NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Meant for Xiscapia (they find the drone), but other Ft nations may find them as there is little chance the commonwealth will only do one of these tests (if your interested PM, telegraph me or post OOC). The commonwealth is on the boundary of FT and MT I like the idea of it transitioning and continuing towards the singularity.

IC:

Over the isle of Inleef three old vengeance (Think Vulcan) bomber headed towards their target, they all carried an odd payload. Slung below the large delta winged bombers were old drones, they carried an experimental new system and various other things.

The RCAF (Royal Commonwealth Air Force) had spent a little money and were only cooperating with the joke that was the commonwealth's space program to get access to some of the scientists to improve the AI in their drones (a number were anarchists and/or pacifists. The CBS (Commoninia burie spacia)). The CBS did little other than launching satellites no one saw a point in it other than that. It had been done and the commonwealth didn't bother with the who pissing match that was the space race, there was no money in it.

That would change today, but not the way the professor in-charge thought. An aged drewn vulpine (Desert fox) looked at his X-term linked to the super computer the Acime instatute had loaned him, they had a few. The CBS was based in a small number of industrial units in a business park on the out skirts of Liye Andrac the commonwealth's second but largest city. The uni viewed them as a waste of time but them as pointless.

The professor Tea Aniemie pr gave the order it all three carried theoretical FTL drive he and his team had built each slightly different.

“Rookery one ready the drone is on the rail, going supersonic.” The Feline Leefen pilot said.
“You have go” Aniemie replied.
The old vengeance bomber broke the sound barrier in level flight and a few seconds later the drones went autonomous and launched. The mother craft broke off to the left and ran.

There was a flash.

Back in the CBS there was no calibration.

“The **** motor didn't kick in!” Aniemie muttered.

The same thing happened another two times.

Aniemie sat disconsolately 'what had he done wrong? He had the tech from the miokalia what had he done wrong? How could he get it wrong it was 'acquired' from the best sources.' the thought.

“Yo prof the guys from radio observatory want to talk with you!” shouted a grad student a some what scruffy vulpine.
“What are they saying?” he asked uncaring.
“They have found a drone!!”
“They are mistaken, the engine didn't kick in. how the...Is it ours?”
“Yip we're getting telemetry from it in the jovien atmosphere.”
The drewn covered it's mussel and said to no one in-particular “How in the gods name did it get there?”
“No idea prof but the planetary guys are creaming them selves”
“Get me the telemetry”

Aniemie looked at the telemetry it was not his drive but the vibe crystal that had gone nuts, he and his team had no idea what they were dealing with. He smiled, he liked puzzles what was normally a device used in active stealth tech had done something very odd. Who knew that the commonwealth had had FLT for over sixty years, but never knew it.

The only problems was how to direct it and how in the gods name did it work, he started working on the latter writing equations on the wall.

--
A few hours later drone two was found and tinis was less than happy as it had turned up in one of their ships, it's engines had shut down but what ever was happening seemed to rob the craft of momentum.

The last drone was unaccounted for, it could have gone anywhere. Aniemie was worried as he went to pray to the dawn, the last drone when somewhere it had a 'message in a bottle' so that the finder could find where it came from. Who ever found it would find the commonwealth he hoped they would be friendly.

Hanger Bay of the Xiscapian Imperial Warship (XIW) Smoke, Task Force IX, Third Assault Fleet, Deep Space...

Captain's Log, Year of our Lord Emperor Foxfire Rose Eighteen, Death of the Death Season, on board the good ship XIW Smoke.

It has been two standard hours since the unidentified object was tractored on board on my orders, and since then the ship's scientists have been cooped up in the hanger bay analyzing the damn thing. I would feel much more comfortable if I actually knew what it was; they say it appears to be a probe of some kind, but weapons come in all shapes and sizes in this universe. I have posted a Marine guard, just in case the thing is harboring some sort of alien spawn that decides it wants to jump out and attack the crew, but all seems to be going well thus far. Now I will meet with the Chief Science Officer to discuss this object and see what we shall do about it.

Rear Admiral Serj (http://kitsumi.artspots.com/image/735/aviator) clipped his datapad back onto his belt, glancing around the massive shining room that was the hanger bay of the Dominator class Battleship. The area, and the three dozen or so small craft contained therein, fairly gleamed, and the Rear Admiral was pleased to find that he could see his reflection in one shining wing of a nearby shuttle as his boots clipped on the spotless black deck. Some seventy six inches in height, covered in silky steel-hued fur that offset his deep orange eyes, and clad in the traditional marine blue and midnight black of the Xiscapian Imperial Navy with the silver service pistol on one hip and a polished black katana sword on the other, Serj was a impressive sight, especially to one who had never seen his kind before. The vulpine officer didn't run a tight ship, not when compared to the likes of the the awe-inspiring Admiral Sor or the cool Rear Admiral Lintel, but he did like to have the place clean. A cautious soul, Serj was slightly apprehensive as he strode towards the section of the hanger that had been screened off from the rest by glowing crimson force fields, two Marine (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:SithCommando.jpg) soldiers standing at attention in front of the gate. "Captain sir!" Both snapped into formation, saluting, armored tails touching the deck, radiating a professional demeanor.

"As you were," Serj waved them down, and one unlocked the field, a seven-foot high door appearing as if by magic into the area beyond. He stepped though, noting that it was significantly warmer here due to the (harmless) radiation output by the containment field. The "room" held five lab-coated scientists and technicians, three of the more human-like Homo Vulpes race and two furred Vulpes Vulpes, all clustered around the second of three long workstations. On this table, surrounded by many devices of indeterminable function and various mechanical parts, squatted the drone, glittering under bright lights. Serj stared at the thing as one of the scientists talked over to him, an distinguished-looking anthromorph (http://t-tiger.artspots.com/image/13176/badge-for-hollyann) who now looked excited.

"Rear Admiral!" He bowed as all civilians did, clearly relishing whatever news he had to give.

"Chief Scientist Makura," Serj murmured mildly as he bowed back, eyes still on the strange contraption. "What is it?"

"Well, we'll need to run more tests-"

"Makura."

"Ah, from what we've been able to discern from active scanning, analyzation of the mechanical parts, composition of the metals and the electronics inside, it appears to be a sort of crude drone device, possibly-"

"Is it still transmitting?" Serj asked sharply.

"No sir, it does not appear to be making any kind of signals. However, I think you'll find this interesting." Makura tapped the back of the thing.

Serj looked, and saw nothing but fried components and a burnt outer shell. "What am I looking at?"

"A primitive form of FTL, sir, not unlike our own before we switched to Jaunt drive. Whoever sent this thing, they have FTL, a mark of a sufficiently advanced race, but more than that, it enables us to determine the trajectory of the device." His eyes glittered.

Serj felt his heart jolt. "You can trace it?"

"Yes, given time, we can track the drone back to its source. It won't be difficult, especially since it appears the device only travelled a short distance, the order of a few lightyears, before dropping back into realspace. However, the best is yet to come," the older kitsune actually grinned.

Serj didn't know how much more of this he could take. "What's that?"

"The probe was carrying a small data sheet with records and information pertaining, I would assume, to those who sent it. Unfortunately much of it appears to have been destroyed due to the rough journey the drone has had to make to get here, but we have managed to salvage this." Makura motioned to one of the technicians behind him, who carried over a sample box in an almost revert manner, displaying what lay within to Serj.

For a moment Serj stopped breathing, and when he began again it came out as a gasp. "By the Emperor," he murmured, eyes affixed on thing. It was a piece of paper, crumpled, singed, tattered and generally in bad shape, but it faintly displayed an image. It wasn't identical to the ones he knew, and indeed this all might be some sort of enormous prank, but everything was there. The snout, the fur, the eyes...
Serj was looking at a anthromorphic fox.
A kitsune, to be precise.

"Chief Scientist, I want you and your people working around the clock," Serj's voice was filled with amazement, but he still managed to give commands. "Trace that probe for me, and I'll make sure you're first on the ground with me when we make contact."

"Only too happy to, sir," Makura bowed.

Rear Admiral Serj bowed back and began speaking rapidly into his vox unit as he left, contacting the bridge of the XIW Smoke. The Captains of the other four ships in the task force would be updated as to the situation, who would probably thank Qonn that they would be undertaking a First Contact mission, rather than confronting a thousand-strong Danaversian warfleet, as some of their comrades had.

One day later, orbit over unknown planet...

The XIW Smoke drifted silently out of her Jaunt portal, followed by the Battleship XIW Pocky, the Wasp class Cruiser Legacy, and two Marchamp class frigates on the flanks for support.

"Let's not frighten the locals, now," Rear Admiral Serj murmured. "Shields at quarter strength, but all weapons are to be kept offline unless the situation warrants otherwise. This is a First Contact mission people, I will lead the way." He was speaking to both his bridge crew and the other vessels over the transmission, careful to make sure it could not be intercepted somehow by the world beneath them. Let us see if they can even see us, and if so, what they make of us, Serj thought, then we can embark on FC.

The immure system like military of the commonwealth kicked in the torc system moved. the four of missiles cylinders retracted their solar panels and turned.

Lady Ja XXIII the head of the RCAF ordered them that they all blinked. All of the cylinders shut off their stealth tech for a moment, there were thousands of them, each containing a missile. They changed their orbit invisibly once they switched on their active stealth. The commonwealth did not have FTL figured but nailed stealth. It was clear they had been seen.

"Lady Ja to unknown craft please identify your self and your motives for being here." came the transmission from a hidden satellite.

The four cylinders remained visible and opened their doors.

Lady ja turned to a air knight the tall green skunk like creature asked "Will they work if things get nasty?"
"No idea, if they have magnetic shielding yes, force shielding no." The vulpine replied.
"Launch, get our birds up and tell Za and Winato." Ja said.

It took less than ten minutes for the commonwealths navy to swarm our of it's ports and army to leave it's bases. It's air force was up in less than that.

Prime minister Eye Salato en, an apparently vulpine sent a visual message "We are not an aggressive nation and request talks, but we will defend our selves. do you understand?"

XIW Smoke, Bridge...

"Sir, sensors are detecting a large number of orbiting satellites over the planet-"

Rear Admiral Serj shot a look to his Scanning Officer, who was bent over his terminal, working feverishly, as the viewscreen before them displayed the green, white and blue world below, the sky having filled with the devices in an instant. A show of force? Serj was certain the event had not been a random coincidence, and the unspoken message was clear: We are prepared to defend ourselves. If they weren't bluffing, if those really were all laser or missile satellites and not, say, a multitude of radio wave and cellular phone transmitters, they could be a problem. Serj knew the XIW Smoke alone could scour the orbit of the world and destroy every satellite there in about sixty minutes, and probably not suffer any damage that couldn't be repaired by droids and workers on board, but that was not his goal.

"Sir, I count between two thousand and five thousand satellite devices, judging by gravitational fluctuations and radiation output. From the glimpse we got, they appear to be primitive weapons platforms, probably equipped with missiles; I cannot say if they're capable of firing upon us or can only strike the surface of the planet." The Scanning Officer sounded relived.

"If they fire on us?" Serj asked quietly.

"I calculate a ninety-four percent success rate," chimed the Diagnostics Officer, "factoring in our current PD output and the assumption that these are standard missiles. That number has a flux rate of about thirty percent, depending on the speed of the weapons in question."

Alas, communications between the planet and the ships were not properly synchronized, so while the Smoke and her sisters in the Task Force were able to pick up the first message and decode it, the second call went unseen and unanswered. On the bridge Serj stood and stared at the simple few lines of text that they had managed to pick up.

Lady Ja to unknown craft, please identify your self and your motives for being here.

Who, he wondered, is Lady Ja? Their ruler? A military commander? Perhaps a diplomat or Ambassador? The Rear Admiral was abruptly thrown out of his revere moments later by a shout from the Scanning Officer.

"Satellite doors opening, they're arming!"

"Shields on full, point-defenses online!" snapped Serj, whipping his gaze back to the viewscreen. Indeed, magnification showed that the hatches on what were unmistakably missile pods had opened, a clear threat.

The duel layered, sun colored, force field-esq shields flared with light, sending energy signatures both to the planet and out into space, emitting a slight hum that could be heard inside the ship. At almost the same time the Point-Defences on the Battleship jerked into being, thousands of cannons and guns swiveling in their mounts, facing the planet where able. Railguns, laser weapons, blaster cannons and even more exotic weaponry were primed and ready in case the missiles launched. At this range they would need to fire quickly and accurately to have any hope of making a significant dent, even guided by the lightning-fast reactions of a semi-sapient A.I.
Serj desperately hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Finally, they managed to find the frequency that they had been the same the original message had travelled along, and Serj dictated a message, praying that it would reach them before they elected to open fire.

The honorable Lady Ja, her co-patriots, and the government(s) of this world,
We come in peace. I am Rear Admiral Serj, Commander of Task Force One of the IX Fleet, of the Xiscapian Imperial Navy of the Kitsune Empire of Xiscapia. We have found what we have irrovocably established is a drone from this planet, and we wish to have the honor of making First Contact with your people. We do not wish for conflict, and hope that this message firmly implants our hopes of peaceful talks. With your permission, we would like to land somewhere on the surface to engage in direct contact.

Regards,
Rear Admiral Serj

Serj sat back, licking his chops, and spoke to his Communications Officer. "Directly subsequent to that, inform the hanger bay that Chief Scientist Makura is to join me on the bridge immediately. Also order them to prepare a shuttle for launch." He turned to one of the Marine Guards at the door. "Major, pick two of your best men and send them down to the hanger bay at once, they will be going to the surface." If all goes well, he thought.

“Bloody typical High Defender Inca would decide to be leave now I have to wrangle all them.” Salato muttered, she was heading to a meeting with the military heads.
She arrived at the conference in a foul mood, the military refused to use normal teleconferencing stuff, it was 'not secure enough', in the ancestors name what were they talking about. They used the same stuff, just on their own network and no one had managed to eves-drop on the system anyway.
She entered the room, on the large screen were the chefs, Ja (air force), Za (navy), Winato (Army) and Susan (cyber and information). In the room was La (Head of the Commonwealth Guard) and Barron Leck (Head of the Lucan council (the only person in the room that could order the military)).

“Right from what I can tell they seem peaceful, yes?” Salato said as she sat down her ears flat.
“That's what the message says, but we should be cautious” Ja said, she was a skunk like creature green where she should have been black.
“From what I can tell you currently have half our missile defence system pointed at them? The only reason you don't have the other half pointed at them is because the planet is in the way. I think that is enough caution, and the mobilisation has people freaked. The MTT (Militia, Territorial and Tribal) forces are arming themselves. Can we just say it was an drill and get them back to base?” Salato said.
“Well...”
“I agree with her, get the services back in.” Leck said, he was a wolf like creature, but short and weedy by their standards.
“Yes sir, but I think I speak for all of use when I say we will be on high alert.” the others nodded.
“Ok where to meet? They didn't way what they were going to land and those things are kinda big.” Salato said.
“Untin air base is there for this very purpose.” Ja replied.
“OK you tell them, as they seem to be talking to you” Salato replied, she was a little annoyed that they seemed to have elected to talk to the supreme air lord rather than her.
“Well?” Leck asked.
“Sir” came the reply and all but Susan's image disappeared off the screen.
Susan was somewhat different from the rest, she was an actu, the Ais that populated the commonwealth's net. What was being displayed was her avatar which in her case was a green fox she said quietly “They have some form of force shielding we are looking passively probing at the moment.”
Salato smiled “Keep it passive and find out what you can about these people. I know you have means we don't. By the way I like the new look.”
“Thank you, but I we haven't had much luck yet.”
“Just keep trying.”
“Will do” she said and she walked off the screen.

Salato turn to Lo, another green skunk like being “This has become a diplomatic situation so could you send an honour guard and I'll get Al in on this.”

Lo smiled “Already done, I'll see if I can calm down the MTT types to. You still up for the game later?”
“Cheers, with luck I'll make it.”

