Meet the Shysh [Intro; Closedish]

[Scolopendra]

Poik, as the Commodore and her scoutship captains hear more about it, sounds more and more like a high-risk but high-payoff opportunity. It's certainly the center of things, for now, but that makes it fortified and how those fortifications may react is... unknown. Jumping straight in is a bad idea, then; a week-long slow approach is probably better. This would also give Fabian's crew time to mount FTL modules on the three embarked Lokis and then deploy them at standoff range as a rapid-reaction force. This prevents their use as cargo carriers, obviously, but then again there's probably no need to carry around ten thousand metric tons of cargo anywhere. If their research pods are left with Fabian, then they'll be much more maneuverable in an assault... er, defensive role. The technical details support the decision to go forward with an aggressive exploration schedule.

So, once everything is finalized, what the officer's wardroom has come to call 'Operation Hail Mary' goes into effect. The four Endeavour-class scouts jump to the edges of four most strategic systems linked to Poik by the network. After cruising a bit to get away from the spike of their jump signature, just in case, they go into silent running mode, quietly 'perching' to observe the system. While they're not particularly stealthy, they are far away. Closer-in looks are achieved through smaller and thus stealthier probes, passively absorbing whatever signatures happen to come their way. Once that network is in place, which takes a few hours, the research cruiser first jumps to Poik's astropause about a light-year out then cruises in nice and slow on an approach that should take about a week. Once it gets 'close enough'--outside the planetary ring--it drops to low-distort gravy-drive in a much less violent (and loud) maneuver than a jump would have been and steams in well away from established traffic routes.

Give them plenty of time to respond is the logic.

[Shysh]

Alakazam, alakazou, secret postie revealed be you!

[Scolopendra]

( A-RISE, POST, A-RISE! )
\/

Poik, as the Commodore and her scoutship captains hear more about it, sounds more and more like a high-risk but high-payoff opportunity. It's certainly the center of things, for now, but that makes it fortified and how those fortifications may react is... unknown. Jumping straight in is a bad idea, then; a week-long slow approach is probably better. This would also give Fabian's crew time to mount FTL modules on the three embarked Lokis and then deploy them at standoff range as a rapid-reaction force. This prevents their use as cargo carriers, obviously, but then again there's probably no need to carry around ten thousand metric tons of cargo anywhere. If their research pods are left with Fabian, then they'll be much more maneuverable in an assault... er, defensive role. The technical details support the decision to go forward with an aggressive exploration schedule.

So, once everything is finalized, what the officer's wardroom has come to call 'Operation Hail Mary' goes into effect. The four Endeavour-class scouts jump to the edges of four most strategic systems linked to Poik by the network. After cruising a bit to get away from the spike of their jump signature, just in case, they go into silent running mode, quietly 'perching' to observe the system. While they're not particularly stealthy, they are far away. Closer-in looks are achieved through smaller and thus stealthier probes, passively absorbing whatever signatures happen to come their way. Once that network is in place, which takes a few hours, the research cruiser first jumps to Poik's astropause about a light-year out then cruises in nice and slow on an approach that should take about a week. Once it gets 'close enough'--outside the planetary ring--it drops to low-distort gravy-drive in a much less violent (and loud) maneuver than a jump would have been and steams in well away from established traffic routes.

Give them plenty of time to respond is the logic.

[Shysh]

Poik System, Shysh Space

As the Fabian makes its way towards the belt of frozen volatiles, small asteroids and the random lost platenoid on the outskirts of Poik, it is intercepted by a patrol detachment of the Serene Fleet. Unlike the rag tag motherships of the Tiosh converted from civilian freighters, the intercepting detachment ships look well designed, sleek and streamlined. Two frigates are acting in escort capacity for a larger ship. Their armament cannot be determined in full detail, but they clearly look well armed in both point defence capacity and maybe even offensive capacity, as missile pods and shafts can clearly be guessed. The larger ship boasts heavy caliber cannons, but also docking bays for fighter craft. A squadron of fighters is in space, escorting the small flotilla.

As with the Clan Tiosh encounter, each fighter craft is accompanied by drones. In this case, however, the fighters appear bi-seated and the number of drones around each is a dozen and not half a dozen. As the GEC team have surely found out by now, the Shysh took to using such drones (with just a primitive software enough to be commanded by an operator) to augment the firepower of individual fighter craft following the catastrophic losses in skilled pilots following generations upon generations of warfare. Combined with the general catastrophic decline in Shysh demographics (nobody knows how many billions actually died, but guesstimates range from a dozen to a couple dozen), with the 'witch hunt' started on Ais and advanced programming after the Collapse and the general lack of skilled pilots or academies producing skilled pilots, using such drones proved useful.

They were cheap to produce and could act both in point defence capacity, in assault capacity or simply as missiles (indeed, they were pretty much armed missiles). This configuration proved useful in intra-Shysh conflicts to such a point that it was a universally accepted doctrine of small spacecraft warfare throughout all systems. Even pirate clans produced or bought their own drones to support their fighters.

The general tendency, however, has been to outfit a single-seated fighter with half a dozen fighters. Indeed, times of relative peace led to the increase in the number of skilled pilots and lengthened their lifespan. A single pilot could control half a dozen dumb missile drones all while controlling his fighter craft. However, the Serene Fleet stuck to the two-seater configuration for the bulk of its small spacecraft fleet. However, the drones were heavily optimised into real combat platforms rather than just armed missiles (even if the ramming function was still foreseen for them). The pilot quite obviously concentrated on piloting, whilst the gunner quite obviously concentrated on controlling not only the onboard armaments, but also the drone escorts. A single Serene Fleet fighter easily overcame whole squadrons of pirate craft and was far from being underestimated by the space navies of the System Lords.

This flavour bit behind, the Beagle-class, after all, looks quite unknown to the Serene Fleet and so the intercepting detachment is quite curious. As the patrol detachment and the Fabian get closer to each other, a simple message is sent to the GEC ship. The message appears both in audio and text and looks as a standard hailing for this kind of situations.

Unknown ship. You are being hailed by Nashor Tabsok of the Serene Fleet. You are outside of legally established entry points for the Poik system.

Carry out the following instructions.

1. Identify:

system of origin;
operating faction;
intent;
class category (merchant, voyager, military).
2. Explicitly clarify reason for attempting to intrude into Poik system outside of legal entry points.

3. List any and all goods, cargo or personnel that fall under the Black List as established by the Restricted Materials and Persons Regulation.

4. Be reminded that any attempt to escape the Toll by avoiding legally prescribed entry points is punishable by a fee of up to five hundred thousand shoikils in addition to the Toll for the relevant ship and operator category. Cargo or ship may be impounded until the fee is paid, as prescribed by the Regulation on Toll and Penalties for Dodging Toll.

[Scolopendra]

M'Hadjou catches herself thinking 'this has worked beautifully!' before she clears her mind and gives the nod to the comms officer, who flicks the switch which activates the command compartment's microphones. The switch makes a clearly audible click when actuated, since it needs to be heard by the entire compartment's staff as feedback that the mics are indeed on, based on assumption that the red 'on air' sign is an insufficient clue.

Radio waves transmitting oh-so-proper Shysh speak, although not with a particularly natural Shysh voice thanks to the captain's different larynx structure, respond to the Poik detachment's challenge. "Nashor Tabsok of the Serene Fleet, this is Captain Opeyemi M'Hadjou of the Galaxy Exploration Command, commanding officer of the Triumvirate of Yut Research Cruiser Fabian von Bellingshausen. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration and contact, originating in the volume of space surrounding Sol fifty thousand light-years away. We apologize, but are unaware of any local regulations regarding black lists, tolls, entry points, modes of commerce, or categorization and apologize for the inconvenience."

This is not entirely true; it's more like they were told that there were regulations but they didn't care to find them out from their Forlorn Space friends. It doesn't do to know--or at least to appear to know--too much in first contact situations.

"While we lack any 'shoikils,' which we presume to be the local unit of currency, we do have trade goods and various items probably equivalent in value to your regulatory demands which, in the interest of non-interference with local law and order, we will gladly barter with you."

This she says with a smirk that her opposite number aboard the Shysh ship certainly can't see (and probably wouldn't be able to parse even if he did). She fully expects to get taken to the cleaners in terms of barter. However, she has a Beagle-class fully loaded with raw materials and the nanofacturing equipment necessary to turn those raw materials into all sorts of impressive shinies so long as they aren't made out of particularly exotic materials. Barter would certainly be sufficient.

[Shysh]

The Shysh reply to M'Hadjou takes several minutes to bounce back. Not because the communications are slow, but because the commanding officer of the Nashor Tabsok actually is quite surprised with the reply. And takes a couple minutes to consult with his tactical officer on whether they should open fire on the jokers immediately or actually try to find out more just for the laughs. The alien origin of the Fabian is not immediately believed in.

However, the new incoming message is a video one, showing a Shysh officer in a white naval uniform. The uplink is clearly live.

"Ship commander Op-i-mee Mmm-kadjou of the Fa-abi-an fon Bel-ing-s-haus-en," the Shysh officer clearly has some problem pronouncing the weird sounding names. "You are being hailed by Fiuth nosh-Pling kal-Kora, Commander of Nashor Tabsok. Immediately establish video uplink, or your words shall be treated as a bad joke. Be warned: bad jokes end badly."

[Scolopendra]

The comms officer looks at M'Hadjou. His face is one of a mild question.

M'Hadjou looks at the comms officer and nods. Her face is one of severe determination and iron will.

The comms officer shrugs mildly, fiddles with some dials and a keypad on his console to match the incoming transmission protocols, and flicks a second switch for video.

