The Outer Solar System

At the outer reaches of our Solar System, where the gravity of the Sun almost loses its inescapable pull, a bright light burst out of nowhere. A blazing conflagration of energies announced a change in the natural order of things. It lasted for a split second, but if someone was near that place, it would be enough for all receptors in their eyes to be burned out. The light show rapidly dispersed, and in its place, a new object appeared.

Captain1 looked at the digital representation of this new territory and clenched his fist in agitation. Just for one little mistake, he was downgraded into performing this humiliating mission, to command one measly scout ship when he should be at the helm of a destroyer, raining havoc on those that opposed their race. Life-is-battle, one of the prime rules he learned soon after his birth. He still remembered the day when he was taken out of his pen, after killing off his siblings; that was the way of demons, only the strongest were allowed to survive.

“Start scanning the system, let's see if there is anything here,” he commanded Astrogator2, one step below him in the ship’s hierarchy. Even their names were a numbered designation, recorded in a tattoo between the horns, a tattoo any scanner could read and display their entire life’s history.

The leader of the mission was always addressed with the hierarchical number after his rank, and it felt good to be so acknowledged. Although that was small comfort to him; before he translated to this system, he had a bright future in front of him. As a direct genetic descendant of the Ruler, he was destined for greatness. Right before he blundered and lost everything when he killed the son of one of his progenitor’s advisors. The weakling had it coming as he had said something offensive to him. His progenitor immediately lowered his overall designation in the hierarchy and was now in hundreds when before it was in double digits. He told him it was a way to teach him humility and respect for those above him; that was after he beat him to within an inch of his life.

This entire mission was an aberration. An ancient guard probe had translated to their star system, transmitting the coordinates of an unknown system, one not yet cataloged. After that, the probe exploded, caused by some unknown malfunction. Not that surprising as they were expendable pieces of equipment and prone to errors.

“Captain1, we have preliminary analysis,” Astrogator2 barked with too much excitement in his voice. In normal circumstances he would have killed the idiot for such blatant disrespect of his position, showing emotions in the line of duty, but these were not normal circumstances, and he only had two crewmembers. At least Wepons3 was a quiet, respectful demon.

“Report!” He barked, showing his teeth to the excited fool, hoping it would remind the idiot of his low place.

“There are a lot of radio transmissions coming from the 3rd planet of this solar system, but the amazing thing is that we detected Gravity-drive signatures, right in the asteroid field between the 4th and the 5th planet. The computer identified it as an ancient angel in origin.” Astrogator2 hurriedly voiced, still unable to contain his excitement.

Captain1's mouth opened in a sinister smile. It seemed he was the lucky one; this discovery would raise his status to unimaginable heights. It could wash away his transgression, placing him again in his progenitor’s good graces, as a prince of the demon race.

“Set a course toward the planet,” he commanded, forcing himself not to show a growing excitement in his voice.

“Sir, shall we send a message probe first, to inform the command?” Astrogator2 whined.

“No! We need more data; I will not be dishonored by sending a half-finished report.”

Not sending a message probe was bending the standard procedure, but it was a risk he was willing to take. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he would not let it slip out of his claws. He alone will be the one that is responsible for discovering what was only an old legend.

Angels were the first of their subjugated races; miserable slaves good only for menial work and as a food source. He watched once how they were selected for classification, de-winged after hatching, and then evaluated after reaching adulthood. Some went to slaughterhouses and others were given slave collars—it was a standard fate of lesser species.

However, there was a legend that during the angels’ subjugation process, one ship escaped into the unknown, making a blind jump. Those sent after them never returned, signifying their failure to find the escapees. A dream of many aspiring demons was to find them and finish a job of subjugation. It would seem that honor would be his.

He watched old records of the times; angels did not even have weapons, a weakling race, pitiful. Now he would conquer these runaways himself; the scout’s weapons would be sufficient for the task of subduing those without any armaments.

Closing his eyes, he was already basking in the glory. His sire’s advisor would be beneath him and would suffer before he died as his son had.

***

City-Ship Ascension

Geostationary Orbit

It was late in the evening and Michael was still in his office; looking at the real-time view outside of the City-ship, which was projected on the entire wall in front of him. The angles were just right for him to see part of the blue planet and the shining light of the approaching space station. By now, its speed was so reduced it was practically crawling, especially compared to the acceleration it had before coming to the halfway point and began its braking maneuver.

