The Beacon (Closed, FT)

[Altaro]

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GALACTIC SECTOR MM7 PLURAL T GAMMA
Low Orbit - ERROR
---

---

Their ship was dying. They had enough fuel to move themselves into orbit around the small planet, but not enough to land it. They had come almost 5,000 light years, all for naught.

Captain Bartlett walked across the bridge of the Savior, looking over the flickering control panels. The readouts of the planet below came across the screen: Life-bearing, plenty of oxygen, plentiful water. It had been their target for almost 70 years. All it took to ruin that was a grain of sand moving at many hundreds of thousands of kilometers per hour. It had punched straight through the hull and taken out almost half of the colonists in suspended animation before proceeding to damage the reactor. It had taken almost a week to get the ship back in a navigable state, and now, even that wasn't enough.

He opened the log and started speaking. "Approximate year is...2587 Æ. No ability to read day or month. I am recording this on the precipice of mankind's extinction.

"We traveled almost 5,000 lightyears from our home. Driven out by them...the Anthros. We had thought we could live in peace. We misjudged. And now, our former co-habitants of the planet have driven us almost all the way across the Galaxy to start over. But now we won't.

"My name is Captain Maven Bartlett. I was the commander of the Savior from its departure from our homeworld, and I will go down with my ship. None of us will survive. I am recording this message in the hopes that it may someday be found. By who, I don't know. Perhaps some relative of the Sergals. Maybe the Anthros will find this and gloat in their final victory. Maybe a sentient fungus. All we know is that we were not alone.

"Someday, maybe we will be found. Today...is not that day."

He closed the logbook. Outside the windows of the bridge, he could see the friction from the upper atmosphere was already starting to slow the ship. They were going to crash. That much was certain.

---

Over the skies of the planet, a massive light flashed by. A kilometer-long object burned through the atmosphere, coming down from orbit. Just 1,000 meters above the ground, the object exploded violently. This was followed by another, even greater explosion. For kilometers around, the shockwave obliterated the forest below, burning everything. What remained of the object smashed into the ground, excavating a crater thousands of meters wide. When the dust cleared, metal was strewn across the crash site. Nothing remained excepting scrap.

Except for one part.

A small blackbox registered that it had completed the crash-landing, and began beeping. It beeped across all of the electromagnetic spectrum, sending out a wall of noise that began echoing through the solar system of the small planet. A single, continuous noise began to fill a void around the solar system. Within just a few years, it had come to create a massive sphere of noise dozens of light years in diameter. As time went on, it kept beeping. The battery it was equipped with would make it last for thousands of years.

It kept beeping. It didn't know if anyone would hear it. It didn't know if anyone was there. It kept beeping.

But no one was listening.

[Perseid Federation]

Vlemmia-class Destroyer APO Natria [DD-387]
Thalassa Apophones, Alpha Quadrant — circa 771 XS

---

The Sea of Voices.

Ever so noisy with the sounds of pulsars and neutron stars, it was a noisy symphony of blips and blops on the scanner of the Perseid destroyer. Beepity-beepity-beep went the scanner, and the star map flashed with green dots that would probably give one a seizure. To Captain Gustas Asikis, that sound was getting really annoying—he even had it on mute. Why would Nephos even think of making such noises out here in this part of space? Was it because he wanted some kind of orchestra playing in the Perseid Federation's backyard? The gods were indeed hard to understand, no matter how much he rubbed his necklace that had the symbol of the Theognostic faith as an ornament.

Maybe the Eccleserion was just as hard to understand as the gods were, and most certainly the Perseid Space Exporation Agency was losing its head. A distress signal? Out here in this mess? They have got to be kidding. Finding signs of extraterrestrial life through the regulated pulses of radio waves would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But what can he do about it? The Astronautikon had dispatched a ship—his ship—to investigate the disturbance in the direction of Lamprinas. So far, nothing. The stars weren't going to reveal their little needle to him, at least not yet. His fellow officers were still fixing their eyes on their monitors, looking for that special object PSEA was searching for. At this rate they were going to be requiring glasses, due to the intense radiation the holograpic screens were giving off.

Gustas was beginning to get frustrated, and felt like that was all that he needed to do today. He wore his necklace and began to lean forward to get off his chair. Clasping his hands together, he said, "That's going to be all for me. I'm returning to my quarters."

"Permission to speak sir?" spoke up an operator.

The captain rubbed his temples. "Permission granted. This better be worth another two minutes of my time, Rachiotis."

"Y-you might want to see this," the man stuttered. "We got a distress signal playing in all bands. The scanners are going crazy, sir. We might have detected signs of intelligent life."

Gustas was clearly unsettled. They had found extraterrestrials already? Out here? How was that possible? Whatever it was, he had to know. Disregarding the fact that he needed to call it a day, Gustas turned about-face and approached the operator's console. He bent down a little and stared at the star map, squinting his eyes at it, and there it was. It was a distinctive blip flashing over a dot designated KP 9115, not too far from the Vlemmia's current position. It was flashing at a slightly faster pace compared to the stars of the surrounding Sea. How serendipitous, he thought to himself. He went back to his chair in the middle of the room plopped into his seat. "Start a course for KP 9115," he commanded the rest of the crew in the CIC. "Ready the Valkanas Drive."

"Aye, captain," another operator slowly slid her fingers on the console. "Currently charging at 20%. 30%. 40%." The number kept on rising, and so did the pitch of the ship's superluminal drives. Everyone in the room was starting to get nervous, including Gustas. All that the captain could do now was stare at the screen in front of him, rubbing his thumb and index finger on his necklace.

"80%. 90%. We are at 100% full potential, ready for superluminal jump."

It was at that moment that the lights died down, and the hum of the ship stopped. A deafening bang resonated throughout the room as the Natria was beginning to be covered with streaks of light. The entire CIC was feeling a light tremor, and the operators were holding on to the rails built on their control panels. Gustas was feeling the shaking as well, grasping onto his seat like his life depended on it. A shrieking sound akin to that of banshees roared—a very unpleasant tone to the ears of the Perseids as lights of all sorts of colors streaked past the ship in a beautiful display of luminance. This went on for a few minutes before the ship had finally rested from superluminal travel and arrived in the influence of KP 9115.

"Valkanas Drive deactivated, slowing down our current velocity."

The star in the distance was the brightest object that could be seen for millions, even billions of kilometers—a welcome sight from the almost enigmatic void they were in minutes and light years ago. The ship emitted its reverse thrusters, slowing the ship down on its approach towards KP 9115. The distress signal seemed to be growing stronger and stronger as they approached, meaning that they were on the right track. The signal led them to a seemingly unassuming bluish-green planet that resembled Xenia. It was just out there in the midst of space, visible to the Perseids through its albedo. The scanners had given a similar report on the planet's description—this KP 9115 a was indeed a habitable planet to live in, and most likely the only one orbiting around its home star. And where there is an atmosphere and bodies of water, there must be life. The anticipation was building.

The Natria slowed itself in order to enter into an orbit around the planet, taking a few hours to do so. Now was the more daunting task ahead of them: search for where that distress signal came from. It didn't take them long, as the ship was orbiting right over the spot by several hundred kilometers. "Rachiotis," Gustas stood and turned his head toward the operator. "Ready a landing party to investigate on the ground."

"Yes, sir."

Guess this was finally it for today. He got off his seat and went for the door, and began to make the long way back to his quarters.

---

"Natria this is Skoumpri 1," contacted Evis Rigopoulos as he piloted the dropship, "beginning our descent to point Alpha."

Reentry can be a pretty scary experience, especially if the dropship might be going too fast. But Evis and his companions were used to it. After all, they have done several landings on different worlds multiple times, and the friction of the atmosphere only charred the paint. Of course, they weren't at all fearless—in fact the Perseids were holding on to their seatbelts for dear life as the ship was glazed with a searing warm light from the fire outside. They could feel the craft vibrate as the ship gradually gained speed, further adding to the anxiety of the passengers. One of them was even screaming at the top of his lungs. Would they make it down there? They were more or less going in there blind. The altitude kept on dropping, and the dropship was firing off short bursts from its thrusters to slow down. 20,000 meters. 15,000 meters. 10,000 meters. They were almost there.

He was astonished at what was before his eyes. What met them in the jungle was the ruins of a large ship that crashed here. They have never seen anything like this before. Scraps of metal were everywhere, scattered all around what was left of the hull. Not only that, Evis and his co-pilot could make out a trench that was excavated as the alien ship crashed and burn. The Perseid dropship landed on part of the ground that had been carved out by the crashed vessel. They could feel it touching down, jolting the passengers. The distress signals wasn't far from here, but they weren't going to be sure this world was accepting of them. Evis reported back to the mothership, "Skoumpri 1 reporting, Team Skoumpri has landed, I repeat, Skoumpri has landed. Commencing mission momentarily."

"Roger that, Skoumpri 1. May the gods be with you, over."

He stood up and faced the others. Skipping over the usual formalities he said, "The device emitting that distress signal is around 1,138 meters from our current position. It's not far, but you should stick by your fellows at all times. We don't know what this jungle is capable of, understood?"

"Yes sir!" the others yelled as one man. The rear hatch opened, revealing a jungle environment that was foreign and possibly hostile. The light of KP 9115 radiated over the surface, warming the planet with a yellow-whitish glow. The sky was as azure as it was in Xenia, with some clouds floating up there. The Perseids exited their craft and began to cautiously near the alien vessel. Arriving at the crash site, Evis turned and said to them, "Search for the blackbox and any survivors."

Minutes of searching through the wreckage, and the Perseids could find no aliens that were alive. The bodies that they could find were lifeless and lying all over the place. Something was familiar about these aliens—especially about their eerily similar humanoid physique. Evis bent his knee to try to get the helmet off of the corpse's head. Struggling with his might, he removed it and found that the aliens were actually human. This dead man had brown hair and olive eyes, and a brownish complexion about his face. The wound on his head was clotted with blood, and some of the ochre had rushed down his left cheek. Guess this was an exploration mission gone wrong, Evis presumed as he closed the man's eyelids. "Sir!" another Perseid called out to him.

"Yes?" Evis turned his head and straightened himself up.

"We have retrieved the blackbox," he showed a metal box to him. Despite some scratches on the paint, as well as one side being warped by the impact of the crash, it was pretty much intact.

That was all the landing party was here for. "Tell the others to return to the ship."

"Yes, sir," the man bowed.

On the ship, the blackbox's casing was removed, revealing some kind of alien architecture. What was this? Perseid blackboxes weren't built like this. The day turned to night, and the investigators were working hard to hopefully find out what happened to the ship. Will it give them some answers?

[Altaro]

SYS ACTV
DTE: 00/00/0000
DTE ACQ FAIL
INT SYSCHK
CHRG: 99.9997826
MEM BANKS: INTCT
PHYS INTEG: INTCT
SYSCHK CMPLT

The blackbox could not feel. It could hardly think. It could barely sense anything. And one of the few things it had been programmed to sense was when it had been picked up by something. It had no way of knowing what had picked it up, be it an animal, whether it was being blown about by a strong wind, or whether it had actually been found. All it could tell was that it had been picked up. It followed its programming faithfully, and began reactivating its memory banks. Everything was being made ready to download.

---

GALACTIC SECTOR YYS ACTIVE K DELTA
Akai L1 Orbital Point - 13 Ni 2604
11:39

---

Mitsunomo Hiroshi maneuvered himself around the bulk of the space station, looking over the instrument panels beeping away. Everything seemed to be in order. A noise buzzed into his ears. "Come on, Hiroshi. We don't have all day here. What's the problem with the coolant systems?"

"Nothing seems to be wrong here. Are you sure the computer didn't glitch out?"

"Fine, I'll check again."

"If I'm right, you owe me two rice rations."

"Deal." The voice cut out, and Hiroshi went back to looking over the panel. The coolant systems were reporting that everything was perfectly normal. The temperature was being kept down to their normal 13 C, both the main tanks and the reserve tanks were either almost full or were full, and the system wasn't saying anything about overheating. Just to try and confirm it entirely in his mind, he put his hand up to the panel and tried to feel through his glove. The insulation was doing its job to well to feel anything, so at least his suit was working properly.

The com link beeped in his ears. There was silence for a bit, then a voice. "...I misread the data."

Hiroshi smiled. "Looks like I win."

"Fine, you get double rice rations. Just get back in here so we can get going."

Hiroshi flipped on the EVA thrusters and moved around to the airlock just a few feet down the length of the shuttle. The outer door opened, and closed behind him. Once the interior had pressurized enough, he took off his helmet and stripped down to his body suit.

By almost all accounts, he looked very Human. This comparison was betrayed by the fact that his head looked almost exactly like a coyote's, and that he was covered in fur that alternated patches of brown, grey, and tan. A bushy tail emerged behind him, and tall, pointy ears came out over his head. Finally free of the confines of the suit, he touched down on the floor and began walking down the length of the ship towards the crew's quarters. Sure enough, there was Matsū, going through her bags. "Now how about that rice?"

Without looking back at him, the woman tossed a package of dry rice over her shoulder at him. He caught it with one hand, and smiled. "Thank you very much."

Matsū looked back at him. This woman was also a lot like him, if not for the fact that her head was a near-perfect copy of a tiger. Her fur was a dull orange, with black stripes going across her back, arms, and legs. Her tail was longer and much less fluffy than his. "Enjoy eating like the Empress tonight."

"You know I will."

She muttered something under her breath along the lines of "Spirits preserve me," and went back to ruffling through her bag. "Ready for the jump?"

"A civilian would be ready for the jump."

And to underline their point, the tannoy spoke out. "Activating Infinite Improbability Drive in 30 seconds."

He smiled. "Didn't one of your books end up a banana last time we jumped?"

"It was a box of candy, and yes. Sometimes the drive leaks. You're just lucky your damn head doesn't turn into a locomotive."

A third voice came through the ship. "Now, can't we all just get along?" Another woman, this one looking like a humanoid wolf, walked in smiling. "The last thing we need is you two going at each other's throat. I thought this was a post-war society?"

"Shut up, Kira."

The jump began.

Almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The computer was rattling off statistics over the tannoy. "Normality restored. Estimated time for travel: 54.782 seconds. Distance traveled: 7 Astronomical Units." No one was listening. However, all three of the hoshinauts aboard had walked over to the window to look at the planet below.

"There's home."

Below them, rolling away as it always did, was the home of the Anthros. A blue-green-tan planet with white clouds swirling over it. If one was just looking at it from the day side, it would be very hard indeed to tell that there were cities on it, aside from a glimpse of a grey blotch here and there. From the night side, however, civilization made its presence known. Once, cities across most of the continents had created massive spider webs of light that stretched across entire landmasses, blaring light into the void. Now, though, the cities had shrunk back into themselves. Now they were small, isolated diamonds of light, sparkling like dew on a lawn. This was home. This was their world.

This was Zero.

[Perseid Federation]

Orbital space of KP 9115 a, KP 9115 System
Thalassa Apophones, Alpha Quadrant — circa 771 XS

---

The return to the Natria was largely uneventful for the researchers. Two days of salvaging had passed for them, and they were returning with as many intact alien objects they could sift from the wreckage. The dropship neared the hangar bays and began to slow itself down, and the bay doors slowly slid open. It hovered for a few minutes into the hangar bay before touching down with a soft landing. The rear hatch opened, and the researchers carried the objects out of the craft as they exited. The maintenance crew approached and began to conduct routine checks on both the ship and the passengers. Some of them sprayed decontaminants on the researchers' suits and artifacts, while others moved on to spray the inside of the vessel. Still others were accompanied by drones and began to check its landing gear.

Some of the things the Perseids recovered from the crash it were small enough for them to carry with their arms, while others such as a cryostasis pod were so large they required a transport drone. The stuff they found was an assortment of items that resembled some consumer electronics, engine parts, utility systems, and space suits—though much of it wasn't intact in the least. Evis was the one who brought the blackbox with him. These were brought to the Natria's research compartment.

A loud hiss accompanied the sliding door as they entered the room. Before they could do anything, they had to first be decontaminated again by a blinding sanitizing light. Once the lights were deactivated, the researchers removed their suits and donned more fitting clothes for those of their line of work. Each of them wore disposable gloves, masks and lab skins that seemed to accentuate their bodies. Personally Evis wasn't very comfortable with this, as it was a bit itchy and it underscored his less-than-shapely abdomen.

