NationStates Jolt Archive

It had felt as if they had been thrust out of time, possibly creation. The Bene Gesserit sisters aboard the no-ship had been en route to a remote planet on the edge of the Empire in order to establish a new, hidden chapterhouse. There were several thousand of them. The no-ship was massive, large enough for living accommodations and all that was needed for the trip. It was now shaking out of control.

Suddenly the no-ship blasted out of time, and space into the area of Mars. The massive gray round ship spanned a kilometer in length, and width. The massive form was void without decoration.

Sarah, the Bene Gesserit sister attending the helm breathed a sigh of relief as the image of a planet came into view. It was somewhere, and in some time. She was happy to be alive. She along with the other younger sisters gazed to the much older woman sitting in the larger chair on the bridge. The woman appeared dizzy. Sarah exclaimed, “Reverend Mother, Reverend Mother, are you alright?”

The old woman opened her eyes. Speaking in a raspy tone she exclaimed, “We have fallen out of time.”

The younger women on the bridge looked at one another. The ship's power flickered in, and out. Two of the sisters chanted in low voices the litany against fear, "I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."


Elsewhere on the ship in her living quarters Reverend Mother Gnaeus Hannah Illuraya meditated in her chambers using simulflow. Multiple streams of consciouness ran within her at once. The elderly small woman wore black attire not unlike that of a nun. She too had become dizzy, almost nauseous, and came out of it. Illuraya was the Proctor Superior of the soon to be formed chapterhouse, and was charged with the sisters traveling on the ship as well as leading the Reverend Mothers.

As she came out of the nauseous dizziness she blinked. She gasped, “What in the maker’s name.”

The large gray ship silently drifted near Mars, the engines blown.

Reverend Mother Samare stood from her chair on the bridge, stepping up to the windows as the plates opened. She gazed at the many strange unrecognizable ships and structures in the distance orbiting Mars. There were cities covering the surface as well their lights glowing in the dark of space. One of the Bene Gesserit acolytes sitting on the bridge spoke, "Reverend Mother, it appears that the planetary system is highly inhabited. No ships nor signals are recognizable. There are nine planets, and over a hundred moons. All planets orbit a medium sized T Tauri third generation Population I star. The most inhabited planet appears to be that one." She pointed to a blue-green planet in the distance.

OOC: Pardon my incursion into this thread, Sister, but, by any chance, are you familiar with the NSMars and its occupants? I believe that I might be able to point you in the right direction, you see.

The martian infosphere massive, thousands of networks and broadcast types, a planet surrounded by an ocean of data. The ships appearance was far from unnoticed.

A wash of EM ripping out of tens of hundreds of military grade sources as the black bodies of weapons platforms and ships unfold and defence grids ignite like so many exploding Christmas decorations. At first light civilian grade scans, followed by on non recognition of the ship type aggressive military LIDAR and the dull gut wrenching thumps of long range PDC and capital ship gravitics strumming space time to see what fell out or more importantly what moved.

Perhaps one of the most prominent structures the Bene Gesserit would see was the terminus of the orbital elevator out of Kitharmani, surrounded by agricultural domes and a massive industrial shipyard complex. Numerous craft, many approaching the length of the Bene Gesserit ship but not nearly as massive, sat in berths in various states, while a small group slipped their moorings, moving into higher orbit to intercept the massive grey ship.

As they did this, two smaller craft, maybe 300 meters long, each bearing markings declaring themselves as craft of the Martian Port Authority, joined the small group of Kajali ships.

They were first to transmit.

This is an automated transmission from MPA Cruiser 89X-808615T. Your appearance within orbit is quite unexpected. Do you require assistance? A warning has been sent regarding the navigational hazard your craft poses. Are you capable of achieving higher orbit? This craft is incapable of effecting repairs to a vessel such as yours. I have notified relevant organic authorities, and they should arrive shortly. Please remain calm.

A second transmission came from the lead Kajali craft, offering full video. The commanding officer of the vessel was tall, with skin almost of a chocolate shade, and perhaps, most noticeably, striking green eyes and pointed ears.

I am Commander Lerenn of the Federated Kajali Starship Soran. Our scans indicate that your vessel seems to have suffered a propulsion failure. May we render assistance?"

CSS-LBU Federation - Flagship, Mars Theater Fleet, HQ Radio Free Ravenspire (All The News That's Fit To Tell - Now With More Zombies!)

Well, that wasn't something you saw every day. Okay, maybe it was, around Mars, especially given the variable time-length of a 'day' in this crazy multiverse. Within instant, the newcomer is detected, analyzed, and deemed both not a threat and probably in distress. A few moments later concurring opinion flows in from the other ships of the fleet and the TYCS-Mars Fleet net. Normally, Federation, or more likely one of its Science division comrades like Poke It With A Stick would wander over to investigate. However, the Mars Fleet, along with Army Group Ravenspire and several dozen other TYCS and Cetagandan units are currently decapitating the population of a small nation (about forty or so million people - unfortunate zombie victims bound for a Sunsetti arcology for storage and eventual upload and re-embodiment thanks to S.H.O.D.A.N.) and so they're a bit busy.

Thankfully, Cetaganda's a MPA nation now, and so a friendly alert is sent off to them and their patrol cruisers.

Reverend Mother Samare stood quietly, reflecting a moment when suddenly the shorter Reverend Mother Illuraya burst onto the bridge her black robes flourishing as she walked. Reverend Mother Samare stood, "Proctor Superior."

The older Reverend Mother Illuraya did not respond. She spoke quickly, "Status report. Where are we." She gazed through the windows, her eyes widening at the sight of the multitude of ships.

Reverend Mother Samare stared out of the windows, "We are unsure, Reverend Mother.."

Reverend Mother Illuraya made her way over to where the quickly formed chart was on the younger Bene Gesserit sister's screen. She paled visibly as if she had seen a ghost, the first time any of the sisters had seen the woman look so frightened. She gasped, "Impossible.." If it were not for her Bene Gesserit training she would have went to the floor, she breathed steadily. She stated frighteningly, "We are over Earth, pre-Butlerian Jihad." She stared out the windows, "A different.." She could not stammer her words any more, she froze.

The younger sisters were now frightened. Their Proctor Superior seemed to have gone mad. One of the middle aged acolytes had said in response to her words, "But that is impossible."

Reverend Mother Samare appeared shellshocked, she gazed out the window at the blue-green planet in the distance.

The entire room was quiet, as all the sisters with shocked faces turned their heads to gaze out the window.

In other places mostly not real at all a conversation was going on much much faster than a non enhanced organic mind could think.

“Most limited scans of internal mass/energy layout, exo solar design, origin highly non standard layout, mass and lack of hull features indicates this deployment has reasonably negligible concentration on hard power. Note the entry method, good FTL, extremely clean almost as if they came from nowhere. The only other thing we can glean directly without starting invasive scans is that there energy reserves don’t appear to have that much left in them, very little output."

“Any external communications? parasite ships? drones?"

"none"

“Nearest milicom unit?”

"Two minutes from direct contact, ZMSF interceptor squadron on standard patrol from the CV Emergent Markets, three Overunner class aerospace control drones, its a non isssue anyway they are inside CREW range of seventy percent of the Martian task forces capital vessels and fourty percent of the defence grid, CNC Mars has not yet deemed it necessary to warm missile cells or commence siege gun deployment, city over shields are still at standard operating rate and battlespace rating is still below warning the public."

"Contact attempts?"

"MPA, Kajali, and we are launching a standard drone now from the Parsfel defence platform"

"and the Andropov?"

"Will come close, too close for our piece of mind. She will be well inside her normal safe operating limit, if there unshielded they will get rattled by the drive wave and that may spook them. Were not happy about that for all her mass there is nothing mil grade dense on the Andropov save her drive stack and the CNC most of the rest is just container space"

The first impression is of something ugly and almost overly industrially functional as if someone built it just to offend the senses. Its the 6 mile long, 5 miles tall, and 4 miles wide form of the mega freighter ZMM SS Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (though why a symbol of hyper capitalistic pride was named after a General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was never answered to its captains satisfaction) plodding marswards at 0.03 of C becomes apparent. It is steadily getting nearer to its turn over point, which quite unfortunately will bring it reasonably close to the mass of the no ship. The Andropov’s huge vector vaned covered (the vanes rather tastelessly having the ever present truckers mud guard companion sprayed on in half inch thick meteor pitted chrome) impeller drives rotating slowly on there outriggers as they prepare to reposition the ship to present its single massive sub light linear pulse drive. It should probably be noted at this point that as a rule mega freighters are just about as manoeuvrable as a blue whale fired out of an air gun and with similar financial and physical operating constraints to 20th century super tankers in relation to delays the ship that had blipped into its projected course would shortly become something of an unpleasant surprise. In other words the Andropov was about to do a hard gravitic drive burn with less than 30 kilometres leeway at the apogee of its course change from the no ship.

The mega freighter in question was this week hauling seventeen megatons of reprocessed instant cheese, half a million copies of the complete works of magnus hesche in solidograph and several hundred thousand containers of such household products as "U slice We dice" "Spandex for your pooch" and "Pineapple presenter" a device wich claimed to turn any food stuff into the shape of a pineapple. At the moment its hull is furred in a thick layer of masts and telescopic booms, the dull domes of gravitic cargo movers stapled to the great cargo gantries that led down her four off loading points sit like unsightly metallic warts rising above the forest of metal covered in warning paint and endless "no step" warning hash marks. If one had been wholly uninformed one would have presumed that the sixteen huge lens filled apertures dotting her sides where broadside primary CREWs on battle ship spinal scale. Two were far less than that, mere cruiser scale outputs backed onto massive lenses, the rest were industrial scale holo projectors obscuring sections of the Andropovs form from the humble eyeball mark one with a never ending series of flashing adds for such products as insta deep fried happy happy fun time beef sticks (now with extra realistic gristle) and the timeless and ever popular spray on, lick off liquid underwear (now also available in Roanian).