She's been described before; this time her stance is assertive: body at a slight angle to the camera, one foot ahead of the other. The light glints off the gold single-stars on her high green collar that indicate her rank, the triangles holding down her green shoulderboards, and the various devices and service ribbons that decorate the green plastron of her green-and-black service uniform. In any case, she definitely looks like an alien. For one, her eyes have scleras and irises. That's a pretty big difference.

"Please do not worry, Fiuth nosh-Pling kal-Kora, for this is not a joke. Galaxy Exploration Command first-contact protocols recommend against using humor since it sometimes does not translate well. After declaring our peaceful intent, we hope that there are no unfortunate misunderstandings between our peoples."

[Shysh]

The Shysh do not have any first contact protocols. In fact, as the alien origin of the ship before them is more or less pretty much confirmed, Fiuth can be seen tilting his head to a side somewhat in a sign of extreme curiousity. The commander of the warship remains silent for a good dozen seconds as he ponders what to say or what to do.

"This is above my paygrade," the Shysh officer can be heard sighing. "Ship commander M'Hadjou, welcome to Poik for you and your crew. The circumstances can allow us to disregard the violation of several Regulations. However, we may also not allow your ship unattended and unchecked into the system with a heavy and dense civilian trafic until we can ascertain that your intentions are indeed peaceful. As such, set course to the orbit of the thirteenth planet... you should receive the relevant coordinates now. You shall be under our escort. It is not recommended to stray off course."

The thirteenth 'planet' was a tiny dwarf planet located on the outskirts of the belt of volatiles and asteroids located on the outskirts of the system. So to say, the planet was quite literally a 'border outpost' in stellar terms. It was completely unfit for life, but came with a couple asteroid moons on its orbit, which were turned into supply and relay stations for the Serene Fleet and the Auxiliary Fleets. The outpost also serves a more defensive role: it acts as a local node of defense, grouping a flotilla ready to immediately engage a potential invader in a given three-dimensional sector.

The Nashor Tabsok leaves the Fabian in orbit over the dwarf planet and departs with its small flotilla to return to the patrol duties. The GEC ship is left in a busy company of a good dozen Serene Fleet frigades, several cruisers (that look like the Nashor Tabsok, albeit some clearly carry more guns whilst others have additional docking bays) and maybe half a hundred of Auxiliary Fleet ships of several variants and sizes. The Shysh ships do not camp right next to the Fabian, mind. They keep a safe firing distance from which they can terminate the alien menace once ordered to.

And then nothing happens for a good hour or so. The news of the alien arrival makes its way through the chain of command until it hits the office of the Grand Admiral of the Serene Fleet (or something like that, as the exact Shysh rank translates differently into English). Having lived for generations in splendid isolation from the rest of the universe and clearly believing themselves the only intelligent beings having survived the Collapse, the Shysh have no real protocols for first contact. There is a sort of a slight panic amongst the Serene Fleet's high command as in a matter of minutes various theories arise. First: the aliens are indeed peaceful. This means profit! Second: the aliens come here scouting ahead for an invasion fleet. This means war!

Just as the information gets up to the Grand Admiral, another order goes down the chain of command. All news of the first contact are to be hushed for now and personnel are explicitly forbidden from revealing information until the Council allows so. The Council is, of course, also warned. The five members of the governing body are each contacted.

And so, having sat in orbit of an unihabited rock for some time in total silence, the Fabian suddenly receives an incoming video uplink originating somewhere closer to the center of the system. An aged Shysh officer can be seen in an elaborate set of ceremonial armour. Unlike the apparently standard white fatigues of the Serene Fleet, the Grand Admiral is clad into a mixture of blood red and black, with golden trimmings. His helm is richly decorated, as is the rest of the ceremonial armour, in fact. Apparently the Tiosh were not exactly wrong when they said the higher ranked members of Poik's hierarchy loved shiny.

"Ship commander Opeyemi M'Hadjou of the Fabian von Bellingshausen," the officer said in a grave and somewhat haughty tone. "You are being hailed by the," yes, the Shysh officer does indeed use the article before his name, "Greth nosh-La kal-Pshieasz, Grand Admiral of the Serene Fleet." And apparently the Grand Admiral hails from the Pshieasz House, the strongest of all the Ruling Houses of Poik. "You are in Poik. I welcome you and your crew. Your mastery of our language is impressive. Have you already visited other areas of Shysh space before Poik? I have not had information of such. Do you hail from the Forlorn Systems on your way from this Sol system of yours?"

[Scolopendra]

Everyone loves waiting while surrounded by enough firepower to be completely annihilated. Everyone. Especially the GEC. Still, such a thing is something of an occupational hazard and, with the revelation that the Shysh don't much like AI, the counter is relatively simple: everyone hooked into the NEENJA system, and the shipmind ready to burn space rubber at the first sign of weapons going hot. The rampant mechanoids of Angelic Skies surprise-murdering the Corvette Patrol Force is perhaps one of the best thing that ever happened to the various spacys of the Triumvirate: identifying a major tactical weakness before major hostilities broke out.

The downside to all this is that the NEENJA system is a partial-uploader and reaction time accelerator, which means the perception of time slows dramatically. While not particularly harmful, especially in how the lizard-brain and its physiological stress responses are isolated from NEENJA protocols so as to reduce stress loading over perceptually long times, being on NEENJA alert for any amount of time when nothing is going on can become extremely boring. Anyone can adapt to anything and even having hundreds of ships pointing cold guns at one's self can end up being less exciting when absolutely nothing at all is happening tactically. Sure, some of the sensor operators get to have fun filtering through the signals intelligence beamed between the ships, but the cryptanalysts are generally not uploaded and so talking to them is an arduous affair of waiting forever for responses, akin to having a conversation with lightspeed lag between Earth and Mars.

Even if the Grand Super Admiral had announced "prepare to die," then, it would've been a welcome break in the monotony. Instead, the Captain disconnects from NEENJA and the network after ordering her bridge crew to do the same, and after everyone stretches out and looks presentable rather than comatose, the transmission switch is again clicked to 'live.'

"Greetings, Grand Admiral." She decides not to trip over any long names or uncertain titles quite yet. "Thank you for your welcome and your compliments; as for the language, we have observed your uncoded civilian transmissions and it allowed us to build up a dictionary and skill over time. We have traveled a long way for a long time, after all."

"Is Battlecruiser Vengeance still on?" Communications officer Lieutenant Martin Kips--the brown-haired brown-eyed man described previously--pipes up from the side. "I quite enjoyed that one."

"Anyway." The Commodore politely ignores her enthusiastic underling. "We may have passed through the Forlorn Systems, as we understand they form a sort of periphery around your space." A lie of omission, certainly. But she's omitted plenty already, and will continue to omit quite a bit. If her Forlorn friends decide to sell her down the river, 'she has an AI aboard, or her ship is an AI, or something like that' will be a lot worse than 'oh yes she stopped in to say hi.' "In any case, we are pleased to meet you and make contact with your people. We wish to learn about your culture and history, and lay foundations for mutually beneficial relations between our peoples."

[Shysh]

Greth nosh-La kal-Pshieasz does not deign to answer Lieutenant Martin Kips'es question. When two commanding officers speak, subalterns only intervene when ordered to do so by their superiors. And the Grand Admiral was hell beant on discipline in his most august presence.

"Trade is good," the Grand Admiral blinks once. "But who are we to trade with? Just your vessel? Not much. If you are few, then you are a curiousity, but hardly a business venture. How many souls do your Lords or your Council command? What does Ruled by Three mean? A Council? Do you act as formal ambassadors of your Council? Have you the powers to enter into agreements in the name of your Council? How did you come here? Why did you come here? Surely your Council did not just send you out to roam the universe in search of other civilisations. What a waste of ressources! There must be a reason for your coming and I wish to know why."

[Scolopendra]

"The Triumvirate and, through special diplomatic authority, I represent two hundred fifty billion sentient beings of two dozen different species across an area of space roughly ten thousand light years across." Okay, so the Triumvirate doesn't fill that space, and shares it with other empires and independent systems and worlds and countries, but the other statistics are accurate enough. "In our area we are a respected authority and neighbor and so we can also act as a gateway to broader markets if all goes well."

The captain smiles confidently and continues. "I can indeed act as a formal ambassador with limited power to create transitional agreements until a proper diplomatic mission can be sent. My ship was dispatched to investigate this region of space after a minor colony world of ours was hit by several c-fractional projectiles, which we traced back this general area; upon discovering the area was both inhabited and, due to the travel time on the projectiles, not responsible for the incident, we decided to make contact. Exploration, investigation, and research are the primary missions of the Galaxy Exploration Command; what we discover often times proves valuable enough to justify the journey and resources expended.

"Therefore our reasons for coming here are to investigate the origin of those projectiles, make contact with any civilizations we encounter along the way that seem potentially amenable to it, establish friendly diplomatic and economic relations with the same, explore strange new worlds, learn and discover more about the universe we inhabit. They're rather broad, certainly, but they are what have brought us here with peaceful intentions."

[Shysh]

The Shysh have a duodecimal system with its own set of more or less general standard measurements. Speed of light is a more or less universal measurement which, however, is often expressed in various sets of base measurements (equivalents of meters and seconds) depending on the area of Shysh space one is in. However, since the value of the speed of light is universal, there is always ways of converting. Years, however, are a problem. With the loss of the Homeworld, each polity took to using its own years. Poik based its years on the orbital period of, well, planet Poik. As such, ten thousand light years in standard Earth measurements was somewhat different by Shysh Poik standards. But it does not exactly matter that much, just a post filler.

