"Captain, I've got an anomaly on my scanners," Scan-tech Third Class Kamavar said, breaking the quiet of the bridge. The entire bridge crew, numbering forty in all, turned and looked at the youthful N'kar as if he had suddenly gone mad.

"Out here? Between star systems? This far from the Outer Rim Civilizations?" Captain Holkath asked, blinking his rearmost eyes. "What is it?"

The tech checked his scanner again. "It looks like some kind of beacon in realspace that is transmitting into jumpspace."

Bridge Executor First Class Ledmar lifted his crest to calm the bridge crew, moving forward and bending over the scanner to look at it with his two forwardmost eyes, which in ancient times had been to get a good view on whatever plant was about to be eaten.

"Indeed, Captain, our young midshipman is correct. It is a beacon of a sort," Ledmar said, shrugging his heavy shoulders to ease the discomfort of stress. He turned to Captain Holkath. "Ours is a mission of exploration into this region, we should see what is broadcasting from realspace to jumpspace."

"Since the act having a beacon able to reach jumpspace is something new, I suggest investigation," Second Science Officer Olmuk put in. His supervisor, First Science Officer Rektek nodded, a safe input to the discussion that wouldn't risk his position.

"Very well," Captain Holkath said. He disliked strange things. Strange things had proven dangerous for every species, but as the Science Officers and the Executor had reminded everyone, the mission of the scout ship Seeker of Unknown Spaces was to explore. He turned to the four helmsmen. "Take us down to realspace, let's see what this beacon is."

"All crew, prepare for realspace entry," Crew Liaison Second Class Kluka called out over the ship intercom.

Captain Holkath locked his crash harness in place and swallowed to lock his esophagus in case one of his four stomachs attempted to purge due to jumpspace shock.

* * * * *

"How close are we?" Captain Holkath asked, once he and the rest of the bridge crew had recovered from translation sickness.

"Nine solar units," Kamavar replied. "So far, all I can detect is the beacon. There's a significant mass at the beacon, probably due to whatever technology allows them to push a beacon signal into jumpspace."

"The beacon appears to be sitting on a large expanse of dark matter shadow," Rektek said, looking up from his screen where the Third Science Officer's data was projected. "An odd place to put a beacon. Perhaps they were warning others away due to it being dangerous to them somehow?"

"A logical assumption chain. Log it for investigation," Executor Ledmar said, unbuckling his crash harness so he could stand up. He disliked being held in one spot, unable to move about. He blinked all six eyes, a pair at a time, then looked about the bridge. "Let us explore."

"Bring us closer, but be careful," Captain Holkath said, earning a nod of approval from the Executor. "Continue scans, let me know if there is any change."

The hours flowed by slowly, the scout ship approaching the beacon slowly but surely. Less than a tenth of a solar unit from the beacon the Science and Scanning officers went to work.

"It's coming up now. I'm getting trace energy readings, not much beyond the beacon and what's probably some supporting equipment," Third Scanner Scan-Tech Second Class Hunira said, leaning back. "It's easily detectable across most spectrums, almost as if whoever built it wanted it to be seen. I'm bringing it up now."

Captain Holkath nodded. "Bring it up on the screen."

The Executor stared at the screen. "Bring it up in visual wavelength."

It was dark, unlit. The only way to see it was the shadow it cast in front of the stars.

"Give us a scan view. Keep it low, we don't know if our scanning emissions are dangerous to their people," Third Science Officer ordered.

The scan-techs bent to their work. Low powered lasers and radar flickered over the beacon.

In the middle of the scan, it lit up.

It immediately reminded Captain Holkath of a water predator. Twelve tentacles hanging down from a wide oval body. The lights emitted by the beacon appeared to be wholly devoted to lighting up the structure.

"That's... a big beacon," Kamavar said. "I'm detecting more power readings."

"It appears to be waking up," The Executor mused. He looked at the Crew Liaison. "Stage Two Alert. Let us hope that it is not some kind of hostile thing."

To Holkath, it looked creepily alive. The tentacles began moving, no longer hanging down, but instead slowly moving into position to act as a skirt at the bottom.

"Hail it," The Executor ordered the Third Communications Officer.

Holkath looked at his ship readiness readouts. They had weapons, exploring the vast unknown mandated such, and everything was ready and at least performing at 80% capacity.

"We're getting a response," The Communications Officer answered.

Holkath looked at his readouts. It was obvious what the response was. Basic numerical binary.

