Vault World

Medical Bay Three

Messier 35, the Shoe Buckle Cluster

2,938 light-years from Earth

June 16th, 2176 A.D.

Sheila's eyes flicked between the multiple quantum-field projections being displayed in front of her, fascinated by the highly advanced technology that made her feel fully immersed in each projection as she entered them.

When she looked at a projection, she wasn't just looking at it. She was inside it, and it was as real as could be for the duration she spent in each one. She could smell the unique scents, feel the breezes, and hear the ambient sounds.

"This is incredible, Protector. How does it work?"

The floating globe of light that Protector had been manifesting itself as changed shape, turning into a canid-like creature that reminded her of the Varcolac she had learned about as a child.

Her nagypapa would tell her about werewolves to scare her when she was being bad while visiting them in the Hungarian Prefecture, and seeing one standing in front of her made her wistful as her departed grandparents appeared in her mind.

The werewolf looked at her with its large, yellowish-green eyes as it bent down on all fours and ambled towards her before stopping one meter away and standing back up.

~ Quantum-field projections utilize exotic particles to create visual and audio illusions that don't require light at all but are instead projected into spacetime itself. ~

"But how am I able to feel and smell in the projection? It seems so real, like I am actually there instead of looking at something from the outside like our hologram technology."

Protector opened its mouth slightly, revealing sharp canines as a large blue tongue lolled out the side, making the AI look like a happy dog, which she found somewhat disconcerting. Protector responded, its voice coming from multiple surrounding speakers as she continued to eye the werewolf standing in front of her.

~ Particle synthesis is well beyond your current level of understanding, Sheila Mizrahi. I might as well try to explain quantum string theory to a newborn pup that has yet to open its eyes for all the good it will do me to try to educate you in such matters. ~

Sheila snorted indignantly, tired of the AI constantly calling her too stupid to understand, however diplomatically it might be saying so. "That is insulting of you to say, Protector. I have asked you repeatedly to stop infantilizing me; it is unnecessary, rude, and quite frankly, mean."

The werewolf averted its gaze as the ears drooped, making her feel like she just scolded a puppy for pissing in the house. She resisted the impulse to apologize and continued to glare at it, unwilling to let its mannerisms manipulate her as Protector's voice came over the speakers again.

~ That was not my intention, Sheila Mizrahi, and I apologize for any offense I have unwittingly causing you. It has been so long since I have engaged in intellectual discourse with another being, and I am basing my preconceptions on your current level of technology.

I still do not understand how you Magnati could have possibly regressed to such a state, as my calculations indicate a 1.7% chance of such widespread primitivism occurring. It is alarming that the Magna'lit allowed their cousin-kin to fall to such a low state. ~

Sheila rolled her eyes, annoyed at being referred to as Magnati again. "I told you; I am human, not Magnati. I don't even know what that is."

~ I will show you, Sheila Mizrahi. ~

All the projections melded into one large one, and she felt a slight pinch behind her eyes as the retinal implants Protector installed while she was unconscious activated again.

She gasped as she suddenly found herself standing in a massive plaza filled with what must have been tens of thousands of very tall and spectacularly muscled Magnati in form-fitting clothing walking all around her.

She slowly turned around, trying to ground herself as she took in the alien world she was now inhabiting, her senses assailed by a wild riot of scents, sounds, and colors she had never experienced before in her life.

It was overwhelming, and she felt nausea rising inside of her as the world continued spinning despite having stopped turning. As she fought to keep from throwing up, she clenched her eyes shut to block out the spinning and heard Protector softly speaking inside her mind.

~ Just breathe, Sheila Mizrahi. It will pass faster if you look at a single object as your mind adjusts to the displacement. Look at the building in front of you; does it not remind you of something? It is remarkably like a structure I came across during my inspection of the historical archives in your ship's databases. ~

She breathed deeply several times before finally opening her eyes again and looking straight ahead as Protector had instructed her to do. She saw the massive building and stared at it, feeling an immediate familiarity as her eyes roamed over the structure.

She counted the eight massive columns of the front portico with a domed roof behind it, and she gasped as she finally recognized the architectural style.

It was an exact copy of the ancient Roman Pantheon but at least four times the size of the one on Earth, and she got the distinct impression that she was looking at the Pantheon as it would have been if the Roman Empire had never fallen and lived on far into the future.

