This Time WE Probed THEM...


Day 172 of Year 6936
Central Government Complex Level 54, Dalet City, Hivehom
High Councilor's Office

"It's definitely fully functional," Ziljinrytix said, studying the holo floating in the middle of the room. "Doctor Warden's team onboard the Threshold were able to remotely connect to the main computer and use the encryption keys they'd derived to download the full database and logs of the device. They found it was activated about two thousand years ago, and more interestingly last used only about nine years ago. The devices don't keep logs that identify individual ship types, so there's no data on who it was that used it, but they do log the last few hundred operations. The log shows that it seems to be accessed approximately every eleven years, plus or minus a small offset."

"Someone is making regular trips through it..." Menjeflikon slowly moved his antennae as he thought.

"Perhaps a patrol or survey of some sort, or is there an inhabited world in that system or a nearby one?" Ambassador Santhotuzex queried.

"They have so far scanned every system to a fifty light year radius and found no sign of intelligent life, nor any other planium traces," the old scientist replied with a motion of negation. "Of course it's possible that whoever is using the thing went further afield, but with the working assumption being that they are most likely restricted to a planium superluminal drive, that's already several days travel time out and back. The next system past that point is another forty six light years further, increasing the time to reach it considerably. They're working on the basis that there probably isn't a high likelihood of whoever this is bothering to go quite that far, although they'll check once they've removed the last terminal. Somewhat understandably the discovery of an active one made them drop everything else to investigate."

"Assuming that these mysterious users stick to the schedule they seem to be working with, at some point in roughly two years they're going to turn up again," High Councilor Kinzortifen, whose office they were in, commented thoughtfully. "I assume that our human friends have arranged to place that system under discreet surveillance with that in mind?"

"Yes, they're using much the same methods they did with us," Ziljinrytix responded, looking at her. "From a considerable distance, several light months from the system, at least partly because they are very worried about the interaction between energized planium and their technology. Luckily when they headed for this particular terminal they were able to determine that something was odd about it long before their probes reached a dangerous range, and were very cautious about approaching it more closely with the remote systems. I'm told that they've acquired some very useful data on planium in this state which was lacking, which will be passed along to us when they've finalized it."

"Good of them," she said with a flick of one antennae, sounding pleased.

"They are certainly living up to what we've come to expect," Santhotuzex chuckled. "As I've said, a closer relationship is not only desirable, but in my opinion inevitable. We're already practically working together unofficially as it is."

She glanced at him, looking amused. "We can't rush it, Santho. But I happen to suspect you're far more correct than I would have believed a few years ago."

"It would be worth moving ahead with the various programs we've discussed with them," he replied, indicating the holo with one true-hand. "In light of this discovery, I think that's more important than ever. We now have positive proof that there are other alien species out there, which are almost certainly using planium at least for their star drives. That could be problematic sooner or later, depending on who they are and how they operate. Combining forces with humanity is in both our best interests in the view of myself, the Academician here, and many others on both sides."

She studied him, then the holo, before looking at Menjeflikon, who made a gesture of mild agreement mixed with cautious optimism. "Perhaps you're right. Certainly we're seeing some impressive results from the initial meetings with our new friends, and I'm well aware that quite a few in the Science Council are somewhat more closely involved with the humans than one might have initially thought likely. Putting that on a more formal basis is probably going to make things simpler in the long run."

"We'll need to find a number of volunteers from both our side and the human side," Menjeflikon remarked.

Ziljinrytix laughed under his breath. "I can give you one name without even thinking very hard," he snickered, making the other three exchange looks, then sigh faintly.

"Oh, Great Mother save us from the Zex hive..." Menjeflikon muttered, his antennae drooping a little. "They're so… so… them."

Santhotuzex made a motion of considerable amusement and some sympathy. "Very true. However, they do have a remarkable tendency to be exactly what we need when circumstances get… strange."

"Mainly because they're all touched in the head," the Councilor for Science sighed. "Fine. Agreed. We'll need more than one overenthusiastic engineer, though."

"I doubt we'll have much trouble finding people," Ziljinrytix said. "I can give you half a dozen other names of people I know personally who would happily swim a lake to be involved. I expect that there will similarly be their counterparts among the humans. We can ask Ambassador Bowman for his opinion on this issue, then see where it leads us."

"I have a meeting with him later today," Santhotuzex added, giving the High Councilor a mildly hopeful look. She stared at him, then the holo for a few seconds, before flicking her left antenna.

"All right. Sound them out, make sure they're in agreement, then we can put it to the council for a vote. If we can reach consensus on it, we'll contact the IGCC."

"I've been wanting to visit their home world again," Santhotuzex said happily. "It's an interesting place."

She just looked at him, then pretended he hadn't said anything, which amused Ziljinrytix quite a lot.


November 2117
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Extrasystem Control Group

#The floor is yours, Ambassador Santhotuzex,# Athena said, while everyone present either virtually or actually watched the thranx group. Half a dozen of the aliens, who were becoming very familiar throughout the human worlds if only through the many news reports, documentaries, and random online speculations, were present for this meeting. Santhotuzex and his aide, along with his security detail, were joined by Ziljinrytix and another somewhat younger member of the Science Council, and all of them were sitting in the thranx chairs that had been thoughtfully provided. Next to them, Ambassador Bowman and his colleague Rachel Shepard, along with their own group, were listening carefully.

Santhotuzex stood and moved a little to the side so he could get a good view of the IGCC room and the dozens of humans and their AI friends who were looking at him. It was remarkably hard even for thranx eyes to distinguish between organic being and holoprojection, showing just how good their technology was. It was yet another thing for the list of possible technology trades, he mused as he looked around. The humans were very interested in many aspects of thranx gravity and inertial control tech, along with a lot of specialized engineering his species had designed, not to mention some of their rather more advanced knowledge of biological mainulation. Which wasn't to say that the humans lacked abilities in those areas, because they very much didn't. In the other direction, his people were desperately interested in the TBT drive itself, obviously, but also things that the humans took completely for granted these days, such as the n-link which was so far past the thranx data implant it was almost funny.

The level of expertise their new friends had in spintronics, incredibly advanced bio-mimetic cybernetics, and computing in general was also close to awe-inspiring, as could be seen by the number of AIs present both in physical bodies and via holo avatars. He'd met a lot of them over the last couple of years and was a long way past being impressed. The way they'd integrated into society with their organic counterparts was extraordinary, and if nothing else showed that it most certainly was possible for two intelligences with different origins to work together without friction and with both gaining immeasurably from the relationship. He wondered if that might explain how and why the humans had found his species so easy to deal with, having already in a sense met the alien among them years before…

Mind you, that didn't explain why it worked the other way around. Why and how their two species got along so well was still a subject of much research and probably would be for decades, but by now most people just accepted it as a fact and were more interested in seeing what happened next.

