Crossing the Ocean

[Gibiesk]

CAPTAIN'S LOG, the 33rd Fungusday of the Treefen week in 16/5 (22/5/45/4/1₇)

Our radar showed signs of a foreign ship. The crew believe it is the same ship as the one that kept popping on and of our radar screens yesterday. Only now it is coming closer.

Our welcoming committee are getting ready for the first contact. We lowered the flags to show the foreigners we are on a peaceful mission. But the gunmen are on their positions, just in case. As soon as the ship will be in sight, the Godmother Priest will say a prayer she has prepared for the occasion. That priest is a good talker; I'm sure the crew will be moved by her prayer.

I wonder what the foreign ship's task is. Are they traders? We have some samples of goods to show them what the Gibiesk people can build, cultivate and produce. Are they warriors? Our mission is peaceful. We are capable of defending ourselves, but not against an armada. Fortunately it is only one ship. How technologically advanced will they be? So far we have not captured any radio transmissions on the usual frequencies. But maybe they broadcast on some other frequency. I am going to ask our radio team to work overtime to check even non-standard frequencies. Who knows what the foreigners' standards are?

We are on a secret mission. A mission launched by the government of Gibiesk to explore the ocean, to find foreign civilizations. I am looking forward.


EDIT:
Now that I have given my nation a more realistic climate, I had to change the calendar, too. The captain's log was written on 14 January 2008, which is not "the 10th day of the 5th month of the 602nd winter (5W 13 - 1520₇), Fungusday", but "the 33rd Fungusday of the Treefen week in the 5th longyear of the 16th generation (22/5/45/4/1₇)."

[Gibiesk]

What does the ship look like?
It is a wooden sailing ship, about 10 m (30 ft) long and 3 m (10 ft) wide. The sails are white with a colorful floral pattern. On top of the masts, you can see wind turbines. The deck is one huge photovoltaic array.

Is there anybody on deck?
You can only see one person on deck: A black woman, 34 years old, 168 cm (5'5'') tall, weighing 66 kg (145 lb), pretty face, shoulder-long braided hair, wearing a long light green dress with a wide yellow belt.

What does she say when someone approaches?
Söö rung chooch eefram! Fröönt muñ Chekhööchenc' hrokh Inynthraa söm. Yym söm p'üh Khriiftröönt ngom Croocreench, chraanc ngom Chiipiesyych. Cif söm rööp söö praa hüfiinkh rung chooch khöheens. P'yree nyygref iintroo p'üh rung. Khruuñrööc chroos rung yyng iintroo?
If only one person is approaching Fröönt, she uses "mihso" instead of "rung". ;-)

(click to show/hide)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
"You guys look good! I am Thorn, daughter of New Moon, from Ear-Shaped Rock. I represent the Council of the Wise, the government of Gibiesk. I hope you had a pleasant journey. We would love to get to know you. Do you want to dine with us?"

OOC: Now it's up to you to continue the story. Who will the Gibiesk people meet on their journey?

[Union]

ooc: Which direction are you heading?

Captain Fing looks through his binoculars, his eye squishing to focus on the dot bobbing up and down against the horizon. He licked the salt from his lips. No doubt,...it was a ship. Or a boat more likely, from what he can judge from it's size. Of what nationality, he knew not what. Whatever it was, it had been sailing towards his sector of patrol since last night. There was something odd about it, namely it's location outside the sea lanes and the way it seem to be moving, like a lost child or wandering vagrant.

"Captain, should we make physical contact?" asked the Lieutenant at his side. "Could turn out be one of those Cantrian pirates from last year."

The captain took his attention away from his optics and turn to his fellow officer. "You know the rules, we can't touch them until they enter our jurisdiction. And hell, if they were pirates, I doubt they're carrying much weapons or contraband with the boat of that size. I think there's sails on that thing...sad bunch of pirates I ever seen." The captain handed the binoculars to the dissented Lieutenant and marched to the cockpit of his small patrol craft. "Hong, take us back to port, there's nothing to see or do here." he said to the CH at the steering wheel.

