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About the Author

 

Hello everyone, my name is CMed. I will make it brief and quick about me. I was a college student who got a Major in History before going into the realm of the military. I am a Navy Veteran that has served for six years and wanted to become an author and book writer near the end of my military contract. 

Serving aboard ship was a long and challenging life. It is not for the faint-hearted, but after being taken off of it, I now had more time than ever. I used my time wisely to begin writing books. Writing had and continues to serve as therapy for me. It helped me through my times, even way before diseases or social unrest ever became the main headlines of modern media. 

Writing is something that does not come overnight. Most writers require at least two years of writing before they are even going to be marketing. Needless to say, make sure that you set the time to do so if you wish to be a part of that hobby. If you know somebody that wishes to become an author, make sure to give them that support. Writing is an extension of us and our imagination. Without imagination, our civilizations would never exist. Without imagination, we would have no empathy towards the next person. We all come from different walks of life. Each one of us can tell a story, and it all comes down to our will to survive through the best of times to the worst of times. 

I have designed Tales of Heroes and Gabatrix to be a system that expands itself. If people like my stories, then they can help out that cause. With the help of you, the audience, the system will get bigger and bigger. If you like my stories, then come and support me on my Patreon. Thank you, and enjoy my stories. :)

 

https://www.patreon.com/TheUniverseofCMed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer

 

Tags: Swearing, Love, Sex, War, Intercourse, Space, Science Fiction, Future, Sci-Fi, Scalie, Violence, M/F

 

Disclaimer 1: This story does deals with anthro reptilian/human sexual interactions. There is sex in this. This story is a part of the Tales of Heroes universe written by me. It does not require you to read the Tales of Heroes stories however……

 

Disclaimer 2: This story is met for adults (age 18 and above) since it deals with war, sex, swearing, and violence.

 

Book Cover Artwork by Pimpmyartist. Special thanks for the artist’s hardwork in this piece.

 

Special Thanks to my Patreon supporters:

Jordy, Frank Nordhaus, Quintin Martin, and Nightsound for their generous donations and of course, the other patron supporters for allowing me to write and supporting the universe that I write. :)

 

By CMed

Copyright 2020

And of course, the other patron supporters for allowing me to write and supporting the universe that I write. :)

 

Prologue

 

“I once saw the darkness of the opening gate in my eyes. I admit that I thought I was going to die. I gathered my strength and leapt to see the light of the moon. Carry the faith, and mankind will follow.” Gabatrix 2287 AD.

 

…….It is far into the future. Humanity is losing a war. Earth is lost, Mars is on the brink, and its fleets are nearing complete destruction. Little is known about its attackers except for one word that they used to identify themselves……Itreans……

 

……One month ago, all of it would change with the destruction of an Itrean research vessel found in human-controlled space. A miracle had occurred. The vessel was mostly intact. Its damaged databanks are being rushed to be repaired and salvaged for humanity to learn about them…..

 

……Five days after December, a message beacon is launched to Cebravis. The Itreans wish to talk. Peace……the hope of peace. Humanity is desperate. Humanity is skeptical. An ancient warship is prepared to meet them…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1: December 8th, 2349

We return to space once again, the dark void of nothingness. It is cold and massive to all who see it. An ocean of black and white spectacles of light, the word defines itself perfectly for the name. We once looked at Jupiter. The planet is seemingly a distant speck despite how gigantic the planet is in the Sol System. With such a monstrosity, Jupiter should have been a star, but it wasn’t. Instead, it holds its numerous moons in its cold iron grip seemingly for an eternity. It is expected that even if the G-type star expanded to a red giant, Jupiter would remain. One day, the planet would look up to see the sun as it consumes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Perhaps in its infancy, the Sol system had more planets that revolved around it, but the star is hungry. It keeps expanding as it gets bigger and bigger, but…..only so slowly. Year by year, the star gets larger. Mercury is the first to see it. Billions of years are needed as the sun continues to expand. One by one, the planets will fall, and Jupiter will become the new Mercury of the Sol System.

But…..that isn’t today, and neither will it be tomorrow. Instead, we listen to the sounds of the solar system, the electromagnetic waves, and the charged particles of the planets. They produce various melodies for all to hear if they listen closely. We know the sounds of Jupiter, for we have already heard it. Our attention was focused on this planet for a good reason. It was so large that it dominated the solar system. The moving gas and red spot continue for what seems like an eternity.

That isn’t what our attention is focused on. We are too far away from it now. The sounds grow more and more distant, and eventually, we hear nothing. The planet has shrunk to a tiny speck as we leave the world for good. Jupiter is in good hands. It doesn’t need us, and neither should we worry about him.

Instead, we hear the sounds of something new. We travel further and further out into space, and we hear a calm ambient noise. It almost sounds like blowing wind. We turn our attention to the next greatest spectacle in the solar system. It is the planet that humanity had placed more focus on the outer Sol System once they expanded beyond its dying home. The world comes closer and closer to us. Its illumination is so bright that it reflects almost 50% of the light of the sun that it receives. Occasionally, we get a deep harmonic hum from it. Eventually, the sounds become intense. The electromagnetic particles caused by its shape are deafening and frightening, and all for a good reason.

It is Saturn that we look upon. The second-largest planet in the Sol System. It is beautiful but scary for those that could hear it. It produces the sounds of a screeching demon. The reason is all too apparent because the rings are the cause of it. Saturn is far from the sun that it orbits, measuring over 1.4 billion kilometers away from it. Even with the speed of light, it would take an hour for the light to make it there. Humanity, in its attempt to evacuate its dying world, wouldn’t have much hope of making it here. Conventional drives would take years of travel. Thankfully, humanity would have their past heroes to make the process possible.

Saturn might not have had the glory that Jupiter has, but it makes up in other ways. Seemingly, it was just another gas giant in the galaxy. It was not a beautiful planet at all, but it had one thing that captured the hearts and minds of the former people of Earth……the rings. It was the rings that made the planet what it was. It measures over 100,000 kilometers long from the equator of the planet. It is surprisingly thin and less than 20 meters long, yet it captures our vision from vast distances. This ring of ice particles is remarkably tiny. You could go through it and feel almost nothing. Yet Saturn is hungry. Possibly made by a destroyed moon that fragmented into dust particles, the planet is consuming it. It is expected that within over 100 million years, the rings will be no more. The beautiful world will just be an ordinary gas giant planet in the solar system.

Yet Saturn still holds gifts for humankind. The planet screeches, roars, and screams at us. Over eighty moons circle around the ringed planet. We zoom by Enceladus, the icy moon of Saturn. Its sound is odd. It produces a reverberating echo of an electronic wind that blows going up and down. It is this moon where a research ship used to orbit. The reasons were evident at first. It was covered in frozen freshwater, producing a pearly white and blue color. Where there is water, there is most likely life. Geysers erupt from it, expelling ice into the air as Saturn flexes it. There are signs that deep inside it, that life can exist. Sadly, that is not where we are supposed to go. Humanity is at war. The ship that studied it is gone. The Sol System is in danger of an invasion. The research will have to wait….

We hear a new sound, and it draws us closer. It is a drum-like sound. The electromagnetic particles radiated from it are steady. We travel to this fantastic rhythm. The screams of Saturn and the dull voice of Enceladus are instead drowned out by the amazing cheer of another moon. The drum continues to a steady beat. Another harmonic tune kicks in. It is as if the place that calls to us wants us to be there. The sound is beautiful. It is almost music that we can’t ignore. We start hearing another series of thumps from the moon that wander into our view.

