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Monthly story for December 2024. Held onto it for a while because this became a 3 part thing.
In this story, we hear some old music, Revelation gives me a potato quality photo and I go to the toilet.
Part II: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60370748
Part III: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60556470
Story is pasted below as usual
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
Everyone likes exploration missions. Some because they want to discover new things and meet new cultures, others because they get to see the stunning visuals out in space and the rest are just happy that they’re not being shot at anymore.
Quiet time is good and this round is well-timed too. Revelation is back with his new and admittedly quite fetching body with Quaren helping him settle into a routine, because augmented or not, he still needs to sleep and go to the toilet. While his first realisation about the latter was quite funny in retrospect, there is something to be said about my having to escort an adult to the toilet…and tell him how to use it. First time for everything, I suppose.
We were given a quiet parcel of space to map that was a few lightyears from our border, building on the work of another vessel that had since left to resupply. The long range scans showed several star systems scattered around with a few having flags for potentially habitable planets. A search pattern was drawn up, since we still have to map the area, not just flit around the planets like a fly between scones, and we set off.
I spent most of the time explaining the ins and outs of being organic, or well, mostly organic to Revelation, who had chosen to stick with his name, building on the efforts of Edge, Arktak and Quaren. The crew were already saying that I’d might as well be his dad, but well, someone has to do it and him being here is kinda my fault…
Either way, we all settled into a routine, with me catching up on various administrative tasks that I had left on the backburner and replying to the hundreds of messages that were sitting in my inbox. It was also nice to get an unbroken streak of good sleeps and sneak in a day off or two.
As we puttered towards one of the star systems of interest, though, I got a ping from the bridge requesting my presence as I felt the ship alter course. Something about picking up weak radio transmissions. A sample was sent, but it was mostly static since we’re a bit too far away still, though I could’ve sworn I could make out a familiar melody in the midst of it. Regardless, I changed into a fresh set of uniform and messaged Quaren to meet me on the bridge as I jogged my way to the lift.
Naturally, there were a half dozen people intercepting me on the way to the lift, with various things that I needed to check or sign off. Some I did there and then, others I put on my to-do list. It’s almost as if they’re watching the internal cameras so that they can ambush me, since I’m usually too busy to go through the mountain of emails that I have sitting around.
By the time I reached the bridge, Quaren was already there with the red-scaled Revelation. I nodded to them as I walked over to my seat, which Talorath hastily vacated for me. As he did, though, an audio transmission came over the speaker. It seemed to be music of some sort and Talorath pointed to my screen as I sat down, “The lyrics have already been translated. It’s uh, one of ours.”
I frowned for a moment, feeling my ear-frills perk slightly as I strained a little to filter out the static only to realise that I recognised the melody, “Oh, what? Isn’t this one of those pre-war songs about spring or something along those lines? I don’t recognise the dialect, though.”
“It’s…old Alronnian,?” Talorath replied as he tapped the screen, “and yes, it’s one of those songs. We’ve even got our version in the databanks. The computer translated and ID’d the language in under a second.”
“The historical database indicates that the Alronnas Republic was defeated and went defunct during the Unification Wars,” Revelation chimed in, “there is no data on a successful space program other than a failed last-minute rocket launch. The photos from the time show that one of the booster rockets exploded in the upper atmosphere. No survivors.”
“Well, there’s nobody else that could be listening to this stuff out here,” I replied with a snort, “You and Quaren go scour the archives and see what we’ve got on that. Records from that time are pretty spotty, so who knows.”
Revelation nodded and went off with Quaren to use an unmanned station for the task. Meanwhile, Talorath handed me a tablet, “Here’s the map that we have of the area. No records of anything of ours out here, not even IIS sites. Don’t worry, I asked Telricktus and he said no.”
I nodded as I tapped through the data, “We’re intercepting?”
“Yup, as per protocol,” Talorath replied with a nod as he flicked his tail, “engines are spinning up slowly to full. I’ve already notified Command.”
“Good. Bring the ship to yellow alert,” I added, flicking the data files to my terminal and returning the tablet, “I’ll take a look, but let us be cautious all the same.”
Talorath nodded and went back to his usual station as I continued flicking through the data.
Cadet (Senior) Quaren
I.D.A.F. Command Training Program
As I dug through the archives on the ship and the few extras that the main library back home sent over, Revelation tapped my shoulder. I glanced over to find that he had concern written all over his snout, even to the point of frowning slightly, “What will happen if they actually are Alronnian? We will not shoot them, yes?”
“No, we don’t do that anymore,” I replied with a snort, slightly ruffling my wings to emphasize my point, “War’s over. I’d presume that some watered-down version of the first contact protocol will apply. Captain has discretion to decide on whether he wants to make contact or not and so on.”
“Ah, that is good,” Revelation replied, visibly deflating slightly as he heaved a sigh of relief, “I am still processing…uh I mean still sorting through the historical timeline of things that I’ve read and there’s not much about two former enemies meeting.”
“I think calling us former enemies is a bit of a stretch,” I replied with a shrug, “but who knows how we’ll be received. Ultimately, though, we are the same species, Alronnian, Empire, whatever. The past is the past.”
“Yes, I had a similar discussion with the Captain a while back, he said something similar,” Revelation replied, nodding along as he poked at a few of the photos on the screen, “also, that is very little debris for an entire ship exploding.”
