Chapter 138 (1/2)

Chapter 138

Communication

Hostiles have communicated in native language. Match probability to hostiles lowers to 57.912%. As ordered by the Sh’lteek protocol, any attempts at communication, even from hostile forces, are to be accepted. Halting all hostile actions. Computing best response…

…………………………………………………

Everyone just floated in the air. The tension was palpable. At least, it was for the humans. The mechs were almost certainly immune to it. As everyone waited anxiously, one of the mechs floated forward.

“State your purpose.” The voice was obviously robotic with a metallic tinge to it. The Nugitraaiilian language was made up of hissing and screeching sounds making it incredibly grating to the human ear. Both Chu Shen and the twins cringed at the sound of the voice. Lucas, however, seemed used to it. Most likely because he grew up around aliens, so he was used to such strange voices.

Lucas decided he needed to answer them. “We came here to explore. We did not know this place was inhabited.”

“This place is not inhabited by intelligent life.” Came the robotic voice. Lucas blinked. What did it mean by not inhabited? If it wasn’t, then why would the robots be here?

“Why did you attack us?” Lucas decided to cut to the chase.

“Your match probability to the invaders from 12.3 cycles ago reached over fifty percent. According to the Sh’lteek protocol, I was ordered to regard you as hostiles.”

The voice said 12.3 cycles but Lucas’ translation program immediately translated that into human years. 412 years. That was the number Lucas received. Of course, such a number was meaningless, since the timeflow from dimension to dimension could vary.

The voice continued talking while Lucas was trying to process this. “Why did you send a Tachyon transmission? How did you arrive here? How do you know our language? Answer these queries or face immediate termination.”

Lucas turned to Chu Shen and switched his voice modulator. “Uh buddy. I just got asked some questions I’m gonna need your help on.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Go ahead. I can’t understand a word you guys are saying anyways.”

Lucas immediately explained the questions to him. Afterwards he looked at Chu Shen with an expectant face. “So? What do we do?”

Chu Shen sighed. “Tell them this. ‘We arrived here from a different dimension. The Tachyonic transmission was to determine if this was the same dimension as the one we originated from. The language was learned from a species identical to this one located in our original universe.’ Honestly, I don’t like revealing all this, but I can’t come up with a convincing lie that won’t get us killed on a moment’s notice.”

Lucas nodded understandingly. “I get it Chu Shen. No one thinks you could do better.”

Of course, there was someone that disagreed. ‘I think you could, brat.’

‘Shut up Master Ti Wu. You’re ruining  a touching moment here.’