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© 1998, 1999 Andrew V. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
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2nd
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| Rick sat on his bunk and added
yet another entry to his journal. The keys of his electronic journal
were noiseless. Of course they were noiseless, since they were only
holographic projections of what a real keyboard would look like. As Rick's
fingertips pressed into the ethereal three-dimensional key images, his
words showed up on a holographic view screen. It was the newest in
Earth technology but woefully backwards by Dominai standards.
More important than the functional operating silence to Rick was that he
trusted his journal. What passed for a personal computer that the
Dominai gave each of them was, as far as Rick was concerned, just another
way for them to spy on them. For now, the Dominai personal computer
sat in the corner of his cramped quarters. The Dominai computer's
superior, semi-solid holographic keyboard held up a small potted plant
about a meter off the floor. The Dominai and the rest of the so-called
“sentient” species in the loose Galactic Alliance hadn’t bothered with
Earth and its inhabitants until recently. Rick’s solar system was
"Quarantined" from the whole of the galaxy. This Quarantine was put
into effect because humans were considered a sick and depraved species
whose enjoyment of war and lack of respect for life nauseated and outraged
the rest of the so-called sentients. It was this very “depravity”
that caused the loose Galactic Alliance to seek out the humans now.
“We’re the only one’s sick enough and warlike enough to help the Galactic
Alliance beat back this unknown invasion destroying the Alliance at the
rim of the known galaxy. Doing the type of killing the sentients
are too squeamish to carry out,” Rick
thought to himself. He idly scratched at his shoulder, through the
arm patch/biotag
that doubled as a rank insignia and sophisticated dogtags. These
dogtags also functioned as a field medical monitor for the Med Tech's.
Broadcast range was kept intentionally short so that enemy forces couldn’t
use the biotags as homing devices.
For now, the Dominai literally had a boatload of Earth Forces and were headed for the Galactic (Milky Way) rim. Luck would have it that the invaders were attacking the arm of the galaxy opposite the arm that Earth resided on. "The Galactic Alliance must have the crap being kicked out of their militaries to have been desperate enough make the effort to ferry humans 25,000 to 30,000 light years to the other end of the galaxy," Rick thought. The Dominai had determined that
there were no logical reasons to withhold information from the primitive
humans, so they spoke freely about where Earth Forces were being taken.
The Galactic Alliance theorized that the invaders are coming from one of
two galaxies; either Dwingleloo 1 or the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy.
Dominai names for the same two galaxies were "Pris" and "Fortutain".
This theory was purely a guess based on the almost equidistant relationship
of the galactic edge being attacked with the two aforementioned galaxies.
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