The Day The Aliens Regretted Sending the Probes (for Countdown321 and Blurugirl)

[Blurugirl]

(Note to the casual reader: Another attempt of mine to write with a one-on-one system roleplay!)

Twenty fifth century Earth had become the Rome of the Galaxy.

Unfortunately, it was the Rome of Constantine, not the Rome of Augustus.

It was in the 22nd century that Earth discovered it was truly not alone in the galaxy. That was when it discovered Faster-Than-Light Drive. But back then, most civilizations were confined to their own proverbial back yard. Light speed travel was just that. Light speed. FTL drive technology had somehow gotten around that whole how long it takes to get from X to Y depends on whether you were doing the driving or the watching. If someone traveled from Earth to Alpha Centauri and back again at light speed, it took eight years, no matter if you were on the ship. or waiting on Earth for the ship to return.

The down side, though, was that it still took eight years.

Sentient species spread out to different star systems, but there were no intergalactic governments because it just wasn't possible to rule another planet when all your communications with them were effectively limited by how fast you could get a ship there. At best, most species had a commonwealth, and interplanetary war was an exercise in futility. Wars were usually fought with extermination of the inhabiting species in mind, and even those were rare. First of all, all the intelligence species capable of FTL drive were spread dozens of light years apart. So it would take concentrated effort to launch a campaign that would take decades to reach their destination. And one of the odd coincidences of nearly all the sentient species was the fact that their lifespans ranged from one to two centuries, with the notable exception being the Senoyargs (whom we will discuss momentarily). And an unfortunate byproduct of FTL drive was that it created benign and generally useless particles that traveled faster than light. Except the further out you started, the faster the particles accelerated So if you were species X looking to invade the system of Species Y who was fifty light years away, you had to plan for an invasion fleet that would take fifty years to get somewhere. And Species Y would know that you were coming, and how big your invasion fleet was, decades before you got there. So general tolerance became the galactic norm simply because it wasn't worth the effort to launch a cultural conquest against someone else.

The only exception to all of the above were the Senoyargs. The Senoyargs were the first sentient species in the general neighborhood of Earth who had discovered the FTL drive. They were also a long lived species, with life spans reaching a thousand years or more. So the prospect of long voyages between star systems didn't phase them in the least. Many Senoyargs had, in fact, been born, lived and died on starships that spent centuries traveling from one star system to the next.

The thing was, though, the Senoyargs were an old and decadent race. Some might even call them perverts. The ships they sent from world to world? They weren't looking to explore new worlds, meet new cultures or even scope out potential new colonies or conquests.

They were making intergalactic porn.

So all those people on Earth in the twentieth century who were abducted by gray skinned black eyed aliens and getting anal probed? Unwitting porn stars filling a niche market back on the Senoyarg homeworld.

The humans weren't unique in filling this particular role in Senoyarg culture. Whenever the Senoyargs discovered a sentient species entering their industrial age, a Senoyarg ship would enter orbit, abduct a few denizens, see what kinks the local species was good for, and then head back to their homeworld. And for the new few centuries, a miniature fleet of competing Senoyarg porn ships would abduct yokels for such feature films as "Close Encounter of the Kinky Kind" and "My Favorite Martian Position."

When said civilization achieved faster-than-light travel, the Senoyargs left them alone. Not out of any thought of the species as now being equal. Rather, the Senoyargs recognized that the species now had the capability to blow their porn ships out of space. Besides, there were other species to exploit, so why bother?

Of course, the species the Senoyargs had exploited weren't so forgiving, but none of them could do anything about it.

And then came the humans.

When the humans achieved FTL, one Senoyarg ship hadn't gotten the word, and headed into the Solar System.

And found themselves captured by a Human Defense Fleet.

The humans already knew they had been used by the Senoyargs, but they hadn't known to what extent. On board the Senoyarg ship, however, was a collection of films called "The Anal Probe Anthology." It had been so successful on the Senoyarg homeworld that the ship was there to film the sequel.

This infuriated humanity. It infuriated Earth's governing body, the Human Hegemony, and all its citizens. It infuriated them to the point that Humanity genetically engineered out the desire of any human anywhere to ever want to have anal sex. It infuriated them to the point that, centuries later, it resulted in the short lived war with the tentacled people of Xenidera Tau Four, who were conquered, occupied and forced to genetically engineer themselves so that, if any Xenideran ever got to hook up with a human girl, he wouldn't even think about trying to anally probe her. A little spanking, sure, but anal probing? Not going to happen. And in centuries to come, alien ambassadors would double check anything going to a human world to make sure it couldn't be even remotely construed as being suggestive of anal sex, for fear of being the target of a Human War.

