Course Correction
A spacecraft changes course after a sudden attack — and an entire civilization unknowingly misses its first contact.
Author’s note: This story was originally written in Hungarian by Dávid Attila. The English translation was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by the author.
Something in the control room suddenly began to shriek so unexpectedly and so loudly that I jumped in fright.
The shriek repeated itself at short intervals, until at last I realized it must be the siren. I had never heard it in operation before — there had never been any reason to — so I did not immediately know what it was. Nor had I ever seen the red light flashing on the instrument panel before, although I vaguely remembered it being mentioned at one of the briefings: if it started flashing, something was seriously wrong.
And now something was seriously wrong indeed.
After I had calmed down a little, I asked the Machine for an analysis of what had caused the emergency alarm. In response, only one sentence appeared on the display:
Get Dávid Attila’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
“The spacecraft has been attacked.”
I requested further information, and a more detailed answer appeared:
“The spacecraft has come under direct attack from the planet it was attempting to approach. Further action required.”
This meant that control of my ship had switched from the normally reliable automatic system to manual control. The attack must have knocked out the automation.
I literally took the controls into my own hands and altered the ship’s original course so that it would not land on the planet, but instead pass the celestial body at a safe distance.
The first meeting between the intelligent beings of the galaxy would not take place this time.
(…)
“Well, General? Did you manage to destroy the asteroid heading toward Earth?”
“Not exactly, Mr. President. But we did manage to alter its course, so it no longer threatens us. Which means we can now devote our full attention once again to the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life…”
