olycksalig

Voice over description of photos and film clips showing the armament of Earth. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. Earth's production of interstellar starships had already ramped up, with several massive automated nanite fabrication facilities manufacturing battle-ready cruisers at the rate of seven ships a day. The bottleneck was no longer ship production but training crews. Once word got out that the Earth faced the very real threat of annihilation in mere weeks, if not days, the various independent armed forces united completely under the world government and virtually all were pressed into immediate shipboard service. Again, the Luuga nanite technology was put to good use. Each of the new ships received a nanite produced AI similar to Penelope's Denindron. In addition, the newer ships, the ones built during the latest weeks, were now including both a regenerating nanite skin and built-in nanite fabrication facilities. These ships could, if given the time, repair themselves completely

Extract from Commander Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. A lot can be said about the captive Vyrvl Opeka. It's story is a sorrowful one, which I've dedicated a separated chapter to in the appendix of these recollections. But it was soon clear that Opeka had been treated badly by its own beings and I decided that I wished to treat this alien way better. First of all, in lack of a better protocol, we applied the UN rules of war prisoners upon Opeka. Meaning in short that treat it humanely. And I'm willing to stand up for my belief that what we refer to as 'humane' is actually an universal set of ideas, that do not vary that much between sentient beings. Opeka was understandably concerned about letting an alien tamper with its brain, a least until I explained to it that unlike the Elders, we humans were about to give Opeka a choice. This, combined with the hopelessness of the situation, eventually won Opeka over. Meanwhile, the engineers of Emilio Saragossa's team

Extract from Commander Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. So there I was, newly born into my third life – or however one should express what had occurred to me. It sounded, to an untrained ear, like talking about a cat or something. It was clear that the semantics of any Earthly language lacked a description for what had happened to me. Revival felt so – inadequate. Like when Rock music made a comeback the previous decade with guitar-based acts like Shut Doors, Pigeye and Contraband. But I had actually been dead, clinically, biologically and juridically. But while I after my first death had lost everything I owned, inherited by my siblings, there were now laws in effect that prevented this to happen. At least in the EU area, which made it applicable on board the ESA ships like Penelope, (The US, Canada, Japan, Australia, India and Vergina had similar laws these days too) which meant that I still kept my bank account and my vinyl records. These newfangled laws

Extract from Commander Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. I'd been right. The Admiral had not liked my foolhardy plan, nor could he dissuade me, but ultimately he'd agreed that the rewards well outweighed the risks. The problem with the cloaked shuttle we were using was that there were very few options for leaving the shuttle and entering the Vyrvl's vessel in order to plant the tracker. Opening a door on the shuttle would disrupt the cloak. A person wearing a vacuum suit tethered to the shuttle would also be exposed. The solution had been suggested by Denindron. My unique Luuga nanites, and their ability to change my physiology, meant not only that I was able to survive the rigors of space without a vacuum suit, but even more important in this case, I could literally coat myself with a thin layer of metal. This would allow a miniature version of the shuttle's cloaking displacement shield to mould over my body while my Luuga enhanced muscles clung to the exterior of

Extract from Admiral Roger Van Havre's autobiography Aspera Ad Astra: I had never aspired to have my name written down in the books of space history, not to mention history full stop. But being on board the Penelope did that to you. We were preparing for war, and while Churchill may have talked about the end of the beginning, I wasn't even sure if this was the beginning of the beginning or just a prelude. But whatever it was, it was the opening notes to the symphony that might well be mankind's last. And I had my fears that it would well be so too, because this space-flying enemy seemed way ahead of us humans in just about everything. Just to come here proved that much. And they were hostile to say the least. So whatever history book I was going to be in might well be short cut and forgotten anyway. Now, Commander Spera and her crew were a set of competent and brave people whom I put my full trust in. At least when it came to doing their best, as they had proved over and over they did.

