Meeting Mana'i

Posted on Sun Feb 2nd, 2025 @ 6:11am by Captain Rovak & Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant Rune Thul & Lieutenant S'Lace & Mana'i & Doctor Intharia T'Zor & SubCommander Saa & Lieutenant Commander Atna & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gaz & Lieutenant Qrork & Lieutenant JG Frak & Ensign Abra Akzhouri
Edited on on Mon Feb 3rd, 2025 @ 11:58am

2,897 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: Delta Docking Lounge
Timeline: MD01 - 1505

"Thank for all for your promptness." Atna said to the assembled senior staff as she entered, all were gathered around the large conference table in the lounge. She had taken Mana'i on the scenic route so everyone had a chance to get there before they did.

"This is Mana'i. Approximately ten minutes ago she appeared through a portal in a hallway in the outer docking ring. She has proven most curious and understanding, despite these strange circumstances. I believe that she has the potential to be a great friend to us. I have explained to her that we are without prejudice against the unknown, but she understands that our caution is warranted in these strange circumstances." Atna explained, expecting the surprise of the group. "Your pardon, Mana'i, but perhaps you could introduce yourself better than I can."

Mana'i's glowing blue eyes studied the table carefully. How wonderful were these beings of flesh and blood, each of them completely unique in their own ways. Once again, she would've loved to author a paper on her encounters here, one she was sure the rest of Ga-Metru and Ko-Metru would be very, very interested in, even if they believed not a word of it. Once again, she'd probably be branded as insane, or a maniac, or a deviant of thought - all things she'd been called before, but the labels always stung. At least these small people seemed eager to listen to her speak - which was more than she could ever say for her fellow thinkers on Spherus Magna.

"I... bring fair tidings from... um. Very far away, it seems. It's only just sunk in that I might have been displaced from all that I find familiar. Please, I seek your forgiveness of my rambling." She began. Lovely start, yes. "My name is Mana'i. New Toa Metru of Ice. I believe those words likely mean nothing to you all at the moment. Before I first set foot upon this building you call a starbase, I was battling... a great foe... before he transported me under his own power." She shifted around, grasping the back of an empty chair. Where her slendet metal fingers made contact, frost blossomed, spreading out from her fingertips for a good few millimetres.

Intharia watched with surprise. Another arrival. She did not mention that the anomaly had shifted approximately ten minutes ago. Had this Mana'i came from the old destination, or the new one? She looked vaguely Geth-like, but Thari did not harbour any suspicion, Atna's trust was enough.

"Greetings, Mana'i. I am Rovak, Commander of this station. All who value peace and understanding are welcome here. Please, join us." Rovak said from the far end of the table, gesturing to the empty seats at the end of the table closest to where Mana'i and Atna stood. Truthfully, he did not know what to make of this being, but he found it agreeable that this contact had so far gone better than the last.

"A portal?" asked Saa, zeroing on the point that concerned her most. Lenses clicked softly into place above her retinas as she studied the robotic being, noting the odd cooling effect that seemed to surround her. "What's the status of this portal now?"

Atna tapped the interactive surface of the table as she sat. The exogeologist Airu had been with her on the phaser training course when Mana'i landed. Atna sent a request to receive her findings, which were a series of entirely normal tricorder scans, which she switched through all the spectrums of. "No sign of it. Except.. There are traces of exotic particles resembling verterons, but unfamiliar in their makeup."

"Some kind of single-use wormhole, perhaps?" Dr T'Zor suggested.

"Maybe," agreed Saa, gliding closer to study the data. "Paraverterons, eh? I think you've just discovered a new subatomic particle."

"I'm afraid I don't know of this particulate matter you all verterons - even if they do exist on my world I doubt our science has advanced as far as it has in yours." Mana'i's glowing blue eyes seemed to dim a little bit as she sat down on the chair offered to her. "Oh, the portal, you said. Dynax's creations? The legends on Mata Nui say that he has the power to tear open rifts between space and time. I understand that such an explanation might not be as rooted in the empirical sciences as you all might like, but where I come from, the study of the exact processes that govern our interactions with the world is not considered to be terribly important."

"Well, someone where you're from has been studying them," replied Saa. "Verterons don't exist naturally in our world either. Only in wormholes, and the technology to create a wormhole is beyond our ability. Anything you can tell us will be helpful."

"He seems to create them at will. The legends say that he can do so with the wave of a hand. A very ugly hand with sharp claws, incidentally." Mana'i said apologetically. "Of which he has four." This she said as if the implications of a being with four clawed hands, up from even the ostensibly Edosian three, wasn't that unusual. Maybe it just comes with the whole experience of fighting untold eldritch horrors of shadow.