The Loyanese patrol craft made a quick U-turn, the 100 foot Sea Watch Class leaning towards starboard as it made the tight rotation. The turbines below deck roared to life as the helmsman pushed the throttle. Captain Fing grabbed a hold of an nearby handrail as the force of inertia took him. "Take us to 12 knots Hong," he muttered to the pilot, then turning towards the Lieutenant. "Lieutenant Song, quit standing there and monitor that boat on the RADAR."

The Lieutenant complied to the order, unwilling as he was. Fing didn't like the frown on the man's face, but he knew better then to reprimand the Lieutenant for his depressive behavior on duty. From what he heard, Song had lost his daughter in a car accident before being transferred to his humble patrol boat. A trample of alcoholism and neglect to duty had forced Headquarters to demote the troubled man from his grand place as officer on board a Navy frigate. The Lieutenant was in no mood to smile, and Fing thought it well to leave him be. Only time will cure the ails of the heart.       

[Gibiesk]

The woman on deck was watching the foreign ship, silently rehearsing the little speech she had prepared for the first contact, when her radio beeped. She turned it on, listening, watching, smiling.

"Wow", the voice on the radio said, "I can't believe what I'm seeing."

"It's quite big, isn't it?" Fröönt replied to her friend Üüktyeench.

"Well yes, but that's not the point. But did you see its sails?"

Üüktyeench and Fröönt had been at'aa since college although they were as different as two women can be. Fröönt was a social person, Üüktyeench preferred machines. Fröönt joined The Party because she believed in its ideals, Üüktyeench never talked about politics. Üüktyeench was always smiling and full of excitement, even at the age of 39 and with three children. That's why Fröönt spent at least one day and night per week with her.

"Fröönt, do you hear me?"

"Yes, I hear you, Üüktyeench. I can't see any sails."

"Exactly! I've been watching it through my binoculars. And tell you what, it seems to be made of metal. Can you believe that? I mean, how do they get the power to run a 60₇ step metal ship without sails?"

Üüktyeench's excitement reminded Fröönt of her son. When they had moved to the capital city a few years ago, little C'uucra was beside himself all the time. He had to tell his parents about every big animal near the road, every hill in the distance, every bus they passed, every cloud with a strange shape. Fröönt missed her son and her husband. She hoped she could return to them soon. But now it was time to work.

"Khöng, no! Please take it back." That was Üüktyeench again. Why was she praying to the god of the winds, Fröönt wondered. But then she saw: the foreign ship was turning and moving away. Damn. She pushed a button on her radio to connect to the captain:

"Sac, I don't want to lose that ship. Follow it. My instincts tell me they will lead us to their home island or at least to more foreign ships."

"Roger. We will catch them, Ma'am."

While Fröönt was running back inside the lookout room, captain Sac muñ Papufo hrokh Tuungcraanp'ungpruu gave orders to his crew:

"Ramp'raa, change course by 12₇ degrees. Uuchroñ, set all sails and turn on the engines. Accelerate to 10₇ walks until further notice."

And so the Gibiesk ship did a 66 degree turn and sped after the foreign ship with almost 14 knots.

[Union]

"Captain you might want to see this..." the Lieutenant blankly mutter out. "That boat turned toward us."

 Captain Fing turns around towards the stern, quickly searching again for the dot before. A CH instinctively hands him a binocular. Pushing the optics once again to his eyes, he tracked to the boat from before. While he could barely make it out, he realize that the bow of the unknown vessel was pointed towards his patrol boat, the minute white of wash shooting out under the bow.

"Looks like they're trying to contact us, your orders?" the Lieutenant said with renew spirit. The Captain ignores the question, and continues to stalk the boat with his optics for a few more minutes. The boat was making slow progress with it's primitive propulsion, but it was clearly attempting to catch up with his ship. Turning to the helmsman, he issued his command, "Hong, kill the engines and do a 180, and get your SCB vest on. That goes for all of you. Lieutenant, level B2 alert and weapon details."

