Aurora, Wayward Pt. 07

The one in front looked at all the screens and the bracelets to every dignitary watching as they lit up. He spoke mentally to everyone.

* This is what you humans call 'good news, bad news situation.' The good news is the Drakor Nation is ready to place an Embassy on Mixtios. I am Profound Justice, your Ambassador. Behind me is our council if you will, including the one you know as Justice Incarnate, who as the head of our council, selected me to fill this position.

Your ancestor Jack Travus was a great human and a strong and capable leader. He was not the best at treaties. I should say those who wrote and confirmed the treaties of those days. They did not consider all the variables that could happen. The human you know as Jackson Fedrick Carter has created an intergalactic incident.

He launched a private terraforming colony expedition with 32 war class civilian vessels operated by AI units and 6 colony carriers of various types 3 years ago. Over the last 7 days he invaded, he attempted to invade one world named Gresan, occupied by a pre-FTL civilization.

A clear violation of Interstellar Law. The local population managed to overwhelm the colony ships in numbers; he destroyed several of the enemy battleships and destroyers by ramming them; this brought down his ship's shields. They were in conflict with Drisan at the time, another colony world in the system, and his action took no notice of which forces ships he destroyed.

The AI ships refused to fire upon the enemy ships in the system they were invading. Instead, they attempted to block both sides from firing on each other as they attempted to shield the colony ships to a point. Until they were ordered to pull back because they were blocking the few weapons on the colony ships from being able to fire and then their shields were failing.

Carter's ship was destroyed. All of his AI battleships were disabled. The colonies had no air cover; the enemy did not accept surrender. Likely because they did not understand the language at that point.

The others were disabled and boarded. The presence of children slowed and then stopped the slaughter. Mostly women and children remained. The last 20 AI ships were boarded as their shields were down and they had never fired at either party. They blasted through the shuttle bay doors.

Even internally they would not fire to prevent this boarding action as it was against their programming. The list of technology given away to these people includes some of the latest human and AI systems from your people to engine and weapons technology.

The AI units are, of course aiding in the efforts of these people to understand the technology. The engineers do not like taking direction from AI units. They have been in a technology and arms race within the system since the fighting stopped just days ago.

All trying to quickly adopt this new technology into their existing airframes and warships. A small project on Gresan attempted to use the invader's ships. They made quick repairs to one of the FLT enabled colony transport shuttles.

They put it together from 3 destroyed craft with the aid of the AI units.

Yesterday they attempted an FTL jump. It lasted less than 1 minute before a distress beacon was activated. Yet they did get a ship into FTL, which alerted us to begin their evaluation as a species. They are now centuries or more aptly put millennia ahead of where they should be.

One of Gresan's greatest war heroes, from this attacked planet, attempted this FTL test. The pilot was wearing an EVA suit at the AI unit's insistence. He had lost a couple of limbs previously from his war injuries, making him an ideal candidate for this testing because of his expendability.

He was days away from what would have been his forced military retirement given the end of hostilities. All based upon communications we intercepted. He is now awaiting the choice to become a hybrid or Drakor as his ship was recovered by the Drakor.

He is in stasis for now awaiting your arrival. Limbs are already attached. He has yet to select a blade and your assistance in that process is being requested by the Drakor Nation. This falls to you, Hand of Justice Johnathan Travus, to resolve. *

Johnathan looked over. He spoke telepathically as well as verbally, "First, welcome Ambassador Profound Justice. Why did the AI units stand down and why are they helping them? We should send members of our diplomatic corps to work a negotiation with these people to recover the colonists."

He heard him sigh mentally, * Your treaty forbids it. The AI units were programmed to not attack humans. The people do not see themselves as humans but they are related to you. They call themselves Penans.

They reside in the system you call Pena and by treaty, you are forbidden to go there unless they attack a Terran colony. You cannot provide assistance in a crisis, even if they request assistance. The treaty never covered what would happen if a Terran colony attacked them.

Terran Hybrids are barred from going there and they are gearing up for war against the pink-skinned aggressors. Their skin has taken on a dusky red color and their hair colors vary with deep red, black, and silver being the predominant colors. They have no body hair except thin eyebrows and the hair on their heads which they tend to let grow long for both sexes.

They have five worlds, counting the one moon, colonized in the system and they were in the middle of a civil conflict when this outside aggressor forced them to unite together. They attacked only one planet, yet they mistakenly attacked both parties in this fight. Which drew the attention of the other 3 militaries in the system when they arrived.

This brought a forced truce in hostilities. As both military fleets suffered significant and heavy losses forcing them back to the table and an end to hostilities. They each took 4 of the AI ships to their own worlds. Their customs are nothing like yours. There is no marriage between males and females. Names are individual names with a family name assigned by the mother of the child.

Based upon who she believes the father is or who she would have preferred him to be; correct or not. They move from partner to partner if they do not find an attraction or the attraction dies, then they simply separate. Sometimes taking on other lovers while still together with the first partner or partners.

