Alpha Wave : An Alien Gift

ALPHA WAVE : CELESTIAL FICTION

An Alien Gift

"Beware of alien gifts they are sometimes difficult to understand"

Space is so vast that to us there is no beginning and no end, but to others who have explored, our galaxy is just a stepping stone onto greater things. When one of those aliens journeys near us we do not know. Such is our limited existence that we have no idea of their power. But what of the younger civilisations, older than us but much younger than those they strive to be equal to. What if they were to pass by us, would they stop and make contact or would they pass us by, viewing us as children not yet out of the nursery. They would be correct if they were to pass us by for to them we are children accomplishing things which they had accomplished thousands or millions of years ago. To them we would appear as midgets, struggling with our inner selves and inner turmoils. Struggling with such inane concepts as war and famine. Striving to get smaller and smaller. Striving to get deeper into our planet. New technologies shrinking and then building more accommodation for weak helpless people destined to be killed of by the most fearsome of adversaries - Death.

But what if, in a hundred years from now when we too find ourselves among the stars. With our orbital stations for administration and accommodation. With our advanced ships - in reality nothing more than the space shuttles which we boast about now. Would these aliens take any notice of an established space presence which barely extends beyond our own moon. What if they did, what would happen then. Would they help us or would they destroy us.

* * *

The dark shape sliced through the silent vacuum of space. The shape was huge yet it was still geometrically symmetrical. A strange, alien, oval disk shape, the overall effect was quite ominous. It was as if this shape had a purpose of evil intent. A purpose so vile and dark that it was better left silent and hidden among the stars. The shape, a ship moved into view of a small round lump of rock. The rock had a stratosphere and a biosphere. This was the destination - this was Earth. The swirling white covered the blues, greens and greys which were so prominent over this planet. The ship moved in closer, it moved with no fear because they, the ones on board, knew that they would not be detected, at least not yet. The ship had been designed many years ago so that the long range scanners on Earth would not register the mass as it moved through space. On the other hand the short range sensors could pick the ship up which was the reason why most of the others kept well away from planets like this. They were in reality nothing more than an irritation. However keeping away from this planet was not an option, this ship was on a mission and those on board had a message which had to be delivered. The ship drew closer and closer and would soon be picked up by the orbital station's short range sensors.

* * *

The office was plush and cosy. General Ackmar Harrison had seen plenty action but in the past few years had retired from active service and had gone behind a desk. Ackmar had not retired from the action totally. Returning to his native country of Saudi Arabia had had some advantages as he had managed to find a job with the Saudi Arabian Intelligence. It certainly had its comforts, drink on command, something which was most definitely frowned upon, and women, boy did you get your fair share of the women. Ackmar looked around the office in which he sat, I should have done this years ago it is perfect. There was a knock on the door and Ackmar called the person in.

Ackmar's aide Salman Mussan walked in. "Sir," said Salman.

"Yes."

"We've been getting some preliminary data from our satellite."

Ackmar remembered that two months ago he had ordered a spy satellite to be sent up, put it further out into space than any other satellite. At the time he had thought it would give Saudi Arabia an edge over the other governments of the world but he had not been to sure it would work in practise until now. "What type of preliminary data."

Salman hesitated before speaking, he obviously did not believe what he was saying, "we have a shape, what appears to be an oval disk shape."

"A ship!" exclaimed Ackmar as he leapt to his feet.

"We don't know that yet, we only have a shape, we don't actually have clear visual contact with it yet."

"But is it moving?" cried Ackmar angrily.

Salman took a deep breath before replying quietly, "yes."

"Then it must be a ship, I want visual contact immediately," Ackmar by now was shouting every command at his aide.

"Yes sir, I'm on it," Salman turned to leave the room.

"Salman," Salman turned to face Ackmar, "does anyone else know of this?"

"Only the satellite operators."

"Well keep it under wraps just now. We don't want any of the other governments finding out too soon."

"Yes Sir," Salman turned to the door and continued walking from the office.

