The Dragon's Maw (Part 1) - Chronicles of Braum Stormforge

    "Well...this looks to be the place."
    The man by his side, a mage of sorts by the name of 'Ember', shared a sidelong glance with him as they stood before the mouth of the cave. The towering entrance was a good forty feet wide and almost as high, halfway up a mountain.
    Braum, Ember, and two others had been tasked about a day ago with not only finding the cave, but to retrieve some sort of magical object within. Roughly a week prior, Trudd, Braum's God, had appeared before him personally in a dream, telling him that a great calamity was to befall the world should he not help intervene.
    The words still echoed in his skull as though he'd heard them seconds before.

Destruction looms on the horizon, carried swiftly on the wings

of a multi-hued beast. The First of Her children awaken, stirred by

those that seek the greatest of Her treasures. Treasures that might

allow a mere mortal power over Her children. Should all of these

treasures be brought together and the ritual be completed, Her reign

shall begin and the world shall know peace no longer. You must

travel to the Northern Kingdom, to the city of Emberfall. There you

will set forth to save the World. You will have companions and 

you will know them when you see them. 

    He woke in a cold sweat, a strange amulet he'd never seen before tied to his travel pack. A golden bauble with the image of silver dragon emblazoned across the front.
    The message irked Braum fiercely. His god had always been nothing, if not direct and to the point. But if Torag's son was passing on this strangely cryptic message, he knew that other gods had to be involved.
    It was only when other deities with their cryptic bullshit worked within the pantheon that he wasn't given a straight answer.
    And so, a short week later, Braum stumbled across a mysterious man in a dingy little tavern in Emberfall; a Chosen of Bahumet, the dragon god. The three others, all called by similar matters but apparently not so by their own personal deity, were tasked with retrieving a strange object: the 'dragon's orb' from a nearby cave by this "Chosen".
    Supposedly, the cave was an old dragon's den that had since been abandoned and even looted repeatedly by several adventuring parties, but that didn't make him feel any better.
    Braum had no love for the beasts. Anywhere that once held a dragon might still and gods know he had no desire to dance with one.
    He also felt no particular love for the band of fools he had been tasked to work with. While arguably, he truly felt no ill will towards Ember, the mage-like individual that called himself a 'Summoner', or even the man with the bow and arrows whose name escaped him, there was a certain, instant dislike towards the man in black who seemed to crackle with negative energy.
    The necromancer.
    Bardoon was all he'd called himself but the name stuck in the back of his throat like phlegm that slid down his throat yet refused to quite leave. It made him want to spit, to vomit like he'd swallowed a poison. Everything about the man was unpleasant even if he held no initial respite for the man's position to begin with.
    He'd worked with necromancers in the past through one adventure or another over the decade he'd served Trudd. Hell, he'd even liked a few of them. Each time, he had a quiet moment of review and consideration as to why his god would place him in lieu with someone of that nature and, over time, he'd realized that necromancy was little more than any other magic. While it technically was bending the unnatural to its will, there was nothing inherently more evil to animating a skeleton than there was to summoning fire or acid out of thin air.
    It was an abomination against the laws of the universe, but technically, so was all magic.
    And so, by his God's decree, he would just deal with it.
    Much to his relief, Bardoon was left behind on the trail after only a half day's travel. They had been accosted by goblin's along the path; a feral, wretched little group of green skinned monsters that flung spears, shot arrows, and were generally more of a nuisance than an overt threat. It was when the fight was finished, however, that Bardoon decided to stay behind and use the mangled corpses of the foul little creatures that had attacked them to raise them as his own personal body guards.
    Braum shuddered at the thought.
    Luckily, the spells took time, and so Ember and Braum continued on up the path while Bardoon and the one with the bow stayed behind to perform whatever unholy ritual needed doing.
    They would surely meet up once they were done. Hopefully not for a while though.
    Now, standing before the cave's entrance, he had to wonder if that was the brightest idea. While he had Ember with him and the beast that was bound to the Summoner, it seemed like they were walking directly into a dragon's maw.
    Braum glanced over his shoulder at the beast Ember had called an Eidolon.
    The massive, powerful looking creature seemed almost ethereal in nature; like a specter that was stuck in the world of the living. It towered over him and seemed to hover slightly above the ground. More to the point, each hand was tipped by vicious looking claws that seem to spark and arc with electrical energy. Everything about the monster screamed power.
    And yet...
    Braum found his eyes wandering the interior of the cave's maw. The ragged edges of the rock gave it the appearance that something very large had dug the rock out by hand. He could still see the raked out grooves of massive claws through solid stone.
    The sight made him feel very small despite his heavy armor.
    "Shall we?" he said with more steel in his voice than his nerves truly offered.
    "Yes. Let's."
    The trio stepped past the precipice of the cave's mouth and down into its waiting gullet as the path curved downward, deeper into the mountain. Deeper towards their mandated prize. And somewhere within, something massive shifted as it sensed trespassers in its territory.

