NationStates Jolt Archive

To: Commander Farsight, T'Au
From: O'Kais, Dimentional outpost Alpha
Warp Frequency: 01029331

Message as follows
The Warp nexus Jump was a complete success my lord and we have arrived in both a diffrent, though identical, dimention and a diffrent time. We are already conducting research into how this could have happened but for the moment we are assuming that it a natural part of the Nexus tunnel. Construction of a base is well under way as we successfuly made planetfall on a habitable planet near the tunnel. I have sent the Custodian class carrier "Flame's wind" to investigate the arrivel and then departure of a vessel native to this dimention, with luck we will soon be making first contact with this universes inhabitants. To allow us to retreat if a hostile force from ether this dimention or our own I have kept back a Manta for transport, and a wing of Barracuda's for defence. As I speak a fighter is being scrambled to act as a scout incase another ship, hostile or other wise, enters the system. Will contacthome again in 24 hours unless thier is a major development, O'Kais out.
Message ends

Commander's Log of the USS Helios, Colonel John Winters in command.

Six hours ago, a Free Jaffa scout ship in the outer reaches of the galaxy reported in at the Gamma Site with data on a system long thought uninhabited. The Jaffa spoke of high-energy readings consistent with the presence of technologically advanced aliens, and sensor profiles inconsistent with any known designs. Given that we have only recently defeated the last of the Ori forces with the help of Asgard upgrades, and any unidentified readings at this point could be some kind of Ori desperation move, Helios has been dispatched to investigate.

Winters set the PDA down on the armwrest of his chair, and stared at the view of hyperspace outside.

"Colonel Winters? We're almost at the target location. Waiting for the order to come out of hyperspace, sir."

Winters turned to face the Crewman who spoke to him. A fairly short man, and nothing at all like the mini-skirted beauties of Star Trek. When he accepted command of Helios, Winters had really hoped it would be like Star Trek.

"Excellent. Take us into realspace and full stop."

"Aye sir."

In a burst of bright energy, Helios dropped out of hyperspace and slowed down to a stop, hanging in space. Helios was a BC-303, like the majority of ships in the Space Command that had been put under the aegis of the SGC's control council. Like the rest of the fleet, when the Asgard wiped themselves out Helios had been pulled back to Earth for extensive upgrades. The BC-303s had become a respectable ship. Their spaceframes didn't allow them to take full advantage of the Asgard technology, but until the completion of the X-305 designs they would still be Earth's best defence.
Winters stood up for a second and stared out of the window. Empty space, as far as he could see. Satisfied that he couldn't see anything, he sat down again.

"Doesn't seem to be anything visible from here. What do we have on sensors?"

"The Jaffa were right, sir. Some kind of relay station, transmitting to and from unknown locations. There's at least one ship here, probably a protective detail."

"Open a channel. This is the Homeworld Defense starship USS Helios, here on a peaceful mission. Please identify yourselves and state your intent."

"Alert, Alert, unknown energy reading detected" can the Automated responce of Kor'La's Barracuda space superiority fighter, though it was quickly replaced by a new warning
"Alert, unknown vessel has breached system perimeter" blared the alarm system. Kor'la quciky shut it off, nothing distracted a pilot from his dutys than the Autoalarm. Qucikly he fired up his engines, while locking the unknown ship into his navigation system. passive scans revieled it to be a carrier of unknown design, though it weapon systems seemed to be shut down, for the time being atleast. Then the message came through on the Vox caster, This is the Homeworld Defense starship USS Helios, here on a peaceful mission. Please identify yourselves and state your intent.
Kor'La sat thier for a moment, every second bringing his ship closer to the unknown carrier before replying.
"This is Kor'La of the Tau Empire, you have trespassed in terratory claimed for his exelency Aun'Va, we request that you lower and weapons and shields you have activated and wait for contact from the base commander O'Kais or a designated Por caste member. Failure to comply will result in military action, Kor'La out."
Kor'La began to circle the ship slowly, while informing the base below ofwhat had happened.

"Roger that Kor'La, we are lowering shields. Please note that although we are launching fighters, this is not an aggressive move, this is simply a precaution. This is not, repeat not an agressive move."

The sleek shapes of four F-302 fighters, designated Gold Squadron emerged from the carrier deck of the Helios.

"Helios this is Gold Leader, locking in a close patrol pattern."

"Gold Leader this is Gold 2, have you ever seen anything like that fighter?"

"Negative Gold 2, that thing's new to me, and I fought on the coreward front."

"Sure is pretty."

"Cut that crap out, Gold 3. Cut all non-essential chatter from now on, Gold Squadron. Way to ruin the mood, Gold 3."

"Uhh, sorry, Gold Leader."

The four fighters made slow, close circles around the Helios, never attempting to get a lock on any nearby Tau, even an active scan, to ensure that their presence was not interpreted as agressive. As requested, the shields were dropped and the single forward battery that had been charged was powered down.

