Vescopa
12-04-2009, 22:16
Jessaá Cataldo stood on the third-floor balcony of her domicile in the Capital Building, looking out across Vescopa City’s gleaming skyline as the red sun began to set. As the light cascaded across the walls and rooftops, casting long shadows across anything unfortunate enough to be obscured from the beautiful vista, the elegant buildings began to glow with a light all their own. It was a truly idyllic setting that Cataldo never tired of gazing at, and reminded her why she was so proud to serve as the Prime Leader of her world.
This time, however, it also created some haunting parallels with another time she had stood on this very balcony, wearing a similar night gown, a mere smattering of cycles previously. Even that same strand of brown hair irritated her eyes and her face, no matter how many times she casually brushed it back behind her ear. Her memory of the day was clear; Gódelle had wandered into her quarters while she gazed across the cityscape to inform her of the commencement of Ventrius’ expedition through the Eotu. It was that fateful day which affected all of the days which followed – their universe suddenly seemed very small to her, the Vescopan people suddenly felt insignificant. The discovery of an entire universe beyond the edge of the known universe, the existence of alien life with significantly more advanced technology was confirmed, and the ramifications of both revelations could potentially have a severe impact on Vescopan culture and religion.
She sighed, leaning forwards over the balcony railing as she bowed her head. Prior to her election to the position of Prime Leader, Jessaá had not expected her term to be as eventful as it had been. She was still a young woman, younger than any previous Prime Leader, and her diminutive shoulders were heavily laden with burdens no prior Leader had ever had to carry. These decisions felt too large for her, these were decisions which should involve the entire populace, but there wasn’t time for dithering in this issue. Aliens were real, that much was true, and now Commander Viscross of the Maelrosica and proven that there was a possible way for them to pass by the Eotu unhindered should they gain control of it. She had to severely shake-up the armed forces in order to stake a Vescopan claim on each end of the ‘Passageway’ that existed between Vescopa III and the planet on the other side of the Eotu, now colourfully referred to as VSEA-1.
With a deep breath and an inner cry of determination, the golden mottling on her cheeks became even more vibrant in colour as she resolved to get on with her duties, no matter how daunting. Stepping away from the balcony she slipped out of her nightgown and into an informal dress, and left her room in the direction of the Cabinet Chambers.
As she arrived she discovered all of the cabinet executives already there, arguing with each other intensely across the round, marble table. Prime Defender Hulos Miscarand and Prime Seer Priest Vercon Dano in particular appeared to be at each other’s throats, with both of them now standing upright and yelling at each other over the noise of the other executives. This was not a typical scene, with Vescopans typically being compassionate and calm even in arguments, and it disturbed her. Should this be how the government executives act, she could only imagine how the populace would respond.
Slowly and casually she stood next to the table and raised her dainty hand, looking around the table at each of the executives. As they noticed her arrival they each ceased their bickering, one after the other, and calmed down into an uneasy silence.
“Please, do not let these past events divide you,” she said in her warm voice. “It is now, more than any other time, that the Vescopan people need our wisdom and guidance. Arguing will solve nothing.
“Prime Leader, how are we going to secure the Passageway from extra-Vescopan incursions?”
“How could you even think about disrupting the spiritual beliefs of the people with this heretical knowledge?!”
“What have our scientists learned of the ruins?”
“How will this affect our scientific budget for the season?”
The barrage of questions was too much and once more she raised her hand in the air, shaking her head. “One question at a time, please!”
Collecting herself, she looked down at the floor and took a deep breath, and then proceeded to sit down at the rounded table. The two standing ministers looked across at each other, then at her, and followed suit. Miscarand was the first to speak up in the more orderly environment.
“Prime Leader, the military risk posed by this Passageway, or whatever we plan on calling it now, is untenable,” Miscarand blurted out. “We must find a way to seal it as soon as possible to prevent any extra-Vescopan incursions.”
“Prime Defender, you are overreacting,” Jessáa said with a smile. “The Extra-Vescopan Passageway – the current name favoured – has existed there for time immemorial. The first aliens we have ever encountered did not use it, they traversed the Eotu instead. It is, in fact, less of a risk now than it was when we were ignorant to its existence. I will not be the Prime Leader responsible for destroying this valuable resource out of fear and paranoia.”
