You recall your meeting with Spear and what she said. She'd offered to help you in order to help themselves get home that little bit faster.
But before you can do anything like that, before you can set forth on an expedition to find their homeland, before you can even let them out of their holding area, you need to to know them, to truly know them, better than you do now.
And what do you know? They seem to be telepathic and you seem to be immune to their telepathy. You certainly haven't been hearing any voices in your head lately. They behave oddly around your marines, they don't talk much, which is probably a result of their telepathy, and they seem somewhat grateful that you saved their hides from certain death.
They're also a bit agitated and losing their patience. But you suppose that sitting in a holding cell for months on end while other people work endlessly will do that. Still, with this session you hope to redress that. If you give them information to absorb they will soak it like a sponge, and if they should let you know more about them? All the better, because then you ought to be able to tell if it's even safe to let them out.
--
You meet Ensign Izumi on the way down to their holding area, formerly the quarantine annex, and nod in greeting to her.
"Ready to reunite with our guests, Ensign?" you ask.
"Definitely," she says with a smile, "They're not the most talkative bunch but I think they're good people."
"Anything I should know before going in? You did spend a month with them in quarantine after all," you say.
"They're not the most touchy people in the universe. In fact, they went to pains to avoid touching. It was a bit surprising when Spear shook your hand," she says thoughtfully, "Frankly, I don't know too much about them despite that, Captain, Spear was the one who did all the talking and we were too busy trying to cross the language barrier to really trade notes on things. She does have a bit of a sweet tooth though."
"Well, I guess we're going in a bit blind," you say as you come up on the marine detail stationed at the holding area.
The marines salute you on sight. You note the Colonel has stationed an extra team of guards for your visit today. You nod in acknowledgement towards them and they visibly relax their stance.
"Corporal Young, please let us in," you say.
"Ma'am," acknowledges the Corporal, punching in the required access code to unlock the door.
It swings open and you step inside alongside two waiting marines that will serve as your escort in case things should go south. The door seals shut behind you and locks, before the door on the other side of the airlock hisses open. You step out and see where the Loroi have been living, sleeping, and eating for the last few months, and where Ensign Izumi shared living space with them.
It's a fairly spartan room with a dozen beds on either side, not too different from a barracks or a hospital wing. In the rear area, recessed behind a wall, is a set of showers and toilets, and closer to the airlock are a set of food dispensers.
And to be honest, the Loroi complaint of being bored is one you can definitely sympathise with. Months spent stuck in this room with the same people would drive you positively batty. How exactly the Loroi are managing you don't know.
The Loroi take note of your presence the moment you enter the room. The door does make getting into the holding area a rather unstealthy affair, and within seconds every pair of eyes in the room are on upon you.
They're definitely looking healthier than they once were, though they look positively odd wearing donated civilian attire that only loosely fits them. Their hair runs the gamut from blue and green, to purple, white and red, and all their skin colours range from a light almost pale blue to an almost grayish dark navy blue.
You see Spear amongst the throng and they part for her. She holds the spear for which she was named loosely in her left hand and approaches you and your marine escort, but stops at the halfway point in the room. She sits and lays down her spear, then looks at you expectantly.
You approach and join her in sitting on the floor. Ensign Izumi joins you as well, and sets out her now infamous table and tea set. You've been primed on the etiquette here, and allow the Ensign to fill your cup with water. You then fill Spear's cup, and allow her to fill the Ensign's cup. In unison, you drink, and when your cups are drained, Spear smiles at you.
"Thank you for coming, Captain," she says.
"Thank you for meeting with us, I'm sorry we couldn't get to this sooner," you apologise, "but things are looking better for us now."
"Then we can go home?" she asks hopefully.
"I'm sorry, we're still not able to do that," you say carefully, "We still don't have a way of building up the necessary amount of fuel or supplies to get you there, and we don't know the way."
Spear looks crestfallen at that and sighs.
"We know," she says softly, "but, when?"
"As soon as my people are safe, I'm sorry," you reply, "speaking of which, we're very curious about you. May we talk about your people?"
"If you talk about yours," replies Spear.
"It's a deal then," you smile.
"Deel?" asks Spear.
Izumi babbles a string of Trade to Spear.
"Dazii? Yes. Let us dazii," says Spear.
--
What follows are a series of meetings over several weeks. The first and foremost thing on everyone's mind is telepathy. The Loroi describe their telepathic gifts in quite a bit of detail. You've learned that they can 'speak' to each other quite handily, that they can sense other minds, though not you for some reason, that they have powerful psionics that can rip bulkheads apart with their mind, or supremely sensitive ones that can sense minds from great distances. They're adamant that none of their group counts themselves amongst their number though.
You also learn that they can read minds through touch. There was an enormously awkward moment where you pressed her about that and asked if she'd read your mind when you'd shaken hands.
Spear admits to it, saying that you'd offered your hand for exactly that. It takes a while to hash out, but it seems that there was a cross cultural signal that got mixed. For the Loroi, to offer their hand in such a manner is to grant the one being offered full access. It says "I am truthful, simply take my hand and see for yourself."
That your mind was closed to her sent her a very mixed signal, it was as though you had said "Trust me, my mind is closed," which is a bit of an oxymoron as the Loroi would understand it.
Ensign Izumi explains at length that the offered hand is a sign of friendship amongst humans and not an invitation to read one's mind; the fact that humans can't even read minds to begin with and must rely on speech and deed to convey intentions. The offering of the hand for humans means "I carry no weapons," and that it conveys many things, peace, trust, greeting or parting, agreement, and a number of other things depending on context, though she mercifully keeps the lecture short.
Spear absorbs all of this, then turns sharply to one of her friends as though to confer. Her eyes suddenly turn wide with mortification and then she turns to you and apologises for her mistake.
