The Lady is Blue

Chapter 1

1 Introduction 

The girders of the hold were cracked and rusty and the surface plates creaked against each other. Sa Kamizan swore. His ship was shaking to pieces. He strode back to the control room, bracing for more bad news. The disease was spreading through his crew. He was desperate for a haven. In the control room, the newly promoted science officer, Te Suzzaine, reported sighting a planet within the habitable zone of a nearby yellow star. It was their best hope. He ordered a course change towards the planet. Next day, he sat in the navigator's seat, listening to the emissions from the planet. The persistent series of rhythmic repeats must be a signal from intelligent life. He snarled in rage and tugged his crest hairs. The only sanctuary they had found was already inhabited. The alien natives must be dealt with. "Respond to their signal," he growled.

Chapter 1

Report to Terran Space Authority from Lucy Stannis. The aliens land on Eden today. They are reluctant to answer many questions. I'll try direct observation.

The huge, black spaceship descended slowly through the clouds. It dwarfed the small human shuttles escorting it to the ground. The landing field was so seldom used that grass was sprouting from cracks in the concrete. Lucy Stannis, covert Terran observer, sat alone, dangling her legs from the top of the perimeter barrier encircling the field. On her right, twenty feet below, she saw the official welcoming committee flanked by armed national guards. A vidicom crew recorded the scene from the opposite side of the perimeter wall.

The ship's retroengines shrieked as it descended slowly. Two of the landing shuttles had tractor beams stabilizing the alien spacecraft. As they neared the ground, the ship rocked violently, tilting on one side. Tractor beams shot out from the other two landers and held the ship steady. The engines roared, and cut out suddenly as it dropped onto the grassy plain with a shuddering crash. Lucy stared at the black ship. Meteor scars pitted and discolored its metal surface. No shields, she thought.Their technology must be too primitive. Who would travel in space without deflector shields to ward off meteors and high energy cosmic particles? She trained her lenses expectantly on the side of the ship as it was sprayed with cooling water.

A hatch opened in the blackened surface and she held her breath as the tall figures marched out of the ship. The first two were uniformly red in color. They stepped aside and were followed by others colored blue and green. Lucy zoomed in on the nearest alien. It was coarsely humanoid, with reptilian scales and the head bore a raised crest of spines like a giant, upright lizard.

Everyone was excited. It was the most thrilling event in the history of Eden. The scientists were ecstatic, since no one had ever seen non-human intelligent beings. Lucy recalled tales of strange human variants, but none like the creatures from the black spaceship. There was so much to learn.

Meanwhile, the distant colorful figures were led away by the welcoming committee and the curious crowd dispersed from the perimeter wall. The hatch in the ship closed again. There might be many more aliens inside. How could she learn more about them? Lucy waved at the vidi crew on the opposite side of the perimeter. She climbed agilely down the concrete barrier, and raced across the cleared space to the reporters.

A few minutes later, Lucy walked towards the vidinews offices. One of the editors was a friend and might give her the latest reports on the aliens. The visit was more productive than she had hoped. The editor was interested in the scientific viewpoint and enthusiastically enrolled her as a special correspondent. She was given a coded button to permit entry to an exclusive conference with the aliens that evening.