The seven Golden Spheres had completed their sixteenth Gate jump and arrived in a galaxy that no longer belonged to the Local Group. Naviagation confirmed they were 210 Million Light years from the Milky Way galaxy.
Captain Bebody got up from his seat.The Communications officer opened the command line to all ships..”Tactical., anything on the board?”
“No energy pattern suggesting artificial energies for 5 light years, other than the gate. Graviton analysis found no natural artificial bumps.”
The Seenian robot at Science said. “Five G type stars with planetary systems within 14 light years. Two of them have candidates in the Goldilocks zone. Particle trace analysis suggests there is traffic from and too the gate pointing in the general directon of a star 9.9 light years from here. Dispersion pattern indicates the last particle producing engine that went this way did so about a year ago.”
The Golden at communications was directly related to Sobody himself, but instead living the luxurious life of a Merchant prince, he had joined the Union Navy and was considered a first rate officer who took his profession very serious. For a Golden he was quite young and only 300 years old.”There is distant Tachyon and TLFAX chatter, but very weak. It will take the Computronic a day to isolate one or two signals for interpretation.”
The XO was a Golden Guard and as it was common for his kind only spoke for duty reasons, never lost a single word in private conversation.”Captain Sir,we are the first official Union ship that came this far. The Galaxy only bears a number in the catalogs. According to Fleet regulations, you have the right to name it.Sir.”
The OPS Officer another Golden turned.”Others name stars an planets, nebula and such. You naming a Galaxy is certainly a Union first.”
Bebody rubbed the wrinkled skin of his head.”Sobody is going to kill me if I call it Sobody's Galaxy. I am certainly not going to call it after me...”
Everyone looked at him now.
“How does Golden Disc sound? Has something of us in it and I don't have to hide behind my chair if I deliver the report.”
Everyone agreed that it would be a good name.
To the OPS officer he said. “Put it on the books and launch the Walker Drone.”
Moments later a sophisticated robotic drone was launched with all data they had collected so far and travel back all the way to Fleet command. They had done so after every jump.
He then said. “Send a Spectre to that binary starsystem over there.” He pointed at the closest star in relation to their position. It looks there are good candidates for scooping.”
The small fleet had still enough fuel for a few thousand light years, but he always liked to have full tanks and a place where the engines could be serviced.
The Comm officer said.”Captain Robady is asking if the Eightday dinner is being held as planned.”
Every Eightday of the Union Week the Captains of the seven ships came together for a formal dinner but for informal reasons. This however was the first time they had jumped on an Eightday.
“It is still five hours till dinner. If nothing comes up, sure we will, but only if he brings a bottle of that liquour he got from the Old Highlander.”
The message was relayed. The crew was busy with all the things that needed to be done after a jump. He glacnced once more at the threat board himself and decided to go to his ready room for the logbook entry.
So much had changed for the Golden and for him in the last thirty five year
He used to be a Fuel and ship supply merchant, and even for Golden standards he was a rich man.
Sobody the first Merchant was advocating a change, a very drastic change that would change the |Golden society forever. Sodoby worked harder than any First Merchant ever before, but he did not order it. The First Merchant had absolute power, as anyone born under the diamond, yet for the last 1500 years he wanted his Golden to have a say. It was not an easy sell, some even considered the First Golden to be sick or insane, but 1500 year were a long time, even for the Golden and slowly but surely his message and idea caught on. Sobody wanted to abandon the neutrality the Golden were synonymous for and make the Golden society part of another society.
In terms of Galactic history that other society was young, not even 3000 years old, yet it was different from any other. No evidence of the unusual character of this other society was more telling than the fact that the Narth had joined with it.
Compared to the Narth the Golden were nothing but children.
It was not the first such change. Driven from their home and exiled by their own kind.
So long ago on a world called Koken they developed to sentience, discovered fire and created a successful technical quite advanced civilization. Their species developed five races and each on a continent of the same world. There were the Ker, the Mar, the Mac, the Blue and the Golden. Different only in size an shade of skin. Together they were the Koken people, which was the word for five in the old language.
