Post by Lorpius Prime on Jul 7, 2010 23:49:05 GMT -5
There were still some Humans who referred to the Charterlings as "bugs". Intellectual types liked to point out that that, in fact, the Bats had more in common with true bugs than the Charterlings, since the furry aliens had six limbs to the Charterlings' four. The only people who paid any attention to this sort of reasoning were other intellectual types. Everyone else called the aliens Charterlings because that was the name the OES used. And the OES did so because that was the label the Charterlings themselves had provided when asked "what should we call you?"
Later, it became clear that the aliens had only been referring to their colony in the solar system—established under a Royal Charter. But it had stuck as the Human name for their entire species, and the Charterlings didn't really seem to mind.
None of which changed the fact that the Charterlings looked like bugs.
Given only a passing glance at the image on Xi Feng's monitor, one might think she was looking at a close-up picture of a praying mantis on Earth. It wouldn't take long to dispel the notion, however. To start with, Charterlings had blue carapaces. They were also bipedal, resting on powerfully long legs folded like those of a grasshopper, while their forearms followed a much more humanlike pattern. Six bulbous eyes on a domed head gave them a broad field of vision—their only true blind spot was directly below their bodies.
If Xi Feng had been meeting this Charterling in person, the difference would have been even more obvious. Typically standing around 3 meters tall, the Charterlings were easily the largest aliens Humanity had encountered. When the aliens had maintained their short-lived embassy in Russia, all meetings had been held outdoors or in specially-built structures, ordinary Human architecture could not contain them.
And finally, of course, praying mantises did not all speak English in the vaguely flirtatious voice of a professor of American Literature from the University of Chicago. The Charterlings, however, apparently still learned the Human language from the same electronic instruction course they'd acquired back in 2050.
The voice caught Xi Feng off-guard, but only for a moment.
"Please identify yourself," she said.
The Charterling rubbed its hands together for a moment. It was a female. It was easy to distinguish between genders: males had long bladed appendages that grew from the base of each wrist.
"I am Petty Officer <click-pop>," the alien said, clacking together her large ant-like mandibles to say her name, "commanding the cutter Solar Vigilance. I will not take offense if you address me by my rank alone."
"I see."
Charterlings had an unfair advantage when it came to languages. A pair of organs on their chests apparently functioned much like electronic speakers, allowing them to accurately reproduce just about any noise within a broad frequency range. But their own language involved a lot of kinetic sounds created with their rigid mouthparts. Humans couldn't hope to replicate Charterling speech with their own tongues and vocal cords. Not that it mattered, since no one had yet managed to decode all the shades of meaning which came from subtle variations of the clicking noises.
"Well, then, Petty Officer," Xi Feng continued, "perhaps you should explain the situation. I'm afraid I don't quite know what you mean."
"Of course," the Charterling bobbed her head in what may have been an imitation of a nod. "We knew there was a renegade Kyhyex ship in this vicinity, but they went inactive before we could be certain of a vector. I know it wasn't your intention, but you managed to lure them into exposing themselves. This would have been a much longer search with an uncertain end were it not for you, Commodore. I owe you thanks for that."
"I cannot accept. I will advise my superiors to send a message to the Kyhyex regretting any involvement in the loss of their ship. Earth Fleet does not exist to entrap the Charterlings' enemies."
The alien's jaws wiggled, "I see you really do not understand the Kyhyex. Your message is unnecessary; the other Kyhyex will not care about this loss. Even if they did, this infestation is still incapable of any true collective action."
"Nevertheless, we cannot allow you to portray us as your lackeys. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No, Commodore. But since my previous assignment is complete, I offer escort your convoy to Uranus. You are assisting our friends, and I would happily use my ship to eliminate any other hostiles you might encounter."
Xi Feng hadn't been expecting an offer like that, but had no doubt about the answer.
"I must decline. We are more than capable of defending ourselves, Petty Officer. Please do not approach the Task Force."
