r/humansarespaceorcs

Dragon alien: "I..." wheeze "I can't... Do that..." wheeze "anymore!"

Human: "Get your shit together! You are the only artillery we have left and we have twelve more target coords till dawn! Now follow the holo-projector and shoot!"

Da: *Takes a deep breath and spits out a fast ball of plasma that flies away. After short time - a big flaming mushroom appears somewhere on the horizon.* "I am a" *wheeze "*meelee fighter! Is that really neccessary to wheeze... Do this?"

H: "Don't question the authority! Why do you still use meelee? Are you planing to fight tanks with spears?"

Da: "I have a mono-spear!"

H: "Well, too bad you shoot further than you hit, isn't it? Follow the lights, fire!"

Da: *Shoots another plasmoid* "I can't... I... I'm gonna faint! I have never... Shoot so many in one day!"

H: "That happens to all the good men, don't worry."

Da: "I'm not a male... We didn't have males for two thousand years now!"

H: "Fun fact. Almost as fan as this new coords I just got! Now fire!"

Da: *Shoots another charge and falls on her knees.* wheeze "You don't... Even know what it's like... I feel drained... Where is the rest of the team? Why aren't we getting supplies? What are you hiding?!"

H: "Don't think about that. But just for the record - the rest of the boys are now in the jungle, hunting for some food. Our medic is playing Heisenberg with local herbs. When we finish - I'm planning BBQ and you - are the only thing we have to the outguning power. So go and outgun! These coords! Fire!"

Da: *Shoots another ball of plasma and falls on all fours. Green flaming drops - drool from her mouth, melting their way through the dirt.* *wheeze "*Do..." *wheeze "*Will..." wheeze "Will you add that black powder too?"

H: "Of course. By the way - it's my own invention. If we all fall here - noone in the whole Galaxy will ever find out that mixing plack pepper and gunpowder tastes good for your species?"

Da: "No one?"

H: "Not a single soul."

Da: *Stands up and clears her throat.* "Where's the next one?"

In one minute, a human became a legend, we were trapped, pinned between multiple warships charging rail cannons that shot faster then our ship could move, we all panicked, and ran to our rooms to say goodbye one last time to the pictures of our loved ones.

But our human crewmember had another plan, Alex was his name, he ran straight to the cockpit, passing by everyone who urged him to turn back and give up and yanking away from everyone who was trying to drag him away.

In the next 10 seconds, the lights went out, in the next 20 we heard the engine roar from across the entire ship, 30 seconds and we were pinned to the walls of the ship from the speed we were moving, many only heard the sounds of cannonfire whizzing by, but i was one of the few who could see everything.

Even after the cannonfire was over he refused to stop moving, he kept moving as far and fast as he thought we needed to be, and after the lights flickered on and we slowed steadily to a drift, i ran to the cockpit to see that alex had jerry-rigged parts together, forcing everything but life support to the thrusters.

It took him one minute to save the lives of our entire crew, one minute i will never forget, one minute that gives me the peace of mind to give up my captain status to this one brave human

“Well Commander, we are all set for my XO. I’m going to have them do an informal tour of all of the colony before allowing them access to any critical systems. That should help us determine if they are a spy.”

“Informal?”

“Yes. They will have no authority, they will have a marine escort, and not write up any reports or recommendations. All of their communications will be tracked and read.”

“You really don’t trust this, do you?”

“Nope. Not at all. But we will see. Maybe we get lucky with an overly eager junior officer.”

“Oscar, what is your plan if they are a spy?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. We have options. We could attempt to turn them. We could feed them bad intel. We could relegate them to duty far away from important things. I could write them up for multiple issues until I have enough to dismiss them. My initial plan is to watch them closely. If they are a spy, they might expect some reluctance, so I need to be subtle. I also need to track their contacts around the colony.”

“Sounds like a great deal of work. You need anything?”

“Actually yes. I’ve heard a rumor that we have at least one being in the colony who is partially psychic. Is this true?”

“Well, we try to keep it quiet, but yes. It’s not a secret, but it can unnerve some. The true secret is how sensitive they are.”

“How sensitive are we talking?”

“Ensign Danyak is the most sensitive in the colony. She can’t quite read your thoughts, but she can determine motivation, emotional responses, a stray thought here and there. We downplay it, saying that she can just detect surface emotion.”

“Would you mind loaning her to me for a bit? Until we have a full understanding of the XO?”

“Yes Oscar, I can do that. We can say that she is cross-training with Terrans to help with conflicts.”

“Hell, I might just hire her for real!”

“I’m not sure about that. You need to meet her and spend some time around her first. She is…hard to be around.”

“Harder than drunk Aussies creating new volcanos?”

“In a way, yes. Look. It’s easier if you just meet her.”

“Sounds good. Please send her to my office. Should I brief her or will you?”

“I’ll leave the details to you. I’ll tell her that it is a special, classified mission, and I’ll explain the cover story.”

“Thank you sir.”

A few hours later, Oscar is in his office when there is a knock at the door.

“Enter,” said Oscar.

The first thing that went through Oscar’s mind was, Huh. Followed by, Well this is new.

“Hello Chief. I’m Ensign Danyak. Yes, I’m a bit different.”

“Call me Oscar. Please, take a seat.”

“Thank you Oscar. I find it useful to get some things out of the way. Yes, I’m an amphibian. Yes, I have six eyes. Yes, I can see in infrared and ultraviolet. Yes, my frills do whatever the hell they want. No, my frills are not a good indication of my mood or thinking. Yes, most species think I smell odd. Yes, I sleep in a tank of water. No, you may not touch my skin.”

“I see. Well, I’m guessing that you already know that I really don’t give a fuck about any of that. I need to know if I can trust you.”

“Hmmmm. I can tell that trust is not something you give without reason. Actually, you are fairly hard to read. I assume training?”

“Some training, but lots of experience. I have a critical mission for you. If I think I can trust you, then you will become a great asset to the colony. If I don’t trust you, then you can either carry on with the cover story for a bit or you can return to your regular duties.”

“Honestly, I rather not go back to my previous duties.”

“Why?”

“The staff are jerks. They are friendly when I’m around, but nasty about me when I leave. They leave containers of bugs around my station. They make a big deal about cleaning where I’ve sat. In general, they are unpleasant.”

“And you think Terrans are better?”

“No. I don’t think you would allow it.”

“Good answer.”

“What do you know of the mission?”

“You need my help evaluating a new Terran.”

“Correct. They are sending me an XO, but I think they are sending a spy.”

