Chapter 1

The Quatyl commander, Atac, scanned a report from the Gnord sensor specialist with dread. He had identified a previously unknown planetary system only eighty light years from their path. What was significant about this particular system was that radio emissions were originating from it. Radio emissions meant that some planet supported a space faring race or at least one that was very close to becoming one.

Atac prayed that this system didn't hold the species that would threaten the Quatyl race. Like most Quatyl commanders, it had been his hope that he would fulfill his service in the Quatyl Space Exploration Agency without ever encountering an unknown species. The radio signals originating from an unexplored region of space had dashed that hope.

He really didn't want to meet species responsible for all of those radio signals, but that did not prevent him from performing his duty. His job was to find new space faring species and assess their threat. Being a good loyal member of the Quatyl Space Exploration Agency, he gave the order to locate the source of the radio signals and set course for their origin.

The Omagron navigator entered the course feeling sorry for the residents of that planet. She knew that the residents would soon become slaves to the Quatyl. Her feelings didn't matter since she couldn't have disobeyed the mental commands imposed on her by the Quatyl commander. One of the worst things about the Quatyl form of control was that the controlled entity was fully aware of the control while being unable to resist it. The lack of hope ate away at her spirit.

The Omagrons species were nearly extinct because of a low birth rate. Females weren't laying eggs in quantity and the sperm of the males was weak. It was as if the race was committing suicide. It was an all too common chain of events among species controlled by the Quatyl. Even the Quatyl observed this and didn't know what to do about it.

Ignoring the depressing chain of thoughts in the navigator's mind, Atac picked up the information that they would reach the planetary system within a hundred chronons. He input the information into the navigator's mind that they were to approach the system above the planetary orbital plane. There was less debris on that route and, hence, less risk of collision.

Once they would arrive above the orbital plane, Atac planned to spend some time studying the system from a safe distance. The problem was in determining how far away was a safe enough distance that would still allow them to collect data. Nothing filled a Quatyl with greater dread than first contact with a new species.

Atac communicated with his mate, Atar, via his Slathern and explained the situation to her. Her job was to control the work crew while they maintained the ship. It would be up to her to coordinate any necessary repairs if the ship was damaged. The danger of this situation required that she be prepared to start repairs quickly should they come under attack.

Atac then communicated the situation to Stac and Star. The young couple constituted the scientists of the command staff. Stac was knowledgeable in the physical sciences and was usually the busier of the two. Star was the linguist (every Quatyl explorer ship had a linguist on board in case they ran into a space faring race). While they didn't perform the actual science themselves, they oversaw the support crew that did the work. They would control the crew to display important information on their computer screens and decide what was important enough to pursue further.

The other four Quatyl aboard the explorer craft would each control a quarter of the scouts who would explore the planet. Once he was assured that the repair crews were standing by and the scientists were busy acquiring knowledge about the unknown species, Atac informed the others of the situation. There wasn't much for them to do until they landed other than to maintain their normal responsibilities. Leac and Lear, the oldest couple on the ship did their best to shrug off the situation as normal. Ceac and Cear, the youngest couple on the ship, were terrified by the prospect of meeting a new space faring species.

Eighty chronons passed before the spaceship reached a position above the orbital plane. It didn't take long for their attention to turn to the third planet from the sun. It was from this planet that the radio emissions originated. In fact, more radio emissions originated from this planet than any member of the Quatyl race had ever encountered on approaching a planet. In galactic parlance, this was a loud and very rude planet. Fortunately, space is very large. The signals would become so weak after a sufficient distance that the shouting wouldn't interfere with the communications of much quieter and polite planets.

Stac, one of the Quatyl, reported to Star via one of the Slathern, 'This is a strange planet. It has a very large moon orbiting it, but there are lots of little manufactured satellites as well.'

'The radio emissions are not decipherable. As soon as I think I've figured it out, I find that doesn't make sense any longer, ' Star reported using the same Slathern to relay the message back to Stac. Star was Stac's mate and they often shared their Slathern as a special form of intimacy.

The reason for Star's confusion was that she wasn't expecting to encounter a planet that spoke more than one language. She was listening to messages transmitted in more than a hundred different languages and language variants. After spending over a hundred chronons on it, Star was convinced that whatever species was generating the messages had to be insane. Despite working on it for ages, she was just beginning to make sense out of one series of messages that appeared to have common linguistic elements.

After observing the planet for a hundred chronons, the scientists reported the results of their observations to Atac via a Slathern and a presentation that laid out the essential information. It was not a very satisfying report from Atac's perspective. Stac had reported the presence of artificial satellites, but had not observed any space craft actually leaving the planet. According to his conservative report, he couldn't tell if the reason was that the species didn't frequent space all that often or if he was unable to detect their spacecraft.

