The Rise & Rise of Homo Luminous
Chapter 4 Equality For
All
Anticlimax
With the return of the UDF Grand Fleet from the Elysium Universe, one could have been excused for believing that nothing of importance was achieved. The UFP was exactly the same as it was before the Fleet had left. Only the crew members of the UDF Fleet knew of what had taken place. President Molony gave permission for the media to interview the returning personnel, & there were several great stories told, but it all seemed tiresome after a short while.
To some, however, the realisation that a Luminous was central to the UFP intervention in the Elysium Universe was more than significant. Omal became a hero to the Luminous people, even though he was the first to point out that many others were involved with "Project Block". But when it came out that his name was the password to the great monolith, his place in history was cemented for eternity. It was a pity that there was no great quote given, other than his infamous remark, to help celebrate his achievement.
Omals achievement, even if soon forgotten by the majority of the UFP population, became legendary status alongside that of Lenous Sirus. Furthermore, many Luminous pointed out that Omal was a crew member of the historic journey of the Discovery. It seemed incredible that less than 30 years had passed since that fateful mission. No one expected what the next 30 years would bring, let alone the next three.
And no one was concerned about the next 30 years other than building upon the success of the recent past. At the front of this charge into the future were the Luminous. Since joining the UFP, already their population numbers had almost doubled. 10 billion Luminous had spread out across the UFP in varying degrees. Soon they even outnumbered Homo Sapiens. In doing so they triggered off the first, in a number of insignificant events, that would one day see Sapiens leave the Federation.
For the moment, however, Luminous were content to become an equal partner. Unfortunately that was still a while off. Even though technically Luminous were as equal as any other specie, there was an unofficial ranking order. This may have not applied to government agencies or large corporations, but in most societal matters it remained. Even with the massive achievement of Omal, little had changed on this level.
This societal discrimination filtered through
to many levels in the UFP. Although illegal, numerous areas were made almost
impossible for Luminous involvement. One in particular was academia. Various
universities made student entry impossible. The same applied to all Luminous
academics. This did not apply to every educational establishment, however.
The
various NGW & UPX based universities welcomed the Luminous as well
as any other gifted individual. Then again these two agencies had already
experienced the fruits that come with such gifted students. What was NGW
& UPX gain was inevitably other bigoted institutions loss.
The Greater Expansion
In the greatest expansion of the Luminous since ancient times, nearly 5 billion of them had left the Earth within a short period of 30 years. Actually it was not exactly 5 billion, but more like 3 billion. The other 2 billion were the first generation of Luminous not born on Earth. Billions more would likewise follow. Most would never return to Earth. They began a new life throughout the UFP. As mentioned, some Luminous found difficulty being accepted into the UFP, but many more did not.
Chief among the new worlds were planets like Eden, Saturn Prime & Renaissance. Various government agencies & corporations offered employment, but most Luminous favoured UPX. Employment at NGW, due to the fame of Omal, was also a favourite opportunity for employment. But due to the low intake, not forgetting the overall competition for those limited jobs, this meant that many were disappointed. UPX, on the other hand, had many more positions vacant & the overall competition for those positions was much lower. It seemed only Sapiens, Spiritous, Vargary, Unis & a few others were interested.
UPX also had its own drawing card: Lenous Sirus. After the Discovery mission, Sirus had captained the little scout craft on other missions exploring space around Earth. Sirus was the first Luminous to discover both Saturn Prime & Barrens. She was also the first to be chased after by UDF patrols whilst snooping around NGW D1. Although she succeeded in evading the UDF ships, no small effort considering the capabilities of the Discovery when compared to the UDF ships, Sirus was eventually captured when exploring space around Pacifica.
Just after the capture of the most famous Luminous captain, the Luminous Space Treaty was signed, so her captivity, along with that of her ship & crew, went unnoticed. All retuned to Earth a short time later to a heros welcome. Once more she had paved the way for the Luminous people, which was even more so celebrated when Omal, the Mercury & her crew, returned after their exciting mission.