We now see the cause of this fantastic rhythm. The moon that comes closer is the one that takes the stage and for the most significant reason of all. The drums sound like a beating heart. It is here that the amazing moon known as Titan comes into view. What is considered the second-largest moon in the Sol System, humanity has come to respect this satellite that orbits Saturn. The name is fitting. Named from Greek mythology, the Titans were the gods before the Olympians. The Titan moon is more massive than Mercury and should perhaps be considered a planet. The deep orange, blue, and yellow hue is an actual atmosphere.

We go to this moon for a good reason. The humans were smart to choose this world for a colony. We fly through the thick Nitrogen atmosphere as the music continues. The atmosphere is so thick that it is producing a greenhouse effect. Much of the harmful radiation from the sun is taken out before it touches the surface. Ships are even instructed to travel slowly when venturing down the atmosphere. It is hoped that the thick atmosphere will provide some cover for the military base that exists there.

The thick nitrogen that permeates the air is met with the relatively smooth surface of the moon. The gravity is seemingly weak, being less than Luna. It is so light that the nitrogen just hovers over the vast distance ranges. We then fly over lakes. Surprisingly, the yellow and orange landscape is beautiful. The moon is so cold, with temperatures that radiate minus 180 degrees Celsius, that methane turns into a liquid. There is a climate on Titan, and actual rainstorms of liquid methane occur. The pressure is adequate for human life, where only temperature and oxygen suits are needed to walk around the surface. Natural gas is everywhere. It is even possible that life can exist on Titan. When the star begins to turn into a red giant, this great moon can bear life as it grows hotter.

The music radiates through this beating landscape. The building blocks are present, and it was here that the United Human Navy would choose this moon as a base. After the famed Gabatrix Experiment of 2259, the growing Martian fleet needed to ensure that they had an emergency base of operations. What became known as the “Ring of Hope Program” would ultimately create the colony on Titan. It would serve as an emergency military base in case Mars is compromised, a reserve base for the fleet, and help hold a small colony of people. Established in 2290, the military base of Titan would be expanded in years to come.

We fly through the area easily over the small jutting hills and mountains to find this base under the thick atmosphere. The music starts to come to a close as we view the base as a whole. It is moderate in size. It is partially on the surface and partly underground, and there is a large docking facility for the spaceships. The gravity is so light that it is perfect for the Martian warships to come and land. Since the air itself has so little oxygen, there is no fear of combustion. While spaceships can come and go, there is no gate array in orbit. Ships must open their own wormholes to leave the area to help keep it more isolated. The goal of the base is secrecy. Instead, one must fly in to see the spinning, rotating centripetal habitat that supports the seven thousand people that live on the moon. With gravity so light, people must try to keep their bodies healthy. Even with the promises that Titan offers, there are still issues with it. Gravity is weak, and deteriorating health effects are an issue. Thankfully, medical advances are there to help the population, and the station is designed to be self-sustaining even with its own hydroponics bays.

The outside of the spinning ring is a series of weapons arrays. Railguns, missile launchers, laser turrets, and flak turrets all dot the surrounding area, ready to repel a small fleet of alien warships. The base would remain active through the whole mess that lies elsewhere.

It is here that we zoom into the vast hangar facility. We penetrate through the thick alloy of the hull to peer inside of it. When we look, we see at least ten giant docking housing pylons for the UHN Warships to rest comfortably. At least six of the docking pylons hold a UHN ship. The docking area is fitted perfectly for each vessel. Whereupon the vessels have a similar appearance to one another. They are typically cylindrical-looking and have a centripetal ring near the stern. They connect to the Super Direct Fusion Drive and aft engine modules. The ring, which carries most of the crew during their off-hours, is designed to generate gravity for the ship by centripetal force. With the gravity tugging down on the vessels, the rings were offline. Instead, the alcoves are dug in to allow the ships to rest their ventral side firmly on the pylons.

We zoom closer to one of these six ships. Two of the vessels look the same, having two centripetal rings, a stubbier nose, and a bow-mounted dorsal hangar bay. The names UHN Michio Kaku and UHN Tyson were written on their hulls in both English and Chinese. On the other four pylons was that of UHN battleships. Three of them looked the same, carrying a single centripetal ring. They have a rail gun turret mounted on the dorsal and ventral side of the central portion of the warship. They also held a ring arrangement near the front bow consisting of several small turrets resembling anti-missile weaponry. The central section had an internal hangar bay on the port and starboard, and not far from it was a docking hatch that led into the building structure itself. As we get close enough to the ship, we see the name “UHN Gabatrix,” written in both English and Chinese, not far from the docking hatch. The pennant number MBB-53, possibly referring to the UHN acronym “Guided Missile Battleship,” was etched into the hull.

We now head in through the docking hatch. There is an assembly of crew members coming and going. Families are giving hugs and kisses to the enlisted sailors who will depart on the old warship. Their red and blue jumpsuit uniforms indicate their position and rank compared to the officers of the Gabatrix. We glide through the long internal passageway of the spaceship. The 280-meter-long ship seems enormous by comparison to older steam-powered warships of Earth’s past, but most of it is automated. Despite the internal layout of the battleship, it appears to be in moderate condition. Perhaps it has seen better days or serves as a sign of its age compared to the newer warships of the UHN. Then again, why is their crew getting on board this ship? Why are they saying their goodbyes to their families?

Perhaps the only way to answer that question is by one man. We travel down the passageway until we come to a stop. Near the center portion of the ship, we turn to the right to look at a sealed door. We go into it to find a meeting taking place.

There were at least ten officers inside the Gabatrix's conference room. The place consisted of a mounted frame table and a series of chairs. Even in the 24th century, the room was seemingly stale. The chairs had straps to ensure that the crew wouldn’t float away if they tried to sit down. Being in Titan, this was no issue, but the Gabatrix, much like the other UHN ships, had no means to generate gravity. The only exception, of course, was the rotating ring once it was functional. Thankfully, Titan at least had some sort of gravity pulling the crew down where it didn’t matter anyway. For now, the room had the officers of the Gabatrix sitting in these metal-mounted cushioned chairs. The walls had installed picture frames depicting the UHN Gabatrix's glory shots in space taken by other spaceships and warships. There were mounted overhead displays and a center table holographic imager projector on the conference table itself.

The officers seemed bored. The captain wasn’t present yet. It was the motto of the UHN to “Get your ass to the location immediately and wait for an hour.” The sailors of the military were used to this. The officers’ uniforms were seemingly similar to the enlisted. They wore red and blue jumpsuits but carried different rank insignias. It was evident, of course, that this was a prepared launch. Crews were getting ready to depart and had switched over to their standard uniforms. The time of dressing in fancy suits was over. The Itreans were getting closer. UHN fleets were in higher alert status, and an alien fleet could come any month, any day, or any hour. Death was at their doorstep. Perhaps that was why the crew was saying goodbye to their loved ones.

But our attention is not directed towards the officers of the Gabatrix. It is instead directed towards the adjacent room. Next to the conference room was a smaller room. It was preparation rooms of some sort, most likely the CO’s own office. It was not large, and the captain was not present. It consisted of a single wood-furnished desk and two mounted wood cushioned chairs. It also had one digital display on the sidewall and an entrance that led to the main conference room and central outside passageway.

A man by the name of Jonah Kane stood looking at a projected image from his hand. He seemed to be in his thirties and had short brown hair. The man was clean-shaven, had a pale complexion, and blue eyes. He was well dressed, but he did not wear the UHN uniform. Instead, he appeared to be a civilian of some sort. His white and black, almost skin-tight suit indicated some importance and influence.

Yet he was anxious. Kane took a deep breath. He knew what needed to be presented to the officers next door. He still couldn’t believe he volunteered for this mission. It would either be his moment of glory or his grave.

