You know the story, like every schoolchild knows it. In the year 3 B.I., the Aligned Systems discovered the first true alien ruins on Burrow's Moon.
It kick-started the field of xeno-archaeology into the juggernaut it is today.
And it started the now more than 350-year-long hunt for more relics.
But have we been lied to?
Is this all a scam?
Are the documentaries nothing but fakes and AI slop, and are the Aligned Systems hiding the truth?
Maybe.
Now, here's the thing. If we believe history conspiracists, all of this never happened the way you and I have been told.
In this episode of History Unveiled*, we will dive into alien ships found on Earth, the development of the first A-Drive, and maybe find out who, or what, really started the catastrophic seven-gauge earthquake.*
— Excerpt from History Unveiled ***, Episode 3127, Whistler-Tube, ca. 350 Post-Independence***
Captain Smith only wanted to pick up a cup of coffee before joining the Task Force meeting. Sadly, Dr. Shanks, Dr. Hunter, and IronBallz waited at the door of his quarters for him.
The month had started so nicely, but it was about to become stressful.
Four weeks ago, the new VI core was finally installed, and Ferdinand had begun to support the crew in uncovering the secrets of Burrow's Moonbase.
It seemed Fakeiand, as the crew called the alien AI, had intentionally scrambled sensor readings and worked against the crew where it could.
Ferdinand had taken over the ship's VI functions and cleaned hundreds of thousands of trojans, scramblers, keyloggers, and other malware left behind by Fakeiand.
In minutes, he uncovered an extremely low-energy signal from the relic docking port.
It was Batract. Or rather, an ancient variation of it.
Decoding the signal and creating a fake passkey took some time, but the chaos field was down. Sleipnirs could now fly down to the underground docks without issues.
The new Sector Commander, Admiral Russo, intended to send at least a company of Marines down before any scientist would risk his life again.
The scientists were unhappy, to say the least.
Most of all, Doctors Shanks and Hunter.
Before Smith could even say a word, all three started to speak.
"The possible loss of archaeological data is massive, Captain. Those are Marines. They have no idea how to preserve a dig."
"Yes, and they might encounter problems they can't solve and blow up unimaginable technical relics. This site could advance human development centuries or more, the programmable matter alone…"
'And don't forget we need to uncover what the Batract did down there with my ancestors, and if they were already infected with Hyphae or au naturel, so to say.'
Smith tried to walk faster, but the two doctors followed him left and right. He reached his breaking point when the Glider IronBallz jumped from Shanks' shoulder onto his head and pulled his ears, screaming.
'Captain, do you hear me? I need to go down with the Marines.'
"Silence, all three of you."
Grabbing the Glider by his neck and pulling him off his head, he looked the elder in his eyes. "And never pull my ears again, do you understand?"
'Yes, but…'
"No. No buts. I'll have to go to a Task Force meeting with Admiral Russo, now that Sanders is on her way to Nekoo. And convincing him to send scientists in with the Marines will be difficult enough without you all pestering me."
Shanks was seemingly the only one who had really listened.
"You trying to get us on the transports?"
"Of course. I don't want the Marines all alone down there. No one knows what these morons would break without scientific oversight."
Smith turned his hand, allowing IronBallz to sit on it instead of hanging by his neck.
"And you come with me. If I get my head chewed off by No-Nonsense Russo, I'm taking you with me, understood?"
'What do you need me for?'
IronBallz tried to jump off Smith's hand and reach the Glider gangways on the ceiling. Smith was faster and snatched the elder Glider mid-jump.
'That's harassment. You're constraining my free movement.'
"You harassed me before I had my coffee, so shut up and think of a way to convince Russo. Otherwise we'll sit here for months until the Marines give the all-clear."
IronBallz turned his head almost 180 degrees. All Gliders could turn their necks like owls, and Smith always got a little sick seeing this.
'I… might have an idea, but I want to try it first with you.'
Smith wasn't able to even say "What" before it hit him.
Feelings of loneliness and desperation. The moon getting smaller as he stared out of a window. Other Gliders around him, their fear and confusion intensified over the biological link they shared.