The number of billions of Triumvirate citizens also comes out in Shysh measurements and by the arching eyebrows of the Grand Admiral, it can clearly be seen that he is somewhat both surprised and dubious. The combined population of the Shysh space is unknown to any, as there aren't exactly any general censuses. Each polity takes its own arrangements and the Forlorn systems are so disorganised and chaotic, that any demographic statistics there are impossible.

"Two hundred and fifty billion? Ten thousand light years? And you say you have neighbours?" the Grand Admiral pauses, still doubtful. "I find such numbers hard to believe. However, if even a share of what you say is true, there can indeed be possibility for trade. At any rate, Ship commander, I invite you aboard my flagship, the Fortune, to continue these discussions. I shall be arriving at your position shortly. We shall be able to talk in a more suitable environment. You may take your second and third in command onboard, but none of you may be armed. You have the personal guarantees of the Greth nosh-La kal-Pshieasz, Grand Admiral of the Serene Fleet, that none of you shall be harmed."

[Scolopendra]

"We are honored by your invitation and gladly accept." Captain M'Hadjou bows shortly in the usual Scolopendran fashion, a movement of only a few degrees from the hips. "If you will excuse me, we will prepare for our visit--we should be ready by the time you arrive."

Once the requisite pleasantries are completed and the communications channels closed, the stern-looking woman turns to face her officers. "I'm going. My executive officer is not--sorry, Fabian."

The ship's aristocratic avatar shrugs slightly, the gold 'headless stars' indicating it holds a commander's rank glimmering with the movement. "No argument, ma'am. However, it may be dangerous to go alone, in more ways than one."

"I don't know everything, certainly, and you'd probably clearly know too much anyway." Opeyemi folds her arms, glancing down in thought as she leans on one foot. "Doctor Taketani. She's in charge of the university"--as GEC military-side personnel are prone to calling the science departments aboard Beagles--"and answers to me on a parallel chain of command. That's a second-in-command."

"She doesn't have any cybernetics, I don't think," von Bellingshausen says, frowning slightly. "Even without access to her medical records I know for a ninety-seven-point-three-four percent fact that she lacks a voicejacker."

"Then she's wearing a hairnet," the captain announces simply, in a similar fashion to someone saying that they're going to go out for a walk. The fact that the good Doctor might not want to wear a mildly uncomfortable but easily removable direct neural interface

"She's also a meteorologist," Kips points out, willing to help and wanting to please.

"I'm aware, Lieutenant," M'Hadjou scowls. "You've been following up with the protocols the sociologists and xenopologists have been coming up with, yes? And you have your space warfare officer badge?"

The comms officer quickly figures out where this is going. "I'm third in command, then?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"You are a department head," the ship points out with a little smile, clearly enjoying the joke, "and that puts you just under me, along with everyone else. The line of succession isn't spelled out in the organization chart."

The captain nods. "Just behave," she warns, "and don't talk out of turn."

"Yes, Captain," Martin says with a slight sigh in his voice. "I won't detract from the gravitas of our host."

"Or the situation. Though it's what we expected, we're still at gunpoint by overwhelming firepower. About that..." M'Hadjou looks at the avatar of her ship. "We're going to keep in touch, quietly, headware linked to our comms which are QE'd to you. Keep the displacers warm."

"Of course, ma'am." Fabian von Bellingshausen smiles. "May I suggest you take low-vis needlers with you? Probably won't do anything against the armor..."

Opeyemi shakes her head. "I'm thinking flashlights. They're not full of water, but they are flashlights--among other things. We don't know if any of the usual needler irritants will even have an effect."

"Please at least try the neural stun function or at least the dazzler function if it comes to it," the starship sighs. "Since the good Mister Kips here is going to be the proper diplomat, he doesn't need his job to be any harder than it has to be." Only the ship may speak to the Commodore in such a way, and she accepts the advice with a nod.

A nod that will have to be sufficient, since that's when she launches her plan into action. Doctor Taketani is summoned to the hangar deck and the Captain leads the way, whilst Lieutenant Kips follows along and silently goes over his mental notes and the latest social analyses he's downloaded from the research net into his onboard memory.

* - * - *

Doctor Taketani is understandably quite proud of her hair, a thick mane of natural blue-steel grey to her shoulders with a shock of black in front, styled into a swoosh that is a miracle of both modern fashion and modern science when it comes to hair-care products. Therefore, it may come as no surprise when the triangular scoops of her ears fold back at the Captain's... 'suggestion.' The meteorologist and science staff chair is very much a civilian and always has been; growing up in the Shogunate and hailing from a rich family meant that military service was always somewhat beneath her. M'Hadjou commands the ship, and thus has some authority over those embarked upon it, but it's not military authority. "Doctor Reiks. He has this sort of thing more naturally, and he's in the xenopology department."

"Not a 'second-in-command.'" The Captain glares at the doctor levelly over folded arms and a stony visage. In one hand is the aforementioned hairnet: a metal cross between a small bush, a wisk whose wires have been cut, and the traditional medieval symbol of Lombard. At the end of each wire whisker is a small plastic nub which acts as both a contact and a grip.

"Look at it this way, Doctor," Martin suggests, "we need everyone to speak the language, and you're representing the civilian staff"--he's very careful not to use the word 'crew'--"through a position of authority. This allows us to demonstrate how important learning, science, and civilian endeavors are in our first contact with this particular local culture."

Despite both holding the captain's gaze with the slitted pupils of her green eyes and maintaining a frown on her pale face--the texture at least, again, the result of beauty products--Taketani listens and mulls over the lieutenant's argument. It'd have to do. She holds out her hand for the hairnet, which M'Hadjou delivers with a short nod to her communications officer. Kips accepts this as the high compliment it actually is and simply beams.

* - * - *

A short ride in a small personnel shuttle later, and the Captain is introducing her next-in-commands, with the term applied as loosely as possible. Opeyemi is about 173 centimeters tall and the shortest in the group yet close to being physically dominant based on her stance and what the manuals call 'command presence;' "Doctor Taketani Gemmei, my second-in-command and chief scientist aboard Fabian von Bellingshausen" stands a few centimeters taller, but her high hairstyle makes her almost match the 198 centimeter (and simply-introduced) "Lieutenant Martin Kips," and she carries herself with a stiffly assertive bearing, which seems slightly at odds with how her sinuous grey tail unconsciously helps keep her dancer's balance. She wears something clearly patterned after a lab coat but with sharper lines, much finer material in a dark crimson color, no pockets; underneath it, as can be seen from its lack of lapels, is a formal blue shirt with a Nehru collar and a professional button cover over her throat--highly professional, though this may not translate between cultures. Compared to the other two, the taller lieutenant actually doesn't stand out as much. While he certainly doesn't slouch, he's clearly more relaxed and prone to smiles.

[Shysh]

The language spoken in Poik has separate words for the two meanings of "fortune". The Grand Admiral's flagship's name is actually closer to the meaning of capital, or personal fortune, than to luck. The Fortune is the leadship of her class which counted three other ships. It is over a kilometer in length (quite obviously, a different figure and measurements in Poikan) and so could be classified as at least a heavy cruiser by Sol standards. The general shape of the dreadnaught reminds one of a spearpoint: narrower up front and getting wider towards the middle, where the width generally stabilised and remained the same until the rear of the vessel, safe for the protruding elements here and there, like the landing strip for onboard fighter squadrons at the right side of the ship.

The ship appears well armed. The main caliber turrets are all on top of the ship, with three up front and one behind the command bridge. This leaves the belly somewhat exposed, but a great array of medium to light point defence turrets compensate this. Numerous blast doors hiding medium to heavy missiles could also be observed. In battle, the Fortune is not expected to operate without her escorts anyway, who'd take care of the potential menaces. After all, the heavy battleship's role was to engage other battleships and destroy them.

The Fortune is the direct answer to the Purifier dreadnaught launched by the Laipalk Lordship several dozen years ago. With its immense firepower and armour, the Purifier class was recognised by Poik's military intelligence as outmatching the merchant republic's earlier Profit heavy battleships. A crash program to update the Profit class of heavy battleships with heavier weapons and armor eventually ended in the refining of a whole new design which gave birth to the Fortune class, to date widely recognised as the most combat efficient Poikan design. And maybe even in the whole Shysh space. Of course, the Serene Fleet and the fleet of Lord Laipalk never met in battle, so the exact outcome is far from certain.

What is certain is that there is a semblance of an arms race in Shysh space between all the organised polities. Poik is paranoid about the Lords all uniting against it and, thus, maintains a formidable military. The Lords are each paranoid about invasions and so dedicate the bulk of their economies to maintaining large standing armies and fleets, often to the detriment of the civilian population's prosperity. In fact, due to its status and position, Poik is the only corner of Shysh space where the civilian population has a very decent standard of living all while having a powerful and up to date military.

The Fortune arrives to the thirteenth planet accompanied by several escorts, which only augments the amount of firepower around the outpost. And while the Fabian is clearly within the targetting angle of the Fortune's main caliber guns, the turrets are not actually aiming at the GEC ship. A minimum of friendliness to potential business partners was due, after all.

The shuttle ferrying the GEC Trio is directed to the landing bay of the Fortune, where it lands in a secure location and away from the squadron of fighters on constant battle readiness, available for take off immediately. The doors of the compartment where the shuttle landed close, which allows the depressuration of the area. Once that is done, other doors on the other side open and allow the entry of a greeting detail made of several Shysh soldiers in ceremonial armor resembling that of the Grand Admiral. His private security detail. And despite the ceremoniality of their outfits, their guns were quite real.

"Detail commander Vonk nosh-Vonk kal-Suith," the commander of the greeting party responds, his single blink not seen behind the visor of his helmet. "Welcome aboard the Fortune. Pray, surrender all weapons and stand still for security scanning."

