123. The Sphere

"They are not Harvesters.", after this statement, a heavy silence settled in the Comroom, hundreds of thoughts flashing through the minds of everyone at once, each more wild in reach than the last.

"Do you mean…?", Jake was the first to ask, his ear folding slightly, great worry etched over his features at the thoughts of another war, the last experience not one that led to a mind looking for a positive outcome. Quite the contrary, war was something he was sick of, disgusted even, yet it was also something that made his heart pump.

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean Jake. They are entirely new breeds of aliens.", Liam said and at this a hologram of the new visitor became visible, this was a real-time video of what was happening on the outer edge of Alpha Centauri.

From a twirling gaping hole in the fabric of reality of impossible color, the throat of a wormhole, a strange structure was slowly moving out with no apparent difficulty as if the puncture in space-time was of no importance and effect.

This structure was a spaceship, an alien spaceship, and this alien vessel was uniquely shaped not that it mattered a lot in space as long as its integrity remained assured and other factors innate to the void of space were taken care of such as radiation and heat distribution but that was more of the realm of the materials and technologies.

To put it mildly, it wasn't the first shape one would think a spaceship to be, not a saucer, or vaguely ship-submarine-shaped. It was a ball, a sphere and a big one.

Its clean surface was bluish with various structures on top but the more discernible features aside from the elegantly crafted thrusters was a blue line cutting into its middle giving the appearance of a perpetually closed eye in deep meditation.

It was massive compared to an ISV Venture Star but insignificant in comparison to a regular Mothership nevertheless it's planet-sized counterpart but it still was close to ten kilometers (6.2 mi) in diameter. A very large space-faring structure with true capabilities unknown aside from a very advanced wormhole drive making it a sizable threat if the pilots were even a little imaginative and motivated enough to cause harm.

Yet again at the moment, nothing was stopping them from generating the exit of a wormhole on Pandora. What looked harmless in space very much wasn't the case on a moon lush with life. But this glaring weakness was soon to be fixed.

"Very different design as you can see and far more polite than our last visitors as they did not find it appropriate to warp in Pandora's general vicinity. They are even stopping before entering our territory and not moving to ram into us.", Liam said and many nodded or rolled their eyes in Grace's case.

He was joking about something massively important, it made her want to smash her head against a brick wall and let herself fall in relief on the soft mattress of her bed.

'Better him messing with us than being serious about how actually far down in the pile of shite we are.', she rationalized and it was quite true, his lack of displeasure was enough to make her relax immensely like the others. His state of mind affected them and their life directly after all.

"This might sound extreme but if things go sour, pardon me, Liam… But do we have the means to shoot them down if necessary?", Katerin asked with a frown and pursed lips, it was logical and it was better safe than sorry. She was quite on edge, and garnering the attention of another alien species that wanted to kill them for X or Y reasons was not something desirable in her book.

"No, I do not have a weapon with enough firepower to directly shoot their spacecraft down but getting antimatter bombs in its general vicinity with a swarm of Voidwyrms carrying Enforcers will be an uncomplicated endeavor.", he said snapping his finger to show another hologram, this time a simulation of what would happen even if the sphere could defend itself with various hypothetical weapons.

Weapons gathered from what he could see and deduce as a Homo Deus but it remained fiction as only sight and guess did let him know a lot but far from everything. Accurate as it may be it can't be the absolute truth and all was to be taken with a grain of salt.

Their technology, while seemingly sharing similarities to the one of humanity in some instances, was overall dramatically different and worked on an entirely different frame of reference using different solutions for similar problems.

There was beauty in that, something Liam knew he would never feel dull to him, it was simply fascinating. In a way, it was how recipes in cooking were and the technique used in it as well. Different problems can be solved with the same solutions and the same problems can be solved with different solutions.

It was to say that their technology was truly impressive, advanced, and sophisticated, but still inferior to Tek from what he could garner but ingenious all the same and it was to be said most of Tek's capabilities were uniquely due to the Element. And it was to be remembered in equal measure that Tek was focused on supportive technology, shields, artificial life, teleportation, healing, and the like.