"Thank you, Athena, and thank you all for allowing me the honor of addressing you," he began with a careful bow, accompanied by high level gestures of respect. He knew that everyone in the room was more than well enough aware of thranx body language to pick up on the nuances, which combined with the essentially perfect real time translation made this sort of thing a lot easier than it could have been. A fair number of humans could understand low thranx even without the translation program running on their n-links these days, and he himself along with quite a lot of his own people were fluent in English, but neither species found speaking the other's language to be simple without technological aid. Even so, there were signs among the groups that worked closely together that a sort of hybrid language was slowly evolving which might turn out to be very useful.

"As my esteemed colleague and good friend Ambassador Bowman has just said, both our peoples would benefit from a more formalized and extensive arrangement combining our resources, initially for the ongoing study of the planium device network and planium itself, although in the longer term it seems entirely likely that many other opportunities would arise. There are a large number of trade opportunities as we've heard, the fulfillment of which would materially help everyone. Scientific research ranging from prosaic to esoteric would also benefit, and in many ways we're already engaged in that process, our respective experts having seized the opportunity to compare notes with alacrity regardless of the official status." He glanced at Ziljinrytix who was carefully not looking at him, although his antennae were set in an attitude of mild amusement.

"In essence we believe it is almost inevitable that as time passes, our two species will find ourselves growing closer and closer," he went on, looking back to the rest of the room and noticing that many of the humans looked pensive but understanding, and both Premier Clarke and Athena were smiling a little. "None of us expected this to happen, certainly as quickly as it appears to, and possibly at all, when we contemplated meeting another intelligence among the stars. However, it has happened, and my personal opinion for what it's worth is that we should consider ourselves privileged to be watching the start of something that may well have ramifications far beyond anything we can currently envisage. The burrow we dig today will be our home long after all of us are gone, so it's in our best interests to ensure the foundational work is done correctly, efficiently, and smoothly."

He paused, glancing about and assessing the mood of the humans present. The years of dealing with the diplomatic mission and the people he'd met as a result had left him far more able to do so than he'd have expected when he was first appointed, so he could easily see that they almost universally seemed interested and receptive.

"With that in mind, my government, following much discussion and a unanimous vote in favor, feels that we should proceed with the experimental exchange of volunteers, experts in many fields, to learn about each other at a level past that which can be achieved with our current diplomatic arrangement, as effective as it has so far proved to be. We don't lack for candidates on our side, and having spoken to many people on your side, I feel it's almost certainly true in the other direction." He waved his antennae a little, conveying good humor, and was pleased to see quite a lot of smiles and a couple of chuckles. "Obviously it will take much effort to pin down the exact parameters of how we would proceed, but agreeing to proceed would seem to be the logical first step. While I'm sure there will be occasional minor problems everyone currently involved believes the end goal is more than worth any initial difficulties. It's my hope that we can begin this process today, and with a modicum of luck find ourselves in a very interesting place in the next months and years."

Gesturing in respect again, he retook his seat.

"Thank you, Ambassador Santhotuzex," Premier Clarke said after a few seconds. The de-facto leader of the humans looked around, although Santhotuzex knew that he was also undoubtedly discussing the situation with many of the people present via their technological augmentations. He was mildly envious of that ability and briefly wondered how quickly a thranx version of an n-link could be designed.

It seemed likely that someone was already working on it, knowing the humans as he did. If they saw what they considered a problem, they couldn't help themselves, they'd start on a solution to it, even if it wasn't asked for… Not that he'd turn the opportunity down, of course.

"We've heard the proposal, from both the thranx point of view and our own," the man went on, addressing the chamber at large. "I understand there will be reservations, ideas for modifications, counter-proposals, and probably hours if not days of discussion. But I have little doubt that given the abilities of everyone here, we can come to an arrangement that everyone is happy with, and I personally feel that the time is right for such a thing to happen. As a species we have matured greatly in the last century, rising from our darkest hour to heights we would never have dreamed of only a few short decades ago. We managed to avoid extinction by a combination of good fortune and enormous sacrifice and are now in a position to ensure that nothing of such a nature can threaten our future again. Due to this, we have met and befriended another people, one with whom we share a huge number of values and goals, and achieved something our own species has dreamed of since before we even had language to describe it. We've taken the first steps on a long journey that will lead to places yet unknown. Let's continue that process and see where it takes us."

There was a brief pause when he stopped speaking then a ripple of approval, expressed in the manner the humans used with their hands. Santhotuzex dipped his head to Premier Clarke in respect, feeling that this was the beginning of something that was going to be absolutely fascinating.

And immensely entertaining.

Several weeks later, he was tired but very, very satisfied as he boarded the ship that would take him home again. They still had a lot of work to do, but the foundations had been dug.

Job satisfaction. It was a wonderful thing.


Day 221 of Year 6938
Central Government Complex Level 51, Dalet City, Hivehom
Science Councilor's Office

Almost vibrating with excitement, Leyzenzuzex tried to get himself under control. Stilling his twitching antennae with a massive effort, he took a few deep breaths and released them slowly, his spiracles hissing as he attempted a relaxation technique his grandfather had taught him years ago. 'Calm. Still waters, bucolic scenes of the country, other images that I can't be bothered to remember...' His mind was still whizzing along, but he was eventually able to bring his emotional state back to something closer to respectable.

When he was finally able to move without jerking from the suppressed feelings, he very carefully turned to the people waiting for him, who had politely been ignoring his state after the revelations of earlier. Even so he could tell from the set of their own antennae that they found it somewhat amusing. "Yes," he said. "I'd be extremely proud to volunteer."

Councilor Menjeflikon very carefully didn't show any visible signs he'd found Leyzen's reaction funny, but there was a certain dry tone to his voice that spoke volumes. "I suspected that would be the case," he replied. "Understand, Leyzenzuzex, this program is important. It has taken nearly two years of highly complex negotiations to get us to this point and we do not want it put at risk by… excessive enthusiasm."

"I understand, sir, really I do," Leyzen responded earnestly. "I've dreamed of something like this my entire life. When the humans rescued us like that… it was in a way the best moment of my existence, especially after we'd been contemplating what might have happened. And being allowed to be part of the diplomatic party was, and remains, a true privilege I can't really properly express my gratitude for." He paused for breath and a moment to calm down again. "I've learned so much from them. And made friends I never thought I would..." Trailing off for a moment, he finished with a complex gesture of respect. "To be allowed to continue as part of the exchange program is beyond my wildest dreams."

"You will be a long, long way from home for some time," the Councilor of Science remarked, glancing at Academician Ziljinrytix who was listening quietly. "While the Blink drive can easily return you at any point, we don't want to give the impression that our people give up easily, so we're hoping that you and the others will be able to handle being among aliens for possibly months at a time. It's something that may be difficult."

"I may be many things, sir, but I'm not a quitter," Leyzen said firmly with a confident tilt to his antenna. "I like the humans a lot, and they seem to like me. I also respect them. We may be better in some areas than they are but the same goes in the other direction. I firmly believe that our destinies are intertwined in ways we may not even be able to conceive of so soon after meeting for the first time. I think they do too, from what I've heard from them. They're good people, very intelligent, honest, and honorable, no matter what their history has buried in it. We have our own events we can't boast about too, and they don't care about that. Both our species can learn much from each other, and I'd be more than happy to be part of that learning process."

