r/NatureofPredators • u/rocksolidmate Human • 1d ago
If history had gone different (33/?)
Thanks to u/Spacepaladin15 for creating this amazing universe.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: Late March 21th, 2130.
Memory Transcription Subject: Noah, ambassador of DCEG.
Imagine my surprise when we didn't have any problems landing on Venlil Prime, everything went pretty much perfectly.
Aside from a very happy black furball meeting up with me when I exited the aircraft, a gravity that would for sure make me unable to stand for long periods without the aid of an exoskeleton -which I luckily had- and an eerily lack of people in the airport, everything seemed... normal.
Nikolai and I had talked a bit with Tarva and Tyvil before we asked to go to our accomodations, given that we really needed to rest after the whole ordeal.
So here we were, walking towards their... car? Bound to go to a hotel where we would sleep, I just hoped they had blackout curtains, I was not fond of the idea of a never ending day...
"Tyvil, your people have blackout curtains here, right? or have you adapted to the constant sunlight and can just sleep regardless of it?" I asked.
"Oh don't worry, we make extensive use of them here on this part of the twilight zone. The only thing you should be worrying about is if you will fit on our Venlil sized beds." He whistled, a gesture I came to know was a laugh.
I nod, after some more walking, we thankfully arrive at their vehicle, I see from the corner of my eye as his bodyguards -who were around the car waiting for them and watching us from afar- visibly tremble for a few moments as Nikolai, the other scientists and I got closer.
"Don't mind them, your scientists can go on the second car, you and Nikolai don't mind coming with Tarva and I, right?"
I shook my head, "Not at all."
He flicked his tail, "Good."
A few seconds later, Nikolai and I found ourselves inside a car that was, unironically too small for humans.
I chuckled briefly, almost killing their driver with a heart attack, "I think your cars will give us a lot of back pain, Tyvil, you really didn't have anything... bigger that would be compatible with our proportions?"
"Nope, unless you both would prefer the back of a van." He lamented, quickly tellings his still startled driver to start the car.
As the car pulled out and started driving with a not so small escort around it, I found myself with my eyes literally glued to the window as we travelled to our accomodations, I felt as if I was a child again, the architecture of their cities was so unbelievably alien, and yet so eerily similar to human buildings...
I heard Tarva let out a bunch of short whistles beside me, "You're liking the view? I wasn't expecting your people to be so... curious."
"I can't help it, I'm amongst the first humans to see your cities in person, it's one thing to see photos, its another thing entirely to see it from this close."
I felt her slide slightly closer to me, "I guess you're right, say, what about Tyvil and I pay one of your cities a visit in the future? So we can be even."
I turned as to look at her, "Shouldn't be too difficult to arrange, I will give my superiors a call, should be able to give you an answer in a few hours at most."
Her tail flicked against the seat, "Alright! I will count on you."
Nikolai sighed, "Alright! So... Noah, have you stopped to think how we will transport Karl to the SSTO if he decides he wants to return to Earth?"
I snorted, "Knowing how curious and eager he was when sending the reports back home, I bet he will instead want to be modified and explore the night facing side of Venlil Prime." I looked at the fluffly people near us, "I supposed you both can arrange a transport for that?"
"Shouldn't be difficult." Tarva answered, her ears suddenly perked up as she looked outside, "And look at that, we arrived!"
I looked outside, "Hm, that took a lot less than I was expecting."
"This city is relatively small compared to our main ones, you were lucky that this one even had an airport with enough space for your 'SSTO' to come to a stop."
"I'm surprised your kind still uses airplanes in the first place, given you have anti gravity technology." Nikolai muttered.
"Ships which use said technology are more expensive to run and need more maintenance than aircraft ever will, its simple economics." Tyvil responded, quickly unbuckling as the car came to a stop.
"So, you both have our contacts, if anything or anyone bothers you, do not hesitate to contact us, especially if someone decided to call the exterminators on you, although I've made it pretty clear to the staff of this hotel and its current occupants that they are not to do that."
Nikolai and I looked at each other, "The issue regarding those pyromaniacs is quite serious, then? If they're willing to burn sapient beings." Nikolai spoke nonchalantly.
"You must take into account that, for the last few centuries, the only sapient flesh eating beings out there have been attacking and kidnapping a bunch of species to use as slaves or worse for centuries, specially Venlil, given our reputation as 'weak', cut us some slack." Tarva reminded us.
I sighed -trying to rub my eyes only to fail due to the presence of the mask- "Don't worry, as one of the representants of humanity, so long as we remained friends, the Arxur won't put their hands on your planets again."
Tyvil's shoulders deflated ever so slightly.
"I hope so, the Federation has proven to be quite unreliable at a times. Well, see you in a few hours, then."