“Would this be related to the strange hybrids from a few months ago?”

“More than likely. What do you know about the hybrids?”

“Not much. Some sort of super-Terran hybrid attempted to mess up the colony. When cornered, it got messy. There are rumors about more of them, but I’m pretty sure what I heard is crap. The speaker was clearly lying.”

“Out of curiosity, would you be able to tell if a being was a hybrid?”

“Possibly. If I was very familiar with one of the base species, I would know something was different.”

“Interesting. Look. I need to trust you. You want this job. How do we both get what we want?”

“Test me.”

“I’m sorry Ensign?”

“Design a test for me.”

“Fair enough. I’ll design a test. Right now please see the orderly about moving your quarters. Tell him that you are to be in the 3rd officers quarters. We don’t have a 3rd officer, so it is empty. I assume that you will want to modify the room to suit you. Do as you wish. After making those arrangements, I want you to interview six marines at random. Ask about personal conflicts with other beings. You know, follow the cover story.”

“Yes Oscar. And you can tell Captain Sue that she doesn’t need to stand guard in the hallway.”

“Stand guard? She is my next appointment. Why do you think…no wait. That is what Sue is feeling. I’m afraid Sue is always on guard.”

“Ah. I need to hone my Terran skills.”

“Hence the interviews.”

“Flying Dutchman, you are cleared for entry into the Centaurius System,” Centaurius Control said. “Please remember to maintain local laws, and if you’re not used to or able to handle the cold, please ensure that you’re wearing appropriate protective gear when you land on Centaurius Prime.”

“Thank you, Control, and will do,” Dutch said.

“That’s so cool,” Silverlight said as the blue and purple colored Centaur homeworld came into view.

“It certainly is,” Brightpaw agreed.

“We’ve got an incoming message from Professor Bloodclaw,” Dutch said. “Looks like he’s sending us coordinates for a landing pad that he’s reserved for us. A little outside of most of the common city areas, however.”

“Considering this is supposed to be an archeological dig, that’s not all too surprising,” Sandra said as she adjusted the Dutchman slightly.

“I wonder which one they’re digging up this time,” So’Ngo said from where he as sitting on the ceiling. “The Centaurs have quite a few ancient cities and towns that they have yet to rediscover.”

“Right, I forget that you’re older than the Observer himself,” Sandra said, rolling her eyes. “Ever planning on telling us how the Primordial universe was?”

“Hot,” So’Ngo said with a grin.

“You think it’s the one you visited to get the bowl?” Silverlight asked So’Ngo.

“It’s a possibility,” So’Ngo said. “But it’s equally likely that it’s a separate place entirely.”

“Which means different history to uncover,” Silverlight said, bouncing on his chair.

“Keep bouncing like that and you’re going to break my chair,” Dutch laughed over the intercom.

“Sorry, I’m just really excited,” Silverlight said, clutching the bowl that So’Ngo had given him in excitement even as the bouncing stopped. “Maybe it’s an amphitheater? Or an old church? Or maybe some fossils? I can’t wait to find out.”

“The fact that you find excitement in something that actively puts me to sleep will be something I will never understand,” Sandra chuckled as fire began licking the outer hull of the ship when they began to enter the planets atmosphere. “I’ll stick with putting things together and taking them apart, thank you very much.”

……………….

“Welcome, welcome,” a blue Spotted Centaur with white spots greeted them as the Dutchman’s airlock ramp lowered.

“Professor Bloodclaw,” Silverlight said excitedly, practically skipping down the ramp.

“It’s good to finally meet you in person, young kit,” Professor Bloodclaw said warmly, chuckling as Silverlight slid to a stop right before ramming into him.

“I’m so sorry about him, he’s been excited ever since we got permission for this trip,” Brightpaw began to apologize while Sandra rolled her eyes affectionately and So’Ngo outright laughed at Silverlight practically vibrating.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being excited over seeing some history, isn’t that right?” Professor Bloodclaw winked at Silverlight.

“Yeah,” Silverlight said with a huge smile.

“And who are your…friends? Family?” Professor Bloodclaw prompted.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Silverlight said, his face growing embarrassed. “That’s Brightpaw, my Guardian, Sandra, my sister, and So’Ngo, her teacher. And…” Silverlight frowned a bit as he noticed there were only three of them. “Is Dutch not joining us this time?”

“Dutch?” Professor Bloodclaw asked curiously.

“Our final crewmember,” Sandra said, walking down the ramp to stand next to Silverlight, looking Professor Bloodclaw over a bit. “And yeah, she’s coming, she just needed to finish getting ready is all.”

“Oh, okay,” Silverlight said.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Dutch called out, walking out of the airlock and brushing her pants and jacket off. “My siblings back home sent me close to a literal ton of clothing for the trip, and I was having a hard time picking an outfit out.”

“You quite literally had three days to decide, how did you just now decide?” Sandra asked.

“You try going through a mountain of clothing and tell me how long it takes,” Dutch shot back.

“30 seconds, I’ll just grab the first dress that’s comfortable,” Sandra shrugged.

“Speaking of, are you all adequately protected against the cold?” Professor asked as he began leading them away from the landing pad and to a waiting hover-van.

“Yes, we’ve got atmo-protectors on,” Brightpaw said with a nod. “I’m a homeworld resident, and I know how cold it can get at times, so I ensured everyone was well prepared.”

“Not that everyone needs it,” Sandra muttered under her breath.

“Excellent,” Professor Bloodclaw said as everyone got into the van and he started it up. “I know off-worlders often times underestimate the cold of our planet, even other Centaurs, so I’m happy to hear there’s a native that set you all up.”

“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t just me,” Brightpaw said a little ruefully as Silverlight plastered his face to a window to stare outside while the Professor started flying them away from the starport. “Sandra there was raised by Humans, and their homeworld in certain places can get just as, if not colder, than our own. If for some reason the atmo-protectors aren’t enough, we have enough heavy winter clothing and emergency shelters to risk heatstroke during the Frozen Winds.”

“Is that so?” the Centaur Professor asked, looking back at them briefly. “You don’t appear to have enough luggage for that.”

“Perks of my job is that I’ve learned to teleport,” Sandra said with a shrug. “Push comes to shove, I’ll run back to the Dutchman and grab some stuff.”

“Well, hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” Professor Bloodclaw said with a light laugh. “Thankfully the area of the dig is near the beginning of our approximate summer, so it’s not dangerously cold, only moderately so.”

“Oh, this should be fun,” So’Ngo said with a grin, rubbing his hands together.

