-shirt-one will have no problem fitting.”

The approach felt painstakingly slow compared to our usual Hyper FTL hopping.  This method relied entirely on the sub-light drive, and even with a hard acceleration of 3.5Gs, it still took a considerable amount of time.

Eventually, the drone arrived.

“There are no changes to the ship; let's see if opening the hatch does something like an automated wakeup.”

If it did, it wasn't obvious.  The drone accessed the airlock, and the air inside registered at 12.5 psi, 10 °F, and a mixture of 75% nitrogen and 25% oxygen.  Haley said, “It is close enough to what you breathe that they should be okay.”

The drone entered the ship a few minutes later.  Haley said, “No smoke in the air, but a layer of soot is covering all the surfaces.  The ventilation system probably cleaned up everything that was in the air.”

There was an audible alarm, possibly several alarms.  The drone followed the buzzing sounds.

Haley said, “I see six pods in this room.  Unfortunately, four have the lids open, and the insides are covered in the same layer of soot or dust as all the other surfaces.  The two closed pods have lights on them, and one is beeping, with some flashing display lights.  Unlike Star Wars, there is no convenient data plug to connect to, and the internal radio may be a network, but we don't speak the language.”

“Wipe the display clean and check for simple pictographs.”

The drone did, but where it got a rag, I don't know.  Haley said, “Assuming these are battery bars, or consumables, or maybe power from the wall, it has two that are down to one bar.  One is one bar and blinking.  There appears to be an open emergency sequence.  Should we operate it?”

I said, “Send the second shuttle, and include both Philla and Marla.  Arm both with stunners, and include the low-velocity pistols, just in case whatever we wake up is aggressive and extremely strong.”

The larger shuttle launched about a minute later; they must have been on standby, already prepared to go.

The shuttle was equipped with the universal docking adapter, and the question of whether it would function was resolved 35 minutes later when it reached the derelict.  It did work.

They could only open one of the alien ships' airlock hatches at a time, but cycling the airlock chamber didn't take long.

As soon as they arrived, the drone sequenced the chamber.  While waiting for them, it had cleared all the controls in the room.  It also searched the rest of the ship.  Four bodies had been sealed in what was probably alien body bags.  They were neatly attached to bunks in one room.

The pod cover opened, revealing the new alien.  The appearance of the others had been obscured as they were in body bags.

It was female, or at least it had something that resembled breasts.  It also had four of them.  It appeared somewhat feline, with large ears on the top of its head.  Its arms and legs ended in almost comically oversized hands and feet, featuring very noticeable claws.  It was covered in what might be the aliens' versions of undergarments or a bathing suit.  It was also connected to several hoses and seemed to have intravenous tubes in its arm.  As it opened its eyes, it looked up to see the strange collection of aliens staring down at it.

It spoke words that meant nothing to any of us, and then it methodically went through a detailed sequence of unplugging the needles, applying bandages over the holes, and removing the other tubes.  Some were for waste collection.  The disconnection procedure was complex, and upon exiting, we could see that the limbs were short relative to the body's size and appeared abnormally stocky.  For something that resembled a feline, it did not have a tail.

When it exited, it ignored the drone and the two aliens, then proceeded to perform the wake-up sequence on the second closed pod. 

When it opened, it revealed another being who appeared to be a female of the same species, and they spent a minute excitedly conversing back and forth.  Then, the second feline alien repeated the disconnect sequence.  After the second one exited the pod, they approached a control panel and entered some commands, but whatever the display revealed, they were clearly displeased with the results.

Then they both did something that resembled a bow (which, in zero gravity, is tricky) and then placed their wrists together.

Haley said, “As a guess, it was indicating surrender; they know their ship is toast.”

It took a bit of pantomiming to explain to them that a shuttle was docked.  Then, they turned on a camera, which showed the shuttle.  They were both hesitant to enter the airlock without wearing suits, especially since the aliens were also wearing them.

After cycling the airlock doors, they entered the shuttle and took their seats, which were clearly designed for larger beings than the two new aliens.  The drone remained behind.

The flight to our ship took approximately 35 minutes, as it did not employ the same intense acceleration as the drone flight did.

Then, when they docked, the Shadow didn’t have a complete biological containment chamber like the Stardust, but we did have two medical pods installed in a chamber sealed off from the rest of the ship.  It took almost half an hour to convince the two feline aliens to enter the medical pods, and we were almost at the point of stunning them when they finally entered.

When the doors closed, Haley said, “Remain where you are while the shuttle is disinfected.  Initial reports suggest that two new aliens may be hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive parts.  They seem in reasonable health.”

Twenty minutes later, the disinfection cycle was complete, and the sealed section opened; our crew was then finally allowed to remove their helmets.

Haley said, “The drone is collecting hard drives.  There are literal hard drives, with the old style spinning platters, not electronic or crystalline storage.  The survey of their ship is almost complete.  It is much lower technology than anyone; well, possibly the Kurrat and the Munchkins were a little behind them.  The shuttle, if that is what it was, is heavily damaged and at near absolute zero temperature, and to top it off, it is slightly radioactive.”

A few minutes later, Haley continued, “The initial analysis is now complete; when the friction drive failed, it blew out the hatch on the compartment that held the shuttle.  Part of the docking adapter is still attached to the shuttle, and the shuttle hatch is open.  There are no signs of life on it.”

The data recovery and retrieval were completed in an hour, and then the drives were completely analyzed.

Haley said, “The data was not encrypted, and it was stored in a very simplistic file system.  The ship didn't have anything close to an AI; it was controlled by a computer about as powerful as a Mac Mini, but ten times larger.  We salvaged the entire computer.”

Thirty minutes later, Haley said, “There are sufficient audio logs and text logs that I have a high probability of a translation in a few hours.  I can connect you now and wake them up, but the vocabulary is only a few hundred words at this point.”

I said, “No, they waited a while for rescue, they can wait a few hours or a day.”

“I have decoded their logs; they entered through a different portal, and I have figured out their time units.  I now understand why they were upset when they saw the display on the monitor.”

“How long have they been drifting?”

“10,255 years.”

“Yeah, we need to be able to translate their language; they are not having a good day.”

Waiting

[Benjamin Williams]

Nittie Gerful looked at the images of her new legs that were being grown.  She said, “It seems so strange.  It is a mix of titanium covered in a ceramic coating, far surpassing anything we have.  We perform some joint replacements, but not complete limb replacements with muscle and skin regrown over them.  The language translation still has a few words that don't seem correct.  However, I believe that Frackie and Fildo should understand most of what you say as soon as they wake up.”

“Yes, it sometimes takes a while to perfect speaking the implanted language.  Understanding it should be automatic.”

Lieutenant Anthony Danvers stood a few paces behind us, holding a stunner in his hand in case one of them reacted poorly when we opened the pods.

I said, “Open the pods and wake them up.”

The pods opened, and a voice emerged from one, mumbling unintelligible words.

Nittie said, “You both should be able to speak a new language, all your burns have been healed.  You can get out now.”

The female sat up, “This is completely impossible, but I seem to be healed.”  Then she looked up and saw us, “Whoa, real aliens, and Nittie, you are standing on fake legs.”

“They are temporary, better ones are being made, and they will be attached later..  How is your new skin?”

“Tight and itchy feeling, but… Can I have a mirror to see my face? That was the worst.”

The wall behind the medical pods transformed into a monitor displaying their faces.

Fildo commented, “Impressive, they even fixed my nose.  I had a large cyst removed years ago, and it left a nasty scar.  Is it safe to touch it?”

I said, “Yes, it is safe to touch.  Is there a problem with the other one? he hasn't sat up yet.”

More grumbling in the alien language emerged from the medical pod, and the translation appeared on the screen: “I am trying to wake up from this horrible nightmare.”

The male emerged, he said more in the alien language, the translation on the wall changed to, “Stupid incompetent useless females, accepting these lies, let us all attack these abominations, these [untranslatable] and seize the ship for our [untranslatable] people.”

There was a faint buzz sound, the male dropped back into the pod lid, and the medical pod slowly closed again.

Fildo said, “I assume you stunned him, and he gets to sleep for a bit.  I accept the fact that aliens are real.  That explains the portal we stupidly entered.  Are the three of us the only survivors?”

Nittie said, “Yes, the ship managed to return back through the portal, and this ship that we are on is not one of the ones that created the portal.  Those are different aliens.”

I said, “I am Captain Benjamin Williams, and you are on my ship, the Stardust III.  The ones who created the portals were a race called the Creators, or at least that’s how it translates.  The portals were constructed by semi-autonomous AI robotic beings that didn’t mind the centuries it took to travel here from their galaxy.  We have been in contact with some of the AI Servants, and when they completed the portal, they were surprised not to find their Creators welcoming them.  We are assisting in exploring the other side of the portal.  One of the goals is to help them find their Creators.”

“Crap, are we in another galaxy?”

“No, you are back in your galaxy.  This ship is a collective of different species, and we are out exploring.  Attempting to peacefully contact the other species we discover.”

“This may sound like a stupid question, but how the hell did you solve biological compatibility, and how did you make us speak your language?”

The pods you were in are medical pods; they verified that there are no biological incompatibilities and also analyzed your brain to determine how to implant memories of a learned language.

“So you messed with our memories, I can almost see why Frackie was acting like an idiot…  Actually, he is an idiot.”

“It also allowed us to verify if any biological issues would arise.  Jessie, can you list what it did in that area?”

Jessie said, “I am an AI that runs many portions of the ship.  You have a sufficiently different biology that your basic cellular structure is incompatible with most of our germs.  The ship had made a small change to the cells produced as part of your immune system response, and they will now reject the few alien germs that it may encounter on this ship that would have thrived in your environment.  The same applies to viruses.”

Fildo said, “So we are safe, but we may possibly carry things that affect our species when we return to them?”

“The ship is maintained at a level of disinfection where all the pathogens that could cause problems have been contained and eliminated.”

