Outrim 2

The Majir did not arrive one year later.

 

They arrived eleven months, twenty-six days, and eleven hours from the moment the Xingyun made contact with the probe. There was no visual confirmation of their arrival in the days before. Their ships, a trio of spheres, warped into existence just outside Pluto's orbit. They signaled immediately, broadcasting on all frequencies. Announcing themselves, and asking where the leaders of mankind would like to make formal first contact.

The Sino-American alliance, ascendant in their recent victory, used their recently accrued political capitol to nominate an American research base on Io. The facility would provide the required amenities, with the added benefit of being an acceptable loss if the Majir became hostile.

The Majir assented. Their ships accelerated, moving around 1% of light speed, they entered the Jovian orbit. One month later, representatives of every human nation arrived.

The Majir arrived to a room of diplomats. The head of the UN - Miguel Calvo, was the first to shake hands with the Majiran expeditions leader - a male Majir that called himself Houm. The Secretary General greeted Houm in a short phrase derived from the Majiran language, while Houm replied in English.

"We welcome you as honored guests."

"Your hospitality is well received."

From there, the tone was set. Houm and his comrades had alien mannerisms (for instance, Calvo described Houm as smelling "something like cinnamon mixed with fried pepper"), but had clearly prepared themselves. They understood human body language, and emulated it in themselves. 

The meetings that followed over the next several days revealed the motives of the Majir. They as a species had a history quite similar to that of humanity, though their history had culminated in space flight some centuries earlier, around the eleventh century CE. Their home solar system had been colonized for decades.

It was around this point that the Majir became vague. They spoke of a great tragedy that occured on the eve of their discovery of faster than light travel. System-wide, genocidal warfare between the two great powers. Their homeworld nearly destroyed, many of their colonies annihilated, and, apparently, the instigating faction exiled.

The Majir that had made contact informed their hosts that the war set the Majir back centuries - much of their population was dead, and much knowledge lost. However, with the new FTL technology, they were able to expand to new star systems, some of them with habitable worlds. They controlled a dozen systems and called three livable planets their home.

They had detected human radio broadcasts decades earlier, and had dispatched a probe to observe. They had considered making contact immediately, but caution and curiosity won out. It wasn't until the Xingyun ran across their probe that it was decided that contact would be inevitable.

When asked what the Majir wanted from humanity, Houm looked taken aback. Then, slowly:

"Intelligence is rare. The universe is a cold and lonely place. We would ask you to join us in pushing back the night."

His subordinates handled the filthy details. The Majir, of course, wanted certain things, and offered others. Most tantalizingly, they offered the secrets of faster-than-light travel. Alongside, they offered information on the stars surrounding Earth, new techniques for harvesting helium, and more. They asked for human biotechnological techniques and antigravity technology. 

They also offered alliance. Not subsumation into a greater empire, but a true pairing of equals. When pressed, Houm explained that the Majiran population had still not recovered from the war and following exodus. The humans brought the advantage of numbers and innovation. The Majirans would provide the technology and the knowledge.

And so the Confederation of Sol was born - a loose political organization organized from the skeleton of the UN, uniting human space into a single political unit while leaving the real power in the hands of the great nations and alliances. Miguel Calvo was declared interim president until another representative could be named. The treaty of Io cemented the friendly relations betweeen humans and the Majir. 

They taught us to build Kernel drives - miniature black holes contained by a set of esoteric forces. Under current the holes mass would fluctuate. Run enough current quickly enough, and the whole ball of wax would drop out of realspace into a black nothingness human scientists quickly renamed "hyperspace" when the Majir called it "hell". Travel in this nearby universe happened normally, but by following a set of deeply complicated equations a ship could predict it's destination accurately enough to visit specific stars.

The path to the stars was opening to humanity. First contact yielded friends rather than foes.

In the years that followed, a sense of optimism pervaded human expansion. It was not to last, as the new alliances expansion did not go unnoticed...