Tay and Reten sat quietly, watching the data from the planet. Tay had stiffened when she discovered that the planet did indeed call itself ‘Australia'. She had allowed her probes to continue, reconfigured for military action if needed. She told no-one. Xeno’s still got edgy when humans started playing with weapons.

In the Captain's quarters, he and his Second officer watched the same feed, occasionally cross-referencing the events with their database. Silently they watched the untold story of this world play out. This was not the humanity they had met in the stars, nor one they wished to meet.

The propaganda had spewed out into space, unknowing and uncaring that one day the cold, crystal eyes of an alien would watch, and hope that he could prevent it inviting death upon the planet. And it was vile. Reten had no doubt now about what these people had done, nor how they would react to someone such as himself. To be different was to be impure, impurity would only be met by death, or if human, perhaps ‘re-education’ that was the death of the mind itself. They were proud of their sordid accomplishments. He paused the feed briefly, curious as to what the phrase ‘Tabula Rasa’ meant. He was not reassured by the response. Silently, he continued to search for a point that would turn away the wrath, justified or not, of the humans on this unhappy world.

Tay’s probes moved closer, the information growing more recent. Slight changes began, mentions began of the ‘Home Planet’, sometimes as a place of filth, sometimes as a religious trial that they, and they alone, had been saved from. It certainly held no affection, no sense that they should return. It gradually became clear that the inhabitants thought it was destroyed, burned in the fires of its own evil diversity. Tay again paused the feed. She looked at Reten, ‘Doctor, in the past, before we had lost interest in our old gods, there was a fantasy known as the ‘Rapture’. It expected all the good, holy and above all, superior humans would be taken from Earth and everyone else left to burn in hellfire. It looks like a substantial number of the inhabitants here think it happened, and that they are the Saved.’

Tay watched the data, watching some alternative Earth where the evil of men became virtue, where all progress was suspect, all free thought simply dangerous. With all of that, how the hell did they get into space, let alone colonise a world? That, to her, was becoming the greater mystery. She began searching for any hint that Xenos had been in contact, because there was no way that they had got here themselves. She risked a quick scan of ship transponder frequencies, something unlikely to disturb a pre-space civilisation. She snorted to herself at the thought that this mess was, in any meaningful way, a civilisation. Then the answer came back.

She turned to Reten. ‘Doctor, may I ask you to continue to study this alone? I need to speak to the Captain, and I would prefer to do it in person. I will be back shortly.’

She didn’t wait for a response, immediately heading to the Captains quarters. Reten watched her go, wondering what she had found that warranted that conversation. At least she appeared to be back to herself, the culture shock must be wearing off, he hoped. Tay was aware that she must be stretching the patience of her Captain, probably of the crew as well. She felt calmer, more back to herself. Having the good doctor to talk too had helped a lot. However, she had news that couldn’t wait. She buzzed the door and waited.

The Captain himself opened the door, silently examining his Engineer. Satisfied by something he saw, he sniffed and nodded, stepping inside,’Come in Tay. I am glad to see you more yourself. Forgive me for saying it, but those battle chemicals of yours leave quite a mark on your scent. The Doctor told me you have news for me, and me alone.’ Tay took a minute to work out what the Captain might mean. Then she realised she had been running on adrenaline from the first minute she had heard the datastream. She hadn’t known how acute the Captain's species' sense of smell was. No wonder the Second had been edgy. ‘Sorry about that, Captain. Our fight-or-flight response is built in, I hadn’t noticed.’

