I come from Iowa. I only work in outer space.

            - James T. Kirk - 

Despite General Wilson's macho warrior expression, he was concerned about this new revelation of an alien presence. He knew down deep in his gut that these aliens were building up for a full scale attack and the forces under his command were not prepared to defend against it. His only hope lay in two retired Air Force combat pilots.

"It is of utmost importance that we locate the aliens' home world. We cannot repel a full scale attack and it will be some time before we can."

Translation: we're screwed.

"We can't search every candidate star," Marty said. "It would take years."

"I agree, but we have some new clues as to its possible location. SETI has been monitoring traffic with the new array. They've narrowed it to a half dozen stars. I'll let Arthur give you the intel on that." He turned to glance at Arthur who was standing to his right. "I do want to commend you both for your efforts to locate the alien staging location. We've sent the X-1001 out to check it out."

Arthur came forward. "You reported that the alien saucers were on the planetoid Eris about 50 AU out. There is the possibility that more aliens are on smaller planetoids beyond Neptune’s orbit."

"We really couldn't check other planetoids," Marty said. "It would have required firing forward engines, which would have revealed our presence."

"We understand," Arthur said.

"What is our next destination?" Angie asked.

"You're going to HD10307, which is an older, more luminous G class star in the Andromeda constellation. It's 42 light years away."

Marty raised his hand. "Why are we going there instead of one of the hundreds of other candidate stars?"

"SETI has picked up a signal from that system. At first it resembled background hiss, but the computer has delineated organized segments in the signal and there is reason to believe that it constitutes language. I realize that these signals are forty-two years old, but they indicate the possible existence of an intelligent species on a planet in this system."

"Has Lia looked at these signals?" Angie asked.

"Yes. In fact she and Dr. Lindgrin were instrumental in recognizing the possible intelligent nature of the signal. They're currently working on a translation."

"When do we go?"

"In two weeks. The X-3001 is not quite finished and it is not supplied well enough for a long mission. Besides, Lia will have more time to come up with a workable translation."

Marty and Angie exchanged confused looks. What did he mean by a long mission?

###

When Marty sat next to George at the Space Port's bar, he gave both Karl and him a knowing glance before summoning the bartender to order a beer. NASA and the military had created heaven in the heavens as far as he was concerned, but this can't be heaven. There's beer here.

"So," George said. "When are we going back out?"

"According to Arthur, two weeks. What do we know about this system?"

"Not much," Karl said. "HD 10307 is a G2 star with a temperature of 5800 °C and it's 41.22 light years distance. It's more luminous than Sol by a factor of 1.44, larger by 1.2 and older. It's just another possible location for habitable planets."

"What about this signal that contains a language?" Marty asked.

"Lia claims it does," George said. "She and Brigit are working on a translation algorithm." 

"That's wild," Marty said. He looked around. "Where's Tyler?"

"They sent him to Columbia to negotiate a cease fire between some Maoist rebels and the Government," George said.

"Will he get back in time?"

George shrugged. "Who knows?"

"So, this is where you guys hang out."

The men turned to behold Angie decked out in an impeccably clean white uniform and cap.

"Wow!" Marty said, grinning at her. "Are we expecting an admiral?"

She propped her fists on her hips, smiled and said, "I am the very model of a modern major general."

Marty laughed. "Are you Gilbert or Sullivan?"

She giggled, which seemed inappropriate while wearing dress whites.

"Why don't you take a load off and join us for a beer, commander," Marty said.

"I think I will," she said, taking a stool next to him.

Marty summoned the bartender. "The commander here needs a beer."

"Yes sir."

Angie gave the men a subtlety condescending smile. "So, what were you guys discussing?"

"We were discussing our next destination," Marty said.

"The big problem is that we don't have a clue about what to expect," Angie said. "And as a consequence we go out unprepared."

"What about Lia?" Marty said. "Has she had any luck with the signal from this star system."

"Lia has been able to translate some of it. They appear to be messages to far-flung outposts. Ferris thinks that they're reptilian. She has compared their hissing to those of snakes and lizards."

"Oh great," Marty said. "They’re snake people. We have bird people and the Roswell aliens look like bugs. Don't any of these aliens look like us?"

"What did you expect?" George said. "They evolved on planets that differ from ours in many ways. We already know that the animal and plant life are different on the planets we've explored. It only makes sense that sentient beings would look quite different than we do."

Marty gave him a deferential smile. "Kind of makes our racial problems look ridiculous doesn't it?"

"No kidding. I'm not sure if mankind is ready for this."

Marty took a big sip of beer. "If we don't soon find the alien's home system, it won't matter."

