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The Purple Space Caterpillar

Discovery

[prologue] The story begins on the planet Raui, homeworld of the Rauians and now a quarantined toxic world in the middle of the Brinrikian Empire. About four hundred years ago the Rauian Empire was in long war with the Centurian Senate. A third party, the state of Messitar: an extremely pro-Centurian nationalist state, developed a biological weapon engineered from an older Raanite weapon or xenoplague. It was used on Raui, resulting in the deaths of billions as well as the destabilization of the planet's ecosystem. The xenoplague consumed all life on the planet, and began consuming all the oxygen in the air, as well as making the oceans acidic. Suddenly though about two hundred years ago the ecosystem began to come back into balance. There was rapid mutation and growth of life, turning the planet into a beautiful fungal planet, though still very toxic. That sudden turn of events was completely unexpected and scientists could not explain.

An expert was brought in to analyze the planet and try to determine what happened. Psek Irani was a gifted biologist from the planet Perok, at the time just a protectorate of the empire. Psek worked hand in hand with the imperial doctors and biochemists to engineer his entire species to be immune to all of the common xenoplagues in the empire (because you don't want to accidentally kill off a whole race by sneezing). It was recognised that he had talent, so despite his world still being a backwards developing protectorate, he was recommended to be given the opportunity to take a look at Raui. He had been living in a lab on the surface of Raui for nearly two years, only leaving every few months for a few days at most to pick up supplies from Raui Station, the city sized mega space station in orbit run by the remnant of the old Raui military government. [/prologue]

I

Psek was a rather odd looking alien compared to the other races in the empire, and since he was one of the very few Perok working off of his homeworld people were never really sure what he was or how to react upon seeing him for the first time. Perok came in shades of colours between blue and green from dark blue to bright green and everything in between. Psek specifically happened to be a dark shade of blue, with a few large nearly black spots on his back, tail, and one on his left cheek. He had big long ovular black eyes, and a short and thick set of pincers for a mouth. The heads of Perok were somewhat long in the back with their skulls coming up from the face to a long plate under which their brains sort of hung squishy. They had big long tail like bodies with a pair of little arms and a very large pair of legs both connected very close at the shoulder with three webbed fingers or toes on each hand or foot. They were amphibious creatures who breathed through their skin, and thus required their skin to be constantly wet. To accommodate this they evolved to perpetually sweat when the humidity wasn't high enough, so they kind of have a stink to them. Perok also don't usually wear clothes, except perhaps a bag around their long tail while on land just to keep it from dragging on a dirty floor or something, but after being mistaken for a loose animal once he learned to always wear clothes. When in the empire, do as the raptors. He actually hadn't seen a lot of his very raptor looking overlords since coming into the empire. He was the only non-Rauian at Raui station most of the time, and they were short, stalky, furry little apes with big long ears, and big flat noses on a flat face. Kind of adorable actually until you see their temper and realize how xenophobic, militant, and drunk so many of them still are, because then they become comical! Psek's work had been successful enough to continue gaining funding, but it hadn't really discovered anything new, only further explained what had already been known and observed. He had discovered how to stabilize or destabilize the apparently still somewhat volatile genetics of the fungal jungle that spread over the planet. The jungle wasn't even exactly fungal, it mostly just resembled fungus, with trees that looked like mushrooms growing out of a viney mycelium that covered the surface. All life on the planet was actually connected, just one giant growth. The oceans even had a thick coating like the skin on a pudding, but alive. The whole thing was all connected and in balance to maintain a perfect ecosystem for itself. Very interestingly, he had noticed that if he took a piece of tissue from the planet, and placed it in a container with adequate sustenance, it would try to grow back to the whole, and the whole would try to get to the piece. It actually all looked quite beautiful. The oceans glowed a dim pink at night, there was even a dim bioluminescence under the capped canopy. It was very colourful as well: greens, blues, yellows, and pinks mostly. Still, there was the eerie fact that it was all very toxic, some even still infectious, and of course all of the life currently on the planet was made by recycling the former ecosystem and the fifteen billion people that used to live there. It was a beautiful graveyard though.

Perhaps the planet was somewhat sentient and took notice of Psek, or perhaps it was coincidence, but after nearly two years of not seeing a single separate living body on the otherwise completely connected planet he came back from a hike to find a big long purple insect looking thing. It was crawling around the outside of the lab, looking through the windows, presumably looking for a way in.

Psek didn't react well. He became paralyzed with fear and frantically began trying to think of what to do. Just as soon as Psek noticed the creature, it stopped investigating the lab and scurried straight over to Psek. Up close and personal he could see that it didn't have claws, though it did have a mouth that looked like it could bite, and it was bigger than him.

