NationStates Jolt Archive

The crew sat nervously in their cramped cockpit, suits on and ready just in case, eyeing the fusion power level gauges carefully. This was it, they were almost ready to test-run the engine, they just had to be cautious, more so than the brave crew that came and went before them. It was an proud enough achievement to have kept the reactor stable and operational this long, maybe they could start replacing the fission stations with them back home after this, but for now it was of no conseqence.

"WaveRider II to Control," said the senior crewman into the radio, broadcasting back to their planet Xodonia, "Initial diagnostics OK, engine test destination reached, awaiting confirmation for ignition." He looked aroundat the other three crew members, each studying their own instruments, giving him a small nod each before turning quickly back to them. "Reactor systems fine, weapon systems online and radar giving us all clear," he said into the transmitter once again."

"WaveRid...II, this is Control, we re....ou. Permission to be..n test granted. Good lu..." A little inteference battered the long range radio transmission, but the answer was clear enough - lift off. "Ok," he said quietly to the others, switching the radio off, "the third time mght be lucky, but let's show them an exception to the rule. Power up..." He heard the background noise of the fusion reactor increase, as he pushed forward on the throttle, and watched the stars in the viewscreen disappear behind them.

A few minutes later, the ship slowed back below light speed, the pilot's knuckles white and dripping with sweat on the throttle lever. He turned to the others, almost amazed to see that they were all still in one piece. "We did it..."

The energy emissions were enough for GY-84 to notice. They picked up on the scanners, only briefly and weakly, but it was interesting; there were meant to be no people capable of FTL travel in this sector, yet here was a ship that was able to break the light barrier... albiet just. This beared looking into and, scanning the transmission frequencies, he found the echos of what seemed like radio transmissions. VERY old tech this was, Gy-84 noted, technology that would only be attributed to those just making the first leaps into space. He concluded with 79.6% accuracy that they were also a race that had never communicated with another species before, outside their own. That factor, at least, was about to change, as Gy-84 interacted with the inferface in front of him and quickly turned the ship around, heading slowly (for his ship) towards where the other vessel would be.

A message was sent from a remote location deep in space. The voice speaking the message was monotone, heavily synthesized and analytical in sound. It was an audio-only communication, no picture was profided. It also bore no identification of the sender; well, none of that would have been known by anyone at that time. The target of the transmission was Talaax.

<CONVERTED RADIO TRANSMISSION BEGINS>

"Unknown vessel. State crew compliment, people of origin and ship specifications. Threat level deemed negligible. Agressive sub-systems disengaged. Weapon systems powered down. Shields set to low setting. Neutral stance engaged. Message Ends."

<CONVERTED RADIO TRANSMISSION ENDS>

The pilot stared wide-eyed at the radio as the chilling monotone transmission came in. It was talking to them! They were actually being hailed, directly! This was unbelievable, two turning points in the history of Xodonia in the space of 5 minutes.

"Negligible threat?" said the gunner, disgusted with the remark even in her current awed state. "We'll show them who's a threa..."

"What the hell are you doing?" snapped the pilot, glaring as he lent over her panel and disarmed the weapons systems. "These are aliens, proper aliens, who could probably blow us to pieces with the blink of an eye. One shot at them, we probably won't live to see it bounce off them."

He turned back to the radio console. "This is the ship WaveRider II of the planet Xodonia," he said nervously, hoping the foriegn craft could recieve it. "4 Xodonian crew; a, erm, prototype fusion reaction engine, currently on low output; 4 nose-mounted automatic cannon and a side mounted missile launcher, all currently offline." He looked around again, thinking over what the message had said. "Err, no shields present, we are also in a neutral stance now. Who is hailing us?"

A moment of silence while the ship got closer, now seeing the WaveRider II... and not being terribly impressed by it. At all. The design was unoriginal and bland, full of flaws and laden with senseless weight. One shot was probably all it would have taken to take it down, or so his on-board computer predicted with 93.2% accuracy.

<CONVERTED RADIO TRANSMISSION BEGINS>

"Subject of hailing GY-84. Beta-D Fighter DRS-578. Neutral stance declared. Hostile intent of Beta-D Fighter DRS-578 set to none. Propose meeting of commanding officer of WaveRider II for purpose of diplomatic activites. Message ends."

<CONVERTED RADIO TRANSMISSION ENDS>

The pilot scratched his head. GY84? Odd name. "Okay, I'm Dario Anderson, the commander of the ship," he replied, looking at the rest of the crew for some kind of ideas - they hadn't exactly expected to host any alien life on board. "How exactly will we meet?" he asked the transmitter, "our ship isn't designed to let others aboard."

