((Hurricane, VIP Guest Quarters))
Krey and his staff, as it were, had just come up with a plan of how to proceed now that the Kleptarky forces had apparently withdrawn.
“So, Sam, get up to the bridge and work with the ships comms and tactical staff to put together the probe. Keel, get those reports to command, and let me know what they come back with.” The veteran diplomat concluded.
“A probe loaded with a copy of our universal translator program with a greeting and apology. I wonder if they’ll even bother with it or just blow it to bits as soon as they see it.” Lt JG Samantha Tiege, Krey’s Diplomatic Corps Attache replied.
Like each other ‘Corps’ in the uniformed services of the Federation, there was an internal hierarchy of pseudo ranks. In the diplomatic realm, both the Federation Diplomatic Service, and Starfleets parallel Diplomatic Corps shared the same structure, with the billets of Attache, Liaison, Representative(formerly called Magistrates), Envoy, Emissary, and Ambassador being typical examples of the roles in ascending order. Though this firmly placed Tiege at the bottom of the diplomatic pecking order, Krey had come to trust the young woman’s instincts.
Just then Krey’s padd chirped, indicating a priority notification had just come in.
“Looks like we’ve made some progress on analyzing the Kleptarky communique that ruptured a bunch of ear drums…”
“And cracked a Bolian cochlea too.” Tiege added with a cheeky grin.
The Ambassador continued after reading a bit, “After running the message through a filter, and using a series of decoding algorithms, apparently it is a language and not just a communication jamming system. The universal translator will likely be able to decipher more of the language, we just need to expose it to more of it. Right now it’s got 80% of the syntax collated, and has probably translations for a handful of words or phases.”
“Might be tougher to get them talking now that the shootings started.” Tiege leaned against the back of a chair.
“We didn’t get into this line of work because it was easy…I have an idea.” Krey tapped his comm badge, “Krey to Mobra, I have a plan about our next moves, I’ll be up to the bridge shortly. Please signal the rest of the ships and have them ready to head back to the asteroid field.”
((A few hours later, Nimby, Command Deck))
“My leader, the intruders have approached the site of the encounter again and have launched a small unmanned device roughly in our direction.” A crewmember reported.
“What kind of device?” The Supreme Karaan turned to face the young woman.
“Unknown, it does not appear to be a weapon. It is broadcasting a message, and appears to contain some sort of embedded computer program, or technical information package.”
The Karaan looked briefly to the Chair of the Def and Strat committee whose only response was a slight raise of her eyebrows and tilt of her head.
“Another trick? Or maybe a device designed to infiltrate or otherwise compromise our systems?” The leader mused aloud.
“Perhaps. But considering the apparent technological and military superiority they’ve displayed thus far, I suspect not.” The Chairperson replied.
“Honoured Leader, if I may?” the Senior Compliance Manager said from the rear of the deck.
The Supreme Karaans lips pressed together in a sign of annoyance. Unlike the prim and proper, choreographed and scheduled audiences and encounters she was used to back on Nanira, this vessel was apparently full of people who had no qualms with interrupting her. Without turning to face the speaker she made the subtle finger flicking motion granting permission.
“We can use one of the auxiliary landing yachts aboard to access and analyze the transmission and data from the intruder’s device. That would ensure it is isolated from the ship’s systems if indeed it is more subterfuge.”
The leader tilted her own head slightly at this. It was a perceptive and rational idea.
“Very well. Proceed, and report what you discover.” She replied.
A few minutes later a crewman from the communication well reported, “Leader, the largest vessel in the intruders formation is now sending out a subspace communique. It is a video message.”
The leader thought that she knew what was about to occur. She had acted in a similar fashion as she had led the negotiating party that had accepted the surrender of the Seltians just before she had been elevated to Supreme Karaan. She hadn’t considered the thought of capitulation up until that point. She stood, and straightened her vestige, “Open the frequency.”
((Hurricane Bridge))
Krey had ordered all the ships to form in a line approximately half a million kilometres away from what they suspected(based on an extrapolation of the confirmed locations of the singularity clusters they’d found) was the Kleptarky’s border. He had also ordered all the vessels to leave their weapons systems offline and the Slivin, Malem and Ganelax to remain uncloaked.
“Just follow my lead Captain.” Krey said to Mobra as a Kleptarky vessel responded and opened the channel. The bridge crew then got the first glimpse of their opponents. A red skinned, hook nosed, large mouthed, and ornately dressed person stood in the centre of the image.
“Greetings. We appreciate your willingness to communicate. Are you able to understand our language?” Krey asked with a slight bow of his head.
Thankfully the comms officer had made the appropriate modifications to the volume output on their end, and the reply came through at a tolerable volume.
“We, *shrieking*… accept *shrieking* criminal *short scream* vicious *shrieking*.” the person said as the translator struggled.
“They haven’t installed or activated the copy of the UT we sent them apparently.” Krey thought to himself.
“We wish to apologize for the recent hostilities between us, and wish to open a dialogue in hopes of avoiding any further violence.” Krey said.
Krey then switched to Plan B and spread his hands to his side, performed a more pronounced bow of his head and knelt down on one knee, keeping his head low.
“Kneel and lower your head.” Krey whispered to Mobra who hesitated for a half second, but eventually did as the Ambassador said.
The response this time had a few more intelligible words.
The expression on the face of the speaker on the viewscreen resembled a mix of surprise and curiosity, “How is *scream*…can understand portions of *shrieking* comprehend us… *Shrieking* apology is genuine *scream*.”
“We have sent you a copy of the computer program that allows rapid translations of language forms. If you transmit your communications using it, we should be able to converse fluently with each other.” Krey said, raising his head to look at his counterpart but remained kneeling.
“I understand more words now. Your computer program is *shrieking*. I will have *screams* and reply shortly.” The red faced alien said before the channel abruptly closed.
Krey rose to his feet and turned to Mobra with a half hearted grin, “Perhaps my last mission before retirement won’t end with failure and initiate a war after all.”
