Steve joined Christine for breakfast in the sprawling mess hall filled with a steady hum from humans and cyborgs in civilian clothing and military uniforms. He gingerly placed his tray on the table and reached for a cup of coffee as he sat on a chair attached to the table.

“Morning Christine. How was your night?” he asked, yawning.

Christine acknowledged him with a glance as she thought about how to answer that question because only hours ago, she sat on Dot’s bed in a darkened room, both of them nude, with the cyborg’s right hand fondling one of her breasts and the left traveling down her stomach to dive between her legs, her eyes closed in bliss, their lips only inches away from each other’s...

“Good. Good. Very relaxing and uneventful,” she replied grabbing her coffee.

“Did you ever get to talk to Dot?”

“Oh yeah, yeah. But again, I ended up with more questions than answers. They think humans built those things, which makes sense, but she says they’re still not sure exactly how or why. How was your evening?”

Now it was Steve’s turn to think of an appropriate answer as his mind floated back to sitting at a table surrounded by Leo, Sergio, Alice, and several humans and cyborgs, drinking what seemed like his body weight in alcohol.

“Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!” chanted the crowd in unison.

As he took the final shot and put it down on the table, cheers erupted from the audience.

“I dunno know what your guys’ - hic! - livers are madeaf bymine quits!” he muttered as he collapsed onto the table, giggling like a maniac.

Back in his current, less fermented environment, Steve took a sip of his coffee and winced a little.

“Oh you know, the usual,” he shrugged.

“The hangover is killing you huh?” Christine cocked her head.

“Dear God yes, my brain feels like it’s going to burst out of my skull any second and the aspirin hasn’t kicked in yet. “

He rubbed one of his temples with a grimace, relieved that he could drop the pretense.

“There’s a reason I don’t drink like that anymore,” he groaned. “And let me guess, you have a date with Dot now?”

Christine took a sip of coffee in complete silence.

“Seriously?” his eyebrows shot up. “I was just kidding! You have a date lined up?”

“We... uh... skipped a few steps,” she replied, looking up and away while trying to hide her blushing cheeks.

“Damn, you work fast!” he laughed, giving her a golf clap.

“Hey, when the chemistry is there, it’s there.”

“Please tell me you were safe and responsible and used a firewall.”

“Yah... Here go the jokes. I knew that was coming,” she nodded while grimacing.

“Just like...”

“Nope! Don’t you dare!”

Izzy gently rapped her knuckles on the table.

“Good morning, mind if I join you?” she asked.

“Yes, of course, Commander,” said Christine.

“Just Izzy is fine,” she said, sitting down at the table with her tablet. “Do you want a little small talk first or should I just get down to business?”

“Business, by all means,” said Steve.

“All right. We just had our meeting and reviewed your request within our current operational needs and context.”

Christine and Steve tensed up.

“We agreed that we need experts on Terra Firma bases, and given your performance so far, we feel you would be assets to the mission,” Izzy concluded.

Steve cliched his fist in celebration as Christine flashed a relaxed smile.

“Welcome aboard. In a little bit you’ll each get one of these...” she flashed her smartphone to the humans, “... with an onboarding packet and an indoctrination briefing.”

“Oh wow. So there’s an official process, huh?” asked Steve.

“Of course. This is a military installation. There’s a process and a checklist for literally everything. You’ll spend the three weeks that we’ll be traveling to our primary base of operations in training.”

“Where are we going?” Steve cocked his head.

“A fascinating little world in the Hydra Constellation you two will probably enjoy quite a bit,” smiled Izzy.

“When do we leave?” asked Christine.

“In three days,” replied Izzy. “So if you intend to say your goodbyes, you have a little time to do so. But remember, with true warp drives at your disposal, this won’t be a one-way trip. I hope your friends and colleagues will find this reassuring.”

The humans nodded in acknowledgment.

...

In a spacious office with a panoramic window, Councilor Grey sat behind a large desk. Outside was a perfect view of a blue, sunny sky with barely a cloud overhead, snow-capped peaks in the distance, and numerous spires and skyscrapers of almost every shape and size along the city’s skyline.

A holographic image of Milburn appeared as if it was sitting in one of the councilor’s chairs.

“Dr. Milburn, thank you for joining me,” greeted Grey. “I know you don’t like to be pulled away from your work so I’ll try to keep this brief.”

“Very well. I’m at your disposal,” bowed Milburn.

“Before we get started, I just wanted to say I’m sorry about how the last meeting went. Newman did not understand your point and went off on another one of his tantrums. But he did ask two real, legitimate questions I wanted to have answered. What are the next steps for Prometheus and why is the special subject so important?”

