NationStates Jolt Archive

Peace. For the first time, he felt at peace.

Sealing an incision in his latest patient, Dr. Aesvaler smiled. A year ago, he'd been just another greedy raé, only caring about himself and his next paycheck. But then, the Brotherhood had came. He'd scoffed at it at first, an idealistic charitable organization. Within months, they'd surely fail when the cold reality of the world hit them. But as the weeks and months passed, the Brotherhood did not falter. Indeed, it thrived, hundreds of thousands of citizens joining its ranks. A friend of Aesvaler's had joined, and had been nagging the doctor for weeks to go with her to a meeting. Finally, just to shut her up, he went.

He was hooked. Something in their message of kinship with all sentient life, of respect for his fellow raé, resonated in him. There was no hook, they didn't want his money. They didn't even want him to believe in some higher power. They just wanted to do good. Aesvaler became a member within a week, and began donating his time to the Brotherhood. He still kept his practice, but donated his time, helping the poor, healing those who couldn't afford his services, and even doing more menial tasks. Not that he was required to: The Brotherhood encouraged it's members to help in whatever role best suited them. He wanted to help out, help at whatever level was possible.

Helping his patient up, he gently pushed away her attempt at payment. None was neccessary. She wasn't a member of the Brotherhood, but it didn't matter. She was raé, she deserved his respect and love. It didn't matter that she wasn't a believer in the Brotherhood's ways, or that she might never be one. That Aesvaler could help her was enough.

Settling down at his desk, he flipped on the trid unit sitting by the door, flipping through the channels until he came to the news. Sitting back, he watched as the works of his brothers and sisters came to fruition...

Telestrian News Network
In an astonishing display of the power of charity, millions watched today as the world's first interstellar probes were launched from Iarmhidh Station. The probes were not constructed by any of our world's governments, but by a charity organization, the Universal Brotherhood. The probes carry FTL engines and comm units, and are designed to carry a message of peace to whatever other life the universe may hold. Lady Isabel, a higher-up of the Brotherhood, called the launches "a new hope for the people of the Tir, and for all life in the galaxy.

In other news, fighting ceased today in Yslear, with the aid of Brotherhood negotiators...

OOC: Right, anyone who wishes to meet one of the probes is welcome. C'mon, actual first contact with pacifists! You can't tell me that isn't a first. ;)

((OC - *Kraks knuckles* Oh, what to do, what to do...

I presume this is occuring at Terra-Sol (Earth) unless informed otherwise. ))

---

The signal...

:: ~ Telestrian News Network
In an astonishing display of the power of charity, millions watched today as the world's first interstellar probes were launched from Iarmhidh Station. The probes were not constructed by any of our world's governments, but by a charity organization, the Universal Brotherhood. The probes carry FTL engines and comm units, and are designed to carry a message of peace to whatever other life the universe may hold. Lady Isabel, a higher-up of the Brotherhood, called the launches "a new hope for the people of the Tir, and for all life in the galaxy.

In other news, fighting ceased today in Yslear, with the aid of Brotherhood negotiators... ~ ::

...it reached the Comm-Orb network at about the same time the probe signals were detected. A (to be blunt) rudimentary communication medium, rather easily deduced by the highly advanced Orbs, even before it was sent to Communication Centers in various Sphere commands.

The Gaian Exploratory Corps within a few days learned of this new development, and discussed at length with the Foreign Advisory, a constant face of the Sphere empowerment.

"Another one from the womb is it?" Lady Seto commented. Lord Rara nodded. Lady Mitsuki Rara next to him. "We're having MWCG command send a tentative probe to ascertain if the message is relatively accurate."

"It's rare to note an organization such as this one." Mitsuki shrugs..

"It's rare to note one if it stays true to form. Let's not get overhead just yet." Lady Seto reminds Mitsuki. She's seen a number of so called pacifist groups that had alterior motives in the long run, no less dangerous the type that wants a foreign power to give up all it had, or adopt the motives the originating organization believes.