That didn't seem to bother GY-84 as he materialised right into the ship's cockpit, a 6 foot tall Ugolungabardu. Appearing humanoid in shape and appearance, albiet without facial hair, he had the same coloured skin and seemed quite muscular. However, that was where the similarities ended. His eyes were bionic eyes, glowing red and with several differen vision modes. His nostrils were augmented with electonical componenets and a voice synthesizer unit was sticking out of his neck, his teeth metallic and of an unknown compound, as was his tongue.

His entire left arm was cybernetic and had what seemed to be a fold-out weapon of some sorts, looking like a kind of rifle. The other arm only had a cybernetic hand but each finger seemed be some kind of advanced tool and one looked like some kind of socket. his lower abdomen was littered with various mechanical devices of unknown purpose and both of his legs were also mechanical, looking to contain some kind of boosters in them. In his hands he was holding an odd, flashing device no larger then a coin. He placed it on the cieling and then spoke in that same monotone computerised voice.

"Transfer Beta-D Fighter DRS-578 navigation to on board neural AI CFY-Alpha. Engage artificial gravity. Setting 0.7G," And with that, his feet clanged to the ground. He then looked around, a small scanning module sticking out of his arm and scanning the ship's contents with a visible green beam of light, "System specifications negligible. Electronic security negligible. Information stored on computer systems of no value," He then looked to one of the people, the gunner, and scanned her, "Subject humanoid female. No extraordinary features. DNA double helix pattern of no research value. Biometric scan reveals subject humanoid female of healthy condition. Lack of computerised augmentation of concern but expected."

The crew jumped as the disturbing figure appeared in the crowded cockpit, floating away from the flinch in the negligible gravity. Which quickly and rather painfully became close to the normal 0.87G of their planet, and they hit the floor hard. Standing and brushing himself off before the others, Dario turned to the alien, wary of the strange green beam. "Erm, how did... what are you... er, no value?" he stammered, trying to get a word in as the man scanned the place.

The gunner, also standing by now, flinched again as the green light swept across her, but relaxed a little as it passed without any harmful affects. "What do you think you're playing at?" she exclaimed, still annoyed with the offensive remarks this man was giving about their best spacecraft. It HAD gone faster than light, how was that worthless?

Completely ignoring the gunner, he turned his back to her and looked at the one that he presumed was the commander, which it was. He stared blankly at him for a moment before he spoke.
"Ship declared negligible for space travel," GY-84 declared to him, "Chances of destruction upon re-entry of planetary atmospherw 21% above acceptable limits. Fusion core unstable. Probability of meltdown of reactor within 24 galactic hours 12% above acceptable limits. Suggest trade for superior technology and diplomatic contacts to counter obselete space fleet of your species. State cargo of value."

"Unfit for space travel?" Dario stared back blankly, still trying to take in all the alien had said. His eyes flickered uncomfortably towards the fusion reactor monitors as it spoke, then at the technician - those readings did seem a little abnormal, but they were fine, right?

"Superior technology? What kind of technology?" the comms expert asked, the only one paying enough attention to the man's words and their implications. The gunner, on the other hand, was giving his speech no attention whatsoever. Dario saw her fuming and interrupted quickly; "Well, we don't actually have any cargo on this ship, it's just a prototype and all, but I'm sure we have lots of value for trading back home."

GY-84 blinked at the captain; at least, the best thing that could be presumed to be blinking.
"State racial achievements. Political, scientific and philisophical preferred. State known technologies and softwares. State agricultural levels. State mineral reserve levels. Options for potential trading approximated to near infinite considering random echelon of all items ever possibly concievable." GY-84 stated to the captain of that vessel.

The crew looked at each other, scratching their heads some more. "Well, we don't have that information here, our computer systems are made specifically for running the ship," Dario replied, "but we can look it up back home."

He sat down by the radio and switched it on again. "WaveRider II to Control, FTL test run complete and successful, have established neutral alien contact, requesting permission to land."

"WaveRider II, w....knowledge your suc..ss, congratulati.... Repeat, what ki...f contact?"

He swallowed hard, and spoke into the transmitter again. "Alien contact."

There was a long pause from the radio. "Al..n contact?!?"

