All That Glitters Ch. 27

"The third item might be a little more difficult to prove," Capt. Helga Hellebore stated. "We might have to show them a few things before they believe what we might be capable of."

"We can tell them a lot about us that might shock them some," Cdr. Seldon mused. "We could tell them about the inhabitants in the Terran Union. The numbers might surprise them.

"We can tell them that when the Piscium planet broke apart, mankind was still in its stone age and still acting as hunter-gatherers, agriculture not even having been thought of.

"We can also tell them that we are spread out over three hundred light years and that we travel daily from planet to planet, that item might interest them." Seldon ended.

"Agreed, however, I don't want to give them specifics on our FTL drive. That we can cover that distance in a day is good, that we can cover sixty-five light years in a bound is not," Fiona emphasized.

"We can always say that they abandoned the system, that would give us rights of salvage," Capt. Corine Leonard stated after a short pause.

"According to our laws," Ambassador Michelle Halten replied. "Perhaps not according to theirs. Maybe we could have the linguists look for information on their laws of salvage rights?" she asked of Dr. Hitron, who nodded in confirmation.

"We cannot tell them how many we have here in the Piscium system," Capt. Matt Cage stated.

"No, definitely not," Fiona agreed. "OK, between those of us in this room, I want some answers to send back to them, along with imagery of some kind. I especially want to hear from our UDC people on how we use that for the best shock value.

"You have your orders, lets get to it," Fiona ordered.

The Command Council Chambers, Fleet Shem, Interstellar Space

Mind-Hur Tae had been on duty for two shifts now, waiting for the reply from the aliens. She was getting restless, and quite frankly tired, waiting for the signal. She was surprised when it finally came. This one was large.

The Jurte Pair were waiting for it, so she sent it directly to the Command Council Room. A few moments later, she was in the room, waiting for all of the commanders to log in.

"Mind-Hur, are we ready?" Sha-Ret Jurte asked.

"Yes, My Jurte," Mind-Hur admitted. "This is a much larger message than what was normally sent, My Jurte."

Mind-Hur started the message and all were surprised by what they saw.

"Hello again, this is Raymond Clark," the Terran spoke softly from the image.

"You have asked us many important questions that we will, for the most part, answer in full. We will not tell you where our Home World, Terra, is, but otherwise we can answer your questions.

"First and foremost, the Terran sphere of influence is 300 of our light years across, your solar rotation is equivalent to approximately eighty-six percent of our year, a light year being the distance that light can travel in one of our solar rotations. We can cross the 300 light year distance and return to our start point in one of your planetary rotations, what we call a 'day' which is very close to your planetary rotation. That's 600 light years of distance travelled in one day.

"Inside that sphere, we are forty-eight planets that are full members of our Union. Those planets have a population of at least three billion inhabitants each. The more established planets have higher populations, though none of our planets has a population greater than ten billion inhabitants, as we tend to encourage the surplus to move to other less inhabited planets.

"Each of those planets has a Navy of many hundreds of ships, and each of those planets contributes to the Terran Union Navy which consists of many thousands of ships. That is what we have to make war against your fleet and your planet.

"There are seven planets that are still referred to as 'colony worlds' with less than one billion inhabitants.

"As to how far away our people might be from yours. Well, your single planet falls within the 300 light year sphere of our people. We know from recent recordings that your people number less than one billion, with approximately twenty-five percent of that being of the Warrior Class. That would classify your world as a colony world, a world that has not yet reached a point where it would receive full membership in the Union.

"You asked for proof that we have visited your new home world? Here it is," the Terran's image disappeared to be replaced with many different images of what was no doubt their home world. Images clearly showed the great orbital stations, their names prominent on their hulls.

Images of smaller space vessels, the kinds used as shuttles going planet side or between great vessels, appeared. They could clearly see the pilots of the craft looking out and pointing to the camera.

Then, a short planetary news feed started. They all recognized one of the leading reporters speaking to them. The news line made the information that was being transmitted this day's information, probably the early morning news feed.

Next came images of the Fleet Shem. Each individual ship was imaged and clearly showed their names.

Then a different type of space station appeared, definitely not one of their stations. It was easy to tell, however, that it was a mining station from the cages around the station with large rocks in them.

Around the station were strange looking, oval shaped vessels, with what appeared to be guns on them. They counted four of the vessels, but there would probably be more. Since they had no reference to gauge them by, they could not size the vessels.

"We are mining your ancient home world, but we respect the sacred resting grounds," Raymond continued. Images of a cemetery that some recognized from historical data as being at The Home Star and being used for the internment of prominent citizens. Including former emperors. Several of the graves being displayed showed names that the watchers recognized.

"We have showed you all that you have asked for though we have, for obvious reasons, not given you the numbers of our people at The Home Star, which we will henceforth refer to as the Piscium System.

"Your sacred resting grounds are safe from us, as we too respect our sacred resting grounds. Any pieces of the destroyed world we find with historical significance, that is a portion of the ancient surface, is safe from us. We wish only to mine the material from deeper in the destroyed planet's core.

"We will wait for your reply to this message, to see how you might have changed your view of us. This time, however, we will return your message quickly, within a short time to show you that yes, we can quickly get to you from the Piscium system.

