In order of seniority, the attendees were Master Engineer Sulvan, Master Doctor Prure, Ranix, Master Engineer Class 3 Valerex, Sub-Engineer Venko, then the non-officer members, Master Star Pilot Rais, Navigator Second Class Yuli, Detection Technician 4th Class Jonas and finally the two medics.

  Detection Technician Jonas had taken over the communications station now that Ranix was acting Ship Master, and with the ships gunner was dead, and without any functioning weaponry, there was no need to fill the position.

  “Thank you for coming to this situation report.” Ranix held the side of a portable data pad in his hand. Touching the top corner gently, the pad extended a flat surface of energised light out six inches. After a few seconds of showing a steady green glow, some notes he had made over the previous two and one-half rotations of the planet appeared.

  “First thing I would like to do is get a situation report from each department. After that, we will discuss various options as to how to proceed with rescue and the possibility of a second contact with the humans.” He moved his finger over the pad and scrolled his notes down until he found the section he was looking for. “Medical.” He looked up and made eye contact with Master Doctor Prure. “Would you give us a report on our current medical situation please.” Ranix might have gotten comfortable in the command chair, but he was still getting used to the idea of giving orders and holding briefings.

  The Master Doctor tapped his wrist display monitor, and a red beam of light rose from his wrist, before creating a flat screen for the Master Doctor to read. “At this moment, we have a ship’s complement of ten. Of those, some have slight wounds, but none of them seriously. The moulding tablets we took upon landing will need to be replaced within three rotations of this planet around its star. We have enough moulding tablets remaining in storage to supply the entire crew for another the foreseeable future.”

  “Can any of the crew breathe this type of air?” Ranix asked

  “No. If not for the moulding tablets, crew members would be required to wear their survival suits, but this would be only a short-term solution.”

  “Anything else to note?” he asked

  “I had studied some of the databases that were downloaded and translated before we crashed. There is a chance that some of the plants and animals on this planet could be used for a variety of purposes such as food and medicinal needs. There are quite a range options to what we could do with them and what we could learn.”

  “Let me stop you right there, Master Doctor. If the humans return, and we can establish diplomatic relations, I intend to invite them on board this ship, and I don’t want them to find a variety of the local creatures dissected in your medical lab. That would not be the impression I would want them to have of us.”

  Master Engineer Sulvan chuckled. “That begs another question, Communications Officer. If you let the humans on board following a successful first contact, and they see our technology and are interested in it, what will you do?”

  “I have studied the Alliance’s First Contact Protocol guidelines for the past few days. If we make a successful first contact, and if humans board this vessel, I will grant them access to all elements of our technology except our weapons systems.”

  “And if the humans decide that they want to take our weapons technology?” Sulvan pressed.

  “In that event, the Sentinel’s are already pre-programmed to resist the forceful taking of any restricted pieces of technology. Even if that means the destruction of this ship. Under no circumstances, according to Alliance Regulations are we allowed to give weapons tech to a less advanced species, and there is no way to change the Sentinels programming when it comes to that issue. They will automatically stop any attempt to remove or gain access to that information.” Ranix looked at the rest of the group. “We have enough weapons to arm every member of the crew if we are forced to repulse any unwanted advances, and if our reactor is overloaded it will destroy the ship, and that is precisely what would happen if worst comes to pass.” Ranix turned his data pad off and took a deep breath.

  “Now.” He looked at Navigator Second Class Yuli. “Have you been able to find the Star-Plot of our current position?”

  “Sir, so far I have a partial understanding of the stars that are visible from this planet’s surface, but those are not enough to provide a full galactic Star-Plot of our position.”

  Ranix nodded. “Jonas?”

  The Detection Technician 4th Class looked over at his station on the right-hand side of the bridge. “As you can see from my station, Sir, it’s in pretty bad shape. I can pick up a variety of signals from this planet, but I am not able to transmit any signals at this time. This ship's main antenna array is located just under the nose, and that portion of the ship is still buried.”

  Ranix nodded. “I understand.” He deactivated his data pad. “Could we send communications to fleet headquarters from the shuttlecraft?” He asked out loud. As the Communications Officer, he should be the one most familiar with the system's capabilities, but he wanted the rest of the crew's input and opinion.

  Jonas took a moment to consider the question. “I’d have to discuss that with Master Engineer Sulvan. The shuttle would have to be heavily modified to perform such a task. We’d probably have to dismantle the bulk of the comms station here on the bridge, and somehow get a transmitter powerful enough rigged to the shuttle.” He looked at the Master Engineer.

  “Jonas is right, Communications Officer, as I'm sure you know. It might be possible. I’ll need to look through our stores for spare parts, and we would have to make some form of antenna.” He looked up to the ceiling of the bridge and closed his eyes. “It could be done.” He looked back down Ranix. “My primary concern would be what the locals would think if we launched the shuttle. They already destroyed our drone. Who knows how they might react if we did anything besides confine ourselves to this position.”

