Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. Read Free

through, no matter
what.”
    Space was full
of hostile races, pirates and aggressive cultures.  Both of the ten thousand
ton couriers, one carried by each cruiser, were hyper VII vessels, and so
should have been able to outrun anything that tracked on them.  She would be
sending them back to the Exploration Command sector base by separate routes. 
Already this was looking like more than her two ships could handle, especially
if they were faced with evacuating a sizable percentage of an entire world’s
population.
    “Very well,
ma’am,” said the Chief from the viewer.  “Our courier will be launching in five
minutes.  Lewis’ will go fifteen minutes after.”
    And ours will
be on the shortest route, and get there some hours ahead of the other one.  And
surely they’ll send us some hyper VII ships.   In fact, Exploration Command
was supposed to have been outfitted solely with VII ships by now, but the war
had come, and with it, a greater demand for scout ships with the battle fleets.
    “We’ve completed
preliminary scans of the system, ma’am,” said the Ensign da Conti.  The central
holo showed the entire system, from the G class star on out, and the eleven
planets and forty-two major moons that made up the system.  There were two
asteroid belts in the mix as well, slightly less massive than most by
themselves, but sufficient to run a major space based civilization when added
together.   The only problem was that such a civilization didn’t exist in this
system.
    “They are in the
early stages of space exploration,” said Commander Nord Sekumbe, the Exec, and
the head of the anthropology department aboard the ship.  “Lots of satellites
in orbit around the planet, some artifacts on the two moons that point to
recent visits.  I would say they are a class six space based civilization, on
the verge of leaving the environs of their own planetary system.”
    “So, no hope of
them escaping the supernova?”
    “Not a one,
ma’am.  Their bad luck that their star drifted so close to one.”
    “And what do you
make of their species?”
    The Exec thought
for a moment before speaking.  “At least as intelligent as we are.  And, more
importantly, at least as innovative.  They’ve gone from prop driven aircraft to
manned space flight in about the same time as humanity did on the homeworld.”
    Albright
grunted.  That last was important.  There were any number of intelligent
species in the Galaxy, but among those known, very few had the innovative drive
of the human race.  If they had found another such as they, it could really
help the war effort.  And if they were even more innovative?
    “I have some
people working on signal analysis,” continued the Anthropologist, “along with
the people from the Lewis.   We have a good working vocabulary of
fourteen of their languages, those of the most advanced nations.  One problem
with contact is the number of different political divisions on the planet.  We
have no guarantee that the one we establish first contact with will even
cooperate with the others.  And we’ve picked up some disturbing sociological
data from the transmissions.”
    “Such as?”
    “There seem to
be a number of very rabid religious groups on the planet, and evidence that
several religious wars are going on at this time.  I’m not sure how this will
affect contact, but it could be very detrimental to any efforts we make toward
communicating as a rational species.”
    Another image
came up on the main holo viewer, a smooth curving object rising up into space,
the curve of the planet in the background.  “We’ve found twelve of these
objects rising from the surface.  We’re not sure what they are, but they’re
well beyond the capabilities of these people.”
    “Could they be a
threat to us?” asked the Captain, looking at the megastructures.  Not that her
Empire didn’t have larger structures.  The Donut , ship docks and
others.  But unknown meant unknown