Beyond Light

Unforeseen Contact.

“What?” John spoke through the com. channel, rolling his eyes and cursing inside his mind. More trouble. “Did I hear you well?

“Yes, Commander,” reiterated Com. Officer Jeffrey Emmerson. “We are detecting some artificial objects flying against our position at about 5320 kilometers and quickly decreasing. You might wanna come to the bridge aboard.”

“On my way,” John took an exhausted gasp and nodded to Katiya. Both rushed up to the Beyond Light as if they were on a drill exercise. He ordered all troops to immediately report back to the ship and be on alert mode. They had arrived no less than some hours ago and were facing even more problems now. Guess breaks were something made for civilian life…

John reached the fourth deck and entered the bridge, Katiya following behind, both with their nightingale helmets off. Mike, Xi, Jeffrey, and Supervisor Diaz were already on the cockpit, with only the ISI officer looking particularly stressed.

“Commander,” said Jeffrey as they entered. The three men except Bella did a soft military salute. “You better come off and see this.”

“Oh, finally the Commander arrives,” Bella Diaz growled. “Star, how can you be so irresponsible and leave your ship alone in a moment like this?!”

John ignored her. He leaned on the Flight Lieutenant’s seat and looked at his blue holographic screens, filled with squares of texts, waves moving, or other information he only received basic instruction to comprehend.

“What’s happening? Are those bastards already here?”

“They suddenly stopped at 2054.5 kilometers from us, and are locked in low orbit, but their signals don’t correspond to those of Goliath nor its destroyers,” responded Jeffrey.

John frowned, feeling his chest take a hop from hearing the unexpected. “Really? What kind of objects are they? How many?”

Xi responded for Jeffrey, John moving to his position. “I’ve only detected three. They must be vessels, judging by the radiation and constant levels of heat they are emitting, but the atmosphere of this planet is too turbulent to generate accurate 3D models.”

Vessels that didn't correspond with Goliath nor its minions. John sighed. What was it now? He just hoped that by a hit of luck they hadn’t been detected, or at least those ships weren’t aggressive. What surprise was it, now?

“So, more aliens,” Mike turned his seat around, facing them on a laidback seat stance. “Maybe it’s the owners of this place and they are angry at us for burglarizing into their weird station. Or perhaps they want our opinion about their music album.”

But Supervisor Diaz didn’t like his joke a little bit. “Flight Lieutenant Emmerson? Do you think this is all jokes and play? Star, why can’t you behave your subordinates! Your already negative report is—”

“Bella, shut up,” exclaimed John. “You are not going to come to my bridge to tell me how to do my job. Get out of here. It's an order,” he signaled the entrance.

Mike squeezed his lips, wearing a playful poker face. Bella stared at them with the same distressed anger of Fleet Admiral Emmerson Hopkins himself. “This is all your fault, Star!” She moved to the entrance. “We are going to die and fail the mission all because of you! Mark my words. And you,” she signaled Katiya, who didn’t put apart her frozen blue eyes from her. “Know this is all a mistake. But you are apparently too incompetent there on your feddie—”

“Bella, get out. Now!” John exclaimed again. “Or I’ll make the security agents kick you out.”

“Hush!” she exclaimed, red as a boiled tomato, and flounced to the entrance.

Everyone traded looks. Xi never stopped working on his terminals, as if he ignored —or didn’t care— about the trouble behind him. Jeffrey only continued to work until she left, and Katiya didn’t look stressed or impacted in the least. The URB surely had the highest standards of discipline for all of its agents. Mike didn’t stop his poker face, looking at John as a playful kid.

“She surely has anger problems, man…” he mocked.

John rolled his eyes and continued to look at Xi’s screens. “Anything else, Flight Colonel?”

“No, Commander. Those presumable vessels have stopped there. Maybe they haven’t detected us, or—”

“Hey!” exclaimed Jeffrey, dragging everyone’s attention. “Receiving a direct com. signal that matches those objects. It’s... a message?”

“So, they are well aware of us,” said Mike. “How could not they? We are the only ones on this system with cavemen space technology.”

“A message?” John asked twice. “Well, at least they aren’t going to attack us for now. Can you play it?” he moved to the other side of the cockpit, standing behind the Communications Officer.

“Establishing safe connection protocol,” said Jeffrey, sweeping his fingers over his terminal “Hmmm… This is an impossible frequency for our com. systems. Adjusting it to readable levels… Done. Let’s hear out,” He raised a hand and slammed his finger against a button on his keyboard like a mother feeding a baby with a plane spoon.

