War and Space



  War and Space

  Steve Challis

  War and Space by Steve Challis

  Copyright Steve Challis 2011

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be resold or given away to other people.

  If you enjoyed this book, please recommend it to other people so they can purchase their own copy, or you can purchase another copy for them as a gift.

  Thank you for respecting my several years of work in writing this book.

  Steve

  Disclaimer

  This book is fictional. Any apparent resemblance between any character and any real person living or dead is pure coincidence.

  Index

  War and Space

  Alarm

  Space Cowboys

  Surrender

  A Camping Trip

  The Search

  Homeworld

  Love Conquers All

  Little Boy Lost

  Return

  War and Space

  The Highway to Heaven made some very quick mail stops before resuming its main business of exploration. The ship would jump to the outer fringe of a colony system and transmit all the messages for the system while receiving the accumulated electronic mail from the system’s far satellite.

  They also collected data from a number of the automatic beacons placed on earlier trips. These beacons recorded natural signals and would record artificial ones if they occurred.

  The ship’s last scheduled stop was at the New Memphis system. New Memphis was a promising planet for terraforming although most of its inhabitants were still living in the orbital habitat brought by the settlement ship. The system would be visited in a few months by a trading vessel. There was one planet as well as a large moon of a gas giant that would eventually be fit for human habitation.

  The exploration vessel was going to investigate a system designated QB7 only two light years away from New Memphis.

  As The Highway to Heaven decelerated towards the planetary system of QB7 the heads of department were reporting.

  Professor Biden of the Radio Astronomy department reported:

  “There are no signs of artificially produced radio signals or any other indication of technologically advanced life in the system.”

  Alan Royal of the Astronomy department was next:

  “The fourth planet has life.”

  This unusually short report was quite different from most. They had found many planets and moons with life but this was the first time such a definite statement had been made at such a distance. Captain Jack asked for clarification.

  Alan quietly dropped a bombshell:

  “We have identified the spectral lines of Chlorophyll.”

  Ali, head of the biology department as well as the official designated by the world government and the council of the elders to contact alien cultures asked:

  “Which type of Chlorophyll?”

  “It’s not identical to any terrestrial type of Chlorophyll.”

  Ali stated:

  “We’ve found many types of photosynthetic pigment used by extraterrestrial organisms, but this is the first time Chlorophyll has been found other than in plants from the Earth. This is a very interesting discovery.”

  Captain Jack set the ship’s course to enter orbit round the fourth planet.

  Alarm

  The Captain had just fallen asleep when the whoop whoop of the general alarm sounded. This was only the second time it had been used other than in drills. The space cowboys would be hurrying the Cattle to the acceleration tanks and the rest of the crew would be going to their action stations and getting into their acceleration couches.

  In the control room, Sam, the officer of the watch explained:

  “We’ve detected an alien ship. It’s heading towards us, accelerating at 1.8 g. This is over twice the gravitational equivalent of the fourth planet, but its course appears to have originated from that planet.”

  Captain Jack said:

  “They must have detected us. This suggests a very sophisticated detection system. Is there any communication from the ship?”

  ‘No, there have been no messages and there is still no sign of any artificially produced radio signals in the whole system.”

  The Captain ordered:

  “Ali, transmit our standard contact message to the alien ship.”

  “Sam, transmit a tight beam message to New Memphis with the situation so far.”

  The standard contact message was a very long and complex one, but designed to be easy to decipher. They were still 18 light minutes from the ship, so even if their message was answered straight away, it would be 36 minutes before they could expect a reply. They did not even know if the aliens had radio technology. While they were observing the alien ship on the multiple screens of the control room, they discussed the likelihood of a space faring race without any knowledge of radio. Beau, the head of radio astronomy gave his opinion:

  “It’s just possible, but I think extremely unlikely.”

  Of course, Professor Biden looked at things from the point of view of a radio astronomer, and had trouble imagining any route that led to space ships not involving knowledge of radio.

  On the Alien Ship

  The communications officer reported:

  “Captain, we’ve received a complex radio signal from the intruder. The computer has done a preliminary analysis. I’ll put the start of the message onto screen two.”

  The bridge crew watched the picture in increasing horror. There was sound, but not in a language they had any knowledge of.

  The armaments officer turned back to his consol and activated two systems. The captain had still been watching the start of the message, and then he noticed the armaments officer:

  “What did you do?”

