[Fan Fiction]Calm Seas

[Krulle]

Well done!

I read chap 9, but had no time to answer then.
But then I also wanted to wait how you get out of the corner of the blue Elves killing everyone.

I'm looking forward to see how good their English actually is.
And how it'll continue.

Thank You!

[Suederwind]

Thanks!
Working on the next chapter that (I hope) will answer more questions.

[GeoModder]

Ah, the Teidar had to be out of the way to ensure communication.

[Krulle]

Sure, no more safety, and all else finally works...

But good call trying to speak English on an alien, unidentified planet, where the only language you heard before was not identifiable.

But then, she did not have much to loose anymore anyway...

[GeoModder]

But good call trying to speak English on an alien, unidentified planet, where the only language you heard before was not identifiable.

She did see Loroi-like people though. Just like it was sanzai'd to her.

[Suederwind]

Next chapter is almost done, just needs a minor rewrite. I think it will be done by tomorrow.

[Suederwind]

Ok, change of plans: should be ready so far.

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Chapter 11: Pain

Pain. That was all she was able to think of at this moment. It felt as if Antimonys arm would kill her. She tried what she had learned in her training and focused on something else instead. However, it did not work and she could still feel that burning pain.

It must have been ages since Gladius departure and she wondered what was going on, as she could suddenly hear someone yell from the outside. The sound of this unknown voice was strange, but harsh, she could not understand a word it was saying and to her surprise, she could not sense the one speaking. However, she knew that she had to help the Teidar, as she was the only other crewsister that was awake. Also, everyone knew that spoken words and Teidars did not mix well. Such situations usually ended in burned down cities, destroyed colonies and a lot of dead sisters. Someone had to keep her under controll before things got worse and she still had no idea how she would do that.

The red haired Listel tried her best to stand up, as she could sense the more and more aggressive feelings coming from Gladius. She already had attacked one, no, two of those unknown intruders. Antimony had to help her. Again pain was filling her mind as she managed to pull herself out of the copilots chair. Then a looud bang and flash of light showed her, that the situation had gotten worse than she had anticipated. One or more intruders moved in afterwards in the cabin, followed by more shouting and then something that sounded like a burst of weapons fire. The Listel could feel that Gladius was in trouble, maybe injured, which meant she had to move faster and pull herself togehter.

She tried to hold her broken arm stable as she moved to the cockpit door, as fast as she could. The door was still partially open, as Gladius had left it, but she had no trouble getting trough it and leaned against it, as she was through. Suddenly, someone shone a light in her face, glaring her vision. At first she couldn't tell who or what it was. Then it lowered the light and he could see it for the first time. A person.

It looked strangely familiar to her. Two legs, two arms, one head. So no Umiak, which was a good thing. It was wearing some kind of bodyarmor and a helmet, but looked more muskular than a Loroi warrior. A weapon was in its hands, strangely looking, with a flash light attached to it. At first she thought it might be an android of some kind.

But then she could see how it looked at her: puzzled, confused, as if she was some sort of trick. No android or cyborg would do that. So she tried to figure out more about it and managed to get a look at its face. It somehow looked familiar, too. Almost like that of a Loroi male, but there was some hair on his face, around his mouth. She had never seen something like that and must have starred at it for a while, as it starred back at her.

Were had she seen something almost like that before? The pain made her thoughts slow and thinking felt like walking through the Mezzan dessert without oxygen. Oh, yes... Finally she got it: it was the ambassador of humaniti and the pictures of his dead crewmates, she had to think of. Although the ambassador had no such hair on his face and his body was less muskular than the individual in front of her, this was the only explanaition she could think of.


Antimony was unsure what to do next. How would this "human" react? How confused was he? There was only one way to find out and she really had hoped that the Mizol would be doing it: she had to speak with him.

"Do not shoot. We come in peace."

He looked at her, even more confused than before. Suddenly she could see more movement in the darkness and another one of those supposed humans stood up. He had been kneeling next to Gladius, as she could see now, who was lying on the floor and she could not tell how injured she was. Antimony was not able to sense him, too. At least two more stood in the back of the cabin and had turned around in her direction, but she could not see what they were doing there. Her telepathic signature detection had failed again, too. The individual with the facial hair then turned his head to his side and said in an, for Loroi standards, unusuall and very deep voice:

"Wie gehts dem Fähnrich? Sie wird hier gebraucht!"

To her confusion, she did not understand a word he said. Had the ambassador tricked them or were they a different sub species of humaniti? She had to find out what was going on.

"Can you understand my words?"