The Captain made himself comfortable behind his desk.’ Don’t concern yourself, Tay. I have been around humans in an emergency before. I imagine it’s a useful feature, at the right time.’ He looked inquiringly at the Engineer,’ Is this going to be one of those times?’ Tay simply said,’ I don’t know, Sir. I ran a system scan for transponder signals. Those humans, whatever I think of them, didn’t get here themselves. We had no FTL capacity, nothing even close. It was years later when the first Library ship arrived at my homeworld. I found one, damaged but still beeping away. It's on the surface. Sir, it's an Intec ship, unknown type.’ The Captain flashed his teeth at the name Intec. Pirates, ship-killers. Slavers. ‘ Perhaps your probes could get me some answers, before we find ourselves in battle. Contact with the humans can wait. I need to know if we are at risk. Go, get to work, Engineer. Get me answers.’

Back at her console, Tay was glad to put aside the humans and concentrate on the mystery. Although, frankly, she didn’t care if she scared the crap out of the population. She sent the first probe on full burn to the site of the transponder, perfectly prepared to turn the site back to its constituent atoms, if it threatened her ship. Instead she found a wreck, a derelict hulk buried in debris.Her probe could disturb no-one, because there simply wasn’t anyone there. She sent a quick note to the Captain, simply standing down the threat level. Then she scanned deeper, looking for information. When she was successful, she was grinning when she went to make a report to the Captain. This time she invited the doctor.

‘ Captain, I have news. I don’t know if you are familiar with Earth’s first-contact, but it wasn’t with the Library ship. It was with an Intec privateer. We had just shot it out of space when the Library ship arrived. It was supposed that it had followed the Librarians, then jumped ahead to steal whatever it could. I now believe that was wrong.’ she displayed the grainy footage she had acquired from the wreck. ‘This ship had been to Earth, decades beforehand. It obviously landed in Australia, probably as a Slaver. I don’t know how many times it made the trip, but it’s an isolated spot. On its last trip, it had obviously filled its ‘Cargo’ hold. What little research I could find indicates that they used a crude form of stasis on their captured victims. Anyway, as this ship was leaving the planet, the insane government of the time detonated thousands of crude nuclear weapons in the atmosphere. My guess is that it fried the crew, left it on autopilot. In any case, the ship crashed and was, presumably, forgotten. Perhaps the Intec privateer that attacked decades later was looking for it. In any event, there is no Xeno presence on the planet.’

The Captain leaned back a little, ‘So there is no threat here. Good. Perhaps you could describe the planet a little more. I’m afraid I haven’t been paying proper attention.’ Tay was aware that the attention had probably been on her. ‘Sir, it's a Earth-type heavyworld, lots of heavy elements easily accessible from the surface. It’s what we call a ‘Pangea’ world. One single landmass, fertile coastline, extremely arid interior. I assume that's why they went looking for heavyworlder types like humans, particularly ones experienced in mining .’ The Doctor nodded, ‘So we have a motive, and a timeline. Perhaps the propaganda was designed to persuade them that Earth was gone. In any case, we must remember that, in many ways, these are victims, even if we find then...distasteful.’

Tay took the point. She addressed the Captain directly.’ Sir, I apologise for my reaction. I’m afraid I reacted to some historical and cultural grievances. It is, sometimes, hard to measure how far humanity has come. Whatever these unfortunate people down there have become, whatever has shaped them, humanity will take them in and heal them. Those responsible for crimes will pay for them. Those that want to rejoin the human community, and our wider galactic community, will be led there with the same hope and compassion as we hope to find in ourselves.’

The Captain looked at the Doctor, who nodded affirmation. ‘Tay, that is the human race that I know, that I have welcomed, many times, onto my ship. We all have a dark nature, and sometimes reminding ourselves of that is useful. Go back to work, Engineer, we still have a first contact to arrange.’

