MNES by Steve Holgate

Preface

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So

far away that the mind can't really conceive of the distance and as far in the future as

Normans and Saxons were in the past, there was another struggle for life. An immediate

struggle that ended quickly, but also a long enduring war for existence and meaning.
The

mans name was Jown 43580129584. He had been born an only child into a poor family. His

father, Gornuth was a cargo handler in Seascape on the planet Blue. His town was not

located on any sea, nor was there any blue in his planet. Pretty name, and perhaps once the

sky had been blue, but worldwide manufacturing for centuries had created a gray sky. There

were a few seas that were carefully managed reservoirs used for everything from drinking to

power plant cooling, and did I mention that it was all recycled water? His mother, Helen

was a teacher at a private school where the rich kids were spoon-fed. Jowns school would

have been solely the computer classes available to all had it not been for his mother.

Often to his displeasure she made sure he received all of the education of the rich. In

addition at an early age his father insisted that he learn all about ships and piloting. He

was not going to allow his only child to end up like him, planet bound and poor. He had

little time in his childhood for play. Perhaps then it was justice that he ended up in an

occupation that gave him nothing but time.

Jown was 22, living at home in their 13th

floor apartment and working to bring in some extra credits to help pay off their debts, when

sadness struck. He was away that evening, as usual at work, when an incoming shuttle

suddenly lost all power. The backup systems failed to kick in and it crashed. The pilot

saw he was headed for towers where landing was impossible and was praying to be able to make

a field. If he fired the emergency braking rockets too soon he would fall softly until the

shuttle struck a tower, and then turn over and plummet for the rest of the descent. When he

saw that he wouldnt make the field he fired the emergency braking rockets, but it was too

late to do any good. The shuttle, only slowed slightly, plowed into Jowns home. His

father and mother were killed instantly. Everything they owned was lost. And Jown was

suddenly all alone.

There was an investigation and the shipping company that hired

the shuttle was held liable. But the company was a one man operation and that man was on

the shuttle. The investigator awarded all of the companies credits to the building owner

for damages caused and to Jown he gave the ship. Not the shuttle, but a cargo hauler docked

at the economy freight station orbiting above. It wasnt large, or fast or fancy. In fact

it was a dog. His parents creditors took what little credits his folks had, but they could

not take Jowns own credits. Jown spend the next few months and the few credits he had

getting his space pilots license. Then he left the surface behind and began his lonely life

as a small haul independent cargo carrier. That was 10 years ago.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1 - Double Cross

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gate

r exited the jump gate and immediately spun on full burn. The velocity vector slowly turned

to toward the nearest edge of the asteroid belt. "Faster !!!! ... Faster !!!" ... Two

police fighters appeared from the jump gate and hesitated, scanning for him. They picked

him up quickly (on continuous full burn it was impossible to miss him) but he was already

out of weapons range. He knew he would make it to the field before they could close but

loosing two of them ... never tried to loose two before! All they had to do is separate and

one would almost always have him in view. "What will they do if they catch me? Am I just

to be arrested to stand trial, or have they already tried me? Damn it! It wasn't my fault!

It was a corporate contract, not a police contract! Damned bounty hunter, I didn't have

enough control to be careful. Didn't mean to kill him and anyway they didn't have any

right to put out a death contract on me for those petty thefts! Almost there, just a few

more minutes ...". (Jown, being alone most of his life, had grown accustomed to talking to

himself.)
Red contacts flared on his screen ... vectoring in from 30 degrees above and

left of his heading. They were closing very fast ... his analysis program finally

identified the ship types, old Liberty fighters. "It's not fair, not pirates too!" Damn

it, he would have to take his chances with the Police, too much bounty hunting of his own

for there to be any doubt about what the pirates wanted.

Gater suddenly swung up

toward the pirates still on full burn. Whether they expected it or not didn't matter,

there wasn't time as they flew past each other to get off any accurate shots and it was too

high a delta V for missiles. Gater's turn reversed to come parallel with the Police

course. He could simply slow and the Police would get to him long before the pirates. But

the police vectors were still moving ... and separating. What were they doing? "I'm over

here you idiots!"

The police vectors continued to turn and soon his theatre display

told the whole story. The police and pirates were merging into one small area. "They're

engaging the pirates! Hmmm. If the pirates win I'm a dead man. If the police with

they'll think I am one of them, then it won't matter what their orders were ..." Jown

quickly called up the Nav Map and selected the far jump gate. He never knew the outcome of

the battle. By the time it was over he was out of sensor range and jumped out without ever

getting a sniff of them again.

Nav Map displayed: CURRENT SYSTEM 4389, two jump

gates; Bruton and 4390, no inhabited bodies or stations. "4389" instead of a real name.

That told it all. Nothing of value. All systems with anything worth going there for

eventually got a name. This one was obviously only a path to further out exploration.

Now that he wasn't being chased Jown used his standard ultra cautious procedure.

He had entered the system with virtually everything shut down and both engines and all

thrusters off line. His passive sensors were already at work mapping everything in the

system it could sense. This would take some time, but it had saved him more than once. He

had no appointments to keep ... "Appointments. Wish I did have some or even one. That

would mean paying work." Jown was in debt. So much in debt just at the moment that docking

in the wrong place would cost him his ship. He desperately needed work, but with police

charges against him he couldn't take any police bounty contracts. He would have to find a

corporation somewhere far away that was shady enough to not care about police charges or

what the other corporations said about him. But for now sleep would be a good thing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2 - Loose Thread

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jown

woke slowly and stretched. He glanced at the stars as he drank some water. A nutrition

bar? No not yet. He called up the passive sensor map and looked for any signs of danger.

"Well no ships or human structures of any kind. A couple of planets, both gas giants each

with several moons. Two asteroid belts and a few comets close enough to pick up." The map

showed the movement traces of all of the bodies. In the few hours he had slept the planets

didn't show any noticeable movement, the moons some and as expected the comets showed the

most. Still not much but a little. Nothing else moved. That was good. One final thing,

then on his way. The normal person would call this paranoia. Even Jown wondered at his

practice, but somehow he couldn't stop himself. He always fed the track data into the Nav

program to make sure it matched the previous records. The only thing this had ever done for

him was give him an edge by knowing more accurately the paths of large asteroids that might

change. But it would only take a second. ... there it was done. "Hmmm, all of the comet

data has changed. Not unusual. Nav data is 4 months old. But it is identifying one of the

current comets with the same number as the old data." That was odd. The Nav Comp didn't

reuse id numbers. It would only reuse an old one if it had reason to believe this was the

same comet. Jown checked the sensor data on this comet and found that it exactly matched

the composition of the old comet data. "That's very strange. It should be long gone from

the system by now. It's not far out of the way ..." Gater's engines and thrusters came

briefly to life as the active sensors fired up. Nav computer guided the ship into an

intercept course, but the active sensors never registered it. "Stranger and stranger.

Passives pick it up, but actives don't. Maybe just not enough time." Passive sensors

after all had hours to the active sensors minutes. It took the best part of an hour to

reach the intercept point shown by the Nav Comp, but there was no comet. Jown checked the

records again, carefully manually advanced the comets track to make sure he was in the right

place. "It should be right HERE. But there's nothing here. Couldn't be a comet.

Couldn't be someone pretending to be a comet or I would have picked him up instantly when

he fired engines to move away. That leaves ... nothing at all." Jown was baffled. And

worse, he was getting really hungry now. With nothing else to do a little reluctantly he

swung the Gater to the second jump gate and made his way out of the system.
CURRENT

SYSTEM 4390, two jump gates; 4389 and 4391, no inhabited bodies or stations. He didn't

even need to consult his Nav Map to know where this was leading. A few more jumps through

systems with no branching jump gates would bring him to an active exporation party where the

prices for everything would be outrageous. Jown did check the Nav Map (he was just that

way) and sure enough there was only one way out, ... the way he had come. It had been long

enough for the pirates and police to go home, he would just have to try and sneak through.

Gater swung 180 degrees, fired engines and jumped back to 4389. Having just been

here Jown didn't give the passives as long, just long enough to make sure no one new had

jumped in. There it was again, the mysterious comet! A faint passive signal, but well

above the threshold of detectability. It WAS there. Jown fired up the actives ..."IT'S

GONE!" Just like that the passives lost the signal and the actives never saw it. Jown

checked the previous record to make sure they were the same comet and sure enough they

matched exactly, but it had moved to a totally new position and track! It would surely be a

waste of time to try an intercept with the brief passive data. "Now if I had a small probe,

better yet a stealth probe with secure comms, I could maybe send it in first and after it's

close move in with Gater. Even if it "disappears" I would have the probe data, and should

get some idea of how it does it. But who am I kidding, No one would give me a probe on

credit, especially a special one. Better worry about finding work and paying of my current

loans."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 - Dodge Ball

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By

staying out on the fringes Jown was able to charge fuel and food and make his was to Liberty

space. He stayed far out from the core and found a small corporation, "Value Materials".

On the record they traded in refined metals, common and exotic. They brought in ore from

mining stations on big bulk transports, refined it into many grades and then sold it to

manufacturers. He couldn't compete with the bulk carriers bringing in the ore, or with

them on large delivery contracts, but there was plenty of work delivering small loads. The

trick was to stay away from the inner systems where the police were plentiful, and away from

the large corporations that had a contract on him, and hardest of all the bounty hunters

looking to make a buck out of his hide. He had to be very selective on what he took, which

didn't make him any points with the dispatchers.
It would normally have taken several

years to pay his bills, but a break finally came. The head dispatcher caught him in the bar

one night and pulled him into a back room.

Gramps "So you're in pretty deep,

wanted by the police and have a corp contract on your head."

Jown "Yeah,

that's not secret. You knew that when I showed up. Why do you want the bounty?"

Gramps "Nope, just seems it's going to take an awful long time to get the bills

paid, what with not taking any of the inner system runs."

Jown "It's not

worth the risk. I could get caught in there too easily."

Gramps "Well I've heard

the reason you're so slow on your runs is you're very cautious."

Jown "I

make my deliveries on time. How I go about it is my business."

Gramps "Ok Ok I'm

not here to bust your chops on it. In fact I like it. We have some folks who are just too

carefree on some of their deliveries. We have some that are ... special, and they don't

treat them with the proper respect, if you get my drift."

Jown got his drift just

fine. "Well I know you won't want me prying, special stuff and all, but I'm already in

trouble with the police. What kind of special stuff is it?"

Gramps "It's

munitions."

Jown "There's nothing wrong with that."

Gramps "It's

not what it is that make it special, it's who we sell it too."

Jown had been a

little slow on that one. He should have figured that out on his own. "Pirates huh."

Gramps "The clan we sell to like to be called "Liberators", and since we don't

deliver to them in the inner systems, for the same reasons you don't go there, I thought

that perhaps you would like some of these more lucrative runs."

Jown "Gramps,

I certainly need the money, and I wouldn't mind it, but I would have to be sure they

didn't bear a grudge against me for some reason or another. I've done my share of bounty

hunting on police contracts."

Gramps "I didnt live this long in this business

without making sure everything was ok first. They've already ok'd you, but with some

reservations. They'll keep a close eye on you and won't let you deliver to any of their

bases. You'll swap to ships."

Something popped into his head "Why do you need me?

Why don't they just come here and get it themselves?"

Gramps "Rules Jown, rules.

We don't want to be seen with them here. The feds check up on us without notice. No, we

won't let them come here just like they won't let you go to their bases. So you've got

some good paying work, if your scruples aren't too high."

Jown couldn't afford

scruples and began his first run the next day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4 - The Dance

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CURR

ENT SYSTEM Cheyenne, three jump gates; New LA, Provost and Starlight, two planetary landing

sites on planet Dodge. "Let's see they are to meet me, ... yes there they are on the

passives." Jown didn't immediately move. It took about an hour for the passives to

"clear" the system to his satisfaction. But then he made good speed to their position to

make up somewhat for the search time. He wasn't late, but they were already there waiting

for him.
"It wouldn't be advisable to get much closer, our defensive computer has been

a little on the blink, might "accidentally" decide you're an active target." "I'm not

looking for any trouble and I understand about your software glitch, I've got one of my

own. My cargo controller just randomly decides to dump cargo pods without being told to ...

in fact there goes some now. Darn, it'll take me all day to track them down." Jown

replied. "We'll give you a hand with that, you just take a rest, must be tired after

your journey." Some time later, "Well that does it, all except for that one over there,

we've got to be on our way. See ya." With that the pirate cargo ship and fighter escort

accelerated away toward the jump gate. Jown went and picked up the "last" pod, which was

not one that he had intentionally dropped. Then he too accelerated to the gate and was on

his way "home".