Xenophobia - Chapter 31

    "You're there already?!" sputtered Illiquina.
    "H-How?" asked A'alan't 32 who appeared just as shocked as Illiquina.
    Ferris and Darrian exchanged confused glances. They were certainly surprised that the Gorderians had somehow reached Mars before the Tulgucks, but still...
    Jin'thun gave the group a hard look before he responded.
    "Do you know anything about folding space?" he asked them gruffly.
    "No?" Ferris offered unhelpfully.
    "I know that it's great for traveling long distances, incredibly dangerous, and wildly inaccurate." A'alan't 32 added.
    "All true." Jin'thun confirmed. "It's even worse when you're firing off into a solar system. But we made it through with minimal losses."
    Darrian felt his throat tightening.
    "How many-" he began.
    "Four ships were lost in the fold." Jin'thun responded flatly.
    Darrian responded with a soft nod. He felt a shiver run down his back as he thought about it.  
    Four ships. Four ships full of people lost well before fighting even begun. And if the Tulgucks could be talked down? Four ships possibly lost for no reason.
    "I'm sorry." A'alan't 32 offered, taking the words from Darrian.
    "As am I." Jin'thun growled softly.
    Straightening himself up, Darrian steeled himself. They would need to think ahead for now.
    "What do you need from us?" he asked.
    "Not much you can do." Jin'thun said bluntly. "If I have someone nearby, we'll keep you up to date. But short of that, the Merrenians aren't worth much."
    ~ZZZT~ "I take offense to that, Fur-face."
    As if on cue, the holographic image split into two. On the left, Jin'thun. On the right, Harris.
    "Harris!" Ferris exclaimed.
    "Oy." he responded with a nod before turning his attention towards Jin'thun.
    "Harris." Jin'thun growled. "How did you-"
    "My literal purpose is to watch and listen. You think I didn't patch into your comms the moment you ripped a hole in space, you're sorely mistaken."
    "This channel is supposed to be secure..." Jin'thun responded with venom, his attention focused away from the imager.
    "Don't blame your comms-officer." Harris interjected. "I'm just better than him."
    The two images sat in strained silence. Darrian had seen Jin'thun's explosive temper more than once and expected another outburst promptly.
    But it never came.
    "Fine." Jin'thun snarled. "What do you want, Harris?"
    "Better question: What do you want?" Harris responded snidely.
    "Okay. What do I want?"
    "I bet you want access to the Tulguck armada's intranet."
    For once, Jin'thun seemed less angry and more flabbergasted.
    "You're serious?"
    "I'm talking to you on a spliced channel." Harris shot back with a smirk. "What do you think?"
    Jin'thun considered for a moment.
    "A'alan't 32." he said. "If you could arrange someone to stay nearby for the next cycle, I would greatly appreciate it."
    "Of course." she responded before glancing to the others. "We'll take shifts?"
    There was a series of nods in agreement.
    "Fantastic." Jin'thun said gruffly.  "It seems you and I have much to discuss, Harris."
    Harris didn't say anything, but simply wore that same smirk. A moment later, the imager blanked out, leaving them once again in the dark room.
    They sat in silence for a few moments before A'alan't 32 spoke up.
    "So who's willing to start?" she asked.
    "I will." Darrian offered.
    "I'll do next shift." Ferris added.
    They both agreed with little nods before settling back into their spots.
    "Next cycle is going to be long." Darrian observed with a heavy sigh.
    There was a mutter of agreement before everyone but Darrian started to make their way towards the door.
    "I'll be back by early cycle." Ferris said as he left.
    Darrian waved them off with a little smile before looking around the empty conference room. It had never occurred to him how cavernous it seemed without the other councilors or the old jud-
    His attention snapped back to the closed door.
    In the excitement, the group had totally forgotten to go over what Illiquina had found.
    "I hope it's not important." he muttered to himself.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 28

    The next cycle past without word from Illiquina or the Merrenian council.
    The cycle after that passed with equal silence.
    Darrian felt his nerves beginning to fray at the thought that time would simply pass endless while he wasted away in his office. Illiquina would accomplish nothing and the humans would die in a blaze of hellfire without any help from the outside.
    It was on the dawn of the third cycle, roughly one cycle from the supposed arrival of the Tulgucks at Mars, that he finally received a summons.
    And he was surprised to find that it was from A'alan't 32.
    "Report to the council chambers." was all the message said.
  
    Arriving at the conference room, Darrian approached A'alan't 32 and Illiquina stand at the far end of the table. However they quickly waved him away.
    "Not now." A'alan't 32 quickly said. "After."
    He looked around to realize that it wasn't just them. The other council members were slowly filtering into the room. Not only Ferris, but also Cagool, Cherryl, and Ugul.
    "What's this about?" Cagool demanded.
    "Oh, don't complain, Cagool." Ferris snipped at him as he settled at the table.
    "I'll complain if I want to." Cagool started in defense. "We don't even know where the old judge is or if he'll be joining us."
    Darrian had been wondering the same thing.
    So far, they'd requested the Merrenian council to provide a second middle-man for their council, but their requests had since been ignored. He'd considered it might be that someone behind the scenes might think it useless to assign a middle-man of the entire species would be dead in a matter of cycles, but Darrian tried to ignore that paling thought.
    Instead, he took his spot and looked expectantly at A'alan't 32.
    "At this point, it doesn't matter if the old judge is here." A'alan't 32 said to Cagool. "We have work to do."
    "Does it really matter? They're going to be dead in a couple of cycles. Then we find a new council."
    "Don't talk like that." said Ugul with a hint of sadness to his voice.
    "It matters." A'alan't 32 declared firmly.
    "Why?" Cagool asked again.
    "Because Harris and his team are still doing their jobs." she responded coolly. "The least we can do is return the favor."
    Darrian nodded and there were murmurs of agreement. Harris and his team were still out in a hostile, unforgiving solar system where they had to steer clear of toxic oxygen gasses, mutant plant monsters, and an incoming armada. The least they could do was review the information and send back responses.
    Or tell them to come home.
    "Just bring them back." Cagool snapped sharply, as if reading Darrian's thoughts.
    "No." Darrian said firmly. "If the old judge was right about anything, it's that we need to gather as much info as we can."
    "About those Guillae things?" Ugul asked.
    "About anything."
    There were a few sidelong glances, but it was clear that they were simply tired of the bickering and arguments.
    "Fine." Cagool said with resignation. "Anything's better than just sitting in my damn office all day."
    A'alan't 32 gave an approving nod and a smile and went about working the datapad. While she was not nearly as quick as the old judge with it and she needed to ask Illiquina for help a couple of times, she soon had the holographic imager running hot. A moment later, they were flipping through the messages from Harris.
    Many of them were so drull that Darrian regretted agreeing with A'alant 32.
    For all of the terrifying images that they had seen from Mars of Human-Guillae hybrids and the implications there-in, the data being sent in was almost non-existent. No video, no audio, and almost exclusively sampling and satellite imagery. Miles worth of long-range scans and data but nothing substantial. It was only after the hundredth orbital survey that someone finally said it.
    "They're not on the planet anymore."
    "You're right." agreed A'alan't 32.
    "But why?"
    Tense glances were exchanged, followed by a few unhelpful suggestions as to why the survey team might have retreated to orbit, but it was quickly agreed upon.
    "We have to contact them. Figure out what's going on."
    It took another few minutes of fiddling with the datapad before they got anywhere. Illiquina was talented and A'alan't 32 had watched the old judge, but neither of them really knew half of what he did up there at the front of the table. It wasn't until someone had the bright idea to reverse trasmit an old message that they got anywhere.
    A moment later, they were greeted with the steel-faced grimace of Harris.
    "Well isn't this a surprise." he commented. "Where's the old judge?"
    "We don't actually know." responded Ferris.
    The councilors took time relaying the incidents that occurred several cycles back; of the odd behavior and the sudden disappearance. Harris listened intently, but Darrian couldn't help but notice a twisting look of concern.
    "So that's it then? He just went crazy and ran off? No one's seen him since?" he asked in summation.
    There were a few murmured agreements.
    "Well damn." he groaned. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to proceed from here then. I'll have to try to reach out to the Merrenian council directly."
    "Good luck with that." mumbled Ferris.
    "Don't bother." Cagool said. "Just come home. No point in being out there."
    "I can't." Harris responded.
    A'alan't 32 gave him a sidelong glance.
    "Why not?"
    "It's the humans." he said, returning her gaze.
    "What? There are still survivors after that catastrophe on Mars?"
    "No. Mars is a wasteland...if you can call it that. Technically, there's already vegetation regrowing around the bases but the humans themselves have all been...converted."
    "Then why stay?" asked Darrian.
    "You might have noticed that we've returned to orbit?" Harris responded.
    "I was wondering about that." commented Ferris.
    "It's so we can keep a better eye on Earth and Mars." he said thoughtfully.
    "Why?" asked Illiquina bluntly.
    "Because I only have so many people." he responded in exasperation. "I can't send recon teams to both locations. I have to use long range imaging."
    "I think what Illiquina means," offered Darrian, "is why are you so focused on watching both."
    Harris remained quiet for a second before responding.
    "It's the humans. I think they've noticed the incoming Tulgucks. The humans on Earth are mobilizing some sort of counter offensive unit. They're preparing for the attack."

