CHAPTER SIX

After listening to the planet’s various communications for hours, PHOENIX finally entered the star system. Through Bret, the crew learned a lot about the sentient species, called the Volux. They had no faster than light drive technology and had never explored beyond their system. Although they were not space-faring they had come into contact with several alien races who had visited their world in the past. It was for this reason alone John elected to make contact with them. He was hoping they had dealings with the Screen.

The Volux world consisted of two nations, the Mirimiss and Cruo. The countries were at a state of cold war with one another. Julie was apprehensive about making contact as there was no united planetary government. She worried their presence might raise tensions but John was optimistic. He believed this was an opportunity for them to improve relations between the two nations. He planned to work openly with both to try and foster better ties. Julie felt he was being too optimistic but elected to keep her opinion to herself. It was a noble idea and at least worth trying.

The senior staff assembled on the command deck along with Thresha. They had already determined none of the many satellites orbiting the planet were any sort of weapons or defensive systems. Alex’sis kept scanning them as a precaution. She wanted to be sure that PHOENIX was not flying into danger.

John stood between Julie and Alex’sis at the operations table as they worked. He went over his mind what he was going to say to the Volux leaders. He was hoping this endeavor would produce some fruitful information about the Screen but he had some doubts. They had come away from their time at the alien trading outpost with a lot of new technology but no information about the Screen. They had dealt with nearly a dozen races but they all knew nothing relevant of the Screen.

“Captain,” said Bret from his station. “I’m getting a transmission request from the planet. No, wait. Two of them. One from the Mirimiss and the other from the Cruo capitals.”

“Damn it,” muttered John. “I wanted to do the introductions separately. Bret, go ahead and open channels to both.”

“Hold it,” advised Julie. “Captain, we should keep the introductions separate. We don’t know how they’ll react if we talk to them both simultaneously.”

Alex’sis agreed with Julie. “It might be a good idea, sir. These are enemy nations and may not like that we’re talking to both of them.”

“Which is why I want to avoid any secrets with them,” clarified John.

“We can always reveal that we’re talking to both countries after we’ve established a relationship with them,” said Julie. “For now, we should play it safe.”

“Alright,” agreed John. “Bret, patch the Mirimiss to my command console. Julie, you’ll talk to the Cruo.”

Julie nodded and both commanding officers went to the respective stations. Julie joined Bret at his station to talk with the Cruo leader. John got situated in his command seat and activated his terminal. On it, an alien that looked like it had two heads was displayed. One had features that appeared to be four eyes and a mouth while the other head was devoid of any traits. John was tempted to start asking questions but he forced himself to keep on the task at hand. But it would be hard talking with an alien who looked like it had a balloon as a second head.

“Mirimiss representative, I’m Captain John Roberts of the human starship PHOENIX.”

“Ministruel Nurof of the Mirimiss Federated,” said the whitish colored alien.

“Ministruel? Are you the leader or a representative of the Mirimiss?”

“I lead my people,” replied Nurof. “We place the highest importance in contact with off-worlders. Our protocol mandates that only the elected ministruel speaks to you.”

“I am honored by your protocol,” replied John. He felt his words were some half-assed attempt to ingratiate himself with Nurof.

“Our records indicate we have not encountered your kind before,” stated Nurof.

“My people have only begun space exploration,” explained John.

“Difficult to believe given the large vessel you travel on and the sophistication of your weapons.” For some reason aliens didn’t believe that humans had only begun to explore the galaxy. They equated the size of the PHOENIX as representing humans exploring space for years. John began thinking he would need to stop saying they were new to space travel.

“Our ship took a significant amount of years, I mean cycles, to construct,” explained John.

“A reasonable explanation,” said Nurof. “Still, visitors only come here for trade and your vessel’s size should carry everything you need. What could my people provide for you?”

“We have conducted various trade dealings recently and have traded for goods that are new to us. I anticipate the same benefit with your world. We’d like to discuss the possibility of conducting trade with your people. Also, as we’re new to this region of space, we’d like to learn about any races that may have visited your world.”

“The Mirimiss are renowned for trade with off-worlders,” boasted Nurof. “We would be happy to engage in negotiations with such a noble race. We also look forward to learning about a species that travels on such a magnificent vessel.”

Well, this was certainly going better than expected. Initially, John got the feeling that the ministruel was suspicious, now he was welcoming PHOENIX with open arms.

“If you like, I could send a delegation to your capital to meet with your representatives,” offered John.