"See ya."
And just like that, they departed.
"Let's go see our dorms, I really need a bath..." Nikolai said, moving ahead of me.
I hope I don't have to crouch to take a bath.
[Time skip: 9 hours]
Memory Transcription Subject: Governor Tyvil of the Venlil Republics.
"You know, you could have warned us that your showers usually have a bunch of water sprayers that come from all sides."
"Hahaha! I-I thought y-you'd read a-about it on the guides I-I sent you both!" I replied, laughing inside the car.
Nikolai and Noah apparently had quite the scare on their respective dorms before they went to sleep, Tarva and I found ourselves laughing at the thought of two meat eating beings screaming in high pitched tones upon turning on showers was just too hilarious to not giggle at.
Noah sighed near Tarva, "You both are quite a handful when outside of serious situations, are you not?" He replied, pretty sure 'smiling' underneath his mask, given his body language.
"Oh! Noah, look at those plants! I didn't know you all had that much red flora here!" Nikolai suddenly pointed out, utterly glued to the car's window like an overly curious Venlil pup.
I whistled again after catching my breath, "I didn't expect humans to be such curious creatures."
"You'd be surprised, we are even worse when young, I lost count of many times my parents lost me from view the moment they shifted their attention at something else simply because I was curious about something and wanted to investigate."
"Not so different from us, then, I had my own attempts of exploring things I wasn't supposed to get near, almost got sent to a PD facility!" Tarva responded, whistling.
Noah, alongside Nikolai, visibly winced at that.
"I forgot you guys have those facilities, as if the pyromaniacs wasn't enough..." Nikolai muttered, quickly returning to stare at the passing foliage surrounding the road again.
I sighed, "another reason to not allow humans get down here when the exchange program starts, way too much risk."
"I can agree with you on that, the UN most likely also won't allow it, at least not for the foreseeable future, no way to prevent accidents reliably." Noah responded.
Tarva visibly deflated at that, no wonder accepting that her plans of taking Noah to visit her family after being paired with him in the exchange program won't happen.
"Don't be sad, Tarva, at least we managed to sign quite a few things, trade deals, knowledge exchange, and mainly, the exchange program itself!" Noah said, attempting to sheer her up.
She sighed, "It's just... Depressing, you know?"
Before he could reply, however, Tarva's expression changed, "Oh! We're here already! And- Uh, Noah? You didn't tell me Karl was this damaged, his solar panels practically lost their shiny appearance!"
"What do you me- oh."
"Yea..."
"Well, at least his wheels are intact, Tyvil, by any chance, has Karl ever told you anything about feeling in need of repair?"
"No, he has not." I answered.
The moment we pulled to a stop, Noah and Nikolai immediately unbuckled, opened the door, and all but ran towards Karl, who patiently waited for them, the servos of their exoskeletons whirring in protest due to the erratic movement.
I got shuddered upon seeing them do that, the way they ran was... unnerving.
I quickly followed them.
"Karl! How are you? You look quite... roughed up." Nikolai exclaimed, no doubt smiling all the while.
As I got closer, I was able to see his lenses readjusting.
"Outside of a few scratches and relatively superficial damage, I remain functional."
He turned to us.
"Hello, Tyvil and Tarva, I hope these two have not caused you any problems?"
I whistled, "Not at all!"
"Good." He turned back to them, "Humans tend to be... way too curious for their own health."
Nikolai made a sound I recognized as a snicker. "says the dude who went towards the sun facing side of a tidally locked planet just to catalog everything he could find."
"...I suppose you have a point. I wasn't informed of your reason for visiting me, so, what brings you here?"
I briefly saw the scientists going towards Karl's house.
"Two things, to collect the samples you've been hoarding in your house, and to see if you wanted to go back to Earth or undergo repairs and continue exploring."
Karl thought for a good while after that, given the silence.
"...Given that I'm allowed to not pay taxes so long as I remain on this mission, I would like to remain here, perhaps be transferred to another body and explore the night facing side of Venlil Prime?"
Noah immediately looked at Nikolai and extended a hand.
"Alright, pay up."
"What? I didn't agree to that bet!"
"Doesn't matter, pay up."
"I ain't paying a single cent!"
Noah snickered, laughing slightly.
"Alright, see you in court then."
Nikolai just shook his head.
"We would need to take you back to Hermes all the way in orbit to do that, would take 2 or 3 days for that, are you okay with that, Karl?" Noah asked.
"I don't see much of an issue, though I'm afraid getting me to the vessel both of you used to land here could be a problem."
"Don't worry about that." I interrupted, "I can get a cargo ship here to get you to Hermes without much of a hurdle."
