Imperial Ambassador Jah’Nea had very little notice about the newest first contact species. As soon as Captain Ra’Jinn dropped out of warp near Le’Nerra she sent the dossier she had made of the Terran’s to the Admiral on duty, who then sent it to him.
He reviewed her too long, didn’t read portion of the document again. “An ancient race, probably the firstborne in the universe. Comprising of five races of beings, and with technology we simply cannot fathom.” He rocked on his feet, scrunching all six toes. “No pressure here Jah’Nea.”
The gates opened and Captain Ra’Jinn escorted six alien beings into the shipyard’s terminal. He took a breath and saluted Ra’Jinn, “Thank you Captain, I’m sure the Admiral wants a debriefing as soon as possible.” He then turned to the assembled team, “I am Imperial Ambassador Jah’Nea, might I have your names?”
Rachel stepped forward and saluted, “I am Ambassador Rachel, I will be taking over diplomatic duties and allowing the rest of the team to take an advisor role. Behind me is Nora, Nigel, Simon, Victoria, and Uhghea. They are the foremost experts in their respected fields, and I will be leaning on their knowledge.”
Jah’Nea nodded, “It is a pleasure to meet you all, I have so many questions. If you would, please join me in my office, I am waiting for the Admiral to free up a shuttle so that we can travel to the palace on Aer’Silar where we will set up an Embassy for all of Terrans.”
Rachel nodded and followed as Jah’Nea lead the team to a series of elevators. The rest of the team followed a few paces behind. All of them looked in every director at once, taking in the truly alien architecture of the shipyard terminal.
Nora whispered to Nigel, “It’s like an ancient earth space terminal, but in a fever dream, why would they use bent columns?”
Nigel smiled back, “I’m sure it’s for aesthetics, what do you think Simon?”
Simon looked at the columns in question, “Yes, they serve no structural component. We should keep an eye out once we reach Aer’Silar to see if this is repeated.”
Nigel nodded, “The model making guild will be foaming at the mouth to start construction of this terminal, too bad I won’t get to join them.”
Victoria spoke up, “True, but you get to be here, they don’t.”
Nigel nodded as he plopped his cane on the tiled floor, “Yes, that is quite right. I really need to live in the moment more!”
Nora rolled her eyes, “I don’t know anyone who lives in the moment more than you.”
Nigel looked over to her with a devilish smile, “Oh my dear, I would say you and Simon are living in the moment enough for all of us these days.”
Nora would have blushed if her body was capable of it, instead she simply held her mouth open in shock, “How do you know about Simon and I?”
Nigel laughed, “I didn’t, but I had my suspicions after the way you two sneak looks at one another when you think no one is looking.”
Simon groaned, “Nigel, you really are a bastard sometimes.”
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Nigel spun his cane before thumping it back down on the tile as he walked, “Why thank you Simon, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
They came to a strange building inside the terminal that looked as though it were made of stone instead of graphene, steel, and transparent aluminum. The sign stated it was the Nal’Shiar Imperial Office Center.
Jah’Nea escorted them past security guards to a large office that would have been more at home in medieval Europe than a space station. A large wooden table sat in the center of the room with elaborately carved chairs that matched. He waved for them to sit, “This is my daily office, the table you are currently gathered around has been in my family for centuries, and has penned many treaties for the Empire.”
Ambassador Rachel rubbed the wooden surface, worn smooth by countless years of use, “Fascinating, is diplomacy part of your family heritage?”
Jah’Nea nodded as he poured cups of Impach for his guests, he had read that they all seemed to take to the drink as it had a commonality to something familiar to them called coffee. “It has been our families responsibility to aid the Empire in all things Diplomatic. For thirteen generations we have served in this role, and Empress help us, we will continue to do so for a long time to come.”
Rachel nodded, “You said earlier that your government would be setting up an Embassy for Terra, would there be any problem with us skipping our probe inside the Embassy. This would allow us to create more artificial bodies for staff.”
Jah’Nea looked confused for a moment before shaking his head, “I forgot you are in artificial bodies for a moment there, I will speak with Imperial services to get that resolved. After all, sending a shuttle to the probe to pick up new staff members would be rather resource intensive.”
He then poured himself a cup of Impach and sat down at the round table with the first contact team. “I apologize for not having taken everything the good Captain put together from your time together to memory, but I am lead to believe there are five races to your unified term of Terran?”
Rachel sat down her cup, “Yes, originally there were only Humans, of which I, Nora, and Nigel are members of. Eventually we created AI or Artificial Intelligence, Simon is our resident AI.”
“Then after our unification war we spent eons searching for life in the universe before starting our uplift programs. Goodbois and Goodgurls were our first, of which Victoria is a member of, although she does not take on the appearance that she had as a biological.”
“Then we turned to uplifting the madkatz, which Uhghea is a member of, although she does keep her cat ears.”
Uhghea twitched her ears, “Hey, I like my cat ears.”
Jah’Nea looked around, “Well that is four, what about the fifth?”
Rachel finished her sip of Impach, “Our first contact team does not have a prettyburd as a member, they tend to be a bit… flighty.”
Nigel snickered, “Flighty is appropriate, but they were the last to be uplifted, and this team predates them.”
Ambassador Jah’Nea replied, “Fascinating, and you all get along as one culture?”
Rachel shook her head, “We get along for the most part, but luckily space is big, and gives us enough room to spread out and not get on each others nerves. We’ve had our tiffs with one another, but luckily, our last full blown war was a billion years ago.”
The Ambassador downed his cup, “Hard to believe that you think in terms that long, I don’t know that life had evolved on our little planet that long ago, I would guess not.”
Nora looked down at the table, “I has been very lonely for us, we worried that we would die out as a species before finding another intelligent life-form.”
Simon piped up, “But now we have found not one, but three new species at once. This will be debated amongst our scientists for some time.”
Jah’Nea looked off in the distance for a moment before turning to the table. “Yes, about that, there is something you should know. We have tested genetic makeup between the Nal’Shiar, the Hissar, and the Ordavelli. Our DNA is made up of a double helix, and there are shocking similarities between all three races.”
He knocked on the table, “Our scientific communities are in agreement that something seeded this area of space with a common genetic component. The only differences were in what species on the planet evolved the quickest.”
Every member of the team spoke at once, and while they all said different things, the jest was the same, “Could we see this data please?”