………………

“Professor Bloodclaw, glad you could join us,” another Centaur with blue fur and purple stripes waved from a temporary shelter as the small group got out of the hover-van.

“Dr. Lightfur, it’s good to see you again,” Professor Bloodclaw said as he got out of the van.

“I didn’t realize we were inviting audience members this time around,” Dr. Lightfur said, looking at Silverlight, Sandra, Brightpaw, So’Ngo, and Dutch curiously.

“Technically I only invited young Silverlight here,” Professor Bloodclaw said with a chuckle, gesturing at the teenage Centaur. “But you know how it is. Teenagers need their Guardians, and the ship needs their Captain.”

“And unfortunately, I’m stuck with this one for a few more months,” Sandra said sardonically, pointing a thumb at So’Ngo.

“Well, as long as everyone knows not to touch anything,” Dr Lightfur said skeptically, looking over Sandra, So’Ngo, and Dutch in particular.

“Believe me, I plan to bug you as little as possible,” Sandra said with a small grin. “I know how important history is, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t put me to sleep. If I’m not hiding out in the shelter, I’ll either be training far away from the dig site, or being dragged around town by Dutch here.”

“Yup,” Dutch said cheerfully.

“Yes, the only ones that should be here regularly will be me and Silverlight,” Brightpaw said with a nod. “I’m an engineer by trade, but I’m still his Guardian.”

“Very well then,” Dr. Lightfur said with a nod.

“Excuse me,” Silverlight said, practically vibrating with excitement. “Has anything been dug up yet? I was hoping to see what sort of interesting things have been found and maybe try to figure out what they were used for.” Dr Lightfur looked at Silverlight for a moment before giving a short burst of laughter.

“I see why you invited him,” Dr Lightfur said to Professor Bloodclaw, who nodded with a smile on his face. “Sorry, young kit, but the actual digging doesn’t start for another day or two.”

“Why is that?” Silverlight asked, starting to walk as the Centaur gesture for them to follow him and Professor Bloodclaw.

“Safety and preservation, mostly,” Dr Lightfur said as they entered the temporary shelter to ee several Lorhma at computers, a map of the area slowly being created on a bigger screen. “These fine excavators are doing a deep scan of the area in order to put together a rough map of the building and items we want to excavate, in order to try and minimize the damage as much as possible. We want buildings after all, not ruble. Or at a bare minimum some ruins.”

“Don’t worry, Doctor, me and my crew have done many archeological digs in the past,” a Lorhma said with a chuckle, standing at his full three-and-a-half feet proudly. “By the time we’re done, you’ll be able to repaint the entire site and live in it again if you wanted. I’m Sniffer, by the way, leader of this group of diggers.”

“Sniffer?” Silverlight asked curiously as he carefully took the Lorhma’s clawed hand in a handshake.

“Guy has the best nose for stone and metal you’ll ever meet,” another Lorhma said with a chuckle. “We just call him Sniffer cause his sniffer makes the rest of us look like we don’t have a nose.” Silverlight giggled a bit at that as Sniffer threw a loose pebble at the other Lorhma.

“Anything we should be concerned about, Sniffer?” Professor Bloodclaw asked as Sandra looked over the screens with a polite interest and Brightpaw began looking at some equipment on one of the walls.

“So far the only concern we’re seeing is a section of stone we’ll have to cut away,” Sniffer said, using his datapad to make the larger screen zoom in. “It looks like whatever this building was, it was built directly against a small stone outcrop. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem, except that there’s what looks like a hallway that goes deeper into the earth behind a door that’s been sealed shut behind an extremely thick door. We’ll either need to cut the door away, or make a new opening to reach the passage.”

“Huh, that’s interesting,” Professor Bloodclaw said with a thoughtful frown.

“Certainly one way of looking at it,” Dr Lightfur said with a nod. “We’ll climb that tree when we get to it though.”

“I wonder what they could’ve buried that needed such a thick stone door,” Silverlight said, looking at the scan with interest.

“Well, that’s what we’re here to find out,” Professor Bloodclaw said with a smile.

………………….

“Oh this is cute,” Dutch said, looking over a shirt that she had spotted.

“Are you sure Jessica didn’t infect you with a virus or something?” Sandra asked in amusement as she followed the Lamnacorta around the store.

“Hey, just because I didn’t care about fashion until I got a Frame does not mean I was infected by a virus,” Dutch said, sticking her tongue out at Sandra. “Someone here needs to have a sense of fashion, since you and Brightpaw have no cares in the world for it.”

“Fashion is secondary when loose clothing can get you killed in engineering,” Sandra said, rolling her eyes.

“Accurate but still tragic,” Dutch said, holding the shirt up against Sandra. “A bit big, but I think we can modify it.”

“Oh, this is going to be a whole thing,” Sandra said, though she didn’t stop Dutch from holding up a few other shirts to her.

“Hey, you were the one who got bored watching Silverlight talk to the doctor and professor about possible theories about the buildings and what’s buried,” Dutch reminded Sandra as she set the Shirt back on the rack. “This makes for a good distraction and something to do while they’re geeking out over ruins and rocks.”

 “Is there anything we can help you with?” a Centaur employee walked around the corner, blinking a bit when she saw Dutch and Sandra there.

“Yes, actually, I was wondering if you have these in any smaller sizes,” Dutch said, holding up a few shirt with a bright smile.

“I’d have to check our stock,” the Centaur said, shaking herself a bit as she pulled out her datapad. “We don’t get many…non-Centaurs, though, so if we do they’ll be in children sizes.”

“Believe me, we get it,” Sandra said a bit dryly. “My brother is a Centaur. The size discrepancy is real.”

“I see,” the Centaur employe said this lightly and with a smile, though she seemed to tense up a bit, which made Sandra frown slightly “Well, it does appear that I have those particular shirts in sizes that might fit you, they’re just in the back. if you can give me a few minutes, I’ll go get those for you.”

“Awesome, thank you,” Dutch said brightly as the Centaur walked away slightly faster than necessary.

“Did she seem tense to you?” Sandra asked.

“Probably because your fingering your revolver again,” Dutch said nonchalantly. Sandra blinked before looking down, seeing that she indeed was fingering one of her revolvers.

“Oh,” Sandra said, dropping her hand.

“I know it’s just a habit of your that normally doesn’t cause problems,” Dutch said kindly, patting Sandra on the shoulder. “But we’re on planet here, not in space. Some of your habits are going to make people nervous. Especially since we’re off-worlders and non-Centaurs.”

