CHAPTER –46- Contact with Dedov

One of the scientists had shown a couple of Artonians how to operate the
now abandoned Telescope in the observatory and the Radio telescope there.
They were fascinated by the optical telescope and began spending their free
time searching the heavens.
March 18, 2176: One evening while they were searching for Pluto
they caught a spaceship coming out of Warp and entering the solar system.
Since the four Arton ships were accounted for this had to be from some
unknown location. They immediately had the presence of mind to hit the record
button and caught the event on video. One of them continued to monitor the
ship while the other used his cell phone to call for assistance. When the
scientists arrived they couldn't believe that these two little people had just made
the biggest discovery in history. From that minute on every move the vassal
made was caught on tape. The space ship established orbit around one planet
after another working their way in toward Mercury. They would remain at a
planet for a day or two then move on in to the next planet toward the sun.
Eventually they reached Mars and made orbit behind the Arton Two. By the
time they arrived the two space ships had been fully crewed. The Aliens
apparently mistook the Arton Space craft for orbiters, they paid the ships little
attention. They then launched four shuttle from their ship. The Shuttle made
methodical passes over the entire surface of Mars. Seeing the few buildings on
the surface and the now inactive mining operations and apparently reading the
atmosphere and finding it unusable they returned to their ship. Three beings
wearing space suits then boarded one of the shuttles and flew toward the Mars
Orbiter. Their docking equipment was a large suction device that would match
up with any object that they found in space.
Since the ship was first spotted in the solar system the communications
crew in the Arton Three had been recording all their radio transmissions and
feeding them into translator equipment. It was determined from the way they
spoke that these were very humanoid beings. Their language was very difficult
for the translator to do much with. Two of the communications crew members
were Artonian. They were doing better than the electronic device. When the
translator made an error in translating a word the Artonians were beginning to
pick up on it and correct the translator. The crew had determined that the
visitors meant them no harm and that they carried no weapons.
They were amazed when they entered the Orbiter and saw the two Fred
Harley and Alvin Jones on duty. The beings acted very excited. They were
definitely humanoid. They had two arms and two legs and were actually so
similar to Human Beings that one of them could pass as a human but if you
were to see a group of them together you would notice that their heads were a
little higher in back and a little wider and the skull protruded about half an Inch
further in back. Later analysis showed that their internal organs were almost
identical to humans. They were on an average two Inches shorter then humans
and weighed on an average seventeen pounds less. Some of them had dark
blue hair that could pass for black. Their blood types and teeth were identical to
humans.
Fred and Alvin had known they were coming so they showed no alarm
when the aliens entered the orbiter. Fred merely looked up and nodded a
greeting to them then continued with what he was working on for a minute or
so. Alvin just more or less ignored them. The aliens had consulted a hand
held instrument then removed their space helmets. The Earthlings noticed that
the older of the three aliens had positioned himself in front of the other two.
both Earth men left their work stations, moved slowly over to the one that was
obviously the boss. It had earlier been discussed and decided that they should
the little traditional Japanese bow rather than to offer to shake hands. Alvin,
standing just slightly behind Fred held the translator in his left hand. Fred
addressed the Alien first, “Welcome to Mars,” he said slowly and distInctly. The
machine uttered four syllables that were Incomprehensible to Fred and Alvin but
it brought a smile to the faces of the aliens. The leader then uttered three
syllables and and the alien translator said “Thank you.” “The translator
parroted the same three syllables that the alien had just uttered. Alvin kind of
chuckled, switched his machine off and laid it on the table beside him. This
could get confusing using two machines. It was obvious that both machines
had the same function.
. Finally the alien holding their translator machine smiled at the others
and gave the thumbs up. He must have indicated, “Got it.” The leader of the
group was then handed the device by the technician, who had been working
with it. The leader spoke into the machine is his native voice and the machine
translated what he said into imperfect English. “We from planet #######, we
come peaceful. Explore #######. What planet you from?”
