Theogony 1: Janissaries (26 page)

“Thank you both for coming here today,” said the ambassador.
“I know that both of you are very busy trying to put your kingdoms back
together.”

“We wouldn’t have kingdoms at all if it weren’t for you,”
replied the human queen, Queen Glina. The therapod queen, Queen Risst, shook
her head in agreement.

“Normally we wouldn’t want to intervene in local matters,”
said the ambassador, “but these are not normal times. The fact that we are here
at all is a matter of luck, as this ship is not our own. In fact, we too were
visited by aliens from another planet, who ended up stranded on ours. They
asked for our help, breaking a long-held rule of theirs by revealing themselves
to us. The three members of that race, the Psiclopes, thought that the
situation was so dire that they had no other option.”

“Unlike you, we had no previous notion that other
civilizations beside ours existed,” the ambassador continued. “Now we just wish
we didn’t know. The fact is, there used to be a galaxy-wide alliance that kept
aggressive races from exploiting races that were technologically inferior to
them. Unfortunately, that alliance appears to have broken up under the attack
of many hostile races. Planets that were previously protected from harm will
now be open to attack when they are found by these races. We believe that one
of these races exists within fairly close proximity to our home planet. Because
of this, we attempted this mission, hoping to find aid from some of the
advanced civilizations against the terror that we believe to be coming to our
planet.

“I am afraid that we will not be of much assistance in your
quest,” replied Queen Risst. “We were unable to even hold onto our own kingdoms
without your assistance. What aid can we possibly provide against races that
have the ability to sail between the stars?”

“While you may not have advanced technology or weapons,”
answered the ambassador, “you have a planet that is both rich and fertile.
There are areas on both of your continents that are rich in mineral deposits
that are hard to mine on our planet. We would like to propose an alliance with
you; we would provide our advanced technology and aid to you in exchange for
access to your mineral deposits.”

“And if we refuse?” asked Queen Risst.

“Then we will leave you and continue our search for aid
elsewhere,” replied the ambassador. “We would like to have you as allies in the
coming troubled times, but if you choose to reject our offer, we will let you
continue on as you were, free of our interference.”

“How do we know that you aren’t one of these ‘aggressive
races’ that you are describing?” asked Queen Glina. “Perhaps you just helped us
to get into our confidence and will turn on us when the time is right for you.”

Before the ambassador could answer, Calvin interrupted. “You
can’t know that, of course,” he said. “Although I think that if we’d wanted to
conquer you, it would have been very easy to do. It still would be, too, of
course. Certainly, we were able to defeat the redcoats without any loss of life
on our part, but you are right, maybe we were just waiting for the time to be
right to take advantage of you.” One of the ambassador’s eyebrows twitched.
This was not how he had intended the negotiations to go.

Calvin continued, “Although it is not my place to suggest
it, I will tell you what we have done previously. When my kingdom was first
contacted by the aliens, we got together with our friends and invited them to
participate in this mission with us, so that they could see the truth of our
words to them. We gave them access to all of the technology that we had received,
holding nothing back in secret. We even invited one of our worst enemies to
come along.”

Calvin looked at Risst. “You know the woman that I am
talking about. Her name is Irina Rozhkov. She is the woman that saved your
future son-in-law’s life by diving in front of a crossbow bolt that would have killed
him. I am glad that we brought her; not only did she help save his life, but
also I expect that she will go back and tell her country everything that she
has seen and done with us, so that they will join us in the future.” He leaned
forward. “There are many evil races among the stars that want nothing more than
to control our planets, at best. At worst, we are a convenient food source to
them. I do not want to be a food source to anyone and, to keep that from
happening, I am willing to make friends with my worst enemies if that’s what it
takes to become strong enough to fight them.”

He leaned back and smiled. “Like I said, it is not my place
to suggest it, but I’m going to do so anyway. Sorry, Mr. Ambassador. If you are
truly worried about our intentions, I will take one or two of your best
soldiers and allow them to join my unit. They can see everything we do and
learn everything we know. If that is what helps you to trust in us, I’d be
happy to have them with us.”

“I cannot speak for Queen Glina,” said the therapod queen,
“but I am willing to agree to those terms. In fact, I would like to do even
more. You have proposed several avenues of trade; I would like to propose one
more. We will send you two of our best soldiers if you will leave one of yours
here. My daughter spoke very highly of one of your men, a Cristobal Contreras,
if I am not mistaken. We would be very appreciative if he could remain with us
to help train our soldiers in this new way of war and help us to adapt to the
new technology that you will give us. Would you agree to that?”

“I would have to talk to Cabo Contreras,” Calvin answered,
“but if he is willing, I would allow him to stay. We would have to confirm it
with his country when we return to our planet, but even if they want him back,
they would have to wait until we came back here the next time.” He thought
about it for a moment and then said, “Yes, I think that would work.”

“Our kingdom would like to do something similar,” stated
Queen Glina, not wanting to be left out.

“I’m sure something can be worked out,” replied the
ambassador, nodding happily. “I’m sure that it can.”

“So, what exactly makes you think that you can just dive in
front of crossbow bolts?” asked Calvin.

The Russian spy just smiled a wan smile. It had been a close
thing, and she had nearly died a couple of times on the way back up from the
planet. Captain Duncan Hughes had used every ounce of power that he could
safely put into the shuttle to get her back as quickly as he could, and then
had used a little bit more. That extra bit had probably saved her life.

She still looked like shit, though.

“The medibot says that she should be back up to full duty
status in three days,” said Mr. Jones, who had been in her room most of the
last day and a half.