"Aye Sir," the Lieutenant saluted then aimed his voice towards the other crew members. "Everyone down on deck and procure your firearms. Hong and Jingly, on the 20mm and portside MG."

 While Captain Fing was never much a fan of strict protocol and regulation, but he knew better than to make contact with an alien ship with his men unarmed. While the boat looked harmless enough, things can be deceptive on these waters. While the boat was most likely a lost civilian yacht in need of aid, it could easily be the vessel of Ozian smugglers and pirates up to no good. Criminals are resourceful these days, no doubt they were turning to smaller ships to better sneak into the Loyanese coast. Better to be safe then sorry.

 But then, if they were criminals why would they be heading towards him? Pirates and smugglers can be violent and aggressive when trapped, but striking first against Loyanese patrol boats were rare. Even then, no idiot criminal would had thought possible to overpower a Navy patrol boat on such an insignificant boat.

 From underneath the patrol boat, crewmen emerged with ballistic vests on and 9mm UMPs in hand. Captain Fing reached for his own vest and helmet under the cockpit bench and quickly strapped them on to himself. He also grabbed hold of his loudspeaker hanging on a hook over the steering wheel. He checked his sidearm and walked onto deck.

"All hands are hot and loaded Sir," the Lieutenant said. His own shoulder was slung with two UMPs and several flash grenades were strapped onto his ballistic vest. A service sidearm and combat knife also hanged from his belt. The lieutenant appear menacingly with his gear on, like a gunslinger from an action movie. Fing frowned at the sight of him.

"Good," Captain Fing replied. "And Lieutenant, this isn't the Marines anymore. I prefer it next time that you limit the excessiveness on future contacts. Our main job is to check on civilians, not board enemy flagships."

The Lieutenant fakely grinned back. "I'll keep that in mind Captain. I'll hate to laden you with complaint letters." The Lieutenant turned his back in insult to Fing and continued on with his inspection on weapons and personnel. Captain Fing forgot the defiant gestures and turned his attention back towards the approaching alien boat.

In about five minutes, the boat came clearly into view. People were sighted on board it, all of them wearing a strange fashion and yelling out indecipherable babble. A decorated sail bellows over them, the vessel it propelled was a shabby looking wooden hull. The boat got closer, and the Captain realized that the foreigners had painted their skin in a dark hue, worn way too naturally for comfort. Their black faces outlines clearly against the background of sail and wood.

"What in the name..." the Lieutenant murmured out in similar disbelief. "Am I dreaming, those people are all black!"
         
The Captain looked down onto his arm at his own Oriental skin. He looked up again at the people onboard the sailing boat. Even the Lieutenant's face seemed to light up at the sight. Fing didn't know what to think of the sight unfolding before his eyes, seemingly his ship had floated through a portal and into strange waters of a fantasy world. Black faced people sailing on an antique dinghy, that was a story for the pub.

"Lower your arms! Lieutenant, I think we have a first contact situation at hand," he shouted towards the Lieutenant. "Get out text 21A from my cabin and get reading on the protocol! Everyone else, you are to remain on board this ship and do not in anyway make physical contact with those people. Hong, radio headquarters and tell them to send in Immigration and Customs here. Lei, get on the wheel and keep this ship at least 15 metres away from that ship. I don't want any bugs leaping out or in from that ship."

 
   

[Gibiesk]

On board the Gibiesk ship, there was a sound indicating a broadcast for the whole crew. Through every loudspeaker on board, you could hear the same message:

"I am Fröönt muñ Chekhööchenc' hrokh Inynthraa, representative of the Council of the Wise. The foreign ship is turning towards us. We are getting ready for the first contact with them. You have all been instructed on the official procedures for this situation. I am sure you don't need to reread your manuals. Let us welcome the foreigners with open arms. They might not speak our language, they might look weird, they might have strange food or disturbing customs. But that doesn't disturb us. We are here to say hello, and to learn from each other. Look at the beautiful weather: the gods are happy because we are meeting new friends today. Now everybody on their posts."