When it was Star's turn to present her results, Atac found himself getting more depressed. After studying the radio signals from the planet for more than a hundred chronons, she had not been able to decipher more than a miniscule fraction of it. She complained that there appeared to be hundreds of different formats in the signals and that the information within a channel was incomprehensible.

After considering their presentation for almost a tenth of a chronon, Atac asked the question that Stac and Star had been dreading, 'Are they dangerous?'

Driving the Slathern to the full extent of its ability to convey frustration, Stac answered, 'I don't know."

Star answered, 'I don't know.'

For another tenth of a chronon, Atac considered the situation. As commander of a Quatyl explorer ship, it was his duty to identify and quantify the danger posed by other space faring races. As a Quatyl, his instinct was to hide. Dreading the answer, he used the Slathern to ask, 'What do you recommend?"

There was a long pause before Stac answered, 'We have to get closer.'

'How close?'

'Close enough to observe them, ' Star answered with a feeling of dread in her stomach.

Using the Slathern, Stac said, 'Considering the number of artificial satellites, we are going to have to land on the planet.'

'I was hoping that you would have suggested something else, ' Atac said before dismissing them and ending the meeting.

Atac took a full ten chronons planning how to get closer to the planet. They sent off all of their observations in a carrier drone back to the nearest base of the Quatyl Space Exploration Agency. Considering the time spent gathering information, the report was pretty incomplete. With great reluctance, he gave the order to approach the planet.

The ship had fully entered the gravity well of the planet when Atac made his first bad decision of the mission. He mentally selected a spot on the planet and conveyed to the navigator to make a low orbit pass around the planet and then land at the specified location. The navigator laid in the course and the pilot followed it without question.

The first evidence that things weren't going right occurred when the first shield was destroyed as a result of hitting a stealth communications satellite. In addition to being small and non- reflective, it hadn't been emitting any radio signals. There was no way they could have known that it was there.

The situation only got worse. While everyone was recovering from the impact, the spaceship, deflected from its original course, hit a huge patch of debris left in space during the early days of the American and Russian space programs. The second shield was destroyed and the third was severely weakened.

By this time, the spaceship was out of control and spinning wildly. It was at this point that Atac made his second mistake. Using too much mental force, he tried to control the actions of the pilot. The mental force applied was too much for the pilot causing him to suffer a major stroke. Suddenly control was up to the second pilot.

The second pilot pushed the spaceship down towards the planet hoping to get below the debris that was destroying the ship. Entering the atmosphere at too steep of an angle stripped away the battered remains of the third shield. Panicked, Atac commanded the second pilot to get the craft on the ground as quickly as possible. Unable to argue, the pilot headed towards the ground.

A new problem quickly arose. The ship was headed directly at a heavily populated area. By this time, the spaceship was screaming through the atmosphere leaving a flaming trail behind it and every radar installation around the world was tracking it. Unfortunately for the Quatyl, the trajectory took the spaceship over a country that was involved in a war with a neighboring country. This war involved each country lobbing low altitude missiles at the other country.

The border of the more technologically advanced country was protected from incoming missiles by several batteries of anti- missile missiles. One of the operators, an idiot by his own admission, decided it would be 'fun' to see a missile take out a shooting star. The missile didn't take out the spaceship, but it did render one more shield useless and changed its trajectory. Although it wouldn't make Atac feel any better if he were to learn of it, the operator was court marshaled for his little stunt.

With half of the failsafe systems destroyed, the crew of Quatyl was terrified and curled into their life support pods anticipating death in a fiery crash. It should be noted that the life support pods were basically three chambered affairs. One chamber was shared by a mated pair of Quatyl and represented their living quarters. The other two chambers were individual work spaces that provided sufficient separation to allow them to work.

Atac, making his third bad decision, gave up all control over the pilot. The pilot, left alone to make decisions for himself for the first time in his life, decided to see what would happen if he did nothing. The spaceship started tumbling out of control. Anyone who wasn't fastened inside of a crash chair was killed by the jarring motions of the ship. A few other crew members were killed when struck by flying objects, including other members of the crew who had not been fortunate enough to be secured in their crash chair. The pilot was one of those who didn't survive long enough to regret his decision to do nothing.

The first contact with the surface of the planet was in the middle of a large body of water. The space ship skipped along the body of water like a flat stone thrown across a lake. Each bounce damaged more of the ship and threw the crew around the interior. The Quatyl were fairly safe within their safety pods, but Leac was slightly injured with a cut to his side.

Skipping across the ocean did have one benefit although it would be years before that benefit was realized by the Quatyl. After the third bounce, not a single radar installation had any clue where the spaceship was headed. It was flying too low to be easily observed by radar. It was assumed by Earth authorities that it sank into the ocean. Since the search area was too large to cover, the Quatyl were spared the indignity of becoming lab specimens in some secret government laboratory while unconscious and unable to react.