Posted by Lieutenant Dr Kahu Grahams (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim: Docking Platform, Vey’lan

Posted by Lieutenant Thalos ch’Ravik (Chief Of Security) in Main Sim: Docking Platform, Vey’lan

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade John Reeves (Senior Security Officer) in Main Sim: Docking Platform, Vey’lan
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[Snip[
The elder regarded Glen for another moment.

=/= And when you encounter a people unlike yourselves… what do you hope to find? =/=

The question lingered within the gentle resonance of Vey’lan.

For all the extraordinary technology surrounding them, the Shiarians’ first true question was remarkably simple.

They wanted to understand the people who had come to them.

Captain Glen replied =/\= In our ship, we are representatives of Starfleet, the exploratory arm of the United Federation of Planets. The Federation was founded about 140-years ago by four species, Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarians, from Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and Tellar Prime. It is an interstellar republic which promotes peaceful coexistence; universal liberty, rights, equality for all sentient beings; together with cooperation in scientific research and development, space exploration and mutual defence. =/\=

=/\= You asked that given the dangers involved, why do we explore and what do we hope to find? We’ve found that exploration is something common and universal to all sentient species we have met. Even those yet to develop the capability to travel beyond their own home star system still have a longing to do so. In the past, planets have had various different reasons that include the opening new trade routes and economic success, political reasons such as acquiring new territories and wealth, or spreading religion and political ideas, but that desire and longing seems to go way beyond that, and is often merely to satisfy some very basic curiosity. Starfleet does not engage in exploration for military advantage or resource exploration, although there is safety in numbers and there are minerals like Dilithium crystals that we cannot synthesise, but rather because seeking out new worlds and civilisations drives scientific advances and allows us to encounter new life and new ideas. There is also that thrill of exploration and of being the first to venture into the unknown. Nothing great has ever been achieved without danger, and we feel that our cause is worth the risk. When we encounter new people we hope to gain mutual benefits from an appreciation of their culture and their scientific knowledge which we append to own own. We might also offer them membership of the Federation, but that comes with later diplomatic negotiation, as while joining such a large organisation has great benefits it also means a loss of sovereignty and autonomy, and more bureaucracy and constraints, so it is certainly not something that is forced upon any cultures that we encounter. =/\=

• Glen, CO

Lieutenant Junior Grade John Reeves had remained quiet throughout Captain Glen’s explanation, his attention moving between the Captain, the elder Shiarian, and the crystalline chamber surrounding them. As Security, his primary responsibility was not to decide whether the Shiarians were friendly or hostile. That assessment belonged to the evidence. His responsibility was to make certain that if the situation changed, the away team would have the time and space necessary to respond.

So far, the evidence remained remarkably encouraging.

Reeves glanced briefly toward Thalos before returning his attention to the elder. The Andorian’s assessment had been sound, and Reeves had found nothing during their time inside the chamber to contradict it. The Shiarians had made no threatening movements, their energy signatures remained stable, and even the extraordinary technology surrounding them had shown no indication that it was being prepared as a weapon. If anything, the opposite appeared to be true. The Shiarians seemed genuinely interested in understanding who had arrived at their doorstep.

That, Reeves thought, might actually be the more important security consideration.

First contact was rarely dangerous simply because someone wanted to start a fight. Sometimes it was dangerous because two civilizations had completely different ideas about what constituted a threat.

He lowered his tricorder slightly and spoke quietly enough that his words remained directed toward the officers nearest him rather than becoming an interruption to the Captain’s conversation.

“Sir, for what it’s worth, I think the Captain gave them the right answer.”

His eyes remained on the elder Shiarian.

“We’re not here because Starfleet thinks every unexplored corner of the galaxy belongs to us. We’re here because we don’t know what’s out here.”

There was a faint hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

“And apparently, neither do they.”

Reeves fell silent again, allowing the elder to consider Glen’s words. There was something almost refreshing about the simplicity of the Shiarians’ question. They had not asked about weapons, military strength, technology, territory, or resources. They had asked why the Federation ventured into the unknown.

For a security officer, the answer was surprisingly easy to understand.

“Curiosity can be dangerous,” Reeves added after a moment, his voice still measured. “But so can ignorance.”

His gaze briefly swept the chamber once more. The crystalline walls continued their gentle harmonic resonance, giving him the distinct impression that the entire room was somehow listening.

“And if we’ve learned anything in Starfleet Security, it’s that neither one is a particularly good reason to stop asking questions.”

Captain Glen thought about Reeves words and found it to be a truism. The Shiarians had deliberately isolated themselves from everything and everyone, and now that they were cocooned here in their Expanse home, they were out of touch with the rest of the universe. “No man is an island!” Glen replied to Reeves. Glen felt more comfortable with the Shiarians now, and his concerns about someone saying the wrong thing had eased. He couldn’t think of a good question to ask them in reply, but was sure that Lieutenant Reeves had a good question formed out of his observations. He indicated that he could ask it now.

