At least this one didn't dump us in a debris field.
We traversed the gate and reappeared into regular space, without any weird messages being beamed into my head and nowhere near any destroyed worlds. How nice.
"Helm!" Captain Q'ari shouted. "What's our speed relative to the Gate.
"Uh, nearly stationary Captain."
Captain Q'ari stopped. "But we entered the gate after having shut off a Stardrive. We should have shot out."
"Agreed Captain. But... we didn't. Maybe the Gates negate the energy imparted when we traverse them?"
Omar spoke up. "If they did that... then whoever built them knows way more about the laws of motion than we do. That's enough energy transfer to make those laws more like suggestions."
"Regardless" Kieran added. "We're almost drifting, we're moving so slowly."
Captain Q'ari stared ahead at the screen, pensive. "Move us a short distance away from the Gate and then stop us relative to it. Commander Desmen, please locate us again."
Another few minutes and, "Captain. We're still on the other side of the Milky Way, but we're only-" she chuckled darkly, "- one hundred lightyears or so from our last location."
"Thank you Commander. Mullen, Any signals?"
I ran the scans, passive and active, K'laxi and Human. A few minutes into it, there was a ping. I felt like I should have been surprised, but I wasn't. Almost like I was expecting it. I suppose with the day we've been having, anything could have happened, and I would have been like 'yup, that tracks.' Okay Melody, be professional.
"Captain. We have a ping. It's coming from another Starbase, but this one does not look to be destroyed. I'll show you on the main screen." I threw the image from the cameras up on the screen and sent local copies down to everyone's pad and station.
Much like the other Starbase, this one was an upside down teardrop shape with the base seemingly a round asteroid. Buildings and spires jutted out of the top while the bottom ended in a point that seems like it could be a docking ring. What's more...
Gene gasped, "There are ships docked at this one! Look at the bottom!"
Sure enough, there were what looked to be five or six starships connected to the bottom of the Starbase. None were as large as Far Reach; the largest seemed to be about half the size.
"Well Lieutenant Mullen, any word from this Starbase?"
I put on my headphones and listened. The signal did have voices in it, but they weren't as frantic as the others. It was also repeating, so probably an automated message. No headache, no nosebleed. Maybe I'm getting better at this? Whoever sent this one isn't trying as hard to reach us. I listened to the words and let their meaning flow through me. Just like the addressing stone, if I concentrated on it, the meaning would slip away.
"I think..." I started and shook my head. "It's an automated message. Something generic. Not a warning like the previous one. Maybe something about frequencies to contact on and generic welcome messages? I hope they're friendly and they have translators that work like ours. Maybe we can get an update."
"I've been listening to Melody when she speaks that language," Far Reach said. "Based on what you've spoken before and the messages we've received already, I think that this is like... a different version of the language. The one that you know might be like a navigator's language? I'm just guessing though, I have no evidence other than you started speaking it after touching the addressing stone. This one might be something else, like a trader's language? The words are similar but..." You could almost hear Far Reach shrug. "It's unknown to us. We don't know exactly how they communicate. But, I think for now it's safe to go there and see if they'll let us dock. Exploring is what we came here to do, right?"
"How long of a trip is it Helm?" Q'ari said, trying to hide the weariness in her voice and only minimally suceeding.
"If we take it easy, it'll be a day or so." Kieran answered as he scanned his readouts.
"Take it easy then. I think it's time we all went off duty and got some rest and something to eat." Q'ari set a watch and we adjourned to our bunks, and had a light dinner a few hours later.
That night after dinner, I didn't sleep well at all. I tossed and turned all night, and when I did sleep, I had wild dreams.
I dreamt that I was on a planet with two suns! One was yellow, like Earth's sun and one was a reddish orange and much much bigger. I was wearing this strange gown and was sitting on a... throne practically. People were standing around me and asking things. They were speaking the language that the gates used and I knew it! It was so easy! They were asking me about Earth and the K'laxi and...all of a sudden there was a shadow that crossed the suns. I turned to look and it wasn't a shadow, it was a swarm of something dark and black and unknown. So many things they blocked out the suns.