The Council of the Wise had agreed upon a protocol for the first contact. Representative Fröönt was to lead the delegation, accompanied by the "representatives of peace": Two male soldiers (one with a sword, one with a crossbow) would first display, then drop their weapons as a sign of goodwill. The Council decided to use such ancient weapons to make sure the foreigners can recognize them. Nevertheless, they would wear arrow-proof vests under their dresses.

10₇ steps [5 m / 17 ft] behind them came the scientific team: a linguist, a historian, an engineer, a psychologist, a cartographer and a doctor. The five priests would stay behind, but visible.

Invisible from the foreign ship, the other crew members would be ready, too: the soldiers, the radio operators, the ship technicians, the navigators. Several small surveillance cameras were fixed on the delegation. The Councilors at home would be able to watch live if the weather conditions stayed as good as they were.

When the foreign ship was getting closer, the Gibiesk crew slowly shortened sails and slowed down the engines. When both sides' careful maneuvering procedures were over, the two ships were about 30₇ steps [16 m / 51 ft] apart. The people on the other ship were now clearly visible. Some of the crew members laughed, others opened their mouths saying nothing, when they saw the foreigners: Their skin was as light as an albino's, but their hair was black, and there was something about their eyes...

Fröönt cleared her voice, showed her nicest smile and cheerfully recited:

"Söö rung chooch eefram! Fröönt muñ Chekhööchenc' hrokh Inynthraa söm. Yym söm p'üh Khriiftröönt ngom Croocreench, chraanc ngom Chiipiesyych. Cif söm rööp söö praa hüfiinkh rung chooch khöheens. P'yree nyygref iintroo p'üh rung. Khruuñrööc chroos rung yyng iintroo?"

Then the two soldiers behind her dropped their weapons, smiling. The whole delegation smiled, opened their arms and bowed slightly. The great moment had come.


OOC: They are all wearing similar clothes (though not the same colors and motives), they are all black, and the delegation is made up of both men and women.

[Union]

"Sir, they seem friendly enough," a CH blurts out as he waves back at the black foreigners. "I don't think there's any danger."

"You stand down on your comments CH," the Lieutenant said as he skims over the Naval handbook. "Section 32 clearly states no contact permitted with individuals or biological objects of unknown origin until Hazardous Control personnel can deem them safe of exotic pathogens and microbia."

 Captain Fing nodded in agreement. He knew enough history to know that even the friendliest strangers could be carrying new diseases and viruses, ones that can potentially wipe out Loyan if their immune system hadn't adapted yet. Perhaps it was a excessive paranoid drawing from examples in a past when the world was a bigger place, but Captain Fing didn't want to take any chances. These black people were obviously from somewhere remote and unexplored, perhaps from an lost island between Eastia and the Islands of Loyan. Perhaps even behind the Storm Line?

 Up close, it was obvious that the colour of their skin was naturally a deep brownish black, darker than even the darkest Eastians. It wasn't only their skin, their eyes to be much wider than any Loyanese. Their bodies were as tall as white foreigners from the South and West Continents, but their figure was much more pneumatic and plump. Their faces appears round and cheeky. All in all, they looked completely different from any race in Taijitu, even if their skin colour matched.     

 The large crowd on deck was motioning for them, from their expression it appear they were rather joyous to see them. A bit of regret stirred up behind Captain Fing's mind, and he felt a little disappointed that they couldn't make a similar greeting in return. Instead, he will have to wait for Customs to send an uptight bureaucrat or two to deal with what possibly could be the discovery of a new race of people or perhaps even species. Such are the nature of military regulations.

