Mako followed the general through the tunnel and finally saw Tedexa Goran firsthand. It was an odd feeling. The city felt both smaller and bigger from this perspective. Smaller in that this small part of the city was tucked into this domed artificial cavern. And yet larger because it was shocking how much they managed to fit in here. He could also see that the cavern wasn’t circular in shape. It was oblong and the portal bissected the cavern 2/3s of the way to the end. Mako set his onboard systems to take measurements.
The cavern itself consisted of about 6 acres of floorspace on this side of the portal. There were buildings crawling up each wall. Those structures were almost universally 3 stories high. Then the curve of the dome made additional height too impractical. There were the other white domed buildings that made up most of the central area. And they were heading toward a large triple domed building just on this side of the portal.
The buildings were packed close together. The streets that ran between the building were narrow at 2-3 meters in width. Doors were closing and curtains in windows were rippling as people peeked through them to look at the humans. He wondered if the fear was due to the presence of the humans or the Shins.
Mako contemplated what this place smelled like. It wasn’t filthy, but it was a densely packed living space. He wasn’t going to undo the seal of his helmet to find out though. Mahina’s words came back to him. Now is the time to make mistakes.
He reached up and undid the seal and removed his helmet. The smell was earthy, and pungent. He caught the scent of something like potent cooking spices, the fragrance of grass and pine, along with the underlying odor he expected of waste and urine. He had to admit. The whiff of excretia was far less potent than he expected. There was a complete absence of the aroma of unwashed humanity. There was a breeze as well. It was almost as if the breeze was consistently purging the air.
Maybe humans just stink? He mused.
The main building had a much larger main dome with two smaller domes, one on each side of the entrance. The smaller domes were still significantly larger than the next largest structures. The largest dome nearly reached the ceiling of the cavern.
As they entered the large ornate doors, they found themselves in a lobby area with lesser ornate doors on each side and another set of large golden doors in front of them. The guards at the doors opened them at the General’s approach.
Inside was a long hall. The interior was a rectangular hall that did not represent the round architecture of the exterior at all. At the end of the hall was a dais with the stool upon which sat the Dominant. There were 2 squads of adepts. One lining each of the longer walls of the hall. There were a few other elaborately armored Shins standing on each side of the throne but facing the entering humans. There was a total of 6 others.
The General marched with purpose to the end of the hall. The 2 adepts that were behind him stopped and turned, crossing their spears in front of the humans. The humans took the hint. All of the Shins that were not guards turned to face the Dominant, knelt on one knee, bowed their heads.
Interesting how some things seem to be universal. There is always someone that needs to be made greater by making others lesser.
The humans did not kneel.
Mako still held his helmet under his left arm. He held the gaze with the Dominant for some time. It became uncomfortable, but Mako wasn’t going to crack.
The Dominant stood and walked forward. Mako could see they were very large compared to most other Shins he had met. The Dominant was at least 180cm. This put them a full head higher than most other Shins. Theen would have been about half a head shorter.
When the Dominant stepped toward the crossed spears, they parted without a command. The Dominant stepped up to Mako. They looked over Mako without comment.
“I am the Dominant of Tedexa Goran, the first outpost of the Shing’risgi Empire on this world, Risgurani. Who are you? And why have you come here?”
The tone of the Dominant was probably the most diplomatic he had heard from any Shin. There were no threats and while clearly, they were trying for intimidation, it wasn’t so overt as Theen or Sigroth.
“I am Mako Nagata, the Defense Archon of the Colony Ship Oracle. We are here to meet with you as we have already had a couple of encounters with your people, none of them have ended well. We also want to make our intentions clear about this world and the Dwellers.”
The Dominant’s head shifted up slightly and they turned and walked back to their stool and sat. The rest of the Shins took this as a sign to rise and they also turned to face the humans. The General stepped up on the dais and stood to the right of the Dominant.
“Are you the ones who defeated Nawrok Theen and two squads of spear adepts?”
“We are and we did. I should add that we only attempted to defend ourselves. Theen attacked us without warning or provocation. Just as Sigroth did. We are hoping that by coming to you we can end the conflict before it begins in earnest.”
“You must have had many warriors to have defeated so many and Nawrok Theen, who is one that wields significant power.”
“There were 6 of us when we were attacked. When we had all but defeated Theen, we had 8 more ‘warriors’,” Mako used their parlance, “join us. That was when Theen ran away.”
There was some tense shifting by many of the Shins in the rooms. Except for the adepts, who remained impassive and unmoving.
The Dominant asked, "And how many of your people died?"
"We kind of lost three people."
"Kind of?"
