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 20

    The room sat in extended silence. A number of the other ambassadors exchanged confused and concerned glances. The old judge seemed oblivious, or at the very least as if he was ignoring the obvious surprise his comment had rendered.
    "I don't understand." Ugul finally said slowly. "Why would we be worried about the Guillae?"
    "Why wouldn't we be?" retorted the old judge as if he were educating a child; just a hint of condescension. "It's good to know and understand any rogue element within the stars."
    "This council is meant to monitor and review information on the humans." Darrian said shortly.
    "You're not wrong." the old judge agreed.
    "Then, to reiterate Ugul's point." said A'alan't 32. "Why would we be concerned about the Guillae?"
    "The Guillae are a rogue element." the old judge responded in that same condescending tone. "We need to understand them in the rare instance that we ever have to encounter them again."
    "But this is about-" started Ugul again before being cut off by the old judge.
    "The humans. I know." the old judge snapped.
    Ugul looked shocked having been cut off by the old judge, as did a few others. He wasn't some child. He was an ambassador of the Jigger species. He wasn't the smartest or most outspoken of the council, but he was hardly out of line to question the old judge on this apparently unspoken motivation.
    "Then why aren't we more concerned about the humans?" demanded Ferris.
    "The humans are dead." the old judge stated with a level of cold detachment Darrian could only imagine was possible for a robot. "We need to use the time we have to learn what we can."
    "They're not dead-!" Ugul started to bellow.
    "They're dead. The Tulgucks have already entered the galaxy. The Gorderians haven't even mobilized yet and there's nothing the humans have in their arsenal that will stop them."
    "There has to be something." muttered Ugul in distress.
    "They DO have nuclear capabilities." offered Ferris.
    "Capabilities pointed at each other and low in yield." he retorted flatly before adding, "It doesn't matter."
    "Then why are we bothering?" demanded Darrian. "Why are we sitting here discussing politics about a species that you've already decided is dead before they even take the hit?"
    "Because, again, we can learn more about the Guillae and how they interact with an oxygen-based, high water life form."
    Darrian could feel the questions swimming, but didn't voice them. Why? Why do we care? Why does it matter? What good does it do?
    "It's clear that we cannot progress any further today." the old judge said with cold sternness. "We can reconvene at a later time. You're all dismissed."
    Darrian looked around the table but none of the judges moved. Even Cagool, who had finally stopped shaking from his exchange with Jin'thun earlier, sat in silence.
    The old judge glowered at them.
    "Ambassadors." he said with a mechanical sigh. "If this really bothers you all so deeply, I'll explain further."
    "Please do." responded A'alan't 32 matching his own low, stern tone.
    "Fine. I'm going to offer a guess: when I first mentioned the Guillae some cycles back, what was the first thing you after the initial meeting? I presume you went and tried to investigate them, did you not?"
    There were a few assorted nods and muttered agreements.
    "And what did you find?"
    There was silence. Darrian knew that he personally hadn't found anything in the Consortium databases, but that A'alan't 32 and the Bivvie databases had been chock full of information on the Guillae. They locked eyes, but it wasn't A'alan't 32 who spoke up.
    "Nothing." offered Cagool.
    "I didn't find anything either." said Ferris.
    "Me either." agreed Ugul.
    "We don't know anything about the Guillae." said the old judge flatly. "In the short time the Consortium and the Guillae interacted, we never had a peaceful interaction short of the strained meetings that led to the Guillae and Consortium agreeing to stay out of each others' way."
    "We need to learn as much as we can so we can add it to the limited cache we know about them. They've always seemed to be an extremely hostile species that is simply bent on taking over any water based planet that they can land a spore on. It's almost as if they're driven by a hunger that we don't rightly understand."
    Darrian looked across the table to A'alan't 32 for confirmation of what she'd told him before and stared in shock. The Bivvie, who's transparent, seemingly holographic body always flickered between so many emotions and ages, seemed almost stable. The differences were minor at best. Almost solid. And all of them showed a glare of anger at the old judge.
    For just a brief moment, A'alan't 32 glanced in Darrian's direction, perhaps sensing that he had been staring at her for too long. Without a word, she simply shaked her head.
    "Now. That is all." the old judge said finally. "Take the rest of the cycle off. I will see you on the next."
    The other ambassadors got up with little murmurs and mutters, but no one said anything against the old judge. Darrian didn't know what to feel. He trusted A'alan't 32's information and the data gathered by the Bivvie, but he couldn't understand what was happening. Did the Consortium really not have access to any of the information on the Guillae, leading them to believe this was some conquering race? Or were they intentionally misleading the species of the Consortium?
    As Darrian sat there trying to understand his own thoughts, he watched A'alan't 32 storm out of the conference room. For the first time ever, her shape appeared to be almost solid.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 18 (Rewrite!)

