A Proper Meeting

The sun had set, and the planet dominated the sky, the swirls of color it was painted with brightly illuminated. The shadow of the moon would transit the planet’s face in a while. The telescope and camera were set up to capture it when it showed.

There wasn’t much else for a Royal Expeditionary Frontier Police officer like T-937/K, “Tik” to his peers, to do this far into the neutral zone. He knew what he wanted to do, but the chance of doing it here was as close to nil as to make no difference.

He checked the time on his eye implant, setting it to hover at the edge of his vision. After double-checking that the telescope and camera were properly set to capture the transit shadow, he focused on the time remaining until he needed to start the tracking.

“Hey, Tik, how many of those transit videos do you have now?”

“Morning, Kel. If this one is good, it’ll be four good ones and half a dozen that aren’t worth mentioning.” K-371/L was a fellow officer of equal rank, but she had seniority, being a year older than he was.

“Well, better focusing on something you can see and record than—,” she cut herself off. “I mean, it’s good that you have something else to think about.”

“Rather than proving they exist?” he asked. “I swear it was them, when my parents … its image is seared in my brain.”

Kel lay on the ground near him. “You remember a lot of stuff from before you were taken in to the police crèche. Do you remember your name?”

“I don’t,” he said, “but I’m sure I had one that wasn’t T-937/K or Tik. But most of what I remember is flashes, vague images, and … that day. Why don’t you have any memories before that?”

“I was taken in at birth.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were a legacy.”

“I’m not,” she said, “or at least I’ve been told I’m not.”

Tik held silent as the final moments ticked down and he started the telescope and camera, tracking the moon’s shadow beginning just below the horizon. “I thought the only newborns allowed were—”

“The children of officers, yeah,” she cut him off. “I don’t think any of us really know where we came from. They tell us what we need to hear in the crèche to mold us into proper officers.”

“I remember where I came from,” he said, rubbing the scar that ran down his face from temple to jaw, “even if it is just in flashes. I especially remember what happened the day my parents were killed, when the monsters were there.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I believe you.” She rubbed his shoulder. “You won’t ever be able to prove it, but I believe you believe you saw what you say you saw.”

Tik snorted a short laugh. “Thanks for the rousing endorsement.”

Kel pointed at the sky. “We’re a long way from the main shipping lanes, but do you think they might show up here?”

“I doubt it, but I’ll have a better chance of catching them if I’m looking at the sky when they do.” Tik groaned. “The transit videos are getting boring, and the great storm hasn’t changed since we got here.”

“Hey, amateur astronomer, is that a tiny moon, or an asteroid?” Kel asked.

Tik looked toward the area of the sky where she had pointed. It was too small to be any of the known moons or moonlets of the planet above them, and it reflected the light of the sun in a way an asteroid likely wouldn’t.

He removed the aiming scope from the telescope and pointed it at the object. “It’s a ship,” he said, “but not one of ours.”

Kel snatched the scope away and looked for herself. “That’s a weird ship. Maybe one of the colony freighters?”

“No,” Tik said in a near-whisper, “I think it’s them.”

“Your obsession needs to take a break.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Tik snatched the aiming scope back, reattached it to the telescope and pointed at the ship, following it manually.

Kel fell silent as she watched the telescope focus on the ship in the camera’s display. The writing on the ship was unlike any from anywhere in the Empire and Commonwealth. Not even among the civilizations outside the E&C, most of whom had at worst strained relations and at best trade partner status.

Tik’s hands shook, and he was glad the telescope was heavy and self-stabilizing. “The rectangle mark on the front of the ship, I remember that.”

“Is it changing direction?” Kel asked.

“It is.” He kept tracking the ship, even when it was only visible by a few lights as it passed through the shadow of the moon. “It’s coming toward us.”

“That’s pretty obvious,” she said, “since we’re looking more at the front than the side.”

Tik tracked the ship with the telescope as it passed overhead until it passed below the horizon. He opened the small terminal of the telescope and began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to get an estimate of its expected orbit.”