I zoomed in on the image, finding too few pixels for me to come to any meaningful conclusion, though Revelation did have a point. There was a fairly large fireball and some debris, but it looked like perhaps the rest of the rockets and the generational craft itself might be fine. Who knows. “I’ll circle it and send it over.”
Revelation nodded along and we ended up discussing the poor photo quality as we squinted at a vast assortment of grainy and in some cases, blurry photos. AI or not, there wasn’t much Revelation could do either. If there is no data, that’s that.
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
Quaren and Revelation sent me the worst photos in the universe and added even worse annotations, since neither of them had legible handwriting. However, it did become clear that perhaps whatever mishap had happened hadn’t taken the whole craft out, though we were way off course for what the intended destination was. The actual destination is actually one of our current inner colonies and it’s a beautifully lush planet. We’re more than several lightyears off here.
As we mused and discussed on the bridge, with a short break for tea and meat pies, the engines ramped up and before long, we were already dropping out of FTL at the edge of the system. By then, the transmissions were fairly clear and I could hear them talking about the local weather on one station and another playing light music.
As we drew closer, a third transmission began, just a series of binary pulses over radio that we traced to a small satellite orbiting the moon of the planet of interest. While we were scanning it, though, we received a radio ping. “This is the colony Altus of the Alronnas Republic to unknown vessel, please identify yourselves and state your intensions.”
“Oh, they do speak Drakotic, they sent it twice, in Alronnian and then our language,” Talorath remarked as he tapped away at his station, “I’m just activating the UHF transmitter now, do you wish to respond, Captain?”
“We have to, since we triggered that proximity sensor, of all things. How did we not detect it?” I replied with a snort as I rubbed my chin, “Shields up just in case, let me know when it’s good to go.”
“Readouts indicate that it runs on an extremely low power laser, something in the ballpark of a laser pointer. Power signature is so small that it’s out of range for our passives,” Talorath replied, snorting, “I’ll send that one to R&D, they’ll find a use for the idea. The transmitter is ready, I can put you on live whenever.”
“One contact coming up from the planets surface, sir,” Quaren added, highlighting a rapidly approaching craft on the HUD, “IFF reads as... Alronnian registry ASF-02. Computer registers as hostile. No lock.”
I motioned for Talorath to turn the transmitter on, “This is the Drakonian ship Defiant. We picked up some of your radio transmissions earlier and came to investigate. We have no hostile intent.”
There was a moment of silence as the fighter from the planet approached, turning out to be a nigh ancient stratospheric fighter craft with additional air tanks and welds added to it to make it spaceworthy. Scans indicated that their laser cannons were armed. “Drakonian? You’re from the old home?”
“If by that you mean Drakonos, then yes,” I replied as I motioned for our weapons to be put to half power, “I-“
“We didn’t win, did we?” Came the abrupt reply, with more than a little sourness thrown in, “Else you’d not be speaking their language.”
“…no, the Alronnas Republic didn’t win,” I replied with a sigh, “perhaps this is something best discussed in person, yes?”
“What if there is nothing to discuss? We will not be taken back as prisoners!” whoever it was snarled over the radio as the fighter fired a warning laser shot off the port bow.
I raised an eyeridge, “We have no interest in taking anyone prisoner, but fire on my vessel again and I will return the favour. If you want us to leave, we will leave, but you should recall your fighter, it’s leaking air and will run out shortly.”
“Lies!”
I snarled, “We don’t lie. You have about a minute left, or we can take them aboard and return them with your craft with a shuttle.”
There was silence for a moment before the little fighter powered down its weapons and hailed us, asking for permission to put into our hangar.
“I will speak to your Captain on the surface. You may send two guards.”
I snorted, “you’ve been speaking with the Captain this entire time. To whom do I have the pleasure of trading barbs with?”
“Major Aohong Daranakaan, commander of the defence forces here, and you are…?” He replied tersely, I could hear teeth being gritted on the other end. Same clan, no wonder the fire seemed so familiar.
I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Captain Tano’rath Daranakaan, commander, DES Defiant. I will meet you shortly. Your two crew will be treated well, you have my word.”
“I assume that the Clan is still worth its salt, then. I will take your word. Threats are not necessary, yes?” Came the reply as the tone softened slightly.
I snorted, “No, don’t worry about it. The doctor will have a quick look over your two person crew as we put into standard orbit. If you could send us landing coordinates or mark out a landing location, we will make arrangements. Expect a shuttle in an hour or so.”
“Acknowledged, the coordinates will be sent soon.” He replied tersely and the transmission cut out, probably so that he could talk to his fighter, since the hangar was complaining that the duo had locked themselves inside, demanding that I turn up before they opened up.
Cadet (Senior) Quaren
I.D.A.F. Command Training Program
Tano’rath beckoned for Revelation and I to follow as he walked to the lift, checking his sidearm on his way. I did the same as Revelation looked on, “I thought there would be no shooting?”
“I don’t plan on doing any shooting, but better to be safe than sorry. Weapons on stun,” Tano’rath replied as he flicked his tail, “How’re your combat skills, Revelation?”
“C-combat skills?” Revelation stammered and I glanced around to find that he hadn’t even taken his gun with him, “I-I’ve read the manuals, but not done any practice…”
Tano’rath waved a hand, “I’ll train you down the line, just stay behind cover if things get ugly, yeah? You’re not a hologram anymore, getting shot will suck.”
