Apollo 2015/05/16(Sat)22:14 No. 640991 ID: defceb
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>Do you ever dream?

Every time.

>Maybe you went the asceticism route after all?

Space food starts out tasting kind of okay, and ends up tasting that bad when it’s all you have.

>Investigate!

You pull up the video log from the drone, noting that it's the one on the He-3 rich moon. At this distance the video is delayed by just under 15 minutes.

So far the video just shows the boring surface of a barren moon.

Apollo 2015/05/16(Sat)22:14 No. 640992 ID: defceb
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Then a flag pops up, being waved furiously back and forth. Or rather, an improvised flag. It looks like some cloth that’s been smeared with an oily substance.

Okay, flags are not naturally occurring phenomenon. You've found intelligence. Intelligence that's not so alien- they understand the concept of flags!

Looks like today is going to be a pants day. You get to meet aliens!

Plot a course, find some pants.

Tell the drone to look down.

Got any external lights on the drone you could toggle for signaling? Start with prime numbers while you're rooting around for whatever the theoretical best-practices standard in alien first contact protocol was fifty years ago.

Keep monitoring the drone, store all data for later, and get closer (if only to get a shorter delay on the drone). How long will it take you to get there?

>improvised flag
Now that part is odd. You would think that anyone who is both able and willing to stick a flag on a barren moon would have it tailor-made, Unless kludged flags are some tradition of theirs, that would suggest that the flag placer actually lives (or is stranded) on that moon.

>>640999
Alternately, it implies that flags are an inevitable technological advance, and that this is a hastily-made flag of surrender. Or an urgent message of another sort.

I get the feeling this is the whole accidental-conquering-of-an-alien-race we've heard about.

Apollo 2015/05/17(Sun)01:34 No. 641007 ID: defceb
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>Plot a course, find some pants.

You punch in the destination and wait for the computer to do all the complicated math for you. Putting into consideration acceleration, deceleration, direction that moon is going, and so on it looks like you’ll be able to get there in about… 80 days worth of time. Might as well start the engines now.

>External lights?
You set the drone to start toggling lights to a series of prime numbers. At the very least that will show them you’re paying attention in roughly 15 minutes.

>Look down.
You switch through the drone’s cameras until you get a view of the alien in question. It moves with sharp, jerking actions not unlike a pigeon. The drone continues to try to find a different course, and the alien follows to continue standing in front of it.

Maybe order the drone to hold position? So it stops trying to go around.

>aliens
Hmm. Seem humanoid. Organics, too, if they need protective suits. Looks like they have less fingers on a hand. Can't tell much else unless that drone has other sensors you can scan through.

Another 2 behind him.

They might not be native to this rock, either, if they need environmental suits.

Start scanning EM bands, too. Maybe their suits have radio or something.

Might as well blast off a message reporting this, too. Just in case it turns out they're a hostile and capable of blowing you out of the sky, the discovery won't go unreported.

Okay.

I can sort of see how this is going to go.

Send a "stop moving, stop ANYTHING, just record" signal to the drone NOW. If, and this is a big if, but some *idiot* programmed it to treat obstacles as something to be mined through... can they do that? Do they have *anything* that might be construed as weapons? Run damage control for anything that might even potentially do damage in a first-contact scenario.

>>641025
Don't worry, I don't think Death Of Being Ground By A Mars Rover Rock Abrasion Tool is working tonight.

But yes, DO send a signal to the probe to stop moving.

>>640962
dude, how are you not going crazy being alone for 48 yea- OHHH that explains so much maybe

80 days is plenty of time for a nap. what the hell have you been doing instead of sleeping anyhow?

Aliens seem to be wearing protective suits, meaning this isn't their native environment. Run some spectral analysis to figure out what the suits are made of, that might provide some clues about their native biochemistry and tech level.

Also, go back through the drone's video logs, see how long aliens have been running around trying to get it's attention. Persistently standing in the way seems like an attempt to stop the drone from intruding into their territory and/or trampling something.

