Hello reader! Everything in this story has been translated for your convenience. All time is set around Earth standard time (365.25 Earth rotations around Sol per year) and idioms have been adjusted so that they make sense to English speakers. The only exception is certain nouns. Those are written in their proper name with translations in {brackets} where applicable. Enjoy!

Subject: Ship-Head Uleena

Species: Urakari

Description: Reptilian humanoid, no tail. 5'3" (1.6 m) avg height. 135 lbs (61 kg) avg weight. 105 year life expectancy.

Ship: RSV Lowelana {Fights with Honor}

Location: Unknown

Our ship had taken a beating, and nobody can tell me where we are. Our nav officer is down and probably isn't going to survive his wounds. My second was already dead, head smashed in by a console detaching when we were hit by the first missile salvo. My own head was reeling from the successive slip-space jumps we had just made. The first jump was to arrive at our destination and the second was to escape the ambush that had awaited us. The second one was the problem, it had been done out of desperation. We had jumped blind and without shields.

"We have multiple hull breaches, our Faster-Than-Light Drive is offline, and our engines are not responding, sir," the panic in the voice of Liwna, my head of engineering, was palpable.

"Evacuate and seal the breached sectors. Initiate distress protocol and try to find out where we are," I managed to say through gritted teeth.

This was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. Some warp irregularities that we were supposed to scan and report back on. Our shields didn't even have a chance to spool up before we had been fired on by the Omni-Union bastards. We had been hit hard and the additional strain of an unshielded warp likely caused even more damage.

"Sir, the ship that hit us was a destroyer-class," my intel officer Kriin informed me. "There's no way they were there by chance."

"That's not good," I replied. "We need to inform the Republic as soon as we can. Speaking of which, where are we on a location?"

Kriin grimaced, "Judging from our flight path... We're far beyond our borders."

"That's also not good..."

"Well, we're also outside of the OU's borders so it could be worse. Probably. I'll have more info when our sensors come back online. Jumping unshielded desynchronized them," Kriin frowned as she glanced at the nav panel across the bridge.

My nav officer, Kraan, had been taken to the med-bay. Kriin and Kraan were hatch-mates, siblings that burst into the world simultaneously. It's said that they have an unshakable bond, and as far as I've seen that holds up. The odds of both of them being assigned to the same ship were slim to none, but they somehow made it happen. Their playful banter made the long treks into deep-space less exhausting. I hope Kraan makes it. His quick thinking had saved us. He had already calculated a blind jump by the time I gave the order.

Liwna interrupted my chain of thought, "Ship-Head, I have a more comprehensive damage report."

"Let's hear it."

"We're in a bad way. We have hull breaches in Engineering, Life Support, and the living quarters. These areas have been sealed off until we can enact repairs, but that will require a space-walk," Liwna grimaced. "We've lost a lot of gas, and the pressurized reserves might not be enough to fully repressurize those sectors."

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"Understood. As long as we don't have leaks you can take your time formulating a plan. Not too long though, or we'll run out of rations," I smiled at my little joke. Liwna didn't.

"We also have no propulsion or shields. Sublights and our FTLD are non-responsive and vacuum-exposed. I wouldn't be surprised if we were leaking radiation, but I can't confirm that without our sensors. Our shields are non-functional and our frame is damaged. We're going to need at least dry-dock for full repairs, but I think it's likely that the ship is totaled."

This was far from the Lowelana's maiden voyage. I had been the ship-head for 12 years, but the ship had been in service for at least 30. She had started life as a corvette, but is now classified as a frigate. Relatively small for a warship, but faster than most and could pack a punch. As long as we got a swing in, at least. The Lowelana could fit a crew of up to 50 but operated best with a smaller crew. We had departed with a crew of 38, including myself.

"What's our casualties look like?" I said, no longer smiling.

Liwna looked down at his data-pad solemnly, "Six dead, ten critically injured, four unaccounted for."

Twenty casualties. My hearts sank. More than half my crew out of action, and more than a quarter of them dead or MIA. I felt myself spiraling and shook myself out of it. Half is better than all.

"Keep me updated on the status of the injured and missing. I'll notify the next-of-kin when we're rescued. Speaking of which, how's the distress signal doing?"

"It's beeping away, ship-head," Kriin said. "And our sensors just came back online. We are definitely leaking radiation Liwna. Anyways, I can pinpoint where we are now. Hopefully there's an exploration team within sensor range."

The odds of that were low. Ever since the war with the Omni-Union had began the Republic had been more focused on manning warships than exploring the cosmos. For good reason, though, the war hadn't been going in our favor. It seemed like for every OU ship we took out another three took their place. We'd managed to keep them out of the core systems but we were firmly on the defensive.

"Ah, I spoke too soon," Kriin sighed. "We're well out of range of anything Republic. No known life this far out. Looks like we're smack in the middle of a solar system though, maybe we can get some supplies for repairs. Let's see... A yellow dwarf sun, 8 planets... Oh! Four of them are gas giants! No worries about repressurization!"

I smiled sadly, "That's good. Hopefully we can get what we need to limp back to Repu..."

"Fuuuck," Kriin interrupted me. "Ship-head, this solar system is inhabited!"

What?

"What?"

Kriin looked up at me, "I'm showing signs of advanced colonization on two planets and several moons. Actually, one of the planets look like a capital world. The entire surface is covered in artificial structures! Also, there are..."

A proximity alarm pinged. The first two notes were the same for every ship that approached. The second two determined if it was friend, foe, or unknown. In my 12 years of being ship-head I had never heard these last two notes. Unknown. Liwna rushed back to his console.

"Unknown vessel on approach," Kriin said, baffled. "It's absolutely massive. Easily twice the size of any battleship I've ever seen."

"It has shields powered up but doesn't appear to have it's weapons armed. Not that we'd necessarily be able to tell," Liwna said fearfully.

I sat up straight and asked, "Are comms online?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Hail them."

"They're hailing us, sir," Liwna said. "Do you want me to put them through?"

I nodded and Liwna set to work opening a channel. The sounds that came through our speakers were nonsensical and guttural. I looked at Liwna in confusion.

"The channel is working. We'll need a minute for the translator to take effect," he explained.

The next noise I heard nearly sent me into an early grave from shock.

"No need for that, we've scanned your logs and extrapolated your language. I am Captain Reynolds of the USSS Thanatos. You seem to be in a spot of bother. May we assist?" asked the voice from the speaker.

It took me a second to remember how to speak, "I am ship-head Uleena of the RSV Lowelana. We come in peace, and are in no position to turn down an offer of aid."

"It shall be done. Prepare to be boarded, and welcome to Sol."