Master of Violence
by AJ Marks
Part 3
“Captain, new contact,” Toncor heard one of the bridge crew members say. They had been repeating the message for a while now but so far nothing had been repeated back to them and this was beginning to unnerve him a bit.
A short time ago the fighter had turned around and headed back in a direction it came from after passing by close a few times. It had tried to communicate with them, but the limited number of times didn’t allow the computer to translate the messages.
However, with this new contact there was some sort of hope.
“Second contact,” the scanner operator said.
Toncor frowned a bit, two ships to go with what they saw were fighters.
“What type of ships?” the captain asked.
“Working on that sir.”
“You think they are part of the ‘Dark Race’?” Toncor asked, referring to the race who had destroyed their homeworld.
“I can’t take any chances,” the captain replied.
“We have no indication from the fighters they are close to the ‘Dark Race’. Their energy sources were too different, more primitive,” Toncor said recalling the scans they did of the fighter.
“I have almost five thousand souls on board, what do you consider I do?” the captain said to Toncor.
Toncor had to admit, a lot of lives were depending on what happened next, and that this group wasn’t part of the ‘Dark Race’. If they were then their flight for freedom was for nothing.
“Receiving new communications.”
“Good, get the computer to work on it,” the captain replied back.
“Scans coming in,” the operator said, his tone of voice indicating possibly bad news. “One of the ships is defiantly a warship.”
“And the second ship?” Toncor asked.
“Unknown.”
“Toncor, I don’t like this,” the captain said.
Toncor had to agree, but with a damage jump engine they had little options left to them.
“How could they have known we’d be here?” Toncor asked logically. “It makes no sense, and what of the other non-warship.”
“We can still do another couple of jumps before things are critical,” the captain said.
Toncor knew the captain was looking at him, as the only senior member of the government on board the ship they all looked towards him for guidance. He however felt lost, his guidance had already led to millions killed and enslaved to the ‘Dark Race’. Could he be trusted with this?
“Sir, computers think it has a translation,” the operator said.
“Let’s see it,” Toncor said looking at the monitor and what was there.
Typical hailing detected…
First part greeting, a form of hello…
Second part, either ship or person’s name…
Third part is either name or ship…
Repeats…
Toncor looked it over knowing it wasn’t much.
“Send our reply, typical fashion, but see if the computer can use their hello, and perhaps other parts as well,” Toncor said.
“Yes sir.”
*****
Mark waited patiently on the bridge knowing there was now some unknown ship which the scanners were unable to identify. Even Hans had to admit, such a large vessel could not have been built in secret.
“Sir?” the communications officer said sounding strange.
“Yes?”
“The message changed.”
“How?”
“It now says ‘Attention’ then the gibberish,” he replied back.
“Get me the Nautilus,” Mark said, waiting only a few seconds before Alice’s face appeared.
“You’ve heard it as well?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“One of our scientist thinks they are learning our language.”
“Then how do we help?”
“They have an idea, sending a repeated code, some basic language,” she said.
“Wil it work?” Mark asked.
“Don’t know.”
“Do it,” Mark said, hoping it might actually allow them to speak with each other.
“All right.”
Mark looked over at Hans who had yet to say anything since they got a better look at the ship. The patrol had already landed and given their reports. They also had a request from EarthGov about what was going on. Mark had sent back the message they were still waiting to see what would happen.
“This is probably on every conspiracy website on the web already,” Hans said.
“Not sure I’m enjoying all of this,” Mark said. His name would be all over this and depending on how it went, it could be the greatest hoax ever, or the greatest moment in human history. He didn’t want to be the one who was made a fool.
“Thought you had an open mind?” Hans said.
“I do, doesn’t mean I totally think there are aliens, I’m considering all of this as a hoax,” Mark said watching Hans appear a bit more relaxed at that. It was obvious he considered all of this a massive hoax.
“Could be some agency of the government, you know make us look bad to cut our funding,” Hans said.
That thought had yet to cross Mark’s mind, but with some things of a few radicals, especially some of the left lately he wouldn’t put it past them to do this to get their point across. It would be splashed across all the news sites and bloggers would have a field day.
“Sir, we have a communications.”
“Put it though,” Mark said, hearing a very odd voice with an accent he didn’t recognize and sounding very mechinal.
“Attention, Pakkara calling.”
The message repeated and Mark went over to the communications. “Let me answer.
“Attention Pakkara, this is Mark Pappas of the Enterprise,” he said, waiting a few moment for the answer.
“Attention Enterprise, this is Hakkas of the Pakkara.”
Mark turned to Hans wondering what he thought. “If this is a hoax they’ve been very elaborate.”
*****
Angie Seri made her way to the beach along with her friends. They were going to enjoy the last few days of summer break before classes started back up. She would be starting her Sophomore year in college and still had no idea what she might do. Her parents were nagging her to develop a plan for her future, but nothing seemed interested her. Her friends mentioned the beach and she was glad to get away from her parents, especially considering she had the day off from her job.