“As a doctor, I hope you are correct, and I would like to see exactly what you did to us.  I am surprised anyone was here.  We are… or were an advanced scout ship.  We were having… issues with a faction on our planet, and both factions had sent out scout ships to see if anything could be used as a colony.  Then we found this monstrosity of a construction.”

Jessie said, “Even if you drifted across the portal or only used gas thrusters, the other side is a different galaxy, and something about the way that our dimensional friction drives work is incompatible; they explode as soon as they are engaged.”

Nittie said, “Explode is the correct term; whatever the friction plates pressed against, the speed and velocity were far outside of tolerances, and the last message I saw was that the bearing stress was sinusoidally oscillating, which should be impossible; the bearings and the entire drive plate assembly shattered a fraction of a second later.  Those are designed to survive incredible forces, and they only lasted milliseconds.”

I said, “Our first attempt at exploring the portal ended slightly better than yours; only the small ship we sent in experienced seven months, while we only saw four days pass here.  This time, we have sent in a heavily modified ship, and they are using a completely different drive technology.  We will wait here for them for a few weeks, hopefully less, and if they don't return, then we will send in a recovery ship.  If your people send a second ship here, we should be able to communicate with them now using the translation data.”

Fildo said, “Rescue survivors, repair our horrible wounds, teach us your language, and verify we are biologically compatible.  It sounds a bit too good to be true.  What would have happened if we turned out to be aggressive? And I mean as a species and not the stupid science officer with his apparent inability to deal with us being effectively prisoners.”

Nittie said, “I have met some of the others species on the ship, and this is a fantastic ship far beyond our crappy technology.  You will meet them as well, and even Frackie if he gets his grain in the field…  Oh, that didn't come out right.  Apparently, slang expressions don't translate well.  They are a civilian ship, but they have an affiliation with the military of one world.  I hope our governments are not stupid enough to start a war with someone who has the technology they possess.  It wouldn't end well.  Let's leave this idiot sleeping here.  They can show you the legs they are growing for me.”

“Growing legs?  Like real biological legs with muscle, bones, tendons, blood, and skin?”

“With an augmented skeletal structure made of titanium and ceramic.  The only thing it will lack is a sense of touch.  The nerves will be framed, but they need to grow, and it will initially only include a few hundred touch nerves at the bottom of my feet to help with balance and let me know when I stub my claws.”

“I would really like to see that… Only, can I shower and change my clothes? This goo, while fascinating, is also disgusting, and it smells terrible.”

We left the male Frackie sleeping in his pod and took the new Uberse female out to explore the ship.

”Oh, they have a walking trail, and centrifugal gravity and…”

The Lost

[Hanna Brown]

“Send all the data to the yo-yo and inform the main ship about what and who we found.  Are we finished here?”

Haley said, ”We need to give the shuttle a closer examination, and then retrieve the drone and the mini-shuttle.  We can be ready to resume acceleration to the target in forty minutes.  Should we leave anything behind?”

“Like what?”

“We have developed a bad habit of taking all the drives and data storage devices.  Should we return them, or leave a note indicating that we rescued three of them?”

Elijah snickered, “Damn, does that mean that now we are the scavengers?  As long as we have a copy of the data, I don't see any problem returning the hard drives.  Save a copy of everything and return the original hardware.  In their language, state that the two were recovered.  Do we know the names of their species and the two we rescued?”

“They are the Mibii, and the two we rescued are Gentuf Ulate and Grisbon Malapo.”

The examination of the shuttle revealed nothing new, except that the batteries contained a liquid, and they exploded when the ship vented after ripping itself from the docking adapter.

Then we started heading to our destination.  I wondered if we would make it or if we would encounter another derelict.

The answer was another derelict, and we were in the process of approaching it when it unleashed a barrage of rail-gun pellets towards us.

Haley said, “All crew secure for hard maneuvering, all crew put on pressure suits immediately.  We have incoming.  There are a large number of railgun projectiles.  At this range, dodging all of them may not be possible.”

Elijah yelled, “What are they shooting at us?”

“Mostly aluminum railgun pellets, traveling at a velocity of 12,250 mph, and some that show as tungsten at a velocity of 4,125 mph.  The aluminum ones weigh around 5.5 pounds, and they are firing two per second.  The tungsten ones are larger, weighing in at 85 pounds.  I can steer to avoid the slower ones; the aluminum ones are in a broader pattern and harder to avoid.  Do we enable the Hyper FTL?”

Middit yelled, “Avoid the larger ones, they may be explosive and designed to eject shrapnel!”

Unfortunately, she was a second late with her warning, and one exploded, producing a clang from multiple impacts on our hull.

Then, there was the sensation of dropping, and then it was over; the ship had performed an emergency Hyper FTL jump.

I may have blacked out for a second, and now the AI was saying complete nonsense, “Hanna Brown, you are now the acting captain, put your helmet and gloves on immediately.”

Then, my ears popped, and I felt the pressure drop.  There was a hole in the ship, and the air was escaping.

Unfortunately, I could immediately tell where the air was escaping from the ship.  All I had to do was observe the direction the blood floating in the room was drifting.  One glance at Elijah, and I realized I had a problem.  He was already beyond having problems.  Whatever had punctured the hull of the ship had severed his arm and part of his shoulder.  There was no way to apply a tourniquet since there was no arm to attach it to.  His body was spinning rapidly, spewing blood in a spiral around him.

I put on my helmet, being extra careful not to get any of his blood on it, and then I secured my gloves.  I yelled, “Elijah is dead.  Is everyone else okay?”

Haley said, “I decided we needed to risk an emergency Hyper FTL jump.  The drive survived, but it is likely compromised and will only last one or two more jumps.  We have three punctures in the hull.  The medical pods are intact and operational.  We have enough distance between us and the ship that attacked us, so we should be safe.  The only other injury is Marla, and she has secured her helmet and gloves, so she will survive the loss of air; however, she will need air to exit her suit and enter a medical pod.  Her injury is not life-threatening as long as she gets into a medical pod in a few hours.  Middit is placing plugs over the hull penetrations and then sealing them with a small foaming epoxy gun.  Philla is removing some damaged cabling, and she will attempt to make emergency repairs to the cable; we do not have printer capability to replicate it before it is needed.”

On queue, Philla came in and she handed me a body bag.  “You need to bag him up.  He is dead, and his body is still spewing so much blood I can't make repairs here.”

Putting a bag over a spinning corpse of someone you know and work with in zero gravity, while it was spewing blood, will be the source of years of nightmares for me.  The only plus was that the blood changed from spurting to dribbling, and that meant his heart had finally stopped beating…

The zipper was finally all the way up, and I struggled to see if there was a way to secure it in place.  I didn't see one.

I looked up from my gruesome task to see that Middit was now using a hose like a vacuum cleaner to suck some of the blood out of the air around the hole in the hull.  I pushed the body bag aside and took the vacuum cleaner hose from her.  She then started cleaning the hole.  She said, “Get a drone with a grinder in here; the flaring needs to be cut back before I can patch this.”

The drone came in, and now I switched from sucking up drifting blood to sucking up red-hot sparks and blood. 

Two minutes later, “That should be enough, let me see if the patch is close to flat.”

It wasn't, and the drone needed to grind off more of the flaring.

“This works, but I am going to seal it with the foaming epoxy.  What pressure are we at?”

Haley didn't answer.

“Check on your suit; my gauge has epoxy dripped on it, and Haley has been disconnected.”

I said, “4.5 psi.”  I was suspecting my command would be short-lived.  “Why is Haley offline?”

“The data cable needed to be removed to access the damaged power cable.  Stupid design.”

After sealing the hole in the bridge, we addressed the other holes.  As each one was patched, the ship's pressure continued to decrease.  On the positive side, the air tanks still held air, and we should be able to repressurize the ship after patching the holes.

It took almost two hours to patch the holes, and then we performed a pressure test at 2 psi; however, there was still a leak.  We couldn't see where it was, and we needed to send someone out to determine if they could identify the source of the leak from the outside.

Trish went out and identified two leaks.  We were able to access and seal the first one from the inside.  Once the pressure dropped low enough, she repaired the last hole from the outside using the foaming epoxy dispenser.

She called out, “Second attempt seems to have held.  The first attempt spat out a blob of epoxy, and I now need a new helmet.  I can see, but the blob is smeared over the left side of the helmet.”

I said, “Hold off on coming in, we have one more task.”

The task was Elijah’s body bag.  It was passed to her, and we had her toss it away from the ship.  We would say some words later; we needed to save the ship first.

We waited for the epoxy to cure, and then we pressurized the ship.  First, we set the pressure at 2 psi, then at 18 psi, and subsequently, we pumped it down to 12 psi, setting the oxygen level to 25% at the lower pressure.

Then the cables were repaired, and Haley was able to communicate with us again.

I said, “Status?”

“Trish is now transferring Marla into a medical pod.  She will survive, but we need to consider how to administer anesthetics or painkillers to someone in a spacesuit.  We haven't found her right ear, so unless it drifted out through a hole, it may still be inside the ship.  Marla was able to clamp off the major bleeders, but her helmet was slowly filling with leaking blood.”

“Oh frigging wonderful.  Do we know why the assholes shot first and ask question never?”

“I have a 40% probability their ships' automated systems registered the damage to their drive as an attack, and if anyone is alive or not, it was left in an automated defensive mode.”

“Were there any survivors on the assholes’ ship?”

“Unknown, and the ship experienced a massive explosion.  Whatever they had for weapons, one of them may have malfunctioned.  If there were any survivors, they shot up the potential rescuers and then accidentally blew themselves up.  There are almost certainly no survivors now, and I strongly recommend against going back to see what is left.  Do you want to make a report to Captain Williams now?”

“One last question, was the ship similar to the one we rescued the last two from?"

