Chapter 9: The Discovery

“I think that will work,” Ifra said. “I am satisfied with the trade prospects.”

An hour had passed, and Ifra and Kane were both sitting in the conference room together. They were both fully dressed again. Nobody would ever know the events that transpired in this room if they had it their way. On the table were some of the fruit that grew on the vine-like branches on the sides of the hall. Ifra was busy eating one of the fruits as Kane was checking out the words written down on the tilon. His augmented hand had also scanned and processed the data that she had typed and written down.

“I am too,” Kane said. “Batrice and Gillan colonies will supply the rare metals for your assistance, and providing protection for our colonies. The metals will go to help you build better warships that will, in turn, protect us. It will be a win-win scenario.”

“Win ... win ... scenario?”

“A human expression ... both of us gain something together.”

They both grabbed a piece of fruit as Kane ate away. The juice of the fruit seemed to taste better and better every time he had one. It even felt like it gave him a boost of energy every time he took a bite.

“You like them?” she asked.

“What do you put in these anyway?” he asked.

“This fruit is genetically made to grow throughout the ship. It helps provide our meals. It contains all the vitamins needed for the body to function while providing energy when you need it the most. We have other foods on the ship, but this helps reduce the need for loading up additional ... nnnnn ... food ... stuff things.”

Kane looked around the room, admiring the layout of the place. “Your ship is almost alive ... it is so interesting.”

“The crews on the ship feel the same way,” she commented. “They say that our people bond with their vessel. The ship keeps them alive, and it is a symbol of them. They thank the ship every time they depart it.”

Kane focused back on the talks. “Alright ... we got a trade negotiation settled. We will have to submit this to Batrice and Gillan through the UWA, but I don’t think they will have an issue with it. The materials are pretty low in what they will be shipping.”

“I agree, my mate,” she said. “There are other things that I want to discuss with you as well.”

“Go ahead,” he replied.

“The rare minerals are only a partial symbol of our trade together. We need more. Our people need to have a reason for defending your colonies and homes if the Aksren or Shal’rein comes to attack you. I have some proposals to make. One is to allow the humans to ... become mates with our race. Free transportation and services will be allowed to all humans, male or female, to join us. There they will be given incentives by our clan governments and encourage humans to become parents with their potential mates.”

“I am all for that as long as they are not forced to. Remember that these would be human beings. Freedom is a fundamental process. Our people need to be returned as well.”

“And you will. When our peace treaty is signed, the transports will be loaded up, and they will be brought back to your people. We promise that.”

“Agreed. Here is an idea that I have to help out on that,” Kane said. “We use the UWAN as a way to create dating websites. People look for ... mates or husbands and wives and get romantically engaged with each other. Your people can use it the same way. You offer humans that would be interested in becoming parents, wives, or husbands, and provide all the incentives to them. Progress will be slow, but it should work.”

“It will be slow,” she commented. “But ... I agree. Not all of our people will be behind the idea of wanting to be with a human anyway. The few of our races will have the same benefit as your people. They will have a choice now. No longer will we be confined to just becoming ivons or else. Your human women can even become mothers to the ivons as well.”

“I ... imagine that not many will do it, but I can still see it happen though. This is the 24^th century, and we are more open-minded now than we ever were.”

“Another thing that I propose is the idea of using your people as sperm donators.”

“Hmmm...” Kane thought. “Ah ... I can see the idea now.”

“Yes. We can use your UWAN also to advertise human males to undergo the procedure so they can create Itrean sperm. The process is very easy, and it can also be reversed. Your people would be paid and compen ... coped ... compensated in return for their services. We would then offer the sperm to help birth forward male Itrean babies that are immune to Ziliks disease.”

“Heh...” Kane shook his head. “Literally win a war by trading sperm.”

“I admit the idea is crazy, but it will work. You hold the key to saving our people. Kelren and Ven’re’s importance are why we are talking right now. It is why I have become your mate. Our future is together now. It is why I have one more proposal for saving your people from the Aksren and Shal’rein.”

“What is it?”

She took a deep breath. “This is something that would also require your individual people’s permission. Our wars between our clans are something that is waged in many different ways. Biological warfare is one of those methods, but we are very immune to most of those diseases in return. We use brute force, but that only gets us so far in return. We use spy networks to gather as much information as possible and sabotage as well. Another known method is through propaganda.”

“That makes sense. All wars involve spinning information in hopes of encouraging others to join their cause. Lies and truths are told, and hopefully, somebody listens to it.”

“It is this method that we can save your people, though. My idea is crazy, but it is one that will save you.”

“If it works... , what is it?”

