NationStates Jolt Archive

Continueing their expansion into the saggitarious dwarf galaxy, the borg encountered a new warp signature, a primitive one... but a warp signature nonetheless. A sphere was sent to the system it was eminating from.

In response to noted heat signatures as well as what was scanned as life forms approaching, a traditional care package was launched at high velocities to the approaching structure. Fired from a high-powered ballistics rail-gun, the small shuttle hurtled towards the new arrivals, emitting radio frequencies which transfered the following message "In the name of Deldranor, catch me and be saved!"

The sphere fired it's tractor beam at the shuttle, stopping it in it's tracks. A neutrino scan filled the cockpit of the craft as the borrg began to probe it's secrets. A messege has been sent.

"We are the borg collective of blackgrue. We seek peaceful co-existance with all spacefaring species."

Inside the shuttle there contained only three items. The first was a fourteen hundred page tome, A small emblem mostly made out of copper, and in the shape of three human feet all attached to the other at the ankle, forming a circle. The third item was a small bottle of water sealed with a plastic cap. The label read, in a proprietary language "Water of the Sacred Blessing". The tome of course was titled "Truths of Deldranor". It seemed that this shuttle had been prepackaged and mass produced for the distinct purposes of outreaching.

"Religious texts... how quaint." thought the queen in charge of this vessel as the shuttle was pulled into the borg cargo bay. "Such a singlemindedness does pose a challange..." the sphere continued to move forward towards the only inhabitable planet in the system.

Almost immediately after the approaching ship began moving again towards the only inhabited planet in the area, a transmission began streaming. When the transmission would be accepted, the image of a well groomed man in his early thirties smiled to the newcomers. He clothed himself in bright red and beige robes, wearing only a goatee and long platinum hair.

A practiced wave of a hand on front of him and he began speaking. "Thank you for visiting the empire of Deldranor. We welcome you with open arms and open hearts. I hope you received the greeting package?"

A chorous of all 700 drones spoke to the man on the screen. "Your unmanned shuttle has been collected. Its contents scanned and processed. At your request we can either keep or return any of it."

Seemingly unphased by the apparent disinterest in his religion and greeting in general, the man continued on. "I hope that you enjoy the contents of the package and I'm sure it will provide you with a starting point on your way to enlightenment. Of course, true saving comes at a price, but we can discuss this later. I am eager to begin our journey together as allies." There was a small glitch in the video after a pause, and he remained mostly still on the screen, smiling.

"Please transmit coordinates for meeting." the voices demand. The leave out the bit that's running through all their minds about religion being completely and utterly irrelevent.

The figure on the screen paused a moment, then smiled. "Sure! Let me just check my datebook." Then after another small glitch in the video, he leaned over to the side and opened up a small leather bound book. There was another pause and some more glitching, and then a reply. "How about you meet me in an hour." Coordinates were also given, as well as a brief speech regarding how the next hour would be a holy hour, and that the guests would be treated with ceremonial bread and carbonated water.

Materialising a short time later, the borg queen of this vessel appeared at the designated coordinates.

The garden consisted mostly of small ferns and bushes which surrounded fountains. In every direction there were green bordered fountains depicting all manner of animal and heroic idol, with no evident pathway which would lead to the meeting spot. Three torches marked the meeting place, which had been constructed out of elegant statures of elaborate stone bushes, which were set ablaze in piousness. The air held a soft scent of vanilla with faint whisps of baby powder. There was one lone table in the area, at which sat not the man who appeared in the video stream, but instead a younger lad wearing a similar robe, with no beard, and dark brown hair. He occupied the only chair at the round stone table. Immediately upon arriving it was obvious that he was alone. He did not stand from his seat to greet the newcomers, but instead spoke from his seated position. "Welcome foreigners. I apologize for the lack of bread and carbonated beverage. It seems that the pre-recorded message has not been altered properly and is not up to date with the new standards."

The borg queen sat down at the table, her small entorage moved about the garden scanning a few things looking for signs of advanced technology in them.

"Your lack of provisions is quite alright. We have no need for material food."

"Good, good." The scanners would pull up only a few noteable technologies. The fountains it seemed were being saturated with scented oils which lent to the smell in the air. The bushes all appered to have been covered in nanobots which happened to be cleaning, fighting off pests, and drawing condensation to provide the plants with water sans the effort of actually watering them. The table, if it were to be scanned as well, would show signs of electronics which have been evidently hidden within it's structure. Simple electronics were there, a keypad, holographic displays and the likes. Other than those mentioned, there was notably nothing else in the area, save for the chair on which the man sat. In it's base, a fair energy source could be found, but the purpose remained unobservable.

"I apologize for being the only one to greet you today. Seems you caught us in the middle of our daily sermons."

"Quite understandible... The package you sent us seems to have been designed to convert people to your religion. I regret to inform you that we have left such concepts behind a long time ago."

The queen leaned back.

"Simply put, integrated into our collective is the complete texts of 1,456,182,271 seperate organized religions each professing to be the one true faith. Add to it, the fact that 861 of those religions worship the collective as gods, and we have also met 281 beings of various levels of super-mortal strength who profess to BE gods... I'm afraid your efforts to convert us will be quite in veign."

OOC:..Lol.

Smiling, the man scratched his head and folded his hands on his lap.

