INTERLUDE; Zeta Reticuli

His breath was becoming weak as he took in the conference room, a man stood in near the entrance delivering parcels to every human that entered the room; it was the special suit, Dario surmised, accepting graciously his own parcel, the grey ambassadors and his assistants were waiting patiently for the meeting to begin, and many hurried on to put on their protective gear.

The suit was easy to put on, it reminded him of a biohazard suit, but it was less spacey and it was consisted of various metals, especially around the head gear, which was missing any plastic protection making it much easier to breath. The special suit had a single purpose; protect the human participants of the psychic effects of the greys. Their only way of communication was accomplished through mental telepathy; it was eons since they transcended the need for speech.

Their gifts did not stop there, their ability to affect minds and psychically remove blocks or add ones, made for some dangerous debaters, their effect could be a subtle one or a very violent one, of course ambassadors of an entire race would never attempt something like that, despite that they did not seem offended by their meeting co-attendant's protection proceedings.

Everyone slowly took their sit on the oval metal table, 4 projector-cameras were all around them covering every angle. Dario started to notice his co-workers, he was surprised that president Seren himself could not attend, sending him along with Thenh and Jurio, two presidents of bi-sectors. Many other presidents of bi-sectors were not present like Hern of bisector 2-1, his recent scandal was brought forward, and It was all over the news, he presumably attacked a Venus operator on a space buss during his travel back from Mars. The reasons were still unknown. He realized that he was the lowest ranking party among them, but it mattered not, once the meeting begun they would all have the chance to contribute to it and he planned to use that opportunity wisely.

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He was just a freshman, that was part of the reason he found himself in the classroom of professor Reik, the subject was 'history and culture of extraterrestrial races '. ''Today we will talk about the Greys, one of the most advanced and intelligent races in our known universe'' the professor begun his speech without even acknowledging the classroom, taking the time to only put his suitcase down on his desk, he reached for the remote and opened up the 3d projector.

A star system shown itself in the middle of the classroom, ''the zeta Reticuli is a constellation of two stars, and the place of origin of the Greys. Earth was just a formless rock when the Reticuli had already exhausted their planet's resources and moved on to the next planet, their objective was simple; survival. In the next few millennials the Reticuli colonized dozens of planets, each time exhausting its resources like parasites, some planets were even inhabited but that was not the case by the time the Reticuli had finished with it.''

3d projections filled the classroom of the constellation, and some pictures even presented the current state of their planet up close. A place of complete desolation and destruction followed, with little to none living organisms still wandering around.'' Much time passed till their actions caught up to them, when their war with the Orion empire ended in their defeat, it was then that the Orion emperor decided to create a protectorate state out of the remaining greys, stopping their slow self-genocide in the process, but taking away much of their liberty, whilst the emperor was not known for his kindness he let many of the greys immigrate on his own empire's planets. That was not the last that was heard of the greys though, it was through sheer determination that they managed to reform and in their wish to find their former glory earth became their target. Earth was the lab of our galaxy for thousands' of years, and now the Reticuli wished to claim a piece of it''.

The professor took a moment to catch his breath, as the slide showed earth, the atmosphere was eerie in the room, there used to be a jesting spirit around the greys, their history was not something that was well known at the time. Dario's attention was solely on the speech.

''The earth was a genetic test field for all kind of races, only the greys intentions were much darker than that, you see their own genetic material was failing'' the slide show a chart with DNA coding, the grey's coding reminded very much of the humane one, the professor managed to captivate the classroom within moments, ''I don't like to sound cynical, but indeed we were just an experiment to them, people have spoken about it even before the Armageddon, but they were ignored falling on deaf ears. Their technology of course allowed them to go unnoticed, by doing so slowly achieving their purpose'' his statement was followed by once again with complete silence, among it only one hand was raised, that of Dario, the professor nodded, giving him a chance to voice his question.

''Their purpose?'', the professor perked up, as he expected that question, to Dario that seemed a little dramatic of him, but still he had his full attention.

''Well now, this used to be a taboo subject, and that's the reason most of you if not all, do not know this. Many dark secrets exist on the universe, but most certainly the greys hold one of them, their gigantic strides in genetics made them masters on the subject, eventually achieving perfect cloning methods that means that they managed to replicate their own material''.

''Excuse me'' a student cut him short, with a puzzled look on his face ''didn't human genetics prove that it is impossible to replicate our material?, it's too complicated''. The professor did not seem flustered by the disturbance of his flow.

