The Signal Ch. 05: Rapture

One month later.

A GNN news segment is once again broadcast to the nation, showing itself in televisions and radio broadcasts everywhere. "The Kingdom of Oukashka and the Unohuan Republic are currently in a conference after last week's announcement of an amendment to the Peace Treaty of 6583. Political experts say that--"

It was a clear night sky. The full moon hangs overhead, its light rippling with the waves that crashed gently as a small radio broadcasting news to the couple. Gallo nervously was shirtless, never before had he imagined he was going skinny dipping. "Well, looks like they finally made up. It looks like our final product made quite the difference."

Tika chuckled. "Three years of bickering and threats, three years of life that could have been so much more productive, and all it took was a simple ear piece made by a group of graduates and a Oukashkan spy."

"I'm sure he's being treated as a war hero back home. And what a difference, huh? If all goes well, we'll finally see the end to all of that. Thousands of years of conflict, of old hatreds, of all that subversion and ugliness. We could see the end of it all at long last. And you and I, we spearheaded that. We made this."

"No, we all made it. We all made this happen."

Gallo looked at Tika, his hand stroking her neck and between the feathers. "Well, you definitely look so pretty under the moonlight, and the silky smooth."

Tika blinked slowly, her brilliant eyes shone with her own soul, "and you are quite the bright one yourself."

"A bright one who is afraid to swim," Gallo looked out at the sea nervously, embarrassed to even go in the lapping waves. He inched closer to Tika, with their naked bodies almost pressing.

"Not to worry, Gallo. I know a way to remedy that," then the two of them rubbed their necks and cheeks against each other, feeling each other's warmth and softness. "Hand in hand."

The two got up and held hands as they made their way to the sea. Gallo leans in to nuzzle his mate. When the cold waves inundated his feet up to his knees.

"It's cold, it's cold...!" His feathers ruffled and flared up from the shock.

"Shhh, I'm right here."

Gallo grunted and hissed as his entire body puffed up from the shock, with the water now up to his ankles. But he was starting to calm down. "Oh gods, I've never done this before!"

Tika rubbed gently her hands against the base of Gallo's neck, calming him and reassuring him. "It's okay. We'll take it nice and slow. Nice and slow."

It wasn't long before Gallo found himself knee-deep in cold seawater, but it already felt... not warmer but somehow normal.

"Okay, it's not bad. It's not bad, not bad..." He breathed carefully, keeping a cool head over the situation.

"There, that's it." Tika assured him. Soon the water reached their bellies, but they feel a comforting squishiness of the sand between their toes.

"I'm just so glad you're with me," Gallo laid his neck close to Tika, and he held onto her body gently as he calmed his nerves.

"Umm... Gallo?"

"Hmm?"

"Not that I mind but do you know what you're holding?" She chuckled as she cradled Gallo lightly.

He peeked at his hand and then rubbed against her to feel what it was. It was her crop, firm, round and pendulous.

"Oh!"

"Don't stop. It feels good."

He was going to stumble back before regaining his composure. He stopped a moment, then he smiled. "Okay. We'll do it as long as you like."

He put his hand back on her crop and gently rubbed it, feeling its fullness, its firmness and smoothness. It felt natural, t wasn't artificially stuffed with strange implants or objects like some do it. No, it was honest, grand and beautiful, just like her.

After getting each other comfortable, Gallo tried other techniques. He lifted it up with his hand, then pressed it against her body, and then massaged it with his fingers.

"Oooooh, you sneak!" She nibbled at Gallo's neck, ruffling up the feathers even more.

"That's it, I'm goin' commando!" He proceeds to kiss Tika as they waded back to shore as powerful desires overcame them. What happened next was a blur.

Gallo and Tika both washed up on the shore, panting and cuddling close to one another as waves of bliss from the aftermath washed them over.

"Wow. Oh my gods, just wow." Tika flicked her head and panted from the experience.

"I don't think it's supposed to feel so good... wooh!" The two panted repeatedly, not even caring that the waves kept splashing over them.

"And you... you made quite a bit of noise up there. Hahaha!"

Gallo chuckled. "Tika? There's something I want to tell you... about you."

