Blast From the Past: Open First Contact [FT]

Situated one-hundred-and-ten Terran light years from the Gol'Azkhor system sits a three-planet system dominated by one orange dwarf: 0.836712 Astronomical Units from Zilun orbits Zilun III and it's moon, Zilun IIIa. A tropical world swirling with storm clouds, Zilun III is an unoccupied world located along the edge of the galactic core adjacent to the first cluster of stars capping one end of the core and thus has a greater concentration of heavy metals centrifugated away from the core. With virtually no eccentricity in its orbit and a negligible axial tilt, Zilun III has been targeted for its year-long growing season as well for its trapped deposits of palladium, saltpeter, and anthracite which easily protrude at bases of mountains on the planet's surface.

The most striking of al features, however, is a large transcontinental ocean which glitters green- an obvious indicator of copper-rich deposits within the planetary sea floor. Also abound are nodules of manganese-tungsten conglomerates formed early in the planet's history as a future mining powerhouse, and it seems even that there are complex carbon-based life forms at
the surface for claims. This is Zilun III: The Planet of Spoils as connoted by Aurelian natural philosophers.

---

Hiss!

Yet another burst of methane into the carbon fiber shell awakened a nearby mechanic clad in a minimalistic loincloth as she brushed herself up to examine the issue. Tall, slender, and exotic-looking with her fierce, golden eyes like all Aurelian females, X'lati grappled ahold of a suspended mucosal-rigging as she scaled across the fibrous, vine-like inner surface of her engine room until the problem was spotted:

"Damn," the humanoid hissed with embroiled frustration as she scaled down into one of the thruster pods. A methane-saturated mist of water was spraying out from one of the methane-water filtration organisms of glossy, black tendril composition and God-knows-what respiration. Up close, a bubbling ring of dying animal cells surrounded a deep-cut gash; something rubbed against the replicant with tremendous force, likely a result of turbulence from passing through the S'ek-Thul nebula just twelve hours ago at ten percent of the speed of light. The rest of the 20,000 year old vessel's complement was in chemically-induced stasis with occasional waking intervals to make only the most necessary of repairs before heading back for their millennia-long sleep.

---

The chitin-layered, dirigible-like expanse of the bioship, A'kathu's Death-bane, bore centuries-old scar tissue from countless micrometeorite impacts which- for the most part- laid waste only to the outermost epithelial tissue; at least three impacts, however, cut deep enough to trigger an automatic hormone release which woke half of the repair crew to seal off the various compartmentalized macrovacuoles still containing the borderline-scarce methane-cyanide mixture.

Fifty kilometers wide at its lateral-minor axis and eighty-five or so kilometers along the longitudinal axis, A'kath's Death-bane's shell bore vacuum-hardened stoma which sucked in minute quantities of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon-dioxide to provide nutrients for those few components which required complete operational time to carry out tasks; great, obsidian-sharp ebony rods protruded out some tens of meters and stood rigid: ready to puncture and release organic monstrosities into a vessel's corridors prior to a possible boarding.

 Now ten AU from the Zilun dwarf star, A'kath's Death-bane released forth a retrograde force of noxious gases as its steady deceleration exerted forth a stable G-force. Pointed away from the destination, the fore-bridge glistened with a thick, filmy layer of clear mucus as its unidentified occupant pumped control hormones to stabilize the vessel's trajectory: Tethered to the base of the bridge and colonizer module's top was an aged warp ring long-ago assembled by slave-gangs of Gol'Azkhorzi insectoids, many of whom died in resultant, tragic accidents during the bloody warp-ring's construction. Shrunken down via collapsible carbon-fiber tissue to safely piggyback on the Death-banehull, the ring's volume was further reduced by temporary removal of the photosynthesis panels under the assumption that space-activity crews would resume assembly of the ring. And quite the ring it twas, what with enough diameter to accommodate two colonizer-widths with relative ease. Back home, there were vessels bound to provide a 20,000 year old update to the warp ring infrastructure... A possibility which lent the few active crewmen excitement in that the old world awaited their arrival!

An old world, however, which had gone through thousands of generations during the twenty-millennium voyage. Whilst most of the ancient crew were kept virtually-immortal by aforementioned stasis with few arousals during mid-flight, the same could not be stated by the unaccounted-for generations of Kh'uunate rulers whom bore little knowledge that their kinsmen left ages ago. Twenty-thousand year old Aurelians who were still of youthful composition thanks to preliminary stasis!

((Worry not! I won't always post this long! I just want to emphasize what any potential partner may deal with in the system. ))

(OOC: Umm, is it really meant to be that huge? Because at the size you've described it, it could fit the largest conventional ship in the galaxy, the Eclipse several times inside. I think it might be big enough to fit my entire spacefleet inside, actually... that's how big it is.)

The Bridge of the UNS Zhang He

It was yet another lazy day in the UNS Zhang He as it continued on its survey route towards the core of the galaxy. It was a Chiron-Class Light Frigate, one of the earlier ones commissioned in the post-Sith War expansion of the Space Fleet of the Planetary Defense Force, but it was still a vessel that had seen few engagements, beyond the battle in the Centauri system during the short invasion of the Hive after a diplomatic misunderstanding that was quite thankfully quickly resolved through skillful diplomacy, and damage mostly minimized by defensive tactics and superior technology.

However, the crew of the UNS Zhang He, at the moment, were occupied with neither diplomacy nor combat as they had recently been assigned to a route towards the core of the galaxy during which they were meant to examine and take scans of promising planets for colonization. The examinations of the planets were quite brief and was very cursory, as most of what they needed to determine could be done mostly through putting the planets through scanners updated specifically for this purpose and passing on, the ones deemed especially promising by the results flagged for further (and more detailed) inspection later on.

A month had passed like this, over which they had seen at least a hundred different planets and done little else. There was a small skirmish in which a small group of pirate vessels had briefly engaged the UNS Zhang He, but they were merely small-time and poorly equipped vessels that preyed on shipping independent from the stellar empires of the galactic community, and were quickly dispersed the moment they had realized that the vessel that they were attempting to attack as a well-armed military grade vessel of a stellar power and not the independent merchant they had thought (for some strange reason) that they were attacking.

To say the least, over the course of the last month, things had been quite leisurely for the crew as there was little for them to do besides general maintenance and even for the Captain Maria Santori, of Spartan extraction, as all that there was for her to do was to send back reports of the scans over the messaging net. It was a little grating for her to be out in the midst of the stars doing little, but at least it was somewhat better than her previous role as a captain of a Spartan cruiser. Doing something other than simply patrolling back and forth in the strait between the Spartan and Peacekeeper territories in a threatening manner was... at least a change.

She had grown somewhat complacent over the last month, however, there was only so much annoyance one could muster before it began to give way to boredom in the tedium of the matter. They began to head towards yet another planet, one that allegedly had quite a wealth of nutrient and mineral resources, or so the long-distance scans said, and a close range scan to confirm it would either verify or disprove it. As they entered, they entered the system rather leisurely, having grown accustomed to traveling about on their path in such a manner, when suddenly a ping could be heard. She, and her fellow officers on the bridge looked for the source on the dashboard.

