Jiaoqiu turns just enough for his earpiece's camera to get a look at who he's speaking to, and the description he's given is interesting: it can't immediately identify a gender or an age, but gives a beautiful rendition of a grey steel mask with a smooth faceplate and no identifiable features, save for the single red optic in the center of it.

"I get the feeling that would be more difficult than anticipated," he hums, tone mild. Whoever these Ascendants are, they have no made themselves readily available for a conversation, because of course they haven't. Why bother answering questions when you pluck them out of a space-time rift and put them on an explorer's ship?

As he speaks, he hears the quiet clicking of a Host -- an insect of some kind, going by the number of legs impacting the metal -- climbing up the nearby wall and depositing something in his hand. A quick investigation reveals it is a wrapped candy. Jiaoqiu frowns, perplexed.

"Thank you?" The Host chirps happily, and skitters away. Jiaoqiu can only accept this as an eccentricity. "Perhaps we're pointed in this direction because the Hosts think it's beautiful. They're intellectually complex; surely they have a concept of beauty, as we do."