[snip]

William arrived on the bridge, PaDD in hand reading over the latest reports from both his department and his representative on the bridge before taking his place at his station and checking the data, focusing on the decaying nebula for now.

It seems as they continued to talk someone or something did actually have a channel they could receive and send on. Thankfully with their earlier translations of the alien child’s language from their last mission. The UT had an easier time locking in on the audible terms. So when words became clear they were in the middle of a sentence. “..dock, we have observed your approach, please signal on this frequency and identify yourself..” it said.

“Captain, I’d like to run a standard pre-approach scan for weapons and defensive energy signatures,” Hal said. “Caution is always advised when dealing with any unknowns.”

It seemed like the time for chatting was over and there was work to do again.

“Inola, please signal of the frequency they’ve requested, identify ourselves, and ask them to repeat the whole message. I will speak to someone in authority if they appear,” Glen told the Communication Officer.

”..Aye sir..” The comms NE replied.

“Hal, yes, please run standard non-intrusive scans for weapons and defensive systems,” Glen replied. “But as you well know, sometimes our invasive scans can spook unknowns into thinking that there is some attack coming and we don’t wish to do that.”

“William, now is not the best time for a briefing,” Glen said, “however my new XO thinks that the data on the composition and rate of decay of that nebula might be crucial to understanding the history of this system, and I like to be as forewarned as possible before making First Contacts. So, can you be quick?”

Sometimes it was something small which one would think of as insignificant to one dept but would assist and aid another. Hunter contacted Glen =/\= Captain doctor Hunter from sickbay, if it’s of any help in finding where those pods came from the scans on the boy shows lighter bone density than that of humans which may indicate the race either grew up on a lighter gravity than Earth or something similar =/\= .

=/\= Thank you doctor. That might be useful. Keep me informed of anything else you find. Glen out. =/\=

“We might be looking for a smaller planet for the origin of the child” Glen observed. “The M Class world that is calling us might not be it. For the child’s safety, we should probably wait before revealing that we have picked up the stasis box, and give us more time to assess the political landscape here?”

“Yes, Sir,” Hal concurred. “The large structure does some to indicate that they’re more advanced than we are. Perhaps they might know where this child comes from…”

The comms NE turned back from their station, “..Captain? I was able to get an audio signal back through on the channel they asked. I gave our ID and who we are and why we are here. They are requesting a visual comm link, should I put them up?” they asked.

The view screen faded a second and soon resolved into a somewhat grainy received picture feed. Obviously the alien station was in some ways not quite as advanced on communications devices as the Merrimack was. Still they were able to make out enough, sure enough the male like figure on the screen was a more grown up match for the alien boy in sickbay. He wore a deep red-green like uniform with a strange helmet that almost looks comically like someone had fashioned an aluminum tin foil hat onto their head.

=/\= Greetings USS Merrimack. I am habitat master Dol, we welcome you to our system and home. Your communication officer informed my own staff that you came across a child matching our species in a cryonics capsule. Is that right?=/\= He said.

Damn that Communications Officer! Hadn’t she heard what he had just said on the Bridge? Time for some crew changes? thought Glen. Well, there is not point in denying it now… also, they do look like the child, a little, so Doctor Hunter’s worry for the child’s safety is probably unwarranted anyhow. And Hal’s concerns that they are more technologically and militarily advanced than us looks unlikely too!

Meanwhile if anyone did any scans on the station they could quickly devise there was no signs of any type of ship based weapons, the habitat was clearly as far as could be seen unarmed. There was indications of a low energy deflection screen, probably used for simple asteroid or the like protection. It would do nothing to deflect or absorb any of the Merrimack’s weapons though, much less interfere with further scans or transporters for that matter. It in short was not a wild guess to assume that the aliens present were probably not more advanced than the Starfleet ship, in fact it was quite safe to assume they were far more primitive. Clearly not even capable of warp flight. They would have to approach this carefully it seemed as they were once more into a First Contact scenario and worse with one which while capable of some kind of space flight or life and able to detect interstellar ships seemed not warp capable.

=/\= Greetings to you, Habitat Master Dol, from the USS Merrimack. To answer your question, indeed we did find a child within a stasis box and followed it back to it’s origin to find you. =/\=

Glen gave a weird look with his eyes to Hal and Joe to gain their attention. The probably needed to discuss this before going further. Despite earlier appearances to the contrary, it was likely that the tin-foil hat man’s society didn’t even have Warp capability. The Prime Directive meant that they shouldn’t even be having this conversation. They could probably buy a little time and blame it on poor communications, with the way that the screen faded and picture turned grainy, it wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary.

Off camera, Glen made that time-honoured cutting hand gesture to the Communications Officer, indicating that she should pause the conversation.

=/\= Sorry… aster Dol.. tions problem… =/\= Glen added.

When the microphone was dead, Glen said, “This does not look like a technologically advanced civilisation! If General Order number One applies, we are still permitted to make initial contact, and even diplomatic exchanges are permitted within limits, but we will need to take delicate care not to disrupt local culture or customs. We cannot reveal the existence of the United Federation of Planets to their greater society unless we deem that they are Warp-capable. We can’t talk about technology they don’t have. I’m going to try to engage him in conversation and find out exactly how advanced they are, and how they have cryogenic and stasis technology. He obviously isn’t phased by the fact that we come from the stars. I’ll also find out about the child. But I may have to be economical with the truth about us and where we come from. Maybe we can pretend to be Alstaireans? Do you have any suggestions guys?”

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Glen signalled the Communication Officer to resume the conversation again.

=/\= Hello, Hello. Is this thing still on? =/\= Glen asked.