[July 17, 2077]

“Flight this is Odyssey. We’re ready to depart,” says Ensign Karen Evans, the Comm officer.

A dock control member answers, “Roger Odyssey. You are cleared to depart. Contact LSSC (Lone Star Space Control) on 1142.8 once clear. Good luck and good hunting, Odyssey.”

“Roger, clear to depart. Thank you, flight.”

Hearing the reply, Captain Michael Owens says, “Andrea, take us out,”

“Aye, Aye, Captain,” replies Odyssey’s pilot, Lt. Andrea Roth.

Less than a minute later, they clear the dock and Evans changes the frequency of EHF comm. “Control, this is Odyssey.”

“Odyssey, you are clear to depart LSS ( Lone Star Station) to L1 departure. Contact for jump clearance upon arrival. Control out.”

“Roger, Control.”

“Andrea, when you’re ready,” Owens tells her.

“Aye, Aye, Captain.”

It only takes 6 minutes for the Odyssey to arrive at L1.

Owens looks at Evans and nods his permission.

Evans calls LSSC and announces, “Odyssey to Control. On station at L1 departure. Request clearance for the jump.”

Moments later, “Roger Odyssey, you are clear for jump. Godspeed, Odyssey.”

“Roger, clear to jump.”

“Karen, announce jump stations, please,” Owens tells her.

“Aye, Aye, Captain… All personnel secure for jump sequence,” Karen announces over the ship’s comm. A few moments later, she looks over her shoulder and says, “Captain, all sections report ready for jump.”

Owens is extremely tense, although anyone who didn’t know him extremely well would never be able to tell. As the commander of one of the few scout ships, the HMS Odyssey, he and his crew are in Admiral Jessup’s words, ‘The best of the best.’ Owens is extremely proud to be leading humankind’s efforts to explore distant systems to find new homes for humanity.

Owens has made 4 prior jumps in his time as Captain of the Odyssey, but he feels just as tense for every jump they make. It isn’t that he doesn’t have confidence in his ship or crew, nor it wasn’t fear that made him so tense. Admittedly, there were more than enough things that could go wrong that being afraid would be perfectly natural. It was pure, unadulterated excitement of being the first in a new system.

To him, every jump, particularly out there into uncharted space, was a possible jackpot, the discovery of a habitable planet. Regardless of finding habitable planets, as long as his ship and crew arrived safely, there was always the thrill of finding new information to aid humanity in their expansion amongst the stars. As yet, precious habitable planets were yet to be found.

Finding said planets is the primary goal of the scout ships. Of course, seeking out other sentient life is a secondary, if no less important, goal.

“Elsa, status?”

The navigator, Lt. Elsa Mariskova, is widely-acclaimed for her genius at stellar astrogation rivaling even Shirka for accuracy. “Coordinates locked and double-checked by Shirka.”

“Andrea, whenever you’re ready.”

“Capacitors are fully charged and target coordinates are locked in. Odyssey is ready to jump at your command, Captain,” Shirka, the ship’s AI, announces.

“Very well,” he answered, his blue eyes double-checking the reports on the display mounted on the right side of his chair.

Once both the Captain and pilot release the jump interlocks, the crew is little more than excess baggage as Shirka will slip the ship from normal space into dimensional space. The bridge, which is buried deep within the Odyssey’s core, only has displays, which span the entire width of the bridge, to show the stars surrounding the ship.

Space and time, as humans see it, don't exist in jump space, as it was colloquially named, as far as Owens understood the theory. So, Shirka would display her assessment of their relative position in normal space as the ship moved along its course. Thankfully, the ship’s subspace bubble allows them to continue their normal duties in jump space.

“Jump in 10 seconds,“ Roth announces over the shipwide comm. “Five… four… three… two… one… Insertion. Jump complete. Engineering reports jump drive output and power levels are nominal, Captain.”

“Very well,” he replies and reaches over to press the shipwide comm. “All personnel may resume normal duty.”

Now comes the mind-numbing boredom of one day melting into the next with little to do, other than stand watch during the slightly more than 10-day travel time until they emerge back into normal space.

　◇  ◆  ◇  ◆  ◇  ◆  ◇

“Jump into normal space in 10 seconds…” Roth announces. “Five… four… three… two… one… Jump complete. Engineering reports that the jump drive is secure, Captain.”

