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“Captain,” Frank said. “A signal is coming in on all radio frequencies from sub-aural through UHF. It’s the same message across the spectrum, and it’s in Chinese. Mandarin to be precise. Shall I put it on ship’s audio or the council’s?”
“Let everyone hear it,” I said. There should be few secrets in a crew as close-knit as ours.
“Huanying, diqiu’ ren,.” The message came over the aural net. The ship’s computer immediately translated this to “People of Earth, welcome.”
“Frank, have it translate before broadcasting, please,” I reminded him gently.
“Of course, Captain. How foolish of me,” he replied.
“Open a channel on all the same frequencies,” I requested.
“Already there, sir. At your discretion,” he concluded.
“This is Captain Joacim Bontrager. We come in peace. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking? Is this the most convenient manner of doing so?” I was doing my best to be polite and accommodating.
A lengthy pause later, an image appeared on my hologuide of a humanoid head, which I presumed everyone could see. The long, narrow face had two almond-shaped eyes with ovoid pupils directly in the forefront of the skull. They were much higher on the forehead than humans and there was slightly more brain case to the rear.
A flat space was apparent where our noses were, along with a narrow, lipless seam which must pass for a mouth. There was also a slit on either side of the head just below eye level. The diminutive cleft finishing off the bottom of the face might have been a chin. When it spoke the lips didn’t move, yet I heard a mellifluous baritone voice in English.
“Captain Bontrager, welcome to you and your crew. We began in Mandarin as it is the most common language on your planet. We see now there are numerous languages in use aboard your vessel. I have therefore elected to communicate by what you would refer to as telepathy. Thusly, you and all your crew hear us in their native tongue. Did I say all of that correctly?”
“Yes,” I replied immediately. “That was well said, thank you. Are there any immediate actions you wish us to take? We do not intend to appear aggressive in any manner.”
“No, of course you do not Captain. We sense little aggression from you, certain parties excluded. Toward that end, would you be so kind as to direct Bea to cycle off the weapons array? We would appreciate it. The probability that your primitive weapon might actually cause us any harm is minimal, but why take unnecessary risks?”
“Of course, umm; do you have a name or title you prefer we use?” I queried. I was stalling, trying to figure out how to tell Bea not to cycle the canon offline without offending our hosts. I should have known I needn’t have bothered.
“I’m not cycling anything off until I know more about you,” Bea said, addressing the being.
“Very well,” replied the voice. “I am called Terse, and am the envoy of our home world, Marsingna. Do you prefer Earthers, or would some other title be appropriate for your race?”
“We refer to ourselves as humans,” Seamus offered. As my #2 on the council, I trusted him implicitly.
“Very good Seamus, and so humans it shall be,” Terse replied. “We are called Minsa, which in the language of our planet means The People. Are you still called a Scot, or just a human?”
Ah, well played, I thought.