IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)
Chapter Fifteen: First Contact

IMPALA

Clearing the Oort cloud, the Impala quickly started making its way towards the signal as Magi's small but stocky Korean frame ran down the corridor to the lumilift. Two other scientist held the door open for him as he ran in almost crashing into the wall, turning around and slumping to the floor out of breathe.

"You know what this is about?" one of the scientists asked as he reached a hand to help Magi back on his feet.

"Dunno, cap just said meet him in his private quarters ASAP." Magi said in between breathes as he stood up with the scientist's help.

All three rode the lift to the bridge deck and stepped onto the bridge lift. The Impala had just dropped out of sub-space when they walked on to the bridge and Magi saw a small green image on the viewscreen but couldn't make out what it was and therefore thought nothing of it, but something about it started a small tingle on the back of his skull as they walked past the helm stations towards the Captain's private quarters. The door had just opened when Danny announced dropping out of sub-space and heading towards their destination to the captain.

"Come in gentleman, have a seat. Thank you Danny, let me know when we get there." The captain said, facing towards his window. He turned around as Magi, being the last, sat down.

"Gentleman, I'm going to get right to the point. I believe our question has finally been answered. Right now we are on approach to an unknown craft of alien origin. I don't know what to expect but i need you three to get on it. I already alerted security and they are on post armed and ready just in case. We intercepted a message asking for help so we're going to assist as best we can but something about this is giving me a vibe. Thats why i called you three. Jess, your my chief biologist so i need you to learn as much as you can about it without harming it unnecessarily. Henry, you're my top engineer. I need you to learn as much about their ship as possible. You're gonna work with Magi on this. From what i can tell, it uses a bio-neuro interface with the pilot." He then reached out to his desk and a holographic control console appeared. He pushed a few buttons and the lights dimmed, the window tinted and a holoscreen appeared on the side wall playing the message from the alien craft. The captain nearly burst out laughing at the almost comical changes in their expressions when the video jumped into clarity. By the end of the video, Danny announced they were arriving at the ship.

"Thank you Danny, I'm on my way." The captain said as he got up and escorted the scientist out.

Magi looked at the view screen and what he couldn't make out before, he still couldn't make out. All he could tell was that it appeared to be made of some kind of jade chrysalis as it's sleek designed hovered against the now starry background. The captain went to his chair and started giving orders as Magi and the other two scientist went to the lift.

"Hooolyy shit...." Henry said, slightly above a whisper, when they made it to the central hub. "...a real live fucking alien. I knew this day would come sooner or later. Never thought I'd be the first to work on one...well, the ship anyway, but still, who gets THIS opportunity." He finished as he keyed in for their transport.

"I can't wait to meet them. Hopefully they're still alive and friendly." Jess said. Magi, still at a loss for words said nothing as the two talked about the future encounter, paying him little attention as they made their way to the labs to prepare.

Magi knew how the captain felt because he felt it too the first time he looked at the screen. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but somehow he felt like it was the start of something big.

LASSIR

Pelik was jolted awake as his sleep chamber was rocked slightly. Slowly regaining conscious he reached for the control pad and hit the release button. The glass lid slid open with a slight hiss as Pelik sat up. There was a sudden jolt, and then he felt as if he was riding an elevator down. With sudden realization, he jumped out the tube like chamber and was heading for the storage shelves to his left for his gear when the other three tubes slid down the wall and opened. Udar, the pilot,was the first to emerge. Groggy, he was about to ask what happened when there was another jolt that made the two almost lose their balance and put Kurie and Vira on alert.

"What the hell was that?" Vira asked as she stepped out.

"I think we're about to be boarded." Pelik said almost comically.

They quickly gathered their gear and had just engaged their shielding when they heard muted voices outside the airlock door.

"Don't worry, the ship is chromatium infused. IF they can get in, it'll take them a minute." Udar said as he headed off to the right.

The other three followed as they emerged on to the bridge. They all took their seats and began working the external sensors.

"Humans, I knew it!" Vira said almost excitedly as the bio readings from the outside visitors scrolled across her broken display screen.

She got up, walked to the main console, then ejected the codex from the computer and disappeared to her quarters. Udar pulled up her display and put it on the main screen. He then pushed a few buttons on the glitching holoconsole and an image of a star chart showed up next to the readings. A small yellow line appeared from the upper orbit of Velcron and began zig zaging its way around the area before disappearing. The chart then zoomed out and speed to the left before zooming back in just inside the galactic oort cloud. The little yellow line then reappeared and continued straight. A blue line appeared out of nowhere and angled itself on an intercept course until it met the yellow line and both became stationary. An indicator for both lines popped up giving the dimensions, class, and name of Lassir's yellow line, but aside from it's dimensions, the blue line gave no other information. Kurie, as usual, went back to the external cameras on his screen to study their surroundings. Pelik was about to launch a drone when Udar put a hand on his arm and silently told him no.

"That might not be a good idea at the moment. For now let's just see what they do. If all else fails, we can always just blast our way out." Udar said as he sat back with a smile and switched the viewscreen to show all the external cameras.

Pelik's helmet com chirped and Vira asked him to join her in her room.

IMPALA

Magi, for some strange reason, couldn't help but thinking about Jason's friend Frank. He never seen Frank let alone met him. Only read a brief report on the circumstances of his death when he was looking for Jason. He found a classified file on Frank but couldn't hack it without setting off security, so why he couldn't get him out of his head now was just as mysterious as the ship he was currently examining trying to figure out what the symbols along the fuselage meant. It almost looked as if he had seen them somewhere before.