The sensors were picking something else in the system, something emitting somewhat faint and rather exotic energy signatures. She frowned, as it was definitely not what she was inspecting, but then she looked out into the plasma window towards the direction where the energy signatures seemed to be pointing. And then she saw... it. She had absolutely no clue what it was, as it seemed to be an absolutely massive thing, far larger than any vessel she had really seen before, for it seemed to stretch on for kilometers and kilometers, and it seemed to be covered in some kind of strange chitin, giving it a bizarrely organic look.

She said one thing. It was rather less than eloquent, but it quite perfectly summed up her reaction to seeing the thing before she could consider a course of action. That thing?

"Shit."

The Burninites have undoubtedly noticed such a large ... thing. But there is no comment from them of any form.

(OOC: Wrong class of vessel, Sela. This is an Eclipse. That was an Executor-class. The Executor-class is longer by a few kilometers but less massive, overall.)

The Rheans have not yet noticed this and thus have taken no action. Bastian exploration fleets, on the other hand, may be in the area looking for trade partners and whatnot.

(( Aye, the vessel is that massive. However, given that 80 percent of the vessel's volume is for methane storage, all what your people are looking at is just a dark, slimy, bag full of noxious... Gas. You can pop it like a balloon! Especially since it is unarmed... Save for the proboscises which may or may not shank that hull... I would not try to pull 'em off with a tractor beam if I were you, though. >_>.

Aurelian combat vessels are much, much smaller along the scales of larger frigates a few hundred feet long. It just happens that unarmed Aurelian colonization vessels need a lot of chemical fuels to reach ten percent of the speed of light.

Tl;dr version: The worst thing that could happen is that your vessel will smell like crap should the ruptured methane-cyanide mixture drift over your ship... A'kath's Death-bane is hopelessly unarmed except for the several hundred warriors resting in chemo stasis.))

As the minutes passed, the uneventful schedules of nourishing, mending and replacing organic fluids by the vessel's crude neurological network proceeded with typical expedition. Diffusion of methane and cyanide into the vastly-smaller crew holds continued with few delays in protein-channeling much needed nutrients to the various creatures just coming out of stasis after thousands of years of skillful hibernation. From her vantage point in the tendril-layered thruster panel room, X'lati narrowed her luminescent eyes through the grime-padded viewport and felt her multichambered heart pound against her bare chest: Something of a glittery, silvery build glistened just two Astronomical Units  from the A'kath's Death-bane's left flank. Without saying a single, hushed word, X'lati plunged her four fingers into a nearby hormone-release panel which quickly sank into the fleshy walls.

Hisssssss! Hissssssss!

Impromptu bursts of meaty pheromones into the stasis rooms began as the neurological bursts frantically gave everything it had into waking up the hibernating crew! Thick, chloride-rich vapors of unknown chemical composition filled the cabins with the smoky hormone burst: Close up views of the various cocoons would yield a motley of some several thousand Aurelian colonists along with their bare-ribbed insectoid slaves, all of whom murmured in a partial sleep trance as their analogues of serotonin picked up the pace. Among the first groups of Aurelian denizens to emerge from hibernation are the Z'ilithist Tihn'arin , or Z'ilith's Reserve Force: An otherwise mundane set of Aurelian warriors clad in skintight space-activity suits composed mostly of flesh-mixed chitin with only the visors and mechanical joints composed of coarse, ground-up metals reinforced by flammable, moist flesh. Among the troops' weapons are man-portable, diaphragm-like acid pumps and a typical assortment of edged melee weapons.

---

At the "brain" of the beast in the bridge loomed a ferromagnetic radio wave antennae which blended out into the roof, appearing nothing else other than an antennae. Organic rot reeked from the control panels as a passing Aurelian warrior brushed against the archaic signal repeater's panel before scrambling back down a narrow chute leading into the dormitory bay. Crackling with static as the germanium gemstones warmed up after thousands of years of dormancy, the central nervous system's monstrosity of a radio stack suddenly released forth a rapidly-alternating signal burst.

Decipherable in the FM radio band as a series of alternating tones, any universal radio-to-image set would be able to receive rough, base-8 and base-10 calculations of a triangular sketch along with an Arecibo Message-like string of rotated lines recognizable as an Aurelian analog of the Indian numeral system. Several seconds would pass before a different signal boasts an image of pebbles labelled wih Aurelian numerals corresponding from zero to nine. This was no random biological freak-of-nature: Here was an ancient, subluminal-velocity species still dependent  on conventional biochemical fuels.

The Bastian exploration vessels would not hear this, as they are still a few light years away.

Captain Maria Santori was preparing a course of action, when suddenly a radio transmission could be relieved... perhaps some kind of communication? But then, when the communication was played, nothing was received other than a long series of rather confusing radio tones, of obviously artificial origin. Was this meant to be some kind of communication? Did this strange race communicate in such a way? But if it was meant to be a communication, it would have been something that the Universal Translator should have been able to translate. There had never been a single language it could not decode before, and considering that the language of one alien race in particular, the Progenitors, a language not based on verbalizing entirely on reactions was decoded perfectly, there really should be no reason why it would not be untranslated.

Then, however, the head comm officer, a former Morgan Industries communications specialist, prepared an analysis of the transmission and looked through a series of analyses, most of which were not particularly helpful. Then, however, he spotted the radio imaging window, one that he usually ignored, and he saw what appeared to be some kind of... diagram. He then copied the window and had it sent to the terminals of his two subordinates, and the three comm officers looked at the image together. To one of them, it reminded them greatly of a crude communication attempt with extraterrestrials of another galaxy sent out long ago on Old Earth, the Arecibo message, and sure enough when a copy of it was brought up from the Datalinks it looked much the same, and gave them a reference point to compare what they had seen of the alien transmission to.

There was a sketch of a triangle, and there were strings of rotated lines that seemed to be numerals, which seemed to be confirmed when another transmission arrived showing images of pebbles with the corresponding numerals. The comm officer asked Captain Santori for permission to format a response in the same format, and Captain Santori nodded, deciding that the comm officer's judgment on the subject would probably have to be trusted. First, an image of pebbles similar to that of the alien transmission was shown, with the corresponding Arabic numerals next to the pebbles, as well as a zero in the space before any of the stacks of pebbles. Then, below it were diagrams of biological elements of humanity copied straight from the Arecibo message, and then below it a diagram of the human image. The comm officer sends it out, waiting anxiously for a reply, and wishing that he could go to more direct methods.

"What is this? I had better been woken up for a good reason!"

Up from the chute returned the scantily-clad Aurelian Tihn'thari along with her senior, less-muscular CO who donned a teal bandolier along with a chitin-plated sarong which dropped to just under his knees like a tunic. Both male and female wielded two-handed halberds which were dabbed into a mild neurotoxin, yet neither one knew if the compounds were still potent after sporadic freeze-dry cycles, and for all they knew, these unknown metallurgy-based creatures were probably immune to Aurelian biochemical weaponry!

