[chewy027]

2402.1 – 2402.7 ~ A Second Chance

“Ma’am, something is coming through the wormhole,” came the shrill voice of the ensign.
“Cut audio and video feed to Serenity,” ordered Admiral Nefta as she recognized exactly what was making its way through the strange anomaly that has been come to be known as a wormhole. “Vigilance, move to intercept,” she didn’t even wait for confirmation of the vessel’s origin before she gave the order to attack. “Do not allow them to flee back through the wormhole,” she ordered in her usual icy tone. “Angels, encircle the vessel, but do not fire until my command.”
“What do you plan to do Admiral?” asked Captain Orton.
“Open a hailing frequency to the Terran vessel,” she commanded ignoring Orton’s inquiry. “This is Admiral Nefta, commanding officer of this Battle Group, declare your intentions or be destroyed.”
“Please spare us,” came the immediate response. “We are nothing more then a ship full of colonists seeking to build a new home for ourselves. We mean you no harm.”
“To what system are you destined?” asked the Admiral.
“We seek the Alpha Epsilon system,” answered the captain of the colony ship.
“I am unfamiliar with that name, what are the coordinates of the systems primary star?”
After a short pause the Captain told her the coordinates and added, “Please, I say again, we mean you no harm. We do not seek to see our peoples continue this needless war. We are a handful of extremists from the Terran Confederacy who have opted to begin a new society for ourselves away from the war-mongering of our govern…”
Nefta cut him off, “These are the coordinates for the Parvenium System.” She appeared to not have heard a word he said. “Thank you for the information captain, please give my regards to the Almighty when you meet him.”
“Wait! We do not w…” the com was silenced.
“You may fire at will” commanded Nefta with an evenness to her voice that revealed none of the hatred welling up inside her. “May the Almighty have mercy on their souls,” she added to herself in a whisper as she watched the colony ship, and all of its passengers, being enveloped in a ball of fire and molten steel.

