Diplomacy Knockin' on Heaven's Door

[Shoma Ike]

ACS SHENZHOU
Royal Exploration Corps | On Detached Operations
Wild Space | The Utegetu Nebula
=============================

The lighting flickered.

For a moment, everything was plunged back into darkness. Then, the illumination returned. Glancing up, either to confirm that the overhead lighting was, indeed, operational or else say a silent to the gods for whatever divine intervention had just occurred, the Atrisian youth put away the tool that he'd been using to repair the power to the main bridge. Picking himself up off the deck, the boy wiped his hands against his trousers as he slid back to the science console.

"Report."

A woman's voice curt voice snapped like a whip. Glancing around the various stations, Captain Beifong added, "And don't tell me that was any meteor shower."

With the power restored to console before him, the dark haired teen began cycling through rebooting the ship's various sensors "No, Ma'am," he supplied. The recorder tapes had caught the com-scan readings behind the ship had been struck, supplying a frame of reference even as the long-range tachyon scanners and energy-wave detectors came back on-line. Taking a second in which to digest the data and computer-aided analysis, the youth looked up and said, "It appears to have been a band of intense stellar radiation."

The statement seemed to provide cause for the captain to join him over at the science terminal.

"The computer assessed it as stellar winds until it was right on top of us," the woman noted dryly, as Shoma stepped back to allow the matriarchal figure access to the console. "The origin appears to have been an O-Class star inside of the nebula," she noted, seemingly thinking aloud as she remarked, "I'm detecting high levels of electromagnetic activity. It's possible this star is experiencing the start of post main sequence transition."

"Captain," another voice called. The navigational team were similarly taking their posts as the sudden crisis seemed to have passed them by. "Navigation is restored, but engineering reports that the power core has been damaged."

Leaving Shoma at the science terminal, the woman crossed to the central command chair. "Engineering, Bridge," she announced, toggling the ship's intercom. "Do we have enough power for a hyperspace jump?"

"We can route auxiliary batteries to the hyperdrive, but she won't hold up to more than a short jump."

"We're in Chiss space," the captain mused aloud. Then, turning back toward the prince, asked, "Any planets that might be friendly, Highness?"

Minimizing the com-scan read-outs, the boy instead accessed the stellar cartographic library. They were on the other side of the nebula from the Rago Run, which put them out of position for a clean jump to either Reecee or Adumar. "Well, according to the database, there's an Imperial Remnant that's established itself on Schesa," the youth noted. "They called themselves the... Zweihänder Union."

Was he even pronouncing that correctly?

"It's not much, but Schesa should be within range."

"Well, let's give them a ring and see who answers," Captain Beifong noted, before turning toward the protocol droid at the communications terminal. "Send a distress signal toward Schesa."

When the droid had indicated that the communications channel was open, the Atrisian woman leaned forward to announce:

"This is Captain Beifong of the Atrisian ship Shenzhou calling the Zweihänder Union."

Now, they would see if anyone would answer. And just what kind of reception that they might receive.

Ben Craig​

 

[Ben Craig]

U N I O N​

Location: Schesa , Intelligence & Security Center
Tags: Shoma Ike , Credius , Tranquility , Auriel
Dress: Link

The doors hissed open. "Jack what's the status on the subject?" The director walked over to the transparisteel window. On the other side were the rats. "It seems the toxic gas has affected their nervous system. Reports show critical damage to the respiratory system. We're fine tuning it to act much quicker." Ben nodded, "Excellent work. I'll expect a thorough report on my desk next week." A corporal rushed in, "Sir, you're urgently requested in the control center." Ben turned around to look the man in the eyes. "This had better be important, walk and and update me."

"We received a distress signal from a small fleet." Ben stopped and glared at the man, "And why did you see fit to request my presence? We've received hundreds of distress calls since the Union found Schesa. Are you not fit to answer yourself?" The man paled choosing his next words carefully, "Sir this is a red priority distress call, normally we would handle it ourselves, but due to the nature of the...call..." Ben turned and continued walking towards the command room, leaving the corporal mid-sentence. If it truly was a code red then there wasn't any time to sit around explaining himself. The corporal hurried up to the director.

