The Mk. I left the Ullian submersible to find itself in an underground submarine dock where three men stood at the dock, flanked by several armed soldiers.

The man standing nearest the sub was probably Vof Bih, as he wore a uniform with several ribbons and medals attached to it, and was easily the most well built of the three. His hard brown eyes studied the Mk. I, and his equally hard face showed no signs of emotion.

The man in the center was tall, but skinny, and was probably the eldest of the three. He wore a neat, but plain set of black trousers, long sleeved white shirt with a blue sash, and short neatly combed white hair. His facial features were gentle, with his face filled with excitement at seeing the Mk. I. This man was probably Pall Nores, the representative of the religious sect.

The last man was the shortest of the three, though not by much, although his poor posture exaggerated the difference. He had unkempt hair, dark bags under his calculating brown eyes, with a scowl under a flat, wide nose. He wore baggy clothes barely fit for a person of his standing, that hung loosely over his frame. This man, probably Oln Ro Dee, studied the Mk. I with a cautious, yet interested look.

Ryan spoke first, “Oh, you didn’t have to meet me here. Probably not the best idea having your three highest leaders meeting someone they don’t know.”

Vof raised a hand, “We understand your ability to destroy us at your whim now that you know where we are headquartered.” He glanced at Pall.

Pall chuckled, “We can trust them! They are the ones I have told you about for years that would come to save us from our predicament.”

Oln scoffed, “No one in their right mind would believe a tale from a being calling itself a god that refuses to show themselves and probably doesn’t exist to begin with.”

Pall held out a hand towards the Mk. I, “Yet here they are.”

Vof didn’t look back to the others and held his eyes on the Mk. I, “If they are here to save us.” He took a step forward, “Tell me, how do we know you are not here as some scheme from our enemies?”

Ryan thought for a moment, “Other than the fact I haven’t killed you yet?” He wasn’t going to mention how they didn’t have any siege weapons that could damage a building underground, “Not much, I guess.”

Oln straightened a little, “You’re here to steal data about the location of our other sites? That’s why you haven’t killed us yet.”

Vof nodded, “That is a possibility.”

Pall motioned his hands in a show to calm the others down, “Now, now. You’re being rude to our guest. If you’re so scared, you can have him under watch.” He turned his gaze to the Mk. I, “And perhaps as a show of good will, give up any weapons.”

Ryan was fine with the first request, “Alright. The guards are fine, but this drone’s weapon is kinda welded to the frame so that’s not something I can do. There is a door on the front that needs to open first, so it should give you time to shoot first if I go crazy.”

Vof nodded, “Very well. Do not go anywhere unescorted and only go wherever you are told.”

Pall turned to the guards and motioned for them to part, “You don’t mind if we get started right away?”

Oln slouched back into his earlier bad posture, “Yes. If you’re really telling the truth… There is much I want your help in, seeing as your technology is vastly superior to our own.”

Ryan cautiously started lowering the Mk. I closer to the men, “Alright. This drone has hologram technology installed on it, so I can show you images, maps, and even what my ship and crew looks like.”

Vof turned to the dock’s exit, and started walking, “There is a conference room just outside this dock where we can record everything you show us.”

Oln scurried ahead, “Just don’t try accessing our computers or I will have the guards open fire immediately.”

Ryan didn’t even know if she could hack into another computer, “Alright.”

Pall walked to the Mk. I as soon as it was low enough for him to reach and held out a hand towards one of it’s fairy wings, “Wings like an angel. Surely another sign you are the one we are waiting for.”

This comment surprised Ryan. She guessed the Mk. I’s wings could look like an angel’s even if they weren’t the normal ones with the white feathers that came to her mind when she thought about them. The second was that a civilization from a world in a different part of the universe had similar beliefs and images of angels.

Ryan had no desire to go along with this prophecy and angel thing, “I’m not an angel. I’m not good enough to be an angel or someone here to fulfill a prophecy. I have a ship, and saw you guys need help, so here I am. That’s it.”

Pall smiled, “Prophecies don’t need to be fulfilled by those worthy, or even willing. God can use even the most humble individual to accomplish great things.”

Oln looked over his shoulder, “You two, please talk about your mysticism later.”

Vof made it to the door and watched the soldiers flank the Mk. I as it followed Pall towards the door.

Pall smiled as he walked next to the Mk. I, “Oln is right. We can discuss this later.”

