It was early the next day before I had some laser installations and a railgun positioned and operating. The orcs were still organizing and arguing about how to attack Robbie. Honestly, their ability to plan strategically wasn’t the best. Their ideas consisted of attack, bash, grab, bash.

As I reviewed recordings Zeus prepared for me I felt horrid for thinking about just destroying them outright. I may be superior both in intellect and technologically but it didn’t mean I had to right to step on the plebs of orc society.

I watched at the leaders gathered before their planned raid on my city. The time had come to visit them and I cringed at the plan. Scare them into submission, sounded draconian and so last millennium.

“Zeus, it’s time. Are we sure we’ll avoid casualties?”

“Unless the circumstances change, no orcs will be harmed in the making of this presentation.”

I sighed at his joke.

“Give me a countdown and begin transmission.”

Theia and I argued for a long time about the clothing choices. I know that I’m in the mountains, and it’s cold all the time, but I had no desire dressing up like a half wolf, half fox fur covered savage. Nor did I want to dress like a Greek god. My body wasn’t toned like Hercules or Zeus. We finally agreed to go with more the Roman Empire style.

In my Virtual projection, I wore gold colored sandals that wrapped up and around my calves to just below the knees. I fought over the dress like tunic, which in truth left me going commando. However, I wore it since that was the look. The tunic/dress went to just above the knees and had a gold threaded hem. It was sleeveless and went well with the gold cape and belt.

I felt the gold crown was a tad too much, but we negotiated it to be a small gold band. Add a few gold bracelets and rings, and the whole look made me feel stupid and impressed at the same time.

“Cayden, five seconds.”

The catcall, which annoyed me, from Theia made me blush. That computer was getting under my skin, but I couldn’t help but like her. I’m not sure how she learned all her human behaviors, but it almost made me forget she wasn’t real.

“Two, one.”

###

I’ll be honest that it’s possible my sudden appearance in the middle of an Orc horde was probably not the smartest decision I’d ever made, but it had the benefit of being noticed. The individual I’d come to guess was the leader of this band reacted first by throwing his spear through my chest.

I flinched at the spear penetrated the projection and I nearly soiled myself. I’m not sure if my reaction or the fact that the spear continued through my body and into the leg of an Orc behind which caused them to take a step back. Whatever conversation they were having prior to my appearance ceased and we stood there without saying a word. I never broke eye contact with the Orc I thought was the leader but I was sure every Orc in the camp both in front of me and the rears had their eye’s fixed on my projection.

Of course, the projection never waved, and the leader had no idea how the spear passed through me. I could hear the whimpering from behind me and knew the injured Orc was just as shocked as the leader was. I guess this is an extreme example of why my mother always told me never to throw things in the house. You never know if it’d hit someone unexpected.

The leader made no effort to speak so I thought maybe I’d break the ice. “Hello,” I said in their language. In truth, I doubted I’d be able to have a conversation with these Orc’s without Theia’s brain dump. It wasn’t quite rocks in mouth speaking but made heavy use of the back of my tongue.

Holograph technology had advanced significantly over the past hundred years. I won’t pretend to understand the technology behind it or how it accomplished the feat, but the sound appeared to everyone around as to coming out of my mouth rather than a speaker above my head.

The reaction of speaking in their language was a tad more dramatic than I had expected as ever Orc dropped to the dirt and buried their face in the dust. All except the leader who dropped to a knee and bowed his head.

“Great Spirit. Forgive me.”

“I’m not a spirit. My name is Caden.”

“Forgive me, Great Caden. I am Klapdud.”

“It’s just Caden.” I refrained from mocking his name. “I don’t wish for any more violence and ask that you no longer steal from my home.”

“Just Caden, we have hunted these land since the world was birthed.”

“My name is Caden. It’s just--forget it.” I took a slow breath and noticed the other Orcs were still prostrated in the dirt. “Please,” I said waiving my hands, “stand.”

A few of the Orcs lifted their heads up briefly to look at me, but once I made eye contact, they buried their faces once again.

“Klapdud, I apologize for closing off the valley. I’ve lived here for most of my life and felt security was needed after seeing the goblins attacked you last season.”

Klapdud cocked his head to the side and quickly bowed it again.

“I’m not sure that translated correctly,” Theia said in my ear.

“You think?”

“I think, Just Caden. We are not beasts,” Klapdud said in a raspier voice than before.

I had forgotten that Theia could read my thoughts and these Orcs couldn’t see or hear Theia. I would have laughed, but his response made me wonder. My inadvertent question appears to have offended the Orc leader. I couldn’t be for sure since I didn’t have much experience interacting with them.

“I never meant to imply otherwise.” His face looked confused again. OK. My translation wasn’t perfect, and I realized I was throwing English words into the mix of my Orcish. Keep it simple stupid.

“Klapdud, I’ve built my home here for now, and until I return to my old home, this valley is mine.”

“Our hunting ground, Just Caden. We hunt mighty bison to feed my people.”

“You can still hunt north of the gate.” I gestured to the bottlenecked valley to the north of our location. “Not in this valley and do not steal my gold.”

He stood, and I learned to appreciate his massive size. He stood nearly seven feet tall and looked big enough to crush me without breaking a sweat. If not for the fact of me being projected, I’d back away from him.

“Yellow rock is worth many females.”

This was a lightbulb moment for me. I guess I hadn’t considered they valued gold for the same reasons as I valued gold. We were both of the same minds. Wealth equals female attention.