The doors opened and everyone froze, looking at the director. Ben's eyes widened, "Is that how you greet a superior officer? You freeze? Get me the comm." They unfroze apologizing and giving the various "Good afternoon sir." "Play it again." "This is Captain Beifong of the Atrisian ship Shenzhou calling the Zweihänder Union." Ben nodded and cleared his throat, "This is Director Craig of the Zweihander Union, Atrisian ship Shenzhou, what is the status of your ship or ships?"

​

 

[Shoma Ike]

ACS SHENZHOU
Sentinel-class Heavy Explorer | In Vicinity of Utegetu Nebula

Captain Lien Beifong​

​

With the ship's sensors back on-line, the Atrisian teen cycled through the various protocols for clearing the matrix and dumping any corrupt data that may have still been cached in the databanks. Once that was done, the youth brought the energy-wave detectors to power and looked over the readings.

"I've got elevated solar ionization readings coming from a star system twelve lightyears from our current position," Shoma uttered, transferring the data over to the com-scan and decompiling the raw information into the analysis computer for interpretation. "The readings appear to be centered on the location of an O-class star, except the energy readings are off the chart."

"That's because it's not an O-class star anymore, Highness," Captain Beifong noted flatly.

"The Zweihänder Union is hailing us, Captain."

From the central chair, the aging Atrisian woman just answered, "Put me through."

"This is Director Craig of the Zweihander Union, Atrisian ship Shenzhou, what is the status of your ship or ships?"

"Just the one ship, Director. We're currently on emergency power," Captain Beifong stated. In their present condition, a deception would hardly have been to their benefit. They were too far from the Core to try jumping back to Atrisia with a damaged power core. Even if these Imperials were unknown, it seemed the making new friends was the only path before them at present. Which made honesty the best policy. "We encountered a wave of stellar matter ejected by a newly forming blue giant and our power core was damaged."

She may bring the Shenzhou back here, if the repairs were successful. The opportunity to observe an O-class star transitioning into its post main sequence form was not something one came across everyday.

"If you wouldn't object to the company, Schesa is in jump range for us," the captain stated, before adding, "We could make repairs and then be out of your hair."

Ben Craig​

 

[Ben Craig]

U N I O N​

Location: Schesa , Intelligence & Security Center
Tags: Shoma Ike , Auriel , Lako Unian
Dress: Link

Ben looked at his officers, "Which one of you told me it was a quote "small fleet"?" One of his senior officers spoke up, "That was captain Garner sir." Ben turned, "Fire that man. You made me look stupid and communication is key." He returned his attention to the distressed ship, "Understood Captain. " He listened to the captain, "That sounds fine, feel free to stay as long as you'd like on Schesa. We'll send a welcome party to meet you." Flicking the switch he noticed the captain was already removed, "Let this be a reminder to all. I run a tight station...there is no room for mistakes. We can not afford miscommunication." He paused letting it sink in, "Get the department of Foreign Affairs on the line. Tell them we have some...guests." The officers ran about giving out the orders. Ben rubbed his chin thoughtfully, he hadn't heard the word Atrisian or Atrisia since...the Directorate, when he was a grand admiral fighting the...Atrisians and the Jedi. That had been part of the past, a new age was coming.

​

 

[Lako Unian]

Location: Schesa , Landing pad
Tags: Shoma Ike , Auriel , Ben Craig

Lako was hastily arranging his clothes while walking towards the landing pad where the visitors should land.
He received the call 5 minutes ago that some visitors from the Atrisian Commonwealth where arriving at any moment because of an failure in their ship.
As soon as he got the call he dropped everything got in his working clothes and marched off to meet the guests, followed by his secretary and some guards.
While walking, he started to role play the encounter in his head to better prepare himself for what was to come.

