Star Fields

Chapter No.15 New Horizon

Chapter No.15 New Horizon

Never judge an alien by its face.

Molly chose a planet that was a good thousand light years further than the suspected reptilian breeding planet. It was an Earth like planet in a G-4 and M-3 binary star system that was listed on the alien list of intelligent life planets as a human-like, level-four intelligent species on their scale of ten. It meant that they had developed some technology but not yet had ventured into space, which meant that we wouldn't have to put up with space vessels trying to intercept us.

It only took a few hours to get there, thanks to Molly's new warp design, and we quickly settled into orbit around a planet that wasn't all that different from Earth. The only distinction was that it was mostly a water world. Over 85% of its surface was ocean, but there were many island chains that formed by volcanic activity. It meant that the planet had a molten iron rotating core that produced a protective magnetic field.

"Maintain cloaking," I ordered.

"Yes, Jason."

"I'm surprised that this planet is so stable in a binary system," I said.

"It's probably because the companion star is just a small red dwarf. It only perturbs this planet's orbit a little. What's amazing is that life evolved on this planet when it's mostly covered by water. These island chains probably didn't show up until late in this planet's evolution when volcanic activity progressed enough."

"Maybe the evolution on this planet was interfered with," I said.

She gave me a confused expression. "By whom?"

"Maybe these reptilian aliens are more ancient than we thought. Maybe they helped the development of the intelligent species that they have on their list because it became advantageous for their procurement of food."

"I find it hard to believe that they didn't have enough food sources on their own planet," she retorted.

"Maybe they did . . . once, but they might have depleted that source and had to go elsewhere to feed their population."

"I'm not detecting any radio signals from the planet," Molly said. "I wonder if they use some other means of communication."

"Maybe they use optical means."

"We should be able to detect something like that if we scan in distinct wavelengths. I'll start a sweep now."

After several minutes, she had a result. "You're right. They're using lasers to beam between repeaters on poles."

I looked at her scan and it displayed the beams as tiny red lines. "That's interesting. Now all we have to do is try to tap into those beams."

"I think I can do that by using the phase change frequencies in the beams," she said.

Several minutes later, she was able to produce an image. It flickered at first, but with a few adjustments, she was able to get it to stabilize and move in real time.

"Those aliens are not what I expected," I said. "Except for their very round faces, they appear very much like humans."

"They have two arms and two legs," Molly said. "That means that they evolved from something that resembled a simian-like creature."

"Their skin appears to be very pink," I noted.

"I'm not sure about the color scale on this video feed. It could be off."

"We can send down robotic insect probes to check it out," I said. I turned to Judy, but she beat me to it.

"They are already on the way, Jason."