He was sweating heavily in his orange cosmonaut suit, and when the bug grabbed his arm he freaked out. He bolted for the door, but of course the bug followed him. The door opened, and he went in, but the bug grabbed the door to get itself inside. He turned around to see it halfway through the door and tried to push it back outside, but it grabbed his legs and pulled them out from under him. He fell and hit the ground hard, and the bug came inside. The door shut, and the decontamination sequence began, dowsing the room with chemical, then water, then air dry. The whole time Psek stood across the tiny room from the bug nervously. Psek knew that he couldn't go into the lab with that thing there, but he also didn't want to make any sudden moves again.

Eventually the bug got bored of waiting, and got up close and personal with Psek again. Psek did not freak out this time. He let the alien investigate him, though he didn't like it when it lifted up his tail, or when it put three of its eyes right up to his visor to look in at him. He calmed down though, and went back outside. The bug followed. He was wondering now if this creature could be intelligent, or a herbivore, or just not hungry. He made several attempts to try and make the bug stay outside, but the bug wouldn't have it, and kept following him in. The bug remained persistent, and Psek knew that eventually he would run out of oxygen and have to go inside. In the end Psek's oxygen supply ran out sooner than the creature's attention span. So, he was forced to risk contamination of his lab and let it in. After all, he still had his ship which remained contaminate free.

In the lab then with this creature he looked around in dismay realizing that he really lacked the tools to even properly analyze this creature. He was not expecting to find any animal life like this that was separate from the rest of the living planet. The equipment he had was for analyzing tissue samples, fluids, and small pieces of life taken from the planet. So he, for example, lacked proper medical grade scanning equipment to see the ins and outs of this creature better. He did love dissection, but felt that the creature probably wouldn't. Seeing as the creature was larger than him and that he was also very much a coward, that fantasy was immediately thrown out the moment came to mind.

Meanwhile the creature was looking in through the glass at the samples he had growing on the counters and shelves, and touching everything. This caused Psek's obsessive compulsiveness combined with his general lack of ability to deal with anxiety to already make him dread what should be a monumental discovery. A monumental discovery that he realized he wasn't excited about, but rather had been terrified of and now annoyed at. So he did his best to ignore his nerves and focus on studying this curious creature. He did have flashlights, a small hand held electromagnetic scanner (EMS) useful for everything from gamma rays to microwaves, a sound amplifier, and various other small utensils. Now if he could just get this thing to sit still and let him prod at it for a bit.

Psek lined up his tools on the counter, which the creature of course picked up and analyzed itself one by one, until it came to the EMS hand held which it fiddled with for a while turning the two dials and pressing all the buttons which eventually caused colours to appear on the little screen that kept it occupied for a while. Before anything else Psek grabbed a datapad and jotted down a quick description of the creature. The back, head, arms, hands, and feet were covered in exoskeleton. The head was mostly one big smooth skull plate with two large orbs on either side which both had three eyes dotted on the front. The rest of the exoskeleton was segmented plates. Its belly was not shelled however, but rather looked like smooth skin. For colour it was mostly varying shades of purple, the exoskeleton being slightly darker and purpler than the belly which was a bit bluer. There were also turquoise strips where the exoskeleton met the skin and the turquoise quickly faded into the purple. The eyes were dark green like pine needles. It had six pairs of limbs. The front two ended in three fingered hands, though the second set seemed to be used as much for feet as hands. The next three pairs ended at smooth feet with small useless thumbs behind them. The feet sort of resembled mittens. Finally the back pair of limbs did not end at hands or feet, but were pointy pincer looking things. The mouth seemed to have what looked like four little blue-purple fingers to the sides of it that were probably little mandibles to help push food into the mouth which was a short sideways beak like thing.

With all his tools laid out Psek grabbed the sound amplifier, and put on the headphones for it. It was just a very small blow horn looking little black thing. He put it on the bug's "chest" and held down the button to hear for breathing or heartbeat or anything really. Apparently the creature's two long slit nostrils were for breathing since he could faintly hear what sounded like it. There was also a heartbeat very clearly heard. The creature felt that Psek was not a threat and was not doing anything to cause it harm, so it not only allowed Psek to prod, but it even stood up straighter and faced him to allow him to do whatever he was doing easier. Psek was able to place the amplifier further down its soft underside where he could better hear its lungs, and in fact feel it breathing. He couldn't feel any ribs though, or any bones for that matter, implying that its skeleton may mostly or completely be of the external kind. Further down, almost leaning underneath the long body of the creature, he heard a second heartbeat bellow the lungs. Fascinating.

