The round struck my shoulder with a noisy spack. I didn't even stagger back. Was it meant to be a warning, or was I just that well armored?
The Aviens clearly expected that to do more than it did too. They looked at me fearfully and fired again. Two more spack noises on my chest. It scratched my glossy deep blue armor - ugh, I'm going to have to polish it again - but nothing more.
All these thoughts happened in slow motion though, I was curiously detached from the attack. What my body actually did while I was thinking about the scratches on my armor was that in the moments between the first and third shots, I reached behind my back, swung my submachine gun out, flipped it to full auto and unloaded back at them.
The sound of the human made submachine gun was deafening in the docking area. "Get inside!" I shouted as screams were heard all around. It had happened so fast that I don't think the team realized that I had been shot, but they took my suppressive fire as an indication that something was wrong.
After maybe three seconds, the weapon was empty. In the smoke of the rounds, I looked out and luckily I think I missed the Aviens. They had ducked down as soon as I started to fire, and I wasn't aiming at anyone, I just wanted them to stop shooting me. I heard screams in the distance and an alarm. I turned and ran into the umbilical, slapping the close button behind me.
Inside Far Reach, I closed our airlock door and waited for it to cycle. We didn't expose our environment to theirs just in case. I looked around at everyone. "Are you all right?" I asked.
Captain Q'ari spoke. "Yes, we're fine. They were aiming at you clearly."
"Good thing you have that friggin Space Marine armor Melody" Omar said. "Looks like you only got scratched."
"Ugh, I know. It's going to be a pain to polish out." Omar laughed too hard at the bad joke. He was very worried.
Q'ari looked at the damage. "It really is just a scratch. What did they shoot you with?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. Some kind of small pistol. Once I was shot at, training took over and I just unloaded the sub to give suppressing fire so you could escape. I didn't think to stop and ask them what they were shooting me with."
Fer'resi looked anxious. "Did you... kill them?"
"No, fortunately. They ducked, and I wasn't aiming to kill, I just wanted everyone to keep their heads down while you escaped."
Looking relieved, Fer'resi took out the translator. "At least we have this." He went to put it towards his head "Maybe we can final--"
"Stop!" I shouted.
He froze. "What?"
"They were very interested in having me wear that before we left. Suspiciously so. Don't activate it, don't wear it, don't even look at it until I can run an Information Warfare scan on it. I bet it's infected with something nasty."
Fer'resi jerked his hand back as if he had been shocked. "Um... you should take it then Melody" and gingerly handed the translator to me.
I set it down and started the peel my suit. Ugh, I was unreasonably annoyed that they had scratched it in three places. I caught myself and decided to take it as a good thing, since I wasn't worrying about anyone getting shot or being shot at instead.
Suit off, I took the translator with me and went up to my station on the Command Deck. Under my station I keep a sandboxed copy of my suite - that is, one not connected to Far Reach - and I looked around on the translator for some kind of data port. There, on the bottom? Looked like there were two ports. One might be power, one might be data. With a sigh, I got out my probes and start signaling the ports. I might not know what the signal means, but if I get any signal, that's a good sign.
There. The second port. The first looked like it's power only. I took out a label maker and marked the ports for next time. I got out some impression putty and jam it into the port. Pulling it out slowly, now I had a model of what the connection cable should look like. I scan it with my pad and had a 3d model of the port. I touch my wrist and called for Omar. "Hey Omar, got a part I need you to print, you got a minute?"
"Sure, I'll be right up."
Omar came up and sees me on the Command Deck alone. "What are you doing up here Melody? Captain said to get some rest."
"I'll have you know problem solving is soothing." I laughed. "Here. This is a 3d model of the kind of plug the data port on the translator is expecting. Can you print one up quick, looks like it's also got twenty pins, make sure it has a cable that can accommodate that. Leave my end bare, I'll just use a prototyping board to connect it to my sandbox."
"Sure thing Melody, I'll get that worked up for you in like thirty minutes."
"Thanks Omar."
While I waited, I went down to the kitchenette and got a coffee. Kieran was sitting there reading a book. "Oh hey "Holy One" he said, laughing."
Groan. "Kieran, you know damn well I'm the least Holy thing here."
"Eh, I bet it's a tie between you and Mei'la."
"Regardless, I'm not Holy at all. This is worse than everyone calling me Lieutenant!" I got my coffee and motion at the chair next to Kieran to sit. He shrugged, put a bookmark in his book and shuffled over. As I take a sip of coffee he asked. "So, how is it?"
"How is what?"
"Knowing every language? Fer'resi said that not only do you speak the Gate Builder language, but you just understand every language spoke to you?"
"It's odd. If I concentrate, I can tell that we're not speaking Colonic, but if I'm distracted, or thinking about something else, I don't realize it."
"So you didn't notice that I've been speaking Farsi to you"
I stopped. "No... I didn't. Why do you know Farsi?"
He laughed. "Before we came to Parvati my family was originally from a country called Iran. It's been more than four hundred years since we left Earth, but some of us think it's important to know the old ways. I'm impressed though, you're following along and answering in Colonic like it's no big deal."
"Well... for me it is no big deal. I just hear what people say and reply."
We chatted a little longer, in Farsi - Kieran said he could use the practice - and then Captain Q'ari announced a meeting to discuss next steps.
I stood. "Come on Kieran. Let's go see what kind of mess I made."
"I'm sure it's not all that bad, but I agree. Let's go."
As we got to the dining room and sat down, I notice that Fer'resi and Mitchel had set out snacks and coffee and tea. I forgot that we were the only ones who got two lunches, everyone else was probably hungry. Taking another cup of coffee I sat down.