The display suddenly shifts to a view of a bright yellow sun against a background of stars. They already know that this system has several planets. The question is whether any of them were orbiting within the Goldilocks zone, which would allow the possibility of liquid water and a slim chance of carbon-based life. The trick now is to hopefully find such a planet. Planets might seem huge when seen up close, but in comparison to the expanse of a star system, they’re incredibly small.

“Engineering is ready to answer all bells, and the ship is ready to engage system drive on your command,” Roth announces.

“Thank you, Andrea.” Owens then focuses his attention on the most important person currently on the bridge, the navigator. “Elsa, what’s the word?”

“Well…” she murmurs as she again double-checks her readings. “It appears we are… right where we are supposed to be,” she said as she turns and smiles, “give or take a few dozen meters. We’re slightly above the ecliptic plane.”

Returning her smile, Owens says, “Well, that means that now it’s up to the survey team to hopefully find a habitable planet.” He then opens the ship-wide comm and announces, “It looks as if we’ve made yet another successful jump, and emerged right on target. Great job, everyone. When we return to Earth, the first round is on me. Carry on.”

The bridge crew grin at one another. The captain always runs up a huge bar tab on every mission, but he never fails to deliver when the ship returns to Earth. 

“Bridge, this is Survey…”

Surprised, he frowns despite the elation he’s feeling. Merely from Lt. Jason Avery’s tone of voice, he knew that something is seriously wrong. Turning his display toward him, he taps it on. His frown deepens once he sees Lt. Jason’s expression. The normally very placid demeanor of the man is excited as well as showing more than a hint of fear.

Instinctively, he turns on the privacy field and asks, “What is it, Jase?”

“Sir…” he began, his eyes momentarily darting away to look at something, then returning to look at Owens, “…we’ve confirmed not just one, but two planets in the habitable zone.”

“Hell yes!” Owens shouts, seeming to miss Jason’s worried expression. One planet in the habitable zone is a miracle all by itself, but two? The odds are simply astronomical to the point of nearly being impossible. “That’s fantastic!”

“Sir, they’re both inhabited,” he says quietly. “We didn’t have to find their orbits. We found them from their neutrino and infrared readings.” He pauses. “I’ve… Sir, I’ve never seen anything like this. Even Earth doesn’t have this level of activity within the system. The two planets in the temperate zone are highly industrialized. There are other points of activity throughout the asteroid belt, and on several moons orbiting the lone gas giant. We’ve also detected ships, thousands of them.”

He leans back into his seat, utterly stunned as he thinks, ‘First contact.’ Humans had searched for signs of intelligent life beyond the Sol system, but never once had they detected any hint of other sentient species. True, on previous missions, they had found life, but nothing more than microbial or at most, plants along with some alien form of insect life. Until now.

“Jesus,” he says breathlessly, conscious of the entire bridge crew staring at him. They hadn’t heard what Avery said, but they immediately picked up on his reaction. He turns off the privacy screen and says, “Shirka, please place the first contact protocols on display one.”

“Certainly, Captain,” she replies as they appear. “Jason, pipe the image of some of those ships to display three.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Moments later, a ship appears. “Lord God almighty,” Andrea murmurs.

Odyssey’s primary 10-meter telescope is located in the bow of the ship and is the dominant feature amongst the myriad of sensors located there. What the ship in the display resembles is a stylized wasp and is completely unlike any human design. The HMS Odyssey itself resembles a flattened egg.

In the silence that weighs heavily on the bridge, Elsa quietly asks, “Why does it keep slipping out of focus?”

Jason speaks up in answer to her question. “I was about to explain. That is one of five ships that are heading in our direction from a moon of the gas giant. The reason the focus keeps changing is they are moving at extremely high velocity, so the telescope is having trouble keeping on track. Even what is displayed has been massively post-processed by Shirka. Captain, if Shirka is correct, they’ll be here within a half-hour.”

“Shirka, do you have any idea of their capabilities?”

“Assuming that this is their maximum acceleration, then their drive systems aren’t comparable to ours. It’s unknown if they have jump drive capabilities. Offensive and defensive capabilities are unknown as well, but the blisters scattered along the hull suggest that they are armed.”

“Jase, is that your assessment as well?”

Jason scratches his neck. “Hmm… I agree with Shirka and venture that there’s a high probability that those are warships. Captain, if they’re hostile, one we might stand toe-to-toe with, but five? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”

“Weps, what do you say? Is he right?”

“Captain, if they emerged into the Sol system, we’d send warships to greet them, just in case they were hostile. So, I think it’s extremely likely that they are. Captain, if I may make a suggestion?”

“That’s why you’re here.”

