Chapter 7

I looked at the colony director who was seeming calmer now, “Any contamination protocols I need to be aware of? I’m not going to break any laws providing transport, am I?”

“No, there are no known harmful microorganisms here, no quarantines are required.”

“Any sort of immigration control or security checks, or can I drop you straight at a regional transport hub?”

“We don’t allow aliens past the moon base, but Ergomax have freedom to travel anywhere outside restricted areas,” Charley said proudly.

“Ok, gather up your people, and tell me the name of the transport hub you wish to be sent to.”

Scrooge gave a quick bow, and hurried out of the room. A few minutes later, the 8 transportees hurried through the gateway I created in the colony office as Charley watched on in amazement.

“Mr Samwise, Sir, can you tell me about your wings?” Charley asked as I closed the gate behind the group.

“They are tech, not natural.”

“I thought as much, we have never met another winged species, but you are only the third race of sentients we have ever encountered.”

“My people are not fond of visitors, it was fortunate that Scrooge’s ship detected me and homed in on my location.”

“Yes, I understand your home system is somewhere in the opposite direction of our colony world. I’ve sent messages with Scrooge back to our corporate office that we recommend no exploration in that direction.”

“I recommend that you stay at least 50 light years away from my home system without an invitation.”

“If you could provide the coordinates for the mid point between our homeworlds, I will suggest that we not explore or colonize beyond that location.”

‘Adam, if you would.’

Charles jumped as his pocket computer beeped, and he pulled out to examine the image and information Adam had provided.

“We have a similar border zone with the Longiveray,” he told me.

Adam displayed an image of that species to me, “Ah, them.” I replied, pretending I was aware of them, “Your homeworld is closest to my own, they are some distance farther,” I explained as Adam provided a local star map for me to view.

“I’m glad to know you are not close neighbors to them, they aren’t very friendly.”

I could see why a flightless bird species would find the clearly predator descended Longiveray unfriendly. I had to hold back a chuckle at the thought of the foxes in the hen house.

“What was the name of the second species you encountered?” I asked him.

“They never gave us a name, we called them the little people. They were on a deep space exploration mission and we encountered them at a neighboring star system soon after we first developed FTL travel.”

I could hear Adam chuckling in my head, but he didn’t explain.

“I thank you for your hospitality, I guess I should be going.”

“You are always welcome here. As a landowner you are automatically a citizen of our colony.”

“I look forward to future business,” I told him.

“Officially, what does your species call itself?” he asked.

I finally understood where he had been driving the conversation. “We have several names for ourselves, but one of the oldest is humankind.”

“Ah, yes there must be many kinds of life on your world.”

“Millions of species.”

“Yes, the grouping of kinds is common among the worlds seeded in this part of the Galaxy. The little people told us that they were searching for remnants of the original world seeding ships.”

‘Adam?’ I questioned silently.

‘It’s true,’ came the calm response.

I blew out a breath of air, “Thank you Charles, I really do need to be going, I’ll hopefully be able to return in a few days.”

“Farewell and good travels Mr Samwise, Sir,” he said just before I teleported back to the deserted island.

I dropped down onto the beach, sitting in the sand. Adam flowed off and over me, becoming a beach umbrella shade for the sun, now lower than before.

“This has been one of the longest days.”

‘If we keep moving west, we can make it last longer.’ Adam suggested as I pulled food out of my storage space.

I ate my pizza in silence, enjoying the setting sun on an alien world. Finally finished, I put everything away.

‘I want to know if any alien craft approaches closer than 50 light-years to Earth.’

‘I will notify you.’ Adam replied.

‘Can you show me local space, the neighboring intelligences, and who is out exploring?’

Adam shifted from an overhead umbrella to a dome, displaying on his inner surface a star map as I leaned back into the warm sand.

‘Ergomax are here, Longiveray are here, there are non space fairing races here and here. The little people are from the other side of the Galaxy.’

‘Any threats to Earth?’

‘Minimal, space is really big, and habitable planets are not overly rare.’

‘What are the chances of biological contamination because I’m here without you in space suit mode.’

‘Minimal. The Orb has made you immune to illnesses, as such you don’t have many microorganisms to shed into the environment. I’d suggest not taking dumps on alien worlds as being the most conscientious step.’

‘I would have thought that evolution would have made life on every world so completely different as to be incompatible.’

‘Everything has been seeded from the same DNA based stock. You think of the Ergomax as duck-like, but really they are closer to Earth dinosaurs than they are to Earth ducks. Their extinction event was milder.’

‘Why aren’t they really big then?’

‘There were only about a million years of extremely large creatures on Earth, a result of an overabundance of oxygen in the atmosphere. An asteroid impact set off a firestorm that dropped oxygen levels rapidly, leaving only the smallest of the creatures to survive.’