  Ranix nodded “I agree with you on that point. I don’t want to risk another round of hostilities with these humans, but I want you to start making preparations to modify the shuttle. One way or another, at some point we will need to send a distress call to fleet headquarters, we might as well get started on the solution now.”

  Jonas nodded his head in agreement. “Yes, Sir.”

  Ranix tapped his wrist communications unit. “Sentinel Commander.”

  A metallic voice responded quickly. “This is Sentinel Two. The Commander is shut down and undergoing upgrades, Sir.”

  “That’s fine. What is our current security situation?”

  “No change. Sensors placed away from the ship have detected no change since the first incursion. Sentinels Three and Four are powered down, while the two Crawlers are sweeping the perimeter."

  “Excellent. Please note that the crew will be exiting the ship periodically from now unit last meal of the day.”

  “Very good, Sir.”

  Ranix turned off his communicator and looked around the bridge. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to their voices.”

  19

  By the time Joe had had his swim, followed up by two bottles of Cusquena beer in the hotels Keno bar, and a long shower it was nearly half past two, giving him 30 minutes to dress and get himself to the conference room located on the ground floor.

  Joe looked at the options that were available for wardrobe selections, and they were limited. After some deliberation, Joe went for the khakis, a yellow Hawaiian shirt, and the red high tops. He wasn’t quite sure what the other attendees would be wearing to the meeting, but he felt fairly confident that he wouldn’t fit in too well. Picking up the file on the other SETI members, Joe scanned the room, and headed out the door, grabbing his Raybans and the satellite phone on the way out.

  As his room door closed behind him, Joe looked down the hallway and noted how quiet it was. The hotel had a hollow central atrium that ran from the 2nd floor to the 20th floor and looking over the railing, and down to the bottom of the atrium, Joe couldn’t see or hear anyone. The entire hotel had been taken over for the SETI conference, and it had an eerie feeling.

  Reaching the elevator bank, Joe caught a reflection of his outfit in the elevator doors. The image reminded him of something he would have worn to Surfer the Bar during his time with the 25th Infantry Division. Hardly the outfit to wear to a meeting of this nature, but it was the only thing in his locker at his unit when he had been called in.

  The elevator arrived with the usual ping, and its doors opened to reveal a pair of black and white ballet flats leading to a pair of skinny, dark blue denim trousers that were covering a pair of legs that went on forever. Joe’s eyes slowly rose as he took in the creature that stood before him. The woman was wearing an untucked white crepe-voile shirt, with eight gunmetal buttons buttoned to the neck, under a bright blue wool and silk blend blazer. But before Joe could finish his military-style uniform inspection, the subject of his fascination cut him off.

  “Major Hunt. Are you quite finished?”

  Joe looked up and noticed the reddish-brown hair from the pool a few hours earlier. With a smile on his face, he stepped into the elevator. “Yes, ma’am.” The doors closed behind him, and the elevator continued its descent to the conference room.

  In an attempt to focus his mind on the upcoming meeting, Joe opened the file that Surridge had given him the night before and started flipping through the pages to look for a possible match for the mystery woman who was standing two feet away. The first check was nationality because she was from either the US or Canada, which eliminated almost 75 percent of the Post-Detection Task Group team. He could easily remove the American and Canadian males on the team, leaving him with two options, a Lisa Lee and Rhea Stokes, and Joe was fairly confident the woman standing next to him wasn’t Asian.

  Glancing back down over the files he noted all the key areas. Born in Vancouver, keen swimmer, Bachelor of Science Degree in Earth and Space Exploration with a concentration in Astrobiology and Bio Geosciences from Arizona State University then a Ph. D. from MIT in Astrobiology.

  He lowered the file and looked over to where the woman had been standing, only to realise that he was alone in the elevator and that the doors were open, with the Precursores Meeting Room about twenty meters away. Feeling stupid, Joe stuck his left hand in his trouser pockets and walked out of the elevator towards the conference room, noting along the way that there was a massive police and military presence in the area.

  Reaching the doors, two large men in National Police uniforms stopped him. “Your identification please.”

  Joe responded in perfect Spanish. “I haven’t received any identification.”

  “Just a moment.” The officer scanned the room behind Joe, spotting a National Police Commissioner. “Sir.”

  The Commissioner walked over quickly with a file in his hands but didn’t bother opening it before extending his hand towards Joe. “Major Hunt. I recognise you from your photo from the file your embassy gave us.” His English wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

  Joe shook his hand. “I’m sorry, but no one has given me an identification card since I’ve arrived.”

  “Not to worry, Major. I have yours here.” He pulled out a red and white plastic ID card from his uniform pocket and gave it to Joe. “Because of the sensitivity of this event, only people attending the briefing will be allowed in the conference room. No security or other personnel are allowed inside.”

  Joe took the ID card, gave it a glance and put it in his pocket. “Do you know what’s going on here, Commissioner?” He asked.

  “I have been told that there is to be a meeting, and that is all I know. My men have not been informed of any details. It is my understanding that only the people attending the meeting and those at the highest levels of authority within my government know the exact nature of this affair. And I am quite fine with that.” He smiled, extended his hand, which Joe took and shook before moving off.

