Ship: Moving Through Earth's Atmosphere.
Afain queried Cleo, "Do you have a picture of what these things look like or what their language sounds like?"
"Oh yes, I finally isolated a frequency that has moving pictures of them. There are more than one species that occupy this planet. I have found several broadcasts that look like what seem to be news reports. It is all very bizarre, it's all out of context since I have no idea how their social structure functions."
"Let me see."
Cleo flipped on a viewer and there sat a furred creature talking a very strange language.
"They are like us!" Afain exclaimed.
"Well similar, remember as I said there are many species of creatures on this planet, some sentient like this one and many that are not."
"Ah… and this noise is their language?"
"One of many to be precise."
"Have you gained enough knowledge to understand it?"
"Some actually, I have found references and databases that I have tapped into to help my education in this aspect."
"So what's it saying?"
"It is describing weather patterns, see that map behind it. It's telling or predicting the weather patterns for the days to come."
"Good luck furred one." She said in mockery. "Very interesting; keep up the good work."
"Thank you Afain." The sphere became silent; Afain stared at the creature that moved on the screen. They weren't at all that different; well this one at least. She hoped that they would be able to converse with them peacefully and not to cause an incident.
Afain found Kira and Lyja staring at a screen with great interest. "What is it you have found?"
Lyja turned her head to address Afain, "With Cleo's help we have been looking into the technology of this planet."
"Oh and how does it rate with ours?"
Lyja just smiled, "Nowhere even close. Well some of their computers are getting there in speed but nothing that compares to our level."
"That doesn't surprise me."
"Although they do have some very powerful weapons, crude but they will do heavy damage."
Afain became concerned, "Are we in danger?"
"I'd like to say no, but these crude weapons could do some major damage to this ship if we are fired upon. It's not designed to go into battle. Now the main ship is in no danger from these weapons, they are not that powerful."
"Then let us proceed with great caution. Can you describe these weapons?"
"They have small projectile weapons, they are powerful destructive things. I've told Cleo that it will have to give us remotes for our first contact. They may not be hospitable and fire these upon us. We need to be able to withstand an attack from such weapons. Cleo has already adjusted its shielding and has now made remotes for us as well. We will be prepared for such an attack."
"Do you really think these creatures will attack us?" Violence on their world did happen but it was sparse.
Kira turned and answered, "From the data that Cleo is giving us, yes. These creatures are violent towards themselves and live in a chaos ridden society. Our intrusion and appearance will probably provoke a violent reaction."
"Cleo, come here." Afain ordered.
The small sphere came almost the instant it was called, "Yes Afain."
"Kira said that these creatures can and probably will attack us, can you protect us in such a situation."
"Yes, I have a full battle mode configuration all you have to do is activate it. I can and will eliminate all threats towards you. I am programmed to protect you and those you are travelling with from any harm befalling them."
"In what manner?"
"Eradication."
Afain was shocked, "Cleo you will not kill anyone unless I specify it, under no conditions do you understand."
"That is how I am programmed to respond."
"Then its going to be different now, you will use non-lethal methods to subdue attackers in advent that I am unable to function"
"I understand."
"Good, we are here to help, even if these creatures don't understand that." Afain stated. "This is not our planet, we have to err on the side of caution. Once something is dead it doesn't come back."
"Yes, understood."
"I also want you to find some sort of greeting, if you can. To tell them we are non-hostile."
"I am working on that."
"Good."
"Is there anything else Afain?"
"Not right now."
The sphere moved off, to begin searching for a greeting to these aliens.
"It seems we have a challenge ahead of us."
Kira sighed, "Yes we do." Afain had made it clear that no one was going to get killed on her watch.
The ship arrived at the place where the signal was directed in the early morning which wasn't to the liking of the group. They wanted to be inconspicuous; landing in the middle of the day wasn't a good plan. Night also gave them an advantage of camouflage. So the ship made a slight detour and set down on the water, a fair distance from shore. The ship easily floated upon the liquid's surface, it had to move once just to be sure it avoided another craft. They awaited darkness to fall then it would be time to go back and confront the aliens.
The plan was to land, decloak, then wait until someone showed up. That being would probably be the one they needed to talk with. They had to delay one day though; Cleo wasn't one hundred percent confident that it could communicate properly with these creatures. It had asked for one more day to prepare. Afain and the others agreed, they wanted this to go as smoothly as possible.
Darkness fell and the ship flew to the Aliens location, it landed close to a large dwelling then lowered its cloaking shield and waited.
Mothers Base
Alarms sounded and the place sealed itself, shields covered all windows. Mother calmly went down the stairs knowing that it wasn't wise to panic in these situations. She made her way to her office to find Swallow there, she hated calling her that for this creature was nothing like her name sake.
"What's going on?" Mother said calmly.