“Wow, such a nice day,” her friend, Krystanya said, or Krys as they all called her, a tall brunette. Of course all of her friends were taller than Angie was.
“And there are a lot of cute guys here,” Heather said, she was a bit taller than Angie, and with black hair where Angie’s was blonde. They made an interesting trio, and some said they needed a fourth friend with red hair.
Angie looked around seeing all the guys and had to admit, her friend was right. Perhaps she might meet someone today.
Claiming a spot on the sand for their own she noticed a few looks their way as they shed their shirts to reveal their bikinis they wore. She nudged Heather and looked towards the sidewalk where a guy had fallen. Heather smirked as well but rolled her eyes at what happened.
“Can’t walk and look,” she said.
“I guess when you’ve got it, we’ve got it,” Angie said.
They finished setting up when Krys’ phone buzzed. Angie ignored it continued to set up and laying down before her friend got their attention.
“Amazing, never thought it might actually happen,” she said.
“What?” Heather asked.
“They’ve discovered aliens,” Krys said excitedly.
“No, they don’t exist,” Angie said.
“Its all over the net,” Krys said.
“Doesn’t mean its real,” Angie replied in a bored tone even as Heather reached over and pulled out her own cell and started looking things up. “Not you too?”
“Hey, checking it out,” Heather said, suddenly stopping. “Um, Ang, you might want to see this.”
Angie mentally rolled her eyes but moved over to see what Heather was talking about. She froze slightly seeing her uncle’s picture under the headline, aliens discovered. Snatching the phone from Heather she quickly scrolled though the article hoping it was a hoax. Nothing about it seemed strange, even worse was the news site, not one of those conspiracy sites Krys liked to go to.
Tossing the phone back to Heather Angie picked up her own and started looking though herself. She noticed several articles, and quickly read though several in silence. It appeared her uncle’s ship had been on some test and discovered the alien ship which now was headed to Earth. Communications had been problematic but steadily improved according to the articles.
Putting her phone down she looked on wondering what might happen now.
“Hey, you’re uncle will be famous,” Krys said. “He and this pilot, who looks cute, Joe Niewen.”
Angie rolled her eyes at that, knowing the pilot was probably ten years older than Krys, but then again she did have a weird thing about older men as she looked around at the people all around her. It seemed many were on their phones, or tablets reading, probably having heard the news as well.
She had to admit if it wasn’t a hoax it was big news, and would change things all over within society. The argument of aliens existing had been a huge argument, at least according to Krys who seemed to enjoy such things. To Angie she always thought they had been alone, why else had they never seen any aliens. She then noticed another group of guys walking on the sidewalk not far away.
“Ugh, don’t look now, but they’re here,” Angie said, motioning to Heather with her head watching as she looked over.
“Great,” Heather said. “The wierdos.”
Angie had to agree, a group of three boys, who were strange. They were loners and the joke was they would be the ones who might snap and shoot up the school. Always wearing dark clothing, she was glad when none of them went to the same college she did.
“Thought they left to head back to Earth,” Krys said.
“Don’t know,” Angie replied watching as another group of guys approached them.
They watched as the two groups seemed to confront each other. Angie wasn’t familiar with the other guys, they looked a bit older though to her. Things seemed to escalate when two of the group started to push each other.
“Great, a fight,” Angie muttered, not wanting to get involved, the last thing she needed was something like this which her mother could use against her. She turned to look back down at her phone and read a few more articles.
It appeared the aliens would arrive at Earth within the next hour or so. Everything seemed strange to her. She looked up a few other sites, including on which was already calling this all a hoax and how it was being done and why.
She read though the article, but it seemed even more outlandish than some alien sites. According to them it was all a hoax to keep the military funded. To them there was no threat to keep the ships active, and with no aliens there was no reason to have them at all. Pirates were almost none-existent, and any real pirates could be dealt with security on freighters. She knew her uncle wouldn’t be part of some hoax, as he didn’t believe in aliens either, or at least never said he did when the topic came up when he visited.
Sighing a bit at the text from her mother, she quickly looked at it, stating if she heard the latest news. She quickly sent back she had before looking up at the shouts now coming from the sidewalk. The two groups had escalated and a new group had become involved restraining both sides.
An older guy was now pointing at both groups. From this distance Angie though the guy looked angry.
“Oh, they angered Terrance, never a good thing,” Krys said.
“Terrance?” Heather said.
“Leader of the RRs,” Krys said, they all knew who the RRs were, the Rough Riders, a local gang. Angie heard of many members but stayed clear of the group as they caused too much trouble.
“Didn’t think they were out here?” Heather said.
“George says this area is a neutral ground, it also means no fighting between the groups,” Krys replied.
Angie watched as the two groups walked away before looking back at her phone wondering what might happen next.
End part 3