RP: Hidden Sun Clan Paws reaching out across the stars

Bridge

"Ehe'sii'ne Cui'she'yee Laase'ye, Kohaku Syali speaking. My party will consist of myself, eight honor guard, my attendant, and my mate. In accordance with my people's traditions. I will be the last to pass to your vessel. I look forward to our meeting. We will commence with docking." She motioned for the channel to be closed.

She turned to Lajeq, "Bring us about and prepare the port airlock." She turned to her mate, "Saflea, time to gather the honor guard and get dressed for the occasion." Kohaku then walked off the bridge with Saflea following.

Lajeq looked around the bridge. "You heard the Vonai-Rya'ka. Make it happen smartly. I do not want her to even feel when we come into contact with that ship." he said with a clear voice.

The pilot rotated the ship, and engaged maneuvering thrusters. He brought the ship around to where the illuminated airlock was located. He adjusted his alignment to ensure a hard seal.

Kohaku's cabin

Kohaku pulled out her robe of status and donned it. Once in place she picked up her staff from its holder. She looked at the veil, her impulse was tradition be damned. "Saflea, given that we are initiating contact. How would you feel about my forgoing the veil? After all when we attended the Conference on Yamatai we met multiple Envoys with out it."

Saflea paused in her preparation. "I would have to agree. That did establish a precedent." She put on the white robe that marked her position as Kohaku's mate. She added the Afirmu for her Ruoka, Jael, and Punla.

"Ready when you are?" she said. Picking up a small parcel which she tucked under her arm.

The two of them made their way down to the airlock.

The ship was in position and the docking armature began extending it approached the alien vessel. Once it made contact it secured itself and the armature began pressurizing. Kohaku and the other waited for the signal that the pressure was equalized.

SNV - Light of Guidance

The Shipmaster watched the status display as the two ships came together, he had all of the ships engineers onhand in case something happened - including those whom had been on break or whom had been asleep just moments earlier. "Status yellow," remarked one of the bridges engineering sub-officers as they monitored the linkage through a camera.

"First stage completed, second stage underway.... second stage complete. Pressurization commencing," the sub-officer turned in their chair when they heard a sound in their headset. "Connection made, boarding ramp is pressurized."

Inside of the boarding ramp, a status light flickered on near the Guidances main airlock, flickering between green and blue.

Air Lock - Gulvi-ka Mui

"We have a good seal, pressure is nominal, Vonai-Rya'ka" said Tolfan the head of her Ubuty Gely .

"Very well, Saflea. Make them aware of us." Kohaku said.

Saflea activated the communicator on her belt. "Ehe'sii'ne Cui'she'yee Laase'ye, Saflea Syali speaking. We are ready to embark. The Ubuty Gely for the Vonai-Rya'ka will emerge first. Then myself with the Vonai-Rya'ka entering last. This is tradition and not any indication of distrust."

With a nod the first two of the Honor Guard started down the passage. After they had gone two paces the next pair moved, with the process repeated until all eight of the guard were moving. Saflea gave a bow to Kohaku and then turned and followed the others.

Kohaku waited a longer interval, the traditions of the people required a certain sense of the dramatic. She then slowly glided down the passage.

SNV - Light of Guidance

The first thing Kohaku's royal guard would notice upon boarding was how dim the lighting was, it was almost pitch black except for a light blue hue coming from floor and ceiling lighting. However, if these indivisuals were capable of seeing in the dark they'd have noticed nine others in the airlock; these nine wore glowing golden robes and each one was armed with a sword stave, a long weapon that resembled a staff but instead had a long blade affixed to the 'front' of it. The weapons were held in a way that showed that these nine indivisuals were of no threat, with the weapons up against each of the person's body, their eyes were closed.

Six of these indivisuals were Daur, while two were Laibe, and one was a My'leke - the My'leke stood furthest from the group and nearest the only entry way into the ship. Flanking this Daur were two other indivisuals, a My'leke, and a Laibe, both of which wore metallic red robes that covered their bodies from top to bottom, the only thing that could be easily gleaned were their heads and - inlike the others - these two had their eyes open and watched the aliens as they boarded the ship.

One other person was here as well, Cui'she'yee stood a few feet ahead of her two assistants; and out of all of them there, her clothing was the most easily recognized as being extravagent, a silver robe that covered her from top to bottom, leather like pauldrons were affixed to her shoulders and a silver cape. She had two swords affixed to her belt and had a hand on one of them, but the other was free. Her left arm wrist had a small metallic buckler affixed to it.

