A Song Of The Stars

TalesOfNine

PROLOGUE

Union Aerospace Administration Ship, UAS Thorfinn Karlsefni. Unnamed System. New Calander Year 150.

"Approaching planet standby for deceleration, T-Minus 30 seconds…20…10…Good for rotation."

"Understood, get ready for the reveal people. Beginning rotation…Now."

The bridge of the Karlsefni was silent as the crew watched with anticipation. Tradition demanded when they closed in for the final approach to a new world, they awaited till they could see it with their own eyes before they looked at their instruments already toiling away data collected from their sensors. At the head of the bridge, Captain Mehmet Larsson leaned forward in his seat feeling a budding excitement in his gut as they turned everything was counting on this final moment.

"Should be coming into view in a second Captain…Almost…There she is."

As the Karlsefni entered visual range the bridge crew was greeted by the sight of a great blue sphere a vast planet with a blue sea, swirling white clouds, and the familiar blocky shape of continents far below. As their eyes laid upon it there was a sudden eruption of cheers as the crew found a goldmine.

"She's a Terran-like!" One man cried. "Getting the initial reads in now. 1G gravity, the atmosphere is nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and trace carbon dioxide, and the surface temperature is within inhabitable range. It's like we're orbiting Earth!"

This announcement caused another burst of cheers and excited clapping. The bridge was deafening as Captain Larsson himself pumped a fist. They had taken a big risk, going this far out on the edge of the frontier, they were at the absolute edge of Union Space near contested space where all manners of danger lay but the Aerospace Administration Survey Corps was all about taking risks, pioneers bravely stepping into the unknown to seek out new worlds.

This discovery was a needle in a haystack the size of a mountain. Thousands of worlds were discovered annually most of them were planetoids, barren deserts, and toxic balls of gas and noxious fumes with barely any life except microscopic extremophiles. It was vital work, and they took pride in it, but all dreamed of finding their own Goldilocks world, a planet ripe with potential life. Even the mere recording of this planet would make the Karlsefni and her crew legends back home.

"All right people," Larsson said. "Let's get to work surveying this beauty you know the drill launch satellites, get the telescope working, and take a look around."

"Already on it, Captain," Spoke up one of the scientists. "Went ahead and did a preliminary check for potential sapient life. No radio signals detected, no signs of fossil fuels in the atmosphere, and definitely no space infrastructure."

"So, no global infrastructure nor space faring," Larsson said thinking aloud. "Okay then we can relax any first contact protocols but a planet like this could have life I want surface data collected as soon as possible."

There was a chorus of acknowledgment as the research team went to work. Mehmet stood and approached the front of the bridge where his pilot Isabella Zagnino and her Navigator partner Bill Richards were making final corrections as they settled into orbit over their newfound world.

"Thought of a name yet sir?" Bill said. "Unfortunately, I think Vinland is taken."

"We can name her after we get to know her," Mehmet said. "I don't want to get ahead of myself. Especially if there's locals, Isabella, when we approached how large was our engine plume?"

"We came out of drive speed, fast, sir. Very fast, I had to use the full burn of the engine to slow us down enough to make orbit so we would have made a big light show downstairs."

Mehmet's face scrunched as he looked thoughtful for a moment before looking toward Bill. "Richards your ex-military. What would be our detectability from that maneuver?"

"With the engines burning like that? I'd say on the ground they had a new star in the sky for a few hours. The Karlsefni is a big girl she would be hard to miss."

"I see," Mehmet said. "Well, no worries I just wanted to be sure in case this planet is populated."

Captain Larsson gave Isabella and Bill a firm pat on the shoulder, thanking them for their hard work casting them across the stars as he stood approaching his station. There was green across the broad with positive reports from all decks eager to get to work surveying the new world, but no one would be setting one-foot planet side until they had completed detecting what they could from orbit.

"CAPTAIN!" A voice shouted with a mix of excitement and alarm.

Mehmet looked up sharply met with the face of Anne Dhar-Liu. From memory, she was a biosphere and xenostudies specialist on the team.

"Something wrong. Anne?"

Anne shook her head. "Initial satellite scans and telescope images are coming in and well there are clear signs of civilization. Roads, farmland, cities, and settlements on several of the major continents and carbon dioxide readings indicate multitudes of hunter-gatherer and widespread sparsely populated settlements."

"An indigenous population," Mehmet said. "Incredible…That means your Xenostudies team is up next what can you tell of their biology?"

"Well…That was why I came to you, Captain. We have identified the Indigenous population from some of the images and well it's remarkable sir…"

"Remarkable?" Mehmet said. "Are they humanoids? It would not be the first time we have found humanoids on a Terran-like."

Anne shook her head. "I wish it were simply that sir but going by images…they're human."