There were six different systems the pirates used for the drops, but

they used drop locations near all of the gates, giving them effectively 14 locations. This

way if anyone did get suspicious they wouldn't know where to wait for them. Also the

pirates ran constant scout missions through all of these systems and the connecting systems

just to know who was coming and going. If any unwanted company was coming their way the

drop would be rescheduled. There were occasional bounty hunters, but the pirates, knowing

his situation, always persuaded them to move on. All in all it was pretty safe. And it was

as Gramps had said, lucrative. It took just under a year for Jown to pay off his debts. 6

months later and he was in good shape, and was getting ichy feet. Gramps saw it coming and

advised him not to burn any bridges (like by high tailing it with a cargo load, or a cargo

payment). If he left peaceably he would be welcome back at any time (as long as he

wouldn't be bringing the wrong kind of attention back with him). Jown assured hem that he

wasn't the sort to steal from an employer. "Liberating" from some of the fat corporations,

well that was another matter, but not from business associates. Gramps was interested to

know where Jown was headed, but Jown wasn't just ready to tell anyone else what he had seen

so long ago (had it really been 2 years?).

The unexpected benefit was that while he

was there Jown got to know some of the factory folks during his frequent visits to the bar.

They wouldn't talk much about the weapons they they made, but probes, well that was another

matter. Jown found out just about everything there was to know about probes. Big ones

(that wouldn't fit on his ship), small ones, cheap ones, expensive ones, military models,

exploration models. When he told them he was interested in a very quiet one, but with

sophisticated algorithms and secure comms, but not for military application, they told him

about an old model. It was small and no longer used much because it had too limited of a

range compared to newer models. But they also weren't expendable, They were designed to be

refueled, using standard ship fuel instead of a solid propellant. Also the newer models

carried offensive weapons (so much easier to take someone out if you could get close with a

small probe). This old one was strictly a probe, no weapons. It had plenty of computer

power to run the newest programs and of course it would be relatively cheap.

After

Jown said his goodbyes he left with one probe on a hard point and one in his hold (they made

him a deal he couldn't refuse, and you never know when one might malfunction).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5 - Hide and Seek

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CURR

ENT SYSTEM 4389, two jump gates; Bruton and 4390, no inhabited bodies or stations. Jown was

relieved when the passive systems picked up the comet. What a waste this trip and the

probes would have been if it had just been a phantom never to be seen again. Of course it

was probably a waste anyway, but he just couldn't live with himself if he didn't check it

out, could you? Staying totally passive Jown passed the passive intercept data to the probe

and launched it on it's quietest (and slowest) mode. It very slowly accelerated away from

the Gater and disappeared quickly from his own passive sensors. He had set it to report at

10 minute intervals so he had to wait.
Right on time the report came in. To Jown's

surprise it wasn't heading straight for the comet, it was headed for one of the asteroid

belts to use it as cover while it closed the distance. Pretty smart. They had said it was

good software. This was going to take a while, but the good news was that so far it was

working, Gater's passives still were tracking the comet.

All in all it took several

hours. Jown ate and played his flute, but he couldn't possibly nap. He had waited too

long for this. The probe sent a report about 5 minutes before close contact. Then just as

it should have arrived Jown's passives lost contact. He immediately went active and

ordered the probe onto active, continuous reporting. Neither picked it up, it was gone

again. But what had the probe "seen" before it disappeared? Jown ordered a complete

encounter download and ordered the probe to return.

While the probe flew back Jown

examined the data. The probe had come in from behind and gotten within 10,000 meters. The

first confirmation that this was no comet was that there was no halo. Jown look closely at

the event recordings in visible, infrared and x-ray modes. It was definitely artificial.

Smooth contours and conforming arrays, but no visible exhaust ports. Then suddenly as the

probe closed, with no exhaust flash of any kind, it accelerated at 90 degrees to its

previous path, and away from Gater, at an unbelievable rate. It was gone in few seconds. A

chill ran down Jown's spine and he broke out in a sweat. He had stumbled onto someones

Top, Top Secret weapon development site. And with this kind of stuff if they knew that he

knew, then he was a dead man. He killed everything except the passives and ordered the

returning probe back stealth mode with intermittent reporting and waited. Jown was still

shaking an hour later when the probe returned and docked. Should he make a run for it?

Maybe they didn't know yet he had sent a probe? Jown turned Gater around, and flew as

casually as he could back to the gate and jumped back to Bruton. He expected any second for

a shot to come out of the darkness, but nothing ever came.

In Bruton system he

didn't wait for his usual passive search, he moved at full speed to the nearest large

asteroid, landed and shut down again, except for the passives. Jown had calmed down a

little. "They obviously didn't detect my probe and their ... ship? probe? Yes it must be

unmanned so a probe then ..., it must not have been set to immediately report encounters.

So all they saw was Gater enter, loiter around for a few hours and leave. But when they

download the probe data, they're going to come looking for me. They won't jump in using

one of their new toys so I should be able to see them come in. But I need to ID them so I

can avoid them and so I dont stupidly try and sell this secret to their own government.

Got to know who they are!"

Jown waited a day and a half. At the end of the first

day he was exhausted and fell into a fitful sleep. Lot's of dreams. He woke with a start

and then the cobwebs cleared. His fingers raced as he called up the passive data collected

while he slept. Nothing... Nothing had come or gone from the gate. Nothing had even

approached it. It had been too long. They should have been here by now. Maybe they were

trying to come in the other gate, but no, that wouldn't work there was no way around. The

other 4389 gate was a dead end.

Jown pulled up the probe data again. In his fright

he hadn't taken time to look at the more obscure data it collected. He began now to look

at it.

Magnetism Traces - none.
"None? Must be made of non-magnetic material,

but why?
Electrical Traces - none.
"That's no surprise, probe never got close

enough to pick up electricals."
Gravity -
"What's this? Doesn't make any sense.

None until it moves and then ... wham, a burst of negative gravity. Negative gravity? What

is that? Doesnt occur in nature that he had ever heard of and that means its artificial.

So this thing has a gravity drive!"
Jown was in utter disbelief. Mankind had been

working on the gravity enigma for centuries and gotten absolutely no where, but it explained

everything. No exhaust nozzle because it doesn't need them. No signature Gater could pick

up when it "disappeared" because Gater doesn't passively scan for gravity. High speed

departure made possible because a gravity drive would not be limited by the physics of an

impulse drive. But that made this even bigger than he had initially feared. It was more

than just a remote Top Secret testing area with cutting edge stuff. What they had was

revolutionary. But who in their right mind would risk discovery of something this big out

in the middle of nowhere without even a monitored and patrolled exclusion zone? There

should have been fighters, corvettes AND destroyers keeping intruders out. But there was no

one! How could that be? Could it be a stray? Maybe they started it up and it just up and

left the test range. They sure wouldnt be able to keep up. But they would have had shut

down commands all over it's operating algorithms and a tracking beacon. And it sure

didn't act like it was malfunctioning. It did it's comet mimic and it's disappearing act

perfectly. It just didn't add up.
Jown mulled over it for a long time, but couldn't

come up with anything new. The big question was what was HE going to do? He could make

some good money just selling the information. But who to sell it to? And who not to sell

it to? Maybe if it was a stray, and he could find out who's it was, ... yes there was big,

big money if he could quietly tell it's owners where it was. But he always came back to

the same dead end, who's was it? Finally Jown decided there was only one thing to do, but

it crossed his cautious grains. He had to go back, and find out more. The going back would

be easy (maybe lethal, but easy). But how could he hope to find out anything more? Well

maybe, just maybe if I dont spook it by getting too close with the probe, but just follow

it for a while. And maybe using the two probes working together. And maybe if I hmmm ...

its worth a try.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6 - Discovery

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jown

lifted off and moved away from the asteroid. Then he ordered the spare probe ejected.

Finally he activated it and ordered it onto the other hard point. Then he spent a while

putting in parameters for the probes combined tracking. Their software was fortunately

built for this, but they needed to be told how far back to stay, how far apart to say, how

often to talk to each other, and many other things. At last he was ready and flew to the

jump gate.
Shortly after exiting the gate, Gater picked up the comet again, passively of

course. Jown was on pins and needles until the passive sensors said there was no one else

detectable in the system. Then he relaxed a little and sent the probes on their way, and

waited. Hours went by with the occasional reports. After a while he started getting some

very good long-range pictures and began diagramming the craft. But there really wasn't

much to diagram. After about 8 hours, 4 hours in relatively close trail, there was nothing

else to do but try his trick. It was very simple really. He would go active with Gater and

maybe, just maybe it wouldn't go so far or so fast with just a distant contact.

Gater switched to active, turned toward the "comet" and it disappeared. Now all he

could do is wait. 10 minutes later a report came in, they were still in trail. It hadn't

moved so fast and hadn't made a course change after the initial acceleration. Pretty

smart, didn't need the added course change for a distant contact. 10 minutes later and the

report said they still had a faint signal, but obviously weren't able to keep up. 10

minutes later and it was gone.

Jown was trying to decide how long to leave the

probes on their last track, hoping to catch a whiff of it again, when noticed it. The

probes were headed straight for an asteroid. That meant the "comet" had been heading there

too. Why? Two possible reasons he could think of (1) to hide there or (2) that was its

"home" for it. Either way it was worth letting the probes go and see what they could see.

Another half hour and they would be there anyway. A minute later the regular probe report

indicated they had both detected a short lived gravity anomaly near the asteroid and

localized it. The time passed very slowly with no further contact, but as with everything in

life the time did come at last, the probes were there. Jown didn't want to risk spooking

anyone or anything by sending a command to the probes. In that direction it would probably

be picked up. He would have to let the probes decide what to do. As it turned out it was a

very good move because he would never have had nerve to do what they did.

The probes

next report said they had taken up low orbits that both passed at different times over the

last location. Nothing detected, but some pretty scenery. The next probe report said still

no contact, but a large cave entrance noted below the last location, probe #2 going in!

Jown was about to send an abort command when he realized it would be too late. Accounting

for the transmission delay time, the probe was probably already in. He searched the images

sent back and saw the opening. Pretty large. Big enough for a good size fighter, no even a

corvette could fly into there. Totally black.

10 minutes and the report came from

probe #1 that probe #2 was inside and communication with it was not possible. The next 10

minutes was an eternity. The probes plan was a quick entrance, look all around very quickly

and fly out fast. It should be out on the next report. And it was. The report was

stunning. The cave was not natural, there were closure doors a short way below the surface,

and landing pads inside an enormous cavern. The "comet" was on one of the pads. There was

no sign of power except for a signal being sent from the "comet", but it wasnt getting a

return signal. It was hard for Jown to orient his mind to the scene, but at last he got his

bearings and zoomed in on what looked like some kind of a door. There seemed to be some

kind of writing next to it, the language should tell him who built this. The pictures were

very good quality so he zoomed in very close so the doorway filled his screen. The

inscription was very legible ... and totally strange. Jown didn't speak are read all of

the languages, but on his travels he had seen them all and could clearly recognize them,

both spoken and written. This was like nothing he had ever seen before.

Two

exhausting days later the probes finished detail scans of every space accessible in the

caves. Besides the main landing bay there was an open door to what appeared to be a

standard supply room containing many rows of racks with packaged items on the shelves and on

the floor lining the walls. A second door led to a repair bay, complete with handling

equipment, tools and what seemed to be some kind of computers. A third door led into a

labyrinth of small passageways. These led to a large variety of rooms; living quarters,

kitchen, working spaces that might have been control rooms, communication rooms and other

rooms Jown could only guess at. As you have guessed it was totally deserted. But it didnt

appear that any disaster had taken place, only that the inhabitants had left. There were no

ships other than the probe. Everything was clean, there was no food in the kitchen and

there didnt appear to be any personal effects like pictures. Perhaps they had intended on

returning because they had left a lot of parts on the shelves and an active probe behind.

