Astraeus Station Read online

  As I’d hoped, the alien approached at forty gravities, it’d take around twenty-four hours for him to reach the station, so the rest of us had a day to hammer it out.

  We were all a little embarrassed, as we met up in the board room in the docking ring. I was in the room with seven captains. Russia, China, Japan, Israel, England, Australia, and France were all represented.

  “First, does anyone object to him, her, or it coming in? It seems to me that in our territory we hold all the advantage, we can even kill him and steal his ship, with no negative responses from the other races. It seems to me we should want the other alien races trading on our territory, not the other way around where our ships and crews take that risk.”

  No one said a thing.

  “Right, so, any ideas?”

  The Russian said, “We will not allow you to dominate any new technologies that may come in through trade. It is bad enough we must come to you for ships.”

  I nodded, “I get that, but that’s capability. You’re sitting on a ship, one you could duplicate with study, work, and effort. That’s like… complaining to Sony that you have to buy their televisions, instead of making one yourself. We haven’t hidden any of the science or theories, just the applications as is our right, and the right of any inventor.”

  I shook my head, “As I see it, we have to decide if we’re going to compete or cooperate, then we can build a system and see if we can get your governments to approve it.”

  Two of the captains nodded, but the rest narrowed their eyes. It was going to be a fun meeting.

  “Explain,” said the French captain.

  I shrugged, “If we compete, we can come up with a bidding system of some sort, based on what the alien is looking for, then whoever wins the bid can trade for whatever the alien is offering. Obviously, only the countries that have the capability to meet the aliens needs, will be able to bid.

  “If we cooperate the system will be completely different. We’ll need to show at least the illusion of a united world. We’ll share in expenses, profits, and share technological designs and advances equally. Obviously, I’ll have an edge there in production, given my control over nanites, but it’s a very temporary edge if I’m sharing everything. There’s a lot of things to be worked out, including procedures for aliens showing up in system.”

  Cassie entered the room, and I couldn’t help but smile, thank the gods.

  I really hated politics, and she’d stop me from doing anything too stupid.

  The Japanese captain said, “We all wish to bring an advantage to our own countries. Do we care what the aliens think? So what if we appear as separate nations? I agree we should use a bidding system. It will take time to develop, far more than twenty-four hours, and should be done by our governments, not military captains.”

  “We may have to wing this one, at least until they come up with something. Obviously, out there, with our own merchant ships, we can look out for ourselves, but in our own home system we need rules to keep things as fair as possible.”

  Cassie said, “I suggest in the interest of fair play, all of us here meet with the alien, and find out what they have to offer, and what they’re looking for. Then we can let the various leaders wrangle it out and decide on interstellar trade procedures. If the alien has to wait a week or two this first time, then that’s what will happen.”

  I said, “The race is the Vax. According to the information furnished by the grays, their primary exports are in the medical field. It doesn’t say much else about it, I have a feeling the information is purposefully vague. They look a little bit like a koala, if a koala bear was seven feet tall. They’re also rated as one of the safest races for merchants of other races to visit.”

  Cassie nodded, “For all we know it’s just a visit to determine what we might have.”

  No one looked happy with the plan, but I supposed that was proof enough that it was fair. We all talked a little longer, mostly going in circles. It seemed a little self-serving, but meeting on the station seemed obvious since I had the accommodations. I was also very glad it would be Cassie interfacing with the other governments, but I suddenly had a bad feeling every government on Earth was going to want to send an ambassador merchant of sorts to the station, to meet any aliens that dropped by and try to gain an advantage.

  Cassie smiled, “Excellent, I suggest each of you contact your governments. Hopefully, it will all be hammered out before the second alien shows up.”

  The captains got up, and filed out, with promises to be back when the alien docked early the next morning, station time.

  I asked plaintively, mostly joking, “Is it too late?”

  Cassie tilted her head, “For what?”

  “To turn myself in and get shot?”

  Cassie giggled, “Yes, yes it is, Emperor Akin.”

  I rolled my eyes, “Seriously, what’s my title?”

  She said, “President would be best, it avoids all the negative connotations.”

  I nodded, “Things are getting more complicated than I expected, but I’m rolling with it. Are you enjoying yourself?”

  She smirked, “Yes. I’ve been tweaking governments a long time, I’ve never gotten to run one before. It’ll be small, I promise.”

  “Alright, be honest with me, how much hobnobbing am I going to have to do?”

  She bit her lip, “I was thinking pizza for lunch.”

  I growled at the poor change of subject, and she just laughed.

  She said, “More than you want to, but not as much as you fear. I’ll handle most of it, but state visits require a head of state presence. For the most part you’ll get to hide out in the command center and play with your technology.”

  I supposed it wasn’t all that bad, life was full of unpleasant tasks. It wasn’t that I hated dealing with people, I really didn’t, it was the backstabbing two-faced politicians I could do without.

  I nodded, “Pizza?”

