“The initial investigation will be a contact team deployment to a deserted artifact, something big, an abandoned habitat or wrecked spaceship,” Oscar said. “Anything that will show us how they live, give us an indication of their physical shape, their culture. If we get lucky there might be some electronic memory units we can access. Whatever we choose, it will be a minimum of five million kilometers from any settlement or ship. We can manage a five-gee acceleration in an emergency combat situation, which is significantly lower than most of the ships we’ve seen flying around out there; so our primary tactical advantage is our FTL drive. I’d like to avoid any sort of chase altogether, therefore the whole procedure will be conducted on a minimum emission basis.”
“Before we begin this investigation, I’d like some idea of their response if we’re exposed to them,” Wilson said. He glanced around the table until he found Emmanuelle Verbeke, their alien culture officer. “Can you give us any insight on their society, yet?”
“Very little other than the obvious,” she said. “What we’ve seen matches our standard simulations for a non-FTL technological species. They’ve followed a logical progressive route of development across their star system. Given the extent and obvious success of their colonization I am slightly puzzled by the fight we saw. I would have expected more social stability. But as we really know nothing about their culture it would be inappropriate to speculate too much on the conflict at this point.”
“We’ve made no progress on decrypting any of their signals,” Anna said. “That’s worrying. I don’t expect the RI algorithms to begin immediate translations, but there were some areas I expected progress with.”
“Such as?” Oscar asked.
“Video or holographic signals for a start. There are basic formatting rules which data of that nature has to follow. Even if they see in ultraviolet or air-sonar, there will be display template patterns that can be determined. So far we haven’t found any. Their transmissions seem to be almost completely random, and they’re all analogue signals, which is even stranger. Of course it doesn’t help that we’re receiving so many of them. Overlap and interference is considerable. I would at least have hoped to play you an example of their language by now, but I can’t even do that.”
“It is unusual that we don’t even know what they look like,” Emmanuelle said. “If the situation were reversed, and the Dyson aliens were lurking close to a Commonwealth world, they would soon be able to gain an understanding of us from what we broadcast.
“We are recording it all,” Anna said. “If we eventually make contact, and the Dyson aliens want to talk to us, then we’ll have a full understanding of whatever communicative pathways they employ. After that we can start translating the signals we’re recording now. It’ll be helpful in case they start restricting their output when they find out we’re here; what we’re receiving at the moment could be quite valuable later on.”
“You mean we’re catching them off guard?” Wilson asked.
“Essentially, yes.”
“Okay, I don’t have any problem with that.”
“If they find us creeping around out here, are they likely to attack?” Oscar asked.
“If it was me, I’d be curious,” Emmanuelle said. “But that’s a personal thing. It’s also a human thing. Given our current knowledge base, there really is no way of knowing.”
“Then we will conduct the investigation on a worst-case basis,” Wilson said. “The contact team will be armed and have fire authority if threatened. The Second Chance will operate on combat alert as soon as we cross the old barrier threshold.”
For the first time since the barrier fell, Oscar actually looked happy.
“Anna, did you find anything suitable for us to start with?” Wilson asked.
“Yes, actually. There are a lot of spaceship wrecks floating around out there.” She gave Oscar an uncomfortable look. “It would appear the Dyson aliens do fight a lot among themselves. I think we do genuinely need to be cautious.”
“We will be,” Wilson said, giving her a warning stare. “Have you got a suitable starting point for us?”
“I think so, yes.”
Nobody actually said anything, but the bridge crew was very conscious of passing inside the line where the barrier had been. Was it going to spring back into existence, trapping them?
The hysradar scanned behind them, scouring space and hyperspace. There was no change to the quantum signature of spacetime. Nothing altered in or around the Dark Fortress.
They waited just inside the barrier line for over an hour before Wilson finally said, “Okay, Tu Lee, take us over to the rock.”
“Aye, sir.”
