NationStates Jolt Archive

ASJ Constantine, Deep Space Exploration, Milky Way Galaxy

Rear Admiral Vilin Gitar, commanding officer of the Constantine, stood aboard the bridge of the massive Juggernaught and let her gaze wander from one display screen to the next. Each screen showed the same image, that of a vast and distorted swirl of blue surrounding the entire vessel, but it was a habit that she didn't want to lose. A good commander had to be aware of everything that was happening around their ship, and that applied in Nexus space as well as Real.

"Admiral?"

The call was tentative, nervous, and obviously meant to be unobtrusive. Gitar seemed rather absorbed by the images on the screen and the Lieutenant didn't want to simply barge in.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"We'll be dropping out of Nexus flight in approximately thirty seconds, ma'am, and will continue on standard G/TD propulsion."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Return to your station."

"Yes, ma'am."

With a small grin, Admiral Gitar always took a small bit of perverse pleasure at the discomfort she inspired in her subordinates, she turned back to the screens just in time to see the blue swirl vanish and be replaced by the customary field of stars.

"Captain, our location?"

"Clear across the Galaxy, ma'am. A precise location is impossible to determine, we're to unfamiliar with these areas. Estimated.....83,700 light-years from origin."

"Further in-galaxy than any Corps ship yet. Captain, I think we just made history."

"Yes, ma'am. Engineering is reporting....our Nexus Drives operated at 98.36% efficiency, we can return to the Association whenever we wish. Our G/TD drives are ready and awaiting initiation."

"Give the order, orient us towards the nearest star. Let's see who lives our here."

"Yes, ma'am."

Outside, in the void of space, the Constantine seemed to shiver beneath the surface before it dramatically accelerated to Faster than Light speeds.

OOC:

Welcome to my half-assed knockoff of Star Trek!

Okay, here's the story. The Constantine, a Constantine class Juggernaught (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Constantine_class_Juggernaught), is on a long-range exploration and diplomatic mission. They're in a previously uncharted (By Klonor) portion of the Milky Way Galaxy (Approximately 180 degress from Earths position) and will be trying to contact civilizations and nations throughout the area.

If you'd like to participate, either as a first-contact nation from this particular region or somebody else exploring from our corner of space, please send me a TG. Once again, if you'd like to participate, send me a TG! I will not respond to anybody trying to join without TG'ing me first beyond telling them they are not permitted in this RP.

I'm sorry for sounding so severe on this point, I really am, but every RP of mine which has a "TG me please" request within it almost never has people actually TG'ing me. Usuaully, when their barging in post is of exceptional quality, I'll overlook that they didn't do as I asked, but no longer. It's not hard, but I would like you to TG me before you join this RP.

Other than that, the only thing I ask is that you at least try to have proper spelling.

So, have fun!

Merri looked up from the old fashioned book she had her pert nose buried in as the Way Farer's A.I. announced arrival. The faintest of shivers accompanied their translocation from FTL to sublight drive.

"Up at at 'em lazy bones. If there's anything worth finding in this system let's be about it sharpish" Mycroft, as the A.I. had named himself many years ago, never like wasting time, particulaly when he had gone through nearly every new entertainment holo they'd picked up at their last port call. He wanted to make more credits to buy more drama cubes, and data chips. Mycroft was getting bored...

Merri couldn't blame him. They normally operated with a crew of three. However, with Tora in a regen tube, regrowing her spine, and Donovan leaving to get mated, that left her and Mycroft to cover this assignment.

"I'm coming, I'm coming...and if you are in such an all fired hurry, why don't you start the first scans." The tall blonde sighed as she set the book aside. She stood and stretched widely, before heading out the door or her cabin.

Quickly she on the bridge and starting to look over the readings that the state of the art scanners were giving her and Mycroft. The system had some traces of exotic elements, just enough that they would need to make a more detailed survey.

"Okay Myc, take us deeper in system, and sow some sensor drones."

Smoothly the armed, independant explorer moved deeper into the new system. Initial survey has found no signs of inhabited planets, but this was far more common than systems bearing life. And far more perferable, as it made exploiting any resources far simpler.

The system had perhaps once held life, as the stellar primary had once been a main sequence G type star, and there were the remains of two planest with in the stellare ecozone. But the star had gone nova many thousands of years ago, cleansing the system of any life it might have borne.

But it was the fact that it had gone nova that put the possibility of exotic elements. If Merri and Myc could retun to Xanadu Tu with a survey announcing such rare elements, their savings would be even beter than they were. It took no small amount of capitol to run even a small starcraft like the Way Farer.

"Ma'am, we are approaching the first stellar system...designation PLJ-343 in Association starcharts. No previous exploration, including former Nexus-operational ships, and there has been no contact with any vessels claiming to originate in this system."

"System configuration?"

"The systems star has gone Nova, likely several thousand years ago, and the interior planets show themselves unlikely to have been able to maintain any life that might have existed prior to the nova."

"Any stations or large-scale equipment in orbit around the planets, anything to suggest that the systems inhabitants migrated into space to escape?"

"Screening the orbit of every planet will take several hours, ma'am, but preliminary information doesn't give me much hope; I'm not detecting any strong energy or signal emissions that would indicate the type of large-scale habitat that we're looking for."

Admiral Gitar sighed briefly, her hope of stumbling upon a shockingly advanced species right off the bat and being able to return to the Association in a week tumbling down the drain, but quickly moved past her disappointment.

"It's entirely possible that it's something low-tech, perhaps trying to slip by under the sensors, and our long-range scans passed over it. Give the entire system an Ergometer check, just in case, then begin detailed analysis."

"Yes ma'a---Ma'am! We have an Ergometric signal! FTL craft are present within the system!"

"Interesting. Location?"

"Several AU in-system, ma'am, and heading deeper."

"Well, maybe this system will yield us fruit after all. Lieutenant, are we close enough in-system for a Sub-Space hop?"

The ships navigator, quickly glancing at the sensor data forwarded to his console by the sensor officer, nodded his head.

"Yes, ma'am. We passed the system boundry approximately one million kilometers ago."

"Very well, Jump us in-system and bring us to that vessel."

"Yes, ma'am."

Beyond the hull of the Constantine there was a flash of blue and a ripple of space, the tell-tale identifiers of a Sub-Space Node, and the Constantine lept through Sub-Space to a point several thousand kilometers beyond the hull of the Way Farer.

"Open a communications channel."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Attention unidentified vessel, this is the ASJ Constantine on long-range exploration from the Associated Systems of Klonor. We have only just arrived in this portion of the galaxy and wish to make contact with the civilizations present in this corner of space. This system seems unable to sustain life on its interior planets, are you likewise exploring?"

"Merri, we have company..erm, now they are knocking at the door. They did a right smart micro jump. Going to station keeping mode, shields active, weapons up but not targeting...Playing friendly...here we go..." Mycroft read off the status of various systems, and brought up a display of the enormous vessel that appeared off the Way Farers bow on the main view screen.

"Attention unidentified vessel, this is the ASJ Constantine on long-range exploration from the Associated Systems of Klonor. We have only just arrived in this portion of the galaxy and wish to make contact with the civilizations present in this corner of space. This system seems unable to sustain life on its interior planets, are you likewise exploring?"

"Not a frequency used by any one in our data banks, and I have no data on the Associated Systems of Klonor" Myc searched his enormous data banks with the speed that only an A.I. could. "I think they are a long way from home."

"Send a signal back." Merri requested, and had Mycroft offer a full range visual exchange..

'This is Independant Far Scout Way Farer, currently registered out of Xanadu Tu. I am Merrideth Hexx, and welcome to this sector of space. We've been in system several hours now. It looks as if the stellar primary went nova some time back and scoured the system of any life."

It was hard to tell as she sat in the captains chair, but Merri was nearly six foot tall. Her heavy mane of wavey hair was currently golden blonde, and caught back in a thick pony tail, setting off deep sapphire eyes. Her casual clothing definitely indicated that the Way Farer was not a military ship.

"I would be glad to come over and exchange data. I know that X Tu is always welcoming of new arrivals."

She smiled and kept her thoughts to herself. 'And they are far more likely to be able to put noticible dents in that big ship, should they be unfriendly, than War Farer can.' Being an independant explorer wasn't the easiest of life choices, and there had been times before when people had wished to appropriate the Way Farer out from under her. And some people 'made nice' but were thoroughly unpleasant underneath. It paid to be cautious.

"Lieutenant?"

"Already searching, ma'am, the computer will need a moment to search the entire databse...we have no record of a Xanadu Tu. Understandable, if they're a local group. Odds are that few, if any, of the locals will have heard of us, either."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Assessment, Captain?"

Captain Atril Tabanne glanced at the analysis of the enemy craft and answered quickly.

"Minimal threat, Admiral. She's a small craft, scans only pick out one life-sign; thought I suppose more could be shielded. With her size, however, crew can't even be as much as ten when fully packed and I don't see how they could carry around anything particularly lethal with nowhere to put it."

"The Duke thought the same thing before Salm popped him with a Thumb-gun; for all we know there's a Harbinger Warhead aboard and they're just waiting for a chance to lob it out the window. Out here, who knows? I want us to maintain a Tactical Alert Gamma just in case they have friends nearby."

"Yes, Admiral. What about M. Hexx?"

"Re-open communications."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Merrideth Hexx, I am Admiral Gitar of the Klonor Space Corps, Commanding Officer of the Constantine. We would be glad to welcome you aboard, if you so chose, we are eager to learn about the inhabitants of this region. However, I must first ask if there is a method of contacting your government that you may avail of us, we'd prefer to make sure that all formal first contact procedures are followed to the letter. If there is no such convenient means available then perhaps we can discuss alternate methods of communication once you're aboard."

"Merrideth Hexx, I am Admiral Gitar of the Klonor Space Corps, Commanding Officer of the Constantine. We would be glad to welcome you aboard, if you so chose, we are eager to learn about the inhabitants of this region. However, I must first ask if there is a method of contacting your government that you may avail of us, we'd prefer to make sure that all formal first contact procedures are followed to the letter. If there is no such convenient means available then perhaps we can discuss alternate methods of communication once you're aboard."

"Greetings Admiral, and yes I can have Mycroft, the Way Farer's A.I give your communication's officer the protocols necessary." Merri gave Mycroft a silent command through the Interface Matrix embedded in her skull to let Xanadu Tu know what they had learned so far about their newest contact. In microseconds an FTL communication data burst was created and sent to X Tu.

Then Mycroft sent the pertinent FTL communication protocols over to the Constantine. "There you go sir, thats what you need to contact Xanadu Tu." The A.I. kept his voice affable. He allowed his natural grumpiness to come through only with his crew. It kept them on their toes he felt.

"Admiral, when you are ready for me, just let me know. I have a small runabout pod that has what is supposed to be a 'universal' docking ring." Merri offered as she sat back and waited for the Klonorians to finish up with their first contact protocols.

"Receiving datat on the ships origin...buffering for anti-virus...translating to Klonor systems....received. Analysing....you have got to be kidding me."

"Lieutenant?"

"Ma'am, planet of origin is in the Betelgeuse system, approximately 427 light-years from Old Sol."

Admiral Gitar couldn't help but crack a small smile at that, while Captain Tabanne actually laughed out loud.

"It figures, we travel 80,000 light-years across the galaxy and meet a nation from our own backyard. Lieutenant, Betelgeuse is actually in the Jump-Node Network, I've passed through it a dozen times myself, how have we never met these people before now?"

"Unknown, sir, perhaps the Duke had their data purged from the system; it's been known to happen."

"True, and he's usuaully got some reason for it, too. Very well, transmit a message back to Ihm and let him know who we've met, make sure it's coded for him and him alone. If the Duke has had it purged I don't want some comm operator spreading the news across Gamma Draconis. Let them deal with contacting Xanadu Tu, it's their baby."

Still smiling, the odds of this encounter so staggeringly large that it baffled the entire bridge crew, the Admiral turned back to one of the Vid-screens.

"Now, what shall we do with our explorer?"

"Ma'am, we've already invited her aboard and apprently she's ready to come on over, no reason to change plans now. From our neighborhood or not, this is still our official first contact."

"Very well, Captain, ready a proper reception crew and head to Bay 32-A. I'll inform her that you'll be meeting her."

"Yes, ma'am."

Snapping off a quick salute, already speaking into the small microphone on the inside of his collar, the Captain turned and approached the exit at the rear of the bridge. Reaching the door he reached out and pressed a complex sequence into the buttons inlaid against the frame of the door, steppeing through and emerging in the specified docking bay approximately three kilometers further down the spine of the Constantine.

"Attention Way Farer, your shuttle has been cleared to dock in Bay 32-A, three kilometers forward from the rear. You won't be able to miss it. You will be welcomed by Captain Tabanne and escorted to the Admiral. Please, board at your convenience."

OOC: Nobody else wants in? Surely there's more than one single ship in the entirety of this half of the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Attention Way Farer, your shuttle has been cleared to dock in Bay 32-A, three kilometers forward from the rear. You won't be able to miss it. You will be welcomed by Captain Tabanne and escorted to the Admiral. Please, board at your convenience."

"Thank you Constantine, I have Bay 32-A on final approach." Merri replied, then returned to her silent communication with Mycroft. 'Are you sure there's no response? From any one? And why the hell did you do just an astrographic position check when we came out?'

Mycroft's reply was a snarl of frustration 'No one one is replying, they aren't here to reply. I did an astrographic only as I didn't want to waste time. So get over it and just accept that we aren't in our own universe. It's not like it is an unknown happenstance.'

"Great" Merri muttered under her breath as she set the runabout down with expert skill upon the deck plates of Bay 32 A and powered down the systems. Post flight check took but seconds. Exiting the slender, streamlined craft she looked about for the expected Captain Tabanne.

It was going to be downright embarrassing to have to admit that the Way Farer and she had Slipt from their own universe into a completely different one. And then figure ou how to get home...

Surrounded by a small retinue of mid-level ships officers, and double that amount in ships security, Captain Tabanne stepped forward and stood before the small shuttle. A tall man, reaching past six feet and covered in muscle that was only just beginning to be swathed in fat, he knew that he cast a rather imposing image as a man with both enough intelligence to captain a major Klonor vessel and enough brawn to imply that he hadn't completely forgotten his time as member of the Klonor Marines.

Glancing behind himself, satisfying himself that the rest of his welcome group was all in order, he turned to welcome the new arrival.

"Merrideth Hexx, I am Captain Tabanne of the Klonor Space Corps. Welcome to the Constantine, it has been a while since we have hosted an official First Contact."

Merri had an easy smile and a warm personality, both of which showed as she replied to Captain Tabanne. "Why thank you Captain Tabanne, and I do apologise for not being more official." Her voice was a warm soprano and her smile shone in her indigo eyes.