"Of course," the Charterling's head dipped. "In that case, I wish you a safe and successful journey. Goodbye, Commodore."
"Goodbye."
The comm window died, and Xi Feng felt herself relaxing. She closed her eyes for a couple of deep, slow breaths. When she opened them again, she could see everyone on the bridge looking at her.
She was surprised at how easy it was to smile.
"Well done, everyone," she said.
"I can appreciate your frustration, Chief Executive. But there is nothing I can do to resolve it."
"They're your allies! the Human protested.
Arreyux turned his head left and then right to indicate disagreement, "The Republic has an understanding with the Kyhyex, we do not control them. I have no authority to speak on their behalf."
The image of Eduard Molinas changed as the Human's mouth contracted. "Don't play dumb, Ambassador. Your people obviously have some influence with the Kyhyex, and you claim to be our friends. So I'm asking you, as friends of Humanity, to use some of that influence, and tell them to stay the hell away from our ships."
Ambassador Arreyux Goyeharg hissed softly at the scolding. Not out of anger, though the Human was becoming annoying, but because he knew the Chief Executive was right. The Bats did have some influence over the Kyhyex.
Just not as much as the Humans believe, he thought bitterly.
If Arreyux was angry at anyone, it was his predecessor. When he'd discussed the incident between the Human flotilla and the Kyhyex ship with Yenga, it became apparent that Hyarahek had been misleading the Humans about the Kyhyex. The Humans imagined that the Kyhyex had a unified government like the Bats or the Charterlings, even if it was a weak one. Furthermore, they thought the Republic had a partnership with this fictional polity, and on top of that, that the Republic was the senior partner.
The Ambassador remembered a report from Hyong mentioning that he had tried to briefly explain about the galactic balance of power to one of his contacts. Arreyux hadn't really thought anything of that tidbit at the time, but now he realized just how significant it could be. He'd known that Hyarahek was arrogant, but this sort of deception was just foolish. It was inevitable that the Humans would eventually request some sort of proof of the Republic's authority over the Kyhyex.
Arreyux would need to dispel the Humans' notions about the Republic. But now really wasn't the time to start on that particular project.
"The most I can do, Chief Molinas, is to inform my own superiors of your request. If they believe that some sort of action on our part could be helpful, then I will be happy to apprise you. But I have my doubts, and I certainly cannot promise you anything."
Arreyux didn't think the Human leader looked happy, but he nodded, "Please inform them as soon as possible, Ambassador. Thank you for your time."
Arreyux started to say his own farewell, but the connection was already closed.
For a few moments, the ambassador remained seated behind his desk. One hand fiddled with his earrings as he contemplated. His first instinct was to call Yenga to discuss the Humans' view of the Kyhyex, but the wiser part of his mind shied away from that course of action.
Much to his frustration, Operative Goying was still treating Arreyux with a fair bit of disdain whenever they spoke. He was starting to worry that she was not simply being coy, as he had originally assumed.
When she first received transfer orders to the embassy's intelligence staff, Arreyux had been ecstatic. After years of trying to poke holes in Governor Shyankyang's embargo, he would finally get one of his own people into the embassy. And she would be working directly with Yaheek, to boot. The opportunities were unfolding faster than he'd dared to hope.
Since her departure, Arreyux had spared little thought for Yenga's position until his own fortuitous appointment. He fully trusted her abilities, and had few instructions beyond simply cultivating a relationship with Yaheek, anyway. With her in place, Arreyux felt free to focus his attention on his own political maneuvers in the colony.
In hindsight, he should have noticed that things on Earth were not developing as planned. Yenga's initial stream of excited messages had quickly dwindled. To the point that Arreyux himself had needed to inquire before she would offer any comment about Hyarahek's folly.
Arreyux tugged at an earring until the pain drove him to hiss softly.