"We'll find it," Angie said. She held up her glass. "To our success."

They clinked their glasses.

### 

"We are cleared for departure, Angie."

Angie glanced back at her crew before looking at the main screen. "Take us out at 0.5 mps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

Angie waited until the X-3001 cleared its dock before issuing her next command. "Take us up to 1500 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

Marty turned to look at Tyler. "Glad you could make it."

"It was a bit sticky there for a time of it, but I made it," Tyler said.

Marty looked at Angie. "Why are we going so slowly?" He paused. "Relatively speaking."

"Brian is out there scanning for aliens. We don't want them to know our destination."

"Oh."

"Brian reports that the coast is clear, Angie. However, I don't know which coast he is referring to."

Angie gave Marty a subtle smile. "It's a colloquial expression, Delphi. It means that we're free to go. Align us with HD 10307 and accelerate to jump velocity."

"Yes, Angie."

"It figures," Marty said. "Brian never did use conventional NASA terminology."

"That may be a good thing," Angie said. "The aliens will be confused by our colloquial terms."

"I hope so. We don't need this crap."

"Ten minutes to jump, Angie."

"Good. Execute on count, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"Are we in a hurry?" George said.

"The quicker we jump the less chance for alien interference," Marty said.

No one said anything after that. Contemplating what could happen was not healthy. Reality was scary enough.

The jump began with the usual worm drive high-pitched whistle. After the command deck elongated, the entire thing began to spin, gaining speed as each second passed. Marty wondered why the deck didn't just go through the singularity at once instead of spinning down as if being flushed. Then he realized that it actually was like being flushed. He remembered that black holes suck stuff in the same way. Spinning is a natural phenomenon.

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Bring us down to 5000 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

The forward engines screamed while the main screen displayed a very bright star surrounded by points of light that were obviously not stars. George and Karl wasted no time in scanning the system.

"We're about 50 AU out, just inside the comet cloud," George said. "We're two million kilometers away from a gas giant that's about nine tenths the size of Jupiter. That's rather large for this far out. It has a moon that's about the size of Mars and is about a million kilometers out from the planet."

"We'll stop there," Angie said. "Adjust our course to orbit the large moon, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"The star is 1.2 times larger than our sun and has a luminosity that’s 1.44 times," Karl said. "There is some evidence of flare activity but I'm not detecting an unusual neutrino count."

"There are six inner planets," George said. "Number five has possibilities. It has a habitable temperature and is around 1.18 AU."

"I'm picking up some strong traffic on the hissing aliens' frequency," Brigit said. "They may be close."

"I see no energy spikes," Marty said. "However, the gas giant is emitting a lot of energy that could be masking it."

The moon of the gas giant was not what George had expected. Most moons of gas giants in our solar system have either frozen water or methane. This moon had little if any water and the surface was solid rock, not frozen water or methane.

“We have achieved orbit, Angie.”

“Thank you, Delphi.”

“You are welcome, Angie.”

“We have a problem,” Marty said. He switched his telescopic camera image to the main screen. Many saucers were clearly visible.

“Shit!” Angie said. “Take us out of orbit, Delphi. Put us on course to the fifth planet.”

“Yes, Angie.”

“I think they’ve seen us,” Marty said. “Please bring weapons on line, Delphi, and maximize shielding.”

“Yes, Martin.”

“Here they come,” Marty said.

An energy blast hit the ship's shields, causing an annoying vibration.

“Please fire energy beams at full power, Delphi. Transfer helm control to me and particle cannon weapons to Martin.”

“Yes, Angie.”

The energy beams began to fire into the attacking alien craft at a rapid rate. Marty pumped pulses of plasma particles at them while Angie maneuvered the X-3001 around in spirals to avoid their attack.

“We can’t defend against this many ships at one time,” Angie said as enemy weapons blasts rocked the ship with a sickening high-pitched screech.

“Another craft is approaching,” George said.

“If it’s another alien, we’re screwed,” Marty said.

“It’s not a saucer. It has a tubular shape,” George said.

One of Marty’s pulse blasts caused an alien craft to loose control and crash on the moon. The new craft began shooting pulsed energy beams at the aliens, taking pressure off of the X-3001. The aliens soon retreated and accelerated off.

“Come to a full stop, Delphi. Power down weapons.”

“Yes, Angie.”

“It’s your turn, Lia,” Marty said. “Try to contact them.”

While Lia struggled to establish a signal that the new alien craft would accept, the rest of the crew stared at the strange image on the main screen. The new alien craft was large and shaped like a tube with a bulging head and a flared end. It appeared to have a surface of scales much like a snake.

