Welcome To Titan, We Have Ships.


May 2120
Interstellar Survey Station
Hyperion, in
orbit around Titan
Docking Port 172A, IS Scout Ship
Seeker of Interesting Things

"He should be here soon," Sarah said, turning to give both her husband and her ship's avatar a serious look. "Remember, Leyzenzuzex is representing his people in the same way that we are representing ours. Do not get up to your usual shenanigans, either of you. Let the poor bastard get used to us before you start acting like children. We don't want to scare him off."

"Gramps said he was told Leyzenzuzex could take it," Roland protested, as Isaac grinned. "And dish it out. That's why he asked us to host him, not someone less… open to the new and exciting." He shrugged as his wife sighed silently with a shake of her head. "The thranx are new and exciting. I'm open to that. I mean, we found them, right? Only goes to show how good we are. And we deserve an alien of our own."

"Yeah, it fits the paradigm," Isaac readily agreed. "One descendant of someone famous, that's him. One brilliant and talented artificial intelligence who always saves the day. That's me. One long suffering and snarky, not to mention beautiful, woman who has her man in the palm of her hand. That's definitely you. All we were missing was the alien engineer, and now we have one." He smirked while she glared at him and Roland broke down laughing. "It practically writes itself. We'll be vid stars by this time next year."

"Or a cautionary footnote in the book entitled "'How To Start An Interstellar War The Easy Way,' Sarah grumbled. "Or possibly the first several chapters in 'Things Spaceship Crews Are No Longer Allowed To Do, Volume Six.'"

"They're only up to volume two right now," Isaac commented. Sarah poked him in the chest with a finger.

"And why is there a series like that to begin with?!" she demanded.

He shrugged, still grinning. "We didn't do it, no one saw anything, and they can't prove it anyway."

"As you keep saying," the woman sighed. Looking at her husband who was leaning on the corridor wall and giggling to himself, she added, "Grow up, you great idiot."

#Incoming traffic from Hivehom expected in one minute. Vessel is significantly larger than standard IS ships and has level one traffic priority. All local traffic is directed to leave one thousand meters minimum clearance at all times and to steer clear of docking port two niner five gamma until further notice. Host crews please report to interstellar reception area immediately. Inbound exchange crew will be cleared through immigration by 09:47. Outbound exchange crew please report for final briefing before boarding. Station control out.#

The sudden n-link broadcast over the station channel made Roland abort his reply as they all absorbed the information. Exchanging glances, they turned and began walking to the nearest internal transportation hub, while connecting to the external sensors as probably everyone else on the station was also doing. Very soon a large ship, of a design that was by now familiar to everyone in humanity, appeared in a blur of distorted space as it dropped out of the superluminal bubble it had traveled some hundred or so light years inside in a couple of days. The ship was still some tens of thousands of kilometers past the orbit of Saturn but the telescopes on the station made it look as if it was right outside. It rotated slightly in two planes until it was in the correct orientation then the fusion torches at the rear lit off, the ship quickly accelerating towards the station.

"Big bastard isn't it?" Roland commented. "Nearly five hundred and twenty meters long. Gen four drive, close to forty lights per day with this revision, although from what I read they reckon they'll have it tuned for nearly eighty three by the time they finish tweaking it."

"They got some interesting ideas from our own theories," Sarah agreed, also studying the ship curiously. "Made their own drives much better a lot faster than they expected. The gen five ones are probably going to be good for close to three hundred lights per day."

"A lot slower than the blink drive, but then everything is," Isaac nodded. "For something that's not the blink drive it's extremely impressive and getting more so very fast."

"Aren't they supposed to have their own TBT drive ships soon?" Sarah asked.

"Yep. They're just in the last phases of fitting out the first one right now," Roland replied. "The Rylix, the one our guys helped with. Took a while to straighten it out, apparently, it got a little bent when their drive went kablooie, which is pretty horrifying considering how insanely tough thranx superalloys are. To bend a hull made of that stuff so much it didn't correct itself in a few days is impressive. Normally it self heals pretty fast as long as you don't blow chunks out of it, which would be hard work. Even better than cerametals." They arrived at the transport terminal and boarded the maglev car, Isaac telling it with a quick command to head to the main arrival concourse. It promptly accelerated hard into the station network, although none of them felt anything due to the inertial reference frame compensation.

"When is it supposed to be ready?"

"About a month, I think. Which is why they're using that ship for the trip instead. I guess they wanted to get here under their own steam rather than have our people collect their guys. I can understand that." Roland smiled a little. "Public relations and pride in their work."

"They've got a lot to be proud of," Isaac chuckled. "They had a unified field theory nearly two hundred years before we did, and FTL travel close to a hundred years earlier too. And they're still well ahead in a lot of fields, including gravitic control. Their gravity generators are ridiculously powerful and efficient."

"Be interesting to see what a cross-fertilization of ideas comes up with," Roland grinned. "We could be going to some bizarre places."

"We've been there already, I've got the photos," the AI replied with a smirk.

"Hey, so do I! Did you get one of that bar where you got thrown out the window?"

Frowning a little in thought, the synthetic human asked, "The one where the window was already open, or the other one?"

"Either."

"Yeah."

Sarah looked between them, shook her head, and deliberately moved to the other end of the transport car, making both exchange a look of hilarity.

"Idiots," she mumbled, although there was no heat to it.

By now the thranx ship was closing on the station and decelerating again from the short intrasystem trip, obviously doing the final maneuvering on gravity drive alone. When they reached their destination and walked the short distance from the transport terminal, it was in the process of docking, the station gravitic beams pulling it into the clamps which had been designed for that class of ship some time ago.

#Thranx vessel Knextro hard docked. Disembarking in process,# the station AI announced calmly.

