A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09 -- and, this angel will sing the happy ending at the end!
It is not every day when you arrive on the bridge as a fleet captain and see what is, for potentially your entire civilization, the Green Angel of Death, and you are in a mere starship. Now, technically, a starship like the Amanirenas could destroy a civilization, given enough time to do it … we have “planet-wrecker” level of torpedoes for the purpose, but it is an entirely different proposition to see such a creature in person that is at least equal to a starship. Plasma-based creatures are just on another order of magnitude in power.
We had been monitoring the situation in the Baloanaweigh System for days after evacuating it … some human settlers had decided to poach some resources from the next-door Suliibruum System, and that had led to a problem for them and humanity's advance not experienced for 3,000 years since the Thakesians had invaded from next door.
The Thakesians had their comfortably habitable planets where they were moving all things they had pilfered from next door – only to have the atmospheres and crusts blown off by what is known as the Suliibruum Scream, and the organic material eaten by the Sullibruum Fly afterward, but …
“From what we can tell now, Admiral, Captain, Commander, and Lieutenant Commander,” Lt. Almuz my chief communication officer was saying, “These are all forms of the same creature – the eaters of the organic material blown off the planets are the younger ones, and this is the peaceful form of a mature screamer.”
“Is it still just in talking mood?” I said.
“Yes, and we have made a great deal of progress since that one on the screen appeared – I think that is a messenger or ambassador, because it is definitely listening to us and our attempts to communicate with it translated through humanoid Suliibruum. But its own communication – it keeps coming toward a range that is almost in the grasp of the universal translator, but then stops, and we get this three-pulse pattern across octaves before again, things are way out of range.”
“Can you loop that three-pulse pattern for us, Lieutenant?” Cmdr. Helmut Allemande said.
Lt. Almuz did so, and the sound came through clearly … well within safe limits for human hearing with the compression on, and getting toward musicality.
“Sad, calm, noble,” Cmdr. Allemande said. “Compared to the Sullibruum Scream and Buzz, that is amazing.”
“OK, but not too much even of that,” Lt. Cmdr. James Doohan said after transferring engineering controls to the bridge. “We've got a resonance going on in the warp coils with that thing that close – it's not severe, Captain, and we're compensating, but we don't need to get any closer than we are.”
“The sheer power of it, all the way down into a nearly bearable range,” I said.
“Yes, Captain, the compressor is still on, and yes, we would still suffer severe hearing loss even on this three-note pulse pattern if I overrode the computer's safeties,” Lt. Almuz said. “It is almost comprehensible, but – oh, Mr. Oahuapedal is back on the line.”
“I figured it out, Lt. Almuz – the creature doesn't want to talk to the universe yet. It is purposely frustrating us in that. It wants to talk with a specific individual on your ship.”
Sure enough, on the real-time feed coming in, the same three-pulse pattern came in even more insistently -- we could see it visually ramping up, and forming familiar shapes even before Lt. Almuz switched the sound back on.
“OK, those are actual chords,” Lt. Almuz said.
“That's an F sharp minor 13 or so with a sharp 13th, in two different registrations, resolving to a straight F sharp minor triad … and again … and to an F sharp minor seventh,” Cmdr. Allemande said.
My uncle, Admiral Benjamin Banneker-Jackson, sighed deeply.
“We know the Suliibruum Scream is actually one colossal C minor diminished seventh in our hearing range but extending into both the hypersonic and infrasonic ranges in its harmonics, and there's an F sharp, an A, and an E flat standing in for the D sharp we hear right now in this, the differing note being C sharp … but this is much more consonant and settled … close enough to the scream in that high-low pattern, but a galaxy apart.”
“OK, but, how has this thing learned music theory and jazz substitutions that are messing with our warp core that fast – oh – Captain – the resonances are resolving in the warp core without our compensation!” Lt. Cmdr. Doohan said.
“It does understand us, and is not trying to hurt us,” Lt. Almuz said as he checked the board. “The internal pattern has changed again … still not within safe hearing or universal translator range, but getting closer.”
Cmdr. Allemande noticed something else.
“Captain, it's not just that it is a three-pulse pattern, or even three chords … all the way across the range, it is two short notes that are the same followed by a long one. Now, the creature probably does not yet understand Morse Code, or anything about human poetic rhythms, so, that must represent a word or a phrase that it would already know in common with us, in limited contact.”
“Short-short-long, and already understands jazz theory,” Lt. Almuz said.
“I sang to you earlier out of my grandmother's song,” Adm. Banneker-Jackson said. “Hush – somebody's calling my name.”
Ban-ne-ker … Ban-ne-ker … it was a fanciful idea in some ways, but then, Adm. Bodega had been broadcasting my uncle's 50-year-old report for weeks in the system, and, as it happened, although the humanoid Suliibruum had worshiped their plasma-based neighbors for some hundreds of years before the modern period, only one person had attempted to study them … to reach out to understand why they had done what they had done. That was then-Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Banneker.
Suddenly, Lt. Almuz had to turn the safeties up – the three-pulse pattern had gotten just that much louder.
“We are struggling in the warp core again!” Lt. Cmdr. Doohan said.
Admiral Banneker-Jackson sat down next to Lt. Almuz at the communications console.
