A Show of Force by Ryk Brown

Aurora’s hull on the main view screen. The light quickly washed out in all directions until the entire hull was covered. The light grew quickly in intensity until it flashed a brilliant blue-white, illuminating the inside of the bridge for a split second. The entire event took only a second at the most.
    Minister Abrahms’ mouth was now fully agape, his eyes wide. He flinched, nearly turning to run, at the image of the Earth as it suddenly appeared before him on the view screen as the jump flash quickly subsided. “Oh, my God!”
    “Jump complete,” Ensign Riley reported. “Entering high Earth orbit.”
    “Very well,” Nathan acknowledged. He turned aft again to face Minister Abrahms.
    “This cannot be,” the minister insisted. “This is surely some trickery… An illusion prepared to trick me into…”
    “I can give you a pressure suit and put you out an airlock, so that you can see for yourself,” Nathan offered, “if you’d prefer?”
    “What is that?” the minister wondered, pointing at an object just coming into view on the main view screen directly ahead of them.
    “Celestia, dead ahead, Captain,” Mister Navashee announced.
    “Helm, close to five hundred meters and hold position,” Nathan ordered.
    “Five hundred meters and hold, aye,” Ensign Chiles answered.
    “That’s another ship?” the minister asked. “How far away is it?”
    Nathan looked at Mister Navashee.
    “Five kilometers, and closing,” Mister Navashee reported.
    “But it’s so big,” the minister exclaimed in disbelief. “Is it a Jung ship?”
    “That is the Celestia, our sister ship,” Nathan explained.
    Moments later, the image of the Celestia filled the main view screen.
    “It looks badly damaged,” the minister commented.
    “She had a slug fest with a Jung battle platform a few weeks ago. She should be good as new after a few months in dry dock.”
    “She fought a Jung battle platform, and survived?” The minister could not believe what he was hearing, or seeing.
    “It was a team effort,” Admiral Dumar added.
    Nathan stood and made his way back toward the minister. “I trust that you now believe we are being truthful with you, Minister. Or do I need to call for that pressure suit?”
    Minister Abrahms shook his head. “Could you not simply take what you want from us? Such is obviously within your capabilities…”
    “We are not the Jung,” Admiral Dumar explained. “We shall not force you or your people to do anything they do not wish to do. We deeply regret the Coporan lives that were lost due to our actions, but the Jung have left us with no other alternative. We must fight them. We all must fight them. Coporans included. The Jung must know that the people of the Sol sector, or any sector for that matter, will not be subjugated.”
    “And if we do not wish to join your alliance?” the minister asked. “Then what will become of us?”
    “That, I cannot answer,” Admiral Dumar admitted. “I can tell you that the Alliance shall leave you in peace, after we have treated your wounded and done what we can to help stabilize your world. However, I cannot promise you that the Jung shall not return. If they do, we would of course be compelled to fight them once again, if only to keep their forces a safe distance from Sol.”
    “If you would fight them anyway, then why should we bother to align ourselves with your alliance? That very act alone might be enough to bring the Jung’s full wrath down upon us.”
    “Indeed it might,” Admiral Dumar admitted. “However, we offer you more than just defense. You wondered how the Earth managed to go from pre-orbital to interstellar—and then some, I might add—in only such a short time? The answer to that question is the Data Ark.”
    “The what?”
    “A massive data storage system,” Nathan explained, “containing the history, culture, religion, science, and technology of humanity, from the dawn of humanity up to the advent of the bio-digital plague. As