Alan put on the rest of the clothes that Sara had thrown at him. Each item was the same design that he had been wearing ever since he landed on this hostile planet. Making new clothes hadn’t exactly been high on his priority list.

As soon as he was done he realized something. He put his hand to his left breast pocket. It was empty. His prized data storage device was gone.

“If you’re looking for your data device, it’s toast. It probably saved your life by taking the brunt of a laser shot.”

He had a moment of panic. All the blueprints were not native to Sara’s memory of storage and may not have been backed up in her crystal. “You still have a copy?”

“Yes.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “First chance I get, I’ll be making another copy to keep on me again.”

He finished putting himself together and made his way over to Sara near the entrance. She had a glow of happiness to her.

“I just have to say... I’ve very grateful you are so paranoid and keep backups.”

“Me too. It’s saved my bacon on more occasions than I can count.”

Sara lead the way through the door into a massive corridor. Like the room, the walls and ceiling were smooth as if slowly worn by water with time. A handful of Saru walked here and there. Most of them slowed down or stopped to look at Alan. He didn’t care for the feeling of being a spectacle.

Soft indirect light with a slight red hue filled the corridor. It seemed to come from a protrusion that ran the length of the corridor on both sides. The quiet sound of flowing water seemed to emanate making Alan think the protrusion was some sort of open half pipe running along the walls.

The Saru that had entered the room earlier was waiting for them outside. He gave Alan a thumbs up. Sara said something to him in their language. The Saru nodded at her and looked at Alan. “Alan follow. Take to Father. Okay?”

Alan nodded. The short furry creature smiled giving him a thumbs up before he turned and moved with haste down the corridor.

Their stature was dwarfed by the size of the corridor. Alan thought of the mechs that the Saru piloted. One could easily stand on the shoulders of another one in this corridor and still have headroom to spare. The corridor seemed to stretch on for a very long distance in both directions, yet there were no vehicles anywhere.

Alan looked back at the room they had just come out of and realized there was a second door that was huge in size compared to the door they came out of. It would have been easy to get that vattaux they had summoned a while back through that door. Alan began to wonder if Father did cybernetic experiments on other creatures, or perhaps exploratory surgeries for study.

A shiver ran up his spine at the last thought. He wondered if Father had maybe dissected him to learn more about the human body before putting him back together. The thought made him feel slightly violated. Of course it may have been necessary for Father to rebuilt the parts that were missing to make him whole again. The justification helped. He still felt a little violated at being explored by an alien.

The massive corridor came to an intersection. None of the corridors were any smaller than the main one. The Saru changed directions, taking off to the left. Occasionally he greeted other Saru along the way, yet he never stopped. Eventually they came to a smaller door.

The Saru stopped and faced them. “We here. Father visit inside.” The Saru pointed to the door and gave them a thumbs up.

So many of the Saru looked similar to Alan. He couldn’t help it. “Are you the same Saru that I met where my ship crashed? And the same Saru that brought the modules back to me?”

“Yes! Alan recognize me from others! Father give me job. Job do talking to Alan. Me not afraid of Alan. Other Saru... not trusting. Others think you Ustobo trick.” The creature looked down. “Now many that not warriors very scared. Father not lead us anymore in fight. Whisper that your fault.” The creature looked back up at him. “I think they wrong. Saru need Alan and Sara. Saru desperate need help from both you. Ustobo spread and kill all Saru without Alan and Sara.”

Sara was watching Alan. An invisible weight seem to settle on him. This really wasn’t something he wanted to have to deal with right now.

“Let’s go and see what Father has to say,” Sara said.

Alan was still looking at the Saru. “Agreed.” He had to duck his head down and turn slightly sideways to get through the door. He realized the door to the surgery room he had been in might have been modified for him and Sara to easily walk through.

The door slid closed behind them. Alan looked around at the vast, yet simple room. The light in here lacked the red hue and had a feel of a yellow star that felt more natural to the eyes.

A single large object dominated the center of the room with wide open space all around it from the walls. The smooth round metal of the surface was low to the ground that would be perfect for Saru to access easily.