Me, Kieran, Omar, Fer'resi and Captain Q'ari were here already and we waited for everyone else to come in. Snacks are had but the tone is subdued until the Captain stood up.
"Everyone." She looked around. "I do not believe this Starbase -" She looked at me.
"It's called "Reach of the Might of Vzzx" I said.
"Thank you, Melody - is safe. I am ordering that nobody leave Far Reach unless I give explicit permission. Something is going on here and I don't want us to get in the middle of it. Melody, please tell us what you've learned."
Huh. She didn't call me Lieutenant again.
I leaned forward and faced everyone. Might as well start with the big one. "Okay, they think that humans are the builders of the Gates and possibly their Starbases too."
Everyone blinked. Omar cut in. "Wait, it gets better"
I nodded. "Yeah, so the language that I learned how to speak with the nano machines? It's a Holy Tongue" I try to pronounce the proper noun. "It's like I'm talking to them in a religious language. Most everyone knows it, but it's not what they speak day to day, and everyone reacts oddly when I speak to them in it."
"So... Not only do they think Humans built the Warp Gates but they think that because of the language you're speaking to them with they think that you specifically are a builder and are Holy?" That's Ava Williams. She works with Mei'la in the power core and specializes on the other systems like Gravity. The non reactor systems basically.
I nodded "As near as I can tell, yes."
"You should see the statue they have out front of their administration building." Omar sounded excited. "it's a dead ringer for a human woman in a pressure suit, and she's making some grand gesture pointing down their promenade."
"Oh, that's the other thing." I said before Omar can go on about the statue. "They say they have a population of ten million. Given that they also practice slavery, I bet it's even more than that if they're not outright lying about numbers."
When I mentioned the slavery, everyone looked a combination of upset, surprised and sad. Wow, I really am getting better at reading body language.
"Ten Million? Kieran shook his head. "Impossible. Where would they get their food? From other systems? There's no planet here."
"They can't go into other systems. They all thought the Warp Gates were disabled until we came through. They told us that they have a planetoid left "by the Builders" that was hollowed out and has soil and an artificial sun and they grow food there."
Kieran looked incredulous. "I mean, it's possible sure. But... Call me skeptical. I don't think so."
Selem looked pained. She's annoyed at these tangents. Before she said anything, I try to bring things back. "The other thing is that there seems to be two different sapient species who are in charge. The Aviens and the Mariens. The Aviens are like this bird looking people- " Fer'resi puts an image up on the screen when I say that. Looks like he was surreptitiously taking photos. "- and the Mariens are like... octopus people?" Fer'resi puts up an image of them. He then added on images of all the different sapient species we saw. "I don't know if there are any others, but that's all I saw while we were walking to and from the Administration offices." He said, sheepishly.
Captain Q'ari nodded "Well done Fer'resi. That was smart work."
I agreed. "Thanks Fer'resi. It looks like the Aviens and the Mariens are - if not in outright war - are in a Cold War with each other. Given how they mentioned that the Gates have been closed for "three generations" I'm going to assume that what happened at the other location - which is called Wilds of Besmara by the way - caused the Gates to be locked. Someone locked the Gate on this side to keep something out, or someone locked the Gate on the other side to protect the people here. Either way, we opened the Gate and I don't know if it was locked behind us."
Mitchel - the other chef with Fer'resi - leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. "So they think you're a God, we might have opened up the Gate to something that obliterated a whole system, the people here are squaring up for a fight and they keep slaves?"
"That's the long and short of it, yes." I said.
"Shit. We don't do things by half measures, do we." He said with a sad chuckle. "So, what do we do, Captain?"
Selem ran her hand over her ear absentmindedly. She's under a lot of strain now. "I don't know." She stopped. "No, I do know. The smart thing to do is blow our connection to the umbilical, and leave. Go to the next address, go home, whatever. If we stay, we're going to get even more involved in this..." She gestured. "Mess. But, if we do that we're going to contribute to possibly making a real hard time for the millions of sapients who supposedly live here." She looked out at us. "We're only a small team and one Starjumper kitted out for exploration. What do you think we should do?"
Far Reach was the first to reply. "I'd like to help them, if we can. Look, if things get hot, I have a hunch we can take them on easily. Melody's pressure suit was scratched when she was shot, that was it. I can print everyone armored pressure suits like hers, if we needed to. It would only take a couple days to get everyones done. I already have your measurements. Based on the weapon she was shot with, I have a hunch that if any of the starships docked around us can fire back, we can destroy them without even going to WEP. We utterly outmatch them. They can't hurt us."
Captain Q'ari sat up a little. "That is a good point Far Reach, Thank you for the perspective. If we're working hard to not accidentally massacre them, it's not like they can really cause us harm unless we get complacent or are tricked. But what do we do? Pick a side? That doesn't sound right to me. Defeat them both? Then we're in charge of the lives of millions onboard and as good as we are, I don't think the 12 of us can or want to run a Starbase."
As we sat there deliberating our next step Far Reach came over the speakers. "Uh, everyone? There's a group of people at our umbilical."
Selem looks up. "The same people we were talking to before?"
"No. These people look..." Far Reach struggled to find words "More... fanatical?"
Oh no.
"Can you show us please?" I ask, dreading the answer.
On our pads and the main screen Far Reach shows us. It's a group of all different Sapients. The Aviens, the Mariens, the insect people, the ones we saw in pressure suits and at least two more. They're swaying and moving together. Far Reach activates the audio fee and we hear that they're...
"Singing?" Omar says.
Far Reach agrees. "Yes, they're singing."