She bowed slightly, with what was for her people old fashioned formality. Any seasoned explorer knew you didn't touch, such as in a hand clasp, unless you knew how the culture felt about such. And Merri was a very seasoned explorer, she'd been one for the last hundred years, and hoped to be doing it for another two hundred or so to come.

Her light grey pants fit her snugly as they fell into tall, glossy black boots. Her top was a strappy affair of red,gold and black. All in all, it showed off a trim gymnast's figure of long smooth muscles on a most feminine shape. Her blonde hair, out of it's earlier confinment in a ponytail, flowed down her back, falling nearly to her waist.

"Think nothing of it, if every First Contact was a choreographed production with perfectly prepared officials then there wouldn't be much of a point. Besides, the less I have to do with official diplomats the better."

His voice was so stereotypically gruff that it could have been taken directly from an action-Vid; instantly identifiable as that of a career soldier, contempt for government bureaucrats inadequately hidden.

Stepping forward, and giving a similar formal bow instead of extending an arm, he gestured away from the docked shuttle and towards the rear of the cavernous hangar.

"Admiral Gitar is currently awaiting you in one of the forward conference rooms. If you'll follow me?"

Admiral Hessman of the Mun’ji Mercenaries, formerly Hostmaster Hessman of the Guanyan Aerospace Navy, stared thoughtfully out of the viewport of his council room aboard what his men had dubbed Aulut’haem, or “Otherhome.” Otherhome was a Masada-Class space station, a gargantuan testament to Guanyan engineering. It was also the home and base of operations for the entire Mun’ji fleet ever since they had split from the GAN nearly three years ago.

Was it the right choice? Hessman wondered. I believed I was doing what was necessary, but now I’m not so sure. He sighed. Too late now. There can be no going back.

“Sir?”

Hessman started. He had been so deep in his own thoughts that he had not been listening to his officers. Turning to face the conference table where his twelve highest-ranking subordinates now sat (several of them currently looking concerned by his apparent lack of attention), he put his worries aside firmly. He had a responsibility to his men, and that had to be his foremost concern now. He looked at the seated men, some of the finest minds the Guanyan Empire had ever produced. Mentally he listed them to himself:

Host Colonels Siruen, Jonik, and Rels each commanded one of the three subfleets that made up the Mun’ji. They sat at the far end of the table. A bit closer sat Administrator U’ren, who was in charge of the day-to-day administration of Otherhome, and Chief Engineer Rochad, who supervised the massive corps of engineers who kept the fleet in top shape. Rochad’s three top engineers were next, followed by Financiers Uri and Joss, whose job it was to manage the fleet’s funds. Closest to Hessman sat his two most valued subordinates: Eulin, his Intelligence Chief, and Swordmaster Lev Huram, Hessman’s right hand and the captain of his personal flagship, the GSX Thunderstruck. It was he who had just spoken.

“Sorry, Lev. I was thinking about other matters. Please, continue the meeting.” Hessman returned to his chair at the head of the table.

“Yes Sir,” Huram replied. “Uri, you were saying?”

“We’re running a little tight because of the Empire’s increased involvement in the Sol sector. We have to be very careful to avoid trading with anyone who has diplomatic ties with them, and that list is getting shorter all the time. Eulin would have more on that.”

Everyone at the table turned to look at the Intelligence Chief, who cleared his throat in a peculiarly humanlike manner before speaking. “My people are in the final stages of investigation our top picks. We’ll have a list by the end of the week, and our funds should correct themselves within a couple of months. It’ll work out.”

Hessman spoke up, “If that’s all, I think we’re done here. Eulin, I’ll need to see you in an hour so you can brief me on that contract offer you got from those Lupines. Oh, and we’ll need to -”

He was interrupted by a loud beeping from his comm unit. He glanced down, irritated, and then realized that Rels and Eulin’s comms were beeping as well. His face became grave. He tapped the unit.

“Hessman here.”

“Sir, one of the reconnaissance satellites has picked up two ships in the region. They appear to be interacting, but the sat isn’t close enough to tell us more. Sir, one of the ships…well, it appears to be of Klonor make.”

Hessman let out a sharp exclamation. “How sure are we that it’s Klonori?”

“Almost positive, Sir. I served at Tau Ceti for a brief time. I know Klonori ships when I see them.”

“Damn. Well, for now we wait and observe. If we’re lucky, they won’t spot the sat and they’ll just leave without ever noticing our presence.” He turned back to the table. “Eulin, Lev, with me. Everyone else back to your posts. I’m going to go monitor this from the bridge.”

"Ma'am, I'm receiving some interesting sensor information."

Admiral Gitar, about to exit the bridge for the conference room, instead turned and walked back to the sensor operator; sure that Hexx wouldn't mind if she was a few moments late.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"It's nothing big, ma'am, but long-range has detected a stationary object several AU from our position."

"And..."

"Ma'am, natural objects aren't stationary when in space. Gravity, inertia, and Jove-knows what else keep 'em moving; it's gotta be artificial and under some form of external control."

"Anything more information beyond 'stationary object'?"

"It's not large or emitting any strong signals that we can detect, I'm guessing it's some form of satellite or probe. We're to far away for more precise data, otherwise we would have detected it much earlier."

"Well, if it is some sort of probe, it could lead us back to whoever launched it. Somebody else that we haven't met. Contact Commander Cinlo, have him launch a wing of Interceptors for a close-in scan. Maybe it will have some form of contact information that we can read. Inform me if the scans yield any information."

"Yes, ma'am."

Several kilometers away, in one of the many cavernous docking bays reserved for the fighters of the Klonor Space Corps, four Perseus class Interceptors roared into the void and oriented themselves toward the distant probe. A few seconds later, accompanied by a flash of blue and a ripple of space, the four fighters lept into Sub-Space and emerged a bare few thousand kilometers from the mysterious object.

"Sir, we have a problem."

Hessman swore quietly. "This better not be about that damnable satellite, Lev."

The Swordmaster looked grim. "I'm afraid it is, Admiral. The visual relays show that the larger ship - the one we believe to have originated in Klonor - has dispatched fighters. They're headed directly for the satellite."

Hessman banged his fist on his command chair. "Damn those drunken leknii and their curiosity! How close are they?"

"They jumped in a couple thousand klicks from the sat, but they're about a thousand klicks away now and closing. From what we know of Klonor technology, that's well within sensor range for a craft of that size."

The Admiral thought quickly. He couldn't afford to let the Klonorians get too good of a look at the satellite. Guanyan technology was proprietary, but someone in the know could still make a connection.

"Blow the satellite."

"But Sir-"

"Do it now! It may already be too late!"

Lev nodded quickly to an Ensign on the comm board, who instantly began tapping away at his keypad. Seconds later, the reactor core of the satellite overloaded, causing the entire thing to flare like a tiny nova and then vanish completely from space.

"Now, Ensign, recalibrate the closest satellite we still have to keep an eye on them. We have to know what, if anything, they got out of their scans."

The Ensign smiled. "Already did that, Sir."

Hessman gave the man a look of appraisal. This one might be due a promotion. "Excellent work, Ensign." He turned to Huram. "Lev, I need you to have Rels ready a task force. Should they ID the satellite, we may need to take further action. Make sure the task force stays far enough away that we're sure Klonori sensors won't detect them, but close enough that they can make a move should they need to. Oh, and send one of the special ambassadorial staff ships as well. I'd like to diffuse this situation without violence if possible. If we can convince them to keep our presence here to themselves, all the better."

Hessman turned back to his vid screen and watched information from the now recalibrated recon satellite flow across it, waiting to see if he would need to take further action.

"Flight Officer Legat, run in close for a system-scan. See if you can identify the technology, or trigger some sort of response."

"Yes, sir."

Orbiting approximately ten thousand kilometers from the satellite, the maximum effective sensor range for standard Klonor fighter craft, the wing of Interceptors had been scanning the satellite since their arrival. It was clearly an artificial satellite of some sort, obviously still in working order (No floating derelict here), and just as clearly wasn't shouting "Hello!" to the Universe. Their curiosity peaked, one of the four Interceptors ignited its thrusters and rocketed forwards to get a much more in-depth scan of the satellite.

Unfortunately, when the Interceptor was approximately 500 kilometers from the satellite and the scan had only just begun to probe its depths, the target of all their fascination erupted in a miniature nova of fire.

"Abort! Legat, veer off!"

"Sir, it didn't even singe my shields, there could be something left!"

"Negative, there could be more to come! Back in formation at once, we'll dispatch a recovery shuttle designed to sift the wreckage."

Obviously reluctant, Legat returned to his wingmen and oriented back towards the Constantine.

"Constantine, this is Captain Sind, I am reporting destruction of the target. Some sort of self-destruct when it detected our scans; I'm reading only wreckage now."

"Acknowledge, Captain. Did any of our pilots manage to get a complete scan?"

"Legat was in the process, sir, but it erupted before it could be completed. Legat, how far did you get?"

"Only 13% completed, sir, but it should be enough for the computers to dig something out of. I'm uploading to the Constantine now."

"Should we remain out here, sir, or return to the ship?"

"Remain on station, Captain; we'll be dispatching a recovery ship in a few moments to collect the wreckage. Make sure there's nothing else out there to keep 'em from getting back."

"Yes, sir. Alpha wing, secure the area for one thousand kilometers; that should give the shuttle enough space to operate from and flee from if necessary."

As the Interceptors began to move towards what was left of the satellite the analysts back on the Constantine began to sift through the scan data they'd just received. It took their computer systems only half a minute to determine the presence of Guanyu technology within the former satellite, a technology Klonor had become rather familiar with over the years.

The Hygeia class Support Ship being readied within another of the Constantines hangers, prepared to retrieve any wreckage and return it to the more extensive laboratories aboard the massive Juggernaught, was suddenly also surrounded by pilots and support staff readying several Elysium Transports. Guanyu was a nation with which Klonor was marginally familiar, it would be much better to have more than soldiers on-station at a destroyed Guanyu satellite.

Mycroft observed the fighter launch, and later the self destruct of the satalite. His sensors traced back the communications the probe carried on with it's masters and filed the data carefully away. One could never know too much, especially when in a 'strange new universe'. He wouldn't bother Merri with it all just yet, she needed to be thinking about her interactions with the other organics.

"Admiral Gitar is currently awaiting you in one of the forward conference rooms. If you'll follow me?"

"Why certainly. It will be good to stretch my legs. " Merri looked admiringly around the spacious bay. "We have the Way Farer so stuffed with sensors and spare survey drones, there's not much leg room." She admitted wryly as she accompanied him away from the runabout.

"If it's one thing the ships of the Corps posses, it's excess space. This way."

Turning, followed by his subordinate officers like a pack of conditioned pumas, Captain Tabanne marched to one of the many exits leading out of the hangar. Reaching out and pressing a complex sequence of buttons inlaid into the door frame, and checking to make sure that the alien explorer was still with him, he stepped through into the conference room where the Admiral would officially welcome Merrideth Hexx.

Hessman watched his vid screen tensely, various contingency scenarios running through his mind. As the Klonor fighters began setting up a perimeter, he turned to Huram.

"Looks like they're setting up for a swoop-and-scoop, Lev. Think they'll get anything out of the remains of the satellite?"

Huram forwned thoughtfully. "I doubt it, Sir. It's pretty well vaporized. But we can't discard the possibility. We also don't know how much info they got out of the scan before we blew the satellite."

"Then we have to assume they got enough." Hessman replied grimly. "Reassemble the advisors in the council room."

Moments later, Hessman once more sat at the head of his conference table. After summarizing the situation briefly for those who had not yet been informed, he asked, "Viable responseoptions?"

Host Colonel Rels was first to respond, and his response was fairly predictable. "We cannot afford to be found, Admiral. We have to eliminate the witnesses. Eradicate them utterly."

Hessman shook his head. "Aside from the fact that the Klonor ship out there is no lightweight and a pitched battle with anything short of a full command fleet is of uncertain outcome, the ship is clearly one of the more prominent in the Klonor fleet. Destroying it will draw far more attention than we are already dealing with. I'm also unwilling to fire on those who have shown us no ill intent. I'll not order my men to slaughter innocents. We need other options."

Eulin was next to speak. "Sir, I believe there's a good chance that we can convince them that we are part of a top secret Guanyan research team, or something of the sort. If they got enough information from the satellite to determine it was Guanyan in origin, which is likely, they'll probably fall for it hook, line, and sinker. It'd give us all the reason we need for blowing that satellite and a reason for wanting them to keep this encounter to themselves."

"An interesting idea, Eulin, but what if they wish to confirm with the Empire that we are who we say we are?"

"I've considered that, Sir. We tell them that this mission is so top secret that almost no one in the Empire has knowledge of it. Only, say, the Emperor and a few select cabinet members. They can try for as long as they want, but no one short of their deranged Duke himself is going to be able to speak with cabinet level staff, and I doubt they'll shoot it up that high. If they do, we can attempt to angle it so that they land on receptive ground, if you take my meaning."

The other advisors looked uncomfortable. They all knew that Hessman had someone on the inside in the Empire. Someone very high in the government, perhaps even cabinet-level. Only Hessman himself knew who it was, however. He would not even tell Eulin or Huram. When the advisors referred to this person at all, they called him "Source X".

Hessman considered this for a moment. "I like it. And if they aren't buying it, we can always try to convince them that it's in Klonor's best interest not to bring word of us to the Empire. Knowledge is power in intergalactic politics, and this would be a vital piece of information their Duke would have and the Emperor would not. Any other suggestions?"

There were none. Hessman stood. "Very well. We send in the relations ship we have on standby to make contact. But only to make contact. They are not to negotiate anything. Let's go, gentlemen."

As the advisors dispersed, the special relations ship that had been waiting for the go-signal jumped in about fifteen thousand kilometers from the Klonori ship, having first made a short microjump laterally so as not to let their heading give the Klonori any clue as to where Otherhome lay. It was accompanied by a Scimitar warship, the backbone ship of the Guanyan fleet and therefore of the Mun'ji as well. A hail went out on standard diplomatic frequncy from the special relations ship:

"Klonor vessel, this is the GANS Certes. Please respond on same channel."

The Scimitar loomed behind the smaller ship, making no threatening moves but obviously prepared to fire should there be any sign of hostility on the Klonori ship's part.

(OOC: I'll TG the basic specs for the Scimitar to you both.)

'New arrivals' Mycroft's voice sounded in the back of Merri's mind, courtesy of the Interface Matrix. In a microburst he brough her up to speed concerning the satalite, its communications and destruction. 'I am guess ing from scans that Big Brother has arrived...with escort'

'Do you want me out of here?' She asked back mind to 'mind' as she strolled through the Aport gate without breaking stride. She wasn't used to seeing them on ships, but she did know that the larger X Tu ships did carry them. I just don't get aboard anything fancy enough' she thought.