He took a deep breath. “Calm yourself, Kane,” he said to himself. His voice was composed, but he could tell what was going to happen soon. The captain was going to arrive in this room, and then he would have to do the next best thing.

Kane continued to look at the projected image from his hand. He would use the other hand to alter different projected pictures and descriptions, ensuring he knew everything that needed to be said. His eyes told him everything, and the images seemed promising. His knowledge was excellent, but the future was uncertain.

“Just remind yourself that they are just sailors,” Kane told himself again. “They won’t eat you alive out there. We all know what needs to be done. I know what needs to be done.”

The images showed the picture of the Gabatrix. He knew very little of the military or the inside of how they function, but he could imagine the bureaucracy was pretty much the same. The schematic of the Gabatrix at least gave him a little bit of information.

“Gabatrix….Helix Class Battleship,” he said once again, reading the information on the projection. “Commissioned in 2301, the UHN Gabatrix is the second ship built from the Helix Class Battleships. It is the first ship named after Ciro Gabatrix, the famous pioneer who would push humankind to new solar systems. The warship has explored nine solar systems, helped enforce the Paloran system against the Nova Hamidou Pirates that raided mining ships in 2336, and helped save the freighter Valiant Heart from a mechanical breakdown in 2339. The Gabatrix has been retired from active service in 2344 and is currently stored at the Titan UHN Starship Colony Base Hyugen. It has not been stricken from service at this time. It carries a crew complement of 100 but can carry about 500 troops for emergency operations. The Magellan and Nelson Class Battleships have long replaced the UHN Gabatrix and her surviving sister ships.”

He only knew so much about the other warships. Again, he was not a military staff or personnel. Even with the political changes that were all over the place the last month, he knew this was where he could serve best.

Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes to him, the door from the passageway had opened up. Kane saw the man that came in. He closed his hand as the projection faded into nothingness and looked at the other who stepped inside. Kane already knew who he was and had already spoken to him before.

It was the captain. He was slightly taller than Kane, standing a couple of inches taller than Kane’s 6-foot frame. His uniform was very much like the officers, but he had a three silver bar rank insignia on his collar device. He looked to be a man in his forties with short black hair, black beard, and a pale complexion as well. He seemed calm but partially grizzled, yet he was more composed than Kane was the moment he walked inside the room. The door closed as Kane greeted him.

“Captain William,” Kane addressed him. “How are you?”

William seemed to give him a hardened look. “Better than you do, Ambassador," he said with a deep and raspy voice. "Perhaps I truly do have the easier job than you will ever have.”

Kane nodded. “Yes…..yeah…..,” he sighed. “It’s funny that I volunteered for this mission, yet I'm anxious as hell.”

“Well, that is understandable,” William said. “You have the most important job that mankind will ever face. It is obvious why you were the one that chose to do this.”

“Like what?”

“The same job I choose. I might end up being the most important captain ever to do a mission like this. Most likely, we will die in the process, but it is better than doing nothing at all.”

“Yeah…..” Kane said. “I guess I will send my prayers then.”

“Praying won’t be necessary. We have the greatest ship in the fleet.”

“A rust bucket on a nitrogen methane moon?”

The captain lifted his eyebrow at him. “We have the Gabatrix. It is the ship named after pioneer Gabatrix under my command. Nothing more needs to be said…..”

Kane thought about his words. He seemed to agree. “I guess if we have the best shot out there, then it had to be this ship then.”

“It is obvious this ship has seen better days, but I agree with the UHN philosophy. If we fail, it's no real loss. You are prepared for death, and I've made my peace.”

Kane’s thoughts went back to the planet of his birth. He knew the captain enough to see that he was born on Mars. Kane was privileged not to be born there, but it was the more hardened of people who came from the rustic red world. If you had Martians behind you, then victory was assured.

“Well then…..” Captain William grabbed his attention. “Ready to brief my officers?”

Kane shrugged. “Better now than later.”

“Have no fret, Kane. As a captain, it’s harder for me to admit that I am afraid of my crew. It will make me seem afraid and destroy the confidence of the crew. Since you are a civilian, it is safer for me to admit that I am afraid as well. I expect us to be dead by tomorrow, but again….it will be worth it. If you are nervous, it is a strength. You are doing more now than ever before. Most of us humans would sooner run under a bed than volunteer for this assignment.”

Kane agreed. A simple pep talk from this captain was all he needed. While he spoke to him before, he would have to get a chance to really sit down and talk with him. For now, he would have to wait.

“Alright, captain, let’s do this then,” Kane said confidently.

William stepped up to the sealed door that led into the conference room. Kane decided to follow behind him. He knew what the sailors were going to say next.

“Attention on deck!” Yelled one of the officers as Captain William stepped inside the conference room.

All the officers in the room stood up and were at attention. Their gaze was focused straight ahead of them. Their goal was to offer the utmost respect to the person who was in charge then and there. Their ferocity was stiff and direct.

Because of this, Kane made sure that he let the captain walk in first. As a civilian, he had no control over these people, but they would listen to the orders given to them by their captain and the laws of the United World’s Alliance.

“At ease….” The captain directed the officers. All of them listened and had a seat. They relaxed only a little bit as they knew that things were only going to get more serious from this point on. William walked into the room as Kane was close behind him. Of course, the officers focused on the captain, but a couple of them briefly looked at Kane.

The man looked at the various officers. He immediately recognized one of the officers was that of Commander Ramírez. This officer was most likely descended from Mexico in Earth’s past. He was bald and had a small black mustache. Kane had already met him earlier when he arrived on the ship, and he knew that he was the ship's assigned XO. He seemed aggressive but composed enough to do his job. Kane did notice that he had three bars on his uniform, just like Captain William had. He would have to ask about this later on.

“Welcome all of you to the UHN Gabatrix,” Captain William said, walking to the edge of the table. He looked at all of his officers. “As many of you know, our time of launch will be in a couple more hours. I want to thank all of you for volunteering for this mission. None of you are forced to serve this dangerous mission. I will brief some of this, and then I will let Ambassador Kane fill in the rest on what is happening. From there, you will pass along this information to your divisions, which will be passed along to the rest of the crew. After the mission briefing, you will once again be given the opportunity to refuse to partake in this. I promise you, though, that this mission is critical. It could very well turn the tide of the war in our favor or at least give humanity a fighting chance against the Itreans.”

The captain saw a panel in the center. He pressed his left hand to it, and a series of lights began to glow from his palm. It activated the center 3d hologram imager and enabled the other wall displays. The image started to depict a rough picture of Mars. The small red and orange planet was highlighted where it floated and spun in the air as the officers observed the image.

“I want to make sure I remind everyone that what we are doing is considered Top Secret until UHN and UWA consider this safe to inform the public. You are not to discuss this information with the outside public until the success of this mission is made. Is that clear?”

“Aye!” all the officers responded.

“As many of you know,” Captain William explained. “The UHN has placed our fleets in Alert Status 2. Most of our fleets are focused primarily on the planet Mars and Cebravis. Planet Batrice assures us that their Starfortress Batrice is fully operational. They have encouraged most of the defending fleet over their space to join up with the defense fleets over the other UWA colonies.”

The imager changed. It showed the planet Mars, and then two celestial objects appeared in orbit around Mars. The two small moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were depicted. They were in their orbit, highlighted in yellow, as it then showed a series of smaller yellow dots that were hovering in orbit.

“As we stand right now,” the captain continued to explain. “We have about forty operational battleships and cruisers protecting our capital. Cebravis currently has fifty-two warships in their orbit to help strengthen their defenses.”

“Only fifty-two?” one of the officers asked the captain.

