Intergalactic

The Felindar ship had been directed to the government section of the space port, a healthy distance away from the civilian facilities. Escorted by a dozen Erulas’ fighters, it slowly descended from the sky towards the largest of the three landing pads.

A fine example of the most popular Felindar style, the ship was a sleek, feathered dart. Its elongated diamond shape tapered to a bow that seemed thin from this distance but was still about ten meters across. Near the end, four fin-like structures housed the primary engines. A number of recesses sections in these fins made them look like feathers from a distance. At slightly over two hundred meters long and sixty wide, it made a majestic entrance.

President Vance was waiting inside the armored welcome hall. While diplomatic protocol made an attack unlikely, a pilot error could be just as disastrous. Besides, it never hurt to be unnecessarily careful. She took in the hall that was so seldomly used. The transparent aluminum splitting it neatly in half. The readings off to the left-hand wall showed the atmospheric conditions in the other half. She refreshed her memory with a quick glance at them. Denser atmosphere, higher oxygen content, eighty-two percent Earth gravity. It was common diplomatic protocol between civilized alien races to provide visitors with their home environment.

„Touchdown in one minute.“, a space port staff member informed the waiting officials. As the president had instructed, she was accompanied by Minister of External Affairs and Chief Diplomat Gordon, Minister of Science, Technology and Alien Affairs Krisi and Minister of Trade and Cultural Affairs Alhan.

Gordon was quietly discussing details with his undersecretary. Krisi and Alhan were chatting with each other, their staff standing by quietly or reading over the prepared information on their tablets one more time. Four staff members for each minister.

Vance herself was accompanied by three senior advisors, three senior diplomats and her personal assistant.

At both sides of the delegation, a security detail of six blended into the background, scanning the room with calm, trained glances.

„What a show.“, Amara Vance mumbled to the diplomat on her left.

„Indeed, it is.“, he answered, „But state visits from alien races happen once in four, five years. And the Felindar have only sent an envoy to Erulas once before. The show must match the event, and this is a rare one.“

„Of course.“, Amara sighed. She turned to her right: „Are the translators ready?“

„Both human and AI translators are in the booth and ready.“, the advisor replied.

Amara nodded. Her glance returned to the still empty alien section of the hall. Then she quickly checked on her ministers and their entourage. She nodded approvingly as she looked over each of them. The small earpiece she was, like most of the delegation members, wearing came to life. „Final sound check. Madam president, all ready. Alien psychologists on channel one, additional diplomats and secret service on channel two.“

She confirmed: „Reading you clearly.“

The staff member from before looked up from his tablet: „Ships has landed.“, he informed the waiting officials, then quietly left the room. Some of the officials took a last check through their prepared documents and statements on their tablets.

Outside, a lengthy gangway extended from the building towards the landed Felindar ship. It quickly crossed the roughly sixty meters of safety distance and connected to the marked exit, a sucking sound around its docking collar indicating the moment the connection sealed off. There was now an uninterrupted home-planet atmosphere connection between the ship and the welcome hall.

Three minutes later, the door directly opposite president Vance opened and the Felindar delegation began to enter. Standing slightly lower than humans, Felindar were actually larger, but being four-legged creatures most of their body was horizontal rather than vertical. Feathers covered their bodies where clothes were not hiding them. In fact, compared to humans they wore much less clothing. The officials had decorated wing-tips. The Felindar rarely used their wings for flight anymore and hadn’t for thousands of years. Much like humans lost tails, the aliens’ wings were devolving. They still mattered for courtship.

Similar to their human counterparts, the Felindar had a small security team, followed by officials and their entourage. All in all, fifteen avian aliens entered the room. After it had become clear that this was the full delegation, Vance and each of her ministers dismissed one or two people from their entourage to equalize the size of the human delegation. These people would join the others in the conference room and provide their insights through the earpieces.

„Welcome to Erulas. I am Amara Vance, president of the planet of Erulas.“, she said as she stepped forward. The translation quickly sounded through the speakers in the other side of the hall.

A colorful and decorated Felindar in the center of their delegation likewise stepped forward and spoke. This time, the speakers on the human side of the hall came to life with the translation: „My name is Karzt Koptkek, head diplomat of her majesty Queen Chlocle IV of the Dremvtte Constellation.“

„Only two names.“, her earpiece gave context, „Means a high official. Grammar indicates male gender.“

Amara and Karzt proceeded to introduce their respective seconds. She introduced her three ministers, he his two primary diplomats.

