Crispin became more thoughtful. As tempting as the thought of participating in a First Contact scenario was, he had no plausible pretext for getting onto the shuttle with Swanilli. Attacking him was out of the question, and even sabotaging his suit would, on second thought, seem suspicious. He decided his best bet was to see to it that the shuttle itself remained grounded. Making sure the parking clamps couldn't be unlocked would prevent it departing, and it would look enough like part of the lockdown protocol not to arouse suspicion. He had some time, but not much.

After a delay and four long minutes of futzing around, Science Officer Swanilli took off as planned-- BUT with a device secretly installed in the shuttle that would let Lieutenant Crispin take over the communication with the alien ship if needed. It was the best Crispin could do in the time given-- it was a lot better than nothing.

---

"Something coming our way..."

"Weapon?" asked Captain Shaposhnikov sharply.

"Wait... wai-- no! A shuttle! Just a small one!"

"Well that's brave of them, coming up to our huge ship. Of course, we mean no harm, but they don't know that for sure yet."

"There're probably protocols for first contact," said Minister Lissomig. "Now we need to find a way for us to speak the same language, or to get otherwise communicating, somehow..."

After some hunting through some archives, Swanilli found the console directives he was looking for:  Automated First Contact Protocol.  He loaded up his shuttle's main console with the directive and activated it.  He knew that it ran through a series of transmissions, trying numerous frequencies, until it received any sort of response.  Then it would try different ways that information can be encoded in an electromagnetic wave:  Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation, and Polarity Modulation.

Once it received any sort of response in any of those, it would start counting to eight in groups of pulses.  If that received an intelligent response, there was some user interaction that would select one of several console directives after it.

Captain Shaposhnikov felt hopeful and excited. An actual first contact! But he was also aware of his duty to the ship and crew.

"I want security teams armed and guarding all critical ship systems. Continue monitoring the alien vessel. Let me know if it changes course or begins to transmit anything."

alien vessel, thought the Captain. We're the aliens here. Best remember that.

The shuttle found a frequency that was being used, and started transmitting pulses-- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...

The human ship intercepted this, and sent the same back, but then also added (literally):

1
1
2

2
2
4

4
4
8

3
4
7

1+1=2, 2+2=4, 4+4=8. 3+4=7...

The shuttle sent a few back, hastily: 5+5=10! 3+4+5=12!

Two cultures, alien to each other, were communicating! They both understood basic math... and understood, now, that the other understood it, too...

Lieutenant Crispin was at a crossroads.  He could shut down Science Officer Swanilli's comms, even shut down his shuttle control, but that might make things worse not that he has come this far.  At least the man used the right First Contact protocols, but the next steps require a light step.  If this new species is hostile, or even unintentionally dangerous because of viruses, would Swanilli know what to do, or even how to recognize problems?  He watched the traffic between the shuttle and the alien ship, unable to convince himself to cut it off.

---

The human Science Officer reports, "Captain Shaposhnikov, once we established basic arithmetic, they sent us a set of communications with long sets of bits.  After some poking around, we figured out that they were simple black and white images, just 0 for white and 1 for black.  Here is what they sent."

The captain looks through the first few images, one that shows a centaur-looking creature holding its hands up, another shows an image of the shuttle that is approaching, and one shows a common proof of Pythagorus' theorum.  "This is an odd choice, don't you think?"

"Not at all, says the scientist.  The theorum is so useful and universal that just from the picture it can be recognized.  The text under it is the algebra that goes along with it.  Since we know what that algebra is going to be, it is a massive leap in understanding how they represent the next tier of mathematics.  We sent back a picture with the proof Kepler's second Law, but using their notation.  Just as with theirs, the picture is enough to work out what you are proving, and this should show to them that we get it.

"But the bigger news I have for you is that the shuttle, which has amazing propulsive power compared to anything we have, is already closing in on our orbit.  If we can figure out a safe way to dock with it, we might meet them in person within 4 hours.  We've made images of our ship, with the docking bay details, to send to them, but we wanted your OK first."

The Captain nods, "Send it."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Fri 13 Jan 2023.

(Welp, might as well get this show back on the road. If the Big H tells me he she or they no longer wish to spectate, even, I'll gladly remove himherthem.)