“Banneker ... Banneker ... listening ... listening,” he sang in his beautiful baritone.
Suddenly, it was silent … you could have heard a pin drop on the bridge … and then, an almost caressing version of the three-pulse pattern came forth.
“Yes, this is Benjamin Banneker, speaking – I'm married now and have added Jackson to my name this year, but it is really me.”
“How does he know that is what they are asking?” Lt. Cmdr Doohan said quietly to Cmdr. Allemande.
“It is the logical question to ask,” Cmdr. Allemande said, “and also, the admiral is one of those few old humans that, like an aging Uppaaimar, appears to be developing telepathic ability – or at least is such a developed empath that it substitutes.”
Lt. Almuz drew my attention to the board …
“It is coming across into universal translator range for transcription … now … .”
“Admiral … Banneker … Banneker … Banneker … Read to us … knowing us … read to us … read to us.”
Adm. Banneker-Jackson looked over.
“Yes, that's what I thought you said,” he said. “You want me to read you my report from 50 years ago … all right, I'll do that, but I ask that you ask a few questions and take a few questions so we can all learn how to talk with you.”
So, he sat there and read to the creature, participating in a vast call-and-response for some hours.
“Is it just me or is that thing beginning to sound hopeful and happy?” Ensign Pushkin said to Lt. Morimoto as I resumed my place in the captain's chair. The lieutenant had the comm while I and Cmdr. Allemande were absent, and returned to his tactical station upon my return.
“I hope so,” the lieutenant said to the ensign in charge of navigation. “We certainly do not want it to despair of humanity with us as the nearest representatives!”
By that time I had updated full fleet admiral Elian Bodega, and Adm. Bodega was listening to what he could of the conversation and had a few questions for me.
“Now, I know Adm. Triefield my rank peer is a quarter-Vulcan,” he said, “but isn't your family fully human?”
“As far as I know,” I said. “But, Adm. Banneker-Jackson is, like his grandmother, my great-grandmother, just different.”
“But then how is he keeping up in a conversation the universal translator for transcription is lagging by 2-5 seconds?”
“Admiral, if I knew, I would tell you. Perhaps cultivating listening as a lifestyle unlocks human powers we have lost from ancient days.”
“I'm definitely going to have it studied!” Adm. Bodega said. “If we could cultivate those powers, I'd have to spend less time trying to figure out how to rescue 900 million humans on some foolishness a couple thousand were doing and were told not to do 3,000 years ago, 50 years ago, and also last month!”
But then I thought of something my uncle had often said to friends when hearing a story of how intelligent people got into big trouble: “Human pride and human sense of entitlement trumps human intelligence every time.”
And, in fact, that was the vein of conversation he was in with the mightier Suliibruum species at that moment.
“I cannot dispute your characterization of humanity as at war with itself and its Creator, having the history of invasion and theft and brutality that we do on our own home world in past days, but now on a primarily on a mission of peace … like the Vulcans, we nearly destroyed ourselves and our planet before we realized that the way we were going into the 22nd century was going to lead to our extinction, so we had to change … there are also some of us who have chosen to remember and believe and practice the reality that we were created to be stewards of blessing … there are also some of us who recognize that the sentient beings of the galaxy do not have to welcome us, and we must be good neighbors and good stewards of our great powers now.”
“Yes, I am all three, with the addendum that I recognize all beings have the dignity given them by their Creator, and thus must be respected as such … yes, but, 'made in the image of God' for humanity does not mean we are entitled to be disrespectful to each other or any other creature. It means we are even more responsible to be a blessing for everything we encounter … no, that is not common thinking … oh, it puts me at your responsibility level? … oh, 'added power, added responsibility' … right … I understand.”
Long story short: the Suliibruum worlds are essentially gemstone planets, and would have been completely overrun by spacegoing civilizations with no sense of responsibility except that the native humanoids were given essentially a set of immensely powerful guardian angels. The Thakesians were the second civilization to get blown away, and humanity's footprint had likewise been blown out of the region … but … .”
“Captain,” my uncle said, “inform Adm. Bodega that the fleet has been given permission to go rescue the survivors who have taken refuge in the outer layers of Baloanaweigh 7.”
Approximately 900 million humans had settled in the Baloanaweigh system. Owing to this third chance at rescue, with the Suliibruum guardians having accounted for the difference between the Thakesians and humans, all but the most committed to their right to take from their neighbors in the Suliibruum System were rescued.
The humanoid Sullibruum were astonished that we had established spoken communication with their plasma-based counterparts. They would soon enough join the conversation and learn about much of their own history from their guardians' perspective, and talk together about whether the only way the guardians' knew to take care of invaders was the only option. Eventually, the Suliibruum worlds would join the consortium, and our fleet would take over security duties on a ship-by-ship scale. So, the Suliibruum Scream would not need to be heard again, at least not in the region of space the consortium administered.
“You really are becoming an ambassador,” Adm. Bodega said to Adm. Banneker-Jackson about this.
My uncle smiled.
“Our new friends and I talked about that – I am an ambassador, always, and a steward of blessing.”
“Fifty years of work … had a sad beginning, but what a happy ending!” Adm. Bodega said.
“Music to everybody's ears!” Adm. Banneker-Jackson said.
*Indeed … and here it is … *