But how long ago had they left? How long could the probe operate without refueling? Or did

it somehow get refueled on its pad? So many questions. What did they look like? Who were

they? Where had they gone? How long ago? Were they coming back? So many questions, but

he was way too tired to work on them. Jown needed to sleep and briefly toyed with the idea

of landing in the bay first, but that idea gave him the creeps. Safest to sleep right where

he was with everything except passives shut down.

Next morning with a clear head

Jown finally admitted to himself the inescapable. He had stumbled on alien technology. It

was the only explanation. It explained the unknown technology, the missing human activity,

the unknown writing on the door, and the totally unrecognizable parts in the store room.

That made this the discovery of the century, or more. Ever since the sudden destruction of

Earth mankind had known we werent alone, but there had never been any contact and there had

never been any alien stuff found on any of the many worlds that and systems that had been

settled. Oh yeah there had been rumors and improvable little bits and pieces, but nothing

concrete. But he, Jown, was sitting not only on verifiable alien artifacts! And not in

some state of terminal decay, operational stuff!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7 - The Plan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afte

r breakfast and a check of the nights activity (none), Jown started more pragmatic

considerations. Who they were, where they were, when they had left and all that stuff was

very intriguing but it wouldnt feed him. What was he going to do with this? (1) I could

just sell the discovery, or (2) I could take what looks valuable, then sell the discovery,

or (3) I could take and sell some of the items, but not sell the discovery, perhaps selling

stuff a little at a time for the rest of my life (that sounds really sweet), or (4) I could

try and use these new technologies myself, or (5) I could find others that I trust and

together make we could make private use of the technologies. Five options, which will it

be?
If I do the first or second its all over as soon as I sell the discovery. And

any stuff I try to keep for myself will certainly be confiscated. The third option will

never work. Scientists would figure out something was alien. Then they would grab me and

wring the whole discover out of me. Then Id probably never see freedom again, if they let

me live at all. With the fourth option I can control when any hint of alien discovery gets

out. No sold items floating around for scientists to look at. And if I do get something to

work I can limit where and when I use of it to safe situations. But it might take a long

time to get even one thing to work. Now the last option has two disadvantages. I would

have to share this find and the credits with others and the more people involved the more

chance one of them will spill the beans. But there should be plenty of credits to go around

and if I can find and get just the right people and keep the group very, very small, like

three or four it could work for a very long time. And beauty of it is I can start alone

right now and bring in others as I find them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8 - Pieces Parts

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gate

r eased into the docking chamber and floated down onto one of the pads. The alien probe had

left during the night and was out imitating a comet again. Jown suited up and went out.

There was essentially no gravity so moving about was quite easy. He made his way first to

the repair shop. Once inside he took his time examining each tool. The complex tools might

tell him a lot about the parts they fitted. He was surprised when he found a lot of

duplication, not just different sizes of the same tool, but apparently exactly the same

tool. There really werent many different types of tools. This hinted to Jown that the

machinery must be somewhat simple.
Next he made his way into the corridors (he always

saved the best (which would be the store room) for last). The probes had shown almost

everything to be seen. There were some cabinets he was able to open, but almost all were

empty, except in the control type rooms and those contained thin translucent rectangular

blocks a little bigger than both his hands together. There didnt seem to be any way to

activate them, but he took one back to the ship as a sample.

Jown paused to eat a

bite (he wanted to really enjoy this last room without getting hungry before he was done).

Finally he drifted into the supply room. The racks had many bins of various sizes on them

and all the bins were fully enclosed including a clear door. He began down the nearest

rack, picking up each item in turn and examining it. These first parts were all rectangular

solids, some with translucent bodies, some flat black, some large and some small, but all

made of something like a cross between plastic and ceramic. Jown theorized that at least

some must be a type of information or control modules, but they had no visible connection

points. Apparently the data transmission wasnt through fiber, but rather broadcast and

received. This would make arrangements and replacements quite simple. That technology

wasnt in itself new. It was in limited use in more expensive human ships, but the problem

was bandwidth, too much data to pass. Also these modules also had no visible source of

power. Perhaps that was broadcast too. That would be new. Next came a long rack of blocks

all the same size and shape, about the size of one of his hands, but each had a single small

stem protruding from the center of one size. That side, unlike the others, was slightly

concave. Next after a row with a dizzying array of just one or two of each part, boxes?,

pipes?, light sticks?, pointers?, etc, Jown came to a whole bunch of strange pieces. They

looked kind of like bent forks. A thick stem with a hole in it and three or four prongs on

the end, each bend to a different right angle with the stem. These came in all sizes from a

couple of centimeters to about 25 centimeters, but were made of the same strange ceramic

like material that was flat black in color. On a hunch Jown retrieved one of the blocks

with a stem and tried to fit it into the hole on one of the forks. It didnt fit. But when

he went back and looked at more of the blocks he notices that the blocks were all the same

size, but he stems werent all the same thickness. He took one back again to the forks and

began trying them all. It didnt take long to find one where it was a perfect fit. The stem

slid softly into the hole, but bottomed out about an inch before the block hit the base of

the fork. Seemed they were designed to fit together, but with something else between. One

the next row Jown saw what looked like sensor dishes, transmitters and receivers. They

seemed much smaller than what he was used to and seemed to be a solid mesh differing

materials, all fused together, but not in some crude way. The patterns and thickness and

edges of different materials were far too regular and fine to be simple squashed together.

Then came some pieces of the same meshed material as the dishes, but these werent dish

shaped. Jown was at a loss to figure out what they were for and began to doubt that what he

had initially taken to be transmitters and receivers were really that.

There were

many other rows of enigmatic stuff, but at last Jown then rounded the last row and came to

the open area with larger assemblies sitting on the floor. Each piece or assembly had a

short light tether attached to the floor nearby. First he came to structural pieces like

hatches, curved plates and even chairs. In his suit in zero g Jown couldnt really try and

sit in one, but just judging from the size and shape he guessed that they were smaller and

slimmer than humans. There was no sign on any of these pieces of tapered edges prepared for

welding of or of welds in the assembled equipment. And he recalled that he hadnt seen any

welding machines in the repair shop. They must have something better method than welding.

Then he came to a field of assemblies built around spheres. Again a whole variety of sizes

from about 10 centimeters up to about a meter. Each sphere was studded with blocks and

stood on a kind of three legged pipe stand. Attached in the legs of each stand was a block.

Jown recognized the blocks studding the spheres. They were the same as the ones in the

racks that had the stems. That meant the bent forks were probably inside the spheres. Jown

was getting the crude picture. But what were they for? Some kind of shield generator?

Jown drifted to the end of the space and saw nothing different. But at the end he noticed a

door. It seemed to be more solid than the other doors he had encountered and there didnt

seem to be any mechanism to open it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9 - Let There Be Light

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It

seemed clear that he would indeed need help, but should he bring them here? No, at least

not at first. First of all they probably wouldnt risk a long ride to a really out of the

way place with a total stranger. Second if it didnt work out or they turned on him he

could simply leave with only the knowledge of the discovery known, but not the location.

Much better at first to take a few pieces to them (whoever they might turn out to be).

That would convince them of his authenticity and safeguard some of the secret. Jown went to

the repair shop and retrieved a sample of tools to his ship, then headed back to the supply

room. He had gathered a sampling of the individual parts into a mesh bag when he decided to

look again at the spheres, might as well take a small one at least. He tied his bag onto

the pipe stand of one and was about to lift it when he notices one of the blocks in the bag

had lit up. Very carefully he untied and opened the bag. It was a relatively flat solid

rectangle that was translucent, but now it had a pink glow and a symbol on the lower right

corner of one of the large sides. After examining it all over Jown touched the symbol.

The face was instantly filled with blocks and symbols (icons?) and something like small

writing. Now there was a different symbol on the bottom right. Again he looked at the

whole piece, but the only display was on this one side. Jown was afraid to go any farther,

not knowing what it would do. It might be a controller for the spherical assembly and who

knows what would happen if he started it up accidentally. Jown pushed the new symbol on the

lower right corner, and the block returned to the glow with the original symbol. Jown

examined all of the blocks and found the same case with several of them. He carefully

repacked them so that they wouldnt accidentally rub against each other and activate.

At this point he was ready to go and start his quest to find help, but something had

been nagging at him this last hour. Finally it came to him. The blocks hadnt lit up until

he gathered them together. Maybe one of them was a power source that the others needed to

be close to in order to function. What if he found that block and took it into the control

room? Would the control panels respond like the other blocks? He had to try it. He went

back to the supply room, grabbed on of the thin blocks of the shelf like the ones that had

lit up and walked along the rows until it activated. Then he took the nearest block in the

racks and walked along the rows with it. Blocks light up all along the way. This must be a

power source of a command block that tells the others to start working. Jown headed for the

corridors. Fearing unknown results he decided to start with the smallest and furthest

control room. As he entered the room lights came on. Then all of the panels began to glow

faintly, green this time. And they had the symbol on the bottom right. Jown touched each

one. Screens came to life. Again they were filled with symbols and writing and blocks and

lines. Then he remembered the flat blocks in the cabinets below the screens. They were

also glowing, but when he activated these they filled simply with writing. When he touched

a new symbol on the upper left a new page was instantly displayed, but cleverly the initial

page could still be seen very faintly beneath the new one. He touched the page change

button again and the initial page sunk deeper into the block, still visible, but now beneath

the second page which was sunken and faded beneath the third page. This was good stuff,

stuff a good linguist might be able to use to decipher some of their language. Well worth

taking. But a linguist would need lots of material, so Jown took all of the control room

blocks.

He was getting quite tired now, but again the thought of sleeping in here

didnt appeal to him. Gater lifted slowly and slipped out of the cave entrance. Near the

Bruton jump gate Jown stopped and powered down. But he took one last precaution before

sleeping, he downloaded the location of the asteroid to a memory wafer then permanently

erased all memory of it from Gaters computers. He kept a digitized record of the probes

surveys inside, but erased everything in their memories that hinted of location. Then at

last he slept. It had been a very noteworthy day in his life.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10 - The Search

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thre

e days later Jown arrived in an outskirt system with good communications lines, just what he

was looking for. He landed on a station because there was less chance of someone listening

in, on this end anyway. He settled into his chair and began. The most accessible material

would be written news articles and Jown supposed that the caliber of linguist he would need

would have had at least something written up about them sometime so he began by searching

news articles for linguists. There were way too many to deal with so he tried more

specialized searches like theoretical linguists and ancient language interpretation

linguists. That was a more manageable number, only about 10,000! Next he added doctorate

and expert. That helped a lot. Finally he added disgruntled, dishonored, guilty,

disenfranchised and just plain fired and the number dropped to 157 articles. Well that

was better. He ordered the node to extract the names associated with those articles and was

down to 5. One at a time he entered those names and searched for anything about their

history and location.
Dr. Petal Swata was deceased. Dr. Steven Landmanson was in prison

for embezzlement. Dr. Joan Oisoh taught at the University of New France, Ancient Studies

Campus (that sounded possible). Dr. Hui Soto had been executed for murdering his partner

(wouldnt want someone like him anyway). And last Ex. Dr. Grunhilda Gieorn lived in a

system he wasnt familiar with, in modest retirement with her husband.

Jown was

looking for someone out of the way, someone not too desirous of helping the government or

corporations. Dr. Joan Oisoh seemed a little too established for his taste. It seemed she

was disgruntled about the campus cutting down some trees the ruining the view from her

office window. Typical spoiled crusty! Ex. Dr. Grunhilda Gieorn on the other hand had been

disenfranchised and had her university pension voided by her government for translating a

previously un-translated text in a manner that said their ancestors on earth had

exterminated a whole nationality of people when a dispute broke out over borders. The

government had called for a retraction, but all Grunhilda would do was print that she was

very sorry she had translated the text, and would not retract it as wrong.

Since

she was married Jown decided it would be prudent to look up available material on him as

well. Her husbands name was Johann. Jown searched on Johann Gieorn and found that Johann

was a retired scientist with no degree. Thats very strange. How does someone become a

scientist without a degree? Intrigued he read on. Seemed that Johann had worked in a

laboratory from his teen years. Using self-study, some training by the staff and practical

experience he had educated and trained himself, but by that method could never earn a

degree. However he was eventually recognized and given a job a scientist at the lab, not

just an aide. The list of his innovations was very impressive. Then the same time his

wife got in hot water, the government decided that their scientists had to have advanced

degrees. The reports said they made this a retroactive provision and forced Johann to take

a reduced retirement as an aide. Now thats just evil. Its obvious that they did that

just because of his wife. And that means they must like their government even less than I

do. If anyone is right for this job they are. As Jown ended his session and headed for

his ship he paused at the door. Maybe I should send them a gram rather than just going

there? But if I do that sometime in the future it could be resurrected and traced to them.

