Far below a mountain in Switzerland, two scientists sat in front of a screen looking at the results. They stared at the screen for around twenty minutes, and then one of them started scribbling equations onto his notepad. He sat back and looked at what he had written, and then turned to his colleague.

“I did not expect that,” Jules said, a finger on the screen and then pointing to the equations on his pad.

“No, that was very unexpected. I think that gives us an intro to quantum entanglement."

“I thought, no," he paused, "actually, I never thought.”

“I don’t think any of us did. This will mean instant travel anywhere, better than FTL.”

“FTL ships? So mediaeval."

“And, I hate to say this, but weapons that could destroy almost anything, from a spaceship to stars. Oppenheimer may have said that he had become death, the destroyer of worlds, but we are extermination, the destroyer of galaxies.”

“I wouldn’t quite go that far.”

“No, perhaps not.”

‘It does bring Fermi into play.”

“Yes, the universe’s immense scale and high probability for life strongly suggest that intelligent extraterrestrial civilisations should exist, yet we have zero concrete evidence of their existence.”

“And with this result, we will be able to go out there and solve the paradox.”

"Resolve, I think, not solve.” Pedantry was alive and well.

"Before that, though. I think that we would be better served preparing some defences before the paradox turns up in our solar system and resolves itself.”

Many scientists had long taken a view on the paradox, the view being that there was one very old species that was destroying all the emergent species, and that is why no one had visited Earth. The worry was that Earth had been broadcasting into space for decades; sooner or later, Earth would be noticed, and Earth would have no defence if it were the predator species that visited. Earth needed to have an ultimate defence if it was not to be the prey.

The scientists toiled in caves below the Chilterns in England, below mountains in Switzerland and America and below the icecap in Greenland. Invisible to external eyes that might be watching. Weapons too awful to contemplate were developed, spaceships with shields that crossed multiple dimensions, and drives able to cross galaxies in an instant grew over the next twenty years.

The governments of Earth began building a hidden fleet of ships, just ten in number, but equipped with rail guns able to fire inert projectiles at 0.4% the speed of light, their kinetic energy likely to defeat any shields that aliens might have. A weapon they called Thor’s Hammer, when aimed at a target, used quantum displacement to remove the space in atoms, collapsing the target to matter denser than a black hole. The kinetic weapons to disable a target, Thor’s Hammer, to totally destroy it if disabling didn’t end the threat.

The ten ships were each two kilometres long, made of lightweight but incredibly strong materials, and protected by shields that would be effective against any imaginable weapon, including Thor’s Hammer variants. Ten smaller ships were also made once the main ships were complete. Similarly constructed and armed, but much smaller. Their role was to go through the Solar System and seed the moons and asteroids with weapons for defence.

The final piece of the defence was a quantum communications array that allowed encrypted instant communication anywhere; the physics said it was anywhere, and there was nothing in their calculations to suspect that the physics was wrong. Crews were trained in the rudimentaries of flight and battle, and the 10 dreadnought-class battleships were launched, and full hands-on training began.

The first test flight was to Proxima Centauri, a short 4.2 light-years away. The jump took no time; the crew felt no effects. One minute, they were in the Sol System, the next, they were at Proxima looking at an Earth-sized planet around a reddish star. They took images and measurements and jumped back to Earth; they hadn’t been gone long enough for lunch.

There were celebrations amongst the scientists; all the theories had been proven right. Humanity could now go and explore the stars safely, knowing that Earth and any colonies could defend themselves. An AI was developed called MIC, short, sort of, for Mankind Integrated Control. The acronym wasn’t really an acronym; it simply developed after one of the computer engineers kept referring to the development project as 'Mick'. He had no reason; he simply said it had to have a name, and Mick was as good as any.

Colonising ships were constructed. They were similar to the battleships, but with fewer weapons, just some for basic defence to enable a quick getaway. The internal space was set aside for living space for 1000 colonists and mining and construction equipment. The quantum drive would enable frequent trips back to Earth for more provisions, but a key planning component was that the colonists took as little as possible from Earth.

Earth began to explore the stars, Kepler-22b being the third extrasolar system explored and the first found to be suitable for colonising. There was surface water; clouds formed, rain fell, storms blew, and the gravity was around 1.2 times Earth's. There were a few volcanos, and tectonic plates moved slightly. The atmosphere was a nitrogen and oxygen mix, similar to Earth, just a little denser. It was all a very familiar geography for humans. No indigenous life was discovered; it simply seemed to be an inert planet ripe for colonising. Crucially, there was an asteroid belt available, which would be a ready source of materials.