"We will do something of importance for you. Each day, we will send one of our probes to your new home world and collect the morning news. That probe will then come to wherever the Fleet Shem may be and send the recording to the fleet. You may, in return, use the probe to send messages back to your home world, including the daily news feed that you make for the fleet.

"In this manner, you may retain contact with your home world and advise them of your situation here. This will be our gift to you, a show of good will between our peoples.

"We look forward to your reply and, eventually, to meeting you face-to-face. Have a nice day." The Terran's image faded to an image of the mining station, with a blue gas giant behind it on the left, and a star above it on the right. There was strange symbols at the base, most likely part of their alphabet. They were not sure what the symbology meant.

There was absolute silence for several minutes while the commanders took stock of what they had just been told.

"The distance of 429 solar light cycles (light years) across and, presumably, they can cross that distance and return to their start point, a distance of 858 solar light cycles, in one planetary rotation," Mind-Hur said quietly into the silence.

"And we are inside of their sphere of influence," one of the commanders stated.

"Propaganda!" exclaimed another of the commanders. "How are we supposed to believe all that?"

"The images of our home world are specific," Jurte Sha-Ret proclaimed. "They included images of the great orbital stations along with specifically showing their names. They showed todays morning news brief, today's news brief, of our home world! They showed the ships of this fleet, again showing their names.

"They showed images of the sacred resting place at The Home Star. They even showed us images of their station and some of their fighting vessels. I am inclined to believe them."

"What now then, My Jurte?" asked another of the commanders.

"Now, we craft a very special invitation. I am not ready to meet these people face-to-face. However, we might be able to bring one of these craft to us, to speak with these people directly via comms link," Sha-Ret Jurte explained.

The members of the command council smiled at each other. The quickly made plans to capture a ship from the enemy, in order to scientifically investigate the capabilities of the Terrans and make use of their ships abilities to travel such great distances. As the commander's images winked out one by one, Mind-Hur bowed to the Jurte pair and prepared to go back to her station on the command deck.

Somewhere close by, a much more stealthy FTL probe was watching and recording everything. When the comms probe returned, it would feed all that it captured to it on a tight beam link.

The people of the Fleet Shem had no real sense of comms security in the greater scheme of things. This allowed the probe to record everything that had just been discussed in the command council. It was the good fortune of humanity that the command council was held each day via a comms link that was poorly encrypted by human standards...

Conference Room One, Liramor-23, Piscium System

The alien's reply was waiting for the morning brief but it had to wait for the mundane aspects of the daily brief before being viewed.

"We thank-you for the information you have presented us," Sha-Ret Jurte began. "We also thank-you for your generous offer of daily contact with our home world. We accept your offer and ask how this might be facilitated.

"There is much we are sceptical about, of course, such as the numbers you claim of your Terran Union. We still do not believe that you are much of a threat to our people.

"We are pleased to note that you do not desecrate our sacred resting grounds, unlike the previous species that we found at The Home Star. But we are not pleased that your people are stealing minerals from The Home World.

"You claim your empire is 429 solar light cycles across and that one of your ships can cross that space and return in one planetary rotation, what you call a day. How are we to believe this? What proof have you of this?

"You claim that many of your planets are inhabited with three billion of your species, and that others hold more. Once again, how are we to believe this as we have been on our new home world for many centuries but still number less than one billion.

"You make claims of thousands of warships at your disposal yet show only a limited few around your mining station. Once again, how are we to believe this?

"This can go on for many sessions. We need to be able to talk to each other more directly, perhaps not face-to-face yet but certainly via a direct comms link. That will allow us to ask and answer questions directly.

"We await your reply," the Jurte Pair nodded, and then faded to show the symbol of the Fleet Shem, the hammer of Emperor's own seal, along with an image of a great ship on a dark background.

"Comments?" Fiona asked.

"I want to let you know that we can intercept their communications between their ships and they plan to try to capture the ship that is sent to communicate with them," Capt. Dostier stated.

"How is this possible?" Fiona asked. "Do they not encrypt their comms?"

"Yes, they do, but their encryption is not very sophisticated, at least by our standards," Cdr. Franz Teal, their Navy Intelligence specialist commented. "We are easily able to break their encryption and see all that they are discussing. Useful, as they do not send people back and forth between their ships but hold daily briefs, such as this one, via comms links."

"I expected that they would not easily be swayed by our statements," Raymond mused. "We can send them images of the fifty-five worlds of the Terran Union to convince them that we do have such a wide union. However, there is no way that we could convince them that we can move 600 light years in a single day."

"We might have to invite one or more of them to this platform to see for themselves our capabilities but that will be after we have shown them some of our other capabilities," Fiona remarked.

"For now, I want to establish a two-way link between them and their home world so they can get the daily news. I also want the next dialogue to be via direct comms link so that this will be on our terms verse theirs. That way, we get to keep some control over things," Fiona ended.

The briefing broke up as the groups left to determine what they needed to do next.