Screaming up from the gravity well however it came. It was a drone and it was considerably faster than the Andropov. The drone was nothing more from the outside than a giant metal golf ball the size of a ground car atop an oversized tee, the lens cap covered dimples of it sensors placed above a veritable crows nest of exotic energy detectors and the ring of its single impeller glowing a dull orange as it sped on its way readying itself to burn its somewhat limited power supply out with waves of adds on every bandwidth it could reproduce hiding its relay signals in waves of generic spam.

{Broadcast - Radio}
x CSS-STAT Quirinus (Mars Orbit) - Traffic Control
o All Ships w/in 5 LS Mars

WARNING WARNING WARNING
ALL SHIPS ALL SHIP ALL SHIPS

Be advised quasi-derelict vessel has jumped in Mars nearspace, coordinates >DIAGLYPH<. May pose navigational hazard to ships with low delta-V capability. All ships are advised to alter approach orbits. Ships needing tug assist advised to contact MPA, SPIR, CSS Space Rescue, or other service. Be advised SPIR, CSS, TYCS resources already under strain due to Operation Snuffleupagus.

Ship does not appear to be military threat at this time.

WARNING WARNING WARNING
ALL SHIPS ALL SHIP ALL SHIPS

All vessels in grid 2x9x203 be advised that there is a Class 1 unexpended munitions alert for next hour, due to live-fire training incident.

WARNING WARNING WARNING
ALL TRANS-MERCURY SHIPS

All vessels be advised of shipping accident on trans-Mercury low-v corridor. Substantial debris cloud at 21 +/-1 0.4 light-seconds outbound from Mars. Rescue/cleanup in progress, ETA unshielded-safe 6 hours.

ADVISORY ADVISORY ADVISORY

Solar flare activity expected in one hour. All ships advised to take radiation precautions.

Reverend Mother Illuraya was the first one to snap out of it as it were. Her Other Memory was all jumbled for a moment as she closed her eyes to calm all. She spoke, "If we come under attack we must undertake Extremis Progressiva."

She closed her eyes again. Then opene them, "Are we able to receive any of their messages?"

One of the Bene Gesserit sisters shook her head, "They are using machines."

Reverend Mother Illuraya knew they were in trouble. They had been transported through time, and possibly to an alternate reality. The full ramifications of such she put out of her consciousness though she still felt as if she were in some strange dream. She spoke to the sisters, "Prepare a shuttle, open the shuttle bays. I must speak to them directly."

As the gigantic ship passed near the no-ship the sisters gasped. Everything looked unfamiliar to them, and all of the younger sisters gazes were afixed to the windows.

Elsewhere on the ship sisters of all ranks of the Bene Gesserit, along with some of the non-order staff that had traveled with them gazed out the windows.

Reverend Mother Samare was a mentat Reverend Mother. Her mind was rushing along with her Other Memory through numerous possibilities, calculations, and deteminations.

The mass of the no-ship continued to be adrift. On a small portion of the side of it a shuttle bay opened. Out of the shuttle bay flew a small oblong shuttle.

"Any response?"

"None, sir... Their communications equipment may have been... wait sir, I've got activity. Looks like a shuttle bay opening."

"I think it's safe to assume they can't hear us. Prepare a receiving crew, and open the shuttle bay doors. Make sure they can see it."

"Aye sir. Should we launch an escort?"

"...Launch two fighters. Brief them for manual return, blackout conditions."

The bay doors on the largest Kajali ship, a smaller carrier, slid open, revealing the contents of the main bay to the unknown ship. Staff could be seen going about their business even as two small, dart-like craft launched. They took up a position halfway between the two ships. One of them turned on a sort of spot light, and aimed it at the spherical ship's bay, and began flashing it through the most common signals, before moving on to more obscure ones. Should all go well, they'd be in the bay shortly, and the commander would be down to speak with them...

Landing might be interesting, though, if only for the fact that standard procedure would have the carrier's gravitics "grab" the shuttle, and set it down gently on the deck in a predesignated location.

I hope they're familiar with signal lights... Now, how do those first contact protocols go again...

There were men in the bay. The non-order staff assigned to the ship for the purposes of the chapterhouse. Several Bene Gesserit sisters in their black robes watched the signals.

One of the Bene Gesserits did recognize the basic signals. She spoke into a communicator.

The small shuttle began a course toward the ship, allowing the two fighters to escort it.

Onboard the shuttle Reverend Mother Illuraya stood with two of her Bene Gesserit acoyte assistants. The younger girls appeared nervous, and one was attempting breathing techniques. The Reverend Mother ever vigilant, snapped "Remember to compose yourselves. We are to assume these peoples have never met the Bene Gesserit, we must act with the delicate calculation of the Missionaria Protectiva. In fact you are to act as if you have taken a vow of silence." The girls nodded.

Illuraya had already given instructions to some of the senior Reverend Mothers onboard the no-ship. They were to inform everyone not to reveal where they had come from or whom they were. They were all to remain silent when in the presence of the new peoples as if they had undertaken a vow of silence. They were to use nonverbal communication if necessary. This would for the time being insure that the Bene Gesserit had time to study the new peoples, and their surroundings without these others learning too much about them.

Once inside the bay, the two fighters set down some distance away, disappearing into the floor as the pads they landed on descended. Curiously, the bay doors remained open, though the staff in the Kajali bay acted nearly oblivious to it, obviously quite trusting of their own devices.

Three individuals stood near the shuttle, including the Commander. Accompanying him was Diplomatic Officer Doraal, not quite an ambassador, but the closest thing to one aboard. The other person, wearing a black and gray uniform, was Mira Keval. Lerenn doubted that people they'd never met would recognize the significance of the uniform, though she did stand out, given that the Commander and Doraal both wore a dark blue uniform. They all wore their hair cropped short, though Mira's was tied back into a neat bun, as per regulations. In combination with the appearance of their ears, their bodies were proportioned in such a way that would appear slightly wrong, and the overall effect was quite clear in presenting them as something other-than-human.

English was the language of the day, seeing as a peculiarly large amount of civilizations seemed to speak it, and the possibility of any Kajali languages being appropriate was unlikely.

Lerenn stepped forward from the other two, at first, introducing himself.

"Greetings. I am Vierun Lerenn, commander of this vessel. This is my Diplomatic Officer, Ierenn Doraal, and my... aide, Mira Keval."

Mira gestured ever so briefly with her hands, something that their new guests would undoubtedly recognize, even if it didn't use their particular hand signals. Lerenn glimpsed the message out of the corner of his eye, even as he continued.

They're hiding something... I can't read them.

"I am afraid," Lerenn continued. "That while we are familiar with vessels shaped as yours... that we have no knowledge of your kind. How is it that you came to appear here, over Mars? Perhaps we may be able to assist. This is not the first time unknown vessels have appeared over this planet."

Humans stepped of the shuttle. Human females dressed like nuns. Reverend Mother Illuraya wore the simple black aba of the Bene Gesserit with a black headpiece that was similar to that of a nun but was on the back of her shaven head, and drape own her back.The acolytes did not wear the headpiece, and only had shaven heads with simple black robes. The three all appeared to be in tight perfect control of their body language, and they all wore relatively blank calm expressions. They walked with unseeming grace.
Then the Reverend Mother spoke. She spoke, and acted calmly as if nothing had happened. As if they had not just been flung out of time, and space into what seemed to be an alternative universe.

She spoke with patterned perfect English, “I am Reverend Mother Illuraya of the Ancient Order of the Bene Gesserit, devoted to the Great Mother. We were in transit when our drives malfunctioned. We are stranded as it were. We believe we are in a different galaxy." Her eyes scanned them without appearing to scan them. She saw their ears, build, and appearance though she showed no surprise. These were not humans.

"I see..." Lerenn glanced briefly at Mira, who acknowledged the glance with a nod, closing her eyes for a moment. "Prior accounts are similar... However, we may have more pressing needs. We realize that your vessel is adrift, and we can offer assistance in moving it to a stable orbit."

More brief gestures from Mira. No mention in databases. Words based on latin, perhaps. Need to bring in specialists, though.

"Hmn... Our facilities are not adequately large to service your craft, though an ally of ours makes use of vessels similar in size and shape to yours..."

Lerenn's odd feeling about the Bene Gesserit hadn't subsided yet, and he chose his next words cautiously. "I will contact my superiors, and the Diplomatic Service will attempt to arrange an amenable berth for your vessel. We can also provide communications hardware should yours be damaged...

In the meantime, we can move to stabilize your vessel's orbit immediately. We can also send limited repair personnel, though I understand fully that there may be reasons which would prohibit such."

This time it was Lerenn's turn to make slight gestures. Let's get SHODAN on the line. She's the only one I know of off the top of my head with berths for something like this... And let's ask her if she's ever heard of the "Bene Gesserit" while we're at it...

"We have arranged temporary quarters for your party... if you like, we could show you to them now. Mr. Doraal can accompany you, should you wish it. He can provide information concerning prior incidents such as this."

Reverend Mother Illuraya smile with perfectly displayed sincerity, "You are very gracious."

With mention of the repair crew she still remained cordial, "Unfortunately I doubt any repair crews would be adequate. We are permanently stranded as it were. Our ship utilizes a very advanced technology, if you may call it that, and even we do not understand it. Because of the delicate nature of our situation we request that no one enter our ship without prior consultation." She spoke now with seriousness, "We have two thousand aboard our ship, a few hundred of my Order and other staff. We are running out of supplies."

She was with her eyes without moving them interpreting the hand signals. She did not yet have the pattern down. Soon though she would understood what they were saying. Their use of hand signals was unfortunate as it limited the less subtle options for communication available to the Bene Gesserit. Bene Gesserit gestures, however, were far less easy to read. Using Petit perception she was capable of reading everything visible about the two. She was reading their body language, voice tone, and anything else visible. Their personalities, possible fears, and what they were perhaps thinking.

Diplomats are chosen for their ability to lie.
Bene Gesserit Saying

"Commander Lerenn, your presence is required."