And then I awoke, my bedding soaked with sweat, and scared. It was just a dream, right? What was it though?
I took a shower, got dressed, and went down to breakfast. I ate a meal bar and drank some ship's coffee and felt better, but not a lot. I was probably just tired.
As I got into my seat on the Command Deck, Captain Q'ari came in, once again with an immaculate uniform, fur brushed until it shone. I looked down at my own uniform, which while clean, was a little rumpled and felt self conscious. Reminder: after my shift today, press my uniforms.
We were approaching the unknown Starbase and I put on my headphones and signaled them. Not knowing the language, I just sent the human and k'laxi friendly signals and flashed the front lights with "request to dock" in the old thruster code. I learned Thruster Code back in school, but Far Reach told me more about it. It was designed in the old days when it wasn't guaranteed that someone's radio or message laser would work, or even be compatible. But everyone could see the flash of a thruster. If you modulate the thrust into pulses you can use something like the ancient Morse Code to get your meaning across. If someone had their telescope trained on you, it would even work over quite long distances.
Almost immediately, a reply came back.
"Unknown starship, unknown starship, identify yourselves."
I gasped. I understood them? What the heck? I went to toggle the mic, and tried not to let my shaking hand show. "This is the joint Human and K'laxi exploration Starjumper Far Reach, requesting permission to dock, and exchange greetings."
After I sent the message, there was a pause, longer than I'd expect for just distance. Maybe they were discussing something. Before too long though, they replied.
"Understood Far Reach. You are cleared to dock on umbilical X45. We will meet you there."
"Acknowledged. Umbilical X45. Far Reach out."
Wow, that was easy. How did they... learn... Colonic...
With a dawning realization, I turned and faced the crew. Every single person on the Command Deck was looking at me, horrified.
"I spoke their language, didn't I?" I asked sheepishly.
"Yes, you did." Omar didn't shout, but I think he would have liked to.
"When did you learn that?" Kieran asked, surprised.
Captain Q'ari absentmindedly rubbed her ear with her right hand. "You should go to the infirmary, Lieutenant." It was framed as a suggestion, but the tone of voice was clear that it was not.
Nodding, I stood up and stumbled towards the door. I was suddenly very dizzy. Grasping the doorway, I looked back at everyone. "Oh." I said. "We have authorization to dock on umbilical X̷̱͔͐͛̄͜͝4̸͕͊̕͘5̷̘̙̾̀." They looked at me blankly. Oh yeah, the language thing. "Er, it's the one that has the squiggly and the lines that looks like this." and I drew it out fast on the Captain's pad.
In the infirmary, Dr Irenimum gave me a very thorough scan, concentrating on my brain, and tisked to himself. "I'm sorry Melody, I missed this earlier, maybe the concentration was lower... hmm..."
"Missed what, Doctor?" I said trying to not sound like I was freaking out as much as I was.
"It appears..." He was speaking while looking at his pad, not looking at me. "That you've had some kind of... nano-machines introduced to your body. They're..." he made a complicated gesture with his ears, tail, and shoulders, like a mix of a K'laxi and Human shrug. Wait, how was I able to read his body language like that? "They are assisting you to understand the languages that people speak around here... probably." He looked a little lost. Neither humans or k'laxi really did much work with nano-machines. Once we had the theory down, we both decided that they were too dangerous. Most nano research was illegal.
"So, they're rewiring my brain?" He nodded weakly. "But, how do they know how to do that?"
"Now that is a smart question." He said, smiling sadly. "Unfortunately, it's one we can't answer... yet. For now, I'd say keep an eye on how you're feeling, come to me if you feel different or strange and let's leverage this... gift you've been given. You can speak to them. I imagine that Fer'resi is vibrating with excitement. He's a linguist after all. If you talk to him you, and him and Far Reach may be able to build enough of a language model that we can use our translators and communicate more."
