IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)
Chapter Sixteen: Dragon (Part One)

LASSIR

Udar slowly knelt down with the cylinder and removed the top. He reached in and pulled out one of the wires then stood up. He turned his head slightly to the side as his helmet and face plate revealed the same wire coming from his ear curving around to his neck under the translucent covering, then interlocked back in place. The human in front seemed to have already caught on as he reached for the wire and placed one end in it's ear. The other end began to grow until it reached around to the front of it's neck. There was a slight twitch which made Udar a little nervous because he didn't want to harm the human and prayed the translator would work.

"Can you understand me?" he asked cautiously.

The human looked at him quizzically but replied with a simple

"Yes."

"Oh thank creations!" Udar said in a visible sigh of relief as he turned to the three.

"Hey guys it worked." He turned back to the human.

"No discomfort or anything, headaches, nausea, pain?"

"No."

"Great, now give me just a second."

He gathered the other three in a silent huddle.

"So what do we do now?" Udar mentally asked.

"Ask about the ambassador." Vira said.

"I don't think they know about the ambassador. Remember? The Reagan never told the other humans." Pelik said.

"I wanna try something." Kurie said as he slowly stepped to the human.

"I come in peace." He said aloud, then looked at the rest of the group.

There was a soft but low rumble that made Kurie cautiously step back as he looked at the human who had doubled over. Udar's silvery eyes lit up in fright behind his helmet.

"We're dead" was all he could think of as the human stumbled a few steps back before standing up still making a weird noise.

IMPALA

"Im almost scared to ask how you know that." Jason mentally told Bianca.

"I have extensive data files on various alien races that frequented your planet since the dawn of man. Unfortunately, im programmed to only release that information as it comes along. By the way, he's handing you, what you would call a translator. It is a bio mechanical symbiote that receives and transmits sound waves into corresponding frequency patterns. Completely harmless to humans." Bianca finished as the Velcronian reached up with the translator.

Listening to Bianca's instructions, he placed one end in his ear and felt the other end slither around to his Adam's apple. Warned of the tingle but not expecting the feel of sensors, he tensed slightly when they brushed past his eardrum. After that he felt nothing. As if it was no longer there.

"Do you understand me?" The Velcronian asked. His voice almost sounding robotic through the translator.

Amazed, he looked at the alien wanting to ask a million and one questions but simply settled on

"Yes."

The little alien visibly relaxed as he mumbled something untranslated then looked at the group.

"Hey guys it worked!" He said, then turned back to Jason.

"No discomfort or anything, headaches, nausea, pain?"

"No."

"Great, now give me just a second." He said before gathering his group into a small huddle.

They stood there in silence for a few seconds before Bianca said they were talking telepathically. She could sense the exchange of brainwaves but couldn't make what they were saying without being able to calculate the frequency. She would have to be attached. One of the four suddenly broke from the pack and stood in front of Jason with its right hand up palm out and ring and middle finger spread apart.

"I come in peace!!" It said, then looked at the other three.

Jason couldn't help it.

DEBRIEFING ROOM

After the nervous but hilarious first contact, Jason took almost 10 minutes to explain what an apology was and the reason for one, then escorted the four aliens to the debriefing room.

The debriefing /war room was basically a large dark oval shaped highly advanced interactive holographic chamber. In peace time its just simply forms a holoscreen table and chairs to accommodate the guest, but in wartime it's purpose is to give the strategist a full spherical view of the battle area. The door silently hissed open and Jason Vanessa Jess and the four aliens walked in as the chairs formed with each entrance. Four of the chairs shrunk in size when the aliens made the first attempt to sit on them. Once everyone was seated, Udar placed the cylinder on the table and slide it towards Jason with a short series of beeps. Jason caught it, removed the top, and handed Vanessa and Jess a string and explained what to do. Once done and to Udar's liking, Jason started the introductions.

"Well, first I want to start off by welcoming you aboard the NSA Impala..." Jason started as he faced the aliens.

