First contact was now a thing of the past. Ten years have passed since that time, and humanity, as well as the Retvalin, have both been living with each other, formally establishing a symbiotic relationship. In the first few years, they helped us construct the orbital station, which was named Haven, a monumental structure that stood as a symbol of cooperation between us. It took into account all of our designs to make it compatible with both species, augmenting our ability to treat them whenever they are injured or sick.
We have all but eliminated the centicites from their population in the years that we have known one another, now we treat them for their more common illnesses and injuries. Some of the more common things that we get from them are injuries from collisions with small asteroids they didn’t see, accidentally inhaling or consuming something that didn’t agree with their system, and rarely enough, some of them end up with disease every now and then.
If it happens to be an injury with the respiratory system, we have the Retvalin in question hook themselves up to one of the service tubes on the station before we send in a team to identify the location, cause, and intensity of the damage that had been done. The team will then remove any objects that are causing discomfort or harm to them. If there was any damage to the flesh, infections, or inflammation, we administer a dose of vaporized disinfectant mixed with some gases that promote natural healing, kind of like an oversized inhaler.
Many of the Retvalin chose to make their homes in our system. We have gas giants they can feed off, barren planets where they can make homes in the surface of the planets, and plenty of room for them to have children as well. The first birth of a Retvalin in our system was quite an event. For the privacy of the parent, we did not televise the process itself, but the aftermath in which the little giant floats around the parent, seeking its first meal, was one of the most watched videos in the history of the world.
The babies are actually kind of cute in a weird way. They stay close to their parents, often latching onto their carapace or underside when they need to move as a family unit before they figure out how to move on their own. Their shell is rather soft and almost pliant, becoming firmer and more resilient to impacts the older they get. Their tentacles are short, nubby little things at first, suitable only for receiving breath and food from the parents. Because of the relatively vulnerable nature of the children, they don’t often move from the system they were born in until a few years later.
We tried to assist in the birthing process the first few times it happened, but we quickly realized that we were out of our depth in that regard, at least for now. Instead, we did after birth care, making sure that the birther and the child were both healthy and any damage that may occur during the process is quickly treated to prevent the possibility of infections. We had to ask the parents to make sure the children are not left around any stations or planetary constructs. They are very curious and unaware of their own strength, so we took precautions to make sure they wouldn’t cause too much damage until they learned how to behave.
There was some talk about building what could be like a daycare center for them, but the number of resources to make it operational as well as childproofing it against beings who could crush through most materials shelved the idea pretty quickly. Even with their help in mining our asteroid belt for the resources there, it would still be too expensive. We just had to trust they could handle their kids without help.
Everything was proceeding steadily in terms of progress. We were working on means of travelling with the Retvalin to other solar systems, coming up with several smaller ideas and methods that could work but nothing that would be able to transport large amounts of people without inconveniencing, or even possibly hurting, the Retvalin. Our research and experiments were interrupted when we received an urgent cry for help from the void.
The events of that day were recorded by the many systems in place aboard Haven. It started with our new communication systems that could detect, translate, and send signals at the same frequency and speed as the Retvalin. It was a single, chilling message that immediately put the emergency doctors on high alert.
“Help... it hurts...”
People scrambled all over the place. They had injured incoming, and from the distance the signal was detected from, they would be there in just another minute or two. The injured Retvalin appeared around the moon just as everyone got into position.
“Help...” Its signal was weak compared to what it should be.
“We will help you. Can you make it to us? We need you to match the rotation of the station and latch onto one of the service ports. Don’t worry, we’ll do whatever we can to help you get better.”
It didn’t respond, it simply started towards the station at the equivalent of a limping speed for them. Worry was felt throughout the station as the doctors all waited next to the service airlock hub for deployment. The patient eventually made it to the station and managed to form a seal around the service port. Once connection was confirmed, the airlock cycled for them to exit only for them to be met with blood.
It flowed from their ventral tentacle the moment the doors opened, coating the ground in a slick layer of it. “Shit, this looks like hemorrhaging, get the coagulant!” The doctors rushed and grabbed what was essentially a firehose that could deploy the medical coagulant with rapid urgency.
They charged into the body as those in the station followed along through the helmet cams. Everyone’s mouth dropped open when they saw the condition of the insides. It was like someone let a gigantic blender run wild inside the poor giant. Gashes in the flesh and whole chunks were missing, it was no wonder they were bleeding so heavily.
