Gabatrix: The First Peace

Captain William put his hand to his chin as he thought about it. The other crew seemed to show some animosity and perplexity to the speech. Kane continued his explanation.

"What we picked up is a declaration for peace. The UWA government does believe this is a possible trick, but it won't deny that we should send a warship to investigate this. The UHN Gabatrix has been ordered to go and investigate this signal. A basic prep has been made for this ship to receive whatever delegation we will meet. I know, according to the captain, that you have volunteered for this mission. You were only informed so much as to what was going to happen. I believe that you guys volunteered for 'a mission to the outer systems to negotiate with the Itreans.' We had to keep most of this secret until now. This mission is classified to be a 'suicide mission.' If any of you feel uncomfortable about this, we can offer you to be with your families away from this ship until the mission is accomplished. Nobody is being forced into this mission unless they are absolutely aware of the risks. I myself volunteered for this mission to be the Ambassador to the T'rintar clan. I myself will be the one that will be talking to them or whoever they are going to send to us. Are there any questions?"

He knew that he ended the brief real quick. He was sure there were going to be questions, and the first series began to occur.

"What more do you know about the T.......Ter......T'rin?"

"T'rintar clan," Kane corrected. "Unfortunately, only so much. The data we recovered is so fragmented and damaged that scientists are working all around the clock to reveal any valuable information on the T'rintar or the Itreans in general. We don't even have any facial or body pictures to show what they look like yet. We were able to extrapolate a degraded image that showed that the Itreans in general or the T'rintar clan are possibly reptilian. They also appear to have a female-led or possible matriarchy since three of the recorded messages we have received from all Itreans have indicated a female voice of some sort. We might be clearly wrong on this, but everything we have is purely speculation."

"What was the rapid series of pings we were hearing from the recorded message?" another random officer asked.

"The noises that we heard were analyzed by UWA Research, and they conclude that they are Star Location Pings. It is a mathematical formula of the distance ranges of stars to one another. The formula is all put together to form a series of coordinates."

"They gave us a star chart in the beacon," another officer asked. "Why would they bother with giving us coordinates in that way?"

"Most likely it is because the T'rintar and Itreans don't have our complete knowledge of our star charts. Stars that we have named in our own language are completely foreign and unknown to them and vice versa. We wouldn't know the name of the Itrean planets and stars that are occupied by them, even if they already had names for it. This can make arranging a location for us to show up to be very difficult. Mathematics, like this, is a universal language. It is expected that all sentient alien life operates with mathematics to some degree. They gave us coordinates in the language we would understand. They also provided a pictorial star chart for us to arrive at as well to help narrow it down even further."

"This will require us to arrive at a particular spot," the same officer replied back. "If we miss this even by a little bit, then it may take us weeks on conventional drives just to make it to them."

"It is why we have to ensure that the Gabatrix must calculate everything down to the exact formula," the captain told him. "Anything we do could cost us this delicate mission."

"How far is this jump?"

"It will be a two hundred light year jump."

"What?" another officer responded. The eyes widened in the room. Some faces went pale. "That is beyond the max range!"

The captain could see the tension pick up. Even Kane would have to ask more about this. He didn't know enough about how far jump ranges were for ships. It sounded like the captain was going to explain it to the officers.

"It is true that Gabatrix himself made a one hundred light-year jump on one of his voyages," the captain told the room. "One of the greatest pioneers would later return back and admit that he was too nervous about going any further than that. Another pioneer would then do a one hundred and eighty light year jump. It has been concluded that there is no limitation to folding space. We have the power to jump to another galaxy in one shot if we have to."

"True sir, but that also means the calculations have to be precise," Ramírez said, putting his hands to the table. "We have enough probes for three jumps. We have enough materials to make more probes for two more jumps. After that, we are out, and we become stranded in space. Conventional drives would take us hundreds of years to even thousands of years to reach the nearest planet."