But I'm getting ahead of my history here. Humans were pissed. But there wasn't really anything they could do about it. Even if they could launch an attack on the Senoyarg Homeworld, it would take decades to get there, and the Senoyargs were already well defended. They had been pissing off aliens for decades. They were ready for an attack. So the Senoyargs just marked Earth off their list of planets they could film on and didn't give the humans a second thought.

But humans were pissed, and they were crafty. And for the first time in our part of the galaxy, a new FTL drive was invented. FTL 2.0. Now instead of taking one year to travel a light year, it could be traveled in six months.

On the big scale, it really didn't change much. Cutting an eight year trip to four years was still a long time for a voyage to a nearby star system. But in comparison, it wasn't THAT long. And an extermination trip to the Senoyard home world from Earth would now only take thirty-five years. Plus, all the sensors everyone had to detect FTL travel was for the only known version. So when the Senoyarg Homeworld detected the approaching Earth fleet, they just laughed. They already had defenses ready, and they had decades to get ready besides.

And then one morning, a Terran fleet, four times larger than sensors had indicated, and thirty years earlier than it was supposed to be there, arrived in the Soneyarg star system and blew everything to smithereens. And then began the Terran hunting down of every Senoyarg porn ship it could find and blowing them to smithereens.

Two things happened that day. Senoyargs became mythical creatures, with a sighting of a surviving Senoyarg ship being as rare as a sighting of the Lochness monster, and just as equally believed. And no one ever mentioned anal probing to any human anywhere ever again.

After that, things began changing in the galaxy. Once everyone knew that FTL drive could be improved on, they tried to find out if it could be improved on more. By the twenty-fifth century, FTL 7.0 had been invented, which allowed a ship to travel a light year in 5 days and 16 hours. At the time of this story, FTL 7.0 is consider the ultimate limit of FTL speed. Besides, another method of travel was discovered in the 24th century that would change everything.

It was discovered that a number of star systems were connected with naturally occuring hyperspace tunnels allowing for instantaneous travel between two star systems. Earth was discovered to have three of these tunnels. But the big game changer was that a human colony called Byzantine was discovered to possess no less than nine of these tunnels. This was unusual in that most systems were lucky if they had even one, and the most any system had ever been discovered to have was four.

So a hundred years after this discovery, things have changed. For one, the administrative, military and financial center of the Human Confederation was Byzantine. Oh, sure, all the great families had estates on Earth, and Earth still considered itself the cultural center of humanity, but all the big decisions were made on Byzantine, and every alien race that ruled more than one star system made sure they had an embassy on Byzantine.

Still, Earth had its charms, and there were still mysteries to discover if one left Earth. And it is on Earth that one young man is about to discover a life of adventure and exploration. And it all starts with a letter asking him to report to the offices of a law firm called Norbert, Anniston and Allister.

 

[Countdown321]

Rand Mercer grew up an only child of a fantastic single mother and that was pretty much all he knew about his family. What he knew about his birth father was based around what she told him when he was younger, never having any problem letting the young boy know about her past. She was young, drunk and wild and his father was - in her own words - 'hotter than the sun'. They seemed to have dated for about three months, until he found out that she was pregnant, at which point he vanished. She always claimed that she was more pissed at being left hanging than heartbroken. A couple of years later, he showed up out of the blue with his own ship, claiming that he wanted to try and be a father to his son. She told him that if that's what he wanted, then she didn't really mind or care... and a month later he vanished with all her savings. He left a message, claiming that he was going to use the money to make even more - likely gambling. That was twenty years ago and the next time Rand and his mother, Anna, heard about his father, it came in the form of a letter addressed to the young man from a law firm. They didn't share any real information in the letter, which led Anna to blow her fuse, already expecting his deadbeat of a father to sue them for something in an attempt to get more money. It took Rand all he had to calm down his mother and convince her that he needed to go there by his lonesome.

