“It’s late. Why are you not in bed?” She asked as she moved closer.
Tomas raised his head to look at her in confusion. Then his face cleared. “Oh, I didn’t notice the time.” He said.
“You are doing it again. You need sleep.”
“Okay, in a minute. Just let me finish up with this.” Tomas said.
“What are you working on?” Seo-yun asked as she stopped behind Tomas. She put her hands on his shoulders and then leaned down to look at the text floating above the table.
“It’s Lanai Sumia’s proposal for a trade and defense agreement between Nuva and Sanctuary. The people on Nuva have decided that since their government abandoned them, they are free to govern themselves. And we are now their only chance to survive against the Sowir.” Tomas said. He raised his right hand to his shoulder covering Seo-yun’s hand.
“Are you going to accept?” Seo-yun asked.
Tomas sighed. “I don’t know. You remember what I said last year? That we are going to help them, but that I won’t put Sanctuary in danger because of them.”
“Yes.”
“Well, that is a lot harder to do when you meet the people in question.” Tomas said.
“It usually is.”
“I can’t accept this.” Tomas said slowly, “At least not until Adrian sends word from Nelus. I doubt that Nelus would appreciate us having an agreement with Nuva.”
Seo-yun remained quiet, letting him sort through it on his own.
“No, I need to wait. If things at Nelus go ahead, then I might add a condition concerning Nuva, making sure that it is protected. But not now.” Tomas said with conviction. He then turned his head upwards looking at Seo-yun.
“Thank you.” He said with a smile on his face.
“I didn’t do anything.” She responded.
“Of course you didn’t.” He said, grinning, and then reached up pulling her head down to his, until their lips met.
Unknown system – OWS Monarch
Fleet Commander Johanna Stern sat in the command chair on the Monarch’s CC. Everyone around her was busy, doing their delegated tasks as they moved deeper into the system. The Second Fleet was now 134 light-years away from Sanctuary, 466 from Earth. They still had about another ten months until they arrived in Sol. They haven’t until now encountered a trans-lane that was longer than 15 light-years, the one that will take them from this system was the first. It being 40 light-years long, with travel time of around a week. The passages through trans-lanes were short, a few days at the most, compared to the hyperspace travel that took months if not years. It was the travel between the trans-stations that was taking up most of their time. Usually they needed to pass through an entire system, or a big chunk of it in order to reach the outgoing station. Their trans-capable ships were scanning for other trans-stations in each system, and to date have detected another seven. Three outgoing and four incoming, spread through six system’s they passed through. All of their locations have been recorded and sent back to Sanctuary, for the scout ships that will soon start mapping out and exploring the immediate neighborhood around Sanctuary.
But the system they just entered was also important because of another thing. The Union ship that passed through this system on its way to Earth all those years ago, recorded a dawning intelligent civilization on the fourth planet from the sun. Planet they were now approaching.
“There is still no sign of any space capable intelligence in the system, Fleet Commander.” Sensor Handler reported.
“Still nothing from the planet?” Johanna asked.
“No signs of radio, laser, or any other kind of noise one would expect from an inhabited planet.”
“Any signs of cities?” Johanna asked.
“No.”
“It could be that they simply haven’t advanced enough to form communities.” Ship Master Andros Venter commented.
“They had more than fifteen thousand years…” Johanna said.
“The Union ship didn’t record their level of their civilization. For all we know they were just entering the stone age when the Union ship passed through.” Andros said, “And we know that most of the civilizations take a long time to advance to the level of a space faring civilization. I mean even we took a long time to exit our stone age. We are unique in the way that it took us relatively little time from that point to now.”
“You might be right.” Johanna said.
Soon The Second Fleet entered the high orbit of the planet. Johanna ordered the viewing screen turned on, and they were rewarded with a greenish gray world above their heads. The CC was silent as each person took time to absorb the amazing sight above them.
“I found something Fleet Commander.” Turiel’s voice sounded from the speakers. Turiel was guiding the sensors, as an Ai could greatly increase a system’s productivity.
“What is it?” Johanna asked.
“I’m sending it to sensor station now.”
Sensor Handler Mark Reddy tapped the screen on his board and a moment later a part of the viewing screen turned black and then they saw the enhanced image of the ground. The screen showed a bird’s eye view of what was obviously a kind of village. It was primitive, huts made out of wood, with beings moving about.
“I guess they still haven’t left their stone age…” Johanna said.
“Should we send a team to the ground? We could better evaluate their level.” Andros asked.
Johanna thought about it for a bit, and then shook her head. “No. There will be other ships coming through after us, and we have already sacrificed seven days by visiting the planet. Set a course towards the trans-station. But keep our sensors on the planet, let’s get as much usable information as we can. And we still need to drop the comm relay. We can then send all the gathered information back home.” Johanna said.
Chapter Ten
Nelus system
Adrian watched on the viewing screen as the five ships grew closer to the Leviathan’s position. Adrian turned to Retsar Isani who was standing to his right.
“Three heavy cruisers. Either they trust your opinion of us. Or they think that my ships pose little threat.” Adrian said.
“There are those five patrol ships, light cruisers, with them they outnumber your ships with more than double the numbers. But I am afraid that they are underestimating your ships. That doesn’t bode well for the discussion.” Isani responded in English. Adrian and he started alternating English and Nel when they spoke, in order to better learn each other’s language.
“In what way?” Adrian asked.
“If they don’t consider you a threat, then they most likely don’t see any reason to ally with you. These people are not like me or Lanai Sumia. We were sent to Nuva for a reason. I was born into the lower class while Sumia’s family disavowed her. These people believe themselves better than the other Nel. They will treat you the same way they would a lower class Nel.”
“I guess that we will see soon enough. Come, let’s meet our guests.”
Adrian rose from his command chair and exited the CC. Following behind him were Retsar Isani and Ship Master Paul Isaacs. As he started to exit Adrian noticed that Akash and Sora got up from behind his chair. They went almost everywhere with Adrian, and had claimed the spots behind the command chair as their sleeping area.
“No.” Adrian said to the two wolions as they started to follow, “You two stay here.”
He could see in the debate going between them, whether they should obey him or not. Adrian looked at them sternly preparing to repeat his order, but was stopped by Retsar Isani.