Ryan felt very relieved, “Um… we don’t need to. Like I said, I’m just here to help. If I’m part of a prophecy, that’s cool, but I’m not sure I believe in that stuff.”

Oln laughed, “I’m glad to see this one’s smart!”

A part of Ryan felt the prophecy thing might be real after the stuff she’d seen with souls, evil spirits, the Great Ones, and the Builder, “Oln, you know Pall’s god might be a four dimensional being. Someone that can walk along time like we walk along a road. They could walk ahead, see what happens, then go back and give their prophet a head’s up.”

Oln stopped and turned to the Mk. I, “Interesting. Our simple three dimensional minds have a hard time understanding the higher dimensions, but it is possible there are beings like what you say. Still, does this make them a god? Is Pall following a being on a higher plane of existence that looks down on us and plays with our lives? No, I have no desire to follow such a being, if it exists. I will have command of my own actions, and not be led blindly like an animal by a being that refuses to openly show itself.”

Ryan felt more sympathy towards Oln’s reasoning than Pall’s, and he didn’t trust the evil spirit’s explanation of the life cycle of Intelligence to spirit to body to higher being, “Yeah, I like doing my own thing too, but I’m not going to ignore something just because I can’t understand it, or whatever.”

Vof stopped next to a door that had guards on either side and turned to the others, “I thought you said we weren’t going to talk about that mysticism nonsense.”

Pall smiled and opened the door after slipping past Vof, “Just a little light chatter as we walked.”

Oln rolled his eyes, “Light chatter, he says.”

Ryan laughed, but she looked down with her real body and shivered at having to relive the memories of the evil spirits and what they’d told her before doing what they did, “Yeah, sorry.”

A guard opened the door, and Vof stepped inside.

Pall raised his hand and held it out to guide the Mk. I into the room, “After you.”

Oln scoffed, “It’s a machine. It’s in no hurry to find a seat, let alone sit down.”

Ryan guided the Mk. I into the room, retracted the fairy wings, and settled it on a chair, “Thanks for the seat.”

Pall chuckled, “You’re very welcome.”

Ryan giggled at Oln’s eye roll as she studied the room. It was a typical conference room, with a rectangular table long enough to have two chairs to each side, along with a chair on either end. The room was rectangular too, with the length running parallel to the hallway. There were flat screen TVs on each wall, with another installed inside the table.

Becky broke the crew’s silence, “Alright! Looks like we’ve met some interesting people.”

Evan folded his arms, “A bit too interesting. One wonders how they get anything done.”

Sashae sighed, “My people not violent like Earth, but not fast thinking and doing.”

Mayu looked to the side at the mention of violence.

Charlotte raised her hand timidly, “I… I like them.”

Anton scoffed, “That science guy is a jerk.”

Ryan smiled wryly and looked at Anton, “Yeah, you two have a lot in common.”

Anton scowled, “I’m not… Okay, I guess I run my mouth too much sometimes.”

Becky nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

Vof spoke, “So, Ryan. Perhaps you can start by telling us about our enemies and how you can help.”

Ryan brought up a hologram of the galaxy and highlighted the Ullia system in blue and the Dregasi system in red, “Alright. The system in blue is this solar system, and the one in red is the home of the aliens, the Dregasi.”

Oln stood up and leaned towards the hologram, “They have come quite a distance to attack us. Why? There must be plenty of systems closer to their home they can exploit.”

Ryan brought up a hologram of a pill ship next to a Dregasi station, “They’re not here to exploit your system. These ships are actually probes and the stations build new probes that go on to systems further along, building new stations and so on. I’m not sure how far they’ve spread,” He highlighted the two systems they first arrived in in the galaxy, “but they’re at least this far out.”

Vof’s eyebrows narrowed, “If this is the case, even if we eliminate them, we’re surrounded.”

Oln stepped back and began pacing, “Then we have no choice but to hide for the foreseeable future, make these probes think we are destroyed.”

Pall smiled, “Our new friends will deliver us.”

Ryan closed the holograms and brought up an image of the attack drone Anton designed, “Well, we’ll try our best with this. It’s a drone armed with either a plasma cannon or particle beam cannon. It’s capable of faster than light travel, self refueling, and can render itself invisible for short periods of time.”

Anton grinned, “Thanks for the help with the cloaking device, Evan.”

Evan nodded, “I thought using the data gathered from scanning the fairies a reasonable addition.”

Oln whistled, “How many do you have?”

“Only one mostly built, but we can make as many as we want as long as we have metal.”

Vof didn’t look impressed, “You came to help us underprepared?”