Better not. With that he turned and continued to the Gater.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11 - Out in the Outback

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just

over 5 days later Gater landed on Sage. It was a warm, dusty day. Not one of those

blistering hot days, but dry as dust. In the port city, after a meal, he found an

information terminal and called up a map. He had the Gieorns address and found that they

werent anywhere near a landing station. In fact their little town wasnt anywhere near

anything but a river. Jown selected travel and entered the address. Seemed the only way to

get there was on foot, by privately chartered bush vehicles or by Rotor craft. This was

going to be a little expensive. How stupid is this. I can fly across known space almost

for less than its going to cost to get a Rotor ride to their town. If he hadnt been

worried about making a good impression Jown would have just flown his ship there and landed

in a barren patch. The authorities seldom cared on planets like this as long as no one was

hurt and nothing was damaged. But that would be poor form and he certainly didnt want to

start with a bad impression. So he paid his money and took the flight.
A few hours

later it was getting dark when Jown stepped down onto the ground and followed the pilot into

town. There was a slight cool, dry breeze in the air and Jown picked up the scent of food.

There was a single tavern and Jown went in. The pilot ate quickly and left him alone with

the proprietor.

Hi.

And Hi to you, where are you from son?

Im

an independent trader. Im not from anywhere except my ship.

That doesnt sound

very healthy to me. Everyone needs someplace to call home. Any kin?

No, I was an

only child, no cousins I ever knew of. Mom and Dad died about 10 years ago. Jown didnt

really want to continue this line of conversation, it was bringing up deeply buried feelings

that he didnt want to deal with, but he didnt want to be rude either under the

circumstances.

Thats mighty hard. Sorry, probably not what you want to talk

about. So what could possibly bring you way out here? Theres nothing to trade. People

have looked and looked for anything of value and never found anything. Farmings hard, but

next to the river you can scratch out a living. Still there isnt enough for trading.

Well to tell the truth I came out to meet some folks. The Gieorns, do you know

them? Pretty stupid question, huh. You all know everyone for probably a thousand

kilometers.

Yup. Theyre wonderful folks, both healthy as rocks (they never get

sick you know, rocks I mean). What takes you to them?

Jown didnt have a story

that would work so he decided to just tell the truth somewhat abbreviated, I have a

business proposition for them.

Business? I think youve come a long way for a

cold drink, theyre both retired. I hardly think they would be interested in any work.

Well I know they are, but it has to do with linguistics and science. They just

seemed like the perfect pair for it. Its not hard work, stuff they could do at home and

Im sure it would be very interesting to them. Ive heard sometimes folks who are healthy

can get bored after being retired a while.

Well no harm in asking. They dont get

visitors so theyll probably be glad just for the company even if they dont take you up on

your offer.

Its pretty late and I dont want to barge in on them this late, being

a stranger and all. Is there some place in town I could get a room for the night?

A room? Out here? Son no one comes here that doesnt know someone. Youre

probably the first person asking for a room in a decade! I can give you a blanket and

pillow. You can sleep on the sofa by the fire. It gets cold here at night so youll need

to through a log on the fire now and again. Thatll save me the trouble so well just call

it even.

Thank you sir, I really appreciate it, and the conversation too. I dont

talk to anyone much anymore.

Caleb finished cleaning things up and brought Jown the

blanket and pillow. Caleb probably didnt realize how wonderful that couch felt to Jown

after sleeping literally for years in his pilot seat. Jown sure didnt want to get up when

Calebs wife started opening things up for breakfast customers. Jown had a wonderful

country breakfast then got directions from Caleb to the Gieorns. Their homestead was 3

kilometers from town, but the walk was flat and the morning beautiful. About a kilometer

out of town he hit the river, beautiful crystal clear blue in the rosy morning light. He

followed it the rest of the way.

The Gieorns house was a small clay cottage with a

porch faced east toward the river and the morning sun (actually though he couldnt see it

then they had a porch for the setting sun as well). It was a light pink with just a touch

of purple darkening the trim. The roof was all thatch. As he approached he saw an elderly

couple sitting on the porch eating breakfast. Johann looked to be about 175 centimeters,

Grunhilda just a few shorter. Both were of a slight build, but not an unhealthy gauntness

like some are. As expected they were light skinned with hair a mix of blondy and gray.

Good morning, Mr. And Mrs. Gieorn? Jown called out as he approached the porch.

Good morning, come up and enjoy the sunrise with us. Hildy will fix you some

breakfast.

Thanks, but I ate at the tavern. Jown replied as he stepped up on the

porch and took the vacant chair.

The clouds sure make the sunrise pretty this

morning dear.

Yes Hildi, and even better it means rain this afternoon.

As

they continued polite conversation about the weather, fishing and farming, Jown was

wondering when they were going to get around to asking him who he was and why he was there,

but it didnt seem like they were going to. Arent you curious about who I am and why Im

here?

Johann laughed. We saw you coming and decided to have a contest. We are

trying to see who can guess and come the closest. So please dont tell us just yet.

Johann youre being rude! The young mans come a long way to see us and we

shouldnt keep him waiting. You never liked being kept waiting when you were working, now

did you?

No I suppose I didnt. But heres my guess, youre a reporter or writer

of some kind come out to get a story. You say some old news files and thought there might

be some interest in hearing about how were doing. Now you Hildi.

Oh all right.

Youre an assassin come to kill us both dead. They had to wait until everyone forgot about

our story, but now they can do what they always really wanted. Now Im being the rude one.

I dont really believe that. I havent even a guess about why anyone would come to see

us.

Well my name is Jown, Jown 43580129584. I am an independent trader and I

found something interesting.

Numbers for a last name, poor worker family. Johann

acknowledged. So what is it you found, and why tell us?

What I found I would

like to keep private, just between us. But first let me warn you that Im wanted by the

police and have a corporate bounty on my head. Some time back I was picking up some

stranded cargo pods, just out along a trade route not near any stations and no other ships

in scanner range. Well while I was at it the corporate ships returned for it. They were

hot when they saw me loading it up and sent their fighters after me before I had time to

jettison the cargo or even protest. I ran and they called it theft and put out a contract on

me. I tried several times to contact them to return it, but could never get past the

answering services. So I just moved on to the outer systems until things quieted down.

Well a bounty hunter found me and I didnt see him until it was too late. I tried to run

and evade, but he hurt the Gater too bad in the first round. So finally I just fired back

blindly in a hail of everything I had just to get him to back off so I could get away. Well

I guess he had all his energy going to his guns because my one volley destroyed his ship and

killed him. They called it murder and now Im wanted by the police.

Johann

replied, Well we dont like what the government did to us, it wasnt right, but we cant

fight it. But we arent about to become lawbreakers or take up some kind of crusade against

them. Were perfectly content to simply collect my pension and keep our distance from them.

Its plenty for living out here and we like it out here. I appreciate your telling us the

situation. Associating with you even though youre wanted doesnt bother me, wed just have

to be careful. So if what you have to say is legal, say on. If its revenge youre after

you need to find someone a bit younger.

Im not suggesting anything illegal or

even shady. Just secret. Jown hesitated. I kind of want to know if youre willing to

keep what I tell you secret, even if you dont want to be a part of it.

Well I

suppose that will be a rather easy thing for us way out here. Its not like theres anyone

to tell. What is it you found?

Jown settled back and told them the whole story

except that he didnt say where he found the alien base. Johann and Grunhilda sat in

shocked silence for a long time. Grunhilda spoke at last Not saying we dont believe you,

but did you bring any of it with you?

Yes, but its locked in my ship back at the

station.

Back at the station? Replied Johann in shock. You shouldnt have left

it there. What if someone decides to inspect your ship while youre gone?

Well

its under a security lock that I dont suppose anyone here could break, and its alarmed.

If anyone did try and get in I would know instantly. Of course youre right, I couldnt do

anything about it this far away (that wasnt strictly true. He didnt like to advertise his

security measures, one of which was the ability to order the ship to lift off and fly to his

location). But I didnt want to break local laws by landing outside of the authorized

landing zone.

Grunhilda blustered Authorized landing zone indeed! Its just a

trick to make some cash by getting a landing fee out of you. You can land anywhere so long

as you dont damage something or someone. You go back at once, you just have time to catch

the noon flight, and get your ship here! I want to see that writing, even if Johann is too

old to care about the science.

Now it was Johanns turn to bluster I said nothing

of the sort. I just have been lost in thought. Theres so many thing to consider,

materials, energy projection and collection, gravity generation to name a few. But Hildis

right you should go back at once. Hildi can you fix Jown some food for the trip before he

has to leave?

Yes dear, I surely will.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12 - The Beginning of Discovery

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jown

s return trip was uneventful. Hildis food was strange, but wonderful. He was going to

stay in his ship that night, but remembered that Johann and Hildi were anxious to see what

he had, so instead he paid his landing fee and flew to the river, finally landing just north

of their house (he didnt want his ship to block their view from the porches).
He was

just getting some samples out when Johann and Hildi knocked on his hatch. So he helped them

up and into the hold. Hildi was sitting down examining one of the text blocks when a

strange quiet voice not belonging to any of them said something quite distinctly, but in a

foreign language. Jown was just thinking that it must have been Hildi impersonating a mans

voice. Hildi picked up the block again and then starting at the left side ran her finger

slowly across the screen. As she did the voice returned and kept speaking as long as she

scrolled her finger. Also at the same time the symbols on the page brightened then dimmed

in groups. Hildi was ecstatic.

This is wonderful! We have the written language

together with the spoken language! Usually we can determine the written language, what it

says, what it means, but the sounds that the peoples attach to the words or symbols is

always a mystery.

Johann, seeing that if he didnt do something Hildi would stay

all night in the hold said, Its getting a bit late and Im betting that Jown hasnt eaten

supper. With your permission Jown I suggest we take all of these things inside. We have a

hidden basement that is pretty secure. And if anyone comes to get you and takes your ship,

they wont be any the wiser. And we have some news on that front.

Jown agreed so

while Hildi fixed him some supper the men carried the treasure hoard inside. The basement

turned out to be more than just a secret room it was a miniature laboratory. While Jown ate

Johann organized the pieces on shelves and cataloged them.

After dinner Jown asked

Johann, By the way I was just going to ask you what you think the spherical assembly is

when Hildis stranger interrupted my train of thought.

Oh Hildi has a habit of

interrupting my thoughts , with that Hildi struck Johann a blow on the back of his head.

Well if I was going to invent something to generate gravity I would make the shape

spherical. Seems like it would make the calculations and control much simpler. So Im

guessing theyre engines.

But why not a shield generator or some kind of weapon?

Well there werent enough different assemblies in the store room you described to

cover all those things. They have to have engines so either they dont have weapons and

shields or they dont have them there. Again Ill guess they are behind the strong doors

you saw.

Jown wasnt convinced. But theyre all so small. The largest isnt any

more than a meter in diameter. Do you think the real engines are somewhere else? And what

would they need such a variety of small engines for?

Well Jown if they have

developed a gravity generating engine, it must be based on use of sub atomic properties.

And the potential energy stored in a meter-sized sphere is enormous. So the issue isnt the

size, its the rate at which it can produce gravity. We know nothing about that so its

reasonable to assume that these small engines are potent enough for very large craft.

Especially if they install many of them I order to give more directional thrust combinations

and options. But well know much more after we get a detailed scan of the whole assembly.

By the way earlier you hinted that you knew something new about my status?

Oh yes, just before you returned we were watching the local news. The Port Master

was on and he said they had checked the registration of a ship that had stayed overnight.

They found just after it had left that the pilot was wanted by the police for murder and

that there was a corporate bounty on him. Cleverly the pilot had avoided going into any of

the offices that had scanners, so they dont know what he or she looks like. Its good that

you parked on the north side, although I think we will need to do a little camouflaging in

the morning. We should probably come up with a new name for you to use while youre here

too.

