Disclaimer: You all know that I don't own any of this, stop rubbing it in!
Italics indicated by *'s
Admiral Kinman Doriana stared out the bridge's veiwport at the cold and unfamiliar starscape that confronted him. He certainly hoped that whoever Palpatine had got his information from was telling the truth. He would hate to find that he and his men had been waiting here for the past day, not to mention the week it took to get out here and the week it would take to get back, for no good reason. Palpatine seemed utterly confidant in his sources, he always was, but Kinman sometimes got the feeling that Palpatine was simply acting on whatever impulse entered that wizened old head of his. Not that he held any disrespect for the emperor; the old Jedi just seemed rather irrational at times. Still, he couldn't be that bad, he was, after all, the most powerful man in the galaxy, with the Empire growing in size every day.
His next thoughts were cut off by the harsh sounds of proximity alarms going off. Admiral Doriana's head snapped up as the space in front of him flickered with pseudomotion. For a split-second he thought that the Outbound Flight project had finally arrived, but that thought was dismissed as quickly as it came. The entire viewport was filled with a blurred white light, there were far too many ships out there to simply be the project, it was supposed to consist of only three ships.
*Perhaps they know.* The thought passed through his mind. *Perhaps they came with a full fleet of dreadnaughts, ready to destroy us.*
His train of thought was brought to a halt as the ships finished the reversion, showing not the Outbound Flight project but a dozen ships of completely alien design.
"Identify those ships!" He snapped at the lieutenant stationed at sensors. The command was unnecessary; the officer was already busy running an assortment of sensor sweeps across the unidentified craft.
"I'm still not getting any matches, Sir. This could be a species that we've never come across before, Sir."
"Thank you, lieutenant." Doriana said dryly. From the data present it was a fairly easy conclusion to come to. "Comm, hail them."
"No need, Sir. I'm receving a transmission from the lead ship now."
"Put it through." Kinman stepped up to the holoprojector as a six-inch tall alien appeared. On first glance, through the blue-black coloring of the communications holograms, the figure appeared perfectly human. It was an illusion that was broken the second the figure looked up. Instead of looking into normal eyes, Admiral Doriana found himself looking into two glowing embers. He got the feeling that they were red, but through the colour distortion it was impossible to tell. He also noticed that the figure was, in general, much more blue than it should have been over a holo channel.
*Interesting colouration.*
" Thimmthou thrathodo'roundath Mitth'raw'nuruodo oudoth'rathaoudou rethou'chiss'ttrud." Despite the alien tongue the creature had an elegant smoothness to his speech; Admiral Doriana had no idea what was being said to him but he felt compelled by it anyway.
"Comm, can you translate that?"
"Trying Sir, there isn't much to go on yet. Can you get it to talk some more?"
"I'll try." Doriana turned to the hologram again. "I am Admiral Kinman Doriana, in command of the Imperial Star Destroyer *Aggressor*. We are attempting to translate your speech now and-"
"Is this better, Admiral?" asked the alien in fluent basic, cutting him off. Doriana felt his jaw begin to drop.
"Comm, are you anywhere near a language base yet?"
"Still not enough, Sir. If you can talk to it, tell it to speak more of its language so we can begin a translation."
Normally Doriana would have been quick to reprimand the ensign for giving him orders, now he was so taken aback by the alien's translation speed that he didn't even notice.
His mind raced through the possibilities. If these creatures were advanced enough to translate a language that quickly with that little as a base, perhaps they were advanced in other areas as well. Best to be on the safe side.
"Shield control, raise shields. Comm, order the rest of the taskforce to do the same. We don't want to be caught taking any precautions."
Perhaps these things weren't as advanced as they appeared. Maybe they had run into other ships before and acquired a language database from them. But he had never heard of this species before. If the Empire knew about them Doriana felt confident that he also would have and the Empire, with its vast spy networks already in place, would certainly have heard of contact with a new alien species.
Which left him one of two options: this race was highly classified by Intelligence, or the ship they had run across had been destroyed before it got a chance to tell anyone about these aliens.
Neither choice was very appealing.
Sighing, Doriana turned back to the miniature alien that stood waiting on the communications board.
"How can you speak Basic?"
The nonhuman's answer was a garble of words that the Admiral had never heard before, interspersed with occasional Basic. Perhaps these creatures weren't as intelligent as they seemed.
"Sir?" The tentative request for attention came from the starboard crew pit. Turning, Doriana faced the crewman.
"Yes, ensign?"
"Well, Sir-" He was obviously unaccustomed to making suggestions to his commanding officers.
"Yes?" Doriana asked in his best reassuring voice.
""Well, Sir, I was wondering, Sir, why we don't send them, perhaps, a language database so that we can communicate with them, Sir."
Doriana suppressed a sigh. After all that he had been hoping for a reasonable question. Still, these troops needed to be trained, not simply disciplined. An officer that followed orders was, of course, essential, but one that couldn't think for himself was just as much a liability.
