Theogony 1: Janissaries (19 page)

“In national news this evening, the White House has
announced a new trade initiative with the nation of Nigeria,” read KIRO’s
anchorwoman, Anna St. Cloud. “In a joint press conference, President Bill
Jacobs, Secretary of Commerce Nick David, and Oloye Ayodeji Moro, the
Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, announced that the United States
and Nigeria had signed the major initiative, which gives the Federal Republic
of Nigeria a large amount of aid to build a new federal government complex.”

The camera cut to the president standing at a podium. “I’m
very happy to announce this initiative. As you probably know, Nigeria is the
United States’ largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and is also eligible
for preferential trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. This
agreement today will both extend and expand the long-established bilateral
trade and investment framework which already exists between the United States
and Nigeria. We want to help our friends in Nigeria by working with them to
build a new federal government complex that will continue to support and
promote unity among its people.”

The camera returned to Anna St. Cloud. “Some experts believe
that this aid would not have been possible if Nigeria hadn’t supported the
United States during the Sino-American War,” reported St. Cloud. “They also point
out that the site is much larger than is strictly necessary for a new government
complex, leading them to question what else might be included in the aid
package.”

“Not everyone was in favor of giving aid to Nigeria,” said
Bob Brant, the station’s co-anchor. “The news of the aid package immediately
sparked protests on the Washington Mall.”

The scene shifted to a group of about 50 protestors marching
in front of the Capitol building. The newsman stuck the microphone in front of
a man bearing the sign, ‘Save Americans First.’ “I don’t see why we continue to
send money overseas while we still have so much poverty here,” he said. “We
need jobs in America!”

The camera shifted back to Ms. St. Cloud. “In local news…”

* * * * *

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, V452 Vulpecula System (HD
189733), March 14, 2019

“...now,” said the helmsman.

“The equipment is stabilizing...” said Arges. “Launching
probes.” A variety of probes were launched from the ship in all directions,
expanding the ship’s sensor net and giving them a better chance of detecting
any ships or civilizations in the system. They looked for a number of signs of
life, from power usage to anomalous gravity spikes to electromagnetic
radiation.

“Anyone else taste salty?” asked Calvin.

“That is an aftereffect of the wormhole,” Brontes said. “For
some reason, every wormhole that we know of activates one set of receptors on
the tongue, regardless of race.”

“Which is peculiar,” Steropes added, “since there are two
different processes that make up the sense of taste. We don’t know how it
causes this affect. We just know it does. Just be glad this wasn’t a bitter
one; they are the worst. It takes
days
to get rid of the taste of the
bitter ones.”

“A lactose-based beverage has been shown to ameliorate the
effects of the bitter transition,” said Arges.

“A what?” asked the helmsman, turning around.

“Drink milk,” said Captain Deutch to the helmsman. Turning
to look over his shoulder, he asked, “More importantly, Arges, how’s that scan
coming?”

“Almost complete,” replied Arges. “I am receiving no signs of
habitation or ship emissions. Based on known stars, we appear to be in the V452
Vulpecula system. We are about 63 light-years away from Sol in the constellation
of Vulpecula, the Fox. This is a two-star system, with an orange dwarf star as
its primary and a red dwarf star about two billion miles away as its secondary.
Compared with your star, Sol, the primary star of this system has about 82% of
its mass, 75% of its radius, and 26% of its luminosity. I’m still searching for
planets, but I don’t see any signs of life in the system.”

“Permission to stand down the alert fighters?” requested
Calvin.

“Granted,” replied Captain Deutch.

“
Skipper to all Spacehawks,
” Calvin commed. “
Stand
down from alert. Nothing appears to be going on in this system. No signs of
life, good or bad.
”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, V452 Vulpecula System (HD
189733), March 20, 2019

“The system has one planet,” Arges concluded. “V452
Vulpecula ‘a’ orbits at about 2.9 million miles from the system’s primary star.”
He brought a long range image up on the screen. A small bluish dot with an
arrow pointing toward it was annotated near the star. “As you can see, the
planet has a deep blue hue.”

“So it’s a water world like Earth?” asked Captain Deutch.

“Unfortunately, no,” answered Arges. “The color you see is
because of its optically reflective silicate clouds.”

“Or, to be a little more descriptive,” said Steropes, “it’s
raining molten glass.”

“If that’s the reason for the blue color,” commented Captain
Deutch, “I doubt it’s going to be habitable then, is it?”