Tika turned her head, "go ahead?"

"Tika... I've met thousands of women in my life. Teachers, librarians, politicians, students, clerks, receptionists, train conductors and even my own mother... of course. Heheh... But out of all of them, even out of the ones that I have known deeply my whole life, I have never met a greater and more wonderful being than you. You, Tika. You are smart, strong and sexy. You have a strong and brilliant mind that can cut through any problem that comes your way, and you love to learn without fear of what you will find. You have an incredible body. Heck, you can kick down thick steel doors with legs like yours!"

Tika smiled as she narrowed her eyes, staring longingly at him.

Gallo continued, "you have an incredible body. Heck, you can kick down thick steel doors with legs like yours!"

"I will certainly try, Gallo."

"I'd love to see that. You have an amazing heart that loves without fear or with strings attached. It pumps the blood of mighty warriors and Kings going back centuries. Oh, and the crop to match. But most of all... most of all... Your personality. You are kind, funny, and you don't let anything get you down. You know how to be yourself and keep on striding without losing track of who you are or where you're going. This I say with conviction.

"I love you, Tika. That will never change."

"And I love you too. That will never change....and Gallo?"

"Hmm?"

"We can keep going as long as we like. We have all night until we sleep."

She lifts her hefty crop teasingly, staring devilishly at her partner. Even after the deed, her very being continues to simply burst with seduction. She is not tired in the slightest! Neither of them are.

"Well then, I'm up for round two."

So they continued to mate, doing so with furious succession with no apparent cease. Their bodies held a new vigor unlike anything before even well into the night. Time ceased to be. Time ceased to have meaning. It had no meaning. It was only the two of them in their own microcosm, their own personal heaven, running with the pulsing from their bodies.

After the final and sedate session, the couple laid their heads down and cuddled against one another, intertwining their necks as they slept.

Boom boom...

Boom boom...

Boom boom...

"Your children..."

Gallo's consciousness rose up from its slumber, and he found himself... floating?

A palpable, distant heartbeat pulsed against the air from seemingly everywhere.

And that voice...

"He is the first of a new dawn..."

It sounded feminine, yet very odd.

Then he mustered his eyes open - and was mortified by what he saw. He found himself in a vast oval-shaped room resembling a lab, but instead of metal and gas lamps, it was... plant-flesh? Glowing bulbs and 'wall-tubes' provided the lighting, shining from the walls and ceiling. The ceiling was more 'conventional,' little different from sunlight, while that of the walls was phosphorescent, pulsing and flowing gently with a brilliant glow. The entire area held an alien beauty, hardly like one would expect of a spaceship.

He found himself floating in a transparent pod shaped like a giant egg. He was still nude but with rubbery vine-like "wires" strewn across his body.

Staring back out from the other side of the 'glass,' was an utter giant of a being, whose smooth, round serpentine head faced him with enormous black eyes, belying an inscrutable intelligence. It - she - held an almost divine grace and beauty to her form, like a seamless blend of plant and animal. Her otherwise floral-green skin shimmered with the most brilliant of colors and patterns that dazzle conventional logic, from simple waves and branching stripes to swirling self-repeating patterns, colors undulating like in a cuttlefish.

Her body stood erect almost like a First Primate, but with a single pair of arms that Gallo could see, but they were more like stalky tendrils that bent like tentacles than jointed limbs. On her chest sported a pair of 'breasts' that were amber in color, contrasted from the rest of her body.

Somehow Gallo felt calmer and more rational from her presence, quelling his terror despite her strange form. Even more strangely, despite meeting her for the first time he felt as if he had met her before, as if recognizing her from his deepest bones or some long-forgotten memory from another lifetime. She almost seemed motherly, immensely wise, intelligent, patient, and more.

What was when Gallo realized where he was - and who he was dealing with.

"Congratulations, young one," her voice reverberated with no noise. Gallo realized she wasn't even moving her mouth! "...for working so hard to bring your world together... to pave the way to your destiny... You... Your kind... Are worthy. At long last, you have passed our tests."

"T-tests? Who... who are you? Where's Tika?"

