Chapter 20 - The Visit
# Mare Moscoviense #
# Monday, July 25 #
“Ok Pat, are you ready for this.”
“Yes but it is a bit scary and exciting at the same time. Aston feels we should power up to 50%. That is a lot of power.”
“I just hope we do not need it. After we power up, Aston will give us coordinates to the command ship. Love you Pat.”
They powered up to 50%, reinforced their shields and teleported to the super ship. They arrived undetected and wandered about with no alarms or other indications that the crew was aware of their presence. In one space, they found thousands of rounded containers that Pat surmised had to be individual stasis units. After doing rough section counts, they figured that there must be units for about a million persons. Aston confirmed the count.
Andy and Pat then went to the bridge where two of the Grell appeared to be arguing. They both had some kind of key on a lanyard about their neck. Andy decided to try something he had not previously attempted. He wanted to understand what was being said so he tuned into the mind of the individual that appeared to be in charge. He showed Pat how he had done it and she too was able to replicate the feat. Aston was listening in and passed the technique on to the rest. The problem was that the person in charge was arguing to start the long delayed invasion at that instant. The other person was strenuously opposed to the command. The argument continued with one individual refusing to put his key into the console with his commander. He also stated a number of reasons to continue the status quo. The commander then ordered the other person to give his key to a third officer observing the argument. The officer refused. The commander drew a pistol, shot and killed the other officer. He then handed the dead officers key to the third officer and proceeded toward the console that would relay the command to start the invasion. Before either officer could place a key in the console and without further hesitation, Andy essentially shouted mentally <Stop! If you attempt to touch that signaling device, I will fry you where you stand.> Andy created two energy balls and telekinetically hovered them in front of the two officers. The two officers were stunned and froze in place. Pat in the meantime melted the console containing the signaling device.
<All these years, we have tolerated your presence on our satellite and now you would repay this tolerance with invasion. Well enough is enough. You will now prepare to leave this system permanently. You are no longer welcome here. The games you have played for years are no longer tolerable. We thought you might eventually come to your senses but you continue to act as juvenile delinquents. It would appear that your parents never disciplined you. This day, you will return to the system from whence you came. Do you understand me?>
The creature was visibly shaking and responded. <You cannot expect us to leave on such short notice. It takes time to evacuate so many people The preparations alone would take weeks.>
<Such a thin and weak argument. A moment ago, you were ready to start the destruction of Earth, a planet with billions of persons living there and you think that your complaint has any credence or merit? How much more stupid you are than we thought. How quickly you leave is the only factor that will have any weight with how we treat you henceforth. We probably should destroy you outright. This ship has a considerable number of stasis units. Each of your three largest ships has a capacity of over a million stasis units and they appear to be operational. If not, that is your problem. Start loading them within the hour or we start destroying ships and whatever is in them. Start loading the other two large ships at the same time since they also have stasis units. There will not be a second warning. To show you we are capable of doing what we say, the unoccupied battleship at the coordinates I will give you will be destroyed ten minutes from now. In an hour you must ground all warships in space on this satellite except for those we indicate can leave. If that is not done, we will start to destroy another battleship that remains in space and continue to do so at 15-minute intervals. After an hour of that we will go to 10-minute intervals until all the battleships are gone. Then we will start on your carriers at 10-minute intervals. All ships are to return to base and power down. The crews are then to report to a large ship with appropriate units to be placed in stasis for their journey home. As long as the evacuation is taking place in an orderly and reasonable pace, we will withhold destruction. If it slows down for any reason, the destruction will recommence.>
<You will be permitted to take three battleships, and 3 carriers with you, along with their normal complement of craft. All others are to be grounded on the moon, powered down and left. You are to proceed to your planet of origin. You are not to return here. The ships you are permitted to retain may not be used for offensive purposes or invasion. If you do the ships so used will be found and destroyed. You will be tracked. Do you have any questions?>
<No.>
<Your bases are not to be destroyed. If you attempt to do so, or prepare traps in any of the structures on this satellite, a toll will be taken of the remaining ships. Start your preparations now. We will be watching. Any attempt to disregard these orders will result in graduated destruction of your fleet and a reduction of the vessels you will be permitted to take with you. The initial ships that will be destroyed will be the ones we have generously allowed you to take with you, starting with the battleships. You have toyed with us for too long, now it is your turn to suffer the consequences.>
<Aston, tag all of their ship's officers and pilots. I want to be able to assure that when they leave, they ALL leave.>
<Andy, may I suggest that we tag their entire population for the same reason.>
<Oh yes. Any scan I do for tagged persons of this species will require significantly less computing space than the other types of tags we utilize. A single sleeper will stand out like he has spotlights all over him. An exaggeration but any of them trying to sneak by will be noticed in our scans. The location setting for the tag will work, for this species. >
<Great, lets do that then. That will also tell us if there any sleepers.>
<Exactly.>
<I see your point. Thanks. Oh, let's turn on the truth and no harm functions. >
<I will do that but I am not certain that those functions will work on this species. I suspect that some of the Grell will be affected but can't predict which settings will work as intended.>
Ten minutes later the designated battleship melted into an amorphous blob. Nothing remained of it that was salvageable. An hour later a second ship was destroyed. All aboard that ship were permitted to escape before destruction. <Commander of the Grell. Apparently you did not believe our warning. You now have two battleships to take with you instead of three. Would you like to try to further reduce the number to one.> That had the desired affect on the Grell. They were in many cases running to their stasis pods. In a period of four hours, the Grell were all underway and leaving the system. The moon was deserted.