Sarah looked around at the milling crowds of people, a couple of hundred visitors and permanent staff gathering in the huge room off which a number of corridors led to various docking ports. Holo signs above each listed the ships that could be found along them and at which port, along with other data, all of this in both standard English and Low Thranx, which had been added to the station signage about two years ago in preparation for this moment. In general humans didn't need it as the n-link language overlay and mindscape made old fashioned external data largely redundant, but tradition, as well as the more practical anticipation of visitors who might not have n-links or the equivalent, meant that it was provided.

She couldn't really picture how that would be, not having an n-link. It was so central to life it was almost impossible to imagine, although she presumed it would be like being rendered deaf or blind back before the Mad Years. Survivable but not something one would wish for.

Sarah was very glad she hadn't seen those times except in holos. It was bad enough that way.

There was a group of about twenty people on the other side of the concourse surrounding a pair of IS staff, who were answering questions while apparently also asking quite a few of their own. All of the people other than those two had various quantities of cargo with them, so that was probably the outbound first wave of exchange personnel, she assumed. Some of them seemed nervous, but all were clearly excited too, and she could see from the expressions of a number of other passersby that there were quite a lot of people who were rather envious of the opportunity their fellow humans were being offered.

It seemed likely to her than in the fairly near future this sort of thing was probably going to be pretty routine. Most of them would get their turn if they wanted it.

Waving to the crew of another IS scout ship, the Looks Like Trouble, she kept watching and waiting. Roland and Isaac sat down on some nearby chairs and started arguing about which one of them had been thrown out of more places, which made her sigh faintly although she was smiling. She loved both of them dearly even if at times she wanted to bang their heads together, which in Isaac's case would probably just produce a hollow bong sound.

It might in Roland's case as well, she mused with a slight smirk of her own.

Almost exactly at the previously mentioned time, the noise in the huge room rose a little as first half a dozen more IS staff came out of the corridor leading to port 295G, then twenty two thranx, all of them bar one looking around alertly with an air of excitement and mild worry. The sole exception to this was someone she recognized as Ambassador Santhotuzex, one thranx that almost every human alive could probably pick out of a crowd. Not that it was needed since she had an ID overlay running so everyone in the place had a little designation floating above them, giving their name and various other useful bits of public information. Most people did the same when in a place full of others they didn't know personally.

Isaac, of course, always complained that the system needed health and hit points too, whatever the hell that was meant to mean.

The ambassador was talking to the station commander, a man by the name of Marc Janssen, a tall ice-blonde guy in the prime of life at about one hundred and twenty who radiated a sensation of competence. As the new arrivals grouped together at the direction of the IS people, the ambassador finished his quiet conversation with the commander, who nodded, smiled faintly, then stepped forward. Everyone present immediately fell silent, looking at him.

"Good morning, everyone," Commander Janssen said pleasantly. "I just wanted to take a few moments to welcome the first of, with luck, many visitors from our neighbors and friends. On behalf of this station, and humanity in general, we're pleased beyond words to have this chance to get to know the thranx better, and to allow them to do the same with us. It's my hope that this grand experiment will benefit both species enormously, and I urge everyone, regardless of their origin, to work together with professionalism and friendship. From what I've learned since we met so few years ago, I fully expect that to happen. In the long run, no one truly knows what will come about, but it seems likely to be a future that is far more interesting than we would have expected not that long ago."

He looked around at the crowd, then returned his attention to the group of thranx, while beside him Santhotuzex showed a pleased set to his antennae. "Make yourself at home here, and if you need anything, you only have to ask. Your hosts should be able to provide almost anything and if they can't, the station can. Thank you for listening and please, enjoy yourselves." He bowed a little, the tiny thranx avatar next to him making the gesture showing respect and welcome to a valued visitor. Then he took a step back, Santhotuzex moving into his former place.

"On behalf of my own species, I would also like to say that we are incredibly grateful to our new friends for this opportunity, the end result of years of work and a significant amount of good fortune. We also have great hopes for the outcome of what we're beginning here today. Please forgive our people if we, as we probably will, at times accidentally do or say something that causes offense or misunderstanding, and know that this is done not maliciously, but out of ignorance. We would be grateful if, should this happen, you could gently explain what the problem is so it won't happen again. We will do the same in our turn. Our two species are remarkably compatible but it's inevitable that occasionally there will be minor issues. As long as we all respect one another, I have little doubt we can work these issues out and in due course understand each other far better, which can only lead us all to a much closer and rewarding relationship."

He looked around at the silent crowd, seeming pleased by their interest. "We don't know exactly what's going to happen but it's going to be fun finding out," he added with the thranx equivalent of a snicker, which made a ripple of laughter run through the room. Waving his antennae in a good natured sort of way, he turned back to the group of thranx watching him. "You lot, be good. We'll be watching. Other than that, enjoy yourselves and learn as much as you are teaching our friends. All we can ask for is that you do your best."

Several of the new arrivals made gestures of acknowledgment, a couple of them nodding in the human way, which amused Sarah. She could see their own guest at one side of the group, the label floating above his antenna showing his identity. She'd have guessed even without it, or having seen photos of him, as he was looking around like his head was on a spring, his enormous and strangely beautiful compound eyes reflecting the lights in a spray of rainbow light each time he moved. His exoskeleton was a rather pretty shade of blue a little darker than a robin's egg, with subtle patterning on the abdomen and thorax which was only visible when the light hit it just at the right angle. The patterns were apparently natural and much like a fingerprint in that they were virtually unique to an individual thranx.

Overall the species did look remarkably insect-like, albeit with one too many pairs of limbs, but they were also oddly attractive, like a cross between a giant grasshopper and a preying mantis via a mythological centaur. Even people who were disinclined to be fond of arthropods tended not to find them objectionable, possibly because there was something about them that was so obviously intelligent and personable.

Ambassador Santhotuzex had helped a lot with that air, as he had been the face of the thranx species right from the beginning, and had been interviewed many times, showing a sense of sly humor combined with high intelligence and obvious honesty that made him a media hit. Most people thought he was an excellent fit for his role, and clearly enjoyed it.