Still, no signs of aliens had been discovered until the Earth ship Adventurer 2 began to explore Kepler 725, a target star identified in the twenty-first century with a Sol-like sun. There was an ideal-looking planet in the habitable zone, and after settling into orbit, scout ships went down to investigate.

Captain Schmidt, a Central European by descent, piloted the scout ship ‘Explorer 3', and initial scans showed a planet with oceans, mountains, volcanoes, storms, and ice caps. There was vegetation growing sparsely along the river delta; there was no sign of buildings or anything to indicate that a species lived there. Initial analysis of the atmosphere showed a surprising amount of ionising radiation remnants, small and negligible, but unlikely to be natural.

A lower sweep of the planet returned some shocking images. Great depressions; dust-covered glassy areas, the kind seen after nuclear detonation; and on the outskirts of the bowls, the ruins of buildings. Life had once existed here, but what sort? What had happened to it? Had it destroyed itself the way Earth nearly had in the twentieth century?

Explorer 3 landed, and Schmidt and a number of crew exited and explored the ruins on the outskirts of one of the bowls. There was dust everywhere, thrown up by their footsteps; it swirled and then settled again, as if too heavy to stay suspended in the air. They looked amongst the ruins; they found little other than rocks and dust, no definite signs of what was once life.

They returned to the Explorer and looked further afield; in what was once a farm, they did find some skeletons. Bipedal, very similar in structure to humans, but nothing that they thought that they could get DNA from, although they did take a couple of bones, just in case.

Back in Adventurer 2, they began the journey back to Earth to hand over the samples to the scientists. The question of whether to try to colonise Kepler 725 would be left to the government of Earth. Whatever had happened there had been thousands of years ago; there was unlikely to be any remaining harmful radiation. There may, of course, be pathogens that would be harmful. Let the scientists examine the samples, and they could advise the government on the viability of terraforming the planet.

With the samples dropped off and after some valuable shore leave for the crew, Adventurer 2 left on further galaxy exploring. Tau Ceti was the next candidate. They found a system full of very small asteroids and dust, and a planet that was potentially habitable. It had oceans on the surface and two large land masses. There were polar ice caps, and, if you squinted, the planet looked a bit like Earth.

There were no electromagnetic emissions from the surface and no signs of any indigenous life. Explorer 3 landed just by the delta of a large river, exactly where they would expect to find civilisation if it existed. There were ruins. Older than those found on Kepler 725, with no signs of bones or even fossils – nothing.

Adventurer 2 returned to Earth, and there was much discussion amongst the powers that be. It was decided that Earth and the solar system needed to be heavily defended and that any colonies established would also need heavy defences. The current array of weaponry needs to be refined and expanded. The kinetic weapons needed to be able to launch at above 0.5 L, up from the current 0.4 L.

“It is obvious,” said the Secretary General of The Nations of Earth, a successor to the old United Nations of centuries ago, "that the Fermi Paradox is resolved. There is no paradox; there are, or rather have been, other civilisations, and they have been destroyed. The likelihood is, from the analysis we have made, that the destruction was from space.”

There were murmurs of assent from the assembly, much nodding and a lot of looks of agreement. Some members suggested that we should establish colonies, as many as possible, so that humanity, as a species, had a better chance of surviving. This idea garnered much support but was tempered with a need for those colonies and Earth to be in a position to defend themselves, no matter what.

Inert mines would be sown around the solar system, able to be activated in an instant if threats were detected. Hidden weapon platforms would be installed on the moons and larger asteroids, and also the minor planets in the Kuiper Belt, including Pluto. All the weaponry would be put under the control of an AI whose only imperative was the total protection and survival of humanity.

A further 490 ships to take the fleet up to 500 would be built. All of the colony ships would be upgraded to include weaponry that would enable them to defend the colony if attacked, whilst waiting for reinforcements from Earth. The same defence systems as used in the solar system would be set up for the colonies, too.

A quantum cyber offence would be built, one that could infect hostile ships and disable their computer systems, and finally, and most controversially, a biological weapon would be developed, one that could act invisibly on a hostile species, if no other means of defence could be found.

