2501 AD - Event One
The fireworks were indeed spectacular and somehow even better displays had been promised to take place after the upcoming Event One. Not just on this planet but on every single settled world. Rear Admiral Malati Mishra looked out across the young city far below her. She watched the colourful explosions taking place just above the roof tops of the surrounding buildings.
The Rear Admiral was standing on the highest balcony of the city's tallest building, it was taller than the rest by an order of magnitude. She let her mind wander into the night time view.
With her gaze lost in the multitude of flashing lights, a memory of a scanning beam surfaced in her mind. It was a memory from a simulation she had witnessed of humanity’s first contact. The simulation was only the recording, but it did not stop her feeling pity and sorrow. The name of the commanding officer came to her mind; Richards. That poor guy.
Mishra was amazed he was still alive. He had endured unrelenting grief and scrutiny, and this was coupled with the fact that he was just as equally revered as well as detested. She had heard rumours that back on Earth people were beginning to worship him as some sort of prophet or god. Other rumours, that plans were in motion to clamp down on the worship, had also made their way to her. I suppose you can't just kill a god, Mishra had a brief chuckle to no-one in particular then continued to stare out in silence. She was alone on the balcony, one of the perks of high command.
History is being rewritten before my very eyes, she thought. After his brief and unsuccessful alien contact Richards had been given a command at a random Nav-Station in some unremarkable star system. He had also been slapped with who knew how many gagging orders. His First Contact had been re-designated, no, re-branded as "Event Zero".
'How can it be contact when no conversation took place?' was the official line. The official line had not always been so.
At first, for a couple of years, Richards and his crew had been seen as a group of heroes; their First Contact widely, though vaguely, reported. It was not until she had received Flag Officer status that Rear Admiral Mishra had been given access to the full holographic recording of the incident. As she had watched it, she found herself agreeing with his every decision. There were some in the higher echelons of power who believed that, because the Event took place in explored space with an out of date ship, it was somewhat of an embarrassment.
Then the alien communication had arrived. It was aimed directly at a Superluminal Communication Array and transmitted only once. Its origin was deep in unexplored space. Rather surprisingly it had been easy to interpret and had not taken long to understand. It was a set of co-ordinates for a meeting. Immediately a rapid fleet was dispatched to the place and found nothing there to meet them. It was realised soon after that the co-ordinates indicated a specific time as well as place. What the humans had thought was an error in their interpretation turned out to be the positions of stars and planets as they would be in seven years time. Further comprehension of the message told he humans to only send one human craft.
The aliens had apparently saved and used the translation matrices the Eir had sent; but to the detriment and not recognition of Richards and his crew. They were sent to far flung posts; all contact between each other forbidden. Exile in all but name.
The new planned meeting, it was decided, would be the true First Contact. Those in power thought that if the aliens were willing to set up the meeting, then conversation, or at least some sort of communication, was inevitable. Seven years gave them time to prepare; the newly named Event One would be glorious. A new era would begin, so much so that a new dating convention would be implemented for the year following Event One - After Contact (AC).