Both his seniors observed him silently for a while, then looked at each other. Ziljinrytix flicked one antenna, and made a motion with a true-hand. Menjeflikon looked back to Leyzen. "Well said. Possibly a little premature, but I can't deny that based on the time since the Rylix incident, we've made far more progress than I would ever have thought likely with an alien species. I suspect we may have been much luckier with who we met than we might have been, but until and unless we happen to encounter someone else, we probably won't know for certain."

"The humans think likewise," Ziljinrytix commented, sounding mildly amused. "They are as puzzled as we are about how compatible our two species are, both physically and mentally, despite the obvious differences. And they're very interested to see how this program works out, of course. It holds much promise of innumerable benefits for both of us, even past the revolution in technology we're beginning to see just from knowing what can be done. In a few years, or a few decades…?" He motioned indicating wordless anticipation.

"You'll be a representative of our species, and what you do and say will reflect on all of us, so please for the sake of good relations bear that in mind," Menjeflikon went on. "While some allowances will be made, for the most part you will also be subject to human regulations and laws, which while surprisingly compatible with our own, do differ in some key places. We'll be providing everyone who's part of this program with a large amount of documentation on how to behave, what you can do, what you can't do, and topics that need to be approached with caution. Our human counterparts have put in a lot of effort in conjunction with our own people to come up with a coherent set of… rules of engagement, in a sense… for this entire endeavor. Make sure you read everything, and if you have any questions, ask before you leave. Depending on where you end up, you'll probably find you can clarify any issues with your hosts if you're polite and respectful, as they're generally very approachable, but just like with us you'll occasionally meet someone who's just difficult to deal with. No one's perfect. Try to stay out of trouble if that happens."

"I always try to stay out of trouble, sir," Leyzen said earnestly and mostly honestly.

Menjeflikon gave him a look. "Yesss. I seem to recall hearing something remarkably similar to that from your grandfather, generally immediately before something very strange happened to someone in the vicinity…"

Leyzen did his best not to show any reaction, although the way Ziljinrytix's antennae twitched suggested he wasn't entirely successful.

"I wouldn't know anything about that, sir," he replied calmly.

"Of course not." The Councilor studied him for a moment more, then turned to his companion. "Are you sure about him?"

"He's even been tested, he'll be fine," Ziljinrytix commented with a faint laugh in his voice. Leyzen was still deliberately being as calm as possible but he was beginning to find the entire situation rather funny as well as unbelievably exciting and totally terrifying.

"I certainly hope so," Menjeflikon sighed. "Please don't let us down, Leyzenzuzex."

"I won't, sir. This is the most exciting thing I've ever even considered and there's no way I want to jeopardize it. I'll be good."

"Excellent. In that case, we'll be in touch shortly with more details. Once we've arranged everyone who's involved in phase one and exchanged information with the humans, we can see about working out who goes where at both ends. It will be at least forty days from now before we finish interviewing all the candidates, so you won't hear anything before then." He handed Leyzen a data crystal. "This is the documentation. I'd suggest you take the time to study it very carefully. There will be a test before we let you loose on the humans."

Leyzen put the crystal carefully away, resolving to read everything on it until he could recite it from memory while drunk. "Of course, Councilor. And thank you again for considering me for this program."

"Hopefully I can look back on this in a few years and say you're welcome, rather than what in the name of the Great Mother was I thinking," Menjeflikon said, although he looked fairly pleased.

Just before he was about to get up and leave, the interview clearly now being over, Leyzen had a thought and asked, "If I can… What's going to happen to my old ship? The Rylix was home for quite a while and it was a good vessel, leaving aside a minor drive issue..."

"The damage to the posigravity drive was too severe to repair without a complete rebuild, and the series three drives have been withdrawn from service in any case," Menjeflikon said after a moment's consideration of the question. "There was also some structural damage to the hull, mostly minor frame distortions, although that's repairable. Initially it was thought that the ship would be either stored for future use or decommissioned, but one of the outcomes of our negotiations with the humans is that they've agreed to lend us some TBT drive units and control systems. The Rylix will be the first recipient of one of these."

"Everyone is interested in seeing how well human drive technology interfaces with our ship designs, as in the long run we'll be making our own TBT drives, with or without human aid," Ziljinrytix put in, causing Leyzen to turn to him. "It was thought much simpler to do it this way rather than waiting for our own hardware to be designed and manufactured."

"I'm glad to hear the Rylix will return to service," Leyzen finally said, genuinely pleased. He missed his ship at times, even though the job had been largely routine. Right up until it abruptly wasn't, of course…

"And being the first thranx blink drive ship is good too," he added. "That will certainly make a big difference to cargo shipment times to Willow-Wane, which can only be good."

"That is certainly true, yes," the Councilor agreed.

"Thank you, sir. I'd better get out of your way now," Leyzen said, standing up. He made a gesture of deep respect and gratitude with all four hands. "I promise I won't let you down."

"When you next see him, give my respects to Ryozenzuzex," Menjeflikon replied.

"I will, sir. Good bye for now."

When he left the room and had made his way to a place sufficiently far away that it was private, Leyzen nearly collapsed in the weirdest mixture of terror, excitement, anticipation, more terror, happiness, and finally disbelief, that he'd ever felt in his life. It took him several time periods to recover enough to stand up and head home and his mind was furiously busy the entire journey.

But when he finally fell asleep that night, he was in a very happy place indeed.


October 2119
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Corridor 4N

"Good morning, Doctor Warden." John turned at the sound of a familiar slightly whispery voice coming from behind him, then smiled.

"Ambassador Santhotuzex, it's a pleasure. I didn't realize you were on Earth again."

The thranx ambassador, accompanied by the pair of bodyguards that followed him everywhere very discreetly, made a motion signifying acceptance and amusement. "My job takes me back and forth these days. My counterpart is currently on Hivehom deep in discussion with our High Council, finalizing the details of the exchange program."

"I've been following that process with interest," John replied, resuming his slow walk towards one of the better cafeterias in the massive IGCC complex, which had grown hugely since he'd first visited it so many years ago. "I have high hopes for it."

"As do we," Santhotuzex remarked as he fell into step next to John, his four legs moving rapidly in a gait that was still slightly odd to see from a human point of view. "We've selected all our candidates and ensured that they understand the situation fully. Your people are nearly finished with their own selections. We should be in a position to begin within a month at most."

"Sounds good," John nodded. "It'll be fascinating to see how it works out."

"Indeed. If I might ask, how is your own research proceeding?"

"Very well, thank you." John glanced down at his companion for the moment. "We've more or less fully reverse engineered the planium devices now, and could easily make one if we were crazy enough to want to. We've also got far, far more planium safely separated from the units we've disassembled than anyone is happy thinking about. There's been some consideration towards destroying it just to be safe, but it's possibly it might come in useful eventually so we're just making sure it's stashed somewhere an awfully long way away from anything breakable."