At length you do forgive her. There was no harm done, and she admits that she couldn't even read your mind. In fact, the Loroi can't sense you at all. They had assumed it was because you had something called a 'lotai' that was always on, and explain what this term means over the course of several hours of broken metaphors.
You tell the Loroi that humans have never had telepathy as they do, that it was a myth and a legend. The Loroi find themselves curious as to how you manage to get along without the gift of telepathy, which segues into a long discussion about the various human cultures, how you have convey your intentions through word and deed, how liars are generally dealt with.
You demonstrate a series of gestures and actions, from several variations of the handshake, to hugging, clapping and even a few of the vulgar gestures, explaining the context of each one, where and when one can use them and where one can't. You admit to some amusement upon seeing some of the Loroi copying the more vulgar gestures with grins on their faces. As extraordinary as their situation is, the fact that they are still children is definitely evident.
What you find is that there are some wide gaps between your cultures, and a significant amount of overlap as well. Some gestures, such as waving, are so completely identical as to be scary. Others, such as a Loroi gesture where two fingers are pointing sideways, seems similar to human vulgar gestures, but apparently its meaning is an imperative to think laterally, whereas the human clap is taken by the Loroi the same way that a human flicking their fingers in someone's face would be taken; annoying and condescending.
Beyond that, you discover other things about the Loroi's culture. You find out that none of them have what is called a 'spoken name', not even Spear. She's accepted the moniker given by Izumi on the basis that as non-telepaths you need to call her something, but they're adamant that their names must be earned and given to them by the seniors of their House. You also learn that the tattoos on Spear is a tradition that every leader of a group of children, a 'diral', must take, that they have the history of their 'time of trials' tattooed into their skin indelibly. She's asked for the materials to keep up this tradition, which you granted.
You're fairly sure by the end of it though that you've only scratched the surface on their culture. They avoided politics like the plague as well. They were either not interested in it or are keeping that tidbit to themselves for now.
Towards the end of the month, your discussions have moved to more practical matters. You ask the Loroi what they know of other aliens that might be out there. The Loroi seem confused by the question, until you let them know that the Loroi are the first aliens humans have ever met. A look of sudden understanding crossed Spear's face, and she began to describe what she could.
The Urkuk you already knew, but there was a similar species that lives within the Loroi Home Territories called the Tanuki, who they were friendly with.
The Impaqi, a mollusk-like species, also live within their current territories as a semi-independent state
They trade with a species called the Orgus who are steadfastly neutral in all things.
They're stand-offish with a species call the Emlad, though that's apparently to the Loroi's 'northern' border and nowhere near you.
The Hadrekak, reptillian space nomads, are allowed to pass through Loroi territory so long as they stick to a prescribed route and only with a military escort.
There has only been one encounter with the Nafen. It was that one encounter that lead to the founding of House Arilad. You sense that there's more to the story, but Spear moves on too quickly for you to ask questions.
The Bosroth used to occupy this region of space until the Nafen wiped them clean from existence. They don't seem too broken up about that though. Apparently the Bosroth were fond of impotent crusades to the Loroi's 'southern' border, and their removal was actually quite the boon. The Urkuk raiders that replaced them were never considered much of a threat.
Their knowledge of outlying regions is limited mostly to their home territories. The most they know of outlying regions was that their 'north' is mostly unexplored and barren, the Orgus's main trade hubs lie to their 'west', the 'east' is devoid of all life and the Nafen lie to their 'south'. While they don't know the intervening territory, they do manage to draw you a map from memory of what their home territories look like, in addition to what House holds what areas, though they're less sure of the aliens inside their territory.
They ask you about where you came from, and so you tell them about the Terran Colonial Authority. You tell them about its military organisation, how it keeps the peace amongst the Six Worlds of Humanity and the many colonies that are springing up. You mention how the TCA rises above the petty squabbles of nation-states and corporations to be the guardians of humanity, the keepers of peace, and the enemy to pirates everywhere. You explain the charter that signed the TCA into existence and the ideals upon which it was founded. By the time you end your little speech, the Loroi are all looking at you with a starry eyed expression. You suspect that if you slid a recruitment form across to Spear she'd sign it in an instant.
By the time Spear finds her voice again, she states that someone called 'Rilnizar' has many of the same ideals. All of the Loroi present whistle softly at the name. You look at Izumi and then back to Spear, but it seems that this is something about Loroi culture you don't quite know about yet, and don't have time to pursue things further before the end of the month is upon you.
--
Ask for:
[X] Telepathy (68 + 14 = 82)
[X] Culture (48 + 14 = 62)
[X] Other Species (67 + 14 = 81)
[X] Regional Knowledge (53 + 14 = 67)
Divulge:
[X] Culture (62 + 14 = 76)
[X] Lack of telepathy (44 + 14 = 58)
[X] The TCA (81 + 14 = 95)
Rewards:
Knowledge of Farseers
Knowledge of Powerful Telekinetics
Knowledge of Sanzai
Knowledge of Telepathic Immunity
Introduced to Human / Loroi Culture
Exchanged notes on Human / Loroi Etiquette
Rough Map of Loroi Territory
Greatly Impressed the Loroi with the TCA. If not for their overwhelming desire to return home, they'd likely join up in a heartbeat. Compared favourably to one called "Rilnizar". Ensign Izumi surmises this is someone or something greatly respected by the Loroi in your care.
Granted requests for writing tools and cultural implements.
Loroi agitation is lowered but not eliminated.
Loroi impatience to return home unaffected.
Loroi opinion of you grows.
Rough map of Loroi space.
SpoilerShow
White Line = Course of Spear's training vessel.
Blue X = Urkuk Ambush point.
