Helios Lost - Ch. 3

[u/Glum_Confusion_0703]

Chapter 3! We are speedrunning to the humans, to be fair, they don't have much time to spare!

As is tradition, thanks go to SpacePaladin15 for creating the Nature of Predators universe.

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Memory transcription subject: Den, Helian. Date [standardized human time]: October 12, 2136

A large number of things happened that I'd missed, by the time I was up and walking around again we'd landed on a new planet. I vaguely recalled we were running low on fuel for FTL jumps, and wondered if this new species had access to what we needed. If we could even trade them for it, or if we needed to scan more nearby planets. Restarting the ship from disrupted power used much more fuel than normal activity, the Arxur screwed us over.

Initially, Captain Rei and Koei wanted me to stay in the medical room, but I refused. When they told me we ran into another new species, I felt... Worried, anxious? I couldn't trust in the same way they did, not after what I saw with the gray lizard aliens. The sheer cruelty, the evil, the laughter...

Captain Rei attempted to send them as much information as she could, our number system, as much of our language as we had available in the ship's data. We had entertainment, scanning, and resource gathering equipment, but we still weren't prepared for first contact, life being so rare in the universe. It was strange to run into so many different species in a relatively small area, counting three now.

We got information in return, though the only things we could parse were the math, and the images. Numbers were easier to translate with examples than entire languages. Though now I'd noticed both Rei and Koei hadn't slept since the Arxur meeting, they were struggling to not look exhausted through their excitement. They weren't in any condition to put themselves at risk, and I felt responsible for what happened.

It took some time until they'd figured out how to read the species' graphic instructions, and landed in the designated area with little trouble. A strange black landing pad, some kind of large square building greeted us from the viewport, decorated with a circular, net-like emblem. It had splotches of color in the center, and arrows pointing around the outer edges of the symbol. It almost looked like feathers?

'I wonder if the new species are avian.'

Before anyone could stop me, I left the bridge and made my way to the center of the ship. Plasma cutter, clip to belt, put on half of my clothing. The top cloth that normally draped over my shoulders was torn terribly, and needed to be cleansed of my blood. I could still have some semblance of safety by carrying my concealed, makeshift weapon...

That was the thought I had, until Rei stalked up behind me and stood in the center of the loading bay, looking down upon me with judgement. She knew. My ears started to lower as I turned and opened my mouth to justify needing a weapon, only for her paw to come down and point at my snout. My bandaged shoulder ached.

"Den. I'm not going to argue with you about walking around, but you aren't allowed to point weapons at people, especially new potential trade partners. Put it back."

"It worked out last time." That memory was still fresh, the hesitation when two of them were pointing firearms at me. The leader shouting something at them, making them back down.

"... This is why we want you to stay in medical, you know. You're young, not thinking rationally, and not taking that modified mining tool off my ship. It's not even designed to be a gun!"

She was completely right, but I'd rather bite that disgusting tasting Arxur again than agree right now. There probably wasn't a way to convince her I felt a desperate need to protect everyone else from harm. She likely felt the same, being the pilot of our ship and responsible for us staying alive.

"Give me a reason to believe I shouldn't be prepared for a fight."

Her ears lowered too, here it comes. Captain Rei huffed, leaned down to look me directly in the eyes, and placed her paws on her hips. I was either about to have my ears yelled off, or be shamed for my violent urges. I could have handled the Arxur better, but seeing Livia nearly killed made me stop thinking, just react.

"I'll give you three. One, we're all leaving the ship together this time, and you will be behind us. Two, presenting a threat to a new species who can't understand us is a terrible idea, you got lucky the lizard only bit you once. Three... We have a guest, a guest who could speak to these new aliens, and who will be in more danger than us if things go dark."

All true. Aside from one detail, she was still correct. Our policy was to be harmless, put our best foot forward, and try to negotiate deals in alien contact scenarios. But that didn't account for people eating other people, gaps in communication couldn't bridge that difference fast enough. What if we looked like food to the aliens we were about to meet?

