“Seriously, the whole Universe is comprised of humanoids?” Jon said.
“No,” Koenig said. “But the dominant local group is, and we are all related to an ancient ancestor who seeded these stars.”
“No way!” Jon said.
“I told you that,” Loxy said.
“It’s coming this way,” Jon said. “Wow.”
“What?” Koenig asked.
“She’s beautiful,” Jon said.
“How did you defeat our tech?” the creature asked.
“Hello, my name is Jon,” Jon said.
The creature blinked. It had gold irises, hypnotically seductive. The irises narrowed with its eyes lids. “Standard greeting protocols are not necessary for this scenario,” it said.
“So, educate me; how do you greet someone for the first time?” Jon asked.
It seemed baffled. “I am skeptical of your ability to engage in a genuine greeting.”
“What does that mean? We have to fuck on the first meet?” Jon asked.
He had a flash image of Koenig, sitting at the head of the conference table, putting his head into his hands. Loxy was amused, but covered her mouth.
“I could seriously harm you,” it said.
“Is that an invitation?” Jon asked.
The reptilian pulled out a weapon. The raptor hissed, circling a tail around Jon’s legs, protectively. She wasn’t pointing the weapon at Jon, though. She was pointing it at the creature.
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“Step away from tech, or you could be injured,” it said.
“Hold on,” Jon said, trying to put himself between the reptilian and the raptor.
“Step away from tech,” the reptilian said, again.
“What tech?” Jon asked.
“She is referring to the raptor.” Jon and the reptilian turned to a newcomer. A grey. It seemed old, but only in and around the eyes. In some ways, it’s reminded Jon of a tortoise. Its eyes were the most striking features to it. The further away from the eyes, the tighter the skin seemed to be. Unlike the photos Jon had seen of Greys, this creature didn’t seem to be the thin, frail, twigged limb. It was actually voluptuous. He concluded it was a hybrid. He had no way of knowing, but is mind simply said hybrid. It, too, wore a very simple garment. It was translucent, with a slight shimmer of a glow, like moonlight, and it reminded him of a negligée straight from Victoria Secrets.
The raptor emitted a low growl, but kept its eyes on the reptilian.
“Chester, enough,” Jon said in a command voice. The Raptor lowered its head to his feet.
“How did you do that?!” the reptilian asked.
“I, too, am interested,” the Grey said.
“Privacy!” the reptilian said. “How did you overcome our tech?”
“We should wait till the others arrive,” the Grey said.
“Please put your weapon away,” Jon said. “Not only am I unarmed, but you are clearly superior in physical strength. I know you can harm me, but I am not backing down.”
The reptilian seemed to be weighing his statement. Both she and the Gray seemed
surprised that he was unarmed. The reptilian did not put away her weapon. Another woman arrived, distracting them away from their dilemma.
The new comer was at least seven foot tall, which was only one of the first startling features. She had long blond hair that went almost to her butt. She had startling blue eyes, and creepy, pasty white skin, like something pasted on from an Elmer’s glue. Jon imagined she had never seen the sun, but likely, even if she had, she still wouldn’t have gained any color. She wasn’t albino, just white. Her lips were red. Not glossy, but fuller and darker than any he had seen that wasn’t due to makeup. She was wearing something that reminded Jon of pajamas, a one piece. He would remember later, when she had turned her back to him, that there was no apparent seam, and he would be perplexed for hours how she had gotten into it, adding to his racing thoughts that would inhibit sleep. It was form fitting, and drawing his attention to her attributes. He bit his tongue. Loxy side hugged him, letting him know she knew how much he was struggling to stay focused. He was attracted to all three and he wished he wasn’t. He wished he didn’t have this ‘thing’ or libido or whatever it was that kept him teetering on the edge of sexual indulgent and randy thoughts. Sure, Captain Kirk and James Bond could do it and he accepted it, but he wasn’t them.
“He is right, put the weapon away,” the Tall White instructed.
“I have the right to disable our tech,” the Reptilian said.
Jon channeled anger, purposely derailing his thoughts of intimacy. He tried to keep in mind, just because a girl was attractive didn’t mean she was pleasant to be with. Seriously, a tumble with the reptilian would likely result in injuries. “Disable? You mean kill it?” Jon asked.