A reptile hand grabbing him by his neck fur, pulling him out of the small transport cage into a larger one, with more scared Gliders.
Then he was back on the Magellan . Shanks and Hunter each holding him up by an arm.
"What the hell?"
Shanks' face looked especially shocked.
"Sir, your eyes turned almost white and then you almost collapsed. What happened?"
Smith didn't know exactly. "IronBallz, I saw…"
'I shared my memory. The deep memory. I don't know what or how, but this place… I think somehow these memories here allow me to unlock new abilities.'
Smith shook off the stabilizing hands.
"And I'm your guinea pig?"
Hunter shook his head.
"It's not this place. It's our implant."
All three stared at Hunter.
"It's the implant that allows us to hear Glider speech. It is connected to our brains. And I think our brains adapt to it, rewiring to accept new inputs."
'So it's not me that changes?'
IronBallz seemed almost sad to hear it.
"No. Well, maybe you adapted a bit, too, but in general, your 'biological Wi-Fi' transmits far more than speech. This data is processed by the implants, but our brain neurons don't process it. Until now, I guess."
"But all of a sudden?"
Hunter thought about Doctor Shanks' question.
"No, but Captain Smith had the most exposure to Gliders. He's talking to IronBallz or ShutUpBitch all the time, so his brain is rewiring the most."
Smith massaged his temples.
All he wanted was a cup of coffee. Instead, he got memories implanted of thousands-of-years-dead Gliders.
"Go to the infirmary. Get other Gliders and check that out with the Doctors there. I want to know what happens, and I want to be able to stop it, if needed."
The idea of suddenly getting memories of Glider orgies wasn't something he enjoyed.
"Doctor Shanks, you're with me, too."
Smith turned and walked to the airlock.
Admiral Russo's flagship, the A Short Fall of Gravitas , had docked directly on the Magellan . Usually, this sort of docking wasn't done anymore, since ships had grown considerably larger than 30 years ago, when it was still normal procedure.
But they were capable of doing it, and it was still standard procedure in the books. So Admiral Russo had ordered a docking.
He didn't care that the Gravitas was an older battle cruiser, still with rotating habitat sections.
The docking exercise required precise movement in orbit around a moon at thousands of kilometers per hour. Avoiding the older ship's rotating parts turned that precision into a navigational nightmare.
Smith hadn't seen his Navigator that nervous since the Second Battle of Sirius.
After a short brisk walk through the Gravitas 's corridors, they reached a meeting room with Admiral Russo already waiting.
"Captain, nice of you to join us. You look horrible. Take a seat. We were just discussing the moon ruins."
Smith took the seat thankfully. The memory fragments still had some grip over him.
Doctor Shanks and IronBallz had to wait outside, a fact that didn't sit well with Smith at all. Russo seemed to see scientists as supporting characters in the Navy-run theatre.
People like Russo were the kind who had initially blocked the construction of the Magellan . And where would we be if the ship hadn't been built?
Opposite Smith sat a dark-haired female Navy Captain. Smith hadn't met her yet, but her shoulder insignia bore the patch of the Relief Fleet. She gave him a short, friendly smile before she focused back on the holographic projection at the front of the desk.
Standing next to the projection were two Marine Majors. The nametags read Roth and Pfershy. Smith knew Pfershy from reports.
A no-nonsense Marine. No wonder Russo had him on this mission.
"We can start again, sir, if you like," Roth offered to the Admiral.
"Nonsense. This data was gathered by Smith, so I very well expect he knows it."
Russo was in a good mood today, it seemed. Not.
"Very well, sir." Roth continued. "As we said, after the docking area, we have multiple large chambers. One is where the away team found the dead body. The fact that some technology is still working makes the existence of traps or security measures a possibility."
Major Pfershy pointed into the hologram.
"We plan to secure the chambers around the dock and prepare a FOB there. Two companies will be enough. From there, we can plan further expeditions, provided Magellan can provide specialists and scientists."
With this, the Major looked at Smith.
Captain Smith was surprised. He was prepared to fight tooth and nail to get his people aboard.
