Chapter 1: Collision
It happened without warning.
“Contact on deck three!”
“Report! What’s happening?”
“Breach on port side!”
“Engineers say one-fifth of the hull is compromised!”
“Seal it!”
“We’re sealing the breach, Captain.”
“Scans? Is it deliberate?”
“No weaponry. Physical contact only!”
Amelia took a deep breath.
“Air lock?” she called out.
Static greeted the nervous command deck. If air pressure was lost in space—a very likely event—odds were they wouldn’t be able to reach the engineering deck. If that were the case, none of the command crew had enough training to fix the grievous damage to the hull and possibly the engines. If they were dead in the water, they’d be stranded for sure. The captain gripped her console tightly. She tried again.
“Air lock?!”
A youthful voice filtered back through the channel. “Air lock is stable, Captain. Generators are reporting strain but it’ll hold.”
The Captain sagged at the console, her feet betraying the tension the rest of the crew no doubt felt about the potentially cataclysmic event. It was rare to hit another vessel in space, not to mention out of FTL jump. They were in uncharted space, though, so the likelihood that they would find any other ships were virtually zero.
Not zero. They should have sent a relay ahead. They were expensive, but she didn’t think there’d be… The Captain shook her head. Time enough to regret her decisions later. She suppressed the guilt under the weight of her concern.
“Casualties, Alex?”
“Uhh…”
The Doctor’s voice cut in. “Amazingly none, Captain. Only light injuries from overloaded arrays.”
“Because I sealed the bulkhead!” Alex put in.
Amelia sighed in relief, if Alex was being glib then the situation was under control. “Thank you, Alex.”
Alex’s huff could carry across space. “Yeah but next time send a relay, alright? Alex out.”
Amelia smiled. Well, she deserved it, no matter what other caustic comments Alex had to say. She appreciated the fact that the girl had reined in some of the more inventive replies. Not that anyone on board could tell her off; out of all the engineering staff, Alex knew the most and tried the hardest. She wasn’t shy about letting anyone know about that, either. Several times the girl had clambered to the command deck to chew out the pilot for throttling the engines too hard.
With immediate dangers circumvented, it was time to take stock of the situation. If Alex said they were fine, then they were fine. Since they were in no immediate danger, the only other course of action would be to check the other ship. She just hoped the occupants on board would be okay.
“Comms? Send a transmission to the other vessels, anything on the receiving end?”
Brian shook his head. “Nothing out there, Captain. No distress signal so far. There’s some interference along the channels but that might be because…”
Amelia frowned. “What? What is it?”
Brian swallowed. “It could be radiation leak from their engines.”
“Kael-mah,” Nida breathed.
“Hey,” Amelia growled. “None of that language. Any other reasons, Brian?”
He shook his head. “I’m not a technical expert in the field, but they could be using some form of energy source that’s giving out that sort of channel leak. It seems to be coming out in regular bursts, so it doesn’t seem to be an uncontrolled leak.”
Amelia tapped her chin. “Nida, what’s our course?”
Nida didn’t even need to glance at her console. “We’re adrift, Captain. No bearing…” She shrugged helplessly. “We were three jump-points away.”
Amelia groaned. They might as well be in deep-space. “We’re stranded. Ugh. Okay, could be worse.”
“We could be dead,” Nida added helpfully.
“Yes, Nida, we could be dead,” Brian shot back.
Amelia kneaded her brow. “Nothing on comms?” She asked hopefully.
Brian shook his head apologetically. “Nothing, Captain.”
“Alright, I guess we’ll need to do this the old-fashioned way. Exo-suits and boarding gear, we’ll need to access the other ship,” Amelia ordered.
Nida cocked her head. “Wouldn’t that be seen as unnecessarily aggressive?”
Amelia opened her mouth to give her reply, but Alex cut her off.
“Take me with you!”
Amelia slammed her console. “Damn it, Alex! Do you ever stop eavesdropping?”
“No secrets, Captain,” the engineer pressed. Amelia heard a sigh. “You’ll need me.”
Amelia drummed her fingers on the console, thinking it through. “You have no combat training.”
“Do a scan of their ship.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow.“We did.”
“Then you know it’s not a military vessel. Their engine might be broke. They might need my help.”
“Military vessels come in all shapes and sizes.”
There was a brief silence over the comms. “It doesn’t look like it. No serial markings, no signs of weaponry or heavy armour. It’s pretty non-descript.”
Amelia wiped a hand across her face. “Stop looking through encrypted files, Alex.”
“Well I’m right, aren’t I?”
Alex had a point. If the ship had a problem, then Alex could help out. Still, she didn’t want to risk Alex in a potentially hostile exchange.
“It could be dangerous,” Amelia warned, though she already knew what she’d say.
“I can handle it, Captain.”
Amelia glanced at Brian who was leaning against his console with an elbow. “Alex could help them out. You can’t keep her cooped up in the engineering deck forever.” He shrugged. “Just keep her out of range. You too, Captain. We can’t afford to lose you either.” He hesitated. “At least since…”
Brian skirted around Hale’s death, but his spectre stood like an unwelcomed guest between them. Amelia froze, then forced herself to move her head in a nod. What was past was past. Cobalt Blue always headed towards the future. What happened to Hale was her fault, but that didn’t mean it would happen again.
“Fine,” Amelia said, then she waved at her comms, signalling Alex. “You best be on your best behaviour, okay?”
“Yes, Cap’n.” Somehow Alex’s words didn’t seem as sincere as they literally sounded. Amelia could feel her brows draw together.
“I mean it, Alex, you blow this and no matter how useful you are I’ll have you confined to quarters.”
“Captain—”
“Alex.” There was no compromise in her tone.
Another huff. “Fine, Captain. Just don’t expect me to be happy about it.”
“I don’t expect you to be happy about it, I expect you to be alive. We clear?”
“Yes, Cap’n.” This one was more sincere.
Amelia let go of a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. She signalled Brian. “Get Soho and a couple of guys from the security team and meet us at deck three, I want to know what in the galaxy we’ve hit.” Then she connected to Alex again. “Get yourself in gear, we’ll have to check the entry point.”
“No need,” Alex replied. “We can just use the cutting tools, Captain.”
“Just because we’re pressurised, doesn’t mean they are too.”
“We’ve got portable air-lock shields for cutting, Captain. If we open the entry point and their air-lock has failed, it could propel a fifty ton door into us. If we cut in, send in a probe, we can run scans,” Alex explained.
Amelia nodded, impressed. Then a suspicious thought occurred to her. “Have you done this before, Alex?”
An impish voice filtered back through comms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Captain. Ship breaches outside an emergency are illegal.”
Despite herself, Amelia chuckled.
——————
Twilight awoke to blaring lights and the harsh whine of the emergency alarm.
“Princess!” A quick bow. “I’ve been sent to inform you of the situation. We’ve hit something.”
“Wha—” she shook her head. No time to be confused. It was time to get ahold of the situation. “What happened?”
“We were on course until a positively huge ship appeared in front of us!” The crew member explained. No wait, not a crew member. A guard. Twilight struggled to remember his name. Star-something. Then it sunk in… a collision!
“Damage?” Dread shot down her spine. “Did we lose anypony?”
He shook his head firmly. “Thankfully no crew members were on the outer decks on night cycle. Minimal impairment to vital systems, though a lot of the outer hull has been damaged.”
Twilight closed her eyes briefly, thanking the stars. Time to gather some more details.
“A ship? One of ours?”
The stallion shook his head nervously. “No, Princess.”
“Then that could only mean…”
He nodded. “It’s an unregistered vessel.”
“Have we tried contacting them?”
“One of our standard communication arrays were among several systems compromised in the collision. We’ve managed to seal off most of the breach, but there could be some irreparable damage.”
“Send some teams out to survey the damage. We need to—what?”
“We can’t do that, Princess.” He shifted uncomfortably. “We’re still uhh, entangled with the other craft.”
Twilight’s jaw dropped. “You mean we’re still lodged in the other ship?!”
He nodded warily. “I’m afraid so. The Captain wants to see you, Princess.”
Shocked, Twilight could only nod as the stallion lead her towards the bridge.