“Very well,” Miscarand nodded. The two were typically close friends, but Miscarand was never afraid of arguing with her when he believed in something passionately – which, until the last few years, was rather infrequent. “If we are not going to destroy it, we must defend it. No doubt some alien hostiles will have noticed the appearance of one of our vessels in orbit – there was even sign of habitation on VSEA-1’s surface!”
“I know,” Jessáa nodded. “I have been speaking with members of the Navy regarding that. I believe it will be prudent to permanently station two VDS-06 Warships in orbit of VSEA-1 along with five VDS-07 Warships. Meanwhile, a single VDS-06 will be stationed in orbit around Vescopa III along with two VDS-07s.”
“Ma’am, that will leave the Navy extremely stretched,” Miscarand pointed out. “That will leave us with a solitary VDS-6 on detached duty.”
“Yes I know,” Jessáa sighed. “But for the time being, it will have to suffice. If nothing else, at least we will know that we are using all available resources to defend the Passageway until we have more at our disposal. As you know, we are continuing to look into the prospect of funding the construction of additional VDS-06 Warships alongside our second order for VDS-07 Warships.”
“Very well,” Miscarand nodded, fiddling with the collar on his white, sleeveless shirt.
“Prime Seer, I understand the implications of the announcement we made last week regarding the discoveries we have made,” Jessáa smiled at the Priest. “But as you know, I believe in a policy of total dissemination of important information to our people. Keeping such profound discoveries classified for this long is abhorrent. Our people are wise, patient and compassionate – I hope that they are able to assimilate this information without sacrificing their ideals.”
“The deed is done,” Dano said. “The Eotan High Priests are amending our canon to accommodate this new information as we speak, but I understand that it is not an easy process. The Solarists have already done so with less difficulty. But I still believe it was wrong!”
“I respect your opinion Priest,” Jessáa nodded. “And your beliefs. But this information needed to be released. I trust that we will all be able to handle these new truths we are being exposed to.”
Prime Educator Establo Perzay spoke up for the first time, her voice markedly timid compared to the other executives. “Prime Leader, myself, many professors and other scholars not involved in the study of the new ruins are curious to hear what has been learned so far.”
“Eventually their findings will be published, either piecemeal or, less likely, in one big volume,” Jessáa smiled. “I have read the reports coming in so far, as has Defender Miscarand, and much of it is beyond myself and indeed the scientists involved in the studies. From what information they have accessed on the alien computers, they believe that the Eotu was constructed artificially by an ancient and advanced race of beings as a defence against an enemy of some type. The facilities we have discovered in this last cycle were essentially ports, allowing for safe passage across the Eotu and acting as defensive outposts. As for where these aliens went, they haven’t been able to determine that information.”
“A theory being thrown around at Vescopa Central University right now suggests that we are those aliens, or at least their descendents,” Perzay suggested meekly.
“If that is the case, as far as I know the teams haven’t discovered anything to prove it,” Jessáa shook her head. “In any case, they are primarily focussed on the technological information contained within the computers, and within the facilities themselves. We continue to operate them despite knowing virtually nothing about how they function.”
“If those computers contain details pertaining to advanced offensive technologies, they should be prioritised for development,” Miscarand spoke up. “Our technology is vastly inferior to that of the alien ship encountered by Maelrosica five years ago, and that was a freighter or at least some kind of a civilian vessel by all accounts.”
“Right now I believe they are focussed on the propulsion technologies supposedly covered in the databanks,” Jessáa said. “For the moment however I think the science behind it all is still baffling them.”
“Right,” Perzay said. “Ships on the other side of the Passageway have been sending out LADAR pulses for almost a cycle since being positioned there... aside from the planetary bodies within the VSEA-1 system there has not been a single return. We are going to need much more sophisticated propulsion technology if any kind of exploration is to be done.”
“Exploration?” Miscarand exclaimed. “Why draw even more attention to ourselves? It’s bad enough sending out Divinities-know how much radio and sensor traffic over there, let alone sending ships out. We don’t even know what the Second Universe consists of yet. It could be harmful to Vescopans.”
“We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves here,” Jessáa smiled, tapping her fingernails on the cool marble table. “The Eotu is believed to be the closest object to the VSEA-1 system, and it is something like sixty trillion kilometres away – far too distant for any ship to reasonably travel to. There won’t be much exploration until our engines are a little bit faster. Until that happens, we have to decide how we want the Vescopan people to be presented to any intelligent extra-Vescopan lifeforms which may exist in the Second Universe.”
