The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Page 3

  “No. It is a trace of a biological fluid,” answered Dalan. He continued, “At least we think it is. We ran some standard tests and had the computer analyze it. We know that it isn’t a known coolant fluid from a fighter and it doesn’t appear to be Hiriculan blood.”

  Captain Solear looked over at Lorano. He was sitting at a spare panel; his large, aqua eyes were focused on a minor detail of something. Solear gave a brief sigh, pulled in a new breath of air and said, “Lorano, we really need your help on this one. Please transfer over to the Justice and see if you can identify this fluid.”

  Lorano answered, “I can’t Captain. My primary duty is to ensure that there is nothing wrong with Sunflower. If something goes wrong with the ship while I am away…”

  ‘I will feel terrible about it’, the Captain mentally finished the sentence.

  “I will get a blemish on my record,” Lorano said.

  “Lorano,” said the Captain, “You know that you are the only one in the taskforce with the skills and intelligence required to solve this problem. If the Hiriculans have developed a new technology or ability we don’t know, it could change everything. The situation could go from a dispute to a shooting war. Further, I promise I won’t move Sunflower until you complete the analysis.”

  “Fine,” said Lorano, clearly making it sound like the request was a huge sacrifice.

  Lorano left the bridge and headed for the shuttle. Engineering was kind enough to collect his gear and have it sent to the shuttle so that Lorano didn’t have to return there. About 15 minutes later Clowy announced that the shuttle had left Sunflower.

  The captain said, “Ella, Clowy, you two go get some rest and maybe a snack. Not much is going to happen for the next few hours.”

  They took the electro lift down a level to their crew quarters and went straight to the galley. Meals were mostly self-serve. Enter a selection and a preserved packet would be automatically heated to the correct temperature. Fortunately, both Altians and Solarians could eat the majority of Advranki foods, so they had a good selection. They each got a snack from the galley and went into Ella’s quarters.

  There were six available rooms in the officer’s quarters, but only four were occupied. Ella and Clowy were on one side and Carank and Arean were on the opposite side. Fortunately, Lorano had chosen to stay in the engineering section.

  Ella’s room was dominated by a large holographic picture viewer. Currently, it was showing a painting that featured a bird flying above a majestic rock canyon. Each week, Ella’s father would send a picture of his latest masterpiece and Ella would display it on the viewer. This was the third picture Ella had displayed since the voyage began. Ella’s father was a renowned painter and sculptor on Solaria. His work had even been chosen for the Alliance Senate chamber on Advranki Prime.

  Clowy looked at the painting on the monitor and said, “Did your dad paint that one?”

  “Yes,” Ella answered, “This is his latest painting. He titled the work Bird Flying Over Canyon. He traveled to the unpopulated area in the southern zone of Solaria to paint it. The military accompanied him to guard against wild animals and they had to tie everyone to the ground to ensure that they didn’t fall of the cliff. It was an exciting adventure; well to hear him describe it anyway.”

  Clowy responded, “Wow, it is really beautiful.”

  “So, do you like Lorano?” Ella asked Clowy.

  “He’s okay,” she responded politically.

  “No, I mean do you like, like him? Would you ever see yourself liking him?”

  Clowy answered, “What, I don’t understand.”

  They were speaking the Alliance basic language to each other. Sometimes, certain concepts do not easily translate, so Ella said, “Computer, translate my last sentence to Altian.”

  …Estimate translation at 99.8% accuracy…

  …Are you, or would you at a future point be romantically interested in the being named Lorano. You are both single, the only two beings from your species on this ship, and roughly the same age…

  Clowy smiled broadly and yelled, “Yuck, I would rather go on a date with a human.”

  Ella said, “Clowy, a human would kill you and eat you.”

  Clowy responded, “Well, it would still be less painful than an evening with him!”

  The cabin erupted with the sounds of their laughter. They finished their meals and continued talking until they were hailed by Arean and ordered to return to the bridge.