"We've got a reply! Answer it!" The toned female hissed between her fangs as she glanced over to the covered cauldron display of what was the biological computer's analog of a display. Sighing with irritation but without another word, the unnamed gentleman grasped at the fabric covering the cauldron and peeled it off from the top: Inside sat a translucent, brilliant-violet fluid rich with [i]Electrophilis computis bacteria.

The moment the cover was removed, microscopic clusters of electron-driven bacteria adjusted their position such that the incoming radio wave pattern was received and displayed to the Captain and his second-in-command. Their eyes were focused in particular upon the Arabic numerals which corresponded with the number of pebbles along with the relayed diagram of a right triangle set in the Y'tilithi (Pythagorean) Theorem.

"Upload the trigonometric functions," the female ordered as she lazily slung her carbon halberd across her bandolier.

"Fair enough," the gentleman replied as he dug his fingers into a crevice alongside the cauldron-terminal. Immediately, the bacteria began to reorganize into visible colonies which formed a sine, cosine, and tangent graph on the meniscus-bubble surface. Across the bridge, the transceiver organism let out a cloud of methane as it began to encode, package, and send forth the signal.

---

With the signal came weird geometric depictions of what were representations of hydrogen cyanide, methane, and nitrogen surrounding an unmapped planet- all suggestive of the Aurelians' origins. Along with the trigonometric signal came the Aurelian nouns for the graphs in base-8 and base-ten: Hopefully, the Communications Chief figured, these unknowns were familiar with more than just arithmetic and such...

By the time the Aurelians had sent their message, the comm officers had copied the window of the transmission to every terminal so that every officer could take a look at it, including the scientific and leadership officers. After a brief moment, a new message was replied. There were some strange geometric images, of... something, it was hard to tell at first glance. Below the geometric diagrams were what appeared to be graphs on Cartesian planes, and after a second of inspection, the senior comm officer said of the graphs, "Trigonometric functions, it seems. And those markings below them... I'll have to guess that would be their writing, and their labeling of those graphs. It would be good if we could get a Universal Translator reading on that, but we'd need some brain-wave scans first, but until then I think we have a good enough idea of what those writings are."

The officers then diverted their attention to the geometric diagrams, not quite really making heads or tails of it. It took a few moments before one of the scientific officers abroad the vessel pointed out their similarity to chemical diagrams, and after a brief comparison of the diagrams with some in the Datalinks proved the similarity to be conclusive enough. The geometric diagrams also seemed to be surrounding what looked to be a planet. Comparing it to what had been sent in the Arecibo message long ago on Old Earth, they could only guess that they were trying to indicate to them their biological natures. Then, the senior comm officer looked in the corner of his screen, and noticed that while he had prepared his own transmission on the atomic numbers of the elements that made up DNA, the formulas of the nucleotides of DNA, and the number of nucleotides of DNA as well as a graph of it (all copied from the Arecibo message), he had not actually ordered the system to send it out.

He then copied their own versions of the graphs of the trigonometric functions and attached it to the bottom of the message, hoping that with what they were sending out now they could make some headway. He, and the others, especially hoped to get into more direct conversation, seeing as the Universal Translator could not exactly function with simple back and forth transmissions of radio signals, but patience would have to be had. It could be construed as threatening action if they were to act in such a way. In the meantime, however, they began to send for someone from Alpha Centauri to represent them in possible diplomacy, due to the fact that military forces were not authorized to negotiate in Alpha Centauri. Back in Port Garland, Alpha Centauri's orbiting spaceport, Special Diplomatic Envoy Nancy Zhang was dispatched via a personal shuttle to the spaceship, with arrival time estimated to be around 20 minutes, given that they were simply heading directly to the system, not stopping anywhere else. When she arrives, the shuttle quickly docks into the UNS Zhang He and departs just as quickly as it came.

Several minutes of silence passed in eerie silence as the Communications Chief and her immediate superior scoured the received radio signal which was prominently displayed within the oozing structure of the cauldron: The reception of the Centauri alphabet especially garnered the glowing stares of the two solitary chieftains as their minds tried to make work of what was sent.

"Eldest One, what do you pose of this?" The female asked as she folded her chest, her golden eyes staring up to the vessel which was just a tad close for comfort. Sighing as she looked back down, the Communications Chieftain's eyes fixated upon the Captain's with considerable pressure: Judging from his expression, the Captain's blank, rigid face gave a not-so-subtle hint of confusion as he shook his head.

"Tell me: You are the Communications Chief after all-"

"You imbecile, they're giving back our- Wait!"

X'lati held up her delicate index finger just as the Arabic numerals appeared within the cauldron display alongside the returned trigonometric functions: A sense of realization dawned upon herself as X'lati and her compatriot lit up in comparing the Centauri word "Sine" to the crude lines which represented the sine function in the Aurelian script. Before the Chieftain could open his mouth, X'lati shoved him aside, sending him chest-first into a neighboring pillar of vile flesh.

"Ouch-"

"Silence!" Hissed the red-hue woman as she began to tap her fingers upon a tone-modulating keratin button which drew out a string of stick-like Aurelian characters depicting one ominous message:

"Identify and state your purpose."

Along with the message streamed several repetitions of the Aurelian alphabet and several obscure nouns which labelled a star, constellation, and the galaxy. A subsequent transmission detailed more of the Aurelian biochemistry as vastly greater quantities of geometric symbols flooded the Aurelian transmission in a ferocious flurry of frustration-rife communication.

( I am tired tonight. D: )

There was a considerable length of silence as the Centauri ship waited for this new group of unidentified aliens to reply, with the newly arrived Talent Zhang watching over the scene anxiously. After the course of a few minutes, a new reply had popped onto the system. There were a great number of crude lines in this new message, reminiscent of the ones they had seen apparently labeling the trigonometric functions. There was one message in particular, at the forefront of the message, and after it there seemed to be some retreating string of some of the lines that had appeared in the earlier messages... perhaps an alphabet, if these strange biotech-dependent aliens even had the concept of one. Then, there was one last thing - a diagram, in which a star, a constellation, and a galaxy were drawn out and labeled.

The officers of the UNS Zhang He regarded this new transmission with curiosity. It appeared to be a written transmission of some sort, and with all they had received it was possible that they had enough to use to create a translation for, given that they had labels for the trigonometric functions and stellar bodies, what appeared to be an alphabet of some kind, as well as finally some kind of... sentence or phrase in their language, perhaps? Comm Officer Wozniak looked at what they had, and decided to collect all the raw data they had and put it into a link to the Universal Translator system to see what could be extrapolated from what they had. Considering that it had managed to work before with complex Progenitor writings from Manifold Six, albeit with a considerable amount of research on their Psych and much translation already done, there should probably have been... something that they could get from what they had.