“Yes. After the loss of Cipra over a month ago, we have lost a sizeable percentage of the fleet. Many of the surviving warships are currently getting repaired or forgoing repairs to allow new ships to continue their construction. As you are all aware, Deimos has never been a large moon, and their shipyard facilities are taxed beyond the limit. Batrice and Gillan are promising their most powerful battleships will be fully operational in another year.”

“Of course, Cebravis has little to defend itself compared to Mars,” one of the other officers said. “Everyone decides to move there but do little to strengthen their defenses.”

Kane felt like he had taken some insult in that. He was sure that the officer was most likely a fellow Martian himself. He had already heard all the arguments about Cebravis and was sick from it.

“That’s enough,” the captain said. “We needed a new home, and Cebravis was it. If over four billion live there, then it is the most important home to protect. The Chairwoman herself has told us before that it isn’t our goal to leave. We will not flee as we did at Cipra. If Mars and Cebravis are attacked, we stay until we die. Every last bullet, every last missile, every last bomb….we will never retreat again. If the Itreans assault our worlds, then we lose billions. I don’t know about you…..but I don’t feel like sitting here and waiting for the Itreans to come and kick our asses.”

“Neither do we, sir!” another officer said.

“This is where our mission comes into play and why you guys volunteered for a suicide mission,” William explained.

His hand was still pressed to the control panel. The image of Mars, the protecting fleet, and the moons were gone. Instead, it replaced the image of a small red dwarf star. The small star showed the flares that went into space as if the projection was natural. Kane could feel himself get a little bit anxious. He knew it was his time to give his own briefing to the crew soon.

“Approximately three weeks ago, the UHN Zheng He, while patrolling the first planet near Batrice, would encounter 'this.'”

The image changed as it depicted a small spaceship. While Kane already knew this particular ship, his military knowledge was lacking. It appeared to look different than most UHN ships that he at least had seen so far. The vessel was green-colored and had a forward, almost cylindrical shape. The spaceship had an almost boxy forward section to it. A shuttle was docked underneath the ventral side of it. It had a pair of forward-mounted thrusters on the sides, and the ship was armed with one dual cannon of some sort on the dorsal bow. There were a series of antenna arrays on the dorsal and bow sections of the ship. The ship was connected to a rotating centripetal ring that consisted of four rectangular boxes. The stern of the vessel consisted of an engine and power module almost connected together. The engine had two small turreted mounted guns on the dorsal and ventral sides.

“This was an Itrean scout ship or research ship that was hovering near the star of Trappist. Batrice forces responded quickly. The UHN Indonesia managed to sneak up on the ship and unleash a salvo onto the alien ship.”

The image showed a 3D model of the scout ship near the star, trying to break away. It was done in quick time as it began to leave the star. Suddenly, Kane could see its guns open fire. The turrets were trying to shoot down the incoming missiles. Three of the warheads were shot down before the last one struck the forward bow. The Itrean ship was small. Its armor was very light as Indonesia’s missile blew one section of the forward bow and out the other side. The breach was massive. It was like smashing the head of an animal with a hammer. The missile was brutal but effective. There was a series of smaller fires and explosions on the section as the ship’s power began to go in and out. Finally, the vessel was adrift, floating away slowly from the star in the quick time-lapse.

“Nice….” said one of the officers. Kane remained quiet, and the captain was ignoring his officer’s comments.

“It would take about a day before the broken-up ship managed to get safely away from the star,” the captain continued to explain. “We immediately tried to go and salvage it. The fact was…..we scored big time from this attack. The ship was mostly intact enough that we were able to capture the wreckage and begin analyzing it. We ended up getting lucky when we salvaged one of the data chips from the Itrean ship.”

“So you are telling me that a scout ship was hiding in the Batrice system?” a random officer asked.

“Yes. It looks like the Itreans were hoping to use the red dwarf to hide their ship. The Zheng He happened to be close enough to pick it up. How long it was there is a mystery to us. The ship happened to carry with it a storage computer that we have taken into custody. It is currently providing us valuable data on our mystery aliens.”

“Why now, sir?” Another officer asked. “We have managed to take out a few of their ships before. Weren’t we able to learn about them by now?”

“Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Of the four wreckages that we have been able to salvage of the past Itrean vessels, none of their ships provided any information. It has been revealed that Itrean ships respond quickly to assault. If the ship were permanently compromised or suffered catastrophic damage beyond repair, it would initiate a form of scuttle protocol. The computer and hard drives are destroyed by the ship’s systems themselves, possibly automatically. The crew or…..whoever controls the ship ends up in a similar fate. The Itrean ships will then vent drive plasma through the decks to not only ensure the ship’s destruction but to incinerate the crew. By the time we reach the wreckage, there is nothing to find or salvage. It is why we still do not know the Itreans themselves…..at least until now.”

The 3D image of the destroyed Itrean ship changed into a projected image of what looked like some sort of storage chip. It was the size of a finger and showed scorch marks all along its tiny sides. One side was burned black entirely. The projected image would slowly spin in the air so the officers could all see it.

“It appears that the Indonesia had scored an amazing hit. The ship’s computer initiated its scuttle protocol. However, the missile managed to strike the right section of the Itrean ship. Somehow, it destroyed the wiring or link to the various other systems in a particular way. The result was that one computer chip survived the entire attack on it. There were no bodies found in the wreckage. I will turn this over to Ambassador Kane. He has been chosen by the UWA to partake in this mission assignment. He knows way more than I do about certain things. Ambassador Kane, I will let you explain everything.”

“Right…..” Kane said as he stepped forward. His heart jumped a beat as he took a close look at the crew. All eyes were on him. It was now or never. He opened up his left palm and pressed his right hand to it. When he lifted it away, a projected image lit up. It showed a planet that appeared. It looked like a blue and green planet. It was hard to see for the crew as Kane took his right hand and touched the image. He then grabbed the image and threw it to the displays on the table and walls. The transfer was successful, as the crew was now able to see it.

The planet consisted of four continents. It was seemingly beautiful, but it was still a low-rendered projected image. The screen showed the blackness of space around it. A flashing dot began to appear near the planet that the crew was looking at on the screens.

“About three days ago,” Kane explained. “The planet Cebravis picked up an unusual beacon from one of the adjacent planets in the system. A ship was sent there, and they picked up what appeared to be a communications beacon of some sort. While the media has currently been fed false information regarding this beacon, this was what we really received from it.”

Kane went and activated the display menu from his hand. He saw a series of commands in front of his eyes. His right hand highlighted a recording segment. He activated and then waved his hand to the displays on the walls. The overhead speakers were enabled, and they suddenly began to hear a voice that came from the recording.

The voice had an accent that was somewhat similar to Spanish or French. The "S" sounds were slightly longer than a typical S sound in English. The words even had a minor form of clicking and chirping-like sounds, and occasionally, they would hear a sort of Japanese accent get through. This voice and accent were similar to another recent event that had happened not that long ago.

“People of the human race…..” the recording said. “We send a greeting to you. We are the clan T’rintar of the former Itrean Empire. We send this message to you that we request a meeting to discuss peace. We wish to discuss a method in how to establish friendly relations with the people of the United Worlds’ Alliance. We know of your plight against the Aksren and Shal’rein clans. We know of your struggle to maintain your fleets. You do not stand in a good position. We are well aware of the Aksren and Shal’rein clans and how much their offenses have been made onto your space. We know of your strengths and weaknesses, and we are aware of your fate. We extend a formal meeting to be made in hopes that negotiations can be made between the United Worlds’ Alliance and the T’rintar clan. Your strength is our strength, and our strength is your strength. We request that you send a ship to these coordinates. There we will discuss peace…..”

