“Report A6-03282262 commences. Target Gamma-3, aka Black Sun board member Tyral Guttenberg continued standard routine after leaving private residence. No further evidence of note so far. Will wait until planned meeting at 2100 hours. Amendment – Immediate backup requested, current target adjusted and increased in priority. Unknown individual, attire matching records of Silver Domain manual worker uniform, also in attendance at meeting. New target provided Class A illegal data sheet, likely as part of Project FISHER KING. Other attendees were all terminated, weapon type used unknown. Will move to engage new target and continue report. Out.” – Kyrie Bulher, Tripwire Services Forward Operations Agent, 2262. Mental transcription report was retrieved from a forcibly excised cerebral data chip following Agent Bulher’s disappearance. No other remains were left. Good job, Asher. Tidy work.

  Elias considered the best ways to make himself look even scruffier as he prepared himself to stand before the most important people running the Interspecies Galactic Symposium. Standing in the back area of a convention hall near the centre of Birkdale’s Gate alongside his fellow researchers, the light of the main hall peeking through a nearby door, he felt somewhat out of place. Though many of the faces around him were unfamiliar, a mixture of human and Cambiar scientists drenched with sweat and wearing furrowed brows, the faces of Nucleus’s second wing’s finest were huddled to the side whispering to one another.

  The first checkpoint had, at long last, arrived. The documents undergoing initial assessing had been submitted, and all that was left for the members of Nucleus was to propose their topics in person. There had been some back and forth amongst the higher ups, according to Dr Rannos, about where to host the committee, but apparently the Tylas were still too stubborn to allow foreigners entry to Urestior; their city of glass and spires was not to be corrupted by human contact yet, it seemed.

  Elias had expected to feel stressed about the whole situation, considering he had needed to leave the facility the night before to relax, but instead found himself feeling mere boredom at the prospect of discussing his work. He had gone through similar events before, albeit none with the same level of scale, and had far more pressing matters of an alien kind on his mind. He dared look towards Chel-Lin, her eyes scanning an image displayed by her holographic comm-device and humming aloud in her natural tongue. She didn’t see his gaze, thankfully. Next to her Bernard and Madison frantically checked and looked over each other’s work, scrawling and highlighting with wild abandon. As Elias leaned on a nearby wall, Kurt slid next to him with all the subtlety of a Goliath-class cruise liner crashlanding on a small colony after an engine burnout.

  “So…” Kurt, smooth as gravel, said. “You ready?”

  “Relax, big guy,” Elias said. “We’re not going to get kicked out of Kral’Thul. At least, not today. Trust me.”

  The bodyguard scowled. “Honestly, do you really expect me to fully put my trust into you after all the shit you’ve done so far? I still remember that chase you sent me on not too long ago.”

  “Well, I haven’t leaked your music taste yet, have I?” Kurt’s look turned thunderous as a bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. “See, Kurt, now you match everyone else! I’m just trying to keep you included, big guy.”

  Before the bodyguard could respond, an organiser opened the door that led into the main hall, looking over a list.

  “Dr Savage?” she called out. “Are you ready?”

  Winking at Kurt, Elias stooped his posture and slunk his way through the doorway. Blinking dots from his eyes as the spotlights shined down on him, he saw that the room was a renovated theatre or production house of sorts, with a large swathe of seemingly empty chairs extending into the dark expanse of the room. Across the stage area sat a number of filled tables facing towards him. The judging committee, a mixture of stone faced humans and appraising Cambiar, fixed their rapt attention on the young researcher as he approached. Of the arbitrating crowd Lucian and Rannos stood out, the former watching onwards with a look of forced neutrality, and the latter with a light smile. Well, at least someone was rooting for him.

  Though a desk, clearly meant for the victims of the event, sat empty, Elias instead made the effort to scoot around it. Shuffling loudly, he sat on the hardwood table’s surface and crossed his arms.

  “So, are you all ready?” Elias said. He couldn’t resist a smirk.

  All things considered, the whole prospect had been on the easier side of previous reviews of his work. Though GaltCorp were already biased towards him, the representatives of the other corporations examined the presented documents with some positive feedback. One member from his father’s close circle was notably disappointed with the lack of scale of Elias’ interspecies harness project, but had disregarded that momentary dissatisfaction the moment Lucian looked his way.

  “Any prototypes so far, Dr Savage?” A portly executive said, flicking through a booklet of the planned component schematics and blueprints for the device.