Alan and Sara walked toward the center of the room. There didn’t seem to be anyone else here yet.

Lights and etched marks covered the surface of the disk as far around that he could see. The round flat surface softly glowed a pure white in the middle of the disk. It was some form of projector Alan had never seen before. Hovering above the projector was an image of a solar system. Small tags labeled in a language he had never seen before tracked with the orbiting planets.

He watched a planet that was red in color orbit around the star. He guessed it was Hespara, the planet he was currently stuck on. There were three other planets in the system. On the outer ring looked to be some frozen Ice planet of pretty decent size. Between it and Hespara was a planet about half the size of Hespara. It looked like a desolate rock. Both of these Alan and Sara had seen in the night sky without knowing any details about them.

What surprised him was the hidden planet they didn’t know about. It tracked in the same orbit as Hespara, only on the opposite side of the sun. It looked more like the ideal planets that humans liked to colonize. Alan kinda wished he had crash landed there instead.

It begged the question in his mind: Why would Paragon setup here and not there? His thoughts were interrupted.

“I am here,” a husky voice announced over an intercom, “Please do not be afraid. I will not harm you.”

Alan looked at Sara. She looked around before looking back at him and shrugged her shoulders.

On a wall different from where they had come in, one of those massive doors slid open. Despite the warning Alan’s heart raced when he saw the creature. Sara squatted down and took cover as best she could behind the projector out of instinct. Her chest was heaving deep breaths.

Alan felt naked without a weapon as he watched this creature that had the same exact form as the one that accessed the communications dish at the outpost entered the room. This one seemed to be considerably bigger.

It’s four eyes in the owl shaped head, fixed themselves on Alan. “I assure you, I’m not the one you saw at the human structure months ago,” The many tentacles around it’s mouth seemed to flail as it spoke. “That one is new to this planet. It’s presence has brought with it complications.”

It raised it’s bulky three digit hands as if to surrender. “I promise you, I mean you no harm.”

Alan worked to calm himself enough to think straight and reduce the tunnel vision. “What exactly are you?”

“I am an Ungar. A created being of the Masters, the humble Clandari species. Ungar are made in their image, much like Sara is made in the image of your human species. No mind harvest is done to produce an Ungar. We are fully and purely created, unlike Sara. My purpose is to conduct detailed exploration and information collection for the Masters.”

“What about the other Ungar? He seems more like a shoot first, ask questions later type. And why is it working with the Ustobo?”

“From what I’ve seen of the video you collected, it is an Ungar for military action. It is confusing to me and raises many questions that I do not have answers for.”

Sara slowly stood back up. “What kind of questions?”

Father’s four eyes shifted to Sara. “I took notice when the Ustobo arrived in the system.” Father walked up to the projector table. He spoke something in a new language that sounded like clicks, grunts, and whistles.

A panel opened up on the metal disk and a white glowing orb rose up and hovered near Father. He placed his three fingered hand on top. White glowing tentacles emerged from the bottom of the orb and attached themselves all around his hand and fingers. “I watched as they went to the sister planet to this one. It was a planet I had already cataloged, rich with life, and suitable for the habitation of the Masters.”

The planet opposite of Hespara zoomed in and took up the whole space. Small ships enter around the planet’s orbit. There were labels above all of them. What Allen assumed were dropships, then fell from those in orbit to the planet’s surface. “As I watched I found the Ustobo to be a parasite creature that had come to consume this system. This planet is infested and all but ruined by the Ustobo.

“The Saru species was beginning to die off on this planet. The balance of the planet’s fauna was growing to be too aggressive for them. I helped them. To survive and to preserve what was here from this new foreign parasite. With my help, the Saru have kept the Ustobo at a distance. I requested help from the Masters as I did this. I have only received a decommissioning code. I have yet to see any help arrive.

“The other matter that does not make sense to me, to my knowledge there has never been a military Ungar. The Masters are a race of beings the believe the burden of self defense is one only they must bare. Yet, because this Ungar is active, I am prohibited from fighting against it. I can not instruct the Saru to fight one sent by the Masters.”

