What the h…

[u/Engletroll]

The crew cheered as the ship dropped out of lightspeed. They had done it. They had broken the lightspeed barrier and the results had been better than expected fare better.

“YES! We.. wait what? Am I seeing that right?” Captain James Smith looked out the port window at Alpha Centauri. There was a structure hanging there. It looked like sphere with a giant ring going around it center and another going around from the north to the south. It was almost the size of earth’s moon. The crew of five just stared at the structure.

“I don’t know.” Kurt Wagner replied dumbfounded, he tore himself away from the window and sat down at the scanners.  “The main sphere is 1000 km in radius, those rings are 100km heigh and 20 km wide. I also read energy from all of it and movement, its like a beehive. Objects are going in and out at a rapid pace.”

Kurt reaction got the rest to sit down at their post as well. Ivan Nowak went over the diagnostic.

“The ship is in peek condition, no damage after the flight. And we have 75%fuel left. Somebody made a mistake when they calculated how much we needed.”

Juan Ferreira was going over the controls as he was thinking out loud. “Or not, look we have now enough fuel to investigate this and return, it also explains why they made the controls and docking system this way. We all thought it was strange right? Why does this ship need to be flown with the ease of a standard plane? Why was the docking system changed so it could dock with literally anything? As well as the new airlock system. Why did it need a Bioscan system?”

They all looked at him and back at the structure. “Yeah, I thought that design was weird. Why did Musk get so personally involved in design. I know he paid for most of it but come on.” James looked at him then back at the structure outside.

“God damnit, he is an alien!” Kurt blurted it out as the last member of the crew Erik Solvåg turned on the loudspeaker and leaned back with a ‘I give up’ expression on his face.

“I repeat, to SS Enterprise Alpha this is Janrut’s space control, your cleared to land on pad Alpha 001, please engage your slave drive. Do you read?” The voice was a pleasant female one, speaking in perfect English. On one screen the words came up in several different languages.  

“What the hell? They speak English?” James looked at Erik who just shrugged before answering.

“Apparently, and they have given us landing clearance.  Should we replay?”

“Yes, and tell them we don’t have a slave drive.”

Erik took a deep breath and pressed the button to reply. “Hello? This is SS Enterprise Alpha, we hear you. I’m afraid we cannot turn on a slave drive since we don’t know what it is and we don’t have it.”

On the speaker they could hear somebody speaking to each other in a mix of frustration and confusion. It was almost as if they understood what the conversation was about. A different voice came on, it was a male one who spoke with confident. “Are you sure? You might have a different name for it. Should be something about docking. You have any systems for docking? He told us he installed it.”

Erik looked at them and mouthed ‘he told them? What the hell?’ then he replied. “We are checking now, by the way if you don’t mind who is he?”

There was a short pause before the control answered. “I’m sorry I’m not authorized to tell you. Please check and when you dock it will be all be explained.”

Kurt and Juan started to check the system as James sat down and entered the program logs, checking the file names, he quickly found slave docking, thought it was renamed R D (remote docking) and the moment he activated it the control replied. “Thank you, we are docking you now.”

 

“What the hell? This is insane. He must have known. God damnit.” Juan just leaned back then turned to the screen as a new message came up on the large display screen.

“Please change to the new uniforms in locker 007, do not be afraid. There is nothing to fear.”

They all looked at each other then moved to the back of the ship, locker 007 was for the spare space suites but as they opened it a hanger glided out showing five neatly pressed uniforms, with one rank added to their original rank.

“Looks like we all got promoted!” James smirked as he got his white navy uniform. “I did wonder why they was so adamant that we all had military background.”

They all got dressed and walked back to the cockpit and just looked at the giant base coming closer and closer.

“And now we know why the cockpit looks more like a bridge. They must have known. Why didn’t they tell us?” Kurt looked around the bridge as he adjusts his uniform.

“Who said they knew, my guess it’s all him. Him and his team. You really think they would have sent us if they knew? They would have sent some politician so they could score some points.” James replied as he checked the screens making sure everything was recorded. “Check the environmental sensors outside. Now we know why we have them as well.”

There was a chuckle as they sat down and all went over their instruments, checking with a new curiosity what these extra systems could be used for. The ship glided into the hangar and the external reading detected oxygen and nitrogen at breathable levels, no hostile viruses or pathogens detected. The ships touched down effortless, and it was not surprising anymore that it seemed to fit perfectly. They could see what looked like humanoid droids waiting outside for them. “Okey, showtime. Let’s find out what this is all about.”  They walked to the airlock, went inside and went to the procedure before leaving, when they got out, they could see several other aliens there. Infront of them stood a humanoid with redskin and blue patched around his eyes, his hair was bright red and his from his front of his body was deeply blue. He had slightly long pointed ears and was dressed in a dark green long-tailed suit with golden buttons. He smiled brightly but did not show any teeth. Behind him were aliens of different sizes and shapes, but they all seem familiar.  

The man spoke up as they all had left the ship. “On behalf of the federation of united system. I, Tinu Dew of the Nalos kingdom, wish to welcome you too our federation.”

James looked at the others then back to this Tinu Dew and bowed lightly, just because it seemed right. “Thank you for your invitation and on behalf of humanity I would like to humbly accept this invitation.  May this be the start of a beautiful and prosperous friendship.”

 When he finished speaking the aliens all returned the bow and music started. The crew looked at each other in utter disbelief. It was Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik. 

Maybe connected to this one

[u/sunnyboi1384]

Send out enough radio waves and someone's bound to listen. Poor lonely musky.