NationStates Jolt Archive

A small, plain envelope had been sent to virtually all 'nations' in the galaxy deemed sophisticated enough to participate. Inside there was nothing but a piece of paper, and on that piece of paper were words scribed in a simple, efficient hand. They had been custom tailored to the race recieving them so as to be written in the native language of that land.

"To The Most Esteemed Leader of (Insert whatever the bloody hell your nation is called here.),
You are invited to attend the Coronation of the new Emperor of the Fading Sun, His Royal Majesty Kael Narqu, upon the following date of (Insert suitable local date, but use August 8th, 2062 as a reference point.)

Please await the arrival of a servitor to collect your response and arrange transportation. All transportation to Albia Prime will be provided, and guests are free to bring up to six family members and a dozen bodyguards.

Sincerely,
Grand Imperium Minister of Defence, Ezekiel Tricou."

And shortly after that, another package would arrive in the mail, containing what looked like a flying skull bearing the Royal Seal of The Imperium, and an imperial decree declaring its purpose.

In the year since the devastation of the capital city, the Corporation had gone through rough times as it tried to rebuild its beloved city, add stability to its failing economy, and restructure its fracturing government, but unfortunately the former was easier than the latter two as those continued to worsen in the following year. Budget deficits from rebuilding plagued the Corporation and forced it to relieve thousands of workers, which worsened the economy that relied primarily on the large corporate workforce. Meanwhile, the Christian community that held nearly all government positions on the local level was now facing a new religion that wanted to live under a more secular leadership there and was protesting against the near theocracy. This led to a counter-protest and actual firefights breaking out between the two sides…a near civil war.

None of this helped Chairman Jack O’Neill, who was constantly kept awake at night along with the Vice Chairman, attempting to solve these problems and more. But unlike the elven Vice Chairman, Jack was only a mere human and could not hold up under the twenty hour workdays, so when the invitation came for him to attend the coronation of the new emperor, he was glad to have at least a day or two to get away from all this. He made the proper arrangements for he, his wife, and their advisor and waited for the transport to pick them up…

Of course some how, some way the Blubs had gotten ahold of such an invitation. They were probably the least-likely candidates for a 'sophisticated' civilization but they were intelligent.

The invitation had to be translated by 'Mike' to the Blubs, and a small group of them gathered to confer about the possibilities of going out to meet a new emperor as well as socialize a bit. And as such, the most socially sophisticated of the Blubs would be sent out as an ambassador. They declared the Blub to be .. Ambassador Blub.

And so, a reply would be sent back to the government in question, printed up in basic English that indeed, the Blubs accepted and would wait for transportation to come and collect the ambassador. Of course, coordinates to the Blub's new homeworld, Juno VII would be included in the reply.

The general lack of a prompt response troubled the servoskulls. Servoskulls hated waiting. They flitted about the room, making low whirring noises and electronic screams, desperate for the needed response that would allow them to shut down.

For those who did send the respone promptly, the servoskull emitted a loud, angry electronic wail and then collapsed onto the floor, promptly shining with a burning white light as all the technology involved disintegrated... A self-destruct mechanism. How... Nifty.

Several hours later for the Blub, and almost immediately for the Corporation, a Praetor-class Transport, with the distinctive shape of an eagle, set down just outside of the capital city and sent out another servoskull to relay the position of the transport...

For the Blubs, their capital 'city' looked more like a shanty town than anything else. Mostly tents for the time being, as well as some simple huts. Near the center of the town however, big mover-bots could be seen constructing houses and other dwellings, while Blubs scurried about trying to be helpful.

As to the visitors, they would be met by a trio of Blubs. It's Ambassador Blub, and two 'bodyguard' Blubs wearing doughboy helmets and carrying old-fashioned bolt action rifles complete with bayonettes.

The Blub trio acknowledged the servoskull and followed it back to the transport, which they would then board.

In recent years, UPS had been suffering heavy losses, and their financial outlook was not brilliant. As the average minimum wage of workers on Earth was now well beyond the $58,387,286.56 per hour mark thanks to moderate inflation over the last few centuries, they looked to cheaper alien immigrants for work. But of course, as the Christians repeatedly told them, aliens were the scum of the universe and not to be trusted, and they frequently made off to distant parts of the galaxy with their complement of parcels (or rather, the Christians secretly abducted them in a rather bizarre display of irony to prove a point). And so money continued to dwindle, and shares became more and more worthless. Even UPS Man, their box-shaped mascot, had somehow lost popularity.