It wasn't like Rand was a little boy anymore. In his twenty-two years of life, he had learned a lot and done a fair bit, yet he never once left his little town in the middle of nowhere, back on Earth. Raised mostly by his mother, he would sometimes be left in the care of his maternal grandmother, an ex-military doomsday preper. The woman was convinced that one day, some super advanced alien race of robots would start spreading through the universe and conquering worlds. So he did the only logical thing and built a super fortified and highly illegal bunker under her home which consisted of a network of tunnels, with half of them equipped with deadly weapons and booby-traps. Boy did she love showing off her bunker to her grandson and teach him how to fight the GODDAMN SOULLESS WORLD CONQUERING ROBOTS that haunted her nightmares. This included, but wasn't limited to, how to use all kinds of rifles, with her preferring snipers as it would allow him to stay away from the UNSTOPPABLE MURDEROUS MECHANICAL SWARM and piloting skills to outmaneuver them. This is where the boy developed a general love for robotics and mechanics. At first, his grandmother was appalled... then she saw him take apart a small robot and put it back together at the age of eleven and she assumed his skill could be used to gather information of the IMPENDING DOOM BOTS FROM THE DEEP DARK VOID. Ah... it was a fun childhood.

Arriving in the big city where the firm of Norbert, Anniston and Allister was located, Rand realized that this was essentially the first time that he had come to such a big place. His clothes were old and outdated, so it was clear that he wasn't from around there and the awed look in his eye screamed country-bumpkin or colony trash. He didn't exactly mind the staring, he was just happy to learn about a new place like this. So after finding the rather large building where the law firm was located, he spent the next two hours before the meeting just exploring the surrounding area. Once the two hours were up, he readied himself and went inside... not really knowing what to expect.

 

[Blurugirl]

Norbert, Anniston and Allister was one of those firms that was upscale enough that it could afford to look a little dumpy. This was primarily because a good deal of their clientele were offworlders who felt obliged to have holdings on Earth, but didn't actually want to spend time on Earth. And because they didn't spend time on Earth, they had preconceived notions of what Earth must be like. A little dumpy, a little backward...nothing at all like Byzantine, where everything was new and flashy and cutting edge.

Mind you, Earth was far from being a backwater. For one thing, it had three hyperspace connections, which would make it a major hub in any other part of the Human Confederation. And for another thing, it was Earth. The birthplace of Humans, the most respected/feared/noteworthy spacefaring race in the known galaxy.

But offworlders who came from Byzantine or the other major hubs of the Human Confederation who had never been to Earth had their expectation of what Earth was like. So Norbert, Anniston and Allister felt obliged to live up, or rather live down, to their expectations. And truth be told, there were wide swaths of Earth and the nearby colony worlds, reachable only by FTL drive, where the hick density was greater than any other part of the Human Confederation. Earth probably had a greater share of Preppers against Unknown Alien Invasion than any other part of the Confederation.

But back to the offices of Norbert, Anniston and Allister. Their outer offices could be considered quaint, with actual upholstered furniture with floral prints and a slightly bored bimbo-esque looking receptionist and papers and books and such other outdated things all over the place. But this was all a face. The legal minds at the firm were the top in the galaxy, and there was any number of electronic devices available underneath the exterior. And that bimbo-esque looking receptionist had a laser sharp mind, and was a retired special forces sergeant ta boot.

But to keep up its run down appearance, the law firm did its share of pro bono work to bring it rough looking clients into the office.

Which is why the blonde receptionist wasn't surprised when a young hayseed walked into the office. In a bored voice, she asked, "Yeah, can I help you?"

 

[Countdown321]

Considering the most awe-inspiring buildings that Rand had seen in his life were the mayor's office in his small town and that one time he went to Kopernikus, the next town over, and saw the big museum twentieth century museum... this supposedly shabbier looking law firm still had an amazing style and look to it. The moment he stepped inside, he looked around at the glass walls and glass walkways. There was even a moment where he seemed unsure if he should step on the floor, for fear of the glass shattering under his weight, but once he found out how solid it was, he nearly had stars in his eyes. It was all a bit silly, yes, but the young man always had a wanderlust and a need to discover more about not just his world, but about the whole universe. He always thought about the possibility of one day going off-world and exploring new places. However, that was easier said than done. Tickets weren't cheap and to get a position in a ship's crew required an education or calling in favors. Mechanics that can maintain a ship were a dime-a-dozen nowadays and the newer models could even repair themselves better than a human could. Even as a pilot, he wouldn't get a job easily, since ships now had navigation systems so amazing that there was no need for pilots anymore. It didn't help that he had little access to ships going off-world from his little town either.

So this amazed young man walked around the place, paying attention to the cleaning robots that moved around, taking care of the place. Then his eyes finally landed on the woman behind the desk. Even she dressed differently than the girls from his small town. First of all, she had an amazing body, with a great figure. Then there was her overall style, with the blonde head and pretty red lips... and the tight dress. He was a bit enamored by her. If she were good at reading people, she'd see pure innocence and honesty in his eyes and a hint of a crush forming. Her style was something that really called to him and he had to catch himself with she spoke. "Hmm? Oh... right... sorry, you were so pretty that I was caught off guard, miss." He said, his speech naturally polite. "I'm Rand Mercer, I have an appointment... now I think?"