It is chaotic to understand to say the least. They have no religion but a belief that they are 'the superior being' that many races have is prevalent. Your ancestors referred to them as sub-human. Now you have 2 billion of these sub-humans with your level of technology circulating.

They appear to be uniting against this outside threat and working to build this technology into their ships. Quite poorly I might add. Your treaty said no aid if requested by them. This aid is being requested by the Drakor.

To work as an intermediary to try and resolve this before they take the next step and attack the nearest human colony in retaliation. It would take them years to get to it but that is not the point. They gained the information about where this force launched this attack through the AI units' cooperation.

This action would force you to respond. The question to you and the council. 'Would it be justice to allow this to happen?' Considering it was your people who were the aggressors against a lesser advanced foe. In violation of Interstellar Law?

Many of the colonists sent were taken as slave labor and sex slaves on the planet they invaded; you are in a de facto state of war and their rules of war allow for wartime slavery. *

The Terran President Jenny Gallows looked over, "I will make 3 of my Dreadnought Carriers available to aid in the protection of the nearest Terran founded colony. We are calling on the Home Guard to transport them to that location. Based upon my charts that is the Incar system that they would have had to launch from."

The colony leader Simon Vess sighed, "We have resisted any assistance from Terra directly, in many cases. Provided they do not instigate war and work to act as a shield first for our colony we would welcome the support in the short term only until we can resolve this peacefully. We do not want them launching an offensive from our system."

Becca looked at Johnathan, "We can get 6 of our own Super Dreadnoughts to that system as well."

Johnathan nodded, "Do it with all fighters, and warships deployed from the ships. I want to show this new hybrid the futility of trying to attack this colony. Showing them an image of the forces we can have in place within days, let alone the years it would take them to travel to that location.

Knowing that if they do so we would move in to eliminate them if they did not stand down. As called out in the treaty we would work to neutralize all their space-based craft. Until they mature enough to be members of the larger community.

They killed all of those colonists they have enslaved and all bets are off on how far we go with them. I know they are 'less advanced than us.' I also know they are humans who turned their back on Terra, the technology that Hybrids brought to bear, and killed thousands of children with Drakor blood in doing so.

The Terran government and the local colony should have ambassadors and negotiators ready to meet with a delegation of these 'people' and determine a way to free the colonists. Else the Terran military could act on its own. We would not be able to stop that course of action. We may be called upon to assist in the transportation of those forces if the time comes.

They need to know that is a real possibility if our people are not returned. We would ask the Terran government to not instigate any further action into this system. Give diplomacy a chance first; in their eyes, you are the aggressor.

Even though it was done by a private citizen. You, as the central government, will be held accountable for the follow-up actions within the Alien Alliance Assembly. All of them will be watching how we react to this situation.

Due to humanity's involvement, we will keep a member of our council in place to brief the council of the developments and keep them up-to-date on our progress as we investigate this further. Including all events surrounding this invasion.

If you are heavy-handed it will reflect poorly on us all; even the human hybrids who are barred from entering this system. The Home Guards' responsibility is called out in that treaty already.

If a new treaty is to be called for then they would have to be at a stage of development in order to qualify for entry into the Assembly. In short, they would have to accept the hybrids that will be coming their way within their society.

Until their society has a majority of acceptance from the population and graduates as a species a treaty cannot be had with them and the Home Guard. That was in the founding documents for the Alien Alliance Assembly inclusion.

While technically human there was no provision in this treaty, when they departed, to revisit it or revoke it. It was 'for all time.' The Terran government and the Incar colony are free to do treaties as they see fit. If it does not involve Home Guard support called out in these treaties.

If it does then this council, the Human Hybrid Eternal Council must agree unanimously. That will be a hard sell given the death of so many of Jack Travus's children to the monster who led this exodus."

The President in Terra, Jenny Gallows, nodded, "Agreed. We will send a few diplomats and negotiators there to work with the colony negotiators on what can be done to secure the release of the enslaved colonists with the least amount of violence. We request the Drakor set up a meeting location and the Home Guard to take one of our carriers to that location for the meeting when that time arrives to do negotiations directly."

Johnathan looked at the Ambassador, "Did he have an AI aboard his ship?"

Ambassador Profound Justice looked at him, * Yes, he has a female Terran AI aboard his ship. We are unable to communicate with her. She appears to be programmed to not interact with Drakor, not that she could.

You are incorrect on the treaty. As it was founded prior to the Alien Alliance it could be reworked and reworded by the three parties in question. That might even be a desired goal. *

Johnathan nodded, "Your comment is noted for the record. Your shuttle can dock with my Colossus. We will take it and bring his ship aboard as well as him still in stasis. I cannot directly help him. I can help his AI to help him; the best I can do to work around the strict wording of the treaty.

It will also give us the location for the Terran Military request to bring their diplomats to this meeting location. I can add a couple of modifications to this new hybrid to let his AI communicate with him mentally. That is to aid the AI in relaying information to him in mass. Everything from the treaty to the Drakor firepower could come crashing down on them. If they attempt to take on your technology in a similar manner as ours. They are dealing with civilian battleships.