“Excuse me?” Miscarand asked.
“I believe that we should attempt to contact any intelligent lifeforms out there now, rather than bump into them as we have done in the past,” Jessáa said, taking a gulp as she finally got around to presenting her sure-to-be-controversial idea.
“With respect ma’am, there has never been any successful communication with encountered aliens in the past,” Perzay said. “We have to accept the possibility that our languages, our very physiologies, may be so radically different to their own that relations will be impossible.”
“Teams on the VSEA-1 side of the Passageway have discovered what they believe to be numerous files dealing with numerous alien languages,” Jessáa said, seemingly on a tangent. “They have been unable to translate them so far but they do not believe the task to be impossible.”
“Those languages are probably so old that nobody will recognise them anyway,” Perzay said. “Just look how radically different modern Vescopan is compared to two centuries ago.”
Jessáa sat back in her plush seat and folded her slender arms, stroking her chin as she started pondering possibilities. She found it difficult to accept just how xenophobic some of her executives were being; it flew in the face of the way she thought Vescopans were supposed to be – kind, considerate, accepting... but now she was beginning to wonder if those beliefs were erroneous. Could it be that, presented with something sufficiently different to themselves, that Vescopans would turn from loving people into paranoid savages? She couldn’t let that happen. They had to learn about any aliens that might be nearby to avoid that paranoia from taking hold.
“I realise that Establo,” she said after a prolonged pause. “But much as our computers still retain ancient language databases, dating back thousands of years, aliens may be able to translate at least one of the languages contained in those alien databanks.”
“If they do, we could attach a Vescopan language pack to the signal and they may have more expertise at decoding the file format and translating the text into something we can recognise,” Perzay said, more optimistically than before.
“Exactly,” Jessáa smiled at the Prime Educator.
“This is absurd,” the Prime Seer protested. “You invite disaster! The Divinities placed us within the Eotu for a reason, and you are in breach of the Divine Contract by trying to leave!”
“As much as it pains me, I must agree,” Miscarand said sternly. “Our military cannot hope to repel a technologically, numerically superior foe in the event that your optimism fails.”
“As much as I hate to use my elected powers to overrule you all,” Jessáa said with a note of finality, smiling apologetically across the table at each executive. “This is something we must do. The Passageway will allow us to effectively control who enters the Eotu and when – but we must learn more about the nature of the Second Universe and its inhabitants, and more than this, we must make peace officially while it still exists. Misunderstandings cannot be allowed to occur. I shall attempt to craft a message to send, and the teams at VSEA-1 can use the alien communications array to send it. At least that way there’s a chance somebody might hear it.”
“Attempt?” Miscarand said jovially.
"Well, it has been a long time since a Prime Leader had to write a diplomatic communiqué...” Jessáa smiled. “Several centuries, in fact!”
***
The two alien facilities, one on Vescopa III and the other well outside of the Eotu, on VSEA-1, were by now bustling hubs of activity. Ships both civilian and military in nature orbited both worlds, and countless numbers of scientists and soldiers now resided within the alien compounds. Particularly in Vescopa III, the mines had been closed down and the alien ruins excavated and allowed to automatically repair themselves to their former glory, in a process which had taken virtually the entire year.
Despite the overwhelming nature of the incalculable wealth of information contained within the computer terminals, of which several people now claimed to be experts at utilising, already numerous important discoveries had been made. They now had a much better understanding of how the terminals themselves functioned, and were able to control them much more effectively than the first Vescopans to ever link up to them. Much about the nature and purpose of the facilities had now been discovered, although their power generation facilities and the nature of the Passageway itself delved into realms of quantum mechanics that not even the most accomplished of Vescopan physicists could comprehend, let alone duplicate.
As Subcommander Feron had deduced almost a cycle ago, the two facilities acted as a bridge across the Eotu, an artificially-created barrier designed to keep out the ancient enemies of the Progenitors (which is the name they had unofficially attributed to the aliens which created the facilities – because the computer terminals had translated everything into Vescopan, it also gave the aliens’ name as ‘Vescopan’, since their language had no comparable word). It would appear that the Vescopan system became the final outpost of the Progenitors, who were apparently losing in a galactic war, and they had since disappeared without a trace. The Passageway itself allowed ships of any size or dimensions to be instantaneously moved from one side of the Eotu to the other, safely and securely. Despite hundreds of tests being run with the technology it had not failed even once, which made the research teams travelling backwards and forwards through it feel a lot better.