  “None yet, but I’ll send one your way. Mr Lister. when they come around,” Elias said. “I’m sure my father will be delighted when you show him it in person.”

  Fredrich Lister, a Senior Project Manager for GaltCorp, was a close advisor to Kantor, and was nothing if not a loyal, cowardly, whipping boy for the elder Savage. The lack of Elias’ father at the checkpoint was not particularly surprising – despite everything he had done, Elias knew he was scarcely deserving of his father’s time. In the past, Elias would have felt some soreness at his absence, but surprisingly found the nonappearance of Kantor a pleasant one.

  Overall, the group felt that whilst the project was still in its early days, with only theory so far, they were pleased with the work. Lucian’s expression, however, did not change. Surely this was what he wanted, right? Perhaps that first day had all been an act, and he secretly needed a coffee enema each morning to even crack a smile. Elias wouldn’t be surprised if he was just another corporate hack lacking any sort of a soul, his core drained out by GaltCorp for the sake of profits. Just as Elias was preparing to leave, Rannos called out.

  “One more thing, Dr Savage, if you would. There’re a few last members to offer their thoughts.”

  He gestured towards where a crowd would sit once the theatre hall was back in business, and saw that amongst the darkness at the back of the room, the glowing slits of at least a dozen Tylas were visible. Had they been there the whole time? The image of them hiding at the back when he first walked in by keeping their eyes closed was enough to nearly draw a snigger from Elias.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The Tylas did not speak, instead looking to one another. Their obscurity in the shadows made it difficult to make out any real details from the aliens. Only their general shape was truly visible, with the colours of the various scarves and ribbons they wore being drowned out in the darkness. In the middle was one individual with significantly more mufflers and adornments, almost giving the appearance of padded shoulders or the pauldrons of a knight about them. They rose upwards from the seat and turned to look at Rannos.

  The Cambiar called out, “Scorching Dominant Aveo-Dos of House Takara, Lord of Honor and Decency, and Governor of the holy city of Urestior, do you give permission for Dr Savage to proceed with his work?”

  The overly titled Tylas did not answer, instead slowly rotating to look Elias dead in the eyes. Glowing slits looked him up and down, lancing out any signs of weakness with a righteous glower. Then, after coming to a halt, Aveo-Dos turned back to the committee, and slowly nodded. A wave of relaxation swept across the group as they collected their tablets and documents.

  “Thank you, Dr Savage,” Lister said. “You are free to continue with your work. We hope to see the fruits of your labour when the Symposium commences later this year. Until our next appointment, good luck.”

  “The same to you, sir,” Elias said, hopping from the table. “I hope my father doesn’t flog you too hard.”

  “That’s a hope we both share! Please send through a Doctor… oh… Gilbertson. Hm. Isn’t he on Lucian’s mass expansion project? No, that’s Hornfield. Jeez, this next one is going to be rough. For him, I mean.”

  Elias left, overhearing the awkward discussion of how they were going to break some poor news to the next scientist. Sucks to be him. Leaving the room and letting an assistant call out for the doomed Gilbertson, Elias sauntered over to a wide-eyed group of familiar scientists. Madison hushed the others as Elias made a show of walking over despondently.

  “So… how did it go?” Chel-Lin asked. Elias must have really improved his acting skills, based on the fear in her voice.

  “Well…” Elias said before sighing. He pretended to kick at the floor as if he were attempting to avoid a painful announcement. Then, he looked up with a grin. “Let’s just say, my blank chequebook has a few more pages.”

  The group cheered and pushed him about. To Elias, the outcome was never in doubt, but to see his… friends? Friends. Yes, that sounded about right. To see his friends care for him in a way he couldn’t remember anyone else doing is a long time gave him a warm sense of belonging. Elias had worked with many teams before, but he had never gotten close to any of them, not in the sense that he could truly care about them on a personal level. Now? He wanted to see each of them succeed and to give the same joy they showered onto him right then. Eventually they gave him some space, backing off. Everyone, that was, except Bernard, who slung an arm across his shoulders.

  “So, Scratchy, how’d you do it? Did daddy send through a bribe or something?” Bernard gave a china-thin laugh before leaning in close to whisper. “Yeah, no, fucking seriously, I’m about to shit myself here. Please help, I need to get through this. I can give an IOU if you can arrange something quickly.”

  “What’s wrong, Bernard? Not confident in your abilities?” Elias said.

  “I mean… normally, sure. But for this? I have… a lot riding on this. Hell, do you think any of the rest of us have got this?”