He had never really planned on the ambassadorship, but had been more than willing to leap at the appointment when the opportunity arose. Shyankyang thought he was neutralizing a troublesome political opponent. Indeed, the Deontologists' cooperative had been much less vocal since Arreyux departed. But whatever the short term effect, dissent would continue to simmer. Arreyux could still direct his deputies from afar, but he doubted that his comrades really even needed his help to remain a thorn in the governor's side. And by sending Arreyux to Earth, Shyankyang was giving him access to one of the cooperative's great symbols.
Or he would have been, if Hyong Yaheek had not slipped away with the Human flotilla. Arreyux made a sudden fist, and winced as he scratched his snout with a claw. He still wasn't sure if Shyankyang had known about the mission, though it would certainly make the governor's appointment seem less inept. Yenga, on the other hand, had certainly known, and hadn't bothered to mention it to Arreyux until his appointment was already confirmed.
He forced himself to relax. Working himself up into a temper would do him no good. Yenga Goying's loyalty was a concern, but not one that Arreyux needed to handle immediately. Arreyux tapped a claw on his desk a few times, then pushed back in his chair and stood up.
He fiddled with beret for a moment, making sure it was straight on his head, then walked to the door of his office, taking time to stretch the muscles in his arms, legs, and wings as he went. Then he pushed open the door and considered the scene in front of him.
For an embassy to a species that had barely left its own homeworld, the staff requirements here were surprisingly large. Ambassador Goyeharg had almost twenty junior diplomats working for him in these offices, plus another dozen scattered around the planet in consular offices in major national capitals. Technical support staffers, analysts, and the small contingent of warriors effectively doubled his subordinates. And then, the majority of civilian visitors and merchants coming from the Colony preferred to stay in the embassy's own accommodations, leading to an even larger population wandering within the compound.
It was the cost of doing business with Humans, Arreyux mused. Their social psychology was actually much more like that of his own people than any other species the Republic had encountered. They were bureaucratic, legalistic, and smug. The Charterlings were cutthroat merchants, but at least they tended to be straightforward in their dealings. The Kyhyex required a little more delicate handling, but were still predictable enough not to require such huge diplomatic missions to their worlds. With the Humans, however, even the simplest transactions were subject to forbiddingly complex legal regulations.
The end result was that, outside the quiet dignity of the Ambassador's office, a small storm of lesser officials was swirling around the diplomats' working level, attempting to impose order on the chaos created by the Republic's ever-growing trade with this one backwater planet. From the crowd, Arreyux picked out one diplomat who was not displaying quite the same level of energy as his colleagues.
"Ah," the Ambassador hissed softly. He spoke up, "Junior Representative Gaxahyeng! Come here, please."
Even from twenty meters away, Arreyux could see Gaxahyeng's wings curl up so tightly they might have been trying to crush his arms. The deputy at least managed to keep his face mostly passive. Arreyux actually found himself pitying the younger diplomat.
"Yes, sir," Gaxahyeng acknowledged, and walked towards the Ambassador's office.
Mercury was silent. It had been for 9 years. The first time the planet had spoken, in 2058, it had taken over a week to convince the OES' second Chief Executive that it was not a hoax. A handful of paranoid holdouts still believed it was an Earth Fleet plot to scare up more funding. If the intent was to scare anyone, however, Casey Rukavina thought it could have been done better.
In March of 2058, Earth was bombarded by a series of narrowband radio signals across a wide range of military and civilian frequencies. The transmission repeated itself 8 hours later, and then a final time 8 hours after that. It contained a single text message repeated multiple times with different encoding.
The message announced the presence of an species which had taken possession of the planet Mercury. The aliens called themselves "Tharncancerkind", an appellation which Humans quickly shortened to simply "Tharn". Their message ran to several pages, but ultimately communicated very little except to say that the Tharn had very little interest in Humans, whom they seemed to consider pitiably backward.
