We usually have a meeting every day to discuss the general functioning of the ship, our plans for dealing with the threat by the aliens and of course discuss the problems we had on the ships if any. As usual, I was en route to the bridge, where the meeting is usually held, when the corridor in front of me engulfed in darkness. Alarms started blaring and the emergency lights kicked in, flooding the corridor in red. I slowly made my way to the bridge, where the crew stumbled into, one by one. Leo finally made his way to the bridge and Konrad joined him in trying to figure out what the problem was. "Captain, all the equipment seems fine. Something must have gone wrong in the central control system." Konrad said. "Wait a minute." Leo interrupted. "There seems to be some sort of malicious code injected into the control software. It must have come in when Space Control sent in one of its' updates. But this code is really different from anything I have ever seen. To be honest, I do not think this is the humans." Leo said, furiously typing on the control desk. "Is there a possibility this was done by the aliens?" I asked Leo. "It is possible. They would need some serious equipment and skills to pull of something like this but then recent events have shown that they have plenty of both. So, there is a good possibility this was one of their stunts." He replied. Just as we were talking, the main screen on the bridge activated all by itself and there was a video message waiting for us to be viewed. Reneesh hesitated opening the message. "Open it, Reneesh" I ordered. "Let's see what our alien friends have for us in mind". We opened it and it was the first time we have ever seen the aliens. "They look just like us." said Reneesh, surprised. They looked human. And they spoke English. The rest of the crew were glued to their seats as they saw the video.
"Puny Earthlings. It seems that you have not learned your lessons. We have given you three warnings before this and made it explicitly clear that we wouldn't allow you to pass our territory. But you have not given up. We are warning you again. Turn back. Go back to Earth. Else you would be destroyed just like everybody else who comes in our way. Trust us, you do not want to come here. Beware.".
We were shocked. This was the first time ever we made contact with the aliens and we now knew that they were humanoid. We had a language in common too. "Can you get whatever code they put in out of our systems?" I asked Leo and Konrad. "I believe so. Now that they have achieved what they wanted to, I do not think it would be hard to remove it." Leo said. "I do not want a trace of it on our systems. And can they pull this shit again?" I asked Leo. "Leo and I will work on a solution to increase the security of the information we are receiving. That should do the job." Konrad replied. Soon, Leo and Konrad were able to remove the code and we had our systems back online.
"What do we do now guys?" I asked. "It's probably best if we sent back a message." Reneesh said. "Saying what? Did you listen to them? It doesn't seem to me like they would change their mind about us with one peaceful message after they blew up three of our ships." Said Konrad. "Captain, with all due respect, I do not think sending out a message is a really good idea. It is increasingly clear from their actions that they are not ready to come to any sort of a peace deal with us. Our only option left is to fight, Captain." Konrad argued. "Let's put it for a vote. What do you say, Reneesh?" I asked. "Yeah, we better put it to a vote." He replied. And hence, a vote was held and with four to two it was decided that we indeed would send them a reply.
"We come in peace. Our home is being destroyed. We don't have another choice. We have to find another home. Otherwise, our species would become extinct. Please understand the situation we are in right now. We are open to dialogue. We would like to have peace talks with you and come to a compromise. We wouldn't bother you and would never even dream of troubling you. Hoping we can come to some sort of an understanding. Orion Four, over and out."
We never got back a reply, though. It was understood by both sides what was inevitably going to happen. One had to live, and another had to die. We started preparing for battle. A battle that either saves or destroys us. A battle for survival.
***
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Mission Orion: The Travel through Time
Science Fiction[HIGHEST RANK: #1 IN SCIENCE FICTION] The world is ravaged by a nuclear war. Borders were redrawn, powers had shifted. But the worst was yet to come. The sun was soon becoming a supernova, wiping out the planets. There was no other option left but...
