“I must say, of all the subjects I have had the pleasure of working on, the Olegovich twins were by far my favourite, and not only because the Jade Emperor, glory blessed to him, came to me directly. No, the subjects themselves were quite… delectable. Such a unique phenotype, yet completely free from mechanical or genetic alteration. Oh, it pleasures me deeply to say that I am itching at digging a little deeper – the male is the closest thing I will get to playing with dear Mikhail himself. Alas, with only two subjects, there is limited room for experimentation, but I will do what I can. I will make them strong. I will make them steel. I will make them beautiful.” – Shi Xian Jia, Elder Lengti Flesh-Tailor, 2261. Interview with Dragon Guard archivist. It was reported later than Jia was found decapitated during the escape of the Yuri and Roksana Olegovich.
Dr Elias Savage, self-acclaimed genius and the best thing since sliced bread, wondered how quickly he could piss off his new hosts, as he was looking to break his past record. The green clouds of Kral-Thul whipped past his transport ship as he rested his head against the window, the endless haze of light green drawing his mind away from the present. Elias had seen his fair share of different space stations and planetary colonies, some full to bursting with luxury and prestige whilst others lacked most of the equipment he required for his advanced work. And yet, he had never seen anything like the strange section of space he found himself speeding through. Amidst the clouds were the occasional suspended rock formation, expertly dodged by the craft’s pilot, that hung in the mist motionless. Even more frustrating than being effectively forced to come to the remotest depths of space was the fact that Elias was certain his new Tylas hosts would be as opaque as possible when it came to asking them about it.
The scientist was rudely thrust back to reality when his bodyguard cleared his throat.
“Ready to move, sir?” Kurt Howland said. “We’ll be landing near Birkdale’s Gate soon.” Elias had seen his fair share of bodyguards and escort teams over the years, as one would expect from being son of the great Kantor Savage. Plenty of the men and women on those teams had obviously seen Elias as nothing more than a paycheck to protect. However, in his admittedly short life so far, Elias had never had a personal guard that failed to hide their obvious disgust so plainly. The man was closer to a gorilla than a human, with wide shoulders and tight facial muscles pinned into a constant expression of unease.
Elias disregarded the question with a snort and prepared his mind for the landing near Urestior, the religious hub of the Baraldian Herald empire. His father had made his assignment clear – Elias was not to shame Galant Corporation in front of the new possible ally to the Collective Corporations of Humanity. The scientist, however, cared little for politics; the set of research he would start there was all he cared for. That was, assuming they even wanted Elias for research. The rumours he had heard of the xenophobic Tylas stirred premonitions within Elias that he would be kidnapped the second landed. Yet, the idea brought some humour to the young scientist. If such a thing would put his father in his place, just for once, it would be worth it.
As the ship passed through the last of the clouds, entering a clearer pocket of gas, as shimmering city was revealed - Urestior. It was larger than any colony city Elias had seen before, and could only be matched by Titanlock’s vastness. Splintering off from a huge, tall asteroid upon which the bulk of the urban settlement sat were satellite rocks with smaller townships. The details of the city’s interior were unknown. Blocked behind a wall made of the same shimmering silver as the rest of the city, Urestior’s contents were not to be perused by human eyes it seemed. Mounted atop the wall sat dozens of turret emplacements, their tips glowing with a ferocious green light.
Turning his gaze from the alien city, Elias saw the place he would likely be spending most of his time in Kral’Thul at. A human city, smaller than most but still clearly bustling with life, came into view. Birkdale’s Gate had been noted on the few resources he had been given prior to his travel to Tylasian space, and it was as he had expected. Constructed by the diplomats who threw themselves at the stone wall of Baraldian Herald negotiation, it had swelled to support the increasing number of GaltCorp staff living there. What had not been noted on Elias’ resources, however, were a neighbouring cluster of domed buildings. It had been built on a separate plate of floating stone, giving a clear distinction between Birkdale and itself. From these domed structures a delicate network of bridges had been constructed, tethering it between the human city, and the alien one.
It was the single point of contact between humanity and their potential allies. Or enemies, depending on how badly Elias could make things.
