The Black

Ambassador Gwen sat back in her office chair. lt was after dinner, and her titanic diplomat’s office was more full than usual.

The diplomatic offices aboard Port Royal were designed to accommodate even the largest races of the Unity. Ami was settled onto a large cushion with her head turned in to the conversation. Mac, Clint, and Silu were ensconced in comfortable guest Chairs with Gwen behind her desk. A bottle of Glenfiddich 18 sat on the desk and everyone had a portion in glasses, save Ami.

“So, he referenced one of our earliest historical UFO sightings….” Clint asked slowly, still not sure he believed his ears.

“In English… and he provided latitudinal and Longitudinal coordinates, and specifically asked for them to be sent back to Terra along with a data package; and a reply received before we proceed….” Gwen’s tone was still tinged with her shock.

“So what are we saying…” Mac took a sip of the expensive Scotch, “That Terra and humanity has been watched for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years?”

“That would…. Explain much” every head turned to Ami, who had been silent until now… “Gwen, remember when we first met? What I wanted?”

Mac and Clint quirked identical Eyebrows at their aunt. Gwen nodded before speaking, “you wanted to trade DNA samples… our scientists are still working on that,”

“Ours are as well, but we have found one thing. You see, every planet has a signature it leaves on native species. Our medical technology has the ability to see that signature. The Saurian race, second only to the Corth’ are the oldest race in the Unity, even before the Thermians, and the Kri’. Each of those species carried the genetic markers of their home-world. It is a closely guarded secret among the Saurian…. That we do not. Some have called it a fluke, maybe when the Corth’ enlightens us, they somehow deleted it. That had been the going theory… until last week…” Ami visibly steeled herself, “I received a communique from Sarass, our home-world. Our ‘Origin-Gene’ matches that of Humanity. This cannot leave this room. I am not even authorized to tell you at all. The Sarass council does not want to be genetically linked to Humanity at this time for fear of retaliation. We are not very far from the Thermian home-world, and Mackenzie, through no fault of his own, has made the Thermians an enemy of Humanity.”

“That explains the crew make up of the fleet here. Only a quarter of the entire complement of personnel from the UGN fleet is Thermian.. and no Thermians are on the shore leave manifests” Silu remarked.

“That’s… heavy… Ami, does your people have a mythology? Humanity has a pretty extensive mythos of legend and lore that predates or coincides with our earliest written history.” Clint asked.

“We do” Ami nodded. “I will have it sent over.”

“I’ll send you ours, at this point let’s see if anything matches up.” Clint responded before downing the last of his scotch, “I have a shuttle to catch, let me know if anything develops.” He stood, said his goodbyes, and left for the shuttle bays. Just as Lyri poked her head in

“I’m lookin’ for that one” she mused pointing at Mac.

“Sorry Luv’ It’s been a heavy one. You mind being PIC this time?” Mac waggled his drink.

“Are you kidding? Hell yea!” She laughed.

Mac drained the last of his drink, “I’ll fill you in if Ami is ok with that.”

The Saurian nodded her head, “she is fine.”

Mac followed lyri out after giving a quick salute.

—————————————————

-one week later-

Captain Yasushi sat back in his chair. He had sent an urgent report back to Sol after poor Silas’ grim discovery… and received a disturbingly quick response back. Five other expeditions had found pristine planets with the remnants of murdered civilizations on them. Some were more primitive, two of them had technology equal to that of The Unity. Every single dead civilization was subject to either an anti-matter attack, or a massive Asteroid impact. the planet Yasushi was orbiting was the youngest of the discover genocide planets. The oldest dated event appeared to be dated around 127 million years previous. Burke had ralleyed long enough to find enough evidence to amend his previous estimate of the planets inhabitants capabilities of that of around Terra circa 1960ish.

Sol’s response had been simple. Excelsior was to hold station over their current discovery as a more anthropological response team was shipped out to him. They would be here in two days’ time, a significantly shorter duration considering they did not stop to search beacon locations as Excelsior and her entourage had.

*Captain to the bridge, Tactical Alert*

The overhead blared a second time, but Yasushi was already out of his quarters at a full sprint, snapping his combination uniform/ emergency EVA suit tunic closed as the nanites sealed the seams and deployed his helmet. The captaincy level Alpha sync buzzed into the back of his mind as it projected his customized HUD into his vision.

Excelsior was well drilled, and she reported full depressurization, shields up and cleared for action by the time Captain Yasushi stepped into the “battle bridge” his crew insisted on calling it.

“Report” Yasushi ordered, sitting in the central chair, scanning his HUD. There was no viewer on the battle bridge. All senior crew had a minimal receive only version of Alpha Sync that allowed them a HUD interface with the ship. Control of Excelsior was still done with flesh and blood interface.

