This part took a bit longer, as I combined two of the planed chapters togehter into one. I hope it will answer a few questions.
Edit: corrected some small misstakes
Edit 2: Forgot the titel...
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Chapter 6: Frequencies
The shoulder long, blond hair of Fähnrich Ludovskis ponytail was only partially coverd by her combat helmet and her enigmatic, yellow eyes, were a strong contrast to her pale skin and dark blue Marine uniform. Wearing an bulletproof west over it, she was checking her P8 (a type of pistol) sidearm. Something she hadn't done in a while and put it back in her holster again. She was stilly wondering, why the Kaleun had chosen her, to acompany Maat (Petty officer 2nd class) Geißler and his men from the boarding team. Meanwhile, the small inflatable dinghy with them aboard, was racing to the strange object they had shot down earlier and she tried to remember how it had come to this.
There had been a transmission, right before they fired on that thing, like she had never heard before, also it was send on a frequency that usually wasn't used for communication. At first, it sounded like a series of beeps, forming prime numbers, but afterwards an unknown, feminine voice sayed something, she didn't understand. Strangely, besides that she had not understood a word from it, she also didn't recognized the language. That was more than odd, as she spoke fluent German, English, Russian and understood at least a few words from over a douzend other languages, too. To say that languages were her "thing" was no understatement. Thats why she was sure, that she could at least tell from which country someone was from, by just listening to that person speaking.
However, this was different, like nothing else she had ever heard and somehow, she was sure, that it came from that UFO that just had crashed into the sea, less than 3 km away from their position. The Kaleun had already ordered to close in on it, as the Weapons Officer, Oberleutnant Müller, came to the bridge. Heinemann was observing the sea with his binoculars, looking for the pssible wreck and hadn't seen him entering.
"Herr Kaleun, we have shot it down. We know its position. Recommend firing on it again with one or two Exocet missiles (type of anti ship missile)."
The Oberleutnant announced this to the Kaleun, who just slowely put down his binoculars and turned around, with his eyes closed:
"Are you mad?"
"Herr Kaleun?"
"I asked if you are out of your mind, Herr Oberleutnant."
"What?"
"Do you think it is wise to shoot again on that unknown object, this time with an even bigger missile?"
"We still don't know what that is..."
"But we do know that it might be armed with some kind of nuclear weapon and we are much closer to it, than to that big thing from before."
Ludovski knew that the Oberleutnant and the Kaleun didn't like each other. It was an open secret aboard, that the ambitious Oberleutnant thought that Heinemann was just an obstacle on his way to a command of his own. To him, it would have been best to scrap the Kaleun togehter with this old boat at the end of the year. Heinemann, on the other hand, thought of Müller that he was nothing more than the personal pet of Admiral von Schneider, here to annoy him in every way possible.
To Ludovski, Müller was a dangerous psychopath that only appeard to be calm and always in control of himself on the outside. As far as she knew, he loved only two things in his life: his weapons and blond woman. The later had already lead to some very unpleasant situations between her and the Oberleutnant in the past. Once, he had even followed her in her free time, back to her home...
Ever since then, she felt like she was his prey, but Hermelin was a small boat and there was no way to avoid him for a long time. But she knew that the Kaleun was just waiting for an opportunity to get rid of him and Müller knew that, too. Thats why she felt kind of safe, when Heinemann was around.
The discussion between the two senior officers went on and got louder. She knew that it was better to say something, anything, now, before it would get worse.
"Herr Kaleun? There is something you should know."
"What do you mean, Fähnrich?"
"We received a transmission just before we attacked that object. Somethinge very strange..."
"How strange was it?"
"At first it sounded like various beeps, forming the first prime numbers: 2, 3, 5 and 7."
"Prime numbers?"
"Yes. They repeated that part twice and afterwards, someone said something in an unknown language."
"Why didn't you report that earlier?"
The Oberleutnant suddenly asked in his calm, yet somehow agressive voice, while staring directly at her.
"I... wasn't sure what it was, Herr Oberleutnant..."
She could feel her face turning red as he had to admit her misstake.
"That is no excuse."
"I know... and I am sorry. But it wasn't even on a frequency we would use for communication. Because of the disturbances of that blast, I was scanning other wavelenghts as well."
"I understand, Fähnrich..."
The Kaleun had just said that and was interupted by one of the other crewmembers, who was searching for whatever the had shoot down. Telling them, that there was an unknown object ahead of them, about 2km away in the rough sea. Ludovski observed as both, Heinemann and Müller shared a pair of binoculars and looked at whatever they had shot down for quite some time. The Oberleutnant was the first who said something:
"Definitely not a missile."
"Indeed. But, green and white markings?"
"Looks more like something out of Star Wars to me."
"Lets just hope we are not the droids they are looking for."
Hermelin closed the distance to about 500m to get a better look at it. They could see now, that at least four inflatable bouyance bodys were attached to the strange vessel. It looked aerodynamic in shape, but nothing like a missile at all. Small wings grew out of its main body, it was about 30 meters long and something like a window could be seen on the front of it. Fähnrich Ludovski could only guess that those bouyance bodys were some kind of emergency measure to keep that craft afloat and not some balloons for flying. She felt happy as Müller left for his station again, a few moments later, and kept asking herself who had build that craft, as well as why it was here.
"Fähnrich Ludovski?"
The Kaleun asked her and got her absent mind back again. She had not heard a word of what Heinemann had said before.
"Yes, Herr Kaleun?"
"I would like you to acompany Geißler and his men. They should check if there are any survivors and you should try to talk with them."
"Me?"
"Is there a problem with that?"
"No, not at all."
"Good. Get ready and meet Geißler in 10 minutes and don't worry. You can do this."
That's was how she got aboard that little dinghy on its way to that strange craft. She looked around and saw the men, including Maat Geißler readying their MP5's. A moment later, Geißler was standing up.
"Prepare yourself. We will be there any moment now. Keep in mind: our own security comes first. Just do what we were trained for: get in, secure the vessel and then let our Fähnrich do her job."
She could see the craft getting bigger and bigger, as the dinghy came closer. Up close, it looked even stranger to her, than before. Some areas were painted in white and green. There were some unknown symbols on it, too. Meanwhile, Geißler and his men were looking for a possible way in and so the dinghy circled around the craft, a few times. On the back of it, they could see a burned area near something that looked like the nozzle of a jet or rocket engine. Most likely the part were their RAM had hit it. Otherwise, the craft, vessel or whatever it was, looked like it was in a surprisingly good condition to the Fähnrich. There were a few spots here and there, in which its hull looked corroded or parially molten. The windows in front had turned black, as well, so there was no way to see what was going on, inside of the vessel.
Then, Geißler announced that they had found, what they were looking for: a possible way in.