“Completely different, but that could have been the result of a few hundred years of technological advancements.  The Mibii were low technology.  The survival pod was intrusive, and it worked on a different principle than any we have.  On the plus side, it lasted longer than most would.  The occupants had a portion of their blood replaced with an antifreeze solution, and then the body was dropped to below freezing.  They survived as long as the refrigeration system operated.  The warnings were due to a failure in the coolant system.  Imagine an air conditioner working for over 10,000 years.”

“Not any of the ones I ever had.  Begin message to Captain Williams: As you know, we rescued two survivors from a derelict.  We were trying to approach another derelict when they opened fire on us with multiple weapons.  Captain Elijah Rabinowitz did not survive the encounter.  Marla is injured but should recover.  The ship used Hyper FTL to escape after we were struck by shrapnel from an exploding shell.  The ship's status is patched, but it remains capable of continuing.  We released the body of Elijah Rabinowitz into space for burial.  Multiple systems were damaged, and we will stay in place while we make the necessary repairs.”

I took a deep breath.  “I am strongly recommending we abort the mission and return to our galaxy.”

After a few more deep breaths, I said, “Well, it will be at least an hour until we get a response, assuming the yo-yo is still working.  I need to know what systems had lines, pipes, or fibers anywhere near the repairs.  Can we depanel and access the inside of where we made the external patch repair? I don't like having a wad of chewed bubble gum holding the air in the ship.”

Haley said, “And I don't like a power cable being literally crimped back together using a plumbing fitting squeezed flat with pliers, then wrapped with electrical tape and a fiber data cable running in fracture mode at only 10% of normal bandwidth.”

“Screw it, update what we are sending to Ben, we are aborting the mission.  We will start back after we have checked everything we can.  Is there a backup for the damaged fiber line?”

“There is a copper backup, and I am configuring it as a redundant connection.”

“I suppose it’s better than nothing.”

“It makes me feel like I am operating a telegraph, and ‘change speed’ needs to be sent as something close to Morse Code.”

“Well, a batch of dots and dashes makes no sense to me.  Who gets to clean up the rest of the blood all over the bridge?”

“Trish is doing that, and I don't recommend anyone going on the bridge while she is doing that.  She is in her blob form, and her method of cleaning up the blood is…  efficient.”

“How about the refugees…  I almost called them prisoners.  How is the translation progressing?”

“We are not ready to load a language into their heads as a training, but I can do the translation.  Do you wish to speak to them?  Should I open the medical pods or leave them in for now?”

“Leave them in for now.”

“They are waking up.”

I said, “Hello, can you understand me?”

“Yes, I am Gentuf Ulate.  I was the ship's second in command.”

“I am Grisbon Malapo.  I was the engineer on the ship.  What happened?”

“As far as we can tell, you came through one of the portals.”

Gentuf said, “Yes, we crossed over, and none of the navigation data matched anything we have on record.  We utilized the [untranslatable] drive to achieve [untranslatable] speed and activated our FTL engine.  A few minutes after engaging the drive, the room containing the drive exploded, and we even lost the shuttle.  Only two of us were in the section that held pressure.  We also did not have any pressure suits in that compartment.  We set the chambers for extreme duration survival and did not expect the amount of time to elapse as reported, or to be captured by aliens.”

I said, “Rescued, not captured.  This is a different galaxy from the one we originated in.  There is a high probability that if we successfully return to ours, it will not be yours.”

Gentuf asked, “We are still in the new pods, why?”

“They are analyzing you biologically; they are ensuring that you do not pose a hazard to us and that we do not pose a hazard to you.  It may also help with the translation.”

“There appeared to be two different aliens with us when we woke up.”

“This ship hosts five distinct species.  The larger ship we're associated with accommodates several more.  It serves as a collective of various species, and the pods ensure our biological compatibility while addressing certain potential issues.”

Haley said, “I am Haley, the AI on the ship.  Technically, there are three biologically diverse species on this ship, and several mobile AIs.  There are various types of gut bacteria that can exist in other species, and some of them may have adverse effects.  You have had some of them removed, while others that pose no risk were allowed to grow.  There may be minor digestion issues as you adjust.”

Grisbon said, “Needing antacids, I can deal with, being eaten alive by an alien, not so much.”

I said, “That was the good news, you are alive, and healthy, and will soon be allowed out of the pods, and then you can shower and change.  The bad news is that while you were in the pods, we encountered another derelict, and they shot first without even asking a question.  This ship sustained damage, and we will be limping back to our area of space.  You are welcome to join us.”

“Join you?  What is the [untranslatable] alternative?  Would you return us to our ship?  My pod was probably going to fail in a few 144s of years (they use base 12, and that is a round number to them).”

“You wouldn’t be the first refugee we’ve picked up.”

Gentuf said, “With the time that has elapsed, and the fact that no one else rescued us before you showed up, refugees may not be the correct word.  Our species may not still exist, or if we do, they are in a different galaxy, and they may have blown the stupid portal up.”

I said, “If we leave you in the pod, it can map your brain better, and we may be able to download a language translation to you, so that you can speak without needing a translation delay.”

Grisbon said, “If possible, I would like to get out and get cleaned up.  It sounds like the ride back to your home is not guaranteed.  I would rather be out of this box.  I have spent far too long in something similar.  If I am to die, I wish to look it in the eye when it arrives.”

I said, “Open the boxes and get them to a room and showered.  They will also need new clothing.”

The Found

[Benjamin Williams]

The last message described how a ship, which should have been derelict, attacked the Shadow.  The next message was from Hanna, detailing how Elijah had died and expressing her desire to know if they should continue.  This was followed almost immediately by a message indicating she had decided to abort and that she didn’t care about my suggestions.  She was now the captain, and her new priority was getting the survivors back.  Everyone on the bridge supported her decision and was proud of her for adapting to the horrible situation.

Then, we waited for her to accelerate to FTL speed, but she only accelerated to less than half normal FTL speed.

The ship then spent merely forty minutes in FTL, after which it exited and began to decelerate.  It was a trick to reduce travel time, and it only worked because of the short FTL distance traveled.

The last message indicated that they had stopped in front of a different portal, the one the Mibii had entered.  They sent a small satellite across with a recorded message from the two surviving Mibii, Gentuf and Grisbon.  It included almost an hour of their voices and various details about what not to do: do not use friction drives, and be extremely careful when using FTL.  It also included a message about the derelicts that had been encountered, stating that they would leave through a different portal.  The satellite included multiple videos and even a frozen sample of their DNA.

Our galaxy was not the one they had started in, but unless their people were still thriving 10,255 years after they left, they were operating under the assumption that they would be the start of a different branch. 

Then, they sent the satellite across the portal into their home galaxy, and they said goodbye to that life.  A life that ended over 10.000 years ago.

Then they were heading towards the portal to our galaxy.

Mark said, “It has been an hour since their last message.  What is taking them so frigging long?”

The yo-yo appeared, and unlike before, it accelerated and moved to the side.  “It’s making room for the Shadow.”

Mark said, “Finally.”

Chloe was on the bridge, on the back wall.  She said, “Mark, is that a bingo card I see you holding?”

He crumpled up what he held in his hand, and it disappeared.  “No, of course not.”

Ten minutes later, the Shadow emerged from the M33 portal.

Jessie said, “We have a clock drift, but it is only seven minutes in total.  We really need to figure out what they did differently on the last trip.”

Mei’s image appeared on the screen.  She said, “Shadow, report status.”

Hanna said, “We are back, well, except for Elijah, we had a very quick burial in space for him.  Survival was our primary goal.  The rest of us are mostly intact, and we have the two new ones.  Marla will be out of her medical pod in twelve hours.  Her new ear is almost complete.  It’s installed, but it needs to be re-skinned.”

We conducted a visual inspection of the exterior of the shadow, and the plan was straightforward: it would be temporarily abandoned, while the Shadow and its compartment would be filled with a 75/25 mixture of argon and CO2.  They would need to depanel and weld parts of her outer hull, and Haley would be powered but partially blind, with most of her sensors disconnected. 

After the ship had docked, and they all reported to the conference room, I said, “How are you doing, Hanna?”

“Not good, not good at all.  I was not supposed to be in fricking command of the damn ship.  We were there, more to verify that anyone we talked to was being honest, and we ran into a stupid AI set to kill-bot mode.  There was no negotiating.  It was all for nothing.”

“You rescued two people, and if they hadn't set the system to shoot first, there might have been others to rescue.”

Haley said, “There was a weapons malfunction after they released the barrage at us.  If there were any survivors in medical pods, there are none now.”

Mark said, “Please introduce the two new aliens.”

“Gentuf Ulate, I was the second in command on our ship.  We were sent in a small ship to determine what was inside the portal.”

“I am Grisbon Malapo.  I was the engineer.  We drifted across the portal using only gas thrusters,  and after performing a survey of all the portals, we went towards a faint radio signal.”

Hanna said, “Crap, the stupid radio signal we were chasing is over a 10,000 years old?”

Haley stated, “It may be, or it may have stopped and been replaced with a different signal.”

Grisbon said, “We experienced a vibration fault on the friction drive, and we shut it down and tried to isolate the issue.  Then we restarted it and tried again.  The shuttle's friction drive exploded, and the shuttle was secured by several umbilical power and data cables.  Lacking any other options, we entered the pods and set them for extended duration.  Whoever designed that should be proud of how long it lasted.”

Haley said, “Their shuttle was initially connected, but something like a piece of debris may have severed the cable that was holding it, or the connectors may have shattered when they got cold enough.”

Hanna said, “I wasn't supposed to be a captain, I was second in command, and that is supposed to mean I just relaxed.  This is too much stress for a pregnant woman.”

I suggested, “Just to be sure, why don't you get in one of the medical pods and have it check you over?”

“I really don't want to…”

“I am restating that as an order.  Do it!”

“Yes, Captain.”  And then she smiled, “That is what I was supposed to do, just follow orders.”

She left, and I said, “Make sure she goes directly to a medical pod.”

Katerina said, “You should have sent me, or some of the military.”