The great entity turned to her right and points with a long, thick tendril-arms, pointing with a long and curled index finger. There was Tika, floating peacefully within her own egg-pod. This time she was holding her belly. And what's strange, that heartbeat sound was coming from her. It was her heart beating, deep and sedate. The sound somehow being expressed from an unknown source outside.

"Are you... Are you the aliens who sent us these signals?"

"Yes. We are."

Gallo's beak hung open, utterly stunned as he put it all together. Those signals. Those schematics. Those tests. This was all her doing!

Actually, who was she?

"It's you. But... who are you?"

"I am Almora the Curator, the captain of the Trillium Lightcatcher. We call ourselves the Seeders. Our purpose is to spread life. To study it, to grow it, to cultivate it, to protect it."

"But why us? Why come to us after all this way just to see us?"

"We have encountered your world, and your kind from millennia past. We monitored you, your progress. When we received the first signals from your world, we sought to investigate. And now, here we are.

"And look! We even have your little exploration vessel! It was fun to look at."

She moved aside to give way to a levitating platform, holding an unmistakable object half her own size. It was the Sojourner-1, the NAAA satellite sent to investigate Garorla and its many moons! It was in pristine condition and fully intact.

"That's... what did you-? How did-?"

"Do not fear, little one. We will release it when we are finished here. We only made some adjustments. As for you, Gallo and Tika, you possess a gift. Your children, and their children, and their children's children and on and on will inherit the Gift. All your species will."

"Gift? What gift?"

"The Gift of Life. The Gift of Voidfarers. For every new world you go, you will adapt to it quicker than in natural evolution, even within a single generation. We grant it to your species so that their children may inherit it, so you will join in the celebration of Life and all within it, to aid and even, one day, succeed us in this eternal quest."

"W-wait a minute, how'd you know our names?"

"We have been observing you, receiving your messages and signal sent by your transmitters. I see you have many more questions you need answered."

"...yeah, I do."

"Then ask."

Gallo opened his beak to speak, but he found himself at a loss on what to tell her. There is just so much - too much - that he needed to know. He will have to narrow it down. He asked her the first thing that came to mind.

"What is your homeworld? Where do you come from, you Seeders I mean?"

"Nowhere and everywhere. The whole of the galaxy is our home and our frontier, at once our garden and a wilderness. We have no home, and we have them all."

What could this mean? Does this mean they somehow conquered the entire galaxy without the gakanu race knowing? The thought frightened him a little; he was grateful they seem so peaceful.

"You mean... did you? I don't want to offend but uhh... do you actually own the galaxy? Like, conquered it?"

She suddenly laughed out loud, rearing her head up and putting her 'wrist' on her head, opening her small mouth. Her 'breasts' moved and swung subtly from the momentum. Once she is calm, she answers, "no, no! No. We are not conquerors, taking worlds and stars to our liking. We are gardeners. We travel the galaxy not to control it but to enrich it, so that all beings present and in the far future can enjoy it and prosper from our work, even long after we have ceased to be. We are not masters but servants, serving a duty for the future. We are not takers but givers, providing for those yet to be born. The tests that we have brought to you was only the smallest part of this grander goal."

Gallo took a moment to process this. Her mentioning of the 'test' made him want to know exactly what that was, but he decided he should ask some follow-up questions first. He cannot miss such the incredible opportunity to learn more about this other race!

"What happened to your homeworld? Surely you had to have come from somewhere."

Almora pause for a moment, as if in some contemplation. "We too have asked this question ourselves. Alas, the answer is we do not know. Our kind have lived for many eons; whatever homeworld we had, in the sense of the planet you call Oluna, it is lost to us now - forgotten. But we can offer you our speculations based on what we know of ourselves, if you wish it?"

"Sure, anything's better than nothing."

"Very well. Based on our own data, we believe we come from a single species or even genus of organisms derived from the native flora of our original home. But as our evolution continued, our once-sessile ancestors gained what you would call animal-like characteristics. We began to move, chasing sunlight or food, which gave way to sensory perception, synaptic behaviors, judgement and, in time, intelligence and reason. Soon we coalesced into societies and then civilization. From civilization came philosophy, then to science, our technology and knowledge expanded, soon giving way to void-ships like the one we are in now, then to interstellar travel.

