Hours and hours on end spent on the Lete Extraction Station. For Aker Heket, one of the miners extracting ice from that moon to later be used for terraformation purposes, it was just an ordinary, boring day.
He worked on, humming a song he knew since his youth, when he suddenly spotted a spaceship approaching. What now? Is his work going to be disturbed AGAIN?!
Oh no, it bloody ain’t! He shook his fist angrily at the ship, to angry to notice it was not of Hydrosian design…
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Agent and Gorod were standing in front of the windows of the flagship. They were leading one of the many exploratory missions sent by the Comissariat in a response to the recent wave of first contacts.
“I think this is stupid. We should be given an entire task force, not just a fleet. How are we supposed to conquer a xeno state with this? We don’t even have any battle droids!” Said Gorod, the fleets admiral.
“We are not here conquer anything Gorod. We are supposed to discover, gather intel and estabilish contact on the xeno nations.” Answered Agent, a member of the Diplomatic Core.
“Contact?! What of an outrage is that! We will nottalk to these xeno scum!” The smell of anger filled the air.
“Calm down. I will do the talking. We will just try to get some imformation on them and estabilish a symbolic non-aggression pact. It will not be binding of course.”
“I still think this mission is boring.”
“I think it might be interesting. These xenos will be a unique experience and I’m always exited for those. Anyways, we are here.”
The 3000 medium-sized ships, with a much larger flagship, exited the Underspace. It looked like they resurfaced in the middle of empty space. In front of them was an icy moon.
“Our scanners are picking up several structures and life forms on that moon, sir.”
“Fly closer, make sure they can see us. I want to see how they react.” Commanded Agent.
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“Oi!” Heket began shouting loudly, still unaware the ship was not Hydrosian. He knew the crew members would not hear him. However, he did not care.
“Ye folks really think I ain’t annoyed at ya yet?! Well, lemme give ya a piece of ma’ mind: if you bastards want me to slave away for ya in 'ere, then LET! ME! DO! SO! IN! PEACE!”
The other workers had noticed the spaceship was clearly alien, and began to hide, afraid of what was coming.
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“They are not reacting. Interesting.”
“They are just stupid. Xeno scum.”
“Or maybe they don’t know what to do. Send them the message.”
One of the crew members sent the message in several languages, which were Envari and languages of their slave species, among them a human dialect.
“This is an exploratory fleet from the Grand Comissariat of Enver. We don’t want any trouble, just to get to know your species and nation better. If you attack us, beware, we are very capable of defending ourselves.”
“Keep the shields and weapons at full power and everyone on their battle stations.” Ordered Gorod. “I wish we had these new technologies with us.”
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The message from the Envari ship reached the mine chairman’s office. At first, he was rather confused. What even were those noises, after all? Random gibberish? Or… perhaps an alien language?
He left his office in a hurry, and quickly noticed a space vessel floating above the planet. Following a moment of shock and disbelief, he ran back to his office and began broadcasting a message to the workers.
“To all employees of the Lete Extraction Station, we appear to have been visited by an alien vessel. Do not panic, and do not provocate them. I ask everyone to continue working, and I will make an attempt to contact them-”
He took a quick peek at the cameras, and sighed.
“And, for the love of the Great Turtle, can somebody PLEASE tell Mr Heket to calm down?!”
He then went back out, looked at the alien vessel and raised his arms in a gesture of peace.
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“What the hell is that xeno idiot doing?”
“Holding his arms in the air.”
“Yeah, very funny. Maybe we should capture and interogate him.”
Agent let out a smell that was a mix tiredness and anger.
“Do you have any idea how many times I explained this to you? That xeno probably cannot understand us anyways.”
“So what do you think we should do?”
“Land and talk to them.”
“I’m not even going to question your thoght process. But I’m not coming.”
“Prepare my shuttle. And Gorod, please try not to start a war.”
After a few minutes, a grey, metallic, 50 m long shuttle landed on the moons surface, close to the mining outpost. They waited for the actions of the xenos. Who knew how they would react.
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The chairman stood in silence in front of the ship. Multiple workers had, despite the given order, stopped working and assembled near the vessel. Even Heket exchanged his angry attitude for a feeling of confusion and fascination, shared among all other Hydrosians on the Station.
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The large door of the shuttle opened, forming a ramp. Agent, dressed in a black space suit, covering his whole body, hiding even his thin posture, came out of the shuttle, followed by ten Black Guards. He was around 4 meters tall, the Black Guards 4.5. They were dressed in black armor, without any insignia and carrying big rifles. Agent had a small, golden symbol of a star on his chest and a pistol on his belt. He and his escorts stood in the middle of the group of xenos.