 

[Blurugirl]

The woman stared at the young man with vacuous eyes for a moment. Then a pink bubble appeared from her lips, grew, then popped. She began chewing the remnants of the pink bubble as she stared at some point behind Mercer's head for a few seconds, then turned to her computer screen.

"Sit over there," she instructed him, pointing to one of the upholstered chairs, which had a collection of magazines by it. Not computer tablets ready to be interfaced with, but actual, solid, pictures and printed word magazines. Considering that nobody printed magazines anymore, or had for centuries, the expense to produce such replicas in order to look a little dumpy was remarkable.

After having dismissed the hayseed, the receptionist pulled out a magazine of her own entitled "Prevailing" and began leafing through it,

 

[Countdown321]

Rand was still smiling when the receptionist looked at him with that empty look in her eyes. For a moment he thought that he was possibly being annoying to her, but then thought that she probably had a lot of work to deal with. She was likely tired from a hard day's work and here he was, this bumpkin coming in all cheerful and whatnot. Either that or she just didn't care about him, which was also very very possible. Regardless, she instructed him away and he gave her a nod and moved to the seat.

When he sat down, Rand spotted the magazines and grinned. He saw magazines before in the museum the next town over. His grandmother also had a magazine she said it used to belong to their great great great grandfather. It was locked away in a safe, where she kept her most sentimentally valuable belongings. He had the pleasure of flipping through it and while the articles within didn't really matter, it was still a cool piece of history. The recreations on the table were cool too. He picked one up and flipped through it as well, mostly focusing on the headlines and pictures.

After a while of waiting, he finally stood up. Rand had been throwing glances at the receptionist the whole time and he decided that he wanted to try and chat with her. She was one of the few new people he had talked to since leaving his hometown anyway. So he appeared and leaned over the counter with a smile. "You probably know since I have an appointment... but I'm Rand Mercer, may I have your name?" He paused and blushed a bit, catching himself. "I know it might be a bit forward, sorry. Couldn't help myself."

 

[Blurugirl]

The blonde looked up, popped her gum, pointed to the magazines, then returned to her own.

"Deloris, is that...Ah, there he is." The voice came from a plump, older man, a fringe of gray hair circling a pumpkin shaped head. "You must be Rand. Come in, my boy, come in." The man waved Jack into a small office with books...actual books...lining all four walls of his office. The only pieces of furniture in the office were a large wooden desk, an ancient looking chair on one side (which the plump man plopped himself into) and an overstuffed chair on the other side of the desk. Despite its decrepit appearance, the chair was geared to make itself the most comfortable chair its occupant could hope for.

"Sit, my boy, sit," the man said, gesturing for Rand to take that comfortable chair. "So, Rand, do you know why you're here?"

 

[Countdown321]

It would appear that the woman didn't much care for him. All in all, it seemed fair, since he was likely just being a nuisance to her at this point. Not wanting to press the issue further and make a fool of himself, Rand was about ready to leave her be, but another person appeared. The plump man seemed like a rather friendly and nice individual and Rand immediately smiled at him when he pointed the young man out. "Ah yes, that's me. Excuse me." He said politely, taking in the sight of the shabby looking office. He liked old styles like these, to be honest. The new, slick and high tech designs were too unnecessary sometimes.

Rand moved to the chair and sat down, leaning against it and immediately he closed his eyes and relaxed his body. It was such a comfortable chair. It looked old, but he was sure there were mechanisms that instantly read the sitter's body and adjusted itself. This was heavenly. He was only pulled away from the amazing comfort by the question. "No, sir. I just got a letter in the mail and came right on over. I assume this has something to do with my dad though?" He said.

 

[Blurugirl]

"Your father?" the plump man said, appearing momentarily confused. "Ah, yes, your father, your father. Now where was that?" The plump, bald man began rifling through his papers. "So tell me, how much do you know about your father?" he asked Rand and he continued searching through his papers. "Most importantly, how much do you know about his last trip?"

 

[Countdown321]

Rand rubbed his chin as he watched the rather rotund man talk about his father and thought about everything his mother had told him about his father. He couldn't exactly talk about how hot the guy was to her, so he went with the other piece of information she once shared. "All I know about my father was that he took my mom's money and fled off-world for whatever reason twenty years ago. So... I don't really know anything about his last trip, sir." He said, his speech still naturally polite.