While everyone else was attempting to understand the nature of the objects they had gathered, he and his companion Xanthe were focused on the blackbox they set on a table. With the inner components of the device exposed, they had to find where the cruise data recorder was—and the main difficulty was they had never encountered alien architecture of this kind before. Contemplating on how to try to dismantle it without disabling some of its basic functions, Evis rubbed his chin. Ah fuck it, he reckoned. He took a powered screwdriver and began to look for some kind of screw to unscrew. The first fasteners were loosened, and parts of the device were coming off. Xanthe received what Evis handed to her and set the part aside. By the time he had removed a fourth of the data recorder, what was revealed was some kind of button that was right next to a flashing diode. "Okay," he placed the screwdriver down. "I have no idea if we should press it, because it could be an explosive of some kinds."

Xanthe shrugged and pulled out her slate. "It may probably be otherwise. After all, the device is still sending out EM signals that can be detected by my device."

"Hm." Taking a few deep breaths he hesitated. He then slowly moved his hand over the device. A faint click could be heard as he pushed it, and the flashing stopped. The device spoke some kind of foreign language in a robotic tone, in a series of phrases. They couldn't tell what that tongue was, or what it spoke, and their anxiety levels rose a little. The talking stopped, and the device began to flash again.

Xanthe held up her slate at the device and scanned if there were any changes. "I don't think there have been any alterations as far as the components are concerned. Perhaps it activated some kind of program that it executed to—"

All of a sudden, a notification appeared at the top right corner of her screen. The slate alerted that it had somehow connected to Cruise Data Recorder through wireless means. She grew tense as she tapped on the notification, which caused the slate to switch apps and show a series of mysterious files, all of which were labeled in the weird alien tongue. "What…" she swiped down to see more and more folders. "What is this…"

Evis gazed at the screen and said to her, "Ummm, uh… I don't know. At least, from how the files were labeled. Let's see…"

Something seemed to click in his mind. It was a hunch, but he had to try it out—if it means getting through that language barrier. "Can I borrow your pad for a while?"

"Sure," she handed it over to her companion to see what he can do with it. He swiped from outside the edge of the screen, causing the files app to occupy the left half of the screen. The other half was occupied by a translator that had the data of several human and xeno languages, including Perse. Tapping on the button labeled "Translate App," the left-hand side suddenly was altered, and the file names were converted into Universal. The files were actually several recordings that were taken over the course of seventy long years in the depths of space, as well as other pieces of information that were stored in the device's computer.

"All right, blackbox," he quipped. He placed the slate on the table, and the top surface responded, manifesting a large projection of the slate for him to use. He cleared the removed components from the new screen, moving them over to the side. The audio/video logs were the files that they were going to go with first. He opened the folder labeled "2587 Æ" and accessed several files that were marked with numbers. Before he could play one of those audio logs, he moved his hand to the right side of the screen and tapped the button labeled "Translate Audio." The first log that was played was one that was recorded a week before the ship crashed. Perhaps they can grab some idea of what happened that caused it to go down. The audio started to play, and the voice of a man came from it. The translator transcribed what was heard into the Galactic Standard, and Universal words began to appear in the translation box.

Date: ERROR 3511-C, DATE ACQ FAIL
Log Identification Unknown (Corrupted)
About to approach our target planet, and our anticipation for it is high. After more than six decades, we have finally gotten within five light years of it. Finally, some place to settle ourselves in! I feel personally excited to know what our new world is going to look like—what does it feel like—what it would be like to stay there—eh, I probably wouldn't care. That world's going to be our home, and I'm sure that everyone else on board would agree too. *sighs*

I wouldn't be too excited though, we still have a long way to go. At the moment we are currently finalizing our approach to our target system, so we you know, ummm, not get too far. It's a lot of work especially when you're on a console having to meld minds with everyone else in the room but–

*The speaker is interrupted by a massive explosion that causes the log to enter into static for a few minutes. Screams and cries from among the crew can be heard as they attempt to solve what was going on, before the audio log terminates.*

The two were unsettled by this. What was that thing that caused everyone to suddenly panic? Why was everyone screaming out things in a convoluted and disorganized series of yells? They played more and more audio logs, and the translator continued to transcribe the message in Universal. There was the audio log where they had encountered a series of space rocks somewhere, and one where they had to go through a plasma storm. One of the audio logs—the very first one that was made on that ship—had revealed some kind of point of origin, one that had shaken the Perseids to their core. "There we were. Maru isn't our home anymore, the Hito made sure of that. I'm sure by now that our cities are being taken over by them as I speak. 500,000 souls out here, leaving the planet that we used to call home. I… I couldn't even believe it myself."

Evis then told Xanthe to pause the audio log. "Maru?"

"Yes," she confirmed it. "It appears to be their point of origin from that log." Tapping on the slate, she cause it to trace this first log to said point of origin. The device complied, and it traced it to a certain point on the map that was undesirable for him—a certain point on the Delta Quadrant. That was most likely where the ship came from. "Delta Quadrant, Evis."

"Delta?" he placed his hands on his mouth in disbelief. "But that's far. I-it would take two or three years for a Perseid ship to make that voyage, even at superluminal speeds. The… the PSEA wouldn't allow it, let alone the government."

"Yes," she nodded, "But would they ignore the fact that we had picked up a signal originating from an alien race from the other side of the galaxy?"

[Altaro]

---

SENSORY STATION DELTA
1 ly from Maru - 4 Kyū 2604
00:16

---

Mizunō Kayoru idly flipped through the banks of sensors laid out in front of him. The room was a simple affair, buzzing with noise from various parts of the galaxy. He pulled his coffee cup out of the air next to him and toop a sip, then left it where he had found it. A buzz came through Sensory Array C3 at the same time it always did, there was a pulsar in that direction. Bored with not hearing anything out of the ordinary, Kayoru pushed off the table and floated through the corridor down the length of the small station, towards a small buzzing noise on the console. He opened the comlink it was pegged to and started talking. "What is it, Maru?"

"A resupply ship will be docking within 10 minutes, please be ready for it."

"It's alright, I'm not going anywhere." He closed the link and floated back to the main bay of the station, barely bigger than an office cubicle back home. A small Maru Flag was hanging (if you could call it that)off one wall, next to a window showing the utter blackness of the outer reaches of the Taiyō System. He was about a full light-year from home, and had been out there for 18 months. Many people back at MAXA gave him the title "Loneliest Hito in the System." They weren't wrong.

The Red Panda Hito flipped a switch on the wall and reactivated the gravity. Gently coming to rest on the ground, he walked over and looked in the general direction of the star at the hub of the system. Even out here, it was very bright compared to the background stars. This had the added benefit of choking the background with stars. It was to the point where he had to search to find the 13 old constellations among all the other stars. He climbed up through the main module until he made his way into the docking bay, making sure that everything was in place. After that, he sat there, bored.

After another few minutes, there was the very slightest jolt in the station as the ship's Improbability Drive deactivated and it appeared out of nowhere just about 8 meters from the station. He watched as its RTS jets maneuvered it into place, allowing the magnetic seals to dock the two vessels together. He flipped the gravity off as the aperture opened, allowing the two hoshinauts to float the boxes through the joint and let Kayoru catch them and put them towards the "floor" as they came in.

One of the other astronauts, a Black Bear Hito, looked him over. "You look tired."

"I'm supposed to be asleep in another half hour."

"No, I mean...you don't look deranged."

"What, you mean space madness?"

"MAXA wanted me to let you know that you're officially the longest-serving man at this station ever."

"I know how long I've been here. 1 year, 187 days, 4 hours. At least they send me you types to keep me busy."

The last of the supplies came into the station, they saluted briefly, and the two visitors went back to their ship. It took another 3 minutes for it to get clear and vanish into Improbability. The gravity came back on, and he walked back to the sensory arrays. As usual, nothing.

---

YOKUHASHI TOWN
Seiro - 6 Nana 2604
16:54

---

The town had once been known as "Karthbridge", when it had belonged to a nation once known as "Etisec". Now that the practice of multiple nations had been abolished on Maru, it was the town of Yokuhashi on the continent of Seiro. And unlike many of the Resettled areas, Yokuhashi had the benefit of sea access to Saidan as well as access inland to the rest of Seiro. As such, it was the biggest town for miles around. Mitsubishi Hoko walked down the main road, smiling at the light rain that was falling over the town. She took a deep breath inwards, letting the cool air fill her lungs.

The rain was slowly building in strength, and soon she was running through a healthy downpour to get back home. She arrived at her house drenched through to her fur. The Wolf Hito tried shaking herself off before she gave up and looked for a towel. Finding a large fluffy one was like a direct gift from the spirits, and she embraced it. A noise echoed through the house, and she found the source was her son hiding under a bed. "What are you doing under there, little one?"

"The rain is getting heavy..."

Hoko smiled and took him out from under his bed. They sat on his bed, where she tucked him in and went to get him a cup of warm rice milk, like she always did. When she came back, he was hidden under his blankets as the rain pounded on the roof. "Here you are."

He smiled and took it, still hiding under his blanket. She chuckled and walked out to the living room, where the telescreen was in the middle of Pilot Hour, the monthly time block for showing possible new shows. Bored, she flipped through other channels, trying to find something to watch. AFter about 5 minutes, she saw her son walking out of his room, wrapped in his comforter. "Mom..."

She sighed and smiled. "Come here." He climbed into her lap, where he snuggled into her while she rubbed his ears gently. The rain continued.

---

GALACTIC SECTOR [ERROR]
35000 ly from Maru - 14 Nana 2604
01:34

---

The ship was quiet. Impossibly quiet. The only noise was the faintest of humming from the cryogenics. There was no light in the ship. Everything was still in hibernation.

The ship's rotation brought the galaxy into view. The dim light cast a gentle glow into the main bay, revealing thousands upon thousands of people locked away in storage. By all accounts, they should have been awakened many years ago. But the ship kept them in their dreamless sleep, waiting for them to arrive.

Their destination was around 35,000 behind them. They had missed their destination by 20 ly. Now, their ship was traveling at superluminal speeds out of the galaxy. The ship's computers kept waiting to detect when it was approaching their target. They were deaf and dumb to the fact they had missed it. The light of the galaxy died down as the ship kept spinning.

Savior 4, fourth of 5 ships carrying the Human refugees, continued its voyage into the eternal void. If it kept going for the next 380,000 years, it would likely arrive at Andromeda.

[Perseid Federation]

Ignatios Leontarakis, Archon of Xenia
Sivulon Reach, Alpha Quadrant — circa 773 XS

---

The issue was still hot in the heads of Perseids and in the print of newsletters, even as two years had passed since the discovery that was made in KP 9115. It was just as if the news of the crashing ship had come out yesterday. All kinds of people, from members of the highest echelons of the academe to the lowest elements of society, had been talking about the alien objects found as well as the mysterious planet lying on the other side of the galaxy—a very long way away from home. Euphoria and pessimism seemed be waging a fierce battle in the minds of the Perseids, especially among the bureaucrats in government. Some of them were for an expedition to Maru, while others were against it. Talk about KP 9115 and Maru had proven to be divisive to the Ecclesia and to the Archonate.

Ignatios' peers, the other four Archons of the Omospondia—the ones who lived in similar palaces as he was—were against the idea of sending a ship to go to Delta to find this Maru. The reasons for this were the usual: it was too far, it would take around two to three years to complete the voyage, the Gamma Quadrant was just as dangerous as Delta was, and they wouldn't know if the ship's crew would survive in unknown places. Yes, those were all valid reasons against the idea, but for the Xenian, he had placed the most confidence that the best of Perseid ingenuity and technology will get people to Maru—at least, that was what he said at the press conference he had just returned from. Thank the gods they won't bother him at this late hour—it was 25:18 here in Firanza, after all.

His limousine stopped in front of the vestibule, and the door next to him swung open on its own. He appeared to be a old and feeble man in a suit, but in reality he was just a mild-mannered person who had some energy left in his body—though that would be just enough to get him to bed at this point. Stepping out of the car he turned his head around to gaze at the skyscrapers glistening with light. It was a beautiful sight, but he was too tired to stare. Taking in the cool night air, he went into the palace and was about to head straight for his bedroom. He was stopped by a drone that informed him of a message from the PSEA.

At least Ignatios was patient enough to ignore his stress and head for his office. If Dr. Demataki had something to inform him about, he'd be more than happy to adjust his time. He was just that patient. He sat in his chair and booted his computer—the screen manifesting instantaneously from his desk. There seemed to be a notification on his Meta-mail app, so he tapped his finger on there and opened it. There it was, the message from the PSEA director himself. He tapped it again and began to read it. His eyes were a bit tired, but he didn't mind.

To: Ignatios Leontarakis, Archon of Xenia, the Perseid Archonate
From: Dr. Sofia Demataki, Director of the Perseid Space Exploration Administration
Subject: Appeal for Expedition to Maru




Salutations, Archon.

I apologize for bothering you at this hour, but the missive that was sent is of great importance that I feel shouldn't be ignored by our government. Many of my contemporaries from within and without the PSEA feel the same.

The KP 9115 Discovery was indeed a landmark event in our history, as it revealed evidence for the existence of a strongly similar human species from a distant and remote part of the galaxy—one that seemed to have evolved on a planet other than Terra. As you may be aware, the PSEA and other associated government divisions have conducted their own investigations that revealed more about the extraterrestrials, and some of us have made significant strides in understanding what these humans are and where they came from. You may be also aware of the increasing need to establish contact with others like them, but we believe that we cannot accomplish that by just waiting for another ship to transmit the same signal again. This is why many have pressed the government to conduct an expedition to Maru in the hopes of first contact.

Indeed, many government officials have been against this idea, and some of them had given valid arguments for this—arguments that we have taken into account. But we in the PSEA and in the Perseid scientific community had grown incredulous at how several of them were politicizing Maru and KP 9115 through their reasons. Thus it has become increasingly harder to obtain support for reaching Maru. As Director, I have sent you this missive on behalf of the PSEA knowing that you are the most willing of the Archons to sponsor an expedition to the Delta Quadrant for the reasons made in this dispatch.

On that note, the Perseid Space Exploration Administration wishes to obtain the support of His Excellency for the construction of an exploration vessel for the purpose of undertaking an expedition to the Delta Quadrant in search of Maru. This ship shall be capable of landing on the planet's surface, incorporating a revolutionary design that will reduce exoatmospheric drag. It will also incorporate some of the latest technology that will be used in interstellar travel, most particularly an improved Valkanas Drive that is capable of traversing distances over tens of thousands of light years within the space of 10 months—a vast improvement over current production models of the drive, which only can achieve such voyages in 20 to 24 months. The crew that will serve on board this vessel shall include some of our nation's best and brightest.

Of course, such plans cannot be effectuated unless the PSEA can acquire your support, as well as the support of other government officials. Therefore, we would like to advise you to convince your fellow Archons to reconsider their current decision so the Ecclesia can no longer ignore this great need for expanding our horizons. We hope to read your response within this week, if it is possible.

May all be well with you,


Dr. Sofia Demataki, Director
Perseid Space Exploration Administration

This was strange. Usually, Demataki would be silent in regards to the squabbling in government, ignoring that in favor of her work. Was it because people like Ignatios had been sitting on their asses behind desks for too long, not to give a damn about what may be perhaps events coming together in a big way? And she's asking for his help in sponsoring the creation of a ship to get to Delta? It took him a while to take this all in—after all, it was all too sudden. Two years had passed since the events of KP 9115, and even he wasn't too sure that this Maru exists out there. He leaned on his chair and stared at the ceiling, gazing at the wooden ceiling fan spinning above his head. If only decisions were as easy as picking which pair of shoes to wear to work.

He sighed loudly and leaned toward his desk and tapped on the Reply button on his screen. A line flashed in and out every second at the beginning of the window (kind of like the one you see when your IC post is being created). A finger came down and began to type a couple of words in.