“Reporting a chemical propellant launch Captain. It appears to be a crude intercontinental missile. Sensors report basic conventional explosives…” came the reply from the tactical station as the captain was sent the sensor images.

“Dumb fire?” Yasushi asked scanning the data sent.

“Appears so sir. Whatever launched it did enough math to get close. It will pass within 20km of Excelsior if we hold our present orbit.”

“How long do we have until our near miss.” Yasushi asked, scratching his chin.

“43 minutes, Captain. Phobos reporting a firing solution.” Tactical reported

“Tell Phobos to hold her fire, we will let it reach us. Helm, get us within 2 klicks of its path. Tactical, ready the tow lines. If it doesn’t proximity detonate, I want to take the missile under tow for disarming and research.”

“Aye Captain.” the two stations said in unison.

“Phobos reporting a stand down.” Ops reported.

“Very good. Ops, use the rocket trail, find me where that Missile came from. If something is intact enough to launch, it’s intact enough to have something in the planet’s previous inhabitants. When you have a coordinated solution, we are going down there. Tell Silas to assemble a team.” Yasushi settled into his chair.

Confirmations rang out and information scrolled past his vision as Excelsior prepared to lasso a crude, 4000-year-old alien ballistic missile.

—————————————————-

Martina stirred with a half-asleep squeak as she realized she was alone. The smell of human coffee alerted her as to why. She stretched, and dragged herself out of bed to find one of her summer dresses hanging from the mirror. ‘Right the twin’s birthdays today’ she smiled at Ivar’s choice. ‘He certainly has a thing for shoulder less tops.’ She thought as she dressed and followed the hallowed scent of fresh caffeine into the kitchen.

“Since when did you learn coffee,” She mused before taking the offered the cup and smelling the Spices in her’s, “Oh you spoil me”

Ivar smiled at her before turning back to the coffee maker to pour himself a more meager serving, “The Cayenne tried to kill me, I’m fine, but my head is the clearest it’s been in…. ever”

Martina laughed before grabbing a couple of bowls and pouring some Human style Cereal and milk for the two of them, “I see you grabbed your favorite” She twirled for him before sitting down.

“Never heard you complain” Ivar was smirking, kissing her on the neck, finishing with a nip. “You look great” he said awkwardly.

“McLovin, don’t go all bashful on me. Not after the last few months.” She bit her lip and rounded her eyes at him.

A low growl resonated from Ivar as he looked her over. he leaned in to her, “Chika, I was going to do this the Human way, but you are making me… reconsider”

“Oh? What were you…” her tone hiccupped as his wandering fingers caught her off guard, “re… reconsidering” she said quietly.

Ivar regarded her for a moment as amber eyes met brown, “I know that we will never experience the claiming. I don’t care. Chika, I want you for mine. Permanently”

Martina’s voice caught, “Are you sure?” she asked.

“I am, do you trust me?” Ivar said.

“With my life” Martina whispered.

Ivar pulled her close, running his fangs up her neck making her shiver, “I can’t claim you Martina, but I will mark you as mine.”

Martina shivered at his touch before he pulled away finally, “That’s it?”

“Look down” Ivar said playing with something on her hand, “We don’t have a concept of Jewelry as a species, it took me a while to have something made correctly”

Martina looked down at his hand holding hers to find a massive Daimond arrangement in the snape of a flower that matched her dress, each pedal a separate stone with a center stone almost perfectly carved to match her dress. “Ivar, how…. Yes, yes.”

She tackled Ivar, curling up in his lap kissing him deeply.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

It would be blisteringly hot were it not for the soft caress of sea breeze and the occasional cloud whisp overhead. The twins would not actually be one for another few weeks, but so many of their family and friends would be departing for the season, the Beach Birthday Bash was happening early. Tristen and Martin’s gaggles of little ones were running around with a few other kids. Growmun’s mate and their son arrived shortly after. The little huskyesque toddler bolted for the cavorting little ones as his mother timidly stepped over to the adults. Her ears and fur told everyone of her unease, but she quickly calmed after the women dragged her into the group. The warm reception seemed to calm her greatly. The twins, Tristen’s youngest, and Silu’s grand kid twins were all close enough in age to be happily under the watchful eye of Juel’s, Lyrian, Nicole, and Frie.

The Delmar Men of the “Inner Circle” as Clint insisted on calling it had hole heartedly taken to Mac’s introduction of cooking meat and certain vegetables over open flame. In true Fire roasted tradition, the men slowly circuited the fire, Lager’s in hand, being methodical chased by the fire smoke.

A shuttle landed 200 yards away. It had to, due to its size as the ramp lowered to reveal the arrival of Gwen, Ami, Silu, Gregory and Marg. All of the children, big or small instantly ogled Ami’s massive features. She laughed a healthy belly laugh before settling down in the sand and waving the little ones over.

