Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Audience with Admiral Nikolai
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[This is the ship Prometheus. I am Admiral Nikolai. Pleased to meet you.]
[Thank you for the warm welcome, Admiral Nikolai. We are...]
Come to think of it, I still hadn't settled on a name for my nation. I couldn't exactly introduce myself as a legion, so what now?
Since it's a kingdom subservient to the Queen, why not just call it that? Like the Deneb Federation, I could take it from a celestial body.
The Tyrant Star System sounds too harsh, but Lushaka Planet has a nice ring to it, so Lushaka Kingdom it is.
[We are the delegation dispatched from the Lushaka Kingdom, and I am Hihirak, the diplomat granted full authority by Her Majesty the Queen.]
[Ah, a diplomat. What a fine title. May God bless this encounter. Shall we have you dock alongside us?]
[Very well, we'll do just that.]
The Prometheus's engines soon powered down, leaving it adrift in the cosmic sea. I maneuvered the Space Whale to the ship's side.
I brought the whale's head close to the spot where flashing bright lights marked the entrance.
But how do we cross over? Hiraks can't handle space travel.
Hmm. No idea. Hey, Whale.
Muoooong?
Bite it.
Waaaang—
The ship-sized colossal Space Whale opened its massive maw in fitting proportion to its size, then clamped down on the entire side of the vessel.
This way, no gaps—should be walkable now.
The ship seemed to buzz with sudden panic at the whale's aggressive move. Oops, maybe a bit too much?
[My apologies. Our species' docking method is rather rough.]
[Ah, no, it's fine. We understand. We'll open the hatch now. Just follow the path straight ahead.]
Clunk—
"Good work. Stay here."
Muuuuum—
I set off with my two Rak escorts in tow.
Once inside the ship, the path was a straight shot with no branches, so no guide was needed to find our way.
The familiar airplane smell wafting from all sides, combined with the cool metallic warmth seeping up through my soles, felt more like home than the sand-swept Lushaka—nostalgic and comforting.
It wasn't some massive battleship like a Battlestar cruiser, but actually boarding a human spaceship straight out of a game? As an SF fan, I was thrilled beyond words.
Walking along, I noticed something: since I'd shaped myself intuitively without any expertise, my feet were flat-footed. The soft floors of Lushaka and the whale interior had hidden it, but treading on steel made my soles ache.
Definitely need to fix that when I get back to Lushaka.
Further along the straight path, a door ahead began hissing open with a mechanical whine.
Hiiiiss—
Whirrrr, clunk—
A door that screamed "important person inside" slid open, and a towering man emerged with a few aides in tow.
With his stately mustache, naval cap befitting an admiral, massive upper body draped in a cape-like uniform that shouted "I'm the admiral!", he was the picture-perfect image.
The pipe clenched in his mouth sealed the deal— the epitome of an admiral.
"Hello. I'm Admiral Nikolai. I'm assigned to protect the southern border of the Deneb Federation."
Oh right, my setting is that I don't speak English. I shouldn't understand that.
"It seems the translation isn't working, Admiral."
"Umm?"
The admiral, puzzled, fiddled with the device on his neck a few times, then smacked it with his fist and reset it with satisfaction.
"Ahem, ah, pardon me. This translation module keeps giving me trouble."
The question of how we'd converse despite language barriers resolved itself the moment we met face-to-face. So it is a game world after all.
I'd wondered during our comms exchange, but clearly there's some god-given galactic common tongue. Comms waves let us chat flawlessly.
The legion's comm waves aren't linguistic translation—they're more like broadcasting thoughts. Humans can't sense thoughts directly, but it seems they pick it up as some other signal.
From the legion's perspective, where we converse via thought waves, there's no need for a translation module; it's inherently translated. Quite the fortunate setup.
That said, the admiral's build was impressive, but he was still shorter than me eye-to-eye. I'd made Hiraks too massive. No helping it—crafted intuitively in an egg sac with nothing to reference.
True to that scale, the roughly two-meter Admiral Nikolai had to look up at me.
"Pleased to meet you properly. I'm Admiral Nikolai, responsible for the Deneb Federation's southern border."
The admiral finished speaking and extended his right hand.
A handshake? Play dumb.
"Must be the nerves—keep committing faux pas. This is called a handshake. In the Deneb Federation, we grasp each other's hands to show respect."
"I see. Understood. Pleased to meet you, Admiral."
Hirak hands have long, sturdy claws unsuitable for handshakes, so I extended just one elongated claw instead.
The admiral saw it, grinned, grabbed the claw, and shook it vigorously up and down.
"Hahaha! Excellent! Such considerate diplomats are a rarity!"
He turned with a flourish of his cape and strode back to the bridge with dignified steps, signaling us to follow. We entered the bridge after him.
The bridge looked exactly like the human ones from my SF imaginings: holographic galactic maps floating in the air, crew members operating intricate consoles, vast windows revealing the starry expanse outside.
Following the admiral's lead to our seats, I spotted sofas. Bipedal design paying dividends here.
"Since we know nothing about your species, we haven't prepared anything. We've exchanged greetings enough—shall we get to the main topic?"
"Agreed. First, allow me to explain our fleet's movements."
"Haha, straight to the heart of it. Excellent."
I quickly reviewed my talking points internally. Key elements: nation in civil war, leadership change causing military stir. Unlike previous regime, new one seeks peace. Good.
"To start, the Lushaka Kingdom recently underwent a civil war, which has now fully concluded."
The admiral's brow furrowed deeply at the heavy opener.
"That's regrettable news. All right to share such vital information?"
"Yes. It's in the past now, so no issue. To continue: it was a civil war to end the tyrannical, aggressive reign of the previous Queen. Our species boasts powerful reproductive and adaptive abilities, so we prefer not to leave remnants behind. Thus, upon confirming the previous Queen's remnants had fled to Solar-03 Planet, we had no choice but to take measures for their extermination."
The admiral listened, then fell silent in thought, brow creased like it could pierce his skull.
Finally, he spoke.
"Indeed, that explains everything. And the lack of prior diplomatic contact?"
"As you suspect. The previous Queen had no interest in other civilizations. Former or not, she was of our species. My regrets for any undue concern."
"I see. So that's how it was. Then our Federation's warning was premature. I can't speak for the whole Federation, but personally, I apologize."
"No need. I understand."
The conversation with the admiral flowed smoothly—suspiciously so. I was deliberately friendly to build ties with the Deneb Federation, but did they have reason to reciprocate?
I was just speaking off the cuff, clueless about diplomatic niceties, yet the vibe stayed remarkably cordial.
Even the civil war remnant purge didn't cover the Federation's warning about our "inhuman invasion of the Solar Star System"—i.e., the natives' perspective. But the admiral seemed satisfied, actively avoiding the topic.
"With the civil war fully resolved, we'll withdraw our fleet from the border region."
"No need. Fleets patrolling their borders is only natural."
Was the warning just to confirm we were sapient? Or does the Federation simply not want us as enemies?
Whatever the backstory, I'd decided on friendly ties with the Deneb Federation anyway. Good is good.
"This is our first exchange with another interstellar civilization, so I hope for continued relations going forward."
"Hmm. Music to my ears. The Federation feels the same."
The discussion wrapped in a warm, congenial atmosphere. Afterward, the Federation's staff handled details with our side's representative, Hunterak (under my control), exploring potential exchanges between our civilizations.
Not ready for full trust yet, we agreed to start small: sharing stellar maps, limited border access for survey probes, and similar modest treaties.
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