Ryan wasn’t too concerned about Vof’s concern, “Well, we just found out a couple hours ago that you needed help. My engineer designed the drone in less than an hour, so it could be worse. Our ship should also have no trouble handling a Dregasi ship or two without taking damage if we catch them by surprise, so until we have more attack drones built, we’ll make sure to keep Ullia safe.”

Vof relaxed, “I see. I was hoping for more, but if you are true to your word, we are in a much better position than we were.”

Oln stopped pacing, “IF you are true to your word.”

Pall motioned with his hands in an effort to calm Oln down, “Come now. No need to be so suspicious.”

Oln gave Pall a bored look, “I’m suspicious of everyone, you know that. It’s why my people forced me into this position when I could better spend my time reverse engineering the ‘Dregasi’ ship.”

Ryan wasn’t surprised they had gotten their hands on a pill ship, “You’re studying a Dregasi ship you shot down?”

Oln nodded, “Two, to be exact, plus several others that are too damaged to get too much information from.”

“Nice. Is that how you built those ultraviolet lasers?”

Oln smiled, “So you saw the handiwork of our lasers, did you?”

Ryan played the video feed from the Mk. I and of the pill ships that came in after, “Yeah, one destroyed our first probe and a pill ship after they came to destroy it.”

Oln paused to watch the videos before replying, “I will not apologize about your probe as that was out of our hands, but it is a relief to see our weapon is still effective.”

“Still effective?”

Oln sat on the edge of the table, “Yes, it appears the enemy can use their warp fields to deflect laser beams. It takes them about three seconds to do this after they use their warp drive, so it is still possible to get an attack in, if they are spotted fast enough.”

Ryan would have to remember this trick, “Ah. I guess that makes sense. Sashae said they can extend their warp field to prevent other ships from running with their own warp drive, so I guess they could do something like that too.”

Oln thought for a moment, “If they can use this field to prevent you from running, won’t this pose a problem for you and your crew?”

“Depends on how many ships we’re against. Our warp drive is a lot stronger than theirs, so if its only two or three we can still move.”

Oln perked up at the words ‘more powerful,’ “Exactly how much more powerful?”

Ryan actually wasn’t sure since they hadn’t tested Luna’s speed since repairing the second FTL drive, “Uh, something like five times.”

Pall looked curious for once, “How fast is five times?”

“The Dregasi can move around three hundred and fifty times the speed of light, probably faster.”

Oln looked irritated, “And here we were excited about our tests of the prototype reaching seventy percent the speed of light.”

Vof scowled at Oln, “You were not to speak of that.”

Oln waved a hand dismissively, “With such a gap in speed, do you think it makes a difference if they know?”

Vof’s scowl stayed, “Perhaps, but you need to take things like state secrets more seriously.”

Oln shrugged, “We’re cowering underground while our galaxy is infested with hostile probes. If these dear people turn on us or leave us, we’re as good as dead, state secrets or not.”

Vof kept his eyes on Oln, but didn’t offer a reply.

Anton’s eyes sparkled, “Tell them I want to see their ship!”

Ryan liked the idea, “Alright, now that we’re up to speed. How about I introduce you to my crew? I can show you what they look like through holograms and translate for you.”

Becky grinned, “Nice idea!”

Anton scooted his chair back, “Hey! I didn’t say anything about talkin’ to them myself!”

Evan shrugged, “I see no reason not to.”

Mayu looked uncertain, “If that is what you want.”

Charlotte’s ears flattened against her head and her tail went between her legs, “Umm… I… I’m not good with… with meeting new people.”

Sashae looked unconcerned, “Okay.”

Aoi was in Mayu’s room with Mikan and the still locked up Saki. Ever since the blue haired fairy decided she hated meetings she’d gone there to pass the time.

Mayu looked at Ryan with concern, “What about you?”

Becky turned to Ryan at Mayu’s comment, “No one will blame you if you show them a hologram of yourself.”

Ryan looked at her feet, “I… I’ll show them how I look now. I don’t want to lose their trust if they find out I was lying to them about it.”

Pall pulled a roll of metal from his pocket and unrolled it. It was a tablet.

Ryan put up a hologram of Anton, “Alright, my engineer wanted to ask you a question, so let’s start with him.”

Oln’s eyes went wide at seeing Anton’s Klingon form, “I always wondered what alien beings would look like. To think they are so human-like.”

Ryan laughed, “Ah, there’s a story behind that.”