“Then, we should charge the jump capacitors so that we’re ready for an emergency jump and Shirka should begin streaming our logs to Earth Central before they get here, just in case they prove to be hostile.”

Frowning, Owens replies, “That’s sensible… Andrea, charge the capacitors. Elsa, plot a random heading away from Earth. If they are hostile, I’d rather not point them at home. Shirka, begin transmitting our logs and continue to do so until I order you to stop.”

“Transmitting now, Captain.”

“Weps, bring the shields online, activate the CIWS, arm the missiles, and provide them with targeting data. I hope this is unnecessary, but I’d much rather not be caught with our pants down.”

Owens taps the shipwide comm. “Well folks, we’re in a first contact situation and we have five apparent warships inbound. We have no idea if they’re hostile or not, so we’re going to take precautions. I don’t blame these people for sending out an armed welcoming committee. If it were our home, I’d send warships to take a peek, too.

“All crew should wear their armor packs and prepare to deploy them without further notice. As of now, we are at alert 2, but expect alert 1 at a moment’s notice. Weapons are to be issued to all crew in case they attempt to board us, so I hope you all remember your weapons training. Section chiefs report to the wardroom in 10-minutes. Captain out.”

Only one chair in the wardroom is left when Owens enters 10 minutes later. At the table sat the six section chiefs. He takes his seat at the head of the table as he looks around at them. It’s easy to see that they’re all tense from their body language and expressions. Owens gave a small, satisfied smile because what he sees isn’t from fear, but excited anticipation. It’s an emotion he fully shares.

“I’m not going to waste time on preliminaries,” he begins. “You all know what’s going on and what’s at stake. According to the Survey Department,” he nods at Jason, who was the only one around the table who looked distinctly unhappy, “the ships haven’t changed course or speed. They’ll need to slow down to intercept soon or they’re going to blow by us, which would tell me that they’re not happy to see us, or that their technology is much more advanced than we can see right now.” At that, the survey leader’s frown grew more pronounced, turning his normally pale face into a grimace. “Jase? If you’ve got something to say, now is the time.”

“I believe those ships won’t simply pass by us. They’ll slow down and rendezvous with us sometime in the next two hours, decelerating at a minimum of two hundred gees. If my guess is right, then they can decelerate at a much higher rate than we think they can.”

A chill ran down his spine since that would place them on a technological par with them, leaving them at a massive disadvantage, and Odyssey’s one of the most advanced ships that Earth’s current technology can produce.

“They could be AI-controlled ships,” Alissa Cambell, the chief of the Engineering Section speculates, “since we know they can handle that kind of acceleration.”

“It doesn’t matter if they are or aren’t,” Owens states gently to steer the conversation back to the issue. “From my perspective, it doesn’t matter what or who they are. We’re not a warship, and I have no intention of even pretending we are. It seems apparent that they are extremely close to, or on par with us technologically. That’s not surprising; it’s just as likely we could have stumbled upon a world that is much more advanced. Regardless, our options boil down to one of two things: stay and say hello, or jump before they get here. Opinions?”

“Sir. I believe we should stay,” Chief Sato states.

“Why?” Owens asks.

Sato shrugs. “Isn’t that part of why we’re out here?” He looks around the room, his voice climbing slightly in excitement as he continues, “We all know that our primary mission is to find habitable worlds, but aren’t we explorers? I think we all volunteered with the hopes of finding another intelligent species out here. Every jump has led us to discover things that no one else has ever seen. Maybe we’ll find what we all hope. A friendly intelligent species.” He shrugs again. “Maybe they’re friendly, maybe not, but taking risks is in the job description. Regardless, we’ve found the first intelligent spacefaring race other than humanity.” He looks at each person in the room piercingly as he continues, “Can we in good conscience leave without doing all we can to establish contact, even if we do risk our own destruction?”

Owens nods, impressed by the man’s unexpectedly passionate speech, but more so because they precisely echo his own feelings. That’s exactly why he had voluntarily signed up for exploration duty.

“Well said, Chief,” Owens says as the two chiefs on each side of Sato grin and nudge him as if to say, ‘Good job.’ Nearly everyone at the table nods or murmurs their agreement. “So, we have an argument, a valid one, for staying. Who’s got one for us to bug out?”

“I’ll take that one, sir,” Roger Kumal, the weapons officer, speaks up from the bridge, his image appearing on the primary screen in the ready room. “I agree with Chief Sato that we should stay, but my main argument for leaving now is that if these folks turn out to be hostile and this ship is taken they’ll have the coordinates for Earth.”

