All That Glitters Ch. 27

"The others?" Raymond asked.

"We do not speak of them, Raymond," the Speaker said. "They do not live by the code of the Warrior, by the code of Kur-Tar Shem. They live by other means that are not acceptable to us."

"We live by other means, Speaker," Raymond reminded the Ro. "Our means are acceptable to you."

"That is because you are not of the People, Raymond," the Speaker replied. "You are Strangers."

"Is that how you refer to us, Speaker? As Strangers?" Raymond asked. Neither of the guests replied to his question.

Raymond took them further toward the right until they came to another open space. Several people waited in vividly coloured sashes, going from their right shoulders to their left hips. High on the sash, each wore an identical crest, however, the crests below those of two of them was different. The outfits they wore were all different and uniquely coloured.

Two strange Rai and one Ro stood separately from the other groups. Each was tall and slim, though the Ro was more muscular than the Rai.

Another group of Rai stood further apart, with a group all in black behind them. Raymond approached this group.

"Mind-Hur Tae, Speaker, this is Dir. Fiona Marsh, the Director of Operations for this mining platform, her Commander of Military Operations Capt. Liana Dostier, and her aide-de-camp Cdr. Damyanti Balakrishnan. These are the two who direct the platform and its people, similar to your Jurte Pair," Raymond told them.

"Welcome to Liramor-23, Mind-Hur Tae and Speaker," the one named as the Director Fiona Marsh responded. "We are pleased that the first two of your species to arrive on this platform do so on the path of peace."

Mind-Hur noted that this Rai was dressed in a one-piece outfit that hugged her body closely. It showed conclusively that the Terrans were not like her people. For one thing, they only had one set of somewhat larger breasts, for another, the Rai were generally smaller than the Ro, when the reverse was generally true for her people. Raymond had referred to these outfits as 'jumpsuits'.

The outfit was in a strange, to her eyes, blue colour with the crest that she had seen before near her right shoulder.

The one who was named Commander of Military Operations nodded her head but said nothing to the Mind-Hur and the Speaker. She and the other were dressed in black, one-piece outfits but had medals and other insignia on it that included their military affiliation. The same crest as the other wore was high on their right shoulder. So, they worked for Fiona Marsh then.

Behind them stood a group of mixed Rai and Ro, all dressed in the black jumpsuits. Their crests were different.

"This is the Dr. Sylvia Hitron, similar in position to yourself, Mind-Hur," Fiona stated. "In your language she would be Sylvia Hitron Tae. She is the Team Lead for the Piscium Scientific Investigation Team. All of these here are Tae or Toe and part of her team.

"It is her team that translated your language and produced the matrix that now translates for us," Fiona Marsh ended.

"Welcome, Mind-Hur Tae," Dr. Hitron spoke. "It is a delight to greet a fellow scientist from your people. This is Dr. Hillary Litton, the lead Linguist of our team."

Litton nodded her head to Mind-Hur and smiled. She was noticeably wider than most of the others.

Fiona Marsh took them to the next group.

"This is the new Embassy that has been constructed for the purposes of talks between our people," Fiona Marsh continued, indicating the open area. The great door opened, showing several offices with the comfortable chairs in them.

"You will be dealing with our Ambassadors, Michelle Halten the Ambassador to all non-Terrans who will transit through this platform," Fiona stated, indicating one of the Rai in the brightly coloured clothes and a blue and green sash with the same crest as Fiona Marsh wore under a blue crest with seven stars in it. "Her Chargé d'affaires, Millenia Lapotnikov, a position that encompasses all non-ambassadorial levels of government," the Rai indicated another of the Rai with the same coloured sash.

"Ambassador Charles Demoiné, Ambassador-at-large, and one of the principal negotiators with our Embassy and Assistant Ambassador Michael Renders, also part of our negotiation team. It will be these two who will conduct most of the negotiations for the Terran Union," Fiona indicated the two Ro also covered by different coloured sashes. They too had the blue crest with seven stars but the crests bellow that was different. Each had nodded as they were identified.

"We are pleased to make the acquaintance of two of your people, Mind-Hur Tae and Speaker," the one known as Charles Demoiné spoke.