The one with fins, a bottle-shaped body and a tail instead of legs did interest her, though. For all intents and purposes, the scientists back home would have been swift to classify them as some form of creature that belonged in the sea and hunted for its food at speed. Of course, Mana'i had learned in the very brief while she'd been in the company of these creatures of flesh and blood that shelving her old archetypes of what constituted each type of life and forming new ones would serve her better than trying to make these people fit into them in her mind.

Saa squinted up at her, trying to divine what inferences she could from the unexpectedly non-technical explanation. It seemed clear that at the heart of this business was a technology that could mean a great deal to the station and their future efforts, if it didn't slip through their jaws. "I'd like to question you about it in detail when you have time," she suggested.

"I suppose that'd be acceptable." The white-armored mechanoid woman said. If anything, her voice seemed to carry with it a hint of amusement.

To S'Lace the talk of portals was barely discernible to her and she kept her peace; nothing she could say on the subject of this curious being's arrival could provide any enlightenment. Instead she sat and observed and silently wished there was some polite way to scan her with a tricorder.

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves." Alex said, wondering where Thul was as all the science talk went over her head. "I'm Alex Flynn, first officer of this station. That's second-in-command, basically." She explained, assuming not all the terminology would land.

"Welcome, Mana'i. I am Intharia T'Zor. I too am from another universe rather unlike this one, but this place has quickly become my beloved home. Rest assured that if there is a way back for us, they will find it."

"Hello ma'am. I'm Chief Gaz." The Tellarite told the newcomer at an opportune moment, still wondering whether she was a machine or a biological lifeform.

"I am S'Lace, the station's seniormost medical officer," S'Lace stated, refraining from using both her rank and the term 'chief' as to prevent possible confusion, "Please do not hesitate to inform me if you experience any physical distress."

"And I'm Saa," added the dolphin, mechanically, her mind still off chasing the technical problem in front of her. "I keep the machinery running."

Akzhouri, Frak and Qrork all greeted the Toa on behalf of their departments, doing their best to explain what they did in a way that would hopefully make sense.

The station had been a flurry of activity ever since reports surfaced about the unexpected arrival of a new entity. Rune had wasted no time deploying security teams Iota and Upsilon to monitor the area where the being—identified as 'Mana'i'—had appeared. Their orders were clear: conduct semi-continuous sweeps for any signs that more might follow. If the area remained undisturbed for a full day, the teams were instructed to implement a portable sensor and warning animations on the LCARS panels. These displays would inform all personnel that while the section was safe for use, heightened caution was still advised.

So far, no further anomalies had been detected, and Rune had received no new reports—it was very encouraging, yet he remained on edge. The situation gnawed at the back of his mind, making it difficult to focus on his other duties. His wariness had already cost him time, and before he knew it, he was running late for the scheduled briefing with the mysterious Mana'i visitor. Letting out a slow breath, Rune quickened his pace toward the meeting room, mentally reviewing protocol while keeping his thoughts disciplined.

Reaching the door, he tapped the chime but entered before waiting for a response, urgency overriding decorum. He halted just past the threshold, straightening his uniform with a quick adjustment—he'd heard that often was referred to as both a Picard and a Riker manoeuvre—before offering a calm yet purposeful nod.

"Apologies, everyone," Rune said, his voice steady despite his hurried arrival. He took a few measured breaths, regaining his composure, before shifting his gaze toward Mana’i. Their presence he felt was both enigmatic and unusual, a reminder of the unpredictable nature of their current assignment.

Stepping forward, Rune offered a respectful courtesy bow, his right hand placed against his left chest just above his heart—avoiding his combadge on his right side to not tap it accidentally. His tone was composed yet welcoming as he addressed their guest. "Welcome to our realm," he said, his words deliberate and carrying the weight of diplomacy honed through years of service.

Rune held his gaze with unwavering patience, knowing that the success of this first interaction could shape the course of their relationship with this unknown entity.

This one radiated age and experience. Mana'i saw it in the deepset wrinkles on his forehead and his greying hair. She found it quite amusing, in fact, to see that even across the boundary of space and even species, the physical signs of maturity and lived experience remained identical - more or less. This one would have found himself well suited as a diplomat, she reckoned

"Thank you very much for your warm welcome. You remind me of Kolos, my brother in Earth. He was an archivist and anthropologist with a wealth of experience in his fields before Toa Onua Nuva bestowed upon him his Toa Stone." Mana'i shared, as her glowing blue eyes seemed to light up with... well, amusement did sort of cover it. It was kind of hard to tell, with her Kanohi mask in the way. "In fact, thank you all. Many places to which I have travelled to don't always receive me with quite so much... curiosity... much less roll out a welcome committee such as this one." This she addressed to the rest of the table, waving a hand to emphasise her point.

