The View from Above

[Atlantian]

I personally beleive that we should put up a few Orbital Defenses and a Multinational Orbital Outpost. That way, we can ask if they are nice or not.

And if they are not, I hope to have planet busters by then. Mwahahahahahahaha! Beg for mercy vile scum! Mwahahahahaha!

[Atlantian]

PS: Can't wait for next part of story.

[Googlie]

Immunity
Harmony Orbit
Tau Ceti Star System

Emperor Go’og wandered slowly towards the Communications Nexus situated at the other end of the gardens, deep in thought.

He knew what H’rvath was going to transmit and discuss, of course. The Emperor’s spies were everywhere. If truth be known, he knew almost as soon as ‘Tlotl had finished his initial review of the resrec, and certainly before H’rvath herself.

But he would let her have her moment in the sunlight. He owed her that.

But he was damned if he was going to let Maar and H’minee renew their festering rivalry by mounting a race to find Manifold Six.. An uneasy truce had reigned for over 100 cycles of twenty turnings now, brokered by the Emperor himself and maintained somewhat sketchily by the Praetorian Guard. It didn’t need this revelation at this point in time, when both factions had rebuilt their battle fleets and replenished their treasuries.

As he shuffled across the dusty grass, talons digging into the hard synthetic soil, he thought fondly of his ancestral home on Harmony, second planet from Tau Ceti itself, and clearly discernable from this vantage point in orbit around it. He wondered if ever things would normalize to the extent that he could return, and resume residence, but knew that the time was not now. The uneasy truce survived only because Immunity had an arsenal of ballistics aimed at Harmony and each of Maar’s manufactured asteroid bases in the Rim Systems had a Praetorian Battle Cruiser adjacent and ready to execute the Emperor’s will immediately.

But the faction leaders were growing stronger by the turning, and if either were able to harness the power of the Manifolds, then ……..

Go’og shivered, mandibles clucking as he fought to banish that murmur from his inner resonances.

He had taken precautions.

Knowing that resonance emanations could – and would – be traced to their source, he’d had his ‘mole’ in DFSF2 alter the data ever so slightly. Now if Maar or H’minee – or both – went chasing to the presumed source, they would find themselves several galaxies and many turnings away.

And if that did happen, the time might just be right to return to Harmony and reclaim the Emperor’s lands and palaces.

He brightened at the thought, and entered the Nexus, making his way to the Holovid Council room.

The technicians fussed around him as his personal guard clicked to attention at his shoulder. Slumping in the recliner, he waited as the baffles were arrayed, and the Holovid equipment readied, then at a signal he leaned forward authoritatively and the session commenced.

*******************************************

DFSF2
Tau Ceti Star System

H’rvath settled into her comfortable couch, with young ‘Tlotl sitting erect beside her, as the old Holovid equipment flickered, then caught.

She appeared to be sitting opposite the Emperor himself, flanked by Judaa Maar and Lular H’minee, each of whom had a small bevy of advisors and sycophants in attendance. At one end of the conference table sat the Domestic Advisor to the Emperor, S’toth, while at the other sat the military brass, headed by Admiral Ka’a himself.

H’rvath inclined her neck and bowed in the ritual obeisance to the Emperor, who acknowledged it with a curt “Begin”

She nodded, and then activated the crystal, giving a running commentary as the salient points were displayed, and finishing with the comment:

“And these signals are continuing to be forwarded to us, indication a sustained level of resonance activity, not of the amplitude of the original display, but growing in magnitude as the turnings pass, indicating increasing activity on the surface of Manifold Six.”

The Emperor nodded sagely, and seemed about to alter, but Maar intruded, his harsh alteration reverberating even before the echo of H’rvath’s tones had dissipated.

“We must investigate immediately – send some of our fastest Scoutships to the area and deal with whatever threat these aliens represent. We Usurpers are ready, and ….. “

…… he consulted a tablet that lay on the table before him …………

“……. we have assets in an adjacent galaxy that could be there before the threat becomes significant.”

H’minee leaned forward on her chair, visibly agitated, with her mandibles quivering in rage.

