Narchi watched with the others from the Engineering Investigation Team. After watching the replay of the first contact between the people of Balaam and the Galactic Humans. Kael Oran shook his head and said, "What a bunch of assholes!" Narchi said, "Don't shoot me for saying this wrong, Captain, but the Book of Dao has a quote for these guys. 'They offended the eyes of God so much, that the stones of the ground smote them!' I know, I'D like to smite them!" Neblae kicked her feet and chirped, "I like how the little one without a shirt fainted after Thistledown left! Heh!" Zeelob rubbed his blue hands together and said, "They might not be amateur offenders. They may be professionals." Kael looked at Zeelob while stretching and asked, "Pros? Think it was an act? Why?" Zeelob said, "They said they have almost TEN THOUSAND stars in their Empire. SURELY they can't ALL think alike. You don't really know someone until you have provoked them to anger. Notice how calm the Commander is while his underlings shoot their mouths off. We cannot assume they are bumpkins simply because they act that way." Kael said, "From what we've seen in their ships, they might well BE bumpkins. Personally, I think they have been the big dogs on the block for so long, that calcification of their culture might have set in, as it did in our own Jade Empire." Captain Dokka Tkarro asked, "So, what did you folks find out?" Narchi looked at the others and there was some hemming and hawing. Narchi said, "First off--I'd like to put in for commendations for Zeelob and Kael. Their skills have been top notch." Dokka nodded and said, "Alright. AND...?" Narchi sighed. "Their ship is a piece of junk. Kael estimates that they must have found a starship with FTL and reverse engineered it. You noted that almost three hundred foot long pod on a ventral fin? That cannon, almost as big as our space-Battleship? It's only as powerful as our ventral TSMD cannon. Their ship is frighteningly primitive." Kael said, "Their power transfer conduits are WIRE." Dokka looked shocked. "WIRE?" Narchi nodded. "Wire. Super-conducting wire, but WIRE, NOT plasma lasers in a vacuum. Some of their stuff was so primitive, I feared finding vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube monitors! God. Their ship-board cannons are some kind of neutrino emmitters. Never seen anything like that. Tommorrow morning I'll check with the Xantini and the Measure to see if they know anyone using weaponized neutrinos." Dokka asked, "I never heard of such a thing." Kael said, "I have a theory. Their technology is equivalent to about 3500 years ago. It seems they found the FTL about a thousand years ago. The cannons seems to have been added about four hundred years ago from some alien species." Narchi said tiredly, "In other words... we've been hoping for the cavalry to come riding over the hill to our rescue. Unfortunately, they are riding crippled mules. There is more, but it IS two o'clock in the morning. Neblae is... SOUND asleep, it seems! She needs an off-switch. Damn." Dokka smiled, and said, "I'll carry her back to your room, for you, Narchi. You guys get some sleep. I need to get some sleep,too." Dokka trailed off and asked, "Kael? You still with us?" Kael nodded and then fell to his hands and knees, and started coughing up blood. Zeelob jumped up, and came to his side. Kael fell over to his side. Dokka shouted, "MEDICAL EMERGENCY! Medical team to Captain's office!" Neblae woke up in a shock. "LORDS of lights! What happened?" She went over and put a hand on him reflexively. She swore, "Dammit! I can't heal anymore!" Kael struggled to get up as the medics came in. Kael choked out, "I'll be alright. It's just the chemo for Leukemia affecting me." Zeelob asked, "It was the radioactivity where you grew up?" Kael nodded and left. Neblae frowned in determination in the tomb-like quiet. "I have to become Sister of Water again." --to be continued!--