“You weren’t there, man. You haven’t faced down a hundred Tylas beam cannons, ready to turn you to star dust. It’s a fear unlike anything else. And all because some dickhead from the upper decks started breaking first contact procedures for the sake of getting his name in the history books. Guess he got that in the end, goddamn Klein Birkdale. Turns out the Tylas weren’t exactly big fans of us boasting about the CCH and its power. Still, I wonder how things could have gone differently if we had someone else at the helm that day. Maybe we would already have a trade agreement, maybe I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. You decide.” – Marcus Baker, Maintenance Consultant for the Galant Corporation Exploration Department, 2263. Retrieved from ‘The Tylas – Threat or Boon?’.

  Elias sat in the laboratory, swiping through page after page of detailed blueprints of a scout Tylas ship and the Bubble Field Manipulator mounted within its centre. Elias hadn’t needed the rest of the ship’s schematics, but it would seem EXCAL was nothing if not an overachiever. The Tylas ships were bizarrely shaped, and were certainly not made with in-atmosphere usage in mind. Most took the form of a starfish-like shape along the front face attached to a central spoke with trailing feelers extending behind it. Stark white and splattered with odd colours, some of which were beyond the spectrum of human sight, their form evoked a far stranger feeling than that of the blobby, organic feel of Cambiar vessels.

  The method of Tylas FTL itself was astounding in both the obvious effort that had gone into developing it, and the fact that it was already outdated compared to the other forms already on the galactic stage. Where users of an S-Drive were required to be submerged in a stabilizing liquid prior to jumps to avoid disconnecting their QIS patterns from their bodies and the Cambiar wormholes took time and energy to activate, the Bubble Field seemed like a good alternative method at first glance. The issues, however, laid in its details.

  The Bubble Field Manipulator, of BFM, worked by encapsulating the Tylas ship in an area of altered reality capable of experiencing speeds beyond those of light, and having the ship accelerate past the old limit. The field emitted was a highly complex subnetwork of forces both known and unknown to humanity that would make Einstein cry at the sight of their formulas. Unfortunately, despite advancements in engine design and the ease of the acceleration from the BFM, it took a long time for the ship to build up speed. Additionally, the incredible forces placed on the crew during this acceleration would likely kill any other species than the Tylas. Even the inorganic aliens found the absurd G-forces discomforting. As a result, it took an incredible amount of effort to travel even a fraction the distance of a jump made by either a human S-Drive, or a Cambiar wormhole. Of course, with all things Tylas, the real issue was not the limitations imposed by their means of FTL travel. No, the real problem was that for all of their pride and vanity, the Tylas had spread only a fraction further than humanity had even with a multi-century head start.

  Thinking over these aspects, Elias was faced with the most vital facet of his work – mixing the benefits of the Bubble Field Manipulator with those of the Schr?dinger-Drive.

  The two engines were made for each other – the Bubble Field was capable of producing a localized field where the laws of physics could be bent and twisted, and the S-Drive could instantly move the vessel and its inhabitants a far distance. By using the BFM to act as a QIS Pattern stabilizer, acting in place of the Keeper and stabilization liquid used in human ships, the S-Drive could function in parallel to quickly and efficiently transport a ship and their crew far away. Thinking of travel without the hassle of submerging one’s self in the stodgy green fluid needed to keep one’s mind attached to their body was enough to bring a smile to Elias’ face.

  My, oh my, there was too much to be done. Elias could only do so much without writing his thoughts down but at that moment he was more concerned with keeping his hands from shaking with excitement. Yes, this was it! This was the real change he could make on the universe. His entire life he had fought for further and further goals and targets. The result of his last paper was good, effectively eliminating the need for transport vessels for non-living cargo within the range of a single S-Jump through accurate analysis of an S-Field at both ends of the teleportation. But that hadn’t been enough, not nearly enough.