Apollo 2015/05/19(Tue)00:37 No. 641426 ID: defceb
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You order the drone to stop everything and scan the aliens. Sifting through the video backlog shows that they’ve been dancing around the drone for roughly three hours. The video mostly consists of them waving their limbs as they run around it, a few minutes where it looks like they’re trying to push it back, and then the current situation after it finally stops to find a path around them.

>Scan the EM bands.
The only thing the drone is picking up out of the ordinary is a weak, irregular pulse. It’s barely noticeable against the background noise.

>What the hell have you been doing instead of sleeping anyhow?
Reading books, watching movies, lots and lots and lots of studying, chess against computers, science experiments, cataloging information, more science experiments, conquering your backlog of unfinished games, participating in piles upon piles of psychology questionnaires, contemplating life choices, more science experiments, studying philosophy, maintenance, introspection, replaying old memories, rewatching movies, re-contemplating life choices, having minor panic attacks over the endless vastness of space and the possible implications of even a minor form of ship trouble when flying alone, replaying old memories, and going through old messages again. But mostly science experiments, cataloging information of your travels, and ship maintenance. Plus all the time in an artificial sleep between stars.

80 days… better than 80 years, at least. But you need a plan for first contact.

Okay, you'll want to review their movements when they initially found the drone, of course. Focus more on their interactions with eachother than how they acted towards the drone, because you know they are friendly with eachother but you don't know if they're initially or currently friendly with the drone or angry at it. Posture and gesture is important. It's not that you want to mimic what they're doing in order to seem friendly- it's that you want to avoid doing something that makes you seem hostile. Confusion is A-OK during first contact, so if your mannerisms are simply strange to them it's fine.

I think you should wear a spacesuit when greeting them. If you walk up without one they'll be freaked out and possibly assume you're not alive. Um, you DO have a spacesuit, right?

They seem to like showing off their handprint as a gesture of peace or communication or something, maybe you can put your handprint on a piece of cloth and show it to them when you arrive?

They will probably try to escort you somewhere. This will be so that they can take off their suits and attempt real communication. So, follow them obviously. If you can bring along a touchscreen or something that can be drawn on that could help. Bring along some sort of display to show information from a variety of topics. If possible bring along some sort of translation aid like a program that can calculate shit like this.

Do we have anything like the Pioneer plaque or the Voyager golden record on board to offer them? Do you have the fabrication capabilities to make one, if not?

You should study them as much as possible from the probe for these months in transit. Learn what you can from their behavior, try to see how they communicate, make basic attempts at communication via probe.

Important to pay attention to is what senses they seem to have, and in what bands. (The partially transparent faceplate suggests sight, or something like it, at least).

Find some appropriately nice clothes for diplomacy. Clothes mark you as an intelligent being, distinct from a probe.

I wouldn't worry about a hard suit, or faking being organic.

Don't bring any weapons. Do send a message documenting all you've logged to date, and your plans, before first contact. Just in case things go terribly wrong, your mistake hopefully won't be repeated.

Make sure to get real sleep before making contact. Can't risk your judgement being effected, or being off your game.

>lots and lots and lots of studying
You know, that would have been real handy in the present / future ...past (damnit) if it weren't for all the memory problems.

>conquering your backlog of unfinished games
Steam libraries finally have a practical purpose! Sanity preservation on sub-light interstellar flights.

>>641426
>The only thing the drone is picking up out of the ordinary is a weak, irregular pulse. It’s barely noticeable against the background noise.

That's probably their radio chatter. As communications tech gets more sophisticated, short-range signals get weaker to avoid wasting power on a sufficient sensitive antenna and noisier-seeming because that's how compression algorithms work. Run it through whatever cryptanalysis you've got, looking for patterns that might be language, and figure out how you might transmit signals on the same band. Don't worry too much about what you're going to say to them until you know what they're already saying to you.

As for 'actions speak louder than words,' have the drone backtrack, extra cautiously at half-speed or less, to the point where it was three or four hours ago when it first saw them. They seem to want it to stop intruding on their territory or something, and such a symbolic concession costs you nothing.

What do you dream about?

>>641426
ok none of that is as important as sleep. cut that shit out.

Apollo 2015/05/20(Wed)22:45 No. 641796 ID: defceb
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Nice clothes, check.
Working tablet, check.
Up to date versions of Pioneer/Voyager messages, check.
Drone backed up about three to four hours worth of travel, check.