——————
Amelia frowned while Alex held up her plasma cutting tools a little too enthusiastically.
“We’re going to try comms again, Alex, so no cutting until we get confirmation that there’s no response.”
Alex rolled her eyes but nodded anyway.
Soho ruffled Alex’s hair. Alex glared at him, but didn’t do much else, since Soho was one of the only people on the whole ship Alex respected. There was something about a seven foot giant that kept mouths shut and eyes to their task. Despite Alex’s playful nettling, Soho never lost his cool. Likewise, everyone knew the towering security guard had a soft spot for Alex. He grinned at the irrepressible engineer. “None of that,” he rumbled. “Let the Captain follow protocol.”
Alex grimaced, setting her tools aside with a clang on the deck floor. Further along the corridor was the bulkhead that she had helped seal. Since restoring a partial field around the intrusion, Alex assured the rest of the team that it was safe to open. She said so, but she still wore the exo-suit and helmet.
Amelia waved her arm, summoning the internal neural linkup. “Comms?”
“Still silent, Captain,” Brian replied. “I’ve tried every protocol, including emergency and open channels. Nothing, just those stray bursts of static.”
Amelia sighed. “Keep sending a call for communique across all available channels. Tell me if something comes up and keep sending everything that we’re doing. Friendly intentions, got that?”
“Yes, Captain, but I wouldn’t keep your hopes up. Nida tells me that it looks like they may have a damaged communication array on collision. It’s hard to tell because a lot of the parts are non-standard.”
Amelia clenched her fists. “Non-standard as in black market?”
Brian read her undertone and corrected himself quickly. “No, Captain. I meant non-standard as in custom design.”
Amelia heaved out a sigh of relief. Less likely pirates, but more likely private or military. Still tricky. She waved at the bulkhead console. It didn’t respond, meaning it wasn’t integrated like the rest of the systems onboard so neural linkup was a bust. Amelia shot Alex a look.
Alex shrugged. “I haven’t gotten around to installing all of the systems, yet. I’m positive the field on the other side should be holding.”
“Captain?” That was Nida.
“Yes?”
“We’ve received a report from engineering.”
“What do they say?”
“There wasn’t damage to any of the critical systems, but sensories took a massive hit. We’re blind on the ship side.”
Amelia frowned. Was it intentional?
“I know what you’re thinking, Captain,” Nida continued. “It’s not intentional. From what they’ve gathered from the last readings, the vector of the other ship changed drastically to avoid collision. If they hadn’t they probably would have sheared us in half.”
That was good news. Though it wouldn’t have been likely that they were aiming for an outer-edge exploratory vessel like theirs. Still, chance encounters with raiders, pirates, freelancers, privateers, Common fleet and military were all situations to avoid when all alone in the vast edges of the known worlds. Anything they could get on the ship would have helped, but it seemed like the only choice was to get eyes-on.
First thing was first, damage had to be checked. They may be able to see from deck three. Amelia brought up the ship’s schematics on her exo-suit’s arm-display. Deck three had a solid portion of damage done to it. They were just outside the bulkhead that sealed off the compartment that separated the outer shielding to the inner shielding.
“Brian are there any cameras in deck three?”
“A few, Captain, but the only one beyond that blast door just shows that part of the deck is missing.”
Amelia nodded, time to go in and make an assessment. They could double back and get some EVA equipment if the ship was close enough. Too far and they could take a small shuttle. She punched her credentials into the bulkhead and accessed the environmental data. “It’s clear,” Amelia called back. “Air is sealed tight.”
“See?” Alex said, but quieted down when Amelia simply stared at her. “Sorry.”
“No chances,” Amelia said. “Helmets.”
No one argued. Suffocating in the vacuum of space wasn’t something to be joked about. Helmets clicked in with a hiss.
A deep voice crackled through the comms. “Captain, we should go first. There’s no telling if it’s a trap or hostiles beyond.”
Amelia turned around. It was one of the twins. Matthias. Mal glanced edgeways hoping Amelia would get their names mixed up. They always took delight in making people guess their names. Amelia was one of the rare few that could tell the difference.
“Right, Matthias,” Amelia said neutrally, ignoring Mal’s sigh. “Soho?”
Soho nodded and gestured for the twins to take point. “Alex, stay with Amelia.” He hefted his stun gun, while the twins pulled out flash armaments.
The weapons wouldn’t do much if they were up against pirates, but it would buy enough time to seal off the bulkhead again. Amelia swallowed. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. Hopefully the unregistered ship was just one of many illegal settlers trying to eke it out on unknown worlds before the mega-corps stripped them. Or maybe the custom design meant it was a rich merchant’s private transport ship? Well, they’d know soon enough.
“Novac. One. Five.” Soho gestured with a few cryptic signs. “Teal cat. Two. Two. Six.”
Mal and Matthias checked their weapons one last time. Then both nodded. “Acknowledged.”
Amelia didn’t know the code the security team had developed among themselves, but it leant a sort of confidence and professionalism that the captain couldn’t deny. She felt Alex creep up to her side, having picked up her tools again. A nod from Soho and Amelia punched in the code to breach the airlock. Instantly, she felt the difference in pressure.
“AG field leak!” Alex cried out. She waved at her boots. Amelia followed, slightly out of practice, though the security team hardly even paused. Magnetic locks engaged as they followed ferrite tracks leading into the room. Amelia watched them going through the gap, behind the other side.
A tense silence followed.
“Clear, Captain. Proceed.”
Relaxing, Amelia reduced the magnetic locks on her boots and headed out. Near the bulkhead, the AG field was about one half the norm. A few steps away, she could already feel it rapidly fade away. Amelia carefully followed the faint orange markings of the ferrite strips and came alongside Soho and the twins at either side of the bulkhead. She immediately saw the problem.
“Shael tæy,” Alex swore as she took it in.
For once, Amelia had to agree. The colliding ship had breached the outer wall, rending the surface and peeling back a significant portion of the outer shielding. Some effort had been made to turn away, but obviously it had caused a shearing graze that pierced through their own hull, scraping away their outer hull as well. The smaller ship didn’t seem to have the double shielding ballasts expected for the C-class transport that size. From the hissing, it sounded like they had trouble keeping pressure. Thankfully for them, the passive air-lock shielding extended around the breach and was keeping the air in for them. With weak inner plating like that, exposure to space would crumple the ship like an egg on a neutron star.
Amelia was glad that the ship had decided to remain stationary. If they had attempted to remove themselves by thrusting, it would risk further damage to the deck and quite possibly could breach into the inner plating. Amelia swallowed. Beyond the inner plating were some of the crew quarters. Though all of the crew were roused during the emergency, if the ship had tried delta’ing away immediately, they almost certainly would have taken casualties.
At least they didn’t have to EVA. The ship’s undercarriage was barely three feet off the deck. Slight groaning from some beams told Amelia that the hulls were still scraping together, gnarling the ships together slowly. Probably a good thing since the air-lock field didn’t extend very far past Cobalt Blue’s boundaries. The meshing problem was keeping them alive. She sighed. It was still a problem to deal with. They’d have to get onboard and explain the situation quickly, before the occupants did anything drastic.
Amelia waved her arm to activate her exo-suit’s speakers. If they couldn’t reach the other ship with radio, audio would have to do. Hopefully they had surviving sound sensors.
“Hello? This is Captain Amelia Finegold from the ship Cobalt Blue. We are an A-class exploratory ship, privately owned. It seems we’ve both had an accident, and we’re willing to lend assistance. If you do not respond we will take it as an invitation to board your ship in order to regularise the situation. Please respond.”
“Regularise, Captain?” Alex laughed over the comms. “Did you make that up?”
“Common Law doesn’t extend this far out here, but we still respect it,” Amelia replied. “Besides, it does give it a certain authority, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah sure, Captain. Let me pyrolise the exoskeleton, if you please.”
“Just give them some time, Alex,” Amelia said. “I don’t want to be shot full of plasma if we accidentally cut into a classified military experiment.”
Alex shrugged. “It’s a bit high on aesthetics and low on practicalities for a military vessel, Captain.”
She had a point, but it was always best to take things slow. “Plasma still hurts.”