It didn't dabble heavily in weapons capable of whipping planets of the Milky Way in an instant even if it had the potential if necessary to do so. But that was mostly due to the risk of Element pollution and damage too great to fix which here at least one was a nonproblem.

This meant right now he couldn't simply hack it, humanity was easy because it was one he had mastered but for those aliens, it would require a bit of study and adaptation before even trying. At least it seemed to be hackable since it wasn't mostly organic and psychically inclined like Harvester technologies but that didn't mean it would be a simple matter either.

Still, it was truly ironic that the weakness of flesh grants the ability to overcome the strength and security of metal in such ways. This is why it was good to never go either extreme.

"But I do not think I will have to. They are trying to make contact, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, alright?", he announced the pleasant surprise. At the same time, he sensed hundreds upon hundreds of signals sent in his direction, some using light, radiation, and even dark energy.

They were essentially throwing things and observing what stuck and which he could respond to, a crude if logical line of action since they wouldn't know what frequency, if frequency at all humans used. As long as it could be detected and altered it could become a means of transporting information, it didn't need to be a medium humanity or himself used.

And that is what he did, a connection was made using regular radio waves, and the first thing sent to him was a hyper-condensed packet filled with the knowledge of great and many aliens' languages.

One within was prominent, and all-encompassing making human language in all of its forms seem… Very primitive, unnecessarily complex, unclear, and overall obtuse, which was true. It was why Liam had plans in the making to change it. He wasn't going to erase languages, just make one understood by all.

It was an extensive and thorough dictionary using millions of detailed examples to give names to objects and aspects of reality progressing further into more conceptual ideas and the like. It was exceptionally well made that much was evident to the Homo Deus and the one who made it received his praises.

A comprehensible pamphlet that would even let someone blind, deaf, and mentally disabled understand their language fully.

Reading through it all and understanding it fully in mere seconds Liam's true body smiled and with a flick of a hand more dramatic than necessary he sent back a packet of data doing much the same but for all human language at his disposition using the packet given as a template completing the compendium further.

They weren't going to initially speak and write in English or any human language for that matter after all, there was no cosmic law enforcing this language as the one shared between every sophonts in the universe. That would be egomaniacal and silly and a thing that in most science fiction he found vexing when there weren't extremely solid reasons that made sense.

His pet peeves on science fiction aside it was evident it wasn't only one alien species, either from his all-piercing gaze through the spaceship and the language used from infrared to pure pheromone it was evident it wasn't a single species. And he noted some alien species were even familiar to him but that wasn't new per se, the surprise was dulled now.

'Conqueror, scientist, collector, trader, or another thing entirely?', Liam wondered and he didn't have long to wait for an answer to come in English which meant it was likely something not organic at the head of the spherical spaceship.

It wasn't to be insulting but organic beings even if heavily augmented genetically and cybernetically had limits unless the two formers were in the extreme of extreme but it wasn't the case here. The organic ones were far too much 'basic' in that aspect to have answered in less than four seconds.

In any case, he decided to broadcast the message to his audience listening to it with them. Their input for most might not prove of much value but that was the bare minimum he could do.

"Greetings we are ambassadors of the Coalition, an alliance between space-faring intelligent species to fight against a common foe, beings that you know as Harvesters. We have come with peace in mind and hope to build diplomatic bridges and a mutually beneficial relationship between us.", an androgynous voice said steadily, emotions could be felt from hope, excitement, and joy as if the one speaking was serene yet truly invested in what seemed to be an overly positive experience.

"That's huh interesting…", Grace said, not sure what to say at this, there were quite a few questions in her head but she knew she would have to wait a bit more to have them answered.

There was a lot of murmur after this with the beginning of a debate that was cut short by Liam lifting a hand before he spoke to illustrate what he was transmitting to the spherical vessel, "Who are you? What are your goals, your reasons, and your purposes for coming to us? Why should I listen and not consider you as another threat? What are the reasons for me to trust you? A common enemy does not make us friends or faithful allies."

