By the time Tianok joins us back at Canaveral, the remaining encryption blocks have been decoded and we finally have full access to all the broadcasts from the planet Thermia. I’m immediately struck by the overwhelming sense of similarity between the two opposing factions.

Their languages are clearly rooted in a similar source, even if they now sound quite different and use a different writing system. The people are, as far as an outsider can tell, identical and their cultures are remarkably uniform. We have experts across several planets scouring their broadcasts for context and detail, but my superficial analysis leaves me wondering what they’re really fighting about.

Now, however, I’m beginning to realize that we have a time crunch. What, just a few days ago, seemed like plenty of time to prepare for our approach towards orbit now looks like a rapidly approaching deadline that we will never meet.

The questions around the upcoming initial broadcast are endless and every single one needs to be discussed and then approved by consensus. Sometime it only takes a few of us to make a binding decision, but often enough to be a burden, it has to go all the way up the chain to the AI, Human and Valatan leadership for final approval.

Even so, much of the preparatory work seems to be falling to Melina, Rob and myself with Tianok and my uncles offering support and ideas where they can. As expected, it has been decided that I’m going to be the primary spokesperson. It is enshrined in my job description, so I’m prepared to take the role with good grace.

By the end of the second day after the final decryptions, we have all the makings of a script, but only another two days in which to make the recordings and get it right.

There are also an enormous number of effects, graphics and overlays to prepare. Having made an early decision to be open and honest about ourselves and our intentions, we need to be honest about where we are coming from and why we’re travelling the stars in the first place.

There’s a dichotomy that needs to be explained and resolved, even if only in passing. Humans have never made a secret of the fact that our exploration efforts are predominantly colonisation-based. However, as I hope we demonstrated with the Valatan, this is not to the detriment of indigenous races. Someone muttered something about an ancient TV show having a thing called ‘The Prime Directive’. We don’t have one, but the idea is enshrined in the rules we do have.

“Well, it really doesn’t matter,” Rob explains in a heated meeting. “We can show them exactly where Sol and Earth are – all of the colonies and Verus as well for that matter. In the final analysis, they simply can’t do anything about it.”

We have been joined by a group of human representatives from various administrative departments here on Earth and also on the colony worlds. With the notable exception of the Valatan, they are already striking me as somewhat xenophobic in their outlook. It’s strange enough to be a little shocking. It’s not something that any of us in the IEG expected and we’ve been a little wrong-footed by it.

“I just feel that we’re giving away too much about ourselves,” one of the delegates says for the fifth time in three minutes. He is backed up by three or four murmurs of approval, again for the fourth or fifth time. I’ve only known Rob for a few days, but I can tell he’s getting frustrated.

“Okay, let’s look at this more seriously,” Rob says with a sigh. “Worst-case scenario: they decide they don’t like us and that they’re going to stop fighting one-another and come after us instead?”

“Exactly,” another delegate says almost smugly.

“So, they need to advance technologically far enough to get some sort of warship into a trajectory that sends it towards Earth – Earth is their nearest possible target, by the way – and come up with a weapon – or multiple weapons – that can seriously affect us in one sudden attack.”

“Right now, they have chemical rockets that can get a few hundred kilograms into orbit around their planet. They have no indicated development of fission or fusion power,” Rob continues. “So, their attack ship will have to use whatever they can develop in a reasonable period of time – a short period because most of the populace, even if initially very strongly motivated – will soon lose interest.”

“I’m going to put a reasonable figure on this whole endeavour,” Rob adds. “Let’s assume it takes them twenty years to launch and they can get to 10% of the speed of light as a first attempt at interstellar propulsion without fusion generators. It’ll then take them about 250 years to get to Earth and we’ll detect them when they are more than a light-year away. That’s similar to what Humans did at the end of the 21st century.”

“They could grab the Manannan and steal our gateway technology,” the first delegate points out.

Nexi, her avatar standing off to one side of the conference table flashes in what I’ve come to recognise very well as amusement. <Not on my watch. First, they’ll have to cut their way inside the hull, but I won’t even let them get that far. There are many advantages to having ships that have no living crew. My simulations indicate that I can make all three reactors go critical in less than five seconds. They might find a few atoms of some metals they don’t have on their world, but not much else. Well, there’s going to be a bloody huge hole, but that’s about it.>

“And the thermo-nuclear explosion will teach them that nuclear fusion is a real possibility but, at the same time, the EMP from the detonation will destroy most of the electronics in their solar system,” I point out for good measure.

“Nobody is suggesting that we don’t consider any possible threat from the Thermians if they choose to be hostile,” Rob finishes. “Still, to assume that they pose a direct threat to Earth or any of the worlds in our sphere is naïve in the extreme.”

It is, as is often the case, left to Melina to calm everyone down. “Let’s not forget that current analysis suggests that much of their conflict is being driven by a lack of resources. They probably don’t have the energy or the materiel to build such a project anyway. There’s also no indication that, despite their current military cultures and economies, they are an inherently hostile race. They are just people – different people, but still just people.”

By the end of our second day of recording, I’m totally drained. For the most part, we’ve long-since given up on live presenting and broadcast news reports. The vast majority of our population either choose to read the news on a home terminal or listen to an AI generated summary on their implants. Then, of course, there’s not really much news to report most of the time.

I’ve had to sit and watch endless hours of our own 21st century television broadcasts to get a feel for it. Even then, I’m not entirely comfortable in the role and it has been showing quite clearly in many of my attempts at delivering a monologue to camera. I do, however, have a deep respect for those old-time presenters, particularly anyone who had to explain an event live and without a script or even notes. It is a skill we have apparently lost. I have a script that’s playing inside my head and I still struggle.

Then, of course, there is the pressure of knowing that we’re going to make this available to anyone in our federation who wants to watch along as it is broadcast. I’m potentially going to be seen by billions of individuals on almost a dozen worlds.

Still, I do finally feel that we have made a balanced presentation of ourselves. As first contact material goes, it doesn’t feel half bad. We have condensed into about fifteen minutes the whole history of human exploration, colonisation and federation.

Of course, the processing power and skills at our disposal allow us to make extensive use of machine-generated imagery for graphics and simulations. Care has also been taken to ensure that there’s no mention of our AI colleagues at present, it having been agreed that this would be a distraction from our mission objectives.

There is a small section from Verus, narrated by Tianok in his own language. A late decision to show that we have access to singularity gateway technology means that this shows him walking from Atuan to Settlement as he talks about the benefits that contact brought to his world. It is over in a moment and might even go unnoticed by our target audience.

Minerva has assured us that she will refine the subtitles right up to the last minute, trying to catch the best-nuanced and idiomatic language that she can as her knowledge-bases of these alien languages expand. I know that I can trust her judgement on this and, since a twin set of lesson implants over the last couple of nights, I can check for myself.

Finally, the broadcast is finished and scheduled to be transmitted at noon our time tomorrow. It has been decided to transmit it in an unencrypted and open form, so both sides can see it at the same time without bias, both sets of subtitles on screen together.