Fabienne Gschwind - Star Map

Some Squeltrem ship formations were completely wiped out.

This was the time when Morchen took over. Despite the losses, the Squeltrems initially won enough battles and conducted successful raids. They made their first breakthroughs in sensor technology. They were confident that the Squeltrems would gain the upper hand.

This was also the time when Prial, Mantichal, and Squlaira positioned themselves as successors and began their power struggles.

But to no avail, nearly 10 years of daily defeats and few successes followed.

By the time the humans came aboard, the Squeltrem had lost half of its original power. Most of them were frozen in hopelessness. All members born in Squeltrem society would be imprisoned for life if captured.

There were no executions in the Chrismaxian Empire because it was against religion, but they simply locked the prisoners in small cells and never let them out. And Chrismaxes lived a very long time, so they easily had 150 years of boredom ahead of them.

So, the Squeltrem bobbed along. Squlaira, Prial, Mantichal fought like old married couples out of habit, and Morchen spent most of his time thinking about how to get out of the Squeltrem and go on living somewhere with a false identity.

But the arrival of the aliens gave hope. Did they have some technology onboard that would give the Squeltrem back its dominance?

One was not convinced, but at least it was a small glimmer of hope.

And so, the Squeltrems gathered all the information they had about the aliens and discussed how best to get them to cooperate. To this end, the few very gifted empaths were quickly brought in and loitered around the Abhysal , trying to capture the emotions of the humans. All affirmed that they had sensed no danger. The ETs had been nervous and anxious, but nothing unusual given their situation.

Finally, after many hours, they concluded and the strategy was set on how to deal with them. Morchen decided to play the usual game with the prisoners: offer them a good life in the Squeltrem in exchange for their technological knowledge. The special trick was that they should also be helped to return to their space sector.

After all, the Squeltrems were always on the path of least resistance, and slaves and other prisoners were always offered freedom in return for unresisting labor. It was the perfect way to get free labor.

The crew of Abhysal had no idea about any of this.

After a refreshment break, everyone gathered in the dining room, due to the effect of liquizy they were not really hungry, but everybody was in for a small treat anyway. The cooking robot had prepared a light meal, and everyone served themselves while Kiki offered an overview of everything she had found out. For example, she had analyzed subspace technology and was convinced that the Squeltrem were unable to dive in meso-subspace with their starships. They could only dive in surface water with difficulty. They also did not appear to have sophisticated sensors. "Navigating in the nebula with just a compass and map," Kiki summarized.

In turn, they had subspace propulsion and an entirely new way of generating power.

"What I find most amazing is that they were so human..." said Lex.

Jay looked up and asked, "what makes you think that?"

"Well, I think if aliens showed up, our space fleet would be a lot meaner to them. Tie them up or lock them up and interrogate them!"

"Well, I also think our first encounter went very well...While we're on the subject: Can someone explain to me how their timing works? Not that we're going to be late for our first appointment," Nemo asked in between.

For a while, the crew tried to figure it all out but then gave up.

Finally, Kiki took over the explanations.

The day was called a cycle and lasted about 31 earths hours and was divided into four shifts of 10 parts each. The crew decided to keep their usual notion of minutes, hours, days, months and weeks, to avoid great confusion. Luckily the chrismaxian months were roughly 35 earth days and the chrismaxian week about nine earth days, so it was not too off.

Or as Nemo said: "Pff… Do not think too much about the details, it is all about the same..."

Essentially, a Chrismaxe got up at the beginning of a shift, then had a chrismaxian hour to get ready and go to work. The work lasted seven hours, and at the end, they had another two hours of free time before an insurmountable need to rest overcame them and the Chrismaxes fell into an almost comatose sleep that lasted three shifts. This repeated four times, then on the fifth day, there was a weekend that was simply a free shift.

In human time units, the Chrismaxes slept almost 21 hours and worked a little less than seven hours.

"Kiki, can you reprogram my clock? It's best we get used to it right away. Otherwise, we'll get a headache from the change..."

Joe got her notebook and started writing down all the information she knew about the Chrismaxes. "This is just as I've always dreamed. We finally met Alien. Isn't that wonderful?" she cheered, refocusing on her work. Lex shuffled her feet nervously. "not wonderful at all, what if they destroy the Abhysal or kill us or dismantle us or something..." she grumbled and then went to her AI chair to discuss everything with Kiki.

Jay got another chocolate ice cream and asked Nemo, "Nemo, do you have some time? I need a new suit..."

He pointed to the uniform he was still wearing. "The same one, but in super light summer fabrics..."

Three shifts later, they all met again in the airlock. Except for Joe, who was wearing her technician overall, they were all dressed in summer clothes. Tinted contact lenses would protect their eyes from the glare and also keep them moist. Everyone had a large water bottle with them.

The coordinator was waiting for them. Her name was Trecca, and she showed them the chrismaxian greeting. They drew a circle in the air, and if someone was particularly important, they had to draw many large circles. Trecca led them to a nearby storage room that they would use as a meeting room today. The storage room was prepared, and workers were moving boxes and cartons to the side. A large fan heater kept it at a comfortable 28°C degrees.

"And now for the administrative part... You all need to be properly registered."

With Trecca's help, people worked their way through the paperwork, and in the end, they all received a Squeltrem passport with a photo. Normally, they would also be implanted with a chip, but that was too tricky for the Squeltrems, and they received the chip in the form of a bracelet for now. The chip doubled as a key, ID card, and credit card.

Then various Chrismaxes trickled in and sat down one by one. Trecca whispered to each one who they were. "You are celebrities, and many members of the top cadre as well as other executives want to see you... By the way, this is Ghu, the director of the police department. Prial is the main chief, but Ghu takes care of the day-to-day operations… Oh and there's Chrodn, the first chairman of the administration and..."

The crew listened silently to the flood of names and titles. The problem with getting the names right was that the translation software "humanized" the names a bit so that they became somewhat tangible. Trecca's name sounded more like Trrccts and Morchen more like Mmrrccen. The Chrismaxes were very stingy with vowels in their names... And since people had not yet had an introduction to the Squeltrem organization, it was difficult to know who was who anyway.

Finally, Morchen, Prial, and Mantichal stepped up. They discussed the resolutions. People had a Chrismaxian month to prove they were capable and willing to work with the Squeltrem. One milestone was the construction of a prototype equipped with a new "alien technology." After this trial period, more decisions will be made. Mantichal held out the prospect that, if successful, the crew could officially join the Squeltrem and enjoy all the benefits. She also said they would be helped to find a way back home.