[geoschmo]

The possibility of extraterrestrial life in the universe was not totally disregarded by the Sallegan people. Among the scientific establishment it was considered something of a statistical certainty that somewhere in the universe other life existed, and that some of this life could have evolved into intelligence as the Sallegan race had. But it was considered highly unlikely that any such life exsisted close by, or that it would be possible to travel between the stars and meet such life.

The opinions of the uninformed masses varied widely from arrogant skepticism, to outright apathy, to an almost religious acceptance among some of the more fringe elements. Popular culture was full of legends of UFO's, visitors from other worlds, and even alien abductions. Nothing had ever been proven, despite the concerted efforts of several branches of the government. This fact alone was proof enough of a vast conspiracy to some people.

Some of these conspiracy theories were wildly speculative, and none of them were true. But they weren't exactly false either. The government did have a secret. There were no crashed flying saucers, and no bodies locked away in refrigerators deep in the bowels of some nameless military facility. But there was evidence. Only a couple hundred had ever heard of it, and only a few dozen of them had seen all the information. But it did exist.

Early in the unmanned space program, probes had been sent to all the major planets in the Narcisston system. These varied in specific missions, but for the most part were general research probes looking for, well looking for anything really. After all, when you didn't know enough to ask the right questions, all you could do was keep your eyes and ears open and hope to stumble on something interesting. And something interesting is exactly what they found.

While surveying one of the four gas giants in the system, some anomalous readings were found that appeared to be artificial. They were too deep in the atmosphere to get good information, so very little was known for sure. But they appeared to be the remains of an ancient civilization. Much debate followed with one side taking the position that these had to be natural formations of some kind. Life was simply not possible at those pressures, no matter what the technological advancement they argued. But when evidence of another "city" was found on a second gas giant, even the sceptics were convinced something very unusual was down there. It was decided that it would be kept a secret from the general population until the Sallegans could develop probes that could survive the hostile conditions of these planets long enough to get more concrete data.

Another thing that was not commonly known was the existence of three gravitational anomalies at the extreme edges of the star system. Something like this had been theorized centuries before by the early astronomers when it was noticed that the actual positions of several of the outer planets did not fit exactly with their predicted orbits. For many years there was a futile search for another planet not visible with the optical telescopes of the day. Some physicists even hypothesized the existence of a micro black hole or a "dark star" in binary orbit with the Narcisston sun. When the unmanned probes finally reached the edge of the system, what they discovered instead were three wormholes in an extreme orbit.

The Sallegans had not had a chance yet to study these wormholes enough to know if they could be of any value. Some believed they could be used to travel to far distant star systems, and some unmanned probes were even launched into them. Most of these broke up before crossing the threshold from the strong gravitational forces. Those that didn't, stopped communicating several seconds after disappearing from view. Only once did any telemetry return from the "other side", and it was so hopelessly garbled that it was not known for sure that it wasn't just some computer generated "hallucination" prior to finally disintegrating

It was decided that a small unmanned probe was simply not strong enough to handle the stress of the transit. It was believed that only a large vessel would be able to succeed. Of course it was entirely possible that it would be a suicide mission. Even if the ship somehow survived, there was no guarantee that it would be able to return through the wormhole.

About the time of the maiden voyage of the Aksu, Sallegan researchers made a breakthrough in the construction of space going vessels. It was now possible for ships as large as 200 kt to be constructed. Plans were being made to build such a vessel and outfit it for what could be a long voyage for its crew. Extra supplies would be taken, and the crew would be specially selected from those that had no living family members. The hope was that they would be able to return. But if they were not, every precaution would be taken to allow them to survive, wherever they ended up. But four months before they were scheduled to depart, the aliens arrived.

It was not known immediately, but it was a scout vessel of the Xi'Chung Hive, a insectoid race from a system on the other end of the wormhole. After the initial shock, the Sallegans attempted to communicate with the new vessel on several frequency bands. The Sallegan government decided a non-hostile approach was waranted, unless the newcomers gave them a reason to believe otherwise. An offer was made of a treaty of non-aggresion, and diplomatic envoys began preparations for a journey to a new world. There was no response at first. The Xi'Chuung ship simply sat there on the Narcisston end of the wormhole and didn't move for two full months. Finally a terse, single sentance reply was recieved. "We cannot accept your proposal at this time."

This communication was sent on several frequency bands as well. Many of which were used for public communication and commercial entertainment channels. The government could no longer keep it a secret. In an instant the Sallegan people knew the awesome truth. They were not alone in the universe.

As a precaution against attack Aksu 1 was recalled from it's exploratory mission around the gas giants and was kept in orbit of Narcisston VIII to protect against any hostile action by the aliens. A second Aksu class ship was built, and the hull laid for a third. The new larger hull size designs were modified to allow for less supplies and more weaponry, just in case the worst happened. Plans were made to build as many as these "attack ships" that could be supported by the Sallegan shipyard.

Aboard the Aksu 1, Captain Grandow was not sure what was going to happen next, but he believed he and his crew were as prepared as they could be. All they could do now was wait.

[ 15 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]