In addition, there appeared to be some faint signatures from the psych readers, which had become important technological fixtures aboard the ships of the Planetary Defense Force as they proved almost essential for the proper function of the Universal Translator while dealing with foreign ships, and eventually some kind of reading was managed. Essentially, after a few minutes of furious analysis and transmission of data back and forth and to and from the Universal Translator back on Chiron, a readout was outputted on the screen. The readout said, "State yourself and your reason", which was somewhat confusing as far as transmissions went but was at least a start to go by. The intent seemed to be clear enough and if these aliens followed the same protocols that they did the officers on board were almost entirely certain of what the message meant.

The following message was then dispatched to the aliens, first in its English form - "This is the UNS Zhang He, of the Planetary Governate of Alpha Centauri. Our purpose is to explore this sector of the galaxy, and this vessel wishes to offer a peaceful diplomatic exchange and personal communication between our races." Then of course a similar message was dispatched in the Aurelian form, but the translation would be questionable at best as many words would be missing outright and many words in the wrong form or put out of position, leading to a rather disjointed and artificial-sounding but still vaguely comprehensible message. Where no words can be meaningfully extrapolated from psi readings and messages from the Aurelians, pictographs and ideograms based on universal scientific principles are sent. For example, where the UNS Zhang He would be they showed a rough image of the vessel. Instead of the words Planetary Governate of Alpha Centauri being used, the message used the Aurelian message for star and showed a star chart marking Alpha Centauri, and then a rough picture of the planet Chiron. For the concept of a peaceful diplomatic exchange, they showed radio waves traveling back and forth between the ships, as well as the image of two human figures with sound waves traveling in between them for the idea of personal communication between the races.

X'lati's bright eyes flickered rapidly between the received transmissions submerged in the display cauldron just when a reply came in through the A'kath's Death-bane's nervous system. The wary Captain, meanwhile, continued to nurse his bruised face as he sat alone on a tendril-laced thatch projection which lined the desolate bridge's flesh. Not even so much as sending a glance over to the withered Captain, X'lati let out a frustrated hiss as she took in the graphic of two humans exchanging what appeared to be speech:

"These unknowns wish to speak to us. Likely on our vessel, if they so desire. Your call, liege."

"Tell these metal-skins to align themselves in a parallel vector at close range. I'll have the Gol'Azkhorzin clear out a provisional vacuole-structure to engulf their transport," grunted the Eldest One as he leaned against the projection wall and rolled his head back with closed, pained eyes. X'lati, apparently annoyed with sharing "her" turf with unknown aliens, returned her golden eyes to the cauldron as her fingers sunk into yet another series of switches which loaded an image of two vessels and their directional vectors with an intersecting line demonstrating  the alternate-interior angle theorem along with strange hashes designated as the Aurelian analog for congruent magnitudes and amplitudes: On one side of the Aurelian vessel existed two convex curves suggestive of the ship's capacity of engulfing smaller vessels in order to allow vessels to be stored within the A'kath's storage vacuoles. A subsequent transmission would also show the absence of proboscises along the docking edge to indicate that the Aurelians would eject the needle-like appendages to make room for the endocytosis-like activity. Of note, however, are the same geometric diagrams depicting the cyanide-methane mixture, as a forewarning to any would-be "incompatible" species whom could not inhale the Aurelian atmosphere.

---

Within the vessel's lateral gas-exchange spaces, insect-like creatures of diminutive stature were blindly-busy with reinforcing the vessel's storage regions as flesh extensions rounded off the sections of hull which would curve inward to engulf the ambassadorial shuttle for proper docking. Stern, toned Aurelian warriors brandishing poison-tipped carbon fiber spears and handheld acid-expulsion guns stood among catwalks as they poised their eyes for any would-be revolutionaries. Cylindrical canisters tightly-woven to prevent accidental leaks laid astray along the drones' two pairs of legs as a purplish mixture of sedative pheromones congregated along the deathly drones: Already, at least one Drone could be spotted lying on the floor- its compound eyes frozen in black depression as a neighboring Gol'Azkhorzi drone made rounds collecting any toxic waste products unsuitable for shipwrights. The thousands of compound eyes, however, gave no thought to the carcass or its bearer as the latter passed through a crowded thoroughfare to a waste-disposal stoma projection. Under the influence of the mind-controlling pheromones, the living drone had no second thought as it dropped its buddy into a stench-ridden recess which immediately sealed itself after the lifeless limbs were folded over in a flesh-cutting crunch.

To an outsider, one would be able to discern a speck of bio toxic waste expanding outward from the retrograde vessel's right side: Among the refuse was the Drone's carapace.

Another image was then sent back, this time of a diagram of the two vessels, which showed their directional vectors, an intersecting line to demonstrate the alternate-interior, and what seemed to analogues for the congruent magnitudes and amplitudes, which were determined quickly enough after a brief run through the translation system link. Then, in the diagram, two convex curves on the side of the vessel could be seen, and Captain Santori looked at the diagram closely and with scrutiny. She then wondered aloud, "They can't want us to do... that, can they? It looks like they want to engulf our vessel and let us enter that way, based on what they've sent us."

There was a brief and awkward pause in the air, and then Comm Officer Wozniak replied, "I'm not sure, ma'am, but thinking about your interpretation, it looks like it makes sense. I suppose the rest is yours, then, and once we've readied the navigational computer and docked it'll be on the part of the esteemed Talent Zhang's. Also, it looks like they sent some kind of diagram of a cyanide-methane mixture in their message, so I think the environmental suits will be necessary for the crew that leaves the vessel, though I'm fairly certain that we would have used them anyways, if we were to properly follow the protocol, that is."

Captain Santori nodded, and said, "Very well. I'll send for the escort to Talent Zhang to get the silksteel environmental suit and armor that she needs, and with her probability sheath she should be safe enough. I shall calibrate the navigational computer, and we'll prepare to dock." With that, she began to enter the requisite data into the navigational computer, as it shifted its course to enter into a parallel directional vector to that of the A'kath's Death's Bane, and before long they were in position and Talent Zhang and the two Spartan Phalangites that had assigned to escort Talent Zhang onto the vessel stood at her side, tachyon rifles standing down, all while Captain Santori looked at what seemed to be a speck of biotoxins releasing from the vessel's right side, wondering what exactly their vessel was getting into...

Draft III

Preparations for engulfing the vessel were now complete after half an hour of Gol'Azkhorzin toil and ichor filled the converted fuel vacuole with a foul stench of morbidity. Vine-like projections of muscle stretched across the temporary hangar as several Aurelian Tihn'tharin ran their fingers along the chitin-shelled tendrils of organic girders: Gradually from the center to the designated contractile ring, the muscle-like tendrils were slowly pulling in the shell of flesh whilst compartments above and below provided extensions of sorts for the cocoon-like structure which creeped out to the Centauri shuttle like a clam shell engulfing its grain of salt.

Olfactory sensors, if present, would be able to discern a vicious, deathly stench emanating from the hull itself as toxic waste products diffused through the chitin membrane into the void of space: Any unlucky individual who survived the tearing vacuum of space would quickly kneel over dead from inhaling even the tiniest whiff of gas radiating from the proboscis-layered shell.

