Darkworld: Earth

Captain Moon had decided that the Yonohoans withdrawing from radio contact in order to hold a staff meeting was as good as time as any to hold her own. Several members of the crew were absent, but three quarters of her full staff were present in the common room, which was crowded with all of the bodies.

She called the meeting to order and took attendance, and once everyone was accounted for as either being present or excused due to a required sleep period, she began the meeting.

“Alright. So, first of all. A lot has happened in the last twenty four hours. To summarize, upon my authority, we attempted to create a software solution that would allow for the aliens to communicate with our flight path software. They used this opportunity to effectively invite the pilot of the shuttle participating in the exercise onto their ship. When he was informed of this invitation, Sergeant Diego Cruz accepted and piloted his shuttle to the alien flagship.

“When he landed, he noted the presence of what we are calling Xenosapiens Sulivans. Since then we have had pictures of the Sulivans sent to us and you should all have seen them by now. Yes, they look like Sully from Monsters Inc. We’re uncertain at this time if that is a coincidence or not.

“For unknown reasons, the Sulivans abandoned ship and Diego was greeted by a man of the Yonohoan people who is named Eolai. A human appearing man, according to both Diego’s testimony and the images which we have been sent. He established radio contact, and informed us that our spacecraft’s FTL drive violates a number of intergalactic treaties. His suggested course of action to resolve this was to trade the Seeker in for a Yonohoan crafted ship, which I have no doubt will be superior in every way to the Seeker . It will also mean that we have failed our mission for a number of reasons which will be listed later.

“After conversing with a number of the other Yonohoans aboard the other vessels, I made a controversial decision. You don’t have to agree with this decision, but I authorized Diego to make a choice on whether to remain in Yonohoan custody or to return to the ship. Diego volunteered to remain with the Yonohoans. He has already broken the seal on his suit, which means that if he does return to the Seeker at a later time he will be under increased quarantine procedures.

“Progress of communicating with the Yonohoans has grown by leaps and bounds in the hours since then. They are able to send us text documents, images, and sound files, in addition to being able to communicate real time via radio.

“Does anyone have anything important to add to this summary of events?” Captain Moon concluded.

Nervously, Gabriel raised his hand. “I think I may have screwed up, Captain. I wasn’t really thinking of it and I included some pictures from Earth which were taken at night. With stars in the sky. It’s, well, the universe is a big place, but that might help the Yonohoans narrow down the location of Earth significantly.”

Several people groaned, but Captain Moon had already been informed of the security leak. “It’s unfortunate that that happened, but there’s no putting the cat back in the bag at this point. The Yonohoans were the ones who brought this mistake into question and they assure us that they have taken steps to alter the images that have been sent in all but their secure databases and they have promised not to seek out our origin point without permission.”

She paused, then admitted “We’re taking their word on a lot of things at this point, but we haven’t caught them in a lie yet. Hopefully they’re telling the truth.”

The executive officer, Anthony Anders, cleared his throat, and Captain Moon nodded towards him. “I would like to state for the record that I disapprove of giving the aliens a hostage and having him exposed to whatever alien microbes exist on that spacecraft.”

“Your objection is noted, Anders,” Captain Moon said.

“I also disapprove of the decision to let the aliens talk directly to the civilian staff. As you yourself have pointed out, this is a diplomatic venture at this point. Most of our civies are scientists who are along for data analysis and experiments involving astrophysics, astronomy, and other such disciplines. They are not trained for this situation.”

“None of us are,” Captain Moon admitted. “Anthony, have you reread the first contact procedure lately? It’s a joke. Especially compared to what we actually experienced when we arrived in this system. The aliens were way more prepared for this situation than we are.”

“That’s assuming that their claims are accurate. Perhaps they’ve been to Earth in the past, which I think is likely considering that they seem to have abducted some cavemen, but I doubt that they have the ability to track us through subspace like they claim to be capable of. I believe that at this time the prudent course would be to withdraw from the system and return to Earth so that a properly trained diplomatic team could be dispatched,” the XO stated.