One of the soldiers then moves towards the group holding what looks as a portable metal detector used by security personnel at airports in some Sol countries still, and long since replaced with more advanced designs in others. Of course, the scanner in question does more than just detect metals. It also detects explosives and drugs and suspect objects, like pointy sticks that could serve to poke somebody's eyes out. Of course, even if the GEC Trio had any heroin on them, the device wouldn't pick it up. It only knew Shysh drugs. As far as explosives were concerned, there were a far greater chance of it knowing those, though.

* - * - *

OOC: General inspiration for the Fortune. All credits go to Alexey Berezin. Original picture depicts a Stalingrad class from the Tomorrow War series.

[Scolopendra]

Mindspace

Shipminds are a curious breed.

Really, the only thing they have in common--at least in the various Yut services and their Scolopendran counterparts--is that they're all non-organic. Before joining the Fleet they could be 'retired' creatives from Zero-One, transfers from the Queendom Armed Conflict Force or the Territorial spacy, or even uploaded organics who decided to not only take evolution into their own hands but also make it personal. During training, they are racked and stacked and evaluated and tested, and eventually get their start as assistants and administrators and experts aboard starships and fleetbases and in Ground Forces formations. What most people never realize is that the Services reject a lot of minds, and it either drums out or flat-lines the careers of many others, just as it does to organics. All the organic side tends to see is the ship-side, and the ships retain the same names and (usually) the same avatars and the same personalities.

This is somewhat intentional.

Shipmind is a role to play, and the part of Fabian von Bellingshausen was written and played before the current actor stepped onto the scene. It prefers it that way; it's merely an emphasis on the same facade that all officers are expected to put on to one degree or another. Its wanderlust was more sated in its current position--executive officer and central intelligence of a research cruiser--than its previous functions aboard a TYCS battleship, and it competed quite fiercely for the highly-regarded posting. Even now, looking down the barrels of aliens, it is content to sit back and good-naturedly ponder what brought it to this juncture.

Every mind, just like every officer, eventually flat-lines its career. Some make it to the very top: minds of supercarriers, battleships, fortresses, or strategic attack craft; just like meatier officers can make it to Sky Marshal or Field Marshal of an entire Theatre. Some, particularly the more harmlessly eccentric ones, get stuck in postings they perform particularly well and are happy enough to do. Scolomorph, with its Sunseti penguin fixation, has been the same mind forever. Same with Saskatchewan; water-cooler gossip tends to wonder whether Skippy really is the best missile frigate in the Fleet or else no one trusts it aboard anything else. Given how dangerous the Grendel-class is and Skippy's tendency towards approximating hyperactivity disorder, most fervently pray that it is the former. Fabian had flat-lined, serving quite some time as the mind of a Supreme Emperor-class battleship. In a lot of measurements--dimensions, crew complement, embarked craft, gigatons per second--it had taken quite a few steps down. Nevertheless, facing the unknown gives it the thrill that facing battle once did, and in having faced battle and suffered it has gained the serenity to face the unknown. If anyone really knew its history, they may be surprised.

Part of this is that assignment officers and the bureaucracy and even crews only see shipnames and an intelligence identification number. Shipminds, by and large, are notoriously private about their previous lives and, most of the time, private about what roles they've played previous. Supercarrier Olympus Mons for a time had the greatest mind turnover rate of any ship in the fleet due to the stresses of managing Mars Theatre; the second highest turnover rate was "Dread Pirate Roberts" of Deimos Fleetbase for the exact same reason. The entire "Dread Pirate Robert" moniker was a gag developed for exactly that reason, and it was remarkable how few people--even people in the Fleet--got it. A lot of those minds retired, and most of them kept up the silence that their old actors' guilds instilled in them. A few did the talk-show circuits and published exposés, but history has long since shown that the best response to such things is silence. After all, very few other retired shipminds wanted the spotlight for themselves, and most of the time the tell-all books and interviews were accurate... which meant that while they were somewhat shocking during the time of shipmind adoption throughout the Fleet as the Services figured out what to do with them, now that everything's settled and partial uploading via NEENJA is common, there's no real fuss about it.

Fabian lived through the process through a series of assumed names and personalities, and has concluded to continue doing so until the Services prise it out of its last core with a crowbar. Someone has to tell the young'ns how easy they've got it, after all. For now, it does so aboard the eight hundred and fifty meters of stacked double-dish hull with the midline spine and tall pyramidal drive section of a Beagle, and does so contentedly... huge alien fleet notwithstanding.

* - * - *

Aboard Fortune

"Pleased to meet you." At the request for weapons, Captain M'Hadjou nods and unclips an ergonomically-designed metallic pseudo-cylinder from her belt before handing it over; the Lieutenant does likewise. The cylinder looks most like a flashlight: it has a shallow hollow frustum at one end sheathed around something that would look like a lens if it didn't instead look like the metal grille of a microphone, continues back into a cylindrical body with a clear flip-up safety panel covering some buttons, and ends in a knurled polymer grip that naturally fits into a human hand. At the top of the grip is a small stud, logically located as a trigger. An evolution of the usual Cetagandan flashlight laser incorporating Scolopendran broadband eraser and panNorm neural stunner technologies through a Kajali emitter system, the personal hand-arm, selective emission, ray is the one-stop shop for GEC operations that may or may not require force and/or hot coffee.

It is also tremendously complex--with auto-targeters, variable everything, and the ability to act as direct-fire field artillery in a pinch (though that does play hell with its power storage)--and its refusal to be serviced or even particularly maintained in the field leaves its use limited to delicate first-contact situations.

Like the one that has just had our intrepid explorers disarmed of their wonder weapons.

Damn playing fair.

[Shysh]

Aboard Fortune

Vonk nosh-Vonk kal-Suith accepts the alien devices and gives them a quick glance. After the soldier with the scanner finishes scanning and makes the sign that nothing else is to be found, the commanding officer motions towards a soldier who steps in with some sort of a PDA. The soldier quickly types something in on the tactile screen and then hands it to the officer. Vonk reads through, takes off a glove and presses a thumb against the screen and then stretches the PDA out to the three aliens.

"Your weapons are hereby being taken into temporary custody until you are liberated from the vessel. You are required to sign this form by pressing a thumb to the screen in the given square. Each of you three."

The form explains the terms and conditions upon which the items confiscated shall be returned (in the present case the box ticked is the one next to "upon order of competent authority") and the amount and description of the items (in this case it reads "Other: 3 (three) alien personal weapon devices"). There is the name of the officer (who is also described as "competent authority" in the "additional" field) into whose custodyhe items are surrendered and his 'signature' in the form of a thumb print.

The names of each M'Hadjou, Kips and Gemmei are listed, as well as boxes for where they must 'sign'. Finally, the form ends with a disclaimer that the Serene Fleet bears no responsibility for any damages to the items upon their recovery by the owners.

Once the GEC officers 'sign' the form, the confiscated weapons are placed into a suitcase that is locked. The guests are then guided by the Poikan soldiers through some corridors and elevators. There is somewhat of a short trek towards where the Grand Admiral's quarters are located. On the way, the aliens can admire the very tidy corridors, deprived of all things useless and pointless to military efficiency. Safe, of course, for the regular propaganda corners with posters glorifying Poik and the Serene Fleet, the Council and the Five Families. In the elevators, visitors are treated not to music, but to newscasts of the Serene Fleet's official propaganda channel that mixes political propaganda with up to date news from the stock markets, complete with the scrolling line showing market evolutions and all.

After all, Poik was the financial centre of Shysh space and even traded in company shares of those companies originating in the Lordships. The Lords often preferred to personally own the major corporation-equivalents in their domains, but quickly understood that liberating some shares from time to time would allow them to buy new fancy battleships or build a new palace or two. Poikan investors controlled bits of companies throughout the entire Shysh space, even if investments outside of Poik often had a certain dose of risk about them. Namely because there was absolutely zero legal certainty outside of republic-controlled space.

After a trek of certain importance, M'Hadjou and her team are led into a briefing room. Apparently there was a last minute change of plan and the guests actually had to wait a minute or so in a corridor while Vonk distanced himself somewhat out of their hearing range to discuss with his superiors. The initial plan of meeting at the Grand Admiral's quarters was cancelled. Instead, the trio are offered seats in a briefing room with many and many screens. On one of them is the face of the Grand Admiral himself.

"Ship commander M'Hadjou, welcome. I am sorry for not meeting you in person. However, rejoice, for the Council has deemed it worth their attention to talk to you directly."

Five additional screens began coming up to life one after the other. Each of the five councillors was presented by the Grand Admiral as His Most Noble and Serene Excellency the Councillor of Poik. And each had the article 'the' placed before their name.

There was the Glarb nosh-Poink kal-Pshieasz, the primus inter pares of the Council, dressed in elaborately and richly decorated red and black robes filled with golden ornaments and precious stones.

And then came the Poisk nosh-Tak kal-Fotha of the Fotha family and dressed into a robe of blue and white, just as richly decorated as the one on Glarb.

Not to forget the Lam nosh-Boshkar kal-Oiks, dressed into an elaborate robe of green and blue that had nothing to envy the others.

The Kshes nosh-Soileth kal-Kora, dressed into an elaborate version of a Serene Fleet snow white gala outfit, rich with numerous decorations that surely meant medals and orders of merit and others, whether rightfully earned or not mattered not.

Last, but not least, came the Fiuth nosh-Leth kal-Tabada, in robes of green and yellow.

Each of the Councillors blinks once acknowledging his presentation, but does not say a word.

"Most Noble and Serene Members of the Council of Poik, I present you the Ship Commander Opeyemi M'Hadjou of the Fabian von Bellingshausen of the Galactic Exploration Command of the Yut Ruled by Three. Ship Commander M'Hadjou hails from stars very far from our own and bears opportunities for trade and mutual profit. Ship commander, you may express your position now."