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The raptor snarled, flaring its nose, responding to Jon’s tone. Jon’s anger eased up as he realized the Raptor was responding to his emotions. “It understands,” Jon said.
“Are you a telepath?” the Reptilian asked.
“He is not,” the Grey said. “But with a little training, he would make an excellent empath.”
“This animal is intelligent. You can’t just kill it for no reason,” Jon said.
“It has the equivalent cognitive abilities of a dog,” the Grey said. “But the reptilians don’t recognize this creature as rising to minimum sentience. They don’t ever display love or get warm and fuzzy.”
“We love,” the reptilian corrected.
“You procreate. You demonstrate respect for authority and strength, but you do not love,”
the Tall White. “None of you love your people as much as we love our people. None of you have an appreciation for true value of what we are presently engaging in.”
“That is not true,” the reptilian argued. “We would not have entered this covenant if we didn’t recognize your sentience.”
“You entered the agreement because we kicked your ass,” the Tall White said.
“Which is a sign of intelligence,” the reptilian said. “And why I can’t allow this tech to continue. The humans are intelligent and might exploit this flaw in the system design.”
“It’s not a flaw! And I am opposed to you killing this creature,” Jon said.
“It’s not yours,” the Reptilian said. “And you are unarmed. How do you propose to stop me?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have let it out of your jurisdiction,” another new comer said. This person was also female, humanoid, dark lavender hair, so dark in this light it might as well have been black. Her skin was blue from head to toe. This was not an assumption. She was naked. Her hair fell over her shoulder and covered her breast. She, too, was unarmed. Her eyes were translucent red, like a rose colored quartz. She was accompanied by a red haired girl. The redhead was so identical to humans, she could walk the streets of Manhattan and no one would look twice. Except Jon, who would have been drooling, because she was particularly stunning.
Her hair was red, her skin pale, but different than the Tall White. Her face was peppered with freckles. So were her shoulders, arms, and legs. Her top was shoulder less and tight against her bosom. She also wore a skirt and thin shoes.
Another emerged from the shadows. She, too, was female, and she had cat like facial feature. She was clearly humanoid, though, and her dress had tones of Native American. She carried a staff. An illuminated crystal emerged from the end.
“So, we’re all here,” the red headed Nordic said.
“And we have greater things to discuss than the life of this animal,” the Tall White said.
“It has done nothing to warrant being put down,” Jon argued.
“It is no longer suitable for guard function due to your corrupting influence,” the Reptilian said.
“How did you tame the raptor?” the blue Andromedan asked.
“I just didn’t show fear,” Jon said. “Flee, and a predator will chase. Run towards a predator, the equation changes.”
“Charge me, and I will kill you,” the Tall White said.
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“I like you,” The Nordic said.
“Step away from the tech, or you may be harmed when I destroy it,” the reptilian said, raising its weapon again.
“Let’s negotiate this,” Jon said.
“It belongs to her,” the Tall White said.
“Um, this animal was in neutral territory!” Jon said. “Penalty.”
“Good point,” the Grey said. “What is the penalty for breaching the sanctuary?”
“I can’t let him have the tech,” the Reptilian said.
“He’s allowed to pursue a penalty,” the Nordic said. “Come to think of it. All of us are.”
“All I want is its life spared,” Jon said.
“Unlike you, we don’t keep pets for affection. They must serve a purpose,” the Reptilian said.
“I assume all of you experienced loss of consciousness, and this creature probably woke and wandered from its jurisdiction,” the Pleiadian said. “Given the situation, the penalty is unwarranted.”
“And so, this tech has malfunctioned twice,” the Reptilian said. “It wondered away from its post and it failed to subdue an enemy.”
“I agree, no penalty,” the Grey said.
“I recognize the reptilian’s property rights, and I recognize the human’s affection for the creature. I am ambivalent,” the Andromedan said.
“I agree with the human,” the Pleiadian said.
The Tall White took a device off her belt and tapped the raptor’s head. A blade shot out from the device, shattering and penetrating the skull. She had moved so fast it was barely detectable. She had replaced the device on her belt before the creature had fully given up its last, haggard breath, bubbles issuing through the copious blood that flowed out from wound and mouth, pooling on the floor around their feet.
“Discussion point settled,” the Tall White said.
