The president of the union stared at the monitor. On it was a display of deep space tracking info. Her gaze was locked on a particular group of ships. A group of nearly one hundred and sixty ships on a direct course for this system. Honestly the ships and their owners were a bit of an enigma to her. She had spent much of the last week trying to prepare for their arrival, but that was hard since she didn’t know anything about them. A fact that despite her efforts hadn’t really changed.

They knew just about nothing about these people, and half of what they did know was speculation. Their origins and technology were the biggest mysteries about them. Her xeno-psychologists suspected that they suffered from a mild case of racial xenophobia. Something that would explain their interactions in the past, and why they went to such extreme efforts to make their ships stealthy. Something that became readily apparent after they stopped hiding last week. The scans of their ships, showed extensive evidence of hull treatments designed to reduce their sensor profile. Everything her shipwrights could think of for that purpose, and even a few features that she had never seen before. The extensive stealth treatment on the hulls explained why they could disappear so easily. She decided to keep what they had said in mind when they meet face to face for the first time in a couple of hours. Getting out of her chair she headed for the door of her office. Her thoughts still preoccupied with thoughts of her soon to arrive alien visitors.

“We are secure from warp speed captain,” reported Eri from her station at the helm.

“Anchor the fleet here, and have my shuttle readied for immediate departure. Alert captain Shiro to be ready for my arrival,” said Countryman as he left his chair. The bridge was a chorus of acknowledgments as he left Greyman in charge of the bridge. He met Reia, Sali and Selia at the shuttle. His shuttle was a prototype and outfitted with a micro-warp drive. Initial tests had worked out the earlier bugs, so it wouldn’t be much longer before these drives came standard on shuttle craft. The drive was still too large to be mounted on a fightercraft, but then again it didn’t need to. He noticed that both Sali and Selia were examining the prepared shuttle.

“Like what you see Sali?” asked Countryman as he came up behind her. She turned around with an exuberant expression on her face.

“Is this what I think it is? Is this a 1205-B?” asked Sali.

“Yep, we finally worked out the glitch in its warp drive. We are going to start production of the B model soon. Would you like the specs, or have you already read up on it?” responded Countryman.

“Are you kidding!? I have been wanting to fly one since I heard about it. She is supposed to have thicker armor at sixty five centimeters. Her new engine and power configuration allows her to mount better weapons as well. She has four turrets instead of two, and the turrets include a light beam cannon. What I’m most thrilled about is the overhaul of the engines. I hear she is twice as fast with triple the acceleration, and can maneuver far more easily than her predecessor,” said Sali bubbling with excitement.

“Looks like you know the highlights than. Anyway we gave her the same control scheme, with some minor alterations to accommodate the new warp engine. So you should have no trouble adapting to the controls,” said Countryman. As Sali left to checkout the cockpit, and the crew was boarding Selia asked Countryman a question. While Reia gave a brief greeting before boarding the shuttle.

“I heard about this ship, but why are taking it?” asked Selia.

“That’s easy. The 1205-B is the best shuttle in our arsenal, the only auxiliary ships with better weapons and armor are the dropships. Which don’t have warp drives. I chose the B since it has the best chance of escape if things go badly. Not just that, but it also makes an impression,” said Countryman.

“Yes it does make an impression with those sleek lines, broken only by those intimidating turrets,” said Selia as followed him into the ship and noticed the cramped rear of the ship. Which she commented on.

“Don’t mind the cramped condition. This ship is currently configured to mount a bomb bay. Those are bomb bay mountings, carrying twenty photon bombs. They're here just in case I need them, but if we end up having to use them it would be a mission failure,” said Countryman.

“Considering the nature of the mission, that is kind of obvious,” replied Selia as they entered the cockpit. Settling into seats it wasn’t long before the shuttle was cruising out of the shuttlebay. Slipping through the forcefield and into the void. Sali didn’t take the shortest route to the SFS Battlehawk. Instead she took a scenic route around the fleet ships that were setting up anchor on the edge of the system. The route gave her time to get a feel for the shuttle. While Reia started up a conversation with Selia.

