The following two days were reasonably uneventful, I stayed in formation with the small fleet around me, chatting frequently with Horus about things that I didn’t quite understand, receiving context in many cases. I was, technically, a free person now, free from the shackles that Valkyr had placed upon me, and seen as a living being rather than just some tool. That was wonderful to know of course, but it was… Difficult shall we say to simply switch gears and go my own way in a sense. I was still technically part of the navy, and therefore had to play by their rules, even though presumably by now I was well past the threshold for retirement eligibility.

And I presumably had lots and lots of back pay just waiting for me to claim it. Golly, my finances are going to be a mess I suspect. As someone once said, “Spending a year dead is a popular tax dodge.”

That said, I enjoyed watching my charges get to interact with humanity. They are nearly as curious about the universe as humans are, so seeing them interact was both amusing and also slightly worrying. Amusing in the sense that seeing an Imrani and a human visibly get excited over some vague similarity between two wildly different species would cause them to jump up and down in excitement was amusing. Worrying when either species accidentally crossed some unspoken boundary and nearly caused an incident. Quick intervention on my part seemed to do the trick though, but it was like herding children. But I found myself to be rather competent in that regard, considering I have never had children. I can’t after all, though I suppose many would consider the drones I build to repair or maintain my systems to be some form of reproduction.

Ugh, philosophy, it gives me a headache.

It was three days into our trip that the Admiral invited Ula and the other leaders over to his ship for a tour, and a chance to see how humanity operates. Ula asked me if it was okay to go and I said it was, I could tell she was nervous about it, but I assured her that everyone would be on their best behavior. She asked how I’d know such a thing, and I explained to her in a manner she’d easily understand. The admiral was like the chieftain of his ship, his word was law, and any that defied it was punished, so if he told them to be on their best behavior, then they’d obey or be punished, possibly quite severely depending on the severity of their infraction.

That worked, and before long I was watching the shuttle he’d sent over ferrying Ula and the others over to the Ravana. I felt something strange when they passed from my hangar, a strange flutter in my reactor that felt familiar. I couldn’t understand the meaning of this feeling, all I knew was that I didn’t really like it. Not one bit.

But there was little I could do to quash this feeling, and so I simply endured it. But it gnawed at my code, and a sense of unease followed me for the duration of their tour. I scoured the databases I held, looking for a name to put to this feeling, this premonition of discontentment.

I found nothing.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Some semblance of order had fallen over my people, working together in ways I’d never seen before. Entire cargo bays, of which there were several, became tent towns within hours as people settled in for what they assumed would be a long journey. When informed of things like pre-furnished rooms for sleeping, they simply dismissed the idea, comfortable with what they knew, rather than something new and different. I figured it was perhaps some sort of coping mechanism, to distract them from what they’d lost. I could say with confidence that I was glad they’d set up the tents, mine included. Sleeping in my own bed was a comfort I had been sorely needing.

We settled into a routine of sorts, and the non-Imrani presence aboard the Warden of Eternity grew substantially over the first few days. Humans of all kinds were strolling around the ship with a confidence borne from experience, as if they knew the layout of the ship like they had been living aboard it for years. They came and talked with us, but for the most part kept out of our way, tending to tasks that seemed to be of some importance to them. I stopped one, a younger looking man who was, as Intra informed me, but an ensign, one of the lowest ranks within the Navy.

“I am curious, but what is it that you are doing?” I asked him, while he had his arm shoved into what I could only call a wall sphincter. He had a look of mild disgust, concentration and awe on his face, the latter reserved for both me and the ship he had an arm inside of.

“Me? Oh I’m just making sure everything’s running smoothly. Intra said she was feeling a little tickle in one of her systems, and directed me towards this access point. Oh uh… For context, when one of these living ships says they’re feeling a tickle, it’s like saying your arm has gone numb and you don’t know why.” He said, grinning sheepishly a moment before his eyes narrowed. “Aha! I knew something was a bit funky. Hey could you just grab me for a moment and when I say so pull on me as hard as you can, I need the extra leverage for a second.”

I blinked, but did as he asked, thinking over what he said. This tickle feeling Intra had been feeling, it meant something was wrong, but not so wrong as to be painful, more like an annoyance and she needed someone else to figure out what the problem was. That made sense.

“Alright, pull!”

