The Walkers, updated 9-28-03

[chewy027]

Thanks for the feedback guys, keeps the incentive up to put time into this. Here's the next installment...

2400.8 continued ~ …and War

Lord Chagnon and his Vice Lords anxiously awaited news from the Revelation they had sent through the wormhole. Each, save Vice Lord Junon, had retired to their personal chambers until word came back that the ship had returned. “Could this be the race from which the Almighty had originated?” Chagnon thought as he paced around his room. “If these wormholes have been in existence for as long as Junon says they were, the Almighty could have easily used them to come to his system and lead our people. I will have to think more on this matter, and keep a clear head so that I will not make a clouded, unwise decision.”
While Lord Chagnon paced around his room, Vice Lord Defcon bent over the star charts and satellite images of the area in which the Churba System was located and the coordinates of the exit wormhole into their home system. “We must be prepared he thought. I don’t like these wormholes one bit, it leaves us vulnerable to an attack from an unknown enemy who may be much powerful then we.” As he thought of this Defcon thought if this, his mood darkened. “I shall have to petition Chagnon to begin construction of an adequate defense fleet. It would be most wise to be prepared.”
Meanwhile, Vice Lord Exnon sat at his desk with thoughts of adventure and far off places coursing through his head. He had gone into the ministry of exploration because he had always loved the vastness and possibility of the Great Beyond. Now that a way had been found that to traverse the star, seemingly in an instant, his dreams could come true. “I wonder what the Churba system looks like.” he mused aloud. “Perhaps these aliens that our little ship spotted will be friendly and share with us their knowledge of our little shared corner of the galaxy. I would like to meet them very much.” and with that his thoughts turned back to the stars.
Of course Junon was hard at work with his team finalizing the details for a prototype communications system to be employed on ships so that their real time communications would function through the wormholes. He had no time for frivolous thoughts, and concentrated on finishing his work so that when the escort class Revelation scout ship reappeared, a probe carrying with it the prototype system could be sent out to meet it. This prototype system was just being loaded onto the probe when Junon was summoned to the High Command conference room to receive an urgent message. “They have returned.” Junon thought. “This must mean that the meeting went well.”
“a t…trade alliance.” Captain Mandron was saying as Vice Lord Junon entered the room. “They will give us resources in exchange for a percentage of ours.”
“Are you authorized to make such an agreement?” demanded Defcon, only enhancing Captain Mandron’s nervousness. “What makes you think that this is the wisest decision? How can you be sure that we will benefit from such a deal? They will bring their ships here?!? How will we know that they will not try something devious?”
“Calm down Defcon,” commanded Lord Chagnon. “Captain Mandron made the right decision. The way of peace is always the right way.”
“Th…thank you sir,” came the sheepish reply from the Captain. “They seemed to know much about us, and intimated that this trade would be bene…” he was cut off by an even more annoyed Defcon.
“They seemed to know…‘much’…about us?” he hung in the word as he spoke it. “What do you mean by that?”
“W…well, s…sir,” an overly intimidated Mandron replied, “it s…seems that they have been studying us f…for some t…time now. They even kn…knew that they were the first race that we had met other then the Al…Almighty.”
“They knew of the Almighty?” Chagnon asked, a bit taken aback.
“Yes, Lord Ch…Chagnon. Though they did n…not say more than that.”
“It seems to me,” Junon chimed in, “that there is nothing we can do now but wait for this shipment of resources.”
“Perhaps it will be beneficial to us, as this Captain Arguile, or whatever his name was, told Mandron,” Exnon said flippantly. “In either case, I would like to meet these Aquilaeians and find out what they know of our quadrant, and any other races they are in contact with.”
“It appears that you will get that chance,” echoed Defcon, “even though I am wary of the situation.”
“So how were you able to communicate with them?” inquired Junon. “Did they speak our language?”
“W…well at first no,” replied the captain, “b…but then they did after we r…replied to them in our own t…tongue.”
“So you would agree that they seem to be more advanced then we?” Junon asked in a rhetorical tone. “By the way, where is your current position?”
