Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. Read Free Page A

capabilities.
    “Unknown,” said
another voice on the holo, the ship’s Weapon’s Officer, who was also one of
their astrophysicists.  “It doesn’t seem to interfere with the indigenous
population, but we have no way of knowing how they will react to a spaceship
coming in from the outer system.  Or even if they’ll react at all.”
    “Understood.”
    Albright sat
there for a moment, then looked over at the Helmsman.  “Put us on a least time
transit to just five hundred thousand kilometers outside of their orbit.”  She
looked over at Nagakami.  “Inform Captain Lewis of my intentions.  They
are to wait out here and observe, as per standard operating procedure.”
    “Sure you don’t
want them along, ma’am?” asked the Exec over the side holo.  “From the looks of
things, there really isn’t anything to worry about in this system.”
    The Captain
looked once again at the structure, one of the twelve that had been left on
this world by, something. Another intelligent species?  The ancestors of the
current inhabitants, before their civilization fell?
    “Let’s do it by
the book, Exec,” said Albright with a nod at the holo.  “These procedures are
in place for a reason, so we’ll follow them.  Lewis will wait out here
and watch, and if anything happens to us, we’ll have them to get the word out
to the next ship.”  She looked at the holo that showed one of the huge
structures that poked out of the atmosphere of the planet, something well beyond
the capabilities of these people.  A mystery, and not one that a ship’s captain
was really all that eager to push her nose into.
    “And I want us
at full alert status when we get within ten light minutes of that world,” she
told her Tactical Officer.  “Cold plasma fields at full strength, weapons
hot.”  And, hopefully, we won’t have to use them against something a
thousand times more massive than this ship, or a dozen of them.
    *     *     *
    “As you can see,
sir, these two heat sources appeared on our deep space telescope scan less than
an hour ago,” said the scientist, two of his tentacles working over the
keyboard while two more pointed at the screen that showed the objects in
questions as pinpoints.  “Even at highest resolution we cannot determine what
they are.  But ten minutes ago one of the objects started moving away from the
other by a small margin.  We’ve parsed the data, and it appears the heat
signature is getting stronger.”
    “Which means?”
asked the First Councilman, pretty sure he knew exactly what it meant.
    “A visitor from
beyond our system,” said the scientist, his lips turned and hiding his teeth in
a smile.  “Do you realize what this means, First Councilman?  We are not
alone.”
    “But are they
hostile?  And are those two all there are?”  And could we successfully fight
them off?  There are only two of them, but they have the technology needed to
cross the space between the stars, something we can only speculate about.
    “I have no way
of knowing their intentions,” said the Scientist, his lips scrunching into a
teeth showing frown.  “They could be peaceful, but I have no way of knowing. 
The one thing I do know is one of those ships is coming here.”
    But not both
of them , thought the First Councilman, allowing his thoughts to link with
those of his four surviving brothers.  Why are they leaving one of their
ships out so far.  Two light hours?   He looked at the figures on the
screen, and his brothers looked through his eyes by way of their entangled
brains.
    I think they
are leaving the one ship out there as a precaution, thought his brother,
General Mazzat Contena.  If we do anything to the ship coming toward us,
they will be able to leave with the news.
    To what
purpose? asked engineer Lazzit Contena.
    To bring back
reinforcements to crush us, if we don’t acquiesce to their demands and attack
this first probe , said Mazzat.  Why else would they be here, but