Chapter 8: The Fated Meeting and the End of the Beginning.
The trio of Protean Terrans exchanged glances with General Perkins, who silently nodded. The four of them climbed down the steps into a heavily-reinforced underground complex.
“What is this place?” Perkins asked in confusion.
“It’s the Federal Bunker! It has to be!” Henry exclaimed. I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never seen it until now!”
“You are correct,” the male voice from before replied as a man in camouflage-patterned robotic armor approached. “Follow me. You must speak with President Gray Eye at once!”
The man beckoned for them to follow, so the group of four started chasing him as he dashed through the immense underground complex, past military bunkers, civilian living quarters, the Congressional chambers, the Supreme Court’s relocated facilities, and even deeper into the complex until reaching the Executive Offices, which also served as the dwelling place for the First Family.
Secret Service agents tried to stop the soldier from bursting into an office they were guarding, but he shoved them aside and forced the door open, revealing the current President of the United States of America’s underground. As was traditional, he was dressed in a black business suit, and he wore a lapel pin of the U.S. flag. By his skin tone, he was an American of native descent, but tribe can’t be determined just by looking at a man.
The President scowled at the soldier who had interrupted him, and looked like he was about to yell at him when he noticed the four others with him, especially General Perkins and Henry Williams.
“Henry Williams?” the President gasped. “But they potioned you before you could escape to your private bunker! They turned all of Willcorp’s facilities into sites to manufacture more of the potion as well as producing other ways to break down our defenses! How are you human again? And who’s the blue lady? How is that skin even possible?”
“I’m not human, Mr. President,” Henry said with a shake of his head. “The three of us did have our humanity restored, but we were then artificially evolved to a state beyond human. General Perkins here is from the civilization who gave us our salvation.”
“Mister President, it is such an honor to meet you,” General Perkins said with great reverence. “I am General Natalia Perkins of the Clerisiac army. Our leader came here a little over two weeks ago hoping to reestablish contact with the great nation that sent our ancestors to the cosmos more than six millennia ago, but all he found was the newfoal settlement that had sprung up in the place of the grand District of Columbia. Now that we know the state Earth is in, we have turned to military tactics to liberate all of Earth and restore the legendary cradle of the human race.”
“Wait, six thousand years ago?” the President asked in confirmation. “Who are you?”
“I’d rather our great leader, whose family has led us in pursuit of the dream to return to our roots during those six thousand years tell you himself,” Perkins said while pulling a communications device from a pocket in her armor. I’ll set up a channel for you two to talk face-to-face, even if the divide between us is slightly more than eight light years.”
After pushing a few buttons on the device, a three-dimensional holographic display appeared in the room, projecting the words: ESTABLISHING A SECURE CHANNEL. PLEASE WAIT.
Within seconds, the display changed to an image of the man who inspired hope into all of Clericorum: Chimeron Joe dan Bohr CI.
“General Perkins?” the Chimeron exclaimed. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Chimeron, there’s someone you need to meet,” Perkins said with pride. “We’ve found the President.”
Noticing the man staring back at him in disbelief, the Chimeron dropped to his knees, unable to contain his joy, tears flowing from his eyes as he gazed upon the President of the United States.
“Mr. President, you have no idea how great of an honor this is for me to speak with you at this moment,” the Chimeron said with even greater reverence than General Perkins had used. “My people and their forebears have waited six thousand years to finally speak with the man or woman in your position. I am Chimeron Joe dan Bohr CI of the Proteocracy of Clericorum. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”
“I am President Waya Gray Eye of the United States of America,” the President replied. “Where are you? Why did you desire to speak to me so badly?”
“Clericorum is one of seven nations in the Lalande 21185 system, a little over eight light years from Earth.” the Chimeron replied as he slowly rose back to his feet. “Four of the nations have human ancestry, while the other three have klackon ancestry from their own homeworld of Kholdan. But we have merged our biologies to become the pinnacle of human and klackon development: Proteus Sapiens, or simply Proteans.
