“Perhaps, though if it could remain under power for thousands of years I don’t see why the consoles wouldn’t be active unless someone turned them off. As for them being damaged, I think there would be more of a physical evidence to indicate that.” Seo-yun said.
“Or we just don’t know how to turn them on.” Tomas added.
“Or that.” Seo-yun agreed.
Tomas sighed, and looked around the room for a moment looking for anything that stands out. “Well, this is a bit of a disappointment, there is nothing here that seems extraordinary, seems a bit too familiar, it all looks like something human hands could build.”
“Actually, this vessel has been built by Loraru as were most other vessels of the Union.”
Tomas whipped his head around to the source of the voice, the rest of the team readied their rifles on the source of the voice, while Seo-yun jumped back a step. It spoke in English, and though it sounded human it was definitely not, it was too perfectly spoken, too monotonous, it was wrong. The source of the voice stood motionless on the floorplate further down in the room, its eyes were staring straight into his. It had four arms two on each side and two legs, it was shorter than an average human, around meter and half in height, though it was wider in the shoulders by at least half as much as an average human, it was dressed in yellowish clothing that hanged loosely on its body, it had six eyes arranged in three row of two placed at an angle with the bottom pair being the closest together and the top pair the furthest from each other, making a V shape, two vertical slits bellow the eyes were most likely nostrils, and bellow that a single horizontal line the mouth, it didn’t have any lips, its head had a vaguely triangular shape with the bottom being narrow and the top of the head wide, it didn’t have hair on its body that Tomas could see, and the top of its head ended in six rigid spikes, curving upwards. Its skin was a sickly gray color. The top arms were crossed at its chest with the bottom ones positioned loosely at its side dropping to its knees.
“Tomas, Seo-yun, move back slowly.” Elias said while moving slowly forward, his rifle aim at the being.
“There is no need for that I assure you, I mean you no harm, not that I could harm you even if I wanted. And I would appreciate it if you would lower your weapons, I do not know if they would damage anything if fired but I would rather not risk it.” The being said.
“Elias, wait.” Tomas said and slowly stepped forward and spoke to the being “Ah, my name is—”
“Tomas, yes I overheard the one in front of you, Elias, address you as such, I don’t know the designations of the rest, as you never addressed them within the ship or its immediate surroundings.”
“Well it’s only appropriate that you introduce yourself as well then, what is your name.” Tomas asked.
“A cultural convention? Very well, my designation is Autonomous Survey Unit Mark 77321, used in searcher class scout ships, tasked with aiding the crew in analyzing raw data.”
For a moment no one said anything, then Seo-yun broke the silence “You are a machine?”
“That statement is correct even though it is wrong, I am an interface, thing you see before you is just a representation.” It said in its monotone voice, Tomas noticed that it mistook Seo-yun’s question for a statement, meaning that it didn’t have a perfect understanding of their language.
Seo-yun moved around the console and stepped onto the plate reaching her hand through the being before anyone thought to stop her.
“A hologram, remarkable.” She said still moving her hand through the being, or rather a hologram of the being.
“Seo-yun, please step back behind me.” Elias said trying to aim his rifle at the hologram while not aiming at Seo-yun.
She looked back at him surprised, seeing how he and the rest of the team were trying to keep his aim true while she moved “Oh, you can lower your guns, this is just light, a hologram, he isn’t really here, see.” She said while repeatedly moving her hand in and out of the hologram.
“Elias, she is right. Bullets won’t do anything to it.” Tomas said.
They stood in the same positions for a couple of seconds, and then they lowered their rifles and moved about the room taking other positions, standing at the ready. They communicated through their helmets inner comm line.
“Is there anyone else aboard this ship other than us?” Tomas asked.
“No.”
“May I assume then that it was you who opened the ships door, and sent the signal that led to the recovery of this ship?” Tomas asked.
“Correct.”
“Why did you wait for months before opening the door, if you could have done so at any time, or why didn’t you contact us when we found the ship?” Elias asked suspiciously.
“Time was required for the workable translation of your language, which was impaired by the fact that you rarely spoke it in the vicinity of the vessel and further more by the internal damage to the ships many sensors, and contact before now was impossible for the same reason, the only thing I was able to do was redirect a signal I received.”
“You are saying that the ship was damaged by landing.” Laura said.
“Incorrect, landing inquired no damage to the ships systems. Damage I was referring to occurred due to lack of maintenance for approximately seven thousand cycles.”
“Why didn’t you then open the door earlier?” Seo-yun asked moving of the floor plate.
“My programing forbids me from executing any action that may cause harm to the ship or its crew, without explicit order from the crew, or a Union member of sufficient rank.”
Tomas looked around the room at the rest of the team and saw them do the same. He cleared his throat and asked. “And what is the Union?”
Elias turned sharply towards Tomas while his body grew rigid, he tightened the grip on his rifle and turned back at the hologram when it started to speak.
“The Union, created sixteen thousand cycles ago, it is a union of fifty four races, led by six founding races and eighteen other member races.”
They looked at each other again trying to comprehend this information, a few moments ago they learned that they weren’t alone in the universe, and now they learned that not only were they not alone, but there was an entire Union of races out there. Seo-yun turned back towards the hologram. “You said that your programing doesn’t allow you to act other than on orders by the crew or a Union official, yet you contacted our submarine, and you opened the door for us, why?”
“My scans of your physiology couldn’t be compared to the Union races database as that part of my core matrix has been corrupted, I concluded that there was a 0.05% chance that your race was a new member of the Union, and as 30% of my matrix has been corrupted, I accepted the probability that your race was new member of the Union acceptable, and more preferable than engaging the self-destruct protocol. Was I wrong?” It ended in the same monotone voice it used before.
“No, your choice was correct.” Tomas said, and got a sharp look from Seo-yun, she started to speak but Tomas cut her off with a hand gesture, he turned back to the hologram.
“We will need access to the ship, and its databases, and translated into our language if it’s possible.” He said.
“You can access ships databases from any of the consoles, the data is recorded in Union standard, I am not able to translate as I have no access to those databases, I have access only to data which is included in my matrix or provided to me by the crew for analysis. I can translate that portion of the data.” It said.