Hence why one of their deliverymen now flew across the cosmos in an old 20th century UPS delivery van with rockets attached underneath. The driver struggled to control the vehicle, as the steering wheel simply turned the rockets in either direction and was very unstable, as he desperately held a blanket over one of the windows that wouldn't shut and threatened to blow him out into space. He hauled no parcels, only a single letter lay on the floor in the back of his van, which understandably made him question why he was risking his life to deliver it. He hoped someone had won the lottery or something. In this day and age, there was no excuse for using letters!

He approached the planet the letter was addressed to, the modified hyper-diesel engine leaving a trail of smoke and spent oil as he went. The world was a desert, scorched with heat by the large blue star that lay in the centre of the system. At the speeds this van was capable of, he wouldn't be surprised if the recipients were already extinct! But as he came closer, he noticed activity above the surface. An enormous grey starbase hung in orbit, elegantly designed with circular shapes and sweeping curves, with innumerable large, heavy armed warships also floating around nearby. Some of the unusually-designed ships moved away from the world to intercept him.

Panicked, he turned off the radio that was blaring out classic French 23rd century technofunkrap-death metal, and swerved the steering wheel hard to the right, hoping to evade them at speeds in excess of 346 miles per hour. As those two large warships had already cleared the distance between him and the planet, he assumed they could go slightly faster. His van suddenly shook violently as an invisible tractor beam brought it to a dead stop, smacking his sweaty forehead against the steering wheel brutally in the process.

When he awoke, he found the blanket of stars had gone, instead replaced with the clean white metal walls of some kind of vast hangar bay. Presumably he was on the warship that had chased him. His van was parked next to insanely sleek craft that looked to be fighters, and the engine had stalled again. The hood was raised, for some reason, but almost as soon as he noticed two black prong-like objects clasped it and slammed it shut. He saw that numerous giant insects were standing around his van, peering through the filthy windscreen straight at him, clicking curiously. They had glossy black exoskeletons, walked around on four legs while their front ends were vertical to allow them to use their remaining two limbs as arms. Their triangular-shaped heads cocked to one side as they peered at him through their emotionless compound eyes.

Well, his response was obvious. He'd seen his share of sci-fi movies, so he knew exactly what to say to them. Diplomacy and peace, those were the two concepts he needed to keep in mind.

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed at the top of his voice, causing the aliens to step back in surprise. "GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

He began to scramble around inside the van, unsure of what he wanted to accomplish, occasionally screaming and making offensive gestures with his hands at the aliens who continued to calmly watch him.

***

"Excitable creature no?" one of the surprised Xithis chittered. Their language required the use of sight, sound and smell to be effective, but it could be translated loosely from the sounds.

"Yes," another said, watching the humanoid scramble around in the primitive van. "Appears as... mammal. Biped, two-halved thinker with five lobes... endoskeletal structure. Fascinating!"

They continued to watch as the humanoid mammal scrambled around inside its dirty craft, trying to make sense of the ramblings it was spurting out.

"It must want something," the first Xithis observed. "Feed it?"

"No, might kill," the second said. "We know not what its body can ingest. Besides, it wears threads and cruises the stars, it must be intelligent."

"Perhaps its owner abandoned the craft, leaving its pet behind?" another chimed in with his suggestion.

"Why would its owner give it threads?"

"Maybe it cold..."

"No more thoughts!" another Xithis called. This was the most experienced of the crew, the leader. Bred for command, decision-making and judgement. Named Kithnisikthi, he commanded this Talyn-class Lacerator and all who served on it. He trotted into the hangar bay on his four legs, passing by maintenance crews who busily went about their work and their drills, and clicking to a halt besides his underlings and impatiently pointing at the vehicle. "Dirty! Environment risk! Dispose of it most promptly!"

"Educational!" the first Xithis protested. His name was Kaak, and was the first officer of the ship. "Learn much from the craft and creature!"

"Possibility," Kithnisikthi acknowledged. "Search it?"

"Yes," Kaak said. He lifted up his right arm, a small envelope clutched between his 'fingers'. "Found this, nothing more."

