Posted by Lieutenant Commander Renveer (Executive Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival

Posted by Gamemaster Alias Smith N. Jones, Esq. (GMT) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival

Posted by Captain Molly Holloway (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

As the Ensign’s voice began to carry her words as she sang, the attention of the figure on the screen immediately snapped to look at her and it’s pupils dilated slightly. Shandar could feel a strong shift and surge in emotion from the being. Frustration and anger were immediately replaced with a sense of relief and hope. It’s mouth opened and music began to fill the bridge again… but this time it was in completely perfect harmony with Winter’s.

GMT

Forgrave shifted at the change in posture and attention of the alien; noting the rapid change in focus. And that posture… relaxation, maybe?
NE Shandar couldn’t help but smile; she recognized that she did not have enough practice in shielding herself from thoughts and emotions - Too much time in the labs…. But that thought was put aside. “Hope! I’m getting relief and hope! I think that’s helping, Dr. Winter!”

-Forgrave/NE Shandar

Molly had crossed her arms in frustration. With the alien completely unresponsive to their own body language, she assumed the being might not understand it. She wondered if a torpedo to their ship might get the message across, but as soon as the thought came into her mind, she shook it, and for a second, she wondered if Cal had been rubbing off on her.

Her mind had kept at work, trying to figure out how to take one word out of the being that could potentially help the universal translator. One word was all they needed, according to Drillek. Holloway’s thought had been that the alien on the screen should have a name for people like the ones he was looking at on the Dresden’s bridge, and therefore, pointing to herself and indicating that she was ‘human’ might have given them that link. It hadn’t.

And then, the Ensign Renveer had been working with had started to sing, and it changed… everything. As the alien’s response came through perfectly in tune with the young doctor’s song, and Shandar had indicated the emotions coming from the being had changed to more positive ones, Molly glanced at Winter. Renveer had told her a lot of good things about the young woman, but Holloway had never met her in person. As she turned to face the Ensign, though, there was a smile on her face and gratitude in her eyes.

“Doctor Winter.” Molly said lightly, her eyes back on the screen. “Keep singing! You’re doing great!” Was that… excitement… in her voice? Turning to Drillek, she motioned to the console in front of the Engineer, silently asking whether the universal translator was picking up anything.

Finally, turning to Renveer, she voiced her own thoughts. “So… any ideas on how we can convey our questions in song form?” Molly didn’t want to sing. Not that she was a particularly bad singer, but she wasn’t great either. Average, was the best way to describe Holloway’s singing ability. But before she could delegate that duty to someone else (probably to the newly arrived Doctor…) she wondered if they would be able to convey their own analytical ideas about the station as an emotion on a tune. Or maybe they didn’t need to… maybe all they needed was to gain the being’s trust in order to help them and find out why they were at Julian Echo Station and what had happened to the people on it.

Holloway, CO

Renveer’s eyebrows raised in pleasant surprise as Ensign Winter’s song earned a response. Like Holloway, Renveer was not excited about the prospect of singing… he had never honed the skill past what one might attain from singing in the shower. So for the moment, he was more than happy to let Ensign Winter take the reigns and was happy to hear that the captain agreed. “Bravo, Ensign Winter!”

Having discovered the appropriate medium for conversation, however, did not mean that they could actually convey anything meaningful at the moment… as the captain pointed out. Renveer rubbed his chin in thought. “It sounds like they understand that we come in peace now, which is good. That’s the first step. As far as any questions… that still might be very difficult without understandable lyrics. But…” he paused for a moment. As a counselor, Renveer had taken interest in alien cultures, including music. And in his time observing many different types of song from across the galaxy, he had come to understand that almost all music was based on some mathematical principle: a tempo, a rhythm, a scale. And math was often claimed to be the ‘universal language’.

“Maybe we can communicate concretely, rather than abstractly,” Renveer thought aloud. “If we send over a human bioscan accompanied by a series of notes, we might be able to effectively ‘name’ ourselves in musical form. Translating the entirety of basic into music might be difficult… but if we can create simple musical labels for important things, that might be a place to start.” He added for clarification: “So we could send over a scan of a human lifesign, the spoken word ‘human,’ and a three-note chord combination. Maybe that would give them a better idea of what we’re trying to say.”

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Molly’s smile returned to her lips. “Yes! That could work!” It reminded Holloway of the record sent over with Voyager 1 and 2 in one of the first attempts made by mankind to describe the human race to possible alien life. “Work with Winter and see if can find anything that we can use!”

After a few moments, the singing ebbed to silence. Drillek spoke up from the console he was working at. “Good news is we have something akin to a starting point… but its not concrete. UT is saying that there are too many variances in tone and pitch and it can’t tell if those are linguistic traits or simple emotional additions. We have to get a single word for a single concrete idea. Chair, table, floor, ceiling… something.”

GMT

Molly nodded in acknowledgment. She wasn’t quite sure how they were going to extract anything concrete and meaningful from the alien’s song, especially without knowing what the tune actually meant. But she would keep it in mind.

Priscilla had been watching in shock and awe at the communication between the alien and those trying to understand it. The music, when in harmony, sent a sense of peace thru her. She held her hand to her chest a moment, without realizing it, then turned and went back to paying attention to the console. She kept trying to put phrases and words and sound combinations together hoping the computer would figure out what it was listening to in response to what was being ‘said’ on their own end.

She glanced at Drillek now and then. She also kept an eye on the ship and the station. She wondered if the communication would affect the phasing the two seemed to be experiencing. If the aliens had done it by accident, perhaps miscommunication, then this ‘calming’ affect could potentially help stabilize it. It was a long shot, she knew. But she also knew she didn’t want to miss one sign of anything changing between the ship or station.