Experimental Exploration Vessel AHO Sarpedon
Sivulon Reach, Alpha Quadrant — circa 777 XS

---

The Perseids looked like they had been quite busy. Well, they were busy. For the past four years the Sarpedon rested at dry dock, painstakingly pieced together around the clock by the shipbuilders of Xenia. Now it was out of dry dock and resting in the waters of the Endymic Ocean, cuddled by the waves and waiting to depart for the stars above that were behind the azure sky. In a few hours, this ship was going to make history—to begin a long and arduous voyage that spanned the galaxy—and the crowds that gathered around it knew this well. It was quite a sight to see all kinds of people come to Tiranopolis' port just to watch the ship lift off and ascend magnificently out of the water.

Indeed the Sarpedon was a magnificent ship, a marvel of Perseid engineering in those days. It measured around 300 meters from bow to stern, and had a sleek streamlined form that allowed it to travel through the atmosphere without having too much drag. Its hull was one of the first to use experimental honeycomb structures and cross bracings that made the ship more durable—in case some kind of minuscule grain of dust may disrupt the voyage while it was going many times past the speed of light. It carried four incredibly powerful and efficient power plants that provided enough energy to power the entirety of the ship for 100 years. Its Valkanas Drive utilized some state-of-the-art superluminal technology acquired through reverse-engineering the alien ship's FTL drives. Yet, its impressiveness on paper would be for naught if it weren't for its crew of eight operators, a small contingent of Geostratos soldiers, and a slightly larger army of astronauts, researchers, scientists, and investigators.

Korinna Melonakou was one of the ship's eight operators that were going to be holed up in the control room of the ship (it never made any sense for Perseid vessels to employ bridges because a grain of dust in space could take it out in a flash, but I digress). Those who were there were considered to have been very proficient at sophisticated consoles and multitasking—a seemingly natural talent of hers. While her fingers were quick and her sight unfailing, she couldn't speak very well, and could only communicate in simple words. The others had some difficulty communicating with her at first, but they had already grown used to it.

She arrived in the room with a cup of warm tea in her hand, which helped to soothe her throat. There had been an itch that bugged her there just today, and she was lightly coughing because of it. The other seven operators were there, sitting in front of their respective consoles. "Good morning," she nodded her head at the man she called Agathon.

"Good day, Korinna," Agathon nodded back at her. "Ready for the expedition?"

She sat down and sipped. "Yeah. I ready. Tea?"

"Nah," he raised his right hand and refused. "I'm good."

"Still nervous?" she began to operate her console, opening up a holographic interface. "Because we go to Maru. Alright to be nervous."

"Yeah. Are you nervous as well?"

"Yes," she smiled. "Me want know what Maru like."

Looks like their chat had to be cut short. The operators noticed that a ninth person has entered the control room, and they all swiftly turned about-face and saluted. This was Captain Tripodakis, the commanding officer of this vessel, and the one who will be overseeing the Sarpedon's maiden voyage. The lucky soul. He's going to be the one to be mentioned the most in history books, periodicals and journals. "At ease," he spoke, and moved to his seat.

"How was the speech, Captain?" Agathon attempted to strike a friendly chat with him.

"Lots of flowery shit from the Archon," he mused. "Enough with the pleasant stuff, status report, now. I want to know if the ship can make it to Delta and back with some fuel left for supper time." The captain sat down and leaned in towards his console, tapping some parts of the screen here and there. "Shoot," he stared at Agathon first.

The operator cleared his throat. "Maintenance check is complete, sir," Agathon began. "Fusion plants fully operational, and we have enough food and supplies to last 3 years. Takeoff will begin momentarily once the port gives the word."

"Good." Facing Korinna he asked, "I need a report on those FTL drives, and don't botch your Perse."

"R-right," Korinna bowed. Turns out Tripodakis was a flippant person, the kind she doesn't like. She hadn't even known him for this long, and he's already being rude. Focusing back on the console she reported, "Valkanas Drive at 100% potential, sir."

Tapping a certain button, Tripodakis kicked back on his chair and began to contact the port. "Tiranopolis Port Authority, this is Captain Tripodakis of the experimental vessel AHO Sarpedon, awaiting confirmation for this boat of get off the water."

"Sarpedon, this is Tiranopolis Port Authority, ship lanes are free of other civilian vessels, you are cleared for departure."

The engines hummed louder and louder until they roared with life. The sound must have been deafening for the crowds. Slowly did the vessel begin to move forward, leaving the cozy harbor of the city and out into sea. It was now time to begin the expedition. The ship sped faster and faster until it left the ground and began to sail the skies. It ascended higher into the atmosphere, and its thrusters roared thunderously for kilometers around. It kept on accelerating until it broke out into space and slung itself out into the great unknown. Xenia, that wondrous blue ball of a planet that some Perseids called home, was slowly beginning to leave their sight. A spiral of light emerged from the Sarpedon's bow, which ballooned until it was large enough for the ship to apparently pass through. In a fraction of a microsecond, it vanished into space, leaving behind a cracking rumble. It was no longer in this system anymore—no longer was it confined to Yirae and its brethren. It was free to roam the stars, and look for a particular ball of fire to stop by.

11 Months and 2 Days Later, Unknown System
Unknown Sector, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

The ship materialized, and the force of it exiting from superluminal travel sent waves of sound and light rippling through the cosmos like a stone that had been tossed into the water. It was described to be like the loud bang of a bomb going off in space—something to give whatever was in here the wrong idea. There seemed to be nothing around, save for the distant stars and the light of a near star to its starboard. In addition, the operators had no idea where they were, nor did they know if the drive had ran out of power and needed to recharge, malfunction and cause them to stop, or perhaps it just stopped the way it was supposed to—after 11 months of travel. There was no way to contact home, for they were so far from it by now.

Something was wrong, Tripodakis leaned in toward his console. They were here already? It just seemed to be sooner than expected, since there was supposed to be another two and a half months before they arrive. Indeed the star map said their current location is in the Delta Quadrant, and the center of the plot projection was close to the cross icon. "Why did we stop?" the captain tilted his head up and looked at the operators in confusion. "Have we arrived?"

"Affirmative, Captain," Agathon enlarged his star map. "Our ship is en route to destination."

Was this it? Was this the system that contained the mystery planet that befuddled the Perseids for seven years? It certainly seemed to be so—there was a whole plethora of radio signals coming from all over the place, and some of it was picked up by the scanners. The blips beeped frequently and regularly, meshing together in a near-chaotic symphony of noise. Jackpot. Looks like Tripodakis was going to bring home some news—and maybe perhaps some cargo from this Maru. He was happy.

"Make sure to be on the lookout for the blue ball," he stood and began to stride towards the giant screen in front of everyone. "That's our target. If we miss it by several AUs, I'm going to be chopping some fingers off, understood?"

They responded in unison with a resounding "Yes, sir."

Perhaps it was best for the Sarpedon to not alert some of the xenos, at least until the expeditions had found them, or until the xenos have found the Perseids. Seemingly in an instant, the ship was covered with a cloak that concealed them in the skin of outer space, inconspicuously moving in the direction of the inner system. It had passed by a couple of gas giants and a rocky planet along the way. The Perseids may have had seen some of these kinds of planets on other journeys, but they hadn't passed those that had emitted a substantial amount of radio signals before. These signals seemed to be saying to them that they were headed in the right direction—that Maru was not too far in this void.

There it was, the blue ball that they had been searching for. It was a beautiful sphere that resembled Xenia in its appearance—expansive oceans, lofty clouds, areas of land, and patches of light that lit up the night side of the planet. It was orbited not by one, but two moons—which was contrary to how Xenia, Theris and Daphne were set up (one moon orbiting two planets). Regardless, it was all beautiful. This was Maru, their sought-for destination and the object of their expedition. Who knows what untold stories of mankind in the stars can they find out here, especially from humans who didn't originate from the recesses of the Orion Spur.

The Sarpedon's frontal thrusters activated, causing the vessel to slow down and be taken in by Maru's orbit. As the ship descended, the Perseids could see that there were space stations and other artificial satellites positioned all over the place. Some of them could make out what they assumed were a couple of space elevators. Those who had exceptionally sharp vision could see some small shapes that were going to and fro. Those must be the xenos! By the gods, they had made it. The ship was later covered with a screen of bright orange and yellow light, which deactivated the ship's cloaking and made it visible. What would happen if Maru's inhabitants saw that streak of fire that was zipping in the sky at that moment?

[Altaro]

---

SITUATION ROOM
Teikoku-shi, Saidan - 15 San 2613 Æ
09:00

---

President Sokai Hizu made her way into the bowels of the Palace, going deeper and deeper with each passing level. An elevator had been installed a century prior, but she always insisted on walking, like everyone did. Her ears twitched slightly. All anyone had told her about anything was that they had found something worrying, and they needed to debrief her. She hated when they were vague.

12 minutes after she had started out, she came to the room known simply as "Debriefing". The pad scanned her hand, another scanner read her iris, and the door opened. Everyone stood and gave the traditional salute, crossing their arms over their chests with their fists closed. At the same time, they bowed. Once the formality was over, they sat, and Hizu took her place at the front of the table. "So, tell me, why did you drag me to this dungeon? Am I not allowed to know things in advance?"

A man stood up. His lapel pin showed the logo of MAXA. "Madam President...we have found something rather interesting. Something like this could possibly induce a panic in-"

"Get to the point."

He sighed. "Madam President, we have managed to detect an object moving at superluminal speeds towards the Taiyō System."

Her eyes widened. The science people could always be counted to pull miracles out of thin air. "Okay. What is it?"

"Well, we have several theories, only one of which makes any decent amount of sense."

"Shoot."

"Well...we believe that this object might be a vessel constructed my an intelligent civilization."

The room went silent. After a moment, Hizu spoke. "Where is it coming from?"

Another man from MAXA spoke"Not this quadrant. It's coming from the other side of the galaxy."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. As much as we know we're in a rather...violent region of the galaxy, we know this is coming from another part of the galaxy."

The Red Panda Hito folded her fingers together. "How much time do we have until it arrives?"

One of the men in the stereotypical long white lab coats stood up and looked over a paper. "By our best estimates...less than 5 months."

Hizu stood up. "Are we sure this object is going to enter our system? If so...is our planet in danger?"

"Um..." He rustled through some of his papers. "We currently cannot accurately estimate its path into our system. however, out estimates put an impact into Maru at around 700 billion to one against."

Hizu cleared her throat. "I want this object to be MAXA's new Priority Number 1. Get me everything you can on it. I want an actual path into our solar system. I want to know what it is. I want to know if it's a danger to our planet." She cast one last glance around the room and exited. The man with the MAXA pin sighed. "I never understood the mindset of Democratic Republicans. Everything has to be immediate and right away."

The other MAXA man spoke up. "You just say that because the Socialists are the reason you have a job. If we had a Socialist President of the Empire, they'd say the same thing, but you wouldn't complain."

---

UNIVERSITY OF KOMOKO-SHI
Exosolar Sciences Conference Room - 9 Go 2613 Æ
15:29

---

"Good afternoon, everyone. Please take your seats." The room full of people sat down, and the Sagarū at the center of the room cleared his throat. Even after two centuries, Sergals still had that deep, throaty accent. Everyone took it for granted.

"We are all here because of object 582247-067. Codename: Trespasser. We are here to brief all working on this project of everything we know." A hologram rose up on the middle of the room, showing an elongated object. "This object is still several hundred light-years away, and as such, our resolution of the object is heavily limited. This is our best estimate of its shape. Relative scale is 1:300."

Another hologram clicked into place, showing an image of the Taiyō Solar System. A line was drawn through it, passing through the outer reaches. "This is our best estimate of the object's path through our system. As you can see, it passes within 1 light-year of our star. What makes that special, however, is that the object doesn't that close to any other star. As such, we have reason to believe it is intended for our system."

Yet another one showed up, showing a digital image taken through one of the telescopes orbiting the planet. "This is the best image available of the object through the visual spectrum. As you can see, the object is slightly obscuring a star in the background. If you'll look closely, the star is distorted, as if space is warped around it. This phenomenon is normally limited to black holes, but as we all know, they don't move at superluminal speeds. This gives us reason to believe that the object is warping space in such a way to travel faster than light, similar to the designs proposed by the Arukubi Drive system."

Several people around the room were taking notes down on their tablets. A few looked up every now and again. The Sergal at the center of the room closed down the hologram and cleared his throat again. "This is all we currently know. Everything we gain about this object only serves to confirm our suspicions that this object is designed and piloted by intelligent life."

---

FORSAKEN PLAINS
2 km outside Mikozu Town - 35 Roku 2613 Æ
08:58

---

The hiking group continued making their way across the plains, babbling back and forth. "It was destroyed almost 300 years ago. Why are we out here?"

"Because history is cool, that's why." The Wolf Hito lead the group, while another Wolf and a Panther Hito followed along. "It should be around here somewhere. It's been mostly eroded away, though." He kept walking along until he stumbled on something that had rusted considerably. Catching his balance, he looked back at what it was. "Here's the rails! We're close. Just gotta follow these." The group changed direction, following the rails southward. After another 10 minutes, the Panther spoke up. "Are we quite there yet?"

"Just a little farther...there! See it?" The wolf was pointing out a small pile of rocks a ways ahead. He went out and picked one out of the overgrowth. "Look at this. This isn't a normal stone. This is a brick! The city was here!"

"Wait, this is actually where Alexandria was?"

They looked around. It was otherwise a perfectly normal meadow. Small groves of trees rose out of the ground, a river cut through the middle of where the city was supposed to be, several feral sheep grazed a ways out. They kept walking along the rails until they came to the banks of the river. Several hundred years had redirected its course through what used to be a city, and the remains of the rails fell away suddenly. They watched around. The Panther picked up another brick. "How big was the city when it was struck?"

"About 2 million strong."

Nothing even suggested there was once a city. "All gone in a nuclear fire..." They were silent for a while, until they turned back and followed the rails out of the meadow and back towards Mikozu.

---

HOSHI STATION II "KOKO"
Low Hoshi (Maru II) Orbit - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
09:21

---

Station Koko looked like a lot of other prefab stations. Several modules put together rather than being entirely built in orbit like the Space Colony KIDO, giving it a blocky and modular appearance. At that moment, the station orbiting the smaller moon of Maru had all its sensors turned outwards, watching Trespasser move into the system. It had been hidden from the visible spectrum, but their sensors were more than capable of watching it move inward. And as Commander Kisei watched the sensors, he wondered what was going through the minds of whatever was aboard it. Did they think that being visibly hidden would make a difference? Were they trying to get the advantage of surprise as part of an initial attack, leading to an invasion of the planet proper?

"What's on your mind?"

The voice of his Lieutenant came through the room. As the gravity had been disabled for maintenance, she floated through the port and into the sensory module. "Nothing other than what's on Trespasser."

"Is that what it's still called?"

"Everyone else calls it that." Kisei was an odd type of Hito, he was a Chimera. In his case, he resembled a cross between a Coyote and a Polar Bear. He had a very odd build, with thinner arms and a thinner neck, but a bulky torso and legs, with a very small tail. His fur was patched between white and brown, making him look like he had been messing around in the dirt, despite having not been anywhere near dirt for 2 months. "So why shouldn't I call it that?"

"I dunno. How far is it?"

"It'll arrive within the orbit of Hoshi in 2 minutes." He turned away from the sensory panel and floated to a porthole. There was nothing to see, but he kept looking. After a while, the station moved to within the radio shadow of the moon relative to Trespasser, but within range of the homeworld. At this distance, it was the size of a pencil eraser. He opened the comlink and began speaking to Maru. "Command, we report Trespasser arriving within orbit of Maru in 5 minutes 26.8 seconds."

"Copy, Koko. Other stations report the same." He floated back to the window and looked down at the moon below. An icy surface rolled away beneath them, reflecting colors between pale blue, white, and a color somewhere near seafoam green. The fast-approaching night side of the moon showed a single point of light, the Hoshi Colony. At that point in time, it housed 113 Hito in relative comfort.

The sensors suddenly kicked in. Trespasser was moving by the moon, casting data back at the station again.

---

SPACE STATION SARAKI
Tsuki (Maru I) L2 Orbital Point - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
09:27

---

Station Saraki could see the object moving in. Not in a literal sense, but its sensory banks were filled with noise. The object put out enough to be noticed, even when it was "camouflaged" as it was. Only one person was aboard that station, and she was busy calling back to Maru. "It's still coming in, working at an angle. Projected orbit 107.85 km above Maru, t minus 3 minutes."

