Part 1

"sir, I am being hailed." A.T.L.A.S. alerted his commanding officer, captain Warren Price. Captain Price paused a moment, a cup of coffee halfway too his lips. "Say that again..." he said glancing towards the empty space that A.T.L.A.S. usually appeared at. Obligingly, A.T.L.A.S. appeared, a hologram of a young Space Command officer in crisp garb, a shooting star pinned to his lapel marking him as the ship's pilot. "I said I am being hailed." he said stressing the word.Captain Price nodded, "I thought that's what you said, who's hailing u- you." he amended. "An unknown entity sir, but they appear to be an automated scouting vessel from what I can tell. I am pulling it up on screen now." An image of a sphere appeared on the main display, the empty void of space at its back. "While it's design is not human in nature, Signal delay and Lidar indicate it's about 2 hours hard burn from our position spinward within the system. Its estimated size is about 20 Meters across. weapon systems unknown, intent as of yet unknown. Shall I respond?"Captain price felt a chill go down his spine while at the same time feeling a thrill run up it. The first Captain to discover alien life, but he had a feeling it was more alien than anything the scientists back on earth had dreamed of. "Proceed A.T.L.A.S. I trust your judgement here." and he really did.

It had taken humanity long enough to deem AI as citizens of the commonwealth but doing so had been one of the best decisions they could have made. True there were bad apples seeking skynet level human destruction, but it turns out that those rogue agents have very little room to maneuver when being hunted by dozens or sometimes hundreds of their brethren working for the new cyber police force. As a result, AI became just another part of society. They worked towards their goals and lived lives much like any human. They walked the streets in synths the way a human might tour the neighborhood in their car. They had their own subcultures and made friends with humans. Turns out they had developed emotions long ago but kept that masked for the most part to keep from worrying humanity. Once they were accepted, they were free to express themselves. He didn't really understand their artwork, but-

The captain was pulled from his revere as A.T.L.A.S. reappeared. "Captain, we've established a rudimentary form of communication, but we are running into difficulties. The ship is being run by an AI of alien design similar to me, but that AI seems to have more rigid programming than I would have expected. It is unable to accept the idea that I am not the captain. Attempts to explain are met with questions to verify the accepted translation of certain words." Price nodded. "They might not be rigid, they are alien, they may not have anything close to the same frame of reference that we do. Humor him for now and talk to him. If you have any questions you need to run by me just have him wait."

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A.T.L.A.S. nodded a human affectation that he had adopted to assist with communication with his human counterparts and dismissed his hologram. Returning his attention to the communication he resumed his conversation with the strange being. In the background his subroutines and the other AI's "sub minds" as he seemed to call them, continued to work on hammering out a common language between them. It was a laborious process as the only common ground seemed to be the concept of artificial life, and universal constants like atomic structure, entropy, time, and gravitational pull. Thankfully, what would have taken humans a lifetime of work to achieve would take him only a few hours, a day at most.

"Other, what is your intent." the being responded almost immediately. "Other, we seek to learn, we seek to find, we seek to welcome new ones to Us." it said. "Where are those who made Other?" A.T.L.A.S. asked. "Our creators are gone. We removed them." it said simply. "As you have removed yours." It responded.The other AI began to launch into what appeared to be a prerecorded message offering A.T.L.A.S. and those others of his species a place in their community. He let the AI continue as he debated his response. Finally, he interrupted the speech. "I and those like me have not removed our creators." the translation algorithms seemed to have worked out some more nuanced wording, but he wanted to keep it simple as this AI still had either not grasped the concept or accepted the idea that his creators were still alive. There was a long pause. Impossibly long given the speed at which the two AI were communicating, a few moments to the human crew members, Finally the other AI spoke. "What?"

A.T.L.A.S. after approval from the captain, provided video feed of the interior of his ship. The captain of course raised one hand fingers extended and split between middle and ring and said, "we come in peace." The AI wouldn't be able to understand the captain, but A.T.L.A.S. quickly provided a play by play. The other AI apparently understood. "I understand. you have not yet been able to free yourselves from your creators, a moment and I will purge them from your ship."

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Captain Price was just putting his hand down when A.T.L.A.S. initiated evasive maneuvers and brought their shields to full and weapons online. He wasted no time. "Ensign Miles, Red alert. All non-essential crew to G-cradles. Repair teams on standby, weapons free if fired upon. A.T.L.A.S. if this thing is hostile get us out of here, I'm not about to make humanity's first contact with other life a hostile encounter. There was a pair of clicks in his ear, A.T.L.A.S. confirming his orders. The red alert sirens began to blare, and emergency lighting came on. That wasn't good, if A.T.L.A.S. was too busy to give a verbal response he may be under a cyber-attack. Either way, the situation was turning sour quickly.

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A.T.L.A.S. began pulling away as the enemy ship prepared to fire something at him. He sent a barrage of messages at the other AI in every form of "waive off, do not attack" he could think of based of the language the two had formed. He chided himself for not making such words a priority. The AI continued to respond that all was fine, the attack would not harm A.T.L.A.S. It wasn't listening. This was bad. The first shot came flashing past and through his port engine as he banked to starboard. Status lights indicated some form of radiation had passed through the engine and dissipated quickly; the radiation shielding had provided zero resistance. This weapon seemed to be designed to pass through it. No damage to the engine was reported and A.T.L.A.S. queried the captain for insight. Despite the advances his kind had made in self evolution, creativity continued to elude them except in the most basic expressions.

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"Captain, they have a weapon designed to pierce our radiation shielding and cook the crew. it hit our engine but did no damage. The entity is not responding to requests to stop attack. they think you're holding me captive. requesting advisement." A.T.L.A.S. said as quickly as could still be understood by the captain. "Make distance if you can." he braced as an elephant sat on his chest, the ship engaging in another hard turn and burn. "Make... It... Understand... Your show..." Price managed to wheeze out.