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Xenophobia - Chapter 27

    The others glanced around at each other, not sure what to say. Illiquina watched them with an excited look that quickly dwindled.
    A moment of silence later, she buried her face back in her datapad and started pounding away.
    "I'm not sure I understand." Darrian said thoughtfully, the first one to speak again."So whoever it was that changed the info in the archives...they forgot to remove the information on the old judge's brothers?"
    "In essence." Illiquina responded with a mischievous smile, still typing furiously.
    "Wow." Ferris said stupidly.
    "Yep!" she said gleefully.
    "That seems like a huge oversight." Ferris continued.
    "Yes and no." Illiquina remarked.
    Ferris and Darrian traded confused glances.
    "What do you mean by that?" Darrian asked.
    Illiquina didn't respond.
    The silence grew louder, intensified by the incessant tapping.
    "Illiquina?" A'alan't 32 finally interjected.
    "Mmm?"
    "What do you mean?" A'alan't 32 repeated.
    "Well..." she said looking up. "whoever came through and changed the information on the judge did alter the information on the judge's brothers."
    Ferris let out a sharp, annoyed groan.
    "Then how is it any better than the judge's entry?" Ferris demanded.
    "Because they only deleted the info." she responded with a joyous grin.
    Again, they found themselves just staring at the little Cadrax.
    "How is that any different?" Ferris asked. "Or useful?"
    Illiquina's face darkened.
    "Actually, it's very useful." She quickly spat. "The judge's article was deleted and altered. His brothers only had specific segments removed and nothing else."
    "Or redacted, if you will." she added as an after thought.
    "How is that-" Ferris began.
    "Oh for the love of-! You really don't understand how your archive servers store information, do you?" she spat.
    "Illiquina." A'alan't 32 interjected once more with a warning in her tone.
    "Oh fine!"
    "Treat us as if we know nothing." Ferris quipped.
    "Like that would be hard." she snapped.
    Illiquina straightened herself up and took a deep breath, setting the datapad to the side for a moment.
    "Look: the archives are meant to store information." Illiquina started. "Meaning that, unless it has a good reason to, it doesn't simply purge information."
    "Information like 'old records', perhaps?" A'alan't 32 offered.
    "Precisely."
    "So you're saying that deleting something isn't a good enough reason to purge it from the archives?" Darrian asked, sounding utterly confused.
    "No! With multi-thread archiving, deleting something is just the beginning!" she said more excited than annoyed now. "If anything it's really just a hindrance."
    "I don't get it." Darrian said.
    "Me either." added Ferris.
    Illiquina stared at them with a look of complete derision.
    "Like I said: me know nothing." Ferris quickly shot out.
    Illiquina groaned under her breath.
    "Deleting is just the first level of the multi-thread purge in these systems. It removes the information from being readily displayed but it doesn't actually get rid of it. Unless the actual articles were altered...changed to reflect new information...none of the information in the stored backups is going to change."
    "In short," she continued. "If I can dig into the backup servers, I can pull out all of the information about our judge's dear old brothers."
    Darrian stared at the little Cadrax in awe. She was small and unassuming but she very well might be the most impressive one of the group.
    "Tha-that's incredible." stammered Darrian.
    "Damn straight."
    "What do you need from us?" asked A'alan't 32.
    "Absolutely nothing." she retorted. "Unless you know how to manually bypass 768 bit encryption or know how to plant a worm that will bypass security and draw out their database backups without triggering something?"
    "Do what now?"
    "That's what I thought." she said, scooping up her datapad.
    "How long should it take?" asked Darrian.
    "A while." Illiquina offered. "It might be worth heading home at this point. I'm going to keep working and let you know when I've made some headway. Very well might be a cycle."
    "Good luck." Ferris offered.
    Illiquina snorted and disappeared out into the hall.
        And with nothing better to do, the group said their goodbyes and made their way to their respective homes. That night, for the first time in a while, Darrian wasn't thinking of the humans or what was going on in their Sol system. His thoughts were racing with the possibilities with what Illiquina might find.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 26

