The Greatest Commodity (First Draft)

Shots Fired

"I know that!" Juk sputtered. "I'm merely nervous, what with the alien flyover that's happening."

"I'm nervous too, you know." She replied. "At least I'm containing it!"

"I am containing it! If I wasn't I would be crying in a corner! This thing has the shit scared outta me!"

"Me too! Now shut up!" Kell roared, fed up with him.

Juk's jaw clenched, he raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"We've cleaned this thing, scanned it, everything," Kell said, trying to change the subject. "but there's nothing on its exterior to suggest a method for opening it."

"And our scans were repelled by something in the box," Juk replied, finishing the sentence for her. "A very odd thing."

"What do you think it's doing?" Havens asked, whispering into the ear of the captain, who was now seated next to him.

"I'm not sure." She replied. "Are the weapons still operational?"

This was the fourth time she'd asked, was she worried the aliens would somehow disable them? Havens performed the check again, it was no trouble. They still showed green. The captain was also staring at the screen, so he had no need to explain it to her.

"Good." She said. "At least we can defend ourselves."

Ori took a seat of his own and pulled up a magnified video feed of the craft. He stared at it closely, opening several separate windows, each displaying the same image through a different wavelength.

The captain turned to look at Ori. "What were the results of your examination of the alien's brain?"

Ori thought for a moment, recent events had forced that data to the back-burner, now he had to recall it.

"The brain was pretty far gone," He said. "the alien had been dead for a while. But I saw enough of the structure to get a judgment on its intelligence."

"Which is?" She asked, expectantly.

"It was only an animal," Ori replied, frowning. "No more intelligent than an average monkey."

"But monkeys are still smarter than many other animals." Havens interjected. "It could be possible that these aliens are a genetic relative to the alien you examined, doctor."

"It's possible." He agreed. "But dolphins are smart too, so are whales and elephants and parrots. These aliens could still be anything. The humanoid theory is just a theory."

"Still, educated guesses are better than nothing."

"Yes, they are," Ori said, returning to his terminal.

"Why haven't they done anything else yet?" The captain asked. "They just keep circling us. No change. Why?"

Ori offered a suggestion, not removing his eyes from the display. "We don't know their intentions." He said. "And it's likely that they don't know ours. They've detected a shadowy collection of structures that are only a few months old, and are examining it, very carefully. Each time getting more daring as they fail to provoke a response."

"And if they have telescopes;" Havens said. "I doubt they would've had any trouble detecting our ship in orbit."

"Then they know we're here..." The captain said. "Another status report on those weapons?"

"Still active, sir." Came the reply. Havens hadn't even bothered to close the weapons HUD since last time.

"Commander, which of our weapons is the quickest to arm and fire?" She asked. "If things go badly, we might not have time to charge any of our slower armaments."