"Something is about to arrive from another multiverse. Given what it is you might fret about some other things that are adjacent to them but you should not. Fortunately those rather crass extra-dimensional malignant entities obsessed with blood, schemes, plagues and pleasures were not brought along and even if they did they would have instantly expired if they showed up in this multiverse. Fretting about them is not productive.
-Q"
You puzzle over this for a few days as news reports happen about a strange development in the Asteroid Belt. Basically it involved a sudden pulse of Gamma Rays and incoherent radio distortion that was easily detectable by astronomers around the world. Telescopes also detect a strange object about five kilometers long and triangular in shape adrift in a stable orbit. There are radio transmissions which go back and forth, though the information exchanged is limited by bandwidth, linguistic issues and time delay. However two weeks latter a few smaller craft arrive in New York before the UN Building which is broadcast around the world. As you watch it come out of the clouds you think the landing craft is kind of familiar. Then you see it more detail and it looks a lot more familiar. Especially when you see this logo on it's wings.
[CENTER]
[/CENTER]...and nine hooved humanoid figures disembarking from it. Four of them are an honorguard helmeted with long barreled weapons with the other five being of different shapes and sizes and includes another soldier in armor without a helmet, a stout worker, a lanky pilot, a somewhat less lanky bureaucrat in a disc shaped hat and a medium figure in an ornate robe at the center. All of which are blue skinned, no nose, have four fingers on their hands and mostly have their hair done up in a ponytail. They bow respectfully to the UN officials and secretary general with the bureaucrat explaining that he is Por'El "Pleasant Surprise" and will act as a translator on behalf of Kor'O "Flame Rider", Fio'El "Diligent Purpose", Shas'El "Green Hill" and Aun'Ui "Dawnlight". They have found themselves stranded here after being overwhelmed in an unexpected confrontation and their attempt to escape from that there was a freak accident which damaged their Custodian class ship which was undergoing a shakedown cruise and ended up here.
Their craft is not in a good shape. It's drives (FTL and STL) are non functional and they are dead in the water in Sol System. Fortunately they were somewhat over crewed with a solid workforce of all four of the main castes and a few observers from the Ethereal caste and the life support systems were decentralized and redundant. Keeping the 50,000 people on board alive will not be a problem as far as water and air are concerned, though they will have to expand the craft's hydroponics systems for the Long Term and they are digging into the asteroid belt for additional raw materials and living space while they rebuild. It would be an aide to their efforts if human industries made components to their specifications. In compensation Earth Caste Engineers could provide information on power systems, basic surface to orbit launch vehicles and other such gear. They'd also be glad to show some human observers around the damaged Starship and provide access to their cultural libaries. Work should take about a decade or so with human involvement noticeably speeding things up and once they are complete they can search the surrounding Stars for a place to establish themselves permanently, but they'll try to remain in touch. The Ethereal concludes the introductory statement herself by saying that she hopes that Humans and Tau can work together for The Greater Good.
What do you do and what should be done?
Zor