"In time perhaps you will see the way. Faith in Deldranor is all the faith any should ever need. It is only natural that so many have been indulging in false gods before now. It is written in book the third of the Truths of Deldranor that '...before me there is no other true god. Infinite numbers of tricksters and evil-doers will have professed themselves as holy but it is in the better judgement of the greater species to love only I, and indulge in only I.' You see, we will be aiding those who have gone without Deldranor in time. We have only to reach out to them to save them. In time I hope that you will too accept Deldranor as the one true supreme being. But this is in time. We musn't rush things. What does bring you to our humble planet this day?"

"We are expanding our collective, integrating primitive lifeforms into it, and negotiating with the more advanced ones." she leaned forward. "You fall under the latter category. And as such we have an... offer for you."

His face brightened up a bit and his eyebrows raised. The smile was more prominent.

"Oh! So you too wish to unite all under one true supreme entitity? Please! Do go on. We will be most eager to aid you in your efforts to bring more of the collective of all life closer together."

She laughs. "Not quite. We wish to offer you an economic and scientific development package, as well as a full free trade agreement in exchange for open scientific disclosure on your end, a non-agression pact, and a collection of genetic samples."

Bringing one hand up to partially cup his chin, the man sat in thought for a moment, and then nodded.

"We will gladly begin open trade with you then. In time perhaps we may yet help you to see the truth, but for the moment I think we can simply discuss business. I think you'll find that as small of a civilization that we are , though bless us Deldranor that we will in time grow larger, we do have some things to offer aside from eternal salvation."

The borg queen smiled. "Not as much as we have to offer you I'm sure." a pair of tendrils snaked out of her hand and into the holographic display at the center of the table, the display activated showing a galactic map, "My collective has territory in 4 galaxies, and direct control over dozens of globular clusters. We can offer industrial goods in bulk amounts greater then your civilization could produce in a year. We can offer exotic goods from across the cosmos... If you name it, we probably have it. And by forging a friendship with us, you have aided your civilization greatly."

"I see I see." Nodding, he continued, "I'll have to discuss matters with my superiors, but I think they will mostly agree that is it in both of our best interests to ally. I see no issues with your demands, though the genetic samples may be something we cannot simply give out so quickly."

The queen looked dissapointed. "The genetic samples is the primary reason we are having this discussion. Without new genetic material to add to the collective, we cannot continue our quest for perfection. We only wish to add your biological distinctiveness to our own."

"Yes, but it is out biological distinctiveness which we treasure most. Your proposed assets are all valuable for certain, but we cannot simply give away such a precious thing to our civilization so willingly. Perhaps in time when we have developed a stronger relationship, but at the moment we simply cannot be so eager to devulge such a thing."

Then, leaning forward and in softer tones, "Though, if you were to provide a vessel through which the reproductive binding of our two species could occur, I think the superiors would not object to depositing genetic information so long as it's intention were to create new life, as it were."

The queen shook her head, "Unfortunately our species does not reproduce via a biological means. We must either clone the biological components nessessary for our survival, or incorperate other species into our collective... I suppose we could build a cloning vat on this world, which would create new life for our collective..."

"Cloning is strictly against our faith. This is why I suggest a means by which you create a vessel for the sole purposes of collecting zygotes." Then while winking at her in an express display of finding workarounds which he does not wish to have become public knowledge, "Your newly created reproduction vessel could then successfully collect what you need and bring us closer together with new life."

"And that is essentially what the cloning vats do." she says accessing the holo-display showing a technical schematic. "Engeneered eggs, combining with cloned sperm to create a borg 'husk'. That husk is placed in a maturation chamber where during the course of the next 30, it's growth is accelerated and it is outfitted with various cybernetic implants."

"I think then that we can reach an agreement. As long as these vats are for the purposes of creating new life that is. Although, if you could relinquish the term 'cloning', I think the exchange can go much smoother. I'll forward the request to my superiors, handle the paperwork, and do everything in my power to convince them that this is for our betterment, and most importantly, for bringing the word of Deldranor to the currently Godless. In a few days time I should be able to supply you with a handful of subjects from which you may extract zygotes."

"Language is such a silly thing... Alright then it's agreed. In all negotiations with your people the term clone will be replaced with something a bit more readily accepted." she stands up. "To a long and healthy alliance."

"Forgive me for not standing, my legs have been rendered physically incapable of supporting my weight. Repairs are underway however. In any case, I too hope for a long and healthy alliance." He smiled to her from his chair, and nodded.

"Then consider this a parting gift." The queen's tubeles extended from her hand and into his neck, injecting him with only a few nanoprobes, these were reconfigured however and immediately began to rebuild the musculature of his legs over the course of only twenty seconds the man's legs tingled not quite unpleasantly, but there were a few twinges of pain as nerves were reconstructed. Finally the nanoprobes dissolved away into his bloodstream harmlessly as the sensations stopped. "Stand."

He struggled a bit before it was all over. For a moment, the look of surpise came to his expression, but it was quickly hidden behind staunch stoicness and aggressive determination to tough it out. When all was said and done he took a deep breath, stood up, and brought the smile back, extending his hand across towards the new ally.

"Your gift is well received, and I am thankful."

She took his hand. "You are welcome to it." and shook it carefully grinning

The borg have a new ally.