"Space Traffic Control, this is the New Hope," Captain Geh!aoa transmitted. She waited half a zeg, but there was no response. She turned to the Scanner. "Mallik, this is the normal procedure, yes?"
"Yes. Give them a zeg, they can't have a lot of practice," the Goldaskian advised.
Geh!aoa wanted to flick her ears, but had figured out that a Captain showing nervousness was bad for a crew. She checked silently that they were using the correct frequency for talking to Earth's space station. She tried again. "Earth Space Traffic Control, this is the New Hope. Respond, please."
She glanced around the bridge, making sure that there were no humans present. "Petra, please contact Earth Space Traffic Control."
"Earth Space Traffic Control does not exist. Mission Control in Houston in the United States is responding."
"Captain Geh-aoa, this is Mission Control in Houston. How can we help?" She saw a large human with no hair on its head and spectacles in front of its eyes. The angle was poor; the human was mostly facing away from the cara. Actually, she realized, he appeared unaware that he was being viewed. Maybe he wasn't expecting to use radio-seeing, and Petra is being helpful.
Well, we're all improvising here. A small flash on her HUD also reminded her that the translation was rough because Petra did not know all of the Ooafan language yet. They probably said it with more formality.
"Mission Control, I want to move the New Hope to stay still over your largest ocean. This is practice for the...to stop the ground moving," she finished awkwardly, making sure to use only words Petra knew. "Please give us a path to fly and have traffic stay away."
There was a pause. Maybe the translation was worse than I thought. The human looked around at a couple of others, as if hoping for suggestions. Nice to know humans can get nervous too, I suppose. He leaned forward towards a microphone and pressed a button.
"New Hope, this is Mission Control in Houston. Where exactly do you wish to go?"
< Petra, please translate the destination into human units and send. >
Petra recited three numbers, which made sense, and called them latitude, longitude, and altitude. Geh!aoa idly wondered whether tude in their language ant direction, size, or sothing else.
"New Hope, this is Houston. We apologize, but we do not have any way to change the orbits of our satellites quickly. We will attempt to compute a path for you to avoid them all." Out of the corner of her eye, Geh!aoa noticed Mallik clutching his horns.
< Petra, pause communication. >
"Communication is paused," Petra announced.
Mallik gave a sort of groaning snort. "I apologize, Captain, I should have realized. These humans have just enough technology to make a ss and not enough to clean it up. Tell them that we can go around their satellites ourselves, and if you want to move now."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
< Petra, resu communication. >
"Houston, we do not have a problem..." Geh!aoa paused, wondering why the humans on radio-seeing thought that was funny. "We will make a path and go now." Now the humans suddenly appeared to be panicking, if she was reading them right.
"New Hope, this is Houston. Please do not destroy our satellites! If you wait we will find a path for you!"
Geh!aoa was surprised. "Houston, this is the New Hope. We do not want to destroy your satellites. We will go around them. Do you understand? I think the translation is not good."
The humans all seed to sag in relief. Several of them were talking excitedly to each other. One was clutching its chest but was smiling, so hopefully that was all right. "New Hope, this is Houston. Thank you very much. Please tell us when you want to move again. Houston is out."
Houston is out? What does that an?
"Transmission has ended," Petra reported.
Geh!aoa flicked her ears a few tis. "Helm, take us to the location of the test. Try not to hit their satellites." After a few monts, she reluctantly added, "Mallik, in the future, please handle communications with Earth about our movents. My language is causing problems."
"I will, Captain. If you allow to say, you fixed well."
"Thank you, Scanner."
* *
Maneuvers did not go well.
Petra was unable to translate half of what Pilot Yulliksu was saying, but he seed mostly to be talking to himself, so she didn't try to decipher what "the expletive ship is moving like expletive animal" ant exactly. She got the general idea that he was having a hard ti, but that it was not an ergency yet. So, as Captain she tried to focus on larger things.
"All Stations, signal when ready for Maneuver Three." A row of orange lights on her HUD were all supposed to light up imdiately, but it was two zegs before the last one lit.
"Begin Maneuver Three."
Two of the orange lights went out again just as she was giving the order, and a loud squeal seed to fill the ship; Geh!aoa slapped her ears over her face and focused on a view of the bridge on her HUD. Yulliksu started saying sothing over and over that didn't translate, and a certain amount of yelling seed to be going on on multiple comms.
Should I tell them to abort? I'm supposed to wait for the Engineer to request it, but this seems bad...Should I consult Nik!eh? He had offered, but warned her that he was inexperienced as well. Yes, but at least you know the relevant concepts, she'd responded at the ti.
Geh!aoa disciplined herself to wait. A few monts later, the awful squeal stopped. She waited a bit longer, then tentatively unfolded her ears. When the Goldaskians and Ooafans stopped yelling at each other, she ordered calmly, "Pilot Yulliku, report."
The Goldaskian took a deep breath. "I did stop us. We did not hit ocean. There is ship damage, but we can still move. We are not near our target place," the translation stated.
"Recomndation?"
"Abort the test."
Geh!aoa nodded, and told Petra she wanted to talk to the entire ship. "All hands, this is the Captain. We are aborting the remainder of the test for now. We will return to our earlier place."
A few monts later, she placed a more specific comm. "Engineering, this is the Bridge. Damage report."
"We lost half a percent of our ability to change the ship."
Geh!aoa thought she understood. She had seen many tis how the ship could remodel itself, much like a lump of clay. We just lost a few bits of clay—or else it hardened. I hope bits of the ship did not fall off and hit the Earth.
"Are we still fully functional otherwise?"
"...Yes, Captain."
"Very well." Geh!aoa cut the connection. She looked over at the pilot and sighed.
"Do your best, Pilot Yulliksu. Move us back to where we were before. Move how you need to move."
Geh!aoa had Petra add a step to the maneuvering procedure they were developing. Once all stations report ready, wait a quarter zeg to make sure they do not beco unready again.
The humans had a saying that she liked. "Live and learn." It had co up often, on the long journey here.
We are learning, but not fast enough. When Captain Telnik returns, I will tell him that we cannot assist with the earthquake project. We will stand by, but I fear the situation would have to be dire indeed before calling on us beca a good idea.
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