To most normal people the P’vari mining outpost would seem strange, with it’s near permanent night having semi-constant switches between a bright night and near pitch-black night that happened roughly every two hours by human time, but for Jack Hallsen this just meant criminals had a hard time seeing him coming. Being the de facto sheriff simply because nobody on the station could take you down wasn’t exactly his idea of a dream job, but being stuck in space with no way home wasn’t ideal to begin with. As he walked down the halls on his way towards his apartment, tv monitors filled with constant news about how the Al’domi wiped out humanity could be heard. Two-hundred years of the same nonsense political debate about how the Al’domi should have more power on the council had grown old for Jack, Usali medical science had extended his life far beyond what a human would normally live for and Jack had grown jaded over the years because of it, the Al’domi’s ever confrontational nature had grown tiresome. As Jack closed the door to his apartment the constant hum of the stellar lamps required for him to get adequate light exposure drowned out the noise of Al’domi political discourse, finally he’d be able to get some sleep.

—

“There’s no way you can possibly even think about going through with this, those things tried to wipe us out of existence!” The young man’s voice echoed through the small conference room. Soon after Duncan Kreed, now president of the union, spoke up, “Congressman Weskle, you may hold some amount of sway when deciding which laws get introduced internally, but don’t forget for even a second that I have final say on foreign policy.” John Weskle, a prominent figure in the stellar congress, slowly sat back down in his chair before speaking again, this time in a much more calm tone, “Yes of course Mr. President, I just mean to say that sending envoys to a species that nearly made us extinct is practically a suicide mission, and with no military escort either, it just sounds like a good way to get people killed for no reason.” President Kreed paused for a moment, then gave out a heavy sigh “Congressman Weskle, I’ve personally looked over the data that we pulled from their ship over a thousand times. All the evidence suggests that their actions were merely the result of being nearly ripped to shreds by a wormhole, one that we created, mind you, and thrown into an unknown hostile environment.” Silence Fell over the room as Kreed stood up out of his chair and walked towards the window, looking at the orange sky, “The only way we can know whether or not they wish to see us all dead for sure is to send a diplomatic mission to show that we intend to settle our differences peacefully. To say that this mission has no reason is akin to saying that striving to be the best people we can be has no reason. I refuse to allow ourselves to become warmongers out of spite for a transgression over two-hundred years old.”

The silence became deafening as the group of congressmen thought for a moment about President Kreed’s words, even John Weskle who had previously been the most vocal of the committee members. Eventually Carrie Jonstan, perhaps the quietest of the bunch, was the first to speak up “Sir, they should at least have a rather sizable military escort, if they do turn out to be instantly hostile they’ll need a means of protection.” Kreed stood still for a moment to process the statement before sitting back down in his chair to speak, “Generally yes, it would be a good idea for them to have a military escort, however doing so introduces the risk that this is seen as an attack, we’re operating on very limited intelligence about this so called Galactic Council, surely it’s better to limit the chances that this sparks a war unnecessarily.” Tensions within the room became palpable again before John Weskle spoke, this time slightly more calm than his previous outburst, “This is a suicide mission anyway, those bloodthirsty Al’domi bastards are going to kill them the moment they step foot in front of the council.” Kreed, visibly angered by Weskle’s response took a few deep breaths before addressing him, “As far as we know, the Al’domi do not control the council’s actions and taking that kind of action would likely create a large political rift between them, something the Al’domi could not possibly want, so let’s all calm down for a moment and think about what our best course of action is.”

For a time the room hummed with a low murmur as the members discussed various actions that could be had, among the ideas gaining traction was sending a military escort until the diplomats reached a point where contact could be made with the alien council. It was determined that the communication range of humanity’s ships would extend past the sensor range of the council, making a safe zone for the ships to establish contact. After discussions among the committee members had died down President Kreed again rose from his chair to grab control of the room, “Alright then, so it’s decided, we’ll send a military escort along with the diplomats until they reach a safe range to attempt to establish contact with this alien council. After contact has been made we will attempt to set up negotiations with the council in order to peacefully resolve any issues between us. Let’s hope this goes well, after all it’s only the fate of humanity that’s at stake here.”