Cui'she'yee waited until Kohaku was in sight, she smiled at the indivisuals before saying. "We welcome you aboard our ship," she spoke in the language that was that of Kohaku's people.

The clan's members possessed excellent night vision so the low light did not bother them. The Honor Guard dressed in their black garments trimmed with silver moved silently down the passage. At a single sound from the leader of the Guard, They all dropped to one knee. Their swords held by the blade with the points towards the deck. The leader of the Guard walked up until he stood in front of the others and then stepped side way.

Saflea and Kohaku walked past the honor guard, Saflea wore grey garments as appropriate to her position. She held a small package under her left arm.

Kohaku was wearing her preferred all black body suit of leather. She wore the maroon hooded cloak of her position as Vonai-Rya'ka. She carried her staff with the blazing Siamaka in the star atop it.

She walked until she was a few meters from Cui'she'yee. She handed the staff to Saflea and stood with her arms outstretched. She then spoke while making sure to expose her teeth, "As Vonai-Rya'ka of the Poku Saeruo Degonjo, I greet you in the name of our Mui Tarbah Leyto, and the Pokuvonai. I stand with arms wide and teeth bared so that you will know that I speak without deception." she lowered her arms.

"You have honored us with your reception as we honor you by ours. This is a very good start. May this meeting of our people be of mutual benefit to us all." she replied.

Cui'she'yee gave a curt nod of the head, before her eyes turned toward her own honour guard. "Lie'chen'da," she shouted and watched as the guards pulled their arms back - the swordstaves suddenly retracted into their housings before being placed upon the deck, their outer edges facing inward toward the ship. "As you have honoured us with your presence here," she then spoke and stepped off to the side. "Shall we? We have a room set aside for Great Meetings such as ours, and it is better to speak there than in an airlock," a smile creased her face as she spoke.

While Cui made her request, the honour guard picked up their weapons, stood up and then proceeded toward the airlock where they stood at the ready. Her assistants, on the other hand, remained quiet and still.

Bridge

The shipmaster was watching it all, which wasn't a surprise given the ships airlock had a camera in it. "She's taken an awful risk displaying such bravery and openness to these aliens," remarked one of crewmen there.

"That's why she's an Ehe'sii'ne," The shipmaster spoke, his eyes staring at the image displayed on the ships main viewer. "The Royal Family was smart to set them up the diplomatic corps, and have them handle these kinds of situations - I think if it were me I'd be a bit more cautious."

"That's because you were a soldier though sah," the same crewmen who spoke before said. "Well, let's just hope things remain civil, after all; we don't need another enemy."

"Ain't that the truth..." the Shipmasters voice faded as he picked up his headset and then leaned back in his chair, there was no way to hear what was being said - not because he turned off the mic - but because Cui' herself had done just that and he was certain she'd turned off the recording devices elsewhere as well, which in a way made the Shipmaster is a bit angry given it was *his* ship.

Kohaku made a simple gesture with her left hand, and her honor guard rose silently and fell in behind her and Saflea. She whispered in Yamataigo to Saflea, "This is a promising first step."

The leader of the guard pressed a button on his wrist computer. It sent a message back to the Gulvi'ka Mui,

Vonai-Rya'ka has met with her opposite. Proceeding to a room for discourse. Secure airlock.

Click to expand...

"By all means kindly lead the way. As you said, a meeting room is a much better place for discussions such as these." Kohaku said with a slight nod as she took back her staff from Saflea.

Cui'she'yee beckoned for the group to follow, and lead them out of the airlock and into an expansive hallway; the hallway was devid of any of the ships crew. The walls were lined in what looked like wooden paneling, and water slowly cascaded down the sides and collected in small basins that ran along the left and right of the hallway. Plants hunt from the ceiling, and the hallway itself was quite cool tempreture wise. Small, rabbit like critters roamed the hallways, some taking a drink from the basins while others scurried into small holes in the walls.

One however ran up to Cui'she'yee and hoped up onto her shoulder, where it rested itself against her neck and remained calm throughout the entire walk, a few of the other critters followed shortly behind the group and a few even made their way ahead of it. After some walking the group would arrive at a set of doubel doors, flanked on each side were guards who stepped aside and opened the doors. The room beyond was just as lavious as the hallway itself, marble flooring and water running down the sides of the walls, there were plants not just covering the ceiling but also along the walls as well. There were also video-screens located on the far wall which presently showed what was outside of the ship, which at current would be just the stars located behind the ship.

There was a rectangular table in the center of the room, and in the center of that was a circular cut out for a holographic projector, this projector presently had the ship that they were all on currently floating a few inches above the table itself. There were eleven chairs on each side, with one chair on each that was larger than the rest. "Please take a seat," Cui'she'yee offered to Kohaku as her guard moved onto one side of the room.

