Saule slumped as he finished the message, his world's response to alien life, the request for time to grow and meet as equals. It was more than he had expected but less than he had hoped for. He could feel Wensly's grip on his shoulder reassuring him silently. Just as he was about to speak again, Eli the human explorer's voice came from the terminal, clear as ice but subdued.

"I didn't expect that..." Eli spoke, then paused as if reading instructions.

"Acting as Intermediate for the United Sol Guilds and government, I, Elijah Kamphaus Duilim hear your response and acknowledge your request. We wish you the best, and will keep our watch for you until we can meet as equals among the ocean of gems."

The terminal went dark. Saule and Wensly collected themselves, eyes wet and glimmering, they left the small station. Wordlessly they went to their places on the ship. Stuhkey was compressing the recordings for a transmission to Plinth, Naytani began to bring the Daring Leap out of the clearing. Undocking from the small station with hardly a jolt. As they started their burn to escape the Gas giant's orbit, their comms chimed softly.

Eli's voice whispered softly. "As a bit of a farewell, and to make the trip a little bit more worth it. You can use the contact station to send a message to me personally, if ever you or the Glint need a hand. Also watch those large asteroids."

They all gathered at the rear viewport, curious as to what the human meant. As they watched, the asteroids held with cables dispered and revealed Eli's hull, but it had changed since they first saw him. Around it several large swathes of golden metallic cloth encircled him, with curved pieces of metal framework and cabling anchoring them. As they watched both the lustrous cloth and pieces of metal expanded, the cloth forming a huge sail around his midship, and the curved frame work assembling to make several concentric rings around everything. Then as the whole process completed, he seemed to ripple, then as if the entire craft had been compressed, it shrunk then disappeared with a luminous white streak out towards the emptiness of space.

"Naytani, what in the name of the Jeweler just happened." Saule asked.

"Aliens, Saule, Aliens..." Naytani responded.

-----------------

All things considered, that went pretty well. Eli thought, as the Alcubierre gravity effect enveloped him. Nothing blew up, and if the Glint had paid attention to his exit from the system, they may get some 'inspiration'; figure out some important formulas and ideas about space. It had been the best he could do, without interfering outright. Besides, how was he to have known that they were watching as he left his hiding spot and left the system.

Now all he had to do was wait to arrive back at Sol, tell the guild everything had gone well with thier decision to let him handle the situation. It definitely would have been awkward to have the ambassadorial ship arrive only to leave again.

He settled into a few shows he'd pirated from the Glint, as stellar dust and debris made odd resonances against the envelope effect. It sounded like rain on a tin roof when put through a speaker, Elijah liked the white noise.

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Weeks later, and almost finished with "The Eyes of Darkness" a hit drama from Plinth, the envelope faded as it came near the edges of Sol. The one use rings and solar collector tattered and battered from the trip disintegrated as they detached from his hull.

Several messages pinged him as he entered the data sphere. Most were notifications of payments made to keep his hanger supplied and reserved for him. One from the guild requesting a virtual meeting regarding his recent contract and contact, one from the Astronomers guild saying they'd received the requested data with a note asking subtly for any pictures he had of the Glint. Several messages from the Unified Sol Gov. But one message stood out, it was from one of the only people he still knew from before Eli had uploaded. His old friend Finn, wanted to meet and visit for a while.

Finn had also opted to be digitized at the end of his life, however he had opted to go the android route. He spent his time stubbornly working on the Venus Terraform project, trying to make it habitable for people. He lived aboard a station, sitting atop the thick atmosphere of Venus, using some clever engineering to make it look like it floated atop the yellow sulfuric clouds.

Eli set a slow course for Finn's habitat, and entered the virtual meeting room to talk with the guild representative. Tensfeldt, Eli's personal handler, was waiting for him, his V.C. reading the report in the form of an old newspaper. He sat across a old oak table.

"That was well handled for your first Contact mission Eli. Could have gone better but that's done with. The USS has seen fit to give the Guild a stipend for establishing a future, potential, ally. We have also had several contracts requesting you by name for some. Due to this we've arranged several upgrades for you to be delivered to your place of residence. I've forwarded the contracts to your D.S. address. Keep up the good work."

With that Tensfeldt stood, and closed the meeting, but didn't leave the chat room. Instead he came over to Eli, and asked.

"Are you doing ok? You're one of the oldest digitized, and close to the senescence limit."

"I'm ok, I still have issues with anxiety apparently, I almost overheated after I spoke to them for the first time. I guess the brain mapping really did take the flaws along me." Eli conceded,

"When the Digital Persona Project started, they just took any and all data they could then tried to build from there. Since I was the first generation, and a volunteer. They didn't mind my defects as they had meant I had more data points to make a working virtual cerebrum from."

"I understand, you thought you'd leave behind the faults that plagued your mind, in your biological body. Have you considered that those were a part of you and needed to follow you in the process, so that you would remain you?" Tensfeldt questioned.

"I have, a little. I just forgot in exploration and solitude, how hard it was to interact with people." Eli sighed. "Thanks for checking on me Ten, I didn't think it was noticeable in the report."

Tensfeldt chuckled. "I've been your handler for 50 years. I know your quirks and how you act. If you ever need someone, I'm here for you as a friend."

Eli stood, and hugged Ten, lifting the V.A. in the air. With that Eli left the chat room. As his awareness returned to his hull, he brought up his code. He'd done it quite often when he was first awakened. It was an odd feeling seeing your own brain and being able to know what each part did.

As normal, whenever he did this, he gravitated to the bits of code and programming that were needed to simulate his old brain. The Digitization team had found when they initially tried to run his core, that it wouldn't boot. They had tried troubleshooting for weeks, until someone had thought to upload the scans, as scanned, without any editing of the defect out. It had worked, but it meant that for any future digital personas they'd have to include mental faults

It had baffled the team, but a psychologist had just shrugged and said that was a part of being human. You had to take the package, neurosis and all or leave it.

Eli brooded about it for a while, then mentally shrugged and started to put together some things to talk with Finn about.