By then Sirus had thought that her exploring days were over. UPX, it was thought, would obviously take over from the fledgling FSA. This would make all the Luminous redundant. But as NGW had seen Omal for the genius that he was, so too UPX saw Sirus for the courageous captain that she was. Unlike Omal at NGW, however, Sirus was not given any clandestine mission by the Luminous Federal Government. The result being that the early UPX - Luminous relationship was never tarnished.
Chairperson Gandgis was so impressed by Sirus that she was more than happy to employ as many Luminous personnel as possible. This was somewhat difficult before full membership, but once that event took place, few Luminous were refused. Furthermore, on the day the Luminous became full UFP citizens, Gandgis was more than happy to announce that a Luminous would captain a UPX ship. This Luminous, of course, was Lenous Sirus. It was in part a gesture of welcome to the Luminous while at the same time a major snub to their detractors within the UFP.
Although the UPX ship originally had a different name, Sirus applied for & was immediately granted a new one. UPX Discovery was far from an original name for one of their ships. In fact there had been thousands of UPX ships that had that name, but for Sirus it was her second ship & the first for UPX. Unlike her Luminous ship, however, there was no similarity other than the name. In fact it was one of the latest explorer ships that UPX had, albeit two years old.
The first couple of missions for the UPX Discovery were rather routine. They were more or less seen as a shakedown for the new captain & crew than anything. Yet for Sirus & the handful of Luminous personnel among the crew members, it was the chance for them to journey into the unknown. Their fellow crew mates might have been bored, but not the Luminous among them.
When UPX management finally decided that the UPX Discovery was ready, the ship got its first real mission. Having already come across two infant races known as the Sassnorah & the Phillis, UPX decided to send the UPX Discovery beyond their regions into unexplored space. It would be the furthest that a ship from the UFP had ever travelled. And Captain Sirus was given the responsibility for the missions success.
At first there were some detractors, even within UPX, but Gandgis was adamant that the Luminous captain was the best qualified. After all, the Luminous, technically speaking, were the only ones involved with long range exploration given the current circumstances. No other specie member of the UFP had gotten used to being up to hundreds of light years away from previously known civilisation. The Luminous had & very quickly at that too.
So just as the UDF Grand Fleet was returning from their duties in the Elysium Universe to much fan fair, the UPX Discovery left Terra to journey into the great unknown with no fan fair. Although the unknown might be somewhat dangerous, the space Inward of Terra was officially classified as that. Several thousand years ago, the Passalous were in battle with an ally of the UFP known as the Terran Federation. At first the UFP stayed out of the conflict, but finally entered into a war against the Passalous Empire & defeated them as a result. Since then the Passalous had been "Quarantined" until a peace treaty resolved any further conflict. That had never occurred & a state of war technically continued.
The positive result of the Passalous War saw the
Terran Federation joining the UFP. Nevertheless, the Passalous, still centuries
later, occasionally violated the border. It maybe complete foolishness
on behalf of the Passalous, but they continue to do it. Unfortunately the
Passalous were not far from the planned flight path of UPX Discovery.
Any announcement of the UPX ship may invite an attack by the Passalous,
which was not on the mission schedule of Captain Sirus. Having said all
that, the UPX Discoverys first part of the mission went unhindered.
The Mission
All went well for the UPX Discovery at first. There were no incidents at any point towards the overall goal. The Passalous left them alone. More importantly, the Sassnorah likewise left them alone, not that this junior specie had any chance identifying the UPX ship anyway. Sassnorah technological levels, unlike that of the Passalous, were still basic. That had not, however, stopped them from spreading out from their home planet to a distance of about 50 light years.
The UPX Discoverys mission, though, had little to do with the Sassnorah. Sure there was a component, that being to see how far the Sassnorah had advanced in the last decade, but the real mission layed beyond Sassnorah territory. Here some long range robotic probes had received some interesting signals that suggested an alien civilisation. As had happened many times before, UPX would locate the civilisation & evaluate whether First Contact should take place.
