OU-STGOD: "First Contact" Game Thread

[Ra]

As the Herasim moved closer to retrieve its probe, Nemhesi's eyes narrowed as she noticed a second spatial distortion forming. It was not identical to Sanet drive signatures, nor Kiir for that matter, telling her it had to be the aliens' own craft.

"Commander!" Nemhesi called. "Spatial distortion, bearing one mark seven. Range: Twenty lightseconds!"

"Reading confirmed," one of the civilian scope readers announced, to ensure the military types didn't think he was asleep on the job.

"Magnetize hull armor," commanded Enmatal. "Though this may be peaceful contact, I want full precautions. Open a channel to the Itesal."

"Excuse me, Commander," stated the science ship's captain, Sedken, "but this is not a military command ship. You have no authority to command my crew around."

"Sometimes rules must fall before the need to survive, ship master," Enmatal glared. "We must contact a proper military vessel!"

Sedken nodded, and glanced over to the comms crewman. He quickly opened a channel with the command ship Itesal.

"This is the High Commander," Enmatal announced. "Change bearing and intercept us immediately."

"As you command, sir," replied the ship's commander, Evtasa.

"Scan the contact," asked Verishah.

"It's a manned craft, and armed," answered the crewman.

"Armed?" Enmatal answered. "From its size it is no threat to the Itesal. Likely a scout vessel."

"It is closing fast," Verishah stated. "Open a channel."

"Done," the comms crewman nodded.

(nontranslated to show just what the A'millians would hear)

"Sera kat sen Sanet matal ghayad Herasim. Am les hal rat nemal. Ham kelem iad nemalet."

[Destructionator XV]

OOC: I love the way you actually have a language. That is super awesome.

A few notes on closing: at 20 lightseconds, they are a good day or so away at sublight (at 50 km / s, which is closing pretty fast in my universe). Well within communications range (with lag, of course, just like how we are posting to the board... kinda cool that way actually), but outside my effective weapons range and will be for about 18 hours unless one of us is thrusting toward the other or you were going very fast at the time (my speed is based on orbital velocity around the star; my FTL preserves their previous speed when they jump).

Of course, spinning the warp drive up could close gap that instantly.
-------------------------------

"There it is, sir," the sensor operator pointed to a small dot on his infrared scope.

"Astrogation, plot for intercept vector," the captain ordered.

A few seconds later, a voice came from "above": "Intercept vector plotted."

The captain sounded a bell, signaling the crew to secure themselves in their acceleration couches, if not there already, then fired a brief burn of the engines to bring them on a course that would swing them by within one light second of the ship.

"Message coming in on radio, sir."

"Record all and put on speakers."

"Aye, sir."

"Sera kat sen Sanet matal ghayad Herasim. Am les hal rat nemal. Ham kelem iad nemalet."

"What do you make of it," he said to the linguistics specialist who was rushed aboard for the mission.

"Nothing yet, I want to try to keep them talking."

"Proceed."

The linguistics specialist floated toward the radio and said simply: "garder la conversation, s'il vous plaît"

OOC: Since I don't have my own language... yet .... I am just using a free internet translation to French. Maybe it will do a bad job and have an alien language anyway! :-D
This language barrier is interesting.. I'd like to see if I can actually figure it out, so plz don't spoil with the translations yet

[Ra]

OOC: It's somewhat spoiled for me, since I have a very... very loose understanding of French. :P But still, this is awesome. :D
===========

"Garder la conversation, s'il vous plaît," came the ship's response.

"We are actually talking to these aliens," Verishah thought to herself. "Though we have met other species before, never have I, personally, done this. I need something simple, that they can understand... but what?"

"Can we attempt to translate any of that?" asked Enmatal.

"I can attempt it," said the ship's AI. "However, it will take time."

Verishah answered the ship, "Yalisar. Ia lenal ere'hal kelem ev wayden. Ham neda jid am tersada ia muna, wa sen lan so'Valiar."

It would take time, but Verishah was excited that something would actually come of this effort. It was as real as first contact got, outside of exchanged bows in person. The language barrier was somewhat frustrating, however, but in the coming years it would fall. It was upon her shoulders to ensure that contact remained peaceful, and she knew it from how Enmatal was hovering over her.

