Fanfiction by Rune

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By Rune, starstrike@softhome.net

"Xenogers: New Gospel"

Chapter VI, Section 2

Noontime in Nisan is perhaps one of the most hectic times... businesses
were releasing their workers for lunch, the noontime sun invited people to
shop around in the great Market Square, and life generally steps up a few
paces.

Noon also found Remus staggering down one of the central streets, his arms
full of boxes of various shapes and sizes. To the average observer, it
seemed that in next moment he would collide with one of the pedestrians
walking the streets, but with an amazing combination of acrobatics, quick
movements, and blind luck, he managed to avoid every person all the way to
the street corner.

Remus set all of the boxes down gently on the bench next to him, and
breathed a heavy sigh of relief, glancing back down the street to insure
that he hadn't dropped anything. "I can't believe I made it this far. I've
never seen this many people in Nisan... ever!" In fact, he'd had doubts
about there being this many people left in the world. The street was a
swirl of people, all from different backgrounds. Avehians and Kislites
mixed freely with people from the sky cities of Shevat and Solaris, a mix of
people that would have been unheard of before the great collapse. Remus
whipped the sweat off of his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform, and
took a moment to take in all the sights.

"It's only been two years... I've only been here a year and a half." he
mumbled to himself, shaking his head. It had been a while. But Nisan had
called to him, ever since word that the Sacred Warriors, as the group that
had battled Deus had been called by the masses, had thrown down the tyrants
of the ministry, and defeated the demon of destruction, Deus. And now he
was here, and installed as the personal assistant to the Great Lady herself.
Who would have thought.

"Repent, and ask for forgiveness! For she has risen and returned to us, the
Great Lady of Nisan, the Holy Mother Sophia reborn!" A bald man intoned,
waving a censor around in a mad pattern about him. The cut of his robes
marked him as a preacher of the Cult of Sophia Reborn, a fanatic group that
had appeared in the last year. Fortunately he hadn't managed to whip his
following into their usual frenzy, and most of the people on the street were
ignoring him. The cult had turned into quite a problem for Lady Elyham, as
several rallies had taken place around her house and office... all of them
had to be broken off for the Lady to emerge and leave either of those
places. Remus grimaced, remembering the situation at the first rally, when
Mistress Elyham had tried to leave her office for an important town meeting.
The cult had whisked her away on their shoulders, and both he and Billy had
chased the retreating vanguard across the city and the nearby countryside,
only to find that Elly had taken control of the situation. She had directed
the crowd to drop her off at the town hall, and it was likely that she
wouldn't have been able to get out again if it wasn't for Shitan, Billy, and
the Wel costume he had been wearing... that thought caused Billy to
chuckle. He had certainly had some amusing experiences during his first few
weeks.

"Mistress, you've managed to give the Ethos security manager more gray hairs
than any man I know... of twenty years old." Remus giggled, and picked up
he packages. "I wonder if Mistress Elyham wanted these dropped off at her
house, or at her office." Remus paused for a moment. "Shitan would skin me
alive if I bothered Mistress Elyham. I'll drop these off at her office."

He stood up, carefully picking up all twelve boxes, turned...

..and crashed right into the first person he ran into.

Both he, his unfortunate victim, and more boxes that you can shake a stick
at, fell to the group with a resounding crash. Remus looked at the stars
orbiting his head, and looked weakly at his load of boxes. "Damn..." he
muttered. "I'm sorry... are you alright?"

"Why aren't you paying more attention to where you're going?" the young man
Remus crashed into complained, pushing himself off the ground. Remus
smiled, looking over the young mans holy robes, old fashion Etone robes.
And there was only one person in Nisan who wore the OLD fashion Etone robes.

"Billy, when did you get back in town?" Remus shouted, standing up. With
an embarrassed glance, he started reaching around for his packages,
snatching them up as fast as possible.

"Remus, is that you?" the young man replied, looking over the small wall of
packages that separated them. "It is! What are you doing down here?"

