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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/LordCoale on 2024-09-27 23:51:55+00:00.

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“General Pierre,” Admiral Davidoff greeted. “Thanks for meeting with me.”

“Last I checked, you were the system CO, and I am a brigadier. I do what I am told. What can I do for you?”

Their meeting was in a private room off of the Gibraltar’s command deck. It was quiet and comfortable, and Pierre realized it was the personal space of the system CO. In the corner was a workstation that was folded into the wall, and there was a shelf full of personal knickknacks.

Olliver was impressed at the lack of the military items. Most people had a wall of awards, pictures with VIPs, plaques, and other memorabilia. Davidoff had none of that. Just a couple of pieces of artwork and three holopictures of his family and places that scrolled slowly through preprogrammed images.

“This is Doctor Marina Leuwenhoek,” Davidoff introduced the other officer in the room, with the triple silver bars on red field rank of a Fleet Captain. “She’s a geneticist.”

“Okay. Nice to meet you, doctor, but I am a bit confused. I know nothing about genetics.”

“You don’t need to know much about it. You just have to understand what I am about to tell you.”

“And then let us know what you think,” Davidoff finished.

“I should be able to do that, sir.”

“We got some of the Lopingu and Aglildai genetic material.”

Pierre got a dark look on his face. He didn’t like where this might be going. He felt that collecting genetic material from his friends was not a good look.

“Calm down, Ollie,” Davidoff ordered. “We don’t have any ulterior motives. At least not bad ones. We are really curious about the telepathy. Until now, we had thought telepathy a thing of fiction. That is a big deal.”

Oliver kept his mouth shut and motioned for the doctor to continue.

“Their genetics are much different than ours. We have a double helix DNA structure. They have a triple helix. The chemicals are different than ours. We have four nucleotides: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. They have seven nucleotides. We haven’t named them yet. But the important thing is, the Lopingu and Aglildai are the same species but with extreme differentiation. I compare it to a Belgian Malinois and a Pomeranian.”

“Really? That’s incredible. But what does it mean?”

“Well, they share genetic material, so that means they can crossbreed,” Davidoff said. “Which is kind of scary. The Lopingu are some of the smartest beings in the galaxy. The Aglildai are physically stronger and have military training. Imagine if the best damned soldiers in the galaxy were also the smartest damned people to boot.”

“You’re afraid that they will take over the galaxy? I have spent a lot of time with them. The Lopingu have no desire to be in charge of anything other than their own destiny. The Aglildai? They have no desire to be anything other than soldiers. I can’t say if that will change in the future, but for right now? I think both peoples are exactly what you see. They are not duplicitous. I think it is because they are telepathic. I imagine it would be hard to lie to each other. Right now, they are friends. I think we need to do whatever it takes to keep them that way.”

“Part of my job is to make sure the Federation is secure. Sometimes that means asking some hard questions.” Davidoff sighed and scrubbed his face. “Look, I like them. I know you do, too. I sent Fleet a report telling them we need to do whatever it takes to make sure they are either friends or they go back to the Imperium. But if they stay, there is a planet named it Pendulum that we’ve been terraforming in the Iota Horologii system. The Prime Minister is willing to offer it to them… and any Lopingu who decide to join them.”

Davidoff triggered a hidden holotank in the middle of the room, highlighting the Iota Horologii system. The key info showed in the tank. It showed G0V class star approximately 56.5 light-years from Terran with eleven planets.

Pendulum was the fourth planet in the system. The holotank zoomed in on the planet. It had two moons and a small ring system. It had five large continents and two smaller ones with thousands of archipelagos.

“A terraformed planet is worth a lot,” Pierre mused.

“True, but we think this system is worth way more. More to the point, having them as an ally is worth even more. The question is, do you think they’ll accept our offer?”

“I think they will at least listen with open minds. They have taken to our culture with almost childlike glee. They especially love late twentieth century entertainment. Especially old science fiction shows. They are entertained by just how wrong we got it back then. The Lopingu seem more interested in our music. Odd thing is, what one experiences, the rest sort of experiences it too.

