It is one thing to get a readout of the results of all these actions we fill in every turn, but a completely different thing to read how the result actually unfolded. This, is the first part of a story entitled “First Contact” but when I wrote it I imagined it was the result of:
Action Code : 2 Location # 1 : XYZ12311
I hope you enjoy it, and it inspires you to bring the actions of your empires to life. A huge thank you to David Williams for his editing, and re-editing as well as for pushing me to tell more of the story that was bouncing around my empty head. Also a big thank you to my extremely talented nephew Gregory Stephenson for his artwork (It took 4+ versions for me to go back to what was essentially the first one). So here it goes…
Action Code : 2 Location # 1 : XYZ12311 aka First Contact
HAIKEN MARU MAPPING EXPEDITION
UNCHARTED PLANET DESIGNATED B157
STARDATE 3187.9
“Mendez, what do we have?” Captain Wesley Monkman said for perhaps the hundredth time this tour! The Haiken Maru Explorer class ship, Usul had been bouncing all over the sector for the last nine months going from one lifeless planet to another, and the crew of the Usul had a bit of a routine going.
“Another useless rock” sensor officer Alicia Mendez replied analyzing the 3D Holographic screen in front of her. “Getting some scanner interference from the Stellar Cloud but the 1st planet… looks like… no, my apologies Captain. Just, Argon… Carbon Dioxide… Nitrogen… No surface water… No surface infrastructure or signs of life, looks like we have another bust.”
“Ok let’s make a low orbit sweep before we jump to the next rock,” the grizzled veteran Captain said.
“Bringing us in,” piped up the last member of the Usul’s crew, ship’s pilot Charlie Stephenson, only 10 months out of the Maru Space Academy. The Usul was Charlie’s first assignment and even after hundreds of useless planets and asteroids visited he still retained his excitement. “Thrusters firing,” he said before the Usul vectored in towards the planet.
“Wait a second Captain… I’m getting something on the Electromagnagraph… Faint electronics… looks like it’s a repeating pattern but masked” Mendez stated. “I would say not naturally occurring.”
The crew waited for the Captain to speak. This was the moment of truth for an Explorer crew. Was it a hostile empire’s colony? Was it a pirate base? Was it a new civilization? Or, was it just some piece of space junk someone had forgotten to switch off that found its way to the planet surface? The bonus paid to the crew for discovering something useful would keep them in alcohol and escorts for a year or more if that is how they wanted to blow their paycheques. However, the Usul had no weapons other than the three hand-held pistol blasters in the tiny closet referred to as “The Armoury”. If the reading turned out to be something hostile the crew of the Usul only had one choice turn and make a run for it, or die.
“Can you get a fix on the transmission?” the Captain asked.
“The reading is faint sir but I can get us close” Mendez replied
“Charlie, plot us a course… stay low and land us about 5 klicks away. We’ll go on foot from there.”
“Should we send off a message to Headquarters before we go down?” Charlie asked excitedly.
“No! If they are hostile I don’t want to give them advance notice we are coming.”
“Course laid in” came the pilot’s reply as the Usul descended towards the planet’s surface.
—–
It had been a long hike from the Usul. Although the gravity was just under Maru standard the close proximity to the systems sun had made the surface temperature next to unbearable. The crew’s respirators were working overtime trying, not quite successfully, to cool the air in their environment suits. The dry wind howled around them in random gusts beating them back one minute, pushing them sideways the next, then dying out altogether, only to start the entire cycle all over again a few minutes later. Wind twisters picked up the orange and red dust of the planet’s surface and swirled it around them. The blast shields on their visors blocked out the Ultraviolet radiation from the planets sun and cut down on the brightness but did nothing to dispel the fact that this was a hot, rocky, dry planet too close to its own sun. By the time the crew got close enough to use their handheld radio frequency scanners they were all drenched in sweat.
First Contact
Reaching a ridge overlooking the mountain the Captain called a short break. “What do you see Mendez?” The Captain asked gripping his pistol tightly in his damp palm. Wesley Monkman had been a young pilot the last time he was in a situation like this, decades ago and far, far away. The reading had turned out to be a hidden pirate base, and he had been the only member of his crew to get away. Sometimes his nightmares still brought him back to that day and the screams of his comrades. “Stay alert Charlie and watch our backs.”
Mendez fixed her digital range finding magnifiers on the mountain ahead of them, double checking the heading with the readings scrolling across her data pad. “Sir that mountain looks riddled with caves. Depending upon how deep they go that entire mountain might be hollow. I think the electrical readings are appearing masked because they are coming from within the mountain.”
“Well I guess we are not going to find much sitting here. Charlie, you cover us while we cross to one of those caves. Mendez and I will head in and see what we can find. If you don’t hear back from us in four hours get back to the ship. Report in to HQ…”
“Wait one…” Mendez interrupted. “I see movement. It’s big! It looks like…” her conversation dropped off.
“What is it?” the Captain asked trying unsuccessfully to see what Mendez was looking at.
Bringing the magnifiers down from her eyes Mendez turned to the Captain and said, “It looks like a bug!”
—–
End of Part 1