Remus blushed slightly, and continued gathering his load. "Well, oh Great
Reverend Billy Lee Black, it looks like I'm doing a bit of shopping. And it
also seems that I've lost my entire load here when I ran into you." he
continued in a sarcastic voice.

Billy grinned and started picking up boxes. "My god, it looks like you need
a cart. Or at least a second pair of hands. Do you mind if I help you
out?"

"Its always welcome. I was wondering how I was going to get all this stuff
back to HQ." Remus gave the Etone an appreciative nod of his head, and
turned towards a nearly storefront. "Actually, I was going to get some
lunch and wait for the traffic to die down. Have you eaten yet?"

Billy shook his head in a negative. "My team just got back in, and I'm all
and willing to eat. I need some hot food... Neither Maria or Emeralda can
cook very well."

"Considering one of them is younger than you are, and the other one doesn't
need to eat, I can't blame you for being hungry." Remus gathered the last
of his packages, and turned towards the store. "You bought last time..."

"And I'm buying again. I know what your salary is."

..

"So Billy, what do you think of this new turn of events?" Remus sipped at
the small beer that he had ordered, looking at the pale haired young man.
Reverend Billy Lee Black was seldom seen in Nisan anymore, due to the
increase in Wel activity all across the countryside. A law unto himself,
Billy remained the people's hero through out the dark times in the first
year, even though many people's families had been killed by the Etones after
they had undergone the horrible transformation that had turned them into
Wels. And seeing him back in town meant that he was either serving as the
Ethos security manager for a time, or he was simply gathering more supplies
before he set out again?

Billy leaned back in his chair, and regarded his glass of juice. "Actually,
I was hoping you could tell me what was going on. Siebzen's comm system was
damaged when we ambushed a quartet of Seraphim, and we were only able to get
a small amount of the mass communication that was sent out. And Elly's note
was even less informative."

Remus smiled, remembering the note that Elly had penned to Billy... 'Aliens
have made contact. They appear to be human. Return immediately.' Taking
another sip of his drink, he considered what Billy might have heard on his
way into town. "You'll have to forgive Mistress Elyham... she's had much
on her mind for the last few weeks. But yes, we've managed to achieve
contact with a survey ship that is currently in orbit above us even as we
speak. They are apparently from something called the United Earth
Federation or some name of a similar nature. Mistress Elyham has invited
them down to the planet to visit Nisan. They accepted, of course...
probably to make sure that we were not concealing our identities as humans
in some way."

"Which means that Elly has been working herself into the ground again."
Billy offhandedly commented, tapping his fingers on the table. "Remus,
you're her AID for crying out loud. You need to take control of the
situation sometimes... letting her work herself into exhaustion is not the
best way to go about helping her."

Remus glanced out the door, a guilt-ridden expression on his face. This was
starting to sound exactly like the lecture Shitan had given him earlier in
the day, something he did not care to repeat. Having Master Shitan, one of
the Ethos leaders, chew him out was one thing... having his best friend do
it was another. "Mistress Elyham is very devoted to her people, and can
neglect herself while she cares for them. I do try to assist her in every
way possible, and I do try to care for her health, but she is an extremely
persuasive woman..."

Billy snorted, and shook his head in disgust. "You just won't do anything
that you think will upset her. Mistress Elyham indeed. I've heard her tell
you twelve or thirteen times to call her Elly, like the rest of us do. And
are you still sleeping outside her door at night? I don't think you'll EVER
live that one down."

Remus shrugged, and drained his glass. "I just feel that if no one else is
going to assist Mistress Elyham, then I should be doing all I can to make up
for that. Considering that all of you sacred warriors are out and about,
she really doesn't have anyone to depend on."

"You haven't forgiven Fei, have you Remus?" Billy tone was flat and cold.
"Every time someone talks to you about why you joined the Ethos, you give
this same speech. I don't understand it. You need to at least meet him
before you decide to hate him."

Remus shook his head, and abruptly stood up. "Well, I have to deliver these
packages, so I must be going." He started to gather the boxes with swift
movements, pointedly ignoring Billy. With all but a few packages gathered,
he looked around only to find his friend with the rest of the boxes. "Well,
if you're going to come along, that's great. If not, that's fine too."