'What?! I'm not fancy enough?' Mycroft's tone was decidedly sour. 'No you are probably safer there. I can always pull you back through an emergency Aport if needed.'

Only if you are in a good mood oh chips for brains.' Merri replied as she sighed mentally. She didn't appreciate Myc listening in on All her thoughts.

Looking up at Captain Tabanne, she advised him in a low voice. "The Way Farer says that more ships have arrived. Were you expecting others?"

As if in response to Hexx's query, the air of the conference room was suddenly split by a keening wail that made the Captains hair stand on end.

"Attention, attention, we have detected multiple ships emerging into Real Space approximately fifteen thousand kilometers from our position; Class A size and combat capability. We are entering a Tactical Alert Beta. Repeat, Tactical Alert Beta. Command staff must report to duty stations at once."

"I believe that answers your question; I need to report to the bridge. Please remain here."

Turning to the security personnel that had accompanied them to the conference room, he signalled that they were to remain and keep an eye on their first newcomer. With a quick nod to Merrideth, he activated a Phase Gate and transported to the bridge.

"Admiral, what's the situation? Why the Beta Alert?"

"Take a look, Captain; we've got more visitors from our end of space."

Gesturing at the large Vid-screen, which displayed an enhanced image of the newly arrived Guanyu Scimitar, Admiral Gitar let the threatening battle ship speak for itself.

"This is getting ridiculous, I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into a Jimathonian Corvette out here."

"Ma'am, we have an incoming message from the Guanyu ships."

"Klonor vessel, this is the GANS Certes. Please respond on same channel."

"Well, they seem particularly chatty. Open a response channel."

"Yes, ma'am. Channel open."

"Attention GANS Certes, this is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine on a long range exploration mission from the Associated Systems. We were not expecting to encounter other ships from our corner of the Galaxy; what brings you out here?"

"I believe that answers your question; I need to report to the bridge. Please remain here."

"Certainly Captain." Merri replied as he checked the status of the security contengent and stode out of the confrence room. "Well that alert certainly would get one out of bed" Merri muttered to herself as she took a comfortable seat and prepared to wait.

'Well they aren't doing a scream and leap' Mycroft informed Merri. 'The ships are some polity titling it's self the Guanyan Aerospace Navy'

'Get all the data you can. The more we know...'

'the better off we'll all be' Mycroft finished off the old adage. Getting every wink and nod. Don't presume to teach your great grandfather how to such eggs'

Merri shuddered inwardly. 'eeeeewww Myc, you are so tacky.

The A.I. let the last comment go with a lordly silence.

"Attention GANS Certes, this is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine on a long range exploration mission from the Associated Systems. We were not expecting to encounter other ships from our corner of the Galaxy; what brings you out here?"

"Constantine, I am not authorized to discuss our mission with outsiders. I am here to request" the slight stressing on the word emphasized the presence of the Scimitar floating silently alongside "a meeting between my commander and either yourself or a person of authority aboard your ship." The strong baritone voice left unspoken the implication of what would happen should the request be denied.

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

Back on Otherhome, Eulin was readying a shuttle that would take him to the location of the Klonori and other as yet unidentified ship. Having Eulin pretend to be the commander of the Mun'ji was a tactic that had served them well in the past, as Hessman was entirely too recognizable while Eulin was remarkably nondescript. Eulin would be accompanied only by his bodyguard, who had once been one of the Ren'Liao, or God-Warriors, the most capable soldiers in the Church Armies.

"Looks like we're all set to go, Admiral." Spoke the bodyguard from behind Eulin's shoulder. Eulin grimaced internally at the appelation. It was a necessary deception, however.

Eulin and his bodyguard boarded the shuttle and waited for confirmation from the Certes. They would have to play this perfectly, or the consequences for the Mun'ji didn't bear thinking about.

Glancing at one another, their brief glances conveying enough information that an observer might very well have assumed them to be telepathic, the Admiral and Captain both turned to look at the computer specialist furiously running throug every iota of data they had on Guanyan exploration and covert missions.

"Ma'am, we have no data on any Guanyan objectives in this portion of the Galaxy; my guess is that the Duke, if even he knew about it, has decided to keep it quiet. Not to surprising, our contact with Guanyu has been rather minimal for years despite the Tau Ceti situation."

"Any information on the Certes that might be of help?"

"No, ma'am, not even a registry index."

"Very well. Stand us down to Tactical Alert Gamma; but keep the alert fighters prepped and have our patrols keep their eyes open. Lieutenant, re-open the channel."

As the alarm blaring throughout the ship changed in both pitch and volume, a much less irritating wail that lasted only a few seconds before fading into silence, the Admiral turned back to the Vid-screen.

"Certes, we require more information before we will allow our ship to be boarded. What is the purpose of this meeting, what's so sensitive that a Vid-screen conference won't suffice, and who, exactly, will you be sending? We merely wish to be properly informed for the safety of all involved."

Her tone made it clear precisely whose safety she was concerned with, as well as whose safety was currently in question. A quick gesture to the communications officer terminated the transmission and, turning aside to the Captain, she saw that he was already talking into one of his many communicators and readying a 'reception' team in the event that they did welcome a Guanyu officer aboard the Constantine.

"Captain, we'll also need to assign somebody to talk to our guest waiting in the conference room. Pick somebody from the Diplomatic Corps and have them keep her occupied."

"Yes, ma'am."

A few seconds later, accompanied by a flashy and unnecessary musical score that somebody must have inexplicably thought was impressive and regal, a man seemingly dressed in nothing but shining buttons and brightly colored ruffles stepped into the room occupied by Merrideth and her 'guards'.

"A, M. Hexx, so pleased to meet you. My Name is Fih Dinah, Ambassador for the Duke Klonor to the Outer Suns. So sorry to have kept you waiting, but there's a situation that required the presence of the Captain."

"Constantine, as I already said, I am not authorized to discuss my mission. The meeting would be with Admiral Tav Eulin, commander of all Guanyan forces in this region of space. I am ordered to inform you that the Admiral is willing to accede to any safety precautions you wish to take. He only requires that a single bodyguard be with him at all times."

"Admiral, these squatters never allow themselves anwhere with only one bodyguard; especially not an Admiral. They don't exactly view Klonor ships as a peaceful safe haven."

"A mutual feeling, Captain, I assure you. Still, there's no reason to keep this off because they suddenly begin letting their guard down. Double ours; and assemble a second ring just in case the first drops."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Any info on this Admiral Tav Eulin?"

"Give me a moment, ma'am.....nothing in the data banks for this officer, not that I expected much. From what we know of Guanyu military groupings, assuming they're following standard protocol, I'd say there's approximately 70 combat ships on call; standard for a Hostmaster."

"Very well. I want continuous Ergometer and Massometer scans being run, I don't want any surprises, then re-open the communications channel."

"Scans and channel open, ma'am."

"We are willing to accept Admiral Tav Eulin and the single guard; please be forwarned that if another individual attempts to board the ship we will not hesitate to take actions to enforce this agreement."

"Constantine, the Admiral will be arriving shortly."

-------

"We have the go, Admiral. Making the jump now."

Eulin's shuttle streaked out of Deepspace alongside the Certes. As it reentered Realspace, it began drifting slowly toward the Constantine, docking when it reached the far larger ship.

Eulin and his bodyguard waited in the doorway of the shuttle as it whooshed open.

Oh, bloody hell.

Captain Tabanne, waiting before the Guanyan shuttle exactly as he had done with Hexx's shuttle, could barely restrain himself from taking an involuntary step backward. The Admiral before him was unidentifiable, nothing beyond his rank marking him as anything of import to the Captain, but his 'bodyguard' was something else entirely. The face was not familiar, of course, but the tattoos adorning his body made his identity all to apparent. A member of the Ren'Liao serving as a personal bodyguard meant that whatever the Constantine had stumbled upon was much more important than any small-time operation being run without the care of any Guanyan higher-ups.

Still, while forboding, this didn't drastically effect the situation in any serious way.

"Hostmaster Eulin,"

Stressing the rank made it clear that he was at least marginally familiar with the Guanyu military.

"welcome to the Constantine. I am Captain Tabanne of the Klonor Space Corps."

Eulin smiled pleasantly. "A pleasure, Captain Tabanne. As you already know, I am Hostmaster Tav Eulin. If we could proceed to someplace where we could speak privately? The sooner we resolve this, the better."

The Ren'Liao bodyguard stood stock-still in the Guayan equivalent of military attention. His eyes seemed to be looking at everything and nothing all at once, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he observed everything and focused on nothing. His manner was reminiscent of a serpent, which was appropriate considering the stylized dragon tattoo that covered his face.

"Yes, yes of course. If you will accompany me, we have one of the forward conference rooms prepared for our meeting. We won't be disturbed. I hope you won't mind if we are accompanied by my own personal guards, since yours will be joining us."

Merri had been mentally chewing her fingernails. The fact that she and the Way Farer has slipt bothered her far more than she wanted any one to know. She's never met any one who had. Some of the stories circulating were not fun in the least, even for a long range explorer whos' idea of fun was strange by dirt-dweller notions,to say the least.

The sudden musical flourish brough her half closed eyes wide open with a well hidden start. And what the gentleman was wearing kept them that way for a full two seconds. Then she blinked.

A, M. Hexx, so pleased to meet you. My Name is Fih Dinah, Ambassador for the Duke Klonor to the Outer Suns. So sorry to have kept you waiting, but there's a situation that required the presence of the Captain."

Merri made sure she was sitting errect, but made no move to rise. "Very pleased to meet you Mr. Dinah. And please, no apology needed. I understand how it can be when company comes calling unannounced. And, please, juct call me Merri"

She smiled brightly at him while wondering if what he wore was the official uniform of a Kolonorian diplomat. 'or does he just have abysmal fashion sense. The thought that followed made it easy to refrain from giggling. You do NOT want to know that your family has managed to make their mark in another universe! She managed to keep the smile.

"Then, as the Captain is otherwise occupied... I am not accredited as any sort of official envoy, sir. However ..." She shrugged. "Xanadu Tu asks all independant scouts to be mindfull of courtesy when meeting new socities."

"Well, Merri, we've contacted our diplomatic officers at the Association capital and have informed them of the location of Xanadu Tu; they'll be officially contacting the government within the next few days. They will, of course, be responsibile for negotiating our official relationship; determining if there is a necessity for official treaties and the like. However, since you are our first contact with Xanadu Tu, the Admiral has decided that it would be best if we maintained our contact for the time being; perhaps to make sure that our respective governments have the information necessary for a peaceful contact."

Smiling, he reached into one of his many pockets and slid a small round chit across the table.

"This is, essentially, a compressed history of our nation. Not every tiny detail, of course, but the general trend of our society and the basic makeup of our culture. Our form of government, economic history, and minor analysis on the part of the sociological experts. It is standard for all new nations to be delivered this information, all the better to insure that there are no critical misunderstandings which might lead to unpleasant hostilities in the future.

"We can, of course, also offer this in printed form in the event that your computer systems are incompatible with our own; quite often we find that even simple text files can't be read by alien software. Unfortunately, we'll also need to charge you quite a fortune for the amount of paper that will be involved; a millenia of history takes up quite a bit of space after all."

Looking about himself, as if searching for something that he'd forgotten, Fih waited several moments before he began speaking again.

"Uh...I think that pretty much covers everything, actually. In the event of contacting an alien species without contacting members of the government our responsibilities do not extend beyond simply delivering the information on our own people; it's always better if we do not attempt to create to strong of an understanding with those whose own opinions can be overruled by others."

Merri took the small disc, and slid it into a small belt pouch. "Oh we don't need it on paper I'm sure. Though I love a good book, Mycroft should be able to interface with it easily. While we aren't specific 'First Contact' we independant scouts meet all sorts in our perigrinations. Thank you for the offer however."

"Uh...I think that pretty much covers everything, actually. In the event of contacting an alien species without contacting members of the government our responsibilities do not extend beyond simply delivering the information on our own people; it's always better if we do not attempt to create to strong of an understanding with those whose own opinions can be overruled by others."

"Oh yes, I can't speak for X Tu save in the most casual of ways. However I can, without violating contract, offer the Kolonor the detailed scans of this system. It's specifically allowed in our contract for instances such as this." She made the offer and thought for a second.

"We don't keep histories and cultural information ready set to hand out. If you would like however, I can have Mycroft give your cyber system a micro burst of the data. Or we could layer it to a data hedron or other storage device."

A formation of three ships coasted through a wormhole, arriving in the system right on the fringes of sensor range. Two were freighters, about two hundred metres long with small crews, and these immediately altered course and headed for the nearby asteroids. The third was a 170m long Vadra-class corvette, and was here to investigate a sensor contact by one of the remote survey drones in the system, designed to alert the Indoans to any other presence in the system.

It accelerated away from their entry point, heading towards the contacts. From what the Mind could tell, there were four vessels in the system. From their alignment, the Mind concluded that there were at least two, probably three, different nations involved, and possibly not in an entirely friendly matter either.

The Mind made a short burst transmission on a direct datalink, a line-of-sight communication method and therefore virtually impossible to detect, then contacted the CO.

“Colonel Valero, we have four unidentified contacts in system. I am closing to make contact now. We need to be careful in what we say to these people, you know what is going on here.”

“Okay, Sylvie, I’ll be on the bridge in a minute.” Colonel Eleanor Valero rolled out of her bed and hurried to find her uniform. “Have you notified them?”

“Of course,” replied the INV Silveretta. “As soon as I detected the contacts. They should be clear of the system any minute now. I’ll send the first message when we hit ten gigametres from the contacts.”

As the corvette closed to within ten million kilometres of the vessels, the Mind made a broadwave transmission in English, since their past experience had told them virtually all other space-faring races spoke it.

{This is the INV Silveretta of the Indoan Navy. This system is home to the Indoan mining colony Penthara PA*2268, Please identify yourselves and explain your presence here.}

As the transmission was sent, a second wormhole appeared right out in the far reaches of the system, and there was the faintest trace of another vessel, much larger than the freighters or the corvette, in fact several kilometres in length, leaving the system.

"Ah, some form of data storage device would be best, the commanders are often worried about introducing some form of harmful program into the ships systems and it's always better if we can isolate that data if necessary. Anything on your culture or form of government would be best, so we know what to expect when our officials make contact."

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

"Distance to the new arrivals?"

"Twenty million kilometers and closing, ma'am."

"Threat analyses? Identification?"

"We read two cargo vessels, likely minimally armed, and one Corvette-sized ship that poses no real threat to ourselves. Their signature is not in the data banks; we haven't encountered this style before."