Although there was no proof as to how long ago these facilities had been built, several scientists had roughly calculated that the last time the computer databases were accessed before Vescopan arrival was over 200,000 cycles ago, at which point Vescopans would have been little more than savage primitives living in caves. It was also apparent that Vescopa III had been habitable back then, although what had occurred to render it so inhospitable today was unknown.
The discoveries constantly being made on these two planets were sending ripples across the Vescopan scientific community. Entirely new sciences were being named every day as they struggled to try and understand the information they now had access to, so far with limited success. Some of the concepts they had learned of were known to them, if only on a theoretically level, while others bent the laws of physics so far as Vescopans understood them. One of the most profound discoveries in all of this was that of the Second Universe – the name now attributed to the universe that existed beyond the Eotu. Thanks to the alien computers they had been able to determine that the tiny pinpricks of light against an otherwise black canvass were in fact billions of other stars, with even the closest of them being so distant that the fastest Vescopan ships would take nearly a century to get there. All of this was highly disrupted to the beliefs which had been held by the isolated Vescopans for centuries, and some had a harder time dealing with the revelations than others.
Sub-Officer, Second Class, Jeliá Marinn was one of the ‘others’. His was not a spiritual soul, and he even doubted that he had a soul at all. As an enlisted member of the Vescopan Army, a dismally under-funded and under-utilised organisation in a nation with no enemies, Marinn was often so bored that he took to counting the wisps of gaseous cloud trailing off the edge of the Eotu in the sky, and he found it difficult to believe that any divine being could allow him to live in such tedium. Since a large proportion of the Army, and the Navy for that matter, now found themselves posted to these highly important locations, with Marinn being one of the fortunate personnel being assigned to the VSEA-1 facility, he had found his service to be a lot more eventful lately.
Just when he thought he had experienced enough surprises in the last few weeks, he found himself receiving official memorandums from the Cabinet of the Government of all people. Granted, they had referred to him not by name but only by serial number, but it was still a distinct honour nonetheless. This particular memorandum had been sent by Prime Leader Jessáa Cataldo herself, the first politician Marinn had ever had a crush on of all people. It seemed as though she wished to use the alien facility’s FTL communication abilities to send out a message to... aliens?
“Huh,” Marinn muttered to himself as he read the orders. “This is damned weird.”
He tapped the datapad thoughtfully a few times, shrugged his shoulders, and rose from his chair to look for his superiors. After several minutes wandering the brilliant-white and gold corridors of the alien monument he was able to find the ranking officer on duty, a Protector named Gessu, and hand over the instructions to her. Dusting his hands down casually he absolved himself of all responsibility and went back to his post.
***
The ancient communications transceiver fired up after a long period of dormancy. Data was fed into the system, which included a letter addressed by Cataldo herself and automatically translated into every single ancient language that the databanks of the alien computer contained – several hundred in all – along with materials pertaining to Vescopan linguistics. The transceiver then fired it all off into space, in all directions and in all frequencies, at speeds much faster than the speed of light. It was a long shot, and it was possible that any aliens who received it would be unable to even use the file format of the message on their own computers, much less translate the text, but they had hopes that somebody, somewhere, would be able to translate at least one of the alien languages and figure out how to respond.
This message must fly to the ears of those not of our world. Those ears must hear words of peace, not the cries of battle, for we do not desire conflict of any type.
I am Prime Leader Jessáa Cataldo, the premier of our world and the space it calls its own. My people and I are new to this Second Universe, for even the nature of the stars eludes us, but we are eager to learn and to see for ourselves the wonders it must contain. Our existence has been limited to the confines of the Eotu since the inception of our species, and this wide new world may be old to you but to us, it is overwhelming.
We know that you are out there somewhere. We have briefly met your kind once before; not of our world, not of our species, but intelligent and alive nonetheless. But you may not know of us, and we should like to meet you. Have you the means and the motive, I would like to invite your representatives to visit us here, on our homeland, so that we might understand one another better.