"They got better."
The Dominant looked up at General Sorodexis Drarok. Sorodexis returned a gesture that was similar to the Dwellers gesture to indicate what was a head shake to humans. It appeared the General was disagreeing with something.
“Would you like to see the incident?” Mako asked.
The Dominant glanced at Mako. “How would you accomplish that?”
“I have a recording of the incident. And I can,” Mako looked for a suitable wall, “project it onto that wall.”
The Dominant’s shoulders pulled back. “Ree-cord-deeng?”
“We have the ability to capture events as that happen so that we can look back at them.” He tried to explain. “Instead of someone writing it down, the light and sound are captured.”
“Perhaps, it is like a memory crystal.” One of the other advisors offered.
“How many can use it?” Dominant asked.
“We will all be able to see the projection.”
The Dominant indicated the wall with his hand. The tension was palpable in the room. They almost assuredly believed this was a ploy to attack them.
Instead, Mako pulled an orb smaller than a drone out from a pack on his waist. He connected to the projector with his implants. A light came on and he sized the square light to fit the wall and the vid started to play from where Nawrok and Mako first spotted each other, and it ended with Nawrok holding up Mako on their spikes. Then, the screen went black because the drone was knocked out. But Mako just let them assume he stopped the vid. Mako put the orb away and returned to his position.
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The Dominant and Sorodexis were looking at each other again when Mako made out the shrug from the General.
The Dominant considered the humans for a moment. “None of you have reached the First Reaping. It is inconceivable that you survived that attack. Yet here you stand.” They stood and took a few steps toward Mako.
“The First Reaping?” Mako couldn’t help but ask.
The Dominant waved his hand, “Yes, the First Reaping. Or Gifting as the Dwellers refer to it. Or Acquisition, or Endowment, or however you refer to the gathering of power.”
Mako thought he understood. They hadn’t reached level 18 to receive a Phenotype or a power yet or whatever happens. “Ah, yes, we are still new to the workings of irragen.”
This sent a ripple throughout the room. The Dominant did a double take and stepped toward Mako almost closing the distance between them. “What did you call it?” they demanded.
Mako was hesitant to say more. This was a weird reaction. “Irragen?”
The advisors in the room began feverish, hushed conversations. Mako thought he heard the words ‘curse’ and ‘ghost’ mentioned.
“Where are you from?” The Dominant again demanded.
“I told you. I am from the colony ship Oracle.”
“A colony ship implies that it is a colony starting from someplace else!” The Dominant was just about yelling now. “Where are you from?”
Mako hadn’t considered that this would be the way this conversation went. But now is the time to make mistakes.
“We traveled through space from another world.” Mako fully expected to have to expound on that statement, but you have to start somewhere.
The uproar that was just in progress suddenly came to a dead stop. The Shins appeared as if they didn’t know how to respond.
One of the advisors asked. “Are there more portals on this world?”
Mako wasn’t certain that question was for him until they were all looking at him. “Not to our knowledge.”
“How did you get here?” The Dominant asked again.
Mako tried to figure out how to explain. After some back and forth questioning, Mako understood that the Shins had a concept of stars and planets and orbits. It was one way they had known that Argyra, or Risgurani as they called it, was a different world, since the constellations don’t match. Mako explained that humans traveled through the heavens from another planet around another star.
“And your Earth, doesn’t have irragen?” The Dominant asked. They seemed uncomfortable using the word, irragen.
“It does not.” Mako affirmed.
“Then how were you able to defeat our warriors?” The Dominant asked again.
“The how doesn’t matter as much as the fact that we did. We are capable warriors, and we are only growing stronger. At the same time, we are not interested in war. We came to this world to start a new human civilization. We are open to working with the Shing’risgi.” They literally winced at his pronunciation of their name. “But we have some concerns that need to be addressed. And we are willing to hear any concerns that you might have about our activities in return.”
“And what are your concerns?” The question was offered by the Dominant, if not a little coldly. They were not accustomed to receiving terms.
“First, we cannot allow the harvesting of the Dweller population. They are sentient, sapient beings. For us to permit that would be like allowing humans to be killed and consumed for food. It is not an option.”
“They are a subjugated people. It is our right to demand tribute from them.” The Dominant proclaimed.
“I understand your position. We do not agree with subjugating anyone. But we are willing to meet you part way. They remain subjugated and provide some other form of tribute.”
“Pah!” The Dominant hissed. “They are a weak and pathetic race. They have no useful skills or abilities. They have nothing useful to use except for the meat on their bones and metal inside them.”
“Then we will teach them and improve them so they can offer a worthy tribute.” Mako suggested.