Revelation nodded quietly, “Right, right, will it get ugly?”
“Who knows? I doubt it, but we’ll see.” Tano’rath replied as he holstered his pistol and walked out of the lift, with us two in tow.
The hangar had already been cleared of people and the fighter sat there in all of it’s jury-rigged glory. Efforts had been made to make the air tanks aerodynamic, but well, they were still unsightly lumps on the fuselage and the additional welds for sealing and structural integrity were very obviously corroded, with rust and pits all over the old fighter. That thing belongs in a museum, not here.
One of the sergeants nodded to the captain as he walked over and mentioned that it was safe to approach. So, in his usual style, Tano’rath walked over, grabbed a wrench off a convenient toolbox and started banging on one of the metal panels under the pilots’ cockpit. “This is the captain! Open up before you fucking suffocate!”
This is, of course, not protocol. Revelation did give me a few sideway glances, but well, everyone here is used to it. Tano’rath does what he wants. Command doesn’t question it if it works, and it does, as evidenced by the cockpit hissing open and two Drakonians, both blue-scaled stumbling out as the captain took a step back.
Both looked wildly unprepared to be in space. For one thing, neither had spacesuits, they just had old fashioned flight suits with oxygen bottles. Even then, the suits didn’t fit properly, nor did the helmets, which they left in the craft. They looked around slightly wide-eyed and Tano’rath snatched both their sidearms out of their holsters before they could get their wits about them.
“You said that we weren’t prisoners!” The pilot protested, jabbing Tano’rath with a finger as he tossed the two guns to a corporal, “Why are you disarming us? You’re all armed here!”
“No projectile weapons on board unless there is an emergency,” Tano’rath replied flatly, “You might be fine with a leaky ship, but I’m not. Now, pipe down and the doctor will come and have a quick look at you before we proceed.”
Revelation squinted at the pair as they glared at Tano’rath, squinting at the rank insignia on his shoulders before they reluctantly nodded. “You will return them later?”
“Once we’re on the ground, yes. Now, name and ranks please, so that I can update the record,” Tano’rath replied as he beckoned the doctor over, who had been waiting on the sidelines for a while now.
While Dr. Ranok, who was in a bad mood as always, looked the pair over and did his scans, they continued to argue with Tano’rath, not wanting to give their names and such, and then later giving Dr. Ranok grief for taking scans.
Eventually, Tano’rath had enough. “Enough of this fucking bullshit! You two lieutenants will stand still till the doctor is done and that’s a fucking order!”
“We don’t take orders from you.” One of them sneered.
Tano’rath, who is usually laid back, snapped around and glared at the lieutenant with enough fire to melt a hole in the hull plating. I’ve seen him take his anger out of Alliance soldiers before, but I’ve never seen him stand almost snout-to-snout with someone and do it till now, “You take orders from one of my clan down below and you will take orders from me up here, you fucking half-grown whelp! Name, rank and serial number now!”
The pair both quelled almost immediately as Tano’rath glared at them and meekly complied, with the pilots name being Aurat and his copilot was Remos. Anyone can shout, but as always, look in the eyes of a fighting captain and you know not to play games. Dr Ranok patted Tano’rath on the shoulder, saying that he’s done and they’re both fine before walking away.
“Now, as we put into orbit, I can offer you two a tour if you behave,” Tano’rath remarked, still sounding more than a bit irritated, “and lunch if you want. Up to you.”
Aurat and Remos looked at each other for a moment before nodding. “We would like both, sir.”
“Very good, we will go after I go to the toilet.” Tano’rath replied with a nod and walked off towards the toilet, as promised.
Aurat shot me a slightly confused look as Tano’rath strolled off and I shrugged, “Don’t worry, he’s always like that. We should get going in a moment.”
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
These two must think they’re top shit, talking to an actual captain like that. They’re probably the best pilots from the planet, come to think about it, since they were sent to intercept us, but well, shoot your mouth off and I will shut it for you.
I let them continue complaining about having their guns taken away, even after I signed for them at the armoury, but well, the rules around projectile weapons are what they are. I got asked if I would’ve confiscated them if they were laser pistols. The answer is no, but I’d still have to inspect and tag them anyway.
Of course, with the duo being pilots, I opted to show them the bridge first, albeit briefly. I’m not allowed to let outsiders linger too long in case they memorise the layout. I got a few oohs and aahs from them and the cockiness seemed to tone down as they began to realise what this ship was. I also told them not to hesitate to ask if they had questions, though I wouldn’t be able to answer everything.
“Captain, if I may, this ship looks quite…small for a vessel sent out so far. Do you not need more provisions and the like, and what of your clan?” Aurat remarked as he looked around as we took the lift down to the engineering bay, “I’ve seen photos of our ship and it was huge! There are still parts of it in use in the colony too.”
I couldn’t help but raise an eyeridge at him as the lift made its way down. Cryo ships are a thing of the past, but it seems like they’ve not met anyone else other than us. “I appreciate the concern, but we are a few days at Trans-light speed away from home, so my significant other will be fine. That ship was a full-on all-in-one colony ship, no? With industrial equipment, food and whatnot all together?”
“Trans-light? You mean it’s possible?” Aurat replied, going even more wide-eyed as the lift slowed, “but yes, it had everything, some of the machines aren’t serviceable anymore, but we make-do. Would your crew…uh be inclined to assist us with some repairs? I’ve read the history books, I…understand if you decline, sir.”