“Good,” Calvin replied. He looked at Night, who had come in
with him. “When she’s back out of bed, make sure she gets fitted for a suit.
Not having mission essential protection would be a stupid reason to lose
someone. I wouldn’t want to explain why she didn’t have it to the KGB...would
you?”

Rozhkov smiled again as she faded back to sleep. Her mission
was accomplished; she was part of the group.

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Epsilon Eridani, May 10,
2019

“Yes sir,” answered Calvin. “When we come back through here,
we’ll drop off the ambassador, Cabo Contreras, and three others to assist the
indigenous populations. We’ll also leave a shuttle and crew to take the
ambassador between the two civilizations. For now, all of the platoon and the
squadron are back aboard.”

“I think we’re finally done here then,” noted Captain Deutch
from his command chair. “Helmsman, third star to the right and straight on ‘til
morning!”

“Uh, sir, I thought you wanted our course set to go to the
other black hole exit gate,” replied the helmsman. “Give me a second, and I’ll
set it up...where did you say you wanted to go?”

“Never mind,” said the CO with a sigh. Kids these days, he
thought. No literary education unless they got it from a video game. “Just take
us to the exit gate. Full speed ahead.”

* * * * *

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, WASP-18, May 15, 2019

“This is an interesting system,” said Arges. “From a cosmic
standpoint, we are here just moments before the death of the closest planet to
the star. The planet is a big one, with a mass of about ten Jupiters, almost
big enough to be a brown dwarf star. The planet has an orbit of less than one
Earth day, and it will eventually spiral in and join with its star.”

“That sounds cool,” said the helmsman. “Can we stick around
and watch?”

“It is unlikely that you will be able to watch it,” replied Arges.
“I was talking about it happening soon from a cosmic standpoint. It still has
about one million years of life left before it merges with the star.”

“OK,” said Captain Deutch, “that’s interesting, but I’ve got
better things to do than stay here and watch it. Can I infer from its orbital
distance that the climate is too hot for life and that we can move on?”

“Yes sir,” said Arges. “This system has three gates, in
addition the one we came through. The gates are grouped fairly close together,
with the one that we came through on the other side of the star system. Which
one would you like to go through?”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Ross 248 System, May 21,
2019

“We are approximately ten light-years from Earth.
The star you see is Ross 248. This star is a small red dwarf that is
only about 1/8 the size and mass of the Sun, and it has less than 1% of its luminosity.
In fact, even though it is very close to Earth, it is so dim that a telescope
is needed to see it. My scans have not found any planets, although they have
found three gates in this system. One gate is nearby; the other two stargates
are on the other side of the system.”

“Moving on!” said Captain Deutch. “Head for the one close by
and let’s go. And could someone please send down to the galley for a pitcher of
milk!”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Tau Ceti System, May 22,
2019

“System entry,” noted Arges, somewhat unnecessarily.

The stargate transition was a sweet one, the first one of
those they had experienced in a long time. “Mmmm,” said the helmsman, “I love
the sweet ones!”

“I do not see any radio or other non-natural emissions,”
noted Arges. “The gate that we entered through is a long way out from the star,
though; in fact, this is the furthest out I have ever seen a gate.”

“The star of this system is a solitary G-class star,” he continued
after a few moments. “Readings indicate that this system is Tau Ceti, which is
about 11.9 light-years from Earth. Tau Ceti only has about 78% of the
Sun's mass, and just over half of the Sun’s luminosity, so a planet would need
to orbit it at about 70% of the distance of the Earth to the sun in order to
match the amount of radiation that the Earth receives. So far, the star appears
stable, with little stellar variation.”

“Very well,” replied Captain Deutch. “Begin scanning and let
me know what you find.”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Tau Ceti System, May 24,
2019

“It appears that there are five planets orbiting Tau Ceti,”
explained Arges. “One of these is in the habitable zone. All of the planets in
this system are rocky, with masses between two and seven times the Earth’s mass.
Three of the planets are too close to the star to be habitable. The fifth
planet is big, with a mass of almost seven Earths, but it is on the opposite
end of the spectrum. It is at the outside edge of the habitable zone, receiving
about as much radiation as Mars; it is probably too cold to be habitable.”

“The fourth planet is about four times as big as Earth,” he
continued, “and orbits at less than half of Earth’s distance from the Sun. As Tau
Ceti’s luminosity is just a little more than half of the Sun’s, the planet
would receive about 1.7 times as much radiation as the Earth.”

“While the planet is probably habitable,” he concluded, “it
is unlikely that it is actually inhabited, as our sensors indicate that there
is about ten times as much dust in this system as there is in the Solar System.
Because this system has so much material flying around, the planets here have an
increased rate of comet and asteroid impacts. Extinction events here are
probably very common.”

“Extinction events?” asked the helmsman turning around.

“Yes,” replied Arges, “extinction events are where all or
nearly all of the life on the planet is killed off at the same time. The Earth
had one of these impacts nearly 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous
Period. A large meteor about six miles in diameter struck the present-day
Yucatan Peninsula near the town of Chicxulub, making a crater over one hundred
miles in diameter. This impact triggered the mass extinction of all of the non-avian
dinosaurs and a majority of the other plant and animal life on the Earth. The
asteroid struck with a force of about 120 Teratons of TNT, or about 120 million
megatons. This type of impact would happen frequently in this system.”

“Sucks to be them,” muttered the helmsman, turning back to
his console.

“So, the planets are not inhabited?” asked the commanding
officer.

“I don’t know,” said Arges, sounding confused. “While I do
not expect them to be inhabited, we
are
getting some type of intermittent
energy reading from the vicinity of the fourth planet, which is currently on
the other side of Tau Ceti.”

“Do you know what is causing it?” asked Captain Deutch.

“I do not,” replied Arges, “and it is most perplexing...”

* * * * *