“Report,” she said, taking her place in the captain’s chair and motioning to Talia to bring up the view screen.
“There’s some kind of vessel out there,” Talia responded. “It’s at the very limit of our sensors, but our scans have determined that it is not a natural phenomenon.”
Brook nodded, staring at the tiny silver dot that appeared on the view screen before her. Could this be proof of alien life, like Dr. Cohen was looking for? Or was there something wrong with the sensors? It wouldn’t be the first time they’d malfunctioned.
“Stay on course,” Brook said to her pilot, Conrad Weitz, who nodded back at her. “Talia, keep tracking the object. I want an analysis of its composition and—”
“Unidentified vessel.”
The voice boomed throughout the bridge. Talia let out a yelp, pulled out her earpiece, and slammed her hands over her ears. The voice was incredibly loud, echoing through the tight confines of the small cabin.
“You will identify yourself immediately.” Brook leaned forward and tapped the dashboard, pushing down the fear that threatened to take over her sense of calm.
“It’s hijacked the comm system,” Talia stated, frantically trying to retake control. “I can’t override it.”
“This is Captain Jennifer Brooklyn of the Earth vessel Earhart. With whom do we have the pleasure of speaking?”
“Earth vessel, you will prepare for boarding.”
“What?!?” Brook rose, pointing to Talia and then running her finger across her throat in a quick gesture.
Talia nodded, then hit the failsafe that took the communication unit offline.
The door to the bridge opened and Lieutenant Cheerful stumbled in. “What was that?”
“Proof of intelligent life in the universe,” Brook said, then watched as the rest of her crew crowded onto the bridge. “Where’s Smith?”
She didn’t see the payload specialist and she wanted to put eyes on everyone. Now.
“I think he was sleeping,” Diego Alvarez, security specialist and Smith’s bunkmate, replied.
“Get him up and in here immediately.” Brook needed her entire crew around her. She grabbed Lieutenant Cheerful’s arm and yanked him over to her side. Standing on her toes to speak into his ear, she whispered, “I want the FIDOs activated and any weapons we’ve got distributed.”
“Understood,” he replied and headed to a console near the cockpit. He punched a few buttons, which had to be the sequence needed to activate the FIDOs.
The ship was equipped with four FIDOs, or Firstwave Intelligent Defense Operatives, who were used in situations where the need for brawn outweighed the need for brains. Although “intelligent” was in their name, Brook thought FIDOs were dumber than the dogs they were named after.
The door to the bridge slid open again and Alvarez filed in with Smith behind him. This meant her entire crew of eight was assembled, and none too soon. The view screen showed what had appeared to be a blip only moments ago was now a very large and very fast ship, and it was headed straight toward them.
Brook took a deep breath, making sure her voice was calm before she addressed her crew. “Well, people, it seems we’ve confirmed one thing on our search and rescue mission. Intelligent life exists outside of Earth, and apparently they’re keen to guard their territory.”
The eyes of her crew were on her as they seemed to be hanging on her every word. She couldn’t blame them. Not only was this the most important discovery in the last century, hell, eon, but it was also a major threat. They were the only humans in this part of the galaxy. There was no backup.
“You heard them tell us to get ready to be boarded. It may be that they just want to check us out before letting us go on our way, but I’m not too partial to being told what to do on my own ship. So while we’ll give them a chance to explain their behavior, we also need to be ready to defend ourselves.” She glanced around, pinning each of them with her steely amber eyes.
Even as she spoke, Brook wondered what kind of defense they could put up against the clearly superior alien technology. The alien vessel, growing larger by the second, looked to be equipped with several external weapons. Her ship had a single laser bank that was used to blow up small meteorites or debris encountered in space. She doubted it was any match for the alien ship's big guns.
“We’re bringing the FIDOs online, and Lieutenant Cheerful will be passing out our limited supply of weapons. No one is to make a move without my order. Let’s not start an intergalactic incident because one of you gets an itchy trigger finger. Understood?” she barked loudly.
“Yes, Captain.” She could hear the worry in the chorus of her crew’s voices, and she couldn’t blame them one bit.
On the screen, the silver ship grew until it blotted out the stars around it.
Time to have our first encounter. I hope like hell they’re hospitable.