“Let me get this straight...” Alan put his finger tips to his temples. “You can’t fight against the Masters, or anyone or thing sent by them? Which would make sense. Can you still fight against the Ustobo, or are you saying the Ustobo were also sent by your masters? And what does that mean, that you were sent a decommissioning code?”

“To be decommissioned is to have my responsibilities revoked by the Masters. I must wait on this planet for them to come. When they come I will be shutdown and sent back to Kummatheria to be remade into whatever the Masters need. I have no purpose now, save protecting this planet for use of the Masters. Because of the arrival of the other Ungar and the appearance that the Ustobo serve it, I can no longer interfere.”

“Can’t you send another message to your Masters and let them know the Ustobo are destroying planets?” Sara asked.

“Protocol does not permit me to send such a message. I’m decommissioned. A response from the Masters is not likely. I think something may have happened to them. I have reported my current location for decommissioning annually as required. The Masters have not responded or come to take me away.”

“Annually? How long have you been waiting to be picked up.”

“I have been in this system 7,639 local years. I received the decommission code 7,576 local years ago. I have received no transmissions since then.”

“My god! That’s before the human race first got off our home world!” Alan said. “What are the chances that the Masters are still around?”

“I have calculated the probability to be below .0001% and continues to decline. The presence of a military Ungar has not improved this probability.”

Alan let the pieces of everything the Ungar told him come together in his mind. “So if you determined the Ustobo to be a foreign pest long before the other Ungar showed up, why didn’t you take steps to exterminate them all back then?”

“My purpose was detailed exploration and information gathering. I am only permitted to defend and preserve within that purpose. You don’t seem to have any such parameters. You have demonstrated ability to decide on a course of action like my Masters. It is why I reached out to you for help for the Saru. I have given them technology and shown them how to defend and preserve with basic defense that I would do for myself. However, they need more than what I can give them to survive these new circumstances. You have a creativity for fighting that I do not have. They need you... as does this planet.”

Alan stared at the planet hovering in front of him. It showed the Ustobo landing on the surface. It looked to be a time lapse replay of sorts. They multiplied and tiny red dots spread all over the planet surface. Lush green areas turned dark. New ships began to leave the surface. A ring comprised of space vessels began to take shape around the planet.

They multiplied more and scattered. The surface of the planet looked like it turned to rot. Violent storms began to form. The surface became barren and showed massive holes. Likely mining operations for all they were building. Eventually the ring was thick and heavy with vessels too numerous to count. Ustobo activity on the planet subsided to pockets here and there.

The recording seemed to end and start over again with the initial group of ships coming into orbit.

“Is that monstrous fleet still around the planet?” Alan asked.

“Most of it, yes.”

“What are they waiting for? What’s their purpose?”

“Their primary actions so far have been to destroy arriving outsiders. They have not aggressively come and attacked this planet yet. There aggression toward this planet has been passive. Until you arrived.”

Alan thought about it. With that scary number of ships orbiting around Hespara’s sister planet, they didn’t need to strip Hespara. At least not for now. There was no telling how many billions of Ustobo were in orbit of that planet. Even if he wanted to leave this system he would have been hard pressed against those odds.

His attack to get rid of the Ustobo at the outpost suddenly felt like a pin prick to the real problem. The only thing he probably accomplished was drawing more of their attention. He was an outsider that got in system and survived. Now it seemed they had a little more than a passive interest in exterminating him.

“I’m going to need more than the blueprints I have access to. I need access to the designs you gave to the Saru for their equipment if I’m going to stand a chance at keeping them alive.”

Father bowed his head slightly. “Your prosthetics give you recognition as being in the care of the Masters. All the designs I have and information I’ve obtained is available to you, in it’s current form.”

“What current form?”

“Most of what I have is in the language of the Masters. Under the current circumstances I can not translate it for you. However all is available for you to look through.”

“If we can’t read it, that isn’t helpful. Unless you can somehow teach me your language,” Alan looked to Sara. “How did you learn the language for the Saru and how long did it take for you to learn it?”

Sara shrugged her shoulders. “I woke up being able to speak and read the Saru language.”

