Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

The sight that met him was that of a ship. It had lights on the outside that illuminated its hull. It was more than double the size of his ship, and he could see that it was much more advanced. Its hull was smooth and black, filled with sharp angles. And with things mounted on the hull. Quvor felt his fear intensify. He didn’t recognize what those things were, but he could guess. He saw the markings on the side of the ship, but of course couldn’t read them. In a moment he felt both elated and terrified. His people weren’t alone in the universe. Since the first time they looked to the stars, they have always wondered if there was someone else out there. They have written stories about them, imagined what they would be like. And now he knew that they existed. A million questions came to his mind. Who were they? Where did they come from? And most importantly – What did they want with him?

“We are receiving a radio transmission from the unidentified object Commander.” Quvor twisted around at the sound of the Computer’s voice.

“What?”

“We are receiving a radio transmission from the unidentified object Commander.” The Computer repeated.

Quvor immediately pushed himself to the chair and strapped himself in. He accessed the communications panel, and then he hesitated. After a few moments he reached over and played the message.

“ Greetings. ” A clearly synthetic voice said in Trivaxian, which startled Quvor. “ We wish your people no harm, and we apologize if our presence startled you. We did not plan on contacting you directly, as our ships are only passing through your system. ” Quvor’s ears twitched. Ships? He thought. “ But we could not do nothing once we discovered the plight of your ship. Our ships sensors detected the damage to your ship, and we determined that with your current technology it is unlikely that you will realize what is wrong in time. We want to offer our help in repairing the damage to your ship. You can send a response to this frequency. If you do not wish our help, we will leave you alone. And if you wish it, answer quickly. Our ships cannot spare much time in this system and your ship’s time is running out. ”

As the message ended Quvor’s fear abated a little, and again he wanted nothing more than to ask them all the questions he had, but the fact that they detected what was wrong with his ship brought an feeling of haste to him. But still he hesitated, he didn’t know if he could trust them. And how would they repair his ship? Their ship was larger, but he doubted that they could put his ship into theirs. Would they come on board his ship? So many questions. As the time passed, he debated waiting for a response from the command, but he knew that the decision was ultimately his. Quvor took a deep breath and then recorded a message.

Ship Master Karen Lee sat in the CC of the light cruiser Ajax, looking at her holo and the alien ship shown there. Then her Communications Handler turned to her,

“We have a response Ship Master. They accept our offer to help.”

Karen turned to her High Prime Robert Tully, “Send the repair team.” Robert opened a channel to the shuttle crew. They already knew what they needed to repair the ship, and had already fabricated the required materials. Then she turned back to the Comm Handler, “Send a message informing them of the repair team.” The Comm Handler nodded and started recording another message.

“Ceres, can you send the translation of the alien language to the repair teams implants?” Karen asked her ship’s Ai.

“Yes Ship Master. The translation isn’t complete, but it will suffice.” Ceres answered.

“Good.” Karen said.

Her High Prime turned to her as he closed the link with the shuttle crew.

“Can you imagine traveling through space in something like that?” He asked, pointing at the alien craft. Karen’s only response was a shiver.

Quvor watched as a smaller ship exited the big one and drew closer to his ship. It was much smaller than even his ship, it came to a stop above the air tank 3.

“Commander.” The Computer’s voice startled Quvor. “We are getting a communication request, it is coming from the smaller object.”

Quvor turned around and went back to his chair, he had again approached the window when the aliens told him they would be sending a repair team. Now he reached for the communications panel and accepted the communications.

“ Hello? Do you hear me? ” A synthetic voice asked in Trivaxian, obviously it was some kind of translator device. Quvor gathered himself and answered,

“Yes, I can hear you.” He said.

“ I just wanted to let you know that we will be sending a team to the surface of your ship to repair the damage. ”

“Uh… Okay.” Quvor lamely said. He looked over to another panel that showed a video feed of the outside of his ship. The cameras looked at the areas of his ship and were fixed. He studied the one that showed air tank 3. Soon he saw three figures ‘drop’ to his ship’s hull. Quvor gasped as he saw them, the first thing he noticed was that they were bipedal like his people were, but that they lacked a second pair of hands. And the next was their suits. They looked more like armor, and were slim, at least that was how they looked. The three aliens walked on his ship’s surface as if it had gravity, so Quvor assumed some kind of magnetic boots. Each suit had a cable connected to it stretching outside of the camera’s view, probably back to their ship, and then after a moment two of the aliens extended their hands alongside the cables and caught some kind of boxes that came down the cables. They detached the boxes from the cables, and started working on his ship’s hull.

Quvor again felt a shiver of fear ran through him, they could be sabotaging his ship. But he knew that if they wanted to destroy his ship, they surely had easier ways. He watched as the two crouched down close to the place where his repairs were and start working. He couldn’t really see what they were doing, the camera was too far away. The third alien walked to the access hatch for the air tank 3 controls. He leaned down and opened it. He too started working. A few minutes later he glanced at the gauges for the air tanks, and saw that the pressure in the air tank 3 was dropping rapidly. Immediately Quvor sighed in relief. The aliens were helping him.

A short time later, the aliens finished with the air tank and then moved to the engines. All the time they worked Quvor was busy recording everything about them and their ship. Control on Trivax watched with him breathlessly as the aliens repaired his ship, they were flabbergasted by the events. They had no plan for anything like this, and never did even a small possibility of something like this enter their minds. A couple of hours before they were alone in the universe, and now an alien race was helping repair his ship. It was mind-blowing.

Then after they finished working on the engines they again contacted Quvor.

“ We are done, you shouldn’t have any problems now. But you really should build your ships more… Sturdier. ” The generated voice said.

“I’ll be sure to tell that to my people back home.” Quvor said, “Thank you.”

“ No problem friend. ” He saw them start back to their ship.

“Wait!” Quvor said, “I.. I have so many questions.”

After a short pause he heard, “ I know. What is your name? ”

“Quvor.” He said.

“ Well Quvor, ” The alien said. Quvor heard his name spoken by a real voice not the synthesized one like the rest of his words, and it wasn’t exactly right. “ My name is Karen. ” The alien continued, now it was the alien’s name that was said in its real voice. “ I know that you have a lot of questions, but I can’t give you the answers. Even this small interference will have grave repercussions for your people. We don’t want to do any more harm. ” With that Quvor saw them getting pulled back to their small ship. “ Safe travels Quvor. ”