Terra- North American Continent.03:00 Local
Jess Ryder had objected to her daughter being sent through space to a foreign council, especially given her condition when she left. Of course she would, she was her mother. She had brought Amelia into the world, fostered her love of the sciences, took care of her when her husband was on deployment, and was there to comfort her after her first breakup. Things a mother simply did out of love for their child. That's not to say she and Amelia always got along, far from it in fact. They were usually embroiled in one argument or another any time they were around each other for prolonged periods. Mostly because they were so similar to each other. Amelia was as stubborn and headstrong as her father, and as much if not more of a scientific mind than Jess herself. Which made whatever happened while she was on deployment all the more tragic.
Amelia had closed herself off after that, and Jess blamed herself. She was the one who talked Amelia into joining the think tank after all. Thinking it would allow Amelia to test her numerous theories, and designs, in the safest way possible. But whatever happened there, it had changed Amelia. Every once in a while, Jess could see the glimmer of who her daughter used to be tucked inside. A genuine smile here, an insatiable curiosity towards a theory there, but they were few and far between. Amelia had closed herself off, and she didn't know how to reach her dear daughter anymore.
These thoughts and more were running through her mind when Jess received the call from Mike early in the morning, spouting something insane about hacking the buoy she and Amelia had made. Jess had no idea what he meant or what was going on, but something about how quick and concise Mike had been told her it was better to talk in person, so she freshened up and headed out, got in her electric car, and drove off.
Two and a half hours later, she had arrived at the former pentagon, now designated Terran Defense Research Facility or T.D.R.F. The military loved their acronyms after all. They seemed to call everything Terran now in light of the worldwide news of aliens existing, it made them want to rename everything.
Checking into the building and entering had been simple enough. As one of the highest-level military research contractors, Jess had clearance all the way up to Grade 4 of 7. Said aloud it didn't seem like much but it was quite the accomplishment. Once inside she had been directed to the waiting room for the Admiral's office, and after a few moments, a Lieutenant came out and addressed her.
"Mrs. Ryder, if you would follow me. Admiral Kolensky is ready to see you now." He said, inviting her to Mike's office.
Inside the familiar room sat Mike at his desk, smoking a cigar for the first time she had seen him do so since his wife, Jess's sister, died. That wasn't good. It meant things were bad. Sitting down, she gave a good look at him.
He was tired, the bags under his eyes showing he hadn't slept in a while. His hair seemed to be even grayer than before and she could tell there were new wrinkles on his face.
"Mike, you know smoking those things are going to kill you." She said in a mother-hen tone."What's going on? Something urgent must be happening for you to call me out of the blue like this."
Mike let out a long sigh, breathing out the smoke from the cigar before putting it out and looking at Jess."I want you to listen to this first. You know Amelia better than anyone, if there's something off with this you'd know." He said, then played the audio recording sent to them earlier.
Jess could hear the frustration in Amelia's voice as she spoke in the audio. She seemed tense and terser than Jess had known her to be. Colder, but she had been like that since whatever had happened. And then, another note. Curiosity? Intrigue. She could hear it in Amelia's voice when Amelia realized something was up. With a look of determination only a mother concerned for her child could show, she looked at Mike.
"Tell me everything you know, and how can I help?"
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Amelia found herself in the all too familiar mess hall after the meeting with Ambassador Kixix, Viza sitting at the opposite side of her table.
"This is bullshit. I'm supposed to Represent Humanity to a council I know nothing about, filled with species I know next to nothing about, given information on next to nothing about the Galaxy. I'm being led around with both arms tied behind my back!" She let out in frustration as she picked at the "food".
She wouldn't call the nutrition paste that. It was bland, tasteless, and a texture that was terrible. They didn't even have any spices and when she tried to synthesize some the machine locked down giving some sort of error.
Viza, for his part, wasn't even bothering to pretend to eat, instead he was looking thoughtfully into the distance."Someone has tied your hands? They do not seem to be restrained." he said curiously, his ears twitching and showing his confusion.
"Not literally, it's what's called a euphemism. A colorful way of explaining an emotional state, in this case the feeling of being forced into an undesirable situation with no means of better arming myself for said situation." She explained, her aggravation apparent.
"I see, you're referring to the information lockdown you have been put into." Viza said thoughtfully. He seemed to be deliberating on something but Amelia hadn't the faintest idea what, and Hal was too busy doing...whatever Hal was doing at the moment.
"Perhaps..Lady Amelia, would you be so kind as to accompany me to my quarters?" Viza said suddenly.
Amelia looked shocked. She saw he had been taking his medication AND she still had the pheromone blocker on. He couldn't possibly think they knew each other well enough for that nor that now was a proper time for such, could he?
"Viza, I'm flattered at the attention, but now is hardly the time for a romantic tryst, now is it?" Amelia said almost exasperatedly.
