New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here!
Captain Brooks’s Log:
I go to face an inquiry that may end my career in the Voidfleet.
I feel fortunate to have had time to make my peace at home, but now I must face this tribunal, over orders that were questionable from the moment they were given. While I was initially quite certain that this would amount to nothing, I have learned that there is much going on beneath the surface. But I do not know enough to know what game is being played.
I can see now, the dangers.
But if I can’t protect my own career, I can at least protect those around me.
“Fuck me,” Apollonia said. “That’s Korolev Station?”
Brooks glanced to her, and for a moment she thought he was going to chide her for her language.
“Yes,” he said, opting to ignore it. “The Moon is the de facto center of the Solar System, ever since the Earth was cut off in the Ring Collapse. Korolev Station was already important, but it was added to and became the true seat of the government.”
“I have heard that Lunar culture is somewhat unique by human standards,” Dr. Y said. “Their art, in particular, has a large reputation.”
“Unique how?” Apollonia asked.
Y hesitated before answering. “Garish and extravagant.”
“There’s some truth to it being unique,” Brooks said pointedly. “But that’s mostly in the art colonies, and doesn’t extend much into Korolev. The station has it’s own culture.”
“I can imagine,” Apollonia muttered. “It’s not as big as the Chain, but it’s big . . .”
“A permanent population of nearly 75 million and about double that in temporary – it’s impressive,” Brooks said.
“Looks like it’s gonna be crowded as hell,” Apollonia muttered.
“Yes,” Brooks agreed. “It is.”
Scale could be hard to tell in space, but it looked much smaller than the Chain had been. Which made sense; even she knew that this close to planetary bodies, having a station as big as MS-29 could be problematic.
“What are those?” she asked, noticing smaller objects near the station. She leaned forward to peer over Brooks’s shoulder.
“Ships,” he said.
“They don’t look like a lot of the other ships I’ve seen,” Apollonia noted. Most ships were long and thin, but still managed to look ungainly and awkward.
These . . . there was a sharpness to them. They had a variety of designs, in all kinds of sizes.
“Fleet ships,” Brooks added, more soberly. “Those big ones are the battleships.”
“Dark,” she said. “Is that ship really ten kilometers long?”
“About,” Brooks said. “Just over nine, I think.”
“And those ones? With all the spikes?” she asked, pointing to another. The scope seemed to understand her gesture and zoomed in on it. The ship was a flat disc with long perpendicular spikes around its edges.
“Artillery ship,” Brooks said. “Each of the arms contains a coilgun.”
“That’s all gun?”
“Yes. They’re tremendously powerful weapons – but also very vulnerable.”
“Glass cannon archetype,” she replied. When he looked surprised, she added; “I’ve played games.”
Y spoke. “Captain, I am receiving docking instructions. Korolev has control.”
Brooks nodded. “That’s right,” he finally said to Apple, then frowned. “There’s always a defense fleet around Luna, but this is more than normal.”
“It appears to be elements from the 17th, 45th, and 149th Guards Fleets,” Y noted. “That is . . . surprising.”
Brooks said nothing, but stared out.
“Is that bad?” Apollonia asked.
“I don’t know,” Brooks said. “The 45th are meant to be on station around Luna right now, and the 17th is under the personal command of System Admiral Vandoss. But the 149th? They’re not normally stationed at Sol . . .”
Apollonia sat back in her seat. All of this was worrying Brooks, but she did not get the significance.
Yet she hesitated asking more. After the last few days, she was starting to get an idea just how little she knew about anything outside her own narrow experiences.
It wasn’t comfortable, to think you had a good idea on what truths the universe rested, and then find out just how wrong you were.
The docking took an hour, but it was dull enough; Apollonia found she actually missed Urle and his tendency to over-explain everything, because she was actually curious about more. Yet she stayed in her self-imposed silence, simply sitting and watching.
When the three disembarked, she followed Brooks.
The docking port fed towards the heart of the station, and when they entered the main hall she froze.
Y stopped immediately and caught Brooks, who glanced back to see her staring.
“Dark, this is big,” she said.
The area had to be a hundred meters tall, and five times that long. Throngs of beings were moving through it, on conveyors or just walking. Thousands of stalls lined the walls, and everything was just . . . beautiful.
The ceiling, far above, was carved marble, made in intricate shapes, every edge a beautiful line. In between those sections were inlaid murals that reminded her of ancient paintings of civilizations long gone.
Each piece of art started with a different ancient region of Earth, showing different people using their own methods to build civilization. It was a full tapestry of humanity, complex and detailed, capturing the whole essence of them more than anything she’d ever seen. It was much like in the elevator she’d ridden in when they’d arrived at Plucharon Station, only on a far grander scale.
Her eyes went back down to look at a series of monumental statues, towering over thirty meters in height. At the fore were carvings of a man and woman, hands raised together and holding the ancient agricultural implements that had let humanity form civilization, the hammer and the sickle.
She’d seen those statues before, they were famous, showing up in stock imagery, memes, posters, even as far out as New Vitriol. Symbols of humanity’s most humble and yet greatest achievement upon which society had been built. No matter how much the fringe colonies disagreed with the Sapient Union and its ways, no one doubted that it had been people working with their own hands that had built it all.
Somehow it had never occurred to her that she might actually see it in person. It was so, so much bigger than she had imagined.
Beyond it were the other statues; she’d seen them, but they weren’t as well-regarded. Each one showed the same two humans, but this time holding hands with an alien – each species that humanity had met and befriended had their own statue.
The closest was a Beetle-Slug, which she’d seen scurrying around on the Craton. She knew they were highly intelligent and meticulously clean, but they creeped her out.
“Sorry,” she said, trying to get herself under some control. “I didn’t mean to hold us up.”
Brooks and Y had been waiting in seemingly no hurry. “It’s no worry. We have time enough,” Brooks said. “We erected these statues in the order we encountered each species. First the Bicet-“
“They were the first aliens we met?” she asked.
“The first intelligent ones. They had been monitoring us for a while, but decided we were worth talking to, so they approached one of our early exploration vessels.”
There were Dessei and Sepht, Corals and Qlerning, and other aliens she did not even know. Some had five limbs and giant eyes on their backs. Others were more like tall crabs, covered in pincers and spikes and eyes placed randomly over their bodies. Yet another was just a bunch of floating things connected by delicate, thin tendrils. The artwork on that one was exquisite.
Her eyes roved further, seeing two pedestals that were empty, though clearly something was in the works.
“For the Shoggoths and Star Angels,” Brooks told her, following her gaze.
“This is the largest open area I’ve ever seen on a space station,” she said, eyes now on the ceiling. “And there are so many people . . .”
“We want to make a good impression,” Brooks said, smiling a little. “This is the seat of it all, for mankind at least. But once we get back into the court areas, it won’t be so fancy, trust me.”
A murmuring of voices behind them made Apollonia look back and see that a new shuttle had just unloaded.
“Excuse me,” a drone said, going above their heads. “No loitering, please. If you need help finding a particular department, I would be happy to-“
“We know the way,” Brooks said.
Apple dawdled, but Brooks put a hand on her shoulder to guide her away. “You’ll get another view of it all – a much better one.”
Other Terrestrial 
11 thoughts on “Episode 5 – Trial, part 1”
Comments are closed.