All That Glitters Ch. 27

"That is a standing order from this company," Annette Liramor assured her. "Once we realized that your sacred resting place was in continuous use, we immediately set orders that such sites should not be disturbed. We have identified five such sites, only one resting place, but four places with buildings that were once on the surface of the planet. Those sites are protected from mining exploitation."

"Our people will be happy to know that," the Speaker spoke with a nod to her. "Your orders?" he asked, noting her title earlier.

"Yes, they were," Annette informed him. "Mine and those of Dir. Fiona Marsh at Liramor-23."

The gave Annette a small bow in acknowledgement.

After a prolonged silence Raymond slid in with a comment. "I do not wish to interfere with this meeting, however, there is much on our agenda and our voyage must continue."

President Lapierre stood and extended a hand. "This is a common greeting amongst our people," he said as he gripped the Speaker's hand. "It started as a means of expressing peace, as most of our people are right handed and, if you greet another with your right hand, you cannot hold a weapon in it," he finished with a smile.

The Speaker smiled back, in the manner of his kind, gripping the hand firmly, as the President was doing.

The small group was quickly returned to the Marie Saitent and the vessel swiftly leaped into space. They quickly moved through several different planets, each distinctive in one way or another, though they did not stop again until they arrived at Planet Hanover. The planet had many more naval ships in orbit than had other planets.

The ship moved down to the Citadel and Navy HQ, where they were greeted by several senior navy personnel. The Speaker noted the presence of several of the small ships with and without guns.

"Mind-Hur, Speaker, may I present Field Admiral Charles Thenton, commander of Sector Forty-Two and his staff," Raymond explained. There were a lot of military personnel present all dressed in black uniforms that were different than they had seen earlier.

Formal dress? Mind-Hur wondered.

"I am pleased to greet the first members of your species on this planet," Thenton spoke formally with the pair. "It is our wish that our continued relationship with your people will be one of peace and not one of war. However, should you wish to conduct war on our people, this HQ will likely be the one to direct our war against your people."

The Admiral spoke with them briefly before giving Raymond a signal to take them back abord his little ship.

"Why did you bring us here?" asked Mind-Hur.

"I wanted you to see the man who would likely wage war against your people," Raymond told them. "You can see his resolve for peace but I assure you his resolve for war is just as strong."

They next found themselves back on board Liramor-23 and back in the embassy. Once again, the presence of the Junelliea made them relax and wish for peace. It was later in the day and a feast was on the table before them.

Mind-Hur waved a scanner over the offerings and found they were not poisonous to her kind. She tentatively took small bites of various fruits, vegetables and other edibles, finding some to her liking and others not so.

Fiona Marsh asked if they would be willing to provide an interview about their adventure in Union space. Another Rai approached them and sat down opposite them when the pair agreed.

Tall and slim, the Rai was a study in contrast. She was dressed in a fashion that they were not familiar with but did not look that strange. She had a small silver object floating around her head, and she wore some kind of device over her eyes, a small red dot prominent between her eyes.

"This is Cynthia Steward," Fiona began. "She is a reporter, likely a position that you are not familiar with as your news briefings do not seem to be conducted by professionals. Cynthia is a professional news reporter, whose specialty is finding newsworthy articles and conducting insightful interviews with the people involved."

"Good day, viewers," the strange Rai began. "This is Cynthia Stewart reporting from Liramor-23 with two of the species that were discovered in this system several years ago. They refer to themselves as the Pod-Drran. They have had a momentous day travelling through Union space to get an idea of how large we are and seeing some of our planets for themselves.

"Hello, Mind-Hur and Speaker," Cynthia began in a voice that was carefully enunciated. "It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance today after such a significant trip for the both of you," she said with one of the smiles that would normally have caused them to be frightened.

"Do you always smile in this manner?" Mind-Hur asked. "To us, an open-mouth smile, displaying teeth as you do is a threat for our people."

"This is the normal way that we Humans smile, Mind-Hur," Cynthia told the Rai. "We mean no ill will by it. If it makes you more comfortable, I will try to keep my mouth closed when I smile to you.

"I would like to ask both of you several questions about your day, if you will consent to answer them?" Cynthia asked.

"You may ask you questions but we will only answer those questions that we feel comfortable answering," the Speaker replied.

"Fair enough, Speaker. I can accept that. First, this was an amazing trip for you. According to Raymond Clark, you saw eighteen different planets today, and explored two of them, plus this platform. You travelled a distance of over 450 light years or 513 of your solar cycles. Yet you have not finished your travels as you must now return to your point of origin, the Fleet Shem.

"How do you feel, Speaker, about your travels today?" Cynthia asked the Speaker first, aware that he was the more reticent of the pair.

"We travelled that distance today?" the Speaker asked, obviously shocked.

"We did," Raymond answered the question for the Speaker.

"I am greatly surprised that we covered such a distance. Yet we only saw eighteen worlds," the Speaker said.

"Not so surprising," Cynthia said. "There are forty-eight member worlds in the Union, to visit all of them would take three days of travel. Visiting eighteen in a single day is significant. Especially the list that you have purportedly visited. You have seen many of our more significant planets, including Liramor Prime and Planet Hanover.

"Was your trip comfortable? I understand there are differences between our sciences and technologies," Cynthia stated with a closed-mouth smile.

"Yes, I would say the trip was comfortable," the Speaker joked. "I was surprised that the gravity on the small ships did not shift when we made our jumps, this made for a very comfortable voyage as our artificial gravity is not as steady as yours appears to be."

"Perhaps, had we had the opportunity to continuously devote ourselves to science, as your people seem to have," Mind-Hur quickly interjected. "However, our people have been at war with each other almost since we set foot on our new home world." And here Mind-Hur gave the Speaker a significant look.

"How long have your people been in space," Mind-Hur asked.

"We have only been in space for 400 of our years, 456 solar rotations in your terms, and only have been using our current FTL drives for 126 of our years, 143 of your years. Most of the planets that you have visited today have been colonized within that time period.

That information shocked Mind-Hur and the Speaker. The look they had on their faces was easy to understand by the humans despite the difference in facial musculature.

"You have made this much progress in this short of time?" the Speaker asked.

"Before that, our species was planet bound on Terra," Cynthia explained. "Our species as a whole has only been civilized by current standards for a little over 600 years. Prior to that, we had no real understanding of the sciences needed to produce the materials necessary to build the large cities you saw on the worlds you visited.

"Our metal age has only been around for approximately 5,700 years, prior to that we used wood and stone tools. We have progressed significantly in the last 600 years.

"Like you, we were plagued by internal wars but swiftly found a way beyond that to allow ourselves to develop as a people," Cynthia explained.

"How did you manage that?" the Speaker asked.

"We relegated the Warrior Class to a subordinate position," Cynthia explained. "Prior to that time, our Warrior Class had too much power and often went to war without the consent of the people who suffered greatly from such activities.

"Fortunately for us, those wars tended to be smallish in nature, though they still caused considerable damage to the land and to society. Once the Warrior Class became subordinate to the political class and the political class became subordinate to the will of the people as a whole, things changed swiftly for us."

Mind-Hur and the Speaker again shared a significant look with each other.

Cynthia asked them many questions about their people, their society, the voyage they had made through Union space. She had no idea of how much a simple statement she made would change a society...

End of chapter twenty-seven.

Much of the information on empathic ability found in the First Congress, comes from a source called 'Code' which can be found at life coach code on the web. This group explores the super-norm of humanity including empathy. My thoughts are dispersed within their ideas on empathy, tied together to enhance the experience in the story. Since I borrowed from them, it is only right that they should be acknowledged.

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