We had to stop the fleet, briefly, to refuel, using one of the stars along the way to fill our tanks, but after a few days of travel, we arrived. What we arrived at was a question, however, as the world was surrounded by ships of the same type as we'd seen, including everything from small scouts, to large warships, to massive transports. When we entered the system, we tried sending out hails, but the most we got back was a small diagram of the planet, with a place marked on it that had to be a port of some kind.

"All Wings, remain in orbit. I'm going to land now, and I want to try and appear peaceful, but if I have to bug out, you folks are my lifeline," I ordered.

"Confirmed Commodore, Bandit and I will keep everything together," said Joe, and I was grateful for the Hai woman as we began our descent. It was, if anything, the unknown ships moved out of the way, allowing me priority travel down to the surface, where I found a very unique port waiting for me. Rather than massive hangers, or huge stones, this port was kind of an outcropping on a cliff, and it took me only a few moments to see why as I made my way down, and finally looked at the things flying around.

"STAR, confirm for me. Those fliers, are they the ones loading and unloading the transports?" I asked, and the AI in an android body beside me nodded, holographic screens popping up all around me to show me the various avians moving around.

"Confirmed, they appear to be speaking as well, but the language is impossible to translate," he told me, letting me hear the speech a few times, which were odd gargles and the like. Probably a result of their beaks. With no lips, most of their sounds came from the throat directly, rather than being shaped by the lips.

"Atmosphere checks out, I'm going outside to see if they'll talk to me long enough to give you some kind of baseline," I told the AI, who had more than a dozen android bodies waiting for me by the time I got to the offloading ramp, all of which fanned out like some kind of silver skinned honor guard as I walked onto the stone. Around me, the wildly flying avians seemed almost oblivious for several moments, until a small contingent, about eight strong, landed. Their bodies, unlike their fellows, were covered not just with feathers, but with some kind of dye as well, probably signifying rank.

"Greetings, I am Sage, Commodore and leader of the fleet overhead," I said, and the avians looked at one another, squawking a few times, before one came forward. It made noises at me, that I had to assume were a greeting in a similar vain, then flared its wings out, allowing me to notice that it had arms on its front, with the wings growing out of the side, giving it a rather odd appearance. I made a motion I hoped showed I didn't understand what it was saying, and I saw a very human-like frustration cross its eyes, before it made another noise, this one more like a chittering sound.

"Commodore, I understood that," said a voice in my ear, Joe's, and I heard a shuffling of feet and hands as she did something in her cabin, a muffled voice coming through as she discussed something with STAR.

"Alright, let me try something, STAR, move one of the androids forward, and relay this message," she said, and one of my honor guard took a step, and then made a chittering sound almost exactly like hers. The avian looked at it, then at me, and then made more chittering sounds. For several minutes, the two conversed, before, in a rather defeated looking gesture, the avian took off again, their companions joining them.

"Well Joe?" I asked, looking after the welcoming party.

"I'm afraid the news isn't good, Sage. I could only understand about a tenth of what they were saying. It was Old Chitter, the Holy Tongue, and unfortunately, I don't know enough to hold a conversation. All I could do is tell them we weren't here to fight, something I think they already realized, considering they let us land," she admitted, and I stroked my chin in thought for a moment.

"What do you mean by, Holy Tongue?" I asked at last, as I boarded my ship, making my way back to the bridge.

"Old Chitter is the speech of priests and holy people, from which modern Chit arose. Most of our modern words have some equivalents, but not enough it appears," she told me, and I considered that for a moment.

"You mean your language has changed enough to be unrecognizable?" I asked, and before she could respond, one of STAR's other androids turned from their task and made several grunting noises at me.

"Huh?" was all I could think of to respond, and the droid seemed to laugh at me.

"Sorry, I said, 'Pot, meet kettle', in English, the language GalStandard evolved from," he informed me, and once again I had to pause to think on that, before barking out a laugh.

"So it is. Alright, it's not your fault Joe. Where would we find someone who speaks Old Chitter?" I asked as I returned to my bridge, and made ready to take off.

"Hai Home would be the only place I can think of. An old historian or maybe we'll get lucky and find a priest who wants to travel the stars?" she offered, and I chuckled at that, lifting off from the planet, and quickly rising to the fleet. Their fuel tanks were topped off by the local primary, and my own were thanks to the atmosphere dive, so we could easily reach the system at the edge of this species' space. Of course, we'd need to stop there, unless we wanted to land on an Unfettered world…