As the ship landed on the edge of the township with a light thud, he looked out the window to see the vague figures of both humans and Cambiar skittering about the spaceport. Standing, he checked his appearance. Necktie loosened and uneven? Check. The lens of his glasses scratched to the point of impenetrability? Check. Shirt and overcoat wrinkled and precisely stained? Check. And last but not least, his shoelaces slack and trailing around his feet? Double check. It was a science to consistently look at unkempt as possible, one that Elias had perfected. He had learned that it was always better to lower people’s expectations before soaring beyond them, as he often found himself doing in his line of work. The look on their faces when they finally saw past his fa?ade was priceless. Removing an unaccounted for strand of dust from his chest, he turned to Kurt.
“So, Mr Howland, I am sure you have been briefed but allow me to state it again,” Elias said, an extra dose of condescension sprinkled in for good measure. “Please do not take any hostile actions against the Tylas, even for my sake as your VIP. It wouldn’t matter much – they can absorb a good amount of kinetic energy. With what you have at your disposal, it would be rather ineffective to, say, try and shoot them. Instead, just follow the protocols GaltCorp has likely drilled into you. That is, if you can remember them?”
The ogre grunted in affirmation, sliding a pair of sunglasses onto his heavy-set face and slicking back his short dark hair. Gods, Elias was hardly one to judge a person’s appearance, his own scruffy clothes making sure of that, but goddamn the man was truly an absolute brute. He was fit to bursting within his monkey suit, tanned skin raw around the tight collar. Whilst Elias made it a life goal to make those around him as uncomfortable as possible, even he felt a modicum of sympathy for his guard. Perhaps he could take it easy on his coworkers, for once. A confirmation from the pilot in the cockpit rang out as the side door swung open, light filling the ship’s hold.
“End of the line,” Elias muttered to himself as he moved to exit, adjusting his posture to a light hunch and carefully stepping over his long laces.
It was a trained art to avoid tripping over himself with such a hinderance, but he had spent many long hours in thought on various difficult projects and had put the empty time to good use as he wandered about past laboratories in thought. It was these long hours of effort that had awarded him with a PhD in his teenage years and countless more in the few years since he had started his work.
Squinting in the lightly tinted light, stained through the green gas that made of Kral’Thul’s atmosphere, Elias stepped down the steps from the ship as Kurt trailed behind. Before he had even reached the bottom, a name called out for him.
“Doctor? Dr Savage? Is that you?” A lightly raspy voice called out.
Eyes adjusting, Elias looked down to see a squat alien waiting for him. Though short in height, the Cambiar’s tail swung far out behind, kicking up dust from the landing port. Bone white and wearing a lab coat, the strange shape of the quadrupedal alien species always gave Elias some pause. Four legs joined at a waist behind which a thick, round tail trailed. An elongated, smooth head trailed a number of small tendrils from the rear of the skull. The Cambiar’s nose-less face consisted of a wide maw filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth, and a translucent visor behind which hundreds of stalked black eyes stared outwards. This was Dr Rannos, one of the few personnel Elias’ documents had named. Truthfully, he was glad a photo was included – it was always a surprise to see a fang-faced alien out of nowhere.
Overall, they were an odd bunch. If there was any consolidation Elias could make about the Cambiar, it was that humanity had affected them far more than the reverse. Having only come to the concept of sapience some hundred years prior, the widespread race had struggled to find their identity until a shaky first contact event had occurred six years prior. Since then, various nations had both formed and fallen all over the aliens’ home territories once proper communication channels had been established, and every day more of the extraterrestrials moved into the CCH or the Separatist faction of clan space.
“I hope your trip was good, sir!” The enthusiastic Cambiar said. “Did your Keeper find their way to Kral-Thul ok?”
“As well as could be expected, Dr Rannos.”