“Right,” Sandra said with a small sigh. “Probably doesn’t help that I’m Targondian, who are known for being more closed off.”

“Exactly,” Dutch said with a smile. “Look, when she comes back, let’s just try a few shirts on, see if we can get something that looks good on you. And I’ll even hang onto your revolvers while you change, alright?”

“Your using her nervousness to guilt me into being a fashion doll for you, aren’t you?” Sandra asked in amusement.

“Absolutely,” Dutch said, smiling brightly as the Centaur came back holding a small bundle of shirts.

………………..

“Keep your movements gently as you brush here,” Professor Bloodclaw said, watching Silverlight as the teenage Centaur was cleaning off a cup that he had been handed for practice.

“You just happen to have false artifacts for people to clean off?” Brightpaw asked in amusement as Professor Bloodclaw carefully coached Silverlight.

“For my students, yes,” the Professor said as he took a step back, satisfied with Silverlight’s progress. “I’m not going to hand students an actual piece of history to clean without some practice; that’s just asking for the artifacts to be damaged and history lost. So, when I was told that Silverlight had permission to come to this dig, I packed up a few for him. Get a bit of a head start before he goes to University.”

“You seem to be doing a lot for a child that you only met a only recently,” Brightpaw said, a question in her tone.

“Am I not allowed to nurture a growing talent?” Professor Bloodclaw asked with a chuckle. “He’s bright, inquisitive, and wants to learn. I’m very much aware that his first call to me wasn’t all research; someone told him at least some of the things he was asking me, even if he won’t tell me who or why he’s trying to keep it a secret. But instead of taking it at face value, he decided to look into it deeper and ask questions. Like the weather, for example. I had to ask a few colleagues, but there is ample evidence that our planet was much, much warmer before and during the early years of our history than it is now. I never would’ve even considered looking into that if not for Silverlight, and he’s done a lot of his own research to draw his own conclusions. The perfect historical student, in my opinion.” There was a light clink as Silverlight hit the ‘artifact’ cup a little too hard with his brush in embarrassment, much to the amusement of both Brightpaw and Professor Bloodclaw.

“Hear that, kid?” So’Ngo asked with a laugh. “You’re a prodigy.”

“So’Ngo,” Silverlight groaned, setting the mug down before he accidentally broke it.

“Don’t worry, young kit, I will still tell you when you’re doing something wrong,” Professor Bloodclaw said with a chuckle. “I don’t coddle my students, not even the prodigies.”

“Umm, can I go watch the workers for a bit?’ Silverlight asked, clearly embarrassed.

“That should be fine, just make sure you don’t bother them,” Professor Bloodclaw said, and Silverlight quickly left the temporary shelter. “So easily embarrassed,” Professor Bloodcalw said with a chuckle.

“Makes it easy and fun to tease him,” So’Ngo agreed with a wide grin before leaving the shelter as well to follow the teenage Centaur.

There was a moment of awkward silence with Brightpaw and the Professor before Professor Bloodclaw coughed a bit, clearing his throat. “So, I had a few questions for you. Primarily why a pregnant Centaur is willing to take in a ‘snow-washed’ orphan.”

“Believe it or not, I actually wasn’t the one who took him in,” Brightpaw said with a small sigh. “That would be his sister.”

“The Targondian girl?” Professor Bloodclaw asked with a frown as he took a seat near Brightpaw.

“Yes,” Brightpaw said. “I’m not saying I would have left the kit behind, but I most likely would not have been at the right place or time to make that decision if not for Sandra. And while I may try to be her mother, she’s Captian of the ship.”

“I see,” Professor Bloodclaw said carefully.

“Make no mistake, Professor,” Brightpaw said with a smile. “My kitten or not, I still intend to be every bit the mother I can for that kit. ‘Snow-washed’ or not, he’s a child first and foremost. And besides, no matter how Sandra may act, she’ll make sure he has a future ahead of him, even if I was a primal traditionalist.” The visible relief on the Professor’s face was almost palpable in the air as he nodded.

“I suppose I worried over nothing then, given my own experiences,” Professor Bloodclaw said, gesturing vaguely at his white spots.

“No, you worried just the right amount, and I hope you know it means a lot to me that you did,” Brightpaw said, shaking her head lightly. “It means that if he does decide to be your apprentice in a few years, when he’s old enough to have that option, that I’ll know that he’s in good hands.”

……………

“Whoa,” Silverlight said, looking over the small knife that Sniffer had dug up. “You didn’t even scratch it. I mean, beyond its obvious aging.”

“Best part about colder planets like this,” the Lorhma dig boss said proudly. “Once something gets underground, erosion becomes rather minimal for the first several feet or so. Once it gets cleaned up a bit, that there little knife would still be perfectly functional.”

“It’s not just colder planets,” Dr. Lightfur said, looking over another knife appreciatively. “I remember a bog on a much warmer planet that had some remarkably well preserved tools and even ancient animals. But yes, on the whole I agree, cold seems to be one of the best for preserving older artifacts, at least for planets that are colder as a whole rather than those that are only colder in some areas.”

“Cool,” Silverlight said, carefully setting the small blade back down on the table.

“Hey, where’d you’re Dra’Cari friend go?” Sniffer suddenly frowned a bit, looking around.

“I have no idea,” Silverlight said with a shrug. “He just kind of appears and disappears on a whim. But I don’t think he’ll do anything to disrupt the dig.”

“Well, that’s all I care about,” Sniffer said with a shrug. “Seems like an odd type though.”

“Yeah, he’s…interesting,” Silverlight said.

“Have you found anything else by chance?” Dr. Lightfur said as he set down the knife he was examining.

“Nothing near the surface that’s not near an area that needs to be excavated anyway,” Sniffer said with a shrug, his scale-like plates moving with a light rustle. “Those ones I figure we’ll collect as we begin excavating the site as a whole. I can smell more metal in several areas, however, including a rather large deposit near that door that we need to uncover. Initial scans make it look like it’s a table or an anvil or something like that, but beyond the general shape and the fact that there is a lot of metal in that one spot, we won’t know till we unearth it.”

“A ritual site, perhaps?” Dr. Lightfur mused, stroking the fur on his chin.

“Or maybe a forge?” Silverlight added. Dr. Lightfur nodded with a smile.

“I’m leaning towards a forge meself,” Sniffer said with a shrug. “But I may be biased as a Lorhma. Ritual sites always weird me out. The last one I had to do was just…” the Lorhma excavator shuddered a bit. “Stone and metal remembers, even if the people and animals don’t.” Silverlight shuddered a bit as well, a shiver going all the way down his spine to the end of his tail.