A short while later, a six-man Grell scout ship attempted to reenter the system. Aston noted the presence of six Grell life forms attempting to hide in the wake of a comet and Andy teleported to the vessel. He assumed a semi-visible form and appeared in the vessel. <Did you perhaps forget something, or maybe my warning was not sufficiently clear?> He started melting non-essential items in the cabin of the vessel. They left considerably faster than they had arrived.
Andy invited Collum and his compadres to the ship for a visit. Collum was astounded by what he had seen and heard. The entire exercise had been broadcast to all Solarans. Aston had made a visual recording of the operation and wanted to release portions of it to the media on Earth.
<Andy what did you do? That was just amazing. I was sure that you were overstepping. Are you willing to talk about it?>
<Sure. When I realized what was about to happen, I decided to play the biggest bluff I could think of. I felt that the Grell are basically bullies and cowards so I decided that if I thought big, I might
just scare them off without killing them off. As it happened, it worked. The fact that we were there just when they decided to do what they came to do more than 70 years ago must have startled them beyond their capacity to think straight. It did not occur to them that they might have a numerical advantage. It also did not occur to them that had they been a bit more bold, they could have done us substantial harm. So I bluffed them and scared the starch out of them in the process. They will probably have nightmares for a long time to come. Melting that battleship was not what they might have expected. I think that had it just exploded, we might have had to contend with something more. Destroying those ships the way we did was a psychological element used to play on their fears. We already suspected that the nuclear testing in the 40's and 50's gave them pause. What we did was a quantum leap beyond what they might have expected. We caught them totally off guard. Actually it was kind of fun once we got into the role. I thought their commander was going to faint when Pat melted that console. We had Janie hover outside that second battleship and poke ten foot holes all over the thing until it looked like a sieve. There was no mistaking who was doing the damage. That ability must have really startled the Grell and we made sure that it would be fully visible. Aston is keeping an eye on them. We want to be sure they are really gone.>
<I am truly impressed.>
<Collum, you do realize that with a few weeks of training you too can do what you witnessed today.>
<I had not really thought that through.>
<It is true.>
<I understand more fully why you are so careful who you select to utilize those capabilities. That was an awesome demonstration.>
<We were pretty lucky.>
<My impression is also that you tend to create your own luck.>
<I have two things I want to talk about. The first is that you mentioned there was another species observing what was happening here in this system. You said that they are observing only and I want to be sure that is the case. Aston tells me that he can detect them, even though they are cloaked. It is my intention to pay them a surprise visit, the sooner the better. I want them to discuss their intentions with me. What do you know of them?>
<Actually very little. We discovered them by accident and did not let on that we knew of their presence. We do not know what they look like. We can generally detect them and we have observed no acts of malice. I do agree that it would be prudent to learn more of them.>
<Would you and Menna care to join Pat and me in a little visit?>
<When?>
<How about now?>
<That sounds interesting, let's do it.>
<Aston, do you have some coordinates for us?>
<Here they are.>
Andy, Pat, Collum and Menna teleported to the bridge of the alien ship in invisible mode. <Excuse me Captain, but we would like to talk with you. We are presently here with you but did not want to startle you too badly so we are invisible. Please respond mentally and we will understand you.>
<Ah the Solarans have found us, indeed, please show yourselves.>
<Captain would you also please alert your crew to our presence so we do not startle them.>
<Yes, that is most thoughtful but not necessary.> Nevertheless, the captain alerted his crew and the four Solarans appeared. <Two of you appear to be Earthian but the other two do not. Ah, you are Lotans.>
<You are correct, two of us are from Earth and the other two are from Lota.>
<Oh of course, we have ships in that system now looking for survivors. That is tragic but unfortunately we do not have the means to prevent such incidents. I am sorry. Your treatment of the Grell today was an exceptional surprise. You were clearly trying to avoid bloodshed and were successful in that effort. Your application of just the appropriate level of psychological pressure was masterful. May I ask what prompted that method of dealing with the problem they present?>
<Actually there were several factors, not the least was timing. We managed to be there when the invasion was to commence and took some preemptive action that scared them out of the notion of attacking. We have fostered a new fear in them that we hope will keep them preoccupied looking over their collective shoulders until they gain a bit more species maturity. They act like children squabbling over a desired toy. Hopefully they will gain that maturity. In any event we have genetic trackers on them so we can periodically check to see if they are progressing. If not, we may have to return them to a pre-space technology. We do not believe in killing for the sake of killing. That may be different when we meet the Sorza. We do not know yet. >