Enough of that though, onto the EMS handheld, which he cautiously took from the creature who let him have it. The creature wasn't radioactive and gave off no dangerous rays, which wasn't surprising, but still good to make sure of. Infrared was really all he could use, and that didn't yield anything that useful. The very long and large smooth exoskeletal head of the creature was quite warm though, possibly from a very large and active brain circulating hot blood and fluid through a very complex processor.

There wasn't much else he could do with his tools now without a tissue or fluid sample. So he took a flashlight, a swab, and told it to say "Awe". He had to open his own mouth and say awe a few times to get the creature to play along. Inside its mouth he saw no teeth, just a thin tongue. He took his swab quickly, and then took that over to his microscope. The computer automatically searched the saliva for all bacteria, possible contaminates, and would highlight anything that looked like it could be related to the original xenoplague that consumed the planet. The results came back negative for infectious foreign bodies. Just harmless kinds of bacteria, nothing that should give him an infection. In fact the analysis of the saliva upon having a closer look should actually be a mild disinfectant, which is a fairly common trait for saliva among many species. The saliva though did interestingly have some agents in it which would act as blood thinners.

Numerous swabs, tests, and scans were taken of the creature. Psek had to refill his oxygen supply several times as this turned into an all day job. He couldn't eat since he couldn't leave, but he did feed the creature. Mostly he was checking to see if he could safely remove his helmet, or if this creature carried anything toxic and infectious with it. At the end of the day, and actually well into the night it seemed that this creature was not toxic (to the best of his abilities to determine with his very limited equipment). Saliva, skin, skeleton, eyes, even a urine sample. Everything he could get, and he even checked everything it touched. He found nothing dangerous, so with that done, and with the creature sleeping soundly on his bed, he finally took his orange jumpsuit off. He was very exhausted, and hungry, and thirsty. Hungry and thirsty were easy to fix, but unfortunately there was an alien in this bed, and he didn't want to go sleep on the ship and leave this creature alone in the lab. So after nuking up a frozen fish and dehydrated starch dinner, as well as drinking a liter of water, he just took the long cushion off his chair, and used it as a pillow to sleep on his cold hard floor. Oh the sacrifices one makes for science!

II

Psek did not sleep very much or very well, and woke up before the creature. He considered contacting the station to let them know what he had discovered, but he knew that the station's military governor Kalling would probably accuse him of being a dangerous mad scientist and demand that creature be destroyed, or something similar ignorant and over the top. Kalling was already paranoid of all operations on the planet surface, which was sort of understandable, because the planet was now toxic and was his homeworld, but really now, that was three and a half centuries before Kalling was even born. Regardless of any reassurance or any amount of safety measures, this particular governor had always been vehemently opposed to anyone going down to the surface ever for any reason. It was almost as if he thought the planet was cursed.

So Psek did not tell the governor, and kept his work secret. We'll speed through the next two or so months of the story now, because there is a lot of repetitive analysis and attempt to communicate with the creature which Psek had decided was an intelligent form of life. Psek's primary goal had changed to communicating verbally or otherwise with the creature, and of course remaining ever vigilant in making sure he didn't become infected by any alien virus or bacteria. Psek started with names, and through simple hand gestures was very quickly able to get a name for the creature. He was very glad that what might be the only animal left on Raui did have a name for him to call it so that he wouldn't have to call it caterpillar, telakada, or purple thing. The purple thing identified itself as Leta, and before the end of the week seemed to be picking up Psek's gutteral version of Brinrikian language very quickly. It probably could have picked up the language quicker if Psek could speak more clearly, but unfortunately Perok do not have the most developed vocal instruments. Sometimes Leta would leave the lab to do... whatever it is a purple caterpillar does on a quarantined planet, but it would always be back, apparently equally as eager to try and communicate as Psek, if not more so.

Teaching Leta to speak (and speak in his own terrible Perok accent which might have offended or at least disappointed the wrong Brinrikian) also gave Psek time to make up an excuse to bring down better equipment to analyze Leta. His excuse would be that he had found, cut out, and killed an animal from the planet. He just had to wait a few weeks until Leta could understand him well enough to explain that he was going to be gone for a day or two. He didn't want her wandering off or leaving while he was at the station. He didn't think it very likely that Leta would, given its very curious nature, but he wanted to be absolutely certain as he considered that this would likely be the discovery of his entire career.