“We are a few parsecs outside of the f…far eastern w…wormhole” answered Mandron. “About f…four parsecs from Serenity.”
“Excellent Captain,” returned Junon, “standby to receive a probe that is carrying our new prototype communications system. It should allow us to communicate like this once you pass through the wormhole.”
“And Captain,” added Chagnon, “when that probe arrives, see to it that you return here with it, I would like to debrief you further myself. In the meantime Vice Lords, let us discuss what should be done next.”
And so it was, Captain Mandron returned to Serenity, while Lieutenant Sharnon took control of the Revelation class ship. The new communications system was installed and tested, and worked exactly as designed. Now the real time communiqué between all vessels and Serenity would function even when the ship was in another part of the quadrant. It worked by setting up specialized transmission beacons on either side of the wormholes that could transmit through them without any lag time or interference.
At the same time, and after much deliberation, it was decided that Lieutenant Sharnon would pilot her ship back through their wormhole, and continue through the far northern wormhole in the Churba system, a system that was now recognized to be in the same cluster as the Vandron’s home system. Likewise, Mandron was debriefed fully by Lord Chagnon and commended for his handling of the situation. Because of this, he was elevated to the position of liaison between the Vandron and the Aquilaeians, as well as any other races that may be encountered, effectively making him the minister of diplomacy, and the fourth Vice Lord.
In unrelated events, Hope completed its construction of a space yard, and began construction on the massive research complex that would encompass the planet. Meanwhile, research into ship construction moved swiftly, and it was predicted by Junon that a new level would be reached within the next tenth. The new class, what would be called a frigate, would be slightly larger then the current escort class, and allow for greater firepower to be added to the defense fleet that was being raised around Serenity. For Vice Lord Defcon had succeeded in convincing Lord Chagnon that it would be wise to be prepared for an attack through one of the, as yet, unexplored wormholes.
A few days later, the four Vice Lords and Chagnon gathered again in the High Command conference room. The beacon had been deployed, and they watched as Lieutenant Sharnon’s vessel cleared the second wormhole and appeared in a system with twin stars. This new system had six planets, three of which were adjacent to the wormhole from which the ship had flown through. This system was again within the same cluster as the other two, and was named Vando or twins in their language. However, almost immediately the ships scanners began picking up readings from four of the planets in the system. It seemed that all four had substantial amounts of life, and at least one was highly developed.
“Another new race!” Exnon called out. “What should we do?”
All were silent until Mandron summoned the courage to speak up. “M…maybe we should w…wait as we did l…Last t…time?” his reply sounded like a question lacking any real conviction.
“A wise idea,” put in Chagnon. “Lieutenant Sharnon, proceed as you had previously in the Churba system. Open all frequencies, but broadcast nothing.”
“Yes, sir” came the response. “My Lord, we are picking up an unknown vessel approaching us from the closest of the planets. It has begun to transmit something, we are patching it through you n…” but her Last word was cut off. As the High Command looked on, the unknown vessel opened fire shorting out the audio feed from the ship. The Revelation went evasive and tried to make its way back to the wormhole, but it was equipped with no shields nor did it have any weaponry of any kind to fight back.
“We must do something!” cried out Defcon. “There are good soldiers on that ship.”
“What can we do?” came a dejected reply from Junon. “That system is light years away, and we have no ships in a position to offer assistance.” As he was saying this, the ships engines were hit, and the little ship began spinning out of control.
“They are being massacred,” a breathless Mandron said almost to himself. “I should have been on that ship. That’s my crew. That should have been me” he whispered as he watched the little ship being raked by enemy fire. Then, in an instant, there was nothing.
A few minutes later the haunting silence was broken by Junon. “We have the translation of the message that was broadcast by the enemy vessel.” He said in a low solemn voice. “It said ‘We are the Terran Confederacy. You have invaded our space and, therefore, must be destroyed. No exceptions will be made, and no survivors will be taken. Prepare for war.’”