The message had a distinct female-like voice to it. Kane had already heard the voice before when he first got it from UWA Planetary Intelligence. The recording then began to give off a series of rapid pings. The pings would momentarily stop before it would resume. There was a series of odd patterns as it would stop and pause to repeat again.

“Peace…..” Commander Ramírez said with reluctance. “They want peace?”

“That is correct,” Kane said. “This message has been repeating over and over again, along with the series of pings to it. The beacon carried the message along with star charts to help ensure our meeting would occur at the right place.”

“This certainly sounds like a trap,” one of the officers said.

“Please, let me explain everything,” Kane said.

“Yes, I agree,” the captain said. “I don’t want any more interruptions in this conference until the ambassador has finished his briefing.”

The Captain was making sure that complete order was established. Kane nodded his head as he continued to explain what he knew.

“The research vessel that was destroyed in the Trappist system gave us the first-ever data on the Itreans,” Kane explained. “It has taken us a few weeks, but the information is slowly being recovered from the ship’s databanks.”

Kane lifted his left hand as he took the next set of information and waved it to the displays. The images changed to depict an image of the small destroyed Itrean ship.

“This vessel is named the Syn,” Kane continued. “It is a research vessel of some sort that the T’rintar were using to study Batrice's star system. The Syn was apparently hoping to use the Trappist red dwarf star as a hiding spot, but they were caught and destroyed. According to their damaged memory banks, the Itreans are not a unified race of people. Our enemy never was. There are three clans that call themselves Itreans. The clans are known as the T’rintar, Aksren, and the Shal’rein. The ships are color-coded according to the clan that they belong to.”

Kane showed another projection from his hand. He then sent the images to the table and wall displays. They all showed a series of warships that were in different colors. They were similar to the alien battleships that the UHN had been encountering throughout the whole year.

“The most common Itrean vessel we have encountered are the Aksren. Their ships are red, and they were responsible for several raids this whole year, including the loss of the colony over Cipra. The Shal’rein is responsible for launching two raids on the colony of New Olympia, almost broke through Oshun defenses, and harassed us at every turn. Their ships are supposedly purple in color. The last clan is that of T’rintar. Their ships were only encountered in three separate encounters. This would include the attack of the Syn, the taking of the Euteran colony, and our first encounter with the Itreans at the JJ-78 Disaster. Their ships are green in color.”

Captain William put his hand to his chin as he thought about it. The other crew seemed to show some animosity and perplexity to the speech. Kane continued his explanation.

“What we picked up is a declaration for peace. The UWA government does believe this is a possible trick, but they won’t deny that we should send a warship to investigate this. The UHN Gabatrix has been ordered to go and investigate this signal. A basic prep has been made for this ship to receive whatever delegation we will meet. I know, according to the captain, that you have volunteered for this mission. You were only informed so much as to what was going to happen. I believe that you guys volunteered for a ‘mission to the outer systems to negotiate with the Itreans.’ We had to keep most of this secret until now. This mission is classified as a ‘suicide mission.’ If any of you feel uncomfortable about this, we can offer you to be with your families away from this ship until the mission is accomplished. Nobody is being forced into this mission unless they are absolutely aware of the risks. I myself volunteered for this to be the Ambassador to the T’rintar clan. I myself will be the one that will be talking to them or whoever they are going to send to us. Are there any questions?”

He knew that he had ended the brief real quick. He was sure there were going to be questions, and the first series began to occur.

“What more do you know about the T…….Ter……T’rin?”

“T’rintar clan,” Kane corrected. “Unfortunately, only so much. The data we recovered is so fragmented and damaged that scientists are working all around the clock to reveal any valuable information on the T’rintar or the Itreans in general. We don’t even have any facial or body pictures to show what they look like yet. We were able to extrapolate a degraded image that showed that the Itreans, in general, or the T’rintar clan, are possibly reptilian. They also appear to have a female-led or possible matriarchy since three of the recorded messages we have received from all Itreans have indicated a female voice of some sort. We might be clearly wrong on this, but everything we have is purely speculation.”

“What was the rapid series of pings we were hearing from the recorded message?” another random officer asked.

“The noises that we heard were analyzed by UWA Research, and they concluded that they were Star Location Pings. It is a mathematical formula of the distance ranges of stars to one another. The formula is all put together to form a series of coordinates.”

“They gave us a star chart in the beacon,” another officer asked. “Why would they bother with giving us coordinates in that way?”

“Most likely, it is because the T’rintar and Itreans don’t have our complete knowledge of our star charts. Stars that we have named in our own language are completely foreign and unknown to them, and vice versa. We wouldn’t know the name of the Itrean planets and stars that are occupied by them, even if they already had names for them. This can make arranging a location for us to show up to be very difficult. Mathematics, like this, is a universal language. It is expected that all sentient alien life operates with mathematics to some degree. They gave us coordinates in the language we would understand. They also provided a pictorial star chart for us to arrive at as well to help narrow it down even further.”

“This will require us to arrive at a particular spot,” the same officer replied back. “If we miss this even by a little bit, then it may take us weeks on conventional drives just to make it to them.”

“It is why we have to ensure that the Gabatrix must calculate everything down to the exact formula,” the captain told him. “Anything we do could cost us this delicate mission.”

“How far is this jump?”

“It will be a two hundred light-year jump.”

“What?” another officer responded. The eyes widened in the room. Some faces went pale. “That is beyond the max range!”

The captain could see the tension pick up. Even Kane would have to ask more about this. He didn’t know enough about how far jump ranges were for ships. It sounded like the captain was going to explain it to the officers.

“It is true that Gabatrix himself made a one hundred light-year jump on one of his voyages,” the captain told the room. “One of the greatest pioneers would later return back and admit that he was too nervous about going any further than that. Another pioneer would then do a one-hundred-and-eighty light-year jump. It has been concluded that there is no limitation to folding space. We have the power to jump to another galaxy in one shot if we have to.”

“True, sir, but that also means the calculations have to be precise,” Ramírez said, putting his hands on the table. “We have enough probes for three jumps. We have enough materials to make more probes for two more jumps. After that, we're out, and we become stranded in space. Conventional drives would take us hundreds of years to even thousands of years to reach the nearest planet.”

Even Kane felt himself go pale a little bit. He was well aware of the risks of this. The ability to fold space was incredible, but humanity was still limited by space travel to some degree. It had revolutionized humankind, but there was a lingering fear of galaxy drift. Star charts had to be absolutely precise, or it would cause formulas to be off. Computers were advanced, but even if the coordinates were off by the tiniest amount, it could send a ship 1,000,000 kilometers in the wrong location. It must have been why even humanity was afraid to explore other galaxies. Andromeda was a massive leap, and most likely, a jump could send a ship into the galactic unknown or the empty void of nothingness in between. This must have been why humanity had colonized worlds to certain limited ranges. Now, a jump was needed in the far unknown.

“We know the risks,” the captain explained in a calm voice. “The fact is that everything you have said is true. We require three jumps to be made from this ship on this mission. We know this is a suicide mission because of the risks that are involved. It is possible that this is a trap, and most likely it is. I do have faith, though, that sometimes great leaps have to be made to ensure the human race survives. Gabatrix, our great mentor, knew that he had to make a jump to the moon because it would spearhead the future for all of us. He risked himself, his staff, and their careers to make it all possible. In the end, we have new homes. We have better lives, and we thank him for his sacrifices. It is now our turn to carry out that leap. We are in a struggle to survive against the Itreans. Our resources are stretched thin, and we don’t know how much longer we can survive it. I don’t know about you……but I would prefer to go down fighting. If this is a hope for peace in the most minor of situations, then it will give humanity the fighting chance that it deserves. I am willing to die for that cause!”