She looked over her shoulder at Roland and Isaac, gave both of them a warning glare which had absolutely no visible effect, then turned back to the crowd of thranx who were now looking around as various other crews headed their way. "Leyzenzuzex," she send via n-link, "I'm Sarah Kimura, from the Seeker of Interesting Things." She waved as he peered around. "Over here."

"Oh, hello, Sarah," the thranx said, spotting her and waving back with one of his upper limbs. "Thank you very much for this opportunity."

"It's our pleasure," she replied with a smile, watching as he headed their way, having quickly said his goodbyes to his companions. A small gravlifter of thranx manufacture obediently followed in his wake, hovering a few centimeters off the floor and holding a number of items of luggage. All the new arrivals had the same sort of equipment, and the human contingent which were now moving towards the corridor to the Knextro had the human equivalents following behind them as well. She noticed that both Ambassador Santhotuzex and Commander Janssen were looking in their direction, apparently interested in watching Leyzenzuzex.

Leyzenzuzex didn't appear to notice, so she didn't mention it. A few seconds later he arrived in front of her as her husband and Isaac joined them.

"Good morning," the thranx said politely, making a four limbed gesture of respect and greeting, which all three of them returned with the socially accepted human version that had evolved over the last few years. "It is a great honor to make your acquaintance. I've been anticipating this moment for a considerable time and I find it's so far everything I could have hoped for." He looked around at the station concourse, watching everyone moving about for a moment, before returning his attention to them. "When I was younger I always wanted to meet aliens but I never expected it would happen."

His antennae told of a certain amount of amusement, but it was coupled with significant truthfulness and a lot of excitement. The translation overlays all of them were running did an excellent job of allowing them to read his body language, and presumably were as effective in the other direction. Even though he was speaking low thranx and they were using English, neither had any difficulty understanding the other either, another advantage of the n-link system. Sarah wondered how long it would have taken to do this sort of thing without it, and whether it would have been nearly as seamless or effective in that case. It didn't seem likely.

"I think we all felt the same," Roland chuckled. "I know I certainly did. It seemed inevitable once we had practical interstellar travel, but no one thought it would happen so quickly, or so easily. Or, for that matter, our nearest neighbors would be so close in cosmological terms. Your people are practically next door."

"As far as I know it was pure chance that we went the other way," Leyzenzuzex replied with a nod. Sarah knew that part of the exchange program had involved teaching both sides about the other, including things like gestures, which the thranx used a lot even compared to humans. This had clearly led to them picking up human gestures too, as she'd seen a little earlier. She suspected their new crew member was deliberately trying to become accustomed to using them to fit in as well. "I for one am very glad your people did find us, though. I and the rest of the Rylix crew would have had… an unpleasant time, if not."

"Yes, that could have been pretty tedious," Sarah smiled. "We've studied the briefing on you and that event. I'm glad we could help."

"I've studied the briefing on you as well," the thranx commented with a tilt of his head, causing reflections to sparkle from his eyes. "I believe I owe you three thanks as well as the crew of the We Come In Peace, since it was your ship that actually found Hivehom in the beginning."

Roland nodded with a grin, as did Isaac. "We did do that, yes. We seem to have a habit of finding interesting things."

"As would appear to be reflected in the name of your ship," Leyzenzuzex said with a certain sly tilt in the general antennae area. "Which came first, the name or the propensity for unusual discoveries?"

"I think it's a mutual arrangement," Isaac said. "And I'm very interested to see what the next one is."

"Some might feel we should possibly not find something else, considering how much the last thing escalated," Roland added, waving a hand dismissively. "I say hah! That's a stupid attitude to take. We find things. That's our job. And everything worked out better than anyone could possibly have hoped for, so I personally think we're doing a pretty good job of it."

Studying him for a moment, Leyzenzuzex finally laughed. "I think we're going to get on very well, my new friends."

"We certainly hope so. Come on, we'll show you the ship and you can stow your gear. Then we can work out what the next step is." Sarah waved towards the transport tunnel. "No one really seems to have put any parameters on it, so it's a little open ended."

"We'd better run before someone tells us we can't do something amusing," Isaac suggested, already heading in that direction. "They get all funny about that sort of thing sometimes."

The thranx looked at them all, back at the slowly dispersing group of humans and his species, then made a gesture that equated almost exactly to a shrug. "This should be… different," he commented as he scuttled after the embodied AI, his gravlifter zipping along in his wake. Sarah looked at Roland, who grinned at her, then dashed after them. She sighed faintly, looked over her shoulder at Santhotuzex and Commander Janssen who were still peering after them, smiled a little guiltily, and followed.

"Oh, god, this is going to get bizarre again, I can feel it," she sighed to herself. "He's just like them only with more hands..."


Santhotuzex watched as his hive-relative disappeared into one of the large station's transportation pods along with the crew of the Seeker of Interesting Things, apparently already talking rapidly to the male human and the embodied machine intelligence, the woman bringing up the rear giving off a certain aura of slightly weary anticipation.

"I hope you realize that particular crew has… something of a reputation," Commander Janssen, who was standing next to him also watching, said with just a hint of nervousness in his voice. "IS scout crews are all nuts at the best of times, but those ones…"

With a chuckle, Santhotuzex looked up at his companion. "I suspect that Leyzenzuzex is among kindred spirits, in that case," he said mildly. "With any luck they will be able to handle him, and he them. I'm not entirely convinced that would have been true with some crews."

"Or they'll just egg each other on and god knows what will happen," the commander sighed. "Last time they went poking around on their own we met you guys. Don't get me wrong, it's probably the best thing that could possibly have happened on all sides, but if they can do that without even trying, what will they come up with if they actually put some real effort in?"

"That is what we're all looking forward to finding out, my friend," the ambassador chuckled. "I believe the human saying is 'dropping them in at the deep end.' If people like your IS crews and our exchange people can make things work, I feel that it bodes well for those who are less… experimental… in their outlook. It may take years, but I strongly suspect that both our peoples are going to grow steadily closer and one day look back on this moment as the point we truly began to learn about each other."

