I am so sorry it's taken me so long to update this story. I have been very busy with other stories I've got in the works - uploading and updating and finishing what I've got out there. I'm hoping to begin updating more frequently.
Enjoy.
The Drift.
Space Infants.
An inhabited solar system. And it was right ahead of them.
The prospect of encountering other forms of life out in the universe had always been one of the biggest possibilities Victor Bergman had always speculated; to the scientist, there simply had to be living in the endless depths of outer space.
With the millions of stars in the galaxies binding worlds into solar systems, it was simply not logical to surmise Earth was the only planet in the cosmos which was capable of supporting life.
But this was the first time the moon had come into contact with an alien culture ever since the day everyone remembered as Breakaway and when they had been catapulted deeper and deeper into space thanks to the Space Warp, and they could see that this alien culture was far more advanced than their own. That was little surprising - Alpha had already met several races on their journey, and they had interstellar travel worked out. Some of it came in different shapes and forms, but they had it. Granted, they had never really found out what made it work since most of the races were hostile, and they didn't want to help the Alphans.
On the screen in Main Mission, everyone was staring at the screen, fascinated by what they were seeing. In the far distance was the glowing mass of the local star right in the centre of the solar system - Victor knew from the earlier scans taken by Computer the solar system they were travelling into contained just seven planets, and several moons - but dominating the screen were two planets, one of which had a beautiful set of rings surrounding it, making himself and everyone watching the screen think of a habitable Saturn.
The second one didn't, but they were both green and blue, both possessing cloudy atmospheres, although the second planet without the rings circling it appeared to have more water than the ringed world. The colours of blue and green for the ringed planet seemed mixed; some of the green was lighter in parts, darker in others, and there were patches of what appeared to be turquoise in the water.
However, Victor could see both worlds were colonised; the second planet without the rings circling it had large, oddly shaped looking masses in the water. Floating cities? he asked himself, mentally rubbing his hands with glee; although there had been talking about colonising the oceans on Earth, nothing had ever really come of it, despite the possibilities of it happening.
There were also large cities on the lands of both worlds; in fact, Victor thought he saw an odd shape on the second world that made him think of some form of floating spider web with the strands anchored on various landmasses which appeared to him to be too small to support any major land development.
The two worlds were so close together everyone could see the orbiting space stations; Victor's eyes crinkled with fascinated interest as he took in the admittedly distant space station which looked like a globe but it appeared to just have the basic shape of a globe and wasn't completely enclosed.
From where he was standing, it appeared the people who lived here, had constructed a central core and then ringed it with rotating sections of varying sizes.
The scientist in Victor was fascinated, knowing one of the simplest methods of generating artificial gravity was to create a spin in order to mimic the rotation of a planet or a similar body. Indeed there were dozens of theories and plans to construct something that rotated in space to generate artificial gravity, although it wasn't really needed since artificial gravity had been pioneered on Earth, and was used in Eagle transport shuttles, the former space station which had been knocked out of orbit, and lastly the gravity stabilisation of Moonbase Alpha itself.
But this space station…
Unlike the ones constructed by human hands, these aliens had both discovered a balance between elegance and functionality. Victor wondered just how advanced they were in different forms of science, but he surmised it was quite sophisticated. While there were elements of functionality and simplicity to the design of the station, there was also elegance to it, though from their current distance, he just could not make it out…
"Wow, look at that!" Paul whispered.
Victor was so hypnotised by the beauty of the space station he hadn't yet noticed the spacecraft passing by, and he was ashamed of himself for not noticing it.
"It's like a clipper," Alan commented.
Victor nodded to himself in agreement, although unlike the classical shapes of the ocean-going sailing ships used on Earth centuries before industrialisation brought in steam power, these ships were completely different. Long, sleek with assemblies of sails lining its hull, with what appeared to be two engines which looked like they were being hidden deliberately at the back of the ship, although Victor could see them because of the glow from one of them, the ship appeared more like a dolphin, or an orca. But from the hull, long girders holding the sails towered over the hull, and the sails themselves shone brightly in the strong lighting of the sun.
"Solar sails," John whispered in awe; they had all seen the first solar-sail space vessel launched from Earth. The Space Commission, typically enough, had commissioned the probe only to see just how much of a costly venture it was, only to be pleased when it wasn't. Sure, solar vessels were fragile since if anything happened to the sail, any crew member would be stranded. While they were practical, they weren't really seen as a long-term viable form of the interstellar craft because the suns rays would not reach out far enough to propel the sails over a large distance.