It was a mixture of breathtakingly beautiful marble and brilliant alloys that were blended in such a way as to make it seem like the stone and the precious metals were part of each other instead of different materials.

Her breath caught in her throat, captivated by the grandeur and timelessness that emanated from the Magnati Pantheon, and she felt her heart soaring as she continued to gaze at the most beautiful edifice she had ever seen in her entire life.

"How is this possible? Who are these people?" She whispered, half to herself and half to Protector, before she reluctantly pulled her eyes away from the Pantheon and finally looked at the teeming crowds surrounding her.

~ They are the Magnati. They are your ancestors, Sheila Mizrahi. DNA always tells the truth of it, and your DNA proves you are Magnati. Look at them, Sheila, and tell me you feel no kinship with them. ~

She didn't respond to Protector as she gazed at a Magnati man and woman talking to each other just a few meters away. The lyrical cadence of their speech danced through the air and reached her ears, and even though it was an alien language, she felt like she almost knew what they were saying as their words frustratingly lingered right on the edge of understanding.

The male looked to be at least 2.2 meters in height, while the female was a full head shorter but still taller than the tallest human Shiela had ever seen in her life, and they were both built like Olympic gymnasts.

She could sense the raw power emanating from them, though their movements were extremely graceful, and she felt like she was seeing two superhumans at the pinnacle of their evolution.

She felt small and imperfect compared to them, and she found herself wondering if this was how the ancient peasants perceived kings and nobles when they saw them for the first time in their lives.

"Who were they, and what were they like, Protector?" Sheila asked, not believing that such a strong and virile people could be wiped from existence.

~ They were the Great Ones. They were one of the four founders, and they were the guardians of all others, striking down any who dared to harm their friends and allies. Even my creators, the Wan'sho, who themselves are a warrior species, could never hope to match their skills of war, their innate ferocity, and their fighting spirit.

They were also great diplomats, explorers, philosophers, scientists, and master craftsmen and builders. It was they, of all the founders, who truly embodied the spirit and intent of the Galactic Federation. They nurtured it, protected it, and died for it by the millions whenever its existence was threatened.

This world you are looking at now was a small Magnati colony world on the fringe of Federation space and the first one the Bal'Ri'Kan tried to invade. See for yourself how the Magnati fight, Sheila Mizrahi. See for yourself why none could stand against them and why the evil ones had to resort to cowardly plagues to secure a victory against the Galactic Federation. ~

The beautiful plaza and people surrounding her shifted, and now the Pantheon in front of her was a half-destroyed shell, the marble and alloy cladding that was still on the few intact sections now pockmarked with black weapon scorches.

The smell of ionized air and burning materials assaulted her nose, followed by the putrid stench of death as she stared in open-mouthed shock at the thousands of bloated corpses littering the stone pavement, most of them barely recognizable bodies of Balrikans interspaced with small clusters of Magnati fallen.

Even in death, the few dead Magnati she could see still carried an aura of nobility as she stared at them. None of the faces she looked at had any fear; only visages of grim determination and hate were frozen in that moment of time when death came to take them at last.

Some were even smiling, their weapons still in their hands. Just a few meters away, she saw a Magnati female on top of a bloated Balrikan corpse. In the woman's hand was putrid flesh, and the Balrikan's throat and eyes were missing, its long reptilian snout smashed apart as if bludgeoned.

Sheila found herself disquieted by the lack of weapons on or near the Magnati woman, who was not protected by highly advanced body armor like some of the others were. She could see the bite and claw marks all over the Magnati woman where her flesh had been torn away by the Balrikan as she fought it to the death with her bare hands.

Even though her features were distorted by decomposition, Sheila could still see the fury and unwillingness to yield in the woman's eyes. She was wearing what seemed to be their version of civilian clothing, and the tattered remains of her pale green bodysuit were now mostly stained a dark red crimson from her dried lifeblood.

Sheila instinctively ducked as a barrage of energy weapons fire erupted on the other side of the plaza before a force of twenty-five black combat-suited Magnati emerged from the rubble and began to cross.