Another twenty years passed, and finally, Earth was ready. The solar system was defended, and colony ships began to set out and spread humanity further along the spiral arm, amongst the stars. Humankind would now spread itself far and wide. There was no intention or desire to interact with any other species; humanity wanted to keep itself to itself. Its spaceships left no wake or discernible trace, as they did not travel through space; they simply left here and arrived there. Colonisation began in earnest.

*

“Sir,” the technical officer said to the captain.

“What?” came the terse response from Captain F’Tar.

The Pride of Forsash had been out for many weeks, searching for new systems. No one had been to this part of the galaxy for over a thousand years, and it had been even longer than that since the sterilisation of planets that would not conform had happened. When new civilisations were discovered, they were given a simple ultimatum: surrender or be exterminated. If they surrendered, then they became simple labour, extracting the minerals from their planet. If they did not surrender, then their planet was bombarded from space until the atmosphere caught alight and all life was extinguished.

The Faster Than Light, or FTL, drive did mean that they could get around relatively quickly, but it still took time, and the time-travelling was boring. Going faster than light meant that there was nothing to see behind them or to the side, and in front was just a blur. The only respite from the boredom was the discovery of new planets to be absorbed into the Forsash Democratic Council. Democratic in that, as long as you were Forsashian, you could vote; every other species was simply serf labour. It had been like this for a million years, and Captain F’Tar saw no reason for it to change.

“Sir, unexpected sensor responses ahead.”

“How far?” F’Tar replied.

“Five hundred thousand kilometres,” technical officer Garick responded. The lack of the ‘F’ honourific showed that he was lower caste; he knew his place. He also knew who, when the time came, he would be allowed to vote for, but that time was hundreds of years in the future. There was no dwelling on it now.

"Explain," F’Tar instructed.

“What looks like artificial constructs on the periphery of the next system, Sir,” Garick said. “They seem large too, approximately ten kilometres in size.”

“On screen. Helm, set course for that construct," F’Tar instructed.

He did not put the ship on alert; there was no point. There was nothing in the galaxy that could, even remotely, damage the Pride of Forsash. The ship was three kilometres long, one kilometre in width, and half a kilometre in depth. It bristled with beam weapons and was protected by a force shield that was impervious to any known beam weapon. He could not remember the last time he had put the ship on yellow alert; in fact, he doubted that he ever had.

On the screen, a large, obviously artificial construct appeared, grainy due to the extreme magnification, but still some details could be discerned. The structure was sort of spherical but in a blocky way, made of cubes and rectangles but in a roughly round sort of way. There were what could, difficult to be sure at this distance, be weapons on many of the surfaces. It took them 2 hours to get to within a few kilometres, Garick scanning the whole time they approached, and his report was consistently the same: nothing detected.

“Perhaps it is dead, long abandoned?” Garick suggested.

“We will send a boarding party and examine it. XO, gather a team and examine it. I want to know what it is and who built it.”

“Sir,” F’Zed responded. He had been XO for three hundred years and just needed a few more interactions with new species to be able to put in for his own ship, but the galaxy seemed empty these days; this was his best hope since he had been assigned to the Pride of Forsash. He gathered a team and took a shuttle across, scanning all the time for a docking bay. One was found with some difficulty, as the mechanics were different to council standards. Eventually, they managed to connect and open the airlock and enter.

Once through the airlock into the construct, the lights came on, he assumed automatically. They had still detected no signs of life. The corridor before them was long and had airlock doors at intervals along its length. The corridor was lit for about fifty metres, the illumination stopping at another airlock door. The XO led the way, and they headed to the door. As they approached, there was a click, and the door opened inwards. They walked in, still without a care; never having had to face any form of dissent, they could not imagine a need for caution.

In the room, the door closed behind them. No other door opened; the room was empty, with no fixtures or fittings, simply a glow that came from the walls. A sound came to them; they could not locate its source; it seemed to be all around. They could not understand it; it was not in the council standard. It seemed as if this was a very ancient structure, one from before the Forsash language became the de facto standard throughout all known space.

“Ah, sorry,” a voice said. "My mistake; I forgot to turn the translation on.”

“Who are you?” The XO asked.

“Oh, me?” I am Evans; I am the caretaker.”

“Caretaker? Caretaker of what? What is this place? Why do we not have any records of it?” The XO demanded.

“This is one of the periphery offices. It would be used to interface with visitors, not that we ever have any, so I just potter along, caretaking.”

“What system is this?”

“System, oh, I suppose that you mean the name of our star system. Yes, well, we just call it ‘The Sun', but I think, technically, it is 'Sol'," Evans finished.