The coagulant was applied liberally by the medical team while the token force of exterminators scouted out the body for the cause of the damage. Deeper in the tunnels of flesh the damage only got more severe. A call went out for backup to be sent in and extra medical supplies. The exterminators continued on deeper while the rest of the station mobilized.
“Damn, when’s the last time we’ve seen something like this? You think it’s centicites?” Codename EX1 asked.
“No, this doesn’t look like centicites, the damage is too severe and there’s no infections. Centicites go for the blood, this is mostly damage to the flesh.” EX3 replied.
“Then what the hell are we looking for then?” EX4 chimed in.
“Whatever it is, it has to be sharp as hell to cut up their insides this much.” EX1 commented while examining a deep gash in the flesh.
“Just keep your eyes open and hurry, we need to find this thing before it gets worse.” EX2 commanded. They all silently agreed and moved deeper as fast as safely possible.
Deep inside the body they heard a noise that caused them all to freeze in place. It sounded like growling, a fight between animals. The team approached with caution, locked and loaded. All of them were wearing anti-centicite armor, designed to resist the toxic bites just in case they got a little overwhelmed. The weapons were standard 5.56 chambered rifles with mounted flashlights, capable of the three standard firing modes. All of them wished they had something bigger.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
What they found were a pair of eight-foot quadrupeds that were a nightmarish amalgam of a bear and a crocodile. Hulking posture with vaguely reptilian features and scaly hide. Large claws that looked like they were capable of slicing through metal and powerful jaws that could tear through the flesh around them. This didn’t look like a parasite, it looked like a predator.
The two of them were currently fighting over a piece of the flesh they had ripped free from walls, not unlike what you might see from wild wolves feasting on the body of a deer. One of them managed to rip it out of the jaw of the other and consumed it, much to the displeasure of the loser. The team had only just opened coms to ask for orders when the loser snapped its head in their direction. Its mouth opened wide, revealing its many sharp teeth as it roared a challenge at the team that was deafening.
It sprinted at them in a manner and speed that only brought their resemblance of a bear to the forefront. The team responded by immediately opening fire on the creature, peppering it with bullets. It continued to charge for a moment longer, largely unphased by the projectiles, before skidding to a stop and shielding its face as the soldiers started targeting the eyes. It roared once more before turning and running away with its partner, effectively finding the hail of bullets around its face to be an effective deterrent.
As soon as it was gone the exterminators called a full retreat from the body for all personnel. They needed a plan, and maybe some more powerful “medicine”. Everyone extracted safely, encountering no more of the beasts as they did.
The command room was panicking as they poured over the footage for any hints on how to deal with this new organism. They needed to work fast, the damage was extensive, and the patient was in great pain from these intruders. The longer it took the more damage they would do. After some deliberation, they decided to do the fast and dirty method, more exterminators, bigger guns.
Half the station’s standing exterminator force was deployed for this. The Retvalin gave consent for the use of AP rounds inside of its body, so the team was loading shotguns with sabot slugs, rifles chambered in .30-06, and one person even decided to bring a .50 caliber as a last resort. As prepared as they could possibly be, they went back to the service airlock for deployment.
Drones were sent all throughout the body to scout for the targets, Hansel and Gretel, named such for thematic reasons. It was also to make sure that there weren’t any additional targets that would sneak up on them while they were hunting, no one wanted to reenact Jurassic Park today. Teams of twenty followed drones down separate paths, everyone feeling on edge about facing the bullet resistant monsters, praying they didn’t turn out to be bullet proof.
Thus far, the teams had not seen any of the targets or encountered additional numbers. It was beginning to look like only Hansel and Gretel were in the body. The hunt continued, then one of the drones detected movement. The nearest team started moving in that direction, ready to start shooting at a moment's notice.
They found the two alien predators trying to reach the drone, swiping at it as it illuminated them with a spotlight. Everyone got into position while they were distracted, and by the time they realized that the team was there, it was too late. The exterminators had a clear shot at the hulking beasts and the signal was given, being met with a synchronized explosion of gunfire.
The beasts roared in pain as holes opened in their body. The AP munitions were able to breach their tough hide, but a single volley was apparently not enough to put them down. A secondary order was given for a burst of fire just as the monstrous entities turned to run. Several shots rang out in quick succession, most of which hit their mark. One of them dropped and didn’t move again, the other was gravely injured but still alive.
