The captain and his retinue let the five Amook through the ship to the large conference room, which had been decked out formally to greet guests. The aliens seemed to take an interest in everything they saw, from toilets to lights, as if it were all new to them. Which it was.

Finally Jacks could no longer contain himself, "Captain, I know that there are probably protocols in place for First Contact situations, but this is a first for us, and we are quite excited."

"Please, call me Broognan."

"Very well, Broognan. I was hoping that we could just sit down and talk about each of our races; just exchange knowledge, if you will."

"We would be greatly honored, Captain."

"Please just call me Jacks."

"Vey well, Jacks. We notice that you wear Kree technology. Tell me, have you encountered the Kree before?" He was referring to the amulets that each of the crew wore to translate.

Jacks nodded, "We discovered an ancient shipwreck on one of the moons in our solar system. These were some of the technology that we recovered."

"They are quite valuable. Perhaps we can offer a trade."

"For these?" Jacks asked incredulously, "there's an entire Kree base on the planet here. Why would you want these trinkets?"

"An entire Kree base?"

"Yes."

"Intact?"

"As far as we can tell, yes."

Captain Broognan reached out and touched hands with Engineer Alpha Groon for a moment. Then he asked, "Have you claimed this base for your own?"

"Uh," he hesitated, sensing that there was significantly more weight to the question than was obvious, "we have claimed it for research, yes," he finally said.

"Would you be willing to share your research with us?" Groon asked excitedly, his skin changing from gray to orange.

"You are out of line, Engineer Alpha," Broognan said sharply, raising a hand to stop him, his skin becoming a deep yellow.

"No, that's okay," Jacks said, "of course we will share with you."

"Your generosity knows no bounds, Jacks," the other captain said, his skin changing from yellow to bright blue, "you do not know what this means to us."

"That makes two of us then. We are honored to share with our friends. And perhaps you can tell my why the Kree base is so important to you."

"The Kree were a supremely advanced race that disappeared from the galaxy more than a thousand years ago. Little remains of their glorious empire now. Our knowledge of them is based on the bits and pieces that survived their destruction. An intact Kree base has never been discovered before, or even a partial one for that matter."

"Well," Jacks wasn't sure what to make of that news, "we have an intact workstation in our Science bay."

"Are there more on the planet still?"

"Many more."

Would you approve of Engineer Prime Groon and Sculptor Prime Breeken going down with your people to take a look?"

"Absolutely. We can get them down there right away."

"May I have a tour of your ship with your Engineer Prime? We would be willing to reciprocate."

"Again, we can do that now if you like."

"Indeed. Let us begin."

"There is no need to be nervous, Engineer," Broognan said, his two guards following at a discreet distance behind them.

"Of course there is," Slivinski argued, "I've never met an alien before."

"Understandable. But I am just interested in your ship. Show me how this 'gravity drive' works."

The Chief Engineer began a detailed and thoroughly technical description of the system and how it worked. Broognan seemed to have no trouble keeping up with his technobabble, so Slivinski kept up the pace, even going into how they had discovered the gravidium element in the wreckage of the Kree space ship on Titan.

"This is based on Kree technology?"

"That's right."

"No wonder I am unfamiliar with the concept. We would be extremely interested in obtaining the atomic formula for this element."

"Sure," Slivinski agreed readily, turning to a computer terminal to pull it up. Printing it off in a simple elemental diagram, he handed it to the Amook captain. 

"A two dimensional rendering? How... simplistic."

"I thought that it was the easiest was to convey the information to you since our computer systems are undoubtedly incompatible."

"Indeed. Thank you."

They continued the tour, Broognan asking pertinent questions about their systems as they went. He kept returning to the gravidium drive, and to the translation amulets that they wore; all Kree tech. He also expressed interest in the biological differences between their races. For that, he brought in Doctor Vasami. 

Once the conversation turned to biology, Indira became completely engrossed in their discussion. She had always been obsessed with biology and chemistry, and was absolutely captivated with not only their racial differences, but also with how fluent Captain Broognan was in the subject.

"You don't say much, do you?" Ted asked.

"It is the captain's place to speak, and ours to obey," Groon explained. His skin was a gray-blue now, but seemed to be turning more blue very gradually.

"Unless we are in our own domain," Breeken added, "then we are in charge of ourselves."

"And what if your captain isn't here?" Max asked, keeping his bandaged hands crossed over his chest. They were quite conspicuous that way, like badges of honor.

"Breeken is in charge of the artistic things," Groon said.

"And Groon is in charge of the technical things," Breeken finished.

"I see..." which, in truth, neither of them did.

"Great Grookal," Groon said at their first sight of the Kree base.

"It is so plain," Breeken complained, "no artistic expression whatsoever."

"I dunno," Andy spoke for the first time on their trip, "it kinda looks like a penis to me."

"What is a... penis?" Breeken asked curiously.

"It's a..." he gestured vaguely downwards, "well it's like..." he stammered, "never mind."

"Okay..." the alien replied, confused but accepting the Human's word.

Once they were down, Groon began asking questions about the layout and technology while Breeken wandered around assessing and criticizing the artistic aesthetic of the place.

"Have you located the primary data core?" Groon asked hopefully.

"Not that I'm aware of," Ted said, "do you know where it might be located?"

"Unfortunately no, having never found an intact base before."

"These terminals are made with grace and elegance," Breeken said, "but not artistically."

"If I were designing a base like this," Ted said, "I would but put the main computer underground."

"Your logic is impeccable."

"Thank you. I believe that the stairs are over there."

Ted and Groon headed towards the stairs while Breeken pulled Max into a critique of the architecture and layout of the base.

There was an open shaft that extended upwards and downwards, but there we no elevator cars visible. A spiraling staircase wound it's way around the shaft, going up to the right, and down to the left. Obviously they took the left staircase down.

"What else do you suppose is down here?" Ted asked by way of a conversation starter.

"You tell me. You were the one speculating on the computer core being down here. What do you think we might find?"

"Storage rooms, no doubt. And maybe the furnace room."

"What else?"

"Mechanical systems for the building maybe? Living quarters?"

"We shall find out soon enough," Groon said, pointing to an airlock-like door just ahead.