Overview
The Constellation takes an optimistic stance on first contacts, as the founding members' mutual first contacts (known as The Communion) are considered extremely successful and they have since never encountered hostile intelligence. The Constellation actively searches for intelligent interstellar life by broadcasting radio transmissions containing basic information about the Federal Constellation's location, language, and biology. Some radio transmissions are enveloped in superluminal bubbles to increase their range and speed.
The Constellation's first contact plans were developed after The Communion when the possibility of meeting additional intelligent life became very real, and have evolved after learning from previous first contacts. There are different plans depending on the type and logistics of the first contact. For example, a first contact involving aliens arriving in the Constellation is different from aliens who can only communicate remotely due to logistical constraints. Since the introduction of these plans, Plan 1 first contacts have been the only type encountered.
First contacts are a time for aliens to get to know the Constellation's context and basic history, for getting introduced to Constellation leaders, and for establishing realistic political expectations and possible agreements. Legally binding agreements are not made until more formal diplomatic relations are cemented in what is sometimes known as second contact.
Despite the Constellation's optimistic attitude, first contacts are not revealed to the public initially until formal diplomatic relations are confirmed. Aliens also do not meet the Constellation Cabinet directly, but only do so in a hologram teleconference.
Common Elements
Call to Communion
The broadcast to intelligent alien life is known as the Call to Communion. It is a radio signal which encodes a binary black-and-white bitmap image with basic information about Fungoid and Insectoid biology, the location of Everlasting Communion, short Constellation language samples, and knowledge believed to be universal to all intelligent life advanced enough to receive the message (e.g. basic arithmetic, the derivation of pi, etc.). Aliens are asked to respond with the location of where they want a follow up transmission to be sent.
If a response is received, a follow-up transmission with a larger corpus of illustrated language data is sent for alien translators' benefit. The follow up extends an invitation to meet, and asks the aliens for data about their own language, biology, and culture.
Greeters
The Greeters are two government employees who are the first point of contact between newly discovered aliens and the Constellation before formal diplomatic relations are established. They are in charge of monitoring for signs of intelligence, and help interpret and guide aliens in the Constellation's cultural and political context. The founding members of the Constellation each nominate one person who has experience working with many cultures for this task.
In first contacts where aliens visit the Constellation, they act as tour guides in The Greeter's Tour.
The current greeters are Strong Fortune (from The Great Equatorial Republic) and Steadfast Believer (from the Celestial Imperium).
Honour Guard
In first contacts where aliens visit the Constellation, the Honour Guard are there to shadow the Greeters and the aliens to protect and chauffeur them. They are ceremonially dressed and are only involved in the first contact process at the behest of the Greeters.
Friendship Flag
It is customary for the Greeters to give aliens a Constellation flag with the signatures and greetings of current Constellation Assembly members and certain members of the public. This flag is known as the Friendship Flag, which glows faintly as the cloth is made with a luminous fibre.
Constellation citizens can pay a fee to be waitlisted to write on the next Friendship Flag, and because a new Friendship Flag is signed every time a new Constellation Assembly is elected, not every Friendship Flag is presented during a First Contact. Unused Friendship Flags are displayed at various government venues.
The Greeter's Tour
In first contacts where aliens visit the Constellation, the Greeters guide the aliens through the Museum of Constellation History at Communion Square on Giver's Ring, which gives a brief overview of the Constellation starting from just before The Communion to The Constellation.
The Museum of Constellation History itself is converted from the hangar in which the Communion Trust Plane was built, and has a large garden in front. It is closed to the public during First Contact scenarios.
After the museum, the Greeters take the aliens through Everlasting Communion to orbit around Grand Throne. They do not generally land in Grand Throne, as the entire surface of the moon is covered in urban hives designed for small, flying Insectoids.
Meeting with the Government
During first contact, the aliens will meet with the current Constellation President, the Shadow President, and the Constellation Cabinet through teleconferencing, preferably through holograms. When the aliens are present with the Greeters and have access to a holodeck, the holodeck will project an image of a conference room aboard Constellation Station. This meeting is used to introduce important government members to the aliens and establish expectations for further diplomatic relations and agreements.
Key Signing
Before the end of the first contact, each individual of the alien first contact party are given the specifications to a public-key encryption protocol and asked to generate a public and private keypair which is used to verify their identity later for remote communications. Messages encrypted using the private key can be decrypted with the public key and vice versa. The private key should be kept private to the individual at all times, while the public key may be shared freely.
The Constellation Government will create a digital certificate certifying that the public keys belong to the first contact aliens by encrypting the aliens' private keys using the Federal Constellation Certificate Authority's (FCCA) private key. This process is widely known as keysigning or certificate signing. This digital certificate is then used to verify that transmissions encrypted using the aliens' private key actually belong to the alien by using the public key in the FCCA's certificate.
Later, when diplomatic relations are formalized, the diplomats will also generate a keypair, and the first contact aliens and the FCCA will generate a certificate of the diplomats' public keys.