Aboard the bridge, which had begun flashing alarms all over again when the new arrivals had been detected, Admiral Gitar sat in the command chair and faught the urge to curse. True, their mission was exploration and contact with new peoples, but a third contact in less than an hour was pushing it. The Guanyu situation alone was troublesome, the presence of a Ren'Liao implying repercussions to come, and she simply did not want to deal with another situation until the current one was resolved.

"Admiral, the new ships are initiating contact."

"This is the INV Silveretta of the Indoan Navy. This system is home to the Indoan mining colony Penthara PA*2268, Please identify yourselves and explain your presence here."

"Open a channel."

"Yes, ma'am. Channel open."

"This is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine of the Klonor Space Corps. We are on a long-range exploration mission from the Associated Systems of Klonor and are seeking contact with nations residing in this portion of the Galaxy. We were unaware that this system was claimed by an independent nation and had no wish to intrude upon your territory."

"This is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine of the Klonor Space Corps. We are on a long-range exploration mission from the Associated Systems of Klonor and are seeking contact with nations residing in this portion of the Galaxy. We were unaware that this system was claimed by an independent nation and had no wish to intrude upon your territory."

~ What is it about other races and using fracking huge ships as explorers? the Mind asked itself. It had heard the stories from ships in the Explorer Fleet, about how nearly every race they had encountered had had a capital grade vessel for the first contact.

The Mind made a quick check on the location of the two freighters, now safely landing on the asteroid that was home to the mining colony, then began a detailed scan of the vessels, recording as much information as it could about the unknowns.
~ Well, the databanks have nothing on Klonor, but one of the other ships is flagging something. Have we run into them before, or just another similar to it? The ship that had prompted the flag was the smallest of the vessels in the system, but the Mind couldn’t place an identity.

The Colonel was still a few minutes from being able to appear on the bridge, so the Mind replied to the transmission.

{Ah, in that case, greetings and welcome to our little bit of the galaxy. It would appear that you have made contact with multiple nations, none of whom have previously been spotted in this system. I guess it’s a popular time for exploring.}

The corvette continued to close until it was a hundred thousand kilometres from the other vessels, then came to a relative stop. The Vadra-class was a blocky design, definitely not a pretty one, and the fleet standard matt black paint job did little to improve its looks.

"It would seem so; we did not expect to encounter either of these others here, either. However, who are we to object to our mission being so quickly and bountifully fulfilled?"

The Admiral paused briefly, wondering just how much information she should give to the newest of the new arrivals. The Guanyans obviously had some sort of operation in the area and, while the people of the two nations often had nothing respectful to say about the others, their governments were official allies and had cooperated in the past. If it was as sensitive as they were claiming, it would not do to reveal their identity to the Indoanian Navy. The single trader they'd encountered was less complicated, she'd made no move to keep her identity or purpose a secret, but for all they knew she had some ulterior motive. Afterall, the very fact that they hadn't encountered her people before cast the entire situation into a harsh light. Better to let them explain themselves, it wouldn't be to hard to simply avoid mentioning them at all.

"We originated approximately 83,000 light-years from here in the stellar system known as Gamma Draconis, our knowledge of this area, and this system, has been limited to solely what we have been able to observe through long-distance observation and discussion with travelers from this area. We've only been able to determine a lack of habitation since our arrival, and have yet to proceed to an in-depth scan, otherwise we would have made an effort to contact your government."

Turning, she nodded to one of her subordinates to begin said scan; she was getting rather tired of continuously being surprised by people simply popping into the system.

"Would it be at all possible to arrange such a meeting with ourselves and a representative of your government?"

The Colonel had made her way onto the bridge by now, looking slightly dishevelled, but definitely alert. The Mind spent a minute or so explaining the situation to her, before they replied.

{Well, our home system of Indo is a bare thirteen light years from here, and this is the Penthara system. They are probably known to you by different names, and we must confess to never having heard of your system, but again, we probably know it by another name.}

“Lieutenant, anything out of those other contacts yet?” asked Valero.

“Not yet, sir. They can’t have missed our signal, we must have broadcast it to half the system,” replied the Comms officer. “Even if it’s not a common frequency for them, they should still have noticed it if they were even half awake.”

“Well, I guess we’ll just wait and see. If they try anything, we’ll call for help.”

{It is perfectly possible. We are authorised to act as representatives, or if you prefer we can call up an Alliance diplomatic vessel from home. They can be here within half an hour, but it’s easier for us to handle it if that’s alright with you. We’re not going anywhere for a while.}

Of course, the reason why the corvette wasn’t going anywhere was the presence of the other vessels. It would remain there until the other vessels had all left.

The scan of the system would reveal that the Indoan presence was limited to about thirty remote sensor relay drones and evidence of the mining colony on three of the largest asteroids. Or was it four of the asteroids?

{This is the INV Silveretta of the Indoan Navy. This system is home to the Indoan mining colony Penthara PA*2268, Please identify yourselves and explain your presence here.}


'Merri, Indoans!' Mycroft all but yelped in the back of her mind.

Merry blinked hard in shock and almost missed what the Klonorian diplomat said.

Anything on your culture or form of government would be best, so we know what to expect when our officials make contact."


Quick mental review, and she was nodding. "Certainly I can have those for you in a jiffy. My runabout maybe small but linked with the Way Farer and can have the information on a crystal in a flash."

Through the Interface Matrix she snapped a quick warning to Mycroft. 'Myc, these are not OUR Indoans. We have no idea what they are like herre. Get a hold of yourself.'

'I think we'll find them very close analogs to the culture we know. The current theory is the greater the Slipt the more direct physical changes and there for...'

'Myc rein yourself in! Just be quiet and calm for a little bit longer. Merri was more than a little concerned. She knew well the A.I.'s parrent sentience had a history and strong feelings about the Indoans of their home universe. And that he had passed his admiration on to Myc.

Mycroft was silent what for a being that lived at light speed was a near eternity and when he did reply his voice was subdued. 'You're right Merri. He then settled in for over hearing what the Klornorians and the Indoan's were saying to one another. 'Ah thats where they were, the slice of the system we hadn't had a chance to do a sweep of. If they've been mining the system they'll have far more complete data than what we can offer so that's an unnecessary offering' He thought as he listened in to the further exchanges.

After listening in for a few minutes Mycroft directed a reply at the Indoan Corvette.

{This is Independant Far Scout Way Farer, currently registered out of Xanadu Tu, origin port Tanaran Empire. Advise reason in-system is Astro- Geo resource survey. }

He knew he was taking a risk with some of that information. The TE might not exist in this universe, or worse be a distorted version of theirs. The TE was too far away for normal FTL communication, the PGC 54559 being some six hundred million light years from Earth. Thus he had not yet tried a baseline communication with the Empire.

'But if they do, and they've worked friendly with these Indoan's before it would be a help. I'm getting tired of being surrounded by ships of war' He snorted in his thoughts that have the gall to call themselves explorers. More like bloody Spanish Conquistadores is more like it! Scare the hell out of the natives, take over everything with out so much as a by your leave Mycroft knew he was grumping more than usual, and half hypocrite. He was saving up for a bigger ship, though no where near as large as even the Indoan Corvette.

"Within Association databanks this system is referred to solely as PLJ-343, but I believe Penthara will be acceptable to the ships astronomers. Also, if there is no need to involve more personnel than those present, it's no inconveniece to maintain contact with the Silveretta. We would gladly welcome a diplomatic representative aboard our vessel for a more personal dialogue, exchanging distant words through space does nothing to sufficiently aquaint new friends."

Nodding to her communications officer, who quickly closed the transmission channel, she turned to the Lieutenant operating the various sensor devices.

"Lieutenant, tell me we finally have an idea of where the hell we are. This is beginning to get rather tiresome."

"Yes, ma'am. The Indoans weren't overstating their claim; though small, we've clearly detected a mining operation on several of the larger interior asteroids. The characteristics are identical, they're from the same origin as our newest guest."

"Well, there goes our own claim to the system."

"Yes, ma'am. The freighters that originally accompanied the Silveretta have approached the mining colony, they're obviously loading or unloading. In addition, we've detected approximately thirty sensor devices scattered throughout the system; likely belonging to the Indoans as well."

"How many asteroids are currently being mined, perhaps we could negotiate for a portion of the field."

"I detect three seperate mining installations on three seperate asteroids, which leaves us several million unoccupied rocks to barter for. However, I'm also receiving some anomolous readings from a fourth asteroid, it's possible that they have some sort of minor outpost."

"Well, fourth asteroid or not, that's still only a fraction of the system. I don't forsee any problems arising here, there's more than enough to go around if we find something vital within the system."

Hessman's jaw dropped as he scanned the readouts on his vid screen.

"You have got to be kidding me. Those Klonor idiots just happened to land right on one of the locals' mining operations? How the hell did we miss this? I thought we checked our records to make sure the Klonorians weren't near any local presence before sending anyone out there!"

Huram winced. "We still haven't fully mapped out the locals' presence in the system. They must have come in near one of the mining sites we haven't identified yet. It's hard for the satellites to get a good reading in those asteroid fields unless they know what they're looking for."

Hessman swore sulfurously. "This could compromise our entire operation! After all of our efforts to avoid detection by the locals, we blithely followed the Klonori into their backyard! I really hope Eulin finds us a way out of this."

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

Tav Eulin was just settling himself in a chair in the conference room when his comm unit began beeping. Irritated, he glanced down to see who would be stupid enough to disturb him at such a delicate time. When he saw who it was from, his face grew grim. He clicked the comm unit on.

"Eulin here."

"Sir, we have a new group of ships in the system. Locals. They're hailing us...rather loudly."

Eulin let out a wordless growl of frustration. All their effort in staying concealed from the locals could very well be a waste if he didn't salvage this quickly. Plus, he would have to keep up the facade for the benefit of the Klonori. A two-front deception could be very tricky. "Patch it through to my comm. I'll speak with them myself."

He switched off the comm and turned to Captain Tabanne. "I apologize for my rudeness, Captain, but this cannot wait."

Eulin switched his comm back on. "INV Silveretta, this is Admiral Tav Eulin of the Guanyan Aerospace Navy. I am currently onboard the Constantine for diplomatic reasons. My government is conducting research experiments in a nearby system and I am only here to conduct some business with the Klonorians. I apologize for the unintended intrusion into your space."

{This is Independant Far Scout Way Farer, currently registered out of Xanadu Tu, origin port Tanaran Empire. Advise reason in-system is Astro-Geo resource survey.}

The Mind interrogated its database for any information on the data contained in the latest transmission. What it found was interesting, to say the least.
“Well, well,” it mused. “It seems that we owe quite a lot to the smallest of our visitors.”

“Why’s that, Sylvie?” inquired Valero.

“First contact was with the Faded Fortunes, about a month back, during that mess that involved half the fleet chasing off across the galaxy. The Tanarans weren’t involved in that bit, but they were around during the events that preceded it. They gave us those advanced Displacers, Aportation they called it.”

“I guess we do owe them a lot, don’t we,” agreed Valero. “Best say hello then hadn’t you?”

{Sorry about that, I guess we didn’t expect to find Tanarans out here, and we didn’t recognise your identity. The Alliance owes your nation a great debt of gratitude, and you are always welcome in our home. When your business with these others is concluded, feel free to pay a visit to Indo if you wish.}

~ There. Good to see someone else who doesn’t feel the need to announce their presence with a battle-cruiser, thought the Mind. ~ But it’ll take more than a big-ass ship to intimidate us. Although I do have to wonder how we’d deal with it. Hello, more going on.

"Within Association databanks this system is referred to solely as PLJ-343, but I believe Penthara will be acceptable to the ships astronomers. Also, if there is no need to involve more personnel than those present, it's no inconveniece to maintain contact with the Silveretta. We would gladly welcome a diplomatic representative aboard our vessel for a more personal dialogue, exchanging distant words through space does nothing to sufficiently aquaint new friends."

“We don’t need to bring in a Diplo-ship, do we? We’re fully able to handle this,” asked Valero.

“Of course not. We can send you over, with an avatar for back-up. Probably by shuttle, since most people don’t like strangers just Displacing aboard their ship, even if they are invited,” agreed the Mind. “Do you feel up to it? I can just send the avatar if you don’t.”

“No, I can handle it. Besides, I’m sure that between you and the avatar, you can keep me in check,” the Colonel replied lightly.

{We can dispatch someone whenever you wish, Constantine. We’ll send them over by shuttle, unless of course you happen to permit Displacements on board your ship. Either way, we’ll close to seventy megametres for transfer.}

“We’ve got traffic from the other contact, sir,” announced the comms officer. “Well, sort of, anyway.” He tapped a symbol on his display to play the message.

"INV Silveretta, this is Admiral Tav Eulin of the Guanyan Aerospace Navy. I am currently onboard the Constantine for diplomatic reasons. My government is conducting research experiments in a nearby system and I am only here to conduct some business with the Klonorians. I apologize for the unintended intrusion into your space."

{While the Indoan Alliance has no wish to upset diplomatic relations between two other nations, neither of which are familiar to us, we would appreciate it if your vessel would leave our system for a nearby neutral one, of which there are a surplus. If necessary, a supplementary vessel will be allowed to remain to transport yourself out of the system once your business is concluded.

If you wish to open up relations with the Alliance itself, we would be amenable to such action, although our request that your warship depart Indoan space still stands. As you can probably understand, having multiple large alien battle-cruisers in one’s territory can be a cause for concern.}

“Why do I get the impression that you don’t like them much?” asked Valero after the message had been sent.

“I don’t trust them,” responded the Mind simply.

“You don’t even know them. How can you know whether you trust them or not? Aside from the fact that we don’t trust anyone we don’t know,” pointed out Valero.

“The data from the sensor drones shows that they had fighters deployed, possibly following an explosion. Then that ship jumped in right on top of the others. The sensor feeds confirm that the Tanaran vessel was indeed a short period of time into what was probably a full system scan, which is why we were scheduled to come out here anyway. There are faint traces of activity out beyond the system that match the Constantine’s entrance signature, so that backs up their story, which is what accelerated our arrival by a few hours. This one came out of nowhere, which means they were probably hiding something.” There was a pause while the Mind allowed the Colonel to assimilate that information. “I’m going to run a full system scan. If there’s anything in this system that shouldn’t be, I’m going to find it.”

The corvette’s powerful sensor arrays ramped up to full strength, and began sweeping the system. On remote command, the drones scattered throughout the system also powered up and began sweeping at full strength. If there was so much as an extra pebble in the system, the Silveretta stood a good chance of finding it.