For once, Ifra seemed a little embarrassed to say it. “I ... propose that we offer the recordings of the sexual encounters of the three volunteers to be broadcasted to the Aksren and Shal’rein clans.”

“What?” Kane reacted as his eyes went wide.

“I believe that the information of Human/Itrean children and their immunity to the disease is key to help preventing the Aksren and Shal’rein from launching all-out attacks on your people. Even if a few believe it, it will slow them down.”

“You are proposing that they record sexual encounters and then letting the Aksren and Shal’rein watch it?”

“More than that. You are in more danger of a biological attack than you realize. One ship getting past your defenses is all they need to wipe out a colony. No bombs, no missiles, ... one bio bomb and your population is dead. You think that the Ziliks disease is bad. Some diseases that we are more than immune to would clean out one of your planets in days. It would be the easiest method of eliminating a threat and conquering a world. We made dedicated recordings of the sexual events for information gathering. That data and the end result would be the enemy knowing that you humans hold the cure. They will think twice about wanting to kill you if you can give children that are immune to Zilik’s disease. I also suggest that we offer humans the ability to be broadcasted, making children with our kind purposely to be broadcasted to the Aksren and Shal’rein.”

“That ... it does sound crazy. Heh...” He chuckled. “I would have to call it ‘Porn Propaganda’ because of how it works. Actually, that is a brilliant idea. If it means helping convince the enemy clans from attacking us or deploying the worst diseases on us ... yeah. I am all for that. The one catch is that you need to ask the three volunteer’s permission on that before you carry out on that.”

“We already did. All three couples agreed. They feel that saving the human race is the highest priority. We feel that it is necessary that I bring it up to you.”

“Sounds like you women really had all this stuff thought up of already.”

“Now you know why we wanted this meeting. We have everything to gain by our alliance.”

He smiled. “I agree,” he paused for a little bit. “Yeah, do it. Do what you need to help ... but I don’t want us two getting recorded having sex and broadcasting it ... that is something that I feel is too much.”

“I promise I won’t, my mate. We are doing more than enough right now.”

Kane reached out and held Ifra’s hand. They both smiled at each other.

“I am happy we are getting all this settled on,” he said. “This will bring much hope to our people.”

“You think your people will like the ideas presented here?”

“We really don’t have much choice. We are in danger of getting wiped out, and the Itreans are struggling against this disease. Yeah ... we will comply with the ideas. Honestly, though, I can picture our people intermingling with yours. Kelren, Ven’re, us ... you get the idea.”

“It will be an adjustment for us as well. We will comply with your needs. Our morale will be restored as we continue to fight against the other two clans.”

“Then I think we have accomplished as much as we could in these peace talks,” Kane said. “My next offer would be a partnership treaty, but I want to see what our people think.”

“What if we discussed this with other people? Our ideas?”

“Like, what do you mean?”

“You have a captain on your ship. I can discuss this with the captain on my ship too. We get a chance to hear their inputs on our discussion. Input is important. They might offer ideas that we haven’t considered. It can help the transition between our people’s carry on even more. What do you think?”

She smiled. “I would like that.”

It had been twenty minutes as Kane and Ifra sat in one of the rooms of the centripetal ring of the UHN Gabatrix. A meeting had been called in which Captain William showed up and sat down on the table adjacent to the two ambassadors. They were in the stateroom of the commanding officer.

The room was fancy looking but partially simple. It consisted of a varnished wooden table that was mounted into the deck of the ship. There were display screens everywhere that allowed the captain to see the various functions of the vessel. The table had a carved painting of the UHN Gabatrix on the table. There were old paintings and depictions of Gabatrix, including a famous picture of the Pioneer 2 on one of the walls. The room even had a red carpet placed into the ground.

The captain was sitting in his jumpsuit uniform. It was such a rush job getting there that he didn’t even have time to get appropriately dressed for the meeting. It didn’t seem to be an issue to anybody, though. If anything, this meeting needed to be a slightly informal one. He sat comfortably in his vinyl chair, looking at the two ambassadors. He sat with his arms crossed as he listened to their stories.

“Look,” the captain explained as he leaned forward on the desk. “I don’t really have an issue with the trade idea with Batrice and Gillan. The materials requested would be pretty small, and it wouldn’t hurt us that badly in the pocketbook. I agree it is a token exchange. Securing the Euterans is important, and getting them brought back to us will work. One thing that will be an issue is the ones killed from the attack. Have you considered that?”

“Unfortunately,” Ifra said. “I don’t have much to help with that.”

“Understand that I am not against the treaty that is being put together. The trading off of Eutera though ... I hate to see us lose that planet for good.”

“What do you propose, then Captain?” Ifra asked him politely as possible.