Santhotuzex made a sound that was very close to a human laugh, his antennae moving in a way that John could tell showed he thought the comment funny even without the benefit of the translation overlay. "I'm not sure how it would be useful, but I can appreciate the sentiment," he replied. "While being grateful it's many thousands of light years away. I would prefer it to stay there."

"Everyone would," John agreed, glancing over his shoulder at the two security thranx, who seemed to believe the same thing if he was any judge. Returning his attention to Santhotuzex, he added, "We're also steadily moving terminals out of the galaxy. We've got about eighty percent of the ones in our sector so far, and the rest won't take more than another year at most."

"I assume that no other active units have been found?"

"No. As far as we can tell, no one has used any terminal in this part of the galaxy for a minimum of some fifty three thousand years, and in most cases far longer. All the logs we've so far extracted show that the majority of the terminals were last activated between forty and two hundred and sixty million years ago. It would appear that our sector of space either hasn't had many visitors for a very long time indeed, or they didn't use the network just as we don't."

"Intriguing," the ambassador remarked quietly with a gesture of curiosity. "Considering that we now know that other parts of the network are in active use, I wonder why this particular part of space is apparently ignored?"

"We don't know. There are a lot of questions still remaining about the entire thing, the biggest ones being who made it and why," John shrugged. "With any luck we'll eventually work all that out, but it's probably not going to be soon or easy to do."

"Has any sign of who is using the network been found yet?"

"Not that I've heard, no." John shook his head as they arrived at the cafeteria. "Would you and your people like to join me?"

Santhotuzex glanced into the room, then at his guards, before nodding, a gesture the thranx that dealt with humans a lot seemed to have picked up. "Certainly, I find human food to be quite interesting."

It didn't take long for all of them to acquire food and drink, the cafeteria even having a supply of thranx drinking bulbs on hand, which mildly surprised John although considering how many times the diplomatic parties had visited in the last couple of years it probably shouldn't have done. When they were arranged around a table, the three thranx improvising some seating from a pair of normal chairs each, he sipped his coffee, then resumed their conversation. "IGCC policy at the moment is to be very careful indeed about actively exploring locations where we know the terminal network may be in use. IS is poking around at a safe distance and so far they've found four more active terminals but they haven't entered the systems in question out of an abundance of caution. No ships have been detected using the network the last I checked, but if we're actually on the outskirts of whatever civilization is involved in terminal travel, that's not necessarily surprising."

"Or it could be that no one is currently utilizing the network, although they were fairly recently," the ambassador commented, inspecting his fruit juice with interest before trying it, then looking satisfied. "Excellent, I haven't had… guava, is it?"

"Yes. It's quite good."

"I'll have to remember this." Santhotuzex took another sip and made a slight whistle of appreciation. "Very good indeed. But yes, it might well be that whoever was using the network terminals so far located isn't doing so any more, although with the most recent transport on the first one found only some ten years or so in the past, that seems unlikely. So your idea that we're simply off the beaten path, as the human expression has it, may well be correct."

"Based on those particular logs, if whoever it is sticks to their schedule, we expect to see them come through sometime in the next month or so, which would prove that nicely," John pointed out, before taking a bite from his apple. Having swallowed it, he grinned a little. "Their reaction to finding the other terminal missing might be interesting, assuming they both know about it and bother to look."

Santhotuzex made a thranx chuckle, the sound quite different from a human laugh but one that was familiar to the scientist. "Yes, it could show a number of useful data points on how they work depending on what happens. We shall have to wait and see."

He paused, then continued, "On a rather different matter, I wanted to ask you something, so meeting you was quite fortuitous."

"Ask away, Ambassador," John invited, curious to know what the other person was after. Santhotuzex if anything seemed mildly embarrassed.

"The exchange program is very important to all of us, and we all want it to go as smoothly as possible," the thranx began, his antennae moving in a manner showing slight worry. "On balance I believe this will happen. There is much to gain from it, and I expect that although there are bound to be occasional oddities and minor issues, I have no doubt that these can be overcome."

"I'd like to think so, sir," John nodded. "We all want the same thing and everyone has been pleased how easily it's fallen into place, even though it's taken a lot of work, from what I've been told."

"Indeed. But even so, there is... some potential for problems in a few cases. Bearing in mind the type of person who would volunteer for the task to begin with, we'll inevitably find that a few of them are..." Santhotuzex paused, clearly trying to work out how to word the next part.

"Possibly a little too invested in meeting aliens?" John smiled.

"Yes. A good way to put it."

"You have someone particular in mind, I suspect."

There was a faint whistling sigh. "Again, yes. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not suggesting the person I'm thinking about is in any way wrong for the job before him. In almost every respect he's a perfect fit, he's highly intelligent, well trained, pleasant to deal with, and so on. But he's also… at times, his sense of humor is a little… unconventional, shall we say. This has led to some somewhat regrettable incidents in the past. It runs in the family."

John studied him, then looked at the two bodyguards, who were quietly listening while sipping bulbs of coffee, something the thranx seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Returning his attention to the ambassador, he replied, "I recall more than one of Captain Bertels's reports mentioned a certain Leyzenzuzex, who is if I'm correct a distant relation of yours? Grandson of your first superluminal test pilot, and someone who has made quite the impression on the crew of the We Come In Peace..."

Santhotuzex made a gesture that was almost a shrug, and tilted his head slightly. "Leyzenzuzex is an exceptional engineer and thoroughly fascinated by your species, and the concept of alien life in general. The rescue of the Rylix left an impression on him, as indeed it did on the entire crew, and he was… very pleased indeed… to be offered the opportunity to volunteer for this program. Please don't misapprehend me, he is a perfect fit for the task and I have no doubt whatsoever that he will excel at it. I am merely mildly concerned that his personality might be slightly overwhelming for some humans until they get to know him properly, once he gets over his amazement at the entire thing. He's… talkative."

He thought for a second, then added, "Very talkative."

John snickered. "I get the idea. I've known a lot of people like that myself. I was one, for that matter, although with age comes a certain amount of dignity."

Santhotuzex tilted his head the other way, the light sparkling on his enormous compound eyes. There was a certain air about him that suggested he wasn't entirely convinced but was too polite to mention it. "As you say," he remarked dryly. "But one needs to reach that age, of course."

"One does." John finished his apple, then nodded. "So we need to match him up with someone who can handle an overenthusiastic engineer."

"Quite. I was thinking about that minor conundrum and recalled hearing about a certain crew you would be very familiar with, who by what I've learned might be exactly what we are looking for..."

"Oh, lord. I was worried you were leading up to that," John moaned, causing Santhotuzex to appear amused. "You do realize that we may look back on this in a few years and think, 'I know exactly when things began to go horribly wrong...'"

They looked at each other, then both laughed. "All right. I'll mention it to them. The decision is theirs, but if they're interested, it will either be the ideal place for your fellow, or the beginning of the end times."

"Thank you, Doctor. I didn't want to officially suggest it until I'd talked to you," the ambassador replied, sounding pleased. "I wouldn't want anyone to think that I was playing favorites due to family connections, but Leyzenzuzex is someone we're watching for a number of reasons and we want to make sure everything goes as well as we can arrange. That was one of many problems I need to forestall before they happen."