–
Down in the basement of the parliamentary complex Sue Phontinia ld and Marra Drancanson were rushing to a small train. Phontinia was a red vulpine, she had with her a bag as did the much larger Marra, a lupine (wolf like) they were to make initial contact.

As the train started to move off both started to get changed, they were not alone in this as the honour guard were doing likewise. The honour guard was made of drewns (desert vulpines) and they were donning their Arabic like formal dress. Some were shining there long curved swords others were sat impassively, they hoped to get back for the game, this had better not take too long.

Marra was the first of the pair of diplomats to finish getting changed, she was waring traditional Saeie dress. This being a long straight leather skirt slit to the hip on both sides and a cropped leather top, she had laid her claymore in it's scabbard on the table. Phontinia was still fighting with her long black black dress, her short sword lying dwarfed next to Marra's claymore.

–
Up in orbit the four cylinders that were still visible slowly closed and then disappeared from the sight and the sensors view. The commonwealth's stealth tech as good as anyone's.

Ja figured that Rear Admiral Serj knew what they were up against and if things went pear shaped it was always best to have all your weapons, also with luck they would drop their shields so the option of a surprise attack was there. She doubted she would need the option, but from a strategic point of view it was best to have all your options open.
–
Lady Ja sent a message using the transmitter at Untin Air Base:

To: Rear Admiral Serj
From : Lady Ja, Supreme Air Lord of The Royal Commonwealth of Kingdoms of Cal, Sae and Emass.

Your message has been read and understood. We are agree to a meeting, please land at the location of this transmitter we will send up an escort to guide you in.

Yours

Lady La
(Supreme Air Lord)

–
Untin Air Base had been selected for two reasons, one it was in the featureless expanse of the drewn desert and two it had a rail link to Tel. Basically it was far enough away from Tel that should any dirty tricks be pulled the city would be safe but close enough that it only took twenty five minutes to get to the parliamentary complex.

–
The train had arrived, Phontinia and Marra looked out over the featureless wasteland that was the drewn desert. There was nothing to look at outside the base, it was a rocky, dusty hell hole but it was home to the drewns.

Marra was the tallest person here and Phontinia the second, the rest of the people were drewns most barely five foot tall. Marra towered over them being six foot seven even Phontinia at five foot ten felt very tall, but both wanted to spend as little time as possible here.

“Where are they?” Marra asked.

---
OOC: your guys might note that the vibe tech used puts out more power than it takes in due to superior tech (they are invisible in spectrums that the commonwealth don't even know of and the energy requiered is far larger than the solar panels can make). They have tripped over zero point energy, trackering in one would probably have interesting effects to say the least.

OOC: I'm afraid I didn't understand a word of that. Shoot me a TG please.

IC:

XIW Smoke, Bridge...

"Their missile defenses appear to be going offline sir- Ah. Now they've cloaked." The Scanning Officer looked over to the Rear Admiral, bushy tawny tail wrapping around the base of his terminal. "Do you want me to continue tracking them with our gravitational sensors?"

Theoretically, "stealth" or "cloaking" devices made matter it was applied to invisible, to the naked eye, to scanning technology, or both. Planetside, where background radiation, radio waves, biological life forms and the like could clog up all but the most sophisticated, highly-tuned scanning devices, it was a fine concept, and in use by many nations and organizations for military, paramilitary and even entertainment purposes. In space, however, where scanners were more powerful, broader and able to counter radiation more efficiently, cloaking technology became all but useless if the cloaked object was actively being sought by the correct type of scanner. It was simply because of the gravitational field all significant objects exert; a large gravity well in the middle of deep space with no corresponding asteroid would indicate a cloaked vessel or battlestation lying in wait, thus exposing it. Naturally, smaller objects (such as satellites) were much harder to detect, especially in areas where large amounts of matter (such as asteroids, planets and stars) made large and overlapping gravity wells, but with concentration and finesse it could be done.

At that same moment a message came though:

To: Rear Admiral Serj
From: Lady Ja, Supreme Air Lord of The Royal Commonwealth of Kingdoms of Cal, Sae and Emass.

Your message has been read and understood. We will agree to a meeting, please land at the location of this transmitter we will send up an escort to guide you in.

Yours

Lady Ja
(Supreme Air Lord)

"Yes," answered Serj finally, eyes on the text displayed. "The shuttle pilot will need the coordinates for navigation though high orbit. Take the point-defenses offline again, and decrease our shield power to one fourth strength." The wary kitsune wasn't about the drop shields in what could be hostile territory, especially with thousands of missile platforms close at hand. It wasn't that he didn't trust these people, it was simply that they had not given him any reason to trust him, beyond holding their fire when his ships appeared and responding to his messages. The uniformed Xiscapian turned on heel, nodding to his XO. "First Officer, you have the bridge until I return." The other saluted smartly and bowed, and Serj strode out.

In the hanger bay the white, graceful winged shuttle (http://www.revell.de/starwars/reqRessources/img/produkte/abb_imperialShuttle.jpg) Serj had admired his reflection in a day ago was being loaded and prepared by a team of mechanics and engineers gathered around the little starcraft. Fast and nimble but unarmed, the Flyer class was the perfect ship for a diplomatic meeting, small at only twenty meters long but with enough space for twelve passengers. Designed strictly as a surface-to-ship, ship-to-surface or ship-to-ship craft, it handled excellently in deep space or in atmosphere, was compact enough to be stored easily and contained a (outdated) hyperdrive unit, for those conferences that got a little heated. It would serve as the vehicle used by Serj, Makura and their two Marine guards.

Serj met with the Chief Scientist a few meters away from the shuttle, flanked by the two soldiers assigned to their protection. "How to you feel?" Serj asked, bowing, more to take his mind off the current situation than anything else. He would rather polish the entire one thousand, five hundred meter Battleship from the outside than admit he was nervous.

"Like a kit on the eve of the Sacred Week, sir," Makura was smiling, hugging an oversized datapad to his chest. "This is the chance of three life times!"

"Indeed," Serj nodded, watching the other kitsune run the last of the pre-flight checks. "You've earned it, Chief Scientist. That drone must have been tracked in record time."

"Ah, sir flatters me," the other grinned, adjusting his spectacles, "as I recall, Grand Admiral Krystal's technicians were able to trace the two-day-old trails of the three Calaverian Observers at the Battle of Jomstar during the Calaverian War back to Celestis just hours after the last POWs were detained."

"Let us pray for a better outcome than which was found at the end of that line," murmured Serj solemnly.

The Rear Admiral and his Chief Scientist stood in silence for a few moments, interrupted when the pilot (http://kunkka.deviantart.com/art/mech-pilot-19775286), in full gear except for her helmet which displayed her scruffy white head, stepped up, bowing deeply to both officers. "We're ready for launch as soon as you are, Rear Admiral," she shifted her flight mask, holding it under one arm. "Just give the word."

Serj nodded, tail twitching and flicking in agitation in spite of himself. "Let us go, then."

The pilot gave a deferantial bow and hurried back to the shuttle, moving for the cockpit.

A minute later all four of the delegates were aboard and the small craft lifted off, propelled by secondary thrusters that washed heat over the battle-plated deck, wings unfolding elegantly, and shot out though the force field into space. A section of the shield dropped for an instant to allow the shuttle to pass and it angled towards the planet, up and down not having any true meaning in the void of space. Guided by the XIW Smoke the shuttle gracefully threaded between the invisible satellites while Makura sat nervously. There were no ports on the vessel, and he wasn't aware of their exact position at any point, but he knew that if the missile satellites targeted them while the diplomats were in their midst, there would be little hope of escape. Their shields would survive one, perhaps two strikes before the emissary ship would be turned into a flaming, superheated ball of gas that would burn though the atmosphere like a meteor. Thankfully they made it though without incident, and followed the beacon to the designated point.

Swooping down though the atmosphere the shuttle made very little noise, but it lit up like a comet that would be visible for miles as the heat from the air friction burned off on the shields. Gradually the violence of the decent lessened and a mile or so up the shields were switched offline, allowing the shuttle more freedom of movement and increased speed. Coming to the air base the ship slowed even further, hovering over it, and landed precisely in the middle of the assigned point, wings folding up again, steam hissing off it as the frozen void of space met the warmth of the atmosphere. Then the ramp lowered from the back with a sigh, and Rear Admiral Serj stepped out first, blinking in the bright sunlight, struck by the heat of the desert, vulpine eyes dilating to slits in response. Behind him came Makura in his fancy shoes, tweed pants and lab coat he seemed to wear everywhere, and the two armed and armored guards. Already feeling hot after the cool interior of the landing craft, squinting in the light, the Xiscapian party waited to be greeted.

At Untin Air Base the drewn honour guard formed up, their white Arabic like clothing reflecting the sun, their curved swords gleaming in the bright sun. They snaped to attention, the diplomats didn't, they were not warriors but were the tallest people on the commonwealths side.

Sue Phontinia ld stepped forwards in her long black dress, her tail wagged a little as she put out a paw.
"Welcome to the Commonwealth Rear Admiral Serj, I am lady Phontinia Sue. I bring greetings from both the Lacan council, the executive and the peoples of the Royal Commonwealth. This is my second Marra Drancanson" she said indicating the far larger and threatening looking Lupine.

"We are here to ensure your comfort and to ensure any requirements that you may have are met. We will shortly be leaving for Tel and the parliamentary complex so as you may talk to our leaders.

Please bring your entire crew as we have found in the past it is common for those in the lower ranks to have more in-common. Well if a long term bond of friendship is to be found it often comes from them and they are welcome to our hospitality like all visitor to our peoples.

Your craft is safe here and will not be interfered with as we respect it as you sovereign territory so will not enter it. I also suspect that your would become aware of the fact we had if we did" She smiled (though not showing any teeth, that would have been aggressive).

This would have been more impressive if she had been talking to Serj, but she had, had no idea what he looked like. She had gone for a fifty/fifty chance, the two dressed alike were obviously an escort but she had got the wrong one of the other two mistaking the data pad for some sort diplomatic package.

---
OOC: TG you btw

OOC: Replied

IC:

Both Serj and Markua shook hands with Phontinia, then bowed, and waited patiently as she ran though her monologue, though Makura's eyes occasionally flicked back to Serj, who appeared to be suppressing a smile. The two guards remained impassive, standing stock still and appearing to be staring straight ahead. In fact both were sizing up the contingent of Drewns, as one unit of soldiers to another, and their unseen gazes lingered in particular on the wickedly curved blades the smaller fox-like creatures held. Marra in particular held their attention. Finally Phontinia finished, and Serj huffed slightly, the kitsune equivalent of clearing his throat. "Ah, Lady Sue, I am Rear Admiral Serj," he smiled, similarly not showing his razor sharp fangs, "this is my Chief Scientist, Markura." Makura smiled and bowed again while the military officer continued speaking. "However, your hospitality is nonetheless greatly appreciated, and if you do permit it I will allow the crew of my vessel down for shore leave."

"If I may, mi'lady," Makura bowed for the third time, "after the meeting I would like to analyze a random sampling of your people, if they would so permit it. They will not be harmed, and duely compensated for their trouble," he looked from her to Marra and back again, quickly, "it's just that we have never found another people like ourselves! Like you!" He seemed to be practically bursting with excitement.

"Excuse my comrade's enthusiasm," Serj murmured, turning away for a brief moment to speak into his vox, relaying orders to his XO.

"All non-essential personnel are to be allowed down to the planet for shore leave. They are to bring no weapons, except for the Chiefs, no higher technology, and will be brought down via transports. No beaming. They will return to the ship when called, or face severe consequences."

Phontinia couldn't help but smirk when hearing "They will return to the ship when called" they had obviously never been out in Tel before.The city was bohemian* to say the least when it came to night life. The city had, had invading armies return home not quite sure why they had gone there in the first place or where they had been for the previous few days, weeks or in one case months. Next to nothing was illegal, when it came to drugs and other activities providing no harm was done, in the commonwealth and the Telen took advantage of that to the full. Even by Commonwealth standards it was viewed as a den of vice and over indulgence. The only place that was worse (or better depending on your point of view was teer itself).

"We will organise accommodation for your people, though I doubt you will be able to get samples of DNA from selected people, our privacy laws prevent that. However if you just wish a random sample the red serpent(1) can provided you with that but it is utterly anonymous.

Shall we get to the train, it is waiting? I would rather be out of the sun I bleach easy and burn even better." Phontinia said and headed towards the platform.

The train was a Kitten, it's official name was a CAT S2, but they were small CATs so kitten was the term even the CMT used.

When Serj entered the first class carriage he realised that first class meant just that. There were no ranks of chairs, just comfortable leather arm chairs and low coffee tables. The staff were neatly dressed and each passenger in first class had one assigned to them.

Marra smiled at Makura and patted the seat near her saying "I will talk with the medics, why the interest do you think your related to the vulpines?". She have a very soft accent for a creature of such size, she seem really quite friendly.

Serj looked about him, it was pleasantly cool and very relaxing. Phontinia smiled "Take a seat, how many of your people are there? Don't worry you will meet the executive and Lucan council, now a drink?"

She lazyly laid back and beckoned with a claw to one of the staff, the vulpine walked over, and she requested "A glass of inleen red, the sula tuan."

She turned to Serj "For you" she asked tilting her head, for an alien she wasn't bad looking.

--
In the back of the train where the honour guard things had got less formal, the pilot and marines witnessed the drewnn honour guard relaxing. It was more like a normal train and they were changing, nudity of both sexes was not something they seemed to care about.

The knight smiled and started pulling out cans of beer. He threw them to his staff until he reached the foreign contingent, he put one before the pilot, she must be off duty. But did not offer any to the marines as they must be on duty, but the short drewn waited for their refusal. He had no idea how their people worked but said
"You know when your off join us for the game. Please warrior to warrior"
--
* OOC I can not believe I spelt that right first time!
1: Red Serpent is the organisation that runs the commonwealth NHS along with other things.

"We will organise accommodation for your people, though I doubt you will be able to get samples of DNA from selected people, our privacy laws prevent that. However if you just wish a random sample the red serpent(1) can provided you with that but it is utterly anonymous."

"That would be fine," Makura answered as they boarded what appeared to be some sort of rail tram, stepping gratefully on board into the cooler air, still holding tightly to his large briefcase-like device. "I do not wish to impose on anyone."

Needless to say, both kitsune were very pleased when they encountered the luxery area provided for them, because, though functional metal seats, no drinks and complete seperation would have not preturbed them the slightest, the reception they found reminded them of home. Xiscapians were almost universally famous for their hospitality, and what welcome they received here spoke well of their hosts. Serj settled into a comfortable seat each with a sigh of gratitude, releieved to be off his feet, at least for a little while. Makura glanced at him, then over to Marra, and elected to place himself in the indicated chair, with his odd luggage in his lap.

"I will talk with the medics, why the interest do you think your related to the vulpines?"

Makura was slightly surprised; the intimidating wolf-like creature hadn't seemed very approachable, but now she was acting perfectly friendly. "Well, of course," he answered, delighted that his new aquentince was curious about his work, "the odds that we, that is, ourselves and the vulpine people resident to this world, evolved seperately indepedently of each other are astronomical. I can virtually guarantee that somewhere along the line our people and theirs were one and the same, or at least very close kin. You see," he began to explain, "the only other kitsune we've found in all the universe have been direct decendents of long dead colonists from early Xiscapian history. This planet was probably colonized, directly or by proxy, at least in part, by long-lost decendents of ancient Xiscapians." He shrugged. "That is what we have found at every other junction where kitsune are to be found outside of the Kitsune Empire."

"For you?"

"I'll have what she's having," Serj nodded to the server with a smile, not trusting himself to pronounce the name of the strange drink correctly. He glanced at her out of the corner of one eye, admiring her profile and figure. She could have been any one of the females back home; the similarities between her race and his were striking, could it be, he wondered, that they were one and the same?
He would need to think about this.

"How many of your people are there?"

"No doubt the other Captains of the Task Force will wish to send down their crews too, so, with each ship possessing a skeleton crew," he did a few quick mental calculations, "I'd say there's rougly three thousand four hundred crew members coming your way, give or take a dozen. I'm sure they'll enjoy-" he broke off abruptly, frowning. "What is your name for this planet?"