{Sorry about that, I guess we didn’t expect to find Tanarans out here, and we didn’t recognise your identity. The Alliance owes your nation a great debt of gratitude, and you are always welcome in our home. When your business with these others is concluded, feel free to pay a visit to Indo if you wish.}


Mycroft took a moment of to assimilate all the various extrapolations of those remarks from the INV Silveretta. His voice was much warmer when he replied

{Oh no problems Silveretta. We can't say we're officially repping Tanara, but it's always good to meet friends. Our charts had this system listed with nothing other than an a IAU designation. And chaos theory alone knows how many really empty systems there are. Give me a sec and I'll have all my survey drones recalled, and the system marked as claimed. Oh and my organic partner is on the Constantine at this time.}

The Way Farer's survey drones powered up and headed obediently back to the scout ship. Mycroft also took a moment to micro burst the download that Merri had requested to the runabout's system. The A.I. had several copies lazed to crystal so that she would have them to give to any who wished them.

While the Indoan Alliance has no wish to upset diplomatic relations between two other nations, neither of which are familiar to us, we would appreciate it if your vessel would leave our system for a nearby neutral one, of which there are a surplus. If necessary, a supplementary vessel will be allowed to remain to transport yourself out of the system once your business is concluded.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Silveretta. GAN regulations prohibit the Scimitar-class vessel from leaving the area as long as I am in-system and there are potentially unfriendly capital ships nearby, and the delicacy of the current situation maked it impossible for me to leave without completing my talks with the Klonori representative. I will speak with the Klonori and see if the negotiations can be moved to a nearby neutral system so that I may remove my vessels from your space."

Eulin clicked off his comm unit and turned to Captain Tabanne. "My apologies, Captain, but perhaps you would be amenable to moving our discussion to a nearby system in order to placate the locals? Perhaps in a shuttle of some kind, in which case I would be able to send the Scimitar away?"

Meanwhile, back on Otherhome...

Admiral Hessman stood in front of a vidscreen the size of a full-body mirror in his private quarters. He was alone, without even a single bodyguard. It was somewhat refreshing to be by himself, it didn't happen often. But he was about to contact his insider in the Empire, and for that he required absolute privacy.

Connection established. Secure encryption protocol 34EHFA8798DFUSIF enabled. Beginning mulitphasic wire transmission. Scanning...

After a few moments of what sounded like various volumes of static but was really a highly advanced transmission shielding program, a smiling face appeared on the vid screen. "Hello, old friend. So good to hear from you. I was just remembering our time together on Guanyu Beta 6."

Warning signals flared in Hessman's brain. The two of them had never served on Guanyu Beta 6. Something was very, very wrong. An imposter would never have gotten such a detail wrong, so it had to be his contact, but he was warning Hessman that the conversation was not as private as it should be. Someone was listening on the other side. He would have to be very careful of how much he revealed.

Hessman smiled. "Ah, yes. I remember it fondly. I'm afraid that I did not call to remenisce, however. There's been some trouble at home. That odd cousin of yours just showed up all of a sudden, and he's sort of upsetting the rest of the family. He drinks all the time, and knows all sorts of things about us that we'd rather not have out in the open. Sometimes it almost seems as though he's psychic. As if that weren't enough, the nieghbors are causing all sorts of fuss, and the cousin brought a stranger with him. He seems nice enough, but he's something of an unknown quantity. I've got Uncle Tav trying to sort everything out, but he's really got his hands full."

"Well, I'm quite busy with work here, of course, but I'll see what I can do to make things a bit more bearable." His contact replied. "I'm afraid I have to go, but I hope to hear from you again soon. Give the family my love."

"I will." Hessman turned off the vid screen and sat in silence for a few moments considering the conversation. He had told his old friend as much as he could without openly revealing anything. Home, of course, meant Otherhome, and his contact would have no problem identifying the supposedly psychic cousin with the drinking problem as Klonor. The neighbors, naturally, referred to the locals, and the stranger to the small ship that seemed to be conducting business with the Klonori. He had been gambling with using Eulin's first name when they were being monitored, but Tav was a common enough name in the Empire. Hopefully the insider would be able to piece it all together and whoever had been listening in would consider it a simple, if somewhat odd, conversation between the insider and an old friend and would not bother to try to identify who the man on the other end had been.

That begged the question of who had been monitoring the call. It had never happened before. Perhaps it was just a mistake of timing, or perhaps his man on the inside was being watched. Either way, he would have to be more careful in the future.

OOC: Just a note. Tanara and Klonor already know this, but since we have a new person involved I thought I'd post an FYI on Guanyan appearance. Guanyans are taller than humans, averaging around seven feet, and have greenish-blue tinged skin and glowing green eyes. They also have slightly pointed ears.

"Admiral, I don't like the idea of letting them 'Displace' aboard; we have no way of knowing what they might bring with them. For all we know they'll try to drop an assault force right on to the bridge. A shuttle would probably be best; it'd allow us to keep a closer eye on them."

"Thank you, Lieutenant, but if we're going to make any headway in this portion of the Galaxy then we can't treat every single contact as the Shivans in disguise. Still, there's no reason to bare our chest unnecessarily...re-open the channel."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Members of the Indoan Alliance, we are willing to allow a shuttle carrying your representative to dock with the Constantine for a meeting with our government representatives; hopefully resulting in a peaceful alliance between our two peoples."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Good. Inform Ambassador Noral that we have government representative expected aboard rather soon, he should prepare to welcome and entertain the representative. Have him report to one of the forward docking bays once he's set, then transmit that location to the Indoans."

"Yes, ma'am."

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

"I'm sorry, Hostmaster, but I'd need to speak with the Admiral before I agreed to anything of the sort; the current situation involves to many factors for me to unilaterally decide to abandon the Constantine, even temporarily (And the Captain had no wish to simply hand himself over to the Guanyans). Perhaps the Constantine itself could accompany you. If you'll excuse me for a moment..."

Rising to his feet, Captain Tabanne crossed to one of the many wall-comm panels and contacted the bridge.

"Admiral, the Hostmaster has been informed by the Indoans that they would prefer his escorting Scimitar leave the system, and he is adamant that it can't exit until he does. He's requested that I accompany him in a shuttle or other such craft to a different system, so as not to provoke to Indoans, but I don't believe it would be wise for me to leave the Constantine at this time. Perhaps the Constantine could accompany the Guanyans to such a neutral system, at least until we have a firmer grasp of the situation, and return for the Indoan negotiation. Or, they could accompany us to the same neutral system; ensuring that everybody continues to operate without infringing upon the territory of any of the present sovereign nations."

A slight pause, obviously Admiral Gitar considering the situation, and she responded with an affirmative.

"I'll inform the Indoans of our change in plans."

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

"Attention INV Silveretta, this is Admiral Gitar. The Guanyu delegation has requested that we accompany them as they leave the system, and we are considering doing so. We do not wish to forgo further contact with the Indoans and shall return upon the completion of the current negotiations. However, we would also not be averse to you accompanying us out of the system, and we can continue our discussions in a less occupied point in space."

((OOC: Thanks. To return the favour for Guanyu and Klonor, the principle Indoan species is the Matrai. They're outwardly similar to humans, but have marble-white skin and mild pre-cognitive abilities, which most frequently manifests itself as an early warning to danger. I'll mention info on the other two species if I decide to involve either of them.))

{Oh no problems Silveretta. We can't say we're officially repping Tanara, but it's always good to meet friends. Our charts had this system listed with nothing other than an a IAU designation. And chaos theory alone knows how many really empty systems there are. Give me a sec and I'll have all my survey drones recalled, and the system marked as claimed. Oh and my organic partner is on the Constantine at this time.}

{Well, it seems everyone’s interested in them today. Come a long way, though. I wonder where the other battle-cruiser came from. Incidentally, there’re five other systems near here that we like to call our own. The vast majority of our settlements are in our home system though, just mining colonies and outposts in the others.}

~ It is always good to see a friend, we have nothing to worry about with that one, thought the Mind, ~ Even if they happened to pick anything up with their sensors, they’ll probably just ignore it, seeing as we haven’t done anything about it, so it must be ours.

“The only potentially unfriendly vessel in this system is theirs,” grumped the Mind. “They’re the ones who seem to have a problem with the Constantine being here.”

“Yes, Sylvie, that’s true, but we can’t exactly force them to leave at the moment, can we? I don’t doubt you’d give them a bloody nose if necessary, but we wouldn’t stand much of a chance against that behemoth. So keep using those positrons for thinking,” mentioned Valero. “Perhaps we should ask the Klonori if they would be so kind as to move out of the system temporarily, until that business is concluded.”

"I think we might have detected the source of that explosion shortly before we arrived. I’ll send a drone out to look,” announced the Mind.

A slender streamlined object about three metres long, with tiny winglets affixed to the sides, separated itself from the corvette. A small wormhole appeared, and the drone accelerated through it, reappearing about a hundred kilometres from the wreckage picked up by the sensors.

"Attention INV Silveretta, this is Admiral Gitar. The Guanyu delegation has requested that we accompany them as they leave the system, and we are considering doing so. We do not wish to forgo further contact with the Indoans and shall return upon the completion of the current negotiations. However, we would also not be averse to you accompanying us out of the system, and we can continue our discussions in a less occupied point in space."

{Ah, we were just about to ask you if you would mind doing just that. It’s just that we’re not particularly keen on having firepower in our systems that we can’t easily counter if things get out of hand. One ship your size would be acceptable, but two is a little unsettling. We will accompany you to a suitable location, then send the shuttle over. I suspected as much on the Displacement issue, but I thought I might as well ask.}

“You best get to the spine hangar then, Colonel. I’ll have an avatar and a crew meet you there,” suggested the avatar.

“Can do, Sylvie. Make it Sharona’s crew would you? I know they’re on duty now,” replied Valero. The Mind replied in the affirmative as the Colonel left the bridge.

OOC: Free Eagles, if the highly encrypted transmission you were referring to is the long post I did about the insider, that's not originating from any ship in the system, it's from my base of operations in a nearby system. I highly doubt your ship would be able to detect it.

"Very good Silveretta, we will transmit the co-ordinates for our destination in a few moments, we'll need to confer and determine precisely where we'll be continuing our negotiations. Also, are there any systems within the immediate area that you likewise claim? It would be rather embarrassing for us to move off and end up right back where we started."

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

"Well, Hostmaster, it looks like you're not rid of us yet. Tell me, where shall we relocate to?"

Captain Tabanne, having received confirmation from the Admiral that they were to accompany the Guanyans out of the system, was back before Eulin and considering just where they would relocate to.

"Be forewarned, though, the Indoan ship will be accompanying us wherever we travel; this is our first contact with government forces from this area and we'd prefer to not have them interrupted. Wherever you head to, make sure you don't mind outsiders tagging along."

It was obvious that whatever the Guanyans were doing was high-priority, and even Captain Tabanne didn't want to drag a third party right into the midst of whatever their operation was.

OOC: For Klonor, the majority of the population are simple humans that migrated off Earth, though a signficant portion (A little more than 1/8) are Elves. Other alien species are also present, but not in any significant numbers.

"Praise the Gods. They have brought us here, to this point. We await their return. As their advocate, I, High Voyager, declare this council session open. May the Gods have glory upon us, and may we await their glorious return."


"High Voyager, I present a motion: Our Holy task is that of exploration. We must find those who have lost the Gods, and return them to the faith. Praised be the Gods."

All those in the chamber responded in unison:
"Praised be the Gods."

"Very well, First Watch Officer. Continue."[/COLOR]

"Grace, your Holiness. The system we have under watch is abandoned. There is no life. There has been none for hundreds of years."

"What is the status of the Star?"

"It is dead, your Holiness. The Gods did not see fit to grace this system with a star of life. Praised be their will."

"Praised be the Gods."

"Very well, First Watch Officer. What is your motion?"

"At this moment, there are vessels of an unknown origin, present in the system. Should I consult the Temple, I would find their precursors. I propose we enter, to discuss with them the Gods, and if it should be required, record them, and alert the Temple to the existance of these Heathens, should they be so."

"First Watch Officer has proposed a motion. Are there any not in favor?"

The council chamber was silent.

"Very well. It has passed. We prepare now to challenge the Heathens, and to show to them the true Gods. This council is dismissed. Praise the Gods."

"Praised be the Gods."

Throughout the dark chamber, lights turned on, and the council rose, as one. High Voyager spoke.

"We are now at First Alert Status. Return to your stations, and prepare the ship for immediate Fold."

The room flashed, and was empty.

On the Bridge, High Voyager walked to the command post, and pulled down the map of the system. Three Heathen vessels.

Slowly, the large Ka-Tarek ship shimmered into existance, as the cloaking device was de-activated, and power sent to the Space-Fold drives. Suddenly, the ship seemed to stretch, impossibly far, reaching from one system to the other, and then snap, and for a moment, it seemed to exist in two places at once; then a rush, and the ship fully materialized, within firing range of all the Heathen vessels.

High Voyager absently tapped Command Desk.
"Shields full, weapons full, hailing frequencies open."

ooc: Note: The Ka-Tarek don't naturally speak english, or terran, or whatever you want to call it.

"Admiral, new contact!"

"You have got to be kidding me."

Admiral Gitar turned a weary eye towards the sensor officer, a man who was beginning to look worn out himself, and wasn't comforted by the slow shaking of his head.

"Ma'am, we have another ship appearing in-system several hundred thousand kilometers of our our port bow. Profile does not match either the Xanadans, Guanyans, or the Indoans; it's a safe bet this is a fourth contact."

"Do we have a characteristic match?"

"No, ma'am, we haven't previously encountered this technology; another first contact."

"Three in the same day; this defies so many laws of probability that some mathematician is spinning in his grave right now. I think Mercury is having some fun with us. Have any of the other ships reacted yet?"

"No, ma'am; no transmissions or hostilities from the vessels already present, I don't think they expected these fellows here, either."

"Well, at least we're not alone. Contact?"

"I'm detecting a transmission, likely a hailing channel since it's certainly not an internal comm-wave, but so far no data. They're ready to talk, but they haven't said anything yet."

"Probably waiting for us to make the first move. Open a hailing channel on the same frequency, Lieutenant, and bring the ship up to Tactical Alert Beta. No reason to stand around with our arms tied."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Attention unidentified vessel; this is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine, we are on a long-range exploration and diplomatic mission from the Associated Systems of Klonor and are new to this region of the Galaxy. We seek contact with previously unknown forms of life and distant governments; may I inquire as to your identity?"

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Sitting heavily in the command chair, apparently drained of energy, the Admiral began to stare at one of the bridge's many display screens. Three first contacts in one day was simply to improbable to believe, something had to be going on here.

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

Oh, bloody hell, what now?

Captain Tabanne had just sat down before Eulin, not even sitting long enough for the Guanyan guest to speak a word, and already a Beat Alert alarm was blaring throughout the ship.

This is getting pretty freaking ridiculous.

"Will you excuse me, again, Hostmaster? I believe there's something that needs my attention."