  Additionally, the deeper secrets of the S-Drive were yet to be pulled apart. In the past, only those specialized in Schr?dinger-Drive maintenance and Keepers knew the exact insides of the device – something Elias had long wanted to play with. With Keepers stepping away from their role, the marvel of technology was doomed to fall by the wayside as Cambiar wormholes took the lead. Hell, in the few years since the New Horizons incident, it had become common, almost mundane to see humans using Cambiar ships due to the egregious costs of hiring the now freed Keepers.

  With a new invention like the one he had planned, interstellar travel would be far easier for all. Crews would no longer need to have a Keeper, wouldn’t need to recharge wormholes at a nearby star for each jump, and wouldn’t require an all Tylas crew with their BFM controlled ships. If Lucian didn’t want him to rock the boat, he was about to make tsunami.

  However, before he could continue the document, he saw two pairs of glowing beams of light. glaring at him from over the top of the data tablet. Chel-Lin locked eyes with him, but remained silent. Sighing, he put down the black device and looked at her.

  “What? Something on my face?” Elias said, crossing his arms.

  She didn’t initially speak, instead floating over to one part of the border and looking down at the line. Elias walked over to see that part of the line had been smudged, likely from where he had walked past.

  “Fix it,” Chel-Lin said, her tone a firm command.

  “The line?” Elias said. “Why should I?”

  “You made it in the first place and you’re the one who messed it up with your clumsy human feet. Fix it.”

  Frankly, he just wanted to go back to reading. But, just as he reached his chalkboard and snatched a chalk stick off the tray, he felt the urge to fuck with her a bit. Elias had been minimal in his annoyance towards Chel-Lin since that night on the rooftop with Kurt and Bernard. Maybe it was time for him to receive a little interest on their deal.

  Hunched over, he toddled to the line of chalk and exaggeratedly raised the white stub before dropping it on purpose. It hit the floor with a clack as it rolled further onto Chel-Lin’s side.

  “Oh, no. It seems it slipped.”

  He casually stepped over the line, putting as much effort into smudging the section he shuffled over before knocking the chalk with his foot.

  “Oh no, and now it’s gone further. I suppose I have to retrieve my primitive human tool now, don’t I?”

  He wasn’t even paying attention to Chel-Lin at that point; he could picture her glowering already. If she wanted to be petty over their shared work environment, she would have to pay for it.

  After waddling with agonizingly slow movements over to the chalk, he bent over and picked it up.

  “Well, suppose I should fix that line no-“

  Elias’ voice seized in his throat as he saw Chel-Lin far on his side of the laboratory casually flicking through his tablet and paper notes.

  “Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!” Elias shouted as he ran over, putting no effort into maintaining his fa?ade.

  Without looking up, the Tylas continued to calmly look through his work. A soft humming sound resonated outwards from her, untranslated by the machine strapped to her neck.

  When he stood next to her, barely restraining his fury, she slowly looked up.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Oh, hello ape,” she said, voice calmer than ever before. “How are you today?”

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Elias said.

  “Ah, well I couldn’t help but notice you walked over to my side of the laboratory. As such, I considered our previous deal to be… off the table, as it were.”

  “And, what? That gives you the right to look through my work, to steal my ideas and my- stop looking at it you stupid alien!” Chel-Lin had started to swipe through the tablet.

  It was then that Elias realised it. She had done it on purpose. She had just been looking for an excuse to come to his side. Hell, had he actually just drawn the line, she probably would have taken that as a reason.

  “Why are you looking at our ship designs?” Chel-Lin asked. “Where did you get these?”

  “Why does it matter to you, jellyfish? Surely, I’m so idiotic that I wouldn’t be able to do anything with them, right?”

  Finally, she tossed the tablet onto the workbench with a flick of her strap-like tendril.

  “Obviously,” she said. “You’re from the species that still boils water for electrical power. You figured out fusion decades ago and you waste it to turn a turbine with steam still!”

  Dammit, she was right. It was kind of bullshit that humanity still made electricity that way. There had been alternative forms of power generation discovered, such as travelling wave tubes using hydrogen, but no methodology had been made practical yet.