Leta understood, the excuse worked, everything worked out according to plan, the governor gave him no trouble, and that's why we're speeding through this part, because things aren't interesting if they're going according to plan. Psek returned with much better equipment to perform a full inside-out body scan of Leta. He could finally get a clear picture of all that internal biology goodness. Leta was a little big for the machine they gave him, but after some awkward and uncomfortable crawling did manage to fit. Getting out was equally as challenging, but that's not important! What is important is that Psek had perfect 3D imaging of Leta through and through, which they could both look at on the holoprojector on the little shuttle Psek had. Looking it over Psek eventually made the conclusion that Leta was probably female, though possibly not sexually mature, or possibly just a different gender, or genderless. However, it appeared that she did have organs that could have something to do with reproduction and which looked more female than male, so hence forth Leta became referred to by female pronouns, rather than the default male pronouns of Brinrikian.

Leta had fun dissecting herself on the holoprojector while Psek was trying to find something indigenous to Raui that was at all similar to her. He had assumed that Leta was probably a mutation of some animal that lived on Raui before it was consumed by the xenoplague. He was just comparing her anatomy to that of various Raui species. He of course did start with a DNA comparison, but even though her DNA appeared to be not of Raui origin that could have just been because it was too severely mutated to tell. Psek continued to study and communicate with Leta over the next month in this way, as well as take various fluid samples from her to continue testing for anything infectious or toxic. He proved that she was indeed completely nontoxic, but unfortunately made no ground in determining how she came to exist. There was one very interesting discovery though. When Leta's speech became quite good she explained to him that she could feel his disposition, feelings, or attitude. She went further in depth and explained that she could also feel the planet, but that the planet was quite boring and not really in a conscious state since, well, mushrooms really aren't that smart. So it seemed that Leta was also an empath or psionic, or had some kind of sense that he surely didn't. Psek immediately thought to put her head in the body scanner again, and monitor her brain activity while she honed this sense. To that Leta explained that the sense of her surroundings in that regard was passive, but that she could project the feelings of her viewpoint or disposition onto him and even the planet to a degree. He didn't understand how she could project anything onto the planet, and unfortunately she couldn't find the words to explain what she meant by that either. He should have felt slightly disturbed that Leta could instill her feelings into others, but he didn't because she was already instilling a calm mentality into him. She did explain that it wasn't perfect, and that she had tried to calm him when she first met him and found that he was quite terrified, but that it wasn't much help because he was too set in his terrified mentality at the time to really have any affect on.

The tests to figure out this sense and ability Leta had went ahead quickly, and it appeared that about a third of her brain was almost a separate organ which sat on top and between the other two halves of her brain that took care of all that. At least that was where he detected a lot of activity while she changed his mood back and forth like he had some extreme case of bipolar disorder.

And that is what transpired during those two or so months before they finally ran into problems. The problem they ran into was that Psek's sponsor, a Rauian woman named Matsily Timor was wondering why he was taking so long to actually give back new and coherent research. Psek was still very much trying to keep this hidden so that the governor wouldn't hear about it. He wasn't worried about Matsily at all, and finally he had to go back to the station to send an explanation to Matsily. He prepared his work, and prepared Leta. He intended to bring her with him and hide her on the ship. Even though he was afraid of what the governor might think he knew that his sponsor from the imperial science board would back him, so he just needed to contact the empire before the governor found out what he was up to. The only reason he needed to return to the station for that was because he could only connect a long distance call like that from the subspace relay on the station. Matsily actually lived on Romal which was in a completely different star system, and she didn't exactly make trips out to Raui very often. Psek wasn't the only person she kept employed, and in fact Psek wasn't even considered to be of any particular importance. The empire didn't exactly have a lot of faith that he would find anything really interesting or useful on Raui that their own scientists didn't already figure out.

As soon as Psek was anchored at Raui Station he put his ship in lockdown and put in a request for a direct line to his Mrs. Timor. It took about a half hour to make the connection. Only so much data could be sent through the relays at a time, and Romal sadly hadn't built a new relay in about three centuries even though they'd gained about two billion extra people since then trying to send higher quality modern data through three century old equipment. There was only so much bandwidth to go around.

Finally Matsily appeared on the holoprojector pad, a somewhat transparent phantom in shades of blue. Psek greeted her, "Oyo Mrs. Timor."

She seemed pleased to see Psek, "Glad to finally see you again Doctor Irani, and you've caught me at a good time. I'm at the university right now using their holoprojector. The colour and quality of this machine is just fantastic. Of course, you're blue regardless of whether or not I have a colour projector, but still. Since you're calling, and since it seems to me that you've been holding out, which is very unlike you, I really hope this is because you have a surprise for me."