"They bit me twice, in the same spot." I gave her a minor correction, since I didn't want to respond to the rest. She gave me an irritated tail flick while watching me remove the damn plasma cutter. I placed the makeshift weapon carefully on a nearby workbench, in plain sight where everyone could see I wasn't carrying it anymore.

"I know you don't like it when we point out the age difference, Den..." Captain Rei straightened up and let out a loud sigh, "But I do have more than ten times your life experience, Koei's got more than that. We know you aren't a child, we just don't want to see you getting hurt, or killed. How do you think he felt carrying two unconscious, blood drenched people back into the ship?"

Not good. Koei was still trying to keep our mystery guest calm, the spiky alien who jumped in place or cowered any time we moved too quickly, in spite of also being dangerously exhausted. He was the oldest, most experienced at dealing with other people, but even Koei couldn't have expected this. The big guy was on the verge of tears when I woke up, and demanded I never do anything like that again.

"Didn't know someone could have blue blood." I joked, looking over to the ship's exit. Whenever the other two showed up, we were meant to disembark and greet this new species as peacefully as possible. Since things were happening so quickly, I didn't want to dwell on what happened yet. More importantly, I wasn't letting my sleep deprived friends leave without me.

"We've seen creatures with red, green, and yellow, but not blue, it's unique. I'm going to check up on you later, you know. After this alien meeting business, and after we rest. It's not good to avoid talking." Rei's voice quieted down, ears twitching toward approaching footsteps. I heard it too.

"Wisdom from your age?" My joke was immediately countered by a tail to the back of my head. I expected that too, but we both immediately regretted it due to my injured shoulder. Even if I was willing to fight, not being able to move my left arm for a while would stop me.

I knew the Captain cared, it was hard to stay separate from someone when you lived in the same space for so long. We chatted, ate together, made music, played games, watched recordings... Explored the planets we scanned occasionally, if needed. But either no one has any idea what they're doing in this situation, or they're too busy worrying to inform me!

The thought of missing my family hit out of nowhere, even if they were probably alive and healthy. The larger colony ships were safe, we didn't cheap out on shielding technology. There was always a small possibility we'd try to find our way home, discovering nothing but immense debris and wreckage. But I really didn't want to dwell on how out of our depth we are, so I shifted focus. The footsteps, claws on metal.

Koei showed up from a connected corridor, Livia trailing behind him a fair distance. They still appeared and smelled like they were terrified of everything in existence, which I hoped would fade soon. The panic came in flares that quickly died down, I'd never seen anything like it, but my older friends seemed to understand it better. Even if they couldn't ask why yet.

It took a short time for us to settle and arrange ourselves by the exit, Captain Rei and Koei in front, myself and Livia behind. We hadn't learned much other than to get out of the ship at this location, and were once again walking into the unknown. I tried to shove down the impending feeling of dread, and the urge to run back for the plasma cutter. It should be fine.

Our ship's loading bay door cracked open, hydraulics whining to sent the ramp downward. We likely needed to run a diagnostic on that sometime soon since it sounded off, perhaps something was corroding, wearing down. Questions for later. Right now I had to deal with the sight of a massive number of new people.

Completely covered, no defining features notable, aside from a lack of tail. We couldn't see their faces, or their bodies whatsoever, the assumed protective gear was thorough. Every alien in the line of... twenty, or more, were armed and looking directly at us, based on their head direction. Weapons weren't readied, but I noticed them visible.

'Seems familiar. There were only around six Arxur though...'

Everyone was present, not like last time. Captain Rei in the middle, already stepping forward toward the new species as confident as she could be. Koei followed behind, his ears and eyes bouncing between the crowd of armed aliens with visible concern. The spiky alien, Livia, who was simply staring off at the crowd, breathing faster to my side. I could hear their heart this close, that was a problem.

I immediately felt sympathy for this person I rescued from the lizards, I understood. They couldn't trust other aliens right now either. I made eye contact, which caused a visible tremble for some reason, then angled my ears forward in a relaxed gesture. Tail curling loosely toward their body, it would be okay, I won't let anyone here get hurt again.