    "What was that today?" Ferris demanded, glancing at Illiquina.
    They were once again in the darkened meeting room, joined by A'alant 32 and Darrian, standing in a small semi-circle. While there was a touch more planning than the last time around, they had still elected to keep the lights off and the door locked.
    Don't want someone thinking we're up to something. Illiquina had said.
    What? Like we're not at this point? Ferris had retorted.
    That hadn't gone over well given Ferris's annoyance and Illiquina's barely contained rage.
    Not five minutes later, it looked like they were about to start fighting again.
    "What do you mean by that?" Illiquina snapped back. "That damned 'bot is a lying piece of-"
    "No, no, no." Ferris quickly backtracked. "I'm not talking about your eloquent tantrum earlier today."
    "TANTRUM?!" Illiquina's entire upper body flushed.
    Despite her diminutive stature, Illiquina looked like she very well may try to tear Ferris clean out of his robotic exosuit.
    "Enough." A'alan't 32 stated firmly. "I've had enough of your fighting recently."
    "She started it." Ferris grumbled.
    A'alan't 32 pointed a single, transparent blue digit at him.
    "Are we done?" she asked flatly.
    "Yes." they both answered in conjunction.
    "But I don't understand." Illiquina interjected quickly. "What happened after I left?"
    The group took a few moments to explain everything to Illiquina. They went over the sudden change in tone. The strange observations that the judge somehow thought something different would happen and that it seemed like he somehow felt responsible for the deaths of the humans. They ended by recounting his sudden 'Insufficient Data' comment and how he near about fled the conference room.
    "He's a dirty liar." Illiquina griped. "Covering his tracks."
    "I'm not so sure." Darrian said hesitantly.
    "He's a robot." Ferris observed. "Sure, an old robot designed with the capability to learn...but still just a robot. He's got a base programming. He shouldn't be capable of doing something as implicit as outright misdirection."
    "Well, clearly he is." she snapped.
    A'alan't 32, who had taken and settled in a nearby chair during the earlier discussion, seemed to glance back over the table. Much like the old judge did earlier, it was as if she was rewatching the hologram of the altered human.
    "That doesn't make sense." A'alan't 32 said quietly.
    "Than what do you think it is?" Illiquina demanded.
    A'alan't 32 glanced over to the small Caldrax and considered her for a moment before glancing back.
    "I don't know."
    They stood in silence for a moment. In the low light, they all looked distracted. Concerned. Even Illiquina whose voice burned with rage still looked more upset than she did angry.
    Something didn't add up.
    "What's the old judge's programming?" Darrian asked, thinking out loud.
    "Come again?" Illiquina responded.
    "You said that he shouldn't really be able to do something like lie. It wouldn't be within the realm of his programming." he responded, motioning towards Ferris. "But what if it was. So again..."
    "What's his programming?" Ferris echoed Darrian.
    "Who knows?!" growled Illiquina. "All of that information was deleted! Did you forget the last time we were here? All we know is whatever is in that damned file!"
    "He's a diplomat." she started to count off. "He's a robot. He's part of a larger team of-"
    Illiquina suddenly went blank.
    "-of other robots...with the same purpose..."
    Darrian looked at her sideways.
    "Yea? We know that."
    "No." she said, her entire mood flipping in an instant. "No. no. no. no."
    Illiquina fished out her datapad out of seemingly nowhere and began tapping away on it furiously. Darrian couldn't help but wonder where she'd stowed it because he couldn't remember her coming in with it.
    "What is it?" Ferris asked, clearly confused.
    There was no response. Simply incessant tapping.
    "Illiquina?" A'alan't 32 asked.
    No answer.
    They stood there staring at the little Cadrax in silence as she pounded away on the datapad. Seconds drew to moments in utter quiet, filled only by 'taptaptaptap'.
    Just as Darrian was about to ask again, Illiquina let out a cheer.
    "YES!" she shouted far too loud. "Yes! Yes! Yes!!!"
    "What?" Ferris asked, clearly annoyed by the antics.
    "I have a way to figure out what the old judge was programmed for!"
    "What?" Darrian said, taken aback. "How? The archives were altered."
    "His brothers." she said with a growing smile. "We still have information on the other robots that he was a part of! We can figure out his real purpose!"

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Xenophobia - Chapter 25

    The old judge stood there quietly, his eyes playing across the council. He seemed as if he was thinking what to say but the words simply wouldn't come to him.
    Not thinking. Processing. Darrian thought to himself as if that distinction meant something.
    His gaze drifted back to the blank space where the hologram of the altered human had been before finally speaking.
    "Not that." he said with surprising softness in his tone.
    "Then what?" Ferris demanded, not nearly as harsh or aggressively as Illiquina before him, but plenty firm.
    The robot continued to look past the ambassadors as if he was seeing the images stilling playing out before him.
    "I'm not sure." he uttered quietly. "When I had originally considered the idea of the humans and Guillae interacting, I was deeply excited. I hadn't heard or remembered a water-based lifeform like humans interacting with the Guillae on a close personal level."
    Darrian felt a twinge of surprise.  
    Remembered? Shouldn't all of that information be stored? Flawless and infallible?
    "But with the Guillae's constant thirst for water...the way they absorb it, use it, and change it into something great and beautiful even if it's parasitic in nature..." the old judge continued. "I suppose I expected something a bit more elegant."
    "Symbiotic, perhaps." he said with an expression somewhere between sad smile and a frown of regret.
    A surprising emotional response for an automaton.
    "Why would you expect that, judge?" A'alan't 32 asked, her tone matching the softness in his.
    "I-I don't know." he responded, finally looking away from the blank air above the holographic imager to match gazes with A'alan't 32.
    "Strange for a 'bot to not understand." Ferris said in a derisive tone.
    "Enough." Ugul warned.
    "No. He's right." the old judge said quickly. "Upon closer examination, I'm confused by my own calculations."
    "What do you mean?" Darrian asked.
    "My belief was garnered from a preconceived consideration that the Guillae were a relatively peaceful species that were generally beneficial while unintentionally damaging." the old judge said with a glance towards Darrian.
    A'alant 32 and Darrian traded glances. They both looked surprised as, for the first time, this information sounded the same as to what A'alan't 32 had shared with him.
    "That flies in the face of everything you've ever told us about them." Ugul noted.
    The old judge's expression seemed to darken and go blank. Only his eyes twitched and shuddered. It was as if he were recollecting. Considering.
    "You're not wrong." he said after a few moments of silence.
    They looked around the table at each other. A'alan't 32 in particular looked surprised, if not distressed, and her full attention was on the old robot.
    "Ambassadors." the old judge said in a notably louder, more determined tone. "I must apologize to all of you. In my haste and excitement, my miscalculations may have lead to the death or worse of those humans. I may finally be reaching my termination date."
    Darrian sat back surprised at the blunt straightforwardness.
    "Why would you think that, judge?" A'alan't 32 questioned.
    "It's quite clear that I am missing previous variables. My thought process has produced faulty considerations regarding a clearly hostile race and my preconceived notions that something beneficial would occur has lead to deaths."
    "Sir. You've never given us the idea that the Guillae were anything but hostile." Darrian stated with as much control as he could muster in his voice. "Why would you have ever thought otherwise?"
    "More than that." A'alan't 32 quickly added. "You had no hand in the humans finding the Guillae body. Our single goal has been to research while maintaining the quarantine. Why would you think it was somehow your fault that the humans died?"
    One again, the judge seemed to stand still for a very long time. Thinking. Considering. Deciding.
    Processing.
    Finally, after an extended period of building silence, just as Darrian was considering to check if the robot had completely malfunctioned, the old judge responded.
    "Insufficient Data." the old judge said in the most robotic voice he had ever heard from the unit.
    The council just stared in shock.
    "My apologies." the old judge quickly added, regaining his normal tone. "Ambassadors. You must excuse me."
    He quickly began making his way towards the door before stopping briefly.
    "If you contact the Merrenian embassy, they may be able to acquire another intermediary on short notice. It would seem I must deal with whatever-Well. Whatever this is." he said apologetically.
    Before anyone could think of something to say, he was gone, leaving them sitting alone in an empty conference room wondering what had just happened.


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(Hello Lovelies. Hopefully I'm not saying too early, but 'there we go...getting back on track'. I also wanted to take a moment and say Thank you. I legitimately appreciate the kindness and well-wishing. While I wasn't looking for it, it certainly makes me feel warm inside and is comforting. Thank you.)

Xenophobia - Chapter 24

    Darrian stared aghast at what he had just seen.

    "Wh-what was that?" he stammered, his eyes transfixed on the hologram.

