When the button was pressed, Strechen wasn't sure what she expected.

The door pulling back and a ramp extending from the floor down to the deck of a massive flight bay was one of the possibilities, for sure.

The vast amounts of dropships and aerospace strikers as well as obvious torchships had been part of her expectation.

What was not was the two lines of Terrans drawn up, twenty to a side, on either side of a red fabric path that ended with what was one of the largest Terrans (not that she'd seen that many) that Strechen had ever seen.

The female Terran waved at the group to follow.

"The Final Sight of Black Night is a Knight Aesir colossus class warship in the Deireadh an Domhain classification," Caoimhe stated, her voice pitched to sound excited yet somehow calm at the same time. "Built from design phase up to support a full company of Ringbreaker Class warriors as well as the combat and logistics support personnel required for an effective military campaign. The Final Sight of Black Night can provide orbital fire support, establish control of a stellar system, as well as provide manufacturing, medical, and transportation services to a full brigade of Ringbreaker Knights should there be a need for such."

The Terran female walked them down the ramp, toward the two drawn up lines.

The Dra.Falten followed nervously. The humans were large, larger even than Magnus had been.

Strechen hadn't realized that even her unusual height made it so she only came up to the middle of the Terran's torso.

At first, as they moved slowly, tenatively through the corridor the two lines of Terrans made, Strechen thought that all the Terrans looked alike. They were all males, all in the same mottled gray, black, and white camouflage.

Then her brain began to sort out differences.

This one had blue eyes. This one green. This one gray. This one hazel. That one had larger ears, that one had smaller ears. That one had a larger wider nose. This one had a narrower longer nose. This one had a wider chin. That one had yellow-gold hair. This one had red hair. The facial features were slightly different. This one slightly taller, that one slightly broader, this one more muscular.

It helped, perhaps, that Dra.Falten males had little beyond fur pattern to distinguish themselves, which made her more sensitive to differences.

The two at the end, though, stood out.

The smaller of the two, twice the height of Strechen, was introduced as High Lord Captain High Lord Knight of Aesir O’Byrne. Leeu, the XO, Hrekkel, and herself were introduced by the female Terran Caoimhe. When Tawtchee was introduced as merely "Male-9912743" Strechen thought, for a second, that there was an aura of disgust from the two males.

It vanished before she could be sure it was anything but her imagination.

The second Terran male, larger than any others, was introduced as "Lord Knight Aesir Ringbreaker Naois", commander of primary ground forces.

When the word Ringbreaker was uttered, Strechen felt an odd chill run down her spine.

Something about it seemed to carry a weight, an odd feeling of history, that Strechen wasn't aware of but was being warned about.

Strechen largely held silent, standing next to Tawtchee, as Leeu, the former XO Commander Navelu'uee, and Expediter Leeu all spoke with the two Lord Knights.

Tawtchee was looking around the massive flight bay. Looking at the ships, at the vast tanks, pipes, conduits, cranes, gantries, and scaffolding.

Strechen didn't bother correcting him or telling him to pay attention.

He has survived impossible odds. If his instincts tell him to look about the room, then he should look about the room, she thought to herself.

"I am unfamiliar with what a 'Ringbreaker' is," Hrekkel was saying when Strechen returned her attention to the meeting of the defacto leaders of the Dra.Falten delegation.

"It will be explained in the briefing," the Lord Captain stated. He gave a subdued expression of pleasure. "We hope it will be illuminating. While normally our two species would meet through politicians and diplomats, with the Mar-gite swarming your systems, we don't have time for discussions on what the definition of 'is is' or any other such hair splitting."

Hrekkel nodded.

"Will the Mar-gite be explained to us?" Leeu asked.

The Lord Captain nodded. "The briefing will explain quite bit," he gave another expression of subdued pleasure. "While you are attending the briefing, we will prepare living quarters for you. Do you cohabitate, live in single person units? Should your quarters contain private bathing areas, private dining areas?"

Leeu put her hand on Hrekke's forearm.

"One living quarters for myself and my charge," she said. She pointed at the XO. "One for her," then turned to Strechen. "And you?"

"Adjoining," Strechen said.

The Lord Captain nodded.

"Private dining and bathing quarters, if that is possible," Leeu stated.

The Lord Captain nodded. "It is."

There was silence for a moment.

