Lisa smiled, then began to wave her arm in greeting. One look at Bath's serene, unmoving figure halted the motion in its tracks.
'Dean,' Lisa thought, her eyes latching onto his form clearly at the head of the vanguard traveling from the gate to Whitesun. As Lisa and Bath's de facto lakeside thrones were on the way, they had a clear view of their advance. The forward group, spying the enormous, hovering thrones from afar, had no difficulty deciding the first stop on their journey.
Soon enough, the vanguard approached the lake shore as countless groups of verdora had before. Dean glanced behind him, an all-too-real pressure weighing down from behind. He stepped forward, then knelt down.
"Church, Dragon," Dean began, his head upturned toward Lisa's smile and Bath's emotionless gaze.
Lisa glanced at Bath, figuring it was time to reveal the official name she'd chosen for herself. After all, the Dragon had a name: Bath. The Church, on the other hand, remained nameless.
He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth curling imperceptibly.
She addressed Dean amiably: "You've done well," she beamed, "call us not by title, but by name: Bath," she glanced over, "and Asil."
Dean's eyes narrowed slightly. 'Lisa, backwards,' he observed. Dean still found the concept of his former schoolmates lording above everyone as deities...ludicrous. Even so, after witnessing the rise of COTD, he couldn't doubt that they deserved to be treated as such.
"Bath and Asil," Dean echoed, starting again, "A group of 1,000,000 has made it to Magnet Planet. 250,000 currently occupy Lime World, while 50,000 are on Gray Land." He took in a breath. "Finally, 7,000 will be on Illudis by the end of the day." Dean averted his gaze to the sun blazing in the sky. He quickly looked back, amending his statement: "That is, a standard Earth day."
Lisa and Bath turned away to look at one another over the sides of their thrones. Then, the welcoming Lisa and stony Bath froze, their expressions slowly thawing into matching, mildly pleased smiles.
'We'll have enough,' Lisa noted happily.
"Excellent," said Bath, steepling his fingers. "You have already encountered alien sapients, correct?" While technically, everyone from Basalith had interacted with Lepochim, none besides Bath, Lisa, and some kursi knew that he was an off-world sapient.
Dean nodded. "We engaged with a few suited sapients on Lime World," he noted, "but they were extremely cooperative. They stayed secluded within a sheltered complex and only came out in the beginning to, well, say hello." Dean really didn't know any other reasons why the aliens had emerged. They'd simply announced their existence before barricading themselves behind reinforced doors.
Lisa nodded. 'Well, Bath gave them a warning,' she recalled. On their way to Gray Land, Bath paid the slug-men a little...visit.
---
Lisa and Bath's Memory
Bath and Lisa whipped like bullets through the gate. After they arrived, Bath wasted no time in transforming into a fifty-foot long dragon, while Lisa whipped up a magnet storm and punched the ground in a dramatic fashion. At this time, she hadn't undergone training on Gray Land and was limited to basic magnetic sense attacks.
"Sapients of planet 39981," Bath announced, his voice cutting razor-like through walls and eardrums. "You may remember my partner and I from before. Then, we came as travelers, Waymasters. Now, we come as your gods." Bath extended out his wings and roared, sending out shock waves that resonated with and cracked the numerous one-way mirrors around the gate-holding hangar. As the glass fell--assisted by Bath using his long-range manipulation to pull shards down--numerous slug-men were visible, their exoskeleton suits granting all of them a human-like appearance. Due to the suddenness of Bath and Lisa's appearance and the stunning force of Bath's cry, nearly all were frozen sitting and sipping some sort of steaming beverage.
Thankfully, the one-way glass, through absorbing the brunt of the shock waves, protected their odd, proboscis-like helmet projections from shattering. They all remained frozen in shock even as the dark, reinforced glass settled on the ground and the steam of their drinks clouded their helmet visors.