“Let the record show that my executive officer, Anthony Anders, is in favor of returning to Earth to inform the governments of Earth of the location and existence of the Yonohans and the Sulivans. I, however, am unwilling to take the risk that they will be able to follow us. They were already in position to intercept us before we arrived in the system, Anders. You can check the timestamp on the telescope images. I did. When we finished translating, our escort ships were already exactly where they are now, parked around us. I view that as credible evidence that there is a way to measure the Tunnel Drive’s wake through subspace of which we are unaware of or incapable of but which the aliens have no trouble with.”

“I accept that is a valid concern. I believe we can ameliorate it by jumping to an unrelated location to see if we are pursued, as the Yonohoans have said that they are legally required to do.”

“Have you read the documents, Anders? That is a very bad idea,” Rebecca said.

“Why is that?” Anders asked.

“In one case, they’re allowed to hack our systems,” she said.

“They can’t. Our core systems are hardened. The ones that they’ve been talking to are all virtual machines that we’ve literally dumbed down to make them easy to penetrate,” he pointed out. “There’s no way that they can penetrate our encrypted system.”

“That may be, but right now they’re not allowed to try,” Rebecca said. “That changes if we run. If we run a second time, they are authorized to pursue us and attempt to disable our ship even if it means causing us damage. If we run a third time, they are authorized to board us, scuttle the ship, and place us under arrest.”

“Okay. Noted. I withdraw at present my suggestion that we flee the system,” Anders said, grudgingly.

Captain Moon looked out at her people. She saw their concerned expression, and she couldn’t help but feel for them. “Look, everyone, I know that this isn’t the mission you signed on for. If we knew what we were getting into when we set sail, we would have brought anthropologists, linguists, diplomats, and politicians.” She paused. “Thank god we don’t have the politicians.”

That at least got a little chuckle from some of them.

“But we do have diplomats. They say in the military that in a real emergency, everyone is infantry. Well, when it comes to a first contact event, everyone is a diplomat,” Captain Moon said. “That being said, the location of Earth remains classified information despite the accidental potential leak. I am also taking suggestions for any disinformation which we might feed the Yonohoans which would help protect the people of Earth in the event that they are being dishonest with us, as well as topics which might be sensitive. Until further notice, all use of radios, including your personal devices, is to be restricted. That includes disabling the local wi-fi.”

That received a groan from everyone.

“The scientific and exploration missions of the Seeker of New Discoveries are officially on hold until the resolution of the point of contention with the Yonohoan and Sullivan governments regarding the laws which require them to impound our ship,” she continued. “They are likely on hold indefinitely, because as my XO has rightfully pointed out, informing the people of earth of the existence of life on this planet and the claims that have been made by the inhabitants regarding the universe are of much higher importance. I’m sorry if that means that your pet experiment will be ruined, but I’m afraid that’s simply the reality of the situation.”

This received a number of grudging nods.

“Are there any questions or concerns which I have left unaddressed at this time?” Captain Moon asked.

A young woman raised her hand. “How is Diego doing right now? Do we know?”

“The last we heard he had gone to sleep. The aliens withdrew from radio contact to have a discussion among themselves, which is why this meeting was called. At the last report we received from Diego, he was in perfect health, and in high spirits. He claimed that he was under no duress, and believe it or not, during his time in the air force he was trained in how to resist interrogation. He knows how to signal if he’s in distress without being obvious about it,” Captain Moon explained. “His training is one of the reasons why I approved him as our liaison with the Yonohoans.”

“So it wasn’t because he’s expendable?” the woman protested.

“Allow me to be clear. Compared to maintaining the security of Earth, all of us are expendable. There are forty-two men and women on this ship. There are thirteen billion souls on Earth. If I determine that there is no other choice, I will sacrifice everyone aboard this ship before I allow it to be followed back to Earth by a hostile party,” Captain Moon said. “We’re all Expendable. Including myself.”

This was met with concern. Captain Moon considered trying to clear the air, but decided to move the agenda along instead.

“Let’s move on to maintenance concerns,” she said. “How is the ship holding up?”

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