Rising, Tabanne once again approached one of the secure wall-comms and initiated contact with the bridge, hoping to discover what it was that had initiated yet another Beta Alert.

"Captain, we've discovered yet another ship in-system; the characteristic is not in our databanks and does not match that of the other ships present. A third first contact. They have not yet opened a dialogue and the Admiral felt that, until we receive assurances that they're friendly, a Beta Alert would be the practical decision."

"Has there been any contact; even between the new ship and one of the other alien vessels?"

"No, sir."

"Very well, thank you, Lieutenant."

Turning, once more seating himself before the Guanyan, the Captain bore an expression that easily masked his internal turmoil.

"Nothing to worry about, it seems there is simply another unidentified vessel leaping into the system."

OOC: No problem, I'm sure we'll be able to whip up some form of translator.

Besides, Klonor doesn't speak English, either. Believe it or not, technically our spoken language is a descendant of a Hindi dialect that, through bizarre evolution and mutation, has somehow come to resemble 20'th Century English in almost every way. It's a never-ending mystery within Klonor, because even those who speak it don't quite see how such a thing is possible.

ooc: The nice thing about the Ka-Tarek's Gods is that their extensive computer networks have records of most languages, races, planets, etc. in the entire galaxy.

"High Voyager, we have recieved a transmission from one of the Heathen vessels. Language is unknown. Running it through our Records. . .we have a match. Translating."

{"Attention unidentified vessel; this is Admiral Vilin Gitar aboard the ASJ Constantine, we are on a long-range exploration and diplomatic mission from the Associated Systems of Klonor and are new to this region of the Galaxy. We seek contact with previously unknown forms of life and distant governments; may I inquire as to your identity?"}

The High Voyager considered the message for a few moments.

"Very well. Prepare a response. Run full in-depth scans on all three of the Heathen vessels. What are we dealing with."

{ASJ Constantine, this is the XVI Voyager Tor-Sorak. Our mission parrallels yours. We are delegates from the Holy Empire of the Gods. We are the instruments of the Gods; we are the Ka-Tarek. According to the Records, you are of the species Humanati, originating from the planet Sol, or Terra, or Earth. The Gods, in their wisdom, saw fit to spread your species throughout the galaxy. We have encountered them before. Each time, they were ignorant of the True Gods. Is your species aware, or ignorant?}

"High Voyager, we have completed scans of the Heathen vessels. All are of of an advanced, but comparatively primitive technology level. Most use some sort of sub-space for long-range travel. Power Cores are nuclear, shields are weak, weapons low grade, at best. There are Records of everything. Permission to send a message to Temple, to request additional access, and to inform them of our success."

High Voyager nodded. "Permission granted." The High Voyager pondered something for a few moments, before speaking again.
"Prep an I and I team, hack their transmittor frequency, and see if its possible to open a hole in their shields and warp them in. Do not do it, though. Wait to see how much we can get from them willingly, first."

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Praised be the Gods."

Admiral Gitar considered the words of the Ka-Tarek for only a bare few seconds before she began to speak; contempt painfully apparent in her voice.

"Perfect, just perfect, our first day out and we run across a band of religious nuts. They're going to try and convert us, they always do, and it's going to end in violence, it always does. Jove have mercy, we did not come out here to start a war (As I think is pretty obvious, Klonor doesn't hold missionaries in to high a regard). Lieutenant, re-open the channel."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"We of Klonor know of many Gods, of many faiths with many customs, and our people worship as they chose. We follow in the path of the Pantheon and of the Spirit, and we know of the ancient beliefs of the Judeo-Christians and the Hindus. Our people are varied, but we live with peace between the religions."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Good. Don't bring us up to Alpha Alert, but raise shields above cruising levels. If they truly are on a religious pilgrimage I don't want to present them with an unprepared heathen target."

((OOC: Apart from the obvious fact that Gods don't exist in any form of reality, and therefore can't physically have computers (which I'm willing to ignore), I have a few issues with that post, Ka-Tarek.

I resent the implication that you know about my nation, when they have actively avoided contact for several hundred years, yet have insane system security, so you couldn't have monitored us without being detected and atomised.

I have to wonder what kind of power source and weapons you use to enable you to refer to the complete conversion of mass to energy (antimatter reactions) as primitive.

And I'm not sure what transmitter frequency you're thinking of have, since there are three separate shields on my vessels, none of which can be hacked, plus if you do teleport on board, the Mind will just instantly teleport (within a trillionth of a second) you off again and dump you in space.

It just seems a little unfeasable to me, even for FT RPing. There is a RP post following this minor rant, just give me half an hour or so.

Oh, and Guanyu, in case you haven't noticed yet, I cut that part out of my post.))

((OOC: Oh, and the Indoans don't naturally speak English, but we can translate it.))

"Very good Silveretta, we will transmit the co-ordinates for our destination in a few moments, we'll need to confer and determine precisely where we'll be continuing our negotiations. Also, are there any systems within the immediate area that you likewise claim? It would be rather embarrassing for us to move off and end up right back where we started."

{Of course, that would defeat the objective somewhat. Our claim to fame is limited to just these six systems [map data attached], but generally, move towards the galactic centre, and it’ll be away from us. This system is probably a good choice [location data attached]. It’s close, it’s uninhabited and virtually empty.}

The system the Silveretta had suggested was a little over six light years away, and contained only a single yellow star and several comets, like so many other systems in the galaxy.

As another vessel appeared in system, the Mind focused a scan on it, then checked the Silveretta’s own systems.
~ Shields: at default 100% strength, let’s boost that for now. Weapons: in standby, 17.2 milliseconds from full attack capability, the Mind noted. Everything was running normally for an Indoan vessel.

“Getting some energy bleed from the new contact,” announced the sensor officer, telling the bridge crew what the Mind already knew. “They’ve got shields and weapons armed and ready.”

“Now that’s no way to jump into somebody else’s system,” drawled Lt. Col. Jacob Crowe. “People might think you’re trying to invade. They saying anything?”

“Yes sir,” confirmed the comms officer, and hit the symbol to play the intercepted transmission to the Constantine.

{ASJ Constantine, this is the XVI Voyager Tor-Sorak. Our mission parrallels yours. We are delegates from the Holy Empire of the Gods. We are the instruments of the Gods; we are the Ka-Tarek. According to the Records, you are of the species Humanati, originating from the planet Sol, or Terra, or Earth. The Gods, in their wisdom, saw fit to spread your species throughout the galaxy. We have encountered them before. Each time, they were ignorant of the True Gods. Is your species aware, or ignorant?}

“Oh great, religious zealots. Are we all secure in our beliefs?” he asked those present jokingly. “Sylvie, you handle it. I’ll only be tempted to disintegrate them.”

Without a reply, the Mind sent a message to the new vessel, in English. They were more likely to speak that than they were Indoan.

{Attention, XVI Tor-Sorak, this is the INV Silveretta, Indoan Alliance Navy. This system is the property of the Alliance, and your sudden entrance and armed weapons does not make a peaceful first impression. The Alliance is secure in its diversity, and the freedom to choose one’s faith is a protected right.}
****

In the spine hangar, Colonel Valero was met by the crew of three, led by Major Lynda Sharona, and a ship’s avatar. Had she been aware of the latest arrival, she would have been particularly amused, as she was a devout Wiccan. In addition to her IAF uniform, she wore a dark green hooded velvet cloak that reached down to her feet, although the hood was down around her shoulders.

“Blessed be, Colonel,” Sharona greeted the CO.
“Blessed be, Lynda,” replied Valero. “And good afternoon to the rest of you.”

“I trust you are all well, today?” Valero asked the shuttle crew as they boarded the craft. All four replied positively, before Valero spoke again,
“Lyn, could I ask you to cast a circle before we leave? We’ve got some time, and I’d like you to ask the Lady and Lord for a little luck and prosperity in our task today.”

The Initiate nodded and laid her bag down on the shuttle’s deck, before moving to one of the storage lockers. “It would be no trouble.” As she withdrew her altar tools, and began to cleanse the area for the circle, she spoke again. “Do you have the amulet I gave you?”

Valero smiled and pulled a chain up from beneath her uniform, revealing the pendant. “Of course,” she confirmed.

Sharona smiled warmly when she saw the charm. “It will serve you well in life. Perhaps I can convert you yet.”
Valero’s only reply was a cryptic smile.

ooc: Before anything else, I'd like to make a statement that might make it clearer as to the many assumptions made by the Ka-Tarek.

I designed the race for an epic sci-fi story I am writing with a few other people, so obiously things that I have worked out with them are going to suddenly become glaring errors. I'll change accordingly.

The Ka-Tarek's 'Gods' are in fact an ancient race of super-intelligent and powerful beings who once controlled a galaxy-spanning empire, before there was a massive war, and (as far as anyone knows) the entire race annihilated itself. (I plan on putting something up on NSWiki sooner or later. . .). The Ka-Tarek belive it is their holy duty to inform the rest of the galaxy of the 'gods' they lost, and this bring about their return. Thus, the 'God's' computers are in fact the massive databases they recorded about their empire, before it collapsed. They probably don't know about the nation (as it would have been founded centuries after the collapse of the 'God's' Empire) but they know the race (which i believe is Human?)

The tech levels of the Ka-Tarek and the Indoans seem to be similar, but the Ka-Tarek (having inherited some of the technology of the 'Gods' are much too arrogant to ever think otherwise. Every other race is primitive to them (and I was under the assumption that most used nuclear fusion or something. Anti-matter is hardcore stuff).

They were also just probing the Constantine. Subsequent probes of the Indoan ship(s?) would reveal the impossibility of such an action.

But. . .did you want anything changed?

OOC: The Constantine, and most other Klonor ships, are powered by MiniStar technology. Though I suppose it's technically nuclear power, since stars emit energy and continue to exist due to nuclear reactions, it is essentially a miniature sun that emits energy equal to that a full-size main-sequence star. Technically nuclear, sure, but not quite what people think of when they mention nuclear power. Also, the shields are in no way connected to the communication systems (We've had bad experiences with people hacking exactly as you're proposing) and there's no real way to control them through an incoming transmission.

IC:

"Ah, thank you Silveretta, we'll see if the specified system is acceptable for all involved."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Send that down to the Captain at once, and then begin a scan of the system. Check if there's a Jump-Node within the borders, if we're lucky we might be able to hop straight there in a few minutes."

"Yes, ma'am, though to be honest the odds of us finding a linking Jump-Node are almost infinitesimal."

"Smaller than three new contacts in a day?"

"Good point, ma'am. Scanning....negative, ma'am. No Jump-Node in the system."

"Well then, we'll go on G/TD propulsion. I think we can stand another few hours in inter-stellar space."

"Yes, ma'am. Course is inlaid, waiting only for Guanyan confirmation."

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

A small, muted buzzing from Captain Tabanne's hip indicated an incoming data burst and, bringing out the small Padd, he saw a small map of the local stellar systems along with several identifying tags.

"Ah, I have received the extent of the locals controlled territory. They recommend we reconvene to a system approximately six light-years away but, of course, that might take us somewhere you don't want outsiders to go."

Leaning forward he extended the Padd to Eulin and waited for the Guanyan to make a selection.

"Grace, Voyager."

"Report, First Ops Officer."

"Unexpected. . .complications. The Klonoran vessel's shields cannot at the moment be penetrated. Another route would have to be found."

"Is there any advantage to doing so?"

"Very little. The vessel is very large, greater in size than a battleship, and to find a vital computer system may take days. In all likeliness, the team would be lost."

"Observation noted and considered, Ops Officer. Return to your duties."

"Grace, your Holiness. Praised be the Gods."

High Voyager turned to the command desk, and considered the two transmissions that had recently been recieved. They were both rather typical of Humaniti nations; a respect for the 'right to follow one's own faith'. Preposterous. Was their any point to follow a false ideal? It led to a false life. A life of lies and deceit. They were like all the other Heathens, and would have to be taught to know the Gods, by whatever means.

{We of Klonor know of many Gods, of many faiths with many customs, and our people worship as they chose. We follow in the path of the Pantheon and of the Spirit, and we know of the ancient beliefs of the Judeo-Christians and the Hindus. Our people are varied, but we live with peace between the religions.}

{Your beliefs are wrong. Such was to be expected, the Gods left long ago, and saw fit only to bestow us with the knowledge of their passing. It is our sacred duty to teach you of the Gods. We would be willing to speak with a delegation from your homeworld, to see if we can convince you. If not, we are prepared to do what we must.}


The Indoan message required a bit more contemplation than the standard reply. High Voyager turned and looked at Second Ops Officer.

"Second Ops Officer; scans are reporting that the Indoan vessel contains an anti-matter core. Why was I not informed of this when the vessels were first scanned?"

"Grace, High Voyager. It is my mistake. I failed to report that the scan had not yet finished on the Indoan ship; they have an advanced shielding system that took longer than expected to penetrate."

High Voyager nodded. "Your failure has been noted and recorded. Return to your duties."

"Grace, your Holiness. Praised be the Gods."

{Attention, XVI Tor-Sorak, this is the INV Silveretta, Indoan Alliance Navy. This system is the property of the Alliance, and your sudden entrance and armed weapons does not make a peaceful first impression. The Alliance is secure in its diversity, and the freedom to choose one’s faith is a protected right.}

{We, the Ka-Tarek, never enter an inhabited system unarmed. To do so is tantamount to suicide. If we were hostile, your ship would have been under fire the moment we Folded into this system. Diversity has never been a problem among the Holy Empire. The many species that live under its banner do so peacefully and in prosperity. The freedom you claim to uphold is a lie; a fallacy created by ignorance. We do not resort immediately to violence. We would be willing to speak to a delegation from your Alliance, and teach them about the Gods. Should that fail, you will find the Gods, eventually, even if we must force you.}

High Voyager touched a panel on the command desk. "First Core Officer, increase core output to 130%. Channel the extra output to shields."

"Grace, your Holiness. Increasing core output."

"Praised be the Gods."

OOC: Couple of things: First, FE, I saw the edit, thank you. Second, I need to explain one of the more peculiar abilities of the Ren'Liao or this post will make no sense. When the Ren'Liao enter their order, they are biotechnologically modified in a number of ways, mainly implants and the like. One of these implants gives them the ability to detect the specific frequencies of brain activity that are tied to extremely strong conviction. Convictions of this strength are almost always religious in nature, and as Church Enforcers it is crucial that the Ren'Liao know when someone possesses extremely strong religous beliefs. Normally the Ka-Tarek would be out of range of this implant, but because there are an entire ship full of them broadcasting these brainwave frequencies, the Ren'Liao aboard the Constantine can easily tell that the newcomers are fanatics with conversionary goals.

IC:

Eulin only had to glance at the Padd before speaking. "The system they propose would pose no threat to our operation. It is acceptable."

