Darkworld: Earth

2.26.

“It has officially reached the point where Earth owns more Yonohoan origin space assets than the ones that we put into orbit ourselves,” the senator was saying on the television. “Am I the only one who is worried that this is a way of silently disarming us? That there’s a great big switch somewhere that will cause all of these ‘gifts’ to suddenly disarm themselves? Possibly even self destruct and kill all hands on board?

“I know that the Yonohoans seem so friendly, but by their own history they have a long tradition of warfare. They’re feared throughout the galaxy for their cunning strategy and ruthlessness in battle. Why are we submitting ourselves to their mercy when we were on the edge of an age of discovery and --”

Ji-eun Moon turned the television off. She tisked in disgust. The senator had probably never even spoke to a Yonohoan. He was just a fear-monger, stoking up the flames of distrust and xenophobia in exchange for press time and potential votes.

“Yeah, he’s a loudmouth,” Trevor said, sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into the embrace. A kitten hopped into her lap. She hadn’t had the heart to reclaim Fluffy from the loving home she had been adopted into, and so Ji-eun had spent some time shopping for a new pet.

Now that she was officially done with flying around in the stars, she could afford to have a cat again. She rubbed the kitten’s cheek and the animal began to purr.

The relationship with Trevor was new as well. He’d bought her a drink. She’d accepted. They’d talked for twenty minutes before she’d taken him upstairs to the motel room she’d been staying in at the time. He’d had absolutely no idea who she was when he’d made his advance and she didn’t inform him until he was putting on his socks the next morning.

“Oh, yeah, so I’m the captain of the ship that found the aliens. Fun time last night. I’m going to take a shower.”

She’d been expecting him to either run screaming or to try to exploit the experience. So far he’d done neither, except to ask her out for dinner when she’d finished her shower.

“Have you decided which offer to accept?” he asked.

“How am I supposed to decide when everyone wants a piece of me and the offers are all just so good?” she inquired.

“I don’t know. Tape them to a wall and throw a dart?” he suggested.

She considered the idea and dismissed it. She sighed.

“I think I’ll follow the money. Trefold is offering the highest compensation package, and I can live anywhere I want. They really only want me for my Yonohoan connections, but that’s fine. It will give me enough time to do educational and charity work on the side,” she said.

“There. You’ve made up your mind. Was that so hard?”

“Agonizing. I need a massage to clear my head.”

“Just a massage?”

“We’ll see where things go,” she said with a smile.

~~~~~

Diego caught the blow on his armor’s stomach plates, grabbed Eolai’s arm with both of his own, twisted his body and threw his Yonohoan brother through the air. Eolai spun and landed on his feet, dashing back with lightning speed to continue to press the attack.

Diego deflected punch after punch, each amplified by Eolai’s own power armor. They hummed with power and a faint blue light as the strange-matter powered suits radiated danger. While both had their armors weapon systems powered down, the simple strength they were wielding was enough to break concrete with a casual glancing blow.

Solid thuds echoed through the training room. The Topokans were watching nervously as the sparring match continued for twenty long minutes. Eolai, who had spent years practicing with this technology, had the clear advantage. Diego was learning well, however, and caught his mentor by surprise a few times.

“Enough,” Eolai announced. Their armor, which had been glowing a light blue, suddenly darkened as the power was cut out. They returned to a darker color, navy blue bordering on black.

“I almost had you a few times,” Diego said, still gasping for breath.

“I would be a poor teacher if I did not give you a few openings to exploit,” Eolai countered. “But your training is progressing well.”

“You know that Earth’s military would literally kill to get this sort of tech for their soldiers,” Diego said.

“I am certain they would do no less than that, yes,” Eolai said. “Unfortunately I’m not certain that they are ready for it yet. We have provided your world with the basic defenses that any colony world would have, but they continue asking for more. It is not that we are unwilling, but rather that when we give weapons as gifts, we believe we remain responsible for their usage. Your world is frightfully fractured and nonunified. I do not wish to contribute to the rise of tyranny.”

“I understand completely,” Diego agreed. He sighed. “My native nation faced the same dilemma. We tried to arm our allies with our own weapons, but were often dismayed by the results as tyrants rose to power and used the very weapons we gave them in reprehensible ways.”

“Yes, I know,” Eolai said.

“So how do we reach a compromise?” Diego asked. “What do you give the people of Earth so that they are satisfied and yet cannot use as a weapon of oppression?”

“I do not know, Diego my brother, and that is the problem.”

“Eolai, Diego, I regret to inform you that an unidentified ship has appeared inside the Oort Cloud,” Bob said, its neutral voice intruding on the conversation. “It dropped out of the Hyperatomic plane just a moment ago. It is presently actively scanning the system.”

Eolai sighed. “Send the data to the Earthlings. Inform them that their location has been discovered by one of the empires, and that they should prepare to receive more ‘guests’ in the immediate future.”

“I thought it was illegal for the governments to search for Darkworlds,” Diego said.

“It is,” Eolai agreed. “But that does not mean that it doesn’t happen.”

~~~~~

There was some consternation among the ESF leadership that the unidentified ship was spotted by the Yonohoans before their own forces. Once the alert was sent, however, the ESF was quick to respond. They sent their fastest ships on an intercept, pinging the ship with radar and other methods of scanning, as well as radioing demands that the ship identify itself and its intentions.

The ship turned tail and ran, vanishing from the system at a thousand times the speed of light. The ESF forces broke off and returned to their postings rather than attempting to pursue. They judged the wake of the craft through the Hyperatomic plane and queried the star charts that the Yonohoans had provided to try to determine its destination. Unfortunately, the ship appeared to be heading for empty space.

An after-action investigation into the failure of the scanning systems to detect the ship’s arrival showed that in fact the ship had been detected by the scanning stations provided by the Yonohoans. However, the unscheduled arrival had been written off by the techs rather than immediately reported, believing the unknown ship to be a Yonohoan vessel arriving ahead of schedule and out of formation.

This was largely due to light-speed delay. While many of the scanners were not limited by light speed, the IFF systems that the ESF were using still relied on radiowaves. The Yonohoans had largely adopted to equipping their ships with the earth’s IFF transponders in the instances where their ships were likely to come into the sol system, and so the scanner techs were waiting to receive the transponder’s ping before they went to red alert.

The Yonohoans, on the other hand, had been able to tell as soon as the ship dropped its FTL drive that it was not one of theirs.

This led to a distracting debate on whether or not to adapt the Yonohoan’s method of identifying friends or foes. At issue was the fact that once again they would be relying entirely on the Yonohoan’s good will, technology, and databases. Like all instances of integrating alien tech into the Earth’s forces, it sparked arguments from both sides.

The Yonohoans were content either way. Their flagship wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and they were happy to continue to lend their support to their newfound allies. They understood that the Earthlings were going through a period of rapid change and that they would face many challenges as they shifted between the way things were done and the new ways that were becoming available.

‎