[Destructionator XV]

The captain looked at the civilian linguistics expert with surprise: "That isn't what I would have said."

"What would you say?"

"The standard military greeting, identifying ourself and asking them to do the same.."

"...I guess that would work."

"And they might be thinking the same way."

"Which would give me a starting point."

"And them."

"Right. You should say that. Sound like a military man."

The captain shook his head, but, took up the radio and said

"Ceci est Capitaine Benjamin T. Picard, de du A'millian spatial-vaisseau Hornet. Vous identifier et déclarer vos intentions. "

OOC: I took some liberties with the translation here. It is surely wrong French now, but works in some ways I like, namely preserving the initials ASV. /ooc

"I think they did identify themselves," the linguist said after thinking for a bit.

Seconds later, another message came in from the alien ship, surely sent right after they received the first transmission, but gotten only now due to light lag.

"Yalisar. Ia lenal ere'hal kelem ev wayden. Ham neda jid am tersada ia muna, wa sen lan so'Valiar."

"Can we transmit an analog video signal?" the linguist asked.

"The signal would be weak at this range, but doable." the communications officer answered. "Beside, there would be no way of knowing if they carry the equipment to display it. It is probably just as obsolete for them as it is for us."

"It was obsolete for the A'millians when they first came to Koreallia, but they carried one, and it worked thanks to physics and electronics principles being the same across the universe." the linguist cited his history, then continued: "We need to establish more common ground than military greetings, which may or may not actually be common ground. I think we should try it."

"Proceed."

The linguist spoke over the radio: "L'état d'attente pour recevoir la transmission visuelle analogue. "

They rigged up the camera, and started broadcasting UHF television signals, at a frequency exactly twice where our voice signal was being transmitted, hoping the math would help them receive it with more confidence.

They set up their own television and waited to see if the alien ship received and understood, while still listening to the same audio channel.

[Ra]

"We're receiving some new kind of signal," said Nemhesi. "I'm unable to make out what it is."

"Just keep working on it, please," asked Verishah. "This isn't going far, now. Maybe I could clarify on my last transmission?"

"You're the scientist," Enmatal intoned.

"Lan so'Valiar," Verishah repeated. She then took a sheet of paper and marked out a crude five-pointed star, which she put into a scanning unit and had transmitted.

"That was unexpected," said Enmatal.

"I say star, and show them a star," Verishah answered. "Sometimes words are best backed by images?"

"I would have sent a starmap, is all I meant," Enmatal chuckled.

"And with the alien characters inscribed on each space body?" the AI quipped. "That would only confuse them more."

"I suppose."

[Destructionator XV]

"Sir," the communication officer looked at his screen, "picture." He piped it through the bigger TV for everyone to see.

The image was completely wrong with its colors, ghosted and staticy, like a TV signal when your antenna is loose, but worse.

"What is with that color?"

"Maybe their eyes see differently or electron beams are calibrated differently than ours. I'm working on cleaning it up."

"Lan so'Valiar."

"Picture? Image?" the linguist thought outloud. A minute later, the communications officer patched in a picture that was much cleaner and had the colors mostly fixed.

"I think I got it," he said, "adjusted the antenna and frequency and ran a best guess algorithm over the colors."

"Star. Can you run your filter in reverse for our signal?" the linguist said, flipping though a book to find a picture of the sun.

"Yeah."

He held the photograph of the sun to the camera, next to the image sent on their tv, and said "étoile" into the radio. "Lan so'Valiar... étoile"

He then held a picture of the Hornet infront of a starfield, and said: "spatial-vaisseau" and waited for a response.

[Ra]

"The ship is sending a second signal," stated Nemhesi. "Some kind of... analog signal?"

"Old technology to be sure," said Verishah, "But it works. Can we translate it?"

"I believe so," answered a crewman.

A moment passed, and the crewman chimed in once again. "It's a visual signal. Displaying on your workstation monitor."

The monitor flickered, before showing the photograph of the A'millian sun.

"Lan so'Valiar... étoile."