“I have an image,” Lia said as she switched it to the main screen.

“Good grief,” Marty said. “They look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles without shells.”

Lia’s translator spewed out inquires. “Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?”

Lia motioned for Marty to speak. “We are from a planet around a star that is eleven parsecs from here. We will send you our definition of a parsec.” He gestured to Lia. “Can you send a star image of our sun as it would appear from here?”

“Create a star field image with our sun in it as seen from here, Delphi, and mark the location.”

“Yes, Angie.”

Marty continued. “We are on a mission to find the star system of those who attacked us. We are under attack at our home world.”

“How do you know our speech?”

“We have detected your transmissions from our home world,” Marty said. “We have created a translation device that allows us to talk to you.”

That surprised them. They appeared to be confused, but soon gained their composure. “We are at conflict-war with the Cleats. They attack our outposts. We must form a union.”

“Hey, Tyler,” Marty said. “It’s your turn.”

“Ah, yes,” Tyler said. “I may be of assistance with that. I have had some small experience in such matters. We must find a location to meet and discuss this proposal.”

“Send us your environmental requirements,” the alien said.

“Do it,” Angie told Lia.

After several minutes, the alien spoke. “We have a moon around our planet where we will meet.”

“Allow us to go first,” Angie said. “Our systems are designed to fire at large debris in our path.”

“We understand.”

“Take us to the moon of the fifth planet, Delphi at 1000 kps.”

“Yes, Angie.”

“Are they keeping up,” Angie asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Marty said. He looked up at her. “You realize that these aliens just saved our lives.”

“That is a very important observation,” Tyler said. “It shows that they can work with us, and that is the basis of an agreement.”

“I don’t know about any agreement, but if they hadn’t come along when they did, we would not be discussing this.”

“So what do you want to do?” Angie said. “Give them a medal.”

“No, ma’am, but I think that we should listen to what they have to say. They certainly have more experience fighting these Roswell aliens than we do,”

“Agreed,” Angie said.

“We may be able to tap into their experience when we negotiate an agreement,” Tyler said.

“That would be great,” Marty said. “We need all the help we can get.”

After several minutes of silence, Marty looked over at Lia. “Why did the translator refer to the Roswell aliens as Cleats?”

“That’s a reference term for their name. The nearest I can tell is that it means Big Eyes.”

“What I would like to know is: why are these Roswell devils mad at us?” Uma asked.

“That’s a good question,” Marty said. “Maybe they’re still pissed about the fact that we grabbed their ship and crew in 1947.”

“I find that hard to believe,” George said. “Maybe they’re afraid now that we have worm jump capability.”

“That would imply that they have limited resources to defend their home system,” Karl said.

“Perhaps we can gain more of an insight on that from these aliens,” Tyler said.

“One thing is for certain,” Marty said. “If they knew where the alien home system was, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

“I have a hunch that they’re having as much trouble as we are,” Angie said.

“You may be right,” Marty said.

### 

The hissing aliens’ moon was larger than even George had expected. "The home planet is about 1.2 times the size of Earth, but it has a less impressive atmosphere, only measuring 700 millibars at the surface. The moon has a similar atmosphere with a 18% oxygen content, slightly low, but breathable because of the reasonable pressure. The moon-planet combination constitutes a binary system in which both rotate around a common locus."

No one was listening. The sight of this amazing system was too mesmerizing.

“The moon has limited water,” Anna said. “I’m detecting plant life, but there are large areas of desert. The main planet has sizable seas, but it is no where near as watery as Earth.”

“The main planet has large structures connected by transportation ribbons,” George said. “These may be rails. I see long vehicles traveling along them. The structures are either domed or cone-shaped. They’re massive, some as large as the Great Pyramid.”

“We have achieved orbit around the moon, Angie.”

“Thank you, Delphi.”

“You are welcome, Angie.”

“The aliens are indicating that we should land near that large domed structure in the northern hemisphere,” Lia said, using an on-screen pointer.

Marty looked at Angie. “I’ll go.”

“No. It’s my turn.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

She flashed a smile. “I’m not afraid.”

“I didn’t infer that you were.”

“I know, but this is probably the most important thing we’ll ever do out here. I don’t want fear to cause a disaster. You stay here and keep an eye out for aliens.”

He smiled. “Yes, Captain.”

Angie stood up. “Lia, Tyler and Ferris, come with me.”

“Good luck,” Marty said before they entered the elevator.

“I’m glad she didn’t pick me,” Uma said. “I hate snakes.”

Marty smiled. "Speaking of snakes; we can't keep referring to them as hissing aliens.