Jown thought to himself how close a call it was. If he hadnt decided to

return tonight and slept in his ship instead . It took him a little longer than usual to

drop off to sleep that night, even in a real bed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13 - Donkey Work

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The

next morning after breakfast on the porch Jown and Johann moved the ship into a group of

bushes next to a low hill and covered it with netting and branches. This crude covering

should be sufficient for any airborne prying eyes and no one ever ventured on land beyond

their home.
When they came back in they found that Hildi had set up a mounted camera

about a meter away from one of the text blocks. Jown didnt ask why because getting

pictures of the images was a good basic idea. But Hildi explained anyway that for computer

assisted analysis she had to have a means of getting the symbols and text into the computer.

She could of course do it by hand, and perhaps her great grand children, if she ever had

any, would finish it. But since she was a very impatient sort, she would program the

computer to scan in each character in order, capture the lit up groups and the spoken

language. While she was still explaining it she finished the setup and started the task.

The recording work was very fast, but with the voice it was also noisy.

It didnt

take long for Johann to come over. Dearest this will not do for long. Its just too

loud.

Of course youre right. There should be a way of turning the sound down

dont you think? The computer can add the necessary amplification. But I dont see

anything on the block that might do it. Ive tried touching and scrolling my finger on the

sides and back, but it doesnt to anything.

Jown broke the short silence. Well

theres nothing obvious, but maybe its built into your scrolling across the front. Have

you tried varying that? Like up and down, diagonal, backwards, lower or higher in the

screen?

Hildi started again, this time across the bottom of the screen. The voice

was barely audible. You sure youre not a scientist?

Johann turned back to his

work of getting internal scans of everything. While he did that he put Jown to work getting

microscopic samples of all of the pieces for material analysis. Several hours later, hours

that to Jown flew by, they all broke for lunch and then went right back to it until late. A

quick simple supper then to bed. This went on for a couple of days, although their pace

became more normal, and Jown began to get a little restless. Sensing it Johann gave him

some encouragement.

Jown this is the donkey work.

The what?

The

donkey work. This is the part of science that no one ever sees or cares about. But it is

absolutely the most important. All of our conclusions, all of our large discoveries depend

not only on all of this inglorious work, but on being very careful to do it correctly and

not miss anything.

What comes next after we finish the cataloging, scanning and

material identification.

Then the job will be to use the initial information to

invent new tests that will tell us even more. Then we will have to diligently apply the new

tests. Then, if we get lucky, we will have something to work with, to discover with. Jown

nothing of this magnitude can be done quickly. But the time will go by quicker than you

think, and I dont think you will be just sitting around for all of it. There will be more

samples to go back and get, and new test equipment to buy and bring back.

Jown was

encouraged in spite of the realization that this might take years. Deep inside he had

always known that this couldnt possibly be fast, he was just an impatient young man.

Johann and Jown finished their initial battery of tests after a few weeks. Hildi hadnt

quite finished her initial scanning in spite of the fact that she had gotten very efficient

at it scanning at the rate of about a page a second. There was an enormous amount of

written material. Rather than go on to other things, Johann and Jown helped her finish the

initial linguistic scanning. It took a little over two weeks to finish.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14 - Squeeky Clean

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now

both Johann and Hildi spent a couple of weeks just looking and and thinking about the

initial data. To keep Jown busy they sent back to the alien base to trade artifacts, with a

stop on the way back to buy some specialized test equipment Johann knew he would need. It

wasnt long after that when Hildi first and the Johann sketched out further testing. In

Hildis case it was done by running specialized programs on the data she had scanned in,

programs she spent several weeks writing herself. In Johanns case it was more scans with

the new equipment, not just of the pieces sitting statically on the bench, but recording

interactions between the power blocks and the other blocks. Some of these Jown helped with,

but several times Johann sent him out for more equipment.
This phase went on for several

months, at the end of which Johann announced that he needed more equipment that he didnt

have the money to pay for. Jown certainly didnt have the needed credits, but he knew where

he could get them. While Johann helped Hildi, Jown went back to Value Materials. Gramps

was very glad to see him. Seems a couple of the pilots who had taken Jowns place when he

left hadnt been careful enough and they had been caught selling munitions illegally to

pirates. There had been a large fine and they were on probation, being dropped in on

unexpectedly fairly often. Jown didnt like the risk of getting caught, but when Gramps

told him how much more they were being offered by the pirates (and how much more he would

make), the pay off was worth it. He went back to smuggling guns.

Jown kept in touch

with Johann and Hildi, dropping in on them whenever he could for a home cooked meal and a

bed, but then back to work. He only had one close call. He had loaded up and made several

jumps into the system where the transfer was to take place. While he was doing his passive

scans he picked up a very low intensity directional signal. It had to be aimed at him or he

would never have heard it. When he tried to analyze the recording of it he concluded that

it was meant to be device-to-device communications, but it seemed to not use any normal data

transfer protocols. That made him very suspicious. There wasnt anything on his ship that

used that type of data communication, or was there? He ran some own ship scans and

discovered a new device attached to his outer hull. So he knew he had been bugged and they

were watching him, but what to do? If he turned around they would know. So instead he

found a legitimate weapons merchant in a location where this path wouldnt be too unusual.

Without changing his routines he made his way to the merchant. But just after jumping out

of the danger system he sent a coded message back to Gramps. By the time he arrived the

merchant on Pentagon Prime was expecting the delivery he was carrying. He left without

touching the device and was stopped just before jumping out.

Hold your position,

federal inspectors.

Yes sir, killing my engines.

We know of your record.

We could blast you right now and collect the bounty. You werent delivering here or else

you would have taken a direct route.

Jown new they were bluffing. Bounty hunting

wasnt allowed for them or the police, but they could make a police arrest. You mean to

say that old bounty is still active? Over a few cargo pods that they had left unattended?

Did you bother to read the whole report of the incident? The cargo had been abandoned. It

was legal salvage. I think youd better check with the corporation before you start

blasting away. I would really be surprised if they were still willing to pay for a hit that

might get them in hot water. As for the direct route, I keep alive being careful, that

includes indirect routes. No it was his turn to bluff. And best to stay away from the

subject of his police warrant.

We arent interested in collecting your bounty,

active or not. Were interested in some cooperation. Value Materials has been selling

munitions to pirates. We caught them and now youve taken over the deliveries. Dont deny

it.

You guys are barking up the wrong tree. When I worked here before I heard

they were going to start that, so I left. Im in enough hot water with the police without

adding to it. Im just trying to make an honest living. When you caught them they decided

it wasnt profitable to continue, but since they needed a new pilot, and the reason I left

had ended, they sent me a gram and asked me to come back. I needed the steady work so I

came back. Simple as that. They arent selling to pirates anymore. If they were Id be

gone. By the way for the record the police warrant on me is all wrong. They guy I killed

accidentally was a bounty hunter. He jumped me and didnt give me any chance to do anything

but fight back. You know as well as I do that killing a bounty hunter while defending

yourself isnt chargeable. He must have been a police favorite or something (might as well

give them that to chew over and get their mind off of the pirates).

Hold while we

discuss this. There was a long wait, probably communicating with headquarters. At last

they got back. Ok we verified your story about he cargo pods and the bounty hunter. Seems

he was the nephew of a local police station. We submitted a report and your bounty and

police warrant are being cleared. We still think Value Materials is involved in smuggling,

but not using you. If you stay on and get wind of any smuggling, give us a call before you

leave. We will have an offer that you might be interested in. Youre free to go.

Well how do you like that! Some days it pays to go to work. Gaters engines

powered up and Jown was on his way. Back at the base he had a long, private talk with

Gramps. It seemed they were being monitored much more closely than they had thought.

Deliveries to the pirates would have to wait until things cooled off. But after a couple of

days Jown checked and he was clean. That meant he could start making some runs to legal

merchants on the prime worlds. The pay wasnt quite as good, but at the end of a year or so

he had the credits for the new gear and said goodbye to Gramps once again.

After

returning to Sage with the new gear there followed more testing. But Johann told him both

he and Hildi were very close, so Jown took a hike, quite literally. He went upriver fishing

as he went. As they had said when he first got there, nothing of value. He didnt see any

trace of precious metals or gems, just wonderful weather, scenery and fishing. One evening

he got a call on the radio. It was time to go home. Took three days to get back.

Hildi had made the first breakthrough. And in fact if she hadnt Johann probably

wouldnt have been able to finish at all. One morning she had started an analysis program

and it didnt finish when she expected, but it didnt seem to be locked up, so she let it

continue. It ran all day and finished sometime in the night. The next morning she

discovered it had at last finished the job. She suddenly had a complete translation

program, spoken and written. When he got back Johann was working with a fervor. It was

hard to get him to stop and talk. Using the translation program he had been able to start

reading the blocks and found some of them to be technical descriptions of the equipment and

basically how they functioned. In additions there were communications like orders for

supplies, reports on conditions and progress mapping systems. There were supply lists, work

rosters and ship movement plans. There was news from back home. Out of context it didnt

mean much to them, but it was very similar to what they might hear any day here. Disasters,

heroes, politics, financial, etc.

There were a few news articles theorizing about

some other race that they had had contact with long ago. Would they ever return? Would

they be ready if they did? At first they all thought they were talking about humankind, but

then realized it didnt fit, then it sounded very familiar. A sudden attack by a totally

unknown alien race. Only difference was that they werent all depending primarily the

single planet that was attacked first. They had been able to mount a counter attack the

humans were powerless to do after Earth was gone. But the best part to Jown were assembly,

repair and operating instructions. They did indeed have weapons oriented equipment, none of

which had been scanned by the probes. But at least now they knew all about how to assemble

and operate the engines. Jown was ecstatic. He had all he needed to start incorporating

the alien equipment on Gater, or to design a whole new ship.

But Johann wasnt at

all satisfied. He was dealing with particle physics. How did this all work? How was

gravity actually made and controlled? What were the underlying scientific principles?

Principles that were unknown to us. We might be able to operate their engines, but could we

make our own? Did we know how to make the blocks? Did we know how to program them? And

even if we could, this kind of mimicking wouldnt allow us to advance as far as he wanted.

He had to get to the principles. He had learned from their texts that they generated a

harmonic signal in the special fluid filling the spheres. This signal caused sub atomic

processes that resulted in conversion of the energy into gravity on the sub-atomic level.

But the harmonic nature of the reaction and the vast number of atoms in the fluid caused a

very small input to rapidly grow to a useful level. The timing of the pulses among the

forks determined the direction of the gravity field. The physical fork locations in the

sphere and the programming caused there to be two fields formed if a single engine was used.

One was a very narrow field aimed forward and the second was a wide field aimed aft. The

forward field eliminated acceleration effects on the ship and inhabitants, but the much

wider aft field caused forward acceleration. The much greater width of the aft field easily

overcame the reverse thrust of the forward protecting field. Also the aft field could be

turned somewhat to turn the ship, however without sideways compensation for the ship it had

to be very limited. So they tended to accelerate in one direction and then when they wanted

to turn, instead of a sweeping turn they dropped power to almost nothing, turned the ship,

and then reapplied power. Anyway Johann had his clues and started some virtual experiments

using sub atomic simulations. Running experiment after experiment with different materials,

frequencies and power levels.

One morning they were sitting on the porch after

finishing breakfast enjoying the exceptionally beauty after a rare storm had passed through

during the night. As least Jown and Hildi were enjoying it. Johann was as usual lost in

thought. Suddenly Johann turned to them as said:

Theyre copycats.

Hildi and Jown didnt say a word, waiting for the socially required explanation.

They dont understand the science they are employing. They must be just copying

something from someone else. I have developed a series of equations that explains the

physics of what is happening. Simply put if you excite certain nucleuses repeatedly with

the right frequencies of magnetic and physical energy (of course physical on that scale is

far different than what we think of as physical. It really translates to different sub

atomic forces applied to the nucleus by its own electrons or by nearby atoms.) then the

nucleus becomes unstable and must release built up energy. But in a percentage of the cases

the energy is released in the form of gravity. In order to do this the nucleus reconfigures

itself. It in essence looses one of its sub nuclear pieces. This matter is converted into

energy, gravitational energy. Thats where the great multiplication in energy comes from.

The excitation energy we supply is just a trigger. Well there are many different nuclei

that will do this, each with its own needed trigger frequencies. These aliens only use

one.

Well we know they like standardization. Why fool with more than one method?

Just pick the most beneficial and use it. Jown replied.

