Carpathia IV: Episode 61 - Flight of the Blobby
Space, NCCS Shadowdancer
Two days after the initial contact, the situation was not much changed. The blob creatures weren't dead, at least, for they occasionally moved around. Still, they moved little and spent most of their times glaring at the Shadowdancer. What they said to each other was still a mystery. It was the Shadowdancer's mission to gather more information on their ways of communication, but this proved impossible with their attention firmly glued to the ship.
Aire drummed his fingers on his armrest with a grimace on his face, frustrated with the lack of progress.
Aire: Can we move the ship farther away again?
Phobos: Any farther and our scan quality will drop.
It seemed more and more likely that Aire's first real mission would end in failure as the inevitability and shame of reporting this to Admiral Zhang became increasingly impossible to ignore. They were already wasting time and Aire considered when it was more embarrassing to report failure or report how much time it took to achieve such failure.
Aire: I guess I'll have to call it in and move on to the next...
Amenaru: Captain, we have an incoming object.
Both concerned and excited that something was finally happening, Aire rose from his chair.
Aire: Are they spitting glue at us?
Amenaru: I don't think so. I'm having a hard time believing these readings. Let me get a visual.
Amenaru tapped at his console, bringing up an image of one of the blob creatures on the forward viewscreen.
Amenaru: Just what the readings indicated. One of the creatures has launched itself directly at us.
Aire: Nalma, tactical analysis. Weapons? Explosives?
Nalma hunched over his console to begin taking readings.
Nalma: Analyzing.
Aire: Opinions.
Joust: It's good to be cautious, but I think there's a high chance the creature is just curious.
Kit: The creature's expression does not match the typical hostile expression in our database.
Teren: That doesn't necessarily mean it's not hostile, of course, but a sort of hostility that we haven't observed.
Nalma: Analysis complete. No weapons. Nothing on or in the creature that could conceivably be used or combined to make an explosive.
Aire returned to his chair and observed the creature in the viewscreen. Its eyes remained fixed on the Shadowdancer and its expression remained firmly placid, by their standards. Though Teren was right, that this could simply be a heretofore unobserved type of hostility, Aire chose to let the situation play out.
Aire: Okay, we'll let the little guy sail to us for now. Keep an eye on it and on the others. Perhaps their behavior might give us a clue what the red one is up to.
Hours passed and the creature still floated toward the ship. The situation remained unchanged, with no hostile intent observed. The mood back at the asteroids surrounding the planet changed, however, where the other creatures now appeared to be having animated conversations with each other, gesticulating wildly by growing appendages from their blobby bodies. For this, Kit was delighted and completely immersed himself in recording all this communication. Everyone else was focused on the little banzai blobby hurtling toward them.
Aire: How long is going to take the creature to get here?
Phobos: Three days, 11 hours, 33 minutes, at its current speed.
Joust: If this is some sort of suicide mission, it's completely bonkers. Easiest attack to dodge ever.
Aire: Agreed. More likely that it's paying us a visit. Teek, let's cut that time. Ease us closer, steadily. Half thrusters for now.
Teek: Half thrusters, yes Captain.
Using the thrusters to bring the ship in closer cut the contact time from days to hours and the moment was finally upon them. In that time, Aire asked Ryuu if he'd be interested in this development, and he happily agreed to join the rest of the bridge team.
Phobos: Contact in three minutes. Estimated location on the forward port side.
Aire: All stop. Let's let our friend finish the journey.
Teek: All stop, yes Captain.
The bridge crew watched the screen intently as the creature floated in, making its final approach. Just before landing, an arm suddenly extended from its rotund body and grabbed the hull, drawing itself onto the ship. Now, they watched. The creatures body was, evidently, sticky all around, for it was able to roll all over the outer hull as though gravity were in place.
Ryuu: It is a sprightly one.
Aire: What's your opinion of what we're seeing, Kit?
Kit: Curiosity, I think. It's movements don't match any particular communication we've observed so far. I think it's trying to make sense of our ship.
Indeed, it was easy to come to this conclusion, for the creature appeared intent on exploring as much as possible, planting its face on various parts of the hull, possibly for a sniff, and occasionally launching itself away only to send a sticky appendage back to bounce itself off of the hull.
The creature continued this for hours. When it tired of the hull, it moved on to some of the other features, resulting in one comical moment of getting its face stuck in a antimatter torpedo launcher, unloaded, of course. It also inspected several of the ship's markings, the flag, the ship's name, and the dancer icon on the side of the ship. The thruster ports were a point of concern, and Aire had Teek rev the engines just a little to keep it away from those areas, for that was the one orifice that the creature could easily squeeze into.
Joust: I think we should invite it inside, with full security precautions, of course.
Aire rubbed his chin, considering the ramifications. The regulations were not written with creatures such as this in mind. "No contact shall be made with species of a non-space faring capacity." These creatures were indeed space faring, but also primitive at the same time.
Aire: I'm leaning to agree. We're long past considering whether or not we've had an impact on their culture.
Kit: If I can speak to one personally, then I can really start getting data on their language and hopefully get started on a means to translate.
Amenaru: We might even be able to undo some of the damage of our first meeting.
Aire took one more look at the screen just as the creature splat its face on one of the ship's windows, and came to a decision.
Aire: In that case, Ryuu and Tayet, since you two don't need space suits to go outside for awhile, would you care to lead a team to guide it to the shuttle bay? It might respond better if it's greeted by something not all wrapped up in technology.
Ryuu: Can-do, Captain I'll go grab some of our spacewalk specialists in case we need extra help.
Tayet: I have a maximum of 30 minutes out there, Captain. If we can't get it done in that time, I'll come back and wait in the shuttle bay.
Ryuu trotted away while Aire turned to the next matter.
Aire: Joust, take whoever you need to prepare the shuttle bay for our guest.
Joust leaped from his chair, flipping around to grab the ceiling with his feet.
Joust: Yes, Captain! Teren, Teek, Amenaru, Kit, Phobos, you're with me!
Joust skittered along the ceiling toward the lifts while the ones he called jumped from their chairs and followed.
Commissioned art in this episode from:
AvareonArt
Zelbunnii
Thatwildmary
Colourbrand