[Scolopendra]

Aboard Fortune

The Yuttites do marvel at the spic-and-span-ness of the Shyshian ship or, to be more particular, at its antiseptic lack of honest decoration. Since Trium ships--especially those of the Command--are often Up-And-Out for months or years, the authorities consider decoration in terms of pragmatism: as long as it's stowed and doesn't get in the way or otherwise cause problems, it's actively encouraged. Bonsai gardens, murals, and graffiti walls are common so long as they stay at least half a meter away from any important labels; this adds accentuation, since to find things in an emergency one simply has to look where the morale-building decorations aren't. While their absolute lack isn't really boggling--such things aren't common in the member-state space forces that aren't the Segments, after all--it does come as a shock to the system after living aboard Fabian for a couple of years.

M'Hadjou is stonily unemotive during the walk, which Kips knows all too well as being indicative of annoyance. She misses her ray gun. He doesn't so much, since if they were going to be taken hostage it would've happened right after turnover, if not sooner. Being asked politely is a good sign, as is following the rules. The aliens weren't so alien that their customs seemed nonsensical, so he can only register it as a good thing. Doctor Taketani doesn't much miss her weapon either; while she has to be proficient, being aboard a GEC ship, the Shogunate doesn't quite have the traditionally armed populace of the Segments or the attendant culture. It's one less thing for her to be worried about.

Then, introductions to the great grand poobahs. The good lieutenant finds himself wishing that the standard Triumvirate uniforms were a bit flashier; sure, they had shiny bits and ribbon trees, but were otherwise understated. No glitz or glamor or dozens of janglies. Ah well. On cue, Opeyemi steps forward.

"Most Noble and Serene Members of the Council of Poik," she says, figuring that there is no such thing as too much ostentation when it comes to these people, "I bring greetings from the Triumvirate of Yut. We represent two hundred fifty billion sentients of two dozen species living in a region of space ten thousand light years across; we have traveled for two years to come here. We seek to learn more about your people, to develop cordial relations, and establish mutually beneficial trade routes. We have aboard our ship examples of the goods we can offer in trade and I am empowered, with the assistance of my chief diplomat Lieutenant Martin Kips--"

The young man bows slightly at the name-drop.

"--to establish initial official agreements between our peoples in the interim until a proper diplomatic mission can be dispatched. My chief scientist and second in command, Doctor Taketani Gemmei, looks forward to coordinating with your centers of learning so we may learn from one another's science and culture."

Gemmei nods once, her ears forward, tail twitching slowly. She's honestly more interested in their clouds and unhappy that she's second fiddle, but does admit that the statement is more-or-less accurate.

"We thank you for your time and your consideration of our offers. With luck, we will have things that will interest you, and our long journey will be mutually profitable."

[Shysh]

Aboard Fortune

Yet again, the actual numbers provided by Opeyemi are in the Shysh duodecimal system. Billions are turned into something else, as are light years and so on. Still, the confirmation of the figures already stated by Opeyemi previously cannot but impress the Shysh who are so used to living in their own corner of the universe in much smaller numbers. Much, much smaller. A simple realisation is present in the minds of all the Councillors: if what Opeyemi says is true, then all of Shysh space is under threat of military conquest by Yut and its three enigmatic rulers. Even united, Poik and the Lordships would simply be drowned out in corpses.

"You claim impressive figures, Ship Commander," the Glarb nosh-Poink kal-Pshieasz states with a somewhat apathetic touch to his voice. "Far too impressive to be believable. You say that this Yut you represent is so wide and large. But who are your three rulers exactly? How did they manage to unite so many souls under one flag?"

In the discussion that follows, Opeyemi, Kips and Gemmei have the opportunity to go into greater detail about the Triumvirate of Yut and what exactly it is. First thing clarified is that there is no actual three rulers, but a council in which three members have wide ranging veto powers. Another thing clarified is that Yut is not a single polity per se, but a union of other polities that maintain their interior and exterior sovereignty in most matters, yet are still quite tightly integrated. It is explained that the various polities within Yut have different political systems and values, yet still share a basic core of values that brings them together. The Councillors, after all, are quite dubious about the possibility of, by analogy, them and the Lordships all working together in a single integrated union.

As the history lesson about Sol and its neighbourhood is explained, the Councillors can not help but be taken aback by the extent of the universe around them. Yut is not alone. There are other polities, other alliances, other unions, other cultures. There are wars, there is peace, there is trade and there is more war that is followed by more peace and trade and the cycle is unending. Basically, the same thing as what happens in Shysh space, but in much greater and scarier proportions.

The GEC team are also quite obviously questioned on how exactly they fell upon the Shysh inhabited space. Of course, the exact modalities of GEC's earlier encounter with the Clan Tiosh are not mentioned. When the Councillors learn that the Collapse continued to echo throughout the universe so many years after it finished, they are ironically quite relieved, for there are some things they can finally truly believe about the whole story.

"A simple question for you, Ship Commander," asks the Fiuth nosh-Leth kal-Tabada, the one in the green and yellow robes. "I have so far no reason to either believe or disbelieve you. But if what you say is true, then, pray, clarify something for us. If Yut is so powerful, why shall it not simply conquer Shysh space? Yut trades with neighbours that must be at least as powerful as Yut, so at least as large and, thus, that provide a great many interesting goods and services. If what you say is true, then objectively Poik alone is not an overly interesting trade venture for Yut. And if Yut is not to conquer Shysh space, what drives you? Curiosity? A simple need to discover new cultures to establish ties with them for the sake of establishing ties? These are extremely direct questions, Ship Commander, that require clarification before we proceed further."

[Scolopendra]

Aboard Fortune

The task may not be Sisyphean, but it certainly is uphill. The good Doctor Taketani simply can't understand why the rulers of Poik have to be so... dense. Her own country went through a civil war in living memory--though far enough back in living memory that the living were quickly becoming dead at an accelerated rate due to basic biological limits--and even with elements like M.A.N. terrorists the Arpeans aren't nearly as paranoid as all this. Of course, throughout the Dividing War the authorities never completely collapsed even considering the atomic exchanges and suborbital strikes; even the current Shogunate is legally a regency state for a dead imperial line. She's also a meteorologist, so she doesn't have any particular intellectual training that can counteract the fact that she does not grok in its fullness the concept of anarchy. "Of course we're motivated by curiosity, Councilor," she says with a smooth, controlled heat, her ears folding back a few degrees, "since for what other reason would we continue going further back in time and space to investigate where some ancient c-fractional shells came from? If we were interested in conquest, there's people much closer to home we could practice that interest on. If we were interested in conquest, why would we scout around with a single cruiser and intentionally make contact rather than silently observe and report back to hypothetical war-fleets? Why would this military reconnaissance ship's occupants be mostly civilian scientists, like me, with fields of study like mathematics or meteorology, again like me?

"As evidence suggests, we are not interested in conquest. Mere 'curiosity' is enough of a drive to quite a few of us that enough dedicate their lives to it, to the extent of manning ships and leaving homes and families well-missed in order to satiate the insatiable desire to know more."

As polite as her tone is, her words are still challenging, and the good Lieutenant Kips finds this problematic. Though in a military uniform, that's more a function of the Triumvirate superfederal structure sharing the vaguely militaristic philosophy of the Federated Segments that founded it. His actual background is far more peaceful; the son of business negotiators, he'd been shuttled about from city to city to nation to nation and had grown up in many different cultures and attitudes. This forced him to be adaptable and, more disadvantageously, made him uncomfortable with a lack of change. While his interests and aptitudes made him well-suited for diplomacy, diplomats often make careers in single places, getting entrenched in a single foreign culture. When the Diplomatic Corps began to offload first-contact diplomacy to the Galaxy Exploration Command in order to simplify command chains, a young Martin saw his opportunity and joined the Command. Being a facilitator and a negotiator at heart and firmly believing that compromise and consensus define the best ways forward, he steps in to control the damage that Gemmei's perhaps excessive honesty may have caused. "Doctor Taketani speaks plainly, esteemed Councilor, but it is the truth, especially her truth. In addition, the idea of conquest is anathema to the ideals of our confederation: conquering for the sake of conquering or power is not conducive to our mode of dealing with each other, internally, as equals. Any 'conqueror' elements would tend to overwhelm more peaceful elements and we would truly become an empire ruled by dictators rather than a consensual bloc ruled by democratic and diplomatic principles. Since we are so varied internally and the call to power is hard to develop consensually--because power must ultimately be wielded and it is most simply wielded by a single entity--we naturally extend this interest in consensus outwards. Such things are simply in our nature."