This plan was, in actuality, of Lisa and Nevis's design. After sizable amounts of research, they'd discovered that the slug-men were a species from another planet that had been conquered for its resources long ago. While they weren't slaves, they had been contracted out to Juserin to serve on Lime World for a trifling fee. In actuality, the slug-men had been granted the planet as a new, inhospitable home.
A key feature of the species was that, on the whole, the slug-men were incredibly submissive towards figures of power and authority. They had rigid chains of command that precluded fighting between individuals and even armies of substantially different ranks. In the end, at the time of their conquest, they had, in actuality, been spared because of their almost immediate surrender: after recognizing their own technical and physical impotence, well...
"Gods?" said the first slug-man to recover his wits, one that Bath recognized from their encounter before.
'He has the most necklaces of anyone in the main command room,' Lisa noted, her eyes fixed on the now-exposed room directly in front of the gate. While she hadn't noticed previously, the people in the command room all wore different amounts of utilitarian metal bracelets. She realized that this was likely a rank-differentiating custom.
"Yes," Lisa replied, voice calm and majestic to offset the savagery of Bath's roar. "We are your gods. We embody the Church of the Dragon, also known as COTD."
She and Bath switched off, essentially giving the same spiel they would later give to Juserin, albeit rougher in some parts. At the end, the slug-men had all bowed to the floor, their hands touching the ground.
"We pay our respects to the Church and the Dragon of COTD," the lead slug-man called out, representing the voice of all.
"Then, let us begin the bestowal of your city-seed," Lisa smiled, hovering over to place a seed onto the quivering, outstretched palm of the slug-man leader. After he received it, Lisa closed his hand around it, then said, "Plant this at the center of your base. This seed is directed to grow down, making use of this planet's low-lying fertile soil." Indeed, Lisa had been quite interested to find out that, according to the encyclopedia, thousands of feet below Lime World's surface, the soil was much more nutrient-rich than that above.
"To ensure your peace and well-being under our protection," Bath interjected, his dragon form overlayed like a spectral hologram over his human one, "I will relocate this planet's arrival gate."
Without further warning, Bath floated over to the gate. Then, he lifted it from the ground as though it were a plastic toy buried in sand: effortlessly.
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'My long-range manipulation has improved by more than I could have ever guessed,' Bath thought joyfully as he carried the gate off with him. He currently had his essence wrapped all along the gate and, like he did when flying at high velocities, Bath rapidly shot off particles from these essence tendrils to propel the gate's movement. The size of these particles, however, was much smaller than those he originally emitted while flying: those had been the size of bullets. These were, to the human eyes, imperceptible.
Lisa had to work hard to conceal an incoming laugh. 'He literally...just left...through the exact same hole he left the first time.' This much was obvious from the mismatched metal patches covering the walls and ceiling of the hangar...which Bath had just smashed through.
Nevertheless, Lisa had business to accomplish. Really important business, actually.
"What is your name?" she asked, directing her gaze toward the slug-man holding the city-seed.
The slug-man's many necklaces jingled as he replied, "Akuh."
Lisa nodded warmly, then directed Akuh in planting the city-seed. As this occurred, the rest of the slug-men remained paralyzed, clearly unsure what they were supposed to do. Doing nothing, certainly, was safest.
Unlike Juserin, Akuh was not a kursi, so Lisa didn't waste time in trying to get him to grow the city-seed out. Instead, she simply let the sapient plant it into the ground--or rather, place it on a platform of metal--as a symbolic gesture. As Lisa activated the modified seed's growth, she began to address Akuh in earnest.
"Akuh," she began, "the Dragon and I are gods originating from Earth. The universe is immense, and injustice proliferates throughout."
Akuh nodded his agreement.
"When the two of us first arrived, we had never stepped off our Earth before. This was the second planetary stop on our first expedition beyond." Lisa sighed. "We thought that all worlds would be blessed with benevolent gods. Thus, when we came to you in the beginning, we disguised our identities...and our intentions."
"Of course," Akuh crooned understandingly, clearly pandering.