    The council sat in eerie silence, watching the image on the hologram. Before them was an operating table with the body of a Guillae sprawled out atop it. Its torso had been opened up and tools were scattered all around it.
    Despite being mid autopsy, no one could be seen attending to the body.
    "What do you think is happening?" asked Ferris quietly.
    Darrian glanced over at him, shook his head, and gave a non-committal shrug before returning his attention to the nearly still image. If it weren't for the blinking lights of a nearby computer console, he'd have thought that the holographic imager had frozen.
    When the Guillae had been taken to the laboratory, the analytics team had acted with surprising fervor. Through some skillful infiltration of the humans' technology, the team had managed to gain control of a camera on one of the personal computers within the lab. All before the first incision had been made.
    It had been very risky, but none of the humans had noticed. They were too preoccupied with the discovery of life outside of their own.
    At first, the lab had been a hive of activity. At least four humans in full protective gear were seen working on the body at any given time. Another dozen could be seen behind the protective interference of a viewfinder that overlooked the operating table. For hours, the council watched and waited.
    The human scientists worked diligently. They slowly began to dissect the long dead Guillae which, to Darrian's surprise, was incredibly well preserved. His guess was that it probably related to the atmosphere of Mars.
    Piece by piece, they would make an incision and investigate what they found. Countless samples were removed. Notes were taken vocally to the computer system as well as by two other humans, one inside and one outside of the lab. They had catalogued at least a hundred or so samples when they found what the council had been waiting for.
    Darrian knew it was a learned behavior, but it didn't make it anymore shocked when he heard the old judge gasp.
    The main scientist slowly and smoothly drew out a long, podlike object from the body of the dead Guillae. It was about a meter long and a half meter wide and reminded him of the samples of "Soy Beans" that the analytics team had sent them from Earth. One of the humans made the same observation but qualified it as being "fuckin' huge". Some of the humans laughed while others chastised him.
    Slowly, carefully, one of the scientists took the pod away somewhere off camera. Darrian could hear a door open and close. A moment later, there was a shout from that same direction and all of the humans looked up. Some of them looked confused, others scared at what they saw. Very quickly, all of them disappeared off screen. All of them running towards where the pod had been taken.
    That had been at least an hour ago.
    The council waited patiently for something to change. They had heard nothing except a clatter of metal about twenty minutes before. Except for that and the blinking lights, the image was seemingly static.
    It would seem that Harris felt the same way.
    As if on cue, the image of the laboratory and the dead Guillae dissolved. It was replaced by Harris' form. To everyone's surprise, he was lounging with the face plate to his robotic exosuit wide open. He looked utterly exhausted.
    "I don't think there's much more to see." he said to the old judge.
    "I agree. Update us when you have more, Captain."
    Harris gave a nod but said nothing else. They could seem him enter a sequence on his control panel before the holographic image disappeared entirely.
    The table sat in silence for another several minutes, digesting what they had seen and what might be happening. No one knew what to say. While they hadn't seen anything "bad" per say, the last images they'd seen of the humans left an uneasy feeling in their guts. Darrian's discussion with A'alan't 32 and the old judge still rang fresh in his mind.
    This could be an exciting learning opportunity. he remembered again for the thousandth time.
    "Well..." said the old judge with a mechanical sigh. "I don't believe there is anything else that we can cover today. If you would, I would like to reconvene-"
    The door of the meeting room slid open as the old judge tried to wrap up the meeting. Many of them didn't bother looking up. They were frankly too tired. It wasn't until the old judge stopped what he was staying and stared at the person who had walked in that Darrian glanced over.
    Jin'thun.
    The heavy set, furry Gorderian made his way towards his spot at the council table. The exhaustion and fear in the room quickly gave way to shock and awe as everyone turned their attention to the long-missing ambassador.
    For a moment, no one said anything. And then, everyone started speaking at once.
    "What did they say?" demanded Ferris.
    "They s-"
    "Where have you been?!" asked Ugul.
    "If you-"
    "What took you so long?" chided A'alan't 32.
    "It was-"
    "Are they going to-" Darrian begin to ask when the old judge bellowed over all of them.
    "ENOUGH!"
    The table fell silent as Jin'thun, looking quite ruffled and annoyed, straightened himself out. The old judge smiled softly.
    "I see you've returned." the old judge said quietly. "It's good to have you back."
    "Thank y-"
    "Yea. Took you long enough." grumbled Cagool.
    Jin'thun jumped from his place and let out a bellowing, threatening roar right in Cagool's face. The slimy little Yool squeaked and looked as if he was attempting to crawl inside himself to get away from the Gorderian's ferocity. He was still quivering when Jin'thun settled back down.
    "Thank you, judge." he finally said, giving everyone a threatening look as he did; as if daring them to try his patience further.
    "Now," he continued, "I come with the results of your plea to my government."
    "And what have the Gorderians decided, Jin'thun?" asked the old judge.
    Jin'thun threw Cagool one more threatening glance, however the Yool was still shaking from his last misstep.
    "The Gorderians will be sending aid to the humans."
    The room let out a collective sigh and Darrian could even hear Ferris let out a quiet "Yes!" under his breath. Everyone looked relieved.
    "That's wonderful, Jin'thun. Your government has our sincerest gratitude."
    "Yes, of c-"
    A loud beeping filled the room as the old judge's datapad began to flash. A priority one message.
    Quickly, he tapped the message and the holographic imager once more glew with life. Harris could be seen once again but this time he looked a great deal more frazzled then before.
    "Harris?" the old judge asked. "What is it?"
    "The Tulgucks." Harris said with barely contained panic. "The Tulgucks are here! They've entered the solar system!"