Lifting his coffee cup, John saluted the thranx with it. "What could possibly go wrong?" he quipped, making Santhotuzex chuckle and his bodyguards to exchange looks and wave their antennae a little in what looked like slightly worried amusement.

"I have little doubt we'll find out eventually," the ambassador replied. "That does tend to be the way life works."

When, some while later, John went home, he spent a while thinking while watching his wife work, before sighing faintly and placing an n-link call that he hoped everyone wasn't going to blame him for in the long run.


November 2119
5.2 light years from HD291789, M2V red dwarf star with active planium device
Onboard CCF scout ship
What's All This Then

"The terminal is activating, sir!"

Lieutenant Dave Harris, commander of the relatively tiny scout ship, jolted upright in his chair as the science officer made his announcement. His small crew, consisting of five humans and two AIs, all quickly connected to the heavily shielded and instrumented probe that was innocently following the distant planium device around its star more than five light years from their current position, disguised as a very small asteroid.

#Inbound connection established to upstream node… handshake complete, new reference frame applied… inbound ship inserted into FTL conduit…,# Hal, the AI who ran most of the ship systems when he wasn't cheating at poker, calmly said as he monitored the device computer system. #Transit completed, ship exiting conduit, link disconnected from upstream node. Whoever they are, they're now in the system.#

"Do we have a visual yet?" Harris asked.

#Working on it, I'm just making sure they're not going to detect the probe…# Everyone waited for a few seconds as Hal did his thing. #OK, that's got it. No signs they've spotted our equipment.# All of them studied the high resolution imagery that was now visible, while passive instrumentation scanned for anything interesting. The new arrival was a graceful looking thing, made of smooth curves that melded together into a coherent whole showing considerable design expertise. It was close to six times their size, at some five hundred meters long, a little larger than a typical thranx cargo ship, although obviously massing considerably less even though the readings showed the hull was much thicker than one would have expected. The hull metal was only a titanium alloy, though, and while nicely shaped not particularly advanced.

"They're definitely using a planium superluminal drive system, the crazy bastards," one of the two engineering crew commented, sounding horrified. "Scans show that ship is absolutely loaded with the fucking stuff. Must be at least fifty kilos in the rear section, that'll be their drive I'd guess, but we're tracking smaller amounts all over the damn thing. Anywhere from a few grams of it down to milligram amounts."

"It's worse than that, Mike," Akemi, the other AI on board, who was also the other member of the engineering team and preferred to remain embodied, said with a distinct sound of unease in her voice. Everyone looked at her. "A lot of the smaller traces are moving around. The movement profile matched a lot better than I'd like to people wandering around the ship. I think they're actually carrying planium around with them."

"Holy shit," Mike breathed. "Actually on their bodies? Are they insane?"

"It's difficult to tell without using active scans whether such small amounts are energized or not, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest they're using it in hand held technology of some sort," she replied after a couple of seconds, shaking her head in wonder. "Probably as a power source, I'd think."

"I'm not sure I'd want to be carrying a multi-kiloton-yield battery in my pocket," Dave commented with a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach. "And I sure as hell wouldn't want to have fifty kilos of planium only a few hundred meters away..."

#Well, if nothing else we've answered a number of questions we've had for a long time," Hal said. #We know the terminal network is definitely being used at the present time, we know the people traveling through it are exploiting planium for superluminal travel, and we're pretty certain they're also working with planium based technology on a much wider scale, as terrifying as that is to contemplate.#

"If they do that on a wide scale, their entire planet would be hopelessly contaminated with the damn stuff after a few decades or so, unless they were ridiculously careful about handling it," Mike pointed out. "And if they were that careful they probably wouldn't be using it on a wide scale. Leaving aside the destabilization problem it's also very toxic."

"It might not be to them, of course." Akemi shrugged a little.

He didn't look convinced. "Yeah, maybe, but from what I've studied on it I think it's probably going to be toxic to anything living."

#They're scanning the system now,# Hal reported a moment later. #Radar, some sort of lidar system in the UV range, and they deployed some automated probes. Seems like a routine survey rather than because they're looking for something in particular, based on the scan pattern.#

"That would fit with the apparently scheduled nature of their arrival," Gregor, their science officer, remarked. He was very carefully watching their own scans as they watched the alien vessel go about its business. "They might be an equivalent to us, from some sort of exploration or surveillance group."

"Possible, definitely," Dave nodded. They kept watching the ship work for a couple of hours, logging everything they could about it with passive instrumentation, and learning quite a lot about how this new species designed their hardware. The vessel was clearly armed, with some sort of projectile cannon running down the middle, and what appeared to be a rather underwhelming laser-based CIWS for point defense, but at the same time didn't give off the feeling of being an actual warship. The implications were slightly worrying. If the aliens felt the need to have an armed, and by the readings, quite heavily armored, survey or research ship there was presumably a reason for it, and the most likely reason was someone else who might take a shot at them.

"I wonder if these guys are the Promethians?" Akemi asked after some time.

"I doubt it, the design of that ship is completely different to the stuff that was found in the Mars base," Mike replied, shaking his head. "Totally separate design ethos. Sure, fifty thousand years is a long time and they might have changed, but it doesn't really fit. If nothing else I'd have expected someone who was able to do interstellar travel fifty thousand years ago to be a lot more advanced by now, and to be honest that thing doesn't seem all that high tech to me. No sign at all of spintronics, for example, only some form of quantum computer that's not even as good as the stuff from Mars and that was sixty years behind what we were producing then."

"Valid points," she nodded thoughtfully.

The alien ship kept poking around in the system for another six hours while they made regular reports on their observations to IS headquarters, then finally it recalled its drones and began moving, the fusion torch lighting off with a brilliant white glow. "Accelerating at approximately fifteen g," Gregor observed. "They've got some sort of inertial reference frame compensation but it's not reading as being all that effective. That may be their maximum thrust, or close to it."

"Wow." Mike shook his head in wonder. "I could run faster than that..."

"In your dreams… hold on, what..." Gregor stopped abruptly, then said, "Huh. So that's what a planium FTL drive looks like when someone uses it."

All of them stared as the distant ship suddenly accelerated at a ferocious rate while space in the close proximity of it went slightly strange, a blue glow surrounding the vessel. It went right through the speed of light in mere seconds, and kept going, instantly disappearing from conventional instruments. #Tracking a superluminal distortion in real space heading directly towards the HD287134 system,# Hal stated. #They've topped out at just under twelve lights per day. I'm… not impressed.#

"Even the second gen thranx drives were better than that, and nothing like as dangerous," Dave chuckled. "All right. Let's report back again, then go and set up some more probes for when they finally turn up. It'll be interesting to see what they do when they can't find the terminal. We could learn a lot about them, especially if we can tap their comms. Let's see if we can get some passive probes close enough for that."

Soon, they'd finished logging their report, and the ship silently disappeared from its former position, covering in microseconds a distance the alien vessel they were shadowing would take the larger part of a day to do.


