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[Casojin]

Far beyond current Fonoss space, a single large survey vessel thrusted itself forward slowly to match a rotation of a green planet in a system designated as Vi-29. The ship's Prime Lady sat in her office waiting for preliminary scan of the planet. She checked the recent report of anomalous reading of a possible alien vessel. Ever since arriving in Vi cluster, they had detected the same anomalous reading for 3 times. Ziron Mokkh Kaylar had been told by her chief astro-scientist that this incident shouldn't be worried for the moment. Yet, her instinct told her otherwise.

Suddenly the first officer interrupted her peaceful stated with urgency in her voice, "Prime Lady, we've picked up the same anomalous reading just appears in this system."

"On my way." Kaylar stood up and strode through a oval doorway into the command center. "Show me its location compared to ours."

The projection switched to live in blue glow. Kaylar looked at the location of stellar objects carefully. The orage glow indicated the sole star with five orbiting green dots representing planets in Vi-29. Name of each one appeared in red text above the dot. Her survey vessel was represented with blue star-shaped near the third planet. Red blinking dots was moving in from the system edge. Moment of silent was broken by a young male at sensor station. "My lady, our probe at Vi-29-5 is transmitting data of the anomalous reading."

"Put it up." Kaylar ordered with no hesitation. As soon as she finished, the projection was replaced with another one from probe's telemetry. The object seemed to be a vessel of sort. Sensor data was translated and appeared as red text on the projection.

"The hull is made of reflective alloy. Possible heavy weapons are detected on various locations." Red triangles started to appear around those locations on the projection.

Before the sensor station could report further, Kaylar swiftly injected her command. "Pilot, bring our engines up and move behind the closest moon. Sensor, deploy a probe and make sure it transmit signal to us constantly. I want to know everything about that....ship."

"Aye, my lady." Both the pilot and the sensor crewman replied. The vessel powered its plasma propulsions and began to move into hiding position.

[Vortigern]

Captain Nai'an, of the battleship Dione, picked up the transmitter.

"Unknown vessel, you are entering Chalsidii space. Identify yourself or we will be forced to open fire." He set the message to repeat while the techs on the other end figured out how to decipher the language of the Chalsidii. His people, in fact his very battleship, had been key in subduing this little area of space, these five planets around their little sun, rich in minerals and all kinds of natural resources, wild and varied animal life present on two of the five, roughly the same distance from the sun. Maybe there was a couple of light-minutes in it, but nothing major. Nai'an settled in to wait for the response.

[Casojin]

"There is a transmissioin from that vessel, Prime Lady." An officer at communication station reported abruptly. "Attempting to traslate."

Kaylar turned to Vakk Jarpatt Titir, a military advisor aboard her survey vessel, and gave her glance. Titir simply said, "Let's hear what they want."

With a curt nod from Kaylar, the officer played the transmission. "Unknown vessel, you are entering Chalsidii space. Identify yourself or we will be forced to open fire."

The notion of being detect threw off Kaylar's sense of security. Although she was still in shock, she kept her emotion inside. She crossed over to sensor station. "Have we been detected?"

"Possibly, my lady." The sensor crewman replied swiftly.

"Suggestion?" The question was directed toward Titir.

The military advisor, the only Vakk aboard this survey vessel, stood like a statur when she spoke. "For what we've heard the alien can be classified as aggressive. It seems that we've entered their territory unintentionally in our mission. We must alert our homeworld about this encounter and continued to study them as long as possible. What we need is time."

The vessel first officer then offered another suggestion. "We may be able to stall them by talking. In the same time, we will find a way to keep monitoring them without their knowing."

"My lady," said an officer from survey databank. "May I suggest something?" After Kaylar gave her the approval, she continued. "We could use a planetary probe with a little reprogramming to do just that. The probe can be deployed into one of these five planets and reprogrammed to do passive scan and keep communication blackout until we trigger it."

"Good idea." The speaker was Titir.

Kaylar nodded thankfully to a solution. "Very well then. Comm, open a channel." A beep following her command indicated that the frequency was set. Kaylar only hoped that the alien could translate Fonai main dialect. "Alien vessel, this is Fonoss survey vessel. We're on a peaceful exploration mission. If you could receive us, please respond."

[Vortigern]

"Fonoss survey vessel?" wondered Nai'an grimly. He had never heard of these Fonoss, and he wasn't about to leap to any assumptions about their honesty. "What do you make of that?" he asked, turning to his lieutenant.

"Difficult to say," replied the lower-ranking Chalsidii. "If they're hiding the truth it'll be a real challenge to prove, but if they're hiding nothing that will be equally tough to establish. I'd suggest we keep communications open with their lead vessel and watch whatever they do." Nai'an nodded; he had come to exactly the same conclusion.

"Fonoss survey vessel, this is Captain Nai'an of the Chalsidii battleship Dione. What are your intentions in this sector?"

[Casojin]

Relief filled Kaylar's sense. She smiled a bit before continued. "Chalsidii, we're here on an exploration mission. Mapping star systems for scientific purpose if you want us to be specific."

Titir and the first officer nodded approvingly. Kaylar gestured her hand as a signal to mute outgoing voice. "Progress of probe modification?"

"We need a bit more time." The same officer at survey databank replied and the Prime Lady merely nodded. Titir sensed tension in Kaylar's gesture.

Titir turned toward tactical console and started checking tactical possibility. This survey ship was armed with a dozen photon beam cannons and 30 torpedoes. These weapons were pale in comparison to a Fonai frigate. Despite its size, this vessel was considerable too lightly armed to fight a warship and Titir had a strange feeling of distrust toward the Chalsidii. She realized the desperation of the situation and started to form a tactical retreat in her mind. As a Vakk, Titir also had duty to all Fonais. So, larger picture must be considered. If things spiraled out of control, she must make sure that the homeworld knows about the Chalsidii.

As everyone waited for the alien to reply, Titir only hoped that her last resort plan wouldn't be used.

Edited by Casojin, 28 May 2009 - 02:27 PM.