Then it showed the image of the starship.

"Spatial-vaisseau."

"Ghayad," Verishah answered. "Spatial-vaisseau kat ghayad."

Verishah then took a publically available side-view of the Herasim, and placed it in front of a small camera.

"Spatial-vaisseau Herasim."

But if they were showing each other pictures over the vid feed, Verishah reasoned why not reveal themselves? She turned the camera and pointed to herself, adding, "A na Verishah."

The narrow, gray-skinned features of her face would likely come as a surprise to the people in the other craft, with her black eyes and lack of ear lobes. Sanet were overall a thin species, though certainly not weak. The lower gravity of Halne made Sanet tall and almost gaunt-looking, with the average San (singular) being seven feet tall. Their heads looked humanoid enough, but were narrower, and featured an extension of the skull further behind the neck than humans.

Sanet grow long, straight hair, but most females (like Verishah) shave all of it save a single braid on the top of their head, grown to waist length. It was a cultural statement of womanhood that was increasingly being made "old-fashioned" by younger elements of society.

[Destructionator XV]

OOC: Your description of them reminds me ever so slightly of the Protoss...

The next transmission came in, and the linguist now thought he had enough to at least try and get started, but then an image came back in, of the people on the other ship.

"It's them. Turn on the camera," the captain ordered and picked it up to see.

They turned on the camera and the sound, and started transmitting a constant stream.

"Benjamin," the captain said, pointing at himself into the camera. He looked like a regular guy, about 6 feet tall with a moustache. His face was puffy - an effect of being in freefall. He wore the A'millian Starfleet duty uniform - a simply green shirt and pants. On the breast of his shirt was a nametag: "CAPT B. T. Picard" and on his sleeve, a triangular patch with a picture of a hornet in front of a starfield topped with a crown, on the top, looped around, it said "BC-1124" and across the bottom, it read "A.S.V. Hornet". At his neck, he wore a small pin, with three silver circles arranged in a triangle on one side, and a small crown pin on the other.

"Larry," the linguist pointed at himself. He was bald and a shorter man than the captain, but still mostly unremarkable. He wore the same green outfit, but no name tag, unit patch, nor rank insignia: he was a civilian. Then he pointed around at all the people: "humans".

Behind the two men, some of the ship's controls could be seen: hundreds of blinking lights and buttons amongst a sea of switches, levers, and knobs.

"Send them anatomy images," the linguist said, getting a nod from the captain before it happened. Over the signal, generic anatomy images came though, and once again, he said the word, "humans".

They ended the transmission for now, and he went back to thinking.

"Well, I think they said they are the starship Herasim who are traveling to a planet around a star - presumably, Koreallia, and their captain is apparently named 'Verishah'. That's all I have now, but I think it won't be long until I get the basics at this rate."

"This is going remarkably smoothly" the captain commented, then they went back to listening and watching, expecting a return transmission to start any second now.

[Ra]

OOC: Indeed, there are some inspirations from the Protoss, among other things, when I came up with their appearance.

And this whole event, of two different species learning to communicate with one another, is just awesome. I love it.
=============

Verishah watched the crew introduce themselves and then bowed her head respectfully, saying, "Yalisar."

She then pointed to the others next to her.

"A na Nemhesi," said Enmatal's adjutant.

"A na Enmatal," said the High Commander. His space duty uniform was nowhere near as ornate as his planetside dress uniform, but it did offer obvious rank insignia, as well as his name written in Sanet runes.

"Sanet," Verishah said, gesturing to herself and the others.

Verishah noted the anatomy information coming in, and nodded curiously. "Send a generic anatomy chart to them, and go ahead and end the transmission."

"Broad, these people," Nemhesi stated. "Even their females."

"Higher gravity, most likely," said Verishah.

"They seem quite reasonable enough," said Enmatal. "I think the Ghervay will no doubt be pleased by our progress; especially in the area of communication. We already have exchanged rudimentary words with them, which are acknowledged and understood... had we been so fortunate with the Kiir perhaps hostilities could have been avoided."

"Perhaps," said Nemhesi. "First contact was tense and uncertain, but it was their challenging of our star system claims that led to conflict."

