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Council survey vessel Light of Dawn

"So, what do we know?"

Captain Shiana Armali looked around the table in the Light of Dawn's small conference room and almost sighed when no-one answered. Survey ships always had a few dedicated scientists on board and this was precisely the sort of situation where they were supposed to speak up. Unfortunately, because routine surveys of known, lifeless star systems were not generally considered a prestigious posting, one rarely encountered true experts in these assignments. In this particular case she had had the bad luck to receive two graduate students who were doing the job to either fulfill some university requirement, or because they needed the money, she honestly didn't care which. Mordin Solus, her salarian xeno-biology expert, was young, even for his short-lived species, and seemed to oscillate between hyperactive, and, as was currently the case, so distracted he forgot what galaxy he lived in. Still, he was an improvement over her other 'expert'. A xeno-archeologist of all things, just what was needed aboard a star ship. Initially, she had been inclined to give Liara T'Soni the benefit of the doubt. It couldn't have been easy to grow up as the only child of one of the most powerful and respected Asari currently alive, especially for someone who seemed to be rather shy. However, that had been before she had had to endure several weeks in the girl's company. There was only so much stammering and hand-wringing a person could tolerate.

"Solus, T'Soni, I asked a question. What do we know?"

The younger asari threw a nervous look at her fellow scientist, who still seemed oblivious to his surroundings as he studied a datapad, then at her captain, who seemed to be rapidly losing her patience. Apparently, this was sufficient to induce her to speak up.

"Well, the ship seems to be of unknown origin. I mean, it doesn't match any design in our database. Also, there is no sign of life anywhere in this system, so it must have come from somewhere else."

And thank you for stating the obvious, Shiana thought, but carefully didn't say out loud. After all, she was supposed to be the child's mentor no matter how fed up she was with that role. "Please, continue."

"Also, it seems rather primitive, but I guess if they arrived from outside the system it has to be capable of faster than light travel."

"Indeed?! Tell me, T'Soni, did you do that historical search I requested?"

"Yes, captain."

"And?"

"Well, the last survey of this star system occurred two years ago. There was no mention of this ship."

"So it must have arrived in the last two years?"

"Yes, captain. I mean, it was a very thorough survey. They spent nearly a month in this system and even sent a geological team to the surface of this planet. Even if the ship wasn't broadcasting a signal at that time, I cannot believe the surveyors would not have found the ship itself."

"Very good." and surprising, she actually checked that without prompting and volunteered the information. "I guess the taxpayers finally have an answer to the question why the council spends money on these routine surveys. The question is, how do we proceed?"

"Well, it seems that this is a first contact situation, but there doesn't seem to be anybody to make contact with."

And we're back to stating the obvious, I guess it was too good to last.

"Levarn, any news on that signal they're broadcasting?"

"No, captain." The first officer had to far remained silent, allowing his captain to fulfill her teaching duties, but he seemed as impatient as she was and cast a look of severe disapproval at his fellow salarian, a look, which Mordin Solus, still engrossed with his datapad either didn't notice or chose to ignore. "We have run it through every filter we have. From the size and form of the data it sees to be purely audio. Our final results are self-consistent and seem to follow a clear pattern, so we are probably receiving what we are meant to hear, but without a translation it is just so much gibberish."

"May not even be audio." Mordin Solus suddenly spoke up, showing that he had, at least at some level, followed the discussion. "Species may not even communicate by sound. Signal produces pattern, pattern translates to sound, but may not be intended. All we can really say, is that it has a pattern."

"I'm aware of that student Solus," Levarn said coldly. "I simply pointed out that it SEEMS to be an audio message. Not that it HAS to be."

Having experienced Mordin Solus in a talkative mood before, Shiana decided she might as well benefit from it.

"What else can we deduce about this unknown species?"

"Size of airlocks matches salarian, turian, asari, quarian. Small for krogan or elcor, though possible. Height-width relation wrong for Volus." Suddenly, the salarian seemed to feel the need to fill the room with the sound of his voice. At least it showed that he was paying attention. "View through windows by remote drones shows chairs, indicates bipedal species. Markings on hull indicate vision in similar part of spectrum."

"So, we have found another species that matches the general shape of most council races."

"Probably, yes"

"Any ideas how to get their attention?"

"Unclear. No response to transmission, no indication that they have seen our approach. Either, not interested, or not capable of response."

"Then, I suppose there is only one way to proceed."