 

[Blurugirl]

"Ah, yes, his last trip, his last trip," the plump lawyer said, almost to himself. The lawyer continued talking to himself, and it seemed almost as if he was talking himself to sleep. Suddenly, the volume of his voice returned his normal.

"Now, as we all know, my boy, since Alpha Centauri has not hyperspace tube of its own, and Earth is the closest planet to Alpha Centauri, a ship with the latest drive takes roughly three weeks to get there. Not forever, mind you, but you have to make a profit to be willing to take a month and a half out of your life for a round trip to Alpha Centauri. So the buggers there are doomed to be backwoods. Makes you think of the sailing ships on the water a millenia ago, wouldn't you say, my boy? But what if, beckoning to those times past, we found a Northwest Passage? Make the trip from there and back again in twenty days, rather than forty? Think of the possibilities, my boy, think of the possibilities, if there was a shortcut in the curve of space, or the space of the curve. Ah, the profit a man could make, if he just knew the way. Now, where were we? Right, your father. You knew he had a spaceship, didn't you? Not much to look at, but it had a 7.0 drive, which means it could make the trip at stop speed, which is still forty days and change, and not twenty."

 

[Countdown321]

Rand listened to the man talk about... something that seemingly didn't have a thing to do with his father. This made him confused, because he was starting to believe that the man was rambling on about nonsense. Yes, there were places that were so far away and without hyperspace tubes that going there was rare for most people. If they called his small town backwoods, then he can only imagine what it was like in Alpha Centauri. It seemed like the place was a true world apart from everyone else.

Regardless, when the man started talking about his father and his ship, Rand raised an eyebrow. "So, my father tried to find a way to reach Alpha Centauri quicker? What happened to him?" He asked, crossing his arms and rubbing his chin.

 

[Blurugirl]

"Yes, well, have you ever been to his ship? Before his last trip, I mean?" The lawyer asked. The previous rambling facade the man had been projecting had suddenly disappeared.

 

[Countdown321]

Rand seemed intrigued by the way the man seemed to change in demeanor, but it didn't really seem like a problematic thing to him. The young man continued to scratch his chin like he was an intellectual that knew what the hell he was doing and the shook his head. "No, the man left when I was two years old. So if I've ever been on the ship, then that would have been twenty years ago." He told the lawyer.

 

[Blurugirl]

"Prior to his last trip, your father had been flying a Panamax-class freighter," "The hull was laid down about the time you were two. Decent automation, with a 5.0 FTL drive. Meaning it would take half a year to make a round .trip voyage between here and Alpha Centauri. Even with 6.0 and 7.0 FTL drives out there, your father made a decent living hauling mid-range cargo between our two planets. A year ago, your father somehow got the money to upgrade the drive to 7.0. But that's not the only thing of interest."

Before the lawyer continued, Deloris came in. Her previous vacuous look was gone, replaced by a look of concentration and seriousness. She handed the lawyer a slip of paper, giving Rand a speculative look as she did so. The lawyer looked at the slip of paper and gave a low whistle.

"Mr. Mercer, before we continue, I should tell you that I have just received an offer --- a very substantial offer --- for the ship you have inherited," the lawyer said. He slid the slip of paper over to Rand. "That is the amount being offered. You will see the amount being offered is enough to buy you five new Maersk class freighter ships, equipped with 7.0 FTL drive and the latest automation. You could even buy a single hyper-travel capable ship with that amount. The only condition is you have to make a decision right now. Yes or no."

Deloris was eyeing Rand now with more than casual interest as she waited for his answer.

 

[Countdown321]

The conversation suddenly took a turn that he definitely wasn't expecting. First of all, how odd was it that his father suddenly went from having no money and sticking to a heavily outdated FTL drive, to out of nowhere getting the newest model installed? Had he been saving for it? But a smart man would have gotten a 6.0 before jumping straight for a 7.0. From what he knew, whenever a new and upgraded version comes out, the latest at the time has a cost reduction that jut keeps increasing every year that goes by. So why stick to 5.0? Maybe he was just bad with money.

When Deloris came in though, he found it even more odd that she came with the offer. The first thing that it told him was that his father was indeed dead or something of the sort. Strangely, he didn't feel sad at all... Then came the offer proper and it got him thinking. Why would anyone buy an old ship with enough money to buy five new ones? There was something incredibly fishy going on here. Plus, the way they were expecting an offer right away didn't really sit well with him. This kind of tactic of making on the spot ultimatums wasn't his favorite way of making deals. "My dad's ship has seen a lot, hasn't she?" He said, almost rhetorically. "I'll keep my dad's ship." He wanted to see what made it so valuable that people would want to buy it so desperately. Plus, part of him wanted to go into space on a vessel that had been through it many times and always survived.