“Now now, let’s not scare our promising temporary student too badly,” Dr. Lightfur admonished Sniffer lightly. “Ritual sites are still important to learning history of a society, even if they are a bit…creepy.”

“Not disagreeing, Doc, just saying I don’t like them,” Sniffer chuckled. “Come on, pup, I’ll show you how the scanning machinery works.”

“Oh, yes please,” Silverlight said, immediately perking up and following the Lorhma towards the rest of the excavators.

Prologue Previous Next

Appendix

TOC

[Sandra and Eric TOC]

"They built them with much more 'dakka' than most at their time. If there were historical battle ratings then much of low and mid tier would be almost unplayable because their ships were just that good for their time period."

Examples:

The destroyer Hatsukaze is at the same battle rating as the Antarean destroyer Aukani due to her armament of five 25-inch railguns, despite the latter having been commissioned several decades later.

The first dreadnought battleship in the galaxy, UNS Dreadnought, is at the same battle rating as AIS Omikron. Omikron was commissioned almost two decades later.

And humanity's first fleet carrier, Wright, is at the same battle rating as the Antarean fleet carrier/battleship conversion Asgtia, which was commissioned almost a decade later.

4/28/2329

Antares, Republic of Antares

ITNS S-99 (Type XVIIB S-boat)

"Let them pass. I can see the red cross on their IFF tag."

"Why's that? We aren't Orion Convention signatories."

"It'd be a waste of a torpedo that could be used to torpedo a human troopship or a freighter. G9s aren't cheap, you know?"

"I'll call it off, then."

"Good."

<First> <Prev> <Next> <Last>

McBride sat in a chair in a large lecture hall. Notionally this was Dagger’s after action report, but functionally it was set up like a courtmartial. McBride sat on the right, with Admiral Mitchell. On the left leading the ‘debriefing’ was Captain Price. In front was a Fleet Admiral, standing in as a Judge Advocate, and a board of 4 Captains and a Rear Admiral. In a courtmartial the judge would rule on matters of procedure, and the board would rule on matters of guilt or innocence. For a debrief, they were just supposed to ask questions. But as the discussion had proceeded it became clear it was a courtmartial in all but name.

The court had already reviewed the logs, and it had come to summary statements. There would then be deliberations, any extra information needed, then a ruling.

Captain Price stood and began his summation.

“The staggering cost of Commander McBride’s actions should stand enough to move to judgements. In addition to sending UCS Dagger to the shipyards for a full overhaul and refit, he risked UCAS Aegis, and caused the destruction of 4 of her tenders. 

This is a direct cost to the Fleet of 57 million credits. 

The civilian cost of Commander McBride’s actions is truly breath-taking, with destruction of 358 ships, damage to 153 more. Waste of mined ores, and the forced destruction of 15 mining stations, and 5 transit stations, with damage to 23 further stations. 103 mining tugs destroyed, along with 230 mining robots, ore reserves from 50 asteroids lost. This adds up to well over 73 billion credits.

Beyond those costs we also have the cruise ship Empress of the Stars, and hauler Caliban destroyed in the evacuation. The Empress of the Stars is worth in excess of 500 million credits, whilst hauler Caliban is insured for 23 million credits, the cargo lost was insured in excess of 250 million credits, Finally Commander McBride’s orders prevented the evacuation of another 200 million credits of cargo on hauler Calista. 

This brings the cost of Commander McBride’s negligence in Taurus ringing in at 74.73 BILLION credits of Fleet liability”

Captain Price glanced into the audience behind him. As it was a closed session, most were Fleet personnel, silent and angry. But surrounded by bodyguards, Governor Bailey sat with a huge grin. He nodded back to Captain Price. The Captain pressed on.

“In addition to this financial cost, we have illegal creation of 654 Class-1 AI citizens, most of which Commander McBride immediately put in mortal peril.

Gross negligence in failing to warn the Fleet of the impending Hive attack.

Cowardice in the face of the enemy, but sitting behind the 3rd Fleet as they engaged the Hive invaders.

Gross Misconduct, in the direction of the civilian evacuation.

Gross Insubordination, in ignoring legal directives from the civilian government.

Misappropriation of civilian assets, as outlined in my summary of the costs

And finally, exceeding the scope of his orders, he should have ordered Dagger, Aegis and Monarch of the Sky to jump out from Taurus, just after the Fleet did.

The fruits of all of this, the destruction of two Hive Dreadnoughts can be characterised as a mix of staggering waste of resources and dumb luck.

I’m aware that the pure facts of this situation mean we can’t demote or otherwise publicly punish Commander McBride, due to the public perception. My recommendation is that he be detached from his crew and sent on a morale tour of the Commonwealth, until his celebrity dies down, and then be given a command in a remote post where he can do no more harm”

There were quiet murmurings from the audience. The Fleet personnel listening had other views, but the Judge Advocate stayed solemn and the board members took notes, and exchanged a few quiet questions.

After a few moments, the Judge Advocate invited Admiral Mitchell to give her closing summary.

Admiral Mitchell stood.

“As Commander McBride’s commanding officer, I'm in a position to refute several of Captain Price’s assertions outright.

Commander McBride’s creation of 654 Class-1 AI citizens, was authorised as an emergency measure, under military intervention.  Every AI created is classed as Fleet personnel, and during the battle all but three AIs were successfully backed up to UCAS Aegis.  The whole system was in mortal peril, but the Fleet’s AI crew accelerated the civilian evacuation, and contributed immensely to the destruction of the two Hive Dreadnoughts.

In the charge of gross negligence in failing to warn the Fleet of the impending Hive attack. Dagger’s logs show Commander McBride discovered the Hive attack at 0442, and had reported it directly to me via Fleet privileged Omega priority call 2 minutes later at 0444. 

I would observe that 2 minutes to confirm your data and check alternatives before waking an Admiral in the early hours of the morning, can hardly be called any sort of delay.

In the charge of cowardice in the face of the enemy, by sitting behind the 3rd Fleet as we engaged the Hive invaders. This was my direct order, I needed someone steady to oversee the civilian evacuation. This charge can be removed from the list entirely, it’s provably false.

In the charge of gross misconduct, in the direction of the civilian evacuation. I think there are two relevant features. 

First the Caliban-Empress collision occurred after McBride had explicitly ordered hauler Caliban to resume evacuation operations. Hauler Caliban jumped away in contravention of safe gravity warp jump protocol, against orders.