“Hmmm...” he said as he put his hand to his beard. “What if it was a joint-owned planet? Instead of giving it to you, why don’t we share it?”

“That would work,” Kane added. “We can turn it into a military base or a place of refuge between our peoples. It is a nice planet, even if half of it is frozen over. The center of the planet is nice and warm.”

“If there is plenty of water there, the Shal’rein of our clan would love it. Cold or not, they love the water,” Ifra said.

“There is. The equator of Eutera is warm. The water is melted, and there is some landmass available. Plenty of room for both of us. Euterans would even get their land back. It would be a symbolic turn of events in persuading us that the T’rintar wants to help us.”

The captain smiled as if he suggested an idea that was almost original in its own right. He waved his hand to them.

“That will help,” William said. “As for this ... intermingling, sex all that ... stuff ... I am not going to comment on that. What happens between humans and Itreans in the bedroom stays in the bedroom. If we choose to look up a website with a bunch of your people interested in whatnot, then so be it. If it means us getting extra help in this war or convincing the other clans to slow down their attacks, then I am not going to argue. Whatever works.”

Kane nodded, but the captain seemed to think about something. He then put his hands together as he was in thought.

“Hmmm ... your people’s help in defending our colonies does raise questions though,” William said. “Are your people going to be patrolling our space?”

“We are proposing a defense and trade treaty,” Kane answered. “Their ships would be allowed to patrol our space but in a limited fashion. We would also be allowed to do the same thing in return.”

“Hmmm ... more can be done. We need to convince the populations that they are safe. The reality is that with or without your fleet defending us, we are still low on the numbers when it comes to having warships of our own. Seeing even a few of your ships patrolling UWA space will put us into a position where we will appear weak.”

“What about the new ships we are building, though? I have been keeping up with the news, and I know even if Aniruddha had resigned, his spending bill is pouring the money to building new warships.”

“Many of the new ships are still six months from completion. We need more...”

Ifra, unfortunately, didn’t have much to comment on it. She seemed to be thinking, but she didn’t know what to say.

“If we had additional ships that we could control, then it would help ease our people,” the captain said. “For example, they are considering putting the other Helix battleships back into service again, but these ships are not very serviceable anymore. Even if we did, it would still not be enough to replace the losses. These ships are weaker than the Magellan Battleships and the new ships in service.”

Kane looked at Ifra. He was thinking about something for a while, and he agreed with the captain on this thought. The state of the UHN was not very good. Then it occurred to him.

“Wait a minute...” Kane said as he spoke softly. He snapped his fingers and looked at William. “Of course! Captain, I have an idea.”

“What is it?” he asked.

“Ifra...” Kane looked at her. “You said that the disease wiped out the male population. Your space fleets ... what happened after the disease struck? What happened to your ships?”

“We had to bring them back home,” she replied. Three-quarters of the fleet is operational since the women are operating the ships.”

“What happens to the rest of the ships?”

“They are kept in reserve. Nnnn... , “ she realized what he was getting at.

“Yes. You have warships in your fleet that are not even being crewed at all. Captain, I wonder if we can take some of those ships so we could use them.”

“Ambassador Ifra, would it be possible for us to have some of your ships?” the captain asked her.

“We ... might be able to part with some of them. I don’t think all of them will agree with the idea. Maybe ... we could give the older warships to you. The ships that we are using are all new ships built now to about twenty years ago.”

The captain went and lifted his left arm. He then activated the projection screen and brought up his own display. He used his other hand to load up some sort of database. The screen went out so that Kane and Ifra could see what the captain was looking at. The 3d image glowed over the table.

“Ambassador Ifra ... I am looking at the decoded data from the captured warship computer core. There is ... I am checking it right now.”

The captain continued to look at what looked like ships of some sort. Many of the warships were Itrean by design. Kane watched as the captain slid a series of different specifications warships. The Atra or the class that it belonged to, showed up. Kane could see the green-colored ships specs. The captain slid his finger in the air going down the list. The warships started to get smaller in size. This warship that he highlighted zoomed in to a significant enough extent for both to see appropriately.

The warship’s specifications showed a green cylindrical warship design. It looked like the Atra but was smaller in size. This ship had only one centripetal ring on it compared to the Atra’s two. It didn’t have the forward torpedo tubes, and the railguns were smaller in size. The engine module was shaped differently, and the guns were smaller on it. It still carried the sizeable dorsal missile launcher array near the rail gun turrets.

“Hmmm ... it looks like you call these the Ikra Class Battleship,” William said.

“Hope...” She said. “Ikra is the word for hope. Those are some of our oldest warships in service. They are not crewed and in the shipyards.”

“Do you still use them?”

