Amelia awoke with a shock and a gasp. Cheshire protocol had been activated for the first time in years, and it left her with a numbing headache and stiffness all over. She was dimly aware of her surroundings, everything seeming to be a bit too bright, and her body felt too light, but a quick stock assured her everything was there, nothing was missing, no holes where there weren't supposed to be any. It was then she suddenly lurched up with a gasp. 'Shit, the evacuees' she thought, but as her senses slowly adjusted to being awake for the first time in months, her neural implant relinked with her retina and displayed some important information. She was out for around 3 months, and S.P.S., or solar positioning system, put her in Earth orbit near the N.I.S.S.
'Okay...that was weird'. She thought.
'Hal, status?' she said through their private channel.
'Good morning, Miss Amelia.
Cheshire protocol was activated for approximately two minutes thirty-eight seconds, Daedelus precept was then activated placing you in suspended hibernation to prevent governmental tampering.
We are currently aboard a Sapient Alliance ambassadorial craft piloted by a race of marsupials called the Hexats, and are in what constitutes a medical bay for them. It seems your sudden awakening has caused the good doctor to pass out from shock.' Hal responded over the private channel.
Cheshire was a combat-oriented "Profile" Amelia had made in pair with most of her implants for self-defense, while "Daedelus precept" was an emergency response command to be activated if she lost consciousness in hostile territory to prevent anyone from tampering with her or the implants. The last thing she needed was someone getting a hold of them and weaponizing them, as so many governments wanted. Still, she hated having to use either of them, let alone any of the other profiles or precepts. But, after Black Rock, she had no choice but to make them to protect herself and Hal.
'Right.' She started, moving slowly out of bed and picking up the...Hexat, to place them in a nearby chair. Looking around, it seemed the Hexats had a fondness for white in their medical environments just like humans, odd, but she supposed it made sense if most sapients associated white with sterile and clean. Finding a chair to sit in herself, she decided to wait for the Doctor to awaken while getting caught up by Hal on everything that had happened.
'So Hal, what's new?'
'One moment Miss Amelia. Accessing encrypted data node 32237.
Code Tyga launched, data accessed.
Processing...
Code Terra Firma in effect, currently updated, analyze and asses alien threat, assess the alien sociological structure, and analyze information to deliberate where mutual existence is possible.
Diplomatic missions are underway, research on debris is underway, project ADAM reinitialized and integrated into Project Eve.
U.S.U.N. Conglomerate redesignated Terran Conglomerate, assimilation of outside countries underway via code Terra Firma, black book site Alpha13, Foxtrot51, Tango123 activa-
Warning, Multiple data tracers found, deactivating data link, purging files, risk of trace, 0.12 percent.
I am sorry Miss Amelia, this was all I could gather...'
'Don't be Hal, it's enough.' She sighed.
She sucked in a harsh hissing breath as the data was dumped into her neural implant and then her mind. Humanity was scared, they were putting up a front, but they were scared shitless, and it made sense. Not only had we found out we weren't alone, but a dumbass actively attacked what they now knew was a science vessel, not even a combat ship, and consequently were trying to assess whether or not coexistence was even possible.
And to top it all off, she was stuck out of her element. She was a scientist first and foremost, she wanted no part of this. It smelled bad, tasted bad, like politics, and she didn't want to be anywhere near here when shit ultimately hit the fan. As she was thinking this, however, it seemed the good doctor was finally starting to come to.
'Hal, stay in standby, we don't know their stance on A.I. yet.' she told her partner.
'Understood, Miss Amelia.'
As the Hexat came to, she tried to put on a friendly smile, using Hal to help out her translation implant by updating it with the alien language he had dissected back on Jupiter station.
"Hey there, easy. You might've hit your head when you passed out." She said as the alien slowly woke up, seemingly a bit groggy until she spoke. As soon as it heard her voice it immediately snapped to attention looking at her with what seemed to be fear for a moment, holding its breath, before slowly calming down as it processed everything.
"Can you tell me your name?" Amelia asked it. It eyed her for a second before responding. Its words sounded a bit like chirps before it seemingly spoke in the language they had translated. Perhaps the chirps were their native then?
"Kaxus Raxitilius. You are Amelia Ryder, yes?"
It..they, answered, looking at her curiously now, though still having a bit of apprehension as it tried grabbing what looked like a datapad slowly, she assumed it was trying to be sneaky but if it was going the whole "move slowly it can't see you" route she had bad news for him. She helped grab the datapad for him off the floor slowly so as to not startle him and handed it the being, eliciting a cautious look from him, she was pretty sure it was a Him at least, before he grabbed it and looked it over.
"Yes, I am. Nice to meet you Kaxus. Where are we?" She asked, trying to calm the poor fluffy creature down.
'Wait, no, not fluffy, he's sentient Amelia, you can't just pet him like a plushy.' she thought to herself.
She's supposed to be the hardened scientist researching bleeding-edge tech not some schoolgirl with a pink plushie collection!
