In a Mirror Sparkley Chapter 2: First Contact

Two years have passed since "The Phoenix" broke the warp barrier. Humanity, under the leadership of the Slade Foundation has expanded out into the solar system at a phenomenal rate. Luna and Mars have been colonized, along with dozens of asteroid colonies and a few expeditions to study the moons of Jupiter.

Mankind is still confined to the Sol system due to their inability to exceed warp 1.5. While this allows for trips from Terra to Mars in no more than ten minutes, the distances involved in interstellar flight meant using too many resources to produce the mobile ecosystems necessary for such long trips.

Little did humanity know that they were about to have unexpected guests.

The alien ship coasted through space at warp two, easily outrunning anything humanity could mobilize. Ship's sensors aboard the "Longevity" showed gentle curves and a burnt copper color on the vessel passing them. Being mostly navigational sensors, they lacked the ability to discern ships systems on the stranger, but could pick up several high energy sources that were probably weapons.

Hoping to open trade relations with a completely new species, Captain Stevens ordered all channels to be opened and focused on the quickly receding craft. At the same time he signaled for Miranda Thomas to bring the ship about and give pursuit.

She swiveled around in her chair with a smile that conveyed her understanding of the profits possible in such a situation. With the flip of a few controls she took the control stick, and the whole crew felt the ship bank hard to go after the unknown craft. This was an accomplishment given the inertial compensators on a patrol craft, but the helms woman had called for full power from the engines before even starting to maneuver.

She and the captain both knew they could never hope to catch the sleek ship as it sped away from them. But between the engines and the comm system they were hoping to get there attention. What they got was an alien language answering their hail. All patrol craft carried the latest translation software, but it was far from universal and their computers were designed for combat, not chatting. The one thing that was going their way was the alien suddenly coming to a complete stop and waiting for them to catch up.

The communication officer, Spencer Deacons, quickly contacted their base and requested assistance. Io base sent back a limited translation matrix and dispatched two more ships to render assistance.

Meanwhile Stevens tried out the new translation matrix and was pleasantly surprised when he received the reply, "We are the merchant scout Crevox, of the Ferengi Trade Federation, pleased to meet you Longevity. We detected the presence of low power warp fields in this system and decided to investigate."

These words caused the captain and the helms woman to exchange significant glances. Key phrases caused both worry and hope, trade federation and low power were such telling comments that their guests were greater in number and quiet advanced technologically.

Stevens grinned and responded,"Crevox, we appreciate your interest and look forward opening more formal relations with your species."

What no one on board the Longevity realized was that their opposite numbers on the Crevox were mirroring their thoughts of profit almost perfectly.

And so it came to pass that First Contact was a meeting of wallets. With the Ferengi as their original guides to the perils of the universe at large, humanity's first steps toward the stars would prove to be interesting for many species.

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