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First Contact

A 16-post collection

Challenge #04094-K076: Act Like a Child...

You know, I always find it so shocking how some people can make such a massive upset over something so small. The way they're screaming you'd think I just told them their world was about to end. All I did was tell them that they cannot come aboard my ship because I've already a full complement of passengers. I refuse to to be unkind by making someone sit uncomfortably simply because this individual is throwing a temper-tantrum. -- DaniAndShali

Pilot Paz stared down at the Human in complete bafflement. According to hir available information, this was the behaviour of their neophytes. The Human was throwing herself on the floor, flailing arms and legs and screaming as if she were being murdered.

Paz double-checked the infonets. This was indeed the behaviour of a Human child. The age range they called 'toddler'. Barely past mastering bipedal motion, possessing debatable bladder and bowel control, and certainly lacking emotional control. This was the classical reaction of a toddler being told 'no'. Yet the person performing it was clearly an adult.

This was beyond Paz's expertise. Clearly, this Human needed some helpful intervention, but Paz only knew how to handle hir ship. There was only one thing to do.

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Challenge #03408-I120: Solid, Scientific, Documented Evidence

They say that whenever people have to choose between doing what's right, and doing what's easy, they choose what's easy. But what of those times where doing what's right is easy, and doing what's wrong is more difficult? Why is it so many choose what's wrong anyhow? Especially those who struggle to continue to deny basic scientific fact, and deny what's, quite literally, staring them in the face? -- Lessons

Humans are, as a species, considered insane. They do many, many things

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Challenge #03076-H153: Charms to Tame the Savage Breast

A first contact between humans and a new species almost degrade to a war, until they hear humanity music for the first time... -- Tom

First contact is... risky. Both sides have no idea what to expect out of the other. One species' friendly greeting can be another's instant death threat, or grave insult to their grandmother. In a situation where any move could be hostile, it's safe to move very still and do one's best to try and read the other

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Challenge #03016-H093: Well, There Was That One Time...

Humans had just begun their exploration of space, they'd not yet met any other species. The first, early, days of human space travel. A kind and gentle elderly woman, who lived alone on a farm far into the countryside, found a very large, odd-looking, "bird" gathering seed from the open feeder she had and they seemed shaky and unwell. When they collapsed, she hobbled outside, loaded them onto the flat part of her walker, and hobbled back inside. Imagine their shock when

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Challenge #02825-G268: Move Over Cinderella

To put it simply, I am a slime. A sentient slime to be precise. Doc told me that I’m a amalgamation of smaller slime cores stitched together, now I have similar intelligence to a human. You might be asking why I have a humanoid shape, Doc gave me a skeleton to use. He’s slowly adding metal because I keep digesting the bones. Don’t worry Doc didn’t kill anyone, these are bones of Criminal on death sentence. -- Anon

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Challenge #02801-G244: Not as Advertised

A havenworld has heard about the big- dangerous, helpful humans for generations. About a year before they manage to actually make contact, they manage to get their first written-word, non-hearsay written texts on humans. Unfortunately, they don't understand fiction and have never heard of superhero comic books. -- Anon Guest

Human artifacts travel further and faster than the Humans themselves. Some things are just easier to move around in small spaces. Useful Deathworlders also often reach other species before the Humans do.

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Challenge #02800-G243: Where the Hand Dictates

A deregger colony espoused that they would have a thousand-year reign. They have held onto their power, and the colony fanatically believed in that thousand year reign. It is year 999.

None of their lore held anything to indicate what would happen after the thousand year reign. -- Anon Guest

One thousand years of glory! The posters were everywhere. This year, on Landing Day, would be the thousandth year of glorious progression towards a better and more deserving future. One thousand years

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Challenge #02374-F184: Interesting Impressions

Imagine meeting a species that displayed all their emotions via dermal colour displays. And how humans would react to them -- Adam in Darwin

As first contact situations go, the meeting between Humans and Acrodontids could have plausibly gone better. When it comes to meeting Humans, it's a minor miracle that they don't shoot on sight. Those who don't shoot on sight are the ones who tend to enthusiastically pack bond. It's still a matter of debate as to which is worse.

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Challenge #02268-F078: A Light in You

I read an article a while back about humans having some sort of line system (like a fish with sensors) which controls for example diseases like (sorry not english: Gürtelrose[AN: Google says 'shingles']) it lays outside of the human visible spectrum. Only humans have this and no other animal or plants have.

Also we humans shine. Like really, really low, but still, we glow very weak in the dark. Again not visible for us.

But what if other aliens don't have

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Challenge #01784-D322: Worrying Encounters

"But, there wasn't any psionic signal from this direction !"

What if Human are the only known sentient species who can't interact with some signal, like in the Wake comics ? How the first contact could look like ? (in the Wake comics, psionics signal are used as a mean of communication, something like telepathies. And human are "immune" to it. Meaning that we're just invisible to their system.) -- Anon Guest

Everyone knows now that Humans are 'space orcs'. They also know that Humans

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Challenge #01740-D279: Too Close an Encounter

It seemed like I might have dodged a bullet. Now all I had to do was avoid all the rest. -- RecklessPrudence

To be honest, I didn't know I'd blundered into a land war until the moon behind me went up into shrapnel. I'd dodged one bullet by accident. Well. Missile. Now I had to dodge the shrapnel from an exploding moon. Getting away from the big boom helped my chances a lot.

And then I saw the fleet. They had a

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Challenge #01699-D236: Everything You Can

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt. -- c/- Anon Guest

Improvisation goes well with inspired desperation, so it's said. Having been marooned on more than my fair share of asteroids, I can say it's a definite thing. Many a time, my arse has been saved by the ability to bodge up a life-pod out of wreckage and whatever the asteroid was made of.

And there was one time that I got eaten by

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Challenge #01561-D100: Time For Change

Stranded alien offers gender re-assignment technology in return for fuel and food. Afterwards people can father or bear a child. What happens next? -- Knitnan

Communicating had been the first hurdle. Bella had managed most of it with pantomime and imitation. The second hurdle was that Earth technology was centuries behind what this stranded entity had on hand. Most of their months together were spent building the tools to build the things that Yrxnahb needed to repair their vessel.

Bella tried to

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Challenge #01560-D099: Unintended Consequences

One man's trash is another man's treasure. -- Knitnan

Sooner or later, someone will buy it. This is the mantra of both Junker Nomads and Tall Tale Tellers alike. Some of whom do both jobs at once. The further one goes, the more one can sell it for. Unless, of course, said object is everywhere. In which case, one has to take it to the Edge Territories or beyond.

And every trader, large or small, has a minimum of one Standard Weight

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Challenge #01554-D093: A Rovin' Heart

"Scrounger" Noun, a person or being who collects discarded objects and turns them into (a) ready cash. (b) something useful - often re-purposed. -- Knitnan

Tolerance is a wonderful thing, and more of it happens on the relatively lawless edges of society than it does in the lawful middles. Law likes to build a bubble around itself and eliminate everything that exists outside of it. But edges... edges are where interesting things happen. Sometimes, it's a plummet into destruction, but other times.

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