Mehmet paused for a moment. "Excuse me?"

Anne raised her MoCom device and tapped in commands transferring data to Mehmet's display, images appearing of vast cities, farms, sailing ships, and castles. It was like a scene out of his history classes studying ancient civilizations on Earth that thrived long before he was born. As he stared amazed at the orbital footage of these incredible sights a shot zoomed in on one of the images showing the clear sight of multiple humanoid figures toiling away in a field collecting food, another showed a formation of men clad in steel riding atop horses.

"This is…" Mehmet stammered. "This cannot be possible."

"That's what the Chief said but the footage keeps coming in. The cultures appear utterly alien from any in Terran history and we would need to collect DNA samples to fully confirm but the indigenous population appears to be fully anatomical baseline humans."

Mehmet sat forward in his station bringing his hands to his chin as he took in the news. If this planet was populated by humans, there would be countless implications. Several members of the research team and his staff approached now caught up as the rumors spread.

"So, people…What have we stumbled upon?" Mehmet asked. "We have a Terran-like with an indigenous population of pre-industrial humans."

"Illegal colony?" One man said. "They could have terraformed, dumped their ships and equipment, and then decided to live the old-fashioned way."

"Impossible I'm afraid," Retorted a scientist. "We are detecting hundreds of millions of people down there that is staggering population growth not even the Settler Commonwealth has planets that densely populated. We would have detected signs of colonization by now there would be fusion reactors, atmospheric generators, and seeding pods."

"But if they're not colonists…How did they get here? And without technology?"

"Menagerie…"

Mehmet looked up. "I'm sorry?"

"Reminds me of when we made first contact with Menagerie and the Anthromorphs," A woman spoke up. "It was a lot like this it was a Terran-like with an indigenous population. Anthromorphs are all genetically altered Earth fauna. Some alien species must have collected them millions of years ago, mutated them, and then set them loose on Menagerie. Maybe that same species did this?"

"That origin is just a theory," Another scientist argued. "We have no idea what circumstances led to the evolution of the Anthromorphs regardless they are a Xenoforme species we are talking about humans here, Homo sapiens sapiens. Nothing like this has ever been found."

Mehmet nodded before clapping to get attention. "Okay we can argue this until the stars die but that will not get us any closer to answers. We will stick to this by the book we have a planet with an indigenous population which means we stick to protocols. Minimal contact and survey from a safe distance we'll collect as much data as we can and send it back home to the Aerospace Administration and they can decide how to escalate from there."

There was a murmur of agreement from those assembled as they returned to their stations but much of the earlier excitement had died down replaced by tense curiosity and confusion. The galaxy was an endless pile of mysteries and yet even after generations in space, there were still discoveries and mysteries that left people only more lost. Mehmet wondered if the denizens of this planet were a lost tribe of humans who had been ripped away by alien life or if some cosmic circumstances had led to exact copies of humanity evolving on a distant world.

He was never a mathematician, but he knew the chances of such a development were astronomical. Coincidences upon coincidences like that were nearly impossible even for the randomness of spacetime, still, he was a professional and pushed it toward the back of his mind as he settled into his station.

"Tell the launch boxes I want to get Aerospace drones in the skies immediately, high atmospheric observation I want to get a closer look at these civilizations. Get the shuttles double checked I want them in prime condition if we are-"

Mehmet's orders were cut off when an alarm began wailing through the ship. An automated voice began crying out.

"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! THREAT DETECTED!"

Mehmet looked around wildly before noticing Isabella and Bill had suddenly begun furiously working at their stations and the Karlsefni suddenly and violently lurched forward as the pair began moving.

"Isabella! Bill! What the hell is going on!?" Mehmet yelled.

"Missile launch!" Bill shouted. "We've got incoming!"

Mehmet felt his entire body go cold in an instant. The Karlsefni was an unarmed scientific vessel it had no weapons beyond a few defensive systems intended to shoot away at asteroids and a staff of security to repel boarders. He searched his mind remembering the proper procedures.

"Immediate acceleration!" He said. "Spin up grav-drive and create a barrier. Get us clear!"

"Moving sir!" Isabella said. "Moving her as fast as I can!"

"Gravity drive is spinning up!" Bill said. "But we're not a warship sir we cannot generate enough force."

"Countermeasures?"

"Launching dummy buoys and chaff dispensers now but these missiles are fast and locked in…Son of a bitch it just split that was a munition carrier tracking…twenty micro-missiles incoming. Isabella get a move on!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying!"

Mehmet could only trust his team to get clear as Captain he could do nothing for them at the moment the Karlsefni was no warship and the crew were mostly civilians. He immediately activated the ship communications to make an announcement.