Even Kane felt himself go pale a little bit. He was well aware of the risks of this. The ability to fold space was incredible but humanity was still limited by space travel to some degrees. It had revolutionized humankind, but there was a lingering fear that galaxy drifting was constant. Star charts had to be absolutely precise, or it would cause formulas to be off. Computers were advanced, but even if the coordinates were off by the tiniest amount, it could send a ship 1,000,000 kilometers in the wrong location. It must have been why even humanity was afraid to explore other galaxies. Andromeda was a massive leap, and most likely, a jump could send a ship in the galactic unknown or the empty void of nothingness in-between. This must have been why humanity had colonized worlds to certain limited ranges. Now a jump was needed in the far unknown.

"We know the risks," the captain explained in a calm voice. "The fact is that everything you have said is true. We require three jumps to be made from this ship on this mission. We know this is a suicide mission because of the risks that are involved. It is possible that this is a trap, and most likely it is. I do have faith, though, that sometimes great leaps have to be made to ensure the human race survives. Gabatrix, our great mentor, knew that he had to make a jump to the moon because it would spearhead the future for all of us. He risked himself, his staff, and their careers to make it all possible. In the end, we have new homes. We have better lives, and we thank him for his sacrifices. It is now our turn to carry out that leap. We are in a struggle to survive against the Itreans. Our resources are stretched thin, and we don't know how much longer we can survive it. I don't know about you......but I would prefer to go down fighting. If this is a hope for peace to the most minor of situations, then it will give humanity a fighting chance that it deserves. I am willing to die for that cause!"

He held his hand, clenched it into a fist, and held it up into the air. "Hoorah!" he yelled.

"Hoorah!" the officers raised their fists into the air. Kane himself nodded. It was a stern reminder to him of the risks he was taking as well. Even Ramírez nodded his head in agreement.

"Is there anybody that wants to get off this ship before we take on this mission?" the captain asked.

"Hell no, sir!" one officer yelled.

"For the UHN!" another one yelled.

"For our families!" one said.

"For all of us.....," the captain said. He gauged the room. The officers showed no fear. Even Kane felt a stir of confidence within him as the XO was nodding his head. "Good....then we do this."

The captain turned to look at the table. He once again stepped up to the panel. He then put his hand to the table and interfaced with it. The table projected an image of a star system. The system seemed recognizable to some of the crew as it depicted a 3d projection of a red dwarf star and three planets.

"This is New Olympia.....," the captain explained. "This will be our first jump. Since we have no gate array in orbit of this moon, we will have to use the gate probes to make a jump to there. From there, we will then make the jump to the coordinates given to us by the T'rintar clan. The sector from our star charts calls this sector MJJ-12. Once the peace talks are concluded, we will then jump back to New Olympia. We will then use the orbital gate array from New Olympia to jump back to Titan."

"I am curious as to why we are using New Olympia to jump to MJJ-12?" one of the officers asked.

"Simple reason," the captain explained as he lifted his hand away from the table. "We know the possibility that this is a trick. The T'rintar might have the possibility of tracing our jumps. The beacon probe that they launched was directed at our colony on Cebravis. If they had the ability, they would have sent it to Mars instead. UWA intelligence and I agree that the Itreans might not have the location to the Sol System. Making a jump directly to there could cause them to come to us.....I don't know about you, but I don't want to expedite our demise. The New Olympians, instead, managed to repel two assaults from the.....Shal'rein clan as Ambassador Kane has named them. The New Olympians cannot leave their sector to defend our homes, but Fleet Admiral Fumi Yuki has promised us that our ships can go to their system. Since the Shal'rein clan have the coordinates to New Olympia, we assume the Itreans, in general, have the coordinates to New Olympia. The Itreans won't want to mess with the New Olympians if they come after us."

The New Olympians.....It was foolish for someone to not know of this colony. Rumors were all over the place of the power these people had. Kane didn't know the history of them, but he was aware enough that they possessed incredible power. How they managed to establish it was a mystery. He remembered a cousin of his that traveled there. He enjoyed the world so much that he wanted to stay. The last he knew of him was that he had two wives and apparently lived the good life. As much as he felt some attraction to the concept, he knew that Cebravis was his home. Cebravis was beautiful in all aspects. It was a paradise planet that had to be protected. The New Olympians as powerful as they were still wouldn't lend a finger to help protect the other colonies. Instead, it would merely be a defensible location and a launching point for UHN endeavors like this.