“To get more video of it?”

“No, I’ve got to warn command.”

“Tik, what if it’s just—” Kel trailed off.

The terminal spit out a tape with markings that could be read by a tracking console, like the one on the telescope … or in a trans-orbital shuttle. He grabbed the tape and ran for the barracks.

It was only after pounding at the watch commander’s door that he realized he’d left the telescope behind. It couldn’t be helped, this was more important.

“Come in, T-937/K. What’s got you by the tail?”

He laid the tape on the commander’s desk. “Alien vessel, currently orbiting this moon. I think it’s—” he stopped himself.

“You think the monsters have come back for you?” the commander asked with more than a hint of derision in her voice.

“Commander, it doesn’t matter what I think,” he said, “there’s an alien vessel out there with markings that don’t match anything known.”

The commander fed the tape into a reader on her desk and waited while the image on her wall changed. “Let’s just see what we have. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

The image came up and the watch commander stood in stunned silence for a moment. “Full scramble, intercept, detain and ascertain threat.”

“Yes, sir!” Tik ran out of the office while the console sent out the command to all on-duty units to intercept the unknown ship.

Tik jumped into the first open boarding shuttle he found and was surprised to see Kel already there. “I left the telescope,” he said.

“I brought it as far as the launch field when the alarm went out. It’s sitting in hangar seven.”

“Thanks.” Tik shrugged into one of the body armors hanging in the shuttle and checked that the comms and camera were working. He then grabbed a rifle from the rack, made sure it was charged, and the safety was on.

“Who knows?” Kel asked. “We might prove that one of the cryptoxenology creatures are real.”

Tik sneered. “Is that what you think? They’re like the Aldeveran asteroid monster or something?”

She didn’t get a chance to respond, as the intercom crackled to life. “Approaching alien vessel. No sign of weapons, and they’ve extended a docking port. Environmentals on, weapons safe.”

Tik fastened the breather around his neck and checked again that his weapon was on safe. He lined up first to step out once they had docked.

The warning lights came on, flashing amber, as the inner door to the docking ring airlock opened. An enclosed walkway stood in front of them, open into a large bay in the alien ship.

As soon as the outer airlock door opened, Tik stepped through to the walkway and made his way into the alien ship, his weapon at low ready.

He stepped into the bay and saw them, freezing him in panic. It was the same one he had nightmares about, but it seemed even bigger in real life.

It spoke with a heavy accent. “Hello. We are researchers. We have been analyzing your signals for a long time now, and when we saw you so close to our home, we stopped for a look.” It turned toward Tik and dropped to its knees. It reached a gentle hand out and caressed the scar down his face. “It’s you. You made it. I’m sorry I got there too late for the others.”

Tik didn’t know how to respond. He’d spent every waking moment trying to find evidence of the monsters that killed his parents and took their ship, and every sleeping moment in nightmares of finding them, and now … now it was here, touching his face, and he felt no fear.

“I thought you killed them,” he said, “but I’m not scared of you.”

“I didn’t. The pirates left everyone for dead when we showed up. You were in bad shape, but one of your own people in a uniform like yours came and took you away.” Tears rolled down the monster’s face as it embraced Tik as if he were its own child.

Tik released his hold on his weapon, letting it hang by the sling as he returned the embrace. The monster … alien … was twice his size but held him gently. Tik felt lighter, as if the weight of the past had been lifted from his shoulders.

He was brought out of it by Kel stepping on his tail. “Ouch! What’s that for?”

“You found your cryptids,” she said, “but I thought you were going to hunt them to extinction?”

“I—I’ve been remembering it wrong. The monsters didn’t kill my parents and take the ship, they saved me.”

“I wish I could’ve done more,” the monster said.

“I can’t just keep calling you monster,” Tik said, “what are you? What do you call yourself?”

“My name is Alibeth, and I’m a human. It’s a pleasure to finally have a proper meeting,” she said.