"Sir. We are approaching the last known position of the ISV Hyperion." The young ensign Basilio says, with a bit of a nervous expression on his face.
"Run a thorough sensor sweep of the area, and ensign."
"Yes Sir?"
"Steady." He takes a deep breath nodding his understanding of what I mean. Fear. It's like a disease that spreads, so you need to nip it as soon as it rears it ugly face. As I watch the passing stars I can't help but wonder what the Hyperion's crew felt in their final moments, was it any different than how Karen felt? Suddenly the sound of something solid hitting us makes me come back. "Report!"
Ensign Basilio checks his instruments and rechecks them. "Sir, it's debris. We're entering a debris field that's wide spread." I look out of the main viewer and there is quite a bit of it floating around; This can only be one thing. "Sir I have an object, larger than the rest, at point 3 starboard point 4 down."
I look at the data on my personal screen and nod my head. "Helm, distance to the object?"
"Twenty five hundred kilometers, Sir."
"Put us right next to it." I hear someone come behind me on my right; I turn and glance seeing Mandy standing there, looking straight ahead. She's still upset with me after almost three days; I also have to acknowledge the fact that I've not tried to speak to her as well. The object appears small in the viewer. "Can you magnify the image?" The viewer's still work in progress, but it's getting there slowly.
"I'll see what I can do Sir." Replies the helmsman. The image increases bit by bit until we have a clear picture of the object. I sit back into my chair and fold my arms shaking my head. Before us is the aft section of the Hyperion, still somewhat intact. The whole forward section is gone; good God, no one survived that. It was a catastrophic pressure loss, even if the bulk heads came down it was over. There were only thirty eight crew members aboard the Hyperion. "Sir, any more than this and it will distort the image."
I nod. "This is fine Lieutenant; just park us right next to what's left of the Hyperion." I turn to Mandy. "Perhaps we can send a team in to see what can be salvaged, what do think Major?" Mandy looks at me and I notice a softening in her eyes, which makes me feel better. I'm sure it made her feel better that I deferred to her authority in this matter.
"That sounds like a good idea, and we can also perhaps recover some of the bodies of the crew." She faintly smiles, knowing how much of a sensitive issue this is for me, to recover some of those brave men and women would most definitely be important to me. They were my fellow explorers and friends, people who I spent much time around.
"Alright then, let's get a team of Marines ready, to head over there check the wreckage."
I turn towards the Com officer. "Lieutenant Carrera Please contact Lieutenant
Monroe and Gunny Wilcox to come to my office."
"Yes Sir." She turns to do as ordered.
"Ant." I look at Mandy. "I want to go with that team and help recover anyone in their."
"Mandy..."
"Please Ant, let me go." It's a plea that strikes me home; back in Africa I denied her to go on a mission that might have had a disastrous result for her. I was glad that I didn't let her go, but her reputation took a hit as the commanders favorite. It's something she's never lived down.
I let out a breath and look at her pleading expression. "I have to let you know that this goes against my better judgement, as tactical commander." I see the set in her jaw, the raw determination in her. "Alright, but the Lieutenant and the Gunny will have operational command on this one." She looks down. "No argument on this one Major."
She nods. "Ok, I agree that it would be the wise choice." I'm glad that she is in agreement, or things wouldn't be so right now. God I hope I don't regret this decision. "So I will let the Lieutenant and the Gunny take the lead if we encounter anything to fight, which I doubt we will."
"Wait..."
"Please Ant, it's a recovery mission, so there won't be any battles here right." I look at her and can really find no fault in her logic. It's true; they are not heading into a combat mission.
"Alright." God help if I'm wrong.
I stand by in the launch bay C&C (command and control), literally with my hands in my pockets as the shuttle exits the Helios. With a bad feeling in the pit of my gut; I turn heading out back to the bridge. I have to be there in case the unthinkable should happen. As I enter I can hear the shuttle pilot, as he lets it be known their distance form the Hyperion's aft section. We're a kilometer from it, so they've already traveled over half that distance in such a short amount of time. "Please magnify the shuttles position."
"Aye Captain." The image gets bigger but not as clear, as I would like l it to be. I stand behind the Captains chair putting my hands on the back rest. I watch as the shuttle attaches itself to the hull, with its magnetized landing gear. The EVA suits are equipped with magnetic boots, the plan is to walk in through the open end and see what we find. I watch the rear hatch open, I take a deep breath as the first member of the team steps out; I can make out the plas rifle, so this is one of the Marines on the team. Then I see two more come out of the shuttle. They all are moving very awkward because of the magnetic boots.
