Grayson’s initial assumptions about Ssujak-resk, back before she new anything about it beyond a basic description of its stunningly active galactic neighbourhood, was that it was probably a primordial world. However, after reading the reports delivered to her by ensign Raleigh a few weeks ago, Grayson quickly discovered that her assumptions were incorrect.
Its relative spatial importance easily usurped by the massive and dense Lisj nebula looming close by and barricaded behind an extensive asteroid belt, Ssujak-resk, a lone planet orbiting a dim star, is easy to miss. Raleigh’s report described a planet of respectable size, tidally locked to its dwarf host, with a thick atmosphere, a liquid core, and a companion moon. Curiously, the data included indicated varying, but nonetheless appreciable levels of radioactivity – a result, Grayson later learned, of supernovae actvity in the nearby nebula. Scans showed abundant complex life on the day side of the planet and far less of it on the night side. Finally, the atmospheric composition readout flagged the presence of numerous synthetic compounds – the environmental footprint of industry – as well as an overwhelming percentage of nitrogen and nitrogen-based compounds.
Not exactly a primordial profile, but not exactly a human-friendly one either.
For this reason, Grayson experienced mixed feelings when Voss’ request for her to come to Ssujak-resk arrived. The request came in weeks after Vinaed-2’s last round of discussions with Voss’ government, and after some lengthy deliberations a decision on the proposed alliance had finally been reached: they had accepted, and Grayson was to head to Ssujak-resk as a guest to seal the deal. The wait period prior to the communication had been stressful; Grayson had spent her days in meetings and her nights awake, worrying in equal amounts about things that she thought mattered and things that she had difficulty accepting perhaps didn’t. By the time the communication from Ssujak-resk arrived, she was exhausted, on edge, and ready to accept just about any outcome. Luckily, the news from Ssujak-resk was positive, and Grayson was instantly bowled over with relief; her mental acuity dulled by the unique combination of euphoria and lack of sleep, she accepted their invitation to an upcoming meeting on their home world and then promptly retired to her quarters for some much-needed rest.
It wasn’t until the next day, at around midday, that everything she’d ever heard from Voss about his home world came back to her in a rush, putting her blithe acceptance from earlier into sharp perspective: stepping foot on Ssujak-resk, she realized over a half-chewed mouthful of sandwich, presented some very serious complications.
Ensign Raleigh’s report was ready long before Grayson asked it of him, and he delivered it into her hands with a queer look that embarrassed her enough to cause her to choose to leave the room in order to review the data. Evidently, a specific data exchange between Vinaed-2 and Ssujak-resk had already taken place, as, in the following hours, she was informed that she and the team heading down would be adequately equipped to handle the particular environmental conditions present on land and that, in addition, the Ssujak-resk government had already made anticipatory preparations to receive them. She was assured that there was no need for her to be concerned about safety.
Despite this, Grayson’s nerves stayed on edge.
Three days later, the universal translators worn by the expedition team were updated with BETA audio codes for the Ssujak language. After taking part in some debatably successful tests on pre-recorded dialogue fragments and finding herself acceptably capable of understanding them, Grayson sent a message to Voss and requested that he reply to her without using synthesized speech. His reply arrived the following evening, and Grayson wound up listening to it multiple times; hearing his true pitch and various inflections was indescribably strange. He sounded nothing like what he’d sounded like to her up until that point.
In his message he explained where her team would land and what would take place immediately thereafter. He talked about the Oban and said one of the Moors would be present during her stay. He talked about food and lodging, but this segment was difficult to grasp – too many terms did not have direct translations.
Though she couldn’t understand the message in its entirety (the translator would often return nonsensical responses for certain words or even entire sentences), hearing it brought her immense comfort. The strongest effect came from Voss’ last sentence just before his parting words; she had to hear it twice in order to believe it – not because of the words themselves, but because of how easily she was able to detect the emotion behind them:
“Everything is in place, yet…I’m nervous about this, Grayson.”
The simplicity of it – of the emotion, of the interaction, of how effortless it was to understand him – allowed her to breathe more easily. The persistent worries surrounding environmental damage, equipment failure, and looking like a fool in front of the Ssujak-resk government mercifully receded that evening, leaving her with a healthy curiosity and a twinge of hope instead.
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