Then Ren'Liao warrior, who had until this point been absolutely still and silent, suddenly leaned forward and whispered into Eulin's right ear. There was a sudden aura of feline tenseness about the tattoo-covered Guanyan, reminiscent of a tiger who knows other predators are near. As he spoke, Eulin's expression shifted from one of slight curiosity to extreme caution mixed with tightly controlled anger. He turned back to Captain Tabanne.

"Captain, I should warn you that these newcomers you mentioned are very dangerous. I offer you a friendly warning: be wary of them."

At that precise moment, his comm unit beeped twice and then went silent. Eulin glanced down at it, and when he looked up, his expression was dark.

"Olev ki'ishab."

One did not have to understand Guanyan to interpret the words as "Oh, shit."
--------------------

The Guanyan Scimitar, floating menacingly in space, suddenly became a flurry of activity. The shields, which had been on minimal power, were brought almost instantly to full strength. The weapon emplacements on the vessel's hull abandoned their dormant state and angled toward the Ka-Tarek ship.

"Attention, alien vessel. This is Lord Augur Rein, commanding the GANS Retribution. Be warned: my people will not tolerate any attempts to convert us from the worship of Ji'lam, Lord of the Void and the one true God. Take your preaching and your false gods elsewhere, lest we be forced to drive you forth like a whipped cur, slinking away with your tail between your legs."

The Admiral listened to the obvious threat with little more than contempt, barely restraining herself from tossing several references to bodily harm right back. The new arrivals clearly would not be ushered off with a firm word and she hoped that she could at least prevent this from degenerating into bloodshed.

"Admiral, power output from the new vessel is increasing! Shield strength and core output have shot up 30%!"

Then again, maybe even that was beyond her power.

"Bloody hell. Bring the ship up to Tactical Alert Alpha, charge the Beam Cannons and ready the BLCC's. Re-open the channel to the Ka-Tarek."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Our people are content to live with their own spirituality, they've proven this time and again. What they are not willing to live with is such a thinly veiled threat to our sovereignty. We are willing to treat with your people if you so desire, but we shall not sit still for an obvious sermon or an attempt to bring our government into your religion."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

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

The Captain, who was about to inquire further as to the Guanyans cryptic warning, was once more ripped out of his seat by a blaring alarm before he could even respond.

"Oh, bloody hell."

Running, not walking, to the secure wall-comm, the Captain again contacted the bridge for an update.

"Admiral, just what the hell is going on up there?"

"Our newest arrival has made some vague religious threats, and I think they won't be persuaded to leave when we tell them we're not interested in converting."

"But why the Alpha Alert?"

"We've detected a 30% increase in energy output and shield strength, they don't seem in friendly."

"Understood, Admiral. I'm going to report to the bridge."

"What about our guest?"

"I'm guessing he has more important things to worry about than our negotiations."

"Very well, Captain."

Turning, he faced the Guanyan diplomat.

"Hostmaster, I feel it would be prudent for you to return to your ship at the moment. Things seem to be heating up quite rapidly."

{Our people are content to live with their own spirituality, they've proven this time and again. What they are not willing to live with is such a thinly veiled threat to our sovereignty. We are willing to treat with your people if you so desire, but we shall not sit still for an obvious sermon or an attempt to bring our government into your religion.}

{Attention, alien vessel. This is Lord Augur Rein, commanding the GANS Retribution. Be warned: my people will not tolerate any attempts to convert us from the worship of Ji'lam, Lord of the Void and the one true God. Take your preaching and your false gods elsewhere, lest we be forced to drive you forth like a whipped cur, slinking away with your tail between your legs.}

High Voyager tapped the command desk, considering the incoming messages. "Third Ops Officer."

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Convene an emergency council, immediately."

"Grace. Praised be the Gods." Third Ops Officer turned, and a flash of light filled the room. High Voyager and First and Second Watch and Ops Officer's were gone."

---------------------------------
"Praise the Gods. They have brought us here, to this point. We await their return. As their advocate, I, High Voyager, declare this council session open. May the Gods have glory upon us, and may we await their glorious return."

The chamber responded in unison:
Praised be the Gods.

"The current situation has been made clear to you all. I propose to treat with the Klonor and the Indoans. The. . .other heretics will be dealt with in due time, but we have not the power nor the time to deal with them now. Are there any objections?"

The room was silent. High Voyager nodded.

"Very well, then. Return to your duties."

The assembled Ka-Tarek stood as one.

"Praised be the Gods," said High Voyager.

Praised be the Gods.

The room flashed, and was empty.

---------------------------------
"Third Ops Officer."

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Prepare a transmission to send to the Klonoran ship."

"Grace, your Holiness. Praised be the Gods."

"ASJ Constantine, as you already know, this vessel is on a exploratory and diplomatic mission. We, the Ka-Tarek are not unable to co-exist peacefully with other nations. Should you wish, we will treat with you; and you will hear no sermon from us."

High Voyager nodded. "Send a parrallel one to the Indoans. Reduce weapon output to 50%, put the extra energy on standby, and prepare this message for the heretics."

"GANS Retribution, it is fortunate for you that we are not a warship, and that our mission is not hostile. We will ignore you, for now, but the time will come when our ships descend upon your planets, and grind them into submission, and your false god be cast out into the depths of its 'Void'. And if your entire race should perish before you accept the True Gods, then so be it. For the moment, you are safe."

High Voyager nodded, absently tapping the command desk, "Our message has been made clear. We await their responses."

"GANS Retribution, it is fortunate for you that we are not a warship, and that our mission is not hostile. We will ignore you, for now, but the time will come when our ships descend upon your planets, and grind them into submission, and your false god be cast out into the depths of its 'Void'. And if your entire race should perish before you accept the True Gods, then so be it. For the moment, you are safe."

For several moments, there was no response to the Ka-Tarek broadcast. Then, softly at first but quickly growing in volume, came cold, mocking laughter. Rein’s laughter was chilling, completely empty of any emotion other than contempt. After some time, he spoke.

“Grind us into submission? I almost pity your ignorance, heathen. If you dare to attack our people with your puny warships, you will be facing the wakened might of the Dragon. Your ships will bleed atmosphere into the cold vacuum of space, and your false gods will weep and gnash their teeth, powerless to protect their foolish adherents from the might of the Celestial Empire. Mourn for your lost comrades should you choose the path of war, for you will be signing their death decrees. We are not a warlike people by nature, but if attacked, we will show no mercy and give no quarter. For your own sake, I hope you do not make the fatal mistake of bringing violence against us.”

"Mr. Dinah, I think that it is time for me to get back to the Way Farer. No insult intended but I'll be safer here. A smaller target and all that" Merri's voice was light but her eyes had changed.

When the laughter from the Guanyu ship had died away...

"Mycroft transmit in the clear, all ships." She said aloud, as she sent it through the Matrix Link.

"Ka-Tarek be advised. You aren't just attempting to threaten three civilizations here, you are annoying five. I stand for Xanadu Tu and the Tanaran Empire."

“Sir, Navigation reporting.”

“Go ahead.”

“Navigator reports the Warp Eddy is decaying rapidly. We should be re-entering realspace momentarily.”

“Excellent. Report back to me once you can examine the drive.”

“Yes, sir. Sieg Skeelz.”

“Sieg Skeelz.”

A mere fifty thousand kilometers from the asteroid field being dutifully mined by Indoans, space buckled. A seam in the universe momentarily ripped open, blazing forth in a beam of light and a ripple of tachyons. It would mend itself within moments, but not before its creator passed through. Emerging with all the stately grace of a Skeelzanian man-o-war that had, more or less, just been subjected to the combined firepower of a sizeable Solar fleet, the SKZ Kronprinz reestablished itself in reality.

The ship, a mid-generation run of the Anubis class destrpyers, was constructed in the Zeonic style still favored by Solomon shipyards. Studded with several large turrets and shaped in such a way to suggest a spear point, the battleship would have been more intimidating if it wasn’t seriously scarred from its latest battle and a sojourn in the warp for no less than 36 years. Not that its crew were aware of that fact.

Standing stolidly on his ship’s command bridge, Captain Wolfgang Hartmann wasted no time on celebrations. “Silence on the bridge! We’ve spent a week in warspace, we could be anytime and anywhere in the future. Navigation, I want a star fix by the end of the watch; find out where in the Ceaseless Void we are. Hopefully there’s a Skeelzania to go back too. Sensors, tactical readout ASAP. The rest of you lugs get to work on getting your systems online.”

The bridge crew, who had somewhat prematurely cheered their escape from that sub-dimension, didn’t need a second telling. Only a few minutes had passed before reports from Weapons, Drives, and, most urgently, Sensors were arriving on his personal console. Hartmann snatched the Sensor report, scanned it quickly, and frowned. “Gentleman, it seems we have stumbled into quite the party. Vidscreen, focus on unidentified dreadnought, at 300.”

The wall-mounted vidscreen, or more accurately the young ensign who controlled it, shifted its image from dead ahead to hard a-port. A few adjustments for distance and the Klonorian warship was properly in focus. The Kronprinz, only being about six hundred meters long and possessing significantly fewer weapons, was obviously out of its league. That didn’t stop Hartmann from announcing himself with typical Skeelzanian brashness.
“Attention all ships, this is the Skeelzanian Man-of-War Kronprinz,” he broadcasted on a general frequency across the system. His language was Skeelzanian, which is a fancy way of saying “German- and Russian-flavored English.”

“My Navigators have informed me that this system falls within the Gamma Quadrant as per classical astrography. As such, that places it within the strategic sphere of influence of the Skeelzanian Sternreich. To avoid conflict, identify yourselves.”

ooc: Uhm, the Ka-Tarek didn't actually call anyone primitive in person, unless they can hear what's said on the ship.

IC:

{Grind us into submission? I almost pity your ignorance, heathen. If you dare to attack our people with your puny warships, you will be facing the wakened might of the Dragon. Your ships will bleed atmosphere into the cold vacuum of space, and your false gods will weep and gnash their teeth, powerless to protect their foolish adherents from the might of the Celestial Empire. Mourn for your lost comrades should you choose the path of war, for you will be signing their death decrees. We are not a warlike people by nature, but if attacked, we will show no mercy and give no quarter. For your own sake, I hope you do not make the fatal mistake of bringing violence against us.

High Voyager turned. "First Ops Officer!"

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Send an immediate transmission to Temple, detailing everything we know about these. . .creatures. Send a full recomendation for complete annihilation as well. Temple must be warned, so we may begin preparations."

"Grace, your Holiness. It is already done. Praised be the Gods."

"Praised be the Gods. . .Third Ops Officer."

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Prepare a response to the foolish threat we just recieved."

"You know nothing of the Might of the Holy Empire. We, the Ka-Tarek, are but one facet to its many sides. And we have no time to waste trading idle threats with the dead. Your empire will fall, and your ships will litter the stars, and your very planets will be dust, smashed into nothing by the Hammer of the Gods. Your people will wallow in oblivion, the survivors homeless, never to see the glory of the Gods when they return."

"Do not respond to any further transmissions from those Heathens. The Gods have forsaken them."

{Ka-Tarek be advised. You aren't just attempting to threaten three civilizations here, you are annoying five. I stand for Xanadu Tu and the Tanaran Empire. And I'd watch whom you'd call primitive.}

{My Navigators have informed me that this system falls within the Gamma Quadrant as per classical astrography. As such, that places it within the strategic sphere of influence of the Skeelzanian Sternreich. To avoid conflict, identify yourselves.}

High Voyager sighed. "By the Gods, more. The Triad were not as prolific. Send to the newcomers the same message we sent to the Klonor, and pascify this 'Tanaran' delegate. This is tiring."

"Kronprinz, this is the XVI Voyager Tor-Sorak. We are on a mission of peaceful exploration. We are delegates from the Holy Empire of the Gods. We are the instruments of the Gods; we are the Ka-Tarek. According to the Records, you are of the species Humanati, originating from the planet Sol, or Terra, or Earth. The Gods, in their wisdom, saw fit to spread your species throughout the galaxy. We have encountered them before. Each time, they were ignorant of the True Gods. That is at the moment of little concern. We are not hostile, and would be willing to treat with you, if you wish."

"Delegate from the Tanaran Empire, as you already know, this vessel is on a exploratory and diplomatic mission. We, the Ka-Tarek are not unable to co-exist peacefully with other nations. Should you wish, we will treat with you; and you will hear no sermon from us. Should we have angered you, we did not mean to."

"We're receiving a hail, Captain." The comms officer struggled with his console, trying to get it to display without ungodly amounts of feedback. "They are identifying themselves as the 'Ka-Tarek'; no such race is listed within our own database."

The Imperial Archives couldn't produce a record of their own mother if pressed. Hartmann thought to himself. "That is of little consequence. Display message."

"Kronprinz, this is the XVI Voyager Tor-Sorak. We are on a mission of peaceful exploration. We are delegates from the Holy Empire of the Gods. We are the instruments of the Gods; we are the Ka-Tarek. According to the Records, you are of the species Humanati, originating from the planet Sol, or Terra, or Earth. The Gods, in their wisdom, saw fit to spread your species throughout the galaxy. We have encountered them before. Each time, they were ignorant of the True Gods. That is at the moment of little concern. We are not hostile, and would be willing to treat with you, if you wish."

"Well, their half right," the Skeelzanian grumbled. "Open a channel to them, prepare to reply.

"Kronprinz hailing the Ka-Tarek vessel Tor-Sorak. The Great Skeelz was truly wise in spreading us among the stars, as it allows us to keep a handle on rogue species. I do not know what Gods of the Pantheon you worship, but rest assured, we worship the appropriate one for all humanity. However, we cannot avoid the task at hand. You will stand down and render unto us all information requested. This is within the Skeelzanian sphere; that is our perogative. Perform well, and you will be recognized as a worthy partner of the Sternreich. Oppose us, and you opppose the Will of the Empress."

As if to accentuate the point, Hartmann ordered the ship brought around. While his weapons still weren't fully online, he still had greater firepower in his frontal arc than anywhere else.

"This goes for all other ships within this system, as well. I believe I already recognize some of your design features; if my hunch is correct, business should progress smoothly."

((OOC: Ka-Tarek, your clarifications have answered my complaints, thanks. And the principal Indoan species (there are 3) is not human, it is Matrai, which are completely different, despite the visual similarities, so you wouldn't have encountered them before.

And apologies to all for not posting sooner, I've been busy with uni assignments.))

The difficulties that the Silveretta had expected to follow the transmission from the Tor-Sorak, namely a confrontation on account of the Alliance having no wish to even learn about their Gods, let alone mass-convert to their faith, did not occur, because the zealots suddenly changed their tune slightly.

The second message displayed a near complete change of heart, and put the Mind on edge. Either it meant they had realised they had very little chance of forcing the change on them, or they were planning something. The Mind was erring towards it being the former, what with two overly large battle-cruisers in the system.

