Story by Oneyearmuse
Title by Captain Awesome
Jetsam
Ky watched the Outsiders a curious bipedal design he wondered idly who had come up with such an outlandish design, their internal organs are even in more peculiar. Ky had long since given up on politics and external exploration outside of the home planet but it would appear that the rumours about some of the early trade missions were indeed true. They had arrive eight cycles ago no wait that's eight days according to the Outsiders terminology, for the conspiracy to work we must always live inside the Outsiders mindset otherwise errors and holes will creep in.
Technically the conspiracy was an open conspiracy in that everybody in town knew about it, it was Ky's responsibility to maintain and refine every aspect of the conspiracy. The outer markers signaled the implementation of Phase I eight days ago, this time it was not a drill. The first phase was always going to go smoothly purely because it had been practiced so many times. It was three days before the Outsiders arrived in orbit and sent down their landing parties. Phase II was always going to be the more difficult part of the conspiracy since the Outsiders are inherently suspicious.
Of course the first problem for them was one of communications, it took several days for them to discover the radio frequencies. The Outsiders had incorrectly assumed all language would be written or spoken. They had observed the inhabitants of the town and discovered that either it was a very primitive species or that they were missing something important.
Phase II was to allow a limited form of communication enough to keep the Outsiders interested and off guard. Always more questions than answers, phase III would begin on the ninth day.
Flotsam
Ship's Log of the S.S. Grapple Captain Roy T Thompson Commanding:
Sol Day 108
The cosmic storm designated CS/918 has caused severe damage to life support and the main drive unit. Auxiliaries have given us limited facilities enough to give us a fix on our position unfortunately the communications array is completely shot. Which means we are currently on our own however we have had some good fortunate in that we have located a life supporting planet just in range of us. We can achieve orbit in 3 days.
Sol Day 112
The planet has inhabitants based in one town on the northern continent, the planet's temperature is inconsistent with its distance from the star in this solar system however we have been unable to determine any form of advanced technology. Ensign Wallace has dubbed the town Dinosaur because from the air it looks a little like a velociraptor. Wallace's personnel jacket shows his birth place as Artesia, Colorado, the name has stuck much to the annoyance of some of the scientists.
Sol Day 114
Ensign Wallace was the first notice that the 3 legged inhabitants of the town caused an interference on the radio. It was then spotted that the rod like protrusions from the tops (heads) of the aliens waved/moved about when the interference occurred. Their bodies are tube like ending in 3 legs of similar length to the main body, on average they are about metre in height. Their feet have adjustable suckers, no mouth, ears or eyes in evidence and yet they respond to our presence.
Sol Day 115
Major breakthrough in communications with the Tripods it would appear that they use a radio frequency of 27 Mhz to communicate on. The computer is slowly creating a basic lexicon, however it has become obvious that the Tripods are perhaps just a primitive animal species and are not the original inhabitants of the town.
Sol Day 117
The Geological survey team to the west are currently overdue, they were sent out to discover the source of a heat bloom that appeared on the ships sensors at 12:42.
Ship's Log of the S.S. GreyStar Captain Wilma Jones Commanding:
Sol Day 109
The S.S. Grapple has been found drifting between the La Grange point between Io and Jupiter, it would appear there has been several explosive decompressions throughout the ship. None of the ship's crew has been found.
The ship's log is fragmentary and much of the data banks have been exposed to heavy radiation giving us barely any indication as to what happen to the ship and its crew. Sol Day 108 is the last ship's log that has any useful information:
"The cosmic storm designated CS/918 has caused severe damage to life support and the main drive unit. Auxiliaries have given us limited.... enough.... position unfortunately the communications arra.... Which means.... own... life... in range of us. We can achieve...."No cosmic storms have been recorded around Jupiter at least not at the magnitude to cause this much damage. The ship will be towed to Ganymede station where the Space Patrol will have to solve its mysteries.
Jetsam
Ky looked down into the chamber containing the Outsiders stored in stasis, their discovery of Ky's home planet was always possibility which why the plan had been created. Whilst these particular Outsiders had evolved beyond war others have not and there are always world destroyers out there. Any sufficiently intelligent species never advertise their presence, it is a miracle of chance that the Outsider's planet has not been attacked and plundered yet. Of course our own trade mission to that part of space may have something to do with its continued survival.
Oy was pleased with Ky's implementation of Phase III, the Outsiders were caught completely by surprise. The ones on the planet never knew what hit them since the gas is completely odourless although the ones on the ship attempted to defend themselves which caused some useful damage. Once the Outsiders had been removed from the ship, its systems were mostly wiped and then towed into a minus nine cycle position. Our secret is maintained.
The three legged Trilon followed its two legged grey masters from the viewing gallery.