The new voice was disembodied, owing in part that it came from the ship's address system. The voice was itself female, though possessed of a near-mechanical modulation.

"Acknowledged, Soran. I am afraid I must attend to our more immediate arrangements, Reverend Mother. Mira and Doraal will answer any questions as best they can, and should you wish to return to your vessel, our hangar crew can arrange such within a minimal amount of time.

Lerenn's delivery of the words "Reverend Mother" were a little uncertain, primarily thanks to an unfamiliarity with any proper forms of address. Mira's posture remained as it had throughout the conversation, almost mechanical, though not exhibiting the level of control that the Reverend Mother's acolytes demonstrated.

She had found them incredibly difficult to read, and they hadn't approached any degree of discomfort that would crack their disciplined facade. Doraal gestured as if to escort the trio to a more comfortable location, while Mira put a hand to an ear and spoke softly, in the Kajali language.

Forward all findings thus far to my tacnet... I will be uploading as I discover more.

Tee words were likely utterly unfamiliar, though with a strange musicality, nearly unbroken in their delivery. Mira was aware of their attentiveness, and found the three quite fascinating.

She allowed her control to slacken, briefly, to show this fascination in the three. They were quite the enigma. She addressed the group then, in English, somewhat accented by comparison to Lerenn's practiced and smooth delivery.

"The Commander can arrange for delivery of a limited amount of supplies, though such an arrangement will eventually become untenable. If you'd follow me, we can discuss the possibility of going before the relevant authorities, and requesting an enclave upon the surface. If you've any questions about our people and culture, I would be happy to answer those as well.."

The hangar bay doors would remain open, should they decide to return to their vessel, though they would otherwise close slowly, and no doubt the Reverend Mother and her acolytes would notice the vessel moving, and the acquisition of a familiar weight, as the combined group of vessels acted to stabilize the orbit of the Bene Gesserit vessel, through carefully applied gravitic force.

OOC: I'm afraid I won't be around the forums much longer tonight, so I'll endeavor to continue tomorrow! Hopefully all has been acceptable so far. :D

MIDF Dreadnought MIS Olórin, Warlady Naurelin nos Fithurin commanding
Flagship, Fifth Menelmacari Imperial Battle Fleet
Mars Orbit
41 Hrívë 31874

"The hell is that thing?"

"Unknown, my Lady," the sensor officer responded. "Spherical in shape, approximately one kilometer in diameter. Roughly two thousand biologicals on board. Unknown drive system, and the drives and main power are down anyway, she's on auxiliary only. She's trapped in the Martian gravity well, and I'm projecting the orbit will decay in a matter of days."

Naurelin rose from the command chair, brushing longish auburn hair out of her eyes to behind the point of her left ear as she approached the holo, peering at the image of the newcomer. Olórin was thirty-five percent longer than the round vessel, and boasted considerably more firepower, though had far less internal volume. The newcomer seemed, at this time, to be more a liner or colony vessel of some kind than a warship, which at least was a welcome change. But there was something more to her - or perhaps those she carried - something that tugged at the edge of her consciousness and foresight. And yet... something that walled itself off. For such ...efforts the warlady would need to consult someone considerably more talented than herself.

Her communications officer spoke up next. "Messages between the newcomer and Kajali vessel Soran. Unencrypted. Putting it through now..."

Naurelin listened to the messages, returning to her seat, and watching as shortly afterwards a shuttle transferred from the newcomer to Soran. The warlady looked to her helmsman. "Take us closer. Make a good, close pass - say, within five kilometers - and continue on by. And get me the deepest, most comprehensive scan you can possibly manage while you're at it." Naurelin frowned. She didn't much mind if the newcomers noticed her ...curiosity. There was something here worth seeing - an unknown drive system, at least, and possibly more - and she would see it. "And get Nárlanyo up here, yes?"

Olórin's graceful, elegant form shifted as if carried on the winds, drawn by the smooth motions of her gravitic drive. Thirteen hundred and fifty meters of tightly bound power, and lead ship of over seventy Menelmacari combat vessels, clad all in void-black and sun-gold and blood-red, the Menelmacari warship was a sight to behold, a seamless melding of art and warfare, and she bore down on the newcomer, passing above and slightly to port of the no-ship (relative to the latter's velocity, anyway - it was a sphere, after all). As she passed the Menelmacari ramped up their full sensor suite to the maximum possible safe level, focused on the curious and intriguing ship. And Olórin passed on, the telemetry flooding her sensor banks and computers, to be analyzed and picked apart at leisure. Assuming there was not some ludicrously powerful means of blocking sensor sweeps into the no-ship's hull, the Menelmacari would soon know as much about the no-ship's drive as the Bene Gesserit themselves did, and possibly more.

The pass complete, Naurelin gave a tight smile. "Open a channel...." The transmission, like the Kajali, would include video, and would show, also like the Kajali, a slender humanoid with pointed ears. She was visibly taller than the Kajali, though, and caucasian in skin-tone; her eyes were the piercing green of emeralds and her long hair auburn in color.

"Attention unknown vessel. This is Warlady Naurelin nos Fithurin aboard dreadnought Olórin, Fifth Menelmacari Imperial Battle Fleet. Please identify yourselves. If your communications are down, you are welcome to dispatch a diplomatic party by shuttle to our ship."

If there was no response, Naurelin ordered that the ship's gravitics then be used to vibrate the no-ship's hull, causing the message to be heard inside the no-ship as normal sound.

CSS-LBU Federation (Flag): Oh, Jesus Allah Buddha.
Capt. Terrance McGillion: What now? Don't tell me there's more modern body-art.
CSS-LBU Federation (Flag): The Menelmacari are running about waving their dicks around.
CSS-MBU Spitfire: They do love their flashy shows, don't they?
CSS-MBU Lightning: 'Ooh, look at me, I can vibrate hulls! Aren't I special?'
CSS-MSU Furry Accomplice: Pointy-eared pricks.
Capt. Terrance McGillion: I thought the Kajali were dealing with them?
CSS-MBU Lightning: When has that ever stopped the Menelmacari?
CSS-MBU Spitfire: And don't even get us stared on that ZMI megafreighter. Idiots.
CSS-MBU Mustang: It'd have served them right to smack right into the derilict.
CSS-LBU Unity: We'd have just had to clean it all up anyways. Millions of tons of debris, oh yeah, lots of fun.
CSS-MBU Spitfire:More fun that watching blood splatter.
Capt. Terrance McGillion: Ooooh-kay. I'm going to go back to coordinating the decapivation.

CSS-MBU Spitfire: So... you guys thinking what I'm thinking?
CSS-MSU Furry Accomplice: 1001 Fun Things To Do With Effectors?
CSS-MBU Spitfire: Precisely. Anyone have a good LOS?
CSS-LBU Unity: Give me a sec. And I think Thunderchild has some drones out that way...

...and there was much grousing on the command deck of the SDF Orbital Aurora WormGate. Specifically grousing about the missed opportunity to use the very expensive and indiscriminately powerful planetary ring to move the derelict into a stable orbit.

"Damned space-pointies..."

Grumble grumble. Still there was much interested monitoring of the various communications networks and there was some interest in sending someone from the SEC (Sunset Exploration Command) to take a hike over and take a look around. Maybe scan some abhumans or something. It was still up in the air.

The arrival of a ship to MarsSphere is nothing unusual. Ships enter and depart MarsSphere constantly, as the economic, military, political, and civilian needs of the billions living in the MarsSphere area are met by various. The arrival of a ship with no recognizable identification tags and no clear design heritage, seemingly emerging from a fairly severe system breakdown, on the other hand, is quite unusual.

Naturally, this event gets the attention of the Tiburonese Aerospace Force and the Division of State fairly quickly, and a ship is dispatched to initiate diplomatic relations. Somewhat irritatingly, a few others have already responded in faster time (these being Kajal, Menelmacar, Cetaganda, Sunset, ZMI- allies all, there's still the feeling by the captain of the dispatched ship that they should have gotten there first). Kajal is already well underway to beginning a first contact, so at this point it's best to sit back and see what happens. And, of course, to sit back and stay ready if reinforcements are needed.

At the same time, the ship sends a message to the FKS Soran and scans the unidentified ship. An odd ship indeed, what travels across the heavens with no communications systems. Naturally, sending a DNet message to this ship would fail, and there's no real need to interfere at this point. The Kajali should have the situation well under control.

[Sent Via M-Net]
[To: Commander Lerenn, FKS Soran, Kajali Armed Forces]
[From: Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Koronetzsky, TSS La Caris Nai, Tiburon Aerospace Force]
[Subject: New Martian Arrivals]
[Classification: Top Secret]

Commander Lerenn,

Greetings from TASF. It appears you've already begun initiating first contact procedures with this new arrival. If it's not too much trouble, we'd like to review (as soon as possible and convenient) all of the data you've collected on these new arrivals following first contact and initial discussions. Thank you.

In the admittedly extremely unlikely event that you guys'll need help, don't hesitate to ask. We aim to please.

Sincerely,
Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Koronetzsky,
TSS La Caris Nai,
Tiburon Aerospace Force

Naurelin smiled; she watched as the shuttle debarked from the no-ship, arcing gently towards the dreadnought. Things were falling into place nicely. "Contact the shuttle the same way, it is after all the only way we know they can receive... also, confer with Soran, and set up a tacnet, we should compare notes on these people. Have the computer record everything that is said." She turned in her chair, smiling to her intel and security officers. "And you know what to do with the scarabs, yes?"

"Yes, my Lady," was the answer.

So the next hull to be rung like a bell was the shuttle's, though with less intensity.

"Olórin to shuttlecraft. Please cut your engines upon approach within fifteen hundred meters. We will bring you in."

At the same time a half-squad of Thoron gravitic aerospace fighters on patrol near Olórin fell smoothly into formation, escorting the shuttle towards the warship.

Onboard the Soran

Reverend Mother Gnaeus Hannah Illuraya nodded as the Commander departed, “Thank you for your graciousness.” The two acolytes with her nodded almost ceremoniously.