The only hassle, however, was that the probes stopped receiving these signals before a fix on the signals location could be finalised. Even though the UFP may have been extremely advanced in technology, space is still a very big place. Signals are often distorted, not too mention sporadic, so it can take several months if not years before a location fix is finalised. Thus it also became part of UPX Discoverys mission to find the aliens location, discover why the transmissions stopped & finally evaluate the civilisations potential to make First Contact.
The UPX Discovery eventually arrived at the location where the robotic probes lost contact with the alien transmissions. Apart from the probes, there was nothing. All was silence other than the background noises of space. Sirus ordered that the scanners be set to maximum power & that the area be scanned for everything. To help in the scanning, the ship had a vague idea in which region to concentrate. This was just as well considering the enormous area involved.
Yet as before, not even limited transmissions, or any other signs for that matter, were detected. Nonetheless, the scanners did locate several suns within the targeted region. This meant little other than the fact that each sun possibly contained a solar system. This data was further analysed & it was determined that two of the suns were yellow, meaning that they were of the G2 class - the same as Earths Sun.
Although the UPX Discoverys scanners had no chance of detecting individual planets at such ranges, it could identify the "wobble" of each sun. It was also possible that red giants also had solar systems, but these suns were nearing the end of their lives & any civilisation that may have been existing in such a solar system would have either already died, moved on, or was surviving on the outer regions of that suns solar system. Either way, a red giant solar system was highly unlikely to be the object of their mission.
The mission, however, was in luck. Both G2 suns had the right kind of "wobble". Both thus had solar systems. Both would hence be explored.
The first G2 sun, that the UPX Discovery explored first, appeared promising. Like Earths solar system, there were four gas planets on the outer regions & four small planets orbiting closer in, three of which were in hopeful locations. Unlike Earth's solar system, however, there was no ninth planet akin to Pluto. Alas, all three of the hopefuls turned out to be anything but hopeful. None of them could support life. Probes were sent into the atmospheres of each planet, but it did not take long to analyse the data to know these planets were dead. Given another billion years one may start the life process in its most primitive form, but not yet.
The UPX Discovery thus jumped for the next G2 system. It was not far off as interstellar travel goes. It took merely two days. As previously, Sirus ordered her ship to arrive just on the edge of the unknown solar system in order to conduct a very intensive scan. There was no point jumping into the middle of it when some large asteroid may immediately prove to be a deadly welcomer to the uncharted system. Years of experience had taught Sirus what was an extremely important lesson. Some of the crew thought Sirus far too cautious, but already one incident had proven Sirus right. Needless to say, the crew were thankful.
Scanning the entire system also saved time in the long run. Immediately areas which were obviously unimportant could be virtually ignored, while the more interesting locations could be explored. Thus the scan data indicated that there were three gas giants & three inner planets, two of which appeared promising. Although there were no alien transmissions, Sirus was confident that this solar system was the one that they were looking for.
On approaching the inner part of the solar system,
the ships scanners picked up a couple of artificial heat blooms. These
were obviously alien in their source. Further data indicated that they
were nuclear in origin. Sirus immediately ordered a full halt, even though
some questioned her order. They were given a quick & stern lecture
before the captain ordered probes to be sent forward to investigate.
Oh Hell!
Three probes were launched. Although these were not as advanced as the long range robotic probes, they could nevertheless do the job at hand. Sirus, the second that she heard that the heat blooms were nuclear in origin feared danger. Maybe it was some instinct left over from her ancestors, especially considering that the Luminous were such a young specie, or something else. No one really knows, but Sirus was determined not to move the UPX Discovery any closer to the third planet.
The probes advanced as planed. Soon they came across a number of ships of various sizes & classes orbiting the planet. Several of these ships clearly had battle damage. Scans for life signs took place, but there appeared to be none on any of the ships. Nonetheless, clear signs of dead bodies were identified after one of the probes entered a breach in one of the severely damaged vessels. The crew of the UXP ship stared in a quiet horror as the pictures of the dead appeared on screens in front of them.