 "Attention foreign vessel, this is Patrol Boat H21 of the Loyanese Navy, Coast Guard division," Fing spoke through his loudspeaker. "You are approaching a state military vessel of the People's Republic of Loyan. Please state your intentions."

  He was doubtful these people understood him, from the crackle of speech he got back from them, it was obvious they didn't speak Inglish. He turned to the Lieutenant. "Song, any ideas what language they speak?"

"Sure isn't Eastian or Imperium," the Lieutenant grinned. "Should we kill them, then send their bodies to the lab?"

  Captain Fing frowned at the joke the Lieutenant so indiscreetly made. "Lieutenant Song, one more smartass comment like that and I'll make sure you never get that recommendation back to your former post!"

  The Lieutenant nodded, but his malevolent grin evident that he was enjoying the effect of his comment on Fing. The Lieutenant was starting to become a thorn that Fing wanted ridding. He turned back his attention to the rowdy black foreigners and buried his frustration. 

[Gibiesk]

"Those foreigners are rude," Fröönt thought, "they stare at us without smiling, they don't drop their arms, they don't let us get on board. I will teach them manners, like I taught my husband."

She had to suppress those thoughts. The foreigners were only men after all. The important people were probably watching from under deck. Fröönt represented the Council of the Wise. No, she represented the whole Gibiesk nation. So she followed the official protocol. She turned around and said: "Üüktyeench, ohoos neefcuuch peeprynt' ichry töömprant' ikh."

Üüktyeench nodded. She summoned a man from under deck who got two white crank handles and a black cuboid something 5 hands long that looked like this on its front: :-), except that the symbol was turned by 90°. The bigger crank handle was installed somewhere on deck, and the man turned it. Slowly, but steadily, a white plastic rail with a diameter of 1 hand came out. The man stopped when the rail was long enough to reach the deck of the foreign ship. Then Üüktyeench put the black something on the white rail, installed the smaller crank handle, and used it to move the black thing slowly along the rail. About a longminute later, she pushed a button. The black cuboid unfolded to reveal a flat black board, 2½ hands long and 2 hands wide. The board was dominated by an LCD screen, and underneath were five buttons. The buttons were not labeled, but they had different colors (one red, one yellow, one blue, one green, one white).

Üüktyeench saw the people on the foreign ship watch the robot curiously. When one of them got closer, she pushed another button. The screen popped on and showed Fröönt hold her welcome speech again.

Fröönt was proud to be a member of the Council of the Wise, proud to work with genies who were able to come up with an idea like this. They had anticipated dozens of scenarios for the first contact. And she had introduced her lover Üüktyeench to the council, who came up with the brilliant idea of the robot on the rail. Üüktyeench's husband - another great engineer - helped build the handheld inside the robot. Its screen would show the welcome message followed by some pictures of Gibiesk nature. By pressing the right buttons, you could pause the video, rewind or fast forward. You could also stop it and instead display mathematical equations annotated with symbols (e.g. one circle 8 two circles / three circles). Or have a Gibiesk language course: the picture of a naked woman and the spoken word "unfuu", the picture of a beach and the spoken word "c'ahronf", the picture of different kinds of birds and the spoken word "praah'y", and so on. Once turned on, the battery in the handheld would last for about half a day.

Fröönt was overjoyed to see that all those devices were working properly and that those pale people were doing them no harm. She ran over to Üüktyeench and hugged her, turning her back on the foreign ship for a minute.


OOC: 1 hand = 10.67 cm = 4.2 inches

[Union]

 Captain Fing watched in amusement and awe at the contraption the black face foreigners had unfolded. So much that he forgot his own orders to refuse contact with the ship. The contraption was obviously of advanced nature, and hinted that these people were not of any primitive origin. His men as well, they watched intuitively at the thing and had forgotten their state of alert. All except, one individual. The bothered Lieutenant came up to the contraption, and aimed his submachine gun at the thing. Fing heard the click of the safety go off.