He turned his head to her again, again looking puzzled, but after a brief moment, he answered. She had trouble understanding him at first, as he had some kind of heavy accent, she had never heard before.

"I... can understand you. But... there are others who are better trained in talking with you."

The human than turned his head to his side and spoke again, in his strange language.

"Wird das heute noch was?"
"Wir sind gleich da."

One of the others in the back answered him and after a while, she could see another human getting closer. At first she thought he was helping one of her crewsisters moving to them, but she could not sense her. As they came closer, Antimony could see, that she was human, too. The human female looked injured, in pain and almost in worse shape, than herself. Red blood was running down on the side of her face and she seemed to had trouble moving. Nevertheless, the female looked at her with curious eyes and spoke to the Listel:

"I am Fähnrich Ludovski... We just wanted to offer our help and are sorry if there was some kind of missunderstanding. But... can you tell us who you are?"

[Suederwind]

I am not sure if I can finish the next part in time. Might get a bit delayed.

[Krulle]

How can you delay something where you alone decide when it's finished?

Still looking forward to the next part.

[Suederwind]

Well, thats basically true. Nevertheless, I try to finish it, as soon as I can.

[sunphoenix]

Nice story! Very Cool! I guess Sonnidezzi is just not very trigger-happy for a Teidar! She never managed to get pushed into feeling the need to unleash a lethal use of her electrokinetics on human soldiers... but the situations were different, she had waaay more control of the encounter and she was indeed one of the original interrogators of Ensign Jardin... so she is in that waaay more familiar with humans than poor Teidar Gladius. Lucky her!

[Suederwind]

Well, next part is about halfway finished, will post it soon.

[Krulle]

Yay, some Monday-work-reading! ;)

[Suederwind]

Oh my, that chapter was a hard one. While the ones before basically wrote themselfs, I needed at least 4 rewrites to get it done. It much shorter than it should have been, but I decided to change a few things to get it done. I hope its enjoyable, nevertheless.

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Chapter 12: Tamara

The Fähnrich couldn't remember what had happened. It just felt as if a freighttrain had hit and thrown her against a wall. She didn't know how much time had passed since then, and the moment she regained her conciousnes. A confused feeling filled her mind and she needed a moment to understand what had happened to her. She was on the floor, in front of a wall, in a dark room. Then she could heard the familiar voice of Matrose Haverkamp, but it took her some time, till her mind was able to understand him.

"...alright?"
"What? ... What happened?"
"I don't know exactly. Are you able to move?"
"Not sure..."

As she had answered him, her memories came back to her. How she tried to help and something invisible had hit her. Hard.
She tried to stand up. But here was this strange pain in her head and leg. She had trouble standing upright and Haverkamp came to her aid. He layed his arm around her back and helped her stand. After a few moments, it was clear to her, that something in her right leg must have been broken, as even the smallest step she took was filled with pure, elemental pain than ran right through her body.

"Whats wrong?"
"Its just my leg... I think something is broken."
"Ok, ok... Keep calm, I will get you out of here..."

However, their conversation was cut short by the Maats voice:

"Is the Fähnrich well? I need her here!"

She tried to focus on the Maat and Haverkamps answer to him, to figure out what was going on, as she realized that there was another on of these blue strangers, talking to him. It seemed like they had a problem in understanding each other. Something she was confidened she could help with.
Matrose Haverkamp helped her getting to the Maat, who became even more impatient with every minute that had passed since then.

"Are you on your way?"
"We will be there any second."

Haverkamp answered for her, as the pain made it hard for her to speak while walking, even with the aid of the Matrose.
The she saw here for the first time, something she would never forgett in her entire life. Like the stranger she had seen before, it was a woman, wearing some kind of unknown armor. Her hair was long and red. However, she looked to be in a bad shape. Her arm seemed to be broken and she leaned against the Wall, while her face showed her, that that unknown person must have been in pain.

So the two of them started to speak and she noticed that her English was kind of awkward, as she answered her. It was clearly not her native tongue.

"Thank you, Faehnrich Ludovski. I am pleased to meet you. My titel is Listel Tozet Beitil..."
"Listel Tozet Beitil? Is that your name?"
"Yes. My spoken name means 'Antimony'. Listel is the name of my caste and Tozet is my military rank. You can adress me as Tozet or Antimony."
"Your spoken name?"
"Yes. The meaning of my name."
"Oh... I... I think I understand. My rank is Fähnrich, the name of my family is Ludovski and my personal name is Tamara."
"Is Tamara your spoken name? What does your personal name mean?"
"You can call me Fähnrich Ludovski or Tamara. I guess my personal name means something like 'the one who loves the land', at least thats what my mother told me. Anyway... can you tell us where you are from and... what you are?"
"I am sorry. Spoken words and diplomacy are not duties of my cast. We are Loroi and here on a diplomatic mission. Our assigned Mizol, our diplomatic officer, should have been speaking to you, but it seemes that she is uncon..."