"The reason for that, ensign, is because if these aliens are hostile we don't want them walking off with our complete language database. Not being able to read basic will make slicing into databases much harder and not being able to speak Basic will prevent them from entering mainstream society as simply another species people haven't noticed. It won't hinder them forever, but it will certainly hurt for a bit. If they are hostile."
"But, Sir-"
"Yes, ensign?" Doriana recognized that the man was inexperience but his patience did have a limit. During contact with a new alien species was not the time nor place for a discussion on standard procedure.
"Well, Sir-"
"Just get to it ensign."
"Yes Sir. Couldn't we send them the data for another language? A lesser used one that wouldn't help them even if they did know it? Laureate, for example, Sir?"
Doriana paused and wondered for a brief second if "Out of the mouths of babes" referred only to hatchlings or if it could apply to anyone who didn't know much about what they were talking about. Maybe it was related to beginner's luck.
"That, ensign" He could see the man cringing from the inevitable reprimand for stupidity "Is a remarkably good idea."
"I'm sorry, Sir, I... Sir?" The crewer looked up in confusion as his brain caught up with events.
"I am not to proud to accept a good idea when I hear it, even if it came from an inferior officer." Turning, Doriana faced the Comm officer.
"Transmit the alien ship our complete database on Malkonian and set the translation matrix for Malkonian to Basic two way conversion."
"Yes Sir!"
Doriana turned back to the hologram that stood on the Comm unit.
"Do you understand me now?" There was a pause, then the creature nodded its head.
It took Doriana a minute to realize the significance of that gesture, seeing as he was so used to seeing and using it. If this alien knew human gestures, what else did it know? Either it was unbelievably astute or these things had made contact with humans before. Things were pointing more and more towards this being a hostile race and, with the Outbound Flight project due, there was no time to wage a war with these creatures, even if Doriana's victory was a certainty.
Doriana's fears were redoubled as the hologram voiced its next words.
"I am Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Expansionary Defence Fleet. I cannot allow you to remain in our space. You will leave now."
Admiral Kinman Doriana sighed and nodded to fire control. Even if these aliens would allow his fleet to stay in their space after negotiations, it would do the fledgling Empire's reputation no good for people to know that they relied on negotiations to survive meetings with other species. Or that they broke any promises made during negotiations when reinforcements arrived. With another nod to fire control, the *Aggressor* opened fire on the other ships. After all, the aliens were out numbered and out gunned. What could they possibly do?
I hoped that you liked this first chapter, more will follow. I shall attempt to update every week or so, but writing two stories can take a while.
If you enjoyed this, please try "DarkFire", a Star Wars story about Boba Fett and all the other Bounty hunters.
Italics indicated by *'s
Admiral Kinman Doriana stared out the bridge's veiwport at the cold and unfamiliar starscape that confronted him. He certainly hoped that whoever Palpatine had got his information from was telling the truth. He would hate to find that he and his men had been waiting here for the past day, not to mention the week it took to get out here and the week it would take to get back, for no good reason. Palpatine seemed utterly confidant in his sources, he always was, but Kinman sometimes got the feeling that Palpatine was simply acting on whatever impulse entered that wizened old head of his. Not that he held any disrespect for the emperor; the old Jedi just seemed rather irrational at times. Still, he couldn't be that bad, he was, after all, the most powerful man in the galaxy, with the Empire growing in size every day.
His next thoughts were cut off by the harsh sounds of proximity alarms going off. Admiral Doriana's head snapped up as the space in front of him flickered with pseudomotion. For a split-second he thought that the Outbound Flight project had finally arrived, but that thought was dismissed as quickly as it came. The entire viewport was filled with a blurred white light, there were far too many ships out there to simply be the project, it was supposed to consist of only three ships.
*Perhaps they know.* The thought passed through his mind. *Perhaps they came with a full fleet of dreadnaughts, ready to destroy us.*
His train of thought was brought to a halt as the ships finished the reversion, showing not the Outbound Flight project but a dozen ships of completely alien design.
"Identify those ships!" He snapped at the lieutenant stationed at sensors. The command was unnecessary; the officer was already busy running an assortment of sensor sweeps across the unidentified craft.
"I'm still not getting any matches, Sir. This could be a species that we've never come across before, Sir."
"Thank you, lieutenant." Doriana said dryly. From the data present it was a fairly easy conclusion to come to. "Comm, hail them."
"No need, Sir. I'm receving a transmission from the lead ship now."
"Put it through." Kinman stepped up to the holoprojector as a six-inch tall alien appeared. On first glance, through the blue-black coloring of the communications holograms, the figure appeared perfectly human. It was an illusion that was broken the second the figure looked up. Instead of looking into normal eyes, Admiral Doriana found himself looking into two glowing embers. He got the feeling that they were red, but through the colour distortion it was impossible to tell. He also noticed that the figure was, in general, much more blue than it should have been over a holo channel.
*Interesting colouration.*
" Thimmthou thrathodo'roundath Mitth'raw'nuruodo oudoth'rathaoudou rethou'chiss'ttrud." Despite the alien tongue the creature had an elegant smoothness to his speech; Admiral Doriana had no idea what was being said to him but he felt compelled by it anyway.