"...Okay, the shuttle's occupant, or occupants, have been talking to our computer's signals-- or they've got their own computer that's been doing it-- and they're working out language translation. Based on math, they've already got translations for numbers, and various other stuff like the verb 'to make equal to' and 'to add' and 'to subtract' and 'to multiply by' and so on... by the time they dock, we might be able to communicate with each other, with our computer's help."

Science Officer Swanilli finds himself stamping all four feet in excitement as the image appears.  It shows a view of the very ship he approaches, clearly centered on an obvious docking portal.  The portal itself is not a standard one, not that he expected otherwise, but it includes very clear attachment rails around it.  The aliens even included a close-up of a rail with a clamp snapped on to it, just to make their purpose doubly clear.

Suddenly, the comms unit comes to life, filled with the image of Lieutenant Crispin.  "Science Officer Swanilli.  Do NOT, I repeat do NOT approach the alien ship any closer.  This is not an appropriate first contact scenario.  You should wait until the specialists arrive, to take over this encounter."

Swanilli, cocks his head at the screen.  "I don't recall when you were promoted, Lieutenant, to a rank above mine.  As the senior exo-biologist currently operating in Planet 4 space, I would claim that I am the most qualified person available."  He starts to suspect that maybe the creepy little Akitilan is going to tattle on him, but he decided he doesn't care.  If this goes well, I will be able his petty idiocy.

Crispin lashes his tail in frustration. He can alter anything he wants about the signals sent between the two ships, but he can't keep the shuttle from docking. By the time the computers figure out HOW Crispin can lie to the aliens, it'll be too late, so he decides not to reveal that he tampered with the communications systems, since it's too late for him to make use of the fact that he did.

Still, he is VERY frustrated... Should he hop in another shuttle and head up there himself? He'd be very late to the party... And what could he accomplish? No, Swanilli would have to handle this himself... for now... At least Crispin could keep eavesdropping... unless they led Swanilli further into the ship, away from the shuttle, then there would be no guarantees even of that...

Bah.  You and your wimpy secret police.  What fun is it being a secret police if you can't be evil in the name "protecting society"?

All the senior staff of Renaissance Four head towards the air lock, along with six well-armed security men.  "Captain," says Security Chief Yung Ngo, "you really shouldn't be here.  What if they ..."

"Your concern is noted, Ngo," the captain cuts him off, "and countermanded.  If this alien is hostile, there's little hope for the entire ship.  Their propulsion technology so far exceeds ours that it alone represents a weapon we could not resist."

The retired general nods.  As the winning commander in the Venutian Conflict, he knows that speed is the first, second, and third most important tactical advantage in any battle in space.

They wait for over an hour as the alien ship gracefully approaches, matches velocity, and extends four tentacles that grab on to the docking bars.  Finally, the cameras show an airlock yawn open on the other ship, but there is no one, no being inside.

Minister Fiona Lissomig, the senior civilian on the ship, finally speaks, "An invitation?  I will accept, gladly."  As she spoke she was already moving to the locker with vacuum suits.

"Uh, Minister Lissomig?" --Ngo says formally-- "What are you doing?"

Fiona looks at Ngo as if he is crazy.  "Accepting the invitation, of course.  Do you see someone else more qualified?"

Ngo sighs, looks at the screen, at Fiona, the screen... "Go ahead, I guess..."

Fiona suits up and heads in...

"Not without at least some security," pipes up the Security Chief.  He turns to his team, who, despite not actually being considered military, are all standing at strict attention in front of the former General.  "Volunteer?" he asks, then continues, "this is not an order.  It is strictly voluntary."  However, all six of them -- two men, three women, and one non-binary all step forward.  The general indicates one of the men, Jacob Smith, who immediately starts to don a vacuum suit.

Fiona and Jacob enter the air lock.  As it cycles down, Fiona touches her helmet to his and says, with her mike off, "Are you ready to be the first humans to greet a member of an alien species?  I don't care what your general might have told you, but no weapons.  I don't care if they shoot first.  We're on their turf and we won't survive any sort of armed conflict.  We don't know what happened to the other Renaissance ships -- we could be the end of humanity for all we know.  We have to survive, even if it means one Council member and one former Lieutenant do not survive the first contact."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:53, Wed 01 Feb 2023.

Jacob swallows hard, his mouth a little dry. But he nods. "Okay," he says.