It came across as absurd, of course, because as far as anyone on Earth could tell, no aliens had landed on Mercury. Humanity had been very alert to new extra-solar arrivals since the Bats made their surprise appearance in 2045. Telescopes searching the surface of the planet found no evidence of anything that looked even remotely like an artificial structure of any kind. The message had appeared to originate in the direction of Mercury, but that wouldn't be too hard to fake, especially not if the prankster was someone in Earth Fleet itself. So it would have been easy to dismiss the "Tharncancers" as the invention of someone with an overly-active imagination.
Except that the Bats said they existed, and that their colony had received a similar message. The Charterlings later told the Russians the same thing.
Much to Humanity's frustration, however, that was about all the Bats or Charterlings would say. To the best of their knowledge no one really knew much of anything about the Tharn. They were uninterested in other species, keeping entirely to themselves in a number of single-planet colonies around the galaxy. Attempts at serious communication were either rebuffed or simply ignored. The Charterlings told the Russians not to bother, the Bats acted like they didn't care.
It wasn't an attitude Humanity could share, of course. Plans were drawn up to send a probe to survey Mercury and locate signs of the Tharn colony. In 2061 the European Space Agency, working under contract to Earth Fleet, launched its Mercury Communication And Reconnaissance (MerCAR) probe. The probe orbited Mercury for twelve days, taking Humanity's first detailed photographs of the planet's surface. On the twelfth day, MerCAR abruptly stopped broadcasting. The probe was never heard from again, having never found any visible sign of an alien colony on Mercury.
That was enough to convince Earth Fleet to take more direct action. At the time the Fleet was still engaged in the massive effort of constructing its Martian outpost. Nonetheless ships were detached and retrofitted with additional radiation shielding for an expedition to Mercury. The flotilla stayed for two weeks, at great risk to crew health, and performed a supposedly comprehensive survey of the Mercurian surface and orbital neighborhood. They found neither the Tharn nor the ESA's probe. Only a few days after the flotilla was forced to depart, however, the Tharn sent a new message to the OES, requesting that Humanity stop probing Mercury.
Neither the OES nor Earth Fleet was exactly eager to comply with this demand, but no one on Earth had any brilliant new ideas, either. It was prohibitively expensive and dangerous to operate that close to the sun. And though the Tharn might be irritating, they didn't seem especially threatening. Meanwhile the Charterlings and Kyhyex had altered the orbits of almost every one of Jupiter's moons and were still setting off doomsday weapons like firecrackers as they tried to drive each other from the system.
So it was decided to go ahead and leave the Tharn well enough alone while Earth Fleet focused on the more immediately obvious dangers. A small but permanent patrol of ships was assigned to Venus, from which they would "observe" Mercury, as well as guard the remaining inner planet against any new unexpected visitors. That was where Casey Rukavina had spent his last year and a half prior to his current assignment.
It was just about the worst assignment you could draw in Earth Fleet. Even the asteroid stations had some minimal facilities on each rock, so you could spend time off your ship. There was nothing at Venus; it might as well be a deep space patrol. Both the patrol and Earth Fleet bureaucracy itself were still young enough that assignment to 6th Fleet hadn't yet morphed into outright punishment duty, but that probably wasn't far off.
Casey sighed slowly, warming his chapped lips. His current mission wasn't punishment duty, either, but it was even worse than Venus.
It took several hours before solar interference rendered Mercury almost invisible to sensors again. But with the way time passed for Casey in his drugged state, it seemed only a moment had gone by. And once again he had failed to detect any sign of the Tharn. He would surely be spending a lot of time reviewing the logs over the next several months, but only because there wouldn't be anything better to do. Casey doubted he would actually find anything.
Perihelion came nearly a week later, and it was finally time to detach the shield. The process was silent, but Casey imagined he could hear a great metallic groan as the clamps released. It would have sounded that way in a movie. It would also have happened faster in the movie. The shield would continue to block the sun's radiation for days to come. Even after Casey's ship had left it behind, it would take weeks and several orbits more before finally plunging into the corona.