If the court will accept a single observation, there were two comms calls placed to hauler Caliban after Commander McBride’s orders. The final one, terminating just 15 seconds before the collision, both were from Governor Bailey’s yacht”

The audience reaction was muted, but clear. The whispered conversations from the Fleet personnel combined to almost drown out the Admiral’s final words. Governor Bailey glared at the Admiral, then McBride, and finally Captain Price.

Captain Price spoke “Objection, the Governor is not on trial. This is clear speculation”

Admiral Mitchell smiled as she responded deliberately “Judge Advocate. This is an after action debrief, not a courtmartial. There is no protocol for an objection. Furthermore, the statement of comms from Governor Bailey’s yacht is a simple fact, and given its timing, entirely relevant. I request my statement, in full, remains in the record. If I can continue my summation?”

The Judge Advocate spoke "Silence in court” She banged her gavel on the table for emphasis a couple of times, and the court settled down.

Admiral Mitchell resumed addressing the Judge Advocate and the board “The final charge to refute is of gross insubordination, in ignoring legal directives from the civilian government. This again has no merit. The situation was clearly a military one, an emergency where the primacy of civilian authority is suspended. This should be enough to settle this charge, but I'd like to draw attention to two further items.

First, there was a measurable increase in the speed and effectiveness of the evacuation after Fleet authority is exercised. Many civilians owe their lives to Commander McBride due to that speed and focus on people over cargo. I can’t proffer a number, as that would be true speculation.

Second, when we examine Commander McBride’s interactions with the civilian authorities. We must disregard about 60% of the communications, as they are just insults and threats, with no bearing on a legal basis for an order. Additionally the bulk of the actual orders were just focussing on illegal orders to prioritise cargo movements and release vessels that had not taken on any civilians at all. All of these calls came directly from Governor Bailey, and all are available in full in the UCS Dagger’s logs. Two calls were placed with an Omega priority, that is restricted to Fleet personnel and as such a restricted channel. I suggest an investigation to determine how Governor Bailey had access to a clear Fleet secret.

There is a final matter, somewhat outside Commander McBride’s actions, but within the purview of an after action report for the events in Taurus 4.

The cargo manifests of hauler Caliban, and freighter Calista showed the whole cargo as emergency supplies. 

During the actively encouraged undocking of freighter Calista, the cargo was determined to be in high security containers, and the contents of the 3 containers opened were luxury goods, see schedule 12 for the list of items, including a sports car. A full inspection of the cargo offloaded to the cruise ship Monarch of the Sky, also confirms high security containers, all marked emergency supplies, and all containing luxury goods.”

Seeing Captain Price stand again, Admiral Mitchell raised her voice slightly “These are verifiable facts, entered to the record. Hauler Caliban has been impounded, in the Wolf system en-route to Earth. There are 2 further vessels that left early and carried cargo marked as emergency supplies, that we suggest are also impounded. 

Speculation on the cargo of those vessels is not warranted at this time. But what is on the record is that each vessel is owned and operated by Tempest shipping, a company that Governor Bailey has a controlling interest in. The vessels all originated in facilities at Taurus 4 that Governor Bailey also owns, and the comms logs show all received calls directly from the Governor’s yacht several times, until they jumped out of Taurus, all without evacuating a single additional person. Additionally aboard freighter Calista were 12 employees of Governor Bailey, including his head of security.

We also have 5 vessels that were overridden by AI control protocols, that did participate in the evacuation, and the Fleet has impounded, but are still involved in evacuation duties so their cargo has not yet been scrutinised. They are also owned and operated by Tempest shipping.

Captain Price has listed out the cost of Commander McBride’s actions and gave some alarming numbers, let me pluck out 2 figures. Hauler Caliban’s cargo of emergency supplies is valued at 250 million credits, and freighter Calista’s cargo was listed as 200 million credits. These are figures entered into liability claims directly to the Fleet, and also claimed in insurance claims made separately. The insurance claims will be settled in civil courts, but the claims of 450 million credits for emergency supplies, is a direct fraud…” 

On the words 'direct fraud’ the audience erupted most standing and talking, yelling. Governor Bailey’s bodyguards stood to shield the Governor, and started to move to the exit.

Admiral Mitchell raised her voice rising to almost a shout to be heard over the crowd “...perpetrated by Governor Bailey on the Fleet itself”

To get back control the Judge Advocate ended up ordering the lecture hall cleared of all personnel, leaving only the court recorder, Captain Price, the board, Admiral Mitchell, Commander McBride, and the Judge Advocate herself.

The Judge Advocate spoke, addressing Admiral Mitchell “Ellen, do you have anything further to add to the report?”

“Yes, your honour. Since Captain Price has cited misappropriation of civilian assets, I’d like to summarise the value that Commander McBride has created against the 74 billion credit cost quoted”

The Judge Advocate nodded, and Admiral Mitchell continued “The simple value is that Commander McBride has completed the evacuation of Taurus, including saving all the people trapped alive on the crippled Empress of the Stars. 

He saved the UCS Dagger, with all crew alive.

He completed his assigned orders to test the advanced sensors, protecting UCS Cloak and UCAS Aegis, and all data.

And, finally, he has directly caused the destruction of 2 Hive Dreadnoughts. This has a staggering material impact on the Hive’s expansion into Commonwealth space. It’s also something the 3rd Fleet didn’t manage in Taurus, and 5 other Fleets didn’t manage across the frontier.

It gives us breathing room, as it will certainly slow or even halt the Hive’s progress.

The scans UCS Dagger completed on the Dreadnought, and several other classes of Hive vessels are also invaluable. This data will undoubtedly assist the war effort considerably.

Finally, Commander McBride is a symbol, and a proof point that the Hive is not unbeatable.

The cost of 74 billion is one side, the value of the assets saved from destruction in Taurus is ten times higher, the time for the Fleet to prepare for the Hive is ten times higher, the hope that Commander McBride has given the Commonwealth is ten times higher.

It’s my recommendation that Commander McBride be recommended for a Distinguished Service Order, and promoted to Captain”

*****

With summations over Captain Price headed to the exit, followed by Admiral Mitchell and McBride. At the exit crowding around were Liv, Boomer, Belle and Liam. Chief Tara was with Dagger overseeing an extensive refit, she didn’t trust the shipyard to catch all the structural damage. Dr Wallace and Coop were over with the Fleet research teams.

“Well, what did they say?” asked Liam Mitchell.

“They are deliberating. I’ve recommended a promotion and the DSO” answered his mother, she continued turning to McBride “You’ve embarrassed the Fleet, and several Admirals personally. You proved them to be lacking by doing what they could not. Every captain and admiral that retreated in the face of the Hive is now in doubt, and worse you’ve knocked their self image. 