Rear of the CAT S2...

Neither the pilot nor the two guards so much as batted an eye at the sight of the naked drewns as they changed, another thing Xiscapians were famed for was their nearly total lack of modesty, and that extended to here as well. The pilot, helmet off but flight suit still on if she were to be called for again, took a swing of the beverage, watching the honor guard casually, leaning against the wall, white tail curled under her.

"You know when your off join us for the game. Please warrior to warrior"

The two Marines glanced at each other, expressionless from behind their helmets, and shared a quick conversation in their native tounge over their secured frequency.

"Nghe, eh?" The first, a female, laughed.

"Tôi có thể sử dụng một thức uống phải về ngay bây giờ ..." The deep voice of the male growled.

"Những Thuyền trưởng và trưởng khoa học lớn, là trai. Họ có thể xem sau khi mình cho một thời gian." Said the other in a coxing voice.

"Thực tế", the male admitted, "họ sẽ gọi cho chúng tôi nếu họ cần chúng tôi."

"Về có vui vẻ của bạn, nhưng bạn đã có những thay đổi tiếp theo sau khi chúng tôi nhận được vào thị xã." She warned.*

"Thật vậy, bất luận gì, thanks." He gave a nod of apprechiation and began removing his armor, peeling away the layers, as it were. The red exoskeleton section came away first, soon followed by the protective blast suit, leaving the kitsune soldier wearing only his black body glove. His fur was a dark rust red, white and the tail tip, black at the tips of the ears, and it was clear just by looking at him that he was stong and powerfully built. He looked a foot and a half down at the drewn, huffing. "What's this game you speak of?"

Orbit...

Dozens of shuttles, drop ships and troop ships from all five vessels decended upon the city of Tel, bearing over three thousand kitsune crewmen of both races and genders, all eager to escape the dank confines of their warships. Their needs were different; some wanted non-processed food, some wanted drugs, some wanted alcholic drink, some wanted sex, all wanted a sample of the local entertainment. Basically everything they didn't have or weren't allowed to do while on board ship.
They had a feeling they would get it in spades.

XIW Smoke...

Junior technician Kham had decided that Qonn did not smile upon him this day. He was one of the unlucky few who had been ordered to stay behind the staff and man the ship. He didn't see why this was nessecary; these people were obviously friendly, with no intent on attacking them, there were no Danaversian Shoals reported for hundreds of light years, and in any case he felt he could be much more valuable on the surface, doing field work, than up here sullenly banging around the experimental labs. Sighing, and glancing at the chrono, Kham made his way up the hall to the remote Scanning area, where data coming in from outside could be analyzed for scientific purposes. Normally this was classified, military-grade information, such as shield strength and type, weapons signatures and composition, and the like, but at the moment it was deserted.
Everyone was out partying.
Figures he'd be in the kitchen, so to speak.

Sighing to himself again, Kham fell into one of the chairs, directing the powerful scanners of the Smoke towards the planet...

OOC:
*
"Game, eh?"

"I could use a drink right about now..."

"The Captain and Chief Scientist are big boys. They can watch after themselves for a while."

"Yeah, they'll call for us if they need us."

"Go have your fun, but you've got the next shift once we get into town."

"Yeah, whatever, thanks."

Marra looked a little surprised by the revelation the vulpine might be of extra-terrestrial origin then smiled and joked “Hmm the vulpines are for a different planet, that would explain my ex.”

Her ears pointed in random direction for a moment, she was thinking then they pointed forwards again. She had, had an idea.

“If your just looking for general stuff, then I think I can get you started. If you'll excuse me for a second.” she said and pulled out a small device from her bag which she poked at for a couple of seconds before putting it to her ear.

She beckoned to one of the staff and said something in a language that Makura didn't understand, then said something else in what was almost definitely a different language. But her body language gave way her annoyance.

“She never answers her mobile quickly, come on sis, pick up”

“Hi sis...Aye, fine I'm working....You won't have heard of them...Aye...Erm what's your site called again?... Aye that one...No....They're interested and they don't have a net connection back home...No I wouldn't say they're backwards, quite the opposite...look just text it to me...Aye, but I'm kinda busy...Thanks, See You.”

“Sorry my sister is a healer, sorry doctor.”

She was interrupted by the arrival of a black device about a eighth of an inch thick and about the dimensions of a sheet of A4 paper. Which see took and tapped, nothing happed, she turned it the other side up and tapped again, that side lit up. Just then other device mewed and Marra gave sheepish smile. Looked at the device and started poking at the bigger one, then smiled.

“Ah the joys of sister who's a doctor and obsessive organiser, her mate is a forgiving male believe me. Anyway I think this will help you.” she said leaning forwards and handing Makura larger device.

It was a tablet computer linked into the high speed wifi of the train. The screen displayed a very simple net site, it was clear that Marra's sister might have been an obsessive organiser, but she was no design expert. But it was simple and clean.

On further examination the site catalogued a worryingly large number of medical sites neatly organised under by of race, type, etc with a general section *.

Marra smiled “I know what your thinking, don't try and link in from your ship, the actu wouldn't like it.”

The member of staff that had provided the tablet was still standing over them.

“Oh pint of 84 shilling thanks, your self?” she asked cocking her head slightly at Makura.

–

“The name of our planet...that's an interesting one and not entirely agreed but in the Calie tong it's call Terum, but if you will forgive me for a moment, I had better tell the people to expect your crews” Phontinia said pulling a chunky looking device out of her bag.

She sighed in an annoyed fashion

“No this is not the pinnacle of our coms, in fact it's with in a hairs breadth of being obsolete. But the paper pushers have only now got on job. If they just Tuetans(1) we could be done with this, but they have to go threw all the testing. We all know they are more secure than these things but these are standard issue sat phones, you can get ones less than half the size of this brick at a tenth of the price.

I wouldn't mind if they didn't make us look bad, anyway enough of my ranting.” she said annoyed.

She poked at the device, muttered something that Serj didn't understand but was almost certainly impolite.

“Are we still doing that?...Cheese Banana...It was, well what is the point of them, you know where I am and who else is going to be calling you from there?...Moth Crow?...Put me threw to accommodation....Today thank you...Hi Ra it's, well you know that...Yeah accommodation for about three and a half K?...Kinda now....Cheers, oh yeah could you get Mally onto the CMT we will need some way to get them from the air base...your a star...Yeah I don't rate them either but I am on duty so will probably miss it, catch you on the flip side.”

The red arrived in lead crystal wine glasses, as it was in fact red wine of rather good quality. Phontinia smiled as she took the glass and raised it.

“To good relations?” she said cocking her head.

–
In the back there was a little confusion and amongst the drewns excitement “Lantia!” most shouted.
It was clear he was very much liked by the drewns here, but he was taller and of a russet, white and black hue. Not the tawny yellow hue of the drewn. It was clear he was a pilot as he was still in his flight suit but he looked scruffy and dirty like he had been dragged threw a hedge backwards.

“Wotcha people she shouted, sorry hitched a lift on a transit, they let me out the brig this morn. Who asked what game. What planet are they from I mean Teu gona kick Drews arse at rugby who can't know that!”

The coach fell silent and Lantia shrugged and counted on his figures “Hmmm less than saying fourty word and I'm already in the ****. Is that a record for me?”

He smiled and grabbed four pack off the knight who growled at him before matching off. He handed a can to each of the marines, crack a can open and drank.

OOC: This guy is a not normal air force, but your guys might think they're all like him.
--

* OOC: The medical stuff is there, but the medical terms are likely to be different. They are medical sites so not full of fancy graphics, etc. The train does have a very fast connection (multiple Gigabit so it should be quite snappy.

(1) The commonwealth's version of blackberries.

“I know what your thinking, don't try and link in from your ship, the actu wouldn't like it.”

"Wouldn't dream of it," Makura muttered, syncronizing a download between the two devices. If he would have to wait until he got back to the Smoke to preform the data dump he'd keep the information pad near and dear until they went back into orbit. The information streaming in now wouldn't sate the appetites of himself or any of the other scientists, but it would serve as an excellent starting point for anaylzing the similarities and deviances between the two vupline people, not to mention all the other races found therein. For the time being he set the datapad and the strange computer down, secure in the knowledge that information that would be studied for years by Xiscapian scientists was now flowing into his possession.

"You and your sister have done Xiscapian Science a great service today; both she and you have my thanks," he inclined his head.

“Oh pint of 84 shilling thanks, your self?”

"Pardon?" Makura seemed momentarily confused. "Oh, right, uh, just water will be fine, thanks," he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his snout with two finger, turning back to Marra.

"So what sort of officer are you? Military, political, or something else entirely?"

“To good relations?”

Serj chuckled as the drink was brought to him. "And to think I was expecting a frothy alien drink that would burn my throat and cause my eyes to bleed," he laughed, clinking his glass against hers. "To good relations," he intoned, and downed a quarter of the liquid.

“Wotcha people sorry hitched a lift on a transit, they let me out the brig this morn. Who asked what game. What planet are they from I mean Teu gona kick Drews arse at rugby who can't know that! Hmmm less than saying fourty word and I'm already in the ****. Is that a record for me?”

The female Marine, moving slowly and carefully deposited the drink down on the nearby table, armored tail moving slightly, giving a slight shake of her head. She was still on duty, even if her comrades weren't. The male accepted the drink and, swinging his head back, downed the alcohol in one gulp, crushing the can in one hand. He hadn't understood a word the one called 'Lantia' had said, but he appeared to be energetic and friendly enough, if not the picture of military discipline. Then again, the Marine reminded himself, pilots, and fighter pilots in particular, usually weren't.

"Mate, I don't think I grasped more than a few words outta that," he tossed the can away, "but I'd say that sounded like a challenge."

XIW Smoke...

Kham manipulated the scanner devices, focusing on the only alien objects near them; the missile satellites. They appeared to have a powerful stealth field, apparently powered by solar panels affixed to the sides of the orbital platforms. How quant, he thought, almost like ion engines. There wasn't much he could see there: Transmission arrays, crude thrusters, the missile pods themselves, and-
Wait.
Kham squinted, frowning in thought. The cloaked satellites on the dark side of the planet were resisting all attempts to scan them; if it hadn't been for their miniscule gravitational fields, he never would have known they were there. Strange, to have a cloaking field that powerful they would need to be powered by a mid-sized Guilda energy array, or a long-term power pack...
He concentrated back on the visible satellites. No energy supply of any kind detected, except for those solar panels...but that's impossible! His eyes widened. At that size, this far from the star, they couldn't possibly absorb enough power to run a cloaking device that powerful!
He turned the view back to the cloaked ones, magnifying again-
There was a beep, a small red flash on the viewscreen, and the scanner abruptly went offline.

Kham was staring at the blank screen, thoughly confused, when it began to display an error message. According to the internal diagnostics systems the scanning waves had encountered a flux and the wave had made them shorten out. The technician sighed in relief as they began to display again, running startup programs -he didn't want to be responsible for breaking the Smoke's scanners- but he was at a loss to explain why this had happened. Xiscapian scanners, particularly military-grade situated on heavily protected warships like the Smoke, were well mantained and very reliable, this sort of thing simply didn't happen.
The technician sat and pondered this, and dove back in again, searching for whatever was powering the satellites.

ooc: bit of an epic.

Marra smirked a little confused “My job is to do the military out of a job, I'm a diplomat, we make peace only when we fail do we need the military. The commonwealth would much rather talk than fight, wars are expensive in lives and rarely achieve what is needed. From trade and understanding springs peace and freedom, that is our job. It can be a dirty job and you some times have to deal with some utterly repellent people and governments. But we have to try, I my self am a pacifist.” she said confused a little by the question surly every one had a diplomatic core and a foreign office?

“We are a-political and do not report to the executive of our nation. We report to the lucan council and them alone, like all of our civil service, police and military, don't think of us as paper pushers.

If I had not warned you of the actu's reaction, things could have got very messy very quickly. A direct link is possible in time once they know what's coming and some agreements will have to be reached. With luck in time we can link our nets an let our people talk and become friends, I believe you may” she raised her fingers to make quote marks, “meet the actu's leader. Anyway like my sister I like to think I save lives in a different way by preventing misunderstandings and wars. That is the purpose of our foreign office.

As for my families service to science thank you, but that was not my intention. My kind expect not to be recognised we let the big people take the credit. ” she smiled still confused a little but her beer had arrived.

84 shilling was brown and smelt really quite with a good head on it. She took a swig before smiling and wiping the froth from her muzzle “I thought you were interested in our people perhaps you might be interested in picking up a little of the culture. Do you want a taste?” she said and cocked her head, she almost looked cute (Quite a feet for a six for six wolf like thing.

Then leaned forwards and asked “What is your home world like?” genuinely interested.

–

Phontinia smiled “I might introduce to teerie beverages if you want, but that would be a very bad idea. They are not like that but your will believe they are after one...well you'll believe your a chicken or god or anything. You have to understand the teerie cook with things that are...well interesting as normal ingredients. They have no affect on them at all, but to non-teerie it is interesting, I have made that mistake.” she said, brushing her hair from her face.

“So to your ships can they link us up to your government or do you have authority to initiate talks?” she said quietly, she was quietly checking this was not just some bunch of advanced joy riders. She had to be sceptical, it was common sense.

–

In the mean time the small train was underway slowly heading to it's 300 MPH cruising speed, it could accelerate faster, a lot faster, but comfort was the primary concern. No one had noticed the smooth departure until they looked out of a window.

–
Lantia smiled “A challenge naw, no my style, I more of a cheating ****. **** I used to be a smuggler till the amnesty”

“Yeah he saved our tail's in the civil-war, but he is nuts” shouted one of the drewns.
One of the ones closer explained “We were pinned down, and out numbered then we saw one of their Viking transports coming in, we thought we'd had it.”
“It was this guy he'd nicked it fr...”
“Hey, commandeered is the right term, isn't it?” Lantia interrupted.
“Anyway, this nutter landed it in the street, dropped the back door and told us to get our tails in...”
He was interrupted again “Naw he said 'Oi goat ****ers get your ****ing **** in. I'm getting you the **** out of here”

“Anyway” the drewn glared at his compatriot “Anyway, we piled in, we were still under fire but he had left footed the rebels, he stayed there until we had our wounded in and the last of our rear guard. The street was blocked but he rammed the barricade and got us up.

He must have dodged god knows how many SAMs and at least two fighters...”

He was interrupted again “Tell them about the tunnel!” one of the other drewns shouted.

“OK, 'struth I was getting to that! Anyway he picked up another two fighters on our way and this loony took the plane threw a rail tunnel, only one fighter tried to follow and it didn't end well for them but he managed to get the larger craft threw.

We landed on a loyalist escort carrier utterly shot up on half and engine with no landing gear, he got the first wire.

We discovered later that he had never done a carrier landing, was drunk..”

Lantia interrupted “Well I had to get rid of the guards some how and a slipping them a micky made sense.”

“Yes your meant to do it in their first drink not their sixth.”

“Well do you think I was going to do that sober?!”

“OK the last thing that we didn't know was that he had never flown a Viking before.”

Lantia smiled “If it can fly I can out fly anyone in it! I can get anything to anywhere in anything and do it out of my skull. But anyway where are you guys from?” Lantia asked.

The truth of the matter was the only reason that Lantia had been kicked out of the brig is that they didn't want him near an alien craft in-case he nicked it. The only reason the RCAF put up with his kind was because they, especially in Lantia case, could evade defences and fighter cover. They were simply the best transport pilots you could get and providing you kept them busy, though disruptive, they were worth it.

–
Back in Tel accommodation had been organised, the Maranocon hotel was due to be stripped and demolished, but that had been delayed by people who for some utterly stupid reason wanted to save it. Their was nothing wrong with the thing except it was incredibly ugly, every civilisation goes though a bit of a bump when it comes to architecture. It was so ugly that during the civil-war the locals had made sure the floor lights stayed on it, in the hope that it would be bombed.

