Episode 2: Leaving the comforts of home

//Indeed, what would you like to know?// Shi-Zan settled comfortably in his seat. //My people have been exploring space for some time. I am surprised that this is our first real encounter between our peoples. Is your race new to the galaxy?//

Comeau smiled and leaned back in his chair.
"Brand new to space, at least. This is the farthest out our people have been. This is an experimental ship, with what is to us brand new technology.

What do you consider some time? I suppose that might be a good place to start our discussion. How do you measure time? How long is a day on your homeworld? What is an average lifespan?"

Shi-Zan made what would be considered a smile. //As I said before, I admire your bravery for venturing out in a vessel such as this.// Shi-Zan paused at Comeau's question. //That is....difficult. My people live largely on star ships. Therefore days tend to vary. As such, as do the measure of our lifetimes.//

Comeau nodded. It seemed fair that a space-faring people might evolve, as it were, out of necessity or for some other reason, alternate measures of time. Especially with other planets colonized.
"That makes sense. It may take some calculating to accurately compare in terms that humans can understand. We have only ever operated in one type of measure, really, as far back as we can remember. There was a time hundreds of years ago when some elements of time fluctuated in some areas based on the season, but we've had a standardized time for many generations."

//My people....were exiled from our original homeworlds.// Comeau could tell it was an uncomfortable topic not from Shi-Zan's expression, but emotional bleed-through in the telepathic connection. //The exodus was a difficult time for my people, but we survived and we thrived despite it. As I hope your people will as well.//

Comeau nodded.
"With any luck we will."
His curiosity was piqued, as the correlation set in. He sit back up, back a little straighter.
"Your people's exile... It wasn't enforced with bio-warfare based means, was it? If it wasn't, I won't press the matter any further."

//It was long ago early in the history of my people...as with such things no one can really say why. Some say it was a war, some say it was because our ancestors had thought enlightenment would be found among the stars.// Shi-Zan leaned back in his chair. //We will be meeting with one of our many world ships. Should be interesting for you and your crew. Although, I'm sure your people have policies against mingling with alien species. Most immature races do. I find that most primitive races have difficulty interacting with those different themselves.//

Comeau nodded his understanding. A world ship. That would be most impressive.
"Our people have no policies regarding mingling with alien species. We've never met any, so I'm going to make one simple policy for them. They are to represent our people with pride, dignity, honor, and integrity. With any luck, things will go as well for my crew and your people as they have gone here between us."

//A good policy to have. I think our people will become good friends because of you Captain Comeau.//

The transition to the coordinates given by Shi-Zan were accurate to a point. Although the coordinates were accurate, Comeau found that they had to spend some time in real-space before the supposed world ship appeared on the Tempests radar screens.

When it did, it seemed that the term world ship was not a misnomer.

"Captain, you REALLY have to see this for yourself." The sensors operator said as he glanced over his shoulder towards the captain. "I mean...I thought it was a planetoid at first. But the EM signature and...well, everything else pegs it for a space going vessel...Its ENORMOUS!!"

When Comeau managed to glance at the screen, he instantly knew what the operator was talking about. The "ship" on the screen, though still out of visual range, looked like it dwarfed the Tempest by a large degree. The closest comparison that he could give himself was that this vessel was a giant space station with engines. Even then it made any space station that orbited Earth looked tiny.

Questions flooded the minds of anyone who saw the sensor data. The most powerful was who were these aliens that they had just made contact with and how advanced were they that they could build a vessel so large?

Having prior knowledge of the alien planet-ships beforehand barely helped Comeau retain composure, once he had his first glimpse of the ship.

"Sensors, I want everything you can get on that ship. My curiosity is overwhelming, and I'd like some idea what we've found, aside from an immense ship. Consider it nothing more than an exercise."

Technology like that could definitely be useful, in case earth remains uninhabitable. Even just the idea of a ship that could house a species is out of the box enough to be a good idea to bring back. Humanity is weakened, but could possibly come up with some sort of orbital habitat. Something to look into.

Whatever the outcome, he was certainly looking forward to sharing with these people.

Ryan shifted in his seat, it was obvious the massive ship was interesting to say the least. "Sir, you think scanning something like that might be a good idea? I mean, we haven't introduced ourselves just yet...I'd hate to get blown out of the sky proving the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'."

Waiting on the captains reply, the sensors officer decided to run a passive scan in the meantime. "Sir, sending passive scans to your console. It's really impressive...heat signatures indicate that the ship...er...if you could call it that, not only has a functional propulsion system, but its generating power on an unprecedented scale. Though the size of the heat bloom would indicate that their generator is considerably smaller than anything we have that could generate THAT much power. That ship is generating more power than our biggest space stations."

Comeau nodded. "Fair enough. No in-depth scans until further notice. I believe we will learn much about this ship and, more importantly, about its people soon enough."

"And regarding their power output, to say I'm impressed would be an understatement!"