"If you will follow me, I will escort you through the mandatory medical examination, then the briefing," Caoimhe stated. "I have been assigned as your liaison, should you need anything, do not hesitate to ask."

Strechen had to admit the idea of medical examinations made her nervous as the small group followed Caoimhe through the ship's corridors.

Strechen noted how Tawtchee kept looking at everything and tried to emulate him.

The first thing was, she understood why the corridors were so wide. The Lord Knight Ringbreaker had been just over three meters tall and a meter wide. While the rest were at roughly two point five meters tall, all of them were large and bulky, even if they gave the impression of being short and squat.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Pipes and conduits were along the top of the passages, or at the bottom corners, or moving straight up the walls. Most of them had stencils that made no sense to Strechen, but she knew that they undoubtedly made sense to the Terran Damage Control personnel. There were stencils and pop-out holograms on the walls, the holograms all in red and silver.

Halfway to the medical checks she suddenly realized she could read the popup holograms. They were usually labels for what lay beyond doors, what section of the ship the group was in, what deck.

She quickly figured out that the ship was divided up into 'bulkhead' or 'frame' numbers and deck numbers, as well as compartment number and a letter designation. At one point she saw a wireframe and looked at it closely as she passed it. It was a navigation aid to assist someone in navigating the ship, using something called a 'bullseye' method.

Deck number, Frame/Bulkhead Number, compartment or passage's position relative to the 'center line' of the ship, then the compartment's function. Decks above the "Primary Deck" started with a zero, decks below the "Primary Deck" did not, signifying the difference between two decks above the primary deck (02) and two decks below (2).

It was oddly simple as Strechen thought about it. Simpler than her own people's method of naming twisting corridors and working from there. That made navigating each ship of the Dra.Falten Empire a unique task.

She nodded to herself as they slowed down and pressed against the wall so a work party carrying crates moved by.

She didn't know why, but part of her had expected the ship to be lit by candles and oil lamps, with the corridors dark and possibly made of wood. Instead, everything was brightly lit by ambient light as well as soft white light, the decks either brushed steel or painted. The ceiling was off-white, the walls were light gray, the floors dark gray. At first she wondered why, then realized that having different colors would help with navigation and orientation if the gravity gave out.

It made her brux her teeth thoughtfully as she considered the reasonings for it and how the Terrans might have decided to adopt such a simple system.

Finally they reached the medical center and Strechen was happy to see that her concerns of rusty saw blades, repurposed gardening implements, and long dull needles were just anxiety driven fears.

The medical center looked like any modern Dra.Falten medical center.

Except it was manned entirely by Terrans.

The expected invasive examination didn't happen. The Dra.Falten were asked to walk between two smartglass plates, then to inhale and exhale in a mask, then spit into a container.

They didn't even have to undress.

The small group had just finished when one of the Terrans came up.

"Who is responsible for... uh... Male-9912743," the male Terran asked.

Again, Strechen sensed a flash of disgust and wondered what was causing it.

"I am," Strechen said before any could answer.

"Are you authorized to be given medical information and make medical decisions upon his behalf?" the Terran asked.

"I am," Strechen said.

"I need to speak to Imperial Expediter First Class Ee'eerlee'u," another Terran said, waving from behind her desk.

"Can I speak to Senior Scientist Hrekkel?" another Terran asked from behind a desk.

"It appears they wish to discuss The Detainee's gifts to us," Hrekkel chuckled.

Leeu just nodded, bruxing her back teeth.

Strechen followed the male Terran, waving at Tawtchee to join her. She sat down with Tawtchee, facing the Terran.

"Do you consent to Field Captain Strechen being informed of medical information and making medical decisions on your behalf, Male-9912743?" the male Terran asked.

"I am," Tawtchee said.

"You may call him Tawtchee," Strechen said. She straightened up slightly. "I would prefer you did so."

The Terran nodded, seeming to relax slightly despite there being no outward physical change in his posture or expression.

"Tawtchee has undergone massive nanite medical reconstruction fairly recently," the Terran said. "They're old LARP world nanites, probably from an old World Engine, but whoever did the reconstruction did an excellent job," he brought up a wireframe of Tawtchee's body. "Additionally, there is scar tissue on his back that corresponds to a map," the Terran gave a grin. "A map to my people, to be exact."

Strechen nodded.