"I wonder if this is on purpose." I said, thinking aloud. "Nothing happened until I touched the directory stone. Maybe it's an automated system to help people who discover the stone use the system and traverse the world that the gate builders made."
Dr Irenimum nodded. "That's very likely. It is curious why it's never happened to a K'laxi before. We've been using the Gates for centuries and as far as I know dozens, if not hundreds of K'axi have touched the directory stones. Maybe this stone is different, or this station is different or..." he stopped and tried not to stare at me.
"Or I'm different." I finished for him. "Fer'resi said I was the first human he knew to touch one."
"Yes... that's true, though I don't like the implications of that being true. It implies that humans had more to do with the Gates than we know currently and you for some reason... stopped using them. Earth didn't have a Gate in the Sol system and there wasn't a Gate for dozens of light-years around Sol. It's almost..."
"Almost what, Doc?"
"Almost... like you were somewhere far away from the Gates on purpose, but I don't like that train of thought."
Far Reach spoke up "Doctor Irenimum, are you aware of the K'laxi rumor about the Warp Gates?"
He looked up. "Hmm. No, I don't think I am Far Reach, which rumor is that?"
"Supposedly, when the K'laxi first met humanity, they were touring human starships and they found that human power reactors aren't just like the power reactors in Warp Gates, but they are practically identical."
"Hmm" Dr Irenimum waggled his ears in a way that would be like a furrowed brow for a human. "That sounds a little too convenient for me. It could be parallel evolution or coincidental development or..."
"Or humans found a warp gate but sometime in the past which was made inoperable so that they couldn't traverse it, but could take it apart and study it?" Far Reach said.
"I-i'm not one to speculate" Dr Irenimum said quickly, even though he was just doing that. I rolled my eyes internally. "This is all highly irregular. Far Reach, you're sounding like you're implying that Humans didn't originate on Earth, or if they did, they once had a galaxy spanning empire and were... kicked out?"
"Nothing of the sort my good Doctor, nothing of the sort." Far Reach said. "Just... thinking out loud."
Clearly, this conversation wasn't really for me, even though it was peripherally about me. I got up. As I walked towards the door, Dr Irenimum finally noticed me. "Ah Melody. Please remember what I said. I think you're fine, but you are the only one who can be truly sure. It's not my body."
"Thank you Doctor, I will keep an eye on myself." I said and walked out.
I went back to my room, shut the door and flung myself onto the bed. What a day it's been. What a month it's been. I don't know what I expected when I came onboard Far Reach, but I don't think this is it.
I stared at the ceiling for a bit and then sat up. "Hey Far Reach" I asked. "How long until we dock?"
"Still a few hours Melody, why?"
"Well I assume that Captain Q'ari is going to ask me to come out and talk for/at everyone so I would like to get some range time first."
"Okay sure, you can go to the range. I'll make sure it's lit and warm when you get there." Since Far Reach is so big and our crew so small, they tend to keep the rest of the ship cold and dark to save energy. Why light and heat something that nobody is going to use?
I jumped out of bed and headed out. Part of the reason I am such a crack shot - if I do say so myself - is that I love to practice. The only way to get better is to practice and for whatever reason, I like to practice shooting. The firing range is at the far end of Far Reach, back near the engines. It's just basically a long hall that nobody uses with targets at one end, and a weapons locker at the other. All crew are recommended to get time at the range, but I seem to be the only one who likes it, so I go the most and I have the highest score.
Yes, I am proud of that, and no I'm not sorry.
I opened the weapons locker and took out my favorite rifle. I kept it over here since this is where I used it the most, but if we're going to be going off ship, I guess I should clean it and get it polished and ready to look intimidating on my back.
But first, let's run a couple of magazines through it, just to make sure I haven't lost my touch with all this nanotech in my blood.