“I say we just bust in and apologise later,” Alex quipped.
Soho tapped his gun on Alex’s helmet. “None of that disrespect to the Captain. Patience saves lives. You know the value of that, engineer.”
Alex pouted, but nodded sullenly. “Urgh, why do you have to make so much sense, Soho?”
Soho chuckled. “That’s what I’m here for.”
Mal raised an eyebrow, tossing his flash armaments from hand to hand. “Ya think we gave them enough time?”
Amelia pursed her lips. “Just a few more minutes. Can you at least act like you’re part of a professional crew?”
Mal grinned, not saying anything.
———————
“Princess on deck!”
Twilight faltered slightly under their sudden gazes. “No need for that. Captain Cross?”
The mare saluted as Twilight approached. “Princess Twilight, we’ve mostly contained the situation. I hope I didn’t disturb you unduly.”
Twilight wryly wondered if the Captain thought that a ship to ship collision was almost not worth waking her up. “Thank you, Captain. You wanted to speak with me?”
“Yes. Princess, we’ve got a problem.”
“Yes, Captain, I believe crashing into another ship is a pretty big problem.”
Cross cleared her throat and straightened slightly. Twilight regretted her sarcastic tone almost immediately.
“Sorry, Captain, what’s the problem?”
Cross motioned with a hoof, bringing up a display. The image was a projection of the starboard hull that had meshed in with the other ship. Seeing the damage, Twilight quickly calculated the odds of getting out using their engines and without causing more grazing. Slim, very slim.
“Princess.” Cross nodded to the right side of the screen. Twilight followed her hoof and took in—
“What are those?!” Twilight gasped.
Moving along the right side of the screen were five… creatures. They walked upright on two legs, leaving their upper arms free to move about. From the way they approached the ship and surveyed the surroundings in a well-directed fashion, but with caution, showed signs that were organic rather than mechanical. One of them stared at the camera. Their smooth, round helmets concealed their eyes, but still penetrated through the display to bore into Twilight’s own as she swallowed. Then it moved on.
“We’re not sure,” Cross admitted. “If we were in Equestrian space I’d be mostly confident that these were probably engineered. For what purpose, I don’t know. If they aren’t though…”
Twilight’s eyes were glued to the live feed. “Then they must be alien lifeforms.”
The bridge, which had a constant murmur in the background, was now shrouded in a sudden silence. Cross’ glare swept across the deck. “Come on, we still need more detailed reports! Get to it.” The crew reluctantly turned back to their duties, but Twilight spotted several eyeing them off their periphery. They were probably curious about what their princess had planned for first contact.
Twilight swallowed thickly. “We weren’t ready for this. Dear Celestia, for hundreds of years we hadn’t even seen a glimmer, but now a space-faring race?” She took a couple of steps to the side, frowning in thought. “We’ve drafted a few policies in case of first contact, but I didn’t think we’d deal with it after all these years of searching.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Where’s the rest of the fleet? We were supposed to be following along the new settlers.”
Cross shook her head. “This ship is one of the slower models,” she replied. “As I recall, you didn’t want to arrive with too much ‘fanfare’ as you called it.”
Twilight winced. “I thought it would be a little excessive to show up in my own vessel. I’m happy that it’s used more for patrols and settling territorial disputes.” Her mouth twitched into a rueful grin. “Well I guess it’s lucky that we were in this ship, or we would probably would have wiped out the aliens. That wouldn’t go well for first contact.”
“We’ve been in communication with the advance fleet, they want to come in for an assist, Princess.”
Twilight summoned her personal assistant. She scrolled through various documents, stopping at one and turning it around to show the Captain. Cross’ eyes scanned through the material quickly. Her head shot up. “Are you sure, Princess?”
Twilight smiled. “Quite. We should show a gesture of peaceful cooperation, not intimidation. Though this was undoubtedly a disastrous accident, that is what it is. An accident.”
Surprisingly, Cross smiled. “Well, now this vessel is truly an expeditionary vessel.” She raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to deal with it personally, Princess?”
Twilight glanced up, eyes widening at the unexpected thought. “Yes,” she said slowly. “As a princess I’m now an official delegate to contact with these new species.” She shuffled her hooves nervously. “Let’s hope they’re more accommodating than the griffons were when we gave them Dew Drop.”
Cross eyed the crew. “Let’s not let history pave the way far into the future, Princess.”
Twilight blinked, then smiled. “Yes, of course. It’s just shocking to find out we’re not the only space-faring planet. How are you staying so calm?”
Leaning in, Cross raised an eyebrow. “If you’ll forgive my informalities, Princess, I’m also freaking out.”
Twilight leaned back. “Ah.” She chuckled, then in a louder voice, addressed the Captain so the rest of the bridge could hear. “We’ll come out to greet them in a small team.”
“Armed, Princess?” It was the guard that lead her to the bridge. Ah, yes, that’s right, he was part of the royal guard retinue. She eyed his stripes. A sergeant no less.
“Sergeant…?” she continued.
“Sergeant Stark, Princess.”
“Minimally, Sergeant Stark,” Twilight said. “Are the lifeforms outside armed?”
Cross glanced at the aliens. “Hard to tell, Princess. Their physiology is different, but the bearing of these three seem guarded.” She pointed to the other two. “These ones seem more relaxed. See how the others ring them? They might be important.” Cross nodded to Stark. “Sergeant, perhaps you can shed more light?”
“I’m no expert on the situation, it’s hard to tell if the objects they’re holding are tools or weapons.” He shrugged. “We should go out fully equipped, just in case.”
Twilight pursed her lips. “If we go out there in full armour we might cause an unnecessary escalation in force.”
Stark shifted uncomfortably. “I understand, Princess, but my number one priority isn’t diplomacy; it’s your safety and the safety of anypony going out there.”
“Princess!”
Twilight flicked an ear and turned around. “Captain? What is it?”
“They seem to be communicating with us. Patch us in, Ditty.”
“What magical frequency?”
Ditty, a mare with an excessive frizzy mane, swung around in her chair. “None, Princess, audio.”
The message replayed, but nopony made any sense of the jumble of sounds.
Twilight cocked her head. “Should have expected that.” She shifted her gaze back to the display. “It’s clear they want us to do something. Look at them waiting there.”
“Any change to our plans?” the captain asked.
Twilight shook her head. “No, same course of action, but we should gear up quickly before they start thinking of doing anything rash.”
——————
Amelia could tell the silence was beginning to get on Alex’s nerves.
“Do you think they’ve lost pressure inside?” Alex said. “I can hear hissing.”
“Maybe,” Amelia replied. “But we should give them just a little more time to reply.”
Alex sighed, hefting the tool bag and unclamping one of her boots to stretch languidly. “Alright, Captain, but I swear any more waiting past a few more minutes and I’ll bust that—”
“Contact!” yelled Soho across the comms. “Three sighted! They…”
Amelia whirled around, wondering what had made Soho trail off so suddenly.
Then she took in the new guests. “By the stars, they’re…”
Matthias swallowed. “They’re…”
“They’re so cute!” Alex exclaimed. She looked like a wound spring.
“Stay back,” Amelia ordered. “You don’t know what they are.”
Alex grinned at her. “Sure I do, Captain. They’re cybernetic dolls.”
Amelia eyed the unknown creatures. Three of them had exited the craft slowly. The one in the centre was purple is colour, whilst the other two were off white. They didn’t ‘wear’ much. The middle one had something that looked like golden metallic coverings on each of its four legs that it walked on. It had a horn that looked rounded and sprouted a pair of wings. In comparison, the other two didn’t have wings but had horns too. They were wearing dark material that covered the barrel of their body, with a belt that housed a sheath, but not much else.
She had to admit, they did look non-threatening, and they weren’t much bigger than head height. They looked like extremely colourful versions of the Bransteds on Capricorn. Or maybe horses on Ancient Earth. “Cybernetic dolls?” She asked Alex. “They look real enough to me.”
Alex nodded emphatically. “I know cybernetic dolls. I don’t recognise the model, but anything this adorable must be artificially made. I mean, do you have any other explanation?”