When that happened, Casey would be almost to the halfway point of his trip, assuming nothing went wrong. So far, nothing had gone wrong. It was actually somewhat disappointing; it would have given Casey something to do besides wait and think. Wait, and think, and imagine sound effects for the movie which could never be made about his little top-secret flight around the sun.
Later, it became clear that the aliens had only been referring to their colony in the solar system—established under a Royal Charter. But it had stuck as the Human name for their entire species, and the Charterlings didn't really seem to mind.
None of which changed the fact that the Charterlings looked like bugs.
Given only a passing glance at the image on Xi Feng's monitor, one might think she was looking at a close-up picture of a praying mantis on Earth. It wouldn't take long to dispel the notion, however. To start with, Charterlings had blue carapaces. They were also bipedal, resting on powerfully long legs folded like those of a grasshopper, while their forearms followed a much more humanlike pattern. Six bulbous eyes on a domed head gave them a broad field of vision—their only true blind spot was directly below their bodies.
If Xi Feng had been meeting this Charterling in person, the difference would have been even more obvious. Typically standing around 3 meters tall, the Charterlings were easily the largest aliens Humanity had encountered. When the aliens had maintained their short-lived embassy in Russia, all meetings had been held outdoors or in specially-built structures, ordinary Human architecture could not contain them.
And finally, of course, praying mantises did not all speak English in the vaguely flirtatious voice of a professor of American Literature from the University of Chicago. The Charterlings, however, apparently still learned the Human language from the same electronic instruction course they'd acquired back in 2050.
The voice caught Xi Feng off-guard, but only for a moment.
"Please identify yourself," she said.
The Charterling rubbed its hands together for a moment. It was a female. It was easy to distinguish between genders: males had long bladed appendages that grew from the base of each wrist.
"I am Petty Officer <click-pop>," the alien said, clacking together her large ant-like mandibles to say her name, "commanding the cutter Solar Vigilance. I will not take offense if you address me by my rank alone."
"I see."
Charterlings had an unfair advantage when it came to languages. A pair of organs on their chests apparently functioned much like electronic speakers, allowing them to accurately reproduce just about any noise within a broad frequency range. But their own language involved a lot of kinetic sounds created with their rigid mouthparts. Humans couldn't hope to replicate Charterling speech with their own tongues and vocal cords. Not that it mattered, since no one had yet managed to decode all the shades of meaning which came from subtle variations of the clicking noises.
"Well, then, Petty Officer," Xi Feng continued, "perhaps you should explain the situation. I'm afraid I don't quite know what you mean."
"Of course," the Charterling bobbed her head in what may have been an imitation of a nod. "We knew there was a renegade Kyhyex ship in this vicinity, but they went inactive before we could be certain of a vector. I know it wasn't your intention, but you managed to lure them into exposing themselves. This would have been a much longer search with an uncertain end were it not for you, Commodore. I owe you thanks for that."
"I cannot accept. I will advise my superiors to send a message to the Kyhyex regretting any involvement in the loss of their ship. Earth Fleet does not exist to entrap the Charterlings' enemies."
The alien's jaws wiggled, "I see you really do not understand the Kyhyex. Your message is unnecessary; the other Kyhyex will not care about this loss. Even if they did, this infestation is still incapable of any true collective action."
"Nevertheless, we cannot allow you to portray us as your lackeys. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No, Commodore. But since my previous assignment is complete, I offer escort your convoy to Uranus. You are assisting our friends, and I would happily use my ship to eliminate any other hostiles you might encounter."
Xi Feng hadn't been expecting an offer like that, but had no doubt about the answer.
"I must decline. We are more than capable of defending ourselves, Petty Officer. Please do not approach the Task Force."
"Of course," the Charterling's head dipped. "In that case, I wish you a safe and successful journey. Goodbye, Commodore."
"Goodbye."
The comm window died, and Xi Feng felt herself relaxing. She closed her eyes for a couple of deep, slow breaths. When she opened them again, she could see everyone on the bridge looking at her.