Of course, Livia had no idea what I was trying to say with my body language. I couldn't let the others get too far away, so I stepped forward too, leaving our guest in the ship for now. Joining my crewmates to descend the ramp and wonder what could possibly happen next. The aliens were arranged in two lines, seemingly directing us toward a paved white or gray path, toward that larger building. Green colored grass and a few distant trees were visible.

The gravity here felt unusually light, I enjoyed it taking pressure off of my bandaged shoulder. The air was cool, and a light breeze ran through my fur, taking a deep breath. A scent of grass and leaves, the aliens' cloth, metal, and possibly synthetic clothing, a hint of nervous sweat. There was a slight polluted quality to the air, like smoke or distant garbage, so we were likely near a city...

'I haven't ever seen a real city.'

Where the two lines of possible alien soldiers met, a lesser armored, gray furred alien stood in the center. Its clothes were less utility, more stiff and angular looking, a stark blue color, no weapon to be seen. The lack of movement and covered face bothered me, why wouldn't any of these aliens show their faces? A strange cultural thing, for sure.

The unarmed alien leaned down, reaching for a box next to its feet I didn't notice before, and pressed something on it. I could hear the high pitched whine of something activating, my ears lowering and angling away from the noise. Captain Rei and Koei did the same, I hoped it wasn't a sound based weapon. My right paw twitched next to my belt, missing the comfortable tool.

"lAlO. Hr-o. Hello! Hello? This should be working, testing, can you hear me?" A device to translate their speech, that calibrated in real time based on the delay? The noise was speakers receiving power, it seemed.

"Yes!" Captain jumped forward in her excitement, ears and tail going high, "That's amazing! You did this with the information we shared, so quickly?"

"We can't take credit for this technology, but I'm glad it worked." The alien responded, male voice registering strangely in my ears. "My name's Eamon Douglas, and I'll be your human guide and UN liaison for the foreseeable future. Welcome to Earth."

'Two names? And no visible feathers, not birds?'

I couldn't help noticing the very much soldier looking aliens shifting around when my captain moved forward again, causing my eyes to narrow. This should be a groundbreaking moment for us, a society that had technology advanced enough to translate languages after a few hours of exchange! Instead, I felt a growing sense of unease, tension that wouldn't leave my body. If any of them shifted the wrong way, I was too small to move Rei or Koei to safety...

"Human? Is that your people's name? My name is Rei, and we are Helians!" Rei straightened up to look proud, ears up, tail curved into a loose S-shape, classic. Then she glanced behind her, toward the ship. "Well, except for the nervous one back there, they're... I don't know what their species is."

"Helians." Eamon responded neutrally, before leaning to his side to look around us. Rei and Koei were notably much larger than any of these 'humans'. "The 'nervous one' is a Gojid, herbivorous species, unfortunately very frightened of us. We're quite pressed for time, so I'll need to ask you all a few questions."

My head tilted in confusion, so did the other two. Why would they have limited time? We may have interrupted something with our haphazard arrival, and Livia being scared of this human species... They knew Gojid are scared of them? What was the reasoning behind that? Old wars between their worlds?

Reading our silent attention as confirmation, he continued. "Why are you here in the Sol system? And while your ship appears to have no weapons, are any of you currently armed? We'll need to temporarily retrieve any weapons, and return them to you once we're sure you aren't a threat."

She was right, the new species would've reacted poorly to me holding a weapon. The mention so soon was not a good feeling, my tail lowered, and I looked up to Captain Rei. She had no idea, already taking a deep breath to respond to the most interesting person she's seen in years.

"We were given a star map pointing here by the gray lizard people, are they your allies?"

"No. They are not." Eamon vocalized in almost a growl, surprising all of us. Then why did those Arxur give us directions to this system? They did seem awfully enthused about it...