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(Hello Lovelies. I do hope that you enjoyed the re-write of Chapter 18. As I mentioned before, I have no intent of making this a regular habit (with the exception of when I do my official editing for the book release) but I felt Chapter 18 was a special exception. I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the slight alteration compared to the first time it came out.)

Xenophobia - Chapter 18

    "What do you think is happening?" asked Ferris.
    Darrian looked over at him and shrugged before returning his gaze to the hologram over the conference table. Before him floated the image of the long dead Guillae that lay quietly on a cold metal operating table.
    Through some skillful infiltration of the humans' technology, the analytics' team had managed to gain control of a camera on one of the personal computers within the laboratory environment. It had been risky, but none of the humans had noticed. They were too preoccupied with their discovery.
    At first, the laboratory the humans brought the Guillae to had been a hive of activity. At least a dozen humans could be seen milling about at any given time while four others operated carefully on the body. For hours, the council watched as the human scientists dissected, examined, and catalogued the specimen carefully.
    Finally, the main scientist extracted a long slender object from the Guillae that Darrian felt positive was a seed pod based on its appearance. The scientist had fled in excitement somewhere off camera. He was just as quickly followed by everyone else in the surgical theater.
    That had been over an hour ago.
    The council waited patiently. Watching. They listened for any sounds or watched for any movement, but nothing came.
    As time passed, Darrian felt more uneasy. What was happening behind closed doors? While the analytics team had been good, there were inherent risks to infiltrating the human systems and it was even more dangerous to try and hop around until they found anything. They simply couldn't risk looking around further.
    It would seem that Harris felt the same.
    As if on cue, the image of the laboratory blanked out in favor of Harris' form. He was lounging with the face plate of his robotic exosuit wide open and looked exhausted.
    "Update us when you have more, Captain." said the old judge placidly.
    "Of course." groaned Harris, who entered a sequence on his control panel before the image disappeared completely.
    It was hardly proper protocol, but Darrian didn't feel like he could blame Harris. He looked like Darrian felt at this point.
    The table sat in silence for several minutes. No one knew what to say. While they certainly hadn't seen anything bad, they had all been left with an uneasy feeling about what was happening on Mars. It didn't help that they'd been in the meeting far longer than intended.
    "Well..." said the old judge with a mechanical sigh. "I don't believe there is anything else we can cover today-"
    The door of the meeting room slid open, grabbing the attention of some of the over-tired councilors. They looked over with dreary interest until they saw who it was.
    Jin'thun.
    Darrian sat straight up and many of the councilors looked at him agape with awe.
    "I see you've returned." said the old judge, nonplussed.
    A wave of annoyance passed over the Gorderian ambassador's features, but he quickly made his way towards his place at the table. All at once, the table exploded in a buzz of questions and excitement.
    "I have-" started Jin'thun.
    "What did they say?" demanded Ferris.
    "If you-"
    "Where have you been?!" asked Ugul.
    "Look-"
    "Enough!" snapped the old judge, bellowing over the noise.
    The table fell silent except for Jin'thun who sat there, his eyes closed and a deep guttural growl emanating from his throat.
    "Thank y-"
    "Took you long enough." grumbled Cagool incredulous.
    Jin'thun let forth a bellowing roar in Cagool's face and jumped from his seat. Many of the other councilors recoiled and Darrian felt surprised that the Gorderian hadn't taken a swing at the Yool right there.
    "Now." growled Jin'thun, looking around the table as if daring someone else to interrupt him. "I come with the results of your plea."
    "And what has the Gorderian government decided upon, Jin'thun?"
    The ambassador eyed Cagool menacingly but the Yool simply shuddered where he sat.
    "We will be sending aid to the humans."

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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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