“This is not proper,” she thundered. “We too are a spacefaring faction, and were it not for the effective blockade that the Emperor has in place” – and here she inclined her neck and bowed towards Go’og, who nodded amusedly – “we, too, would have assets ready to deploy.”

There was a chorus of assent from her advisors, interspersed with grunts from the cadre of Maar supporters.

Go’og leaned forward, and drew a forelimb across the table in front of him, talons unsheathed.

Immediately the hubbub died down, the echoes dissipating, as they waited for the Emperor’s words.

‘Tlotl leaned forward excitedly in his chair, as he prepared to hear the Emperor’s pontifications.

*************************************

Seldeth H’rvath was perplexed. She knew that these co-ordinates were altered, but didn’t know how, and couldn’t recall the original ones. All she knew was that the sector of the universe that Go’og was purporting to be the home of Manifold Six wasn’t one that had been apparent when the transmissions first came in. And the source couldn’t have changed. Therefore they were coming through a filter, that the Emperor himself seemingly had imposed.

To what purpose?

Go’og was resonating …

“And so each of your two factions shall raise a battle fleet – your newest warships and fastest scouts. Split into two battle groups, each with representation of both your factions.

“One group to go to Manifold Six, to investigate, contain and, if necessary, eliminate this threat to the Manifolds. The other to go to the homespace of the aliens. When you get to Manifold Six, communicate with and extract from these aliens the whereabouts of their home star system, then proceed to conquer it.”

H’rvath was transfixed. Go’og was sending the cream of the Usurper and Caretaker battle fleets on a phantom mission to where? ……. she strained to catch a glimpse of the star systems that were holigraphically displayed above the table where Go’og sat …………….. Epsilon Eridani.

That surely was not from where the resonance emanations came. What was the Emperor up to. She continued listening.

“As to the safety of your home systems should the Aliens have the capability of tracking us to here, my Praetorian Guard will assume responsibility for their defense.”

Ah, she thought, that’s it – a counter-coup, by the Emperor himself

She mirthed inwardly, taking care to bottle the resonances just itching to get out. She felt ‘Tlotl looking at her, and just turned to him and bared her fangs in conspiratorial fashion.

He looked away.

The Emperor was concluding his remarks:

“And I will deploy some of our remote probes to examine the nearspace of the known Manifolds – so do not be perturbed if you get reports of increased activity on the part of the Praetorian Space Corps – in fact I have already authorized the redeployment of several probes in anticipation of this joint venture.

“Meanwhile we will continue to monitor the resonance emanations from Manifold Six, and let us convene in this fashion again in, say, ten turnings. By then of course you will both be on your way there, so I can update you on the latest intelligence we have.

“Fare you well, till we meet again. This session is over.”

The general Holovid faded, and H’rvath and ‘Tlotl started to rise, when it re-activated, with just the Emperor himself.

“Station Commander H’rvath – would you stay and discuss some details with me – I’ll make this channel secure. Be alone.”

She inclined her neck, then motioned to ‘Tlotl to leave, and settled down again to hear what her Emperor had to say.

[Vev]

I am even more worried now Jamski.

[Flubber]

wow again googlie.

This writing strikes me as stronger than a lot of published stuff. I just hope those aliens don't think to look for a water-based civilization

[Corellion]

But what if they find their way here!? We don't have the armaments necessary to deal with TWO battle fleets! CyCon calculations say we can only take out 1.98 battle fleets with our drone-a-pults, and even then we would have to depopulate the entire Hi... rec commons.

[Vev]

Time to start building Planetary Shield XX and a Star Fortress.

[Corellion]

Iserlohn shall be risen!

[Cedayon]

I hope it won't come to this, but if we can't get the appropriate defenses in place we may have to bring some of those frenchmen out of cyro-stasis, only they know how to use the true power of the drone-a-pult.

*THWONG!*

[Gnool]

Surely the perpetual glory of Hive socialism will awe them enough to leave us alone.

[Jamski]

I'm sure aliens can be nervestapled just as easily as humans our test monkeys.