“She is much more responsive than the old one. I wonder how she compares with the 1204,” said Sali.

“Sounds like you want to be a test pilot. As for the 1204, she isn’t as maneuverable or fast. Speaking of the 1204 a proposal was made yesterday for new refit of the fighter. The current design is basically the same as the originals from seventy years ago.. Even if the guns, armor and engines have been upgraded, those are the only improvements. Our design team thinks they can fit a few more guns on the frame, and beef up the powerplant. Some of the subsystems can be made smaller and more efficient, and think we can use the space to increase its ammo storage,” said Countryman.

“Well personally, I think it needs a couple of electro cannons. Those would help a lot against shielded craft,” said Sali as she thought back to her past. Remembering the videos of engagement footage shown before that battle in which she was captured. That however was a lifetime ago. Being captured though had been a good thing for her. If she hadn’t she would not still have her youth nor would she have met her mate.

“Yeah Eri made the same suggestion, and we already mounted them on our other fighter models. Fighter mounted electro cannons have proven useful as well. So refitting the 1204 to mount them just makes sense,” said Countryman as the two got into a conversation on an upgraded variant of the SF-1204. Which continued until they landed in the Battlehawk’s shuttlebay. By the time they were finished they had a pretty decent idea of what kind of upgrades they wanted to make to the 1204 starfighter. Its gun mounts would be increased from four to eight. With six particle cannons and two electro cannons. Extra space in the wings would be used to store an additional four missiles. While extra space in the main body would be used to carry an extra pair of torpedoes. Armor thickness would be increased slightly, so that it can take a bit more punishment. While the engines would be beefed up a bit to take advantage of the powerplant upgrade. With a clear idea of the upgrades wanted Countryman also started drawing up a blueprint while talking to Sali.

The shuttle passed through the forcefield and gracefully landed on the deck. Before they left the cockpit, Countryman showed Sali the blueprint their conversation had helped develop.

“It’s not quite finished, and I’ll have to ask other pilots their opinions. Still it shouldn’t take too long to have a new fighter,” said Countryman.

“That’s what they said about the 1205-B project. They expected it to take six months, it took five years,” replied Sali.

“Honestly it should have taken six months. The micro warp drive just added so many complications that it took years to fix them all,” replied Countryman.

“Out of curiosity, how much did you spend on developing this shuttle?” asked Selia.

“The 1205-B project totaled eight million Ration Credits from the fleet budget. Most of that on the warp drive, but the need for an auxiliary craft with a warp drive was the main reason the project wasn’t shelved earlier,” said Countryman as they got up to leave the shuttle and greet Shiro and her crew.

“As I understand your economics, that sounds like over the course of five years you spent the equivalent of three city ships on developing this little shuttle,” said Selia.

“I see you looked into our ship costs, and it was four actually. Still the council and I were willing to spend upwards of twice that for the micro-warp drive feature alone. The advantages of warp-capable shuttlecraft are numerous. The biggest advantage is it increases the operating range of carrier launched craft. Which might I mention has numerous military and economic advantages. Asteroid mining is a decent example of the economic side of this. With a micro-warp drive our miners can simply travel towards a rich rock in shuttles without the need of a tender ship to get them back to the fleet in a timely manner. In fact I could sit here all day listing applications, but I won’t,” said Countryman.

“I’m curious, what are some of the military advantages?” asked Selia. Sali had eagerly answered the question.

“Oh I can answer that. It has advantages in long range missions. In theory a fighter can dock with the 1205-B and then being taken through warp to its destination and released. Which is useful for certain mission profiles, such as a raid. It also allows you to more easily launch a surprise attack without being spotted. Since shuttles and fighters are far stealthier than a carrier,” answered Sali.