The two other probes, meanwhile, began taking long range scans on the planet below. It appeared peaceful enough at long distance. In fact it was not too dissimilar to Earth with several continents surrounded by blue oceans. But as the cameras zoomed in, great damage could be seen on the surface. It appeared that most of the cities & other locations had been destroyed. Immediate analysis clearly indicated that nuclear weapons were involved. It appeared, thus from this impression, that different planetary factions had finally gone mad & conducted a devastating war killing all.
On reflection, however, Sirus reasoned that it was something else. Noting that the ships in orbit appeared to be of a higher level of technology than everything on the planet below, she believed that an alien invasion had taken place that appeared to have gone very wrong for both sides. This seemed to fit the data as the probes could not identify any life signs on the planet - well not sentient ones. A lot of vegetation had survived, as had sea & some land life, but nothing resembling a living humanoid sentient being.
At last one of the probes located what appeared to be some form of communications centre. Although clearly military in nature, it may answer the leading question: what happened on this planet?
As it appeared that all was safe, only then did Captain Sirus order the ship into a high orbit around the planet. They were still far enough away to escape if anything wrong occurred, but better located to use their own scanners to full effect. This also included communications with the probes, especially when they were operating in buildings or underground. Such was the location of the military communications centre that a probe had discovered & was waiting to enter.
As elsewhere, the probe discovered death. But, unlike elsewhere, some of the computers were still working. Although the language was clearly unknown, surprisingly computers, especially primitive ones, basically all operated on the same principles. Mathematics was the key & the key was more or less universal. The probe was able to download the entire contents of the computer data base in seconds. Of course translating the aliens language would take longer.
However, as the probe did it stuff, the final probe, which was standing by in case it was required, reported that several unknown life signs had, all of a sudden, been identified. Communications Officer VinahIng immediately notified his captain.
"Tell the probe to investigate. I want to get a picture if it can". Sirus ordered, "And order the other probe to transmit all of its data to the ships computer. I dont want to lose what its got".
"Yes Captain", VinahIng replied. He carried his orders out within a second.
It did not take long for the second probe to locate the life signs. Its camera faithfully recorded everything until its own destruction. On the ship above, everyone watched on as dark clouds descended upon the probe with horrible force.
"Oh Hell!" Sirus let out not concerned as to who heard her. "Get the other probe out of there now. Same goes for the one exploring the alien ships."
"Way ahead of you captain", VinahIng calmly announced.
Turning to her science officer, Sirus stated more than asked, "Those dark clouds remind me of you people when youre in non-corporeal form, but somehow I dont think theyre friendly."
"I agree. Ive only managed a quick analysis, but I confirm that they appear non-corporeal. As for their friendliness, well we are technically trespassing" offered Science Officer Thompson.
"Well either way, Im not risking my ship or my crew". Turning to the helm, Sirus ordered, "The second the probes are on board we are to leave immediately".
"Probe One has been destroyed Captain", announced VinahIng.
"And the other one?" inquired Sirus.
"On board".
"Good. Now get us the hell out of here. Maximum
jump speed! " ordered Sirus.
The Galactic Chase
Even though the Captains order seemed somewhat on the panic side of things, speed was the issue. As Sirus gave her order, she was well aware that the scanners were picking up the dark clouds heading for the UPX Discovery. If they bothered with the usual course coordinates & associated orders, the ship & crew would have suffered the same fate as the probes. As the ship left this solar system of death, Sirus then gave the necessary coordinates. They would sweep clear of Sassnorah space, down the Lessor Rift, & then head for Terra.
As an after thought, Sirus wondered whether the non-corporeal aliens were following them. There were, after all, a large number of jump speed capable ships orbiting that planet. This unfortunate duty was given to the surviving probe. Strangely Sirus felt sad when the probe left the ship knowing it would never return. For some reason Sirus thought the probe to be part of the crew.