You may get everything I recommended, they need to publicly reward your victory. 

You’ve turned the tide of this war, but you’ve made some new enemies, including several Admirals and Governor Bailey. 

Watch your back McBride, but don’t forget you have friends too. I owe you one”

McBride turned to his crew “Liv, Boomer, Belle,...” He paused and looked directly at Midshipman Liam Mitchell, and smiled “Dash, let's get out of here”

Part 1

"So, shall we go to the observation deck, or my quarters?" Asked Kylie as they approached the junction where a decision would be needed.
"My quarters may give insight into human culture, but you might not be comfortable with being in such a secluded space, given our... reputation".

[violet] considered this. There was no specific advise not to follow humans into secluded spaces, at least the ones that had been vetted for star ship missions and where allies. Turning a slight yellow, [violet] asked: "If we go to your quarters, would you be eating?"

Kylie was briefly puzzled by this seeming non sequitur, but remembering their own briefing on Carapacians, they picked up on the concern behind the question and reassured: "Ah, I'd like to, but don't worry, I only eat plans and fungi. Anyways would know better than to eat animal flesh in the presence of a Carapacian, that was well covered in our cultural prep."

Upon this, [violet] turned a reassured cornflower blue. "In that case, let us go to your quarters."

Kylie flashed affirmation (as [violet] now mentally categorized their smile) and turned towards the human quarters. "Speaking of briefings", they asked, "I do wonder what they tell you Carapacians about us."

[violet] turned a shade of embarrassed amber, being ill prepared for an impromptu exam. "Well, it is not much and I am not sure I remember everything, but certainly the first and most important point being made is that you can conceal your emotions, and thus, you can say things you know to be untrue without that being obvious to another. This creates a lot of risks and they gave us many examples to illustrate the concept. Besides that I was told your colors do not mean what they mean to us and in fact you barely use them for conveying emotions, yet you claim to have fairly similar ones to us. It is just so strange that they are hidden..." [violet] turned mossy again at pondering this.

"Well, " responded Kylie, "it's not quite true our emotions are hidden. We primarily express them with facial deformation or body positions. Also, tone of voice. And all these are largely involuntary so really, almost all of the time humans can kinda guess what the other human is feeling. But I guess it's true that we can suppress these reactions at least to a degree and often do so."

[violet] turned a more intense shade of moss, finally blurting out the question she had not dared to ask earlier: "But how is cooperation possible for you then? You do not know the messages are not a deceit? How, for example, can you know that if a human says they will give you food if you help them build their shelter, they will actually give it to you the once the work is done?"

Kylie took a sip from their bottle before answering: "Well. You're asking a pretty big question and honestly I'm not sure if I'm the best person to answer. In fact there is a whole field of study devoted to figuring that out, or maybe multiple, looking at different angles of that question. But I think it boils down to a concept called 'trust'. I'll try to explain it in terms of mathematics, I suppose that language is universal. So, think of it like we are tracking a probability that someone says what they mean, for every single statement they make. And we track a prior probability for the general likelihood, without context, that a particular human says what they mean. And then we can communicate these probabilities to other humans. And so we build a sort of web. I am born into a family, and my parents have a genetic imperative for my well being, so I would assume they have high probability not to deceive me in a way that would harm me, mind you there are ways to deceive with good intentions..."

Kylie opened the door to their quarters, and [violet] was temporarily distracted from this impromptu lecture by the contents of the room.

Directly ahead was a strange metal device with loose metal parts that seemed to fit together in a modular arrangement, though the purpose was completely mysterious. To the right was a table and chairs, as humans tended to use for resting or working on things with their hands. Behind it where storage cabinets, a shiny black surface of unknown purpose, a water station and some small machines that where unfamiliar. The wall turned an inner corner, hinting at a separate room at the back-right.

To the left there was another table and another chair. On the table was a tablet computer, a box, a monitor and a color chart marked with human runes. Behind that hung a textile, hiding most of the left side of the room.

Kylie had noticed that [violet]s attention was taken up by these new impression and stopped their explanation. [violet] was shifting between various yellow and mossy hues. She was taken aback by the sheer strangeness of the human's quarters. More than half the things didn't make any sense to her. At work, some clever compromises had been found to make the workshop efficient for both species, but clearly humans had a whole different set of activities they did off-shift, which [violet] had never even considered.

"Ahh", said Kylie, concerned at seeing [violet]s colors shift more than usual, "Okay let me try to anchor you a bit here and give you at least some rough categories for what you're seeing. Everything to the right has to do with food. The thing straight ahead is for a sort of body maintenance called exercise. To the left I have hidden away my sleeping surface with a curtain, behind the work desk. There is another room to the back right to do with, let's say, water-related body maintenance. Actually let's move to the back left corner, it's the least busy."

[violet] flashed affirmation, adding a verbal "yes", and followed Kylie to the back left of the room which contained another, lower table and a grey surface which followed the corner. Kylie sat down on it. [violet] saw the surface give a little. "Maybe you can scuttle up there", suggested Kylie, pointing at the other corner of the couch. [violet] scuttled up the grey surface, which gave very good traction, and settled on it. "There is much explanation left", she said, solidifying again in a more stable moss.

Kylie looked around the room and at the Carapacian on their couch, looking so much more alien in this decidedly human environment. "Ah yes, where do I even start..."

Glork, humans are really gross. I swear those things just rub a few rocks, then neatly glue them onto a board and suddenly they start to think for themselves. Why can't they just grow their machinery out of primal ooze like the rest of us?

---

They have 10 (!!!!) appendages they can control. Not counting fot the ones they use to propel themselves, how can we even compare with only one?

----

They live for thousands and thousands of days, yes days!!! Damn, what do they do with all that time? Normies like us are happy to make it for 8, maybe 10 hours, plus another 3 as a larva... I swear I would go mad...

---

What thing we humans have or skill we posess might be absolutely freaky for other aliens if they would ever meet us?

A fleet of alien space goons stared down on Earth from their warship, backed by a legion of drones that left the planet in a permanent shadow.

“Prepare the broadcast,” the commander ordered. “Demand they stand their weapons down.”

The officer slid the dials and hacked into earth’s broadcasting network.

“Earth’s feed has been breached, commander.” 

Entering live stream in… three.. two… one. The screen popped on but never had the image of the high commander and his entourage of black ships behind him. It just had a grumpy looking dude, sipping out of a mug that read: World’s Greatest Mom.