Psek had been memorizing lines in his head to say, but they all left his head now. Perok had a terrible tendency to become nervous and awkward, especially for Psek right now since he was now stuck on thinking, was it really that obvious I was hiding something? And now he was fearing that the governor may have also formed ideas. Fortunately though Leta was just behind him out of sight of the holoprojector. She could feel his distress, and she did what she could to give him confidence to speak. So he did speak, and he didn't stagger, "Well, yes actually. I've made a very big discovery, but wanted you to hear about it before the governor. I fear it's really something he wouldn't approve of."

"Yes, I know how he is. Paranoid, stuck in the past, and I think perhaps even superstitious. Remember though that there is a reason Raui is quarantined, and he does have a duty to protect his station and the empire from breach of that quarantine. But you've got me excited now. Sorry, please continue."

"Yes ma'am. Now, *clickclick*, I really wasn't expecting to find anything like this, and I don't know the best way to say it so please bare with me. I've... I've discovered an intelligent life form on Raui." Where as other species might take a pause to go, "uh" or "um," Perok more so clicked or croaked.

This made Matsily pause for a second, not that Psek could tell since there was already a delay of a few seconds between them, and then she replied, "I'm sorry, your accent can be hard to understand. Did you say you found intelligent life on Raui?"

"Yes, yes I did."

"Well, that is... unexpected. I'm not even really sure what to think of that. How could there be intelligent life? Isn't the whole planet connected? Oh lord, the planet isn't sentient is it?"

"No no! I don't even know if it mutated directly from anything indigenous to Raui. The genetics don't match at all, and the anatomy isn't really any closer to anything on Raui than on other worlds. I still have no clear explanation for it. Very good news though, I did determine that it isn't carrying any xenoplagues. I could find no evidence of dangerous viruses, bacteria, or parasites."

"I'm sure you've tested that all thoroughly, but still, how sure can we be? What are the risks? I wouldn't risk taking anything off of Raui unless I was absolutely certain of the safety."

"Well, I am absolutely certain she's safe. I've been living with this alien for these past two months, having her in the lab without any protection for the past two months. If something bad were going to happen to me, then it would have by now."

"I'm not entirely sure how to react to that. As a Raui I feel somewhat disturbed by that, but as a scientist I feel highly intrigued."

"If you're intrigued then please, allow me to take this alien to a better lab off of Raui and away from this governor."

"Right, right, the governor. Yes, this is something he would be very upset about. I'll get protection from the empire immediately, and you just stay put. Send me everything you have on this creature, and I'll do what I can for you."

"Yes ma'am. I have everything pre-"

"And that's it behind you isn't it?"

And there she was, creeping up onto the holopad behind Psek.

Psek, "Leta!"

Leta, "Oyo ma'am."

Matsily, "Oh dear. Wait, did it just speak?"

Psek, "Yes, I've taught her to speak."

Matsily, "Well I'll talk to it then. I am Matsily Timor. What are you called?"

"I am just Leta. Why are you ma'am and Matsily Timor?"

"Umm, well, ma'am is a respectful title, Matsily is my first name, and Timor is my last name."

"Oh, alright."

"Leta, do you understand what is going on?"

"Psek is trying to take me away from Raui, but needs to convince you to help him, and also needs to keep it a secret from governor Kalling. Psek has told me there are more people away from Raui, and so I would like to leave because I like people like Psek."

"Yes," Matsily said slowly, considering Let'a perspective, "that is pretty much the situation for you I suppose. Alright Psek, you're lucky that I was only girl in school who wasn't afraid of bugs, but I still really wish you hadn't brought that with you here. We will speak again soon. Keep lat muvo telakada out of sight and wait for me."

Psek, "Thank you Mrs. Timor. I knew I could count on you."

"Well I'm not about to let something like this go to waste Doctor Irani. End transimssion."

III

Almost as soon as the transmission ended Psek received a call from the governor. He told Leta to step outside the room, and answered then the call. The governor's very dark hologram appeared. The governor had very dark skin, and black fur, which on this lower end holoprojector was all navy blue, and it made features difficult to distinguish. The suit of his office with the long coat and large buttons was easy to distinguish though.

"Oyo g-governor. Y-you don't-" Psek struggled to say, but was interrupted anyways.

"Psek, why is your ship in lockdown?"

"Oh! *clickclickclickclick* well, there might be a contamination."

"You don't say."

"Yes a, *clickclick*, cracked sample case in the freezer. Should be fine because it's in the freezer and just a crack, but you can't be too careful right?"

"Damn right you can't be. So then why the hell did you bring back a monster with you?!"