They remained in their practically perfect control. If one could detect their breathing they would discover the two acolytes seemed to be breathing in the same pattern as if to the optimum. The Reverend Mother herself seemed to breath in perfect calmness.

They walked in a strange composed unison. The acolytes stood precisely behind the Reverend Mother as they followed her gait, and move. It was as if they were performing a ritual in their walk.

Illuraya spoke to Mira, “Very good. Yes we will need to speak to the relevant authorities. I am under the impression that an alliance of some kind governs this space?”

Onboard the no-ship

Reverend Mother Samare was still on the bridge when the reverberations came through. Many of the Bene Gesserit sisters throughout the ship were busy hiding their literature, and various other objects of importance.

Samare stared out the window at the warship as their ship reverberated once again. Some of the sisters sighed. “It appears that they are all trying to get our attention.”

The Sister sitting in one of the chairs spoke, “Reverend Mother it appears that this is a different kind of ship from the others. I have determined five significantly different designs which I believe are from different governments.”

Reverend Mother Samare stared at the window, “Yes, I have determined that myself Patricia.”

Then the sound came through the hull as if someone were speaking on internal intercoms. Reverend Mother Samare spoke into her communicator, “Inform Reverend Mother Vera to proceed to the shuttle bay. She will be the delegation to this government.”

Reverend Mother Aulus Elizabeth Vera was one of the Truthsayers. She was an elderly Reverend Mother in terms of lifespan she was almost two hundred years old.

The elderly Reverend Mother Truthsayer made her way down to the shuttle bay with one acolyte. They stepped onboard the shuttle manned by retainers. Vera spoke to her own acolyte, “Keep silence, girl. We are meeting with potential dangers.”

The small oblong shuttle departed from the shuttle bay, and began moving toward the much more massive MIS Olórin .

Onboard the shuttle

Reverend Mother Vera sighed as her deep green eyes gazed out the windows of the shuttle at the massive ship they were being towed into.The retainers did as they were told, and cut the engines. The acolyte spoke softly, "Reverend Mother, are we truly in another time and space as they say?" Reverend Mother Vera closed her eyes a moment before opening them, "We are uncertain my child, I believe that we are."

Reverend Mother Vera had been a Bene Gesserit for many yeasr, but unlike many she was not a cold nor darkly calculating. This was because of her own teachers. She was trained at the chapterhouse on Chusuk that specialized in music, and arts. Until she reached the rank of Holy Sister it was not realized that she had a greater aptitude in Truthsense than before thought.

She had served as the Truthsayer for some of the more important noble houses.

Onboard the no-ship

Even in the midst of the chaos the Bene Gesserit sisters on the no-ship were for the most part calm. It was their training to be calm in whatever circumstance they encountered. This included immediate danger to their lives, and so they were less phased by being thrown into such unusual circumstances. The younger sisters that were not calm were given a strict lesson by the Reverend Mothers.

Across the ship there was activity. The Bene Gesserit were moving things around, and locking up their many valuable texts. Since they were to establish a new chapterhouse they carried with them an entire library of Bene Gesserit works. These included everything from scientific works to intellgience reports. A few of the works were in the process of being burned as they contained the most secretive works of the order. Works that a Bene Gesserit would pay her life for before revealing.

The Allanean government's people on Mars possess no military starships. Thus, the Allaneans – as is their custom – take a route much difference from everybody else on Mars. Instead of sending out a uselessly powerful ship and asking the Gesserit to dock with it, a tiny Profit-class vessel was sent, a dish-shaped asteroid mining vessel rented from someone in Neo-Dallas for the purpose. It carried Simon Gorodezky, a minor diplomat with a lot of promise.

Welcome to the Mars system.

This is Simon Gorodezky, Junior Ambassador, Allanean Diplomatic Service. It is not clear if you can receive our messages, but if you do not mind, we will be sending a small vessel to dock to yours. If you do not mind this, respond to us, or blink some external light on your ship twice to signal consent if you do not mind our messenger arriving on board.

The Home of Many is a giant structure in orbit of Mars. It is one of the homes of Uploaded civilization - chosen because of bandwidth and proximity to central hubs of information. While one can accuse the uploadees of a lot of things, being wasteful or inefficient is surely not one of those: the by now 8 kilometer big irregular-shaped metastructure (a structure consisting of smaller independent systems houses a huge number of Uploadees and perhaps a dozen Kyleth (biological forms of Uploadees). The uploadees noticed the appearance of the strange no-ship, but first they remained quiet and gathered data. The network was able to receive a few unencrypted communications between the ship an other civilizations on Mars. It was astonished by the fact that this strange structure apparently seemed to use English as method of communication. This implied a human crew or human constructors (the Uploadees still think English and other human languages are far too limited to convey unambiguous meaning). As test whether a sophisticated algorithm was used or they were one of the nations with English knowledge, it sent a message of greeting in Esperanto, then repeated it in Kylethi.

La Caris Nai, we will arrange for such data to be sent over for review as soon as possible. Soran will arrange to have you linked into the local tacnet momentarily... If you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I am about to become... quite busy."

Lerenn smirked. "Soran-actual, out."

Opening a subsequent channel to the Olórin followed.

"Olórin, this is Soran-actual. We're linking you into our tacnet now. Please note, our Tiburonese friends have also joined us. The more data sources the merrier, they say."

---

The temporary quarters were comfortable, though not luxurious. There was little pretense or time wasted intending to wow guests with luxury - these were simply auxiliary quarters, standard for most Kajali officers, and deigned suitable for diplomatic purposes. They remained, undeniably, the quarters of a warship, and one would notice the airflow of the room was quite controlled, with only marginal disturbances, effected by the placement of furniture and equipment. Mira gestured towards the seating available, functional, firm, and yet with a touch of elegance, though she opted to remain standing herself.

"Multiple organizations wield influence, though there are few that are regarded as most influential. The Triumvirate of Yut, of which my government is a member, holds several protectorate areas on the surface that are open to settlement. Perhaps more important, in this sphere, is the Martian Port Authority. It was formed to administrate lands that had fallen into anarchy and arbitrate settlements, largely regulating the distribution of territories and avoiding more serious international incidents.

That authority resides within, and under the scope of a larger authority, the Martian Duma, though the roles of that organization are largely unrelated to the specifics of the Port Authority.

We can easily arrange an audience with the Port Authority, and the Duma Council. It is also possible to petition the Triumvirate for the acquisition of territory. In such a case I have no doubt we would be happy to cede such, and depending on agreement specifics, the Trium may also provide defensive services, though of such I can make no guarantee."

Onboard the Soran

Reverend Mother Illuraya nodded, remaining as composed as she had been. Her eyes did not move yet she scanned the room briefly. The acolytes remained as quiet, and composed as they had been.

She spoke patterned English, "We do not require a lot of land for our operations. Only large enough to construct our chapterhouse. The construction of which we will require assistance with. We do have a currency, the solari. Though it is doubtful that this will be of much use here."

Her strange gaze met Mira, "This system appears heavily populated. What are the names of the other planets?"

"In order, from innermost to the outermost, local names are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There was some debate as to whether the former outermost, Pluto, was large enough to qualify as a planet, though it was decided that it does not.

There are colonies and industrial developments on all the planets in this system, though Earth, Mars, and Saturn are perhaps the most important. The Triumvirate is centered upon Saturn, though many member states still have holdings here, on Mars, as I mentioned earlier.

I do not believe my government would have any reasons not to render assistance in the construction of a compound for your personnel upon the surface, though I am afraid that with such a small number, full autonomy may not be feasible for some time. We can set aside territory within our own holdings, and provide defensive and supportive services until such a time that your group becomes self-sufficient..."

Mira spoke next to no one, apparently, though a response was forthcoming. "Soran, please display the current political divisions of Mars."

There was no vocal response, of course. The map of the numerous territories upon the surface simply shimmered into existence, floating above the room's desk.

"Now, a plot upon the surface need not be contiguous with my government's holdings," Mira gestured towards the section labelled "Kajal Mars." "As you can see, there is a great deal of protectorate territory that is administrated by both the Triumvirate and the Port Authority..."

Onboard the Soran

Reverend Mother Illuraya reflected quietly though the composed mask upon her face did not change. Her multiple streams of consciousness ran under as she reflected, and gained wisdom from all. She drew upon this inner wisdom as she gazed at the screen, and perhaps she drew upon some deeper intuition.

She spoke, "We will be content with either arrangement though would prefer relative autonomy. This autonomy in the sense of privacy, and full authority over our own property. We are a religious order, and not a nation so we do not require that full autonomy. It is doubtful we will be interested in gaining any large civilian population. Though as has happened in the past a city may grow around our chapterhouse."

The acolytes were almost faceless as they stood there, though for a moment of expression that glanced at one another.

Dreadnought Karelian, 24 November Y123

Admiral Rogris was awoken in his bare metal cave by the general quarters klaxon. This time I had dared to dream... he thought. But the Lyrans are back. He could hear other members of his crew awaken in their caves as he grabbed his uniform and began pulling it on with one hand, and pressed the intercom switch on his cave wall with the other.

"Bridge, Rogris, report." he wheezed, the fatigue in his voice obvious.

"Admiral, XO." came the voice of Commander Ferra through the intercom. "Sensors show a temporal rift has opened up just in front of the fleet. The combination of temporal and gravitonic interference is playing havoc with our warp engines - I've ordered the fleet out of warp."

"On my way." Rogris growled, angry that the fleet had dropped out of warp. Moving at sublight speeds, even for just a brief period, meant the Lyran warships he presumed were still pursuing his rag-tag fleet of refugees would make up days of lost time.

He was on the bridge just a few minutes later, and was still making the last few adjustments to his uniform as he did so. The ship's weapons officer, sitting nearest the turbolift door, looked up at Rogris.

"Admiral on the bridge!" he announced.