"Tryst? Oh voids no, I simply meant to get away from, what's the human phrase...prying auditories?" Viza said, causing Amelia to blush in embarrassment at her jumping to conclusions. Of course Viza wasn't thinking of something like that, why would he be?
"O-oh, I see. Then, by all means." She said, gesturing for him to lead them.
It took a fair bit of walking to get to his room, making Amelia wonder why her supposed bodyguard was boarded so far away in the first place, but eventually they arrived.
Opening the room, Amelia half wondered what Krultathan personal quarters would be like before stepping in, and being flabbergasted.
It was beyond spartan. Instead of a bed, he had a literal matt on the floor. No table, no desk, no other furniture of any kind. His bathroom was the size of a closet practically, and the room itself could fit into hers at least twice over. It was hardly better than a cell.
"Good, no listening devices here. Lady Amelia, what I am about to tell you breaks orders, but in light of recent actions, I feel it is necessary for you to know." He started, sitting on the floor due to the lack of chairs and gesturing for Amelia to do the same, for which she did.
"We Krultathans as you know, are Deathworlders, class 2. Officially we are the only Deathworlders in the Alliance, but at one point there were two others. The Xi-Shiar, a class 1 who uplifted the Hexats and died out approximately ten thousand Earth years ago, and the Ava." He started, and Amelia could see him struggling with himself to speak. Giving him time to breath, he eventually continued.
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"When we Krultathans were first discovered, we were like you, fractured. A thousand of our years before first contact we had developed nuclear weapons and, in a global conflict, fired them upon each other, resulting in a societal regression that took lifetimes to recover from. When we did, and when first Contact occurred, it was with the Axon." he paused for a moment, Amelia hearing an almost snarl at the mention of the Axon, a race that she hadn't been made aware of.
"The Axon are a rodent-like race hailing from a cradle that just barely doesn't classify as a deathworld, they are vile and manipulative. They attempted to take my people as slaves for their farms, and when we fought back, they strong-armed the Alliance into assisting them by citing us as "Dangerous predators". In reality the Alliance couldn't refuse, they didn't have the force to deal with the Axon. So the Alliance found and uplifted another deathworlder species, the Ava, thinking to pit them against us..."
Viza's face turned to one of pain as he mentioned the Ava, making Amelia fear where this story was heading as she waited silently for him to continue.
"It was a slaughter. The Ava may have been deathworlders, but their planet wasn't a high-Grav one. They evolved to fly, and on our homeworld, with greater gravity, they couldn't. We...Please understand, we didn't know at the time. We were fighting for our freedom from enslavement. To us, they were just another enemy. But when we saw how weak and defenseless they were, when we learned they had been uplifted just to be slaughtered...It-It broke us. An innocent species almost went extinct simply because the Alliance needed more soldiers. The Ava, as far as we know, still haven't recovered to this day. That was over 500 of your years ago."
Amelia was pretty sure that if Krultathans could weep, Viza would be weeping right now, he looked so broken, so sad. Amelia instinctively wanted to hold onto him, to comfort him, but held back. Krultathans weren't as social a species as Humans were, and she wasn't even sure she wouldn't hurt him if she tried to hug him.
"We lost the war, after that. We couldn't slaughter innocents being forced to participate, not after our own nuclear wars happened. So, we were forcibly annexed into the S.A. as second-class citizens, and the atrocities against the Ava were pinned on us. As it stands now, most Krultathans are conscripted into the military, like myself, or into mercenary groups, and have to buy our way out. But the pay they give us is so poor that-" He gestures around."-we can hardly even afford to live. And now, a new race comes along that would serve as even better soldiers, and better slaves for the Axon's pheromone farms, and their supposed representative is being kept in the dark, and paired with a Krultathan bodyguard? We Krultathans have a saying.'If you hunt a striga and are surprised when it bites you, you arent a hunter but a fool.'Essentially it means that if something is showing that it is obviously dangerous, you shouldn't ignore it, and I think that this is obviously dangerous. For Humans, for my kind, and even for the Hexat." He paused a moment, collecting himself, then saying with renewed determination.
"The Hexat are known for their loyalty and their respect for family. They're called the Noble race for a reason. If Kixix is keeping you in the dark I'm sure he has a reason, he may even think it's the best option for your people. But humanity should have the right to decide for themselves. You should be able to decide for yourself, Lady Amelia."
Amelia took her time to digest all this. It was her turn now to get the big info-dump it seemed. Viza's people had went through something terrible at the hands of the Alliance, and the Axon. The Hexats 'seem' like they want to help Humanity, but are keeping us in the dark, and the Axons apparently had pheromone farms and need for soldiers?
She took several long minutes to think, without saying anything as her eyes gazed off. Eventually, she spoke up.
"You think these Axon are wanting to replace your kind with Humanity, or are at least entertaining the idea of it. But that doesn't explain the Ambassador's actions. If that was the case, why not just tell us?" Amelia said, trying to put the pieces together.