Amelia shrugged. “They could be a foreign lifeform. Though the way they’re standing they’re either trained or domesticated. Differences in physiology and wide colour variety makes me lean more to artificial lifeforms or like Alex said, cybernetics. If that’s true and they aren’t attacking us, then they must be programmed or trained to be non-aggressive. Soho? What do you think?”
“I’m not sure, Captain, why wouldn’t the onboard crew greet us? They could at least send a small detail.”
“Maybe they’re trying to assess our intentions?” Mal threw out.
“So what do we do?” Matthias asked.
Alex stepped forward. “Isn’t it obvious? We show them we’re friendly!”
Before the Captain could say anything, Alex strode forward and stretched out to touch the centremost cybernetic. The two cybernetics on each side rapidly stepped forward to meet her.
“Alex, don’t move!”
Alex froze halfway, finally noting the two ‘guards’ weren’t acting so friendly. They were glaring at Alex, and had raised strange knife-like tools which glowed menacingly. Amelia held her breath as she analysed the situation. If they were levitating them with personal AG fields then they must have had some serious funding or advanced tech on board. This was definitely something out of their league.
Amelia eyed the floating knives. If she took a step forward to reach Alex, she might set them off. She tried another tack. “Alex, why don’t you step away from them?”
Before Alex could do anything, the purple one made a high pitched sound, and the other two relaxed slightly in response. They still stayed cautious, both of them staring at Alex, but the knives returned to their sheaths. It stepped forward with the other two holding their positions and said something.
“What’s it saying?” Amelia asked.
“I don’t know,” Alex said.
“Neither,” said Soho. “No translating devices, so it could be any number of languages not in Common.”
“That’s going to make things difficult. If the crewmembers don’t speak Common, we’re going to be in a serious bind.”
“Well, let’s just test the theory,” Alex said. “It won’t hurt would it, Captain?”
The presence of the cybernetics didn’t make any sense. Why were they here? Why not the crew? Surely they knew Common? Even if they were some colonists striking their own on the border worlds, wouldn’t they prefer to show themselves?
“Captain?” Alex was waiting.
Amelia sighed. “We can’t stand around all day. We have to get past these guys anyway. How are you going about this?”
The cybernetic made a noise again. Amelia shrugged. They wouldn’t be able to understand it. If it was mechanical, maybe she should let Alex handle it?
“Alright, Alex,” she said. “No harm in showing them we’re friendly. What’re you doing?”
Alex stepped forward, ignoring the little sounds the cybernetic was making and reaching out with her hand again. She started petting the cybernetic as it made noises that Amelia could only surmise was indignant surprise.“Aww who’s a cute cybernetic doll? You are! You’re so cute!” Alex followed it around as it tried to back away and then hooked an arm around it. She made a soothing sound as she rubbed the belly of the purple coloured one. It squirmed in her firm grasp and made a noise that was somewhere between a squawk and a yelp.
“Aww, Captain, you should try it! They look tame enough.” Alex continued rubbing its belly as it made a sound that suspiciously sounded like an equine whinny.
Amelia took a deep breath. Cybernetic dolls could be programmed to do almost anything, but she was glad these ones didn’t seem like they were programmed to kill. Thankfully the AI seemed advanced enough to recognise Alex’s intentions as mostly harmless. She straightened up. First priority, communication.
“Can they talk?” Amelia asked. “I mean, do you know if they can speak Common?”
Alex patted the head of the purple one as she considered the thought. “No, Captain, not if they weren’t programmed to. I don’t see an obvious access point, but I doubt I could do anything without taking these to my lab.” She shrugged. “I don’t think you’d want to do that anyway.”
Amelia nodded. It made sense. Dragging someone’s cybernetic dolls wouldn’t be appreciated, especially if this was some sort of test to probe their intentions. She looked at the purple one. A couple of times it made to get up, but Alex pulled it back into her lap. Amelia couldn’t help but stifle a chuckle at the ‘help me’ look it was sending her. She shrugged at the creature and gestured to one of the other ones next to her. The purple one spoke something and the other two just shook their heads and stepped back eyeing Alex warily. It sagged.
Feeling sorry for it, Amelia decided it was time to help the poor thing.
“Alex,” Amelia said sternly. “Leave it alone. We need to see if they’ll let us onboard.”
“Aww Captain…”
“Alex I won’t ask twice. As you might not have noticed, we’re adrift. The rest of the crew is depending on us.”
Alex drooped, but nodded anyway. The one good thing about Alex was that she cared about the crew. She’d put the good of the ship above anything else. Alex gave the cybernetic one last hug and trudged her way back to the human side.
“Good,” Amelia said. “Now we can finally start sorting things out.”
———————
Bonus scene: Alex hugging Twilight from Twilight’s perspective.
Inside the air-lock, Twilight spoke to Sergeant Stark and Private Pile who were accompanying her.
“I don’t want any of you to make the first move,” she warned. “I know you have my best interests at heart, but we now represent Equestria. All of the worlds, not just one.”
Stark and Pile nodded.
“We’ll refrain from any excessive action, Princess,” Stark said.
Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Sergeant.”
“One question, Princess,” Pile asked.
“Yes?”
“How’re are you going to speak to them?”
Twilight pursed her lips. She had been thinking about that little problem for a while now. “While we have use of magic and spells, I don’t want to cast anything until they know we’re not a threat.”
“So no translation spells?”
“Yes.”
“So how will they understand us?”
Twilight smiled. “Since they have comparable technology to us, I thought they might have some passive technology that might do the translating for us.”
“If that doesn’t work, Princess?” That was Stark.
Twilight shifted her hooves. “Well, I guess I’ll have to cast it and hope for the best.”
——————
Twilight clambered down the exit hatch, making sure her hooves touched the ground before she let go. The normal exits were on the far side of the ship, so they both had to crawl through several maintenance ways to arrive at a service hatch air-lock. The captain had told her that the area there was pressurised, the alien ship had been keeping air locked in some sort of field while they were lodged.
Twilight believed that had to be some sort of magic, though the ‘field’ seemed inert to her cautious scans. It was curious. Despite the pressured air outside being suspiciously similar in composition to the inside of their ship, Twilight had several spells ready in case there was any change to the outside conditions. With magic, she and the others could stand the open vacuum of space for a limited time by erecting a shield if necessary. In an emergency she could teleport everypony back to the bridge if things went wrong.
As Sergeant Stark and Private Pile joined her side by side, Twilight started trotting towards the strange beings.
One of them yelled something and raised their tool in warning. Twilight flared a wing out to stop Pile or Stark from responding too quickly. The really tall one and the other two relaxed slightly but kept their tools trained on them. The tall one spoke, then one of the other three. Then the smallest one squealed something and dashed forward.
Caught entirely unprepared, Twilight could only gape as the creature leapt the distance and stretched its appendages out to grab her!
“It’s attacking the Princess!” Stark and Pile leapt forward, magic-infused daggers out. The small alien froze as the daggers floated menacingly above her head.
“Wait!” Twilight yelled back. “Don’t attack it!”
Stark and Pile stepped back and slowly returned their daggers. The small one hesitated, then dropped its hand. A conversation of sorts initiated between the aliens.
“What are they saying?” Pile asked. Stark shrugged.
Twilight grimaced. “They’re probably debating amongst themselves. I think they were just greeting us in their own culture.” She shook her head. “Sorry, I should have prepared you both. Some cultures have strange greetings, like the Elk, they like to butt heads. It shocked me at first, but I got used to it. I almost headbutted Luna when I got back.”
“Ah,” Stark said. “I hope we haven’t offended them.”
Twilight winced. “I think we might have scared them.” She studied the smaller one. It had turned away and was looking at a shorter alien surrounded protectively by three other aliens. It must be the one in charge.
“What should we do now, Princess?”
Twilight took a hesitant step forward. “I’m going to try and introduce myself.” In a louder voice she addressed the smallest alien. Well, smallest being a little bit of a misnomer, seeing as how she was just a bit shorter than Twilight.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Hello, my name is Twilig—”
Without warning, the creature reached out like the beginning… and petted her! Letting out a shocked gasp, Twilight backed away a few steps, but the alien followed her, reaching out with its… Minotaur-like hands and stroking her back. It felt kind of humiliating, but at the same time, kind of nice.
