Issue#5 Alien Spacecraft
Winn sat at a computer in the DEO's communication room next to Alex who had just set up a place for him to work.
"You know, the hardware here is so impressive. It's gonna be almost easy to reprogram my storm-warning program to find the ...uh, Sterregoi, you said? Even if this wasn't the original idea for the program. You see, what I was working on at CatCo wasn't just a weather forecast app. It can interpret the weather, meaning that it tells you how dangerous the next big thunderstorm will be. That way helicopter pilots will know if it's safe to take off or..." Winn noticed Alex slightly impatient look.
"Doesn't matter. I'll just start working."
"Let me know if you need something", Alex said and turned to go.
Winn stretched his fingers and got to work.
S
Meanwhile, Hank was showing Kara the ship that the Sterregoi had arrived in. This one-man vehicle had a very organic form. It looked like it had grown from the ground like a tree and formed a spaceship with a great ring on top of it. The ring looked completely unpractical. With 7 feet in diameter it was big enough for a human to stand it. It all was kept in a small laboratory with a few machines that observed and measured the properties of the alien spacecraft.
"This landed a couple miles north from here", Hank told Kara. " We believe that it had picked up a signal from one of the many alien items we hold here that led it to this specific location. So far our scientists haven't been able to find the opening mechanism for the cockpit so we don't know what this technology is."
"What's that ring for?" Kara asked.
"Again, we don't know. This tech is completely different from anything we have ever seen so it takes longer to study and understand it."
"Is it safe to touch it?"
"It is, but it might be pretty cold or warm. Depends on it's 'mood'." Hank chuckled a little.
"Mood? Because there is no pattern on how the temperature changes?"
Hank nodded.
Carefully Kara put her hand on the shell. It was a little warm but not uncomfortable. She felt the organic structure of the ship at her fingertips. But there was also something else, something ...moving!
No, not moving. The ship was sending out impulses of vibes like small charges of electricity up Kara's arm. The small vibrations made her feel relaxed and happy all of a sudden.
"Oh that's nice", she said.
"What is it?" asked Hank.
"Uh, it feels like the ship is sending out electricity up my arm but in a pleasant way. I can't really explain it."
"Electricity? We haven't picked up any kind of energy from it. That is, if we're right in assuming that the temperature changes just come from the natural chemistry of the material."
Hank was walking to one of the monitors.
"You're right. We're picking up energy discharges. I have to inform Doctor Jones about this."
While Hank made the call Kara concentrated on her left arm again. Slowly the charges got stronger but not uncomfortable. They reached her shoulder now and continued towards her chest and neck. It did make her a bit uneasy to feel the little charges covering up more and more of her body but at the same time it felt good and calming. She would just let go of the ship if anything bad happened.
Hank was finishing his call: "Yes. ... Right now please. … Good."
He hung up and looked back at Kara and saw a spark of electricity flash up right above Kara's family crest symbol at her chest.
"Hey what's happening?" he yelled as another one appeared at her left arm.
"It's OK. It's fine. I think it just wants to get to know me."
"Supergirl, this is unknown technology it might be trying to hurt you. Step away from the ship now!"
"Have a little faith. It won't going to hurt me."
The sensation on Kara's body faded. The impulse got slower and slower and then stopped.
"It's over", Kara said and dropped her hand.
She took a few steps back to stand next to Hank. They both looked at the spaceship that stood completely still. They waited a bit, then Hank went to the monitor again.
"Nothing. There are no readings on anything. It's like nothing had happened. Looks like I have to tell Doctor Jones it was a false alarm."
"Wait. Do you see that?" Kara asked.
The side of the ship was moving. It opened up a hole that got bigger and became an entrance to the inside of the ship. It was dark inside. There were no windows and the only light came from a few small lights at something that looked like a control panel.
Behind them Kara heard a door opening and a woman's voice said: "Oh my god! It's open. How did you do that?"
