Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

Tomas Klein has given her orders to send a message to the Ra’a’zani before engaging them, they had their protocols and Asumy provided everything they need to know about the Ra’a’zani language. They even had their translators programed with the Ra’a’zani language. But Johanna doubted that any talks between the them would do anything, from everything she read Johanna could see that Ra’a’zani were monsters and slavers. They won’t retreat without a fight.

A ping from her imp told Johanna that it was time for her to go the CC. She got up from behind her desk and went to the CC. She entered and took her place in the command chair.

“We will be exiting trans-space in ten minutes Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Andros Venter said.

Johanna nodded and turned her command board on. To the side she used the holographic menus to send an order to the entire fleet, putting them on alert. The system they were entering now was the second system that the Union ship discovered with intelligent life in it. And as such could potentially have a space faring civilization.

“Exiting trans-space!” Navigation Handler said. No one felt anything as they returned to normal space, as they never did, the transition was seamless. And as the viewer wasn’t turned on, the only thing that told them that they were now back in normal space was the fact that the holo started to update as it gathered light from the system and from the information provided by the fleets passive sensors.

Johanna and the rest of the CC crew sat quietly and waited for the holo to finish drawing a picture of the system. As soon as it finished, Johanna leaned forward in her chair and looked closely at the fourth planet in the system.

“Well, I guess that this is going to be a problem.” Johanna said. They still didn’t have a quality picture of the planet itself, but there were objects in its orbit. Objects that were clearly artificial.

“Do we know what those are?” Andros asked.

“Most likely satellites.” Sensor Handler said. “There are two objects that are larger, most likely stations of some kind. We need to get closer to verify. I am also getting a lot of radio signals, comparable to Earth in early 2000s. It looks like they just started exploring space.”

Andros turned to Johanna and raised an eyebrow. They knew what they could encounter, and had a plan. But the position of the inhabited planet in its current orbit puts it right between their fleet and the outgoing trans-station. Which meant that if they had even a primitive way of watching the skies they would detect them when they passed their world. Going around wouldn’t work either, as it would add too much time to their trip.

“Start passively scanning everything, let’s see if they have a presence anywhere else in the system. And try to discern at what level their technology is.” Johanna said.

“Should we start for the trans-station?” Andros asked.

“Yes, but let’s go at half speed. We don’t know if they will detect the light of our exit from trans-space, it will be visible only for an instant but let’s be cautious.” Johanna said.

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Andros said.

“Turiel, start studying the alien signals. Language translation, software compatibility – the standard procedure. I want a workable translation of their language within hours.” Johanna said.

“I’ve already started Fleet Commander.” Turiel’s voice said over the speakers.

“Good.”

A loud noise woke Quvor, he opened his eyes to a darkened room the only illumination coming from various small lights on the walls. He reached to his side and shut the alarm off.

“Computer, lights.” Quvor said.

“Good morning, Commander Quvor.” The Computer said in its synthesized voice.

“Good morning Computer.” Quvor responded, he felt an itch on his snout as he always did when he woke up. So he reached with his upper left arm and scratched it, as he used his lower arms to unbuckle himself from his sleeping harness. As he reached for the last buckle he used his upper right arm to grab the handhold above his head and then pull himself out. He floated over to the other side of the room in zero gravity, and reached a locker with his uniform. He slept only in his undergarments, so he pulled out his uniform one piece and started putting it on, which could be tricky when you are floating around.

“Computer, report.” Quvor said as he was struggling with his uniform.

“We are still on the correct course, no alterations needed. Engines are within acceptable limits. Air supply is at the projected level, the repair to the air tank is holding.” Computer said. Quvor’s ship had an unfortunate encounter with the small grain of dust that made a small hole in one of his air tanks. He was losing air fast so he was forced to put on his EVA suit and fix the damage himself. It had a lot of people back home on Trivax tearing their fur off watching and listening as he repaired the damage. But he had no choice, his mission was a long one, and without air he was as good as dead. Thankfully, he managed to contain the breach in time, he still had enough air to reach his target and get back. But just barely. His mission was to visit the fifth planet in their system – Rofvax.

It was to be a pivotal moment in his peoples history. They had sent unmanned probes there before, but this is the first manned mission to Rofvax, and Quvor will be the first Trivaxian ever to step on another planet. Of course, his people have already visited the two moons orbiting Trivax, but they were much closer. Going to another planet, well that was something… Monumental. And Quvor’s name will be etched into the history of his people for all time, up there with the greatest of his people. The fact that he was traveling alone will also be noted. His people didn’t mind being alone for great stretches of time, but taking a trip to another planet alone was a difficult prospect. The reason for that was mostly cost, and resources.

“Good.” Quvor said, as he finally won the battle with this clothes, “Anything else to report.”

“Yes, the scanning computer has detected an anomaly.” Computer said.

“What kind of anomaly?” Quvor asked intrigued.

“Unknown.”

Quvor’s snout twitched, and the small ears on top of his head flapped for a moment.

“Put the data on the bridge.” Quvor said and grabbed a handhold on a wall and pushed himself down the opening. He floated through his ships living area and then through another opening into the room that served as the ship’s center. Quvor strapped himself into the chair and started reading the report on the anomaly. The passive scanner detected an unknown light source close to Rofvax, but there wasn’t supposed to be anything there that could reflect light. There were no probes there or anything like that, and even if there were reflected light wouldn’t have the kind of intensity as this event had. The light was there only for a moment, but enough for his sensor to note it. Sadly, his ship’s main telescopes were pointed in the other direction, and the computer wasn’t smart on its own to move the telescope in the right direction. And it didn’t wake up Quvor as it calculated no danger to him or the ship, and it was very important for Quvor to get a full sleep every night. The event happened nine hours ago, just after he went to sleep. He doubted that whatever created light was still there, but nevertheless he turned the telescope towards it, and set it to record.

“Computer, send this data back to command on Trivax.” Quvor said.

“Right away Commander.”

“We have detected something.” Sensor Handler said.

Johanna spun in her chair, “What?”

“Well, it is either a ship, or a probe. Probably a step up from Earths early 2000s space technology. We almost didn’t see it, as it has almost no energy signature and is moving very slowly. It is on a course that will eventually lead it to the fifth planet in system.” Sensor Handler said.