Tertiary Complex, Phobos
8 years 2 months 4 days after Eridani landing
“Work!” growled Dr. Mal as he slammed one of his tools down on top of the communication computer. The machine let out what sounded like an ornery beep and something inside of it sparked and slowly whined into silence.
“Watch it!” said Edie looking up from her desk in the nearly empty command center for the base.
“None of this,” He hit the console, “Stupid,” he hit it again, “Stuff works!” fishing another tool out of his belt Dr. Mall slammed it into the side of the communication computer and opening another panel begin to furiously work on the machine even as he grumbled to himself about something.
“Have you found the problem at least?” asked Edie.
“I think it’s got something to do with all of the timing satellites being out of alignment and off time. Half the atomic clocks are malfunctioning and their sending out bad timing signals to everything. I’m trying to hardwire everything to just ignore the timing. I’m assuming you don’t care to know the exact millisecond a message arrived?” asked Dr. Mal as he looked up from the computer to peer at the commander.
“No, not particularly. I take it we can’t fix the timing signals?”
“Not unless you got a ship and you want to spend the next decade fixing every satellite in the Sol system.”
“I’ll pass. Carry on then.”
Dr. Mal grimaced and turned back to the computer.
Unwilling to deal with the temperamental scientist Edie pushed herself up from her chair and drifting for several moments in the air put her feet on the deck plates and pushed off. Drifting into the corridor and only keeping herself vaguely oriented with the floor she bounded down towards the small kitchenette that had at one time been reserved for the base officers. They were almost out of food, but one thing it would take years yet to run out of was the coffee. A blessing if ever there was one.
Entering the room she immediately shot towards the machine that was keeping the coffee hot.
“Commander!” said Chang from where he was lounging on one of the couches, “Why are you here? I thought you were pulling a shift in command.”
“Dr.Mal’s still not fixed the array yet. I’m giving him some time to try and sort it out. Something to do with every satellite in the Sol system being on the fritz.”
“So sensors are still down, yay. He going to ask me to go out and look at the dish again?” asked Chang not hiding his displeasure at the idea.
“Maybe.” Said Edie as she put her mug into the machine and reveled in the smell of the brew. It was the Martian blend, but over the years she had gotten used to its unique flavor. Had double the caffeine of Earth blends which was a plus.
“I went out three times yesterday, I’m telling you there is nothing wrong with the thing. Even the satellites being out of sync would not have fucked it up this badly.”
Edie slowly nodded only half paying attention to hi, “I know it’s probably something internal. Heck he might have broken it and now he’s trying to fix it without telling me.”
She yawned and pulled her mug out of the machine taking a sip ignoring the burning heat and reveling in the caffeine the commander closed her eyes for a moment.
“The Martians built stuff to be tough, but not to be maintained by people with almost no experience.”
Chang chuckled, “You’ve made all of us go through how many accreditation courses? I swear if you want me to go through another electrical engineering course I’ll die! I’m a grunt not an egghead!”
Edie opened her eyes to glare at him. It was true, when the hay first become stranded on the gun platform and it had become apparent they would have to maintain it indefinitely she had started everyone not accredited on through official classes. They had the textbooks and actual course videos as well as hundreds of hours of recordings for the different types of repairs but still it wasn’t the same. As actually being taught how to do something.
“Yeah well making you take another course wouldn’t make much of a difference at this point.”
Chang somberly nodded in agreement. It was the threat looming over everyone’s heads. The fact that they didn’t have food to last much more than a month at this point. They had all listened as other stations had gone silent around the Sol system. Either hunted down by the aliens or once they had left starved like they were. The miners out by Juipiter had been the most recent to go, the men had managed to rig up a hydroponics bay and collect additional sunlight but given their limited pressurised area the men had ended up killing on another.
“Commander?” Peter’s voice crackled over the Link.
“Yes?” asked Edie speaking and not bothering to take her Link out of her pocket.
“I’m picking up something odd on some old equipment down here in the basement, a radio frequency of some sort. I would normally pass it off as a malfunctioning satellite interfering, but the interference has been getting stronger over the past three hours. I don’t know what satellite would be getting that close to us for so long.”
“What do you think it is?” asked Edie as she took another sip of her coffee.
“All I can think of is a ship, so either a wreck is drifting by us or someone is moving towards us. We would have picked up the thermals of a wreck weeks ago when the array was working. This has to be a beacon form a ship.”