  It was a question Chel-Lin and Madison focused on. Elias though for a moment before responding.

  “Eh, sure, why not. I’ve seen most of your stuff so far, so I don’t think any of you have much to worry about. Oh, but there are some Tylas hiding in the back, so watch out for them before you start shouting out slurs. There’s some bigwig called Aveo-Dos who seemed to give the final say on going forward.”

  “Aveo-Dos?” Chel-Lin said, newfound dread in her voice. “Scorching Dominant Aveo-Dos?”

  “Uh, sure? I hadn’t heard the name before, but I think that was who it was. Who is he?”

  “Elias, that is the appointed governor of the entire sector. Almost a third of the Baraldian Heralds territories are under his supervision. Aside from the Speakers of Barald, those in our religious order, he holds the highest authority of anyone in hundreds of light years. Please tell me you didn’t make an ass of yourself.”

  “Oh. I might have sat on the table the whole time.” When the others winced, he shrugged. “What? The chair looked uncomfortable.”

  Chel-Lin let out a sigh as she slumped to the floor slightly. “I was not expecting his appearance so early in our work. I would have thought he would only leave Urestior during the Symposium itself. That by itself is… worrying.”

  Elias thought so too. If those higher in power within the Tylas hierarchy were appearing earlier than expected, it could cause some issues with hiding their FTL project from prying eyes. Perhaps EXCAL might be able to help with that. Could he bribe him with some gaming advice for that ugly game he played? Maybe it just meant that the whole event was genuinely expected to succeed in the eyes of the Tylas leaders. Or fail extravagantly – that was also possible.

  As the time passed, one by one the crowd of nervy men and women disappeared into the hall and either returned shortly after with great disappointment, or much later with delight. A majority made it out with success, albeit at a rate that did strike Elias as slightly harsher than he expected. Even some projects he had briefly looked into through EXCAL that seemed promising had been cut down like chaff before the committee. Perhaps the strange Tylas lurking at the back, the so-called Scorching Dominant, had specific tastes for what he wanted displayed at the IGS. If nothing else, he seemed to enjoy the idea of multi-species utility harnesses, so that was a plus in Elias’ books.

  Though he had wanted to stick around, the others could see his bounteous excitement to return to Nucleus and practically pushed him out of the room. He said his farewells, asking them to let him know if the worst did come to pass with their projects, before returning to Nucleus alone. There was not a chance in hell he would be able to sleep that night, the excitement from planning all the future work to be done still pulsing within his veins. As such, he drifted back towards the laboratory, but waited next to the elevator that led downwards to its entrance. For some time, he planted his back against the wall there and waited, arranging his thoughts. Whilst his rational mind was cooperative, setting out the various stages needed to bring both his bland cover harness project and thrilling FTL plan to life, his inner feelings were far less accommodating. Over and over, his thoughts came back to a particular, annoying, haughty Tylas that haunted his mind.

  Chel, Chel, Chel. Damnit, why was it was such a nice name? Was it rude to cut it short? Was it like calling him ‘El’, without the ‘ias’? Every time he attempted to work up the courage to ask his partner such stupid questions, the fear of possible insult or rejection struck him back down. Instead, nearly a full two hours of waiting later, Elias heard the door to the hallway open.

  Without looking up, already able to tell who it was by the lack of footsteps, he pressed the elevator button and calmly turned to the steel doors. It took all his might to pretend to avoid paying attention to the alien that had just floated next to him. She had caught on to his apparent act as they entered the lift silently once it arrived, and said not a word until it began descending downwards.

  Smile growing, Elias turned to Chel-Lin and saw a gleeful tilt to her eyes. At once, he turned and swept her up in a hug.

  “I did it Elias! I did it!” Chel-Lin cheered, doing her best to match his embrace with her tendrils all about his chest.

  “Of course you could do it, Chel-Lin! If anyone could pass, it would be you. Yes, hell yes!”

  They swung each other about long after the elevator reached their floor as they slowed their motion to a standstill. Panting, Elias looked up and towards the laboratory, its enticing entranceway just ahead of them. Elias looked up towards the strange alien that was changing his nature in a way that no scientific formula or theorem could predict, and nodded towards down the corridor.

  “Fancy unwinding for a bit?” Elias asked. The question was more aimed at himself, in hopes he could finally untangle the feelings for Chel-Lin still churning within his gut. With a nod, she followed him down the hallway.

  Yes, just a bit of unwinding. What could go wrong?