  “Well… At least I’m not from the species that can barely move a couple light years over a month, using a piece of crap Bubble Drive.”

  That seemed to piss her off. She floated closer, using her superior height, with her cape included, to loom over him. Her mantle flared out and straps detached from her body, she extended herself.

  “Oh, that is rich, coming from the species that nearly elected a literal animal to the highest seat of its most powerful nation!”

  “Hey, screw you. Poo Poo would have been a great president. He would have stopped the rise of Paradise personally, I’m sure of it. And besides, that was nearly two hundred years ago. Are you the sort of person to get caught up on history that old? Sounds rather petty to me.”

  “Oh, you wish to discuss age? Your immature species are children compared to our Tylas greatness. I’ll have you know that in my ninety-seven years, I have achieved far more than you ever will in your short, sad life.”

  Elias fumed. If there was anything hated about the human condition of mortality, it was how short it was. Outside of using Evergreen, the drug that prolonged life and was reserved to only the most privileged, human lives were pitifully short compared to their alien counterparts. The Tylas could live to nearly a millennia in Earth years, their non-biological forms mostly resistant to most of the woes of aging, and the Cambiar were biologically immortal, only dying from accident or conflict.

  And yet, Elias saw a way to boomerang her insult back on her.

  “Wait a minute. You’re talking about Tylas years, right?”

  “Y-yes, so?” Chel-Lin stammered. Had she caught on? Elias hoped so.

  “Each Tylas year is about the fifth of a human one, assuming your homeworld’s time, and give or take a bit which means you are…”

  Elias tapped his chin knowingly before flaunting a proud grin.

  “That means you’re about twenty in human years, hell, maybe not even that. You’re younger than me!” Admittedly, not by much. Just by a year and a bit, but it still counted.

  “W-what, no! Of course not. Your math must be wrong. Like usual.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I think you’re try to act a lot older than you really are, like a child trying their parents’ clothes on. Not that you Tylas even wear what can be called clothes. Now, how about you take the hint, jellyfish, and stop looking at my work.”

  She seemed to feel the bite of defeat as she floated back, wrapping her outer cape tight around her inner body. In the past, Elias had struggled to read what emotion was going through in that moment, she did look rather sorrowful. Was he feeling sorry for her? No, of course not. She had been a thorn in his side since the day he arrived, and he wouldn’t be swayed that easily.

  Then, she looked back at him with renewed vigour.

  “Jellyfish? That’s rich coming from a race that Barald himself only acknowledged as an animal.”

  Oh, for the love of god, he knew this would come up at some point. Elias didn’t believe in a god, any god – as far as he was concerned, clinging to such faith was a crutch that would prevent someone from reaching their full potential. If Elias had just sat on Titanlock and wished for god to change the universe to make everything nice and peachy, he wouldn’t have come all the way to Kral-Thul.

  “Ah, and here comes the religion,” Elias said. “I knew you were zealous nutjob the second you opened your mouth when we met. ‘Burning Scribe’, is it? Your title sounds like must get off on burning books or the like. Not that I would expect you do know any better.”

  “It’s a title meant to show my social status and my job as a scientist, monkey. And besides, I can presume you don’t believe in any form of higher power, correct? You couldn’t possibly entertain the idea that reality might be out of your meaty, grubby hands.”

  At that moment, Chel-Lin quickly reached for a paper note she had stuffed underneath her mass of purple scarves, read it over, then shoved it away. Was… was she refreshing herself on insults?

  "No, that level of humility is beyond you. Faithless in God and faithless in your own self to the point that you deny any possibility of there being a world beyond what you see. I imagine you must wake up excited every - what do you simians call it? - ‘Christmas’, or should I say ‘Sciencemas’, for Darwin Claus to evolve his way down the chimney, correct?”

  “It’s… it’s Santa Claus.” Elias couldn’t muster a better response other than a correction for Father Christmas’ name. What the hell was that? Her bizarre insult had utterly shattered the last of his defences.