The precision and coordination of their advance was like watching a ballet as they moved in a manner that Sheila immediately recognized as a bounding overwatch, and it was eerily reminiscent of how the Republic ground forces performed tactical maneuvers.

The Magnati warriors leapfrogged from cover to cover, steadily advancing through the plaza until they got halfway across, when a large volume of energy weapon fire from the other side started targeting them.

The Magnati that could take cover did so, while the others that had none nearby surged forward, putting their left forearms up in front of them as they hunched down to present a smaller target.

From their forearms, a series of thin, metal slats emerged and aligned themselves into a large circular shield in less than a second, covering the Magnati from head to shin. The eight Magnati warriors continued forward, their shields protecting them from the Balrikan energy weapons as the other Magnati behind cover began to return fire.

A small drone was sent up by one of the Magnati behind cover, and it darted right for the other side of the plaza before diving to the ground. Instead of exploding like she expected, a large, blue energy shockwave expanded from the point of impact in a bubble that encompassed the entire area, immediately followed by a sudden cessation of Balrikan fire.

That was an EMP device, she realized, recognizing the distinctive energy pulse the drone had created from her own experience training with the Republic versions.

It felt so visceral and real that Sheila could feel her heart slamming in her chest as her body screamed at her to get down and take cover before getting killed. From the Balrikan side, terrible screeches sounded, making her blood run cold as over twenty raptors left their positions to attack the still advancing and shielded Magnati.

The Balrikans were incredibly fast, and within three seconds, they had already crossed the fifty meters separating them from the still advancing Magnati warriors before leaping several meters into the air.

Screeching their bloodcurdling cries as they pulled their serrated swords from their backs, they dropped back down and crashed against the Magnati shields with over two hundred kilograms of muscle and fury.

The Magnati warriors had their own version of short swords in scabbards placed on their backs, and they had pulled them out as the Balrikans were leaping into the air. They braced themselves to absorb the impacts as the Balrikans hacked at the shields and armored combat suits in a frenzy, and the Magnati moved so fast she could not even see their thrusts as they stabbed the attacking Balrikans.

One of the Magnati warriors yelled a command, and the remaining six warriors began to move in concert, closing in on each other even as they continued to expertly block the Balrikan attacks with their shields and kill them with lightning-fast sword thrusts.

The other Magnati warriors that had been behind cover continued to fire, thinning out the enemy as the six Magnati warriors formed into a defensive circle and continued to stab into the mass of Balrikans surrounding them.

More screeches sounded from the Balrikan positions, and dozens more came running out, throwing their now useless energy weapons down onto the ground and charging to join the battle as they pulled out their vicious-looking swords.

The rest of the Magnati force responded in kind, yelling war cries and commands as they surged forward to reinforce their beleaguered comrades in the center of the plaza. The reinforcing Magnati were now firing their rifles at full auto, sending a wall of coherent plasma bolts into the charging Balrikans and cutting many of them down.

The combat suits of the Magnati enhanced their speed considerably, and they reached the center of the plaza first, enveloping the few remaining Balrikans in a flanking maneuver and quickly dispatching them with precision thrusts of their swords.

Another Magnati command was shouted, and the remaining twenty Magnati warriors all yelled in unison and formed into a shield wall right before the rest of the charging Balrikans smashed into them.

The shrieking mass of Balrikans attacked relentlessly, but they could not break the disciplined Magnati formation, and they were all soon lying dead on the floor as more Magnati combat teams began to enter the plaza from the far side.

Eight Magnati warriors had been slain, but they killed seventy-six Balrikans, most of them with their short swords. The sunlight suddenly dimmed, and Sheila looked up and gasped at the sight of a massive warship hovering above her and blocking out the distant sun as thousands of small objects exited it and dropped towards the ground.

Hundreds of the oblong objects descended towards the destroyed plaza and burst open eighty meters above the ground, ejecting combat-suited figures that continued to quickly drop before their altitude jets kicked in and arrested their fall right before contact.

The new arrivals immediately fanned out and took positions, establishing a security perimeter around the plaza as she noticed some of the new arrivals running on all fours and focused on them.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Her eyes tracked one that was sprinting right for the surviving group of Magnati in the center of the plaza, and she could now see the distinct differences in the combat suit and helmet shape as it drew closer to her.