Reeves returned his attention to the elder Shiarian and straightened slightly.

“We came here peacefully. We’d like to leave peacefully. But more importantly, we’d like to understand why you waited so long for someone to arrive.”

That last statement was deliberately simple.

Reeves did not reach for his phaser. He did not move closer. He simply waited, alert and professional, allowing the Shiarians to decide whether they were ready to answer the question.

Because whatever had kept Vey’lan waiting for visitors for so long, Reeves suspected that the answer might tell them considerably more about the Shiarians than any sensor reading ever could.

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) John Reeves
Security Division
USS Merrimack (NCC-2346)
Starfleet Command

• Glen, CO

That question drew Grahams attention away from the scans he was reading. It was a question he had been wondering too, and if the answer that might also give him some more insight into his bizarre encounter in Sickbay. Could that be why they had been waiting? Or something else. Did they need help?

Lt. Kahu Grahams, Chief Medical Officer

The Shiarian elder listened without interruption as Captain Glen explained the Federation and the purpose behind Starfleet’s exploration. The crystalline light surrounding him shifted subtly with the harmonics of Vey’lan before his translated voice emerged through the away team’s communicators.

=^= Your Federation is composed of many peoples who have chosen cooperation without surrendering what makes each distinct. This concept is not entirely unfamiliar to us, though your manner of achieving it is different. =^=

His attention moved briefly across the assembled officers. =^= We understand your curiosity. It was once ours as well. We explored beyond Vey’lan because we wished to know what existed beyond what we could perceive. What we discovered taught us that knowledge may bring understanding, but contact does not always bring peace. =^=

The elder then turned toward Reeves. =^= You ask why we waited so long for someone to arrive. =^=

The harmonics deepened, spreading through the crystalline chamber. =^= We did not begin by waiting. Long ago, we traveled beyond this region and encountered others. Some wished to understand us. Others desired what we possessed. Still others feared what they could not understand. Conflict followed. Eventually, we chose isolation rather than continue those encounters. =^=

The elder paused. =^= But isolation brought another danger—the ignorance of which you speak. The universe continued beyond us while we ceased to know it. In time, we began to wonder whether another people might eventually reach Vey’lan who would respond differently. =^=

His gaze shifted toward Doctor Grahams. =^= You wonder whether we require help. We are not dying, Doctor. Nor did we bring your vessel here to rescue us. But there are things beyond Vey’lan that we no longer understand as once we did. Perhaps there are things your people know that we do not. =^=

Dr Grahams said nothing but inclined his head in a show of acknowledgement, uncomfortable that his thoughts had been read so easily. He wondered how it knew his name, before he remembered that he had introduced himself.

Lieutenant M’Mera’s ears swiveled forward as she studied the engineering readings scrolling across her tricorder. Her tail moved slowly behind her before she looked toward the elder. “Then I have a question of my own. Yourr city, yourr powerr, yourr communications—they arre all connected through this crrystalline network. Did yourr people build Vey’lan this way, orr did you discoverr something already herre and learrn how to live with it?”

The elder regarded her for several moments. =^= Both. =^=

A faint pulse of red illumination traveled through the nearby crystalline wall, followed seconds later by another from somewhere deep beneath them.
=^= What you call Vey’lan existed before our ancestors understood it. The crystalline foundation beneath this city is ancient. Our ancestors discovered that it responded to resonance, illumination, and eventually to them. They learned its harmonies, shaped them, and over generations added their own voices to what was already here. =^=

The elder extended one hand toward the surrounding chamber. =^= You ask whether Vey’lan is technology. That is how your instruments attempt to understand it. But there are questions even we do not answer so simply. Vey’lan responds. It adapts. It remembers patterns that were never placed within it by Shiarian hands. =^=

Almost as if accompanying his words, a slow harmonic vibration passed upward through the floor beneath the away team. =^= Our ancestors eventually stopped asking whether Vey’lan was something they had built or something with which they had learned to live. The distinction ceased to matter. =^=

M’Mera’s tricorder registered the pulse spreading far below the visible city. It did not originate from any identifiable generator or central processor. Instead, thousands of crystalline formations responded sequentially, almost like an impulse passing through an enormous interconnected system.

The elder looked back toward her. =^= You build machines and command them to perform tasks. We learned to listen first. Vey’lan taught us what it could become. We taught it what we required. What surrounds you is the result of that conversation. =^=

The harmonics softened again. =^= That is why we wished to speak with you. You came into something you did not understand, believed it might be dangerous, and yet chose to listen before you struck. =^=

The elder looked across the away team. =^= So now, perhaps, we may learn from one another. =^=

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

Reeves listened without interruption as the elder spoke, his expression remaining controlled while the translated harmonics moved across his tricorder. The explanation changed the context of their entire encounter. The Shiarians had not simply withdrawn from the wider galaxy because they were hostile or uninterested. They had withdrawn because their previous attempts to engage with other civilizations had ended in conflict, exploitation, and fear.