“As for why I’m so touched and honored to speak with you,” the Chimeron continued, wiping tears from his eyes as he returned his gaze to the American leader, “Our human ancestors left Earth six thousand five years ago in a colony ship bound for Alpha Centauri. Your nation is the one who sent them on that fateful journey.”
“But contact was lost, and apparently they never reached Alpha Centauri!” President Gray Eye exclaimed. “Aren’t you furious with us for not trying to locate you?”
“We never once were angry with those who sent our forebears into space,” Chimeron dan Bohr replied with a shake of his head. “At first, our people wanted to abandon Funestis entirely and return to Earth, but over time, we’ve grown to love our people’s new home, and as we grew more and more advanced, we instead wanted to share the gifts of our knowledge with you.
“Earth is much closer than Kholdan,” dan Bohr continued, “So even those descended from the klackons wanted to make contact with Earth, to combine the knowledge of the Solarian nations with that of the Lalandean ones and devise a way for Pun Elleco, Jildan, and Det Pinra to contact their ancestors’ world as well. We want to establish a peaceful inter-system relationship between our three star systems where the exchange of knowledge, commodities, wealth and ideas flow freely between us.
The Chimeron continued his message to the President with a mixture of joy and sorrow filling his voice. “The greatest gift we wanted to give you was the gift of being Protean beings, but when we arrived and found no one but former humans and their oppressors, we were heartbroken. We thought our long-held dream had been dashed to pieces. But after taking three newfoals back through the EarthGate we opened and to Clericorum, we discovered that we are able to undo the process that robbed them of their humanity and free will. We then gave them the gift of Proteanhood, and now they are working with us. Due to us discovering the secrets of Total Immunity some time ago, we have combined it with Protean artificial evolution to create a people who can shift form at will, are free from disease, and display no signs of aging. The immunity even blocks the effects of the potion, for the ponies tried to use it on us, and it had no effect at all.
“But we have finally contacted the nation of our forefathers, and I am very grateful for this moment, President Gray Eye,” dan Bohr said with a huge smile full of hope, hiding no worry whatsoever. “Now, if I may ask, I have noticed that you are of native descent. Could you tell me your tribe?”
“I see,” Gray Eye chuckled. “Your people have been gone for so long that you no longer recognize a Cherokee name when you hear one? Well, I am of Cherokee descent. I look forward to meeting you in person someday, Chimeron dan Bohr. Farewell for now.”
“Farewell,” dan Bohr replied happily before the connection was cut.
“We have more to explain, but may we take seats?” Natalia requested. After Gray Eye motioned to a set of chairs against the wall across from his desk, the four Proteans took seats and began to explain in detail all that had transpired up to and including the liberation of the site of the District of Columbia.
Corporal Zachary Jenkins continued to hurl insults at the armored mare holding him captive as he tried to escape her grip. No matter what he said, he couldn’t anger her, and no matter how hard he tried to break free using his armor’s ability to redistribute its mass, he couldn’t break her hold.
“Stop squirming,” the mare giggled as they continued to travel north. “My magic is too strong for you to escape, you know.”
“You frickin she-dog!” Jenkins shouted. “You’ll pay for this! If you don’t want all Hell to rain down on you when they come to rescue me, you’ll release me this instant!”
“How cute,” the mare gushed. “He thinks his friends are going to save him! Hold onto your delusions for as long as you can, young man, for pretty soon, that’s all you’ll have left.”
END OF BOOK 1
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Final chapter of Book 1! The first leg is done! Please read the author's note, for it has some important information.
Oh how wrong you are bitch.
I might want in on this project, but I'd need more details on what goes on and stuff. Also I'd like to finish my own story first.
6748525 That's fine. If you join the project, I'll discuss the details with everyone in the new group in a thread (warning: spoilers may occur there). Also, I will provide all the images and information in group threads as well, enabling easy access to all info that's established so far, and all things I have planned. I think I'll start work on the group, so just send me a PM if you want in, for someone else has already expressed interest.