You opt to go without the hard-suit, needing only to cover your eyes and ears against stray dust. Crypt-analysis never broke the radio chatter, just turned up junk noise again and again and again in it’s attempts. Watching their actions and attempting to communicate through the drone proved marginally more successful. By the time you arrived on the moon you've transmitted basic math equations back and forth through the on-board light. Since then more of the aliens have crowded around the drone regularly.

You shoot off one more message back home with all this information and grab a good night’s sleep.

>What do you dream about?

Your dreams are often nonsense. Noises, almost-person shapes running around, broken buildings, birds. So many birds. The dreams began vague and have only gotten worse over the years. By now they've blurred into the barest sense of a dream.

Apollo 2015/05/20(Wed)22:45 No. 641797 ID: defceb
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Stage fright is an all too familiar feeling for you. From being paraded around doctors as a medical miracle to making important speeches for Martian politics, you've had many close encounters to the gut-twisting anxiety that predates action.

One of the aliens pops out from behind the rocks and holds it’s arms up high. You've seen the gesture before, it’s practically their handshake.

reply in kind

Throw your hands in the air like you just don't care.

Makes sense for it to be a handshake, as people suspect the handshake evolved to be a way of signifying you were unarmed (at least with the hand offered).

Flags, perhaps they're celebrating something? Return the gesture.

>broken dreams
That's different. Especially compared to the fully fleshed out flashbacks you're getting now.

Did your dreams break completely (so you had to fall back on replaying memories instead of generating 'original' content)? Or did the crash fix or unstick something, and now you're being overwhelmed by your dreams rushing back?

...damnit, where's a good a cyber-neurologist psychologist electrical engineer programmer when you need one?

>ear and eye protection
Do the ear condoms sheaths feel weird?

>white flags, hands in the air
Here's hoping the similarities to human symbols of surrender is only coincidental.

>what do
Return the 'handshake'.

Wave hello, approach at a leisurely pace but stop outside the line of flags until invited in.

You've got basic math available as common language? Start by explaining the metric system, then enough observational astronomy to specify where you're from. This presents the risk that they could use the information to hit Earth with a relativistic KEW, but sharing it so readily implies that you're either ignorant of such strategic considerations or willing to trust them. Then, ask them to reciprocate with their own point-of-origin data.

Biggest thing to remember is that just because they can't speak your language doesn't mean they're stupid. Everything has political implications, and while any remotely reasonable civilization is going to cut you some slack about mistakes during an unplanned first contact, but second chances won't do much good if you're still thinking of them like children on some level just because they have trouble with "see spot run." When in doubt, go for respect and caution.

Apollo 2015/05/23(Sat)01:11 No. 642297 ID: defceb
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>Do the ear condoms feel weird?
They’re earplugs and they feel fine!

Apollo 2015/05/23(Sat)01:12 No. 642298 ID: defceb
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You return their gesture in kind and slowly walk towards them. The one standing out grabs a large package and slides down to greet you. The metal legs stand out during it’s descent. From watching all the drone footage it seemed like every single one of the aliens had legs like that. Seeing it in person makes it very clear that from the… knees? down, they’re completely mechanical.

Once it reaches your level, the alien puts the package down and gives it a solid push in your direction.

Crap, we forgot to bring something.
Accept the package. Carefully motion to opening, but watch for any gesture meant to stop you: We don't know whether it's to be opened right here in front of them, or safely in a pressured habitat.

>>642301
no we brought the voyager messages.

trade items.

Huh, interesting, those legs are clearly mechanical.

>>642298
That is interesting. I wonder if their species evolved without legs that let them walk upright? Or maybe it's just so that they can handle space travel better. It is difficult to exercise in zero gravity, after all.

Huh, they got short stubby legs. Maybe... they evolved as swimmers or something? Or tall trees or a cliffside where they swung around from their arms alot? So they're from some kind of an environment they could get around, but isn't so suited to a barren plain in vacuum.

Well, at least then the idea of cybernetic enhancements won't be completely alien to them.

>They’re earplugs and they feel fine!
Pfff. (In the previous image, the ears were the same shade as her visor. I thought they had little things slipped over them).