He slowly lowered his tricorder.

“Then I think I understand why you chose isolation,” Reeves said. “From a security perspective, when every encounter you have with an outside power ends with someone trying to take something from you, hurt you, or destroy what they don’t understand, eventually you stop opening the door.”

His eyes moved briefly across the crystalline chamber before returning to the elder.

“But isolation creates its own risks. You can protect yourself from everyone else, but you also lose the opportunity to learn whether everyone else has changed.”

Reeves paused, considering the elder’s words.

“That is something we understand better than you might expect. The Federation has encountered civilizations that wanted our technology, our territory, or simply wanted us gone because we were different. We’ve also encountered civilizations that became friends, allies, and trading partners because somebody was willing to take the first step and listen.”

He glanced toward Captain Glen and the other members of the away team before continuing.

“So perhaps that is what brought us here. Not because we’re better than those who came before us, and certainly not because we’re incapable of making mistakes. We’re simply another people who chose to keep looking beyond what we already know.”

Reeves’ gaze settled on the elder Shiarian once more.

“You said you began wondering whether someone might eventually reach Vey’lan who would respond differently.”

A faint, thoughtful smile crossed his face.

“So what was it that made you believe we might be those people?”

He allowed the question to hang in the chamber, making no further demands of the Shiarians.

For once, Security had no need to push forward.

The safest course was simply to listen.

Lieutenant Junior Grade John Reeves
Security Division
USS Merrimack (NCC-2346)
Starfleet Command

Thalos had remained silent throughout the elder’s explanation, his attention moving between the Shiarian and the tricorder in his hand.

The revelations had given him considerably more to think about than any tactical scan could have.

The Shiarians had not withdrawn because they feared the galaxy.

They had withdrawn because they had learned what could happen when others saw something they wanted more than they wanted to understand the people who possessed it.

His antennae shifted slightly as he considered that.

The elder’s description of Vey’lan itself was equally intriguing. The city was not simply a piece of technology that the Shiarians had constructed and operated. They had adapted to it, learned from it, and apparently developed alongside it.

That raised an entirely different set of security considerations.

Thalos lowered his tricorder slightly.

“Captain, if I may.”

He waited a moment before continuing.

“What they’ve told us changes how I would assess the environment around us.”

His silver eyes briefly travelled across the crystalline chamber.

“We’ve spent much of this mission trying to determine what Vey’lan might do to us.”

His gaze returned to the elder.

“Perhaps the more appropriate question is what Vey’lan is capable of doing with us.”

He allowed the thought to settle before continuing.

“We know the city can detect our presence. We know it responds to movement, sound and harmonic patterns. And now we know that the Shiarians themselves don’t entirely understand everything it is capable of.”

His expression remained calm.

“That doesn’t make it hostile.”

A slight pause.

“But it does mean that our usual understanding of a security perimeter may not apply here.”

He glanced briefly toward the surrounding crystalline walls.

“There may be no meaningful distinction between the environment and the people living within it.”

Thalos looked back toward the elder.

“Which makes something you said particularly important.”

His voice softened slightly.

“You learned to listen to Vey’lan before attempting to command it.”

A faint, respectful nod followed.

“I believe we’ve been learning much the same lesson since we arrived.”

He fell silent after that, allowing the conversation to return to the elder.

For the first time since entering the city, Thalos wasn’t simply watching for what might go wrong.

He was watching for what they might learn.

Lieutenant Thalos ch’Ravik
Chief Of Security
USS Merrimack

Kahu’s eyes tracked the red illumination as first it, and then its brother tracked across the wall. He stayed silent, letting the other officers do the talking, while he reflected further on everything he was seeing and hearing.

Which came first? Kahu wondered. The Chicken or the Egg? Shiarian’s or Vey’lan? The Elder had claimed that it had existed before their ancestors understood it, that they had stopped asking if they had built it or not. Vey’lan was responsive, the Elder said that they had taught each other. In the way they had spoken, in the way the Caretaker had spoken about the Sleeping One, he wondered if it was possible that Vey’lan was sentient. Although the only identifiable sign of life in it seemed to be the way it responded freely to stimuli. It still lacked the other three primary components; he saw no sign of it having a metabolism or a need to consume.

He looked down at his tricorder screen reading the things it was picking up, the longer they were here the more questions seemed to settle in him like a stone in the gut.

Dr Kahu Grahams, Chief Medical Officer

As she listened to the conversation, Elyss realized that she was right after all. Vey’lan was alive in some way and it had been there before the Shiarians. They had learned to communicate with it, and now it seemed like a symbiotic relationship. But would that continue? Were the Shiarians actually in control of Vey’lan, or did they just think they were? Was Vey’lan allowing them to think that so they would be secure in their thinking? Were the crew of the Merrimack in for another surprise?

Lieutenant Elyss Zavey
Chief Science Officer USS Merrimack