“I don’t think so. It might be possible for us to give you some of those ships. How many would you need?”

“If you are willing to part with some of them and give us the personnel to train our crews in how to operate, it would fill in the roster of warships we use. We have the people to crew them, and it wouldn’t be too much of a loss on your end. Give us as many as you can give.”

“I believe that is a good goal, Captain,” Ifra responded. “There will be some catch to this, however,” she stopped as she tapped her claw to her table. “The trade between us needs to be equal in value. We are already looking at Eutera being jointly shared. Having a small number of potential mates and a way to help combat our disease helps us, but we need more. Even with the rare minerals in trade ... it wouldn’t be enough for us to part with them. We can spare hundreds of these warships to your fleet, but I can’t convince my people to hand them over to you unless we get something in return for them. It will hard enough for me to do it as it is.”

“In other words, what else can we give to you to have them?” the captain asked. “Hmmm ... you have a point.”

“The minerals you give us are already going to new warships that are going to be used in defending your space. I can promise you the ships or our protection, but not both.”

The captain leaned back on his chair. “I am trying to think of an idea. Ambassador Kane, what do you think?”

“I can’t think of anything else that we can offer to them,” Kane said. “We tried to consider several ideas, and the rare minerals are the most we can give besides our own people. It is why us getting the Euterans back will still cost us in some way or another. Even if the T’rintar are returning our people back as a gesture of good faith, they would expect something in return.”

“Do not forget what you did with the Syn,” Ifra replied. “I am excluding their losses because we killed some of your people in turn. Our people still need some things from you, though, if we are to work together.”

“Hmmm... , “ the captain said. “I am trying to remember something from our past. You told me your history isn’t very good, isn’t it, Kane?”

“Nope,” he replied.

“I remember something in my history class on Mars,” William said. “There was some sort of large war in the 20^th century on Earth. They called it ... World War 2. One of the nations offered their old warships to another nation to survive. ‘Lend-Lease Agreement’ I believe they called it. It helped the other nation survive. The one nation gave the ships and told the other nation to pay back some other time. Ambassador Ifra, is there any way you can just lend us the vessels, and we will repay you back later?”

“I can try to convince my government, but ... I just don’t think it will be enough,” Ifra said. “You might hold the cure and offer an alternative in stopping Zilik’s disease, but there aren’t enough humans to completely help us. We ... I ... thought you had way more people and resources.”

“The T’rintar clan spans at least over the trillions, captain,” Kane told him. “We have what?... 8-9 billion of us when you add Mars and the other colonies up. That isn’t enough of us to repopulate them or the entire Itrean race.”

“Yeah...”

“I just don’t know what to say,” Ifra said. “I am all for the alliance between our people. If you want the ships, I am all for it. If you want our protection, then you can have it. If you want our people to become mates, then I am all for it, but trying to convince my people will be hard. What can you offer to us that will convince them?”

The captain deactivated his arm projection as the 3d image of the ships faded away. William simply shrugged his arms. He had nothing to answer back.

Kane could already see the conundrum of the situation. When it came down to it, humanity didn’t have much to offer. He felt like he was slowly heading towards a wall and couldn’t stop. What else could humankind provide to them?

“I don’t know what else to say,” Kane said. “I am at a loss. Ifra and I are doing what we can to come up with solutions.”

“Then you already see the situation,” the captain said. “A partnership is the hope of our survival, but it is one that might never happen to begin with.”

Ifra closed her eyes. “Captain ... Ambassador ... I will need a few minutes alone to think of possible ideas and what I need to do next. I need to wait outside.”

“Alright... , “ the captain replied. Kane looked at her. She had a look of rejection in her eyes. He could only imagine what was troubling her.

She stood up as she walked towards the door. It slid open as she walked outside the room. The door slid closed as Kane, and the captain looked at each other.

“I can’t imagine the difficulty of your job ambassador,” the captain said. “I am not trying to discourage these talks at all.”

“Actually ... you are right,” Kane said. “The moment we started talking about trade and partnership, I ended up learning that the Itreans were nothing but a colossal giant overlooking us humans as ants. Yeah ... we can have kids together. Maybe it will convince the other clans not to attack us, but what else do we have to trade? They don’t even need the rare metals either. We need to give them something else.”

“We need their protection, and we need the ships... , “ the captain said regretfully. “We just need to give them something that would really make them happy. It’s just what, though?”

“Do we really need the ships, though?” Kane asked him. “How is that truly going to convince the UWA that the partnership between our two peoples is justified?”

The captain stood up from his chair. His hands were still firmly pressed to the desk. “Ambassador ... what have they told you on the UWAN or any media outlet? How much do you know of the war between the Itreans and the humans?”