"We are pleased to know that your people have build this Embassy, with the express purpose of speaking openly with us," Mind-Hur replied. The Speaker said nothing but did bow to the Ambassadors.

Raymond turned to the third group, set a little apart from the others. They include two slim Rai in long form-fitting gowns similar to a Ga-Den, and a Ro dressed similarly to Fiona Marsh.

"This is Fayad Piscium, the Senior Operations Officer for Liramor-23 and currently the Acting Deputy Director to Fiona Marsh," Raymond introduced the Ro, who bowed formerly to the pair. "His two wives, Hanalei Anar and Junelliea Herlan," Raymond spoke.

Mind-Hur was not certain, but the way he spoke indicated the two Rai were a family unit with the Ro, that was unusual, as her people usually had one Ro and one Rai per family unit, a bonded pair or mated pair when a brood arrived, unless there were Kirlen in the unit. Did this mean that one of the Rai was a Kirlen?

Mind-Hur acknowledged the group, but it was the Speaker that asked the question.

"You are a family unit?" he asked. "Which of you is Kirlen?"

"We have no Kirlen here, or anywhere in the Union," Fayad told the Ro. "We are a family unit because our planet allows for plural marriages. Most other planets in the Union do not," Fayad explained.

Mind-Hur smiled at the two Rai, there was just something about them that pleased her. The one named Junelliea seemed fascinated by her and the Speaker. Mind-Hur found herself at ease with them here. She looked to the Speaker and saw that he, too, was relaxed.

Junelliea gave Mind-Hur a smile that, had it come from another of her people, would have been seen as a threat. However, that smile came through to her as something motherly rather than threatening. She had a great sense of peace, contentment, and calm while in the presence of this Rai. Mind-Hur returned a smile of her own, one that was non-threatening.

"Do your people have a name for themselves?" Junelliea asked Mind-Hur. Instantly all activity stopped, as those who had heard the question turned to listen to the answer.

"Yes. We refer to ourselves as the Pod-Drran, which means strong ones," Mind-Hur replied. "And your people? Do you refer to yourselves as Terrans?"

"Yes and no," Junelliea replied, smiling in the same manner as Mind-Hur had. "We name ourselves Humans, coming from the ancient name for our kind Homo Sapiens Sapiens, which means intelligent man. Homo being the word for our genus in an ancient dead language that is still used today for identifying scientific finds and reflects the word reflects the genus on the species tree. Sapiens means intelligence or knowledge.

"The term Terrans comes from the name of our original home world, Terra in the old language. We are of the Terran Union, so refer to ourselves equally as Humans or Terrans," Junelliea explained.

"Why do you use the term Sapiens twice?" Mind-Hur asked, fascinated by the revelation.

"It is because of how we define Hominidae," Dr. Hitron responded. "This is the branch of family of the scientific classification." She called up the tree from her comp, displaying it first in standard, then translating it so that Mind-Hur could read the data.

Fascinated by the miniature 3D holograph, she saw immediately that Homo Sapiens came with other designations such as Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, along their family tree. What surprised her most was the timeline of that tree.

Dr. Hitron opened another page that showed the history of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, that they only went back 300,000-400,000 years. What was more disturbing was that agriculture was only known around 30-40,000 years previously, and that recorded civilization only went as far back as 8,000 years!

Mind-Hur knew that her own species went back 1.5 million years ago and that recorded civilization was first seen as far back as 60,000 years previous to the destruction of The Home World, around 80,000 years previously. These people were relative newcomers to intelligence, civilization, and space, yet they surpassed her own people on many levels.

Mind-Hur was also surprised at the abilities of the device on Dr. Hitron's wrist and attempted to make the same motion on her own device.

"I am sorry, Mind-Hur," Raymond interjected. "However, your device only works as a translator, not as a personal computer. Perhaps, if you come to stay with us in future, we will exchange that device for a more technically capable model."

"What of your home world?" Fiona Marsh asked. "What do your people call it?"

"Simply the home world," the Speaker replied. "We make a distinction in diction between the home world and The Home World, our ancient home."

Fiona Marsh, and the Ambassadors, escorted the pair through the Embassy. It was much larger inside than Mind-Hur expected with many comfortable rooms set aside for meetings, and several offices.