“Yes, right. When it comes to Newman I was, as the expression goes, casting pearls before swine. I have very little interest in briefing a dimwit whose eyes glaze over two minutes into pretty much any substantiative conversation.”

“And what about briefing me?”

“You, of course, do have a mind for these sorts of things, so I’m more than happy to fill you in. My goal is the same as it ever was. I’m trying to produce relevant and beneficial science from ongoing experiments, and to fully rebuild the prototype teams after the disastrous matter with that pulsar beacon.”

“But that’s not going smoothly, I take it?”

“It could be going better, I admit. My key subjects are still very much alive but they’re... willful.”

“So, what about getting some new experimental subjects? Are we getting enough return for our investment with existing ones?”

“Councilor, so much research has been done on those two that it’s worth just about anything to have them back in my lab. They still hold a lot of answers to my current bottlenecks, and one, in particular, could offer a shortcut that would save years of work. I can’t possibly just let them go.”

“And what are those research bottlenecks, if you don’t mind me asking? Are any of them something we could just solve with new recruits to the program?”

Milburn let out a sinister chuckle.

“Councilor Grey, it’s really for the best if you don’t know all the details,” he sighed. “Let’s respect the sausage principle we agreed on. But I will let you in on a little secret.”

Grey leaned forward in his seat with great interest.

“One of the aforementioned test subjects may have solved one of them on his own,” smirked Milburn. “And we have a plan to figure out how shortly. My methods may be... unconventional and take a bit of patience to pay off, but everything is starting to come together.”

“See, that’s what worries me. You know my stance on science and research. But remember, my duty is to the people of Earth.”

Milburn tried to open his mouth, but Grey cut him off.

“Not in the way that idiot says. My constituents also want to reap the benefits of your work. But without adequate oversight, I’m concerned there’s substantial room to cross boundaries that I’d rather not see crossed. Even if you don’t care about the subjects, think of the optics if there are enough leaks one day.”

“I assure you, every one of my test subjects is very special to me. Without the sacrifices they made, we wouldn’t have the successes we enjoy today. They’re well-fed, well trained, well educated, and the reward for all their blood, sweat, and tears is the chance to explore the galaxy and see things we didn’t even know existed. Those who lost their lives didn’t lose them in vain. They might not exist officially today, but their names and accomplishments are recorded in a vault in the Prometheus Project’s main lab. When we can finally tell the public, their names will be immortalized.”

“It’s a nice sentiment. I hope it actually works out that way.”

“Well now, that part is up to us, isn’t it?” smirked Milburn, reclining in the chair.

“And speaking of what is and isn’t up to us,” said Grey as he leaned forward, “I’d like to know how the spinoff we were so excited about is coming along.”

“It’s been smoother than I expected, actually,” smiled Milburn. “We just need a few more experiments before we can continue the discussion we started.”

“Exactly what I was hoping to hear,” Grey relaxed and gave the scientist an approving nod.

...

Inside Sigma Draconis 691 D’s leaders’ meeting room, the mood was split between excitement and dread. On the one hand, they finally knew that Earth was perfectly fine and ready to work with them again. On the other, the 700 years of silence and not too subtle hints at rebellions and separatist cells fighting against the homeworld’s fleets were unnerving.

What exactly would Earth do when it assumed command over its long-neglected progeny? Did they issue orders that terrified or endangered entire planets and the separatism was a completely natural reaction to their actions and demands?

No one knew for sure and representatives from the 13th Fleet were slow to answer, claiming to be technically out of their jurisdiction and having to go through the proper chain of command to make sure the information they did receive was accurate and final. While this may have been bureaucratically correct, it didn’t exactly give the humans on the surface of the colony much peace of mind.

“Why exactly do we have to listen to Earth about anything?” raged the Chief Pilot. “They left us for centuries and we survived just fine! Great even. Now they’re going to come in and do what? Is there going to be an apology? Will they be making up for the Great Silence, and if so, how? And who says we’ll have to do what they want?”

Ingrid raised her index finger to the sky.

“They do,” she shot back. “In case you forgot, we have ten million war machines and at least two of those ‘prototype’ monstrosities circling over our heads right now, and they told us in no uncertain terms that while they’d prefer not to force us to do anything we don’t want to, they will if we make them. So yeah, after seeing them in action, I’m inclined to take that threat into careful consideration.”

“Do you believe them about anything they said so far?” asked the Chief of Security.

