A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks to Seacock and LoyaulteMeLie, who alerted me to an uploading glitch in this story. Thank you, and please let me know if there are any others!
Also, thanks to Frakeme, who provided me with some outside opinion and a bit of a kick in the butt, as well as Cap'n Frances, who contributed to that kick as well. Due to their critique, I have completely changed the story. I added two alien PoV chapters before the newly edited story to explain the confusing points.
So if you read this story before, you might want to re read it, 'cause it'll be a bit different than you remember.
P.s. I'm unsure as to whether Reed likes the transporter or not. I thought I remembered him liking it, but more and more, I think I have him mixed up with Mayweather, since I mixed their names up in the early episodes. If anyone know, then please let me know!
Captain Pak glanced up from the scans his science officer had just handed him. "And you believe that ship carries the necessary supplies?" He asked sharply, raking his eyes up and down the thin sliver of a Zokut that was his science officer.
Donzu wisely held his tongue, waiting for his captain to give him permission to speak. The captain nodded appreciatively and handed back the report. "You may speak." He said. Donzu nodded gratefully.
"I do, sir. While they do have adequate weapons, they are registered as an exploration vehicle." The science officer said, talking energetically.
The captain nodded, and the science officer shut up instantly, stiffening. "How long until this ship reaches the "exploration vehicle" ? Speak." Pak said to the pilot.
"1.3 kotul, at current speed." The pilot replied quickly.
Pak nodded and lounged back in his throne. "Go faster."
The pilot didn't bother to protest that they were already going too fast. The last pilot had done so, and his blood was still all over the chair.
Undoing the safety regulations, the pliot sped up the ship as fast as possible without destroying the weapons beyond repair, sending a mental prayer to their god of luck that Jamat's engines were as well kept as he claimed.
Apparently, they were, since the warp seven capable spaceship raced across the cosmos at a slightly turbulent warp 8.2.
Pak nodded approval and stretched his four arms. "Revised time? Speak."
The pilot had already crunched the number. "0.6 kotul." She saw the captain considering speeding up and prayed he didn't give that order. Any farther, and the engines would explode. No doubt Jamat would be blamed for the ship's failure...
"Hold steady and set an intercept course for the ee-ar-than ship." The captain said, folding his arms in front of each other.
Donzu cringed at captain Pak's mangling of the word, but didn't dare to correct his captain. Instead, he walked to his station and gathered the weapon and defensive specs of the human ship. Only special torpedoes and phase cannons? There would be no contest between their ships, if things came to a firefight.
He handed the specs to the weapons officer and resumed the menial tasks a Zokut science officer was given. With two hands, he scanned for any anomalies. With the other two, he tried to complete a Melorkian puzzle.
The 0.6 kotul raced by quickly, and before she knew it, a light alerted the weapons officer that a warp trail had been detected. She gave the low whistle that told the captain she had something important to say. The captain nodded at her. "You may speak."
"The ee-ar-than ship is dead ahead." She mentally cringed at her mispronunciation of the human planet, but didn't dare to say anything different from what her captain had said. The humiliation it would cause him...
"The damage cloak is engaged?" Captain Pak asked.
The weapons officer nodded, trying to keep smug pride off her face. The damage cloak had been her idea and had only taken a kotul or two to reprogram their cloaking device. Instead of seeing an empirical-class spaceship, eyes and sensors would see a slightly crippled cargo freighter riding on their tailwind.
"Then let us prepare: Secretly tap into their Bridge communications, learn their idioms and speech patters. Within the half-kotul." Pak ordered, disappearing into his captain's lounge.
When the metallic lounge doors hissed closed, the Bridge officers gave sighs of relief and started chatting with each other. Donzu finally completed the Melorkian puzzle with some help from Ekta, the pilot.
They struck up a conversation about whether or not the medical supplies would help cure the bout of Andronesian encephalitis that had swept their ship. "I heard the humans devised a cure!" Etka protested. Donzu snorted and reset the Melorkian puzzle.
"It's definitely a human cure, but will it work on us?" He asked pointedly. Ekta seemed about to reply when the weapons officer cut in crossly.
"Will you shut up? I'm trying to listen!" Magothi hissed, a pair of headphones over her ears. Ekta stuck her tongue out.
"I thought you were already fluent in human." She said. Magothi rolled her eyes.
"The latest textbook on Human English was published eighty-six years ago. Everything, the idioms, the colloquialisms, everything has changed, and it's more complex than our own language: different tenses, different subjects, so forgive me if I need to brush up on a few words!" She yelled.
Donzu and Ekta stared at her, fidgeting in their seats before Magothi resumed chanting alien words.
A/N: Sorry this is mostly Author Notes. The whole alien point of view is too long, and this was the best place to split it. Sorry. The next chapter will be longer!
P.s. I tried to model the Zokut culture after Chinese and Klingon. How do you feel I did?
And since this is kinda important to understanding the story in the future:
1 kotul= 2.4 hours.
Milli- kotul = 8.64 seconds
Centi-kotul= 1.4 minutes
Jia= one meter.