In Space, We Don't Abandon Innocence

by David Silver

10 - Hostile Contact

"Incoming message." Another crewmember had noticed that one. "Using one of our bands."

Commander Tela snapped upright in her seat. "How recently did we use that band?"

Roger scratched at his chin as he looked at that same display. "A couple of months ago, at most. We haven't been using it since leaving friendly space. In either event, send it to main screen."

A reptilian face filled the main screen, sneering at them all. "Wow. Ponies sent a bunch of strange whatevers? Crazy." He folded his arms over his chest with a puff of smoke. "This is First Scale Garble. Kindly turn your tails, if you got any, and get out of here."

Rainbow Dash appeared beside him. "Uh, Hi! This is Rainbow Dash! What's up, dude?" She did a barrel roll in place. "Sorry about my buddy, he's got a bit of a big head on him, hah!"

Garble glanced aside, Rainbow only an image on his screen. "What the?" He leaned in towards the camera. "They got ponies too?! Huh, explains why they're using their radios. Hey, pony, tell your friends to buzz off."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Uh, look, you don't get to be rude like that. Look at how awesome we are! I mean, do you even have starships? I bet you don't!"

Garble waved around at the ship he was clearly in. "Did you even open your eyes before you started talking?" His eyes snapped back to Roger. "Back off! That world is ours now, and we aren't looking for guests."

Roger turned his attention to Rainbow Dash. "Do you know who this is?"

Rainbow groaned. "We ran into these guys, uhhh, like, five hundred years ago? Back when we were on our first planet. Dragons. Some of them have a real attitude problem. And by 'some', I mean 'basically all of them.'"

"I can hear that." Garble huffed with obvious annoyance. "If you get any closer, we are opening fire."

Roger waved that off. "Look, Garble. Or First Scale Garble. We're not here to start trouble. We're not looking to steal your planet. Would it be possible to open diplomatic channels, rather than threatening violence?"

Garble pounded a fist against his chest. "What does that even mean? I'm saying this is our home. Go find someplace else to go."

Roger brought his hands together, lacing his fingers before him. "We're stopping." He held up a hand to copy the order. The ship slowed. "You know how to reach us." With a cutting motion, the conversation was ended. He sank back into his seat. "Not what I expected to deal with."

Rainbow Dash flew up onto the main display. "Dragons. Weird right? But yeah, we totally met them. Some of them are okay, I guess. But this one?" She leaned back and raised her forehooves up behind her head. "What a jerk! Now, if we could talk to some of the nice ones, maybe it'd work out?"

Roger gently waved Rainbow away. "RD, I appreciate your assistance and input, but chain of command."

"Oh, right." Blushing, she darted away to leave the command deck to the commanding officers, which did not include her.

Roger gave a wry smile. "I always wondered how the ponies kept those sorts of things organized. Now, what can we see from here? We can't be too far from something or they wouldn't have asked us to stop. Keep sensors passive, but look as best as you can without them powered on. Time to break out the telescopes."

On the main display, several other windows opened up, all around the central window that had shown Garble. In each was a different planet, and even some space debris. They drifted across the screen in random order as the ship idled in place.

"It's cold out here." Casey sat up straighter in her seat. "Mostly empty. Not seeing any obvious signs of life so far, Captain. We'll keep searching."

---

"Permission to return to duty?"

Roger sat up in his bed to find Twilight on a display across the room, looking quite sheepish. "Twilight, you are the ship. I wasn't the one that sent you off duty, and I have little reason to deny your return."

"True." She stood straight. "And yet I needed your permission to be proper and follow the rules." She ruffled the wings on her back. "Thank you, Captain. I am eager to return to your assistance."

Roger yawned as he stretched his arms up. "Glad to have you back. The others have been working hard, your break or not." He raised a brow at Twilight. "How attached are you and the other programs, anyway?"

Twilight lit up at that. "Why, very! I designed them to be able to do their jobs without me, but there's always that pang of guilt when they work so hard in my absence."

Roger read between the lines. "That sounds more like you're good friends, rather than any, hm, programmed connection. I wouldn't ever do this, but, theoretically, if we turned you off, would they keep working?"

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. "Yes, but it would likely cause a variety of emotional stresses for them, regardless of the fact they'd still get their jobs done. Even a good, long break is just that." She did a little bow. "I apologize if I've given you reason to consider that. I will work harder to banish such fancies." She glanced away. "Please don't deactivate me."

Roger waved that thought away. "It's a disturbing thought for sure, but one we wouldn't do without a damned good reason." He leaned in, meeting Twilight's eyes. "Look, we all have emotions. You had yours, said as much, and left without getting in the way. That is the exact response any crewmember of this ship should display. If you require additional psychiatric time or resources, tell us."

Twilight bowed again. "Thank you, Captain. I will not hesitate to ask, if it happens again. So far, I believe I've worked through my feelings on the matter."

"And you're welcome to those feelings, and to talk about them." He slid from his bed. "But, for now, welcome back. I don't mean to be rude, but these are my private quarters."

It took Twilight a moment to put those pieces together. "Oh! Sorry." She vanished, returning privacy to the room.

---

Sunset darted from cover to cover, tail twitching. She was outside of the library, and was thus a pony. As such, she had no clothes, and did her best to not show off her pony parts.

Her senses told her it was safe. "She's in there." Sunset let out a slow breath. "Why am I so worried? It's not like I'm going to die if this goes badly." She took a slow breath and approached the door. "You've stormed in on me enough times." She reached up and gently clopped a hoof on the door. "Time to return the favor."

"Just a moment!" A familiar voice answered, muffled by the door. A few moments later, Susan opened the door, dressed casually. "Sunset! This is a surprise."

