“Pardon me while I repeat your stupidity,” said Lieutenant Wringheart, the senior engineering officer, and a major thorn in my back. “You went to see a Gnogal supernatural scientist, attacked him, got hit by his kinetic cannon ball, damaged restaurant property, got the living shit beaten out of you by a Caducera bouncer, and thrown out the door, just to hear this harebrained job. Anything else?”

Can you hear the enthusiasm in her voice? She just loves to see me suffer. You’ll meet her when you see Brill.

I pressed the ice pack to my swollen right eye, cheek, and jawline and spat red blood on the Endeavour’s hanger bay floor. I was covered in bruises, I think I had some cracked ribs too. I refused any treatment from the ship’s medical officer, Sergeant Russ Decathan (good man) because Halcunacs heal fast, and he had better things to do then heal me.

I looked up at that brown, red, and blue canine Vyroka taur, her arms crossed over her bosom, and an icy stare on her face.

“Ow, crap,” I said with chest pain. “Good to see you again.” I smiled to annoy her.

“Captain, explain why we still care for this jerk?” She asked. “Every time I see him I remember Diremoon’s broken heart.”

Standing beside her was my good friend, Captain Brill Secambre, the short grey-skinned Rezuma, leader of the Endeavour and commander in chief of Nova Company. He stood before me, wearing the same pressed officer uniform of the battlegroup as always.

Wanna hear something funny? Humans call Rezumas “Roswell Greys.” What the heck is Roswell?

“It depends, lieutenant, but have sympathy for a fellow gunslinger,” he said. “We are all dealing with a low point. It’s not like this is the first time his arrogance controlled him.” I always admired his fatherly ideals.

“I can name several.” Wringheart glared hard at me.

“Oh so wha…Ow. I’m in pain, woman,” I said.

A supply trolley passed by and a familiar amphibious driver waved. “Welcome back, Jaruka,” he said. I waved back. Yeah, welcome back indeed.

“Lieutenant, can we have a moment alone?” Brill said. “Go…update the Slipspace guidance system or something.”

The taur sighed. “But captain…”

“No buts. Not now,” Brill said as he approached me.

“Yes, sir. Message me when he’s gone.” Wringheart sighed again.

“Oh don’t be such a pushover,” I said. “I’m here ain’t I? Am I allowed to swap war stories with friends? The least I can do is muck up your guidance system to not find me and kill me.”

I wasn’t able to track Wringheart’s hind legs as they swung up to sock me in the chest and right shoulder, instantly causing me to fall off the creates I was sitting on. The pain was great, but laughing was too.

“Nice talking to you!” I yelled.

Wringheart walked away.

“She needs to drop that ego,” I said. “It’s not like she was the one I pissed off.”

“She can hold a grudge for others, especially for other Vyrokans. By the way, you still need to apologize to Amber.” He helped me up with his telekinesis.

“You know her. She started it.”

Wringheart’s kick aggravated the fading bruises, but it was nothing new. I sat back down on the crate.

Brill sat beside me and took off his black and red navy hat, setting it on an adjacent crate.

“Terra Firma,” he said, reading word for word from the paper I smuggled. “Four months monitoring the asteroid and sending survey reports every twelve hours. Half of total pay up front, the other half afterwards. Must not leave or second half will be denied.” He stopped. “If it was a different planet, I would take it.”

“No kidding,” I said. “This job still smells bad, Brill.”

“You’d think this is bad? Try roster checks and board meetings. We’ve had no mission for two months either. Most of the crew wishes they were with their families. How does that make me feel?”

“Lousy?”

“Correct. At least nobody’s gone crazy yet.”

I grumbled and complained, “It’s like this whole galaxy took a break.” Brill agreed.

I took the paper from him for another look, to stare at the planet’s name. Why Terra Firma? Forget bringing this up to the Council, they might’ve known about Benali’s job. I could think of a few other mercenaries that Beanie could rely on for stealth ships, he might have been reaching out to them that moment.