X'lati's sharp fingernails grasped around a cylindrical armrail which bordered one edge of the catwalk as her golden eyes stared at the opaque bubble of flesh. Those thralls had made excellent work on activating the A'kath's Death-bane's emergency docking genes, it seemed, and the designers back home had made sure to include a translucence function for whenever the engulfed vessel was sealed in its cocoon-like vacuole so as to give Aurelian Tihn'tharin ample visual access to an unknown vessel. And worked, it sure did, when the last bit of light winked out from the Centauri vessel's sight.

Olfactory sensors would then be able to detect a rapid rise in air pressure within the vacuole: The Aurelians were balancing out the pressure difference between the two vessels like an airlock as methane-cyanide mixtures passed through porous membranes into the fleshy chamber. This, in turn, activated the translucence gene just as the flesh-wall adjacent to the Aurelian-filled side began to lose opacity, giving the Centauri transport an ample view of at least several dozen Aurelian troops poising their poisonous weapons toward the newcomers.

X'lati leaped down from her ten-foot perch onto the ground before she rose to her feet. The flesh barrier separating the vessel from the provisional vacuole receded at last as tendrils of flesh abruptly went limp, giving the shuttle's crew monitored access to the floor.

(OOC: It's actually classified as a Light Frigate, so it's a pretty serviceable warship, though not quite on a capitol ship level.)

Before long, a cocoon-like structure headed out towards the UNS Zhang He, and it was a somewhat frightening sight, even to the hardened crew, on the simple basis that what was happening to them was completely alien to them by this point. Eventually, it seemed like something was pulling them in, and while some of the crew were distinctly put off ease, Captain Santori simply calmly sat at the bridge, waiting for the unusual docking process to complete. Some of the crew calmed down as well, at the example of their leader doing so, though Captain Santori was not completely without worries either. In any case, if it did come to a fight, they could certainly do it, for the ship that they were entering seemed to lack any proper armaments that they could detect and seemed to be very poorly armored at best, not looking like it could sustain much damage from tachyon bolts.

In any case, however, a sensor pointed out a strange toxic mixture that diffused out into space, a clear indication of how necessary proper environmental protection would be now, and then a rapid rise in air pressure, indicative of an airlock. Finally, the flesh-wall that had been adjacent to the vessel began to lose opacity, allowing the crew to look a bit further inside, and what seemed to be somewhat lizard-like humanoid aliens could be seen, with crimson and gold strips, with many of them holding strange... melee weapons? Most of the crew was confused at the idea of a spacefaring race using melee weapons, but then they remembered the disastrous engagements against Sith Force-users in the Sith War, and so they were less certain about them than they might have been if the Sith War had not happened. Then, as the flesh-wall before them began to part, one of the aliens jumped down from a ten-foot perch before falling to the ground and rising to its feet. It seemed that this one might have been a leader of some kind.

In any case, Talent Zhang and the two Spartan Phlangites flanking her made their exit through the airlock, in their combination silksteel armor and environmental suits, which definitely could give them a look of having metal skin, seeing that the armor fitted very tightly against the body to make it less cumbersome and more protective. The two Spartan Phlangites held their tachyon rifles down, but remained alert and surprisingly nonplussed about their surroundings. Around Talent Zhang in the middle there was a faint shimmering in the air around her, which was her probability sheath. The probability sheath was an interesting thing - University scientists had accidentally managed to manipulate probability for defensive purposes in their research on probability mechanics. Though the idea certainly sounded revolutionary, the sheath was of dubious utility at best as it could really not influence the workings of probability on any real level and instead acted as a weak shield. Still useful, certainly, especially as a personal shield, but not quite all it seemed like it would be.

More importantly however, Talent Zhang came to the forefront of the small Centauri group, and said, "Greetings. I am Talent Nancy Zhang of the Planetary Governate of Alpha Centauri, coming here to represent my polity in peace. Our vessel came on a mission of exploration, not war, and I wish that there may be peace and goodwill between our polities, and favorable relations in the times to come." Her words in English were converted by the Universal Translator link into Aurelian, with the sounds completely synthesized by the system. Now that they had better psych-readings, it was certainly working better, though the tone of the speech remains lifeless and dead with most of the translations being rather dull and lacking in any particular complexity or beauty. Had they been dealing with races whose psych-profiles were similar to the human race or familiar to the Centauri, they could have conveyed a more poetic message, but since they most definitely were not, the translation was the message and only the message.

"Welcome, oh welcome to our lovely turf," began X'lati as she cupped her palm against the pommel of her sheathed battle knife, her golden eyes blinking in unison with the several dozen Aurelian Xin'tharin whom now were focusing their apparently blank gazes upon the light frigate which was sucked into their former life-support storage bay. "It is..." X'lati paused with hesitation as evident in a slight scowl on her smooth face, though her eyes dared not to betray her composure. "Quite entertaining, really, to witness an Aureloid species such as yourselves in our domain. We hear that you come to 'explore' our Core regions, but for what purpose do you bear such unwieldy metal?"

Awkward, but acceptable as X'lati had assumed in numerous rehearsals wih the Eldest One, whom was now standing at precisely the same perch X'lati occupied. The Eldest One withheld his resentment to both his Communications Chieftain and these Centauri arrivals as his eyes studied the physiology of the vessel's ambassador. No tails. No apparent pheromone signature detectable to the Aurelian public, or as it seemed due to what appeared to be a metallic analog of an Aurelian space-activity suit covering the human skin- and no externalized appendages propped out other than the characteristic bipedal-bimanal structure as seen with so many other tool-utilizing species. Such poor specimens, thought The Wldest One as he rested his arms against the arm-rail organ. To his right flank, one would be able to distinguish a quadrupedal insectoid resting a third set of appendages upon some sort of flesh-pruning device: Its compound eyes, even from afar, appeared to lack vitality and thus stared out into the assembly with a mysterious stare.

The female Communications Chief kept her human-like grasp upon the hilt of the blade as she stepped forward: As X'lati stepped into a section of cyan-green bioluminescence, two additional Tihn'tharin joined her left and right flanks in linear formation before the trio stopped some five meters before Talent Zhang.

"My clan names me X'lati of Z'jilisic: Keeper of Rocs. Up in the rafters looms our Eldest One and Captain, C'arid R'kik," finished X'lati as she narrowed her golden gaze up to the frigate once more, still unfamiliar with such an awful mishap of metal which could have armed tens of thousands of Xin'tharin heading into siege.

Talent Zhang looked back at the alien, who then replied to Captain Zhang while cupping her palm against the pommel of her weapon, a gesture that made the Spartan Phlangites nervous as they fingered their tachyon rifles slightly anxiously. The reply was somewhat off putting, consisting of a welcome that did not quite feel like a welcome, and then something about it being "entertaining" for "Aureloid" species to be in their domain, and then something about carrying unwieldy metal. Talent Zhang considered what this alien was saying, and it appeared to her that this alien felt some kind of disdain for her and their... weapons? Talent Zhang wasn't particularly fond of weapons in diplomatic situations either, but as she had become quite valuable to the Governate's diplomatic efforts they had begun to take her protection quite seriously.