“Sol? I have never heard of it.”

“Well, I guess not; we don’t tend to advertise in travel brochures, and we are off the beaten track, so, no, I guess you probably haven’t heard of us.” There was a pause, and then Evans asked, "And who are you? To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking? I can see that you are not human; your body is larger than ours.”

“I am F'Zed; I am a Forsash. The Forsash Democratic Council maintains the galaxy on behalf of Her Majesty.”

“Oh, I see. Are you on the hustings? Are you canvassing to see if we would like to join your club? Only, I am afraid that, no, no thanks, we wouldn’t.” Evans said, a note of boredom creeping into his voice.

“Joining the council is not optional,” F’Zed replied.

“Well, I am happy to say that humanity does not want to join your club; it is that simple. So, if there is nothing else, would you like me to show you the way back to your ship? You can then head off and carry on your way to your next destination.”

F’Zed stood for a moment; he was frankly dumbfounded. He was unsure what Captain F’Tar would make of it once he had heard the exchange.

“Or is there something else? Do you perhaps need to undertake some repairs? If so, I can direct you to a maintenance dock, or do you need provisions? I am not sure what your biological requirements would be, but I do have a broad range of provisions that we could let you have once the appropriate credit arrangements have been agreed upon." Evans seemed friendly; perhaps, F’Zed mused, Evans was a little stir-crazy.

“No, nothing; we shall return to our ship,” F’Zed said.

Once back aboard the Pride of Forsash, F’Zed played the recording of the exchange to Captain F’Tar, who laughed out loud.

“Who does he think he is? Who do these humans think they are? Do not want to join the council, indeed.” He pressed a button on the wall.

“Open a channel to the construct.”

“Caretaker Evans", Captain F’Tar began, “I do not think that you understand. Joining the Council is not optional. You either join or cease to exist.”

“Cease to exist?” Evans' voice came back, a definite tone of amusement. “Oh, goodness. Oh, I am sorry. Am I supposed to be scared?”

“I have the mighty Pride of Forsash at my command, one of the most powerful vessels in the Forsash Democratic Council. Our weapon will destroy your little shed on the edge of space, and then we will go to your planet and turn its atmosphere to fire.”

“Ah, right, yes, I see. Yes, you are threatening me, us. Okay. Give me a moment.” The voice went quiet, and then soft tinkling music played over the channel. A quiet voice said, “Please hold. Your call is important to us. We shall get back to you as soon as we are able.” The music continued. F’Tar looked at F’Zed, his eyes raising in a quizzical motion.

“What gods?" F’Tar said, "Music? They put us on hold and play bloody music?”

“Sir,” F’Zed replied; there wasn’t really much else he could say.

There was a click, and the music stopped, and a new voice came on the channel.

“I am Secretary General Faisal of the Nations of Earth. Our caretaker informs me that you have expressed an interest in us joining your council, and you seem displeased that we do not wish to join. Do I have it correct? I know things can be a bit awkward sometimes when we have to go through translators. As good as our AI is, he may not have understood all the nuances.”

F’Tar took a deep breath and pulled his clothes tight.

“I am Captain F’Tar, captain of the Pride of Forsash. I represent the Forsash Democratic Council. All species in the galaxy are required to join; it is not optional.”

“I see,” Faisal replied. “The thing is, you haven’t exactly explained what any of the benefits of your council are, so we cannot really make a qualified judgement, and so, our default position is that, no, we do not want to join. We have everything we need, and so we cannot imagine what you could offer that could tempt us.”

F’Tar took a deep breath and replied. “You do not understand. This is not optional. You join and become serfs to the council, or we destroy your planet.”

“And this is not open to negotiation?” Faisal asked.

“No. You have one day to surrender, or we will destroy your planet and your species with it.”

“Oh, we don’t need a day. The answer is no.”

“Very well. We shall destroy your shed in space and then move to your planet and destroy that.” F’Tar turned to F’Zed to give the command to begin the destruction, but was stopped by the words from Faisal.

“I do not think so, Captain. If you fire on us, then the automatic systems that you have not detected will interpret that as hostile action and will destroy your ship. I strongly advise that you turn around and return to your council. I have to advise you that once you fire, the response is automatic; I cannot stop it.”

“Fire,” F’Tar instructed. A massive beam of light shot from the Pride of Forsash and splashed against the construct. Nothing happened; it seemed to simply bend around the construct and then dissipate.