The rooms were clean and comfortable, all en suit and kitchen staff agreed to stay on. It was also next to the station, that was going to be demolished for the same reason.

The CMT had also managed to get their act together, as the rugby was on there network was busy but it being a quarter day they had commuter trains spare, OK they were half the speed of CATs or kittens so it would take them an hour and a bit to get to the hotel. They couldn't spare a CAT as half the country was heading to one game or another, even if they didn't have tickets it was tradition to for fans to travel anyway (well more an excuse for a holiday).

They planed to deal with the influx in one then run a half hourly service to the city from the hotel. The parliament had it's kitten's crews ready should there be a need to get people back to their transports.

A message was sent to the smoke by the CMT “sorry to bother you but what does hotel/barrack/sleeping place look like in your language, just to make life easier for your people? We can put the image into our system so they know where to go.”

–
Under the drewn desert the in a large room an operative noticed something and called her commanding officer over.

“Number 537 is being strange” the green skunk like creature said.
“What's new you know they do report odd things” the Vulpine officer repiled.
“No this is really odd and it is close to our friends up there.”
“Oh...What's it's status?”
The Vulpine looked concerned.
“Well it lost it's primaries for a second but the secondaries kicked in and the primaries are up again. But one of our other stats picked up a large EMP pulse at the same time, well a second or two later. I dunno what they did but it didn't like it.”
“Keep a close eye on it for now on, but if keeps doing that move it away. The last thing we need is for them to blow the war head. If needs be you have my authority to ditch it.” the vulpine's tail dropped she hoped that nothing bad happened. She knew vibe devices could explode violently, very violently. During development the commonwealth what taken to using ships as labs, all a long way from home and well they got it wrong sometimes. They never got home when that happened and well they did cause tsunamis when they did.

Thankfully all testing was being carried out over the gulf in the air, this was much safer. Air would dissipate the energy better than water and well they knew what not to do.

“Will do!”

* drop into the atmosphere (your guys might figure out that the missiles can't re-enter and are a purely space defence)

“I thought you were interested in our people perhaps you might be interested in picking up a little of the culture. Do you want a taste?”

Makura would never have entertained the notion of refusing the offer: Such would be the height of rudeness, and in any case he was beginning to like Marra. She was engaging and bright, but humble at the same time, not strutting her position. "Thank you," he nodded and took a delicate sip of the bitter drink, wincing slightly. Makura didn't consume much alcohol, he found drinking it for the effects it produced a distasteful practice, something only criminals, alcoholics and hoodlums did, but he did enjoy the occasional glass of wine now and again.

“What is your home world like?”

Makura considered this inquiry, swallowing some water from his own cup as he did so. "Xiscapia is divided into three main continents; Slipslah, the Oversized Island as it's called by people who don't hail from there, is the southern and western most one. It's a lot like this area," he waved a hand out the window at the landscape rushing past, "hot, dry and arid, most of it, and the rest is fertile farmland or beautiful beaches. It's a tourist area, where most of the offworlders go. Padga is the next one over to the east and the north, cold, with thick forests throughout and mountains to the far north. It's called the Seat of Power because it holds our capital, Rio Casa, plus the trading center of the landmass, Tenfour, our most scholarly city, Lune, and the Utopian metropolis of Providence, that being on an island off the coast, where I was born."

Smiling in memory of that place, with its awe-inspiring inner buildings made of the strangest materials, nothing but wood and paper and glass, and the tough concrete outer ones that protected them from the storms and gales that sometimes pounded the coasts during the fall, he continued.

"The last continent is Forworn, the eastern continent, sometimes called the Wasteland, because of the condition of the southern half of the land. For some reason, only low plants grow there, and it is covered in ruins from some ancient, forgotten civilization. The rest of it is jungles and plains, not much there really." He shrugged.

“So to your ships can they link us up to your government or do you have authority to initiate talks?”

"They can," Serj affirmed, "but I have full authority to initiate talks, sign treaties, appoint embassies and ambassadors, that sort of thing. There wouldn't be much point of me coming here if I couldn't do anything official," he laughed.

Rear of the Train...

The Marines and pilot listened silently to Lantia and the drewns, the armored one standing back and watching, the male with his arms folded and a scowl on his face, and the pilot nursing her drink and not really looking at anyone, staring at the ceiling.

“If it can fly I can out fly anyone in it! I can get anything to anywhere in anything and do it out of my skull."

"You wanna put that to the test, big boy?" The pilot seemed to have suddenly taken interest, gazing at her opposite number making a spectacle of himself. "Perhaps a friendly wager somewhere would spice things up?"

"But anyway where are you guys from?”

"Xiscapia," the male said shortly, evidently not as taken with the alien pilot as the Drewns were.

The female Marine shook her head. Things could be going a lot better, but now the pilot felt threatened by the boldness of the other pilot. She knew it happened all the time, even within the Xiscapian Imperial Military, but it was still somewhat disconcerting to see. And her Marine counterpart couldn't understand half of what Lantia said, and didn't seem to much enjoy what he could understand. Typical male bragging and aggression...

XIW Smoke, Bridge...

"Message incoming, sir."

The X.O. looked up at the glum sound in the Communications Officer's voice. Of course he'd sound depressed; he was stuck here in the ship while all his other friends were out for a day and a night on the town. Of course, they would rotate out, and whoever stayed aboard the ship got benefits out of it, like extended leave on the next stop, more off-duty time aboard, first pick of the VRs and so on, but it just wasn't the same. The First Officer could sympathize.

"It's from tram that's transporting our delegation, sir. They're requesting the name of..." He paused, squinting in confusion. "Rather, they're asking for our symbol for," he rattled them off, "hotel, barracks and sleeping place in our native tongue."

The X.O. looked perplexed. "Indeed? Well, send them this then..."

Hotel is khách sạn
Sleeping place is ngủ nơi
We have no word for barracks.

XIW Smoke, Remote Scanning Observatory...

Curious. Kham leaned forward. That was definitely an EMP blast. Perhaps a built-in defense mechanism to prevent them from being scanned? But if that were so, wouldn't they have warned me by now? It doesn't quite seem like it was deliberate...ah! Is that the power source? He began to magnify and sharpen the focus, trying to exact readings on the vibe device. He was so close he could see the individual rivet marks on the hull of the satellite.

Marra smiled a little then said "This place is nothing like back home in Sae my home land. It's mountainous islands and misty glens. I would like to show you it sometime, if you have time while your here. Can you sail? if not I think I could teach you as it is the best way to see Sae and I think I can secure the use of a yacht. If not I can teach you how to sail, it is not as obsolete skill are you might think.

My people send those that have passed to their next incarnation by sail and fire. It is a sight to be seen as a people our lives are interwoven with the sea and some people say salt water runs on our blood. Perhaps they are right as I don't like being far from the sea." she seemed to go far way for a second before snapping back.

"What do you people do for fun? What sports? With luck when the work is done today we might catch the Sae, Teer rugby match. Sorry rugby is a bit of an obsession to us." she smiled and cocked her head.

In truth she was slowly begining to like Makura even though she had once bitten twice shy complications when it came to vulpines. But Makura wasn't strictly a vulpine, she would see what happened.

---
Phontinia's ears flicked as a train flashed past heading towards the air base to pick up the ships crew that were on leave. In the distance the tops of the three, one mile high, spires of the parliamentary complex were coming into view along with the lecken mountains.

"That's good to hear, the less people involved in these things the better." She said.

She nodded towards the three spires and said "it took us fifty years to build those things, they are made of stone and crystal and so heavy they moved the mountains they are build into. Heck they had tremors hundreds of miles away.

But I dare say constructions like those are probably common back home."

--
Lantia gave a rye smile, he had clocked the other as a pilot and not bad looking, and said "You on the loser pays for dinner at the winners choice of restaurant. So what will it be props, by or mono? Jets hyper sonic, super sonic or sub sonic? Autogyros, helicopters? Hand gliders, paragliding? Pick your weapon."

He figured he would win, but even if he didn't it wouldn't be so bad being 'forced' to take her out for dinner. However he had no intention of throwing it.

--
On the passing commuter train, made out of a dozen train sets, were a pile of ad-hock packs containing:
1 simple com (cell phone like devices with touch screens and a user interface that required no knowledge of the local language, GPS (with mapping software) and net access)
1 guide on how to use the device and the phone number.
1 guide to Tel.
1 guide to the commonwealth.
A reasonable amount of local currency.

It also carried a volume of beer and wine.

A number of the commonwealth guard were also on-board to act as guides, not that there was any compulsion for the visitors to use them. But the calie thought it wise for the option to be there and well none of the had objected when asked (how often are you likely to be asked to help people get drunk, stoned, etc on the clock? Well and you would be 'forced' to have to do so your self out of manners).

"What do you people do for fun? What sports? With luck when the work is done today we might catch the Sae, Teer rugby match. Sorry rugby is a bit of an obsession to us."

Makura shrugged again. "Soccer, or football, if you're Alversian, is the national sport and pastime. We have a less popular sport called Nuzz Ball Zero-G, which is a complicated affair involving a small rubber ball, large force-field clubs and a gravity-free room, which is always good for some laughs. Many of the youth enjoy realistic virtual realities, simulated from their wishes and desires. I myself enjoy nothing more than curling up with a good book." He smiled. "We don't swim or sail much," he gave a rue smile, "most kitsune and water don't mix, but some of those who live on the coast or on islands have become quite proficient at such things. I wouldn't mind having you teach me to sail, though," he smiled at her, genuinely this time, "I'm sure it would prove interesting."

"But I dare say constructions like those are probably common back home."

Serj was gazing at the towers, studying them. "Not in most places, no. In the city of Tenfour, some of the shield towers in Providence, and in areas offworld, yes, but Xiscapians are a burrowing people." He smiled. "We like to be close to or under the ground. In our capital, Rio Casa, most structures aren't any more than two stories high, and many of them have underground rooms."

"You on the loser pays for dinner at the winners choice of restaurant. So what will it be props, by or mono? Jets hyper sonic, super sonic or sub sonic? Autogyros, helicopters? Hand gliders, paragliding? Pick your weapon."

"Fine by me," she said to the offer, waving a hand. "Mono, I don't like backseat drivers, and sub sonic, we don't want to flatten anything now as we fly past, but you pick it. Single pilot, sub sonic, and don't be thinking up some hand glider now," she took another swing of beer, "I want something with engines, damnit."

He was, she thought to herself, pretty handsome, in that slightly rugged, cocky sort of way. I wouldn't be averse to going to bed with that.
Not at all.

Other train...

The crew members were a bit confused by the cell phones ("Fucking museum artifact," as one Spacer remarked), but they weren't ones to turn down anything free, especially not if it had a handy GPS built in. They pocketed these, and all the cash, and got around to getting roaring drunk, while some of them saved their bottles for later, or poured them into canteens to try to sneak back on board later to sell to other crew members for exorbitant prices. As mandated by the High Command of the Xiscapian Imperial Navy, all the crewmembers could speak at least basic Galactic Common, so communication wouldn't be a problem unless the issue was on the other end. Indeed, an officer stepped over to one of the Marine guards so thoughtfully provided, brandishing a fist full of blue banknotes. "Is there some place we can exchange our credits for the local currency?" He asked, while the other officers in the background tried to keep order. The spectacle was not unlike a few grade school teachers trying to restrain a rambunctious bunch of students minutes before the final bell.

Marra smirked her tail slowly wagging, she liked this one, "I promise I won't knock you overboard. I'll tell you the rules of rugby if we get the chance to see the game.

Do you have a mate and family?" she ventured.

--
More of the spires were becoming visible, they looked like three drops of water had fallen into a mill pond still pond. The skirts of the buildings were interconnected, the used each other for support. They as buildings were utterly impractical cost wise.

Phontinia smiled and pointed at the front spire "Justice, the judicial spire"
Then the one at the back to the left "Democracy, the parliamentary spire"
Then the one at the back on the right "Government, the executive spire"
"You know there is a rumour that they are not all the same hight, the judicial spire being and inch higher than the parliamentary and it being an inch taller than the executive spire. I don't know if it is true but I hope it is.

But our power is our people and they don't need a spire they are just stone after all. In all the kingdoms our people are sovereign not our monarchs, they just represent us." Phontinia said with a smile.

"I love the idea that democracy looks down on the executive and both are looked down on by Justice. Dunno perhaps it's just me. We don't elect our judges they are selected by their own, I don't want a politician sitting in judgement over me. how do things work back home?" she asked.

---
"Well mono planes, as in wings but aye. Lets do the leck run, I have never done it. You can't go higher that 15,000 ft* or you forfeit, now all we need are planes" Lantia smiled he knew he could do it and knew one of the drewns would have a 'cousin' they always did.

"I have a cousin that has some mono prop planes for rent. How much of a pool do you think your people will produce as it will be free if enough bet." he smiled.

--
Some of the guides sighed, they didn't even know they still made those things. They got on with looking after the guests aka getting wasted. Well in the case of the teerie drinking people under the table on whiskey with little affect on them selves (The teerie tolerance is unfairly high). They were quietly weeding out the idiots.

The train captain switched on the screens the drew vs Teu match was on the calie vulpines were immediately interested. They shouted "SHUT IT!!!"

The small desert fox's were the first to walk on to the pitch followed by bigger the red Teuie foxes. A drewn said "We have to not let them get too much of a lead in the first half, we can't have a repeat of last year. If it wasn't for the teerie they would have got the grand slam"

As the national anthems were song the Xiscapians realised they would have to take sides sooner or later.

The game kicked off and it was a ruck in seconds. From the calie can shouts of "Turn the git", "What are you doing", "What in the ancestors name was that about" (OK that was mostly from the teerie) and of course the classic "Oh for f**k sake "

It being rugby it was not exactly clear what was going on in the ruck. But sides were going to be pick by the visitors especially in their drunken state. But it was unlikely it would be uniform, more likely coach by coach.

* The lecken range is a heck of a lot higher.

Van Gaal Star, edge of the Malacus System, Alversian Space

The Van Gaal Star was a remarkable phenomenon. A white dwarf that had reached the end of it’s life cycle and attempted to explode as normal. However, the intense gravity from two nearby gas giants had stopped the explosion just milliseconds after it had initiated. The result was the Van Gaal Star, named after the Alversian who had come across it two hundred years ago. He had initially fled from it, fearing that he was about to be caught up in an explosion from an old star. However, upon discovering that the star was in suspended animation, he returned and charted its amazing properties, establishing his name in Alversian geographical history. His name also became the bane of hundreds of Captains, those who had to lead their vessels through the Van Gaal passage came to curse it’s very name. Wither they were simply passing through or on a peaceful mission of some kind, all shared a common theme, a hatred of the Van Gaal passage. The energy from an explosion meant to have dissipated centuries ago continued to leak out into neighbouring space, several lightyears from the star itself. The result was that instruments went haywire, communications would flutter in and out, and secondary systems would fluctuate. With a Civilian or Merchant vessel, this would be irritating, it would make life difficult. For a military vessel of the People’s Navy, anything that affected shields or weapons was a potentially dangerous situation. The Van Gaal Passage was every Captain’s nightmare assignment. This much was true for the APS John Valour.

Captain Marn liked to think of himself as a Van Gaal Veteran. He had travelled it more times than any other Naval Captain. He had travelled it as an Ensign, as a Commander and now, as a Captain of his own vessel. He sighed and looked over at his First Officer, tail flicking from side to side casually. He exchanged glances with the Alversian beside him and both nodded. The alarms were becoming tiring, the constant stops to make certain they were on the right track. Marn may have been a veteran of this passage, but progress was still painfully slow. The John Valour was on patrol in the sector, normally devoid of space craft thanks to the Van Gaal star, but now, Alversia was at war. There was too much of a risk that the passage would be used to compromise the Malacus System’s extensive defences and, hence, he was here as early warning or, as one would have it, the bait to be sacrificed if a couple of Barracudas poked their nose in at the Passage.