“Klapdud, the yellow rock isn’t good for weapons. Why do you value it?”

“Yellow rock is from the Great Spirit.” He cocked his head again in confusion. I heard many of the Orcs grunt all around me.

I felt like asking him such an obvious question lowered his esteem of me. I needed to learn more about the Orc society before asking more questions.

“It's valued above all else.” My simple statement seemed to appease him and verify an already existing belief but left me with a huge dilemma. They valued gold as much as I did but I had no use for it other than aesthetic purposes.

Being stuck before my time with a mountain of gold did me no good. I had nothing to show for it other than something to look at. I couldn’t believe my luck that I was the wealthiest man in the world or at least I would be, and I couldn’t brag about it. I couldn’t even buy…

“Klapdud, I’ll give you yellow rock for compensation of using your hunting ground.”

“Just Caden, I could take it.”

“That’s the thing, Klapdud. If anyone touches the wall without permission, they will die quickly. I’m sorry, but I can’t have Orcs raiding my home.”

Klapdud got a look on his face that told me I’d said the wrong thing. I’m not sure if he didn’t believe me or if he was just testing my resolve, but he barked out an order for one of his Orcs to climb the wall and get more yellow rocks. He never broke eye contact with me while ordering his grunt to perform this task.

The poor Orc apparently paused too long since Klapdud barked out angrily at him. I made no effort to follow the Orc since a pop up showed me a video of the Orc in question.

“Klapdud, I ask that you not send another Orc into my home. His death will be on your head if he touches that wall.”

Klapdud wavered a little but barked another command to the Orc. As soon as the Orc touched the wall, he dropped dead with a hole in bored through the center of his skull. It happened so fast and quietly that nobody noticed where the laser beam came from or for that matter what happened to the Orc.

A gasp and grunting erupted from the group and those who stood while the attempt was made found themselves back in the dirt. Even Klapdud prostrated himself fully.

“Forgive me, Just Caden.”

I sighed. I hadn’t wanted to kill the Orc but knew if an example weren't made now, I’d have to worry about it later. With that said, I had started to think of these Orcs as men rather than beasts and felt a tinge of guilt killing them.

“My offer of yellow rock still stands. Oh for God's sake, everyone stand!”

The Orcs stood and took a step back with my raised voice. It’s hard to converse with people who are eating dirt.

“Forgive, Just Caden.”

I waved his statement off with my hand.

“Look. I understand you use this valley as a hunting ground, but I’ll give you yellow rock to help compensate the sacrifice you’re people will face by not using this small valley.”

Klapdud wasn’t as stupid as he looked. “That much,” he said while pointing to a small stone roughly the size of a volleyball.

I laughed and looked around the ground for another rock. “That much,” I countered pointing to a rock the size of a softball.

Klapdud grinned and bowed his head. I split my attention away from my projected image and pulled up my interface for Roknar, typed some instructions and executed the command. Once I returned my attention to the Orcs they were all staring at my frozen image.

When I spoke again, they all started and took a step back. “It’s done.”

No sooner had I spoken the words then a small ball of gold started to form in front of my image slowly. Back in the dirt, they fell as the continued to sneak glances at the gold ball growing larger and larger before their eyes. I hadn’t magically mined the gold in real time so much as I transported it from the city. It looked impressive, but it was a cheap parlor trick that impressed the Orcs.

“Just Caden,” Klapdud spoke with a slight quiver in his voice, “you honor us.”

I waved off his comment with a no big deal look plastered all over my face. The look didn’t have the desired effect, and he buried his face back into the dirt and slid a few inches back from me. Note to self: They don’t understand human facial expressions.

When the ball finished, it was a mixture of gold and silver. I figured he wouldn’t know the difference between 24 karat or 18 karats and the silver would strengthen the ball enough to hold its shape. I’d programmed the impressions of softball stitches to be impressed on the side more as a joke, but it looked impressive.

“The deal has been reached,” I said, “Please leave in peace.”

I terminated my projection and heard a gasp from the Orcs. I continued to watch Klapdud as he took nearly five minutes before he poked the ball with a spear he took from one of his kin. Satisfied he wouldn’t drop dead touching the ball he picked it up. I was impressed he didn’t grunt since it was gold and heavy. I estimated it weighed over 20 pounds, but my hologram can’t interact with matter so, I guessed it weighed nearly 400 ounces.

As a group, they backed away from the wall and eventually returned to their camp towards where Ridgeway will be in the distant future. I stopped watching and returned my attention to Theia in Virtual.

“Well?” I asked.

“Oh, Mighty Just Caden. I think you will be worshiped as a god now.” Theia bowed down and prostrated herself. “I’m not worthy.”

“Stop it.” She was mocking me, and we both knew it. “They don’t think I’m a god.” Theia snorted. “We’re fine for now. I am surprised they valued gold. I didn’t see any jewelry. Did you?”

Theia laughed and stood up from the floor. “Oh, master you’re too easy. Hasn’t every civilization on earth created art?”

“Not the apes.”

“Those were not apes, Caden.”

“No. They weren’t.”

I exited Virtual and played with DJ for the next couple hours. My view of earth’s past was very confused. Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarfs never walked my Earth. Why were they hear?

That night I tossed and turned, troubled by the Orcs. I hadn’t seen another human in nearly a year now. I thought working in space would be fun, but I’ve never been so isolated in my entire life as I do now. The feeling was troublesome and unexpected. I missed people. I missed my family.