  We got up and headed to lunch together.

  The next morning, we regathered in the conference room. Cassie sat on my right, and at her insistence I had a scowling Jessica and one of her people standing guard in the corner of the room. There were nine others filing in, none of them the captains from yesterday. The governments were no doubt at that very moment heatedly hammering out rules for visitors and access to our solar systems from aliens, but they’d had enough time yesterday to prepare and send various politicians familiar with commerce.

  I didn’t recognize any of them. That said, it was the same seven countries, with two additions. Germany and the United States had hitched a ride with a warship of another country so that they could be present.

  We took a moment to introduce ourselves, but the names and faces went straight out of my head. I wasn’t the best with names when meeting one person, much less nine smooth smiling politicians all cut from the same cloth, and if it was really important, I could cue the space station computer to remind me with a little magic.

  The United States representative seemed very friendly, which made me nervous, but to be fair she probably was nice and not planning to kill me. After all, she wasn’t the head of a counter-intelligence organization or a military person in charge of a black ops project with no oversight. Israel and France had sent women as well, the other six were men in suites. Not that I was judging the clothes part, I was wearing one too.

  I wasn’t sure exactly how that happened, me being in a suit I mean. It’d involved soft sultry words and sweet kisses from Diana, I’d lost that argument in a big way. I had a feeling she’d been recruited by Cassie to make sure I was appropriately dressed for the first human-alien trade discussion. Apparently, heads of state weren’t allowed to wear jeans and t-shirts with funny sayings to work, or you know, not even the business casual wear I usually had on.

  In my defense, Diana was devastating when she put her mind to it, and she totally cheated using her not inconsiderable feminine wiles.

  We all stood when the door swished open, and two of the Vax
were waved in by their escort. They did look remarkably like a koala around the face, white and black marked fur on their face, and their hands had wicked looking claws on the three fingers and opposable thumb. I assumed the rest of their bodies were furred, but of course they were wearing space suits of some kind, or perhaps uniforms.

  Almost like a koala bear got busy with a bigfoot, and they had a Vax.

  I nodded my head, and wondered if I’d just declared war, since they’d have no context for that gesture as humanity mean it. They were cutely fearsome of appearance, but I got a relaxed vibe from them. I was sure they were nervous, new race might be crazy after all, but I was also sure they were used to meeting aliens, unlike any of us.

  Truly, the fact that them attacking us would doom their species and worlds took a lot of the worry out of it.

  “Welcome. Take a seat, and we can introduce ourselves.”

  The sounds that came out of the wall were clicks and soft growls, that varied greatly by speed, frequency, and volume. In a communications call translation technology was far more transparent, since it only passed on the translation in real time, not the original words, but in person we’d have to wait through them. Still, at least we had the technology, it was more than useful.

  They nodded back, hopefully not an acceptance of war, and took a seat and we all sat back down with them.

  The Vax said, “I am merchant Captain Threx, and this is my second in command, Pherie. We are pleased to meet a new trading partner in the stars.”

  The introductions went around the table, and I spoke up when it got to me.

  “I’m Scott Akin, of space station Astraeus.”

  Cassie introduced herself, and it went on from there.

  There was a short awkward pause.

  Threx said, “A pleasure to know you all. I understand the initial exposure to the wider and sometimes dark truths of the galaxy can take time to settle.”

  The American representative, Susan Rejewski I think, said, “We’ll be better prepared next time with better facilities and comprehensive information on what’s available to trade from our world. In the meantime, the people assembled in this room have extensive knowledge.”

  I frowned, better facilities? Bitch.

  “Before we start, would you like a refreshment?”

  Susan shot me an annoyed look, but I suspected she was really annoyed with herself for not thinking of it herself.

  Pherie bowed her head for a moment, and I started to hope it was a gesture of respect in their society too. Well, I thought she was female, she was smaller than Threx, slightly thinner face, but for all I knew Pherie was a guy and Threx was the girl. Or… neither were female, or both, it wouldn’t do to assume.

  “Thank you, Scott Akin. I believe water would be appreciated, we would have to test your other beverages for compatibility before partaking of them.”

  The German representative, Karl something or other, poured two glasses, and slid them down the table. We’d set up a pitcher and glasses, but they were in the center of the vast table.

  Threx said, “We know very little of your race, or what you’d have to offer, though you do have something we desire. First, a little about us and what we offer. We’ve been interstellar traders for many centuries, and we’ve personally dealt with almost a third of the races. One thing we can offer is information.

  “The information offered by the Grays is just enough to get you into big trouble, we lost a lot of trading ships over the years to missteps on the territory of other FTL species. To be frank, we believe it amuses them. Regardless, we would offer you a database so that your traders won’t have to make the same sacrifices. For instance,” he turned to Susan, “Showing your teeth is a challenge in many species, including my own, but we have long since developed thick skins in those matters, others have not.

  “There are many things to be avoided, and some that are required, when dealing with other species. We would share all that with you for the right price.