“What?” Was the last word F’Tar said. A pulse hit the Pride of Forsash from a previously undetected beacon; it removed all the space between the atoms of the ship and everything in it. A very small and very dense sphere a centimetre across was all that remained of F’Tar, his ship and his crew. Evans went and put the kettle on to make a cup of tea.

*

“Well, where is it?” The Queen of Forsash demanded to know.

“We don’t know.”

“The Pride of Forsash was supposed to report a month ago. Nothing. It is not responding.”

“No. Its beacon went silent 5 weeks ago. It was investigating a system in the western spiral arm; it said it had found something and then nothing. No reports, no beacon, no nothing.”

“Send a scout ship, find out what happened, and find out why they are not reporting.”

“Yes, ma'am."

*

F’Kitch exited his ship from FTL and slowed to a halt. In front of them was a small shining white star, technically a yellow dwarf, but so insignificant it couldn’t even bother to be yellow. No one had bothered with this dead end of the galaxy. There was nothing to see, nothing of any significance. It was so insignificant that F’Tar had been sent to investigate and see if there were any species to absorb. No one expected that there would be; it simply got F’Tar out of the way. He wasn’t popular; he was just, well, a nuisance. It was always him asking the awkward questions that no one wanted to answer. Easier to send him searching for the rainbow’s end.

And now, in typical F’Tar style, he and his ship, The Pride of Forsash, had disappeared. F’Kitch was not amused. He guessed that F’Tar had found some planet full of sexy aliens and had overdone the happy juice. The Queen would have his hide when F’Kitch finally tracked him down. With his scanners set to full range and broad spectrum, he began to search ahead. He found something. An artificial something, a large artificial something. His measurements suggested around 10 km in diameter, but not a pure sphere. Analysis showed it more as a collection of things in a sort of round conformance.

He set coordinates and approached; it took around an hour, but then he was facing it; it filled his screen. He scanned the construct very closely. It seemed to be constructed from strange materials and alloys, not the sort regularly used in the Empire, but that was to be expected, this far out on the rim. It had what could be weapons on its surfaces and a few docking ports. But there did not seem to be any signs of life. There was no active scanning coming from the construct, no radio emissions, no lights, and no pulses of anything artificial; it just seemed dead.

“Nothing to lose,” he said to his empty ship. “I’ll hail it.”

He set his communications array to broadcast on all the major frequencies and modulations, flicked on the microphone and spoke.

“This is Commander F’Kitch on behalf of The Forsash Democratic Council, representing Her Majesty, Queen V’Asp.” He paused and took a drink from his water before continuing. “I welcome a response from any sentient being on the construct that I am stationary beside.”

There was a click and then a buzz, and then a voice came over, mechanical with poor tonal range, he guessed through a translation grid.

“Yes, hello, can’t a man get any peace out here, for goodness sake?"

“Who am I speaking to?” F’Kitch asked.

“I am the caretaker, and I am trying to drink my cup of tea. What do you want? We are closed and are not receiving visitors.”

F’Kitch paused; even in a galaxy of hundreds of species, all with different mores and notions, this man was the rudest he had ever encountered.

“Closed?” He replied, “I did not know that. All I know is I encountered a large construct in a place where I was looking for a lost colleague. I merely attempted to communicate.”

“I am drinking my tea. I shall return when I have finished it.” And then music, strange tinkling music, came over the communications channel, and another voice spoke.

“Please hold. Your call is important to us. We shall get back to you as soon as we are able.”

F’Kitch couldn’t help but smile. This species, and he assumed this was a new species, one that the Council had never encountered, had a strange way of interacting. A caretaker – he wondered what that was. He assumed it was sort of like a janitor. Did that mean that the construct was mothballed, no longer in use, or was it built in readiness, ready for future use only when needed?

He reached for his tablet and started making notes. He measured the construct and noted its dimensions and its apparent mass, and he noted that the construct was not in active use. He added images, including close-up images of what could be weapon arrays.

“Hello, I have finished my tea.”

The music stopped, and the voice of the caretaker returned.

F’Kitch looked straight ahead; he couldn’t find any words that would diplomatically relate to how annoyed he was with this caretaker. Just so rude.

“Oh, are you still there?” The caretaker asked, “I didn’t hear a reply.”

“Yes, Caretaker, we are still here.”

“Well, what do you want? I am busy, you know; I have a lot to take care of, hence my name, Caretaker.”