"You don't have to take everything so personally Remus... you need to
loosen up a bit." Billy smiled and held the door open for him, gesturing
for Remus to exit first. "A good vacation is probably what you need...
didn't you mention that you had over a month available to you?"

"Yeah... you may be right. I think the tension is getting to me, as well
as Mistress Elyham. But not until after this meeting with the offworlders
is over." Remus smiled, and gestured for Billy to walk towards the
Cathedral. "We should be able to get some of the parts and fuel that we
need to keep the barrier operational. The big thing that we're wondering is
what the offworlders are going to want in return."

Billy shifted the boxes, and checked the balance of the entire stack. "Who
knows? It seems to me that they must have much more advance technology, so
maybe they are just planning on being nice and giving us what we need." The
Etone chuckled at Remus's snort of disbelief, and amended his statement.
"Alright, so we'll just have to see what they want."

"I should get going. Its going to be a long day tomorrow... apparently
Mistress Elyham has some sort of strategy council planned." Remus got out
of his seat, stretching to loosen his muscles. "Its been good seeing you
again Billy."

"Same to you. I'll assume that you'll be at the conference tomorrow?"
Billy replied, picking up a few of the boxes on the table. "You're
practically part of the administration by now... I wouldn't see why you
wouldn't be going."

"Well, I might be going. It depends if I have any other important matters
to take care of." Remus smiled, and started picking up the half of the
boxes that he had carried in. "I do hope to see you again before you head
out, though. It's been a long time."

"I don't think that will be a problem." Billy replied, waving a hand at
him. "I'm in town until the end of this fiasco, so we should hopefully have
a few more days." Billy eyed one of the boxes curiously, and watched as
Remus busied himself with gathering the last of them on his end of the
table.

"Hey, Remus... is there something you're not telling me?" Remus stood
stock upright, and slowly turned around to see Billy with one finger under a
box lid, peering inside.

"Um... like what?"

"Like why there's women's clothing in these boxes?"

..

"Shitan, Bart, Billy... I'm glad you all could make it."

The strategic conference room of the Ethos headquarters was found almost
completely intact during the construction of the new Ethos headquarters.
The room carried echoes of his past, as the command center for Sophia and
her followers during the Great War against Solaris, and now it was finally
seeing use again.

Elly stood at the front of the room, and smiled. Billy, Shitan, and Bart
were all seated around a large, lit table in the center of the room. The
large screen in the back displayed the Federation ship that drifted above
the planet, and several maps of the area of Nisan were scattered across the
table.

"Well then, this is perhaps the last meeting we'll get to have before our
'guests' arrive." Elly stated, taking a seat at the head of the table. "I
want to thank you all for taking time out of your schedules for this
meeting. I wanted to get your opinions on any problems that we may have
during this meeting."

Shitan cleared his throat, and started rummaging through his bag for several
reports, but by the time he managed to locate the proper documents, Bart had
already started speaking.

"From what I can tell, the general population of the city and countryside is
rather excited about this event." The blonde haired man smiled, and pulled
out a small pad of notes from his pocket. "Sigurd and Margie believe that
we shouldn't have any problems on account of the people... especially since
you are going up to greet our guests, Elly."

Elly smiled, and looked down at the map. "Its reassuring to know. Thanks
Bart."

Shitan stood up after that, and cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses as
so he could read the report that he held in front of him. "I've managed to
calculate the best place for the landing sight... a large field to the west
of town. The area is fairly damp, so we have little chance of a fire, and
there are few navigational hazards in the area. And if necessary, we can
put a Gear contingent on the ridge..."

"Hang on." Bart broke in, staring at Shitan and Elly. "Why are we planning
on things like this? Our Gear contingent? Are we going to war or welcoming
some guests?"

"We are trying to plan for every contingency. We have no proof that their
people are not hostile to us." Shitan replied, giving Bart one of his
knowing looks. "Everyone here in the room hopes that nothing like this will
be the case, however."