“Yeah, it’s possible, I’m about to take you to see the engines that do it,” I replied with a slight chuckle, “and no, we don’t decline to assist. A lot has changed and that war is long over. These days, though, we split the load so that you don’t lose everything if things go wrong.”
“Ah.” Was all he managed as I took him down the hall and tapped the door sensors to reveal the engineering section with the engines. As usual, Edge was messing with some circuit or other completely unprotected, but that’s normal. “That is quite large.”
“Need lots of power to go fast,” I replied with a slight smirk creeping onto my snout. Picking up that damn Deep Cover Agent’s bad habits, “This is a Gen sixteen D.K.B.I. Trans-Light drive. Works when it matters and has gotten us out of trouble more than a few times.”
That was when Remos, who had been moping in the back quietly finally piped up, “I’ve seen a lot of armouries and alert notifications as you walked us to the bridge, sir, and I couldn’t help but notice the array of weapons on the tactical screen. Is this…actually a scout ship?”
“No, it’s a medium cruiser,” I replied with a flick of my tail, “Space is a rough place, so the defence force runs exploration missions. We don’t send unarmed scouts these days, doesn’t generally end well.”
Remos frowned for a moment, glancing down at my sidearm and then at Edge who wasn’t helping by chewing on a bit of cable as he walked over, “…so this is a warship?”
“Very much so,” I replied with a nod, “we join the fleet when required and whatnot if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Is this the one that’s your great-grandfather?” Edge remarked as he finished eating the cable. “He’s not even the same colour as you.”
“No, he’s not, that guy’s on the surface, I’ll be meeting him later,” I replied with a snort, “we good?”
“Yeah, engine is running good after the overhaul,” Edge replied with a nod, his digital eyes flitting between me and the two visitors, “they just left a few odds and ends as usual, but they’re mostly cleaned up.”
I nodded as the synth turned to walk off while Remos watched in silence before his counterpart finally broke in, “So…why didn’t you fire back at us?”
“What was the point?” I replied with a shrug as I turned to lead them to the mess hall, “Yeah, we have a bit of a fight, someone blows up, but then what?”
“If by some miracle we won, then perhaps we’ll go back to the homeworld and take over like our ancestors hoped,” Remos retorted, glaring over at me, “we’d take this ship and go.”
“First things first, you don’t know how to operate this ship and we’d scuttle it before you’d have a chance to try,” I replied flatly, “and even if you did, a hostile takeover of one of our ships is an act of war. I know my ship, but even I can’t face down a detachment. I will be very clear about this – if we wanted to play this game, you’d never have had the luxury of time to launch a fighter. You would’ve only realised what was happening when the First Fleet was bearing down on you and troops have already been landed.”
“You sound like the Commander,” Remos replied with a slight chuckle, “Believe me, we don’t want to make enemies of anyone, much less our own kin. I’m sorry for asking such a question, but I was curious to hear what you’d say, especially after how…uh you reacted earlier.”
I snorted, finding myself chuckling slightly, “It’s fine, curiosity is natural, but sometimes you get bitten. Besides, he didn’t tell you till I yelled at you, did he?”
“No, he didn’t, he just said to wait for you,” Remos replied with a snort as he twitched his wings, deliberately bumping Aurat with his left wing-arm “Aurat here is the Governor’s hatchling and needed to be put in his place, but I should’ve seen it, honestly.”
“Eh, culture drifts over time, it’s normal,” I replied with a chuckle as I led them through the various groups in the mess hall and joined the queue for the resequencer. Aurat gave Remos a sharp look as we waited, but the latter didn’t seem particularly bothered. This is why we don’t tell our hatchlings where we work. “also, I will apologise in advance because your lunch will be bland.”
Aurat cocked his head, “Bland? Surely you have advanced cooking techniques?”
“We do, none of which are applied here,” I replied with a cackle that I couldn’t contain in time, “There is an officers’ menu, but I eat the same thing as my crew because fair is fair. Just go nuts with the sauce.”
The two nodded along as it come to our turn and I ordered bread and brisket for everyone. Pausing only to grab some bbq sauce and a jug of cold tea to share, I led them to a vacant table and poured drinks for everyone. As always, I drenched my food with extra cheese and sauce before eating and I could see the other two copying what I was doing. Don’t blame them, really, but what felt like a regular, albeit slightly late lunch to me lit their eyes up. It’s probably the sauce from the homeworld, since I know a shop that does the good stuff, but I ended up getting seconds for them with the pair raving about it. After they drained the third bottle of the stuff, I had a barrel of the sauce loaded on the shuttle to take down as a gift.
While I played nanny to our guests, the people on the surface were obviously busy, since we’d managed to get our shuttle ready on time, but whatever they were doing down there to get the landing pad ready wasn’t finished. My counterpart actually apologised, albeit grudgingly, and we agreed to wait a little more. It’s not as if we could say no.
It’s rude to pry, but I had Talorath listen in on the radio chatter in case there was something afoot, but thankfully, it just seemed like that didn’t really know what to do and were scrambling, despite my asking Aohong not to stand on ceremony too much. But then again, they only know the old ways, probably, so they’ll overdo it regardless. The coordinates did eventually come and I had a second shuttle tow the locals’ craft while we all piled into the other one. Of course, just in case, I had a ute loaded into our shuttle in addition to the usual first contact items, including the hamper.