    "Was that a Guillae?" Ugul quickly added, sounded just as shocked.

    Everyone looked to the old judge. However the old judge seemed just as transfixed on the near-silent hologram.

    In the image of the overgrown laboratory, there were still a few little green and brown specks floating harmlessly in the air. The quickly deflating plant cocoon could be seen wilting near the edge of the image. In the distance, the audio could barely pick out the sound of scattered screams and occasional bangs.

    Those were quickly silenced.

    After a drawn out moment of watching the dust settle in the hologram, Illiquina spoke up.

    "Judge." she said in a soft yet demanding tone. "Answer him."

    "No." he said shortly before glancing at Ugul. "That was not a Guillae."

    "Then what the hell was it?" Ferris asked with more composure than Darrian thought he could muster at the moment.

    Once again the old judge did not respond. Instead, he glanced from Ferris to Ugul to Illiquina and finally back to the derelict image.

    "I don't know." he said after another eternity of shocked silence.

    Reaching down, he picked up his datapad and began typing something. The entire conference table watched as his fingers flew over the screen in a flurry of speed. In the quiet, the tapping sounded as deafening as if he were pounding on a table.

    A moment later, the hologram flickered out of existence and he set the datapad down.

    "I've informed Harris and his team to investigate the incident further." he said quietly. "I've also insisted they use utmost caution to avoid those things."

    "They were human..." Darrian said aloud as the thought pervaded his mind. "Those things...they used to be human.

    "It certainly seems like that would be the case." the old judge agreed.

    "But how?" Illiquina asked quietly.

    The old judge could only shrug in response.

    Darrian found himself glancing at A'alan't 32, the only one in their little group that had an intact archive regarding the floramorphs. Illiquina and Ferris were both doing the same. A'alan't 32 was simply shaking her head.

    She doesn't know either. he thought.

    They were in uncharted waters.

    However, Illiquina either mistook that idea or couldn't accept it as a possibility. In an instant, Darrian saw her dismay and horror turn to unfettered rage.

    Rage that was directed towards the old judge.

    "You knew this would happen, didn't you?" she growled.

    Several heads around the table stared at her in surprise. The old judge being one of them.

    "Come again?" he asked, the shock plain on his robotic features.

    "YOU KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" Illiquina bellowed; a surprising sound from her small frame. "DIDN'T YOU?!"

    The old judge stood, looking utterly incredulous as he tilted his head. Some of the other ambassadors were backing up a bit from the table. Some look shocked. Other confused. Only A'alan't 32 looked almost embarrased.

    Or was it annoyance?

    "Why would you think that?" the old judge asked, sounding almost offended.

    "Oh please!" Illiquina snapped. "You kept going on and on about how this would be some kind of an important experiment. How we needed to use the time we had to study what we could. You knew!"

    "Of course I didn't." the old judge defended himself. "If I realized it would create..."

    The old judge stared at the empty space where the hologram had been for a brief second before continuing.

    "Whatever that was, then maybe I'd have had the analytics team get involved."

    "Sure." Illiquina grumbled. "To plant more cameras maybe."

    If the old judge had looked offended earlier, now he looked outright angry.

    "What are you trying to imply, ambassador?"

    Illiquina barked a fake laugh.

    "I'll actually don't know. I don't know anything about you OR the Guillae. That's actually the problem!"

    A'alan't 32 looked up in shock and surprise; as did Ferris and Darrian. While it wasn't unlawful to yell at a robot, Illiquina's hacking into the archive code certainly had been.

    "Tell me, 'bot." she said with utter disrespect. "Why don't you tell me why it is that your file-"

    "Enough!" A'alan't 32 yelled as she shot out of her spot. "Sit. Down. Illiquina."

    Illiquina's wrath turned towards A'alan't 32. For the briefest moment she looked as though she might start shouting at her too. But, as she glared at the Bivvie, a flicker of realization crossed the little Cadrax's face.

    She let out an angry yell and, with nothing further, stormed out of the conference room.

    "Keep this up." Ferris muttered under his breath. "And we're not gonna have much of a council left."

    "Guess it won't matter soon anyway." Ugul regarded back quietly.

    A'alan't 32 shot them threatening glances before turning her attention towards the old judge.

    "My apologies for her disrespect, judge."

    "It's not your place to apologize for another species' ambassador." he said, clearly collecting himself.

    "Of course not." she agreed. "But you must be able to see where she's coming from can you not?"

    A'alan't 32 glanced around the table at the worried and shocked faces of the other ambassadors.

    "It all seems a bit suspicious. First your enthusiasm and now...this."

    "I suppose it is." he agreed quietly.

    "So tell us judge." Ferris said, speaking up. "What is it that you did expect?"

