"Our society has rules about sharing science and technology will other civilizations. In general, we allow other civilizations to request an evaluation to determine how much it would be safe to share with you but we don't have the staff on board to carry one out."

"That's understandable, we have a similar approach to such things. Though our goal is always to put other civilizations on a path where they can use such knowledge responsibly. Knowledge is meant to be shared."

Captain Montgomery is briefly taken aback and motions to cut the channel. "It sounds like they don't have anything like the Prime Directive." She makes another gesture to resume. "Could you tell us a bit more about your civilization? Perhaps you have a first contact package?"

"We have some things like that prepared though I'm told that this communication channel isn't well suited to transferring such things. Our society is what we call a collaborative democracy. Our society is organized around three philosophical pillars: Learn all there is to learn, teach those who would be taught, and never allow an atrocity to happen if you can prevent it."

"Those certainly sound like noble principles." Hannah says neutrally. "Could I enquire as to your plans for this system?"

"As I said, Meld is a research outpost. Our plans for this system are to build any further facilities necessary to support research into this realm's physics and also build sufficient defenses to deter any assaults. Assuming we're able to develop faster than light travel, as you've demonstrated is possible, we hope to send out further exploration platforms to catalog other nearby systems. We have no particular plans to build any permanent installations in this realm outside of this system at this time."

"Do you mean to imply that you're from outside this universe?"

"I think you use the word universe the way we use the word realm yes. We only arrived in this universe about thirty-eight Earth days ago, assuming your Earth has the same rotational period as ours. Most of our installations and other equipment was transported here rather than being built locally."

"Do you mean to imply that you're humans?"

"Most of us think of ourselves that way yes, though a great many of us including myself aren't biological anymore."

"I think we'd be very interested in understanding how you accomplished that if you're willing to share that information."

"Of course, our means of immortality is among those technologies we're comfortable distributing widely. Though the version we distribute without conditions is not something we expect other civilizations to be able to manufacture. In general, our immortality is a mix of advanced technology and sophisticated magic. Naturally, the version we distribute is pure magic."

Everyone on the bridge looks stunned. "Did you just casually offer us immortality?"

"It's a very serious offer though admittedly adapting the technology to allow species other than humans to be reembodied will take research effort. Access to your medical databases would dramatically streamline that work."

"That's a lot to take in. Perhaps you'd like to come onboard for further discussions?"

"I can do that, where would you like me to arrive?"

"Do you mean to say you have technology to move from one point to another without passing through the intervening space?"

"We have magic for that yes, we haven't figured out technology for it yet."

"We'd be happy to receive you in our shuttle bay in half an hour."

"Until then."

"They closed the channel. Those were some pretty wild claims they made. I can confirm that the ship sending that transmission has no life-signs on it. The other member of the pair has only one and it is probably human."

"The Federation would be hard pressed to build something as big as that station in a month and they seem to have done it with no major infrastructure in this system and no sign of warp drive. They definitely have capabilities we don't understand. I'm not sure they have exactly the ones they claim but it seems a possibility worth considering," Lieutenant Hriss notes.

"There's a lot to consider," agrees the Captain. "Rommie, please send your avatar to escort the envoy from the shuttlebay to the conference room. Hriss you and I are going to the conference room, Rommie can you ask Dr Fook to meet us there?"

There's a round of nods.

"Drake you have the bridge."

"Aye Captain."

Rommie joins the other three in the conference room with a hologram. "My avatar is waiting for our guest to arrive. The shuttlebay is clear of other personnel and all the shuttles are stowed in the hanger. The Starlight vessels are keeping position relative to us. Whatever their version of transporters is works at longer range than ours do."

"Our initial contact got somewhat sidetracked by their claims about their capabilities but our primary mission remains establishing peaceful contact and understanding what their intentions are," Captain Montgomery notes.

"Perhaps, though I know my people at least are going to be quite interested in this immortality concept. We really don't like losing friends and for us it's inevitable," Rommie counters.

"I found the terms she used there interesting. She said it would take research to reembody non-human people. I wonder what exactly that means," muses Hriss.

"What should I know when talking to these people Emiko? What are my priorities aside from peaceful relations?"

"They have at least six distinct species onboard their vessel. We can't do genetic analysis from here but there are enough macro-scale physiological differences for us to be confidant in that assessment. They're also constantly warping the sub-realm that's present here. We're still trying to understand what all the different effects are doing. For one thing they were somehow routing radio signals through the sub-realm to avoid the lightspeed lag which would otherwise have been present in your conversation. They're also shifting some of the mass of their starship into the sub-realm, I expect they can maneuver a lot faster than we would typically expect. If I had a wishlist the obvious item would be access to their technical and scientific databases but failing that just getting them to stay here for a while is teaching us a huge amount and getting them to use their FTL drive at slower speeds within the system would probably be enough for us to crack it. We got a glimpse of it from their transit into the system but they were just going too fast for us to get enough information."

"Alright, so I should try and get them to show off more of their abilities where you can take a look. I can work with that, are they a threat to us?"