"It's beautiful," Sandra observed.
"It's not the only one, look," Kano pointed at the screen where another solar sail ship was travelling by in the distance.
"Are we getting anything from the ships and the station?" Koenig asked.
"Nothing so far, Commander," Paul replied after making a check at his console.
"They may not have detected us yet," Kano pointed out.
"Well, we can see them," Alan replied back.
"Start contact procedure," Koenig ordered.
"Yes, Commander," Paul was just saying when an unwelcome voice came from the doorway.
"What's going on, Koenig?"
Victor's eyes flickered over to the door where Commissioner Simmons had just walked in from. It was becoming rare just to see the Commissioner since he wasn't a scientist, a pilot, an engineer, or even a doctor. Sometimes Victor wondered just what the man did on Alpha, and although a part of Victor was sympathetic, it didn't go so far since Simmonds had gone out of his way to make himself as disliked as possible.
Although he had his back on his friend, Victor could tell John was gathering and calling upon his patience. "We have just entered an inhabited solar system, Commissioner," John replied, knowing soon word would get out they were in the home system of a space-faring race with technology more advanced than their own, and it would only be a matter of time before Simmons found out about it.
Victor had no idea what Simmons would do with this news. It was likely he would try to capitalise on it, try to find some way of getting back to Earth. Simmonds constantly talked about returning back to their home planet, but Victor doubted it would ever happen. The moon was travelling on a random course, and because of the gravitational pull of the different solar systems pulling them along it became increasingly harder to get an idea of where Earth was in relation to that, and since they were travelling at a velocity they couldn't even begin to measure since they didn't have the instruments, it was virtually impossible for them to return to Earth.
Victor had lost count of the number of times he had tried to tell Simmons it was impossible whenever the Commissioner kept coming to him to rope him into pushing the senior staff into researching a way of getting the population of Alpha back home. Victor didn't know why he bothered opening his mouth since it didn't seem to make any difference in the politicians' mindset.
"Inhabited? You need to get in contact with them at once," Simmons instructed as if he were the only one who understood the importance of this moment.
Victor silently glanced at John and the others to see how they took this command. He wasn't surprised when he saw the contempt in Alan and Paul's faces and the patience in Sandra and John's.
"We were just doing that, Commissioner," Paul said, stressing Simmons' rank to let the man know just how much contempt he had for him personally before he resent the contact signal. "We're getting a response, Commander. Audio only."
"Greetings. Welcome to the Cartha system," a melodious voice spoke over the intercom. "Please be advised if you are hostile towards us, we shall destroy your moon, and your community. We have calculated your moon will be passing by one of the outer gas giants, close to one of our Helium 3 collection facilities."
Victor gaped. Helium 3?
Experiments with fusion power had shown Helium 3 had the capacity to be more powerful than previous attempts, however due to the distance between Earth and the gas giants within the Sol system were so large, and the technology needed to create a viable nuclear fusion plant was years in the making, so there weren't that many experiments even though the benefits of fusion power were so obvious it was almost a sin not to take risks and make it work. As a result humanity in their time continued to rely on fission, and the nuclear waste had been dumped on the moon, where the EM energy had built up and up until they had been blasted out of Earth's orbit.
The Cartha didn't seem to have that problem, not if they made periodic flights into space, they would have so many chances just to study Helium 3 and learn how to use it to power their culture. Victor hoped these people were benevolent enough to give them hints and tips on how to make nuclear fusion so much more available rather than be reliant on nuclear fission forever.
"We are not harmful. We cannot travel back to our own planet," John replied.
"Understood," there was little sympathy within the melodious voice, but Victor wondered if this alien race even experienced the type of emotions humans did, but they would find out later. "When you go into orbit above the collection facility, a team will transport to your moon to ascertain whether you are sincere or not. This is non-negotiable; our culture has had interaction with beings from outside our star system before, and once we were very nearly wiped out. As a result, we do not have the desire for it to happen again. Do not give the security detail trouble, if you do then your moon will be destroyed, and your entire population will be conscripted to work as slaves for the rest of your lives, or you will be shot on the spot."
A silence fell over the shocked Main Mission, and the entire room's attention turned to John. Victor knew that although his friend was prepared to fight, he knew John was not stupid or suicidal enough to say anything really belligerent. But Victor could not even begin to wonder to himself if what John had just heard was going to send him over the edge.