A sudden movement on the floor interrupted her conversation. One of these strange woman, these Loroi, started to move again. She could see that there were marks on her armor that looked like the impacts of bullets. Maat Geißler immideatelly poited his gun on her, to her head to be more precise. She looked furious and very angry. But somehow the Fähnrich could obeserve, how between the one on the ground and that redhaired one called Antimon, some kind of wordless conversation started. Both of them started to gesticulate with their hands and after a short while, Antimon adressed her again.

"I am very sorry for what happened before. This is Teidar Senzon Nomina. She seemed to have thought you would be here to do us harm. She is of the Teidar caste, the unsheathed. Her spoken name means 'Gladius'."

It took Ludovski a while to really understand what was going on: that this was humanity's first contact with an alien species. One that apparently didn't need 'spoken words' to communicate. She thought that it would be better not to mention that missile that shot them down, at least at this point.

[Krulle]

Very enjoyable.
Thank You!

Now the question comes: HOW do the Loroi know enough English to be able to discuss a bit?

And a question for You:
How much of the comic story is part of your background?
Your Loroi came to Earth because of Alexander.
Who got sent on his mission because of the Orgus who have come to Earth during their flight from the Umiak.
So, Earth did already have knowledge of Aliens.
Or did you think that a major project like building several scouts, having an alien ship in orbit, ..., can be done without the knowledge seeping?
I understood the Prologue of Outsider such, that at least the Orgus have become general knowledge on Earth.

[Suederwind]

No problem. Working on chapter 13 and hope it will be done soon.

Well, I guess I had to trick here a bit. The background of the comic goes to the point when Alex and his Loroi companions leave the system they are currently in. I guessed that Beryl had enough time by then to learn some English and send those information to her fellow Listel. Ugly way of storytelling, but necessary.

However there is something, I assume you did not get and I hope its not because of my poor writing. Indeed, I think that a mission as big and important as the one, the humans undertook to contact the Loroi, is almost impossible to hide. Information will always leak out, one way or another. Humans on earth or the colonies will know that there are aliens out there and some will have meet an Orgus or seen one in the news. Some will know that there is a mission underway and a few will have heard about the war between the Umiak and Loroi.

So a hint for you: One of the inspirations of this story was the thought, what would happen to a ship and its crew, when a jump went wrong.
And a question for you, too: Why would those soldiers not know about the Loroi?

[Krulle]

Okay, alternative universe...
Thought so before, but it slipped my mind a bit....

Are the Loroi and Umiak even at war in this universe...? Or would that be spoilerish?

[Suederwind]

Okay, alternative universe...

Well, maybe, I would say, as we do not know at the moment how our heroes trip with the shuttle will end.

Are the Loroi and Umiak even at war in this universe...?

Yes, they are at war.

Anyway, some of those issues will be adressed later in the story.

[raistlin34]

Okay, alternative universe...
Thought so before, but it slipped my mind a bit....

Are the Loroi and Umiak even at war in this universe...? Or would that be spoilerish?

Er.... The first contact with the Orgus is what set into motion the whole plot of Outsider. Removing that leaves a lot of holes.

[JQBogus]

I dunno if this would count as a spoiler, since I am just guessing but...

SpoilerShow

The Loroi had a bad jump.

The bad jump shunted them back in time, or the next best thing to it.

If they're back in time and the the "many worlds" (copenhagen) interpretation is not in use, then, for whatever reason, their early arrival is not recorded or remembered by 2162. The problem with this possibility is that the Loroi-Umiak war would not be happening, while Suederwind has said that it is.

Or they're back in time and alternate universe split off at the moment of their arrival. In this case, things could be very different on Earth, and in the entire Orion arm by 2162. Again, though, if they're simply back in time, the Loroi-Umiak war wouldn't be happening.

The last possibility, and one that keeps the Loroi-Umiak war as a happening thing, is that the bad jump shifted the Loroi to an alternate universe that is much the same, except Earth's history is offset by ~150 years.

In any case, the technology and particularly the German's ship (S-73 Hermelin, built 1983, currently one of the last of its class in service) seems to point to the Earth in this story being current day. The German navy might re-use a ship name in 150 years time, but I am pretty sure they wouldn't give it the same alphanumeric designation of S-73.