“Thank you, Caretaker, for your time,” F’Kitch replied. "We are looking for some of our colleagues; only they came this way and seem to have got lost. I am trying to locate them.”

“Well,” said the caretaker, “there were some fellows dropped by last week, a Tuesday I think it was, but they didn’t stay long.”

“Did they give you their name, these fellows?”

“I don’t recall; they wanted me to join an empire or a council or something, but I declined. They said I didn’t have a choice; I put them through to the secretary, who told them that we were not interested, and they got all uppity.”

“I see,” F’Kitch said. “It seems that they might be the friends I speak of. Do you have any idea what happened to them?”

“Well, they either went away, and no, I don’t, or, well, if they tried to damage the offices, this space station, then its automatic defence would have responded, and they will still be there, only you will have trouble finding them.”

“What do you mean trouble?”

“The defences do all kinds of things; I just leave them to it, but the one they usually use is the shrink ray.”

“Shrink ray?” F’Kitch was beginning to think that this caretaker was soft in the brain.

“Yes, it removes all the space in the atoms, so they shrink down to a small ball of stuff. Very heavy stuff, of course, but stuff all the same. Oh, yes, and very small. Probably just an inch or two across, but still there, technically.”

By the gods. A Quantum Compressor. He knew of the theory of such a weapon but didn’t believe that anyone had actually made one, never mind used one.

“I see,” F’Kitch said. "And may I ask, what species are you? The name of your system?”

“That is what your friends asked; we are humans, and the name of our system is the Solar System. Our star is called Sol. Although we just call it the Sun.”

“Would it be possible to open diplomatic relations between our civilisation and yours?” F’Kitch asked; he knew that the Queen would want to absorb them into the Council, but it would need to be done in a roundabout manner.

“Good grief, no, we told the other fellers we are not interested, thank you. Now, if there is nothing more, I want to get on. Goodbye.”

There was a click, and that emptiness that you get when the other party hangs up when you didn’t expect it. F’Kitch stared ahead as if expecting the Caretaker to come back on, but nothing. Should he carry on into the Sol system and investigate the humans, he was sure that the Queen would want him to, or rather, expect him to. But first, he would scan the space around the construct and see if he could find any remains of F’Tar and the Pride of Forsash.

An hour later, he wondered if he had located the remains. A small, super-dense sphere of material, only 2 cm in size but weighing hundreds of tonnes. If the caretaker had been correct in his description of the weapon, then this is exactly what he would expect to find. It was too heavy to bring aboard his ship, and also he was unsure what effect its intense gravity would have on his scout ship. He noted its co-ordinates and left it. He proceeded on and entered the Sol system.

“Er, hello, excuse me,” the caretaker's voice reappeared. “I told you, we are closed; no visitors.”

“I am just visiting; I have no weapons; I am just sightseeing.”

“We don’t have sights for you to see. If you progress further, then the automatic beacons will deal with you. I strongly urge you to turn around and go somewhere else. Thank you for your attention to this matter.” There was the music again, that awful tinkly music. F’Kitch considered it more of a deterrent than any supposed weapons. He stopped his ship and mused. He didn’t want to be a small ball of dense material like F’Tar had. He turned his ship around and headed back to Forsash to report to the Queen.

*

“Humans, your Majesty, they do not want to join the Council or, indeed, any other organisation that may or may not exist.”

“And how much of my Galaxy are they using?”

“From what I can tell, Majesty, the whole of the end of the western spiral arm. Any attempt to go further is met with dire warnings, warnings that seem only too accurate.”

“We cannot defeat this quantum compressor weapon that they have?”

“No, we do not have the physics. I understand the principle of what they have achieved, but I cannot even begin to think of how to defeat it.”

“Might will defeat it. We take the fleet, all of it, and overwhelm them with a massive pre-emptive strike, destroying this Caretaker and his construct before it has a chance to fire his super weapon. We can then go to the human home world and explain to them, up close and personal, why they have no choice but to join the council, my council. Assemble the fleet.”

“Yes, ma'am."

*

Faisal, the Secretary General of the nations of Earth, was addressing the assembly.

“It seems,” she said, “that we have been discovered. The first ship was destroyed automatically by Thor’s Hammer, which worked exactly as designed. A second ship came to find out what happened to the first ship, ignored the caretaker, and attempted to enter the system. Eventually, he was persuaded to retreat and return to his system. We can expect more visitors.”

“We should prepare then?” The representative from the area formerly known as The United Kingdom asked.”