In this story, we hear some old music, Revelation gives me a potato quality photo and I go to the toilet.
Part II: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60370748
Part III: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60556470
Story is pasted below as usual
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
Everyone likes exploration missions. Some because they want to discover new things and meet new cultures, others because they get to see the stunning visuals out in space and the rest are just happy that they’re not being shot at anymore.
Quiet time is good and this round is well-timed too. Revelation is back with his new and admittedly quite fetching body with Quaren helping him settle into a routine, because augmented or not, he still needs to sleep and go to the toilet. While his first realisation about the latter was quite funny in retrospect, there is something to be said about my having to escort an adult to the toilet…and tell him how to use it. First time for everything, I suppose.
We were given a quiet parcel of space to map that was a few lightyears from our border, building on the work of another vessel that had since left to resupply. The long range scans showed several star systems scattered around with a few having flags for potentially habitable planets. A search pattern was drawn up, since we still have to map the area, not just flit around the planets like a fly between scones, and we set off.
I spent most of the time explaining the ins and outs of being organic, or well, mostly organic to Revelation, who had chosen to stick with his name, building on the efforts of Edge, Arktak and Quaren. The crew were already saying that I’d might as well be his dad, but well, someone has to do it and him being here is kinda my fault…
Either way, we all settled into a routine, with me catching up on various administrative tasks that I had left on the backburner and replying to the hundreds of messages that were sitting in my inbox. It was also nice to get an unbroken streak of good sleeps and sneak in a day off or two.
As we puttered towards one of the star systems of interest, though, I got a ping from the bridge requesting my presence as I felt the ship alter course. Something about picking up weak radio transmissions. A sample was sent, but it was mostly static since we’re a bit too far away still, though I could’ve sworn I could make out a familiar melody in the midst of it. Regardless, I changed into a fresh set of uniform and messaged Quaren to meet me on the bridge as I jogged my way to the lift.
Naturally, there were a half dozen people intercepting me on the way to the lift, with various things that I needed to check or sign off. Some I did there and then, others I put on my to-do list. It’s almost as if they’re watching the internal cameras so that they can ambush me, since I’m usually too busy to go through the mountain of emails that I have sitting around.
By the time I reached the bridge, Quaren was already there with the red-scaled Revelation. I nodded to them as I walked over to my seat, which Talorath hastily vacated for me. As he did, though, an audio transmission came over the speaker. It seemed to be music of some sort and Talorath pointed to my screen as I sat down, “The lyrics have already been translated. It’s uh, one of ours.”
I frowned for a moment, feeling my ear-frills perk slightly as I strained a little to filter out the static only to realise that I recognised the melody, “Oh, what? Isn’t this one of those pre-war songs about spring or something along those lines? I don’t recognise the dialect, though.”
“It’s…old Alronnian,?” Talorath replied as he tapped the screen, “and yes, it’s one of those songs. We’ve even got our version in the databanks. The computer translated and ID’d the language in under a second.”
“The historical database indicates that the Alronnas Republic was defeated and went defunct during the Unification Wars,” Revelation chimed in, “there is no data on a successful space program other than a failed last-minute rocket launch. The photos from the time show that one of the booster rockets exploded in the upper atmosphere. No survivors.”
“Well, there’s nobody else that could be listening to this stuff out here,” I replied with a snort, “You and Quaren go scour the archives and see what we’ve got on that. Records from that time are pretty spotty, so who knows.”
Revelation nodded and went off with Quaren to use an unmanned station for the task. Meanwhile, Talorath handed me a tablet, “Here’s the map that we have of the area. No records of anything of ours out here, not even IIS sites. Don’t worry, I asked Telricktus and he said no.”
I nodded as I tapped through the data, “We’re intercepting?”
“Yup, as per protocol,” Talorath replied with a nod as he flicked his tail, “engines are spinning up slowly to full. I’ve already notified Command.”
“Good. Bring the ship to yellow alert,” I added, flicking the data files to my terminal and returning the tablet, “I’ll take a look, but let us be cautious all the same.”
Talorath nodded and went back to his usual station as I continued flicking through the data.
Cadet (Senior) Quaren
I.D.A.F. Command Training Program
As I dug through the archives on the ship and the few extras that the main library back home sent over, Revelation tapped my shoulder. I glanced over to find that he had concern written all over his snout, even to the point of frowning slightly, “What will happen if they actually are Alronnian? We will not shoot them, yes?”
“No, we don’t do that anymore,” I replied with a snort, slightly ruffling my wings to emphasize my point, “War’s over. I’d presume that some watered-down version of the first contact protocol will apply. Captain has discretion to decide on whether he wants to make contact or not and so on.”
“Ah, that is good,” Revelation replied, visibly deflating slightly as he heaved a sigh of relief, “I am still processing…uh I mean still sorting through the historical timeline of things that I’ve read and there’s not much about two former enemies meeting.”
“I think calling us former enemies is a bit of a stretch,” I replied with a shrug, “but who knows how we’ll be received. Ultimately, though, we are the same species, Alronnian, Empire, whatever. The past is the past.”
“Yes, I had a similar discussion with the Captain a while back, he said something similar,” Revelation replied, nodding along as he poked at a few of the photos on the screen, “also, that is very little debris for an entire ship exploding.”