  No questions, no answers, probably the safest way to live sometimes.

  The conference room was quite large, which hardly seemed necessary given that only thirteen people were attending the briefing. A circular table dominated the middle of the chamber with thirteen chairs around it. Against the wall on both sides of the table were what looked like charts and few maps and several images. By the time Joe arrived, ten of the attendees were already present and huddled around a set of enlarged pictures of the spacecraft taken from the ISS.

  Making his way to the group, Joe marvelled at the series of images. They were a series of high-resolution shots that he had not seen yet. The pictures had been taken by an automated camera on the space station to record any meteor or debris that might pass close by the space station. Once the spacecraft had appeared, it took dozens of images until the craft was out of the cameras field of view. Funny enough, the ship looked smaller in the pictures than he remembered.

  As the last three members of the group arrived, Dr Stephenson, the head of the PDTG, asked those in attendance to take their respective seats. The table was arranged in alphabetical order, and Joe found his place card, complete with an image of the American flag, close to the board with the pictures of the spaceship, and sandwiched between a Korean and a British scientist. In front of each seat was a large three-ring binder, with the SETI PDTG logo on the cover.

  Most of the attendees were older than Joe. Many wore glasses and had the look of his old high school chemistry teacher. Doctor Stokes was one of the few people who looked well under 40 years of age. Looking around he noted that his Hawaiian shirt was by far the most flamboyant item in the room. Sitting down he opened the binder and scanned the first couple of pages, which covered a wide variety of aspects of the SETI charter and mission.

  Doctor Stephenson kicked the meeting off, on time, with a brief introduction. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice. This is the first time we have assembled this particular team in one place, and I have high confidence that we are in a position to best address this fantastic discovery.” He opened his binder, which everyone else did who had not opened theirs already.

  “I want to go over the broad strokes of my plan quickly.” He looked around to the table to gauge the mood in the room. There was a sense of anticipation and excitement in the air. Even Joe was looking forward to the next chapter of this discovery. “I have decided that it is in the best interests of humanity that we broadcast, live, our first contact with these visitors. In doing so, I have established four key factors in making this discovery known to the entire world, and hopefully minimising fear, panic and possible hostile reactions. The first element to conducting a successful first contact is security. We need to know that the area around the crash site is secure, and that not just anyone can access it. Luckily, the Paraguayan military, along with the army of the United States have backed this effort.

  “Secondly, we need to make sure that everything we do is done in the open. This is a global issue, and no one country should monopolise access, or take control of this event for political or nationalistic or monetary reasons. That was already tried by the President of Paraguay and was an abysmal failure.

  “Thirdly, and tied into my second point, we need to ensure that the first contact is broadcast to the entire world at the same time. It is no good keeping this discovery from any one group of people, and finally, we need to act quickly. The alien spacecraft has been sitting in a forest on Earth for approximately fifty hours. We need to get in there sooner rather than later, and establish who they are, what their intentions are, and if we can assist them in any way.”

  Stephenson sat back in his chair and looked around the table. “Just looking at those images on the wall gets my heart racing. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what we have been waiting our entire lives for. I remember being a young boy, growing up in Flagstaff, Arizona. I used to spend hours in the wilderness outside of town, pretending to be on an alien world. Well now we have extraterrestrials from a distant world on our planet, and it is our mission to greet them with open arms.”

  “Now, considering my four points does anyone wish to comment on the first point, security, because, at the moment, that is the one area that is out of our hands, but I have been told steps are already being put in place.” Stephenson looked around the table, stopping with Joe. “Major Hunt, do you have any comments at this time?”

  Joe leant forward onto the table. “Well. My understanding is that the Paraguayan military has secured a perimeter around the crash site, and they’re not letting anyone in. I’m not sure what they’re using as a cover story, but it is my understanding that the crash site has not been approached since Friday.”

  Stephenson cut him off, “So you would say that the security is acceptable?”

  “For the time being, yes. I’m not sure what you know, or what my government wants me to tell you, but since I’m here to assist, I’ll tell you what I do know.” Joe looked around the table at a group of people who had probably never even served a day in the military in their entire lives. They had studied, and become excellent at what they did, but they had no real understanding of how dangerous the world was outside their science laboratories and research labs.

  “And what do you know, Major?” Asked Doctor Angus Reynolds of Great Britain according to his place card.

  Ten minutes later Joe was back at the bar sipping on a cold beer watching ESPN. He shook his head and gently started to peel his label off the wet beer bottle. He wasn't about to suffer through another non-stop meeting like the one he had had in the White House the other day, which had almost put him to sleep, and the bookworms down in the conference were going to have him in a coma at the rate they were going.

  With his beer going down nicely, and some good sports on the television, Joe was very relaxed, until his satellite phone rang loudly. Without glancing to his right, he grabbed the phone off a side table, hit the answer key, and brought the phone to his ear.

 

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