ZULU-ONE CONTACTS N'FERRA

Scanning the area, you finally notice a dim spark of light traveling at
much faster than your current speed, much slower than your current
maximum. (But remember that you need to save mass for braking.) 

Before any rapid accelerations, Z1 repairs ships engines and fixes all
water tank leaks (using as long time as is possible without losing the
target). Then he will follow the unidentified target, closing in slowly
in order to conserve reaction mass. All the time he will attempt to
identify it. 

Before you are able to close, it vanishes completely. (It was never very
bright to begin with.) You set your course for your best guess as to
where it was headed. After a few days, you pass a crystalline
tetrahedron about 10' on a side. (It's too far away for you to
investigate it physically.) It's flashing a blue-blue-blue-white
pattern. As you pass it, you perceive that each color is generated by a
separate corner of the 'hedron. The white corner is pointed about 1.5
degrees off your current course. 

Some kind of a beacon, maybe. Z1 is uncertain, but deems it most logical
to go into the direction the white corner is pointing into (adjusting
course for the 1.5 deg. change). That would conserve reaction mass, and
it would also be likely to take Z1 to some place of note, as well as
away from the units of Mastermind. 

Crystalline 'hedron would not contain anything useful to Z1 in itself.
That is why he will not waste reaction mass in order to investigate it
more closely. 

You change course to the new vector. After another few days you notice a
few of those faint moving lights. Judging by the vectors, they're coming
from a place about 27 hours of travel from you. (You might want to start
braking now.) 

Suddenly, one of the lights rushes by you, counter to your vector. 

After rechecking the images several times (plus the imager and data
storage), you find that what passed you was some sort of sailing vessel,
quite a bit larger than your own ship. The vessel was made out of wood,
and was completely unsealed. Several humans were visible aboard the
vessel, along with a few aliens. Unfortunately, without a historical
database you have no way of telling what the people on the ship were
doing. 

Z1 compares the spectrum of this new light to the spectrum of the beacon
light he used for navigation a while ago. Also, Z1 attempts to
triangulate an estimate of range to it and his speed. (Beats me how to
calculate this without knowing the speed too well, but Z1 is a
computer..) During the triangulation process, Z1 slightly rearranges
ships course sideways, so that no impact is possible. 

When you approach within 100 miles, visual sensors reveal a glowing
disk-shaped structure approximately 500 yards in diameter and 50' thick.
Judging by the radar signature, it's either low density or has great ECM
(or maybe both). While still too dim to make out details, you can make
out three lights traveling directly towards you (most likely ships like
the one you saw before). 

When the ships approach to 400 they start hoisting flags and flashing
differently colored lights. 

Z1 will record it. He will attempt to see a message behind it.
Obviously, it is a form of communication. 

When you move towards one of the ships, another ship brackets you on the
opposite side. The third ship stands off with cannon and ballista ready.

The three ships have a much larger crew and more and heavier weapons
that the vessel you passed earlier. The crew is composed of many races,
human and alien, wearing very similar clothing and ornaments. 

As the two ships move to bracket you, external sensor report the sudden
presence of an atmosphere. The atmosphere is oxygen-nitrogen (with trace
elements, no pollutants), about 20% denser than earth at sea level, but
with only 2% greater partial pressure of oxygen. 

Inside the lander, Z1 prepares for battle and checks his weapons. He
will not take any chances. 

As he prepares Z1 notices thick cables, apparently flying of their own
accord, surrounding his ship and attaching to the two vessels on either
side of him. 

A great deal of attention is being paid to the airlocks and hatches of
your ship, but there are crew members also watching your general hull. 

Z1 will enter ships airlock, with his assault carbine in hand, barrel
over his shoulder. Other stuff is on his back. He will stand in the
doorway unmoving as the door opens. 

Z1 will slowly raise his armors faceplate, unless the humans start
shooting right away. 

"Greetings, fellow humans and beings of other species." 

He taps himself with his free hand on the chest. "Zulu One" 

After this he will put the assault carbine onto his back, slowly. Then
he will show empty, opened hands to them. 