  “I have destroyed the intruding ship. Our beam weapon will destroy it and the missile will remove all trace of the filthy swine from out system!”

  “You fool!

  “What’s the good of destroying one ship? The Earthmen hunt in packs. This is probably the forerunner of a large fleet. We know from the past how vicious the Earthmen are.”

  The armaments officer retorted:

  “We have detected no other ships.”

  “The rest of the fleet could still be half a light year away. Even if this ship is alone, there will be others and the next ones will be much harder to destroy. You may have just condemned all of us to extinction.”

  “No, Earth is a hundred light years away, they may never come this way again.”

  “That ship didn’t come from Earth.”

  “But they’re Earthmen, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, but a journey from Earth even at half the speed of light would take 200 years. These Earthmen must have come from a nearby system. They’re short lived creatures. The vermin must have infected most of the systems in a hundred light year radius sphere centred on the Earth. The way they breed there must be quadrillions of them.”

  The communications officer said:

  “We should have wiped them out when we had the chance.”

  The captain replied:

  “That is ancient history. To have wiped out a sentient race would have made us as bad as them. This could not have been done. Our ancestors knew that if we had committed genocide it would have released our own internal demons and our people would split up into different factions leading to war and we would end up wiping ourselves out. Genocide was never an option. Just as war is not an option with interstellar travel.

  “Our ancestors destroyed all the technology they had stolen from us and took the best of the Earthmen to a far planet and modified them so much that they would be happy, but never a problem to us or any other species.

&
nbsp; “This was the decision at the time. It was believed that they would never develop technology beyond the Stone Age and would be wiped out by the ice age that was starting, even if the different tribes didn’t wipe out each other first. It was further believed that if they did survive and somehow develop space travel capability, they would either destroy themselves or would become more peaceful.”

  “They thought that a hundred light years would be enough to ensure that the Earthmen never got here.”

  The communications officer said.

  “They were wrong. The Earthmen are here now.”

  “Yes. Our only hope was to make peace with them. Now there is no hope for us.

  “The Earth ship has not made any aggressive move towards us and has attempted to communicate. By destroying it you have proved that our ancestors were right in not trusting even our own peacefulness. This ship is the only armed ship in all our star systems. The weapons were intended for self defence only. In attacking a ship acting peacefully, however much we might hate the occupants, you have violated a basic principle of our existence.

  “If the Earthmen can cross interstellar space they can easily destroy planets. They have never shown any mercy to their enemies and especially not to their own kind. We will never see the weapon that destroys our planet and starts the destruction of our peaceful race.”

  The Earth ship was still thirteen light minutes away. While the aliens had been talking, the X-ray laser beam was heading towards the Earthmen at the speed of light. The Alien captain knew it was impossible to warn the Earthmen of their impending doom. A radio message would only travel at the speed of light and would reach the Earth ship after the beam of long wave length X-rays had destroyed them. Anyway, there was no quick way of telling the Earthmen anything without a common language.

  He was hoping that the Earth ship would change direction and be out of the path of the beam.

  Thirty six minutes later they watched with varying emotions as the beam hit the Earth ship. When the centre of the ship suddenly flared to bright red heat, and bits visible even at that distance blew off the ship, there was a burst of cheering from two members of the large bridge crew, but most of the crew had agreed with the captain and looked at the sight of the destruction of the Earth ship with mighty dread.

  On the Highway to Heaven

  They had been waiting hoping to get a return message from the alien ship. Half the screens suddenly went blank. Warning lights, alarms and buzzers erupted from the instruments.

  Captain Jack looked at his dials and immediately changed course. The ship was still going at nearly fifty million miles an hour, so even the six g lateral acceleration Jack applied only slowly caused the ship to curve away from its course.

  Jack asked Sam:

  “What happened?

  “We were hit by an extremely powerful laser beam in the near X-ray band, roughly 50 nanometre wave length. This is only just into the X-ray spectrum and close to the highest energy ultraviolet light. The amount of energy in the beam was enormous and it heated parts of our outer hull to over a thousand degrees absolute.”

  The captain ordered:

  “All departments; assess damage.”

  Before anyone had time to answer the captain, Sam reported:

  “A missile has been launched from the alien ship. It’s accelerating at 30 g. I surmise from its acceleration that it’s unmanned and is intended to destroy us. It’s too far away for the mass detectors to determine if it has fissile material indicating a nuclear warhead.”