“Ah, thanks, you can stop now,” Twilight said, the alien babbled a whole string of sounds that had a gentle flow to them. Twilight supposed it was meant to be comforting. Was it trying to be nice? The pets certainly felt nice.
“Never seen anypony that friendly before,” Stark commented.
“Are all aliens like this?” Pile asked.
Twilight tried again. “H-Hello? Can you let go of me?” The alien ignored her and continued to move on to her belly. “C-Can you understand mmmmph!”
“Hey,” Stark commanded somewhat uncertainly. “Stop… whatever it is you’re doing to the Princess.”
Pile stared uncomfortably at the alien. “Can you understand us? I suppose not. What do we do, Sarge?”
“Uhh, wait for orders, I guess.”
Twilight bit back a moan. “Alright, that’s enough! We need to talk.” Twilight tried to get on her hooves, but the alien pulled her down again and started rubbing harder. “This is not—this is oooooh!”
“Sarge?”
“Yes, Private?”
“I’m starting to get uncomfortable watching this.”
“Part of the job, Private.”
“Yes, sir.”
“… I see that look, Private. No deserting in the line of duty. Penalty is confinement.”
Twilight managed to wiggle away a little. “One of you two, help me!” She turned to Stark. “How about you take my place?”
Stark took a couple of steps back. “You are far more qualified for diplomacy than we are, Princess.”
Before Twilight could say anything, Pile edged away. “With all due respect, Princess, no thank you.”
Twilight sent a pleading look to the rest of the aliens. For that brief moment, thought transcended alien language barriers and the alien made a gesture suspiciously similar to the shrug. Twilight sagged in defeat, biting back tender cries in the midst of the alien’s ministrations.
Finally one of the aliens said something, and the hands stopped their pleasurable—no, torturous work. The alien gave Twilight one last hug and reluctantly headed back.
“Doesn’t that remind you of a foal hugging a puppy?” Stark commented wryly.
“I-I’m not a puppy!” Twilight growled, shaking her wings out irritably. She sighed. This was not how she thought first contact was going to be like. She recalled the dossier on appropriate distances, communication attempts and possible routes of escalation. Fat lot the book did to help her.
Stupid book, she thought darkly. Then caught herself and felt mortified. Did I just—?
Twilight sighed. She always wondered what could make her dislike a book. She never thought it’d be aliens.
Author's Note
Sci-fi is one of my passions, and I love first contact stories. I would have made a more expansive one, but this is rated for three chapters and has an ending already drafted. Other updates to do would hamper a full-blown story, though I may consider one of a similar vein to this in the future.
Next Chapter: Some hiccups, but all is well between the two. Hopefully.
As always, my stalwart readers, thanks for reading!
P.S. Added some more description and a few more back and forth between Equestrians and Earthlings.
P.P.S. Cleaned up a lot of the interactions. Made Alex less of a wild-child. There might be a slight discontinuity with Chapter 2. Edit: More minor amendments.
Chapter 3: Fission
After a while, the TOGOs did their job and eventually they were able to pinpoint names properly. For some reason, Amelia and Twilight kept using the same names to refer to each other. Her name had become entangled with her, and Amelia found it hard to refer to her by her proper name. Amelia suspected Twilight had the same problem, but they both made the effort to change, even though there were a few slip-ups here and there.
Twilight had been an avid conversant. Almost everyday, Amelia met Twilight to have stimulating conversation on space-travel, cultural perspectives, and even hypothetical scenarios for other forms of first contact. They had broken down information on government, command structure, technology, and everything in between. Each session Amelia left exhausted, but satisfied. She knew she would miss the little chats they had. Underneath, of course, she saw that it was important for their decision on how to approach humans as a representative of the ponies… but she couldn’t help but derive pleasure from the discussions. It was a nice sandbox, full of open ideas and accepting discourse.
Though Amelia was curious about the ponies, ultimately their fate didn’t concern a private ship on a scouting route at the outer edges of the galaxy. They were unaligned. A third party. Merely an unlucky observer that by accident found the first signs of sapient life. Amelia was acutely aware that she was simply a part of—but didn’t represent—humanity. Unlike the Princess, which was an actual diplomatic authority, Amelia was the Captain of a transport vessel.
Nothing was official.
Nothing had been written down.
Their interaction wasn’t even likely to be recorded in history as more than a footnote.
Alex had reported only a few more days until they could detach. The next time she would see the ponies would probably be on the next system-wide broadcast. It would be a monumental event. A true first contact that would live up to its own epoch. Strangely, Amelia felt sorry to see them go. She never thought the exchange would be so pleasant, despite the circumstances. She never thought that they would be so similar.
Sometimes, she’d catch the crew laughing or conversing about the weird and wonderful aliens. There were regular exchanges of food, conversation, and soon Amelia had found ponies ubiquitous among humans on both ships.
Amelia had met Alex as she rushed down the corridor with an insane giggle. She thought about stopping the crazy engineer, but thought twice about it and lowered her half-outstretched hand. Alex had then catapulted down the hallway and disappeared around a corner. Amelia had heard from Twilight that Alex was known as the ‘Pleasure-Demon’. The engineer had made a firm stipulation that while working there should always be at least one pony to pet while she worked. Fortunately, Twilight hadn’t made a big deal out of it, and even mentioned that there were a few that were particularly willing…
The Captain shook her head. Despite Alex’s eccentricities, even she had shocked the crew with how fast she had managed to rig together an air-lock field that worked off their power systems. Alex had managed to work with our technology and their own. Once she had caught her speaking up a storm of technical jargon with the ponies. Most of the terminology flew right past Amelia as she struggled to understand the basics. Eventually, she gave up and trusted Alex with doing whatever was necessary. Twilight had felt uncomfortable with Alex installing new technology without ‘proper diplomatic trade agreements’ in place, but Amelia told her they had to share schematics anyway. They were learning from each other. Soon though, they would be saying their goodbyes.
——————
“You’re not going to stop them, Princess?” Cross sat across the table with a few of the senior officers on board. There was the head engineering, the sergeant of a small attachment to accompany the Princess, a few key personnel, but highly representative of the small crew of a small ship.
“No…” Twilight trailed off. “I think this is right thing to do.”
“They’ve already acclimatised themselves to us, we know about them, they know about us. They can smooth the transition greatly.”
Surprisingly, Stark came to their defence. “We’ve got data, we’ve got the basis of their language and we’ve even gotten their translation devices to keep. I think we have enough to establish relations in our own fashion, with minimal risk.”
Cross didn’t look so certain. “I’d like to reduce risks as much as possible. We could signal the main fleet and escort them back to their ‘Core Worlds’, as they call them.”
“No,” Twilight said firmly. “I won’t do that to them.”
Cross sighed. “I’m sure if you ask them, they would agree.”
Perhaps if she did, they would. Undoubtedly, it would benefit Equestria. Those reasons were painfully clear.
After a moment of silence, Twilight shook her head sadly, staring at the table. “You do not cage a bird because you wish to fly.”
——————
Time flew by quicker than Amelia liked. The few days gave her just enough time to prepare a small something for the little aliens that had entangled fates with.
“Industrious?”
A small grin fought its way to the surface. There was only one living being that called her that.
“Yes, Dim-light?”
The pony smiled at the name, then turned serious, her mirth dying down as she approached.
“We’ll be done with our makeshift repairs soon, maybe less than a few hours. I can’t begin to express my gratitude for lending both your services and your technology to help us out. If all of your species are anywhere near as kind, I believe the introduction will go more than smoothly. Thank you, Captain.”
Amelia smiled. “I’ve never seen cooler heads than yours. I’ve never thanked you for the forbearance you’ve shown. Especially with regards to Alex, Princess. You’ve also been more than accommodating and you’ve shown us just how intelligent and collected you can be, despite the stressful situation. We also greatly appreciate the assistance you’ve lent us for stabilising our fields and shoring up dangerous breaches. We’re just as grateful to you. I hope you take our well-wishes with you when you make contact… for a second time.”
Twilight smiled sadly. “I’ve enjoyed our conversations, it’s been a pleasure.”
Amelia chuckled softly. “Me too.”
