Dark Forest of Stars
Copyright© 2026 by Minefro
Story 4: Human testing
“Hello, humans, I am uq’ta. This is your first day of human testing although this technically day forty or week five of the human testing project. You have all been selected for your above average IQ. Though doctor Breen has highest with 164, this is to test if human IQ matches with other intelligence metrics.”
Dr Breen looks around, not recognizing anyone. The voice is robotic, though the feeling is only due to it being monotone.
“I have been learning the human language of English. Other languages are also being taught among us, and humans are being tested in their own language groups. Please ignore my toneless voice.”
Dr. Breen thinks to himself, telepath say what. as a joking means to see if this weird voice is reading his mind.
“Subject five, Dr. breen. Please follow me and I’ll show you to the testing room.”
A door opens and a weird, tall creature stands. It’s hard to describe but it’s definitely tripedal and has 2 asymmetrical spindly arms.
“Dr. Breen, your plan has been detected due to a space elevator built two years ago by your company. What found your world by looking for another species that has eluded us for 8 thousand years. We understand that you have come into contact with the species, but we’ll not press further on the matter.”
Breen nods along.
“Furthermore we have detected the presence of a Cre-Xy studying facility on earth’s moon. It seems to have been operating until 4.5 billion years ago.”
“How’d it survive so long?”
“It’s made of dark tungsten/steel silicate.”
“Dark?”
The creature reaches out, and a screen extends to meet them. They seem to be able to use the computer telepathically. A bar of pure black metal appears before them.
“Dark steel is a metal that cannot take in any energy or let out any energy. As a demonstration this ingot will be heated to 6,000 degrees Celsius.”
A device injects a needle into the ingot, and it turns from pure black to a silvery grey. Then it glows as it is heated, before turning pure black again.
“This ingot is 6,000 degrees celsius, yet seems to feel like nothing at all. The heat has been stored in a perfect lossless means.”
“Interesting.”
“I wish to learn about human deception. May you demonstrate?”
“No, that seems impolite if this is a meeting between species. I prefer us to remain friends.”
“Then can you at least give an example.”
“Telling your enemy that you will not deceive them, and that you wish to be friends to create false trust.”
“You- Huh ... well done.”
“Its all a bit like chess.”
The screens flash chess imagery.
“Let’s play a game of chess.”
The floor glows and a 2D projection of a chess board sits on the floor. Dr Breen as white.
“E4”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.