Chapter 3

HelixI considers letting Brax know he had discovered the best-matched female for him, and she was arriving to fight in tonight’s battle. His friend looked very despondent. However, HelixI knew that his friend was a rule follower, a rule-maker, and Brax would follow the council’s edict. Brax would stop a female from participating in tonight’s battle and, in turn, prevent Brax from the opportunity for a mate.

“Who’s the lucky warrior identified with a potential match?” Brax looks around after securing his weapons.

“One of the members of the Council, I have to get the female’s agreement before the protocols name the male the most likely to be her match, but the system suggests that parings occur naturally by mutual attraction.” HelixI is answering Brax honestly, just omitting to tell him that he is the Council member.

“One of the warriors will finally have a compatible female and hopefully an aligned match, and we will have to reorganize the ship and colony stations to accept mated pairs and families. Do you believe that your warriors will follow Arcturian mating rituals?” HelixI asks Brax.

“There has been discussion amongst the Arcturian warriors that we will keep the Arcturian mating ritual. An Arcturian mating has three levels, first will be physical. As warriors, we must ensure that the female is physically compatible—second intellectual and third emotional. The emotional is the most difficult. I believe they call it ‘love’ from looking at Earth’s customs. A full emotional attachment between males and females. All three levels must be completed for an Arcturian mating to be finalized and complete. The process as a whole is called a melding - but you know this. The melding marks will appear as each phase is completed.” Brax shares with HelixI his memories about the Arcturian mating rituals on his planet before Purix destroyed his world. His fellow warriors believe these phases were needed for successful meldings.

“When you say physical…?” HelixI looks over at Brax. He wiggles his eyebrows up and down suggestively. The sexual proclivity of Arcturian males is well known.

“Well, from our history and some that remembered before, Arcturian males were extremely possessive and territorial until the phases were complete and the female bore the mating marks. Our biological senses take over, and we are driven to mate and mark our females quickly. This soothes our protective drive. We do not know if we will feel these urges with the new species. You will have to study and document the new pairings.” Brax closes his mind to the idea of mating phases. For years, he and his warriors had tried to mate with other species, and while physical gratification had been found with some, they had yet to find a fully compatible female species. This was part of why the Earth females were so vital to the repopulation of his species.

“But when you say physical?” HelixI asks, now demonstrating with crude physical gestures. “You have watched the Earth orientation videos and engaged in the holo interaction series with the Earth video game? Remember, as we start integrating Earth females, we will start using their common language terms that have been integrated into the translation programs.”

“Yes, HelixI,” Brax sighs and would usually find him amusing if he wasn’t in such a bad mood, “we are talking about what Earth refers to as sex, also called fucking. The warriors seem to like this word. For Arcturians, our physical acts are part of the first melding phase, and physical compatibility is essential for mating. So in Earth terms, phase 1 is sex - but do not ask me any more questions. I have the battle to prepare for.” Brax inwardly groans with the thought. Just hearing the word sex, envisioning some of the Earth videos, and the idea of physical melding causes his dick to harden. His cock twitches with just the thought. He must adjust himself so his armor does not pinch his sensitive flesh.

With his haze peaking, kicking in his mating instincts, thoughts of sinking and thrusting into a warm female are too much to think about; he shuts down those thoughts quickly. Brax grabs something to drink from the biological generator, needing to calm his body. Going in front of his warriors for a mission briefing with an erection would be embarrassing.

“HelixI, just in case anything happens to me in tonight’s battle, here is my termination status document.” Brax hands HelixI a small communication disc; all warriors have them prepared and are required when reporting for duty.

HelixI looks over at Brax, takes the disc, and sets it on the nearby desk.

“I’ll leave it here for when you return. I still get your spacecycle, right?” HelixI jokes, “I’ll finally get to ride it. I’ll look good.”

“As long as you complete your termination status report before you get on the spacecycle.” Brax laughs at HelixI. When Arcturian warriors were not in battle, spacecycle races were held as downtime training activities. Still, the Arcturians took their racing seriously, were very competitive, and worked on accessorizing and increasing the racing performance of their spacecycles.

“Is the group ready for tonight? It appears straightforward. How is your haze level?” HelixI inquires, heading for the door.

“Straight forward is never true. There is always some complication, but we plan for all contingencies. It is manageable.” This is always Brax’s answer. “Speaking of contingencies, I need to go, and the general cannot be late.”

Brax stepped up to the door. The door has deep red and purple markings that mirror his life experience markings on his body. Body markings are unique to each Arcturian, and they use these marking patterns to identify personal items, such as sleeping quarters, weapons, and vehicles. Many pilots customize their fighting craft to their individual needs, and their ships are marked with their unique Arcturian markings. Brax’s laser pistol and sword have Brax’s distinctive markings emblazoned on the weapons. Only he can use them.

HelixI and his intelligence unit work on upgrading and adapting the warrior’s weapons with the latest technology. Each weapon, spacecraft, body armor, and shield have artificial intelligence embedded within each item’s hardware, so the item learns its’ user and increases its effectiveness.

“Hey, Brax, be safe tonight. Be ready for everything. After tonight we should all be ready for big changes.” HelixI walks out the door. He thinks especially for you.

Brax heads to the command center walking through the maze of corridors leading him to the docking bay where the transport spacecraft waits for his unit. Multiple units have been assigned for this mission. He oversees them all, but there will be commanders for each team organizing their units in their docking bays.

HelixI heads to his lab. He has a meeting with Parker Wilson, an Earth female, Brax’s 99.9% matched mate, even without the warrior mark. After studying Earth’s genetic makeup and biology, he believes that Arcturian and Earth’s biology are so compatible that a successful melding is possible, even without an Arcturian warrior mark.

This is the first match to come out of the Repopulation Program. Earth has compatible females, recently discovered, and this opened the possibilities to restart the Arcturian society and repopulate their species.

HelixI knew that Brax was at a breaking point, and he needed to save his friend, the warrior who had led ICUS against Purix and sacrificed for many years.

Parker has been playing his role-playing video game he introduced to Earth to identify compatible females. She is the top sniper and scoreboard leader and has been embedded on numerous missions, with Brax as commander. Her cyborg counterpart has the maximum numbers when Parker is controlling the cyborg. The females playing this game believe they are playing with their online Earth counterparts. However, they are engaging and interacting with Arcturian warriors through the video holo system.

HelixI steps into the virtual control cylinder, linking him to the Infinax Warrior Initiative video game. HelixI integrates his AI central processing into Parker’s gaming protocols. He is presenting Parker with a new mission. She will be the first Repopulation mate, should she accept her mission.

HelixI feels very confident, and Parker has never turned down a mission. This mission will be unique, and Parker will leave Earth, absolving her citizenship and saving ICUS’s greatest warrior, General Brax. All it will take is for her to verbally agree and then activate the special button on her gaming unit to initiate her integration into Arcturia.

His computer simulations recommended that neither party have their matched mate identified and that nature needs to drive the pairing. HelixI's simulations indicate that attempts to manipulate and influence matings led to poorer matches, and the manipulated pairings rarely resulted in a third phase. The simulations show that allowing females and males to interact and follow their primitive instincts and biological urges leads to successful meldings. Their mating leads to a successful reproductive couple.