''Yes, human genetics reached that impasse along the way, but that did not apply for 'the masters of genetics, not only did they succeed but they even used it on themselves multiple times, 'selective breeding' is what they called it, that should be a familiar term considering that's what we, the human race hopes to achieve as well''.

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That scene was etched in Dario's mind, whilst observing their guests. They looked disturbing, those black, seemingly unmoving eyes were focused on you as if trying to poke a hole in your mind. Their grey, dry, brittle skin, their dark demeanor, their likeness to each other only added to those effects. They were intimidating despite their lack of tallness, their aura was spreading towards everyone on the table, the room was warm, yet everyone was fighting off a shiver, and Dario felt his stomach knot, those creatures were dangerous and all the protective suits on the universe couldn't keep their intentions away. Humans were their prey and Dario was not about to forget that.

The sound of a chair scrapping against the floor jerked him awake, President Lersan of sector 2-the highest member among them, coughed drawing the attention of everyone and ceasing the whispering chitchat that went around the room, cameras begun to roll while the president took control of the situation

'' Humans around the universe, today is a special day as president Seren reminded us, one hundred years, and what better way to celebrate peace among all the races of our little planet, than forming new alliances, building understanding and trust with the rest of the races, helping pave the way to a peaceful galaxy and eventually of the cosmos '' Dario almost snorted.

His speechwriter apparently was going for an inspiration regard. '' it is my right if not my privilege to ask of you, to support our ways in this dangerous but inspiring time, let us form peace in the name of our galaxy'' despite his apparent ease in poaching the subject, forming an alliance with the greys would not be a small task, while there were no representatives from Mars that did not demean the importance of that meeting.

Dario knew the significance of each word spoken today, to find a way into the Orion circle of power could only be achieved through them. As they stood, the political parties were divided, it was worrisome to present such a profile to the rest of the extraterrestrial races, but it was the human way of conducting relationship since the beginning, were they really ready to dive into external politics. That was the question that formed in Dario's mind.

A room full of humans yet, their ideas and understanding of any subject quite differed. Each one serving their agenda, despite that they were given full access to human resources, today their ranks made no difference for the simple reason that they were all representatives of the human race, apparently different facades of it. Jurio then was given the right to speak ''I would like to suggest a form of shared mineral extractions from our beloved moon, considering the Asteroid belt convention preventing any planet owned satellite to be harvested by anyone other than the planet's inhabitants, despite that I believe a continuation of harvesting using your equipment and our personnel would benefit us both'' Dario winced.

This was such a waste of time, while the Reticuli seemed set on harvesting heavy metals from the surface of the moon, they had as much needed from the Orion planets, even in heavy taxation the Greys wouldn't dare make a non-profitable deal to their emperor.

Many representatives spoke after Jurio, each offering a different way to form that much sought alliance, and while the greys seemed to listen with intent not one of them offered any input in any of the ideas offered, they had no facial expression to speak of, maybe they were considering them, but Dario knew; they were disappointed. He looked towards their guests, were they the perfect being as many humans seemed to believe? That was far from the truth, their lack of need of sleep, need of speech along with their ability to survive on any planet's atmosphere using the skin supplements they discovered, made them menacing to the rest less advanced races, but they needed something, they needed it desperately.

Dario's time to speak was drawing near, sweat drops were forming on the back of his neck and forehead, his plan could as easily backfire, his idea was formed around the concept of offering the greys DNA material, and not just any material, humane material.

Even his old university professor had no knowledge of this, it took years for Dario to discover it, the dark secret he spoke of once was much darker than he knew, the greys search for a way out of their sickness could be achieved only by recycling their material using new one, Dario's time in science was not wasted, he had invested so much time in researching extraterrestrial DNA that he did not give notice to his slow decline on the practical aspect of his career, but it mattered little now, his hard work was about to pay off.

The last speaker, sat down at last, and all the eyes were now focused on Dario, all the cameras turned on him, public communicators on the corner with their digital notepads waiting patiently, he knew that he could not commit any mistakes, he had to pass his offer without the public communicators or the people of earth and Mars that were watching realize that he was offering something that should not exist, of course his offer needed to pass through a council of high members formed only to permit such transactions and oversee their transparency. But the time was here, all his worries begun to disappear as he got off his sit, this is where he truly shined.

''Good evening dear members of the committee'', '' and honorable guests'' he added inclining his head towards the Reticuli ambassador. ''My offer to you is much simpler and to some maybe tasteless.'' His grin widened. He felt he could not be stopped anymore.