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Michael paced around the room, tightly holding onto the com card he had finally received from one of the guards. Looking to Srettia, who was still walking around and practicing her postures, Michael sighed his resignation. "Remember. NO talking and NO getting into the picture. That was the deal I had to make to be able to call outside of Luna. They want your arrival to be a super surprise, I guess."

Srettia nodded and continued with her training. "Just call already. How bad can it be?"

Michael waved her off and turned to walk over towards the couch. Lazily, he slipped the card into the coms unit and input the number with his implant, watching nervously as the device spun up and began to ring.

Not having to wait long, the device came to life with the picture of a young woman sport a radiant smile looking back at Michael. "Michael? Oh! my boy! My beautiful baby boy!"

"Hi, mom." Michael replied, throwing her a wave and a smile.

"Michael! When did you get back from that alien system? Oh, how's my little spud doing?" Ms. Graeme replied, happily sitting down on her couch.

"Spud? Did your mom call you spud?" Srettia whispered, placing both hands over her mouth as she snickered.

Throwing a pillow at Srettia, Michael smiled at his mom and continued his train of thought. "I'm doing well. I just got back and wanted to let you know I'll be dropping by for a visit pretty soon here. I just need to be debriefed, and I'll be on my way. Maybe a couple of days at most."

Mrs. Graeme smiled at the thought of her son visiting and bounced in place. "Oh, that's fantastic news! I was upset when you stopped answering my calls, but then I saw on the news that you were the test pilot for that new FTL engine... I'm so proud of you and your achievements Michael! Do you need us to pick you up anywhere, spud?"

Michael chuckled and shook his head at the thought of his mother crashing into luna to pick him up for dinner. "No, mom, I'm on Luna right now, so you can't come to get me. I'll be able to find my own way over anyway."

"Oh, my poor baby boy. What did you do to get stuck on Luna? This isn't your one call, is it? Will they keep you long?" Michaels's mother asked, concern lining her voice.

Michael sighed and gave his mother a smile. "No, mom. I'm part of the military. This place isn't like that for me. Kind of... Where's dad?"

Mrs. Graeme's smile returned at finding out her son was safe and picked up a datapad. "He's out talking to that young lady that moved into the neighbourhood recently. She's very interested in meeting you. I think she'd make a great partner for you, very proper and likes to wear black suits. She asks a lot of questions too. What a very thoughtful young lady."

"Yes, mom. She sounds like a very nice lady. And I don't need dad to be my hype man. I keep telling you I'm single because I chose to be. Being a test pilot is dangerous." Michael lamented, always hating this part of talking to his mother.

"Okay, spud." Mrs. Graeme replied, ignoring her son's plea with a smile.

Srettia crashed onto the floor, trying her best not to laugh too loud, yet failing as she continued to keep her hands clasped against her mouth.

"Alright, Whatever. I'm here for a ceremony I can't talk about just yet. After that, I'll be dropping by for a day or three before I'll have to leave again. I just wanted to let you know in advance, so I'm not just suddenly at your door." Michael sputtered, his annoyance at a maximum.

"Are you sure you don't want us to invite that nice lady over? She sure likes to hang around the house waiting for you to return, you know."

"Mom. I promise you that if you do, invite her. She'll be in a world of hurt. It's best to keep women away from me for the foreseeable future." Michael replied, his annoyance lifting as Srettia sat to the side, nodding her head.

"Oh right, You're a hero now. Flying into deep space and finding aliens, being one of the special forces people on Luna and doing secret stuff you can't tell mama. I'm sure you don't want the ladies hurt while you're doing your test pilot things, now do you?" She replied, a hint of worry in her voice as she despaired for her son.

"Yes, mom. That is exactly it." Michael replied, almost failing to hide his annoyance.

"Alright then, spud. I'll see you when you finish your secret military shit. See you soon." Mrs. Graeme replied, a mischievous smile finally breaking through her act.

"Yeah, yeah. Love you too, mom. Say hi to dad for me, and tell him to stop trying to be my hype man. I don't need one.

"Well, if you would give us a damn grandchild, he wouldn't have to try and set you up with that damn secret service lady." She replied sassily.

Michael palmed his face and waved both hands towards his mother. "You're still young, have your own damn baby."

"Not happening, spud. I want to have all the benefits of having a baby around without the responsibility. That's what being a grandparent is all about, after all. Now hop to it. Go find a lady to marry and knock her up. Love you." Mrs. Graeme replied, shutting the link off.

Michael slumped back into the couch and let out a sigh. " I don't know how father does it."

"Well, spud. I think I know how he does it. After all, you put up with me, don't you? Srettia replied, moving over to sit on Michael's lap.

"Think you can handle her?" Michael asked, placing his hand on Srettia's thigh.

"Not a chance. Any way we can back out of this meeting? She's absolutely terrifying." Srettia replied, leaning into Michael's chest. "Are all Terran mothers like this?"

"Not really. My mother is a special case." Michael answered, remembering just how many times his mother baited him into her many adventures.

"She seems fun." Ankiah quipped, poking her head around the corner.

