Would they kill him even if he didn't have a Red Shirt?

All shirts are red if they're moving away from you fast enough.

Good one, McThag. Indeed, I've always wandered what could be an encounter in space between two ships, but yes, most of what we can watch in sci-fi movies is crap. Even if the two aliens are not *that* different, caution at each step is better than bold inconsiderate moves. BTW, if I can recall, the species of this universe have been engineered by humans. A human ship wreck, with a body has even been recovered, so there may be a contact with humans (if mankind has survived) in the future.

First contact, always an interesting read. What would be the standard distance/angle to from the target for a warning shot in Albedo? And how would you do it in a way that gives minimal information about your weaponry to the alien? I really like the look of that human ship, too. Nice bubble bridge.

In the vastness of space, not so sure. A warning volley of shells still may difficult to trace on a radar (at least with current techs). Energy beams... As there are still no such things (except laser and plasma), it's no easy to assume their signatures. I guess a laser supplied by the discharge of a giant capacitor has a radio signature, but the enemy has to use this kind of tech to be aware of the firing.

I read somewhere the reason of this short story is because Shanda Fantasy Arts tried to do a continuation of Albedo without either your permission or you on board, when humans were included and the reason you wrote was as a response of that, is that true?

When someone has to operate in the time frame of a 20 to 40 minute TV show, I suppose it is understandable to set a certain pace. But when operating at time frames of even reasonably fantastic fusion torch drives, spending hours, days, or even weeks shaking hands isn't at all unreasonable. Although, I would think that if a human ship didn't already have the capability of interfacing with a ship's onboard AI, it would strongly suggest that said human ship is not operated by their creators, but a different group altogether.

Even in a short TV show, you can stretch a timeline. In The Last Push (2012), the 1.30 h movie stretch over 3 years.

Mr. Gallacci, I was wondering if you were going to post Birthright here as well. I see it was posted on Radio Comix' site, but hasn't been updated for quite some time. In any event, thanks for posting this stuff, it really takes me back!

Gotcha, thanks for the response.