December 2119
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Extrasystem Control Group

"The alien vessel spent nearly a week running a spiral search pattern out to just over half a light year from the HD287134 system after discovering the terminal there was missing. From their initial reactions they clearly expected to find it, and were extremely surprised to find it gone." General LeBatelier appeared slightly amused by this. "Our own people were able to get some passive probes on their hull and monitor internal ship communications, although they judged it too risky to attemt to interface to the alien computers. We have to assume the aliens aren't stupid and most likely have plenty of protections on their systems, which means someone would almost certainly have noticed any unauthorized access. They probably wouldn't find the probes, the things are practically dust, unless they swept the hull extremely carefully but there's no point pushing our luck."

He brought up another display, replacing the holo that had shown the path the unknown species had taken while searching for the now-dismantled planium device with one illustrating the alien ship. "Their ship design is interesting on a number of points. The hull is absurdly thick, far more than required unless it's intended to either act as armor against weapons fire, or is likely to undergo significant stress. The terminal transportation network is theorized to apply considerable loads to a ship entering the FTL corridor, but nothing anywhere near bad enough to require such heavy construction, so that's unlikely to be the primary reason for the hull being as thick as it is."

The image rotated as he spoke, various subsystems being highlighted with data for each appearing. "The presence of weapons, including this longitudinally mounted mass accelerator that runs most of the length of the vessel and is clearly intended for long range attack, along with a laser-based CIWS network obviously meant for defensive use, strongly suggests that the main reason for the armored hull is as an armored hull. Even so, our analysis shows that this is unlikely to be designed as a purely military vessel for many reasons which are detailed in the report from the R and D division. It would seem to be more along the lines of a heavily armed survey class ship, which is backed up by the sheer number of sensory systems we found. Far more than would be necessary for most military uses but well in line with what one would expect on a scientific vessel."

"The drive system appears to be using energized planium for both power generation and superluminal travel, as was originally proposed as possible by Doctor Warden's group a considerable time ago. Main propulsion at subluminal velocities is a fusion torch with nothing particularly unusual about it as far as we could see aside from having rather low output compared to ours, which is likely due to the lack of full inertic compensation. The maximum FTL speed observed was approximately eleven point eight nine light years per day, somewhat lower than our theory shows should be possible, but of course we don't know if they were going flat out or not. Regardless, we're sure the upper limit is at best roughly twenty light years per day even with the most advanced possible drive based on planium, as it simply won't allow anything faster. The drive is using slightly over fifty kilograms of planium in the main system here, while there is another two hundred and six grams spread throughout what we believe is their engineering section in this zone back here, presumably used as backup power supplies and in various support equipment."

There were a lot of people looking very worried at that point, he absently noticed as he glanced around at his audience, which included both the aforementioned Doctor Warden and a number of his current team, and a group from the Thranx Science Council headed by the highly respected Academician Ziljinrytix. No one said anything as he went on.

"However, there is a more alarming discovery, which is that their technology also uses planium for more purposes that we would have expected, as far as can be determined mostly for a power source. The survey crew noticed almost immediately that there were a number of moving planium traces, which they realized would map very well to individual users moving about their ship. This is useful, as it lets us estimate the number of crew on board as approximately one hundred and thirty, but also more than a little disturbing as it shows not only that each of them is carrying around the equivalent of a very large fusion weapon, but that planium use in their society is likely sufficiently widespread that their world may be contaminated with it to a level that would defy any plausible method to clean it up." Overlaying the full record of planium locations detected inside the alien ship, he showed how the entire thing lit up with literally hundreds of separate readings.

"Another thing that we noticed was this section highlighted near the middle of the vessel, which shows a lot of planium sources arranged in a manner that is strongly reminiscent of something along the lines of an armory. Assuming that is the correct interpretation, it suggests that they have weaponized planium as well. Since we know they can't be using WIMP technology in any manner, they're probably making use of it both again as a compact high density power source, and in some manner simultaneously leveraging the way it can do odd things to perceived mass. One suggestion is that it's possibly they could be exploiting a mass-reduction effect in a linear accelerator, producing something similar to a rail-gun only not employing magnetic fields. We're still researching the implications and possible strengths and limitations of that type of weapon."

#Presumably the main gun would be a much larger version of the same thing,# Athena suggested, the AI looking very interested.

The general nodded. "We believe so. Passive scans are limited in the resolution of the data they produce but there's evidence of superconducting magnetic coils in the large cannon. They're not as large as one would expect for a gun that big, so bearing in mind the planium we can detect near it, that seems the most likely explanation. It could allow some moderately impressive muzzle velocities although nothing particularly spectacular according to our experts. Probably a few thousand to perhaps a couple of tens of thousand kilometers per second at best. The muzzle diameter isn't large enough to imply a round of more than perhaps fifty kilograms even if they used depleted uranium. There were also no traces of fissionables on board, so they would appear not to be using fusion warheads either. It's basically firing solid projectiles."

#So they're essentially throwing rocks...# she commented with a slight smile.

"Very hard very fast rocks, but yes, it's not a high tech weapon in some ways," he agreed with a smile of his own. "Easy enough to avoid except at point blank range too, and the cyclic rate is quite likely fairly low. It wouldn't be something you'd want to get hit by, but at the same time it's slow enough that we could simply move out of the way. We can't find any evidence of energy weapons other than the CIWS network which uses reasonably powerful UV lasers. The range would be quite short due to the wavelength and our estimates for power output are in the low megawatt range, most likely pulsed fire. They'd be effective enough against something like a small fighter ship if they use such things, but only at close range in combat terms. We don't know how good their targeting systems are, so their efficacy against missiles is unknown. They'd do nothing useful at all against thranx standard hull metal, and almost nothing to our own cerametals. Maybe ablate the outer layers a little after a while, but that would buff out."

There was a slight ripple of laughter and the thranx present wiggled their antennae with amusement.

After a moment he continued, bringing up another diagram, "Another thing that was found was that there is a very slight inertic distortion around the hull. Doctor Warden and Academician Ziljinrytix have suggested that the current understanding of planium technology may allow for a form of shielding to be produced, which these readings could be a manifestation of. This would in theory act as an inertial barrier to kinetic energy, probably only above a specific velocity. Certainly the passive probes didn't have any difficulty with it, but their relative velocity was very low to prevent detection. If this is in fact the case we assume it is a defense designed to deal with incoming rounds from a weapon in the same class as the one mounted to the ship, which would seem the logical conclusion. It would have no effect on energy weapons, and little on particle beams or directed plasma, perhaps reducing the impact by a few percent but nothing more than that."

"It might be the case that a genuine military craft would have far more powerful weapons and effective defenses," Lord Alamo, somewhat unexpectedly, put in. Everyone looked at him, making him seem momentarily slightly embarrassed but he rallied well. "It makes sense to me. If this is only a scout of some sort, it's not necessarily going to have top of the line milspec weapons, is it? You'd probably reserve those for something more serious. That thing is probably armed well enough to handle criminals and pirates or something of that nature, rather than take part in real combat. It's possible they have much more powerful weapons that are fitted to their actual warships."