<Your responses are not what I expected of people from Earth. Your people are generally more belligerent. That has been an issue of worry and concern to us for ages.>
<That concern is still one shared by the Solarans. How effective we will be in resolving that also remains to be seen. We have been preparing to defend Earth from the approaching Sorza. To train for this we have been attempting to change the direction many have adopted.>
<You now have captured a considerable resource with the Grell bases and ships. Do you intend to give them to the people on Earth.>
<Good Heavens, no. That would be disastrous. They are no where near ready for the responsibility such equipment and facilities engender. Actually we intend to ask the surviving Lotans to occupy the base and prepare those ships for potential future defensive use if needed. We believe that they have the maturity to ethically handle that responsibility.>
<You are of course correct in your analysis. It would appear that our job here is completed. We will from time to time check to see where your efforts have taken you. In fact, I foresee a relationship between us as we observe unfortunate situations such as has existed here for the last 70 years. You may be the key to resolution to some of these that we cannot directly address. Your first priority must of course be the Sorza.>
<May I ask who you are, where you are from and what is your intent.>
<Certainly. We are the Slegna and we are a space based species. We do not have a home planet. We are observers that hope to bring ethical maturity to developing species. Our intent now is to leave this system since it appears to be on an appropriate track for now. Before we do, my associate, Raphael has an additional gift for your ship, Aston. I think you will like it. I am called Barachiel and we will soon talk again. We will leave you now. Goodbye for now my friends.>
The four then found themselves back on their own ship. <What just happened? We were the ones being questioned, not them. Why are those names so familiar together? Any one have any thoughts?>
<Andy, the Slegna technology is very far in advance of our own. I found this out when I received a particularly interesting gift from the Slegna called Raphael. He said that the implant package we have been using was flawed and he correctly pointed out how and where. When I rechecked the implants against the data he provided, it was clear that he was correct. Apparently the primary implants with an adjustment to its structure can be safely applied to juvenile and adult candidates both. This means that there is no longer a need for the lesser secondary implant. The main difference to its application in an adult is that the transplant takes longer to mature since the growth phase found in a juvenile is no longer available to assist in the assimilation of the change. Instead of 24 to 36 hours for an adult, it will take 48 to 72 hours for the implant to be fully assimilated by an adult. This is needed for the energy absorption component of the implant. Previously, that component when applied to an adult did not accommodate the slower growth rate in an adult and was usually fatal. I have checked the formula he gave me against the formulas of the primary and secondary implants we are using and the error locations are fairly obvious. In addition, the telekinetic capability has been improved. The revised implant can also be applied to previous recipients of the secondary implant. The new implant is more efficient than the old. Some of the enhancements are better. The one new feature that I find particularly interesting is that the enhancements automatically shut down if the genetic structure
detects an abuse of the built in ethical conditions on which the implant is based. Previous primary implant recipients also benefit from the change and assimilation occurs within 6 hours. That is far in advance of where the Lotans were taking this technology. We also will now have an unlimited supply of implants available since the implant structure has been incorporated in my structure and protected, shielded in a way that it cannot be compromised by an intruder or otherwise revealed. This is all amazing.
When Raphael spoke with me he mentioned another associate by the name of Raguel. I was told that Raguel would be contacting us with information on the Sorza. Out of curiosity, I ran the three Slegna names Barachiel, Raphael and Raguel against our database because the names all sounded Judaic. I had an immediate hit. The three names are all the names of archangels. What is more interesting is the listed attributes or patronages of the three. Barachiel is the chief of Guardian Angels, Raphael is noted for healing and Raguel is noted for justice, fairness, harmony and vengeance against sinners. I am not saying that I believe we are dealing with archangels but I am saying that there is a relationship between those names and what we have experienced with the Slegna. It is just a bit eerie.>
<More than a bit. I am not yet ready to accept the notion that we are dealing with angels, but they have certainly given us food for thought. My trust sense was working overtime and the reading was very positive.>
<As was mine.>
<I recall from my readings on comparative religions, God is always said to work through a third party. That notion would certainly fit what we have been doing. I guess the best we can do at this point is to keep on doing what we are doing and hope that we are moving in the right direction. I suspect that if we slip off a certain path, we will hear from the Slegna again and if you Slegna are listening, please do not respond. I think we just had a taste of what the Grell felt earlier today when they encountered us. It helps keep our heads out of the clouds. What more do you have on the implants, Aston?>