The Speck

When the Captain informed us that a promising new world had been discovered, we were ecstatic. So the Predictors had been right...the primitive radio waves which had been detected on the last scouting mission hadn't been a glitch in the new equipment after all.

Every single one of the crew stood at the window as we slowly passed the solar system's outer planets.  As the tiny speck  in the far distance slowly came into view I heard at least two gasps as the insignificant little rock turned into a blue ball of wonder. It was a rare thing indeed  to see something so magnificent this far from our region of space. It was totally unexpected.

Our silent admiration was rudely interrupted when the battle-stations-alert assaulted  our ears and we swiftly took up our positions. There would be no more rest now until the job was done.

“I never understand why we bother with this bit,” said the engineer at my side as he collected the streaming data.  He specialised in the inter-species language translator and was tweaking the instrument panel for the first transmission.

I knew exactly what he meant but a sentient species always needed careful handling and sometimes an unsophisticated approach worked best. And that is what I would try first. Nothing fancy just a simple ' we come in peace.'  It usually worked wonders, so that is what I did. This species seemed more intelligent than most of the others we'd encountered recently so I could not believe they fell for it. 

I felt a slight pang of regret as they seemed so eager to get to know us.  But I had my orders. This world would now be added to our ever-expanding Empire and become home to our ever-expanding population. 





(297 words)