* * *

"This is Station Alpha to unidentified craft, please respond," John Hamilton listened to the response but there was only static. Station Alpha was a communications post and a way station for ships, earth ships. Alpha was not the biggest station nor was it the smallest what it did have going for it was that it was British, that meant it was the most friendly place to be. Britain was the first of the five major countries to explore space and it had built the first station - Station Alpha. The political situation was fairly stable now, the past 10 years in fact had been pretty stable, but to get stability you must first have anarchy. Earth had been in Anarchy since the E.U. and the U.N. had been dissolved. Europe had been in a mess and one country, Britain, because of its lack of co-operation with Europe had been able to haul itself out of the mess in one whole piece. Seeing a chance Britain had marched its forces into Europe and had established a permanent presence. Africa had erupted into a civil war and Britain had intervened. During the conflict they had supplied the weakest side with weapons so that they could win. Britain had involved themselves so that when the weakest side won they marched in and took over. That was over 80 years ago and now everyone in those regions accepts that they are British.

The other major countries were the Canadian Republic, an amalgamation of Canada and several smaller countries round about it, some of North America had been taken over too. There was also Australia. South America had united into the South American Federation or S.A.F. and had then proceeded to take over Mexico. Japan had invaded China and several of the islands round about. The rest of the world, what once had been Russia was still in political turmoil and had closed its borders to all around it, no communication entered or left Russia - ever. The area around Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and other similar countries had remained the same for the last 100 years.

It had been about 30 years ago that America, a country slowing disappearing off the face of the Earth went into economic collapse. Britain had stepped in and had taken over the eastern part of North America. The citizens were glad to be British since they had the British economy to lean on for support. The west of America was not so pleased. There were riots because Britain had not stepped into help them, the reason for that had been the west was harder to salvage than the east. Britain had responded by sending in troops to wage a private war on the the Western Americans, that had ended 15 years ago and now The west of America was in complete chaos.

"This is Station Alpha to unidentified craft, please respond," John Hamilton listened to static once again. "Helen, we have a nil response from unidentified craft, recommend we go to alert status 2."

Helen, a brunette in her thirties turned to look at John her husband, "you know the procedure." Station Alpha had three alert status. Alert 1 was the standard status, it was what the station was on 24 hours of the day until something happened. When something happened, like an unidentified craft which would not respond, alert status 2 was activated. On this status weapons were readied and the appropriate authorities notified. The station stayed at alert status 2 until either the problem was resolved or they were ordered to stand down if they were not then the station moved to alert status 3. When alert status 3 was activated the station went to war with whatever the problem was. Alert status 3 was maintained until either they were ordered to stand down or until the problem was solved.

John typed in a few commands and a synthesised male voice announced, "this installation has gone to alert status 2."

The ship outside the station paused in its journey. The disk slowly rotated. Then suddenly a thin beam sprang forth from the craft and pierced the defence shields raised by alert status 2. A small rupture appeared on the side of the station, then a pulse was fired into the rupture and an explosion erupted in the heart of the station.

The station shook, all those in the operations centre were thrown to the ground. Consoles erupted into fire, As one explosion ripped a console Helen was thrown across the room. The lights flickered and then blinked out. "Helen," called John.

"I'm fine, but what happened?"

"We've been attacked."

* * *

"What do you mean all British military craft are moving to alert status 3?" Ackmar was furious. Since the announcement that a British installation had been attacked by the alien craft all hell had broken loose. There were many who thought that the ship was an experimental craft built by some other government and even Russia had released a statement saying they had nothing to do with the attack. Many in governments across the world concluded that this ship had to be some sort of an alien craft, but Ackmar already knew that. Ackmar had reviewed all visual data of the ship and there was no doubt about it, the craft was not of this planet.

Salman squirmed in front of Ackmar, "Britain has launched half its forces into space to intercept the craft unless a signal is received from Station Alpha."

This is bad, this is very bad. I had hoped that the craft would not have attacked unless it was fired upon, that would have given us more time to mobilise. I want that craft for myself, even if we have to battle the British."

