The Leviathan, a UFEF (United Federation Exploratory Force) spacecraft sat in the lunar dry-dock 1. It was a heavily modified Star Patrol Enforcer and looked ready to fight. In the year 2260 subterranean tunnels were found on Mercury. The makers of these tunnels were unknown, but it was known it wasn’t human. They left many artifacts behind when they left, and among them was a small spacecraft, later named Sparky. This spacecraft had technology never seen by human eyes and was never fully understood. The aliens that made this spacecraft had designed a way to travel large distances in short amounts of time; it was called the artificial wormhole. The wormhole was adapted to run on human ships and redesigned to fit human needs by the super genus Günter Schrock. Its inner working’s are too complicated to explain, but the concept is easy. The whole universe is full of tunnels or wormholes that bend space, making two points much closer to each other, but also it bend’s time making the traveling time shorter too.
  Space travel outside of the solar system had become so common that the human race had over forty colonies, and they had regular space lanes open for cargo, so there is billions of credits worth of raw material on any given cargo ship at a time. Because of this piracy of deep space began, so the newly formed UFEF invented the Star Patrol. The mission of the Patrol was to protect the cargo and transport ships from pirates as well as continue exploring space for new planets to inhabit and to search for the aliens who left the tunnels in Mercury. Until now there had been no leads to where they came from or what they wanted. Until now…

****

 Commander Brent Milton stood at the observation port on Lunar 1. The Leviathan was the ship he lived on and while it was in dry-dock he felt homeless. Milton was six foot three with black hair and blue eyes. At the age of twenty-three after earning two master degrees he joined the Star Patrol as a Career officer. After twelve years He was thirty-five and the second in command of the ship and also served as a part time pilot and weapons officer.
 The Leviathan was a five-year-old explorer class ship and was in dry-dock for some much-needed repair and upgrade, but also the ship was being modified for a special mission. The old titanium armor was being replaced with the new irranum alloy armor and she was gaining more cargo space. Originally the ship was intended for a crew of twenty-five but she was now outfitted for a crew of forty. Newer, more powerful weapons had been put on the ship that were more energy conserving than any other ship before made.
 Commander Milton looked up as captain Jim Striker approached. “Captain,” Milton stammered, “ I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you.”
 “At ease commander, I need to see you immediately in my office on the ship. I just received our new orders. Be there in twenty minutes.” The captain ordered.
 “ Yes sir.” Milton answered. He didn’t like the captain, but he respected him. He was a great leader and always seemed to be able to get out of a tight place.
 “ Yes sir, whatever you say sir, let me kiss your butt some more sir. Cut the bull Brent. You are the biggest brown nose around. “ Commander Mark Mullen said laughing,” How you doing man, I haven’t seen you since the war seven years ago.” Mark was referring to the war between the Blood Clan pirates and the Star Patrol.  Mark was an old buddy of Brent’s. They served together on the same ship in the war. Mark was short, only five six, with brown eyes and a carefree attitude.
 “ Mark, its good to see you, what are you doing here on Luna? I thought you were still stationed on the Winghammer running the pirates out of the Langston sector.
  “ I just got a new assignment on the Leviathan as your new head pilot.” Mark answered,” isn’t that great, the demolition duo will be back together again.
 “ That’s great Mark. Look, I got a meeting with the captain right now, but I’ll see you on the ship. O.K. Later.

****

 The meeting with the captain was a big surprise, Brent thought. The captain informed him that the Leviathan must leave the next day, almost two months before scheduled.
 “But why captain,” Brent had asked,” All of the upgrades are finished but some of the new Cryogenic status tubes haven’t arrived. Also some of the crew hasn’t come aboard yet.
 “Are there enough tubes for the crew that are here?” Striker had asked. Brent nodded. “Well then there’s no problem. As for why, I honestly don’t know. The word came strait from the top. They said something about a change in the signal from Borleus. So we are leaving early to investigate.”
 So commander Brent stood in his room on Luna One packing up his belongings to be put on the ship, thinking what could happen to make the mission launch two months early.

****

 The Leviathan blasted free of dry dock the next day at oh nine hundred hours. At twelve hundred kilometers from dry dock it engaged its Iron Thrust engines and pointed towards Pluto, where it would pick up extra cargo and weapons. Everything went smoothly and at twenty one hundred the ship was moving free of the Oort cloud.
 “Systems status.” The captain ordered.
 “Navigation within parameters” from Mullen’
 “Engines running as smooth as a kittens belly.” From the engineer Jack Travis, also known as Tex. He was originally from Texas on earth and talked with a thick southern drawl.
 “ Very good crew, engage the wormhole activate and set coerce for Borleus.” Then the captain turned on the intercom. “ Crew, today we begin our journey to meet the first E.T.’s ever visited by the human race. We don’t know how they will react or what their customs are like but we will try our best to make peaceful relations with them. I have confidence in you all. Thank you.”
****
 Three hours into the wormhole the crew began to get into the cryogenic freezing tubes. The trip would take five years to complete because the system they were going to was on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy. The computer was set to wake them up three days before they reached the system.
 “ Captain, the crew are under and its time for us to go in.” Commander Milton said.
 “ Very well, set the computer and get sealed in. I’ll see you in five years.

****

 Five years later the ship was still running smoothly as the command crew began to awake. The first thing they did was to begin checking the status of the ship and there position.
 “ Captain, the computer woke us up almost three days late, we have got to disengage the wormhole drive in fifteen minuets or we will overshoot the target.” Commander Mullen announced. “ Even then we will be almost on top of the planet.
 “ Alright commander, take us out in exactly fifteen minutes.” He toggled the comm. “ Doctor, wake the rest of the crew.”
 In fifteen minutes, the ship busted out of a wormhole that formed before it. Any witnessed would have sworn that the ship appeared out of nowhere. The planed they orbited above was a desert and highly resembled the Terrain system’s Mars.
 “ There seem to be artificial channels in the surface, almost like causeways, but the sensors show no life forms on the surface and there are high radiation readings unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I suggest we send a robot probe down to investigate.” Lt Travis reported.
 “ Make it so Mr. Travis. But I want to be kept informed of the results.