Because the most

beneficial depends on what youre using it for. For propulsion this is a good choice, but

for a weapon grade beam projector its a poor choice.

But we dont have any of

their weapons. How do you know they dont use something different?

Because the

books say so. But the real kicker is that there is another much more efficient and

effective way to use this science. If my equations are correct, and Ive already tested

them as much as a can on a small scale, instead of producing gravity directly you can

produce and build a potential gravity field that will instantly translate all matter within

its envelope to a new velocity when its properly excited. In essence it instantaneously

applies the gravity that would have been applied over the time it was building.

Jown still didnt get it So whats so much better about that?

The great

benefit Jown is that there are no acceleration effects to worry about. It doesnt

accelerate, it just translates to the new velocity. You can change speed or turn

instantaneously after the field is built up. And you wont be limited by what our frail

bodies can withstand. You can build an engine that will generate accelerations that would

crush us flat, but by building a potential gravity field and translating to the new velocity

vector you wont even feel it. So Ive been puzzling over why they dont do it. Its

because they dont understand the physics. They simply dont know how. That makes them

copycats. They couldnt develop this on their own without understanding the equations. I

wonder if when they encountered that other race if the other race was the source. They had

a war, maybe got a hold of a ship and copied the engines. Of course that would make the

other race copycats as well.

So they developed the jump gates to overcome the

limitations of their ships? Jown was just trying to keep up mentally.

Now it was

Hildis turn, So these are the aliens put the jump gates here?

No I dont think

so. We havent found any evidence of the aliens in the inner systems like Jown has. Im

presuming that this wasnt found in an inhabited system Johann turned to Jown.

Jown shook his head, No it was a totally uninhabited system near the edge. It has

just two gates and nothing else of value.

Well, Johann continued this is more

your field than mine dear, but I would say if they built the gates then there would be

something left of them for archeologists to find. From the conditions of this equipment

its clear our aliens havent been gone for an extremely long time. My guess is that a far

more ancient race built the gates and our aliens just used them like we do. Time, or later

races who didnt settle here, have removed all trace of the gate builders.

Well if

youre done with your research, at least for the time being, we have a more pressing matter

I think. Hildi was looking intently at them both. This station had the ability to

communicate with their home worlds. Its possible that Jowns activities have been relayed

to their home worlds. I think its important for us to try and find out if they know were

here and what they might be doing about it.

What are you saying? Oh, that could

be very bad. Dear how do you think we can find out?

Well we could start by trying

to get their latest news. It shouldnt be blocked or encrypted.

But dear wouldnt

we be inviting discovery of us?

Johann dear if reading their news will give them

discovery of us, then they already have discovered us. Jown already energized the consoles

and if the Comets reports were blocked by the denergized station, then that was solved

then and there. If they werent blocked then they knew about us when our probes first went

in.

A shiver went up Jowns spine. She was right. If they were still out there

they might be on their way back right now. We need to know if a second alien invasion is

on its way. I need to know if Ive invited an invasion.

Agreed. Johann replied

I thinks its time for you to take us to your station.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15 - Surprise, Surprise

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afte

r some discussion they decided that it would be safest for secrecy to return all of the

relics to the alien base. They had all of the data and that would of course have to be

safeguarded, but they wouldnt miss the physical pieces themselves. Jown didnt want to

give up the engine, but Johann reminded him that he had taken one of the smallest, and that

he could now design a much better one.
Before they left they had a couple of loose ends

to tie up. Johann and Hildi traveled to the space port and bought a couple of space suits.

They werent well known and they picked a time when the sales shop had relatively many

customers for the one salesman. So few questions were asked. After that they gave an

excuse to the towns folk that they were going to do some research at better facilities and

would be gone a while. Then at last they left in the Gater.

The trip was

uneventful. Jown resumed his practiced paranoia of exiting every jump gate quietly and

not proceeding until he was convinced it was clear. They arrived at 4389 after 3 days of

travel and noted that the alien comet was still there patrolling. Jown put his memory

wafer with the asteroids track into the Nav Comp and selected the asteroid as their desired

destination. A few kilometers out Jown brought Gater to a stop and sent in the probes. It

didnt take long for them to confirm that there were no changes; everything was dead and

just as he had left it. That was a relief. Jown had visions of aliens swarming out to

greet them. He brought the Gater in and landed.

They suited up and drifted in.

First job was to return all of the materials. Then they went to the control rooms. After

consulting Hildis program they sorted through the available blocks until they came up with

the one the program identified as a communications control. Using it and a power block

(they actually found a shelf under the big screens sized just right to hold a power block)

they activated the main screens in communications mode. First they searched internally for

any stored messages to see if any had come in before the station shut down. There were none

and that made sense. The station was designed to operate using the portable power blocks

(which by text they had discovered were recharged in the maintenance room). Since there

were no power blocks in place when Jown arrived they had obviously intentionally shut the

station down when they left. Next they opened the receive mode for general broadcast

material. After a slight delay a host of available sources came up. The text blocks had

indicated that communication was delayed by only a few seconds on each end. It used some of

the jump gate technology that they had been able to adapt to communications.

They

began with what Hildas program identified as general public news. It was filled with

articles about two subjects; the war with then invaders and the presence of a second race

near them. All three exchanged glances and they began to read the articles. Their old

enemy that they had driven off three centuries before had returned and his force was

stronger than before. As they read the accounts of battle it became clear that neither side

had made any leaps in technology, just better control and implementation. The articles

about the newcomers made it abundantly clear that they were talking about humans. It seemed

that their abandoned outpost suddenly powered up and as it was programmed to when it was

active, send a situation report that included everything a probe had reported over the last

three centuries, then went dead. But from the probes reports they new they had an active

neighbor living there now. There were even pictures of human ships that passed through the

system. And there were especially many pictures of Gater.

The rest of the general

news didnt include anything more of value. Just speculation, so they switched to

classified military news. Using a decryption block, after a delay they were able to get it,

at least at lower classification levels. It seemed the war was going very badly.

Essentially they were no match for the invaders. The fought when the invaders entered a

system just long enough to finish their evacuations. The only bright spot was that the

invaders didnt seem to be in any hurry. They spent several years in a newly conquered

system before they suddenly showed up in the next one. There were also assessments of the

potential military capabilities of the new race (humans). They werent very flattering.

Basically we wouldnt be expected to put up a credible fight. No gravity drive, no gravity

weapons, missiles that would be easily taken out with their gravity weapons, limited range

beam weapons, and projectile weapons that werent guided or expected to be accurate over

large distances. But they also reported that they didnt consider our race as hostile. We

were involved internally in trade, as evidenced by an abundance of very different types of

cargo vessels.

While they were deep in thought over the implications of this

suddenly the screen changed and the face of an alien was there instead. After a short pause

the alien, in military uniform, said something brief. Hildi, using her program translated:

You have trespassed on our base. Leave it at once.

Jown felt obligated to

be the one to answer, since he was the trespasser. We will leave everything as we found

it. We did not know you still existed. We were just looking for technology advances.

We will be migrating to your systems eventually. Then we will share our technology

with you.

Jowns head was spinning. They were having a conversation with an alien

that would have far reaching political ramifications and they were doing it off the top of

their heads.

While he was thinking Johann spoke up, Centuries ago your enemy

destroyed our home world. Now it seems in a few decades he will be back. We need to be

ready for him.

We will share our technology when we get there, not before. Leave

the station.

And with that both screens went blank. They left, but because they

didnt expect to return they took one text block as evidence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16 - Oh What a Twisted Web We Weave

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On

the way home they had a long discussion. What should they do now? The aliens obviously

intended to come here when forced by the invaders out of their systems. There wouldnt be

room for both races and conflict was sure to flare up. Also the invaders wouldnt be long

in coming either. And when they got here they would undoubtedly tell everyone about the

visits to the station. The obvious thing to do was come clean. Quietly tell the governments

everything they had found.
But there was great disagreement bout what would happen

next. Johann thought that all the governments would pull together to solve this problem, to

prepare for the neighbors. Both by equipping their forces and by making at least some room

available. But Hildi was much more cynical. She was sure that there would be a façade of

teamwork, while really each government would be devoting the bulk of their resources to

their own military and defending their systems at all costs. Jown didnt know but pointed

out that the outcome was bad either way. There wouldnt be enough room and war was never

pleasant.

It was Jown who hit on the key. What if the invaders never drove their

neighbors out of their own systems? Then they wouldnt come here and we wouldnt be

discovered.

Our neighbors dont seem like they will be able to stop them. Johann

replied.

Yes but what if we helped them?

Johann answered with surprising

sternness We arent giving our science to them!

Of course not. Jown replied

quickly. But what if we give it to just one faction with the agreement that we work

together to build weapons to defeat the invaders. The governments would be too self

centered to do this, but there should be some factions willing to do it. Their war is a

long affair. If youre right we should be able to make weapons that will turn the tide. If

we do then we kill two birds with one stone. No neighbors coming for an unwelcome stay and

no invaders following them.

I think youre onto something! It means letting

others into our secret, but theres no helping that now. And yes we can build weapons to

turn the tide of their war. In fact we can deal the invaders a knockout blow. And

considering what they did to Earth, they deserve everything we can give them.

But

who do we deal with? Hildi added.

Johann answered. It needs to be a stable

organization that isnt filled with corruption and greed. That leaves out corporations and

pirates. The mercenary clubs arent to be trusted and the bounty hunter guilds are just

like the pirates but on the other side of the line (sorry Jown).

Then Jown added;

What do you think about the MNES (Multi-National Exploration Service)? They are

independent of all governments, not corrupt and very secretive until they are ready to

disclose something. No one knows theyve found a habitable planet until they finish all of

their exploration and testing of it. Then they sell it. They have unique ship needs so

they keep a very respectable ship design and construction group. And they operate well out

of the normal paths.

Of course. Replied Johann at the same time Hildi said Yes!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17 - MNES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
App

roaching vessel you do not have clearance codes, depart our restricted zone. You do not, I

repeat do not have clearance to land.
Gater came to a full stop relative to the

orbiting base. Good morning. Could you direct me to your visitor parking?

Its

the middle of the night, not morning. On your way before I wake security. They are very

grumpy when they get awakened in the night.

Hmmm. That doesnt sound good. We

were just stopping by because we found this strange thing on an asteroid. It looks

unnatural, but it looks too old to be human and we just thought MNES would be the right

folks to give it to. Well if we ever come back through this system and its daytime when

the important folks are up, maybe well try again. Gater turned and began a slow

acceleration toward the jump gate.

Just a minute. Just wait there. Ill be right

back with you.

I dont know. If your security wakes up in the night and checks

the screens and sees us here. I wouldnt want that. Best we just get on our way.

Alright, alright. You can dock, but stay in your ship until I come to get you.

Youve got to be badged to go anywhere on the station without setting off alarms.

Gater reversed course, entered the docking bay, docked and made a seal with a

personnel tube. Jown, Johann and Hildi waited dutifully for their escort. When he came he

wasnt alone. The younger red headed man had to be the duty officer they had verbally

dueled with.

The older man with graying hair introduced himself, Hello, Im Samuel

Hamson, MNES archeologist. Not that I ever do any, mostly collateral duties. Young Fred

will need your identities in order to process badges for you.

Johann went first,

Im Johann Gieorn, retired scientist and this is my wife Dr. Grunhilda Gieorn, retired

Expert Linguist.

Then it was Jowns turn, Im Jown 43580129584, independent

trader.

Hmmm. I find Jown, clean record, and I find a Johann Gieorn, but listed

as a retired science aid, and I find an Ex Dr. Grunhilda Gieorn.

Samuel took over,

EX Dr.? What do they mean EX Dr.?

Hildi replied, I translated some ancient text

that wasnt flattering to our government. Thats how I became an Ex Dr.

I

remember that! It was what 5 years ago? Those despicable bureaucrats. And you sir.

I started as a lab helper as a lad. Educated myself and rose to the position of

full scientist. When my dear wife got in hot water they decided that I shouldnt be

scientist because I didnt have a degree and took away my title.

Titles mean

something to politicians, but are worthless when the real work needs to get done. Youve

either got it or you dont. Take me for example. Poor excuse for an archaeologist. Never

had a real live piece of artifact in my hands, but I have the title. Badges ready?