Extract from Commander Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. The bridge of Penelope had soon become my new home. Mine together with Ariadne, Emilio, Daniel, and a few other valiant souls. We played music from the 20th century and had food brought here, and some of us even took to sleeping on the couches in the longue, not every night of course, but enough for others to ask them to get a life or so. Others were decorating. First little motion stickers displaying beloved ones, cute kittens and cool vehicles, but soon there were plushie mascots and Persian carpets all over the place. I spent the bulk of my first days going over system after system of the large ship in an effort to become, if not an expert, so at least fully acquainted with their capabilities and shortcomings. It was amazing to grasp that Titania, which had been state-of-the-art just six months before, was now based on seriously dated technology. I almost felt sorry for her. And if there was anybody else on

Extract from Commander Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. With Noriko Hosoda Saragossa's leadership, the environmental team, which had been struggling after being decimated by the Vyrvl attack, finally managed to address Titania's most pressing environmental problems. At the same time, Lt. Raphaele Fiorizi from engineering took help from the android named Vic and my own AI Denindron, and together they managed to bring the ship's full array of sensors and shields back online. This was no small feat, as it required an EVA by Vic with Denindron riding along as a secondary AI. The two mechanics recalibrated the external arrays with bravado. Doing in a few hours what would have taken a space dock a full week, a feat which made me duly impressed. Meanwhile, Emilio Saragossa and I addressed communications. We rigged a hyperdrive missile with a radio transmitter and recorder. Denindron quickly programmed the missile for a jump to near Earth orbit. Instructions were included

Extract from Acting Captain Antonia Spera's log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. June 4, 2135. I took command of Titania today. It was certainly not how I'd wanted to reach this kind of a position, but with the tragic loss of Captain Ruby Connell there was very little choice. I had to step up to keep this venture from falling apart altogether and in extent threaten all of humanity. A hard burden even on nano-enhanced shoulders. The first action I took was to grant the Luuga AI named Denindron access to the ship's systems. The speed at which it can work was the deciding factor. And for those who might question it, it's either that or a certain death at the paws of the race called Vyrvls, which are described as canine-like beasts with protruding horns on top of their heads and down their spine, making them more look like hairy dinos rather than dogs. The Vyrvl by the name of Rigaldonar will most certainly find us again within a few hours and even with the Luuga's help I don't know if

Extract from intercepted Vyrvl data: So they were speaking the mother tongue. And using the correct courtesies and expressions of honour and pride as well. Impressive! Against his will, Rigaldonar felt amazed by this species. They would be good hunting indeed. It's been a long time since he'd actually felt the thrill of the hunt. And he had no idea what this 'ESA' was, other than food for his cubs. Rigaldonar did something he rarely took the time to do. He decided he would get to know his prey before he killed them, so he opened a channel to respond. "Earth vessel, I am Arch General Rigaldonar from the House of the Polmiotar. To whom may I be speaking?" * * * As Antonia Spera heard the Vyrvl's response, she knew immediately what was being said, but it was clear from the looks of confusion on the faces of the bridge crew that she was alone in doing that. She had a sudden thought. Denindron, can you tie into my encounter unit and the ships intercoms and provide a real-time two way

Extract from Captain Ruby Connell log. Space Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. The damage to Titania herself was minimal. 37 crewmen had received minor injuries to and the most severe by far was poor Commander Drabik. A passive MRI indicated a fractured skull. Medical had him in an induced a coma to reduce brain swelling while he healed. Meanwhile, the programming for the inertial compensators was adjusted and I ordered a top down review of all systems to ensure that another, similar incident was not waiting to happen the next time we got ready to use the hyperdrive. Weapons systems were also tweaked as a result of the review. Titania was primarily a ship of exploration but, given the massive amount of armament and shielding on the recovered Vyrvls vessel, the powers-that-be had decided that Earth's first starships should have defensive systems built in. In addition to reactive hull plating, Titania was able to generate a displacement field around herself that, in theory at least, should