This message is sent in many ancient languages, all incomprehensible to us but hopefully familiar to some of you. Contained within are the means to translate your words into ours and vice-versa, and we hope you have the knowledge to accomplish this where we have failed. Also contained within is a way for you to track this message to its source, should you wish to follow it.
Peace and good fortunes to any who can read this,
Jessáa Cataldo
Prime Leader
This time, however, it also created some haunting parallels with another time she had stood on this very balcony, wearing a similar night gown, a mere smattering of cycles previously. Even that same strand of brown hair irritated her eyes and her face, no matter how many times she casually brushed it back behind her ear. Her memory of the day was clear; Gódelle had wandered into her quarters while she gazed across the cityscape to inform her of the commencement of Ventrius’ expedition through the Eotu. It was that fateful day which affected all of the days which followed – their universe suddenly seemed very small to her, the Vescopan people suddenly felt insignificant. The discovery of an entire universe beyond the edge of the known universe, the existence of alien life with significantly more advanced technology was confirmed, and the ramifications of both revelations could potentially have a severe impact on Vescopan culture and religion.
She sighed, leaning forwards over the balcony railing as she bowed her head. Prior to her election to the position of Prime Leader, Jessaá had not expected her term to be as eventful as it had been. She was still a young woman, younger than any previous Prime Leader, and her diminutive shoulders were heavily laden with burdens no prior Leader had ever had to carry. These decisions felt too large for her, these were decisions which should involve the entire populace, but there wasn’t time for dithering in this issue. Aliens were real, that much was true, and now Commander Viscross of the Maelrosica and proven that there was a possible way for them to pass by the Eotu unhindered should they gain control of it. She had to severely shake-up the armed forces in order to stake a Vescopan claim on each end of the ‘Passageway’ that existed between Vescopa III and the planet on the other side of the Eotu, now colourfully referred to as VSEA-1.
With a deep breath and an inner cry of determination, the golden mottling on her cheeks became even more vibrant in colour as she resolved to get on with her duties, no matter how daunting. Stepping away from the balcony she slipped out of her nightgown and into an informal dress, and left her room in the direction of the Cabinet Chambers.
As she arrived she discovered all of the cabinet executives already there, arguing with each other intensely across the round, marble table. Prime Defender Hulos Miscarand and Prime Seer Priest Vercon Dano in particular appeared to be at each other’s throats, with both of them now standing upright and yelling at each other over the noise of the other executives. This was not a typical scene, with Vescopans typically being compassionate and calm even in arguments, and it disturbed her. Should this be how the government executives act, she could only imagine how the populace would respond.
Slowly and casually she stood next to the table and raised her dainty hand, looking around the table at each of the executives. As they noticed her arrival they each ceased their bickering, one after the other, and calmed down into an uneasy silence.
“Please, do not let these past events divide you,” she said in her warm voice. “It is now, more than any other time, that the Vescopan people need our wisdom and guidance. Arguing will solve nothing.
“Prime Leader, how are we going to secure the Passageway from extra-Vescopan incursions?”
“How could you even think about disrupting the spiritual beliefs of the people with this heretical knowledge?!”
“What have our scientists learned of the ruins?”
“How will this affect our scientific budget for the season?”
The barrage of questions was too much and once more she raised her hand in the air, shaking her head. “One question at a time, please!”
Collecting herself, she looked down at the floor and took a deep breath, and then proceeded to sit down at the rounded table. The two standing ministers looked across at each other, then at her, and followed suit. Miscarand was the first to speak up in the more orderly environment.
“Prime Leader, the military risk posed by this Passageway, or whatever we plan on calling it now, is untenable,” Miscarand blurted out. “We must find a way to seal it as soon as possible to prevent any extra-Vescopan incursions.”
“Prime Defender, you are overreacting,” Jessáa said with a smile. “The Extra-Vescopan Passageway – the current name favoured – has existed there for time immemorial. The first aliens we have ever encountered did not use it, they traversed the Eotu instead. It is, in fact, less of a risk now than it was when we were ignorant to its existence. I will not be the Prime Leader responsible for destroying this valuable resource out of fear and paranoia.”
“Very well,” Miscarand nodded. The two were typically close friends, but Miscarand was never afraid of arguing with her when he believed in something passionately – which, until the last few years, was rather infrequent. “If we are not going to destroy it, we must defend it. No doubt some alien hostiles will have noticed the appearance of one of our vessels in orbit – there was even sign of habitation on VSEA-1’s surface!”
