Chapter 14:

The Terran party accompanying Mihajlovich was given orders to follow their assigned escorts. They had worked on Xeno vessels before, but those were all belonging to the Tor. They were surprised that they were really rendering their aid to these Xenose, but they never questioned orders.

The Strunin Ambassador was talking to his Yoranian secretary. She made a brief glance towards the giant ape, and Greg grinned.

"I think she likes me," Greg remarked.

Aleks looked up at him. "I swear Magilla, you’d fuck a bird in flight."

Greg made a roaring laugh that made the Strunin jump a little.

"You really want to mess around with lizard lady over there," Aleks continued.

Greg looked at Aleks. "Hey, she's blue. I want to see if I can make her red," he proclaimed, keeping his grin. Now Aleks laughed.

"Remind me again, why are you my second in command?" Said Aleks.

"Because you loooove me, oh and I'm the best tactician in Terran history," Greg chuckled.

"You're a pain in the ass, that's what you are. Now come on, we have some Xenos to impress," Aleks said.

They entered the corridor with Dorfo leading the way. The ambassador gestured to Mihajlovich to walk next to him. His secretary was a few steps behind, walking next to Greg, and she looked very unhappy about it.

"Can you tell me a few things about your people, Admiral?" the old Strunin asked.

"Anything that's not classified, feel free to," Mihajlovich replied.

"You have two sentient lifeforms on your world, correct? Humans and Apes. Are there more? There are species that have more than one sapient race, but it's not common," the ambassador inquired.

Aleks looked and started speaking, "Well, that's not easy to answer. There are humans and apes, though we are considered homosapiens, both apes and humans. You see, apes are human in a way, and also humans are apes. Not really my field of study, you see, but if that interests you, you can talk to one of our doctors that specializes in biology."

"I understand, thank you for the clarification, Admiral," the ambassador responded.

"You look like you have more questions, but are hesitant to ask. Please don't be shy," Mihajlovich encouraged.

The old diplomat looked down at the floor, pondering his next move. Is this Terran reading his mind? All the information they had on them was old logs provided by the Tor, and retrieving data from the desolate stations in dead space the Terrans didn't bother destroying. They knew nothing of the Terran homeworld. What they knew was even though their population is nearly 1 billion, they would have no problem in fighting all the races of the council. Even if the Terrans were defeated, it would still mean billions of dead. They might even go straight to our homeworld of Sitru and destroy it out of spite. He didn't know if this Terran was toying with him, but thus far he has been very forward. Does he suspect something? Maybe I shouldn't push him, or should I take the risk?

"Admiral, can you tell me of your home, the Terran homeworld?" the ambassador asked.

"We call it Earth. What would you like to know exactly?" Mihajlovich replied.

"Well, everything, if it's not a secret," the ambassador requested.

Mihajlovich smiled at that. "No, no secrets. You don't hide facts about your homeworld, why would we hide ours? Hmm, where to start?"

Mihajlovich was thinking for a moment, then spoke, "Well, the planet is what you refer to as a death world. You know, there are places with extreme heat up to 60 degrees Celsius and also below 60 degrees Celsius in some regions. Some places have what we call four seasons: spring, where you have flora in bloom at around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius; then summer, that goes up to 45 degrees Celsius; then you have fall, where the flora starts to wither, the weather gets colder down to 25 degrees Celsius backed by heavy rain and winds, and then there is winter, it can go from 10 degrees Celsius to below 10 degrees Celsius."

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The old ambassador was looking at the data pad, translating the Terran parameters from heat and cold; his eyes were wide.

"You, you live in this area?" the ambassador asked incredulously.

"Actually, Ambassador, I am from a region that has those four seasons," Mihajlovich replied.

"And, how can you survive?" the ambassador inquired further.

"Oh, that's completely natural. We don't need anything special. In the warmer periods, we wear fewer garments, and in the cold periods, we just wear a few thick layers of garments. That's it," Mihajlovich explained.

The old Strunin was very interested now, and Mihajlovich continued.

"Our planet's inner core is around five thousand degrees Celsius, but we have natural disasters like earthquakes when the ground shakes to the extreme and can bring down large structures, then we have volcanoes that erupt with molten lava bringing it to the surface, then there are tsunamis when large amounts of water flood populated areas backed by large storms, then there are blizzards, tornadoes, and other things."

The Ambassador wanted to say something, but Mihajlovich continued.

"We have over eight million different non-sentient species. Around 9% are predators, not including us. Yes, we are predators, and there are a lot of predatory species. It's quite fascinating, really."

"And you do not exterminate them?" the ambassador asked.

Mihajlovich shot up his brows. "Why would we? They are a part of nature, a part of life. All life is sacred and should be preserved. Anything else?"

The ambassador was looking at his data pad, unsure of how to respond.

"And don't forget, we love our home," Mihajlovich added.

"I only know of one other species of deathworlders, they Hold systems beyond our borders, but they all live on the same planet, except for a few minor colonies," the ambassador stated.

Mihajlovich had heard about this, large Reptilians, no relation to the Tor or Yor.

"Hmm, we don't have much data on them. Humor me, Ambassador, what are these 'deathworlders' like?" Mihajlovich asked.

The ambassador pondered and decided to give an honest response.

"Well, they are xenophobic, dislike other races, mostly keep to themselves, warlike people. They remind us of you, or to rephrase, you remind us a bit of them. Natural predators, isolationists."

Mihajlovich was a bit surprised by the honesty,

"Interesting. But I won't ask more of them," Mihajlovich replied.

The ambassador became quiet.

He just realized what I said to the Terran,

They had reached his chambers. Dorfo opened the door and bowed as Mihajlovich and the Ambassador entered first, then Greg came in with the Secretary. Dorfo was the last to enter.

There was a round table in the center of the room with alien ornamentation, their equivalent to gold, Mihajlovich thought,

The Ambassador gestured to them to sit, while the Ambassador sat with his secretary on the opposite side, Dorfo stood next to the table.

The Ambassador spoke.

“This conversation will be documented, may we begin.”

Mihajlovich nodded, which the ambassador viewed as a confirmation from Mihajlovich.

Then the Ambassador began.