”Well, you actually can. The meeting room is already quite big itself and the central table is modular, so it can get even bigger if we happen to need more space."
”Follow me then. It’s going to take us a minute or two."
With the large following of aliens behind hir, Oullin began guiding them down the winding, seemingly endless hallways of the enormous ship: even if the part actually destined to the crew was rather small - with the rest of the ship being completely automated, while still having some maintenance and emergency tunnels - it was still a pretty large area to be crossed. Luckily for them, the hangar wasn’t too far from their destination, and so it only took them little time. In the meanwhile, they continues to discuss some other things about their nations.
The meeting room was circular and spacious, with a large holotable in it’s center, who was also circular. As soon as the doors opened, 29 effector chairs materialized from the floor, taking a shape that would best fit the anatomy of the Rikeuninerd for sitting. A single one of the chairs, instead, took a spiral like form, ready to accomodate Oullin’s snake-like body.
”Please, take a seat."
”So… what would you all like to start with during this meeting of ours?"
They enter the room talking amongst them selves, observing their surroundings. They all sit down in silence, He, Desysy, and Ku-dyko sitting next to each other.
Captian He: “First, we need to contact Ruka. As Ku-dyko said, they’ll be looking for us. We will be able to get an actual diplomat as well.”
”Mh. Well, that can surely be done. If you’d be willing to give me one of your ship’s communication codes, we could convert it in a way that’s compatible to our machinery, and send a communication to Ruka. Our communicators can basically send messages almost instantaneously to pretty much anywhere that has the sufficient technology to capture the message."
”So, if you could just tell me the code, or write it down on the table, we could settle that immediately."
A small cylinder emerged from the surface of the table, right in front of the lotech tablet. A beam of colorful light was projected from the cylinder’s front, quickly scanning the 2D Matrix Code before disappearing.
The cylinder then lowered back into the black surface of the table, disappearing as if it was never even there.
”Perfect! Now, we can just send this over to the Communicator Relay and… there we go! They should be able to receive the message in some seconds. It’s not always instantaneous due to compatibility problems and metric distortions, but it always takes no more than some 20 seconds to set up."
”As soon as it connects, feel free to talk first. I’ll chime in later if that is needed."
Captain He: “Rehy Civilian defence, this is Scrapping ship 434-3. We have accidentally warped outside of known territory. We are under first contact protocol, encounter is The Celestial Empire of Galactya. Status: Safe. Ship is docked on Astral Collapse. We are outside our radios range, so haven’t been able to communicate. We are currently in a meeting room and have began diplomacy with official Oullin Phtalamm. Akak.”
Co-pilot Desysy is checking the 434-3’s log: “The coordinates entered into the ship where [coordinates]. We request an official diplomat. Akak.”
It takes a few moments for a response, as the crew is very far from home.
Civilian defence: “Scrapping ship 434-3 this is Civilain defence. We are recalling for search operations regarding you and your ship and are sending two diplomats. Akak.”
Captain He: “It will take 24 or so hours to get here. We where in the warp for a while. Akak.”
”Well, now that that’s out of the way, is there anything less you might want to discuss? We probably have anywhere from some hours to a day before the two diplomats your civilian defense sent will arrive, so there is plenty of time for discussion."
”For example, that “Akak” you and the responder both said at the end of your sentences, what is it’s function? If I’m not wrong, it seems relatively similar to the Terran “Over”, which they often put at the end of short military communication to signify that they are done talking. Does “Akak” have that same purpose?"
Ku-dyko: “Akak is used to signify the end of someone talking, yes. When it is not said the conversation has ended, as long as it makes sense to end it.”