Elias offered a handshake that was quickly accepted with fervour from a clawed appendage. The transport sector of human industry was still in a chaotic mess following ‘Keepergate’, as it had been headlined. Following the New Horizons incident, where first contact with the Cambiar happened amidst a bizarre conflict of Paradisian and Heaven’s Doctrine forces, the hidden truth behind the servitude of the Keepers was revealed. For years, children had been abducted and forcefully augmented into mechanical slaves, deigned to bear the burden of managing faster than light travel for decades. Human faster than light technology using the Schr?dinger-Drive involved the collapse of atomic waveforms in long location and their reformation elsewhere – without both a stabilising liquid for the crew and a Keeper to manage the process, it was a death sentence.
Following the collapse of the shady institutions involved in the barbaric act of enslavement, very few active Keepers were left in service, with the vast majority stepping away to attempt a normal life. Gallant Corporation, or GaltCorp as everyone referred to it as, was lucky to have a few remaining Keepers that had been willing to continue their work. For an exorbitant fee, of course. The rest of the galaxy had slowly adjusted to the alternative of Cambiar wormhole technology – ethically sound but far slower to use and with a much shorter range than S-Jumps. The transport liner that had moved Elias’ ship had used one of these few remaining Keepers in service.
“So,” Elias said. “Where are we going? I see Birkdale is larger than I expected from the photos, but does it have the laboratory I was told to expect?”
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“Ah, apologies Dr Savage!” Rannos bowed. “I see you have not been informed. We will be happy to store some of your larger belongings for the time being at Birkdale’s, but you will be spending most of your time on assignment at the Nucleus Research Facility.”
Though Elias first thoughts were on a particular prized possession of his being kept safe, he was forced to follow the Cambiar’s hand. Pointing beyond the gates of the starport, towards the domed buildings over a gigantic connecting bridge, he indicated the so called ‘Nucleus’. The domed structures were distinct compared to the office blocks and apartment towers of Birkdale’s Gate. From their position at the edge of Birkdale’s close to the bridge that led to the other floating asteroid, it wasn’t too far a walk.
Making light conversation, they crossed the bridge. Up close, Elias could see his new home brought into scale. Split from a centre atrium were five wings, each marked with a rounded roof. As for how long Elias was to call the facility his home… actually, that was a good question.
“Dr Rannos, forgive my lack of knowledge…” Elias started, detesting his own ignorance. “But for how long is my assignment to take place? I was not given many details to my position here, due to the hastiness of my departure from Titanlock.”
“Ah, but of course, Dr Savage. Wait, apologies. Do you prefer Elias or Dr Savage, sir?”
Truthfully, Elias would prefer to keep his surname as distant as possible. Being called ‘Dr Savage’ reminded him far too much of the way his father’s lackies grovelled and whimpered before their boss. However, his aloofness was his shield, and he would keep it raised.
“I don’t particularly care. You can call me whatever you like, it matters not. That goes for Kurt here too, I’m sure he can take any Cambiar insults you can think of.”
Kurt squinted his eyes at Elias and the scientist swore he heard a growl from the back of the man’s throat. Ah, no matter what else happened as part of this job, Elias was glad he would at least have some fun messing with his bodyguard. Kurt seemed the sort to give out those verbal blows as well as he could give take them, and all Elias had to do was tip him over the edge. It was no fun having someone to follow him around all day without them being able to insult back.
“Um… I see. In that case, Elias, I will be happy to give you some details once we’re inside. I will to do the same for you, Kurt.” Rannos awkwardly wringed his claws together, the strange tendrils used for talking and eating at the back of his mouth coiling in discomfort. A Cambiar didn’t flap their jaws when speaking, though many mimicked the action to soothe any human listeners. Instead, a central, hollow tentacle acted as a tongue and throat whilst a trio of thinner appendages allowed speech.
Crossing the bridge, Elias admired the view from beyond the buildings of Nucleus. According to the sparse details he was given, a larger mass of rock far blow blocked the light of the system’s star every dozen or so hours, providing a cycle of day and night. But for Elias at that moment, the light flaring through the pea-soup coloured haze as it dazzled off the shimmering spires of Urestior seemed to deny the idea that darkness could ever cover the place. Finally, they reached the end of the bridge and stood before the entrance to the Nucleus. A sign written in a mixture of languages stood proud before the gravel path – ‘Borders of the Mind are to be Broken’. Blunt, to the point, and frankly incorrect in Elias’ eyes. Science was about the absorption of information into the mind, and breaking the boundaries at the edges was a slippery slope into madness and pseudoscience. Like chiropractors!