“That is not an apt description, but not being a telepath, I cannot explain it well. What one experiences firsthand, the rest get it secondhand, or even thirdhand.  

“If I hear a song, I have to explain to you how I feel about it. But they can share it at a much deeper level, and then it spreads like wildfire.”

The other two looked a bit confused, so he added, “I say that as a prelude to this, that they love humans. Not just because we went into the gravity well and rescued them. That served as a good introduction, but it’s because they are fascinated by how we live. Apparently, there is no music in the Imperium and little in the way of entertainment. And don’t start me on games.”

“What about games?” The doctor asked.

“They are addicted to IVAR games… all of them. It is like they have never known anything but training to fight. Now they have something to distract them. And can you imagine trying playing poker or any other game of chance with someone who can read your mind? They can… limit how strong they broadcast their thoughts, but they cannot mask them entirely. They can tell when someone is doing it and don’t attempt to connect deeper out of courtesy. But it cannot mask the emotions that they are feeling. That doesn’t matter with us. We can’t feel their thoughts and they can’t feel ours.”

“Interesting,” she replied. “The sociologists and anthropologists are going to have a field day.”

“If they let our scientists near them. Admiral, in my opinion, this was a mistake. If you do something else secretive like this where they didn’t give permission… and they find out about it? You’ll kill a lot of goodwill. Remember that they are completely unfamiliar with lying and dishonesty. You can’t lie to someone that can read your mind. My suggestion is you be above board with everything.”

“Point taken,” the admiral sighed. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you first. You are the only thing near an expert on them that we have.”

“Admiral Halsey strikes me as an honorable person, sir. When he found out the real story behind his people, I think there was some anger on his part. The idea that the Huxtyl designed them with a literal kill switch? I’d be pissed off to hell and back. That said, I don’t think that we should try to manipulate him based on that knowledge. I think we should just present the offer and the reasoning behind it.”

“I concur,” Davidoff said. “Doctor, can you get me the hard details in this report? I want to talk to Trey first. He has a lot more knowledge about their past. He might have some knowledge about it that he hasn’t shared.”

“Let me talk to Trey,” Pierre offered. “I have a better relationship with him.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

 ---------------------------------------------------------

Pierre found Trey in a gaming room, sitting in a sinfully comfortable chair and wearing the IVAR gear. Immersive Virtual/Augmented Reality games placed the gamer in the game itself. You could feel, smell, and hear everything. It was an immersive experience, and some could easily get addicted to it. Pierre hoped his friend wouldn’t go down that path.

“Hey, Trey. Come up for air.”

“Good afternoon, Oliver.” The little alien pulled the headset. “Have you played this game? It’s called ‘The Dragon’s Hoard.’ I get to fight my way through dungeons and eventually fight a dragon. It’s so exciting.”

“I haven’t played that one. But I’ve played a lot like it.”

“I cannot wait to introduce this to my people.”

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen this tech before. This is old, old tech for us. Surely the Confederation has stuff like this.”

“They probably do. But we have been… excessively focused on science and research. We have never been interested in this kind of thing before. Perhaps we are a bit arrogant. We were always so sure of our intellectual superiority, that we never looked at other people’s cultures or daily lives. We had our own culture. Why would we?”

“That was probably a mistake. You can always learn something from other people. It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open,” Oliver said.

“I cannot close my eyes.”

“It’s a figure of speech. It means just be alert and cognizant of your surroundings and the people in it.”

“I know. I was being… droll? Is that the right word?”

“Yeah. Droll is the right word. Your command of our language is getting better.”

“Would you like to join me? I am an elf. You can be a dwarf or a barbarian. Or would you like to be a… wizard.”

“Oh my god,” Oliver chuckled. “Who told you that? Never mind. Where’s Sven? I am going to put a boot up his ass.”

“Actually, it was Bunny. Bu…

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