Jim considers how to best answer that, especially when he thinks the Prime Directive shouldn't always be so goddamn absolute. "It's kind of a sliding scale of 'how advanced are you?' Generally we try not to make first contact unless a species is advanced enough to be warp-capable, or close to it." Right, duh, Shade-Seeker won't know what that is. "Warp drive is what lets a starship cross vast distances in a short amount of time. If we were stuck with only sublight speeds, it'd take thousands if not millions of years to get anywhere."