Captain M'Hadjou, for her own part, finds her subordinate's damage control to be too mewlingly obsequious for her liking. At least the cloud-watcher has the balls to stand up for her opinions. Opeyemi doesn't grant this same benefit to the Lieutenant because she is not really wired to do so: she can be diplomatic, after a fashion, but is a firm believer in that all power, soft- or hard-flavored, derives from force; this belief is the result of what could be colloquially called a hard-knock life. Born in the low-rent portions of the Caves of Steel near Port Aurora, she grew up in the well-kept secret of Scolopendra's seedy underside--where there are laws, there will be crime. Running with street gangs and acting as muscle for protection rackets on off-standard ports and contraband lines--as crime often feeds on crime--gave her an edge, expecting angles and threats overt and covert. The law eventually caught up with her, and the harsh civics indoctrination 'boot prison' did exactly what it was supposed to: bash a social consciousness into an inmate and offer her a good opportunity to integrate into society. She went into the Military Services and, having served her prison term, the portions of her past that would be inconvenient to her career were politely forgotten... with the obvious angle that memory could once again serve should she not keep up her end of the social contract. From the Scolopendran Military Services she seconded and finally transferred to the Triumvirate of Yut Combined Services, and from there she earned her captain's stars by surviving in the Martian and Jovian Theatres, two of the three flashpoints of the Ardan Cold War. Transferring to the Galaxy Exploration Command was supposed to be something of a semi-retirement, as she'd already had a belly-full of fighting and hard-knocks and a little bit of redemption, the ex-con playing protector in the lawless expanses of the frontier, appealed to her. "Yes, we are motivated by curiosity and a desire to treat others fairly, Counselor," she says, standing tall despite her relative lack of height, "and we are also pragmatic. Conquered people are hard to deal with. Push people, and they push back. Cooperation is usually much easier in the long run, since it's much less likely to produce petty animosities that will last generations. So we speak plainly and offer openly: knowledge, peace, and trade is what we want with whomever we come across. Still, we expect the same consideration in return and are more than capable of defending ourselves should we be threatened--we have done it before, do it now, and will continue to fight in the future when the other side decides they want to risk it. Some people think that our attitudes, our emphasis on friendship, is a sign of weakness. It is exactly the opposite."

She pauses for a beat.

"We conserve our strength for when we need it."

[Shysh]

Aboard Fortune

The Councillors listen to Gemmei's impassionate defence of Yut's peaceful nature without much emotion. From time to time they give a glance off screen, each in turn, before focusing back on the aliens. Whether they are heartened or angered by her words would actually remain a mystery. But it can only be guessed that the generally established Shysh outlook on international politics and affairs shall not be changed with the impassioned speech of one alien scientist. Too many generations were lived in constant strife and powerplay, which was only settled because the striving factions managed to counter balance each other. And those that could not ended up in the Forlorn systems, something no Poikan wished to resemble.

What the aliens said had sense. The fact that they apparently seemed intent on not conquering Poik was a good sign. The capabilities of their space ship were unknown to the Poikans, but judging by its size, it was not so much smaller than the Fortune class. If the aliens had many of those, then the republic would be hard pressed to defend herself.

"You have made your position clear," the Poisk nosh-Tak kal-Fotha, the robes of blue and white, says pensively. "The Most Noble and Serene Council shall accept your offer to establish formal relations between the Most Noble and Serene Republic," the exact term is something different, but the closest English language definition is such, "and the Yut Ruled by Three. "However, Ship Commander, Officers second and third in command, opening up of the Poikan and the rest of the Shysh markets through Poikan channels shall be closed to you until we assess the commercial capacities of the Yut Ruled by Three. You shall understand that we must remain cautious about the commercial capacities of a union of nations far greater than our own. We shall ask you to provide samples and descriptions of what Yut can offer us. I am realistically aware that you can surely provide only a limited sample. Regardless, limited is better than nothing."

"As far as Professor Gemmei is concerned," begins the Lam nosh-Boshkar kal-Oiks, the one in the green and blue robes, "the places of knowledge on Poik are numerous and prepare specialists and skilled persons in all sorts of trades, from economists to warriors. I believe it shall be wise for Professor Gemmei to select herself which of the places of learning she wishes to attend. You shall find Poik to be far more open in this regard than any of the Lordships. But then again, maybe this is why the Yut Ruled by Three chose to begin its entry into Shysh space through Poik?"

The Fiuth nosh-Leth kal-Tabada blinks once to the words of his colleagues. "The Most Noble and Serene Republic prides herself on being the leading society in Shysh space, Ship Commander. But you are hereby made aware that any attempt to upset the established social peace and order shall be dealt with decively. You and yours are welcome in Poik as guests. Behave as such. You and yours are allowed to make landfall upon the planet Poik, but your warship must remain in its current position. We shall not risk your firepower close to our most dense traffic lines. Additionally, you shall be communicated with the corpus of criminal laws in force in Poik. You, Ship Commander, bear personal responsibility for all of yours that you choose to let disembark upon Poik. You and yours remain entirely under the jurisdiction of Poikan authorities for the duration of your stay."

"Additionally, Professor Gemmei," the Lam nosh-Boshkar kal-Oiks intervenes, "the authorisation of this Council to establish links with Poikan centres of learning does not allow you and yours to proceed and do as you wish. Each centre and each place has its own rules and traditions. I fully expect you to respect them and not use the name of this Council in vain, which would be an affront to this Most Noble and Serene Council."

The Glarb nosh-Poink kal-Pshieasz blinks once. "The Council has spoken. The delegation of the Yut Ruled by Three is accepted in Poik's space. We shall dispatch representatives to work out the finer details of your stay and presence in the Most Noble and Serene Republic. I believe you shall also find local knowledge and help useful in getting around Poik. It is highly ill advised to allow yours to travel without local accompaniment, Ship Commander, at least initially and until the exact details and modalities of Poik's relationship with Yut are settled."

The ominous tone with which the primus inter pares said that last line meant pretty much that the GEC personnel would be free to roam Poik, but not too much free, either.

The Lam nosh-Boshkar kal-Oiks also blinks once. "Ship Commander, Officers second and third in command, do you have any further questions? Do ask if such is the case. Otherwise, the present session shall be closed and the Council return to pending affairs of state."

[Scolopendra]

This had all gone rather well, all things considered. The limitations make sense, and the personal responsibility for the actions of the crew is a matter of principle. All this really means, as far as M'Hadjou is concerned, is that liberty will be restricted still further. Anyone who thought contact would mean time planetside will be most sorely disappointed. No great surprise, that; first contacts are almost always tightly controlled in order to prevent any unfortunate first impressions from being made. Occasionally, though, everyone really hits it off and the average crewman gets an opportunity to explore strange new alien anatomies and recreational drugs (if that's their thing) or at the very least talk to friendly natives if Kirking isn't really an option. On one perhaps apocryphal GEC mission the natives' secondary mouths for playing trumpets came as a definite surprise, but since there was no lasting harm to anyone involved or interstellar relations it was eventually laughed off.

From all this, it would seem that the average exploration crewman or scientist joined the Command in order to have sex with hot aliens. This is not so; most are brought out into the deep black of the Up-And-Out out of a sense of wonder, a need to discover, an insatiable curiosity, and a passion for science. Everyone knows that the chances are that any particular voyage may not come across any sentient species, much less one with compatible genitalia and open minds, and so most are perfectly happy to practice their trades on lifeless balls of rock and gas since that is indeed how they are wired. Whoever actually sees the hill or pond from the surface first gets to name it (the shipboard survey staff get to name large planetographic features) and the names go on the maps and really do tend to stick, so this turns out to be an attractive carrot for crews.

That being said, getting to 'know' hot aliens in a Biblical sense is a definite draw. Especially after a two-year voyage, no matter how open-minded the people one shares a ship with are.

The Captain glances meaningfully between her 'second' and 'third' in command. The 'second' simply nods, then follows up with some speech to match the unrecognizable--to the Shysh--gesture. "We will respect your ways, Councilors."

After that, the Lieutenant says what he has to: "Thank you for your time, esteemed Councilors. All of my questions are those of protocol, procedure, and custom; those are best asked to your delegates so I do not take up any more of your valuable time. Thank you for your consideration, courtesy, and hospitality."

M'Hadjou just nods stiffly. "Thank you, Councilors."

[Shysh]

The coming days and weeks would be full of diplomacy and politics for the most part. First came talks with the formal representatives of the Council on the modalities of the GEC personnel's stay in Poikan space. Well, not exactly talks, more like the Poikan side politely explaining what could and what could not be done. The Shysh side, which comprised some members of Poik's counter-intelligence services, insisted upon surveilance of every group of sailors that M'Hadjou chose to let disembark. Aside from this, she was actually given the full and complete freedom whom to allow and how many persons to allow. She was simply to inform the relevant persons on the Shysh side ahead of time so that escort arrangements could be, well, arranged.

And then came the more public part of the stay. The news that Shysh were not alone made a thundering impact upon Poikan public opinion. Distant rumours and whispers from the Forlorn Systems had not reached the rest of Shysh space by the time the official news confirmed it. M'Hadjou received invitations from Poik's leading media outlets to give interviews, which she or whomever she chose to send would find very repetitive. Some would of course be more serious than others, concerning politics, economics and social aspects. Others less serious, like why were Sol species split in two genders and why didn't females have facial hair.

Gemmei would find that her easy access to the universities and research centres was not as easy as it seems. Of course, she was physically allowed into the premises of Poik's best universities, but from there on, what cooperation, collaboration and information she could get was entirely up to her skills as negotiator and scientist. Some Poikan professors would be more cooperative than others, some less stubborn than their colleagues. Needless to say, top secret government information was still top secret government information, even in Shysh space.

The GEC team would find Poik's society to be federally structured. However, unlike the well defined territorial-administrative structures proper to Sol, Poik was a federation of Clans or Families or Houses or whatever one calls them. Each clan had self-government and broad internal autonomy. Clans took care of education, law enforcement, healthcare, judiciary and other matters. Most clans controlled some territory that was proper to them. Some smaller clans were clients of the larger clans. Members of a clan paid income taxes to their own Clan, which as said previously functioned as a de facto federated government.

Each clan decided whom to give membership (equivalent of local citizenship) to. The larger and the richer clans preferred to grant membership to those wealthy enough to pay. The smaller clans offered membership to anyone who could be used as workforce, which was then employed by the larger clans. As a clan was responsible in most matters only towards its own members, the larger clans were often interested in having several smaller clans as clients to pretty much exploit a cheaper work force. Employment and business in a clan was not limited to the members of the clan, however. As per the regulations of the central government, there was freedom of movement and settlement within Poik.

