Cold War
by Warringer
Chapter Five
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Lieutenant Frank Norbert Stein cursed like only someone from the 'Ruhrpott', the premier German industry area, could. He was a crew member of Iowa and currently off duty. And he was filing through his electronic copy of the 'Westfälische Rundschau', a newspaper from home. Schalke had lost against Borussia Dortmund, for the six time in the last few years, again at home. But that wasn't as bad as the fact that Bayern München would again win the German European Football League. So it was understandable that the man from Gelsenkirchen was in a foul mood.
"Lieutenant Stein, please report to the bridge," he heard the voice of the ships computer over the PA and his mood didn't improve as he placed his newspaper on his bed and stood up to report to the bridge.
Frank wasn't really a normal crew member of Iowa. He was a telepath, or teep as some called it. The only thing setting him apart from the other crew members was a small patch with the Greek letter Psi on the sleve of his standard Navy uniform.
Frank had studied psychology before he had entered service. Of cause his father, an Army Major, hadn't been very understanding towards his son that he had chosen to enter the Navy, but in the end he was grateful that his son had chosen to enter service anyway. Telepathic psychologists were in very high demand in the commercial sector.
Normally a good number of teeps that entered service went straight to the CIA or even Mossad if they were bold enough, but Frank was one of the few teeps that had been left in normal service for either Navy, Army or Marine Corps.
Frank wondered why he was ordered to the bridge. Normally his duty was to be the ships psychologist and there were a good number of the four thousand crew members that needed his help or evaluation.
He blinked a few times as he entered the bridge, wondering what had happened. Sure he was a teep, but it was against the ethic of NATO telepaths to just go and snoop in the minds of other people, even if they could do so.
Than his glance fell upon a pair of holograpic projections. One showed four strange birdlike ships and the other a ship that had vast similarities to Soviet designs.
Frank frowned. He didn't like Soviets. He knew how they treated their telepaths. The took them in as soon as they were discovered, and used drugs and cybernetic systems to wipe their minds clean and create a new mind for them, absolutely loyal to the KGB. He knew it because he had seen the mind of one Soviet Teep.
During a short stay on Freedom Station, a small transfer station in LEO, he had stumbled over the man during his first transfer. The man had tried to scan him, but as a P12, Frank had been able to block it and counterscanned. The programmed mind and the emptiness of it still gave him nightmares.
He walked up to Admiral Danniels and Captain Kewok.
"Reporting as ordered, sir," he said and saluted.
"At ease, Lieutenant," Captain Kewok said and looked at him," We have a little job for you."
Kewok nodded into the direction of the projection showing the four unknown ships.
"We have a First Contact situation," he said and than nodded towards the other projection," The Soviets tried to communicate with the unknowns, but were unable to talk to them."
It dawned Frank what he was about to be ordered. Babelfish duty. Using his telepathic ability to communicate with the unknowns.
"We want you to play translator for our try to communicate with the aliens," Danniels said.
Yep, Babelfish duty.
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"Close the channel," Molari said a bit unnerved.
He had stared at the alien, yet familiar face for the last about ten minutes and listened to the man on the other side talking in his strange language. And Molari was sure that the man didn't understand him. They simply weren'T able to talk to each other.
And there was something Molari didn't really understand. The ships that had approached him first were pointing their weapons at the ship with the rotating section, while the weapons of that ship were pointed at the small fleet. It didn't make sense. They couldn't be pirates of any kind, because in that case on of the ships would have fired already. Either at him or at each other.
"Commander, we are getting a transmission from the largest ship of the fleet."
"Open the channel," he ordered with a sigh. They wouldn't understand each other anyway.
The screen lit up, showing a larger piece of an unknown command center rather than a single face. The command center was different from that of his ship or that of any other Centauri ship.
Three beings were seen on the screen. A pair of Centauri like men and a animal like alien, all three in beige colored uniforms.
One of the Centauri like men started to speak and Molari could hear that he was using another languange as the man from the transmission before.
"- My name is Admiral Samuel Danniels,-" he could suddenly hear a voice in his mind,"- I am speaking to you through one of our telepaths, as our languages are to different to speak to each other with out a form of translator.-"
Molari nearly choked. A telepath on a vessel that seemed to be military. Who where those people?
"-On behalf of the NATO, I want to welcome you to our solar system,-" the voice of the telepath said.