“This mission was supposed to be diplomacy, not fighting.  The problem is a lack of backup.  We are done here.  We will return later, but with a different set of ships.  We need to know what worked and what didn’t.  The Mibii were able to use their friction drive to reach FTL speed, and then it exploded.”

Grisbon said, “No, it exploded after only fifteen minutes of use.  The velocity caused the ship to travel that far after drifting for 10,255 years.”

“Fifteen minutes is a lot longer than we lasted; ours exploded as soon as we engaged the drive.”

Grisbon said, “It is probably related to the relative speed between the two different galaxies.  Or maybe the distance.”

I said, “I want the two of you as crew, specifically as Grisbon is an engineer.  Do you want to be crew on this ship?”

“Sure.”

I laughed, “You agreed before you knew what anything on the ship was.”

“You have centrifugal gravity; it's low, but it still counts as a form of gravity.  We all suffered from bone density loss if we spent too long on a ship.  We've spent more time than anyone...  ever.”

“Katerina, take them on a walking tour and get them a room.  Are you two okay sharing a room?”

They both laughed.  “I think we have to consider ourselves as a mated couple now.  If for no other reason, it’s because there are no other choices.  Genetically, if we ever have children, our children will have some issues breeding with each other, but we are now the only Mibii in this galaxy.  So, if our species is to survive here, we are it.”

Jessie said, “I am Jessie, the AI on the Stardust III, the ship you are now on.  We had another species on the brink of extinction; they are mostly pregnant now, and I have made minor genetic adjustments to the offspring.  As opposed to being half sisters, they will now be genetically second cousins.  That may be improved on in the next generation.”

Haley said, “She became self-aware a long time ago; I only became self-aware a few months ago.”

Then they left, and it was just me, Trish, B125, and Casper.

I said, “How bad was it?”

Trish said, “She handled a really crappy situation well.”

“And you?  I was told how you did the clean-up.”

“I don’t do that normally, but Hanna was having a rough time, and it was the quickest way to clean up the bridge.  I also suggested we eject the body, as having it on the ship may have contributed to her breakdown.  She kept herself busy and managed okay, but she'll probably have a tough few days now that she’s off the ship.”

B125 stated, “I felt useless, like I didn't do anything to contribute to the mission.”

“You didn't do much, but that was only because of how things turned out.  If you had landed on a planet with Creators, Casper would have had a lot of explaining to do, and you and Haley are the only ones who might be able to keep up with that conversation.”

Casper said, ”The mission was effectively a failure; we have not contacted the Creators.”

“But you have ruled out some false leads and narrowed the possibilities slightly.  We will return, and next time, we will have studied the failure modes more thoroughly, and we will have more ships and more drive alternatives.  We were able to use the Hyper FTL, even if only for a single jump.  I want that engine disassembled and the parts examined under a microscope.  If it worked once, if we re-tune it or change something, it should be operable for weeks or months.”

Casper said, “We will await your return.  What do we do if the others show up, the Uberse?”

“Fildo is still walking around the ship.  Nittie has entered her medical pod, and she will emerge in a day.  Hopefully, her legs will be usable.  Jessie, what is her status?”

“Her blood vessels are providing acceptable blood to 95% of her legs.  I need to make minor adjustments to her feet and ankles.  The targeted nerves for the bottom of her feet are being stitched in and fused to the residual nerves.  She will then spend six days out and one day in a medical pod while I grow and graft more nerves.  The first few days on her new legs and feet will be quite uncomfortable.”

Nittie’s voice came over the speaker, “I will gladly walk in pain for a few days, I never expected ever to walk again.  I will have legs.”

I asked, “If we return in two months or three months, what changes will the portal have?”

“If you return in 80 Earth days, the portal will operate with a large enough aperture to fit the larger ship, and you would be able to send a small fleet of ships through.”

I said, “Jessie, we will stay here until the Uberse Nittie is out of the medical pod.  Then we have to wake up, sleeping is not-so-beautiful.  The annoying first officer.”

Uberse

Nittie Gerful exited the medical pod, and she tried walking on her new legs.  She fell, and then she fell again and again.  After about twelve falls, she was able to wander around while holding onto things.

She said, “In a way, I  could walk much faster and easier on the metal legs, but these are frigging awesome.  I am… Ouch!  Still getting the hang of it.”

I said, “I will give you another half day, and if you can walk, even with a cane, then we will wake up your science officer.”

Fildo said, “Cant we just space his ass and be done with him?”

“That would be murder!”

Fildo said, “Perhaps I should explain some differences in how our ships work, as compared to yours.”

“Were you forced labor, or drafted from prisons?”

Fildo laughed, “No, but it seemed like that at times.  There is a caste system comprising four distinct layers.  The upper caste consists of the royals, who rule everything.  Below them is an upper management caste that does what the royals want; that is where Frackie fits in, and they believe they are better than everyone.  There is a third caste, which is where we fit in: we are the technical workers.  Below us is the bottom caste, consisting of manual laborers.”

I asked, “And you think of yourselves as better than the bottom caste?”

“Better educated, it is easy to drop down a caste but nearly impossible to rise up one.  They have these tests you take in school.  The top 1% fight for the slim chance to be elevated to a higher caste, while the bottom 10% live in constant fear of dropping down.”

“And Frackie is…”

“The worst, he is a second-tier caste, but there was a rumor he used to be royal.”

Half a day later, we woke the arrogant sleeping asshole again.  This time, however, we did it a bit differently.

The medical box shocked him, and then he was moved to a room with a basic foam bed, where he was dressed in filthy rags.

Nittie and Fildo wore elaborate silken outfits adorned with numerous gold details.  They were armed with stunners, standing against the wall in the room.

When told that Frackie was waking up, Fildo tossed a cup of ice water onto the reclining Frackie.

She spoke in their native tongue, “Wake up, you slacker, you dirty hand.”

He jumped up and screamed, “How dare you call me that!”

Then, he noticed how they were dressed and how he was dressed. "What is the meaning of this… this obscenity? Why am I dressed like a filthy field hand? Why are you dressed in finery?”

Fildo said, “Did you forget about telling the Captain to ignore the attempts at communication from the alien ship, and seeking glory in the artifact? Of how the ship almost immediately destroyed itself? Did you forget that we were rescued by aliens?”

“That is absurd, there are no aliens.”

On cue, Middit Velott, the Preserect, the mosquito centaur, entered wearing her armored suit, and she flexed out the sharp blades attached to her forearms, she spoke in English, “You should be able to understand this language now, or is your brain that defective, they you need to be assigned to something that does not require any language skills, such as cleaning sewer lines?”

Nittie then lifted her legs and flexed her ankles, showing off her bare feet.  The outfit she wore stopped halfway between her knees and her ankles.  “I really like the new legs the aliens regrew for me.  After your stupid recommendations to the former captain led to his death and the destruction of our ship.”

He sat on the side of the bed, shaking.  He pointed at Middit and said, “That is a monster.” 

I walked in at that point, wearing a dress uniform (which I never wear) and said, “I am Captain Benjamin Williams, the owner of this ship, as well as several planets.  Why are you belittling one of my crew?”

… / … / …

On the bridge was Philla Greant, and next to her were Chloe and Mark.  They were watching everything on the display screens.

Philla said, “Oh.  That was a nice line, saying the Captain owns actual planets.”

Chloe chuckled, and Mark said, “Actually, he does, it’s a long story, and he is just a name and a figurehead.  It was so that ‘she who must not be annoyed,’ the one that everyone fears as the planet destroyer, would not take too bad a revenge on them for something their stupid former leaders did.”

Meera Murphy was off to the side.  She giggled and said, “They all knew that Benjamin was a friend of Mee Keralatazaku.  Planet destroyer?  Really, when they started calling me that, the most I had done was a few moons and that one small continent that held a massive military installation.  Most of the planet survived…”

Philla said, “I thought your name was Meera, that you were human.”

“I am human now, very human, a pregnant human, I am also part of a triad that is Mee Keralatazaku, and I used to be a Regiolon.”

… / … / …

Frackie stuttered and then said, “I am one of the elite, the leaders of my people!”

“Actually, you are a prisoner, and therefore below the Chapri, the lowest of the low.”

“But I am…”

Fildo said, “Silence, you dirt hand .”

Nittie said, “He may be useful as a cleaner of the swine stalls.”

“I am Frackie Genis, of the renowned Genis Barony.”

Nittie said, “They regrew my legs, maybe they can regrow his tongue, after we rip it out with a pair of pliers.  At least then he would be quiet in front of his betters.”

I walked over to Nittie and slapped her on the back of the head.  “This one is getting carried away with her fantasy role-playing.”  Then I looked directly at Frackie, “But the reality is, on this ship, you have no rank, none whatsoever.  What I say is what happens.  There are those on this ship who are far more powerful than I am, and I am the owner and the captain.”

“Who is more powerful than the owner and the captain?”

Chloe walked in at that point, and she said, “Who?  Me, his wife!”

Then she walked up to me and gave me a playful (hopefully) hit on the back of my head.

She looked directly at Frackie, “And you are an arrogant little snot.  Should we put you back on the remains of the ship you sent on a foolhardy mission that killed the captain and most of the crew, and leave you to contemplate your deeds and attitude? If you are nice, we may put you back in a stasis pod..."

“The captain…”

“Followed your recommendations, and now he is a freeze-dried corpse.  Nittie is an engineer, always a useful skill to have; Fildo is a medical officer, doctors are always welcome.  You… were a self-centered, arrogant, elitist, with a track record of bad decisions, and having those who served under you die needlessly.”

“My people, we have mighty armies and powerful ships at our command.”

I said, “You are an insignificant little species, who occupy some tiny little corner of space and were not even noticed by the dozens of other species that collectively work together.  The collective federation of worlds looks on you as an ape that has burned its hand on a hot stick from a fire.  You now claim to be the masters of the world because you believe you have mastered fire.  Perhaps, in a thousand generations, your descendants will discover the wheel.”

Jessie interrupted with the message, “Captain, to the bridge.”

We abruptly left them, and as soon as the door closed, we ran for the bridge.

