<snip>

As they stood talking, music could be heard coming from the hatch. It was melodic, beautiful, and wholly unfamiliar.

Except to Forgrave.

The Security Chief could hear a female voice speaking plainly; but with a light, airy quality to her voice. “Can you hear me? Do you understand me? Please… don’t shoot again. We mean you no harm. We just… needed you to hear us.”

GMT

Issac’s brain took a second to catch up with his ears, but when it finally did, his head snapped over to the hatch, his eyes going wide as he realized what exactly he was hearing.

Holloway’s conversation with Gadi was cut short, as the music coming from the hatch reached her ears. She noticed Forgrave’s shift in attention as well.

=/\= Renveer to Holloway. There’s been no response to my attempts to continue communication from the bridge. In fact, the aliens seem to have abandoned theirs, we no longer have visual contact with any of their crew. =/\=

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Molly sighed. Great. Just what they needed. Their sole point of contact was gone, or conveniently unreachable.

Slowly, Issac moved off the wall of the makeshift corridor; waiving a hand to preempt any questions - hoping the others got the cue to be quiet for a moment. “Hello? I, uh…” Issac made his way to the hatch, racking his brains for the right thing to say. Void, I’d expected ta try an’ keep everyone safe, not be responsible for talkin!

“I can hear you - can you hear me? That… beam - that was to make me understand y’all?” The question was more or less rhetorical, but Forgrave was flying by the seat of his pants. Hopefully, their version of a universal translator was having more luck than theirs did.

-Forgrave, CoS

Holloway’s hand hovered over her commbage, intending on thanking Renveer back on the Bridge, but it fell back down, her intentions forgotten, as Forgrave made his way to the hatch.

Inside the hatch the ship seemed… odd. Few straight corners could be seen, everything seemed rounded and for some reason… slightly more open, at least by his experience with star ships. A lone figure could be seen peering around a slight bend in the passageway. Obviously female, the figure said “I cannot understand you. But if you can understand me, uh… wave your hands like this.” and she put her hands on either side of her head and wiggled her fingers.

GMT

Issac was fascinated by both the differences and similarities in the alien ship design; but he quickly shook off his awe and tried to focus on the source of the voice that he had heard. Upon seeing the figure; he paused, not sure what to do or say - thankfully, she(?) quickly resolved the issue.

It was impossible for him to hide his look of confusion at the request; but he quickly complied, mimicking the odd gesture. If he didn’t know better, he’d have believed that he was being made fun of. But then, it was a distinctive gesture, so perhaps it made sense. But he hadn’t expected the one-way communication; they could probably work out a yes/no system - far better than nothing, to be sure, but short of ideal. No plan survives contact.... Issac left the rest un-thought - his hope was for allies; not enemies.

-Forgrave, CoS

The alien smiled and stepped fully into view. She was tall, pushing seven feet at least, with a distinctly avian appearance. Her face was almost human like, but her head was gray and had something like single tiered horns or antlers rising at an angle towards the back of her head from above the small holes where her ears would have been had she been human to almost a half-foot past the back of her head. Her skin was a light pink where the flesh melded into the bone-like substance of her horns, but that pink was a border between horn and pale gray flesh that covered the rest of her face. Her eyes were clear and shiny, and when she blinked the lids came from the sides. He body was humanoid, but where hair would have been were small feathers of a dark blue and gray pattern.

As the intention of the shot fired at Forgrave revealed itself, Janvier’s grip on him relaxed so that the Security Chief was able to walk forward undeterred. Like everyone else all she could hear was a melodic music, but Forgrave was responding to it, and while she could hardly believe it herself, the music was responding back. When Forgrave was first struck by the fire, his brain and inner ear had been affected before his signs went back to normal now she scanned him again to see if the readings had changed once again at the prompt of the source of the music.

Dr Janvier, CMO

As Forgrave reacted to the music, it was as if he was simply hearing well within the normal range of conversation.

Stopping herself from pulling the Security Chief back to the safety of the Dresden, Holloway watched the scene with suspicion as he seemed to speak with someone on the other side. Could he understand them? Had that been the function of the beam?

Molly held her breath without even realizing she was doing so, following Forgrave’s steps up, but stopping just inside the Dresden’s hatch. Her palm tightened around the phaser she had been given, ready to pull him out at a moment’s notice.

Holloway, CO

Bethany watched feeling somewhat pointless, she moved to the edge of the door way still wishing she had a phaser. She resisted the urge, like Holloway but not knowing it, to pull Issac back. Instead she paced him by several paces keeping him and the area for several feet in front of him in her vision.
Lt Gadi, CNS

“I am sorry for hurting you.” the woman said to Forgrave. “The beam realigns auditory receptors to be able to make sense of our language. You really aren’t… hearing… me. But your brain is interpreting my voice for you. My name is Shalir. My people are the Lidrian.” That would make sense, as her lips moved much less than the words should have caused.

“Please, let your friends know. We are not a threat. We came here for help. And then… well… all this happened.”

GMT

Issac nodded, and replied “Yes; we’re trying to help as well…” before remembering that it was one-way communication. Don’t even know if a nod means the same ta them; the Lidrian? That’s what they’d called themselves, right? Issac tried to mimic the actions of the strange alien, hoping he could convey agreement.

Turning halfway back to his companions, he relayed the gist of the conversation. “Seems I can understand ‘em after that beam; though it’s just one-way - I don’t think they can understand us as of yet. But it sounds like they stumbled into this, and I reckon they’re trying ta figure out what’s happening, same as us.” Something that Shalir said rattled in his head, and he looked back at the alien, curiosity in his voice. “Said they came here looking for help… Wonder if that’s related to the state of things?”

-Forgrave, CoS

OOC: Giving everyone a chance to respond before moving along

GMT