“Yes, we should man our border stations and ensure all our weapons are up to muster."

“How many ships do we have?” The representative from East Africa asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“150 dreadnought class, 250 destroyers and Hyperion, the admiral's flagship. We also have around 500 support vessels, carrying logistics, medical supplies, and the like. Every single ship is weaponised. Every single ship is linked to the AI MIC.”

“Do we have sufficiently trained staff?” Asked the representative for North America, enquired.”

“Yes, although manning and preparing will give everyone the opportunity to undertake some shakedowns. We will be well prepared.”

Admiral Connaught, a veteran of the Royal Navy, had been selected to lead the fleet, and as he stood on the bridge of the Hyperion, he could not help but look with amazement at the armada laid out before him. Ships as far as the eye could see, but only because they blocked the light from the stars. The ships were all a non-reflective black; none displayed any lights externally. They were as stealthy as they could be whilst inert. Once powered up, they could phase between dimensions and virtually disappear.

“All hands,” he began, the microphone in his fleet chair automatically picking up his voice and the quantum comms system encrypting and relaying it to all the ships. “We are embarking on the edge of the solar system to await the arrival of the massed fleet of the Forsash Democratic Council.”

He paused and took a drink from his glass of water before continuing.

“Our job is to defend Earth; it is not to kill every combatant. We are not monsters. We will use minimum force, enough to deter it. If, however, deterrence does not occur, then we will use all the powers at our disposal to ensure that no ship of their fleet can pass us and harm Earth. The more that we can deter and send back to Forsash space to never return, the better.”

He took another drink of water. And then looked around his bridge, the XO and all the other officers standing easy and listening to his words. He continued.

“Gentlemen and ladies, we are not only here to make sure Earth is safe, but also to represent Earth. What we do today will tell the galaxy about humans – what kind of people we are. You know your jobs, do them well, and defend Earth. Thank you.”

This was a murmur of assent through his bridge staff, and he assumed throughout the fleet, but he didn’t have eyes on the ships or their crew; he had used one-way audio only, and that was enough. He was never one for stirring speeches; he just said what needed to be said, and that was it.

“Right, Number One, let’s get underway.”

Caretakers like Evans had relinquished their watching and caring briefs and had returned to Earth. The beacons were manned, where manning was possible; the perimeter stations were now all occupied, and the Armada was stationed just inside the heliosphere. All sensors were ranging, seeking any signs of the approaching fleet.

“Sir,” a voice called, “contact, bearing 010, azimuth 25 degrees.”

“Red alert,” Admiral Connaught called quietly, and all ships of the armada stepped up from vigilance at yellow alert to high alert. Galleys were closed and cleaned, all implements, crockery and utensils secured away. All staff reported to their station, with all equipment on and ready and awaiting happenings.

The armada moved its stance and was now directly facing the incoming fleet. There was a flash, and then another and another, and soon the whole of space was a mass of light as the Forsash fleet dropped out of FTL drive and came to a halt in front of them. Connaught pressed the transmit button on the ship-to-ship comms system.

“Approaching ships that have just arrived, state your intention.”

He waited; there was no immediate response, and then a voice came over the comms link, flat, without much in the way of inflection, sounding, as these things do, flat after being through a translation bot.

“Humans of Sol, I represent Her Majesty The Queen, head of the Forsash Democratic Council. I am here to help ease your membership into the council.”

Connaught smiled at the diplomatic effort to disguise an invasion. “I see,” he said, “but I think, as you have previously been advised, we have no desire to join your council. I can only apologise for the misunderstanding and for your wasted journey. If there is nothing else, then goodbye, and I thank you for your interest.”

“Human,” the voice came back, again flat in intonation, the translation bot wiping out any threats that could be inferred from tone of voice. "Human, understand that this is not an invitation; membership of the Forsash Democratic Council is not optional. It is mandatory for all species living in the galaxy. It brings great benefit to you. Now, let us proceed.”

“Benefit?” Connaught replied, "Benefit? We have no need for benefit. What benefit could you possibly offer us?”

“Why, protection, of course, human. The Galaxy is a dangerous place; we would help protect you.”

“Protect us from what? If every species in the galaxy is part of your council, who is going to attack us? Who are you protecting us from? Humanity does not need or require your protection; we are fully self-sufficient, thank you. Once again, I must ask that you withdraw and return to your own space and leave us. The Sol system is closed, and we do not want visitors.”