“I know,” Jessáa nodded. “I have been speaking with members of the Navy regarding that. I believe it will be prudent to permanently station two VDS-06 Warships in orbit of VSEA-1 along with five VDS-07 Warships. Meanwhile, a single VDS-06 will be stationed in orbit around Vescopa III along with two VDS-07s.”
“Ma’am, that will leave the Navy extremely stretched,” Miscarand pointed out. “That will leave us with a solitary VDS-6 on detached duty.”
“Yes I know,” Jessáa sighed. “But for the time being, it will have to suffice. If nothing else, at least we will know that we are using all available resources to defend the Passageway until we have more at our disposal. As you know, we are continuing to look into the prospect of funding the construction of additional VDS-06 Warships alongside our second order for VDS-07 Warships.”
“Very well,” Miscarand nodded, fiddling with the collar on his white, sleeveless shirt.
“Prime Seer, I understand the implications of the announcement we made last week regarding the discoveries we have made,” Jessáa smiled at the Priest. “But as you know, I believe in a policy of total dissemination of important information to our people. Keeping such profound discoveries classified for this long is abhorrent. Our people are wise, patient and compassionate – I hope that they are able to assimilate this information without sacrificing their ideals.”
“The deed is done,” Dano said. “The Eotan High Priests are amending our canon to accommodate this new information as we speak, but I understand that it is not an easy process. The Solarists have already done so with less difficulty. But I still believe it was wrong!”
“I respect your opinion Priest,” Jessáa nodded. “And your beliefs. But this information needed to be released. I trust that we will all be able to handle these new truths we are being exposed to.”
Prime Educator Establo Perzay spoke up for the first time, her voice markedly timid compared to the other executives. “Prime Leader, myself, many professors and other scholars not involved in the study of the new ruins are curious to hear what has been learned so far.”
“Eventually their findings will be published, either piecemeal or, less likely, in one big volume,” Jessáa smiled. “I have read the reports coming in so far, as has Defender Miscarand, and much of it is beyond myself and indeed the scientists involved in the studies. From what information they have accessed on the alien computers, they believe that the Eotu was constructed artificially by an ancient and advanced race of beings as a defence against an enemy of some type. The facilities we have discovered in this last cycle were essentially ports, allowing for safe passage across the Eotu and acting as defensive outposts. As for where these aliens went, they haven’t been able to determine that information.”
“A theory being thrown around at Vescopa Central University right now suggests that we are those aliens, or at least their descendents,” Perzay suggested meekly.
“If that is the case, as far as I know the teams haven’t discovered anything to prove it,” Jessáa shook her head. “In any case, they are primarily focussed on the technological information contained within the computers, and within the facilities themselves. We continue to operate them despite knowing virtually nothing about how they function.”
“If those computers contain details pertaining to advanced offensive technologies, they should be prioritised for development,” Miscarand spoke up. “Our technology is vastly inferior to that of the alien ship encountered by Maelrosica five years ago, and that was a freighter or at least some kind of a civilian vessel by all accounts.”
“Right now I believe they are focussed on the propulsion technologies supposedly covered in the databanks,” Jessáa said. “For the moment however I think the science behind it all is still baffling them.”
“Right,” Perzay said. “Ships on the other side of the Passageway have been sending out LADAR pulses for almost a cycle since being positioned there... aside from the planetary bodies within the VSEA-1 system there has not been a single return. We are going to need much more sophisticated propulsion technology if any kind of exploration is to be done.”
“Exploration?” Miscarand exclaimed. “Why draw even more attention to ourselves? It’s bad enough sending out Divinities-know how much radio and sensor traffic over there, let alone sending ships out. We don’t even know what the Second Universe consists of yet. It could be harmful to Vescopans.”
“We are getting a bit ahead of ourselves here,” Jessáa smiled, tapping her fingernails on the cool marble table. “The Eotu is believed to be the closest object to the VSEA-1 system, and it is something like sixty trillion kilometres away – far too distant for any ship to reasonably travel to. There won’t be much exploration until our engines are a little bit faster. Until that happens, we have to decide how we want the Vescopan people to be presented to any intelligent extra-Vescopan lifeforms which may exist in the Second Universe.”
“Excuse me?” Miscarand asked.
