Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.3 Chapter 4

 

4.

If you were to have attended the navigation courses, you will be surprised that the mapped galaxies only spanned the width and length of the hall screen which was huge. You could zoom in and out but that will make the map looked like a street map to several blips.

“That is the mapped area of the galaxies which ran to over the fifth update in the last update, and that was five years ago. We are still mapping the planets and moons in the galaxies and at the current update, we are at eight one percent done, with twenty-nine percent of them suitable for organic life with only three percent deemed to be close to Earth’s offerings.” That was the presenter laying the first words on the inter-galaxies mapping.

“We are close to extinction in the breed types in the galaxies. Our requirements are tighter than the rose bud of yours, or for some of you anyway, and we are waging wars to expand our boundaries.” That was the course cruncher and my inspiration to pursue a new career. After all, my previous one was shitty.

“Fortunately, we breed too fast and had occupied twelve galaxies with over eighty planets and moons. We are not overpopulated but overspread.” That accounted for my previous career; we have too much shit to process.

The song then hit me.

Mirrors on the ceiling
The pink champagne on ice
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here of our device"

I was shaken out of my dream state and looked at the vid on the console. We are at the coordinates.

“I had to wake you. You were asleep at your station.” I heard Hirohito. “Do you need to get a respite at the Common Chamber?”

That was his way of saying I need a hot shower but the shower in the chamber was steam and recycled moistures. I declined and then re-examined the maps.  I turned on the scanners to detect the transponder. It was seen and blinking but weak.

“It in that moon there at coordinates N.23W234 T676 H87.” I read the numbers off. There was no real need for there was the huge planet there and the single moon that was one hundred and thirteenth of the planet’s mass. It was a small moon in the terms of navigation terms; it was a satellite moon and probably took half a calendar year to orbit around it.

I took the readings of the moon. It was frigid cold, although earlier long scan surveys showed the water was present the surface of the moon was harsh with unpredictable winds and hail storms, with no signs of vegetation or living organisms there. If there were, these organisms had burrowed in the ground or survived at subterranean levels. There were contents of minerals and metals but the amount was insignificant to be mined.

Then I found a new reading.

“Captain, I have something new,” I called out. “It’s a ..”

“An unknown alert. I saw it too.” Alerts are to be responded to in the universal protocol of the space farers, regardless if it’s understood. We are not alone in the wide universe; noticed the term wide added in. The universe was deemed to be huge by the ancient astrologers but when we had interstellar travel ships and upon reaching the so-called frontiers, the universe became too vast to be restraint in one word hence the term ‘wide’ was interjected in.

And the myth that we are not alone, we did meet some other aliens; another common myth of the ancients, but the truth was true. There are others in different forms unlike us. The Earthlings profile was not fashionable form; we encountered all shapes and forms, although we had not corporeal forms yet; hail Charon had no competition to the River Styx for services of the souls.

Not all the aliens we met were friendly or warlike. Some were more advanced than us and to be honest, despite ‘our hello, we are Earthlings’ gesture, we were not invited to their homes, and contact was ‘I know you are there and stay away’. The less advanced ones held with hostility acts. Maybe someone out there tagged us as warlike.

Diplomacy fucks in the universal worth.

Being the Earthlings, we still colonized where we could shit, and pillage what we could from the core. Guess where we have the wars. It reminded me of the ancient movie I saw with one of my old dates; it was named King Kong. I felt we were like the protagonist there. We held onto the tip of the rewards and roared at the others. Fuck it did for the ape and so did we. I roared louder when I realized my date was he-she.

“Fuck!” I shouted when she displayed it. And we did;’ a fucking roar that night. She ruled me for some sessions until I went hearse duty.

“It’s the rule, Navigator.” When Hirohito takes that name for me, I knew he was being the Captain and all rules are to adhere to. “We need to investigate and assist.”

“Captain, the last time we did that, we sparked a small war with an alien breed.” I reminded the Captain although it was not us but the military frigate who happened to receive the alert. Their presence triggered the war, and the alert may not an alert but a signal transmitted to receive the devotees of the breed to a once-in-a-lifetime meet.

“We are not a military frigate. We are …” I battled back. I was not keen on losing the bonus. I reminded the Captain. “We are a hearse hauler.”

“You do that and I will check the alert.” Hirohito hit back. “You will take the Shuttle and re-attached the container.”

“We can’t do it. The atmosphere may be too harsh for the shuttle.” I interjected. “We need Tiffany down there.”