He never stared at the camera. He put his cup down and rubbed his eyes.

The high commander couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “What’s this, officer. Patch me through.”

“I can’t, commander, something went wrong,” the officer said. His voice was cracking. His hands were shaking. The high commander extinguished officers for less.

“It’s not our feed they’re using. They’re broadcasting on every radio wave. It looks like a quantum band, commander. Somewhere in Florida.”

The human looked up at the screen. He had bags under his eyes, a stubbled black beard and his hair was unsorted.

“So, here’s what’s happening,” he said staring at the camera with a tired sounding annoyed voice.

“Whoever or whatever is lined up outside our atmosphere in those pretty ships, I’m going to start with this, if you think this is the first time we’ve been invaded before, and that you’re the first interstellar alien warrior beings to show up and want to conquer Earth. Save the speech you prepared and listen carefully.” The human on the screen handed his empty cup to an assistant to fill up, and then cleared his throat.

“It’s not and you’re not, okay.“ He turned his head and faced the camera again. “We’ve done this song and dance with the whole aliens invading Earth a couple of times now. From grays, to reptilians, we’ve even had giant squids, nothing new here. Let me tell you the result.” The human reached out and clasped the mug handed to him and set it on the table.

The crew on the alien warship remained silent. Not a word came from the deck. They all just stared uneasily at each other.

“See I got this cousin, here in Florida, great guy, wish you could meet him.” The human took a sip from the mug and continued. “My cousin Billy-Ray, took a 200 ton space wreck from one of those invaders out of a compound in southern Florida and reinforced the siding of his house and driveway with it. Should see the fence he built.”

He looked away from the screen to someone saying something behind the camera. “We don’t bother calling the military anymore, bunch of us just jump on a group chat, load up and make sushi out of you guys.”

The human took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’ll make you an offer, either try to “obliterate” us and we’ll just deploy our Alien Assassins, learn how to smash through your shield with cheap re-wiring of car batteries and by Tuesday will be reengineering your high/tech weaponry and selling bootleg replicas on the black market.”

The human smiled and took a long sip from his mug and gasped. “Or you can turn your ships around and we won’t post a viral video of your highest ruler taking a tomato in the face by a guy pulling the elastic back on giant slingshot and believe this, we’ll even make sure the entire galactic community sees it too. It’s up to you,” the human said.

The feed shut off. The commander of the fleet looked at their strategic plan. Glanced at the map. Stared down at the officer running the communication band. Then, his second in charge, who was visibly shaken. The second in charge choked out, “commander, do we have a counter strike for the tomato slingshot?”

The commander swallowed staring blankly at the black screen and said, “rev shields to 100% and why are we still here? I wanted us away from this planet and into deep space five minutes ago. They’re not taking our ships as scrap pieces of junk metal.”

You were just over at a Humans Home for something called a "Barbeque", when suddenly the Human got calm and quiet and told everyone to get down. He didnt shout, nor even raised his Voice, and still everyone dropped to the Floor like Puppets with their strings cut. The human left and returned about 15 minutes later, bleeding from a nasty gash on his Arm.

After, you asked around why you were all Hitting the Floor when the Human told you to. You got "Because its a Human saying it. If they get this calm and quiet, you dont ask, you do as they say" as answer.

>!AN: My thinking is maybe evening barbecue (dusk, dark) with a uninvited guest of the wild animal vareity.!<

A soft purple seedling shows their pet: "This is my Ender of the Universe!"

*Showing a big long lump of hairy flesh.*

Seedling: "It is a young heatslug.*

Human teacher: "What does it do?"

S: "When it's healthy it stays perfectly still and does absolutely nothing!"

H: "Okay? How did your species came in contact with it?"

S: "It used to help us survive cold winters."

H: "By insulation?"

S: "By taking cold from our bodies. It needs cold to live. It's back catches cold and it's bottom radiates heat. Those, who knew how to tame them - conquered those who had to hibernate during winters! When it needs more cold - it bloats up to create more surface and it then stays perfectly still! It will never leave, unless it's too hot! This is mine and my dad has one too... But it won't fit on a ship."

H: "Wait. How big do they get?"

S: "Noone knows. Usually they die when they are too big to cool down... We have legends that there's huge ones somewhere on polar regions but noone have seen them. They are really good at blending in and can't be caught by heatscans, unless from below... But I want mine to grow so big it will cover the whole school!"

H: "And I thought that snake pets were strange."

---

Young dragon-like cub: "This is Abyssalite."

H: "Ooh. Pet rock? I thought only humans can pack bond with rocks."

D: "It's not a rock. It's a Abyssalite. And it's smarter than you."

H: "It's rude thing to say that. Anyway, what does it do?"

D: "It floats." *Lets go of the crystal and it stays on place. To prove a point - dragon cub touches it with her claw and it starts spinning, slowing down shortly.* "And glows sometimes. It also eats my homework."

H: "Are you planning an excuse?"

D: "No. It literally consumes information. Our species came across it when we developed sub-atomic computation and they... Kinda appeared. Some of infocrystals gained sentience. We still don't know what exactly makes them alive. But they feast on Irregular energy weaves... They often stick up to infocrystals and corrupt data there. I don't know, why someone decided to keep them around, but apparently they can show affection when you study new skills and reduce your stress. Our scholars like them... But some old ones let them reproduce too much and... Well... Their homes end up covered in crystals. Mostly non-sapient as at this amounts they starve and become normal crystals... But I regularly polish Abyssalite. So she won't reproduce."

H: "So that what you meant. Curious. Maybe one day I'll check if I can have one myself."

D: "They won't like you."

H: "Rude."

---

H: "And here we have... Dana, where is your pet?"

Human girl: *Points at a seedling's slug. On top of it - lays a purring cat. Slug that didn't do much before - now suddenly starts to grow and inflate.*

Seedling: "Ender of the Universe!"

H: "Please, dana, can you take it away? It is unhealthy for the slug."

Hg: "But it is sleeping!"

H: "I understand. But..."

D: "Is that all it does?"

*Suddenly, cat jumps off a slug and starts running around, finally jumping and catching Abyssalite mid-air. Crystal immediately starts to glow and spin really fast, trying to shake a cat off.*

D: "Abby! Wait... Have you brought a predator here!?"

S: "Predator pet?!"

*Human manages to catch the cat. Crystal flies back to the dragon cub that starts licking it, heating it up and fixing the claw marks and dents.*

S: "Who's crazy enough to make a pet out of a predator?!"

H: "...Apparently us."