A short glance on one of the status displays told him that the Starfuries were still busy to herd the remaining Pirate Zakus towards the 'Manhattan', the point defense weapons pointed at each and every one of them.
McLane licked his lips and his mind raced. He knew that he shouldn't have slept through the 'First Contact' seminar. Finally he breathed in deep, his eyes locking to the view screen with the surprised alien face.
"I'm sorry for the problems we had here," he said, hoping to say the right thing," But we have a growing problem with space pirates in the last years. I also apologize for confusing your ship with a pirate ship."
He made a short pause.
"I'm Commander John McLane of the EarthForce Space Partol Ship EAS 'Manhattan' and the System Partol Group Alpha Three. Welcome in the Solar System."
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Captain Soanso looked at his princess and into her shocked face. He was as shocked as she was. His mind raced as he looked at the data his ships sensors took during the fight. This shouldn't be possible. They had gravity control, some sort of gravimetric drive for propulsion, an energy source that produced more energy than any salusian reactor and not to forget these strange systems the attacking ships had used to appear and disappear. It simply didn't fit anything he knew from the briefing he got before starting this mission. Humans should just have some stations in low orbit, maybe a station on their planets moon and if they were lucky a mission on the way to the fourth planet, but not THIS!
His glance wandered over the sensory displays of the human weapons. He was shocked again as he noticed the sheer power of the weapon the smallest ships, these Monsoon used. These weapons were to powerful for a ship of this size, even with the kind of energy source they used.
Further down he saw other data, it stated that some of the human technologies were less advanced and some more advanced than salusian or zardon technology, but for the main part the technolgoies seemed to be on par with their tech.
He noticed that the ships had powered down their main weapons, save for the point defense weapons that were pointed at the strange humanoid crafts. He looked back at the com screen and the human face on it, wondering how the frel they got their hands on that technology. The human began to say something and Soandso could feel the tension of the human.
"I'm sorry for the problems we had here," the human said," But we have a growing problem with space pirates in the last years. I also apologize for confusing your ship with a pirate ship. I'm Commander John McLane of the EarthForce Space Partol Ship EAS 'Manhattan' and the System Partol Group Alpha Three. Welcome in the Solar System."
Soandso breathed in deep. He had made several First Contacts in the last years and this was why he had been selected for this mission to deliver the princess to Earth. He decided to just act now, before the princess could say or do something that could end this whole mission in a desaster, because she didn't know how to handle it. Sure she was a princess, but even she was only salusian.
"I'm Captain Soandso of the Salusian Conglomerate vessel 'Salusias Grace'. I thank you for your apologies. I can understand that you confused us with Pirates."
Soandso watched as McLane exhaled audiably and loosing some of his tension.
"Captain Soandso," McLane says after a few seconds," My Partol Group will escort you to Earth."
Soandso nodded.
"Yes, I think that would be the best."
"We will send you a plotted course. Manhattan, out."
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McLane exhaled and his head slumped forward as the com line was cut. He breathed in and out for a few moments before looking towards the navigator.
"Plot the fastest course to Earth."
The navigator worked for a few moments on his console before grinning towards McLane.
"Well, Commander," he said," We'll get the panorama route."
"Panorama route?"
The navigator grinned some more.
"We'll pass Saturn in 25 million clicks distance, Jupiter in 4 million clicks and Mars with 1 million clicks. If we are lucky we will even see the 'Quantum' surfacing from Jupiter."
McLane suddenly smirked himself.
Saturn was a sight everyone wanted to see and even he found the view to the 'Lord of the Rings', as the planet was sometimes called, still great after all this time, just like the view of Earth from orbit.
Jupiter was the largest planet in the system and the Red eye the biggest storm ever. And if they were really lucky they would see the 'Quantum', a cube of four miles length on each edge. This giant had been build by Interstellar Mining, Boeing-Lockheed-Martin and Nippon Heavy Industries to harness the large quantities of Quantum-40 in the deep atmosphere of Jupiter. The armor of the large refinery ship was more than 500 Meters thick, to withstand the large pressure of the Jupiters atmosphere. The 'Quantum' had been finished just one year ago and should be surfacing this week after four month deep inside Jupiter.
And than Mars and the large geodome structure over Vallis Marineris, the largest structure ever build by humans. It was really the right course to get to Earth for the real First Contact.
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(Posted Fri, 09 Jul 2004 22:13)
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