She was surprised at how easy it was to smile.
"Well done, everyone," she said.
* * *
"I can appreciate your frustration, Chief Executive. But there is nothing I can do to resolve it."
"They're your allies! the Human protested.
Arreyux turned his head left and then right to indicate disagreement, "The Republic has an understanding with the Kyhyex, we do not control them. I have no authority to speak on their behalf."
The image of Eduard Molinas changed as the Human's mouth contracted. "Don't play dumb, Ambassador. Your people obviously have some influence with the Kyhyex, and you claim to be our friends. So I'm asking you, as friends of Humanity, to use some of that influence, and tell them to stay the hell away from our ships."
Ambassador Arreyux Goyeharg hissed softly at the scolding. Not out of anger, though the Human was becoming annoying, but because he knew the Chief Executive was right. The Bats did have some influence over the Kyhyex.
Just not as much as the Humans believe, he thought bitterly.
If Arreyux was angry at anyone, it was his predecessor. When he'd discussed the incident between the Human flotilla and the Kyhyex ship with Yenga, it became apparent that Hyarahek had been misleading the Humans about the Kyhyex. The Humans imagined that the Kyhyex had a unified government like the Bats or the Charterlings, even if it was a weak one. Furthermore, they thought the Republic had a partnership with this fictional polity, and on top of that, that the Republic was the senior partner.
The Ambassador remembered a report from Hyong mentioning that he had tried to briefly explain about the galactic balance of power to one of his contacts. Arreyux hadn't really thought anything of that tidbit at the time, but now he realized just how significant it could be. He'd known that Hyarahek was arrogant, but this sort of deception was just foolish. It was inevitable that the Humans would eventually request some sort of proof of the Republic's authority over the Kyhyex.
Arreyux would need to dispel the Humans' notions about the Republic. But now really wasn't the time to start on that particular project.
"The most I can do, Chief Molinas, is to inform my own superiors of your request. If they believe that some sort of action on our part could be helpful, then I will be happy to apprise you. But I have my doubts, and I certainly cannot promise you anything."
Arreyux didn't think the Human leader looked happy, but he nodded, "Please inform them as soon as possible, Ambassador. Thank you for your time."
Arreyux started to say his own farewell, but the connection was already closed.
For a few moments, the ambassador remained seated behind his desk. One hand fiddled with his earrings as he contemplated. His first instinct was to call Yenga to discuss the Humans' view of the Kyhyex, but the wiser part of his mind shied away from that course of action.
Much to his frustration, Operative Goying was still treating Arreyux with a fair bit of disdain whenever they spoke. He was starting to worry that she was not simply being coy, as he had originally assumed.
When she first received transfer orders to the embassy's intelligence staff, Arreyux had been ecstatic. After years of trying to poke holes in Governor Shyankyang's embargo, he would finally get one of his own people into the embassy. And she would be working directly with Yaheek, to boot. The opportunities were unfolding faster than he'd dared to hope.
Since her departure, Arreyux had spared little thought for Yenga's position until his own fortuitous appointment. He fully trusted her abilities, and had few instructions beyond simply cultivating a relationship with Yaheek, anyway. With her in place, Arreyux felt free to focus his attention on his own political maneuvers in the colony.
In hindsight, he should have noticed that things on Earth were not developing as planned. Yenga's initial stream of excited messages had quickly dwindled. To the point that Arreyux himself had needed to inquire before she would offer any comment about Hyarahek's folly.
Arreyux tugged at an earring until the pain drove him to hiss softly.
He had never really planned on the ambassadorship, but had been more than willing to leap at the appointment when the opportunity arose. Shyankyang thought he was neutralizing a troublesome political opponent. Indeed, the Deontologists' cooperative had been much less vocal since Arreyux departed. But whatever the short term effect, dissent would continue to simmer. Arreyux could still direct his deputies from afar, but he doubted that his comrades really even needed his help to remain a thorn in the governor's side. And by sending Arreyux to Earth, Shyankyang was giving him access to one of the cooperative's great symbols.
