World Seed

Author’s Corner: Sorry for the no chap yesterday. As I said after the break ended, every now and then I will be taking a day or two off so that I don’t burn myself out like I almost had last month. But fear not, for there are things planned for this chapter!

For the most part, the rest of our journey passed without much excitement. There was only one conversation I had that was actually important(in the grand scheme of things to come). That was when my parents called and said that the first ships were getting ready to leave. They needed to know which ship to board in order to meet up with me later.

After some questioning, I learned that there weren’t any ships close to being complete that were heading for the Ha’vosh homeworld. So instead, I told them to head for the elven worlds, because I knew that they would be cared for there and I could meet up with them after leaving the Ha’vosh. They seemed to like that idea, so I made a plan to return there after I finished up with this.

Anyways, you’re all probably wanting to hear more about the Ha’vosh right now, right? So let’s get to that. “Captain, we’re roughly ten minutes out from Alkrax. I’ve got the planet on long range scanners.”

I nodded at Matt Scrown, the scanning officer on duty. He had a very human sounding name for an elf, so I imagine that would be like a human being named Alraune. Really rare, but not unheard of… “Thanks. Prepare to drop out of subspace as soon as we are in range to broadcast.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Seeing this as a chance to make an important announcement, I hit the intercom button for the ship. “Attention, crew of the Ariadne. We will be dropping out of subspace in roughly ten minutes. If everything goes to plan, this will be our first significant contact with an alien race.” I was totally not counting the robots here, because that was not a very significant contact with how brief our stay was.

“The Ha’vosh will also likely wish to join the crew of the Ariadne, by the time we are ready to leave.” Most races would want a chance to go out and explore the stars, I imagine. “If so, we will be receiving additional crew members. For the purpose of this expedition, I will be proceeding with Officer Sharon Bradbury for initial contact. Once the area is deemed safe, I will allow other crew members to proceed to the surface to interact as well. So put on your best behavior people, it’s time to meet the neighbors.”

I stopped the broadcast there, and waited for our ship to drop out of subspace. As expected, Sharon arrived on the bridge a few moments later, smiling to me. “Looks like it’s time to get you back on a planet, John.”

I chuckled dryly, nodding my head. “Yeah, I could do with stretching my legs.”

“Captain, we are dropping out in three… two… one. Exiting subspace now.” Matt spoke up while watching his terminal. Just as he finished, the flying lights drifting by the outside windows stopped, and we were suddenly near a large planet. It was hard to tell, given our situation, but… “Planet Alkrax on screen. Gravity estimated to be twice normal.” Yup, it really was a big planet.

I had a hard time making out the surface of the planet, because a white fog covered almost the entire area. Every now and then there were patches of green or blue, but for the most part the surface was hidden. “Well, this is going to be interesting… What can you tell me?”

“Thick fog covers 95% of the planet’s surface. Readings show it is a mixture of water and an unknown chemical, but does not appear harmful to the indigenous life. No notable difference in population between the exposed areas and the ones in the fog. Monster readings… Numerous small monster readings, but only one boss-class monster detected. There also appears to be a dungeon at the location of the boss monster.”

Listening to the report, at least they had it better than the elves did. “Celeste, are you able to tap into their network, see if you can pick up any news?”

The Deus Ex shook her head. “I’m not picking up a network that I can access. Given that their entire race is psychic, it is likely that their network is built for only psychics to access.”

And of course, because of my ‘episode’ at Hydra, I had forgotten about making the crew psychic. So there was likely nobody on board that could tap into it. “Well, this will be interesting, then. Let’s go, Sharon.”

Sharon nodded as I got up, and we both headed for the medbay so that we could get in our clones. “Captain.” Matt said as we were just leaving the medbay to head for the teleport room. Thankfully, comms made talking across the ship easy. “I’m picking up another ship in orbit on the far side of the planet. Scans show no life forms on board, and the ship appears to simply be idling.”

… Well, that would be interesting. “Have Yin and Celeste investigate while we make contact with the planet.”

“Understood.”

And with that, we resumed our course towards the surface, teleporting straight into the center of a dense fog. Immediately, we were able to feel the effects of the increased gravity, though it seemed to be hitting me worse than Sharon. On this world, my 15 strength was enough for me to stand up straight and walk around, but running naturally would be difficult.

One of the crew members spoke up in our ears over the comms. “I put you at the edge of the most densely populated area of the planet. This should be an important location, so finding someone to negotiate with should be easy.”

I nodded my head, and stuck close to Sharon. With this fog, I could see no more than ten meters in any direction. However, if I used my Cybernetic Eye and changed vision modes, I saw people walking about like normal for a city. Except that the people were seven feet tall, green, had two rows of two eyes, and had long, spindly arms. One of them seemed to notice us through the thick fog, before looking left and right anxiously.

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A moment later, over a dozen sets of eyes were on us, and I tensed my hand slightly in Sharon’s grip. “Here goes…” I said, in English before doing my best to speak in the Ha’vosh language. “Hello, we come in peace.”

“Greeeellloo.” The nearest alien spoke, but not in the language I had spent weeks learning. “Howr yao din?” It spoke sloppily, as if it was trying to speak a language it did not know. It kept looking at us expectantly, before Celeste spoke in my head.

“John, we’re at the ship now. According to its systems, it’s been in orbit for three weeks, and was originally from Earth. There is nobody on board, and the ship’s AI said that their last activity was to go to the planet below… Be careful.”

No sooner had she finished her warning than I felt a stabbing pain in my head. Reaching my hand up, I found a trail of blood coming out of my nose. The alien that had tried to speak furrowed its brow slightly, and then everything went black.