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Xenophobia - Chapter 23

    As dawn broke the following cycle, Darrian settled into his place at the conference table.
    He was the last one to arrive.
    "I know some of you may be itching to review the new information from Mars." the old judge said after the initial greetings had been exchanged and the meeting begun. "You'll be happy to know that Harris has already queued up a wealth for us."
    Darrian appraised the old judge with unease. Something about the robot seemed almost happy this morning. Perhaps it was another learned emotion, meant to lighten the mood given the harshness of the last cycle.
    But still...
    "Have we heard anything back from Jin'thun?" Ugul asked quickly.
    "We have not." the judge confirmed.
    Perhaps Darrian was imagining it. Adding just some imagined level of villainy. But it sounded like the old judge was just a little too elated when he said that.
    The table groaned and muttered to each other. Discussions about whether or not the Gorderians would make it in time to save the humans were clearly heard around the table.
    The old judge quickly rapped on the table.
    "Enough." he said shortly. "Now, we have a hologram stream sent in from the analytics team. It would seem that the humans on Mars are alive. In a manner of speaking."
    "What does that mean?" Ferris asked with a bit too much anger in his tone.
    The old judge either didn't hear Ferris or simply chose to ignore him. He quickly tapped the screen of his datapad and the familiar scene of the lab appeared from the holographic imager.
    It only took a moment before someone asked.
    "What the...hell? What happened?!" A'alan't 32 said, shooting up from her spot.
    The scene in front of them, despite being the same viewpoint as the cycle before, was drastically different. Previously, there had been a clean, well-kept lab environment filled to the brim with shiny tools, smooth surfaces, and humans in safety attire working diligently. Now, it was as if the lab had been overgrown by a rain forest.
    A strange, humid mist seemed to hand in the air of the lab environment. Heavy, plantlike growths seemed to have covered the walls, floor, and even shrouded the large viewport window that looked in on the surgical theater. The room was dark, with the plant growths covering the fluorescent lights, but Darrian could clearly make out some kind of gooey ichor dripping from the ceilings above and little speckles of green and brown floating about in the mist.
    "It would seem," the old judge said coolly, "that there were some interesting side effects from the humans interacting with the Guillae."
    Darrian felt his throat tightening. All he could do was stare at the image. It was so drastically different than he'd seen the cycle before. He was in too much shock to do anything else.
    Around the table, many of the other ambassadors seemed to be going through the same thing.
    "I-I don't understand." Illiquina stammered. "What happened to the humans?! You said they were alive!"
    "In a manner of speaking." the old judge echoed
    As if on cue, Darrian noticed movement to one side of the hologram. A large trunklike section of one of the plants taking over the surgical theater seemed to thrum and move a little. It seemed to bulge and throb as if there were something moving about inside it.
    It moved like this for several moments before one of the bulges seemed to grew too far. A palm and five digits, which everyone readily recognized as the five-fingered hand of a human, was pushing against the membrane from inside the plant itself.
    The flesh of the plant gave and gave and then tore, letting out a moist, squelching sound as it ripped open. A spray of green and brown burst freely into the already heavy air of the lab and the human that was trapped inside the plant cocoon pulled itself free.
    That's right. Darrian thought. It was a cocoon.
    For the human that freed itself from the plant was not like any he'd seen in studying earth. Standing before the camera nude, she still resembled a human female. Her eyes were dark, sunken in, and the normal white of the sclera was a cavalcade of blood red and algae green. Her flesh: a palid, lighter tone now showed all of the veins and arteries that crisscrossed beneath. All of them ran deep, emerald green. Her body appeared soft and voluptuous by human standards, yet closer examination revealed that her flesh had taken on a strange solidity; as if she were covered by a hard shell.
    The most disturbing for Darrian however was the expression.
    Vacant. Hollow. Empty.
    Her eyes and her face seemed to display no intelligence or range of emotion; almost as if she were a walking corpse.
    "What...happened?" Ugul asked.
    The old judge seemed just as transfixed with the images as the other ambassadors. While he didn't look quite as horrified, there was no fabricated joy on his face now.
    Darrian didn't know if the old judge expected this kind of imagery, but he definitely didn't appear to be enjoying it either.
    "Isn't it obvious?" the old judge said. "Just as I said before: there would be interesting side effects from these two species interacting..."
    No one dared say anything more for a long while. What was there to say? No one could change what had happened. What WAS happening. No one even knew it was GOING to happen. Yet here they were with front row seats.
    And there she stood. Silent. Just standing there staring off into nothingness.
    That is, until a scream echoed somewhere offscreen and, in an instant flurry of violence and speed, the modified human shot off after the noise.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 17

    "I don't understand." said Darrian in confusion. "What do you mean that the Guillae would work to the humans' benefit?"
    "Just that." A'alan't 32 stated. "The Guillae aren't some conquering race. They're little more than sentient plants. Their goal is to grow, not destroy."
    Darrian stared at her in disbelief, trying to put together what little that he'd heard before. He realized that this was next to nothing, with the exception that they tended to destroy any planet they inhabited for an extended period of time.
    That's when the question occurred to him.
    "Wait. How do you even know this?"
    "As I said," A'alan't 32 responded with that cautionary tone of annoyance he'd heard before. "I've been researching them since they were first mentioned."
    Darrian considered the silence he'd received from the old judge. The blank archive entries he'd found when he'd gone to investigate. The security clearance required when he asked about the hard copies of data.
    "I gave up looking after the first cycle." he admitted. "Where'd you find this supposed research?"
    Her expression softened and she appeared bemused.
    "I think you forget that I'm not bound to Consortium resources. My species was old when the Merrenians were first crawling about in the dirt. Long before you ever discovered robotics and even longer before you founded the little council we hold now."
    Ignoring what felt like an unnecessary jab at his species, Darrian asked, "So this is Bivvie knowledge then? Local archives or something?"
    A'alan't 32 nodded softly in agreement.
    "We've been studying the cosmos for a very long time." she said with a tone that showed there was no condescension; she was stating a cold, hard fact.
    Darrian studied her for a moment, choosing his words. He'd wondered about this creatures since they were first mentioned and here was a possible wellspring of knowledge. Yet...
    "Why didn't you bring this up earlier? When the old judge refused to answer."
    "For the same reason." she said. "If the old judge did not want to answer any questions, then I would imagine he wouldn't much like it if I shared what I knew."
    A bad feeling tugged at the back of his mind. The Consortium's purpose was knowledge. Review. Understanding. Why would they not want knowledge shared? The Bivvie almost never shared their hidden knowledge, so the fact that they would share something sooner than the Consortium was even stranger.
    "Fine." he said, feeling like she wouldn't give him anymore of an answer if he tried to dig. "You said that you think the Guillae might work to the humans' benefit. Why?"
    A'alan't 32 drifted around the large meeting table and settled by his side. At this distance, he could see little crackles of blue energy that seemed to bubble beneath her semi-transparent skin.
    "Well," she began, "as a whole they don't really seem to intend harm to anyone. At least, no anyone who hasn't directly harmed them first."
    "But they destroy planets?"
    "Strictly speaking. The Guillae are some confused cross between symbiotic and parasitic, in nature. The atmospheric disturbances and depressurization are a byproduct of their existence. It's not intentional."
    "Symbiotic?"
    "Do you remember the hologram of Mars? Back when the Guillae inhabited it?"
    Darrian thought back to the image. To the blue, brown, and green orb that turned into a brilliant, emerald sphere before his eyes.
    "I know it turned green." he said with a nod.
    "The Guillae expand. It's in their nature. They build and they grow, but not in the same way most civilized races do. They have a love of living things."
    "Are you suggesting that..."
    "I'm suggesting that, unlike most other races, they have a disinterest in trading soil for metal." she said sharply, cutting him off.
    Darrian stared at her quietly. At her blue, fluttering form. How she seemed to be there and not at the same time.
    He'd heard before that the Bivvie hadn't looked this way long ago, but rather had made themselves this way over eons of technological advancements. Pushing themselves to see how far they could go. Pushed so hard that they seemed to exist almost as an energy form more than a being of life and blood.
    "The Guillae..." she said with a sigh, "They tend to help those around them. They help them flourish. They've even been responsible for some sentient races escaping their planets long before the destruction of their atmosphere."
    "So, if the humans resurrect the dead Guillae...Ressurect? Is that right?"
    "Birth more might be more appropriate."
    It didn't feel like it, but he wasn't going to argue.
    "If they manage to birth more Guillae, you think they might help the humans then? Somehow?"
    "It seems likely based on what I've seen about the species."
    Darrian felt a weight start to lift off his chest. There was still the threat of the Tulgucks en route. Yet, the idea that the humans weren't going to wake some kind of monster was reassuring.
    "The only thing is..." A'alan't32 said quietly.
    "Is what?"
    A'alan't 32 remained quiet for a moment, seemingly staring through him. He got the sense that she was struggling with whether or not to tell him something.
    "Well, you already figured out that they feed off of water." she said.
    "Correct. It's why they target water heavy planets. Right?"
    She nodded.
    "Well, the humans have an oddly high water content. Anything from fifty to seventy five percent." she said thoughtfully.
    "You think they will attack the humans then?" Darrian asked quickly, feeling panic swell again.
    "No. No." she said quickly, shaking her head. "Not attack."
    "But...what...?"
    Once again, she simply to stare through him. Thinking. Debating.
    "It's nothing." A'alan't 32 finally said with that same reassuring tone from earlier. "I'm just overthinking things."
    Standing from her place at the table, she gave him another little smile before making her way for the door.
    "Have a good evening, Darrian."
    "And you, A'alan't 32."
    He watched her go, but didn't move. He couldn't help but feel she'd intentionally cut him off. Like she knew something that she had thought better of to share. If the Guillae wouldn't attack the humans, what would there to be worry about? 
    This could prove to be an exciting learning opportunity. The old judge's words echoed in his mind as he made his way for the door and back towards his office.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 16