Neither Seto would allow. The Sphere was of guardians, not pacifists. The sword was needed sometimes to help the good.

"I'll keep an eye on the return reports, meanwhile prepare a foray if requirements mettle out."

Rara and Mitsuki both nod and depart.

Seto sighs. "Never a dull moment." ...and walks to her Palace Tree Office overlook.

---

Only one Comm-Orb was sent back, preprogrammed to make actual contact with one of the Tir probes, after which contingents from Luna-Sol would move forth from additional messages.

Baby steps were the fortay here. The message sent back once the Orb arrived on station, triangulated off several other Orbs giving a coordinate vector.

:: ~ One that may hold similar tennants has heard the inital signals. This would not be our first First Contact of this, albeit, low scale to be sure. We'll proceed calmly and to protect the unprepared minds to come. Acquisition of this signal will require only a short reply, to whence we'll proceed in orderly fashion of First Contact needs.

Look for our signal through your own probes first, before we send any of our assets. Look to the Luna above your night sky for where first tactile will approach from eventually.

Regards,

An empire of light... ~ ::

OOC: Sorry for the wait. Finals week, so I've got considerably less free time than I'd like. Which'll change after today/tommorrow, so I should have a respoonse up reasonably soon. Sorry for the delay!

Oh, and bump for more interest. ;)

The Imperial Super Star Destroyer Executor pushed her vast bulk through the cosmos. Infamous and charged with the protection and expansion of an empire infinite and divine she was just now starting her tour of duty within the Milky Way. Escorted by a few frigates and several Imperial Star Destroyers Grand Moff Whilhuff Tarkin stood, hands clasped tightly behind his back. "You were saying Lieutenant?" Tarkin asked rigidly.

"Yes Admiral, as I was saying the probe droid was disseminating a repeating message." The officer moved to a nearby console and activated the transmission. "Our protocol droids have begun work on the data, they will have it decoded shortly."

Tarkin moved towards the observation windows, his rigid cheek bones and hooked nose bathed in the shadow of a passing Star Destroyer. "Can you discern its origin lieutenant?"

"Yes." A datapad exchanged hands. "We have also inputted the appropriate hyperspace projections for the fleet. We could be there in approximately two days."

"Two whole days." Tarkin considered the time. "Perhaps....."

Danae Saeliss was on duty at the monitoring station when the alarm went off. She nearly jumped onto the ceiling before she realised that the station wasn't about to blow up. Peering at the monitor, she at first thought that it was merely a glitch in the system. However, it wasn't long before she saw the brightly lit "incoming signal" panel flashing. Eyes wide, she quickly dialed her superiors...

:: ~ One that may hold similar tennants has heard the inital signals. This would not be our first First Contact of this, albeit, low scale to be sure. We'll proceed calmly and to protect the unprepared minds to come. Acquisition of this signal will require only a short reply, to whence we'll proceed in orderly fashion of First Contact needs.

Look for our signal through your own probes first, before we send any of our assets. Look to the Luna above your night sky for where first tactile will approach from eventually.

Regards,

An empire of light... ~ ::

"Wow. It actually worked. Ghost damn."

Danae merely nodded at the Lady Ashlynn's words, still in shock from the arrival of the message.

"So, I have just one question... What the hell's a luna?"

Danae couldn't help but smile at that one.

"No clue. Maybe it's a star? Some other landmark? Possibly the galactic equator, who knows. Rather vague of them."

"Indeed. Regardless. Keep the orbital grid on high alert, we want to see our honored guests coming."

"Yes ma'am, I'll get ri- Oh, now what?"

The alarm was buzzing again, dragging their attention back to the monitor.

"Umm, ma'am? A second probe. It's picking up comms chatter. Don't have enoug data to decode the language yet, but I'll put a rush on it."

