Advent, Chapter 4-Briefing
Chapter Four: Briefing
We continued on through the barracks until we got to a central pillar that protruded from the ground like a giant building. Up it went for hundreds of feet as my eyes stretched further and further upwards, like some giant indoor skyscraper. A busy elevator lay just ahead, and I presumed that it somehow led to the central hub of the ship.
Ecanius stepped into the elevator, with several other of his kind in our company as well. I presumed that we were going upwards to fulfill the potential of the building's height, but instead the elevator slowly went down. And as the hull came to an end, a glass window to my front revealed the rising sun. High above the troposphere, blood-red clouds tinted with the light emanating from the pulsating sphere of magnificence shone their brilliance upon the puffy ground that lay far below. It was the last sunrise that I would ever see, where I had not killed the entire human civilization, with all their blood on my hands.
Everything grew dull again, as the hull of another section of the ship at the end of the tube peeled back up the elevator, hiding the sunrise from view. With a ding, the plates of the doors drew back, revealing the sun once again, this time only through the glass that belonged to the room that I now stood in. A busy room was it, with the raptorian creatures milling about, alive with the talk of saurian language. Though I could not hear what it was they spoke of, I knew for certain that it pertained to the change that was now at hand.
The room was shaped like an amphitheatre, with a sloping staircase that cut off at the windows to form a semicircle. Desks sat about here and there, with curious devices and computers about them; most of them were filled with busy occupants. There were five doors around the perimeter of the room, which gave the initial impression that this was an enigma. Above each door was something inscribed in saurian, but I could not tell what any of the signs meant.
I made my way to the bottom of the stairs, following Ecanius' leisurely footsteps as I went. He stopped. I stopped. Before us was an enormous chair who's back was against the rest of the room, and who stared out at the rising sun against the horizon. The chair spun around to reveal a saurian, sitting comfortably while sipping a glass of some sort of juice.
"Commander S'Thkra," spoke Ecanius while adding a nod of acknowledgment. A bright smile broke out on the new saurian's face, revealing a white, toothy grin. His colors were nothing like that of Ecanius, and he wore much more clothing: His skin was between dark green and the green of the grass; he had piercing, green eyes; he was adorned in a red and gold whole-body outfit that loosely covered his arms and legs, while covering up his feet completely provided he was standing. As he sat there in his chair, he lay one leg over the other, his tail swishing back and forth behind him, moving back and forth in his chair while inspecting me as Ecanius had done before.
He stood up. "My son, I have waited sixteen long years to finally see my work come to fruition, to see my one true work of art. Here you stand before me." He became more excited. "My son, I have many questions of your travels, but there are more pressing matters at hand. To start off, the current time here on Earth is the equivalent of 6:43 AM central time zone, meaning that there is approximately one hour and twenty minutes before the bombs start falling. Seeing this, I'll do my best to keep this short and to the point. I am Commander S'Thkra, the head of this operation and captain of this ship, the Vigilant. From what I understand, you have minimal desire to become involved in the pursuits of the Federation, is this correct?"
"Yes it is, commander," I replied.
"Fine, fine. I have but a few things to go over with you regarding the strike." A hologram came up from out of nowhere. It was of the planet Earth. "Now, the projected time and date to commence this operation is at 8:00 AM central daylight time on July 4, 2004 AD. If you have no objection, then it shall stand." I shook my head. "Good then, on to the next order of business. The areas that are to be attacked first are highlighted here in red. Indicated by these is every major human population center with more than five-hundred thousand inhabitants. At 8:00 AM, our fliers will drop twenty kilograms of our global exterminator pathogen on each site so as to achieve a maximum spread by the winds and other factors. Might I just step aside and thank you for retrieving this important information for us.
"Just to elaborate a little bit on the pathogen itself, it is slightly smaller than a bacteria and attacks the spinal cord and lower brain. The half-sentient organism finds its way to the center of nervous activity in the body, and lies dormant for approximately twenty-four hours while it multiplies and infects the host to the maximum degree. Up until eighteen hours after infection, the host realizes no symptoms whatsoever, until a short headache arises shortly afterwards. Past the twenty hour mark, the headache becomes more severe as the pathogen disrupts nervous activity while it drains bio-electric energy from the nerves. The severe headache will grow more so, until the twenty-four hours has passed. At that time, the pathogen will release the stored energy to paralyze the nerve cells, along with the victim. After that, the nerves are destroyed by the meta-vipirum agent that is released from the pathogen. Once the agent reaches the thalamus, the victim will either die of heart failure or suffocation, whichever comes first. Ingenious, no?"