    After the meeting adjourned, Darrian found himself unwilling to return to his office. Everything had happened so fast. Was happening so fast. It felt like every time he rounded a bend, something else was already there waiting for him. 

    He just wanted time to recuperate. Needed it.

    Now, watching his fellow council members collect their things, he couldn't help but wonder how many of them felt the same as he did. A few of them wore anguished expressions. Even more seemed to walk with a heavy weight on them.

    All except Cagool, Darrian thought as he watched the slimy Yool slide out the door.

    His gaze drifted down to his datapad where the last reports were still open. Little more had been revealed regarding the Guillae. Despite the old judge's rather cryptic comment, he had no more to say on the creatures that Darrian had no real knowledge of. 

    Despite their best efforts, the councilors' willingness to participate further in the meeting quickly dwindled. While they attempted to review a number of other minor bits of information from the analytics team, their efforts fell flat. Their minds were all too preoccupied with questions.

    Too many questions with no definitive answers.
    "Are you okay?" asked A'alan't 32.
    Darrian looked up and then quickly around the room, only to realize that they were that A'alan't 32 was the only other one in the room. Everyone else, even the old judge, had gone.
    Glancing back at her, he hesitated before responding. Instead, his gaze drift down to her body. It never really struck him before, but she seemed so...odd. Her form seemed to phase in and out in place. Like, for just a minute, she would be solid. Then, just as quickly, she might have well have been a hologram. Little more than floating blue and grey energy.
    Even more strange, A'alan't 32 always seemed to be different with each flicker of light. One minute she might be child sized. The next: an old woman. Most times she seemed notably female. Other times, he caught a glimmer of a very powerful male form.
    This was, of course, the norm for any Bivvie; their species being what it was. But, in that moment, sitting in the empty meeting room with only her. It struck him as almost disturbing.
    Alien, he thought to himself.
    "Yes." he said, shaking off the antagonistic thoughts about his fellow councilor. "It's just everything that's happened recently."
    "I understand." she said reassuringly.
     Neither said more for several long moments. The silence drew out as they stared at each other from across the table.
    "What do we do?" he finally asked.
    "There's not much we can do." she reiterated the plain truth that was often mentioned whenever that question was brought up in meetings.
    "I know. It's just..."
    "You feel helpless."
    Darrian nodded his agreement.
    "Tell me." she said. "Is it everything that's happened or is it something in particular?"
    "Pardon?"
    "I'm curious. You've always seemed relatively solid. Stable. You have your opinions yet listen to others. You live with caution, yet are fueled by compassion. A perfect example of the Merrenian way."
    Darrian said nothing, but her words made his guts feel rotten. Maybe it was just because Merrenians always strove to be better and 'perfect' was more of a backhanded insult than it was a compliment for them. Or maybe it was because he remember the bigoted thoughts he had of her just moments before.
    "Thanks?" he said shakily.
    "Yet today." she continued. "Here you sit. Crestfallen. Dejected. Depressed."
    "I'm not depressed." he retorted quickly.
    "But you are quick to snap." she observed. "Do not negate your own feelings. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
    He opened his mouth to respond, but quickly swallow his words.
    "I understand." she said again with the softness of a mother calming her litter. "But I must ask again: Is it something specific that got under your skin today?"
    Darrian looked up from his datapad and stared at her for a long moment. Her expression seemed kind but calculating. Reassuring yet unwavering in her curiosity. He replayed the events of the last few meetings over in his head. Considering if there had been something specific.
    And it all came back to the same thought.
    "The Guillae." he said quietly.
    "What about them?"
    "The old judge told us how these things seem to consume all water they find...use it to make their plants. Use it to replicate themselves..." said Darrian with more remorse in his voice than he had expected. "The humans rely heavily on water. Hell. Their BODIES are mostly water. We don't know what the Guillae are going to do to them."
    "True." she agreed. "But all in all, I don't believe the introduce of the Guillae will prove hazardous to the humans."
    This came as a shock to Darrian.
    "Why?" he blurted out.
    "To be candid, I've been researching the Guillae ever since they were first mentioned." she said with a hint of a smile. "And I'm pretty sure they will be working to the humans' benefit and not their downfall."