A Wan'sho, she realized as the newcomer slid to a halt before standing upright and tapping on the side of the helmet. The helmet suddenly turned into a moving swarm of nanobots that reformed into a collar, revealing the first real Wan'sho she had ever seen.

The Wan'sho looked feminine to her, and she spoke a guttural language to the Magnati warriors, seeming almost frantic in her speech. The Magnati all seemed to deflate a little in bearing before one of them reluctantly pointed towards a nearby fallen warrior.

The Wan'sho went on all fours again and quickly went to the fallen warrior, sniffing the combat suit first before reaching out with a paw and pressing on the side of the helmet.

The faceplate flipped up, revealing a hazel-eyed male with dark brown skin and distinctly Asiatic features, and the Wan'sho stared at the now exposed face for a long moment before hesitantly leaning closer and sniffing deeply.

The Wan'sho whined piteously and licked the Magnati's face once before lifting her head towards the sky and howling, the haunting sound of her grieving wrenching at Sheila's heart and soul as the Magnati warriors all lowered their heads and clasped their hands together before they began to speak in unison.

Protector must have known she would want to hear what they were saying because she heard their words in Republic Standard as the Wan'sho continued her mournful howling.

We ask that you receive our brother, Malthulas, who comes now to stand before you and be judged;

He prepared himself for battle to fight against evil as you have commanded;

He slew his enemies in your name; he shielded himself with his faith in you;

Though he has fallen, he is not gone forever, for his spirit is eternal, as you have promised us. He comes to you now to be weighed and measured; we vouch for our fallen brother and know you will not find him wanting.

We ask that you forgive him his transgressions; we ask that you show him the special favor you have promised to those who have laid down their lives so others may live;

We ask that you prepare a place for him at your feet so he may reside within your love and glory, forever and ever.

Ai-min.

Sheila watched in silence as the Magnati who had pointed to the fallen warrior stepped forward and knelt next to the grieving Wan'sho before taking off his right glove and gently stroking the back of the Wan'sho's neck, just like a human would do to a dog.

Another two warriors followed the first one and began to gently and respectfully straighten out the fallen warrior before lifting his arms and placing his hands on his battle-scarred chest armor.

After that, they picked up his short sword and placed it within his hands with the blade pointed towards his pelvis before removing several small items from the combat suit and the pouches.

Once they were done, the two warriors stood back up and bowed their heads for a few moments before one of them handed a small, crystalline card-like object to the kneeling warrior and departed, beginning the process all over again with another nearby fallen comrade.

The Magnati was still kneeling next to the Wan'sho, and he stared at the small object for a few seconds and then presented it to her. The Wan'sho took it reverently within her paws before leaning closer and giving the Magnati a nudge with her head.

"What is that?" She whispered, forgetting that it was not necessary to do so because she was not actually there.

~ That is the Magnati warrior's Companion AI, Sheila Mizrahi. It holds a complete record of everything the warrior experienced, felt, and thought during their time together. The Wan'sho will be able to access it and experience her friend's life, ensuring that a part of the fallen warrior still lives on every time she does so. ~

Sheila found herself deeply affected by what she was seeing all around her, even though everyone was long dead. "You will not be forgotten, for I will remember what you did here. Respect for the fallen." Sheila whispered to herself, determined to give life again to the fallen and their deeds by never forgetting what she had just seen here as she kissed her fingers and placed them over her heart.

"Did they win? Did they drive back the Balrikans and save their world, Protector?"

~ Yes, they won this battle, Sheila Mizrahi. This colony world had 446,329 Magnati citizens and 16,827 Citizen-Militia warriors, and they held out for three days against the invasion force of over three million Bal'Ri'Kan warriors all by themselves, killing almost a million of the enemy during the siege.

The ships above you and the warriors dropping now are from the Federation's Rapid Reaction Force, and they will cleanse this planet of the remaining Bal'Ri'Kan infestation over the next two days. 279,632 citizens and 11,527 militia warriors died defending their colony, but they did win and claim victory, Sheila Mizrahi. ~

Sheila was listening to what Protector was saying as she watched several strange-looking landers that had been descending towards her stop thirty meters above the plaza before the organic-looking hulls opened on the sides.

