The faces staring back through the broadside windows are completely unreadable, what few things can even be discerned as faces. Humanity is still treated with trepidation and fear by most, given our history the feelings are well earned. More often than not species avoid the crew wherever they land, turning most ports into ghost towns aside from the odd droid or two. Only those rare trade-over-sense species like the yhüçæ seem completely unperturbed by humanity’s reputation. Them and the completely desperate ones with no other options.
The tension hangs thick in the air. The crew moves in tense bursts as though preparing for battle. They retrieve the samples of their precious cargo, stowed in specialised crystalline ampules for maximum showcasing of its purity and rarity, brought all these lightyears to trade. Their first two attempts didn’t yield much in either trade or diplomacy, but as they travel towards the core of the Alliance quadrants things should pick up. Hopefully.
Humanity has changed a lot in the 16 years since successfully defending our planet from the Core Alliance forces. Apparently most species achieve intergalactic travel well before unlocking the devastating force of nuclear fission. Not to mention exploding things just to introduce kinetic force on an object seems woefully ignorant for most galactic species. We went from essentially being the barbarian stone throwers in some backwater, to reverse engineering the faster than light drives on downed ships while simultaneously fending off a vastly superior invading force, and winning.
Managing to repel the formerly undisputed galactic heavy weights put humanity on a trajectory to swarm out amongst the stars like ants bursting from a disturbed nest. Initially being received with fear and hostility, things got ugly and could have turned far uglier. Had not some of the cooler heads amongst our now unified governing bodies managed to steer us from the all too familiar path of colonisation and widespread annihilation we may have never come back from the brink. A tenuous peace holds between humanity and the wider galaxy, only now have some trade relations started to form.
This crew is amongst the first to trade water in the wider galaxy. Mined and purified from the moons of our neighbouring planets, apparently one of the scarce resources of this quadrant. It remains to be seen how humanity will write its story amongst the stars. There is a path for prosperity and peace, but a much darker path looms just below the surface. It is up to trailblazers like this crew to hold the course.