At the central level, the Most Noble and Serene Council served as the collegial head of state of the Most Noble and Serenere Republic. The Council could be qualified as a benevolent dictator in a sense. Of course, the mere fact that it was a Council of Houses that did not always agree on everything already meant that it was not exactly a dictatorship, but it was not a democratic body, either. Traditionally, the Patriarch of each of the five major Houses obtained automatic membership on the Council.

Beneath the Council was the Assembly, which comprised representatives of all the clans that contributed to the central government's budget, and most notably to the expenses of the Serene Fleet. Those clans that did not provide funds were not represented on the Assembly. The number of votes was approportioned depending on the proportional contribution of the clan to the central budget. But it was up to the inner Clan politics to decide who exactly went to seat on the Assembly. Every two Poikan years, the seats were reallocated according to the updated budgetary contributions. This did not mean «elections», however. Just that one clan's membership of the Assembly shrinked while another one's increased.

The Serene Fleet was a unified instition, unlike the ground forces which still each depended on their own clans. The five major Houses had the strongest standing regular armies which were tightly integrated with the Serene Fleet. The Auxiliary Fleets included flotillas and squadrons financed privately by the clans to defend their own commercial interests in the Forlorn Systems.

Poik's society was open, and especially in comparison to the Lordships. However, the realities of Shysh politics dictated a militarist approach even from the most die hard capitalists. A strong standing fleet and army secured the Republic against the threats posed by the Lordships. Despite this militarist side to the regime, mass media was quite free and unrestricted. There was never any criticism of the Council, however.

The Church had much less of a role in Poik than it had elsewhere. As an example, whilst partaking in the development of artificial intelligences was a crime in Poik as it was in the Lordships, the carrying out of justice was in the hands of the civilian courts and judges established by the clans and, in some areas, by the central government. And not by ad hoc tribunals made of Church inquisitors that had a particular preference to burning heretics as an example to others. In Poik, one was more likely to be stripped of personal belongings in favour of the State and be forcefully enlisted into an Auxiliary Fleet fighting pirate bands somewhere in the deepest reaches of the Forlorn Systems.

Economically, Poik was the centre of financial and monetary exchanges of the entire Shysh space. Poikan companies controlled mining and manufacturing concessions in the Lordships and even held vast interests in the Forlorn Systems, where clashes between the Auxiliary Fleets and various bands of pirates, marauders and looters were extremely frequent.

[Scolopendra]

Shortly after the meeting with the Councilors, Captain M'Hadjou collates a report on her exploration group's first contacts and attaches their findings, initial considerations, and intelligence data. As these sections are written by her officers and researchers, it takes a day or two to put together; once everything is set, von Bellingshausen spins up its hyperpulse generator and transmits the data back to Galactic Exploration Command Headquarters on Bright Morning, historically the Triumvirate's first joint colony project. This finally makes the first contact of the Shysh and Poik "official" as far as the GEC books go.

Unofficially, GECHQ has known about the Shysh from day one, going by the relatively low-bandwidth quantum-entanglement connections that make up the Command's research network. More akin to a bulletin board system than the Combined Services' cyberspace, the research network is for efficiently transmitting text-heavy research papers, the occasional picture, and maintaining instant-messaging and chat services between the various ships and facilities in the Command. While the Triumvirate's military forces tend to share and confer on everything, leading to requiring a higher-bandwidth cyberspatial network, the Galaxy Exploration Command is, perhaps counter-intuitively, much more closed: military personnel don't live by the principle of "publish or die." Since a lot of GEC assets are out doing Real Science, they're reluctant to talk about their Real Science because they may let something slip that will let someone else get to the peer-reviewed journals first. Instead, the research network is full of posts and comments and chats that only obliquely reference current research in order to drum up interest. The Shysh have, therefore, been mentioned, but details have been quite scarce. Certainly insufficient detail for the Command to do anything officially.

Now that it has the information, the Command dutifully turns around to its liaisons with the other Triumvirate federal-level organizations: Space Patrol and International Rescue, the Combined Services, Central Entity, and the Diplomatic Corps. SPIR is contacted mostly as a formality, since it's the red-headed stepchild of the Triumvirate of Yut family and its purview is internal to the Triumvirate except for coordination with external law enforcement. Kinetic strikes are against the law, but the statute of limitations has been exceeded, so SPIR declines to do anything with the information other than file it away on the off chance it may have to do some international rescuing around that region of space. The Combined Services, the biggest and oldest brother of the organizations, takes the information, starts to run some hypothetical wargames with it--not that they're considered to be very accurate, but it's better than nothing--and classifies the Shysh as a minimal threat to Triumvirate interests. Central Entity, the closest thing the Triumvirate has to a bureaucracy, filters the first-contact information down to the member nations of the Triumvirate. Finally, the Diplomatic Corps reads its packet, notes that this sort of thing is definitely within its realm of operations, and assembles an official mission to the Shysh so the Triumvirate will not have to rely on the negotiation skills of an ex-military ship captain when it comes to developing international agreements.

Finding a Diplomatic Officer, briefing him, assembling a mission of Civil Servants, and dispatching a ship doesn't take long at all, a week at most. The trickiest part is finding staff with limited family connections and the right scores on their aptitude and personality profiles to deal with being shipped off into the middle of nowhere for an indefinite period of time. Once that's done, since time is not critical and drive cores resetting after jumps are drive cores which cannot be used, and a jump from Sol to Poik would require quite a bit of waiting when it comes to core-reset, the courier travels at 'conventional' mindbending speeds. While not instantaneous, it is very fast; while very fast, it is not instantaneous, so the transit time is about a month.

In those five weeks or so, TYRS-RCR Fabian von Bellingshausen and its crew literally are the Triumvirate in the region, and this is a responsibility M'Hadjou takes most seriously. Conferring closely with Lieutenant Kips, she allows only those off the ship who can be trusted to behave, which immediately blacklists the more exuberant and freewheeling spacemen and scientists. She follows the directives given to her with careful precision, considering that the confidence built by guided tours and strict law-abiding far exceeds what minimal gains could be made by cavalier flaunting of the rules to discover "the real truth." Shore parties are careful mixes of the most trustworthy marines, spacemen, officers, and researchers that the captain and her cultural expert can come up with, and her tendency towards micromanagement certainly shines through with codes of conduct personally written for each one. After the first few shore parties return and talk in the staff lounges and mess halls and barracks, being selected for away team duty becomes a matter of both pride and despair; pride since it indicates the Commodore Herself thinks you are one of the best of the best, despair because you will be squeezed between alien law and the iron will of the Commodore.

M'Hadjou also takes up the role of Voice of the Triumvirate with dutiful grit, which could be mistaken for aplomb if it weren't quite so severe. She understands that her breasts make her an oddity, but since that couples with her position of authority in order to get more attention and make the aliens listen more, she can accept that fact of biology. She attends interviews personally whenever possible and telecommutes when she can't, careful to make no distinction between media organization--other than their subscription base, so she's not talking to every Podunk Picayune on the planet--and thus show no bias towards the ideologies that drive them. What she is most careful on is scheduling; her telecommuted interviews are usually done through her headware and NEENJA so she can timeshare, and it wouldn't do for her to be conducting two interviews simultaneously. Such would inevitably lead to uncomfortable questions. As it is, she is not uncomfortable talking about standard Triumvirate opinions regarding aspects of Shysh culture or governance, Triumvirate politics and policies, or comparative biology. She is, however, very careful not to make any new policies, especially on the news, nor be drawn out into guessing what the Triumvirate may do about this, that, or the other besides "negotiate." Regarding politics, it's not too hard for her to at least feign acceptance of the way Poik runs things politically; the Triumvirate counts enlightened despotisms among its members, after all.

She, and everyone else under her command, are particularly quiet whenever the Church gets brought up. The party line is "it is Triumvirate doctrine that everyone is free to believe as they choose; while we may not agree, it is a matter of conscience for those involved."

Doctor Taketani, on the other hand, actively negotiates with her opposite numbers amongst the Poikian universities for access. She's the 'head' of Fabian's scientific staff because she can deal with egos and personalities, and she also recognizes that there are things that the Command doesn't want to share either. Ubiquitous mechanoid intelligences are one; ubiquitous cybernetics are another; military technologies are an obvious third. Power production technologies are also best kept to oneself, but environmental technologies are generally free to share and 'pure science' is kept available within reason. The intent, over time, is less to data dump and exchange and more to get a feel for where the Shysh are scientifically and technologically. Once one knows where they are, one knows how much to offer and what to keep close to one's chest.

Meanwhile, the scoutships at the strategic gateway chokepoints to Poik continue to hover on silent running, just acquiring, filtering, and to some small extent analyzing data. It's not particularly exciting work.

This occupies the exploration group's time until the Diplomatic Officer arrives.

[Shysh]

Overview of Shysh Space by Regions and Polities

Map: click here

Map notes:

1. Stars represent systems that are present in navigational charts or can be detected through scanning. All systems outside of Organised space can be considered Forlorn. There is no centralised knowledge of what is going on in the Forlorn Systems, which are inhabited and which are not.
2. Gateway network represents information available from various sources from the Organised Space, added to information provided by Clan Tiosh about what they know of the Forlorn Systems. It can be supposed that the operational and functional gateway network extends further into the Forlorn Systems.
3. Shpok area is where the Shpok Lordship was before the Shpok Crusade. Now a desolated region of space plagued by pirates and looters.
4. Puk belt: little is known about it. According to what information is available, it is inhabited by the members of a sect that is hostile to the Shysh Church. Gateways between Puk Belt and other systems have been destroyed by the inhabitants of the Puk Belt themselves, voluntarily isolating themselves from the majority of traffic from Organised Space and Forlorn Systems.

