Ships of the Light-Short Story
Posted: 2004-07-03 05:15am
A/N: This is going to be liberally sprinkled with alien words, some of which will not be explained directly, so you’ll have to take their meanings from context.
The Ge’en Mugh clicked his beak in irritation as he surveyed the council gathered around him. Too many new faces, and he was no longer certain where he lay in the group’s pecking order…
“We call this meeting to attention at the seventh meh tak of the third day of the three thousandth two hundredth year of the most holy reign of the Ge’en Mugh’Ke Imperium”
As the High Councillor droned on, the Ge’en Mugh relaxed slightly, resting on his single foot. As a high priest of the Ge’en Mugh’Ke, the True Light, he theoretically had great power; however religion was, in practice, the province of the generals, leaving the High Priest to do nothing except look decorative. He was half certain they only let him into the meeting sanctum to avoid a public outcry. He decided to pay attention to the Councillor after all.
“….These Te’ran have been observed to have colonised their solar system, being in possession of several planetary colonies and many thousands of space stations. Their homeworld appears to possess an atmosphere we would find breathable. They also possess an extensive fleet of interplanetary star ships, with extremely limited faster-than-light capability, and their space-going military seems to have parity with ours in numerical terms.” This occasioned scorn from the admirals, their tentacles waving in the pattern of indignation. “Our scout probes remain undetected, but have managed to gather extensive information on the configurations of their warships.”
A hologram leapt into existence in the centre of the meeting chamber, drawing a cacophony of startled beak clicks and incredulous whistles from the gathered council. Their tentacles moved furiously, and their skins flashed horror and disbelief in equal shades. One of the generals was first to speak:
“Blasphemy! The alien ship is not in accordance with the Ge’en kam! Look at its engines, its hull shape!” A second hologram materialised, showing a ship of the True Light in comparison. There was a stark contrast between the sacred vertical half-circle profile of the Ship of the Light and the ugly rectangular outline of the alien vessel. The Mugh ship possessed four weapons, two each at the dorsal and ventral surfaces, as was holy and proper, as well as a pair of engines at the sides. Along its hull, manoeuvring thrusters emulated the bilateral symmetry of the Mugh’s tentacles, and devotions to the Light were imprinted across its hull.
The alien ship, on the other hand, was a rectangle with sensors and engines protruding from the front as well as the rear, with thrusters and weapon systems scattered all along its hull. To the amusement of the admirals, the vessel appeared to have some weaponry capable of facing rearward; as if any true warship ever needed to retreat!
One of the representatives of the Scientific Orders ventured his opinion:
“This alien vessel appears to possess more weaponry than a demi-fleet of Ships of the Light, and our analysis of its internal configuration suggests that it is segmented inside, possibly to reduce damage in event of a hull breach. I am unsure as to how efficacious our fleets would be in contact with such ships-” He was cut off by a sharp crack as one of the admirals struck the table with a tentacle.
“What is this? You feeble spawnling, you speak of numbers and science when war is a matter for faith! We will crush these Te’ran as we destroyed the Dre’Sen, for who can stand against the Light?” The rhetorical question echoed in the chamber, for all present knew that, of course, the holy Crusade Fleets of the Mugh could not be defeated in battle.
The High Priest clicked his beak in affirmation, as much to keep up appearances as for anything else. However, even as he listened, he remembered that in the war against the Dre’Sen, they had outnumbered the enemy fifty to one, and the Dre’Sen had only had space flight for three decades.
The Ge’en Mugh clicked his beak in irritation as he surveyed the council gathered around him. Too many new faces, and he was no longer certain where he lay in the group’s pecking order…
“We call this meeting to attention at the seventh meh tak of the third day of the three thousandth two hundredth year of the most holy reign of the Ge’en Mugh’Ke Imperium”
As the High Councillor droned on, the Ge’en Mugh relaxed slightly, resting on his single foot. As a high priest of the Ge’en Mugh’Ke, the True Light, he theoretically had great power; however religion was, in practice, the province of the generals, leaving the High Priest to do nothing except look decorative. He was half certain they only let him into the meeting sanctum to avoid a public outcry. He decided to pay attention to the Councillor after all.
“….These Te’ran have been observed to have colonised their solar system, being in possession of several planetary colonies and many thousands of space stations. Their homeworld appears to possess an atmosphere we would find breathable. They also possess an extensive fleet of interplanetary star ships, with extremely limited faster-than-light capability, and their space-going military seems to have parity with ours in numerical terms.” This occasioned scorn from the admirals, their tentacles waving in the pattern of indignation. “Our scout probes remain undetected, but have managed to gather extensive information on the configurations of their warships.”
A hologram leapt into existence in the centre of the meeting chamber, drawing a cacophony of startled beak clicks and incredulous whistles from the gathered council. Their tentacles moved furiously, and their skins flashed horror and disbelief in equal shades. One of the generals was first to speak:
“Blasphemy! The alien ship is not in accordance with the Ge’en kam! Look at its engines, its hull shape!” A second hologram materialised, showing a ship of the True Light in comparison. There was a stark contrast between the sacred vertical half-circle profile of the Ship of the Light and the ugly rectangular outline of the alien vessel. The Mugh ship possessed four weapons, two each at the dorsal and ventral surfaces, as was holy and proper, as well as a pair of engines at the sides. Along its hull, manoeuvring thrusters emulated the bilateral symmetry of the Mugh’s tentacles, and devotions to the Light were imprinted across its hull.
The alien ship, on the other hand, was a rectangle with sensors and engines protruding from the front as well as the rear, with thrusters and weapon systems scattered all along its hull. To the amusement of the admirals, the vessel appeared to have some weaponry capable of facing rearward; as if any true warship ever needed to retreat!
One of the representatives of the Scientific Orders ventured his opinion:
“This alien vessel appears to possess more weaponry than a demi-fleet of Ships of the Light, and our analysis of its internal configuration suggests that it is segmented inside, possibly to reduce damage in event of a hull breach. I am unsure as to how efficacious our fleets would be in contact with such ships-” He was cut off by a sharp crack as one of the admirals struck the table with a tentacle.
“What is this? You feeble spawnling, you speak of numbers and science when war is a matter for faith! We will crush these Te’ran as we destroyed the Dre’Sen, for who can stand against the Light?” The rhetorical question echoed in the chamber, for all present knew that, of course, the holy Crusade Fleets of the Mugh could not be defeated in battle.
The High Priest clicked his beak in affirmation, as much to keep up appearances as for anything else. However, even as he listened, he remembered that in the war against the Dre’Sen, they had outnumbered the enemy fifty to one, and the Dre’Sen had only had space flight for three decades.