I needed money. Most of Nova’s crew was out earning income any way they could. I can blow glass and craft, but even at a hocker market, none of my creations sold. Hence my species coming to people’s minds.

Brill sighed. “You’re going to take that job. I can see that interest on your face and dreads.”

Brill knew me well, and knew me well. That’s what you get from a friend for nearly two decades.

“What choice do I have?” I asked.

“Sell glassware?”

I gave Brill a disappointed look.

“Tell them you not affiliated, the money will roll I expect.”

I folded the paper in my hands. “Brill, I need four months of ration packs, fusion engine coolant, a couple cases of homebrew…”

“No,” Brill interrupted, but I continued.

“Water in my tanks, and an overhaul…”

“No.”

“…of the Lunar Spear’s cloaking tech without Wringheart’s supervision.”

“Oh, come on.” Brill turned away.

“I’ll pay you after Benali pays the first half. Don’t tell me the mechanics are on vacation.”

“Jaruka, you’re smarter than this. You said it yourself the job smells bad. Are you that dunce in the head?”

“You know why,” I reminded him.

“I would move on.”

“But you don’t have your own people waiting to catch you off guard,” I reminded him.

“It’s sketchy! We don’t know of this Gnogal is truthful. Not even my species agrees with Gnogal customs.”

I was irritated. First he was supportive, then he wasn’t, and he was right.

“Is it that important to stay afloat? To keep running? To prove to them your worth more than trash?” Brill asked. He always hammers me with that every single time. “And I hoped for once you were ready to hide for once. Plenty of planets to make home, Jaruka. A chance for your family to leave Viro. Not even your kind is not made to survive in space, let alone four months.”

I stood, towering over Brill. “So what if it is a scam? Big deal, I can track Benali down, go on trial, and get a hefty settlement before punching him to the floor. Brill, you’ve been my friend and commanding officer for a long time. Now would be a good time to be supportive.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“But this…”

“You care for me, I get it. You know me like the back of your hand. I do this to prove I’m worth something, not just a massive blame on my people’s problems. This job will keep me doing it.” I shook the paper at Brill.

“Is this your only choice? How’s this? I know a mine owner in the Dega system, he might need help.”

“The mines? Pass. I gag the minute I sniff carbon monoxide.”

“Fine. Be this stubborn.”

“And I’ll stay that way.” I laughed a little, but not out of joy.

Brill closed his big, black oval eyes. He could never overcome my history; nobody in Nova would dare to. Well, except Denverbay.

“There’s nothing else, Brill. I will take this. There were times when I want to settle down, take up fishing and glassblowing for a living, but not now. It’s too risky. And you know. Everybody knows. This will help me.”

“How?” Brill asked.

“Why hasn’t the Council vaporized the asteroid yet? If it’s not a threat, it makes sense,” I said. “If it is, why no action? Maybe I can get some leeway out of it, but still, this is my only choice. Please, support me on this one.”

“Jaruka…”

“Don’t say it. Don’t you dare. For the record, if anything happens to me, let my father and sister know.”

Brill looked up surprised, as expected.

“Okay. Okay. If that’s your choice. Whatever you need, I’ll supply. I’ll inform the ship mechanics right away.”

I smiled. “You’re awesome.”

----------------------------------------

I should’ve pressed Jaruka for the real answer instead of waiting. I had forgotten that I was outside; still on Terra Firma. I heard nothing but silence.

Javo.

Jaruka went on to say that he had called Benali, apologizing first, then started the job. To his recollection, Benali was very forgiving.

But the Council itself not raising a finger…

“And you stayed there for four months?” I asked.

“Three really. Next month would’ve been it and I’d be long gone from this system,” Jaruka said.

“Oh. Sorry.”

The memory-recording device dinged again, as it had for the past four hours.

“And you never left, correct?” I asked. “You were that desperate for the money?”