  “Captain, we are being hailed by the Justice,” said Carank.

  “On-screen,” announced Captain Solear.

  Justice’s entire bridge and engineering crews were in landing bay where the wreckage of the Hiriculan fighter had been dragged aboard. Lorano was in the middle of everything, checking figures, directing others, and scurrying back and forth to the wreckage. It took them several moments to realize that the Sunflower had acknowledged the hail.

  Lorano looked up, realized Captain Solear was now watching and said, “We have identified the foreign element in the wreckage. It is biological, and you won’t believe where it is from.”

  Lorano told him exactly what it was. Lorano was right, Captain Solear didn’t believe it. He almost asked Lorano if he was sure, but caught himself just in time. The Captain really didn’t want a lecture on from Lorano on how he had solved the mystery. Instead, he said, “Lorano, excellent work. We have to report this to the Alliance Senate immediately. As soon as you are finished, get back on board the Sunflower.”

  He motioned to Clowy and asked her to set up a taskforce wide broadcast. When she indicated it was ready he said, “All hands, we have disturbing proof the enemy engagement earlier today was no accident. They were testing a new weapon, or biologic to be exact. We are returning immediately to Advranki Prime.”

  He cut the system wide contact, mentally noted that the communications system performed marginally better than before, and said, “Ella, set course for Advranki Prime and signal the other ships to prepare to leave.”

  Arean said, “Lorano is back aboard.”

  “Excellent,” Captain Solear responded, suddenly thinking about the absurdity of being happy that Lorano had rejoined the ship.

  “Course is set. We are 10 minutes travel from the hyperspace lane.” Ella said.

  A few minutes later the three ships lined up in single file and jumped to hyperspace. Three jumps later they would be home.

  Chapter 2

  Victor Bullpeep’s mini-freighter had just exited hyperspace near Solaria when he heard the news. He couldn’t’ believe it, so he replayed the broadcast. He still couldn’t believe it, so he replayed it a third time; scrunching his face in concentration to be sure he heard it correctly.

  The newscaster said, “Today, at 1:47 p.m. it has been confirmed that a Solarian woman, named Crista Cowbleat stabbed another Solarian. She was discussing the price of a blouse with the store clerk; then apparently got angry and stabbed him in the abdomen with a nail file. One eyewitness said he was bleeding profusely – almost three drops every second. He was rushed to the hospital where doctors were able to close the wound. The man is expected to make a full recovery. Researchers say this is the first incident of Solarian violence in 200 years.”

  The broadcast then switched to a psychologist who gave his ‘expert’ opinion on the matter. “It was the humans,” he declared. “Well, not actual humans,” he clarified. “This girl and the other Solarians who watch too much human television shows are in danger of emulating their actions. The humans are violent, aggressive, and un-cultured. They think nothing of harming themselves and each other. Just because they look eerily similar to us doesn’t mean we should be fascinated by them. If people continue to watch these shows, then we will experience more incidents like the one that just happened. We need to ban all human television shows and firmly enforce it.”

  The program went back and forth, with another expert claiming it wasn’t the humans; it was the stress of the conflict with the Hiriculans. Yet another expert was
professing that it was none of those, that this particular girl was simply defective in the head. No one could agree what to do with her. Rehabilitate her? Imprison her? Give her a reality TV show?

  Victor mentally replayed the broadcast in his mind. He carefully thought through each point and counter point. The Hiriculans, no – he didn’t think they could ever invade. The humans, no – though he had to admit though that a few aspects of human culture (i.e. wedding rings, mini-skirts, lipstick) had been recently copied by Solarian females. Violence was something entirely different though. He doubted that watching human videos could lead Solarians to violence.

  Finally, he decided which expert he believed. She must be crazy. Suddenly, a human song popped into his head and he slightly adjusted the words to, “You may be right, she may be crazy, oh, but it just may be a lunatic I’m looking for.” (Billy Joel, “You May be Right”, Glass Houses. 1980.)