“I am a diplomat from the Grand Comissariat of Enver. I was send here on an exploratory mission and to estabilish contacts with xeno civilisations. All hail the Grand Comissar.”
The Black Guards all said in unison. “All hail the Grand Comissar.”
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Every Hydrosian present - save for Heket - felt intimidated. Those gigantic aliens… why did they come here? Were they hostile? And what were they saying?
After a while, the chairman took a deep breath, and began talking.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t understand y-” He stopped. If the Hydrosians did not understand the language of these aliens, there was probably no understanding in the other way. He carefully pointed at the giant’s mouth (or at least, where he believed it to be), then at his own head, which he later scratched and shook in a gesture of confusion.
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“I think they are trying to communicate with us in their primitive language.” Said Agent on the comms, so that the xenos won’t hear him. He contacted the fleet which was currently in orbit. “Gorod, send this data back to the capital and see if they can make sense of this xeno language. I will stay here and see if they get their shit together and call their leadership or something. Maybe they could translate our language.”
Agent pointed at the xeno who was speaking to him. “We do not undestand you. Try to translate our language. I’m giving you a language sample right now. Use it.”
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“I think he might be trying to tell us something.”
“Oh, you don’t say?”
“But how can we understand them?”
“Well… maybe let’s call someone back home. They’ll find someone who can crack the code.”
A quick discussion between the miners sparked initiative. Somebody quickly made the suggestion to the chairman, who still tried to make contact using sign language. The language sample was recorded, and sent to the Council of Sages. After a moment of rather awkward silence, they received a simple, yet functioning translator.
“They were talking about not understanding us… or something about sea lions. Probably the former, though.” the chairman whispered to the others.
“Greetings, visitors. We are workers of the Democratic Republic of Hydrosia, and this is the Lete Extraction Station. We are pleased to meet you.”
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“I am Agent, a diplomat from the Grand Comissariat of Enver. I was send here on an exploratory mission and to estabilish contacts with xeno civilisations. I am glad we finally managed to breach this language barrier. This fleet in the orbit is the 1st Exploratory Fleet, led by my coworker, Admiral Gorod. Don’t worry, we are here with peacuful intentions. All hail the Grand Comissar.”
The Black Guards all said in unison. “All hail the Grand Comissar.”
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“We… are also glad that we managed to get over the language barrier. We wish for… p-peaceful realtions. And offer respect to the Grand Comissar.”
The chairman, still fearing the visitors, spoke. Suddenly, he received a transmission from the Council.
“We have just received remarkable data from Keron Pakant’s crew. If the aliens you are currently conversing with represent the Grand Commisariat of Enver, you could possibly be in grave danger. End the conversation as soon as possible and evacuate from the station!”
A horrified look appeared on the chairman’s face.
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“So, as we got that outof the way, could tell us more about your nation? And did you meet any other nations before?”
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“O-of course. H-hydrosia is a nation that first developed on a planet f-further west… We do mainly live underwater, but, a-as you can see, we can survive on land, if we have a way to breathe… Our people cooperate to create a system we considered free and d-democratic… I would definetly like to converse further but… we just received an order telling us we are needed elsewhere due to… an incident on another Extraction Station. So, if you do not mind, we will be on our way…”
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“Before we part ways, could you inform your government of our presence, so that we may organize a proper state visit. I will be returning to the fleet now, so just contact it wnenever you get information from your leaders.”
Agent and the Black Guards headed back to the shuttle and took off, flying back to the fleet that was in the orbit.
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The chairman and the workers retreated to the vessel that brought them all here. Some were horrified, some fascinated but still creeped out. Some, despite those feelings, were quite happy that their shifts were cut short.
What now? How shall Enver and Hydrosia’s relationship develop? Only time shall tell…
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“How did the meeting go?”
“They run away, because of an ‘incident’ on an another mining station. They were afraid.”
“We aren’t that intimidating. I told there was no point in covering up. We should have shown these pathetic xeno scum who we really are from the beginning.”
“It is possible that they know from one of the ither nations about the true nature of the Comissariat. We are gonna stay here and see how this situation develops. Try to intercept their transmissions.”
The Hydrosians didn’t know that Enveri managed to translate their language, thanks to Æriel. This gave them an advantage. After all, information is information.
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