The reptilian pointed her weapon at the Tall White. All the females brought weapons to bare, with the exception of Andromedan, each targeting one of the other females. The Andromedan simply raised a hand, like a parent about to scold a child, and suddenly she seemed like she was miles away, but somehow still present. Jon was horrified that the raptor has been killed, that there was blood on his clothes, on all of their feet, but more, he was sickened that they were about to go to war over this. “You had no right.” “You wanted it dead, it’s dead.” “We weren’t through deliberating.” “Now we are.” “The human is sensitive.” “Fuck him.” “Oh, yay, there’s two offers on the table now,” this from the Grey. “What?” “He offered to fuck the reptilian.” “I suppose you want to watch?” “Sure.” “You are just as depraved as the humans.”
Jon stepped forwards into the focal point of the weapons. “We are here to create a different solution set. Going to war is easy. Our purpose is to talk. Let’s talk, without threatening each outer.”
The Pleiadian lowered her staff, then planted it resolutely on the floor, her cat eyes blinking. “Agreed. My name is Saffi.”
“Jon Harister,” Jon said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Your pet was killed,” the Nordic said. “Do you still seek penalties?”
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Jon swallowed. “I am disgusted that this beautiful creature was terminated,” he admitted.
He felt sick at his stomach, and they all continued to stand in the blood as if it just another day.
“I am worried that I am somehow responsible, because I couldn’t come up with a better solution to the perceived threat on my own life. I am saddened that I am meeting beings from other planets for the first time and you have no more regards for life or the sovereignty of others than humans.”
“We don’t all have the hardness of the reptilians and the Tall Whites,” the Grey said, holstering its weapon.
“Explain the abductions and the cow mutilations,” Jon said.
“Wait! You are from Earth,” the reptilian said. “You’re feral?”
“I am not a cat,” Jon said.
“But you are from Earth, not educated about the real society?” the Tall White asked.
“The humans should take a penalty for allowing an uneducated, feral animal to partake in the lottery,” the Reptilian said.
“No,” Saffi said. “He was meant to be here. We are all meant to be here.”
“Spare us your metaphysical philosophies,” the Tall White said.
“Your people have some innate telepathic abilities,” Saffi said. “Tell me Jon isn’t influenced.”
The focus shifted back to Jon and they stepped back, half of them pointing their weapons at him.
“It’s not an accident we were chosen,” the Andromedan said. “We need each other to get through this crisis.”
“The odds of us being one male to six females does sound unreasonable,” the reptilian said.
“Who is Loxy?” the Nordic asked.
The weapons that were drawn on Jon shifted to her. “You are a telepath.”
“All of us here are,” the Nordic said.
“All of us can’t be,” the Grey said. “Telepaths have the lowest probability for being selected for Torchbearer.”
“Saffi is right,” the Nordic said. “This grouping is not accidental. My name is Kesia.”
There was a hesitation, but the Grey broke the tension by holstering her weapon. “You may call me Aadya,” the Grey said.
“Lucia,” the Andromedan said, her distance suddenly gone. Jon had to wonder if she had even gone away.
“Edrei,” the Tall White said, putting away her weapon.
They turned to the reptilian. She was the last to holster her weapon. “You can’t
pronounce my name.”
“Would you like us to give you a human name?” Saffi asked.
“No,” the reptilian said, crossly. Her kind had already prepared her with one, she just didn’t like it. “You may call me Danique.”
“Now that we are here and focused, let’s discuss the crisis,” Lucia said. “We experienced a mass loss of consciousness. Even our AI was disengaged for approximately three seconds.”
The same was acknowledged by each person.
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“The moon appears to have been relocated,” Lucia went on. “Suggesting we experienced a singularity.”
“A singularity of sufficient size to affect the moon is unlikely, given the host star’s and stability,” Aadya said. “Even if there was a singularity, the planets in this system are too stable.
It would have been discovered a millennia ago. The odds of a natural, random singularity point passing through the Sol system and hitting just the moon is also unlikely.”
“She didn’t say it was natural,” Kesia said.
“It was the result experiment gone bad,” Jon volunteered.
“You built a teleporter big enough to relocate the moon?” Edrei said.
“Why would you do this?” Danique asked. “We have given your species ships capable of interstellar travel.”
