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The Lonely World- Part 17
🕑 Added 2022-01-01 00:27:18 +0000 UTC“Sir, that signal echo I picked up earlier is back.” Yensin said.
“Did you finish recalibrating the sensors?” I wondered.
“Twice now sir… something is out there.” Yensin confirmed. “It’s like a void in the planet’s gasses. That’s what made the echo, there is no interference where there should be.”
“Perform a more detailed scan, confirm it isn’t a ship.” I quickly ordered. “Go to red alert!”
“Should I message the other ships Captain?” One of the bridge officers asked.
“Only if we can confirm it is indeed a ship, no need to kick a hornet's-“ I stated to explain, but Yensin cut me off.
“Sir, it’s a ship.” Yensin announced. I opened a ship wide comm and ordered all hands to battle stations, then cut it and ordered a distress message be sent to the other ships.
“All hands to red stations! Ezekiel, put some distance between us and that ship! Treasa, get on weapons! Yensin… try to open a comm channel with them.” I ordered.
“Them?” She asked. “Do you mean our envoy captain?” Yensin asked.
“No, I mean with that ship.” I clarified.
“Captain,” Lieutenant Treasa interrupted, “I must advise caution. These aliens may-“
I cut her off, “You concern in noted Lieutenant, but this may be our only opportunity to speak with them again. We can’t let it go to waste.”
“Their ignoring our attempts at communication, or they simply aren’t receiving them.” Yensin said, still looking at her screen.
“They may believe they are still hidden to a degree. Like, they know that we know there is someone here, but they might think we don’t know where they are.” Our pilot, Ezekiel, theorized.
“Okay, so we need a way to show them we know where they are.” I said. “Yensin, any ideas?”
“We could rig the.. no, that wouldn’t.. unless.. Okay, if we modify the deflector, we could send a pulse at them which, if we keep it weak enough, would work more like a single flare that a destructive beam.” Yensin suggested.
“Captain,” Treasa started, “our deflector is the only confirmed method of defense we have against their ship-to-ship weapons. If we do these modifications, it would put us at an unnecessary risk. I suggest we find another option.”
“Any other ideas Yensin?” I asked.
“Well, I guess we could send a probe at them, that might do it, but it could be seen as an aggressive action.” Yensin said.
“In fairness, I can’t imagine they would be too thrilled about us arming a giant energy blaster and firing it at them either.” I said. “Prepare a probe, and set it on an intercept path with the ship.”
There was a moment of quiet as Yensin worked, until finally, “Done, a probe has been disengaged from the Expanse.”
“Anyone else feel like someone’s about to say rook to queen 4, checkmate?” Ezekiel asked nervously.
“You play chess Ezekiel?” I asked.
“No sir, that’s why I’m so nervous.” He replied.
“I was always more of a Poker kinda guy myself. Never knowing what tricks your up against, always betting your hand is a winner, and bluffing like crazy if you know it isn’t. But I have this one strategy that always wins,” I told him.
“And what would that be sir?” He asked.
“Sir,” Yensin said, “Our probe has made contact.”
I began to explain,“When in doubt, stack the deck. Right now, those aliens are freaking out. They know we found them, but they don’t know how we did it. They know their ship’s weapons could destroy us in a single attack, but they also know that it won’t work if we are too far away because our deflector would destroy it first. But here is where the bluffing comes in… they don’t know if that probe is armed”
“Captain, the aliens are hailing us!” Yensin announced.
“On screen.”