>>642298
Put the package you brought for them down next to it, and push it in their direction.

Then turn your attention to the one it left for you. What is it?

(Or maybe we inspect, then trade? Not sure if the more polite thing is to first show interest in their gift, or to immediately reciprocate).

Immediately reciprocate is definitely the more polite thing to do from a game theory perspective. Play it tit-for-tat.

Apollo 2015/05/23(Sat)19:58 No. 642504 ID: defceb
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>Put the package you brought for them down next to it, and push it in their direction.
>Accept the package. Carefully motion to opening, but watch for any gesture meant to stop you
Inside the package you find what appears to be a decorated short sword, two clear and apparently empty canisters, an engraved metal sheet, a folded up bundle of cloth, and a stack of… tissue samples? Gross. They’re suspended in small glass-looking containers. Sitting neatly on top of the pile is also one picture, with writing next to it.

>>642504
What, no writing samples other than the writing on the photo? Gonna have a hard time reading it without enough writing samples to decode their language. Well, at least that picture on the sheet tells you where their home planet is. And apparently they have a space station! Uh, I hope that is this system. Otherwise you may have to devise some sort of method of communication so that you can find out where they are. Or not. I mean, normally you don't tell strangers your home address, and it doesn't get more strange than alien life. If war broke out you really wouldn't want either side to know where the other's home planet is.

Get a better look at the photo. Oh, maybe there's more writing samples on the back of the metal sheet? Check the back of the photo too.

Oh, dang, we didn't think to offer any tissue samples. Did we even bring any?

It looks like we were right to offer something like the Voyager / Pioneer plaques- they have one of their own, right there.

Check that first. Is there enough information that you can tell at a glance if they're from this system? Or where there system of origin is? (If not, snap a screeshot, and transmit to your ship. See if it can compare with the onboard starmap or whatever to determine point of origin).

Hold up the photograph. Is that what they look like without the hardsuits?

Screenshot the photo, send the written text through the crypo-analysis programs you were using before.

I don't think we have any tissue samples to give? Marie is almost completely mechanical.

>I don't think we have any tissue samples to give?
Does our ship have spares of any small, easily detachable part (like maybe an ear)?

>>642512
We might have brought some human tissue samples for those experiments Marie mentioned earlier. The effects on human tissue of long periods of space travel would be could be useful data. They might want to spent a generation or hibernation style colony ship with non-cyborg settlers out, some day.

Apollo 2015/05/24(Sun)02:04 No. 642606 ID: defceb
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The following weeks go by in a blur. Communication begins awkwardly at best, but in time you learn several important things about your new friends. Their home system is many, many light years out from Earth. Not that you would want to travel there, as their home world itself exists only as space debris in an asteroid belt. Eventually you manage to get across that you’re a full blown cyborg, and thus not at risk of strange alien diseases or suffocating inside their environment. They’re quick to invite you to their lunar base after that.

Following the many hours spent in airlocks, decontamination rooms, and waiting for a whole slew of other tech to confirm you can safely travel inside their lunar base, you finally get to meet one without the hefty space suit. In doing so, you learn one very important detail.

Apollo 2015/05/24(Sun)02:04 No. 642607 ID: defceb
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They’re not opposed to extensive modification to survive all the way out here.

Apollo 2015/05/24(Sun)02:05 No. 642610 ID: defceb
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Your name is Marie, which has been mentioned several times previously.

Your current inventory is empty.

You have lost track of when and where you are.

In a moment you will wake up, and what follows is going to hurt.

It’s going to hurt a lot.

Apollo 2015/05/24(Sun)02:06 No. 642613 ID: defceb
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End of Thread 3

>>642606
>>642607
Oh, hey. Is the big claw they removed what they made the ceremonial dagger / short sword out of?

>Your current inventory is empty.
But the collectibles! How will we ever get all the posters now.

>>642613
Tell us more about the birds!

>It’s going to hurt a lot.
Is that even possible under normal circumstances? I would think putting a maximum on the amount of pain perceivable at a time would be one of the first changes you make when rebuilding those systems from scratch.

An off switch for pain would make sense too.