16. First Judgement

It was a long travel as for a continent-sized cave system, he was both glad and suspicious at the same time that there are numerous light sources, from torches to glow-in-the-dark stones. The torches however would indicate that something used to live here. 

Taking a sample from the glowing stones and upon examination, it was organic and began pulsating, with red and orange light patterns before taking a DNA sample and dropping back to the earth as he keeps scootering around the cavern. 

It was now up to time as he continued to carefully scoot around the rough terrain of the caverns, mainly due to the ragged ground and the emergence of stalactites and stalagmites bursting up and down the earth as a result of sedimentary rock accumulation. 

Making his way through left and right turns and passing through intersections, he was close to the giant cave system at the center of the massive cave system network. However, he quickly stopped the scooter as he heard sounds of chanting. 

He didn't think there were people in here but if they were to be hostile he was already ready to confront them. He moved closer and upon looking, it was a huge city. Stalagmites have been reconstructed and refitted to place architectural cities. Garrick saw an entire civilization of unknown humanoids. 

Flying cars that wandered about as they went through the cave tunnels and systems that he went in. Then, 3 humanoid creatures adorned in specialized armor, physically similar to rock ambushed him with guns pointed at him. They spoke in an unrecognizable voice. 

But he was able to translate the language with his onboard AI Language Translator which says: "What is a human doing here?" And maps the origin to a crude and distant version of Sumerian language. 

"We have an intruder on our lands. What are our orders?" The one creature with a a spiky hat asked. 

"Bring the prisoner here in the Court." A voice echoed on the alien radio as they forcefully escorted Garrick towards their city through a long slope down as the entire area is comparable to a large city, like New York. A car approached them and Garrick enters the car, along with the humanoid soldiers as they drove down the slope and into the city. 

A society of humanoid creatures with short eyes and has antennae that constantly move in a 360 motion. Light is scarce here as they are reliant on torches and those organic glowing stones spread out across the cities. But the materials and the technology here was similar to human tech, even more advanced than that. 

They arrived at the central building which had two statues of famous figures as he stepped out of the car and brought inside. A lot of humanoids were staring at him with the antennas vibrating and circling around coupled with bouts of chattering. 

"Silence!" A lady figure arises from the podium as Garrick stood at the center of an audience with the soldiers aiming their guns at him with the audience falling silent. 

"You are in the presence of the Nivean. Speak, human as to why are you here?" She said. 

"Well, I'm Garrick. I went here because my gadgets detected a seismic activity around my hometown and wanted to see the source because I specifically designed an anti-earthquake mechanism on my hometown and it shouldn't detect micro-quakes." He explained. 

"What nonsense are you rambling about?" The soldiers asked him, obviously confused about his explanation. 

"You see, the ground shook in my home where there shouldn't be any signs of shaking." He simplified it as he got annoyed. 

"Our power plant facilities are designed to release unwanted energy outside the city, which results in minor shakes." One of the audience spoke. "Ahh, but that doesn't explain as to how it got over my anti-earthquake defense mechanism." He thought. 

"I didn't realize there was a society underneath the whole American soil. If I broke any of your rules, I can take responsibility." He apologized sincerely as the Judge looked at him with curiosity and can sense the truth behind his words. She orders the soldiers to lower their weapons. 

She walked down the huge podium and walked close to him and caressed his cheek and stroked his hair. Garrick felt unnerved by this but he just let her do her own thing. 

"Okay, he's off the hook. You are actually one of the second humans to ever discover our civilization. Just by looking at you, you have a ingenious mind. We've observed your human race from the shadows but not once have I seen such with a grandiose goal." She said. 

She introduced herself as Vixen Nivean, and apparently, all of the Niveans here use their species name as their last name. Vixen is the Empress of the whole society; a judge, jury, executor and leader of the whole Nivean race. 

After the court has adjourned, she showed him around, and saw a working society. Their manpower was twice as efficient than humanity considering their short population number. 

"We had observed your human race behind the sidelines. From how they were able to achieve the Industrial Revolution to creating weapons of mass destruction. We incorporated their technology into ours and our culture has been defined of continuing to upgrade and progress more." She said as a Nivean handed him a pamphlet of the culture of the Niveans. 

Garrick knew that they were already capable of space travel. Even solve world hunger as they've already figured it out from the pamphlet alone. "Then why stick around here? The whole cosmos is free for you to expand and continue to progress." He said to her.