Edie thought for a moment, “We’re going up a readiness level. Chang, go and help get that array back online we need to be able to do active scans.”
Chang pushed himself up off of the couch and twisted around in the air.
“Got it.”
“Peter I’m coming down.”
“Roger that. I’ve got Dr. Leon helping me as well. He’s actually starting to freak out.”
“Right.”
Sticking her full mug to the wall with its magnets Edie hit the readiness alert on the wall as well and pushing off of floor as a low drone began to sound throughout the base.
Moving through the compound Edie quickly came to the hatch access that led down further into the bedrock of the small moon reaching almost to its core. Edie pushed off of the ceiling and dove down headfirst through the hatch into the dimly lit compartments below. This area was actually the rock of the asteroid moon itself, with only a thin layer of heat retention foam around it to keep it sealed.
All of Martian construction was the same, half meticulously planned out and half jury rigged. The Martians had after all never been as affluent as Earth so they had to make do even for their most complex military bases. Not because of a lack of resources, but due to the very fact that they had to carry life support and containment with them to every locale. The atmosphere and warmth that humans on Earth had taken for granted was available only available to the Martians if they brought it with them.
Beyond it the bubbles they built, they would die in moments.
As a result the Martians used everything to its limit and then some. The life support system for the base was therefore not a new machine, but rather something that had originally been the life support system for one of the original colonization craft.
A system that had been upgraded, retrofitted, and like the ship of Theseus had evolved. Which also meant that the majority of Martian technology had ‘personality’ and needed constant upkeep. To that effect nothing was ever thrown away in case it might be needed again. So for the base everything left over had gone in the basement.
Drifting down looking around in the dim lighting Edie spotted Peter and Dr. Leon at the far end of the wide space.
“What is it?” asked Edie as she pushed off of a heavier piece of equipment and lightly drifted towards them.
“I would have told you if I knew what it was for sure. For now I’m saying it’s a beacon.” Growled Peter.
He and the doctor were standing in front of an old radio transceiver, it was buzzing and a sound was issuing from its speakers. It didn’t sound like there was any static but rather that the sound was slightly out of phase. It sounded like someone was talking, but it was cutting in and out.
“Doctor?” asked Edie.
“I don’t know, I’m not a communication specialist!” grumbled Leon.
“I’m running the sound through patter recognition but I’ve got nothing yet.” Said Peter.
“You did say it was getting stronger though? Maybe the Lunar guys fixed their array. It sounds like someone is talking.” Said Edie as she listened to try and sort out what was being said.
“I would agree, but this is one of the oldest communication bands UHF. They don’t even have an array to transmit with that from what I know. The signal is also way too strong as well, unless they hooked their reactor straight up to the communication system and their still ramping the signal up.” said Peter.
Edie looked at him, “So, what are you saying?”
Peter was silent for a moment.
“I’m sure it’s a ship.”
Edie slowly nodded.
“Right.”
She pulled out her link.
“Chang, we have IFF detection on?”
“No, why?”
“Humor me and switch that system on. I’m betting our array is fine.”
“Give me a moment.”
Everyone was silent as he worked.
“No IFF’s that the computer knows are in the vicinity.”
There was a rustle and muffled crash through the communication link.
“Power up the gun Chang.”
“Ma’am?” asked Chang.
“Peter’s fairly sure a ship is moving towards us. Power up the gun.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
Edie glanced over at the other two as the entire station began to hum. Everyone could hear the reactors rotating out of power saving mode to combat readiness. The capacitors began to charge further lending to the racket.
“Doctor, I want you at the power distribution console. Peter, you’re at targeting. Move!”
The two men pushed off of the floor, flying through the air and the low gravity towards the hatch that led up to the rest of the compound. Behind them Edie snagged the old radio unit and balancing the mass kicked off to follow them.
They had lost contact with the moon, and she had the sneaking suspicion that these aliens were somehow involved.
The Valiant, Sol system
“I’m detecting an increase in the power output of the fusion reactor! It’s going through the roof!” said Klyn.
Allen winced, “Guess they detected us then. The message must not be getting through.”
Maunt sitting in his chair nodded in agreement, “Then your recommended course of action for an alien ship to appear non-threatening?”
“Weapons stay off, and boost the signal you’re transmitting to try and initiate contact. You can power defensive measures though.” Said Allen trying to remember what protocol would be for a Martian and a Terran ship during the war.