Or he would have been, if Hyong Yaheek had not slipped away with the Human flotilla. Arreyux made a sudden fist, and winced as he scratched his snout with a claw. He still wasn't sure if Shyankyang had known about the mission, though it would certainly make the governor's appointment seem less inept. Yenga, on the other hand, had certainly known, and hadn't bothered to mention it to Arreyux until his appointment was already confirmed.
He forced himself to relax. Working himself up into a temper would do him no good. Yenga Goying's loyalty was a concern, but not one that Arreyux needed to handle immediately. Arreyux tapped a claw on his desk a few times, then pushed back in his chair and stood up.
He fiddled with beret for a moment, making sure it was straight on his head, then walked to the door of his office, taking time to stretch the muscles in his arms, legs, and wings as he went. Then he pushed open the door and considered the scene in front of him.
For an embassy to a species that had barely left its own homeworld, the staff requirements here were surprisingly large. Ambassador Goyeharg had almost twenty junior diplomats working for him in these offices, plus another dozen scattered around the planet in consular offices in major national capitals. Technical support staffers, analysts, and the small contingent of warriors effectively doubled his subordinates. And then, the majority of civilian visitors and merchants coming from the Colony preferred to stay in the embassy's own accommodations, leading to an even larger population wandering within the compound.
It was the cost of doing business with Humans, Arreyux mused. Their social psychology was actually much more like that of his own people than any other species the Republic had encountered. They were bureaucratic, legalistic, and smug. The Charterlings were cutthroat merchants, but at least they tended to be straightforward in their dealings. The Kyhyex required a little more delicate handling, but were still predictable enough not to require such huge diplomatic missions to their worlds. With the Humans, however, even the simplest transactions were subject to forbiddingly complex legal regulations.
The end result was that, outside the quiet dignity of the Ambassador's office, a small storm of lesser officials was swirling around the diplomats' working level, attempting to impose order on the chaos created by the Republic's ever-growing trade with this one backwater planet. From the crowd, Arreyux picked out one diplomat who was not displaying quite the same level of energy as his colleagues.
"Ah," the Ambassador hissed softly. He spoke up, "Junior Representative Gaxahyeng! Come here, please."
Even from twenty meters away, Arreyux could see Gaxahyeng's wings curl up so tightly they might have been trying to crush his arms. The deputy at least managed to keep his face mostly passive. Arreyux actually found himself pitying the younger diplomat.
"Yes, sir," Gaxahyeng acknowledged, and walked towards the Ambassador's office.
* * *
Mercury was silent. It had been for 9 years. The first time the planet had spoken, in 2058, it had taken over a week to convince the OES' second Chief Executive that it was not a hoax. A handful of paranoid holdouts still believed it was an Earth Fleet plot to scare up more funding. If the intent was to scare anyone, however, Casey Rukavina thought it could have been done better.
In March of 2058, Earth was bombarded by a series of narrowband radio signals across a wide range of military and civilian frequencies. The transmission repeated itself 8 hours later, and then a final time 8 hours after that. It contained a single text message repeated multiple times with different encoding.
The message announced the presence of an species which had taken possession of the planet Mercury. The aliens called themselves "Tharncancerkind", an appellation which Humans quickly shortened to simply "Tharn". Their message ran to several pages, but ultimately communicated very little except to say that the Tharn had very little interest in Humans, whom they seemed to consider pitiably backward.
It came across as absurd, of course, because as far as anyone on Earth could tell, no aliens had landed on Mercury. Humanity had been very alert to new extra-solar arrivals since the Bats made their surprise appearance in 2045. Telescopes searching the surface of the planet found no evidence of anything that looked even remotely like an artificial structure of any kind. The message had appeared to originate in the direction of Mercury, but that wouldn't be too hard to fake, especially not if the prankster was someone in Earth Fleet itself. So it would have been easy to dismiss the "Tharncancers" as the invention of someone with an overly-active imagination.