His ears twitched at the sound of a new alarm beeping from the Flight Officer’s console in front of him. Something was coming towards the Heavy Cruiser from the direction of the Star, an unusual feat indeed. Most vessels avoided it like the plague.
“Lieutenant,” He commanded, “Scan that vessel, see what you can get from it”

"Do you have a mate and family?"

"I have a family, yes," Makura nodded somberly. "Mother, father, two brothers and a sister, all back home, at least as far as I know." He paused for a moment. "No mate," he finally said, looking out the window, water forgotten. "No one like that." He seemed, suddenly, almost melancholy, not meeting her eyes.

"How do things work back home?"

"We're ruled by an Emperor," Serj watched Phontinia over the rim of his glass, waiting for a reaction. "Everyone thinks "Ohh, evil empire"," he chuckled, "but it's really not like that at all. We elect our ruler for life, until he or she resigns, dies, or the people grow dissatisfied enough to impeach him or her. Right now we're in Year of Our Lord Foxfire Rose Eighteen, that is, the Eighteenth year of the rule of Emperor Rose." He took another drink.

"He's a kitsune of the people, born a farmer, don't you know," he gave a thoughtful grunt, "soldier, too. Fair, kind, charming, intelligent, if what the papers say are true." Serj laughed, exposing sharp teeth. "I wouldn't know, myself; I've never met the guy. Under him there's a whole complicated network of officials and administrators I've never tried to understand, but it works, so..." He shrugged. "It's a good system, I think."

"I have a cousin that has some mono prop planes for rent. How much of a pool do you think your people will produce as it will be free if enough bet."

"Pool?" The pilot put her feet up on the table. "I dunno, depends on how drunk they are and how much skin I show. Probably enough to rent a couple of planes, how much is the going rate?"

Other train...

The Xiscapian crew split more-or-less right down the middle, for arbitrary reasons including but not limited to how drunk they'd gotten, how big one or another bet was on the winning team, how sexy a given team member was, how their friends or officers aligned, and pretty much every other random fact, opinion, illusion or delusion. The crew were in high spirits, and perfectly content to kick back and watch a rugby game; even that was better than the endless, mind-numbing toil of working on a military warship.

Near the Van Gaal Sta the commonwealth's drone was behaving very oddly, it had appeared near an asteroid, the others in the region had fallen into the star or the gas giants, before reporting in. It had carried out it's mission and sent home star locations, strength, gravitational information and what atmosphere there was (none) to be processed back home, they were not going to send another one here. Now it was on it's own, it was meant to avoid contact with what ever was out here.

It had rocket motors primitive by the standards of most future tech nations, but it did have a vibe device that under these conditions made it appear far more massive than it was. When scanned it behaved in a extremely strange way it disappeared randomly from certain frequencies and even from visual ones changing the drones colour as it did. Then jumped forty meters to the left well not exactly their were now two of them before one disappeared from existence. The commonwealth didn't know but they had a device that didn't just bend space, but spacetime. Not like they had a clue how it worked.

The drone noticed the craft eventually and released fluorine gas into it's compartment, this caused the crystalline components to turn to dust (and neutralised the gas). The drone had gone inert the only thing in of use was a cylinder that gave the star positions from where the drone had come....the commonwealth.

–
OOC: different thread or the same?

Marra looked at Makura this could either open a can of worms or might work. She knew she was on the edge of diplomatic protocol but will why not.

She tilted her head kindly “What happened to your mate? I can't imagine you have always been single. I have trouble believing you are single now, no offence.” she asked in her soft accent.

–
Phontinia smiled “Seems to make more sense that our system, anyway why the glasses? Surely you can fix that?”

She went quiet for a second as the windows when dark then said tentatively “Fire arms are not allowed in the parliamentary complex. The only person allowed to carry one is the head of the commonwealth guard and she has waved that right.

Sorry but it is one of our few laws.

But the boxes provided are tamper proof*”

she nodded at one of the attendants who brought over three crystalline boxes.

“Place the lid on and try to get in without shattering it, I tend to nose print the seal. Safest way” Phontinia smiled.

–
In the back the windows had gone black.
“B*****s” Lantia muttered
“We're going to the parliamentary complex ain't we?”
One of the drewns nodded.
“Aw crap unless I get an invite they will turff me out before my feet hit the ground.” he muttered looking to the Xiscapian for support.
“There will be no race if I have to spend the night looking for a crash site.” he continued hoping they realised he mean somewhere for him to sleep. In truth he had many friends in the city he could sleep at, but really like the idea of the pilot.

He turned and started to undress As he removed his flight suit his fur became visible, it had many swirls and places where his fur didn't lye. There were scars all over the place she couldn't help but look.

One of the drewns quietly said “All but one of them have come from saving some furs but after he joined the Caf*. Under there is a very good fur, but none of us can make him admit he is anything but a bad fur. Oh yeah he will kick your arse on the run, him on a single prop...He has flown them since he could reach the peddles. Bad choice, but everyone has some form them, don't let him pick an aquamarine** if you want a chance.”

She smile “I always though 'out there' would be light years way.” before laughing and giving a wink.

“I'm just telling you this because he needs to lose or at least run close once in a while, if he doesn't he will get himself killed. He has been getting more and more reckless of late, and he wasn't exactly the most risk averse to begin with. We need him at our back too much, by the way I'm betting on you I figure I'll get good odds..” she says seriously.


–
The train behind they were slowly getting into range of the city, the spires were coming into range. Those bored by the rugby had started scanning threw the city guide and were somewhat surprise. It did have details of the more cultural side of things but it also had useful details like:

'If you want a saurner or massage do not go to a saurner or massage parlour, they are brothels. Go to a health club. If you want a brothel check for the city accreditation. Anything above two star is safe, do not use unaccredited ones unless you want to catch something or be mugged. However they are rare as they get little business, the Telen population is not known for being prudish. So unless you are very fat or ugly you should have no problem.'

'Do not drink in a teerie tea house if you want to remember who (heck what) what you are with in the next week!''

“Avoid ethnic saeie food if you wish to retain the contents of your guts, unless you like rotten fish.”

“Only go drinking the the George Lane area if you are willing to take a mortgage out on your house to buy a round.”

“Haggle when faced with a drewn or you will be ripped off, in fact haggle with any price out with a pub or restaurant (Tipping in both is optional and should only be given for very good service). But a good deal can be done and if you want anything the drewns in the tulums*** will have a cousin. ”

“If your from a nation that we have had little contact with do not go to the money exchanges as they will give you for the least they can get. Go to the coin, note and stamp shops in sunana street you will get a good prince if your money looks nice (no matter the face value, sets sell very well for a lot more).”

and other such useful information.

The commonwealth didn't want these people to be ripped off or harmed, well they wanted a tourist trade. Then they could rip them off as they would have more money ;-P.


OOC: The boxes tend to shatter if you even look at them funny, but you can drop them down a flight of sitars.


* OOC: The royal is dropped by the military to make the Royal Commonwealth Air Force producible.
** OOC: Super marine the early version of the spitfire.
*** OOC: Some words don't translate, just think of the most insane marketplace you can and your halfway there. I mean EVERYTHING is for sale, if it's bolted down and you want it, it won't be in five minutes if you ask for it (Lamp posts and other items of street furniture have been sold in them. The city doesn't mind as they are paid a fair amount for them the new owner is usually left fleeced, drunk and wondering what to do with it.).

Van Gaal Passage

"Captain, I'm getting the first details on the vessel ahead," The Alversian Lieutenant reported from his Science Console. Marn was pacing up and down carefully on the second tier of the three tiered bridge. He looked around in curiousity as the report came in from his Science Officer. He spared a quick glance down to his First Officer, yellow eyes meeting blue ones, there seemed to be confirmation there and so he turned back to the younger male, hands clasped firmly behind his back, katana sitting easily at his side,

"Then please," he said calmly, "report on the findings so far."

"Sir, the vessel is some kind of probe, though from where I cannot tell. It's using a primitive internal combustion propulsion but it's also in a state of temporal flux. It keeps appearing and disappearing randomly from our scanners. It appears to be scanning the star but they're not being negated by the Star like ours are..." The Science Officer stopped his monologue frowning, pressing buttons quickly and in a seemingly random order, unaware of the Bridge Crew's attention being fixed upon him. He seemed more worried about the job at hand and, after a moment, he gave a frustrated sigh,

"I'm sorry Captain, the Star is inhibiting our sensors, thats all I can give you from this range."

"Then we shall have to get closer" Marn smiled, his Flight Officer automatically steering the vessel from it's course and bringing it right up beside the Probe, which had stopped what it was doing and was now sitting inertia. The Science Officer relayed off the remaining details and, upon learning the co-ordinates that had been placed within it, Marn simply smiled,

"We are still a part of the Deep Space Fleet," He laughed at his Bridge Crew's shocked faces and settled back into his chair,

"Set a course for those co-ordinates, Transfactor Five,"

With that, the John Valour shot off into transwarp, heading towards the Commonwealth at several hundred thousand times the speed of light. It was a journey that would take only an hour or so.

“What happened to your mate? I can't imagine you have always been single. I have trouble believing you are single now, no offence.”

"Her name was Aeon. She was killed a year ago," Makura whispered, eyes locked on the alien world whizzing by outside, tone low, eyes hazed behind his glasses, voice distant. "She was part of a scientific expedition force to...our old homeworld, I guess you could call it. It had been newly found, see, there was barely any Imperial forces present, so when the Rebels came..." He trailed off for a moment, blinking rapidly and hard, still not looking at Marra, tail limp and ears flat. "They wiped them out. Murdered every last one of them in cold blood." He fell silent again. "I couldn't go to the funeral."

“Seems to make more sense that our system, anyway why the glasses? Surely you can fix that?”

"Glasses?" Serj looked confused for a moment, then relaxed with a smile. "Oh, Makura's spectacles. He refuses to undergo the necessary corrective surgery to fix his vision, he says something about people poking around in his body makes him uncomfortable, but," he winked, "I think he just likes the distinguished air he thinks they give him."

“Fire arms are not allowed in the parliamentary complex. The only person allowed to carry one is the head of the commonwealth guard and she has waved that right.

Sorry but it is one of our few laws.

"It's a good thing we didn't bring any firearms then!" Serj laughed, but then grew serious, showing he knew what she meant. "Perfectly understandable, I wouldn't be surprised if your Commonwealth Guard are as fanatically paranoid about security as the Emperor's Black Guard."

"But the boxes provided are tamper proof. Place the lid on and try to get in without shattering it, I tend to nose print the seal. Safest way”

"Okay," The Rear Admiral took one of the clear containers, drawing the blaster from his hip, opening the case and depositing the sidearm inside before closing the box. He frowned at it a moment and shook the thing, noticing that his weapon didn't rattle about inside, and then did a very strange thing. He curled his tail around under his arm and brushed the very tip across the lid, dancing the silky plume along the smooth surface for a moment before taking it away. "Provided I don't have a long-lost identical ancestor around here somewhere, that should make it secure." His tail flicked and he huffed softly.

“Aw crap unless I get an invite they will turff me out before my feet hit the ground. There will be no race if I have to spend the night looking for a crash site.”

"I'm sure we'll find room," The male Marine grinned in a way that was not altogether nice. "Just act...casual. You know, like a normal, sane, sapient being."

"...Oh yeah he will kick your arse on the run, him on a single prop...He has flown them since he could reach the peddles. Bad choice, but everyone has some form them, don't let him pick an aquamarine if you want a chance.”

"I ain't worried," the pilot, whose name was Yan, murmured, watching Lantia intently. "I was piloting skyhoppers on my daddy's farm before I learned to do long division."

“I always though 'out there' would be light years way.”

"Not quite," Yan gave a tomboyish laugh, louder than necessary and boisterous "not in this case."

“I'm just telling you this because he needs to lose or at least run close once in a while, if he doesn't he will get himself killed. He has been getting more and more reckless of late, and he wasn't exactly the most risk averse to begin with. We need him at our back too much, by the way I'm betting on you I figure I'll get good odds..”

"Don't you worry about a thing," The other shook her head, "I'll make sure he gets a lickin', even if it is by the fur of my snout. Keep the boys humble," she glanced at the drewn, "or at least less likely to run their ass into a brick wall with the next new toy."

Other train...

Three Marine soldiers had gathered in one row, all male: A mountain of a kitsune who looked like he could devour the rudest of alien substances by himself with no ill effects named Fung, a slimmer but no older Xiscapian who was hovering somewhere between nervous bravado and full-on stomach-churning ecstasy named Kyoto, and a toughened, grizzled Sergeant named Sanderson. All had grown weary of the sport that wasn't soccer, and were idly reading their pamphlets while making inappropriate comments about various aspects of the city they were to be visiting.

'If you want a saurner or massage do not go to a saurner or massage parlour, they are brothels.

"No shit," Kyoto muttered sarcastically. "Really? What are we here, newborn kits?"

"I guess prostitution isn't legal here," rumbled Fung.

'If you want a brothel check for the city accreditation. Anything above two star is safe, do not use unaccredited ones unless you want to catch something or be mugged. However they are rare as they get little business, the Telen population is not known for being prudish.'

"Epic fail," Kyoto smirked. "It is...sort of. They've even got warnings about you, Fung." He pointed to the last part.

'So unless you are very fat or ugly you should have no problem.'

"I will end you," The larger kitsune growled.

"Yeah? Bring it, you couldn't fight your way outta a paper bag, ya-"

"Shut the fuck up, you two," Sanderson looked up from his own reading material. "Unless you want to go back to the Legacy?"

'Do not drink in a teerie tea house if you want to remember who (heck what) what you are with in the next week!''

"Kyoto doesn't even know what he is now," Fung muttered under his breath.

"I'm gonna hit you so hard..."

“Avoid ethnic saeie food if you wish to retain the contents of your guts, unless you like rotten fish.”

"What the hell's a saeie?"

"Your mother."

"Fuck you,"

“Only go drinking the the George Lane area if you are willing to take a mortgage out on your house to buy a round.”

"Huh. Now I've gotta try some of whatever they're selling."

"Watch it be shitty mineral water."

"Probably..."

“Haggle when faced with a drewn or you will be ripped off, in fact haggle with any price out with a pub or restaurant (Tipping in both is optional and should only be given for very good service). But a good deal can be done and if you want anything the drewns in the tulums will have a cousin. ”

"Damn, kinda like our own markets, eh?"

"I wonder if you're allowed to barter for pleasure women."

“If your from a nation that we have had little contact with do not go to the money exchanges as they will give you for the least they can get. Go to the coin, note and stamp shops in sunana street you will get a good prince if your money looks nice (no matter the face value, sets sell very well for a lot more).”

"The exchange rate is probably shit anyway."

"Looks good?" Kyoto withdrew a single credit note, a dark blue bill with the familiar muzzle of the Emperor and a artist's rendering of the Imperial Palace on one side, with a stylized drawing of the world of Xiscapia, complete with her twin moons and orbiting defense station (appearing unarmed and in the wrong position of course). The words 'The Kitsune Empire of Xiscapia' had been emblazoned in black above the Emperor's head, with a large '1' on each corner of the credit, the seal of the Imperial Treasury between the Emperor and the Palace, and the words 'One Credit Note' stamped across the bottom.

"What'd you guys think?"

"I dunno," Sanderson grunted, looking at a few half credit coins in his palm. "With the Emperor's mug on it, they might fetch a few time's their worth. All depends."

"On what?"

"On how high, drunk, stoned or intoxicated the poor bastard money changer is when we present him with this."

Supreme Air lord Lady Ja XXIII sent a broadcast to the new ship above:

"Greetings

We welcome you, please send an envoy. We wish friendship only and possibly trade.

Lady Ja"

Once off line she said blink the torc net and I hope the Xiscapie like them.

A few seconds later the thousands of satellites that made up the torc net shut off their stealth systems to become visible for a second. If there was one thing the commonwealth was very much future tech in it was stealth tech. The torc system's satellites could only be detected by there gravitational signature even then it was vague the small satellites could easily be missed. The commonwealth had surrounded them with a nightmare of devices, the torc system was only part of the mine fields and other such fun things. Most privative but effective and lots of them, an H-bomb is an H-bomb and it doesn't matter how advanced a ship it, it will not do it any favours.