“You mean, you gave them our ships,” Aadya said.
“We were curious to see how the apes would improve your designs,” Danique said.
“But you need a telepath to navigate interstellar ships,” Kesia said. “There is no telepath among any of our species capable of guiding the moon.”
“We were shifted randomly!” Edrei said.
“You have doomed us all,” Danique said.
“The moon can sustain us,” Aadya said.
“Why can’t we just use some of your ships to abandon the moon?” Jon asked.
“Moron,” Edrei said. “Even if we could, there are insufficient ships to relocate the entire population.”
“No one does blind jumps,” Aadya added to the explanation. “You must be near a star to navigate the Underneath.”
“The Underneath?” Jon asked.
“The Upside Down, the underlying structure of the Universe that connects all stars with all other stars,” Kesia said. “It’s comparable to a spider web. Neural pathways is actually a better analog. Everything is connected, but the greater the mass, the greater the size of the underlying connective tissue of the Universe. Some of the pathways are easier to access due to the volume of traffic. Making a new pathway is more difficult, because of the energy requirements necessary to penetrate into the Underneath is so great; it requires a telepath to bring the traveler relatively close to the target destination. It is not compulsory to have a telepath for navigating frequently used routes, however it is compulsory to use telepaths when navigating new routes, as they must communicate with the Universe to find and follow the threads to the next insertion point.”
“And, we don’t do blind jumps because?” Jon asked.
“You emerge back into the third density reality at random locations,” Lucia said.
“We don’t have time to educate this feral human,” Danique said.
“We have all the time in the world,” Aadya said. “Ask your questions, Mr. Jon.”
“If all places in space-time are connected, then, we can return to our origin position?” Jon asked.
“You would need a better telepath than anyone presently on the moon to precisely place the moon back in orbit,” Kesia said. “Even if we all agreed to work in tandem, there is too much dissent between our collective species to experience consensus. It is the equivalent of asking every human to put aside their differences and personal agenda to unite in one collective 57
purpose. To our knowledge, that has only happened once in humanity’s history. Even if everyone agreed consciously, subconscious motivations would creep into the equation and consensus would be shattered.”
“Feral beasts,” Danique said. “Even the initiated that live on the moon, feral!”
“Even in your own kind, there is dissent and competition for status which influences your unconscious motivators,” Saffi said.
Lucia touched Jon’s arm. “This is not a disparagement, Jon. All individual sentient being struggle with right and wrong due to unconscious motivators that are implanted so the being may resolve inner conflict. All groups, whether it is two or more, are comparable to the individual, in that each grouping manifest a collective personality. The super personality disseminates to all agents those things which need to be expressed to end conflict. We engage in each other’s dramas because we are here to learn.”
“There is drama only because you are ambivalent, and refuse to take side with right,”
Danique said.
“And you always think you’re right,” Edrei said.
As they were arguing, Jon was thinking, why are random, blind jumps bad? Loxy
answered, “Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?” Jon laughed. Kesia smiled. Danique scowled.
“You think this is funny?!” Danique asked.
“We can endure this,” Aadya said.
“You can, perhaps,” Edrei said. “But we can’t put every citizen in suspended animation for five hundred thousand years, and it’s going to be at least that before the moon arrives at the nearest star.”
“You can endure without hibernation,” Aadya said.
“No persons or group on the moon are that disciplined,” Edrei said.
“We had endured for millions of years in this system before you decimated our
population,” Danique said.
“And you would have endured hundreds of millions of years more, had you not attacked our colony on Mars!” Edrei said.
“You blew up our planet!” Danique said.
“What?” Jon asked.
“The asteroid belt is the remnants of the reptilian’s home world,” Kesia said. “The dinosaurs on Earth was the result of their terraforming efforts.”
“And you destroyed that, too,” Danique said.
“No, that was just a casualty of war,” Edrei said. “Even Mars took fragments, which made Mars virtually uninhabitable. We participated in the initiative to revive Earth.”
“Earth and Mars wouldn’t have needed reviving if you hadn’t of blown up our planet,”
Danique said.
“You attacked us first!” Danique said.
“This is old history,” Lucia said. “We need to move forwards and deal with the here and now.”
“Your kind never cares about justice,” Danique said.