"You do that. I'll get the Brotherhood to lend you PAX, I'm sure you could use him to speed up the translation process. And start broadcasting the Brotherhood library from the thing, maybe whoever found it will start talking back. I trust you can handle yourself from here?"

Danae nodded, too engrosssed with the display to truly notice Ashlynn leaving. The Lady smiled. It was good to see such enthusiasm. Danae would make an excellent Brotherhood initiate... But now, there were more important matters at hand. Namely, making preperations for the arrival of their guests...

((OC- Are you doing all this from Earth? If not I need to know to be sure. Luna = Moon by the way, just in case. ))

---

A seperate Comm-Orb detected a large gravity wake signature as a passing hyperspace capable warship passed nearby. Other than relaying this to Republic StarFleet Command, it didn't do much else than programmed functions of listening like a patient robot monk.

---

Commander Goro, watching from a moonwalk outside the Gaian Sol-Luna outpost-starbase, leaving footprints from a basic pressure suit on the lunar soil. Was waiting for word from Palace Advisory for word of another possible Terran outgrowth.

"Quite a few turning to the stars for new growth. This galaxy will be overcrowded at this rate."

":: ~ Goro, Lady Caladeni is returning through the Gate with help. ~ ::"

"Thanks Ran. Anything from the mysterious guests yet?"

":: ~ Ziltch. ~ ::"

Goro teardrops at... "Thanks Tamami." ...her dry, flat response.

Goro mulls over certain facts. Several nations constructing a space station together, the Independent Mercury incident of recent note, not to mention the age old Evil Woody Thoughts 'birth' from the Motherworld womb.

If not for the fact many of the nations were still attached to Terra, the Next Step directive may have been enacted upon, and the Gaians finally forced to remove most of their assets away from Sol, even considering giving up their Japan annexes, to allow formal growth of the Terran civilization to it's proper perogrative.

Goro actually shivvered at the thought of giving up the Luna outpost. It's been so long since it was originally emplaced there, leaving would be rather hard on the girls.

Heaven, leaving Sol behind in total would be hard on the Sphere civilization. Goro knew about the Royal Family history as much as anyone in the Sphere.

He mulled this as he moonwalked back to the outpost to meet the Terran Ambassador, now formally called as such. An expedition would be sent in twenty-four hours, though Lady Isarra on Homeworld wanted a reply signal first to know they were heard.

Going to the party without the expected RSVP first was kinda rude.

OOC: Nope, I'm firmly rooted on my own little planet. My apologies, I assumed that the fact that we aren't human spoke for itself there. And yes, I know quite well what Luna is, it's just that the Raé don't. :D

((OC- Probably shoulda known better then. Oh well, I can work this out somehow. ))

---

Seto gave Lady Skuld a 'look', it didn't make for a comfortable moment for Gaian efficiency.

"Not Terra huh? Mind explaining that to me?"

Skuld gulped and looked over to where Rara 'was' standing, now a step back. "Oh um... well... we're still trying to deduce how we got messed up triangularlation data. But we're for certain it's not the Motherworld.

Um... sorry."

Seto just gave a 'steady' look for a few seconds. While rare, Gaian's made mistakes as much as any one else in the grand cosmos. Still wasting resources irked the Prime Foreign Advisor.

Finally Seto sighed and flicked at a holo ciomm console nearby in a way more like striking a stick on a wall. "Tell Lady Caladeni she's on holiday. Lady Skuld and Lord Rara will be conducting this one 'personally'." ..put towards Central Comms.

Rara heard this and balked.. "Me? But I didn't.."

"Tough, you're both here, so you both will be going. Call it a learning experience."

Skuld and Rara looked at each other, and gulped.

-----

....both were on their knees almost worshipping Lady Belldandy's presence. The deck of the Treeship Seraphana was a blessing for two less than experienced Sphere diplomats.

Bell just giggled them to stand. "It's fine. I haven't done one of these in awhile, and it may be wise for me to judge if these newtypes are who they say they are."