Everyone watched and waited with baited breathe while they looked at their leader, wondering what he was going to say. Victor held up a hand when he noticed Commissioner Simmons about to open his mouth, and he actually walked over to the politician and made sure Simmonds understood this issue was one John and John alone could deal with.
Finally, John took a deep silent breath. "Very well. We will let you…inspect Alpha. We understand why you would be concerned," Koenig stressed the word without making it sound offensive while trying to find the ideal word to appease the Cartha, "about our arrival. But we do mean you no harm."
"Very well. Await our arrival, and please make sure all of your people are not conducting any of your normal operations for our inspection team."
"They've cut out, Commander," Paul reported.
"Are we really going to let these guys come to Alpha?" Alan turned his head, looking conflicted although Victor could very clearly see the growing annoyance on the younger man's face.
"What would you suggest Alan, fight? We don't know anything about these people; for all we know, they have the power to crack our moon in half like an egg," Paul argued.
Alan swung around, his eyes flashing while he clenched his fists with barely restrained anger at the threats they'd received from the Cartha, but Koenig's voice cracked like a whip; Victor closed his eyes when he heard the anger in his friend's voice, and he knew he was as angry as Alan, if not more so, but he knew John was thinking about everyone on the moon.
"That's enough! I don't like this any more than you do; I don't like the thought of the moon invaded again but I like the thought of us being either killed or enslaved even less," John's voice was strong at first but then it became calmer, controlled as he looked sympathetically at Alan. "I know how you feel, believe me, I do, but I need to think of the lives of everyone here. We know nothing about this race, but the last thing I want to do is to antagonise them. So please, keep calm."
Alan nodded, appearing a little calmer. "Okay, Commander."
John nodded back, but before he could say or do anything else, Simmons strode forward. "Are you mad, Koenig? Allowing an alien race on Alpha-?"
Victor saw John visibly take a deep breath to calm himself. John was an experienced commander and leader, and Victor knew he didn't like it whenever someone questioned his authority though he was open for debate, he didn't like it when people shoved what they considered failings into his face.
"I am responsible for a community, Simmons. What would you have done, told the Cartha we'd fight to the bitter end? Or would you want us to launch all of our Eagles in a futuristic representation of the Charge of the Light Brigade?" John asked the Commissioner in a quiet voice Victor recognised as he had heard it more than once. John was close to losing his temper, but Simmons, despite his experience as a politician, didn't seem to realise he was straying over a line.
Simmons conveniently ignored the crack about one of the biggest military disasters in human history especially since the Cartha warning had been very clear. "Nevertheless, you shouldn't allow them here-."
"Simmons, I am not going to let Alpha be destroyed by an alien race," John interrupted Simmons sharply. "I don't want them here, but we don't know what they're capable of compared to us. Need I remind you, our weapons have very rarely worked against alien lifeforms. The Cartha have spacecraft we haven't got, so who knows what they have got?"
John walked to his desk and pressed the button which would relay his voice throughout the base. He needed a few moments to gather and collect his thoughts before he spoke.
"Attention all stations Alpha. As many of you are now no doubt aware, we have entered a new solar system. This one is inhabited by a race known as the Cartha. They have encountered aliens before, and from what is implied by their radio communications, they were not happy encounters, since they have left the Cartha jaded towards other aliens," John began before he took another deep breath. "The Cartha have threatened Alpha with destruction or enslavement if we do not submit to an inspection. I don't want the aliens here any more than you do, but we have no alternative unless anyone decides to be foolish; I am going to be giving you the most difficult order ever. Do not interfere with the Cartha, we know nothing about them, and they do not seem to care about anything we have gone through. So I say again, let them come, and do not resist. Hopefully, if we prove to them we are not dangerous, we may get something out of it."
XXX
The Cartha shocked the Moonbase personnel. Everyone was tense for a full hour before they arrived. Everyone in Main Mission alone was looking with their necks craned upwards, expecting to see a ship of some kind slowly moving towards Alpha, but there was nothing. As the minutes ticked by, nerves and tempers were frayed. No-one could be blamed for that, of course; the Cartha's threats of enslavement and death were on everyone's minds, and as the minutes ticked by, everyone expected an entire fleet of ships to be coming towards the moon.
But nothing happened.
The tension was very high before one of the female personnel screamed in shock, and everyone jolted out of their tense vigils and found a group of dark-uniformed figures standing in Main Mission. Victor studied them with scientific interest. There seemed to be two forms of Cartha, and it made him wonder if there were two subspecies, or if there was some special advanced genetic engineering technique happening here.