#Lord Alamo has a point,# Minerva, the IS AI, commented. #Assuming that they do in fact have actual warships. It's possible that this class of vessel is as heavily armed as they get. We don't have enough evidence to be sure one way or the other. However, if they do have ships designed specifically as destroyers, or missile carriers, or some other form of military configuration, I would think that those would be where the heavy weapons were.# Lord Alamo nodded to her, as her avatar glanced at him with a slightly approving look.

"My point exactly. Drawing conclusions from one example of a ship when we don't have any real data on what that class of ship is intended for could lead us to underestimate them considerably."

"Agreed, your lordship," General LeBatelier said with a nod. "We're not assuming that this is the limit of their weaponry for exactly those reasons. They may indeed have far more powerful systems. However, even this one example does tell us a lot about how they're likely to approach military objectives, at least the general types of weapons they'd employ, and quite a number of other useful things. The main one being, of course, that they use planium with a level of ease that suggest both that they've been doing it for a long time and that they haven't got the first clue about how dangerous the hellish stuff really is. Which in turn tells us fairly conclusively that they can't have any understanding of even basic WIMP theory from a practical technological standpoint or they might well not still exist."

He looked around at his audience, many of whom he could see had already come to the same conclusion the scientists had. For the benefit of the record and those who hadn't worked it out, he went on, "If a species that was routinely using planium in their technology happened to try experimenting with something even as primitive by today's standards as Doctor Warden's original equipment that led to the TBT drive, any planium within a couple of hundred kilometers would have destabilized the moment they turned it on. Based only on that ship, if we assume that most people would be carrying the same sort of equipment in their day to day lives, well..." He shrugged. "I'd be shocked if the explosion was less than something in the multiple gigaton range. And they might never even figure out what happened, assuming anyone survived in the first place."

"Planium technology and WIMP technology are completely incompatible at a very fundamental level," Ziljinrytix remarked, sounding uneasy. "Even with shielding, I would be extremely hesitant to approach anyone carrying any of the equipment present on that ship more closely than a thousand kilometers or so. Just in case." He made a gesture signifying worry. "The more concerning aspect of widespread planium use in a population is that it's entirely possible there could be biological contamination from industrial incidents and losses. Both our species have enough examples from our own pasts to recognize how easily traces of such things as heavy metals and synthetic chemicals can end up in the food chain, or the general environment. The survey team already came to that conclusion, of course. I'm more worried that it may well be the case that individual members of that species have microgram quantities of planium in their bodies. In such small amounts the toxicity might not be a problem, but a microgram of planium is still a vast explosion waiting to happen."

#And removing it would be extremely difficult,# Athena added, her face showing deep thought and some concern. #Not impossible, but for a population of millions or billions, prohibitively time consuming. Not to mention risky.#

"From what you're saying it sounds like we'd have a number of nearly insurmountable problems making contact with these people," one of the EA security directors commented.

"That is sadly true, yes, sir," LeBatelier replied with a nod. "The overall consensus, from both a military and scientific viewpoint, is that we don't really think it's sensible to risk contact with them, at least for now. We should learn all we can about them, of course, as we did with our neighbors the thranx, since it's always possible that in the future there would be a good reason to contact them, and some safe way found to do so. But at the moment it seems far too hazardous from both our point of view and theirs. From a military perspective they present no threat, as they're far enough away at the closest that they'd have several years worth of FTL travel to come anywhere near us without using the terminals, and it's not impossible their ships aren't in fact designed for that mission duration in the first place. With the speed and simplicity of using the transport network, there might not be sufficient need to make them able to function outside the network for that length of time as far as they're concerned."

Switching back to the initial data on the alien ship, he gestured at it. "Leaving aside the fact that we could simply leave even if by some remote chance we did end up in a conflict with them, with no real way they could follow us, stop us, or even work out where we went, a craft of that nature isn't a threat either. The obvious flaw is that we could pop it like a balloon from the other side of a star system with a WIMP beam. Even ignoring that, a twenty gigawatt-class gamma mining laser would slice it up like salami from a million kilometers away. One of the big thranx ones would vaporize it completely. And we have a lot of other weapons on the drawing board that could easily be brought into production if required. Not that I for a moment think we are likely to get into a fight with them, or anyone else if we can avoid it, but we do have the ability to utterly ruin someone's day without much in the way of effort."

He shook his head with a somewhat rueful smile. "Hell, we could bomb them out of existence from here without even using ships, anywhere in the galaxy. And that's not even considering some of the really wild ideas the weapons division has come up with over the years. But my point is that they're not a threat to us at all. We can see them coming and just not be there when they turn up, after all. We're far more of a threat to them, but mostly by an accident of fate. Our technology makes theirs go bang in a serious way. We should arrange to stay well away from them for their sake."

Premier Clarke, who was looking thoughtful and troubled in equal quantity, asked, "What else did your people learn about them aside from the technology they were using? Do we know anything about them as a species, like where they come from, what they were doing, and that sort of thing?"

The general turned to him. "Not as much as we'd like. We recorded a couple of hundred hours of internal communications and a lot of sensor data that could be tapped without risking detection. That's given us a start on their language, again using the same basic methods we did in the Hivehom system, but we'll need more information to come up with a good translation overlay. We've also got a fair amount of internal camera footage from what appears to be a security system." The holo changed as he spoke to show several windows with views from inside the ship. "We corrected for the odd viewpoints, and the internal lighting, which is rather more biased towards blue than ours tends to be."

The aliens moving around in the images were tall, very slender, and somewhat reptilian in appearance, with attenuated skulls that swept back into a pair of hornlike protrusions towards the rear. They had large eyes, and their overall skin color seemed to mostly be blue-gray, although a couple were shades of red, and one a rather vivid green. They were shown working on a large number of projected holographic displays which appeared to be interactive, and seemed to be quite worked up about something, probably the lack of a terminal where there should have been one. Several of them were arguing around one particular display that showed what seemed to be a star map with a lot of data displayed on it in an odd script.

"They're really not at all bad at computing, although not having spintronic tech limits them," LeBatelier remarked after everyone had had a chance to watch for a little while. "They know their stuff from what we can see. Definitely very intelligent and technologically adept. Their sensory equipment is top notch too, within its class. The ship was clearly meant to be low-observability and has a number of features that would seem intended to work as stealth mechanisms against specific detection methods such as radar, optical, and similar. Not all of them were running at the time but we could identify the hardware. It's another data point that suggests a surveillance role rather than a combat one, although it might be useful for sneaking up on an enemy. Of course, to a WIMP detector, the planium sticks out like a magnesium flare."

#They certainly have very fast reactions based on their movements,# Athena said. #That may point to a high metabolic rate. The physical form possibly indicates a slightly lower gravity than Earth or Hivehom.#

"We can infer a number of things from the images and other data but it's difficult to draw firm conclusions without more in depth study," Ziljinrytix put in, studying the holo with interest. "I would be fascinated to examine one of them, but I doubt that is likely to happen for many reasons."