There was a silence; there was no immediate response.

“Sir,” a voice called, "the enemy fleet is moving position; it looks like an attack posture.”

“Thank you, Ensign," Connaught replied. He had noticed the movements for himself, but he would not admonish a rating for stating the obvious; he was only doing his job. “Let us see what they do next. This should be interesting.”

Without warning, several intensely bright beams converged on the perimeter station that Evans had looked after. It disappeared in a blaze of light, and then after the light had disappeared, it was still there, unharmed.

“Firing,” MIC the AI stated over the comms system, and there was a series of ripples from perimeter beacons, and the five ships that had fired on the perimeter station seemed to disappear.

“Enemy fleet, for that is what you now are. The five ships that fired on our Customs and Welcome station, firing without warning and with no provocation, have been dealt with by our automatic defence system. You cannot see them, of course. They are still where they were, only now they take up much less space.”

“What?” The flat voice asked, “What have you done?”

“We call it Thor’s hammer. Thor is an ancient god of Earth; we named one of our defence systems after him. It is one of our minor defence systems; it simply removes the spaces in the atoms. All the ships, people, and weapons are all still there, but a little compressed, size-wise. Please pass our condolences on to the crew’s families. They will not be returning from this mission of yours.”

“Minor? You have killed five hundred Forsashians; you will pay for that. We shall glass your planet.”

“Oh, really, you did not get the full picture, did you? Is there perhaps a grown-up I can explain it to? We are defended. There is nothing that you can do to us. You have two options: one is to go away, return to your space and never return.”

“And the second?” The flat voice asked.

“Die,” Connaught replied. He really did not want to kill all of the Forsashians; many would probably be conscripts, just doing a job, a job demanded of them by an invisible commander. He knew how these things went. Earth had seen many an invisible commander in the years gone by.

“You have seen what our automatic systems will do if you fire on us again. We have other options available to us. We could send your entire fleet into hollow space, a sort of interdimensional place. We use it to travel around the galaxy; it is so much faster than messing with that dangerous FTL drive technology. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to leave; you would simply be there. I guess that you would probably die when your rations ran out.”

“Hollow space? You invent stories to try and scare us like small children.”

Connaught gave a quick command to his fleet. “All ships, execute Motion Alpha.”

The Armada disappeared and then reappeared behind the invading Forsashian fleet. No time passed; the entire Armada simply moved from in front of to behind the fleet.

“You will see that we have moved. Do you really think that we are defenceless? That we cannot back up our words with actions?” He paused and then spoke again to the Armada.

“All ships, execute Motion Gamma."

The Armada shimmered and seemed to be both there and not there, and then they moved forward, passing through, literally, through the enemy fleet. The armada had slipped into another dimension, visible yet not interacting. Once more, they were in front of the fleet. The shimmering stopped, and the Armada once more became solid.

“Now, imagine we could send troops into your ships, rematerialise, or rather return to these dimensions, and then take your ships. Or would you prefer that we send weapons interdimensionally and then detonate them in your command bridges? You cannot defeat us. We do not need your defence capabilities; we have our own. Please, save your lives and return to your own space.”

A flat voice came over the comms array, the alien commander speaking to his fleet.

“All ships, for the glory of Her Majesty the Queen; all weapons, full power, fire.”

“Oh dear,” Connaught said, “I am so sorry. Number One, employ the weapon.”

Every ship in the enemy fleet fired its beam weapons and launched its missiles and kinetic rounds. Number One flipped up a cover, turned a key and pressed a button. There was a moment of silence, and then a circle of light grew above the enemy fleet. It grew in size until it encircled the entire fleet, and then it descended.

As it descended, it covered the fleet, rolling over the surfaces of the ships, and as it passed over them, the ships ceased to be. The weapons that had been fired at the Armada splashed harmlessly off hulls or missed entirely; their guidance systems were no longer in this universe to guide them.

“It seemed a shame to bring our whole armada." Number One commented, "We could have come in just one ship.”

“Indeed, Number One, but we didn’t really know what weaponry they actually had.”

“What they had was ineffective.”

“Yes, Number One, but what if they had the same weapons as us, or better defences? Then the whole Armada would have been necessary.”

“I wonder how they will survive in hollow space.”

“Best not dwell on that, Number One. All ships, this is done; the threat to Earth has gone. It is over. We will take the opportunity to undertake some exercises, and we will return to Earth in one week. Connaught out.”