@kelseyhusky tangent from this, actually; have you ever read C. H. Cherryh's Chanur series?
@kelseyhusky The series (Chanur's Pride, The Kif Strike Back, Chanur's Legacy) is about a really loose (a lot of them will regularly try to kill each other) trade federation of aliens and their first contact with humans.
The thing the static reminded me of; the travel hubs are huge space stations split into different living/trade areas, and the methane breathers communicate to the other sapients by signalling a three-by-three grid which best fits how they order sentences.