So Close, Yet So Far. (Galactya-Sereniani First Contact)

[Galaxiel]

“You don’t have to be sorry about anything. Actually, I’d be surprised if you were listening, considering the situation that’s unfolding here! I was just saying that I’m 1024, so nothing important.”

“Oh and, I am sorry to… hear that your homeworld is in such a state. I still don’t completely understand how revolts happen. It probably means that the government isn’t providing what it should. They still haven’t happened here, and we’ve been a nation for 9000 years! I guess there’s not much to be angry about…”

“Anyways, here we are! The Central Administration Building! This is where I spend most of my day. My main office is at the top floor.”

“Oh and, before we enter, one thing. If there’s anything that makes you uncomfortable, just tell me. We still have some difficulties in understanding and relating to aliens, so… let me help you.”

[Stormfire10]

Outside The Central Administration Building, Eastavilp

“No, the Federation provides so long as you don’t revolt. Twice. The revolts are being led by some capitalists trying to make a quick buck and make multi stellar conglomerates.”

"Now where are you, Calio/Laurisa."

“Where in the Gates did you come from!?”

“…The PAG? Like I told you I would arrive?”

“Where is…”

Calio looked around for a second before seeing the rest of his Flight, packing their parachutes back into their bags.

“Why did you all come?”

“Got bored waiting.”

“Same with the rest of us, if you could believe it.”

Calio sweated bullets before turning back to the Governor.

“Pardon them, these are my flightmates.”

He gestured to Laursia

“This is Laurisa, she’s my wingman? Wingwoman?”

“Pretty sure it’s just wingman. Pleasure to meet you, Governor Ayukenaq Tyuhrnis.”

He gestured to the rest of Spark Flight

“These are the rest of Spark Flight. They usually just go by their callsigns.”

He gave them a small gesture to introduce themselves

“I’m Keymaster. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“I’m Jokester. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Chaser. Good to meet someone new.”

“I’m Defender. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I apologize for the entry. I wasn’t waiting, last time we left Calio alone he made jokes to an Evac Ship. We didn’t want you to get a bad taste of Serniani jokes, since he’s fairly bad at them.”

Calios nudges and gives her a look that reads “Shut up, you’re embarrassing me in front of the Governor”

[Galaxiel]

“No, no it’s f-fine. Again, please, for the love of your life, tell me when you mean to do stuff like… this. Since, well, you know… probably, the only reason you haven’t been lasered to death is the fact that my assistant has been keeping an eye out on the entire area for a while so yeah. You’d better thank him when you get to meet him.”

“Anyhow… it’s also a pleasure for me to meet you. Me and Calio were going to my office on the top floor of this building behind us and well, since you’re here now, you might as well follow us. Well to be honest it’s not like you have a choice… So, follow me!”

---

Following the Governor, the small group walked up to the main elevator, went inside and started ascending to the top of the building. In less than 30 seconds, the pod had risen up all the way to the 245th floor.

The doors opened, revealing a decorated room, with two large engraved doors opposite to the pod.

“My office is behind that door. If you can give me a second, I’ll open it for us.”

The Governor walked to a small circular smooth panel near the large doors. They pushed their hand onto the panel, it’s surface giving in and revealing a fleshy and soft consistency. After a while, the doors glowed and started folding in on themselves, opening the entryway. A voice spoke from the office’s intercom.

Welcome back Governor Ayukenaq.

“Okay everyone! Just go in and sit on those chairs right there in front of my desk.”

The Governor’s office was large and very luxurious. The walls were decorated with murals and sculptures of stars and other celestial bodies, and instead of the ceiling there was a large tridimensional stellarium with shining particles and colorful gases, emulating stars and nebulae, gravitationally suspended in the darkness. In various recesses in the walls, around which the murals bent, were decorated shelves full of strange objects from around the Empire Of Galactya. Opposite to the entrance was a large, circular window overlooking on the rest of the city. In front of it were a large, circular desk and a big, red armchair full with light-colored pillows. The chairs the Governor had motioned the crew to were, instead in front of the desk, and resembled the one behind the desk, just smaller and of different colors.

---

After the doors hermetically sealed, the Sereniani sat down on the colorful and elegant armchairs. The Governor then went behind their desk and, before sitting down, looked at them all. Those masks they were wearing sure seemed uncomfortable, or at least, it kinda weirded them out. Then, an idea. They could do something about it!