Kohaku walked along following Cui'she'yee. She noted some of the similarities with the hallway. "Water cascading down the walls seems a bit extravagant for a ship corridor. But it could also be a covert way to create white noise to interfere with listening devices.

Keyarq a female Qaktoro with tawny fur with gray spots, atop charcoal skin with one blue eye and one green eye had the honor of being the Ta'a for the honor guard. Her eyes scanned the corridor as she had been trained looking for possible threats to the Vonai-Rya'ka. She was sworn to die before she would allow any harm befall the second most important person in the clan. She noticed one of the small critters, she snatched one up from the floor as it scurried past with ease. She did not harm it but held it up so she could examine it. 'Are these the food for these people? Seems kind of small... would only make a snack for most Qaktoro.' She thought. When she noticed that one of them ran up to the Emissary for the Fox People, she placed the critter down on the floor safely. 'Damn, here I thought these people had something handy with these as food. They are pets."

Kohaku surveyed the room and turned to Keyarq. "Post the guard opposite our hosts guard." she said. She took note of the seats and took the largest one that was on the side of the table that her guard stood waiting. Saflea took a seat next to her on her left side.

"Normally with such a meeting," Cui'she'yee started and waved a Daur over to her. "We'd offer you some food, but we have no clue whether our food would be safe for you to eat; so if you want you may have some delivered from your ship, or do you actually want to try some of our cousine?" she asked, glancing up at the Daur whom had walked over and spoke a few things to her in Tinacen - the Daur nodded with a curteous bow and then left through a side door.

Cui' waved her hand in the air, causing a holographic display to appear to which she tapped on a few things - the holographic sphear in the center faded out to provide an unobstructed view between the two parties. "If I may ask," she waved her hand again to cause the window to vanish. "What brought our presence to you and your people?"

Kohaku considered the offer, the Pokuvonai physiology was rather robust when it came to most proteins. However, spices and condiments could be problematic.

"Perhaps it would be best if we had some of our food brought over. And then we could both have our respective scientists analyze the contents to determine any risk." she offered. She leaned over to Saflea and asked her mate to request to have some samples of traditional fare prepared and delivered.

She smiled in response to Cui's last question. "We have been in this sector of space form some 700+ years. For most of that time, we took measures to avoid contact. Recent events caused our leaders to rethink that paradigm. We initiated contact with a faction far to the Galactic West of your current position.

That contact resulted in an alliance with the Yamatai Empire. One which for the most part has been beneficial. But there are some paradigms that our allies hold to that we do not. Compounded by their forging an alliance with other factions that impacted our original treaty.

So our leader and the Tonai have decided that the clan would be better served by making contact with other species and factions. Our probes have been aware of your presence, and that you have been exploring other systems. This is why we chose to initiate contact, and perhaps establish a treaty between our people which would benefit both." She replied.

"I see, so there are others out there; we began to suspect as much due to broadcasts we started to intercept, hmmm...." Cui'she'yee leaned back in her chair and began to think on that, thats the routh direction that most of our Youth Corp explorers went and to which we've since lost contact with, could these.... She wanted to ask the question about the Yamatai, but this meeting wasn't about them, so she instead pushed that question to the back of her mind - to be asked later on. "I do say, 700 years? But then the Universe is vast," the My'leke's voice trailed as her gaze was taken when the room light up brightly, the cause being the systems sun which was being displayed the left side monitoes; it took only a moment for those monitors to polerize, blocking out the majority of the sunlight and diving the room back into a semi-dark state.

"My people have been here for quite awhile ourselves, but our leaders have always maintained a policy of avoiding contact, out of concern that we'd run into someone - or something - hostile," the girls tail flickered, and the tendrils on the end split up. "I am glad, as far as my leaders, that you have come to us with peaceful intent," as the My'leke spoke, her assistants were actually recording the meeting - it wasn't just being recorded via audio, but the assistants were also making a log of it in real time. "If I may ask, what are your people like?"

Kohaku considered Cui'she'yee's question. "Well when my people arrived in this region it was with a flotilla of ships. They represented all that remained of our people. It took many years to build a new home and to carefully rebuild what we had lost." she took a sip.