“It makes no sense,” thought Lord Chagnon as he listened to the details of the day’s intelligence report from Vice Lord Defcon. “Especially with the transmissions we have been receiving these past few tenths.” His mind wandered into contemplation.
“…Admiral Nefta’s battle group then intercepted the Terran frigate and destroyed it without incident. She reported that it was headed for the Parvenium system to destroy our new colonies there and that we should watch the wormhole approaches to that system closely,” and with that Defcon finished his statement and sat down.
“How did she find out they were destined for the Parvenium system?” Chagnon wondered, not really paying attention as Defcon sat down.
Vice Lord Mandron then stood up and began his portion of the report, “Our r…relations with the Aquilaeians continue to look promising as we have learned a great deal f…from them in a relatively short t…time.” He paused to collect himself and then went on, “and we have l…learned of a situation with the Aquilaeians that may be adv…” he was cut off by Chagnon rather brusquely.
“Were there any other transmissions received?”
“W…what do you m…mean my Lord?” Mandron replied becoming more nervous.
“Were there any other transmissions received from the Terrans?” Chagnon said annunciating every word perfectly while speaking rather slowly.
“W…well nothing n…new, just the s…same continuous transmission that h…has been sent every d…day.”
“So they continue to offer peace even after they sent another ship to attack us,” said Defcon.
“Perhaps there is more to this then we are seeing,” offered Vice Lord Exnon. “Isn’t it convenient that Admiral Nefta’s entire communications array failed just as the Terran vessel was exiting the wormhole?”
“I agree,” said Chagnon, “I think that Admiral Nefta is withholding something from us. Nevertheless, I feel that we need to begin taking this plea for peace from the Terrans more seriously.”
“I also agree,” said Vice Lord Junon. “It makes no sense for these Terrans to continue to ask for a trade alliance and peace, and not be serious about it.”
“But what of the recent attack,” echoed Defcon? “Surely that must prove something of the Terrans intentions.”
“If it was indeed a Terran attack vessel then it would indeed disprove their apparent plea for peace,” replied Chagnon. “However, if we were to take a closer look into the situation I believe that we would find trickery and deceit on Nefta’s part. Her heart has been twisted by vengeance and I think her mind has been clouded enough for her to make unwise decisions as of late. Yet, I believe we should offer her the benefit of the doubt and not act on her recent actions. Instead I think that we should accept the treaty proposal by the Terrans and give them a second chance. If there is peace, there will be no need for Nefta to remain in the Churba system where she can cause trouble.”
“Are you certain this is a wise decision” asked Defcon? “After all, it was the Terrans who started this war.”
“But we still don’t know if the initial attack was a mistake on their part. They may have mistaken us for someone else” put in Exnon.
“Besides,” offered Vice Lord Junon, “ours is the way of peace. It is our duty to accept a legitimate cry for an end to the bloodshed, and it seems a wise solution to whatever problems Nefta may pose.”
“While I agree with the wisdom in your reasoning,” said Defcon, “I do not agree that Nefta should be recalled. She is a brilliant tactician I, for one, think her talents should not be wasted.”
“Who said anything about a recall?” asked Chagnon. “We will simple re-station her in the Parvenium System. If the Terrans indeed plan to attack there we will be ready for them. Besides, I have always believed in giving everyone a second chance.” He said puting extra emphasis on everyone. Then he stopped for a second as if realizing something for the first time, “Now Mandron, weren’t you saying something of the situation with the Aquilaeians?”
“Well y…yes I was” said Mandron. “We have ascertained th…that their home planet is of a rock c…composition. Therefore, they know how to colonize r…rock planets.”
“So how will this knowledge benefit us Mandron?” asked Chagnon.
“With our recent partnership with the Aquilaeians,” said Junon answering for him, “Mandron and I believe that we may be able to trade for their knowledge of rock colonization. This would allow us to expand at a much higher rate, and to make our search for the Almighty much more effective.”
“So what do you propose we trade them?” asked Chagnon.
“It seems prudent to offer them knowledge of our own gas colonization techniques, and maybe throw in a few extra tons of organic resources in our next shipment; we have no need for them anyway.”
“This seems like a wise plan,” said Chagnon, “good work, the both of you.”
“Thank you Chagnon,” they said in unison.
“And finally for our Last order of business, we turn to Junon for our research progress update,” Chagnon said with a bit excitement to his voice. “How goes our research into these religious technologies?”
“Very well, my Lord” replied Junon. “We should be finished with our current line of research within the next tenth.”
“Excellent work Junon. If you stay on schedule then you will have finished a full two tenths ahead of our projections” remarked Exnon.
“Yes indeed, Exnon” agreed Junon. “Of course the extra research we are receiving from the Aquilaeians is helping, and the fact that our research center on Hope is over 50% complete is helping the process along immensely.”
“So you are nearly finished then with the current project?” asked Defcon.
“Yes we are. Why?” asked Junon
“Well, seeing as how we are going to be ending this conflict with the Terrans very shortly, I believe it would be wise to research another theoretical area of study.”
“That would seem wise” put in Chagnon. “Do you have any suggestions?” he said half jokingly.
“As a matter of fact, I do. I believe that it would be a wise course of action to do an in depth study of some military sciences. While the Terran threat may have subsided, we can never be sure that another enemy won’t appear. Let us prepare ourselves by deepening our understanding in this area so that we will have a wider variety of other areas to research into if the need should present itself.”
“May I put in a suggestion?” asked Exnon.
“Go ahead” said Chagnon.
“Thank you my Lord,” and after a pause went on, “While I agree now would be a good time to look into more military technologies, might I suggest that we not forget the lifeblood of our fleets. Let us look into making our engines more efficient. Perhaps Junon could even develop a new type of engine that is even faster then our current ion variety. And if the council doesn’t agree that engine research is necessary may I then suggest looking into more efficient means of re-supplying our vessels.”
“Both of these suggestions seem valid” agreed Chagnon, “what do you think Junon?”
“Well, in my opinion, I would have to agree with Defcon. The opportunity to open up new avenues of research through a deeper understanding of military sciences while we are in a time of peace is one that we must take advantage of. Plus the idea of revealing new things to research because of the theoretic nature of the project is appealing to me.”
“But…” Exnon tried to offer an argument only to be cut off by Chagnon.
“So it is settled then. Junon once you finish the current project you will begin to look into further our understanding of the military sciences. Nefta will make her way to the Parvenium System and we will accept the Terran offer for peace, while we will offer this trade to the Aquilaeians. Let us hope that all of our plans are executed as smoothly as they have been discussed.” And with that Chagnon dismissed them all.

Fortunately all of the plans were executed exactly as planned. Junon began his research into the military sciences and quickly finished soon after. It was decided that because of the relative ease with which he finished that is would be wise to continue his research in that area. At the same time, a treaty was signed with the Terrans and Nefta was restationed in the Parvenium System without incident. Shortly thereafter, we upgraded our treaty with the Terrans to a military alliance. How quickly enemies can become friends.
The Aquilaeians accepted our trade proposal and we acquired the technology to colonize rock based planets. We quickly designed the Asteroid Class colony ship and began producing them to colonize the newly available planets. Our first target was the Parvenium System and its three fully colonizable planets. We also sent out a modified Revelation scout ship, it was now equipped with a DUC canon, into the southern wormhole. As expected the wormhole led into a new cluster of star systems. This ship’s mission would be to explore this new cluster for any outward signs of the Almighty while the mass colonization of systems in our home cluster commenced. It wasn’t long until a new race, the Star Empire of Romii, was encountered. While no agreements were reached, there was no violence between us. At the same time, the Aquilaeians gave us their star maps and revealed to us the contents of the rest of the systems in our cluster. Along with the new Revelation scout ship, we also completed construction of a Purveyor Class transport vessel. This ship would aid in the rapid colonization of our star cluster. All seems to be going well.