“I know this may seem a bit out of the blue but, what gases do you breathe?”

[Stormfire10]

Laurisa locks eyes with the Governor as she turns to Calio

“I told Calio, he didn’t tell ya?”

“I did, Laurisa. I was expecting you to track my Valk II. Not me.”

Laurisa mock punches Calio

“I’m just playing with ya. You left your tracker on. Accident or not, we easily found you. Y’know, HALO jumping is rather fun. Try it sometime. Though, Keymaster is afraid of heights and was hugging Defender the entire way down. So, we aren’t going to do that again, I promise.”

“I was not!”

Everybody except the Governor, Calio and Keymaster say variations along the lines of

“Yeah, yeah you were.”

“Fineee. But I wasn’t hugging him the entire way down.”

“You were hugging him most of the way down.”

“Fine, I was partially hugging him down.”

“Do you have to embarrass all of us?”

“You? Yeah. I do it to everybody. Calio knows the worse side.”

Defender and Keymaster look at Calio in confusion

“L-Lets just go. I’ll tell y’all later.”

“You better tell us later.”

---

245th Floor, Central Administration Building, Governor’s Office

Laurisa looks around for a second

“Quite a fancy office.”

“The barracks back in Cascade-23A is as big as this room.”

“Bigger than my-.”

All of Spark Flight shoots him daggers.

“…I won’t finish that joke.”

Laurisa, sarcastically

“And this is why you’re single.”

“Now is not the time for those kinds of jokes. I’d expect a bit more professionalism from both of you.”

“…Yeah. Sorry.”

“Sorry.”

---

After being seated

“Depends. Anything above 22% oxygen is toxic.”

“Anything below 19% is suffocation for us.”

“The mask holds our universal translators, too. Unless you speak Common Serniani, you won’t understand a word. Though Laurisa is a linguist, maybe she’d be able to decipher.”

“Honey, I can’t decipher you sometimes, and I’m the linguist specialist. You expect me to be able to translate for you when I can’t translate someone from my own species?”

“Flattering, I guess not. Let me guess, you left your personal Universal Translator on Cascade-23A?”

“Sure did. Was following orders. You know Valk IIs are insanely cramped, I barely have room for myself in there.”

“You transferred from Xacto XLs. You and Defender barely fit regulations for Valk IIs.”

“Valk IIs fly better though. It was an easy transfer choice.”

“So, yeah the masks aren’t coming off, unfortunately.”

[Galaxiel]

“Oh, it won’t be a problem. I have a neural implant that has… “installed” a biological universal translator in my brain. So, understanding you won’t be a problem. As for the atmosphere, I can just lower the oxygen in this room a bit. Currently it’s at… 25%. Yeah, I just need to get it down to 20.5% and we’re fine. The office is hermetically sealed so it’s a safe environment for you.”

The Governor places their hand on the desk, the point of contact glowing.

“HelpBot?”

As they pronounce that name, the office’s intercom starts speaking.

Yes Governor Ayukenaq? How may I help you?

“Could you please lower the oxygen levels in the office to 20.5%?”

Of course Governor Ayukenaq. I will do that immediately.
ACTIVATING ATMOSPHERIC REDISTRIBUTION PROCESS...

Around a minute passes, with vents appearing above the recesses in the walls, sucking in the excess oxygen. After that, they close, disappearing as if they were never even there.

THE ATMOSPHERIC REDISTRIBUTION PROCESS HAS BEEN TERMINATED.
It is now safe to remove your masks.

“Thanks HelpBot!”

Your wish is my command Governor. If you need anything else, I'd be happy to assist you.

[Stormfire10]

“Uh… Who wants to go first?”

“I guess I’ll go first.”

Laurisa proceeds to take her mask off

“Smells like a medical room.”

Everybody except Keymaster takes their mask off

“Medical reasons, I have breathing issues.”

Calio waited for the governor to speak

[Galaxiel]

“Perfect. Now that we’re all set and ready… we have to actually discuss the situation.”

“Our allies have mobilized due to what happened back at Taivaallinen and currently there are a large Emeraldian Fleet and a Calerostian StarBraker on this planet, and I can’t even tell which one’s worse for you. They stooped here to have a meeting with a member of the Ministry Of Defense before commencing military operations in the Taivaallinen System, or ABH-003 as you call it, but, you know… you guys showed up, finally requesting diplomatic talks, so I decided to postpone it. A similar situation is happening in the Malemanxi System, but I’ve also asked them to put the start of the operations of hold.”

