Current and Finished Projects > Stories

Klaatu

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Silver Fox:
One last piece left... and then the entry in the Space GB. :)

Volkodav:
Why do I get the feeling that humans / terrans are this youthful race?

Looking forward to the rest, very well imagined and told, keep up he good work.

Silver Fox:
Part V: Calling

The B’aran scout emerged from stardrive just outside the orbit of a distant brown dwarf that had been gravitationally capture by the binary star it was here to scout. Binary stars were especially valuable to the B’aran as the gravitational stresses caused planetary formation to be limited, in favour of more extensive numbers of more easily mined minor bodies.

The scout examined the system and noted the high availability of resources much needed by the B’aran fleet. Fear of space-faring species, or those with telepathy, had limited the chances to provision the fleet. The fleet was now crowded. 12,000 worldships existed, but they contained a staggering 57 billion B’aran. Population density was far from optimum, but there had been no chance to supply or build new worldships.

One major technological advance had been made in the last 2,000 years that had aided the B’aran immensely. They now possessed a limited time-travel capacity. It was limited to approximately 15 years+/-, but even that allowed for expanded opportunity. Mining ships could exploit an asteroid field by jumping back in time, starting mining operations and then have the fleet harvest 15 years of refined metals and valuable organic compounds.

The scout noted that some 4 ½ light years distant was a technological world. Evidence suggested that the inhabitants had just started to practice spaceflight, although there were some moments of severe anxiety when their visual images showed advanced spacecraft of a type that could easily crush the entire B’aran fleet. The purpose of the images was unknown, was it possible that such a race was on the verge of developing such vessels when they were so unsophisticated at spaceflight now?

The scouts report brought both happiness and concern to the B’aran. The resources were needed so very badly… but the neighbouring world was of great concern. It was determined that mining would begin, as always, as far in the past as the local conditions would allow the mining vessels to jump. Scouts would be deployed at intervals along the time stream, watching for any threat to the fleet. It was a risk, but a calculated one. The B’aran need was so great that chances must be taken. The barrier builders, and other past experience, has scared the B’aran so bad that even the plentiful resources of this spiral arm had gone untouched by the B’aran. Even this system would have gone untouched given the proximity of the technological neighbour, had not need been so great.

The fleet dispersed, scouts and mining vessels jumping in time to take up assigned stations. Time jumps tend to cause fluctuations in the timestream, meaning that the maximum time jump would get smaller and smaller the more jumps that took place from the same locale. For this reason, the scouts assigned to the furthest forward or back jumped first, followed by the mining vessels. Then the rest of the scouts followed, dispersing across local space-time.

Two of the scouts returned immediately, messages had been received from the neighbouring world!

The scout which had received the message from further forward in time started playback of the recorded and translated message. It had been broadcast in the dominant language of the strange world, in clear amongst all the strange broadcasts the world made. A female of the alien species, vocalizing “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”.

The commander of the second scout interrupted frantically, playing his recorded message. A male, vocalizing in the same dominant language, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”.

The messages had been received a year apart. A year? Had the aliens expected a response? Their planet was 4 ½ light years distant… how could they have expected a response and sent the female, less threatening message?

The B’aran were near panic, had they been found and even now the aliens were preparing for an attack on the weakened fleet? Preparations were made to flee the area, get away from whatever threat the aliens posed.

Then came the final terrifying message. In the same language, but telepathically across the immense distance.

“Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”.

Racial insanity is an ugly thing, but it overtook the B’aran in an instant. Worldships fired on each other and their scoutship consorts. B’aran stalked each other in the hallways and passageways of their ships. The species had been pushed too far, and individuals had gone well past their own breaking points. The idea that the aliens had simultaneously contacted the fleet, across vast distance/time both technologically and using telepathy was intolerable. So the B’aran went mad.