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Xenophobia - Chapter 15

   "I...I don't understand." stammered Cherryl from her place at the table. "How can they have found a G-Guillae?"
    "I concur." agreed the old judge. "The Guillae vacated that planet dozens of rotations ago."
    "Indeed they did." confirmed Harris. "But all the same, the humans have recovered one."
    "Alive or dead?" asked Darrian in utter confusion.
    "Are you kidding me?" snapped Cagool. "That thing has been there for who knows how many rotations. Alone. Under the ground from how it sounds. Why would you think it's alive?"
    Harris cast a sidelong glance at Cagool before responding. "It's certainly dead."
    "W-well that's good news." said Cherryl looking notably relieved.
    "No. It's not." said Harris and the old judge seemingly simultaneously.
    "It's not?"
    "No." confirmed the old judge.
    Cherryl looked like she had more to ask, but quickly reconsidered as the old judge and Harris turned their attention back to each other.
    "Sir. Is it normal for Guillae to leave one of theirs behind like this?"
    The old judge shook his head.
    "I'm not completely sure. It's been an exceptionally long time since the Consortium had any interaction with the Guillae. Likewise, as a general rule we never authorize colonization of old Guillae planets. Researchers rarely favor such locations either."
    "So this could be a norm?" questioned Harris.
    "We simply don't know."
    "Why are we even discussing this?" groaned Cagool. "Who really cares?"
    The old judge flashed Cagool a threatening glance before responding.
    "Do you know anything about the Guillae, Cagool?" he said.
    "Nothing more than you've told us before. Plant people. Like to eat planets. That sort of thing."
    "I also mentioned that they travel together in a great cluster. A spore." explained the old judge. "Because of this, or maybe it's the other way around, the Guillae have a number of innate capabilities."
    "Capabilities?" questioned Darrian.
    "Well, for one, the Guillae are linked to one another. Each Guillae is connected to all of the others. Think of it almost like a hive mind, not unlike insects..."
    "Or a flora-network." added A'alan't 32. "Like roots or a forest."
    "Precisely." agreed the old judge. "It functions even across deep space."
    "While creepy to think about, I ask again, who cares?" said Cagool. "It's dead."
    "That brings us nicely to their other capability. Just one Guillae can repopulate an entire planet. One. Dead. Guillae."
    "You can't be serious!"
    "No. He's right." confirmed A'alan't 32. "I've been studying them on my down time. Not unlike some plants, Guillae essentially convert to giant seed spores upon death. Their only purpose is to sprout when exposed to water."
    The old judge nodded in agreement before turning his attention back to Harris.
    "Thank you, Harris." he said with a nod. "Is there anything else?"
    "Uhm...no, Sir."
    As the old judge reached down to turn off the holographic imager, Harris spoke up.
    "Actually, a moment, Sir."
    "Harris?"
    "Should we...do something about this?"
    "No."
    There was excitement and confusion as whispers littered the table.
    "Of course, Sir."
    "Keep us up to date when the Guillae spores."
    "I will."
    With that, Harris terminated the transmission and the old judge sighed. Darrian found the action peculiar for a robot. But with the number of other peculiar learned programming the old judge had demonstrated, this was hardly the strangest.
    "So we're not doing anything about this?" asked A'alan't 32.
    "We must maintain the quarantine." said the old judge. "We would need to discuss the matter with the Consortium before we could take any true action."
    "But what if they accidentally spawn more Guillae. More live Guillae?" demanded Darrian.
    "When the humans do, we will wait and watch to see what happens. This could prove to be an exciting learning opportunity."

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Xenophobia - Chapter 14

    After the last meeting, Darrian noticed that the cycles began to pass at a sluggish pace. At first, he couldn't wait to get to the meeting room. That was, until he noticed that Jin'thun was missing. Unlike before with Juag-e, the old Judge said nothing about the Gorderian's absence.
    That meeting dragged on like nothing else.
    The next meeting wasn't any better. No Jin'thun. No word of whether they had rallied support or the Gorderians had gone to the Tulgucks aid.
    It was like this for a dozen cycles.
    During this time, the humans were already making immense progress with their colonization of Mars. The colony ships from both China and the United States had arrived safe and sound and had quickly begun the process of creating life-support habitats for the colonists. Once they finished their construction, the humans immediately sank their time into agricultural and scientific endeavors.
    One thing that struck the council as odd was the fact that the humans from the two ships remained separated and seemed to make no attempt to actively interact with each other. Despite their only difference being geographical location on Earth, their groups remained separated aside for occasionally checking that the other was alive and well.
    Darrian thought he'd never understand how humans disregarded their own species so much.
    The humans' presence on Mars created a number of unique problems for the analytics team as well. Unlike on Earth with it's rather massive population, a lone individual or group of individuals stuck out compared to the general populace of Mars. It wasn't a matter of simply slapping on a holographic imager and walking into the crowd. Every human knew every other human and they couldn't simply walk into a mess hall as an unknown.
    But Harris's team was talented.
    Utilizing a combination of technological infiltration and carefully hidden listening and viewing devices, a small group of the analytics team was able to monitor the humans as they progressed into their colonization. It proved challenging keeping their craft hidden, sometimes in orbit and sometimes on the surface, and it was not nearly as informative but they made it work.

    "I just don't get why they don't really interact with each other." grumbled Ugul.
    "Hmm. Do you think it could be the whole 'language barrier' thing that Harris had mentioned before?" said Cagool snidely.
    Darrian couldn't help but feel that the Yool had become absolutely insufferable as of late. While he had actively denied any interaction or affiliation with the Tulgucks or Gorderians, his mood swing seemed too conveniently timed. Ever since Jin'thun's disappearance, he couldn't seem to keep his condescension to himself. Maybe he just liked being the contrarian.
    "Many of the colonists speak each others regional linguistics, Cagool." groaned A'alan't 32.
    "Well, maybe this is a new batch. Who knows? With how short lived they are, maybe they had to reproduce on the ship before the original batch died of old age. Did we think to check?"
    "Would you just shut up?" snapped Ferris in an unusually bad mood.
    Maybe he was just used to being the sarcastic one or maybe Cagool was just getting under his skin. Either way, Ferris had more venom then normal.
    "I feel like you haven't had anything useful to add to these meetings in a while." Ferris added quickly.
    "What's there to add?" asked Cagool. "We're basically just watching a virus grow in a petri dish while we wait for the doctor to come and destroy it."
    "Cagool." warned the old judge.
    "What?" he said as he looked around the table. "You might not like it, but facts are facts. The Tulgucks are on their way right now to wipe them off the map."
    The old judge glowered at him and a few of the other councilors looked uncomfortable.
    "Even if the Gorderians decide to try and stop them, which they probably won't, the Tulgucks have good headway. I'd give it another few cycles before for the first warships show up and then we can start doing something better with our time."
    "Cagool. Are you suggesting that this is a waste of time and that we should be supporting the Tulgucks in their vicious slaughter of a young species?" demanded the old judge.
    "Hey. I didn't say it. You did."
    Darrian could feel his throat tightening and was about to say something when the light on the holographic imager started flashing.
    The old judge reached down and hit a button on his datapad and Harris, not in his human disguise but instead his proper Merrenian form, appeared above the table.
    "Harris?" asked the old judge. "Is something wrong? You have this labeled as a priority one message."
    "I bet the warships just showed up." muttered Cagool quietly.
    "Would you just..." growled Ferris.
    "Shut it!" snapped the old judge. "Harris?"
    Harris adjusted himself and cleared his throat.
    "Yes. Well... I'm not sure how to put this. As you are aware, the humans begin their scientific research on the surface of Mars. Some of that research includes extensive digging. Archaeologic searches and the like..." his tone was hollow and he looked nervous.
    The room fell quiet. Even Cagool didn't have something snide to add.
    "What did they find, Captain?" asked the old judge with hesitation in his voice.
    Harris seemed to look around the room as if he was considering what or how to say whatever it was needed saying. After a moment, he sighed heavily and looked back to the old judge with a stern expression.
    "The humans have found a Guillae, sir."

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