Then, Talent Zhang looked back at the perch, and noticed that another alien had taken it, and to the right of the alien there was another, insectoid looking one, with a thousand compound eyes that appeared as if they had no focus nor life in them. The whole ambiance of the situation was starting to get to her - she wasn't sure if it was the visceral feel of the vessel, what the Aurelian who had stood before them said, the strange simultaneous blinking of the Aurelians, or... hell, it was hard to pick out anything in particular that bothered her, everything did, and it wasn't really anything that she had felt before. Even abroad the vessel of a Hive Queen during hasty negotiations with them during their invasion of Alpha Centauri she did not feel half as uneasy as she did now, in spite of the fact that the first probably should have probably been more threatening.

Her considerations on the ambiance was disrupted when the Aurelian that they had been conversing with stepped forward, joined at her flanks by two of the Aurelian warriors, and within a brief moment they stood five meters before Talent Zhang and the two Spartan Phlangites at her flanks, with both the envoys and their guards looking face to face at their counterparts. The Aurelian then introduced herself, "My clan names me X'lati of Z'jilisic: Keeper of Rocs. Up in the rafters looms our Eldest One and Captain, C'arid R'kik."

Talent Zhang nodded, and then looked up towards the Eldest One and nodded respectfully (well, at least she hoped respectfully), before turning back to face X'lati, and replied, "It is my great pleasure to meet you, X'lati. Now, as is diplomatic protocol and custom for first contact situations involving the Planetary Governate, we would like to offer you and your people some history and cultural data on our society so that you may be able to become better acquainted with ours. Ideally, we would like the exchange to be reciprocal, but most importantly we would like to get you our information. We shall attempt to offer it in a usable medium in your own language, so I do not think that those things should be a matter of concern."

Diplomatic protocol. Planetary Governate. Reciprocal.

Such faint buzzwords barely made their paths through X'lati's head as the female's slight scowl continued to reflect upon the first impression of a metallic bookend nested within her hangar. Casually, without retracting her gaze from the light frigate, X'lati replied. "Go ahead and donate a tome of history to ourselves. As for us, we hail from an obscure star in the Core tens of dozens of light years away... Our worlds are lush, tropical paradises rife of nutritious food, slaves and replicating goods. We find it strange, though, that your species is unique," began the lady with a not-so-subtle pause, her eyes now focused upon these bipeds whom lacked natural grace. "In that it lacks features reminiscent of developing organisms. What we are interested in is two-fold: How does your civilization cope with suh a limited phenotype, and how willing are you willing to fork over thralls in exchange for our precious, shiny goods unique to our star sector?"

The toned, tailed female's tribal stripes shone a brilliant gold once more under the bioluminescence of the vessel as X'lati took another step forward. Her scowl faded into a slight, twisted smirk as she studied the vessel once more.

"The Aurelian people are more than willing to trade- Do not get us wrong- but we need to know, exactly, what goods are worth keeping on our wild soil. Too often, we've ran into lesser-developed species based around such inefficient metallurgy; needless to say, they were useless to us. They bargained with piss-poor quality goods even an infant would not touch, and we made riddance of their inferior industries in our quest to subjugate our sectors."

With a toothy grin, X'lati chuckled as the two hundred complement of Tihn'tharin erupted in spontaneous laughter, everyone remembering some sick, psychotic event of history back in "their" sector. Laughter continued even after a flying knife soared overhead- its pointed blade slicing through some poor Gol'Azkhorzi standing in the center of the assembly as it collapsed, dead.

From the balcony, the Eldest One was checking out his own nails whilst he joined in the eruption of laughter: One of his hunting knives' scabbards was devoid of a single, sharp carbon-fiber blade. Cautiously, after his extravagant share of twisted laughter was emanated, The Eldest One leaped down from the oozing catwalk before he passed through an outer band of Tihn'tharin in his passage to the center.

"Let us hope that you do not undercut us," began the Eldest One: An unassuming, buff Aurelian male of average (Tall relative to a human) stature. Wearing a vine-trimmed, toga-like garment which resonated of Death, the male's flanks were also bristling with a motley of empty and loaded pouches. Other than the knife he hurled at the Gol'Azkhorzi thrall, at least seven pouches lacked either one whole weapon or bore only a damaged hilt of some long-gone trophy earned in a vicious brawl. With eerie silence, the Eldest One shoved aside a junior-ranking official whom landed face-first into the soggy substrate as he filed in behind X'lati with a peculiar gaze settled between the two Phlangites in an unknown thought process.

Talent Zhang watched X'lati carefully, and noticed that she had had what seemed to be a slight scowl. It seemed that this new alien race was not particularly fond of the Centauri as much as the Centauri was not becoming particularly fond of them. X'lati then continued on, replying that a tome of history would be welcome, before stating rather boastfully the resources their supposedly lush planets had at their disposal: nutritious food, which Talent Zhang guessed were probably poisonous given the biology of this species; slaves, at which Talent had a brief and barely visible double-take; and finally replicating goods, which while decidedly vague was at least not quite as... unsavory, perhaps, as the fact that this race seemed to take slaves, though in a certain sense slaves could be called replicating goods.

She tried to purge that thought from her mind, however, not exactly wanting to appear fearful or anxious in front of this new species. X'lati then said something about finding it strange that the Centauri were unique - well, how delightfully vague, Talent Zhang thought - before she continued by saying that the Centauri lacked features of developing organisms. Talent Zhang could not help herself when she wondered if there could be any first contact worse than this. An apparently enslaving race that had more or less insulted all of humanity and its various derivatives across the galaxy, as well as similar humanoid races that for some reason seemed to be extremely common. X'lati then asked two questions - the first on how the Centauri could cope with a "limited phenotype", a question that baffled Talent Zhang, and the second on how many thralls they would be willing to part with in exchange for goods, to which she had to restrain her reflexive answer of "zero", as she waited for X'lati to finish speaking.

She then said that the Aurelians were willing to trade, but then she stated that they needed to determine what goods were useful to them, then that they had encountered "lesser-developed" species using "inefficient metallurgy" that apparently offered useless goods to them, and finally referencing... something from their history, perhaps, for it caused an uproar among the Aurelian warriors that were in the chamber. Then, Talent Zhang noticed a knife flying overhead, and the two Spartan Phlangites were beginning to raise their rifles anxiously when they saw that the knife had struck one of the insect-like species in the center of their assembly, and it slumped to the ground, dead. The Eldest One finally said that the Centauri should not attempt to undercut them - at this rate, Talent Zhang doubted that there was going to be any trade at all - as the Eldest One shoved aside a lesser official landing on the ground and then filing in behind X'lati.

