Arrival

[Mor'os]

"Eh?"

The old man started in a most puzzled fashion as the strange man spoke. Evidently, there was a seperate tongue from man which the Gods spoke, or so he concluded. It made sense he supposed. Problem was, he did not understand it.

The sword was nice. It looked very impressive and godlike, as it should.

But still, the language barrier wasn't doing any good. He desperately pondered the situation. At last he gave up.

"Pal, pal, pal! Henne."

[The Empire]

Ok, so Ozian didn't work, now what...

The colonel was a bit puzzled as he had never expected to be the one making first contacts with aliens, let alone on their own planet... He had always expected that if he was ever going to meet aliens they would be the ones coming to his planet and that the Emperess or some other head of state would do the actual talking... not him being shipwrecked on theirs and not with the only one outranking him being half unconcious a couple of hundred yards away...

He turned to the other guards.
"Anyone else has any bright ideas?"
"None at the moment I'm afraid sir.." replied Lieutenant Tanya

"Ok, back to basics then eh?"

The colonel sank to one knee and started to draw in the dirt on the causeway. What he drew was a series of circles: the system of planets and moons that Taijitu was part of, with one small difference, a small shape on a dotted line heading for Taijitu, the Imperial Ark's trajectory...
As he was done, he rose again, motioning to the priest to take a look.

[Mor'os]

As commanded to do by motion, the priest peered down. His wrinkled face lit up, and he nodded with a surprising vigor. He, like any proper practitioner of the mystical professions, was well trained in all things astrological and astronomical, and he recognized them all. There was the world of man, with the sun, star of fire, star of earth, star of air, star of water and moonall circling around it. And yes, that dotted line! Most certainly them.

But then, he frowned. If that dotted line was indeed them, then they must have missed their mark! They were headed, on that sketch in the dirt, for the star of fire! That must be it! Struck by some force, they had lost their way and crashed to earth instead.

His frown went back to a smile. It was not every day that one got to help the gods and Heaven. He smiled and nodded some more.

[The Empire]

The colonel continued to draw 16 human straw-figures and two four-legged figures with tails and then drew a line around all of them. After that, he erased the taijitu system and drew a new system of planets, the Lexicon... Also there was a dotted line, but this time, he started drawing it from one of the planets that was encircled by two moons and then drew it in a curve (slingshot trajectory) around the star and then out of the system. He then erased the planet the dotted line started from and left it all at that.
His face had changed to a more sorrowful expression as he drew the dotted line of their course this time and erased the Lexicon from the drawing, leaving it's two moons hanging in space.
He thought of all the ones he cared about that wouldn't have made it to the vaults in time as the nuclear fire ravaged the surface and of the ones that did make it to the spacecraft but now wasn't going to wake up from cryo-stasis with the power gone and cryo-fluids leaking, allowing ice crystals to form in their cells and destroy them from the inside.
Then he seemed to remember something and drew a crown above the head of the human figure closest to the two four-legged figures, that figure was also slightly shorter than the other.

[Mor'os]

The priest continued to observe, continued to solemnly nod, both to express that he understand and to give the false impression that he understood when it happened that he really did not. In honesty, he was a bit puzzled, even a tad frightened when the whole of existance was suddenly wiped away, but he kept it hidden and continued to watch.

All those new circles, those he did not recognize. They were not what he'd been taught, they were strange and alien things. Could there possibley be a world farther beyond all that knowledge he'd been taught? He decided not to ponder the matter further, or rather his brain just cut out and rebooted as it was prone to do in his old age.

The stick figures were far easier to understand. It was them, and there were more than those that stood before him. He felt a thrill run through his old body, one that for a moment made him feel young again. And those terrible four legged beasts too! He was living legend!

Then, that final figure with a crown. That we the important part no doubt, the divine ruler of the lot. With questioning imprinted in his motions and with earnesty he jabbed at the figure.

[The Empire]

"Ahh..."

The colonel then drew two more figures with crowns above the first one and outside the circle, then he drew one line from each to the first crowned figure and then crossed over the two new figures. He also added female features to the first drawn figure.