"Whoever did the nanotech medical liked you," the Terran said to Tawtchee. "They were also highly skilled. You showed signifigant wear on your joint cartilege, bone density depletion, partially treated old injuries, nerve damage, and other problems," the Terran looked at Strechen, his mouth tightening slightly. "Problems often associated with what we call 'short bake clones'."

Strechen frowned. "He was grown in a creche, but I do not think he is a clone," she said. "Almost all males are grown in creches."

The Terran nodded slowly, looking at Tawtchee. "The person who did your medical repairs was nice enough to leave standard Confederate Medical Coding on two of your cervical vertebrae."

"The Sorceress Surscee, Second Guardian of the Path of the Traveler," Tawtchee said, his voice quiet.

The Terran raised one eyebrow. "That explains it," he looked at Strechen. "Your own medical scans show no immediate needed treatment," he tapped his finger on the desk. "However, it appears you have a congenital heart defect in your genetic line. If you wish, we can give you an injection to repair that."

Strechen bruxed her back teeth and twitched her ears in agreement.

"I need you to state it verbally," the Terran said.

"I would appreciate such medical attention," Strechen said.

The Terran waved at another medical Terran, who came over, put a device against her arm, and triggered it. A cool feeling raced down her vein in her arm.

"Done," the Terran said.

"You know about Surscee?" Tawtchee asked.

The Terran stared for a moment then nodded. "Her mother, Lady Keena, was with our Second Founding Patron during the Assault on Afterlife. He spoke of Surscee's Matron several times in his recordings and writings."

"Ah," Strechen said, pretending that the simple explanation explained it all.

"It was good to meet you. With any luck, we will not meet outside of social interactions," the Terran said.

Strechen knew a dismissal when she heard it.

"And to you too," she said, getting up from the chair. She joined the former XO, standing by the wall.

Whatever the Terrans were discussing with Hrekkel and Leeu, it took long enough that the Terrans led the former XO, Tawtchee, and Strechen to some chairs in a comfortable waiting room.

"Sorry about that," Hrekkel said when they finally came into the waiting room.

Strechen kicked Tawtchee's foot to wake him up.

"The Detainee rebuilt us according to her whims," Leeu said softly. "More than we ever even suspected."

Hrekkel reached out and took Leeu's hand, rubbing it gently.

The Terran female, Caoimhe, then led them to a corridor that smelled faintly of fresh enamel. There were multiple doors off the short corridor, which terminated in heavy blast doors.

Strechen immediately noticed that the air felt oddly thinner. Not as in 'hard to breathe' thinner, but like it was missing something that Strechen hadn't been aware of.

"Your quarters are labeled. You also have a common room to meet," Caoimhe said. She gave one of the tight lipped smiles. "You are undoubtably fatigued and wish relaxation or rest periods to regain your strength."

Leeu nodded. "I thank you and please extend my gratitude to the Lord Captain."

"I shall," Caoimhe said. "Till we next meet."

With that, she left, leaving the five Dra.Falten standing in the hallway.

"Well, that felt rude," Commander Navelu'uee said. She looked at the doors. "Why just leave us here."

There was silence a moment.

"It's a test," Tawtchee said.

Strechen saw the XO hide her sneer.

"To see if we just stand here like dumb herbivore herd animals or if we show initiative and independent action," Tawtchee said.

Hrekkel just nodded, smiling and brushing his whiskers.

Tawtchee moved down the corridor, looking at the holograms that sprang from the doors above the yellow rectangles that contained writing.

"This one is mine," Tawtchee said. He pointed at the door a little further down the hall. "That one's Field Captain Strechen's," he pointed across. "That one is yours, Commander," he pointed at the one across from Strechen's. "That one is Hrekkel and Leeu's."

Before Strechen could say anything Tawtchee waved his hand in front of the hologram being projected over the yellow rectangle that had black runes inside of it, then vanished inside when the door opened.

Strechen followed, honestly not expecting much room. Her stateroom aboard the other ship had been lavish in regards to space.

She stopped and stared.

It was at least ten meters wide and fifteen meters deep. There was a comfortable looking couch, coffee table, a counter, a kitchen in the back, with two open doors, one leading to a lavish bedroom, the other to an equally lavish refreshing chamber.

The door in the middle of the unblemished wall opened and Tawtchee stood there.

"if these rooms and what we have seen so far doesn't scare you, Field Captain," Tawtchee said. He triggered the door and it slowly shut. He spoke right before the door shut.

"It should."