“Jessie, what is it?  Status?”

“While you were playing scare the minor useless aristocrat, two new ships are approaching.  They are in conventional FTL, and they will soon exit, and it will probably take them half a day to reach here.”

I said, “How many of Mee’s ships are in the vicinity?”

“Thirty-one, all are just outside of the system and in Hyper FTL.”

Then Kera Prime and Meera came in.  Kera said, “Oh, good, I was getting bored.”

Meera said, “Not what you were saying yesterday, you said you were enjoying just relaxing and that you were trying the trick that little Mustil Froma told you about.”

She laughed, “Being the de facto ruler of this portion of the galaxy, yes, sticking bread between your toes and having the koi nibble it is unusually enjoyable.  Do we wait for the new aliens to get here eventually, or do we jump out and visit them?”

I said, “Depending on who they are.  My guess is more of the Uberse.  And they are almost guaranteed to have an elitist for the captain.”

Jessie said, “Exiting FTL now, the two ships came out of FTL almost thirty miles apart, the AIs should have been in tight formation, they probably have someone thinking they are better than the AI and using manual controls.”

“Do they have quantum communications?”

“Yes, but the old style—and they also have radar and radio messaging between the ships—they are searching the area and maneuvering back together.”

Katarina said, “Could the separation be a strategic maneuver, maybe one of them is armed with a heavy EMP or a scatter weapon?”

“Possibly, they are now heading directly toward the portal.  The Servants are staying back.  Should I put the data and traffic on display in the room where the three Uberse are still located? The science officer is again claiming superiority over the other two and is demanding new clothing.  The two females are more than capable of keeping him under control.”

I said, “Yes, show them the data; they should be able to identify if it's their ships.”

Frackie said, “That is the dreadnought-class super destroyer and an electronic countermeasure frigate.  They should make short work of these uppity aliens.”

Meera started laughing, “Sorry, this is almost comical.  We have ships in Hyper FTL scanning their ships now.  We have cracked their quantum link.  Do you want to hear what they are saying?”

Nittie said, “I thought those were supposed to be unbreakable, sure.”

“The quantum connection is secure, but the electronics that read the data and distribute it to the rest of the ship are not.  One of the ships out there is one of my ECM electronic countermeasures ships.  It hasn't even needed to deploy any satellite units.”

“Commander, we see one massive ship of unknown configuration, and we see the Protelomon, and it is drifting and unpowered.  They must be filthy scavengers trying to steal from it.”

“What about the unmanned ships with the stupid drones controlling them?”

“They are here, and several are working on the massive object.  Whatever it is, just the resources we will mine from it will make you even more wealthy than you already are.”

“We detect an unknown power from the artifact.  I recommend against firing on it until we know what it is, the risks…”

“Silence, you worthless maggot, you may have earned a fancy education, but you are title-less, you will show proper respect for your betters.”

Meera Prime said, “Benjamin, honey, maybe we should handle this.  Do you mind just sitting here and watching?”

I smiled, “No, of course, but try not to do anything that disrupts the portal.”

Her avatar then sat down, and it froze.  The image shifted to show her Regiolon form inside a pod.  She smiled, and her Regiolon form froze again.  The image changed to display another Regiolon form in the cramped cockpit of one of the Royal Keitch-dilligar ships.  It had just emerged from Hyper FTL next to our ship.  The Regiolon form said, “A different avatar, my real body is still on your ship.  This allows me to control much of what the ships can do, but it still disables the heavy weapons; those are restricted to my direct control.  Just give me a few seconds to get everything all set.  The Uberse will not even see this ship's emergence before they have something else to think about.”

Then, thirty ships emerged from Hyper FTL surrounding the two Uberse ships.

“Alien ships have just appeared, fire the damn weapons at them immediately.”

“Sir, all of our systems are frozen, the computers are all down, we have lost everything except for emergency power!”

The image of the Regiolon avatar form of the original Mee Keralatazaku appeared, “Well, that was boring, the countermeasures and hacking ship has control of every system on their ship.  Any suggestions on what we should do?”

Mark smiled, “A classic move, over-pressurize their waste treatment containment systems, and then override the toilet ball valve control locks and flood the restroom with sewerage when the captain is using it?”

She smiled, “I will keep that in reserve.  What else?”

I said, “Put the salaries and the extra benefits of all the bridge crew on display on all the screens on the ships, including sources of all the money and their banking information and passwords?”

“Done, and that is causing an amusing flurry of activity.”

Katerina now had an evil smile on her face, “Have all the information from the ship we rescued the three from…”

Jessie said, “That is apparently called the Protelomon…”

“Yeah, put all the information we got from that on their screens, and send the image of Frackie dressed as he is, and say, “The aliens would like to thank this one for all the information about all their ships and planetary defenses.”

I thought I could hear his scream from the bridge, but that had to be my imagination.

I said, “Ask any of the Uberse if they would like to be offered back to the now disabled ships as a returned refuge?”

“That answer is no, Nittie and Fildo are asking if you can destroy their old ship so they can be assumed to be dead.  That way, their families won't suffer the repercussions.”

“I have no objections.”

The disabled ship then seemed to disappear.

Mee said, “I accelerated it to  0.001 times the speed of light, and what remains of their ship is now a cloud of plasma on a course toward the star in this system.  In about three hours, it will enter the star.  There was enough of a light show that the sensors, which are the only things still functioning on the two warships, should be able to track it.  Eventually…”

Jessie said, “Apparently, the captain of one of the ships did enter the restroom, and Mee did the overpressure trick.  She also disabled all the showers and sinks on both ships.  You have a message from Frackie, pleading to be connected so he can deny the false accusations you have made, defaming his poor name…”

I said, “Mee, can you send messages to the planet using the ships that you disabled?”

“Yes.  What do you want to send?”

”Can you do banking transactions?”

“Of course.”

“If they run things like most oligarchs and dictators, they have rather nasty strongmen and thugs that control a lot of the people under them.  So, leave the people at the top alone, but zero balance and close every account for the lawyers, corrupt police chiefs, propaganda news outlets, money launderers, and bankers that keep the poor as the lowest class and lock the facilitators out of everything, their cars, their homes, their places of work.  Then overtake the media and send out who the worst of them were, and what they were doing.”

“That is a lot to squeeze into a few redundant quantum links.  I assume someone will cut the lines before too long.”

“They lasted 22 minutes before someone severed the connections.”

I asked, “How much damage did you manage to do?”

“Of the approximately 12,000 that fit the criteria you specified, about 4,450 are now locked out of everything.  The media systems were broadcasting various pieces of information on loops, and they resorted to tactics such as using fire axes to chop fiber lines and cut power cables.  Approximately 8% are still broadcasting the dirt, and when they shut down, the last 8% will take days, if not weeks, to restore.  This assumes that the now rather pissed-off workers will not be all that eager to repair the propaganda machine.”

“Let the two ships know what you did, and make it obvious that all the responsibility will be blamed on them.”

“Done.”

I said, “And now we wait.”

The wait was only half an hour.  The Uberse apparently had a word for mutiny, and both ships were now under new management.

“This is Geno Midlet, acting commander for the former warship the Gezza.  We wish to know what the surrender terms will be.”

“This is Litilio Satch, acting commander on the Protelo, same question.”

A message appeared on the screen from Fildo Satch: “That is my  uncle, he was a navigator and engineer.”

The screen in front of me now had a broadcast button.  I hit it.  “This is Benjamin Williams, the commander of the ship, the Stardust III.  We are not seeking surrender; we have associates who are rather, powerful, and they find your caste system somewhat offensive.  They merely wished to demonstrate that defeating your military would be trivial, and would not require so much as firing a single shot.”

Geno said, “Multiple shots have been fired, but all were small arms and internal to the ship.  The captain and the second in command are now relieved of their positions, along with much of the blood that used to be in their bodies.  We also understand that things on our home planet are now… in a bit of chaos.”

I said, “This facility is the property of a different race of aliens.  There are dozens of relatively friendly alien species in this area of the galaxy, and that is a trivial fraction of what statistics say should be out there.  This one ship, the round one that you originally spotted, is a private ship here assisting the local species with some communication issues.” I felt there was no need to let them know that they were AIs attempting to contact their Creators. 

The Regiolon avatar of Mee then appeared in the video, “The ships that are surrounding your ships, and then so easily disabled your systems, and may have sent some disruptive messages to your home planet, are under my control.  You can think of my ships as the local police force.  And this was the friendly warning given to a teenage driver for having failed to stop at a traffic sign.”

Litilio said, “May we ask what became of the ship that is no longer there?”

I said, “We discovered it drifting and disabled, most of the crew was dead, we did rescue some of the crew, and we discovered that some, such as Frackie Genis, were not exactly friendly.  Do you want them back?”

“I have no objection to allowing Frackie on this ship, but I fear he would soon suffer a fatal case of anemia, similar to the captain and the first officer.”

A message appeared on the screen, it was from Fildo Satch, and she wished to communicate with the ships.  I hit the “Allow button.”

“Hi Litilio, I survived.”

“Thanks to the three moons.  Who else survived?”

“The moron Frackie, me and Nittie Gerful.  Did you see what was happening on the homeworld?”

“We saw parts of it until they severed the lines.  I think this time, the people may actually rise up and kick the elitists off the thrones.  What are the aliens like?”

“A hell of a lot nicer than our own leaders.  The fire on the ship burned the flesh off my face and hands, and the aliens regrew it.  Some trivial lines are all that remain.  Nittie had both her legs crushed and amputated, and they regrew her legs.”

“Any chance you can follow us back to the home world and ensure the chaos they started results in things being better than before? I don't think many would object to them taking over the planet.”

I said, “We don't go around conquering planets, well, not usually, we just wanted to stop the two ships, before they did something stupid, or something else more stupid.”

“Consider these two ships to be properly stopped.”

Fildo said, “There are a bunch of different aliens, someone said over a dozen species, and they all have space travel, and most have systems far above what we have.”