This was asking for a repetition of what was already said but for more details. There was no aggression in his voice, only pure curiosity and if some are offended then so be it. A few seconds of silence followed until a response came back.

"Understood All-Father, those are respectable questions and reasonable worries. My true name cannot be pronounced in the primitive language we are currently conversing in but the word Axela is a close equivalent. I'm a member of the Senomoprh and the female equivalent for both Na'vi and human.", the now-named voice said, and with it came an image of the speaker herself.

An image that surprised more than a few since it was well a sphere… One very similar to the spaceship if not for the absence of propulsors and an outer shell of the purest of white. She seemed to be an Artificial Intelligence, and the total lack of Psionic from Eywa's sense leaned heavily toward this with the fact she was a robot but the mention of female was odd if it was purely an AI with the previous hyper-optimized language.

Counted it wasn't just a quirk in logic, there was something more, and the most likely explanation was a technological singularity where AIs and their creators merged or it could also be that the creators transferred themselves in a synthetic medium. Or something else entirely.

"I'm a High Diplomat and chief executor of this expedition. As I said earlier I'm an agent of the Coalition, an organism of many sapient species with the goal of the complete eradication of the Harvester. I have been sent to investigate after certain sensitive members of our alliance have felt the death scream of a Harvester Queen echo through their Hivemind and our sensors the subsequent World Mothership destruction. Through mostly these two factors we have pinpointed your location.", Axela said, from her spherical holographic form manifested another hologram showing a close to fully accurate map of the Milky Ways with only the area under the All-Mother's influence not marked as controlled by enemies.

"This is a feat only observed once in the vast records of the Coalition. It was done by an ancient long-lived race of massive aquatic potent Psionic but this was followed by the near extinction of their kind following the Harvester Queens' wrath. I'm very surprised there was no further attack after your victory but from my data, the Psionic Field in this location is likely the reason, it's a point of major interest for them, a point that will strengthen their Hivemind to unprecedented height if harvested properly. But this peace won't last forever, they will adapt, forcefully evolve themselves, change their strategy, and enhance their technology to obtain what they desire.", Axela said, hope and wonder turning to fear and worry in her voice.

'So they are younger than the last time you mind shredded them.', Liam commented telepathically to his mate.

'If her words are to be accurate.', Eywa answered back, her pink eyes locked on the hologram, her point of view on the ongoing situation was far less welcoming than his. Though he was equally as distrustful if not even more, and it was very hard to think it was purely a coincidence with his recent conquest of humanity.

"As for my goals, purposes, and reasons for coming here… They are per the Coalition's truth, my words are theirs and their words are mine. I have come to invite you to the Coalition, to grant you a permanent seat within it for us to fully integrate you, to share knowledge, and forge a military alliance, but that is in the best-case scenario and what I said is not absolute. Change can and will be made to accommodate your demand in the realm of the reasonable.", she continued with a burning passion, the blue light line on her body gaining in intensity.

She wasn't finished yet, however, "For the last of your questions. Yes, that is correct. We are not owed your cooperation, trust, and fellowship. I understand the suspiciousness of my actions and how it can be seen and no words and information could be said and sent to prove it otherwise, our appearance has surely even been noticed by the Harvester."

The last parts caused many pairs of eyes to widen and strings of less-than-eloquent curses to fly.

"Silence.", a single word from Liam was all it took for the room to quiet down and everyone back to straighten up.

What was done was done, they were already a target of utmost importance. This seldom will change anything in the long run. In addition, their displeasure took into consideration that the Harvesters weren't smart enough to deduce the Coalition, their supposed enemy for what was likely thousands of years, wouldn't contact a civilization that had killed one of their highest-ranked individuals in recent times.

"That is why I sincerely request your permission to enter your controlled space and put ourselves in the orbit of Pandora but also to have an audience following your conditions.", Axela finished, her voice back to the initial serenity.

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