I zoomed in on the image, finding too few pixels for me to come to any meaningful conclusion, though Revelation did have a point. There was a fairly large fireball and some debris, but it looked like perhaps the rest of the rockets and the generational craft itself might be fine. Who knows. “I’ll circle it and send it over.”
Revelation nodded along and we ended up discussing the poor photo quality as we squinted at a vast assortment of grainy and in some cases, blurry photos. AI or not, there wasn’t much Revelation could do either. If there is no data, that’s that.
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
Quaren and Revelation sent me the worst photos in the universe and added even worse annotations, since neither of them had legible handwriting. However, it did become clear that perhaps whatever mishap had happened hadn’t taken the whole craft out, though we were way off course for what the intended destination was. The actual destination is actually one of our current inner colonies and it’s a beautifully lush planet. We’re more than several lightyears off here.
As we mused and discussed on the bridge, with a short break for tea and meat pies, the engines ramped up and before long, we were already dropping out of FTL at the edge of the system. By then, the transmissions were fairly clear and I could hear them talking about the local weather on one station and another playing light music.
As we drew closer, a third transmission began, just a series of binary pulses over radio that we traced to a small satellite orbiting the moon of the planet of interest. While we were scanning it, though, we received a radio ping. “This is the colony Altus of the Alronnas Republic to unknown vessel, please identify yourselves and state your intensions.”
“Oh, they do speak Drakotic, they sent it twice, in Alronnian and then our language,” Talorath remarked as he tapped away at his station, “I’m just activating the UHF transmitter now, do you wish to respond, Captain?”
“We have to, since we triggered that proximity sensor, of all things. How did we not detect it?” I replied with a snort as I rubbed my chin, “Shields up just in case, let me know when it’s good to go.”
“Readouts indicate that it runs on an extremely low power laser, something in the ballpark of a laser pointer. Power signature is so small that it’s out of range for our passives,” Talorath replied, snorting, “I’ll send that one to R&D, they’ll find a use for the idea. The transmitter is ready, I can put you on live whenever.”
“One contact coming up from the planets surface, sir,” Quaren added, highlighting a rapidly approaching craft on the HUD, “IFF reads as... Alronnian registry ASF-02. Computer registers as hostile. No lock.”
I motioned for Talorath to turn the transmitter on, “This is the Drakonian ship Defiant. We picked up some of your radio transmissions earlier and came to investigate. We have no hostile intent.”
There was a moment of silence as the fighter from the planet approached, turning out to be a nigh ancient stratospheric fighter craft with additional air tanks and welds added to it to make it spaceworthy. Scans indicated that their laser cannons were armed. “Drakonian? You’re from the old home?”
“If by that you mean Drakonos, then yes,” I replied as I motioned for our weapons to be put to half power, “I-“
“We didn’t win, did we?” Came the abrupt reply, with more than a little sourness thrown in, “Else you’d not be speaking their language.”
“…no, the Alronnas Republic didn’t win,” I replied with a sigh, “perhaps this is something best discussed in person, yes?”
“What if there is nothing to discuss? We will not be taken back as prisoners!” whoever it was snarled over the radio as the fighter fired a warning laser shot off the port bow.
I raised an eyeridge, “We have no interest in taking anyone prisoner, but fire on my vessel again and I will return the favour. If you want us to leave, we will leave, but you should recall your fighter, it’s leaking air and will run out shortly.”
“Lies!”
I snarled, “We don’t lie. You have about a minute left, or we can take them aboard and return them with your craft with a shuttle.”
There was silence for a moment before the little fighter powered down its weapons and hailed us, asking for permission to put into our hangar.
“I will speak to your Captain on the surface. You may send two guards.”
I snorted, “you’ve been speaking with the Captain this entire time. To whom do I have the pleasure of trading barbs with?”
“Major Aohong Daranakaan, commander of the defence forces here, and you are…?” He replied tersely, I could hear teeth being gritted on the other end. Same clan, no wonder the fire seemed so familiar.
I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Captain Tano’rath Daranakaan, commander, DES Defiant. I will meet you shortly. Your two crew will be treated well, you have my word.”
“I assume that the Clan is still worth its salt, then. I will take your word. Threats are not necessary, yes?” Came the reply as the tone softened slightly.
I snorted, “No, don’t worry about it. The doctor will have a quick look over your two person crew as we put into standard orbit. If you could send us landing coordinates or mark out a landing location, we will make arrangements. Expect a shuttle in an hour or so.”
“Acknowledged, the coordinates will be sent soon.” He replied tersely and the transmission cut out, probably so that he could talk to his fighter, since the hangar was complaining that the duo had locked themselves inside, demanding that I turn up before they opened up.
Cadet (Senior) Quaren
I.D.A.F. Command Training Program
Tano’rath beckoned for Revelation and I to follow as he walked to the lift, checking his sidearm on his way. I did the same as Revelation looked on, “I thought there would be no shooting?”
“I don’t plan on doing any shooting, but better to be safe than sorry. Weapons on stun,” Tano’rath replied as he flicked his tail, “How’re your combat skills, Revelation?”
“C-combat skills?” Revelation stammered and I glanced around to find that he hadn’t even taken his gun with him, “I-I’ve read the manuals, but not done any practice…”
Tano’rath waved a hand, “I’ll train you down the line, just stay behind cover if things get ugly, yeah? You’re not a hologram anymore, getting shot will suck.”
Revelation nodded quietly, “Right, right, will it get ugly?”