"All hands, this is an emergency the Karlsefni is under attack," He said. "Head to emergency-ready areas and prepare for catastrophic danger. Drop whatever you are doing right now. Non-Essential crew clear the bridge and all observation areas."

Mehmet looked up as he completed the announcement.

"Any good news for me Bill?"

"No," Bill said flatly. "We have another missile heading directly for us."

"Damn it…Anything on sensors?"

"No Captain," Another crewman spoke up. "Nothing on long range and no one trying to communicate either we're being hunted by a ghost."

Mehmet gritted his teeth. He considered potentially making a surrender announcement but without contact, there was no way to plead mercy, the Karlsefni raced forward but he could see the missiles closing in.

"Fire the anti-debris lasers," Mehmet said. "They're better than nothing."

"Firing now," An operator said. 'One missile hit…It's gone!"

Any cheer from the interception was cut short when the man suddenly swore. "No-no damnit! They're doing evasive maneuvers now too fast for the computer to keep up. I'm firing randomly."

"Do it," Mehmet said. "Just keep firing. Bill, can you get us out?"

Bill shook his head. "Too close to the planet the gravity will throw off our acceleration we'd pull ourselves apart."

"Missiles on final approach!"

"Damn it all," Mehmet said before slamming the communications. "ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

There was a sudden and violent crack that echoed through the ship followed by a sickly rumbling sensation of missile impacts. The Karlsefni crew was tossed as the motion of the ship suddenly turned over itself causing a spin which increased the feeling of gravity immensely shoving them roughly into their seats. It was followed by another series of cracks and heavy thuds as the ship suddenly tumbled and spun.

Mehmet sat with his eyes closed praying to every god he could name in his mind for some salvation when the sudden sensation stopped. As he opened his eyes feeling sick with vertigo the Karlsefni was facing their blue world once again but he could see floating pieces of debris from the ship lazily floating away cast out by the explosion.

"Damage report!" He cried. "What happened?"

"Casualties reported in ready areas," A voice said. "Engineering is…they're gone the missiles hit the engines."

"God…" Mehmet murmured. "What about the fusion reactor?"

"Damaged…and leaking, sir could go catastrophic any time."

Mehmet reacted on instinct. "All hands abandon ship, immediate evacuation. Get to escape rafts and shuttles head to the surface of the planet. We have a damaged reactor, and catastrophic damage is imminent. Clear. The. Ship. No objections hit the ground and await rescue from responders."

The crew immediately began their evacuation procedures moving with a rapid swiftness already he could hear the thumping of emergency rafts as they jetted out from the ship racing toward the blue skies below. Mehmet noticed his bridge crew were still at their stations working.

"That means you too bridge crew!" He shouted. "Hit the shuttles!"

"We can still hold her steady," Isabella protested. "Give everyone a chance."

"Whoever shot the ship is going to take another shot soon," Mehmet said. "Get clear, I can take care of this."

"Captain?" Bill said. "No time to be a hero Mehmet."

"Not being a hero," He snapped. "I'm doing my duty. Get to the shuttle they'll need your experience down there Bill."

Bill nodded reluctantly. "Okay…Damn it, fine. Isabella come on."

Bill dragged the young pilot from her station as Mehmet found himself alone on the bridge. As he sat down in the pilot station, he could see his prediction was accurate another missile launch had been detected racing to give the killing blow.

Bastards, I won't give you the chance.

Mehmet Larsson had no idea who shot down his ship, but he was not about to give them the satisfaction of an easy kill. He directed the Karlsefni to orient itself toward the planet and with all the thrust and spare air supply left in the vessel he accelerated it directly toward the ground which brought the ship into the pull of the planet's gravity rapidly free-falling toward the ground. As the final emergency vessels raced away toward the surface Mehmet leaned back in his seat watching as the viewport became engulfed in flames as the Karlsefni raced toward the ground with no controls left to direct her and a raging fusion engine on the verge of failure.

Mehmet simply stared forward at the vast sea of blue and green with the star in the distance looming ahead. He sighed and closed his eyes; it was going to be a long way down.

Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to A Song Of the Stars,

This will be my first attempt at doing multi-chapter fanfiction. I have been wanting to do this a long time and finally the muse hit me. This is a crossover between A Song Of Ice and Fire and my original science fiction setting From Dust. Unfortunately, I have no page to feature on From Dust but I hope to introduce the general idea of it as the story progresses needless to say its kind of your typical space opera setting humanity in the far future wandering the stars with aliens and all that good stuff. If you take the time to read this I thank you and hope you look forward to the ride. I'll try not to bore you with lore dumps and technical stuff but leave a comment if you are curious about anything that shows up in the story I would be happy to answer any questions.

That's all from me, have a beautiful day.