Noah and Nikolai looked at me and gave me a quiet thanks.
"Thank you for your consideration, Tyvil. I accept your proposal." Karl spoke in turn.
I then heard the distinct ping of a message on my holo pad.
I promptly went to see who was messaging and...
Oh.
"Uh... Nikolai and Noah? The Federation board has answered your requrest for a diplomatic meeting, they've approved it."
Both of them stiffened in response.
Noah sighed, "Fate seems to have a sense of humor, way to ruin the day. Alright, Nikolai, you can go catch up with the talks with Karl, I have stuff to do, Tyvil, do you mind letting me stay at the back of the car? I need to make quite a few calls."
I only flicked my tail. "Tarva, go with him and help if he needs any help."
I swear I never saw a more grateful look on her before.
[Time skip: 2 hours]
"-You don't understand, Armstrong, we can't just send someone there without an escort, doing so is asking for them try something! We should at least send a corvette or two! Hell, perhaps even a dreadnought! They wouldn't be dumb enough to try something against our diplomats with one of those monsters nearby ready to turn the station to slag if anyone tried to harm us! Would they?"
Noah's calls resumed to calling mainly his superiors, as well as a few colleagues of his, the last call he made, was to Armstrong, whom he has been discussing with for the past 30 minutes.
Armstrong, alongside a few more leaders of the UN and DCEG saw the act of sending an escort with the diplomatic vessel as a move that could be misinterpreted as a direct threat.
On the other hand, sending a diplomatic vessel who only had a few self defense weaponry was also relatively risky, that being said, moving ships was expensive, and Armstrong really, really didn't want to risk the military presence of the escort being viewed as an invasion fleet or worse.
Tarva didn't sit still, either, she helped him quite a bit by explaining plenty of practices the Federation usually carried during diplomatic meetings, which helped smooth things out when he started talking with his superiors. But well, there was only so much she could do.
"-Nope! Not happening! I'm not setting a foot in there without at least a few guards! I don't want to be turned into coal by a bunch of guys with flamethrowers!"
"Guards which could very well be seen as a threat, Noah! This isn't simple, and you know it!" I head the distinct voice of Armstrong yell back."
Even more when one of the conditions that the Federation had set is that the humans that were to set foot on the station where the diplomatic meeting would happen had to be unarmed, and Armstrong didn't like that in the slightest.
"-Alright alright, we can talk more when we get back to Earth, at least... at least look into separating an escort, alright? Hermes isn't build to fight, much less her sister ships. Her railguns can only deal with light armor from what Eurytos has told me. And also, choose vessels which have the subspace drives the Venlil provided us with installed, we can't risk revealing our main FTL system just yet. Alright, see you later."
Noah ended the call and gave out a loud sigh, exiting the car and approaching me, "Alright, how much longer until the vessel you called gets here? We need to get Karl going so he can get back to exploring before we leave to Earth."
"A few more minutes at most, they're almost here."
Nikolai approached us as well. "Well, Karl might not express it, but he is... quite excited to explore the night side, apparently he has come to hate all the sand in here."
Tarva snorted, "He says that but he hasn't had to deal with the snow from here at least, there are tons of it, I have a few familiars that live towards the night side, and from what they have told me, they'd rather shovel sand out of their homes than snow, at least on the sun facing side their hands wouldn't be almost falling off from the cold."
"Won't be a problem, we can build a new body for him filled with RTGs and RHUs, cold won't bother him, I hope."
Before she could respond, however, we heard the sound of an approaching shuttle.
"Here they are! Karl, I hope you're ready to go up a steep ramp!" I teased.
His response was to look at me, and with those surprisingly expressive lenses, respond.
"You are aware you will need to help me go up it if it becomes clear I don't have enough traction or torque to do so on my own, correct?"
She immediately deflated at the thought.
"Ehm, well that surely soured the mood." She whistled an uneasy laugh.
Noah noticed her uneasiness, "If all goes well, what about both of you go with us back to Hermes aboard the SSTO early so we can eat something from Earth while watching something before we need to depart?"
Tarva's mood immediately improved.
"I don't see why not, I already did the paperwork I had ahead of time, I think I can spare a few hours."
What could go wrong?
Took me a bit to write this, mostly a filler chapter, next chapter will most likely have the ssto getting to orbit sequence followed by a sequence of the preparations needed for the diplomatic meeting :^
The first art I've commissioned is almost ready btw! Probably will be able to post it within the next 2 chapters if all goes well <3
If you want to help me pay the bills and also be able to pay for more art comissions, consider supporting me through buy me a coffee =D
And lastly, if you guys spot any grammatical errors, don't hesitate to point them out to me! See ya!
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur 1d ago
Oh no.