"You say that with possibly just a small amount too little worry," Commander Janssen replied, although he was smiling slightly. "Oh well. It's probably far too late now. I suppose we'll simply have to see what happens and hope we can survive it."

Snickering, Santhotuzex nodded, his antennae flicking in amusement. "Indeed. In any case, I must go and check on how your people are settling in on the Knextro, then contact Ambassador Bowman and discuss a few things. Thank you once again for your help." He made a gesture of respect, which the human returned.

"It was my pleasure, Ambassador. Until next time."

"As you say, Commander." Santhotuzex nodded, then turned and headed towards port 295G, while musing on what was likely to happen over the coming months and years. He'd been entirely honest with the human, he did think that in the long run, and possibly far faster, both species were going to find themselves much closer than would have been expected in the beginning. He had no idea why it had worked out so well but he was profoundly grateful that it had.

He'd never had so much fun in his life.


Leyzen kept looking around, absorbing every sight with enormous enjoyment and trying very hard indeed to keep his urge to leap about like a crazy person under control. He was in an alien space station and about to join an alien spaceship crew! It made 'Stellar Exploration Team' look like nothing in his view. He could still hardly believe what was happening even after having been preparing for this moment for close to a year. All the training, all the data he'd gone over time and time again, all the questions he'd asked of a long-suffering but helpful handful of humans on the diplomatic mission… all of it leading up to this.

He'd been told by several of the crew from the We Come In Peace, including Captain Bertels herself, that he was more than able deal with what he was going to experience, and his knowledge and understanding of them was first rate. He hoped they were right. There was no way he wanted to let his people down, and at the same time he didn't want to upset the humans either. He liked humans. They were weird, yes, but at the same time, somehow, they just… fitted. He couldn't explain why for the life of him but from the moment he'd first talked to one, he'd found it something that seemed to fill a void he'd never known existed.

When he'd mentioned this at one point, the person he'd been talking to had laughed and said it wasn't the first time she'd heard the same thing, from both sides. Her suggestion was that it might be some deep unconscious realization that neither species was all alone in the universe. Both humans and thranx were social creatures, and needed companionship. Oddly enough, that still seemed to work even if the companionship was of an entirely different species. Humans were particularly good at finding this with non-sapient creatures, having a strange ability to form a bond with practically any animal, or in some cases any thing, as far as his own research went. Thranx also kept pets, but not to the extent that humans appeared to.

Sapient companions that were not them, though… that was different. The humans had more or less invented this with their AIs, but the machine intelligences were, oddly enough, too much like humans for them to consider them alien.

He still suspected that this had aided them in finding a common ground with his own people, though. There was probably a major research program already going in based on that idea. However, while interesting it wasn't really the point right now.

The point was… he was going to be working on an alien ship with aliens!

Taking a moment to center himself once more, he thought back to the advice his grandfather had given him when he'd finally managed to talk to the old but still running around like he was barely an adolescent Ryozenzuzex. "You've been given an opportunity some, including myself, would chop off a leg for, Ley. Don't make a mess of it. Or I'll finish what the humans start, assuming Santhotuzex leaves anything once he gets hold of you. And… have fun. From what I've heard, these humans are really interesting and have some useful talents. Learn everything you can. Teach them everything they need to know about us as well. And introduce me to them as soon as possible, you lucky, lucky grub."

With a sense of inner amusement at the sheer indignation his grandfather's voice had contained when he'd initially found out what Leyzen was going to be doing for the foreseeable future, which had instantly turned into pride and happiness for his relative, the young engineer relaxed. It was going to work out, he was pretty certain of that. And if not, it wasn't going to be due to him.

"Let the humans find out just what the Zex hive is made of," Ryozenzuzex had added, laughing a little. "Particularly our own family. Remember our motto..."

"'If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing?'" Leyzen had asked slyly.

"No, the other one. 'Take the opportunities handed to you by fate and make them your own.' Not as short and to the point, but I think it sums us up well." Ryo had chuckled, and then added, "I'm not saying that the first one doesn't apply too, of course."

"Of course. I understand, grandfather, and I'll make you proud of me."

"I already am, and never think otherwise. Keep me updated, I want to hear everything."

"I'll see if I can arrange to have them meet you soon," Leyzen had said. "They sound like fun, this crew."

"Excellent. I'd better be going, I've stayed in one place too long. They'll find me."

Leyzen had at that point stopped and stared at the holocomm, wondering if his grandfather was joking. Looking at him, he seemed serious. "What in the Great Mother's name have you done now?" he asked with a sigh.

Ryo had just waved his antennae in a motion of extreme amusement and ended the call. Leyzen was still wondering what his relative was up to this time.

There was always something.

Right now, though, his wondering about his grandfather's unusual life was pushed to the side in favor of the far more important things surrounding him.

As the transport system zipped them across the large station to a docking port on the other side, he experimented with using his n-link to get data on everything in sight. He was still learning all the different things the remarkable neural interface computer could do. It was a vastly more advanced device than the thranx standard implant system, making that particular unit look like a toy. He had no doubt that the human n-link would completely take over from it in short order, once it became generally available. It was clear that this initial group of exchange people were being used at least partially as test subjects to see how well the adapted version of the device worked for them, and as far as he was concerned he was fine with that if he got to have one of his own.

The humans had set up their technology so the n-link was the primary interface and control method for virtually everything, although they also had backup facilities just in case, not being even remotely stupid. This was particularly apparent in their ships, which mostly dispensed with actual control stations like his own people still used, although even there the implant system had been slowly removing the requirement for much of the older systems. But even aside from the obvious things such as ship operations, practically everything could be accessed via the n-link. This transport car, for example, had internal diagnostics, control functions, and a number of other systems that he could see with a minor mental command, although most of them were sensibly locked out without the right credentials.

Other people could easily be identified at range from the data their own n-links broadcast, and of course one could communicate with almost anyone almost anywhere merely by thinking it. And that was on top of the ability to connect to their Sysnet, the human equivalent of Hivenet, which fulfilled almost exactly the same purpose. Knowledge, communications, entertainment, you name it, it was right there.