Crew or not, the probe had an important duty to carry out. At first there appeared to be nothing for light years. Everything looked safe. Just when Sirus thought the same, the probe detected one then two ships travelling after the UPX ship. These couple of ships then soon numbered in the hundreds. The invasion fleet was on the move. And they were following the UPX Discovery.
Sirus did not just sit there, however, waiting to be caught. First off she immediately contacted the UPX base on Terra. Although there was a time lapse, the necessary information got through. From there it went to the UDF 12th Fleet headquarters. Admiral Termorah wondered what all the fuss was about until he saw the data of the non-corporeal enemy. He immediately ordered an alert. He also began a plan that would involved the UPX Discovery.
Sirus soon afterwards received her orders. Although she objected, her ship & crew were now under the orders of the military. The UPX Discovery would not head for Terra. The ship would, instead, head for open space between Terra, Nich & Avakous. Here, & away from all population centres, the 12th Fleet would engage this alien invasion fleet & run the remnants out of UFP territory. It was a sound plan.
Meanwhile, the linguistic technicians on board the UPX Discovery managed to translate enough of the aliens computer files to tell Sirus the bad news. Although they still did not know who lived on the dead planet, they did know that they had detailed files on the non-corporeal aliens. These were known as the Andromedans. They were horribly destructive to the point of genocide. They never stop & never had been stoped. Their point of origin was unknown, but they were thought to have come from the neighbouring galaxy. Thankfully, they could be killed with high powered weapons, even though this could mean nuclear detonations as a last resort.
"Well. We probably know what happened on that planet", a depressed Sirus offered.
"A desperate last stand", was Thompsons quiet reply.
Turning to VinahIng Sirus ordered, "Get this data to UDF Terra command immediately".
UDF command took this in & understood that
any coming battle would probably be to the death. Sirus orders, however,
remained. Her part was the bait. Clearly the Andromedans were deliberately
following the UPX ship in order to conquer the next living planet.
Paradise Lost
Sirus was rather apprehensive about the entire plan. There was always the chance that the Andromedans would detect the millions of signals that the UFP transmitted every second. If UPX could detect similar alien transmissions from long distances, there was no reason why the Andromedans could not do the same thing up close. Review of the data of the enemys ships clearly indicated that enough of them were advanced enough to have powerful sensors. It would not be too hard for them to even tune into CNN.
Admiral Termorah was fortunately thinking along similar lines. As the UPX Discovery approached the border, all UFP transmissions, other than those of the UDF, ceased over 20% of the entire Federation. Nothing was announced prior to the civilian population, even though the media knew something was up. It is not every day of the week that an entire UDF Fleet went on alert. Furthermore, the cutting of all communications also stopped the media causing any panic within the civilian population.
On & through the trap location the UPX Discovery sped. Although there was no sign of the 12th Fleet anywhere, they were alert & waiting. Admiral Termorah had all his ships cloaked & ready to pounce on the unknowing Andromedans. The Admiral thought it would be over in a short time. Even if the invaders could recover, it would simply come down to superior training & weapons.
Not long after, the first of the Andromedans appeared. They were somewhat spread out, with smaller ships out front, while the main body trailed behind. UDF scanners indicated that these ships were of all kinds of origins; all of which were unknown. Importantly, the data clearly indicated that all of the ships were not in the same technical league as the UDF ones, even though the invaders had an advantage in numbers.
Admiral Termorah let the leading group of Andromedans pass & waited until the main body were almost on top of the 12th Fleet. Then he gave the order attack. The entire 12th Fleet let loose a dreadful salvo with many of the Andromedans ships destroyed in the process. But then an amazing thing happened. From the ships that had not been destroyed, the Andromedans launched themselves into space & at the UDF ships. Not all the Andromedans made it to the UDF ships, but soon desperate hand to hand fight took place. This was unheard of in modern fleet actions.
