Fabienne Gschwind - Star Map

Sure enough, the black universe with its cold stars opened up before them in all its glory.

"Congratulations, we survived a vortex!" Nemo grinned and laughed.

No one wanted to rush the commissioning of the ship's systems, so it took a good two weeks to get everything ready. Nemo kept grabbing his gray hair and shouting in frustration: “we'll never turn off all the ship's systems again, what a stupid idea.”

Great joy on the tenth day when finally all sanitary facilities were working again without any problems. "Finally the shower are working again," exclaimed Joe delightedly.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the outside cables to the sensor batteries were burned out by the electromagnetic currents. And the outdoor robots were on the job for several days replacing everything.

Then, finally, all the sensors were turned on, and the crew could begin to determine their exact location. The semi sensors were submerged so they could look into subspace at the same time. Just like a periscope.

"It's exactly 61,976.4 light-years to Earth," Milo proudly announced, pointing to the map of the Milky Way where they were.

"So, it will take us roughly 200 years to go back that far!”

“When we are mapping the subspace our average speed of 0.5 lightyear per day… so I would estimate it to 180 years. But it is best-case if we do not encounter major subspace obstacles or similar,” Milo corrected the figure.

"Was anyone seriously planning to ever fly back to Earth?" asked Nemo, looking around.

"Well, I would have liked to have published my work," explained Milo sadly.

Joe sighed. "No matter what happens, I hope we have a few more adventures before we die.”

That same evening after dinner, a meeting was also called to plan how to proceed. It would take a few more weeks to start the engines and the subspace generator. Everything had to be tested carefully to make sure that no damage had occurred. But how would it go on then?

"We can find a paradise planet and establish a colony," Lex suggested.

"Or we can make our way back right away. We could look specifically for Vortex and hope that one will bring us back?" came another suggestion from Milo.

"Maybe we will also discover aliens who can help us..."

Everyone laughed at the joke, when just at that moment an alarm sounded. It was a slight clang. No one recognized it.

"Kiki, what is that alarm?" asked Jay anxiously as everyone made a pilgrimage to the astrolab.

"The proximity alarm, when a ship in subspace gets too close to us.”

Everyone stopped as if rooted to the ground.

“Holy, shit, did I hear right?" asked Jay, his brown eyes wide. Then everyone rushed into the lab, and Milo ran to the screen with the raw data.

"There, there, there it is." He tapped excitedly in a place where there were lots of ones and zeros.

"This thing is huge," Joe yelled in horror.

"At least eight times the Abhysal ," Lex countered.

"Damn, if those idiots aren't careful, they'll ram into our semisensor bank."

Milo was a natural at interpreting raw data. But Lex, Joe, and Nemo offered nearly 100 years of combined subspace experience and were all experts in the field. They were also able to read the raw data in real-time. Only Jay felt illiterate as he struggled to interpret the numbers.

The sensor data showed the alien ship slowing down and reversing in front of the semi-sensors. Everyone gasped.

"They have a subspace drive!"

After this maneuver, the ship pulled away, and everyone watched as it floated away in the surface water.

"Can't they dive? Or don't they want to dive?" asked Joe, but no one answered.

Jay paced nervously. "They'll come back, and we won't have missiles or guns or anything. And we can't even move from the spot... Kiki, what's the emergency procedure if we run into aliens?"

"There is no emergency procedure for this case."

Finally, the crew decided to have the ET translation software ready and search for radio signals on all possible electromagnetic waves. Alternatively, the crew could board a shuttle and escape. But if the ET would destroy the Abhysal , or otherwise take it with them. The crew would be lost in a small shuttle anyway. So this option was dropped right away.

They had barely gotten everything ready when Kiki reported the ships arriving in subspace.

A few minutes later they were there, appearing in normal space.

They were large cuboid structures, cannon barrels, or something that looked like them protruding from the hull.

"They're transmitting something on a radio wave frequency," Joe whispered reverently.

Everyone prayed that the translation software would do its magic and translate the language.

"Maxmalian prototype ship. Surrender to the Squeltrem. If you do not resist, we will not harm you."

Everyone looked at each other questioningly. "Come on Jay, say we surrender..." Nemo urged. Jay struggled for quite a while, and finally, he spoke into the microphone. "We got it. We surrender."

Another message instructed them to be towed and not to leave the ship until they were ordered to do so.

"So, whoever wanted an adventure drew the lucky ticket." Nemo looked up at Joe, shook his head, then said, "I'll put on my Sunday best, we have a meeting with the ETs.”

Lex was pale with fear, but she said, "I'll transfer the translation software into hearing aids."

Nemo replied: ”I’m going to scan the ambient air of the ETs, not that we would get out and suffocate. Where are the soslindum injections? I need something to calm my nerves.”

It took two hours to pull the Abhysal into a huge hangar and moor it. In the meantime, it was known that the temperature inside the ship was about 25-30 degrees C° with very dry air. There was a little more oxygen, and instead of nitrogen, there was a nitrogen-argon atmosphere. But that would make no difference to the people. Kiki had been busy collecting data and was confident that the translations would go smoothly.

Finally, the crew was ordered to get ready for disembark. They all met again in the airlock. Everyone had given themselves a soslindum shot and drank liquizy. Only their clothes were not well coordinated. It seemed like everyone had their own idea of how they should appear in front of aliens.

Milo appeared in a suit with a white shirt and tie. Joe wore her usual gray machine operator overalls and sturdy safety shoes. Lex had donned light trekking gear and was wearing hiking boots. Nemo and Joe had not put on their technician suits because it looked too much like soldier armor and it could be misunderstood by the aliens.

Nemo wore a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and for shoes, he wore sturdy sandals.

Jay appeared in a military gala uniform that Nemo had sewn for a theatrical performance, and with his black lacquered shoes he looked very dashing. The suit was tailored and Jay muscular body bulged under the fabric. He had even trimmed his short haircut on the quick and massaged on gel into his nearly black hair. He looked like an ideal perfect army officer.

"We're such a messed-up company." He sighed when he saw the others, then put the earpiece in his ear and hung the speaker around his neck. This would loudly translate his words as he spoke. Finally, they were signaled to disembark and to leave the ship.

The hangar was mostly without artificial gravity, and eight soldiers threw them a rope so they could shimmy down. As they neared the ground, artificial gravity caught them and they slid gently to the ground.

Jay reared up and began his welcoming speech.

"We are explorers and we come in—" He got no further, for the soldier in his gray helmet interrupted him.