"No argument here Sis." Skuld blessed her again with.

Bell looked over.. "I presume we have the proper coordinates this time."

"Got it." ...came Keiichi's personal voice. After learning of the volunteering, he did the same to be nosy. Bell didn't mind. She then mentally pinged the Tree core to prepare to Fold jump.

"Let's make amends then and post haste."

Rara agreed in return. "Please.." ..with another sweatdrop.

In short, almost Seto driven 'short' order, the single Treeship departed for a coordinate above the Tir homeworld, approached to come from their moon, presuming 'that' much data was correct. In moments they would find out.

Meanwhile Seto went to REAM a new one into the Comm-Orb administrator.

Place Holder

OOC: Sorry about the wait, exams really did a number on my posting ability, as did my move back home for the holidays. My ability to post should greatly improve over the next few weeks. :D

The Voidwraith flitted through the black, on patrol for Rogues. The Brotherhood had done a good job, and Rogue operations had nearly been shut down in the system. Still, there were still a few die-hards lurking in the system, and it was the Tir Security Force's job to ferret them out. Of course, if the Brotherhood had it's way, SecFor would be out of a job quite soon: The next elections were coming up, and the Universal Brotherhood had candidates for every position. With their popularity, Captain Antonin Daskov knew that they'd control the entirety of the Tir soon. Daskov wasn't a Brotherhood man himself, but he couldn't ignore what they'd done for the world: Crime almost annihilated, war nonexistant, and everyone seemed content, even those who weren't a part of the Brotherhood. So was what was happening really that bad? Sighing, he resigned himself to the fate of the world's government, and went back to monitoring his datafeed for Rogues.

What he wasn't prepared for was the massive vessel that suddenly appeared right in front of him. It came from nowhere: One moment empty space, the next, it was there. Startled, Daskov spooled up his Cartographers, keeping them aimed firmly at the new arrival as he keyed his comms.

Attention unknown vessel: This is Captain Antonin Daskov of the Tir Tairngire Security Force. Cut engines and identify yourself. I repeat, this is Captain Antonin Daskov...

Click! Click! Clang! Click! Click!

The busy sound of Xithis walking across the metallic decks of the Talyn-class Lacerator XCTL-376 in unison, going about their various duties with a hive mentality. Hull plating needed replacing, damaged circuits needed repairing, support ships needed maintaining, sensors needed retuning, weapons needed reloading... all sorts of the general tasks that nobody liked to think about, but everybody had to do. The ship was new, but like all large ships, there was always something to do.

The XCTL-376 had been in deep space for nearly three cycles now, charting various stars, star systems, nebulae, and other cosmic phenomena, so much so that they had already completed 60% of their exploratory quota. Another couple of cycles and they would be able to head home to relay their findings, get their ship refitted, and take a break from the unpleasantness of space travel. The hundreds of Xithis on board, while they enjoyed the opportunity to gallivant around space, going where no Xithis had gone before, still looked forward to seeing the caverns of their homeworld again.

Presently the large, elegant ship cruised through a luminous, bright-blue nebula on the outskirts of a simple solar system, unclaimed by any power and uninhabited by any creature. The nebula radiated with an unknown form of energy which seemed to heavily interfere with all known types of conventional sensors. Although some exotic sensor pallets were unaffected, in order to gain more detailed information they had to take the ship into the nebula, and collect close-up sensor scans and physical samples. They also had to catalogue several planets in this system, which showed signs of primitive insect and plant life.

Officer Fixxith, who was tasked with the responsibility of the ship, had been assisting some of the Maintainers with basic repairs to some of the sensor arrays, which had sustained cumulative damage from the nebula. His journey back to the central control room was not uneventful. Aside from several children who were aboard for educational purposes scurrying beneath his feet, nearly toppling him over, one Officer Klixithisi found him and informed him of a strange and garbled communication they had detected.