He held his hand, clenched it into a fist, and held it up into the air. “Hoorah!” he yelled.

“Hoorah!” the officers raised their fists into the air. Kane himself nodded. It was a stern reminder to him of the risks he was taking as well. Even Ramírez nodded his head in agreement.

“Is there anybody that wants to get off this ship before we take on this mission?” the captain asked.

“Hell no, sir!” one officer yelled.

“For the UHN!” another one yelled.

“For our families!” one said.

“For all of us…..,” the captain said. He gauged the room. The officers showed no fear. Even Kane felt a stir of confidence within him as the XO was nodding his head. “Good….then we do this.”

The captain turned to look at the table. He once again stepped up to the panel. He then put his hand to the table and interfaced with it. The table projected an image of a star system. The system seemed recognizable to some of the crew as it depicted a 3d projection of a red dwarf star and three planets.

“This is New Olympia…..,” the captain explained. “This will be our first jump. Since we have no gate array in orbit of this moon, we will have to use the gate probes to make a jump to there. From there, we will then make the jump to the coordinates given to us by the T’rintar clan. The sector from our star charts calls this sector MJJ-12. Once the peace talks are concluded, we will then jump back to New Olympia. We will then use the orbital gate array from New Olympia to jump back to Titan.”

“I am curious as to why we are using New Olympia to jump to MJJ-12?” one of the officers asked.

“Simple reason,” the captain explained as he lifted his hand away from the table. “We know the possibility that this is a trick. The T’rintar might have the possibility of tracing our jumps. The beacon probe that they launched was directed at our colony on Cebravis. If they had the ability, they would have sent it to Mars instead. UWA intelligence and I agree that the Itreans might not have Sol's location. Making a jump directly there could cause them to come to us…..I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to expedite our demise. The New Olympians, instead, managed to repel two assaults from the…..Shal’rein clan, as Ambassador Kane has named them. The New Olympians cannot leave their sector to defend our homes, but Fleet Admiral Fumi Yuki has promised us that our ships can go to their system. Since the Shal’rein clan have the coordinates to New Olympia, we assume the Itreans, in general, have the coordinates to there. The Itreans won’t want to mess with the New Olympians if they come after us.”

The New Olympians…..It was foolish for someone to not know of this colony. Rumors were all over the place of the power these people had. Kane didn’t know the history of them, but he was aware enough that they possessed incredible power. How they managed to establish it was a mystery. He remembered a cousin of his that traveled there. He enjoyed the world so much that he wanted to stay. The last he knew of him was that he had two wives and apparently lived the good life. As much as he felt some attraction to the concept, he knew that Cebravis was his home. Cebravis was beautiful in all aspects. It was a paradise planet that had to be protected. The New Olympians, as powerful as they were, still wouldn’t lend a finger to help protect the other colonies. Instead, it would merely be a defensible location and a launching point for UHN endeavors like this.

“Are there any questions regarding this mission?” the captain asked.

None of the officers said anything. Kane himself remained quiet.

“Good…..,” the captain said. “I will submit a copy of this briefing and information for all of you to go through. I expect you to update your divisions on what is happening. I also expect our cooks to be ready with the best dishes we have to offer to the T’rintar,” William said with a smile. “I want this mission to succeed.”

Kane could tell that one of the female officers smiled. She had to be a supply officer in which the ship’s cooks operated under her division. The briefing was coming to a close, and the captain lightly slapped the table.

“Alright…..everyone is dismissed,” William said. “Let’s get this ship flying again.”

“Yes, sir,” some of the officers said as they got out of their seats. The door of the conference room opened up as the men and women began to leave the room one by one. Kane felt a little bit of relief that the briefing was over. He watched as the XO got out of his seat. Instead of leaving the room, he walked up to the captain. He briefly looked at the Ambassador, but Kane could tell that most of his attention was directed towards the ship's CO.

“Ramírez, I imagined that you would have questions to ask,” the captain addressed him.

“I do sir,” Ramírez said. “This mission has a lot of variables in it.”

“It does,” William replied.

“So, we are meeting up with an alien race that decided to kidnap and assault one of our colonies?” Ramírez asked with a scornful look.

“Yes…..”

“And the same people that disabled and killed over twenty people on the UHN Champlain and Eutera? Not to mention that they kidnapped thousands from the colony?”

“Yes…..”

“I just wanted to make sure that we are not out of our minds at what we are doing,” Ramírez said, looking at the both of them.

“Are you against this mission?” William asked.

“No. I feel the same way as you do, sir. I do have my own questions to ask that would be more…..off the grid. Ambassador…..I guess it is alright to have you a part of this since you are a vital component of this mission.”

Kane nodded his head. “Of course.”

“My point is that we should have a fleet of ships to back us up. We shouldn’t be the only ones going out there.”

William shook his head. “That would be foolish. Our fleets need to stay here. It is one of the reasons why they are sending an old vessel to go there to begin with. If they lose this ship, then it is no real loss.”

“I…..don’t know much about military ships,” Kane told the both of them. “This ship…..the UHN Gabatrix…..it seems like a good ship.”

“Not precisely,” Ramírez told him. “This is a Helix class Battleship. These ships are older than the Magellan Class Battleships. You know the Magellans…..the same class of Battleships that you saw getting wasted over Cipra?”

“Oh…..” Kane said, realizing what he was getting at.

“Yes, the UHN Gabatrix was built before those Magellan Battleships. The only ones you see left are in storage like this one. The Magellan was a replacement class of Battleship. Essentially, this ship carries a poorer armament than the Magellans had. Two battleships from the T’rintar pounded through the UHN Champlain like it wasn’t even there over Eutera. That was also a Magellan class.”

Kane rubbed the back of his head.

“However…..” Captain William said. “We do have one advantage that this ship has over the current fleet. Near the end of the service life of this ship, the UHN wanted to experiment with the Genisen Mark 11 AIO Turrets. They installed it on this ship and played with them for a while to see if they worked. The experiments were successful, and they started building them in mass. They decided not to take them off the ship after the Gabatrix was decommissioned.”

“Really?” Ramírez remarked.

“So, there is one little benefit to our situation.”

“I do apologize,” Kane commented. “I still don’t understand what that means.”

“Let us put it this way, Ambassador. We have a better way of shooting down the missiles the Itreans would throw at us than many of the other UHN ships.”

“Ah…..,” he realized and smiled.

“It doesn’t mean that we should put ourselves into a firefight,” Ramírez commented.

“That isn’t our job,” Kane responded to him. “If we are shooting at the T’rintar, then we have failed at our mission.”

“It is under my belief that by sending more UHN ships,” the captain said. “We may scare the T’rintar to leave. There is no point in grabbing any additional vessels to come with us.”

Ramírez seemed to be the character that questioned the rules a lot in Kane’s eyes. He appeared to be somewhat antagonistic in his tone. Perhaps it was his personality to be this way.

“My question is this,” Ramírez asked Kane. “How do we know they aren't deceitful?”

“We don’t, but it is best to be hopeful.”

“Then, you get to play the diplomat hero?”

“Ramírez….” Captain William told him, trying to get him to back down a little bit.

“It is my job,” Kane told him.

“Really?.... Tell me, Ambassador…..” Ramírez said as he walked closer to him. “What are you hoping to do when the T’rintar comes to this ship? Are you going to ask them to hand over the Euterans? That is, of course, if they are still alive.”

“I will do my best to find out and resolve a diplomatic solution.”

“How far did the Lee Administration go in getting you to go with this mission?”

Captain William was getting annoyed with Ramírez’s tone. He was waiting for him to back down. He folded up his arms.

