Vontae spent most of the space elevator transport ride to the space station in conversation with Carmot. Apamot spent the time listening, but not contributing much. She had been up to the space station many times, but hadn’t traveled in interstellar space since she moved with her family from Sadira. She had been excited at the time Vontae suggested it, but now that the prospect of accompanying her husband and Vontae to his meet his fleet was closer to a reality, she was feeling somewhat apprehensive. She tugged subconsciously at her quills, sure that they were sticking out of place and betraying her feelings.
Watching the two of them talk like they had been lifelong friends was something new to her. In her experience, it took a long time to establish friendships. You couldn’t trust a stranger to respect your feelings. The one time she had let someone into her circle of trust, she was hurt by him. It was a defense mechanism to hold people at arms length and not let them get close enough to hurt her until they had earned her trust. Even with Carmot it had taken years for her to completely open up to him about her inner feelings. Even then, she had still not felt comfortable telling him details of her life on Sadira as a child.
Now, here was Carmot openly talking with an alien, no less, about very personal things; he was putting up no walls at all. The worse thing about it was that she was starting to consider him a close friend as well. She was still not comfortable enough to talk candidly with him like Carmot was, however.
The thing that was making her uneasy, she supposed, was the memories the impending space flight would drudge up. The last time she had made such a flight she had been burdened with the feelings of betrayal that was brought on by Travinitec and his friend Sedenerec. As she thought more about it, she realized that she wasn’t really that worried about meeting aliens, it was the trip itself.
At that moment, Carmot was trying to explain to Vontae about the music of their culture. It seemed like a lively discussion. Vontae was having a hard time understanding the subtleness of quill rattling in music. It was amusing to watch with Carmot attempting the explanation and Vontae just not understanding it. She found herself wishing that she could be part of the conversation, but didn’t feel comfortable jumping in.
Vontae laughed and Apamot found herself thinking back to the things that made Vontae different from Tau Cetians. Maybe it wasn’t the things that you had in common that made you compatible as friends. Maybe it was the differences that changed your perspectives and exercised your mind that drew people closer.
Finally the transport reached the station and it was time to disembark. Vontae was assigned quarters and Carmot and Apamot took his regular quarters. They were to get a good night’s sleep and meet early the next morning before the flight with Tarshon. Apamot had a lot to think about before the morning came.
“You’ve decided what?” Tarshon said, his quills rippling along the top of his head as if they were only staying relaxed by an effort of self-control. He was reacting to the initial statement Carmot had made to start the meeting. Gathered with them in the conference room was Vontae, Apamot and Kalpoc and several of Tarshon’s aides.
“It was Vontae’s idea to have her come along and I thought it would be a good idea to have her as part of the envoy,” Carmot said.
“Yes, well,” Tarshon said looking at Vontae, “as a hero of the Ascendancy, I think Vontae should have some say as to who accompanies him in the envoy. She can act as the representative of Sadira since she can claim part of her heritage from there and we haven’t had time for a Sadiran born diplomat to get here in time for the flight. Apamot is authorized.
“Now to the rest of the business,” Tarshon continued. “We have prepared the Dor Panak to accommodate the envoy. It is a 400c ship, one of the fastest ships available. It will retain its usual captain and crew. The envoy will be led by Carmot and Vontae as joint leads. I have assigned Kalpoc as consultant and Apamot will represent Sadiran interests. The scheduled departure time will be directly after this meeting.
“Here are the objectives. One, make contact with the Sol colony fleet. To achieve this, we will need to establish a first contact protocol. Suggestions?”
“I should act as interpreter,” Vontae said.
“Of course,” Tarshon agreed. “What we need to consider is that the first contact the Humans had was with a hostile ship. They may be extremely wary about their second contact. Vontae, they are your people, what do you suggest?”
“When we encountered the Dantu ship, we had months to prepare because they were visible long before we were able to make contact. From what I know of your ship’s technology, we would seem to them to appear out of nowhere if we came into relative space on top of them.