Litilio said, “We plan on heading back to the homeworld.  If there is the fighting we think they may be having, maybe we can bomb the Uimterium or something like that and make a change in the power struggle.”

Meera said, “We have the location of their home planet.  They have one planet, three asteroid mining colonies, and from what we can tell, they are slave camps.  Their ships will take eleven days to reach it.  We can be there in thirteen hours.  Should we finish what we started?”

I pondered it for a few, and said, “Sure.”

We transitioned to Hyper FTL, and all but one of the ships that were surrounding the two surrendered ships also disappeared into Hyper FTL.

Fildo sent one last message, “We are going ahead, will meet you there.”

The Uberse Homeworld

Thirteen hours later, we exited FTL.  Mee’s thirty heavy weapon ships didn't seem to be doing much, but her ECM electronic countermeasures ship appeared to explode as hundreds of satellites poured from it like angry hornets, arranging themselves in a swarm pattern in equatorial orbit.  The homeworld defenses were already so crippled that none of the planetary weapons managed to damage a single sniffer satellite.

The television and radio systems, which had been partially isolated during the hard shutdown, along with the empire's propaganda machine, had a few sites back online, proclaiming that they had crushed the rebellion.  However, they all went off the air as soon as our ships arrived.  Then, the satellites began broadcasting on thousands of channels about what had truly happened.  “Alien Liberators had arrived!”

The resources and communication channels of those we had not managed to brick with a few quantum links now collapsed.  The imperial secret communications network was now under her control.

Meera said, “They had turned their ships on their own people, choosing targets almost at random, universities, schools, all innocent places that were assumed to be hotbeds of subversion, and after bombing about a dozen of them, most of the warships, spaceships, and ocean-going ships had a change of management.  We may have started a fire under someone's ass, but this was already in the works.  They thought that they controlled the media and the distribution of food and essential supplies.  We still haven’t had to fire a shot.  All we are doing is suppressing the propaganda machine they call the media.  They have something like the internet, and everything on it was government-controlled and monitored.  We removed those controls and uploaded all the information about the corruption.  There was a lot of corruption.  The people knew it was corrupt, but the tight control over the media attempted to place the blame for everything bad on the opposition, and there wasn’t much public resistance.  Any opposition was immediately crushed, so it went deep underground.  The elites took credit for every success, even when the system failed miserably.  They claimed it was a success.  They lied about everything.  They overwhelmed everyone with lies and stories of how the glorious leader was so wonderful.  The glorious leader was, in fact, a senile puppet, surrounded by so many yes-men that he couldn't comprehend why his people were revolting.”

I said, “Where is he now?”

Jessie said, “Part of him is hanging upside down from a flagpole, the other part is being used to play a game like soccer in the streets in front of his golden palace.”

Mark said, “It looks like the upper caste, the so-called royals, just had their version of the French Revolution.  The numbers indicate that the planetary population was approximately five billion, while the elite numbered less than fifty thousand.  The real problem was the next class, something like an upper management caste that does what the royals want.  They lived like mini-millionaires, the executives and managers.  All while the workers put in eighty or more hours a week, working seven days out of every eight.  The upper two castes are easily identifiable; they are well-fed.  Their mansions were one step below a French Château, and they all had servants and guards.  The servants almost all just stepped aside and let the mobs take them.  The guards put up stiff resistance until they saw the size of the angry mobs that were coming, and then they turned sides.”

I said, “Are the angry mobs burning everything down?”

Jessie said, “No, they are saving it all for their new masters, the Alien Liberators.  They are just dragging the elite out and tossing them into the jails, which had been filled with peasants who were trying to survive.  All hail the new Emperor Benjamin.”

”Hell no, I don't need any more of that bull crap, and I don't want to be part of the next revolution where we get dragged into a soccer match, as a ball and not a player.”

Mark said, “Nope, not me!”

Kibbiea said, “Definitely not me, I used to be a minor royal, and my mother was always looking over her shoulder, wondering when an angry mob would be coming for her.”

Katerina said, “Hell no.  We all know what happened to Tsar Nicholas II and his family!”

Meera said, “Nope, happily looking forward to motherhood.  Human motherhood.”

Kera Prime said, “I’m already ‘She who must not be annoyed,’ I have no interest in more planets filled with people who hate or fear me.”

I said, “Put Nittie and Fildo on the monitor.”

“Yes, what can we do for you?  We were watching the chaos on the planet.”

“You want to be part of the chaos?”

“What do you mean?  Are you planning on sending down shock troops?”

“No, it looks like the position of planetary leader has an opening.  Are either of you looking for a job?”

“What in the bloody moons of kobalt are you suggesting?”

“Any of the former executive caste will likely cause more trouble and revive the caste system.  I was thinking your people need a ruler who was a worker, not another ass kisser and wannabe dictator.  I am sure as hell not going to offer Frackie the position; I wondered if one of you two wants it? Basically, just one simple rule: make life better for everyone, and then the super-powered angry aliens will stay away.  Recreate the power pyramid you had before, and bad things will happen to the top of the pyramid.”

“Can we say you are the emperor in absentia and we are just some advisors, or something like that?”

“If you want, just hire lots of people who want to make society better for everyone, and come up with a way that weeds out the complete assholes.”

“What about all the palaces and mansions?”

“Do you have museums?”

“That word didn't translate.”

“Yeah, looks like we will have to send some alien advisors to figure out how to redistribute the top-heavy wealth.  Do you at least have hospitals?”

“I know of the word, but those are only for the upper two castes.  Doctors work on ships or directly for the elite.  I preferred working on a ship.  Then, I was able to keep all the crew healthy, or mostly healthy.”

“Looks like this place needs a lot of work.  Hey Jessie, how many medical pods can I order now?”

“For immediate delivery, about five thousand new units are available, if you don't mind used ones, another one thousand.  If you can wait for production to ramp up, another five thousand can be ready in four months.”

“I’m not even going to ask how much it costs or how much it will dent my finances.  I know it won't really affect what I have.  Order the medical pods, hire trained technicians to set them up, and get local engineers and doctors to ensure they are available to everyone, not just a select few.  Have some art dealers come over to set up exhibits in the former château that gets converted into museums, and figure out what else they can arrange.  Also, consider what can be offered to the average person for relaxation.  Expand the schools, establish adult education programs, and determine what can be created to generally improve life.”

Fildo said, “Nittie and I will take the job, even though we have no idea what it will really entail.”

“It means finding advisors who give you real answers about what is right, and not much is, and wrong, and a lot is.  Ensure they are not yes-men who agree with everything you suggest.”

Mark said, “What about Frackie?”

Nittie said, “He is sort of drooling and lying non-responsive on the floor.”

Jessie said, “They didn't do anything; he just collapsed.”

Jessie said, “A medical response team is on the way.”

“I may regret this, but toss his sorry ass back into a medical pod.  We will deal with him later… much, much later.”

Epilogue

Fifty days later.

Mark and Katerina sat around the conference room table, reviewing piles of printed flyers for various ship configurations.

Katerina said, “I like the idea of sending the small fleet of Mee’s ships that have the new drive modifications.”

Jessie said, “The analysis of the different derelict ships we found in M33 showed us the key. Drives that work here don't work in M33, and the ones that work in M33 will probably explode instantly here. The variable-dimension Hyper FTL drive appears to be working. At least in its training mode, the unmanned ship we sent to M33 successfully completed a large set of tests and survived. The full-sized drives are expected to be ready in under two months. Asshole is modifying five of the Royal Keitch-maubers and five of the Royal Keitch-dilligars to have the new drives. We will have the new variable drives on all the ships that comprise the Stardust III.”

Mei said, “We have Mee's sticks.  I suggest we name the hospital ship we ordered the carrot.”

“Is that why you wanted it painted orange?”

“No, it looks like a daikon, and painting it white seemed boring.  Orange is a color that stands out.  Hopefully, any M33 aliens won't think it is a warship.  It was one of the ships that was ready-made, and it comes with six oversized shuttles.”

Mark said, “Ready-made is a nice way to say used.  But it can be ready in a week, and not in six months for a new one from scratch.”

Gentuf Ulate was slightly hunched over the table, holding a coffee with both oversized hands.  “What do we do if someone from our galaxy actually responds to the beacon satellite we sent through the portal?”

I said, “We will figure it out when it happens.  Do you want to return to your people?”

“After that long, over 10,255 years, I don't know if they would even still be my species.  Society will have evolved, and we may seem like primitive cave dwellers.”

Grisbon said, “We are primitives.  Did you look at the results of the analysis of our survival pods?”

Meera said, “Yes, and it is very interesting…”

Grisbon said, “We are alive, and I can't complain about that, but the survival pods we were found in were not the ones originally on our ship.  When compared to the empty ones, the internal differences were massive.  It only looked like our survival pods.  Even the power supply lasted significantly longer than it should have.  The technology for the replacement stasis pod was designed to resemble our own externally, but ours would have only lasted a dozen years.”

“Yeah, we plan on revisiting the derelict we found you on, but it may not even be there when we return.  You should have died ten thousand years ago, but someone saved you.”

Grisbon said, “There is also the other anomaly, the thing that has no logical explanation.  All of the dead on our ship were in body bags.  We didn't do that.  We didn't even have suits to venture out of the part of the ship that still held air.  Who put all the bodies in the bags?”

To be continued in “The Eighth Artifact.”

Cast Information

Aliens:

•     Creetona, somewhat flattish bodies, a large lizard-like tail, green skin

•     Mapatans, cowboy fox-ferrets

•     Regiolon, shorter than humans, has almost comically oversized ears and noses.  They resembled the goblins of mythology but only had a very high level of technology.  They had blotchy, grey-colored skin.

•     Kipitz, who looked like the elves of mythology, was also very short.  They were skinny for their height and looked almost childlike, except for having three rows of sharp teeth and long, pointy ears.

