The Eimar Beacon

Chapter 1

Colonel Jake Eisen stood ramrod straight before his superior officer. Jake had light brown hair, tan skin, and the gaunt face of a high metabolism soldier. He wore the tan garments of a soldier out of field kit. The office around them was actually nothing more than a white box with chairs and a table, but it had been richly augmented by his superior so that Jake’s intracranial link added virtual photos, awards, and campaign books arrayed across the walls.

Sit, General Liro said.

The general looked fit like Jake, though his skin had a replant line advancing from the neck. The top half of his face remained leathery where the old skin still stubbornly hung on, while the new skin advancing from the neck was new and firm. It was a sign of how no-nonsense the man was that he had not bothered to conceal the process. Liro did not waste his time with minor cosmetic changes to himself or his virtual avatars.

Jake took a seat across from his superior. The general had already gone off-retina. He sent Jake a pointer to a shared data file. Liro directed Jake’s traversal through the data in their internal personal views. Lira brought forward an analysis of a signal intercepted by the Cluster Science Arm. It took a central position in Jake’s PV.

At 0701 we received a signal coming from the direction of the Vacsonne Pharmi system. VP138668903.

Jake fed the code into his operations starmap. Their arm of the galaxy snapped into view in his mind’s eye. The local volume of space on the frontier of all Terran worlds was labeled as the Intor Cluster in the center of the view. The threat of the Nessel Syndicate appeared adjacent to the Cluster as a volume of red-tinted space. Important systems were visible as points of light within the spheres of influence of the two enemies, often with interconnecting lines. The code directed him to a point outside of Cluster and Syndicate space. A relative unknown.

The signal was very unusual, continued Liro. Turns out it did not come from Vacsonne Pharmi. The boys and girls at strategic communications received it, but they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. As it happens, it was actually a group of scientists who rushed in to contact the CMA.

The Cluster Military Arm was the military organization that protected the cluster from the interference of the core worlds. The CMA was one of the elements of the United Earth Defiance, worlds banded together to challenge the power of old Earth and her closest allies.

They cracked a code? Is there an attack coming? Jake kept his questions to himself. The General would fill him in at his own pace.

Turns out, it’s an alien communication, General Liro said. He spoke as if discussing the tepidity of his coffee.

Sir?

CSA gave me over a ninety percent on it, straight from their AI specialists, Liro said. We don’t have much in the way of assets in reserve, still, we have to investigate something this big.

That’s amazing, sir, Jake said. His mind reeled with the possibilities. With the war raging, it was easy to forget that Terrans were not alone in the galaxy. The core world military agency, called the UNSF, had uncovered alien ruins in many star systems.

The war is not going well, Colonel, said Liro. For us, or the UED.

This is not like Liro, Jake thought.

If this signal is from aliens, then I see two opportunities in it, General Liro said. One, you can befriend these aliens, and we can develop a relationship that can strengthen us in the coming years. We could remain free.

He sees us losing against the NS without a game changer.

The realization hit Jake hard. He knew the war was a close thing. Liro had never before shown a crack in his resolve. Now Jake knew that Liro did not think they could prevail on their own.

Then I hope they hate the NS as much as we do, Jake said.

Liro nodded. Another good outcome would be that we could find some alien technology that could turn this war around. Just imagine if we could develop a new weapons system based on something the NS has never seen before. It could make the difference. Not just for us; for the entire UED.

Jake knew General Liro would not mention the many scenarios involving disaster: that the signal could be an NS trap, that the aliens could prove hostile, or any of a host of negative possibilities. Liro did not think that way. He did not operate that way. Liro was all about taking what you got and turning it into gold.

Do you see the possibility, Eisen? Do you believe in it?

Jake nodded. If this can win us the war, I’ll figure out how to make it happen, Jake said. That signal could be a distress call. If we find a dead ship, or even just the remains of one, we could study it and learn a lot. If they’re alive and we help them, we can find new allies.

Liro nodded vigorously.

Exactly. The Segosians contacted us about the signal. They want in on it. At first I said no. But they offered up some light battle units, so I had to accept. You’re still totally in charge, but you have three of them to bring with you. An intelligence officer and two robot handlers.

They want in on the prize, Jake said.

Liro shrugged. Yes. And they know if it pays off, we’ll treat them ten times better than the NS ever would. That’s okay. A wrinkle to be aware of is, they might have the LBUs programmed to go hostile in case of betrayal. So if the Segosians die in some fight, you may get pulled down with them.

They could steal what we find.

Two can play that game. The ship is yours. Make sure it stays that way, Liro said.