 

[Blurugirl]

The lawyer and Deloris exchanged a smile and a nod at Rand's announcement.

"Deloris, you'll need to get into something less comfortable," the lawyer said, his tone all business now. "Young Mr. Mercer is going to need an escort to the hangar."

Deloris nodded, her face one of intent seriousness as she left the office.

"That was a final test, Mr. Mercer," the lawyer said. "The offer was real, but I suspect that what your father discovered is going to be infinitely more valuable. Before we begin, would you like a coffee? Tea? Liquid stimulant of your choice?"

 

[Countdown321]

They smiled... so it was a test? He watched Doloris leave and wondered what this "less comfortable" thing he spoke about meant, but for now, he let it go and turned back to the lawyer. "Hmm... oh, tea please." He said, always having a huge fondness for tea and needing something to calm down a bit. A nice hot cup of tea would do the trick. Yet, even before he got the drink, Rand just had to start dishing out questions. "So, first of all, what happened to my father? Why am I inheriting the ship? Who is trying to buy the ship? And... hmm... what would have happened if I had taken the offer?" He asked them in quick succession, since his mind was already going into its own FTL drive. Just yesterday his biggest concerns were fixing up old man Jackson's beat up home heating system and now he was negotiating for his father's ship? What?

 

[Blurugirl]

"I'll answer the last question first," the lawyer said. "If you had taken the offer, you would have received that sizable amount and...well, I couldn't say what would happen next. I suspect that you and friends you never knew you had would have gone through the money in two years' time. But who knows, maybe you would have handled the amount of money well and, in a century's time when you shook off this mortal coil, you would have left a sizeable estate to your heirs. But either way, you would have gotten the money and this firm would have gotten your father's ship. As per his instructions."

"Yes, as per his instructions," the lawyer continued. "And this is the part that gets tricky. I assume that the schools still teach about the now extinct Senoyergs?"

 

[Countdown321]

So the money really was still on the table and it wasn't just an empty offer that was given to him. Part of Rand was worried that this would have been some kind of set-up, but then again, he liked to watch a lot of movies and had an overactive imagination sometimes. Still... he wondered what he would have truly done with all that money. If grandma had gotten it, she would have used it to buy more weaponry for the bunker. But he would have used it to give his mother a better life most likely. The woman did well on her own, but a ton of money would have made her do even better.

Pushing the thought about the money he didn't get aside, Rand cocked his head at the lawyer. "You mean the... Probers?" It was one of the many slang terms for the race that pretty much started the biggest leap in human technology and it was all done out of spite. "Yeah, I know about them. What do they have to do with any of this?"

 

[Blurugirl]

"Well, you know our history with the Senoyergs. Everyone we met had a history with the Senoyergs. We humans were just the only ones who ever did anything about it." There was a smugness in the lawyer's tone that was almost always present in any human's voice when they talked about how mankind had destroyed the Senoyergs for what they had done to the rest of the sentient species in this part of the galaxy. "But my point is, until the discovery of the hypertunnels, interaction with other sentient species just wasn't practical. Take the Xeniderans, for example. It's 73 light years from their homeworld to ours. Which means with the original FTL drive, if you took a trip to their homeworld, it would be your great-great-grandchild who would be captain of your ship when you returned to Earth. Even with FTL 7.0, that round trip is two years long. But the Xenideran homeworld has a hypertube. So you can make the trip from the Earth to their homeworld in less than a week, and most of that is waiting in line to use the tube, travel from an egress point to ingress point, filling out paperwork, customs, that sort of thing. I know for a fact that a diplomatic courier can make that round trip in two days."

"But the Senoyergs were the only ones who lifespan made interstellar travel possible. Or so we thought." The lawyer produced a remote control from underneath the stack of papers and pointed it toward a paneled wall. Instantly the wall was replaced by a top-of-the-line pseudo 3D screen. A cluster of star systems, one recognizable as Earth, appeared on the screen. The lawyer pressed something on the remote and two of the systems became "highlighted."

