While Making Other Plans:
Chapter 19

  The group watched on a display panel beside the airlock as the ship which was about two thirds the size of their own approached.  The ship seemed to actually change the shape of the tetrahedron’s leading point, and Ralph explained that it was doing just that to accommodate to the different airlock of the New Horizon II.  

  “So… they can just reconfigure the shape and structure of their ships on the fly?” Felix asked incredulously.

  “Yes,” the robot answered nonchalantly, seemingly failing to appreciate that it was magic.

  “Well, that’s certainly… something,” Felix responded.  Like everyone else, Kathryn could tell that the novelty of the new alien technology was finally giving way to the inherent fear of the unknown others already felt, now fully coming to grips with how fantastically beyond them technologically these new aliens were.  “I guess if you can make your ship any shape you want on the fly, it makes as much sense to leave them in the shape of a platonic solid as anything else.”

  “Here they come,” Kathryn said as she watched the ship make its final approach.  Even the gentlest docking always produced a noticeable shudder as the two ships forcefully made contact and merged their trajectory.  She kept waiting for it but at some point realized that the ship was already docked despite never having felt that final contact.

  “They are taking control of the airlock system on your ship,” Ralph informed them.  “Once they are certain they are in control they will enter the airlock.”

  Trying to ignore how easily they compromised her ship’s systems, after a few moments Kathryn watched through the circular airlock door as the section of their hull exposed to the interior of the airlock appear to simply melt away.  It almost seemed to pixelate away she thought and was reminded of the pointillism art she had seen in the original New Horizon archives.  It looked like a pointillist painting where starting in the centre, individual dots were stripped away and pushed increasingly out to the periphery until there was no surface left.

  When the aliens came through, Kathryn was surprised at how much smaller they were than she expected.  The very top of what she assumed to be their head was no more than half a meter tall, and the total width of their leg span when they were up and walking was no wider.  A total of three came through, and when they were all inside, the New Horizon II’s side of the airlock rolled away to reveal them.

  The three stood in a triangle equidistant from each other and appeared just as Ralph had described and shown them to be.  Seeing them in life was something else entirely though.  Kathryn had to fight away a vague sense of horror deep in her primitive brain which was instinctively disturbed by seeing something so terribly alien, so intractably unknown and foreign.  Between the three of them was a floating silver ball about a third of a meter wide, perfectly spherical, and as far as she could tell, perfectly reflective.  She wondered what it was for, but she didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  “Hello, my name is-” Kathryn tried to say to introduce herself before she was cut off.

  “We will inspect your ship to confirm that your arrival here is not a rouse orchestrated by our enemy.” the mirror ball said.  Kathryn now understood.  For some reason they were unwilling or unable to speak directly to her, so they spoke through this device.  “Please stand aside and instruct your crew to do the same.”

  “We understand.” Kathryn stated as carefully as she could.  She wasn’t about to press the issue and pounce on them with a thousand questions.  Instead, she touched the wall panel beside the airlock and opened a ship wide broadcast.  “This is Admiral Barnes.  We have guests onboard who are going to inspect the ship.  Make no attempt to stop, obstruct, or question them.  Do not interact with them in any way unless directly addressed.  Get out of their way and let them work in peace.”

  The lead alien, or at least the one at the leading edge of the triangle to her, seemed to look at her with acknowledgement through his nearest deep black eye, but it was of course impossible to tell for sure.  The aliens continued on, and everyone did their best to get out of their way.  They had to fall in a line to make their way down the hallway; being splayed out quadrupeds left them occupying a lot more sideways real estate as they walked than did the bipedal crew.

  “Do we follow them?” Jaren discretely asked.

  “Phbbt,” Margaret dismissed.  “I certainly am!”  She declared as she left to follow behind them.  “Come on Patricia, keep me company.”  The woman chased after her, the thick brown curls in her hair bounding along as she hurried to catch up.

  Kathryn turned to those who were left.  “Jaren, I want you on the bridge and Felix in engineering please, just in case.  Ralph you and I are going to go keep Molly out of trouble.”  

  The two men seemed disappointed, but they headed in the opposite direction towards a lift tube together.  The Ralph robot followed Kathryn as she hustled a bit to catch up with Margaret.  When they did, she tugged on the old woman’s shirt.  “Let’s keep our distance eh?”  She seemed disappointed, but obeyed nonetheless.  

  The three followed along as the aliens made a complete survey of the ship, touring every conceivable room, corridor, and emergency access.  They didn’t appear to be doing any scanning themselves, but it didn’t take Kathryn long to realize that this was another purpose of their mirror ball.  When they entered a news space, the device flew with purpose all around the entire area.  It betrayed no lights, sounds or other kind of indication that it was doing anything other than flying around, seemingly by magic propulsion.