"Peace" 

Then he will allow himself a small smile. 

In the commotion that follows your appearance, you are able to tell that
a dinosaur-like creature seems to be the one in charge. There are
several fits and starts before a human approaches you. 

He bows slightly, "Han N'Ferra Zulu Un." He taps his chest "Heh," and
points to a another human, "Gol." The second human then points at
himself, "Heh," and back at the first human, "Gol." The first human
says, "Heh, Marrik Curay." Then he spreads his hands far apart and
waits. 

Z1: "Heh Zulu One. Gol Marrik Curay." 

(Z1 makes the assumption that word heh is I and word gol is you.) 

Z1 points to the first human and says: "Marrik Curay" Then he motions
towards the inner airlock door from the first human, and opens it with a
radio signal. "Come" 

Z1 waits for a while then. 

As the human waits, you feel acceleration being applied. (About 1/20 G.)
You seem to be slowing relative to the station you saw earlier. 

Z1 puts the ship to scanning the surroundings for Masterminds ships. 

There's a short three-way conversation between the commander, the
centaur, and Marik. Looking at you, Marik points at the centaur and says
"Donfelas. Come Marik, Donfelas?" and gestures toward the airlock. 

Z1: "Come, Marik, Donfelas." 

Both will accompany you into the ship. When the door closes behind them
they are suddenly affected by the microgravity, and are a bit clumsy for
few minutes until they adapt. 

The scan reveal none of Mastermind's ships nearby. The acceleration
seems to affect the two attached ships as well. Your vector is changing
to avoid the station ahead by a larger margin as well as slowing
relative to it. 

Z1 starts showing pictures for the two on the screen, and explaining
each picture with one or two words. Before this he touches the screens
surface with his knuckles lightly: "Screen." 

Donfelas brings out some paper and a fountain pen and starts taking
notes. The pen has some difficulty functioning in the low gravity. After
you say your words, he writes something down and then makes a gesture
with his hand. (Different each time.) 

Z1 hands Donfelas a ballpoint pen and shows how it works. (Presumably
better than the fountain pen..) Z1 will record all the motions
carefully. 

Then he makes a slideshow of sorts detailing the humans of his world and
their civilization. Then he shows how machines poison everyplace and
humans die. After that he will detail his stealing of the ship and
flight to the Jupiter, and going through the gate. He will also show
pictures of more common enemy ships and robots, saying "Enemy" and
curling his hand into fist next to the picture. 

As this goes on, you realize that Marrik and Donfelas are primarily
communicating with gestures. Their verbalizations back up their common
sign language. As you present your show, there seems to be some sort of
discussion going on. 

Z1 notices this, but as he is still unable to communicate properly, does
not comment. 

If there is more time, Z1 will attempt to learn some of his visitors'
language, by showing pictures and asking their words for them. 

As time goes on, your monitors show that you are curving around to
approach the base. The acceleration varies a great deal until, after
about 8 hours, you seem parked close by the station. As soon as you are
parked, the cables covering your ship are removed, and all but one of
the escorting vessels leave. 

Your guests seem quite content to stay and learn as much as possible
until the ships parks. The human takes an occasional glance at your
visual monitors during the approach. During this period you have been
totally unable to read their body language. 

Once your guests realize that you've stopped, they make it clear that
they want you to accompany them to the station. 

As you approach the station you see a ship, similar to the other N'Ferra
ships take off from the surface. Hovering over the center of the
station, it suddenly disappears. 

Arriving at the station, you are led to one of the larger structures.
Once there, you are shown to a room with a spherical floating alien and
another human. Three-dimensional pictures appear in mid-air and the
language lesson continues with the new human directing (he has
linguistics skill). Once they realize how fast you can pick up the
basics, they stop trying to learn your language and simply feed you
their's as quickly as they can. 

With meals and rest breaks, you'll be able to put a half point into
Languages (Kafara) after 30 hours. Of course, if you want to do
something else before that time you can. Marrik will accompany you
wherever you want to go. 