“Right,” Owens says, “that’s the only real reason I’ve been able to come up with myself for leaving isn't merely fear of the unknown. Since all of us signed up to find the unknown, as Chief Sato stated, fear doesn’t matter or we wouldn’t be here.” He looks around the table, “Anyone else?” Everyone shakes their head. “Then, return to your duties. I’ll make an announcement shortly. Chiefs, make sure your people are prepared. Dismissed.”

“Jump engines are spooling up, Captain,” Roth reports from her station. The jump coordinates were locked in. All they had to do was engage the computer interlock and Aurora would disappear into dimensional space within moments.

“Very well,” Owens replies, as he intensely stares at the five ships, all of which were now clear in the main display. Suddenly, the ships flip over and their drives flare brightly.

“What the devil!” Kumal exclaims in surprise, watching as the alien vessels suddenly slow at a much higher rate. “Sir, they must’ve picked up the jump engines! I thought they were going to pass us by, but now they’re slowing at a much higher rate. They’ll be alongside within a minute! I recommend we jump…”

“Execute!” Owens barks, a cold chill of fear shooting along his spine and raising the hair on the nape of his neck. Then he jabbed the button on his command console to open the shipwide comm. “General quarters! Man your battle stations and prepare for an emergency jump!” He then activates his armor as does the rest of the bridge crew.

He's reaching to release the jump interlock when first salvo, a mix of plasma, heavy lasers, kinetic weapons, and missiles, from the five ships, takes out the HMS Odyssey’s shields and moments later the lights flicker as another salvo strikes the ship aft.

Roth screams, “Captain, we’ve lost jump and system drives!”

“Weps, return fire with everything we’ve got! Engineering, get those drives back online, now!”

The turret swivels to align with the center ship and opens fire as their eight missiles streak out targeting the two next to it. The 15-gigawatt lasers tear through the center ship in a line from stem to stern as if it were made of tissue, spilling debris and bodies into space. Five missiles are destroyed before impact from their version of CIWS, although the other three impact the ships creating huge explosions. They must have struck something vital on all three ships because they immediately ceased firing while the other two continued to pound away at the HMS Odyssey.

Looking at the damage reports flooding in on his display, Owens realizes the drives won’t be able to be brought back online in time and the ship is doomed. Taking a shuddering breath, Owens orders, “Shirka, wipe the nav core.” Everyone on the bridge turns to stare at him except Weps who’s far too busy to spare the attention. “It’s been a pleasure serving with you.”

The power goes out immediately afterward and the emergency lighting comes on. Shirka, running on emergency power, says, “Captain, I’m unable to erase the nav core, my connection to it has been severed.”

Horrified at the thought they’ll take the core intact, he calls Chief Sato over the command link in his armor. “Chief Sato, blow the Nav core, immediately.”

“Aye, Aye, Captain.”

With a thought, he switches over to the general channel and is immediately blasted by the innumerable people talking all at once. He yells, “Settle down people!” Once the channel is quiet, he continues, “Good. Folks, we’re dead in the water. We can’t fight and we can’t run. I’m sure you’ve noticed they’ve stopped firing on us, so I expect that we’ll be boarded soon. Everyone, I need you to stand your ground against them to give Chief Sato the time to blow the nav core. We can’t allow them to get its data intact. I know each of you will do your duty regardless of the cost. It’s been my honor to call myself your Captain. Now, let’s show these fuckers that it isn’t very smart to mess with humanity!”

One wouldn’t have needed the link to hear the guttural growls and shouts of the crew. He leans back in his seat, closes his eyes, and revels in the pride he has in his crew. Opening his eyes, his heart rate soars as adrenaline again dumps into his bloodstream. He stands up and tells the bridge crew, “Arm yourselves. It’s time for us to fuck up some aliens.”

Removing their rifle from where it’s attached to their armor, they activate the energy buffers in them. These rifles fire 15mm kinetic AP rounds that will easily punch through 10mm of titanium composite armor.

Within 10 minutes, all 14 members of the crew of HMS Odyssey lay dead. Had any other human seen the aftermath, it would be obvious that they fought ferociously since there is a rather large amount of dark-skinned aliens’ bodies, who look surprisingly human-like, littering the passageways leading from the main airlock to engineering where they made their last stand. Unfortunately, for all their sacrifice, the nav core is still intact, although you could see where the engineering crew desperately attempted to get through the armor surrounding the core.