Billy stood up, and pointed to a large map of the area. "However, the
biggest predicted problem is a possible attack from the outside. My teams
have picked up an unusual amount of activity from then Wels east of the
city, and having a quarter of the Etones back in the city for security
worries me."

Elly frowned, and looked over the map Billy was pointing to. "If we do
suffer an attack, will we be able to defend ourselves? I don't like the
idea of one of those Gear sized Wels barging into town during our
celebration."

"It shouldn't be a problem defending Nisan itself, but to make sure nothing
can attack some of the closer towns, we're having to pull most of our Etones
in closer to the city to insure that there are no patrol gaps." Billy
frowned, and pointed to several small hamlets. "These areas would be
without protection for a few days."

"Then perhaps we can send one of the new Firefly Gears to each of these
towns." Shitan replied, pointing to the regiment of Gears that made up a
portion of the Nisan home guard. "They have excellent speed, and can be
recalled in case of a true emergency, and they can also stand up to the
single Seraphim that have been wandering about." Shitan pointed to several
blue dots on the map, representing Etone supply dumps. "These should have
enough supplies to keep those Gears in good repair, and we will be able to
recall them in less than ten hours if the need arises."

"That's an excellent idea, Shitan." Elly replied, smiling at him. "Lets
see if we can get them in place before we have to pull everyone back."

Elly looked around, rather pleased with this meeting. Almost none of the
original leaders of Nisan had been prepared for the hardships that followed,
and the city had nearly collapsed. She had Fei had been living near the
ruins of Laham when a messenger arrived, begging their help against a
Seraphim attack. That had been the Elders of Nisan's undoing, for they had
tried to negotiate with the four rampaging Seraphim, and paid for their
folly with their lives. She and Fei had driven back the attackers... and
then there were people who needed help. They had only intended to stay a
few days, but those days had stretched into weeks, and then to months...
'Is this why Fei left? Because I lost myself in helping others again?" She
wondered, looking at her friends. All of them had drifted into town after
that first attack, and slowly, they had all found niches, places that they
could work to take the pressure off of her back.

Shaking off the memories, Elly called the meeting to a close. "Thank you,
everyone. Hopefully this visit will go well, and we'll manage to get the
parts we need." Everyone stood, and Shitan and Billy took their leave.
Leaving Bart as the only person in the room.

Elly sighed and crossed her arms, staring expectantly at the ex-pirate.
"Well Bart, what is it you needed to talk to me about?"

Bart looked around the room, his expression one of deep thought. "Elly, one
of these days you're going to have to recognize that you don't have to carry
all of the worlds problems around like this. Look, we've got everything
under control for the next few days, so why don't you concentrate on getting
ready for our guests. Margie and I can take over the town council meetings
for a while, and Shitan is perfectly capable of handling the Ethos."

Elly sighed, and leaned against the wall. "It just seems that whenever I
try to do less, and take some of my life back for myself, someone pays for
it. I just can't shake this feeling that I'm not doing enough, that if I
tried harder, people who are dying now wouldn't be dying."

Bart shook his head, and turned towards the door. "Listen, I've got to talk
to Sigurd and Margie. Please, try to relax. We need you with a clear head
for this visit, and you aren't going to have one if you don't relax. Let
Remus clear you appointment book, and we'll tell the captain on that ship
that he is free to arrive at any time."

..

The Federation Scout Ship 'Einhander' sat in low orbit above the planet
designated K18E4, holding the position it had originally assumed when the
low grade energy signature had been detected from the planet. Its captain
was one Ivan Antonof, who was even now considering the sweep of the planet
below him.

His first officer, Andrew Cyver, stood besides him, fingering the data pad
he was holding in his left hand. Both of them were in standard Federation
uniform, which resembled an old wet navy uniform except for the general
black color, offset by the silver trimmings. The captain finally grunted,
and turned to his first officer.

"Well then, Cyver, I've finally managed to get a response from Central. It
seems that these people are in fact humans, and they've been here for a long
time. They were apparently brought here by a passenger freighter, before
the Hellion War if the records are correct." The captain took a quick
glance at his data pad. He resumed in something that would have been
recognized as a Russian accent, if anyone knew what Russia was anymore.
"However, that is about all of the information that Central was willing to
give up."

