Khor had enough. It was another log, which she had to watch and which described real atrocities.
Their space project had started eight years ago and for six of those years they had been sure they were the only sentient life form in the galaxy. None of planets, which resembled their own, thus in theory were fairly good candidates to be inhabited, showed any signs of life. The first time they had encountered aliens was by accident. The spaceship was damaged, it had to land on some super hot world and it occurred to be full of sentient life with quite advanced civilisation at that!
So they have stopped searching for others only on planets, which resembled their own, they started to look everywhere.
The Sharo was the seventh ship that had left their home planet in search of other life forms and succeeded in its mission. And, just as its predecessors, barely escaped alive from that encounter.
Some of the aliens were openly hostile, some pretended to be friendly, but the end was always the same. The Sharo met the first sort.
The Sharo was attacked. The alien ship looked like a bird; it even had a bird painted on its hull. There was no provocation, captain Zar wanted to talk to them, that's all. And since the aliens didn't want to listen, he had to fight to protect his ship and crew. He boarded the alien vessel and there he was fried. The aliens fried him. They set the temperature in the lower deck to unbearable level and that way killed whole boarding party. Zar was one of their greatest national heroes – he was the one, who piloted their first prototype of a spaceship. He did NOT deserve to die like this. The aliens murdered him. And while he was the first one in space, he was not the first one to be murdered by outworlders.
Khor couldn't think about it... She closed her eyes, but her mind replayed the picture again, in spite of her internal protests.
“Khor, I was thinking...” Khor's colleague, Thal, spoke, interrupting her reverie. “Maybe we look at it from the wrong side.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, glad there was something to take her thoughts away from the horrible pictures in her head.
“Our people died, after they boarded the alien ship. They were literally cooked. There were also incidents of death on other planets. At first we assumed those were extremely hot planets, but I wonder... each of that planet was inhabited by sentient beings...”
“What's your point?”
“My point it that maybe it's not them, who set up a devious plan to cook us all. Maybe we are unique?”
“You mean... those were accidents?”
“I don't know if they all were accidents. The craft, which had landed, was robbed of everything, so those aliens aren't exactly the friendliest in the galaxy, but...”
His voice trailed off. Khor understood what he meant.
“We need protection.”
“Precisely. We can't visit anyone, until we find a way to protect ourselves from their deviousness... and their extreme temperatures.”
She thought for a while.
“We are safe on our ships. But we are not, when we leave them. We need some kind of armours, covering our bodies to protect us from that incredible heat, to which aliens seem to be immune.”
Thal nodded vigorously, while Khor took a pencil and started drawing on a board.
“A thick armour,” she kept speaking. “Here, it would be flexible enough, but the material must be strong enough to protect and--”
“No,” he took an eraser and erased part of her drawing. “Look,” he drew a shoulder of the armour anew, this time it was created by partially overlapping long tiles.
“Good!” Khor approved. “That's really good! And for the eyes... We need something that wouldn't block the vision, even peripheral vision.”
“How about a long strip in front of the mask, just above the snout?”
“We could also implement a belt for weapons and other necessities.”
“It would be light, comfortable and keep the tempera--”
“What are you two doing?!” boomed the Overseer's voice behind them.
They both turned to the door to face him. Then they looked at each other, and back at him and replied in unison:
“Refrigeration suits!”
Their space project had started eight years ago and for six of those years they had been sure they were the only sentient life form in the galaxy. None of planets, which resembled their own, thus in theory were fairly good candidates to be inhabited, showed any signs of life. The first time they had encountered aliens was by accident. The spaceship was damaged, it had to land on some super hot world and it occurred to be full of sentient life with quite advanced civilisation at that!
So they have stopped searching for others only on planets, which resembled their own, they started to look everywhere.
The Sharo was the seventh ship that had left their home planet in search of other life forms and succeeded in its mission. And, just as its predecessors, barely escaped alive from that encounter.
Some of the aliens were openly hostile, some pretended to be friendly, but the end was always the same. The Sharo met the first sort.
The Sharo was attacked. The alien ship looked like a bird; it even had a bird painted on its hull. There was no provocation, captain Zar wanted to talk to them, that's all. And since the aliens didn't want to listen, he had to fight to protect his ship and crew. He boarded the alien vessel and there he was fried. The aliens fried him. They set the temperature in the lower deck to unbearable level and that way killed whole boarding party. Zar was one of their greatest national heroes – he was the one, who piloted their first prototype of a spaceship. He did NOT deserve to die like this. The aliens murdered him. And while he was the first one in space, he was not the first one to be murdered by outworlders.
Khor couldn't think about it... She closed her eyes, but her mind replayed the picture again, in spite of her internal protests.
“Khor, I was thinking...” Khor's colleague, Thal, spoke, interrupting her reverie. “Maybe we look at it from the wrong side.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, glad there was something to take her thoughts away from the horrible pictures in her head.
“Our people died, after they boarded the alien ship. They were literally cooked. There were also incidents of death on other planets. At first we assumed those were extremely hot planets, but I wonder... each of that planet was inhabited by sentient beings...”
“What's your point?”
“My point it that maybe it's not them, who set up a devious plan to cook us all. Maybe we are unique?”
“You mean... those were accidents?”
“I don't know if they all were accidents. The craft, which had landed, was robbed of everything, so those aliens aren't exactly the friendliest in the galaxy, but...”
His voice trailed off. Khor understood what he meant.
“We need protection.”
“Precisely. We can't visit anyone, until we find a way to protect ourselves from their deviousness... and their extreme temperatures.”
She thought for a while.
“We are safe on our ships. But we are not, when we leave them. We need some kind of armours, covering our bodies to protect us from that incredible heat, to which aliens seem to be immune.”
Thal nodded vigorously, while Khor took a pencil and started drawing on a board.
“A thick armour,” she kept speaking. “Here, it would be flexible enough, but the material must be strong enough to protect and--”
“No,” he took an eraser and erased part of her drawing. “Look,” he drew a shoulder of the armour anew, this time it was created by partially overlapping long tiles.
“Good!” Khor approved. “That's really good! And for the eyes... We need something that wouldn't block the vision, even peripheral vision.”
“How about a long strip in front of the mask, just above the snout?”
“We could also implement a belt for weapons and other necessities.”
“It would be light, comfortable and keep the tempera--”
“What are you two doing?!” boomed the Overseer's voice behind them.
They both turned to the door to face him. Then they looked at each other, and back at him and replied in unison:
“Refrigeration suits!”
