Forsythe“Valerie. Scan every ship that appears within a one light minute radius and report their condition to me as best you can. I want to know as much as possible about them before we start making friends.” That was, after all, what they would have to do. One ship alone in a hostile galaxy would not survive for long, but together, this flotilla of mismatched ships might actually stand a chance of survival… And maybe even discovering how to return from whence they came. “Tell medical and engineering to prepare as many nanobots in as many configurations as they can. They may be our best shot at making a good first impression.” The acknowledgments all flowed in as the crew went about their business following the orders.
Minutes passed as her ship made full use of its powerful sensor arrays to observe and analyse the other ships before a report was made. Valerie’s avatar gave it in her usual fairly cold and analytical manner. “All the ships appear to have sustained damage in the battle. Several of them have multiple hull breaches, nearly all of them have some degree of system damage, though I couldn’t tell you precisely what all their systems are meant to do. Life signs vary wildly, though it seems that the majority are human. Or at least something similar. No signs of active nanotechnology, though at least one of the ships is conducting repairs manually.”
“As to be expected.”
Valerie’s tone took on a little more life then, with the sarcastic ‘isn’t it obvious’ tone Rhea had come to expect from her ship. “As you’ve probably guessed from the lightshow, none of them seem to make any use of Slipstream… and I have no idea what they use instead.” Irritation was evident in the AI’s voice, she was a scout ship and she hated not knowing something. Rhea could practically hear the unspoken ‘I’m analysing it but can't make heads or tails of it.’ The only good thing about that was that the AI would put a monumental effort into the data analysis because of her hurt feelings.
Rhea had acquired the knowledge she needed though. She had something no-one else did, nanotechnology capable of repairing organic and machine structure alike, and with it she could forge an alliance. “Valerie, I want you to broadcast a message to all the ships within one light minute, audio and video. Close in on me until we know how they’ll react to the aliens onboard.” A nod from the AI’s avatar was all she needed to know the channel was live.
“This is the Systems Commonwealth ship Valorous Intent to all vessels. Our sensors show that a number of you have taken damage - we are able to assist with repairs and provide medical aid.” Not much of a first contact message, but she had to start somewhere. Hopefully it would be all they needed. After all, the Commonwealth had proved time and again that providing humanitarian aid was a good way to make friends.