“Ah, Elias, look!” Rannos said, his enthusiasm starting to grate at Elias’ patience. “One of your new colleagues is heading this way! Look sharp!”
Elias turned to see from the opposite direction, approaching an entranceway to the Nucleus across from of bridge, a Tylas. Not that it needed to use it when the strange aliens could fly about.
If the Cambiar had initially raised some eyebrows for their odd nature and ability to adjust their body to a precise degree, then Tylas were a new mystery all together. Inorganic in nature and inhuman in shape, there was little to compare them with humanity. Whilst the Cambiar still retained what could be described as a roughly humanoid shape, albeit with another pair of legs and a tail, the Tylas were another matter entirely. A diamond shaped head, far wider than tall, sat atop what appeared to be a mantle or a cape that made up the bulk of their outline. It trailed long and low, making their overall height taller than man when included. From within the cape was a rounded, cylindrical body, almost entirely covered by this outer coating. No human-like limbs could be seen, but all along the surface of the outer cape, blending in, were thin, strap-like appendages a handspan wide that could come away to coil and wrap around their targets. The only facial features they had were four slits of blinding white light, slanted as if to form a permanent scowl. Within the structures Elias could see externally sat an inner core of sorts – their equivalent of organs. Apparently never exposed, this centre mass was composed of a compressed pocket of searing hot gases. Instead of a neuronal structure for a mind as humanity and the Cambiar used, the Tylas utilized this internal pocket of vapour to bind to their QIS Pattern, giving them consciousness.
Most striking about the Tylas were the bright yellow and black colour of their ‘skin’, if it could be called such a thing. The one floating towards the three men had a series of alternating wavy stripes of gold and midnight wrapping around its height. Interrupting the slightly fascinating pattern were thick, cloth scarves, wrapped around the neck between the head and the cloak and trailing to the ground below. Attached to these various shawls, dyed the colour of maroon, were small metal attachments and tiny ribbons. In terms of total height, the approaching Tylas would stand a bit taller than Elias, though that was counting the outer mantle that draped far below its centre body. Measuring from its inner body to its head, it probably sat smaller than Rannos did.
Needless to say, it took all of Elias’ control to not gawp at the alien as it drifted closer, each movement graceful and slow. Honestly, it reminded him of a jellyfish or manta ray that had decided it didn’t approve of the laws of physics and had decided to move to land. When it finally halted it movement, floating next to the three of them, Rannos took a step back and bowed.
“Ah, Burning Scribe Chel-Lin Daksira! This is Dr. Elias Savage, the researcher from Galant Corporation. He’ll be part of the new team here at Nucleus. Both of you are said to be the brightest minds of your species, so I am sure the two of you will get on swimmingly!”
Rannos scooted back to clear the space between Elias and this new arrival. The young man leaned back to look up at the strange alien. Their eyes met. The brightest mind of its species, eh? That sounded rather arrogant.
The polite thing to do would be offer a handshake or bow in deference to whatever the hell this thing was. The truth was that a part of Elias saw the way it looked down at him, waiting for him to make the first move. It stirred memories of the past, of every time his much older colleagues had regarded him as a result of nepotism, his effort to progress his field of research a lie. It was the same look of every professor who sneered at him as teenager in their lecture halls, looking past his late nights and the sacrifice of making friends for the sake of his work.
But most of all, it stank of the same look his father often gave him whenever they met. The same repugnant greed and ambition that broke Elias down to nothing more than tool.
Disdain and pride. That was what he saw.
“Um, is everything alright?” Rannos said, tapping his claws together anxiously.
“No issue, Dr Rannos,” Elias said casually, covering past thoughts with a smirk. “Just waiting for my dear host to offer some sign of welcoming. After all, we are the guests here.”
Rannos tilted his head at the words, looking back between both him and this ‘Chel-Lin’.
