Chapter 33: Chapter Twenty-Seven First Contact

Countryman studied the ship they had just rescued. According to the Cathamari database they had created from ships they had captured, it was a Krall cruiser. A race that Humanity had never encountered before. There were some notes in there about the Krall, but he chose to take them with a grain of salt. As they seemed to be colored with a bit of propaganda. The ship itself had rugged durable lines, with a trace of elegance. She looked to be a ship of war built to take a pounding and dish one right back. The ship had a roughly triangular shape, with a rugged heavily armored forward hull, that bristled with beam arrays. Followed by an armored but narrower rectangular hull section that soon flared into a wide armored rear segment with backswept wings. Angled backward, a heavily armored tower rose towards a small disk-shaped segment. A set of rectangular engine pods were mounted at the ends of the two wings. It didn’t take much of a glance to tell that the ship favored a forward firing arc, but she did have beam arrays that could fire in other directions.

It was no surprise then to note, that the rear sections were heavily decimated. The ship's bridge appeared to be buried in a reinforced section just above the main engineering, which placed it near the base of the armored tower at the rear. The disk at the top of the tower appeared to be one of the ship's primary sensor clusters, but it also mounted an omnidirectional beam array. Not to mention a shield generator, one of several generators that made up the aft shield grid. There were other less prominent projections that also mounted similar sensor clusters.

The bridge did not appear to have been hit, but her engines were clearly gone. Her shields were failing, and damage had been sustained to much of her hull. Half her weapon systems were down. The damage was fairly heavy but honestly didn’t look irreparable. If they could get back to port, a skilled yard crew would be able to repair her and get her battle-ready in a couple of weeks. Her hull did appear to be modular, which would simplify the repair process.

The Enterprise came to a stop in front of the ship, and Misaki began hailing the ship. It wasn’t long before they responded. Automated systems began exchanging lingual code data. The systems found a common language both races knew and using that language as a reference point created a translation matrix. An instant later, an alien female appeared on his screen. Her figure seemed generally reptilian, but the fact that she had pronounced breasts did not escape his notice. That was a mammalian trait, so she likely wasn’t a reptile. Perhaps something else. She had a soft and short snout, purple and silver scales dotted her face. She was wearing a ship suit that didn’t do much to conceal her figure, and made her modest breasts stand out a little more. In a strange way, she looked kind of cute.

He introduced himself, “I am Captain Countryman of the EFS Enterprise, and you are?”

“Ship-leader Tika, of the IKS Teketh.” her expression shifted, “We are grateful for the assistance, but...”

“You are wondering if you could trouble us for more help? We might be able to assist you in that regard, but our material resources are a bit limited. Not to mention we have to leave this system before the Cathamari miss that fleet. Best not to stick around too long.”

Her face took on a bit of a frown, “I have the feeling we have different ideas on my problem. I was actually wondering if you would be able to give us a tow. We have a port in a more friendly area of space where we can hold a nice conversation, its about 27 lightyears away.”

Countryman sighed, “Well if you don’t mind the trip taking thirty-three years, 273 days, and eighteen hours we could do that.”

Her frown deepened, and she didn’t seem to know what to say at first. Then finally she asked, “Why would it take that long?”

“Simple, we can’t tow things at warp. That is how long it would take to tow your ship 27 lightyears, assuming an average velocity of .8c. That's kind of why I wasn’t even going to offer a tow. I was offering to help fix your engines.”

She gave him a skeptical look, “After what the Cathamari did to them, they would need a complete rebuild.”

“Something we can do. If we had the materials, and the blueprints for a new engine module.”

She sighed, “I see. Although you mentioned your own resources were limited, and then there was the bit about not wanting to stick around. I’m not sure it would be right to impose like that. Anyway, my people do know a fair amount about warp propulsion systems, even if we don’t use them ourselves. I think my engineers might be able to help modify your systems to allow for warp speed towing.”

Countryman blinked, that might be useful. “Interesting might be worth discussing. While you are at it, maybe some of you could consult with my own scientists. We’ve been conducting warp engine research, and anything you might be willing to give us on the subject would be much appreciated.”

She took that in, and after a moment, “It might be better to discuss such things face to face.”

“Sure, we can do that. Would you like to discuss things on my ship or yours?”

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She glanced off screen, and after a moment the alien captain, replied, “It might be more comfortable if we meet on your ship. I’m afraid my conference room is in shambles.”

“Certainly. We will standby to receive your party. My operations officer will send you docking instructions for your shuttle.”

