Chapter 3: Communications

Nothing happened. The alien craft just dropped into normal space, and stopped. However the waveform associated with jump technology continued to set off alarms.

The jump gate AI computer reported that the waveform was now isolating its settings. It appeared that it was being steered. That is, that it was being pointed at one or more of the ships at the same time.

The Star Cruiser's Captain sat looking at the alien craft. It was very small. Less than 100 ferretts in length. He was thinking it might be some type of probe. He ordered a full military scan of the vessel.

The family waited for a response, but none came. 'Now what?' was going though everyone's mind.

Leah shouted, "I have something."

Everyone awaited her next statement.

Leah said, "I have wave oscillations from the ship that just came out of the jump gate."

"What can you tell us?" Jim asked.

"I think it's a hyper wave," Leah said. "They may be trying to communicate on some kind of faster than light system."

"Can you copy the signal, and send a duplicate back at the ship?"

"Yes, Dad, I think I can."

"Well let's try it, and hope it says 'hello', back to them."

Leah boosted the gain, and transmitted on the same frequency back at the ship.

All hell broke out on the Centauri cruiser!

"Captain we are now being scanned by the most powerful signal I have ever seen!" came the report from the sensor station.

The Centauri Captain said, "Explain!"

The sensor operator replied, "Sir, the scan matches our interrogation mode, but is scanning us at 10 times the power level we use."

The Centauri Captain was not happy to hear this. He then asked if they had an analysis of their own scan. Had they gained any useful information from their scan.

The sensor operator reported, "I have nine beings on board, they look to be Centauri. There are no weapon's that can be identified. Power source appears to be hydrogen based. Anti-gravatic propulsion and inertial dampers. The ship seems to have some other fields both surrounding it, and running inside it, that I can't as yet identify. However they do appear to be jump related."

"How much have they learned about us?" the captain asked.

The operator said, "Most certainly everything, Sir."

The captain did not like the sound of this.

"Discontinue scanning, and let's see what they do."

Leah reported, "The signal has stopped. But I have a preliminary analysis from our scan of that ship."

"Tell me what you think you see, Honey."

"I have 250 different organic signatures that I believe to be beings."

Jim could believe that number. The ship was big, after all.

"Oh my," Leah said. "I think this ship is either powered by anti-matter or is armed with some type of anti-matter weapon."

"Shit! Weapons made out of anti-matter!" Jim said.

"Let's let them know, that we know they can see us. Open torpedo doors," the Centauri captain said.

"I am detecting movement on the exterior of the ship. It looks like an air lock is opening up, near the antimatter signature," Leah said.

"Why do you think it's anti-matter?" Annette asked.

"Because the matter return value is of the opposite polarity, as to what we should be looking at."

"Damn, I wish we had shields right now," Jim said.

Jason said, "Your wish is my command, Dad."

With that, he touched a virtual button on his monitor. A powerful gravatic field went up around the ship. Inside the ship, gravity dropped to less than 5 percent of normal.