Jaruka nodded and said, “Yes. Not a single meter. It was living hell, even the rock’s surface. Every twelve hours those meaningless and almost duplicate reports were sent to the guy. Nothing exciting, the asteroid did its thing.”

“Did its thing?”

Jaruka was leaning forward, hands clasped and resting under his chin. “It changed course by itself, toward the planet. If you noticed the purple crystals around here, they came from it. Makes you wonder how that was possible.” Jaruka finished his glass of wine and I waited for him to finish the bottle. My glass was still full, and the food untouched—I’ve been accused of ignoring my meals during intense conversations.

I leaned forward. “Turned…on its own?”

Jaruka nodded.

“H-How can that be?”

“Good question. I’m still figuring that out.” Jaruka took a drink of wine. “Tell me, have you felt their magic?”

I did not hesitate to nod. “I felt something about Ms. Walsh.”

“After touching her?”

I nodded once.

“When their magic is activated, or during a transformation, my dreads curl and my insides twist. It’s like nothing I ever felt. Their magic scares me for being GMTs.”

“G-what?” I asked, turning a notebook page. In between Jaruka’s talks, I had thought briefly about the couple’s magic. I can multitask, but I have to balance it well.

“Genetic Magical Transformations,” Jaruka explained.

I wrote down the name and quickly made a connection. “Right. GMTs. Totally forgot. Like the Galmadesh species in the Goomash Raid.” I paused spotting Katie walking out the backdoor and out to the vineyard. “Yo-You think they…”

“Nothing like that, I made sure,” Jaruka interrupted. “But the asteroid crash, the Wave, the terran transformations—they stink of GMT. Every human on this planet was part, I believe, is an engineered event. Somebody did this, and Benali is one clue.”

“I see,” I said. “So, on the record, you have any hope the Council will send aid?”

I asked because of their track record. Terra Firma is still in PCPA laws, but I was not sure if they were still Red Flagged. The Council values and honors life. My answer was definite.

“Crog no,” Jaruka immediately said. “If I were them, I would not come near here for any reason.”

I blinked. “But they must. Terra Firma…”

“Is still and will be a Red Flagged planet, I guarantee it. You try asking those questions to Denverbay and he’ll say it too. No aid. No support. Just monitor.” I didn’t know if Jaruka had any evidence for his claim, but I hoped that he was wrong.

By noon Terra Firma time, I was famished, but I kept going, this interview was getting too good. I settled for snacking absentmindedly on the sample plate in the meantime.

“Mr. Teal,” I said. “Tell me everything. And I mean everything. I want to know what happened between the asteroid crash and now.”

“That’s a lot of information,” Jaruka said. “You have me for a day…”

“We can go into the night. I’ll do the same for Scott and Katie. What I’m seeing is something bigger than Benali’s involvement.”

“Benali is involved.”

“That be the case, piecing things together helps. Whatever I collect today and the next four days, including whatever you can get while on the planet, will help tremendously. Can you do that, Mr. Teal?”

He agreed without hesitation.

Even after I recorded everything from Jaruka, I wasn’t prepared at all for Scott and Katie’s perspective.

----------------------------------------

Zimana.

It’s slightly smaller than Terra Firma; has oceans, forests and mountains, but unlike the backwater planet, Zimana has smaller oceans, varied geography, and the largest forms of fungi within over fifty worlds. The humidity scares away most off-worlders. My people colonized planets and moons in our twelve planet, two star system, but I, like my father, prefer my species’ birthplace.

My family, the Zader Khu family, live in the mushroom forests of Monta. Over the years, my father worked hard as a reporter, but never went as far as a mansion and cushy life. He preferred the family cabin, deep in the forest, and kept working until his passing.

Since returning from Terra Firma two days ago and completing Captain Brill Secambre’s interview (I did taste the food and drink on Terra Firma), I feverishly finished all the compiled notes and memory recordings for Councilman Denverbay. Everything was collected into one single file, compressed and broadcasted on a secure channel to be analyzed for unknown reasons. The process will be repeated over and over.