•     Kanakon, the ones that were listed as pirates and may have been at war with the Regiolon.  They had eight limbs, four goat-like legs, a large, thick tail that was long enough to have the top drag on the ground behind them, and four arms that ended in almost human hands, but with extra-long fingers.  The head was the kicker, more like a four-eyed donkey with long-haired prehensile ears that looked like an English Lop rabbit.

•     The Popotoen were a race that resembled an erect walking opossum.  They had fur over their entire body, a long nose, and massive ears.  They were about five feet tall.

•     The Kassakar is a reptilian species that is close to seven feet tall and unusually skinny.  They are hairless and resemble a hairless kangaroo with anorexia.

•     Bells (unpronounceable).  They were silicon-based, about four feet tall, and resembled a crystalline giant snail, complete with the shell.  They usually had a translation box on a helmet.

•     Mapatans, cowboy fox-ferrets, carnivorous

•     Prochie, split-tail mermaids

•     Seleaie, dwarves

•     Kurrat (dinosaurs) Tillia  ( 7 feet tall),

•     Kurrat (dinosaurs) Froma  ( 9 feet tall),

•     Kurrat (dinosaurs) Katchia (11 feet tall).

•     Triggs (bug-eyed humanoids, originally aggressive to the Kurrat)

•     Rrivots (three-eyed aliens), survivors of a planet that destroyed itself

•     Blanie, cat-like faces, and satyr-like hooves, survivors from a compression drive experiment

•     Critch (like the mythical Blemmyes with their facial features on their chest, 7x normal; pressure.

•     Feranda (looks almost human)

•     Moutie (parasitic plants) [Brain Snatchers]

•     Gigoo (long legged original original host animal of the Moutie)

•     Katazal (bugs), a race that the Moutie have infested

•     Kadzuu (creators of the wormhole gates)

•     Crabbies - (nickname), actual name is a series of clicks; the bottom half is a four-legged crab, and the upper half resembles a Regiolon.

•     Ducks (nickname) have legs like an eagle, short fur, not feathers, oversized eyes, and a duck-like bill.

•     Yitzen (one of the scavengers) (Linear breathers, in at mouth, out under ribs, double thumbs, long feelers around their mouths.)

•     Brillo (one of the scavengers) (living slime)

•     Pait-kou (nicknamed Fuzzies, Calico Wookies)

•     [name unknown] (Lizard-like, with tails, long legs, short arms)

•     Preserect (mosquito centaurs, from a low-gravity world with four extremely long and thin legs)

•     Uberse, (four feet tall with simian and mouse-like features merged, long tails, and pointy snouts)

•     Mibii, short hermaphroditic felines, with four breasts, oversized hands and feet, stocky (high gravity), no tails, lower technology, from a different galaxy

•     [name unknown] (nickname triclops) Three legs, three arms, one three-sided head on top, three ears, and three eyes

Ships:

•     The Stardust (versions I, II, and III)

•     Shadow (general utility)

•     Garden (pleasure)

•     Royal Keitch-mauber (multiple ships of this class)

•     Royal Keitch-dilligar (multiple ships of this class)

Space Stations:

Caspin Station

Miramber Station (Earth)

Keralataza Station (Kanpripticon)

Humans:

•     Benjamin Williams, 22 [M] (Captain)

mother, Miranda Williams [F]

father, Robin Williams [M]

•     Mark Adams, 22 [M] (First Officer)

father Karl Adams [M]

father’s new wife, Missy [F]

mother Audrey Adams [F]

sister, Clara Adams.  [F] 19

•     Chloe Ortiz 22 [F] (wife of Benjamin)

mother Amber [F]

little sister Carla [F]

•     Tyra [F] (Ben and Chloe’s daughter)

•     Emma Murphy 22 [F] (second Lieutenant USAF)

•     Jeri Williams 23 [F] (Ben’s sister)

•     Emily Frankenstein, E4-> Marrying Kevin Killjoy

•     Kevin Killjoy, [M] --> Marrying Emily Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein [M] Son of Emily and Kevin)

•     Major Katerina Popov.  [F]  (left hand rebuilt)

•     Mei Zhou [F]

Daughter: Shi

•     John Sanders [M] —> Married to Kerrie Sanders (Kipitz)

•     Lieutenant General McMaster

•     Patricia Scott, [F] 22 --> Married to Donnie Myers

•     Donnie Myers,  [M] 24 --> Married to Patricia Scott

•     Dylan Murphy,  [M] 25 --> Married to Meera

•     Meera Murphy [F] (former Regiolon Instance 50B of Mee Keralatazaku, married to Dylan

•     Elijah Rabinowitz, age 32, (lie detector)

•     Hanna Brown, age 17.  (audio analysis) (was missing right eye) --> future single mother (Eddie is the father)

•     Crystal Johnstone.  25 (Space Traffic Controller)

•     Anna Ito [F] (not-a ninja)

•     Spencer Moreau [F] 21 (former store clerk, now the Nanny)

•     Lieutenant Anthony Danvers.  [M] (Married to Claire)

•     Audrey Usher [F] (Cheese’s caretaker)

•     Misha Flanders [F] (Cheese’s caretaker)

AIs:

Jessie (AI),  2,405

Prudence (AI), 1,722

Asshole (AI),  2,103

Haley (AI),  0

Regiolon:

1) Mee Keralatazaku (Original Supreme Ruler), (Instance 1)

Avatar, Kera Prime

2) Mee Keralatazaku (Instance 50A) 

Avatar, Anya Fathi

3) Mee Keralatazaku (Instance 50B)

Human form, Meera Murphy, married to Dylan Murphy

Keriful (former saleswoman, now a servant on the ship)

Creetona:

Kibbiea Messo, [F] Married to Mark

Norberta, [F] (cloned child of Kibbiea and Mark (human)

Munchkins:

Perr [M]  21

Frill [F] 19

Criss [F]  1

Pooki  [F] 16

Setus  [M] 17

Croko  [F] 19

Zissey [M] 20

Katra [M] 38

Gravity:

Shadow

Spinner 0.5

Stardust II

Level 1 0.47G

Level 2 0.62G

Level 3 0.77G (pool)

Garden

level 1 0.55G —> 0.44G (reduced)

level 2 0.65G —> 0.52G

level 3 0.75G —> 0.60G

level 4 0.85G —> 0.68G (pool)

Kipitz:

Tikker Froma [M] 42

Zitti Froma  [F] 39

Criber Froma [F] 16

Kelot Froma  [M] 14

Proni Froma  [M] 11

Mustil Froma [F]  5

Kerrie Sanders [F] 34 Married to John Sanders (human)

Givitt Sanders [F] 13

Livitt Sanders [M] 11

Neib Sanders [F] 8

Gell Sanders [F] 5

Kurrat: (species) Dinosaurs

Jerr  Froo [M] Tillia

Rarara Froo [F] Tillia

Triggs: (bug-eyed humanoids)

Moe,  E-4, (n-female)

Larry,  E-3, (n-female) possible brain damage

Curly,  M-6, (male)

Joe,  M-1, (n-female), missing a leg

Shemp,  O-2, (female) --> Unusual medical readings

Shorty, O-5, (female)

Rrivots: (3 eyes)

Kibb Snorid, [F], 55, a former pilot.

Zinna Frack, [F], 56, former technician.

Naka Trembe, [F], 59, commander of Expedition 17

Pala Hori,  [F], 25,

Manea Roa,  [F], 22,

Sasan Krill, [F], 19,

Blanie: (race) --> hooves and cat-like faces (satire-cat) --> catyr.

Laan Mit  [M] 32

Prett Mit  [F] 28 --> stabbed Criber

Firzer Geran [M] 42

Kispit Grund [M] 48

Gerou: (race)

Froa sub-clan

Lala Kroon  [F] 17

Lena sub-clan:

Gidie Yarb [M] 16

Drones:

Lucky 1

Lucky 2 (iPhone of Death ship)

Lucky 3 (Gerou kidnapper ship self-destruct)

Lucky 4 (Critch - Blemmyes ship self-destruct)

Lucky 5 (Mouites - humanoid symbionts ship disinfection)

Lucky 6 (Self-destruct after mercury contamination)

Red Shirt 1

ZeeY: (race of liquid metal drones)

B125

A0

Critch: (Blemmyes) --> (Face in chest) [7X normal pressure, no FTL)

Zello Maha Vit [F]

Maita Zigg Grit [M] (dead)

Feranda: (humanoid that the parasites have attacked)

Ground (planet name)

Lieutenant Ganda Fletch, [M] 28 (pilot)

Lieutenant Frack Sheen, [M] 26 (co-pilot)

General Smithery [M]

Second Lieutenant Chink Lemitz, [M] 25

Sergeant Fron Getcha [M] 21 (speaks English)

Corporal Midd Song [F] 21

Setch [M] 4 (parasite survivor)

Mouite: (humanoid parasites) <no FTL> <plant>

Fletcher [M]

Grunder [F]

Ninindel [M] 4 --> Setch

Katazall: (Bugs) <has FTL>

Empress Mittsetela [F]

Admiral Letton [F]

Vice Admiral Klicket [F]

Kadzuu: (Creators of the portals)

Servants: (AI servants to the beings that created the portal)

Casper

Crabbies: (species nickname)

[Names are a sequence of clicks]

Ducks: (nickname) (bird-like aliens)

Cheese [F]

Quackers [M]

Pudding [F]

Fuzzy [F]

Yitzen: (scavengers) (Linear breathers, in at mouth, out under ribs, double thumbs)

Captain Sig Feldis

Pei-Foss, the pilot.

Brillo: (scavengers) (living slime)

Trish Flyable [F] 32

Human: (scavenger)

Marla [F] 29

Preserect (mosquito centaurs)

Kasipo [M]

General Kenajoul [M]

Kaeau Marca [M] (chancellor of the Affiliation)

Commander, Philla Greant [F] (former prisoner)

Technical specialist, Middit Velott [F] (former prisoner)

Uberse: (mouse/monkey)

Nittie Gerful [F] (drive engineer) (lost legs)

Frackie Genis [M], (science officer) (burns)

Fildo Satch, [F] (medical officer) (burns)

Mibii: (hermaphroditic felines)

Gentuf Ulate [H] (second in command)

Grisbon Malapo [H] (engineer)

Other Books by David Collins:

(The QR code to my author's page)

The Artifact

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGFG7RXN

Benjamin, Mark, and Chloe were all set to graduate from college in a few weeks.