“They probably aren’t telling us all the really nasty stuff,” mused the Chief Scientist. “But then again, who would in their position? What I’m wondering about is why Earthlings suddenly care again because it can’t be that they want our resources. They have numerous asteroid belts to mine for whatever they please, there’s nothing here they couldn’t find closer and in greater quantities, and there are only so many resources they will ever need. Plus, within their 4,000 light-year bubble of control, they have what? Ten million systems where to get them? Hence my question. What do they want from us?”

“Maybe that’s what they want?” offered Ingrid. “Us.”

“Not following you,” frowned the Chief of Logistics.

“Maybe we can’t look at this from the standpoint of materials and resources, because as we can see by just looking up, they have plenty of those,” expanded Ingrid. “So, what if they really are on a quest to re-unify humanity? What if we just take the mission statement from Da Silva and all the other fleet commanders at face value because that’s all we can do?”

“If we go with that theory,” nodded the Chief of Security, “then that prompts the question of what exactly drove this sudden wedge between the Sol system and everyone else 700 years ago? For what are they re-unifying us? To turn us into those things?”

“Hold on, now,” objected the Chief Scientist. “Just because they stopped talking to us one day doesn’t mean the event was sudden. Remember that for a few centuries before that, their messages started getting a lot more vague, business-like, and awfully short on updates. We may be looking at a process that began a thousand years ago and came to an end only recently.”

“Agreed,” said the Chief of Security. “But it came to an end with a galactic army showing up at our doorstep. Remember, that’s not even an entire fleet over our heads. That’s just a small part of one. And there are at least thirteen of those by simple logic. Something drove Earth to reconnect with settlers like us with a lot of very scary weapons. And I’d really like to know what that was.”

“So I take it you volunteer to serve as planetary governor when they arrive?” coldly chuckled Ingrid.

“Oh hell no,” he shuddered. “That post is all yours. You have our full support, and that’s the one thing all of us agree on right now.”

“How generous of you,” smirked Ingrid. “Well, according to the cyborgs, we’ll meet our new handlers, the Eagles, in three days. We better start looking for a new Comms and Engineering heads. Sounds like we’ll need them.”

...

An ominous hissing filled a labyrinthine, cavernous space as shadows moved in the darkness. Bioluminescent bacteria glowed green and purple, creating an ominous gloom that was barely enough to help make out incoming targets. Shots from rifles rang out in short order and several thuds echoed as the hit targets collapsed.

In the faint glow, Steve and Christine ran in custom armored spacesuits with the insignia of the 13th Fleet on their chests. They were breathing hard but keeping up a steady pace while maintaining a firm grip on their weapons.

“Ready?” asked Steve.

“Ready!” confirmed Christine.

Steve pulled a small, frisbee-like device from his belt, turned around, and hurled the device at an incoming horde of Rexx hexapods as Christine hung a hard left down a tunnel. The device beeped in rapid sequence, then exploded with a flash of light and sound, stunning the aliens.

Steve used the distraction to run right while keeping an eye on the advancing horde. With the aliens almost out of sight, he heard whirring noises, a flash of red light, and the sickening sounds of indiscriminate slashing.

He ran up a set of stairs, almost out of breath. A small Rexx hexapod dropped down on him. He almost instantly blasted its head clean off its body and managed to squeeze off another shot at its thorax as it fell.

Jumping over the body, he turned around for a clearance sweep. Nothing followed him up the stairs. He finally paused and looked around, noticing that he was in a vast natural atrium on top of a formation of rocks that looked like a huge mushroom held up by another massive beam of stone. Christine was on the other side, doing a sweep of her own.

“We’re clear from my end,” she said.

“Same here,” he said just as he looked up to see how horribly wrong he was. “Aw, shit...”

Right above them was a ledge illuminated by purple bacteria and coming from over that ledge was ominous scraping.

Alex used his armed tentacles to crawl like a spider up the side of the platform on which the humans stood. He made a three-point landing between the humans and locked his tentacles into a defensive stance. A loud blast shook the platform a little. A few moments later another explosion followed. The cyborg’s eyes flashed.

“All right, now that ledge is their only attack vector,” he said. “We’re sticking to the plan, right?”

“Right!” said Steve and Christine in unison.

Steve reached into his suit.

“That was my last flash-bang,” he noted. “You’re up Christine.”

Christine threw another frisbee-like device just high enough to clear the ledge as it detonated. A horde of enraged, hissing hexapods began to jump down onto the platform as Alex warped out and the humans ran for it.

They jumped off into what looked like a massive, hostile void as the aliens followed them, hissing, scraping, and growling in their overwhelming thirst for blood.