They turned around and Hank introduced Doctor Jones to Kara: "Supergirl, this is Doctor Jones, the leading scientists on studying this ship."
"Maybe I should put you two on this project", Doctor Jones said jokingly. "You have learned more about this spaceship in the last five minutes than we have in the past few days."
"We really didn't do anything. I just touched the ship and it sent some kind of electricity up my arm and then opened this hatch", Kara explained.
Doctor Jones informed the other scientists about the recent events and told them to come over to run some tests on the ship. A quick scan on Kara showed that there were no side effects from being exposed to the ships energy. Then Kara and Hank were asked to leave scientists to their business.
S
Meanwhile Winn was making great progress. The tech here was really more than he could have hoped for. He got his reprogramming done quickly, so he had time to design a nice layout for the readings. Then he joined Kara and Hank at the cafeteria. Kara had texted Winn and brought him up to speed with what happened with the spaceship in the lab.
"I got it done", Winn announced proudly as he placed his meal tray next to Kara's on the table and sat down.
"What? You tracked the Sterregoi?" Kara asked surprised.
"Tracked it? No not yet. But the program is up and running, we're just waiting for it to find something – you know, sudden drops and rises of heat that we can't explain. It needs to be fed enough data though, so we'll have to wait a little. I set up a link to my phone, we will know as soon as it finds anything."
"Thank you so much Winn. You were really helpful."
"Yes. Good work, Mr. Schott. The DEO appreciates your assistance", Hank said.
"Please, you can call me Winn."
When he looked up from his plate, Winn thought that Hank looked at him a little funny. Kara understood the situation, leaned towards Winn, and explained: "Hank isn't much of a first-name-calling kind of person. He usually prefers the, uh, formal way."
They continued eating their cafeteria lunch and chatted. Hank didn't say much so it was mostly Kara and Winn talking. During that Kara thought that Hank was taking life too serious sometimes. That he should laugh more instead of being all formal and stern. But of course she understood what had made him like that. The death of his people, the extinction of his entire race, including his wife and two daughters. And while a very similar tragedy had happened to Kara on Krypton, it was much easier for her to adjust to this new world with the Danvers helping her, especially Alex. Hank, or rather J'onn, didn't have that luxury. The first humans he came in contact with were sent to kill him. Sent by the DEO. This was a great example, Kara thought, to understand how much the first contact with an alien mattered. The huge difference between meeting them with guns ready to fire, or open arms and open minds, choosing to believe that something unknown doesn't have to be something evil. How much happier could Hank be if the DEO had sent a welcoming squad instead of a death squad? Could he have risen above his grief?
"Supergirl can you hear me?" Winn asked mockingly.
Kara startled up from her thoughts.
"Yes, sorry. I was just thinking."
"Right, I was just saying.." Winn started but got interrupted by a buzzing from his phone.
"Already?" he wondered. "I didn't expect to get a location this soon. Let's go see what he found."
S
Winn gave Supergirl directions where to fly to. She was already up in the air.
"Alright Supergirl, keep going that way. The industry district is at the south end of National City. That's where we need you."
She arrived at the part of National City with lots of storage houses and factories.
"To your right", Winn said. "And then about half a mile ahead."
"I see it. But it's not the Sterregoi", Supergirl told him as she flew towards one of the warehouses.
"The heat signature you picked up comes from a fire. The building is burning down."
And so, Supergirl took care of it. She used her freeze breath blowing out the fire and entered the building to see if anyone been hurt hurt. Searching through it with x-ray vision she found nobody was trapped inside.
After having talked to the firefighters she left the scene.
"Now, that wasn't quite what I was looking for", Kara said to Winn on her way back to the DEO.
"I will update the software to differentiate between fires and other natural heat sources and the Sterregoi. Sorry for the false alarm."
"At least I could helped the firefighters."
Winn worked on the update and promised Supergirl to let her know if they found another lead.
S
End of Issue #5
So that's it for today. I will update this once Winn finds the Sterregoi but the search might take a few days ;)