In their insanity the B’aran overlooked the fact that there was no simultaneity. The time-scouts had returned as soon as they were dispatched to be sure… but they could not have come back before they had departed, could they? The telepathic message was more concerning, but random chance would allow for such coincidence. It no longer mattered, the B’aran were doomed by their own fears.

Only on the birthing ship, what the inhabitants of the nearby world would call a maternity ward, was the insanity stopped. The instinct to protect children was more powerful than the insanity gripping the remainder of the species. The B’aran survived as a species, but only the 127,836 individuals aboard the birthing ship remained. Those B’aran were numb, stunned past shock at the event gripping their race. When an infant cried they searched for hours… before finding the cry was the telepathic cry of an unborn child.

The B’aran had “heard” the various telepathic messages because the B’aran were latent telepaths themselves. No individuals had yet shown the ability to transmit… but almost every B’aran could hear. The unborn child had been in just the right point of development when exposed to the telepathic message from afar. Its “transmitter” was now turned on. Future generations would all be able to transmit and hear equally well. For now, a watershed moment in B’aran evolution had been reached.

The birthing ship jumped away, looking for a world to colonize. The B’aran would leave space and the pains it had brought. They would learn to accept the new telepathic ability, and develop a new way of life. In due course they would travel space again, even finding the barrier that had once stopped their long ago relatives. They would be welcomed as visitors, then as friends.

On the world which had sent the messages, life went on. The inhabitants were unaware of the effect they had had on another species, or the threat they had actually been under. 1500 years later they would meet the “B’ran (the language had atrophied with telepathy becoming more prevalent), and a rather timorous friendship began. There would be some confusion and even anger when B’ran scholars studied Earth’s music and discovered the messages that caused so much panic. Eventually, they accepted that there had been no intent, the humans had never even been aware of the B’ran’s ancestors.


*The young ones survived*

^Yes. And the Aggressives have learned peace.^

*You altered circumstance?*

^No. I had meant to, it was not required.^

*What change had you planned?*

^I was planning to alter the density of interstellar particles so the aggressives would arrive just in time for the message from the youths. Densities rose without my input, the aggressives arrived just as they were needed too.^

*Indeed. The aggressives arrived just as the youths were preparing to call to them. We did not do this. It bears study.*

^If it was DONE, and not by us… then who?^

*Yes… who indeed?*

*Paused, there was much to consider here.

*The aggressives arrived just in time to be terrified of the young ones. A threat to the young ones was averted. The young ones are now on the path to a larger future.*

*Who changed reality? Perhaps the answer is in that capacity only they seem to have. They imagine. Perhaps they imagined… and it came into being?*

*^We should observe.*^


The writer sat back from his computer. Had it happened that way? Were the B’aran even now settling on a new world, forever changed? Did it matter? Imagining made it real…

In some sense at least.

Alvis 3.1:
I was worried what was going to happen to Earth when they found us, who would have thought the Carpenters would save us?
 :D

Awesome!
Alvis 3.1

Silver Fox:
Actually, the Carpenters version is a cover of the previous years version done by Klaatu. :)

The telepathic message from Earth would have been "World Contact Day". On that day large numbers of UFO believers concentrate on a single piece of text in hopes that aliens will hear the message. First held in 1953, it is now an annual event.

Text of the World Contact Day message:

"Calling occupants of interplanetary craft! Calling occupants of interplanetary craft that have been observing our planet EARTH. We of IFSB wish to make contact with you. We are your friends, and would like you to make an appearance here on EARTH. Your presence before us will be welcomed with the utmost friendship. We will do all in our power to promote mutual understanding between your people and the people of EARTH. Please come in peace and help us in our EARTHLY problems. Give us some sign that you have received our message. Be responsible for creating a miracle here on our planet to wake up the ignorant ones to reality. Let us hear from you. We are your friends."

Both the Klaatu and Carpenters versions of Calling Occupants tend to be played on that day as well. Conspiracy theorists have the opinion that this is done to add millions of voices to the message. People tend to sing along, not even knowing the story of the song.

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