The first officer raised an eyebrow, and looked out the view screen. "That
is... very unlike Central, Ivan." he replied, his voice betraying his
Slavic background. "Did they even release the name of the freighter to us?"

Ivan grunted, and leaned back in his chair. "No, they did not. Apparently
this is a 'need to know' situation, and we don't need to know. However,
they did grant us permission to land on the planet, with orders to 'discover
any alterations' that might have occurred in this planets human geno-strain
in the ten thousand years they have been separated."

Andrew grunted. "Apparently the Vorsha incident scared them a bit. Having
a colony of unstable psychics to deal with is not what I would call a walk
in the part. But I don't think we should have any of those types of
problems... that is, unless the natives are still hostile towards the
humans that left them here."

The captain turned towards the view screen, and slowly cycled through the
information on the planet. Type M, suitable for human life, excellent
atmosphere, pollution levels suggested either a nanotechnic or dark age
society... interesting that. It was possible that these people had kept
some of the nanotech devices that had been lost throughout history. There
were several areas on the planet that had suffered considerable damage, but
the computer could not identify the source. The areas had either been
scorched by a massive energy cannon, or converted into an armored silicon
that resisted their scanner's attempts to analyze it.

"Science officer, have we managed to discover just what has caused the
imbalance in the scanners? And why we can't manage to pick us this town
that the 'leaders' of this planet seem to be inviting us down to?"

A young man turned from his station, shaking his head. "No, we haven't.
The only answer that I can come up with doesn't make any sense... this type
of disruption is usually caused by a class 2 explosion."

"Class 2 eh? Well, I understand your doubts. There shouldn't be a planet
there after a class 2 detonation." The captain regarded the view screen
again. This planet was definitely a mystery... and a rather fascinating one
at that. There would be many Federation scientists that would want to study
this place, and as the discoverer of this place, he would be given the
credit. "But if that is the only explanation, then its something we should
look into."

A tone sounded, and the ship intercom crackled to life. "Captain, we've
received a wide band transmission from the planet. Their leader invites us
to land whenever is most convenient for us."

"Excellent. I assume that the place is safe for us to land?" That question
was directed back towards the science officer, who was still gazing at his
control panel. A young man of the name William Garr, he was one of the rare
'Etherones', the subrace of humans that could mold the energy of the
energies of the Prime Reactor to their will. This condition gave him his
races characteristic blue hair, which he kept cropped close to his head.

"Yes, the reports indicate that the atmosphere has the right concentrations
of oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements to support us, and tests reveal no
fatal microbiological organisms. Let's just be careful of what we eat down
there." Garr smiled, and picked up a small carry sack. "In fact, it may be
prudent to move out soon. The planets rotation will put up out of our
landing window in an hour."

"Yes, I understand that William. Let's just not be hasty." Ivan stood up,
and turned to Andrew. "Cyver, you have the bridge. I'll be taking Garr
here, the medical officer, and a small security detail with me. That should
be more than enough to get us back to the ship if things go wrong."

Cyver smiled, and gave the captain a mock salute. "You always were the
first one to dive into a situation. Good luck, Ivan."

"Just make sure I have a ship to come back too." came his gruff reply.

..

The grounds of the landing sight were crowded beyond belief, people
stretching across the open field. If it weren't for several of the Etones
and Nisan police, there wouldn't have been any place for the shuttle to
land.

Aboard the shuttle 'Rasta', Captain Ivan Antonof looked down at the surface
of planet K18E4 with a mild degree of suprise. This planet was nearly an
exact copy of old Terra, in some of its planets and animals. That could be
explained by many of the freighters storage pods being ruptured, but even in
ten thousand years this was an impressive sight.

"Well, William. What do you think of this planet." The science officer was
hunched over, tapping the keys to the shuttle's sensor array. "William, I'm
talking to you."