“The real problem though isn’t your presence in our territories. What we actually got “angry” about was the cleaning of the accretion disk around the worm hole and your refusal to accept any of our messages. You cleaning it up would have normally frozen the colonies in a couple of months, but we’re using orbital lasers to keep the temperature high enough for the entire ecosystems to not entirely collapse.”

“If this were a normal situation we could just refuel it artificially in less than a day, but your presence and honestly, aggressiveness, has made that quite the impossible task. At least impossible without getting rid of you by force, if we’re being honest.”

“We’d still prefer avoiding a war though.”

[Stormfire10]

He gave himself a second to think before beginning to speak.

"As stated in the First Contact, The Technocratic Federation holding the wormhole is for a strategic position. The aggressiveness of the tone, I cannot apologize for. The set rules for a first contact are to assert and put out a viable threat. One to assert not to mess around. This usually works. Because we’ve only encountered two major powers. The rest are usually Pre-FTL species. "

“As communications go, the two ships at the time PSR-332 and the Ixso. Ixso was the first vessel that had entered ABH-003. The job was to clean enough room out for multiple ships. However, upon entering the system, the Ixso was damaged and had requested help. The PSR-332 arrived a few hours later to assist the stricken vessel. The only reason the communication was not received the first time was because the Ixso’s communication suite was disabled beyond repair. PSR-332 chose not to respond to any incoming communique while the Ixso’s reactors were being vented, to not fall prey to an ambush, as PSR-332 has no hangar bays, or any methods of self defense.”

He gestures to Laurisa to speak

“As such, PSR-332 cannot be held liable for actions undertaken, including jamming and not responding to any messages.”

“Which leaves the 5th Fleet. The 5th Fleet sortied out during the open clearing, after which the mine clearing suites were disabled. The 5th Fleet entered without issue and was positively identified as having done so. The Defiance awaited in High ABH-003 Orbit to intercept the “Starlight Warrior.” After which, The Starlight Warrior was seen exiting the area and had left with no complications.”

[Galaxiel]

“I understand but still… directly threatening several planets with what did you call them? RKVs? Yes, it was that. Anyways threatening us with those was really, really unnecessary. It was also the secondary reason for the system evacuation.”

“Still though. We can excuse some of your nation’s actions, but the rest is totally unforgivable. At least it would be, if the stakes weren’t so high.”

“As of the current situation, from what I can see on my holoscreens, there are four Conqueror-Class Warships in high orbit around Taivaallinen, with one of them being the StarLight Warrior. Various allied fleets are also going to be deployed. They’re planning a full attack to push you back long enough for Calerost to use their Mirial Technology to close the 4 dimensional bridge that connects the two ends of the wormhole.”

“If the plan were to be executed and if it were to work, it would cause a lot of losses and damage to both sides, as well as leaving you six stranded here. We’d have no problem with you living here of course, but that’s not the point I believe.”

[Stormfire10]

“…RKVs?”

He looks at Laurisa, who shrugs

Calio clenches his fist, and mutters something along the lines of
“You can’t threaten RKVs, you morons. We didn’t station them in ABH-003, 'til yesterday. It wasn’t planned. You saying that meant we HAD to deploy RKVs. Absolute moron. Absolute moron.”

“We know. It wouldn’t save you in the long run. Any time a wormhole dissipates, another two appear, near the same place. Third Law of Accretion. No matter how many times you close a wormhole, it always comes back. Believe me, they’ve tried a lot. You can’t cheat the laws of the universe, without reality ending.”

“Which is why we are so keen to keep that bridge stable so it doesn’t close, and force us to have to deal with double the threats, from you, from DLPU, whomever.”

“It probably wouldn’t work either. Standoff Munitions will be dispatched at every ship that tries something to enter 100km of ABH-003. It won’t be a fight. It’ll be a Turkey Shoot. I have-”

Laurisa cuts off Calio

“I’m so sorry, Governor. Can Calio collect his thoughts for a moment? He’s had a rough couple of days and I don’t want negotiations to end because my flightmate has been wrestling with some issues of his. I apologize deeply on his behalf.”

