Attack

The spacecraft's acceleration caused Mike to sink into his seat.

He glanced at the unmoving Polina next to him and asked, "If our weapons can't harm you why did you attack?"

She didn't turn around but cocked her head to the side. "Can't harm me?"

He looked at her in consternation. "You said our weapons are ineffective against you."

Polina finally turned to look at him. "I said your weapons are ineffective against the precursors."

She paused and then continued, "However, the precursors prioritize data integrity. Causing harm to any element of the collective would be considered an act of extreme aggression and a threat to be neutralized with extreme prejudice."

Mike's eyes widened "But mistakes happen. We've never interacted with the precursors, how could we know about these rules?"

Polina looked at Mike thoughtfully for a moment before saying, "Noted." But just after saying that, her head snapped forward with her lips contorted into a snarl.

The view outside the hatch dimmed as if viewed through semi-opaque plastic. Shortly after there was a dazzling flash of light and the Soyuz started to tremble. Mike glanced at the monitor but the external camera feeds had gone black.

Polina cried out and raised a hand to her head. The plastic-like obstruction visibly shimmered, as if weakened and waves of electrical discharge could be seen dancing past the Soyuz hatch.

Chris glanced at Polina and then looked at Mike and whispered something into his headset. Mike didn't notice, his eyes widened in alarm as he watched Polina.

Chris wide eyed nudged Mike. "Was that what I think it was?"

Mike replied hoarsely, "I think so."

Polina straightened her posture and cocked her head to the side. "Prepare for short range jump."

Chris looked shocked. "You want us to get out?"

Mike felt a number of dull thuds through his seat as if the Soyuz was impacted by multiple objects.

He looked at the open airlock uneasily. They were moving at over 25,000 km/h and he didn't want to think of the damage getting hit by an interceptor, let alone a small piece of debris would cause them. But all he could see through the open hatch was the shimmering plastic-like film dotted with dimmed stars.

The stars turned into a gradient of dull lines and then stabilized, everyone was suddenly illuminated by sharp blue radiance. They had changed direction!

The opaque obstruction disappeared and outside the Soyuz airlock he could see a space station with elongated solar panels. It was slowly spinning and seemed to be venting atmosphere from one section.

It was the Chinese Tiangong station.

They heard Polina's voice in their helmets. "This is 32089176..."

Mike looked at Chris, but when he saw the confused expression on Chris' face he swallowed the question he was about to ask.

Instead he reached out and after a moment's hesitation gripped Polina's arm.

He looked into her eyes. "Please, wait! The automated defense system may have thought our craft was an incoming warhead. A weapon."

Her eyes dropped to look at the hand holding her arm, and then up to focus on Mike's face. "Threat status had escalated."

Mike immediately released her arm and said, "I didn't mean.."

"Not that." she said. "The threat status had already escalated."

Mike stared at Polina. Something about what she had said caused him to feel a deep sense of unease.

Polina's head snapped up. "Hold on."

The space station floating in front of them dimmed again as the semi-opaque material reappeared and half a dozen pure white lines appeared to cut through it.

The lines burned afterimages into Mike's retina and immediately afterwards there was another dazzling flash.

The station suddenly became clear as the opaque obstruction extended to form a bubble around the Tiangong. Sparks were flying off parts of the space station.

That flash must have come from a nuclear warhead. Mike's breathing accelerated in panic.

'Stop launching goddamn missiles!' he thought furiously.

He looked at Polina, his eyes wide in shock. His mind raced to think of a way to make the remnant stand down. "Most of those weapons are launched automatically and most people on the planet have no part in this."

She watched him with pity. "That may be.."

Mike cut her off. "What if the remnant on the planet has friends like you down there? These weapons can harm them, right?"

He was grasping at straws in desperation.

Polina cocked her head to the side. "Acknowledged. Threat to elements in local space. Intervening."

The bubble around the Soyuz and Tiangong disappeared. Shortly after the stars also disappeared and the Sun was eclipsed as something enormous flashed into space a couple of thousand kilometers above them.

Mike's pupils narrowed. It was enormous!

He felt butterflies in his stomach. 'That thing must be the size of a small planetary body!'

He glanced at Chris but the Canadian was mumbling incoherently.

Whatever that thing was it didn't reflect much light that Mike could see. He could only see it because it had eclipsed the Sun and created a dark area devoid of stars as it floated silently in space.

A line around its circumference suddenly lit up forming a halo and it was then that Mike could see dozens more objects spread out at equidistant points as far as he could see.

Mike moved in front of Polina and grabbed her arms and looked at her in panic. "Polina it's me, Michael. I know you can hear me. We need your help, Polina!"

He closed his eyes. "Please, Polina. Think of your family."

Polina blinked and opened her mouth hesitantly. She stared at Mike through the helmet glass for a moment before asking, "..Family?"

He opened his eyes and looked into hers. "Yes. The nukes will hurt your family. But those things out there will definitely hurt your family. I can feel it."

Polina looked uncertain, "..Feel?"

She reached up and gently touched the glass of his helmet. She then turned around and looked at the nearest alien spacecraft and cocked her head to the side.

After a moment she blinked and looked back at Mike, and then again turned to the spacecraft.

Her voice came through Mike's helmet speaker sounding less confident. "It is not recognizing my input."

She frowned. "They think my operation was affected by integration. There are some discrepancies.." she trailed off.

Mike immediately said, "No! There's no discrepancy. It's normal to not want to harm the people you love."

Polina blinked and touched her forehead. "No. It wasn't filtered out.. this is not usable syntax." She looked up and asked quietly, "how can it be..?"

She watched the enormous craft thousands of kilometers above the Soyuz and there was a jolt as something detached and flew out from the Soyuz. It was there and gone in a flash and Mike wasn't sure if he had imagined it, but shortly after the lights around the enormous objects increased in intensity.

He watched this happen through the Soyuz hatch in despair.