"Greetings," Fumio answered. He was formal, keeping his cool without being rude.

"Though you have destroyed one of us, an act of war, and though we outnumber you, still we come in peace."

"An act of war?" Fumio said, keeping an even tone. "More like self-defense, wouldn't you say? We are aware of the other timelines and what you do in them."

The green creatures eyes narrowed a moment, then it's eyes turned vacant at the same time as the strange, opaque collar around it's hairy neck began to flash rainbow colors. The other green creatures did the same. Were they communicating? Finally, it's eye's cleared.

"We have decided to explain ourselves. If you are aware of other timelines, we assume you are aware of the Paradigm War?"

Eve and Rajia were standing near the entrance to the bridge. Victor had been paying such close attention that he hadn't noticed them enter.

"We know that you plan to subvert all intelligent species to your will," Fumio said. Victor and the rest of the present crew including Rajia and Eve looked anxiously at the viewing display. Fumio was bluffing. He was making assumptions based on Victor's report from the other Nexus. The truth was, they knew very little about the Paradigm War.

"A misunderstanding of our cause and principles puts our goal in a bad light," the green alien said. Victor suppressed his smirk. Fumio's bluff had worked.

"By all means, feel free to elucidate," Fumio said. Somehow, despite the fact that they were totally helpless and surrounded, Fumio was talking to these creatures in even terms. He was right to. There was some reason that they weren't attacking. Fumio was probably trying to drag it out until he could discover it and use it to Nexus' advantage.

"You race is made of transient beings. You're lives are fleeting, therefore the scope of the problems you are enabled to perceive is small. We are eternal, our watch spans the length of the universe. The Great Catastrophe comes, and with it the end of all things."

"The Great Catastrophe?" Fumio asked.

"Yes. Surely your species has noticed that time and space stretch the stars apart at an ever faster rate?"

Victor considered this. It was true that universal expansion had been a part of well-accepted science for some time now.

"What of it?" Fumio asked, his stature remaining strong as his eyes stayed alert.

"What you do not know is that the collapse of the universe is multidimensional. It effects all versions and timelines at once. If it happens in one timeline, it happens in them all. The only way is to prevent all timeline collapses simultaneously."

"And what does that have to do with us?"

"Only unified universal mind will be able to stop the disintegration or collapse of the continuum. All minds must subvert to one mind."

"What if minds cooperate?"

"This is rejected as too risky. All minds must be brought under the banner of the Speluncam. This is the second condition."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Fumio face flickered with uncertainty, his thoughts mirroring Victors. How in the hell did they know the word people on Nexus were using for them. It was then that Victor questioned that they were actually hearing any sounds at all.

"So. You need us to willingly submit."

"We would prefer it in order to conserve resources we may need later."

"What is the other condition?"

"There are certain timeline keystones that must be eliminated to reduce destruction probability." The creature's eyes, for just a moment, flickered over to Victor.

"I see," Fumio said. "What if we came to a compromise?"

The creature was silent. The collars of the three green, wolfish aliens onscreen began to glow again. Then they went dark.

"We will hear your compromise and consider. Speak."

Fumio cleared his throat. "You want to control the thoughts of all species, but you would prefer not to waste resources. I assume that is because you need those resources to attend to your Paradigm War?"

The creatures were silent, which Fumio took to be acknowledgement.

"Well, if I might ask, how long will it be before universal collapse?"

The green alien answered slowly.

"100,000,000,000 years - your time units of choice, but that number is deceptive. The Paradigm War will reach critical mass, the point at which one side or the other will inevitably win, much sooner than that."

Fumio nodded. "Still, these are vast sums of time we are dealing with, correct?"

The creature was again silent.

"Well, if it will save resources, surely you can spare us say, a hundred years to think it over?"

Despite the lack of any human expression, Victor distinctly felt annoyance emanating from the green creatures.

"You have one month of your calendar to consider. When we return, you will join us."

The screen went blank. After a few moments, the green ships began to retreat. Fumio turned to the crew with a smirk.

"I don't think those guys know the meaning of 'consider'," he said. The deck erupted into celebration, people ran up to Fumio and started hugging him and patting him on the shoulder. It was the biggest smile Victor had ever seen Fumio wear.

"Looks like they didn't need us, Raj," Eve said, smirking at Fumio.

"Nonesense," Fumio said. "I needed the emotional support. Miguel was laughing and saying 'I can't believe it' over and over again. Even Slash had a smirk on his face, though it had a tinge of sadness.

"Looks like we've found our new Captain," said a crew member Victor didn't remember the name of. There were many sounds of assent. Even Victor had to hand it to Fumio, he'd handled the situation brilliantly.

Then the comm screen blinked back to life.

"We have another condition," the green alien said. The large mother ship had not subsided with the others. A rock sank to the pit of Victor's stomach. Slash shook his head and smirked ruefully, a dark expression behind his eyes. He knew what the condition would be before they opened their mouth. "In exchange for your month of time, you will bring us a Vance."