Thus, “Climb the Saurian” became the newest and greatest game in the universe to anyone under 10.

“Are you sure this is, ok?” Lyrian asked Ami.

“Of course! This is normal, even for our hatchlings. It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to see little ones.” Ami laughed as one of the older kids slid down her back and tail like a slide. “I’ve missed Children most of all being away from the Homeworld.” She gently swung her tail to catch Bry as he began a tumble off her flank.

“I forget you’re a grandmother many times over.” Silu chuckled at the sight of the adorable invasion of Mount Ami as one of Tristens oldest attempted to summit her long neck to her head. He made it only just, draping himself over her armored forehead with a huff of victory.

“Well done young man” She looked up at him before setting her head down for him to get off. She discreetly increased her neck angle to dissuade any further attempts.

Ivar and Martina showed up late in Ivar’s aircar. Mac heard an elated scream erupt from the girls’ group as Martina showed them an absolutely massive engagement ring. Ivar was handed a beer and ribbed incessantly for a few minutes. Various friends and family passed through with Icario, Tili and Cory showing up later because of their work on the freighters.

All the fun was had all afternoon. Cake, Grilled food, good drink. A game of tag that circled Ami. The twins got the destroy they’re on cakes, and some of it even ended up being eaten. Ami left a little early, tiring quickly in the higher-than-normal for her Gravity; but Mac sent her back with a big bag of her favorite grilled veggies. Bry was sad but gave the giant woman a soul-meltingly cute hug on the nose bye. Tris just stared as she stood up, transfixed by the largest being she had ever experienced. Silu and Gwen Joined Her to prepare for the next day with the visiting UGN admiral. Tristen and Juel’s collected their gaggle, along with Martin and Mariva’s youngling’s; and headed off to meet various bedtimes and such.

Greg and Marg sat and chatted, and eventually, everyone ended up on Silver Lass for a champagne sail down the coast to Mac’s property. By now it was just Clint, Frie, Greg, Marg, Icario, Cory, and Tili. Martina and Ivar were meeting them at the house in their air car.

Everyone tumbled into the house around sundown and the Twins were tucked into their soundproof rooms as the adult party began in full swing. Many of the “Inner Circle” would be splitting up into different ships for the season. Lucid Traveler would be headed out under the command of a Human captain and a new first officer. Celestial traveler was staying under a Delmar Captain, but Void Dancer, Swift Sure, and Traveler would have Human Captains. Each of the three Freighters would have a third of their crew cycled out for Human crewmen for the next two seasons as Humanity did the same with their Human Freighters operating in the gap between Sol and Delmar as Humanity expanded toward Delmar Space.

The Party lasted into the wee hours of the morning with everyone beginning to retire to various Guest rooms around the house. Ivar and Martina headed for home and Nicole caught a ride with them, as did Cory.

The next morning was. slow… for all.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Captain Richard Averetti settled into his seat as the submerssable lowered into the waters of Terra’s Pacific Ocean. Today they were going on a blind reconnaissance mission into the most dangerous place on the Planet of Terra. His team were checking each other off. Each man had a deep-water Exoskeleton suit with 2 hours of air on board when disconnected from shore air, which they would be, but these suits were designed to keep the extreme pressures of the deep ocean form crushing the human body. The 2-hour descent was excruciating. The first hour was piggybacked aboard one of earth’s military submarines to its limit, then the submersible detached and descended the rest of the way. A soft thumb heralded the intercom announcement of touch down.

“Helmets on!” Richards ordered as the New to humanity Nanite technology sealed up their suits and deployed their helmets. Everyone slapped the man to his right on the arm after seals were checked. Soon their compartment began to fill with water. Pressure was equalized and the servos in their suits whined as they helped them move in under the massive pressure of miles of seawater above them. Richards slapped the door button and the door to the outside world opened. Richard drew a laser pistol from his belt. These were small, only worth 10 shots, but built to withstand these depths. Laser had found a place in the Sol infantry as an aquatic weapon. It still had attenuation problems, but with Human energy technologies, they were still orders of magnitude more effective than a kinetic weapon, whose projectiles tended to treat water like soft tissue and fragment, expand, slow down rapidly in water. Laser tended to super heat a small line of water, but otherwise not lose much range vs Kinetics when underwater.

Captain Richard Averetti stepped out of the submersible to become the first man to “EVA” The Marianas Trench.

The water was slightly murky from the touchdown of the submersible, but the silt quickly cleared as they stepped carefully out toward the coordinates given to them by the Delmar expeditionary forces. Richards moved slowly, not because he wanted to not fall, but because any movement stirred up the silt on the ocean floor and would turn visibility to zero in seconds. Thermal and IR systems would help, but Ric didn’t like the idea of not having real eyes and sight lines available.

