Starship Odyssey | ONC 2021

Chapter 11 - The Welcoming Committee

The last message from the aliens was a prophecy, and it read thusly:

"We are leaving now. We hope events in the future produce desirable emotions for you. When the star returns to the holy dimension it will herald our return."

And with that they were gone.

* * *

The Odyssey dropped back down into the lower dimensions, materializing into reality a bit at a time like a gem falling into water.

Working with their assumption that the alien symbol Odysseus had identified did indeed indicate an inhabited planet, they reasoned that the largest cluster of such symbols represented the territory of a reasonably advanced interplanetary polity. They decided to introduce themselves right at the edge of this presumed territory; simply dropping down into the middle of their capital system unannounced seemed like it could be misinterpreted.

Immediately upon arrival the Odyssey began broadcasting, on every conceivable spectrum, their new greeting in Cryslish. Out of experience they chose to keep it simple this time.

"We are like you. We mean no harm."

"I'm excited to learn what terrible consequences our new plan has," said Dr. Fido, and he was. Dr. Fido wore his feelings on his body language at all times.

"Let's try not to mess it up so bad this time," said Dr. Birdwhistle.

"Yes, thank you, good idea because I was thinking of messing it up," said Lulu. "We have to focus on the bright side: this time we have a working translation of a local language. The chance that we're accidentally going to provoke them into religion has to be way lower."

"It's 1%," said Dr. Birdwhistle, confidently.

"We're confident that our translation is accurate, yes?" asked Dr. Eisenstein.

<Anything is going to be subject to interpretation but I have enough of a sample at this point I can get most concepts across. I have a real head start with a spoken language like Cryslish and I had a probe listening to their conversation for several hours.>

Odysseus paused for a fraction of a moment.

<It's also worth noting that we're being approached by what appear to be some local defense vessels.>

Odysseus projected the image of local space into their mind's eyes, zoomed out to hundreds of thousands of times, and lit up some red dots to indicate four ships approaching on impulse power. Zooming in far enough showed the alien ships resembled pennies with bulky impulse drives attached.

"Oh good. Perfect," said Lulu. "We'll let them make the first move."

<They're already in the process of targeting us with weapons.>

"Ugh. Tell them we're not looking for a fight."

<I'm trying but- oh wait. No. It looks like they're being receptive. Or at a minimum they've got what I'm sure they reckon are solid sensor locks on us and they're not firing.>

"What do we say? We need something fast," said Lulu.

"Let's be friends?" offered Dr. Eisenstein.

<The word 'friends' is wrought with translation issues. It's actually a very human concept.>

"It's a dog concept too," insisted Dr. Fido.

<It's a meta-human concept,> Odysseus corrected himself. <The point is we might end up identifying ourselves as something with baggage we don't want.>

"We come in peace is right out," observed Dr. Birdwhistle. "We don't want to entangle this language's religious associations with the word 'peace' into this."

"What about 'let's introduce ourselves'?" tried Dr. Fido.

"Oh I like that!" said Lulu.

<Sending now...> there was a long beat of silence. <They're responding. In Cryslish. I'm responding in real-time. I'll connect you all. Lulu, if you please.>

Suddenly the four humans began to hear the alien conversation in their heads. Odysseus lent them his understanding of Cryslish and so they were able to parse what was said.

<...this is the only local method of communication we had available. We have no affiliation with the 'Chorus-of-Notes',> said Odysseus, obviously mid-sentence. <We had only one interaction with them. They were hostile.>

While Odysseus spoke Lulu sat down in the command throne and integrated herself with him, the two becoming one being.

<If you have interacted with the Chorus-of-Notes then you must understand our reaction upon hearing a greeting in their language,> replied another 'voice', obviously from one of the alien ships.

<I do. I am gratified by the opportunity to explain myself,> replied Odysseus-Lulu.

<I have never heard of your people before. Where are you from?>

<A galaxy called the Milky Way.>

<*Galaxy?*>

Even through the translation barrier of an alien language the incredulity shone through.

<We came through what we believe to be a... the concept doesn't translate I can only say it literally: seventh dimensional wormhole.>

<You are correct, that does not translate at all.>

<We barely understand it ourselves. Now we do not know where we are so we do not know how to get back.>

<Why have you come here?>

<This is the only inhabited system we could find. We're hoping to properly orient ourselves, so we can find the direction to our galaxy of origin, and possibly find people with knowledge that can help us get back there.>

There was another beat of silence.

<This seems like it's going really well,> Dr. Fido signaled to the Think Tank, privately.

<Meh,> replied Dr. Einsenstein.

<I agree. It could go either way,> added Dr. Birdwhistle.

<Given that your intentions are not hostile we would be willing to escort you to the fourth planet. You may then open communications with Mother Command. They have the authority to grant you access to our system. Bear in mind you will be monitored at all time for hostile actions.>

<Understood. We agree to you conditions.>

The penny-shaped local defense ships reoriented themselves in space, and set off towards the fourth planet. The Odyssey matched their snail's pace and followed.