“No, Captain Deutch, it is not,” answered Arges. “The glass
rain is one consequence of the planet’s close proximity to its star, HD 189733.
Another corollary is that it has a year that is only 2.2 Earth days long. The planet
is tidally locked so that one side always faces the star, like Earth’s moon.
Temperatures are estimated to be about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit on the day side
and 1,200 degrees on the night side.”

 “One other interesting thing,” said Arges “is that the
planet is so close to the star that its atmosphere is bleeding from it at a
rate of approximately 600 million pounds per second. At some point in the
future, there will be nothing left but the small rocky core of the planet.”

“That is very interesting and all,” said Deutch, “but is
there anything of value that would keep us here?”

“I take it that by ‘anything of value,’ you do not mean
scientific value, correct?” asked Arges. Receiving a nod, he continued. “In
that case, no, there is nothing to keep us here.” He looked down at his
equipment, “Based on magnetic anomaly analysis, our probes have found one gate
out of the system. We can proceed to it and depart the system, although I would
recommend staying for a couple of days to study the unique transformation of
the system’s planet.”

“Thank you, Arges,” said Captain Deutch. He turned back to
the front and ordered, “Helmsman, proceed toward the new gate that Arges has
found at full speed. Let me know when we’re within 30 minutes of arrival. I’ll
be in my state room.”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Epsilon Eridani System, April
29, 2019

Arges watched his displays, humming to himself. This was the
fifth system that they had explored since leaving the Solar System. After the
first system they had surveyed, they had transited through the system
containing Kapteyn’s Star, then the Lacaille 8760 system and then the 61 Cygni
system. The first two of those stars were red dwarfs with no planets. 61 Cygni
was an orange star, a little bigger and hotter than the other two, but it also didn’t
have any planets.

61 Cygni was important because it was a nexus system,
though; instead of two stargates, it had at least three, giving them two exits to
pick from. It also left a gate behind them that they would have to explore at
another time.

Finally, Arges announced, “This system has a single star,
whose mass is estimated at about 82% of your sun. Its radius is about 74% of the
sun, and its luminosity is only about one-third, giving it an estimated surface
temperature of only about 5,100 degrees Kelvin. Based on triangulation
with known star systems, this appears to be the Epsilon Eridani system.”

“I recognize that one from my astronomy class,” remarked
Captain Deutch. “It’s fairly close to our system, correct?”

“Yes sir,” replied Arges. “This system is only about
10.5 light years from Earth, and Epsilon Eridani can be observed from most
of the Earth’s surface. It is located in the northern part of the constellation
Eridanus, which is the constellation to the right of Orion as someone on Earth
would look at it.”

“Any idea on planets yet?” asked Captain Deutch.

“Your astronomers have long known that this system has a
giant planet, which I can confirm. This planet, Epsilon Eridani ‘b,’ orbits at
3.357 astronomical units from Epsilon Eridani and has an orbital period of
about 7 years.

“How far is an astronomical unit?” asked the duty engineer,
sitting next to the helmsman.

“An astronomical unit, or AU for short, is the distance
between the Earth and the Sun,” explained Captain Deutch. “It’s about 93
million miles.”

“Epsilon Eridani ‘b’ is a gas giant like Jupiter and almost
as big,” continued Arges. “Besides this planet, the system has two belts of
rocky asteroids with one at about 3 AU and a second at about 20 AU.
It appears that the structure of this belt is being maintained by a second
planet, Epsilon Eridani ‘c,’ which orbits at a distance of 40 AU. The ‘c’
planet probably formed closer to the star and migrated outward because of
gravitational interaction.

“The bottom line,” said the XO, “is that there’s nothing
interesting to be seen here and no signs of habitation?”

“That is incorrect,” replied Arges, “as I have been saving
the best part for last. This system also has a third planet located about 0.55
AU from the star. As Epsilon Eridani is much less luminous than your Sun, this
orbit puts it in the heart of this star’s habitable zone. The distance where this
star’s stellar flux matches what the Earth gets is at 0.61 AU, so this planet will
be just slightly warmer than Earth.”

“I just got back the results of the planet’s surface scan,” continued
Arges. He paused and looked around the bridge. “Not only is planet Epsilon
Eridani ‘a’ habitable...the planet is inhabited.”