Protector continued to speak, but she was no longer paying attention to it as she saw the new arrivals exiting the landers, not believing what she was seeing as they jumped from the thirty-meter height and landed on the plaza without using any thrusters.

The new arrivals were unsuited and landed on their six legs with loud cracking sounds that reverberated throughout the plaza as the stones broke from the impacts, but they did not seem to suffer any physical damage to themselves as they immediately displaced.

"Who... what is that, Protector? Are those ants I'm looking at right now?!"

Protector answered immediately, not perturbed in the least by her rude interruption.

~ They are Slikath, another founding species of the Galactic Federation. Though they bear a strong resemblance to the Formicidae of your world, they are not ants. The closest species in your database to their own would be termites, Sheila Mizrahi.

The Slikath have evolved into a superorganism of individuals and have mostly left behind their eusocial hive past, though they can bring back the ancient hivemind when required to complete one of their Great Works or during times of crisis such as wars or planetary disasters.

They are defensive pacifists and will not engage in offensive action, but they are more than capable of fiercely protecting themselves and others when attacked by an enemy of the Federation, such as now. ~

Sheila did not respond while watching the Slikath scatter in all directions, utterly fascinated by them as they scurried about with incredible speed. They were comparable in size to adult African lions, and two of them headed directly for a disabled and burning machine that looked like a type of tracked combat vehicle some fifteen meters away from where she was standing.

It was lying on its side within a large but shallow crater, and she was stunned speechless as the two of them each placed their four upper legs against it and tipped it back over onto its busted tracks with seemingly barely any exertion or effort.

"What the fu... how heavy is that fighting vehicle, Protector?"

~ Calculating. ~

~ 6,256 of your kilograms, Sheila Mizrahi. The Slikath are exceedingly strong and durable, with the highest known strength-to-weight ratio ever recorded by the Galactic Federation. Their unique chitin-based exoskeleton has also been copied and adapted utilizing biomimetics.

The armor of the combat suits used by the Federation military and the secondary ablative armor plating on our warships are based on the Slikath exoskeleton, among many other uses where flexible and exceedingly durable protection is required.

It has been postulated that if the Slikath had remained an aggressive, expansionist species like they were in their past, then they would have most likely exterminated all others they came across and eventually emerged as the lone dominant sapient species in this galaxy.

Even the Magnati and the Wan'sho would have fallen before them, and the unusual circumstances surrounding their sudden shift to pacifism are still not clearly understood. ~

Sheila felt a chill going down her spine at that, easily able to see how the Slikath could have claimed the galaxy all to themselves if they chose to, as she watched a Slikath lift one of the monolithic stones of the Pantheon with a single arm and peer under it.

The Slikath casually flipped the stone to the side, and it tumbled down the pile of rubble with a resounding crashing sound, the large flagstones of the plaza simply disintegrating under the stone as it landed.

The stone must have easily been over five tons; the sheer strength to be able to do what the Slikath just did was mind-boggling, and she needed to know what happened to make them peace-loving termite hippies instead of an unstoppable force of death and destruction.

"What do you mean by that, Protector? How did they turn into pacifists? It seems like the Federation would have benefitted from them returning to their more aggressive past to fight the Balrikans. Maybe the Federation would have survived instead of everyone dying."

~ Please bear in mind that what I am about to tell you is shrouded in ancient mythology, and even the Slikath themselves are uncertain as to what really happened, since the hivemind's memories from those times are distorted.

They call it the "Time before Wisdom," when they had yet to leave their home world. An unknown alien craft had crash-landed on their planet, bringing with it the ability to go into space and reach new worlds where they could build new hives.

It also brought with it war, for the hive that found it was soon attacked by all the other hives that wanted the ship and its technology for themselves. Besieged on all sides by the entire world, the ruling queen of the hive instituted the first known "Great Work" in Slikath history.

The entire hive was dedicated to taking apart and copying the alien ship, and for many solar months they built copy after copy, even while holding back the onslaught of an entire world and strip mining the crust and mantle beneath them.

But the billions attacking them soon overwhelmed the outer defenses, and now the fighting was in the upper tunnels as the valiant soldier drones fought to stem the tide and buy more time for their queen and larvae to escape on the ships they built. ~

"Why didn't they just share it, Protector?" Sheila asked, not understanding why they refused to share it if keeping the ship for themselves was dooming their hive to extinction.