“Why would you do that?” The Dominant asked seeming annoyed that this is even an issue.
“If they are a stronger, smarter, more useful people, everyone wins.” Mako explained. “They get their society, you get your tribute, as they grow perhaps you get more tribute.”
The Dominant seemed to consider the idea. “I do not have the final word on this. I am the leader of Tedexa Goran. A representative of the Shing’risgi empire will have to agree to this.”
“I can understand that. But we would like to wait until a final agreement is made before resuming any further tributes.”
“I can tentatively agree to that, but all missing tributes will have to be made up at some point.”
“Understood.” Mako nodded. “The second thing is we will not try to enforce anything on the world on the other side of the portal. We will concede that our jurisdiction ends upon entering Tedexa Goran. If there are dwellers on that side of the portal, they are outside of our reach of influence.”
The Dominant gestured in agreement and seemed pleased at the concession. Pleased might be too strong a word.
“That said,” Mako knew he was about to drop a bomb. “We will not abide slavery on this world beyond Tedexa Goran.”
The room blew up in angry yells and gestures. The Dominant didn’t engage with the rest of the advisors. Finally, he spoke and commanded them to calm down.
“I certainly cannot agree to that. It is our right as conquerors, to capture and enslave those that are weaker than us. It is like saying we cannot breathe the air around us. We are the Empowered Dominators. Again, a representative from the Empire will have to agree to it.”
Mako caught that Empowered Dominators is what Shing’rigsi meant. “Perhaps we should set up that meeting then. How long will it take for a representative to arrive?”
“One will be here within the month. Although they may need to send for approval. I’ll warn you. To my knowledge such an agreement has never been made. There are no peoples in our world that do not engage in some sort of slavery. It IS the way of the world.”
“I understand. But we will have to try. There will be more details to work out once the Empire representatives arrive. For now, I hope we can agree on a non-aggression pact. Neither of our peoples will engage in hostile acts toward the other. And that we can put the Tribute of the Dwellers on hold until an alternate agreement can be worked out. Are we agreed upon that?”
“On that I can agree.” The Dominant replied.
“Very well.” Mako prepared himself to leave. “I have to say, after the last 2 encounters with your people, I expected this meeting to go in a very different direction. I hope we can continue to work together and perhaps build a civilization unlike anything seen in either world.”
“This has been a meeting unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I wish your people the best of fortunes on your endeavor to create a new home.”
That statement felt remarkably out of character for the Dominant. It felt out of character for the Shins in general. Suddenly, this all felt... like theater. Time will tell.
“I do have one more question. If I may?” Mako asked.
“Of course.” The Dominant motioned with a hand to continue.
“Why was the word ‘irragen’ alarming?”
The Dominant glanced at their advisors. If there was any response, Mako didn’t catch it.
“The word ‘irragen’ was used by the previous residents of this world.”
“And what happened to them?”
“They no longer exist. It was surprising to hear your use of a word that was only ever used by them, a people that were thought to be long extinct.”
“Do you know how they became extinct?”
The Dominant performed a halfhearted shrug. “It all happened long before I came to power here. It happened long before I even existed. I don’t know more than vague rumors of histories. Supposedly, they were not able to adapt to the power that was loosed on their world. Perhaps they were weak? Perhaps they were already on the verge of dying out? I simply do not know.”
Mako nodded while contemplating the response. “And if you do not use the word ‘irragen’, what word do you use?”
“The concept of irragen has many different names and perhaps slightly different concepts among different races. It is essentially energy or power wielded by a living being. Although it can be transferred to inanimate objects. And it is sometimes called that, energy or power. It is also known as essence, force, prana, mojo, and chi. Some of those are common enough words, we, along with most of the greater races of our world, call it mana.”
----------------------------------------
Greezee was landing as they exited the tunnel leading out of the mountain. They quickly boarded and took off again.
The leadership had been listening and watching the whole time.
“That went better than expected.” Achilles said.
“I don’t think they have any intention of agreeing to our terms. If the ‘Dominant’,” Merlin said with a bit of sarcasm, “believed they could kill you or capture you all with a certainty, I think that is the way that meeting would have gone.”
“I tend to agree with Merlin.” Ceridwen said. “I felt like they were just delaying until they could come up with a better plan.”
Mako nodded. "Especially toward the end, it all felt like we were being patted on the head."
“We should keep working on the explosives and still plan on collapsing those tunnels” Hardtack said.
“The proof is in the execution.” Odysseus stated. “We’ll see if they abide with the temporary terms of the agreement. And prepare for the possibility that they do not.”