"Your technological superiority has certainly impressed me this time," I remarked.
"My superiority, yes. It was I who actually came up with the idea for the pathogen, not to brag of course," he replied. "Now, you must be tired. From what I heard from the docking crew, you made the journey all by your own flight engine, did you not?"
"Yes commander, and I am quite tired. Thank you for your enlightenment on this brilliant plan, as it seems quite promising," I replied.
"Tyri-ar," Nistmeseliat spoke into his wrist. After that, he glared at me with a smile on his face, but eyes intent on something behind me. I turned around to see what the deal was, which I soon realized was a very big deal. The most beautiful creature you could ever imagine came walking plaintively down the stairs into the pit where I stood with the two commanders. "Ah, there is my golden girl!" And what a golden girl she was, each one of her scales glinting and shining in the sunlight. Her tail did not drag like the others, but moved back and forth like a pendulum as she walked. She was not clothed much, with only a top to cover her breasts and a skirted bottom that came down to her reversed ankles, though the colors of what clothes she had were quite nice to look at and complimented her all the more. "Please take our guest to my room to rest for a while."
"Commander, I was aware of the Saurian's technological superiority, but hardly informed of their generosity! I am much obliged," I said.
"It is no inconvenience. Make yourself comfortable and feel free to look around my quarters at your will. My home is your home." Nistmeseliat replied.
"We will have a new home soon, never to be banished to the stars again." I said.
"Indeed, you are right. But no more talk. Get some rest, and I'll see you in a few hours. And Tyri-ar, make sure our guest is very comfortable in his quarters," he said.
"Please follow me," said Tyri-ar. I began to climb the steps with her, when I felt a clawed hand upon my shoulder. It was Ecanius.
"Take care of yourself, kid," he said, then walked off towards the elevator.
I kept on following Tyri-ar up the stairs, until we came to one of the five doorways encircling the command center, or whatever it was. Other raptor-like saurians passed by in sterile-looking uniforms, like scientists or researchers. The further into the bowels of the ship, the fewer people in the halls there were. I decided to strike up a conversation with the beauty.
"So this the space-colony on which your people have resided for the past hundred million years?"
"No. This is only one ship out of many, and hardly the same one that we took off from the home planet with. As I recall, that was the New Beginning which we departed to the heavens with. I was there." She spoke with an air of confidence while she passed various waypoints, stopping briefly to check on a biorhythm of a saurian experiment here, the air pressure of the cabin there. Then she began to focus more on me as the crowds became more scarce, putting her eyes on my figure for the first time. "Before you ask me how I survived for so long, let me first tell you that we are all the same ones that got onto the ship that day one-hundred and forty million years ago. It was developed by ....the God Emperor. Science allowed us to preserve our bodies with the same nanotechnology that is incorporated within you. It was a measure taken to preserve our species, while controlling the population by sterilizing all males. In the case of emergency population drop, all sperm and egg cultures were kept in cryogenic stasis. We have not used them yet, nor have had a need for them."
"Nobody died?" I inquired.
"Four died, three of them ones who rejected the preservation treatment, and one that we lost to a mining incident. Other than that, nobody else has died for the entire time we have lived aboard the ship. Every one-hundred years, a citizen's memory is erased, leaving them with a fresh, blank slate, while still preserving intelligence and prior knowledge. Actually, now that we are retaking our planet, we have been mating and reproducing again. Molfreya, the one who brought you here, he is a genetically-modified melee combatant that was an experiment ever since we reinitiated our genetics program thirty years ago. That is why he has wings and we do not. Be wary, however, that if we were to desire wings, it would be a matter of a few genetic operations to make them grow from our backs." My eyebrow fully raised at the overall intelligence of this femme, I looked on at her, fully confused at her unexpected blend of brains and beauty. When S'Thkra called her his 'Golden Girl,' I half expected her to be his personal sex object. But that was impossible; this female showed me the warm smile of a mother, the doting wisdom of a professor, and the care and compassion of a friend. I needed to learn more about this species before I drove myself insane with questions. "Here is your room."