Star Trek: Galilea was a fan audio drama series I took part in. I was a member of the writing staff throughout the series, and played Commander Valkon.
Check it out here.
[Note - 3/12/2014] This was Kevin's episode, but he was having a difficult time working out the first contact sequence because, by my memory, we hadn't entirely worked out what exactly the Shintari were beyond them being crystalline and having scavenged Borg tech. So I did a draft of that chunk - focusing on sound and music references, and filling our question of why they've avoided space travel by having them be blind - and he revised it for the final draft.
And by this point in our scripts, we'd started to use "Okuda" as a placeholder for technical jargon to be added later.
I'm especially proud of my dad's performance in this episode, and it was a thrill getting to direct him through lines I wrote.
Scene 2: Shintari City (Inside the Waverider)
SOUND: Background shuttle hum
BRUNHILDE
Something isn't right.
WALLACE
"Not right?" See those structures right outside the window? With the greenish black metal and perfectly geometrical architecture? Those are Borg buildings. And Borg hovercraft. And Borg streets and playgrounds and wait a minute I see it now too.
BRUNHILDE
Exactly. This may be Borg technology, but it’s being used in ways that don’t make sense. The Borg wouldn’t make a city, it would be a hive.
SOUND: Comm beep
WALLACE
Borg or not, we're getting a transmission. Audio only.
BRUNHILDE
Put it on.
SOUND: BEEPS
SHINTARI DIPLOMAT
(Editor’s note: Invert this, heavily distort this to the point of unrecognizability)
Visitors from above. We are Shintari. I am [NAME]. If you are of the Harvesters, you will be destroyed. If you are not of the Harvesters, please respond so that we many sample your harmony.
BRUNHILDE
Is the translator down?
WALLACE
The computer works off of subspace processing relays. With the dampening field in place, runtime’s been extended, and the audio’s too distorted for the translator to pick out elements to work with. I’ll see if I can clean that up a bit.
BRUNHILDE
There was a bit of a resonance hum. Try to filter out the vibration.
WALLACE
It’s processing now. Give it a few seconds, and… there.
SOUND: Audio played back, still slightly distorted but reverted to normal playthrough. Understandable.
BRUNHILDE
Harvesters? Do you think they mean the Rumulans?
WALLACE
What is my harmony and why do they want to sample it?
BRUNHILDE
There’s only one way to find out. Open a channel and bring us down in that clearing.
SCENE: Outer abouts.
SOUND: Waverider landing. Door opening.
TORAE
This is amazing!
BRUNHILDE
Back in the ship, Torae.
TORAE
But--
WALLACE
No civilians until we scope the place out first, kid.
BRUNHILDE
That's an order.
SOUND: Door closes.
SOUND: Footsteps. Maybe some wind blowing.
BRUNHILDE
Where is everybody?
WALLACE
Probably taking shelter from the alien interlopers.
SOUND: Tricorder.
WALLACE
There's definitely Borg technology in this machinery, but only bits and pieces. Looks like it's been worked into the native tech... which, now that I look at it, is surprisingly advanced. [slip in some Okuda as he explains his point] Some of this circuitry looks even snazzier than the stuff we have on Galilea.
BRUNHILDE
I don't get it. Why is a civilization this technologically developed only now showing signs of early warp technology?
SOUND: A kind of shifting, crumbling crystaline sound.
WALLACE
Look out, Commander!
BRUNHILDE
What, I don't see--
WALLACE
The pillar, the one behind you. It just bent towards you!
BRUNHILDE
What?
SOUND: The shifting. Continues over
BRUNHILDE
Defensive positions!
WALLACE
The pillars, the street is littered with them.
BRUNHILDE
Seems we've caught their attention. Start working your way back to the waverider.
WALLACE
Wait. The one at their center is starting to change shape. Legs. Arms. A head.
BRUNHILDE
It's bipedal. I think it's mimicking us. There's a hole forming...
SOUND: Native Shintari voice.