{This new course of action is acceptable to us. However, a warning. We have been monitoring your communications with the other vessels, and must warn you that any attempt to start a conflict in this system will result in an aggressive response from the Alliance fleet.}

“You think we should say something similar to the Guanyans?” Crowe asked the Mind.

“I doubt it would hold such credibility with them, when you look at the size of their vessel,” replied the Mind. “I believe we could defeat them if we called in a sizable portion of the fleet, but that would only serve to provoke them. Perhaps a calmer tone is required for them.”

{GANS Retribution, let it be known to you that, if you wish to initiate a conflict with these zealots, we would prefer it to happen outside our territory. As you can probably understand, we have no wish to get caught up in a dispute between two other civilisations, and do not want to have our people endangered by your actions.}

The Mind was fully aware that the message could still be interpreted as a threat, but hoped that the Guanyans would see it in context, a polite request from an outgunned vessel.

It was roughly at this point that something happened that the Indoans would have preferred to have avoided. Another vessel appeared in the system, this one uncomfortably near the asteroid colonies.

~ Not another fracking ship! And look where they are. Oh, this could be a problem, thought the Mind. ~ I think it’s time for a little help.

It decided that, since no-one was going to be leaving for the other system any time soon, it would get the Colonel back up on the bridge.
****

“Colonel, some new circumstances have arisen, and I doubt we will be leaving for a while. Could you return to the bridge?”

Valero looked at those present on the shuttle. Sharona was into her ritual by now, and blanking out all outside influences. The other two members of the shuttle crew were in the cockpit, prepping it for flight, and the avatar was sat silently in the corner. She quietly acknowledged the request and left the shuttle.
****

As Valero made her way back to the bridge, the Mind told the bridge crew what it was going to do, then activated an Ultra-Space conduit, a very tiny wormhole through which it could communicate instantly with Naval Command. It sent a short message in Indoan Common.

{The situation here is getting complicated. Some support would be well received, although as of now there seems to be very little threat of conflict. We could just do with an increased presence.}

There was no reply or acknowledgement to the message. The Mind knew it had gotten through, and the response would come when the request was granted, which the Mind knew it would be, thanks to what happened to be in this system.

While it waited, it replied to the hail from the new vessel, even though it had only been able to understand parts of the transmission. As usual for communications with other civilisations, the message was in English.

{Kronprinz, this is the INV Silveretta, of the Indoan Navy. This system belongs to the Indoan Alliance; please state your business here. If possible, please reply using this language, as we cannot fully understand yours.}

Barely two minutes after the message had been sent to Naval Command, another wormhole appeared, much closer to the mining colony than that which had disgorged the Silveretta and the freighters. Two more corvettes, visually identical to the Silveretta, exited it at full speed, immediately angling towards the mining colony, swiftly interposing themselves between the colony’s asteroids and the new vessel.

A series of datalinked messages were flashed between the three corvettes, as the Mind greeted and briefed its sister vessels, the INV Desperado and the INV Faded Fortunes, the latter fresh from a repair and upgrade from an Explorer to a full Combat corvette.

{GANS Retribution, let it be known to you that, if you wish to initiate a conflict with these zealots, we would prefer it to happen outside our territory. As you can probably understand, we have no wish to get caught up in a dispute between two other civilisations, and do not want to have our people endangered by your actions.}

"Silveretta, we respect your concern, but it is unnecessary. Despite our harsh words, the GAN has a firm policy against shooting first. We will not fire upon the Ka-Tarek, either within your space or otherwise, except to defend ourselves. On a different note, I offer a friendly warning: I see that you have brought in extra vessels, I presume as a precautionary measure against violence. As this system lies rightfully within your nation's control, I respect your right to be the dominant military power in this encounter. However, should any of the other parties in this system do the same, I will have no choice but to respond in kind. And trust me, you don't want to know what kind of backup I can summon."

“Attention all ships, this is the Skeelzanian Man-of-War Kronprinz. My Navigators have informed me that this system falls within the Gamma Quadrant as per classical astrography. As such, that places it within the strategic sphere of influence of the Skeelzanian Sternreich. To avoid conflict, identify yourselves.”

"Kronprinz, this is the GANS Retribution of the Guanyan Aerospace Navy. Surely I am misinterpreting your broadcast. You actually claim governance over the entire Gamma Quadrant?" There was a slight undertone of disbelief in the Augur's voice, as if he didn't believe anyone could possess that sort of arrogance.

"What? An new ship..and claiming the entire 'quadrant'? Oh this is beyond ridiculous..Broad cast in the clear again Mycroft"

To all ships. The INV Silveretta has been already suggested that we remove ourselves to an unclaimed system. Might I suggest this one here." Mycroft sent the coordinates with the rest of the transmission. "It is with in twenty five light years; and should this end up in a shooting war there is no useful real estate to damage or lives to endanger. Hexx out"

The system Merri suggested was barren of anything remotely resembling useable resources and the dim red dwarf that lit it wouldn't be missed if something happened to it. Even if she dropped Bova's Recourse on it.

Merri once again thanked the Kolonorian diplomat and was escorted back to her Run-about. Shortly she was back aboard the Way Farer.

{Kronprinz hailing the Ka-Tarek vessel Tor-Sorak. The Great Skeelz was truly wise in spreading us among the stars, as it allows us to keep a handle on rogue species. I do not know what Gods of the Pantheon you worship, but rest assured, we worship the appropriate one for all humanity. However, we cannot avoid the task at hand. You will stand down and render unto us all information requested. This is within the Skeelzanian sphere; that is our perogative. Perform well, and you will be recognized as a worthy partner of the Sternreich. Oppose us, and you opppose the Will of the Empress.}

High Voyager almost laughed. "Second Ops Officer, scan their ship again, and clarify the status."

"Grace, your Holiness. The ship is heavily damaged, it was recently in battle. Weapons, shields, engines; nothing is operating at full efficiency. Even if it were, it is only slightly larger than our own vessel; although it is a warship. Their threat is meaningless."

"Grace, Ops Officer. Return to your duties. Send a transmission to the Kronprinz."

"Kronprinz, you must think us fools to make so bold a suggestion. The secrets of the Holy Empire are the Ka-Tarek's alone; no other shall ever bear witness to the genius of the Gods. You will recieve no information from us, and should you truly wish to fire upon us, we will respond in kind, and it will not go well for your damaged vessel. And you lay claim to an entire quadrant? The Holy Empire spans countless star systems, and even we are not so arrogant to call an entire quarter of the Galaxy ours. Your Heathen god was obviously a fool, to make his false people so brash and arrogant."

How many nations did we blunder in to?

"Kronprinz, this is the GANS Retribution of the Guanyan Aerospace Navy. Surely I am misinterpreting your broadcast. You actually claim governance over the entire Gamma Quadrant?"

"That is correct, Retribution. Skeelzanian hegemony has been well established and documented in numerous treaties. Its execution is somewhat spotty, I admit, but that is the point of patrols."

Kronprinz, you must think us fools to make so bold a suggestion. The secrets of the Holy Empire are the Ka-Tarek's alone; no other shall ever bear witness to the genius of the Gods. You will recieve no information from us, and should you truly wish to fire upon us, we will respond in kind, and it will not go well for your damaged vessel. And you lay claim to an entire quadrant? The Holy Empire spans countless star systems, and even we are not so arrogant to call an entire quarter of the Galaxy ours. Your Heathen god was obviously a fool, to make his false people so brash and arrogant."

"The Great Skeelz gave humanity the mission to subjugate the universe as we see fit; as his chosen race we merely claim what is ours. We will not move our ship until we have properly accessed the situation."

Hartmann cut the connection to the Tor-Sorak. "Navigation, where is that star fix?"

"We're working on it, Captain," came the reply. "We are in the Gamma Quadrant, if just barely. So far we've matched approximately, ah-h-h-h, 5% of the stars visible to those in our database. Basic triangulation should be possible soon, and then we can jump closer to the inner spheres. Assuming the jump drives work."

Wolfgang scowled, he had no interest in spending another God-knows-how-long period in warpspace. "That must be taken into consideration. What is the operational status of the drives?"

A new voice crackled over the intercom; normally Drives had a officer on the bridge, but they'd all retreated into the ship's bowels to work on the device. "We're still having some issues with the tachyon mill, Captain. Damn thing wasn't funneling off heat properly; think the Solars hit one of the heatsinks. Thank Spoot it didn't go nova on us. I would advise against any jumps until we can jettison this excess heat and jury rig another heatsink."

We're stuck, in other words. "Keep me informed. If we can properly establish our position, we can call for a tug."

Hartmann became aware of the Communications officer, who was again wrestling with his controls. "Captain, we are picking up another transmission..."

{Kronprinz, this is the INV Silveretta, of the Indoan Navy. This system belongs to the Indoan Alliance; please state your business here. If possible, please reply using this language, as we cannot fully understand yours.}

The Skeelzanian reply was prompt. "Silveretta, our mission is a routine patrol through the Skeelzanian sphere. There have been some complications, but we are still fully functional. It seems your people are not aware of Imperial claims to this quadrant; such is understandable, as we were unaware of you. Usual procedure in such situations is for the indigenous entity to identify themselves and provide a full starmap of their nation. Diplomatic contacts are usually established within a few weeks. In order to facillitate relations between our two nations, I suggest turning the coordinants over forthwith."

No sooner had he finished the transmission when the Indoan reinforcements arrived. "Their core systems must be nearby, if their FTL is anything like ours. Weapons, I want IC strengthed as much as possible on all vulnerable fronts. Be ready to select targets; if one of the indigs attacks, you may open fire."

ooc: Damn thing. . .doesn't jump-start easily. . .

IC:

{The Great Skeelz gave humanity the mission to subjugate the universe as we see fit; as his chosen race we merely claim what is ours. We will not move our ship until we have properly accessed the situation.}

"Very well, Kronprinz. The universe is not yours, and your 'Great Skeelz' is a foolish lie. Do as you see fit, but be wary of the consequences."

High Voyager stood, and paced around the command desk for a few moments.

"Second Ops Officer."

"Grace, your Holiness."

"Open a channel to the Constantine."

"Grace. Channel open."

"Constantine, I have intercepted communications that you are moving to another system to treat. I would request the coordinates, so as to avoid angering the Indoans any further."

"Close channel."

"Grace; Praised be the Gods."

OOC: Was there a TG sent out that I didn't get or something? Seems like everyone just stopped posting all of a sudden and I haven't seen the K-Man on AIM the last few days. Just wondering.

OOC: I've been really busy these last few days, so I haven't been able to post. I was going to do one now, but if everyone else has stopped, then I guess there isn't much point. If people show up again, I'll put my post up though.

OOC - I've been intermittently swamped but since no one was really responding to the littlest ship out there, I'm thinking of withdrawing. My little explorer would be wise to retreat before it comes down to shooting. You big guns have fun.;)

OOC: Oy, sorry for the long absence, RL can suck up your life like you wouldn't believe. I'll be posting once I've read through all the posts since my absence, hopefully this will keep this from dying.

ooc: I'm still here. . .just noticed a lot of nothing going on, so didn't have much to add. . .'nothing and nothing is, let me do the math, nothing.' Love that quote. . .

OOC: And let's see if I can get the whole week into this one post. Starting from the top...

IC:

"Nice words, but let's see if they follow through."

Captain Tabanne, who had appeared on the bridge just in time to hear the calm reassurances of the Ka-Tarek, did not even bother to try hiding the the doubt in his words.

"Captain, we are reading an adjustment to their energy output...energy levels are decreasing. I read a 50% drop in emissions from the Ka-Tarek vessel."

The relief was readily apparent in the sensor officers voice, no officer wants a battle, but the Admiral and Captain exchanged a glance which clearly indicated they both thought the days hardships were far from over.

"Re-open the communications channel to the Ka-Tarek, Lieutenant, let's see if we can keep them down."

"Channel open, ma'am."

"Tor-Sorak, we would glady converse with you in order to facilitate a peaceful coexistence between our two nations, however, right now we are in a rather precarious situation which precludes opening immediate dialogue. This system is the property of the Indoans, and we were about to vacate the area so as not to trespass their territory. Unrelated factors necessitate that we make the move unaccompanied by the Tor-Sorak, but we would not be averse to re-opening communications at a later date."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Ma'am, I don't know about you, but I would be averse to re-opening communications at a later date. When they open a conversation with their missionary spiel you know they're going to bring it up again later."

"I'm well aware of that, Captain, but we have orders to contact new nations and open all friendly negotiations possible. If they say they'll play nice, we have to go along."

"Very well, Admiral, but they'll stick in a knife the second they think it will please their 'Gods.'"

"I know that, too, Captain, which is why we're still at Alert Alpha. Trust me, I don't like them any more than you do, but we do have a job to do."

"Yes, ma'am."

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

Nodding at the Xanadu explorer, the Klonor Ambassador effortlessly kept the wide smile plastered on his face.

"If that is your wish M. Hexx, though I assure you that you will be perfectly safe aboard the Constantine. We've weathered the DRA, we'll weather this."

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"Admiral, new contact!"

Admiral Gitar didn't even respond to the latest announcement, she merely turned and glared at the sensor officer.

"New identified contact!"

That was something new.

"The new arrival fits a characteristic found in the data-banks, ma'am. I am reading a Skeelzanian vessel within the system, just dropped into Real-Space several seconds ago several million kilometers Sunward. Transmission incoming..."

Listening to the new transmission, which put yet another name on the ownership list of this system, the Admiral just wanted to sit down and weep. Well, okay, she didn't want to actually weep, but she did want to have some peace. They hadn't been in the system for a full day yet and she was already working towards a nervous breakdown.

"Open a transmission to the Kronprinz on the same channel."

"Cannel open, ma'am."

"Attention SMW Kronprinz, this is the ASJ Constantine on long-range exploration and diplomatic mission from the Associated Systems of Klonor. We were unaware of your claim to this system and had no wish to trespass within your territory. We were, in fact, planning to vacate the area for unconnected reasons, and shall not continue to disturb your territory."

"Channel closed, ma'am."

"Now what the hell are the Indoans going to do?"

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

Monitoring the continuing communications between the various vessels, listening to the heated exchange between the Guanyans and the Ka-Tarek and the apparent First Contact between the Indoans and the Skeelzanians, the crew of the Constantine, Admiral Gitar and Captain Tabanne were both wondering just how much more screwed up this could get.

So....we done here? Anybody else still posting?

OOC: One last BUMP before I let this die....

ooc: Nuuuu!! Is it too late to save it?

OOC: No, but people need to start posting.

OOC: Do you want this to survive or not?

OOC: With the lack of any IC posts in 16 days, this RP is hereby CLOSED.