—

Weeks passed as diplomats were gathered for the mission, many weren’t willing to take the risk of being the first to contact those who had nearly been the end of the human race two-hundred years prior, others simply felt the responsibility was too great for them to handle. Eventually a group of four daring envoys was gathered and the trip had been planned, three escorting destroyer class cruisers and one large battlecruiser would escort the diplomats to the safe zone for establishing communication. Among the envoys chosen was Chaise Spencer, a young man from Earth determined to see the issues of the galaxy resolved peacefully. As the rest of the envoys were loaded into their tiny shuttle that would take them to the ship waiting in orbit, Chaise took a moment to take in Earth’s atmosphere for what he knew could very well be the last time. “C’mon Spencer, let’s get this show on the road.” The pilot for the shuttle sounded a bit annoyed by Chaise’s stalling. “Right” he replied, “Just a moment.” Chaise took one last deep breath of Earth’s air before stepping foot on the shuttle and having the door close behind him.

Life aboard a spaceship was much different than Chaise had gotten used to on Earth, for one the air seemed thick and stagnant, almost impossible to breathe at times, and the food was average at best. Despite being bothered by the atmosphere aboard the ship, the knowledge that his mission was likely going to be a major event in human history kept Chaise focused through the journey. As he walked through the narrow corridors of the ship other diplomats and various crew members would pass by, each having to shimmy sideways past one another to make enough room, these cramped spaces aboard the ship surprisingly made Chaise feel more at home where he often had to share space with his six brothers and four sisters, a product of the repopulation efforts of Earth. Carefully weaving through the corridors, Chaise makes his way to the storage room of the small transport vessel, the one room with a large enough window to get a good view of the stars. Chaise would often come here to take in the view, where most would get bored of the endless sea of stars and nothingness Chaise saw an ever changing tapestry.

Lost in his own thoughts, Chaise hadn’t heard the footsteps of someone else sneaking up behind him, “Admiring the view?” Chaise jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion, and swiftly turned to reveal that the intruder was none other than Sara Walgren, a young woman who Chaise had grown acquainted with on the long journey. “I was until you showed up” he jokingly retorted, Sara laughed and joked back “It’s not my fault your head’s always off in space… Makes you way too easy to startle.”

Sara stood next to Chaise and they both looked out at the stars, for a moment there was nothing but silence before Chaise spoke up, “Do you think the aliens on the council really want us all dead, I mean are we really such a threat to them that we need to be wiped out?” Sara remained silent for a moment to think about the question, “I don’t think it even has to be about whether or not we’re a threat, It might just be that they didn’t like the idea of suddenly being sucked through a wormhole and saw it as an attack.” She looked at Chaise who didn’t seem very convinced by her answer “I mean just look at Humans, we make rash decisions like that all the time, perhaps we have more in common than either of us realize.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I suppose that’s a good point, anyway, did you find out how much longer until we can make contact with the council?” Sara sighed before answering, “The captain said it’s going to be another two days at least. I guess they need to make sure we don’t inadvertently give our position away.” Chaise reached up to scratch the back of his head, “I suppose that makes some sense, but aren’t we still well outside of the council's projected sensor range?” “Apparently they don’t want to take any chances.” Sara seemed a bit indifferent about the situation but Chaise was growing ever more impatient, to him every minute they wasted was another opportunity for things to go horribly wrong. The two stood in silence, staring at the stars, the uncertainty of the future weighing heavily on them both.

—

Aboard the USS Keeper, a frigate tasked with aiding in the escort efforts, Captain James Jones awaits the signal to switch to area patrol from the lead ship as the convoy approaches its destination. “Captain, sensors show we’ve reached the designated coordinates.” the young nav officer spoke in a low, matter of fact tone. Captain Jones gave a small grunt of affirmation, “Good, hold position until we receive orders from Admiral Keiler.” Soon after finishing his command the ship's comms signal began blaring its alarm, “That’d be him, sir” a voice spoke out from the main comms terminal. “Alright, on screen” the captain replied. The main screen of the bridge flickered to life as the face of an older man with gray hair but surprisingly few wrinkles came into view. “This is Admiral Farnis Keiler, the convoy has reached its intended location and we are switching to area patrol, you all know your roles so get to it. And remember this is a diplomatic mission first, so any unknown ships are to be hailed if they breach our patrol zone and are only to be fired upon if they fire first, Keiler out.” The screen slowly faded out of view with Captain Jones speaking up shortly after, “Alright everyone you heard the man, you all know your jobs so let’s get to it.”