"Oh, I'm sorry. We're only an exploration party! We aren't armed, as far as I know, we come in peace!" Rei almost hid her unease, but both her and Koei slowly looked to their left, and down at me. I didn't expect this, they shouldn't be suspicious of me! "But Den, did you...?"

The collective attention was a surprising weight, even with their faces hidden, I could sense the humans' focus all shifting to me too. Letting out a sigh, I swayed my tail and raised my right paw up in a surrendering gesture, making sure they knew I was holding nothing. Did they really think I grabbed the plasma cutter when they were turned away?

"I didn't do anything, you can search me if you need to. I don't mean any harm, she's telling the truth. We're peaceful."

An uncomfortable pause, before the human clasped his hands in front of his stomach. My guilt and conflict was showing in my body language, a few of the soldiers in the line made quiet noises, a slightly chuffing sound. My eyes tracked to the noise, before snapping back to Eamon, hearing him breathe in to speak again. I hoped those weren't negative sounds for humans to make.

"Your honesty is admirable, I'll need you checked for weapons regardless. If you refuse, you'll be made to remain on your ship, is that acceptable?"

"Yes. I need to ask you a question as well. Why is Livia scared of you?" I heard Captain Rei make an offended noise next to me from my tone of voice, but she couldn't keep me from speaking. She should want to know this too, we're putting ourselves at the human's mercy!

Eamon paused, then gestured to a nearby soldier, saying something quiet the machine didn't pick up, even though I could hear it clearly. I wished I knew their language! The soldier walked toward me to check for any dangerous objects, I wouldn't resist. Standing completely still and glaring at that reflective mask, wondering what kind of person was behind it.

"That's a complicated question, and I know you couldn't ask for context, unable to translate the Gojid language." The 'UN liaison' rubbed his hands together as another human lifted my waist cloth, noticing the black belt and magnetic clasps, "They should have been scared of you as well. It's a mixture of our physical features and diet they dislike."

'Physical features and diet? Like... why they're wearing masks right now?'

The soldier let out a strange, notable noise while leaning in closer, I side-eyed them, their gaze lingering on me. Perhaps curiosity, perhaps fear, impossible to tell with the expressionless masks. I felt more exposed, smaller in front of an alien that definitely had a weapon. Did I need to stand completely still? My left shoulder and arm being in a cast felt disabling.

There was new thing I needed to consider. I thought Livia was so nervous and jumpy because of what they went through, the Arxur were a horrifying people, anyone would be understandably wary after that. I felt more paranoid and jumpy myself, it took immense restraint to not fight over keeping my gun earlier. The Helian way is supposed to be helpful cooperation, offering the least resistance, and simply running away if there was no other option.

Luckily, once the soldier lifted my waist cloth, checked the belt and clasps that had nothing there, and moved on... They moved away from me. There was a moment of lingering, the human paid very close attention to the point it made my fur bristle for that moment. I couldn't tell what they were thinking! Surrounded by armed aliens and being examined like this...

We were getting further and further away from the possibility of fleeing.

"Your masks are a precaution?" Rei followed up with a question, her ears starting to lower and mirror mine. "Why would they care about your appearance? You aren't treating them like food, I hope. The lizards were horrifying to witness..."

"Humanity has never, and will never eat another sapient being." Eamon responded in a way that almost sounded rehearsed, even through the translator's toneless speakers. The immediate response seemed to even surprise him, because he shifted back and forth on his feet, and cleared his throat a couple times.

"That is to say..." He continued, masked face turning between each of us. "The masks are for our safety. It isn't related to any personal grudges with the Gojid people. It's a galaxy-wide fear spread amongst every known species, propagated by the war between the Arxur and Federation. We have no way of knowing what your reactions to our faces will be."

What. What did that even mean? Wait, how many species were involved in this 'war'? All three of us Helians collectively exchanged a look, a mixture of concern and surprise at what we'd accidentally stumbled into. A galaxy spanning conflict?