"Are there any questions regarding this mission?" the captain asked.

None of the officers said anything. Kane himself remained quiet.

"Good.....," the captain said. "I will submit a copy of this briefing and information for all of you to go through. I expect you to update your divisions on what is happening. I also expect our cooks to be ready with the best dishes we have to offer to the T'rintar," William said with a smile. "I want this mission to succeed."

Kane could tell that one of the female officers smiled. She had to be a supply officer in which the ship's cooks operated under her division. The briefing was coming to a close, and the captain lightly slapped the table.

"Alright.....everyone is dismissed," William said. "Let's get this ship flying again."

"Yes, sir," some of the officers said as they got out of their seats. The door of the conference room opened up as the men and women began to leave the room one by one. Kane felt a little bit of relief that the briefing was over. He watched as XO got out of his seat. Instead of leaving the room, he walked up to the captain. He briefly looked at the Ambassador, but you could tell that most of his attention was directed towards the CO of the ship.

"Ramírez, I imagined that you would have questions to ask," the captain addressed him.

"I do, sir," Ramírez said. "This mission has a lot of variables in it."

"It does," William said.

"So, we are meeting up with an alien race that decided to kidnap and assault one of our colonies?" Ramírez asked with a scornful look.

"Yes....."

"And the same people that disabled and killed over twenty people on the UHN Champlain and Eutera? Not to mention that kidnapped thousands from the colony?"

"Yes....."

"I just wanted to make sure that we are not out of our minds at what we are doing," Ramírez said, looking at the both of them.

"Are you against this mission?" William asked.

"No. I feel the same way as you do, sir. I do have my own questions to ask that would be more.....off the grid. Ambassador.....I guess it is alright to have you a part of this since you are a vital component of this mission."

Kane nodded his head. "Of course."

"My point is that we should have a fleet of ships to back us up. We shouldn't be the only ones going out there."

William shook his head. "That would be foolish. Our fleets need to stay here. It is one of the reasons why they are sending an old vessel to go there, to begin with. If they lose this ship, then it is no real loss."

"I.....don't know much about military ships," Kane told the both of them. "This ship.....the UHN Gabatrix.....it seems like a good ship."

"Not precisely," Ramírez told him. "This is a Helix class Battleship. These ships are older than the Magellan Class Battleships. You know the Magellans.....the same class of Battleships that you saw getting wasted over Cipra?"

"Oh....." Kane said, realizing what he was getting at.

"Yes, the UHN Gabatrix was built before those Magellan Battleships. The only ones you see left are in storage like this one. The Magellan was a replacement class of Battleship. Essentially this ship carries a poorer armament than the Magellan's had. Two battleships from the T'rintar pounded through the UHN Champlain like it wasn't even there over Eutera. That was also a Magellan class."

Kane rubbed the back of his head.

"However....." Captain William said. "We do have one advantage that this ship has over the current fleet. Near the end of the service life of this ship, the UHN wanted to experiment with the Genisen Mark 11 AIO Turrets. They installed it on this ship and played with it for a while to see if they work. The experiments worked, and they started building them in mass. A couple of the Nelson Class Battleships use these turrets, and the future planned Battleships are going to use them as well. They decided not to take them off the ship after the Gabatrix was decommissioned."

"Really?" Ramírez remarked.

"So, there is one little benefit to our situation."

"I do apologize," Kane commented. "I still don't understand what that means."

"Let us put it this way, Ambassador. We have a better way of shooting down the missiles the Itreans would throw at us than many of the other UHN ships."

"Ah.....," he realized and smiled.

"It doesn't mean that we should put ourselves into a firefight," Ramírez commented.

"That isn't our job," Kane responded to him. "If we are shooting at the T'rintar, then we have failed at our mission."

"It is under my belief that by sending more UHN ships," the captain said. "We may scare the T'rintar to leaving. There is no point in grabbing any additional vessels to come with us."