  Victor smiled at the thought and looked back over his shoulder at his bag. It was a small, black bag, indistinguishable from any other. He briefly wanted to open it and look inside, but he restrained himself. Victor had just returned from Earth and he had 200+ hours of human television shows hidden inside it. The good stuff, he thought to himself.

  It was technically legal to distribute human videos, but the process was highly regulated. All incoming videos had to be checked by a broadcast review board. If the board approved the show, it could then be broadcast. There was a late-night television channel that showed approved videos. Victor’s bag also contained about 300+ hours of videos that he believed should get approved. The mandatory stuff, he thought.

  A significant black market had arisen for non-approved shows. It was legal to sell, own, and watch them, but it was illegal to import and broadcast them. If Victor was caught, the shows would be confiscated and he would be under tremendous scrutiny from then on. In addition to restrictions on the content of shows, there was also a restriction on the amount of hours that could be imported. Victor could easily have collected a 1,000 hours of programming, but only 200 hours or so would be approved.

  Victor was one of the very few beings that regularly visited Earth. He was in charge of monitoring the humans and reporting back to the Alliance Senate on human activities. The job involved long hours of sitting in his ship, monitoring communications, and writing reports. After the ‘incident’ roughly 60 years previously when an Altian craft crashed on the planet, the Alliance Senate had declared that only Solarians were allowed to visit Earth and only those that had their skin bleached white. Victor’s white skin made him blend in on Earth, but he felt out of place when he returned home.

  Victor’s mini freighter, cleverly named Victoria, was making its approach to Solaria. Whoever named this corner of the galaxy had been particularly unimaginative as the name of the system, the sun, and the primary planet was Solaria. Solaria (the planet) lay close to the only charted hyperspace lane in the system. Due to the planet’s current favorable rotation, Victor only had a 20 minute real-time voyage to reach the planet, then another hour or so to land.

  There were six planets in the Solaria system, but only the fourth one could support life. Solaria was a few thousand kilometers farther from its sun than Earth was. As a result, Solaria was roughly 6o C (12oF) cooler than Earth. Solaria was a stunning planet to view from outer space. It had beautiful large, blue oceans, and four large landmasses. It was just slightly smaller than Earth. The southernmost continent was covered with large mountain ranges and was uninhabited by people.

  Solaria’s unique feature was that it had a rather large magnetic core. Early settlers had used this core to create a system-wide electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb. At a press of a button, every electric / electronic device inside the hyperspace limit would short circuit. Enemy cruisers would immediately lose power and be unable to move or fire. However, all Solarian electronic equipment that was plugged into the planet’s power grid was automatically shielded. As a result, only one Alliance cruiser was needed to guard the planet.

  Victoria was now passing Solaria’s huge manufacturing satellite. This space station, appropriately named Solaria Station, sat in a geosynchronous orbit above the planet. The space station was used to build small ships. Specifically, the plant built small freighters and personal craft. It also built all of the fighters for the Alliance Navy.

  Victor deftly landed Victoria at a landing pad and shut down the primary power core. He inspected his perfectly manicured nails as his hands swept over the control panel. All looked good. He exited the ship, black bag in hand, and greeted the customs officials with a hearty smile. He pulled the flashdrive cube that held the mandatory set of human videos and handed it to the officer. The officials searched the ship from top to bottom, electronically scanned it, and eventually declared it safe and free from contraband. They did not check the bag.

  Victor had landed on the outskirts of the planet’s biggest city, aptly named Solaria City. The city was huge. It housed 80 million residents, roughly 10% of the planet’s total population. It was the first city founded by the Solarian settlers and was the home of the Solarian planetary government. The city had been well planned throughout each stage of its expansion. As a result, it had an excellent public transportation system and ground car system. There were hoverbike lanes as well, but most Solarians eschewed them in favor of safer transport.