“I suggest that we drop out of non-relativistic space at a few light seconds away,” Vontae continued, “and communicate with them using my maint-ship’s comm gear. If we initiate communications immediately after becoming visible to them, it should allay some of their apprehension.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Tarshon said. He then addressed one of his aides, “See that the Earth ship is loaded into one of the Dor Panak’s cargo bays. Inform their engineer to start getting familiar with the layout, but not to disassemble anything yet. That can wait for the transit when we have time to consult the Sol delegate. Dismissed.”
Tarshon turned back to those standing at the table and Vontae continued. “Forgive me, I am not completely familiar with all your equipment. I know you have small craft similar to my maint-ship, but what is the crew complement and how much bigger than my maint-ship are they?”
“That is a good question,” Tarshon said. “Carmot, you know the relative size of Vontae’s ship.”
“The expedition craft will seat four,” Carmot said. “They are slightly larger than Vontae’s ship, perhaps three eighth times bigger. Would that be sufficient?”
“Yes,” Vontae answered. “That’s perfect. After we make contact with my people, we will approach closer and take an expedition craft into the Battuta’s launch bay. She is the only ship that would have room since she is missing a maint-ship. Then we will make contact with the Battuta duty officers first. We have a conference room aboard her that we can make a conference call with the other ships’ duty officers.”
“Very good,” Tarshon said. “Once we have a forum with the Sol officers, we will offer any assistance they require. Carmot will serve as the voice for the Ascendancy with Vontae interpreting.
“Now the second objective,” Tarshon continued, “will be for us to establish official diplomatic ties with Sol. I believe that will have to be accomplished by visiting Earth. What kind of facilities does Earth have for receiving a delegation?”
Vontae found himself a little unprepared for the question. He hadn’t really thought that far ahead, but it did make sense for that to be the next logical step. Word of the contact with the fleet would take a couple years to reach Earth. The Tau Cetian ship would only take a couple days to reach Earth, where first contact would occur there. Knowing the mythology surrounding alien visitors that had built up on Earth over the proceeding couple of centuries starting with Roswell, New Mexico, Vontae suspected that the process should be interesting to say the least.
“We have no elevator as Tau Ceti does,” Vontae said. “We do have a space complex in orbit around Earth that is manned with scientists mainly. As you can imagine, we have no interstellar diplomatic structure. My planet it divided into twelve independent states or regions, we would have to include the heads of state of all of them plus the moon, Mars and the Outer Belt.”
The Tau Cetians around the table appeared surprised. All did except Carmot. “Vontae told me of this, but I forgot to mention it in the report. The twelve ships in his fleet represent the twelve nations of his planet.” Carmot turned to Vontae. “You see, it has been many eight squared years since our people have been as finely divided as yours. Even before Sadira was settled. Most species we have made contact with apart from the Dantu have united worlds.”
“Even as recently as two eight squared years ago we had three eight squared nations on Earth,” Vontae said. “The fact that we only have twelve now would have seemed amazing then. A one world government may be in our future, but we are not quite there yet. The fact that the Ascendancy has several systems under its control is amazing.”
“How about this idea,” Tarshon said. “We enter orbit of Earth and have Vontae contact his government. I assume that one government can request representatives from all governments to participate in a conference call.”
“Yes, I believe that would be possible,” Vontae said.
“Alright,” Tarshon said. “We will have your government contact the others and send our expedition craft to dock in your space station’s launch bay similar to how we handled it with the fleet. Carmot takes the lead with Vontae acting as interpreter.”
“That sounds like it would work fine,” Vontae said.
“Objective three is to offer an exchange of ambassadors,” Tarshon said. “That is something we will have to explore after we have made official contact with the governments of Earth. I would offer the post to Carmot and Apamot if it came to that. Is that something that you both will consider?”
Carmot looked to Apamot and said, “I am comfortable with it if Apamot feels comfortable with it.”
“I’m not sure yet; we’ll see,” Apamot said.
“Yes, we have time to figure it out. Nothing has to be decided on that front yet,” Tarshon said. “Is there anything else we should discuss before we start? Remember, we will be communication throughout the mission.” There were no additional items. “Alright, board the Dor Panak. When Vontae’s ship is finished being loaded aboard, the mission will commence. Dismissed.”