-Jam

[Googlie]

DFSF2
Tau Ceti Star System

I settled back in the couch and looked across the table at my Emperor. Go’og seemed so real, that it seemed strange that this was a Holovid I was viewing. He was idly toying with one of the rank rings dangling from an upper tusk, and his eyelids were drooping as if he were lost in thought, pondering just how to begin.

I waited

Finally, as if he’d made up his mind, Go’og leaned forward and in his soft, sibilant style – the one we fondly called his “BroodMaster tone”, he resonated:

“Seldeth. We go back many, many turnings together, do we not?”

I inclined my head in assent.

“Then tell me. Does your loyalty lie with your Emperor, or with H’minee?”

He sat back, eyelids once again drooping, as he waited my altering.

I paused. Of course he knew I was of the Caretaker faction – all on the Deep Space Sensor Station were drawn from one of the two factions, with a sprinkling of the Praetorian Guard for security purposes. ‘Tlotl was of the usurper faction, that, too, I knew. But we had all sworn an oath to the Emperor, and it was on the basis of mutual collaboration that we were allowed to continue with our research.

I pondered my reply carefully.

“You know that I am of the Caretaker faction. As such, in your absence, I would fight and die for Lular H’minee before I’d see Judaa Maar assume power. But he is not, and so long as you or your heirs live, my loyalty is to the Emperor.”

Go’og looked at me, his eyes searching mine, almost as though he really were sitting just across the table from me.

“Then pledge your fealty anew, before we proceed,” he continued.

I raised my right forelimb, and letting the talons unsheathe, brought it to my neck. Feeling between the scales of the carapace I found the soft, tender flesh and wincing slightly dug in the talon to draw blood. I brought the bloody talon to my lips and licked it, intoning the oath:

“My blood is yours to command, my Emperor..

“What would you have me do?”

Go’og settled back once more.

“Thank you, Seldeth H’rvath. We can resonate freely now. You have a great role to play in the future of the Progenitor race. It goes without resonance that what we are about to discuss cannot be divulged to any other save we three – yes, I count three, as you will now invite my agent to join us.”

I inclined my neck in compliance, and motioned to the door, which irised open to reveal a young technical assistant standing there.

He entered.

“Aren’t you ‘Voth?” I resonated interrogatively.

He nodded in assent.

‘Voth was a young, eager-to-please, mechanic for the Sensor Station, often the butt of jokes by the other staff. But he took it all in good stride.

Go’og looked at me.

“Do not be misled by his apparent youth and gaucheness,” he commented. “he is one of my top operatives in my Praetorian Covert Corps and his presence on DFSF2 illustrates the importance of this research and underscores the delicacy of the mission you are about to embark upon.

“He will brief you on the recent events on Manifold Six.”

‘Voth sat down at the conference table with me, and began.

*******************************************

“For many dozens of turnings we have been monitoring increasing resonance activity from a quadrant of space that was visited by our forebears some hundreds of thousands of turnings ago. Comparatively recently – maybe the last 100 turnings or so – activity has been frenetic, and finally in one of the inhabited planets in that sector we detected numerous nuclear explosions.

“To avoid undue panic, we decided to take our closest Sensor Station – Five - out of commission, and cloak their transmissions to us, and, of course, try to explain the residual resonances that were being detected by the other stations as anomalies or as equipment malfunctions”

H’rvath gasped. She remembered now those explanations. The sudden apparent loss of DFSF5, the high readings at her own station, explained away as old, faulty equipment – which was feasible given that they were many thousands of turnings old and indeed the technology to manufacture them and send them to deep space had long since been forgotten.

‘Voth continued:

“So we continued tracking and monitoring that activity, wondering perhaps if there were an unreported Seventh Manifold, and that perhaps a Flowering had commenced. The then Emperor – Go’og’s brood Sire – authorized a deep automatic probe be sent, and this entered the Sol star system a few dozen turnings ago, and recorded some interesting data.

“There is a sentient race inhabiting a planet orbiting this star, and in less than eighty of out turnings had evolved from hugging the land into powered flight and ultimately into space travel. It is they who have made an appearance on Manifold Six.”