Now that it was Talent Zhang's turn to speak, she began to consider her words carefully, wondering what exactly she could say after the aliens freely admitted of their practice of slavery and the gruesome display that had unfolded before her. After a brief moment of consideration, she stated with surprising aplomb for the situation that she was in, "We shall... gather up a brief history of our race, from the time of prehistory to the modern age. As for the matter of trade, I will let it be known that the Planetary Governate, as well as most of if not all of the galactic community" - her mind briefly drifted to the exposes she had read on the Veridian practice of collaring, which was probably just as bad as chattel slavery, if not so overt - "does not practice nor tolerate the keeping of sentient beings as chattel. Perhaps, in the future, it may be possible to determine other areas of mutual interest, for we are not without knowledge of the workings of biotechnology, we just prefer to apply it in, ah, less obvious ways."

After a brief pause, trying to think of what else she could say, she continued, "Know that with this first encounter the eyes of the galaxy shall be upon your nation now. We are but one nation among many, one of several in the galactic community, and many are just as, if not more powerful than we are. Some... will be less than friendly than we are, considerably less so. We can offer you some information on a few of them in the tome that we can provide you, perhaps, and you could see what exactly they have at their disposal. All of them are similarly based on metallurgy, as you call it, as well as energy generated from mostly atomic sources, and your people would be the first that we have ever discovered who use this... organic technology."

X'lati's scowl faded as she turned around in the face of the Eldest One. Nodding to each other without a word, the Eldest One and X'lati exchanged looks of arrogance toward Talent Zhang as X'lati retreated to the ring of Aurelian Tihn'tharin, disappearing amid the sea of crimson. Another Gol'Azkhorzi thrall, unfazed by the death of its compatriot, emerged from the rambunctious crowd with mysterious silence when the Eldest One extended his arms with an ill smirk as he began to speak.

"Newcomers, you must not shirk from progress. We boast among the most photogenic planets in the Core, and we are most willing to offer lushious fruits, if not our drones," began The Eldest One as he shot an impromptu glance at the aforementioned Gol'Azkhorzi whom was now lugging the corpse among the crowd as it made way to a stroma-like projection for garbage disposal: From a distance, one would be able to distinguish, among other things, biological decay and stray, dark strings of dead flesh intermingled with the new cargo as a contractile ring slowly closed around the topmost limb of the slave. An eventual snap rang out into the toxic air as the A'kath's Death-bane churned this new vesicle which appeared nothing more than a five-foot lump stretching out like a boil.

Speaking some more, The Eldest One's pseudo-smile disappeared as he Poised his eyes upon the humans' vessel. "We care little for the Galactic Community, as you call whomever exists beyond the reaches of the Core: We can easily storm a lushious world and intoxicate all lesser life forms unsuited to reproduce. Like our ancestors of old, we are willing to wait tens of thousands of years for nature to absorb a world in our name, delegate."

( Sorry for the delay! I 'twas busy! )

(OOC: No problem, not at all. It's good to know that you're sticking with us. )

X'lati exchanged a glance with the Eldest One, and the two looked at Talent Zhang with visible arrogance before X'lati disappeared into the multitude of Aurelia warriors, as another of the insectoid alien slaves exited the crowd with an unusual silence. The Eldest One then spoke, boasting of the "luscious fruits" of the Aurelian world as the insectoid that had just came dragged away the body of the one just killed to what seemed to be some kind of garbage disposal. The Eldest One then looked back at the UNS Zhang He, before explaining that the Aurelians cared little for the galactic community and could storm a planet and intoxicate all of its inhabitants and was more than willing to wait several tens of thousands of years to do so.

Talent Zhang's eyebrow was half raised as the Eldest One spoke of how little the Aurelians cared for the galactic community. Easily storming a luscious world... with what seemed to be melee weapons? Intoxicating them was somewhat more legitimate of a threat, but Centauri bases were designed with maximum environmental protection given the hostile nature of Chiron and they were less than concerned with that, and of course the labs back on Chiron were always churning out more research on biotechnology. And waiting tens of thousands of years? By then, the Centauri could easily muster a fleet large and advanced enough to defeat essentially whatever any power could throw at them. Of all of the fleets of the civilized galaxy, the Centauri was the most rapidly expanding and modernizing, and although Rhean or Rutian-level power was still far off, they were quite firmly entrenched at the top of the second tier of galactic powers.

However, Talent Zhang merely nodded, with her ever-present half-smile, before replying, "We are always quite amenable to fair and equal trading. I am sure that there will be something that is of value between two different civilizations, especially between two as... dissimilar... as our own. So long as there is no attempt to trade goods that we would consider ethically unacceptable to us, we will be willing to engage in trade. We have large surpluses of raw minerals as well as more processed metals, as well as Centauri biomass that may be of interest to you. We are also quite capable of manufacturing complex electronics, and perhaps your people may find them useful. In addition we-"

She paused for a second as she looked at the notification flashing in front of her on her headset, and uttered "Understood. Clear," before continuing, "It appears that the tome of Centauri history and culture has been prepared by the crew back on the vessel, during our exchange. Someone has been dispatched from the vessel to bring it out, it seems."

After a brief moment, another Spartan Phlangite left the airlock, and put a large and rather thick tome into Talent Zhang's hands, and saluted her before turning back to re-enter the vessel, with the system giving him a rather lengthy and complex decontamination having detected all manner of foreign toxins and pathogens even in the short moment he left the vessel. Talent Zhang then said, after walking forward with her bodyguards and putting the book on the floor gently before the Eldest One, "This is the tome of our history and culture that has been prepared. It has been printed on duraplast sheets, and should be quite capable of surviving any conditions or weathering it will be brought into. The translations may be somewhat... lacking, at times, but it should be effective enough."

Inside the tome is history from Earth's pre-history to modern Centauri history, with a heavy pro-Peacekeeper slant and a portrayal of the Centauri as a rapidly rising galactic power, glossing over completely its chronic instability. There are items of culture in the tome as well, with selected excerpts from various works of philosophers of Old Earth and newer works from the faction leaders of Chiron and their influential advisers. There is also contact information available for other nations, most of those present in the galactic community, though by the information for the Imperial Republic of Rutianas it is noted that they are currently unreceptive to communications. The information for the xenophobic Verdian Dominion was omitted, as the Centauri expected only bad things from such a potential meeting. They would know soon enough, anyways, the Governate always made public press releases for such things.

Draft III

"Electronics..."

A brief pause in The Eldest One's voice succeeded as the Aurelian's gold eyes looked away in remembrance: Incalculable quantities of Z'nithin mainframes were present on that awful world some 20,689 years ago... In the middle of those stalagmite spire-towers which housed that extinct species' temple-observatories used since then to identify immediate worlds suitable for colonization...

Looking forth to Talent Zhang with a sly smile, the Eldest One's digits fumbled with the chest-strap of his bandolier. "We know what you speak of, and we are most willing to part with something-"

A ferocious, ear-splitting roar erupted throughout the chamber to the Aurelians' shock just before a massive, scaly thing crawled on fours at the behest of twelve picador-Gol'Azkhorzin prodding the two-horse tall reptilian with irritant-poisoned pikes clobbered from crude carbon-fiber deposits.