"Comm, can you translate that?"
"Trying Sir, there isn't much to go on yet. Can you get it to talk some more?"
"I'll try." Doriana turned to the hologram again. "I am Admiral Kinman Doriana, in command of the Imperial Star Destroyer *Aggressor*. We are attempting to translate your speech now and-"
"Is this better, Admiral?" asked the alien in fluent basic, cutting him off. Doriana felt his jaw begin to drop.
"Comm, are you anywhere near a language base yet?"
"Still not enough, Sir. If you can talk to it, tell it to speak more of its language so we can begin a translation."
Normally Doriana would have been quick to reprimand the ensign for giving him orders, now he was so taken aback by the alien's translation speed that he didn't even notice.
His mind raced through the possibilities. If these creatures were advanced enough to translate a language that quickly with that little as a base, perhaps they were advanced in other areas as well. Best to be on the safe side.
"Shield control, raise shields. Comm, order the rest of the taskforce to do the same. We don't want to be caught taking any precautions."
Perhaps these things weren't as advanced as they appeared. Maybe they had run into other ships before and acquired a language database from them. But he had never heard of this species before. If the Empire knew about them Doriana felt confident that he also would have and the Empire, with its vast spy networks already in place, would certainly have heard of contact with a new alien species.
Which left him one of two options: this race was highly classified by Intelligence, or the ship they had run across had been destroyed before it got a chance to tell anyone about these aliens.
Neither choice was very appealing.
Sighing, Doriana turned back to the miniature alien that stood waiting on the communications board.
"How can you speak Basic?"
The nonhuman's answer was a garble of words that the Admiral had never heard before, interspersed with occasional Basic. Perhaps these creatures weren't as intelligent as they seemed.
"Sir?" The tentative request for attention came from the starboard crew pit. Turning, Doriana faced the crewman.
"Yes, ensign?"
"Well, Sir-" He was obviously unaccustomed to making suggestions to his commanding officers.
"Yes?" Doriana asked in his best reassuring voice.
""Well, Sir, I was wondering, Sir, why we don't send them, perhaps, a language database so that we can communicate with them, Sir."
Doriana suppressed a sigh. After all that he had been hoping for a reasonable question. Still, these troops needed to be trained, not simply disciplined. An officer that followed orders was, of course, essential, but one that couldn't think for himself was just as much a liability.
"The reason for that, ensign, is because if these aliens are hostile we don't want them walking off with our complete language database. Not being able to read basic will make slicing into databases much harder and not being able to speak Basic will prevent them from entering mainstream society as simply another species people haven't noticed. It won't hinder them forever, but it will certainly hurt for a bit. If they are hostile."
"But, Sir-"
"Yes, ensign?" Doriana recognized that the man was inexperience but his patience did have a limit. During contact with a new alien species was not the time nor place for a discussion on standard procedure.
"Well, Sir-"
"Just get to it ensign."
"Yes Sir. Couldn't we send them the data for another language? A lesser used one that wouldn't help them even if they did know it? Laureate, for example, Sir?"
Doriana paused and wondered for a brief second if "Out of the mouths of babes" referred only to hatchlings or if it could apply to anyone who didn't know much about what they were talking about. Maybe it was related to beginner's luck.
"That, ensign" He could see the man cringing from the inevitable reprimand for stupidity "Is a remarkably good idea."
"I'm sorry, Sir, I... Sir?" The crewer looked up in confusion as his brain caught up with events.
"I am not to proud to accept a good idea when I hear it, even if it came from an inferior officer." Turning, Doriana faced the Comm officer.
"Transmit the alien ship our complete database on Malkonian and set the translation matrix for Malkonian to Basic two way conversion."
"Yes Sir!"
Doriana turned back to the hologram that stood on the Comm unit.
"Do you understand me now?" There was a pause, then the creature nodded its head.
It took Doriana a minute to realize the significance of that gesture, seeing as he was so used to seeing and using it. If this alien knew human gestures, what else did it know? Either it was unbelievably astute or these things had made contact with humans before. Things were pointing more and more towards this being a hostile race and, with the Outbound Flight project due, there was no time to wage a war with these creatures, even if Doriana's victory was a certainty.
Doriana's fears were redoubled as the hologram voiced its next words.
"I am Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Expansionary Defence Fleet. I cannot allow you to remain in our space. You will leave now."
Admiral Kinman Doriana sighed and nodded to fire control. Even if these aliens would allow his fleet to stay in their space after negotiations, it would do the fledgling Empire's reputation no good for people to know that they relied on negotiations to survive meetings with other species. Or that they broke any promises made during negotiations when reinforcements arrived. With another nod to fire control, the *Aggressor* opened fire on the other ships. After all, the aliens were out numbered and out gunned. What could they possibly do?
I hoped that you liked this first chapter, more will follow. I shall attempt to update every week or so, but writing two stories can take a while.
If you enjoyed this, please try "DarkFire", a Star Wars story about Boba Fett and all the other Bounty hunters.