  “Our second major export is healthcare. We’ve mastered our bodies, diseases, and even genetic manipulation long before we reached for the stars as a species. We could assist you with genetic abnormalities, genetic disease, better DNA correction to both extend life and make minor radiation exposure less destructive, and other enhancements. We also have health scanning devices, and other technologies that will assist you out there in determining what would be lethal for you to consume, or to breathe.”

  That would be extremely useful. The nanites and health bed were perfect for trauma, operations, excising cancer and things like that, but it couldn’t really do anything about all those other things he’d just named. It was also a hot-button topic on Earth.

  He continued, “Our third major export is implant technology. Communications, security, work, entertainment, all contained and implanted in the body in a bio-electric microscopic device.”

  Karl asked, “Augmented reality type stuff, without external technologies?”

  Threx replied, “If I understand you correctly, yes. I am connected to my ship at all times, and even sitting here can review the status of it in a window only I can see. The biggest problem with such technologies is thought interpretation of the user, and as I said earlier, we’ve mastered our bodies a long time ago. There is more than three things of course, and I would be pleased to furnish a list, but those three things are what most races focus on that we meet. Some… don’t, usually for sociological reasons.”

  Susan asked, “And what is it your people desire?”

  Threx shifted, and I wondered if he was nervous.

  “We know you have the technology of the grays. No new civilization has ever entered the galactic scene so definitively before. Usually the battles are much smaller as well, none of the other species had an armada of thirty thousand warships, what would be the point? We suspect the grays set up the Sonex, and they used you to do it.”

  I nodded, “Can you explain that?”

  He explained, “The Sonex were super predators, they couldn’t help themselves, it was in their DNA. Most new races are shocked at first by the state of the fifty galaxies the Grays oversee. The Grays are manipulative, but their system works. They maintain an empire that they don’t even have to oversee, threat of genocide for attacking a neighbor and not committing genocide successfully is repellant to true predators. Predators protect their home, and they hunt, but they manage their herds. Killing all of something means their bellies will go empty the next season. As a result, it works well, no true wars, just some greedy species taking a chance at spreading out their influence and space every once in a while.”

  I nodded, “I agree, it disgusts me, but it is quite an effective setup to maintain peace among predators.”

  It wasn’t pretty, it was an ugly truth, but in the end it was effective, even if horrifically so.

  He replied, “Exactly. Except, there’s always the exception that proves the rule. The Sonex weren’t content to build warships to guard their solar systems, the rules chafed at their minds, and every attempt at trade was met with instant and overwhelming violence. The Sonex psyche rejected it so strongly, that they built a large fleet of scout vessels, and started to gather as much intelligence as possible from all the other races, especially the grays. It was more than clear to everyone, that they were determining what it would take to destroy the grays, and beyond that meet us all in battle if necessary.

  “This is speculation now, not fact, but we believe that made the Grays very nervous. Eventually, the Sonex would decide they had enough ships built and take the war to the galaxies. The Sonex were very close to you, within three hundred light years, as I’m sure you know. Anyway, turns out there was your planet, several centuries away from developing FTL flight, but you were hungry for the stars, there was a race to the moon going on at the time, and you’re relatively peaceful for a predatory race.”

  I almost laughed at that. Human science fiction had always taken the other tack, humans were too barbaric for space. Tur
ns out we were one of the nicer and nobler killer species out there.

  He continued, “I suspect they found a way to get you their technology, and then sat back and waited. The Sonex was a problem, and you were their solution. They couldn’t attack the Sonex themselves without breaking their own rules, so they set them up to fail a takeover, when the Sonex had been successful the last three times in committing genocide and expanding their empire. They knew the only way you could survive their attack was with Gray technology, fast building ships, and more advanced weapons and shielding. I’ll also give you free advice, toe the line of the games, or the Grays might come back to collect.

  “I think you shocked them.”

  Susan asked, “How so?”

  He asked, “Would you give away your best technology to a primitive race? I suspect they figured Earth would die too, but that you’d have enough ships that one would get away to report the infraction. Then the Sonex would be gone too, and their technology would only be in their hands again.”

  Shit. Without me that’s exactly what would’ve happened, Earth would’ve had much less ships in a month’s time, and would’ve been destroyed by the Sonex, except a handful of people on a scout ship, with nowhere to go. It also explains the crash landing, and why the ship wasn’t recovered by the Grays. It even put a new light on their ships poking around Earth for forty years, and in hanging around bases and nuclear reactors. They were trying to drive us with fear to understand the technology and get out in space as fast as possible. No doubt with centuries, the Sonex would’ve had time to build enough warships to be a true threat, and they needed us to grow up fast enough to trigger a new game, before that happened.

  Those bastards had set us up to die, to remove a problem race that didn’t quite fit into their empire’s sick twisted setup.

  “So, you’re telling us we’re the new problem race for the Grays?”