"Song! What the hell do you think you're doing!" he yelled out in vain. The Lieutenant pulled the trigger, and a burst of 9mm rounds impacted the machine in a shower of sparks. The foreigners immediately reacted in horror and shock. Captain Fing ran across the deck and knocked down the Lieutenant to the floor in fury. "DAMN IT SONG, WHAT THE HELL?" he yelled at the downed man. "I did not give you any order to engage! You idiot!"

"Sir..." he stuttered, "The thing...it was too close...."

"Hong! Place Lieutenant Song in cuffs and escort him down to the cabin! Song, you son of a bitch, I'll make sure you never see the light of day!"

  Fing turned back to the foreigners, who were now losing their good nature and pulling out what appeared to be crossbows. He had to think quick, to avoid any confrontation on this rather prominent situation. He put his hands up, in a effort to calm the people. He attempt to make signs with his hands, including the clasp of prayer used in temple. He had no idea what he was doing, but it was completely out of regulation and rather awkward for an old man like him, flailing his hands in the air like a child. "Everyone, lay down your arms!" he ordered his rather confused crew. "Show them we mean no harm. Damn me and regulations, but I don't want my grandchildren blaming me for starting a war with a undiscovered race."   

  "Captain I have an idea!" yelled out a CH. The young sailor raced up the cockpit and took out a folded flag. He came down to the deck calmly, and motioned the folded cloth at the foreigners. A fellow sailor helped him spread the Loyanese flag before the foreigners. "From the sail," the CH whispered out, "I think they're rather fond of flowers..."

  The Loyanese flag beared the Sacred Lotus of Harmony towards the foreigners, the colours of red and pink flailed in the air and sun. The flag, adopted only five years ago, had been a symbol of freedom and harmony in Loyan, the colours chosen to be none threatening but bold nevertheless. And with many other symbols in the island, a flora was chosen to be the main gestalt for the national flag. An embrace of passion, peace, and beauty. Fing hoped the black foreigners will understand the imagery.     

 

[Gibiesk]

"Everybody get under deck! Quickly!" someone shouted. The confused delegation rushed back inside the ship and into the conference room.

Meanwhile the captain had already ordered to move the ship into a safe distance, and to hoist the war flag. "We may not have weapons as loud as thunder," he said more to himself than to the steersman beside him, "but we will not let those yellow people play with us like toys." The captain was not authorized to give the firing order, but he was anxiously listening to the radio.

Inside the conference room, the delegates were discussing wildly.

Two priests stood in a corner. One was chewing his fingernails and shaking: "It's too dangerous to stay here. First they destroy our welcome robot, then they show us their flag." The other priest was trying to calm him down: "But they dropped their weapons." - "Maybe those were only ceremonial, and now they are loading the real ones to destroy our ship." - "No arm can destroy a whole ship." - "You have seen what they did to our robot." - "But they arrested the man who shot it." - "I say they are deceiving us!"

At the same time, the young linguist remarked: "The flag looks nice. Reminds me of the flowers in my grandmother's garden." The psychologist was not convinced. "You wouldn't put a flower on a flag, would you?" she replied. The linguist turned turned to another member of the delegation: "Well, no... Paptreeoonc, you're a historian, right? Why do people use flags anyway? Paptreeoonc, are you listening?"

Paptreeoonc had been silent all the time. He was busy with his own thoughts. When the linguist addressed him for the third time, he startled. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" - "I was wondering why people are afraid of flags." - "That is an interesting question indeed, young lady." Paptreeoonc was like a duck to water. He did not like socializing, but he loved showing off his knowledge. "Nowadays schools only teach two aspects of vexillology."

Fröönt raised her head to listen to the old man. How dare he criticize the government? Everyone in the room went silent. Paptreeoonc continued without noticing: "They teach about the green triangle flag of the Green Revolution - a declaration of war against the pseudo-democratic Establishment of the Third Republic. They also teach about the red flag of the Gibiesk Empire that brought devastation, fear and injustice to our nation.