"Henry, can you pull up any language or picturegram that may contain these symbols?" Magi said as he blew up the hologram to display the symbols.

" Already did, bout 20 mins ago. Nothing. Even ran through some of Earth's ancient tribunal transcripts, only cause it does look familiar. Well, this one does anyway." Henry responded as he pointed to the symbol third from the left.

Magi focused the image on that symbol and downloaded it to a data chip.

"I was thinking the same thing. I wanna say its Mayan but it has an Hindu feel to it." Magi said as he faced Henry.

"I was gonna say Egyptian but im no good at linguistics, written or otherwise. Besides, that's more you and Georgia's department. How's it going with you two anyway?" Henry said?

Magi stroked his chin studying the symbol, then waved his hand through the image vanishing it. He began typing on the console as the alien ship came back into view.

"Pretty good actually...." He started as he scanned the ship's hull. "... she's doing her data analysis thing at the Venus station and Im...here." he said almost as a joke as he stopped and thought about the last.

He turned back to the viewscreen as a red rectangle began blinking on a small section of the ship's hull and the alarms went off.

LASSIR

Vira peeked her head into the bridge and told the others to come to her room. Puzzled, they followed without question. When they got there, Pelik was studying the images displayed from the codex as they flipped through different scenes finally stopping on a greenish blue planet.

"I think our species has been here before, and not just once....." Pelik said as he flipped through the images again. "..... according to the codex, we have an ambassador here. If these humans Are from...what did you call it again?" He asked Vira.

"Earth!" she responded.

"Earth, right. I remember." Udar said as he stepped into the room next to Pelik. "If these humans are from Earth, then they can help us." He finished, excitement building.

"Not exactly." Pelik said as the image stopped on an older human with light skin and silver hair dressed in a business suit.

He was standing behind a podium with a crowd of other humans behind him waving what looked like flags. He couldn't make out the details.

"This is what they call a Ronald Reagan. Apparently, before the council was created, we used to travel here. Then this Ronald human came along and the Velcronian High Command opened up communications with him and a select few humans. They placed a Pelaxian to serve as ambassador. The Ronald kept this a secret from the rest of the humans. Something about a planet wide hysteria. Anyway, something happened and the Ronald lost his leadership. The Pelaxian disappeared but is still on Earth, travels stopped and all the while the humans know nothing. Our existence is unknown to them. They're just now reaching interplanetary travel. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first time they've came this far. They were just getting off their planet then so they're still primative, almost but still not quite there yet. But enough that we can greet them without breaking any regulations, provided they're friendly of course. As far as the help, like i said, they're primative so don't expect much." Pelik said as he turned towards the group.

Vira threw her hands up and turned towards the airlock.

"There's only one way to find out." She said as her helmet and face shield interlocked around her head.

The rest quickly followed suit as they reached the outer chamber.

"This is crazy," Kurie said as he checked the charge cycle on his weapons. "but i guess it beats just sitting around."

His weapons disappeared into their camoflouged spots right when Udar ran back and grabbed the codex, putting it in his armor's pocket and had just made it back when the outer doors slowly hissed open.

IMPALA

Security detail had the ship surrounded and weapons aimed and ready by the time the ramp finally touched down and the smoke cleared from the now open hatchway of the alien craft. Slowly descending the ramp were 4 four and half foot figures emerging from the darkness of the ship. Jessica, the lead biologist, had just arrived and was making her way through security towards the ramp carring a hover tray with different types of medical and scanning equipment. Magi and Henry weren't too far behind with their own assortment of tools. They stopped a few feet from the ramp and Henry almost burst out laughing but caught himself as he finally looked at the four aliens.

"I've heard of little green men but.... really?" He said.

The comical way in which their heads bobbed up and down when they walked down the ramp reminded him of an old movie 'Morons From Outer Space', but when they stopped and just stood there, he knew this was not a laughing matter. The one on the far right moved two short steps up then started bleeping as a small blue line appeared and disappeared where the mouth would be with each bleep. After a few seconds, it stepped back and leaned towards the other on its left side then ran back into the ship.

LASSIR

"Where is it, it's gotta be in here somewhere." Udar said to himself as he rummaged through the ship's storage compartments. "There you are." he said as he pulled a supply tote down off the shelf. He reached up and pulled out a small glass cylinder with what looked like strands of fiber optic cables floating in a clear liquid.

"Ummmm, can you kinda speed it up. Some of these guys with guns are making me nervous, and i think their leader is coming." Kurie said over the comm.

"On my way now." Udar responded. He pushed a button on the top and all but two of the cables stood rigid.

He opened the top and grabbed the two still floating limply and tossed them out, then closed the top back as he headed back outside. When he reached the rest of the group, the men with guns had made a tighter circle and a single human with different types of metals on his armor stood directly in front of them.

IMPALA

Everyone was so focused on the visitors that no one payed any attention as Jason and Vanessa stepped on to the docking bay, so when Jason walked up and asked "What'd I miss?", all those within earshot nearly lost their soul causing a domino affect that half rippled around the bay before everyone caught on.

Vanessa couldn't help it and fell out laughing, the aliens looked at everyone around the room then at each other with a series of blips and beeps and Jason was left stuck caught off guard but cracking up on the inside because he was completely not expecting that let alone trying to scare anyone, especially the visitors. The last thing he needed was to be vaporized by a 'P-32 Cubic Zarconian explosive'.

What drove the seriousness back into reality as he made his way to the ramp and stood in front of the three aliens, just as the fourth ran back down the ramp carrying some sort of glass cylinder, was Bianca's single tone and a four word statement that somehow didn't surprise him.

"Captain, these are Velcronians."

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