GY-84 seemed to blink and then pressed the little thing he had placed on the ceiling of the room.
"GY-84 request alpha transmission FEWS-DETF-LIOU-BBNV-XZSA." He simply stated into it. It was a beacon, a beacon to the nearest diplomatic Ugolungabardu vessel to check if one was there. There was a reply, a mental one through his hyperwave detector inside his skull. He listened and understood, nodding in reply then turning to the captain of this vessel, "Diplomat informed. Diplomat en route. ETA arrival 69 minutes 43 seconds."

"69 minutes? Okay, can it follow us from here?" Dario replied, juggling conversation between the man and the radio. "Yes, alien contact. Plotting course back to orbit now, should arrive in approximately 90 minutes. Sub-light only, the alien says our fusion drive isn't as safe as it should be."

"Sure, whate..r, we'll have a d....ready for you th... Want ...to break out the champag...too?"

"I'm serious, man, the guy's stood right here with us." he turned to the window, looking at the ship outside, then the alien. "You need any docks for your ships?"

"Negative. Diplomatic vessel contains teleportation device. Trading vessel contains teleportation device," GY-84 told him, then thinking for a moment. He then looked out of the window as well, "Diplomatic vessel armed, yet hostile status off. Alarm not required on diplomatic vessel arrival. Chance of spacestation population unnerved by my arrival at 76.32%."

The rest of the crew were settling down again, now they had the ship to run, they left the alien to Dario. He stared at the guy blankly again, before nodding. "Okaaay," he said slowly, before going back to the radio. "We'll be arriving in 90 minutes. Don't be alarmed when you see two ships on the radar. Out."

-----------------------------------

The current crew on the XASS Xodonia spacestation were three quarters of their way through another dull, uneventful shift when the radar finally picked up the WaveRider II. "They're back!" the radar operator shouted to the almost empty sensor room, and announced it on the station intercom: "WaveRider II is back, coming in to Dock 3... and it's being followed by... another ship..."

"I told you, alien contact," came the pilot's voice over the radio in the communications room.

"Geeze, I thought you were joking, Dario!" exclaimed the wide-eyed operator, switching to the fibre-optic ground link. "Tell those gunners not to fire!" he shouted to the other bored operator, and spoke into the ground link.

"WaveRider II is back, and they brought company - get a diplomatic unit up here now!"

Dario was laughing now, listening to the panic on the other end of the radio as he brought the ship carefully into the dock. "Seems like you alarmed a lot of people after all."

GY-84 them pressed on the smalll device on the ceiling again and spoke into it.
"GY-84 of vessel Beta-D Fighter DRS-578. Corvette FDWE-657, confirm presence." He said into it. A moment's pause, then another synthesized voice, a female one, replied.
"VA-54 of vessel Corvette FDWE-657. Confirming presence. Awaiting docking clearance." GY-84 turned to the captain of the vessel.
"Reqeust docking clearance for Beta-D Fighter DRS-578. Reqeust docking clearance for Corvette FDWE-657." They almost sounded more like orders then requests.

"Two more docks? Okay," replied Dario, leaning into the transmitter again; "Requesting two more docks for our alien friends - I'd move that transport if I were you."

"They won't like that, they haven't finished unloading yet."

"Well I'm sure they can unload AFTER the aliens have gone, can't they?" he said harshly, trying to give the operator the hint. It wasn't every day aliens docked with the station, surely they could wait an hour longer for lunch just for the day.

Eventually the bulky sub-orbital transport ship floated off to one side, confused crew keeping her steady alongside the station, while the WaveRider II connected to Dock 3. "There, two docks free for your ships," he said politely to the man, before following the rest of the crew floating through the connecting dock tube. "Will your ships attach onto them or do you need some transport craft?"

"Craft adequate for direct interlocking," GY-84 told him as he walked, rather unceremoneously down the tube, not caring that everyone else was floating and not really noticing that they were either. He then talked into the small little device that he had removed from the ceiling, "DRS-578. Initiate docking procedure," He said, his own ship docking seemingly perfectly with dock 2. He then spoke again, "FDWE-657. Confirm docking initiation successful." The female voice spoke back.
"FDWE-657 docking successful. Contact with spacestation crew imminent." VA-54 replied. GY-84 wasn't sure how they would be recieved, but heWAS sure that they would probably be at least reasonable, he computed that with a 65% probability. Not good odds, but favourable nonetheless.

"They're here already?" asked Dario, spinning himself around as he got out of the docking tube and into the station, looking at the other docking tubes for some sign of the alien diplomats. It wasn't exactly a large spacestation, so the other docking tubes were just down the corridor, each no more than twenty yards apart.