"But for reasons unknown, we had lost or forgotten our homeworld, forcing us to travel in great vessels. We speculate some catastrophe forced us out, others believe that we had ventured to space for so long that we simply forgot of it, no longer feeling any ties to it."

"That's gotta be terrible. I hope you can find it again someday."

"We thank you for your sympathy, Gallo. But fear not, it is long past us now. We hold little connection to it anymore. Our oldest records only go back fifty million years from today."

This high number caught him off-guard, ruffling his feathers from his head and neck, "fifty million?"

"According to our oldest records, yes. Does it surprise you?"

"Kinda, yeah. Our own scientists believe our own species goes back 700,000 years, and some of our earliest ancestors some 5,000,000."

Almora chuckled, again putting her fingers over her mouth. "Well, we don't feel that old. But yes, we do seem to last longer than many civilizations we have encountered. But enough of that."

He felt a bit of dread at the implication not only that other alien civilizations exist in the universe, but also that they periodically rise, fall and die out, and that the Seeders like her are around long enough to see it all. Gallo shook his head of these grim thoughts and changed the subject. "You mentioned something about testing us and that we passed. What was the test?"

"I am not at liberty to provide details but I will tell you what I know you will understand. We have observed that you are capable of grand group projects as required of civilization, but also that you are prone to violent conflict, sometimes motivated by doctrinal differences, other times motivated by long-held rivalries, or to secure resources and wealth, or from the ambitions of a charismatic leader or body politic, or even from sheer bloodthirst.

"What's more," she added. "We observed a change of behavior when your civilization developed weapons that could destroy a planet - in your case, nuclear explosives. Normally this would have spelled doom to some civilizations and the planets they were on.

"The test was that you overcome these violence inclinations with reasoning and empathy, not only for 'the other' but for all your species and all life on your planet, not only for the moment but consistently and in the spirit of peace. You have passed."

Gallo couldn't help but feel judged from this observation. Almora's observation was not judgmental or aggrandizing but cool and matter-of-fact. It was never a secret to the gakanu race that it had a violent history, one rife with conquests, slavery and even genocides like the one conducted by Tyl II. Could the Seeders have somehow witnessed those horrors first-hand? What of the ravages of the Makrakka Horde, or even the battles of antiquity like the Battle of the Five Passes and the conquests of Shu the Great?

Almora continued, "as a reward, your species will be given the Gift, so that your children, their children, and all their descendants after will come together as one and better conquer every peril that this universe will offer."

"What does it look like?"

She raises up a hand and points arranged in a hexagon glow on her palms. Then a hologram of sorts appears before him. Something about it alarmed him. It shows what clearly looks like a virus.

"It will enter into your cells and insert parts of their code into them, changing it, purging it of malign mutations. Do not fear, Gallo," She assured him, "we have designed it so it only affects your gonads and sex cells. In so doing, your offspring will be born with the Gift. There should be no ill effects from it... aside from perhaps a temporary increase of libido. Before we leave, we will disperse it throughout the planet so as many of your species as possible can benefit."

He paused again as he took it all in. Despite Almora's assurances, he still wasn't immediately comfortable with the idea of being infected with a virus, even a benign one. But then he remembered a recent finding suggesting that viral DNA exists in literally every living thing on Oluna stretching back billions of years. Perhaps this isn't that bad?

"I... I understand. It sounds like we have a big responsibility ahead of us."

"That you do. But you do not need worry about it right now - only when the time comes. As I said, we Seeders have roamed the galaxy and more for more than fifty million years. I know you can make it.

"We have preparations to make," she said, "the next morning will be a great one. Please, pardon me for a moment."

She slowly turns her head around to tend to a nearby command console, typing down some strange commands. As she does, Gallo's brain tries to grasp something in his mind.

Fifty million. Fifty million. That number sounds familiar. Incredibly so. It reminded him of something, something that should be common knowledge. Then he finally got it! Eureka! There was only one other who was around at that time. Could it be that...? No, he thought. That could just be coincidence. And yet...? There is only one way to find out.