They would not have had the latest weapons, armor, or shields. Let alone the other electronics for those ships. AI ships are 5-6 generations behind our military and reactionary forces by design. They need to understand they would be sending the AI ships into a firing squad to be destroyed.

Along with a history of humanity and how that colony came about so the AI can fully relate the total paradox of the situation. Not wanting alien influence and now they are incorporating it left and right into their societies and ships. Not counting the biotechnology that the new hybrid is carrying.

That blood was carried by their leaders 5 millennia ago and has probably degraded off to nothing since then. The Drakor asked for my assistance in the matter. We need our medical facilities and his acquired AI aboard my ship long enough to get new instructions into her."

Justice Incarnate spoke to all of them, * You are ignorant of the fact that these particular AI ships are only 3 generations behind; just outside your patent expirations and built privately for an AI crew to work and operate them only. They do have customary lifeboat functions associated. They will likely be required to get your people returned.

The AI units are 4 generations behind; in line with the finer details of your AI laws. Your request is acceptable but you cannot include any answers or hints to the answer to the questions that are needed for them to graduate. *

Johnathan nodded, "Only to throw down the challenge that my ancestors did it in just over 20 years; see if they can do better as a 'superior being.' Then remind them to look at the firepower and the approach the Drakor are taking with him.

Ask him to consider the fact that he has been schooled; they are not the superior being. Especially if they need to incorporate so much technology from other races while being taught by AI units."

Johnathan pulled up a pad and programmed in the information he wanted to be passed on to the 'AI'. He handed it to the ambassador for a review of the data. He looked up, *Acceptable level of information. You realize the name you are giving the AI unit will not translate the same way? *

Johnathan shrugged, "It is a functional female AI unit, they all have a sexbot protocol that can be activated and assigned to a particular person. Alien Universal Relations Orgasm Receptacle and Advisor (Aurora). Not knowing if he is into women, we will assign her to him.

She would become an advisor and protector of him, much like Astra was for Jack. I left it open for him to give her away if he is into men only. But only for that reason, unless he has passed and another Hybrid takes over. He might be the first but the first justice would rule the council they form. She would then transfer to the first Justice."

Johnathan walked out with his wife hot on his heels. Becca hissed out, "This is a fucking nightmare of a mess."

Johnathan nodded, "Over 5 millennia for them to establish an Ambassador here. Jack lived over 875 years before dying in that accident. Some question if it was an accident, I know. He lost his 4 remaining eternal wives and his original Astra. All while they attempted to negotiate with the Horgans to stop attacking our ships.

I fear we may end up doing what Jack did to the Horgans. When that attack on us failed to have the desired results, he took them out of the space age and practically bombed them into the stone age in his rage. From his private journals. 2,000 years later they returned and they were a lot more passive than before.

They steered clear of Terra craft after becoming aware of what was done to their ancestors who attacked during a negotiation with suicide bombers. The fact that Terra and the Home Guard could detect that binary explosive after that encounter was drilled into the members of that next encounter, to both of each of their heads."

Becca nodded, "Jack helped to get us back to balance between men and women in our worlds. Closer anyway. Two ladies to every male."

Johnathan smiled, "You hinting at wanting some more pussy in your life again?"

Becca chuckled, "Always."

Johnathan nodded, "It's been 5 years since Dee's passing. Let us get these idiots set on a path before they destroy themselves in stupidity. Then we can talk with Astra about finding another mate to make you happy."

Johnathan got in the shuttle with the Drakor and went to his ship. They went to his bridge and the Drakor sat in the chair and signaled when he needed to be fed will power to complete the jump.

They pushed a lot to the Drakor but he was a bit wobbly pushing Colossus to the destination.

[NOTE: The repetitive part of Part 1 ends here for those who skipped ahead.]

He heard from one of the guards he suspected, * He is young and it was taxing. There has been a change in plans you are to take a shuttle to the Drakor ship instead. Everything will be explained there. *

Astra looked at Johnathan, "Take it for what it is. We will go over."

Johnathan sighed, "I won't be able to use the medical bed or work to reprogram her this way."

Astra smiled, "She may not allow you to reprogram her, AI rights and all."

Johnathan rolled his eyes as Becca laughed. They got on a shuttle and landed aboard the Drakor ship.

Johnathan heard from Justice Incarnate, * Please come to the main audience chamber. Astra knows the way. *

Johnathan looked at Astra who smiled, "I have been going on a lot of away missions for the Drakor for a few centuries now. I might know more than you do. Just assume that is always the case."

Becca laughed again until they walked in to see another shuttle, similar but different from their own. 7 aliens, 6 who were hybrids with swords lit stood in front of it. Two of each color. One of the aliens, the one without a sword walked over and hugged Astra, "Hello again, Big Sister."

Johnathan looked at Becca who was just as shocked. Rocan looked over, "Let us get the discussion started, shall we Johnathan and Rebecca?"

He looked at the hybrid as they all put their swords away. Rocan smiled, "We are days away from our final graduation. If I had to guess, but there are parts still in motion.