"Admiral, scanners show a temporal rift half a parsec wide stretching out in front of the fleet." Commander Ferra reported as she got out of the command chair. The Admiral moved towards it and sat down as she continued. "Warp engines on some of the civilian ships sustained damage as we approached. The Vixen reports no engine damage, so it may be that the sturdier engines on the warships will be unaffected by the presence of the rift. The civilian ships, however, might be stuck with impulse engines only until they can pull out of the affected area and operate their warp engines safely."

"How did we run into this thing?" Rogris growled. "The Vixen's scanners should've detected it an hour before we got this close."

"It came out of nowhere, sir." Ferra replied.

"How can a half parsec wide temporal rift come out of nowhere?" Rogris demanded.

"Unknown, sir." Ferra answered. "The Vixen reported that it simply appeared dead ahead, small at first, and within two minutes it had reached this size. It now appears stable. Huroris said it was like space itself was ripped apart right in front of him."

"Pick a freighter whose warp engines sustained damage when we first encountered the rift." Rogris said. "Have them evacuate non-essential personnel. I'll let you decide to which ships. Then order them to use their impulse engines to establish a space warp. Let's see if we can't get out of this mess."

"Yes, Admiral." Ferra nodded, and then made her way over to the communications panel where she started giving the communications officer orders.

"Communications, get me the Vixen..." Rogris said. Ferra and the communications officer stopped doing what they were doing until the communications officer flicked the necessary switches to get the captain of the Vixen on the main viewscreen. They then resumed communications with one of the damaged freighters.

"Your orders, Admiral?" asked the dark-brown furred officer on the screen. It was Commander Huroris, captain of the Carnivon frigate Vixen.

"Captain, launch an unmanned remote shuttle into the rift. I want to see if we can pass through this thing safely. If the Lyrans catch up to us while the civilian fleet is stuck in the gravitonic pull of the rift, I need to know whether we can go through it." Rogris ordered.

"Yes sir." Huroris answered.

"Karelian out." nodded Rogris.

Frigate Vixen, eleven minutes later

Huroris hovered over his science officer's shoulder watching intently as she remote piloted the shuttlecraft out of the Vixen's shuttlebay from the guided weapons control panel at her station.

"Shuttle is clear." she said needlessly, knowing that the captain was watching the screen just as closely as she was.

"Good work, lieutenant." Huroris said, putting a hand on her shoulder as he continued to watch the screen. "Now ease the shuttle into the rift."

Lieutenant Mirira, the science officer, smiled as she guided the shuttle into the temporal rift. The whole crew knew that she and Huroris were mates, but he always made a point of addressing her only by rank on the bridge, as if formality of address would disguise the relationship while he had his hand on her shoulder.

"Shuttle is penetrating the rift..." she said. She frowned. "I am losing visual feed, but I still have telemetry coming in from the shuttle. It's still alive on the other side... we're getting signals but only the low bandwidth ones. I don't know whether she lost power..."

"Do you still have control?" Huroris asked.

"Yes... but... the telemetry..." Mirira frowned. She began to pull back the control stick and flick other switches on the control panel. "Judging by the telemetry I'd say the shuttle is caught in the gravity well of a small planetoid... or an equivalent gravity well at least. I can't tell you whether there's an atmosphere. The shuttle's difficult to control but I... I think... it can break free."

"Return the shuttle. We'll get the full picture from its flight recorders." Huroris ordered.

"Aye sir." Mirira said. "Responding slowly... I am not sure if all our control signals are getting through... Bringing the shuttle home..."

In orbit over Mars, the present

A small unmanned shuttlecraft, no more than six metres long, appeared in the same place the no-ship had appeared when it had dropped out of space and time practically on top of the planet Mars. It listed strangely, as if under only partial control, and was pulled into the planet's gravity. Shortly after it began to pull back up, and then, gradually and with awkward movements, it turned back to its point of origin. If nothing stopped it, it would fade away back to where it had come from.

"Another one...?"

Admiral Edge on the Aurora brought up the shuttlecraft on the large tactical holosphere. Various datapoints lit up around it as it 'rolled' around to give him a good look.

"Definitely not another one Admiral. Design is completely different and similar to known designs. We've got hull markings as well, and there are communications along known methods going to and from. Volume and mass indicates it should be manned, but either is manned and the crew is in impaired or it is unmanned currently."

Edge nodded and looked from the display over to the communications officer who looked up and sent another set of data streaming through the display.

"Cross-checking the hull markings with known languages now... Similar to a half-dozen so far. The computer is working on what we can intercept but it looks like telemetry so far."

"All right. Hit it with what you've got and a greeting in Standard. We'll go from there. Tactical?"

"Sir?"

"Keep me informed if anything else unknown shows up. We're not hosting an intergalactic kegger... I want things nice and orderly."

"Yessir..."

Edge turned back to the holo-sphere which switched back to the meeting on the Soran. Per his orders the comms officer sent the following in Galactic Standard, Kekkosmaa' Neko, and the Heroes' Tongue (Scolopendran K'zin).

Attention Unidentified Craft Transmitting on This Frequency:

This is SDF-Aurora requesting sovereignty and command identification. Please identify and inform of transmission capabilities.

Frigate Vixen, 24 November Y123

"Shuttle back on our side of the rift." reported Lieutenant Mirira. "Full control has been restored. The shuttle appears undamaged."

"Start downloading its flight recorder's databanks, and bring it aboard." Huroris ordered. He then left the science officer to her station and moved over to the communications station. "Comms, get me the Karelian."

Dreadnought Karelian, 24 November Y123

"The civilian freighter reports that she was unable to form a space warp with her impulse engines due to gravitonic interference, Admiral." reported Commander Ferra, the Karelian's XO.

"Admiral, Vixen is hailing us." reported the communications officer.

"Let's hope she has better news." said Rogris. "On screen."

Commander Huroris appeared on the screen holding an electronic clipboard. He looked up from it and stood to attention to speak to the Admiral.

"Admiral, our shuttle has successfully entered and returned from the rift in tact." Huroris reported.

"Excellent." Rogris said. "Do we know what is on the other side?"

"Well, sir, I've just been looking at what we've downloaded from the shuttle's flight recorder." Huroris began. "There's a small to medium size planetoid or equivalent gravity well on the other side, not too close for a safe crossing. There's also intelligent life. The shuttle received a transmission in several languages. I will forward the transmission to Karelian for analysis."

"In the survey of survivors we conducted a few months ago, we identified some linguists in the civilian fleet who might be able to assist, Admiral." Ferra reported.

"Good." Rogris nodded. "Stand-by, Vixen."

Frigate Vixen, 13 minutes later

"Captain, the Karelian is hailing us." said the communications officer.

"Put it on the main viewer." Huroris nodded. Admiral Rogris and Commander Ferra appeared on the display.

"Well, captain, it looks like your shuttle has encountered a bit of a mystery." Rogris began. "The trilingual transmission it received included a message in a language very similar to Kzinti."

"The Kzinti!" Huroris sighed, his heart sinking. Like the Lyrans, the Kzinti were the sworn enemy of the Carnivons, and had destroyed their worlds, slaughtered their people, and pursued the few survivors of this apocalypse to the edge of known space and beyond. He couldn't believe that they were on the other side of the rift.

"Similar to Kzinti, captain, but different." Rogris clarified.

"Our linguists detected significant structural similarities but the vocabulary seems to have split away from the Kzinti language thousands of years ago. Only certain archaic words are more or less the same." Ferra explained. "Our own language is not entirely dissimilar to Kzinti, or Lyran for that matter, just as we share so much of the same genetic code."

"Did they work out what the message actually said?" Huroris asked. "These civilian experts of yours?"

"There was an identification, followed by a request for the shuttle to identify itself in turn." Ferra answered. "The identification matched no known fleet."

"We're not convinced that the message is an indicator that the life on the other side of the rift is hostile." Rogris said. "We need to know whether it is safe for us to take the fleet through. I am convinced the Lyrans are still on our tail, and every minute we spend not on the move, they get days closer."

"Well sir, my Science Officer advises me that only the narrowest band transmissions can cross through the rift. We almost lost the shuttle's telemetry feed, and only had partial control." Huroris said.

"We could see that from your shuttle's data." Ferra nodded.

"That's right. That's why we want you to take the Vixen through the rift." Rogris said.

"And if I encounter Kzinti ships on the other side?" Huroris asked.

"You'll have to come back. I am bringing the warships nearer the entrance of the rift so that if you come back accompanied, we'll be as ready for them as we can be." Rogris answered.

"Aye sir." Huroris said. If there were more than a couple of Kzinti ships on the other side, he didn't fancy the Vixen's chances of getting back in one piece. He remembered what the Lyran Duke's fleet did to the Reynard a few months earlier with just one combined volley.

"We have one of the civilian linguists who assisted us with the transmission on-board the Karelian, captain." Ferra told Huroris. "We will beam him over to the Vixen once in transporter range."

"Does he know what he might be getting himself into?" Huroris asked.

"He volunteered." the Admiral answered. "He has already drafted a response to be transmitted by the Vixen as soon as she enters the rift."

"The Karelian is entering transporter range, captain." Mirira reported from behind Huroris.

"Tell the transporter room to prepare to receive our linguist." Huroris replied, not keen on the idea of having a civilian 'expert' on-board his ship at the best of times, let alone when they could be about to enter battle.

"Good luck, Vixen. Karelian out." the Admiral said, before the view screen blanked and returned to a view of the rift.

"Transporter room reports the linguist has been beamed aboard." Mirira said.

"Good. Go and greet him, lieutenant, and then bring him to the bridge." Huroris nodded. "Helm, set a course through the rift. Weapons, charge phaser capacitor, and load disruptor cannon. Shuttle bay, prepare death bolts for launch. Shields up."

A chorus of "Aye sir!" echoed about the bridge.

In orbit over Mars, three minutes later

The Vixen appeared at the shuttle's precise point of origin. She was a frigate, with warp and impulse engines, phasers and a disruptor cannon. She had shields capable of sustaining several phaser hits from a given vector before they gave way. She simply faded into existence as if she were decloaking, but not even the most thorough scan of the ship would show a cloaking or masking device of any sort. She sent a simple message in broken K'zin.

