illyth:

I see your humans are space orcs, and I raise you humans are space fey (I’m doing this on mobile so bear with me)

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They had all heard the warnings, but Ikosti wrote them off as baseless superstition. Surely, only fledglings believed the tales of the Allecius Cluster. Surely, only fledglings believed the old crones’ tales about the vanishing ships and phantom sensory readings and secretive Watchers that stole away crews wandering too far into the sector. Xe grew up on those stories: even xir own grandhatcher claimed xir mate had been lost to the Watchers. In fact, it was for those very reasons xe had volunteered to lead this scouting mission, to allay his people’s fears about this section of space. The mission, however, had not gone as planned.

“Captain, the sensors are picking up that signal again. At this point I’m tempted to say we should just hail it and see what happens.” The communications officer broke Ikosti’s focus from the stellagation charts. Ikosti cocked xir head to the side, adjusting the feathers around xir beak in thought.

“You know what, Chitir? I’m tempted to say yes. For the time being, keep our sensors on it. If we can calculate a jump reading off it when it leaves, maybe we can find a way out of this mess.” Ikosti sank into the captain’s chair, fore-talons threading against xir temples. If they’d been anywhere back near Aycotli space, near any Federation space really, xe would have reprimanded Chitir for such informality on the bridge. But at this point, nearly 10 rotations trapped in this hellscape of a nebula, xe would not fault xir nestmate for putting regulation aside. This was, after all, quite an irregular predicament.

The mission had started off regularly enough. The Fyndil’s Grace had easily made it through the first jump to the Allecius system. From there, the ship was to chart the region as best it could, searching primarily for a new hyperspace route. The Gul Dominion controlled most of the known routes, and with tensions between the two species rising, the Aycotli Flock was looking for anything that they could use if the Dominion revoked access to their hyperplanes. All known routes went around the Allecius Cluster, sometimes hundreds of parsecs off course just to avoid traveling the Cluster. And now, xe knew why.

Things were innocuous enough when they first arrived. Cilaed, the ship’s engineer, had reported no excess emission from the engine, and all green across the ship’s entire power grid. Only minutes later, the ship powered down. Only quick thinking and the sacrifice of Cilaed’s stasis pod prevented them from floating completely dead in space. Cilaed lasted the first three rotations on his reserved energy before his body gave out. Ikosti wasn’t worried: even if the rest of the crew perished, Cilaed would survive in his dormant mode until he was pumped with enough electricity to restart his body. The loss of the chief engineer, however, was proving a costly one. The stasis pod could keep them on reserve power almost indefinitely. It would last 2 decades, almost twice the average Aycotli lifespan. Their food stores, however, were starting to run low, and the electronic interference from the nebula they were in prevented any communication extending beyond their current system. With the pod, they could make one jump, but lose all power a few rotations after, and with no coordinates to make the jump with, they’d be trying to thread a needle blindfolded, so to speak. So they’d sat for the last several rotations, puttering along in search of a place they might broadcast a distress signal from, or at least a warning about whatever energy field it was that cut their power to begin with.

It had been two rotations before the first phantom signal appeared. Their sensors were unable to pick up any vessel, so they wrote it off as electrical interference. But then it came back again, leaving small radiation bursts in it’s want indicative of a hyperdrive. Federation Protocol dictated they refrain from contacting any potentially uncontacted species, so they sat, and waited.

Several minutes had gone by until Ikosti heard an audible intake of breath from his nestmate. “What’s happening?”

“Captain, it’s starting to head towards us.” The rest of the bridge turned at that, a mix of apprehension and hope across their faces.

“Hmm, put it on-screen. If they get within 150,000,000,000 standard units, hail them.” The crew all turned towards the stellagation chart as Chitir pulled up the tracker. At first, their observer moved cautiously towards the Grace, but it after a few seconds it started to pick up speed. Soon enough, it was charging towards them, covering hundreds of thousands of units per second. “Pelo, raise shields! Jorwi, standby for emergency evasive maneuvers!”

The duo sprang to life at the orders as the rest of the crew looked on, and Ikosti took some solace in the fact that xe sounded more in control than xe felt.

“Hailing them now, Captain!” Chitir called out as the oncoming ship barreled towards them. The channel flared to life and Ikosti began immediately: “This is Captain Ikosti D’Thylozt of the Aycotli Flock, performing a scouting mission on the behalf of the Federation of Allied Species. We are not a military vessel. I repeat, we are not a military vessel. Please disengage!” The ship showed no sign of stopping, and just before xe called for the emergency thrusters, the ship stopped. An image appeared on the glass in front of Ikosti, and xe felt nearly gasped in shock. On the screen in front of xem was undeniably one of the Watchers.

The being looked utterly alien, lacking any kind of feather or scale. Instead, the Watcher was covered in what almost looked to be uncured kath hide. The Watcher wore an elaborate robe, emblazoned with flecks of ruby, sapphire, and emerald trimmed with gold. Its head was crowned with tufts of elongated for instead of plumage or scale, reminding Ikosti of the long grass native to xir homeworld.

The Watcher glanced over the crew and barred its teeth before letting out an almost musical sort of noise. Dimly in the background, the translation programs indicated it was a noise of happiness.

“Greetings, Captain. It’s been a long time since we last had Aycotli here.” The crew hid their surprise with varied success as they realized the Watcher spoke near perfect Aycotlia. “I am Captain Jones. We noticed your ship disabled in the nebula, and we’ve come to take you to a safe port.” The Watcher turned away from the screen and tapped twice on a console. A thin, shimmering light gleamed from the Watcher’s ship and encased the Grace. “I’ve established a gravitational bond between our vessels to guide you through the Cat’s Eye. Is your ship sound enough to make a jump?”

“It is, Captain Jones, but I must insist that you return us to Federation space so we can initiate the appropriate First Contact Protocols.”

“I’m sorry Captain D’Thylozt, but you aren’t in a position to insist. We will explain more when we reach Craddle, but suffice it to say my people avoid contact with the younger species for a reason. However, I couldn’t leave my dear friend’s grand-hatchling stranded.” Ikosti opened his beak and then clamped it shut. Xir grandhatcher had told the story so many times: xe lost xir nestmate during one of the final days of the Durati Border Wars, but always claimed the disabled ship was pulled out of the line of fire by a mystery vessel and that it had simply disappeared afterwards. But, if that was the case…

Ikosti relayed the order to prepare for a jump to hyperspace and turned back to the monitor. “At your ready, Captain.”

I’m going to end this here for the time being but maybe I’ll write a follow up if there’s interest? I just like the idea of humans as a species of morally ambiguous space hermits with really advanced tech, etc etc. I just feel like most of the time, space Australia fiction is about humanity reaching the stars relatively late to the scene, and I think it’s cool to think of what might happen if we’re the first ones out there and just kinda act like vodka aunt to the rest of the universe.

(Note: standard units for distance here are kilometers. The Earth is roughly 150 billion kilometers from the sun, for comparison.)

I WOULD LIKE MORE YES PLEASE