Chirios
2011-12-15, 02:25 AM
This is a story I'm writing based off'f a forum game I stole wholesale from Stardestroyer.net. It's free so I'm just posting it up here for comments/critique. Enjoy :)
Somewhere, 1998
She loved ending a Jump.
She wasn't impatient, it was more that faster than light was unpleasant at the best of times. She was the best of her class, her hull was lined with sensors, her processors programmed to collect and examine every single digit of data they sent to her. At light speed she was blind, faster than light she could feel everything. She felt like she was being stretched, like her joints and panels were being pulled further and further apart, like she was being ripped apart piece by piece, inch by inch.
It was rather unpleasant.
Still, the journey had gone well. A quick scan had shown that a few minor injuries but nothing to worry about. The automated repair system had fixed those and the drones were fully operational. She ended the jump well within range.
She launched eight of her drones.
They started to send back data.
She plotted her journey.
Earth, February 2012
Dr. Emily Watson, PHD, stood in front of the President of the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, the heads of the NSA, CIA and FBI and said the words that would define her career.
"We don't think it's natural."
Silence.
"That is to say, we think it's man-made, well not man-made, we think it's artificial."
They just stared at her. The Secretary of State had her mouth open. That was a good sign. Maybe.
She continued, "A few months ago, Cassini began it's fly-by of Dione. We were using what was called an ion and neutral mass spectrometer to examine the moon and determine its' composition. Prior to what we call "closest approach", we were using optical remote sensing apparatus to look at the moon, and another moon of Enceladus, as you can see here." She stopped, and used the computer to display the image. "If you look closely, you can see a large object in front of Dione."
"And," The NSA director said, "your first assumption was, 'aliens'."
"No, sir" she sighed, "but the possibility that a moon of Saturn had acquired a third trojan moon was intriguing enough that we redirected Cassini for a closer look. That's when we realised the object was... odd."
She changed the image.
"We managed to get this picture of the object in time. We got lucky, and caught it just as it was accelerating out of Dione's orbit. We were too far away for a more detailed picture but as you can see, the object doesn't look like anything that can occur naturally. Furthermore, if you look closely you can see six thin lines coming out of a parabolic shape, which we believe to be an antennae, or possibly some sort of radio dish. Then there's the analysis of Cassini's data. We communicate with Cassini by radio, and we discovered that the probe was receiving two sets of data, the first from us and the second from the object.
Sir, this is first contact."
Somewhere, 1998
She loved ending a Jump.
She wasn't impatient, it was more that faster than light was unpleasant at the best of times. She was the best of her class, her hull was lined with sensors, her processors programmed to collect and examine every single digit of data they sent to her. At light speed she was blind, faster than light she could feel everything. She felt like she was being stretched, like her joints and panels were being pulled further and further apart, like she was being ripped apart piece by piece, inch by inch.
It was rather unpleasant.
Still, the journey had gone well. A quick scan had shown that a few minor injuries but nothing to worry about. The automated repair system had fixed those and the drones were fully operational. She ended the jump well within range.
She launched eight of her drones.
They started to send back data.
She plotted her journey.
Earth, February 2012
Dr. Emily Watson, PHD, stood in front of the President of the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, the heads of the NSA, CIA and FBI and said the words that would define her career.
"We don't think it's natural."
Silence.
"That is to say, we think it's man-made, well not man-made, we think it's artificial."
They just stared at her. The Secretary of State had her mouth open. That was a good sign. Maybe.
She continued, "A few months ago, Cassini began it's fly-by of Dione. We were using what was called an ion and neutral mass spectrometer to examine the moon and determine its' composition. Prior to what we call "closest approach", we were using optical remote sensing apparatus to look at the moon, and another moon of Enceladus, as you can see here." She stopped, and used the computer to display the image. "If you look closely, you can see a large object in front of Dione."
"And," The NSA director said, "your first assumption was, 'aliens'."
"No, sir" she sighed, "but the possibility that a moon of Saturn had acquired a third trojan moon was intriguing enough that we redirected Cassini for a closer look. That's when we realised the object was... odd."
She changed the image.
"We managed to get this picture of the object in time. We got lucky, and caught it just as it was accelerating out of Dione's orbit. We were too far away for a more detailed picture but as you can see, the object doesn't look like anything that can occur naturally. Furthermore, if you look closely you can see six thin lines coming out of a parabolic shape, which we believe to be an antennae, or possibly some sort of radio dish. Then there's the analysis of Cassini's data. We communicate with Cassini by radio, and we discovered that the probe was receiving two sets of data, the first from us and the second from the object.
Sir, this is first contact."