Tay left the Captain and the Doctor alone, certain that her future on this ship, on any xeno ship, was held in the balance. She quietly turned the probes back to civilian settings and began preparing her normal contact reports. The Captain waited for Tay to return to her station before he spoke to Reten. ‘Well, Doctor, may I ask for your professional assessment of the situation? I may as well add that I find little fault in her actions. For reasons that were a little unusual, she has prevented this ship running blindly into an Intec slave world. I am prepared to allow the contact to proceed, on your recommendation.’ Doctor Reten nodded, pondering the events, ‘ I cannot disagree. However, I do not think this situation is over. The rage and fury that I saw in Tay may well be mirrored in greater humanity. Only hours ago, she was prepared to sentence this world to death. I have been asked to be the arbitrator of that decision and I have not yet decided. I believe we were lucky, that the humans repugnance of slavery has outweighed her discust at the genocidal nature of that society. That may swing again. Our Engineer is no longer a risk to anyone, but she is one of many, and if this event has taught me anything it’s that the humans are far more important than we knew.’

The Captain nodded, ‘I believe you. We have learned much here. However, it might surprise you that our people have already met the sharp end of humanity. A lesson we carried with us to the stars, and that has benefited us immensely. Did you never wonder why this ship never travels without a human? Or why is that true of so many ships, from so many species?’ The doctor was rarely speechless. He was, by the Fays standards, many lifetimes older and he had never heard of any conflict between the humans and the Fay, let alone one profound enough to change an entire society.

‘Please Captain, this is a tale you must tell. You have my undivided attention.’

The Captain turned his eyes back to the view, to the black of space and began. ‘Our people are hunters. Proud, individualistic, invincible. Even now, it is difficult for mature males to stay in the same room for too long, but back then, even being on the same ship was regarded as impossible. Our ships were crewed by one male and multiple females. A thing the humans call a ‘Pride’. And how right they were. Here we were, a space faring people, eons ahead of these upstart apes and yet they fluttered around us like moths in the night, expanding and building entire worlds in the time it took us to raise a city.’

The Doctor began taking notes, ‘So then you sought conflict with the humans? It would fit your species type, a show of force, designed to impress.’ The Captain let out a half laugh, half snarl. ‘ Yes. Good Doctor, our military decided to snuff out one of these little colonies that kept springing up around us. As you said, an example . Without dwelling on the details too much, it was a galactic standard world, mostly heavy vegetation. A farming planet.’ He looked directly at the Doctor, ‘Reten, our people regarded farming as weakness. We were such idiots. The humans destroyed us, refusing the hunt, instead planning their own war. Prey they are not. We became their sport. Remember, these were no warriors, these were the farmers we despised. But we are not fools either. We sought peace and they willingly gave it. They offered us the planet, preferring to find another. Truly we had mistaken them. My people reached out to them, asked for help, asked for a way out of our biology. We have been allies ever since, as they teach us how they see the universe and they rejoice in our achievements. No Fay world stands now, that doesn’t have human teachers. We are not beasts, forever falling into the past. But the humans guard our minds for us, ensuring we don’t just look at things, but that we truly see. They are no saints, no miracle workers ,and many times they have cried out for our help. We give it gladly, and we watch them. If they raise their faces to some new scent, if some darkness is about to fall, we pay close attention. We may have held the stars long before them, but they were born for this.’ At that the Captain fell silent.

The doctor returned to his office, partly debating if his profession, his pride, could stand this after missing so much. To be so blind to these humans, the shadow they cast upon so many, without raising a whisper, without a hand raised in anger. Truly he had been a fool, to expect fireworks. He had just seen a human seize the ship, threaten genocide upon an unknown planet, and yet, step back and allow reason prevail. Then he had to admit that if the Engineer had wanted to, that planet would be on fire right now. Either by her own hand, and he had no doubt that her probes were more than probes, or at the hands of some invisible human fleet. Yet, as the Captain had learned, if you paid attention, there was much to learn. They did not hide their nature, they shared it. Perhaps he could follow that example. He had much to write. And yet, Tay had gone quietly back to work, unremarked and unpunished, simply the Engineer at work.

The Captain was still deep in thought when his Comms contacted him. ‘ Sir, we are receiving a transmission. It’s human. It wishes to talk, probably. Could you ask the Engineer to translate? We can’t understand a word, our translators don’t know the language.’