The ship was then ordered to leave the nebula and re-download the transmission, but it remained garbled and nonsensical to them.

In an astonishing display of the power of charity, millions watched today as the world's first interstellar probes were launched from Iarmhidh Station. The probes were not constructed by any of our world's governments, but by a charity organization, the Universal Brotherhood. The probes carry FTL engines and comm units, and are designed to carry a message of peace to whatever other life the universe may hold. Lady Isabel, a higher-up of the Brotherhood, called the launches "a new hope for the people of the Tir, and for all life in the galaxy.

In other news, fighting ceased today in Yslear, with the aid of Brotherhood negotiators...

"What this mean?" Fixxith asked, releasing confusion with his pheromones whilst at the same time indicating that it was not just a query, but an order to find out.

"Unknown," Klixithisi said, releasing his disappointment. "The tongue is drawling and the sounds alien. We find from far away."

"Translate?"

"Negative," Klixithisi responded again. "Artificial thinkers have no comprehension either. How we respond?"

"We..." Fixxith began, but he was interrupted by an Operator.

"Scanners find unknown object!" the Operator said, releasing anxiety and excitement at the same time. "Much metal composition and source of power."

"Correlation, perhaps..." Fixxith thought aloud, as he and Officer Klixithisi wandered over to one of the numerous sensor consoles mounted in the large, three-tiered control room. Sure enough, the three-dimensional display marked their present position near the nebula, and then charted the distance between them and an infinitely smaller craft near one of the outer planets. Sensor data, in the form of various pictographs, and harsh slashes which constituted numbers in Xithisi, was fed onto the screen, giving them details on its dimensions, its weight, its composition, power emissions...

"Why not scan before?" Fixxith asked.

"It enter here at superluminal speed," the Operator said. "Stop there. It transmit to us!"

Fixxith used one of his black, spindly fingers to touch part of the three dimensional display, and sound was activated. Much like the first message, the sounds that came out made no sense to them, and the computer shortly thereafter informed them that it had no idea either.

"Track its origins?" Fixxith asked, once again releasing pheromones to put the question into the context of a command.

"Will try to most promptly," the Operator said. "Will take... 0.125."

"Announce me when complete," Fixxith said, promptly taking his leave of the command room and headed towards his study to review the gathered data for himself.

:: ~ Attention unknown vessel: This is Captain Antonin Daskov of the Tir Tairngire Security Force. Cut engines and identify yourself. I repeat, this is Captain Antonin Daskov... ~ ::

The quartet of Gaian Advisors listened to the message. Keiichi commented. "Bet that woke them up."

"A bit close there. We almost hit them."

Skuld corrected Rara. "We 'did', but the navigational safety apparatus dropped us just before the nominal coordinate of exact note." Rara makes an 'urk' sound...

Keiichi made a big fat teardrop as well. "Washu-tech saves us again."

Belldandy wipes her own sudden 'worry' from her soft brow and mentally opens a comm channel. ":: ~ Forgive us, we did n ot mean such a startling entry.

I am Lady Belldandy, representing the Gaian Ascendancy, of the Sphere Republic Alliance and Confederacy Alliance of Free Worlds. We are the ones that sent that cryptic message of previous note, here to conduct First Contact as per result of the message sent via one of your probes.

We have listened, and we are here to talk. ~ ::"

Keiichi smiled over at Bell. "Not bad love." ...and get a nice smile back.

The Tree core meanwhile powers down all but essential and standard particle deflectors. The living ship of carved whitewood and grown spidersilk and microwelded whitesteel made the angelic looking Treeship, Tar`tut`nir Light Cruiser type, was every bit as powerful as it looked.

Bell however had little taste for combat, she all but represented the pacifist ideal part of the Sphere Council. A good silver nail for the more warhawkish parts of the Council, Azusa and Ifurita of note.

Being like that meant she was incredibly patient. She simply waited.