WALLACE
Translator should kick in any sec[ond]--
SHINTARI
Your song is like that of the harvesters, but not. Theirs was a single note. Yours is a collection of individual chords. Intersecting, but not conjoined and linear as theirs was.
WALLACE
Now that we're closer to the source, I should be able to synch things up more tightly.
BRUNHILDE
I am Lieutenant Commander Brunhilde Englestadt of Starfleet, a representative of the Federation of planets.
SHINTARI
What is a planet?
BRUNHILDE
This world. The land you inhabit. It is a planet. There are millions more beyond the sky, many with their own forms of life. I and my friend come from one, and there are those aboard our ship that come from others.
SHINTARI
And you are in harmony?
BRUNHILDE
I don't understand.
SHINTARI
To unite in voice. To support and continue the song.
BRUNHILDE
In a way, I guess we are. The Federation is a gathering of lifeforms that work together to further advance our species and our understanding of the universe.
SHINTARI
Then you are in harmony, and we welcome you.
BRUNHILDE
Thank you. We wish to share knowledge with you, but first, we have a rather pressing matter that needs to be dealt with.
SHINTARI
The other visitors from above? We heard them a short time ago, but they moved away from our choir, toward the gate of the harvesters.
BRUNHILDE
What are havesters?
SHINTARI
They came many layers ago*, there was much heat and a song of fury. The ground itself shook in anger at their arrival. We set out to discover their point of contact and found their transport to be damage and those within setting about to repair it.
[* Layers as years because of how moisture builds crystals one thin layer after another.]
WALLACE
Sounds like the Borg.
SHINTARI
They saw us, took from us many of our own, tried to graft to them the machnics they wore bonded to their flesh, but it would not take. We are different from them. Different from you.
SOUND: Tricorder beep.
TORAE
He's right, Commander.
BRUNHILDE
Kellis! I didn't clear you to leave the ship.
TORAE
The reaction didn't look to be all that hostile, so I didn't think you'd mind. Me and the othes have been taking some reading. The Shintari here are silicate based lifeforms. Literally, living crystal. [Okuda.]
WALLACE
[Okuda!]
BRUNHILDE
[Okuda?]
TORAE
[Okuda Okuda.]
BRUNHILDE
What happened to the harvesters?
SHINTARI
When they couldn't make our own like them, our own were disposed of. We tried to recover, to.... resist, but their weapons gave off great heat and those who were consumed by it were made still like the old ones.
BRUNHILDE
But you eventually defeated them?
SHINTARI
Defeated?
BRUNHILDE
Halted them.
SHINTARI
Yes. We put them to rest. We found their harmony, their single note, and constructed a mechanic to twist it into an order to halt. We grafted the mechanic to the heart of their gate to silence their parts and listened as their organics were claimed by the feeding of our world's smaller growths. The power at the gate's center was strong, so we expanded the dischord, placing a song around our world that we hoped would prevent the harvesters from arriving once again. No other has come until you and those just before you.
BRUNHILDE
In our world, we call the harvesters the Borg. They are one of the greatest threats are species has ever come across.
SHINTARI
Then you know their song of one note.
BRUNHILDE
I know it well. (beat) How is it that you've come to have their technology among yours?
SHINTARI
Once the harvesters had been put to rest, we studied the mechanics within their gate, found much that would be useful, much that we could learn and advance from. They had ways to reach the above, a place we have never thought to explore. We used these mechanics to leave the rooting of our world, but we did not go far. Our songs were unheard out there. We could not harmonize. Some of our own lost their way and never returned. We were blind.
TORAE
They don't have eyes, Commander. They can't see. Sounds are everything to them. A way to communicate, to locate, to measure. In space...
WALLACE
There is no sound.
BRUNHILDE
I am sorry to have to leave in a hurry, but we need to find this gate of the harvesters.
TORAE
Captain, I'd like to stay behind, if that's alright. Run some tests, learn a little about their culture.
BRUNHILDE
Thank you for making a request instead of a presumption this time, Torae. Approved. We have [insert time] until this bomb goes off, so if everybody isn't dead by then, you and I will have a little talk about protocol.
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