"We are aboard the Ambassadorial ship Kulxrix in space above Terra. How did you..." He gestured to the bed where she had previously been unconscious and Amelia shrugged nonchalantly at him.
"My VI program woke me up once it made sure I was clear of danger, must've startled you, I apologize." She said.
Not entirely a lie but VIs were way more common than true AIs and she didn't want to expose Hal just yet, so figured this was a good way to test the waters.
"Oh..VI...that is surprising. Is it a common technology for your people?" He asked curiously, a note of apprehension in his voice making Amelia think hiding Hal was the right move.
"Hmm, not quite as common as a red penny, but among scientists they are fairly common for their usefulness in helping moderate tests and calculations when dealing with complex theories. Honestly, if it hadn't been for their invention in 2035 progressing us as quickly as it did, we'd likely still be a couple of centuries away from most of our newer tech like prosthetics and implants."
"I see, but why would your VI think that, as you put it, your governments would be a source of danger?" Kaxus asked her, as if the very idea was foreign, which for all she knew, it might very well be.
"Put simply, they want what's in here." Amelia said, pointing to her head and tapping her temple.
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"And I'm not willing to give it to them for...well, for reasons. Tried once, but it didn't go so well. It's partly how I ended up with this."
She pointed to her eye, which now that Kaxus could see, was a prosthetic one, rather advanced as well considering he didn't notice it at first.
"Why would they want your head?" the Hexat asked her curiously, eliciting a laugh from Amelia, which promptly stopped when she realized the sound must've frightened him.
"Apologies, that was a laugh, I didn't mean to scare you. It's not my head they want, at least not most of them, it's my ideas, my inventions, and my implants. They're trying to get their hands on me for that information, though now that the Galaxy has opened up to them, perhaps they won't need me anymore and I can go back to having a normal life." She said with a wistful smile.
"I'm...I'm afraid that may not be the case. The S.A. doesn't share its technology with nonmember races besides communication and FTL. Anything else would have to be established by becoming a member or through trade, and there hasn't been a race immediately granted membership in over 700 cycles. erm..approximately 1200 of your years."
Amelia sighed, taking a deep breath as she processed this. It wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, but it was probably going to make home really, really mad. Still, she was getting sidetracked. Tech was all well and good, but it didn't explain how she got here in the first place.
"Okay then, so why am I on your ship Kaxus?" she asked him directly.
"Oh, right, you were unconscious so you didn't know. the Council requested your presence to give an award based on your heroics, and you are to be given a reward of some sort, I'm unfortunately not privy as to what it is...But if the council is calling for a member of a newly discovered species, it is seen as an extremely high honor."
The poor mouse boy seemed so excited at the thought Amelia was worried he'd have a heart attack as she raised a hand to cover her giggling at the display.
Suddenly realizing something, he continued before she could quite calm down to ask anything else.
"Oh, of course, my apologies Miss Ryder, but I must inform the ambassadors you are awake." Kaxus said as he typed on the pad.
"Do me a favor Kaxus, let your ambassador know, not mine. I would like to speak with the S.A.'s ambassador first.
He looked at her curiously, but obliged, waiting a few moments for the response. "Ambassador Kixixlix will see you now in his ready room. Come, I'll show you the way. Perhaps you could answer a few questions of mine along the way about your species?" He said as he quickly pulled Amelia up and out of the medical bay to their destination.
"I can try yes." She said hesitantly to the Hexat as she was pulled along. What followed was a rapid-fire assault of questions about their evolution, biology, medical advancements, and other seemingly random questions.
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Approximately fifteen minutes later, Amelia was sitting in a small room across from another Hexat, this one apparently the ambassador, but instead of focusing on him she was looking at a datapad he had handed her which was showing news all over Earth.
A lot of it was about the aliens, but most of it was about the usual. Skirmishes in South America, proxy wars in Africa, trade wars in the Middle East, and so on, causing Amelia to sigh. This didn't paint a good picture of humanity at all.
"So what are you saying, Ambassador? You should know by now quarantining us won't work for long. And would ruin any chance of Humanity joining your little Alliance." Amelia said to the Ambassador.
For the past ten minutes they had been arguing over the merits of humanity and ironically, Amelia somehow found herself defending it despite the fact she hated the idea of doing so.
"You are correct, but there are other, more....drastic, options."
" I'll be quite frank with you because, one way or another, you in particular will find out once we begin traveling back. Humanity is the only class 4 deathworlder species that has gained sapience and survived that we have seen, and from the looks of it has barely done that. You war with your planet, with each other, in trade, in blood, you have so many different versions of war it's staggering, let alone words for it."
"War on drugs, on homeless, on countries, on economies, on classes, on races, for void's sake your people have tried to commit genocide not even 200 years ago! Give me one thing, something, to hold onto to prevent me from telling the council we shouldn't glass this planet the moment we get the chance and prevent your species from unleashing itself upon the galaxy!"
He started in a calm talk, but the decibels rose as he spoke, eventually becoming a shout..or a plea.