  He proceeded directly to public transport counter and purchased a one week multi-pass. He had the money to rent either a ground car or hoverbike, but decided against it. He was mentally tired and didn’t feel like using his brain to navigate city streets or control a bike. He boarded a hovertram bound for central station, sat down, and closed his eyes.

  He eventually became aware of someone staring at him. Slowly he opened his eyes and addressed his agitator. She was a small girl about 4 and was standing directly in front of him. She asked him, “Why are white, are you sick?”

  Victor laughed and took an instant liking to this inquisitive girl. He knew he couldn’t fool her so he said, “No, I intentionally had my skin bleached. I work on Earth.”

  She looked at him strangely and repeated, “Earth?”

  “Human world.” He answered. “The humans are different colors than us, so I had to bleach my skin from blue to white to fit in.”

  “No way. You have actually met a real human?” She clearly didn’t believe him.

  “Yes, really.” He responded.

  “Why didn’t they eat you?” the little girl asked.

  Victor answered, “Well, mainly because I look almost human with my white skin. They can’t tell the difference.”

  The girl’s mother apparently doubted Victor as well, for she joined the conversation. She said, “Really, you have met a human? What are they like?”

  He answered with his canned response, “Like us, only much taller and stronger. They aren’t quite as aggressive and un-civilized as they used to be.”

  He looked at the little girl and gave his favorite statement, “I believe that someday, probably in your lifetime, they will be invited into the Alliance.”

  The girl looked at him. She had apparently decided that Victor was lying, because said, “Nuh-uh,” and turned away back toward her mother.

  For some reason, this bothered Victor. He had been unable to convince a 4 year old that he had been to Earth. He had a sudden desire to prove to her he was telling the truth. “Come here” he said and reached into his bag. When she approached, he pulled out a piece of hard candy and gave it her. He gave her a second one for her mother. He had been saving them for someone else, but couldn’t resist.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It is human candy. You put it in your mouth and suck on it,” he responded. The import of goods from non-Alliance planets was strictly forbidden, though he was allowed a few personal use items.

  Technically, goods were allowed to be imported provided they could be taxed per a legal trade agreement. So, trade was allowed with the Hiriculans, but not the Humans. However, the
Solarians had filed a distribution agreement in absentia with the major Earth studios for the right to re-broadcast movies and television shows.

  Both mother and daughter began quietly sucking on the candy and Victor apprehensively awaited their response. The mother indicated that she had found it interesting, but the girl had been a little blunter, “It is kind of like sucking on a flavored rock.” He told them that perhaps human candy was an acquired taste.

  Victor exited the air tram at the central station and started walking to the main park. It wasn’t far, only a few blocks. He passed the monument to the first settlers and paused for a moment to study it. Solaria wasn’t the home-world of the Solarians. They had emigrated here from another system. The monument showed a picture of the transport ship and had a star chart that showed the location of their home-world. It spoke about the settler’s exodus from the planet just before it had been blasted by radiation.

  There had been several recent attempts to return, but the old hyperspace lanes had become unstable, possibly from the radiation. There had been a couple of attempts to chart a new course, but they had been unsuccessful. When the Solarians joined the Alliance, they formally requested that the Alliance Navy work on plotting a new course back to Old Solaria4.

  4The name of the home-world was lost, so the government ceremoniously named it Old Solaria.

  Victor arrived in the main park and looked around. He doubled back to see if he had been followed. He didn’t think he had, but he wasn’t entirely sure. After all, it was pretty easy to pick out a white figure in a park filled with blue ones. His paranoia was well founded though, because this was his biggest delivery to date. This shipment would make him wealthy, provided he could find a way to launder the money.

  “What do you have for me this time?” a man asked.

  The question had startled Victor. The man had walked up next to Victor without him even knowing it. The man was a shade darker blue then most of the Solarian race and the contrast between his skin and Victor’s white skin was dramatic. Victor quickly recovered and said, “I collected some really good stuff, mostly action adventure and science fiction movies.”