“I believe that we should attempt to contact any intelligent lifeforms out there now, rather than bump into them as we have done in the past,” Jessáa said, taking a gulp as she finally got around to presenting her sure-to-be-controversial idea.
“With respect ma’am, there has never been any successful communication with encountered aliens in the past,” Perzay said. “We have to accept the possibility that our languages, our very physiologies, may be so radically different to their own that relations will be impossible.”
“Teams on the VSEA-1 side of the Passageway have discovered what they believe to be numerous files dealing with numerous alien languages,” Jessáa said, seemingly on a tangent. “They have been unable to translate them so far but they do not believe the task to be impossible.”
“Those languages are probably so old that nobody will recognise them anyway,” Perzay said. “Just look how radically different modern Vescopan is compared to two centuries ago.”
Jessáa sat back in her plush seat and folded her slender arms, stroking her chin as she started pondering possibilities. She found it difficult to accept just how xenophobic some of her executives were being; it flew in the face of the way she thought Vescopans were supposed to be – kind, considerate, accepting... but now she was beginning to wonder if those beliefs were erroneous. Could it be that, presented with something sufficiently different to themselves, that Vescopans would turn from loving people into paranoid savages? She couldn’t let that happen. They had to learn about any aliens that might be nearby to avoid that paranoia from taking hold.
“I realise that Establo,” she said after a prolonged pause. “But much as our computers still retain ancient language databases, dating back thousands of years, aliens may be able to translate at least one of the languages contained in those alien databanks.”
“If they do, we could attach a Vescopan language pack to the signal and they may have more expertise at decoding the file format and translating the text into something we can recognise,” Perzay said, more optimistically than before.
“Exactly,” Jessáa smiled at the Prime Educator.
“This is absurd,” the Prime Seer protested. “You invite disaster! The Divinities placed us within the Eotu for a reason, and you are in breach of the Divine Contract by trying to leave!”
“As much as it pains me, I must agree,” Miscarand said sternly. “Our military cannot hope to repel a technologically, numerically superior foe in the event that your optimism fails.”
“As much as I hate to use my elected powers to overrule you all,” Jessáa said with a note of finality, smiling apologetically across the table at each executive. “This is something we must do. The Passageway will allow us to effectively control who enters the Eotu and when – but we must learn more about the nature of the Second Universe and its inhabitants, and more than this, we must make peace officially while it still exists. Misunderstandings cannot be allowed to occur. I shall attempt to craft a message to send, and the teams at VSEA-1 can use the alien communications array to send it. At least that way there’s a chance somebody might hear it.”
“Attempt?” Miscarand said jovially.
"Well, it has been a long time since a Prime Leader had to write a diplomatic communiqué...” Jessáa smiled. “Several centuries, in fact!”
***
The two alien facilities, one on Vescopa III and the other well outside of the Eotu, on VSEA-1, were by now bustling hubs of activity. Ships both civilian and military in nature orbited both worlds, and countless numbers of scientists and soldiers now resided within the alien compounds. Particularly in Vescopa III, the mines had been closed down and the alien ruins excavated and allowed to automatically repair themselves to their former glory, in a process which had taken virtually the entire year.
Despite the overwhelming nature of the incalculable wealth of information contained within the computer terminals, of which several people now claimed to be experts at utilising, already numerous important discoveries had been made. They now had a much better understanding of how the terminals themselves functioned, and were able to control them much more effectively than the first Vescopans to ever link up to them. Much about the nature and purpose of the facilities had now been discovered, although their power generation facilities and the nature of the Passageway itself delved into realms of quantum mechanics that not even the most accomplished of Vescopan physicists could comprehend, let alone duplicate.
As Subcommander Feron had deduced almost a cycle ago, the two facilities acted as a bridge across the Eotu, an artificially-created barrier designed to keep out the ancient enemies of the Progenitors (which is the name they had unofficially attributed to the aliens which created the facilities – because the computer terminals had translated everything into Vescopan, it also gave the aliens’ name as ‘Vescopan’, since their language had no comparable word). It would appear that the Vescopan system became the final outpost of the Progenitors, who were apparently losing in a galactic war, and they had since disappeared without a trace. The Passageway itself allowed ships of any size or dimensions to be instantaneously moved from one side of the Eotu to the other, safely and securely. Despite hundreds of tests being run with the technology it had not failed even once, which made the research teams travelling backwards and forwards through it feel a lot better.