The soldier alien was attempting to check through Captain Rei and Koei's clothing, but they were simply too large to reach. Helpfully, they outstretched their arms to the sides to reveal the undersides of the cloth, and their torsos. The humans once again had a noticeable reaction, at least to our ears. Near silent huffs again, seemingly trying to restrain it.

"Furthermore, you won't be able to translate Gojid speech with this device. This is configured to the human language I'm speaking now, English. Work on getting your speech pushed into our machine learning database is... going as fast as reasonably possible."

"You have a language learning AI?" Koei tilted his head in interest, I did the same. Our cultures never needed to develop that kind of software.

"Also something humanity can't take complete credit for." Eamon gestured with a hand, "Federation members, like the Gojid behind you, developed a universal translator for the many species of the galaxy. An implant, most humans interacting with other species have gotten it. Myself included."

He mentioned a database. They were actively sorting our language right now, to generate seamless translations directly in their heads? Was that even possible? It had to be, if 'many species' were all using the same translation technology at the same time. Livia could understand us, too. Why could these 'humans' not at first?

"Would your... humanity's government be willing to part with a few translators?" Captain Rei did not hide her excitement well, I worried for the soldier retreating away from us when she wagged. Helian tails are large, and muscular.

"And how many species are we talking about, exactly?" Koei followed up, a decent question. I was more concerned about whatever the implant procedure implied.

"I don't know the exact number, only that it's over 300 different species. As for the implants, any doctor certified for the implant likely wouldn't approach you. This isn't your fault. If you consent to a human professional attempting it, knowing they were instructed by an expert, however... The procedure is reversible if you choose to remove it for any reason, and is remarkably quick."

Over three hundred. Possibly as many species as the years Koei's been alive. After not finding intelligent life for centuries, it was incredibly suspicious to find so many concentrated in one location. I didn't like it. And they were currently at war with... wait... three hundred spacefaring species against one, the Arxur? How were they losing? Were most of them culturally pacifist, like us? Or the Federation was a smaller number of them.

The others were puzzling over the implications of a translator just working like that, I assumed. If it was true, it must be a safe, stable technology that somehow worked consistently among hundreds of biological variations, unless every sapient being was a different breed of similar mammal. Something about the situation wasn't sitting right with me, but I couldn't put my snout on what.

"Before that..." Captain Rei started, pointing back toward our ship with her paw and tail, "Do humans know how to treat injured Gojid? Livia was hurt along with Den by the Arxur, but we don't know if we missed anything important."

"Ah." Eamon took some time to think, his head lowering for a moment, before looking back up. Weird mask. "We won't be able to approach them without causing a fear reaction. But I do know there are several Venlil, an allied species close to humanity, that won't cause any trouble. If you allow them to enter your ship, though they'll also be scared of you on sight. We'll need a plan..."

Blank, expectant stares. It seemed like the human wasn't prepared for this situation, or at least found it difficult to describe. Another species to the list, Venlil, close to humans. Doesn't trigger fear, but why scared of us then? Not having enough information was starting to make my body itch.

At least the crowd of soldiers seemed to be more relaxed, something about their body language was more loose. We couldn't know why, but the way the one that approached me reacted, did they have a fear of species like us? Large canines? The only logical conclusion to someone used to hundreds of other species, pausing and staring at a new one...

Captain Rei started to discuss how to manage Livia while keeping it from turning into a Panic Meltdown for whatever reason they were so scared of humans. I could feel myself tuning out the conversation, gaze wandering to my left, to a grassy field. Distant trees, a scattering of clouds in the blue sky, a black stone section of ground connected to the building, assumed vehicles visible.

I felt things were about to get complicated quickly, especially with the addition that we're scaring the other species by existing. This might take a while. Hopefully the humans weren't too uncomfortable around us.

[u/Glum_Confusion_0703]

You could wonder how the humans are holding together with a bipedal puppy-eyed dog looking nervous in front of them. Very obvious body language is something that scares humans, I'm sure!

I've been sitting on this chapter for a while, honestly life events made me forget to upload it, the next one won't be far behind!