The comlink chirped back "Goddamn, that is fast. Can you confirm that it's slowing down?"

"Yes, me and all the other stations within an astronomical unit of this planet. Perhaps you'd like to listen to them? After all, I'm only one person on this station."

Another station chimed in. "Why would they come to you if they didn't value you above all others?"

Mika chuckled. "Very true. At any rate, it's passing me now. Still can't see anything."

"Copy, Saraki."

---

HOVERJET STRIKER EUREKA
Over the Daireikaiyo - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
09:34

---

The object was coming down out over the Daireikaiyo. Even before it had come out, jets had been scrambled. 4 of them were flying towards it, dark grey shapes coasting over the ocean. Trespasser came down in front of them. The lead jet opened its comlink with the base. "Command, this is Striker Eureka. We have visual on the bogey."

The voice came back. "Striker Eureka, it's not a bogey until we say so. Wait for our signal, then you'll be clear to engage. Can you describe the object?"

"Well, I'd say it's about 200 m long, streamlined. I can see several engines on the back. It's leveling out now, we're moving in on it." The 4 VTOL jets left formation, coming up around Trespasser. Two on either side, one above, another below. The man in the cockpit of Striker Eureka craned his neck to get a view at the object, and saw several windows arranged as if it was a cockpit or a bridge. "Command, I have a visual on a possible command center, I'm trying to get a visual now." He brought his jet closer, trying to peer into the craft.

[Perseid Federation]

OOC: Collab between Perseid and Altaro

Various Locations in Maru
Unknown Taiyō System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

AHO Sarpedon
Even as the fire generated outside of the ship died out, the Sarpedon continued to descend. The color of the sky was slowly fading into view, gradually turning the color black to something more azure with a tint of yellowish-white. The bright star that they had seen in the distances minutes before was a glaring torchlight to their forward camera feed. The side windows revealed part of the clouds that were floating over the horizon. The ship continued to descend more and more until it leveled just above the cloud line. From this height they could see water covering the surface, quite possibly an ocean.

A loud repeated beep blared out of nowhere, and the operators were alerted. Could that be? On Korinna's screen flashed the Perse words for "Unidentified Flying Objects Detected." It may appear that the xenos had found them first. A camera feed popped up on her screen, and revealed some kind of local fighter craft maintaining a certain distance beside the ship. "Captain," she reported, "Fighter craft of Maru at starboard." For once, her speech was passable.

Creases formed on Tripodakis' head. Was that the only fighter sent flying with the ship? "Display all external camera feeds. I want to know if that's the only thing around."

The forward screen that served as the "window" was filled with camera feeds showing what was on the ship's dorsal, ventral, port and starboard, bow and stern. The same fighter craft was flying by the Sarpedon's port side, another was flying above, and still another below—that one had the roundel of the inhabitants of Maru clearly displayed on both of its wings, which was a bird with its wings spread out. Their presence was probably bad for the Perseids—after all, getting shot down in a distant world wasn't exactly the best of circumstances to be in, especially if they had just met. Tripodakis nodded, "Melonakou, zoom in on the starboard fighter."

"Yes, Captain."

He departed from his seat and slowly walked over to the starboard window, and stared at the world outside. The fighter was slowly coming into view, probably to get a peek at whatever was inside.

Striker Eureka
The "man" in the jet to the starboard of the alien craft peered into the window, and froze. It took the jet dipping a bit for him to snap out of it. "Uh… Command? We've uh—we've got some—some Ningen in the craft piloting it."

There was silence out of the radio. After a minute they came back in over the comlink. "Are—are you absolutely certain?"

He turned his head and stared at the man again. "He looks like a hairless monkey—I'm pretty sure."

More silence followed. Perhaps it was quite a lot to take in for the others. After a moment, the comlink came in again. "Well, we're going to try and make radio contact. Stand by."

"Copy," he nodded.

The pilot continued to watch as the Ningen departed from the window. The light came on, signaling contact had been made with the alien vessel. The holoscreen in the pilot’s HUD began flashing with the indicator, and he flipped his microphone on. He spoke into his headset in a loud and clear voice, “Identify yourselves.”

Sarpedon
"It…" this was not what Korinna had in mind. Taking a screenshot of the feed and magnifying it for her to see more clearly, she stuttered, "The pilots, th-they might not human."

Silence filled the room. "Then what are they?" Agathon asked.

"I not know," she squinted. "Pilot look like man in animal costume."

He snickered, "Animal costume? They're probably humans wearing that due to some special festival down on the surface."

"Guess so, but cannot they wear uniform flying plane?"

Agathon also noticed that his screen was flashing with an icon that resembled a slate with a face in it. "Captain, one of the fighters wants to establish radio contact with the vessel."

"It was going to come through this eventually," Tripodakis turned about and got back to his seat. "Well put them through."

The holoscreen flew away from Agathon's console, and stopped a few inches in front of the Captain's torso. The screen lit green, and the icon faded with a ripple effect, indicating that the ship was ready to be contacted. Another screen manifested in front of Agathon as well so he can continue to monitor the situation.

"Jibun o tokutei shimasu," the xeno began. From the get-go, the problems were beginning. Their language was immediately foreign and unrecognizable. It sounded like a gibberish version of Perse—the syllables appeared to be mixed up and the articles looked they had been picked out of a convenient bag of words. "I can't do this," he muttered to himself, admitting his ineptitude. "Alright," he snapped, "did someone bring a Terran language dictionary on board? Or at least took up some linguistics in college some other fancy shit?"

Korinna replied, "I not think aliens use Earth language but—"

An operator towards the front of the room raised his hand. "I have some knowledge of basic Terran Japanese, which I assume is what their language is close to."

"All right," the Captain pressed a button and moved the screen to the operator.

Hoping that his hunch was right, the operator began in Japanese, "This is the Sarpedon, exploration vessel of the Perseid Federation."

Striker Eureka
“Kore wa Sāpedon, peruseusu-za renpō no tansa-sendesu.”

The voice came through, speaking in a stilted form of Ashiro. That must mean they were the Ningen. The pilot hesitated a moment before replying back, “This is the sovereign territory of the Maru Teikoku, rightful and only ruler of the Taiyō solar and planetary system. You are an intruder. State your intentions or we will take down your craft.”

Sarpedon
“Kore wa Maru Teikoku, taiyōkei to sono wakusei no seitō nomi jōgi no shuken ryōdodesu. Anata wa shin'nyū-shadesu. Anata no ito o noberu ka, wareware wa anata no kōgei-hin o teikudaun shimasu.”

The operator sighed. That was quite a lot of words to keep track, he thought. Fortunately he had his translator ancillary to help him. This may take a while to come up with a response in their language. Hopefully his Japanese was understandable.

“Wareware wa, kono shisutemu no shūi kara hasshin ningen no shūdan no kigen o motomeru tansa tokumeidesu.”

Striker Eureka
The pilot was stunned. He opened his comlink back to base. “Command, they’re...they’re here to talk about...the Ningen...”

There was silence from the base. An incredibly long silence. It must have been a lot for them to take in. After what seemed like an eternity, they came back. “Striker Eureka, escort them to the Kiku Aerodrome. They are not to be harmed.”

The pilot nodded. “Roger that, Command.” He opened the link to the ship again. “You are to follow us back to our military base on Saidan. Once you land, you will await further instructions. If you try anything, we will not hesitate to slaughter you all again.”

Sarpedon
Turning his head around to face the Captain he reported, "They want us to follow them to a military base near here. Nearest land mass is estimated to be around 300 kilometers from our current position."

"Good," Tripodakis replied. Looks like they were going to see alien land in a few moments.

"There was something else that the pilot stated, which unsettled me."

"Shoot."

"He also warned us not to 'try anything or they'll kill us all again.' "

The captain scoffed. The xenos and the Perseids had just met for the first time, and already the xenos were talking about killing them. "Define 'kill us all,' Zyrkos."

"Errrm," he glanced at his screen for a few seconds. "Telling from the context, it implies that if we attempt to cause harm, break the law, or any other offensive action, they would exterminate our people."

"W-what?" the Captain laughed and almost fell off his seat. That must have been the funniest thing he had heard in this entire trip. It was hysterical in both senses of the word. "Exterminate our people," he scoffed. "Oh, that's fucking funny! Like they're actually going to build warships and go all the way from here to Xenia in this galaxy. D-do they actually know how fucking long it took us to get to their planet? Ah," he raised his finger and flicked away a tear leaking from his eye.

Ignoring his superior, Zyrkos returned to face his holoscreen and respond, "Copy that, coursing our ship in your direction."

Korinna was more concerned about how the Captain was taking this. “But what if they serious?”

“Ah, kill us all!” the Captain was beginning to lose his breath. “Th… th… they’re serious? Oh Cephes, I think I might die at this rate.”

“Hold on Captain,” Korinna quipped, eliciting a fit of laughter from the other operators.

The Sarpedon’s thrusters burst and turned the ship a little to the right, following the fighters leading the way. As it began to descend, the Perseids could see a faint semblance of land in the horizon. Looks like that must be where the fighters were leading them. Land kept on nearing them, land that appeared to be like the beauteous coastlines that lined the Endymic. This must be where their people were. After all, they could spot some buildings lining the coast, grouped together in hamlets and villages. Expansive forests and farms were abound. They were led further inland by the fighters until they reached the Aerodrome.

Striker Eureka
The sonar ping of the mainland continued coming up on the jet's sensors. The pilot smiled—every Hito loved seeing the homeland. Even if they had the rest of the world to fill, Saidan would always be their home. Lofty clouds and rolling hills looked marvelous from above, as well as the remote towns and villages where fellow Hito lived. No wonder the birds of the air are so lucky—lucky enough to behold and admire the land that Subimo loved.

The fighters and the alien vessel approached it at a rapid clip, with the continuing ping locked in on the Kiku Aerodrome.

Teikoku-shi, Saidan
The courier ran up the halls of the Presidential Palace, running into the office. There sat President Kaizo, who frowned. "It's here?" the Hito replied as the doors were burst open with a loud slam.

"Yes, Mister President," the courier bowed, both to show respect for his excellency and to catch his breath. "It's here. And… it has Ningen."

His eyes widened. "Th-there are Ningen in it? They're… they're back?"

"Yes sir," he straightened his posture.

But… but how? Decades ago, they had been drive out of this planet—no place was there for them anymore. They shouldn't have been able to come back yet, no. The last that they saw of them was when the Savior ships ascended. He stood up, a small rose pin glinting on his lapel. "Where are they going?"

"They're being escorted to the Kiku Aerodrome, sir."

"Are they hostile?"

"No, Mister President. Not at the moment." Even the courier was unsure.

Kaizo was not going to take any chances and hope the spirits will spare them—he had been told that the Ningen were the worst, case in point. For thousands of years, the elders recounted, they and the Hito had been locked into a fierce struggle spread throughout Maru's history, a struggle that involved hundreds of millions of lives, possibly billions. While there were times of peace on this planet, much of it was stained red with blood. This struggle culminated in the war of nearly a century in the past, and the Hito were expecting that to be the end of it. Was the universe not going to grant them the small mercy of peace without having to worry about war ever again?

Maybe so. "If this ship proves to be hostile, I want it destroyed as soon as possible. If it is, then check for homing beacons—we'll see if it's a scout for anyone. If it is…" He frowned and turned to a window.

"Mister… President?"

He sighed. "It's times like these we built KIDO for."

Sarpedon
The Kiku Aerodrome was within view of the ship. That must be where the fighters were leading them. It was an impressive facility that was capable of housing tens, maybe even hundreds of military aircraft, though it didn't seem to be capable of docking a 300 meter-long vessel. There were all sorts of arms about it—fighter, bombers, trucks, all kinds of explosive ordnance, and men in animal skins. For an aerodrome, they had this place quite armed to the teeth.

The ship was directed to a certain metallic dock that resembled an artificial chasm. That must be where their airships were docked. There were some machines that moved along the rim of the dock, mostly to transport things to and fro, and there were also some machines that they assumed were to hold the vessel in place. There were short bursts from the thrusters as it carefully positioned itself over the dock, lowering slowly. It touched down with a soft landing, and a faint tremor could be felt as the locks held it in place. Tripodakis told them, "The operators here will stay with the ship. Melonakou, Zyrkos, you're coming with me."

The three wore translucent breathing masks, for they aren't completely certain the atmospheric pressure and composition of Maru is similar to that of Xenia, or Minaris, or any other habitable Perseid world. They also wore suits that both functioned as armor and as protection from the native flora (that is, the indigenous microorganisms of the planet). Once they were ready, the two made their way to the airlock and waited for it to equalize with Maru's atmosphere. The door opened with a loud hiss, and the surface was right in front of them. Tripodakis was the first to step out of the Sarpedon, followed by Korinna and Zyrkos. This was going to be a historic moment for both the Perseids and the natives of this world, and both sides knew that.

[Altaro]

---

HANGAR BAY 6
Kiku Aerodrome - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
14:02

---

Lieutenant Okuradai Shisei walked across the base, her boots clunking on the ground in rhythm. It was a metronome by which she organized her thoughts. Ichi-Ni-San-Shi Ningen-Alien-Foreign-Tresspass. So many things were running through her mind. And as she walked down the halls, the number of soldiers rushing to and fro down the halls of the Aerodrome seemed to support the idea that everyone was just as concerned as her.

She walked into one of the observation bays, overlooking the docking bay the alien ships had been sequestered into. A small door had opened, and they walked down from their ship. She looked closer and saw them wearing breathing masks. The Panther Hito looked confused. Turning to a technician to her side, she asked "Have the ningen forgotten they could breathe our air?"

The man pulled up several panels. "It seems. Based on what came out of their airlock, their atmospheric content seems to simply replace the neon that occurs here with argon that occurs...wherever they've set up shop. Not that it matters much on the organic sense, but...just odd."

"So if they took off their masks, they'd be fine?"

"Theoretically, yes. Apparently they forgot how to breathe while out there."

Shisei chuckled. "They truly are unenlightened, aren't they?" She walked to a lift and took it down to the hangar floor. As it moved, she remembered that her dark and light green uniform had been freshly pressed, and her metal neck guard, shoulder plates, and back plates had been freshly polished. She had been supposed to meet with a delegate from the Military Bureau.

A smirk crossed her face. It was important to look good for guests.

---

SITUATION ROOM
Teikoku-shi, Saidan - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
14:07

---

President Haroki Kaizo walked into the room, and was greeted by 15 people saluting, then bowing. He smiled and sat at the head of the table. Around the room, several panels showed live feeds of the hangar where Trespasser - no, the ningen ship - had docked. All around the room, people were shuffling papers and ordering their thoughts.

Kaizo looked as sullen as he always did. "So they're not hostile?"

A man from MAXA spoke up. "Well, not that we know of- "

"Is anything else coming?"

"Well, ah...no. Not that we know of."

"Are you sure? How far can the ansible see?"

"Theoretically, it has an infinite range. But in practice...we can see through a sphere as far as the Core. And in the half of the galaxy we can see, there doesn't seem to be anything coming after us at the moment. Nothing substantial, anyways."

"Have we located where they've been transmitting back to?"

"Yes." He waved over a panel, and brought up a map of the galaxy. A small icon flashed over a section some ways away from their own sector. "We have determined their signals report back to a system in Galactic Sector XXM HYPER T ALPHA. What they're reporting back to, we don't know."

Kaizo sighed. "Very well. I'll report back to the Kōgō and- "

"I already know."

Everyone on the room jumped, and noticed the Panda Hito woman that had just entered the room. Tall, regal, and somehow magnificently royal-looking even in a simple black dress. At once, everyone jumped to their feet and bowed deeply while saluting. They all recited at once "Anata ni eikō, meiyo heika!" She nodded and walked towards the front of the room.

"Why was I not informed of this meeting?"

Kaizo jumped up, flustered. "Honorable Majesty, I beg your forgiveness, I didn't think you cared about - "

"I only heard about this meeting because a busboy mentioned the President was visiting. And the President of the Empire does not typically arrive unannounced to this Palace."