"Give me some information on the Commonwealth and our past relations with them, please"

he asked his assistant, this one went on looking for the information requested and passed the holo-pad to his boss.

"very well, lets see what we got hear"

The Abdenedo would keep on reading until the Atrisian ship would land, returning the holo-pad to its former holder, and proceeded with greeting the guest as soon as they left their ship.

"Welcome to Schessa, im going to be your host for your stay, should you need anything i will gladly help you."

he said while walking towards him, followed by his secretary and leaving the gurads, as ordered before, at the entrance of the landing pad in order to not make the welcome look too threatening.

 

[Shoma Ike]

ACS SHENZHOU
Sentinel-class Heavy Explorer

Captain Lien Beifong

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, was a thread that a writer had started to write some new people and then utterly failed at posting to it in a timely fashion.

Meanwhile, in the Schesa System...

The sweeping arches of the Selonian inspired heavy explorer snapped into being, as the Atrisian star cruiser reverted back to normal space-time. "All stations, secure from lightspeed," the captain ordered.

"We have entered the Schesa system, Captain," the navigator reported from the front of the bridge.

"Bridge, Engineering. That jump drained the batteries. We need to put in to a berth and shift to shore power. Maybe an hour at most, but that's all I can give you"

From the side of the bridge, the young midshipman piped up. "Captain, the system port authority is transmitting landing coordinates to us."

"Transfer the coordinates to the helm," Captain Beifong stated in a crisp tone. Then, directing her gaze toward the front of the bridge, added, "Navigator, best speed."

The ship's voyage to Schesa was not graceful, but there was an old spacer's saying about any landing you could walk away from being a good one. All things considered, encountering a random chunk of stellar matter from a supernova was one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of interstellar accidents that was an auspicious enough occasion that the captain was counting blessing that the ship was not being towed to Schesa.

Or, worse, adrift and disabled with no habitable systems in communications range. Space was millions of lightyears of vast emptiness in spots, after all.

Lien left the executive officer to oversee damage control and engineering efforts. An away team consisting of herself, the young prince, and an escort disembarked to the landing pad. As they did, they saw an Abedenedo with an entourage of his own approaching.

As was their custom, the Atrisians stopped outside of what would be colloquially referred to as 'hand-shake range.' Instead, the trio of Atrisians bowed toward the Abedenedo. Lien was the first to straighten back up, with the two behind her not raising up until after she had. It was at that point that the captain took a step forward. "I'm Captain Lien Beifong of the Atrisian Commonwealth," the woman supplied in introduction. "On behalf of my officers and crew, allow me to extend gratitude for giving us shelter while we make repairs to our power core."

Taking a half step back, the dark-haired woman paused to indicate the pair behind her. Motioning to the older of the two, she said, "Allow me to present my security chief, Lieutenant Sena."

The dark haired man gave a slight bow as he was introduced.

Continuing to the smaller and younger of the pair, the woman said, "And Cadet Ike is a midshipman in our science division."

Taking a step forward, the aforementioned youth presented a datapad out for the Abedenedo to take, if he liked. "These are our sensor logs and cartographic maps of the Utegetu Nebula, including the details of the new blue giant," the cadet stated. "We wanted to provide them as a token of friendship."

Ben Craig Lako Unian​

 

[Ben Craig]

U N I O N​

Location: Schesa , Intelligence & Security Center
Tags: Shoma Ike , Auriel , Lako Unian
Dress: Link

"Sir, the Atrisian ship has landed, and a public relations agent has been dispatched to greet the Atrisians." Ben nodded and rubbed his chin. "Alert the Chancellors." He turned and headed towards the turbolift to bring him to the landing pads. Every word discussed between the Atrisians and Lako had been recorded and monitored. Ben had decided to personally meet the Atrisians after he had heard about the specific science division. Perhaps the Union's Research and Development branch could learn from them. He exited the turbolift and headed towards the entourage. Not knowing whether to bow or shake hands, Ben opted for a simple nod.