Fred did not have a chance to respond, a small intercom speaker affixed
to the wall of the orbiter came on. “This Captain Cummings of the space ship
Arton Four.” The alien machine did not translate this but all three aliens looked
up at the box on the wall, indicating they had heard the noise but their translator
couldn't handle the translation. Alvin retrieved his translator and repeated, “This
Captain Cummings of the space ship Arton Four.” Alvin's machine translated
that immediately. The alien continued, “Thank You, we need new planet, our
planet break up, loose orbit looking for home for our people.” “Any other planet
this system make home for many people?” “No, Fred answered these planets
all dead we use for mining operation.” “You have room on your planet for more
people?” “No, too many people now,” said Fred” hungry people we need more
planet also. “OK we ask other ship visit your planet soon? Maybe we can help
you people. If we find more good planet than we need we tell you people. Our
ship very fast, go warp 4.” The alien turned to leave, “Wait, how many people
you have need home for?” “Our planet now has four million people and it is
no bigger than this dead planet here.” Fred pulled out a copy of a chart of
planets that had been discovered from the observatory on Arton that showed
the 105 other planets worth exploring someday. “Is your planet on this chart?”
The alien studied the chart for a minute. “Yes, Yes, Our planet circle this sun
right here, that our planet see.” The alien pointed to a planet six or so light years
from Mars. “Fred thought these poor guys are a year and a half from home
already at warp 4.
Fred also noticed that the quality of output from their translator had
suddenly improved. Fred had started to say “Sorry I can't help you when the
intercom from Arton Four kicked in. “This is Captain Cummings again, you did
a wonderful job ensign Jones now please direct these people over to the Four.
Tell them I will have the door open for them to fly their Shuttle right on board
and tell them I will be expecting them. “What was that noise?” The Alien asked.
“That was the intercom from the second ship behind us in orbit. My Captain is
on that ship and wants to talk to you.” The alien thanked Fred, disappeared
through the air lock broke connection. As the alien shuttle approached the Four
a gaping hole appeared as the boarding lock opened. The alien commander
never hesitated, he flew his craft right into the Arton Four. Captain Cummings
had rigged his office so that everything said on the ship was being transmitted
to the planet.
Cummings started out by saying that he did not have a translation
machine so they would have to use the one the alien had. Actually Cummings
did have one that had become programmed to the alien's language during the
last five hours. Cummings figured that two translation machines in operation
would just confuse matters. The alien's machine said “Greetings, my name is
##### #########, of the planet ########## (that is the way Cummings
translator worked also, if there was no word for what was being said it would
just beep, this one clicked.) We are unarmed and come in peace, Our ship
carries no weapons not even for our defense.” “I know said Cummings that is
why I am talking with you. We have already scanned your ship and found it
clean.” “We scanned your ships and the mining colony down there and found
them clean also. Where do your miners stay, underground? If you can breath
the atmosphere on this ship you sure couldn't breath the air on that planet.”
“Yes the miners are housed in an underground airtight cavern.” “Did you listen
in on my conversation with ensign Fred? If you did then you know why we are
here. We are disparate people, we have more people than we can feed, many
are dying from starvation. We are not and never have been aggressive people.
We are what you would call pacifists. The only way that I have of proving this to
you is our literature which you can't read at the moment and our videos. You
can watch thousands of hours of our videos and never see a weapon of any
kind.” About that time a shuttle from the planet flew into the landing bay.
“Please come with me gentlemen, we are going to take a little trip to the planet.
If you have any others you would like to bring along we can pick them up at
your ship on the way down.” “How many more does your shuttle carry?” Each
shuttle holds sixty passengers how many shuttles do you require?” “First lets
just us go to your planet then we can send for others.” After boarding the shuttle
the two other aliens handed their translators to the leader who plugged them
into his and pressed a button on his. All three translators began to hum. In less
a minute the leader had apparently updated the other two translators.