Jake nodded. He would be able to lock down the ship’s authorization systems to work for his team only. Theoretically, the Segosians might escape on some other ship sent to take them back, but realistically, if they could spare a ship of their own, they probably would not have begged a ride from the CMA in the first place. Jake resolved to be wary, but he did not fear betrayal by the Segosians. They loved their freedom as much as the Cluster, and they knew that no matter what the NS promised, things would be bad on the local frontier if the Nessel Syndicate won.

What about our own hardware?

I got you a scout unit, Liro said. That’s it. The Segosian LBUs are your backbone, that’s why I let them in on it.

That could be good, Jake thought. Dealing with aliens, a scout unit will be equipped to learn a lot.

Liro sent Jake some personnel files. It included files for three Segosians, the robot handler assigned to the scout unit, and a Cluster Science Arm officer.

CSA sent over this Reid West. You have to take him and these three Segosians. Otherwise, find your own team. If you don’t like the robot handler on the scout unit, replace him. Volunteers only, Liro added, though he knew that would not mean much. Colonel Eisen held hero status among the forces of the Intor Cluster for his ground defense of Mallavie. He would be able to pick almost anyone he wanted.

You have a Raptor class, and half that bay is going to be dedicated to the Segosians’ LBUs. They have eight Mausers for us. So you have room for maybe ten people and their supplies at the most. I’d take eight.

Yes, sir.

Don’t waste any time. We may not be the only ones who heard that signal. Dismissed.

Jake rose, saluted, and hurried out. The room maintained its charade of a decorated office even as Jake left. He knew that as soon as Liro checked out, the office would revert to an empty cube until the next occupant activated it. Then it would look like someone else’s workspace.

As he walked down the outside corridor, Jake was already cranking on his new assignment. His mind naturally went to Mallavie. There were a handful of hard core survivors that had made it through that hell, just as he had.

Seresto and Palmquist.

He felt pleased. And he figured he could get them to sign up. Still, he needed more. Someone familiar with aliens? Not possible. It was all new.

Someone who knows... science? Better, someone who knows how to negotiate. If we meet an alien crew, we have to win them over. They could save us.

Jake just hoped whoever the aliens were, they valued living free.

Chapter 2

Silvana Lucero sent out link requests to her family members as her commander had ordered. All around her, other soldiers sat silently in the stark barracks, doing the same. She waited from her narrow metal bunk for someone to join her channel. Nothing happened for a few seconds.

Of course they won’t answer.

Silvana understood the lack of response. Her family knew she had been placed into a mental conditioning program, but to them, she would always be the same Silvana: The monstrous, scheming girl who had managed to kill half of them and terrorize the other half to the point where they wanted to die. The MCP had changed her, not them.

She looked the same on the outside. A tiny picture of her sat in the corner of a viewpane in her personal view. She looked at the avatar in her PV. She saw a clear face, thin nose, framed by mussed black hair kept short enough to stay out of her way.

The old Silvana would have tapped her fingers impatiently. Fingers with chewed off fingernails. Silvana glanced at her hands. She was not tapping her fingers and they had long, healthy nails. She felt neither happy nor sad that her old habits had been cleaned by the MCP.

None of her link requests were accepted. Silvana mentally shrugged and dropped the channel.

She had a new family now. The Nessel Syndicate. The Syndicate, along with several other immense corporate entities, owned the core world government and its military, the United Nations Space Force. Though the name said ‘United Nations’ for reasons lost in antiquity, it really meant the United Supercorporations of the core worlds. The NS was one entity that helped supply the billions of citizens of the core worlds with the plunder of the frontier.

A connection request came in. Silvana did a double take, but it was not a family member calling. Silvana’s commander, Coordinator Melisar, had made the request. Silvana accepted the connection.

Task Leader Lucero. Wrap things up with your family quickly, Melisar said. A situation is developing.

Does she really not know? Or just pretending not to know? Probably just doesn’t care.

I’m ready now, Silvana said flatly.

The coordinator sent a data package to Silvana’s link. Silvana started to look at it as her superior continued.

We’ve received a communication from deep space. Our analysis indicated it was artificial. However, there are no people where this signal came from.

Silvana kept up with her coordinator, looking the signal over. In an internal viewpane, the signal was shown in a scientist’s display style, an analysis format meant for intuitive visualization of natural phenomenon. It had not been presented in a communication signal pane because it fell outside the parameters of any Terran communication signal.

Of course, that meant it had not been decrypted. She saw several unusual aspects in its construction. Attached notes from a science officer said the normalization performed by standard Syndicate communication receivers might be clipping it. The officer was not even sure they had seen the bulk of it. She had speculated they might only have the lower frequency components of a more sophisticated signal.

You must determine the nature of this signal, Melisar continued. If it’s alien in origin, you have to determine the threat level posed. Put a priority on obtaining samples of any alien technology and preventing any Intor Cluster operatives from doing the same.

Alien!