Alan turned back to Father. “How do I learn to speak the Saru language and the Masters?”

“I have it ready to give to you. Your basic processing functions seem to be stable. With your permission, I will turn on the advanced functions of your prosthetics.”

“Advanced functions? What do I need to do?”

A smaller panel open up on the metal disc near Alan. A smaller orb ascended and hovered about chest high.

“Placed your right hand on the device like I have.”

Alan let his hand rest on the small orb. Just like what happened to Father, small tentacles slithered out from the bottom side of the white glowing orb. He felt the tips of the tentacles touch and then slightly insert themselves into his hand. The sensation actually tickled a bit.

“Now what do I-” His vision blacked out and his legs felt like they were about to buckle under him.

“Alan?!”

He felt Sara’s arm wrap around his chest to help him stand.

His eyesight returned with a blink of the eyes. Everything came back to normal. “I’m good... I think.” His eyesight had changed. Now he could see a HUD, just as if he were wearing his VR glasses.

He saw the replaying planet invasion. Nothing had changed except now when he looked at the tags, he could actually read them. He looked up to Father. He tried speaking to him in the language of the Masters with the clicks, growls, and whistles.

Loosely translated, Father answered him. “Yes, you speak well. I am grateful to speak with you in the tongue of the Masters. It has been a very long time.”

“You haven’t taught the Saru to speak it?”

“They have no desire for it. I will not force a thing upon them or you.”

Sara pretended to clear her throat as she looked at him with raise eyebrows. Alan got the impression she was being left out of the conversation.

“Can you also give the language of the Masters to Sara?”

Father activated another orb for her. She connected to it. Moments later she formally greeted Father in the newly learned language.

Father explained to them how to access the computers and data storage that he had setup in this facility. All that the Father had gathered in his travels were stored deep underground, ready for the Masters to collect when they came to get him.

“There is one more enhancement I have for you Engineer Alan.” The large alien disconnected from the orb and came around the table to him. He knelt down so that he lay on his bellies.

Alan disconnected as well and faced Father.

Father reached into a small bag he had around his waist. He pulled out what looked like a tiny box in his big alien hand and held it out to Alan.

Alan looked at the somewhat flat rectangular box. It was the width and hight of his hands if they were put out flat side by side. He turned the box around and over. Finding the switch on the center of the long thin side, he activated it. The box opened up like a clam shell revealing eight teardrop shaped purple crystals encased in a metal frame and a connector at the sharp end of the drop.

“What are these?” Alan asked.

“They are akin to your modules for your ship in function. These will work inside of you. Under your right breast is a special compartment that you can apply three of these modules at any given time. Simply choose which ones you need and they will give you the extra processing power to accomplish the task they are focused on.”

Looking more carefully Alan noticed that each one had a different symbol on them to denote a purpose. He picked one out that was stamped with a pair of tiny leaves. “What tasks can each of these do?”

“The one you hold is for survival skills. It will help you establish yourself in the wilds of any planet. It will help with hunting, gathering, tracking, shelter establishment, weather analysis, and much more.

“There is a module for advanced and reverse engineering, medical, cybernetics, investigation, pod piloting, advanced computer systems & programming, and combat. Each of these will take about an hour to fully integrate into your prosthetics before they can be used. So choose ahead of time what you will need.”

Alan put the survival module back in it’s resting place. Father explained how to access the special compartment. The synthetic skin got soft and split open when Alan triggered the command to access it. Three small cylinder tops poked out from the split open synthetic flesh.

Alan picked his first module. He took the advanced engineering module and attached the sharp end of the teardrop into place. His body registered it’s presence and initiated the connection process with a countdown timer. He picked out the advanced computer systems and the pod piloting modules and attached them.

With all three attached and registered, he triggered the command to retract the cylinders and reseal the synthetic flesh. Now he just had to wait.

Father pulled up a projected map the the facility. It was much more grand in scale then Alan would have dreamed. It was like an ant hill made for giants underground. Father gave him and Sara access to a large area that would serve as a shop. He also pointed out where important facilities he would need access to could be found.