"Captain." I turn to the science station and walk over.
"What is It Lieutenant?
"I'm not sure Sir," She tweaks the sensors some more. "I picked up something at the very limit of our sensors range, but I can't tell what it is."
I rub my chin while wondering how exposed we right now. Damn! We're as open as we can possibly be. "Action stations!"
"Aye Captain, Action stations!" Responds the helmsman." The Alert sounds and the entire ship begins to come to life, as the crew move to their battle stations. "Weapons."
"Sir."
"Heat 'em up."
"Aye Aye Sir."
I watch the screen with the Lieutenant, which shows nothing out there that we need to worry over. I turn thinking if maybe I overreacted calling everyone to Action stations. "Sir!" I turn back to the screen and there it is a definite blip on the max range of the sensors. I watch as it now begins to get closer to our position; unfortunately it can't gauge size of the object, but its speed it can! It's closing at an incredible rate!
"Captain! On the viewer!" Calls our the helmsman. Good God! It's bigger than our ship! It comes to a complete stop. "Sir reading some form of energy or signal coming from that ship!"
Suddenly the lights and screen blink on and off for several seconds. "What was that?" I ask.
"We were just scanned Sir." Replies the science officer. "All systems are normal and no reports of any problems on any deck Sir."
"Thank you. Comms recall the the boarding party fill them in on the situation." I think quickly of how this would appear to whom is controlling that alien vessel. "Tell them to take it easy and calmly, no agitated moves."
"Aye Captain." I listen as he relays the message; I rub my chin some more watching that ship out there and the wreck of the Hyperion is between us, which is not good.
"Helmsman, get us between that alien vessel and the Hyperion. Move easy and steady, but quickly."
"Aye Captain." As we move into position the other ship maintains its distance.
"What's the range between us and that ship?" I ask trying to gauge their intent, for I have no idea of its capabilities. And at this point we're to late to engage it head on, without getting blown apart.
"The alien vessel is holding at three thousand kilometers, with no sign of movement." Answers the helmsman. They're not closing in on us; either they fear us, which I doubt is the case. They're trying to feel us out, or their intentions are not hostile. I'm getting the feeling that it's the one of last two possibilities. The scan they made of us was powerful enough to disrupt our systems temporarily, and the size of the vessel tells me of how advanced technologically they are. Perhaps...
"Ant?" I breathe a sigh of relief as I hear Mandy's voice. "What's the sitrep?"
"Well Major, as of right now it's what you see. We're just looking at each other." She give me a smirk and the rest of bridge crew chuckle. It's always good to lighten the mood a little bit and take the edge off of things. "Comms, open up all frequencies and hail that ship; lets see what kind of response we get from them."
"Yes Sir." She responds.
"Ant," I turn toward Mandy. "We don't have a FIRST CONTACT protocol that I'm aware of, so this is the initial. You're setting the protocol here and now." I hear the implications in her words. What is done here and now will determine the future of of our mission into space. Maybe the future of Earth itself.
"Weapons, stand down. Comms relay this message; we are on a peaceful recovery mission and of no threat. Also add that any assistance would be appreciated." I sit back as Mandy puts a hand on my shoulder. The minutes tick by and still no response from them. I wonder if they took our heating up of the weapons as a sign of hostility. God I hope not.
"Sir! We have a response!"
"Put it on speaker!" I order.
[WE ARE THE MAJHA-TU. WE ARE NO THREAT TO YOU OR YOUR PEOPLE. WE WILL ASSIST YOU.] I sit back in my chair; first they can speak our language; second the voice sounds female and third they are willing to help.
I look up to Mandy and she seems riveted to the image of the alien vessel. "Hey, any thoughts on how to proceed next?" She inhales deeply and let's it out slowly.
"I think... we should accept and be gracious, grateful and open." Replies Mandy. Yeah, that sounds good. Can't show fear and we need to be neighborly. But...
"Right." I consider all my options; and I think We must show strength without being overly threatening. "Sergeant at arms. Make sure all the Marines carry side arms and a few of them rifles." Mandy turns to and I can see her start to bristle, I raise my hand. "We must be friendly, and cautious. We don't know who they are or their intentions." She has a questioning expression. "We are still a military vessel and must maintain security, right?"
"Yes," She looks away. "You're right; security and safety should be a priority." I knew she would understand.