Except that the Bats said they existed, and that their colony had received a similar message. The Charterlings later told the Russians the same thing.
Much to Humanity's frustration, however, that was about all the Bats or Charterlings would say. To the best of their knowledge no one really knew much of anything about the Tharn. They were uninterested in other species, keeping entirely to themselves in a number of single-planet colonies around the galaxy. Attempts at serious communication were either rebuffed or simply ignored. The Charterlings told the Russians not to bother, the Bats acted like they didn't care.
It wasn't an attitude Humanity could share, of course. Plans were drawn up to send a probe to survey Mercury and locate signs of the Tharn colony. In 2061 the European Space Agency, working under contract to Earth Fleet, launched its Mercury Communication And Reconnaissance (MerCAR) probe. The probe orbited Mercury for twelve days, taking Humanity's first detailed photographs of the planet's surface. On the twelfth day, MerCAR abruptly stopped broadcasting. The probe was never heard from again, having never found any visible sign of an alien colony on Mercury.
That was enough to convince Earth Fleet to take more direct action. At the time the Fleet was still engaged in the massive effort of constructing its Martian outpost. Nonetheless ships were detached and retrofitted with additional radiation shielding for an expedition to Mercury. The flotilla stayed for two weeks, at great risk to crew health, and performed a supposedly comprehensive survey of the Mercurian surface and orbital neighborhood. They found neither the Tharn nor the ESA's probe. Only a few days after the flotilla was forced to depart, however, the Tharn sent a new message to the OES, requesting that Humanity stop probing Mercury.
Neither the OES nor Earth Fleet was exactly eager to comply with this demand, but no one on Earth had any brilliant new ideas, either. It was prohibitively expensive and dangerous to operate that close to the sun. And though the Tharn might be irritating, they didn't seem especially threatening. Meanwhile the Charterlings and Kyhyex had altered the orbits of almost every one of Jupiter's moons and were still setting off doomsday weapons like firecrackers as they tried to drive each other from the system.
So it was decided to go ahead and leave the Tharn well enough alone while Earth Fleet focused on the more immediately obvious dangers. A small but permanent patrol of ships was assigned to Venus, from which they would "observe" Mercury, as well as guard the remaining inner planet against any new unexpected visitors. That was where Casey Rukavina had spent his last year and a half prior to his current assignment.
It was just about the worst assignment you could draw in Earth Fleet. Even the asteroid stations had some minimal facilities on each rock, so you could spend time off your ship. There was nothing at Venus; it might as well be a deep space patrol. Both the patrol and Earth Fleet bureaucracy itself were still young enough that assignment to 6th Fleet hadn't yet morphed into outright punishment duty, but that probably wasn't far off.
Casey sighed slowly, warming his chapped lips. His current mission wasn't punishment duty, either, but it was even worse than Venus.
It took several hours before solar interference rendered Mercury almost invisible to sensors again. But with the way time passed for Casey in his drugged state, it seemed only a moment had gone by. And once again he had failed to detect any sign of the Tharn. He would surely be spending a lot of time reviewing the logs over the next several months, but only because there wouldn't be anything better to do. Casey doubted he would actually find anything.
Perihelion came nearly a week later, and it was finally time to detach the shield. The process was silent, but Casey imagined he could hear a great metallic groan as the clamps released. It would have sounded that way in a movie. It would also have happened faster in the movie. The shield would continue to block the sun's radiation for days to come. Even after Casey's ship had left it behind, it would take weeks and several orbits more before finally plunging into the corona.
When that happened, Casey would be almost to the halfway point of his trip, assuming nothing went wrong. So far, nothing had gone wrong. It was actually somewhat disappointing; it would have given Casey something to do besides wait and think. Wait, and think, and imagine sound effects for the movie which could never be made about his little top-secret flight around the sun.