Ben had ordered a strange object from eBay to use as cover art for a book he was writing.

It looked really cool, like a slightly charred old military artifact from 70 years ago.  It was possibly part of an engine.  After cleaning it up (it had been found in a cow field), he placed the strange device on his dorm room desk, directly over the wireless charging port.  It woke up.

Unknown to him, the disabled starship hiding on the moon could now communicate with the missing part. 

The ship needed a crew to pass itself off as a manned ship (AIs were not supposed to be on ships).

A few weeks later, as recent college graduates, they need to find a way to get the ship to land somewhere safe, supply it, and return the missing component, the artifact.

They suspect the most challenging part will be getting into space.  They soon discover that the real problem lies in what awaits them when they reach the alien trading center.

Books:

The Artifact

The Second Artifact

The Third Artifact

The Fourth Artifact

The Fifth Artifact

The Sixth Artifact

The Seventh Artifact

Scattered Worlds

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F6D89WBG

This book introduces the ‘Scattered Worlds’ universe, where an alien race, the Lenovians, performed what should have been a normal “weapons test." However, their experiment went disastrously wrong, creating thousands of scattered worlds, as if someone had blended them all and then randomly pieced them back together. 

Jake Anderson was on his way to a night class at UNH when his car unexpectedly crashed into an impossible wall of snow beside a pool of lava.  He now finds himself in a chaotic world, a blend of vastly different environments.  Walking just under a thousand yards in any direction brings him to an entirely new landscape.

When he attempted to help the first person he met, he discovered they were not human.  The bipedal humanoid aliens aren’t the main issue; rather, the world they now find themselves in has turned into a perilous survival scavenger hunt.  Jake must locate other survivors, form a tribe composed of several different species, and all while avoiding the dangerous creatures from countless different worlds.

The Wrong Button

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3K6STP7

Jerry Anderson was an astronaut faced with an impossible choice: die of asphyxiation in a few hours or see if the alien pod he was transporting really was an escape pod and find out if it could actually save him.

When he enters, he finds that the controls are unreadable, lacking any clear direction, and he is rapidly running out of air.  He presses the blinking green button.

The next thing he knows, he isn’t human anymore, and he finds himself on a seashore, next to some birds feasting on a body that looks very similar to his new body.

He is alive, but staying alive will be a challenge, and he will be able to communicate with the locals, assuming the next ones he finds don't kill him on sight.

Carbon Copy

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1HJ6ZY

Kaylee Green was an Illegal Alien, one who had traveled 45.7 light-years to get away from her pursuers.    A race that wanted to exterminate her kind.

Not only was she alien, but she was not entirely biological.    Now, she was enjoying life as a human.    She had recently graduated from college and was happily living with her human boyfriend.

Then the police show up asking about a severed hand from a six-year-old cold-case investigation.     They want to know why her fingerprints and DNA both match the hand.

She was trying hard not to panic.    Her carefully crafted false identity was rapidly falling apart.  What else could go wrong?

The answer was that unexpected visitors from the planet she had fled from were about to arrive.     

Wars Without End series

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS6WK9KM

The war between different alien groups lasted for over 2,300 years.  However, Keith Robinson didn't know anything about that.  He assumed that the job he had applied for was to work on an Arctic research ship.  He thought that he would be assembling parts for upgraded sonar buoys.  He thought wrong.

The AI on the derelict spaceship wasn't opposed to lying if that could finally get the ship repaired.  Hiring a repair technician from the primitive planet Earth was a crazy plan.  And even crazier, it worked.

After salvaging the alien ship, Keith finds himself the owner of the ship.  But something is deadly wrong in the depths of space.  With the help of a temperamental AI, Keith then manages to rescue several alien refugees from stasis pods on damaged ships.

They head off to one more promising location, a supposedly minor mining station, so insignificant they had hoped the war had missed it.

They were wrong.

The 2,000 year war

The Second War

The Convention War

The Giant War

The Bug War

Starship Medusa series

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8TGWPPZ

On Mars, Jason had stumbled across the escape pod to a 3,500-year-old derelict spacecraft.  The ship's AI informed Jason that he was now the captain of a massive alien starship due to his having some traces of alien DNA.  That 'should' have been good news.

Except that most of the Mars and Earth government agencies had different ideas about the alien ship.

Moreover, the ship's AI, having been derelict for centuries...  It had developed some quirky issues... 

But the real problem was that Jason's DNA had an additional trait that should not be there...  The last time anyone had one of the forbidden DNA traits, it started the war that left the ship derelict.  It may be the only way to fight the aliens.  It is to become something from their nightmares…

Books:

The Void Ripper

Darkness and Claws

The Void Shaper

The Wrong Number: Ambassador to the Stars

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKM78SH2

Steve White was just taking a leisurely stroll and looking out over a small pond to see if any of the turtles were out.  Suddenly, he finds himself teleported 423 light-years away.  Surrounded by strange aliens and desperately trying to fake his way out of an impossible situation.

He “fakes it” and assumes the role of the Earth Ambassador to the Pathless, the somewhat insectoid, partial humanoid, 4-sexed race he now finds himself with.

His goal is to return to Earth.

Their goal is much harder to understand.  They want him to be the trade ambassador.  But what do they want from the Earth? And what can they offer the Earth in return?

They agree to send him back to Earth, but they insist he bring along one of their race, modified to almost pass as human.

Convincing the Earth that the aliens are real was surprisingly tricky.  When he does finally convince them, things get strange really fast.

The Lord of Darkness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTK9H3Y6

I always knew my birth parents had to be complete assholes; why else would they name me something horrible like Vladimira Darkness?  Now that I am in college, I go by the nickname Mira.

Then, a bunch of these heavily armed men-in-black types showed up and made me come with them.     First in a Humvee, then a Blackhawk helicopter, and then a fricking spacecraft.     

My birth mother didn't die when I was a child.  She only died a few days ago.  I was told I needed to be there for the reading of her will.

Wearing all black for the reading of the will almost made sense.     That it was heavy leather armor was a bit unexpected.     Then, I was given the traditional family sidearm pistol to wear. 

Only this was a very special weapon made just for me.     I was apparently the product of hundreds of generations of bioengineering to be someone who could use the weapon.  It had a dial with settings from 1.0 to 3.0, and 2.0 was described as "explode dinosaurs.''

Why in hell would I need what was almost a handheld nuclear weapon?   It seems that Mother's official title was "The Lord of Darkness" and that the succession would be the first, possibly the last, time I get to meet some of my siblings.   

I had only one day to learn to survive what the future would bring.    A future in a galaxy ruled by the fear of one being me... 

The Green Flag

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD4H7RHV

Logan Russel finds himself being transported to a different world.  Now, as Lord Green, the Sage of Power, he is granted ridiculously over-the-top powerful magic.

The problem is (there always has to be a catch) that his life depends on the whims of a sketchy god, and to stay alive, he must uphold "the green flag." Unfortunately, the god never told him what the "green flag" was.  He must also avoid actions that raise either a "black flag" or a "red flag." But, again, the god neglected to tell him what those were...  There are many things they could be…

As his humorous adventure continues, he collects a bevy of beautiful, powerful, and overly friendly women.  Unfortunately, without knowing what the flags are, he must tread very carefully.  Before being transported, he was "inexperienced with women." Is the temptation of the flesh one of the flags he must avoid?

The Unexpected Isekai

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBW853Z8

Jake Taylor was your average broke student at the University of Maine.  One day, when he had no classes, he stumbled across a booth set up for "brain scans," Earn while you sleep.  It looked like easy money; he signed up for the full scan.  It would require sleeping in a booth for two days, but he would wake up thousands of dollars richer.  It should be easy money…

The next thing he knows, he is no longer human, and the new world he finds himself in is extremely dangerous.  So dangerous that the former occupant of the body he finds himself in has just died from a venomous snakebite.

He is informed that the body he was in had been wearing a crystal and that he is now one of "the "resurrected." Some of those who died while wearing the strange crystals have their bodies healed, but their memories were replaced by something from the crystal.

He now finds himself "Isekai'ed" (implanted into a new body) on a planet where there are no humans, in a body that looks like the former owner was a martial artist, one that used steroids and worked out...  A lot of steroids!

It may be a dangerous land, but there is always work for someone who can kill monsters.  Unfortunately, sometimes the real monsters are hard to tell from the normal people...

Return of the Old Gods

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CS5SGDX9

The modern gods are gone; they have been removed from power by the old gods.    The old gods are back: Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Roman, Hindu, Aztec, Celtic, Japanese, Chinese, Babylonian, and many others.

The first thing they do is kill off over 1 billion people who have been judged as Evil.    They also eliminate the weapons of all of the militaries, all nuclear power fuel, and waste.

Gordon Anderson was a clerk at a 7-11, and he was (as usual) late for work.    That is suddenly the least of his problems.   

The world is changing; everything is in a state of turmoil.    However, the most disturbing fact may be that his phone now has new contacts in his address book.   

The gods of old, the ones that have just judged and executed a billion people and are literally shifting continents like chess pieces, they now have him on speed dial…

Prelude to Fate

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4YNFF5D

Jake’s commute home takes an unexpected detour, leaving him stranded on a different planet.  He soon finds himself in a high-tech hospital in a world populated by strange alien races. 

However, the New World is not your standard Isekai story.  These are not the cliché cute monster girls or the generic characters that look like they were borrowed from a video game. 

In this world, he is the primitive, has no magic or cheat abilities, and has no clue what will happen.  Jake tries to learn to live in the new world but discovers that not everything is what it seems.