****

 The probe brought up some interesting artifacts. There were the remains of some cities on the surface but they were made up of some kind of near indestructible metal or alloy. But the most intriguing artifact was what seemed to be a star map of ancient origin. It indicated a nearby system so the captain decided it would be a waste of time to come out here and not investigate. It was only a two-day journey under wormhole drive so he had the navigator set coerce for the system. They would not go into cryo sleep because it was only a short hop.

****

 As the ship pulled out of the wormhole over a calm planet, immediately they started to get readings from the surface.
 “Captain, there seems to be a high level of activity on the planet. Probably by sentient life. Also there is a lot of plasma action going on down there, I think that’s their source of power.” The Engineer reported.
 “Vary good. We’ve finally found them. Send out the standard greeting, all frequencies.” Striker ordered.
 “ Ships detected off the port bow. There are strange energy readings emitting from them, and the frequencies is the same as the radiation readings from Borleus.” Milton reported. “ Captain! Raising shields, missiles detected! Shall I return fire?”
 “No! It may be a test to see if we’re friendly or not. Hold fire but keep the shields up. Check the coerce of those missiles, are they coming towards us?” the captain said all at once.
 “No, they all went well clear of us, and the ship seems to be trying to make contact.” Reported the Ops officer, Jane Doe.
 The two alien ships used a frequency that was vary hard to pick up and once it was the crew of the Leviathan couldn’t pick it up. The aliens seemed to understand this and made motions towards the planet in attempt to get the Leviathan to fallow.
 “ Captain, they look like they want us to fallow them. Should we fallow them down?” The question was from the pilot Mark Mullen.
 “ Are the conditions on the planet livable?
 “ Yes, the air is breathable but we must limit our expose to the sunlight. But other than that it’s alright.”
 “ Ok then, fallow them.”

****

 The ship set down in a clearing in the outskirts of a large city, actually the largest city on the planet.
 Commander Milton came out of the ship first, wearing protective sunglasses and special sunscreens. A greeting party of five approached from the city. They were very tall, over twelve feet, due to the low gravity of the planet. Also there skin was a golden color that looked metallic like. In time it was learned that the aliens developed this skin because the sun gave off high levels of ultraviolet rays and the golden skin reflected it. They had small eyes and no mouths. And their limbs looked out of proportion to there bodies.
 The tallest of them approached and grumbled “ Mllkudeoga sengadoga faket dook.”
 Commander Milton wasn’t scared; he had twelve sharpshooters inside the ramp in case the aliens were hostile. Not knowing what else to do he raised his right hand and said, “ Uhh, hi. I ,I, I don’t understand you. Uh, no comprehend.”
 The alien cocked his head and started to make a high pinched squeaking sound that was their form of laughter. He turned to his companions and conferred with them for a moment, and then reached into his robes and pulled out a small sphere. He approached Milton slowly and handed it to him, indicating to his ear. Milton got the idea and placed it into his ear.
 “ Ddo you undderstandd what I am saying.” The alien asked, “ I am Gonddowagon the First, you may call me First, welcome to Snark, our planet. We ddetectedd your starship. We hope you come in peace.”
 The commander was awestruck to understand what First was saying. “ How do I understand you?”
 “ The object in your audditory organ is a translator, you undderstandd me and I undderstandd you. We have met other species from the stars before and we have ddesignedd this ddevice to help with communication.” The alien answered. He spoke an odd accent, drawing out his D’s.
 Milton pulled out his communicator and reported his contact with the captain. “ Very good commander. You handled that first contact very well. Invite the aliens into the ship so we can all meet them.”

****

 “That saplings is how we met the men from earth.” First told his great, great, great grandchildren. “ They came over three hundred cycles ago. Of the ones that met them, I am the only one who lived long enough to still be alive, it was so long ago.”
 As First talked ex commander Brent Milton waked up. “ You still telling that old story First. We both know you’ve told these kids it a hundred times.”
 “ Yes, my friend, but the young must always know what has happenedd in the past.” First answered. Milton was alive because of a drug made only on Snark, it was like a fountain of youth, but you still aged. Milton had told First all that had happened to him before the mission so the story could be told in full to the Grand Council. Three of the Snarkens had gone back with the Leviathan to earth, and three of the crew of the Leviathan had stayed on the planet. Four more missions had been sent to Snark and a permanent base had been set up. It was found out that Borlus used to be a colony of the Snarkens but their power source, Plasma conduits, had become unstable and had burst, killing all the colonists.
 It was also found out that the Snark’s ancestors built the subterranean bases under Mercury, three million years ago as an observation post. Its purpose was to see if intelligent life would develop on Earth, but it lost funding and was shut down.
 “You andd I have come a long way together, Brent.” First stated. “ You helped us reddesign our Plasma conduits and ddecipher our languages so we do not half to use translators. Meeting your race has been a blessing.” First said. And with that he reached out and clasped Milton's shoulder. “ My Time has come, friend, but I must give you this.” He said as he handed Milton a golden medallion on a chain. “ This is a family heirloom, but you are all the family I have now and it belongs with you. Keep it always and pass it on to your saplings.” And with that Gondowagon The First shut his eyes for the last time and fell into eternal sleep.
 “ I will my friend.” Brent Milton said as he looked at the medallion that had star streaks across it with a nova in the center, and with a tear in his eye, he said, “ I will.”