He loved it.

Connecting to the external cameras he looked around the station, seeing the moon it was orbiting around, then the massive gas giant the moon itself was orbiting around. He just gazed at the incredible ring system of the planet called 'Saturn' in awe. It was by far the most spectacular one he'd even seen. Selecting a different viewpoint from a smaller station in polar orbit, he got a better view from nearly above, and studied it with amazement.

"It's impressive, isn't it?" Sarah asked, having apparently been watching his viewpoint shift around the place somehow. He nodded in the human way with a flick of an antenna added.

"Incredibly so, yes. None of the systems we've visited so far have anything quite like it."

"We haven't found many that are as good either," the woman said. "There are a few, of course, but ring systems in general don't last all that long in astronomical terms. A few tens of millions of years for the best effect, maybe half a billion years in total. We're lucky enough to be seeing them right when they're most spectacular. One day, they'll be gone. So far we haven't found another planet at just the right point in its evolution."

"I'll have to come back in a few hundred million years and see how it looks without the rings," he joked, making her laugh.

"Boring."

"Hey, Saturn is still a nice gas giant even without rings," Roland put in with amusement. "Leave the poor thing alone."

About to reply, Leyzen was interrupted as the transport car slowed. "We're here," Isaac commented as they came to a halt and the door opened. Everybody got out, his gravlifter following silently. Walking a couple of dozen meters they entered a short docking tunnel which terminated in a standard human-pattern hatch, this sliding open as they approached.

"Welcome to the Seeker of Interesting Things. A Franklin class Interstellar Survey fourth generation standard scout ship, sixty two meters long, with facilities for up to fourteen crew, the latest model of TBT drive, seventeen point nine gigawatt gravitic confinement fusion reactor, twin fusion torches giving three hundred and six g acceleration at maximum output, gravitic drive for planetary landing and maneuvering purposes, fully equipped engineering bay with industrial-level fabber, all the standard long range sensors and probes, superluminal comms suite..." He looked at Leyzen who was feeling like he'd just walked into the world's best toy shop. "We like it."

"It's home, aside from anything else," Sarah added. Inside the ship once they'd cleared the airlock, she led them towards the bow. Stopping at one door she said, "These are your quarters," as the door opened. "We were given the parameters for what you'd need and everything should be set up correctly for thranx crew quarters. If anything's wrong, just let us know."

Leyzen went into the quite generously sized room and looked around with approval and satisfaction. It was very similar to, if slightly larger than, his quarters on the Rylix had been, and had everything he'd expect to find, all of it brand new and high quality. He could live here without any problems at all, he was sure. Directing his cargo platform to park itself out of the way to the side, he turned back to his hosts who were gathered around the door watching. "Thank you," he said, making a respectful motion. "This is excellent."

"Let's give you the grand tour, then we can work out what the next step will be," Roland put in with a smile. "I think you'll like it here, Leyzenzuzex. We've been looking forward to having you join us ever since the Ambassador talked to my grandfather."

"I've been looking forward to this my entire life, I think," he replied with a forward flick of both antennae signifying amusement and pleasure. "I've wanted to meet aliens since I was a larva. But then, that's what sets the Zex hive aside from most, we like new things and change."

"I've heard that your people are fairly traditional in many respects," Sarah commented as he followed them towards the stern this time.

"We tend to prefer to think things through for a few generations before jumping headlong into the unknown," he admitted with a chuckle. "The combination of superluminal travel and medical improvements in the last couple of centuries has somewhat changed that, though. I expect it will continue to change, not least due to meeting your people, who have… modified a lot of expectations. This is somewhat worrying to some of the more conservative among us, but our government is led by people who, while cautious, are far more open to new experiences than might have been the case in times past. The Science Council is also very interested in seeing how things develop, of course."

"We could have used some of that thranx caution at a few times in our own history," Isaac said with a smile. "Humans are possibly a little too eager to jump headlong into the unknown, as you put it."

"A combination of both tendencies could well end up being well worth it for all of us if this experiment pans out," Roland put in. "I have a pretty strong feeling it will, to be honest."

"I am very hopeful it will, and looking forward to doing my part," Leyzen admitted with good humor. "Even if at times I make a fool of myself. No member of the Zen family is too worried about appearances. This has in the past caused a certain amount of… approbation, shall we say? But we persist, and so far it seems to have worked out fairly well. My own grandfather set the path that led us to the point our two people could meet in the first place, and I can hardly not do my own part in upholding that particular tradition. He would be disappointed, if nothing else."

"I've read about Ryozenzuzex," Sarah remarked with a look his n-link told him was distinct amusement. "He sounds like a real character."

"That is an apt description indeed," Leyzen laughed. "Although at times others have referred to him in less complimentary ways." He made a motion of acceptance. "We can't help what they think, so we ignore them."

"I'd like to meet him at some point," Isaac snickered.

"That can be arranged, he said he'd like the same," Leyzen nodded. By now they'd descended a couple of decks and entered the rear section of the small but remarkable vessel, this obviously being the main engineering and drive systems area. He looked around, feeling impressed all over again. The technology was clean and elegant, and although quite different from thranx designs, clearly recognizable as stemming from the same basic theories via a completely different path. He moved to inspect the main inertial reference frame generator, tilting his head a little to get a better view.

"Very nice indeed," he muttered, leaning closer, then crouching down to look at the primary power bus where it vanished through a bulkhead panel. Reading the labels via his n-link, he absently felt in one of the pockets of the tool harness he had on over his thorax for a notebook and scribe, then sighed faintly as he remembered and opened a mental document with a quick command. He was still getting used to all the things the device provided and probably would be for weeks if not months.

"Interesting variation on Kentrosutek's Theory," he mumbled, tracing the path of one of the graviton guide-ways, half visible behind the pseudosingularity stabilization injector. "How does it… oh… Yes, I see, that's very clever. Not as power-efficient as it could be, but it's far simpler to manufacture and should be much less prone to third harmonic oscillations in the nine-space direction..."