Gateway Network: The continued strategic importance of the Gateway network in Shysh space is tied to the many imperfections in modern Shysh FTL drives, which are based on reverse engineering the military and civilian drives inherited from the time of the Collapse and of the old Empire. Knowledge to build and maintain new drives has become sparse, with Poik and the largest Lordships maintaining such centres of knowledge, education and production. Other Lordships either buy from the producers, or salvage drives from debris fields left behind by the epic battles of the Collapse. Pirate clans use a variety of drives which they recover from debris fields or buy from the black market.

Modern Shysh FTL drives are expensive and require important quantities of energy to function. Long jumps require a long period of recharging. Salvaged FTL drives are often unreliable and tend to malfunction. This means that the use of FTL drives is reserved mainly for military operations or high value expeditions into Forlorn systems. The regular civilian merchant traffic uses the Gateway network, which allows even a small one-seater space craft to travel extremely large distances without consuming fuel in between systems (in system consumption remains an important issue, still).

Poik's economic domination over the rest of organised Shysh space is explained in large parts due to its central position on the merchant traffic. The peripheral gateway lanes are either plagued by instability between two or more competing Lordships, either by important pirate activity. As such, the "northern Corridor" through Laipalk is unstable because of the Cold War between Laipalk on one side and Koshit and Lemkenak on the other. The "western", "southern", "south-eastern" and "eastern" corridors are plagued by pirates.

Some rumours indicate that pirate clans in the various corridors are secretly supported by Poik through financial and other means, with the republic having a keen interest in remaining at the heart of economic exchanges and merchant traffic. Whether such rumours are true or are just conspiracy theories is not known.


Poik: The merchant republic at the heart of organised Shysh space. Directly controls only one system. Has extensive military presence in all systems connected to Poik through Gateways and patrols these systems to prevent the appearence of pirate clans, or other rogue elements. Is the leading economic power in Shysh space. Second in military strength only to Laipalk.

Plays the Lords against each other in order to prevent the rise of a single power that could challenge Poik's status. Maintains status quo.

Controls all neighbouring systems with gateway access to Poik and maintains important Serene Fleet presence in these systems. Exceptions to the neighbouring system control are the Kib system part of the Kabat Lordship and the Geshash system part of the Dubash Lordship, which forces the Serene Fleet to retain an important presence in Poik itself. Relations with Kabat Lordship are tense over influence in the disputed Suksh Lordships.

The small Lop and Suksh Lordships can be considered de facto client states of Poik due to their extreme reliance on the merchant republic. Influence over Suksh is disputed by the Kabat lordship.

Poik appears carefully enthusiastic about contact opportunities with Yut.

Views towards Yut: positive.


Nalomea: A highly inhabited system under the rule of the Shysh Church. The Church has a minor military element it uses to patrol systems connected to Nalomea through Gateways. Relationship with other Shysh entities: neutral with all.

Views towards Yut: suspicious.


Laipalk: The largest of all the Lordships in both the number of controlled systems and demographic potential. Considered the prime military power in Shysh space. Has historically been expansionist, taking systems from the Karun, Koshit and Lemkenak Lordships. Laipalk Lords have historically assumed and declared their goal to be the unification of all Shysh under their rule and the restoration of the Shysh Empire. A goal that has drawn the enmity of other Lords.

Is currently in a phase of active counter-insurgency operations against the Sheazt Rebellion, which concerns more or less five systems, as well as war against the pirate clans of the Kshist belt.

Is in a state of tense relations with the Karun-Koshit-Lemkenak alliance of Lords.

Views towards Yut: suspicious.


Lemkenak: One of the largest Lordships in Shysh space. Acts as a counter-weight to the expansionist policies of Laipalk. Part of the Karun-Koshit-Lemkenak alliance of Lords. Is militarily engaged against pirate clans in the Heshba region of the Forlorn Systems and the Rokodash Corridor.

Views towards Yut: suspicious.


Karun: A Lordship that historically was much larger, but lost territory to Laipalk. Part of the Karun-Koshit-Lemkenak alliance of Lords to counter the growing expansion of the Laipalk Lordship. Depends heavily on Lemkenak for military assistance.

Views towards Yut: neutral.


Koshit: A Lordship that lost territory to Laipalk. Part of the Karun-Koshit-Lemkenak alliance of Lords to counter the growing expansion of the Laipalk Lordship.

Views towards Yut: neutral.


Kabat: An important Lordship locked in a combat of influence over the Suksh Lordship against Poik. As of now, Suksh is part of Poik's sphere of influence. Due to the growing hostility between Poik and Kabat, the Lordship has attempted to secure the Fiuthodash and Losdodash Corridors through military campaigns against pirate clans, so as to allow its non-FTL merchant traffic to bypass Poikan space. The over extension of the military effort hit the Lordship in the back as a rebellion erupted in two systems, now known as the Kelzhat rebellion.

Kabat controls a system with direct gateway access to Poik, which forces the Serene Fleet to maintain heavy presence in Poik system. Risk of war between Kabat and Poik considered high.

Views towards Yut: hostile.


Suksh & Lop: Minor Lordships and de facto client states of Poik. Suksh is disputed by the Kabat Lordship.

Views towards Yut: neutral.


Dubash: A lordship that has historically been on friendly terms with Poik. The cordial relationship lasts to this day. Dubash controls a system with direct gateway access to Poik, which forces the Serene Fleet to maintain heavy presence in Poik system. Risk of war between Dubash and Poik considered low.

Views towards Yut: neutral.


Debolak & Sorm: Once formed part of a single Lordship, now divided between two scions of the same ruling house. Locked in an ever lasting war over succession, with each half of the dynasty pretending to be the legitimate ruler of the entire space occupied by Debolak & Sorm. Other Lords alternatively support one or the other side depending on political context and interests. Due to alternating support of the other Lords, pirate problems and the casual rebellion by unpaid mercenaries, none of the two sides has managed to gain the upper hand over the other.

Views towards Yut: neutral.

[Shysh]

As the news of Yut's presence in Shysh space becomes public, the various polities in Organised Shysh space begin to make their own positions of the matter known. There is no sudden breakdown of centuries of ties and relations as everybody gangs up xenophobically against Poik and the GEC mission. However, the sudden alien appearence is not met with general enthusiasm in the Lordships as Yut becomes de facto a new player in a political scene that took many generations to settle.

The most vocal opposition to Yut's presence, ironically, comes not from the Church, but from a Lordship. The Kabat Lordship, tied in a long running conflict for influence with Poik over the small Suksh Lordship, decries Poik's colliding with alien powers. According to rumours, the Lord of Kabat is proposing a gathering to some other Lords, namely Laipalk, Lemkenak and Dubash, to discuss the new situation and elaborate counter measures to alien enroachment.

The possibility for the formation of an anti-Yut coalition of Lords does exist. But such a deal would be complicated. Indeed, Dubash has historically cordial relations with Poik and trades extensively with the Merchant republic. Laipalk and Lemkenak are locked in what an Earthling would call Cold War for entire generations. However, should Poik seek to exploit its newly found ties with aliens to the detriment of the Lords, these might just put aside their differences to ensure their own survival. For now, only the Lord of Laipalk was receptive to the idea and rumours go that the two leaders have already met.

The Church is suspicious of Yut's motives and the priests and inquisitors present throughout the Shysh space begin nearly immediately to preach to distrust the alien and what the alien might bring. And that before any trust is given to the alien, the alien must earn that trust. And that the alien must not preach heresy. So, overall somewhere between suspicion and hostility.

So far only political reactions to the news can be felt. There is so far not much interest from the Lords to establish any kind of relations with Yut, fearing the opening that might bring to their domains. But there is no massive movement of fleets throughout Shysh space and no sudden attack against Poik's assets.

There are rumours of major confrontations between pirate clans in the Heshba region of the Forlorn systems. Whilst nothing official comes from Lemkenak, there are unconfirmed reports and speculations of refugee flotillas in Lemkenak's border systems amassing, with Lemkenak reinforcing its fleet presence at the Gateways to prevent the flotillas from entering the Lordship's space. Confrontations and turf wars between pirate clans are not a novelty and brief spikes in refugee movements are common. But what is unusual is the number of civilian ships coming into Lemkenak held border systems, as if whatever force that was gaining the upper hand in the Heshba region specifically aimed at causing a massive population movement of terrified refugees that sought protection of Lemkenak's military.

The four GEC scout ships in the various systems are neither detected nor attacked, namely because nobody is exactly looking for them. So they keep their surveilance, feeding back information to M'Hadjou.

Doctor Taketani has some success with various Poikan professors and scholars. The broad technological capacities of Poik in civilian spheres can be analysed. Military technologies, specifications of warships and such are not shared by the Poikans. Poikans, for example, quickly develop an interest in agricultural technologies that could boost their agricultural output and reduce dependency upon food imports from the Lordships. Environmental technologies to reduce air pollution in the cities also receive a fair interest.

Medical technologies, however, are for the time being not high on the agenda due to the Shysh being a whole new species to the Yutties. Information about anatomy and biology can be exchanged on a mutually beneficial basis (Shysh learning about aliens and aliens learning about Shysh), but there is no question of giving deceased Shysh to the Yutties for dissection and study, if any such request is ever formulated to begin with.

The shore parties from the Bellingshausen allow the citizens of Poik to get used to the presence of aliens somewhat, as such shore parties are often followed by camera crews and journalists and, thus, often feature prominently on the media networks. However, as weeks go by, the interest begins to fade and by the time the Diplomatic Mission arrives, shore parties no longer attract media attention as in the first days. Even more so as due to both Poikan security oversight and M'Hadjou's micromanagement, the amount of conflicts caused by such shoreparties is nil.