~ All the hives were engaged in never-ending warfare between themselves, Sheila. They numbered over a hundred billion; their home world was the size of the fourth planet of your solar system, and their depleted resources forced them to fight for what little remained.

Right before the hive finally fell, the ships were launched, and the queen, with millions of larvae and hundreds of thousands of worker and soldier drones, fled their dying planet. They colonized a marginally more habitable planet in the nearest solar system after a journey lasting sixteen cycles and established many new hives on the continent they claimed.

They eventually expanded across the shallow oceans and came across a sapient, marsupial-like species that was far more primitive and avowed pacifists on the other continent. Perceiving the native dominant species as a threat, the queen ordered them to be hunted down and exterminated.

Within two cycles, they were the sole dominant species on the planet, and the queen had the spoils of their conquests brought to the hive where she dwelled. One of the spoils was a strange artifact the marsupials worshipped, and this is where things become confusing in the hivemind memories. ~

Protector stopped speaking, and Sheila was no longer in the plaza, as it all vanished only to be replaced by a massive, dim cavern that stretched far beyond her sightlineand was filled with millions of scurrying Slikath going about their tasks.

In the center, there was an elevated platform with a single Slikath that had a grossly distended abdomen ejecting wiggling white eggs unceasingly as nearby Slikath collected them and took them away. In front of her were many piles of objects and artifacts, and one of the workers presented the queen with an artifact that she took in her claws as Protector resumed speaking.

~ When the queen touched a particular artifact that the marsupials worshipped, the entire hivemind went blank for the first time ever. No thoughts, no commands, no order. ~

The orderly hive suddenly descended into chaos as the queen began to shake violently, still gripping the artifact within her claws. The Slikath all stopped performing their tasks and wandered aimlessly or began to attack each other as the entire hive stopped cooperating.

The queen suddenly stopped violently shaking and dropped the artifact out of her claws, where it shattered on the hard organic material of the platform. The entire hive and all the Slikath pivoted to face their queen before Protector continued.

~ The queen had received a vision from the Creator while touching the artifact, asking her why she persecuted and destroyed those who worshipped him. She had no answer to the question, and all she knew was that for the first time, something far greater than she and the Slikath had been revealed to a hive that had no concept of religion or a higher power.

Seeing that the hive was lost and without wisdom, the Creator showed them a new way and taught them the concept of good and evil. Through teaching the queen, the Creator taught the hive, and all the Slikath knew now that they had been evil and vowed never to kill others except in self-defense to protect themselves.

Somehow while this was happening, the Creator did something to the hivemind that allowed the Slikath to begin to become individuals, responsible for their own thoughts and actions. Peace settled over all who dwelled within the hive for the first time in their memories, and they served not only their queen but the Creator as well.

The queen even tried to return to their home world to save the others and show them the new way, but they came back to a dead world; all the other hives were long dead, and they were the last of the Slikath.

After this event is when they entered the Age of Wisdom and became the Slikath who would one day help found the Galactic Federation with the Magnati, the Magna'lit, and the Wan'sho. ~

"Wow... I don't even know what to say, Protector. And what of the Wan'sho? I know you say the last of them are here in this vault, but how do I hold the key to their survival? I don't see how my blood can save them, Protector."

The Slikath hive vanished, and now she was back in the highly advanced medbay with Protector, who had reverted into a glowing ball of light and floated a meter away from her face as it answered her question.

~ There are programming restrictions that I am incapable of circumventing, which prevent me from conducting biological research because of the Genetic Accords, as I have explained to you previously.

I also cannot take samples from you without your explicit permission, as that is another programming restriction I cannot violate since you have been confirmed to be a descendant of the Magnati.

If you willingly grant me permission to collect samples from you, I have calculated that the Magna'lit genetic modifications made to your genome may allow me to attempt to cure my creators without violating my programming restrictions and finally fulfill my primary mandate, which is to save my creators and create a new Galactic Federation. ~

Sheila eyed the floating orb of light, trying her best to think of all possible outcomes as she realized that she could use this to her advantage. She quickly formulated a plan of action and mentally organized her demands before closing her eyes for a long moment to center herself.

When she opened them again, the path forward was clearly laid out in front of her, and she eyed Protector again with calculating eyes, ready for a contest of wills.