  “Right; Sam, watch that missile. See if it tracks us as our course changes. Pete, Albert and Mujib; prepare your shuttles for remote control launch. Pete will launch first.

  “Pete; Ram that missile!

  “Albert and Mujib, watch Pete. If his shuttle is destroyed, learn and get that missile.”

  On the alien ship they watched as the intruding ship changed course. The Captain said:

  “The beam hit them amidships, but didn’t destroy the intruder. It’s now manoeuvring so we can’t hit it again. They must know they’ve been attacked. Either the ship will escape from our system and come back to destroy us or will get even more powerful ships to do it.”

  The armaments officer answered:

  “Our beam weapon damaged the ship. The missile will destroy it.”

  The captain looked at him pityingly:

  “The missile is much too easy to stop. Its only use is to destroy a ship that is already helpless. The intruder may have suffered severe damage, but it is changing course at seven times Homeworld gravity. This is more acceleration than our own ship can do. It is also a higher acceleration than our crew could survive.

  “The Earthmen will have much more powerful beam weapons than us. Look at the size of their ship. But even a low powered weapon would destroy the missile. It has no evasive capability and no shields.”

  The aliens watched as Pete’s planetary shuttle was launched from the bigger ship. The shuttle accelerated away from the big ship at 6 g. They observed its apparently random course changes. These would make it impossible to hit the shuttle with the beam weapon.

  On the Highway to Heaven, Pete was working on the incorrect assumption that the missile had its own defences, and was doing pseudo random course changes so the missile could not hit the incoming shuttle. He was only accelerating the shuttle at 6 g. The shuttle was capable of 50 g acceleration on remote control. Pete was saving this up for the last and most dangerous section of the vessel’s last journey. He was using a tight beam for the controlling signals.

  Pete could do several things at once and was also programming some of the probes on his shuttle to home on the incoming missile. He was going to release them once the distance was less.

  On the alien ship they watched. There was no doubt in the captain’s mind that the incoming shuttle would destroy the missile. He saw two more shuttles emerge from the big ship. The missile was now a safe distance from their ship. The captain pressed the destruct button, and when the signal reached the missile it exploded.

  The armaments officer asked:

  “Why did you do that?”

  “The missile was going to be destroyed anyway. Our only chance of survival is to make peace. Now there might be a slight possibility. If I had let that brave pilot ram the missile he would become a martyr and they would have to avenge him.”

  “How do you know the little ship was manned? It could have been remote controlled.”

  “It was accelerating at the same rate as the big ship. If it were remotely controlled it would have been accelerating faster. The pilot must be a brave man to sacrifice himself like that. It’s strange that they should use such a clumsy way to destroy the missile. Why didn’t they just use one of their weapons?”

  The armaments officer suggested:

  “The weapons of the ship must have been destroyed by the hit from our beam weapon. There was definitely damage; we saw bits of the ship being blown off.”

  The captain said thoughtfully:

  “That doesn’t explain why the shuttles didn’t use their own weapons. They had been launched so they could have done it even if the main ship had lost all its weapons.”

  On the Highway to Heaven, Pete denied responsibility:

  “I didn’t do it.”

  Sam reported:

  “Just before the missile exploded there was a brief radio signal from the alien ship. I speculate that they deliberately destroyed it themselves.”

  Professor Biden stated:

  “So they definitely do have radio technology. This suggests that they deliberately maintained radio silence. We can conjecture on why. Perhaps they had detected radio signals from New Memphis. This could indicate fear of other space faring species.”

  Captain Jack continues his pseudo random course changes while the general trend of the course was to increase the speed of the ship and to move out of the system. The Alien ship did not appear to do anything f
or a while, then it changed course and returned to the fourth planet of the system.

  After several hours at the extremely wearing 6 g, the captain reduced the acceleration to 1.1 g. The three shuttles that had been following behind the main ship were now retrieved. They were a long way from the alien system, but they were still apprehensive about being attacked again, so to avoid the possibility of another laser beam attack, the Captain gave orders.

  “Albert, take the helm. Make unpredictable course changes so they can’t hit us with their X-ray laser again.

  “Sam, take command of the ship. Replace Albert at the helm with Mujib after an hour.”

  The reason Jack was alternating Human with Wise Ape helmsmen was because the psychology of the two species were slightly different and a computer would have even more difficulty predicting the course changes of the ship.