"Earth you recognize," the lawyer began. "But the other one, you may not know. It's designation is Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha. Only one inhabitable planet in the system and it's mostly desert. We're the closest system with a hypertube to it, so it's roughly a nine month round trip from here to there with a 7.0. Barely in life on the planet at all, and we would have ignored it except some ruins were found on it, so it has some academic interest. There's even a foundation that supports expeditions out to the planet. Until recently, the only ones who were interested in this dead civilization were a niche group of archaeologists. Granted, supposedly this dead civilization possessed the original FTL drive even before the Senoyergs, but from what the archaeologists have determined, they never got it past 1.0. As far as we can tell, in this part of the galaxy at least, advanced FTL drive was only first discovered by our race."

"But this is where it gets interesting," the lawyer began, before he was interrupted by Deloris entering the room, wearing top of the line body armor and with a rather large gun slung over her shoulder.

"That's a rather large gun for a simple escort mission, don't you think, Deloris?" the lawyer asked.

"Do I tell you how to file affidavits and other lawyer stuff?" Deloris asked. She looked over at the 3D projection on the wall. "Where have you gotten to, anyway?"

"The good part," the lawyer answered. "So, Mr. Rand, have you been keeping up so far?"

 

[Countdown321]

Rand was quiet the whole time, prefering to listen to what people have to say and ask questions afterward than anything else. Then again, it wasn't like he had a ton of questions to make of the lawyer anyway. At first, he was basically giving Rand a history lesson with all the Senoyergs stuff and how long it takes to travel to certain places. That wasn't really of an interest to the young man, but he caught the gist of it: Travel to certain places without the tubes was almost impossible for short lived species like theirs. Which led to inability to collaborate or trade with other species and a whole host of issues. It was even worse than a thousand years ago when humans discovered a whole new continent by sea.

He continued to listen and was interested in this new system. He watched the screen in awe, taking in the various systems that were on display and thinking that he would love to visit each and everyone of them. It was such a huge universe and this was just the tiniest fraction of it too. However, he had to refocus his attention on the explanation about Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha, which left him wondering what any of this had to do with his father. Did he have anything to do with the people studying the lost civilization or something?

All of that ceased to matter when Deloris walked in with her body suit and his jaw just dropped. He stared at her like a lovestruck puppy and even as they spoke, he didn't so much as listen as he simply nodded in general. "Beautiful." He muttered under his breath at Deloris, but was called back to attention by the lawyer. "Hmm? Oh... right... yeah... sure."

 

[Blurugirl]

"Put your tongue back in your mouth, kid," Deloris said. "I'm a Vestan."

Those three words had tolled disappointment to many a young man before Rand. When humans had found out that they had been the unwilling sex toys for a group of aliens, the reactions were varied. One of the primary actions everyone remember is the elimination of the Senoyerg race, as well as genetically engineering the desire for anal sex out of the human race. But there were a lot of other reactions too.

Some people, like Rand's grandmother, for instance, were constantly preparing for the next alien invasion (even though the Senoyergs hadn't technically invaded Earth. just abducted some humans to make their porn with). You could even make the argument that the Human Confederation's driving philosophy was based on the need to ensure humanity would never again be the victim of alien perversion.

But there were other reactions as well. A number of survivor communities that sprung up. One of these were the Vestans. Originally, they were a band of international pageant winners and supermodels who banded together and used their vast fortune to get martial arts and weapons training from the best specialists that Bollywood and Hollywood could provide. Their philosophical descendants apply at an early age to enter Vestan boarding schools. The end result are women who are as deadly as they are beautiful. Do to their training in protocol, manners and general lethalness, Vestans are in high demand for high profile firms of all sorts. The downside of Vestans is they are all committed virgins, who will only give up their virginity if they meet THE ONE, at which point they will leave their Vestan Sisterhood for domestic bliss.

"But as I was saying, Mr. Rand," the lawyer continued, "The ruins on Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha were academically interesting, but not generally interesting. Until it was discovered these dead aliens might have discovered a way to shorten travel time between star systems without the use of hypertunnels. The archaeologists believe they may have found evidence that the civilization on Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha has visited Earth. And not only that, but they believe the aliens possessed technology to dramatically shorten the time between the star systems. Whereas, even with our best technology, it would taken us four and a half months to travel to Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha, these dead aliens could do in a month's time. And it wasn't there drive. Of that we're sure. They had some other technique they used in conjunction with the FTL drive. If we knew this technique, imagine what we could do with our technology. We could reach Alpha Centauri in less than a week. Imagine that on a bigger scale. Right now, we have galactic interconnectedness, but there are too many choke points. If something were to happen to the Byzantine System, for example, it wouldn't be detrimental just for the Human Confederacy. It would bring Intergalactic Trade and Travel to a grinding halt."