Then almost two million years ago, when the Koken people were about to ascent, first contact was made. The UNI came and visited the Ker, giving them access and knowledge and the gift of psionics. The Uni declared the Ker to be their successors.
The details of what then happened was lost to time and only legends and myth remained.
Bebody only knew that the Ker exiled the Blue and the Golden. Whoever did not want to leave was killed.
The Blue left the Galaxy on a long journey to Andromeda. The Golden became homeless drifters in a large hollow asteroid.
And out of the Ker, the Mar and the Mac a new race emerged, the Kermac.
At some point they met a species that eventually became the Golden Guard and the Golden became a race of planet less merchants. Carefully maintaining to be neutral, never to get involved in any conflict. The Golden Guard, highly advanced shared their technology and protected the Golden.
They also provided the necessary planetary resources a civilization needed to grow.
Only sporadic records survived, but a traveling Alien gave them the keys to a transpatial gate network, allowing the Golden to visit other Galaxies of the Local Group. No one knew who built that network but the Golden used it to spread out and establish trading places, so called Golden Bazaars all over this group of galaxies. Some went so far it took years of travel, despite the gates to reach them.
Back in their own Galaxy an event he knew next to nothing about caused the Kermac to abandon Koken and move to a new world they called Kermac Prime.
Over the age the Kermac became a mighty civilization, controlling and enslaving many others with their psionic powers. Calling their sphere of influence the Galactic Council.
The Kermac as powerful as they were could not overcome the other big civilizations and since the Golden carefully avoided any direct contact, the Kermac could not eradicate and destroy the Golden.
A new young civilization suddenly rose to prominence, Earth entered the Galactic stag, not meek like all other newcomers did, but with a thunder clap. Exterminating the menacing Xunx in one single stroke. The scheming Freons and their brethren the Ferons were next to perish after they tried to deny Earth's rightful place among the galactic civilizations.
The Sarans suddenly ended their centuries old civil war against their former colonies and together with Earth and the Pan Sarans they united their civilizatons into a new society.It was not an Empire, not a kingdom but something different, they called it the United Stars of the Galaxy. To the suprise of many, the Non human Ult, once one of the most aggressive species with a sizeable empire joined up.
It had not stopped since,civilizations and species made the decision to join. Not a single member of the United Stars had been conquered or forced to join.
After the Big War, the United Stars accomplished a feat, no one even dreamed of. They built a bridge to Andromeda.
As the first society of Andromeda joined, they changed the name to United Stars of the Galaxies, but already then, a different name was used and this mega society was simply called the Union.
Bebody was certain that the Vote to abandon the United Stars title and make Union the only official term was not far off.
In Andromeda the Blue were rediscovered and became Union members.
The Kermac of course could not accept another society to rise to such prominence and not too long ago, after the Big War, Union and Galactic Council clashed again.
As it was clear that the Kermac could no longer stop the Union and were loosing the war, they begged the Blue to intervene and broker peace.
The Union expanded to almost double its size after the Klack joined, Not long after that the Attikan Commonwealth , a society controlling almost half of the Large Magellan Cloud joined.
While the Union grew , the Kermac star faded.
It was around that time, when a spy revealed to Sobody that the Kermac planned to conquer the Golden for the purpose of gaining access to all the technological knowledge of the Golden and to show the galaxy that they where still a power to reckon with. Most of all however out of disdain and hate towards their distant brethren.
As formidable as the Golden Guards were, they could not stop the Galactic Council led by the Kermac.
Thankfully the Kermac plan was interrupted as their attack on Green Hell escalated into yet another war against the Union.
But Sobody knew it would be only a matter of time, they would return to their plan. There were only a few critical voices who still opposed Sobody's plan.
The attack of the Mini Terrans on Sobody's Bazaar put everything in fast forward. The Union sent one ship that saved the Bazaar and Sobody decided to become part of that crew, while the Golden Elders travelled to Pluribus to begin the Membership application.
