[@White Feather]

Thus far this interaction proved interesting indeed. Not quite as smooth as the contact with the RLC went, but it was to be expected from a species with technology below a certain point. Bruteforcing the translation simply didn’t look like the way to take. It was time to put their own translators to a test. Astra had no idea how that alien would react to it, but if they were to get talking, she would have to convince them somehow. The alien seemed fascinated by her. Maybe it was just a general fascination with meeting different species, but the being didn’t even look in the direction of anyone else. Did it… fancy her? Interesting. She was getting distracted though. Gain trust. But how?

The alien seemed to get something at least, or so Astra assumed when she did something she believed was an introduction. The Captain bobbed her head head in confirmation, but her eyes looked left and right in a bit of an embarrassment when a few of the deckhands around giggled. In their culture, referring to someone without the proper rank was a sign of affection, usually reserved to family and loved ones. Well, at least the alien didn’t look too horrifying.

First contact, right! Astra commanded herself to focus. Gifts! Gifts were good, friendly. At this instance it didn’t exactly matter what they were, it was the gesture that counted. Astra reached into one of the storage compartments in her suit and pulled out a decorative silvery clip some of the Faira with longer antennae used to keep their appendages in check when wearing a helmet. Astra had no need for hers given her antennae barely reached her shoulders, and the alien’s head spotted a mane of [i]something[/i] that seemed like the clip could be used at.

“A gift.” she said, trying to sound friendly as she reached over Innes’ head. Very carefully she took a few strands of Innes’ hair and fastened the clip on them. Her touch was very gentle, given how sensitive the Faira antennae were - it was an instincts. Fortunately the Alien did not go hissing in pain or moaning, so Astra guessed that whatever the stuff growing out of her head was, it did not serve as a sensory input.

Issuing a command to the suit’s systems, she quickly talked to one of the deckhands over the intercom, telling them what she needed setting up. In half a minute the errand shown up delivering the device. It looked like a strand of the Faira antenna with circuit-like blue pattern on it. It was what they hoped would ease communications. The Captain carefully wrapped one around one of her antennae, and then put one around one of the things on the sides of Innes’ head.

The devices were a pride of their medical researchers. In theory, they should over the time scan the patterns of the wearer’s nervous system and send them to the translating computer that would try to compile the alien language by mapping the brain patterns to what the wearer perceived. Hopefully it would translate faster as it didn’t require the alien to talk.

Extending her arm towards the door, Astra hoped to hint that their company should follow her out of the bay.