Only white static rumbled for 10 seconds. Everyone traded slow looks, but a guttural, deep voice spoke through the main speakers, more natural and less monotonous than the demonical angered voice of Goliath.

“Humans…”

“Humans?” mumbled Mike. “Is it you, Goliath? Damn. They even know what we are—”

“...Peace. In peace come we. A meeting is desired.”

“It's not Goliath," Jeffrey whispered. "and they want a meeting…”

“We know you can listen. Respond to our call. We do not desire violence. The biggest threat is out there.”

Everyone traded frowning looks again, just as if they had listened to some public figure say something out of character, or saw a ghost manifesting before them.

“Jeffrey?” spoke John. “Can you establish a two-way connection?”

“Connecting to their channel,” the Flight Lieutenant quickly tipped on his terminal. “Ready. You are free to speak, Commander.”

“...Hello?” John gulped his own surprise down before speaking. “This is Commander John Star from the INSU… Human race. Can you hear us? Please identify yourselves. State your intentions.”

He spoke slow and clear as if he was giving a speech to a big public. If they knew they were humans —and could also speak English— maybe they were already very aware of them or had been spying on every maneuver they did since they arrived.

The same deep, guttural voice took a short pause to respond. “Listening clear. The name of our ship in our language is vaguely translated as the Dream Cradle ship, from our race.”

“And what’s your race supposed to be?” asked Mike with a bothered tone, shaking his head.

“...We are not your enemy, humans. We attempted to warn the first of your vessels to arrive here from Anuk, but a misunderstanding occurred.”

“A misunderstanding?” Jeffrey whispered. “Could it be that this…?”

The missing parts of the puzzles were beginning to connect. John nodded to himself. “Misunderstanding? You mean, the ships that attacked our dreadnought, the Eternity of Return, were yours? You attacked our ship?”

The voice took another short pause to respond. “Unwillingly. We tried to warn them without success. They opened fire, and our brothers were forced to defend their own lives.”

“...They coulda just do, like, get out of the fricking way,” Mike sarcastically mocked.

“So, it was true…” responded John. “We scavenged the remains of your destroyed ships. We found messages directed to humans, warning about something. They were yours, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you were trying to warn us from Goliath. I mean, that ship of 100 kilome—” He halted his words. How were those aliens going to comprehend human biblical figures or their measure units? “That enormous ship, the one that attacked our vessel, the Eternity of Return.”

“Yes. Anuk. He is here to absorb everything. And it has you, humans, in its sights. It jammed our systems to ensure our warning never reached you. Then he took down your ship, and scavenged it for humans to absorb.”

“Humans, to absorb?” frowned John, trading looks with his crew. “What do you mean by that? We already know it is doing something to our people. What do you know? Can you help us?”

“Let us formally meet first. We can help each other. Anuk has been hunting and killing us for a long time, and like you, we found shelter on Sema, this planet.”

“Sema?” said Mike. “At least they have names for these planets, unlike our boring classifications.”

John thought about it. If those aliens weren’t lying, then they were also facing the same enemy. And unlike them, they appeared to know much more than he or his team could about Goliath, or ‘Anuk’, as they called it, whatever that meant in their alien language.

If they knew about the Hawking-616a system enough to give it names, then maybe they could help with the strange device they found on that floating station.

“Alright,” John informed his decision. “Let’s meet. Can you come to our position? Our ship is damaged. We fought —Anuk— and we are under repairs.”

“...We shall not be late. This is a pleasure, humans. Let us greet our first formal meeting.”

A static beep rumbled through the speakers. “Connection lost,” announced Jeffrey. “They disconnected from the call.”

“And they are approaching our position,” Xi informed.

“Should we keep our assets ready to fight?” asked Jeffrey.

“Just in case,” responded John. “Inform everyone about what’s going to happen. Tell them to stay alert.”

“So, we are finally going to meet up with aliens,” Mike said. “Who would have said it would be like this. I wonder what they look like. Grey skin, big heads, and eyes probably, maybe the flying saucers. Wooo!” He raised his hands and moved them like a ghost.

John took a deep breath, wondering just like Mike how those aliens would look. His head spun. How many surprises was that wicked system hiding them?

And what if it was a trap? Thinking about it, it didn't make sense for a giant machine of destruction like Goliath. If it had already found them, why play dirty tricks instead of just annihilating them —as it had tried before?

At least those supposed aliens didn't want to fight them. John felt anxious to know what they knew. They were their next and only clue on that never-ending puzzle of mysterious alien vessels, advanced structures, cosmic nightmares, and human abductions.