"Hissssss!

Under bioluminescent lighting, a menagerie of crimson, orange, and violet colorations permeated every inch of this quadruped's torso & limbs as two, black tongues shot out like whips. All four, barrel-thick feet bore six razor claws each- Twenty-four in total capable of shredding apart armored infantry or a heavy-class tank. The matted ground broke up into minuscule fragments with each and every step the Cet'pho took in its involuntary journey to the Aurelian ensemble.

"Hissssss!"

From out of nowhere spew forth a fluorescent-blue glow of blood as the reptilian Cet'pho sank its teeth into a terrified picador's left arm and tore it off from the underlying endo-exoskeleton as the arm sailed off in an arc!

"This here," began X'lati as she grinned with pride, her arms resting upon her bosom. "Is K'ijik the Younger. As  nature has it that one of our Cet'phorin mothered hatchlings, we would like to offer this friendly fellow as a token of friendship to the honored Talent Zhang. K'ijik has a preference for flesh, so be certain to feed him well. He also likes to play fetch."

Stepping aside with a graceful nod, X'lati pulled herself aside along with the thunder stricken Eldest One as the picador procession guided the giant steed through between protruding pylons. Tilting his head toward the group, X'lati watched as this Cet'pho's eyes studied the glimmering tiny humans.

As the Cet'pho approached the Centauri, the two Spartan Phlangites flanking Talent Zhang began to raise their tachyon rifles nervously, not quite sure what was even going on. Talent Zhang quickly told them "Stand down", but it didn't quite get to them as she herself was looking at the... thing in horror. However, it seemed to be under... control? Talent Zhang wasn't sure, but it certainly didn't look like it was being against them yet. And then, it tore off the arm of one of the picadors savagely, and then it seemed... rather less controlled. Then, X'lati could be seen again, and then she explained that the beast was named "K'ijik the Younger", and that it was meant to be a "gift". ("Gift?... GIFT!?!" was the only thought that Talent Zhang could muster up.) And then X'lati explained that it had a preference for flesh and enjoyed playing fetch. "Lovely", Talent Zhang thought. "Just lovely."

Then, it was her turn to speak, and as her disposition became a slightly more normal one, she bowed, and said, "It would be my honor to accept this... gift, on the behalf of the Planetary Governate of Alpha Centauri. Since it appears that your people find electronics desirable, we are quite willing to offer a reciprocal gift in due time, though we do not have any such things at this moment. The amount of computronium at our disposal is massive, but only so much of it is able to be put at use. The University of Planet has at its disposal a great volume of somewhat obsolete but still quite serviceable optical computers, and we can offer about, perhaps, five hundred units of them as our reciprocal gift. With time, I am sure, our traders will be able to work out further trades. In any case, please allow me a moment to arrange the proper storage for, ah, K'ijik."

After a brief moment, not saying anything in particular and occasionally nodding or shaking her head, as she arranged how the creature would be transported onto the vessel and stored, and said to the X'lati, "It appears that the UNS Zhang He has at its disposal a containment field for storing K'ijik over the return voyage. If you would please, could some of our crew leave the vessel, put K'ijik in the containment sphere, and bring him back into the vessel's hold? At that point, assuming there is no further business to be done, we shall depart, and we shall register the events back at home, as well as arrange the delivery five hundred units of optical computers. In the future, a more permanent trade agreement could be made, perhaps."

X'lati nodded once more just when The Eldest One stepped forward to X'lati's right flank. "I'll take over from here," began the Eldest One before X'lati shrugged in indifference. For the last instance, the Communications Chieftain gave a slightly-twisted grin at Talent Zhang and the Centauri before she backed into the crowd, disappearing without another word as The Eldest One spoke.

"We are to set up a warp gate in this system which will connect this peculiar realm to our own," began The Eldest One with a neutral expression when K'ijik let out another loud hiss as the rearmost picador forced the beast of burden to take several steps closer to Talent Zhang. With a not-so-subtle glance of irritation toward the offending picador, The Eldest One only scowled as he rolled his eyes. Returning his aged gaze to Talent Zhang, the Eldest One cleared his throat before he spoke. "As for our history, let it be known that we are an ancient species on the order of magnitude of six million years of age. We hail from a lovely, exotic planet well-suited to our mycoculture and husbandry, where towering Phot'unin lumber over lesser forms of life. Over hundreds of thousands of years, we have sent dozens of replicated sleeper vessels, only to find that most of our neighboring worlds are inferior to ours. We shalt not divulge our possessions, but let it be known that we are stewards of organic engineering worlds- Ah! There, we go!"

Redirecting his gaze to K'ijik the Younger, the Eldest One extended several fingers forth as the Gol'Azkhorzin picadors presented the subdued Cet'pho before the Centauri vessel, ready to transfer ownership of this extra load of cargo unneeded by the tattoo-clad Tihn'tharin. Meanwhile, the Gol'Azkhorzi slave dismembered of its arm slumped upon the floor just when another janitorial thrall retrieved the former for disposal. K'ijik let another roar of energy as, with no warning, he lurched his maw at another neighboring picador's insectoid head in a show of wanton violence. The decapitated body slumped down, dead, as K'ijik gnawed away at its last Gol'Azkhorzin meal.

(OOC: Going to take some liberties on the process of loading the creature, just so we don't use too much time going over that one thing.)

Talent Zhang grimaced at the grisly scene that unfolded with K'ijik as it tore off the head of another picador and began to gnaw on its body, while the Eldest One explained the nature of the Aurelian expedition to the system, and told them of their origin and age as a species. In response, Talent Zhang said with a nod, "Interesting. That would make your race one of the more ancient ones in this galaxy, barring the extremely exotic ones, ones that cannot even be measured on the same scale. Our race is only about been extant for some fifty thousand years and has been spacefaring for somewhere around two hundred, with only the last ten or so years with faster than light capabilities."

Meanwhile, a small contingent of the crew exited the vessel, carrying with them a hoop-like structure and laying it in front of K'ijik. One of the crew members gestured to the picadors to bring the creature forward, and after goading it into the hoop, the hoop and K'ijik both levitated up and a red sphere appeared, trapping K'ijik within a wall of force. It was not too dissimilar to the Punishment Spheres used as holding locations for criminals back on the homeworld, meant to keep them in place as they were memetically rehabilitated, but it was rather smaller than a Punishment Sphere would be and much simpler in design and mechanics, for it was simply meant to hold an object. The crew then lead the containment sphere into the cargo hold, and then went back in through the entrance, before being subjected to the same decontamination process that the Phlangite that had brought out the book had been subjected to.

Talent Zhang then said to the Eldest One once the process was complete, "With that done, is there any more business for us to conclude here, or shall we leave? It is... a pleasure to conduct business and diplomacy with you, and the optical computers will arrive on an automated shuttle within a few days at the most. I wish you and your people best of luck in your endeavors, and I will warn you before you leave: the eyes of the galaxy will be upon you now. Tread carefully."