Hearing a faint laugh from behind him, he suddenly froze, then his antennae slumped a little in embarrassment. Pulling his head out of the machinery where it had ended up, causing his voice to echo a little, he turned and looked at the humans and AI, all of whom were grinning. "Oops. My apologies..."

"Yes, you're definitely an engineer," Roland said with a wide grin. "I recognize the symptoms well. My mother is exactly the same. Don't worry about it, you'll have all the time to study the tech as you want. That's at least half the point, after all."

"I admit I have a… slight… tendency to get overinvested in new technology," Leyzen said, feeling a small amount of embarrassment still but relaxing when it became obvious they didn't mind. "And this is truly fascinating. I studied some of the systems on the We Come In Peace but while I was with the diplomatic mission I didn't really have the chance to burrow too far under the surface. Here, though..." He looked around, then gestured at the large room filled with wonderful things. "I could spend a lot of time in here."

"You're welcome to, although it would be best not to take it all to pieces when we're on a mission," Sarah replied. "We might actually need it. And the TBT drive is a sealed unit anyway, for a number of reasons."

"Understandable, it's capable of becoming a horrendous weapon with the addition of a small amount of planium and some way to override the shielding," he acknowledged, turning his head to study the blink drive housing. "Which from what I know would be close to impossible. Thankfully."

"Yeah, there were a lot of security systems put in after we started finding that damn stuff around the place, and those were beefed up a lot once the planium device network was discovered," Roland nodded. "All the existing drives were recalled and replaced with the secured ones, and improved protocols implemented to lock out known planium-containing systems as destinations without top level authorization. Of course, that doesn't mean we've found them all, as we obviously haven't. That's one of the main jobs of IS, locating such places and updating the nav database. We get to risk our lives so everyone else can move around safely without the worry of disappearing into a star-destroying blue fireball."

Leyzen stared at him. "That actually made it sound rather less fun than I initially hoped it would be," he finally said.

"Don't worry, he's just being overdramatic again," Isaac laughed. "You'll get used to it. The risk is almost non-existent, we're heavily shielded and always run scans from a safe distance. We won't bump into any planium without a lot of warning."

"I certainly would prefer not to," he replied a little faintly. "I saw the demonstration when Ambassador Bowman first brought it up. It was… worrying."

"The stuff is horrific, but as long as we keep away from it, we're safe," Sarah smiled. "Everyone is all too aware of the dangers, and how close we came to disaster. Believe me, it's something everyone takes seriously. We can't afford not to."

"I would definitely agree with that," Leyzen said somewhat vehemently. He still had intermittent nightmares about what he'd seen, and how little of the stuff had done it. When he thought about how much one of the ancient alien planium devices contained, he felt ill. He still couldn't believe that people, somewhere out there, actually based their tech on it, even knowing that in the absence of WIMP tech it was probably safe enough.

Intellectually he knew that, but his gut insisted it was akin to playing with barely subcritical fissionable masses and a big hammer…

Shuddering, he deliberately thrust the thought of dark matter detonations out of his mind and looked around some more. After a couple of time periods, Sarah said, "Let's finish showing you the ship, then discuss what the next step is, shall we, Leyzenzuzex?"

"Please call me Leyzen," he said as he walked back to where she and Isaac were standing, Roland following from where he'd been showing him how the fabber unit worked. "I think we're going to be close enough that we don't need the formality of my full name."

"Leyzen, then," the woman nodded, smiling. "Thank you." He waved his antennae a little, making her smile again, and all of them went to finish exploring the ship. The entire time he was repressing the urge to whistle in joy and run in little circles.

This was incredible, and he was happier than he could remember ever being.

When, some days later, he found himself looking at the entire galaxy spread out in front of him, his happiness was added to by awe and a sensation of enormous satisfaction.

The next few years were going to be something to remember, he was sure of that.


GS year 2404.5
Fuel Supply Station
Gantrel Five,
Deck 19, Sector 5A

Ihehi walked into the dimly lit bar and moved to the side of the door, then looked carefully around. Spotting her quarry on the other side of the large room, near one of the heavily reinforced windows that gave a spectacular view of the gas giant the helium 3 refinery station was orbiting around, she headed that way after checking no one was paying attention to her. When she stopped in the shadows next to the man she was after, he glanced at her, then went back to staring out the window. She followed his gaze to find him not looking at the planet as she expected, since it was an amazing sight especially now as they passed over the night side, massive lightning bolts visible in the upper atmosphere even at this range. Instead he was looking past it into deep space, off to the side of the galactic core which was visible as a misty cloud comprised of untold millions of stars.

"Have you ever wondered what lurks out there in the dark?" he asked quietly, just as she was about to speak. The Drell woman paused, then shook her head slightly.

"Not really," she admitted. "Some would say that is the preserve of the gods. Me, I'm not religious, all I can say is that it's unexplored space. Lots of things out there, we know that much." She shrugged. "Not really my field. You could ask an astrophysicist, I suppose."

"That wasn't quite what I meant, but it's not important, I suppose," the Quarian said reflectively as if he had something on his mind. "Perhaps..." He trailed off before turning to her. "You have something for me, I believe?"

"Yeah." After a quick check again to make sure no one was watching, she slipped him a data crystal. "This clears my debt, understand? I went to a lot of trouble to get that, so I don't owe you anything any more."

He made the crystal, after a quick glance, disappear somewhere about his person, presumably into a pocket in his environment suit. "Understood. Thank you."

"Why are you so interested in Mass Relays in dead end routes anyway?" she asked, curious despite her instincts. "Migrant fleet looking for a new place to go, maybe?"

The Quarian captain looked at her for a few seconds. "It's a hobby of mine," he finally replied.

"Hobby." She snorted. "Yeah, right. Strange hobby. Collecting coordinates of Mass Relays that don't lead anywhere, and are dormant anyway. Lots of fun."

