The Republic's First-Contact
Republic Year 2179 (Indoraptor Year 1267), June, Trappist-1 frontier outpost...
"Is this data valid, Dr. White?"
"Of course it is! Look, Ben, I am no liar and I have sworn myself to never lie about a possible encounter with an alien race. We have to alert the president right away!"
"Do you think President Ashford is interested in this kind of news?"
"I know he'd want all data we've gained so far to be made available immediately!"
"Gentlemen, please calm down and explain to us what is happening currently."
Ah yes, the joy of living on the frontiers, being so far away from home that you'd be immensely hard-pressed to treasure even the smallest worldly pleasures. And that's what the two astronomers Dr. White and his student Ben had to endure for the last five years, traveling from one outpost to another, analyzing star systems in the hopes of spotting a new home for Humanity.
Their lives were far from easy; Dr. White had to abandon his children on Earth and his university job whereas Ben had to graduate one year earlier from his university to assist the older man.
At the moment, Dr. White and his student were working in the frontier outpost like usual, examining the star system they were in. There were two habitable planets for the Human Republic of Earth to claim. One second, everything looked normal and dull. The next second, an alarm blared from Dr. White's computer, indicating an unpredicted discovery. The two men scrambled to their work desks, hoping to identify the phenomenon as quickly as possible. Just outside their office's door, Ben could hear the loud footsteps of their coworkers approaching fast. Surely, the other men on the outpost would want to know what the hell was going on.
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, I'm analyzing the findings right now and I really can't talk about anything." Dr. White tried to drown out the cacophony of noises his coworkers made.
"Yes, yes. Why don't we just stay quiet for a while until we know for sure what this is all about?" One of the arriving coworkers impatiently added, silencing the room's occupants.
Strange, the older man thought, the signal indicated a groundside discovery on one of the planets, and the computer told him that the signal was... organic if he could describe it in human concept. Closer investigation drew his buzzing mind to the fourth planet on the system, one that was not bound into planetary tidal-locking unlike the first three planets in front of it. From what Dr. White could tell, this particular planet was most likely an arid planet, if not desert-like, hot and dry but capable of supporting life in certain regions and altitude. Ten seconds passed, then thirty seconds, then a minute, and then five minutes as the scientist worked tirelessly until eventually the results came out and everyone in the room stared in awe.
The star system they were in, Trappist-1, was inhabited by a sapient and intelligent life form!
They had found intelligent aliens!
They had discovered an alien civilization right next to the Republic's territory!
Dr. White knew that this moment would be forever remembered as one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever, far more than the invention of faster-than-light space travel.
"Alright everyone, get to your stations ASAP! I want all details on the aliens to be made available for President Ashford or his secretary. Go, go, go!" Someone amongst the crowd shouted. All of the researchers, upon the loud prompting, returned to their respective work stations in an ever-escalating uproar. Dr. White and his student traded uneasy glances, wondering whether the Republic's House of Commons would treat the news as an urgent matter or not. And may God forgave you if you're not well educated in how humans fear the prospect of alien invasion, Ben thought bitterly.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, a comprehensive file was outlined in a large holographic screen, detailing what the science team had studied from the discovery. The sapient species name was Navari, a race of cheetah-like aliens evolving on the dry, arid world of Zulkana, the planet these aliens called home in the Trappist-1 system. Their society appeared to be egalitarian and scholarly, very reminiscent of human democracy, and their lingua franca sounded like a rough combination of Arabic, Indian, and Vietnamese languages according to scientists with mixed European/Asian ancestry. Still, the team remained cautious as the feline aliens successfully launched quite a few satellites and manned spaceships that would no doubt reveal the human's existence on them, given enough time. From there, it'd be a matter of time before the two species encounter each other, whether in peaceful diplomacy or a vicious demonstration of strength.
A ping was heard in the room, indicating the report was ready to be sent and examined by the House of Commons' top researchers.
Stealing glances around him, Ben could see the perturbed expressions of his coworkers. They weren't afraid of being accused of making a false report; they feared the possibility of their latest discovery being used as a justification for Humanity to suddenly stoke the fire of xenophobia against all sapient life in the cosmos. But the report had already been sent and all they could do was to wait.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Republic Year 2179 (Indoraptor Year 1267), June, the House of Commons (Parallel Earth)...
"This is extraordinary news, ladies and gentlemen."
"Do we have more data on the discovery?"
"We ought to keep monitoring them. We have to know if this cat-people species are a potential threat to us or not."
President Ashford entered the House of Commons' capital building in Washington, United States, accompanied by Commander Adam Ryder, planning to meet the House of Commons' members to discuss a science team's Intel from the Trappist-1 star system which chronicled their first-hand testament of a sapient, spacefaring civilization being found along the border of the Republic Space. As the Republic's president entered the meeting room, he could see that it was full of people today.
A fascinating race, the president heard the House members chatted endlessly. Imagine a cheetah that walked on two legs, wielded tools of science, and constructed a working civilization that embraced social equality and had said cheetah explore space. President Ashford had instructed the Republic's best scientists to study the new species as indirectly as possible. The public was told what the pioneers on the frontiers had found as matter-of-factly as possible, even though it did nothing but sparked the media's interest.
"Has the rest of the world been notified of this news?"
"New Zealand, Japan, Egypt, Singapore, and France expressed interest in sharing the discovery with the public as soon as possible. Russia, Netherlands, and Mexico were distrustful of the data's veracity."