The noise aboard the suddenly busy ship could have easily been mistaken for that of a bustling city, the halls echoing with mechanical scraping and the shouts of orders being given out. As everyone reached their stations an eerie silence fell over the ship, the captain staring intently at the sensor display that showed all the data the ship was acquiring from its surroundings. While he knew the best case scenario was that the convoy wouldn’t be interrupted, the young captain secretly wished for just a bit of action to help ease his nerves. Just as the thought crossed his mind a large object appeared on sensors, the crew attempted to hail the object but no response ever came as the object drifted ever closer to their position. With bated breath the captain studied the readings, no heat signatures and no signs of life were reported as the object flew within range of the ship's high detail sensors. With no order given to fire the gunners could only watch as the object hurtled through space towards their position, but as the mysterious object came into view it was clear that it was just an asteroid. Everyone aboard the Keeper could breathe a sigh of relief knowing the object was no threat, and a sense of calm washed over the ship as a budding confidence began to form.

—

Chaise could feel the tensions in the room rise as they began their broadcast, though spoken in the common human tongue was filtered through a computer generated translation algorithm to what everyone had hoped was an intelligible language spoken by at least one of the council species. It seemed like hours had passed since they began sending the message to the council, everyone held their breath as the signal flew through space heading for the seat of the galactic council. Suddenly a response came and the technicians immediately switched off the outgoing signal in order to focus on the incoming message which was run through the translation algorithm before being played for the diplomats to hear, “I see you vermin have crawl from your hole. We do not acknowledge your claim of territory but has hear you request. Send attach coordinate, one warship allow for good faith.” The transmission was followed by a string of numbers before it abruptly ended. It was apparent that the translation algorithm needed some fine tuning, but it had functioned well enough to communicate, and the message was clear enough to all who heard, send the diplomats to the coordinates with one escort.

The halls immediately filled with the sounds of chatter from all the crew and diplomats as they rushed to their designated positions. Chaise made his way to the conference room where diplomats were to remain until the decision was made as to how the negotiations were to be conducted, if a face to face meeting could be arranged then they would use the conference room as a shuttle, given its quick detach escape pod feature. If no such meeting could be arranged then the conference room would be where negotiations took place anyway. When Chaise reached the room he found himself alone, none of the others had shown up yet. He wandered around the room for a bit before settling on a chair to sit in, the dual functionality of the room meant that the chairs were all uncomfortable due to their built in harnesses and rigid, pragmatic construction, but they all served their purpose well so there wasn’t much to complain about all things considered.

Eventually the others slowly filled the room, one, sometimes two at a time, the four envoys had all sat in their seats by the time the crew had moved to man their stations. Slowly the noise level of the room grew as more people settled into their positions, waiting for the moment when they could finally, truly have a discussion with aliens for the first time. The buzz in the room seemed to be heavily focused on the brief transmission they received from the council, some claimed that the council had been too disrespectful toward them while most simply chalked it up to nuance being lost in translation. Chaise found himself rather conflicted about the message, on one hand there was a lot of small details that could be lost in translation and he understood that the council had to look out for their own best interest, but something didn’t sit right with him about how matter of fact they were about only allow one of the escort ships to be present, let alone why the escort ships even went along with this absurd idea in the first place.

—

“Captain, incoming communications from Admiral Keiler, sir.” Communications officer Trent Kollins spun around in his chair as he informed the captain of the news. “Very well, open the channel.” Static could be heard as the comms channel opened up, shortly after the voice of Admiral Keiler could be heard loud and clear throughout the bridge, “Captain Jones, the Keeper has been designated as the lone escort vessel for the remainder of this mission, if anything goes wrong you are to rendezvous here to regroup and extract the VIP’s, good luck.” Captain Jones mulled over the admiral’s words for a moment before replying, “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, why us? The Keeper is the least capable ship on this mission; we won't be able to protect the diplomats if this is an ambush.” “You’re also the least hot headed of the captains on this mission, James, you’re the only one I can trust to not act rashly if negotiations go south, we can’t afford to be the one to fire the first shot.” The admiral's harsh tone softened for a moment to address his long time friend. “The Keeper has an extensive array of sensors, you’ll be able to see an ambush coming from lightyears away, Keiler out.” The sound of static returned as the channel closed before the bridge was engulfed by an intense silence. “Alrighty then, I guess that’s that.” The captain held down a button on the arm of his chair and his voice could be heard across the entire ship, “All crew prepare to resume escort duties, we’re going solo on this one so I want everyone to be on their A-game, that’s all.” Letting go of the button Captain Jones gave out a heavy sigh before addressing Comms Officer Kollins, “Trent, send word to the diplomats that they are to stay on our six until we reach the destination, and tell them to be ready to open a channel back to Ganymede so we can record these negotiations.”