The room was a lab of some sort. The team tried to find out from where those genetic signs were radiating. They finally got a glimpse of the true size of the insectoid aliens. There were several exoskeletons in the room and each exoskeleton was the same size as an adult human. The more pressing concern of the team was that the exoskeletons had varying degrees of cybernetic implants in them.
The team finally discovered an intact computer, so they powered it up. With the help of some exoskeletons, the team managed to operate the computer. It had a map of a star system to where the team finally pointed the ship.The star system was 15 light years away. The team with the ship jumped there.That was not a star system. It was something beyond the imagination of most of the Sagittarian crews. It was a Dyson Shell. Around 550 million earth could fit inside. The shell was made out of something unknown materials.When the team jumped to the system, a strange tractor beam-like thing was holding the ship.“Try to break free,” Captain Cohen shouted. Helmsman tried to move, but the ship could not. They were stuck. The cruiser that was protecting the science ship moved swiftly and armed its antimatter beam weapons.Captain Cohen quickly opened the ship's computer to do something and suddenly, T'Yer shouted, “Captain, our ship’s linguistic database is being scanned.”Captain quickly opened a channel to the cruiser and tried to warn them off from attacking the Dyson Shell, but he wasn’t too quick.8 red beams were shot from the cruiser and hit the source of the tractor beam and all of a sudden, the science ship broke free.Captain Cohen stood on the bridge, stunned and terrified. He wanted a peaceful dialogue with the newly met aliens, but instead, a fire was exchanged.“Don’t shoot,” a mechanical voice came into the bridge.“Who is it?” asked the captain.“We are… us, you are looking at us from the viewport of your ship,” the voice replied.“We mean you no harm. We didn’t like you grabbing us with your tractor beam,” Captain Cohen replied.“I see. It’s been a long time since we had been organic, we apologise,” the voice continued, “We are… I am the species you were looking for. For thousands of years, we had been organic. We ascended ourselves from the biological shells and became synthetic. Since we were hive-minded species, we had it easier to combine our minds into a single gestalt consciousness.”“I am Captain Cohen, on behalf of the United Earth Commonwealth, we greet you as a fellow explorer,” Captain Cohen said in his rehearsed lines perfectly.“Really? Are you really explorers? I have so many things to see and so many things to show you. Please, park your ship inside of the shell. We can talk,” the voice said while a huge gate opened in the shell.
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