  Captain Jack asked Sam a question:

  “Do these aliens have faster than light travel capabilities?”

  Sam answered:

  “The Interuniversal triangulation with readings from the A and S universes as well as this one that we did on the Earth show conclusively that only Humans from these three universes have used our method of faster than light travel.”

  The Captain persisted:

  “But could they have used a different method?”

  “I would say that it is impossible to use any other method, but until we detected this ship’s jumps while I was still in the S universe I would have said that any form of faster than light travel was impossible.”

  ‘So we think these aliens can’t travel faster than light, but we cannot totally rule out the possibility?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do we have any indication that they can travel between stars at sub light speeds?”

  Alan, the astronomer answered:

  “We have been taking a critical look at the Alien system. It isn’t right. There are three planets in the habitable zone of the star, but there shouldn’t be any. At least five planets have been moved. Our estimated time for these moves is between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago. If they could move planets they can certainly travel between the stars.

  “The aliens are not native to this system.”

  Jack said:

  “So the aliens were capable of moving planets 40,000 years ago? Interesting.”

  “Right. Mikhail and Ben; join me in my office for a council of war.”

  Several of the others looked at each other in dismay. This was the first time since the alien attack that anyone on the ship had uttered the dreaded word ‘War’

  Ali had done more than anyone else to abolish war. He was known in three universes as ‘Ali the Peacemaker’. He looked at his wife Tiha. She came over and held his hand.

  Normally Commodore Professor Ben Collins was just called ‘Ben’. No one in the ship had experience of actual war, but Ben had been a senior naval officer and had at least studied the theory of war and taken part in military exercises.

  The council of war started with Captain Jack asking Ben:

  “Commodore, speculate on war in space between two cultures, assuming that both have settled many planets and both have ships like this one.”

  “It would be totally devastating. Consider what this unarmed ship could do to a planet. We could fill the holds with space rocks, come into the system at half the speed of light and release the rocks on courses that would hit the inhabited planets. At that speed we could release rocks that could actually destroy the planets.

  “Of course the other side could do the same. It’s entirely possible, indeed likely, that all the inhabited worlds of both species would be destroyed. This scenario makes even the MAD doctrine of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ of the twentieth century seem quite sane and benign.”

  The Captain said:

  “So, if we have ships like this, but they do not, genocide is a real possibility. Except that even if they cannot travel faster than light they must be able to travel very fast to go between the stars, so they could still destroy our planets, it would just take them longer.

  “Because of the vastness of space there is no reliable way of always destroying a potentially attacking ship, remembering that the rocks could be released at a light-year away. There is no need to even get close to a system to destroy its inhabited planets.”

  Mikhail said:

  “Even if they were defenceless the genocide would still be mutual. If we once let the demon of war out of the bottle again, the Human species will self destruct. Our interstellar civilization can only survive with total peace.

  “I read a lot of the science fiction of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Much of it is very entertaining, but I’m completely aware that nearly all the space wars and space battles are completely unrealistic. Planets can’t defend themselves against attack from space.”

  Jack said:

  “Mikhail, I totally agree with you, but can we convince The People and the World Government of this?”

  “I believe we can; we must. This is one political battle that has to be won. It may not be easy.”

  Captain Jack asked Mikhail:

  “As a psychologist, how do you interpret the actions of the aliens?”

  “My expertise is Human and Wise Ape psychology. We know almost nothing about the aliens. However, if Humans acted that way I would interpret it as a panic reaction. Then the destruction of the missile was done when they had had more time to consider. It’s possible that the initial attack was done by one alien and the missile was destroyed by his superior in whatever hierarchy the aliens have. There might even have been a mutiny on the alien ship on the subject.

  “I hope there’s an alien equivalent of the commodore who can convince them that peace is the only alternative.”

  Jack asked:

  What could have caused them to panic?”

  “Possibly xenophobia. If they had a good computer, the timing was right for them to have viewed the first part of the contact message. This was just Ali and Tiha introducing themselves. We wanted to show examples of male and female of our species. The second scene is Pete and Tanya doing the same to show that there is a wide range of variation in Humans, and to repeat the English words and writing so they could work out our language.

  “But they would not have had time to get to the second scene. Something in the first scene made one or more aliens panic. To us, Ali and Tiha are the epitome of peacefulness and goodness. Who knows how an alien would react to their pictures?”