"...Im Captain Jason Dodge, this is my Chief of Security Vanessa Ray, this is my lead biologist Jessica Kelsing, and last but not least is Danny."

"Good evening..." Came a hitchcockian voice out of nowhere.

"Danny is an artificial intelligence designated as our navigator and command ops." Jason said as the aliens swiveled and craned their necks trying to replace the source of the voice.

"I've been waiting to say that for the past 3 months" Danny said in his usual cheerful self as a holographic image of an uncanny resemblance to... Patrick Stewart?...Jason thought as Danny emerged from the darkness.

He was tugging on the bottom of his red and black Star Trek uniform shirt as he walked up to the table before throwing his hands up in exaggerated frustration. The shirt grew a few inches in length as he sat in the chair that had just finished forming across from the aliens upon his approach. The aliens looked at him out of curiosity but they were not new to holographic entities. Pelik got up and walked around to Danny and poked a finger through his shoulder, causing a ripple effect, then nodded his head in satisfaction before returning to his seat.

"Now I believe I owe you an...what did you call it?....an apology?...yes, I believed your species to be a bit more primative, but I see now that you have advanced a lot for an outworld. Still primative by our standards but advanced enough to make this contact possible.." Pelik said once seated.

Jason raised an eyebrow at this last part and was about to say something when Vira raised her hand stopping Pelik before he finished.

"What he's trying to say is that we didn't think you were far enough along for us to make contact without breaking any interplanetary first contact rules. Your picking us up this far from your home planet proves that you're capable of interplanetary travel. Have you colonized any other planets yet?" Vira asked.

"No, not yet. We have a few science HABS on Mars and a lunar lookout, an orbital space station around Jupiter,..." The last he said hesitantly, thinking about the Pegasus.

"...but no other planets have been colonized yet." Jason finished, not revealing any of the military post stations.

"Interesting, is this the only ship capable of traveling this far? Forgive me if i seem like im intrusive but the help we need may require an Armada." Vira said.

"Ah,..." Jason responded.

"...We have received your message. Unfortunately as of now, yes, we are the only ship capable of traveling this far, although this far wasn't exactly in our plans. We came here by accident due to a slight malfunction. We were only supposed to go to the next solar system over but..." He said as he spread his arms looking around.

"...Once we make it back home and they see the trip was beyond success and work out a few bugs, im pretty sure there'll be a lot more ships built." Jason proudly said, pleased with his ship's performance and crew.

Just then, Danny flickered for a brief second before disappearing altogether. The ship shook slightly then stopped just as a voice came over the intercom.

"Captain, we're picking up a gravitational anomaly 42 kilometers off the stern. We're within safe distance but it appears to be forming a wormhole." The voice said.

The aliens looked around expecting to see another hologram pop up but nearly jumped out there seats when Jason had the room switched over to the wartime viewscreen. Jason explained what was going on and the aliens calmed down as they all looked at a magnified view of the multicolored rip in space forming into a spiraling starfilled rainbow. Suddenly, the aliens jumped out their seats and their armor lit up, preparing them for battle.

"Remember that help we said we needed? That's part of it." Kurie said as he turned to Jason.

A yellow and black jagged cone-like tip began to emerge, but before Kurie could explain what it was, the tip started tilting forward leaving a trail of debris and sparks as it tumbled into now open space. The ship slowly began shaking slightly as the anomaly seemed to get bigger yet smaller at the same time as the stars began streaking forward for a brief second then becoming stationary again as the ship stopped vibrating.

"Captain, the anomaly quadrupled in size and intensity. I've moved us to a safe zone and.... hold on, there's something else coming through." The voice said.

They all looked at the anomaly, wich by appearance looked like it never went anywhere, as a black and purplish smooth round surface emerged followed by a long cylindrical neck. Udar swore under his breath as he watched the familiar dragon-like ship exit the wormhole.

"That's...the other problem." Kurie said as the ship angled it's way towards them.