He noticed the man behind him was actually walking rather than floating down the tube, his boots hitting the tube wall with a loud clang each step. "Nice boots," he commented, "we could probably do with something like that until they get this centrifuge working." He span himself around in a graceful zero-gee twirl, gesturing at the circular station as he did. "Should have been working months ago, but that's construction work for you, always late."

He had no real reply to that, GY-84 wasn't chatty. As he and the other crewmembers of the humanoid ship were exiting dock 2 into the main area, the other Ugolungabardu were entering from dock 1... and there wasn't just one of them. TEN of them entered, led by a female Ugolungabardu, slightly less cybornetic then GY-84. She had only a little more flesh, but she definately was female, that much was obvious from her build. She looked to GY-84, GY-84 looking back to him. They seemed to stare at each other in silence for a moment, as if transferring information between one another using nothing but looking at one another as the medium.

Dario looked between the two of them, waiting for some kind of reaction. "What's up, you guys not gonna' say hello?" he asked. The rest of the crew had pushed themselves down the corridor towards the canteen, where they would have to wait for the Xodonian diplomats to arrive from the surface.

"Greeting not required." VA-54 told the man, GY-84 looking to him then as well.
"Communication with subject VA-54 iniaited previously concerning future bredding program B-2 between subject VA-54 and GY-84 initiated prior to arrival." Gy-84 explained. The other Ugolungabardu seemed to spread themselves out, but there not being many places for them to stand they were mostly reduced to simply lingering around where they had entered.

"Erm... Okay then..." replied Dario, looking away down the corridor, "well, the canteen's down this way if you want to wait there. It's a bit more comfortable than standing in this corridor, and we don't get in the way of the workers either." He pushed himself down the corridor, pointed it out to them, before pushing himself further, towards the communications room.

"The diplomats on they're way yet?" he asked as he floated in, bouncing gently between floor and ceiling.

"Yeah, their ships on the wire now, should get here in half an hour," the operator replied, a tired look on his face, "though I've no idea where they will dock, we've got two cargo ships out there already, sharing the one dock you guys didn't take. You're causing a lot of chaos today, Dario."

"Well, in case you forgot, there's a dozen ALIENS a couple doors down!" he snapped back, "that doesn't happen every day. If these incompetent builders had finished the station on schedule there wouldn't be any of this chaos anyway."

Launching himself angrily off the nearest console, he soared back into the corridor, neatly catching the canteen door and sailing in to where the others were. "Our diplomatic ensemble should arrive in half an hour," he said, trying to calm down a little in front of them, "sorry for the wait but we weren't ready for it."

All of the Ugolungabardu walked towards the canteen, standing inside the room and just... standing there. They looked around a little, but none of them said anything to any of the others, as if words needn't be spoken when they were around each other. GY-84 and VA-54 shared occasional looks with one another, but apart from that they didn't actually say anything either. All of them were totally silent... it was almost eerie.

The crew sat around in the canteen with the staff, talking quietly to themselves, looking oddly at the new arrivals.

"Don't they say anything?" one of staff who was watching the aliens intently.

"Doesn't look like it. They don't even say hello to each other," replied Dario quietly, also watching them suspiciously. He wished the ship would hurry up, they had been staying there for a while now. Pushing himself off towards the door, he floated round the station to the sensor room to find out where the diplomat ship was.

"Any sign of those diplomats yet?" he asked the operators, "I hope they aren't taking it easy coming up, we don't want these aliens to wait all day."

"Oh, they're nearly here, if you could look down you would probably be able to see them by now," came the reply, "we just started clearing the last dock now."

"Excellent. Finally we can get some kind of relations or whatever that diplomatic garbage is sorted out." He pushed himself back, bouncing down the corridor to the canteen to await the arrival.

----------------------------

The station shook gently as the diplomatic ship docked. The diplomatic group floated out into the station towards the canteen, trying to look as formal and graceful as was possible in zero gravity - not a very easy task. Their eyes widened a bit as they saw the aliens, but they kept their cool and sat down.

"This is the only place we have, unfortuantely, as the construction of this spacestation is behind schedule," said who was more than likely the head of the diplomatic group - four people in total, two of which were setting up small personal computers on the tables - "but it will suffice for this premilinary discussion." He cleared his throat politely and looked at the alien group. "My name is Matthew Vaughn, and I am here representing President Davis Deru and the government of the Xodonian world." He waited for some kind of reply, or at least an opening statement of some sort - it was how diplomatic discussions usually started in his experience.