  The meeting of the Alien Planetary Council was called to order. An earlier meeting had suspended both the armaments officer who had attacked without orders, and his captain pending more investigation.

  Mydepa, an alien astrophysicist and one of the most respected scientists of the system was reporting:

  “We have done initial analysis of the message from the intruder. We’ve tried to ignore all our own prejudice against the Humans. This is not easy, but I implore the council to do the same while watching the extracts we have prepared.

  “This is the first scene of the message.”

  On the screen, Ali pointed to himself and said in English: ‘I am Ali.’ Then he pointed to Tiha and said. ‘This is Tiha.’ Then Tiha repeated the process in reverse. As each person spoke, subtitles appeared showing the same as they had said.

  The scientist said:

  “The message is very long. By following it through logically, we can learn to speak and read their language. The Humans must have put enormous effort in designing this message.

  “Now look at this scene.”

  The council looked in surprise as Albert and a female Wise Ape appeared together with a Wise Ape child.

  The president:

  “But these aren’t human!”

  The scientist said:

  “Yes. They have to be some sort of intelligent ape. They appear to be treated as equals by the Humans. Computer simulations of Humans as we knew them predict that a s
pecies like this would be wiped out very quickly. The only logical conclusion is that Humans are no longer the ultimate aggressor we used to know.

  “This also explains how they have been able to colonize space without wiping themselves out. A warlike species cannot colonize space. Our ancestors worked this out thirty thousand years ago. Their logical conclusion was correct. We were safe from the Humans. That is we were safe from the Humans as they were when we knew them.

  “But now we have attacked an extremely powerful ship attempting to make peaceful contact with us. The Humans will react. Their reaction is difficult to predict. We can only survive by making peace with them.

  “The one thing in our favour is the destruction of the missile by the captain of the contact ship. We can hope the Humans will understand this as an attempt at calling off our unprovoked attack.

  “I recommend that we put our resources into analysing this message in detail, and then a substantial number of our people should learn to speak the Human language. There is no doubt that the Humans will come back. We must be able to speak to them and make peace.

  “The armaments officer needs to be dismissed from the service so we can explain that his action was unauthorized and he has been punished. If the Humans demand further punishment for him, we must agree.

  “The captain should be promoted and be in command of the next contact ship when the Humans come back. We must be much more careful with our selection of crew. I also suggest that all the weapons be removed from the contact ship, and destroyed. They are no protection to us and if we get chance to talk to the Earthmen we can tell them about the destruction of the weapons.”

  Mydepa added:

  “I hesitate to add this controversial interpretation of the actions of the Earthmen. It’s my own interpretation and all my colleagues think it is unlikely to be correct, based on our previous experience of the Earthmen.

  “The Earthmen used no weapons at all in the encounter, not even to destroy the missile. Instead they launched what was clearly a shuttle intended to enter planetary atmospheres with Humans on board. This was a very strange way to destroy a missile. It would only make sense if the Earthmen had no weapons at all. We have to bear in mind the possibility that we attempted to destroy an unarmed expedition.”

  After considerable debate by the council, the scientist was called back and the president addressed her:

  “We have agreed with most of what you proposed. We are doubtful about allowing the Earthmen unlimited latitude in the punishment of the armaments officer. We have never allowed capital punishment or torture. We cannot deviate from this. Any exception could irreparably damage our society.”

  Later, the armaments officer had a nervous breakdown.

  On the Highway to Heaven, Jack and the others came out after their council of war.

  Jack called an extraordinary meeting of the steering committee. He started off:

  “We were attacked without apparent provocation by a weapon that would have destroyed most starships. We survived because this ship is over engineered and has a much thicker hull than most ships. Only one class of ship has a thicker one.

  “Now, before we discuss the question, I would like a show of hands. Who is in favour of going to war with these aliens?”

  No one put up their hand.

  “Good, that’s a start. Ben, explain what would happen in a war.”

  Ben repeated what he had said in the council of war, adding:

  “If we go to war it is certain that our civilization will be destroyed, and quite likely Humans will become extinct quickly.”

  Jack then announced:

  “Until this situation is resolved, this committee is now a Council of Peace. We need to discuss how we are going to convince The People and the World Government to make peace.