"Hmmm..." Marn seemed amused by the statement that had come up from the planet, an average system with a population of around ninety million people, though it appeared more heavily armed than one might be lead to believe. As soon as the John Valour had dropped out of Transwarp at the edge of orbit and moved forward, detecting the gravity wells of a rather extensive defensive system, though attempting to scan them at the moment was proving a fruitless activity.

"Sir, I have contact with a number of Xiscapian ships. Two Dominator-Class Battleships, a Wasp-Class Cruiser and two Marchamp-Frigates"

"I guess we have been invited to attend the party," he sighed to his Commander who nodded in agreement. They were about to make First Contact with these people, though curiously, there seemed to be no evidence of starcraft in immediate orbit and nothing on the planet seemed to suggest an advanced spacefaring race.

"Lieutenant," Marn turned to his Operations Officer, who had been conducting the scans and now looked up expectantly, "Can you beam me down to the location provided?"

"Aye Sir,"

"Very good, Lieutenant, please beam me down with the party requested."

It was only a few moments later that the party materilised in a shower of atoms and light. There was the Captain himself, standing with his hands behind his back, tail twitching, he was accompanied by another green haired, female Kitsune, his Security Chief and two other Ensigns of his crew who had joined him. He waited expectantly, looking around to see any evident of a greeting party. The ship went into a continious orbit above them.

Marra stood up before kneeling down and placing her mussel on Makura's knee
"I will take you sailing, that is not a request. It is now an order, I can tell you have not taken leave. Take it or I will make an issue of it." She said in her soft accent.

You will burn out, I will ensure that your data you hold so close and hide behind will get back home. I like you and you need time to rest.

To give Aeon a time to rest, we will let a candle boat take her from you. I can not imagine what it is like for you but many wise-women know. Many lost in the civil-war I was lucky, my home isle was untouched." she said quietly.

--
"Erm if it's a point and give some one as a bad day on the receiving end, it's a fire arm here."

--
OOC: I will get round to the greeting at the station and unless all arms placed in said boxes the train will stop in tunnel.

If anything Makura seemed surprised by Marra's closeness, almost recoiling at her touch. As she spoke he looked down at her and she could see tears gathering in his eyes. "Oh Marra..." He whispered, the fur around his eyes becoming damp, and he came down to her level, on his knees as well, and embraced her. He hadn't known this being for more than ten minutes and she'd already broken down his defenses and here he was, hugging her on the floor of a moving train, the pain he'd so carefully concealed and avoided suddenly fresh and raw and pounding. He rested his chin on shoulder, shaking slightly, struggling not to sob. All his carefully structured thoughts, the orders of First Contact, went out with the resurrected agony of the death of his first mate.

"Erm if it's a point and give some one as a bad day on the receiving end, it's a fire arm here."

Serj laughed again. "Never fear, dear Phontinia: All my men and crew are unarmed, excluding myself of course." A worried expression crossed his visage. "What of my blade?" He gestured to the black sword sheathed on at his hip. "Many of our officers carry swords; it's a symbol of rank, of position, of power. I can swear on my honor, and they on theirs, that they will not draw it against any person. Please, may we be permitted to retain them? For the sake of custom and tradition, you understand."

Marra's thoughts were more that of a wise woman than a diplomat. Her family were in fact both, when young one when older the other. Her great grandmother was once the wise woman of her small home isle, her grand mother was now. She had be brought up by her great grandmother as her mother and grandmother were diplomats at the time so spent much of their time traveling.

She had picked up things, for one having two ears and one mouth.

“Be, as Makura not a science officer, I will listen. You have to remember who you are before you forget who you are entirely and lose what time you were blessed with, with Aeon..”She said quietly before pulling back.

“We are almost there, best clean your self up. You can't get out of the reception but I suspect you can leave with me later.” she smiled

Them smiled quietly “Request leave before you are asked to.”

Marra remembered the seas around the saeie isles as red with flames as her people put their people to rest after the civil war. Each sent out in a boat, most with several on single square rigged craft. Hundreds of candle craft and the howling.

Her people and especially her family understood how people dealt with death. Her people were the second oldest civilisation in the commonwealth, only the teerie were older. Her family had been diplomats for first their chief, then their lord, then Sae and now the commonwealth and had always returned home to fore-fill their roll as wise woman. So as they were as close to clergy as the saeie got, people came to them when in trouble or when they needed an ear.

Her people's way of dealing with death was to take it head on, carry out a rite, howl, cry and then get outrageously drunk celebrating the persons life.

–
“Oh swords and things, not a problem. If we did, it would make life somewhat complex as most of the lucan council carry them. Best not piss off the monarchs and nobility. Not that they have power but on paper they do control the military, the police, us and the rest of the civil service.

I'm no expert but I think you second is having a break down, no offence.” said flicking her eyes towards Makura.

“I think a quietly hidden leave might be in order, kept between us so as to not cause embarrassment. I doubt you will have much need for a science officer down here once you get access to our net, I suspect most of what you want to know is on it somewhere...if you can find it amongst all the rubbish.”

Her eyes flicked to her small hand held device and she looked very confuse, her ears pointed in different directions. Then she regained composure.

“Hmm the Atcu's leader will be at the reception, I'm not sure how that is possible. The actu, our A.Is live on the net and have no real physical form. They live in machines, perhaps they are sending a drone. I dunno.

Sorry this is weird.

You have to understand the Actu were never intentionally created, they just kinda happened. They now own the isle of Acta, a naturally toxic wasteland.

No one wanted it and after the great war no one claimed it so it remained outside the commonwealth they built their huge data centre under it. Then requested full membership, they never had it before as they had no physical homeland before then. They even have a queen now, though only one seat in parliament as there are only twenty five thousand of them, well less than the eighty thousand needed for a second seat, last count. But they have the same rights as everyone else.” she said, she knew the actu were up to something. They always were.

–

“So Lantia fscked then” one of the drewns said.
“Look I'm not that bad I can behave” Lantia said back.
“Just how many marks do you have on your record?”
Lantia smiled “More than any other pilot, stuff em any hoo. It wouldn;t be the first time I've been thrown out the parliamentary complex...”
“Yeah last time was for landing a microlight on the roof, wasn't it.”
“Look it was for a bet.”
“You had got s**t faced again, hadn't you”
“Perhaps.”

The drewn speaking to Yan quietly said “Don't underestimate him, he is good and I mean very good. But pick a biplane he is not so good at them. Piston engined then you stand a good chance”

Alversian team had materialised in the vast public lobby of the parliamentary complex, it was deserted. It was a quarter day, so the parliament wasn't in session and most of the government was shut. Also as the rugby was on so most of the normal tourists and visitors.

The lack of a delegation was due to a miscommunication, they were meant to arrive at the air base, but had been given the co-ordinates of the parliamentary complex. Also as the commonwealth had no experience with beam tech and as they had not noticed a shuttle weren't expecting anyone.

Sat at the information desk was a teerie, A tall green skunk like creature, she was engrossed in a crossword.

She looked up and say the group but mistook them for local vulpines, fur dying was not unknown. But went back to her crossword, she had almost finished. They were oddly dressed but the teerie figured they we part of come club or something.

Marn's tail swished from side to side in surprise at the emptiness of the lobby and turned to face his Security Chief, eyebrows raised. He could see her hand straying to the pistol at her side and he discreetly shook his head, signalling that she was not to make any hostile moves until they were sure of any problems. The two Ensigns looked strangely out of place, both with pale skin and standing nearly 7ft tall each. They looked around in the silence, uncomfortable with it. There should have been someone here.

Marn tapped the communcator in his ear,
"Marn to J.V," He said it as loudly as he would speak normally, "Double check those co-ordinates again, see if you put us in the right place"

A pause,

"We are? Alright, thank you Lieutenant." Marn sighed and looked straight ahead at the reception and the strange creature located behind it. He supposed it was a Native but he had no idea what he was supposed to ask. He knew the translator would function for their language and so he could speak it and understand it but...

Taking a deep breath, Marn cleared his throat and looked at the Secretary,
"Excuse me," He asked politely in her language, "Could you possibly tell us where we are on this planet?"

OOC: Sorry long one
IC:
The teerie said without looking up "The Parliamentary complex, where do you think."

Then muttered "Why do I always attract the wierdos. Ten down foreign five letters starting with A and ending with N....I know I know this."

At this point an odd looking group approached them, two of them walked a little oddly and showed very little body language. The group was oddly quiet as they approached. It was led by, what appeared to be, a rather attractive vupline in a long white dress, she was one of the ones that were moving a little oddly. Behind her was, what appeared to be, a tall leefen (Black puma*) dressed in a green sari like dress with her arm around, what appeared to be, a tall lupine (wolf like) who was waring a black tee-shirt and black jeans. Bringing up the rear was an odd looking creature, she had the green colouring and bushy tail of a teerie but the rest of her looked vulpine. She was, what appeared to, be what the commonwealth called a hybe, a hybrid.

None of them were what you would call unattractive.

The vulpine approached the information desk and said "Excuse me." as she passed the captain.
She addressed the teerie "We are the Actu delegation please provide us with our us with our access cards."
The teerie rolled her eyes "why me" she muttered.
"Look you are not an actu your a nutter." she said with obvious annoyance.
The 'vulpine' looked at the card printer on the desk, then her eyes flipped to the top left for a second and then the printer sprang to life.
The teerie jumped and looked at it shocked, then at her computer screen then at the vulpine.
"How in the ancestors name did you do that?!" she exclaimed.
"I'm an actu." She replied leaning over the desk and taking the access cards. All of the cards had the correct details on them for her group.

Meanwhile the others in the group had wandered over to the landing party.
"Wotcha!" the 'lupine' said tapping a finger to his fore head.
"I'm Laca, this is Joan" he continued he continued indicating the 'leefen' he hand his arm around she smiled.
"that is queen Jane of the Actu" he continued jerking his head in the direction of the vulpine.
"and this is Lisa, well soon to be the right honourable Lisa soon" he finished indicating the 'Hybe' she bowed her head slightly.

He turned to Lisa and said "Speak for goddess sake people are going to be creeped out enough by these and blink both eyes at the same time. I don't care if it's not optimal, doing one at a time is just creepy."

"Sorry, you guys aren't from round here are you. Your not Xiscapian as they're just getting here, I'm guessing your from the other lot up there. Oh yeah, fire arms are not aloud in the parliamentary complex do you want me to organise a place for you to check them?

Please introduce your selves." he said turning back to the landing party.

* Yeah I know you don't get black pumas but you don't get anthropomorphic talking ones either ;-P

OOC:Though the 'Actu' appear organic and for the most part are they are actually bio drones. The Actu controling them are not present in the bodies, they are somewhere else on the net. They have kept the existence of the bio drones quiet and the government of the commonwealth does not know of their existence as, as with all of the citizens/subjects of the commonwealth, the government keeps their nose out of their business.

Outwardly they appear to be normal organic creatures, but if you scan them you will find the contents of their skulls very different. It contains largely crystalline components of a computer, bio/electric converter and transmitters.

“We are almost there, best clean your self up. You can't get out of the reception but I suspect you can leave with me later. Request leave before you are asked to.”

Makura smiled balefully, rubbing at his eyes and trying to clear away the liquid that had gathered there. "Alright, alright..." He mumbled, standing now and looking embarrassed. "So unprofessional of me, you have my apologies..." His datapad hummed and chimed, indicating there was a message incoming, but he stabbed a button with one finger and the screen went dark. Whatever it was, it couldn't be that important.

"I'm no expert but I think you second is having a break down, no offence. I think a quietly hidden leave might be in order, kept between us so as to not cause embarrassment. I doubt you will have much need for a science officer down here once you get access to our net, I suspect most of what you want to know is on it somewhere...if you can find it amongst all the rubbish.”

Serj glanced over at Makura, surprised at what he saw there, and looked away abruptly, as though shamed. "My apologies Lady Phontinia, he will be repramanded. I will order him leave, though I have no doubt he will be eager to take it anyway; one of the junior scientists can take up the retrieval and dumping of the data we are given access to."

“Hmm the Atcu's leader will be at the reception, I'm not sure how that is possible. The actu, our A.Is live on the net and have no real physical form. They live in machines, perhaps they are sending a drone. I dunno.

Sorry this is weird.

You have to understand the Actu were never intentionally created, they just kinda happened. They now own the isle of Acta, a naturally toxic wasteland.

No one wanted it and after the great war no one claimed it so it remained outside the commonwealth they built their huge data centre under it. Then requested full membership, they never had it before as they had no physical homeland before then. They even have a queen now, though only one seat in parliament as there are only twenty five thousand of them, well less than the eighty thousand needed for a second seat, last count. But they have the same rights as everyone else.”

"So they are sapient automation's who evolved on their own after their creation?" He asked, thinking of the Shipbrains once encountered by an Xiscapian scout. They had been massive computers built into ships that were as alive as anything could be without actually being organic, holding many thousands of humans. The Shipbrains had started out as being created by the humans, but the computers quickly surpassed their masters in all ways and grew to be some of the most intelligent beings in existence, possibly smarter than any biological could ever hope to be. He wondered if the Atcu were following the same path.

Then, abruptly, his vox unit squawked as the Smoke contacted him. "Excuse me a moment," Serj rose and walked a few feet away, back to his counterpart, mouth and ears close to the communicator. "Rear Admiral Serj, what's the problem, over."

"Rear Admiral," His communications officer was speaking to him, "an Alversian warship has just entered the system and fallen into orbit around the planet. Scanners indicate energy signatures which suggest they may have sent down delegates, and some transmissions have been monitored between the vessel and the planet, over."

"I see," Serj responded simply. Should have known they would take an interest too. Somebody back at the Motherland probably told them about this. "Have you managed to identify the vessel, over."

"It appears to be the Heavy Cruiser APS John Valour, sir. Records indicate that it is commanded by Captain Marn, over."

"A kitsune." Serj said without surprise. More and more frequently, Alversian kitsune were showing up in APA and APN positions.

"Yes sir. Shall we extend a greeting, over."

"Give them the usual welcome, no doubt we'll meet up with their party somewhere along the line, over."

"Wilco, Rear Admiral. Also, there's a Junior technician by the name of Kham who wants to speak to you or Chief Scientist Makura personally. He has tried to contact the Chief Scientist, who has not responded-"

Is that so? Serj glanced over at Makura again.

"-so he wants to speak to you. He says it's urgent, sir, and he won't share it over this channel, he seems to have discovered some sensitive information, over."

"Of what nature, over."

"He won't say, sir, but he requests your permission to board the next shuttle down so he can share it with you, over."

Hmm. "Send him down, but inform him I'm going to be meeting with the leaders of this planet momentarily, whatever it is will have to wait until after the conference, over and out."

"Yes sir, right away sir."

Serj turned the vox off and turned back to Phontinia. "Sorry about that, Mi'lady, it seems we have some new arrivals." He smiled gently.

“So Lantia fscked then”

"I dunno about that," the Marine drawled, looking Lantia up and down. "You and me look like we've 'bout the same size, I'll lend you my bodyglove," he patted the covering he wore, "and if nobody looks too closely they might think you're one of us, but if you barf your guts out all of this I'm gonna have to knock out a coupla teeth. Not to mention I could get throw inna brig for 'ssisting an alien in impersonating an Imperial soldier, so you're gonna have to make it worth my while." He grinned.

“Don't underestimate him, he is good and I mean very good. But pick a biplane he is not so good at them. Piston engined then you stand a good chance.”

"Biplane, huh?" Yan looked at the Drewn. "That's the kinda thing we keep in museums, it'll be interestin', flyin' one of those." She snickered. "Flyboy over there's gonna get 'is tail 'anded to 'em."

Marn raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked over at his three other Alversian crew. His Tactical Offer had her hand on the barrel of her weapon, but she did not bring it out, relaxing when Marn nodded to indicate that he agreed to the security protocol,
"Of course," He said simply, "I understand the precautions," He took out his pistol, a standard laser pistol of the APN, followed by his other crewmen, "However," He said this part most solumnly, tail flicking to show his seriousness, "I must insist that I keep my katana. It holds...special significance to my people" He stated calmly.