"It has its moments," he said with a faint laugh. "Thanks, Ihehi. See you around maybe."

"Maybe." He nodded to her, then headed towards the exit, as she watched him go, then turned to peer out the window in the direction he'd been looking. Eventually she shook her head and went back to more useful pursuits and forgot about the annoying Quarian who'd once saved her life.


November 2120
International Governmental Cooperation Committee Building
Extrasystem Control Group

"The first six months of the exchange program have gone at least as well as we could have hoped for," Director Anderson stated, looking pleased. "There were some minor problems both on our end and at the thranx end, but they were almost entirely cultural misunderstandings that were easily dealt with. Only two personality clashes serious enough to require reassignment have so far occurred and in both cases they didn't go outside the bounds of professional conduct. One of our people and one of the thranx, so we're even on that score." He smiled a little as several people chuckled. "For the most part, every thranx embedded with an IS crew has rapidly become a valuable asset and in almost every case the crews say they consider them close friends. Some of them are working together so smoothly they far exceed our most optimistic projections."

#At least one of the combined crews has seen an upswing in efficiency of over eighty percent already, and they were already at peak performance,# Minerva added. #Or at least we thought they were. It turns out there was room for improvement.#

"May I guess which ship that was?" Ambassador Santhotuzex said with a mischievous tilt to his head.

The AI avatar grinned at him. #You were right, Ambassador. Again. Leyzenzuzex fitted into the Seeker of Interesting Things crew as if it was designed that way from the beginning. He's also worked out some intriguing improvements for a number of the ship systems, which are currently being evaluated and when we fully understand the ramifications will most likely be rolled out across the entire fleet. We've liaised with the Science Council to make sure your people also have the data. He is an exceptionally gifted engineer with a real talent for star-ship systems.#

"It seems to run in the family," Santhotuzex quipped. "His grandfather will be infuriating, though. I already owe Ryozenzuzex a hundred credits as it is." He thought for a second, then added with amusement, "That said, Councilor Menjeflikon owes him two hundred credits..."

Laughter ran around the room for a moment.

"Minor bets aside, it sounds like the exchange plan is definitely something we should consider expanding," the Minister of Technology for the European Alliance said. "Perhaps into areas other than IS?"

"That is one of the things we need to discuss today," Premier Clarke replied with a nod. "There are a number of items on the agenda that relate to that matter. We also have some decisions to make over n-link technology now that we know it is entirely compatible with thranx psychology and physiology, and of course we need to decide what, if anything, to do about the aliens using the planium device network."

"Now that all of the links have been cut between our sector and the rest of the network, there's no practical risk of them running across any of our ships without warning," Doctor Warden said, looking around at the rest of the participants of this meeting. "We've made good progress on removing and making safe the last of the devices inside our boundaries, and have finally finished fully decrypting the control programs for them as well as finalizing a network map. Once we've dealt with the final four units which will be by the end of the week, our area will be entirely clear of them. At that point, we could simply ignore the remainder of the network. It might be the safest thing to do."

#That's certainly one approach, I agree, Doctor,# Athena replied. #However it leaves a large number of unknowns, and does somewhat assume that the network users don't have some other method to reach us than the network itself or the slow planium drive we've observed them using. That may not be a safe assumption to make.#

"Agreed, but I felt it needed to be put out there," the scientist nodded. "Personally I'd like to know more about them, but I don't want that to be at the expense of lives, either ours or theirs. We already know they make extensive use of planium in their technology and accidents are, while very unlikely these days, not completely impossible."

"Doctor Warden is correct that the risks are non-zero," Professor Vroland said as everyone turned to him. "But I feel they can be managed, and that knowledge of the aliens is important enough to warrant cautious investigation. I agree that this must be done carefully and in a manner that doesn't allow for a hazard to life for anyone to occur."

Several other people chipped in their opinions, a couple thinking it was best to wait and watch, while others wanted to be more proactive.

"Can we arrange covert surveillance of the network, perhaps?" Lord Alamo finally said, making everyone stop talking and look at him. "Doctor Warden' and the PDST has apparently reverse engineered the devices to the point they fully understand them. Maybe we could basically bug the network itself and figure out some useful things about who's using it, where they are, where they go, how many of them there are..." He shrugged a little as people exchanged glances. "It would be safer than wandering around looking for them, or following one of those ships that keeps poking around where that device was."

Premier Clarke exchanged a glance with Athena, then General LeBatelier, before he along with almost everyone else looked at Doctor Warden, who was deep in thought. "Doctor? Is that possible?"

After a couple of seconds, the scientist nodded slowly. "In theory, I believe it probably is, yes," he said. "We might be able to push a minor software patch out through the network to currently active units, and arrange to extend the ship logging protocol to allow us to track individual ships as they pass through it. The technology is there, certainly, although it's not used for that purpose. The minor problem is that we'd need an active unit to work with, or we wouldn't have any way to access the network in the first place." He thought some more. "I'd be very hesitant about activating one of the ones we've removed," he added. "Leaving aside the minor issue that we've already dismantled almost all of them anyway, they're also well out of range in the storage area to begin with. We could certainly move one back to somewhere far enough away from our space to make it safe then activate it, but that might alert whoever actually made the network if they're still around. I'm not sure we want to do that."

"It would seem unwise until we learn more about them, if possible," Ambassador Santhotuzex commented.

#Agreed,# Athena put in. #Attracting attention from any party who uses that much planium would be less than ideal. There's too much risk of some undesirable interactions should they become bellicose.#

"So we use one that's already active," Lord Alamo said with a shrug. "We know exactly where one is, after all, so we don't even have to go out of our way. Just wait until the one the aliens were coming through isn't being used, hack it, and leave a relay probe somewhere in range to interrogate it. That's more or less what we were doing before we first saw the original ship after all."

There was a moment of silence, while everyone looked at him and wondered where the real Lord Alamo was…

"It's plausible," Doctor Warden finally said. "It'll take quite a lot of careful work as we don't want to interfere with normal operations, but I think we can do it. Assuming that's what's wanted."