“I’m sure if you think about it, you can find more, but Sali did a good job summing up some of the big ones. A couple things, she didn’t list were the advantages in patrol missions, or applications to in field resupply missions,” said Countryman.

“You know I never really thought about the technology. Miniature Burst Drive technology has been around for so long that all small craft can have a burst drive. Now that I think about it though, you're right. It does increase your fleet’s flexibility tremendously by having smaller ftl drives that can fit on a shuttle. So in the long run it was likely worth the cost,” replied Selia.

“It was even the glitched version was a tremendous help on our cargo and mining shuttles,” said Countryman as they left the shuttle to the greeting ceremony. It was a simple and old ceremony dating back to old naval traditions. Officers in uniform on either side moving in unison. They walked past the group and stopped before captain Shiro. She was a small woman of clearly asian decent with a child-like figure. One oddity though was her white hair. Which was likely where she got her name. While she looked young, she was far older than she seemed. She was in fact born during the storm and was in her mid fifties with three children of her own.

“Good to see you again, Captain Shiro. How has the Battlehawk been treating you?” asked Countryman.

“Good to see you as well, sir. She is a fine ship, and I haven’t had any problems,” replied Shiro.

“Let’s get to business. Set course for Mydori Prime,” said Countryman referring to the planet that was the homeworld of the Mydorian race.

“Already done, sir. I’ll tell my helm officer that we can depart from the fleet,” said Shiro as she left. She made a brief request of a nearby officer to show her guests to a lounge so that they can relax on the trip to the planet.

Minutes later the Battlehawk gently accelerated and left the fleet formation. The hulk of the captured Cylovan cruiser was left behind in the middle of the fleet.

The president sat at the docks with her entourage waiting for the ambassadors from the Sol Refuge. She knew the fleet had stopped at the edge of the system and had anchored in a defensive formation around the largest ships in the fleet. One of their ships, a cruiser however had left the fleet and was now in orbit of the planet. The cruiser was a rather impressive ship, at a little over ‘two kilometers’ in length it dwarfed most ships in the union fleet. The union did have a few carriers of that size, and the flagship of the union fleet was just a bit larger than the cruiser. Size wasn’t the most impressive thing about this cruiser, but the sheer amount of firepower they had managed to identify. Not an easy task, considering the fact that their sensors couldn’t penetrate the alien hulls. They had managed to identify thousands of weapon mounts, making the ship heavily armed. As heavily armed as the ship was, she noticed the lack of escort as a diplomatic overture.

Outside the window she saw an alien shuttle enter her view, and settle on the pad. At the same moment she heard the alliance ambassador who had been invited to this meeting by her comment on the alien design.

“These aliens have some rather impressive ships. It's a miracle that they can even cross the distance between star systems though,” said the ambassador.

“Huh? From what I have seen their ships look to be highly space worthy. How is their ability for interstellar travel a miracle?” asked the president. The ambassador gave her a look as if she was an idiot.

“I’ll make it simple. All other warp drive using races I have seen use deflectors to protect the ship from translight impacts. Which I might add are a very common danger for warp ships. Our sensor data however clearly shows this race doesn’t even use deflectors. It looks like their hull just absorbs the impacts somehow,” said the ambassador.

“Unfortunately, speculation won’t get us anywhere with these aliens. If you're that curious about how they do it, maybe you could ask them?” replied the president. Just as the door to the waiting area opened up, and three figures walked in. One of which she recognized as a Sylnari. Which explained how they knew to find her homeworld. The Sylnari must have told them. She also noticed that there was a difference in body shape and skin coloration between the two others. Which she guessed had to do with a difference in gender. Which was in fact only partially correct.

One of them the one with pale blue skin stepped forward. “I’m Reia appointed speaker for the Refuge. Behind me is Supreme Protector Countryman head of the fleet, and Selia our liaison from the Sylnari remnant,” said Reia. She guessed the term Supreme Protector was a fancy term for admiral or commodore based on the introduction, and then proceeded to introduce herself and colleagues.