Inside that shiny speck of light were thousands of S.U. citizens, working tirelessly to complete the final stages of construction and groundwork needed so that a considerable percentage of people from the Ascension could move there, when the station finally reached its destination.

His head turned to the wall on his left, where the deed to Antarctica was proudly displayed; it still amazed him that this was real. The idea of owning an entire continent felt so surreal, something he still couldn’t quite grasp in his mind. Nonetheless, Max could, since even now, there were many construction sites on the South Pole, not that anyone could see them. At this preliminary stage, transporting construction materials to the sites was not cost-effective so the AI decided to take them from the ground. He sent construction probes to bore through the ice until they reached the bedrock, and there they will start the extraction process. The plan was to bore thin long mine shafts, to reach the detected ores and then refine them with construction nanites. Mining in that particular way would not have much impact on the environment… if one could call miles of ice above an environment.

Then, everything Max planned would be built from the ground up. By the time the constructions reach the surface, 90% of it would already be finished.

He stretched his back and turned off the monitor. It was late at night and Elizabeth was constantly telling him that he was doing no one a favor by exhausting himself every day. It’s a good thing his office was only a few minutes of leisurely walk away from their apartment.

The lights automatically turned off, as he closed the door behind himself.

***

Artificial intelligence processing speeds far exceed what the human brain is capable of. As a result, in a span of a few seconds, Max had analyzed a mountain of data sent to him from the Ascension’s monitoring MI, which was flagged as having a high priority. The data was in regard to the strange readings gravitational sensors detected. Consequently, that same data, once analyzed, sent shivers down his virtual spine.

If it were left to him, he would not yet have built the gravity detection devices to scan the space around the Solar System, as there were many projects of more immediate importance in his build queue. Ision urged him to do so, just for the ancient AI’s peace of mind. The schematics for them were pulled from the Knowledge Vault, and it only took a little time to build them and mount them on the Ascension’s outer hull. The only unnatural reading they had detected so far was the position of their mining operation in the asteroid belt; he personally thought the chances of discovering anything else were infinitesimally low.

Well, people say the chances for a meteorite from space to hit you are equally low, which is no comfort to someone who experienced the strange phenomenon.

The gravity detectors observed the translation event on the outer edges of the Solar System; the readings were almost instantaneous. A few scientists on the Ascension were still working on the theory of how that was possible. Max could not tell them, except that detectors worked as advertised.

Logs from the last days of what happened in the angel’s star system were extensive, so within a few seconds he got a 99% match of that translation signature, and a few more to confirm the point of origin.

There was a demon ship heading for the inner Solar System, a thing he hoped never to see; they were not ready—not by a mile.

***

“Michael, wake up!” Max sent to his CEI. That prompted an immediate transition between Michael being asleep to fully awake. Long years of military conditioning made him react in such a way whenever he heard a wake-up call delivered in such an urgent tone of voice.

“What happened?” He asked in the same way, not wanting to disturb Elizabeth, who was peacefully sleeping by his side.

“A translation event from the angels’ Hemina system has been detected. All readings indicate that it is a demon ship.” Max stated.

To Michael, those words felt as if a knife was stabbed in his gut. Images of Gaina’s bombardment and destruction of Atlantis went through his mind. One of the things they were debating lately was the protection of the S.U. from outside threats. And that didn’t mean humans from Earth, but the potential alien species that were out there. Facts of angels and demons existence confirmed that humans were not alone in the universe. Laws of probability advised that the chances were 50-50 that any other species they encounter could be hostile.

It was too soon, he thought they would have a long time before such an encounter. It seemed the ancient enemies of humanity have once again found them. They were in no way ready to fight off an invasion.

“How the hell is this happening now?” He sent while getting out of bed.

“I can’t say for sure, but they had to have some sort of detection system left behind, which must have been activated by our recent activities. Of all the scenarios I theorized, that one seems most likely.”

“How long before they arrive here?”

“I’m still analyzing the data, but by that ship’s trajectory and current speed, I extrapolate it will arrive in ten days.”

Michael considered all options while putting his clothes on. As they stood, the Earth was defenseless and any sort of attack from space would be devastating.

“Gather the team, Ben, Jack, and anyone else that could help; tell them we have an emergency meeting in an hour.”

Michael looked at the woman he loved, and a serene look on her face. He wished to let her sleep, to postpone the horrific reality they will soon have to face; but he knew how angry she would get if he did that.