One of the security officers in the corner - Mana'i recognised him as one of the handful she'd first met in that hallway - seemed to tense at the gesture. Perhaps he expected her to freeze the entire gathering solid - or maybe bury them all in light, fluffy snow, which would arguably be just as bad. Who knows.

"I am honoured that I remind you of your brother," Rune chuckled but he found he was kind of staring at the Toa's glowing eyes. "I do have to say you have beautiful eyes." He blinked and made his way to a chair. "It would be great to meet others of your kind in the future."

Atna was somewhat concerned at Thul's arrival, but she was pleased to see he was not pointing a weapon at the newcomer.

"I promise I really do mean no harm. I am, presently, merely a lost traveller from very, very far away, with seemingly no means of going back to where I came from." She added. "Though I shall be forthcoming; I have seen and experienced technology beyond even that which I have seen in all my adventures with my brother and sister Toa in just... I don't know how you all measure the passage of time, actually. I would wager in the order of mere minutes." Once again, her eyes seemed to glow a little brighter for a moment.

"Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. There are further classifications above and below each. There is some differentiation in the measure of each to most species, but we have adopted the standards of Earth, our Federation's capital, for the sake of simplicity. When you use the word Earth, you are referring to the ground, the... fundament, I assume?" Atna asked.

"The fundamental, yes. The ground and soil upon which we walk. Of course, I suppose this metal floor - this is metal, is it not? - hardly counts, though you all likely mine it from the earth and shape it for use as we do." Mana'i quipped.

Suddenly Thul joined in the conversation. "If you wish a different word, we can call the capital Sol 3 or Terra," he glanced over at his security officers.

He offered them a smile and a nod of gratitude for their duty before he returning his attention to the Toa and the briefing.

"It's tritanium alloy, for the most part," Saa confirmed about the deck plating. "We normally use duranium, but this station's a little out of date. Excuse me for asking, but you're a constructed life-form, yourself, or am I wrong?" The engineer had been keeping her sonar low out of respect for their guest, but was dying to know what was under that casing.

Mana'i seemed slightly confused at the notion of being constructed like an object. "Well, that's... somewhat debatable." She said at last. "I breathe air as you all do, and need to eat and sleep to survive. All my people do. No one ever really bothers to dig deep into the exact nature of our existences. The Great Spirit, Mata Nui, brought us into being. Though whether we are fabricated, as the wording of your inquiry suggests, is... unknown."

Saa's airmouth gaped, then shut, in mute astonishment. Speechlessness was an unusual experience for a cetacean, and it took her a moment to recover. "Excuse me, that's just pretty amazing," she finally said.

"Indeed." Rovak agreed with Saa. "You are our guest for as long as you may require Mana'i. We would with your permission, propose using our technology to learn more about you. If you do not wish it we will not proceed beyond what is necessary for health and safety, but the information we gain may be as valuable to you as it is edifying to us. We will however need to make sure we do not pose any unintentional threat to one another before we can give you free access to the wider areas of the station."

"Of course! I totally understand the need for caution. I don't know what you'll be able to find out about me, though." Mana'i quipped. "I imagine my biology is something quite unlike what you all might be familiar with." If this starbase was already this advanced in its construction, Mana'i simply couldn't wait to see their scientific instruments.

"It is standard practice for those coming aboard to undergo a physical examination from our medical team. Perhaps in the interests of shared understanding, it would be prudent for SubCommander Saa and Commander Atna to be present in the event that their interdisciplinary knowledge is of value. If you do not object, Dr S'Lace?" Rovak suggested.

S'Lace replied, "Considering the unique nature of our guest I would welcome any input my colleague may provide," the barest hint of a smile crossed her face, "I am a Vulcan, I have no ego to bruise."

Saa shook her head in acknowledgment, still processing the revelations of the last few minutes, from micro-wormholes to a sapient culture unaware of their own method of reproduction. "I'll clear my schedule," she said.

Atna nodded in agreement.

“If I may, as you may be staying with us for a time, unless it’s not already attended to, I shall arrange your quarters and we may need to any food requirements you might have Toa Mana’i?” Rune asked, both to their new friend and to the group as a whole.

"I'm sure you'll find that my requirements for food won't be of much trouble." Mana'i quipped cheerfully. "Elsewise, thank you, I really do appreciate it." She took note of what the other pointy-eared one had said, though; as a former anthropologist the differences in cultures that made each of them distinct fascinated her greatly. What did being Vulcan mean when it came to having one's ego bruised? This she would need to ask someday.

"Very well. I believe we all have something to do. Dismissed." Rovak told the group.

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