"It's one option we should definitely consider," General LeBatelier remarked, looking interested. "From a military viewpoint, we should certainly learn as much about these people as possible, as discreetly as possible. This seems like a sensible method to do that with the minimum amount of risk on all sides. Based on what we learned from such an operation, we could decide how and if to expand our research, or possibly one day open contact with them, should that ever become desirable or safe."

"All right." Premier Clarke nodded. "We will discuss this proposal in more detail in the second half of the session. Before that, we have a number of items of more immediate concern to deal with, so I think we should return to the agenda and clear our current tasks."

Soon the chamber was full of argument and discussion, good natured for the most part, as they got on with their jobs.


GS year 2405.2
Quarian Migrant Fleet Exploration Ship
Tralket
Captain's Office

"The probe confirmed it. There's no Relay in this system and no sign there ever was," Lih'Sal said, looking more than a little worried. "Are you certain your data is good?"

"As far as I can establish, it's good," Rael'Zorah replied, looking at the holo floating above his desk. There were now four red systems shown on his private star map, which was something that only he himself, Lih'Sal, and the Admiralty Board had ever seen.

"Four missing Relays?" Lih'Sal shivered, looking at the map as well. "How is that possible?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Rael'Zorah admitted uneasily. "Nor do I know how many other people are aware of it. The STG certainly know about the first three. They may well have told the Citadel Council, or the Asari at least, about the first two. Maybe not the third. I'm pretty sure that only a few people have ever even heard of this one, though. It was only a rumor to me, but I knew a few people who had some unusual contacts… Although I suppose it's possible someone is lying. As you said, there's no way to be certain there was one here in the first place, but I'm fairly sure it probably did exist. The Hanar found it a century ago and kept it quiet, just like the Salarians did with that one. Even so, word tends to get around sooner or later."

His aide studied the holo with an air of disturbed interest. "That sure looks like it proves someone in this entire sector has gone to significant trouble to cut any possible links to the rest of the galaxy," he finally said, indicating the vast area of space that lay between where the missing Relays had been. "I wish I could believe it was something else other than deliberate action, but I can't."

"No, neither can I," Rael'Zorah sighed. "Someone or something is inside that zone, and whoever or whatever it is doesn't want visitors."

"Perhaps we should respect that wish," the other man replied after an uncomfortable silence.

"We have little real choice, do we?" the captain replied quietly. "The more worrying part, though, is what do we do if they come out one day? If they can move Relays without leaving a trace, what else can they do?"

The pair looked at each other, then back at the holo, before Rael'Zorah shook his head and turned it off with a hand that trembled ever so slightly.


March 2121
Planium Device Test Area
Onboard IGCC Research Ship
Threshold

"Now, let's see what the logs can tell us," John murmured as he, Neils, and several other people collated the data and set it up to provide a visual record of what should with luck be the last month or so of transits through the terminal network. They already knew their small addition to the system had worked from the initial data download, but it had taken some time for the patch to propagate out into the network, collect data on ship movements, and transfer it back to the terminal they were monitoring. The system wasn't particularly efficient at this sort of operation which may have been why the original builders hadn't incorporated such a function, not to mention it had been an interesting challenge adding the facility without causing any problems with normal operation or leaving traces behind.

As the image built up, vast amounts of data that wasn't really meant to do what they were using it for being merged and processed, they stared at the result in silence.

Eventually, Neils commented, #Lot of them out there, isn't there?#

"I'd have to agree with that," John said with a wondering shake of his head as they all inspected the complex trails of color coded ship movements, each different shade representing different types of vessel. There were literally tens of thousands of them, many of the trails grouping together in a manner that strongly suggested shipping routes or something of that nature. The data only encompassed at most half the total network, large chunks of it entirely empty, but there were zones which were obviously heavily traveled. It implied a vast number of alien ships moving around constantly, even if only between a smallish number of possible destinations, that in turn were a tiny fraction of the number of star systems in the galaxy.

Even that fraction of a fraction would most likely represent billions of people, possibly trillions. Looking at the map, it was apparent that a quite limited number of terminals represented well over two thirds of the total trips logged.

"Those are probably inhabited planetary systems," Amanda Jones, one of the data analysts, pointed out while indicating a couple of these. "The amount of traffic to them is so high they must have something of interest, and a planet makes sense."

#Amanda's almost certainly right,# Neils nodded. #These other ones are much less busy but they seem to have the same class of ships going to them, so maybe cargo? Or mining facilities, something like that?#

"Most of them seem to have similar ship types going to and from them, and there are a number of definite differences in those types," John mused, studying the data closely. "Different models of ship, perhaps?"

#Or it might be minor variations in drive technology, which could imply...#

"More than one species," John finished as the AI trailed off. Neils nodded.

#That would fit the data.#

"It would, wouldn't it?"

"Looks like we might have found an entire interspecies federation or something," Amanda grinned. "That's not what I was expecting."

"No, I don't think anyone was, but it does make sense," John replied. "After all, we've got us and the Thranx in only a fairly small part of space. Who knows how many other people are out there just in our sector? It's unlikely to only be the two of us. So half a dozen, or even a couple of hundred, other spacefaring species in an entire galaxy is entirely plausible. The part that worries me is that this very strongly implies that they're all using planium. Which means there's an awful lot of planium out there."

#And there are a lot of people who we could really cause problems to,# Neils remarked, looking worried.

"Yes. That's less than good. We're going to have to be very, very careful about this." John sighed. "I have nightmares about what could have happened to us even now, and it looks like that problem just got a million times worse in some ways."

Captain Hirase, who had been silently listening and studying the holo, pointed at one particular location. "The thing I'm wondering is, what's that? If those different ship variants really are representing different species, it's interesting that they all go to this particular destination. I wonder what it is?"

They all inspected the mass of glowing traces that congregated in a region of space half the galaxy away, then exchanged glances.