"Yes. Everything you need."
"Well, another meeting that should have been an email. Majors, prepare your men to move. Captain Smith, meet Captain Aylin Kaya. She's the Captain of the President's End . She and her ship will support you here until the Pioneers create the station."
Captain Kaya gave Smith another friendly smile, followed by a "Captain."
Greeting the Captain back, Smith then asked, "Station? Sorry, sir, I must have missed a memo."
"Well, then better be on time next time. Captain Kaya here had the idea to create a geosynchronous station with an orbital lift down to the relic site. It's cheaper in the long run than to park a ship here for years."
"Yes. The Magellan is a highly specialized ship. Wasting her parked here in orbit is… well, wasteful."
Smith had had the same thoughts, but to be pushed aside didn't feel right. They had discovered the ruins. But before he could counter Captain Kaya's argument, she had already continued.
"I can't imagine what wonders the Magellan could find out there instead of just focusing on these ruins. Captain Smith, I envy you. In a year, you crossed the galaxy twice and found these ruins."
"Yeah, stop telling each other how wonderful your ships are and start working. I have to undock and go back to Burrow One. This whole star system is a madhouse."
With this, the Admiral left the meeting room.
"Captain, can I come over to the Magellan and take a Sleipnir from there to my ship? Otherwise, my Navigator has to hard-dock the President's End again, and I don't think he has the nerves to do it again."
Smith understood the notion.
He didn't know what to think of Captain Kaya. For Smith's taste, she was almost a bit too eager to please. Her praising his ship came too fast, as if she wanted to disarm him.
He would keep an eye on her. But for now, he took the win. Until the station was built, the Magellan had the ruins.
Small victories.
————
Eva's message made Admiral Georgiou feel uneasy.
'Admiral, there's something on the TV you must see.'
Must see… that's never good.
"What channel?"
'Probably all of them.'
Definitely not good.
He switched on the monitor. A history stream channel. He had watched a documentary about the sinking of Doggerland yesterday evening.
On the news flash band in the lower part, he saw what Eva was talking about.
Senator Shore proposes emergency legislation to outlaw abortion and curtail women's rights.
Oh my god. What had he done now?
Pressing the "Want to know more" button, the channel switched.
Two women almost foaming at the mouth debated the newest attack from the patriarchy, according to them.
"And even in the Army and Navy, there are still 20% less women in leadership positions, and this Senator now wants to drag us back into the kitchen."
Well, if there are 30% less women enlisting, then 20% less in leadership is a good number. Not that any of you would ever enlist…
He switched the channel. The host had a stream of the original interview on. He and his co-hosts' faces overlaid the original video, and they cheered with Shore's arguments, making them almost incomprehensible.
"Tara, have you looked at recent population statistics? Because I have, and given the current trend, humanity is about to die out. There are only about four billion humans left in the Sol system. With a replacement rate of 0.85 on Earth, this number will plummet further."
The "Boom, take that, bitch" made Georgiou feel sick.
The same idiots, just from the other aisle. And most of them flunk out in basic training because they're just bullies and insecure brats
He poured himself a glass of Tsipouro, sighed, and changed the channel again.
A political commentator arguing with his host.
"So, Mike, what do you think of the Senator's proposal?"
The middle-aged commentator with ancient-looking earbuds stared directly into the camera and cleared his throat.
Damn, is there a rule that commentators need bad audio quality?
"Well, Gaby, it sounds bad, but don't forget that Earth has a real population crisis. Earth has only three billion people. The whole Solar System, maybe four billion. And the Senator's bill consists mostly of tax incentives, and other measures to make having children as cheap as having none."
Georgiou switched the screen off. He knew he would learn all he needed tomorrow. And tons of things he didn't want to learn.
The Senator was right. As stupid as it might sound, humanity faced extinction. Either slow, by negligent birthrates, or quick, by an enemy they couldn't defeat because they lacked the numbers.
But the way the Senator went was… odd, to say the least.
"In one moment, you help me build a fleet, in the next, you start a political front that had been silent for five decades. What are you up to?"