The young man shot upright. "Ah yes, sorry captain. This is an interesting
planet... I'm actually getting an ether reading from that crowd. There are
at least four or five really powerful sources, and many other smaller ones.
This is incredible... absolutely incredible..."

Ivan looked out the window. A regular crowd, not unlike those he was used
to seeing back in the Federation. If it weren't for the lack of jet cars,
or giant skyscrapers, this would have appeared to be a less advanced
federation world. "I would say that. Are you sure we couldn't get any
reading of this town from orbit?"

"No, strangely enough. I don't know what's been jamming our sensors, but
we're through it now. And this is perhaps the most interesting planet...
do you think we can get a couple more passes of the crowd before we land?"
the young scientist's eyes flashed, literally, with an inner light. That
flash meant that William was so excited that he was having trouble keeping a
lid on his ether connection and that the power he wielded was causing his
eyes to glow slightly. Ivan sighed, and signaled to the pilot. He hated it
when William got this way... if the scientist had been in command, they
would be circling the area for the rest of the day.

"Take us down, and carefully. We don't want to hit anyone, OR plow this
things nose into the ground." the captain smiled, and picked up his hat.
"It wouldn't do to make fools of ourselves at the beginning of this
meeting."

..

The shuttle gave a final shudder as it settled into the grassy field, and
fell still. Captain Antonof stood, and ordered that the cabin be set to
rights before the hatch was lowered.

William Garr grabbed his portable computer, making sure that the case
connections were secure. It wouldn't do to have any of his equipment
damaged before he had a chance to use it. A quick check of his area of the
cabin revealed that he had all of his supplies with him, so he turned and
took his place besides Captain Antonof.

"Very well, everyone, please make yourselves presentable." The Captain
intoned, following an archaic code for first contact procedures. "Remember
your stations, and try to act hospitable. And if they should make any
attempt to separate you from the group without either I or Science Officer
Garr's permission, refuse as politely as is possible, and inform one of us."

Garr listened to the general gist of the conversation... he and the captain
had been on several first contact missions, the exact reason why he was
included in the landing party when science personnel were usually not
included... for safety reasons, of course. Actually it was so that the
science personnel could not be captured, and information forced form them if
the mission when wrong. Garr smiled at that. He knew exactly whom the
captain was going to shoot if they were captured.

The door let out several warning bleeps, and then started lowering at a
rather stately pace. The captain tugged at the brim of his hat, and watched
as the door lowered to the ground with a thud. A small puff of smoke rose,
indicating that the ground was slightly dusty. Considerate of them to chose
such a well situated landing sight, Garr thought.

The pilot had done an admirable landing job... the shuttle had touched down
not twenty feet away from the large platform that had been set up for this
reception. Garr watched as the captain descended from the ship, placing his
hand on his forehead to shield the sun from his eyes. The reception
committee was standing to one side of the platform, but Garr couldn't make
them out... due to the fact that there were two rather large, bulky
security personnel stepping into the doorway.

Garr watched as they descended down the ramp before setting out himself. He
allowed himself a moment to stop, and savor the smell of natural, unfiltered
air washing over him. The crowd was generally quiet, all of them seeming to
hold their breath, waiting to see what developed. William smiled, and
suppressed an unnatural desire to jump around screaming to relieve the
silence.

The party from the shuttle finally reached the platform. Garr looked over
the part that was waiting for them at the top. The first man that he laid
eyes on was a rather tall man, with a mane of long black hair tossed over
his shoulder. The most interesting feature about him were the pair of
clockmakers glasses that they're perched on his nose... Garr had to guess
that this man knew his way around machines. But his carriage suggested
someone who had been a professional soldier for a good portion of his life,
an interesting combination. The second man was an equally tall man, his
braid of blond hair and lack of a beard the only things saving him from
being a generic wet seas pirate, complete with eye patch. Garr was tempted
to look around for a parrot or a peg lag on the man but the only obviously
armed person on the reception committee grabbed his attention. This silver
haired young man was dressed in the robes of a priesthood, but the presence
of a shotgun across his back suggested that his past times were not as
peaceful as a normal priests... and Garr was aware of an intense
penetrating expression, one evaluating the party with the gaze of a trained
warrior. The scientist shivered for a moment as the priest looked at him,
but the mans gaze quickly moved on, focusing on the larger security guards.