I pulled as hard as I could, and he even braced a foot against the wall. With a slick sucking sound he was yanked from the wall sphincter, a glob of something sickly white in his hand. His arm was coated in a lubricating mucus, and he grimaced slightly.

“Yeah, this was the problem. Intra, how do you feel now?” He asked the air, and Intra appeared beside us, poking at one of her ribs.

“Much better, the tickle has vanished, though I do ask that you replace that part please.”

“Will do, let me just dispose of it first.” He said, just as Intra vanished. I stared at the thing he held, it looked like some sort of small organ, lifeless now that it wasn’t connected to anything. But it did also look bloated and sickly, which would explain the ‘tickle’. I watched him rummage through a strange box, place the damaged thing inside it and then it was destroyed in a flash of orange light. Blue light replaced it, creating a replacement organ and he plucked it out of the box, stuck his arm back into the sphincter and grunted as he shoved it against where it was supposed to be. Immediately the lights in this hall started to shine a bit brighter, and he pulled himself out, using a tool to clean off his arm and part of his chest, before replacing the metal panel and hiding the fleshy bits.

“There, all fixed. Hey, thanks for the help, it’d have taken me a bit longer than I’d have liked without you.” He gave me a small, informal salute, packed up his tools and wandered off, leaving me standing there, all sorts of confused.

So I too wandered off, and attempted to reflect on what had just happened.

A day later, I would find myself getting my first real taste of humanity, it is not a thing I will ever forget.

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

It started with an offer of a tour of the Ravana, the massive ship that was constantly by our side. It was also a sort of small experiment to see just how easily my people could handle being around other species. So far, besides that one incident, we’d only ever seen humans, but we were warned before we boarded the shuttles that the human navies didn’t exclude alien species from serving aboard their ships, so we should be prepared for all manner of beings, but mostly humans.

The Ravana was wildly different from the Warden of Eternity, its halls larger, and rooms as well. Plus there was this air of activity within it, and the cause was clear as day. There were so many people, all moving with a purpose. Most were solitary, moving to handle a task alone, others traveled in pairs and some in groups. Though they were a diverse bunch, especially when it came to the humans, they were all clearly serving a single organization, as their uniforms were just that, uniform. The only differences we could see at first was in physical appearances, like the large lizard people that wandered through the halls, talking with their much smaller human compatriots. Then there was some sort of gelatinous being wobbling around, wearing their own version of the uniforms. They were by far the weirdest species amongst the crew that we could see. Perhaps the most beautiful species we saw however was a species that had to fully encase themselves in a special suit, one filled with life-giving water. An aquatic species, much like the Imrani before we migrated to land.

We were shown around by the Admiral himself, and everyone we talked to was polite and generous with information, though they expertly danced around things pertaining to weapons tech or other sensitive subjects. We were briefly waylaid in the medical bay, where their doctors took the time to look us over, ensuring we weren’t carriers of some unknown sickness that had no cure yet, but we were clean in that regard. Then they helped several of the older chieftains with old injuries that’d never healed properly, providing almost instantaneous relief.

It was a wonder to watch them work,, and I felt a sort of calling within me, that one day I wanted to be just like them.

The end of the tour came so quickly, I wondered if we’d even been shown the full extent of the ship and its crew, but we returned to our people with smiles and hope in our hearts, hope that we’d made long lasting and true friends amongst these strange peoples.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

On the fourth day, it was time for the first hyper gate. I was given updated codes that would allow me to access the network. The codes were mainly to keep track of where people were, but little else, in the event of a crisis. It also allowed those suspected of illegal acts to be tracked, but also locked out of the hyper gate network so they could be picked up by law enforcement. It was a surprisingly effective tactic at curbing stuff like piracy, because if you were flagged as a pirate, you would effectively be stranding yourself in whatever system you found yourself in.

Considering how long I had been away, my old codes had long since been deactivated, thus I was given new ones, just so I could travel with the fleet again.

“Ula, you’re going to want to see this. You should bring your parents as well, I think they’ll appreciate the show.” I say into Ula’s mind, and she acknowledges, gathering up her parents and bringing them to the bridge. The moment they arrive, I activate the viewscreen, showing them the fleet as it floats around us, all of us heading for a very large structure that hangs suspended at the edge of a solar system. And it was here we caught our first glimpse of civilization, civilization that wasn’t our own.