The airlock on the human ship finishes its cycle and the doors slide open.  Following protocol, both Fiona and Jacob clip a tether to the grab bar outside the ship before unclipping their tether inside the airlock.  After a gentle pushoff, they both glide into the airlock in the alien ship.  They are please to see similar attachment points inside; they attach and thumb the release on their last connection to the human ship.

As both sets of doors close, Fiona turns her mike back on.  Trying not to squeal with excitement, she carefully speaks, "Humanity, welcome to the galaxy.  I am now inside a craft built by a non-human intelligence.  We still have no way to communicate anything beyond mathematical equations, but this gesture, opening his ship and inviting us in, already tells us a great deal about this species."

She gasps as the inner doors open.  Standing before her is an example of one of the beings the humans have been calling 'centaurs' since they were first spotted the day before.  She struggles to continue her narration, knowing that it will be saved for posterity.  "The being is before me.  I do not use the term 'alien' because we are the aliens, here.  They are wearing a vacuum suit made for their morphology, no doubt concerned about contamination, or maybe about a need to evacuate air from his ship suddenly.  Their arms, the uppermost of their six limbs, are gently waving me inside.  I guess such a gesture is universal."

Once everyone is in, the alien slowly, upper arms and digits extended, slowly turned around in a circle.

"A gesture of peace? Greeting?" suggested Jacob. "'Hey, look, I've got no dangerous weapons on me, not even on my tail?' Should we do it too?"

Both humans echoed the gesture.

Fiona activated her external speakers.  Speaking calmly and slowly, knowing that her tone is the only thing that the being can possibly interpret, she say, "Greetings.  We are humans.  Humans.  Humans."  She gestures to herself, to Jacob, and back towards their ship.

Coming in through her external microphone is an amazing sound.  Higher pitched than she expected from a creature that must top 250 pounds, is a single word.  "Oomanz."

The pointing-(or-playing-charades)-and-saying-stuff gets everyone some nouns and verbs. The alien is an Akitila, or Akit for short, and their planet is also Akit-- although it's the second planet, not the planet below. This alien has a personal name, Swanilli. We also all learn each culture's word for spacesuit, and ship, and shuttle. Things seem to be going well.

After a mentally exhausting three hours on the Akitilan ship, Fiona sees an oxygen alert on her suit's heads-up display.  She has only 30 minutes left and should head back to her own ship.  She has a brief jolt as she wonders how she will indicate this to Swanilli, but manages to do so just by walking towards the air lock and pointing at it.

Swanilli responds, "Yes" in English and also the click and low A sound that Fiona has learned has the same meaning in his language.  However, before opening the airlock, he offers to her a disk about a third of a meter in diameter and only a centimeter or so thick.  He touches the center of the disk and it lights up, obviously a computer display.  After touching a few buttons on the display, an image of a chair appears, one of the words they have already shared through their game of charades.

Below the image are two buttons, one yellow and one black, though only the yellow one seems to have writing on it.  Upon touching the yellow button, from the device is Fiona's own voice saying "chair."  Touching the second button produces the sound that she has already learned is the Akitilan word for chair.  Swanilli then demonstrates how to manipulate the device to show other objects, colors, videos with actions clearly meant to indicate verbs, etc.

For each of the words they have learned is a button for English and a button for Akitilan.  Then Swanilli brings up a picture with a dome like the domes they saw on the planet, but the button for English for this image is in white.  He points at the device, taps the button, and points at her.  After a moment she realizes what he wants and says, "dome."  The button changes to yellow.  He presses it again and the device replays her voice.

Finally he hands her the disk and opens the airlock.  Her knees nearly buckle as tears stream from her eyes.  This is the first contact she always dreamed of, even before she was selected to join Renaissance Four, and she returns from it with a gift that is literally priceless.  "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much" is all she can say as emotions overwhelm her.

The warning light in her suit flashes again, prompting her to join Jacob in the airlock.  Five minutes later, she rejoins the group of senior staff.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:44, Fri 03 Feb 2023.

"We saw," Fiona is told when they return. "So, what do you think?"

"I say it went wonderfully. No one wanted to get violent-- the overall mood is 'happy to be communicating with you. Excited, even. We seem to be on the same page-- at least, Swanilli is. It feels like we might be able to work with these people peacefully. It's... it's wonderful, so far. I hope it continues like this."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:37, Sat 04 Feb 2023.