The story of Sobody's first journey aboard the USS Tigershark became a legend and a source of Golden pride like nothing ever did before. Sobody was there when Captain Olafson rescued the Nul Prince, liberated the Smelter Moons and was instrumental in the waking of the First Engineer of the Karthanians. All this was only a fraction of adventures their old First Merchant had. Much of it was still highly classified.
When Bebody was a young man, he respected the First Merchant because everyone did and it was required. Now he respected the old man because of his deeds.
It was the reason he gave control over his business to his wife and son and joined the Academy. His proudest moment of his life was when Admiral McElligott shook his hand and called him Captain.
Sobody, so he heard was still with the Tigershark and the Golden were no longer neutral or independent but Union members..
Technically all Golden in the Universe were subjects to the First Merchant and part of the Golden society, but most of the more distant Bazaars had little or no contact with their mother society. Some had simply vanished, had been destroyed or abandoned being merchants and established planetary colonies.. Some had lost all contact and considered lost.
Those Bazaars who had remained in contact fully agreed with Sobody's decision.
The Union sent out convoys of ships and freighters to welcome these Bazaars and Colonies and nothing the Union did was half hearted. The so called Welcome Wagon mission was a testament of Union might.
Golden Spheres now part of the Union Fleet were refurbished into heavy armed long distance explorers and sent to visit every known location of a Golden Bazaar, no matter how far or how long contact was lost.
Bebody was part of the Golden Retriever mission and after almost two years of travel they made contact with a Golden Colony where the last contact was recorded over 20,000 years ago.
They had little hope that they would find anything.
But the orders were clear to follow up on any, even the most vague hint in the Golden Archives.
To not make such an enrmous trip for nothing, it was part of the Gate Mapping program and seen as a scientific mission.
Eight weeks ago the 600 ship fleet had arrived at the last and most distant known spot where a Golden Bazaar might have been.
To their great delight they found a thriving two planet Golden enclave. No longer trading because they said there was no one to trade when they arrived so long ago. Struggling to survive they had lost the technology to travel FTL.
The Golden Enclave was euphoric as they arrived and instantly declared to be still Golden and of course abide by the First Merchants decision. Especially if his decision led to such an effort to find the lost Bazaars and Colonies.
A portion of the 600 ship fleet immideatly started on the return trip, Installing a GalNet relaychain from gate to gate.
At each gate from here to M-0 one of the ships would park on each side of the gate to act as a temporary space station and message post.
Since GalNet messages could not be sent through the gates, they would collect messages and then sent a data drone through the gate to the ship on the other side.
This process would be repeated until the message reached its destination.
While it was not instantaneous, a message could be sent from and to Union space in just one day.
Since Union law required that every effort had to be made to connect even the most remote and distant Union member this was only the start.
The rest of the ships brought PDDs, Med Pods, Copies of the entire Content of the library of the Union, Crates filled with hard copies of the Union Constitution, CITI implanters, HPI test specialists and teachers.
A wing of Wulfcrafts complete with Flight instructors and thousands of tons of golden food specialities.
During all this they learned that ten of the Golden Spheres that arrived here so long ago, did not remain but decided to jump one more time.
Bebody took seven ships to investigate, as his core mission was to make contact with the lost Golden.
This gate was of a different kind and did not respond to the Gate codes of the Golden. It was substantially bigger and clearly made by a different civilization.
After they had jumped it became apparent why it was different, they had jumped further and were no longer in the so called Local Group.
Just as he put his thoughts to the paper of the log book, alarm was raised.
“Alien Vessel approaching, tremendous size. TL 8 at least.”
The alien ship was almost 18,000 meters in diameter. About a thousand meters thick at it's center, tapering out to less than 100 meters at the rirm and had the overall shape of a dinner plate,
It was under Para Dim like shields and begun immideatly with first contact procedures.
The computronics of the USS Woldidor answering by doing the same thing.
In less than thirty minutes, communications reported.”Sufficient data analyzed for two way conversation, Captain. Transmission data interpreted foraudio and visuals. The unknowns are hailing us,Sir.”