They came to a gently bobbing stop clinging to the tip of the feather just in front of the spherical ‘guide’.

Aleph looked at Omega who shrugged and waved to the incongruous figure of a alien sphere floating there holding a sign that would not be out of place at a train station.

The creature waved back with one of its ‘arms’ and the text melted/crawled away from the sign turning more or less completely white.

Then just as swiftly new words formed, like growing algae or wriggling worms. Forming a completely new and perfectly legible if again informally handwritten statement.

“Hello, Terrans? Party of Three?”

Aleph smiled and nodded speaking.

“Yes I’m Aleph, This is Omega and that’s Quarti”

The thing gently turned a little bit to look at each of them as Aleph pointed then spun around to the left then the right.

The text clearing and reforming a bit more promptly.

“Please use communication that is Vacuum Rated”

It emphasised the point by tapping the words “vacuum rated” then let the text clear.

Omega grinned brightly and tapped her head.

“Right, if they know Aoria script they probably know standard resonance protocals? How are you on the basics there Aleph? I remember you being a little bit Rusty”

Aleph huffed and nodded her head “I can manage it fine. Some of us don’t drop skills when we don’t think we will need them”

Quarti however chimed in with a whine.

“The prots what gibberish? I’m gonna must to use wise that awful crackle tongue? Blech! Gag me some more don’t”

Aleph laughed and shook her head then tried to remember the right rhythm for singing standard, most people just let a totem do the translation for them. But amongst the many things Omega had drilled her in was how to do it manually.

She reached out for the proper patterns to do an agreement and felt her eyes cross with the sheer number of opportunities reaching back.

The place was buzzing with potential rhythms and connections. It made the back of her head flinch in anticipation of burn out just brushing the openings.

Their guide tilted entirely perpendicular to Aleph then spun back to ‘align’ with her up and down.

The text on it’s sign swirling into a new message.

“Please excuse high resonance traffic”

The figure waited for all of them to look at the sign and have a chance to read it before the letters swirled and reformed into another message.

“Do you desire a speech prosthesis?”

Omega and Aleph looked at each other.

“Uh that would be nice... I think as long as you are not gonna like inject us with anything”

Aleph blinked then realized they were not heard, and tried to mime jabbing something into her head then opening her arms out and offering a very questioning look.

The spherical guide stared for a while then rolled to the left and right in a manner that took Aleph a while to realize was supposed to be a head shake. Then reached into the little green thing at its side, undid a button and pulled out a small flattened cylinder.

The sign read.

“Please approach slowly to Receive”

Omega gently nudged the control stick towards the figure and the bubble bot extended its legs out drawing them close to the guide.

Then with a gentle little tap it pressed the one end of the cylinder into the bubble and pulled away.

Aleph peered at the cylinder that gently sank halfway through the bubble before settling to the stop.

Glancing back over to their guide.

“Okay... So what’s next?”

The sign fluttered with new writing, at the same time a voice spoke softly with a bit of a metallic twang, it actually sounded a lot like Aleph, but with a more distant kind of central accent. The words outside and the ones buzzing into the bubble matching together.

“Are you receiving the communication?”

Omega and Quarti jumped a little then looked back at the figure outside, who waggled the sign in what Aleph kind of thought was a hopeful manner.

“Oh uh yeah we can hear you now... Can you hear us?”

Quarti hummed and rubbed her chin but didin’t speak, just glancing at the cylinder contemplatively.

The figure rolled forward and back then spoke again, sign flowing into the words fluidly and more quickly.

“Yes I receive you now, Terrans Party of Three?”

Omega laughed then belted out happily in a rush.

“Yeah that’s us, Three Terrans out to tour your fine port... Uh where are we actually? Our host has a strange... manner of speaking”

The buzzy quality of the voice and slight flat tone put Aleph in mind of lectures she’d had to struggle through when cramming for Omega’s more devious tests.

“One moment”

The figure outside raised a hand in a signal that Aleph definitely recognized as ‘wait’.

It took several seconds before the text on the sign and the soft metallic voice over the cylinder continued

“This method is hard to translate...”

After a moment longer the figure bobbed and the sign cleared and wriggled into place in time with the gentle voice.

“I am requesting more processor resources”

A brief flurry of black worms and apologetic tone in the voice.

"This takes some time"

Aleph blinked a bit then looked around at the other two, this was... really slow.

“Please repeat back more slowly last message”

Omega blinked a bit then looked at Aleph who shrugged and spoke slowly and very distinctly.

“We are the Terrans. We would like to know what this place is called. Our host on the ship speaks in a way strange to us so we don’t know what this place is called.”

The figure bobbed up and down a bit, then wobbled a bit like Aleph recalled children’s balloons on sticks bobbled when you batted at them.

The text was a bit looser, almost agitated. Like a hand that was rushing to get a thought out was writing it.

“Please clarify: The Siren had difficulty interpreting?”

Aleph blinked a moment then looked back and forth between Omega and Quarti.

“If you mean Pylo then yes, she is a little hard to understand”

The sign wrote in very small print, and Aleph imagined she must be seeing what dawning horror on a floating alien orb looks like.

The voice sounded even softer and quieter.

“Please wait, increased processing requisition is being expedited”

Quarti started chuckling.