(You landed your ship at the port.) 

After teaching you the basics of their language (you have the language
at skill 8 BTW). They show you pictures of a ship of a type you've never
seen before. It looks more advanced than your own ship. 

"If you're not familiar with this ship, that means there's _another_
dimension using the Dark Sphere. We've only seen this ship once, and we
thought you might come from its dimension. We haven't had any contact
with things like you've shown us." 

Z1: "No, this ship seems to be more advanced than Masterminds current
level of technology. Anyone who has ships like that could be a valuable
ally - Or dangerous enemy." 

"Can you direct us to the location where you entered the sphere? If this
'Mastermind' is hostile we need to learn as much as we can as quickly as
we can. This may explain the ships that have been recently lost without
explanation." 

Z1: "Yes, I can provide the knowledge on paper if you wish. Near the
hole is armed station of the enemy. They have nuclear missiles, weapons
capable of blowing up whole cities in one stroke." 

Z1: "My ship requires water to work properly. Purity is not an issue,
though. If you could provide me 760 tons of water, I could refuel my
ship - It may be needed in our war against the Mastermind." 

Once they've answered your questions, they tell you it will take awhile
before they can discuss anything further, and suggest that you look
around the town. Marrik will accompany you to help you and explain
anything you don't understand. They also give you $100 in N'Ferra
currency in case you want to make any purchases. 

The station/town is a busy and bustling trade city. What would you like
to do? 

Z1 will go around and talk to people, ask them about metallic hostile
beings. He will also ask questions relating to their way of life,
religion and so on. 

"Well son, " (Marrik seems a bit young to be calling you son BTW), "If
you want to talk to people, there's a lot of ways to go about it. We
could go to a tavern, or maybe we could talk to the priests and see if
they've heard anything. If you just want to get things out, we could
hang out in the Speakers Court 'til you get your chance, or maybe we
could drop by The Reader's Guild, and get your story in the paper. Of
course, we could just wander around town with you speaking to anyone who
catches your fancy." 

Z1: "Do you consider me your son?" 

"In reality I could be considered to be a child of my enemy, the
Mastermind and Selena Keller, a human female techmage who is now dead.
Mastermind gave me my body, and Selena gave me my mind.. If you are
pointing out to my social inadequacy, you may well be right - I am not
very familiar with human existence or emotions yet." 

"Whoa there. 'Son's' just a way of speaking where I come from. Sort of a
way of saying 'friend.'" 

"I am sorry for the misunderstanding. My language teaching has not been
perfect, I notice." 

Marrik shrugs, "No one can master all the ways people have of talking." 

"I think that a tavern might be a suitable environment for listening to
stories. At this point, potential width of information is more important
than quality and exact type." 

"Hmmm, well, The Brown Feather probably has the most different types of
people than any other tavern. So we'll head there." 

"The Brown Feather" is a large, two-story building. It has hitching
posts out front, but nothing attached to them. It supplies drinks,
rooms, and meals and has an attached bathhouse. It caters to a variety
of tastes, and it's quality varies from fair to good depending on how
much you are willing to pay. It's the largest hostel/inn on Base
N'Ferra. 

Going into the common room, you notice a varied cross-section of races
and status levels. The overall feel is relaxed and rustic. A dice game,
with Human, Nurha and Slahses participants, is going on in one corner,
while, through a doorway, you can see a knifetoss in progress. A pair of
Lon are twining necks along the wall to your left, and a group of Varn
occupy perches coming down from the ceiling. A platform at one end of
room is currently unoccupied. To your left, the bar occupies the entire
wall, with a large assortment of containers displayed behind it. The
barkeeper appears to be a Rachak (small beholder) and the four
wait-persons are Ch'vrr, Nurha, Slahses and Nye. 

A brass rail runs in front of the bar, but no stools or chairs can been
seen. The tables are low (japanese style), and surrounded by hard
pillows. The room could probably hold 100 humans, but only about 25
beings currently occupy it. 

Your attention is attracted by two Humans and a Rachak sharing a table
and talking.