By then, Sasha felt she had waited enough on the hill and yawned as she rose and the great white tigress made her way down toward her people. Nicolai was content for now and watched as his mate gracefully strolled down the slope like the queen of great cats she was. (The tigers considder the Royal guards as their playmates, food gatherers, back-scratchers and more or less versatile tools for their personal comfort)

[Mor'os]

The priest nodded in recognition. Again he pointed, drew his finger around in a circle about the royalty apparent, and looked about in a questionign manner, wondering just where it was that they were off too.

Meanwhile behind him the great cat approached, and he took no notice. He was far to busy with other things, and wasn't about to let any small interruption do away with this temporary reprieve from the long and dull days that were his usual sentence. The gathered crowd of course noticed, and in an instinctive herd mentality huddled together and backed away slightly, but did not make a break for it. Terrified limbo held them in place. Parzan chanced a worry whisper to the priest, obviously the only man fit to deal with such a supernatural creature.

"Ed'e..."

But to no avail. He dared not speak any louder than that, and gave up on it.

[The Empire]

Sniffing the new man-thing's robes, Sasha decided to try something different and nudged it on the arm with her head to see if it understood the cue to scratch her neck...

The colonel flipped up a small lid on his left bracer, revealing a small keyboard and a small display that lit up as he started to type a message to the fire-post that had been left at the camp.

**Lieutenant, transmit medical satus report ASAP. End.**

As the stranger pressed the small buttons on his bracer, the old priest couls barely see fuzzy alien symbols appearing in the small glowing rectangle above the buttons until the stranger pressed a last button and the text and light dissapeared from the bracer with a short beep and he closed the lid.

A couple of hundred yards away, on the other side of the low hill, Lieutenant Daniel Nyström recived the message and got to work checking the medical status of each of the others by talking to them and checking the meedical report-logs of the life support systems in each armour.

[Mor'os]

The priest silently mouthed a sincere "Ooh!" as the glowing displays danced before his eyes in the twilight. The colors...so beautiful. All concerns of the presence of the royalty were gone for the moment, and all those concerns which before had not existed regarding the tiger were removed farther still from existance, as if it were possible.

Parzan squealed weakly and shook with fear meanwhile. But with the tiger so close, he certainly could not move. The others though, seeing that the cat was interested in another than them took the opportunity to abandon a former member of the heard and to back to safety, or as far as they could to without losing a chance to witness the certain to ensue and inevitably entertaining bloodbath. In places like this, such entertainment was a serious rarity.

[The Empire]

Noticing how the stupid man-thing failed to show her the proper appreciation she snorted and instead walked over to Lieutenant Tanya and rolled over, trying to charm the Liutenant into rubbing her tummy.

A few seconds later, the report showed up on the small display and the colonel motioned to the priest and Parzan to follow him.

"Captain, Take command here and make sure noone follows me and our two guests back to the camp, do not use force if it can be avoided."

"Yes sir!"

[Mor'os]

Silently, the crowd sighed in dissapointment. They had been eager to see Parzan damaged. Meanwhile, the priest nodded in understanding, practically dancing on his toes for excitement. He hobbled over to Parzan, and tugged the prefect's robes.

"Dav-samsam, ben! Rud dī rek, so so!"

Parzan gulped. He was not in the mood for anymore adventures, after escaping a terrible and painful demise by mauling. Still, perhaps it would put him away from the tiger to safety. Perhaps if he went, the Gods wouldn't vaporize him on the spot.

He glumly nodded, and the priest clapped his hands, leaping from toe to toe in delight.

Man man he! The priest hobbled back to the armored figures, and beamed upwards with a grin that stretched across his wrinkled face.

[The Empire]

"I'll take that as a yes"

The Colonel started walking back around the hill, and the four remaining guards formed a quiet picket-line behind the three, Sasha, now having been thourougly scratched trotted along beside them and was soon joined by her mate, Nicolai. Much to Parzan's dismay...