Kaizo's voice got more strained. "I...I beg your forgiveness...Honorable Majesty...we meant you no offense..."

"I am not offended, President Kaizo. But straighten up, you dishonor yourself talking like that." She snapped her fingers, and one of the MAXA men shot up and vacated a spot for her.

"I, ah...Kōgō Himeji...I, well..."

"Take a moment, Mister President." Kaizo sighed and took a moment, regaining his composure. After a short bit, he spoke again in a confident voice.

"Honorable Majesty, we've been working on finding out everything we can about these ningen. We know they're coming from somewhere across the galaxy, but, to be honest...I didn't think they could come back this early."

"What are you talking about?"

A woman from MAXA stood up. "Honorable Majesty, we have a theory...that these ningen...do not originate from Maru."

Her eyes widened. "Okay. So they came from another planet?"

"Well...yes. That's our working theory."

She smiled a bit. "The universe is a screwed-up place. We had to deal with them on Maru, now we have to deal with them from other planets. Maybe the spirits are punishing us for something."

---

GALACTIC SECTOR WUU PLURAL Q GAMMA
34 Hachi 2613 Æ
---

---

The ship woke everyone up. And at once, alarms began blaring. The captain barely had 4 seconds to adjust to not being in stasis before he saw that the ship's controls had already become unresponsive. Everything was already beyond hope, and it took a simple glance out the window to see why. They were drifting directly towards a void, a black void in space.

The controls blared. Even in his groggy state, he knew there was nothing they could do at this point. He simply stood straight, faced the hole, and saluted. The last thing anyone on Savior 3 thought was the Captain's: So it ends.

[Perseid Federation]

Kiku Aerodrome, Maru
Taiyo System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

Out the door the Perseids went, stepping onto the metal walkway that connected the ship with the rest of the dock. Tripodakis, Korinna, and Zyrkos could see the blue sky above, the Sarpedon behind them, and the aerodrome in front of them. The dock was quite massive, large enough to accommodate even a ship utilizing a design hundreds of years ahead—maybe even millennia. There were certainly more of these docks throughout the Aerodrome, they couldn't exactly remember where they're located. Not only that, there were all sorts of sophisticated machinery all over the place, a few of which were unrecognizable to them. Guess these natives weren't so primitive after all.

One thing that they noticed about this planet was the similitude it had with the habitable planets of the Omospondia. For one, it had similar levels of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and boron. One minor difference was that argon and neon had switched places—not that it would matter, they'd take in the oxygen anyway. Despite this, they weren't willing to remove their helmets, for Maru might contain native airborne microorganisms that may prove detrimental to their bodies. Such was the risk posed here.

A couple of aircraft flew over their heads, perahps having taken off from the base or in the middle of circling around so they could land. There was also a squadron of soldiers, all wearing animal masks and gloves, jogging alongside the docks and carrying rifles in their hands. There were more of these animal men riding on vehicles and operating on cranes, even some who were pointing their turrets at the sky for more ships. It was a busy day for the men-at-arms of Maru, maybe more so with the Perseids' presence. Everyone seemed to be on high alert and on edge over what their alien visitors might actually do.

What approached them was a black feline Hito dressed in a dark green uniform, with decorations placed on its shoulder plates and neck guards. This appeared to be quite unorthodox for a people like them if they were not humans. After all, why would an animal need clothes when it has fur? This must be a hint that it was perhaps a human in furry clothing. From the way its uniform was tailored, the Hito was most likely of the female variety. To think that even in this distant world on the other side of the Galaxy she had known of the concept of male and female clothes that resemble Terran clothing...

Wait a minute, the mask appeared to be moving on its own—as if it had a real working face attached to it. Were their masks robotic? There were no eyeholes cut into the mask, only filled by a glasslike ball that seemed to have a pupil moving left and right. In addition, her eyes blinked every few seconds, just like theirs. There was no hole for the mouth either, for it was filled with a working tongue and sharp teeth—just like a real predatory feline would have. Her ears twitched minutely, shifting a little bit here and there. Her collar appeared to be slightly smaller than expected, closer to more humanlike sizes. It became clear that this native soldier was no human in animal clothing, nor one with a bionic face, but an actual sapient animal in human clothing. This fact deeply fascinated the explorers.

If they were going to find the humans of KP 9115 here, this anthropomorphic race of mammalians would probably lead them to them. Once the Hito stopped in front of them, Tripodakis turned his head and nodded at Zyrkos. The Perseid began in Japanese, "Greetings. We are humans from the Perseid Federation, on the other side of the Galaxy. We do not come with any ill will, but to find the source of a race of humans that originated from this planet."

[Altaro]

---

BRIEFING ROOM Y56
Kiku Aerodrome - 34 Hachi 2613 Æ
14:23

---

Lieutenant Shisei felt uncomfortable—intensely uncomfortable. The men and women stared at her as if she was a puppet. They eyed her like she wasn’t entirely real. Was there something on her face? More importantly, have these ningen completely forgotten what she was, or where they were? Their ignorance seemed to reach no bounds, and probably may have worsened after decades in space. After a moment, she collected her thoughts and spoke in the tongue of her kind. “So, you’ve come back. Like a bad infection of kaisen, you just won’t ever fully go away.”

Zyrkos was taken aback by the Hito’s sharp language. He whispered to Tripodakis in Perse, “They don’t seem welcoming, Captain. In fact, they might as well be rude.”

“Well of course they’d be,” he replied, “we’re the fricking extraterrestrials here. Just continue.”

Zyrkos cleared his throat. “Right.”

Turning his head back to Shisei, he replied in Japanese, “Pardon me, but we just arrived here. And we did not have any prior contact with this planet’s humans other than what we found near our space. What exactly are you implying here, ummm—”

“Have you truly slipped that far backwards?” she snapped. “As much as I’m loathe to admit it, this planet was your home for 10,000 years. And in just a century, you’ve forgotten everything.” She chuckled. “All the stories really are true, then. You’re never able to learn it right.”

Two Hito soldiers with guns, one Tiger, one Panda, both standing at the same height as the Panther, came up to flank her. She turned with them and motioned for the intruders to come with her. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Zyrkos appeared to speak something inaudibly to Tripodakis, and the Captain nodded and cocked his head. Korinna and Zyrkos followed him, escorted by the Hito into the bowels of the Aerodrome.

Through the intercoms connecting their helmets, Zyrkos was asked by the Captain to translate what the Hito said. In Perse he replied, “The native appeared to be frustrated when I asked her to elaborate on what she said. She then said that we may have originated from their planet ten millennia ago.”

Tripodakis paused for a while. “We may be the descendants of men 10,000 years ago, but they certainly got the planet wrong. Can’t say I blame them for being on the other side of this ginormous galaxy.”

“I—if you say so.”

The group marched down the halls in silence for a while after that. Occasionally, the soldiers would cast glances at the Humans, as if they couldn’t quite believe they were real. A passing Coyote Hito called as they walked by, “Come to wreck everything again?”

Among the Perseids, Zyrkos would be the only one upsetted by the remarks of the soldiers. What didn’t the gods reveal, or the genetic makeup of the humans of KP 9115? What has humanity done to earn the hatred of the anthropomorphic animal xenos? A saddened look crossed his face—perhaps it was better if he hadn’t taken Terran Japanese in his days as a Meriakion.

Shisei kept walking until she came to a small door off to the side of a long hall. It opened to her thumbprint, and she motioned for the men to enter. The soldiers went in to flank the door, and she stayed out in the hall. “You will be debriefed in 10 minutes. Try not to break anything while you’re in here.” With that, she turned and left, with the door closing automatically behind her. The guards gripped their guns tighter and stood at attention on either side of the door.. Assuming that it was safe to breathe in here, the Perseids removed their helmets, the light patterns on their skin faintly showing for the Hito guards to see. It just happened to be dim here for some reason.

Once the door had closed, Shisei sighed loudly. The fact that Humans had come back was enough of a concern in and of itself. What truly worried her was if they were coming back in force. She composed herself, turned, and walked briskly down the hall, trying to set her thoughts back to the metronome of her boots on the floor. Ichi-Ni-San-Shi Ningen-Coming-Maybe-Problem.

Ten minutes had passed, and a Red Panda Hito in a very official looking uniform entered the room, nodded to the soldiers, and sat at the front of the room, wearing a very serious expression. A moment of silence passed. Then he spoke. “It’s been some time, hasn’t it, travelers?”

This was the third Hito that remarked like this. Zyrkos’ intuition had finally clicked. “If you are referring to the humans that originated from this world, we have not descended from them.”

The Hito chuckled. “Of course you aren’t. Now, I am Dr. Kumamoto. I am a representative of the Imperial Government, and I wanted to ask you a few questions. I will ask a question, and you will answer to the best of your ability. Do you understand?” The Perseid nodded in response.

“Very good. Now, to start with, what planet did your ship arrive at?”

“Maru, if I may remember correctly from the data.”

The man seemed slightly annoyed. “I do not mean what planet you specifically have come to. I am asking you what planet your Evacuation Ship arrived at during the Expulsion.”

Zyrkos was confused. “We came from no such ship.”

The man’s annoyance made itself just barely apparent, but he regained his composure. “We’ll come back to that. What organization do you represent?”

Finally, something clear! “We come from the Perseid Federation, an interstellar polity located in the Alpha Quadrant, if you are not aware of how the Galaxy had been arbitrated.”

“I am aware of the Quadrants. What Galactic Sector do you originate from? For your reference, we are currently in Galactic Sector YY6 ACTIVE K DELTA. Use that as a reference point.”

That was close to the boundary with Gamma, Zyrkos noted. “The Sivulon Reach, on the Perseus Arm, between galactic bearings 62 and 64.” Was the xeno aware of the Heliocentric configuration of the galaxy? That may be for another time. Nevertheless, he was not ready to disclose the particular coordinates of the Omospondia to the Hito just yet, lest it would open up the possibility of invasion.

“I’m sorry, but your local name for your new home escapes me.” He pulled a small box out of his pocket, pushed a button, and a map of the galaxy came up, with the grid centered on his homeworld. “This is the Hikari Hashi, our Galaxy. Point to where you come from.”

The map seemed to be oriented upside down, with the Perseus Arm located above the galactic core. The Orion Spur, along with the Vela and Cygnus Spurs, haven’t been accurately mapped yet. There were also Japanese names for each of the arms and spurs on the side facing Maru. Zyrkos drew closer to the star map and rotated it so that Sol was below. Now he had a better sense of things. He located the Sagittarius Bend the galactic superstructure that indicated the border between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, and then hovered his finger above the Perseus Arm, where bearing 60 should be. That was perhaps the Sivulon Reach.

“Interesting. You’ve traveled far indeed. I wasn’t aware the Evacuation Ships were capable of traveling that far. Now, my next question. What is the population of your colony?”

“Around 57 billion sophonts, sir.”

The Hito felt the blood drain from his face, although his fur hid it. “I—I knew the Ningen were fecund, but… Great Spirits, do you ever take a break from breeding? Do you breed with your parents and your children?”

The irked faces of the Hito were finally getting to Zyrkos. He was offended by what the anthro said. He mumbled in Perse, “Oh, may the gods show mercy to these Goúnoprosopai for calling us Leukotheans...”

“Wait, what?” Tripodakis overheard what he had cursed. Now the flippancy of the furry-faced xenos had reached his ears. Surely the Perseids were more sexually restrained than what the Hito had implied, they were devout Theognostics for the gods’ sake! In a rapid Perse he reacted, “What the fuck did you say?”

“Calm down, Captain. Easy,” Zyrkos intervened. Regaining his composure after that slur, and attempting to hide the offense he had felt, Zyrkos replied in Japanese, “No we do not.”

The Hito saw that he had made the Perseid men angry. For a brief moment, a smile flashed across his face. “I have offended you?”

Gazing at Tripodakis for a while, he replied, “Yes. We aren’t incredulously sexually liberal, if that is what you were implying.”

“You could have had us fooled. 6 Billion of your kind before the Virus, before the Expulsion, in just 10,000 years of history...and now 57 Billion. Although your culture does famously show an amazing level of sexual repression, if the history books are any indication.”

“We aren’t exactly that repressed either,” Zyrkos pointed out.

“What going on?” Korinna mumbled in Perse.

“They broached on our sexual liberties.”

This elicited a snicker from her. “Couldn’t they have better things to talk about?”

“A century ago,” Kumamoto cut in, “there were about 47 Ningen nations. 26 of them had laws with a...rather strict outlook on anything that didn’t conform to the...orthodoxy of Ningen culture.” The Hito had searched around for a few words before coming to the right ones. “But there are certainly many more, much more pressing matters at hand, aren’t there?”

“Indeed.” Zyrkos was relieved this sidetracking was over.

The doctor asked, “What form of government is your nation governed under? Are you a Monarchy, a Democracy, a Republic, a Dictatorship?”

“We are a federal republic governed by democratic systems, with executive powers vested in a council of five.”

“Fascinating...do you have a constitution?”

“Yes, doctor,” the Perseid nodded. “Shall I disclose a copy of it?”

“In due time. Now, let’s work on some of the finer workings of your kind...did you travel with the Infinite Improbability Drive, or did you devise a new form of faster-than-light travel?”

His interest was raised upon the mention of Maru’s superluminal drive. What was this Infinite Improbability that Kumamoto spoke of? Perhaps if the Omospondia had learned from the Marunites, they would be more enlightened on the nature of the laws governing the universe, but I digress. “We have made an indigenous superluminal drive called the Valkanas Drive,” he explained, “which operates without the need for an intermediate medium. I believe certain human civilizations had similar drives as well, particularly the Solarians.”

“Very well. Perhaps there is still something to be learned from your kind.” Annoyance it seemed, had been replaced with some semblance of begrudging respect. “What sort of planet does your main population inhabit?”

“Actually, we mainly inhabit six planets. These are namely Xenia, Theris, Minaris, Servitus, and Psyche—all of which are habitable.”

“Interesting indeed.” He pressed a smaller button on his waist, and smiled. “Well, we’ve learned something from you, amazing as it may sound, now I believe you have questions for us, yes?”

“Mainly one,” Zyrkos said. “I—I mean, we are not enlightened as to the reason for the animosity shown by your people towards us, in spite of the fact that this is only our first encounter. I have stated previously that we are humans that didn’t originate from this planet, and—”

“You wish to know why you are not well-received?”

“Yes, doctor.”

The doctor turned to a small panel on the wall and tapped a screen. “Can you send me down archival reel #344967?” A small beep came through, and a screen opened up at the front of the room. “If you truly need to be educated once again, then this should answer your questions. We use this to teach primary school children about your past.”

“We use an integrated superluminal network to educate students when they are incapable of attending school and— Oh, I apologize if I may have interrupted you, please continue.”

The lights around dimmed, causing the humans’ light patterns to be more profound, and a video began playing. The video showed the planet as seen from space, then zoomed in on the southern portion of the largest continent. A voice began to narrate. “10,000 years ago, our planet saw the rise of two species: the Hito and the Ningen—each of them have originated from different evolutionary trees. From the very first dawn of these two species, a blood feud had come to be that would shape the history of our planet for millennia to come. [...]” Zyrkos activated his recorder so he could have time to process what the narrator said.

The video then accelerated through time, to show the rise of the cities of the Hito. The voice continued. “From the earliest civilizations in the Komoko kawa no ryūiki, Ningen plagued our continent. Raids devastated farms, ravaged small villages, and led to the rise of cities as a bastion to defend from the constant onslaught of Ningen barbarians.” To that effect, the video showed a horde of Humans, who looked like ancient Terran barbarians who once inhabited the steppes of Greater Gaia, charging at a walled city—and the Hito at the walls firing volley after volley of arrows into them. A brief transition showed the horde lying dead, many piled against the walls.

The video accelerated through time again. “As time marched on, cities and civilization grew stronger and stronger. In the constant battle between Hito and Ningen, the Hito came to dominate all of Saidan. Through the development of walls, the bow and arrow, and the domestication of crops such as rice and animals such as the Uma, the Hito grew dominant, establishing the great Dynasties of the Abake, the Hisara, and the Riku, all the way through the great Saidan Teikoku. [...]” While the video continued, it showed the fluctuating borders of these nations until it finally settled in covering the entire continent.