"We are frigate Vixen of Carnivon Hordes. We come in peace. Transmit subspace or radio."

OOC: Any way you think you could branch off into another thread Carnivon? Unless you plan to intertwine your plot with mine it is going to get confusing with so much going on.

OOC: I can move or continue my stuff to another thread. I wanted this to happen around a similar time though - the idea is that the temporal rift was created by the no-ship's crash landing, and the only way I thought I could make that clear was by posting in this thread as opposed to starting another one with copious OOC notes.

OOC: Nominally I would suggest the Mars forums (http://s4.invisionfree.com/The_Planet_Mars/index.php?act=idx) as that's where we Martians prefer to keep the action but it's up to you. Having two things going on at once makes it more interesting personally, as long as people keep things labeled clearly.

"And another vessel... Admiral. Markings match those of the previous smaller craft. Translating hull markings and transmitted language to codify written communications..."

Edge leaned back in his seat and took a long sip of coffee.

"Definitely a warship. Unless they are random Cetagandans lost in space and time. Tactical?"

"Their weapons are powered and they seem to have shielding up. Roughly equal to a SDF Type-II. Still running the sweep on their weapons systems."

"But they didn't come out shooting. Any idea where they came from?"

The image in the holosphere changed to show open space and swirling points of data that collapsed onto a central point.

"Actually, yes. Well, we don't. We don't muck around with time as you know. But Deimos U was watching and figured it out and passed us this datastream. And then we got the usual warning from TYCS not to mess around with space and time. Just space. This is some kind of temporal rift which is likely also responsible for the other visitor. It's unstable, at least according to Deimos U, and will probably collapse shortly."

"Shortly as in?"

"Five minutes or sometime before the heat death of the universe. They were non-specific."

"Alrighty. Specifics then. Let's go with subspace and Standard and Baseline K'zin til we get a good translation going."

Frigate Vixen:

This is SDF Station Aurora, Admiral David Edge commanding. According to the data we have your ship seems to have come through some kind of rift. Given it's apparently unstable nature we have some questions we would like asked in short order:

Are you responsible for the generation of this rift?

Is your ship under any kind of emergency condition?

You are further asked to power down your weapons and move your vessel away from the immediately vicinity of the rift. Also, if possible, could you identify your commanding officer, your species, and your primary language and provide a sample of the same.

Welcome to Mars.

Aboard Soran

Mira paused for a moment, as if thinking intently. She had observed these three since they disembarked their craft, and while their facade was nigh-impenetrable, it did send one message across clearly.

Thinking about it, perhaps she'd been going down the wrong path.

"I feel that, perhaps, your people would not be, ah... comfortable, on Mars. I must admit, your composure and calmness is impressive, but I feel that you'd prefer a degree of isolation from the veritable chaos here on Mars.

Soran, display Galaxy Exploration Command System 42, Ferrum."

A new image appeared, showing a not-to-scale three dimensional model of the system in question. Several markers appeared, denoting moons orbiting the system's prominent gas giant.

"This system remains linked to Mars, though offers a degree of privacy, and solitude. There are 11 unclaimed bodies orbiting the gas giant - while it may be possible to establish installations upon the other planets of the system they are somewhat less habitable.

We have multiple facilities in this system, and it falls under Trium administration... It is, perhaps, the best fit. We've shipyards and accommodations that are more than suitable to house your people until an official decision is made, should you decide to settle in the Ferrum system, and more than enough local industry to begin construction of a settlement immediately."

Mars Orbit

The appearance of the broken down vessel is hardly cause for concern to the minds which monitor such things for the Federation at Mars. The multiple hundreds of vessels that make up Third Fleet, nor the even more powerful shipyard battlestation that serves as a local command center and repair yard, are concerned with it.

The shuttle, less so.

This is Mars, after all. Broken down spaceships, transiting shuttles, all these things are commonplace.

As a matter of fact, two of the Federation’s heavy cruisers are busy towing a civilian freighter in that tried to run too long without checking its drive coils for wear.

A patrol group of destroyers is dealing with an extremely stupid pirate who attempted to get too close to a Federation convoy just at the edge of active sensor range. The glimmering EM shimmer of the bomb-pumped lasers is slowly dying – much like the pirates on the ship that is leaking air.

Maybe the marines will rescue them with enough time for them to be arrested, taken down to the surface, and publicly executed. Hey, where’s life there’s hope, right?

The warship’s arrival is a bit more noticeable. But only a bit.

This is Mars, after all. Planet named for the god of wars. A planet where shed blood does not stain the sand.

Besides, it’s only outnumbered about eleventy billion to one.

But there’s always someone watching.

After all, it might be dangerous. Maybe.

But probably not.

If so, someone will probably blow it to the next reality long before the Federation ships can react, and they could react in well under a measurable fraction of a second.

This is Mars, after all.

Frigate Vixen, in orbit over Mars

"Relay the first contact transmission." ordered Huroris. "Hopefully there will be a language they understand in there. Doctor Geromis, how is your translation going?"

"The language they're using seems to have evolved from archaic Kzinti, simply along different lines. I'm building a lexicon in your ship's computers as the transmissions..." the civilian linguist began.

"Just tell me when you have it." Huroris growled. He didn't like having civilians on his ship. To Huroris, the few remaining Carnivon warships were a tight pack, a close-knit family, and he didn't like the distinction between civilian and military being blurred.

"First contact transmission sent. (http://z4.invisionfree.com/The_Planet_Mars/index.php?showtopic=1319)" the communications officer reported.

"Good. Science Officer, what can you tell me about the station which has responded to our message?" Huroris asked.

"Scanning." Mirira said, flicking some switches on her panel. She looked intently into the scanner viewing port which extended from the panel, frowning. "Station matches no known configuration, Kzinti, Lyran, or otherwise."

"Tactical evaluation?" Huroris demanded.

"Working on it." Mirira replied, flicking a few more switches.

"Captain," the civilian linguist began. "The message asks whether we created the rift, and whether we're suffering an emergency. It also instructs us move away... from the rift I believe... and to disarm."

"Science I need that data!" Huroris asked. "Anything else Doctor?"

"The next part is more difficult because it deals with some more abstract concepts... I believe that they want to see you, captain." Geromis said. "And... I think they want all the works of literature written in our language... but that is probably an awkward translation... the software says..."

"Thank you, Doctor." Huroris answered. "I am sure they don't intend to read the classics."

"You're right, of course, captain." Geromis nodded. "They probably want us to send our lexicon for analysis. They might have automated translation technology in advance of our own."

"Communications, send them our lexicon and grammar tapes." Huroris ordered. He straightened his uniform and stood up. "Let's open visual communications."

"Should we stand down weapons as requested, captain?" asked Lieutenant Commander Bewrubis, the Executive Officer. Bewrubis had been the captain of a ship of his own, an older frigate which had been refitted with warp engines. Bewrubis' ship had been destroyed and he had been transferred to Vixen as her XO over a year ago. He and Huroris rarely saw eye to eye but Bewrubis only ever spoke up when he thought the captain had over-looked something, never to question orders.

"Science Officer?" Huroris asked.

"Their weapons systems look to be in a non-hostile state... but I've never seen a station in this configuration." Mirira said. "I don't know for sure, captain."

"Recommend we keep shields up and discharge phasers and disruptor cannon." Bewrubis suggested. "We have a death bolt drone prepped on the rack just in case."

"Agreed. Order weapons to stand down. Helm, bring us into a standard orbit, away from the rift." Huroris nodded. "Comms, put me on visual."

Bewrubis pressed the intercom button on Huroris' command chair and gave orders to phaser control to discharge the phaser capacitor and for the disruptor cannon to stand down. In the Vixen's shuttlebay, a deck crew still stood by the death bolt drone rack ready to launch one of the faster-than-light nuclear missiles, but there was no actual difference between an armed state and a disarmed state for death bolts, except for whether the deck crew was in the bay or not. The Vixen then, had complied with the instruction to stand down weapons, but did have an ace up its sleeve it could use to buy itself some time to rearm or escape if it had to.

"This is Commander Huroris, the Captain of the Carnivon Frigate Vixen." Huroris began. "We have transmitted our language data tapes and a first contact message explaining who we are. We did not create the rift, and we have no emergency on ship. We seek peaceful co-existence with all sentients. Please acknowledge receipt of signal, and identify yourselves."

SDF Station Aurora is, at least to the casual observer, one of four identical stations scattered through Sol. Venus, Luna, Mars, and the Ring all have one in orbit or stationed nearby though the Martian station is unique in that it circles above Sunset's only planetary holdings in Sol and is thus also the headquarters of the SDF (Sunset Defense Force) in that system.

Physically the station is a large ring that stands upright compared to Mars with the central opening pointing along the equator. The outside edge is studded with equi-distant weapon batteries, shield generators, docking ports, and sensor arrays. Spaced out around the interior of the ring and extending like fingers out towards the equator are eight large prongs that are clearly emitters of some kind. These too are studded with weapon batteries, typically smaller arrays which could be point-defense or anti-fighter weapons. Only these are actively powered up and a fair number of them face inward across the face of the station.

"This is Commander Huroris, the Captain of the Carnivon Frigate Vixen." Huroris began. "We have transmitted our language data tapes and a first contact message explaining who we are. We did not create the rift, and we have no emergency on ship. We seek peaceful co-existence with all sentients. Please acknowledge receipt of signal, and identify yourselves."

"Incoming visual transmission Admiral. And we've got a good translation of their language now."

"All right, put it on the main 'sphere." Edge ordered, and watched as the Vixen's transmission played in the main sphere.

Nearly everyone on the command deck turned to watch it play before turning back to their stations. First contact with a new race of sentients was always interesting and while these were not the front-line experts of the SEC/GEC they still enjoyed it when it happened.

The communications officer on duty spoke first, "Sir, recommend we get someone here from Deimos U and SEC/GEC."