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“We are older than any of you. You can’t hold a collective grudge for hundreds of millions of years without it having an effect on your evolution,” Aadya said.
“Reptilian species are more abundant and dominate more worlds than any other species,”
Danique said. “There is a reason your progenitors are on the endangered species list.”
“Just because you dominate your regions of space doesn’t mean you are the preferred interface of third density life,” Edrei said.
As the three went round again in their debate, Jon assessed the others. The Andromedan seemed patient, radiating compassion. Kesia smiled at him when he looked at her, suggesting,
‘we know.’
“What does preferred interface mean?” Jon asked. It stopped the debate.
“We are souls first, biological artifacts second,” Kesia said. Her answering Jon’s question drew the three out of their argument.
“Biology is tech, life originates in the deeper mysteries of the reality. Third density space is the playground where we learn to interface with each other,” Lucia said. “Not all of us have learned to play well together.”
“The game isn’t to play well, but to rise above and dominate,” Danique said.
“And you taught your philosophy to the humans on Earth, and they ran with it, and they literally destroyed their environment and took their species to the brink of extinction,” Edrei said.
“Domination is not love. We love our worlds more than any of you love your worlds.”
“And your way would be to breed for purity of species,” Danique said. “And everyone knows you’re going the ways of the Greys. You can only inbreed a dog so much before the tech begins to fail.”
Edrei’s hand fell to her weapon, and Danique mirrored her.
“We need to consider culling the moons population,” Danique said.
“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?” Kesia said.
“We are nowhere near that point,” Lucia said. “If we keep our wits and cooperate with each other, we can endure a hundred million years. We could even experience population growth and evolution together.”
“We would never agree to co-evolutionary strategies with any of the species presently on the moon,” Edrei said.
“We would agree to this,” Aadya said.
“You would co-evolve with a dog,” Edrei said.
“If it sustained us, yes,” Aadya said.
“I don’t know why you feign this disgust. We know you have a hybrid population with the humans,” Danique said.
“We all do,” Lucia said.
“Why?” Jon asked.
“Humans have demonstrated the greatest ability to establish rapport with the greatest number of species,” Aadya said. “Initially, we were hopeful that your kind might facilitate peace, before the program was corrupted by certain parties with divergent interests.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” Danique said to Edrei. “We are not the only ones who have backup plans.”
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“We have all interfaced with the humans for self-interests,” Lucia said. She turned her attention to Jon. Her attention was palpable. If was the equivalent of being physically touched.
“How did your species overcome the restorative function?”
“The what?” Jon asked.
“Clearly, you were successful at moving the moon, which means the construction was solid enough not to fail, and of sufficient size to synch the field through all linked matter,” Lucia said, sorting it in her head even as she was explaining. “Which means, the device will never hold a zero charge, and its very shape and structure will likely draw energy directly from the Universe.”
“You’re saying it will automatically refuels itself from zero point energy?” Jon asked.
“Essentially, yes,” Lucia said.
“May I make a phone call?” Jon asked.
They all agreed. Jon took his commlock off his belt and activated it. Koenig’s face appeared. “Is it over?”
“Oh, I think we are just getting this party started,” Jon said. “I need to speak with Bergman.”
The world in the monitor whirled and Bergman appeared, with a curious face. “Yes?”
“Is your teleporter device thing charging?” Jon asked.
“No, of course not,” Bergman said.
“Is there anyone monitoring the device?” Jon asked. When he got a yes. “Could they look, please?”
Bergman paled. The connection was severed. Jon bit his lips, knowing very well he was being scrutinized. He wanted to take a step back, but held his ground. For a moment he had forgotten he was standing in blood. He was aware of it again.
“I told you the humans on the moon would be the death of us!” Danique snapped at
Aadya. “You can’t mix reptilian, monkeys and Grey’s to derive a mentally stable creature.”
“They’re just a very young species,” Lucia said. “Look how far they have come in such a short time.”
“Wait wait wait,” Jon said. “You’re saying the human species is a hybrid construct of several species?”
“You don’t think it’s an accident that your neural scientist refer to the primitive parts of the brain as reptilian, the next feature of the brain primate, and then the next level human, do you?”
“We are not the primitive part of the brain. We’re foundational. You can’t have a monkey mind without a reptili