  Where sections had been sealed off due to hull damage, the aliens held back beyond a further airtight bulkhead and sent the drone in to investigate the evacuated section on its own.  There were a number of awkward moments when they were waiting for their sphere to return, with Kathryn, Margaret, and Patricia staring dumbstruck curious at the little aliens while self-consciously trying not to stare in a way that might be construed as rude or threatening.

  They seemed to pay particular attention to the Artificial Intelligence computer core which was powering Ralph.  They studied and investigated where it was plugged into the central network more carefully and methodically than anything else on the ship.  After scrutinizing every square centimeter of the ship, Kathryn and the other two women followed as they returned to the airlock where their ship had docked.  Only then did they finally addressed Kathryn again.

  “We are satisfied that the narrative you conveyed was truthful and accurate.” The creatures stated through the mirror ball.

  “Well that’s big of you,” Margaret remarked dryly.  Kathryn shot daggers from her eyes to Margaret’s, silently demanding she shut her mouth.

  “Thank you,” Kathryn covered as diplomatically as possible.  “We hope that our people can-”  But she was again cut off.

  “We are not the appropriate personnel to initiate proper first contact greetings.  Should you wish, you are welcome to make your best comfortable speed to the third planet of this system and enter orbit.  If you choose to do so, you will be greeted by a formal welcoming party, including individuals who will be happy to answer any questions you may have.  Should you decline, we recommend leaving the area immediately due to the ever-present possibility of hostiles emerging from the portal.  Thank you.”

  It seemed so much like a prepared statement to Kathryn that as they walked back into the airlock and closed the New Horizon II door to it, she wondered if the exact wording had been forwarded to them from the planet, that maybe they were just not even allowed to say anything which was not an official statement issued to them.  The three women watched with Ralph as they made their way into their ship, and its hull re-pixelated into existence behind them.

  As she lit a cigar, Margaret said beside it through the corner of her mouth: “Well that was interesting.”  She put her lighter away and puffed the cigar up to a good burn on the tip, the smoke immediately disappearing into a ventilation grate.

  “Dammit Molly…” Kathryn said as she turned and leaned back hard against the airlock in exhaustion.  “I know you think you’re funny and all but if you keep this up, I’m going to have to seriously reconsider allowing you to be around at times like this.  Dammit Molly, this is as serious as things get, you can’t just be taking chances with trying to crack jokes like that!”  Kathryn was entirely emotionally drained from having the aliens onboard.  She hadn’t expected it to be such a burden on her, not just the potential risk to her ship and crew, but the prolonged time of walking on eggshells with the future relationship between her species and the first other advanced one they’d ever met.  The weight of things was starting to weigh on her.

  “I hear you,” Margaret answered with rare deference before adding: “but what if it’s like, really funny?”

  “They may have learned our language in about two seconds, but our humour will be the last thing they come to understand about us if it’s even possible for them to.  Understand?”

  “I do Kat, I do… but don’t you already get the sense that they look down on us, that they consider us so beneath them that they aren’t even capable of being offended by lowers such as us.”

  She hadn’t gotten that feeling, but now that it was pointed out she did understand what Margaret meant.

  “Well… aren’t they right about that?” Kathryn asked.  “Given everything?”  She gestured all around them with her hands.  

  “Maybe,” Margaret admitted, “but I still don’t like it.  Look, I’ll play nice if the alternative is not playing at all.  So sir, yes sir.”  The simulant stood at mock attention giving a sarcastic salute.  Kathryn knew she heard her and accepted what she’d said but had to save face somehow while avoiding an overt display of rebellion.

  Using the panel beside the airlock, Kathryn closed the outer door then opened a channel to the bridge.

  “Jaren they’ve left… I mean obviously.  They said they believe our story and that if we want to make proper diplomatic first contact, we should head for the third planet, otherwise they advise leaving the area as a potential warzone.”

  “That leave a lot unanswered,” Patricia noted.  “Are they aware of how incapacitated we are?  That we have no idea how to use their portal system?  And what is to become of Ralph now?”

  Kathryn nodded.  “All good points.  We can only hope that on those points we could get a formal response if we made a formal query to their command.”  She thought for a moment before continuing.  “We’re going in,” she commanded.  “We’ll assume that these concerns can be addressed through formal diplomacy.

  “Ralph,” she said, turning to the robot, “please forward a navigation map of this system to the pilot’s station.”

  “Yes Admiral.”

  “Jaren please have the pilot make for the planet with the map Ralph is providing at one and a half Gs.”

  “Understood,” he answered through the speaker, then a few moments later.  “It’ll take us a little over fifty hours to put us into orbit.”

  “Understood.  I’ll be up shortly.”