Several minutes passed before contact with the Helios was re established. The message was simple, deliverd by a Tau fire warrior in full uniform over a video link. "His Exalancy Por'El'Dal'Yth'Shovah, a diplomate of great skill is on route from the planet, he will arrive shortly."
Then the link cut out, before the humans had even had chance to reply.

On the surface the bases Manta missile destroyer slowly lifted itself off the ground...and headed into orbit.

As soon as the manta took off, Winters was informed.

"Sir, a large gunship has taken off from the planet's surface. Impressive armament, sir. DE and KE weapons of significant firepower, and fairly hefty shield generators."

Winters took a look at a PDA that was passed to him showing the details of the second-long sensor sweep of the manta.

"Impressive stuff. Hail them."

"Opening a channel, sir."

"Colonel Winters here. It isn't necessary for you to send a ship. We have transport beams that can get your diplomat over here instantaneously and without risk. If you give permission, we'll beam your diplomat over right away."

The manta moved into orbit around the planet before a respoces was sent, this time audio only. "This is El'Shovah to unknown human vessel, I will happily be beamed aboard, though I request that you bring my three....companion with me. I have engaged a locator beacon which your ship should beable to trace, so please beam us aboard when you can, El'Shovah out."

"Do we have a lock?"

"Yes sir."

"Bring him in."

In a flash of light, the ambassador of the Tau found himself on the bridge of the Helios, with a marine honour guard standing to attention at either side and a straight-faced Colonel Winters in front of him.

"Welcome, esteemed ambassador, to the USS Helios. It's an honour to meet you."

El'Shovah took a moment to survey his surroundings before speaking, noting the intergration of both medium and high level technology, So he thought These People look like they may have had some help getting into the sea of Stars, most intresting....

He then turned to the Colonel, saying "Thank you, it is good to met yet onother new culture in this endless sea of Stars we inhabit, however, you seem to have missed my companions, thier were three of them standing in close proximity to me before you brought me aboard. I must ask that you beam them over, as they are an honor guard...or sorts"

"uh, my apologies. Scan the area, and beam up his guards."

A crewman nodded and ran off to a nearby terminal, tapping a few keys and in a flash of light, the ambassador's guards were in the room, flanking him. Winters grimaced at the appearance of the Tau drones. Two carried squat anti-personnel weapons, and the third carried a shield generator. The marines shifted about nervously on the spot, looking at the drones with some concern.

"Certainly impressive, ambassador. On Earth the closest we have in the way of robotic consrtucts is a number of remote-controlled exploratory probes. Nothing so impressive as your... Bodyguards. If you'd like to follow me? I have a room we can use to talk. Most secure room on the ship outside the detention cells, and I don't think you'd be pleased to find yourself there. Please, follow me."

Winters made a gesture in the vague direction of a nearby door, and set off out of the bridge. On the short journey to the conference room he gave the ambassador a vague tour of the ship, pointing out crewmembers and their functions, and some very vague details on the capability of the ship.

When they finally made it to the conference room, it was something of an anticlimax. A fairly small room, with grey metal deckplating like the rest of the ship for flooring and dull battleship grey walls. At the centre of the room was a metal table with two chairs. The pair of marines that had escorted the group stood outside the door.

"If you'd care to sit down?"

"Thank you Colonel" Said El'Shovah, seating him self, then, reaching for a gem implanted in his wrist began to trace pattens across its surface. Once he finished the two gun drones went to standby mode and sank slowly to the groud, while the Shield drone began to float lazily around his head, projecting a low level field around both its self and its charge.

"Now, Colonel, I am presuming that it was one of your ships which made a fligh by of our base a few Rotaa ago. We had hoped to make contact with a new race in this...area, so we we're disappointed when the ship left before we could contact it. So we are thankful that you came to investigate and have given use a chance to make first contact with you. We are eager to learn more about your race as well as recent galactic history as we have been...away for a very long time." Said El'Shovah, a smile on his pale grey face.

"Really? Because none of the archaeological teams we or our allies run have ever come into contact with anything approacing what you've got. Even the designs on your ships are utterly new to us. Never mind. Recent galactics history? The galaxy has just come out of two wars. The first was a fairly low-level war, guerilla actions against a race which enslaved and spread my people across the galaxy. We came out of that one pretty much the masters of the galaxy. The second was a much longer full-scale war against extragalactic religious zealots attempting to convert or purge whoever got in their way."

Winters' eyes flitted from the shield drone to the deactivated gun drones on the floor.

"Actually, what are those things?"

"oh, these are Kor'Vesh, though in your language it would be a Drone. They are a semi inteligent computer intergrated into a mobile package. Thier are several veriaty's such as the Gun and shield drones precent. Now, you were saying that your Galaxy has just suffered two wars? Tell me, from what nation are you, the Imperium in its early stages or what ever preceded it?" Asked El'Shovah, his curiosity peeked.

