The scan in the control room was not anything unexpected for the alien being. It even knew of its existence perhaps a bit too well for its liking.
During its very first try, 'it' had been thwarted exactly here, upon trying to haphazardly access the control panel without 'looking across both sides of the road'.
'It' was quickly taken care of by those same set of dangerous lasers, cutting it into ribbons, and causing it to become so injured that it was forced to flee outside the ship to try and feed, thus recuperating.
The Protanyd remained holed up in a nearby cave just like that for decades and decades, so weak and injured that it could only feed on the various critters and small animals nearby, never daring to go out in fear of coming across a dangerous predator, never daring to explore that sweet fragrance of mana that tasted oh so inviting.
It simply stayed put, exercising untold patience, and excruciatingly slowly managing to heal itself, just to make sure it fulfilled its life's mission.
However, when it then once returned after so much sacrifice, fully healed, it found to its grave surprise that it was far easier to escape the ship than to re-enter it.
There was no tricking the scans.
It could not enter no matter what.
So seeing no other way out, it decided to leave and become stronger, planning to simply brute force its way through the main gates.
As for how that endeavor ended… we all know.
Which is also how we ended up here.
The tentacle changed tact, managed to reinfiltrate and then to ensure it did not get caught a second time, decided to change its biometric signatures.
Yet, who could have known such a prudent move would actually be its Achilles heel, the very thing that gave itself away?
Ahhh, the irony.
But what was done, done.
Right now, the boy tentacle hybrid just stood with an impassive face as the screen of blue light flashed menacingly and the robotic feminine voice droned on, its soft, mechanical note sounding eerily damning.
'It' suddenly felt drained, no longer wishing to struggle.
After so many years of trying so hard in so many different ways, to have come so close after coming from the brink of death and then to fail at this last step…and even in such a foolish way, even this life form had its limits and it seemed to have reached the end of its.
It knew it would not survive this ambush- last time it only managed to do so because it had far greater vitality and far less weapons to deal with as the authorization had just been given and not all the systems had gone online.
And even then it barely managed to survive by the skin of its teeth.
'Hehe, I wonder if this fate's cruel prank on me? Well whatever happens, happens. Nothing I can do.' Finally, seeing no way way, it resigned itself as such.
Yet suddenly….
"Error! Signal mismatch. No example in database found. Re-scanning…. Error! Detected bugs in the system. Rebooting...Rebooting… System refreshed."
"Re-scanning…. Life signature detected. Match found- human, Captain Malcavich of the USC- Lighthouse. Clearance Level- 5!"
"Welcome Captain! We have been waiting for a long time. Please take note of the command terminal and view the ship's log. I have prepared a set of recommended tasks to do in descending priority order!"
Just like that, with only a few series of announcements, the absolutely hopeless situation for the mysterious tentacle reversed itself,
The blue screen vanished and the various weapons systems prodding out from the ceilings retracted by themselves, while the terrifying warning lights turned to basically the AI rolling out the red carpet.
"..." The alien tentacle was so stunned by all that for a second it did not even have the time to feel happy, just numb from shock.
"Hahaha, it works! It works," As it got its bearings together, the thing let out this great cheer, grinning from ear to ear.
The explanation it came up with behind this sudden change was simple- its disguise was probably not perfect and the scans managed to detect some of the tell tale signature.
However because the amount was so small and the onboard AI had never come across this unique transformation, it simply treated it as a bug in the system.
So it rebooted itself and then recalibrated, letting it 'recognise' the captain of the ship.
….
Thanking its luck to the high heavens, the tentacle alien wasted no time after this, afraid its disguise might be seen through a second time if the system once again rebooted.
So it rushed towards the main communication module, and then willing 'Adonis' arms to do all the hard work, began to rapidly access various readings.
And then, once it found all the information required, it began to write a distress signal.
It was a very short message consisting of only two lines.
The first line was the planar coordinates of this dimension and the instruction to jump space exactly there, thus telling its brethren and the Mother of the existence of this place.
The computer calculated this by comparing the ship's estimated location recorded just before the fateful dimension jump, with a few, very special communication arrays set up in its dimension.
These arrays were like lighthouses for all friendly intergalactic ships, acting as beacons to let them find their position in space.
The second line of the sentence was an invitation to come feast on the bountiful prey here, presented by a single word- Acheron.
This was the highest grade given by the Protanyds to any life sustaining star system- labelling it as the greatest delicacy.
It was their equivalent of a 3 star Michelin meal, meaning it was a target to be devoured with the utmost alacrity. Entire swarms could be dedicated to secure it and sometimes entire new fronts could be created just to conquer it.
Yet, despite how impressive the word sounded, the alien tentacle actually felt the label was underselling it here.
That distinction only referred to a solar system, or at best a few close clusters, while this here was an entire dimension, countless millions, if not billions times bigger.
However this was still the highest grade available to it, so it wrote it so, afraid writing anything like 'Super Acheron' would be misconstrued.
The message was thus created, and now, all it needed was to send it.
However, the alien being refrained from simply pressing 'Enter'.
Because this was a USC ship, 'it' still needed to 'tweak' the signal first to make it reach its intended recipient. Or else, the encrypted message would only reach the enemy.