A Warp Capable Species

Posted on Wed May 12th, 2021 @ 9:31am by Captain Kelly O'Connor & Lieutenant Aurora Rogers & Lieutenant JG Cara Ross & Lieutenant JG John Adams

1,257 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 8 - A Blast from the Past
Location: USS America
Timeline: 2296/03/12 0715

The space vehicle came into visual range for the America. Looking at it was like looking at an oversized metal bird. The warp engines were manufactured as the legs of the spacecraft. There were extensive wings that appeared to have each wing nearly as long as the whole of the body. The head of the ship even seemed to have a beak, which appeared to have lookout windows upon magnification.

At first, Rogers heard a series of chirps, clicks, and whistles come from the communications from the alien ship. But she soon recognized that the chirps and clicks were translated into some sort of version of Romulan and then came through the Universal Translator.

"Captain," Rogers interrupted to murmur of the bridge working, "it's a Romulan dialect. Incoming message."

"Romulan? How can you tell that?" O'Connor asked curiously. "Doesn't the Universal translator automatically make things into our respective languages?"

"A language I know, plus there's a slight delay whilst the translator sets up," Aurora replied somewhat confused at the question, "ma'am, the message."

"Yes, play it," O'Connor insisted while her eyebrows furrowed.

The greeting came out, audio only, "Sqwawk! Who are you in our space?"

Cara pulled her gaze away from the sensor hood, sitting back in her chair, and began to run comparative analysis scans against the ships database. Under her breath, she muttered, "Romulan?"

"Our space?" Repeated Gates with surprise. "Captain, we are still well within our side of the border."

"I don't like any of this," O'Connor growled. O'Connor did not like the thought any more than Cara. This did not bode well if the Romulans had something to do with this species. "This is Captain Kelly Jean O'Connor of the Federation Starship, USS America. Do you have the ability to speak with your pictures? I have turned on our viewscreens so that you can see us."

Cara could hear some frantic squawks and chirps in the background that were garbled in the Universal translator but the words "Federation" and "warn" were clearly present.

O'Connor motioned to Cara to silence their end and asked, "What's going on over there?"

"Captain," Adams spoke up. "If they are aligned with the Romulans, they may be trying to contact them, in which case, we should be prepared to leave the area quickly, sir."

O'Connor growled at Adams. "We are NOT leaving here, especially if Romulans are involved. They're on OUR side of the neutral zone. We have a duty to maintain it. As a security officer, Lieutenant, YOU should know better." Since when did Security officers become cowards?

Gates couldn't help but turn around in astonishment at what he'd just heard from the security chief. He looked at him for a moment before shaking his head before turning back to his console.

Adams turned back to his console, biting his tongue so he didn't say anything. He clinched his fists so hard, his nails were digging into his palms, little drops of blood were falling to the floor.

Satisfied that she made her point, O'Connor asked her communication chief again, "Can you make heads or tails of it?"

"Struggling, ma'am," Aurora replied, "it's very garbled. I am convinced it's a Romulan dialect th-" she paused, finally clear messages.

Whatever argument that the creatures had suddenly ended and the viewscreen popped on. An emerald green feathered head appeared on the screen. It had a large beak and two eyes that were faced mostly forward but were spaced more to the side, giving greater peripheral vision. The creature's head did not appear to have a neck but given that only the head appeared, it was difficult to say. Again, Aurora could hear the clicks as they translated into some dialect of Romulan and came through the Universal Translator. To the crew, it sounded like this. "Kaw! I Captain Kaktaw. Who are you, Captain? I know not of Federation. I know Eppire. What you want? What you give?"

O'Connor looked at her crew and still on mute asked, "Thoughts anyone?"

"Definitely not Romulan then..." Gates commented looking at the screen. "It's nothing I've seen before, Captain. Could we have stumbled onto these people's first warp flight? There vessel is very basic," He added looking at the sensor readings on his monitor.

"Maybe," O'Connor hedged while waiting for her crew to come up with other hypotheses.

Ross blinked slowly, looking at the clearly avian form on the viewscreen before them. "That uh...wow. Okay. Visually there are some notable similarities with Aurelian's though the angle is all wrong to tell if they have wings."

Adams checked the security console. He'd probably be better off in his office, but he was damned if he was going to ask permission from HER to leave the bridge. He would answer any question, quickly and briefly, otherwise, he would stay quiet.

One of the avian forms turned. They did, in fact, seem to have wings, but they were folded in. Whether this was for convenience or the fact that their wings had lost ability to do anything was anyone's guess.

Adams started running possible security issues as he stood at his console.

With no other suggestions coming in, O'Connor addressed Captain Kaktaw, "Give? We have nothing to give except our friendship. We are very interested in opening relations with you, now that you are warp capable."

Kaktaw replied, "Twicky. Twicky. Our fwends whooo had warp gave us warp. Asked nothing. Leave us."

O'Connor turned away from the screen, turning as red as her hair. She directed Rogers to mute the discussion. "Does anyone else here think that the Romulans did not interfere with this culture? Suggestions?"

"I can't speak to the politics of it but from where I'm sitting it sure seems like they got a leg up from the Romulans. Don't they usually just outright conquer a new species though?" Even as she spoke Cara was running a series of comparisons against the ships computer, and the updated database they'd snagged at the starbase.

O'Connor, being a former security officer thought differently. "Why conquer when you can destroy from within? If you make them willing subjects by befriending them? Wouldn't that give us more trouble at our doorstep and allow the Romulans to do whatever they wanted? Perhaps to conquer?"

Ross looked from the Captain, to Adams, and then over to helm as she pondered, wondering if they had any specialists on Romulan politics assigned aboard, whose brain they could leverage. Again the redheaded officer shrugged her shoulders. "There's sound logic there, but is it something we've seen before, or are they trying a new track?"

"I don't know but I don't think we can leave this species until we find out, do you?" O'Connor asked as much to Ross as anyone else on the bridge.

Adams turned from his console. "Captain. I don't think that the Romulans would dare try to conquer a world in Federation space. It would lead to war."

O'Connor sighed. Adams was truly stupid. He didn't listen. "That's exactly why I think they're doing it surreptitiously."

Adams turned back. "I'm going to return to my office. Permission to leave the bridge." He'd gotten tired of the way she spoke to him...he found it very unbecoming a captain.

What was with this Security Chief? Dealing with a new species and likely Romulans and he wanted to hide in his office? Like hell he was. "Denied," O'Connor told him sharply, furrowing her eyebrows at him. "The work is here."

Adams turned back to his console.

 

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