He found this people curious, eccentric and he was wondering what the whole thing was about this particular group who had met him. The shock on the face of the young Secratary who clearly didn't see that many of them indicated secrecy, perhaps a secret security force of some kind. He was unsure of their aims nor their purpose, but he knew that up in orbit, his Operations Officer had a lock on him with the transporters and that the John Valour could be out of here within seconds. The presence of the Xiscapians was also a nice little backup in case their intentions were hostile. Somehow, he doubted it though.

Makura smiled balefully, rubbing at his eyes and trying to clear away the liquid that had gathered there. "Alright, alright..." He mumbled, standing now and looking embarrassed. "So unprofessional of me, you have my apologies..." His datapad hummed and chimed, indicating there was a message incoming, but he stabbed a button with one finger and the screen went dark. Whatever it was, it couldn't be that important.

Mara smiled “No need to apologise it is not your fault, you are only a person after all. The only person at fault is who ever has allowed the situation to get to the point where this has happened.

Who is in charge of looking after this” she said tapping her head

“And this on your ship?” she patted her chest over her heart and tilted her head slightly.

“I think the first order of business will be once your on leave to get you into civees, I know a few good clothes shops and I have an expense account. Then perhaps a meal before getting the sleeper to ne-leck, not the fastest way, by a long shot, to get there but very relaxing? We could get a CAT and be there in about and hour. But I feel the last thing you need is to be rushing about.” she continued and smiled.

Serj glanced over at Makura, surprised at what he saw there, and looked away abruptly, as though shamed. "My apologies Lady Phontinia, he will be repramanded. I will order him leave, though I have no doubt he will be eager to take it anyway; one of the junior scientists can take up the retrieval and dumping of the data we are given access to."

Phontinia looked a little confuse, her ears pointed in random directions “Why would you reprimand him, he's the victim?”

“Surly it should be your ships wise woman, shaman or I think some peoples refer to them as chaplains or who ever it is that looks after the spiritual and/or psychological health of your crew, that deserves the reprimand. They have failed him and by proxy you. For someone to have such a break down means they must have been stewing for some time, it should have been spotted.

Sorry my sister is a sea knight and believe me she would be baying for the blood of her ship's wise woman if what happened to your science officer happened to one of her crew. It's the way we do things, you have an engineer to look after the engines, but you also have some one to look after the most important asset of a ship, it's crew. A medic can fix them physically and ensure their physical health but some one must be held responsible for the crews spiritual and psychological health.” she continued, her ears were pointing forwards now.

“As a favour to me could you not reprimand him, as I think that putting more stress on hime would only cause him to break down further, perhaps to a point where he can't be fixed. Give him leave but call it..hmm a 'deep anthropological research' mission so as not to put a black mark on his record.

I will assign Mara to him as, well she has kinda self selected. Given a couple of weeks, may be a little more. You can pick up a fully functional science officer rather than one that appears to have been close to brake down for a while.

It was probably a good thing it happened here rather than when you really needed him.” she cocked her head.

“Deal? It's probably not standard procedure but you are here to learn about us, are you not?” She asked

"So they are sapient automation's who evolved on their own after their creation?"

Phontinia smiled “Er...from what little I know, I'm no expert in the field they weren't even created as A.I.s. They are the product of a self optimising operating system written a long time past. It was and still is the most popular OS for big iron as it is horribly efficient. The thing is for some reason Actus emerge from the OS, no one is sure why. You can have the fastest machine ever made and the OS installed running for years, but no actu actually emerges. A fairly low spec machine and the OS installed, bang you have emergance with in a week.”

Phontinia laughed “We accepted them easily due to most of our beliefs, believe that the spirt leaves on death and rests for a while before finding a new shell. So the idea that some spirits took a non-biological shell was not a major jump for us.”

“Do you guys have A.I.s like them? Then again our computing tech is kinda advanced by most standards, we went optical some time back and only silicon in cheap things like basic coms# and net books that only cost about ten to twenty meeps.” she continued.


Hmm. "Send him down, but inform him I'm going to be meeting with the leaders of this planet momentarily, whatever it is will have to wait until after the conference, over and out."

Phontinia smiled then said “In repayment of the favour I asked, that sounded of import, I think I can wangle use of the heliport at the parliament so that you can talk to him sooner. But it will be for once craft, it would also mean you could get back to your ship quicker. Should needs be.”


"I dunno about that," the Marine drawled, looking Lantia up and down. "You and me look like we've 'bout the same size, I'll lend you my bodyglove," he patted the covering he wore, "and if nobody looks too closely they might think you're one of us, but if you barf your guts out all of this I'm gonna have to knock out a coupla teeth. Not to mention I could get throw inna brig for 'ssisting an alien in impersonating an Imperial soldier, so you're gonna have to make it worth my while." He grinned.

Lantia said “You don't have crabs or anything do you?”

One of the drewn's sighed “For fsck sake, how long can you go with out putting your foot in your mouth?” to Lantia.

“Look it's a legitimate concern, one hundred meeps*, the addresses of a number of 'specialist' clubs and a hook up with a guy that can get you any, and I mean any, physical pleasure your could ever want. Not one that says they can, this guy delivers every time, but he works by introduction as there are a few things that are tricky to find here.” Lantia smiled.

"Biplane, huh?" Yan looked at the Drewn. "That's the kinda thing we keep in museums, it'll be interestin', flyin' one of those." She snickered. "Flyboy over there's gonna get 'is tail 'anded to 'em."

The drewn smiled “They are for the most part museums pieces and have been for some time. But they still make em for the aerobatics, racing and hobby markets. Dunno, but you fly types seem to love the simplicity as I know many pilots that fly the things. I s'pose it's cause they are so simple, totally mechanical, no power assistance, no fly by wire..well other than the wires linking your controls to the flaps and s**t, as in steal wires, no leccy. Heck most don't even have started motors, I've always figured it's a nostalgia thing.”

* one meep = 2ns$ (ish)
# The coms your guys were given are cheap bottom of the line things as the commonwealth government reckons they won't see most of them again.

Queen Jane said, “We're not security, those organics will be here in a moment.” sounding quite insulted as she turned away.

Laca put had his head in his paws he sighed “Don't mind her, she's always like this when their doing hardware upgrades on main machine at the met office and she had to decamp else where.” He said quietly.

Laca turned to Lisa and said “Well you have a tong in that head, use it.”

Lisa made a few odd noises before Laca looked at her, then she started talking with an identical voice to Jane's.
“It seems there's been a bit of a snafu on our end, I'm speaking with the foreign office types. Oh yeah I'll organise you come accommodation, right that's that done.” Lisa said, but her voice was getting softer accent to it all the way through time she was speaking.

What was odd was that she didn't seem to have a communication device, there was no sign of an ear piece and she didn't seem to be talking to anyone but them. It was almost like they were psychic, to most people this would be a little disconcerting. Also the fact Laca kept having half conversations with her, like what she had said had come some other way.

Of course this what was going on was that the actus were talking over the net by passing the bio-drones. The Alversian also wouldn't know they were being watched by hundreds of Actu who had patched into the bio-drones feeds out of curiosity.

Lisa smiled “Looks like we're the ones that'll be looking after you...One mo.”

Lisa then did something very odd and looked at each of them in turn, smiled. The teerie at the desk jumped as the card printer sprang to life again. Another Teerie was stood next to her in a red jacket and baggy commdats, with him he had a number of crystalline boxes. Lisa walked over to the desk returning with a number of cards.

“Right, these are your access cards, they are proximity based so just keep them one you and check your weapons with him. Don't worry once sealed there is no way to get into the boxes with out shattering them, feel free to mark them in anyway you wish.” Lisa said, her accent was still softening.

The next surprise was when they received their cards, they had their photos on them, that were recent, like about five seconds old.

Laca tilted his head and said “You know you have not told us who you are and what your names are.” smiling (but not showing teeth).

Marn bowed to Lady Jane,
"My apologies Ma'am." He said calmly, inwardly wondering why she was so bad-tempered over so small a mistake. The explaination he recieved satisfied his curiousity. He nodded to his Officers as the boxes appeared, each placing their pistols into a box each. However, Marn and his Kitsune retained their Katanas, as was their custom. The other surprise came with their cards. He raised his eyebrows at the sight, but such things were not uncommon across the galaxy. It was simple to take a holo-image then to download it into a datacard for use. He supposed to this people it was advanced.

The other thing that surprised him was the apparently non-organic beings who were meeting him. He was surprised, of course he was surprised that these people had come up with such advanced technology. He was curious, they were almost like Alversian AI's. However, he refrained from commenting as he was asked a question,
"Apologies, I am Captain Marn of the Alversian Warship John Valour. This is Lieutenant Commander Aan with Ensigns McKay and Banks"

There seemed to be a problem with the Foreign Office or something. Perhaps they had been sent the wrong co-ordinates? That sounded similiar to problems with pre-FTL nations, or nations without beaming technology. Again, he refrained from commentating.

Laca smiled at Marn “So what do you fancy, I could show you to your quarters or we could get a drink?

You no doubt have may questions, feel free to ask. I don't take offence and the actu are amongst the nicest and most peaceful people you could meet. Jane is, well Jane, she has had little contact with the organics here despite being the oldest Actu. They're a gerontocracy, so as the oldest she was made queen...well oldest but one. But that is a long story.

You have figured what they are, why their forms, what in the goddess's name is Lisa based on? Feel free to ask anything. You will find the organics her very open and frank. Though some can be be a little cagey, you have to understand.

I hope you don't mind us hiding the new drones behind you and the others as we want to ease in the new designs, I hope you understand.

But please ask.”

Strictly speaking he was not an actu, that was becoming apparent, though he was an AI, well now.

–
Meanwhile Joan had latched onto the tactical officer who had shown the largest sign stress. She had emerged in the high temple archive of the acline high temple and had been surrounded by the sisterhood. She was also the second best at using these drones as she had a fascination with the physical plain and used drones far more than most actu (Though the ones there were new, she use the mechanicals ones mostly, bio-drones where in their infancy. But she had localise and used it as had Laca (do the maths on that)).

She smiled at the tactical officer and asked in an almost French accent though deep and soft “What is your home world like. The place where your heart is, my homeland should be acta but it will never be, it is a toxic wasteland. My heart lives in inleef and acline where I emerged.

It's temples and people. If every you have doubts about why your here ask a priestess, they talked me through so much, alone, confused, the third of my kind. They are no religious fanatics, Tyie returned power back to the nobles and so the parliament, she only took power due to the civil war because she was forced.

You may meet her tonight.

I feel Acline might be a place that would like.”

–
Lisa was left with the ensigns as Jane as ignoring everyone.

Lisa nodded at the confused pair “Don't worry if they pop people it's at the top of the ranks. Where you guys from any how?”

OOC: Can I hop in here?

"I have only one real question at the moment," Marn said patiently, "And I would enjoy a local drink that you very much" He smiled. He listened to the explanation and smiled again,
"I am curious, you have sent probes deep into space and you appear to have advance cybernetic forms, yet we did not detect any Native spacecraft. I was wondering how such an event is possible."

The Ensigns looked at each other for a minute, it was the Lieutenant Commander who spoke,
"We are from a planet known as Alversia. However, My Parents were born on Xiscapia, an allied planet."

Laca smiled "Well you see, we did extensive research on our home system some time ago, but we found that though there were a lot of resources out there the cost in finance and lives would be greater than the benefit of exploiting them.

We never got into the whole pissing competition that is a space race so no member of the commonwealth bothered to have a furred space program. We have never sent a person into space by our own means as it appeared to be costly, dangerous and, ultimately, pointless.

Believe that will change now we have acquired faster than light transit that is cheap. I'm fairly sure it was by mistake but the commonwealth's history is full of such useful errors. The drones are just path finders, to allow us to figure out where the vibe drive takes us. Two thirds never report in as they wined up in stars, black holes and the like the rest. Well we are making a map of via the uses of the stars."

Laca laughed "It's bizarre that we are effectively navigating the ways our earliest ancestors did."

"Anyway there's a place on the fourty second floor of the executive spire, I think you will like. I would take you out side the complex. But the rugby is on so it will be insane out there, you guys do sport?"

A thought struck Laca, he had never though of the bio-drones as cyborgs. He had always thought of cyborgs as having an organic brain with a mechanical body, not a in-organic brain with and organic body. But that kinda summed up the commonwealth, never doing things the way you expected and quite often in ways you would never expect.

He lead the way towards small circular a part of the floor and smiled as it started to be lifted by a hydraulic ram towards the next floor, a hundred feet above them.
--
Lisa nodded "You guys in a big alliance or is it just you and them? Oh yeah tell me of your home."

“I think the first order of business will be once your on leave to get you into civees, I know a few good clothes shops and I have an expense account. Then perhaps a meal before getting the sleeper to ne-leck, not the fastest way, by a long shot, to get there but very relaxing? We could get a CAT and be there in about and hour. But I feel the last thing you need is to be rushing about.”

"No..." Makura smiled faintly. "It might be comfortable, but I'd rather take things more slowly, at least for the time being. New clothes sounds nice though, we can start from there after the conference and see what comes up. This...new-leek?" His mangled the prononciation horribly. "Is that where you come from?"

“Why would you reprimand him, he's the victim?”

"His behavior is not fitting for a scientific officer on a diplomatic mission. It is an...embaressment." Serj looked at Makura again.

“Surly it should be your ships wise woman, shaman or I think some peoples refer to them as chaplains or who ever it is that looks after the spiritual and/or psychological health of your crew, that deserves the reprimand. They have failed him and by proxy you. For someone to have such a break down means they must have been stewing for some time, it should have been spotted.

Sorry my sister is a sea knight and believe me she would be baying for the blood of her ship's wise woman if what happened to your science officer happened to one of her crew. It's the way we do things, you have an engineer to look after the engines, but you also have some one to look after the most important asset of a ship, it's crew. A medic can fix them physically and ensure their physical health but some one must be held responsible for the crews spiritual and psychological health.”

"We've had to go without a resident priest in the fleet for some time now, after the Church recalled the last one. Our psychologist and even Makura himself said he's fine, and we didn't think anything more of it..." Serj licked his chops. "Apparently not. He was always a tad reclusive, so between that and burying himself and his work I don't think anyone saw the warning signs."

“As a favour to me could you not reprimand him, as I think that putting more stress on hime would only cause him to break down further, perhaps to a point where he can't be fixed. Give him leave but call it..hmm a 'deep anthropological research' mission so as not to put a black mark on his record.

I will assign Mara to him as, well she has kinda self selected. Given a couple of weeks, may be a little more. You can pick up a fully functional science officer rather than one that appears to have been close to brake down for a while.

It was probably a good thing it happened here rather than when you really needed him.

Deal? It's probably not standard procedure but you are here to learn about us, are you not?”

"I suppose..." Serj sounded hesitat, but what his counterpart proposed was the cleanest, more graceful way out aside from removing Makura from the assingnment entirely, and who knows? It might do the scientist some good. "Alright," the Rear Admiral said finally. "I won't reprimand him, but as soon as we leave that conference he's going on leave."

“Do you guys have A.I.s like them? Then again our computing tech is kinda advanced by most standards, we went optical some time back and only silicon in cheap things like basic coms and net books that only cost about ten to twenty meeps.”

Serj listened with great interest: It was fascinating that entire sapient beings could come out of mere operating systems, but if there was a whole society of them it obviously wasn't a fluke...at least, not on this world.

"We have artifical constructs, yes, but most aren't nearly so comprehensive, the majority of our A.I. is kept semi-sentient. Some have achieved great intelligence, but most of them don't even compare to your Actus, I'm sure. While we place a great empathise on computer-driven and self-reliant technology, we try to avoid actually 'creating' artifical life because of the whole host of moral and ethical questions that come into play because of it."

“In repayment of the favour I asked, that sounded of import, I think I can wangle use of the heliport at the parliament so that you can talk to him sooner. But it will be for once craft, it would also mean you could get back to your ship quicker. Should needs be.”