“I was going to do that in any case. From what you and Ranlin have told me of Humans you can be somewhat. Unpredictable.” Said Maunt pausing on the last word.
Allen nervously laughed, “Yeah we can be. Edie’s a good commander from what I know of her. Your ship doesn’t look anything like what attacked us so I’m thinking she’ll wait to fire.”
Maunt pursed his lips and both of his ears slowly rotated forwards. Allen wasn’t sure what to make of that so he turned to Ranlin.
She was scanning Mars which was now about the size of Earth’s moon seen from the surface as they slowly approached.
“What the heck happened to the planet?” she asked looking at a magnified image of the planet.
“The siege,” said Allen sadly as he looked at what was left.
An image of the red planet that had been the second home of humanity appeared on the main bridge display. Allen winced. He had seen satellite imagery of it, but then nothing had been this clear after the events of the Alien invasion 8 years ago.
The thin band around the equator of the planet was one of the more obvious changes. The tether for the elevator that had connected the Station to the surface of the planet had been intentionally cut by the criminal syndicates that ran it. They had placed charges along the line to help break it up and ensure the worst case scenario of the tether quite literally wrapping around Mars several times did not come to fruition, but still pieces of it had hit the equatorial section of Mars not completely burning up in the atmosphere ringing the planet with craters along almost its entire equator. Their actions had provided the remnants of the Earth and Martian fleets cover as they attacked the alien ship, a sacrifice that had only bought Humanity a few minutes.
The band that Mars now sported was the last remnants of it, the Station had long ago drifted into deep space, whipped out of orbit by the sheer amount of tangential momentum it had when its line was cut.
All that remained of the few space cities on Mars were larger craters, which looked as if they had been bombarded from orbit.
Allen looked at it for a moment and shaking his head turned away from it.
He had been looking at Earth since the aliens had attacked, but there were no scars on the planet from it. From the moon the Earth looked the same, still green and blue. He had watched hurricanes move across her surface, clouds rotate and the planet continue forwards almost unperturbed by the loss of Humanity.
By now Nature would have already claimed most of what humanity had built up, in a hundred years or so most of humanity’s structures would be ruins. In a thousand years nothing much would be left. In a million? Humanity would be just another layer in the archeological record. It was a sobering thought, but still somewhat comforting. The Earth at least would recover.
Mars though?
It was the planet of war, always had been. The naming was apt for what the planet inspired. Every action, every moment alive on its surface was a victory. Humanity had carved a living out on its surface, and flourished.
Mars had been the first location where colonies or outposts had not been dependent on Earth for re-supply. Mars was where Humanity had built its dreams. It represented what they had been dreaming of for generations.
Now it was ash.
The scars would remain on the surface of the planet for millions of years. Unchanging, only slowly eroded by the weak dust storms, buried beneath them.
“You alright?” asked Ranlin her voice so low that Allen barely heard her.
“I’m fine,” said Allen as he turned back around to look at the planet on the monitor. Humans had died on her surface, but he did more of a disservice ignoring that.
Ranlin pursed her lips and her ears moved back and forth unsure. She could practically smell that something was wrong with him, but at the same time she could tell that she shouldn’t really ask what it was.
“Sir, the energy readings are still climbing.” Said Klyn.
“Still?” asked Maunt.
“The amount of energy, if even half of it were channeled into a kinetic shot would punch straight through our hull.”
The captain nodded, “Sound general quarters, all civilians to their compartments seal every hatch.”
He turned to look at Allen.
“Are you sure they will not fire?” he asked.
“I’m sure. Keep transmitting the message. I can’t think they haven’t heard it by now though.”
“The power levels are still climbing, just what did your people use this thing for?” asked Klyn looking over at Allen.
“It was used strictly against ships during the war, the Martian weapons team actually had to downgrade its capabilities. It would at full power be able to hit Earth with Tungsten rods more powerful than any nuclear weapons we ever used.”
Allen hesitated.
“As much as Earth and Mars fought neither side was aiming to commit genocide.”
The Vakurian on the bridge all looked at each other and then at the Human.
“Still, the scientists and the Terran military squad that have been on Phobos for the past decade have been removing those limiters. Not to mention overriding every safety feature. The gun can fire maybe three more times before it falls apart. But like Klyn said, it will hopefully punch through any shield technology at yours or the Empires disposal.”