“Oh, well perhaps Chel-Lin would be willing to offer a hand, or um, appendage in greeting!” Rannos said.
He nodded towards the Tylas, who had not moved an inch since Elias had approached. Instead, it seemed to reflect on the Cambiar’s words for a moment. Then, it simply leaned closer to observe him in more detail, four slitted windows of light squinting at him derisively.
Any ordinary guest in foreign territory would likely have buckled immediately, but Elias was no ordinary man. Instead, he pushed his scratched glasses up his nose with a thumb and crossed his arms. The light pouring through the alien’s eyes blinked once, twice, as it seemingly pulled its outer cape down tighter, causing the small adornments to rattle together. The tension in the air grew when it was clear neither was going to make the first movement. Eventually, Elias cleared his throat and tilted his head forward, as if to prompt the Tylas to act. Instead, it just looked towards the Cambiar.
“Dr Rannos, forgive my confusion but is this is the great ‘Dr Savage’ I was told of?” it said. “He doesn’t seem particularly… intelligent.”
A feminine voice filled the air, dripping with haughtiness. It originated from a small, antenna-like device attached to the Tylas’ neck. A translator of sorts? Alongside the translated human voice a the faint high pitch whine, similar to a theremin, filled the air. Elias figured that must be the alien’s natural method of communication.
“Ah apologies,” Elias said. “I forget that humility is a vital part of emotional intelligence. I should have taken into account your lack of such qualities, being a Tylas and all. I should have expected that from someone like yourself.”
“Oh no, please, please, this is not how it’s supposed to be!” Dr. Rannos skittered back over to try and intervene but Elias wouldn’t let that stop him.
“So, ‘Burning Scribe’ was it?” he continued. “You’ve got the tone of a religious fanatic. Are you?”
Elias smirked as he looked over his shoulder to see Kurt’s expression growing increasingly concerned. Insulting his new host was likely not something the bodyguard had ever planned for, but Elias was ready to make Kurt toss out all his expectations by the time they were done.
“Ignorant as well as prideful,” the Tylas said. “A good start. Let’s see how many more iniquities you can accumulate by nightfall.” She intensified her stare and hummed an untranslated strange sequence of notes with the same timbre of a musical saw being drawn by a bow.
“Please, there is no need insults, Scribe Daksira! I beg of the two of you stop this! If there is anyone to blame, blame me.”
Rannos placed himself between the two of them. Elias only then realised how close the floating alien had drifted towards him, its form bent over to meet his face. In fact, their faces had been but mere inches apart. The two of them looked towards Rannos, the annoying interloper attempting to disarm their conflict, before snapping back to one another. Before Elias could summon another word, Rannos interrupted him.
“Oh dear, I should not have let the two of you meet without the proper introductions,” the little Cambiar said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I understand both of you are very talented, but surely you can both empathise each other from the view of scientists? For the sake of knowldege? And besides, what would your friends, your family think?”
Elias looked down, reflexive embarrassment burning his cheeks. It was undeniable that he was being childish. Innately he knew that had been picking a fight with the first Tylas he saw, unable to quite come to terms that there was sapient life beyond the stars more innovative than he was. The Cambiar had been practically childlike for sometime after meeting humanity, having lacked a real culture of their own. The Tylas, on the other hand, had left their homeworld centuries before, giving them a head start in certain aspects compared to humanity. When he had seen that prideful look in its eyes, it was the one thing Elias could not stand by and accept. Now, however, Chel-Lin was also embarrassed, as… ‘She’, was it? She had also turned and looked away, the rim of her cloak curled inwards at the bottom.
Whatever, fine.
“Um, shall we move into the building, Dr Savage?” Rannos said, desperate.
Elias sighed and agreed as he turned to move towards the entrance to Nucleus, hoping to move on from the interaction. Dr Rannos had been right; Elias hadn’t come all the way from Titanlock to merely argue. He had come to make a change, to make a difference. He was the only one who could make the most of this opportunity to study the Tylas tech before him, and he made a promise to himself that he would not waste it, even if his hosts were pricks.
Elias would return to Titanlock with another project under his belt, one that changed the galaxy, or he would not return at all.