* * * * *

“The planet is very much like your home planet in
temperature and seasons,” said Arges, “as it gets nearly the same amount of
radiation from its star and has nearly the same axial tilt. It is different,
however, in the amount of land area. This planet does not have as much. In
fact, it only has two large land masses, both about the size of your continent
of Australia. The two continents are nearly on opposite sides of the planet, although
there are a few volcanic islands in between. The atmosphere is also similar to
Earth, although there is a slightly higher concentration of sulfur present in
the air.”

“You said it was inhabited,” said Ambassador Flowers. This
was the first civilization that they had found; he was happy to finally have
something to do. “Can you tell how advanced the society is?”

“It is impossible to tell exactly from here,” said Arges,
“but it appears to be similar to what your planet was like in the year 1775 or
so. Also, it looks as if there is not one, but two distinct civilizations on
the planet.” He pointed to the continent that was at the planet’s equator. “The
civilization that inhabits this continent appears to favor one-story houses
that are usually located in the swampier areas of the continent. This
civilization is therapod in appearance.”

The helmsman’s hand went up. Seeing it, Captain Deutch said
simply, “They’re lizards.”

“Thanks skipper,” said the helmsman.

“Well, the cameras are not quite good enough to ascertain
whether they are actually lizards,” corrected Arges, “but they do appear to be
analogous to it. As closely as I can tell, they look a lot like smaller versions
of your planet’s tyrannosaurus rex.”

“And the other civilization?” asked the executive officer, Captain
Griffin, who hated the way Arges always had to draw everything out.

“The other civilization inhabits the continent that is in
the temperate zone on the other side of the planet,” Arges answered. “The
inhabitants of that civilization look very similar to humans.”

“OK,” decided Ambassador Flowers, “that is where we’ll make
our first landing. I’ll want to establish contact with them as soon as
possible.”

“Wait,” said the XO, “if they’re not developed, we can’t
contact them, can we? Isn’t there some sort of first directive or something
that prohibits it?”

“What you are thinking of is the Prime Directive that many TV
shows and movies used to talk about,” said Captain Deutch. “That directive
stated that no primitive culture could be given any information regarding
advanced technology or civilizations because it might alter the natural
development of the society.” He paused and then said, “It might be nice to have
something like that, XO, but our society is in jeopardy. We need help from
wherever we can get it, even if they are underdeveloped.”

“Yeah,” agreed Calvin, who had been at the meeting where
this was decided. “If we don’t contact them, we just leave them less prepared
for when the Drakuls or some similar race comes. It’s actually in their best interest
for us to contact them. Sort of. At least, that’s how we’re rationalizing it.
If they end up helping us, so much the better.”

“Out of curiosity,” Arges asked, “is it ethnocentrism to
start with the race that resembles your own?”

“Actually,” replied Ambassador Flowers, “I do not believe it
to be so. I selected them, not because they looked like us, but because I
thought that it might be easier on them to interact with us. I don’t know what
relations are like between the two races on the planet, but if they are not
going well, then going to the therapods first might not be the wisest choice.”

“That makes sense,” said Captain Deutch. “How big a team to
do you want to go down with you?”

While the ambassador paused to consider, Calvin commed
Night, who was standing behind him. “
What do you think?
” he asked.

“
Either you or me, Top, and six others, minimum,
”
Night replied.

“
That’s about what I thought, too,
” replied Calvin. “
Enough
to be a presence, but not so many that you make the locals unnecessarily
afraid.
”

“
With our suits and advanced armaments,
” Night said,
“
we ought to be able to control any situation with the locals without any
problems.
”

The ambassador had come to a decision. “I don’t see the need
for any more than one or two,” he said. “I don’t want to look too warlike.”

“Captain, I think that will leave the ambassador a little
under-protected,” said Calvin. Deutch looked over and could see Night nodding his
head in agreement. “At a minimum,” Calvin continued, “I think that I should go,
along with one of my senior enlisted and
at least
six other troops.
Everyone has to sleep at some point, and we need enough folks to stand watch.
We don’t know anything about this civilization. I don’t want to get into
something that we can’t get back out of.”

“I agree,” said Captain Deutch. “You need enough troops to provide
security and to look like an honor guard, as well. At their stage of
development, if you didn’t have retainers or men-at-arms, they might not think
you were as powerful a leader, and might not want to meet with you.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” agreed the ambassador. “I will
take down the eight that Lieutenant Commander Hobbs suggests.”