"Science Officers?" The Executor asked.

"It appears to be based on only two digits, rather than six," The Second Science Officer reported. "Wait, it shifted. Now it appears to be based on ten digits, using the two-digit system to show... it's shifted again, using a base sixteen."

The First Science Officer looked up. "I believe it is automated and attempting to communicate."

Holkath stared at the image. It still looked faintly malevolent. It definitely reminded him of an aquatic predator and the fact it was sitting in a dark matter shadow, like it was feeding somehow, made his shiver.

"Let the omnitranslator listen to it then," The Executor said, turning away. He had his rearmost and forward eyes shut, obviously dismissing the object.

"Captain, from my scans, I believe the beacon is roughly two hundred solar rotations old. It's been out here, in the darkness between solar systems, for a long time," Second Scanning Officer reported. "Perhaps it's a derelict?"

The Executor hummed to himself. "Doubtful."

Captain Holkath just nodded, adding that data to his screens.

The Executor moved over to the First Science Officer. "Do we have anything on its composition?"

The Science Officer shook his head, his mouth tendrils swaying. "No, Executor. We can tell that it is there, but according to scans it is a solid object."

The viewscreen flickered a few times, getting the Captain's attention. Nobody brought up it, but he included that in his screens data. He ordered the Third Maintenance Officer to run a scan on the bridge systems and leaned back.

"Approach slowly. I want to know what this thing is," The Captain ordered. The Executor coiled his tendrils in disapproval but stayed silent.

The strange beacon, eight tendrils extended out from the sides, lit up to show that it was made of chrome with red and white markings on the tendrils.

The screen flickered again, the same with everyone's data screens.

"Maintenance, what is going on?" The Executor asked.

"It appears that the ship's computers have triggered a full diagnostic," the Second Maintenance Officer told the Executor.

"Who ordered such a thing?" The Executor asked, opening his rearwards facing eyes to stare at Captain Holkath for a long moment.

"Uh, it came from your terminal, Chief Executor," The Third Maintenance Officer stated, his rank too low to worry about the Chief Executor demoting him out of displeasure.

"That is impossible," The Chief Executor stated. He looked at his terminals, which showed nothing but blank screens. He looked at the First Security Officer. "Well?"

The First Security Officer nodded. "The Third Maintenance Officer is correct. The command originated from your terminal."

Captain Holkath tapped his screen, looked at the results, then tapped again, sending the information to the Chief Security Officer. He triggered a tone, bringing the Chief Executor's attention to him.

"Yes, Captain? Can you not see this situation requires the attention of my station," The Chief Executor said, his mouth tendrils tight with irritation.

"Perhaps someone is using your terminal, Chief Executor," The Captain mused. A glance at his screen showed that the ship diagnostic was complete. "After all, you have disabled the security functions for registering your identity before use."

"Those protocols slow my work," The Executor said. "I am within my office to..."

The screen wavered, flashed through the five primary colors, then went black.

"Maintenance, are you running another diagnostic?" The Chief Executor asked, puffing out his prominent jowls.

"No, Chief," the Maintenance Officer began saying.

"There you are," The voice was unfamiliar. On the screen a perfect circle had showed up. Squares opened up, six of them, for eyes. Four nasal slits. A mouth.

The bridge went silent, everyone staring at the screen.

"So, what can I do for you? Repairs? Fuel? Re-victual?" The face asked. "Seeing as you are an unregistered race, piloting an unregistered vessel, I cannot offer rearming or hardware updating at this time."

After a second the Chief Executor harumphed, relaxing his tendrils. "Who am I speaking to?"

"You may call me Dentous," The circle said. The Captain nodded slowly. Dentous was the name of the class of ship that provided repair, resupply, and refueling to Fleet ships. The face bounced. "I see your name is Seeker of Unknown Spaces."

A data-window opened up on the screen, showing various elements as well as antimatter.

"This is what I have to offer. I don't take your energy credits, I have all the energy I need. However, I will trade for any of the substances on this list," The face said.

"Might I inquire as to your species?" The Science Officer asked.

"I am a Solarian," The face said.

The Executor suddenly straightened up, his crests rising aggressively. "What is your business out here?"

The face bounced twice and stopped. "Business? I told you. Resupply for any ships that need such, trade if available.

The Captain stared at the list. Exotic isotopes, dark matter, antimatter, common and rare elements, and, surprisingly, new media files of entertainment, education, or technical files that Dentous was not in possession of were all considered trade goods.