Laurisa shoots a reassuring smile at Calio

“Anyway. I can promise force will not be used against any ship attempting to refuel the… Taivaallinen? Taivaallinen Wormhole. There will be no use of force unless provoked by being shot at. I offer my sincerest apology. Nobody here wants to start a war. And nobody wishes to kill civilians. The RKV threat was made in bad faith by an officer of high stature. We personally call them hotshots. They’ve been waiting for an opportunity to start a fight. As an Arbiter of the Federation, I hold the power to appoint and decommission an officer. They will be taken care of. You have my word.”

[Galaxiel]

”That’s good to hear. Now, if you can follow me, I’m sure the Minister Of Defense will be glad to hear it directly from you. In case he doubts it, I’ll put in my good word.”

We should also hurry a bit, since you six made everyone wait for at least an hour. So, come, on put your masks back on and let’s get going.

After the Sereniani put on their oxygen masks, the Governor gets up, goes to the door and opens it, the same way as when he had opened it some minutes ago. They then all get back in the elevator, descend down to the ground floor and exit the building.

”We have to go to the main SpacePort. Our allies and the Minister have been waiting there for us. Let’s take my Maglev Capsule, and we’ll be there in no time.”

---

Inside the SpacePort, the Governor leads them to the last floor of the gigantic building, several kilometers high from the surface. Then, they all enter a large circular room. In the middle there’s a large, round and elegant table, with big holoscreen projectors in the middle. Seated around it are Admiral Ludov of the Union Of Emerald, Contraadmiral Tangadon of Calerost, the three captains of the Migration Ships and , seated opposite to the entrance, a tall and imposing Galactyan, decorated in a colorful military uniform, with a 10-pointed white star on the left of his jacket. That was High-General Xeralon Qerins, Minister Of Defense and one of the most power figures in the Empire Of Galactya.

”Greetings everyone. Sorry for our lateness, but we did have a little bit of a situation going on. The diplomatic team of Sereniani has quite a lot to say to you all.”

As the Governor sits down, they motion them to sit down around the table as well.

[killermantiss]

“Diplomacy is never late governor. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”
Said the contraadmiral
Afterwards he stood up and approached the Serinari, extending his hand.

"This is how humans greet each other, isn’t it, by shaking hands? It is a honor to make first contact with you in the name of the Gill-Atarnië. I am contraadmiral Tangadon, representing the star empire of Calerost as previously stated.

[KingTEM]

The Rear Admiral looked over, as did the other 4 CO’s under his Command.

(RA)“Its Fine, I was more wondering how much longer you were gonna take.”

(CXa)“Greetings Serenianians, I am pleased to meet you.”

The other 3 Captains remained silent.

[Stormfire10]

Transfer to Maglev, Elevator, CAB

“Hey, Calio you alright?”

“Y-Yeah. Just a little shaken.”

“Didn’t expect something like this?”

“No, no I didn’t.”

“It’ll be alright. Any time now we’ll be back in Cascade System.”

“I just wish this would go by faster…”

---

Ballista Class MCV-342 “Razor,” Comms Line

“Progress?”

“Working on it. Got a few new friends here.”

“In a positive or negative way?”

“Probably a bit of both, but it’ll be fine.”

“Have you been actively threatened?”

“Define threatened.”

“An act you or the Federation would take with consequences, subtly or actually implied.”

“Then that’d be a yes. But that was before, and that was an accident. This is a diplomatic mission, not a shootout.”

“The Admiral Eliza’s CIC is picking up several craft of unknown make heading at them.”

“Don’t shoot and await verification. If they are trying to refuel the wormhole let them pass.”

“…Anything else you want me to forward to the Admiralty?”

“No, but I’ve got some words for you.”

“…Which is?”

“Don’t twist my words. You twist my words and I’ll have your wings.”

---

Eastavilp Spaceport

Laurisa shakes the Contraadmiral’s hand

“Pleasure to meet you too. I am Chief Petty Officer Laurisa, callsign Rapier, please just call me Laurisa to save time. I was the person over Multispectral earlier. It’s an honor to meet someone of such high stature.”

Laurisa turns to greet Emeraldian Cpt

“Greetings. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Laurisa looks around before sitting down, followed by the rest of the flight

This would be a feisty meeting. There was no doubt the UEN was pissed that they had lost Three Small Craft and a Pilot. The MoD probably wanted to start throwing hands. Homeland Defense most likely has sent the RKV authorization keys to the Admiral Eliza. The only people who don’t seem angry are the Calerost. If anything bad happens here, most planets in this system, and the new few systems over would be incinerated faster than she could jump a Gate Relay.