"Can you?" Amelia asked, which perplexed the Hexat Ambassador.
"Let me clarify."
"Can you wipe out every human in existence all at once, leaving no survivors? Because if you've looked through our history, you should know what happens when survivors are left. they rebuild, and they retaliate... And let me clarify something else."
She said, standing up and leaning over the table to look the Hexat straight in his eyes with a predatory gaze. Not one of malice, or hunger, or rage, but a pure, predatory, instinctual fire for survival inside her eyes.
"Humanity has never been united because it never had something to unite it, but if you attack them, if you attempt to eradicate us and fail, you'll see something no one has seen and lived to tell the tale of."
"And what would that be, Terran,"
He said, spitting the words out like venom. "Humanity United?"
"No." she responded flatly, confusing the Hexat once again
"No? then what?"
"Humanities' Instinct. The instinct to survive, when everything else wants them dead."
"We didn't conquer nature by uniting against it, we did it by the instinct to survive."
"We didn't conquer medicine by uniting, we did it by the instinct to survive. We didn't learn to wage war, and dance with death by uniting, we did it by the instinct to survive.
We have no claws, no fangs, no great speed or natural weapons of any kind, yet we rose to the top, by honing our instinct with our intellect, and sheer fucking persistence. We went from prey animals to predators, and utilizing that, we then became apex predators, then we became masters of nature in agriculture, hunting, fighting, adapting, thriving. We built entire civilizations over, and over, and over again, on the instinct to survive."
" We may be civil now, we may be trying to put our past behind us and become better, admittedly slowly, right now. But if you attack us and leave ANY survivors, you'll undo all of that, and you'll be awakening a Beast you're walking in the belly of." She paused a moment, her voice having never raised above hardly a whisper, nor her gaze moving away from Kixix even once.
"So if you can, do it, but you better hope that your instinct to survive is stronger than ours and you wipe out every last one of us. Cause if you don't, you'll be signing your extinction. We'll rebuild, adapt, overcome, and survive."
Amelia said, her voice the entire time low, quiet. But it wasn't spoken fearfully like one discussing their species' possible extinction might be, no, it was like the low growl of a predator before the kill, and Klix, for the first time since meeting the humans, finally saw a glimpse of the predator side in them, and it frightened him.
Holding in a shudder, he broke her gaze, before taking in a deep breath and saying, meekly.
" Thank you, Miss Amelia."
This time it was Amelia's turn to be confused, he threatened her species and then thanked her? she tilted her head for a moment looking at him as she replayed their conversation in her head, realization dawning on her face slowly as she sat back down.
"You didn't want to glass our planet, you just wanted to see if we would defend ourselves even if we disliked each other." She said, looking at him as he nodded.
"I had to be sure. Humanity is likely to make friends, but just as likely to make enemies when it enters the galactic stage." Kixix started, pouring himself more of the root-juice and taking a sip before steeling himself and continuing.
"Predator sapients are rare, and many get forced into military service or treated....unfavorably if they try to placate meekly. It can kill civilizations. But to be honest, I like humanity, from what I've seen at least. You are new, fresh, young, and determined, You value family, loyalty, and are fiercely protective, it reminds me something of my own species in some respects. If I had to quarantine your species to help give them time then I would've, but I don't think that's necessary, nor as you pointed out do i think it would go well. I've already talked to my people and we will be entering a formal alliance with humanity in the following months, and do what we can to help prepare you for the galactic stage." He paused, taking another sip to let his words sink in a moment before continuing once again.
"Your own people are trying to form a United Conglomerate out of your respective countries to appease the S.A. and reorganize themselves, something I understand you were already attempting to do beforehand. We will help where we can with that as well. For now, however, you must appear before the council. After that they will likely send you on a tour around the galaxy, to help familiarize people with your species and others of your kind of course. I suggest you prepare yourself accordingly, we will be leaving in a few hours now that you've awoken."
The ambassador finally stopped, waiting for her to digest it all. Amelia was reeling from this revelation. Humanity was entering a shitshow, and somehow, she got thrust into the center of it. As she was pondering on how her luck was so miserable, Kixix pushed a button on a device built into the table and asked for someone to be brought in.
A moment later, the door opened and a feline-like humanoid appeared through the door, giving a strange salute to the ambassador before looking at Amelia with a curious expression.
"This Officer will be your bodyguard during your jaunt in S.A. space. He is a Krultathan, a class 2 death world predator species. I'll let him introduce himself." The ambassador said as Amelia looked at him a bit shocked.
"Lieutenant Viza of the Krultathan Intelligence force, at your command, Sir!" He said in a thick accent before looking closer at her.
"Apologies, I mean Ma'am!" he corrected himself, and if Amelia didn't know any better she'd swear that he was blushing.
Amelia nodded at him before saying
"Amelia Ryder, ex-mil. Just a scientist now."
She said to him, looking him over. She had always been more of a cat person but by the gods.....
HE WAS SO CUTE!