Star Fields

Chapter No.155 Oddity

Chapter No.155 Oddity

Somethings just don't make sense.

While on the engineering deck trying to help Alex with the Dyson Sphere project, I was summoned to go to the command deck.

"What's up?" I asked Alexa as soon as I appeared in the Captain's chair.

"Alicia has picked up a signal."

"I've detected a weak radio signal in the megahertz range from a system a thousand lightyears from our current location," Alicia said.

"Is it from a system in our registry?"

"That's the problem. It's not. I think it's because it's behind a nebula in relation to Earth."

"Have you been able to discern any information in the signal?"

"Not yet. It's too weak."

I turned to Alexa. "Maybe we should go check it out."

"That's what we're out here for," she said. I sensed dismay with my wanting to waste time building a Dyson sphere.

"Take us to the other side of the nebula, Judy."

We went to warp along with two Explorer-1 ships, three Myst and two Scath vessels.

"Could you determine what sort of signal it was?" I asked Alicia.

"I think it resembles old television signals," she replied. "The frequency modulation is in the right range for that."

"That suggests that it came from an intelligent species. Unfortunately, it's a thousand years old."

"This star system is two thousand light years from Earth. It's no wonder they didn't detect this signal," Alexa said.

"Yes, that makes sense. I guess it doesn't matter now. We'll investigate it to determine who sent it."

It took us an hour to get to the other side of the nebula. I didn't want to waste the spin drive on this curious mission.

"The signal is much stronger," Alicia said. "I should be able to delineate it soon."

Soon required a half hour, but it was worth it.

"Good grief!" I said, staring intently at the images on the main screen. "They look like humans."

"What the hell are they doing?" Marie asked as the screen displayed human males attired in white suits jumping and running around.

"Must be some sort of dance," I said. "It's hard to tell what we're looking at. Their language is definitely alien."

"The universal translator is working on it," Molly said.

"I thought we had located all of the humans in this galaxy," Margaret said.

"Apparently not," I said. "I hope this isn't a Tyco trick."

"We should be able to detect any of his monkey business when we get there," Alexa said.

"Take us to the system, Judy. Keep us in stealth mode."

The journey at maximum warp took less than an hour. We dropped out of warp at a million kilometers from an Earth-like planet orbiting a G-3 class dwarf star.

"That planet has two moons," Molly said. "One of them is about half the size of our moon. The other one is smaller.

"There are several satellites in orbit around the planet," Marie said. "They appear to be mostly communication types. There is a very large telescope in a LaGrange point with the star.
A large vessel is in orbit around the planet. The energy readings on it suggest that it has warp capability."