"Subject VA-54, craft FDWE-657. Subject diplomatic envoy of Ugolungabardu." VA-54 declared in her monotone, synthesized voice.
"Subject GY-84, craft DRS-578. Subject merchant of Ugolungabardu" GY-84 declared just much in a monotone voice, albiet in a slightly more male voice. VA-54 then looked directly to the man who had seemingly identified himself as the head diplomat of the humanoid race.
"Humanoid Matthew Vaughn. Diplomatic mode initiated. Commence diplomatic procedures." She half requested, half demanded. All of the Ugolungabardu were staring blankly at him with cold, emotionless faces, listening on the every word he was going to say.

"Erm, okay then," said Matthew, loosening his collar a bit. This isn't going well, he thought, wondering what he could say next. He swallowed hard, took a deep breath and began.

"Well, we will probably organise some official ceremony of some sort, it usually goes down well with our people that way, and we avoid some kind of panic situation if we have official diplomatic arrangements. Do you have an official head and central location of state? We can arrange a meeting of our leaders on our planet, but if you need any media coverage or anything from your planet we will need transport."

He looked in the direction of the docks, and indicated that way with his head. "I doubt our ship out there will hold together long enough to reach it," he said lightly, "so you would need to take us, with a sufficient security force for the president. Forgive us for not being so trusting, but we have heard lots of nasty things transmitted through this galaxy."

He paused for any replies, before continuing with their side of the negotiations; "Now, down to the actual business. We can safely assume you are not hostile, else the first we would have heard was the distress signal from our ship. We do not wish for any fighting, and we would probably be outclassed and quickly brought to submission if we did. However, as I said this galaxy isn't exactly a safe place, and any military assisstance you could give us would be greatly appreciated."

Whispering a little to one of the guys with the computers, Matthew looked back to the aliens, turning the unit around so the screen was facing them. "In return, we have little in the way of technology to offer, you seem to be far in advance of us in that respect, but we have a large network of well-managed natural resources we could offer in trade. Our copper and iron reserves are particularly strong, as are some of the more exclusive metals you might require. We also take great pride in our software industry, I would consider it as being ahead of it's time compared to the rest of our industries, and with your obvious interest in computer technology this may be of some interest to you."

He pushed the console towards them, releasing it from the table so it floated gently across the room in their direction. "That contains the list of our resource figures, as well as links to our communal databanks and software archives. Feel free to look through them, as our thanks for contacting us." Phew, that was tough, he thought, but it's their turn now.

The human diplomat had spoken to absolute silence. Nothing was said by any of the Ugolungabardu, who had been processing all the information that had been given to them. As GY-84 examined the laptop and then began to download the information from within it via an adjusting cable, VA-54 spoke directly to the diplomat.
"Ceremony deemed unnessecary, but acceptable due to cultural differences," She began, "Ugolungabardu possess no homeworld. Homeworld Kikoskriat destroyed. Cause of destruction, supernova of system's star. Damage irrepairable." VA-54 looked to GY-84, who nodded to her, seemingly in some kidn of approval.

She then got out a small device of her own and placed it in the laptop, fitting nicely where the data input slot was.
"Download schematics for vessel onto your database. Part of payment for diplomatic alliance. Other payments include technology blueprints for stable fusion devices. Other payments include technology blueprints for stable laser weapons. Other payments include technology blueprints for stable faster then light engines. Other payments include technology blueprints for sadvanced hydrofarming principles. Other payments include technology blueprints for complex nano-engineering. Other payments include documents for up to date chemistry, biology and physics." She then showed them the blueprint for the vessel in question.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d166/Kikoskia/JameVessel3.jpg

Feta Z General Purpose Escort Craft (DISBANDED DUE TO OBSELETE STATUS)

Crew: Fifty
Length: 300 M
Height: 80 M
Width: 100 M
Armament:
2 Heavy Duty Laser Cannons
1 Energy Cluster Photon Torpedo Tube
defensive:
Amour/hull: Ultra Hard Metal Compound LU-5 (15 metres)
Shield: -Heavy Duty Mirrored Energy Shields (Reflective shards help dissipate energy weapon fire)
Power core: Durun Dual Fusion Generator
Engines:
FTL:
4 Dual Fusion Engines
Sub light:
4 Dual Fusion (Impulse Mode)