6748525 Just so you know, the group has been formed. It has most of the info you'd need stickied in the forums, and if you require further information, simply post a thread there asking for it. The link to the group in in the story description, but to join, you have to PM me and ask to join.
6748525 I've changed my mind on restricting the group. It's now open to all. It's just that only contributors and admins can add stories.
6750709 may I get a link to the group
6755206 It's in the description for the story. Click on the word "here!".
7549766 damn. Okay. I thought the verbose example of how the style is overly verbose was obvious, in a snarky sort of way but... since you asked somewhere in that comment... I'll give some constructive criticism.
We don't need to know how everything works right away. Heck in some cases we don't need to know how it works at all. The whole sidetrack for the Lorenz-force thingy was unnecessary and incredibly distracting, as an example. We don't need to know all the (frankly terrible) names that were in civ2 for the sci-fi tech. Nobody capitalizes 'nuclear power' so I doubt they'd capitalize 'universal immunity' or whatever it was. In the middle of what is likely an opening skirmish of a larger scale war, nobody would reveal their secret technologies and weapons. But that's characterization that could be expanded on. Maybe in 6000 years everyone's just that arrogant.
You mentioned how the proteans can shapeshift several times and how they came to be, and the genetic modifications. Too much "and then the suit automatically changes its mass and gravity, then does this, then changes it back". That breaks the flow of the action sequence.
So. How I would get all that exposition? Not in conversation with little to no prompting. Pony saying "Oh Celestia, I dont like needles" would lead into "Needles? Don't be so mideval. This uses Lorenz forces to slide the medication through your skin; you won't feel a thing."
Exposition is fine outside of conversations. But the important bit is "does it matter?"
Does it matter to the story itself? No? Okay... Does it add flavor and substance to the setting? Great! Does it break the flow? Not so great. Exposition like that doesn't have to be conversation. It can just be author to reader, or an internal monologue of a character: It's a good thing universal immunity had been discovered, otherwise the temperature would have half the passengers catching a cold in no time.
7568843 Okay, then. I'll see what I can do, but I have some issues in my personal life right now that need to be taken care of first. Once that's in order, I'll see what i can do.
7569304
It's no problem, I wasn't trying to be a douche about it. No story or writing style can please everyone after all. Just figured I'd give my two cents.
7649889 If I may ask, what wre you referring to?
7650487 no idea
Before I read this, what is the Gore tag for ?
And how bad does it get ?
8077701 Well, mostly because this is a story about war, really. it doesn't get too bad, but it gets bad enough to need the tag.
Uhh...how ìs this complete?
8077791
So this is a Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri crossover?
8221374
This is only the first part of a saga. To lump them all in a single fic would get chaotic really fast with all the branching paths and the huge cast of main characters. Think of this fic like an episode. The episode is complete, but the greater story is far from over.
8370059
Not exactly. It's a crossover with Sid Meier's Civilization II Test of Time's SciFi mode, which itself is a crossover between Sid Meier's Civilization and Master of Orion. The premise is the spaceship to Alpha Centauri that's supposed to grant the science victory got sent off course by an alien artifact, then crash-landed on a different planet at the same time a colony ship from the planet Kholdan (the klackon homeworld in MoO) suffered a similar fate and crashed on the same planet.
9202248
That is a good question. But the tech divergence in the Lalandeans' system is so drastic, that it's kind of incompatible. Radio waves are still used in the Sol System, but on the other side of the Earthgate, things are quite different. They will make contact eventually, but the problem is radio is kinda archaic for the Lalandeans. They have a few devices that can still pick it up, but a 6k-year old tech isn't going to be that common anymore. When was the last time you used outmoded tech from the Stone Age? Probably never, or maybe once.
10303102
Oh, they saw them, but technological divergence has caused Lalandean and Solarian communications devices to be incompatible. Radio waves are obsolete for both, and each picked a different method to replace radio waves.