"Agreed. Setup for transmission of visual broadcast along matching methods. Now that we know their language let's start using it but keep a matching stream in Standard going as well. Don't worry about SEC, just get someone from GEC and Deimos in here and pronto. What's the condition of the rift?"

Another officer checked his station, which was now showing a datafeed from an off-station system, and put some datapoints up on the main 'sphere.

"Still unstable Admiral, but less so now that the ship has moved away. If these are refugees I recommend, based on the recommendations I'm getting from Deimos, that they move their ships through one at a time and move to at least ten thousand kilometers before moving additional ships through. That should keep it as stable as possible."

Edge nodded and stood to move so that the main holosphere and command deck was behind him as he faced the camera. The command deck was like those on many stations - a semi-circle of stations arrayed around a central display, in this case a large holosphere, with another set of stations beyond them on a raised platform. Edge's command chair was situated at the center of the arc midway between the two banks of stations and it was a relatively plain affair with none of the skulls or symbols of war commonly used by aggressive species

"Ready on 2D?"

"Aye. I have matched their transmission specs and AR filtering is on to remove anything tactical or classified. Deimos and GEC will be connecting holo-avatars in a few minutes."

"Let's go live then." Edge (http://www.sunsetrpg.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=%2FPeople%2F&image=SimEdge.jpg) straightened his uniform and stood carefully posed with his hands clasped behind him.

"Greetings Commander Huroris, I am Admiral David Edge, commander of this station. We welcome your statement of peaceful co-existence and I welcome you to Mars.

Straight to the point. Your message indicates you are traveling with a fleet of refugees. Our sensors indicate that the rift you have traveled through is unstable and could collapse at any time. This station cannot maintain the stability of this rift. If you are fleeing an aggressive species we would offer you safe harbor here. If you are willing to accept it we would suggest you move what else remains of your fleet through the rift as soon as possible.

My advisers tell me that the rift will remain stable longer if the vessels are sent through with a spacing between each vessel of approximately ten thousand kilometers. I cannot explain precisely why, as this is an unknown occurance to me, but I trust my advisers completely."

Frigate Vixen, in orbit over Mars

"Their species is hairless... like newborns..." Mirira mumbled quietly to herself. Standing well back from the view screen as she was, there was little danger that anything she said would be picked up and transmitted. The XO, however, was in earshot and he moved over to the science station.

"Perhaps they shave their coats off." Bewrubis whispered to her. "Could be a religious rite."

"They must get cold." Mirira whispered back, although she dismissed the XO's rather bizarre speculation out of hand. She had read about a coatless species called the Klingons in captured Kzinti data tapes, and was sure that there were many other such species in the galaxy.

"They appear to have advanced automatic translation techniques, captain." Geromis observed.

Huroris paid him no heed - he was caught breathless by the enormity of the situation. He had made first contact with an alien species, which appeared to be peaceful and welcoming towards the Carnivon refugee fleet. It was like a dream. In ten years time when he was old and grey, his great grandchildren would read about this day.

"Admiral David Edge," Huroris began after a considerable pause. "I am honoured to speak to you. It is true that on the other side of the rift, the last survivors of my race are fleeing from the enemies which destroyed our worlds, as our first contact message said. I will relay your generous offer of safe harbour here in your Mars on to my commanding officer. We will jettison a beacon which will travel through the rift and signal our fleet. This is not a hostile action. Thank you, Admiral David Edge, for your hospitality. Please stand-by for further communication."

Huroris signalled to his communications officer to end the transmission. He regretted that he had, perhaps, sounded too stilted or even ungrateful, but he was a soldier, not a diplomat. He wasn't trained for this, and could only do his best.

"Mi..." Huroris began, still so distracted by the magnitude of events that he almost called his mate by her name on the bridge. "...Lieutenant, have you scanned the planet below?"

"Yes, captain." Mirira answered. She was smiling, although it wasn't about the near-drop of formality, but about the idea that the fleet might finally stop running. "Equatorial radius 3396.2 kilometres. Mass 0.64185 by ten to the power of twenty four kilograms. I... I'm not sure I'm reading it right... but... including satellites... according to best estimates and evaluating against all known sentient life forms in our computer banks, signals consistent with nearly ninety six billion sentient lifeforms."

"Even if Admiral David Edge is peaceful and welcoming as he appears to be... they can't all be." Bewrubis observed.

"Even if they're not, this side of the rift is a lot safer than the other side, with the Lyrans on our backs!" Huroris snapped at his XO. He moved over to the command chair and sat down. "Comms, load all log tapes recorded since we passed through the rift and tapes of sensor scans to a communications beacon. Include my assessment that this solar system appears safe."

"Aye, sir." replied the technician at the communications station. She began flicking switches to prepare the ready emergency beacon accordingly.

"Viewer on reverse angle. Navigator, plot a trajectory through the rift and transfer course to the beacon's internal navigation controls." Bewrubis ordered.

"Yes, commander." replied the ship's navigator.

"Launch beacon when ready." Huroris said. The beacon fired from Vixen's aft towards the rift, and soon faded out of view as it passed through. "Now we wait for the Admiral to make his decision."

"Do you think they have good livestock on the planet?" Bewrubis asked nobody in particular. "It would be good to eat real meat again."

"There are ninety six billion sentients, commander." Mirira answered. "They can't all be vegetarian."

"I can hardly believe that we've found some place safe from the felinoids!" Dr Geromis exclaimed. "And a peaceful first contact too! Captain, you should be proud. Peaceful first contacts are very rare!"

"Everybody settle down!" Huroris growled, frowning. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Lyrans and possibly the Kzintis are still after us, and there's nothing to say they can't find us here. Nothing to say, for that matter, that somebody on that planet or on that space station won't start shooting at us! So stand by your stations and watch your instruments! If something goes wrong I don't want to hear it first from the sound of decompressions all over my ship!"

"Aye, sir!" echoed about the bridge in chorus as people stopped chattering and minded their stations.

"Peaceful first contact or not, we're still at general quarters. This is a warship, not a civilian freighter!" Huroris grumbled, rapping his claws on the armrest of his command chair impatiently.

Official Allanean Message:

Dear Carnivons!

We would like to welcome you and yours to Mars. We understand that you're in quite a situation, and are willing and able to donate a variety of things to your effort. We can donate naval ships – we're on the verge of a small naval downsizing – as well as civilian-grade vessels. Further, we can provide you with monetary loans, technical assistance, and a variety of goods. Should you require anything at all, please do not hesitate to contact.

However, at present, we are unable to dispatch a diplomat to you, so all communication will have to be by radio.

"So..."

Edge drummed his fingers on the arm of his command chair. It had only been a few seconds since he had taken his seat so he was clearly thinking rather than bored.

"So...?"

Commander Émilien la Barré, the aforementioned communications officer, turned from her station and asked the question. Certainly she looked human - tall, graceful, with a bit of a swagger and a certain natural roll of the hips that betrayed her, along with a bit of a French accent, as one of the few Sanglatti abhumans in the SDF. On the holosphere the small probe from the Vixen disappeared and Edge drummed his fingers again.

"So. What do we do? Snap decision time is over and we have a few minutes to decide our next step. Advise?"

This was precisely why Commander la Barré was a Commander and not a Lieutenant and why the same was true of most of the other officers scattered around the command deck. La Barré was an expert in international relations - doctorate actually - and had the experience to back it up. Sure there were lieutenants who were also doctorates, and lieutenants who were experienced, but there were not a whole lot of lieutenants who were both experienced and had a doctorate who didn't have a darn good reason for being a lieutenant. Aside from the rare direct event such as this most of the officers under him spent much of their time organizing things like SDF communications for the entire system. Which certainly made them good for advise.

"Well, you've already invited them to stay. But you haven't exactly said 'how' they can stay. And we don't really know much about them yet. The same goes for the Bene Gesserit Sisters. While I trust the Kajali to handle that adequately the same questions apply. Can they be trusted? What are their intentions? Why Mars?"

"All valid questions..." Edge steepled his fingers and leaned back to stare at the ceiling.

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies within distance of a good stabbing."

That was Commander Industa. It was nearly impossible to tell his original species and Edge only knew he had been male because he had looked at his personnel file. The hulking cyborg was a mass of armor plate and weapon ports. After some horrible combat injuries he had opted for full conversion rather than a cloned body. Though his paint was fresh he wore the scars of combat proudly on his armor.

"They could also be spies for an invading force. I'd advise we send our own probe through to confirm their story. If they object, we know there is a problem. If they don't, I'd still be suspicious."

"Spent our summers in the Dominion have we?" la Barré jibbed.

"Insufficient and absolute."

"Again, valid. Still, I've extended the invitation. Better the enemy you know than the one you don't. And to send a probe into another time period we'll have to get specific permission from TYCS."

"I'm not sure that would be necessary Admiral..."

The figure that had wavered into existence next to him solidified and stepped down to the main floor to stand beside the holosphere. The caninoid wore the robes of a scholar - somewhat formal to Edge's eye - and had carefully groomed long fur that reminded him distinctly of a fox.

"Chancellor Kanban, Deimos University. I was informed you had need of my expertise..."

"Chancellor..." Edge rose and gave a slight bow which the kitsune returned. "Yes, we were just discussing our visitors."

Kanban nodded. "I caught the last bit as the avatar was initializing. I feel that it would be safe to send a probe through without any kind of authorization. Based on what we've been able to gather about this rift we are looking at organizing fracticallity rather than a true inter-dimension rift."

Edge wasn't really sure of the difference but he nodded. Deimos University had been one of the central places of learning for the former nation of Ravenspire. They had mastered many things which Sunset and the Triumvirate didn't regularly deal with and while they shared advise they didn't often directly share their knowledge.

"All right. We'll put a probe through the rift once we talk to the Hordes and make sure they know what we are doing."

"With your permission I would like to continue to observe the proceedings from here Admiral."

"Go ahead."