"Imperium? People have questioned the motives of human intervention across the galaxy, but we're not an imperium. As for the rest of your question... Doesn't make any sense. You'd probably be best to familiarise yourself with the tenses of English before trying a conversation. They're important."

Winters simply looked confused at the Tau ambassador's question.

El'Shovah paused for a moment, he had given to much away already, clearly these humans had not reached the point in history were the Emporor of Mankind was to create the Imperium or even be born. It ws even possible that he would not be born in this ime stream, the multiverse being what it is. El'Shovah then started again "I'm sorry, Although my mastery of your language is quite high for one of my caste I do tend to mix words up when I become excited. I ment to say what goverment do you reperesent?."

"I officially represent about one hundred and fifty seperate national governments on a planet quite far from here. About ten years ago four governments got together to fund a project of interplanetary exploration. Over the last decade the group just grew and grew, helped, though I hesitate to use the word, by the recent war. Whilst most of my home world's governments are now involved, a small group are still trying to go it alone. Occasionally we fly by them when we're returning home for refit."

Winters thought he saw a flicker of an odd look on the alien's face, but dismissed it almost instantly as something he couldn't interpret.

El'Shovah stared quizically at Winters for a second before returning to his normal self. So they have been exploring the Galaxy for nearly 10 Tau'Cyr, but, why then does thier ship look like it has only just been built? he pondered, before asking the Winters "I see, your ships are very impressive, however, they seem to incorporate technologys that you hve reverse engineered or modifyed to work within the ship, I noticed it in several places through out the ship and I was wondering if you could tell me how you aquired it, especially since your FTL system seems far more advanced than its control system, and so if you aquired this from an alien race how did you find them, as you would be unable to seek them out with out traveing faster than the speed of light."

"There's a system of instantaneous travel systems that covers the vast majority of inhabited worlds in this galaxy, and others. We uncovered one on our homeworld, and after about fifty years worked out the control mechanisms. We've been exploring the galaxy ever since then, but it's only in the last decade we've been building ships capable of leaving this galaxy. Originally, a lot of the technology of this ship was only on loan from an incredibly advanced race originating outside of this galaxy. When that race... Unexpectedly died out, they left us all their technology. It's no secret that some of it is beyond out understanding, tens of thousands of years ahead of us, but we're advancing incredibly rapidly. This ship wouldn't have been possible fifteen years ago. We're especially proud of the FTL system. I'm not allowed to give specifics, but I can say we could take you to another galaxy and back in less than a week without any problems."

El'Shovah was impressed, these humans had managed to put the Imperium to shame thousands of years before it had even come into existance. I must inform the Aun council about this drive, it will definatly be something to look into trading for...if we eventually reach that level of negotiations...after all, the humans had yet to hear the origans of the Tau empire.

"Tell me, how many planets has your race claimed for thier own, I know that you have mentioned your home planet but how far has Humanity spread across the Galaxy?"

"Humanity has spread to every corner. It, or an offshoot nearly identical to it is the most numerous form of sentient life in the galaxy. In fact, an alien so obviously not human-based such as yourself is an increasingly rare sight in this galaxy. Which leads me to my question, where are your people actually from? You say you've been away a long time, but there's nothing to suggest you ever came from around here. Certainly, the planets in this system were never inhabited. What's your story?"

Winters sat back in his chair and briefly looked out of the window that was behind the Tau ambassador, before turning back to his guest.

El'Shovah sighed, now was the moment of truth he thought, bofore saying "When I said that our race has been gone for a long time I should really have said we exist for a long time. Our race, the Tau, will come into existance around 30,000 years from now, during the Reign of the First emporor of Mankind, or rather we would if that would happen in your time line. Quite simply our race is from both another time and universe to your's. We managed to find a hole between the two universes, a tunnel that lead through both time and space. After mny years of study we finally sent an expedition through the tunnel, which consisted of several carrier groups and colany ships. Our carrier group was ordered o begin looking for other races, as we found that, due to the multiverse theory, thier was a strong likely hood that your time line would be completly diffrent and so first contact with your spicies would have to be made again. This has turned out to be true, as by this time Mankind should have already developed a small empire.

In our timeline the currect millenium is 40,000, and the Galaxy has finally been restored to peace through the combined efforts of both the Tau empire and the New Imperium of Man. This is why we were so excited when we made contact with you, as we have had a stable and benificial relation ship with your race for over 1000 years now.

I'm sure this must be quite a shock, but I assure you, it is all completly true"

El'Shovah fixed his gaze on Winters, waiting for his responce to such a revelation.

Winters grimaced upon hearing the alien's news.

"Well, that would make you something like the fiftieth interdimensional traveller that Earth has encountered, but you're only the second or possibly third time travellers. Hell, at this point there's a section of the command training dealing with first contact with extradimensional beings. Still, this is momentous, and certainly surprising. Let me be the first to properly welcome you to this dimension and time!"