"The Embassy is not yet functional but should be shortly," Dir. Marsh stated. "It was originally built for the negotiations with your people and then was turned into a full embassy as an afterthought."

Eventually, they led the pair out of the embassy.

"You must continue your journey," Fiona Marsh indicated, signing to Raymond. "Raymond, if you please, I would ask you to carry on with your travels."

Raymond nodded, and signalled for the two to follow him as they moved to the lifts and back down to the shuttle bay. They were soon aboard the fast ship and moving out of the mining platform.

PV Marie Saitent, Travelling

The little ship jumped and they found themselves in open space.

"What has happened, Raymond?" Mind-Hur asked.

"The distances between planets is vast, Mind-Hur, even for our FTL drive," Raymond explained. "We need to make successive jumps to arrive at the planet we are moving to. Our next destination is Liramor Prime, the home planet of the Liramor Mining Corporation. It is seventy-six light years from Liramor-23. That is equivalent to eighty-six solar cycles. We need to make two jumps to go that far and need to pause between jumps to recycle the power supply."

Mind-Hur was shocked that Raymond would reveal this much. She reasoned, however, that it didn't matter as long as he didn't tell her the processes for the science behind the jumps, or the length of the jumps.

Mind-Hur knew that they could jump from The Home Star to the home world, a distance of twenty solar cycles. That it took two jumps for the ship to reach a planet eighty-six solar cycles away, suggested that this ship could jump more than twice that distance. She gave the Speaker a significant look, which was returned. He too, understood what was not being said.

The wait was not long, and the ship jumped again, coming back into common space heigh above the gravity well of the planet in question. Mind-Hur noted the presence of a moon. Their home planet did not have one. The ship moved down toward a much larger platform than the one they had previously visited.

"This is the Pallanders Orbital Shipyard," Raymond told them. It is above Liramor Prime. This station builds all kinds of ships."

As they approached the station, they noted large cages that held ships in various stages of construction. The little ship made its way into a shuttle bay and another passenger gantry folded down to meet them.

They moved up the gantry into the station and were greeted by Martin Pallanders and David Sprawl, two of the senior managers for the company.

He quickly explained that the company built and repaired ships of all kinds on or around the station. They showed them several of the working bays and let them look out on the great windows on the cages they had seen before. Most of the cages held large ships being worked on. They explained that they could refit, or basically rebuild a ship that had been many years in space, in as little as 92 days, or build a new ship in 240 days.

That shocked the Speaker. It took much longer for their people to build one of their large shuttles. The comment that Raymond had made of planets having hundreds of naval ships and contributing to thousands of ships for the Terran Union suddenly became much more realistic. The Speaker had counted twenty cages around the station. If only half were used to build new ships, they could build ten new ships every 240 days and repair older ships in less than half the time.

Raymond brought them back to the Marie Saitent and it slipped back out and down to the planet's surface. They landed at the private space terminal that belonged to Liramor Holdings.

A ground car came up and they entered it to be moved to a remarkable building not that far away. The pair marvelled at the level of comfort in the vehicle.

"Is this typical of your ground vehicles, Raymond," the Speaker asked.

"No, Speaker," Raymond admitted. "This is a more luxurious form of transportation. However, any person with the funds to purchase this vehicle could have this level of opulence."

"This seems to have multi-point harnesses," the Speaker noted.

"Yes, this vehicle is capable of flight, but is legally restricted from doing so within ten kilometers of a space port," Raymond explained.

"Do you not think of the risk of disease, Raymond?" Mind-Hur asked.

"You have been scanned for microbes, Mind-Hur. We have found nothing that would be a danger to us," Raymond told her.

"You are capable of making such a definitive statement about a species that you have just met, Raymond," the Speaker asked.

"Our scientists assure us that you carry no pathogens dangerous to humans, Speaker," Raymond assured them.

The vehicle stopped and they stepped out into a glass anti-chamber with several people standing waiting for them. There were several people standing around that Mind-Hur thought might be guards by the way they moved.

"Mind-Hur, Speaker, I would like to introduce the President of Liramor Prime, Marcel Lapierre and his daughter Lillianne Lapierre. M. Lapierre is the elected head of the government of Liramor Prime," Raymond explained.