  The ship continued to accelerate out of the alien system at one g. Normally it would jump at about one third of the speed of light, but this time Jack built up speed to sixty percent of light speed. He explained why in a broadcast to the whole crew:

  “We think that these aliens do not have faster than light travel. If they detect us disappearing they may guess that we do and knowing something is possible is a first step in working out how to do it. Therefore I want to get a long way out of their system before we jump in the hope that we will be out of range of their detectors.”

  Several months later in Cairns Australia, Jack’s father Andy received a message from his stepson, Peter:

  “The Highway to Heaven has returned to the Solar system. Jack says that everyone is well and he sends his love to the family. He has asked for priority in using the space dock for repairs and modifications to the ship. He wants to coat the entire hull with a new substance they’ve invented. He wants you to see about manufacturing it. He says that he will see us in five months time.”

  Andy was very relieved that the ship with two of his children as well as several other family members was back, but some other parts of the message were strange.

  Andy got a computer analysis of the proposed new substance. It was a complex compound including Carbon and Boron and Calcium. It would be a high temperature ceramic but Andy was unclear why Jack wanted it coated on the ship.

  He sent a message to Jack asking why he wanted a coating of the substance. He got the impression that Jack was only telling him part of the story. Jack answered some questions, but either ignored other questions or gave odd answers to them. The ship was still several light weeks away so the questions took a long time to be answered. The answer Jack gave to the question about why he wanted the coating was:

  ‘Because it reflects 50 nanometre X-rays almost completely.’

  Andy had already had samples made and he tested this. The reflective properties were confirmed, but Jack had not said why he wanted to reflect these long wave length X-rays. They would not penetrate the hull anyway.

  Jack and the others on the ship continued their evasive or incomplete answers until they were within a few light seconds of the Earth. Then Ali, in his official capacity as the designated contact person for alien races asked to speak to a joint sitting of the two houses of the World Government on a matter of importance.

  Ali was revered throughout the Human universe as the person who had abolished war. Ali himself considered that his contribution had been exaggerated, but there was not the slightest doubt that the World Government would listen to him, and The People, that is all Humans and Wise Apes of the Solar System over the age of 14, would listen to the televised and holovised proceedings of the World Government.

  Ali had been consistent in supporting democracy, and the final say on any question was with The People. They could overturn any decision of the World Government.

  Peter Jones head of the space agency questioned his half brother Jack. They were now close enough to have a nearly normal conversation. Peter asked:

  “Why do you need all these repairs?’

  “To repair the battle damage.”

  “Battle damage!?”

  “Yes, we were hit by an X-ray laser beam and chased by a homing thermonuclear missile which could accelerate at 30 g.”

  “How did you escape the missile?”

  “The aliens destroyed it themselves. Pete was going to ram it with his shuttle under remote control, but he didn’t have time to get near the missile.”

  “Why did they attack you?”

  “Mikhail thinks that they found the pictures of Ali and Tiha so repulsive that one of them panicked.”

  “Ali is not as ugly as all that.”

  “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To use, Ali is a fine handsome man and Tiha’s beauty is legendary, but aliens might have different standards of beauty. We’ll have to remember that if our appearance is totally repugnant to them we might react the same way to them.”

  “So, you don’t know what they look like?”

  “No, we’ve no idea. After we were attacked we accelerated out of the system at
6 g.”

  “Are you going back?’

  ‘Yes definitely; our analysis of the situation is that we have to go back. We have come to Earth to get the agreement of The People to do whatever is needed to make peace. We cannot survive a war, even if we win without receiving any damage. Once the Human race goes back to war, it will destroy itself.

  “Ali will address the World Government, but The People will listen to him as well. Albert and Pete will address the Matriarch and the Council of Elders of the Wise Apes. The apes won’t be any trouble. They’ll go along with Pete.

  “Of course Albert is now on the Council of Elders. He was the first male ever to be elected. He’s in space most of the time so he’s only occasionally at the meetings.”

  “So that coating is to reflect the alien’s X-ray laser if they hit you again. It still sounds dangerous. I suppose you’ve realised that their weapon was badly designed? A laser beam could easily have been made much thinner and with the amount of power they used is would have been a much more effective weapon.”

  “Yes, we worked that out, and Ali takes it as evidence that the aliens are not naturally warlike. We’re hoping that they’ll listen to the message and decide that we’re not so bad after all. We hope that a race intelligent to move planets 40,000 years ago will understand that war cannot be won between species with interstellar travel. Planets are too vulnerable to attack.

  “However, we don’t intend to return alone.”