Uh, no sir, uh I thought because of the irregularities

Havent you been

listening? Just list them as my personal guests. I am allowed guests arent I?

Oh yes sir. Just a minute, uh printing now Here you all are. Sorry for the

delay. If youll excuse me Ive got to get back to control.

Sam turned to escort

them to his rooms, but Hildi took his arm and lead him onto the Gater and back to the hold.

Holding up here hand to signal him to be quiet, she took a text block, activated it and

handed it to him.

Hildi whispered, Now you can say youve held and actual artifact.

Only it isnt really a very old one, just no human. Hildi waited to let it all sink in.

Sams hands were shaking as he looked at the block and all of the strange

characters. After a moment he looked up and whispered I just dont know where to start

Johann quietly interjected, Starting isnt the issue. Weve worked on this for

over a year. Theres much more to say but we need to find someplace secure to talk.

Sam took them to a secure room and heard things that forever changed his life. When

without waiting for morning he went and woke the MNES Chief Executive (Glen Holbert) and

brought him to the secure room. While he was gone Johann and Hildi brought her scan data

and translation program. At 8:05 the chief was paged because he hadnt been seen and was

late for his daily staff meeting. He changed the meeting location to the secure room and

ordered breakfast to be brought for all of them to the room. While the five of them ate the

staff set up a projector and connected Hildis computer. None of them knew what it was all

about until they activated the text block and passed it around. Then there was no more

thought of the meeting excuses or the days work. No more thought of the long-range

strategic plan or even the plans for next week. All their minds were blank waiting to hear

what this would mean, where it would take them. In a surprise and shock Johann and Hildi

agreed that Jown would give the brief. Hildi would put up appropriate scans, but Jown would

lead the brief and the discussion to follow.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 18 - War Counsel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A

couple of years ago (had it really been that long?) I was forced into system 4389. Hildi

had anticipated and quickly flashed up a system map showing that region of space. As a

precaution I scanned the system carefully for some time before proceeding. I noticed a

comet that wasnt where is should have been from 4-month-old scans. Shouldnt have been

there at all, but it was. When curiosity got the better of me and I turned to go and

investigate, it disappeared. Hildi flashed up a distant shot of the comet. It took

quite a few months to scrape together the credits to get some good probes, but when I did I

got close enough to get these shots Again Hildi was on top of it. Close in shots of the

initial probe approach were displayed. A buzz went around the room because it was plain to

see it wasnt a comet. Jown continued, When I turned in my ship to approach, thinking with

the probe I could keep contact this time, it moved so fast the probe lost contact in

seconds. So I left the system, waited a while and returned with both probes ready. I sent

them to tail the probe, but at a further distance, so as not to spook it. Then when they

were in position I turned my ship toward it and went active. The comet moved, but more

directly and not as fast as before. Eventually though it outdistanced the probes. When I

traced its path it lead to an asteroid, so I sent the probes to orbit and scan it. Hildi

flashed a picture of the asteroid. After just a few passes the probes located a cave and

sent in one to investigate. Hildi put up a shot of the docking cavern from the entry cave.

The room went dead silent from shock. You will all get to pour over the details later Im

sure, but the short of it is that there is a maintenance bay, a store room and a series of

passageways leading to living and control spaces. Weve spend over a year studying the

artifacts. Dr. Grunhilda Gieorn has succeeded in developing a translation program for both

the written texts (of which there is a massive amount, all scanned in) and her husband

Scientist Johann Gieorn has determined the physics principles that allows the formation and

control of gravity fields. It somehow just seemed to Jown that he should give formal

credit to their long labors, and since everyone immediately jumped up and applauded, he was

probably right. After things quieted down Jown had them sit back down and said, But were

not quite finished yet. You havent gotten the bad news yet. We went back to the asteroid

base to use their communications equipment to determine if they had detected us. Hildi

flashed up a translated article about the base intrusion by a new race. Hildi lets just

run the conversation, can you do that? It only took about 10 seconds and the entire

interview with their alien neighbor ran on the screen. Again dead silence. So Jown

continued You see we (the whole human race even though they dont know it) have a big

problem. We dont see any good coming out of their coming here. Theres not enough room

and the invaders will be following in them. After considering this we decided that the only

way out was to help them defeat the invaders so they wouldnt have a need to leave their

homelands. Johann I think you had better take over here. And Jown sat down. He knew they

would be full of questions like how on earth can they think that the human race could even

get there, let alone help?
Ladies and gentlemen I know that Jowns last conclusion

sounds like fantasy. Now I must stress that this next part must be considered Top Secret.

Your best kept secret. It appears from my research that both alien races have simply copied

the technology they are using to create gravity. I know from my equations, and have

demonstrated on a small scale, that there is a much more efficient and effective means of

creating and using gravity for propulsion. Somewhere in the past that knowledge wasnt

given to these other races and they never developed it. They use their engines to push them

through space. It is much more efficient and effective than what we do, but there is a much

better way. With the right design we can instead produce and build a potential gravity

field that will instantly translate all matter within its envelope to a new velocity when

its properly excited. In essence it instantaneously applies the gravity that would have

been applied over the time it was building. This will allow changing speeds and directions

with no acceleration effects. A gasp went up in the room as they all very quickly realized

what that meant. They were experienced in the difficulty even relatively short distances

(on the universal scale) from a jump gate caused. The implementation of this new science

is actually rather simple. It really shouldnt take long to design and build a test drone

and then from the measurements there to begin building ships and weapons. Ive been giving

it some thought and I have a weapon idea that should be unstoppable and keep us well out of

their weapons range, but Im getting too far ahead. Coming to you was Jowns idea. You

have the detachment from the governments that should allow focus on the primary need,

defeating the invaders. And you have the necessary secrecy and security to keep this a

secret, even later. We dont think it would be good for the balance in our society for this

discovery to be suddenly just given out. Besides its Jowns discovery and not really ours

to give away.

At this point the Glen Holbert got up and took the floor, Ladies and

gentlemen I know I speak for all of us when I sincerely thank you for the trust you three

have placed in us. MNES we have a real problem. We have been entrusted with a great new

discovery, but with it comes a solemn responsibility, a responsibility that we are

accepting. This is now our number one priority. We cant simply suspend our other work

without raising suspicion, so figure out how to keep up appearances, but dont let it get in

the way of our real task. I am putting Johann, Hildi and Jown on the payroll as of now.

They are free to come and go and keep their own hours, but I know they are anxious to help

us develop what we need. Ship Design, youre up first. Work with Johann and the science

staff to come up with a drone design for testing and further development. Hildi please, if

you will, work with Sam and the Navigation team to develop a navigation method to get us to

the battlefield. Logistics, you know your job, be ready when the flag goes up.

Communications and Sensors, look at the data on the alien equipment and see if we can adapt

any of it in time, particularly we will need some kind of IFF to tell the invaders from our

neighbors. Daily status reports right here. Security recheck the clearances of everyone

here on this station. Well find some excuse to transfer off any that are doubtful. Branch

heads when security is done brief your people. Lets get to work.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 19 - The War Wagon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It

didn't take long for the Ship Design effort to come up with a rough concept, but the actual

detailed design took a little longer because they wanted to design it around materials

on-hand. The one thing they new they didn't have was fuel, or what would be their fuel.

To everyone else it was just a combination of elemental fluids. Logistics was tasked to get

an abundance of storage tanks, fill them and then keep them full of fuel from then on.

Hildi was busy with Sam and the navigation team, but Jown had nothing to do. He felt left

out and needed something to do. After looking at all of the tasks it seemed to him the

missing link was weapons so he found an empty office with a computer and started thinking

about how to make a weapon and how to employ it.
Two weeks in and modifications on a

common spherical tank began. The detail design wasn't near finished, but they worked out

the internal energy trigger projector shapes and spacing first so fabrication could get

started. By the time the triggers were made in the machine shop and installed the external

exciters, control and power cabling, and control module were designed in. The power was a

problem. From the text information they understood how the alien power modules worked, but

didn't posses the manufacturing equipment to make them. They chose instead, at least for

the test drone, to go with a small conventional engine and generator. But that meant they

needed and external fuel tank for the generator. In the long run that would be clumsy. The

aliens used a special block with their drive to generate power and keep the power blocks

charged. A special design team was formed to work on the power supply problem for a long

term solution. Six weeks from the start and the test drone had the remote control module

installed and programmed with a crude control program. Testing began the next day.

It was a great relief to everyone except Johann when the drone moved under it's own

power in direct drive mode. He wasn't relieved until it leaped instantaneously from

sitting still to 10 KPH. Then from 10 KPH to 1000 KPH. Then from 1000 KPH to 100,000 KPH

and it was gone from their scanners. It was a good thing their control program worked and

it returned itself safely to the base. They shut it down, defueled it, and scanned it

inside and out for any signs of cracks or problems. The checked the stress-strain

instrumentation data and found that it had experienced essentially no stress at all. As

promised by Johann the leaps from speed to speed and instantaneous turns were made without

any acceleration effects. They refueled it, programmed in a much higher speed test routine

and let it go. It returned several hours later with all of the data the design team needed

to extrapolate to a full sizes ship. When he watched the drone exercises Jown had an idea

and cornered Johann for a long conversation about weapons. After that he wasn't seen

except at meals for many days.

The Navigation team had finished their job fairly

early and went to work with the Communications and Sensors folks. Now they were nearing

completion. They had come up with the necessary IFF, but they would need the current

security codes for it from their neighbors. For sensors they determined it would take too

long to adapt the alien technology for the projectors and receivers, so they decided to

simply use human sensors which should work fine. Meanwhile the power supply team made a

minor breakthrough. They developed a manufacturing method for making an alien power block.

It wasn't anywhere as compact as the alien blocks, but it would be able to be recharged by

the gravity drive trigger energy and it had by our standards a very high-energy storage

capacity. They tested it by making a small cell which they fitted onto the drone. They

programmed the human generator to be used as an emergency backup only and sent the drone off

again to test the new power block. It developed an overheating issue, but the team was

undaunted and soon modified the design and manufacturing process. The modification worked

fine and the problem was solved.

Now the Ship Design Team had the job of melding

current ship design things like control consoles, pilot seats, air revitalization, fresh

water systems, sanitary systems, etc, with the new gravity drive, new power block, IFF and

weapons. But it wouldn't look like any normal ship. In order to use Johann's potential

gravity leap velocities it would have to be a large sphere with all personnel inside. It

would be a sphere in a sphere with hatch tunnels from inside to outside and pockets inside

the outer skin for sensors and weapons. Everything else would be inside the inner sphere.

The main weapon would be what they named a gravity lance. It was a narrow beam gravity

field formed by building a high potential gravity just like they were moving (and in fact

using this weapon would cause a velocity shift), but then releasing it in a very narrow beam

at a target. But Jown had a surprise of his own. He developed command and control

programming and independent attack programming for drones. They would be carried in outer

pockets of a very large mother ship. These drones would be free to enter a fur ball without

endangering people. Yet with their gravity lances they could do great damage and then

quickly avoid any counter attack. The ship design team decided to make two designs; one

large mother ship with their drones and a few people to control them and communicate with

the aliens. A second ship design would be one-man fighters with no drones. This would give

them two effective weapons so that if the drones were disabled they wouldn't be suddenly

out-of-the-battle and useless far from home.

Again the hull constructions started

very early while the rest of the two designs were being completed. This work took much

longer than the drone. It was nearly a year before Mother was completed and ready for

trials. Mothers children, the weapons drones, were finished and tested 6 months earlier.

The intervening time was used allowing their controllers to practice controlling the drones

and attacking practice targets. The half dozen smaller manned ships were completed and just

finishing trials when Mother first moved. It seemed and awful long time, wouldnt the war

be already lost by now? The answer was no. From their limited news records it was clear

that the invaders moved very slowly from system to system. It might be a year or more

between systems, but at the very least many months. Their neighbors occupied over 50

systems. This would be a long, long war if they werent successful.

In spite of

that everyone felt an urgency to finish. Mothers problems identified during testing were

mostly fixed while she was underway still conducting other tests. When she finally returned

to the station the remaining problems were quickly corrected and she was pronounced ready.