I felt mentally sick of the truth, like, why was there no aid, and a blanket of Titan Spires?

Jaruka was serious about terran magic. Katie demonstrated her magic effortlessly with several simple spells she had learned and created on her own, but Scott was unable to due to a massive injury to his mana heart, and the nasty scar on his chest confirmed it. Know this: very few species ever use liquid-state energy sources, but none in the galaxy create it. Terran magic looks and feels so stable that focused right it could be a formidable weapon. Every human is or will be turning into terrans, with the same power level, in the next four years by their math estimates.

Limited energy, unlimited uses. I read before that humans have powerful imaginations. They could do almost anything they dream about, beneficial or threatening, that be another reason for the Red Flag.

I received clearance for more visitation rights to Terra Firma and will be sending reports until the job is done. Once the station on the moon is repaired, the techs, Jaruka, and I will all be pitching in to gather every single shred of information from the planet below. Do the job until it ends.

Something about this cries for attention.

I took another sip of tea and looked up at pictures on my wall. I was able to keep pictures from Terra Firma before I sent them, all within the winery and the city of Temecula. One picture was the guards standing near the wine production warehouse. Ketho had acted the same since we landed and left, but Tigap changed quite a bit and enjoyed talking to the Walsh family whenever he could. There were even more pictures of the grapevines, the warehouse, the storefront, and some places in the city that I was permitted to visit, with a DNA mask on of course.

I was unable to witness a terran transformation, but Jaruka could can send video of that in the future.

The picture I pride over all is the crew. The night before I left, New Years Eve for Terra Firma, I had Scott, Katie, the totems, and Jaruka stand together. The party had just finished and I did not mind the used glasses scattered around the lit patio. The totems and terrans looked happy, but Jaruka was not so enthusiastic.

They have so much potential for good, why are they still considered a threat? Humans and terrans I mean. They need to be known in order to receive aid, right? First Contact rights were breached, I get it, but they know that the Republic exists. Humans need aid, they need magic education.

I reviewed my notes from Jaruka and a troubling fact surfaced. Jaruka had showed me a black band around his leg. I’d seen them before but did not understand until he explained its purpose. The band was linked from his vital signs to those controversial Titan Spires orbiting Terra Firma.

Titan Spires, massive orbital A.I. cannons, and there were dozens of them. They were a contingency plan, in case the primitive culture escaped the planet. If they did the spires would activate and eradicate two-thirds of the total population and set natural evolution back ten thousand years.

The idea is horrifying, considering that I adore the terrans, Katie and Scott, but even worse is Jaruka Teal whose death also activates the spires.

And none more so, the massive impact on his people and Viro itself from what I can gather with little research.

Denverbay is treating Jaruka like a human tolerance test.

Now I understand why Jaruka hates Denverbay so much. Everything is on the line for the Halcunac: his freedom, his home planet, and Terra Firma’s future. Some argue that Denverbay is doing this for the sake of the Republic, but at what cost?

And that is why people must know about it.

Only a few people knows about my father’s secret for success. My father, the original Xi’Tra Zader Khu, had connections with underground freedom of information sites. He called it the purest form of journalism, for support, for community. “We’re in this together” was his motto.

I support my father’s beliefs, separate but in one galaxy.

So as you read this and the attached interviews and photographs, I am taking a huge risk in my career. I might be assassinated, but the information is out there. It might be discredited by Council members, corrupt politicians and journalists, but it’s out there. The Council will do whatever they can to silence their cries, but there is a chance for the Republic and its citizens to listen, and listen well.

I’m not asking for anybody to go straight to Terra Firma blind. I want anybody that reads this to prepare.

These humans and terrans need help, a lot of help. All we can do now is sit back, prepare, and wait for the right moment. These stories need to be shared, the galaxy must know.

Just be sure to keep quiet about it.