Awkward silence smothered the two. Then Twilight spoke up as if a thought had suddenly occurred to her.
“Amelia, may I ask a question?”
Amelia nodded. “Of course.”
“I realise it might be insensitive, or even maybe classified knowledge, but I realised that during the time here, I’ve never asked and I thought about it, but it just came to me…” The pony trailed off and blushed profusely as Amelia raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I’m rambling. I wanted to ask you—why did you choose to travel in space?”
“Well, I guess that’s a strange question, depending on who you ask on the ship.” Amelia flicked a few stray strands of hair out of the way as she considered how to frame her response. “For me, I’ve always wanted to explore. To find something new that nobody had ever discovered before. I don’t suppose you know how that would feel?”
Twilight’s eyes reflected brilliant intensity as she nodded emphatically. “No, I completely understand.”
Amelia laughed. “Sorry, I just—someday remind me to tell you…” Her next words died out as she remembered that there weren’t going to be any more days. “Ah, never mind. Let me show you something.” Amelia started walking down the corridor, beckoning Twilight to follow along. She continued as they walked. “I’ve never meshed well with the big mega-corporations, or the Common military ethos. I always wanted to strike it out on my own. For the others, most of my crew are with me for their own reasons. Some because they share my spirit. Some, like Soho, because of loyalty. Some, like Alex, for adventure. All a mishmash of goals, ideals, dreams…” Amelia entered the bridge, bringing Twilight aboard for the first time.
“This is Cobalt Blue’s brain. She’s made of Nida, Brian, Alex, Soho, the Doc., and over fifty other dedicated souls. Her Captain steers Cobalt Blue to explore the unknown.”
Nida and Brian looked up in surprise. Nida waved, uncharacteristically shyly, while Brian just smiled.
“Thanks for helping us out,” Nida said.
“It would have been a disaster otherwise,” Brian added with a grin.
Twilight blinked, but broke into a radiant smile. “We’ve all been taking care of each other.”
Amelia nodded. “I know, you’ve turned a disaster into an accident, and because of that I feel like you’ve been crew members on the Cobalt Blue, no matter how short the duration. As crew members, we’re like family. When one of our crew members leaves Cobalt Blue, we give them a little something to remember us by.” Amelia swallowed, bringing out a small glass cube tinted blue. “This is glass with cobalt impregnated in it. It’s made from the first cargo that Cobalt Blue ever carried. Cobalt-titanium powder.”
Twilight gently took the glass cube in her telekinetic grip.
“Thank you,” Twilight replied in a broken voice. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t think of getting you—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Amelia said, holding out her hand. “Just don’t forget us. Oh, and if you ever scrape together enough Common credit, we could use a donation.”
Twilight laughed, pocketing the cube in her saddlebag. “I’ll be sorry to see you go,” she said sincerely.
Then the pony wrapped her in an unexpected hug. Amelia stiffened, but then smiled, wrapping her arms around Twilight. At least hugs were a universal language that needed no words.
“Goodbye, Amelia.”
“Safe journey among the stars, Twilight.”
Author's Note
I wanted to expand a bit further but I ran out of time. Sorry all. I liked writing this, I really did.
Next Chapter: Written by a bright future.
As always, my alien readers, thanks for reading!
P.S. Some more amendments to improve the flow.
Chapter 2: Vision
Twilight blinked a couple of times to get her bearing back. The belly rubs were certainly unwarranted. It was nice though… She shook her head again.
“Okay,” she ground out. “Hopefully they won’t do that again.”
“I don’t know Princess, I quite enjoyed it,” Stark commented innocently, but his face bore a devilish smile.
“You didn’t have it happen to you,” Twilight growled.
“That’s why I enjoyed it, Princess.”
Twilight groaned. “Okay I trotted right into that one.” She cleared her throat. “Next steps.” The alicorn spared a glance at the aliens. They seemed to be conversing quietly. Though they were garishly coloured, it was clear they were wearing some sort of suit with a mask. Underneath the helmet was smooth skin and small, but expressive, eyes. They were filled with intelligence, leaving no doubt in her mind that they were the crew members of the ship. These strangely incautious creatures were, for lack of a better phrase, too friendly. Even the minimal caution that Twilight had gambled on seemed redundant in the face of the alien’s overly affectionate mannerisms.
Now though, they studied each other, seemingly at a loss to what they should do. The graspy alien was gesticulating wildly to the second-last tallest one. The deference of the others to this one made Twilight suspect she was the leader. Possibly the captain of the ship, if such a term existed in their culture. Tapping her hoof, she tried to get their attention. The tall one registered it and signalled to the leader.
The leader spoke to the tall one and the tall one nodded back. Dashing off, it left the others as they stared uncomfortably at each other. Even through the tint of the mask, Twilight could see the small one smiling at her. Nervously, she eyed the leader. Whatever they were doing it better be quick before the small one tried do something crazy again.
——————
Amelia tapped into central comms. “Brian?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Do we still have those TOGOs from the last run with the Chinese?”
There was a pause as Brian did a quick search.
“It’s in storage, Captain. Why?”
Amelia navigated quickly through the archived helmet feed. “Here’s the footage from the last twenty minutes.”
In the background, Amelia heard Nida’s low whistle. She continued before they could bombard her with questions. “Alex seems sure that these are cybernetic dolls. I haven’t encountered any before, but I’m inclined to believe her.” She turned to Alex. “Can they fly a ship?”
Alex nodded and waved cheerfully at the three cybernetics eyeing them warily. “They can be autonomous. Usually if they have non-human shapes they’re more for aesthetics than practicality. Personal AGs mean these guys can take care of almost anything anyway. The owners are packing some serious currency.”
“Thoughts, Soho?”
“They don’t seem aggressive, but if the owner was on board or available they would have greeted us instead of sending cybernetic dolls.” He shrugged. “If they can talk, they probably neglected to teach them Common. We’ll have to rely on those TOGOs like you had in mind, Captain.”
“Would you mind going back to fetch them, Soho? We need to keep in contact and minimise new faces around here.”
“You still think they might be hostile, Captain?”
“No… but I don’t like taking chances.”
“Fair, Captain. I think the twins can handle delaying the cybernetics until you can disable the air-lock field.”
Amelia widened her eyes in surprise. “You mean just blow them out to space?”
Soho shrugged. “It’s the most efficient option, Captain.”
Though she initially pursed her lips, Amelia nodded slowly. “Last resort, but I’d like those TOGOs, no sense in keeping the cybernetics waiting.”
——————
Twilight slowly sat on her haunches as she tried to think of a way to bridge the gap in understanding. There were spells, of course, but how would an alien react to magic? Would they see the act as aggressive? So far they’d been nice, perhaps overly friendly, but that was just one of them. The others exercised suitable caution. Somehow she got the impression that the shortest one might be the youngest, and a little bit of a wildcard.
Would they mind terribly if she tried to cast a spell?
——————
Alex tugged on her arm.
“Amelia, look, the one with wings is coming! You think it wants another rub?”
“Cool it, Alex. I know you’re excited, but these cybernetics could be dangerous. We don’t even know who they belong to or where they came from.” Amelia locked eyes with Alex. “It’s a good thing they weren’t programmed to attack first and ask questions later.”
Alex’s easy grin died down a couple of notches. “Sorry, Captain. They just—they reminded of…”
Amelia took a deep breath and reminded herself that Alex was only sixteen. When they first met, she’d thought the girl was moody, broody and borderline unstable. They’d come a long way from the girl with a mean temper. Alex was a talented engineer, but an adult she was not. Amelia patted Alex on the shoulder. “I understand. Alex, but we can’t afford to lose you if you’re reckless.” She smiled. “You’re one of our best engineers. Just don’t give me heart attacks like that, okay?”
Alex nodded, her impish grin returning. “Can I have that in writing?”
“What?”
“About being the best engineer.”
“When your ego can fit inside the cargo bay, I’ll consider it. Now—woah!”
Amelia flung herself back when she realised the purple cybernetic with wings had already made its way across the intervening space while she was distracted with Alex. Amelia flung an arm out to warn Alex to stay where she was. She didn’t have to look back to know Alex would be sporting an annoyed pout. The cybernetic looked apprehensive, but at the same time it looked like it wanted something. Amelia glanced back at Alex. She could understand how hard it was trying not to bolt from the sight of a hungry-looking sixteen year old girl.