"After we returned to Earth, we realized that our duty lies not to that small world...but to all worlds. We believe that you, Akuh, and your people have the power to spread the influence of COTD and bring self-determination to all."
Akuh jangled his bracelets. "It is an honor."
Lisa smiled innocently. "Two gifts which you bestowed upon us during our last visit, we believe would greatly aid this endeavor."
"Yes?"
"The translators and the data chip."
Akuh's shoulders slouched forward to form a hasty demi-bow. "Yes, how could I forget?" He righted his posture before continuing. "We have the facilities necessary for their creation."
Lisa's eyes gleamed. "You have won your species great merit."
'Thank heaven that these guys can make more translators and data chips,' Lisa thought in relief. 'Otherwise, things might be a bit difficult.' After all, while other sapients would understand COTD members through their own translators, such a crucial technological deficit would broadcast Earth's laughable position on the fringes of civilization. Lepochim had previously demonstrated the difference between conversations where both sides had translators and where one side lacked.
While not entirely obvious in the beginning, after a few minutes of conversation the reality would make itself known. Conquering the universe would be much easier if worlds didn't berate their invader-liberators for their backwater technology.
Moreover, Lisa wanted to exploit the many teaching boons and lone scholar boon Bath had established by distributing data chips and encyclopedia's throughout Earth. While Lisa had toiled to compile and export data from the data chip to Earth's computer systems, she found that the formatting of the data itself was extremely complicated, taking up enormous amounts of disk space to display and parse properly.
Ideally, they could forgo this process by simply giving people data chips. Soon, Lisa figured, information from the encyclopedias would become standard curriculum in schools. In this way, when they visited foreign gates and planets, COTD's sapients would appear--and genuinely be--well-informed.
"How many of each do you have currently?" Lisa asked, her calm demeanor completely masking the giddy girl within.
Akuh's visor flashed white for a moment. "We have 2,000 data chips and thirteen translators," he reported. "Do understand, this is a small outpost."
Lisa fingered her jaw contemplatively before asking, "what are your production capabilities?"
The sapient's posture straightened. "We can produce 1,000 data chips in one SUC."
Lisa inclined her head. She knew about SUC, or Standard Universal Cycles, from her encyclopedia-delving with Nevis: One SUC was, approximately 27 Earth days. To Lisa, SUC was effectively synonymous with an Earth month.
"For translators, we can only produce four-hundred per SUC," Akuh added. "This...I believe it must be insufficient."
Lisa sighed to herself. She figured that Illudis and other planets would have the capabilities to make data chips and translators, so she wasn't too concerned. Even so...
"Why don't we wait a few days," she stated, a flashing a cooler smile than usual. "The production conditions might have changed."
'With the progress humanity has made in basic mechanical engineering and computer science, I have faith some data chip and translator production units can be thrown together,' Lisa reasoned.
"Y-yes."
---
Lisa continued to address Dean. "We, your benefactors, will bestow upon all of you a gift. All present have led the advance to new and foreign worlds. Your bravery and drive will make you the first to receive the following advanced technologies." Lisa brandished her arm. As she did so, a stream of translators and data chips emerged in the air like a swarm of insects. "You are to bind these technologies to yourselves."
As she explained how to activate the chips and translators, Bath directed them to all present in the crowd, whether they be human or quasi-sapient. In actuality, Dean hadn't counted quasies in the counts of people on the new planets. The crowd by the lake, therefore, currently numbered around 4,000; Bath assumed that, by the time all 7,000 humans arrived, the crowd would number at least 12,000. Nevertheless, they would have enough of translators and data chips, both.
Even Bath had been pleasantly surprised by the slug-men's expanded production capabilities. They had taken quickly to the concept of boons, their natural desire for power hierarchies coinciding well with COTD's mode of operation.
After fifteen minutes, all present had activated their translators. At Lisa's urging, all refrained from opening their pre-installed data chip encyclopedias until later. First, humanity needed to meet its first real sapient power...the verdora.