"As far as where they come from, we're not sure. We did contemplate following them, which would be simple enough since we have the network mapped out fully now, but it was thought best to put the idea to the IGCC and ask for advice, and discuss it with the thranx too. Do we want to risk digging into this any more? We know they're out there, we know the direction this lot went, and as a result we have a fairly good idea of the general area they'll have ended up in. It's a very long way past our sector, which they probably have no practical way of entering. The galaxy is a big place, there's plenty of room for everyone, and even with humans and thranx working on it together it would take us centuries to explore just our corner of it." LeBatelier shook his head slightly. "We'll be cleaning out all the traces of planium for a long time, even once we've moved all the terminals to the storage area. It might be best if we just avoid them."

IS Director Anderson cleared his throat, then said, "In my view we should learn all we can about them, if only so we can make sure we stay out of their way. If they are indeed restricted to a fairly small radius around a terminal, they're only going to be occupying a small fraction a percent of the galaxy at best even if they use every other terminal in the network. As you said, the galaxy is a very large place. Thirty-five hundred spherical zones say fifty light-years in radius is hardly even noticeable in the volume of the entire thing. If we find out all the places they are we can just go around them once we expand out past our current zone. Admittedly that's likely to take a long time, but it's best to be prepared."

#A valid argument,# Athena agreed.

"On the other hand, by the time we need to expand outside our sector, we'll have a much higher tech level anyway, and we could always just go to Andromeda or something rather than risk conflict with these guys," Lord Alamo pointed out, making everyone look at him again in mild shock. Two reasonable comments in a row? Perhaps he was ill...

#Also a valid argument, yes,# the IGCC AI smiled. #I'd like to point out that we're currently assuming that these people are the only ones using the network, but that may not be a sensible assumption. As in our case, it's quite possible that there are more than one intelligent space-faring species working together. Or even in conflict with one another, since that ship was after all fairly well armed. My opinion is that it's probably sensible to gather at least a minimum amount of information on how many species are using the network now that we know it's in use, and what their relative alignments towards each other are. We don't have to put all our resources into the task, but we could learn something useful. Even if all we end up with is a translation overlay and some data on who they are and where they live, that would be something that might well be helpful at some point.#

Professor Vroland, who was linked in virtually from his office in New Zealand, said, "I agree with Athena, I believe it would be sensible to find out more about these people and any allies and opponents they might have, both out of scientific interest and as a matter of possibly future political requirements. While Lord Alamo does have a point, I think in this case it's outweighed by the need to be sure of what we're dealing with. We have very little information on them and could easily end up underestimating them as a result, leading to undesirable consequences at some later date. That said, I would agree with both him and General LeBatelier that making actual contact with this species, or any other using planium, is probably best avoided. At least until such time as we can be one hundred percent certain that our shielding technology is completely reliable even in the presence of energized planium." He shook his head slowly. "The possibility of a disaster that dwarfs anything we've ever seen is enough to give me nightmares."

"Although we're only observers as far as your decision goes, and can't speak for our own government, the Science Council is in broad agreement with Professor Vroland and Athena," Academician Ziljinrytix added, his companions indicating assent. "The chance to learn more about another sapient species is a valuable one, provided it can be done with no risk to them or the people doing the research."

Premier Clarke looked around the room, as did LeBatelier, most of the representatives present appearing to feel that this was a reasonable path to take. "All right, then, we would seem to have two choices at this point. One is to avoid any risk and stay well out of the way of our most recent acquaintances, the other is to very cautiously investigate while staying below their radar. Can anyone see any other direction we could or should go in regard to this current development?"

A few suggestions were made over the next fifteen minutes but ultimately each of the boiled down to a minor variation on one of the two possible approaches. Finally, Athena said, #A vote on which of the options discussed should be followed has been called for. Please make your choice.#

Seconds later as everyone did so, she nodded. #The vote for cautious investigation passes. We will discuss the protocols required to make the process as safe as possible for all parties involved after the rest of the current agenda is dealt with. We'll also pass on our decision to the Thranx High Council for their input, as this concerns them as much as it does us, even at this point in our relationship.#

"Thank you, General," Premier Clarke said. "Please pass on our thanks to your people for the fine job they did."

"I will do so, sir," LeBatelier replied, retaking his seat and shutting down his presentation with a mental command. He was slightly unsure whether they were doing the right thing, but was interested to see where it led. Shortly the chamber was involved in a furious argument about the proposed Empire of Texas colony work, where Lord Alamo reverted to type after his unusually thoughtful earlier behavior and started shouting rather a lot.

For some reason, the thranx delegation found this immensely amusing, which made him shout even more.


Day 80 of Year 6939
Central Government Complex Level 12, Dalet City, Hivehom
Bioaugmentation Research Lab 9

"That's it?" Leyzenzuzex stared at the pale blue liquid in a head-sized transparent container, in which was floating a glittering mesh that was only barely visible under the lights even when he looked closely. He felt apprehensive, but excited too.

"Yes. The first generation of n-link adapted for the brain of your species," Doctor Jennifer Chen replied, also looking at it. "It's been very carefully tested, so there's little risk medically, but it's going to be quite strange to get used to at first. You'll be only the tenth thranx to get one. All the volunteers for the exchange program are being fitted with them, as they're more or less essential to interact with most of our technology these days. Yes, you could get away without one, and we can interface to your own neural implant easily enough, but the n-link is decades ahead of that particular system. We've been developing this system for close to a century one way or another."

"Our department collaborated in the development of this device, Leyzenzuzex," the other person in the room added with a gesture of confident expectation. Doctor Niltrixuzex was a very distant cousin, someone he'd met once before at a clan gathering, and a respected expert in bioaugmentation technology. He trusted both of them, but at the same time they wanted to crack open his exoskeleton and put something in his brain…

"You've already had your head cracked open and things put in your brain," Niltrixuzex snickered, while Doctor Chen smiled a little. With embarrassment making his antennae droop to the sides, Leyzen realized he'd muttered that bit out loud.

"Um… Oops."

"Don't worry about it, most people are a little squeamish about the idea, Leyzenzuzex," the human doctor said. "But it really is safe. We haven't had a serious incident with n-link installation in over fifty years, and only half a dozen minor problems, all of them easily fixed. We do know what we're doing, and the joint research between your people and ours let us adapt the system fairly easily. Worst case, we can remove it again, but I think that's extremely unlikely to be needed."

Expelling a breath with a whistle, Leyzen motioned acceptance. "I can't back out at this point," he said, trying to exude confidence instead of whatever it was he was currently exuding. He'd put in far too much work over the last few months, and had no wish to let anyone down, but he couldn't suppress a minor feeling of impending doom.

"That's the spirit. If you'll follow us, we'll get everything ready. Installation will only take about a dozen time periods, but there will be a calibration session afterwards that will take longer and you're probably going to feel a little nauseous during that part, I'm afraid." Doctor Chen smiled at him. "It goes away and I think you'll be very pleased with the result."

"I hope so," Leyzen muttered, following as the two females led him towards the operating area where alien technology would be shoved inside his head.

He was pretty sure he'd seen that episode of 'Stellar Exploration Team.'

It hadn't ended well as far as he remembered…