Kithnisikthi took the slip of paper from Kaak carefully, holding it up to his face carefully so as not to tear it. He promptly clicked in frustration and handed it back to his first officer.

"Study this," he said. "Determine its technological function." He looked back at the van, the pilot still scrambling around madly, occasionally holding up his two fingers in a peculiar gesture and then continuing to thrash around. "Host that! Learn its utterings and its technology!"

"Yes, ship commander," Kaak said. As the 'captain' left the hangar bay, Kaak instructed two Xithis to remove the UPS deliveryman from his van and take him to quarters, while a team of technical Xithis moved in and began dismantling and cleaning the filthy craft.

***

"Carbon pulp," Kaak said, several hours later. Standing in a small, functional office of sorts, he presented the now-open envelope to Kithnisikthi.

"Carbon pulp?!" Kithnisikthi exclaimed.

"Carbon pulp," Kaak repeated. "Legible etchings upon the surface."

"Indeed?" Kithnisikthi said thoughtfully. He slipped his hard fingers into the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper, covered in writings. "Not legible!"

"No, mammal with endoskeleton deciphered it for us," Kaak explained. He handed Kithnisikthi a pad, covered with the insanely complicated pictographs that represented the Xithisi written language. The written language was even more complicated than the 'spoken' one, as it needed to explain various pheromones and body gestures as well as the words themselves.

"Mammal with endoskeleton knows our etchings?" Kithnisikthi said, with some degree of surprise.

"Ney," Kaak said. "We deciphered its mumblings and made the artificial cognitive processor translate for us. Took many solar day partitions, but it worked. Only one lingual input! Difficult!"

"Interesting," Kithnisikthi said as he read through the translation. "Invitation to unknown event. Very alien. Agh, unacceptable!"

"Explanation, ship commander?"

"They transport us!" Kithnisikthi spluttered.

"And this is problem?"

"You want to travel on alien ship?" Kithnisikthi asked, somewhat rhetorically. "Ney! Send response to planet - ney!"

"Prime Queen wants exploring!" Kaak protested. "This is exploring!"

Kithnisikthi stared at Kaak for a while. "Yes. I will talk to Royal Advisory. They decide. Go now and make sure no alien ships approach."

***

The response to his message only took half an hour. Their homeworld was a mere few lightminutes away from their present position, and it wasn't as though the Royal Advisory was burdened with too much work at this time of year. The primary control room of the ship was the same as any Talyn-class cruiser - clean white for clear visibility, soft lights, computer controls everywhere, and nowhere to sit. Seats for Xithis were too big to fit in a room that needed efficient movement, after all. It was perhaps a little too warm and humid for most species, dangerously so in some cases, but it suited them fine.

Kaak stood beside what equated to the 'helm', tapping one of his legs on the metal deck. It was a nervous habit he had, which he couldn't shake off. Xithis all over the room turned to look at him, already detecting his frustration through the powerful smell he generated.

"Move to our space edge," Kithnisikthi said to Kaak as he emerged from his office. "We send the response to them for compromise."

To: Albia Prime (or whomever it may concern)
From: Xithis Combine

Greetings to you from a ship of the Xithis Combine. We like to attending the function of which you have invited us as our main purpose is to explore and gain knowledge. But we liking to travel on our own ships to reach your destination. We have special requirements, and we have reservations as we not knowing or trusting you enough to put lives of our own into your digits. You can be escorting our ship if you so desire.

If this is of pleasure to your hive, we are pleased to be sending explorers to attend.

Well wishes, Kithnisikthi

Servoskulls flitted and wailed even more as no response came yet. The sole transport that had finally launched was cruising at a slow speed of only 2 light years an hour, and as such would take perhaps a day of smooth, quiet travel to arrive at the paradise world of Albia.

From orbit, the world was a blue gem with hundreds of emerald green isles and what looked to be a titanic city upon the sole 'intact' continent. Spires from tall buildings pierced the atmosphere itself, but even within the city patches of blue and green dotted the land, and expanses of 'empty' white plazas stretched for kilometres. At the very centre of the city was a tall, black structure that could only be the palace. Freighters and patrol ships buzzed through the sky and warships burst from the dark side of the planet, rapidly swinging around to confront the strange vessel.

