A Nest in the Dark, Part 4

Captain's Log

Supplemental: The Brain remains on its course for the destruction of the Foggy Peak system, despite our best efforts. We have failed to convince their representative that our colony and the devastation their arrival would bring is any of their concern. They do not appear to be actively hostile, but their indifference will be catastrophic all the same.

After a number of arguments, despite Mercury’s seeming agreement with many, they remained unconvinced that the issue of the Foggy Peak system was one that their people needed to address. They believed that the Federation and Starfleet had all the technology and time needed to safely evacuate the system before its damage or even likely destruction by the Matryoshka Brain’s resource extraction.

However, this led to a new line of reasoning for the Hanesawa crew. Captain Ral made an impassioned speech touching on the previous points of agreement. From Mercury’s people achieving astonishing technological advances to their shared love of exploration and admiration for the Federation’s ability to join many disparate species together toward that goal, the Captain’s argument finally lead to Lieutenant Ma’a’yan connecting it to their unwillingness to help or even alter their plans to avoid inevitable strife for the Foggy Peak inhabitants. Although she didn’t fully believe it herself, Ma’a’yan was determined thanks to her belief that honesty is not always the best policy and implied that this showed how Mercury’s people were not actually that advanced after all.

This affected them greatly and finally swayed them to the crew’s position. Mercury stated that after deliberation, they would be changing course to find another source of resources, and apologized for their seeming inconsideration. They proposed a “cultural exchange” in which the Hanesawa would allow them access to its databases for information “such as music, fiction, artwork.” This was quickly successful, and Mercury took their leave, asking, “now that your Federation has discovered us, please leave us to our exploration, as we will do the same. If we wish to contact you again, we will do so.”

Upon beaming back to the Hanesawa, the crew watched as the subspace cloud dissipated and disappeared as quickly as it had first enveloped them.