Chapter No.7 Revelation

Knowledge is power.

Next morning, I went to the command deck to check our engineering status. I was happy to see that we were still traveling at warp 7.5 and that the antimatter mix temperature was stable.

I decided to spring my idea onto Judy, who I realized was in brain lock with all of the other androids.  "Do you know anything about the enemy alien species?"

She turned to me with a stoic expression. "There is a file about them in the system, but it's protected by destruct-safe key-phrases. We are not familiar with the key phrases."

I rubbed my face. "I assume that you mean an incorrect response would totally erase the file. I also assume that there is no work around."

"Yes, Jason."

I knew that I was taking a huge chance in what I was about to do, but I figured it was a necessary risk. If we could understand what we were dealing with, it would help in defending any attack from them.

"I would like to try to unlock it."

Judy didn't flinch or hesitate. She made the file appear on my engineering screen. The first phrase was 'Crash Street Kidds.' I turned to Judy. "What am I supposed to do?"

"We have no answer to that question, Jason."

I stared at it for a few minutes and realized the odd spelling. Then I smiled and typed the answer: 'Ian Hunter'.

The next phrase popped up. 'Bailèro'. That one I knew and typed: 'Joseph Canteloube.'

The final phrase was 'O Fortuna.' I recognized this from the famous Carmina Burana, so I typed; 'Carl Orff.'

Suddenly, the file appeared, and the first page was a visual shock, a photograph of an alien that was truly alien.

I looked back at Judy with a grin. "I'm in."

Judy didn't even look back at me. "Very good, Jason."

That was it? I didn't get so much as a hooray or applause!

Just then, Molly came on the command deck and slid into her navigation station's chair. "I feel better now."

"Look what I found," I said, pointing at my screen.

She craned her neck to look at my screen. "What is that?"

I gave her a 'full of myself' smile. "That is the enemy alien species."

She got up and stood next to my chair. "No kidding! How'd you get that?"

"It was in a hidden file protected by three destructive safe phrases. I'm surprised that it was not that hard to come up with the responses."

She pointed at the image. "That's a reptilian species. See all those scales."

"How do we know that this is not just a rendition of the actual species?" I asked.

"We don't. What else is in the report?"

I stood up. "Here, you look it over. I'm not all that knowledgeable of intelligent extraterrestrial species."

She sat down in my seat and began paging through the file. After several minutes, she offered her opinion. "There isn't all that much information about this species. They live on the planet that I suggested that orbits a M-class dwarf star ten light years from the moon we explored. Evidently, that planet is not tidally locked to the star."

She continued looking through the file before revealing something odd. "They have three sexes."

My left eyebrow shot up. "Three?"

"Yes, the third sex hatches the egg."

"That sounds rather primitive," I said.

"That might be by our standards, but this species is intelligent and has space capabilities. As a matter of fact, they've had warp capability for at least a century."

"That would suggest that they've visited Earth."

She kept her eyes on the screen. "No doubt about it."

"Is there any reason given for why our mission was sent to destroy them?"

"I don't see anything that would suggest a motive," she said. "Most of this report is factual. It simply discusses what they know about this species. They also have a translation for their language, which appears as a series of lines in various configurations."

"I have a theory about the motive," I said. "We know that a previous mission transported a biosphere to the moon. Is it possible that they were aware of the asteroid collision possibility?"

She turned to me. "That would suggest that this species was responsible for the asteroid collision or at least was able to thwart the effort to deflect it."

"If this species is responsible for Earth's destruction, it would mean that there was a previous incident that initiated it."

"I can't find any references to that alleged incident. One thing is for certain though."

My right eyebrow shot up. "What's that?"

She turned to me again. "We now know that there is at least one other intelligent species in this universe."

I rubbed my short-cropped head. "Well, hopefully we won't encounter them again."

"I've made a copy of this file. It's the only information we have about them."

"Good. I think that I'll go down to engineering and see how they're coming with your modifications to the warp engine."

She stood up. "I think that's a great idea."

We went to the elevator and watched the door close.

"Engineering," I said.

The elevator sunk quickly to the lowest deck, and we exited to see the three androids busy at workstations. Vanessa, Queen and Lori turned to watch us enter.

"How are the simulations for Molly's modifications going?" I asked.

"We have completed the simulations and have verified the efficacy of the modifications, Jason," Queen said.

"How long will it take to install the modifications?" Molly asked.

"We estimate it would require seven days if we are in orbit and on standby."

I would have guessed at least a month. "Thank you."

"You are welcome, Jason."

"The only problem I have with the idea is that it would leave us vulnerable for those seven days. Both the warp engines and the plasma ball weapons require antimatter power."

We have the fighter craft, Jason," Queen reminded me."

"Yes, you're right. I just hope it's enough."

Neither Molly nor the androids seemed to share my concern.