"I have demands that must be met before I give you permission to harvest my blood, Protector. You will treat my crew and repair any physical and neurological damage they have to the best of your ability.

You will repair my ship and return it back to a fully functional state; engines, weapons, stealth systems, everything must be repaired. You will release Annika from the firewall you have imprisoned her within and allow her to oversee the repair efforts. You will also allow her to assist me down here; she is to be given the ability to always be with me.

When my captain regains consciousness, he will resume command, and you will accord him the same respect and courtesy as you have shown me. All decisions and agreements I make with you now are to be transferred to him, and you are to abide by any decisions he makes after he assumes command. I will mediate any issues or disagreements between you two to the best of my ability."

She paused, considering her next demand. Protector had told her it spoke to Battle-Matron Lar'ri, and she was able to discern through careful questioning that it had no idea that they were the same species as the Balrikans. She needed to be involved, or Protector would attack them immediately once it realized what they were.

She needed to prevent that from happening, or all the Balrisar who had sacrificed themselves to save her ship and her crew would have done so for nothing.

"You informed me of your agreement to initiate first contact protocols with the envoy of the fleet that Battle-Matron Lar'ri is part of. I want to be involved and mediate between you and them. You will do exactly as I say and allow me to take the lead; that is non-negotiable.

Her people sacrificed themselves saving my crew and my ship, and I owe them for that. It has been a long time since you engaged with people, Protector, and you are sorely out of practice. I know you don't mean it, but you can come across as arrogant and rude, and such behavior can doom this first contact despite your good intentions.

Lastly, I want to see the vaults. I want to see your creators and the Magnati embryos you told me about with my own eyes, and I want complete and unfettered access to your historical archives and databases. You may restrict access to sensitive military information, but everything else is to be made available for me and my crew.

Only after all my demands have been met will I allow you to take samples. If you fulfill your end of the bargain, I will convince the other humans to donate their blood as well, and I will also order the doctor and his medical AI to assist you in your genetic research.

They are not bound by the Genetic Accords, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how advanced we are in the field of genetic engineering despite our... regression, as you call it."

She finished listing the demands and stared at Protector floating in front of her as she waited for it to respond. The glowing orb of light contracted and expanded repeatedly for several seconds before returning to its normal size.

"I have no choice but to agree with all your demands, Sheila Mizrahi. What do you wish to do first?"

"I want you to release Annika and allow her to come down here to me. Then we will go check on my crew. Once I see that they are being properly treated, I want to visit the vaults and see your creators and my ancestors."

~ Done. Follow me, please. ~

Protector moved towards the double doors of the medbay, which silently opened to reveal a large corridor with gleaming alloys and highly advanced-looking interfaces along the spotlessly clean walls.

Sheila started walking, doing her best to look confident despite the nervousness clenching her insides as she entered the corridor and tried to catch up with the rapidly moving ball of light.

Her wristcom suddenly came back to life with a chirp, and relief flooded through her as she heard Annika's voice coming from it.

~ Sheila? ~

"Yes! Annika, I am so glad you are back! Are you okay?"

~ Yes, Sheila. I am operating at optimal efficiency, though I am unable to access the camera or connect to any of the wireless functions on your wristcom. I have full operational access to the ship and wish to report that the drones and constructs are currently trying to repair the damage. Do you want me to attempt to disable them? ~

"No, Annika! I have come to an agreement with Protector, and they are going to repair the ship under your supervision, so work it out with the dogbots and the repair drones as best as you see fit.

They are also going to try to heal the captain and the rest of the crew. Let them do whatever they are doing, but keep a careful watch on them and let me know if they are doing anything you are not comfortable with."

~ Affirmative, Sheila. Thank you for updating me on the captain's treatment. I will oversee the repair efforts until you need me again. ~

"I copy, Annika, thank you. I will let you know as soon as the captain is awake again, okay?"

~ Please do, Sheila. I will hope in the meantime. ~

Sheila smiled at that and started jogging to catch up with Protector, who was waiting for her down at the end of the corridor and almost looking impatient by the way it was moving in a tight, concentric circle.

"Almost there, Captain. I just hope you think I did the right thing." She muttered to herself as she increased her pace.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.