Chapter 16

“Thank you for your quick and decisive actions in protecting not only our citizens, but the others on board The Star of Upsilon. Captain Frayer spoke highly of your skill and determination, helping ensure the civilians involved were protected to the best of your ability. Please accept my most extreme gratitude and know that if there is anything we on Upsilon can do for you in your travels, you have but to ask.” It was signed Tonas Balley, President, Upsilon Proper.

“Nice to know, just in case we’re out that way and need help or anything, huh?” Sella said after I read the message aloud. “You know, he has a point. You don’t play. You don’t hesitate. You gather facts, processing them as you do, then act on them. I’m impressed, yet biased. He doesn’t know you from Eve, and he’s impressed, so my bias is not the problem.” She hugged me. “You are a machine, Chalen, but you’re our machine, and we love you.” I experienced a group hug, getting a kiss from each of them, Charlie, then Son Lee, then Sheila, and finally Sella. A tear came to my eye. “Now, go to work. We’ll put your things away.” They helped me get into my uniform and shooed me out of the suite, so I could at least pretend to participate in the command of The Phoenix.

Six days later, we were hailed again, falling out of hyplex in a collision avoidance maneuver. “Shields up full, weapons ready. This isn’t a drill, folks. There shouldn’t be anything out here but flies and space dust.”

As soon as detransition was completed, an unknown noise came over the communication speakers. It wasn’t constant, but broken and almost random, so we immediately knew we were dealing with an unknown entity. Scanners indicated a large ship with a couple of smaller craft exiting the sides.

“Firebird Control, launch alert fighters. Wide out, don’t fire unless fired upon, but watch carefully. Weapons, resolve all targets at their engine area. At the first sign of hostility, I want maximum response. I hate to say this people, but keep your fingers on the triggers. Assume Defense Response Two. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE COMMAND TO FIRE. Upon detection of hostility, return fire on all resolved targets at will. Firebirds copy?”

“Aye, Captain. DefRep Two. Firebird control copy,” Cissy reported back from her command post.

“Weapons, copy?”

“Aye, Captain. DefRep Two, non-delayed return fire. Weapons Control copy,” the Weapons and Tactics duty officer replied.

“Comms, any way to find out what they’re trying to tell us?” I asked the Communications Officer.

“Not yet Captain, but we’re running all translation algorithms against their transmissions. Small bits are translating, but mostly just articles at this point, a few occurrences of ‘an’ and ‘the’ are coming through, but it’s taking a bit. We do detect commanding and threatening intent, though, as opposed to inquiry. Translation AI is reporting probable, as opposed to possible, ill intent in inflection and delivery.”

“Heads up, people. If this goes bad, and we make it through, I want any possible recovery for investigative purposes. Damage Control, Fire Control, while you’re preparing for our own issues, put a recovery team together. Firebirds, we’ll need Thunderbird Two on standby for a recovery mission. We need to know what we’re dealing with here. This is an unknown factor.”

“Aye, Captain, Thunderbird Two preparing for imminent launch.” I could hear Cissy in the background getting her shuttle teams ready to go.

It had been some time since any known civilization had encountered a new and different species, capable of spaceflight. They had to be from quite a ways away, most probably beyond the edges of where exploration had reached. That could entail thousands of light years. My only fear was that we were dealing with the Scalar that ruined Charlie’s Earth so many years ago.

“Captain, Comms. We’re getting bits and pieces. Looks like they are demanding we allow them to board. Ready to send universal signals and visuals declining their demands upon your command.”