Oh shit, was all that was in Psek's mind for a moment, until he had the impulsive thought to quickly say, "Sorrygovernorendtransmission!" After which he just said, "Shit shit shit shit shit shit!"

The governor must have monitored the call, which Psek wasn't even sure he was allowed to do for calls to officials like Mrs. Timor. Psek grabbed Leta, and they went to hide in the engine room since it had the thickest doors to get though. There they waited quietly for hours. Psek was terrified out of his mind, curled up in a corner. Leta was less frightened since she was more aloof. She was only afraid because she could feel how afraid Psek was. Anytime she asked Psek why he was scared or what was going on he just shushed her and told her to not make noise.

After a few hours of waiting, and many declined calls, there was a bang on the engineering door. Psek jumped, and ran into a different corner. There was more banging, and the computer's voice came over the speakers telling Psek he was recieving another call from a private number. He declined of course, and then whoever was on the other side of the door began to cut through. It was the longest fifteen or so minutes of Psek's life. The doors were forced open just a few inches, and then someone called to him.

It sounded like it was probably a Brinrikian voice, and it shouted, "Psek, this is the viceroy! Mrs. Timor called my office as soon as she ended her transmission to you!"

A wave of relief washed over Psek. From that much terror to that much relief, it almost made him dizzy.

The viceroy continued, "We've tried calling you dozens of times, but you refused to answer. I outrank the governor on this matter, and I'm going to take you and the creature Leta back to the chambers of the Viceroy." Then he paused for a moment before calling out, "Psek!"

Psek came back to his senses, "Oh, y-yes sir. Sorry sir. I, I panicked."

"I am aware. Now, open the door and unlock the ship."

"Yes sir."

Psek opened the door. The viceroy walked in with two Rauian soldiers in their grey coats with the big buttons, and two Brinrikians wearing the uniform of the imperial guard with their silver helmets and little purple capes.

The viceroy turned his head, first to Psek, then to Leta behind him and said, "This must be Leta then. That thing really is basically a monster. I'll let you handle it I think. Men, let Psek and Leta unlock the ship. We'll wait for them in the conference room."

They all left engineering. Psek and Leta went to the bridge to unlock the ship, and as soon as they were done they came back to the viceroy. They were given rooms at the chambers with guards posted outside. Leta was told that she had to stay in the room, and Psek was only allowed between the two rooms. Meals were brought to them. Very good meals by the way. When you eat at the chambers of a viceroy you almost eat as if you were the emperor himself. Red meat: not cheap in space where there are no pastures. This only lasted two nights though before they all had to gather to decide what to do about Leta. The viceroy's conference room was much larger and shinier than the one Psek had on the ship. The imperial insignia, which sort of resembled a stylized bird of a sort, or something with wings anyways, was on the round flat ceiling of the almost dome that was the room. It wasn't just painted on though, it was made of amethyst and the rest of the cieling was marble.

Present at Raui station for the conference were Psek, Leta, and the governor Kalling. On holoprojectors were Professor Miletaus from Romal who was Matsily's higher up, and from the capitol was a different viceroy, last name Accello, who was actually important enough to report directly to the imperial court.

Accello was the highest authority, and he began the conference, "Gentlemen, and Leta, this conference is now recording. I don't know about any of you, but I found Psek's hundred and four page report to be, although very well organised, mostly full of repetitive and dry details while also lacking in information on the parts which I did find interesting. More specifically, the report was mostly just proving Leta to be safe to bring aboard, while the empathic abilities were little more than a footnote, and the biggest mystery of how Leta even came to be remains completely unexplained with zero leads to go on. Miletaus is the scientific authority here, so I want to hear it from him if all of Doctor Irani's work does prove that Leta is indeed safe to have."

Miletaus gave his assessment, "I believe that Psek has done more than enough to prove that Leta is not carrying any dangerous xenoplagues. He has actually done at least three times the normal work being certain of this than we typically do examining life on any other planet. This combined with the fact that he personally has been living with her for two months I think proves that she is safe in this regard, and Kalling, I see you muttering there. Please tell the conference what you have to say."

You would have been able to see Kalling blush if his skin wasn't as black as the ace of spades, but he kept his composure and spoke, "This creature is safe as far as we can tell right now, but who is to say it that won't change? The blight on Raui is still not completely stable. It changes, mutates, adapts. Why should we assume then that a creature pulled from Raui won't change, potentially in a very disastrous way?"

