Kennedy asked, “Could thisbe some kind of attack?”
It was Ricci who responded.“That’s what I’ve been wondering.”
“Maybe someone got wind ofour payload and wants to help themselves to an easy windfall ofkiatilium,” Lindstrom suggested.
“Weapons systems haven’tbeen affected, so they may thinkit’s gonna be easy,” Decker growled, “but I canguarantee it won’t.”
“How would anyone havefound out about the kiatilium?” Ramsey asked. “It’s not like we’retrailing it behind us.”
“I bet we weredouble-crossed by the Carraiks,” Decker said. “They probably set usup to—”
“That’s exactly the kindof reckless speculation we don’t need right now, Lieutenant,” Ricciwarned.
Naiche exhaled a quiet,“Yes, sir.”
“Hopefully, that secondneutrino beam will give Scientific and Engineering enough data sothat they can figure out exactly what we’re up against.” Thecaptain turned to Ramsey and Lateef for confirmation, which theyboth readily gave.
***
An hour later, the seniorstaff was gathering in the war room where they had been summoned byVICI. All were impatient for news on the energy beam which hadinterrupted their journey and disturbed their night’s sleep. Naichetook her usual seat next to Con, asking, “Aqila still in thelab?”
“Yes, she and CommanderRamsey have been down there with Sasaki for the last twentyminutes.”
Eyebrows raised, Jacowayasked, “Sasaki?” He looked over at Ricci. “Captain, why is ourlinguist weighing in on this? Was there a message included in theenergy transmission?”
“No, thetransmission was the message,” Carla Ramsey announced as she entered theroom.
After smiling at Lateef,who had followed the chief engineer into the room, Kennedy turnedto Ramsey. “Come again, Commander?”
“I’ll let Aqila explain,”Ramsey said. “Her staff were the ones who solved themystery.”
Lateef waited until Sasakitook his seat before launching into the explanation. “LieutenantBrodie has determined that the neutrino beam we detected was beingused as an advanced system of data delivery.”
“Why didn’t we immediatelyrecognize it as data?” Ricci asked.
Lindstrom took up thethread. “And how does a data transmission manage to disturb bothour Nav-sat and Com-sat?”
“Because, like us, thatneutrino beam was traveling through a cosmic string. AtL-speed-100,” Lateef answered.
Over the murmur ofsurprise filling the room, Jacoway objected, “Wait, datacan’t travel faster thanthe speed of light. I mean, if we could do that, we wouldn’t needrelay stations to communicate with Uniterrae.”
“You’re right,” Aqilasaid, “we can’tdo that. But apparently someone else can.”
Kennedy leaned forward, hisvoice gaining an urgent undertone. “This transmission must havecome from a highly advanced species – beyond anything we’veencountered before.”
Ricci responded, “Yes, wehave to assume that’s the case.” He turned to Lateef, saying,“Please continue, Commander.”
“Once we recognized thenature of the neutrino beam, we were able to decode it. It turnsout it’s basically…a distress call.”
Decker relaxed slightly atthe news, and recognized the same reaction in Con. An extremelyadvanced species in trouble was slightly less threatening than anextremely advanced species on the attack.
The captain’s voicedisplayed no immediate easing of tension as he asked Sasaki, “Howconfident are you in your translation of the message?”
“I didn’t translate it,”Sasaki answered. “It wasn’t necessary.”
“Why not?” Riccidemanded.
“As it turned out, themessage was in Standish.”
The chief medical officer,Dr. Rita Clemente, exclaimed, “Oh, so it was intended for us.Somebody needs our help.”
Lateef countered, “No, itwasn’t for us.” She held up her hand to belay the barrage ofquestions. “If you’ll listen to it, you’ll understand.” Sheinstructed VICI to play the decoded message.
Speaking in stilted,somewhat archaic Standish, an entirely human voice resonatedthroughout the war room. “Mighty Lignatians, this is CaptainAbigale Maddox. The Children of the Valiant are in grave danger. Webeseech your intervention. Our journey to New Earth has provedfruitless and perilous. During our return to Jileesa, we sufferedan attack on the alien world Tolu, and we are now stranded. Werequire your assistance. Only you can save us now.” The voice wenton to give the coordinates of the “alien world,” and to repeat thecall for aid several times.
“Before anyone can ask,”Lateef said, “we have no record of any species by the name ofLignatians, nor any inhabited world called Jileesa – orTolu.”
“What about the human wejust heard speaking?” asked Lindstrom; without waiting for ananswer, he turned to Ricci. “I don’t know of any ‘Captain Maddox’in the UDC. Do you?”
“No, never heard of her.” Ricci posed the same question toVICI, who soon confirmed that there was no record of an AbigaleMaddox in the Uniterrae Defense Corps – not at present nor at anytime in the past. Ricci asked Lateef, “Are we certain that wasactually a human speaking and not a simulation?”
“Our data indicate thatit was a humanvoice, but with a species who are capable of sending a message likethis – who knows?”
Decker asked, “What wasall that about ‘New Earth’ and ‘Children of the Valiant’?”
“‘The Valiant’ makes me think of thatgenerational ship we found back in ’38,” Clemente said. “On thePakarahova mission.”
“Could there somehow bedescendants of the people of the Valiant out there?” Sasaki asked.“Similar to the Chelmanians, who descended from the crew ofthe Intrepid?”
“No,” Aqila replied.“There are no descendants of the crew of the Valiant. Everyone on that ship died. I know.I saw them.”
Jacoway mused, “Weren’tthere some crew members unaccounted for? After the ship was towedback to Uniterrae, I mean.”
“Technically, yes,” Aqilaconceded with a toss of her head. “When all the bodies were finallyidentified, the names were compared against the ship’s lastmanifest and twelve people weremissing – but those twelve were the ones mostlikely to have been trying to contain the reactor leak. Thereasonable assumption is, that there were no remains left of thosepeople after so violent an explosion.” The group mulled that newsover while Lateef added, “Even if those dozen people somehowhad escaped, that’shardly enough to have started a new race that managed to sustainitself for over two-hundred years. Let alone advance beyondus.”
“But we can’t beabsolutely sure of that– can we?” Clemente said. “The very existence of this messageproves the limitation of our current understanding ofscience.”
“This all sounds to me,”Kennedy offered, “like an elaborate trap someone is waiting tospring on us.” As Decker was nodding in agreement, he continued,“But I think we do need to figure out what their game is. And there’s only oneway to do that – go to those coordinates.”
Lindstrom said, “To beclear on this, you think it’s a trap – but still think we shouldgo?”
“Approaching with