"Yes, but such a discussion can be saved for later," Enmatal smirked.

"I think we should let them dock," Verishah smiled.

"Assuming such a thing is even technically feasable," Enmatal intoned.

"And if not, this ship and the Itesal have auxiliar bays," the scientist prodded.

"Very well. Now, how do we tell them that?" Enmatal asked.

"We shall see upon hearing their response," answered Verishah.

[Destructionator XV]

OOC: I am strongly leaning toward dropping FTL communication from my universe; I haven't totally decided yet, but I am now operating on the assumption that they do not have it.
====

The men on the Hornet saw the last transmission coming in.

"Astrogation, plot a jump course to A'millia." the captain ordered.

"We're leaving? We just started." objected Larry the linguist.

"We need to report what we have so far, possibly pick up additional experts, and get further instructions. Get on the radio and somehow tell them we're leaving, but can come back..." he thought for a moment, "tactical, do you think the First Fleet can take them if we had to?"

"Insufficient data, sir. She's pretty big, but she does seem to be alone."

"They don't seem to want to fight," the civilian linguist commented.

"Capabilities, not intentions, is how we make decisions like that. Tell them they could come with us."

The linguist went back to the radio and asked the comm officer to send over a starmap pointing out astrogation's course plot and our position, then tried to piece together what he had learned thus far to say: "ghayad Hornet sen lan so'Valiar...a na A'millia".

He lacked the vocabulary to say what he wanted to say next, so instead he turned the camera back on him and pulled the communications officer over and pointed at the lieutenant's circle on his collar, then pulled the captain down and pointed at the rank insignia and the crown pin on his collar, then pointed up, and did so again.

Then he spoke again: "ghayad Herasim sen lan so'Valiar A'millia..."

OOC: Darmok and Jalad, on the ocean... shakka, when the walls fell /ooc

He was certain he butchered it, but hoped they got the gist of it. Just in case, he had the comm officer send a small computer generated animation of the ship disappearing, then reapparing over a planet together; pictures speak louder than words anyway, he figured.

They would wait a couple minutes to see if they get a response before jumping back to report.

[Ra]

Verishah struggled to restrain a grin as the linguist attempted to speak the Sanet common language.

"Ghayad Hornet sen lan so'Valiar...a na A'millia."

"Ghayad Herasim sen lan so'Valiar A'millia..."

"What was that?" Enmatal muttered.

"They're at least trying," Verishah quipped. "Essentially I think he means they've got to go back to AL-2935D; or as he puts it, 'A'millia'. The other message would be asking us to follow."

Nemhesi then saw the animation and added, "Precisely. They wish to execute a jump home."

"Navigational, plot jump coordinates for System AL-2935D," ordered shipmaster Sedkem. A reply came in over the intercom.

"I do not like the idea of going to A'millia," Enmatal interjected. "This ship is completely unarmed, outside of meagre particle cannons to deflect asteroids. They have a warship, and perhaps an entire fleet on the other side."

"Yet deploying the Itesal alongside us would only lead to obvious provocation," answered Verishah. "It is a Ghervay-class commandship, our most powerful combatant!"

"Respectfully, I must agree with the Chairwoman, sir," added Nemhesi. "A frigate, perhaps, hanging back at one lightsecond. But a battleship would be inadvisable."

"Course is plotted and space-folding drives are charging," Sedkem advised. "Capacitors at 55%."

"Very well," Enmatal droned most officer-like. "Tell them we'll follow, unescorted. Nemhesi, inform the Itesal to energize her drives and plot course, but standby."

"As you command," Nemhesi nodded. She drifted off to the comm panel.

"Ghayad Herasim wa sen lan A'millia," said Verishah.

She then put up an animation of the Herasim jumping to the other system, alone.

[Destructionator XV]

OOC: Remember AL-2935D is what you called Koreallia on the last page... I am jumping to A'millia, which might lead to an interesting error of navigation.

The Hornet spun up her FTL drive and started the series of jumps and burns to put her into orbit over A'millia. As soon as they entered the system, they started transmitting recordings of the meeting ahead to the planet, so they could study it before they arrive.