“Who knows? I doubt it, but we’ll see.” Tano’rath replied as he holstered his pistol and walked out of the lift, with us two in tow.
The hangar had already been cleared of people and the fighter sat there in all of it’s jury-rigged glory. Efforts had been made to make the air tanks aerodynamic, but well, they were still unsightly lumps on the fuselage and the additional welds for sealing and structural integrity were very obviously corroded, with rust and pits all over the old fighter. That thing belongs in a museum, not here.
One of the sergeants nodded to the captain as he walked over and mentioned that it was safe to approach. So, in his usual style, Tano’rath walked over, grabbed a wrench off a convenient toolbox and started banging on one of the metal panels under the pilots’ cockpit. “This is the captain! Open up before you fucking suffocate!”
This is, of course, not protocol. Revelation did give me a few sideway glances, but well, everyone here is used to it. Tano’rath does what he wants. Command doesn’t question it if it works, and it does, as evidenced by the cockpit hissing open and two Drakonians, both blue-scaled stumbling out as the captain took a step back.
Both looked wildly unprepared to be in space. For one thing, neither had spacesuits, they just had old fashioned flight suits with oxygen bottles. Even then, the suits didn’t fit properly, nor did the helmets, which they left in the craft. They looked around slightly wide-eyed and Tano’rath snatched both their sidearms out of their holsters before they could get their wits about them.
“You said that we weren’t prisoners!” The pilot protested, jabbing Tano’rath with a finger as he tossed the two guns to a corporal, “Why are you disarming us? You’re all armed here!”
“No projectile weapons on board unless there is an emergency,” Tano’rath replied flatly, “You might be fine with a leaky ship, but I’m not. Now, pipe down and the doctor will come and have a quick look at you before we proceed.”
Revelation squinted at the pair as they glared at Tano’rath, squinting at the rank insignia on his shoulders before they reluctantly nodded. “You will return them later?”
“Once we’re on the ground, yes. Now, name and ranks please, so that I can update the record,” Tano’rath replied as he beckoned the doctor over, who had been waiting on the sidelines for a while now.
While Dr. Ranok, who was in a bad mood as always, looked the pair over and did his scans, they continued to argue with Tano’rath, not wanting to give their names and such, and then later giving Dr. Ranok grief for taking scans.
Eventually, Tano’rath had enough. “Enough of this fucking bullshit! You two lieutenants will stand still till the doctor is done and that’s a fucking order!”
“We don’t take orders from you.” One of them sneered.
Tano’rath, who is usually laid back, snapped around and glared at the lieutenant with enough fire to melt a hole in the hull plating. I’ve seen him take his anger out of Alliance soldiers before, but I’ve never seen him stand almost snout-to-snout with someone and do it till now, “You take orders from one of my clan down below and you will take orders from me up here, you fucking half-grown whelp! Name, rank and serial number now!”
The pair both quelled almost immediately as Tano’rath glared at them and meekly complied, with the pilots name being Aurat and his copilot was Remos. Anyone can shout, but as always, look in the eyes of a fighting captain and you know not to play games. Dr Ranok patted Tano’rath on the shoulder, saying that he’s done and they’re both fine before walking away.
“Now, as we put into orbit, I can offer you two a tour if you behave,” Tano’rath remarked, still sounding more than a bit irritated, “and lunch if you want. Up to you.”
Aurat and Remos looked at each other for a moment before nodding. “We would like both, sir.”
“Very good, we will go after I go to the toilet.” Tano’rath replied with a nod and walked off towards the toilet, as promised.
Aurat shot me a slightly confused look as Tano’rath strolled off and I shrugged, “Don’t worry, he’s always like that. We should get going in a moment.”
Snr Captain Tano’rath
Cmdr, DES Defiant
These two must think they’re top shit, talking to an actual captain like that. They’re probably the best pilots from the planet, come to think about it, since they were sent to intercept us, but well, shoot your mouth off and I will shut it for you.
I let them continue complaining about having their guns taken away, even after I signed for them at the armoury, but well, the rules around projectile weapons are what they are. I got asked if I would’ve confiscated them if they were laser pistols. The answer is no, but I’d still have to inspect and tag them anyway.
Of course, with the duo being pilots, I opted to show them the bridge first, albeit briefly. I’m not allowed to let outsiders linger too long in case they memorise the layout. I got a few oohs and aahs from them and the cockiness seemed to tone down as they began to realise what this ship was. I also told them not to hesitate to ask if they had questions, though I wouldn’t be able to answer everything.
“Captain, if I may, this ship looks quite…small for a vessel sent out so far. Do you not need more provisions and the like, and what of your clan?” Aurat remarked as he looked around as we took the lift down to the engineering bay, “I’ve seen photos of our ship and it was huge! There are still parts of it in use in the colony too.”
I couldn’t help but raise an eyeridge at him as the lift made its way down. Cryo ships are a thing of the past, but it seems like they’ve not met anyone else other than us. “I appreciate the concern, but we are a few days at Trans-light speed away from home, so my significant other will be fine. That ship was a full-on all-in-one colony ship, no? With industrial equipment, food and whatnot all together?”
“Trans-light? You mean it’s possible?” Aurat replied, going even more wide-eyed as the lift slowed, “but yes, it had everything, some of the machines aren’t serviceable anymore, but we make-do. Would your crew…uh be inclined to assist us with some repairs? I’ve read the history books, I…understand if you decline, sir.”
