Ixabi leaned away from the operations console and rubbed her eyes with a weary sigh. Her brain was outright refusing to read the Starfleet report on the Hamsarai that she’d covertly opened on her screen. Maybe nineteen times was enough? Maybe staying up late to re-re-re-read it last night was impairing her cognitive faculties?

“Maybe both,” she muttered, and was it her exhaustion or the general mood of the ship that made her feel so uncharacteristically blasé about talking to herself in public?

The news of the Vaadwaur attacks had planted dark little seeds of fear and anticipation in everyone’s minds, and as much as she tried to shut it out, she could feel it like a constant droning in her head.

It had gotten so bad that she’d asked Qsshrr for a hug, just for a chance to feel that incomprehensibly alien mind brush her own and distract her for a moment. And despite the ungainly maneuvering required to hug a pile of rocks, it had worked. Only problem was that now she felt awkward around Qsshrr, even as she told herself that Horta probably didn’t experience social awkwardness.

A ping on the long-range sensors drew her back to the here and now.

“Captain,” she called over her shoulder, and though she couldn’t see Anand, she could feel him pulling himself out of his own ‘re-reading the same sentence ad infinitum’ stupor. “I’ve got a ship on long-range sensors. It’s–”

Ixabi blinked and refreshed her console, double-checking. “It’s a Hamsarai ship. And it’s heading right towards us.”

“Huh.” She heard a chirp from his combadge. “Commander Bohkat to the bridge.”

Anand left his chair and approached her station. Ixabi could feel his curiosity momentarily overriding the ubiquitous anxiety. It was a simple, refreshing emotion.

As soon as Bohkat came striding onto the bridge, Anand asked, “What sort of ship? Are we close enough for a visual?”

Ixabi nodded, and a small, nondescript silver triangle of a ship appeared on the viewer.

“A small one,” she answered, and the relief she felt from Anand and Bohkat mingled with her own. “Shuttle-sized. It’s approaching at warp seven. A bit difficult to tell due to the unusual configuration, but it doesn’t seem to be carrying any heavy weapons.”

She glanced up over her shoulder at Anand, who was watching Bohkat. Anticipation had replaced curiosity.

Bohkat crossed his arms and huffed. “Are you sure they’re alone?”

Ixabi double-checked. “Nothing on short-range sensors, long-range sensors… nothing.”

Bohkat was still working his jaw, but she felt the fear he’d never admit to feeling trickle away, leaving only a cloud of suspicion.

“Well.” Anand clapped his hands, and both Ixabi and Bohkat jolted slightly at the sound. “I suppose we’d better hail them, then.”

“But–” The word jumped out of Ixabi’s mouth without permission from her brain. Unlike some crew members, she was not in the habit of questioning command decisions. Anand’s eyes were on her now, though, and she felt surprise, curiosity, and a bit of… amusement? So she made herself finish the thought. “What if it’s not our ship?”

“Oh, I don’t particularly care if it’s not our ship,” Anand sighed, waving his hand to dismiss the notion. “I don’t intend to start running evasive maneuvers–”

“Captain!” A voice from comms interrupted his thought. “We’re being hailed by the Hamsarai ship.”

“There we are,” said Anand, grinning and crossing his arms over his chest. “Saved me the trouble. Onscreen.”

A visage that much resembled the one from the data file filled the screen. The Hamsarai leaned far forward over its console, pushing itself up on its six front legs–or arms, rather, if the opposable thumbs were any indication. The feathery spines jutting backwards from their skull quivered, and they seemed to be examining the Babylon crew closely. Unfortunately, they were still a bit too far away for Ixabi to get a clear read on their thoughts, assuming she’d be able to read them at all.

In the background were two more Hamsarai seated at consoles on opposite ends of the shuttle. They were easily differentiated by the unique colors of the spines on their heads. On the left, the Hamsarai with pink spines sat still at their station, slowly blinking their large, glassy eyes as they pondered the viewscreen. On the right, the Hamsarai with green spines was fidgeting their many limbs and tapping their four legs, glancing rapidly between the screen and their two compatriots.

The one taking up most of the screen had blue spines. Eventually they nodded their head and leaned back, as if satisfied by what it saw of their bridge.

“You are the Starfleet vessel that contacted our homeworld? The one inquiring about, ah…” Blue Spines pushed some buttons on their console and paused to apparently check their notes. “About interstellar artifacts?”

“Right, in conjunction with the graviton and neutrino values we mentioned,” said Anand, making a point to repeat part of the message back as confirmation. “This is the USS Babylon, and I’m Captain Sanjiv Anand. Now, perhaps we mistranslated your message–”

Doubtful, thought Ixabi, if the clear and consistent output from the audio translator was any indication, but she didn’t need telepathy to tell that the captain was being diplomatic.

“But we thought we would be meeting you at the coordinates you provided us.”

Ixabi’s eyes began to unfocus as she continued to reach out into the space around them with her mind, like a hand sweeping through a pitch-black room for some kind of light switch.

“Right, well,” said the Hamsarai, “In our excitement we miscalculated the trajectory between the site of the artifact and our meeting location and realized that it would be much more efficient to simply meet you en route.”

Suddenly, a flicker, distant but recognizable. They were finally in range, and the churn of thoughts and emotions from three distinct alien minds was disorienting. She pressed a hand to her temple and tried to focus on a single point on her console. She felt Bohkat’s hand grip the back of her seat, and then a wave of concern from him and Anand.

Anand spared her a glance, but his arms remained crossed over his chest as he addressed the viewscreen. “I see. What’s your vessel’s top speed?”

“According to this conversion chart you’ve provided… warp seven.”

“Well, if you’re really in a hurry, we ought to tow you. Even at our best speed, though, I believe it’s still several hours to our destination. Would you like to come aboard and see the ship in the meantime?”

Blue Spines didn’t answer right away. They looked over their shoulder at Green Spines, who had gone from fidgety to tense and was gripping the console tightly. Blue glanced over their other shoulder at Pink Spines, who gave a single, deliberate nod. Blue nodded back.

“Yes, I think that sounds good.”

“Good! Ensign Carver here will get your ship lined up and locked in, and we’ll transport you over shortly.”

Anand turned to comms and gave the ‘cut’ signal, then zeroed in on Ixabi.

“Are you alright?” he asked, and Ixabi felt almost embarrassed at the amount of worry in his voice.

She took a deep breath in and out, and found she was able to muster up a genuine smile. “I’m fine. Encountering the thoughts of a new species is always a bit disorienting at first.”

Anand nodded but said nothing, trusting as he always did that she would share any relevant information after she’d collected her thoughts.

Bohkat was not so patient. “What were you able to read from them? Any aggression or violent intent?”

Ixabi shook her head. “No, nothing like that. To be honest, I couldn’t make out much beyond agitation and anxiety. And I don’t think you needed a telepath to tell you that.”

Anand laughed. “Maybe not, but I’m still going to bring you along to the transporter room to greet our guests.”

“Of course!” Ixabi rose from her seat and fell into step behind Anand and Bohkat.

“Should I have Ensign McNeill from security join us as well?” asked Bohkat.

“If you think you need the backup,” said Anand. “Personally, I think you could take them.”

Ixabi’s laughter echoed down the hall.