“That is appreciated; however, travel to our world is dangerous,” said Nurof. “As distasteful as it is, we live on a divided planet. Although the Mirimiss welcome off-worlders, the Cruo are xenophobic in nature. They will not hesitate to fire on any foreign vessel attempting to enter the atmosphere. It would be safer if a delegation from my capital visit your ship.”

“That would be fine.” John wasn’t interested in placing his people in any unnecessary danger. If Nurof was willing to send a delegation to an alien starship, it placed the captain at an advantage in case the meeting didn’t go well.

“I will have our security lead contact you in twenty-twelve uvix,” said Nurof. As usual, the micron wasn’t translating units of measurements properly. John hoped that whatever twenty-twelve uvix was, it was enough time to make all the necessary security preparations.

“I look forward to the meeting, ministruel,” said John. When the display went dark, he stepped down from his command chair and joined Julie and Bret at the communications station. Julie was just finishing up her talk with the Cruo leader, Narx.

“Someone from our ship will contact you to make the arrangements,” said Julie.

“I look forward to a fruitful meeting,” replied Narx. The screen went dark and Julie looked up at John.

“The Cruo want to meet us?” asked John.

Julie nodded. “He’s insisted that the meeting be held on PHOENIX. Apparently, the Mirimiss are aggressive and will fire on any ship that tries to enter the planet’s atmosphere.”

John couldn’t help but crack a smile. “The Mirimiss leader said the same thing about the Cruo. Said they’re xenophobes and don’t like aliens. I agreed that they could come aboard for trade negotiations.”

“Two warring nations trying to ensure that we only speak to one of them,” said Julie. “I don’t like it.”

“Narx seemed pretty impressed by the size of PHOENIX,” said Bret as Alex’sis joined them.

“I listened in on your conversations,” said Alex’sis. “They’re both fascinated we travel on a large ship. They may assume our technology is more advanced than theirs.”

“Is it?” asked John.

“I scanned the satellites orbiting the planet,” said Alex’sis. “They don’t seem any more remarkable than human satellite systems. I checked some vehicles on the planet I identified as military. Their weapons output is inferior to standard TERRA weapons. They’re not a match for PHOENIX.”

“Which is why they’re interested in our technology.” The group turned to see Chief Sandoval coming down the catwalk. “The Mirimiss and Cruo both conducted a probe of PHOENIX. They did a general scan of the ship. Once they identified our weapons ports, they tried to narrow their scanners on our weapons.”

“So they know our armaments,” said Julie.

“I doubt it,” replied Sandoval. “I initiated a scattering field around the ship that rendered their sensors useless. They don’t know our capabilities.”

Alex’sis wasn’t concerned. “They’re interested in our weapons, so what? If they have vital information about the Screen, isn’t that worth trading some of our weapons?”

“This is a world that’s divided among two hostile nations,” said Julie. “Would we want to be responsible for the fallout of giving either side weapons technology that would give either of them an advantage?”

“It’d probably take them years to reverse engineer our weapons and start constructing new ones,” said Alex’sis, who still wasn’t worried about such a prospect. PHOENIX would be long gone by then.

“There’s nothing in our military rules that prohibit us from trading weapons,” pointed out Sandoval.

“We’ll proceed with the meetings and see what they have to offer us,” said John. “If they have any information on the Screen, we’ll try to entice them with some of our commercial goods. We’ll avoid trading any weapons with them.”

“Even if it means giving up vital information they might have on the Screen?” asked Sandoval.

“Commander Olson has a valid point,” said John. “We shouldn’t do anything that may destabilize the fragile truce between the Mirimiss and Cruo. No weapons trading.”

“Cows were a big hit at the trading outpost,” reminded Bret. “Maybe these guys will go nuts over them too.”

Everyone smiled except for Sandoval. “Then I recommend we limit the number of each envoy.”

“Agreed,” said John. “No more than four will be permitted from the Mirimiss and Cruo delegations. We’ll conduct the meetings in the board room.”

“As the Cruo leader is already familiar with me, I suggest I take the lead when we meet with them,” recommended Julie.

“Agreed,” said John. “We’ll arrange both meetings a day apart from each other. I don’t want to chance of either side crossing paths by having the meetings on the same day.”

“I believe I can determine the Volux’s measurement of time by monitoring their communications,” offered Drix.

“Good,” said John. “Let’s continue to monitor the planet’s communication traffic and see if we can learn anything more about them.”

As the staff dispersed, John couldn’t help but be a little worry about how things had developed. He never gave it much thought before about trading weapons with aliens but he never thought they’d come to a planet with multiple nations. It certainly gave him pause now about sharing PHOENIX’s weapons technology. Hopefully both Volux nations would be satisfied with basic goods.