Defender of the Mother Galaxy Chapter 5

  The attack failed. Very few of the weapons actually made it through the shield of the ‘enemy’ ship. We had expected an attack of retaliation, but instead the ship lowered it’s shields. This really threw me off for a moment, but then I remembered battles from when the world still fought itself. In the event of a stale-mate, or if one side was offering peace, they would lower their shields. I ordered all but the Battleships to power down their weapons. I had the Battleships keep their Photon Cannons charged, just in case. Though if they had attacked, it would have been a very one-sided battle.

  They surprised us shortly after, though, because they started to slowly move beside my ship. I wasn’t sure what to do, so for the moment I did nothing. I was about to order that the Sovereignty turn around to face the large ship when it fired some sort of cables at us. They went clear through the shields, and jammed into the side of the ship.
“S-sir..? Our… our weapons are offline.”
“What?  How did they-” I was cut off as I watched the ship fire wires at the other Battleships, probably disabling their weapons as well. “What do they think they’re doing?” I shouted as I turned to the comm. system. The little orange light was blinking, indicating that a message was being sent. I opened a channel and a slightly distorted voice rang out.
“Humans of the USC, This is Lt. Commodore William Chase of the Catalonian Republic, we hope to open up relations with your Union.”

  This was quite a shock to us all. They called us human, yet they sound themselves human. I froze for a moment thinking of what to do next. Do I try to break the connection and hope to just get out of this mess, or do I talk with them? I’m not a diplomat, and have no right to open any relations without proper authorization. But, they were far stronger than us, so trying to break off would be a bad idea. I decided to attempt communication with the alien vessel.
“I am Squadron Commander Kyros Dimitri Dillon of the USC Navy. What is your purpose in our system? You say you wish to open relations with us, yet the very first thing you do is disable an entire fleet. This would make you seem hostile, and if you indeed are, we will defend ourselves should you attack. Even if it means our destruction. But, if your intentions are passive, then please refrain from disabling this, or any other USC fleet.”
I sent the message and awaited a response from these… Catalonians.

  Just a moment later they responded. "I am truly sorry for the choice of action we took, however that was the only thing we saw fit... We did not choose to open fire, as that only would open a hostile relation between us, however I find it interesting that you choose to pursue us and then chose to open fire, who did you think we were...?”
They ask us why we fired at them, even though they tried to disrupt my fleet again? I responded firmly. “We do not take kindly to those who would disable our fleets. We have not the numbers to manage an entire fleet being shut down if there was to be an attack. My fleet was under orders to find you. We needed to know if you were a threat to us. Also, please note that we take the disabling of a fleet as severely as the destruction of a fleet, so my attack on you was of a defensive nature.” There was a short pause.
“Understood, however you saw us take flight and yet you choose to pursue, you chose to open fire on us when we attempted to do the exact same thing. If we were to engage in a fight with your fleet we would have opened fire. And we could have with your current stunt… However, I understand your slight frustration.”
They didn‘t seem to understand that the choice of following them was not mine. "Must I repeat myself? I was under orders to follow you. It wasn't my decision. I also did not know the defensive capabilities of your vessel, but I'm trained to defend my fleet. You attacked, and I defended, it's a simple concept."
“I, too, was under orders to advert any direct contact between us. Seeing as you followed and cut us off we tried yet again to non-violently disrupt your fleet without any major use of force or offensive weapons.”
I took a short moment to think about what they had just said. "Our definitions of 'offensive' seem to be very different. If you are going to stay in this system, please refrain from destroying and disrupting our fleets. Though I do believe it would be best if you were to stay hidden, as alien ships being detected in our system would certainly cause some panic."
"There might be a slight flaw with that. We are starting to run short on supplies, and our supply lines seem to be stretched very thin as of right now. One of our ships requires serious maintenance and, as of several days ago, our naval command has sent a… well, 'negotiation' fleet with the goal of creating a bond between these two nations. I am sorry to say that the fleet cannot be sent back, will continue containing a superior officer and several of our dignitaries to discuss our terms with you. All of their intentions for discussion is unknown by me, so I regret to be unable to inform you of their goals."
I paused a moment think of what panic an alien ship of a size larger than our own could cause. Finally I replied. "You cannot just send the ships in need of maintenance back to wherever you came from while still hidden by your cloak? And you say a vessel has been sent to Earth? Then please, disconnect from my ship, as it's disrupting my communications system. I wish to inform my superiors not to fire on the vessel that has been sent."
“First, we are not from this galaxy. A jump that long could take several months, and is not an option since the ship’s jump drives are not capable of that kind of use. They would eventually burn out and leave it in an unknown part of space. It would require a larger ship to act like a carrier for it. Now, the one containing dignitaries is in transit from our galaxy taking again a month or two to get here. For now our ship, and the others, are all we have. Also it seems that your detection system has caused several problems with our shroud emitters, and they too require maintenance."
"I see... Well, allow me to disconnect and inform the leaders and diplomats of this system of the current situation." I was trying to just end this conversation. It didn’t seem to really go anywhere. A response came through, interrupting my thoughts.
“Will do, but first, may I ask… are we permitted to use one of your maintenance docks? An asteroid seems to be stuck in one of our carrier’s launch doors."
The request shocked me a good deal. "I, umm… I suppose I can accept, but I will require you to be under escort. We shall take you to Saturn to dock, and receive repair. But please, stay in your vessel, and speak to no one.”
“This is somewhat… strange, but yes. We will follow you to Saturn. Disconnecting now.”
The transmission ended and the wires broke off from my ship, being pulled back into the alien vessel.

  The alien ship backed away from mine, and as it did so all normal communication systems came back online. I immediately sent out a signal to the Armada Admiral under a code NH, Non-Hostile. It wasn’t very long before the Armada Admiral opened a channel with me.
“Kyros, what’s going on? We’ve picked up an entire fleet of large ships headed right for Earth!”
“Don’t worry, sir” I assured him, “They are non-hostile, and wish to open relations with us.”
“Non-hostile? Didn’t they disable your entire fleet not that long ago?”
“Yes, sir, but they thought it was of a defensive nature.”
“Defensive? Bah! If they were being defensive they would merely have left their shields up.”
“Sir, they have a… different definition of ‘defensive’ as I have gathered from a talk I just had with them.”
“Well what do you want me to do?”
“I would suggest we hide two fleets on the dark side of the planet, making them undetectable, while one other fleet is ready to meet the alien fleet when the arrive.”
There was a pause as the Armada Admiral thought through the matter. “I trust you, Kyros, but this is just crazy.”
“It’ll all work out. Oh, and before you go, I must mention that I’m escorting a few of these aliens to Saturn. Their ships need maintenance, and I thought Saturn would be the best place for that.”
I could hear the admiral slapping his hand to his forehead… He didn’t like the idea. “Oh, Kyros… Fine. Let them repair their ships, but move them away from there just as soon as you can!”
“Yes sir, I know the importance of keeping the Dreads a secret, but I don’t believe even their scanners could penetrate that much of Saturn.”
“I hope for your sake that this is true. Signing off now.” with that the Armada Admiral signed off, and I gave the green light for the Catalonians to follow my fleet to Saturn.