"What do you propose?" George said.

"How about Mehen?"

"Mehen?"

"Mehen is the snake god that aided Ra in fighting Aspep, the evil demon of the underworld."

"Ah, an Egyptian tale," George said.

"Why not; it fits."

"Indeed it does."

Down on the equipment deck, the mood was somber.

“Are we taking weapons?” Ferris asked.

“No. We’re not at war with these aliens,” Angie said. “You can take monitoring units, but we’ll have to ask for permission to use them.”

“Perhaps, we should consider some gift,” Tyler said. “It could demonstrate our sincerity.”

“Yes,” Angie said with a hand to her face. “Let’s see. How about a universal translator?"

"Do you think that wise?" Lia said. "There's a lot of advanced computer technology in there."

"These aliens must have their own advanced computer technology," Angie said. "They couldn't make worm jumps without it. Besides, technology is fleeting."

"We could also offer them one of those informational discs," Ferris said. "Like the one we gave the bird aliens."

"Yes. That's a great idea." After the elation subsided, she sighed. "Oh well, we may as well get cracking."

They entered the hangar and walked over to a Lander. Twice the size of those on the X-2001, the new Lander was more powerful and capable of much longer missions. The entrance hatch led to a decompression chamber, which alleviated the need to decompress the entire cabin after they landed.

Angie took the command station with Ferris to her right. Lia and Tyler strapped into seats directly behind them.

"Decompress the hangar, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

Powerful pumps sucked air out of the hangar at an astounding rate. When that work was complete, the remaining atmosphere was vented and the hangar door slowly crawled up like a very slow shutter. Framed by the opening, the moon slowly rotated like a giant kaleidoscope revealing swirling yellow clouds drifting on a serrated gray-brown surface.

With its engines on standby, the Lander levitated and then slowly and silently drifted out of the hangar. When the Lander was two hundred meters away from the ship, Angie fired forward engines to plunge the craft into the alien moon's atmosphere.

The ride down wasn't as rough as Angie had expected. The new Lander did a marvelous job of maintaining stability. Once the Lander cleared the cloud deck, it emerged above a truly alien landscape of green rocks and red soil. Green lakes and ponds were scattered about on a jagged, hilly landscape.

"I believe they wish us to land there by that dome," Tyler said.

Angie took the Lander down to a soft landing on a flat white surface near a domed structure that resembled a football stadium.

"The air is breathable," Ferris said. "It's like being at eighteen thousand on Earth. Temperature is bit warm at twenty-five Centigrade. Humidity is very low. We may want to take water. There's no telling how long this will take."

Angie stood up. "Well, let's not keep our hosts waiting."

They entered the decompression chamber, waited until its internal atmosphere adjusted to that of outside and then stepped out on the alien world.

The air felt warm but not moist. Breathing the air was laborious but still possible. The alien star blazed in a bright yellow sky with puffy orange stratified clouds drifting above a reddish landscape. Tall plants with needle-like intensely green leaves stood in clumps around the building. Were they gardens?

A contingent of Mehens approached, and several were carrying what looked like weapons. Angie and Tyler exchanged concerned glances, but they didn't panic.

When the aliens had come closer, Angie saw that Marty's first impressions were not really accurate. They had definite reptilian characteristics, not Ninja Turtle comic looks. Their eyes had vertically slit irises and were deeply green colored. Their pale yellow scaly faces were small in front of large skulls, but unlike our snakes, they had sharp teeth. The effect was both frightening and awesome.

They wore dull plastic form-fitting suits that were mostly black in color. Their bodies were slender and had no pelvic bulge. Their arms and legs were shorter than those on humans but they were still able to walk upright. Angie amusingly imagined that they resembled the Geico gecko icon, but with more humanoid looking faces.

"Follow," one of the Mehens said before turning and walking toward the building.

The four humans followed while the armed aliens took up the rear. The building was a welcome relief from the hot alien sun. The inside was immense and surprisingly empty except for what appeared to be a stone table with wooden chairs.

The alien gestured for them to sit. Tyler and Lia remained standing.

"Before we begin," Tyler said. "We wish to present you with a gift." He glanced at Lia, and she placed a case, the size of a briefcase on the table. "This is one of our universal translators. Lia here has programmed it to work in your language. There's an information disc that when viewed will provide you with a complete description of the device and an explanation of how it works."

The aliens exchanged looks. Evidently, they weren't used to aliens giving away technology.

"We have included another disc that contains information about our planet and the people who live on it."

"Why do you do this?"

"We are not out here to conquer or dominate. We are on a mission to find the planet of the ones who attack us. They have attempted to destroy our planet and we must defeat them. We also wish to contact other intelligent aliens and offer our trade and exchange of ideas."