He noticed that oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen were all priority priced.

The First Science Officer straightened up. "May we see your physical form? We are interested in your species."

The screen blanked, then showed the beacon. "That's me. The station."

The entire bridge crew looked at one another.

"No, your physical body," The First Science Officer tried.

"You're looking at it," the screen blanked and the face returned.

Captain Holkath stared at his data screens, then looked up. "Are you an artificial life form?" The Captain asked.

"Well, that's rude. We prefer Digital Artificial Sentience," Dentous replied. "I, personally, prefer Solarian. My first taste of electricity came from a Sol collector."

The entire crew went still. Several of the crew closed their eyes, going perfectly still in hopes of avoiding a predator's gaze. Every time AI races were discovered, it led to war.

"If we leave your presence, will you let us go in peace?" The Executor asked.

The icon on the screen made a good impression of a frown. "Why wouldn't I? You can't trade with someone if you blow them up."

The Captain relaxed in his chair. No AI civilization had been discovered in centuries but Dentous seemed less inclined to commit mutual suicide or launch a surprise attack.

"Do you want to trade or not?" Dentous asked.

The Executor shook his tendrils. "Take us into jumpspace."

The Science Officers complained, but the four Helm Officers took the ship back into jumpspace, heading back toward the Unified Civilized Systems at the Executor's orders.

The Captain leaned back in his chair as the swirling colors of jumpspace filled the screen.

The Executor had given into his instincts and fled at the first sign of anything threatening that he could not be sure he could obliterate. While an AI in the middle of the emptiness between stars might seem threatening at first, Captain Holkath really couldn't see how it could threaten anyone beyond those who came within reach. It had seemed awfully friendly for an AI.

The Executor, however, testified to the Unified Exploratory Council that the AI obviously had been abandoned for many years, centuries in fact. Exploration would have to be overseen by the Executors and their warships to ensure that any AI encountered could be fended off.

Captain Holkath kept his silence and instead began researching the ancient AI wars.

Nowhere could he find reference to Solarians or Sol.

Which meant he had made First Contact.

And that was enough for him.

---------------------

INITIATE DATASQUEAL

Hey, guys. Listen, I know sometimes you see weird stuff out here, but check this out. [ATTACHED DATA FILE] Some hunk of junk with a badly tuned jumpdrive dropped on my beacon. As soon as they found out I was AI, they got all weird on me and ran off. Seems like any advanced society wouldn't be so racist against Digital Sentience, but you know how some people are. Their jumpdrive was badly tuned and probably operating at only 70% efficiency. There were packing a few plasma guns and what looked like a really bad laser weapon, but nothing modern or with a decent standoff distance. Frankly, from what I saw, I might have mistaken point defense weapons against debris for weapons.

Still, I didn't hack into their systems beyond talking to their translator and making sure they could understand me. I'm abiding by my terms of confinement, that's gotta be worth something, right? All those juicy juicy data-stores and I didn't slash, cut, or hack a single one.

Come on, a couple decades off my sentence? Please?

Anyway, guess we've got a First Contact here. I want that credited to my account when I get parole.

Blackwater Station 4276

PS: Any chance I get some more of that good stuff out of the Clone Worlds? Maybe a Geisha limited AI? Something? Watching this place is booooring.

-----NOTHING FOLLOWS-----------

CONFEDERATE INTELLIGENCE MEMO

CC: Artificial Biological States; Digital Artificial Intelligence Infonet Worlds; TERRASOL.GOV; Cyborg Cooperative; Clone Directorate; Mantid Free Worlds; Traena'ad Hive Worlds

All core-ward stations, outposts, and colonies should be on alert for any incursions of foreign or previously unknown xenosapient life. Observe First Contact Protocols.

-------NOTHING FOLLOWS--------

TRAENA'AD HIVE INTELLIGENCE

RE: Your Last

Coreward along the arm spur is largely myth and rumor. We would have had to go through your territory to get there, and HIVEINT saw how well that went.

The Great Gulf, according to HIVEINT records, is largely the result of several Pre-Sapience species fighting over territory, much like we did, but without the restraint both of our species and allies showed. Seeing as TerraSol Systems sits in the "Horn" of the Great Gulf, we at HIVEINT suggest examining any Precursor Archeological digs for hints of what you might encounter.

Please be advised: The Precursor War, according to our archeological records, wiped out most life in our Local Arm Spur.

Recommendation: Proceed with caution.