//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: First Contact // Story: FTL: Stowaway // by Dolphy Blue Drake //------------------------------// Captain Chris Malott of The Kestrel sighed as he observed the remains of the Rebel ship his crew had worked together to destroy. They had only recently begun to flee from the accursed human supremacists to bring the knowledge of how to beat them to Earth a few days ago, and things were already looking grim. Sure, they had gotten lucky and found a Slug mercenary at a space station and convinced her to join them.  The Rebels were still in hot pursuit however, and they showed no signs of slowing. As of April 2814—the previous month—the Galactic Federation was dead.  At least, that’s what everyone believed. They might as well have been right, for the last remains of the Federation Fleet (with the lone exception of The Kestrel) were desperately trying to hold off the Rebel Fleet’s advances into the Federation’s original sector of Sol Prime, which contained the Federation base and capital planet: Earth. “Captain Malott?” a female voice cut in over the intercom. “We’re approaching the FTL beacon you had me set a course for. We should reach it in approximately five minutes.” “Acknowledged, Lieutenant Commander Noemi,” Malott replied after pushing a button on the captain’s chair to send his reply. “Once again, thank you for sticking with me through this.  I know we lost all of our officers except me in our raid of Outpost Delta Seven, but—” “No need for that, Captain,” a second female voice cut in. “We’re the only ones who can save the Federation. The Rebels will oppress the other citizen races of the Federation if we don’t stop them. We’re just doing our job.” “I agree with Lieutenant Nazia,” a male voice added.  “It’s an honor to serve with you, sir.  The Kestrel may be outdated, but she’s all we’ve got.  She’s the last cruiser of the Federation fleet not fighting at Sol Prime.  Ironic that she was also the first Kestrel class cruiser ever built.” “Ensssign Matthieu, know your placcce!” a third female voice snapped.  “Captain Chrisss Malott isss well-known for captaining The Kessstrel all the way back when ssshe wasss the flagssship of the Federatttion fleet!  I may not be human like the ressst of you, but I know my hissstory!  We Ssslugsss aren’t alwaysss thinking about how to acquire more Ssscrap, you know!  He’sss practically married to The Kessstrel!” “Thank you, Ensign T’ten, but it’s fine,” Malott cut in before the argument could heat up.  “I understand that she really is an old girl, but The Kestrel was retrofitted to make her spaceworthy again.  She is all we have, and she can be a bit… temperamental at times, but we need to focus.  The Rebels are seeking us so they can wipe us out before we arrive in the Federation Capital sector.  We can’t let that happen.” He shifted in his seat before asking, “Lieutenant Commander Noemi?  Are we at the beacon now?” “Yes, Captain,” Noemi’s voice replied.  For a brief moment, all went quiet as the ship proceeded into the system.  Suddenly Noemi’s systems produced a screen that caught her eye.  After she took in what The Kestrel’s systems were telling her, Noemi gaped. “Impossible,” she muttered under her breath, as she punched in new commands into her console.  Regardless of her attempts, the screens showed her the same impossible data. After an internal debate within her mind, Noemi opened up the comms channel.  “Captain?  I know that this’ll sound crazy, but… this system is geocentric!” Malott blinked.  “Come again, Lieutenant Commander?” “I’ve run the numbers, Captain.  You can remotely access the Sensors system yourself.” “Very well,” Malott replied before interacting with the console in front of him.  After entering the remote access codes into the console, the screen lit up with data obtained from scanning the strange system.  Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, Malott repeated the commands again, presuming there was some kind of malfunction occurring.  No matter how many checks the Captain ran, the data remained the same, and there was no sign of any malfunction.  As impossible as it seemed, Noemi hadn’t taken leave of her senses.  The system really was geocentric, no matter how much it defied the laws of astronomy.  Stranger still, intelligent life was detected on the planet in the middle, but it didn’t match any known form of intelligent life in the Federation database. “Bridge to all crew,” Malott announced after pushing the intercom button on his chair, “the planet in the middle of the system is home to a form of intelligent life not in the Federation database.  It may go against standard Federation First Contact protocols, but maybe we could receive some assistance from them.  All hands report to the shuttlebay immediately.  Lieutenant Commander Noemi, engage the autopilot.” The crew responded with a chorus of affirmatives, and they were all waiting in the shuttlebay below the main deck by the time Malott arrived. Without a word the entire crew climbed into a shuttle with Noemi at the controls, piloting the craft down to the surface of the planet, aiming for the outskirts of a settlement the sensors was indicating as the greatest concentration of advancement. The citizens of Ponyville gasped as one as an object descended towards them.  However, before fear could grip any of them, the object stopped losing altitude and leveled out before moving away towards the fields of Sweet Apple Acres.  The townsponies, now filled with curiosity, followed the object, eventually coming to a halt as it gently touched down in one of the farm’s fields. A panel on the side of the object opened, and five beings emerged.  Four were similar to Princess Twilight’s descriptions of the beings from the other side of the mirror to another world, but the fifth was far different.  Two of the first four resembled Twilight’s descriptions of the males from the other world, but with pale skin.  One wore purple, while the other was clad in red.  The other two appeared feminine, one with dark brown skin and clad in green, the other with tan skin, almond-shaped eyes, and clad in yellow.  The final member of the group was a grayish-purple slug-like creature with two arms wearing a red uniform of its own.  It was about the same height as Big Macintosh without counting the creature’s eyestalks. Twilight and her friends stood near the rear of the crowd, all of them taken by surprise, but Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy were quite excited as well. “Another starship!” Pinkie exclaimed.  “And more aliens!  I have to throw them a ‘Welcome to Equis’ party!” “Unlike that monstrosity from five years ago, this is something I can acknowledge as a craft from another world,” Rarity mused.  “It’s far smaller than that piece of junk, but it’s sleek, elegant and appears to be quite sophisticated in design!”  Noting the four bipeds all wearing nearly-identical clothing, her smile fell.  “Well, their outfits could be better, though.  Perhaps I could make more elegant clothes for them?” “They’re so fascinating!” Fluttershy whispered.  “I wonder what they eat?” Dash and Applejack simply stared, but Twilight was thinking about what to say to them.  There were so many questions she wanted to ask.  Especially if they knew about those frustrating metal beings she’d been trying to revive for five years, but with no success.  Magic didn’t seem to have any effect on them, but that couldn’t be possible…  Right? Captain Malott looked around at all the brightly-colored equines staring at him and his crew.  The settlement they were close to had looked somewhat primitive, but if these creatures were sapient, there had to be a way to communicate. Stepping forward to differentiate himself from the crew, Malott raised his right hand in a gesture of peace, then introduced himself. “Greetings, denizens of this fair planet,” he said, raising his voice to reach to the back of the crowd, “I am Captain Chris Malott, from the Galactic Federation.”  When he was merely met with more stares, he tried miming the meaning of his statements to try to get them to understand him.  “We mean you no harm.”  He gestured to his crew, then curled his hand into a fist, began to throw a punch at the air, but halted it after only moving his arm a fraction of an inch.  He shook his head and uncurled his fingers.  “We are seeking to communicate with you and ask for your assistance.”  He gestured to himself and his crew, then made a speaking gesture with both hands, imitating moving mouths, then gestured to the crowd.  He finished by clasping his hands together in a pleading gesture, then looked at the crowd again.  Still nothing but stares from all the beings in the crowd he could see the faces of. “Um…  Uh…” Malott was stumped.  He was trying to follow the Federation protocol for first contact as best he could, but the truth of the matter was that the Federation had only made first contact four times, and the only one that had truly gone over well was with the energy beings called Zoltans.  First contact with the Engi had been instigated by the Engi, which was how the Federation was born.  The Federation just wasn’t very good with first contacts. “Captain?” Nazia said, her voice filled with worry, “What are we going to do?  We can’t communicate!” “I know, I know!” Malott sighed.  “I guess we should just return to The Kestrel—” “Captain?  Don’t give up jussst yet,” T’ten said, cutting him off.  “Let me try using my Ssslug telepathy to communicate.” “Permission granted,” Malott said hopefully.  “Maybe there’s still a chance after all.” Without another word, T’ten oozed her way over to a red equine who was about the same height as her, not counting her eyestalks.  Closing her eyes, the Slug focused and tried communicating with the creature’s mind.  With telepathy, there hasn’t ever been such a thing as language barriers. Greetingsss, the Slug thought, projecting her mind’s voice into the creature’s mind. My name isss T’ten.  Can you comprehend my psssychic voice? The red equine jumped in surprise, but quickly replied.  Eyup, was the only word he thought in response. I am a traveller from beyond the ssstarsss, asss are my companionsss, T’ten told him. Do you have any knowledge of outer ssspaccce? Eenope, was the full reply, and T’ten was growing a little frustrated.  This being appeared to be very simple minded, unfortunately. Sssorry to have bothered you, T’ten thought before closing the link and moving on to the creature next to the red one:  a white one with a horn and glasses with purple lenses.  Surely, this one had to be intelligent. Excussse me, T’ten’s psychic voice said into the being’s mind, My name isss T’ten.  Can you— A continuous bass beat was resounding in the creature’s head so loudly, that T’ten could make out nothing else.  She tried to telepathically ask the equine to reply to her, but she got no response. Hissing in frustration, T’ten turned her attention to a pair of smaller equines, likely not fully-grown yet.  The younger mind may prove to be the key to getting an answer.  Young minds were different from adult minds in most races:  full of imagination and wonder, believing anything to be possible. Reaching out to both at once, T’ten tried again. Hello, young onesss, she began warmly, My name isss T’ten.  My friendsss and I are looking for help.  Could you two be of asssissstanccce? The thoughts forming in the young ones’ minds were not T’ten’s “cup of tea”, to borrow a human term.  Other Slugs would’ve enjoyed the scheming thoughts forming, but T’ten was a rare kind of Slug:  she was honest through and through. Instead, T’ten tried reading their memories, and discovered that an Engi cruiser had crashed nearby five years earlier. Never mind, T’ten thought into the pair’s minds, I’ve gotten the info we need.  Thank you for your time. Shuddering, T’ten returned to the rest of the crew. “It ssseemsss thessse beingsss are a bussst,” T’ten sighed.  “They’re sssimple and enjoy a peaccceful life.  But, another ssship wasss here before usss.  An Engi ssship crassshed nearby.  Follow me.” As the beings from another world left to inspect the crash site, the ponies started to disperse.  In truth, they’d understood every word.  They were just too stunned to speak. “Welp, that sure was strange,” Big Mac remarked before returning to working on the trees. Vinyl Scratch still didn’t say anything, but she looked thoughtful as she watched the newcomers leave. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were far from happy.  Their plans to exploit the situation had been foiled the instant they started to devise them. Twilight bolted after the beings from space, hoping to learn things by observing them. “Twi!  What’re ya doin’?” Applejack hollered after her. “I’m going after them!” Twilight called back.  “Wait for me at the castle!  I’ll be back!” The others shrugged and headed for Twilight’s castle while the lilac Alicorn chased the humans and Slug into the Whitetail Woods.