Miletaus, "That is a valid point from a layman's perspective, but Dr. Irani has done his work there too. I don't think it is possible for any part of Leta to mutate in such a way that it would create a xenoplague. Irani's genetic work was impressively thorough. Obviously though she should still be under supervision, somewhat contained or isolated to have minimal or no contact with society, and regular tests should be done to assure this. With proper safety measures we can guarantee the safety of the empire. It is really only because Leta is from Raui that safety is such a concern here. If she were from anywhere else Accello wouldn't even need to be here."

Accello, "I was given the impression that this was some sort of monumental and controversial discovery, but it sounds like you're saying this thing has just been blown out of proportions because of where it came from."

"That is exactly what I'm saying. From my perspective I just see one somewhat interesting little alien. The galaxy, or the universe is a big place full of things as interesting and more so than Leta. She's a one of a kind, she's got a mystery behind her, and that makes her interesting enough to keep around. At the end of the day though, we don't really know if there will be any practical knowledge that can be gained from her, and the empire has much more important projects going with a lot more investment already put into them. She is but one tiny insignificant little alien just like the rest of us."

"Well, since you are the expert I will have to take your opinion on this. Which brings me to having to decide what to do with her. I take it you don't want to keep her around, Kalling?"

Kalling, "I don't care what the empire does with it so long as you do not keep it here or put it on a Rauian world."

"That's not really your place to request, I mean for her to not be anywhere other than your station, but I think I can meet that request so long as Miletaus is fine with it. Miletaus?"

"I also wouldn't advise keeping her on a Rauian world, so I won't be able to take her. I was considering Akillia or perhaps just a station or ship unless for some reason some university really wants to take her."

Psek jumped on that, "I represent the university of Maertl, the largest univserity on my world. I will take her there if you permit."

There was a pause while they considered it. Accello turned to Miletaus, "Let the Perok take care of it?"

Kalling seconded the motion, just to try get rid of Leta, "I think that is a perfect idea. The empire has too many other concerns and expenses right now. Why not let the Perok take care of this? I know that it's still a largely backward protectorate, but Irani has proven a capable scientist, and we can supply him with tools and resources still. If they discover anything it will end up in the empire's hands anyways, but we won't have to do the work or take the risks."

Accello, "One more alien around isn't going to break the bank, but I suppose that every little bit does help, and Doctor Irani did seem very quick to take up this opportunity. Actually, come to think of it Irani, you must be someone who will take up a challenge and pursue opportunities when they are presented to you. If you weren't then you'd still be stuck in a swamp on Perok. You probably are the right man for the task. What do you think professor Miletaus?"

"He has the knowledge and skills for this. He can take that back to his homeworld and with a little technical support there is no reason why the Perok wouldn't be capable of handling this. It's definitely not a bad idea."

Accello then concluded, "Well then, it looks like you're going home Doctor Irani."

IV

Psek and Leta were delivered to Perok with minimal equipment, and that's as far as the plan got. Shortly after they arrived the empire broke out into civil war. A large portion of the fleet was sent to restore imperial order to the colony on Scantari where the local government had illegally announced its separation from the empire. However, when the fleet arrived the admiral sided with the separatists, dividing the fleet, and in the confusion captured or routed all ships remaining loyal to the empire in that battle. It had been planned and organised from the get go to play out this way. With so much infighting in the government, and so much dissent from the plebs, a civil war was inevitable. The empire withdrew all forces from Perok, and cancelled all aid and activity there to deal with this civil war they now had on their hands.

Perok was still a very developing planet. Only half of the population had access to running water, and cities were powered with coal and natural gas. The aerospace industry there was made and run by the Brinrikian Empire, that is to say, the Perok hadn't even invented heavier than air flight themselves and had been using just balloons only ten years ago. So this developing planet was now isolated and alone again. Perok are an ingenuitive people though. Sometimes they have difficulty thinking for themselves, but they're very mechanically minded and learn quickly. Work continued without the empire, not just in regards to Leta, but the development of the whole planet. Knowing that they weren't alone in the universe and that the empire would return, Perok remained mostly united and strong. It did not degenerate back into petty nation states and empires fighting to get a bigger piece of the pie, but worked as a solid unit. Psek had no problems continuing to live with and study Leta while also making himself the leading authority on biology and chemistry on his world.

Psek published many books, but his last one before retiring was a detailed compilation of his work with Leta. Some of the key points in it were that he noticed Leta's DNA was capable of mutating to help her better suit her environment. Her DNA wasn't unstable, but every attempt he made to try and transfer this property to anything else failed. Specifically, every attempt scrambled the DNA of whatever he was trying to alter, causing sterility, mutation, full body cancer, and nearly always death. Psek also took note of Leta's empathic or psionic abilities. Leta could instill feelings, and make sure that thoughts process in such a way that she could share her viewpoint with others. Such a method of communication was much more articulate than words could ever be, and it also made Leta a very persuasive caterpillar. A limit to her abilities though was that they only worked on a calm mind. She could do a bit to make and keep a mind calm, but if a mind was not calm then she couldn't get anything through. Something about the way she connected to others, the clarity of mind that seemed to subtly radiate from her, just generally seemed to make everything go a bit better when she was around. This was tested in the university by having her live in residence with various students for periods of time, which seemed to result in higher grades for her flat mates.