Nothing had come this close to startling her since she had gone through her MCP. Silvana started to understand the unique nature of her assignment. She supposed that also meant she was a highly valued Task Leader. She felt a warm satisfaction at the notion, a product of her Syndicate programming which was the closest she could come to happiness.

Somewhere inside her, the old Silvana tried to rise up through the mire of her new mind.

Highly valued or highly expendable?

You are assigned Science Captain Bolgi and Handler Gideon, managing a drop package with two Stynas and six Macleers. They’ve been notified. You depart within the hour.

Yes, Coordinator. For the Syndicate.

For the Syndicate. The channel closed.

Silvana checked her schedule. She would be using the Choskarone, a fast cruiser with minimal armament. The spacecraft was fully automated, though it would accommodate the team and their battle machines in a drop package. She saw several service requests attached to the ship indicating it was being readied posthaste. Bolgi and Gideon had already ack’d their boarding orders. She saw their assigned quarters and workspaces.

Silvana scheduled a visit to the common store for equipment, then pulled her tall frame out of the tiny bunk. She wore thick black leggings, half her combat suit. Her breasts swung unrestrained under a thin black t-shirt. She stepped into a pair of boots which captured her feet perfectly and sealed themselves up to her leggings. She grabbed her Veer jacket but did not put it on.

She walked out of the barracks as everyone else continued their conversations with their families. The NS headquarters around her was a grim collection of boring corridors and working cubes with sleep cylinders arrayed in the walls everywhere. The NS was efficient if not colorful. Everyone knew their tasks and went about business calmly. Those who had not been through MCP like Silvana had their fun, but it was restricted to their allotted virtual reality minutes. In the Syndicate, if you were awake in the real world, you were focused and productive.

She made it to the common store. The large hexagonal room held a bank of cabinets on each wall. She walked up to her delivery drop off location and unlocked the cabinet with her link. The door opened and revealed her cache of weapons, scanners, and supplies. She commanded self-diagnostics; all the devices reported full green. She stuffed the items into two backpacks and one hardened weapons suitcase. So equipped, she took her things and headed for the Choskarone.

Silvana considered her team members on the way. She had worked with Gideon before. She recalled his gaunt face covered in light stubble, his wavy blonde hair, and predatory eyes. He was competent. Best of all, though, he did not try and think for himself. He remained focused on his robots and did not get in her way with useless commentary and suggestions. Also he owned a pleasure android, which meant he would not bother her with sex requisitions. Syndicate members were allowed to arrange physical congress once a week with partners of complementary sexual orientation, but Gideon seldom made such requests.

Then there was Bolgi. She brought up his record with her link. An image opened in her PV. The man looked stocky, strong, and well groomed. He was a Syndicate scientist, which made sense for a mission investigating aliens. She examined the details available. Many of his credits were used for mental stimulants. They might well be aiding his performance, as he had several exemplary ratings.

Silvana checked his preferences. He was listed as a heterosexual. Since her MCP, Silvana was heterosexual. She had not been that way before. She vaguely remembered her couplings from before the treatments. They no longer interested her.

Silvana did not feel anticipation or revulsion. She knew that if called upon, she would help her crew member do whatever was needed for his physical well being. In return, she would feel her own sense of satisfaction as installed by her MCP. That way, they could both get such healthy urges out of the way and concentrate on the mission.

Chapter 3

Mission Observer saw it first. A massive collection of something orbiting an ordinary star. The interactions between the unknown object and the particles in her own metastate were anomalous. It was a mystery.

The mission vessel Wivin traveled in Ilele, the fourth metastate of matter. In that metastate, Wivin could move through space very fast. The ship appeared to Miobs as nothing but a collection of glowing lines filled with dark mist.

The journey thus far had passed as an instant to the others, who could not function in Ilele as Miobs could. When the others returned to Chuns, the first metastate of matter, it would be to them as if they had just left home. In the time they had traveled, Miobs had lived so long. It had changed her. She had once been playful and eager. Now, she felt dulled by the length of the trip through the unchanging void. This new discovery brought back some of the old excitement she had felt when she first embarked.

Miobs translated the Wivin to Chuns in an instant. The glowing lines expanded and solidified into a long tube around Miobs. She found herself within one of the many interior chambers, alone. The Wivin’s systems awoke and started to examine the nearby star. She felt glad to see the ship was as confused about what it saw as she had been.

She translated herself into Chuns, gaining energy as she did so, though not as much as she had lost going in. She popped into view, floating parallel to the floor in a clean, empty room. Her cylindrical body was dominated by a large hemisphere in front, the organ she used to collect particle interactions while in metastate Ilele. She could live in both Chuns and Ilele, a miracle of the Six Precepts in and of itself. It was almost impossible to make physical things that worked in more than one metastate of matter. Even remaining intact across transitions took intense engineering. Of course, she did not function