Although there was no proof as to how long ago these facilities had been built, several scientists had roughly calculated that the last time the computer databases were accessed before Vescopan arrival was over 200,000 cycles ago, at which point Vescopans would have been little more than savage primitives living in caves. It was also apparent that Vescopa III had been habitable back then, although what had occurred to render it so inhospitable today was unknown.
The discoveries constantly being made on these two planets were sending ripples across the Vescopan scientific community. Entirely new sciences were being named every day as they struggled to try and understand the information they now had access to, so far with limited success. Some of the concepts they had learned of were known to them, if only on a theoretically level, while others bent the laws of physics so far as Vescopans understood them. One of the most profound discoveries in all of this was that of the Second Universe – the name now attributed to the universe that existed beyond the Eotu. Thanks to the alien computers they had been able to determine that the tiny pinpricks of light against an otherwise black canvass were in fact billions of other stars, with even the closest of them being so distant that the fastest Vescopan ships would take nearly a century to get there. All of this was highly disrupted to the beliefs which had been held by the isolated Vescopans for centuries, and some had a harder time dealing with the revelations than others.
Sub-Officer, Second Class, Jeliá Marinn was one of the ‘others’. His was not a spiritual soul, and he even doubted that he had a soul at all. As an enlisted member of the Vescopan Army, a dismally under-funded and under-utilised organisation in a nation with no enemies, Marinn was often so bored that he took to counting the wisps of gaseous cloud trailing off the edge of the Eotu in the sky, and he found it difficult to believe that any divine being could allow him to live in such tedium. Since a large proportion of the Army, and the Navy for that matter, now found themselves posted to these highly important locations, with Marinn being one of the fortunate personnel being assigned to the VSEA-1 facility, he had found his service to be a lot more eventful lately.
Just when he thought he had experienced enough surprises in the last few weeks, he found himself receiving official memorandums from the Cabinet of the Government of all people. Granted, they had referred to him not by name but only by serial number, but it was still a distinct honour nonetheless. This particular memorandum had been sent by Prime Leader Jessáa Cataldo herself, the first politician Marinn had ever had a crush on of all people. It seemed as though she wished to use the alien facility’s FTL communication abilities to send out a message to... aliens?
“Huh,” Marinn muttered to himself as he read the orders. “This is damned weird.”
He tapped the datapad thoughtfully a few times, shrugged his shoulders, and rose from his chair to look for his superiors. After several minutes wandering the brilliant-white and gold corridors of the alien monument he was able to find the ranking officer on duty, a Protector named Gessu, and hand over the instructions to her. Dusting his hands down casually he absolved himself of all responsibility and went back to his post.
***
The ancient communications transceiver fired up after a long period of dormancy. Data was fed into the system, which included a letter addressed by Cataldo herself and automatically translated into every single ancient language that the databanks of the alien computer contained – several hundred in all – along with materials pertaining to Vescopan linguistics. The transceiver then fired it all off into space, in all directions and in all frequencies, at speeds much faster than the speed of light. It was a long shot, and it was possible that any aliens who received it would be unable to even use the file format of the message on their own computers, much less translate the text, but they had hopes that somebody, somewhere, would be able to translate at least one of the alien languages and figure out how to respond.
This message must fly to the ears of those not of our world. Those ears must hear words of peace, not the cries of battle, for we do not desire conflict of any type.
I am Prime Leader Jessáa Cataldo, the premier of our world and the space it calls its own. My people and I are new to this Second Universe, for even the nature of the stars eludes us, but we are eager to learn and to see for ourselves the wonders it must contain. Our existence has been limited to the confines of the Eotu since the inception of our species, and this wide new world may be old to you but to us, it is overwhelming.
We know that you are out there somewhere. We have briefly met your kind once before; not of our world, not of our species, but intelligent and alive nonetheless. But you may not know of us, and we should like to meet you. Have you the means and the motive, I would like to invite your representatives to visit us here, on our homeland, so that we might understand one another better.
This message is sent in many ancient languages, all incomprehensible to us but hopefully familiar to some of you. Contained within are the means to translate your words into ours and vice-versa, and we hope you have the knowledge to accomplish this where we have failed. Also contained within is a way for you to track this message to its source, should you wish to follow it.
Peace and good fortunes to any who can read this,
Jessáa Cataldo
Prime Leader