"I do not know, but I do not believe he is doing it to harm Humanity. Remember, he urged Terra to prioritize building a defense fleet, and even put in a request for the 5th fleet of Hexus Prime to be mobilized to defend Terra." Viza said, looking like he too was trying to figure things out.
"Because there are moles on my ship, and I do not know who they are or how much information they are feeding the Axon Hierarchy. And the less they know about Humanity, the better." A voice said as both Viza and Amelia turned to see Kixix had entered the room somehow without either of them noticing. He glared his eyes at Viza, then turned to look at Amelia and did something strange, he bowed.
"My apologies for having caused concern. Perhaps I should explain then."
"That would be nice, Ambassador. As long as it's not another lie." Amelia said through gritted teeth. She did not like the fact that he had somehow figured out what they were up to, nor that he showed up with seemingly some perfect explanation.
"Of course not. This room I checked myself for bugs routinely, it's why I stationed Viza here, so any errant thought about Humanity wouldn't be let slip. In other words I don't have to worry about anyone listening in. May I?" He explained, then gestured to the ground as if asking to sit. Viza nodded, while Amelia merely shrugged.
Sitting down, he let out either a groan or a sigh, Amelia couldn't tell which, then began.
"As you say, The Axon are scouting Humanity, as they do with most new races, especially deathworld races. I for one would like to not see the fate of the Ava or Krultathans repeated with Humanity." He clarified, then after a pause, continued.
"The Axon are terrible, but the Alliance can't stand up to them, their forces outnumber the rest of the Alliance 5 to 1, and they are an Elder race, with superior technology. Put simply, the Alliance is at the mercy of the Axon. If they secede to the Kaveer Empire, then the Alliance would be facing a war with the Empire they simply can't win, so we are forced to appease them." He explained, but all his words were doing is making Amelia's blood boil. 'This is how he intended to justify allowing what happened to the Krultathans, how he intended to justify slavery?! How he intended to justify the Alliance sending a race to be exterminated?!' She thought, but then he continued.
"The Hexat Republic does not agree with this. Which is why we are attempting to form a secret alliance of our own with Humanity, and hopefully the Krultathans as well. In order to eventually muster a force big enough to challenge the Axons. Until then, we need to keep Humanity's information as much a secret as possible, and give the Axon no reason to go after them. This is what the Hexat Republic decided. To defend Humanity until it could defend itself, and eventually join with them to take down the Axon. And then you two go and make an obvious show on the ship and nearly throw that plan into ruin!"
Kixix said angrily, then made the same hissing/sighing/groaning sound again.
"Not that I blame you, mind you. But not telling you was for your own sake and for Humanity's sake. Your people have shown a history of... What is your term, "poking the ursine?" or something like that. If you had known, can you honestly tell me that Humanity, or yourself for that matter, wouldn't start looking into the Axons and drastically building up a fleet to alert them?"
'Oh..shit.' Amelia thought.
"Um, about that. Earth may be... well, might possibly be working already to build up a fleet as quickly as possible." Amelia said sheepishly as Kixix looked at her.
"What the void did you do, Miss Amelia?" Kixix said, sounding oddly like a scolding father.
"I may have..kind of...forwarded our previous conversation to Terran command." Amelia hesitantly replied.
Kixix looked at Amelia incredulously, then started shouting things the translator couldn't make sense of as her neural implant simply translated it to.
"Expletive. Expletive expletive. Expletive. Expletive. Expletive-Expletive. Expletive."
After several moments of this, during which Viza and Amelia looked at each other sheepishly, the Hexat finally calmed down enough, rubbing his eyes in an oddly adorable way, before continuing.
"By the Stars and void Amelia, do you have any idea how dangerous that was? If the Axon had intercepted that it would have led them right to your home planet!" A breath, and a couple more expletives.
"Okay. I'll order the 5th fleet to accelerate departure. Hopefully nothing stupid happens during that time. In the meantime, Viza." He said, looking at the Krultathan. "Please fill Amelia in on everything else relevant. I need to go make some communications. And don't leave this room. Nothing said leaves this room either. Understand?"
The two of them nodded at which point he stands to leave.
"Good. I'll be in touch when it's okay to leave."
He said then left them alone in the sparse room of Viza. After a few moments, Amelia said sarcastically.
"Well, that could've been worse."
Which caused Viza to tilt his head curiously at her.
"How? We nearly doomed your planet with a conversation."
"Yeah, but it's not like that's the first time a human almost doomed their planet with a conversation. Just a part of being from Earth I guess." She said, unusually happy given what just happened.
"Why do you seem excited then?" Viza said, asking the obvious.
"Because we now know that the Hexats aren't against us, I'd be sad if they were, and more importantly. Humanity has a boogieman to catch, and nothing rallies us together quite like needing to catch a big bad. "