"Something very interesting." She brought up camera five on the large screen monitor. It showed the front courtyard and a large oval object sitting there.
"Oh, that is interesting."
"According to the guards there was a slight buzzing in the air then that stopped. Soon after this thing appeared."
"How long ago?"
"About 5mins."
"Interesting, have the automatic turrets been deployed."
"What?"
Mother went over to a picture hanging on the wall. She pulled up a chair and hopped up onto it. She pulled on the corner of the picture and it came forward; behind it was a panel it had several buttons on it. She punched in a code and waited.
"As I suspected, they disarmed them. Not surprising in my absence. One moment and…there active once again."
Out side towers began to rise out of the ground, many of them. On the top were two types of weapons one a machinegun and another electrical discharge type. They were formidable weapons of destruction.
Inside the ship these new additions were immediately noticed.
"Kira I don't know if that's a good sign." Lyja said.
"I'm scanning them right now to ascertain the threat." Kira said, "These are powerful weapons, I'm not sure if we should proceed. Cleo, could you defend against these?"
"The projectile weapons yes, the electrical I am unsure of, my deflections of that much energy could damage others or this ship. I could not comply with Afain's new directives; someone would obviously be killed if hit by a discharge of that magnitude."
Kira looked at Afain, "I don't want anyone hurt either Afain but those weapons are all aimed at us."
Afain summoned Cleo, "You're to go outside and try to converse with those who try to talk with you. No action is to be taken against them even if you are fired upon. You said you can withstand their projectile attacks. If they begin to use those energy weapons you are to retreat back into the ship."
"Yes I will do no harm."
"Good now go." Be careful Cleo, Afain whispered.
Mother and Swallow watched as their guards surrounded the craft with weapons drawn. It was to be an interesting evening.
"It might be best if we withdrew some of those guards, nothing is going to come out of that thing with all those weapons pointed at it."
"I think your right." Swallow said, she picked up a microphone. "All but two guards, fall back to defensive positions, those two staying meet us at the front door." The mic clicked off, "I think its time we go meet our visitors."
"You lead."
Swallow gave her a sneer, "You got a hope small fry…move it."
As they walked out the two guards met them. "Something came out of it," one of them said.
"Something?" Mother asked.
"Yeah a small ball, it's just floating there." said the wolf guard.
"One on each side now!" Swallow barked, "Let's see this …ball."
Mother watched and walked beside this imposter, she was arrogant but sure of herself…one of the traits she liked about herself.
The sphere was floating just as the guard said it was, doing nothing but sitting there.
"State your purpose for being here mechanical thing." Swallow commanded of the basket ball sized sphere.
"We come in pieces." It said in what was garbled English.
Mother smirked, seems it had an understanding of English but not a good one.
Swallow corrected it, "You mean we come in peace. Meaning non-hostile?" She wasn't sure if it would understand that but she tried.
"We come in peace." It said in perfect English this time, "Learns fast" Swallow thought.
"What do you want?" Swallow asked.
"Machines of us." Cleo replied hoping that meant technology of theirs.
Swallow looked down at Mother, "What do you make of that?"
Mother thought for a minute but it was Alison who answered, "The pod; it wants the pod, "Machines of us," machines that they made." Mother thought that was a good conclusion and raising an eyebrow. "I think it wants the pod."
Swallow was taken aback, "That thing, it's not here. How the hell did it come to the conclusion we have it?" Swallow huffed.
"I dunno," Mother shrugged, "but I think that's a reasonable guess at what it means by "machines of us."
"We don't have it." Swallow said to Cleo and waited.
Cleo on the other hand had been doing a whole lot while just floating there. It found the control panel in the dwelling that controlled the weapons trained on them. It knew it could easily disable them now. It had also determined that both these individuals possessed Zargozian technology within themselves they had found their quarry. Cleo contacted Afain.
"Both of these individuals have Zargozian technology within their bodies. None of the others who were here and are now gone did. There is a residual reading within the dwelling but it is very faint. I cannot ascertain precisely that it is Zargozian in origin."
"Then this complicates matters, we need to capture them. Can you formulate a plan to do that?"
"Yes, I have already figured that out."
"Will anyone be harmed in this plan?"
"No…there is 99.8 % chance of success in the retrieval of these individuals, without harm coming to anyone."
"Do it, we cannot waste time. Our presence here could harm these individuals more than we know."
"Understood."
Mother watched, nothing was happening; then it began all at once. A blue beam shot out from the sphere at the house, it cut a hole about an inch in diameter in the wall. It took the defense system down in one shot. Swallow turned and tried to run as the guards opened fire. The sphere stopped all the bullets in mid flight. It was incredible, after another bright light emanated from the sphere Mother/Alison found herself falling to the ground.
"That was fun she thought," as the world became dark.
End Of Chapter 18
"I COME IN PIECES" ROFL
"Gort, Klaatu barada nikto"