"Hello, I am Ben Craig, Director of the Union's Research and Development branch. I hope you all are well.

​

 

[Credius]

It did not take long for the Chancellor of the Left to be notified through the usual coded and secured transmissions utilized by central command that a vessel of unknown origin had apparently entered the Zweihander Union's territory, heck even practically right onto it's doorstep. It was also noted that this vessel in question seemed to be in need of repair and the crew themselves most likely needed some rest or breather before even thinking of going back into space again. It mattered not though, as the Chancellor of the Left was certain that should they require the assistance or guidance of any chancellor in such a case, most likely the smarter people within Central Command would know to alert the Chancellor of the Right, Jarred Ketzloff in particular. However, this did not mean that Credius did not keep an eye on the preceedings, making sure any polical or diplomatic blunders could be avoided and navigated through properly.

New information caught his eyes, as it seemed the ship in question came from the Atrisian Commonwealth. This did make the man smirk slightly, but also brought back a painful memory, one in which he, in his former position as Viceroy of Eriadu, witnessed the dangers and the tragedy which had befallen the planet during the brutal attack upon it by Blackwing plague-carrying monsters and yet, as he reminisced about that, he realised yet again that it was on atriasia that he had died or rather had been reborn, had cast off the first vestiges of mortality and humanity through the mutation which now welled, gnawed and swirled within him. "KRONOS, establish a secure, direct line to Director Ben Craig , I wish to be kept posted on this matter,"

The Artificial Intelligence started buzzing, initiating the secure line, at which point the director, wether or not these new guests were present , nearby or anything of the sort or not, would have his personal datapad tremble and vibrate, having a voice boom through the datapad's voice modulators and transeivers. "Director Craig...Put these people in containtment for now, give them all the medical care and hospitality they require, but do perform some standard medical tests and scan them for the Blackwing plague. I am certain that they will understand this concern if you kindly remind them of what the results of this plague had not too long ago wrought upon their home."

 

[Shoma Ike]

A new Imperial figure joined them on the landing pad.

Atrisian Delegation​

Captain Lien Beifong​

Lieutenant Jubei Sena​

Acknowledging the director with a short bow, which was mimicked by the two males accompanying her, Lien remarked, "Considering we had a brush with a second stage stellar ignition, I think we're decently intact for the experience."

The trapping of Imperialism were hardly foreign to the Atrisians. At one time, Atrisia had been the seat of the Galactic Empire Akio Kahoshi. Its own Imperial politics had been cause for some clashes in the period in which the world had been a member of the Galactic Alliance. In many respects, the fact that the Zweihander Union presented as an Imperialist state was welcome for its familiarity.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to thank you in person for this opportunity to take safe harbor while we make repairs to our power core," the woman added. "In the meantime, if there are any protocols that need to be observed, we are, of course, anxious to be good guests while we are here."

There were always protocols. One thing that Lien appreciated about Imperials was their adherence to doctrine. There was doubtless some standard operating procedure for contact with the crew of a foreign star cruiser.

Ben Craig Credius Lako Unian​

 

[Ben Craig]

U N I O N​

Location: Schesa , Landing Pad #45334
Tags: Shoma Ike , Credius
Dress: Link

Ben smiled, and frowned as his datapad emitted a noise. "A second if I may." He looked at his datapad. "Right away sir." He replied, putting the datapad away. He nodded, "Our technicians and engineers will repair your ship. Please follow me." He started to walk towards one of the containment rooms hoping the Atrisians were following. He'd hate to have them wandering off somewhere. He decided to take on the role of tour master and entertain them while they walked. "The Zweihander Union is relatively new yet growing rapidly." He pointed to the tall black spire he had left. "This is the Intelligence and Security Center. Here we monitor the well being of the Union, locate internal and external threats as well as other things." He waited a minute to allow them to ask any questions.

​