Nora stepped out of the spherical drone. The nanotite polymorphic hull rearranged itself to both open and provide a ramp to the floor of the cargo hold. Before her stood Captain Ra’Jinn, her executive officer, Ta’Kinar, and her science officer Na’Edin. They stood at what the computer’s memory banks considered an equivalent of parade rest as they waited for her to walk down the ramp. Captain Ra’Jinn brought her closed fist to her secondary heart in their form of military salute, Nora replicated the action, although her synthetic body held no hearts. She looked around with her new bodies’ eyes, though not as good as a modern nano-foundry could produce, this beacon was over a billion years old and it’s systems were obsolete, it was nice to see the real world in depth.
Nora spoke, “Forgive me Captain, this is the first time in four hundred millennia that I have inhabited a body, it’s quite strange.”
Captain Ra’Jinn nodded, her science officer had briefed her that these Terrans were incredibly advanced as well as incredibly ancient. As such, they may say things that would seem ridiculous to our species, but to them is normal, it was indeed well within their capabilities to build new bodies as she stated to the Captain yesterday. “So does this mean that you do not normally inhabit a flesh and blood body?”
Nora’s eyes continued to sweep around cargo hold number three as she spoke. “No, my consciousness exists within a digital construct, which is then connected to a string router connecting me to the rest of Terran society. It’s much more complex than that, but that is the simplest explanation for my existence.” Nora stopped looking around at that point and brought her open hand up to the Captain, “I will follow you, I’m sure you would like to converse in a more comfortable setting than this cargo hold?”
Captain Ra’Jinn nodded, a trait Nora noted meant the same thing between their species, “Yes, I find the bays to be quite cold, we have setup a diplomatic suite on board for you and your staff as you produce more bodies to inhabit, if you would?” She gestured for Nora to follow at her side, “I hope you will forgive us, we are an exploration vessel, and not really setup for diplomacy.”
Nora continued to look in multiple directions as she walked beside the Captain down the corridor of the ship. “We understand Captain, this vessel is small by your standards, and we do not require the creature comforts your crew needs. Whatever lodgings you provide will be more than adequate for myself and my team.” Ra’Jinn breathed out a silent sigh of relief, the quarters she was able to provide were tiny, as they were first officers quarters, spares in case of the need to take on extra crew.
Captain Ra’Jinn continued to lead the Ambassador through the ship towards the forward observation deck. Although the ship only boasted 39 crew members, the ships designers knew that an exploration vessel would need recreational services not provided on say a ship of war. As such, it sported a lounge facing forward with screened views of space in real time, as though they were windows. As they entered Nora looked about and seemed.. giddy? She could have sworn she said something under her breath, “It’s like ten forward!” Ra’Jinn had no idea what that meant, but she lead her to a larger table by a ‘window’ and sent Na’Edin to bring them drinks from the open bar. “This is where the crew usually comes to wind down after their shift. As a small ship we only boast two shifts per day, and after eleven hours most of the crew needs a drink.” Nora nodded as she looked around the observation deck.
XO Ta’Kinar took the bottle from Na’Edin and poured a small amount into each cup sitting in front of each of the people around the table before asking, “Can you consume alcohol Madam Ambassador? It is Madam? I have not heard how you refer to yourself.”
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Nora nodded, “Yes, I am female, both digitally and in this form which takes after my original biological body. I can also indulge in alcohol, although it’s potency will not effect this android body.”
XO Ta’kinar nodded as he raised his cup, the others at the table did as well, so Nora copied the motion, “To diplomacy between our people, Goddess prey we do not screw this up!” Ta’Kinar stated as he downed the small amount of alcohol.
The Captain looked horrified, the science officer looked amused, Nora took her cup and downed it as if it were a shot a the local pub before commenting, “Here, here, let us indeed not screw this up.”
Captain Ra’Jinn shot her XO a dirty look, we agreed to be on our best behavior, no faux pas, nothing crass, and above all, we were to be professional. Nora looked down at her cup, “This stuff is remarkably like a Terran drink we call Rum.”
Na’Edin spoke for the first time, “While our species does make a surprising variety of alcoholic beverages, this particular one, known to us as Nulan, has been used by those in the sailing profession before we took to the stars. I suppose you would call it tradition.”
Nora thought to herself, “Fascinating, that is exactly what our Rum was developed for on ancient Terra. It was used on sailing vessels and through tradition was brought aboard star ships.”
Ra’Jinn used the lull in conversation to ask, “When will more of your team arrive Ambassador?”
Nora pushed her cup to the XO for another round as she answered, “Nigel should be ready sometime around the middle of your next shift, I will meet him and bring him to our quarters.”
Ta’Kinar finished pouring another round for the Ambassador and the others present, “Nigel you say? Will this member of your team be male or female? Or another gender? I apologize Ambassador, we simply are ignorant of your species.”
Nora took a sip of her cup this time as she responded, “Nigel is male, although I believe he was biologically female. And like your species, we only have two sexes, don’t get me started on gender, that has been an ongoing argument for practically as long as our species has existed.”
Na’Edin looked puzzled, “There is a difference between sex and gender for your species?”
Nora looked down at her cup as she spoke, “Oh no, this conversation will be seen by septillions of Terrans, our Internet forums will be at war for the next million years. But to answer your question, there are several factions within Terran society that believe while there are two sexes, there are a huge number of genders. There are also factions that believe there are only two genders just like there are two sexes. And then there is another faction that thinks they are both idiots for arguing about it on the internet.”
Ta’Kinar grinned, another trait shared between the two races, “Might I ask which faction you belong to Ambassador?” He then started as his shin was kicked under the table by Captain Ra’Jinn as she shot him a angered look.
Nora finished her cup and sighed, “I’m part of the third faction, but don’t ask Nigel about gender, well, not unless you want to be trapped in a conversation for the greater part of a day.”
Na’Edin looked confused, but asked, “Wait, he was female when he was biological, but he became male when he transferred to a digital form of consciousness?”
The Ambassador nodded, “That is correct, Nigel prefers to be male, so his digital avatar, as well as the synthetic body he is making for himself is patterned after males of our species.”
Na’Edin sipped from his cup, “That sounds… complicated”
Nora decided to change the subject, “You have no idea how complicated Nigel can be. Captain, could I ask a few questions as to your species?”
Captain Ra’Jinn nodded as she held her cup. “That’s why we’re here. To get to know each other as a species, although it seems you know a tremendous bit about us in a very short period of time. I understand that you are advanced and obviously very intelligent, but it doesn’t make up for the difference in immediate knowledge base.”
Nora took a millisecond to ask the rest of the group who sat in her virtual chat room library if she should tell them about the scan. The rest of the group agreed that they would find out eventually, and she should be honest with them. “Our beacon did a scan of your ship. Our scanners are extremely accurate, down to the quark level at the 6 light second range. We were able to model your computer system, then render it within our own servers, from there we were able to learn from your databases.”
Ra’Jinn turned to her XO with a horrified expression. “Oh no!”