"The rest of the world will follow, soon. In the meantime, let's not make any outrageous statement to the mass media."
"We must keep the recent uproar contained to the best of our capabilities."
Ever since sixty-three years ago, when Humanity witnessed the discovery of space-borne creatures dubbed the 'Tiyanki', living in gas giants as their feeding and nesting grounds, and the myriad of creatures thriving under the thick ice of several frozen planets, many have expressed their desire to meet intelligent aliens. Now they had found one living next to them.
The colonies were growing fairly quickly, although their population was still reliant on immigrants and imported products from Earth. Despite thousands of immigrants raced themselves toward the waiting colony ships hoping to strike it rich on the frontiers, many more were feeling skeptical about the colonies' ability to sustain their population without direct interference. The president was well aware that Humanity was facing heavy overcrowding issues right now, with an energy crisis looming just behind it. But the rest of the Republic's government was a little too slow to help fix mankind's many problems. As of this year, there were 11.7 billion humans alive on Earth, various space stations or habitats, and the colony planets, over 400 million lived in the United States alone, facing various socio-economical hurdles, and only 35 percent of the total human population was living on the colonies.
The president of the Human Republic listened forth as the House members moved on to a new topic; the colonies' growth.
The first colony was a desert planet, aptly named New Sahara, located in the Alpha Centauri system. It was a planet rich in precious minerals, metals, and great rivers snaking through its dry, arid plains, allowing the construction of big hydroponic farms. The local plants and animals weren't fully compatible with the human digestive system, compelling the Republic to maintain a steady import of Earthly plants and animals to grow in New Sahara's sprawling farms.
Next came Atlantis, a not-so-creative name for a lush and beautiful ocean planet in the Kepler Beta system. Vast oceans covered 90 percent of the planet, whereas the landmasses were tiny continents the size of Greenland or tropical archipelagos like Indonesia. Thanks to the recent development of energy generation, futuristic windmills and water-based power plants were set up along the shorelines on the colony's chosen landmass, a continent comparable in size to Australia. This colony provided large amounts of energy for the Republic as a whole, but the surplus of energy wouldn't last them forever. And then there's still the same old problem regarding human digestive incompatibility with the local flora and fauna...
The third colony and also the youngest was Hawking, a cold, tundra world in the Capricorn system. The vast arable plains, as well as its abundance in highly-prized metals like platinum, palladium, and gold, were overshadowed by the existence of thick, impassable jungles all over the planet. Population growth on Hawking was fairly slow, accelerated only by the bi-yearly arrival of fresh immigrants. The big bonus of this planet was that the animals and plants native to it were 92 percent compatible with humans, reducing the need to bring in food from Earth.
It'd been over sixty years ever since mankind's first day of interstellar travel, and they've claimed over seventy-one star systems. Good progress, the President noted, but not very impressive.
The revelation about the Navari should be the motivation Humanity needed to keep evolving if they didn't want to be left behind.
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No sooner than a minute after the members of the House of Commons finished the meeting, several officers in white uniforms came barging into the meeting room, breathing heavily from adrenaline. President Ashford and Commander Ryder stood up quickly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, pardon us for entering without permission, but we have received another crucial news!" The first one, a tall woman, announced. The suspicious president detected shakiness in her voice.
"What is it?" he queried.
The officers shared a swift look at each other as the leading woman continued "The Indoraptors, sir! We've received some kind of a first-contact message from them. All present personnel is being ordered to man their station in case of the Indoraptors visiting our space."
"What?!" One or two men in the room questioned in incredulity. Unbelievable, the president thought as he and his fellow officials buzzed with disbelieving whispers, the mysterious reptiles that the Human Republic of Earth had been studying from afar all these years now tried to speak with them? This was way too peculiar, it couldn't be true. Without further ado, the president left the room, followed by his commander. Along the way, Ashford could see dozens of people walked in a hurry, shouting orders and questions all at once as they tried to get the situation under control. Navigating the suddenly bustling corridors of the Republic's House of Commons building, the president met more people who swiftly came to his side as he passed through. "What's the situation now, gentlemen? Has anybody replied to the communication attempt?" The president queried.
"Not yet, sir. Our intelligence analysts just received the message five minutes ago. We've already run translation programs on the contents of the message, but as it turns out, we didn't need to," the woman from earlier said swiftly, catching the president off-guard.
"What are you talking about?"
Another person, likely an aforementioned analyst, explained further, "The message... was written in the English language, Mr. President. We don't know how or why, but the message's language was certainly English! It's just that the Indoraptors sent along what we identified as a crude form of translation software of their own, so we think they don't expect other life forms to understand their... I mean, our shared language!"
Ashford and his companion could only shake their heads as the group approached the control center room where hundreds of people were congregating in.
"It appears our top researchers weren't lying at all about the... parallel Earth theory, Mr. President. Shall we proceed?" Commander Ryder said softly as they entered the room. Everyone stood in attention at the sight of the Republic's president entering the location.
Ashford was amazed and baffled at the situation in their hands. He then briskly cleared his throat.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my greatest pleasure to declare that we, the Human Republic of Earth, is immensely lucky to witness the existence of two spacefaring alien races next to our dominion. Therefore, I strongly implore you, as the first-contact translators and diplomats, to present Humanity as a civilization that upholds justice, freedom, equality, and unity in the highest regard. Let us prepare for the inevitable in-person communication with the entities known as the Indoraptor Union and the Navari State. May God be with you all."