Serj dipped his head deferentially. "Many thanks Lady Phontinia, it's probably nothing but he might have found something important. I'll have the shuttle redirect to the parliament so I can speak to that technican before the conference begins."

“You don't have crabs or anything do you?”

The Marine blinked in confusion. "Do I have what now?" STDs were nearly unheard of among the Xiscapians.

“Look it's a legitimate concern, one hundred meeps*, the addresses of a number of 'specialist' clubs and a hook up with a guy that can get you any, and I mean any, physical pleasure your could ever want. Not one that says they can, this guy delivers every time, but he works by introduction as there are a few things that are tricky to find here.”

Now the Marine grinned. "That'll be just fine," He started undoing the straps and zippers on his bodyglove, shrugging out of it and handing the black material over to Lantia, now wearing nothing more than shorts. "Hurry up, I think we're getting close."

“They are for the most part museums pieces and have been for some time. But they still make em for the aerobatics, racing and hobby markets. Dunno, but you fly types seem to love the simplicity as I know many pilots that fly the things. I s'pose it's cause they are so simple, totally mechanical, no power assistance, no fly by wire..well other than the wires linking your controls to the flaps and s**t, as in steal wires, no leccy. Heck most don't even have started motors, I've always figured it's a nostalgia thing.”

"No crash netting, no escape shuttle, no proxy alarms or shields," muttered Yan, grinning to show the lack of such safety features didn't really bother her. "It'll be different, that's for sure."

"Rugby?" Marn's smile almost stretched from ear to ear at the mention of the familiar sport.
"It so happens that rugby is the second most popular sport on Alversia, behind a sport known as Gaelic Football. I would be delighted to visit this floor and see what it has to offer." He walked alongside the Actu, still wondering why no one had ever thought to try and travel into space. Not for resources or for prestige but simply for exploration, to see what was out there. Then again the Alversians had had it relatively easy to travel into space, stealing the technology that had been abandoned by the retreating Photenican Empire. They had simply stolen the ships left on the ground and developed their own technology.

"I am curious though, as to how an entire city could grind to a halt for a sporting event," He smiled at that again, Alversia always ground to a halt for the Supercup, the biggest event in Alversian Gaelic Football.

--

"We are in an Alliance yes, and have been for a great many years" She answered, "Alversia and Xiscapia are very close in friendship. Many of our peoples have moved to Alversia to settle and vice versa. My family were one of the first, who moved with a software company to take advantage of a new market. I was born there, it's all I've ever known. My home was in Illesia City, the capital, a sprawling land of glass and steel. A place where the modern mixes with the traditional, where the streets and plazas explode with all kinds of trees and flowers. It's also connected to the turquoise sea via long, sandy golden beaches." She sighed for a moment, thinking of home before snapping back to the modern world,

"And you?" She asked, curious, "Where are you from?"

Laca eyes had lit up when he had heard Alversian plaid rugby, though the nations of the commonwealth played each other yearly in the commonwealth cup, a nation would improve things. They had stopped next to where jane was standing and a clear tube started to descend from the ceiling.

Laca then smiled "City, more like nation. Well it's a quarter day any how so most things are closed anyway and we are a little sports mad. Especially when it comes to the commonwealth cup, lots of old rivalries come to the surface. You see we my well share a government, but you'll never get us to share a rugby team. Some things are more important than mere government."

Then asked "Out of intrest do you play as one nation internationally or are you like us? Then again I suppose that does depend on if your a sate of multiple nations or a nation state."

As the tube had reached the floor and the floor started to slowly rise up the tube below the group..
---
Lisa smiled and her tail twitch she mused "That is an interesting question"

"Well this drone was created in actu bio-works down in Teu but my conciousness emerged here...well about fifty meters below where we are now in server room seven in a machine call poppy, I think that's were it was." she comtinued

Her eyes went a little misty "They were simpler days, in the email server."

"Oh yeah, any things I shouldn't say or do when around your people?"

OCC: @Theoroshia sure hop in, I PMed you some info

"Alversia is very similiar when it comes to our Super Cup," Marn smiled, "We often find that the things that most engage us are the most trivial. I do enjoy a spot of rugby but I will say that I prefer our own native football" He looked surprised for a moment, "It is rare to find Planetary teams outside our own colonies and so we do play intercity, or intercontinent teams. However, I have been reliably informed that the John Valour crew have several rugby enthusiasts and I have no doubt that I could knock a team up if you so desired." He smiled.

--

"I see," The Lieutenant Commander was silent for a moment, "So you are an Artificial Intelligence?" She asked, wondering what an Actu was overall. She seemed to have been 'born' down below this building. An interesting item indeed.

"No..." Makura smiled faintly. "It might be comfortable, but I'd rather take things more slowly, at least for the time being. New clothes sounds nice though, we can start from there after the conference and see what comes up. This...new-leek?" His mangled the prononciation horribly. "Is that where you come from?"

Mara gave a gentle smile then say "Oh no I'm not from ne-leck, I'm from a small village called marinie on the isle of Tanial in the isles of sae. I don't think it is even on most maps as it is so small, the entire isle's population is only about fifty, my grandmother teaches at the primary school. I remember having to sail to secondary school on a neighbour isle, well it meant I got more of a lye in as the school ferry came past at stupid AM.

Right to getting you some clothes. What is your normal style when out of uniform? Tee shirt and jeans or something more formal?"

She cocked her head.

--

"His behavior is not fitting for a scientific officer on a diplomatic mission. It is an...embaressment." Serj looked at Makura again.

Phontinia smiled "It could have been so much worse and well we won't mention it to anyone else, I'll even leave it out of my report and Mara will too. It never happened"

"We've had to go without a resident priest in the fleet for some time now, after the Church recalled the last one. Our psychologist and even Makura himself said he's fine, and we didn't think anything more of it..." Serj licked his chops. "Apparently not. He was always a tad reclusive, so between that and burying himself and his work I don't think anyone saw the warning signs."

Phontinia thought for a second, she was trying to put into diplomatic language what she was thinking: Your support people really screwed up if mara who is not even a fully trained wise woman spotted it and your guys missed it.

Phontinia ears twitched and she said "Perhaps your support people may wish to speak with our people that support our military personnel? That way they can learn from each other and prevent future problems like those that Makura has suffered?"

"I suppose..." Serj sounded hesitat, but what his counterpart proposed was the cleanest, more graceful way out aside from removing Makura from the assingnment entirely, and who knows? It might do the scientist some good. "Alright," the Rear Admiral said finally. "I won't reprimand him, but as soon as we leave that conference he's going on leave."

Phontinia smiled "Surly you mean send him on a research mission, I get the feeling that if you gave him leave he might hide back on you ship. I'm no wise woman but I doubt that would be healthy."

She thought for a second "hmm just tell him that as he has already managed to get close to one of us that he might be more useful if he used this to gain more knowledge or the people here. Especially the none vulpines so you know what your dealing with, but not to report in too often as you don't want them to know you and it would make the results less useful?"

She cocked her head.

--
'creating' artifical life because of the whole host of moral and ethical questions that come into play because of it."

Phontinia's ears pointed in random directions then she said "Well we didn't set out to create the actu, they just happened and they are certainly sapient. The fact they run actu inc, it took a while to notice this, there are so many corps out there. We long ago recognised them as citizens, well subjects and we had surprisingly little trouble doing so. I s'pose it has to do with our multiple races and religions.

The leefen recognised them first, which is not surprising as third of the actu to emerge was in one of there temple archive machines. You see the leefen believe that the spirit rest after death and enters a new shell when it is rested enough. To them the idea that a spirit entered a a machine was not that much of a jump I s'pose. But I'm not a very religious person."

---
Above the parliamentary complex the shuttle was drawfted by the massive spires of the complex. Below them the roof in the centre of the three spires opened, the eight sections retracted to reveal the heliport's entrance, circular in nature.

In the heliport, along with a number of chinook like helicopters, were a small number of pict VTOL fighter bombers. The fact they had forward swept wings belied their hypersonic nature, they were not part of the air force but rather the commonwealth guard.

---
Now the Marine grinned. "That'll be just fine," He started undoing the straps and zippers on his bodyglove, shrugging out of it and handing the black material over to Lantia, now wearing nothing more than shorts. "Hurry up, I think we're getting close."

Lantia was pulling on the body glove, it wasn't that different to a calie flight suit's under clothing, he had passed his uniform to the other vulpine. A thought struck Lantia he asked "What about that prat of a yoman you have? He will blow my cover for sure."

One of the drewns smiled as he walked towards them with a handle in his hand.
"Oh he's likely to have trouble leaving the bog, I suspect he's kinda locked in there now" he said stifling a laugh.

"Won't you get in trouble?" Lantia asked, concerned.

"Oh no, he'll file a huge report on why we should all be court marshalled, as usual. The knight might read it and might pass it up the chain. Then it will land on Lo's desk and she will see who filed it and bin it. they guy's a waste of space.

Forty years in the army and he only got the promotion when he left to join the commonwealth guard as they were glad to be shot of him. They never threw him out as he never did anything wrong, he dotted every I can crossed every T, the guys a paper pusher.

I mean forty years in the military and he has not managed to even become a knight."

"No crash netting, no escape shuttle, no proxy alarms or shields," muttered Yan, grinning to show the lack of such safety features didn't really bother her. "It'll be different, that's for sure."

The drewn smiled "You fly types are nuts, but at least you get a parachute."

---
They pulled into the parliamentary complex's station, it was marble lined and quite elegant, even though it was deep below the surface. An honer guard of vulpines stood neatly at attention.

Laca smiled as they reached the next floor and queen Jane headed towards a more conventional lift that was oddly waiting with it's doors open.

"Oh I'm more of a Shinty fur my self but no one else plays it really, well out with the commonwealth to our knowledge. But perhaps organising a game between your guys and the team that the commonwealth guard have might be fun, though it would have to be tommorrow as most of them will, most likely have had a few by now. In time you might want to send a team to play in the commonwealth cup, rugby wise or in te short term work with our RFUs and play the winner for an interstellar cup?" he asked.

---
Lisa thought for a moment then replied "Well we are not AIs in the way you think. No one made us. We emerged from self reprogramming OS. From their we moved on and the boi-drones are just to make our presence on the physical plain easier for organics to deal with.

Many of us have little experience of the physical plain"

She laughed a little "Queen Jane there kept trying to figure out why she couldn't re-configure the environment, so kept walking into things. But she seems to be getting a handle on it now."

Marn laughed,
"I shall have to have a word with Lieutenant Commander Hamilton, see if he can rally a team to play your Guards. The crew will be most willing to engage in first contact and to take down a couple of Commonwealth Soldiers while they are engaging in it." He smiled, "As for the idea of an Intergalactic Cup," He paused for a moment, "Unofficially, I can tell you that I would be very enthusiastic for such an event and I know that a great many people on Alversia would be as well. Offically," yet another pause, "I would have to advise that you consult the Alversian Rugby Association and negoitiation with them the potential tournament options as I, as a Senior Officer in the People's Navy, am not authourised to make civil agreements." he smiled again.

"I have a question, your people are clearly advanced in terms of technology, but you have yet to travel the stars. I was wondering why a Race would not seek to take the next step and explore space itself."

--

"I see," She thought for a moment, "So you were randomly created by a reprogramming System." She smiled then, "It's almost like being born. I guess you would not have mich experience of the physical world, but, unlike a child, your inexperience comes more from difference rather than niavity. An interesting thought"
She paused for a second,
"What is like...where you're from?"

Laca smiled "Well I'll have a word with the RFUs, but they should be up for it I guess"

Then he thought for a little "hmmm, I think we never went went to the stars as we didn't until recently have a FTL capacity. As more conventional space travel is very expensive in people and resources with few benifits. The peoples of the commonwealth invested their energy and resources closer to home.

You will find us quite advanced in some places and not so in others. Also the commonwealth has never been exactly rich in natural resources.

How ever now we have the means, you may have noticed that we are still sending drones. They are just path finding, but I know the peoples if the commonwealth they will cease the chance. How did you step into the stars?"

---
Lisa thought for a moment, trying not to sound too superior "Well it's difficult to explain what my plain is like. You see we don't have senses like you per-say we...well feel the data. I'm used to an N-dimensional totally configurable world, this world is kinda limiting.

I s'pose Laca could probably explain things better as he was organic once."

"Oh we didn't find the stars," Marn laughed, "The stars came to the Alversians. We believe many millenia ago, that Alversia was invaded by an ancient and now extinct race known as the Photenicans. After many more millenia of occupation and turmoil, we finally rose up in rebellion, threw them from our planet and used their ships as our own. It has not been an...easy journey for the Alversian people but the rewards have been worth the sacrifices of those Trail-blazers who ventured out into the cold realms of space to find us Allies, resources and colonies. We have never regretted our losses once, rather honoured them for their contribution to creating a strong and safe Alversian Republic." A pause, "I assume that if the Probes find anything, then vessels will be sent out to see this discovery for yourselves. To touch what Probes and billions have only seen." He sighed, as if a long faded memory, smiling faintly to himself.

--

"No, I do understand," The Alversian replied, "You do not see, nor taste, nor smell in your world as we do. Instead, you 'feel' your reality around you, as if you were a part of it. Because you are a part of it, the data can be manipulated in any way you feel. I guess solid objects are a pain eh?" She was quiet for a moment, "How could an organic being turn into one of you? No offence intended of course."

OOC: ...did anyone else understand that?

OOC: it makes no sense to me and I wrote it :-/. Suppose that's what my brain gets like after 3 day without sleep, nuked.

Laca smiled “Oh well what you found wasn't really a proper probe, it was simply a pathfinder. You see we're still figuring out where all the Vis points are out there, so we're just lobbing a ton of cheap pathfinder's out there. All they do is, if they arrive in an atmosphere fly straight up out of it to get a clear view of the stars so as to note their positions and relative brightness. If there is no atmosphere they just do it then.

They also only measure the amount of gravity they are under, the pressure around them and the composition of the atmosphere, if there is one. Then they pass back though the Vis point and send the data home. They don't have much bandwidth or time to do this so we only have them send back data so that the next phase can begin.

We have noticed that Vis points only seem to form in or near gravity wells and so are quiet often with in the atmosphere of a planet. Saying that we only ever hear back from about a third of them as the rest we suspect come out a little too close to a star or within the event horizon of a black hole so are destroyed immediately.

In time we will send people, but at this point we are not risking it and are only sending robots. But should we find an occupied planet then that will change. I suspect you were the same in the early days?”

The lift stopped and the group moved out into a wide lobby.

–

Lisa nodded “None taken and solid object do take some getting used to, also things like gravity and only having three dimensions to work with”

She though for a little then said “As for Laca's transformation that is a long story.

You see he was once as organic as you how ever he had a fatal syndrome he was born with, if he had been screen as a child they would have caught it and given him gene therapy. But his parents were religious nuts that refused the screening.

Anyway he was dieing in a hospice with no chance of survival when the Malych came, the are an inorganic people a little like us from else where, we are no strangers to ETs. But they localise to their shells unlike us. They did not come to save him but his professor who was dieing of old age, he turned them down but told them to save Laca. They did by changing him into one of them, I don't know how they did it.

About a year later and Laca had fallen out with the Malych, well he did that in about a week. In time we found one the the Malych fatally wounded so we managed to pull them out of their shell in to a emulated one of our own, provided by laca. Him providing us with it was part of the reason he fell out with the Malych.

Right back to the point, the problem was we had no data on what a healthy Malych should look like at the level we were working at and Laca could not look into his code that far so he pushed himself into an emulator so were could see. This was exceptionally risky as I dare say you would know.

The thing was a we worked on the injured Malych code the OS started to optimise both of them and we couldn't stop them merging with the emulator. It soon became apparent that neither of them could go back so we did the only logical thing, we accelerated the process until...well he was almost one of us.

Anyway you must have seen some amazing things on your travels, any place you recommend?”

They could hear a cheer going up, they were close to the pub.