Meanwhile, back on the planet, Lieutenant Crispin, who is secretly an Envoy, is at his wits end.  That fool Swanilli has actually invited the aliens to join him on the ship!?!  Why didn't I sabotage his suit?  Why didn't I rig the shuttle so I could blow it up in a case like this?  Well, OK, I never had a chance to do that, but I wish I had just done it as a plan for all eventualities.  I will certainly do so in the future, if my career survives this disaster.

He starts manipulating the communications array on the shuttle through his one remote system that he did manage to implant.  I could overload it, but that won't accomplish anything but kill my eyes and ears.  I wonder if there is some way I can get control of his air lock, and just space him.  He is so frantic trying to gain control of something on the ship and maybe get some control on the situation that he accidentally manages to get control of the containment device holding the Vinesnake.  What does is this?  I don't know.  Shut it off and see what happens.

The slight hum of containment field holding end with a slight sigh.  All of the scientists are so glued to the vids of this first contact that none of them notice.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:14, Sat 04 Feb 2023.

A doomsnake escapes, looks around, and decides that the room is too crowded and noisy. Doomsnakes do not like pulling an animal out of a herd. They like to capture solitary prey.

The Doomsnake makes its way to the barracks, and consumes someone in their resting nest who is off-shift right now.

The resulting Akitsnake, somewhat smarter, assesses the situation... its motivation is to SPREAD. So what it should do is-

--Someone walks in. A bunkmate. It sees the Akitsnake and makes noise. Kill it!

No! It runs! It is swift. The Akitsnake is not used to this new and changed body yet. The prey got away. Blast! It is now known to the prey herd! That will make things harder.

The Akitsnake seeks a good hiding place... and more opportunities to spread...

A very busy day passes on the Renaissance 4.  The engineers want to take the device apart, to learn what they can about alien computer technology.  However, the captain knows what an opportunity it is.  "We need to have someone who can speak in their language, and we need it now."

Everyone with "linguist" on their resume is awakened from hibernation, including one brilliant young woman named Annamaria Harding.  Her father had been a U.S. ambassador to China who had married Annamaria's mother, a Mexican woman, when he was on an earlier post.  Annamaria grew up speaking Spanish, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, all as native languages.  She had learned Hebrew and Swedish from nannies before she was 12, earned a graduate degree in Navajo, Iroquois, and Mayan before she was 19, and had a Ph.D. in a comparative study of all 200+ Australian aboriginal languages before she was 21.  She picked up Japanese during a 5-week post-graduate vacation in Tokyo, at the end of which she spoke the language like a native.  She is the obvious choice to become the first human-Akitilan translator.

Annamaria is still groggy from hibernation sickness when she first has a chance to use the Translation Disk.  Within the first 30 minutes, she learns enough to use its voice commands  making navigation through the device easier.  She works steadily -- obsessively -- with the device for 23 hours before Fiona Lissomig finally insists that she get some sleep.  When Anna wakes, six hours later, she finds she is mumbling in Akitilan.  Before being allowed to use the disk again, however, she is forced by Fiona to spend 45 minutes explaining the basic syntactic structure to the other linguists.  Fiona listens as terms like "postpositive adjective" and "verb declension" are bandied about, and it is clear to her that Annamaria is just bringing the slower students along.

By the end of her third day out of hibernation, Anna learns that the engineers have finally put together a radio system that lets them communicate directly with Swanilli.  When they explain that they had to re-modulate the sound so that humans could hear the supersonic tones that the Akitilan produces, she finally understands the final element that she had been eluding her -- all because there were tones she wasn't hearing at all.  She spends the day talking with Swanilli, the Disk at her side feeding her vocabulary when she needs it, when he informs her that a much larger ship from his home planet will be arriving in another hour.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:22, Wed 22 Feb 2023.

Swanilli seems very pleased about the way things are going.

Little does Swanilli realize that The Envoys have had time to get things prepared. There are six of them on the ship that's coming, and weaponry to take down the whole ship if need be (well, both ships, if need be)-- cleverly disguised, of course.

The Envoys have heard from Swanilli that this "human" ship is one of a kind-- rather, that there were others, but that they are to be considered lost. Comforting, if true, but for now, they'll be the judges of that.

This could hardly have come at a worse time, since there's apparently some sort of monster loose on the planet below... there have been two new deaths over the last three days... The Envoy organization is not at all pleased by the way they've had to divide their attentions...