"But flags had been in use before the empress was even born. In the old times, Gibiesk was made up of many small principalities. Each princess had her own flag - an animal she liked, a beautiful flower or simply her favorite color. That flag would wave on the market square to show a village's loyalty to the princess. The princess, in turn, would build roads and allow free trade among those villages. When the princess was tired of her subjects, she forced the villagers to take the flag with them and conquer other villages. That is how the flag became a symbol of war."

The linguist was astonished. After a minute of thinking, she replied: "Did the yellow people have princesses of their own?" The doctor continued her thoughts: "So far we only saw men there. Even the one who gave orders was a man. What if their flag has a different meaning?" "But," the psychologist remarked, "it's a pink flag with a flower. What kind of man would design that?" - "We have a lot to learn about those foreigners" Paptreeoonc concluded.

And so the delegation decided to give the yellow men another chance. They instructed the captain to make a U turn towards the metal ship. It was decided to repeat the whole ceremony, only this time without the soldiers. In order to show the foreigners what they had done in the meantime, they would move a big video screen on deck and play the recording of their discussion in the conference room. They would not be able to understand the arguments, but they should be smart enough to see the emotions behind.

At first the captain had been reluctant to return. But when he had heard that the foreigners might be a purely male society - or at least society where it was the men who gave orders - the captain smiled and himself and maneuvered the ship as close to the other one as the foreigners would permit. If the foreigners remained peaceful this time, he would have time to help cook the best Gibiesk dinner they had ever had. He was looking forward to preparing his favorite dessert: sweetened purple yam porridge with carambola.


OOC: The modern-day Gibiesk (war) flag is the one you can see under my nickname, the "green triangle flag." The red flag of the Empire was actually blue and green with a dark red saltire (i.e. an X kind of cross like in the Scottish flag).

[Union]

  Despite all their efforts, the black faced people had taken distance to them. Captain Fing's heart sank as he watched the boat sailed away from them. They had ruined a chance for a successful first contact, and perhaps the last chance. Angry and furious, Fing marched down to the underdeck where Lieutenant Song was cuffed to a chair.

  Fing stood over the Lieutenant, looking at him with eyes of shame and detest. "Song you trigger monkey, you know what you just done!" he yelled at Song like a father yelling a bad son. "Thanks to you, we just ruined a chance to meet with a new race of people. I'm gonna have to demoted to harbour crew for this!"
 
  The Lieutenant's head hanged low in awkward shame and kept silent. Fing felt his anger lift and pity replace his wraith. He cooled his breath and laid his hand on Song's shoulder. "I'm sorry Song," he said. "I forgot what you're going through. Maybe...you should take a few months off after this."

  The Lieutenant kept his head down. A voice from above deck caught the attention of Fing. "Captain! They're coming back around!"

  Sure enough, peeking though the hatch, Fing could see the wooden boat coming back around to them, perhaps eager for a second chance of contact. Fing wasted no time in fixing his mistake from last time and ordered his men to stow their weapons away. For extra measure, he had Hong hoist up the Navy's insignia on the flag pole, along with a white flag for peace.

  "Captain, remind me why we're doing all this? Headquarters will have our ass for this, being unarmed and letting some strange peop-..."

  "Quiet CH, it's a historic moment we're experiencing right now. Don't you want to know how it felt when our ancestors first met foreigners from off the island?"

  "Not really...not if you put in the fact that we had to fight some of them off the islands when they tried to invade..."

  "Well....that was ages ago, it's different..."

  "How?"
 
  "CH, will you just shut up!"

[Gibiesk]

This time it worked all right. Although the people on both ships were nervous, everyone stayed calm and waited until the little robot had arrived on the foreign ship. The foreign captain - the Gibiese people believed the person who arrested the violent man to be some sort of captain - gave an order to a short man with heavy muscles, and the man went away. He came back a minute later, wearing white gloves. With his gloves, he took the handheld out of the robot and carefully lifted it up. Some of the yellow men were gasping, the Gibiese people were smiling.