"Elected head?" the Speaker asked.

"A term that I will clarify at a later time, Speaker," Raymond told them. "What is important is that this person represents the people of this planet."

The pair immediately prostrated themselves on the floor, much to the surprise of those in attendance.

"That is not necessary, Mind-Hur, Speaker," Raymond said. "President Lapierre is appointed President by the people. You do not need to bow and scrape as you would to your Emperor."

"Appointed by the people?" the Speaker asked.

"Again, not important," Raymond stated with a smile. "What is important is that he represents the people of this world for the Union, for other member planets, and for your people."

"My daughter and I are pleased to meet you, Mind-Hur and Speaker," the President spoke with a small bow. "It is a significant event that the first planet of the Union that you visited is Liramor Prime."

"I would like to introduce Antoine Liramor, CEO of Liramor Holdings and his daughter Annette Liramor, Director of Operations for Liramor Holdings. That is the parent company of the Liramor Mining company," Raymond identified the two respective people, who greeted the pair.

"Welcome to Liramor Holdings," said the Ro identified as Antoine Liramor. "It is our hope that we can continue a peaceful dialogue between our peoples."

"It is my hope as well, Antoine-Liramor," Mind-Hur stated.

They were swiftly whisked up in an elevator that had a listing for so many floors that Mind-Hur was shocked. There were at least nine rows of twelve buttons, 108 floors if you believed that.

The left the lift only to see out into the distance a large, very brightly lit city.

"That is Liramor City, the capital of Liramor Prime," the Rai named Annette Liramor stated.

"How large is this city?" Mind-Hur asked.

"The city currently has sixty-five million inhabitants but it is growing and is expected to arrive at eighty million with the next ten years," Marcel Lapierre informed them.

They moved into a conference area with a very large table in the center, many people standing around it, waiting for the VIP group.

They were given seats together in the middle of the table, with the President and his daughter opposite them.

"This is not meant to be a negotiation; however, I did want to take the time to meet with the representatives of your people," Marcel Lapierre began. "It is with great expectations that we greet you as representatives and welcome you in what we hope will be peaceful co-existence."

"Why?" asked the Speaker.

"Sorry?" a confused Marcel Lapierre replied.

"Why do you expect peaceful co-existence?" the Speaker asked.

"Because the thought of having to destroy an entire species of intelligent life is repugnant to us," Lapierre stated.

"But you would do it if necessary?" the Speaker asked.

Lapierre looked around the round, uncertain how to respond. It was his daughter who stepped into the breach.

"Our people were shocked to discover that your people follow the Kur-Tar Shem," Lillianne explained. "To us, this is an enigma. We do not understand your need to make war on each other, especially when we know there are others of your species who do not.

"However, we would not interfere with your people, so long as you stay on your home world. This you did not do. Now you seek to bring your view of the universe to us, by making war against us. By taking us a Kirlen. By destroying those you cannot take with you.

"We do not have Kirlen in our society, Speaker. We hold those who do so as being uncivilized in nature. We have fought wars against our own kind over this issue. We believe in self-deliberation, self-worth, and in freedom of person and spirit.

"Any of us who you would take as Kirlen would fight tooth and nail to escape from this servitude. To the point of our deaths.

"If we would die for freedom, we would kill for it as well, even if that means completely destroying your society, Speaker.

"So long as you remain on your world, with your backwards views involving only our own people, you may choose to act in any manner that you wish. As soon as you move from your world, with the intent on pushing your view of the universe on us, you will find yourselves swiftly at war with us. We do not fight wars as you do, Speaker. We fight to ensure that we need not fight again in future, even if that means we completely destroy another planet.

"It has been done, Speaker, to our own people. Why then would we shy away from doing that to your people, Speaker?" Lillianne Lapierre asked.

The Speaker had no response to the question, and much to think about after the comments.

"I for one, hope that we can live together in peace," Mind-Hur quickly filled in the strained silence. "Having seen firsthand the power of your weapons, I would not wish to be subject to their effects.

"Our people were sent from our home world by the Emperor, to punish those who would desecrate our sacred resting places. But Raymond tells me that you respect your own sacred resting places, so you will not disturb those sites at The Home Star?" she asked.