Minutes transpired, and the tale of the two warring races had finally reached the interplanetary era. “In the 26th Century of the Empire, our worst fears came to pass. The Ningen developed the secrets of the nuclear bomb, and wasted no time in unleashing it on each other as the Empire had on Alexandria. City after city was turned to atomic dust. We soon realized that they would not stop until their entire population had been eradicated, and until the entire planet was encased in a nightmarish nuclear winter. To this end, we created the Virus—a biological weapon so powerful, that the Ningen would practically drop dead in the streets from breathing the same air as one who had been infected.

“The remaining Ningen who survived built five ships called Saviors, long-distance interstellar vessels that carried them away to the stars. We witnessed them leaving our orbit, and knew that the long and violent struggle was over. Time will tell if they will ever return, and we hope they never do.”

The video came to an end, and the lights brightened. The doctor smiled. “Does this answer your question?”

---

[collab post]

[Perseid Federation]

Kiku Aerodrome, Maru
Taiyo System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

The Perseids looked at each other as the screen dissipated in front of them. While they had almost no clue about what the narrator was talking about, since he spoke in Terran Japanese, the way that the video was produced—the historical reenactments of barbarian hordes at the gates of stone castles, the antique photographs of successive monarchs of the Hito nation in their imperial regalia, the recorded video footage of mechanized planet-side conflict escalating into a terrifying vision of thermonuclear warfare, and the piles of human corpses littering the streets of once lively cities—seemed to get the message across the language barrier between the two cultures. Only Zyrkos was able to comprehend the narration substantially. This planet, according to the archive footage, was once home to a violent people. No, it's home to two violent peoples, races that only knew hatred of each other, and one of them was thrust out of Maru to wander the stars. And one of their ships came so close to home.

Once Zyrkos was finished translating everything, he responded, "I believe so." But the video just created more questions than answers. It was revealed that there were four other Savior ships possibly roaming the galaxy, but where are they now? One had crashed in the Thalassa years ago—what fate awaits the others out there? Would they be able to find them and hopefully grant them a sanctuary for them to thrive in, maybe even assimilate them into Perseid society? More importantly, were these Hito as violent as the humans they antagonized, if not more so? Despite their 'good intentions' for their actions, they exterminated most of mankind with a biological weapon. If they had found out the exact location of the Omospondia, would they attempt to launch an invasion over a quadrant away? Maybe he was being paranoid. Right now, the issue was how to break the news to these animal xenos, who still assumed he and his companions are descendants of the hated Ningen. "I will be needing a few moments to explain the narration to them," Zyrkos told Kumamoto.

After permission was granted, he turned to Tripodakis and Korinna and told the synopsis of the video tape in the Perse vernacular. He tried to simplify and compress such a long and complicated tale of strife within the space of several seconds, lest he forget the Red Panda Hito was still in the room. What was eye-opening about these non-Terran humans was not their differences, but their similarities. In fact, they were incredulously similar to their Terran counterparts in both physical appearance and mental and psychological tendencies, despite having originated from a different planet in a concealed sector of the cosmos out of the reach of the known galaxy. Korinna was astounded. "You mean, Terra humans not only ones?"

"Yeah," Zyrkos replied.

"Fascinating," she mused. "The reports true. Where they now?"

"I don't know, the archive didn't touch on the possible courses or locations of the Savior ships."

From Kumamoto's point of view, it is as if the Perseids were saying something inaudible. Zyrkos turned to Tripodakis and asked, "I believe you will be responding, yes? If so, I can serve as a translator."

"Um, that's why you're here," he shrugged. "I figured I should say something to the fur-face, though you won't like it."

"Please don't try to anger him," Zyrkos warned, taking a step back and letting the Captain speak.

Tripodakis cleared his throat and spoke in Perse, "From what I gather, you're saying that we come from them? Yeah, no. Not true." Zyrkos became uneasy at hearing this, so he rephrased, "From what I gather, are you saying we descended from them? I don't believe that is possible." It wasn't like Tripodakis would know what Zyrkos was saying to the Hito, for he never did.

Tripodakis then said, "Ever heard of the like-worlds evolution theory? Means that life will take on similar forms in whatever world you place it on because it works the same way in those worlds. So expect other humans in other planets besides this one." He's not very knowledgable about that theory, Zyrkos mused, for little knowledge was to be expected of Astronautikon officers, and the whole process was more complicated than that. But he more or less hit the mark.

Perhaps enough was heard from Tripodakis for one day. Zyrkos whispered something inaudible to the Captain before he was to speak again, to which the Captain snickered and replied something back. Korinna just stood there and gazed at the Hito in front of her, occasionally glancing at the fur-faced infantrymen at the door or the items that were on the wall.

If any explanation was needed for what Tripodakis had said, the tale of humans from the other side of the Milky Way may be recounted. It has to, Zyrkos considered, if any generalizations by the Hito were to be discarded. He spoke, "We are one of many distant descendants of a branch of humanity what taxonomists call homo sapiens sapiens. They originate from the planet Terra, a planet similar to yours, and what we call our ancient home. It is the third world of the Sol System, which straddles the periphery of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

A holographic star map projected from Zyrkos' wrist, showing only the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, as well as the visible portions of the Gamma and Delta Quadrants (that is, visible from Sol's point of view). "Our ancestors departed from Terra not because of persecution or for fear of extinction, but in search of greener pastures and colonized much of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Many of these colonies, including the ones in our sector, became self-governing states independent of home. One of them was the Perseid Federation, where we originate from. The reason for this was that our brethren in Terra had fallen into a period of chaos and anarchy due to civil unrest and environmental upheaval."

[Altaro]

---

SITUATION ROOM
Teikoku-shi, Saidan - 35 Hachi 2613 Æ
21:44

---

"So, that's what we've been given."

President Sokai sighed. "This universe is more deranged than I thought. What kind of universe do we live in where the ningen appear on more than one planet?[/i]

Kōgō Himeji sighed. "So what do you recommend we do with this knowledge? Are we going to have to sweep the whole galaxy to exterminate the ningen wherever they have come to infest a planetary system?"

A Sagarū from MAXA spome up in the same gravelly cadences of his race. "Honorable Majesty, with all due respect, our capacity to move between stars is limited as it is. The Improbability Drive lets us move very quickly between stars, but there's an operational limit to most missions. We've calculated the coordinates of their region of the galaxy, and it would take roughly 31 taiyōs to arrive there."

Another MAXA employee, this one a Leopard Hito, added "And we don't have the capacity to construct interstellar warships yet. While we're capable of defending within this planetary system alone, our ability to defend stops just outside the Yusei Clouds."

Sokai sighed. "That's great. Just fucking great. We go through all the effort to exterminate them here, and the Spirits can't give us a break."

The Kōgō chuckled. "Perhaps it is for the best. If we were to go through the next century or so without an adversary to constantly better ourselves against, we would grow soft and weak."

Sokai opened his mouth to say something, but thought against it. He turned to the adjutant across the table from him. "Are they being kept well?"

"As much as I'd love to have them thrown in a rubbish pit, they're being kept well. Lieutenant Shisei says they're being housed in an unused barracks at the Kiku Aerodrome until further notice."

"Until further notice, just keep them there. Try to learn as much from them as you possibly can: what this "Terra" is like, what their society is like, and how they got here. These ningen aren't like ours. They actually outclass us. Until a day comes when we can continue our crusade to cleanse the filth from this galaxy, we'll have to play nice for now."

---

LIEUTENANT'S QUARTERS
Kiku Aerodrome - 36 Hachi 2613 Æ
0100 hrs

---

Lieutenant Shisei looked over the security feeds for the umpteenth time that night. They had been asleep since 2200 Hours, and they hadn't moved in all of that time. The small buzzing in her head kept going. They were supposed to be gone, extinct, even. But they're here. They're here. And they're going to wreck everything again, they're going to try and destroy everything again.

She realized that her claws were digging into the table, and that her hand was stuck in the table. She wrenched it out and walked over to an overnet computer, flipping through the nearly infinite number of pages until she found a site that told the environmental history of the planet. It detailed that from approximately 2200 to 2550 Æ, the world had been in a brief geological era called the "Hito Shin Yo" characterized by heavy influence of both the Hito and the ningen on the planet's environment, much more the ningen. Since their banishment, the world had been in a loosely defined era called the "Atarashī Kindai", in which the Hito, in all their knowledge and development, had managed to bring effects on their entire planet to a bare minimum.

This was the ability of the Hito. The ningen saw this world as theirs, a plaything to do with as they wished. And as all the books told, the Hito had been tasked with retaking the world for the Spirits, to ensure that their planet would continue to survive and thrive. It had been 2600 years since their Empire had risen, and almost 10,000 years since civilization as a whole had risen from the Hito. Saidan, the homeland of every Hito, had been home to just over 1 billion Hito before the Purging. And even now, just 3 billion populated the planet.

When she looked up from the screen, she became aware of how much calmer she felt. They won't destroy everything. We won't let them.

The comlink beeped softly. She opened it and asked in a softer tone "Yes, what is it?"

"Lieutenant, we've got the DNA tests back for you."

"And?"

"Well, checking these samples back and forth with what we've got in the archives, within a 0.0006% margin of error, these ningen are pretty much entirely like the Maruan ningen from all those years ago. Their patterns are all the same TCAG patterns, their skeletons all have the same number of bones - hell, they both even have an appendix. These guys are practically clones of what we used to have."

She sighed. "This is a fucked-up universe, yeah?"

"If it wasn't we wouldn't be here."

Shisei chuckled. "Indeed. When they wake up, keep them in their quarters until I or someone above me says to let them out. Maybe we'll have more questions, maybe we won't. But all the same, bring them any food or water as requested, and make sure that their air supply is well maintained."

"Got it. Good night, Ma'am."

"Goodnight." She shut the comlink, then started walking back to her quarters.

---

GALACTIC SECTOR M99 ACTIVE W BETA
35 Hachi 2613 Æ
---

---

There had been 5 ships. Two remained. And Savior 5 had exactly 35 seconds to live. No one aboard knew it yet. The ship's crew had been awakened for a routine checkup of the ship's systems, making sure that the reactor systems were stable, the suspended animation interface was still operational, and that the ship was still moving at a decent pace. Captain Bernard MacRea waved over the panels, making sure that the operations were moving soundly.

He opened a comlink. "Is it possible we've gotten any messages from the other ships?"

"Actually, yes. We got an automated confirmation message from Savior 2 that they've arrived where they're supposed to be."

"That's excellent. I can't wait until ours goes out."

"Roger that."

"How is the reactor core?"

"It's holding stable. Same as alwa-"

Savior 5's 35 seconds ran out. The ships had been so hastily constructed that they had needed to forgo even basic radar detection systems. As such, the ship had no means to tell that a single rock, barely the size of a bowling ball, was approaching it head-on while the ship was moving at several times the speed of light.

It punched straight through the hull and all the way through the ship in a fraction of a second. It took longer than that for physics to take hold, and when they did, the entire ship was obliterated. One instant, the interior depressurized, and the reactor imploded before erupting violently and blasting the entire ship into pieces, not one of which was larger than several inches.

The one mercy was that all of its 50,000 passengers were killed instantly.

---

GALACTIC SECTOR E75 DORMANT U DELTA
35 Hachi 2613 Æ
---

---

Savior 2 had been blessed with the fortune its sisters had been stripped of. The small planetary system had been charted almost a century ago, and they had picked it because of how simple it was: a red dwarf, class M3V, and just three planets. A small rocky planet too far to sustain life, and a smaller rocky planet too close to sustain life. But the third was a gas giant, orbiting right in the middle of the cool star's habitable zone. And this gas giant, just 67,000 km across, had a moon 6,000 km across. It was this moon they had been aiming for.

The ship, battered ever so slightly from the interstellar medium, slid smoothly into orbit past the gas giant named Megas and around the moon that had been named Erythro. As it did, the crew, having only recently awoken from their decades-long slumber, were busy helping the passengers adjust to being awake after suspended animation. Captain Elizabeth Maynard smiled down at the moon.

It was more than they ever could have hoped for. In large blotches across its surface, blue smiled up at them in the form of seas and oceans. Two decent-sized ice caps sparkled at the north and south poles. While the land was grey and brown, devoid of any complex life, the moon was more like home than anything else they had seen. The baseline observations they had been granted hadn't shown the vast presence of water, but here it was. All it needed was simple desalinization and purification, and there was more water than they would need for centuries.

Captain Maynard smiled and opened her captain's log. "Log Entry 16. I don't yet know exactly how long it's been, but our voyage is over. And our new home beckons unlike anything ever yet seen. In just 13 hours, the first drop ships will descend, ready to begin setting up the colonial base. For the first time since the Exodus...I feel hope. We all have hope. I can only hope that the other 4 ships have been able to arrive peaceably."

An aide walked up to her. "Captain Maynard? You're needed in the Central Concourse." She smiled and followed him back to see the rest of the passengers and crew.

[Perseid Federation]

Kiku Aerodrome, Maru
Taiyo System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

Five days had passed since the Sarpedon had landed in the Aerodrome, and the ship was grounded in the hangar bay by the authorities. With luck, the aliens wouldn't think of dismantling the multi-billion Axia vessel, or acquiring their foodstuffs and other precious cargo. Its proficient 20-man crew, including the 5 remaining operators, had been moved to an unused barracks, where they were being watched all day and all night by security cameras within and armed guards without. It was early morning, and most of them were already awake and rolling up their sleeping bags. They were tired, yes, but awake.

For days the Perseids had been examined and tested by local scientists—who wished to get a sufficient observation of their physiology and DNA structure—and interrogated by the Hito soldiers on regards to a wide spectrum of questions that their xeno counterparts wish to get answers to, most particularly about Terra, the enigmatic planet that was described as the main bastion of humanity. It must have been a real eye-opener to the Hito when they heard of tales of diverse Human civilizations that descended from the seed of Terran man, societies and cultures vastly different from their own, and a plethora of peoples that populated the stars in every quadrant and in every sector. It must have been humbling.

The question that arose in Tripodakis' mind was what the anthropomorphic mammalians would do with such information. In fact the captain had cautioned them to be very careful in disclosing their nation's secrets to the Hito. Usually the natives of an interplanetary civilization without any prior contact with aliens would be afraid of the aliens, not the other way around. The interrogations worried Zyrkos as well, for he was the one who knew what the aliens were saying—at least he believed he knew. He was visibly tired from translating back and forth between the humans and the Hito—so much so that his throat was parched even after several glasses of water. Not only that, his worrying made him lose some much needed sleep last night. He wished that he could sleep all the way up to 1000 hours, even as the unpacked sleeping bag was hard and uncomfortable for his strained back.

Yet he was not to be given that luxury at all.

Lieutenant Shisei arrived at the barracks, accompanied by a small contingent of soldiers. The Hito looked more alert than their Human counterparts, even if the mammalians were actually more sleep-deprived than the Humans were. The Perseids saw the long shadow that had been cast and gazed at the door. "Tripodakis, Melonakou, Zyrkos," she called out, "you are now to be taken to the Imperial Capital. Don't make us wait."

Zyrkos relayed to Tripodakis what she said, and the Captain nodded. He turned around and spoke in Perse, "Stay put and follow the instructions of the guards. Tsikouna," turning his gaze to Agathon, "you will serve as translator. If I hear of any of you fucking around while we're gone, I'm going to kill you before the damn Goúnoprosopai do, understand?"

They straightened up and responded as one man. "Yes, captain."

"Good." Placing his hand in front of him he spoke, "May the gods be with you and keep you."

"May they be with you," came the response. Then the three stepped out of the barracks and walked with the soldiers. As for the others, they continued to go about their business, waiting for yet another round of questions.

The Hito brought the three Perseids to a dropship, which rested on the tarmac. It was to transport them to the capital, thousands of miles to the north. It lifted off with a resounding roar, vertically ascending before it began to propel itself forwards. While they were departing, the Perseids could see the Sarpedon recede from view. They were going to reunite with her after this expedition was over, they could only hope they could.

A slight tremor caused Korinna to hold tightly to her seat. "What's wrong?" Zyrkos asked.

"Nothing," she lied.