The Fleet Shem, Interstellar space, Three Light Years from the Piscium System

The probe flashed into existence not far away from and 'above' the Koh-Tan Se-Lam Roe ot Shem. It immediately sent a message to the great ship that was picked up by Mind-Hur, who was again on duty. The information came from their home world, showing the entirety of the early morning news broadcast.

As agreed, the Fleet Shem sent information to the probe that was intended for the home world. The probe received the information and winked out of existence.

Piscium A Society Home World, Twelve Light Years from the Piscium System

On the great station, Ma-Alda, high above the home world, a comms officer suddenly received an unusual signal. He briefly watched it before bringing it to the Deck Officer.

The message swiftly made it's way up the chain of command until it came before it the Emperor Se-Lam Roe himself. He, his Empress, and his Command Council watched as the message was repeated.

"I am Raymond Clark, a member of the Terran Union who is now in the star system you refer to as The Home Star, and that we refer to as the Piscium system. We would open peaceful dialogue with you.

"Your Fleet Shem," and here images of the ten ships of that fleet appeared on the holographic monitor, "is currently on its way to The Home Star, with intent to make war on our people.

"This would be a serious mistake on your part.

"Your Empire consists of three planets, only one of which is habitable. You number less than one billion.

"Our Terran Union consists of forty-eight planets all of which have a minimum of three billion inhabitants.

"You have three major fleets, which include a little over forty-eight capital ships, and around 1,400 ships you use as shuttles or battle wagons. We have many thousand capital ships, all of which are capable of waging battle against other ships or even your planet, and many more smaller ships that are not as capable but can still bring the fight to the enemy. You do not want to be our enemy.

"Our Union is more than 429 of your solar light cycles across, and we can move from one side of it to the other and back again inside of one planetary rotation, what we call a day, a distance of 858 solar light cycles inside of one of your planetary rotations.

"As proof of this, this morning, your time, we recorded your morning news brief, and brought it to the Fleet Shem, which is now slightly less than five solar light cycles from The Home Star. In return, we send to you the daily news brief of the Fleet Shem."

Here, there was a brief pause in the speech as the observers watched a news brief purported to be from the Fleet Shem. The brief included the fact that they now had news from the home world to share with the Fleet Shem on a regular basis.

The Terran returned.

"We can retrieve your morning news, bring it to the Fleet Shem, and return the news broadcast of the Fleet Shem to you, all in a period of time less than it takes one of your shuttles to get from your planet surface to one of the great stations in orbit. Think about that.

"We offer you peaceful dialogue, or we offer you war. But it will not be war as you know it. This war will completely destroy this planet, killing all of its inhabitants. That is the consequence of going to war against us.

"Choose wisely which you want for your people. The choice will be yours to make, ours to complete.

"We will, if you wish to conduct a dialogue with us, make arrangements to bring a delegation of your staff, to the Fleet Shem when we conduct a face-to-face dialogue with the Jurte Pair of that fleet, Kur-Han Kai-Ro, and Sha-Ret Sai-Rai.

"We have made arrangements with the Fleet Shem to send messages on a regular basis back and forth between the fleet and your home world. That will start in the next planetary rotation, our day cycle.

"That is all I have to say. Have a nice day."

"What does he mean by 'Have a nice day?' the Emperor asked his stunned council.

Conference Room One, Liramor-23, Piscium System

The morning brief had just finished. Fiona had dismissed the attendees, stood and moved to her office at the rear of Central Control, but was stopped by David Latten, her Deputy Director.

"The extension of the outer hull has now been completed from Alpha Deck down to India Deck, Fiona," he told her. "The modifications have been completed to the VIP wing on Echo Deck, ready for us to return to our former quarters there. The Pallanders repair team wants to know when you wish to move back into Main Control. They wish to begin modifications to this end of the platform."

Latten saw the look on her face, and correctly interpreted it's meaning, knowing that the original Control Center was where so many of the people she worked with had died.

"It has to happen sooner or later, Fiona," David told her quietly. "We need to get back to being above the rocks being expelled for the safety of those who visit us."

Fiona knew he was right. She nodded to him and made up her mind.

"Tell them we will move back at the end of this week," she informed David, then took the UDC people into her office. It was going to be a long week for her.

Central Control, Foxtrot Deck, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Fiona walked quietly around the empty control deck with Capt. Helga Hellebore, Cdr. Damyanti Balakrishnan, Heyya, and Dr. Leanora Galt at her side. The room had grown slightly, with the exterior of the platform having expanded by 200m. That also meant that Central Control had shifted its location slightly so that it could be where it was now.

All of the workstations were different, having been upgraded. That included the additional workstations dedicated to the Navy.

Even her office had been changed, getting slightly larger and more sophisticated electronically. She could now hold a dozen people in the office, where before she was lucky to get three in there. She nodded to herself as she looked around.

Her office was at the rear and slightly above a large room in a pie shaped wedge, the arc formed by the great window at the front of the space. The view was similar to what she remembered, yet slightly altered. She had seen the old view too often not to notice the differences.

"Fiona?" Leanora asked tentatively.

"It's not the same place," Fiona told her. "Yes, there are memories, but it is just not the same. I think I will be alright."

The four ladies with her let out a sigh of relief, that caused Fiona to give them a look of exasperation.