It turned away from Alex and stared at Amelia, bobbing its head.
Confused, Amelia mimicked the movement. Did it want something? Food? Well probably not food, that would be ridiculous.
The cybernetic’s horn glowed softly as it made some more of its curious sounds. The glow... was it accessing its AG field again? Then Amelia realised something different was happening. Instead of lighting around an object, the glow was extending to her, encompassing her body and giving her a tingling sensation. Moments later, there was a sharp stabbing sensation in her brain.
“Ahhh!” Amelia cried out, gripping her skull.
“Captain!”
“Wait!” Amelia flung her arm out as Matthias and Mal raised their flash armaments. The other two cybernetics relaxed slowly as the twins cautiously lowered their weapons. Amelia groaned more from the shock than any pain. Whatever the cybernetic did, it wasn’t permanent, and it was fast-receding.
“Ugh, I don’t think it meant us any harm. At least, not intentionally.”
“Oh, I’m relieved to hear you say that. Thank Sky-day-night-constellations it worked!”
A supernova exploding in front of Amelia would not have surprised her more.
“Y-You can talk?”
“Captain? Who are you talking to?”
“She’s talking to me. I’m Princess—”
“What? What did it say?”
“It said she’s talking to me.”
“She’s talking to me. I’m—”
“You mean you’re talking to it?”
“That’s a bit rude. I’m not an ‘it’, I’m—”
“Hold on. I’m talking to the cybernetic. It’s done something to me.”
“I’m glad it worked. Now if we can introduce ourselves. I’m—”
“You can talk to it? Cool, let me try!”
“I think it needs to do something to you, Alex.”
“Whatever it is it’s worth it, Captain!”
“Princess, what are they saying?”
“A lot. It’s hard to keep track of it, Sergeant.”
“Please, Captain? I’m sure it won’t take long!”
“Alex, what did I say about rushing into things?”
“Come on, Captain. You’re fine!”
“We don’t even know what happened! I’ll need to see Doc. You should get checked out as well.”
“Princess, what are they saying now?”
“Something about a Doctor.”
“Captain?” Matthias said.
“Captain?” Mal said.
“Captain?” Alex said.
“Captain?” the cybernetic queried.
“QUIET!” Amelia kneaded her brow with a knuckle. “Let’s start again.” Amelia studied the purple cybernetic and decided that it was in charge. They could talk, right? She didn’t know how, but they could. Amelia nodded. From the top. “I am Captain Amelia Finegold of the private A-class exploratory ship, Cobalt Blue.”
The cybernetic straightened into a more formal posture and gave a slight bow. “I am Princess Dim-light-precipice-of-the-setting-sun Twinkle-scintillate, a representative of ‘equine-kingdom’ and her colonies.”
Amelia blinked, and decided that at that point, Dim-light would do.
“It is a pleasure making first contact with your species, Captain,” Dim-light continued. “If only our circumstances weren’t so… unfortunate.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow. “Hold on, a representative of ‘equine-kingdom’?”
Dim-light frowned, then tried again. “Equine-kingdom.” Amelia realised her mouth movements didn’t match her speech. Then it hit her and for the second time in the span of a few minutes, she was thunderstruck. Whatever Dim-light did to her must have altered her language perception of the cybernetic’s speech.
Unaware of Amelia’s revelation, Dim-light dipped her head apologetically. “My apologies, Captain. The translation spell must not be able to cope with terminology that’s not shared between our languages. It’s coming up with the best analogues.”
Amelia nodded. That made sense. Even the TOGOs had similar limitations. ‘Equine-kingdom’ wasn’t literally that, the real name must be some combination of unique sounds in their native language. But if these cybernetics spoke their own language and had enough time to create their own name for a nation, then their creators must have been isolated from the rest of the humans for a very long time. If that’s so, no wonder their communiques weren’t coming through. They would be out of date compared to recent revisions on Common communication protocols.
“A sovereign nation?” Amelia hazarded. “You’re not under the Common Charter?”
Dim-light looked confused, but nodded. “I’m not sure what this ‘Common Charter’ is, but I believe we are not a part of it.”
Amelia suspicion rose a few notches. “So your creators, what happened to them?”
Dim-light cocked her head in confusion. “I’m sorry, what do you mean? Maybe the translator got something wrong. Did you mean ‘creator’ as in a ‘god’ or ‘god-like entity’? Or did you mean creator as in some other being created us?”
Now it was Amelia’s turn to become confused. “You’re cybernetic, aren’t you?”
Dim-light frowned expressively. “I haven’t come across that word. The translation spell must not be able to bridge that gap. Uhm. Perhaps if you could explain what a ‘machine-bio-entity’ is?”
“Biologically-fused machines. Uhh, robots, in a sense?”
Dim-light reared her head. “Robots? We’re not machines! We’re all one hundred percent biological.”
Amelia’s hands reached out into the air as if she were trying to grab the right words to fit into the situation. “So… you’re aliens? Like, real aliens?”
Dim-light looked more confused than indignant. “Well, yes, I suppose. To us, you’re the aliens.”
Amelia groaned. “You mean first contact with the first aliens humanity has ever come across has started off with Alex tackling you to the ground, a huge misunderstanding that you were robots, and not to mention the overarching problem of smashing our ships into each other?”
Dim-light smiled weakly. “It would seem so. Perhaps it’s best if most of this were left out of the history books.”
“Shael sakeer,” Amelia said through gritted teeth.
Dim-light chuckled timidly. “The translator didn’t catch that, but I think I’m glad it didn’t.”
———————
They made small talk on the way to the ship’s board room. Understandably, Dim-light’s Captain, Captain Intersection, wanted to stay with her ship. Intersection was coordinating a damage survey and sending teams out to investigate now that it was safe to do so. On the way, Dim-light was happy to answer any number of questions from Amelia about technology, culture, or anything in between. Amelia gave Dim-light a brief recap of modern history. She tried to keep Dim-light’s intense curiosity at bay, while internally struggling with what could only be described as history unfolding before her eyes. She didn’t know what else to do. After millennia of finding nothing in the depths of space, humanity had given up on first contact policy. The documents were drafted but never actually used. It was tacked on as an appendix to the manual, but they had eventually disappeared from the standard Captain’s manifest.
Whatever Amelia did to handle the situation was completely on the fly. To make matters worse, they weren’t military, or even corporate. There wasn’t a chain to move up on. They were simply private contractors that were scouting new planets on the outer edges of the space-faring map. Still, conversation started flowing when Dim-light talked about her ‘AG fields’. Amelia noted that they didn’t wear suits at all. Then something Dim-light said struck her.
“You mean you can just teleport? Just like that?”
“Yes, Captain. We can create something similar to what you call ‘fields’ around us to protect us from space.”
“Ah, just call me Amelia. You’re not expected to adhere to protocol as a diplomatic guest.”
“You’ve done this before?”
Amelia smiled. “To an extent. I’m sorry about Alex, by the way.”
Alex waved her arms around. “Hey, you know I can hear half your conversation!”
“Good, maybe you’ll realise how badly you’ve screwed up.”
“Are you kidding?” Alex scoffed. “First contact went so smooth. You should be thanking me.”
Twilight cocked her head. “What did she say?”
Amelia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to know.”
Twilight studied Alex nervously from the corner of her eye. “I’ll… take your word for it.” Then she smiled. “Industrious-worker. That’s a strange name. By the way, please feel free to simply call me Dim-light-precipice-of-the-setting-sun. No need for ‘Princess’, either.”
Amelia couldn’t help but chuckle. The translator must not cope well with names. Industrious-worker? That’s what my name means?
“It’s… never mind. Your name sounds just as strange as mine, uhh, Dim-light.”
“Dim-light?!”Dim-light squeaked. She groaned. “Ah, that’s the spell again, is that what my name sounds like? Figures.”
“How does it work?” Amelia asked.