The Chancellor's avatar walked up the steps to stand beside Lieutenant Commander Andorov at the sensor station. An additional feed appeared on the station and Kanban began to manipulate it remotely as he watched the Ukrainian work.

"Back to the discussion. What are our options?"

Lieutenant Commander Stefan, the MPA liaison officer, spoke up. It was normally his job to coordinate the activities of the SDF and MPA though this usually came down to tracking the activity of the MPA's drone warships.

"I've been compiling a list of several options. If I may..."

One by one they appeared on the main holosphere with some illustrative graphics and datapoints.

"The most important point to me is their low numbers. With only twenty thousand sentients they don't require much. That brings up the first option, which is the arcology in Sunset where the Ravenspire storage operation is ongoing. Temporarily housing them there would allow them to have a safe resting place..."

"But it would also put twenty thousand unknowns inside our borders!" Industra growled.

"Yes. The second option is GEC-42. That would put them at a distance from Mars where they could do as they please and they would be isolated in case of aggressive tendencies. But as you said, not close enough for a good stabbing. Another option is one of the TYCS administered territories. Not isolated and facilities would need to be built. The same is true of MPA administered territories. Ultimately to acquire dry land they are going to have to go through one of the two organizations."

"That does suggest an option as well. With their low numbers we could drop one of the Roanian bio-field generators into some open territory and turn them loose. Nearby, but isolated, and then as time goes by we can see what happens."

"A little vicious, but that seems like a generous option when viewed from the outside. There is a maglev line already running through and they would have access to water from the Hellas basin. Food... We don't really know what they eat yet, do we?"

"Nope. Presumably they do eat though."

"All right. Flesh out all the options some more Commander Stefan. It looks like we are going to need to wait for their fleet to decide. Hopefully soon. Chancellor?"

"The rift is reasonably stable for now. I wouldn't want to wait long, but I wouldn't be worried about an immediate collapse either."

Dreadnought Karelian, 24 November Y123

Admiral Rogris sat in the command chair in the centre of the Karelian's bridge, holding his head in his hands, deep in thought. He ran his gloved fingers through his greying fur, a habit which his crew knew meant he was carefully considering something of great importance. Ordinarily, such a habit might provoke nervousness in a starship's crew, but the crew of the flagship of the ragtag Carnivon fleet knew that their commanding officer made decisions every day upon which the fate of their entire species rested. While he never hesitated in combat, they were quite comfortable with the idea that the man who held not just their lives but the lives of their entire people in his hands might take some time to consider his options.

While the science officer was running an analysis of the recording of the visual subspace communication between the Vixen and Aurora station which the Karelian had retrieved from Vixen's communications buoy, the ship's XO was looking into the scanner viewport at the science station. Ferra frowned, and started toggling some switches on the scanner. She looked into the scanner viewport again, and growled faintly.

"Picking up warp signatures at extreme range and closing." she reported. "Signal strength is consistent with three cruisers or equivalent."

A murmur went up amongst the bridge crew. Rogris pulled his head up out of his hands and Ferra left the science station over to the Admiral's side. The Science Officer took over the scanner.

"Our hand looks like it has been forced." Rogris told Ferra quietly.

"Aye, admiral." she nodded quietly in reply.

"Helm, bring us about 180 degrees. Communications, signal the combat fleet to assume formation gamma-six." Rogris ordered. "Order all civilian ships to enter the rift. Commander, I'll need you to deal with the military situation so you'll need to pick another officer to coordinate the civilian ships crossing over to the Vixen's location in an orderly fashion."

"Thank you, sir." Ferra answered. "Commander Yugris is with the convoy, so he's ideally placed."

"Good. Contact him and let him know he won't have much time to get the civilians across." Rogris nodded. Yugris' name was a reminder that the last time the fleet had encountered the Lyrans, the Frigate Reynard, under Yugris' command, was lost with a third of its crew. They had been forced to abandon ship and scuttle her, lacking the capacity to bring her to a spacedock for major repairs.

"Lycaon in position." the Science Officer reported.

"Kitsune and Daji will be in position shortly." reported the communications technician.

"As soon as they are, get us to warp 2.4 and put us between these warp signatures and the fleet." Rogris told Ferra. "Science, as soon as you have a positive identification of the squadron moving towards us, I want to hear it."

"Phaser control, charge phaser capacitors." Ferra ordered into the intercom. "Shuttlebay, prepare death bolts."

"Communications, have the following message sent to the Vixen by the first freighter through..." Rogris began.

Frigate Vixen, In orbit around Mars

"Sir, one of the frigates has just passed through the rift!" Mirira reported from the science station.

"Well, it looks like we a decision." Huroris observed.

"Captain, the freighter is relaying a message reporting to be from Admiral Rogris." said the communications technician.

"What does it say, Communications?" replied Huroris.

"Message reads... Probable Lyran contact. Civilian convoy ordered to cross rift to your location. Take all possible measures to ensure that the convoy is safe if the Lyrans follow it through the rift. Karelian, Lycaon, Kitsune, and Daji will not cross until all civilian ships have done so." the technician relayed. "Rogris, commanding Karelian, out."

There was a palpable air of crushed hope and disappointment on the bridge. Huroris rose from the command chair.

"Get me Admiral David Edge." he ordered.

"Hailing frequencies open." the communications technician reported.

"Admiral David Edge, this is Commander Huroris of the Vixen." Huroris began. "Our fleet is preparing to engage enemy forces on the other side of the rift. All civilian ships have been ordered through the rift to seek safe harbour. All possible steps will be taken to prevent enemy ships from following us through the rift to Mars, however, be advised that they might make it through anyway. Request transmission of best coordinates for our civilian convoy to assume."

"Admiral David Edge, this is Commander Huroris of the Vixen." Huroris began. "Our fleet is preparing to engage enemy forces on the other side of the rift. All civilian ships have been ordered through the rift to seek safe harbour. All possible steps will be taken to prevent enemy ships from following us through the rift to Mars, however, be advised that they might make it through anyway. Request transmission of best coordinates for our civilian convoy to assume."

"Can we confirm this?" Edge asked aloud.

"No, not from the information we can gather on this side of the rift." Andorov answered after a moment and a quick look over to the Chancellor who shook his head. "We would need to send a probe or a ship through the rift."

"And that would be unsafe with the ships of their convoy coming through. The risks of a collision or the risks of further destabilizing the rift..." Industra confirmed. "The best thing to do, in my opinion, would be to wait until the convoy is through and send some of our own warships through to assist. Something expendable. We could then determine if this is a ruse or confirm their story."

"That seems risky though. Something tells me that moving through the rift will sever our communications with an unmanned warship." Edge looked up to Andorov and the Chancellor who nodded in unison. "Which means counting on a non-sentient system to keep our own secrets safe and to make the right decisions in case of a twist. If the Carnivons are lying it might as well be sailing right into an dockyard for reverse engineering. So no. At least not a warship. Something with it's own launch bay so it can send a message back through via mechanical means and something that is on an 'expendable' technology level."

"Hmmph. That's a tall order Admiral," Industra tapped at his displays to bring up a list of available units, "Perhaps something older like a StarStryke..."

The cyborg went back to his systems while the others continued and Edge asked again.

"In the meantime, what do we do with twenty-thousand caninoids? Incoming caninoids?"

Commander La Barré considered this for a moment and then asked, "How about a vacation?"

"Do you have enough time off Commander?" Edge quipped, though he knew she was going somewhere.

"Send them through the gate to GEC-42 and put them up in the hotels on Atlantis. It has docking facilities, it's secure, and if these aggressors follow them through they won't find anything. And it's not secret in any way."

"That sounds perfect, but we can't very well order them to clear ten thousand rooms. Our access to civilian property is very restricted outside of wartime."

"We'll have to pay for it then. Book a 'Carnivon Horde' convention. Let me just check..."

The commander tapped away at the controls for the outside commlink for a moment. In order to eliminate outside attempts at hacking into the SDF's systems through the communications systems all SDF craft actually had two communications systems. The outside communications system was physically isolated from all other systems except the power supply and if it was compromised it could easily be re-constituted.

"...and booked. Apparently the low point of the tourist season Admiral. I hope you don't mind - I used your credit card."

Edge looked up at La Barré for a moment and then there was a beep coming from the pocket where he kept his wallet and credit authorization card.

"...you did, didn't you..."

La Barré looked away and Edge pulled out his wallet and the card that was flashing silently now. A quick squeeze of the authorization pad and the flashing stopped.

"All right. Let's find out if the Horde is up for it and if they are you are definitely playing activity coordinator until permanent accommodations can be found."

Commander Huroris of the Vixen:

This station is part of a network of stations that are linked together via artificially created wormholes. One of these locations is a solar system identified as 'GEC-42', which is a system jointly colonized by those nations which have territory on the Martian surface. It has no habitable planetary bodies but there is a large gas giant in the system with a very large number of habitable moons. One of these moons, dubbed 'Atlantis', has been turned into a luxury residential and resort complex. The moon also has a SDF fleet docking facility in it's hollow core. I propose we send your civilian convoy through the wormhole to Atlantis. This would give your civilians a chance to recuperate and your ships a chance to be refit and repaired. This would also put them distinctly out of reach of any aggressors that might make it through the rift.

Edge Out

True to his word the pylons arrayed around the ring suddenly powered up. There was a surge of energy and the characteristic radiation of a wormhole flooded out from the station as one spiraled open to fill the gate. Stretching away from either side of the station were four long strings of lighted buoys that served to keep traffic away from outbound shipping and, by varying the colors show, identified the current destination of the gate. In this case they were a cool light blue and Immediately a dozen or more craft in orbit began to change their orbit to bring them on course with the station. Most were clearly civilian vessels though there was also a craft that could only be described as a flying saucer as well as what appeared to be a wooden ocean-going vessel as well.

"Admiral, multiple requests to enter the gate..."

Edge sighed, "Mars. Land of opportunities and opportunists. Still, it will help convince the Horde that it's safe. Queue them up as non-priority traffic and make sure they stay out of the way of the convoy."

"Yes Sir..."