“What do you mean?” Kane asked.

“How did they choose you for this mission?” Ramírez asked.

“I choose to do it. Same as you.”

“Lee is just another Aniruddha. She might act like she is better than he was, but in the end, they are all bureaucrats. They cheer their voters, and we are put into the firing line.”

Kane snuffed.

“That is enough!” the captain said. “Ramírez, get out!”

The XO shook his head. He saluted his captain, gave a mean look at Kane, and walked out of the room. The door opened and closed behind him.

“I apologize for Ramírez’s behavior,” William told Kane.

“It's alright,” Kane told him. “It comes with the job.”

“Do you feel that you are ready for this?”

Kane took a deep breath and sighed. “I think so…..why did he behave that way?”

“He was supposed to be the captain for this mission," the captain told him. "UHN, choose me instead. He is….venting. He's scared, I'm scared, and I know you are scared. We all behave differently as a result. Come…..I have a ship to get ready to depart. Go ahead and do what you need to do before this ship gets ready to depart.”

Kane nodded his head as the captain smiled. He slapped him on the back and walked out of the room. The Ambassador decided to look at the room one last time before he left the room as well.

 

 

 

Chapter 2: Rendezvous to MJJ-12

It had been a couple of hours as Kane was sitting in his chair in a private room of the lounge. He was located in one of the many rooms in the midsection of the ship. The centripetal rotating ring was off-limits since Titan’s gravity was pulling everything downward. With even the light gravity of the moon, it was impossible to walk inside the ring. Designed to generate gravity by centripetal force, it made it impossible to traverse to his own room. Essentially, the ring had rooms all over inside of it, with his private room being upside down near the top. He had been hearing announcements over the intercom for hours, letting everyone know about the ongoing preparations of getting the Gabatrix ready for launch.

The room Kane was in was a little small. He had turned it into an office until the ship would be launched into space itself. It consisted of an overhead display near him on one side of the room. It had two doors that led to a mess hall and the central passageway. He had a small luggage pack with him that carried his wardrobe for the meeting. It rested comfortably on the mounted desk where he sat.

The mounted chair was soft and comfortable to sit on. He knew this was only going to last for so long though. Once in space, there would be no gravity except inside the rotating ring. There was a metallic desk but nothing too fancy. It was a private enough room that he could browse through his messages without much interference. A part of him had felt apprehensive about the upcoming dateline. 

“The T’rintar gave us so little time to prepare…..,” he said out loud as he turned on the computer projection display from his left hand. The display activated immediately, and he began to browse through the options for him to read.

Kane’s attention was focused on the email box sent through by the United World's Alliance Galactic Network through proper security channels. He had received a top-secret message from the UWA Intelligence Bureau. The ambassador opened it up, and it asked for his password confirmation. He brought his left hand and projection close enough to him that it popped a new button for him to press. It asked, “Confirm Scan?” and confirmed it. 

The moment his right finger clicked the yes button on the projected image, a series of scanning lights began to fire off from his left thumb. It was carefully reviewing his eye for authentication. The light stopped, and the analysis showed that the eye recognition worked. 

An email message popped open, and he began to read the displayed text for him to read. It seemed promising for him to read. He nodded his head as he acknowledged it. 

The door opened up as a crew member walked into the lounge room. Seeing that he was no longer alone, Kane closed his left hand. This caused the projected image to fade away. The crew member only saw a little bit of what was happening.

“I….apologize,” the stranger told him. She saw the Ambassador and was about to turn away. “I didn’t mean to bother you. I thought this room was unoccupied.”

Kane looked at the woman. She wore the same red and blue uniform jumpsuit that the other crew members had. Her red-dyed hair was tied up in a bun, the typical fashion statement from Martian women that Kane was aware of. She seemed to be a woman in her forties and had a pale complexion. She had freckles on her face and seemed composed. Her rank insignia had a leaf and what looked like a stethoscope on it. It was etched on both sides of her collar devices.

“No, that is alright,” Kane told her. “I wouldn’t mind the company. You don’t have to leave.”

“Very well,” she said as she turned around to look at him. She was standing by his table. The doors closed, leaving the two of them inside. “My name is Lieutenant Aline. I am the chief medical officer on board the UHN Gabatrix. I saw you earlier at the briefing today.”

“Ambassador, Kane,” he greeted back as he extended his hand to greet her. “I do apologize. There were ten people in that meeting that I didn’t look at the faces too closely.”

She walked up to his hand and shook it. “Don’t feel bad. All of us come from all over the UWA. I don’t know about you, but I feel like taking a breather.”

“Getting everything ready for the trip?”

“Yeah….the equipment still works. It’s antiquated, but it still works. We got enough supplies for this short mission.”

“I am hoping it will be short,” he told her. “The idea of getting stranded in space is shitty.”

She shook her head. “Honestly, people get too wired up over nothing. They need to calm the fuck down.”

Her brazen words caught him off guard. “Sorry?”

“Oh…..,” she said. “I apologize. Us UHN sailors call our language ‘sailor mouth.’ We get used to cussing up a storm. I can hear the faint accent in your voice. You are from Cebravis, aren’t you?”

“That easy, eh?” he asked her.

There was a seat next to him. It was also a comfortable couch. She walked up to it and sat down on it.

“One thing nice with low gravity is that it really adds the spring in your step.”

Kane listened to her talk, but her accent was weird. It sounded almost Martian in some aspects, but it also sounded like the few people left on Earth. She would appear sickly if she were from Earth, but that wasn’t her case.

“I'm trying to figure out what place you came from with the sound of your voice,” Kane said. “Earth?”

She laughed. “Hell no. Earth is fucked up. I wouldn’t be in this condition otherwise if I came from there. Actually….Venus.”

“Ah…..” Kane said, nodding his head. “I rarely ever meet anybody from there. How are those balloon cities anyway?”

She thought about it. “Comfortable. You feel like you are in a spaceship, but you have gravity pulling down on you all the time. It's pretty nice, actually.”

Kane had only heard the stories about Venus from the Venetians. He knew about the fact that the planet was colonized with the creation of the “Aeolia Program.” It was believed that Venus could be terraformed into a habitable planet by introducing balloon cities. While the pressure inside was insane and heavy, Venus had a number of close elements toward Earth. For one, it was much closer to Earth than Mars was. Gravity on Venus was 90% of that of Earth, and there was an atmosphere and air pressure. If it weren’t for the substantial runaway greenhouse effect crushing things underneath the clouds, it would be a nice place.

“I got to admit that it is fascinating to come from such a place,” Kane said with admiration. “I always wondered why they stopped building more cities.”

“Simple,” she replied back. “Good ol Cebravis and the other planets took priority. They wanted to look at Venus as an experiment in colonizing gas giant planets in case there were too few exoplanets available out in the galaxy. It is pretty nice, honestly. We are the ‘Gangler planet’ in case of the few people that suffer from ‘Gangler’s Syndrome or Low Gravity Adaptation Syndrome.’ With Venus having such a high gravity pulling on you and the balloon cities able to float high above the crushing surface, people go there to recover. They have an excellent UHN medical facility as well, where I was trained in how to become a doctor.”

“Do you guys ever have to worry about your balloon cities getting holes and falling down to get crushed?”

“Hell no! It will never happen. Actually, we get holes all the time. The one thing nice is that the pressure is the same inside or out. Holes can get patched up real quick, and nothing leaks out. Since we are floating at the right altitude, it possible to walk out with a temperature suit and oxygen mask, and you're fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…..of course you still have to watch out for the acid rain here and there. Thankfully, it is still nothing that bad. Like….I was born on Venus, and I am still here talking to you. That should give you an idea that we have been managing it pretty well there. You should get a chance to stop by there. We have five cloud cities with Vega being our capital.”