Dim-light grinned. “Well, hopefully this translates: The spell taps into the language centre of your brain and connects both of our synaptical impulses in a relational map that starts at the base roots of emotions and branches out to more complex concepts. Right now it’s shifting through vocabulary and potential linguistic roots based on how you used it before and at present. It’s pretty amazing—what? What’s wrong?”
Amelia couldn’t conceal her shock. “So it’s going through my brain right now?”
Dim-light stopped, waving her hooves frantically in negation. “No, no, no. Not like you’re thinking. Nothing to do with memories and it doesn’t change anything. Think of it like an in-built translator. It just matches my speech to similar concepts in your brain. So I probably sound like I’m talking in your native language. It’s only ever been done in a one-to-one fashion though, and it takes a lot of power.”
Amelia relaxed. She didn’t know how she would have reacted to something digging around in her brain. In fact, she wasn’t sure that’s exactly what it did. Still, she couldn’t deny the utility of the ‘translating spell’ as it were. Then a sudden thought struck her.
“You mentioned ‘spell’, what do you mean by it?”
Dim-light tilted her head. “I don’t know what you mean, Industrious.”
Amelia snorted. It was a ridiculous-sounding name, but she’d better get used to it. She suspected Dim-light thought the same with her own. “The word in our language means something uhh, ‘magical’? Does that translate?”
Dim-light nodded. “Magic? Yes.”
Amelia turned around. “You can’t be serious.”
Dim-light blinked at her. “I don’t see why not.”
Amelia shrugged helplessly. “But magic isn’t real…” Amelia scratched her head. Was it just a placeholder for another form of technology?
Dim-light laughed. “But you’ve just seen an example of it. What else could it be?”
Amelia subsided. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem conventional. If there was some new kind of technology behind it or some weird alien way of manipulating matter and energy, it was all way beyond her. She sighed. Time enough to discover more when Dim-light and the rest were to be introduced to the Common Charter. That is, assuming they wanted to be a part of it.
“Captain, we’re here.”
“Thanks, Mal.”
“Regardless of what I think, Dim-light, I think we’re in an unusual situation. The best option is to cooperate. If something happens, you could lose the air-lock field around your ship and you will explosively depressurise. Likewise, if you try and disengage by using your engines, we could also find ourselves with a lethal breach. We want to avoid that.”
Dim-light smiled nervously. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, Industrious.”
——————
Inside the room, Twilight settled into a comfortable chair that seemed to be filled with a gel-like substance. The room had muted lighting that gradually brightened as they entered. Inside the ‘board room’, the table seemed to be made of wood, while the rest of the room boasted of glass, steel and a view of the breathtaking vista of space dominating one wall.
“H-How?”
Industrious’ eyes sparkled as she guessed what Twilight was thinking. “Impressive, isn’t it? The whole wall is a projection of one of our camera mounted on the head of the ship. We’re seeing what Cobalt Blue is seeing right now.”
“It’s beautiful,” Twilight breathed.
Industrious smiled. “It sure is amazing.”
The short one, Defender-of-all? Even her name sounded intimidating. She was staring at her. Luckily she was seated at the far end of the table.
“Right,” Industrious began. “Let’s get down to business.” With a wave of her arm, she brought up a three dimensional projection. Twilight leaned forward, fascinated. How could they do all that without magic? Maybe the translator was bridging the wrong words. Surely the system contained some form of magic. She pulsed the area, receiving no feedback. Mouth gaping, Twilight sat back. No way. Impossible. Inconceivable.
“Dim-light-between-sunrise-and-sunset? Are you alright?”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, absolutely fine. Just surprised.”
The projection showed an accurate three-dimensional representation of both ships lodged lengthways. Around the ships was a faint green glow.
“Cobalt Blue hasn’t suffered much damage, but extraction is going to be tricky. We could repair this much damage at a dock, but we can’t go into quicker-than-light without first dealing with this.” Industrious sighed. “Nearest dock is three jump-points away.”
Twilight filed the unknown terminology away as she nodded. “What do you recommend?”
Industrious hesitated.
Twilight frowned. “Is there a problem?”
Industrious bit her lip. “Our engineering team needs to coordinate with yours so that we can begin the process of detachment.”
Twilight smiled. “I don’t see the problem. Seeing and sharing technology blueprints will probably need to be a mutual agreement. I’m sure it's better than the alternative of being stranded in space.”
Industrious grinned weakly. “There’s a small catch.”
Twilight blinked. Surely these aliens didn’t want to wring extra diplomatic concessions from them. With their ship being larger, Twilight could see how they could, but they didn’t seem that unreasonable…
“Yes?”
“Our best engineer is Defender-of-all.”
Twilight felt her gaze drawn inevitably to the grinning alien sitting on the opposite end of the table. Apparently she had caught enough of the conversation to keep up.
“Ah. I can see why you would think that’s a problem.”
Industrious smiled. “Well I think we won’t have the same sort of mishaps that you’ve had in the beginning. Defender-of-all is very good at what she does. I guarantee that she’ll help get the work done faster. We also have a solid engineering team that’s ready to help.”
Twilight reluctantly nodded. “If you think it’s wise…”
——————
Amelia smiled at Dim-light. “Well, I think we should get to know each other a little better. Putting aside the uhh, awkward introductions in the beginning, we hardly know anything about you or what your next steps will be.”
Dim-light set aside her reservations about Alex and grinned. “Likewise, as guests, I think it would be wise to go first. Equine-kingdom is a democratic monarchy. We call ourselves ‘all-horse-kind’, or ‘little-horse’, which may not translate over.”
“Ponies?”
Dim-light tilted her head as she considered it and chuckled. “Oh, that’s actually not too far off! How about you? What do you call yourselves?”
“Ah,” Amelia said. “Tricky…”
——————
While caught up in an animated discussion of the merits of nature versus nurture, the purpose of life, the universe and everything, and why peanut butter was so sticky, Soho returned, goodies in tow.
“Took me a while to find these even with talking to the officer in charge of inventory, and searching through the storage. I managed to find it under… some loose goods. Here, Captain, the TOGOs you’ve requested.” He blinked. “Unless you’re busy.”
Amelia beamed at Soho, taking the translators off the giant.
“Thanks, Soho. Now everyone can have a conversation!”
Alex perked up. “Finally! Hearing the Captain just drone on and on and on was unbelievably mind-numbing!”
Amelia smirked. “Sound familiar?”
Alex opened her mouth to shoot back a reply, then shut it and fumed.
Dim-light raised a hoof. “What are those?”
Hardly able to contain her excitement, Amelia brandished the small metallic discs, and passed one over to Dim-light. Amelia placed one near each of her ears, feeling them latch onto her skin and bind just above her maxilla.
“TOGOs, or, ‘Translates-On-the-GOs’. These are our own translators. They don’t work as efficiently as your spell, but they learn pretty quick and they have the added advantage of being relatively unobtrusive and networkable.” Amelia gently restrained Dim-light’s hoof as she reached for the device. “I have to warn you, they’re designed for us. Humans, I mean. I don’t know how well they would work for you, or if your biology is similar enough for them to work. They have been able to work for some animals, though.”
Dim-light paused, considering what Amelia said, but then smiled. “Nothing gained without nothing lost, right?” She shivered as the translator fixed itself to her head. “Ohh, that’s strange.”
“Best part of these is that they can network, so the more you have, the faster they learn. Do you mind outfitting most of your crew with them?”
Dim-light hesitated. “Uhh, sorry Industrious, I’ll have to talk to my Captain about that.”
Amelia cringed at her misstep. While Dim-light might be happy taking the risk of alien technology, the rest of her crew might not. “Ah, yes, of course. Sorry, Dim-light.”
“No harm done,” Dim-light replied with an easy grin. “Let’s get both of our crew acclimatised. Then, we’ll both start on the repairs and exchange some data. Ready?”
Amelia clapped her hands together. “Whenever you are.”
Author's Note
A lot of fic centre the conflict around misunderstandings. This is no exception, but I wanted to move away from trigger-happy militants and escalating histrionics. I mean really, if I met an alien I wouldn't immediately shoot it in the head. Although, if they did glomp me like that...
Next Chapter: Farewells.
As always, my well-mixed readers, thanks for reading!
P.S. Minor corrections to fit the amendments to chapter 1.