“Yeah, it’s possible, I’m about to take you to see the engines that do it,” I replied with a slight chuckle, “and no, we don’t decline to assist. A lot has changed and that war is long over. These days, though, we split the load so that you don’t lose everything if things go wrong.”
“Ah.” Was all he managed as I took him down the hall and tapped the door sensors to reveal the engineering section with the engines. As usual, Edge was messing with some circuit or other completely unprotected, but that’s normal. “That is quite large.”
“Need lots of power to go fast,” I replied with a slight smirk creeping onto my snout. Picking up that damn Deep Cover Agent’s bad habits, “This is a Gen sixteen D.K.B.I. Trans-Light drive. Works when it matters and has gotten us out of trouble more than a few times.”
That was when Remos, who had been moping in the back quietly finally piped up, “I’ve seen a lot of armouries and alert notifications as you walked us to the bridge, sir, and I couldn’t help but notice the array of weapons on the tactical screen. Is this…actually a scout ship?”
“No, it’s a medium cruiser,” I replied with a flick of my tail, “Space is a rough place, so the defence force runs exploration missions. We don’t send unarmed scouts these days, doesn’t generally end well.”
Remos frowned for a moment, glancing down at my sidearm and then at Edge who wasn’t helping by chewing on a bit of cable as he walked over, “…so this is a warship?”
“Very much so,” I replied with a nod, “we join the fleet when required and whatnot if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Is this the one that’s your great-grandfather?” Edge remarked as he finished eating the cable. “He’s not even the same colour as you.”
“No, he’s not, that guy’s on the surface, I’ll be meeting him later,” I replied with a snort, “we good?”
“Yeah, engine is running good after the overhaul,” Edge replied with a nod, his digital eyes flitting between me and the two visitors, “they just left a few odds and ends as usual, but they’re mostly cleaned up.”
I nodded as the synth turned to walk off while Remos watched in silence before his counterpart finally broke in, “So…why didn’t you fire back at us?”
“What was the point?” I replied with a shrug as I turned to lead them to the mess hall, “Yeah, we have a bit of a fight, someone blows up, but then what?”
“If by some miracle we won, then perhaps we’ll go back to the homeworld and take over like our ancestors hoped,” Remos retorted, glaring over at me, “we’d take this ship and go.”
“First things first, you don’t know how to operate this ship and we’d scuttle it before you’d have a chance to try,” I replied flatly, “and even if you did, a hostile takeover of one of our ships is an act of war. I know my ship, but even I can’t face down a detachment. I will be very clear about this – if we wanted to play this game, you’d never have had the luxury of time to launch a fighter. You would’ve only realised what was happening when the First Fleet was bearing down on you and troops have already been landed.”
“You sound like the Commander,” Remos replied with a slight chuckle, “Believe me, we don’t want to make enemies of anyone, much less our own kin. I’m sorry for asking such a question, but I was curious to hear what you’d say, especially after how…uh you reacted earlier.”
I snorted, finding myself chuckling slightly, “It’s fine, curiosity is natural, but sometimes you get bitten. Besides, he didn’t tell you till I yelled at you, did he?”
“No, he didn’t, he just said to wait for you,” Remos replied with a snort as he twitched his wings, deliberately bumping Aurat with his left wing-arm “Aurat here is the Governor’s hatchling and needed to be put in his place, but I should’ve seen it, honestly.”
“Eh, culture drifts over time, it’s normal,” I replied with a chuckle as I led them through the various groups in the mess hall and joined the queue for the resequencer. Aurat gave Remos a sharp look as we waited, but the latter didn’t seem particularly bothered. This is why we don’t tell our hatchlings where we work. “also, I will apologise in advance because your lunch will be bland.”
Aurat cocked his head, “Bland? Surely you have advanced cooking techniques?”
“We do, none of which are applied here,” I replied with a cackle that I couldn’t contain in time, “There is an officers’ menu, but I eat the same thing as my crew because fair is fair. Just go nuts with the sauce.”
The two nodded along as it come to our turn and I ordered bread and brisket for everyone. Pausing only to grab some bbq sauce and a jug of cold tea to share, I led them to a vacant table and poured drinks for everyone. As always, I drenched my food with extra cheese and sauce before eating and I could see the other two copying what I was doing. Don’t blame them, really, but what felt like a regular, albeit slightly late lunch to me lit their eyes up. It’s probably the sauce from the homeworld, since I know a shop that does the good stuff, but I ended up getting seconds for them with the pair raving about it. After they drained the third bottle of the stuff, I had a barrel of the sauce loaded on the shuttle to take down as a gift.
While I played nanny to our guests, the people on the surface were obviously busy, since we’d managed to get our shuttle ready on time, but whatever they were doing down there to get the landing pad ready wasn’t finished. My counterpart actually apologised, albeit grudgingly, and we agreed to wait a little more. It’s not as if we could say no.
It’s rude to pry, but I had Talorath listen in on the radio chatter in case there was something afoot, but thankfully, it just seemed like that didn’t really know what to do and were scrambling, despite my asking Aohong not to stand on ceremony too much. But then again, they only know the old ways, probably, so they’ll overdo it regardless. The coordinates did eventually come and I had a second shuttle tow the locals’ craft while we all piled into the other one. Of course, just in case, I had a ute loaded into our shuttle in addition to the usual first contact items, including the hamper.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
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File Size 167.7 kB
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