When Psek retired he entrusted Leta's care to his protege Beto Amarel. Beto had been a student of Psek's who seemed particularly adept, and also reminded Psek of himself in a lot of ways. Beto ended up working under Psek for ten years, and Leta also took a liking to him quickly.

Only a year after Psek retired though, the empire returned... sort of. It had been twenty years in total of civil war for them, but they were once again strong and united. They were not an empire though any more. They were now a union of systems, the Union of Systems actually, with a senate that represented the worlds of the former empire equally. But their government doesn't really matter right now. What does matter is that someone in this new union remembered that they left their asset (Leta) on Perok, and still intended to come back and get a report. They liked Psek's books, especially his last one, and they offered a job to Beto now. It would mean leaving Perok, sometimes travelling to distant worlds in the Union. Beto was a bit of a shut in, and not particularly fond of this idea. Leta was adventurous, and thrilled by the idea. Leta got her way.

Over the next nine years Beto managed to identify Leta's origin. Before she became changed like the planet they found her on, she was a Scantarian. You could say she was the last Scantarian since every other one of those red ants were exterminated by the empire more than two centuries earlier, but she was so changed that calling her Scantarian wouldn't really be accurate. It was still undetermined why a Scantarian was on Raui. Leta said that she woke up from a pod or capsule on Raui, but no one was ever able to find that pod to determine its origin.

Other than that he continued running into as many dead ends as Psek had before him, until the Union released a big secret. During the imperial civil war the planet Akady had to be quarantined and the largest purge and cover up in imperial history took place there. It was kept secret for nearly ten years, even though the current government had nothing to do with it, because the incident killed five hundred million people. Apparently the empire had its own set of scientists working with material from Raui, also trying to control the adaptive mutagenic or enhancing properties of the life there, very similar to much of Psek and Beto's work with Leta. With the truth about Akady coming out also came access for Beto to a previously hidden archive of information on the weapon that killed Raui and made Leta. Everything from the empire's failed project on Akady, to the work of the Centurian scientists from Messitar making their weapon, to even a few ancient Raanite documents translated by the Centurians of the original version of the xenoplague that destroyed the Raanite station of Aes Avie. The old state of Messitar had apparently found the xenoplauge in frozen tissue on the derelict station. Aes Avie, Raui, Akady: all of their stories read like something out of a nightmare. Leta was certainly safe, but consider that she was spawned from nightmare fuel. So her existence was sort of kept on the down low after releasing the information on Akady, not that she was on the cover of the Rolling Stone or anything before, but she had been mentioned in a few weird science magazines, and had been out on enough planets and met enough people that her existence wasn't really any more of a secret than anyone else'. She did have a number to be mailed or called at, and you could find her in an online phone book. After this though she went from being on the grid to being off the grid, and she became a lot more difficult to find.

More important to the continuation of the plot though, Beto was able to have a break through. It was small, but still it was something. He was able to clone an animal that he had altered to not die under further experimentation. He was able to create a few small mutations and restabilize its DNA a few times before he had an unsuccessful test.

This was enough to draw a lot of attention from his superiors. Now in the spot light he was maintaining a careful balance of not becoming so interesting that too many other people or powers get involved to control Leta, and not being so dull as to lose funding or have Leta taken from him. He also had to meet with more important sponsors and more frequently, and Beto was by no means a people person. The best way to describe his social skills is mildly autistic. While being pressured to take on more staff an idea hit him. He should hire an assistant, one who is a people person who can do the meetings, presentations, organize the reports, and basically do all the work he didn't want to do to keep his ship of tax dollars at work afloat.

He had the idea while in transit in his little vessel, and as soon as he had the idea he stopped at the first outpost connected to the union media network (internet). He was basically in the middle of deep space no where. Just an old outdated imperial mining colony that was slowly dying out. From there though he began downloading every possible qualifying resume, ordered by how close they were to him. Surprise, surprise, a Kathos DuPaillant had his resume out for any lab or office work, and was currently just at a smaller mining colony that was practically on the way to where they were going. His skills and education looked good enough, more than good enough even. So that was Beto and Leta's next stop.