Anton had frozen, but a prod from Becky got him moving again, “Uh… Hi! I… Uh… used to be a human, but now I’m a Klingon. Can I look at your ship please!”

Pall smiled as he tapped on his tablet.

Oln raised an eyebrow, “I’ll think about it. What is a Klingon?”

Becky raised her hand, “I’ll go next!”

Ryan made a hologram of Becky next to Anton’s.

Becky did a short bow and smiled, “Hello, everyone. I’m Becky Lindhurst, Luna’s astrophysicist.” She pointed to Anton, “This goofball’s name is Anton Levi Richards, and a Klingon is an alien from a TV show.” She bowed again, “It’s nice to meet you.”

Anton turned to Becky, “Hey! Why’d you give them my full name!”

Ryan turned off their holograms, “Uh, sorry. They’re always like this.”

Becky snickered as she turned away from Anton, “Sorry not sorry.”

Anton looked away from Becky, “Geez, I can never get a break from you.”

Ryan brought up a hologram of Evan and looked at him, “You’re up.”

Evan straightened his clothes, “Good… afternoon? I am Evan Quinn, Luna’s scientist. It is an honor to meet you.”

Ryan turned to Mayu, “You ready?”

Anton gave Ryan an angry look, “Why’d you ask her first and not me?”

Ryan didn’t look at Anton, but smiled, “Because it was funnier that way.”

She did feel slightly guilty about it, as she brought up Mayu’s hologram after getting her okay.

Mayu bowed deeply, “My name is Mayu Iwata. I am Luna’s doctor.” She bowed again, “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Ryan turned to Charlotte, who looked like she was tempted to hide behind a chair, “Just tell them your name.”

Charlotte looked at the others for help, but only got looks of encouragement.

Charlotte slowly nodded her head, “Okay.”

Charlotte was close enough to Ryan to grab her hand lightly and squeeze it before letting it go, “You’ll do fine!”

Ryan made a hologram of Charlotte.

Charlotte fidgeted as she fought for courage to speak, “Um… uh… I’m Charlotte… I… I’m… uh…” She turned back to Ryan and mouthed, ‘I’m what?’

Ryan took her hologram down, “Charlotte’s an… ambassador… an ambassador that helps us keep in touch with another group we are helping in another matter.”

Vof nodded, “I see. Is she modeled after another fictional race from your home?”

Ryan was pretty sure cat girls were an anime thing, “Yeah, but that doesn’t matter to us. She’s a real sweetheart, though a bit shy.”

Oln rolled his eyes, “I can see that.”

Pall turned to the Mk. I and held up the tablet showing a picture of Sashae, “Is this Sashae? This is who I found in our records that matched her description and circumstances. Sasri Haen?”

It took a moment for Ryan to realize what the name meant, “Sashae’s name is Sasri Haen put together?”

Pall nodded, “According to the records, Sasri Haen disappeared after talking to an unknown being that landed in the Cer province of the late Kingdom of Biue three hundred and thirty two years ago. A man by the name of Kin Ropa claimed the ship changed bodies with Sasri Haen and him and was later admitted to a mental institution.”

Sashae gave Ryan a glance and Ryan made a hologram of her, “She… was right. The ship switched us.”

Oln crossed his arms and scoffed, “So, we’re to believe an alien entity swapped the minds of two random citizens? For what purpose would it do that?”

Sashae sighed deeply, “It wanted a friend. It thought I was ugly and Sasri had a bad personality but very beautiful, so… it switched us.”

Vof seemed disinterested, “We can discuss this later. We should let Ryan introduce himself, and then move on to how we will eliminate these Dregasi from our system.”

Oln shrugged, “I agree.”

Pall nodded, “Yes, it can wait.”

Sashae glanced at Ryan again, and Ryan turned off her hologram.

Ryan brought up a hologram of her body as it was now, “I’ve not been entirely truthful. I’m actually a woman.” She switched her voice to match her body, “I’ll tell you more about why, after we clear out the Dregasi.”

Vof’s face stiffened, “I see.”

Oln didn’t seem interested, “As long as you don’t betray us, I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman.”

Pall seemed interested, “I look forward to hearing it, but yes, we should finish our business at hand.”

Ryan brought up the hologram for the Ullia system again and popped out an image with the Dregasi space station, “Alright… Let’s start with some videos of combat we’ve seen with the Dregasi.”

The planning didn’t take long, because of the limited resources available, but Ryan thought it would work. Now, they just had to put it into action.