The distress beacon is located around the fourth world from a G-type main sequence star, a planet roughly 0.9 times the size of Earth with 0.8 the gravity. The scans report an oxygen-dominant environment, with large bodies of liquid water covering most of the planet, frozen at the poles. Clear evidence of intelligent life belonging to multiple cultures (or possibly even species or subspecies) is shown by the presence of agricultural settlements on multiple different landmasses and by the consequent levels of deforestation. They appear to have forged metals and domesticated local animals along roughly the track predicted by Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development; the most advanced such settlement appears to be experimenting with steam. Underwater settlements may also exist, though this is harder to determine from the available data; if so, that would have startling implications for the nature of the local species.

"Commander Andreas, do we have any records of a civilization here?"

"No sir, though this isn't unusual given the remoteness," he replies, updating the records as he speaks.

Lucien nods.

"Lieutenant Singh, any radio or subspace noise? Aside from the beacon."

"Radio sir, though only from the most advanced of the civilizations. Analyzing the content now."

The content is multilingual in at least five languages, some of which are specific to specific bands; these appear to be in at least two broad families, none of them clearly connected to each other. Sometimes a channel will say things before rapidly switching languages to repeat what can be guessed from the tone is the same meaning, a Rosetta stone that should make it easy to crack the secrets of the languages past the first once the first is gotten. The tones range from salesman-talk up to Official Officials Taking Themselves Very Seriously, but the exact meaning is still unknown.

"Multiple languages, I'll be able to set-up the grammar and inter-language translation from up here but I'll need to interact in person for a bit to get a basic vocabulary down."

"We can arrange that. Telemetry, can you determine the source of the distress beacon."

"Near the center of the largest industrializing city, sir."

Probably in a better world he'd be able to establish contact formally, but as it stands he shouldn't risk interfering with a pre-warp civilization, even if they are the site of crash landing. Instead he dispatches his First Officer and Commander Petra to investigate.

It has been two weeks since Commander Lia has been planetside. Admittedly that's a pretty normal amount of time to go between away missions, on the short side even, but she's still relieved to finally get to go and explore somewhere new, just like she is every time.

The tech level suggests she can get away with landing somewhere out of sight just outside the city so long as she's quick and quiet about it.

Nobody seems to notice as the shuttle touches down. There's not a lot of cover, given the enthusiastic campaign of deforestation around the city that has done its best to wipe out every kind of tree incapable of bearing fruit and yet capable of burning or consuming water, but between the smoke produced by early industrial processes and the rocky nature of the coal-bearing hills near the city, she can get the cover she needs to land.

Neat! Her and Petra are already wearing their generic early industrial clothing with head coverings and badges and technology obscured so they can set out for the city. Hopefully they can find some natives Petra can eavesdrop on before they introduce themselves.

The natives seem oddly similar to humans! Not obviously identical, they've got funny-colored eyes and lighter frames and mildly purplish skin, but pretty close. Another successful prediction for Hodgkin's Law. Lia and Petra will get some curious looks, but they can pass for an ethnicity that nobody previously knew existed.

... Plausibly because there's a bunch of different ethnicities of people here! The big city doesn't have five languages, it has fifteen, and nobody particularly cares what Lia and Petra say to each other or what language they say it in. The big city has tall buildings and factories with not-very-well filtered smokestacks burning coal and trains that... appear to not produce any steam... on elevated monorails over the streets, and the streets are full of people. There's street vendors everywhere hawking everything and signs up in fifteen languages -

- One of the languages is English. They can tell it's English, because it's up on signs with fourteen other languages and the Roman alphabet is really very recognizable.

Between the signs and the street vendors Petra is not actually going to need to talk to anyone to start entering translation data into the keyboard she has disguised as a bangle. Her and Lia's badges will start translating shortly.

That English ended up on street signs indicates that the crashed ship was discovered by the natives and... plausibly that some of the crew is still around? If it was a sleeper ship than the survivors could have been numerous enough to make the signs worthwhile.

Lia has no idea what's going on with the English but that bangle tapping means translation is at all working and so she can find answers the easy way.

"Excuse me, what language is that?" she asks the first non-busy person she can find, pointing at the English on the sign.

"That's kingtalk," she says, "the language of the king's books." She was idly looking at things. "You're new here?"

... There appear to be security cameras up on the monorails, and - now that one's spotted - elsewhere. They're bigger and clunkier than anything Earth has, but they don't look like they're from someone who just invented the steam engine, and their placement will be really familiar to Petra.

... Yet that sure looks like the setup Khan used in his empire. Khan, who had fled in a sleeper ship, presumed lost, along with a few dozen other Augments. Who had left Petra behind, on accident or on purpose she doesn't know. 

She.... is not going to tell Lia this. Instead she will stare into one of the cameras, her face clearly visible with an unreadable expression on it.

(Unreadable to normal eyes. Khan would be able to read it, if he paid attention.)

"Yes, I'm new here. Is the king new as well? I hadn't heard of him."

"- The King founded Starlift," the window shopper says. "He knows everything and has steel ravens for eyes, and his sorcery makes metal alive and lightning dance to his will. He's the king."

"I'm from really far away. Is he a good king?" 

Some people think of information gathering as a subtle delicate art. Lia thinks those people are boring.

"He's the king."

Well that's not particularly helpful either way.

"Does he live in the center of the city?"

"He lives in the palace -"

And thaaaaat is some information relative to the 'good guy: y/n' question comes up, in the form first of a few people running very fast, and then a couple seconds later a few dozen large men. They're locals, with black armor (pre-spaceflight synthetic composites, looking more designed to deflect arrows than like something that would have any defensive capabilities whatsoever against phasers) and helmets with face-concealing visors and large gun-family weapons, though since they aren't shooting them just what they are can't be discerned.

Lia tenses when people start fleeing and once she hears heavy boots approaching she pivots and crouches behind a nearby fabric merchant's cart, pulling Petra after her just before the armored men burst onto the scene.