“What city were you born from?” he asked.

“Venera. That is where they have the UHN Medical University, too. Venera, you always get a nice view of the gate array in orbit, too.”

“What about the sky, though? Isn’t it like orange and bleak looking?”

“No, our cities float above that. We are right at the perfect altitude where you see blue sky. Below you are all that CO2 tan soup mix. We have incredibly long days, but we control it with overhead window blinds. We simulate night there.”

“That is pretty interesting.”

“Tell me about Cebravis,” she said.

“What needs to be said about Cebravis. It is the New Earth. Almost four billion people call it their home. Four large continents, pristine oceans, gravity very much like Earth, heck, it's even bigger than Earth. We have more space to travel around and probably the largest amount of nude beaches one could ever surmise.”

She laughed. “I forgot about the nude beaches. I heard Cebravis beat Oshun at that part.”

“Yeah, in fact, the cevan is really good too.”

“Cevan?.....Oh yeah, your fish. I love them. They taste so good. Doesn’t beat the Oshun life, though.”

“Eh…..I've had different. Some people like ours better.”

Aline decided to change the topic. “I noticed that you have a Marten JK-5,” she said, pointing to his left hand.

“Oh yeah, my hand. Yeah, I got one of the best that they offered.”

“I got a better augment,” she said, pointing to her right arm. “I have the Genisen SLR-8 Augment Arm.”

“Actually….I never heard of that.”

“You wouldn’t unless you work in the medical field like me. Some doctors would give their life savings to have one of these. They're awesome,” she said as she flexed her right arm.

The fact was that both their hands and arms looked entirely undistinguishable for their bodies. The augmented artificial limb and hand that they both had looked genuine. 

“What is so special about your augment?” he asked her.

“It includes most of the basic tools for surgery. My right pointer finger has a small laser scalpel to open or stitch wounds. It is more precise than a real human arm, and I can even do things like ultrasounds with it that link up to the computers. Plus…..the typical UWAN navigation too.”

“I don’t know…..I always like the ability to open up my hand and interact with my onboard hand computer core instead of using an arm. I can just open up my hand and close it when I am done interfacing with it.”

“Mmm…” she shook her head. “Yeah, I like what I got.” She paused for a little bit, and her tone seemed to change a little bit. “So…..you are the ambassador for this mission, huh?”

“Yes,” Kane answered.

“I don’t know what to think. We still don’t know what they look like?”

He paused for a few seconds. “They have a little bit more information on the Itreans and T’rintar, in general, that is from the damaged hard drives of the Syn. It is a painstaking process having to put together the corrupted files and trying to make sense of them. I just got a message from UWA Research, and they think they might be reptilian in nature……at least, they think so. The data is so fragmented.”

“Even though it was captured intact?”

“Barely…..honestly, it would take another month to put things together. Thankfully, they are able to assemble enough data on some parts that the equipment the T’rintar uses militarily is being sent to the UHN Gabatrix. At least we won’t fly in completely blind and ignorant.”

“You think we stand a chance against the Itreans?”

“I don’t know…..” Kane said. “It has been so crazy these two months. We had an AI go and take over Mars to beg that she wouldn’t be taken offline....plead that her unborn daughter be spared. Then, a month later, we capture a destroyed T’rintar ship and get a truce meeting from that clan a little bit later on.”

“I agree…..ugh….I remember being home when they said Mars was hacked.”

“Yes, I was thankful it wasn’t on Cebravis. It was all over our news, and then Aniruddha made his announcement that he was resigning.”

“Were you elected in by the Lee administration?”

“No,” Kane said, shaking his head. “I was actually a part of the Aniruddha Administration. I was just…..well, I was just a nobody, actually. I was the clerk to the Secretary of the Treasury. When Aniruddha resigned, it caused a small upheaval in the whole government, as was expected. Thankfully when Li Wei Lee took over, she pretty much just had most of the people keep their jobs instead of finding new people.”

“Politics…..,” she said, shaking her head.

“I love it, actually.”

“Yet here you are…..”

“No, I wanted to do this. When I heard about the T’rintar and the possibility of peace, I jumped on it quickly. I wasn’t doing it for the Lee Administration. I just……I didn’t want to be cannon fodder when the Itreans come to blow us up on Cebravis. After Eutera and Cipra…..Cebravis was going to be next.”

“Any of us could be next. The cloud cities of Venus,” she said, snapping her fingers. “It wouldn’t take long to destroy all that. I remember even some of my friends that said if the Itreans come to attack Venus….well.” She paused. “Some of them are planning on opening up the hatch and jumping out. They said it would be better to let Venus claim them than let the bombs come falling over the cities.”

“Yeah….” Kane said. “I'm not ready to die. If the T’rintar come to have us talk, then let’s do it.”

“Are you ready for such an action, though?”

He shook his head. “A part of me is ready to talk to their Ambassador or whoever is going to meet us. Another part of me is scared shitless.”

“We all are….,” she said. “But…..I keep the faith. This mission might as well be the most important mission to ever happen for humanity since the Gabatrix Experiment. I'm no historian, but I feel that is what this is going to be. I understand you being nervous, Ambassador.”

Kane nodded his head. He tried to change the topic again. “Well….if we can allow an AI to take over our society, release us, and then we go and let her live, it does show promise in humanity. I just wish our aliens felt the same way.”

“Perhaps they do.”

“I imagine they do as well.”

“You know…..it’s funny. I have a friend that helped in Minerva’s delivery,” Aline said. 

“Really?”

“Yes,” she replied. “She works here on Titan. When Minerva went into labor, they called her to help with the delivery. Her husband, Ericson, was a happy man.”

“I imagine it was. It was on the news, but it still kept getting swamped out by all the news with the Itreans and their impact on society. Sometime after this, I will have to get in contact with Ericson, especially once we come back. They are here on Titan, right?”

“I think so, according to the news a while back.”

“Hmmm….I did see the UHN Tyson that was here at the docks.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know much more than that. We have a slew of ships at the dockyards.”

“Me neither,” he said. “I don’t know much military stuff. I am just a political worker.”

“I am just a doctor. So that’s that.”

There was a long pause in the conversation. Finally, Aline slapped her knees. “Well….it is time for me to head back to work. Once we get the ring-spinning, I am going to get my first wave of nausea patients. Better be ready with all the meds. How is your experience?”

“With what?”

“Motion sickness, nausea, or weightless issues?”

“Oh….actually, it didn’t bother me much. I made the trip to here on transport and shuttle with no problem, and I grew up on Cebravis most of my life.”

“Well, if you feel any sickness or the need to throw up, just come to the medical bay, and we'll help you out.”

“You got it, doc.”

Aline stood up. She patted him on the shoulder. “These are dark times, but we have gone through worse.”

“I can’t think of anything worse than this,” he said.

“Our ancestors had to abandon a planet. Trust me. We went through worse.”

Kane knew that Aline was mostly right. At the moment things could be far worse. 

“I will stay confident,” he replied.

“Take care of yourself," she told him. "The ship should be departing pretty soon. I recommend going to the bridge. Old or new, being in a warship launch is amazing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

He smiled. “I think I will do that.”

She waved as she stepped towards the closed door of the room. It opened up as she stepped out to the central passageway. When it closed, Kane was left to his own thoughts once again. He breathed a sigh of relief, but his mind would go to the display. A part of him wonders if he would ever see home again once they made the jump. Would the T’rintar just blow them to pieces or actually welcome them? For now, he had to close his eyes and monitor the intercom chatter.

 

*******

That was a preview of Gabatrix: The First Peace. To read the rest purchase the book.

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