City of Teikoku-shi, Maru
Taiyo System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

The aircraft had been hugging the coast for some time, skirting its way along the shore of the great continent the Hito called Saidan. Many settlements, from massive cities to small fishing hamlets, approached, passed, and receded into the distance in a sporadic pattern. There were also some cliffs that carved into the sea, the waves constantly crashing all over the rocks.

Lieutenant Shisei walked into the hold of the ship, and spoke to the Humans. “We will be arriving in Teikoku-shi in approximately 13 minutes.” They nodded, and she walked back to the cockpit.

The pilot looked over the holoscreens around him, keeping track of their flight path towards the Capital City. She noticed that Shisei had come in, and at once asked, “Tell me, what does the Kōgō want with these roaches? Why don’t we just have them euthanized here and now?” he snarled.

“Because the President wants to make a big diplomatic deal out of it.”

The pilot sighed. “Socialists, always wanting to make a big ceremony of every diplomatic anything.”

“You have to admit, though, this is one of the biggest happenings in modern history.”

“For better or for worse," he slowly pushed the yoke and turned it slightly to the right.

“Probably for the worse, but you understand what I mean.”

Meanwhile in the hold, Korinna was holding on tightly to the straps of her seat. There had been some nasty turbulence that shook the ship, rattling some metal. Surely Perseid dropships were less shaky than this! Thank goodness there weren’t any windows, or her skin would turn incredibly pale from looking at the surface. She was much more comfortable with large starships, since they just move indifferently through sky and space.

Zyrkos noticed and asked, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” she stammered, her legs quivering. “I-I’m fine. Th-this is not my f-first time. AH!” she squealed when the ship tremored again.

Zyrkos chuckled and placed the back of his hand on his lips. “You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?”

"She is," Tripodakis could see it in her eyes.

“A-am not!” she folded her arms and blushed. "M-maybe you are afraid of the h-heights." For the third time the ship shook, eliciting another short high-pitched squeal from her. She hung on to her seat for dear life, even though the ship's descent was gentle.

“I guess that’s why you were holding on to the rail when Sarpedon’s orbit was decaying,” the Captain mused. “Try not to shriek the crap out of the Hito, okay?”

A short time later, a small notification blinked onto the pilot’s holoscreen. “Alright, we’re at the edge of the no-fly zone. This is as far as I go. There should be a train waiting for you.” The jet was slowly brought to a stop, then hovered gently to the waiting launchpad below. The docking arms came down and gently grabbed the ship while the turbines powered down.

Shisei walked back to the Humans in the holding bay. “Alright, come with me. You will be monitored at all times.”

You readers may choose to imagine how awkward it would've been in English or Universal, but I digress. The rear hatch lowered, and Tripodakis, Korinna, and Zyrkos got off their seats, following the Lieutenant out of the dropship. It was a relief for the female Human of the group.

The landing pad was a much simpler affair than the Aerodrome, with just a simple area of paved ground, a control tower, and a single hangar. Lieutenant Shisei walked across the tarmac and towards a small station where a simple, 3-car maglev stood waiting. She motioned for the Humans to enter, then followed them in. The door shut with a faint hiss behind them, and the train started moving.

As the train moved, the explorers were given a good look at the simple yet elegant countryside. This Maru was perhaps the most beautiful that they had seen. Much of the landscape was filled with trees that extended even as far as the hills that were rising out of the horizon. The forest seemed old, ancient even—as if nothing had changed in it ever, barring the trackway laid through it. The area directly outside what they kept calling the 'Capital City' seemed like it hadn’t been touched in a millennium. This was Phyllidus’ garden. There were also some animals frolicking in the forest that the Perseids had never seen before, and some that were similar. Perhaps if the Hito had known of constructing buildings that complemented the environment, or even have plants grow on it, the view would’ve been more beautiful, it would be very eco-friendly, and the landscape would still look natural. That is what the worlds of the Omospondia had: a fusion of the simplistic geometry of the artificial with the sophistication and grandeur of nature. The Perseid architectural philosophy was to not only admire the world but to improve it.

“My gods,” Korinna placed both her hands on the glass window. “Beautiful. Wish there are going to be the buildings out there.”

“Yeah,” Tripodakis and Zyrkos exhaled. The captain turned to Zyrkos and asked, “What, you’re not going to take a picture or something? Our peeps at home would want to see this.”

Zyrkos quipped, "I think they'd settle for Arydice, Captain."

As the world flashed by in a blur of green, Shisei wondered what was going through the minds of the Humans as they took several photos of themselves with the forest at their back. She watched as they had a few hearty laughs as the clicks sounded off from their slate. Perhaps they saw the world as what it once was, and were beginning to entertain an urge to destroy it all over again. Their happy countenance was most likely nothing more than a facade to appease the Hito, a well-executed deception, as if she couldn’t see through their real feelings. Why wouldn’t they? By the time the Empire had risen to push out the Humans, the continents outside of Saidan had been undergoing a dramatic loss of biodiversity. It was only through great endeavours that her laboratories had been able to regenerate the animals that once roamed the areas, and then decades more to begin repopulating the continents.

Once again, she reminded herself what was, and tried to ignore what had once been. The world was as it should be: untouched and unsoiled. Just looking out at the pristine world made her feel warm, as if the Great Spirits were voicing their pleasure at what they had achieved. A host of noises ran through her head—wind in the leaves, water running over stones, the gentle noise of rain on dirt. These were what the ancient texts always called the “Song of the Spirits”, the euphoric anthem of the Spirits singing their praise of their children.

After some time, the land gave way to the clear blue sea. Through the clear roof of the train, two massive white arches soared into the sky, holding two parallel cables slung between the arches and down to the ground on either side. And as it was for everyone who saw it, the most striking feature of the Sukaiarō Hashi was the design of the arches that held the cables—each arch was a mockingjay, with its wings held high in victory. Ships could be seen skidding on the water's surface in the channel below. And to top it off, more than halfway across the bridge, the glorious capital of the Empire was coming into view. This was Teikoku-shi, the "Empire City."

From the tall and sleek glass buildings that reached for the sky, to the greenspaces that added semblances of nature to the predominantly azure and silver skyline, This was a grand exemplar and a testament to the talent and ingenuity of the Hito race, the manifestation of the products of a civilization that greatly outstripped even the brightest of Maru's Human civilizations. It was the great city of the Roku Dai Teikoku, whose prolific dynasty of strong and compassionate rulers has governed the Empire with a fair and benevolent hand for more than two and a half millennia. The city greatly resembled the metropolis of Firanza.

The train slowed and stopped at a station labled as “Sukiarō”, and were immediately taken to a blackened tram. Before they could ask, Shisei spoke. “This planet is entirely populated with people who hate you. You’re not in a place where everyone’s been ordered to treat you nicely anymore.”

This elicited a smirk from Tripodakis. He mused in Perse, “Eh, it’s expected. I’m already used to people hating me for something.”

“Good. The Presidential Palace is near the Harbor. It will take around 15 minutes to arrive assuming normal traffic holds.” The tram started, smoothly moving along its track in the middle of the roads of the city. Fortunately it wasn’t one of those rush hours yet—in fact there wasn’t going to be any rush hour in the normal sense, just commuters walking up and down the middle of the avenues and squeezing themselves into trams when they go to and fro—which wasn’t going to happen until a few hours later.

Their city’s landscape had no semblance of any self-driving vehicles, nor did they even accommodate for any vehicle lanes. All the streets consisted of were walkways and a track for trams. Upon closer inspection, the streets, which were just as wide as normal 2 lane roads, appeared to even be made of cobblestones that hadn’t been moved for several hundred years.

One of the soldiers saw their confused faces and chuckled softly. To Shisei, he asked, “Hey, what do you think they’d think if they saw the Matsuda trams? Or the Mountain Railway? Or any Heritage Railway?”

“Four hundred years, and they’re still in service. I think that if they weren’t amazed, they’d truly have no sense of anything good.” Shisei chuckled as well.

The tram continued moving through the city, passing modern, shining buildings that rose high into the sky. Every so often, they would pass through small parks or historical districts. At one point, the tram passed by a large monument of one of the Kashūarū Clan’s leaders. The statue held a scroll, likely meant to represent a code of laws. Shisei nodded at it and smiled.

Everywhere the tram went, the Perseids saw the same thing. The same animal-people were everywhere, filling the streets and flooding the avenues. These people were dressed in simple, loose-fitting outfits that carried few complicated designs, save for several recognizable circuit patterns that covered their clothes and ran up and down their bodies, onto their faces, and across their hands. Was this a fashion choice, or was it some form of integrated technology designed to work directly on their bodies? The fact that some seemed to be talking intently into nothing seemed to support the second choice.

“They look like Heptecclesians,” commented the Perseid translator. “With their robes and all.”

Tripodakis was confused. “Who are they again, Zyrkos?”

“You know, the Christian colonists from Terra inhabiting planets named after seven Ecclesiai in their holy scriptures, which are in a system I think is named after an island–also found in their book. Very religious people.”

“Ah.”

“I… forgot what it was called, ummmm…” Placing his index finger below his lips he guessed, “Petra? Pater? Patros?”

As he was guessing, the tram had started moving along the Harbor. On a hill ahead, an officious-looking manor stood. Shisei turned and said, “We’re here. Get ready to get off.” The Lieutenant motioned for the alien visitors to stand, and they did. The tram came to a stop just outside the palace, and the Humans were escorted into the Palace.

---

Collab by Perseid Federation and Altaro.

[Altaro]

---

PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
Teikoku-shi, Saidan - 35 Hachi 2613
09:56

---

President Sokai shivered at the thought of touching a Ningen’s hand. Smooth, hairless, oily...the thought made him shudder. It felt foreign to touch bare skin. But business was business. He straightened himself up and adjusted the red rose pin in his lapel, then stood at attention and waited for the Ningen to arrive.

While he waited, the Ministers filed into the room with him, some of them looking a bit disgruntled. The first one to ask questions was the Minister of Culture. “Tell me exactly why all of us have to meet with this filth?”

“Because we need to show a nice face for the Ningen while they still think we’re not actively planning to kill them all.”

She muttered under her breath. “Socialists. Everything has to be done with the whole government every time anything remotely important happens. When the Global Imperial Games open, every member of a government above level 7 has to be there.”

The Minister of Agriculture shot back, “It presents a united face for the people, so they know that our government works as a single unit.”

And responding to him was the Minister of Exoplanetary Affairs. “They know damn well that the DemReps don’t like you Reds, and that you hate us as much as we do!”

Before the whole meeting could devolve into yet another debate between Democratic Republicans and Socialists, Sokai called over them all. “Gentlemen, ladies, please! You’re about to make the first contact with a Ningen nation in 60 years, we need to present a good face!”

They grumbled a bit, but stood back at attention as voices came from the next room. This was the kind of event that one wouldn’t wish to sit through. Under his breath, Sokai muttered, “Great Spirits, I can smell them through the door.”

Meanwhile, the Ningen had arrived at the Presidential Palace. The building stood over them, looking like a fusion between a pagoda and a Terran office building. Tripodakis stared at it and spoke, “Guess this is the place, huh.”

“It is nice,” Korinna chirped, twirling to gaze at the harbor at her back. It was a magnificent view from up here, with colossal ships as streamlined as any space ship moving through the harbor carrying supplies to keep a whole village stocked with any good for a year, and large ports that received them. One thing that kept drawing her attention was the lack of anything in the skies overhead, civilian or military. And despite being an alien planet all the way across the galaxy, the sky was almost entirely like what had been seen on Xenia—a field of blue with white clouds drifting overhead, and a single, bright sun beaming down. The one characteristic that made the sky seem alien was the appearance of the Moon, which even then managed to look strikingly familiar.

The other odd feature of the sky was a small white dot that was hugging the horizon. Korinna tapped the shoulder of one of the soldiers, and he glared back at her like she had just pulled a knife on him. “What is that?” she asked in Perse, pointing towards the dot. Wanting an answer, the soldier turned to Zyrkos. In his native Ashiro, he asked “What is she asking?”

Sensing that the soldier was about to snap if he didn’t respond soon, Zyrkos stuttered and translated her question in their vernacular. “She was asking what that large star in the sky was.”

He scoffed, and rattled off in rapid Ashiro, “That is Hoshi, second moon of Maru. It is not a star. If it was a star, we’d all be dead.”

Two of the Hito soldiers went ahead of the group and pushed the doors open. “It’s a moon,” Zyrkos whispered to Korinna as they entered. The large, heavy doors opened with a loud creak, and a very official looking group of Hito were immediately inside. The man in front approached the captain, with what was clearly a very forced smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and instead stated, “Hello.” The doors came closed behind them with a loud booming noise, as if the cell to a crypt was being closed on them.

The interior of the room had been ornately designed with a large manner of patterns that seemed vaguely familiar to the Perseids, as if they had already seen them somewhere in the past. Most prominent among the designs were two symbols: a white, eight-petaled flower, and a mockingjay with its wings raised. The color white dominated everything, like a mental hospital.

Looking around the place for a couple of seconds, Tripodakis rested his gaze on the Hito and responded, “Salutations.”

The smile wavered for a moment, as if it wanted to become a grimace, and the man continued. “My name is Mikayori Sokai. I am the President of the Empire, elected from the Socialist Party in 2612.”

“And I am Captain Ennaeus Tripodakis, commanding officer of the exploratory vessel Sarpedon, of the Perseid Federation. This is Korinna Melonakou and Damasos Zyrkos, my companions.” Tripodakis was also struggling to put up a friendly facade.

“You’ve come a long way to find us. As the Head of Government for this Empire and the Hito people, I must ask: what is it you plan to do now?”

“Well, our original purpose was to look for these Ningen your people mentioned, but then we discovered they we’re gone for decades. So now it’s for initial contact with the current inhabitants of this planet and learning about, well, many things.” He smirked, “Though it seems like you’re more interested in us than us in you.”

He smiled. “That’s something of an understatement. We go through all the trouble to clean up our planet, and all of a sudden, you come from across the galaxy and show up on our doorstep. Tell me, have you met other Hito in your travels?”

“No, no we haven’t.”

“What a shame. It would be nice to find anyone in our travels.”

“I wouldn’t say it would be nice if guns were pointed at us at that very moment,” quipped Tripodakis.

One of the other officials with the President chuckled. Another one covered his mouth and started coughing. From another room off the one they were in, a small group of Hito with cameras filed in. The President extended his hand to shake Tripodakis’, and the first thing the Ningen noticed was that he was wearing a glove on that hand only. Someone’s afraid of bare skin, the Captain noticed. Regardless, Tripodakis shook his hand, and the cameras beeped gently. With that taken care of, the reporters filed out of the room in one direction while the President and the Ministers walked out in another direction.

Within moments, the Ningen were along with the soldiers, slightly confused as to what had just happened. With that accomplished, Lieutenant Shisei walked back in and spoke in a curt, clipped tone. “Your presence is no longer needed on this planet. You will be returned to your ship, and will be expected to leave within 24 hours of arriving back at the Kiku Aerodrome.”

“Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa,” Tripodakis was a bit offended by this. It was too soon to call this meeting off, for they had only been here for several seconds. They hadn’t been escorted to a meeting room of sorts yet, and there was still someone important missing. The President and his cabinet, who were barely within earshot of the Perseid captain, heard him react, “We were told that there were going to be diplomatic discussions between us and your dignitaries, and that your Kōgō was going to appear, no?”

The President chuckled. “The Kōgō is the 141st monarch of a chain of Kōtei and Kōgō that stretches back for 2,613 years. She is the very embodiment of the spirit of our nation, and our people. She represents everything we are, and everything we will be. To make a long story a short one, the Kōgō does not meet with Ningen. Goodbye now.” With that, Sokai shut the door closed with a loud and satisfying BANG. The Ningen were left alone with the soldiers.

The Perseids looked at each other in astonishment. To think that these fur-faced mammalians had become an obstacle between them and their precious sovereign! To put it simply, they were greatly offended by their rude and unbecoming demeanor. Tripodakis spoke to Shisei, “This is why we do not have kings and queens over us.”

“You should be glad we didn’t jettison you into space promising the Kōgō was there. Besides, I wouldn’t expect any of you to understand heritage and tradition.”