No response came to the message that had been sent as Space Traffic Control deciphered the odd style of the transmission, eventually responding with a simple-
Unknown ship, you are cleared for landing at docking bay 28B. You may proceed to enter the atmosphere.

Meeting the transport outside of the capital city were the three representatives of the Corporation: Chairman Jack O’Neill, Chairwoman Siri O’Neill, and their personal advisor, Ire’arra Aleanrahel. Since this was an important occasion, they were already dressed in rather formal clothes with Jack wearing his usual dark-blue air force uniform that included the five-star general insignias on his shoulder boards and a gold-handled longsword at his side.

Walking beside him into the transport was his wife, Siri, who wore a long dark blue dress with gold embroidery decorating it and a thin golden necklace around her neck. She appeared to be wearing none of the usual weaponry, but those around her knew that she had at least one or two or even more things hidden away.

The last person who followed them into the transport was the advisor, a Drow by the name of Ire’arra Aleanrahel. She was not one who dressed to impress, as they say, and wore a simple black robe with sandals. And in her hand, she carried her usual hand-carved wooden staff, which truly served no purposed but she always like to have it with her.

After the three entered the transport, they awaited its departure.

It had taken awhile for the Ri-anese government to get their invite, but that was because they were so far away. However their reply came back faster then their original invite, along with directions to a convienant Wormhole leading to their world. They would be attending, Lady Ri-an, leader of the nation, mother of the peoples, and her son, Deuce. Since transportation was provided, they would wait for transportation.

The Dictator eyes widened as he read over the invitation that had been found on the Secretary's desk. He looked up to his favorite advisor, and looked to the secretary and said, "Send a reply immediately. Tell them we would be happy to attend, and ask if they would like to make any diplomatic links with us." She walked out. He looked back at the advisor and said, "Prepare your things, we're going to Albia Prime. Have 3 Spartans and my HK unit ready to go as well." Dictator David Rickards, his chief advisor, Chris Boyer, 3 Spartan Elite Soldiers, and one HK-47 droid were going to attend.

Finally three more servo skulls could end their holy task and shut down, and the time was up for the rest, the killtimer counting down to 0 and triggering the destruction of all technological components. Two ships burst from the atmosphere and into deep space, vanishing in a burst of bright blue light as the slipspace engines kicked in.

A third ship emerged from the wormhole and engaged the primary engines, steaking through the heavens towards the world inhabited by the Ri-an. Assuming there was no resistance, the ship'd make atmo in less than five minutes and dispatch the servoskull to inform the natives of their presence.

Finally three more servo skulls could end their holy task and shut down, and the time was up for the rest, the killtimer counting down to 0 and triggering the destruction of all technological components. Two ships burst from the atmosphere and into deep space, vanishing in a burst of bright blue light as the slipspace engines kicked in.

A third ship emerged from the wormhole and engaged the primary engines, steaking through the heavens towards the world inhabited by the Ri-an. Assuming there was no resistance, the ship'd make atmo in less than five minutes and dispatch the servoskull to inform the natives of their presence.

Lady Ri-an chose to wear a black silk dress with a white rose tucked behind her ear.

Deuce wore a white suit with black pinstripes and strongly resembled Roger Moore's James Bond, except he had no weapons about him. They boarded the ship, and waited to be ferried back.

"To The Most Esteemed Leader of Neo-Kirisubo
,
You are invited to attend the Coronation of the new Emperor of the Fading Sun, His Royal Majesty Kael Narqu, upon the following date of August 8th, 2062.

Please await the arrival of a servitor to collect your response and arrange transportation. All transportation to Albia Prime will be provided, and guests are free to bring up to six family members and a dozen bodyguards.

Sincerely,
Grand Imperium Minister of Defence, Ezekiel Tricou."

And shortly after that, another package would arrive in the mail, containing what looked like a flying skull bearing the Royal Seal of The Imperium, and an imperial decree declaring its purpose.

Aiko Fujikawa, the Great elder of Neo-Kirisubo looked at the invitation and decided to accept. it was always good to see other civilisations and to make relations with them.

However she had one proviso. A Kirisuban ship would take her and an escort could guide them in.

She wrote this on the back of the reply and waited.

she commed Admiral Miyu Tsubaki and asked that a Kagemon or Tenpeku class starship be made available for the trip. She was a Kirisuban and she would travel in one of her own vessels.