“Elizabeth…” he softly said and placed his hand on her shoulder.

***

Not before long, he was sitting in a full conference room, looking at the hologram of the Solar System’s graphical representation and the projected trajectory of the approaching craft.

“Can we get some pictures of it?” Al asked.

“Not yet. The translation happened on the edge of Heliopause and it will be many hours before the light of it hits Earth. I have several telescopes tasked to look in the right direction, so we could see what we are dealing with. With the data from gravitational sensors, it’s safe to say it is only one ship that is heading towards us.” The AI replied.

“Do we know the size of it, at least?” Jack asked.

“Not precisely, but it’s not one of those big two-mile-long behemoths we saw on the Angel’s planet attack; the gravitational footprint is much smaller. I assume it is some kind of a scout ship, going on a reconnaissance mission. For all that, his behavior is quite illogical; why head straight to the inner system when you do not know your opposition? It seems reckless to an unbelievable extent.” Max summarized.

“It doesn’t really matter why,” Michael said. “The only important thing is what we are going to do about it. One thing is clear, if this is a scout, there are many more of them from where he came from. Therefore, we cannot allow him to exit the system with any information about us. In a way, we were lucky; if the ships that conquered the Hemina system appeared instead of this one, there would have been nothing we could do. This way—we at least have a chance.”

“We don’t know anything about it or the armament it carries,” Jack cautioned, looking at a tiny dot on a hologram. “All our information about their capabilities comes from the recordings the colony ship made as it was running away. We know they use kinetic weapons for planetary bombardments and rockets for space engagements. But that data is almost thirteen thousand years old, who knows the level of their advancements now? We need more information to make any sort of strategic decision.”

Michael took a deep breath. “Jack, it still doesn’t make any difference; we have minimal options. Whatever the cost, that ship needs to be stopped from getting close to Earth or leaving the Solar System. The Earth is like a radio beacon, with all emissions it sends into space. The moment they arrived, the jig was up and they had already collected enough information about us to be a serious threat. The fact that it is moving toward us is the only lucky break we have. If it turned around immediately after scanning the system, we would have been in more trouble.”

“Maybe they come in peace,” Elizabeth said, and then continued after receiving incredulous stares. “I’m not saying they are, but there is a chance of it. Remember the length of time since they attacked the angels. Societies and even the entire species change immensely over millennia; just look how far we have gone since then. I’m not proposing we welcome them with the marching band and welcoming signs, but to try and see the entire situation from a different perspective.”

That stopped everyone in their tracks, realizing they have all started from a base of grim preconceptions, without considering other possibilities.

“Elizabeth may be right,” Ben said. “It is not completely unprecedented that a hostile species can change their behavior. The angels themselves did something similar. The nuclear war they had, almost destroyed their entire race before they took the path of peace.”

Michael slowly nodded. “You both have a point, we will give them the benefit of the doubt, but will at the same time do everything possible to stop them if they are up to no good. My Gramps often quoted Roosevelt and what he used to say—“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

“So… are we going to intercept it?” Jack asked, rubbing his chin.

“Yes,” Michael answered. “As far away from Earth or the Ascension as possible. We are not going to attack them first and will do what Mr. Lennon advised and ‘give peace a chance’. On the other hand, George Washington had a point when he said that ‘To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace’.

“My plan is to head out as soon as we can, and see what we are dealing with.”

Elizabeth placed her hand on his. “You are the leader of the Solarian Union, you cannot risk—” she started to say before he interrupted her, looking into her eyes. “I need to go, exactly because of that. I swore to protect the people and the best way I can do that is at the tip of the spear. I am sorry Liz, but it is something I feel strongly about, it is the way I am. In fact, I considered a way to leave Max behind as he is one of the greatest assets we have; unfortunately, he strongly objected.”

“Damn right I did,” Max, sitting on his other side, said. “Once more into the breach, and all that,” Max boastfully exclaimed, raising a fist in the air and showing a menacing grin.

“So, what’s the plan?” Al asked.

Michael face showed a fierce determination as he faced the people seated at the table. “We start preparations immediately. Tyron, Pete, Al, and I will be part of the welcoming committee. We will take the Excalibur, as many Hammers as can be mounted, and a dozen transporters slaved to Max’s control. Then, we will go and greet our unannounced guests.”