It was the 12th Fleet & Admiral Termorah who had been taken by surprise. By the time the Admiral realised what had occurred, he was dead. Over half of the UDF ships were destroyed.. But that was not the worst of it. Those UDF ships not destroyed were then added to the surviving Andromedans ships. Within an hour, the Andromedans were off again chasing the UPX Discovery, which was still being followed by the small Andromedans scout force.
The destruction of the 12th Fleet shocked everyone. Such things do not happen to the UDF. Hence it took a while for the message to be believed. UDF command on Avakous lost the plot & refused to believe Sirus as she raised the alert. Taking matters into her own hands, Sirus chartered her own course keeping away from Avakous & Lyonies. She was, however, running out of options. She could either head out towards the rim & into the space between galaxies or continue towards the "Hub": a number of heavily populated worlds starting with Locus on the rim through to Blurgiss Prime heading Inward - the entire heart of the Federation was thus before them.
By the time UDF Lyonies command made sense of the crisis, Sirus was already committed. Having rejected the dash towards the rim, she headed down the only lane that was void of any population centres with the Andromedans in toe. Unfortunately this lane, the space between Fin & Lyonies, ended at Earth.
UDF Lyonies command ordered Sirus to turn towards the rim. Although this meant a U turn, it may ensure that the Andromedans would follow. In the time thus used, a Grand Fleet, made up of the 10th Fleet based at Drey & the 14th Fleet based at Lyonies, could intercept & destroy the Andromedans somewhere around Fin. Sirus, again highly dubious over the plan, finally agreed & began a wide sweeping U turn heading towards Fin. The Andromedans, however, did not turn to follow.
Noticing this, Sirus resumed course for Earth
& informed UDF command at Lyonies of the situation. At first they did
not believe her, but this was soon confirmed. It appeared that transmissions
from Earth, not to mention the rest of the "Hub", had been detected by
the Andromedans. Unlike the Terra to Avakous region, the "Hub" had not
been silenced. And it was transmitting so many signals even a deaf bat
in another galaxy could hear it.
The Three Hundred & One
The UDF Thermopylae had come to Earth on a good will visit. The enormous Sparta class battlestations had remained in commission after their Elysium Universe visit while the current maintenance cycle would permit. It was then planed that they would once again go into reserve. But as always, the public simply marvelled at the huge ships that were about the size of the Moon. It was great public relations. It was also a ploy by the UDF to interest Luminous volunteers into the military. As part of this ploy, 300 Luminous personnel had been stationed on the huge vessel.
Sirus had had enough with the useless plans of UDF command at Lyonies. She communicated ahead to Earth, now only a day or so away. The UDF command for this area was actually at Eden, but it was the Luminous Earth government that Sirus called. Immediately the Luminous Earth government announced a planetary state of emergency. A strange situation occurred where all UDF forces within Earths solar system came under local planetary command. Given the circumstances, there was little dispute. Although the lines of command were unclear, basically the UDF Army continued to look after the Earth with its several divisions, while the Navy had only one major asset in place to defend the planet: the UDF Thermopylae.
Naturally conference calls connected everyone that mattered, including Sirus. Numerous plans were discussed on how to defend Earth. All seemed pointless. Sirus sent recordings of the demise of the UDF 12th Fleet which was then displayed for all to see. Clearly even a battlestation could never survive a similar attack. Sure there were numerous Air Force Wings which would cause much damage to the Andromedans, but that would not be enough. The Army may hold out long enough for forces from Drey, Vargary, Lyonies & Epsilon to arrive, but the Earth would be desolated from battle.
"No", Sirus said, "Nothing so far on offer will work. This, however, will". The UDF could not believe her plan & refused to be a part of it. The captain of the Thermopylae offered the resignation of his commission rather than have anything to do with it. The Luminous Earth government, however reluctantly, approved the plan. So did Earths Senator to the UFP Congress Mal Rensis. Ironically, it came down to a nothing Senator to give the plan the final & full authority of the UFP.