Sunset brought a hoof up, only to drop it just as quickly. "Hi. You recognized me?"

Susan waved into her room. "Please, not another pony, or human, has that hair. It's obviously you. Also, you sound like her, and you're acting like her."

Sunset approached into the room, leaving the door open behind her. "Thanks for noticing." She shuffled into place, glancing around the room. "You live here?"

Susan laughed, reaching for Sunset, just to pause when Sunset gave her a look. "Sorry. Is it that bad being a pony? You're adorable either way."

Sunset held up a hoof towards Susan. "I am a librarian and historian. I'm not an animal!"

Susan leaned in, still grinning. "And what does that make your non-librarian form?"

The door slid closed by itself with nobody there to keep it open.

Sunset huffed. "You know what I mean. I don't like being objectified, alright? I don't mind when you notice things about me, but I'm not just my looks."

Susan sank to her bottom before Sunset, bringing them far closer to eye to eye. "Sunset, I happen to like you, as a person. Let's be honest, you're a hologram. I can't touch you more than you want to be touched. You could blink away at any instant. It's kind of neat, the idea of being a program like that."

Sunset gestured her hooves at Susan. "Well, you are." She raised her front hooves. "I'll give you this. It is nice being able to walk around like this, without all those silly little clothes we have to wear when I'm human." She colored gently. "Not that I have any parts to cover like this." She suddenly turned and raised her tail to display.

But there was nothing to see. Sunset was was a construct not made for that kind of consideration. "See? Or don't, I guess? Either way." She turned around to face Susan. "Now I'm dying, and I didn't show you anything! Brains are dumb."

Susan snorted gently. "Brains are stupid sometimes, digital or organic. But we live with it." She offered her hands to Sunset. "Feel better?"

Sunset let out a little snort. "No!" She did take Susan's hands, however. "Thanks for being my friend, anyway."

Susan let her hand be held as she smiled. "You came here for a reason. Was it just to hang out? I'm alright with that option if so."

Sunset flicked her tail in place as she pondered that. "I'd be okay with that, but I kinda feel like you have more on your mind?" She shuffled back and forth in place. "You were looking at me kinda oddly, and not just in that 'Can I pet her?' kinda way I'm feeling right now."

Susan smiled at Sunset, gently squeezing her hoof. "That is because I want to know why you're really here." She tilted her head slightly. "Seriously, Sunset. If you wanna hang out, I'm game."

Sunset deflated a little. "I do want to hang out." She brought Susan's hand closer to touch her nose. "But I want to know why you want to hang out with me?"

Susan tapped her fingers against Sunset's snout. "I already said it. I like you. But I get what you mean." She lowered her hands, giving Sunset a reassuring smile. "This will sound odd, but I'm just a little jealous."

Sunset hiked a fuzzy brow at that. "Jealous? What of? You want to be trapped in a single room answering a lot of book questions all day every day?" She tensed as she realized something. "Not that I ever have any!"

Susan gave Sunset a flat look. "You sure have a lot of 'em, actually." She waved around at her room. "You're not in your library. You're visiting a friend, a human friend."

Sunset paused at that. "Oh." She sank to her haunches. "You have a little point. Just a little one." She raised two hooves close together. "Practically microscopic." The two shared a grin. "You're being too damn nice to me."

Susan offered a hand. "You're worth the effort. Now tell me what you like to do when you're not looking up books."

Sunset tapped her hooves together before her. "Well, um, I like to, er..." She suddenly shot up and beamed at Susan. "I know! Why don't I take you into my world?"

Susan raised a brow. "Aren't we impossibly far away from where you came from originally?"

Sunset pondered that a moment. "And we have no mirror. Right." She sagged. "Forget that. I like playing a guitar, and I'm not bad at singing." She tapped at her throat. "But all ponies are pretty good at that, so nothing special there."

Susan beamed at Sunset. "Alright! So, you're gonna play me a song? Anything in particular?"

Sunset brought a hoof to her mouth, pretending to nibble on it as she considered the question. "You have a guitar?"

Susan laughed at that question. "You're a hologram, Sunset. You have a guitar if you want to have one."

"Oh. Right." Sunset reared up onto her hind legs, a guitar springing into being, cradled by her forehooves. "Let's rock."

Author's Note:

It's almost overdue that we had our first alien conversation.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Theres a Garble? The Dragons mustve liked so much how he brought ponies to give them stuff they made a position.

Speaker To Animals.

[David Silver]

11925258
Dragons persist longer than namby pamby ponies.

[BestinDworld]

Well at least they didn’t attack each other

[PrincePegacornV]

11925258
(Note eye roll)

Lol. Nod to Niven with that remark, And a kzin at that...

[Okie Brony]

So, the dragons rule Equestria now? Interesting. Or else, Garble is lying, which I feel is more likely. The mystery deepens.

I often feel bad about pointing out typos, but this is one of my pet peeves:

Rainbow groaned. "We ran into these guys, uhhh, like, half a millenia ago?"

Should be "millennium," unless it was Dash making the mistake, which would be in-character.

[Booster Spice]

11925345

Standard Equestrian Dragon greeting.

Roar, and Pounce.

[dlambchic]

Dragons rule! They live just about forever, breath fire, are immune to energy and projectile weapons, magic resistant and are just about invincible. Poor, soft, short lived, weak little ponies don't stand a chance against them. Humans won't do much better. They must have a huge tech advantage if they can build stargates. Don't get them mad, they would completely atomize/vaporize that human ship in an instant.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

That dragon is a real hot head.

[David Silver]

11925432
Fixed!

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

I suppose it was inevitable to have a "we are being hailed" moment.

Susan and Sunset are also getting a lot closer.