Two of the Cartha who had arrived seemed smaller and lither looking in appearance compared to their slightly larger if still athletic cousins. It was like comparing a small house cat with a tiger, really; both were different sizes, but with the same characteristics between them both. The same was true of the Cartha. Their skin was pale, similar to caucasian skin tones, but their skin featured a blueish tinge underneath their jet-black hair. Their eyes were like chips of emerald.
The Cartha's uniforms were dark blue which was almost a purple in colour, and they had a wide dark silver belt loaded with sleek looking pouches containing equipment, but what drew the eye was the large gun-holster they were wearing. It never failed to amaze Victor that no matter the distance, every species they had run across so far had the same basic methods for carrying weapons.
"We mean you no harm," one of them said in a calm voice. "We are the inspection team. Please move away from your work so we can get started."
John stepped forward. "I am Commander John Koenig. I am responsible for the wellbeing of everyone in this base."
The speaker inclined their head in a bow from their shoulderS. "I am Ultran Virea, of the Cartha Security Division. Please make the necessary announcement to your people to not be taken by surprise while the Gateways on our planet send our teams to your moon."
Simmons chose that moment to step forward. "I am Commissioner Simmons, representative of Earth authority. If I may…we welcome you to Moonbase Alpha."
Koenig frowned as he wondered what Simmons was hoping for with this introduction.
Virea looked down her nose at Simmons. "What do you want?"
Simmons was momentarily taken by surprise by the bluntness of the question, but he recovered very quickly. "I wish to discuss terms-."
"You are in no position to discuss terms," the Cartha replied, her hand moving dangerously close to where her weapon was to warn Simmons what could happen if her patience wore thin. "You have strayed into our solar system. The last alien race with hostile intentions towards us has been mining minerals while under full mental control. Do not think your rank means anything here, primitive. You are nothing here, and if you cause problems for us, you will be either shot or taken and placed under mental control. Do I make myself clear?"
Koenig walked over and gently rested a hand on Simmons' arm to shut him up. He didn't like the threats any more than the others did, but he hoped that by cooperating with the Cartha, they might get out of this without any trouble, "May I ask what these aliens did to make you so suspicious of outsiders?" he asked.
Virea was silent for a moment. "We achieved space travel three centuries ago. At first, using a combination of solar sail technology and electromagnetic repulsion drives, we were able to cover the distance from our nearby planets, but then we discovered how to use Gateway technology, which interacted with the network of subspace corridors which threads through the cosmos. Soon we started using them to travel through the galaxy. We began travelling to other worlds, hoping to meet other races to add to our knowledge of the universe. We went in peace, but all we found was hatred and violence because the other alien races we encountered were frightened by our Gateway technology. We understood their fears, of course, but even after we tried to explain, tried to make them see reason, they refused.
"They stole our technology, and they started hunting us down through the galaxy. After a pitched battle with them, we managed to destroy our equipment. But they had found our homeworld, and they had launched a number of missiles which split our colony worlds into pieces. Eventually, we moved our civilisation away from our home galaxy, and we journeyed through space before we settled in this system."
"That's terrible," John whispered, looking at each of the Cartha sympathetically while the rest of the inspection team waved wand-like devices around Main Mission; the commander could see the tension in the rest of the team, but so far so good, no-one was causing any trouble and he hoped it stayed that way otherwise the consequences would be severe. "And that's why you are concerned about us?"
"This way we survive and ensure no-one tries to steal our technology again," the Cartha leader replied, "especially since we are going to conquer this galaxy."
"What?" Koenig replied, ignoring the gasps of surprise from the others. "But…why?"
"What you can control can't hurt you," the Cartha answered. "We may want to explore the universe, but we are never going to be attacked again. This time, we shall be the ones in command while the entire galaxy bows before us."
Victor and Koenig shared a look. While they could understand and sympathise with the Cartha for everything they had been through, they were horrified by the Cartha's new philosophy about needing to control the galaxy just so then they could explore it. Didn't they realise that type of mindset would cause more harm than good in the long run?
Once they had begun spreading through the galaxy with their Gateways - whatever they were and however they worked - the Cartha would be able to control so many races and planets, that by the end of it when they were all suppressed in the surprise attacks as the Cartha would appear out of nowhere, they would be free to do whatever they wanted. John and Victor had no idea what the Cartha would do once they had done that.