"Sir, can I continue my report?"

"Very well, go ahead," replied Ackmar distractedly.

"The alien ship is holding position beside Station Alpha, preliminary reports suggest that the station is only disabled and not damaged or destroyed..."

Ackmar sat forward, his interest suddenly renewed, "you mean to say that the ship did not destroy the station?"

"Yes Sir."

"Then it can't be as powerful as we originally thought. That could work to our advantage."

* * *

The damage repair teams had managed to repair the lighting, partial communications and short range sensors. Station Alpha could operate but it was in bad shape, however that was only the internal circuitry, the hull of the station was perfect. John stood looking at a console, he was explaining to Helen what had happened. "They used a low intensity cutting beam to slice their way through the hull and then they fired some pulse weapon which overloaded our systems. Our bulk heads sealed off the area until damage repair teams could repair the hull, their almost finished now."

"Was anybody in the power core room at the time?" asked Helen concerned.

"The aliens waited until the last person was out and then they fired, they must have very sophisticated sensors."

"They must be friendly if they went to all that trouble not to kill anyone."

"I'm not so sure," John spoke hesitantly and thoughtfully.

From across the room one of the communications experts suddenly shouted, "I'm getting a transmission, audio only."

"What!" John pounced upon the man who had spoken, "put the message on the speaker."

The tension in the operations centre mounted would it be a friendly message or would it be a list of demands. The worst fear held by all those that were standing there waiting was that the message would inform them of their times of death. Nobody in the entire room spoke as each and every persons breath was held. Each and every one waiting for the message that would inevitably come. To some the message was good news already because some had feared that the ship would not communicate, instead they would just destroy. Destruction turning into fire and pain and then finally death. Then the communications officer spoke, his voice barely more than a whisper but it sounded as though he was shouting, "I have the message."

"Hello and welcome to the greater galaxy. We come bearing friendship and gifts. In our time of greatness we come to you to advance you, to teach you and to bring you into a firmer standing among us. There are races which you would never understand in your lifetime, they are so advanced, and because of this your planet is threatened to be lost forever among the ever growing cultures that we know. We, like you, are a young race barely out of our own solar system but already we have achieved greatness that one day you too will achieve. We come today to greet you with a gift of friendship, a gift of peace to help you understand us and the universe around you. To give you this gift we wish to speak to one of you, we are waiting to hear your reply."

The crew in the operations centre breathed a sigh of relief. The alien was friendly yet why if it truly was what it said had it attacked. There was no sense, no logic and no pattern to the events which were unfolding around these people. The first to say something was the communications officer who began to relay a general message transmitted from Earth.

"Sir," John turned to look directly at the officer.

"What is it?" asked John uneasily.

"We are receiving a general report from Britain all channels."

"Go ahead," ordered John.

"The report says that Britain has sent out a fleet of ships to intercept the alien craft on the assumption the we are all dead. If we are still alive and if the fleet is to stand down then we are to signal them to stop the attack."

"Well then signal them," an annoyed tone had creeped into John's voice.

"But Sir, that's our problem we can't transmit any messages, video or audio."

"What is the status of our communications?" asked John. Helen starred at John she to had realised the consequences.

"We can receive messages on an audio only capacity." By now the rest of the people in the room had realised what was happening. Earth thought that they were dead and they were were going to destroy what they thought was a hostile alien ship. Earth could not have been more wrong.

"Get communications on line now!" The communications officer backed away slightly due to the ferocity of John's voice.

"Sir, that is impossible in our current state."

"Then I fear that if we attack the alien ship our fleet will undoubtedly be destroyed."