Garr finally reached the top of the platform, realizing that he'd missed
most of the greeting. The captain was performing the necessary honors to
the leader of the party, who was excluded from Garr's view at the moment.
Gar looked around at the crowd, and fidgeted slightly.

"And so Captain, I would like to welcome you to our planet." a young female
voice said, and as the captain shifted, Garr finally saw who was leading the
delegation. And she was, to his eyes, the most stunning young woman he had
seen in his life. The young woman is question was wearing what appeared to
be some sort of creme colored dress, ones that seemed to have been designed
with her specifically in mind. She wore a shawl of the same color material
around her shoulders, which gave her a rather dignified look, while around
her neck she wore a cross, equal on all side unlike to old Judeo-Christian
crosses that most people wore. But it was her face that caught Garr's
attention. Her hair was a rich brown color, that framed her face almost
perfectly, a pair of long bangs adding to the effect...

Garr would have kept rambling on in his head if it weren't for Nuzio, one of
the security guards, stepping on his foot. The guard tapped him, and
whispered in his ear. "I don't think the young lady will feel very
dignified if you stand there with your mouth hanging open Garr."

The science officer snapped his mouth shut so fast that the clack was almost
audible. Garr managed to stand at nearly perfect attention, something he
wasn't very good at.

Captain Antonof turned to the rest of his crew, taking the young lady's arm
and gently escorting her to his crew. "Lady Houten, I would like to
introduce you to the member of my crew who have joined me on this trip.
This is Nuzio, my chief of security," the tall, muscular marine nodded, and
clasped the young woman's hand. "Guido, his second," another nod and
handclasp. "Dominique, our medical officer."

Dominique was a slightly older woman in her forties, who favored the young
lady with a curtsy and a light touch on the hand, traditional for her
people. After several other introductions, the captain and the young lady
arrived at Garr. "And this is Garr, my chief science officer. He will
probably be the one helping you to acquire the supplies that you are
requesting. Garr, this is Lady Elhaym Van Houten, the Great Lady of Nisan."

Garr took her hand in a traditional handclasp, but before she could remove
her hand, he brought it up and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her
fingertips. "Charmed, my Lady."

Lady Elhaym blushed slightly, and nodded to Garr. "Captain, may I introduce
you and your crew to my friends, who are coincidentally the chiefs of most
of our major departments." She turned to the first man, with the green
shirt and long mane of dark hair. "This is Shitan Uzuki, Director of the
Ethos. The Ethos is our research branch in Nisan, which works to recover
lost technology and find practical uses for it." She turned to the next
man, the blonde. "This is Bartholomew Fatima, former King of Aveh. He is
currently part of the triumvirate that handles the major tasks of governing
Nisan." The then turned to the young priest. "I would also like you to
meet Reverend Billy Lee Black, the master of the Etones. The Etones are our
elite troops, and are serving as security for the duration of your stay. If
you have any special needs or suggestions, he is the one to ask."

Lady Elyham then turned to a tall man and a young woman, both of them
similar to Bartholomew. "These are Sigurd and Marguerite Fatima, the other
two members of our governing body."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." The silver haired man replied, and when he
turned, Garr noticed that he too was missing an eye, the opposite eye that
Bartholomew was missing. Marguerite was a young girl, not even in her
twenties from what Garr could tell. All three of the Fatimas had a unique
color of blue in their eyes... all four of them between them.

The Lady turned back to the captain. "Very well then. In the name of the
city and state of Nisan, I welcome you all to our planet."

..

"They have arrived on the surface."

"Is there a possibility that the unit will reveal itself on its own?"

"Doubtful."

"Then in must be encouraged to return. What of the Federation scout ship?"

"It should pose little trouble to us."

"Then prepare the assault pods. And contact our agent on the surface."

"And destroy the Federation ship. Any more information would prove to be...
too beneficial to the humans."

..

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