"You intend to board them, captain?" Her first officer asked.

"I don't see any other way to proceed, Levarn. By now, we are close enough that they could see us with the naked eye. I don't care how primitive their sensors are; if there is anyone on board watching, they must have seen us. I think we can conclude that nobody is watching, which would indicate that the ship is abandoned."

"Perhaps they simply do not wish to talk?"

"I suppose that is possible, but I would have expected to see some activity. This ship is just orbiting, day after day. I know we have insufficient data to be absolutely certain of our findings, but that is not going to change, unless we initiate some kind of interaction."

"We could wait for the council to send a first-contact team."

"And what would they do? The situation would still be the same. Normally I wouldn't advocate just rushing in, but we have been cautious so far and all we have for our trouble is silence. I think it is time we took the gamble."

Levarn blinked a few times, but apparently decided that either her argument had sufficient merit, or that further arguing was simply pointless.

"Very well, captain. How do you wish to proceed?"

"I suppose that depends on our options. Can our shuttle match with their airlock?"

Levarn took another look at the schematics.

"It should be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it, captain. It would probably take several attempts to match the docking collars and in the mean time anyone inside would be getting very nervous. Remember, we'd be docking right on top of their crew compartment."

"... and if someone panics we might walk straight into gun fire. Yes, I see your point. You prefer one of the cargo hatches?"

"Yes, There are several large cargo hatches at the rear of the cargo module. A shuttle would easily fit inside. We can land the shuttle straight away and proceed on foot inside the hatch. That way, if anyone is on board, it will take them some time to reach us, giving both sides time to prepare. Also, they can see us clearly, so we can show that we are not pointing weapons at them; and we can attempt direct communication, without electronics complicating things."

"Good point. We'll take the cargo hatch."

"You plan on going yourself, captain?"

"Yes, no offence Levarn, but when it comes to first-contact, we asari have a better track record than anyone else. I'll take our two science experts and a security detail. You will have command of the Light of Dawn. And, Levarn?"

"Yes, captain?"

"No rescue missions if we lose contact. We don't know what is going on aboard that ship. If something is wrong, I don't want us both walking into the same trap."

It took several hours to prepare for the boarding action. Then a shuttle, carrying captain Armali and five of her crew members launched from the Light of Dawn toward a rendez-vous with the unknown vessel.

At some distance from the Light of Dawn a small object floated through space in a wide orbit around the same planet. It neither emitted radiation, nor used any kind of active means to change its position. In short, to the casual observer it appeared to be no more than a small piece of space-debris. A lone asteroid perhaps hat had been caught in the gravity well of the planet.

A not-so-casual observer might have noticed that, although no active emissions emanated from the object, it featured a number of small antennae, as well as a smooth round opening, which, curiously enough, was permanently pointed toward the two ships that were now orbiting the planet.

Inside the object, subroutines that had been standing by, waiting for any change in the observed image, woke up and started registering data. It took only a handful of seconds to reach a conclusion:

Change == .true., Relevant == .true.

This in turn caused the main program running the object to activate another subroutine. This new subroutine was both smarter and dumber than the others. Smarter, in that it was more versatile, had more options, and more authority, to base its decisions on; but also dumber, because whereas the image analysis routines were very good at their, admittedly limited, tasks, the new subroutine was less skilled, more prone to making errors or not deciding at all. Still, a decision had to be made and the subroutine tried very hard to reach the correct one. It compared the images to the files in its library and cycled through a series of historical precedents. The answer was: inconclusive. Additional sensor data flowed in from other sensors, complicating the picture. If the subroutine had been able to, it would have been scratching its head, trying to make sense of all the information that was bombarding it. Still, within a few seconds, enough information had been collected that a new answer appeared. The subroutine closed its decision loop and returned that answer:

Change == .true., Relevant == .true., Immediate_response == .true.

The main program received the answer with what almost constituted an electronic sigh of relieve. Indecision was an awkward state for any computer program to be in. The program made a new call, this time to the hardware. On the surface a small, but powerful laser adjusted its aim, looking for point in the outer reaches of the star system. It fired a single pulse and waited for an answer. None came. The laser adjusted its aim again and fired a new pulse. This time, an answering pulse appeared after several minutes.

Connection == .true.

That was al the information the program needed. Within a fraction of a second the laser became active again, this time flickering rapidly as a compressed data stream was being fed through its control systems and sent off into the depths of space.