"This is where your father comes in. On his second to last trip, he was ferrying personnel and supplies to Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha . On the way home, he and a Lana O'Niell think they discovered something interesting in that system's asteroid belt. Something that might make this long dead technique a reality. On your father's word alone, we wouldn't have invested in the project. But Dr. O'Neill literally grew up on Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha and, even at a young age, was considered the leading expert on the technology the original inhabitans of Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha. So we invested in upgrading the ship and sent the two back. At the earliest, we didn't expect to see them for nine months. Their ship returned last week. After only two months absence. The logs and records confirm that the ship has been to Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha and back again. But we have no idea what happened to either your father or Dr O'Neill. They've vanished without a trace."

 

[Countdown321]

Rand received three pieces of shocking news in the span of a few minutes, each one almost as major as the last. Obviously, the first one that hit him like a bat to the head was the revelation that Deloris was a Vestan. He knew of them well; what young man didn't know about the Vestan? Vestan women were the object of adoration of many human men across the many colonies and then some. They were the peak of human desire and many boys received their first inkling of a sexual awakening when watching videos and images of Vestan. Rand had fallen in love with one a long time ago... his first crush too and he never even met her for real. Now, he got why he was so taken with Deloris, but then again, he really liked her even before finding out about that fact. He was even aware of their customs. Yet, the first thought he had when she said it was. "That's amazing." He couldn't help it and kept looking at her in awe until the lawyer pulled him back in.

The third piece of information was simply put... vital for the progress of the world. If they had found a way to shorten travel distances so much, then wouldn't that benefit everyone? Not just humans, but all species. It would be an amazing find and the fact that his father was involved, even if he was just a transporter, was kind of amazing. He always pictured the man just traveling the stars, jumping from one planet to the next without a care, but he was holding onto a real job. However, what still bugged him was that he bought the new drive before vanishing... why? Where did the money come from and why now? So soon before he vanished.

The vanishing act was the third revelation, but not as impactful. Rand clearly didn't feel much about his father anyway, but he was worried about the disapearance of two people regardless of who they were. "So... my father and this Dr. O'Neill must have found the technique and used it to send the ship back here... but they didn't come with it? Either the technique sent them elsewhere or they were maybe prevented from coming in the first place?" He rubbed his chin again and looked to Deloris and then back to the lawyer. "And you're giving me the ship so I can do what? Find my father with it or something? I'm guessing that is Miss Deloris is all geared up, that there's someone interested in preventing me from getting to the ship?" He asked.

 

[Blurugirl]

"We don't know what happened to them," the lawyer began. "Before he left, he made arrangements with his assets. It was, after all, an experimental method. We don't know what Dr O'Neill made it to the system, if they had an idea of what to look for...the two played it closed to the chest, as it were. But your father wanted you to have all his assets. So, assuming your father is dead...which we don't know, but we can operate under the legal premise he does...you own approximately thirty-five percent of your father's ship. The Borrowed Chance, is its name by the way. My firm has control of thirty percent of the Borrowed Chance, with thirty-five percent of the ship belonging to Dr. O'Neill's heir on Nu Omicron Alpha Nu Alpha Lamtha. Now, for legal reasons involving interstellar law and clauses involving travel between star systems not connected directly or indirectly by hyper tunnels, we have control of Dr. O'Neill's share of the Broken Chance and, assuming if you had sold us your share, we would have sent them an equivalent compensation without the need for asking them whether or no."

"We made that offer because your father didn't want you to 'get stuck with this old clunker.' His words, not ours," the lawyer quickly explained. "And if this ship possesses some method of decreasing travel time between systems not connect by hypertunnels, well, it is pretty valuable. But, I for one, am glad you want to keep your share, and not sell it. For one, my firm has a reputation of playing straight with our clients. I realize honest lawyers is sometimes considered an oxymoron, but nevertheless, we enjoy our reputation for straight shooting. And this ship cold represent a fortune on a vast scale. If we can break its secret," the lawyer concluded.

"And that is where you come in. We don't expect you to find your father," the lawyer explained. "But the secret of that travel might be on the ship. And you are probably the only one who can find it. At present, for legal reasons involving not wanting the government or other interested parties to get their hands on the ship before we can learn its secrets, the Borrowed Chance is parked in a Free Trade Zone. A rather shady part of the Free Trade Zone. Which is why you'll need Deloris as an escort."

"So, still interested in inheriting your father's ship? Or do you want to sell it for a small fortune now?" the lawyer asked.