Klyn’s ears slowly rotated as he watched the thermal output from the small asteroid moon of Mars continue to grow.
“At this point it would be like we don’t even have shields.” He said.
“Then lower them.” Said Maunt after a moment of contemplation.
Klyn looked up both of his ears going back to his skull, “Sir?”
“If there’s no point lower them. I can’t be interpreted as anything but a sign of peace.”
Klyn swallowed but obeying his orders lowered the energy fields that were protecting the Valiant. Allen felt the ship shudder slightly as they were removed.
“Still no response from the message?” asked Allen.
“Nothing.” Said Ranlin.
Tertiary Complex, Phobos
“The ships energy signature has changed.” Said Peter from the targeting console. A blurry image of what he was seeing was being projected on the main monitor. A reticule was lined up exactly on the misshapen mass that was moving towards them.
“How so?” asked Edie.
“The energy has dropped off, significantly like they switched off their reactor or something.”
“They’re dead in space?”
Peter chuckled, the image on the main monitor switched to thermal bathing the alien hulk in red and blues of temperature differences.
“No, I said it was like that kind of energy output. I’m thinking they deactivated whatever the shield tech is. We’re actually getting thermals from inside now. Look!”
The image zoomed in displaying pockets of varying heat across the hull. Conduits which were clearly carrying coolant were visible along the hull spider webbing like veins. At even intervals along the mass were small discs were rapidly cooling going from a hot white to a cool blue. They had to be a part of whatever created the energy shields.
“A white flag if I ever saw one.” Said Dr. Leon from where he was sitting managing the reactor as well as all of the capacitors that it was dumping power into.
“Dr. Mal?” asked Edie.
The man glanced up from the mess of the communication console he was trying to fix.
“I agree.” He growled.
“Really? I would think you want to fire at them.” Said Chang from his own console where he was also trying to get the active sensor suite back online despite what Mal was doing to the systems.
“I do, but I would also very much like to live.” Muttered the scientist, “Provoking them by destroying another ship out of nothing but spite seems like the fastest way for us to die.”
Edie sighed, “Peter, if the energy spikes anywhere let me know. Do not fire without my authorization.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The old radio equipment next to her crackled, and everyone in the room glanced down at it.
“The transmission is on the old S-band, but there’s still something off with the transmission.” Said Edie as she looked down at the machine.
“If they really are aliens trying to communicate, they’re probably trying to match our frequencies. If the equipment’s not built for that it’s not surprising something is off.” Said Peter not taking his eyes off of his target.
“rra-7-2-0-6-9.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Well that was English.” Said Dr. Leon as he drifted away from the power management console to kneel next to the radio.
“Sounded like the end to an authentication code.” Said Edie as she knelt down as well.
“Who had 72069?” asked Chang.
“That was the one Pastore gave to his civvie, what was the guy’s name?” asked Peter.
“Allen something.” Said Edie.
“That was him, so it’s his code the aliens are transmitting?” asked Dr. Mal.
“We’ll know in a second.” Said Dr. Leon as he adjusted a small dial on the radio.
“Edie, I’m on the giant ship that’s bearing down on you. Long story, they’re friendly. Eden-Terra-7-2-0-6-9.”
“That’s his voice.” Said the Commander.
“Well I must be a heck of a story, why isn’t Pastore transmitting it?” asked Chang, “Or for that matter any of the military personnel?”
“He’s either been coerced to give up his codes, or something happened on the Moon and he somehow got into contact with aliens.” Said Edie.
“We need communication with the moon back, keep working on that Mal.”
“Got it.”
“Leon, we need to transmit back where the mic buttons on this thing?” asked Edie as she turned the transmitter around.
“Here, it was built with the old EVA suits in mind.” Said the Martian scientist as he pointed the controls out.
Edie keyed the mic, “This is Commander Serlin, responding to the message from the man claiming to be Allen Everett. Alpha- Romeo- 8-0-1-2-6.”
The first message repeated again as everyone in the command center waited.
“Give me a second, uh, Alpha- Charlie- 1-5-5-9-7” said a voice over the radio that matched the repeating message.
Peter quickly entered the code into his computer and frowned, “Unless he’s warning us that we’re about to be placed under quarantine for radiation poisoning from I think he has the wrong code.”