"We understand. We have been in conflict-war with them for many cycles."

"We have an enemy in common," Tyler said. "This is a reason for an alliance between our two peoples in order to establish a shared defense."

"We agree."

### 

The atmosphere on the command deck of the X-3001 was tense, but quiet. Marty scanned for aliens and fretted about Angie being down on the moon. George and Karl scanned the Mehen's star and planet. Anna scanned for chemicals and Uma searched spectral scans for geological significant materials.

George looked over at Marty. "You okay over there?"

He looked back. "Yeah, but I just hate this waiting."

"They'll be okay," George said, adding a reassuring smile. Karl touched George's shoulder, calling his attention to one of the astronomical screens.

"You had better take a look at this," George said to Marty as he switched the view to the main screen.

Marty had trouble believing what he was seeing. "Oh my god! There must be thousands of them."

"What are we going to do? George said. "We can't fight all of those."

"How far away are they?" Marty asked.

"About 20 AU."

"Well, we're not going to sit here," Marty said. "Take us out of orbit, Delphi, and put us on course to intercept the alien armada."

"I cannot execute that order at this time, Martin. The Lander is in the process of docking."

"Good. As soon as they're in, take us out, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

Minutes later, Angie rushed onto the command deck. "Yeah, we know. The aliens told us."

"We're headed toward the invasion fleet," Marty said. "But, I have no idea what we're going to do."

"We're going to war," Angie said, taking her place at the command station. "We have no choice. We just agreed to help these aliens."

"I have an idea," Marty said. "Their ships are grouped into three separate fleets. That would suggest that they're going to break off to try a flanking maneuver. If we charge out in front of the Mehen fleet and fire a salvo of torpedoes, we may be able to disrupt their plan."

"Agreed. Delphi, please arm forward torpedoes and prepare to fire a spread on my command."

"Yes, Angie. Forward torpedoes are armed."

The main Mehen fleet began to emerge from the planet. Hundreds of large battle cruisers and uncountable smaller fighters appeared. When the X-3001 flew past them on its way to the invasion fleet, there was no reaction at first.

"I have a COM to a Mehen ship," Lia said.

"Open it," Angie said.

"What are you doing?"

Angie looked at the alien face and set her jaw. "We're going to break up their formation. Make sure you have radiation shielding in place and don't look. It's going to get very bright."

"We understand."

"Please fire torpedoes, Delphi, Maximum spread."

"Yes, Angie."

The alien fleet tried to destroy the missiles, but they were encased in fiery electromagnetic plasma shields and were flying at twenty percent the speed of light. Five giant extremely bright balls of energy erupted within the body of the enemy fleet. When the explosions subsided, the remaining alien saucers spread out.

"Transfer helm control to my station, Delphi. Please fire energy beams at full power. Transfer pulse weapons to Martin."

"Yes, Angie."

Angie flew into the alien fleet with guns blazing. The enemy craft immediately tried to swarm around the X-3001, but she spiraled away, causing confusion. Delphi fired energy beams at the aliens at an unbelievable rate, weakening their shields so that Marty could fire pulses of energetic particles into them. The Mehen ships entered the melee with a vengeance, firing energy pulses with machine gun frequency. Enemy ships were splitting and crashing into one another in a mass confusion of violence. One crippled saucer collided with a Mehen cruiser setting it ablaze. Huge explosions were erupting everywhere while energy beams and pulses were flying every which way. It reminded Marty of a fire in a fireworks factory he had once witnessed.

The X-3001 shook and thundered from frequent enemy blasts. Fires erupted as the shield relays overloaded, and George organized fire brigades to put them out. As the battle continued, it was obvious that the humans were in over their heads, but they remained in the fray despite the danger.

After several hours, the remaining aliens retreated. The X-3001 was damaged, but how badly was unknown.

A Mehen appeared on the main screen. "We thought that you would go."

"We do not run from a fight," Marty said, shaking his head. "That is not our way. We fight with you even if means our destruction."

"You fight well, Earthlings."

"It is an honor to fight at your side," Marty said. "We request to orbit your planet while we repair damage."

"We understand."

The image went blank.

"Thank you, too," Marty said to a blank screen.

"Take us into orbit around the planet, Delphi. Give us a damage report."

"Yes, Angie."

Marty stood up. "Well, I guess we're going to play engineer now. Hopefully, we can repair this crate and get the hell out of here before something else happens."

"I think that we're going to be here for a while," Angie said. "The anti-matter generators are down. Without them, we can't return."

That sucks.