"As for what my people are like. That is a very complex question. Let me start with the basics. The People of the Clan consist of four species. Two are pure strained Qaktoro and Tula. Then the Tuoro and Qakla are half breeds. Generally speaking our culture is a clan based one. Where the majority of our populations works for the greater good. For the record though, I myself while a member of the clan, am not of those species. I have lived among the Pokuvonai as one of them for more than ten years. Socially we belong to Sects, Houses and Families. The sects are typically occupational with members from various Houses belonging. A House is a collection of families, some are small and some quite large. Families are the smallest social structure, but the composition varies based on the members.

The Mui is the leader of the Clan. Beneath him is the Council which consists of 65 voted persons. Although with the colonization movement the size of the council will increase.

Like your people now, mine are moving from our home and settling upon planets that we have surveyed long ago. "

Kohaku decided to let their hosts consider what she said before continuing.

As Cui'she'yee listened, her head nodded every so often; taking in what Kohaku was saying. A clan based system... interesting, reminds me of the history books when we used to have clans.. the My'leke thought with a mental smile. "Interesting," she said and straightened herself up a bit, or as good as one could get being a four legged creature. "Have you aways used a clan based system?" she asked, curious about teh answer.

Kohaku smiled warmly, "Actually the clan system has been the norm for our people since before the industrial age. That would be more than 3,000 years. Although the number of clans varies. Currently there are only two clans, most of the old clans became the Sects after the Exodus."

"I take it the Exodus is related to you leaving some great disaster?" Cui' asked, glancing away from Kohaku only when a Daur came by to place a drink in front of her. The My'leke picked up the drink using the tendrils in her tail, she waited a moment to check its contents before taking a sip.

Kohaku paused and thought how best to proceed. "That is a particularly painful point in our people's history. Our people once had an empire spanning several star systems. We had a population of over 12 billion. We had formed alliances with other species. Unfortunately, back then the alliances included a provision for mutual defense. One of our allies encountered an unknown species. A very hostile and dangerous one. They had weapons that none of the alliance species could stop. The ability to incinerate a planet from orbit. Our warriors fought valiantly but it was only a delaying action.

So one of our most powerful clan leaders convinced the people to take steps to ensure our continuation as a people. For two years as our people died fighting, massive vessels were constructed. Fifteen of them, to take as many people and as much of our culture as possible. 1,500,000 people left to find a new world. A month later our home world and all trace of our people was destroyed.

For fifty years the arks and the flotilla of support craft traveled over 12,000 light years. They stopped when necessary to find supplies or repair ships. Three of the arks were lost during the exodus. Once they arrived at our current home, they started the process of rebuilding." she said.

Cui' collasped her hands in front of her, resting her head up against them as she listened. It was an eerie feeling, a most strange one. Hearing the word 'month' though made her thoughts pause for a moment, she had no idea what that word meant, and even the translation software had no information on its meaning or anything that it could relate to her own language. She waited a few moments, collecting her thoughts.

"My apologies for bringing it up then, I do not mean to bring pain upon you for remembering." As Cui' apologized, one of her assistant's attention was taken when a Daur walked up to them and handed them a message, they looked it over - tapped it - and then handed it back to the Daur who gave a bow and then left the room.

Kohaku smiled back a Cui' keeping her teeth from showing. "There is no need to apologize. The Divine Path teaches us to learn from adversity, just as we should learn from prosperity. Every year on the anniversary of the day the World died, we spend the daylight half of the day remembering the awful events, and vow that it will never happen again. Once the sun sets, we spend the rest of the day in celebration, we celebrate our continued existence, our accomplishments, and our children. For they are truly our future."

She paused for a moment, then added. "And it is that very future, which has brought us to this meeting. Perhaps you will tell us more about your people. Your comment of being here for a long while would seem to indicate there is a story of being elsewhere."

A faint smile appeared on Cui's face before she took a sip of her drink and set it down on the table. "Much like yourselves, my people aren't native to this region of space. We to fled a disaster, a war of genocide, started by an extremist group of people who wanted power and control. Much of our history about the Great War was lost in the mass-evacuation of my people, and loss of numerious transports that carried my ancestors to this galaxy," she gazed upward toward the ceiling, contempting what might've happened to the other ships. "What I do know, is that the war had lasted for many years; with both sides taking territory and retaking territory, it got to a point where my people's leadership realized that with the way the war had been going it was only a matter of time before we became extinct."

"So the construction of massive evacuation transports had been done, and several million of my people, along with the Daur and Laibe," she glanced at the two species in turn. "I'm afraid I have no idea whatever happened after that, we have no information on how the war went after my ancestors fled. No clue whether the war is still going on, even to this day; or whether the two sides eventually destroyed themselves. Although my people are forever in search of that answer, it is something we really want to know."

She leaned back in her chair, and waited to see what Kohaku would say before she continued.