Lucas sighed, while he leaned back in the shuttle. Finally, finally, he could afford a vacation. Well, not in the sense of the financial obligations that come with one, that was never his problem in the first place, but in the sense of the time he needed to take from his job to pull it of.

After going through five Gates and moving halfway across the globe, he finally was there. Well, not at his final destination, but instead at the place were this shuttle ended. Which meant that he was, quite literally, just hundred meters and a dimension away from his goal. When he was there, he would likely need to walk a bit further, to get to his hotel, but those were all unimportant details.

“Could I please have your attention?”, a voice suddenly called out. Lucas, who was waiting to get out of this blasted shuttle, considering he was in here for the last 10 hours, was relatively happy to hear that voice, because it meant the last check up before leaving was there. So he sat down correctly, and tried to look attentive. Not that he was all that attentive. He should have taken a plane, or anything sensible like that. Why did he again choose this shuttle? Oh, right, because it involved the least walking.

Well, this would teach him, he did not want to go through it again. Would he be capable of changing his return vehicle without too much of a hassle? He could not wait to find out.

Finally, the guide continued speaking: “You all want to go to the Protectorate of Kas’Aron. Remember, the natives are distrustful of us, considering what these bastards of the McCreadie Mining Company did to them, this is also completely understandable. You will not look down on their culture, their traditions, their technology. You will not insult them in any way. They are nice enough to allow an amount of visitors every year, and we will not thank them for it by reminding them about those criminal swine in our behaviour. Is that understood?”

Everyone chorussed yes, in varying states of sleepiness. Surprisingly, some were completely awake.

“Well, it was a long journey, so good enough. Now, we will go through that door. Then, the nice officials in front of the Gate will check your documents, as well as search you. And then you will move through the Gate, after which you will follow the instructions of the officials on the other side.”

Mr. Tarson was happy after he was finally allowed through the Gate. Just 300 people visited Kas’Aron per year, excluding the UE personell that was permanently stationed there. He had put himself on the waiting list just 7 years prior. But Protectorates that allowed visitors were rare, and most of them were surprisingly close to the UE in culture. Those who cared about such matters were expecting that, ignoring the war, the first time a Protectorate was officially asking to gain UE-membership would happen in this very century. So visiting a Protectorate, which not only allowed visitors, but was incredibly different from the UE still was something special. It also was one of the more dangerous things a citizen of the UE could do, but that was another matter entirely. In fact, those that wanted to do it for that very reason were filtered out in the screening process.

Finally, Lucas was on the other side of the Gate. He would meet his first non-humans who did not want to kill him! He was so exited about that little fact. Sure, it was completely different from true first contact, because both species that were meeting came from the same planet, and had happened quite often during the existence of the UE, but it was still another, mostly peaceful species, he would be introduced to today.

The elves of Kas’Aron might look relatively human, but they shared very little DNA or evolutionary history with humans. Which is not to say that they shared none, and there was even a species of ape on that earth, nearly hunted to extinction by that stupid company, which had suspiciously the DNA and the looks of something that might become an early ancestor of the Home Erectus. For the few scientists that were caring for the environment and not just the culture of Kas’Aron, that little tidbit was very interesting. Although, considering what some other earths had, it was just a passing curiosity.

He admitted to himself, latter, in private, that he stared when he saw the first native of this beautiful earth. Well, he had not seen a lot of it in person yet, and what he had seen were relative boring prefab buildings around a Gate, relative standard in the UE, but he had seen pictures, and those were quite beautiful. They looked just so human. Seeing them and knowing they were nothing like humans, and that they in fact worked different from humans in a significant way biologically, was shocking. Especially because some of their biology was not really explained to date. After all, they were laid eggs, but the females had mammaries. Fully functioning ones, in fact, although what was secreted through them was not used in childrearing.

It was, interestingly enough, a part of their bodies immune system, which made the fact that just females had it more interesting. Interestingly enough, and perhaps an explanation, they were very social beings at their core. Which meant that both genders were generally profiting from the very good anti-bacterial compound that was secreted, whenever one of a multitude of stimulus was applied. Which could be an issue, because if it was to often activated, it could lead to death. But better loose one to produce enough of the sanitiser, then to loose the whole tribe, or at least that was the leading theory behind that. Or it might just be that evolution is an uncaring being for which if it works, make it worse, seems to be a good description, far to often.

But, after a short meet and greet, with snacks, although Lucas was careful to just eat those marked to be safe for human consumption, he was finally in his hotel, and lying back on his bed.

It was 7172-1-25. Tomorrow would ne a long day.