“Wait! Alpha-Charlie- 1-5-5-7-9! That’s what it is.”
Everyone turned to look at Peter as he ran the code.
“That one checks out, he’s signalling a friendly ambassador contingency. Technically it’s for a Martian diplomatic team but I don’t think that’s what he has in mind.” Said Peter.
Edie rolled her eyes and keyed the mic again, “Allen?
_ “Yeah sorry about scaring you guys, we’ve been transmitting the code since we left the moons orbit your communications down?”_
“They have been. Now, you want to explain what is going on?”
There was a spat of some alien language in the background.
“Pastore there?” asked Edie keeping her voice level.
“No, he decided the aliens were going to kill us all. I disagreed. I’m pretty sure I can’t go back to the moon any time soon. I know you guys are short on food, you want some? They have some weird dietary things going on but the worst it’s given me so far is indigestion.”
Dr. Leon let out a strangled chuckle, “That’s a tempting offer, but I need you to tell me what happened with Pastore.”
“The Vakurian’s are asking if you could disable the gun and point it away before we talk some more, they’re a little antsy with the thing pointed right at them. They’re fairly certain that if it fires the shot will punch through the hulls of the Valiant.”
“I’m not sure we can do that Allen, as much as you might trust these aliens. You need to tell me what happened with Pastore.”
“There are children up here on this ship commander. Little alien kids with pointy ears, but kids all the same.”
Edie paused, “Children? On a battleship?”
“Short story? This is an enemy of my enemy type of relationship at the moment. The Empire, the guys who attacked us? Did the same to them nearly three hundred years ago. They’ve been living in these ships ever since. These ships are more than generational. They are an entire culture.”
“Then there are more ships?” asked Edie.
“From what I understand yes. The Valliant’s a part of a larger fleet”
Edie slowly nodded, “Can we at least get a visual?”
“Sorry it was the most I could do to figure out how to get the radio link working, I’m no engineer. It was a miracle we were able to get this old band communication working. They had some samples of old Human tech they’ve been studying so they got the older protocols to work with their technology. The newer stuff? We’re still trying to figure that out.”
“Older human technology?” asked Dr. Leon jumping forwards towards the mic.
Edie slowly turned to look at the man and raised her eyebrows. He rolled his and mouthed ‘sorry’.
“Another really long story I’ve not completely figured out either. A Vakurian crashed on Earth sometime around 2020 and then left with a human, the Empire attacked them and their ship drifted for almost three hundred years before the Vakurian found it.”
Edie blinked absorbing that, “Alright. That does sound like something that will need a little more information. We’ll point the gun away but we’re keeping the capacitors charged.”
There was another spat of alien language on the other side of the communication channel and a spat of mechanically translated words as well that Edie didn’t quite make out.
“That’ll work for now. The Vakurian’s are asking if they can send a shuttle down.”
“What’s their ultimate goal here Allen?”
The line was silent for a few moments.
“They were here looking for allies against the Empire. They didn’t find that or at least not as strong as an ally they were hoping for, but from here on out I suppose it’s humanitarian?”
“Humanitarian?” asked Edie bemused.
“You know what I mean. I’m hoping they’ll let me stay, I was going stir crazy on the moon. From what I remember you guys are almost out of food right? They’ll probably refill the stocks if you don’t want to leave with them. We haven’t really discussed it to be honest.”
“They can land. We’ll open up one of the bays. You’re coming down with them right?”
“I thought it was obvious but yes. Give us twenty minutes!”
The line went dead and Edie let out a sigh.
“Well that was interesting.” Said Chang.
“I can’t keep the capacitors charged for any longer than fifteen more minutes.” Said Leon.
“What percentage could you hold us at?”
“Maybe 65% of highest capacity.”
“So long as they keep their shields down that should be plenty.” Said Peter.
“Keep us at that then. Chang, I want you at the bay to greet them.”
“Are we not going to touch on the fact that something happened on the moon? Pastore might be an asshole but he’s still military.” Said Chang.
“He did avoid it. He might be under duress despite the code he gave us, he is a civilian.” Said Edie.
“Got it, so you’re not going to tell me to meet them without a weapon?” asked Chang.
“No, a sidearm only though. Have the rest of the squad waiting in the corridor beyond the bay in full tactical.”
“So I get to be the pin cushion if they decide to shoot?”
“Exactly.”
“I feel so appreciated.”