Seal the ship, hide the crew, and wait on the bridge. Don’t do anything stupid to put the crew or ship at unnecessary risk.
All these things were taught to Ministry commanders under the impression that boardings, being as rare as they are on armed vessels, the training unit might be fazed out completely for something more worthy of the time. Boardings usually only occur on non- combative vessels, like the Hellbender, that generally possess no means of deflecting a shuttlecraft. Erik was never trained to command an unarmed vessel.
Beamings were becoming increasingly more common as a means of conveyance, but they were still not a viable way to transfer between vessels. By extension, it was usually near impossible to use for transferring to an enemy ship of any kind. All in all, every attempt at transferal had been at best risky and at worst messy. The Ministry had the physics for the actual beam transferal process, but it was usually reserved for beaming from one side of a planet or another where distinct fixed end and beginning points lie at known locations that can be cleared of debris, sterilized, and vacuumed. Beaming randomly between ships required an even more delicate balancing act. If both ships are in reliable communication, it is possible to beam a human from one to the other as long as both ships have been adequately prepared. Preparation refers to not only the cleaning and setting of a beam site, but also loaded with an availability of resources. The fact that a human body must be reassembled at the site of arrival creates distinct problems aboard ships. The excess ambient atoms floating freely in a rich atmosphere from which to reassemble a human body are simply not a luxury often afforded on starships where everything is carefully calculated. All matter on board a ship has a job. Pulling carbon and hydrogen from the air, walls, floor, etc. of a ship could possibly structurally compromise it. That is also assuming you are even beamed to the correct place. From ship to ship, spatial calculations must be exact to say the least. Just a little bit off and your feet are melded with the floor or your head to the ceiling. In addition, you already had to deal with the uncomfortable fact that ambient air particles were going to be incorporated in your body, which could be bad enough when beaming to a polluted area. Suddenly becoming one with a starship, a person standing in your beaming site, or a wrench that just happened to be thrown your way at the wrong time seemed an incredibly uncomfortable way to die.
Generally, if a ship has valuable goods and mitigated defenses, it is at risk to be boarded physically. Knowing such dangers lurked in an unlikely periphery, Erik had been secretly reviewing his notes on the procedures. Given the rarity of the actual act of boarding, he hadn’t assumed he would find himself in this exact situation- he had simply been reviewing all sorts of unfortunate scenarios that could befall this strange ship.
The similarities and differences between humans and the Rostran have everything to do with somewhat analogous evolution. Both are sentient species with very similar characteristics that evolved under separate conditions. The Rostran originated on a planet that orbits extremely close to its star when compared to the planet where humans originated. That being said, they have developed a very thick skin that completely lacks pigmentation for the purpose of keeping the body cool. They are naturally acclimated to temperatures much higher than a human would be comfortable with. During negotiations
with the Rostran, UFAR leaders usually met in a room bisected by glass, with each side being climate controlled in a specific way to meet the needs of its occupants.
The Rostran also differ from humans by way of respiration. They utilize nitrogen and ultraviolet light in a way that somewhat mimics photosynthesis, but also incorporates absorbing nitrogen through their skin. The third notable difference between humans and the Rostran is the way they talk. They communicate vocally via frequencies below what humans can hear. This has created problems in the past with communication between the two races. The Rostran have a wide and low auditory range, with human voices occupying a high band of frequencies that, while still audible, they tend to find annoying. Also, the Rostran are bipedal, like humans, in an interesting example of interplanetary co- evolution that demonstrates a system with universal applications.