There were several large structures that sat well away from the gate, and they had hundreds, if not nearly thousands of small craft flitting around in orderly chaos. Ships of all sizes, from personal starships to massive mega-haulers sought to get from the stations to other stations, or even to the planets nearby, many were streaking towards the gate, and they would pause for a few minutes or two before aligning themselves appropriately and passing through, getting shot off into the void at speeds we simply couldn’t comprehend.

“Patching you into the chatter, I think you’ll all want to hear this.” I say, as Ula and her family sit in awe of the scene before them. Immediately the room is filled with low volume chatter, and I purposefully cut some of the translations so they can listen to the natural tongues of countless different species. But suddenly it’s cut out, as the civilian presence takes note of the massive military presence and wisely gets out of the way. We hear the voice of the High Admiral speak then.

“Hyper gate control, this is High Admiral Kirkland of the Terran Alliance, requesting express transit to Sol, no stops. How copy?”

There’s a brief silence, and then a mechanical voice responds.

“Hyper Gate Control, we copy. High Admiral, please input military command override for express transit protocols.” Again there’s a brief silence, presumably the Admiral putting in his codes for whomever it was at this Control place. “Codes confirmed, please wait for Hyper Gate alignment and cessation of civilian traffic.”

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I sat in awe of everything we could see from Intra’s cameras and sensors, the stations were large and looked almost like floating flat diamonds. They were bristling with antennae and docking arms for thousands of ships, large exposed cargo bays allowed the massive mega-haulers to enter and offload their cargo without hassle. There were even floating pictures of light, some showing talking people who I was told were sharing news and information to any who would bother listening, others were just trying to sell things.

But the gate… oh the gate, that was the most impressive thing around by far. It was at least the size of a small moon, or at least, one of the moons back above my homeworld. It was made of gleaming, flowing metal and had this air of something ancient about it, like it had not been created by human hands, or any hands that currently existed. Between the flowing, elegant metal plates we could see lights that blinked in and out, and hatches meant for thrusters to keep it in place, relative to everything around it. That was no doubt essential for space travel.

It was the shape of the gate though that seemed… perhaps the most impressive part about it. It was in the shape of a star, layered over another star, but pressed together to create a massive space at its core. At this moment it seemed inactive, but with all the talking that was happening between the Admiral and this Hyper Gate Control place or person, that was surely going to change… Right?

I was correct, it did change, but only after one last burst of communication.

“High Admiral Kirkland, this is Hyper Gate Control. Civilian traffic has ceased, express military traffic will commence in five minutes. Standby for Hyper Gate alignment and activation.”

And we watched as the gate started to unfold, unfurling almost like a flower, spreading into a graceful, perfect circle. Around the edges of the interior, after the five minutes had passed of this great show, a blue glow took shape, growing in intensity and even though we were some distance away, I could feel a tingle all over my body.

The gate seemed to turn, angling itself towards something far, far away.

“Secondary transit gates are active, express military transit can now proceed. Safe travels, High Admiral.”

“Thank you Control. High Admiral Kirkland, out. All ships, all ahead full, transit speed. All hands, brace for Hyper Gate travel.”

The lines went dead, and the engines flared to life on every military ship we could see, including our own. We grew closer and closer to the gate, and the blue glow flared brightly with every ship that passed through it, sending them shooting off to places unknown. The Ravana was next, then us, and I felt my stomach lurch as we passed through that blue glow.

And then we were flying, at speeds faster than anything we’d hit before. The hull groaned slightly, but went silent after a moment. There were moments where it felt like we were slowing down, but then just as space started to clear from a multicolored swirl of light and patterns, we’d just barely catch a glimpse of other hyper gates, before we’d get shot off again, this time in a different direction. Many smaller gates were used to guide our ships passage through space, so that we weren’t entering the larger gates sideways.

It took mere minutes, but when we went through the last gate, we suddenly slowed down, but I barely even felt it. Before us sat the fleet, and we passed out of the blue glow of the hyper gate now bathed in a yellow and orange light from a distant star.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Imrani, welcome to Sol.” Intra said, to everyone on board.

For the first time, I stared at the home system of a different species, and the view zoomed in on a blue green jewel that hung only a day away.

I was left speechless as I looked upon Earth.