H’rvath gasped. Eighty turnings. That was incredible. It had taken the Progenitors many thousands of turnings to emerge from the interfactional chaos to this point in time, and little new had been discovered by way of technology. Indeed, little was understood concerning the technology that was in use. Sure, the Starships had faster-than-light drive, but no-one now could replicate their building, so the handful that had survived the war were precious, and held only by the Praetorian Guard.

Similarly, although the Battle Cruisers had Graviton torpedoes, and a few had String Disruptor cannon, ordnance was finite, and thus hoarded jealously. Most of the Battle fleet was resonance-bolt equipped.

‘Voth was continuing ……

“Our remote probe then documented what we believe to have been a major war developing on this Planet, followed by the exodus of a fusion-powered starship or battle cruiser, which headed towards their closest star system – that of Alpha Centauri”

H’rvath was astounded. “Fusion drive,” she altered. “The dream of our Progenitor scientists for hundreds of turnings, and this hatchling race had discovered it in less than a hundred!”

“Indeed,” ‘Voth replied. “And there is the nub of the matter. Is this race to be feared, or welcomed? Normally we could just ignore them until our paths crossed, but as evidenced by the triggering of our automatic Flowering Sensing System, it appears that they have stumbled on to Manifold Six. Their spacecraft malfunctioned upon entering the star system, and what your sensors detected was its break-up, and the subsequent jettisoning of escape colony pods as well as hundreds of smaller seed pods that probably contain vehicles, weapons and other colonist equipment.’

Go’og interrupted

“And what we must fear is that this ingenuity, creativity and thirst for knowledge that they exhibited on their home planet will untap the secrets of the Manifolds themselves, and make them as Gods of the universe.

“My dilemma is – are they to be befriended, so that we may grow with them, or destroyed, before they develop the means to defend themselves from our currently superior weaponry.

“I have bought time by sending the Maar and H’minee battle fleets on a phantom chase 180 degrees from Manifold Six.

“I have diverted two of our precious remote probes to its vicinity to obtain finer resonance readings.

“But I need to dispatch a manned spacecraft to ascertain how great this threat is, and to report to me regularly on their progress. At the same time, any and all information on manifold Six itself will be vital in helping me make my decision.

“I want you, and ‘Voth, to man that probe.”

H’rvath pondered.

“But if they are that sophisticated, then they will surely be forewarned of our coming, and with their spacefaring capability will either destroy us – or neutralize us – when we arrive in their system?”

‘Voth resonated in reply: “We can hide there. Our preliminary scans show that there is an asteroid field orbiting the Manifold. We can park the scout there, and even set up some sensor arrays on an asteroid or two.

“And we will arrive undetected, as our scout probe will be cloaked.”

H’rvath looked from ‘Voth to the Emperor.

“But if I understand correctly, only one Progenitor vessel has cloaking capability – your Emperor’s Scoutship”

Go’og inclined his head.

“That is right. It is a measure of how important I deem this surveillance mission to be.

“There is one drawback, though.”

H’rvath waited for Go’og to continue ……….

“The scoutship is unarmed and unarmoured. However, it does carry two Gnats, so you will not be defenceless”

“When do we leave?” H’rvath asked.

“The scoutship is on its way to you now. You and ‘Voth will board it in just over one turning. ‘Voth will be Mission Commander, and you are the Chief Technical Officer. You will meet the gnats’ crews when you board.

“Fare you well, till we meet again, my loyal Seldeth. Report every second turning.”

The Holovid faded out.

[Jamski]

Googlie, this is soooooo good that I'm forgiving you for editing out AAs.

-Jam

[Hercules]

When you look up into the night sky. You ask 'what's it all about, Alkie'.

You guess there might be 'aliens' out there and you might feel more certain of this after coming across these 'psychic' pillars.

But I wonder do aliens dabble with xenorum ,xenobeer, and xenorose if yes well maybe there's some scope for communication but if some of them dabble in chaos coKane, NO!

[Snowflake]

I'm speechless...


I have always been wondering there must be a reason why they call you the god, and now I know ...