After about 20 minutes of walking, Richard looked behind him to see a cloud of dust following his men, this cloud was suspended in the deep murk and was not going anywhere. The Submersible had taken off once more and was using buoyancy alone to provide some support from above them in the form of floodlights as they walked.

Slowly, a shape formed in the distance. Another 5 minutes of advance had it turn into a disk shape straight out of a 1950’s alien film. A stereotypical giant flying saucer sat on the ocean floor in almost perfect condition. It was too deep for anything to grow on it. It appeared that the ramp was lowered and had been for some time. Richard and his men slowly advanced to the saucer before two men entered.

*Captain, uh… the area is clear… You are going to want to see this* came one of those men’s voices on the radio

“On my way” Richard slowly made his way to the ramp then up it. A force field met him at the top of the ramp and He found himself and his suit completely dry inside the saucer. Everything was powered down save for a few systems. Two Aliens lay in their chairs, completely desiccated, and perfectly preserved. Their distended cranial cavities unmistakable against their frail small bodies.

*Jesus… Captain… There are status chambers back here. No life signs... It looks like they were shut down from the outside.

“Get the crew into the craft, and the rest back into the submersible” Richard switched frequencies “…. submersible Cousteau, submersible Cousteau land for team return. Operation Mary Ellan to initiate in three zero minutes.”

*Your call Cap, you think She’ll Rise again? * the submersible pilot asked

“Ha, we will see. So far everything is as it was described.” Richards remarked.

20 minutes later the ramp had been raised via instructions Admiral Gwen had received from a confidential informant. And Richards gently lifted one of the Dead bodies of a Corth’ Scientist out of the control seat and laid it gently on the floor. He inserted a preprogrammed stick into the slot in the console. The lights brightened and a high-pitched hum surged from the alien craft. As promised the Stick had triggered a location based automated flight program designed to get a ship home in the event of total crew death. This stick’s program was modified.

3three hours, and several sonic booms later, an honest-to-God Alien Flying Saucer landed on the tarmac outside one of the hangers of the airfield on Area 51.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been three days since the Grandchildren’s birthday party. Gwen had finally received a response from Sol. They had been as Shocked as She was. They quickly sent a survey team to the coordinates to find the location deep in the Marianas Trench. What they found there were equal parts gruesome as it was enlightening. They had found the flying saucer full of dead aliens and a complete computer core. The Information Karmarin had given her had paid out. Mostly, it had unlocked some of the information inside the Corth Ship, and it was a Corth ship. The last message, of the commander of that ship, had presented some disturbingly interesting hints about Earth’s true history.

Gwen’s mind wandered as she reached Conference room. She took a deep breath and entered. The large Birdman was already seated, slowly stirring a mug of tea in his claws. He turned to look at her and his face recognized her emotions stirring behind her eyes.

“I see that what I told you has born fruit.” He stated gently, “I recognize the look from the one in the mirror when I was told the Founding race of the Unity, thought extinct a thousand years ago, isn’t quite extinct yet.”

“I’m willing to consider a meeting, but only after I understand how this meeting will take place.” Gwen said carefully, seating herself facing the UGN flag officer.

“Simply put, Aiericastum Will come here in one week’s time, You can meet with her on her ship. It is.. important that the existence of the Corth’ be protected at all costs… I can give you my word, that her ship will stay in system until your talks with her are concluded, but she cannot risk leaving it.

“I understand. I will send word to expect her, but please have her jump into the system by the beacon. As you can see, our ‘airspace’ will be crowded as it is getting close to the beginning of the Freight season here.”

“I will pass along your request.” Karmarin stated, eyeing the Human ambassador with caution.

“Then I accept her meeting and await her arrival.” Gwen bowed a slight bow of respect before the two stood and adjourned.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deep in the bowls of a long dead rogue planet, a low rumble of slumber was interrupted by a soft chime.

“Enter” the voice like crumbling granite spoke. A massive 6 digited hand flicked a light on as the door opened.

“Legaris, we have information... One of the last remaining abominations may be in our grasp” the equally deep voice, if less worn around the edges stated

“Prepare a Rock, Select from the Devoted. They will need to Sacrifice to cut their way into the target. Go.” the granite avalanche of a voice stated before the door closed. The owner of that voice stood and lumbered its 3-meter frame over to the combination sink and mirror. Deep glowing purple Irises inside slit-focused, binocular-oriented eyes stared at themselves behind a heavy grey brow and were framed with long wavy black eyebrows and shoulder-length black hair.

The colossus splashed himself in the face with refreshingly cold water, “Well Patriarch, I guess your blood will be the one to end the cleansing after all.”