Michael thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh yeah, you two will get along great. I'm kind of worried about that, honestly."

"I would not know how to deal with such a woman either. She is very deceitful."

Michael shrugged. "She just likes to play games. I guess dad is kinda like that too but to a lesser extent."

Yirphayen let out a cheerful chime and sat itself in front of the UV lamp. " Once I regain my energies, I look forward to exploring your home formation."

"Figure out where you want to visit on our trip? Lot-"

"I WANT TO GO TO THE DESERT!" Srettia exclaimed, jumping up from her sitting position. "I want to lay in real sand. I want to take that idea, you said too. I want to take some real sand and put it in a box in our room with a cover! And I want a giant heat lamp that hovers over it, and I want a little tablet I can move with my tail so I can read while in the sand!"

Michael nodded and pulled Srettia back down onto the couch. "Yup. That sounds good to me. First place after home. The desert!"

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President Roman Arbourt reclined in his chair and eyed his speech. It was a slow-going process, but he was happy. They would be his words, not the words of his writers, and they would be written down in history for his descendants to see. Deciding to peek at the time, he let out another huff of frustration.

His guest was hours late, with no word or warning. Making the president wait as if his time meant nothing, well, he would give that man a piece of his mind. Leaning forward to continue his work, he was startled when the doors to his office flew open, and the man he had been waiting for trounced in flanked by both titan guards and nearly every Admiral in the fleet. "Ahh, Fleet Admiral Ewart. How nice of you to finally grace me with your presence. Any reason as to why you thought it was reasonable to keep me waiting for hours?" Roman said smugly, leaning back in his chair.

Fleet Admiral Ewart slammed a data slat down on the President's desk and motioned for the display to be turned on, shifting back to Roman with a vicious scowl on his face. "Shut up, Roman. We are at war."

The room was silent as the Fleet Admiral let his words sink into the President's head. Slowly Roman activated the data slate, linking it to the display as the Admiral helped himself to some real Earth whiskey. As the clips and files began to pop up around the room, Roman's face began to pale. The pictures, star maps, the corpses... "This? What is this?"

"This! Is our enemy. So far, we know them as the Briolb. And all this. All this is happening outside our borders." The Admiral replied in disgust, taking a sip of the whiskey.

"This can't be right! We have explorers everywhere. How can this be happening so close to our space?" Roman asked, nearly gagging as a particularly nasty corpse came up.

Fleet Admiral Ewart finished his glass and poured another. "No. This is happening a few weeks to maybe months away on the other side of Aaster space. It would take us over a year to get there, and besides that, we never sent anyone in that direction due to it looking like a barren wasteland. Now we know why."

"And. You think they might be coming to find us now?" The President replied, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Yes. And it's not if they find us. But, when they find us, I'm here to request full wartime authority, Roman. Not today or tomorrow. However, immediately after the ceremony would be best. I want our people to feel some joy before we announce the war that comes with it." Ewart replied, sliding a datapad over to the President.

Roman nodded and continued to study the reports and pictures. Minutes may have passed, maybe tens of minutes before he spoke again. The room was decidedly silent as Roman came to a decision he'd never thought he'd make. Holding the datapad, he input his id, credentials, retina scan and thumbprint. "Granted immediately. Begin moving ships to our border where you think they might hit us. I'll talk to the cabinet and begin an increase in recruitment efforts. I'm sure 'Join the navy see strange stars.' will have a different ring to it after the ceremony.

"We need marines. Lots of boarding marines. There will be a great deal of captives we'll need to free, and we need bodies to make it happen. We'll increase our efforts to recruit such people as well." The Admiral replied, Picking up the datapad.

"Ewart. One thing. There is no way we can talk our way out of this? No way we can reach an understanding?" Roman asked, already knowing the answer.

"You should ask Yirphayen of the Eaenhreph when you see it. Walk up and look directly at its core and tell it. 'Sorry, mate, I know they drain your people like batteries and eat their corpses, but I think we can become good friends." The Admiral replied sarcastically, maybe a bit meaner than he wanted to.

The room was silent for a few minutes once again while the two let their heads cool down. Roman finally took a sip of his water and nodded. "I didn't mean it like that. Just seeing the draining racks for the... Voktlix? and that extracting device for that grasshopper alien was disturbing enough. I still want to see if we can talk them down and get them to free their captives."

"Tell that to Yirphayen when you see it. Better yet, tell Ankiah. Tell her you're sorry her planet is occupied, and they're drinking her people's blood like it's a fucking fine wine. Or if you're feeling particularly bold. Go tell Ambassador Srettia. Tell her you want to be friends with the people that made her and the life of her own people a living nightmare. I would bet my position of Fleet Admiral she would gut you on the spot." Ewart replied, still a bit hot-headed. "I don't think they would stop even if they could. Look at the star map we pulled from their very own ship. They've labelled what we think is the Voktlix homeworld with a fucking mug of liquid and have Eaenhreph migration patterns marked with shitty lighting and what looks like a damn plate of food. I don't think they see other races as sentient."

Roman deflated and sank deeper into his chair. "Do what needs to be done, and don't you dare let them near our people."

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