“I’d rather be jettisoned into space than this lack of deportment,” another quip left the captain’s lips. “Speaking of which, I believe it’s time to return, yes? We have collected all we could here,” turning to the his companions, “have we not?”

“Yes. The sooner you all leave, the better. I can smell the air clearing already.”

“Likewise,” he smiled. Not like their taunts were of a large deal to begin with, he had many a dealing with arrogant individuals before this one.

She turned and opened the doors, motioning for them to leave. Tripodakis went with a huff, and Korinna and Zyrkos followed behind. The same blackened tram waited for them at the bottom of the hill. They had been there for less than 10 minutes total.

[Perseid Federation]

Kiku Aerodrome, Maru
Taiyo System, Delta Quadrant — circa 778 XS

---

The Perseids were back in the bridge again. The operators were all in their seats, opening up holoscreens in front of them and interacting with the Sarpedon's computer systems. Some of them were rubbing their arms a little from the excessive manhandling the Hito had given them while they were confined at the Aerodrome, while others kept to themselves and remained silent. Night had fallen over the planet, and the Aerodrome was illuminated by flood lights, signal lights, and the lights of ships and aircraft. As they were priming the ship for takeoff, the door slid open, and Tripodakis, Korinna, and Zyrkos had returned—their faces moderately somber from their trip. Noticing that the Captain was on the bridge, the Perseids stood up and faced him, immediately saluting him. Turning his head left and right he told them, "At ease, as you were."

The operators sat back down and returned to their current tasks. Tripodakis sat in his chair, possibly to drink a couple of liquor filaments, while Korinna and Zyrkos joined the others. Realizing that the room was more silent than usual, too quiet for comfort, Agathon asked the two, "So how was the diplomatic visit?"

Zyrkos hesitated to reply and looked downwards. He glanced at Agathon and spoke, "We think that it was hastily put together for the sake of show, that they had made first contact. Th-there was no inquiry from the Hito there at all, in fact it was just a simple photo op before we were evicted."

"Yes," Korinna added to his story. "The diplomats appear not to be interested in the meeting, saying that she does not meet with the humans."

"That's unfortunate," Agathon reacted. "They would've found a reliable ally in our Omospondia."

"I don't think we as a nation are reliable," Zyrkos quipped and chuckled. "I know other nations don't see us that way."

Agathon dragged across his screen. "Other nations aren't as reliable either, my friend, not even the Terrans—more so for individual people. Didn't stop people from trusting in them or anything."

Korinna snickered. "You're bad at the inquiry of the philosophy."

Tripodakis figured that the mammalians on the surface were more than content to see them go. The Perseids had got the information that they needed, or at least Tripodakis thought so. The Hito had certainly got more out of their exchange than they did, and the explorers in return got nothing but contempt and scorn from the native sophonts—not that the Captain wasn't used to that. He was a contemptible little shit himself. Well, at least they had taken photographic archives for the PSEA to oogle over once they got back, as well as a couple of rock samples they retrieved from picking up pebbles in Teikoku-shi's sidewalks. Stretching on his seat with a loud groan, he placed his legs on one armrest and his back on the other, his hands held tightly behind his nape. Strangely it was taking the operators longer than expected to check and calibrate the ship. "Are our VTOL thrusters readied or what?" he sighed.

Agathon cleared his throat and put on a straight face. "Almost ready, Captain." Swiping his finger across the screen he reported, "The foreign object lodged in Thruster 5T is currently being cleared out by the nanites, we have a couple of seconds left before they completely clear it up."

"Mind explaining how that got in there?" Tripodakis growled again.

The operator squinted his eyes and enhanced the video feed. "Negative, Captain. It's nothing serious." Just as he said that the object had been removed.

"Anything else?" Tripodakis inquired, turning away from the operator and sitting back down on his chair.

Korinna spoke up, "The Valkanas Drive is at the full readiness. Will be activated upon leaving Maru's gravity field."

Once everything was ready, the Captain gave the order to lift off. The anchors that held the ship down were loosened by the Marunites, and slowly the vessel rose from the dock. Up and up it ascended, its thrusters pushing the Sarpedon up with all the force that it could muster from its power plants. The ship roared its loudest, perhaps causing some passers-by on the ground to cover their ears. It activated its aft thrusters with equal intensity, and began to fly forwards—away from the Aerodrome and into the heavens again. Even after it was hidden in the sky, the vessel could still be seen by intense blue light lining the clouds. The thundering noise reverbertated among them for a few more minutes until a faint rumbling akin to the sound of distant thunder in an overcast sky was the only sound coming from above.

11 months and 6 days later, Orbit of Xenia
Yirae System, Alpha Quadrant — circa 779 XS

---

Another 11 months had passed by without any incident, even as the Perseids hibernated through her aimless wandering in space. The Sarpedon was on its final approach to home, having passed by the rings of the blue Avanna and the dark streaks of the magenta Theos without ever stopping to behold the spherical clouds of hydrogen and helium that dominated their surfaces. What must have happened while they were out of the eye of their brothers and sisters, their fellow Perseids who may have lived their lives without ever giving thought to the fate of their vessel? Well, they did not know, nor were their brains active enough to entertain any conscious thought—for only the gods know the mind of men, and their bodies were frozen inside translucent chambers inside the bowels of a spaceship. Little light illuminated the bridge, and darkness predominated.

Yet that would change.

Korinna slowly opened her eyes, her vision initially blurry from months of sleep. She could feel the blood once more coursing through her arteries, and her fingers twitching erratically as the near-paralyzing hibernation chemicals were slowly filtered out of her system. Her eyes widened and began to dilate, and she moved her head a little to look left and right. A rush of air filled her lungs as she gasped for it for the first time since they left Taiyo behind. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. The pod opened with a hiss, and Korinna could feel the air from the bridge coming in. It was warmer outside than inside, for the pod used cryostasis to preserve the individual inside from the ever-enroaching arms of death—but eventually the temperature normalized, despite it being colder than usual from all the other pods opening in succession. The long and freezing sleep had ended.

The Perseids stepped out of their respective pods and took some time to adjust their bodies to the normal temperature of the room. They returned to their consoles to ready themselves for the final approach to Xenia, even doing a couple of stretches. Tripodakis sat in his chair and opened up a holoscreen in front of him, wiping the melted ice off of his face and rubbing his right eye. He could feel a couple of bones in his neck crack. "Let's get this over with. Current location?" he inquired from his operators.

Looking at the portion of the screen where the galactic coordinates were, she responded, "Yirae System, Captain. Nearing Xenia-Theris binary system."

The star map on the Captain's console confirmed her report. The blip representing the Sarpedon was at the end of the large yellow curved line that ran across the Milky Way. The ship was on its final approach. As he zoomed in to reveal Yirae and its planets, seeing that his vessel was a great distance away from Theos, he asked again, "How long was hibernation?"

Looking again she replied, "11 months, 6 days, 3 hours."

"I hope there weren't a few space rocks that dented the exterior while we were in hibernation," Agathon stretched his arms outward and yawned. Going back to his computer and checking the ship's current status, he saw that there were indeed some warped bow panels. "Never mind... Hope she holds together on reentry."

"Only the gods would determine that," Korinna smiled and replied.

"If the gods see it fit to preserve our lives," retorted Agathon.

A bluish-white glint appeared on the forward camera feed—nay, two blue twinkles—nay, three flickering dots of light shining in the distance, outshining all the other stars around them except for the yellow ball of fire. Sarpedon drew closer and closer to the dots, which grew in size until they took the faint but recognizable appearance of three terrestrial bodies that danced in the midst of lonely and unforgiving space—the small body dancing around the two waltzing Terras. One of them was the delicate and magnificent Xenia, that seemingly insignificant and peaceful blue ball that held great importance to the Perseid people. It was home to the Xenian people and capital to the Perseid nation—its very existence reminded them of their shuddering isolation, one that was shattered by the Hito. A new era was soon to dawn upon both the Omospondia and on their distant Deltan acquaintance.

The Xenians below were most likely unaware of the Sarpedon's appearance, going about their regular businesses and occasional activities—except for the PSEA. Mission Control had detected and monitored the return of their ship even while it was still in the outer system. A firm tone with a hint of excitment came from the intercomms. "This is Mission Control contacting Sarpedon," the voice began. "Come in, Sarpedon. Please break communications silence."

Tripodakis pressed a button on his chair. "Mission Control, this is Sarpedon, on our final approach to Xenia-Theris Binary System. It may be a while before we latch into stable orbit."

The voice changed its tone to a more optimistic one. "Good to hear from you, Captain Tripodakis. It has been a long wait for us here at home. Status of mission?"

He leaned forward, "I can't call this 'Mission Complete' exactly. First contact established with the Maru natives, but there's no sign of any Maru humans."

A short pause followed. Perhaps Mission Control was disconcerted by the news. "Explain."

Korinna turned her head and watched as Tripodakis replied, "Another form of intelligent life has been found there, the Hito. They resemble anthropomorphized animals from Terra, may be hostile towards human species subgroups such as—"

"Please disclose the full report when you land," the voice interrupted. "We only asked for the status of the mission, to which we are happy to hear the news."

"A little rude to cut me off," Tripodakis retorted. "You did ask me to explain, and I was about to."

"Yes, we are aware of that, and we apologize. We will continue to monitor and guide your vessel on its final approach. You may fill in the details while your ship is in orbit."

"Don't slam us into Daphne, all right?" he quipped, eliciting a laughter from Mission Control.

The PSEA liaison decided to play along. "Don't worry, Captain. It's over 200,000 kilometers from your current altitude. You should be fine."

After entering into a stable orbit around the blue planet for the next three days, the Sarpedon activated its frontal thrusters and decelerated. Gravity slowly took over and began to pull the ship down to the earth. Streaks of fire began to brush past the surface of the ship as it descended—streaks of red, orange, yellow, and white that covered it from bow to stern. Perhaps from Xenia's point of view, another shooting star had zoomed across the heavens in the tiniest fractions of a second. And perhaps even some of them had kept the old Terran tradition of wishing three times so their greatest dreams may come to pass. Maybe even one of those wishes would be for the crew of the Sarpedon to return to Xenia safely—a wish that the PSEA had to fulfill without any problems.

City of Tiranopolis, Xenia Convocature
Yirae System, Alpha Quadrant — circa 779 XS

---

Today was mediocre.

It had already been past rush hour in that metropolis called Tiranopolis, and the traffic of cars and public vehicles that once clogged the streets of the city had relaxed to a more bearable 60 kph. Frieghter ships of all sizes were docking at the seaport, slowly coursing their way into narrow piers with the minutest of precision—lest one of them would collide with a pier or run aground. The large spaceport outside of the metropolis was just as busy as the seaport, attending to starships from all over the Omospondia as well as aircraft from all over Xenia with an even more confusing set of machines and equipment. Yirae, Mesembria—the white and majestic light of many names that represented the omnipresence of the illustrious goddess of the sun—shone high in the sky, surrounded by fluffy white clouds that floated over the rippling blue expanse on the backdrop of another blue expanse.

Yet there seemed to be a large crowd of Perseids gathering at the spaceport by the hundreds, maybe even thousands for those who may or may not have exaggerated. The multitudes had been aware of the Sarpedon's reappearance for the past three days, and many of them were excited to see it return to Xenia the same way they saw her go. Some of them had grown tense from standing around out in the sun all day, and some of them had adjusted their Metaverse eyes in order to block out some of Yirae's glare. Among the Perseids gathered there were certain officials working at the PSEA, including Dr. Sofia Demataki herself. She had resolved to meet the crew of the Sarpedon in person to congratulate them.

Sofia wore a thick black woolen overcoat that hid her silver-colored suit, and a gray scarf wrapped around her neck. Her neck-length brown and pink hair ruffled in the breeze that blew through it, some of it covering a part of her face. She raised her hand and let her fingers sink into her hair, brushing some of it behind her ear. She was located at the front-center section of the multitudes, standing in the midst of an assortment of cosmopolitan Perseids enduring the heat of the sun, which contrasted with the cold winds that blew through the plains. She mostly felt the cold more than the heat generated by both Yirae and the people around her, so she didn't mind. Her colleagues were scattered elsewhere in the crowd, sharing the same anticipation. Patiently waiting for the vessel to appear in the sky, she continued to fix her gaze upwards at the clouds, occasionally spotting a bird flying by.

The ship's form revealed itself from a cloud, its shape barely visible to onlookers. It only measured fractions of an inch, not much larger than the space Sofia placed between her thumb, but it was enough for the people to rejoice at its appearance. Sarpedon, after two years of sojourning to a far and distant star system out of the reach of the common man, has returned the way she was. The ship drew closer to the spaceport, growing larger and larger. Eventually it was close enough for people to finally see it reflecting some beams of light off its surface, and for them to observe the partially warped bow. It circled around a couple of times, slowing down with the full strength of its thrusters to hold it up. Slowly hovering into the dock it was to be received in, its propulsions caused the wind to be blown outwards, causing some of those in the crowd to cover their foreheads with their forearms—and even some to squint their eyes. They watched as that large ship descended gently into the dock, with the echoes of the metal tarmac ringing as it touched down.

The dock clamped on the ship, and gates extended from the sides to the entry points of the Sarpedon. Even while they were far from where the ship was, they could hear the sound of air hissing. After a few minutes of waiting, the crew of the Sarpedon could be seen coming out of the gate, and a loud and joyful shout came from the Perseids. Sofia could see Tripodakis extend his hands outwards, while the other Operators were more content to just wave. "Excuse me," she repeated as she slowly elbowed her way through the crowd and made it to the front, just behind the security guards that held the Tiranopolitans back from rushing the tarmac.

One of the guards recognized the PSEA Director and leaned in towards her. He asked, "I assume you wish to meet them now, Director?"

"Aye," she nodded, again brushing her hair to the side.

"You could have at least notified us to come get you," the man pointed out.

"I didn't want to appear too privileged," shrugged Sofia. "You are aware why everyone's here."

"I understand," he bowed.

Another security guard joined him in escorting the Director to the tarmac, where the Operators were standing. The crowd looked on and continued to cheer, even as she approached Tripodakis. The Captain was oblivious at this, and his eyes widened. "By the gods," he exclaimed and chuckled, clutching the Director's forearm and shaking it, even as she was doing the same to him. He smirked, "I didn't expect to see you here, Director. What's the occasion?"

"Haven't you heard, Captain Tripodakis?" she started to play with words. "Our brethren have returned, with the tale of a distant planet with life. And apparently snarky ones at that. Congratulations, Captain."

He turned around and gazed at the Sarpedon, nestled comfortably into the dock. A misty cloud was sprayed by the large cranes, covering the Sarpedon's composite skin and blocking parts of it from view. The mist was supposed to disinfect the vessel of any foreign bacteria Maru might inadvertently incite a plague with. "Oh yeah," he scratched his burgundy and maroon hair, which was starting to give way to exposed skin. A light blush rose from his cheeks. "So you knew. Guess that saves me the trouble of having to explain everything to you and your assistants."

The Director smiled. "Ah, but you seem not to take the media into account. I have no idea if this is out of your ignorance or just deliberately."

"Assume the latter," he quipped.

Sofia then shook hands with the other Operators of the Sarpedon, exchanging some brief conversations with them. They had returned from the Delta Quadrant with a story that would go into the annals of history. "It is good you are all alive and well," she addressed the crew. "I offer my personal congratulations to you all for the success of this exploratory mission, and for the data that we have received from your voyage. Ladies and gentlemen, you have made your mark this day in the histories."

"Thank you, Director." Agathon replied. "We have a lot to report, but it would be best if we were off the tarmac first."

"Agreed," Sofia nodded and smiled.

The group walked away from the tarmac and drew near to the crowd. Media outlets gathered all around them, some of them pressing on the escorts while others tried in vain to stabilize their microphones over their heads. The journalists threw question after question at the Operators and the Director, wanting answers from them about all sorts of things. Some of them weren't heard very clearly, some of them were ignored, while others got responses from them. They were really trying to ease their way through the increasingly narrow sea of people that crowded ever closer, which continued to follow them even as they entered the vehicles that waited for them. Sofia hoped that the public and the media would be content with an impromptu press conference at the PSEA Headquarters in the evening.

---

END