Priscilla
CSO

Kerilah had run through the song in its entirety, as she controlled her absolute joy at not having screwed everything up completely in her hail-mary attempt at diplomacy. She had seen a little smirk from the Captain, as well as a knowing exchange between her and the XO. [Did he tell her about me?…He talks about me?! Of course, he talks about you, he’s the XO. You’re part of the crew. And he reports to the Captain. Don’t be a dolt!] Her focus suddenly returned to the alien singing with her. Its harmonies were incredible! Pitch perfect and a tonal quality that was…ethereal. She smiled at the figure on the viewscreen as they finished their ‘duet’ to an apparently, quite relieved Bridge Crew. She exhaled, deeply in relief.

As she stepped back again, beside Cmdr. Renveer, she stood at rest. Her mind was spinning with possibilities over this strange and wonderful, form of communication - or at least the potential possibilities. She considered what Drillik had said, about a starting point and felt proud to have contributed to that, but she was cautiously optimistic too. After all, he was right; it was going to be a massive undertaking to construct a cipher for this species’, musical form of expression. Still, if they could manage…

[Don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s not your project, anyway. The point is that it’s a better position than we were in when you walked onto the Bridge, isn’t it? Okay, then], she thought to herself. But she was also thinking about a number of other songs and lyrics that might convey sentiment, if not actual context. She would offer them to whoever would be working on the linguistics, and/or anyone assigned to interact with the aliens. She felt more than a few eyes on her and simply looked up at Renveer. “How else can I be of service, Sir?“

 (Dr. Winter, Ens.)

As the song ended on Winter’s part, it kept going on the other end. The being looked out of the view screen and it’s music became… insistent… forceful… emphatic. For the first time, gestures started. Wild ones, its arms flailing and its fingers pointing in almost every direction. And for the first time… more figures appeared behind the singer. Soon, their voices were added to the first’s and the music began to become uncomfortable in volume.

GMT

As the cacophony rose in volume; NE Shandar tried to focus. She was a woman of science; and she was attempting to apply those principles now. So, their thought resembles music… There must be a basis to its structure , right? So, what bits are repeated? Oh! There’s more of them - OK, so are they all in sync? What is being repeated, are they addressing each other; what are their emotions saying… When they see us, what music do I hear; regardless of what my ears say…

-NE Shandar

Renveer’s eyes widened as the chorus rose in volume. It was an alarming display, due to the stark difference in their body language. Obviously Ensign Winter had made an impression… His mind raced trying to think of other measures they could take to respond in a cooperative way.

The executive officer was staring at the ground a few feet in front of him, brow furrowed in thought. “Ensign Winter,” he directed the assistant counselor without looking at her, “see if you can isolate the most common or persistent musical note in their song. They harmonized with you, maybe now it’s our turn to harmonize back. If you can isolate the complimentary tone, even if it’s something as simple as a B flat, we can harmonize back and see if that has any effect on their behavior.”

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Kerilah was watching the flurry of activity on the screen and realized it was only distracting her. She suddenly closed her eyes and listened, as she used to in her music lessons. She had never really learned to read music, but she had an incredible ear for it. She could hear the crashing of multiple instruments, colliding and falling away in a lovely kind of vocal, asymmetry. It was captivating, but again, she needed to stay focused. Both the Commander and the Captain were counting on her. Afterall, she had stirred the pot, which automatically put her on kitchen duty.

Then she heard a commonality between the aliens as they continued their concert of dialogue. It was slightly ‘off’, but consistent enough to be a pattern. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but it was definitely there. The first alien was definitely providing the founding melody, and although they were not repeating the same ‘phrasing’, she would almost describe the tone of what they were doing, as a musical round, like row-row-row your boat; which actually made sense for a conversation. So, she stepped forward once more and simply sang a few repeating notes that harmonized with that main melody.

As she kept singing, like a repeating beacon, she kept her demeanor and body language calm and open. A look of wide-eyed wonder on her face as she continued until either the aliens responded, or the Captain or XO told her to stop.

   (Dr. Winter, Ens)

Holloway looked transfixed at the screen as more beings appeared on screen. With a quick order, she motioned to the comms officer to lower the volume of the call to a more comfortable volume.

Molly knew, Renveer and Winter were working on the song, so Holloway’s eyes took in the gestures, trying to make any sense of them. It was unclear to her at that point whether they were making some sort of dance, or whether they were accompanying body language that was simply very different than the one humanoid species used.

Turning to Simms, Holloway asked. “Lieutenant, is it possible to analyze the aliens gestures and see if the computer is able to match it to anything known in the Federation database? Anything that could possibly indicate what their usage is?”

Holloway, CO

It was at that very moment that Drillek almost shouted in excitement “I’ve got something!” and the music from the other ship went silent as the computer began to compensate.

=/\=… know… can’t… lost… help… dock… help us… tried… broken… trapped. =/\= was all that came through.

GMT

Renveer’s shoulders dropped in relief. It seemed more clear than ever that the aliens had not caused the phenomenon that was effecting Julian Echo station. At least not intentionally. “Dr. Drillek, does this mean they’ll be able to understand what we say now? Even partially?” Working from what the translator had already deciphered, it stood to reason that a response such as ‘us try help’ might concretely communicate their intentions, but Renveer was not certain if the translator was capable of replicating the complex musical tones needed to produce the alien language, rather than just understand it.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Drillek looked back at the XO. “Much like us, theyshould be able to grasp about ten to fifteen percent of what we say. Their language is so complex, though, I don’t know how well Federation Standard is going to translate back. They may get the ten percent, they may get nothing. Unfortunately, until we can get them to supply us with definitive linguistics, their music has too many potentialities to get much farther than that. And I am sure you are aware, but I want to make clear: only understanding ten to fifteen percent of a sentence leaves a great deal of room for miscommunication.”

GMT