  Instead, of trying to continue what was becoming an increasingly stupid argument, he walked over to the nearby workbench and jumped up to sit on the edge. He sighed deeply. He was normally the one to annoy and piss off everyone around him. It had become second nature to him - a way for him to strike against those he saw as opposition to his work. It had worked rather well, as most people were vulnerable to something at the end of the day. There was, however, an exception to that rule. His father, Kantar, was the one man who never seemed to care how Elias acted. And yet, being on the receiving end of such annoyances for once, he could see it wasn’t anger that he seemed to feel from his interactions with Chel-Lin.

  It was the desire to dig under his skin for the sake of a reaction. Not one necessarily of hate, but to get an equal one back. Petulance begetting petulance.

  His free of smarminess, Elias asked, “What was it you wanted to look at?”

  “What?” Chel-Lin had definitely not expected that response, based on the way her eyes widened.

  “You wanted to come over to my side of the lab. You must have had a reason. You’re not a fool, despite what I’ve said many times, and you’re not some instinctual jellyfish either, so you must have had some particular reason. What do you need?”

  “I… I wanted to see what you had been doing. I needed to know why you made that deal before. It must have been important. I thought you were doing something dangerous – something that would be used against us. My people”

  “Yes, well, as you can see – a lot of ships, not a whole lot of weapons. I was actually looking at how your ships and equipment function around your BFMs – Bubble Field Manipulators.”

  Before she could muster a response, likely an accusation of technology theft or abuse of his position at Nucleus, Elias raised a hand in supplication.

  “I’m working on a new form of Tylas harness. One that fits all three of our species. Y’know, for the IGS. Bubble Fields can’t be used for weapons – I’ve already checked the math. They collapse as soon as they come into contact with any matter. No faster than light bullets for humanity I’m afraid,” Elias chuckled hollowly. More death was the last thing humanity needed. “Just a bunch of tools, ones that are probably not even that useful. You can thank Lucian for that.”

  “O-oh. I see,” Chel-Lin seemed to slump. “That… makes sense.”

  The wind thoroughly gone from both their sails. They sat quietly for a moment. Elias walked over to the chalk that he had dropped earlier. He walked back to the chalk board and lightly placed it in the tray.

  “If you need to come over this side, don’t worry. I don’t care about you stealing my ideas or anything like that anymore. Do what you like - just make sure you use whatever you see to make something interesting.”

  He gave a wan smile. Why did he feel so strange whenever he wasn’t fighting with her? Why the hell had he, a man who respected intellect and scientific prowess above all else, never even given her a chance to explain her point of view on things? A part of him was certainly scared at the prospect; scared that he would be disproven or wrong. However, a much stronger part was scared of something else entirely. Something he could quite fathom yet. There was the still urge to fight against her, no doubt, but something beneath the rivalry. A sort of… kinship? No, she was an alien and he was a human. There was nothing similar between them.

  Chel-Lin seemed to have calmed down, but saw an opportunity in that last line. “Of course. I won’t disappoint you, Savage. I’ll be sure to keep your small, smooth mind entertained.”

  “Good! I look forward to it.”

  Elias closed his eyes for a moment. He hadn’t realised how late it had gotten, and the weight of sleep was crushing him all of a sudden. However, as he trailed from the room, hands in his pockets and no longer bothering to hide his true posture, he realised something.

  “You called me by my name,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Huh? Did I?”

  “You called me Savage.”

  “N-no. No, I didn’t. That was savage as in… primitive. You stupid, ugly, primitive.” The insults were reflexive, lacking whatever bite they had before.

  “Sure, whatever. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the obvious capitalization in your voice.” He gave one last smile before leaving. “Good night, Chel-Lin.”

  As Elias walked away from the laboratory, he found that saying his rival researchers name was not quite the bitter pill he had been expecting it to be.

  Chel-Lin, Chel-Lin, Chel-Lin. Damn it all, despite the annoyances that came with its owner, it was a nice name.