“I’m Talkeki President of Mydori Union, to my right is Ulari our Ambassador from the Alliance, and to the left is my advisor and aide Temuria. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?” responded Talkeki

“We are here to trade, and maybe negotiate a peace treaty,” responded Reia.

“Would you happen to be interested in an alliance?” asked Talkeki trying to hide the hopefulness in her voice. An alliance with the Refuge looked attractive as they were clearly quite powerful.

“We are travellers and have little interest in long term entanglements. Not that you will really need an alliance with us. Assuming you can make use of what we want to sell. Care to lead us to a conference room? So that we can make a proper proposal?” said Reia. Talkeki found her interest peaked. It was clear that the girl was trying to build up hype for whatever they wanted to sell, but it sounded like they were offering something really good.

“Sure, this way,” answered her aide Temuria after being given a prompt from Talkeki. A conference room had been prepared not far from the landing pad, and reception so a few minutes later they were settled in the room. None of the chairs were particularly comfortable for the guests. Not being designed with them in mind, but they were general enough to work.

“Alright what exactly do you want to sell?” asked Talkeki.

“As I’m sure you have noticed, we are in possession of a Cylovan cruiser. Her internals are actually in far better shape than her outer hull may suggest. Her shield generators are a mess, but there's enough left that if you are willing to spend the resources you can salvage something from it. Her weapons array is in far better shape, and you can definitely use it to augment your own weapons technology. We have already stripped the ship of what components we deemed useful to us, but there's still a large amount of tech left. We have also translated, decrypted, and copied the Cylovan database and are willing to include a copy of the data in our offer,” said Reia.

“How intact is that cruiser?” asked Ulari addressing Selia.

“From what I have seen of it, that statement is quite accurate. They did as little damage to it as possible when they disabled it,” responded Selia.

“So what exactly do you want in exchange for this cruiser?” asked Talkeki.

“We want large quantities of weapons grade protoplasma. Deuterium, titanium, silver, gold, .........” said Countryman as he read a long list of materials the fleet need for its R&D programs. Along with the materials needed for refitting its auxiliary craft. Than he handed over a written list with the exact quantities they wanted. It took Talkeki some time to decipher it but not as long as the last time, as she had experience with their poor understanding of written Mydorian. She found the quantities to be quite reasonable if the cruiser was in as good a condition as they claimed. Still some of the things they asked for meant she needed to ask what they wanted them for.

“I’m going to have to ask what exactly is the protoplasma for?” asked Talkeki. Reia looked to Countryman and it seemed like they started communicating silently. After a few minutes she asked about it.

“They’re telepathic. In fact they are having a rather extensive debate between themselves and their governing council right now on how much they are willing to reveal. Oh, looks like they just came to a consensus,” said Selia.

“We actually have a number of uses for it, but the big reason is we are working on a new weapon. Our previous encounters with the Cylovans has revealed that our torpedoes are of limited use against Cylovan armor. As such we have come up with a new type of torpedo warhead, but we need protoplasma for development and later production,” said Reia.

“Wait, you already have a design for a new weapon against the Cylovans? You met them what? A year ago?” exclaimed Temuria.

“Less than that, actually. Now what are your thoughts on our terms?”

“Not a bad start. I’d be willing to increase the amount of protoplasma by an additional twenty thousand in exchange for your research notes on the cruiser,” said Telkeki. She considered asking for the new weapon they were developing, but rejected the idea. It was still in the developmental stage, and it remained to be seen how effective it would be. She was curious what the had in mind to use against the Cylovan armor, though.

“Thirty five and you have a deal,” said Reia.

“Twenty five,” countered Telkeki.

“Thirty our final offer,” said Reia.

“Deal, said Telkeki. The next couple hours were spent finalizing the agreement, and then the meeting moved on to other subjects, during which a non-aggression pact was formulated and signed by the parties involved.