A moment after that, they closed the channel. Countryman smiled. It seemed things were going well enough so far. Although both sides were understandably a little guarded. It was a first contact situation, and with that came a great deal of unknowns and uncertainties. Neither side really knew much about the other, and were understandably not sure about what they could reveal. Glancing at his display, he was glad to see both destroyers had already gone to warp. They needed to get back to Rigel Kent II and complete the evacuation. They were also ordered to scuttle the Horizon. It seemed they no longer had time to debate what to do with it. As such he had made the decision preemptively to scuttle the ship. They needed to be out of the system by the time the Cathamari miss that fleet. Thankfully since the Cathamari were limited to about warp four it would be weeks before a second fleet could arrive, but the sooner they left the better. Heading for a Krall port actually sounded like a good place to go, but how good remained to be seen. This face to face meeting would give him a better chance to gauge what kind of people they are. Something more reliable than a few Cathamari library entries.

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Tika let out a breath, as the channel closed. While brief their conversation had certainly raised a few questions, and painted a brief window into what kind of people these aliens were. While hard to tell thanks to the dim lighting on the alien bridge, they looked a lot like Valorians, but she had never seen one with that skin color. She rather doubted they were some offshoot of Valorian though. The Enterprise conformed to a very different design philosophy from theirs.

Turning from her screen, she noted her sensor officer looking like she had something to say. She gestured for her to go ahead.

The younger girl smiled, “While you were talking, I managed to penetrate the energy field keeping us from scanning their interior. That ship is actually rather fascinating, and I believe we misidentified it earlier. Its definitely not a dreadnought like we first thought. It has the size and defenses of one, but an interior scan shows its clearly intended for a different role.”

“Oh?”

“I believe their offer to repair our engines was actually genuine. Internal scans indicate that their belly contains a wide array of industrial equipment, factories, refineries, processing plants. Along with deployable docking arms, and even a few robotic arms of the type you might find at a shipyard. I don’t believe she was designed as a dreadnought, but rather a mobile fleet support ship. Just she is much better armed than any such vessel I have seen before, in fact, the Enterprise has the capacity of a medium carrier, and enough firepower to outgun most heavy cruisers.”

“I see. I guess that explains a few things about her. Anything else I should know?”

“My bio scanners indicate there is almost fifty thousand of them over there. I suggest you be careful.”

“I see, well, if things go as planned this will just be a nice friendly chat.”

The sensor officer, glanced at her console, “Well thankfully they seem to be in the same mood. They have powered down their weapons, and their energy signature dropped like a rock when they did.”

She stretched a bit, as she considered who to take with her. Her Battle-leader may be a male, but he was also more experienced then her, it might be useful to have a man's perspective as well. So she definitely should take him. Maybe one more male. He wouldn’t be much use, but it would make the crew feel better if she went over there with at least one bodyguard. It wasn’t the wisest choice, but choosing their ship for the meeting had been a calculated move. If she had wanted more neutral ground, she could have suggested a planet in the system. There was one not to far from here with a breathable atmosphere, but choosing their ship sent a message. One that indicated that they were willing to trust these newcomers. These discussions were going to shape future relations between the Krall, and these aliens for whom she had no name yet. Then again, she had not yet given them the name of her people either. Something to resolve when they met face to face. There was also something else she would need to do before she went over. Her translator implant would need to be updated with their lingual code. There was no such thing as a universal translator. Computers during first contact would exchange lingual codes, and produce a translation. Allowing conversation to take place, but this process took time. Having a common language both computers recognized could speed up the process, and that happened here since they both knew Cathamari lingual code.

Translator implants were a fairly common piece of cybernetic technology that would translate spoken alien languages into something the user could understand. However they could only do that if they had the requisite language pack installed, and they did not allow you to speak with an alien, only understand them. If the alien also had an implant or the less invasive translator earpiece, they too would be able to understand you. Thereby allowing a conversation to take place. It was a very useful piece of technology, but actually learning the other language would go a long way. Nuances and complex concepts could become lost in translation.

It didn’t take her long to decide who she would bring with her. Among the people, she would bring was not just the Battle-Leader and a male guard. Given the state of her ship, the chief engineer would have to stay behind to direct repairs, but she was going to be bringing an engineer along. One of her science officers as well would be needed, and her sensor officer came to mind for that role. As she was leaving the bridge her sensor officer, said, “hmm, I think I figured out why their ship is the way it is. I don’t think she can go much faster than 20 times the speed of light, which would explain why it took so long for them to respond to our distress call. Their ships are incredibly slow, at least when it comes to FTL travel.”

“I see. I’ll keep that in mind when we talk to them.”

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