Suddenly Victor was struck with two possibilities. The first was the Cartha would just occupy the planets and keep the inhabitants from leaving their solar systems to be too dangerous, that in itself wasn't bad, but the second was the worst possible scenario. The Cartha invaded and occupied the planet, forcing the inhabitants into slavery and then steadily stripping everything from the alien worlds. The Cartha would also be free to conduct all kinds of atrocities against the different alien races such as brutal medical and scientific experiments, not seeing anything wrong with it since to the Cartha, they were primitives.
"What's going to happen to us?"
Victor saw Koenig close his eyes at Simmons question; the last thing they needed right now was for attention to be drawn over to them even if the question was on their minds.
The Cartha turned to Simmons. Koenig cursed the fact the aliens had a familiar appearance to humans, but they had such cold expressions it was like speaking to a statue carved from ice. "I do not know yet. The report of our inspection will determine that once the High Council assimilates the data."
"What then?"
"You may live, you may die," the Cartha's simple statement was cold and cruel, but as soon as the Cartha finished there was a chirp coming from their belt. The Cartha leader took something from the belt which put Koenig in mind of an alien version of a com lock, only this was a more compact and disc-like design. The Cartha stared at the device for a moment before lifting their head.
"The High Council has decided to let you live. Your moon is already drifting through our solar system, but your presence is disturbing our operations. Therefore your moon shall be sent to one of the galaxies in our local group, and you will be allowed to drift on your way."
Koenig was astonished by the sudden shift, but Victor wanted to know why the Cartha were doing this. "Excuse me, but how are we disturbing your operations?"
The Cartha turned to face him. "We are constructing new generations of spacecraft. With each new generation, our technology becomes more refined and powerful. But we don't see the logic of keeping you here; your personnel have given us no trouble, your moon's course is erratic, and your travels takes you to lightspeed, therefore you have no way of warning any species of our presence nor our longterm plans since it is irrelevant. The plan is already made, and the Gateway is being readied now."
Simmons saw an opportunity there. "Excuse me," the commissioner began with what he believed was a charming smile, although neither Victor nor Koenig were convinced the Cartha were even remotely affected, "our moon was blasted out of our planet's orbit due to an unusual accident, and we have been trying to return home ever since. Is there any way you can help us?"
Koenig and Victor shared a look with most of the Main Mission personnel, unsurprised by Simmons' never-ending capacity for lying. Everyone on the base knew Commissioner Simmons was obsessed with returning to Earth, but while some of the Alpha personnel would love to see their planet again, they knew it wasn't going to happen, unless by some quirk of fate.
Moonbase Alpha was not a spaceship. It had no navigational equipment although it did have star charts of their home solar system, and it had monitoring instruments for short-range astronomical observations, but that was it. No-one on Alpha even knew where Earth was, and since they had moved to the other side of the galaxy after passing through the space warp, they were further from their star system than ever.
Simmons was living in a fantasy world where everyone shared the same goals. He was completely ignorant of the fact they could not go home, and even if they had the Gateway technology, no-one knew which way they could go. If they had it, they could travel for decades without even coming close to Earth.
"No, you're not," the Cartha's reply was said with an almost amused, but contemptuous inflection.
Simmons looked at the alien surprised. "I beg your pardon?"
"You are not going home. How can you? Your moon is merely drifting through intergalactic and interstellar space. Our scans indicate your Computer only has a few star charts of your local star system, and only a few scans of space outwards, no more. You have no means of controlled propulsion, no navigation. You are drifting blind."
With each word, Simmons visibly deflated as the truth was shoved down his throat, but Koenig stepped forward. "Is there any way you can give us your Gateway technology so we can control our course?" he asked, although everyone in the room knew their commander well enough to know what the Cartha would say, given the way they had explained their history.
"No," the reply was immediate, but before anyone could say anything before the group of Cartha vanished from Main Mission.
"Commander, look!" Sandra called, diverting everyone's attention to the screen.
Gone was the Cartha home system. It had been replaced with the blackness of space with the massive vista of an unknown galaxy spread out before them, composed of many sweeping arms, like a starfish had been given many more arms which were then swept at different angles by a gust of strong weather which disturbed their environment. The new galaxy shone with a mix of purple, green, brilliant yellow and orange, flecked with blue and red, like some sea cucumber at the bottom of the sea, dotted with the bright lights of millions of stars.
"Kano," Koenig said, "can Computer get a fix on our position relative to the galaxy we've just left?"
Kano got to work. A few moments later, he sighed and leaned back. "No, Commander. Computer has no idea just how far we've come."
Koenig sighed. "So we go on."