Ramírez seemed to be the character that questioned the rules a lot in Kane's eyes. He appeared to be somewhat antagonistic in his tone. Perhaps it was his personality to be this way.

"My question is this," Ramírez asked Kane. "How do we know they mean their word?"

"We don't, but it is best to be hopeful."

"Then, you get to play the diplomat hero?"

"Ramírez...." Captain William told him, trying to get him to back down a little bit.

"It is my job," Kane told him.

"Really?.... Tell me, Ambassador....." Ramírez said as he walked closer to him. "What are you hoping to do when the T'rintar comes to this ship? Are you going to ask them to hand over the Euterans? That is, of course, if they are still alive."

"I will do my best to find out and resolve a diplomatic solution."

"How far did the Lee Administration go in getting you to go with this mission?"

Captain William was getting annoyed with Ramírez's tone. He was waiting for him to back down. He folded up his arms.

"What do you mean?" Kane asked.

"How did they choose you for this mission?" Ramírez asked.

"I choose to do it. Same as you."

"Lee is just another Aniruddha. She might act like she is better than he was, but in the end, they are all bureaucrats. They cheer their voters, and we are put on the firing line."

Kane snuffed.

"That is enough!" the captain said. "Ramírez, get out!"

The XO shook his head. He saluted his captain, gave a mean look at Kane, and walked out of the room. The door opened and closed behind him.

"I apologize for Ramírez's behavior," William told Kane.

"It is alright," Kane told him. "It comes with the job."

"Do you feel that you are ready for this?"

Kane took a deep breath and sighed. "I think so.....why did he behave that way?"

"He was supposed to be the captain for this mission. UHN, choose me instead. He is....venting. He is scared, I am scared, and I know you are scared. We all behave differently as a result."

"Come.....I have a ship to get ready to depart. Go ahead and do what you need to do before this ship gets ready to depart," the captain told him.

Kane nodded his head as the captain smiled. He slapped him the back and walked out of the room. The Ambassador decided to look at the room one last time before he left the room as well.

Chapter 2: Rendezvous to MJJ-12

It had been a couple of hours as Kane was sitting in his chair in a private room of the lounge. He was located in one of the many rooms in the midsection of the ship. The room had served as an office before he could go to the centripetal ring. The centripetal rotating ring was off-limits since Titan's gravity was pulling everything downward. With even the light gravity of the moon, it was impossible to walk inside of the ring. Designed to generate gravity by centripetal force, it made it impossible to traverse to his own room. Essentially, the ring had rooms all over inside of it, with his private room being upside down near the top. Space was like that. The ring allowed the crew to operate in zero-g environments. The warships had to be as big as a result. Rooms for gravity on planets and rooms for "acting gravity," the ships had to be designed to accommodate all the different environments in space or on the ground. He had been hearing announcements over the intercom for hours, letting everyone know about the ongoing preparations of getting the Gabatrix ready for launch.

The room he was in was not very big. He had turned it into an office space until the ship would be launched into space itself. It consisted of an overhead display near him on one side of the room. It had two doors that led to a mess hall and the central passageway. He had a small luggage pack with him that carried his wardrobe for the meeting. It rested comfortably to the mounted desk to where he sat.

The mounted chair was soft and comfortable to sit on. He knew this was only going to last for so long though. Once in space, there would be no gravity except inside the rotating ring. It was a metallic desk and was not fancy at all. It was a private enough room that he could browse through his messages without much interference. A part of him had felt apprehensive about the upcoming dateline.

"The T'rintar gave us so little time to prepare.....," he said out loud as he turned on the computer projection display from his left hand. The display activated immediately, and he began to browse through the options for him to read.

Kane's attention was focused on the email box sent through by the United Worlds Alliance Galactic Network through proper security channels. He had received a top-secret message delivered to him from the UWA Intelligence Bureau. He opened it up, and it asked for his password confirmation. He brought his left hand and projection close enough to him that it popped a new button for him to press. It asked, "Confirm Scan?" and he said confirm.