Formalities exchanged, Amara pointed to her left side of the hall, where two matching tables and a number of chairs for each race had been set up. Felindar chairs looked nothing like human furniture. The closest resemblance would be a weight-lifting bench - the Felindar would pluck their bodies down on the cushioned top and rest their legs on its sloped sides. They had eight limbs in total, four legs, two wings and two arms.

The Felindar diplomat agreed, and the tables and chairs moved towards the center on small wheels underneath each one. The leading members of each delegation, four on the human side and three for the Felindar, sat down.

„What gives us the pleasure of your visit?“, Amara asked, somewhat bluntly but knowing that the translators would do a good job adding the required Felindar courtesy.

„Her majesty has found it a good moment to contact you humans from this region of the galaxy (translator note: referring to the Junkstorm) due to the“, Here Karzt had made a short pause for dramatic effect, but it got lost in the translation, „considerable amount of ruffled feathers you have caused nearby civilizations over the years. It appears from rumors we have gathered that things are reaching a boiling point. An appropriate time to offer our services too intervene on your behalf.“

Amara tried to read the bird-like face sitting across from her, but couldn’t. She was relying on her experts to spot emotions and things between the lines. She was right to do so. Seconds later, her earpiece informed her: „He’s confident. Sure we can’t refuse. An appropriate answer would be to ask for a price.“

She pointed to her right: „Minister Gordon is in charge of external affairs and diplomacy.“ She knew that Gordon had received the same information through his earpiece.

Without missing a beat, Gordon picked up the ball: „Our relations with our neighbors are of course of paramount importance to us. We are thankful for your offer, head diplomat Karzt Koptkek. What can we offer her majesty in return?“

The Felindar looked over to Gordon. Amara had referred to him only by his last name. She knew that in Felindar society, that gave him a higher standing than introducing him with his full name. It made him appear as her equal, not subordinate, so the Felindar would not see it as being handed off to a lower official.

But Karzt was equally well trained. With a gesture, he referred the matter to the diplomat on his right, so that the two officials were now speaking diagonally across the table, creating an invisible wall between him and Amara. She understood it as a subtle indicator of disapproval. The experts in her ear agreed. Her respect for the head diplomat grew. He was clearly worthy his position.

„Our offer, as a starting point for negotiations of course, is original recordings of human operas and musicals with a current market value of ten thousand intergalactic credits, and the return of a few items taken from various ships in what your race refers to as ‚acts of piracy‘.“, the other diplomat introduced the Felindar’s offer, „We have a list of these later items that we are interested in.“

Amara kept her neutral expression. She knew that human art, especially music, was popular among the Felindar and a few other races they traded with. Ten thousand intergalactic was a considerable sum, one could buy a medium-sized spaceship or a small company with that amount. But it was hardly a sum to send high-ranking diplomats for.

„If you can transfer that list of items, we will be happy to discuss them.“, Gordon answered diplomatically, without committing to much.

„Of course.“, the Felindar diplomat immediately fired back, pulling out a handheld computer of the Felindar style - more similar to an old-Earth laptop than a modern human tablet computer. „If you would receive a data transfer on the standard trade protocol?“

One of Gordon’s advisors held her tablet up and pressed a button on its display, opening up reception into a secure enclave.

It took only a few seconds to transfer and translate the message. The advisor showed the result to Gordon, who quickly scanned it and turned back to the alien delegation, saying „Nothing I see that could not be discussed, however we will need time to ascertain which of these items we can obtain and what the timelines would be. As you are of course aware, humans are no less politically fractured than Felindar, and we will likely have to reach out to other political entities for at least some of these items.“

The alien diplomats calmly let Gordon say his piece, then wiggled the tips of their wings - the Felindar equivalent of nodding agreement.

With a rapid exchange of glances, minister Krisi let Amara know she would take over and Amara agreed. So Krisi spoke next: „Let us meet again here today evening. Say eleven Royal Felindar hours from now. By then we should have some answers for you. We can provide you with accommodations adapted to your needs, if you wish.“

„Thank you…“, Karzt took back the reigns on the Felindar side, trailing off in the interracial diplomatic way of saying „and you are?“ without actually speaking the words.

„Of course.“, Krisi replied, „Minister Krisi, responsible among other things for Alien Affairs.“

The Felindar head diplomat tilted his head slightly, then closed the topic: „Your offer is most hospitable. We do not want to intrude and will retire to our ship. We will be back in eleven hours.“