The man with the gloves explained every detail he saw to the captain. After a while, he worked up his courage to press a button. It was the green button to pause the video. He pressed it again, and the video continued. Relieved, he exhaled and smiled. He must have feared a snake would come out of the device. He pressed more buttons and quickly found out how the device worked.

Meanwhile a few members of the Gibiese crew were busy attaching something to the white rail that connected the two ships. First they installed a [-shaped piece of metal with two wheels that touched the rail. Then they added a ]-shaped piece and screwed the two together. Which produced a metal frame around the rail that could be moved on wheels. On top of the frame, they screwed a square board about 5 hands long [53 cm / 1'9''] with two metal straps. Tötü muñ Üücimproo hrokh Fuumuikhet, the young woman who had awoken the historian from his daydream back in the conference room, was strapped to the square board on the rail. Again the big crank was turned, and before the yellow men realized what was going on, Tötü was on board their ship.

When Tötü was in primary school, her family moved away from their village on the island of Chiniuup to a bustling city on the main island of Gibiesk. The children at her new school laughed at Tötü and her twin sister because they had a funny accent. They said TH instead of F and couldn't pronounce any soft consonants. When the sisters talked to each other, they spoke in a language only they could understand, telling nasty jokes about their classmates.

Tötü's twin sister died in a tragic accident when she was 12. Tötü swore to herself that she would never forget her secret language. Every minute she could spare after school, Tötü wrote down the funny words and weird grammar. Later at college, she studied linguistics and went back to her home village to record the ancient dialect that was beginning to die out. But never in her life had she heard something as bizarre as the yellow men's speech. She wanted to understand that foreign language, even if it took her years to learn it.

This is what the construction looked like (schematic sketch):



OOC:
If you want to know more about the language of Gibiesk, don't hesitate to ask. I'm prepared. ;-) And so is Tötü, who has a handheld device in her pocket that serves as a database for recording audio (spoken Inglish).
Talking about language: What is a CH?

[Union]

ooc: Is it Bantu? CH is abbreviate for Commissioned Hand, the lowest rank in the Loyanese Navy and the equivalent of calling someone "sailor". Also, I won't say our skin colour is yellow...more Hawaiian(I still don't understand why East Asians are classified under that colour , it's not remotely yellow!)

 With the situation being more stable, Captain Fing was eager to get closer. They threw a pair of mooring ropes to the black foreigners to secure both ships from separating on the rough waves. Captain Fing extend his hands to the foreign women that had came aboard.

"Captain Fing, Loyanese Navy," he said, "Hola, and welcome aboard."

[Gibiesk]

OOC:

No, it's not a Bantu language, it's made up from scratch. The only thing Gibiese and Bantu languages have in common is the two tones: a double consonants indicates rising tone, a single consonant falling tone. But Gibiese doesn't have noun categories, prenasalized consonants, ejectives or implosives.

Morphologically, it's an isolating language like Chinese (i.e., no declension or conjugation). Syntactically, it has case particles like Japanese (e.g. I love you = love I [accusative particle] you) and aspects instead of tenses like Chinese (e.g. I am/was doing vs. I do/did). Phonologically, it has nasal vowels (like French/Portuguese) and clicks (like Khoisan languages).

As for the "yellow" color: Their skin colors is none of the fundamental colors. So the way it is perceived depends somewhat on the viewer's culture. Gibiese has words for white, yellow and pink. None of those really fit. But someone said "yellow" and everyone stuck with it. The Gibiese skin color is not pitch black either, more dark brown.

The climate and geography of Gibiesk resembles those of New Guinea, but aspects like culture, history and technologies are completely made up by myself.

[Union]

ooc: I'm no linguist, so much of what you said made little sense  . So what are you hoping for next? If you want me to invite in to my shore, you will have to go through a quarantine procedure.