Chapter 4
Day 353604. Today is my 25th birthday. Today I took my oath as an observer. Father then handed me the record that our ancestor, Stephen Lee Limburg, started the on their trip out from Earth. He started the day count when they passed through the rings of Saturn for the 1st time.
Day 353607. My 4th entry. Today the alien spacecraft that the observers have been following departed the Sol system. They watched it red shift for about six minutes and then it vanished. The observers theorize that it exceeded the speed of light. Our charter forbids us to interfere in any events that may affect the Earth for another 900 plus years.
Day 356572. Today the observers watched an alien spacecraft round up 16 villages of people from different places in Europe and Africa. One of our spacecraft followed until they exceeded 3/4th the speed of light.
Day 356575. The council finally approved the observers to send one of our ships on the trajectory that the alien spacecraft departed the Sol system on. They hope to discover where the aliens took the people they took, although their orders are to observe only and report back.
Day 356662. The observer ship will depart this evening. They are finally loaded. I wish I was going, but wasn't selected because I have a family.
Day 362709. Yesterday another alien spacecraft appeared between the orbits of Mars and Earth. It proceeded directly to a low Earth orbit and discharged a dozen smaller craft. The observer on the moon tracked two that landed in what would later be known as north America. They started on the east coast and worked their way to the west coast. The only things left were the natives fields and cook fires. They even took the livestock.
Observations today show 23 missing villages in the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere did slightly better, but more people are estimated to have been taken from some of the cities. Quite an efficient operation in just 12 hours. Our census section estimates that between 9 and 15 thousand people and about the same number of livestock are now gone.
Day 362711. The council read the report and almost all of them were mad enough to declare war on the aliens. The worse thing about the raid was the fact that the alien ship disappeared between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Evidently they can now transition to their faster than light drive within the solar system gravity well.
A special section of observers is to be established to do a scientific analysis of all the data that was recorded while the alien ship was in the solar system. The council hopes that enough data was recorded to allow us to develop a faster than light drive for our spacecraft.
We cannot stop their raids on Earth due to the charter, but the charter has no effect or prohibition on our actions if we find where the aliens are taking the people they stole.
Day 380000. Three large alien ships appeared near Earth yesterday morning. Two headed for Earth and the third toward the asteroid belt. The third started jumping around the solar system. It only stayed at each location for a few minutes. When it jumped into the Saturn system our defense ships were ready for it. Two of them blasted it with lasers. It immediately jumped out and the next detected location was near the mining sites on Pluto's companions. It returned fire that time, but was damaged. Then it jumped again and we lost it.
Our in-system observation post recorded hundreds of locations raided from Europe to Asia. The monitors on the moon recorded isolated groups of people picked up from each location.
Day 380003. An emergency meeting of the council has determined that the habitats we live in are vulnerable to those aliens. The defense force has been ordered to go to each location the alien ship stopped at in the solar system and investigate. Also immediate plans will be implemented to move everything out of the solar system to the first colony location of the old plan. We will warn each of the three colonies we already sent out.
Day 380025. All known locations have been investigated. Monitoring equipment was detected and either picked up or destroyed at each location.
Day 380038. The monitoring satellites that the aliens left have been reverse engineered and will be melted down and used as raw materials by the mining clan. Electronics only work in a predictable way and their equipment is similar to ours although certain circuits appear more advanced. Unfortunately no faster that light drive units were found. The station keeping propulsion units were ion drive and each contained a small nuclear reactor for power. Analysis showed that they would need to be recharged every 50 to 100 years, so we know have plans to return.
Day 380043. All habitats and half the defense force have started moving. It was decided that we would depart for another star and change trajectories several times, but we would not directly visit the colonies. A defense force squadron would visit them after we were sure that we weren't being followed. The defense force remaining in the solar system was tasked with destroying all evidence of our presence including the complete destruction and moving Pluto's 3rd moon. It was not in any of our original records. It was the richest mining site ever discovered, almost like a small chunk of a planet core.
Day 380121. My youngest daughter will turn 25 tomorrow. She has finished the initial training to become an observer.
Day 380122. At the ceremony this afternoon she received her copy of the record. In my presence and the observer council she made her first entry and proposed that all exterior surfaces of all spacecraft and habitats be examined for alien artifacts before any course changes are made. Her theory was that if the aliens knew we were in the Sol system they would attempt to track us. Also she proposed that the mining council be warned that any mining spacecraft be checked prior to docking with any habitat. All materials mined be completely melted down prior to movement to any habitat or construction site. She also suggested that the communications council be alerted to find a way to muffle all electromagnetic emanations from our ships and habitats. Any unauthorized transmissions be immediately investigated and stopped. Her presentation was excellent. Then she took my record of the day and added it to her record.
I'm back in my quarters now and Dad was so gracious when he handed me a copy of the record and then his recording of today. The observation council indicated that they would implement my suggestions. They also indicated that they would send it to all the councils and get the government council to act upon it immediately. After all we know nothing about these aliens except that they have taken 3 large groups of people from Earth.
Day 380221. Today I heard a theory submitted by one of the young scientific types, low on the totem pole, from the science council. His analysis of our observations indicates to him that the aliens weren't gathering people to experiment on, but probably to set up a long term observation situation. He suggested that we refine our stealth technology and send back several heavily armed spacecraft to observe the aliens. We might even construct several special habitats to make long term observations and several more to explore all the surrounding stars.
Day 380245. The mining council requested that they be allowed to send teams back to Sol system to build gravity plates to mount on the 3rd moon of Pluto and move it to our main location. The government council approved their plan and one of their habitats with all volunteers aboard will change course as soon as they finish transferring personnel.
Day 380251. This morning the mining habitat, Wanderer, changed course back to Pluto. Three observers and their families were aboard to maintain records. Their plan is to build a propulsion system on Pluto's moon along with enough weapon systems to defend it from the aliens. The Wanderer will be incorporated into the moon as a control, observation, and living station. Other suitable objects in the Sol system will be similarly modified. Each will be mobile, armed, and placed in an orbit within the system that looks natural. Stealth, armament, mobility, and ability to survive will be the first 4 requirements of each observation station set up.
The defense council proposed that a warrior class be formed to attack the aliens as soon as they are
located. The government council denied them. It said that the defense force would be sufficient for at least the next 500 years, but allowed them to expand it by 200% over the next 300 years. That will bring them up to over a million active fighters. Since everyone now has their own niche, they'll be recruiting every time the education system has a graduation.
The government council changed our course to the nearest star. Their plan is to stop for 50 years and mine the asteroid belts and move on, provided no intelligent life is detected by the survey teams sent out in advance. Any sign of civilization in any stage will disqualify the star system.
~
Day 480624. This morning the announcement was finally made public. The faster than light communications system is fully implemented. Contact with the Wanderer and its defense force along with the 12 outlying mining groups at other stars is complete. Contact also was made with one colony. The other two were not at the stars they were supposed to be. The government council is pondering a plan to send exploration expeditions out to find them.