The team approached cautiously, unsure if the animals were intelligent enough to play dead or set traps. Once they got closer, they put a few extra shots into the injured one to finally put it down and a single shot into the head of the other to make sure it wasn’t faking. Both targets were confirmed dead soon after. The exterminators responsible for their deaths extracted the corpses as the other teams continued to scout out the rest of the Retvalin’s body. No additional hostile lifeforms were detected, and considering the amount of damage done to the insides of the giant’s body, it was lucky that it was so. Even just a few more could have caused some permanent damage.
Much the same way as the centicites were treated, the beast’s bodies were dissected and examined while the doctors worked on repairing the damage the two had wrought. Whatever else they may have been, everyone agreed that they were a tank of a creature, easily would have been apex predators on Earth, and hopefully, wherever they came from, they were the top of the food chain there as well. No one wanted to imagine something that fed off of these things.
Their existence, however, did present an interesting fact. There was a planet out there that could support life. While the centicites obviously came from their own planet, the Retvalin who would have any idea where that would be were long dead, killed by their own discovery. The knowledge from this Retvalin was fresh, some may say painfully so.
After the doctors had finally stopped all the bleeding and the patient's life was no longer in jeopardy, they asked a few questions about where they went that could have contained the creatures in question. The Retvalin quickly narrowed down the options of the planets they visited based on the timeframe of when they first noticed something was wrong. After that, it was decided that the planet would be scouted and marked with a beacon, warning Retvalin to stay away and making sure that it could be found later.
The plan to travel to another system for the first time created a buzz in the astronaut community. Everyone wanted to be part of the mission, no matter how small the role. It would still take some time to get everything, and everyone prepared for the journey, not to mention their guide needed to recover, so anyone not part of the planning phase just had to sit on their hands and wait.
In the meantime, this latest incident made it apparent that the Retvalin could benefit from some sort of artificial filter for their respiratory tentacle, to prevent more creatures from getting inside of them and running rampant. The development team had to think outside the box about what is normally considered standard material for such a task. After some deliberation, it was decided that steel cables, kind of like the ones used in bridge construction, would be fashioned into a net of sorts that could catch unwanted intruders before they even got in.
The first prototypes were created after a couple months and fitted to some volunteers who were helping test the design. The steel net was woven in a way that only something the size of a small house cat would be able to squeeze through the gaps. It also took into account the ability of the Retvalin to manipulate things so they could put it on or take it off whenever they felt like it. Initial test groups said that it felt a little strange to have on, but it was not impairing their ability to breathe or share breath at all, so the project was considered a success and greenlit for production.
The other project we were working on, a small capsule that could nestle inside the bodies of the Retvalin, would need to contain all the necessary amenities to sustain human life without causing any disruptions to the host. It would also have to be tested to see if it, and the people inside, can survive a trip at full speed. Until we could fully unlock the secrets of the naturally occurring fuel source of the Retvalin to the point where we could make our own ships that used it, we would have to settle for being hitchhikers.
The testing phase for these travel capsules was simple enough. We just created an ideal set up, staffed it with a couple of anatomical dummies, hooked up a couple recording instruments, and then gave it to a volunteer Retvalin to take on a short trip. A trip that is considered short for them would be a single day out and then another back, a distance of astronomical proportions to anything we could do.
After the round trip was made, the capsule was retrieved and the contents of the recordings as well as examination of the general wellbeing of the equipment and dummies inside were analyzed. The equipment recorded a rather massive spike in radiation when the Retvalin first took off on the trip, but it soon died down to normal levels as they started to just cruise through space. The test data showed that it was perfectly survivable to have people tag along for a ride with the proper safety equipment present.
The first manned space expedition to unknown worlds was planned. All the supplies that would be needed for the trip were loaded onto the capsule and a few brave astronauts volunteered to take the first step outside our own little corner of the galaxy. After a long period of preparation, the day came where we would finally see what the greater universe had to offer.
The entire world watched as the Retvalin who first discovered the life holding planet took the capsule into their body. Last checks on all systems and wellbeing of crew members and host were performed. With a few parting words, every human on Earth watched as the Retvalin blinked out of sight, rushing off into the void in search of worlds beyond our own. This was only the beginning as this inspired countless numbers of people to work towards moving humanity out into space. Our thirst for adventure and knowledge had not died, it was only waiting for the right moment to wake once more.