The UPX Discovery headed straight for the UDF Thermopylae. Only Sirus took the shuttle over to the huge battlestation. Upon her arrival, the captain of the Thermopylae & the final evacuees left for the planet below. Apparently not a word was spoken between the two captains. Two Luminous crew members, however, welcomed Sirus aboard & took her to the bridge. They ran where they could & then took the express lift. They were in a hurry as death followed them far too closely.
The Thermopylae was down to a skeleton crew. In fact it was more like a caretaker crew. The ship could do little other than the basics. It could, however, fire most of its weapons, but could do little else other than manoeuvre. If damage parties were required, though, they were in big trouble. Considering battle was to commence at any moment, serious damage was almost certain.
The Thermopylae moved rather fast for a huge ship. Its journey, however, was a short one. Knowing the direction & location of the coming hoards, Sirus positioned the huge ship right in the path of the oncoming enemy. More than 6 billion Luminous & other UPF citizens watched as the Thermopylae moved in the sky above. It was such an unusual sight seeing Earths temporary moon move freely about. Yet only a few knew why it was & what would happen next.
The small Andromedans scout force came out of jump & stopped in awe of the huge battlestation blocking them. Before they got too far, the Blackstar Beam Arrays of the Thermopylae destroyed this tiny force with ease. But their signal had already reached the main fleet. As the UDF forces rushed to Earth, far too late to help out, the Andromedans jumped into Earth space. Battle immediately commenced.
Like with the scout force, a number of ships of the main Andromedans fleet were destroyed with ease. But as with the action with the UDF 12th Fleet, the Andromedans launched themselves into space & headed near the speed of light towards their target. If they could capture this huge battlestation they would become invincible. All the Andromedans attacked for they had assumed that, like with their previous encounter with this civilisation, thousands of soldiers with powerful weapons would fight it out with them. Many of these soldiers, they had discovered to their surprise, were even non-corporeal.
In fact there were only three hundred & one very corporeal Luminous waiting. All three hundred Luminous crew members of the Thermopylae had instantly volunteered when they had heard of the situation & Sirus plan. Now here they were in a last ditched effort to save the Earth. And it was only them here making this stand. Everyone else had been evacuated.
The Luminous crew reported in as the Andromedans arrived at various locations on the Thermopylae. They then gave the illusion of a massive fire fight until, one by one, they were killed. As the Andromedans approached the bridge Sirus inquired if all the Andromedans were on board. When she got the reply she wanted, Captain Sirus announced on an open frequency; "For our planet, our people, & the United Federation of Planets. Remember us always. Farewell."
Captain Sirus then pushed a button.
The enormous explosion that followed was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. For a few minutes it even rivalled the light given off by The Sun. The UDF Thermopylae with its small but gallant crew, & more importantly the Andromedans, were completely atomised when the ships internal sun exploded into a huge thermonuclear fireball.
Below on the planet, everyone knew that the huge ship had exploded. Many panicked, thinking that radiation from the blast would kill them. It was a fair enough assumption. But thanks to the Earths protective magnetic fields, & the location of the ship, little radiation got through to the surface. The Moon, however, was pushed 5 000km further out into space, but this was insignificant considering the actual distance between the Earth & the Moon.
Even though many feared the radiation, billions still stared at the fireball. When the public was informed of the reasons behind the strange transmission prior to the explosion, many broke down & wept. Not long after millions began singing songs of sadness yet also joy. One Luminous song writer, Lyds Coalchester, even composed a hymn on the spot in dedication to the sacrifice she had just witnessed. It would become a anthem for an entire specie, known to all as The Three Hundred & One.
Unknown to everyone at the time, a small clan of, what would be called eons later, Pan Habilis for the first time looked up into the sky, & like everyone else, stared at the fireball. It would take more than 250 000 years before they would have the opportunity to discover its cause.
The Luminous captain & crew had proven themselves
like few others ever had. Now it would be equality for all - for few others
had paid such a price.
Alternative
History Homepage
Chapter 3 A Child Among Adults
Chapter 5 Custodians Of Light
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1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 dmatwell@nobbys.net.au