As they rounded the hill, the scene revealed to them was that of a small camp-fire with several people standing or sitting around it dressed in clothes of strange material (synthetic fibre coveralls) or wrapped in silvery blankets that looked like metal but still not (mylar) while two that seemed a bit healthier were tending the fire and those looking the worst off. About a quarter mile off in the distance lay a huge white craft of some kind, turned on it's side and looking badly damaged. From openings in the craft poured some sort of smoke that settled in holes around it. Plants around the pockets of smoke looked sickly, pale and dead.
Propped up against a suit of the strangers's armour sat a dark haired young woman with a glazed look over her eyes and although she currently look a bit bruised she was still beautiful. Her skin was slightly bronzed by the sun but still paler than any working one but her hands was not as smooth as could be expected from a princess, and in her lap lay another one of that jagged blade the colonel wore at his side. This one was different though, this one looked to be of even higher quality and the etchings were more elaborate and detailed. In her hands she held a cup of some steaming warm brown liquid that had a soft, sweet but unknown smell. (Hot chocolate made from powder and water) She didn't seem to notice the but the man tending the ill rose and approached them.

"Yes lieutenant?"

"All of them could be moved without risk, but many have serious concussions and will need to rest for a week or two before they could do any sort of work, including her highness."

"Right. Anyway, Theese two are what could be considdered local authorities, I belive the elder man is some sort of cleric or priest while the other seems to be a paper shuffler of some kind..."

[Mor'os]

Eagerly the priest shuffled forward and bowed as deeply as his stiff back would allow him. Parzan meanwhile hesitated, out of his element. As an Ar, any situation in which he was not on top of the pile in power went against everything he'd been conditioned to know and accept from the earliest of ages. And the tigers, those horrid things, they were back.

An angry sidewise glare from the priest changed his mind otherwise. Gulping, he too shuffled forward and proceeded to give a series of rather stiff bows.

[The Empire]

Hmm, I might have underestimated this fellow, he seems as uncomfortable as a myrorian nobleman would in a commoner's bar the colonel thought.

Noticing the bowing strangers, the princess nodded in reply and slowly got on her feet and strapping the chainsword to her hips. As she rose, her long dark hair flowed down her back and revealed her slender and fairly tall figure for a female, almost half a head taller than Parzan himself.

"Ers nåd, vi träffade på dessa och ett antal andra lokalinnevånare en bit uppåt vägen, den äldre av dem är troligtvis någon sorts präst medans den andre kan vara en lägre adelsman och lokal ståthållare eller något. Kapten Jansson har upprättat infartspost på andra sidan kullen med order om att inte släppa förbi någon."

"Bra, så vad heter dehär två då?"

"Jag är inte riktigt säker ers nåd, det är vissa problem med språket."

"Då får vi väl ta reda på det då överste, Du kan utgå men håll dig i närheten."

"Ja ers nåd."

The colonel snapped to attention and saluted the young woman who answered the salute in a dismissing manner before the colonel made a smart left face and walked away, checking up on how his personell was doing.

As he had left, the young woman gestured to Parzan and the priest to sit on one of the strange silvery blankets that had been spread out on the ground.
Once they had sat down she started to study them, their clothes, their faces, their apperance and anything on them that could give a clue of how to maybe succed in communicating with them.

[Mor'os]

The priest compliantly sat down on the myler blankets, prodding with delight the magnificently irredescent material. He figures that the Gods must have woven from pure quicksilver itself. He faced the young women, an eager and almost childish smile on his face.

Parzan was less eager. The strange material, rather than a source of wonder for him, was terrifying in its novelty. He sat down with far greater caution. When, he found to his relief that it did not do something horrid like peel his flesh from the bone or such, he allowed himself to relax a bit more and settled down. The strange figures all around him though kept him tense, divine or not. All alone, with no protection...internally he shuddered and wept slightly.

The priest continued in his beaming eagerness, not giving attention to Parzan, and instead spoke, not caring just whether it would be comprehended.

"Vi sam sam davsun on ral in se?"