[Galaxiel]

Without getting up, High General Qerins greets the Sereniani. Although it was quite hard for them to read his facial expressions, he appeared to look both serious and delighted at the same time.

“Welcome. It is nice to finally meet you in person.”

Qerins activated his neural implant and sent a message to Tangadon’s holowatch.
I will need you to be extra attentive during this meeting Tangadon. I want to trust them but considering the previous events it's hard to.

“I have been told from Ayukenaq that you have some things to inform us about. Us and our dear allies were going to initiate our military operations, but I’d be pleased to listen to you and perhaps reconsider our plans.”

[Stormfire10]

Laurisa paused. Given current events, she wasn’t sure what the Calerost would be capable of. She knew UEN looked human, but were they human? Galactyans were just everything and anything at the same time… Time seemed to pass a little slower as she considered her options. Her mind raced for a moment. She snapped back to reality a few seconds later.

“Oh- Sh-”

Laurisa shakes herself for a second

“I-I’m sorry, I spaced out. A-Anyway.”

Laurisa shakes herself again

“So, using Military Force would result in extreme losses for both sides. Quite honestly, I can’t be sure what they would do if you did fight, but I’m almost certain someone would get the bright idea to clear the entire accretion disk, and would cast the entire system into darkness. Though I’ve promised that no ship crossing to refuel the accretion disk will not be harmed, any agreement I make will be rendered void should you start a fight.”

“Which would lead to more chaos.”

She paused to await a response

[killermantiss]

Tangadon sends a message back

“Noted. For now they seem trustworthy, but there’s something interesting going on here. Can’t quite pin point it tho yet, i will continue to observe them”

[Galaxiel]

“I understand. We will not use any military force then, except as a defense response in case of any attack.”

“But still, I fear that a problem remains. While we were waiting for you, I contacted the Emperors and briefed them on the situation. During the briefing session, I hypothesized a situation in which we came to peaceful, or at least neutral, arrangements, and asked them how to act in regards to the occupation of the Taivaallinen Wormhole. They responded by saying that a unilateral occupation on your part would be unacceptable, but they were willing to accept a joint occupation if and if only your conduct during the diplomacy talks with Governor Ayukenaq was… good, for the lack of a better word.”

“Seeing how this seems to be our exact situation, then the Emperors will be glad to let you stay here.”

“What I was concerned about instead was your governments response to a proposal of such nature. From the previous events, I was able to tell that they had a strong tendency to… conquer. Especially without taking other species in consideration.”

[Stormfire10]

The one question Laurisa hadn’t thought about. The House of Technocrats wouldn’t let this fly. Politics wasn’t really her strong suit, but she knew any form of pro-integration would spark outrage. It would never get through. It would stall forever.

Laurisa nervously looks around before stating

“I-I… I’m unable to do that. I am so sorry.”

“Nothing I could do, even as an arbiter would let me allow me to accept anything like that… May I have a moment?”

Laurisa exits in tears

“If we could, can we take a brief recess to collect ourselves? Our friend appears to be in a state of distress. I apologize on her behalf.”

---

Outside the Meeting Room, Eastavilp Spaceport

“I-I… I just don’t know what to do.”

“It’s fine-”

“It’s not fine! We are going to die if we don’t take a deal.”

“What makes you think-”

“Why would they let us leave with our heads attached? It doesn’t add up. Even if we are arbiters for now, we are still pilots. They wouldn’t hesitate to shoot us in a heartbeat.”

“How about we cool down, and find some food? After we eat, we can find a solution to our problems.”

“O-Okay.”

“Sure. Find food. Solve problems later.”

“Cut her some slack, she’s literally crying. Are you so void of emotion you don’t care?”

“I do care, but we still have no way to solve our problem.”

“We said we would discuss it over dinner.”

“Yeah, because it’s totally dinner time.”

“The star is literally setting. The implication is that it is dinner time.”

“Fine, you do have a point. But how are we going to find food? We are on a planet with people who like to see us dead.”

“We are trying to figure that out.”

[Galaxiel]

Governor Ayukenaq walked out of the room. They saw them at the end of the hallway, with all of them having faces full of distress and anguish. One of them was outright crying. They reached them, worried.

”Guys, come on. I’ve never seen any alien so worried. What’s the problem?”