* * *

Commander Kyle McLochlan lead the attack fleet which was headed towards the alien ship. The thrust of the attack fleet was four heavy cruisers which were to intercept the craft and cause major damage before it would have a chance to react. The rest of the fleet consisted of light fighters which were piloted by some of Britain's best pilots. The fleet was without many of the heavy cruisers which it could have had but Britain had insisted that they should stay to defend Earth should it come to that. The Commander sat on the sterile and clean bridge, it almost sparkled, and thought about the attack. If the ship had the potential to do as much damage as it could do, as in take out an entire orbital station in one shot, then the fleet would have no hope. Kyle pushed the thought to the back of his mind, if he were going to die then that was that, it would happen and there was nothing he could do about it. There was a nagging feeling that something was wrong with this, surely if the ship intended to attack then it would have moved on to another target, instead it just sat there. The ship never moved one centimetre. It was odd that a highly hostile force would let an entire planet call arms before it made its next move. Maybe that was its plan, to give this pitiful planet a chance to feel that it was defending itself. Maybe this was really the end for the entire world.

"Sir," said a flight path operator situated at the front of the bridge, "we have visual contact with the station."

"On screen," ordered the Commander. The plain, empty visage of the station sprang to life on the screen. Then something extraordinary happened, the station flashed several times the abruptly stopped. Kyle swung his chair over to his science officer, "evaluation."

"I am running the patterns through our computer for an exact match for the message."

"Message?" asked Kyle who could not keep the amazement out of his voice.

"The station is flashing in Morse code to us," the science officer paused as floods of data appeared on his screen, "it appears to say stop."

"Stop?" queried Kyle.

"That is the message exactly, nothing more, nothing less."

Realisation hit Kyle, the station would know that a battle fleet would be headed out to destroy the ship and if they had vital information then communications must be able to receive The alien craft must have transmitted a message of peace, "Stop the attack, order the rest of the fleet to hold their positions. Order a four man patrol of fighters to accompany us, we're going to the station. "The entire bridge crew looked at Commander Kyle in complete amazement.

* * *

The operations centre on Station Alpha breathed a collected sigh of relief. They had, up until a few seconds ago, had no indication that their message had been received by the fleet. Then slicing through the wash of relief came the voice of Milton, the chief science officer, "a heavy cruiser and a four man patrol of fighters are headed our way."

"Milton, assessment," ordered John. "What do they want?"

"They are on the very edge of our short range sensors but the information that I am receiving suggests that their shields are up and their weapons are armed. This could be a first wave of attackers to test the alien crafts defences."

"You don't think that they didn't receive our message after all, do you?"

"At this time I don't know what to think," said Milton and in that one moment, the operations centre was stunned once more into silence.

* * *

"What of our fleet? I want a progress report," ordered Ackmar.

"But," stuttered Salman, "there is nothing to report. The fleet isn't even organised." In reality Salman was not scared by this man, it was more a sort of awe which caused Salman to stutter. Ackmar had served in some guerrilla war in the South American Federation as a mercenary before joining the S.A.F. army. After many years he had gained the rank of General but when his wife was killed by the same guerrillas which he had worked for he had decided to retire. Upon his arrival back home there had been a job offer from the Saudi Arabian intelligence which Ackmar had accepted. He had risen to the top within a matter of months. It was not Ackmar as such that Salman was in awe of, it was the power. The raw power that Ackmar commanded. The power built him up to epic proportions but in reality Ackmar was something smaller, just a bitter man, wanting revenge on anyone who opposed him.

"I want that fleet in the air within ten minutes."

Salman thought for a moment before answering, "If you give me 15 minutes I can get seven more ships up with the fleet. That would undoubtedly ensure our victory."

Salman had chosen his words perfectly, Ackmar had fallen into his trap, "you have 15 minutes." Salman needed 15 minutes to get the fleet up he could not manage it in ten. Even if there was not seven more ships, Ackmar would never notice.

"I'll get on it right away," replied Salman.

"And make sure they use the British codes, I want to make absolutely sure that we get that ship."

Salman was about to walk out of the room when he paused. Turning back to face Ackmar he spoke, "what if you were to get there first though, before Station Alpha had a chance to react. You would be the one to find out all their secrets."

"Our spy may be able to get us the message but he can't stop the British getting there first. Just do your job and send the fleet. I want that ship."

To Be Continued...

THE END

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