344 344 Enter Valkia
“Commander, we have an incoming vessel, requesting to make contact.” One of the communications officers called out to Max nervously.
“What’s so strange about that? We get visitors at least every other day for one reason or another.” Max replied.
“Not like this. Whatever that thing is, it makes the Moon Base look like a pebble. Seriously, it looks like Terminus, but a thousand times larger.” The officer responded in a shaky voice.
Max pulled up the sensor data, and if anything, the communications crew had downplayed the size of their new arrival in the system. It had come to a halt well outside the path of any other planet, or its pure mass would interfere with their orbits. Whoever had designed that thing had not intended for it to remain in a solar system at all.
“What did they introduce themselves as?” Max asked before reaching for the microphone.
“They said they are Valkia of the Corvus, Lead Ship of the Noctem Fleet.” The crewman informed Max and linked him to the recording of the conversation.
[Valkia of the Corvus, this is Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company aboard the vessel Terminus. How might we help you today?] Max broadcasted on the same frequency that the planet-sized vessel had used to contact them.
pan-da-n0vel.com [If you have a moment, please do come to visit. We have much to learn about each other, and that historical relic that you call home.] The other Commander responded as soon as the message was sent.
[We have three more deliveries arriving today, and then we are free to leave the base and meet where you like, or I can come with a team in a shuttle. I suspect you would prefer to have access to Terminus though.] Max replied.
[It would be valuable information to have in our records. There is no record of another Colony Ship from that Era surviving this long. That wave of expansion was comprised of anti-technology puritans, and they dismantled their vessels once they were settled into the Galaxies that they arrived in.]
That alone was incredibly interesting information. To think that their people, at whatever point in the distant past, had been sending colonists to other galaxies, this one being only one of many where they had arrived in their attempt to leave whatever culture they came from.
Plus, she had referred to them as anti-technology Puritans. If the level of tech on this ship was considered minimalist to them, he could only imagine what one of their higher-tech ships would be capable of.
It was also somewhat telling to Max that they had instigated an audio-only conversation, despite the fact that they were clearly evolved enough to manage a video or even holographic conference with him. They must be keeping their appearance a secret to some degree.
Max already had a pretty good idea, they should be bipedal humanoids, four meters tall or thereabout, going by the way this vessel had been designed. That would be too large to comfortably explore many of the renovated areas of Terminus, but all of the common areas, like hallways and such, were designed to fit Line Mecha through and used the original ceiling heights, so they could do some exploration.
Bringing Terminus to them was a risk, but the Death Wind Mercenaries who had warned him that these people were coming had said that they were strictly pacifists, so unless they wanted this “Historical Relic of a ship” as they had called it, the risk was minimal.
[We will await your arrival at our current location. It has been deemed to have no impact on the orbital trajectories within this system.] The Commander responded, then cut the link.
“Well, we have work to do gentlemen. What is left on the roster today?” Max asked.
“We have two provisioning runs incoming, for the final details of the renovation. Lists say they are the final details for the VIP suites. Both are small shipments, and then we have one entire cargo bay reserved for use by the Station for delivery of an oversized shipment, Security Coded Vermillion.”
That was most likely to be the greatest delivery of them all. Uncle Lu had been bragging all week about how well his new construction designs were working, so it should be the payment for the renovations, ready to be delivered. An entire shipment of new Line Mecha.
“Let me know when they are all ready, and get everyone who has taken leave back aboard to make ready to depart,” Max instructed, then headed back for his quarters.
When he arrived, Nico was in the common area, making an ear-splitting screeching at a hologram of some sort of silver blob. The creature was responding in kind, and Max wondered what they were doing for a few moments before it dawned on him.
She was on a video call with whatever that was, and the language was Binary, the same noise that a modem made if you listened in on it during data transmission.
Nico seemed to apologize on behalf of Max, and the blob waved at him so Max waved back politely and nodded to Nico before heading into his room to shower.
When he got out, they had finished talking, and Nico was lounging on the couch in the common area with a huge smile.
“So, what did you learn today?” Max asked, knowing that this should be an interesting answer.
“That was Theta, aboard Corvus, of the Noctem Fleet. His species is living metal, and the scans of the system that their vessel ran detected me when they entered. So he snuck out a private call to have a chat since similar species are so rare.
Their ship has no less than ten species aboard, all from the same cluster of Galaxies. It sounds like they have an alliance that spans Galaxies the way ours spans star systems, and it is fascinating. He couldn’t spare the bandwidth to send me the data without being discovered, so we will chat once I arrive there later.
I should also warn you, Valkia isn’t the Commander’s name, it is the Species of the Majority aboard the vessel, and the current leader of their alliance.
I also learned that this ship was some sort of low-tech hobo tribe, trying to live the simple life in less developed Galaxies over ten thousand years ago. The translation was a bit strange, as Theta doesn’t speak the common language as most do, only his own, and doesn’t interact with others much. He is only there to keep things running properly and isn’t much interested in the affairs of Mortals.
He remembers when this ship was commissioned though, so he’s at least ten thousand years old.”
Nico dropped that information dump on Max with a happy smile and stretched out on the couch, doing something inside her mind that Max could only interpret as reviewing the ship’s status since the lines of data were passing by so fast.