The Logistics folks had as usual surmounted all of their problems and even made one brief

visit to the alien asteroid base to pick up a couple of communication blocks. Everyone was

ready just after the turn of the year. The executive committee tried to block Glen from

going, but there was no stopping him because he had an ace, he was the only one of them with

any military experience. He had risen to the station of XO on a cruiser before he resigned

to take up a new opportunity with MNES. He would command the battle group. Johann and

Hildi would share quarters on Mother. Johann had to be there in case they ran into any

scientific difficulties and Hildi of course was needed for translation. Johann would also

serve as a weapons drone controller. Jown meanwhile would captain his own new fighter. Sam

and the Executive committee were left at the station to keep up appearances and pick up the

pieces if they failed and didnt return, or even if they succeeded but didnt return.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 20 - To Arms

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moth

er and the other ships were loaded to the gills with provisions. They didnt know if they

could eat their neighbors food safely, or drink his water. There were no jump gates to the

aliens realm, but with the new high acceleration the Navigation team planned on only about

two weeks to get to the neighbors space where jump gates would be available, one week

accelerating and one week decelerating. The acceleration would be hundreds of incremental

velocity leaps. The leaps would be about a quarter of their specified leap limits. They

had determined during trials testing of the drone first, and then each individual ship, that

internal density differences caused stresses during leaps, which were proportional to the

size of the leap. For each design they had developed a leap limit to protect against

overstressing. Although the leap limits were very high, the distance was unimaginably

great.
After some quick goodbyes to friends on the station the battle group was off.

After each leap there was a very short scan period for each ship to assess its position and

speed relative to Mother. That scan would be used to slightly adjust the next leap. If one

was out of quick scan range there were certain predetermined locations and speeds where the

group would hold until all ships were back together. It never happened so they didnt need

to test the navigation ability of the individual captains in deep space. When they passed

the speed of light all the stars behind them went out and only those ahead could be seen.

The faster they went the more the dark sector wrapped forward. At a week they could only

see stars almost straight ahead. The color and brightness of the stars also changed as

their forward velocity effectively increased the apparent frequency of the light. Longer

wavelengths normally invisible came into the visible range as the visible light became ultra

violet and beyond. When they finally dropped back below the speed of light and used the

alien maps to determine their location they adjusted their navigation plan to account for

errors and arrived in the system a day early.

They new from the alien texts that

this system had three gates, a large inhabited planet, which was one of the main alien

plants and a half dozen space stations. They stopped at a location a good distance from the

planet and the gates, and well out of line with all the normal travel routes. They noted a

great deal of traffic streaming from the planet and out one of the gates. A second gate had

a great number of stationary ships surrounding its exit. From the detected active scan

frequencies they were clearly military craft. Obviously they were expecting undesirable

company, and soon. A few of the smaller ships broke formation and headed swiftly in their

direction. They set the communication block to the primary tactical channel and Hildi, who

by this time was fluent in their language, began to speak and transmit a video image. The

approaching ships slowed, then stopped part way and a military commanders image came up on

the block. After a short pause Hildi translated:

You are too weak, leave while you

can.

Glen replied: We are not so weak. Pull back and let our unmanned drones

attack first.

There was a pause then the alien commander, obviously knowing the

desperation of his position, said, We pull back. God help us all. The alien ships

retreated to a position between the gate and the planet. Glen ordered the drones all

launched and moved to take up the positions vacated by the aliens. Then they all waited.

It took two days for the invaders to arrive and the humans had just gone to shift

watches when they did. They came in through the gate in waves. Glen only hesitated long

enough for the IFF to verify that they werent friendly. The alien commander came on at the

same time and said a single word Enemy. Glen ordered the controllers to lock into the

drones memories the identification of the enemy ships present and then attack. Immediately

chaos broke out. The first wave of invaders fighters sped towards the friendly forces along

two vectors. They never got close. It only took a single shot of the drones gravity lances

to render them dead in space. The second wave of fighters was just leaving the gate area

when the drones finished the first wave and headed back to their positions. By the time

they approached the gates the controllers had programmed this new wave in. The second wave

scattered and with each ship taking its own course of attack. This new tactic was to no

avail. They were destroyed just as fast.

There was a pause but then after half and

hour a new wave flew in, but this time it was a massive capital ship followed by fighters,

then another capital ship and more fighters. The battle was on again, but while it ensued a

steady stream of capital ships and fighters continued to stream in. Glen ordered half of

the drones to take on a capital ship and the other half to concentrate on the fighters. Now

the neighbors went into action. They stayed away from the capital ships, but began to take

on the fighters that got past the drones. Two fighters got through and ran toward the human

battle group. Jown was quicker than Glen. He leaped to speed and lanced one of the

fighters as he approached him. It was very spectacular. The drones lances didnt do any

visible damage, but Jown, probably from using more energy than he needed, ripped the center

of the fighter out the back and folded the outer parts around in front of it. At the same

time it exploded violently from its warheads all detonating simultaneously. Mother took

out the second fighter with a shot from long range. Glen wanted to know if they could hit

and do damage at that range.

But the battle against the capital ships was going

badly. None of the invaders could touch the drones, but the drones werent doing any

measurable damage to the cap ships. When the invaders finally stopped entering there were

15 cap ships and most of the fighters were taking refuge amongst them where at least all

they ahd to worry about was the drones. Finally Glen ordered all of the drones to

concentrate on the fighters. He was at a loss as to what to do about the cap ships. He was

deep in thought when one of his crew reported that Jown was gone. It was disturbing news,

but there was no time to consider what had happened to him. The cap ships were now moving

steadily at the alien blocking fleet.

Suddenly there was just for an instant a very

fine line running diagonally across the display. It was there then gone. Everyone blinked

but there was no time to ask if anyone else had seen it because just as instantly the stern

section of one of the invader cap ship exploded violently. Not like the fighter exploding

from its warheads, much, much larger. It vaporized the stern, turned the forward end into

individual pieces of scrap. Flaming debris struck two of the nearby cap ships and ripped

huge holes in their sides. Quickly Glen ordered the drones to attack those damaged ships.

This time they made headway. It was slow work but turret by turret and engine by engine

they disabled them.

While the drones were at work no one noticed a lone human

fighter appear a long way out long enough to survey the damage, and then it was gone again

only to suddenly appear and stop on a dime near the human battle group. Jown called the

fighters to a separate channel and had a short conversation with them and transmitted some

programming for their ships. Then he went back on the main communications channel.

With your permission I would like to take two other fighters with me. We will

finish the cap ships.

Glen knew better than to waste time asking how he had done

it, Go quickly.

Three human fighters disappeared. If you had a very long range

scanner that didnt have a speed of light time delay, you would have seen the fighters all

stop in a group a very long distance outside of the system. If your scanner could continue

to pick them up at relativistic speeds you would have seen them all simultaneously on Jowns

signal leap to a quarter of light speed heading into the center of the invaders formation.

They were so far away that the trip took 30 seconds. During those 30 seconds all three

ships charged their potential gravity fields. The human eye and reflexes could never have

pulled off this move, and neither could electronics if Jown hadnt carefully calibrated them

during those months of preparation. But the attack program had been refined and the

calibration was correct. This time to Mothers perspective there were three fine lines.

The three gravity lances fired simultaneously at three widely separated cap ships. Three

cap ships had large sections vaporize and 4 others were badly damaged. Meat for the drones.

10 down and 5 to go.

Immediately after the second pass the invaders began

decelerating as fast as they could and then accelerating back toward the gate. After the

drones finished the damaged cap ships they went back to work on the fighters. But now there

werent enough cap ships for them all to hide near and the alien fighters began to pick off

large numbers of invaders who had strayed too far from their cover. As they approached the

gate Jown and his squad made a final run. The three cap ships had bunched hoping to pass

quickly and near one another through the gate to safety. But it never happened. Three cap

ships were hit directly and the other two were so close in that they had whole sections

vaporized simply from the nearness.

Glen ordered some of the drones to take up

position at the gate to block any retreat by the fighters who now had no other safety to

hope for than the gate. Between the drones and the alien fighters, they didnt last 15

minutes. Immediately a large group of alien fighters passed through the jump gate.

The alien commander came back on, Scanning adjacent system for enemy

reinforcements. After a pause he continued, Our reports were very wrong, you are

certainly not weak. Glen not wanting to give away anything more about the humans true

condition said nothing. After an hour the commander came back on and said, No

reinforcements for at least two systems. Come down and meet. His ship accelerated slowly

toward the planet.

But Glen and the MNES executive staff had anticipated this

probability and had discussed it at length. There was a lot of risk of misunderstanding,

not to mention strange diseases, potentially dangerous air and poisonous water. It wasnt

something to be rushed into. But to turn it down cold could also be misinterpreted. So

they had a contingency ready, We cannot stay and arent equipped to test your air, but we

will send back a fighter with an ambassador. The fighter will be able to handle any

remaining capital ships that you might find.

After a pause the commander responded,

I sadly agree. I hope someday to meet face to face and to personally thank you for your

crucial help in this dark hour. We will wait here for the joy of the presence of your

ambassador.

Glen answered him, After our only other encounter with an alien race,

we were very fearful of another encounter. But regardless of our fear we could not sit by

knowing the agony you were going through. We would have been here sooner, but it took a

long time to prepare. We must slowly prepare our people for the knowledge of your presence.

With your permission we will move one of your communications stations at your base in our

system to our base. We can then keep in contact with you and our ambassador.

The

alien commander readily agreed and added that their base was at our disposal for any use we

wished to make of it. Glen ordered the retrieval of the drones to Mother and the

reformation of the battle group. Then they began the long trip home. Two weeks later they

disembarked for hot showers and fresh food at MNES headquarters. After a day they held a

debrief. The MNES staff reported that everything there had continued uneventfully. Glen

described the battle to the staff that missed it, and then turned to Jown.

One

thing I dont understand. I understand now the high speed passes, charging the potential

gravity on the way in for a single heavy blow, but what caused the high energy vaporization?

Why didnt your lances just punch big holes in them?

Jown replied, Because the

program in the last instance would locate the gravity signature of one of the target ship

drive units and specifically aim the lance at the drive. It turns out with their design,

which fortunately was just like our neighbors design, a gravity lance with enough energy

will cause a fusion reaction. Even with a one meter diameter drive there is enough nuclear

material in their fuel to cause an off the scale detonation. Johann and I discussed this

possibility during our preparations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 21 - Diplomacy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When

he was asked Jown didnt even hesitate with his answer. He really enjoyed flying his new

fighter and knew that he wouldnt be able to do it in Human space. He leaped at the

opportunity to take the MNES ambassador Sam back. Sam had always felt like an unneeded

burden and had been left behind during the battle. But he was made for this task. He too

had learned their language during their preparations. And during their absence for a month

he had spoken with their environmental and health departments about how to safely test air,

water, food and what to do about alien infections and parasites. He was as ready as he

could be.
When Sam and Jown returned the aliens were ready. They passed to them in

space samples of their atmosphere, water and most common food. Sam spent a week testing and

culturing it all. In the end he determined it all to be safe. In fact the 24 percent

Oxygen content in their air would taste great. Sam and Jown landed and met the commander

face to face. There was an awkward moment of learning each others greeting rituals.

Humans commonly bow slightly or shake hands. Their neighbors it turned out on formal

occasions raised their hands to shoulder high with the fingers pointed up and the palm

facing the other. Then the palms were pressed together. The higher status person used his

right hand and the lower status the left. For close friends the ritual was for each to

briefly cup the left side of the others face in their right hand. The length of time the

hand was held there conveyed how much emotion one had for the other.

While they had

been gone the aliens had found two other invader capital ships that were being worked on.

Jowns services were not needed. Many millions of alien civilians had died over the years

at the hand of the invaders so there was no mercy. They did however report that immediately

after the invader defeat, very large personnel ships that barely fit through the gates were

noted leaving their systems with invader civilians onboard. The aliens allowed them to

leave, but escorted each to ensure it left their systems entirely. After the last of them

left there were no live invaders ever found. Evidently this had happened before and they

all knew the drill and the life expectancy of any left behind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joha

nn, Hildi and Jown still visited MNES frequently just to keep up on the alien news, but they

lived back on Johann and Hildis home planet. Johann had taken Jown aside and told him this

was his home now. Jown didnt argue. He had survived a long time with no home, no one who

cared about him, no one he cared about. Now that he had a home and family again he knew how

much he had missed.
Johann, Hildi and Jown lived happily ever after eating meals on

their quiet porches on a backwater world that only simple folk could enjoy.